BATGIRL RETURNS & OTHER TALES OF THE BATGIRL

Batgirl Returns

"Hello, Barbara," the person said. "Long time no see."

"What are you doing in my apartment, Dick?" she asked Grayson coldly. "Last time I checked breaking and entering was against the law. Or do you as mayor exempt yourself from the laws you pass on everyone else?"

"So says the vigilante."

"Tell me what you want, Dick," she said to her former crime-fighting partner-and former lover-impatiently, "or the next batarang is going right into your groin."

"Ouch!" Dick grinned at her, which only seemed to really annoy her. "Have a problem with men, do we, Barb?"

"I only have a problem with some men," she retorted. "And don't call me Barb. You know how I hate that."

"Fair enough."

"So you either tell me what the hell you're doing in my apartment or someone is going to get hurt and it's not going to be me."

"Honestly, Barb, uh, Barbara, I just wanted to see if you were okay, that's all."

Barbara gave him a derisive snort. "I find that hard to believe."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, seeing how you betrayed Bruce, for one thing."

"And how did I betray Bruce exactly?"

"Well, for starters, you publicly supporting that Anti-Vigilante Act."

"Oh that."

She gave him a hard look. "Yeah, that." She waited for a moment for Dick to give her an answer. When he didn't, she asked, "So why did you do it?"

Dick sighed before answering her. "I just felt it was time for Gotham to move past depending on costumed vigilantes to fight crime, especially since I feel we didn't really help stop crime in Gotham. In fact, in some ways, we made it worse."

"What are you talking about? We did a lot of good for this city."

Dick shrugged. "Oh, I admit we put out a few fires her and there. But, overall, the crime rate never really went down when Batman was around, did it? And, if we're to be totally honest, sometimes Batman created the very criminals he claimed to be fighting against."

"What, you mean criminals like The Joker?"

"I mean especially criminals like The Joker."

"You don't seriously believe that, do you?"

Dick shrugged again. "Let's face it, if Bruce hadn't interfered that night and caused him to fall into that vat of chemicals, then chances are The Joker would have been just another low-level thug who would probably be sitting inside a jail cell right now instead of being celebrated as some sort of folk hero in spite of all the harm he's done to the people of this city."

"You mean like what he did to people like me?"

"Yeah."

"You're not honestly blaming Bruce for what that clown did to me, are you? Because what happened to The Joker was an accident."

"No, I'm not blaming Bruce for what happened to you. And I know Bruce would have done everything he could have to have prevented it. But, accident or not, the fact remains if it wasn't for Batman there'd be no Joker. And do I have to remind you what happened to Harvey Dent?"

"No, you don't," Barbara replied softly. "But that was an accident too and you know it."

"Well, Batman tended to have a lot of these accidents that ended up creating way more problems for the citizens of Gotham. And even you can't deny that a lot of the crimes committed by these psychos like The Joker and Two-Face were them trying to one-up or get revenge on Batman in some way. And how many innocent people got hurt or even killed in the crossfire?"