Cassandra rode alone toward her night's destination. On the back of one of the half-beaten choppers that Bruce said were the only ones available until some new parts arrived, she drove toward Gotham's Chinatown district. Despite her arguments and struggle, Bruce had ordered her to serve as Stephanie's backup almost as soon as Cassandra had left the cave. For once, someone was in the right place at the right time. After they had escaped twice unseen, Stephanie revealed she had found the Reapers, their big, white van and their newest target: any of the night vendors they could get their hands on.

Cassandra still didn't want to see Stephanie, let alone share the case with her. But Bruce gave the task of examining Stephanie's newest photos of the van to Tim as he mumbled that it looked to be similar, but not quite the same. Bruce himself remained in front of the Batcomputer with a map of the suburbs and four tiny splotches of red. His night would be spent on the Zsasz case.

Attempts to protest led Cassandra nowhere. Stephanie was already hard at work against their mutual foe and a kidnapping plot. None of Cassandra's opposition would be permitted. At least, she figured, the fight might lead to a rematch with the Odmience.

Angel always felt a strange love and hate for Gotham's Little Beijing. She found it dirty and many of the mysterious-looking shops put per off when she took assignments there. But she couldn't resist a love of the wafting food smells and derived a little happiness from the thought it was the one place in Gotham most were guaranteed to look like she did.

The thoughts passed her quickly as she came to a screeching stop outside the town's main, "gate," decorated like a pair of interlocked dragons. Red and blue lights flashed and bounced off the dingy buildings. A huge white van, far bigger than the one she'd seen in her last confrontation, possibly used to move furniture, was parked in the middle of the street. Between her and the van sat a police blockade, though every officer had ducked down. Why wasn't clear to her yet.

There was no use in waiting. Angel climbed off her motorcycle, drew her dulled katana, ran at the barricade and slid over the police cars. Only when she'd crossed the vehicles did a thunderous, concrete-shattering roar shake her feet. On the other side of the van, the battle was already underway.

Batgirl looked like a paper insect next to the enormous Jabberwocky. With each missed punch, he seemed to command the earth to quake. Though Batgirl was fast enough to out-maneuver him, the heaviness of her breaths suggested she was burning out, and the desperate smile said Angel hadn't arrived a moment too soon.

"Not so big without your armory, are you, bitch?" Jabberwocky stomped the ground and smashed a new pothole into the street.

Angel watched the fight between Batgirl and Jabberwocky a moment before she turned to the open trunk of the moving truck. Miranda stood within and watched the battle as intently as could be obvious with her whole body covered in armor. With an extended hand she held a barrier that trapped perhaps a dozen people behind a translucent layer of pink energy. Though their faces were blurry, Angel saw how some held themselves and wept and others pounded against the pink barrier in a desperate bid at freedom.

An attempted run closer was all the further Angel got. Jabberwocky grabbed one of her arms and threw her back into the street next to Batgirl. The crash into the ground made her head spin and hurt.

"Sorry, choir girl, boss can't have you getting too close." Jabberwocky stepped forward and cracked his fists against one another and several yellow lights along his armor glowed.

"I've been watching him," Batgirl said between deep breaths. "I don't know what's going on, but he keeps doing that thing. Maybe try to close in when he does?"

Angel nodded. Jabberwocky rushed them again. The two heroines were fast enough to out-maneuver the giant, but none of their counterattacks made him so much as flinch. Staff strikes to his back, the katana against his chest, even the batarangs to his head did nothing to faze him.

"Let me try putting a ring in your head!" Jabberwocky got ahold of Batgirl's cape halfway through a dodge. A sinister smile crossed his uncovered face as he lifted Batgirl high as he could with one hand and thrust her into the ground with enough force to crack the road. Despite all of her own armor that shielded against the blow, Batgirl screamed in pain.

Jabberwocky raised his fist, intent on turning Batgirl's face into a bloody pool, when a grappling hook wrapped around his wrist. He didn't move despite Angel's pull and drew her closer with a yank. Forced to improvise, Angel bounded off the ground to pick of speed, bounced off the road and delivered a fly-kick into Jabberwocky's exposed mouth. The green giant staggered backwards in pain and struggled to keep standing straight. Somewhere behind her, Angel heard Miranda laugh in spite of herself.

"You gonna take all night?" She shouted next. "Just knock the two of them out and let's get the hell out of here!"

Jabberwocky clutched his then bloody mouth. "I'm gonna knock you out next!" He raised his fists and moved to smash the knuckles together again.

From just beyond Angel's periphery, another batarang flew and collided with one of his fists. The weapon erupted in a grayish green goo and when his fists came together a slimy splat took the place of the metallic noise they previously made.

"What the hell?!"

Angel turned, Batgirl was back on her feet and smirked in her direction. "Thanks for the distraction. The big baby's suit is meant to be self-sustaining, but he can't recharge his gloves if he can't smash their cores together."

"This is bull!" Jabberwocky roared. "I'm not getting beat by you, not again!"

The giant raised his foot and tried feebly to kick Batgirl and Angel when they rushed him, but he wasn't good with anything but his fists. The two delivered simultaneous punches to his face and struck at his chest until he collapsed backwards. Smirk on her face, Batgirl stepped forward, pulled the helmet from his head and unveiled an enraged Miles Henderson within

"Oooh, Red's gonna have a good time unencrypting another one of these," she said.

"You leave that alone!" Miles shouted. "When I get my hands on you—"

Miles' screams when interrupted by a blast of neon pink energy that slashed through the goo that contained his fists.

"I have to do everything around here, don't I?" As Miranda aimed the beam, Miles smashed his fists into the ground again, but she shouted, "Enough already. Let's get out of here!"

"I'm not done with blondie!"

"And you've still got captives!" Batgirl threw a batarang toward Miranda's open hand and trapped it in another eruption of goo.

"Damn it Miles, move!" Miranda put out her remaining hand to take hold of the doors to the back of the truck.

The disgraced Jabberwocky looked between the two heroines with a last snarl, bent down and leapt toward them. When Batgirl and Angel dodged his lunge, they realized too late they weren't the target. With a last beat of his fists, he smashed their two motorcycles into the pavement. Bits of metal, springs and handlebars flew all around him as he bent down, leapt over the moving van and began to similarly decimate the police blockade.

"No no no!" Batgirl threw batarangs toward the tires of the moving van. The sharp variety failed to puncture the masses of rubber and the ones full of artificial adhesive only held the van in place a moment before it escaped with a horrible screech. Batgirl and Angel stood alone in the center of Gotham Chinatown as the van disappeared from view in a terrible rush.

Cassandra stomped her foot. "Again. We lost them again."

Stephanie was about to say something, but paused at the sound of a strange buzz from the Jabberwocky helmet.

"—Dumbass got his helmet stolen, Richie. You gotta get it offline as fast as you can!"

"Relax, I already had the killswitch ready. It should be—"

The few words were overcome by static. As Cassandra muttered and mulled in words and body language, Stephanie continued to stare into the helmet and remembered what she had learned from Tim during their investigation of Figment's. She slipped off one of her gloves for better handling and carefully felt around the side. All she sought was a dial and a few buttons, and she eventually found them when she slipped open a compartment.

Cassandra didn't react when the static grew louder. She jumped in place and turned when the screech of death metal boomed from the helmet. But with the next button press, Stephanie found what she was looking for.

"Harden your hearts to temptation, my friends, for it waits beyond every corner. This has been Cameron Gram, God bless you."

Cassandra stared in confusion, first toward the helmet, then toward Stephanie, who held the helmet tight to the point that shakes ran down her arms.

"I knew it. You bastard, I knew it!"

Cassandra looked at her uneasily. "What was that?"

"These helmets pick up radio," Stephanie said. "Guess 107.7 is that guy's third favorite radio station."

It was as if the next night breeze froze Cassandra in place. "107.7?"

"Yeah," Stephanie said. "Your pal Gram had a hand in this mess. In all of these messes."

Cassandra double took in confusion a moment before she scowled. "What?"

"I was hoping to keep this back, but I've got all the proof I need now," Stephanie said. "I've been doing what you do. I've been listening to that psychopath on the radio. You wanna know what I learned? That every single time some group of people has been kidnapped by those Reaper jerks, Gram had a scathing rant about them less than forty-eight hours before."

As the two spoke, a small crowd of bystanders slowly stepped out of their shops to witness the exchange in the center of the street. The scowl on Cassandra's face moved with neither belief nor interest. "Lies."

Stephanie reached into her utility belt and pulled out her phone. "You want me to log into his stupid website and play the clips back for you? You wanna hear him rip on Muslims or Mexicans? Or maybe hearing about 'how the Chinese are a brutal, godless people' would hit close enough to home for you."

Cassandra took a step forward, tiny quakes of rage ran through her body. "Stop talking."

Stephanie flicked a button on her phone and pulled the time marker to the halfway point.

"China is the most 'successful' enforcer of communism in the modern world, and over half its population currently identify as atheist," the recording of Gram said. "China and its children have made themselves enemies of the will of the lord and their current way of life is an absolute mockery of morality."

Cassandra took another step. "Turn that off!"

"That's people in this town he's talking about, that's you he's talking about!"

The two shared a stare for a moment before Cassandra took another step.

"You don't scare me." In spite of her words, Stephanie threw aside the helmet and clenched her fists. "You could break every bone in my body, but I don't believe you will for a moment."

Another step and a squint like a scan. Cassandra seemed to be measuring her up. "Think I can't?"

"I said won't," Stephanie said. "You wanna know why I know that?"

The distance was closed. Cassandra could land a punch, kick or a flurry of pressure-point strikes if she wanted to. She took a deep inhale. "Why?"

Stephanie shut her eyes tight and took a deep breath of her own. "Because before you got hurt you were the most kind and compassionate person I've ever known in my life. You came from wrong and made it right. You used that awful power you were given and made something good out of it. You've had more to overcome in the last seventeen years than most people have in a life time. You're a good person." She paused, half for breath, half to emphasize her last point. "And you don't need to follow the teachings of a raving lunatic on the radio to prove any of that!"

Cassandra held the position and the glare. Though she paused for almost a minute, her reply came. "I was impure."

"Oh why? Because you feel things for other women? Because you had one bad breakup with one girlfriend, your pain is God's way of punishing you?" Stephanie's anger and condescension mixed into the potent force that overtook her voice. "Maybe I should have boarded the gay train after my first break up with a boy. Except I shouldn't have because that's not how any of this works—"

Cassandra shoved her hard enough the knock her into the building behind. For just a moment, a twinge of fear seemed to overtake Stephanie's face.

'Got better!" Cassandra's shakes worsened, her look was hot as fire. When she spoke again it she reined in the volume but spoke with the same intensity. "Why can't you let me be happy?"

For a few seconds the question clung to Stephanie, but she didn't need to grasp for a response long. "I don't care who you feel anything for. I seriously don't care if you're gay or not. What nobody needs is you acting all superior for it!"

Cassandra shoved her again, the second time with enough force to knock Stephanie backwards onto the ground. The trembles overtook her whole body as tears welled up in her eyes.

"Gram is dedicated. Has given his life to God. Wants to help people. And you accuse him—"

"Gram's a bastard, and he's turned you into a complete bitch!"

The only shift in Cassandra was the way her mouth slipped open, as if in shock. Stephanie had a moment to consider the possible damage of the exclamation, but didn't take it back.

The Angel of the Bat said nothing, turned her back and drew her grappling hook. She didn't need a motorcycle to get away. The wind turned to a freezing rush and the lights of Chinatown blurred as Cassandra took to the skies.

Through a buzzing static, she heard Bruce's voice. "Angel? Angel where are you going? I've got my own investigation in the suburbs, don't—"

Cassandra flicked a switch and silenced him. She had heard enough for the night.