"My name is Alfred Pennyworth and I have a story to tell." "For many years in the city of New Gotham a secret war raged by night." "Unknown to the everyday world a battle for the very heart of the city was waged between Batman and Joker." "One night, the final battle was fought and Joker lost." "Joker's revenge was taken not on Batman himself but on the ones he loved." "Helena Kyle didn't know that her father was Batman nor did she know that her mother had once been Catwoman." "And Catwoman was the Joker's first victim." "Mom?" "Mom, can you hear me?" "It's Helena." "Mom, you have to." "You have to." "You have to hear me." "Mom." "Stop him." "Somebody stop him." "Somebody stop him." "Mom." "Mom." "Helena Kyle's life was forever changed that dark night but the Joker's revenge wasn't finished." "Batman had trained many protegees over the years and one of them was Barbara Gordon, who called herself Batgirl." "Knock, knock." "Who's there?" "Batgirl." "Past tense." "Dinah Lance was no more than a child, living far from New Gotham." "She was stabbed." "And the other one, he shot her." "I saw her." "She fell down and the blood went on the floor and..." "Hush, Dinah." "Hush." "It was just a dream." "We've talked about this." "Whatever you think you see, it's all your imagination." "None of it's real." "Are you listening to me, Dinah?" "You didn't see anything." " Did you?" "No, I didn't." "But Dinah knew her visions would become her future." "And so seven years later, our story begins as Dinah arrives in New Gotham to seek out her dreams and follow her destiny." "To or from?" "Excuse me?" "Are you running away from something or to something?" "I'm not." "I mean, I..." "No, it's cool." "You should be careful, it's a big city if you don't know anyone." "Hey, I'm Jerry." " Dinah." " See?" "Now you know someone." "To." "I'm running to." "Or at least I hope so." "There are a couple of people in New Gotham that I sort of knew." "Or knew about, anyway." "Um, it's hard to explain." "Well, do you think they're still in the city?" "I don't really know what happened to them." "Barbara, right?" "Yes." "The new guidance counselor, right?" "Right." "Wade Brixton." "We met during orientation." "Never really got into Shakespeare." "Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet." "I mean, he's a glorious romantic, but the lovers always end up dying." "Not the ideal way to finish a date." "Uh, well, maybe you should try the comedies." "People wandering around in disguises, mistaking each other's identity only to find each other and live happily ever after." " Does that sound better?" " Definitely." "I'm a sucker for happy endings." "I, uh..." "I could recommend a few of the plays I bet you'd like." " That would be great." " Yeah, okay." "Could we do that over coffee?" "With me." "Together." " The two of us?" " Ah." "Uh." " Are you asking me on a date?" " What if I say yes?" "Um, would that get you to come?" " It might." " Well, then, yes." "Coffee, dinner, you name it." "Wow, that sounds great." "Sorry." "Wade, I have to go." "I'm sorry." "Um, it's kind of an emergency." " Is everything okay?" " Yeah." "Yeah, nothing serious." "It's just something I need to take care of now." "Okay, great." "So you'll let me know." "Absolutely." "Okay." "Huntress, it's Oracle." "Do you copy?" "You've gone offline again, haven't you?" "God, this is so like you." "It's a transceiver, not a Walkman." "Huntress." "Huntress." "You've been coming here for three months, Helena." "You've barely said a word." "Talk therapy works better when you actually speak." "Court sent me here for anger management, right?" "Observe the managing." "I'm cured." "You're a genius." "You sideswiped two cars, flattened a stop sign, crushed a fire hydrant." " I was in a hurry." " Knocked out a security guard." "I shoved him to get him out of the way." " Barely even touched the guy." " And why were you in such a hurry?" "I don't know, I had things to do." "I understand that whatever it was seemed urgent to you." "No, you don't understand." "You don't know me." "You don't know anything about me." "Let's just run the clock out here and call it good." "I do know that on this day seven years ago, you watched your mother die." "And a few months later, Barbara Gordon became your legal guardian." "There's no mention of your father." "Because at the time, I didn't know who he was." "But you do now?" "Bruce Wayne is my father." "Your father is one of the wealthiest men in the country and you move in with a schoolteacher?" "Wasn't exactly Father Knows Best." "He didn't know he had a kid." "Clueless is a radical understatement." "Sounds like your relationship with your father is conflicted." "What relationship?" "He didn't raise me, my mom did." "I miss her." "She..." "She was funny crazy and dangerous and..." "In that one moment, she was gone." "That's when everything changed." "I changed." "Into what?" "Into someone maybe I wasn't meant to be." "This is the address." " I'll see you tonight?" " Okay." "Bye." "It's gonna be different here." " I know it." "No, no." "No." "No!" "Don't move." "Just lie still." "You won't let them get me." " Don't let them get me." " Who's trying to get you?" " Come on." " I didn't know what was beneath." "Beneath Phoenix." "I can't really describe him, I never got a good look at his face." " So you say this guy didn't push the victim." " No, he wasn't anywhere near him." " But..." " But what?" "Miss, you saw something, didn't you?" "Yeah." " She saw a guy on a bench." " Come on, Mac." "Listen." "If you think of anything else at all, and I mean anything you can reach me at this number, okay?" "Okay." "Good night." "What?" "McNALLY:" "Don't start." "Start what?" ""There's something prowling the night," that's what." "Of course not." "This is just your basic normal-guy-freaks-out throws-himself-in-front- of-a-speeding-vehicle case." " Oh, it's totally routine." " Was that sarcasm?" "Because you know I'm a sensitive man." "Seriously, Reese, you've gotta lay off The Twilight Zone." "The guys are starting to talk." "McNally, you hear the same stories I do." "You see the same things we can't begin to explain." "Freaks." "Weirdoes." "Urban myths." "Myths are just the truth a few generations later." "Come on, McNally." "What are you so afraid of?" "Being seen with you, getting carted off to the loony bin, I'm gonna make you a list." "There's something going on in this city after the sun goes down." "I intend to find out what it is." "I've been calling for hours." "Where have you been?" "That shrink thing, remember?" "Being punished for destroying property while chasing your bad guy." "You could have gone around the fire hydrant." "Doesn't it ever bother you?" "We spend all our time trying to save the city fighting crime lords and supervillains, for what?" "Lousy hours, nonexistent pay, no recognition and traffic tickets?" "That's the downside of having a secret identity, the secrecy." "I need you tonight." "There's been another death." " Another suicide." " It's murder." "Neither of these guys had history of psychological illness, no reason to consider suicide." "Excuse me." "Sorry." "I'm telling you, there's something wrong here." " I can feel it." " Is your spider sense tingling?" "Stop twitching and have a drink." " Could you focus for just one second?" " I am focused." "I'm focusing on why we do it, why do we even bother?" "We do it because it's who we are." "My shift's over, anyway." "It might be good for me to go kick some ass." "Hey, baby, you wanna go out?" "You wanna go out, honey?" "You scared me." " Um, I thought you were, you know..." " Dangerous?" "Um, well, it's kind of a weird place to have a party." "One thing to learn about New Gotham, Dinah:" "Things are never what they seem." "Ah, come on, don't be scared, Dinah." "The lady isn't interested." "I was hoping you'd say something like that." "Who the hell are you?" "I'm the Huntress." "And you're the prey." "Warmed up yet?" "I hate a man with no endurance." "Really, what's the point?" "You can just say thank you." "It wasn't that spectacular." "No." "It's you." "I saw you in my dream." "Mom." "You're really real." "Kid, you should go home." "Wait, where can I find you?" "It's late." "There's a shelter on Durbin a few blocks south." "You should get off the streets." "No, wait." "Word on the street are that these deaths are your garden-variety "goodbye, cruel world. "" " Is there anything to eat in here?" " The way they did it." "It's almost as if they were running from something." "There's never any food." "A gazillion dollars of equipment, not one jar of peanut butter." "This doesn't make any sense." "If I were gonna kill myself..." "You wouldn't." " What?" " Kill yourself." "You wouldn't." " Do you know how old these are?" " Wait, what do you mean I wouldn't kill myself?" " It's just not your nature." "I resent that." "I'm as broody and romantically self-destructive as the next girl." "In a "Let's go get the bad guys, let nothing stand in the path of the mission" way." "I'm the one that does the night sweeps, fieldwork." "I'm the one with bruises in embarrassing places." "Would it kill you to go to the grocery store once in a while?" "What is this obsession with food?" "You try fighting evil when your blood sugar's low." "Perimeter breach." "East side, near the elevator, Sector 2." " I can't get a good visual." " I'm on it." "What are we gonna do with her?" "She knows how to get in." "What if she knows who we are?" "We could kill her." "We're the good guys." "We don't kill innocent people." "We don't kill anyone." " Speak for yourself." " And how did she find us, hmm?" " She must have followed you." "Nobody follows me." "Well, she's here." "This place is supposed to be a secret." " That's the whole point of a secret lair." "It's not her fault." "I followed her." "She didn't know." "How'd you get in here?" "It's you." "I should have known you two would be together." "Look." "Sometimes when I touch people, I see things." "Things that, um..." "That only they know." "And sometimes when I dream things they come true." "So, um, what does this thing do exactly?" "This machine will tell me if there's any biological evidence of the abilities." " In other words, if you're metahuman." " Meta-what?" "In most people, less than 5 percent of neural cells are active." "Your cerebral cortex activity is over 50 percent." "So it's true." " I'm officially a freak." " Hey, watch it with the f-word." "There are people in the world, Dinah a lot of people, with abilities beyond what we think of as human." "No two metahumans have the same gifts." "Don't ask me where the powers come from." "No one knows." "Natural mutations, biological experiments." "There's been weird stuff in meteor showers." "The point is, you're one of a long line of people who had to hide what they are." " So I'm like you?" " Oh, like Helena, technically." "I'm not metahuman." "But you're both heroes and you save people." "Right." " I wanna join." " No." " Why not?" " Sorry, we don't have an opening for Junior Supergirl." "You can't stay here." "You have to go home." "Do you think I'd get on a bus and come to a city where I didn't know a soul with no money and no job if I had a place to go back to?" "I mean, I came to New Gotham looking for something and I didn't even know what it was, but now I do." "Can I talk to you?" "Now?" "You can't seriously be considering this." "A few hundred years ago, a girl like that would've been burned at the stake." "Yeah, well, she's freaking me out right now." "It's just one night." "One." "I remember another girl with no place to go who fell asleep on that couch." "I gotta go." "Helena, wait." "Good morning, miss." "Alfred Pennyworth." "How do you do?" "I brought you an assortment of clothes in your size." " I trust you will find them adequate." " Thank you." "Perhaps a shower and change?" "Sure." "How do you prefer your eggs?" "Um, scrambled?" "I've restocked the refrigerator in your apartment." "It was rather alarmingly empty." "So I hear." "Thanks, Alfred." "You're a lifesaver." "No bother at all." "There's little enough to keep me busy at the manor." "I keep hoping that Miss Helena will change her mind and come live there." "After all, technically it is her birthright." "She's not going to accept anything connected with Wayne money." "I mean, I'm lucky she can handle the trust paying for the equipment in here." "This time of year is always difficult." "I don't know what to do." "She just won't let me in." " I meant for both of you." " Me?" "Don't be ridiculous, I'm fine." "Dinah's a very gifted girl, if I'm not mistaken." "Quite interesting." "It's temporary." "You're being superior again." "Oh, perish the thought." "I mean, Helena's right." "She can't stay with us." "This is no place for a kid." "What would she do, anyway?" "Are you investigating this?" "Because I was there when he died, and it wasn't a suicide." "After my mother's death, I learned more than just my father's identity." " I learned he had a whole other life." " I'm not sure I understand." "Do you mean another family?" "More like a really aggressive hobby." "A dangerous one." "Yeah." "I guess a part of me..." "I blamed him for what happened to my mother." " If Barbara hadn't taken me in..." " Why did she do that?" "I've known her since I was kid." "She was just trying to help." "Human beings are essentially selfish creatures, Helena." "No matter how we try and mask it to the world or ourselves." "You say Barbara rescued you." "Did she do that for you?" "Or for herself?" "I couldn't tell the cops what I really saw." "That he was terrified of these imaginary rats?" "Well, maybe it was." "It sounds like a tailor-made illusion taken directly from the victim's subconscious." "What he feared most came after him." "What could make him see something that wasn't even there?" "Well, a metahuman could." "But there are no metahuman criminals in my database with that ability." "He, um..." "He said something about a phoenix." "Fiery tail, rising from the ashes, that kind of phoenix?" "Yeah, I know they're not real." "Phoenixes aren't real, are they?" "Uh, not that I know of." "Okay, just checking." "Um, he said we wouldn't know what phoenix was for." "Like it wasn't an animal at all." "I wonder..." "Let's see." "Phoenix Industries was formed in New Gotham a few months ago." "Looks like some kind of dummy corporation for real-estate purchasing." "The old dockyards." "They bought every parcel." "All of it." "And that's bad because?" "It isn't, necessarily." "You buy the land cheap, then rebuild, and you can make a fortune." "Or get complete access to the infrastructure of New Gotham." "Sewers, shipping lines, anything coming in and out of the city." "And you're not banking on the sunnier motivation, are you?" "Let's trace the tax filings to the owners." "Come on, come to mama." "A four-man consortium owns Phoenix." "Out of the four owners, two are dead." "Suicides." "Two potential victims left." "Why are you so sure I should protect this guy first?" "The other guy's out of town." "Not coming back until tonight." "Our assassin's only killed in New Gotham so far." "Are you in yet?" "Of course." "Are you sure he's here?" "He ordered pizza on his credit card 40 minutes ago." "Once again, big sister's watching." "Okay, he's here." "There's something coming through on the police scanners." "Get out of there." "Freeze." "Don't move." "Detective Reese, Gotham P.D." "You're not going anywhere." "Okay, I really don't have time for this." "You're in a crime scene, lady." "You'll make time." "You can see it's a suicide." "Yeah, seem to be a lot of those going around lately, huh?" "You know, my colleagues, they think I'm crazy." "But I'm beginning to wonder if somebody isn't giving these vics a little push." "You'd like this guy, he's got your paranoid turn of mind." "Excuse me?" "What was that?" "I didn't say anything." "Neighbors reported sounds of a fight." "He must have been in the area to have gotten there." "You have a few minutes before the black-and-whites show up." "Get out of there." "So you know this man?" "He was dead when I got here." "Really." "Oh, so then the best you can say for yourself is you were robbing a dead guy." "You're a detective." "Detect." "What was I gonna do, strap a few paintings on my back and take the elevator?" "I don't have the gear for a heist and I don't have any weapons." "What did I do, come in here and chat him into hanging himself?" "Even if I were to believe you, you still haven't answered my question." " What are you doing here?" " Same thing you are." "Just trying to save someone." "Guess we were both a little too late." " We're on the same side, Reese." " Now, wait just a minute." "I know what I'm doing, back off." "Do you hear voices or something?" "You have no idea." "Someone dropped the Hermez shooter off at the precinct doorstep last week, right?" "And the Dorsett kidnapper?" "I practically gift-wrapped that one for you." "Who are you?" "I'm not your enemy." " I'm supposed to believe you're a friend?" " Didn't say that." " I hate locks." " So you save people." "On good days." " Then why don't you carry any weapons?" " I am the weapon." "I can't believe you told him." "He chained me to a second-century Greek bronze, kind of classy." "All right, there's a ticking clock on our last victim, Larry Ketterly." "The businessman?" "I know him." " He used to live on the same block as us." "He's back in town." "We can guard him for so long." "We need to find out who the assassin is and stop him for good." " Which means, check the dockyards." " It's the only lead we have." " I can go to the dockyards." "You can't be in two places at once." "Okay, so you take the dockyards and I'll guard Ketterly." " I could go." "I don't like you going without backup." "You mean, without looking over my shoulder?" "Let me go to the damn dockyards!" "So, uh, why don't I get cool jewelry like Huntress?" "Because the cool jewelry costs more than a new car." "Like, Buick new or Mercedes?" "Ferrari." " Ooh." "Ha." "And it doesn't transmit 3-D images in infrared." "Can we get started now?" "Yeah, let's go." " Oracle, do you copy?" " Yeah, I'm here." "I'm at the house, he's home alone." " Are you getting all this?" "Yeah." "Doesn't look like anyone's been here in years." "No, not since..." "Not for a very long time." "Wait." "Over there." "Check in there." "Okay." "That's gross." "I've lost visual." "Well, find him." "We don't know how the assassin gets to his victims." "He could be in the house." "Who the hell are you?" "Helena?" "Hi, Mr. Ketterly." "Now, what exactly were you doing skulking around in my bushes?" "Just wanted to drop by." "Lovely outfit." "Thank you." "Going dancing later." "Little Helena Kyle." "It would've been better if you'd knock on the door but no, you had to be the stealthy queen." "Knock and say what, "Superhero at your service"?" "All right." "You're in now." "Find out what Phoenix was planning on doing with the dockyards." "Are you two having a fight?" "Dinah, mind on the mission." "Right." "Okay." "So, um, what exactly am I looking for?" "I'll know it when you see it." "Dinah." "Dinah, do you copy?" "Oh, yeah." "I'm fine." "All right, go down that tunnel." "Over to your right, that one." "I don't understand." "None of this is on the map." "You've been here before, haven't you?" "It was a long time ago." "Another life." "Before I was ever Oracle, I had another name, another identity." "Another self." "I used to work with a man, Helena's father." "He was Gotham's greatest champion." "And most people never even knew he existed." "The last time I ever fought at his side was in this place." "We'd cornered the worst criminal Gotham had ever known smashed his organization and hunted him down." "I know Batman could have killed the Joker but he didn't." "And his honor had a price." "The Joker got away from the police, only for a few hours just long enough to send a man to kill Helena's mother and to come for me himself." "Why?" "I think the Joker wanted to drive Batman mad." "And maybe he did a little." "Because a few months later, he left." "Left New Gotham his work everything." "Even the daughter he never knew he had." "The idea for rebuilding the dockyards was mine, actually but I didn't have the capital to buy the property up." "So I brought in partners, formed a consortium..." "And then people started dying." "Oh, you know about that." "I keep telling myself it has to be coincidence." "Does it?" "Helena, is that why you're here?" "To protect me?" "It's okay, you can tell me the truth." "Barbara someone's been here." "Okay." "This is beyond weird." "Oh, my God." "It's Ketterly." "You really wanna know what's under those dockyards, Helena?" "A piece of Gotham's past, part of our history." "We lost a great leader." "But from the ashes where he fell, we're going to rise again." "And we're going to build an empire that will make the world tremble." "Or something like that." "I was always a little fuzzy on the details, I'm more of a big-picture kind of guy." "But enough about me and my little plans." "It's time to tell me, Helena." "What are you afraid of?" "Helena." "She's not answering." "Just get there as fast as you can." "I'm on my way." " Helena, listen to me." "Concentrate on my voice and it may interfere with whatever auditory neural connection he's using." "I'm surprised at you, Helena." "It doesn't usually take people this long to open up to me." "You have an exceptionally strong mind." "But we have time." "Helena, I know you want to tell me." "Go ahead." "Let it out." "She died." "I lost her." "I lose everyone." "To love someone and to lose them right in front of you." "Okay, if you wanna fight bad guys, locked doors are gonna come up sometimes." "Helena!" "What have we here?" "Just another little girl." "Not exactly." "Helena, it's all right, we're here." "Let me take this." "Helena, listen to me." "It's over." "No, it's not." "You're too late." " It doesn't matter what you do to me here." " Helena." "Part of me stays in there with her." "Where I've taken her, no one can follow." "I can." "No, you can't." "She won't hear me." "Not here." "But maybe she'll hear you." "Helena." "I couldn't protect her." " You were just a kid." " No." "Heroes are supposed to save people." " I failed every person that ever needed me." " No." "You haven't failed me." "I chose this life and all of the risks that came with it." "You don't have to protect me, Helena, do you understand?" "We have to protect each other." "I can't do this without you." "You don't belong here." "You don't have any legs." "You're not Batgirl anymore." "Neither do you." "Why bother, Helena?" "Even if you kill me, you'll still be alone." "You'll always be alone." "Maybe, but it's my screwed-up life and I'll decide when it's over." "Welcome back." "What's wrong with him?" "He said that some part of his mind was in yours." "It may be that when you killed him in that world, you destroyed it permanently." "Yeah, well, oops." "So, what are we gonna do with him?" "Somebody actually dropped him at the station with a bunch of well, pretty bizarre evidence." "We can't be sure he isn't dangerous." "That's why we brought him to you." "Oh, call me Harleen, detective, please." "Harleen." "I appreciate your time." "I'll be in touch." "Well, Larry." "This really is quite the disappointment, isn't it?" "I needed those documents, Larry." "I had a dream of New Gotham and people writhing in pain dying on the streets and everything under my command." "You ruined my dream, Larry." "At least temporarily." "What happened, Larry?" "I wish you could tell me." "Because somebody stopped you and that means somebody is trying to stop me." "Well, just goes to show, never send a businessman to do a psychopath's job." "It just feels wrong." "No ticking bomb, no poison gas." "I mean, we usually save the city from some apocalyptic bad-guy plan." "Yeah, well, this time we saved ourselves." "It's a nice change of pace." "Except you know that "rah-rah, rebuild-the-empire" speech Ketterly gave me?" "He didn't say "I." He said "we. "" "I know." "She's really terrible at those." "I was worse when I started." "If it wasn't for her, neither one of us would be alive right now." "Yeah." "I know." " There are going to be ground rules." " I'll do it." " I haven't even said what they are yet." " I don't care." "I mean, as long as I can stay." "I can stay, right?" "She's not staying at my place." "As long as you go to school and work on developing your skills, both mental and physical then you can stay." "Cool." "Sometimes I close my eyes and I can almost feel it." "What it was like to race across rooftops under the moon." "Cold, wet and hell on your nails." "I guess I never really let go of who I was before." "It's a hard thing to lose." "I can't ever be what you were." "Good." "Just be yourself instead." "You're way cooler than I ever was, anyway." "I know."