Chapter Text
"Good morning, Gotham!" Eagerly declared Dr. Barbara Ann Minerva as she threw aside the curtains and embraced what passed for daylight outside her hotel room.
Compared to what she was used to getting in her adopted home of Gateway City, Gotham was overcast and brooding to an almost comical degree. The archeologist wasn't bothered in the least; any result that didn't involve the city meeting her exuberance with gunfire counted as a win in her book.
So far as she was concerned, Barbara might very well be the only happy person in Gotham. Well, the only happy non-supervillain in Gotham. Well, the only happy non-homicidal supervillain in Gotham…
However finely you cared to parse the matter, what was important to Barbara was that she had two very good reasons for her current state of comparative euphoria. The first was that her girlfriend Diana was back from her homeland of Themyscira, and once more cohabiting with the archeologist. The second was that Gotham University had agreed to her request to join the team that was currently translating the world's first complete copy of the Aethiopis (recently provided by a mysteriously unknown donor).
The epic poem took place between the Iliad and the Odyssey, and a fair chunk of it was dedicated to recounting the story of Penthesileia, an Amazon Queen who came to aid Troy after the death of Prince Hector. Barbara would never claim that the book was her own personal holy grail, but it was unquestionably a superlative stein.
The chance to get in on the ground floor of translating one of the most famous works of ancient Greek mythology in which Amazons played a major role was more than enough of a reason for Barbara to make the trip all the way from California. It was also enough to put a smile on her face even though she was spending her time in Gotham, a place that was widely regarded as... far from an ideal vacation spot.
Besides, as an archeologist, Barbara couldn't help but squeeze at least some enjoyment out of spending time in one of the oldest cities in America; there was just something about the city that seemed to call out to her. Granted, given that this was Gotham and her own "extra legal costumed activities", the something in question was probably a malefic chemical in the water. While the murder rate in Gotham wasn't as bad as one might expect, the city did have more supervillains than any other in America.
"You'rrre a prrretend supervillainess." Cooed Bastet, the Egyptian deity of cats and pleasure, in a voice that only Barbara could hear.
Bastet was the archeologist's divine patron, as the feline goddess had (after an accident involving a mystical dagger) bestowed upon Barbara the ability to transform into a bipedal cheetah. A bipedal cheetah who could lift tanks, break the sound barrier with a light jog, and whose claws could cut through solid steel.
It was a very nice benefits package, one that Barbara had proceeded to thoroughly misuse for the purpose of spending additional time with her girlfriend by fighting Wonder Woman as the supervillainess Cheetah. It was a most likely insane plan that had so far worked out disturbingly well, as somehow the Amazon Princess's famed Lasso of Truth had yet to wind its way around Cheetah's flesh (or at least not while Diana was wielding it; that incident at the zoo didn't really count).
"You're up early," Diana noted from her prone position in the bed that the two had shared last night.
"I've got a good reason to," Barbara answered instantly.
Then she paused a moment, rethought her comments, and adjusted them for the situation she currently found herself in.
"Not that staying in bed with you wasn't..." The archeologist began to fumble her way through a not especially coherent response as she struggled to find the right words.
"Barbara, I'm not like Eros who once tried to lock his bride away from the rest of the world. I would never desire to be the sole source of joy in my beloved's life." The Amazon Princess reassured the archeologist, having expertly deduced the reason for her sudden uncertainty.
All the same, Barbara did join Diana on the bed and was rewarded for her journey by the sensation of Diana's fingers gently running through the archeologist's hair.
"We may not have time for a ritual of Aphrodite; I already called a cab company to arrange my trip to Gotham University." Barbara cautioned the Amazon Princess.
"Yet more proof that Zeus was justified in his rebellion against Cronus. Stay safe; Gotham University isn't such a hotbed of evildoers that you're likely to wind up in danger, but every so often it is still targeted by supervillains." Wonder Woman warned her girlfriend.
"Isn't Scarecrow the one who attacks it most frequently, though? Gods willing, it'll be a while before he breaks out of Arkham again." Barbara noted with a shrug of her shoulders.
The archeologist had researched what to expect during her time at Gotham University… and she (or at least her feline alter-ego) also had been somewhat personally involved in Professor Jonathan Crane's current sojourn in Arkham Asylum.
"That's right. I'm still surprised that he thought he could get away with betraying Cheetah." Diana replied with a smile, which, combined with her words (much like the archeologist having her hair caressed), did things to Barbara.
"Though I suppose it does go a long way to explaining why he once showed the hubris to declare himself the new god of fear." The Amazon Princess added upon further reflection.
"So with him taken care of, are there any other supervillains I should be worried about?" The archeologist inquired as if she hadn't spent nearly as much time brushing up on Gotham's costumed criminals as ancient Greek in preparation for this job; if nothing else, Diana would have been able to get her information straight from the Bat's mouth.
"Martian Manhunter set up a telepathic link between us after you fell asleep. It seems that the newest supervillain in Gotham goes by the name Orca, and she recently stole a diamond called the 'Flame of Persia' from the heiress Camille Baden-Smythe." The Amazon Princess answered.
"What is with supervillains and naming themselves after animals?" Barbara groaned, even if she was painfully aware of the hypocrisy inherent in Cheetah making such a complaint.
"The good news is that no one died during the theft, and since Orca's body seems to have been mutated to function better in water, even if Gotham University had some incredibly rare jewel on display, she isn't likely to strike that far inland." Wonder Woman reassured the archeologist, while completely ignoring Barbara's comment regarding criminal nomenclature.
The archeologist knew she'd have to be going fairly soon, but Barbara couldn't stop herself from starting to sort through her luggage, looking for the laptop she'd brought with her to Gotham.
"Diana, let's play a little game. The rules are simple. We're going to see how long it takes me from the moment I do an internet search to when I discover that at least one horrible crime was committed in the process of someone with a name like 'Camille Baden-Smythe' becoming the owner of a diamond called the 'Flame of Persia'. If I can't find one before my cab gets here, I'll consider it time well spent to regain some faith in humanity." Barbara explained as she booted up the device.
She closed her laptop before the cab arrived.
"How bad was it?" The Amazon Princess truly was a glutton for punishment, or at the very least, never backed down from looking an ugly truth in square in the face.
"Let's just say it's never a good sign when a diamond is explicitly mentioned as needing to be turned over to the victors in a peace treaty. Granted, the Flame of Persia is actually the result of that gem being cut apart, with the Flame being only around a quarter of the original diamond." The archeologist announced while shaking her head.
"Well, if Batman feels the need to have me help him recover the Flame of Persia or deal with any other threats Gotham is facing, I'm sure he won't be shy about reaching out to me. If he doesn't, I'll see you this afternoon." Diana promised.
"It'd say that'll be the highlight of my day, but I mean, I see you pretty frequently, and Aethiopis!" Barbara gushed.
XXX XXX XXX
"Gotham University." Even though Barbara had already told the dispatcher her desired destination, she figured it couldn't hurt to inform her driver as well to be on the safe side.
Said driver (a man in his mid-forties) exhaled a heavy sigh in response, and thanks to his rearview mirror, the archeologist noticed him rolling his eyes.
"Something the matter?" She inquired, keeping her tone polite.
"Look, no… as little disrespect as possible intended, but nobody who lives in Gotham and is completely sane looks as happy and energetic as you do. So the way I figure, inside five years max, I'm probably gonna be seeing you on the news wearing some crazy getup as you either hold the city hostage for a huge pile of cash, or throw it into chaos to avenge some personal slight." Her driver freely admitted.
I think Batman may have some competition for the world's greatest detective. This guy has been in my company for less than half a minute, and already he's picked up that I'm giving off supervillain vibes. I'm not even mad; I'm honestly impressed!
"I'm from out of town and only in Gotham for a short while to take care of a business project." Barbara quickly clarified, hoping that would help set him at ease; not only was it just generally the right thing to do, but the last thing she wanted was to be conveyed to Gotham University by someone who was too anxious to drive properly.
Sure enough, her words solicited a long sigh of relief and something roughly approaching a smile from her driver.
"Oh, that's a load off my mind." The driver noted with relief and maybe even some of whatever ersatz delight native Gothamites experienced.
Barbara could have just let the matter drop there… but she also could have opened her hotel room windows without a cheerful greeting to a city that was known for being anything but warm and welcoming. Simply put, Barbara Ann Minerva was not good at letting sleeping dogs lie.
"If this place is so depressing that you peg anyone acting too happy sliding down a slippery slope to supervillainy, why do you still live here?" She asked as her driver piloted his vehicle out onto the streets of Gotham.
"City's a buyer's market when it comes to home ownership. There's nowhere huge real estate companies like to invest in less than Gotham, because they're worried whatever they buy is gonna get smashed up by Bane, turned to compost by Poison Ivy, or blown up by the Joker." He answered with unrestrained gallows humor.
"Any of that ever happen to your home?" Barbara wasn't sure if asking such a question was considered a faux pas in Gotham, but hopefully if it did she wouldn't arouse too much ire given her previously mentioned status as someone unfamiliar with the city.
"Nah, I've been lucky so far, knock on wood. What about you? Have you had any problems with the costumed creeps wherever you're from?" The cab driver managed to sound like he was genuinely interested.
"Well, it's not exactly something I normally brag about, but there was this time I was tied to a gigantic mousetrap…" Barbara leaned forward as she began to recount the tale.
XXX XXX XXX
"And that is why I promise if I ever do decide to become some kind of Greek mythology-themed supervillainess, you will be spared my wrath," Barbara concluded as she made sure to tip her driver twenty-five percent before exiting his vehicle.
"Well hey, now I've got that going for me!" The cabbie declared with faux excitement, saluting her.
XXX XXX XXX
The staff of Gotham University greeted Doctor Barbara Ann Minerva with the cordiality due to an expert who had traveled from the other side of the country. Hands were shaken, polite chit-chat took place, and then everyone involved in the project got down to work.
Thankfully, the process of creating a digital copy of the work had already been handled before Barbara arrived (and once you had a single digital copy it could be turned into over a hundred more with ease) so that everyone involved in the project could have their recreation of the text to work from, rather than needing to lean over one another's shoulders.
Barbara spent roughly three quarters of the day getting started on her own translation and the remaining quarter arguing (respectfully) with her fellow researchers on why certain portions of their own translations left room for improvement. If she'd felt like pressing her luck, she could have asked for some private office so that she could safely transform into her feline alter ego with minimal risk of someone noticing and applied her Cheetah Speed to the task, but the increase in productivity wouldn't be worth how much suspicion she'd generate by doing an entire week's worth of work in one day.
So instead she kept her productivity down to what her colleagues would expect from a normal person, or at least like a "normal" person who had obtained a pair of PhDs before she'd turned twenty-seven. There were, after all, far worse fates for Barbara Ann Minerva than spending all day translating sections of an ancient Greek story about an Amazon Queen...
XXX XXX XXX
The archeologist heard a pair of footsteps approaching her from behind but didn't look up from her work.
"Hello again..." Barbara greeted the new arrival in Amazon and closed her sentence off with a word that did not translate especially well into other languages; it combined the sexual connotations of "bedmate" with the emotional depth of "beloved," topped off with the exclusivity of "soulmate". The closest English translation would be something like "one who fills my heart with joy and my body with passion every night we spend together."
"How did you know it was me?" The Amazon Princess sounded genuinely intrigued that the archeologist had deduced her identity from the sound of her footsteps alone.
"My laptop says it's five after five, and I just overheard somebody asking for an autograph," Barbara answered with a self-satisfied grin.
"And here I thought I was done spending time with the greatest detective in Gotham today." Diana declared with obvious amusement at the archaeologist's accomplishment.
"Well, speaking as evidently the greatest detective from Gateway City, were you able to find the Flame of Persia while I was busy?" The archeologist couldn't help but wonder.
"No, but that's hardly surprising. Gotham is a big city, and unlike Superman, I don't have X-Ray vision to help me look around. That's even assuming that it's in some conventional place in Gotham rather than Orca keeping it in some underwater lair..." The Amazon Princess was, as always, perfectly willing to be honest about her shortcomings (what few of them there were).
"Do supervillains frequently have underwater lairs?" Barbara wondered if she should feel like she was "missing out" on part of the "fun" of being a supervillainess given that she didn't have an abandoned zoo, nature preserve, or other suitably thematic location to serve as her personal base of operations.
"Enough of them that Batman doesn't feel comfortable ruling out the possibility without doing a thorough sweep of Gotham's waterways first." Diana confirmed that the archeologist was indeed "slumming it" so far as her alter ego's criminal lifestyle was concerned.
"Just one more thing, how many ninjas did you fight today?" Barbara inquired with a relaxed smirk.
"Barbara, you should know that it's actually quite rare for people in Gotham to be attacked by ninjas." Wonder Woman sighed while shaking her head.
"I can't help but note that 'rarely' is not the same as 'never'. Come on, oh 'Spirit of Truth,' how many ninjas?" Barbara needled her girlfriend to a degree that if anyone else had done it to Diana, the archeologist would have been tempted to shove their head through a wall.
"Three. To be clear, they all attacked me at once rather than being attacked multiple times over the course of the day." The Amazon Princess admitted with a rueful chuckle while the archeologist couldn't help but pump her fist with wicked glee at having taken a shot in the dark only to still hit the bull's-eye.
"So, do you have any ideas about what people can do in Gotham after dinner that doesn't involve committing, fighting, or being the victim of crimes?" Barbara wondered as she began the process of cataloging and saving her day's accomplishments.
"Believe it or not, I actually asked Batman a somewhat more tactful variant of that question, which is how I learned that Gotham Aquarium is open until 9 PM." Diana shared the information with a look of eager delight in her eyes.
Barbara did a quick mental check to confirm that the two of them had never gotten around to visiting Gateway City's Aquarium at any point in their relationship, since the Amazon Princess was as well known for her neophilia as her compassion. All things considered, it wasn't like the archeologist was completely free of that particular condition herself; it was just that a lot fewer things about the World of Men were new to her than to someone who had grown up on Themyscira. Still, even if she was looking forward to the prospect, Barbara found it hard to lay aside her verbal barbs.
"Is that the one where the Joker..." The archeologist began.
"No, that was the city's 'Oceanside Aquarium,' and the place was closed for renovations when it happened. You really are such a pessimist sometimes..." Wonder Woman chided her beloved gently.
"What can I say, those of us who don't have superpowers can only try to make up the difference by being paranoid enough to consider even the most remote possibility," Barbara explained her particular thought process, or at least covered for her intentionally poking fun at the seemingly cursed nature of Gotham.
Diana's eyes widened to a degree that seemed thoroughly disproportionate in response to the archeologist's comment.
"You know, I heard Batman tell me more or less the same thing today." Wonder Woman pointed out with something between amusement and pride.
"Well, I hope the two of you had decent luck hunting for criminals earlier today, since something tells me that I'd make a pretty lousy sidekick." The archeologist insisted.
In this particular case, that "something" was that Barbara was currently a member of Diana's rogues' gallery.
"Don't be so sure; I'll make an Amazon of you yet, Dr. Minerva." Wonder Woman swore as she gently took her girlfriend's hands in her own.
"See, Kitten, I'm not the only one who believes in you." Bastet chimed in eagerly.
Barbara really didn't understand why so many people (well, one Amazon Princess and one Goddess) felt utterly certain that they knew her better than she knew herself.
XXX XXX XXX
So it was that Barbara and Diana eventually took a trip to the Gotham Aquarium. Almost no sooner had Barbara set foot in the place than her mind began to shift through the various edge cases where important historic relics might be located underwater for some reason or another (not including the ones from the "humanish" civilization Aquaman ruled over; such an obvious example felt like cheating in this particular mental exercise).
"Poseidon's realm is full of secrets, isn't it?" Barbara reflected as she watched what she'd thought was a rock reveal itself to be a cleverly disguised octopus.
"One of my first adventures as a member of the Justice League involved going to Atlantis; the experience gave me a healthy respect for how a ton of water can sometimes be a more dangerous foe than one of stone." Wonder Woman admitted candidly.
Barbara felt like there was nothing quite like a trip to the aquarium to make someone feel profoundly glad that they mostly worked on dry land.
"My, what big teeth you have..." She intoned cautiously as the Aquarium's orca came swimming by in just the right way for the lighting to highlight its large and equally pointy teeth.
"Her name is Esther." A third female voice abruptly joined the conversation.
Barbara turned around and found she and Diana were being addressed by a strawberry-blond woman with blue eyes. The woman was dressed in a simple orange T-shirt and blue jeans, but her most noticeable feature was the fact that she was seated in a wheelchair. A few moments of closer inspection revealed the wheelchair to be of the purely muscle-powered variety rather than a newer/more expensive electrical one.
"You come here often?" Barbara asked the woman, taking a brief moment to retrace her mental steps, trying to figure out exactly how much difficulty someone would have traversing the aquarium in a wheelchair.
"I work here, Dr. Grace Balin." Grace introduced herself.
The Archeologist blushed openly at having allowed herself to be so presumptuous; after all, whatever might become of her fieldwork, it would have taken more than a leg injury to make Barbara give up on archeology. She stepped a little closer and offered her hand to the aquarium employee to shake as a small means of apology.
"Dr. Barbara Ann Minerva, first time visiting, as you could probably tell." She took a moment to introduce herself.
"So what did you get your doctorate in?" Grace inquired politely.
"One in Greek Mythology, a second in Archeology. You?" Barbara answered, as the two women shook hands.
"Marine Biology and biomedicine." Grace likewise explained.
Barbara was impressed; very few people who didn't have two PhDs were able to truly grasp the amount of work involved in obtaining more than one doctorate.
Though the instant the exchange was completed, she still abruptly pulled away (with Dr. Balin doing the same to the extent she could in a wheelchair) as if the other woman's appendage had been coated in some deadly poison, as they both thrust accusing fingers at the other's face.
"S.T.E.M!" Hissed Barbara.
"Humanities!" Cried out Grace.
Barbara clenched her other hand tight against her chest as if intending to rip her shirt apart like someone from an old monster movie about to transform into a werewolf under the full moon's light.
The two just stood there frozen for a few moments before they lowered their digits and began to gently laugh.
"I still don't understand that joke." Lamented Diana.
"Oh, it's simply academic posturing. The rivalry isn't that bad unless someone feels like being a jerk about it." Barbara did her best to shed light on the mysterious world of higher learning.
"Besides, it's the business majors that we really need to be looking out for," Grace added with a chuckle.
"First MBA we come across, I'll hold them down against the floor so you can roll over them a few times!" Barbara eagerly suggested.
XXX XXX XXX
The rest of the evening went quite well, with Diana and Barbara not hitting another snag until they'd returned to their hotel room. Almost the exact moment the archeologist started to undress, the Amazon Princess suddenly got a particular look in her eyes. The kind that could mean only one thing: Diana was currently receiving a telepathic message.
Barbara went rather still herself, and waited for her girlfriend to finish whatever mental discussion she was having, uncertain how much of it Wonder Woman would feel at liberty to share.
"It turns out that Batman has some places he would like to be investigating tonight, and would prefer if I could 'pinch-hit' for him so he doesn't have to worry about getting distracted by random supervillainy. I hate to..." The Amazon Princess began to apologize, as if this trip wasn't the platonic ideal of a "working vacation".
"Listen, Diana, this isn't exactly going to be the first time your superheroine career has gotten in the way of us spending time together. The fact that it's doing it in Gotham isn't that different from when it would happen in Gateway City. If you want to do something to lift my spirits, just promise me what time I can expect you back." Barbara offered.
A short while later, the archeologist had her answer and was busy constructing mental timetables about exactly how much trouble Cheetah could get up to while Barbara still got back to her hotel room half an hour before Diana had promised to return.
Well, that, and also where exactly she should be causing said trouble, since it wasn't like she had any clues about where Orca or the Flame of Persia might be found.
Okay, since this is Gotham... if I was a character in a cheesy film noir story who was looking for some random illegal activity to try and get myself caught up in, where would I go?
The docks!
XXX XXX XXX
Doctor Grace Balin looked at the test tube full of glowing green liquid carefully concealed behind a hidden wall in her office closet… and then at the Flame of Persia hanging from a hook right next to it.
This was unquestionably not where she had expected her research would take her. It was ironic; she'd already been years into her work on the possibility of regenerating human spinal cord tissues using samples of orca genetic material before an accident had transformed her work from completely philanthropic to personally motivated.
Grace had always wanted to believe in people, not just in any individual person, but in humanity as a whole. She'd wanted to believe people could be driven to act simply for the benefit of others and not just what was good for themselves. That had made it a bitter pill to swallow when she realized that her research started progressing faster once it was her own spinal cord in need of repair.
Still, it wasn't like she intended to hoard the cure once it was ready; it just wasn't ready yet. Not only did her current treatment only work temporarily, but it came with some… extreme side effects.
"Why do we keep doing this to ourselves?" Muttered the scientist as she ran a hand gently along the test tube, thinking of all the other researchers whose work had ended up achieving a similar outcome.
Dr. Kirk Langstrom and his work with bats, Dr. Emile Dorian and his work with cats, Dr. Achilles Milo and his work with wolves. There were probably others, but the fact that similar formulas had been created by three other scientists in her city within the last decade made Grace wonder if she shouldn't put her current work on hold to instead do some chemical analysis of Gotham's water. It wasn't like Grace had actively wanted to come up with a substance that, when ingested, temporarily transformed someone into a hulking mix of human and orca!
"Hulking" was indeed the operative word; when she became Orca, Grace was well over six feet tall, and saddled with a spine that was held together by the genetic equivalent of duct tape. After transforming, she could only actually support her own body's weight for ten minutes or so before the pain started. Unsurprisingly, just like how whales would suffocate under their own weight on dry land, Orca fared far better in the water.
For the moment, she left the test tube where it was and instead removed the Flame of Persia and set it down on her desk, knowing that this late at night there was unlikely to be any unexpected visitors and her office door was securely locked. The diamond was worth six million dollars, more than enough money to fix not only her own problems but those of a great many needy people as well.
There was just one thing that needed to be sorted out first.
Grace might not have a doctorate in economics, but even she could grasp that a rare metal or a "priceless" gem's worth was painfully insubstantial until you managed to find the right buyer; or to put it more bluntly, you couldn't eat diamonds. Hopefully tonight would be the last night that the Flame of Persia remained in her possession, not because she was afraid of being caught with it, but because she wanted to have the resources to help people again rather than just sit and stare at her (mocking?) reflection in a expensive chunk of highly compressed carbon.
No matter how little good it was doing sitting on her desk, the Flame of Persia had a thousand times more capacity to do good there than it did hanging around the neck of Camille Baden-Smythe: runner of several illegal sweatshops, owner of at least one slum, and who knew how many other crimes she'd gotten away with by bribing the right people?
Given the way that she acted, one might argue that Grace (as Orca) snapping the diamond's chain and yanking it free from the heiress' throat was long-deserved karmic payback. Dr. Balin didn't think quite that highly of herself, though. A lifetime of trying to do the right thing had somehow landed her here… and yet, for better or worse, she was still trying to do the right thing.
She needed to offload the Flame of Persia to anyone who would be willing to take it for a reasonable price, a "paltry" million dollars; one-sixth of its theoretical worth would be more than enough at the moment...
Grace's thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a knock at the door. She swiftly hid the Flame of Persia in her desk just in case it was someone other than the person he was expecting (one of the few advantages of being paraplegic was that very few people got offended if you took a while to get around to answering the door after they knocked) before wheeling herself over to her office door.
She swung it open to reveal her friend Salman Jared, whom she'd first gotten to know when he'd shown up at the soup kitchen which Grace still worked at whenever she got the chance.
People like Salman were one of the few small bright spots remaining in Grace Balin's existence. After a lifetime of doing what she could to help people who might as well have nothing, now that she was finding herself in the same sinking boat, those she'd previously helped were almost shockingly willing to repay her past generosity in any way they could. She'd realized that there was no reasonable way for her to explain having come into possession of the Flame of Persia without simply flat-out admitting that she was Orca, so she'd simply told him the truth (even if she had been second-guessing herself every step of the way).
Salman responded by being his usual phlegmatic self and greeted the knowledge that Grace Balin moonlighted as a supervillainess with a surprising lack of horror or fear. Granted, at the moment Orca had killed the same number of human beings as actual orcas in the wild: zero.
"Thank you for coming." She greeted him while removing the stolen diamond from her desk, eliciting a whistle of approval from Salman.
"So tonight is the night?" He asked, reaching out to take it from her.
"Yes. I've talked to people who have talked to people. Captain Grosz's boat is docked in the harbor, and he'll be expecting you." She reassured him.
"And I don't need to bring a gun or anything?" Salman worried as he slipped the gem into a pants pocket.
"I'll be your backup. I can't be with you every step of the way, but I'll be in the water nearby and ready to help if you need me." Grace promised.
That was one of the advantages of living in the Gotham Aquarium; Orca could easily have access to the city's waterways without the supervillainess walking around in public, or Grace leaving her wheelchair somewhere it would need to be recovered from after she transformed.
"I'm still amazed that you're willing to do all this stuff for us." Sighed Salman while shaking his head in wonder, patting the pocket that now held a gem worth more money than he'd probably seen in his entire life.
"I'm still amazed at what you're willing to do to help me." She admitted candidly.
Just because she had two doctorates didn't make Grace any different from people like Salman Jared or Gotham's many other poor and destitute. For one thing, in a few weeks at most, when Camille Baden-Smythe's lawyers finally got their way, Grace would be evicted from the Gotham Aquarium, leaving her homeless, and if the building was bulldozed the way Camille Baden-Smythe wanted, the scientist would be unemployed as well. On top of that, like many of Gotham's downtrodden, Grace also had a "problematic" relationship with certain chemicals and how they impacted her finances these days. Her research needed funding, badly. She was able to scrounge up enough materials to make multiple samples of her current formula, but if she was ever going to create a more refined version, she'd need a lot more money.
Such was the life of being Gotham's newest supervillainesses. Grace genuinely had no idea how the Joker was able to afford such an elaborate arsenal of gadgets for his various evil schemes. It honestly felt like anyone wealthy enough to actually afford to be a supervillain surely was already rich enough that they didn't need to concern themselves with stealing even more money. Alas, as her interactions with Camille Baden-Smythe had taught Grace, the world unquestionably had people in it for whom, when given "too much," decided it was instead "not enough".
Grace might have found herself in an insane place in her life where supervillainy felt like not just the best, but downrightly only answer for her problems… yet at least she wasn't that kind of person; that had to count for something. Didn't it?
End of Chapter 1.
AN: This story takes place between chapters 27 and 28 of my story Changing Her Spots. https://archiveofourown.org/works/77523361/chapters/203018506 and is heavily inspired by the three-issue arc of Batman Volume 1 issues 579-581 (written primarily by Larry Hama but with Scott McDaniel credited alongside Larry for issue 580), which first introduced Doctor Grace Balin/Orca.
Eros is the original Greek name for a deity who is more famous by the name the Romans eventually gave him, "Cupid". The story of his and his wife Psyche's romance is a long and winding one that you can read about here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupid_and_Psyche if you're interested. Suffice to say it started in a less-than-ideal manner, but things did actually get better over time (which isn't something you can say about every divine marriage in Greek mythology, looking at you, Zeus).
In actual Greek Mythology, there's "Cronus," the Titan who was the father of Zeus, and "Chronos," the Greek personification of time; these are two different entities. In DC Comics, they're smushed together https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Cronus_(Prime_Earth), though, to be fair, they get smushed together sometimes in real life as well https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronos. This is why Diana, complaining about not having enough time with Barbara, comments on the cruelty of Cronus.
Scarecrow declaring himself a god of fear is from Shadow of the Bat Issue 17. You can tell that he was REALLY full of himself in that story because he also claimed he was an omniscient god https://i.imgur.com/byEfe1V.png rather than "only" being equivalent to one from Greek mythology.
Barbara's comment about "it's never a good sign when a diamond is explicitly mentioned as needing to be turned over to the victors in a peace treaty" is a real-world reference to the Koh-i-Noor diamond that was explicitly mentioned as required to be handed over to Queen Victoria as part of the end of the Second Anglo-Sikh War. I added the bit about the gem being cut apart because the Koh-i-Noor is supposedly worth somewhere in the area of a billion dollars, which is way more than the "paltry" six million the Flame of Persia is referenced as being worth.
Since Gotham was founded in the 1600s (see here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotham_City), that defaults to meaning it is located on the Eastern Seaboard; thus Barbara's comment about it being "on the other side of the country" from Gateway City in California is 100% accurate.
When Barbara asks "Is that the one where the Joker..." she's alluding to Oceanside Aquarium (because apparently Gotham has at least two different aquariums, but it's Gotham, what are you gonna do) https://dcau.fandom.com/wiki/Oceanside_Aquarium, which the Joker used as a hideout at one point.
When Diana talks about "one of my first adventures" and how it involved going to Atlantis, she's talking about "The Enemy Below," the second "regular" episode pair of the Justice League Cartoon show. At one point in that pair of episodes, Diana and her teammates got put in a classic yee-old "room-filling-with-water" death trap and seemed unable to escape until Queen Mera freed them.
It's a little hard to tell with 100% certainty, but given how she looks in Batman Issue 579 (the first issue she shows up in) https://i.imgur.com/51hOtRK.png, I feel justified in saying that Grace Balin is a "strawberry blond" rather than just a straight-up blond like, say, Veronica Cale.
MBA (in the context Barbara uses it) stands for "Master of Business Administration"; it's the kind of degree that you typically get if you're interested in being a white-collar CEO or other executive position.
I don't think it's ever been made expressly clear exactly what kind of accident left Grace Balin paraplegic, so I continue that trend of having it be vague as well.
In issue 579, Orca has Batman on the ropes before abruptly declaring that she needs water… which doesn't really make sense since Orcas are mammals that breathe air; thus, my own spin on it is that it's not that Orca needed to drink/breath water, but instead to get back into the water to take the weight off her damaged spine.
Needless to say, this chapter is just me dipping my toes (pun intended) into the concept of Barbara and Grace crossing paths; there is a reason why this is going to be a multi-chapter fic!