Author's Notes: Evan Blake is narratively referred to as a "he" or "him" in all cases because I'm lazy and ignorant.
Kate Kane entered a dark alley wearing a nice biker jacket. She met up with a shady black man with sensitive information. She handed him a bag of cash. "It's all there," she assured him as he checked it.
"Where is the Jack Napier painting?" Kate asked.
"It's being held by the Collective, a private club that deals in art and antiquities. If you want to get into the mind of psychotic criminality, these are the people you need to know," he said.
"I want an introduction," Kate demanded.
"Your top clients are in the Collective. They pay your bills. If you come in with an attitude, they're going to ask for a refund," he said.
"I don't give a shit. Give me names," Kate ordered.
A spear suddenly went through his back and out his gut. Kate quickly took out a pistol only for it to be deflected away. "Coryanna steel," Kate identified the spear.
A rope suddenly took hold of the Safiyah thug and took him up into the air as Batwoman landed. "Who are we after?" Beth asked.
"The Crows have a list of clients on file. We find them and we squeeze them until we find this Collective," Kate replied.
"Do we need this guy?" Beth asked referring to the man she captured.
"Maybe. Take him to the sewer," Kate replied coldly and then picked up the money from her dead informant.
Beth disconnected her cable allowing the thug to fall to the pavement in front of them. The two then parted ways with Kate morphing back into Brainiac 5.
The next day, Jacob, Sophie, and Kate met up at the Crow's nest. "My informant tells me there is a shady organization called the Collective that is connected to Safiyah. He also said some of our clients could be a member," Kate said.
"Where is your informant? I want to talk to him," Jacob said gruffly.
"He's dead," Kate informed him.
"Well...shit," Jacob muttered. "We have a new lead on the Safiyah case: Evan Blake. He was an old friend of yours, I believe," Jacob said to Kate.
"Yeah, sure, of course," Kate bluffed.
"What's his deal?" Sophie asked.
"He's a fixture in the arts. He recently flew back here from Berlin. He was caught a couple of years ago with a plundered artifact and forced to pay restitution," Jacob said of him.
"Sounds like someone that could have connections to the Collective," Sophie said optimistically.
In Jacob's office, Evan Blake was a bit gender ambiguous. He was slender, male haircut, gay fashioned, and had an effeminate voice. Kate stared at him like a bug. "The commander has understated our relationship. Kate saved my life at Gotham prep. In eighth grade, I asked Kate to the formal dance," he explained. "I'm sure you felt like rolling your eyes so hard but with the grace of a saint, you said yes," Evan said.
"The only time you'll ever hear teenage Kate described as a saint," Jacob joked.
"He's so right," Kate agreed.
"When I came to pick you up, you were in this velvet suit radiating queer confidence. It was so much for me that I cried. You took me up into your bedroom and made it very clear to me that you were gay and that nothing would happen. So, we go to the dance and I'm gay by default because I was with you. But it didn't matter to me. I was glowing," Evan said to Kate.
"Well...you're welcome," Kate said awkwardly.
"And then you ditched me to make out with Maggie Watson," Evan added.
"I'm not apologizing," Kate told him.
"So, you need my help to find out who blew up your plane?" Evan assumed. "I'm here for you.
"We're looking for this painting. We think it will lead us to Safiyah's associates here in Gotham," Kate said showing the picture of Jack Napier's painting.
"Well, you've come to the right person. I was senior editor for Gotham Antiquities. I curate my own private collections. Got my hands into a bit of everything," he said confidently.
"We have reason to believe you are associated with the Collective," Jacob accused.
Evan immediately stood up. "We'll give you full immunity if you help us make contact," Sophie said quickly.
"Immunity from what? I'm a perfect angel," Evan said defensively.
"You're going to do it for me," Kate said to him.
"I love you, Katie, but this feels like entrapment," he said suspiciously. "If you need to find me again, I'll refer you to my lawyers," he said walking out.
"Well, that escalated quickly," Kate smirked.
"I want surveillance on him around the clock," Jacob ordered.
"We could ask for Batwoman's help," Sophie suggested.
"I will not grovel at her feet," Jacob refused.
"Then, let me do it," Sophie volunteered.
At a budget hotel, Alice looked for Ocean. She entered the nearby bar and sat down. "Vodka on the rocks," she ordered.
"You from Gotham?" a random white cisgender male asked.
"Why?" Alice asked. "Do I look like one?"
"You got the sophistication of a city mouse," he said.
"Mouse? Touchy subject," Alice grieved. "I had a mouse in my life once. He was like a brother to me but when I got cornered and trapped by forces beyond my comprehension, I killed him to stay alive."
The man scoffed at Alice thinking she was joking. Alice simply gave him a crazy-eye stare. "You know what? I've assessed the situation and I'm leaving," he said taking off.
Ocean clapped at her performance. "That's the fastest I have seen a guy take a hint," he said amused.
"Can I join you...in case he tries again?" Alice asked seeing her target.
"By all means," he allowed.
That night, Batwoman dropped down and walked up to Sophie on the rooftop of GCPD headquarters. She noticed the Bat-signal with amusement. "This better not be a booty call," Kara warned her.
"Look, not all Crows are bastards. Some of us are trying to make a difference," Sophie told her.
"What do you want?" Kara asked bored.
"I'm offering a deal. We'll give you access to what we know of Safiyah and the Collective, and you give us access to your prisoners," Sophie offered.
"I'll think about it," Kara said uncommittedly.
"You should be doing everything in your power to stop these people. Look, Kate was the love of my life. I know things are different now. She's become straight all of a sudden but that doesn't mean I don't care about her. I need to know who tried to kill her," Sophie said passionately.
"There's nothing you can offer me, Agent Moore. Your files, your agents, your clients...are mine. You want to fight the underworld, you take orders from me," Kara told her.
"Who the fuck are you? Really?" Sophie asked wide-eyed.
"I'll call you. You don't call me," Kara said pointing to the Bat-signal and then leaped off the building.
In the sewer system, Batwoman, Jacob, and Sophie met up in front of the Safiyah agent. "I'm interested in knowing your torture technique," Kara smirked.
"Is that sarcasm? We've given him every opportunity to talk," Jacob said annoyed.
"No, I'm damn serious. I want to see it and take notes," Kara told him.
"I know you and Kate are somehow involved. You led her to believe you had killed Alice. Then, Alice shows up again. I also know there's more than one of you. You're a team of women and with that fancy suit and gadgets, I'm betting someone rich is funding you," Jacob said to her.
"Perhaps even one of your clients," Kara mocked. "Shall we measure dick sizes or get to the point of why we're here?"
"You have choices. You can give us the location of Coryanna. Help us find the Napier painting," Sophie told the prisoner as Jacob punched him hard to the midsection. Kare eyed the torture passively.
"Not worth it, dude. Just tell them what they want to know," Kara advised him.
Jacob continued to beat the shit out of the man as Kara and Sophie watched. "So (punch) I did an analysis (punch) of the painting (punch) and I discovered (punch) that (punch)...damn it. I lost my train of thought," Kara said as the prisoner was being punched like a punching bag.
"Really?" Sophie asked unamused.
"The painting is a map to Coryanna's location," Kara said helpfully.
"Did you get that from the prisoner?" Sophie asked confused.
"Err...no. I put the painting through a computer algorithm to see if it was random or not. Turns out, it was a map," Kara said.
"How do you know that? That was only on Kate's phone," Sophie accused.
"And the Crow database...which...you know...I hacked into," Kara said nonchalantly.
"So, we didn't even need to be here," Sophie realized.
"Oh, I wouldn't miss this for the world," Kara said as Jacob continued to punch the prisoner.
"We're torturing this man to get information out of him," Sophie pointed out.
"I guess we're not on the same page," Kara admitted.
"So, there's an art exhibition tomorrow night. We think the Collective will be there. It's likely they already know who all of the Crow agents are, so we need someone on the inside they don't know," Sophie said conversationally.
"You want me to come by not in the suit and expose myself? You can go fuck yourself," Kara told her off.
"Well, maybe not you but an associate or someone who's funding you," Sophie suggested.
"Yeah, I'm not taking the bait," Kara told her off.
"Then, how are we going to find out who bombed Kate's plane?" Sophie asked.
"I wish...I wish I gave a shit about some spoiled rich brat who thinks way too highly of herself," Kara rolled her eyes.
"Excuse me," Jacob said as he stopped his punches for a moment.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I completely forgot you were there," Kara lied.
"You're connected to Kate, aren't you? You're just insulting her to keep us off the trail," Sophie surmised.
"No, I legitimately hate her. She has literally set the LGBT movement back twenty years," Kara said.
The prisoner tried to crush his tooth multiple times without success. "Yeah, I took that cyanide pill out of your mouth while you were unconscious," Kara told him.
"Fuck me," he said painfully.
"I think we're done here. Do your thing," Jacob said to Kara.
"Well, finally some respect," Kara said pleased. She took out her pistol and shot the prisoner in the head.
At the bar, Alice and Ocean were getting sloshed. "So...Ocean...what do you do?" Alice asked.
"I bore people to death by telling them I'm a base soil technician," he said.
"A dirt nerd. I like to get dirty," Alice told him.
"I grew up in nature. My family cultivated the land. In Gotham, everything is concrete. I mean...where is the dirt?" he asked rhetorically.
"Oh yeah? Where is your family's farm?" Alice asked.
"Well, I have an associate I need to talk to. It's about dirt," he said getting up and putting cash on the bar.
"Have I met you before?" Alice asked.
"I think I would have remembered you," Ocean said as he left.
Alice eyed the cash and took out her phone to run fingerprints on it. She then went back to the hotel, put in the key, and found Ocean inside. She fired a TASER at him and then tied him to a chair. As he remained unconscious, Alice stripped him of his clothes. "Now...things are going to get weird."
The next day, Alice waited for Ocean to wake up nude in a chair tied up. "What is this shit?" he wondered.
"Shall I explain?" Alice wondered out loud.
"I wish you would," Ocean said honestly.
"Safiyah has my sister hostage on an island. She won't hand her over to me until I kill your ass," Alice told him.
"She was my sister," Ocean admitted.
"The kind of sister you have sex with...or not?" Alice asked.
At Wayne Tower, Kara was in a black dress with several zippers on it that had no actual purpose. Brainiac 5 expertly did her make-up. "This dress makes no sense," Kara remarked.
"I was wondering when you would notice," Brainiac 5 said nonchalantly.
"You put me in this dress on purpose to test my fashion sense? You bastard," Kara said peeved.
"The event is in a hanger in Gotham International. The Collective flies in, they unload the pieces, they buy, sell, party, they load back up, and they fly away," Brainiac 5 detailed. "There will be maximum security."
"How do you know all this?" Kara asked.
"Bruce was part of the Collective," Brainiac 5 replied.
"And...I'm not? What the fuck?" Kara asked outraged.
"You're being invited now. I've made the arrangements," Brainiac 5 said.
At Gotham International, Kara was easily allowed inside by Evan Blake. He was wearing a black dress and several rapper chains around his neck. "I'm really liking that dress, Mrs. Wayne. Is it London?" he asked.
"Nailed it," Kara smiled.
"Actually, it was New York, Winter' 18," he corrected.
"Do I look like the kind of person that gives a damn?" Kara asked.
"I'm a big fan of the 1st Amendment but swearing is not tolerated here," Evan said seriously. He snapped his finger to bring an enforcer to his side.
"Exactly...what are you? An it?" Kara asked rudely.
"I go with the flow with all pronouns except for that one," Evan said pissed-off.
"I want to apologize for my secretary, Kate Kane, for sending you down this ridiculous path. Granted, it happened years before I was ever on the Gotham scene but still," Kara said.
"How I dress is how I feel. I'm not interested in anyone's approval," he said defensively.
"Oh really? If I sent you a thousand years into the future, how would you dress?" Kara asked.
"You implying I'm a tool of modern fashion and that my expression is purely the environment I happen to be in?" Evan asked offended.
"I'm not implying anything," Kara smirked. "I'm flat out telling you."
"I defy fashion norms," Evan told her off.
"Whether you're following fashion or intentionally defying it, you're still a tool," Kara said. "You're wearing a dress to be feminine while wearing rapper chains to be masculine. You're doing this because you were taught to do so, told to do so, by someone else."
"You're just jealous you can only express yourself as a woman. You should free yourself to be whatever you want to be," he said to her.
"How I appear and what I wear in public is merely a mask to get what I want. In the privacy of my own home, I'm into some really weird shit that you can't possibly imagine," Kara said wide-eyed.
"Forgive Mrs. Wayne. She's not as sophisticated as her husband. I'll make sure she doesn't get into trouble," Brainiac 5 said approaching Evan.
"Of course, Mr. Dox," Evan said allowing Brainiac 5 to take Kara away.
"Can you imagine if I brought a Batarang here as an entrance fee? My career as Batwoman would be over before it even began," Kara said conversationally.
"You should refrain from nonsensical conversation," Brainiac 5 advised.
Kara eyed a woman with a purse. With her X-ray vision, she noticed the snake-bite needles inside. Kara went over to her and cornered her. "Can I help you?" Angelique asked.
"You and me in the bathroom with snake-bite," Kara ordered.
While Kara was busy with Angelique, Brainiac 5 focused on Napier's painting. He already had the painting from Kate Kane's phone, knew Coryanna's location via Beth's tracking device, but he didn't yet have DNA from the painting itself. He lightly touched the painting with his fingertips and acquired a DNA sample. "There's a lot of interest in that one," Evan said to Brainiac 5.
"It's dreadful, zero technique," Brainiac 5 critiqued.
"I know, right? Celebrity artists these days," Evan agreed.
"Who wants to buy it?" Brainiac 5 asked. "I wish to outbid them."
"This one, my friend, is not for sale," Evan said and then walked off.
Hours later, Alice still had Ocean tied up. "We're not blood so...I guess I could," Ocean answered. "You've had ample opportunity to kill me. So, are you just shitty at your job or is there some other angle?" Ocean asked.
"Before I kill your ass, I need some answers," Alice said vaguely. "What were you doing on Coryanna five years ago?"
"Holy shit, you're her," Ocean realized. "Why don't I remember?"
"Well, I do. We broke the cardinal rule of Coryanna," Alice recalled.
"Bringing outsiders to the island?" he asked.
"No, we had straight sex," Alice corrected. She then noticed three guys exiting a car and coming over to the hotel room.
"You have to cut me loose," Ocean said to her.
"I don't really trust you," Alice admitted.
The three men kicked in the door and rushed in. "What the fuck?" the leader wondered seeing Ocean tied up. Alice shot the three men to death from behind the door. "Always check behind the door," she shook her head.
Alice untied Ocean and allowed him to quickly get his clothes on. "You're driving," she ordered with the pistol in her hand.
Kara came back from the bathroom feeling refreshed. "You good?" Brainiac 5 asked her.
"Oh yeah," Kara said, still high. She looked up and noticed someone walking in the rafters. "Barney, is there...a guy up there?"
"You can't call the entity a guy. It's not gender-inclusive," Brainiac 5 scolded her.
The man in the dark suit came down, snatched the Napier painting, folded it up inside his cylinder case, and took off with it. "Did that just happened?" Kara laughed.
"Yes, indeed it did," Brainiac 5 confirmed. "It's...Wolf Spider."
"Did you just make that up?" Kara laughed and then fell over from being intoxicated.
Wolf Spider ran off as enforcers shot at him. Instead of blending into the darkness and using trees, cars, and houses for cover, Wolf Spider made the questionable decision to run along the runway out in the open. Crow cars went after him easily matching his speed. Wolf Spider got rammed hard and fell to the ground. Two Crow agents came out and checked his vital signs. "He'll live," one of them said and then got back into the car after taking back the painting. The Crow car then took off.
Brainiac 5 and Kara casually walked up to Wolf Spider. Brainiac 5 removed his mask revealing him to be Evan. "An unsurprising plot twist is unsurprising," Kara mocked.
"Indeed," Brainiac 5 agreed.
"Will...this...person make it?" Kara asked.
"You're trying too hard," Brainiac 5 scolded. "There are internal injuries. I believe I can repair them and extract the information on the Collective. Are you alright?"
"This isn't about me. This is about us. I can't keep working for your approval. I want to suit up and not be compared with Bruce. So, I partnered with the Crows, and for what? This case sucks!" Kara said obnoxiously.
"And another thing, I take the bullets. I take the hits. That means you listen to me, Barney," Kara told him.
"Do you believe you're being treated unfairly?" Brainiac 5 asked her.
Kara immediately backed down. "No," she said softly.
"Good. I'll take care of this matter. I recommend you sleep off the snake-bite," Brainiac 5 said.
At the Bat-Cave, Brainiac 5 extracted Evan's memories. He had just wanted to steal the painting to give to Kate. Unable to get any additional intel from him, he went back to his computer. He had his finger analyzed from when he touched the painting. The DNA scan was that of pig blood. The painting the Crows had taken was merely a decoy, a fake.
Brainiac 5 then noticed a text message from Alice. "I have Napier's painting."
Author's Notes: This is a real mess. Finding Coryanna would easily be done by having a tracking device in Kate, Alice, or Sophie. Satellites could easily find an island of that size. Trolls on 4Chan would find the island in a day. The Napier painting in this episode ends up being just a fake and we don't even know if Kate is actually on that island. I particularly enjoyed Ocean's roast of Alice. It's totally true, so I had to reverse the situation because my Alice/Beth is a competent assassin. The thing about representation is that it only works if you do it positively. Having a non-binary character be the villain of the episode is counterproductive. His expertise in paintings, his vigilante skills, and his overall judgment were really bad. As for Ryan Wilder, the Crows need only to have had surveillance on the Gotham airport, tracked down the one black woman present, and the black woman presenting a Batarang as an art piece, and they've got her. Knowing this, I didn't have Kara put on the suit here as much as I would have wanted it.
In Adventures of Supergirl, Brainiac 5 created what he considered to be a perfect society in which humans had no race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation in 3000. So, in this light, he favors non-binary sexually ambiguous individuals in so far as he likes to study them or socially engineer them. Kara rejected this extreme society Brainiac 5 created and there lies the conflict between them. So, there is some context to Kara's rudeness. As per usual, I'm not endorsing anything but letting characters be themselves.