Primal Instinct II: 0.4 Seconds
A Birds of Prey (B/H) story
by Enginerd
Chapter 10 – Bad Timing
"Police have blocked the area! What's happening he…oh," Dinah said, rushing into the Tucker house gymnasium and joining Huntress and Lizard guy. "Seventy-six minutes!" She squeaked at the bold red numbers on the ominous digital timer.
"Huntress, Edward Tucker's ransom note had a midnight deadline for a funds transfer," Oracle blurted in confusion. "We should have more than three hours!"
"The timer issss broken," Daniel said, pointing his scaly finger at the decreasing digits; now reading seventy-four minutes. "Fry! He must have sabotaged the timer!" he hissed.
"Can't you do something?!" Helena blurted anxiously, driving the lizard man to rush towards a nearby toolbox. He clumsily opened the clasps and pulled out a screwdriver, dropping it.
"I . . . can't" the talented surgeon admitted miserably, looking at his thick, scaly hands with disgust.
"Huntress, what's happening?" Oracle blurted impatiently, hearing only part of the conversation.
"The Doc thinks the timer was sabotaged by Fry. It's counting down too fast - we've got seventy-two minutes now," Helena blurted quickly. "Doc! You can talk me through it," she said urgently, picking up the dropped screwdriver and glancing at the bomb warily, thinking perhaps settling down to just being a bartender wouldn't be so bad in the future.
"You need to be careful, Fry may have booby trapped it!" He said worriedly. Seeing her impatient and incredibly annoyed look, he offered, "take the cover plate off the timer…carefully," he added unnecessarily, wringing his scaly hands.
"Carefully he says," Helena muttered, shooting a glance his way before slowly unscrewing the first screw. With the screw almost out, Helena jumped back in pain. "Agh! Goddamnit!" she said, dropping the screwdriver and cradling her shocked hand that still tingled.
"Helena?!" Oracle called out anxiously.
"Oh no!" Dinah blurted nervously, seeing the timer now reading sixty-two minutes and counting down.
"Helena!" Barbara called out impatiently.
"I'm Ok Red, just a zap; but I lost ten minutes. I think Fry anticipated someone wanting to inactivate the timer. I'm pretty sure he's done what he could to have this thing go off."
"I knew he was enjoying this project too much," Daniel growled, shaking his head. He wasn't worried he would die soon; it would end his nightmare. But he never thought this bomb would actually be used for anything more than a bargaining tool. How stupid could he have been!?
Helena stared at the bomb, then around the large gymnasium as if seeking an answer or some inspiration. She looked up to the ceiling, then down to the bomb as a plan began to form.
"Dinah, turn your micro-camera on. I want to see it," Barbara said, thinking she might be able to determine how it was booby-trapped.
Dinah quickly did as asked and a picture of the bomb appeared on several of Delphi's screens.
/BoP\
"Dear God. Carl, what have you done?" Jim whispered to himself, rubbing the back of his neck as the grave reality of the situation sunk in.
Barbara zoomed in on the bomb and frowned, needing a better angle.
"I'll make some tea," Alfred announced firmly and departed on his mission to the kitchen. Jim thought something stronger was needed.
"Barbara, how big will the blast zone be?" Helena blurted impatiently.
/BoP\
Daniel's gaze shot towards Helena with surprise, hearing his old girlfriend's name. The person Helena had been talking to, Oracle, was Barbara? As he considered that amazing bit of information, he realized it really wasn't that surprising. Barbara Gordon was a brilliant and driven woman in college; the woman he knew wouldn't let paralysis stop her from making a difference, he considered, looking down at his scaled hands thoughtfully.
"It will level all of New Gotham, Helena," Barbara said impatiently. "Now Dinah, your camera. I need to see the timer more closely…"
"Barbara, the blast zone! I mean it! How big?" Helena interrupted irritably.
Barbara blinked, then frowned as she quickly pulled up a reference on Delphi. "Uh…given the mass of the Plutonium that was stolen I would approximate, not knowing the exact geometry of the internal mechanism…4.4 miles."
"4.6" Daniel interjected, shaking his head dejectedly at what Carl and he had done.
"Five it is," Helena said with a nod.
"Dinah, the timer, I need to see it from the side," Barbara announced tersely.
"Give me the micro camera," Helena said, getting the teen to eye her uneasily as she pulled the device on her necklace and handed it to Helena, who provided Barbara her side picture.
"Good…," Barbara said as the picture showed up on the Delphi's screen.
"Dinah, can you blast a hole through the ceiling?" Helena asked. "About yay big?" she said, holding her hands out the diameter of the bomb, then a few feet wider, moving the camera and disturbing Barbara's picture.
"Helena?" Barbara said, growing more alarmed. "What are you thinking?" she asked as a disturbing feeling of dread swelled up as she considered the possibilities.
"Sorry about the picture, Red," Helena said, returning the micro camera to show the timer view Barbara wanted as she eyed Dinah then the ceiling.
Dinah looked at her a moment before her eyes widened in understanding. "Helena…" she said with worry.
"We have less than fifty-nine minutes, D. Come on, you can do it!" Helena said with conviction.
Dinah frowned and looked at the ceiling with a wince. Trying to focus, she felt a swirl of energy form and grow within. She threw her arm up in the air, releasing that energy in a blue, TK ball that hurled towards the ceiling. The ball hit it with a loud bang, causing a burst of light and violent shudder; glass from the lighting fixtures shattered and rained down upon them.
"Yes! Again!" Helena said enthusiastically.
"Huntress, Canary, what the hell is going on?" Barbara said worriedly, hearing the bang. Jim frowned, wondering if all their "missions" were so nerve-wracking.
"Do it, Dinah," Helena encouraged with a nod.
"Helena, talk to me," Barbara said tensely.
"Dinah is making a hole in the ceiling," Helena responded with optimism. "On purpose," she added with an amused smirk, making Dinah roll her eyes.
"Helena, what are you thinking?" Barbra said anxiously as Dinah took a deep breath and focused on her energy that swirled around her and pooled in her chest. Helena moved the camera into place as she eyed Dinah with a smile.
"I'm gonna get this thing out of here," Helena said firmly. "Somehow," she added with less confidence.
Throwing her arm in the air again, Dinah released another telekinetic ball that shot up to the ceiling, causing another loud boom that broke a few metal beams free and fall...to the gymnasium floor.
"Helena…" Barbara called but heard the loud noises over the comms and frowned.
Seeing the heavy debris falling down towards the bomb, Helena cursed and flew towards them and batted all but one away. Dinah gasped, seeing the last beam plummet towards the bomb. Before she could focus and bring forth another energy ball, she saw a blur and a thick tail bat the beam away, letting it safety clatter on the floor.
Dinah smiled her thanks to Daniel, who landed with an unceremonious thud and shifted uncomfortably under her approving gaze. Something he had not experienced in his current form before; it felt good. "S..Sorry about…batting you off the roof top," he said awkwardly.
Dinah shrugged. "You're helping now, that's what matter," she said magnanimously with a smile.
"Forty-eight minutes!" Helena called out nervously, shaking her head trying to figure out how to haul the bomb out of there. She saw three small pad eyes on the top of the cylindrical bomb, but was sure she couldn't get a good grip and frowned, wishing she had a harness.
"We've got harnesses in the Humvee!" Dinah blurted, having read Helena's mind.
For once happy with that invasion of privacy, Helena nodded and shouted "GO!" prompting Dinah to rush off to retrieve a harness.
"Helena, please don't do anything rash. If you can get a closer picture, I may be able to…."
"Barbara, you may be able to? I just lost ten minutes when I tried to open up the timer. And we don't have the time to get equipment to x-ray through the metal. The only option I can see is me getting this goddamn thing out of here!" Helena said brusquely as Dinah came back with the needed rigging gear.
/BoP\
Barbara frowned. "What if the timer is triggered by motion or a change in elevation?"
Helena sighed. "Then I suppose our problem is solved for us. Barbara, I can't just watch the time count down and we know it doesn't like to be tampered with."
She had to admit Helena's comments were logical and her plan to get it out of the city was best for the city…but terribly dangerous for Helena. "W…where… do you intend on taking it?"Barbara finally asked, attempting to focus on the action Helena was planning to take, not the sick feeling that weighed heavily in her stomach.
/BoP\
"East. Over the ocean," Helena announced confidently as she approached the bomb. Her face scrunched up tensely as she carefully put the first carabiner on a pad eye and watched the timer. She exhaled a relieved breath to see no jump in time and more quickly attached the other carabiners. "The fish won't be happy but they are lower on the food chain," Helena said bluntly.
/BoP\
Barbara nodded silently, reluctantly approving of the idea. An explosion over land, even a remote piece of land, would be riskier for the public. But it would complicate rescue attempts, she considered with a frown. Shaking her head, she quickly typed on her keyboard.
/BoP\
"Forty-six minutes," Dinah said nervously as she helped Helena into the harness.
Helena gave her a small, warm smile and received a hug. Dinah pulled back, having read her thoughts, which Helena clearly projected.
"I love you too. And you have a chance to tell her again, after you're back. This isn't goodbye," Dinah offered with a brave smile.
Helena nodded hoping she was right, then pursed her lips with disapproval. "When I get back, you're going to have to stop doing that," she scolded, poking her in the shoulder.
"Hey, you need to stop projecting!" Dinah poked her back.
"Sure, blame the victim," Helena lamented, placing her hand over her poked "injured" arm.
"Helena," Barbara said softly, unable to hide her emotion.
Helena's eyes shut a pained moment as the worry in Barbara's voice shot to her heart. She knew very well how she would feel if the positions were reversed. Taking a fortifying breath, Helena plastered on a wry smile.
"You know, Barbara. Now would be a great time for your inner cheerleader to come out," she joked, then added thoughtfully "I wonder if there is a course you could take…"
"I don't think New Gotham U actually has classes for that," Barbara noted softly.
"Like you really checked," Helena scoffed as she and Dinah worked on tightening her harness straps.
"Perhaps after this…you can help me find a course."
"Better yet . . . after this, maybe Nightwing can cover New Gotham with Dinah for a couple of nights and we can finally experience what it's like to have extended, uninterrupted time together. How does that sound?" Helena said with a small, warm smile at the thought, looking up through the hole in the ceiling.
/BoP\
"That sounds…" Barbara strangled her words, struggling with her emotion. Knowing she had to hold it together - for both of them, she took a fortifying breath. "…much better than a cheerleading course," she managed dryly, wanting nothing more than to be with Helena on that vacation now.
/BoP\
"I should hope so!" Helena said with mock indignation relieved by Barbara's teasing, needing her warm voice in her ear which always helped her focus. And she needed that focus if she was going to pull this off. She glanced at Dinah, who lunged at her, giving her another hug. "Ooof!"
"You can do this!" Dinah said, pulling back, with a teary but encouraging smile.
"Now that's what a good cheerleader does, Barbara," Helena joked with a small smile, squeezing Dinah's arm before slowly levitating and causing the harness to become taught.
"If anyone can do it, it's you Helena," Barbara offered with heart-felt conviction, though her stomach knotted with worry.
"There you go! Much better, Red," Helena offered with a small smile as the harness creaked under the weight of the several hundred pound bomb. Finally, the bomb was lifted off the gymnasium floor. Daniel looked on with amazement as she hovered then slowly floated higher in the air. All eyes watched the timer, which thankfully seemed to be unaffected by the elevation change.
/BoP\
Barbara struggled against the chaos of emotions, knowing how important it was to focus on the mission…and Helena. She knew Helena was nervous, even though she too put up a brave front. Always the brave front, Barbara thought with frustration. Always "the mission," she considered with growing resentment as her eyes narrowed at Delphi's computer screens. It consumed her. And she let it. Willingly.
Yet it never bothered her before now, she realized with disturbing clarity and quickly called up Helena's GPS on the screen, desperate to see exactly where Helena was...as if that would somehow give her a shred of control over the situation - the situation that she knew had the ability to cripple her more than the loss of her legs.
"I knew you had it in you!" Helena offered approvingly.
Taking a deep, thoughtful breath, Barbara offered, "Well, even a blind squirrel eventually can find a nut, Hel."
How much time had she wasted, dealing with the ugly, dark side of humanity? And because of her, how much of Helena's and Dinah's? This was not all that there was. There was so much more, Barbara finally, really understood, thanks to Helena.
/BoP\
Helena chuckled. "I have to admit, I've never considered you a blind squirrel, Red," she offered as she and the bomb cleared the building, drawing the attention from the small group of men and women in blue that had dutifully secured the building and stood watch.
A policeman grabbed his cruiser's floodlight and directed it towards Helena, cutting through the night sky. He and his partner quickly looked at each other before jumping into their cruiser to follow beneath her, like earthly custodians keeping their airborne savior company as she flew from the building and over New Gotham.
Truth be told, Helena didn't mind the company.
The evacuating citizens briefly paused their exodus as one young woman pointed to the sky. "Look!"
All looked up to see what they hadn't thought possible; the bomb being taken away from the city by a dark-haired woman in a leather duster who could...fly. One young teen whistled and clapped with encouragement, prompting the others to join in enthusiastic and hopeful cheering.
/BoP\
"Really? Look how long it took me to finally succumb to your charms," Barbara noted, intently staring at Helena's GPS signal on her screen.
With a guilty ache in her heart, Barbara promised herself that when this was over, she would focus more on the woman who unexpectedly brought joy to her life. They could travel - someplace where brave fronts were not needed, where they could be free of the suffocating responsibilities that crime fighting brought them, where they had no "mission" other than to enjoy the simple, beautiful things in life, like sharing time with the person who managed to fill her fiercely guarded heart with such profound love. She would not waste a moment with Helena, Barbara vowed with singular purpose.
"Well, everyone does eventually," Helena joked, waving to the people. "Resistance is futile," she added, shifting to slightly increase her speed and distance away from the people below.
"You do know you're meta, not Borg?" Barbara countered, pulling her glasses off to rub her eyes, surprised by the cup of tea and plate of cookies that appeared by her side. She weakly smiled her thanks to Alfred, who stood at one side, as always, ready to assist any way he could. She looked back to her father, who stood behind him and nodded with confidence, offering the same.
"HA! I'm better than the Borg," Helena boasted. "They sought perfection and never found it. But I actually found it," she claimed confidently. "You know that, right?" Helena asked softly as she looked down at the bomb and the buildings below her as she carefully soared up and away from the city.
Jim Gordon smiled, pleased Helena actually thought so, even if she was laying it on a bit thick. But Helena was known for her smooth talking…
"Really?" she asked nonchalantly, starting to reach for the cup of tea, but found her hands trembling too much and stopped, instead discreetly clenching them into fists and burying them in her lap as she cleared her throat. "And what did you find?" Barbara asked softly, knowing she had found it as well. It was a most unexpectedly perfect gift - Helena's love.
"Strawberry poptart smores!" Helena joked happily.
Jim winced. So much for smooth talking, he considered and looked at Alfred, who sighed.
Barbara chuckled, oddly charmed by Helena's humor, making Helena inordinately pleased.
"You do know you just scored a big fat zero on the woo meter, don't you?" Barbara countered, returning a familiar complaint as she put on her glasses with a barely noticeable tremble in her hand.
But Jim noticed this time, his eyes widening with surprise at the traitorous indication that the impressive Oracle was not as cool, calm, and collected, as she wanted to project. The disconcerting sight almost compelled him to give his daughter a big hug and tell her everything would be all right; but he had no idea if it would be. Instead he frowned, and resigned himself to just praying the resourceful Helena Kyle would be successful.
"So what if I share my strawberry poptart smores with you? Any better?" Helena asked hopefully.
"Uh, not quite. Meter is still on…oh wait, it's now negative," Barbara noted.
"Well damn! You really don't like pop tarts, do you?" Helena complained.
"I like you. Just share yourself with me…that's all I want," Barbara said, with surprising emotion, closely watching the GPS signal as Helena headed towards the ocean. But the incredible fact that Helena was actually going to save New Gotham did little to bring her relief; Helena, as well as the few coastal cities still in the bomb's blast zone, remained at great risk.
/BoP\
"That's good to know," Helena said, mildly concerned by Barbara's comment, which reminded her how hard it was for Barbara to remain behind in the tower as her teammates, including her lover, were in harm's way. "Takes the pressure off gift giving," Helena quipped, not one for emotional conversations, especially when she had a mission to complete. She frowned, suddenly really, really hating that part of her life.
As she eyed the coast she passed over it, excitement grew as the light lining it shrunk into small specks behind her. Maybe she would actually pull this off, she considered with growing hope, wanting nothing more than to go home to Barbara, wrap herself around the love of her life, and show her how much she loved her.
/BoP\
"And you call me cheap," Barbara mildly scoffed, noting that Helena was making good progress, which made her cautiously hopeful. The weight of fear that had settled in her stomach slowly started to ease.
Jim couldn't help but smile, never prouder of his daughter as he watched first-hand how she navigated this emotional minefield with determination and impressive grace. Though he knew part of the reason was Helena, who had become her surprising anchor at an early age. Their strained banter just reinforced what he already knew - they were well suited for each other.
/BoP\
"Well, you have to admit, it's hard to find a gift for the girl who has everything…namely, me," Helena said immodestly, stretching her arm out to eke out that last bit of speed she could.
She smiled as she felt the wind against her skin increase, finally able to control her flying as she had hoped. It sure beat crashing into buildings; not that she had to worry about that at the moment, she considered glancing over the vast, beautiful ocean before her that glittered from the moonlight. This would be a story to tell her grandkids, she considered, then snorted at that surprisingly domestic thought.
/BoP\
"And I want everything, Helena," Barbara said firmly, hoping Helena understood.
"And you call me self-indulgent," she said.
"Well, you've spoiled me," Barbara said with a growing smile, feeling hopeful by Helena's position, now well out of range of New Gotham and nearly out of range of coastal populations.
"You deserve to be spoiled, Red," Helena said firmly, hoping she'd get to be the one as she looked down at the timer and her eyes widened.
"So spoil me. Marry me, Helena," Barbara blurted in challenge, surprising even herself.
"Marry?" Helena responded with a startled voice.
A surprised Jim looked over to Alfred, who wore a small, pleased smile, confirming he too had just heard his daughter propose to Helena Kyle.
Noticing Helena's position, her proposal was forgotten. "Hel, you are well clear now!" Barbara responded with a big smile. "You can drop the bomb!"
"Shit…."
Her smile faded at Helena's proclamation.
"Guys? What's happening?" Dinah called with alarm, driving back to the tower in the Humvee.
Barbara's gaze focused on the alarming GPS signal, which seemed to indicate she was slowing down. "Helena! You shouldn't slow down after dropping the bomb," she blurted, as her mind raced through other reasons for the exclamation, each scenario becoming worse. "Helena? Helena, please confirm you dropped the bomb," Barbara anxiously called, her hand shooting up to the earpiece, straining to hear . . . something. "Helena, please respond."
Deafeningly silent moments passed.
"Damn it, Helena! Respond!" she growled, banging her fist on the desk in frustration, desperate for a response. Seeing Helena's GPS signal disappear, she realized she wouldn't be getting one.
"Helena," she softly exhaled in anguish.
"Barbara?" Jim called uncertainly, reaching out a cautious hand to squeeze her shoulder as the Clock Tower was plunged into darkness.
Continued in Chapter 11...