I read, I write, but rarely do I publish unless something strikes me. This is no work of art, rather my interpretation of what Helena Kyle would do confronted with the batcave that belongs to the Batman of the recent movies. Maybe a bit of my love for the new and improve "batmobile" comes through, but I do not own either Birds of Prey or Batman Begins/Dark Knight. Another note is that I do know that the Tumbler was destroyed in Dark Knight. I work under the assumption that Bruce, being the intelligent hero he is, would have invested in a new one quickly.

"Barbara, you are going to have to repeat that last bit." A finger hovered over the electronic keypad that served as one of the many devises to ensure the protection of the large house. The alarm system control unit looked strangely out of place on the aging manor.

"...1-9-3-8," the female voice over my comm unit yelled. "Helena, are you even paying attention at all? I said that the last four numbers are 1-9-3…"

"I got it," A female voice spat. She suddenly thought that maybe she should consider withholding my tantrum until she can personally yell at the other woman on the unit in her ear. After a forty minute shouting match Helena was breaking her way into one of the most well known buildings in New Gotham, though relatively empty for years, the house held an aura of power and grace that could have only come from a time before Gotham's economic decline.

One of the two entrance doors slowly swung open to reveal the opening to the mansion. Helena entered the threshold after a slight hesitation. She never wanted to set foot in her father's house. The entryway ended thirty feet from the doors where Helena stood. The house seemed to be divided in half, perfectly symmetrical with two rooms and one hallway on each side of the massive walls of the entryway. The end of the hall like entrance was a set of marble stair cases that turned in different directions.

"Are you listening?" Barbara's voice was annoyed sounding. Helena snapped out of her reverie and was secretly glad no one was here with her to see her eyes widen and her mouth hang open at the sight that was Wayne Manor.

"I am. You just didn't tell me how big this place is," Helena couldn't keep the amazement out of her voice.

"Big and mansion are normally synonymous. You need to go down the hallway to your left. We are looking for a study." Helena moved her feet. Her worn Addias made squeaking sounds on the white floor. The hallway came closer and closer, but Helena couldn't help herself and would stop if only for a few seconds and look in the rooms that were located on both sides of the entry hall. In each room were furniture pieces and paintings covered in white cloth. The color gave the eerie feeling of a mausoleum to the structure.

"Are you at the study yet?" Barbara's voice sounded impatient and harsh over the communicator in Helena's ear. Normally the chastising tone would have spurred a sarcastic comment from the young woman, but not today. Helena didn't feel like a grown-up anymore. She felt like a little kid in the middle of a giant playground.

"I'm just turning the corner. I got a little side tracked." Helena finally turned the corner, reluctantly ignoring the stairs at the end of the hall way. She felt like exploring this strange facility. Maybe some other time, she thought, when the all knowing Oracle wasn't inside her head.

"Yeah, don't touch anything," Oracle said as Helena let her hand glide on the smooth wood paneling in the smaller hallway. Inwardly she winced as she pulled her hand away: Barbara always knows. Two of the doors in the hallway were closed and one led to another nameless room, but finally Helena reached the study that Barbara had been urging her towards.

"Oracle, I'm here." Helena looked around curiously. A large library covered the walls of the Wayne study and one large desk sat in front of an ominous looking window. Couches and chairs sat empty and inviting. To be honest, Helena enjoyed this room. None of the white cloth was covering the furniture and the fireplace which the chairs and couches all centered upon appeared to have been used recently. "Has Alfred been hanging out here much?"

"I assume so," Barbara muttered, clearly looking for something on the endless screens of computers that were encircling her. "Most of us spent the majority of our time in that room."

Helena chuckled, "Yeah, I can see it now: Barbara and Dick make out session on the hundred year old love seat." Helena missed Barbara's angry response because of the new discovery she came upon as she maneuvered around the wooden desk.

The oak behemoth held a brass table lamp with a pull string to turn the light off and on and a picture in a simple, but worn silver plated frame. The man and woman in the picture were smirking at the camera and holding each other around the opposites' waste. The woman had dirty blond hair that was blowing in the wind. It was so long that the man looked to be dodging the flailing locks. Her eyes were a warm brown and her heart shaped face was so familiar to Helena that she did not even need to look twice at the picture before she whispered: Mom.

"Helena?" Barbara's voice wasn't as demanding. Barbara could now visualize the scene before her. Helena was lightly tracing the outline of her mother's face in the picture that sat on the desk Bruce had used for years and years.

Helena's eyes though immediately moved from her mother to the man next to her. Bruce Wayne was also a familiar sight. Ever since she had taken senior economics she had become well acquainted with the face of the billionaire, but this was the first time she had looked at him with the knowledge that half of her DNA came from him. It startled Helena how much she didn't look like her mother, how much she looked like him.

"Helena?!?!" Her thoughts were broken by Oracle's impatience. She had given her the time she needed to examine the room and now she was to be back in work mode.

"Here… how do I get in this batcave?" Helena began scanning the room, imagining a giant red button to pop up, but instead of a direct entrance, Oracle rewarded her with a disappointing response.

"You're going to have to use the piano entrance." Barbara was biting her lips right now. Helena knew less about music than she knew about computers. "I need you to listen to me carefully. I'm going to tell you exactly which buttons to push. Are you by the piano?"

Helena walked next to the alien instrument and eyed the eighty-eight keys curiously. "Yeah, I don't…"

" Look, it is either this or you drive me there because every other entrance needs a DNA sample. The first two key are the two white…" Barbara calmly explained the pattern to Helena who listened and carefully pushed the notes which created a discord of the N-B-C theme she had grown up hearing on the television. A door opened to her right and Helena approached the entrance to the Batman's famed lair.

Helena entered the dark elevator that would lower her several hundred feet below the ground into an area few people had entered.

The elevator appeared rusty, but according to her mentor, Helena was perfectly safe pulling the lever that would engage the elevator's pulley system. The old device took both hands to move, but as soon as the bar had been pulled back the elevator began falling downward.

Back at Watchtower, Barbara heard a startled whoa that came from Helena. The young woman was obviously caught off guard by the suddenness of the descent. Barbara smirked. She had plotted and schemed Helena into the batcave, something not even Alfred could do. Helena Kyle wasn't much for reminiscing, but mentioning her father caused a red flag to appear. When Alfred initially suggested the young Kyle live in the mansion, Helena scoffed. Not only had she scoffed, but she gave the old butler the cold shoulder for two days, until Helena thought she was going to die of hunger.

"Barbara, where is this stupid thing I'm looking for?" Helena sounded impatient and anger. Her return to the Watchtower was going to be a fun one.

"The desk," Barbara's voice crackled. Being so far underground obviously messed with the earpiece she had almost broken on many separate occasions. "You are in the entryway. Keep following the tunnel and you will come out into the main part of the cave. You can't miss it."

Helena began approaching the end of the entryway, which was lined with flimsy looking light bulbs. At the end of the corridor the atmosphere lightened, but before Helena could step foot in the lighter and far roomier portion of the cave her eyes caught something. To her left Helena saw what appeared to be an old dresser with oriental like markings covering the front. Unable to contain her curiosity Helena pulled the two main doors apart slowly. The hinges creaked, giving signs to their age. The inside of the dresser held drawers that were dutifully closed and an enclosure that was filled with black cloth. Helena inwardly flinched at finding the suit of the Batman so nicely folded, ready for use. She quickly slammed the doors, pausing only to regret the echoing sound, and entered the batcave.

Inside the cave was no different than any other cave Helena had been in besides the one corner where a large desk sat, covered in a plethora of technological devises. The lighting above was the only other sign of inhabitance, halogen tubes were buzzing lightly, happy to be in use again. As Helena followed the path to the desk her attention turned to the camouflaged garage to her right that she hadn't seen from her previous position.

"Son of a…" Helena felt all her breath leave her body as her eyes fell on one of the many items in the garage. Ignoring her better sense, Helena left the path to the desk and began following a now apparent path that led to the garage.

"Helena," Barbara said, worry in her voice, "what is wrong?"

"Nothing," Helena muttered. Her eyes were focused on the object she had seen from the other side of the cave. After several seconds of trekking across a narrow path and ignoring Barbara's incessant questioning, Helena arrived in front of what appeared to be a black, tank-like transport vehicle.

"Helena, I need to you respond."

"I'm fine," Helena said truthfully. Her hand ran along one of the sharp metallic fixtures. The entrance to the vehicle evaded her as she slunk around the tank. The wheels on the back were two times the size of the forward wheels and sported the wears of time. Scratches coated the car, but Helena didn't care. Deep down she knew this had some lame bat name to it, but for now she could admire the handy work.

"Are you at the desk, yet?" Barbara shouted into Helena's ear, making the young woman jump backwards.

"No," Helena sighed, still staring at the tank. "I'm looking."

"Look faster," Barbara said.

Helena gave the car one last look, almost saying I'll come back for you later and walked away from the garage to gather Barbara's necessities and head out of the house. Twenty minutes later Barbara was sitting happily with a file in her hands.

"Couldn't you have found that on the computer?" Helena stared at the woman who had proceeded to set the folder on her lap and lean back into the middle of the three monitors surrounding her.

"Yes… no…" Barbara stuttered. To be honest, Barbara already had the information right at her fingertips, but she didn't want Helena knowing that.

"Fine, if you need me I'll be at my apartment." Helena was gone faster than Barbara could say okay.

Barbara then leaned over to the screen on her right and clicked a few buttons, bringing up a video feed that showed the bat cave. With the click of a mouse the video rewound back to Helena's entrance. Barbara watched as the curious woman stopped and walked in the opposite direction, off the camera. After changing the camera, Barbara finally saw what attracted her young protégé's attention. Barbara smirked again and muttered to herself, "The Tumbler, should have known."