Gotham City…
Distracted. Distracted is the best way to describe how Detective Maggie Sawyer was. She had been staring at the report on her desk for the past 45 minutes, a report that should have taken no longer than 20 minutes to fill in the necessary information and even check it over twice. Instead, there she was staring at her phone again. It had been uncharacteristically silent over the past hour which had been the start of Maggie's distraction.
One week had passed since Supergirl's broadcasted funeral service and only a tad longer since the earthquake and Linda's disappearance. Maggie let out a long exhale through her nose and rested her head on her hands. Katherine had refused to answer any of her calls and even Bette had eventually been barred from visiting Kate except on the occasions she was able to help out at the book store. That was the one think Maggie was thankful for, at least Kate was still being active in the community.
Well, she physically was but when Maggie had last called she found herself in an hour long conversation with Bette. "I've never seen her like this before, Mags. It's like she's a shell of herself. Do you know she's renting out her apartment and moved into the one above the shop?"
"So? Sounds like a fiscally smart move on her part. That's not entirely unlike Kate."
"Well, yes that's true but still, you have to be somewhat suspicious of the timing."
"Not really. Look, Bette. Maybe this is Kate finally getting her life together."
"Maybe." On the outside, Katherine Kane was becoming more active in Gotham's everyday society; a productive member some may even say. But if you look just a little closer, you would see something missing, or more accurately, someone. Or maybe she and Bette were overreacting and Kate had finished her mourning period and really was moving forward with her life.
"Sawyer!" Maggie came out of her thoughts to see Detective Harvey Bullock standing at the door of Commissioner Gordon's office. "Get out of la-la-land. Commissioner needs to see us."
"Thank goodness," she mumbled under her breath before pushing in her chair and heading into the office with Bullock.
X
Batwoman stood at the top of Gotham Cathedral. It was the tallest building in that part of the city and the one with the best vantage point. She let out a short breath and watched as the moisture condensed in the air. The winter air was getting colder and colder, though there had been a few warm days that past week. Chanukah was halfway over and Christmas would be the following week; she had to get something for Maggie and Stephanie before then.
"Batwoman, this is Oracle, there's a robbery in progress two blocks east of Charity Lane."
"On it." Batwoman shot off her grappling gun and swung into action. The robbery was taking place at a jewelry store and either the crooks were trying to grab all they could before the cops showed or they didn't know about the silent alarm.
Batwoman landed in the back alley and moved quickly around the corner. "Need any help?" She spun around to find The Question leaning against a brick wall. If Batwoman had to guess, there was the possibility a smirk lay hidden underneath the faceless mask. The Question pushed off the wall and sauntered up to Batwoman. The long blue coat, blue fedora, and all-around masculine clothes hid her feminine form. The long brown hair pulled into a ponytail at the base of her neck, however, could clue anyone in that a woman was underneath the disguise. But only a select few knew that former detective of Gotham City PD Renee Montoya was the wearer of said disguise.
Batwoman didn't have time to argue so she said, "Just try not to get in my way." The Question gave her and half-hearted salute and followed Batwoman into the rear entrance that had been broken into by the burglars. The lock had been drilled through and disabled. "These boys aren't playing around."
"Modern lock too." The two enter in and approached the second door that got broken into, the lock also drilled through. They stopped by the open door and listened in. The soft crunching of glass could be heard as the men on the other side broke into the display cases and took the jewels. Batwoman held up her hand and then with a flick of her wrist she and The Question rushed in.
There were four men, two on their right, one on the left, and one in the rear. Batwoman moved to the right and began to take on the two men at once. The Question went left and did a few quick moves to disable her guy who was the size of a female gymnast. Batwoman didn't luck out so much, her men were both bigger than her and moved with calculated punches. She was forced to flip one of them over one of the broken display cases. A quick punch from The Question took him out just before the fourth guy jumped her again.
"I recognize you," said the man Batwoman was facing. "You're Batwoman." He spat out some blood and grinned at her.
"How astute."
"You partnered up with that Supergirl, right? Shame what happened to her." Batwoman clenched her fists. "Too bad she died before I got ahold of her, would have given her a good-" A right hook to the guy's jaw sent him to the ground hard. He tried to get up but a solid kick to the ribs sent him down again. "Struck a chor-" Another punch to the face shut him up. Batwoman rolled him over and sat on him to keep him from moving as she wailed on him.
"Batwoman, that's enough," said Oracle from the other side of the line, but Batwoman didn't listen. She kept punching the man harder and harder and harder. "I said that's enough!" The Question finished detaining the fourth guy and watched silently. "Katherine!" Batwoman stopped suddenly. Her eyes blinked into focus as she stared at the bloody man beneath her who would probably need a lot of stitches and maybe some reconstructive surgery for his face.
"Batwoman." The softened voice of The Question came from behind her before a gloved hand gently squeezed her right shoulder. "We need to go. The police are on their way." Batwoman nodded stiffly, got up, and then followed The Question out just before the police arrived. They had a lot to talk about.
X
Oracle, also known as Barbara Gordon, took off her glasses and leaned back in her wheelchair. She rubbed her eyes and sunk deeper into the chair.
"She lost control tonight."
"I know," replied Barbara. "We'll pull her off patrol for the next week."
"No."
"No?" Barbara wheeled around and looked up at Batman. "She almost killed that man."
"I know. Pull her off for a few days and then send her back out with Batgirl or Robin." Batman turned with a slight flourish of his cape for his car.
"Where are you heading?"
"I have business to attend to in Washington, DC. I'll be back in a few days."
Washington, DC…
Wonder Woman and Superman observed what was happening in front of them with careful eyes. This new development in the lab was huge but how to handle it was another thing entirely. Martian Manhunter was testing out the reactions of Kara In-Ze, Kara Zor-El's cousin on her mother's side. The young Kryptonian of Argo City had somehow survived the exploded Krypton. As far as Superman knew, she was the only survivor. Over the past five and a half months she had been in a containment or recovery tank to help her body heal and to remove any possible Kryptonite poisoning. She had been slowly waking up over the past month from her coma and now was fully awake and functional.
"Are her powers online yet?" asked Superman.
"No," answered Poison Ivy who had been pivotal in healing the young girl. "Manhunter recommended we keep her exposed to Blue Kryptonite at high levels and slowly ween her off so she can grow accustomed to her powers."
"What will we do with her until then?" This time Wonder Woman asked the question. Superman could hear the subtle hitch in her voice and how her heart beat when looking at Kara In-Ze. She was the spitting image of a young Kara Zor-El. It made sense since Alura and her sister were twins.*
"She will stay here until J'onn says okay for her to leave and then she'll come with me to the Fortress. I'll train her there."
"She should come to Themyscira and meet the Amazons. They will want to meet their new-"
"No!" The shout froze everyone in their tasks and caused them to focus on Superman. When he saw the look in Kara In-Ze's eyes, he turned away and motioned for Wonder Woman to follow. "No. I will not let this Kara travel the same past as the last one. She will stay with me and learn what it means to be a Kryptonian on Earth."
"I understand, Kal." It was not very often Wonder Woman employed Superman's name in a casual way, but perhaps she saw what was going on in Superman's heart better than he did. "I would still prefer it if she trained with more than just you."
"Unlike when Supergirl…Kara Zor-El first arrived, it was just me. This time there's Superboy and Power Girl to help. It's about time they learned of Kara In-Ze's presence anyway."
Wonder Woman gave him a slight nod of respect. "Very well, is there anyone else you'd wish to employ in her training?"
"Maybe, but I'll speak with Batman when he gets here. What about you? If she's anything like her cousin, she won't stay cooped up in the Fortress forever. She'll need a mentor, maybe one close to her age. Wonder Girl?"
Wonder Woman crossed her arms. "We'll talk about this more when the times comes for it. Cassandra has yet to recover from losing Kara Zor-El. Training her little cousin might be too much for her at this time."
"Then we agree. And Diana, I'm sorry for snapping at you."
"I understand, Kal, and you're forgiven."
*The detail of Alura and her sister being twins was taken from the super awesome CBS show Supergirl. If you want to learn more about what the backstory is with Kara In-Ze's arrival on Earth, feel free to read The Other Side of the Story.
Chapter 5 - Red, will focus more on Batwoman/Katherine Kane and Jason Todd/Red Hood