Kara closed the apartment door behind her with a soft click, turning the lock out of habit more than necessity. She paused for a moment in the dim, quiet space, letting her eyes adjust to the familiar shadows.
Her apartment was small and almost empty. A cheap folding chair sat in one corner beside a makeshift table made of stacked cardboard boxes. No pictures on the walls, no rugs, no shelves. Just bare floors, cracked plaster, and a narrow window with a crooked blind that didn't quite close all the way.
It was fine. It served its purpose. She had a plan.
In her head, she'd already mapped out what she wanted. A table. Something real, not made out of boxes and tape. Maybe even a bookshelf, for all the Earth books she was slowly collecting. And a chair that didn't look like it belonged on the street. Something she could curl up in, maybe by the window.
She'd saved enough from her internship stipend to make it work, and she'd circled the upcoming weekend in her calendar as her Big Furniture Day. Not that she had a car, or knew how to drive one, but she figured she'd manage somehow. Maybe she could carry everything back herself. Gently.
She let out a breath, then dropped her bag by the door and stepped out of her shoes, flexing her toes against the cold floor. Her shoulders sagged a little as the tension of the day began to drain away.
LexCorp had been unusually lively today, borderline celebratory, in its own restrained corporate way. Dr. Sydney Happersen, Kara's supervisor in the R&D department, had been smiling all afternoon, practically glowing with satisfaction after the board had approved expanded funding for their enhanced battery project. New equipment. More staff. A bigger lab. It was a big deal, Kara could tell, even if most of the technical details still flew over her head now and then.
Still, she liked Dr. Happersen. He was firm but fair. And he had been genuinely proud of his team today. That pride had rubbed off on Kara, warming her through the long hours of observation, data logging, and trying not to mix up acronyms.
Now that the day was over, the silence of her apartment hit like a wall. Kara crossed the room in three slow steps and sat down on the edge of her mattress. She reached for the worn paperback beside her pillow, English Grammar Essentials: Level One, flipping it open to a random page.
After a few moments of staring blankly at the paragraph about auxiliary verbs, she sighed and let the book fall closed in her lap.
Learning English was harder than she thought it would be. Not the words themselves, her brain soaked up languages easily, but the way people used them. The tone, the timing, the strange phrases that never meant what they said. She wanted to get better. She needed to. Understanding the language meant understanding the people.
But it was exhausting.
Not just the reading. Everything.
Kara rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed, slouching against the wall. She had expected Earth to be different. That wasn't the problem. She'd known the languages would be strange, the customs confusing, the food weird-smelling. She was prepared for cultural differences across countries, and continents. But between cities?
Smallville, Metropolis, Gotham. They may as well have been on different planets.
In Smallville, people made eye contact when they spoke. They asked you how your day was and expected a real answer. They left casseroles on your doorstep when someone made extra and knew your name even if you didn't know theirs. Kara had barely been there a few weeks total, but she could still remember the warm, heavy silence of the wheat fields, the sound of wind over the flat land.
Metropolis was nothing like that. Everything was fast, vertical, hungry. People talked in clipped sentences, walked with their heads down, and worked like they were racing an invisible clock. Even kindness had an edge to it, a transactional weight.
And Gotham…
Gotham was chaos wearing a trench coat. The city breathed differently. Spoke in hushed tones and sideways glances. Kara couldn't tell if the people were afraid or just used to being cautious. Even the sky felt heavier here, the light dimmer somehow. It wasn't just the pollution, it was something deeper. Something in the bones of the place.
It made her head spin.
On Krypton, the idea of such regional differences would've been laughable. From Argo City to Kandor, everyone spoke the same dialect, followed the same customs, laughed at the same historical comedies. Culture wasn't just shared, it was uniform. Purposefully so. Kara could walk into any room on the planet and know what was expected of her. Know how to act, what to say, what things mean. That unity was part of what made Krypton feel whole. Predictable. Safe.
Earth life wore on her in a way she'd never expected. Sitting at a desk. Navigating office politics. Smiling when people made jokes she didn't understand. Pretending not to notice when someone looked at her too long or asked questions she didn't know how to answer. It was a quiet kind of strain, constant and unrelenting.
It was maddening, sometimes. To live on a world where the rules changed every hundred miles. Earth was a whirlwind. Beautiful, yes. Alive, certainly. But messy. Disorganised. Chaotic.
She exhaled slowly and looked down at the book again. Maybe just one more chapter before bed.
Crash!
Kara's head snapped up. Her eyes narrowed.
Her hearing sharpened instinctively, tuning in past the buzz of her apartment light, past the murmur of distant TVs and the rattle of pipes in the walls. Down the block, a building's storefront window had just been shattered, she could hear the tinkle of shards hitting tile, the frantic shuffle of footsteps, and the sharp bark of a voice. Male. Nervous. Someone was yelling about the register.
A robbery.
Her muscles tensed before she even realised it, and in a blur of motion, she was on her feet, already spinning into the corner of her room. Her Earth clothes dropped to the floor in a whisper of fabric, replaced by the deep blue and red of her Kryptonian suit. Her cape settled against her back as she moved to the window, fingers brushing the edge of the sill.
Then she paused.
Her hand hovered over the frame.
Batman's voice echoed in her memory, not yelling, not even angry, just… measured.
"No solo missions. Not in Gotham. Last warning. Stay out of my way."
Kara clenched her jaw.
It would take seconds. She could be there and back before anyone even realised it. But that wasn't the point, was it?
She stepped back from the window.
A moment later, she opened her small drawer and dug out the tiny communicator Batman had given her on the rooftop. The one he'd told her to use before taking action. She'd been tempted to throw it into space the second she got home.
But she hadn't, cooler heads remained.
She stared at the small device for a second longer, then fitted it into her ear.
There was a brief click of static. Then-
"Identify."
The voice was female, cool and professional.
"Ka- uh, Supergirl?" Kara answered, only just remembering her alias in time.
"Hi, this is Oracle." came the voice again, clear, confident, and a bit amused. "Oh, Supergirl! You actually called. That's a surprise. Batman had expected you to go rogue at least three more times before reaching out."
Kara blinked. She could practically hear the smile in Oracle's voice, but the synthetic overlay and echo in the line made it far more familiar to talking with her old Brainiac interface, if not a little more chirpy.
She shook off the memories. "I heard robbery," Kara said, her tone uncertain. "Down from me. A store. I going to-" She stopped herself.
There was a pause on the other end, then a chuckle. This AI was a lot less monotone than Brainiac had been.
"Well, colour me impressed. You listened," Oracle continued. "Calling into Bat-comm and reporting crimes instead of punching through walls. Progress. That's more than most of the Bat-family can say in their first week."
Kara frowned slightly. "Bat family?" She shifted her weight, glancing back toward the window. Her questions could wait, someone needed help right now. "So… what I do?"
"Hold position for now. Let me get a camera feed. Ah, yep, there it is. Corner of 9th and Miller. Convenience store. Two suspects. One armed. Looks like standard smash-and-grab. No hostages. Unless you count the clerk."
Kara squinted, one hand still pressed to the tiny communicator in her ear, her enhanced vision picked up exactly what Oracle had described.
"You're fast," She murmured, impressed. "Interface responds quicker than other Earth computers. Very advanced. You are high-functioning Earth AI, yes?"
The voice modulation and the data access made her sound like Brainiac, if Brainiac told jokes. There was a brief pause on the line. Then a dry chuckle.
"High-functioning Earth AI, huh?" The voice was amused, almost flattered. "If a Kryptonian scientist thinks I'm that smarter than most computers, I must be doing something right."
Kara flushed slightly, even Earth AI had been programmed for humour that flew over her head. She was about to ask another question, when Oracle's voice cut back in, more focused this time.
"Focus, Supergirl. Let's walk through this next part slowly."
Kara nodded, already slipping outside and floating into the night sky.
"This is Gotham. You don't do big entrances here unless you want a lecture from the Bat. Subtle. Quick. Precise. You're not trying to impress anyone, just stop the bad guys."
"I understand," Kara said, determined. "Subtle. Quiet."
"Good. Now you've got two men. One's outside, he's the lookout. The other's at the register. Nervous, maybe armed. Stick to shadows. Prioritize the gun if you see it."
Kara landed silently, crouching near the edge. Her enhanced vision zoomed in on the scene below. The storefront window shattered, a terrified cashier crouched behind the register, and two men, both masked, both sweating bullets, scrambling to fill a duffel bag with cash and cigarettes.
"They're panicking," Kara whispered. "Should I punch now?"
"You've got the element of surprise. Use it. Take the lookout first, then the one behind the counter. Fast. Quiet."
Kara nodded, then dropped from the roof. Two figures. One outside, shifting nervously by the door. The other behind the counter, stuffing bills into a bag, hands shaking. The cashier crouched low, unmoving but alert.
She landed behind the lookout with a soft thud, clapping a hand over his mouth and gently, very gently, pressing him down to the sidewalk. He squirmed in her grip until he realised he couldn't move her arm an inch.
By the time the man behind the counter looked up, Kara was already inside. She blurred forward, catching the gun mid-raise and crushing it in her palm.
The man screamed, not out of pain thankfully, but the shock was still there. Kara winced. So much for quiet.
"Make sure you secure them, safely." Oracle nudged in her ear.
She looked around for something to tie them with and found nothing useful. Giving up, she grabbed part of the collapsed display rack, a metal pole about three feet long, and twisted it around their wrists like a ribbon.
"Secure," Kara said, pleased with herself.
There was a beat of silence over the comm.
"…Okay, well, points for improvisation." Oracle sounded exasperated, but also trying not to laugh. "Next time, maybe don't destroy public property. That display was worth more than whatever they were taking from that register."
Kara looked down at the crushed stand. "Oops."
"You did fine. Cashier's unharmed, suspects restrained. GCPD's on the way. Let's call it a solid B-minus."
Kara frowned. "Is that good?"
"For Gotham? That's fantastic Supergirl. The cops are three blocks out. Time for an exit."
Kara nodded and stepped out of the store, and lifted into the air. Just as she rose above the rooftops, Oracle's voice returned.
"Still have energy?"
"Yes," Kara said, without hesitation.
"Good. Batgirl's requesting backup near the Narrows. Sounds like something bigger than a robbery. You up for another?"
Kara's eyes brightened. "Yes. Point me location, AI."
"Transmitting coordinates now. Don't get cocky, Kryptonian."
"I won't," Kara said. "I'll try not break things, next time."
"We'll work on it," Oracle said, almost fond. "Welcome to Gotham, Supergirl."
Kara took off into the smoky sky, ready for the next challenge.
-
The Narrows were quieter than usual. Quiet compared to Kara's neck of Gotham, which meant something was definitely wrong.
Kara hovered just above the rooftops, the cold wind tugging at her cape as she scanned the block below. Her breath fogged slightly in the night air. A low mist clung to the broken alleys and rust-stained brick walls like a second skin.
Three rooftops down. A silhouette crouched motionless at the corner of an old tenement building. Kara drifted silently toward it, careful not to disturb the air too much. She landed lightly, her boots making no sound.
Batgirl didn't flinch. She'd known Kara was there before she touched down.
The vigilante didn't speak, didn't turn, just raised one hand, index fingers extended, a subtle gesture to wait. Kara paused as Batgirl pointed down at the building across the alley. A warehouse. Unlit, quiet, but not abandoned. Kara could hear faint murmurs, the creak of crates shifting, and the low mechanical whine of a hydraulic lift.
Batgirl finally turned to face her.
Even in her enhanced vision, Kara couldn't see the eyes behind the cowl. The mask revealed no part of her face. Her expression was impossible to read, but still, she felt the intensity behind them. She nodded once, then held up three fingers, pointing at the warehouse.
Three guards outside. Kara nodded in return.
Batgirl touched her earpiece, glancing Kara's way, then tapped her own communicator. Kara's clicked softly.
"Supergirl," Oracle's voice filtered in, "You've met Batgirl. She doesn't talk much. Don't take it personally."
Kara glanced sideways. "I don't mind."
Batgirl's head tilted, just slightly, as if acknowledging that.
"Alright, here's the situation," Oracle continued, her voice getting brisk. "That warehouse is one of the last confirmed drop points for Black Mask's new weapons circuit. And before you ask -no, not that Black Mask. Roman Sionis is still very dead."
"Who?" Kara's brow furrowed. She had no idea who Oracle was talking about.
There was a pause, then a dry sigh. Could AI sigh? Branianc never sighed. "Right. History lesson incoming. Try to keep up."
Batgirl crouched again, adjusting something on her belt and nodded for Kara to lean in. The moment felt oddly conspiratorial. Kara stepped closer, crouching beside her in the dark.
"Gotham used to be worse," Oracle said. "Hard to believe, I know. Back before most of us chose to jump off rooftops in spandex, the city was run by several people, Carmine Falcone, Luigi Maroni, Tony Li, Cosa Nostra and Roman Sionis. They were called the five families and were bad news for Gotham. Think organised crime meets Wall Street corruption, with a sprinkle of medieval torture. They owned everything. The cops, the judges, half the city council."
Kara couldn't imagine Gotham being in a worse state than it was now.
"This eventually lead to Batman putting on the cape and cowl and beating them down." Oracle continued. "He declared war. Took them down one by one. Sionis was the last to fall. Smart, brutal, adapted faster than the others. But in the end, he made a deal with the Joker. That's like playing fetch with a shark. Didn't go well."
"Joker?" Kara asked.
"That's a whole other history lesson we don't have time for." Oracle chuckled grimly.
"And that was... long ago?" Kara asked instead.
"Bingo," Oracle said. Another saying Kara didn't yet recognise. "Now someone new's taken up the Black Mask name. Whoever they are, they're smarter, more ruthless, and heavily armed. Tonight's stash includes illegal rifles, military drones, and enough explosives to turn a city block into a crater."
Kara glanced at Batgirl. She'd stopped adjusting her gear and was watching her, still silent, but now studying Kara in a way that made her feel… seen. Like she was being measured.
"I handle explosives," Kara said. Not entirely confident of her statement.
Batgirl's gloved hand flicked up. A quick motion. Window. Second floor. You. Front door.
"The front?" Kara blinked. "I thought Batman want silent? Not break things?"
Batgirl shook her head and spoke instead. "Supergirl fast, strong and Noisy," It sounded like an insult, but she kept talking. "Use strengths. I'll hide in cover of noise. Find lieutenants."
Oracle cut in. "This isn't a brawl. It's surgical. Let her run point. You hit from the front, take out the support crew. Draw some noise. Give time for Batgirl to zero in on whoever is running the show down here. We stop them here, or lose the trail."
Batgirl's hand darted out, suddenly, and Kara flinched, only to realise the vigilante was offering her something.
A small, sleek tracking beacon.
Kara took it, feeling its weight in her palm. When she looked back up, Batgirl had already fastened her grappling hook and was poised on the edge of the rooftop.
"Oh good idea," Oracle said into Kara's ear. "Supergirl, keep that handy."
Kara watched Batgirl for a beat. "You know," She murmured, "I not used to working like this. Usually just… fly in, hope for the best."
Batgirl paused. Then, softly, almost a whisper, she said, "Not in Gotham."
And with that, she was gone, zipping across the alley with graceful ease, landing without a sound. A shadow that melted into the warehouse window.
Kara stood alone on the rooftop for a moment, the mist swirling around her boots.
She tucked the tracker into her belt, took one last breath, and leapt into the dark.
-
The warehouse exploded into motion the moment Kara burst through the front door.
The door crumpled under the force of her entrance, skidding across the floor and smashing into a stack of crates, which promptly collapsed in a shower of splinters and loose ammunition.
Four men opened fire without hesitation.
The bullets pinged off her chest, her shoulders, her cheek. Kara barely felt them. She kept walking.
"Hi," She said, smiling awkwardly. "Please stop shooting."
They didn't.
With a sigh, Kara reached out, gently tapped one man on the forehead, and watched him fold like a towel. Another tried to run, she blurred in front of him and plucked the rifle from his hands like it was a twig. A third actually got bold, lunging with a combat knife, which snapped as it made contact with her hand.
"This is very sharp," She frowned, then flicked what remained of the weapon across the room into a steel beam with a musical ping.
By now, panic had set in. Men scattered, shouting orders, slamming shut crate lids, trying to burn papers and smash hard drives. A few sprinted for the back exits, only to find them welded shut, Batgirl's handiwork.
Kara spotted her high above, crouched on a hanging catwalk, almost invisible in the dim light. She dropped down silently, landed behind one of the lieutenants trying to torch a set of blueprints, and knocked him out with a precise jab to the neck.
Kara couldn't admire for long, she had her own job. A loud clink drew her attention, someone had rolled a grenade across the floor.
It was live. She could hear the humming pulse of the mechanics inside it. Kara picked it up and held it between two hands, the explosion muffled as she covered the entire thing. Admittedly, there was some pain to that trick, like a person who placed their hand on a hot pan for a split second. Kara shook her fingers as the heat dissipated.
Behind her, three more men rushed with guns at the ready. She sighed and knocked them aside, careful to pull her punches, nudging them into unconsciousness without any broken bones.
Across the room, Batgirl was a blur in the rafters, darting, kicking, disabling. But not aimless. Every movement had purpose. She targeted lieutenants and saboteurs. At one point, Kara saw her plug a small drive into a central terminal and begin copying files mid-fight, ducking behind a stack of crates when one of the guards stumbled past.
Kara held her position at the center, a one-woman gravity well, keeping all attention on her while Batgirl ghosted through the dark.
It was working. Surprisingly well.
Kara flattened a final attacker against a wall, gently, and paused, scanning the room. Smoke curled from the smouldering papers. Most of the gang was down. Batgirl had just zip-tied a flailing lieutenant to a forklift.
Then Oracle's voice clicked in her ear again. "Heads up. One of them's slipping the net. Disguised. Civilian jacket. Scar over left eye. That's your target. He's important. Tracking device, remember?"
Kara scanned, eyes narrowing. There, by the side entrance. The man was hunched, dragging a limp, clutching a clipboard like a delivery driver. She would've missed him if Oracle hadn't said something.
She blurred over in an instant, landing in front of him. The man froze.
"I- I'm just here for pickups- look, I don't-"
She grabbed his collar. Kara pressed the tracker gently to his belt, right above the seam. The adhesive clicked into place. Then, for show, she shoved him back.
"Go. Choose better job..."
He didn't wait. He ran, limping, stumbling through the smoke and vanishing into the dark. Kara exhaled, confused as to how letting someone go would help.
"Confirmed, tracker is placed" Oracle replied, calm and satisfied. "You're getting the hang of this."
A quiet shuffling drew Kara's attention. Batgirl had returned, emerging from the shadows like a whisper. She approached Kara slowly, her gaze scanning the fallen gang members, the broken crates, and the twisted grenade parts still crumbling from Kara's palm.
Kara opened her mouth to explain, but Batgirl held up one hand. Not to scold. To… acknowledge.
Then she held out a small data stick, placing it snugly into her belt before nodding once.
"We make good team, yes?" Kara asked.
Batgirl nodded again, almost a smile, though it was hard to tell behind the mask.
Oracle spoke again. "You've both done good work tonight. We've got a trail now. This Black Mask won't know what hit him."
-
Kara and Batgirl spent the next hour moving through the ruined warehouse, stamping out small fires and sifting through the rubble.
She wasn't entirely sure what they were looking for. Every time she pulled something from the debris, charred blueprints, bent flash drives, scraps of paper, Batgirl would appear beside her, silently scanning the find. She tucked some items away, discarded others, and lingered longest over a half-burned sheet covered in what looked like a coded message.
Kara tried to make sense of it, tilting the page one way, then the other. "Is this… backwards? Or just drawing of fish?"
Batgirl didn't answer. She crouched beside Kara, eyes narrowed, and carefully slipped the page into a secure pouch at her belt.
Before Kara could ask what it meant, a low voice rumbled behind her.
"Report."
Kara nearly jumped out of her boots.
She turned, too late, to see Batman standing right behind her. Again. Silent as ever.
Does he do that on purpose? She wondered, heart still thudding.
He didn't even look at her. His attention went straight to Batgirl, who began a rapid debrief of the events that just transpired. Kara stepped back, feeling once again like an outsider in someone else's city.
Then she noticed the newcomers flanking him.
To his left stood a young woman in a purple hood and mask, clearly armoured but casual in a stance, like she didn't take the whole doom-and-gloom aesthetic too seriously.
To his right was… a child.
Kara blinked. The boy couldn't have been older than Jon, yet he wore a cape and scowled with more intensity than half the criminals they'd just fought.
"Um," Kara said slowly, leaning toward Batgirl. "Why is child here?"
The boy snapped to attention, glaring at her like she'd insulted his entire bloodline.
"The only child here is you, Kryptonian."
"What?" Kara took a double take at the boy.
"I've studied your files. You're emotionally volatile, impulsive, and a liability. You should go back to Metropolis where someone can supervise you."
Kara's jaw dropped. "Okay, you are rude child. Why you here? Don't you have bedtime?"
His glare held even as she towered over him. "I could dismantle you in thirty seconds."
Kara couldn't believe what she was hearing. This child was picking a fight? With her? The very thought baffled her just as much as it amused her.
"All I need is a rock…" He grumbled, ignoring Kara's stare of utter bewilderment.
Before Kara could respond with something she might regret, the woman in purple stepped forward with both hands raised.
"Okay! Timeout, murder muppet," She said cheerfully, pushing the boy back with one hand on his forehead. "Let's not start a street fight with someone who can punt you into space."
The boy shrugged her hand off and glared back at Kara, but didn't say anything else. Kara blinked. Murder muppet?
She turned to Kara, her tone immediately shifting to giddy excitement. "Oh my god, hi! You're Supergirl, right? Like, actual Supergirl?"
Kara nodded, still confused. The young woman beamed, her smile was hidden behind a face mask yet still infectious.
"Call me Spoiler." The woman, Spoiler, said. She reached out and shook Kara by the hand. "I'm a huge fan. It's amazing to meet you."
"Thanks?" Kara managed, surprised by the energy.
Spoiler shook her hand, excited, and kept talking. "I've been following you on the fan-site since you appeared in Metropolis. Oh, and I love the suit modifications. Amazonian, right? Very badass."
"I have fan-site?" Kara asked, bewildered. The child grumbled something under his breath.
Spoiler grinned and nudged the still-glowering boy with her elbow. "Ignore Robin. He hates fun."
"I do not hate fun," Robin muttered.
She turned back to Kara, dismissing Robin's grumbles. "He's always like this. Batman's grumpy, Robin's worse. But don't worry, not all of us brood."
Kara tilted her head. "Are there… more of you?"
"Oh yeah," Spoiler nodded. "Red Hood broods. Like, full-time brooding. But Nightwing? He's fun. Red Robin's kind of a dork, but a charming one. And Batgirl-" She leaned over to Batgirl, placing a casual arm over her shoulder. Batgirl didn't shrug it off. "She pretends to brood, but she's actually a cinnamon roll."
Kara blinked. "She's… what?"
Spoiler's chatter helped relieve the tension, smoothing over the rough edges left by Robin's biting tongue and Batman's cold silence. Kara found herself relaxing, just a little. It was strange, this woman in purple with the excitable energy of a golden retriever had done more to calm her nerves than anyone since she'd landed in Gotham.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Bat-Family got to work.
Batman moved through the warehouse like a shadow, checking scorch marks, broken terminals, and shattered crates. Robin stuck close behind him, already talking through possibilities and patterns like he was solving a logic puzzle in real-time. Batgirl said nothing, but her gestures were sharp, purposeful, efficient. She coordinated the others with nothing more than a glance or a nod.
Kara watched them, impressed. And also, overwhelmed.
There was no confusion, no pause. Each of them seemed to know exactly what the others were thinking. When Robin pulled a damaged drive from the wreckage, Batgirl was already there with a recovery kit. When Batman found a burned scrap of legal correspondence, Robin scanned it and Spoiler made a snarky comment about the font. Even Batman grunted in vague amusement.
Kara took a cautious step back, unsure where to fit in.
But Batgirl caught her eye and beckoned her forward. Without saying a word, she gestured toward the neatly stacked evidence Kara had recovered earlier. Burnt blueprints, a twisted hard drive, and the strange coded page. She pointed to each in turn, giving Kara a nod of acknowledgement.
"This help?" Kara asked, still unsure to what the team was even doing.
Batgirl gave a small, firm nod. Then, she turned back to Robin and passed him the coded sheet.
"Nice," Spoiler whispered beside her. "That's Batgirl for 'good job'. Be proud."
Kara flushed a little. She didn't fully understand what she'd found, but the recognition felt… nice.
Robin was already flipping through the pages and muttering under his breath. "This matches the ledger we found last week. Definitely part of the same operation. Look. This shipment was routed through the dockyard. Recognise the ship name?"
Once again, Kara felt like she was missing something. A lot of things, in fact. She watched silently as the team appeared to have an entire conversation without saying a word.
"Yes," Batman said, without even looking at it. His voice cut through the room like a knife. "These transactions were laundered through a shell company owned by a man named Leon Graves."
The name meant nothing to Kara, and by this point, she'd long stopped trying to follow the thread. Still, Spoiler leaned over again and murmured.
"Graves. Shadiest corporate lawyer this side of Gotham. Total scumbag. You can practically see the grease in his hair just from reading his emails."
Batman ignored her and continued. "He'll be our next lead. Robin and I will pay him a visit. Batgirl, Spoiler. Follow the tracker back to the source. See what else you can find." He turned to Kara but didn't say anything beyond giving the smallest of nods.
Batman and Robin didn't linger.
As soon as the orders were given, they moved. Batman gave a final glance toward Batgirl, then vanished up the nearest ladder without another word. Robin followed, nimble and precise, barely making a sound despite the creaking metal.
Kara took a slow step toward the fire escape, craning her neck to try and catch a glimpse of how Batman managed to disappear.
She focused her vision, scanned the rooftop, he was there, outlined in shadow. She blinked.
Gone.
Kara squinted at the empty ledge. "Does he teleport?" She muttered. "Is that thing? Did I miss thing?"
Spoiler sidled up next to her and chuckled. "Nah. He's just being dramatic. Ninjas don't need capes, but Batman? He needs the drama."
Kara shook her head in disbelief and gave a soft laugh. "You people are exhausting. I'm going to bed."
Spoiler blinked. "Wait- bed? Like, now?"
"It's two in morning," Kara said. "I work tomorrow."
"Wait, you have a job?" Spoiler baulked. "Supergirl has another job?"
"Yes? I do Earth science," She said proudly.
Batgirl stepped forward, posture straight and hands behind her back. "Thank you for your assistance," She said formally. "We hope you'll continue. We made good team, yes."
"Yes," Kara smiled, chuckling at Batgirl's mirroring of her own words. "I'd like that."
Spoiler nudged Batgirl with her elbow. "And maybe next time, we hang out like, I don't know- actual people? Civilians? Get a coffee or something? You do drink coffee, right?"
Kara raised a brow, amused. "I'm drink coffee, yes."
Batgirl hesitated. Kara could tell, even behind the cowl, that something shifted. Her posture stiffened, not from formality, but nerves. Her hands twitched slightly at her sides.
Spoiler noticed too.
"C'mon," She said, a little softer. "It's freakin' Supergirl."
There was a long pause.
Then, without a word, Spoiler reached up and peeled off her mask. Blonde hair spilled out in messy waves, and she offered a lopsided grin.
"Stephanie," She said, extending a hand. "And yes, I know- We could totally be sisters."
Kara took the offered hand, her smile widening. "Kara. Pleased meet you. How be sisters from hair?"
"Kara…" Stephanie mused, chuckling at Kara's other question. "That sounds very... human?
"Is Kryptonian name," Kara corrected. "Kara Zor-El."
"Huh," Stephanie blinked. "Not sure what I was expecting, but I'm glad you're not, like, 'Zor-agna' or something."
Kara didn't bother to mention that Agna-Zor was a friend of her mother's, but she smiled at the apparent joke. Stephanie grinned back. Then, with a quick glance toward Batgirl, nudged her again.
Batgirl still hesitated. Then, slowly, she reached up and removed her cowl.
Kara wasn't sure what she'd been expecting, but the woman underneath wasn't it.
Cass had delicate features, strikingly sharp eyes, and a faint scar along her cheek that caught the moonlight. Her expression was quiet, uncertain, but her gaze held steady with Kara's.
"Cassandra Cain," She said softly.
Kara stared, maybe a moment too long.
"You're… really pretty," She said before she could stop herself.
Cass blinked. Then looked down, just a little, a shy twitch at the corner of her mouth.
Stephanie beamed. "See? This is so gonna work. The three of us? Unstoppable. Call us the world's finest."
Kara smiled, warmed by the easy camaraderie, smiling softly at the two girls, even as her gaze lingered when Cassandra looked back at her.
"Well, this is adorable," Stephanie declared, putting her mask back on and preparing her grappling hook. "I knew tonight was gonna be great! Team-up, explosions, mystery cryptic clues, and now a new bestie who can bench-press a bus."
Kara chuckled.
Okay! We are officially making plans." She went on. "Girl's day. Coffee, Shopping, maybe rooftop parkour if Cass is in the mood."
Cass gave a single small nod, a smile tugging at her lips. Kara had the sudden urge to see that smile more often.
"We should invite Oracle!" Stephanie added, already reaching for her comm. "Hey, O! You there? Big plans are forming. Can you handle some caffeine-fueled chaos in the near future?"
A soft voice responded almost instantly, calm but laced with humour.
"Define 'chaos.'"
"Coffee. Us. Supergirl. Tour the newcomer to our fair city"
A beat. Then, more brightly.
"Count me in."
Kara tilted her head, confused. "Wait… Oracle?" She motioned at the communicator in her ear. Cassandra nodded, also putting her mask back on. "But, how AI drink coffee?"
Batgirl tilted her head, mirroring Kara's question with amused silence. Spoiler lost it. She doubled over with laughter, holding her stomach.
"Did I… make joke?" Kara turned to Batgirl for an explanation, but Oracle's voice cut in first.
"Apologies Kara, but I'm not a high-functioning Earth AI. Just a girl, with a computer."
Kara's eyes widened slightly. "Oh. I thought… Sorry," She trailed off, feeling embarrassed.
"She just sounds like a robot sometimes," Spoiler choked out between fits of giggles. "But trust me, girl guzzles espresso like it's the elixir of life."
Batgirl placed a comforting hand on Kara's shoulder, silently telling her not to feel embarrassed.
"That's okay," Oracle, the human person, said into Kara's ear. "We'll show you the ropes. Starting with Gotham's one halfway decent coffee spot that isn't also secretly a front for a crime syndicate."
Kara smiled. She still didn't fully understand the rhythm of this city, this strange little found family in capes and cowls, but she wanted to. And coffee sounded wonderful.
