a dark and stormy night (red)

[Barbara Gordon]

The skies over Gotham were grey and it looked like rain as Babs rolled up on one of the warehouses that hid an underground entrance to Kord Tower. It was going to rain sometime soon, Barbara just hoped it would hold off until she had finished her business and was back into the underground tunnels before it all let loose. The only thing worse than being out in the rain was trying to juggle an umbrella and her wheelchair in a group of thugs. Because that was what she was doing: driving out the riff raff and keeping the entrances clean and deserted so people didn’t notice the comings and goings of masks to this particular warehouse. Or any of them. So once a week she drove off people as a kind of stress relief and extra exercise. Only a couple of times did she have to call in reinforcements, and it was a rather big point of pride that she could still do this by herself. Even if she couldn’t take down the big guns, she could still deal with thugs.

The wind whipped at her hair as she turned the corner down an alley beside the warehouse. Graffiti covered the walls, things like ‘Arkham is crazy’ and Stephanie and Charlie’s old joke: ‘Stay here for a butt whooping’ that they had posted when they found out Babs was personally cleaning out the area. It never worked, because most drug addicts and homeless people thought it was a huge joke, instead of only half of one. Babs calmly took in the group of startled and violent teenagers and twenty-somethings that were residing in her alley. They wouldn’t be there for long. She managed to whollop the first three into unconsciousness who came at her with knives and fists before they even realized two of the most important facts: one, Babs was in no way afraid of them and two, she was armed. But they had an advantage in mobility, numbers and age, though Babs had the training, the gall, and the clear headedness to strategize instead of just striking out in a blind rage.

It was over in moments, a pile of groaning drug addicts later and Babs still in her chair, tucking cards into pockets and telling the conscious ones to get themselves to a local clinic that she secretly funded. It was all a nights work, and she was ready to go back to the computer.

[Tim Drake]

Oracle, or better yet, Barbara had turned after dealing with the addicts and homeless that had littered her area. She had believed she had gotten them all but one. That one had stepped out of the shadows and snuck up behind Barbara with a pipe.

It was a small one easily unnoticable. He had gotten closer but then stopped suddenly and dropped his pipe to the ground sounding through the area. "How could you have missed that one?" A chuckle came out.

The homeless stood there dazed and behind him was a man with black hair, blue eyes wearing a black jacket and a red button up under. His forearm across the back of the neck of of the homeless before dropping.

"Of course you are getting up there in years right?"

[Barbara Gordon]

Babs had missed one because usually they weren’t sneaky enough to hide and attack again, in her long and drawn out experience of dealing with scum around her tower they either attacked outright or ran. Planning wasn’t normally in their repertoire, but Barbara was also distracted. Frustrated. Worried. She had a million emotions running around playing tag in her head, and usually there was at least one cape prowling her vicinity if things got out of hand. Today it was Tim.

She had heard scuffling, but before she could maneuver her chair completely around Tim had already secured the homeless guy. “Most don’t try sneak attacks.” Barbara said dryly, pulling out another card from her pocket and handing it to Tim. “Put that in his pocket.” Comfortably dressed in jeans and a loose fitting black shirt, She glared when he called her old without actually calling her old. “You’re no spring chicken either Drake. And the next time someone calls me old they’re getting blacklisted for a week.”

[Tim Drake]

Tim laughed as he squatted and stuck the card in the bums pocket. "You know I meant nothing by it Barb." He said with a smile standing back up and looking at his old friend. Babs had been a big part of his life during his tenure as Robin. In fact it was what he had learned from her and about computers that had helped him in a lot of ways.

Walking up to Babs he held his arms open so he could hug the woman. He hadn't seen her as often as usual. But with all the things going on he needed to see her.

"I've missed ya babs."

[Barbara Gordon]

“Um hum.” Babs said, clearly looking like she didn’t believe it, though she fully knew that he was just teasing. Unfortunately as she started getting closer to turning fifty, the touchier she got about it. It didn’t help that every time she talked to Dick he would joke about her upcoming birthday. And with the kids… sometimes she just felt old.

“Well, I have four doors here and a window. And it’s not like you people haven’t blasted past my security before.” She replied, and hugged him back without hesitation. Tim had been the first Robin she hadn’t ever been in the field with, and while that was hard at first, she missed having Tim and Dick hanging around the clocktower keeping her company at all hours. She missed that more than she could admit sometimes. “Missed you too. How are Jack and Cassie?” she asked, before getting at what was really on her mind. “Bruce paid me a visit, but I don’t suppose you’ve run into anyone else yet?”

[Tim Drake]

Tim smiled when Babs hugged him back. He knew that she missed Dick and him; with Bruce and Alfred gone they only had each other. So he was glad when Dick told him he would be visitng Barbara every now and again. It hurt Tim he couldn't but he wasn't retired. Far from it.

He chuckled when she mentioned Jack and Cassie, "Jack's doing well, kind of makes me wish I had powers when I was Robin. Though I think Dick taught him different stuff when he was training him." Tim said smirking, "And I'll only go as far as saying, he isn't going to Themiscriya for the regular scenery." He smiled thinking of his son and how much he was like the men before him.

Tim stopped his reverie when Babs mentioned Bruce however. "I was aware of the visit yes, as for the others I haven't come across them yet but we can assume their alright if Bruce can make it back."

[Barbara Gordon]

She did miss a lot of people, her Birds, the Bats, Alfred… oh how she missed Alfred. The last time she had spent any real time around the rest of the boys was helping around the manor and sitting with Alfred as he got worse. The last time they had enough time to drop in on her was before she retired. Or rather, vocally retired. The actual act seemed to be harder to keep with than she thought it would. And she moved around a lot, which made it hard to keep track of her which was the entire point.

She smiled and laughed, kids always seemed to have that effect on her. Well, other than when she was yelling at them over comms for doing dumb stuff. “It certainly would have made things easier. But the thrill probably wouldn’t have been the same.” She sighed. Her brief brush with powers was a rather tough experience that had nearly killed her. “But you would be worried if he wasn’t visiting Themiscriya for babe watching.”

“I spotted Wonder Woman near DC.” She admitted, “And Hal heading out of the atmosphere. But only briefly on both of them.” She shrugged.

[Tim Drake]

"Good point." Tim said with a chuckle as she spoke about Jack. He saw how it lit her face up and it did the same with him. He was glad when he realized he had lived long enough to actually have a son and live even longer to see him fill out Tim's old Red and Green. It filled him with an emotion he had not felt in a long tim.

"So slowly everyone's making their way back home. That should be good for some waiting families." Tim said thinking about the seven and the lives they left behind. Bruce was one thing; he always comes back, it's what he does it's what he trained everyone in the family to do. But Wally, J'onn, Diana, Hal, Arthur and Clark. Most of all Clark. They were people that needed to be in the light while the rest of them handled the shadows.

"Almost like the old days."

[Barbara Gordon]

God, she loved those kids. Maybe it was because she never thought she would have a kid of her own after all the trauma that her body had been through that she was so attached to them. But even having Andi didn’t get rid of those feelings, though sometimes the costumes induced a panic. At least she hadn’t seen her daughter spend too much time around Tim’s boy. That would bring back some awkward memories that she wouldn’t want to share with her daughter. At least Jack didn’t wear pixie boots and short pants.

“Good. They can make a nuisance of themselves, cut down on crime rates to a more manageable level.” She had to turn off her inner bat for a moment though, as practical and cold as that was. “I’m worried about Bruce and Elena.” She admitted quietly with a crease between her brows. “Almost. Did I ever mention how much I hate time travel?”

[Tim Drake]

"You aren't alone in that." Tim said with a smirk. He honestly couldn't stand Time travel. Nothing good ever really came out of it. And really it happened more frequently than someone making a Courtney Love joke; and a lot of those were being made.

"But at least they're back...for now anyway." Tim said knowing full well that there would be a need for them to return to their time. Things would probably be better once they did. "And we both know that right now Bruce is thinking of multiple ways he could get home to their time that he's putting on the back burner until he can find Luthor."

[Barbara Gordon]

"Everyone but Booster Gold." she sighed, tapping her armrests. "Have you heard from him? Usually he calls in to flirt or have me fix a possible international incident but I haven't heard from him in a while..." She was worried that she was going to have to arrange another memorial service. At least because this thing was time travelling, they could send the party back and hopefully keep some of the unnecessary and tragic deaths from happening. It wasn't just that nothing good came out of it; it was more the complications that arose because of time travel. While sending them back would fix their losing side on the criminal war, and hopefully get Bruce to fix things with Vicki so Elena would have a father... What would they lose? Jake, Jack and Andi hadn't even been conceived at the point that they disappeared. Her own daughter had been born from a desperate move... Could she really send them back and risk losing her only child? It was a ridiculous question to ask… of course she could. In the end she had picked up more of Bruce’s tendencies than she ever liked to admit.

“Back, but scattered. It’ll take me time and several favors to get them all in one place, much less communicating with them.” Babs grumbled a bit, thinking of what exactly such an endeavor would entail. She would have to send M’gann and a Green Lantern after J’onn and Hal respectively, anyone with aquatic powers after Arthur to drag him back from Atlantis, as there was no doubt where he went. They all knew where to find Bruce, so that was taken care of, and likely Diana would show up in DC or Themyscira so those two were at least sort of accounted for. That left two: Wally West who could probably just be rounded up by the rest of Team Flash, and Clark, who had been avoiding detection somehow. Without being able to track down Supergirl, she was going to have to find some way to convince Conner to help. Being the former mentor of Conner’s ex-wife was probably not going to help things at all. “Well, with all the expansions to my system that were made after they left, I’ve got a most of the world wired and some of my more powerful systems running facial recognition checks on every face they pick up. I only hope we find him before he gets disappears into San Francisco and the Injustice League. Otherwise it’ll be all out war again.”