Barbara had read stories about the Gotham Golden Clocktower. It wasn't golden anymore, and hadn't been for such a long time. Generations.
It was one of the first tall buildings in Gotham, way back in the 1800's. So many things had happened in this tower in the stories Barbara read, from lively parties to gruesome murders. Both of those were common in Gotham.
She had visited it a time or two as a child, but since then it had been condemned to the public. So far as she knew, absolutely nobody had been inside of it for years, for fear of choking to death on dust.
But now, here were Batgirl and Black Canary inside of it, dust and all. But last she knew, it had a staircase, and not an elevator.
"I didn't know they opened this place back up to tourists." Batgirl said.
"That's the idea." Canary smirked, taking her jacket off.
When the door opened, there stood Alfred Pennyworth, screwdriver in hand, duster in pocket.
"Ms. Lance, Ms. Gordon, welcome." He greeted, and as sweat dripped from his face, he looked almost as old as the clock's face, no longer ticking over Gotham City.
"Alfred? What are you doing here?" Batgirl asked, not at all unhappy to see his welcoming, loving face.
"Just finishing up. Ah, Ms. Lance, I have finished assembling the coat rack, despite the lack of clear instructions." Alfred took Dinah's coat and hung it on the rack.
"Thanks. Alfred, would you care to do the honor of flipping that switch over there?" Dinah asked.
"It would be my delight." Alfred's smile was always precious to Barbara.
Alfred's finger flicked against the switch on the wall, and slowly, all through the tower, brilliant lights shone all about, illuminating a small staircase, leading up to a large platform.
As the light on the platform turned on, so too did a group of monitors, each one lighting up one by one, and the image of a bat, crossed with a bird appeared on them all.
Barbara's mouth dropped open as she removed what was left of her cowl.
"Dinah...what is all this?" She stammered.
"Well, Batman has his damp and depressing little cave, I figured if we're gonna be fighting crime in this town too, it'd be good to have a place to operate out of. Alfred volunteered to hook us up." Dinah took a seat at the computer.
"And these computers?" Barbara asked, still trying to catch her breath.
"Help us monitor the city. We can pick up crimes in progress, and all that jazz, and pick up leads instead of just going out and shaking down dirtbags randomly. But check this out, this is the coolest part." With that, Dinah cleared her throat.
"Hello, Alfred!" Dinah called out.
Barbara turned to Alfred, but Alfred simply smiled and shook his head.
"Good evening, Ms. Lance." The computer greeted...in Alfred's voice.
"AI Alfred?" Barbara narrowed her eyes at the computer, with a sly smile. "I can't believe we stole Alfred from him, too."
Dinah threw her head back and laughed.
"But anyway. Check this out. AI-Fred, show me what we found."
"Yes, Ms. Lance."
A few beeps later, and the image of the card Khan dropped appeared on the screen, with readouts all over it.
"The Mongolian symbol for victory...and the card was covered in asbestos." Barbara read.
"Excess amounts of asbestos causes buildings to be shut down and be condemned, not unlike our little hide away here. Khan would want to hide in an abandoned building, since we turned over Club Yen. But he's vain, so he'd want something a little nicer than your usual abandoned building." Dinah explained.
"There was an opera house about a decade ago that shut down after a smoke machine malfunctioned and poisoned the building. Caused asbestos in the walls to seep out." Barbara calculated. "All the decor was left inside, for fear of human contamination. So Khan is holed up there, risking getting poisoned just to keep his aesthetic?"
"And I thought Batman's rogues were exotic. Khan would like Gotham if he decided to stay." Dinah chuckled.
"Alright," Barbara said, putting her cowl back on. "Let's take him down."
"Hold up, Babs. You're not going anywhere dressed like that." Dinah shook her head. She played with the hair hanging freely from Barbara's cowl.
Dinah pointed at a display case on the wall.
Inside of it was a new suit.
Barbara smiled.