Birds of Prey: Chaos Revolution UNRATED VERSION

CHAPTER SEVEN

“Helena, this is a surprise!” Barbara said, putting her hands on her belly.

“I was about to say the same thing,” She replied. She and Reese walking side by side up to the two of them.

Reese nodded towards Richard as he stepped towards him. “Nice to see you again, Rich!”

“Jesse!” The two men shook hands.

“Now what were you telling me earlier this afternoon? That you were too old for this kind of stuff?”

Barbara chuckled at the irony that they now faced. “I suppose I was trying to convince me not to return while convincing you to return. I suppose that makes me a hypocrite.”

Helena chuckled. “No, that just makes you Oracle. So, find anything interesting?”

“Richard and I have been looking at the police records and compare them to a map of New Gotham, marking every location these violent hate crimes are popping up.” Barbara replied, looking back up at the oval LCD screen and typing on the keyboard.

“Whatever is causing this, it’s widespread throughout New Gotham from one border to the other. It seems to cut off just outside of New Gotham.” Richard added.

“So it’s only happening in New Gotham,” Reese commented, looking up at the screen where an outline map of New Gotham appeared on the screen and red dots popping up at all the locations that violent hate crimes had occurred over the last week.

“It appears so,” Barbara replied. “There is still no way to know who or what is sparking the violence.”

“Do you think Dr. Quinnzel could be up to her old tricks?” Helena asked, having unpleasant memories of the woman who tricked her into betraying her friends.

“I don’t see how. Last time she used the clock tower to use her powers to hypnotize all of New Gotham. Now, the clock tower is gone, and the only place with the equipment to accomplish this is the Bat Cave, and she has not been seen anywhere near here.”

INTRUDER ALERT…INTRUDER ALERT…INTRUDER ALERT

The sound of Alfred’s voice blared through the Bat Cave, as the screen suddenly changed into the symbol of the Batman flashing wildly on the screen. Startling everyone, Barbara attacked the keyboard, and pulled up images from the surveillance cameras located throughout the property.

“Right there!” Richard pointed to the image of the front door of the mansion. Barbara typed a command on the keyboard to pull up a full screen view. A dark figure had walked in through the front door.

“I’m on it!” Helena said, spinning around; her trench coat nearly flying behind her. This time, she was going to take another way back up into the manor. She was going to surprise the intruder.

The intruder was in no rush. Closing the door quietly behind him, he made his way into the center of the manor. This was the crossroad where you can access almost all of the manor. There were several doors there on the ground floor in that room alone. On both sides were a long straight stairwell to the upper levels of the mansion. All it was very dark in the room, the intruder could tell that the floor were made of marble tile.

In that room, he waited for something. The Huntress could not tell what as she peeked down through the railing from the second floor. Was he thinking about what root to take? Anyone who had never visited Wayne Manor would get hopelessly lost. Heck, from the stories Alfred told, Her father, himself, would get lost in his own home at least once a week.

Becoming impatient, she stood up and leaved over the railing, successfully taking the intruder by surprise. The Huntress decided to take action, and ask questions later. She tried to stun the intruder by kick to the gut, but the intruder blocked it, seemingly with ease. The Intruder used his arm to sweep the kick away from him. Helena tried again, this time with a slightly more aggressive move. She spun on her right ankle to high kick the intruder across the face with her left ankle, but he again blocked the kick with her right arm but with lightning fast reflexes, his arm wrapped around her leg.

This opened The Huntress up for a kick in her own gut, causing her to stumble backwards. It appeared that her surprise for the intruder had been no surprise at all. The fighting style of this intruder was familiar. There was only one person who it could be. “Decide to show your face back here in New Gotham, Raven?”

Raven made no reply; she only stood there in the cover of darkness waiting for her to make a move. The Huntress charged at her, knowing Raven’s full capabilities despite this toying around which she seemed to be doing. With each punch and kick, she successfully defended each and every one of them. Finally, the intruder caught the Huntress off guard. A high kick she tried to make backfired on her so fast, she didn’t even know it did until she found herself on her back, with a foot on her throat: checkmate.

The Hungress waited for the death blow, but the intruder would not deliver it. Instead, the lights in the room flickered on and standing over her was the last person the Huntress expected to see. “If I am not mistaken, that’s the first time I ever had you in checkmate!”

“Dinah?” The Huntress exclaimed.

Dinah smiled as she took her foot off her throat and helped her up to her feet. Helena looked at her up and down. “I don’t believe it! Look it you, I hardly recognized you!”

The two women laughed as they embraced each other. “How have you been, Helena?”

“Not bad…not bad,” Helena replied.

Dinah looked Helena up and down now. “Please forgive me, but I though you retired.”

“Well, I suppose it was kind of premature on my part,” Helena replied. “Barbara is here too. It appears all three of us have retired before our time.”

“She’s hear? Right now?”

Helena chuckled. “Yea, and boy are you in for a big surprise.” Everyone’s down in the cave right now. “Let’s go see them.”

The two women headed for the study and to the grandfather clock entrance. “So, what’s been going on with you and Reese? I haven’t gotten a wedding invitation yet!”

Helena shrugged, not sure how to really answer that question. “We’re engaged, we’re just haven’t taken it the rest of the way yet.”

“Why not?” Dinah asked as they walked down the stairwell down into the Bat Cave.

“That’s my fault. I suppose I am still trying to find myself before I move on with life.”

The two women entered the Bat Cave and the looks of everyone in the room spoke for themselves. “Oh my god, Dinah!” Barbara gasped. Her eyes were full of joy.

Dinah gasped, as she covered her mouth. She too was shocked. “My god, Barbara, you’re pregnant!”

The two women shrieked with joy as Dinah marched over to Barbara and knelt down to hug her. They laughed together and as Dinah stood up, Barbara slipped her fingers in Dinah’s golden-blonde hair.

“Dinah, you’re hair! Look at you; you’ve grown up!”

“And she can really kick ass!” Helena added, rubbing her throat.

“Thank you. Since I left, I continued my training.” Dinah replied.

Barbara looked at the outfit Dinah was wearing. It looked very familiar. After a minute of thinking, the answer came to her. “Isn’t that your mother’s Black Canary outfit?”

“It is,” Dinah looked down at the clothes she was wearing. “She passed it onto me. You are looking at the new Black Canary.”

“Well, you are a splitting image of your mother,” Barbara commented. It was the god honest truth. Barbara remembered working with Carolyn Lance when she was Dinah’s age. It was phenomenal how much alike the two of them are.

“So, what brings everyone out of retirement?” Dinah asked, looking up at the Bat Screen.

“It appears that a wave of hate crimes is sweeping through new Gotham and it’s on an increase,” Richard replied. “We’re still baffled about why.”

Dinah carefully studied the map that Barbara pulled up. The red dots which represented incident scenes were scattered throughout New Gotham. Reaching in her pocket, she pulled out a photograph and handed it to Barbara. “It’s happening because someone big is instigating it. If I had to guess, whoever it is, doesn’t care one way or another about the war between meta’s and humans. My guess is that they fueling it so New Gotham will tear itself apart. By the looks of it, it just may well be working.”

Barbara studied the photograph with Richard, Reese, and Helena looking over her shoulder. It was a picture of Dinah’s mirror in her room. Written in lipstick were the words, “Gotham Will Fall” and below that were photographs of Helena and Barbara with a giant red X over them. “That’s my mirror you are looking at.”

Barbara nodded. “You’re exactly right,” she admitted. “It appears that someone wants Gotham to tear itself apart.”

“To me, that’s not even the scary part,” Dinah commented looking on her own photo that Barbara replied. “Whoever is behind this, knows about the three of us and wants us back together again. He’s not afraid of us. I’m betting, he wants a confrontation with us.”

Even though this was extremely serious, Barbara looked up at Dinah and grinned. “You have grown up. I am highly impressed. At this rate, I am probably going to be forced back into retirement.”

“Well, I don’t know about everyone else, but I am falling asleep on my feet. I’ve had a very long day. I am going to call it a night,” Reese said after a long yawn.

“I think there is nothing we can really do tonight. I think we all need to get a good night sleep. It’s going to take us all a little bit of time to readjust to these late hour nights,” Barbara said, being helped by Richard to her feet. “Where are you staying?”

“I haven’t thought about that yet,” Dinah replied honestly.

“You can stay with Richard and I until we all figure out our future.”

“Thank you,” Dinah smiled with relief.

“What’s your plans now that you are back in New Gotham, Dinah?” Richard asked.

“I’m here to stay,” Dinah replied firmly. “I suppose the first thing I need to do is find a full time day job to make some money.”

“Hmmm,” Reese hummed as he rubbed his chin. “I think I might be able to help with that.”