Lawndale's Finest
Warning: The following may contain plot or ending details.
A Daria fanfiction series by NightGoblyn and winner of the "Favorite New Series" award in the 4th Daria Fanworks Awards. The stories recast several of the characters from Daria in the roles of superheroes or supervillains from DC comics.
Beginning with "Lawndale's Finest: The Dark Knight," smk has come aboard as the official series editor. LSauchelli and Jim North's entries as story authors make this series a shared world.
"The Dark Knight" won Favorite Crossover, "Detective Stories #3: The Line of Duty" was nominated for Favorite Melodrama, and "Detective Stories" as a whole was nominated for Favorite New Series in the 2009 Daria Fanworks Awards.
Table of Contents[edit]
The first full length story is "The Last Daughter of Krypton," which sets the tone for the series and introduces some of the main characters and many supporting characters. Last Daughter is four chapters long:
The second full length story is "The Dark Knight," which continues the main storyline and introduces Daria Morgendorffer. Like "Last Daughter," it is four chapters long:
In addition to the full length stories, several smaller pieces have been written. Stories under the heading of "Action Stories" tend to involve Jane, Quinn, or Scarlett, while stories under the heading "Detective Stories" tend to follow members of the Gotham PD, ADA Harvey Dent, Daria, or Stacy.
- Action Stories #4: Power Struggle, written by Jim North
- Detective Stories #1: The End of an Era, written by LSauchelli.
- Detective Stories #3: The Line of Duty, written by LSauchelli.
- Detective Stories #5: Belfry, written by LSauchelli.
- Detective Stories #6: Of Monstermen and Holidays, written by LSauchelli. (work in progress)
Time Line[edit]
This section contains SPOILERS.
Stories are listed by abbreviation; LDK is Last Daughter of Krypton, DK is Dark Knight, DS and AS are Detective/Action Stories, and BB is The Brave and The Bold. Three dashes are events that are referred back to, but do not happen "in story." Everything listed in a single entry happens on the same day, which is why some entries are really long - also, by checking events that happen in multiple stories you can track whether more than one entry is following different characters on the same day.
1993
---: Jane's ship lands on the Lane house's front lawn, while a meteor shower rains Kryptonite down on Lawndale killing eight, including Tiffany's birth parents. Baby Jane is a little over a year old.
1996
---: Jacob and Helen Morgendorffer are gunned down in an alley in Gotham City; leaving behind two daughters: Quinn (age four), and Daria (age six).
2002
DS6: Daria travels to Nanda Parbat, and studies with Richard Dragon. While there she learns about magic and studies transcendental meditation, and finally begins to get a handle on her rage.
2003
DS2: Daria enrolls at the Shadow Academy, seeking instruction in martial arts from R'as al Ghul and is instead taught by Henri Ducard; when Daria complains about this to another student (Natalia al Ghul), Nat is shocked because she knows that Henri is really her father, who almost never teaches students personally.
---: Best friends Sandi Griffin and Jane Lane having a falling out because of Sandi's father.
2005
DS2: Daria and Nat vacation in Buenos Ares, where a group of men attempt to kidnap them; they beat the men senseless and Nat has them 'taken away.'
July 2007
LDK1: While jogging, Jane is struck by a black SUV in a hit-and-run accident. Trent sees the accident, and when he sees that she is unharmed, he tells her abuot her extra-terrestrial origin.
August 2007
LDK1: Jane enrolls at Lawndale High for her sophomore year, where she meets Quinn Morgendorffer, a newly enrolling freshman. Quinn lives with her aunt, Amy Barksdale.
LDK1: Jane and Quinn have a run-in with the Fashion Club (Sandi, Stacy, and Tiffany), and Jane has a bad reaction to Sandi's “emerald” necklace. Amy talks to Quinn about lowering her hostility and trying to make friends at school.
LDK1: Quinn, Jane, and the Fashion Club join the staff of the Lawndale Lowdown, the school's newspaper. Later that day, Quinn and Jane test out of the self-esteem class.
September 2007
LDK2: Jane practices using her super senses. First official meeting of the '07 Lowdown staff, including newest member Charles. Quinn, intrigued by Charles, requests that he be assigned to work with her on the city beat. After the meeting, Jane and Quinn get into a fight over Quinn's “man-harem.” Jane goes to the library and researches the meteor shower that happened the same night she came to Earth, and finds out what happened to Jake and Helen Morgendorffer. Sandi goes home and has a fight with her father, claiming that she's old enough (age sixteen) to run her own life now. Her father offers to start including her in the family business – which she discovers is organized crime. Jane visits the Quarry, where most of the Kryptonite landed, and falls ill. She's rescued by Quinn and Amy, and the three are then involved in a car wreck because of Kevin Thompson. Jane, discovering her super strength and super speed, pulls the doors off the car and administers first aid to Quinn.
LDK3: Quinn is in the hospital, in a light coma. Jane freaks out because even with all her powers, she couldn't really help her friend.
October 2007
DS2: Talia and Daria's first mission for the League of Assassins goes terribly wrong because Daria refuses to kill. Talia is badly injured and dies, but is resurrected via Lazarus Pit. Daria decides to return to Gotham – her training is complete, she refuses to join the League, and her sister needs her.
LDK3: Quinn returns to school, and gives Charles a stern talk on how he acts around women. Charles asks her out, and she tells him to spend more time being her friend first. Quinn then gives Jodie information she'd dug up on corruption in the Gotham police department. Sandi goes to Jim Vitale and asks his advice on what to do about Quinn's story; after their talk he assures her the problem will be taken care of.
LDK3: Jane receives a package from Daria with a new coat in it, a thank-you note for saving Quinn's life, and her intention of returning home in the summer.
LDK3: Jane sees Kevin's jeep in the Pizza King parking lot, and recognizes it as the one that ran Amy's car off the road. After a short conversation with Scarlett, Jane uses super speed to disassemble the jeep.
November 2007
LDK4: Jane moves her space ship into the bomb shelter under the basement, and then uses the crystal to activate it and talk to the holomemories of her parents. Quinn's story is printed, and the same day Police Commissioner Loeb is killed by a mafia hit man. Tom Griffin calls Jim Vitale and orders him to stay away from Sandi.
DS1: Lt. Jim Gordon and ADA Harvey Dent track down the hitman who killed Commissioner Loeb, a Texas punk named Todd Ianuzzi. He's killed by a dirty cop before he can be brought in for questioning.
LDK4: Jane makes her Supergirl costume. Jane and Tiffany both prepare entries for the all-county art competition.
LDK4: Quinn and Trent drop off Jane's paintings at the museum for the competition with Elsie Sloane, who is watching the door. Trent leaves, and Quinn stays for coffee so she is present when Stacy and Tiffany arrive to drop off Tiffany's paintings. Tiffany sees something that triggers her transformation into the Eradicator. The Eradicator demands the Last Daughter of the House of El, and Jane obliges by donning her Supergirl costume and going to do battle. Bruno, a mafia hit man, kills Tom Griffin on Vitale's orders.
LDK4: Sandi shoots Angier Sloane and solidifies her position as the new director of the Organization, with Jim Vitale as her advisor. She takes on the pseudonym Lex Griffin.
LDK4: Quinn runs her story about Supergirl past Jane for her approval, and explains how much the world is going to need somebody like Supergirl. After she leaves, Jane swears her oath for a never ending battle against evil.
May 2008
AS1: Quinn and Jane go to STAR Labs Gotham to do a story on nautical engineer Dr. Elaine Allen and her new artificial gill system. While there, Quinn encounters a lab assistant attempting to steal the gill and, with Supergirl's help, she prevents the theft.
June 2008
DK1: Daria arrives in Lawndale in time to accompany Quinn and Jane to Elsie's sixteenth birthday party, where she meets Tom Sloane. Afterwards, Quinn takes Daria to their parents' grave, and leaves her there to mourn.
DK1: By this point, Sandi has slimmed down the leadership of the Organization to herself, Vitale, Cynthia Rowe, and Andrew Landon. Also, she is working on a special project to recruit either Supergirl or the Eradicator.
July 2008
DK1: Daria goes out to scout Gotham and ends up being seriously injured. She barely makes it home, delirious with blood loss and semi-conscious, and sits in the living room trying to decide on how to make the criminals fear her, when a bat flies through the open window.
DK1: Quinn and Charles decide they've been going out long enough to officially declare themselves a couple. Daria goes to the offices of Grace and Page to discuss how they're managing her assets, and decides to fire them and hire Lucius Fox as her new CFO.
DK1: Daria and Amy begin working on the Batcave, the Batcycle, and Batgirl's armor.
DK1: Tomcat breaks into Sandi's house to talk to her about their fathers' murders, and to question her about Lex Griffin.
AS2: Dr. Elaine Allen, along with Dr. Arthur Curry, her niece Scarlett, and Scarlett's best friend Jennifer Burns go on an ocean trip to test Dr. Allen's artificial gill and enjoy the end of summer. Their boat is taken by pirates in the night, and they are rescued by Orin, the King of Atlantis.
August 2008
DK1: Batgirl goes on patrol for the first time, and goes to the office of Harvey Dent.
DK2: School starts. Stacy announces that she's been invited to the Nationals, a pre-Olympic gymnastics competition. Two people have breakdowns during their exams with Dr. Manson, which is less people than usual. After school, Stacy goes to visit Tiffany and discovers that she's been blacking out and losing time. Also after school, Quinn sneaks into Dr. Manson's office and gets fear gassed. That night, Batgirl and Supergirl both break into the school to check Manson's office, and Batgirl finds the doctor's journal.
DK2: In the early morning hours, Dr. Manson flees Lawndale having been warned by Ms. Li that her office had been broken into.
DK2: Manson accidentally doses herself with fear gas and has a psychotic break, becoming the Scarecrow.
September 2008
DK2: The Scarecrow returns to Lawndale, recruits some thugs, and attacks the Lawndale High homecoming dance. She is captured by Batgirl and taken in by the police.
DK3: The Gotham police department starts a Batgirl hunting task force, headed up by Lieutenant James Gordon. Batgirl spies on a meeting between Rupert Thorne and Cynthia Rowe, then ends up having a brief fight with Tomcat, who was also spying on the meeting. Later, Tom has an argument with Elsie about his nocturnal activities, and she decides to move into a dorm at Grove Hills.
DK3: Lex Griffin meets with Rupert Thorne to discuss cooperation between the three crime families of Gotham, and to ask him to kill Cynthia.
BB1:
BB1:
DK3: Arkham Asylum re-opens, due to a grant from the Morning Light Foundation; a wing is named in Quinn's honor. Tom Kyler is hired to kill both Cynthia Rowe and Lex Griffin at the Nationals, which is unfortunate as he's just run out of his anti-psychotic meds.
BB1:
BB1:
BB1:
October 2008
---: Amy hires a body double for Daria, likely the first of several.
DK3: After nearly working herself to exhaustion, Batgirl realizes the instability in the criminal underground is pointing firmly at a major hit or turf war, and deduces that it's likely to be at the Nationals competition. Before the competition begins, Stacy meets fellow gymnast Nat Head (alias Natalia al Ghul). During Stacy's routine, Tom Kyler (now Firefly) blows up the building, killing a lot of people – including Stacy's family. Sandi escapes unharmed, Batgirl captures Firefly, and Supergirl briefly fights Eradicator again. Batgirl and Supergirl (and, unknown to them, the Flash) work together to evacuate the building, and then Batgirl takes Stacy back to the Batcave. Stacy, upon being told the true circumstances of what happened, agrees to join Daria in her war against crime.
BB1:
DS2: Elsie gets a new room mate at Grove Hills: Natalie Head.
November 2008
DK4: Stacy has recovered from her injuries sufficiently that she has started her training to become Red Robin. Daria uses the Bat-Computer to detect the Flash's presence at the Nationals, and to deduce Supergirl's secret identity.
DK4: Quinn and Charles talk about Stacy's injuries, then discover that Mack and Jodie have broken up. Principal Li curtails what the Lowdown will print, much to the general annoyance of the student-reporters. Jane is in Metropolis helping her sister Penny.
AS3: Black suited government agents arrive at Lawndale High seeking “different” people. There is a fire in the school auditorium. Daria hires Melody Powers (alias of Erin Chambers) as a body double.
AS3: Stacy is newly back in school, having recovered from her injuries at the Nationals. Veronica Chambers is taken by government agents who mistake her for Quinn. Erin becomes the Huntress and goes after her sister, and is recruited by Checkmate. Quinn goes to visit Jane, and on the walk over sees a brilliant green meteor. Artie Simmons (the Martian Manhunter) fights, then talks to, Jane; then he leaves to report to Amanda Waller.
DK4: Stacy designs her suit. Daria fights Natalia al Ghul on the rooftops of Gotham.
December 2008
DK4: Quinn's research into Ace Chemicals and the Scarecrow is almost finished. Quinn, Stacy, Daria, and Amy have dinner at Chez Pierre, where they run into Tom, Elsie, and Talia.
DS2: R'as al Ghul visits Gotham to meet with Jim Vitale and check in on his daughter. Talia introduces him to Elsie. Daria goes out on a date with Tom Sloane.
DK4: Red Robin begins surveillance on Ace Chemical, where she meets Tomcat.
DK4: Quinn goes to Charles with the information she's learned about Ace Chemical, and he goes to confront his father. She follows after him to Ace, where they both confront Charles Jr. While they argue, the police surround the building and accidentally start a chemical fire. Quinn is exposed to proto-Smilex fumes, while Charles is dumped directly into a vat of it. Batgirl and Red Robin save the couple, but are unable to rescue Charles Jr. Charles vanishes out of the ambulance he is placed in, leaving three dead paramedics behind. The Joker begins killing former employees of Ace Chemical.
DS3: Captain Jim Gordon and ADA Harvey Dent start investigating the Joker Killer murders, despite higher ranking police trying to keep Gordon away from the case. Quinn awakens in the hospital, and Gordon goes to question her. Meanwhile, the Joker murders the DA, then kidnaps and stabs ADA Dent before fleeing into the night.
DS4: The same night Quinn wakes up, Red Robin is having a dinner meeting with Tomcat to discuss the their different crime fighting philosophies, and Robin's hunt for the Joker.
January 2009
DS4: Robin begins tracking the Joker across the city, her leads taking her to a decrepit hotel in downtown Gotham. Inside a hotel room she finds the body of Janet Barch and a thoroughly insane Timothy O'Neill. As she leaves, she is captured by the Joker, who expresses his disappointment that she isn't Batgirl before proceeding to poison and torture her. Batgirl rescues her before she can be killed and Amy, dressed as the Grey Ghost, arrives to administer the antidote to the poison and other medical treatment.
DS4: Daria redesigns the Red Robin armor for more protection, and adds a microchute to prevent falls from glider failure. Robin has a brief phone conversation with Tomcat in which he accidentally refers to her as his girlfriend. Daria brings the Brother Eye satellite on-line.
DS5: Daria hires prodigy neurologist Amelia Elliot to care for Quinn; Dr. Elliot and Quinn were friends when both girls were younger. Batgirl has a clandestine meeting with Captain Gordon and DA Harvey Dent. Upon awakening, Quinn is less than pleased to be in Amelia's care – apparently their friendship was very one-sided. Batgirl goes to Jane Lane's house with a chunk of Kryptonite to find out if Supergirl is vulnerable to the element, but she is stopped inside by the Martian Manhunter. Upon returning to the Batcave she introduces Amy and Stacy to Brother Eye.
March 2009
AS4: Val Willis, a well known “shock” journalist, travels from Metropolis to Lawndale to track down and interview Supergirl. After their talk, a rattled and upset Supergirl leaves the scene to deal with a new problem, with Val in hot pursuit. Val chases Supergirl into a literal minefield (set by gang leader Carl Draper), and accidentally sets off a Tesla mine and apparently disintegrates.
AS4: A nasty computer virus spreads through-out the Gotham/Lawndale area. Jane learns from a very upset and frustrated Jodie that Carl Draper has escaped police custody. Val reveals herself as the source of the “computer virus,” as she has now become an energy-being composed of electricity. Now calling herself Livewire, she has taken over all electric-powered devices in the area and holds the city hostage for ransom. Supergirl leaps into action, eventually defeating the super-villain.
AS4: Val's former personal assistant, George Harkness, gets a call from his real boss and reports on the events of the last few days. He is ordered to remain in Gotham in order to observe and report on Batgirl.
July 2009
---: Quinn's seventeenth birthday is this month.
October 2009
DS6: Jim Gordon calls on Batgirl to help him investigate a string of bizarre Halloween themed murders.