Detective
Reese (Shemar
Moore)
is in a fight with one of Gotham's low-life’s,
and after a few lucky punches he manages to escape the long arm
of the law. As he runs, Huntress (Ashlea
Scott)
kicks him in the face from the shadows. Reese jokes about her
use of excessive
force, but Helena jests she sees the law as guidelines than a
how-to book. She also makes a joke about having to talk him out
of shooting a suspect a week ago...much to the distress of his
prisoner. Once the guy is safely in the back of a police car,
the two get a little closer, but ends with Helena vanishing when
Reese looks the other way.
While leaping
across the rooftops, Oracle (Dina
Meyer)
contacts Huntress about a jewellery store robbery down town.
Helena quickly
arrives at the scene looking to vent a little, and after kicking
the crap out of a few guys, another vigilante (Kristoffer
Polaha)
smashes through the window and helps finish the gang off.
Huntress is
a little annoyed at first because someone is doing her work in
her city...but it only gets worse when she looks around and he's
gone.
At a park
not too far away, a couple of teenagers are kissing in the
back of a car when a rather large thug (Brian
Thompson) rips
the door off and attacks them, snatching the girl (Samantha
Streets). Later than night,
Reese takes a look at the scene, but the other police there think
it was just a gang of drug users.
Huntress
arrives at the Clock Tower ranting about the mystery hero at
the jewellery
store. Little did she know, he was standing
behind her. Barbara explains that he's an old friend of Bruce
Wayne's and he refers to himself as Darkstrike...and it looks
like they'll be working together. Darkstrike has similar abilities
to Helena - speed, strength and agility. Dinah (Rachel
Skarsten)
arrives asking questions about the "gorgeous guy" and
goes off to make friends which only adds to Helena's annoyance.
Barbara goes
on to explain that Darkstrike is in New Gotham chasing a criminal
known only as The Crawler. Darkstrike tells Dinah that she has
her mothers eyes, and that he mourner the loss of Black Canary.
Moments later,
Reese activates the bat ring from the same location as the
abduction...and
it matches the handiwork of The Crawler.
Both Huntress and Darkstrike arrive at the scene, and watch
from the shadows as Reese talks with the Assistant D.A (Annie
Wersching) who is overseeing the case. She flirts with
Reese a little, and
even offers for him to give her a call sometime. Darkstrike
tells her about the Crawler, and then leaves to do another sweep
of the area while Huntress speaks with Reese. As usual, she appears
out of no where, but as they talk, Darkstrike stalks about,
startling Reese who wonders why Huntress is working with someone
when she says she'd rather work alone. Darkstrike ignores him,
and heads off to leave them to talk in private. Reese says its
obvious that The Crawler is meta-human and asks for all the help
she can give him, to which the readily agrees. She asks how
McNally is, and also about his "new partner" just to
find out who she is and if there is anything between them. Reese
denies there is anything to talk about.
Meanwhile in some
seedy building, The Crawler talks with the abducted girl, saying
she was picked because he wants to destroy
love. As Huntress arrives at Darkstrike's hotel room, she finds
the place trashed. As she scans the room, she hears someone coming
and hides behind the door, but it turns out to be Darkstrike.
As they look about the place, they fear that The Crawler left
them a body...thankfully it's only a mannequin. Darkstrike says
that the dummy is part of a game played by the killer. He goes
on to explain that he tracked The Crawler for a couple of years
in Central City. After lots of profiling and studying, he thought
he was able to get inside his head. He as so close to catching
him until one night on the hunt he gets knocked out and when
he woke up The Crawler had taken his fiancée. He caught
up with her just in time to watch her die. Since then, The Crawler
has left hints as a dare to catch him just like the mannequin.
Huntress takes part of the ponytail to Reese to see if forensics
can get anything out of it. He thinks that keeping half of the
evidence is a mistake, but Huntress tries to reassure him that
she has a state-of-the-art facility. Reese is unconvinced, but
agrees to drop the matter. He instead asks about Helena's mystery
man, laughing at the name Darkstrike. He says he didn't like
the looks of him, and acts a little jealous when Helena says
that he is also working on the Crawler case.
The next day at the
Clock Tower, Dinah talks with Darkstrike. She tells him not
to worry about the girl...if she can be found
Oracle will do it. They talk about crime fighting, and she says
she doesn't think she'll ever fill her mothers shoes. Darkstrike
understands, and tells her that fighting crime isn’t about
being fast or strong, its about the decisions she makes and her
very soul.
Elsewhere, in the office of Doctor Harleen Quinzel (Mia
Sara),
Reese talks with Harley Quinn about The Crawler. Apparently,
she's agreed to provide a psychological workup of the killer,
but needs to know all the juicy details of what turned him into
a killer in the first place. Little does Reese know this is all
for her pleasure rather than to help in the profiling. She says
that The Crawler might see himself as a hero by picking out people
who need to be punished in some way and that there must be a
trigger. She also theorises that the key to catching him is someone
who has been really cruel to him in the past. Reese compliments
Harley on her insight into the criminal mind and thanks her for
the help. Before he goes, she says that she finds evil so much
more interesting than good.
Huntress and Darkstrike go to the car impound to have a look
at the car the Crawler grabbed the girl from. They talk about
the way death changes the way you look at life, and Helena shares
some details about her mother. Darkstrike says that he thinks
the loss they've experienced is part of the reason why he finds
it so easy to dress up in black, use a code name and kick ass...its
like he becomes a different person.
At the Clock Tower, Oracle works to find out something from
the hair that was recovered from the hotel room. Darkstrike
leaves to try and see what he can do elsewhere while Dinah talks
with Helena about the out-of-town superhero, saying she thinks
he's great. She suggests that Helena should dump Reese as a crime
fighting partner and go work with Darkstrike. Helena does admit
its nice being able to be herself with everything out on the
open.
Finally, Oracle finds something from the hair they found and
is able to figure out where the girl is being held. Huntress
kicks in the door and takes on The Crawler herself. He is able
to match her every move, and refers to her as Darkstrike's little
bitch...but Huntress says she's no one's bitch and throws him
out of a window. When she checks on the girl, Dinah and Darkstrike show up. Darkstrike says one minute he was right behind
her and the next flat on his back. Dinah uses her powers to go
into the girls mind to find out what she knows. She sees the
killer through the girls eyes and quickly passes out. Huntress
takes her back to the Clock Tower while Darkstrike stays with
the girl.
Oracle figures out that Dinah was overwhelmed by the girls trauma.
When she wakes up, she says she feels like the girl knew something
really important about The Crawler but she can't remember what
it is. Helena goes home to get some sleep.
At the New Gotham
Police Station, Reese finds out some info on The Crawler from
a buddy of his. Meanwhile, Darkstrike arrives
back at his hotel to find "Your girlfriend is next" written
on the wall. He mutters "Helena" and rushes over the
help her. Helena arrives home to find Darkstrike waiting for
her and he tells her the The Crawler is coming for her.
Back at the Clock Tower, Barbara and Dinah examine the DNA taken
from where they found the girl. There's something odd about the
sample - it keeps changing as if it doesn't know what it wants
to be. Just then, Reese activates the bat ring. As he stands
on a street corner waiting for Huntress to show, the pay phone
beside him rings. When he picks up, he speaks with Oracle. He
quickly figures out she is the voice she always talks to. He
explains that a killer matching The Crawler was killed a year
ago in Central City. Oracle quickly figures out that Darkstrike
is The Crawler.
At Helena's, Darkstrike begins acting odd, and starts have some kind of seizure...and
then morphs into The Crawler. He knocks
Huntress out. When she wakes up, she sees Darkstrike talking
with his reflection, but his reflection is The Crawler. Helena
tries to help him, saying that he can beat The Crawler and he's
stronger. But it doesn't work and he morphs back into the killer.
The Crawler says that Darkstrike has blood on his hands - after
catching up with his fiancée, he watched her die and then
killed The Crawler himself. Overcome with guilt, he became The
Crawler and started killing over and over again. Helena strikes
up a dialogue with The Crawler, and when his guard is down she
jumps him. After knocking him out, he reverts back into Darkstrike just as Dinah arrives.
Darkstrike is put into Arkham Asylum under the watchful care
of Dr. Harleen Quinzel. She chats with him, and they seem to
get on very well indeed. He points out he knows a little about
split personalities and about her association with the Joker.
He tells her about The Huntress, and Harley Quinn is very eager
to know all there is to know about her mystery do-gooder.
Somewhere on the streets, Reese arrests some guy and offers
Helena a swing at him if she really wants. She turns the offer
down and Reese says he's sorry to hear about her friend. She
says that she is too and he two make-up for their argument earlier.
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