Supergirl and I crouch to get a better look at the scene before us. We're hidden in the top-most and darkest corner of an old warehouse. Because of how tall the building is, I need the small binoculars I hide in my utility belt. Of course, Kara doesn't need them; her and her stupid super-vision.
"It looks like they're preparing for a war," I say, thinking out loud for Kara's benefit. Unlike with Batman or Bette, I need to communicate with her verbally because she obviously can't read minds… Oh, I hope not.
The entire floor of the warehouse has tables covered in different types of weaponry and gadgets, with people rushing between them. Standing over this entire operation from a balcony is Daniel Siegfried, the right-hand or EX-right-hand man, of the now comatose Bruno Manheim. But that's not who we want.
Earlier That Night
When Kara and I stand behind Barbara, she pulls the picture of a Dr. Geoffrey Barns onto the computer screen.
"Are you sure that's him Barbara?" asks Kara. Barbara nods and brings up the information about him and puts it adjacent to his picture.
"Doctor Geoffrey Barns, aka, Night Shadow." No way.
"That's Night Shadow, the assassin for Intergang?" I ask. Barbara pulls up more information and Kara reads it out loud.
"Doctor Geoffrey Barns was working for Star Labs, L.A division, on a project called 'Invisible Man,' it had to do with light refraction and the ability to create invisible soldiers. There was an accident six months into the project that made him hyper-sensitive to light. It also gave him the ability to travels within the shadows, literally."
"So, how does an accident in the lab cause him to go Intergang assassin?" Kara and Barbara exchange knowing looks after my question. Instead of pointing it out, I catalog it for later.
"All I can tell you," adds Barbara. "Is that he lives in some rinky-dink apartment in downtown Gotham, here's the address." I enter the address manually into my portable GPS.
"What are you doing?" I look up at Kara, who is giving me a quizzical look.
"Entering his address into my console."
"Why?"
"Because I'm going there."
"No, you're not." Before I can argue back, the computer beeps and a picture of Black Canary pops up out of the corner.
"This is a prerecorded message. If this has reached you, it means I did not make my designated check-in. The likely reason is that I'm dead and my mission has been compromised.
I'm sorry-"
Barbara stops the message and looks at Kara with wide glassy eyes. Kara nods and yanks me towards the stairs. It takes me less than a second to know what is going on and I slip out of her tight grip and jump down the steps to my bike.
"Do you know where she is?" Kara nods again and takes off her jacket and shirt. Her uniform is hidden underneath, but this one is black. "Are we going for the goth look now?" A smirk plays at Kara's lips as she slides off the rest of her clothes, then shoves them into a duffle under the bottom step. Her all-black and cape-absent uniform is extremely form-fitting; not like the colorful, armor-like uniform she always wears. And to be honest, this one is way hotter.
"Just trying something more covert." On the last word, she takes off into the air and hovers about 30 feet above me. I start my bike and turn it towards the cave entrance. It's time to go save a canary.
Now
As we survey the area, the one thing I notice missing is Black Canary. She must be in a back room getting the sense and blood knocked out of her, or dead and decomposing into a bloated sack of flesh. Either way, we need to find her.
"Have you tried using your x-ray vision on the building?" I ask Kara.
"This building used to be owned by Lex Luthor when he was still financially involved with Wayne Enterprises. And ever since Superman showed up, he's been having them lead-lined, so no."
Great.
"But that doesn't mean I can't hear her." Kara closes her eyes and relaxes her whole body. It reminds me of Bette. She does the same thing before going into meditation with me. Suddenly, Kara's eyes snap open and her entire body tenses up.
"What is it?" Kara ignores me and grips the beam her hand is resting on in a tight grip. The metal groans and compresses under her steel-like fingers. "Kara…" I lift my right hand and gently pull Kara's face towards me. She keeps her eyes down at my feet and I can see why. The edges of her eyes are tinged with a red glow.
I've only seen that once, in a clip PGN showed of her fight with an alien named Kathos two years ago. The result was him getting his right-leg obliterated and his body punched into pulp. This was after he threatened to destroy the peopled she loved, according to Supergirl anyway because he had said it in Kryptonian.
"Kara, look at me." When she doesn't move immediately, I lift her chin and make her look me in the eyes. The red in them intensifies until I can see nothing else. But then slowly, and with every second I keep my gaze on hers, it fades. It fades until her beautiful Caribbean-blue irises shine through. I smile and pull my hand away from her chin. "There we go, that's my Kara." She gives me a weak smile then pushes herself to stand, I follow suit.
"They have her in the back. They're…" Kara takes a heavy breath then continues. "They're hurting her, we need… we need to get to her now."
"Then let's get her." Kara steps forward and wraps her arms around my body.
"Hold on." She picks me up and takes a moment to push my head into her shoulder. It only takes a nanosecond to understand that Kara is holding me in the air with one arm. Good grief.
Her arm comes back around me, and I feel a deep pressure around my entire body. I bite down to keep from crying out because of the pain. "Batwoman, are you okay?" Kara still has me in her arms.
"I'm… f-f-fine." Kara chuckles and I feel the vibrations from her body through my uniform.
"I'm going to put you down, okay?" I nod my head but keep my clutch tight on her arms until my feet touch the floor. I need to lean against the wall when she lets go to get my balance, but other than that I'm fine. Wait… wall? I take a moment to assess where we are; a long, grey hallway with black doors littering both sides. "Canary is at the end of the hallway." Without another word, Kara and I take off and stop in front of the door. She holds up her hand and counts down. "On go," she whispers. "Five… four… three… two… one… GO!"
XXX
Twice in the same hospital in one day, for three different people; that has to be a record. At least this time I get to stay in uniform. After Supergirl and I arrived at the hospital with Canary in Kara's arms, I opted to stay and wait on news of her from the doctors. Kara disappeared as soon as she went into surgery. That was four hours ago.
"Batwoman?" I take my eyes away from the window and watch as Dr. Robins closes the door of his office behind him. "Black Canary is still in surgery, but they've gotten everything calmed down and are doing their best to put her in a stable enough state for the ICU." How bad is she that she needs to be stable for the ICU?
"What about the request made by Supergirl?"
Dr. Robins pauses for moment before going on. "We did as she requested. Everything was done to its entirety and sent to Detective Bullock as instructed."
"Are you sure?"
"I looked over everything myself."
"But are you sure everything was done?"
Dr. Robins takes a breath before speaking. "This is not my first time doing a rape-kit Batwoman." I inwardly cringe as soon as he says the word, but I continue with the conversation.
"Thank you, Doctor Robins for all that you've done." He gives me a curt nod and exits his office. My eyes fall on the digital clock behind the desk of a nurses' station. It is 15 minutes shy of 9 AM. Dr. Robins' day is almost halfway over, while mine has just begun.
XXX
I stare down at the key to Linda's apartment cupped in my hand. Part of me can't wait to see her. The other part of me is scared. Of what, I don't know, or maybe I do. After all that has happened, especially tonight, I am finally going to tell Linda how I really feel.
Maybe.
I put the key in and open the door. Weird how almost twelve hours ago, she and I were getting ready to eat our toasted cheese sandwiches and talk about what had happened in the alcove; funny how things can change so quickly. I place her key in the candy dish and set my purse on her couch before walking back to her room. Before I even reach the door, I hear crashes on the other side. I fling open the door and burst in to find Linda's entire bedroom trashed.
"Kate?" Standing in the middle of the tornado with a chunk of what may be her bed in her hand, is Linda. She's dressed in green pajama pants and a white camisole. When I look at her face, I see red around her eyes and her hair is a mess; she's been crying.
"You know…" For a moment, Linda looks like she's about to throw the chunk of wood at me, instead, she falls to the floor in a pathetic lump and cries. I rush to her side and take her in my arms. Holding her as tight as I can, I pet her hair and rock her back and forth until she falls asleep.
Yeah, things have definitely changed.