Helena knew that things were quickly changing in the world, and not necessarily for the better. Her dreams disturbed her, more than usual as of late. Since the gala, everyone had been preparing for whatever impending doom they felt necessary. Bruce prepared for his confrontation with Superman, and Helena prepared for the unknown threat that Luthor thinly veiled from them all.

Helena couldn't fight an invisible enemy she knew nothing about, research, and strategy mattered before attacking. Normally, Helena would reach out to Barbra Gordon, one of her closest friends and ally. Come to think of it, Helena's only real friends were all the people her father took in over the years, not to say that Helena was completely asocial as her parents, but just that those non-family friends were unaware of Helena's dual lifestyle. Nor could any of her friends ever find out, or if they did, they'd pay a hefty price for even being remotely associated with Helena and her "bat-family."

Helena felt that she couldn't reach out to Barbra though, this confrontation was too ambiguous, and wasting someone else's valuable time away from their duties is not a wise option. Still, Helena felt that the AI would be better off in Barbra's hands along with the others than her own. Helena had many talents, but she focused purely on minimizing crime by melee than cyberwarfare. Perhaps that would change in time as it did with Barbra, aside from getting older, the incident with Joker left her with limited options on crime prevention.

The train of thought led back to her mother and her uncanny healing ability that failed to save her from death. Helena wondered if the Joker had his way would he have successfully killed Helena despite Helena's healing abilities, just like her mother before her?

In what time, in which universe, would Helena have had the courage to destroy the Joker and save her mother and herself where things are simply better simply because the Joker no longer breathed? Helena thought rhetorically. In some universe everyone lived normal lives, where she was just a boring rich kid with first world problems as opposed to her brooding semi-self-destructive theatrical take on of the criminal underworld…if only that was the case.

The best thing to clear her head ironically, was to go on patrol. Fighting an actual threat as opposed to Luthor's phantom seemed a little bit saner for someone of Helena's disposition.

Night fell across the glittering city. Although crime happened 24-7 in Gotham, the Wayne family needed to keep appearances of rich billionaire playboy philanthropists that do charities by day and parties by night-or so her father rationalized to her once. Reality was that the night was the Waynes' time to shine; they suited up and patrolled the city triage-ing each threat they could get their hands on actually helping the world by simply being their real selves. Then by the daytime they put on their real masks and pretended to be rich people who 'sorta gave a shit' about a charity festival but mainly liked the rock-n-roll life while the media focused not on that but the 'oh-look-at-what-they're-wearing' cliché. It was an odd life to be sure, but at this point it was the only familiarity to Helena. Even when Selina was alive, Helena never had a normal childhood. How many eight-year-olds knew pressure points and medical trauma care for combative injuries as far as Helena knew not even her adoptive family and allies had that level of in-depth vigilantism.

The city was full of constant noise; sirens wailed nonstop, car horns honked into the wee hours of the morning, people shouted to one another, gunshots rang out in the darkness, bloodcurdling screams of innocent bystanders echoed in the abyss as criminals ran away in fear of getting caught. All of it was normalized to the average pedestrian after being in the city for a week. To every permanent resident, it was just another day. For Helena on patrol, especially clearing her head to relax off the whole ordeal with Superman and Luthor, it was an easy night. Helena transformed her demeanor the moment the mask touched her face. She was no longer Helena Wayne, daughter of a widowed billionaire. No, she was Huntress, the new Dark Knight, heir apparent to the caped crusader himself, the Batman's chosen legacy, the God of the Moon and the Hunt, an avenging angelic revenant.

Huntress drove around the city making her presence known for the evening; this scared off the new bloods and the faint of heart criminals. The middling criminals and the masterminds just became more guarded for the night, but that was ok by her-that was the point of her job. The night was calm, like how a storm brew into something nasty after a period of stillness. Huntress was ready for anything, well almost anything…she wouldn't know what to do if she met that woman, Diana Prince from the gala and the files. She didn't come off as a criminal threat but a different kind. Perhaps it was just her insecurities that her father would seek out this mystery woman. On the other hand, Huntress felt this metahuman was here to help. The only other curveball right now would be Superman, but he never came to Gotham before, so Huntress had a false sense of security in patrolling. Huntress was prepared for everyone else and looked forward to the confrontation despite everything; she made her way to the crime allies where she would wait discreetly for some action.

Listening to her headset, she heard of minor things that GPD could easily take care of it wasn't worth her skillset. It was an eerily slow night. Just when Helena thought she should return to the Cave, she saw a couple of figures breaking into a small mom-n-pop jewelry shop. This was beneath her, but Huntress needed to unleash her rage upon criminals and stop the growing tumor of criminality.

Huntress stalked the criminals that were taking their time to scout out the area to ensure that the quiet street was truly vacant before breaking out tools to rip into the security systems and the metal bars off the backdoor to break inside. Huntress followed them in, her feet deftly gliding on the ground not making any audible noise that the average person would hear.

The sound of cutting glass indicated that these were not typical smash-n-grab crooks but folks who planned this jewelry heist. They were not the masterminds as the thieves stuffed their own pockets as well as filled duffle bags of high-priced items, taking their time in cutting glass and moving it over. Perhaps they were disgruntled employees if they knew the quiet hours and layout well, Huntress thought. Statistically, it was highly plausible in this part of the city.

The crooks were finishing, Huntress allowed for them to get that far because it gave a false sense of security, and she needed the element of surprise to really get them off guard. People's awareness peaks at the beginning of a heist typically rather than the end of it. As they walked out and headed to a van to load up, Huntress made her move. It is foolish to think that a war cry is necessary before attacking, no, Huntress took out one of the guys stealthily with a simple chloroform spray, catching the guy while the other crook was facing the vehicle towards the alley. The guy she managed to take out fell to the ground, his belongings scattered. Huntress scaled the nearest wall and peered down, clearly baiting the other guy whenever he became alert.

Minutes went by when the one crook turned around and found his partner on the ground and panicked.

"Hey, dumbass get up!" the crook demanded in an angry hushed tone towards the knocked-out guy. Huntress dropped down behind the conscious fellow and, out of boredom, Huntress waited for him to turn around.

When he did, he threw punches in random directions, yelling obscenities in the process. Huntress and the crook scuffled, but she was able to subdue the felon by using her crossbow and shooting the man in the shoulder when he pulled out a sizeable, serrated blade.

"AH, YOU CRAZY BITCH!" He cried out before passing out due to shock. Huntress gave no response and continued to complete her task. Handcuffing them then hitting a button on her belt and tossing the small button-device on the thieves allowed her to leave them knowing that the little tracker allowed GPD to not only find the criminals but bring in other first responders as needed.

Of course after she hit the button on her belt meant that she had a fleeting time to get away. She lingered a little since the extra boost of adrenaline was exciting. The police sirens neared by, and Huntress regained her getaway vehicle. GPD only saw the tail end of a dark figure riding away, but they knew better than to chase shadows.

Huntress drove down busier intersections, at this point just clearing her mind from the brief scuffle. GPD seemed to be doing a decent job, making her feel as if she was on a vacation from her patrol. The feeling didn't last when she heard something that completely ruined her mood.

The sound hurt her sensitive hearing, like a sonic boom from a jet, the feeling made her slightly uneasy. Huntress scanned her surroundings while on her bike, and that's when she finally saw the source of the sound following her down the streets of Gotham.

"Oh shit." Huntress said aloud into her headset.

"Beg your pardon?" Alfred said in response to her surprised tone.

"Uh, Alfred, I'm going to be a bit delayed in getting home." Huntress informed him while dodging an onset of new traffic while looking at the flying figure following her, the booming sound of a frowning Kryptonian.

Huntress did evasive maneuvers while Superman was following at a low altitude.

"FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK!" Huntress called out, clearly unable to shake the Man of Steel from following her. Although she was driving quickly through the city, he was keeping up without any visible discomfort. However, he was flying low and doing his best to also dodge the nighttime life just as Huntress was.

Twists and turns were nonstop, and Helena was running out of ideas of where to go to get him to stop following her. Superman clearly needed to confront her, and Huntress was not in the mood for his bullshit.

Huntress was so distracted on trying to ditch Superman, she glossed over an oncoming semi from a perpendicular street to the road she was barreling down on. Hearing the horn, Huntress noticed in the flash of it all that she was most likely going to get T-boned and killed.

Huntress wasn't the only one who noticed this; Superman looked up and quickly went to the Semi to redirect it and minimize damages and loss of life, Huntress tried to do a right turn to head in the same direction as the semi to hopefully prevent a collision since stopping wouldn't be possible at the speed both vehicles were going.

Superman was able to lift the oversized truck and delicately place it elsewhere while Huntress did a quick sharp turn perpendicular to the original route she headed down. The scenery changed from the inner parts of the city to the docks towards the harbor, she could ditch him while he is distracted, Huntress thought.

Abandoned factories and run-down buildings were close to the harbor and the roads were less kept, it made her drive a little more difficult. Huntress looked around and saw no sign of the Kryptonian and slowed her bike down; perhaps she can start on the path back to the Cave's hidden entrance away from here if he quit following, she thought to herself.

Failing to pay attention once again, her bike's headlights revealed a dark colored chain link fence adjacent to a small harbor toll booth parallel to the harbor on the small road she was going down. The body of water to her left, dilapidated buildings to her right and straight ahead was a tiny booth with a fence, and she was headed straight to it. Bursting through wasn't the issue, but the sharp ground spikes that punctured her tires was definitely an issue. The headlights revealed all of this too late.

The punctured tires made her bike stop abruptly and the damage to the front wheel caused it to flip her out of the seat while the bike hamster wheeled and crash. The speed of it suddenly turned into slow motion; she was seated then ejected from her seat- flying straight ahead towards the ground to her death. Huntress instinctively tensed up and thought she was going to die in the split seconds it registered in her brain. Not that the pain of dying was an issue for someone like her, but it didn't mean she welcomed death easily.

Suddenly, Huntress felt the wind get knocked out of her but not at the intensity she braced for. The sensation was strange, like a metallic seatbelt around her upper body. When her eyes and brain caught up with the moment, she realized she was hovering over the ground a few feet off it but suspended. Her legs dangled towards the ground and her arms blocking her face, her waist encircled by a strong blue arm. She looked down at the arm and looked behind her to confirm who the owner of that arm was. Huntress involuntarily grimaced from being around the one person she didn't want to encounter just yet.

Superman gently put Huntress down on the ground, and Huntress turned around to properly face him.

He crossed his arms, and Huntress was catching her breath, breathing in heavy from the high-speed chase.

"Why save me? What the hell do you want?" Huntress demanded, regaining her composition and stance. Superman was taller than her for sure, but she felt not intimidated by him but confused as to why he followed her.

"I wanted to give you two a message, but instead I clearly needed to keep you alive first." Superman's deep voice was confident and unrelenting.

"That doesn't really answer my question, saving me to deliver a message isn't the reason you were following me."

"I needed you and the Bat to know that you are done with everything you're doing in Gotham, it needs to stop. And I saved you because it is the right thing to do." Superman assured her. His face looked stern, but his eyes showed a hint of dismay.

Huntress side-eyed him, confidently drawing in close to show she had in that moment no fear of him, "I will say that I really do thank you for saving one of my lives, so for that I owe you one. But know this Kryptonian," Huntress drew in even closer looking directly up in Superman's eyes, undaunted, "the Bat and I will never back down from giving justice back to this poor excuse of a city. Not you or anyone can try and stop us." A moment of silence passed between the two.

"I won't tell either of you again."

"Good, I'd hate to tell you to fuck off twice." Huntress quipped defiantly.

Superman didn't respond but instead flew off. Huntress thought for the briefest moment, she saw amusement in his eyes when she said that.

Odd, she thought, why would he save someone who might one day bring him down somehow? The thought was moot as she was more focused on being glad, she wasn't a road pancake and of course making a long walk home.

"Alfred?" Huntress asked.

"Yes?"

"Did Bruce happen to catch any of that?"

A new voice cut in the line, "I heard and saw it all."

"And?"

"He's not going to drop this."

"No shit Sherlock, whatever gave you that impression?" Huntress yelled sarcastically into the earphone. Huntress was more upset that her father didn't say something along the lines of 'I'm glad you're ok." No it was all about Superman. These days, the growing controversy surrounding the alien infiltrated everyone's lives increasingly, Helena was more annoyed than vengeful. To her, Superman was a small fish of the larger issues that needed fixing.

"Just get home Huntress." Bruce ordered, and then the line went dead.

"Great, another near-death experience AND a long walk home. Totally quiet evening today." Huntress said sarcastically. At least, she thought, I didn't have to die again. That was always an uncomfortable experience to relive over and over.