Yuletide 2008
This was my first year doing a fic exchange. I blame dragojustine, who also provided editorial services, including fixing things broken by my comma-splice addiction.
Fandom: Birds of Prey (TV)
Written for featherjean for Yuletide 2008, originally posted here
Helena stared out across the rooftops of New Gotham. The radio link in her ear was silent. Everything was too silent, tonight, even the unending noise and life of New Gotham seemed muted. The urge to move, even just to stir began to make her itch inside her Huntress costume. She forced the urge back, remaining perfectly motionless and nearly invisible in her protective shadows. Five hours motionless, watching, waiting.
"Oracle?" She spoke softly; the radio link crackled to life.
"Any activity, Huntress?" Oracle's voice was slightly chiding. They were supposed to maintain radio silence, and this was the third time Helena had called to complain about how boring stakeout duty was.
"No. Nothing. Where do you get these tips anyway, because if I wind up here all night and nothing happens, I'm going to find your informant and shove his own foot-"
"You know I won't tell even you who my informants are, Huntress. And my sources seemed very sure that tonight was going to be the night."
"That's what you said last month about the bank robbery, Oracle. The bank robbery that I lurked on a cold roof all night to prevent. The bank robbery that never happened. You remember that bank robbery, don't you?"
There was no reply from the radio; Barbara had already signed off. Helena mentally kicked herself. She didn't mean to lash out, but she was bored and frustrated, and when that happened she had a bad tendency to take it out on the people around her. She glanced across the street to the building she was watching, a thirty-story office tower that was all but deserted after sunset. After hours of watching, she hadn't seen a single person approach the doors. She glanced to the next building, a short utilitarian brick building only ten floors tall. Dinah was hidden somewhere on that roof, watching the side of the building Helena could not see, but try as she might, Helena could not detect her. At least that means I've been training her right. She thought about reaching Dinah on the radio, but the thought was interrupted by a piercing scream from below.
"Huntress?" Dinah's voice on the radio.
"I heard it." Helena replied, already leaving her concealing shadows and running for the far end of the rooftop. "I'm closer, so you keep an eye on the target."
"I can help," Dinah suggested, but Helena cut her off before she could add more.
"I know you can, but right now the best help you can give me is to keep watch on that building, ok?"
A grunt and then silence on the radio for a moment, then, "Just be careful."
Helena reached the edge of the roof and threw herself off without hesitation. As she did, she let go of Helena, and embraced the Huntress aspect of herself. She dropped five stories before landing on neighboring building's roof and dropping the remaining distance to the ground. The impact would have crushed normal human bones but Huntress' metahuman body simply absorbed the devastating impact and propelled her forward toward the source of the scream.
The alley she found herself in was dark and cluttered with garbage, smelling from the recent rain. Of course, she thought. When are people going to learn to stay out of these cliche alleys? Not tonight, apparently. Two brutish men had a young woman cornered between a dumpster and the wall. Her clothes looked expensive, but they were filthy -- Huntress guessed she had fallen several times trying to flee these two -- and a bloodstain was soaking through one knee of her pants.
"You look lost, honey," she drawled. The woman looked past her assailants, a look of relief and gratitude in her eyes. Which irritated the Huntress. Silly helpless thing.
The larger of the two men smiled lasciviously when he saw her. "Oh, you want to play too?" He displayed the long knife he had been menacing the girl with.
"Not in the mood tonight, sorry." She never stopped her slow advance. The big one was only five yards away, now four. At three he drew himself up and leveled the knife more seriously. He opened his mouth, and she knew his next sentence would be one that would end with the phrase "and nobody gets hurt."
That was always a lie. She launched herself at him when the distance was about two yards, just as he opened his mouth. All that came out was a rush of foul-smelling breath and a groan of pain as she slammed her booted toe into his solar plexus. He doubled over in pain and she chopped a disabling blow to the side of his neck. He stopped making any sound at all, fell nerveless to the wet asphalt.
The smaller of the pair stared in slack-jawed surprise. "I told him I wasn't in the mood," Huntress told him with a small smile. His eyes shifted from Huntress to the girl, and she could read his intention to grab the girl as a shield. He lunged, but he was no match for the Huntress' speed, his reaching hand found Helena's shoulder instead of the girl. A grab and a simple twist removed the offending hand and put its owner on the ground, shrieking in pain from a broken wrist. None too gently, Helena caught hold of the girl, pulled her out of the alley behind her.
"Thank you so mu-"
But her thanks were cut off by a boom like thunder on steroids. The flash lit up the sky over New Gotham, and the shockwave that followed broke glass for a ten block radius. Thunder? From a clear sky? Then it sank in. The damsel in distress forgotten, Huntress activated her radio link.
"Dinah!" She called into her throat-mic, but got no response. She called again, and a third time before Barbara's voice came on the radio.
"Helena, what happened?"
"I don' t know, there was an explosion - can you reach Dinah, she's not responding."
"No signal from her radio or her tracker, it's possible her electronics were just knocked out in the blast, but.."
"But it's also possible she's lying hurt, or-" Helena stopped talking, didn't mention the worst-case scenario. She abandoned the fire escape and ran around the building.
Sure enough, the blast had been the building they were watching, already smoke was pouring out of broken windows and the whole structure was starting to list to the right. If that collapses, it'll come right down on Dinah.
The next few minutes would never be clear in Helena's mind. The memories jumbled together with fear and not a little anger as she scrambled up another fire escape, leaping up the stairs five at a time. This is when an ascension gun like my father had would come in handy she thought. The burning building was starting to make distressing sounds, like huge iron girders heating, melting, warping. The angle of the list was becoming more pronounced as she climbed up the neighboring building.
Finally she reached the roof. "Dinah!" She shouted, not expecting or receiving a response. There was rubble strewn across the rooftop, and acutely conscious of the building likely to collapse on her at any moment behind her, she began searching.
On the street below strobing lights and sirens approached as fire engines and squad cars began filling up the street.
"Huntress, you need to hurry -- that building looks like it could collapse any second." Oracle's normal calm voice was absent, Barbara sounded panicked.
"Tell me something I don't know," Helena grunted as she lifted a piece of junk and pushed it off the pile. Still no sign of Dinah.
Instinct was screaming at her to run, to get off this roof and away from the disaster that was about to come crashing down around her ears. Instead, she redoubled her efforts. An eternity seemed to pass as she dug.
"Listen, Huntress," Barbara again, this time a horrible resigned note in her voice. I know what's coming now. This is the part where she tells me to save myself. Helena switched off her radio, and threw a piece of masonry that would have taken three large men just to lift off another pile. Her heart thumped in her chest when she saw a flash of pale golden hair. She threw more rubble, heedless of where the pieces landed as she dug Dinah out of pile. She paused long enough to see that her protege was still breathing before throwing her unceremoniously over her shoulder and bolting for the edge of the roof farther from the burning building. The metallic creaking was getting louder and more urgent.
Her landing was awkward, trying to shield Dinah from as much of the impact as she could. Dinah might be already injured and Helena didn't want to do more damage. Behind her, the burning building came down, crashing down onto the building they had just been on. A cloud of dust and smoke obscured the results, but from the sound, both buildings had to be a total loss.
Gently Huntress lowered Dinah to the ground. She was still breathing but unresponsive. She wasn't bloody, but looked battered.
She reached up to her ear and switched the radio back on.
"Helena! Are you alright? What about Dinah?"
"I'm fine." She sucked in a deep breath hoping it would ease the sudden ache in her chest. "I got her."
Two Days Later
Dinah was sitting up in her bed reading a book when Helena entered the Clock Tower. She looked up, smiled. Barbara was sitting, as usual, in front of her bank of computer monitors; she waved one hand absently without taking her attention from the screens.
Most of Dinah's injuries were minor, but her left arm was broken just above the elbow. Dr. Thomkins had set it and pronounced that it would heal cleanly. More serious was the concussion, but Leslie said there was no brain damage, and aside from having problems with her balance and needing lots of rest, Dinah would recover from that as well.
Lots of rest was what she'd been getting. This was the first time Helena had seen her awake since the explosion, and even though Barbara and Dr. Thomkins had said she would need a lot of sleep, seeing her awake was a relief.
"Hey Helena." Dinah's voice seemed entirely too cheerful for someone whose friend had nearly just let die.
"Dinah." Helena looked down as if her shoes were suddenly interesting. Well, she supposed they were a little interesting. Sturdy boots with an elevated heel that managed to look good and not break when she kicked someone.
"Helena..." Dinah's voice lowered.
Helena glanced over her shoulder at Barbara, who pointedly took no notice.
"Helena, it wasn't your fault."
"You're not supposed to listen to my thoughts without permission." Helena tried to veer the conversation away.
"I'm not reading your mind. You're projecting guilt out for anyone to see. I don't need to be psychic to know that."
"I was supposed to be watching out for you!" The words slipped out before her internal censors could kick in.
"You were. You found me, rescued me, right? Neither of us could have stopped the explosion."
"That's what we were there for." Helena kicked herself mentally for sounding sulky when Dinah was the one who was almost trapped under a thousand tons of burning, collapsing building.
Dinah shook her head. "Don't blame yourself, Helena. I don't." She pushed herself up awkwardly on one arm and started to rise.
Helena moved to her bedside. "You're supposed to be resting."
Dinah ignored her, stood on shaky legs and put her arms around Helena. "You came back for me. You knew the building was coming down, and you didn't leave without me."
Helena had no answer.
"Barbara told me. You should have left, but you didn't." Dinah let go, then swayed backwards. Helena caught her by the arms and lowered her gently back down into the bed.
"Now you stay there. Rest."
Dinah just smiled up at her, and sank back against her pillows.
Slightly uncomfortable with where this line of conversation was going, the Huntress flipped on the television. A petite woman with a permanent smile was laughing at some quip made by her co-anchor, a dark-skinned man whose hair was graying around the temples, giving him a dignified look that balanced out the bland prettiness of his partner.
"It sure is, Carl." The corners of her mouth dipped half a degree, indicating that she was going to move on to more somber news. "Authorities report that the newest attack on Gotham city appears to be the work of the same individual or individuals who planted a bomb last week in an office building downtown." She paused, and Carl took over seamlessly.
"That's right, Robyn. The New Gotham Police Department's bomb squad is not releasing any official details, but say that the explosive device that crippled another building this morning appear to be of the same manufacture as last week's attack. Over a dozen bodies have been retrieved from the wreckage so far, all of them night staff and security for the building, bringing the total death toll up to twenty-five so far."
Huntress muttered, "and one injured costumed adventurer." She thought she'd spoken too low to be heard, but she glanced at Dinah, who flushed slightly and refused to meet her eyes.
"Police officials say that they are investigating several leads, but no arrests have been made." The smile dipped another half-degree. "We can only hope that this is the final attack, and not a resurgence of the troubles that have plagued our fair city in the past." The smile climbed back up to its customary position, and she continued more cheerfully, "And now for a brief message from our sponsors. This is Robyn Robinson for Channel Six, Live at Five."
Helena turned to look at Barbara who met her eyes and shook her head. "No warning from the street."
"I'm going to find out who's doing this, Oracle." Her voice came out cold and flat, the Huntress' voice.
"Helena, don't go running off without a plan, okay?"
She stopped mid-stride, unaware she'd already been moving towards the door. A year ago, she would have done just that, run off half-cocked. She forced herself to remember that they were a team now. "So what's the plan?"
The Following Week
Another night doing stake-out duty, Helena groused in her mind. And without backup, this time. She frowned at her own thoughts. Since when does the Huntress need backup?
Still, she felt more alone tonight, knowing that Dinah wasn't nearby. The frown deepened. I used to be a solo act...
"Huntress, do you read me?" Barbara's voice startled her out of her reverie.
"Five by five, Oracle. No action yet."
"Stick with it. The other two buildings were owned by the same corporation, and this is the largest building they own still standing, so it's our best bet."
"That's it? No super-secret informant?" Annoyance rose up in Helena. Does she have me waiting out here in the cold for a guess?
"Of course I have a super-secret informant." Barbara's best mysterious/superior voice. "But I can hardly tell you about that can I?"
"Hmph. I'll keep you posted."
She shifted her weight, then berated herself for the lack of discipline. Still. Silent. Invisible she repeated for the thousandth time, the mantra of the stakeout. She maintained strict radio silence for nearly an hour longer before she saw it. A dark shape slipping through a side door. A side door which should have been locked.
"Oracle, I see him. Going to intercept." Her perch was less than ten stories from the ground. She stepped off the ledge, diving headfirst, arms swept back behind her in a graceful swan dive. At the last moment she twisted, met the pavement with her boots, absorbing the shock with bent knees. Through the unlocked door less than ten seconds after her target, quick enough to see a shadow disappearing into the stairwell.
She was certain she'd been silent, but his footsteps accelerated, moving down into the basement. He was fast, but not fast enough. She took the stairs five at a time, no longer concerned with stealth.
She finally got a good look at him. Of course, he was wearing a ridiculous costume. Then she realized what costume he was wearing. The black cape. The mask wasn't right; it covered too much of his face, but it even had little pointed ears on top.
This clown was dressed up as (my father) the Batman. Helena's blood began to boil. He was clutching a briefcase. The bomb.
"Seems like they'll let anyone wear a costume these days," Huntress said softly. She took several long steps toward him, just a hint of swagger in her stride.
He spun around, letting out a quickly-suppressed squeak. He pulled a revolver from his belt.
You don't deserve to wear that mask.
"You'll won't stop me, Huntress," the black clad man claimed, pointing the gun steadily at her head. "My plan is flawless. First, the bombs, leaving the city wounded and reeling, and then-"
Faster than he could react, she spun left and forward. Her forearm met his wrist and knocked the gun out of line even as he pulled the trigger. Somewhere in the distance the sound of a window breaking was registered but here, in the fight, it was of no consequence. Her hand wrapped around his wrist, twisting it almost, but not quite, hard enough to break it, then jerked her other elbow behind her without looking. The gun fell to the floor, followed immediately by the man in black.
Why do they always want to monolog?
"What makes you think I care about your plan?" She kicked the gun across the floor and knelt to tie his hands behind his back. Then she ripped the mask off. The face beneath it was entirely unremarkable. Pasty, gaunt, brown eyes sunk deep into the skull. The mask was even less remarkable. It looked like a cheap Halloween costume. She wadded it up and stuffed it into his mouth, muffling his protests.
"Oracle, what I could use now is some official-type backup, now that the hard work is done with."
"Reese is already on his way, Huntress."
She dragged the bound man back up the stairs and into the front lobby of the office building. A single car pulled up with a single flashing blue light in the windshield. A small smile played across her lips, but she banished it for a more professional calm before Reese pushed open the door.
"I was told I might find you here, Huntress."
"Well, wherever there's trouble..."
"Is that the trouble?" Reese asked. He bent down to examine the prisoner. Another slight smile crossed her lips as she admired the view from behind him.
"Not anymore."
Reese straightened up and turned to look at her to respond. She was already gone; he was alone. "Thanks." He said quietly to the air, shaking his head.
Already hidden in the shadows, Helena saw a ghost of a smile on his lips that matched her own. One of these days, she was going to have to stick around to hear what he had to say.
Fandom: Birds of Prey (TV)
Written for featherjean for Yuletide 2008, originally posted here
Helena stared out across the rooftops of New Gotham. The radio link in her ear was silent. Everything was too silent, tonight, even the unending noise and life of New Gotham seemed muted. The urge to move, even just to stir began to make her itch inside her Huntress costume. She forced the urge back, remaining perfectly motionless and nearly invisible in her protective shadows. Five hours motionless, watching, waiting.
"Oracle?" She spoke softly; the radio link crackled to life.
"Any activity, Huntress?" Oracle's voice was slightly chiding. They were supposed to maintain radio silence, and this was the third time Helena had called to complain about how boring stakeout duty was.
"No. Nothing. Where do you get these tips anyway, because if I wind up here all night and nothing happens, I'm going to find your informant and shove his own foot-"
"You know I won't tell even you who my informants are, Huntress. And my sources seemed very sure that tonight was going to be the night."
"That's what you said last month about the bank robbery, Oracle. The bank robbery that I lurked on a cold roof all night to prevent. The bank robbery that never happened. You remember that bank robbery, don't you?"
There was no reply from the radio; Barbara had already signed off. Helena mentally kicked herself. She didn't mean to lash out, but she was bored and frustrated, and when that happened she had a bad tendency to take it out on the people around her. She glanced across the street to the building she was watching, a thirty-story office tower that was all but deserted after sunset. After hours of watching, she hadn't seen a single person approach the doors. She glanced to the next building, a short utilitarian brick building only ten floors tall. Dinah was hidden somewhere on that roof, watching the side of the building Helena could not see, but try as she might, Helena could not detect her. At least that means I've been training her right. She thought about reaching Dinah on the radio, but the thought was interrupted by a piercing scream from below.
"Huntress?" Dinah's voice on the radio.
"I heard it." Helena replied, already leaving her concealing shadows and running for the far end of the rooftop. "I'm closer, so you keep an eye on the target."
"I can help," Dinah suggested, but Helena cut her off before she could add more.
"I know you can, but right now the best help you can give me is to keep watch on that building, ok?"
A grunt and then silence on the radio for a moment, then, "Just be careful."
Helena reached the edge of the roof and threw herself off without hesitation. As she did, she let go of Helena, and embraced the Huntress aspect of herself. She dropped five stories before landing on neighboring building's roof and dropping the remaining distance to the ground. The impact would have crushed normal human bones but Huntress' metahuman body simply absorbed the devastating impact and propelled her forward toward the source of the scream.
The alley she found herself in was dark and cluttered with garbage, smelling from the recent rain. Of course, she thought. When are people going to learn to stay out of these cliche alleys? Not tonight, apparently. Two brutish men had a young woman cornered between a dumpster and the wall. Her clothes looked expensive, but they were filthy -- Huntress guessed she had fallen several times trying to flee these two -- and a bloodstain was soaking through one knee of her pants.
"You look lost, honey," she drawled. The woman looked past her assailants, a look of relief and gratitude in her eyes. Which irritated the Huntress. Silly helpless thing.
The larger of the two men smiled lasciviously when he saw her. "Oh, you want to play too?" He displayed the long knife he had been menacing the girl with.
"Not in the mood tonight, sorry." She never stopped her slow advance. The big one was only five yards away, now four. At three he drew himself up and leveled the knife more seriously. He opened his mouth, and she knew his next sentence would be one that would end with the phrase "and nobody gets hurt."
That was always a lie. She launched herself at him when the distance was about two yards, just as he opened his mouth. All that came out was a rush of foul-smelling breath and a groan of pain as she slammed her booted toe into his solar plexus. He doubled over in pain and she chopped a disabling blow to the side of his neck. He stopped making any sound at all, fell nerveless to the wet asphalt.
The smaller of the pair stared in slack-jawed surprise. "I told him I wasn't in the mood," Huntress told him with a small smile. His eyes shifted from Huntress to the girl, and she could read his intention to grab the girl as a shield. He lunged, but he was no match for the Huntress' speed, his reaching hand found Helena's shoulder instead of the girl. A grab and a simple twist removed the offending hand and put its owner on the ground, shrieking in pain from a broken wrist. None too gently, Helena caught hold of the girl, pulled her out of the alley behind her.
"Thank you so mu-"
But her thanks were cut off by a boom like thunder on steroids. The flash lit up the sky over New Gotham, and the shockwave that followed broke glass for a ten block radius. Thunder? From a clear sky? Then it sank in. The damsel in distress forgotten, Huntress activated her radio link.
"Dinah!" She called into her throat-mic, but got no response. She called again, and a third time before Barbara's voice came on the radio.
"Helena, what happened?"
"I don' t know, there was an explosion - can you reach Dinah, she's not responding."
"No signal from her radio or her tracker, it's possible her electronics were just knocked out in the blast, but.."
"But it's also possible she's lying hurt, or-" Helena stopped talking, didn't mention the worst-case scenario. She abandoned the fire escape and ran around the building.
Sure enough, the blast had been the building they were watching, already smoke was pouring out of broken windows and the whole structure was starting to list to the right. If that collapses, it'll come right down on Dinah.
The next few minutes would never be clear in Helena's mind. The memories jumbled together with fear and not a little anger as she scrambled up another fire escape, leaping up the stairs five at a time. This is when an ascension gun like my father had would come in handy she thought. The burning building was starting to make distressing sounds, like huge iron girders heating, melting, warping. The angle of the list was becoming more pronounced as she climbed up the neighboring building.
Finally she reached the roof. "Dinah!" She shouted, not expecting or receiving a response. There was rubble strewn across the rooftop, and acutely conscious of the building likely to collapse on her at any moment behind her, she began searching.
On the street below strobing lights and sirens approached as fire engines and squad cars began filling up the street.
"Huntress, you need to hurry -- that building looks like it could collapse any second." Oracle's normal calm voice was absent, Barbara sounded panicked.
"Tell me something I don't know," Helena grunted as she lifted a piece of junk and pushed it off the pile. Still no sign of Dinah.
Instinct was screaming at her to run, to get off this roof and away from the disaster that was about to come crashing down around her ears. Instead, she redoubled her efforts. An eternity seemed to pass as she dug.
"Listen, Huntress," Barbara again, this time a horrible resigned note in her voice. I know what's coming now. This is the part where she tells me to save myself. Helena switched off her radio, and threw a piece of masonry that would have taken three large men just to lift off another pile. Her heart thumped in her chest when she saw a flash of pale golden hair. She threw more rubble, heedless of where the pieces landed as she dug Dinah out of pile. She paused long enough to see that her protege was still breathing before throwing her unceremoniously over her shoulder and bolting for the edge of the roof farther from the burning building. The metallic creaking was getting louder and more urgent.
Her landing was awkward, trying to shield Dinah from as much of the impact as she could. Dinah might be already injured and Helena didn't want to do more damage. Behind her, the burning building came down, crashing down onto the building they had just been on. A cloud of dust and smoke obscured the results, but from the sound, both buildings had to be a total loss.
Gently Huntress lowered Dinah to the ground. She was still breathing but unresponsive. She wasn't bloody, but looked battered.
She reached up to her ear and switched the radio back on.
"Helena! Are you alright? What about Dinah?"
"I'm fine." She sucked in a deep breath hoping it would ease the sudden ache in her chest. "I got her."
Two Days Later
Dinah was sitting up in her bed reading a book when Helena entered the Clock Tower. She looked up, smiled. Barbara was sitting, as usual, in front of her bank of computer monitors; she waved one hand absently without taking her attention from the screens.
Most of Dinah's injuries were minor, but her left arm was broken just above the elbow. Dr. Thomkins had set it and pronounced that it would heal cleanly. More serious was the concussion, but Leslie said there was no brain damage, and aside from having problems with her balance and needing lots of rest, Dinah would recover from that as well.
Lots of rest was what she'd been getting. This was the first time Helena had seen her awake since the explosion, and even though Barbara and Dr. Thomkins had said she would need a lot of sleep, seeing her awake was a relief.
"Hey Helena." Dinah's voice seemed entirely too cheerful for someone whose friend had nearly just let die.
"Dinah." Helena looked down as if her shoes were suddenly interesting. Well, she supposed they were a little interesting. Sturdy boots with an elevated heel that managed to look good and not break when she kicked someone.
"Helena..." Dinah's voice lowered.
Helena glanced over her shoulder at Barbara, who pointedly took no notice.
"Helena, it wasn't your fault."
"You're not supposed to listen to my thoughts without permission." Helena tried to veer the conversation away.
"I'm not reading your mind. You're projecting guilt out for anyone to see. I don't need to be psychic to know that."
"I was supposed to be watching out for you!" The words slipped out before her internal censors could kick in.
"You were. You found me, rescued me, right? Neither of us could have stopped the explosion."
"That's what we were there for." Helena kicked herself mentally for sounding sulky when Dinah was the one who was almost trapped under a thousand tons of burning, collapsing building.
Dinah shook her head. "Don't blame yourself, Helena. I don't." She pushed herself up awkwardly on one arm and started to rise.
Helena moved to her bedside. "You're supposed to be resting."
Dinah ignored her, stood on shaky legs and put her arms around Helena. "You came back for me. You knew the building was coming down, and you didn't leave without me."
Helena had no answer.
"Barbara told me. You should have left, but you didn't." Dinah let go, then swayed backwards. Helena caught her by the arms and lowered her gently back down into the bed.
"Now you stay there. Rest."
Dinah just smiled up at her, and sank back against her pillows.
Slightly uncomfortable with where this line of conversation was going, the Huntress flipped on the television. A petite woman with a permanent smile was laughing at some quip made by her co-anchor, a dark-skinned man whose hair was graying around the temples, giving him a dignified look that balanced out the bland prettiness of his partner.
"It sure is, Carl." The corners of her mouth dipped half a degree, indicating that she was going to move on to more somber news. "Authorities report that the newest attack on Gotham city appears to be the work of the same individual or individuals who planted a bomb last week in an office building downtown." She paused, and Carl took over seamlessly.
"That's right, Robyn. The New Gotham Police Department's bomb squad is not releasing any official details, but say that the explosive device that crippled another building this morning appear to be of the same manufacture as last week's attack. Over a dozen bodies have been retrieved from the wreckage so far, all of them night staff and security for the building, bringing the total death toll up to twenty-five so far."
Huntress muttered, "and one injured costumed adventurer." She thought she'd spoken too low to be heard, but she glanced at Dinah, who flushed slightly and refused to meet her eyes.
"Police officials say that they are investigating several leads, but no arrests have been made." The smile dipped another half-degree. "We can only hope that this is the final attack, and not a resurgence of the troubles that have plagued our fair city in the past." The smile climbed back up to its customary position, and she continued more cheerfully, "And now for a brief message from our sponsors. This is Robyn Robinson for Channel Six, Live at Five."
Helena turned to look at Barbara who met her eyes and shook her head. "No warning from the street."
"I'm going to find out who's doing this, Oracle." Her voice came out cold and flat, the Huntress' voice.
"Helena, don't go running off without a plan, okay?"
She stopped mid-stride, unaware she'd already been moving towards the door. A year ago, she would have done just that, run off half-cocked. She forced herself to remember that they were a team now. "So what's the plan?"
The Following Week
Another night doing stake-out duty, Helena groused in her mind. And without backup, this time. She frowned at her own thoughts. Since when does the Huntress need backup?
Still, she felt more alone tonight, knowing that Dinah wasn't nearby. The frown deepened. I used to be a solo act...
"Huntress, do you read me?" Barbara's voice startled her out of her reverie.
"Five by five, Oracle. No action yet."
"Stick with it. The other two buildings were owned by the same corporation, and this is the largest building they own still standing, so it's our best bet."
"That's it? No super-secret informant?" Annoyance rose up in Helena. Does she have me waiting out here in the cold for a guess?
"Of course I have a super-secret informant." Barbara's best mysterious/superior voice. "But I can hardly tell you about that can I?"
"Hmph. I'll keep you posted."
She shifted her weight, then berated herself for the lack of discipline. Still. Silent. Invisible she repeated for the thousandth time, the mantra of the stakeout. She maintained strict radio silence for nearly an hour longer before she saw it. A dark shape slipping through a side door. A side door which should have been locked.
"Oracle, I see him. Going to intercept." Her perch was less than ten stories from the ground. She stepped off the ledge, diving headfirst, arms swept back behind her in a graceful swan dive. At the last moment she twisted, met the pavement with her boots, absorbing the shock with bent knees. Through the unlocked door less than ten seconds after her target, quick enough to see a shadow disappearing into the stairwell.
She was certain she'd been silent, but his footsteps accelerated, moving down into the basement. He was fast, but not fast enough. She took the stairs five at a time, no longer concerned with stealth.
She finally got a good look at him. Of course, he was wearing a ridiculous costume. Then she realized what costume he was wearing. The black cape. The mask wasn't right; it covered too much of his face, but it even had little pointed ears on top.
This clown was dressed up as (my father) the Batman. Helena's blood began to boil. He was clutching a briefcase. The bomb.
"Seems like they'll let anyone wear a costume these days," Huntress said softly. She took several long steps toward him, just a hint of swagger in her stride.
He spun around, letting out a quickly-suppressed squeak. He pulled a revolver from his belt.
You don't deserve to wear that mask.
"You'll won't stop me, Huntress," the black clad man claimed, pointing the gun steadily at her head. "My plan is flawless. First, the bombs, leaving the city wounded and reeling, and then-"
Faster than he could react, she spun left and forward. Her forearm met his wrist and knocked the gun out of line even as he pulled the trigger. Somewhere in the distance the sound of a window breaking was registered but here, in the fight, it was of no consequence. Her hand wrapped around his wrist, twisting it almost, but not quite, hard enough to break it, then jerked her other elbow behind her without looking. The gun fell to the floor, followed immediately by the man in black.
Why do they always want to monolog?
"What makes you think I care about your plan?" She kicked the gun across the floor and knelt to tie his hands behind his back. Then she ripped the mask off. The face beneath it was entirely unremarkable. Pasty, gaunt, brown eyes sunk deep into the skull. The mask was even less remarkable. It looked like a cheap Halloween costume. She wadded it up and stuffed it into his mouth, muffling his protests.
"Oracle, what I could use now is some official-type backup, now that the hard work is done with."
"Reese is already on his way, Huntress."
She dragged the bound man back up the stairs and into the front lobby of the office building. A single car pulled up with a single flashing blue light in the windshield. A small smile played across her lips, but she banished it for a more professional calm before Reese pushed open the door.
"I was told I might find you here, Huntress."
"Well, wherever there's trouble..."
"Is that the trouble?" Reese asked. He bent down to examine the prisoner. Another slight smile crossed her lips as she admired the view from behind him.
"Not anymore."
Reese straightened up and turned to look at her to respond. She was already gone; he was alone. "Thanks." He said quietly to the air, shaking his head.
Already hidden in the shadows, Helena saw a ghost of a smile on his lips that matched her own. One of these days, she was going to have to stick around to hear what he had to say.