Chapter 2

Helena drops the gun as quickly as she'd picked it up, the loud gunshot ringing in her ear. Sal picks the gun back up and escorts Guido and Helena out of the circus tent. Helena glances around, and sees several men and women dead on the ground, blood fertilizing the dirt ground.

"Don't look, Helena, just keep walking." Guido encourages, wrapping his arm around her.

They make it out of the circus and into their car. Sal starts up the car and steps on the gas, sending them speeding off.

"Helena, what you did was very dangerous, do you understand that?" Guido asks his daughter, clasping her shoulders.

She nods furiously, "He...he was going to shoot you Father."

"Next time, you let Sal do her job, okay?"

She continues to nod, but she soon stops to pause, "Father, were those men coming after us?" she asks, still holding the binoculars he'd given her.

"It's hard to say, but you really shouldn't be worrying yourself about those kinds of things." he assures her, "Daddy can handle this." he pulls Helena in to hug her as she begins to quietly sob into her father's shirt, "You were very brave dear, very brave."

They reach the Bertinelli manor in record time, one of the many sprawling estates surrounding Gotham City. It's quite jarring, that such a rundown and decrepit city is surrounded by all of these luxurious mansions, with yards of green grass and open gardens to compliment the main house.

They enter the house through the main doors of cedar wood and glass, Sal making sure to lock them behind them.

"Helena, go up to your room, Daddy has business to attend to."

She complies, running up the grand staircase to the second floor. She makes it up the stairs, but instead of heading to her room, she waits just by the banister overlooking the main hall, obscuring her from view. She watches as Guido and Sal walk through a tall set of doors leading to his office. The minute the door closes, Helena rushes down the stairs and presses her ear against the door.

"Sir, how can you be certain those men were after you?" she asks, crossing her arms.

"Because I knew those men, I use to employ them. Simple laborers of course, but what matters is that I knew them! It's not like they were someone else's men."

Two men walk up and start pounding on the door. Helena runs away from the office door and hides under a thin display table as Guido opens the door and strides authoritatively across the hallway to answer the door, "Bullard, Stanek, what are you two doing here?!"

The two men in long leather jackets enter, "Boss, there's a hit out for you. We heard about the shooting at Haly's Circus and came here straight away."

"So? Lots of men want me killed, how is this any different?"

"The hit's on your entire family, anyone connected to the Bertinelli name." Stanek explains.

He scratches his chin, "And who's put out this hit, exactly?"

"We don't know boss-"

"Well then find out! You think I take this lightly, a threat on my family?!" he's practically shouting, and Helena ducks further into the shadow casted by the display table. She'd never seen him this angry. Guido wipes his forehead with a handkerchief, taking deep breaths, "I'm leaving you two in charge of finding whoever's behind this. Do what you need to do."

The men nod, and exit the building. Guido walks over to Sal, "Call Helena's school, tell them I'm pulling her out indefinitely. It's not safe there anymore."

She nods, and walks into another room. The moment she's gone, Helena runs out from her hiding place, "Father, why would anyone what to hurt us?"

He turns around, his eyes stricken with worry, "Helena! You should be in your room!"

"Father, why?!" she repeats insistently.

Guido's eyes dart from left to right, his daughter is largely unaware of her family's mob ties mostly due to him constantly shielding her, "Because...because, there are people out there that want our money, and they want it badly, badly enough to hurt other people to get it."

Helena, not quite buying his story, scrunches her eyebrows in a growing sense of fear, "Is...is it because I shot that man?"

"No, no, it has nothing to do with that dear. You were just protecting yourself, is all." he assures her.

"I was protecting you, Father!" she declares rather proudly.

"Yes, yes," he nods, placing his hands on her shoulders, "now, I'm going to be sending you on a little vacation...to Aunt Maria's house, in Metropolis, okay?" he explains, "You'll stay there while Daddy takes care of some business here."

She nods, "Okay, Father."

Guido leads his daughter up to her room, and takes a lavender colored suitcase from her closet, "Pack anything you want to bring, you'll leave tomorrow."

Helena is rather unresponsive, staring at her father with large, doe-like eyes. Guido picks up on this,

"Don't worry sweetheart, Daddy's got everything under control, you'll be back before you know it."

Helena arrives in Metropolis with her bodyguard Sal the next morning. Aunt Maria, also known as Maria Bertinelli, sister to Guido, waves to them from the train station platform. As soon as the two exit the train, Maria rushes up to Helena and pulls her into a tight hug,

"Oh, Helena sweetie, you've grown so much, I can't believe you're so big now!" she coos, squeezing her even tighter. Maria releases her niece and looks up at the stern, serious-faced Sal, "Ah, you must be her bodyguard, Sally, correct?"

Just Sal." she informs stiffly.

"Okay...well, I have a car waiting for us just outside, and we mustn't keep them waiting!"

The three leave the train station and Helena looks back, watching the tall, black, gothic train they'd arrived on pull out of the station.

Maria keeps a quickened pace, her three inch heels pounding against the concrete pavement. Helena smiles, she rather likes Metropolis, its clear blue skies and bright colors a stark contrast to Gotham City.

They all pile into the back of a rounded blue car, Helena sandwiched in between the two adults. The car takes off, driving through the downtown area of Metropolis. The car is surrounded by large buildings with endless panels of glass reflecting against the sunlight.

"So, I've found a small all girls school for you to attend. You'll love it." Maria tells Helena, presenting an ever-present smile that seemed to fit with the city's mood.

"But Father said I wouldn't be staying long." she protests.

Maria chuckles, as if what Helena had said was funny, "Oh, you know, it's sort of a 'just in case' kind of thing. We wouldn't want you to fall behind in your studies, now would we?"

Helena sways her head back and forth, giving a noncommittal shrug. Maria hides her worry with her wide smile, but she can tell that there's no fooling this kid. Knowing what her brother does behind his guise as a wealthy businessman, it's no wonder the child doesn't believe her, she's already constantly being lied to.

The driver honks the car horn as black van speeds up and cuts in front of him. The passenger's side window of the van opens and a man pulls his head and upper chest out of it, pulling out a pistol and shooting at the car. A scream comes from Maria as Sal pulls her and Helena down behind the front seats. A second black van pulls up next to the car, its side door sliding open and two men opening fire on the car. An array of bullets knock against the metal doors of the car, and the driver begins to lose control, swerving left and right. One of the men in the second van pulls out a molotov cocktail, lighting it on fire, he throws it at the car, the deadly weapon crashing in through the window. The entire car is set ablaze, Maria screaming in terror as the flames singe her. Sal, on the other side, grabs Helena's arm and bursts out the other side, wrapping Helena in her arms to break her fall. From where they lay, Helena watches as the car careens out of control, tail spinning and exploding into a nearby building, the car burning from the inside out.

Author's Notes:

Frosty Autumn: Hey, cool to see someone who knows Helena Bertinelli aka Huntress. She's not slated to appear in Gotham (I don't think they can use her, since they've already used a grownup version in Arrow), which is why I chose her, so I could play her off as an "original character" to anyone who might not be familiar with the comics/cartoons. And on Haly's Circus, no, the duo that will eventually become the Flying Graysons (they're not even married yet, hence the two last names), did not die, as it revealed here, the mobsters were after the Bertinellis.

123: 4?

Thanks :)