Black Canary yanked the front brake of her bike and launched into the air above the thugs. With her arms spread and mouth wide, she unleashed a sonic boom.
"SCREEEE!"
WHOMP! WHOMP!
BOOM!
Every window on the car shattered, only being held together by the tint's vinyl. The vehicle was pushed back a few feet by the sheer kinetic force of Black Canary's sonic boom.
Jason's ears were ringing, and his teeth felt loose. He tasted blood. "Holy shit," he managed to say.
Helena wasn't stunned, however. "Told you to open your mouth." She climbed out of her seat and kicked out her shattered window.
"My baby!" Jason whined.
"Oh my god, quit it, Jay!" Helena spat. "I can't see, and we need this car to get out of here!"
"Fine!" Jason grumbled and elbowed the window next to him until it popped off. Together, they kicked out the windshield.
Now able to see outside the vehicle, Jason saw Black Canary working on the few thugs that managed to withstand her cry.
They didn't stand a chance. Dinah unleashed a combination of fists and elbows on the first two thugs to get within her reach, and they fell to the ground, dazed. The sorry fools that snuck up behind her got their legs swept out from under them with a low kick, followed by boots to the groin.
Helena cheered. Jason cringed.
Dinah turned to them. "Where'd the Bat-bro come from? This was supposed to be our mission."
"Party crasher," Helena said. "Uninvited."
"Excuse me? Bat-bro?" That hurt Jason.
"Come on, let's get out of here!" Dinah ran back to the bike, which Jason noticed was Helena's, and hopped on. "Follow me!"
Helena kicked the Challenger into gear. The engine snarled the tires screeched, and the car bucked forward. For a second, Jason thought the vehicle would stall, but Helena had already shifted to second gear.
Jason raised his brow in impressed respect. It was a near-perfect launch.
Helena tailed Dinah as she weaved through the lot. They finally reached the exit, where the gang had created a roadblock.
"Brace!" Dinah called through the comms.
"That's her warning! Cover your ears!" Helena yelled, her earpieces lighting up blue.
Jason immediately did so, opening his mouth as well.
"WHOMP!" A low vocal blast erupted from Dinah. A shockwave crashed through the roadblock, pushing vehicles aside and blowing men off their feet.
Dinah sped through the gap, and Helena followed. They peeled the tires as they swerved onto the road.
"You got a tail," Barbara notified.
Jason poked his head out the window and saw two souped-up tuner cars gaining ground on them. "Damn ricers..."
"What?"
"Nevermind. I got them." He drew his gun and screwed a silencer to the end of the muzzle. The gun beeped, and red LEDs lit up on the attachment and the slide.
"What's that?"
"My friend Roy designed this gun and the rounds that go with it." Jason loaded the gun. It gave off an electric whine. "I can change the velocity of the bullets. More velocity, more damage. Nearly as much as a standard metal round."
"Why didn't you use that before when we were pinned?"
"It's electronic and only has one mag's worth of juice. I try to hinder now, not kill, so I don't need it often. I typically use it on the environment."
"Okay, I get it. You don't have to kill these guys if you don't want to, Jason."
"No worries," he said. "But an eye for an eye, right? Hold her steady." He winked at her, unbuckled, and leaned out of the window.
Jason took a few deep breaths, trying to ignore the pain in his back. Focusing, he lined his sights on the radiator grill of the closest car.
The passenger saw what he was doing, rolled down the window, and fired his gun.
Jason didn't move, confident in Helen's driving. The thug wouldn't hit him; Jason was a moving target and a trained marksman.
In even measured bursts of two shots each, Jason unloaded his weapon.
First, he shot the grill. He heard something pop.
The car didn't slow down, so he shot the windshield in front of the driver.
Spooked, the driver swerved, putting one of the tires in Jason's line of sight. He shot it, too—another pop.
The car wobbled and drifted. Jason could hear the men yelling inside.
Unable to regain control, the vehicle drifted into the path of the other tuner chasing them. The rear car managed to avoid and overtake the first, only to rear-end a city bus. Then the first car hit the median in the road, bouncing so hard it nearly flipped.
Jason slid back into the Challenger, blowing away the smoke from his gun barrel. "Barbara, are we clear?"
"Checking... you're clear."
Dinah snickered over comms. "Way to go, Bat-bro."
#
They took the scenic route back to the safe house to ensure they didn't have another tail—gang, cops, or otherwise. After parking the vehicles inside the garage, lowering the bay doors, and locking them up, Dinah and Helena had to help Jason up the stairs to the loft. The adrenaline rush had held his pain back, but now that he was coming down from the thrill of the mission, Jason was hurting—bad.
Helena rushed into the loft and cleared the kitchen island. "We gotta patch you up."
"Okay, no, I cook there," Jason said. He hesitated a second, then grabbed the whiskey, taking a gulp straight from the bottle. He was about to get bullets pried out of his back. It warranted an excursion off the straight and narrow road.
"How about the bed?" Helena asked.
"We sleep there."
"Sorry? We?" Dinah chimed in, eyebrow raised.
"Not like that." Helena blurted out, then blushed when she realized how loudly she said it.
"We take turns." Jason groaned as he relieved Dinah of his weight and hobbled to the living area, peeling off his jacket. It hit the ground with a solid thud—it was made with ballistic fabric and lined with gel.
Seeing Jason struggle, Dinah stepped forward to help him remove his flak vest, made of yet more ballistic material. More bullets popped off and clicked to the floor.
Next came the shirt, and underneath it, Jason's back was mottled with nasty bruises. Five bullets had managed to break through the layers and penetrate the skin. Two on the left shoulder blade, one low near the right side of his rib cage, and two in the muscle of his right shoulder.
Sitting on the ottoman, he looked at Helena, who was grimacing and picking at her nails.
"I'm so sorry, Jason."
"Don't be. This isn't your fault."
"You got shot saving me."
"You wouldn't have been vulnerable if I hadn't distracted you."
"I was vulnerable the moment I broke stealth and got made. That happened way before you got there."
"Enough," Dinah jumped in. She finished washing her hands in the kitchen sink. "Sounds like you both fucked up. Hel, get the med kit. None of these wounds are deep or serious, but some are nasty bleeders."
"In the closet," Jason directed.
As Helena rushed into the bedroom, Dinah pulled her phone out and tapped the screen. The TV turned on, and its webcam blinked green. Barbara appeared on the screen.
"Care to explain why the Bat-bro is crashing our mission, Babs?" Dinah asked. "I thought it was supposed to be just us and Helena."
Jason grunted in annoyance. "Okay, call me Bat-bro again, and I'll pull these bullets out myself and shove them in your ears."
Dinah veered on him, eyes wide, ready to accept the challenge.
"Relax, Dinah! He just showed up. And, like he said, he isn't with the Bat Family. We can trust him to keep this secret."
Helena reappeared with the medical kit and handed it off to Dinah. With a grunt, she unzipped the bag and set to work.
Jason groaned sorely as Dinah began flushing out his wounds. Helena held up a penlight, helping Dinah see better.
"I don't want to keep your secrets," Jason said. "I never wanted to be involved in the first place. I won't tell Bruce. Let's all pretend I wasn't even there. Just keep me out of this."
"Well, the gangsters saw all of you together, so you're involved," Barbara said. "You're part of this now. Welcome to the Birds of Prey."
"Fuck!" Jason spat as Dinah pulled a bullet out of his shoulder. He took another swig of whiskey. He reeled on Helena. "Okay, what? Are you part of a team now? Your dad won't just ground you; he'll bury you. He will send you back to Gotham, and you'll finish grad school from inside your bedroom. And if you don't obey, he'll cut you off." He looked at Barbara. "You too."
"I don't care. I have to do this," Helena insisted.
"Why?" Jason said. "You're not going to win him over by skipping permission and asking forgiveness when you get caught, whether you succeed or fail. Bruce doesn't work that way. Remember what happened with Stephanie when she was Robin? The Gang War? Fffff—" He hissed as Dinah pulled out another bullet. "With me?"
"This is too important to me. It's personal, Jason," Helena explained. "I can't play the long game and win my father over by degrees. I don't have the time."
"This local gang is more important than your relationship with your father?" Jason said. "Trust me; you don't want to be an outcast like me. It's not... a position I'd wish on anyone."
"Listen." Helena left his side and sat in front of him on the coffee table. She peeled off her mask and took the liberty of removing his. "They're not just a local gang. They're the mob, the Italian mafia."
"So?"
"Jason, listen. The Carmine Family is back."
He shook his head, confused. "The Carmine Family is dead. The Holiday Killer took them all out years ago before we were even born. The Maroni's, too. The Italians are done in New Jersey."
"One of them survived and stayed hidden all these years," Dinah said. "Now they're making a play in Blüdhaven to restore the Family's strength and resources. If they get a hold of Blüdhaven, Gotham is next."
"Oh." Jason could understand the gravity of the situation, but he still wasn't convinced. "Barbara. Dinah." He looked at them both in turn. "Why are you going along with this? If anything, this sounds like something you should pass off to Bruce and the Bat-Fam."
"It's personal for her, Jason," Barbara said, removing her glasses. "And I support her, all in. If I had the same opportunity, I would do the same. Damn Bruce's consequences."
"Me too," Dinah said.
Helena couldn't look into Jason's eyes anymore. She was crying now.
Jason tried to understand. "Which Falcone survived? What did they do to you, Helena? Why the vendetta?"
"Sofia Falcone." She looked up at Jason, her green eyes teary. "She killed my mother."
Notes
I love revenge arcs, don't you?
Read or watch The Long Halloween. I took a lot from that storyline to write what comes next.