conflict and compromise / barbara gordon

a second wave

Barbara was walking down the streets of Old Gotham when it happened. It should have just been a regular walk to the Clocktower, to regroup with the Batgirls, to begin work after the library shift. But when the billboards went dark, when she heard Felina's robotic filtered voice come through every speaker in the square, she felt her heart freeze. 

"Hello Gotham! Now you're going to have to forgive me, not every day a girl addresses this many people at once, and it's my first time as well!" The screens stayed black, but Barbara watched as hundreds, no, thousands, of people, from businessmen to families on their way home, stopped to look upwards, to hear what Felina had to say. 

"Now, let me try and keep this short and sweet. To the Gotham Police Department, as a kindly informant, I would heavily advise you to look under your desks, to look... Wait that isn't it," a momentary pause as Felina seemed to check notes, "Ah yes, to Detective Henry Fielding, underneath your pencil jar, you should find a bat-shaped listening device, to Detective Alex Aisi, you should find the same sort of listening device inside your laptop as well as a scanner device in the top of your filing cabinet, to Detective Adriana Chubb, you should..."

Barbara shut her ears to the noise, this was years of trust between the GCPD and the vigilantes of Gotham being torn to pieces before her eyes. She walked quickly, knowing that even if she did make it in time to shut down the broadcast it would only make them look worse in the eyes of both the police department and the public.

"... And that's all I have for you so far! I do hope we can do this again!" and with that Felina was gone, and with her, many years of hard-earned trust.

⧖⧖⧖

Storming into the Clocktower elevator, she tapped out the code for the control room, pacing as the elevator started its movement upwards. Pulling out her phone she could already see the fast-growing list of notifications from the group chat, asking Bruce, asking her, what to do.

She rubbed at her temples, feeling the incoming migraine, not helped by the grating sound of the metal doors of the elevator opening. Stepping into the main area she immediately directed her attention to the large screens facing the clockface. First order of business was directing all mainly Bat motifed heroes outside of regular police patrol zones, and moving less obviously bat aligned heroes into those patrol zones, it meant more work for the Robins and Jason, but it would be safer for the time being. She frowned for a second, wondering if she could get Harper back in Bluebird attire for a temporary time to cover for the Gotham Proper patrol, as she attended Gotham University, which was within Proper. And if so, she was properly brainstorming now, she might be able to get Ted Grant to pick up some of East End, allowing Selina's patrol territory to extend to...

⧖⧖⧖

When Barbara came to, it was already dark out, the moon shining through the clock face the only source of light in the tower. She yawned and got up to stretch, checking the time as she did so. Midnight, so she still had time to patrol, striding over to the uniform display cases, she took a glance at the group chat, seeing the expected warning message from Bruce. It was the same warning he gave every time something worse than normal, happened, to stay alert for villains at large taking advantage of the mass panic. She rolled her eyes, this was old news. Though, she thought as she pulled down the mask of her new uniform, it wasn't untrue. Swallowing two Tylenol pills for her resurfacing migraine, she took a quick glance in the mirror, black lips pouting at the freckles peeking out. She was going to have to get the mask adjusted at some point, she thought, opening the secret exit on the Clocktower roof. 

With a smile, she took two steps towards the slanted  edge of the roof, and taking a deep breath, she launched herself off. As she plummeted downwards towards the cold pavement, she flexed her back, the memory fabric of her cape turning into a glider with a light electrical charge. With the wind rushing around her, drowning out the ringing sounds of the Gotham night, it felt almost peaceful. It was almost as if none of the day before had happened, if it was all still okay, as if Felina wasn't still out there.