"CHLOE! CHLOE!" Victor yelled as he entered her apartment. Suddenly he felt a rush of wind brush past him.

"Dude, it's Laura. Not Chloe." Bart corrected him and quickly found Laura unconscious on her bed. "She has a good pulse."

Victor took a closer look at the body of one of his closest friends, "she appears to have been sedated" he said with a furrowed brow. When the Justice League received the 911 from Laura, they assumed one of Lex's goonies had found her. However, had that been true, there would be no way she would have been left there asleep in her apartment. So what was going on.

A muffled sound came from Bart's ear who responded, "Impulse to Arrow. She is okay. Appears to have been sedated, but otherwise in perfect shape," Bart immediately faced Laura who was beginning to stir, "hold that thought, she's waking up." Bart helped Laura sit up and handed her a bottle of water, "Laura, what happened?"

"I don't know," Laura said, "I got a warning that someone had tried to turn off my fake security system and then another one saying my window had been breached. So I got out my taser and tried to get what I could out of him. I had him cornered but this guy was fast! Before I knew it I was passed out on the bed."

"Do you think he was working for Lex?" Victor asked.

She shook her head while yawning, "I doubt it I mean. He left me here didn't he? And he didn't seem to expect me to be anything more than Laura Smith."

"So, who exactly was this guy?" Bart said, his mind still focusing on the "really fast" part that Laura mentioned.

Laura laughed a little, "I don't know if you'll believe this, but he looked like a bat. To be honest, if I weren't used to meteor freaks and grown men who treat every day like it's Halloween I probably would've been really freaked out." Laura started to get up. Nothing appeared to be missing and then she noticed the door to what she called her own mini Watchtower to be open. "Uh oh" she said. However, everything seemed to be perfectly in place except, "My Falcone files are gone," she said, more confused than upset.

"Really?" Victor said. From what he knew of the mob, they were into scaring you and doing crazy illegal things. Not dressing up like a bat and breaking an entering just to steal a file that probably exists somewhere else.

"Yeah, everything else is here. My computers aren't fried or anything. Just that one file. Huh." She said, with a small shrug. Then she yawned again, "While my apartment being broken into is the most exciting thing to happen since Lex Luthor came into town, I really would like to get to sleep. We'll figure this out tomorrow? Please? I do have work in the morning."

Bart put on a smile, "Of course Chlo- I mean Lauralicious. Would you mind if we park on your couch tonight, I'd feel better knowing you have a line of defense." She waved her hand in consent, and closed her bedroom door and fell asleep.

Laura woke up the next morning not feeling as well rested as she would have liked. She had trouble falling asleep and had a few nightmares where Lex walked in wearing bat ears. When her alarm finally went off, she was relieved to be able to go into work and start putting together the pieces of what happened the night before.

However, rather than the usual hustle and bustle atmosphere of the newsroom, it was abuzz with excitement. She walked up to Brad in the hopes of finding out what was going on.

"You havn't heard?" He asked Laura, a little shocked. Laura simply nodded her head no, her eyed wide in anticipation. "There's some new vigilante on the streets of Gotham. Left a little calling card and some very frightened criminals." That news got Laura interested.

"What does he look like?" Laura asked, beginning to put the pieces together.

"They say he looks like a bat," Brad responded, obviously excited. He handed her a photo copy of a drawing of a small bat shaped boomerang, "he leaves those at the scenes of the crime."

"And he's stopping crime? Not a criminal?" She asked.

"Yup, Gotham's got it's own Green Arrow! He stopped two muggings and a bank robbery all last night." Brad was obviously impressed. Laura didn't know how to react.

"Huh." She guessed it made sense. So there were two options. Number one, he's Falcone's little ploy, taking down his competitors but making it look noble. On the side, he might as well break and enter and steal damning evidence. But for the most part that didn't make sense. Falcone didn't need ploys – he already had the power. And furthermore, if he wanted to take damning evidence, that one folder was not the only copy which any good mobster would assume.

Leaving option two. That he was some sort of new hero hanging around Gotham and he had got wind that Laura had evidence on Falcone and wanted it himself. "Huh." She repeated to herself. It made some sense. To him, Laura was just a simple reporter who was good with a computer and had good sources. Had his plan worked, she would have woken up, noticed her file missing, gotten annoyed, and put it in the back of her mind – most likely thinking it was a friend or that she had simply misplaced it.

"Laura!" Barked Larry Stein from across the room. Laura immediately jumped and started lightly jogging towards he boss.

"Yes sir?" She asked, almost afraid of the answer.

"Thank god you're finally here. I need you front and center on this bat thing. It's huge. Talk to these people he's saved and figure out what this guy is. Is he here to help? Or is he just looking to be the next big thug in town? I've got faith in you – you can break this." He told her.

"You sure? You know, Brad might be good at this sort of thing, he is really good at getting information out of people." Laura reminded him.

"I'm having Brad do his own research on the matter. However, I want you taking the lead on this Smith. You got that?" the Editor asked.

"Yes sir!" Laura responded. After Larry walked away, her chest dropped as she sighed. On one hand, given the number of superheroes she knew, she was always afraid of accidently exposing one or writing them in the wrong light. But on the other, hand she did have the most experience with them and was therefore the one most likely to figure out the real story. In the end, she was going to be stuck researching this Batman and in a way she would be doing work for both of her jobs at the same time. She smiled at that thought.

She sat at her desk and immediately jumped onto her secure email to send an email to Oliver: Oliver, I'm not sure if you heard, but there's a new guy in town. Check out the Batman. In case you were wondering, he is the same guy who broke into my apartment last night. I'll be in touch. Laura. She sent the message and only then realized he had already sent her virtually the same message. "Oops." She muttered and began her own research.

Unfortunately, her own personal experience with the Batman was going to be about all she was going to be able to discover about him. The two women and one man that he saved talked about him with a sense of awe and fear. All in all, the guy seemed like a typical vigilante – standing up for those who can't save themselves.

By 5 PM, Laura had finished as detailed and exciting a piece as possible about the Batman. Her editor nodded in approval and instructed her to get some sleep because she looked terrible and slammed the door in her face. On her way out of the building, she felt as though she were being watched and attempted to move in a way that she could see who was following her. Suddenly an arrow slid right past her cheek and into the wall to her left. Upon seeing the arrow, a toothy smile lit up her face.

"Mr. Green Arrow, how nice of you to grace us here in Gotham!" She commented. He proceeded into smiling and taking of his hood and glasses and giving her a hug.

"What can I say, When I hear my favorite side kick gets attacked, I can't help but come running." He told her.

"So you were on a plane as soon as you got the 911 last night, spent the day checking for clues, came up empty, and now you're here?" Laura enquired.

Oliver sighed, "pretty much. So what do you have on this guy?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure he's not some criminal. I talked to the people he saved and he seems like a darker version of you – helping out the innocent in a jam." She told him.

"So then, why did he break into your apartment and steal a file?" He asked, obviously skeptical of the guy.

"Well, the way I figure it, he got word that I have a ton of stuff on Falcone. He figures he'll take it, and use it to I don't know find a way to stop him? It made sense in my head – I mean it!" She added as she saw him raise his eyebrows quizzically. "Anyways, he doesn't really seem like a threat, if anything he might be able to bring some good to Gotham." She said meaningfully.

"Alright, this is your city so I'll yield to your judgment. But I want you to keep an eye on him for the league – and I mean that in both ways. If you think he's going dark side and needs to be stopped let us know. But also let us know if you think he'd be an asset to the team." Oliver told her.

Laura looked bored, "Of course Ollie. Now, as much as I love spending time with the Green Arrow in narrow alleyways, I really must get home. I have a new superhero to research." And with a wave, Oliver ran into another alley while Laura hopped into her car and headed home.

When Alfred had walked into Bruce's bedroom to wake him up, he was surprised to find the room empty. Slightly concerned, he headed to the study hoping to find him there.

"Don't worry, I'm alive." Bruce told his butler with a smirk.

"I'm relieved to hear that. But are you sure you're alright? You are up before noon?" Alfred asked in a mocking tone.

"I'm fine. Check this out – it's the motherload on Falcone. Not just organizations he's involved in but his connection with the police and judicial system. This guy has his hands in everything – no wonder everyone's afraid of him." Bruce pondered more to himself than anything else.

"If you don't mind my asking, how are you going to do anything about it?" The dutiful butler asked.

"I figure the first thing I should do is simply undermine his operations. If I can stop some of his illegal transactions from taking place, then maybe people will start to realize he's not as all powerful as some believe. Maybe some change could happen…" He stared off, wondering in his head how he would pull this off.

"Did any of Ms. Smith's files shed light on the shady transaction you witnessed the other night?" Alfred asked.

"Unfortunatly, no. Or at least I hope not. I have a few of her personal notes, and one suggests that Falcone may be attempting to control food in Gotham. Now I really hope these drugs don't have anything to do with that because if they do…" Wayne left the left up to his butler's imagination.

"So what are you going to do in the mean time?" Alfred asked.

"Well, I figure I'll continue to patrol the city and try and gather as much information as possible. The last thing I want to do is make a stupid mistake and get caught." Bruce responded lazily.

"Well, I wish you the best of luck."

Laura got home and after her usual scan of the JLA system, checked her secure email. Her heartbeat accelerated as she saw an encoded message from one of her best sources: Laura. Meet me on your roof at midnight. After checking her watch, she sighed – still another 6 hours until midnight.

After changing of her work clothes, Laura sat in front of the TV intending in relax for a while. Unfortunately, she couldn't get her mind to slow down. It seemed like she had about five years of calm – and now Lex was after her and there was a new superhero in her home city.

She decided to pull out the diary Oliver had given her about 4 years ago to write in. He told her that although the world can't know what she's really thinking or what she's been through, this little book can. It had been a sweet gesture, but after a few days she didn't really think about it.

Now however, she needed a place to write down her thoughts so that she could straighten them out. Laura first wrote about Lex and how desperate he seemed to have gotten. She recalled back in the day when he acted like he could control the world. Then again, maybe he hasn't changed at all and only her perspective has.

Than she wrote about the Batman. She was intrigues by him. Of course, most superheroes she knew first hand so maybe it was the mystery about him that really riled her up. He seemed to know what he was doing sure but would he be able to save Gotham? Laura remembered the conversation she had with Oliver on the way to the gala and wondered if maybe this Batman could possibly be the one who could tear Gotham out of its endless dark age.

But then again, the Batman himself seems to have been born and bred of the dark age. His image itself invokes darkness. He even uses the darkness to help shield his movements and identity. Laura frowned. Perhaps this kind of hero was what it would take to clean up Gotham.

After writing about two pages in her journal, Laura drifted off to sleep on her couch, the TV still on low volume only 7 ft away. She woke up with a start and looked down at her watch: 11:30 PM. She breathed out a sigh of relief – this informant was good and would be suspicious if she didn't show up. Stretching, Laura headed towards the kitchen to brew a cup of coffee

She found herself staring at her watch every 3 minutes until at 11:45 she finally gave up and just headed up to the roof to wait. She was relieved to find it empty and sat down taking slow sips from her mug and making sure her pen worked. Finally, at 12:03 AM, a hooded short man suddenly appeared next to her.

Like most informants, he went by code name, "shorty". Laura herself didn't actually know his real name and didn't really think that it was all that important that she did. She nodded to the man who nodded back and lit up a cigarette.

"So, what have you got?" Laura asked clenching her pen and notebook, hoping her excitement wasn't obvious in her voice.

"This is a doozy. I don't know if I'll survive telling you this but here I go. Falcone has a – uh – business arrangement from a big wig up at Food Stuffs. From what I gathered, he's planning on adding a drug to the basic ingredients that would be almost invisible but make the food extremely addictive." He let out fast, letting out a sigh in the form of a puff when he left it out.

"He's going to control the food industry by getting people addicted to his and only his food. This is huge. I mean, really huge." Laura said, surprised.

"Yeah you know, usually I'd keep my mouth shut no offense but I do have some sense of morality and this isn't just about screwing over rivals. It's dangerous I mean, I do have kids to worry about." Shorty said, "look, I've gotta run. Good luck."

"Thanks." Laura whispered. Her head started running with all of implications of what he had told her. Sure, Falcone could easily gain a monopoly over food services in Gotham. But more than that, what if people didn't continue eating the drugged food? Would they go through withdrawal? The prospect of an unaware drug addicted city scared her enough to keep her distracted and therefore didn't notice when both she and the informant were pushed off the roof of her apartment building.

"Typical." She thought out loud. When suddenly she was swept away. Her first reaction was to fight it but then she realized the Batman probably saved her. However, she looked down and suddenly realized two things: number one, the Batman was carrying the informant away from the building and number two, she was climbing unnaturally fast.

A huge smiled formed and she turned and told her savior, "Nice to have you back."