Barbara, Harley, Kara, and the crew of Watcher 1-5 gathered around the screen in Barbara's hotel room in a conference with General Anderson before beginning their mission.
"Our boys in Intelligence found some information regarding Nelson's Lieutenant. She served as a Military Police officer but was dishonorably discharged after being convicted of mistreating enemy POW's." The General explained as his image was replaced by a mugshot and discharge papers of the woman Harley remembered ruining her date.
"She's been busy in Gotham as of late, we captured this security footage from the docks in Gotham last week..."
The screen transitioned to show New Era soldiers surrounding a beaten up Jervis Tetch, otherwise known as the Mad Hatter, out on the docks. Jervis was attempting to stand when his right knee was suddenly blown out by a shotgun blast as the Lieutenant walked on screen holding her shotgun. The footage lacked audio but everyone could tell that Jervis was pleading with the woman but she proceeded to shoot out his other knee, spraying blood and bone over the wooden planks. Jervis grimaced in agony before the Lieutenant pumped her shotgun again and blew his head apart with a slug round.
Barbara grimaced at the display of cruelty. Criminal or not Jervis didn't deserve to be murdered in such a horrific way.
"As you can see she lacks any sort of empathy." General Anderson said as he appeared on screen again. "I'm placing a kill order on her, if you have the shot take it."
"It'll be my pleasure..." Harley replied coldly. She held a deep hatred for the Lieutenant for ruining her date with Alex which resulted in his becoming injured and felt she should return the favor.
The General nodded his head in her direction understandingly. "Don't let it get personal Quinzel. Sweep the area, protect Miss Luthor, and eliminate the HVT if possible, understood?" He asked to Harley more than anyone.
"Perfectly..."
"Outstanding. Gordon this is your show, ensure the mission is accomplished. Other than that I have nothing for you. Ladies, Gentlemen, good luck..."
...
Harley checked the .45 pistol Alex had given her to make sure it was loaded before tucking it into the back of her pants as Kara drove them to the shopping center. They arrived a few minutes early to beat the crowds and split up once they reached the indoor plaza, Kara remaining at the event to keep her eyes on Lena while Harley made her way to the elevator that would take her to the construction zone on the floor below.
As she pressed the button to take her down the first group playing at the concert begin playing and Harley hoped the noise would cover up the sound of her gun if she fired it.
The elevator stopped and as she exited the lift she bumped straight into two Lexcorps security guards.
"Hey you shouldn't be here!" The first guard told her.
"Sorry fellas, must've hit the wrong button..." She said as she backed into the elevator, but the guards reached for their rifles as she did.
In the time it took them to level their rifles Harley had already drawn her pistol and fired two rounds into the first guards chest and a third into the others head, dropping them both.
"Harley are you alright!? I heard gunfire!" Kara urgently asked over the radio, her super hearing enabling her to pick up on the reports over the loud music.
Harley knelt down next to the guards as she replied. "I'm fine Blondie, but I think Bab's was right about security being compromised." She warned as she picked up the first guards suppressed assault rifle and ammo.
"Alright, I'll keep an eye out." Came Kara's short reply.
Harley shouldered her new weapon and moved through the construction, fighting through a few more teams of disguised soldiers along the way. They may have been well trained but no amount of training could prepare one for Harley's unorthodox tactics as she jumped, skipped, and danced across the battlefield, taking potshots with surprising accuracy and dropping the soldiers one by one until it was clear for her to move one. As she fought her way to security Harley noticed that the soldiers were messing with the support columns and discovered that they were planting C4 concrete charges along the columns above the plaza.
She may not have been a trained Combat Engineer like Alex was but she knew enough about explosives to know that these charges would collapse the floor above her and potentially kill or injure a lot of people. "Kara, their planting explosives! You need to get Lena out of there now!" She shouted into her comm.
"On it! Hang on I see her!" Kara replied.
Harley finished moving through construction and reached the security hub, killing a handful of more soldiers before coming up on the automated security CPU.
She looked over the rows of computers before finding central control. "Alright Bab's what do I do here?" She asked as she clicked through several menus.
"There should be a flash drive in your pocket, plug it into the computer and I can do the rest." Barbara answered calmly.
Harley felt around for the drive, finding it in her pocket like Barbara said she would and plugged it into the computer. She watched as multiple codes flashed across the screen before the rows of servers lit up.
"Alright I'm in! Get back to Kara and secure Lena!" Barbara said urgently.
Harley quickly back tracked to the elevator, dropping the rifle she grabbed before taking the lift back up. "Kara, where are you!?" She shouted over the music as the doors opened on the floor above.
"We're on the dance floor!" Kara answered bluntly, annoyed at something.
Harley shoved her way through the mass of people and found Kara arguing with a women she assumed to be Lena. Harley came up behind Lena and grabbed her arm. "We have to go Lena, terrorists are coming for you now!" She warned as Lena spun around in surprise.
"Terrorists!? What the hell are you two talking about, there's no terrorists here!" She replied angrily just as a gunshot echoed throughout the room, silencing the music.
Kara quickly stepped in front of Lena as the Lieutenant walked onto the stage flanked by several disguised soldiers who waved their rifles at the crowd. "Lena Luthor!" She shouted, her shotgun pointed towards the roof. When Lena didn't respond she quickly lowered it and shot the nearest civilian. "I won't ask again..." She threatened.
Harley and Kara tried to restrain Lena but she managed to slip out of their grasp, allowing the soldiers to quickly snatch her up. "Open fire!" The Lieutenant shouted before her soldiers started firing into the now panicked crowd. The civilians ran in terror as automatic fire mowed down those unfortunate enough to not get away in time.
Kara quickly grabbed Harley and rushed behind a kiosk for cover. Harley drew her pistol and ground her teeth in anger. "I'm gonna kill that sick fuck..." She spat angrily.
Before Harley had a chance to break cover the charges on the floor below detonated, collapsing the floor and obscuring the Lieutenant and her soldiers as they ran off with Lena. As the ringing in Harley's ears subsided she heard the sound of helicopter rotors and hoped that it was Watcher 1-5 overhead but to her and Kara's dismay it was an MI-8 Hip deploying more New Era soldiers into the building through the skylight.
Once the soldiers hit the deck they began firing at anything that moved, not caring if they shot actual Lexcorps security officers or civilians. Harley and Kara quickly ran to more suitable cover before Harley radioed Barbara. "Bab's were you at with that automated security!?" She shouted urgently.
"Hang on a sec! Overriding parameters, ID, monitor, and protect... Automated security is set to respond to a terrorist attack, drones will engage any unidentified armed personnel..." Barbara replied as small quad-rotor drones with mounted 9mm sub-machine guns deployed from hidden doors and started engaging the hostile soldiers.
Harley grinned in delight as the drones made short work of a group of soldiers before flying to another squad. "Not bad Bab's, not bad!" She praised.
With the immediate area clear Harley and Kara took off in the direction they saw the soldiers drag Lena off to.
As they ran a New Era soldier popped out of an alcove and fired a burst into Kara's chest, but was surprised when the rounds had no effect as they crumpled against her chest and fell to the floor, the only sign she'd been shot being the new holes in her shirt. The soldier, realizing who he'd just shot, went for his radio to warn his comrades but Harley quickly darted forward and grabbed his rifle, smashing the buttstock into his face before hooking her leg behind his knee and tripping him. Once he hit the floor Harley raised her right knee and drove the heel of her boot into his face with all the strength she could muster, crushing his skull with a sickening "CRACK!"
Kara watched the scene unfold before her in shock, her eyes darting between Harley and the soldier she'd just killed. "What did you do!?" She cried as Harley relieved the body of his weapon and ammo.
"He tried to kill you, so I killed him." Harley replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I'm bulletproof! I could have...you didn't have to!" Kara shot back.
"News flash Blondie, Marine Corps don't follow that no killin rule you heroes all do and if you hadn't noticed this place just turned into a damn war zone!" Harley gestured towards the chaos around them to prove her point.
Kara looked around and saw the craters from the explosions, fires, spent shell casings, and the broken, mangled bodies of civilians the New Era soldiers had murdered for no reason. All around her Kara could hear the terrifying sounds of battle, gunfire, explosions, shouts and screams of agony made worse due to her enhanced hearing. She suddenly felt sick and took a few steps backwards as she took it all in.
Harley slung her new rifle and shook Kara to snap her out of her daze. "Get your shit together Blondie, these assholes are still out there killin people and we still gotta save Lena!" She urgently reminded her.
"Ok, I'm fine. Your right, we still have a job to do." Kara replied after regaining her composure.
Harley smiled softly and nodded. "Come on, these asshats ain't gonna kill themselves!" She said as she charged her rifle and ran into the fray.
"Wait, what?" Kara shouted after her as she ran after Harley.
...
Back at the Blackhawk, Barbara monitored Harley and Kara's progress while simultaneously sending commands to the small fleet of drones. She made use of the security cameras to track the Lieutenant's movements as she and her soldiers dragged Lena off, and sent a small detachment of drones to harass them and hopefully stall them long enough for Harley and Kara to catch up.
Unfortunately they were being held up in a firefight by a rather large group of soldiers. Barbara watched on the screen as Harley ducked behind an overturned kiosk and reloaded her scavenged Galil before firing back while Kara flew around to distract the soldiers. But the more they fought the further the Lieutenant and Lena got from them, Barbara had to intervene.
She looked over her monitor and called for Captain Thomas. "Captain, Harley and Kara are pinned down and the HVI is still in enemy hands, can you get us over there to help out?" She asked.
The Captain looked back from his seat and nodded before turning to CWO3 Medina. "Medina, get those antennas down and load the minigun, we're getting some action!" He ordered.
"Roger that Sir!" Medina replied as he got to work.
Barbara looked down at herself and checked over her new batsuit. After her adventures in the sewers months ago the armor plates had been cracked by rifle fire and she had yet to replace them until General Anderson surprised her with a new suit to replace her old one. Instead of the near skintight armored suit she wore before, her new one consisted of dark grey combat boots, cargo pants, shooting gloves, and a jacket all lined with light weight ballistic weave rated for .45 pistol rounds. While her new suit lacked the armor of her old one it was lighter and provided her with more agility which was a good trade off in her opinion and was more functional with the added storage on her pants and jacket and her cape was also now quick detachable in case she became snagged on anything. The bat symbol was still emblazoned on her chest, being interrupted up the middle by the jackets zipper, but a small Eagle, Globe, and Anchor was stitched into the center of the symbol to signify her affiliation with the Marine Corps and a single black chevron was pinned on both sides of the collar to display her rank.
As CWO3 Medina climbed aboard and manned the minigun, Barbara grabbed her cowl and slipped it onto her head. The rotors began to spin up and in no time the Blackhawk was airborne and heading towards the now smoking shopping center.
Barbara radioed down to Harley and Kara that she was on her way when the helicopter stopped and hovered above the outdoor plaza where NCPD gathered the fleeing civilians and attempted to gain entry into the building only to be met with heavy resistance from the New Era soldiers.
As the helicopter began to descend Barbara stepped closer to the edge of the cabin to jump out when Medina quickly called back to the Captain.
"RPG your side!" He shouted as a soldier with an RPG fired at the helicopter.
"Hang on!" Captain Thomas warned as he jerked the controls to the side, the rocket narrowly missing the cockpit. While the helicopter was fine Barbara had been unprepared for the sudden movement and was thrown from the cabin as the helicopter avoided the rocket.
She was still at least fifty feet up when she fell and she screamed in panic as the ground rapidly approached. Barbara shut her eyes and prepared herself for the inevitable splat but instead of hard concrete she landed in the plazas fountain. She quickly broke the surface and gasped for air as the helicopter hovered above, minigun firing at the soldier that had shot at it.
"Echo One Quebec this is Watcher One-Five, we have a man fallen. Break contact and proceed to our coordinates for CASEVAC, over." She heard the Captain order the radio.
"Fallen, how the hell? Never mind we're on our way." Came Harley's reply.
Barbara shook her head to get the water out of her ears before speaking into her radio. "Stay where you are, I'm fine!" She quickly shouted. "Harley, I'm making my way to you guys!"
"We're in the food court, second floor!" Harley informed her.
"We'll cover you movement. Be advised we cannot cover you once your inside the building." Captain Thomas warned her. "We'll maintain orbit around the building and do what we can to support local PD. Good luck."
With that Barbara took off for the doors, running from cover to cover and avoiding hostile fire as Watcher 1-5's minigun roared, sending hundreds of spent shell casings raining down onto the concrete below. Once inside Barbara realized the situation was worse than she had thought, New Era soldiers were everywhere despite the drones flying around and harassing them.
Barbara heard an explosion further in and assumed that she'd find Harley and Kara there. As she made her way over she stumbled across a group of soldiers chasing after civilians on the floor below her. Not willing to leave the civilians she jumped the railing and landed on the first soldier, knocking him out as her feet crashed into him. Barbara recovered and grabbed the second soldiers rifle barrel and yanked him forward, crashing his face into her elbow. As the second soldier crumpled Barbara held onto his rifle and swung it's buttstock into the side of the last soldiers head, incapacitating him.
The civilians quickly thanked her before running off to safety. Barbara held on to the rifle she grabbed, discarding the magazine and ejecting the chambered round. She didn't like shooting guns, but they made great expedient melee weapons when empty.
Barbara didn't hang around much longer before continuing to make her way to her friends. As she ran up an escalator into the food court she found herself face to face with a larger group of soldiers. The soldiers raised their rifles just as a red beam shot through their weapons, rendering them useless. Both Barbara and the soldiers looked to where the beam had come from to find Kara hovering in front of them smirking.
"Fuck this!" The soldiers panicked before running away, knowing they had no chance of fighting both Batgirl and Supergirl unarmed.
Kara laughed as the soldiers retreated before landing next to Barbara. "Nice of you to join us, why are you all wet?"
"I fell fifty feet from a helicopter and landed in a fountain." Barbara grumbled before taking in her friends tattered clothes. "What's with rags?"
Kara looked down at her trashed clothing and sighed. "I was the distraction..."
"And a great one, thanks again Blondie. About time you got here Bab's." Harley interrupted as she walked over, rifle in hand.
"Well it looked like you two were having such a good time I figured I had to join in."
"Oh, is that a euphemism? Sorry Bab's, much as I like the idea of the three of us I'm already taken. You two just gotta settle for yourselves." Harley smirked as Barbara's face turned the color of her hair as Kara laughed, though her face was also a bit red.
"Damn it Harley, you know I didn't mean it like that!" Barbara shot back, annoyed at her own embarrassment.
"Your right I'm sorry, I couldn't help it you two are just so cute when your embarrassed!" Harley apologized as she tried to quit laughing.
Barbara was about to retort when a bullet whizzed past her head and crumpled against Kara's chest. "Damn it, how many more times am I going to get shot today?" Kara complained as Harley and Barbara dove for cover while she jumped forward and pummeled the soldiers that had tried to ambush them.
"Geez Bab's, your girlfriends got one helluva punch." Harley commented as she and Barbara watched Kara punch a soldier across the room were he crashed into the wall behind them.
Barbara rubbed her forehead and sighed. "She's not my girlfriend Harley..."
"Oh, I thought you guys really hit it off the other night..." Harley said with a frown. She vaguely remembered seeing Kara kiss Barbara and them holding hands afterwards but she was also really drunk and her memory of that night wasn't exactly clear. "I know that this isn't exactly the best time for this conversation but I really think Kara could be good for you, especially with all this shit going on you could use the distraction."
"Noted, but we can talk about my love life when we're not being shot at!" Barbara snapped, putting an end to the conversation. She'd still hadn't fully processed her feelings towards Kara yet but Harley did raise some good points about the benefits of starting a relationship, but the middle of a terrorist attack wasn't the time to be thinking of these things.
They waited for Kara to finish beating up the soldiers before rejoining her. "Ah, that was kinda therapeutic." Kara smiled as she held the last soldier by his flak and threw him through a storefront.
"Glad your enjoying yourself but we do have a job to do." Barbara reminded her.
"Right, sorry. One sec." Kara apologized. She then made use of her X-ray vision to locate Lena, locating her on the top level of the outdoor parking garage surrounded by soldiers as a helicopter flew in. "Crap, that mad woman has Lena on the parking garage and there's a helicopter coming!" She informed her friends.
"Not if we have anything to say about it, let's go!" Harley shouted as she vaulted over her cover and rushed towards the exit.
Not wanting to let Harley put herself in danger the other two quickly followed, catching up to her outside. When they got outside they could see that the New Era's helicopter was already hovering above the parking garage. Barbara recognized the MI-24 by its NATO designation as a Russian Hind gunship. The craft easily outclassed their Blackhawk in terms of firepower and she hoped Watcher 1-5 was keeping its distance to avoid being shot down.
They still needed to get up there though and save Lena, which meant putting themselves in front of that gunship, but they'd never reach the roof on time by foot.
Kara knew this as she quickly grabbed onto Barbara and Harley before flying up to the roof, dropping the two behind a car as she landed just in time to see Lena being forced into the Hind at gunpoint.
"Better luck next time heroes!" The Lieutenant gloated from the helicopter as it began to gain altitude.
The Hind then fired a barrage of rockets at the three, who dove out of the way just as their cover exploded. Harley rolled behind another car and began firing at the gunship but her rounds bounced harmlessly off the armored fuselage.
Barbara hadn't been so lucky, the blast sent her forward and rolled a car over her legs, pinning her out in the open. She tried her best to worm her way out but the vehicle was too heavy and wouldn't budge.
While Barbara tried to escape Kara launched herself at the Hind, but the craft was more agile than it looked and it quickly veered out of the way. It then turned its nose back towards the roof, firing its machine gun at Harley to force her into cover before it turned its attention towards where Barbara lay pinned.
Barbara looked up to see the gunship facing her and struggled harder to get free from the flipped car when she heard a rocket being fired. She shut her eyes as she pulled, hot tears stinging at her eyes as she realized that rocket would kill her. She didn't want to die, especially now that she had another chance at happiness. In that instant Barbara reflected on everything that had happened since coming to National City and how her best friend had admitted her feelings to her and in that moment she realized she felt the same way about Kara, she was just sad that it had taken her impending demise to realize it. But when the explosion came Barbara only felt the effects of the blast pressure on her. She looked up to see a smoking Kara falling from the sky as the helicopter turned and flew away.
Harley quickly dropped her rifle and ran to Barbara, helping her lift the vehicle off of her. Barbara quickly checked her legs to see that they were fine before rushing to where Kara lay on the ground with Harley behind her. Barbara knew that Kryptonians could take a beating but Kara had just taken a literal rocket to the face for her. Kara's eyes were closed but Barbara could see she was still breathing due to the continuous rise and fall of her chest, now visible thanks to the rocket burning away the remainder of her clothes. Barbara felt her face heat up at seeing Kara mostly nude but forced those feelings aside as she continued to check her over for injuries but as expected Kara was fine.
Kara groaned as she opened her eyes and rubbed her head. "What happened? Where are my clothes!?" She asked, quickly covering herself with her arms as she sat up.
"You just ate a rocket Blondie. The explosion burned away your clothes." Harley explained. "I'll go find you something to cover yourself with." She said before getting up to scavenge through the parked cars.
Kara turned back to Barbara only to be met with a searing kiss. Barbara pulled away, worry written on her face, and Kara noted that she was trying to hold back tears as the redhead punched her. "You idiot, you didn't have to do that!" She cried before hugging her close.
"And let you die? I couldn't do that Barbara, you mean to much to me. You know that." Kara said softly as she returned the embrace.
Barbara let Kara go and looked into her eyes. "I know, and you know what? Almost dying, again, made me realize that I have so much to live for and I want to do it with you Kara." She knew she might be taking this to fast, but she didn't want to wait like Alex had and risk losing Kara like he had with Harley.
Kara looked at Barbara and smiled happily. "You mean?"
"Yes, I want to be with you Kara Zor-El." Barbara answered before leaning forward and kissing Kara, who eagerly reciprocated.
"Uh, am I interrupting something..." Harley asked as she returned with a blanket for Kara. The two broke apart and blushed furiously. Harley quickly tossed the blanket at Kara before turning away. "Glad you guys finally figured yourselves out." Harley smiled over her shoulder.
"Well, coming so close to dying is a good motivator." Barbara replied as she smiled happily at Kara.
"I'll, uh, go wave down our ride. Don't hang around too long, you crazy kids." Harley said as she made her way towards the other end of the roof. She waited for Watcher 1-5 to fly around before waving the bird down. The Blackhawk hovered over the roof, waiting for the tree to climb aboard. "Alright lovebirds, time to go!" Harley shouted at her friends over the noise of the rotors.
Barbara stood and helped Kara up, the two walking towards the helicopter together smiling happily.
...
"This wasn't your fault Gordon, we had no way of knowing the lengths they'd go to get their hands on Lena." General Anderson told Barbara.
It was the day after the New Era attacked the mall and captured Lena. Barbara had already sent her report to the General and was now debriefing him over video. While she was happy she discovered her feelings for Kara, the fact that she had failed her first mission still weighed on her conscious.
"I know Sir, I just think if we had kept the team together things wouldn't have gone down that way..." Barbara replied solemnly.
"Maybe, but that was my decision not yours. You did your best and got your guys out alive, you did good."
"They still got Lena, they'll use her to get their hands on kryptonite."
"I'll get a hold of the League and give them the heads up and we'll get Lena back if possible, but that can wait until we're all back in Gotham."
"Yes Sir..."
"Cheer up Gordon, as I understand it you have plenty of reasons to be enjoying yourself as of late." The General smiled warmly.
"Oh God, Harley told you didn't she..." Barbara sighed, her face turning red.
"Yes, she was very descriptive in her report...But I am glad you've found someone to be happy with, this line of work is very stressful as I'm sure you know and it's good to have someone to come home too. Just make sure your both ready encase the worst happens."
"Yeah, I'm not invulnerable like she is..." Barbara muttered to herself. She wasn't worried about Kara getting hurt by conventional means, not after seeing her walk off a rocket, but Barbara was definitely more susceptible to bullets and explosions.
"Just enjoy yourself while you can, I have a feeling things are only going to get harder from here. I won't keep you any longer, enjoy the rest of your day."
"You too Sir." Barbara replied before ending the call. She sat back in her chair and sighed, drumming her fingers across the desk in front of her. She remained that way until she felt a pair of hands on her shoulders.
"I wish you didn't have to go so soon..." Kara said as Barbara leaned her head back to see her.
"Me too, but duty calls. I promise when this is over I'll come back for you."
"Why wait? Gotham isn't that far, I could help more! I'm sure your General and the League would allow it if I asked!" Kara asked excitedly.
Barbara chuckled at her excitement. "That'd be great but don't you think after what happened you'll be needed here?" She reminded her.
Kara shook her head and smiled. "The National Guard deployed this morning, they've been helping the Police and SWAT clean up the mess, I think everything will be fine here."
"Well if you really think so...Yeah, that'd be awesome! I'll call the General back and let him know!" Barbara exclaimed, Kara's excitement rubbing off on her.
"Yes! You guys can go on ahead, I still got some stuff to do but I'll meet you in Gotham soon, promise!" Kara quickly kissed Barbara goodbye and took off to take care of whatever business she had.
Barbara smiled happily to herself, she couldn't remember being this happy in a long time. This trip to National City hadn't gone as she'd planned, and despite their failure yesterday Barbara found she was more excited than worried for the future...
...Mission Failed...