Batgirl/Batwoman: Gotham Weekend

There was always something more important, wasn't there? When you were him. When you were the Dark Knight himself. There was always an alien invasion, or some world-consuming supervillain. Maybe Superman needed help, or maybe it was the Justice League this time. Regardless -- Batman and Robin were not in Gotham.

With Nightwing in Blüdhaven, Tim leading the Teen Titans, Oracle working full-time with the Birds of Prey, Cass missing-in-action, and the Question recently declared officially dead, Gotham would be left unprotected from its traditional onslaught of crime and terror; be it Two-Face, Joker, or even the Black Mask who would use the Batman's absence to bring the city to its knees.

But Bruce Wayne wasn't one to leave his city without a contingency already in place -- even if that contingency consisted of a barely-trusted ally and an amateur who had yet to prove herself. Nevertheless, with Batman gone, two women were left in charge -- Stephanie Brown and Kate Kane, better known as the current Batgirl (or "the blonde Batgirl") and the little-known yet reportedly brutal Batwoman.

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"Do you even know what you're doing?" Kate growled, remaining silent on her perch atop one of Gotham's ubiquitous lofty gargoyles. Beside her, Stephanie tapped frantically at her bat-radar handheld, keeping a watch on Gotham National Bank. A tip had been "acquired" from one of Gotham's known street-snitches no more than two hours ago, and while Batwoman wouldn't go into detail as to how the information was obtained, she insisted that the thread was legitimate -- the pair hadn't gotten a name, or even a clue as to who was in charge of the heist, but it was confirmed that the bank was going to be hit tonight.

"Of courseI know what I'm doing, I've used this thing before," Steph snarked, bashing the tiny device again with one purple-gauntleted fist. "Oh wait, hey. I got something!" she turned to the tall, red-haired woman, beaming. "I got something!"

"I heard you the first time," Kate exhaled, leaning over slightly to glance at the screen. The cash that Steph had secretly tagged and deposited not long ago was showing up on the screen as a tiny blip, but instead of remaining still in the vault, it was beginning to rapidly vacate the building. "Alright, we've got incoming. Can you handle yourself in a fight?"

Stephanie huffed. "Yes, I can. You don't have to take care of me."

"Let's hope so," Kate cracked her neck and leapt off of the gargoyle, tightly gripping the edges of her cape – and then Batwoman had taken flight. A shrill alarm heralded her, ringing out through the air -- sloppy work, whoever had done it. As the doors open, a mob of men began flooding out of the bank, carrying their usual assortment of insufficient weaponry. Crowbars, baseball bats, knives. Nothing Batwoman hadn't dealt with before.

"Hey--" Steph began as Kate took off into the night, before flailing her arms. "Wait for me!" She sent out a quick zipline to the bank and started speeding off behind the older woman, grabbing a fistful of batarangs from her belt with her free hand. Behind the squad of mooks (Steph counted around fifteen in all) was a man who was more than a little familiar -- the squat, top hat-wearing, umbrella-toting criminal known as the Penguin. Rare for him to show up in person to this type of heist job but she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. She needed all the luck she could get with Batman out of town.

The quick flurry of batarangs slammed into the back of the head of one of the fleeing thugs, knocking him to the ground and, presumably, out cold. Batgirl silently fist-pumped to cheer for her own aim before landing feet-first into the wall of the bank. Retracting her zipcord, she kicked backward in a long flip that sent both feet smashing into the chest of another man running off with the cash -- the blow knocking him face-first into Batwoman's fist.