Hey guys! In case you were wondering (which I'm sure you weren't, but I'm going to tell you anyway) I recently re-watched all of JLU, and next thing I knew I was shipping Huntress and Question. A lot. So, here I am, writing stories about them. I'm considering writing a longer fic on the two of them. Thoughts? Please remember to R and R!
Oh, and by the way, this is set during Question authority and into Flashpoint.
The pounding of his footsteps echoed down the empty hallway.
He knew he had to get to the end, but no matter how hard he ran the end never got any closer.
Tell us what you know.
Question was winded. It wasn't that he was in bad shape-quite the opposite, actually- but he'd been running for what seemed like forever.
Maybe I'll rest, just for a minute, he thought to himself. That thought was pushed out of his head by the sound of a woman screaming.
Tell us what you know.
"HELENA!" he roared. Her screams filled the hallway, bouncing off the walls, filling him with dread and anger. Helena. He had to get to her, to save her. That was why he was running, why he was here.
"Just hold on! Helena!" Her screams filled his head, along with along with a jeering voice. They got her. They got to her and you didn't stop them. It's all your fault! All your fault! All your fault!
He pushed on, trying to ignore the voice and figure out a way to get to Helena. Running seemed useless, but he had to do something! Her screams were getting louder, more shrill.
Tell us what you know.
He looked around, but the walls were flat and blank. He ceiling and floor were both smooth and everything was stark white. How could he get to her?
The sound of his name got his attention
"VIC! HELP ME! AAAAAH, VIC!" She sounded so desperate, so much in pain.
Tell us what you know.
He was suddenly there, facing the large door at the end of the hellish hallway. All of a sudden, silence fell.
"Helena! I'm here! Helena!" He threw the door open. The room was pitch black except for a single spotlight shining down on a large table standing in the middle of the room.
He rushed over to the table, dreading what he might find. The voice in his head kept chanting: All your fault! All your fault! All your fault!
Tell us what you know.
"Helena…no…" The words escaped him softly, an anguished plea to whoever might be listening. Because there, lying spread eagle on the table, was the still form of Helena Bertenelli, aka Huntress.
Aka the woman he loved.
Her wrists and ankles were shackled to the table. Her costume was tattered, ripped, burned and worse, while underneath he could see that there were electrodes scattered all over her. They were each surrounded by burn marks.
He forced himself to look at her face, not wanting to see what he already knew was true. For once Question didn't want all the answers.
Tell me what you know.
Her face was surprisingly serene; in fact, Question could have almost believed she was sleeping but for the fact her eyes were wide open, staring unseeing at the ceiling above.
He loved her eyes. They were fierce and sharp, but could be warm and gentle when they looked at him.
Now they would never look at anyone again, and it was all his fault.
Her lips were parted slightly, the silent remnant of her last screams. The memory of the sound haunted him-how anguished she had been! She must have been in so much pain. All because of him.
Tell me what you know.
Her hair was fanned out on the table, surrounding her head like a halo. He liked to play with her hair in the mornings, before she woke up.
He could barely comprehend the fact that she wouldn't wake up again.
He felt empty, hollow inside. How could he have failed her? She had needed him! His Helena had been tortured to death, and he hadn't been able to do anything to stop it!
Tell me what you know.
The emptiness started to fill with pain and anger. Why her? Why couldn't they have taken him instead? He would have traded places with her in a heartbeat, if only he could.
He looked down and realized that he'd been holding her hand this entire time. Her hands were rough from beating up criminals, but he'd always loved that the same hands that could take down guys twice her size and gripped his hair when they kissed could be so gentle and caring.
He leaned over her and gently closed her eyes. Then he brushed his lips gently across her forehead, tears starting to fall from his eyes.
He closed his eyes and held her hand, remembering everything they'd done together, everything they'd been to each other. He didn't bother to wipe away his tears; he didn't have the strength.
He felt, rather than saw, his surroundings start to fade away.
He was brought back to reality via a forceful electric shock. A voice cut through the pain.
"This doesn't have to continue. I can stop you from seeing the visions at any time." The pain stopped, and Question panted raggedly with the effort to breathe.
"You stole files from our computer; just tell me what you've learned." His tormentor, Dr. Moon, asked.
They had been at this for what seemed like an eternity. The visions of Armageddon, of Superman killing President Luthor, and worse had been forced on him trying to get him to cave, to tell what he knew.
All he knew anymore was that he couldn't give them what they wanted. Even so, he wasn't sure how he mustered the strength to reply:
"Topically applied fluoride doesn't prevent tooth decay; it does render teeth detectable by spy satellite."
More pain, another vision.
This time he watched President Luthor as he shot The Flash.
Tell me what you know.
"The plastic tips at the end of shoelaces are called aglets. Their true purpose is sinister."
He was next to President Luthor again. This time it wasn't The Flash, but Huntress, who was shot.
Tell me what you know.
"There was a magic bullet. It was forged by Illuminati mystics to prevent us from learning the truth!"
Have it your way. This will continue until I break you. Perhaps even afterwards.
He was next to President Luthor again, and once again it was Huntress dragged up, beaten and bruised, to meet them.
But this time, instead of shooting her himself, Luthor handed the shotgun to Question.
"Finish her." He snarled.
"Baby, please, don't do this!" Huntress begged him. She looked up at him from where the men were holding her. She looked straight into his eyes, even through his mask. Tears glittered in hers.
A voice in his head was screaming for him to turn the gun on Luthor, to save her. His voice. But he couldn't. Instead, he pumped the shotgun, aimed and fired.
When he was coming back to reality this time, he was shaking. His last thoughts in the vision still swirled in his mind: What have I done? What have I done? What have I done?
Someone spoke, but instead of the usual voice, he heard another, more familiar one.
"Don't be stupid. Drop it."
Superman! But why, how? Is this it? The beginning of the end? Or is this just another vision, a false hope constructed to make me tell? Could it be true?
Another, even more familiar voice cut through his thoughts.
"Sorry," said Huntress, "not good enough."
He heard a smack and a thud, and then he was being freed from his bonds. He dared to open his eyes.
There was Superman, helping him down from his table of torture. Behind the table, he saw Huntress pointing her crossbow at Dr. Moon, who was cowering against the wall where she had presumably just thrown him.
Huntress often joked that her arrows, unlike those of Green Arrow, were the sharp, pointy kind. It was true. If she shot Moon at this range, the man was dead, plain and simple.
He remembered when they had worked to catch Steven Mandragora. Of course, at the time, Huntress hadn't wanted to catch him at all; she had wanted to kill him.
Or, at least, that's what she had thought she had wanted. When it came down to it, she had discovered that becoming a cold blooded murderer wasn't what she wanted at all. She found she would rather keep her conscience intact than let it haunt her for the rest of her days.
Don't do it, Question mentally begged her. He isn't worth it!
Before he could muster the strength to say any of that, Superman cut in.
"Huntress!" yelled Superman.
A pause, and then: "Yeah, okay." She lowered her crossbow and hurried over to where he and Superman were standing.
He could barely see straight, let alone walk. Huntress came up to support him, telling him to lean on her.
"We're getting out of here." She told him.
He mumbled something about secret messages encoded in breakfast bars. He wasn't convinced this wasn't another trick formulated by CADMUS to break him.
"Come on babydoll, it's alright." She soothed, stroking his face with her free hand.
"It's gonna be a little rough," came Superman's voice. "I'll take the guards; you get ready to move him."
When's it going to happen? Will I have to watch Helena die again? Or, will Superman kill Luthor? Maybe both. This isn't real, it isn't real.
A new voice responds to Superman's orders.
"That won't be necessary, Superman." It was the voice of Captain Atom.
"Good to see you Captain," replied Superman with a smile. "Cover our flank."
They began to move again, but Captain Atom's words brought them to a halt.
"I'm afraid you misunderstand. I'm speaking as an officer of the United States Air Force."
"Bad time to grow a sense of humor, Cap." Came Huntress' reply.
But it's not a joke, is it? Atom is a soldier, soldiers can be re-commissioned. Getting a super powered soldier gives CADMUS a lot more ground to stand on. Wait, it isn't real. Is it?
"No joke, ma'am." Said Atom. She hates it when people call her ma'am. "I am currently assigned to General Eiling's Special Projects Unit." Eiling, Eiling…where have I heard that name? Ah, the files on CADMUS; he's one of their pet military officers.
"My orders are to prevent you from taking Question out of this facility. So, how's this gonna go down?"
"This is ridiculous!" Superman exclaimed. "If you're not going to help us, get out of our way."
It won't be that easy.
"Not an option, Superman. I've got my orders, legal and proper." Captain Atom was all business.
"Dude," Huntress said incredulously, "Superman just told you to step aside."
"I heard him, ma'am. Not gonna happen." Atom was serious.
Of course he's serious; he's a good little soldier. If they gave him his orders, he'd have to follow them to the letter. Even if it meant standing up to Superman.
His vision swirled for a moment. He heard footsteps, and then a smack and a thud signaled that the fight between Atom and Superman had begun.
"I control radiation, Superman. That includes Red Sun radiation."
"Go!" called Superman. "Get Question out of here. Don't wait for me."
"What made you think I was gonna?" Snipped Huntress.
She gets snippy when she's tense. In all fairness, though, this might be a decent fight. Superman's strength will be hindered by the radiation, but he's still plenty strong. He'll win, the question is: will we make it out?
A thought suddenly hit Question. If they didn't make it out, CADMUS would get Huntress too. He didn't know if he would be able to watch her being tortured like he was.
Not her. Don't take her.
Superman and Atom both said something else, but it was lost on Question. As the sounds of fighting rang down the hallway, he and Huntress made their slow and only slightly steady way towards the exit.
They stumbled. They fell. But they kept going. He put all his strength, what little was left of it, into keeping them moving. If they were caught, all was lost.
They made their way into a large room, filled with crates. As they stopped a moment to rest, he finally voiced the concern in his mind.
"You shouldn't have come for me" he told her. What if she was hurt? Caught? Or worse? He couldn't live through it, not for real. If this really was real.
"You shouldn't have snuck away without me." She replied matter-of-factly.
Suddenly, the sound of clamorous footsteps filled the room, and in came soldiers with laser weapons. Yelling filled the room, along with the sound of laser fire.
Question almost pitied them. There weren't nearly enough of them to take on Huntress, especially in the mood she was in at the moment.
After making quick work of them, she walked over to the door terminal.
"Locked," she muttered. "Sure, why not?" She took out one of her tools and started working on the terminal's wiring.
"Come on, come on!" she yelled. It wasn't going to be fast enough, and the super fight would catch up to them.
Suddenly, with a loud crash, Superman went straight through the wall next to the door huntress was having so much trouble with.
"Well, that's convenient." She said. He almost cracked a smile, not that anyone would have seen it through his mask. Leave it to Huntress to make witty comments while they were running for their lives.
The Super battle raged overhead as they made their way into the room. Any thought of laughter flew out the figurative window when they looked up and saw the flights of stairs awaiting them.
"I can't make it." Groaned Question. He was about to tell her to go on without him when she took out her crossbow.
"Sure you can." She told him, firing a grapple shot to the top of the room.
The grapple pulled the both of them to the top of the stairwell, narrowly missing the two brawling superheroes on the way up. They crossed the small landing over to the door.
They staggered out the door into the open air. It felt good to be free again. He heard Huntress call up to the Watchtower for teleport.
"This is Huntress, two for emergency pickup."
A pause, where Question would have bet his files on aglets that the Martian was basically telling her to go away.
"Save it! Q is down and we're under fire. Get us out of here and then scan the area. Superman won't be far behind us."
She's sexy when she takes charge. Hell, she's just sexy.
Those were his thoughts as the two of them were beamed up into orbit.
The next half hour was hectic. People were scurrying to get him into a Medbay room. It all went by in a blur. He focused on Helena standing beside him, supporting him, holding his hand as they wheeled him down. She never took her eyes off him.
He wanted to tell her he would be fine, not to worry, but he just didn't have the strength.
Eventually, the clamor died down and it was just him and Huntress in the room. She reached for the oxygen mask to help ease his breathing, but he stopped her.
"Get this off my face." He managed to tell her. He hated wearing the mask for extended periods of time, and he had no idea how long he'd been wearing it this time. All he knew is he wanted it off.
She'll see my face, but I don't care. God, I want this thing off of me.
She began to feel around for the edges of the mask. The touch of her fingers was shockingly wonderful, so for a moment he let her fumble.
She's alive. I didn't let her die, I didn't kill her. She's here and alive and everything will be okay. Armageddon has been avoided. At least, it has for now.
He caught her hand as she began to go for this scalp. "Aerosol. In my coat pocket."
As she went to get the can, he remembered another time he held her hand. It wasn't real, she's here. It wasn't real. This is real. It has to be.
She came back with a small metal can. She gently sprayed it over his face and hair. He couldn't see it, but he knew that his hair would be turning back to its natural red. He felt the mask come loose, and watched Helena peel it off his face.
She raised a hand and caressed his face. Her eyes were warm, and more than a little worried. There were deep circles underneath them, as if she hadn't slept well in a while. Had she been up looking for him?
He tried to lighten the mood with a little self-depreciating humor.
"You were right; I am the ugliest guy of all time." It was true he didn't think much of his appearance. He knew Helena was way out of his league, so what she said next totally blindsided him.
"Not in my eyes." She was serious. Huntress smiled down at him and squeezed his hand.
Before he could lean in and kiss her, she got up and walked to the window. She switched the window to opaque, and walked back over to the bed.
"No need to give everyone a free show." She whispered huskily as she moved in to kiss him.
She's alive. I'm free. We'll be okay.
A/N: Now that I've finished this, I kinda want to keep it going. I have some thoughts for a continuation; what do you think? Leave me your thoughts in the Reviews!