Maggie stared up at the sky, the symbol of the Bat lighting up the clouds.

There was something about that, that symbol. She was from Metropolis herself, so she wasn't unfamiliar with larger than life heroes and their symbols. They didn't have a Superman Signal or anything like that; in fact, all you had to do was just start talking and the Man of Steel would show up.

But this signal light, there was just something different about it. You heard about it, you saw it in the night's sky, a warning to anyone that thinks they can get away with crime that something would be coming for them. Call it vengeance; call it justice; call it whatever you want, but it would come for you out of the shadows.

Now here she was, lighting it up herself. It wasn't a lifelong dream or anything for her to do, but as a police officer, she knew the meaning behind it. Gordon would come up here whenever the department was stuck on a case, or if they were going to need more firepower for a sting operation. Hell, if he wanted a surgical team to get in and get out, this was their man.

The only question was how long was this going to take.

So far, it had been forty five minutes.

Since Gordon had been the only one to handle things with the Batman, Maggie wasn't certain how this was going to go. Would he just arrive? Would he be observing her? This was the first time she was calling him, so naturally he might be skeptical. Now, she had seen him before. Hell, she had watched him climb out of his own grave with Gordon helping him the whole way.

Checking her watch again, she saw it was going on minute forty seven and still no word. How long was this going to take? She kinda wished she had timed Gordon whenever he came—

There was a sharp rapping sound; it came from behind her. Twisting her head around, her hand moved to her holster…

Well, she hadn't expected…this.

Once more, she had seen the Batman. He was tall, imposing, and looked as if he were made of granite. What she saw was a much smaller, thinner, and definite female. In fact, the person was having to tilt their head to look up to her.

Yet, they were wearing a Bat Symbol.

"Uhh, hi?" Maggie greeted bewilderedly. This was Batgirl, she was sure of that much. She was in head-to-toe black, a yellow outline of a bat on her chest, and the mouth part of her mask had been sewn shut. It was rather intimidating if you saw such a figure emerging from the shadows.

Instead, she was standing next to the Bat Signal, her hand hovering next to it, indicating she had been the one to knock on the large spotlight. "You call?" she replied simply.

"Yeah, I did." Maggie fully spun around so that she was facing the girl. "I can't say that I was expecting to see you."

"You wanted him," she surmised.

"Usually he's the one to show up, right?"

"Yes. He won't be coming."

So he sent his sidekick in his place. He must have been busy, hopefully. Still, her first time using the Bat Signal as the Police Commissioner and she got a middleman instead. She wasn't sure if she should feel snubbed by that or not. "Mind if I ask why?" she asked.

Batgirl stared at her. Those black eyes of hers were rather unnerving. "He's not in town," she finally answered.

He wasn't? Since when? "Then where is he?" she couldn't help but growl.

"With the Justice League. He is working a mission for them."

Oh. Well. That certainly explained things. After everything that happened during the summer, she was surprised he was still involved. She hadn't gotten the whole story, but she had heard rumors of the Justice League having in-fighting in their ranks. Then came those alien invasions—there were still questions if it were two or three of them at this point. Apparently he was still active with them, and if he was out on a mission, then it clearly required his attention.

She really couldn't fault him for that. What was a string of kidnapped city officials compared to whatever world-altering crisis the Justice League was trying to prevent?

"I'm watching the city until he gets back," Batgirl continued after a few seconds passed. "What do you need?"

Well, if Batman trusted this girl with Gotham, then Maggie couldn't see any reason why not. Surely she had access to the same resources Batman had, right? She reportedly was seen with Batman, so that stood to reason. "You've heard of the kidnapping of that reporter, Fred Jackson, right? It happened right outside of the Solomon Wayne Courthouse this morning."

Batgirl nodded. "I have."

"Well, I'm not convinced it was a one-off thing. There have been a number of kidnappings as of late. Before Jackson, it was Jeff Daniels, a member of the parole board. Before that, it was Erick Pence, a liaison for City Hall to Blackgate Prison. Before that, it was a defense lawyer, Donna Grier. As you've probably noticed, every name I've mentioned so far has something to do with the judiciary."

Batgirl stared at her. "How does Jackson fit into this?"

"He did some reporting on court cases and the like. Currently, we're trying to find a link between them, but so far haven't found anything outside of Grier. A client of hers went missing as well, Samuel Pierce."

Well, maybe she was fibbing a little there. Bullock didn't seem to think there was a connection between the victims, so he wasn't checking that angle. Maggie was hoping Batman would check in on it, but now she was transferring that to this girl. She wasn't going to lie, she was starting to have second thoughts about it.

"Is there anything else?" the young vigilante asked.

"That's all I have as of right now."

"Not even where they were kidnapped?"

Oh, so she wanted details. She had misunderstood the question. Hands in her jacket pockets, she pulled one out, holding a flash drive. "This has everything on the cases so far."

She had only looked away for a moment, just to glance down at her pocket as her hand pulled out, but by the time she was looking up, Batgirl was right in front of her, reaching out to accept the flash drive. The Commissioner had to admit, she was startled by it. "I'll look into it," she said before she turned to leave.

"Uhh, alright. When will I—"

Then, right before her eyes, Batgirl disappeared into the shadows behind the Bat Signal. She just faded into them and just like that was gone. Maggie just stared at the spot for several moments.

So, that was how a meeting with a Bat went.

Batgirl had to admit, talking with the Police Commissioner had been…an experience.

Usually she waited while Batman did the talking. Then he told her what was going down and they went to work on whatever the problem was.

The problem, in this case, was those kidnappings. This Maggie Sawyer seemed to be seeing a pattern where others hadn't. Batgirl could see where she was coming from. Though, throughout the entire conversation, she found she wasn't all that invested.

One guess as to why.

She traveled over a few rooftops before she came to where Bluebird and Spoiler were waiting. They had kept a lookout while she went to talk to Commissioner Sawyer and once she left, they went to this rendezvous point. Batman was the one with connections to the police, not them, so they had to make certain this wasn't a trap.

While the GCPD rooftop turned out not to be one, Batgirl couldn't help but shake the feeling she was being watched—and followed.

"So, what's the scoop?" Bluebird called out to her as she landed on the roof. Silently she walked to the Batclan members, who were taking refuge next to a roof access.

"They want us to look into a number of kidnappings," she replied as she came to a stop in front of them. She held up a flash drive, the same one Sawyer had given her. "There isn't a lot to connect them, but the Commissioner thinks there's a connection between them."

"Cool, a mystery," the blue-haired vigilante commented. "How do you want to go about this?"

"Assuming you want to work on it," Spoiler pointed out.

That was an interesting remark from the lavender-clad girl. There was a larger point Batgirl felt she was making, but then she felt that feeling again, like she was being watched. She didn't stiffen; in fact, she hid any visible sign that she was detecting this feeling. She felt like she was being watched, like there were eyes in the night.

And they were close by.

"What do you mean?" she calmly asked Spoiler, even as she moved a hand to her belt. Her cape was enveloping her body, so no one was wise to what she was doing. All the while, she was trying to narrow down where she felt those eyes strongest.

"Well, we do have that other case," Spoiler responded. "And that one seems higher priority, if that makes sense. Can we work both cases at once?"

"Batman could and he usually did it by himself," Bluebird said. "There's three of us. I think we can manage that."

By then, Batgirl had her batarang in hand. You're close. I can feel you. Thanks to the black lenses in her mask, no one could see her eyes darting from her left to her right and back. She almost had them pinpointed.

Her concentration, however, tipped off her fellow Batclan members as Spoiler then asked, "Hey, are you—"

There! Ignoring the question, Batgirl spun around, her cape flying over her shoulders as she swung her arm out, throwing the batarang. The projectile whirled through the air, making an arc before it flew behind a large air conditioning unit. There was a cry of pain, which told Batgirl she had found the eyes in the night.

Immediately, she took off running, racing for the large metal unit. She leapt into the air, one foot planting onto the side of the a/c unit, which she pushed up against, allowing her to vault over and land on top of it. She bounced right off of it, falling over the edge on the opposite side, landing right on top of a small body.

Her hand grabbed onto the thin material of a shirt, which she used to pin the person down. She drew her left fist, ready to punch them; however, that changed into a defensive block as she used the triangle blades of her gauntlet to stop a flash of steel. A katana collided with the blades, sliding into the grooves between two of the blades.

Batgirl glared down at her captive. "What are you doing here?" she snarled.

Moments later, Bluebird and Spoiler appeared around either side of the a/c unit. Because they were parallel to the unit, Batgirl saw Bluebird towards the top of her vision, holding her taser rifle up. Spoiler was somewhere behind her, hopefully armed as well.

"Get off of me, Usurper," Damian growled from beneath her. He had one arm extended, holding the hilt of the katana Batgirl was holding off. His other hand was gripping onto her wrist, an attempt to prevent her from using that arm. On the back of the hand grabbing her wrist was a cut, most likely where her batarang struck him. Blood was leaking out of the thin wound.

"Oh, it's just the Short Stack," Bluebird remarked as she lowered her taser rifle. "The way you went charging, I thought we had actual trouble on our hands."

"If you knew what's good for you, then you'd know you are in big trouble," Damian sneered back.

"That right?" Bluebird then took aim with her weapon, the barrel pointed right at Damian's head. "Then I guess I should blast the big trouble in the face with a thousand volts of electricity."

To Damian's credit, he didn't flinch from the threat. Batgirl was willing to give him that. "Why were you following me?" she then demanded, drawing his attention back to her.

"I wanted to speak with you," he said haughtily. Interesting words he said, but too bad the look on his face made him appear as if he had taken a bite out of a sour lemon. "If you would get off of me—"

"What do you want to talk about?" she growled, cutting him off. "And maybe I'll consider it."

"Our father, naturally."

There was a pause. "Our?" Spoiler repeated incredulously. "Our father?"

Batgirl ignored the comment as she stared down at Damian. To his credit, he had removed the expression on his face that spoke of self-importance and contempt. He actually looked genuine. Something told her not to believe it, but then he had made it abundantly clear he wanted Batman for himself and for her to exit the picture. If there was one person they could speak about, it would be him.

So she let go of his blue-and-white bodysuit. He then let go of her wrist and lowered his sword. She then stood up and took a step back, allowing the young boy to climb calmly back onto his feet. He then moved away from the a/c unit, turning his body so that he could face all three of the Batclan members.

"No, seriously, our father?" Spoiler pressed.

Batgirl sighed even as Damian rolled his eyes. "This isn't that hard," the boy responded. "The Usurper claims to be the daughter of my father."

"And Jerkface is his biological child," Batgirl finished for him. "I guess you can say that makes us related."

"You wish we were, and even if you were, I'd still kill you."

"The day you kill me is the day I actually fall off of that dinosaur head."

"Okay, we're clearly missing a few pieces here," Bluebird interjected. "Like whatever that dinosaur head thing is about. So just so that we're all on the same page, your both Batman's kids and you clearly don't like each other."

"I am his only heir," Damian shot back. He then pointed a finger at Batgirl. "She is just a pretender that convinced my father to adopt her."

"That was his idea, not mine," she countered.

"After you seduced him, no doubt."

"Oh God, someone kill me now," Spoiler groaned, pressing a hand to her face. "I thought I was done with this pissing contest."

Damian glanced at Spoiler, darted his eyes to Bluebird, then returned his attention back to her. "What are you doing with these cretins? I thought you had better sense."

"Now I'm a cretin?" Bluebird grumbled. "I should shoot you for that."

"I can play nice with others," Spoiler replied. "Which is something you should be doing since you clearly want something from us."

Much to Batgirl's surprise, Damian actually seemed to begrudgingly acknowledge this. "Fine. I know you are looking into the Fairchild murder as per our encounter at the crime scene. I am also doing the same and…I thought…" That same sour look appeared on his face, telling Batgirl just how much the boy didn't want to say this, "I should see what you had found out."

"And why should we tell you anything?" Batgirl grunted back. As far as she was concerned, they had only agreed to not get in each other's way. She wasn't in the mood to share her side of the investigation with Damian of all people. Perhaps if Talia was here...maybe. She seemed to be the more level-headed of the two.

"Because we both want the same thing." For once, he said something truthful and actually looked earnest about it. "We both know someone else did the crime and are framing Bruce Wayne for it."

Well, Batgirl was assuming that was the case, but to hear it spoken made it take a whole new meaning. That someone else agreed with her was actually relieving, even if it was the little snot in front of her.

"We have a couple leads we're following," she relented after a moment. "You?"

"I may have one or two as well," he replied coyly.

"Then why are you wasting time here instead of following them?"

"Because I wanted to see what you had found. You could already have the answers I'm looking for and instead of wasting time, I could get them from you."

"I'm not doing your dirty work for you." Batgirl narrowed her eyes at him. "You've made it clear you don't want me around. You can't just change your mind now that I may be useful to you."

"I think someone hit the nail on the head," Bluebird remarked to herself.

"Yes, we have not had the best of…relations," Damian reluctantly admitted. "And it pains me so much to have to speak to you, but for our father's best interest, it makes more sense for us to work together than to compete with each other."

"And how can you help? I have all of his resources and knowledge on the city," she countered.

"And I have my mother's Order at my beck and call," he shot back. "So between the two of us, we should be able to discover the true identity of this murderer."

Well, he actually had a point there. If there were any gaps in her father's resources, the al Ghul's Order of Assassins could fill them. They were an intelligence-gathering group, along with their other purposes. Considering this, even if it meant making a deal with a little devil, Batgirl knew what she would say.

"Just to make things clear," she began. "I trust that you do want what is best for our father. Other than that, I don't trust you at all. If you're going to help us, then you better be honest, otherwise I will kick your ass so badly, not even a Lazarus Pit will fix the damage."

"As if you could," he retorted snidely. "Since we're clearing the air, I won't do anything to sabotage our investigation. After this, I will do everything to beat you once and for all. Consider this an official truce."

There was silence between them. Batgirl was scowling at the use of "official," as if the tenuous truce they had formed in Bruce Wayne's office hadn't countered. This was already getting off to a rocky start. "So we're…teaming up?" Spoiler asked after a moment.

"So it would seem," Damian replied evenly.

"I'm…not sure how we got here, but alright?" Bluebird joined the conversation. "So what are we supposed to call you? I don't think you want us to use your real name, whatever it is."

Damian glanced at Spoiler before he replied, "You may call me the Son of Batman."

Again, there was another silence, Batgirl internally bristling at the name. How dare that egomaniac—

Bluebird snorted. "You can't be serious."

"Of course I am," Damian scoffed—Batgirl refused to call him by that alias.

"You seriously don't see what's wrong with that name."

"There is nothing wrong with it. It warns all that I am a threat, the successor to Batman, and for criminals to tremble upon seeing me."

"Yeah, sure, go with that." Bluebird snorted again. "It's just…a mouthful. Not to mention what it becomes when you shorten it."

Damian actually looked confused. "How do you mean?"

"Son of Batman can be shortened to S.O.B. S.O.B. is also short for son of a bitch."

A different silence fell upon the group. Damian just stared at Bluebird. Batgirl couldn't help but be glad the blue-clad girl was a part of the team, if only for that last comment.

Finally, the little boy broke the silence. "You ruined it," he accused her. "You ruined it and I'm leaving."

"Yeah, and think of a better name, S.O.B.!"

Damian scowled at her before he spun around and stormed off. A smirk was on Bluebird's face, one that stayed there until Damian was out of sight. Spoiler had a hand pressed against her forehead, the girl muttering, "I can't believe I didn't see that."

"Oh, he's going to be so much fun," Bluebird said. "It's just too easy to annoy him."

"You have my permission to annoy him as much as possible," Batgirl told her.

"Consider it done, Captain."

Spoiler sighed. "I can't believe I'm going to have to be the adult here, but can we get back to work? We still haven't decided if we want to work that kidnapping case."

Well, the lavender-clad girl was right. As much as Batgirl didn't want to give credit, she had to give some to Damian for showing her her priorities. If there was a case she was going to focus on, it was her father's. She didn't care one whit about some kidnappings.

Fortunately, she had options.

Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot!

Barbara gritted her teeth as she rolled her chair. It wasn't an easy thing, not with a bowl of soup resting on her lap and no amount of towels able to ward off the heat from it. Oh, it was tolerable, but the longer it sat there…

Let's just say she would be very happy when she had it sitting on something else.

She had learned from experience not to rush. Rushing with something that could swish out of its container made things worse. So she rolled at what she knew she could do without spilling. She made her way into her little nest, her workstation, the one thing that allowed her to be just as useful and capable as anyone in the vigilante community.

This was where she could make a difference.

Reaching her computer, she came to a stop before the computer. Picking up the bowl in her lap, she moved it onto a folding table, where a couple glasses of water sat, along with a plate with a grilled cheese. She had sat it there before going back for the soup.

Eyeing the computer and not seeing anything that required her immediate attention, Barbara picked up the sandwich. "Come to Mama," she said to no one in particular.

Of course, before she could even take a bite, an alarm went off.

She sighed before setting the grilled cheese down. She knew that alarm; someone was trying to get in contact with her. Striking a key on her keyboard, she said, "Oracle."

"You left your stove on."

Barbara stared at the computer monitor. That voice, it was soft, yet familiar. She couldn't quite place it. It didn't sound threatening at least, though the observation was worrisome. "And you know this how?"

"Because I turned it off."

Barbara whipped her head around. There, standing in the doorway to her nest was Batgirl, a hand held up to her ear. She dropped it to her side, letting it dangle.

"Seriously, can you not act like your mentor and scare the crap out of me?!" Barbara shouted, one hand grabbing onto one wheel to hold it in place, the other pulling on the opposite wheel so that she could turn around and face the black-clad girl. "I think I crapped my pants."

"I don't smell anything."

"Good, great. Why are you here?"

Batgirl took a step towards her, reaching to her belt. She pulled out a flash drive from one of the pouches and held it out to her. Barbara raised an eyebrow at it, but accepted the flash drive. "What's this?"

"Everything the GCPD has on the courthouse kidnapping," the mysterious girl replied. Seriously, she was laying on the mysterious part thickly. "The Commissioner thinks it's one of a few other kidnappings."

For a moment, Barbara wondered why her father thought that, but then realized it wasn't Jim Gordon she was referring to. "So what do you want me to do?"

"Use it, find some link or pattern. Do an investigation."

Okaaaaay. This was certainly strange. Barbara hadn't done anything like that for Batman before, nor Batgirl. Oh, they would ask her to run down a name, or something of that nature, but never conduct an investigation on their behalf. Part of it she figured was pride; after all, Batman held the title of World's Greatest Detective and Batgirl had learned from him. So having an entire case dropped into her lap was unheard of.

"I can do that," the redhead said slowly after a moment. "When do you want me to get back to you with this?"

"I don't."

Now she was blinking her eyes in bafflement. "Come again?"

"I have my hands full with another case," Batgirl told her. "Batman is out of town. If there is something to the Commissioner's hunch, then it needs to be followed through."

Was…was this girl dumping a case onto her? What the actual hell? "What case is bigger than the kidnapping? Aside from all the hoopla going on with Bruce Wayne?" Obviously that was the big story in town and was garnering all of the attention. There was some mention of the courthouse kidnapping on the news, but then it went right back to analysis on the Wayne case.

"I'll keep you posted," Batgirl responded before turning around, her cape billowing out behind her. Someone had taken notes from that mentor of hers. "Give the case to the Birds of Prey if you need to. I don't have time for it."

"What about your Batclan?" Barbara retorted. Yeah, that didn't sound bitter at all.

"They're assisting me." Batgirl paused at the doorway, looking over her shoulder at the redhead. "You should eat. Your soup is getting cold."

Okay, it was one thing for her father to tell her to eat better, but she didn't need some teenage girl telling her to eat. Still, Barbara couldn't help but glance to the soup, still seeing steam rising off of it.

When she looked back to Batgirl, she was gone, as if she had never been there at all.

Again, someone had been taking notes.

Barbara let out a sigh, her stomach rumbling as the sigh turned into a grunt. Holding up the flash drive, she wondered what was on it before she rolled herself around and shoved it into a USB port.

After spending so many nights awake and alert, Bruce discovered he had a problem.

He couldn't sleep.

He needed his rest. He wasn't in friendly territory, not to mention he was responsible for many incarcerations in the very prison he resided in. Yet, he stared up at the ceiling, unable to fall asleep. There was no telling how long this had gone on; he was too far awake to be close to drifting off.

So when he figured he was going to be up longer than desired, he sat up on his mattress, crossed his legs underneath him, and began to meditate. One way or another, he was going to rest, even if it meant he just relaxed. Perhaps he could fall asleep this way, though he would have to explain it to whatever guard came to wake him up as to why he slept sitting up.

As he sat there, seeking calm and serenity, he heard a sound. Now, there were always sounds in a prison. Some prisoners were talking to each other, their voices low, but loud enough to carry. Someone was crying if the muffled whimpers were any indication. Yet, this latest sound did not feel like it belonged there.

Opening his eyes, Bruce slid his legs out from underneath him and over the edge of his bed. Standing up, he walked over to the window of his cell, spinning around and pressing his back up against the wall. There was someone outside of his window, no doubt just outside of its view so as not to be detected.

This person wore a cape if the flapping sound he heard was anything to go by.

"I hope I find you well," a voice spoke into his head.

"What are you doing here, J'onn?" Bruce replied back. He crossed his arms over his chest, his head tilted downwards.

"I heard on the news of your troubles. I came to offer my support."

It was nice of the Martian, but entirely unwanted. Though, if he had heard of the accusations, so had the rest of the League. Which meant… "I'm assuming the others wanted to do the same."

"They did," J'onn acknowledged. "I managed to talk them out of showing up; Diana and Flash were the most insistent on showing up. I did not believe you would have appreciated many visitors just now."

He was right about that. "I'm not exactly proud of my circumstances," Bruce admitted. "Thanks for that."

"You're welcome. Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Tell the others to keep their distance from me. If they can't show up like you are now, no doubt they're going to try and do it the old-fashioned way. No one needs to see Diana visiting an imprisoned rich boy, especially with all of the work she is doing."

"I figured you would say that. Anything else?"

Bruce considered this. "Keep an eye on Cassandra. I can't imagine she's handling this well. Whatever support she needs, give it to her."

"Consider it done."

A silence fell over the two, even though their conversation had been through thought and not vocalized. There was something calming about having the Martian there; Bruce suspected J'onn was doing something telepathically to keep him calm, not that he was complaining. "For the record," the green man suddenly spoke, "I do not believe the charges levied against you. I would be more than willing to assist in investigating this crime you're accused of."

"What I said about the League goes for you too, J'onn," Bruce immediately responded. "I'm innocent; I know this without a doubt. The unfortunate thing is that all of the proof is pointed at me. Right now, you need to see me as a drowning man. Anyone that tries to help me will only get pulled down with me. There's not much you can really do to help."

"You are hardly a drowning man," J'onn replied disapprovingly. "You have resources in us that you should take advantage of. Do not refuse us out of some sense of pride."

Bruce wanted to say, "Yes, Dad," but held his tongue…err, thought. He was too old for such behavior, even if it was tempting. "Consider me informed," he instead said. "For the foreseeable future, I'm stuck here. This isn't a good moment for me, J'onn, but I'll handle it the best I can. For now, I need to rest. Tomorrow is going to be a long one."

"Of course. If you ever need anything, just think of me and I will come."

Heh, a thought-based Martian Signal? How kind. "Be safe, J'onn."

"As for you, my friend. As for you."