Batgirl (Barbara Gordon - DCAU)

The problem with...

The thing about Harley Quinn.

You never quite knew which Harley you were going to get. She could be surprisingly empathetic - this is a woman who talked Poison Ivy out of murder, which would be rather like if King Canute had ordered the tides to roll back out and they actually had, while asking politely "how far out?" And in that vein, she could do tremendously good things, being akin to a friend an ally.

Then there were the other days when that other facet of Harley landed side up and you had to chase her down because she was gunning her way out of the mint.

But there was a third, much more dangerous Harley.

That was the one who landed like a hand grenade - with nails taped to it - in the midst of already developing chaos. Which was the current occasion, hurray! And with Batman out of town, it was her job to deal with what could only be described as a 'incipient shitshow.' She liked the balance of vocabulary and vulgarity there, what could she say?

The facts, such as they are, were these: the Gotham mobs had come to a territory-sharing agreement. One they had actually written down complete with maps and signed affidavits because Lord knew the unwritten ones hadn't taken in the past. But this was meant to be safeguarded by being stored in a secure vault hidden in a disused restaurant for kids.

Which would have been the last place anybody would look for it, since it wasn't officially tied to any Gotham crime syndicate. But who should come by to ransack a place for mementos because she had nostalgia for it? That's right! Guessed it in one! And the floor art they had buried their documents beneath because nobody would ever look under it?

Ding ding ding.

So now Harley Quinn had the most important documents in the history of the Gotham mob, which meant every single one of them wanted her dead yesterday. And it got to fall on Batgirl's shoulders to keep her upright. And hopefully get said documents.

The joys of being part of the Gotham set.

Life moved fast, she reflected. A few weeks ago, there hadn't been a portal connecting one version of New York to another version of Gotham. And yet, there it was, quite literally joining bridges. Nobody was entirely sure yet who had caused it or perhaps what - and a weird sort of pride had sprung up around trying to claim a weird yet undeniable achievement as either part of New York or Gotham. But there were also practical considerations, and she honestly loved seeing that side of Gotham coming out.

The logic was simple: there was a vast city just sitting there, eager for novelty and a whole Gotham to provide it. It was an opportunity. And so the tourism had started flowing. Then a couple clever entrepreneurs had realized that Gotham's housing prices were slightly lower than New York's, and now people were moving in. It was the spirit of both cities at their best. Weird portal joining bridges from two different realities? Sure, yeah, but apartments were cheaper, so.

So it was full of strangeness and incongruities, but here she was getting a roommate out of it. One who knew who she actually was, which made it even stranger but...better. By far. May was a genuinely fun person to be around, she found, and it made such a change for her. She was, by far, the most light-hearted of the Gotham crime fighting set. And while she loved her surrogate family deeply, difference was nice.

When it had become apparent that May was struggling to afford a place on her own, an offer had made perfect sense. It was a two-bedroom, after all. It was impulsive, sure, but there was no way she could be worse than the last roommmate, and it meant helping her friend. Which is how she came to be carrying the last of May's boxes, plonking it down on the floor and brushing off her hands, a bit theatrically.

"Ta-da, all done."

Coming soon