Recent Edit: I had previously name-dropped Officer Owens in this chapter, but further research into the Arkham-verse has revealed that Owens was not transferred to the GCPD until shortly before Arkham City. Thus, he has been removed and our beloved characters have not met him... yet...

The detective mode in my cowl showed eight thugs in the street, two of which were armed, and at least five in the store (though the thickness of the walls could be hiding more bodies). Nightwing was mid-combat with the men in the street, his escrima sticks shooting off blue sparks visible from down the street.

The two men with guns were trying to circle around Nightwing, stepping into the middle of the street as they took aim. Perfect. Just as the two men began to take notice of the motorcycle barreling towards them, I whipped up my cape and let the wind carry my weight up into the air and off the bike. The bike dropped onto its side as it careened down the street, and it swept the two men with guns off their feet. One dropped his gun immediately, while the other squeezed his trigger as he fell and shot randomly into the sky. I glided towards them and kicked the gun out of his hand before he could cause any further damage, bringing my knee down on his skull to knock him out.

Nightwing's gaze darted over at me, and for the briefest of moments we shared a silent conversation. In that glance, we both acknowledged how strained our relationship had been the last few weeks. We agreed it had been hard for both of us. And we agreed that it couldn't be awkward now. None of that mattered right now; Amy, Daniel, Bruce, Jason, none of their meddling in our relationship mattered right now. This fight would require our closeness, if we were going to win.

"She's here! It's Batgirl!" a nervous man called. I grabbed the grapnel gun off my belt and fired it at a thug rushing Nightwing from behind; it clutched onto his shirt and pulled him forward as I dashed ahead, clothes-lined him, and elbowed him in the temple. Still bent over, I looked up to see two men rushing me from the side.

"Heads up!" Dick's perky voice called as he dove over me, then somersaulted forward and took the two men out with his escrima sticks. I rolled forward myself and swept the legs out from under a thug rushing towards the van that was parked at the curb. I disabled him as efficiently as I could and rushed back towards Nightwing as a man tried to grab him from behind.

"Check your six!" I called as I grabbed the man by the back of the collar and yanked him backwards. I pivoted and kicked high in the air, striking the man in the head with the flat top of my foot.

"Get her!" I heard a man squeal as the doors of the bodega burst open and more men rushed out. I stepped backwards, feeling Nightwing behind me as we watched the men surround us. I was starting to lose count of the number of men to take down, but I couldn't help smiling. Nightwing had my back; we'd make it.

"Wanna help me set the mood?" Nightwing offered. I smiled as I realized what he had in mind.

"My pleasure," I answered. I turned around to where he'd braced his leg in preparation, stepped up on his knee and launched myself into the air, then threw a smoke bomb down at the ground.

The cloud of smoke covered all the thugs, and they began punching blindly in the haze; but Nightwing and I flicked on our detective modes and could see everything. I grabbed a thug by his arm as he punched and spun him towards Nightwing. "Special delivery," I called, and Nightwing spun a roundhouse kick at the man, leveling him. A man near me blindly took a swing which might have hit me, but I ducked in time to miss it and he accidentally struck one of his comrades, knocking him to the ground where he clutched the back of his head in agony. I tripped the first man and delivered a swift punch to his temple, rendering him inert.

As I rose, I saw Nightwing running at a Two-Face accomplice, step vertically up him, then kick him in the side of the head as he proceeded to launch his weight towards a man rushing from behind. As the first man fell to the ground, Nightwing's hands landed on the shoulders of the man he next targeted, and his knee slammed into his face. The man fell backwards, and Nightwing landed softly on his feet over him. He looked over his shoulder at me and smiled smugly; I smiled back.

"Take him out! Two-Face only wants her!" a thug behind me commanded as the smoke was beginning to disperse.

"Aw, that hurts my feelings," Nightwing groaned, and he threw one of his escrima sticks at the man who'd yelled it. The stick electrocuted the man on impact and he toppled to the ground, unconscious. I somersaulted closer to his body and fired my Batclaw at the ankle of a man nearby, yanking his leg out from under him and sending him crashing to the ground, where a hit of his head against the concrete kept him down. I picked up Dick's escrima stick and tossed it back to him just as he was roundhouse kicking another thug to the ground. He caught it with a wink before slamming it against the cheek of an approaching attacker. I flipped forward until I landed in front of a thug and I whipped my cape up between us to distract him; while he was disoriented, I punched him first in the solar plexus, then in the stomach, then I delivered a final uppercut to his chin.

"Enough!" a gravely voice called from behind me. I turned towards the storefront to see him, Two-Face, standing in front of the door to the bodega with a gun held to the head of the crying, gagged shop owner. His teeth were barred as he stared me down. The three remaining thugs in the street retreated cautiously towards Two-Face, waiting for Nightwing and I to attack them. But we both waited, rising slowly and unassumingly to our feet in submission.

"Give it up, Two-Face," Nightwing called to him. "Let the woman go, don't make this worse than it already is."

"We're not here for you, boy," Two-Face growled at Nightwing, and his gaze stayed fixed on me. He forced the shop owner to step forward with him as he approached me. "So," his tone softened as his chin raised in curiosity, and his voice changed to that of the Harvey Dent I remembered seeing on televisions when I was younger. "The stories are true. There's a new bat in the skies."

"We know Joker rolled on his debts," I called to Two-Face, which seemed to intrigue Dent's darker side. "But these shop owners can't pay back what he owes. You're going after the wrong people."

"The clown owes me," Two-Face snarled at me, and he took another step to the side, dragging the crying shop owner with him. "Besides," Dent said in his calmer voice, "this isn't about the clown anymore. It hasn't been for some time. It's been about you." As he took steps around me, I noticed the three remaining thugs had returned with guns. There were three guns trained on Nightwing and I, and Two-Face's was still on the hostage. "I have to wonder… Batgirl appears, just as Robin disappears. Are you a fledgling replacement? A girlfriend? Or are you really Robin under there, experimenting with a wig?" Two-Face paused for a moment and I turned with a coy smile to him.

"I'm not his girlfriend," I answered (for what felt like the hundredth time), "and it's not a wig."

"Right," Two-Face grumbled at me as he pulled the hammer of the gun back. The hostage began to panic and shriek as she resisted Two-Face's hold, but he held her close and pressed the barrel of the gun against her temple. "Let's see for ourselves, shall we? On your knees!" he ordered the hostage as he thrust her to the ground. She tried to scramble away, but Two-Face grabbed her by the hair and held her in place. "On the ground, Nightwing," Two-Face grumbled. I turned over my shoulder to see Nightwing still on his feet, looking at me.

"Might as well… it's hopeless," I gave a small nod, directing for him to follow the order. Nightwing seemed to pick up on the code I was trying to communicate, calling him back to a training session long ago where he'd taught me a move perfect for this moment. I cast my gaze down quickly at the wing-dings on his belt as he slowly went down to his knees, his hands raised to chest level in submission. "He's down," I said, raising my own hands in submission as well, "now let her go." Two-Face grimaced at me (or was it a smile? It was hard to tell, beneath the scar tissue), then turned to one of his thugs and nodded for him to come over. The thug pointed his gun at the shop owner as Two-Face pushed her prone to the ground.

"Stay down!" the thug barked at her, keeping a safe enough distance to not get between Two-Face and me- good. I wanted a clear path. Two-Face used his free hand to withdraw his trademark coin from his pocket; one side was clean, the other scorched from the same acid that had shredded his face.

"Batman would be disappointed," Harvey's calm, clear voice called to me. "Perhaps this is a favor; a mercy, that it should be me. If it were the clown… you'd be praying for death. I won't make you suffer long." He positioned the coin over his thumb and my muscles tightened in anticipation of movement. He flicked the coin in the air and everyone's eyes drifted up as they followed the coin.

"Now," I called as I began rushing forward. I heard rather than saw the release of the wing-dings from Nightwing's hands; one struck the hand holding the gun on the hostage, and he dropped the gun as I heard similar groans of pain behind me from the other two gunmen. Two-Face took notice of me rushing him and began to raise his gun again, but too late. I ran at him and jumped, leaping over the hostage and wrapping my legs around him. My momentum and weight hit the top half of his body, and I heard the air leave his lungs and his gun fall to the ground as he fell backwards. I landed softly on my toes over him, with my elbow cocked to punch as he slammed down onto his back. "Tell you what, Harvey," I smiled as he stared half shocked and half angry up at me, "I won't make you suffer long, either." I punched him hard in the temple and he nodded off into unconsciousness. I turned back over my shoulder to see Nightwing disabling the final thug with a roundhouse kick.

Our eyes met for a moment, pride and accomplishment surging through us. Something else began to overcome me as well, and I inhaled deeply as I tried to keep my emotions at bay. I climbed off Harvey and knelt beside the hostage, who was crying into the asphalt beneath her. "Ma'am, are you okay?" I asked her as I placed my hands softly on the back of her head and on her wrist. She slowly looked up at me, but flinched as she saw my masked face. "It's okay," I said comfortingly as I stroked her hair, "you're safe now." She slowly looked up again, and I gestured to help her remove the gag from her mouth.

"Batgirl," Nightwing called to me as I pulled the gag out of her mouth and examined the top of her head for injuries. He had been tying up Two-Face as I'd done so, tucking the coin back into his breast pocket. "We've got officers incoming. Time to go." I smiled comfortingly at the hostage and held out my hand. She took it and I helped her stand. She smiled back at me, her long black hair falling over her wet cheeks.

"Thank you," she said lightly in a Vietnamese accent. I nodded with a smile, then turned towards Nightwing. The lights of sirens were visible down the long street; we were no longer needed here.

"Catch you later Batgirl," Nightwing said with a playful smirk as he turned to leave.

"Wait," I said as I withdrew my Batclaw. I reached one hand back to him in offer. "Need a lift?" He hesitated, then laughed with a smirk as he looked down at my hand. He stepped forward and wrapped one arm around my waist, and I wrapped my arm around him in turn. He put his left hand over mine on the grip of the grapnel gun, and I fired it to a rooftop overlooking the bodega. The grapnel yanked us skyward, Dick's arm holding me close and our bodies pressed tight together.

Once the cable ran out and we were meant to land on the roof, our feet fumbled to gain ground beneath us without stepping on each other. Clumsily, we tumbled forward on the rooftop and rolled over one another, the Batclaw slipping out of my hand and my palms pressing against Dick's chest to keep our heads from bumping into one another.

When we stopped rolling and came to rest, Nightwing's body was beneath me and his arms were still wrapped tightly around me. "Smooth," he said, and we both exhaled in a laugh. I let my forehead tilt down in my laughter, and my hair fell around his face.

"Sorry," I breathed out with a smile. I was all too aware of the sensation of his hands on my lower back, my palms against his cool, hard chest plate. For a moment, our gaze locked and everything was right. His eyes searched mine like they had that night outside of Wayne Manor. Even behind his domino mask, I could see the softness in his eyes. His hands were wrapped tightly around me, holding me on top of him. But then his grip lessened and his eyes darted away uncomfortably, as if he realized he wasn't allowed to look at me this way, to touch me this way.

"Um… we should…" he started, but I quickly raised my hands to his shoulders and pressed my lips against his. I felt his hands leave my back for a moment with the surprise of the kiss. I questioned if he was resisting me and if I should stop; but after another second, his lips parted and his tongue pressed into my mouth. His arms wrapped even tighter around me, holding me close upon him. One of my hands reached up from his chest to his neck as he kissed me. His weight rolled and suddenly he was leaning over me, his arms no longer around me; one arm was holding up his weight, and the other hand tangled itself in my fiery red hair as he lifted my face to his. I put my hands on his chest and pulled out of the kiss, smiling up at him. "Batgirl," Dick whispered down to me as his eyes scanned over my face, my hands wrapping around his neck as I contemplated pulling him back down to me. "What took you so long?" he asked as he leaned closer to kiss me again.

"Oh!" I sucked in a breath as I remembered what had taken me so long to get to the scene of Two-Face's attack. I softly pushed Dick off me and sat up, clicking on my comm unit and calling Alfred, looping Nightwing into the feed. "Alfred, Two-Face has been taken care of. Give me an update on Batman and Iceberg Lounge."

"Good work, Batgirl. Batman is still in pursuit of the Joker; they've crossed from Gotham to Bludhaven multiple times. He believes Joker and Quinn are trying to go after Nightwing, but can't shake Batman's tail," Alfred said.

"Pretends he doesn't know me, then tries to hunt me down as a date night activity. Great," Nightwing shrugged.

"And Iceberg Lounge?" I repeated.

"Red Hood is en route now; he should be arriving any moment now," Alfred responded.

"Wait, what?" Dick asked, looking to me incredulously. I dropped my shoulders in fatigue.

"I was out of options. Batman was going after Joker, you were pursuing Two-Face, I needed to help you, but there's a situation at Iceberg. It's nothing he can't handle," I tried to reassure Dick.

"He's not ready to face Penguin alone…"

"And he shouldn't… his very clear instructions were to make a path to evacuate hostages without engaging in combat," I said.

"Jay's not the best at avoiding conflict," Dick shook his head.

"Well, he'll have you there to support him," I nodded. "Help him, and keep his presence as secret as possible. If Batman learns Red Hood was at the Iceberg Lounge right after Joker left, he'll spend a lot more time and energy hunting him down."

"Got it," Dick nodded.

"I'll catch up with Batman, see if we can pin down Joker and Quinn," I said.

"Good luck," Alfred noted to us, and we clicked off our comm units.

"Be careful," I advised him as I bent over and retrieved my Batclaw, replacing it on my belt. I turned towards the opposite end of the rooftop to leave, but Dick reached out and grabbed my wrist, yanking me back towards him. His other arm wrapped tightly around me and he positioned my face up to meet his, kissing me deeply. I melted into his arms, allowing him to bend me backwards in the overpowering kiss.

When he pulled away and released me, he smiled down at me. "Yes ma'am," he said. He ran to the edge of the rooftop and flipped off, landing on a fire escape somewhere below. I smiled to myself, looking over the edge of the rooftop to see police tucking Two-Face's body into the back of a squad car.

Time to catch the jesters.

I hit Batman's tracker on and started gliding off the rooftop towards my motorcycle, still untouched by the police though clearly some officers' curiosity had been piqued. I landed beside my bike, still lying on its side, and surprised an officer who reached for his gun. He froze, his hand on his holster, and stared at me.

He was a chubby man, one whose face showed his emotions articulately. It was clear he was debating what to do; arrest me? Let me go? I nodded at him, acknowledging that internal debate, then lifted my motorcycle and mounted it.

"Monroe, help me with this one," another officer called to him. He nodded back at me, then turned away, removing his hand from his holster and responding to the officer calling him. I revved the bike to life and took off in the direction of Batman's position which, since he was still tailing Joker, was a moving target. Currently, he was chasing Joker through Old Gotham.

While driving, I clicked on my comm unit for a direct link to Jason. "Come in, can you hear me?" I called.

"Hey there Batgirl," Jason answered in a quiet, sly voice. "Not a great time to talk, I'm kinda in the middle of something."

"Don't engage, Red Hood," I said, cringing at using that as his codename. "Clear a path for evacuation and get out of there. Nightwing is heading your way."

"I take out one guy, and they've got a clear path," he said in a sing-song voice.

"Hood," I cautioned him tersely.

"I'm kinda starting to like that name. Whaddayou think?!" he grunted, and I heard him grapple with someone as he choked them out.

"Red Hood?!" I shouted into my comm unit. He didn't answer. I quickly punched Nightwing's comm unit in. "Nightwing, Hood is engaging. We need to extract the hostages as discreetly as possible," I reminded them both.

"I'm on it-" both Jason and Dick responded at the same time, though I could still hear the muffled grumblings of Jason's victim from his end of the communication link.

"Nightwing," I called again.

"I'm two minutes out," Nightwing said sternly. A pinging in my comm unit pulled my attention; it was Batman calling. I clicked off from Nightwing and Red Hood and onto Bruce's call.

"Batman," I acknowledged.

"Batgirl, Joker and Harley Quinn have separated. I'm in pursuit of Joker, heading south from Solomon Wayne Courthouse. Quinn is heading east on foot," he said, and I understood the directive immediately.

"On it," I answered, diverting my direction to intercept. I clicked Alfred onto the comm link quickly and said, "Alfred, key into GCPD security cameras in Park Row. See if you can keep a trace on Harley Quinn."

"Batgirl, many of GCPD's security cameras in that district are down," he advised me.

"Do the best you can," I responded as I turned my bike onto the bridge to Old Gotham. Luckily, Park Row wasn't far. I realized Nightwing may be making his way to Jason right over my head; I looked up at the rooftops as I drove, hoping to catch a glimpse of him at work, but I wasn't so lucky.

That was okay- I needed to focus on Quinn.

I slid my bike to a halt outside of the Solomon Wayne Courthouse, where I saw a small car had crashed into an adjacent apartment building. "Any visuals on Quinn?" I called into my communication unit.

"No… I can find no trace of her on any of the few GCPD cameras still in operation in that area," Alfred said. I examined the car; the doors had been opened prior to the crash, indicating that Quinn and Joker had likely rolled out of the car while it was still in motion. I flicked on my detective mode, looking for any signs of Quinn. The scanner caught a small splash of blood along the path the car had travelled before crashing. I approached quickly and took a sample.

"Do we have blood samples on file for Joker and Quinn?" I asked into my comm unit.

"For Joker, yes; Quinn, no," Alfred answered.

"Compare what I just uploaded to his sample; if it's not his, it must be Quinn's," I hypothesized. It took Alfred a moment to catch up with me, so I set the detective mode about tracking the trail of blood this person was leaving. There wasn't a very solid trail, since it was a small wound, but it was something to start with.

"Joker's blood is O Negative; this sample is AB Positive," Alfred said, and I smiled.

"Good. I'm on her trail," I said, hopping on my bike and following the blood trail through the streets of Old Gotham in pursuit. I had to work hard to ignore the pedestrians and residents of nearby buildings who were peeking their heads out of their windows and doors to see the car crash by the courthouse. Park Row had definitely gone downhill in the last ten years or so, and I was very aware that the people living in this area were statistically likely to be wrapped up in jobs run by Black Mask or Joker or another mobster, thus they were probably people I should be hiding my existence from. But I couldn't delay; Quinn had fled the scene on foot and she couldn't have gotten far.

The trail turned down an alley and I brought the motorcycle to a rapid halt. I turned on the motorcycle's defensive system, in case Quinn got any cute ideas to hijack my motorcycle when my back was turned. I hurried down the alley carefully, sure that Quinn knew she wouldn't go unpursued and that this may be a trap. I rounded the corner to the back of the building and saw the trail of blood faintly leading up the fire escape towards the roof. I fired my Batclaw at the edge of the roof and propelled myself upwards. I landed on the rooftop and saw one more spot of blood- then nothing. The roof was vacant, except the skylight of an apartment. I looked down through the skylight, but the apartment was darkened and seemingly empty except for a few cats roaming around inside. When I flicked on my detective mode, I couldn't see any signs that Harley had entered the apartment.

I frantically looked around for something else, anything else that might have indicated where she'd gone; but the trail had gone cold. I peered over the edges of the roof, looked to adjacent rooftops, looked back down the way I'd come, but there was nothing.

"Batman," I called into my comms unit, and I heard his click on, "Quinn's trail is cold. I've got no sign of her."

"Joker's trail is cold, too," Batman said. "I've trailed him to the sewer lines, but it's cold from there. I'm wondering if they've had help."

"Help?" I asked.

"They're not smart enough to slip away that easily," he thought.

"Well, maybe not Quinn- but Joker isn't short of intelligence," I answered. "But he also doesn't play well with others."

"Unless he has a greater plan," Batman grumbled. "Regroup at Iceberg Lounge. Penguin is holding his guests hostage; we need to make sure they're released."

"Uh," I hesitated, knowing Red Hood and Nightwing were on the scene, "shouldn't we call police? Penguin won't hold anyone against their will at the club. It's a business, not a human trafficking ring… right?"

"We'll just give him a nudge in the right direction," Batman said, and I could tell he was already en route to the lounge.

"Be there soon," I said, sprinting towards the edge of the roof and gliding back to my motorcycle. I clicked off Batman's comm unit and immediately pinged Nightwing.

"Batgirl," he answered.

"Get out of there. Batman's coming," I ordered, revving the bike to life and taking off down the street.

"Done. Most of the hostages have been evacuated out of the lounge through a back alley, and police are onsite; not sure what Bat's going to do, other than pummel Penguin for fun," Nightwing answered.

"Red Hood needs to be out of there," I reminded him.

"He's already gone," he said. "There was one injured hostage, he extracted her himself and he took her to Elliot Memorial."

"Who was the hostage?" I asked, my breath catching in my chest. Please not Colleen, please not Colleen.

"Not sure," he answered. "I got a look at her… long black hair, kinda curly. Had a lump on her head. Red Hood said she was holed up in the bathroom with a bunch of scared guests. She barricaded the door against the thugs trying to break in. Guys gave her a knock on the head before Red Hood could evacuate them." I had to consciously control my breathing as I realized that it was Colleen. But she was okay. Jason was taking care of her. And he was safe. Everything was okay.

"Okay," I said. "Make sure he gets home. If police are onsite already and most hostages are safe, I don't imagine Batman and I will take long at Iceberg. He needs to be home before we get back to the cave."

"Roger that," Nightwing said. I pulled into the Bowery and tucked my motorcycle in an alley before climbing onto the rooftops. I reached the rooftop directly overlooking the Iceberg Lounge, and found that Batman was already waiting for me there.

"What are we working with?" I asked.

"Nothing," Batman said, "it's been taken care of." I looked down at the scene below, where Penguin was frustratedly explaining his situation to the police, and the final guests were being carefully walked out by officers. The guests were safe, Penguin was in the hands of the police, and opening night had ended.

"Great," I said, letting out a heavy breath for what felt like the first time all night. "Easy peasy."

"Only one problem," Batman breathed out with a scowl, turning away from the scene below and towards me, "Red Hood was here."