Disclaimer

I don't own anything. DC Comics, and anything that it publishes, is not in anyway owned by me. It is all owned by rich, talented people. I'm a nobody. Please don't sue me.

A Session Wiser and Fainter

Anthony Burgess was once a very powerful athlete, but time had caught up with him, and he was slowly going to fat. As always when in the presence of his leader he found himself sweating heavily as he resisted the urge to loosen his collar. No matter how uncomfortable he was, he needed to look presentable, especially with the news that he was delivering.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Mandragora," he said. "I'm not sure how, but the sniper failed. The entire team was arrested."

Joseph Mandragora was an old man, his long nose and sunken cheeks giving him the appearance of some species of wrinkled vulture. He slowly raised an oxygen mask to his face, breathing deeply before speaking. "I was assured that they were the best we could hire."

"They were, Mr. Mandragora," Anthony said. "I vetted them personally. Whoever these costumed freaks are, they're serious players."

Everyone in the room, made men who had risen far in the Mandragora crime family by walking over the corpses of anyone who got in their way, waited nervously as their seemingly frail leader took another long draw from his oxygen tank. "What does City Hall say about them?"

"Officially?" Anthony said. "They don't exist. Unofficially? They're gonna take everything these freaks offer. The busts are attracting national attention. Everyone from the beat cops to the Commissioner wants to look good right now, and even the Mayor is happy about how things are working out."

"Unacceptable," Joseph rasped. "If they are skilled enough to take down our best men, then with enough support they could destroy our entire organization."

"Perhaps..." Anthony said, trailing off. "What if we turned the government against them?"

"Yes," Joseph said after a long moment. "Do so. And Anthony... don't fail me again."

"Don't worry sir," Anthony said confidently. "I'll bring along some... insurance. My cousin owes me a favor."

It had been several weeks since Cassandra had gotten her new job, and while she didn't really like working as a maid, it did pay the bills. The two women were able to replace their dwindling savings, and had even begun buying a few luxuries again. Cass couldn't help but smile as she swung across another street as she closed in on her friend. Life was good.

"Tag!" she shouted gleefully as she finally decided to catch Stephanie. She had been getting better, but she was a long way from being a challenge to Cassandra at rooftop tag.

"Okay, okay," Stephanie said laughing. "You win."

"Always," Cass agreed smugly.

Before Stephanie could reply (and Cassandra could tell that her friend thought whatever she was going to say was a good quip from her body language), the two vigilantes heard gunshots not too far away. As one they took off at a run, only stopping when they saw the likely source of the sound, a nice townhouse with the door broken. They glanced at each other and swung down, landing lightly in front of the building.

Cassandra swept inside, her every sense on alert as she took in the front room at a glance. Things were fairly neat, nothing overturned or broken. She paused, cocking her head, but heard nothing in the rest of the house.

"Hey, Silent," Stephanie said. "Look at the door."

Cassandra moved over, looking at it as well. It had obviously been broken by a single, powerful kick, although from the look of the frame, it wouldn't have taken as much force as it should have. Despite the nice appearance of the apartment, it didn't appear to be up to code.

"Cheap frame," she said.

"Yeah, that too, I guess," Stephanie agreed, looking at it for a second. "But look at the locks."

Cassandra bent down and looked at them, before looking up at her friend in confusion. "Not locked. Why kick door?"

"I dunno," Stephanie said. "But this is shaping up weird."

Cassandra considered that before nodding. "Be careful."

She didn't need to be fluent in body language to know how Stephanie felt about that statement, so she turned and headed deeper into the apartment, even more on alert as she went. Before long she found the source of the gunshots.

Lying on the kitchen floor was a dead man. He was rail thin and appeared to have been in his sixties. He was dressed in a now bloodstained robe, with a cup of coffee in front of him. Another cup sat on the counter across the room, and she could see that both were still steaming.

"He must have known his killer," Stephanie said as she walked over to the coffee cup. "He let them in, made coffee, then got shot. Then whoever did it tried to cover it up by kicking in the door."

Cassandra crouched beside the dead man, looking at him carefully. "Forty five caliber. Six shots. All kill shots."

"Wow," Stephanie said. "Whoever he is, they really wanted this guy dead."

Before Cassandra could reply, she heard a faint sound, and began moving before she was consciously aware of it. She tackled Stephanie, then grunted in pain as something slammed into her back. She kept control of her dive, however, sending them both tumbling across the floor and behind the island in the middle of the kitchen.

As they stopped moving the sound of gunfire caught up to them as someone emptied round after round into the room. Stephanie started to move, but Cass flinched slightly, and she stopped, carefully examining her friend. "Oh, god... Silent... You got shot."

"Is fine," she said.

"Silent, you're shot," Stephanie objected reasonably, although there was just a taste of contained hysteria in her tone.

"Kevlar stopped," Cass said. "Costume worked. Made good."

Stephanie lifted Cass' cloak, looking at her back, before gently probed the injured area. "You're right. I think you broke a rib, though."

"Cracked," Cass agreed, her voice revealing none of the pain her friend's gentle examination inspired.

The gunfire paused for a moment, before they heard a quiet voice from the hall. "You think we killed 'em?"

"Better safe than sorry," another man said, before emptying another magazine into the room.

"Who are they?" Stephanie whispered.

"Don't know. Trap?"

Cass pulled a flashbang from her belt, carefully priming it, and the two girls waited until they heard footsteps enter the kitchen. She then tossed it backwards over the island. One of the men had just enough time to shout, "Grenade!" before it went off.

Cassandra spun to her feet, ignoring the pain from her injury as she pulled out and threw a spoilerang. Beside her Stephanie did the same, and the two thrown weapons each struck the gun hand of one of the men that stood blinded at the entrance to the kitchen. They then began to move, even as they took in the features of their attackers.

They were policemen, but they didn't hesitate for a second, simply taking them down and moving to the front door. Outside were two police cars, and standing next to one of them were a pair of policemen, who immediately opened fire, forcing the vigilantes to duck back into the house.

"Wow, not even Gotham cops are this friendly," Stephanie said sarcastically.

"They shot before seeing," Cass said. "Dirty cops."

"Working for Mandragora?"

"Yes," Cass said firmly. "Can see in bodies. Here to kill, not arrest."

"What do we do?" Stephanie asked.

"Only two cars out front," Cass said. "Head to back, hit roofs."

They moved quickly, and were relieved to see no sign of police waiting at the back of the building for them. Using grapples they quickly reached the roof, and then moved back to the front of the building to watch the situation. They could see the officers talking on their radios, and Stephanie quickly pulled out a police scanner for them to listen to.

"-they're armed and dangerous," the man below said. "They shot Judge Haversham, and we have officers down."

"I roger that," the dispatcher said. "You have a chopper en route. ETA thirty seconds."

Stephanie and Cassandra exchanged a horrified glance, even as they began to hear the sound of the police helicopter. Without another word they began to run.

They made it a block and a half before the helicopter arrived, and after hovering over the building for a minute it turned and began flying towards them. "They must have infrared!" Stephanie shouted as they jumped from rooftop to rooftop.

"Hit streets," Cass agreed. "Get cover."

They used their lines to quickly swing down to street level, and then began cutting through alleys. They followed a circuitous route, keeping as many buildings between them and the helicopter as possible as they headed towards the heart of the downtown area. Before long the helicopter, forced to fly higher and more carefully because of the tall buildings, lost them in the more occupied streets.

Once they were sure they were safe they hit the rooftops again, this time using their stealth to avoid being noticed as they worked their way back to their apartment. Once inside they peeled their masks off and looked at each other.

"What the heck was that all about?" Stephanie asked.

"Setup," Cass said. "Sloppy."

"Yeah, well, sloppy'll work if enough police buy it."

"Not all that stupid," Cass said with certainty as the two women headed to their beds. "Back to normal soon."

Unfortunately, it soon became apparent that Cassandra had not been completely correct. While the news channels didn't report anything interesting, other than the unsolved murder of Judge Haversham, the police scanners were an entirely different matter. While they never outright stated who they were looking for on the air, the reports that came in with regularity made it very apparent that the police were searching for them.

That night they moved much more stealthily through the city, keeping their eyes open for crimes in progress as well as any police presence. After a while Stephanie had an idea, and Cass simply waited until her friend was ready to explain it. It took almost thirty minutes, but finally Stephanie spoke.

"I think we should see if they're really after us," she said.

"How?" Cass asked.

"You swing in front of them, and I'll listen to the police scanner," she said. "That way we can see what they report. If they aren't looking for us, no biggee. If they are, at least we'll know."

Cass frowned thoughtfully as she considered it before finally nodding. "Okay."

It didn't take them long to find a police car that was about to stop at a red light, and when it did Cassandra fired her grapple and swung across the street right in front of it. The car immediately turned on its sirens, but Cass was gone as quickly as she had appeared. She circled carefully around the area, and soon met up with Stephanie.

"I can't believe they want to arrest us!" Stephanie complained as soon as Cass dropped next to her. "This sucks!"

"Vigilantes," Cass said knowingly. "Not legal."

"Still, we're helping them. The least they could do is not try to arrest us."

"Just need be better," Cassandra said with a shrug. "Avoid police. Do jobs."

"I don't like it," Stephanie said. "What if something happens? I think we should fix it."

"How?"

Stephanie frowned. "Well, we didn't do it. I bet Batman would solve the case, let Gordon know the truth."

"How?"

"Well..." Stephanie trailed off. "The whole thing with the police was wrong from the start. I mean, they really shouldn't have shot at us. Whatever happened to 'you're under arrest'?"

"Crooked cops," Cass agreed. "Find bribes?"

"It's a start," Stephanie said. "Let's get the records of who called for our arrest. We can investigate them, and when we get the evidence, we can give it to the Commissioner."

The two had avoided the police headquarters during their patrols, as the building tended to be in an area with a low crime rate, and even before they had become wanted they had preferred to avoid the police. The building was eight stories tall, with people moving in and out of it all day every day. The two observed the situation for nearly an hour before coming up with a plan of attack.

The surrounding buildings were quite tall as well, and despite how well lit the area was even at night, it was simple for them to swing across the street and land lightly on the roof of the police headquarters without being observed. The two vigilantes then lowered lines along a dark section of the building's side and slipped down until they reached a darkened window on the sixth floor. It had an alarm, but in seconds Cassandra had it disabled and unlocked, and the two women slipped inside without anyone noticing them.

"I miss Oracle," Stephanie whispered. "She'd know the layout before we even got inside."

"Just need work harder," Cass said stoically. The two women slipped out of the small office that they had been in and moved carefully through the hallways, Cassandra helping her friend avoid all of the cameras, and both easily slipping into empty offices or behind large furniture whenever someone approached. After five nerve wracking minutes they found a map of the building near the elevators.

Stephanie read it quickly, before pointing at part of the map. "Hall of records," she said in quiet voice. "First basement."

Cassandra nodded and walked to the elevator, prying the doors open and glancing inside. It was a standard layout, and she saw no cameras or alarms. Taking a long step, she reached the service ladder and began to climb down, with Stephanie following soon after.

They descended almost ten stories with the elevator sweeping so close to them that it caused their cloaks to wave wildly with every pass. Eventually they reached their destination, and once again Cass pried the doors open, this time just a crack so that she could peer out into the hallway. Once she was sure that the way was clear, she opened it wider and the two slipped out.

The basement levels had fewer people in them, and they made good time as they headed to the large records room. Once inside, Cassandra ghosted behind the camera and carefully loosened a wire. If someone was watching it from security it would appear to have simply lost signal, and would probably be lower priority to fix than if she otherwise blocked the view.

Stephanie headed quickly into the stacks of records, and soon found the personnel section. While Cassandra had improved quite a bit from her steady practice, she still didn't read well enough to be of any help, and so she contented herself with serving as a lookout.

It took almost an hour, and they had had to hide nearly a dozen times, a task easily accomplished in a room full of cramped shelves to slip behind, but eventually Stephanie found what they had been looking for. "Are these them?" she asked, showing the pictures of the policemen to Cass.

Cassandra studied them for a few moments, before nodding. "Those four."

Stephanie looked at them carefully, flipping through the records, before frowning. "This is weird."

"What?" Cassandra asked.

"They've all been investigated by Internal Affairs," Stephanie said. "A lot. Too much. It doesn't say anything, but they have to already think these guys are dirty."

"Then... what now?" Cass asked.

Stephanie bit her lip thoughtfully. "Well... we could do this the quick way."

"Quick?"

"Yeah. Instead of trying to prove something the police seem to already suspect, let's just go face the Commissioner. Find out from her why they turned on us so fast."

"Might not listen," Cass cautioned.

"Maybe not," Stephanie agreed. "But I think we should try."

Cassandra was quiet for a long moment, before finally nodding. "Okay."

"Alright," Stephanie said with a grin. "Let's get this done!"

"Wait," Cass said. "Need be careful. If things go wrong... run. I make escape time."

"Are you sure?" Stephanie asked. "You're hurt."

"Is fine," Cass said stubbornly. "Won't get caught."

The two girls then headed back the way that they had come, stopping just long enough in front of another building map to find the Commissioner's office on the fourth floor before climbing the service ladder in the elevator shaft again. They paused at the fifth floor while Cassandra peeked out, and had to wait almost ten minutes for the way to clear. When the last loitering cop left the two vigilantes moved swiftly through the hallways until they found the office just above the Commissioner's, which was, fortunately, empty.

Opening the outside window, Cassandra slowly lowered herself onto the narrow ledge below. Crouching against the glass, she frowned as she saw the Commissioner sitting behind her desk working on paperwork. With just a glance Cass could tell that the woman was very agitated.

The window to Commissioner Avery's office proved no more difficult to open than the others had, and in a few seconds she had silently raised the glass. She then slipped inside, before helping Stephanie slip in just as silently. Once they were both in the office, Cass crouched on the windowsill, holding her grapple in one hand, ready to make a quick escape at a moment's notice.

Stephanie waited silently for almost five minutes, just out of sight. Just when Cassandra could tell that her friend was contemplating doing something rash, the Commissioner glanced up, jumping in shock at her unexpected guests. The surprise melted away into anxiety and healthy dose of relief, although none of it showed on her face.

"Hey, Commish," Stephanie said brightly. "Just thought we'd drop by, have a quick chat, ask you nicely not to shoot us, that sorta thing."

Commissioner Avery pursed her lips as she studied them for a moment, before speaking in a firm voice. "You're late."