32


Silence settled through the restaurant once Norvok passed through the window, then continued to stretch, even once it became clear that Norvok wasn't about to get up and attack them again. Instead, he got to his feet, glared at the group, and left the vicinity of the restaurant as quickly as he'd come.

Felicity, Iris, and Jesse slowly got to their feet while Killer Frost reached up and brushed bits of food off the front of Caitlin's blouse. She grimaced, nose wrinkling, upper lip curling so far that her darkened, blue lips from the makeup that seemed to appear with the transformation into Killer Frost, simply disappeared.

Her eyes shifted over to Cadence, who glared back at her, fingers flaming at her sides. Her chest heaved up, not just from the sudden exertion of her powers, a zero to eighty, but from the sheer irritation of seeing Killer Frost standing before her. She looked to the side and found her irritation wasn't subsiding as quickly as she'd like. However, Cadence knew it wasn't helpful to enact any sort of revenge on Killer Frost at that point, it wouldn't help Caitlin—who was still somewhere inside her—and she still needed Caitlin and Killer Frost around to help figure out what was going on with her and Burnout and the Fire Fall.

"Who was that?" Felicity demanded, shakily getting to her feet. Glass crunched under her feet as she wobbled her way over to Killer Frost and Cadence's sides. Her eyes darted back and forth over the metahumans, then shot to Iris and Jesse before shooting back to the metas. Her mouth dropped open, silent for a minute, then blurted out her second question. "What the hell just happened?"

"Don't worry about who that was," Killer Frost said with a wave of her hand. A dismissive wave before she leaned over to pick up a glass of wine off a nearby table. Surprisingly, it had managed to remain unharmed while the restaurant was upturned "He's a nobody." She tipped her head back and downed the glass in one gulp. Then tossed the glass aside to shatter along the floor when she was finished with it.

Cadence glared at her, then rolled her neck on her shoulders, working out the tension that formed in her muscles the second she noticed the icy metahuman had showed her face once ore. Killer Frost ignored her then turned her gaze to the blouse, skirt, tights, and saddle shoes she wore. "Ugh, Caitlin's taste in clothes is only matched by her taste in men."

"Wait, how are you, you?" Jesse asked, pressing her fingers into her temples. She opened her eyes, confusion flashing through them at a rapid pace. "I thought—"

"—That I was cured?" Killer Frost turned a smirk toward Cadence. "Didn't you tell them that you jammed a needle in my neck and forced me to take a cure?" She leaned toward the fire meta, who continued to glare at her. "Against my will," she added, to drive the point home. Then she grinned, her teeth a pearly white compared to the color of her lips that it made her look even more malicious than before. "Looks how well that turned out. You can't keep a team running any more than Caitlin can keep me away."

Cadence looked at her sharply.

Iris and Jesse exchanged a look.

Seeming to notice she touched upon something, Killer Frost glanced around at the group then practically trilled with glee. "But, you're friends, right?" Killer Frost continued. She tilted her head, making a slow 'tsk' sound as she did so. Mocking. "You shouldn't be keeping secrets from your friends."

"Of course we're friends," Iris replied, only hesitating just slightly.

She nervously looked to the side, watching the staff of the restaurant pile out from the back with brooms and start to clean up the mess the body passing through the glass made. Two of them started to converse about their plans for the night as they brushed, while another started to measure the window, taking out large trash bags and stretched them to fill the hole.

Obviously, they were used to such instances going on. So much so that it caught Cadence's attention to what had just happened. They'd been attacked by Norvok and she and Caitlin hadn't even stopped to think before using their powers. Cadence's eyes shifted through around the dining room, where other patrons of the restaurant continued to eat quietly, while the staff behind the bar continued to clean their glasses.

Her eyebrows rose for a moment, then she looked around the restaurant once more. How it continued to go on. It was a stark reminder. They were in Gotham; not Central City, not Star City, not Metropolis. Gotham had its own fair share of night life, of its own seedy underbelly and its own set of heroes and villains that attacked and protected the city in its own way.

Nevertheless, it was strange to see how used to it that Gotham had become. However, it also meant there was a chance that the show they put on was going to be seen in ways she didn't even want to think about. Let alone the fact that because they were a new set of…unusual people in Gotham, there was a chance it was going to bring more attention to them than anything else in Gotham ever could.

As if was, she could hear and see sirens coming closer and closer. If they're smart, they have a silent alarm that goes off every time the windows are damaged in some way, she thought. Cadence quickly tuned back into the unusually casual conversation going through the group.

"Your friend was going out of town tonight," Killer Frost was saying, folding her arms. She brushed imaginary lint off the shoulder of her top. "She got herself into something she couldn't handle." She waved her hands to the side, motioning for the girls to part. "Now, if you'll excuse me…"

"What are you going?" Jesse demanded.

Killer Frost barely looked at her, crunching her way along the floor, zigzagging through the unharmed tables to head to the front door. "To find Norvok's boss." Her eyes narrowed. "And to kill her."

"Since when did her superpowers make her a supervillain?" Felicity asked.

Cadence snorted. "You think she's a supervillain?" She questioned, then gestured toward Killer Frost's retreating figure. "She hasn't even killed anyone."

"That doesn't seem like something I'd brag about," Felicity commented. Cadence glared over at her and Felicity held up her hands, taking a step back. "But what do I know? We don't deal with these metas as much as you guys do. It's just straight up murderers and criminals out in Star City."

"And anyway, she's not a villain," Iris insisted, planting her hands on her hips. "She was being manipulated by Savitar and in the end, we wouldn't have been able to stop him without her." She nodded once. "There's good in there."

"But Killer Frost is still dangerous," Jesse determined.

"You know…I always wondered why you haven't killed me yet, despite all the times that you had the chance," Killer Frost remarked, making the group turn toward her once more. She leaned against the door, watching the group, hands behind her back, drumming her fingertips against the doorframe. Her eyes stayed on Cadence. "And you know how easily you can do it." Her eyes shifted over the group. "Was that what we were all talking about? Or do you just like to sit around and talk about how you all are such good people?"

"W-well, well, we were actually talking about how cool it is to kill people and such," Felicity commented. Her eyes widened at her choice of words. She quickly slapped a hand over her mouth then waved them rapidly in front of her. "No pun intended."

Killer Frost rolled her eyes and bowed her head, pushing the door open behind her. "Well, it's been real, ladies. Thanks for the drink." She smirked toward Cadence. "And good luck on the wedding. I'm sure you and Speedy will be very happy together." With a blast of ice into the air, a twisting and turning slide that arched through the air, Killer Frost hopped aboard and disappeared from sight.

Jesse rubbed her hands together. "I'm going to run back to STAR Labs," she said. "And use satellite to track her cold signature. We'll get her down in the Pipeline and-"

"—No need," Cadence interrupted with a dismissive wave of her hand. "I know exactly where she's going. But right now, we need to get out of here before these guys let the Gotham City Police know about us and what happened here." She gestured toward a small family who continued to happily chat to each other while eating their soups. "If they get through dinner fast enough."

"Right," Jesse agreed after a second. "We'll go to STAR Labs and—"

"—It'd be too easy to be tracked back there, especially considering there are no speedsters in Gotham," Cadence interrupted her sister once more. Instead, she stepped toward Felicity, Iris, and Jesse, grabbed them together and concentrated on her destination of teleportation. Within seconds, they were on the front porch of a large, sprawling mansion, where Cadence reached over and repeatedly jammed her fingertip into the doorbell.

"Whoa!" Felicity took off her glasses, rubbed the lenses, then put her glasses back onto her face. She took a step back and took in the mansion they stood before. "This place makes the Queen Mansion look like a cottage."

"I'll be sure to tell Master Bruce you approve," Alfred said when he opened the door, hearing her comment. If he were surprised to see a bunch of almost strangers staring at him. Then his gaze landed on Cadence and a shadow of a smile appeared at the corner of his lip before his face turned neutral once more. "If you have a moment, I'll be sure to tell him you all are here. He has been expecting you."

Taking a step back, Alfred let the group of young women into the house. He closed the door behind them and disappeared into a side room. Iris leaned to the side and glanced into the room that Alfred had disappeared into. Her eyes widened, seeing a large picture on the wall; that of a young man, who appeared more serious than anyone that age should be. As if he had seen tragedy that no one should have experienced.

"Are…are we where I think we are?" She asked, turning back to the others.

"if by in another dimension with the biggest house I've ever seen, then I think I'd have to agree with you," Felicity murmured. She spun in a quick circle and shook her head, bringing her fingertips up to her forehead. "I know Oliver Queen, I know the kind of money the Queen family can bring in, but this is…wow."

"Careful, Felicity, you're starting to sound like a gold digger," Jesse teased. For a second, she seemed to vibrate, which Cadence quickly realized was Jesse taking a quick lap around the rooms on the lower floor of the building, and moved back to her starting position. All within less than a second. When she did stop, her eyes grew incredibly wide. "Forget what I just said, because this place is amazing!"

"I'm glad you approve." All eyes turned toward Bruce Wayne as he walked into the foyer, his hands in the pockets of his slacks. "But I can't take much credit for it. It was more of what my parents had created, and I felt it was the best thing to keep the image going." He took in and let out a deep breath through his nose. He smiled a little. "What do I owe the pleasure of this unexpected drop in?"

"We're run into a little bit of trouble I think you could help us out of," Cadence explained.

Bruce's smile widened. "That seems to be most common request I've been getting lately." He chuckled, a low rumbling in his chest. "Though you're a little more gracious about it than Clark can be. Then again, we haven't always seen eye to eye." His eyebrows rose. "How's the wedding planning going?"

"Well, you haven't seen me and Barry on the doorstep with our bags and begging you to keep me away form my mom," Cadence pointed out. "So I'd say it's going well." Bruce chuckled once more. "But as it comes closer, her full crazy is going to come out, but she's very grateful for your wedding gift, by the way, one less thing for her to worry about."

"I'm sorry." Jesse raised her hand in the air. "Are we just going to ignore the fact that we have Bruce Wayne standing here in front of us and that you know him?" Her gaze turned to Cadence, wide and accusing. "And you didn't say anything about it?"

"Well, I mean, coming form Metropolis I'm sure there's many people that Cadence knows that she hasn't mentioned," Iris said quickly, though her gaze continued to rove around the sprawling hallway, taking in every detail of the spectacular staircase and chandelier. "I don't think another millionaire is weird."

"No, I mean, he's Batman!" Jesse dropped her voice to a hushed, awed whisper.

Bruce smiled.

Felicity shook her head. "No, Batman's a myth. He doesn't exist, he hasn't been around for years."

"I can assure you that if that were the case, my life would be a lot easier to manage," Alfred continued, coming back into the room. Bruce shot him an exasperated glance, making Alfred lift an eyebrow. "Forgive my further interruptions, Master Bruce, but your other guest has been left in the drawing room and we both know how…lively she can become."

"Yes, thank you, Alfred," Bruce said quickly. He ran a hand over his face and through his hair. Thought for a moment, then motioned for Cadence, Iris, Jesse, and Felicity to follow him. "I'm sure if you've arrived like this there was something important you needed to handle. And considering the speed at which you've come here…" he let the pun hang in the air. "It must be something serious."

"Yeah, we've got a frosty super villain running along with some guy named Norvok and their boss—"

"—Amunet Black—" Cadence interrupted. Bruce glanced at her once more. "We've run into her before. I know her through the Assassination Bureau, but if Killer Frost, if Caitlin, is mixed up with something with Amunet, then it's bad. Especially if Norvok was sent to go after her so publicly like that."

"Are we in danger of having our identities revealed?" Iris asked, opening her stride along the long hallway so that she could keep up with Bruce. "We were pretty open with our abilities and talking about the—"

"-Most of these restaurants in the city haven't had cameras or any security in them for the last twenty years," Bruce interrupted. He lowered his chin. "Unfortunately, even if they were present, the criminal rate around this city is enough that it wouldn't make a difference. Not even Batman can find and handle every petty criminal that comes through Gotham."

"This isn't a petty criminal," Felicity insisted. "This is a metahuman." She paused. "Do you have those here? Or are they just a special breed in Central City?"

"There haven't been any here that we know of," Bruce explained. "The reach of the Particle Accelerator explosion hasn't reached that far. If there are any metahumans who have managed to come this far, it's from their own reasons. But if this Killer Frost, Norvok, and Amunet Black are as bad as you're implying, they are, then it's something that'll be brought to the attention of the Gotham Police. Commissioner Gordon is probably on his way to the restaurant already."

"Are restaurant attacks big enough that you need the Commissioner to handle?"

"Things like that may appear petty on the surface, but with the Joker being who he is, the Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Two Face, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy…the GCPD can't risk not taking things like that seriously. Gotham City is dangerous, it's lucky that there wasn't a gang of mobsters ready to gun you down."

He led them into the drawing room that, upon first glance, appeared empty. But then there was a movement, a young woman with long red hair who sat in an armchair who twisted around when the group came in. She looped her arm around the top of the chair and turned to face the group.

Her blue-green eyes shuttled over the young woman, as if taking each of them in. As if looking right through them. Cadence knew it was exactly what she was doing, as Cadence was doing the same to the woman. Something about the woman, about her posture clued Cadence in that she was a brave woman. If not very confident in herself and how she interacted with things. The woman had hardly reacted when a horde of women followed Bruce Wayne, instead, smirked a little as if expecting it.

But she also exuded an air of calm. As if she were expecting them to show up. Not seemingly bothered by the time she'd been spending with Bruce having been interrupted. Instead, she waved a hand toward the group and said, "If I knew the night was going to turn out this way, I would have made sure that Bruce understood it's not really my kind of party."

"Ugh, is it always the billionaires that think they have all girls falling at their feet every second?" Felicity asked with a light roll of her eyes. "Maybe it's just a superhero thing." She paused, noticing Cadence's glare toward her for the second time that night. Her eyes widened, flickering from Bruce back to the woman. "Not that…that Bruce is a hero or anything—"

"—I don't know, I'd think a lot of people around the city would say so," The woman interrupted. "He's given a lot of money towards grants and scholarships, helping the less fortunate…and not all of it has his name on it." She finished with a teasing smile toward Bruce, who lifted once in return. "So, aren't you going to introduce me to all your friends for the night?" She looked over the four women. "They seem to be different than the girls you usually bring back here."

"No, no, it's nothing like that," Jesse said, waving her hands. "We're, uh, here, because…" she looked sideways at Cadence, trying to figure out how to save themselves.

"You're not strippers, are you?" The woman continued.

"No!" Iris said quickly. She laughed nervously. "God, no. I mean, we're not even, quite, dressed like strippers…?" Self-consciously, she looked down at her own dress she wore that night. "I mean, we're in the city for our friend's bachelorette party," she continued, shaking Cadence's shoulder. "And, if we were going to get a stripper, it'd be a guy, right?"

"I don't think you quite know what the phrase bisexual means," Cadence joked. "Cause man or woman, I'd enjoy a stripper anyway." The young woman smiled. Cadence quickly introduced herself and the others. "I'm Cadence Nash, this is Felicity Smoak, Iris West, and Jesse Wells. Bruce is a friend of mind."

"I know who you are."

"You do?"

Cadence looked at her in surprise, trying to figure out how it'd be possible. The woman was young, probably in her early twenties, if Cadence had to guess. Younger than her. They wouldn't have run in the same social circles, ones that transcended cities. But if she were hanging out with the likes of Bruce Wayne, there had to be something else that connected them together.

"Your name's been splashed all over the magazines," The woman continued, grinning. Her gleaming teeth offset her blue-green eyes. "Something about it being the event of the year. Even bigger than the Royal Wedding."

"I see my mom's exaggerations has gone stateside."

"And I know you, too." The young woman turned her gaze to Felicity. "Felicity Smoak; genius level intellect, ambitious, hardworking, tech savvy. IQ of 170, graduated from MIT at the top of your class and a dual master's degree at 19. Master of computer science and cyber security, a computer engineer, a master mathematician, biochemist, forensic expert…"

"And I thought it was impressive when I finally learned how to make Jitters' most complicated drink," Iris murmured.

"I see you've been doing your homework," Felicity remarked with a smile that was a mixture of pride and embarrassment.

"Or maybe you have a stalker," Jesse commented.

Felicity's smile immediately dropped. "Y-you're not stalking me are you? It's fine if you are, that's cool, I have a stalker. But you're not able to see my searches, online are you? Not that you even could, there's more than enough fire walls and blockers that'd keep anyone from doing it. Why do I even that many? I'm not quite sure but—"

"—You can relax," the young woman said. "I know no one could hack you unless they were, like, some sort of super genius." She paused, waving her hand. "Not that I couldn't do it but—"

"Barbara," Bruce interrupted, sounding a little annoyed.

All eyes turned toward the young woman. But Jesse was the first one to speak. "Barbara? As in Barbara Gordon?"

The young woman's eyes slightly widened. "You've heard of me?"

"Sort of," Cadence said. "My son's friend, Leah Brooklyn, said you used to babysit her. She suggested for us to look you up when we got here."

Barbara's gaze softened, her lips pulling into an equally soft smile. "Leah's a pretty cool kid. I spent a lot of tie with her, more than her parents every did. You said she's friend with your son?" Cadence nodded. "I'm glad she's made some friends. She was a pretty lonely kid for a while there." She paused and regarded Cadence closely. "Did she ask you to look me up to say 'hi' or is something going on?"

"Something's going on," Bruce said. "You know I don't expect visitors to randomly show up when they haven't been invited." He gave her a meaningful look, noticing her hand fall to her stomach. "And I know you feel the same way."

Barbara nodded. She took inn a deep breath through her nose. Tightening her grasp along her stomach, she nodded once more then lifted her chin. Her eyes blazed and she looked to the group with a fresh sense of determination that even Cadence could sense in the change in Barbara's body temperature.

"What's going on?" Bruce asked the group.

And so Cadence explained everything as quickly as she could; that he was, indeed Batman, that he, Barry, Superman, and herself had met up a few times to talk. That they'd worked with Batman to stop the Joker once more. Then everything that had happened that night.

"If Amunet Black is in Gotham City, it would explain the increase in traffic around the city," Barbara commented, exchanging a glance with Bruce. "And I don't mean the vehicular traffic. We've seen an increase in illegal substances and weapons come through the city, crime scenes where dropped weapons weren't registered, serial numbers filed off. The police haven't been able to figure out how it's been funneled in."

"And as you've been saying, funneled out," Bruce agreed.

"Amunet has always had her hands in The Network," Cadence explained. "And it's no coincidence that her righthand man appeared tonight. She's got something over Caitlin…I've seen it once before. And I have a past with her myself. If Norvok tracked us down and attacked us tonight, Amunet is up to something and we can't ignore it. Especially with Killer Frost being out there. She's…Caitlin's our friend and Killer Frost is a part of her we're trying to get back, no matter what. And stop whatever it is that Amunet is doing so your city isn't compromised."

"No, it doesn't sound like you could," Bruce agreed.

"When we find Amunet Black," Barbara continued. "It means you're going to be entangling yourself in what makes Gotham such a dark city." She folded her arms. "It's not like Central City and never will be. You're going to need some help."

"You mean…" Jesse's eyes widened.

"Batman's going to help us?" Felicity asked.

Barbara smirked. "I kind of had someone better in mind."


A/N: I'm so tired of the holiday season always getting in the way of my writing. I wanted to be further along in the story than this at this point, but I can't because of how much my schedule keeps changing at this time of year and is just so stressful an exhausting as it is.

Thank you all for being so patient with me. I already know this is going to be the longest story of the series and it doesn't help that I have so many plot points to go through that I'm equally excited for, that I spend so much time in between updates not getting things done, that when I do come back with an update my chapters are short, and because I have so many other fics I'm writing at the same time so…thanks again. I really do appreciate you all.

More than you know.

Cheers,

-Riles