Homecoming

Chapter 3

Huntress raced across the rooftops of New Gotham, her anger increasing her speed. She reached the coordinates where Reese activated the Bat-Ring and, with the help of her metahuman abilities, spotted him easily in the crowd. He distanced himself from his fellow cops as she leapt from the five-story building to land in his path.

"What took you so long?" he asked, playfully.

"Sorry I'm not the damn Kid Flash," she snapped, "If you don't like how I do things, maybe you should get yourself another meta-sidekick."

"Whoa…what happened, Helena?" he asked with concern.

Suddenly, her anger melted. "I'm sorry, Jesse. It's just been one hell of a night."

"What do you mean?"

After some hesitation, she said, "I ran into the Joker."

Shock mixed with more concern spread over his face. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine…thanks to my dad, I guess."

"Wait. Batman? He's back?"

"You know that feeling I've been having? Like I'm being watched?" she asked. He nodded. "Turns out it was him. He's been following me since we found out that the Joker was back in town."

"So what does this mean? Is he staying in New Gotham? Is he back for good?"

"I don't know," she said. "I just don't want to talk about it anymore. So what do you got?" she asked, gesturing toward the almost-forgotten crime scene.

Reese welcomed the subject-change and began explaining why he called her. "There's a woman over there; blonde, late forties. She was stabbed in the street." He saw Huntress's face go pale. "What is it?" he asked her.

"It's nothing," she answered, lost in old memories, "Anything else?"

He didn't believe her, but he continued anyway, "Yeah, this was left behind." He held up an evidence bag that contained a single playing card: the Joker.

"It was him," she said.

"Who?"

"He's recreating her murder, trying to lure him out."

"Who's murder? Lure who out?" Reese asked, confused.

"I have to go," she said as she turned to run back toward the watchtower.

"Helena, wait," he said, "Helena!"

…

At the watchtower, the beeping that indicated the Bat-Ring started up again. "That's strange," Barbara said.

"What?" Bruce asked.

"It's Reese," she said, "Huntress. Come in, Huntress." There was no response. "She must have turned off her com-set. I'll have to call Reese." Using the computer, she found the number for the pay-phone nearest the Detective. She listened to it ring a couple times before someone picked up.

"Reese," the voice said.

"Hey, it's Oracle," she replied, "I thought Huntress was with you."

"Yeah, she was," he said.

Bruce could see the look of confusion and concern on Barbara's face. He was sure it matched his own. "What happened?" she asked.

"There was a murder downtown. Something about it must have sounded familiar to her. It spooked her pretty bad and then she took off."

"Tell me about the murder," Barbara said.

"A blonde woman in her late forties was stabbed in the street and a playing card was left behind."

"A Joker?" she asked.

"Yeah," Reese replied, "How did you know?"

"Reese, the Joker had Helena's mother killed the same way."

Realization sank in. "Oh, man…she said – she said he was trying to lure someone out…does that mean anything to you?"

Barbara looked up to find that Bruce was nowhere to be seen. "Unfortunately, it does."

…..

Bruce Wayne was once again prowling the streets of New Gotham in the cape and cowl he swore to himself he'd never put back on. But he had to admit, it felt good being back. The only thing that had kept him sane in his self-imposed solitude was training; keeping his body in peak, physical perfection. This made the transition back to Gotham's Dark Knight an easy one.

In the far corners of his mind, he knew that this was a trap. The Joker had told him it wasn't over. What did he expect? But the scars from that night were still so raw even after all these years. He couldn't just ignore the Joker's actions. He had to finish this – once and for all.