She had never known freedom; never seen the sky nor felt sunlight on her skin. All she had ever known was the glow of fluorescent lights and walls of steel. But if this worked that would all change.
They had moved her to a different location and the new guards had placed her in a new cell. One with a ventilation grate. It was heavily fortified with lasers and sensors to prevent it from being a viable escape route. But it was a mistake nonetheless, one the guards would be berated for later.
But by then it would be too late.
She held in her hands not only her hope, but the only chance at freedom for all those she loved. A small, swirling, blue orb full of memories hovered in her palm as she used her body to shield it from the view of the hidden cameras.
Gently, she slipped it past the grate and sent the orb rolling along. She prayed it would find its way to the outside world and bring back help.
In the outside world, the blue sphere was pushed out of a vent by a puff of exhaust. It rolled onto the abandoned street and skittered along the gutter, finally coming to rest against a black booted foot. A black gloved hand reached down and picked it up. Inhuman eyes gazed at the orb as it lit up the orange and white mask of a fox.
Lex Luthor lay on the cot in his cell, a barred window in the ceiling letting in the light of the moon. He did not stir as the bars were removed and the glass gently lifted.
No one would have been the wiser if Superman had not been keeping an eye on the prison. His nemesis had just been arrested and the details made it seem too good to be true. Lex had not put up a fight; he had been so out of it some thought he had been high. He hadn't, so Kal-El assumed it was some sort of trick.
So, when he scanned over the building and picked up two bodies instead of one, he went to investigate.
A woman knelt over Lex Luthor. She had a full head of red hair and wore knee length black boots and long black gloves. Her chest and front were white, while her arms, legs, and back were a reddish orange that matched her hair. The real tail completed the fox costume and glowing white eyes looked out from her mask.
Silently, tenderly, she tried to coax Lex into a standing position. He did not wake up, merely moaning softly. The woman suddenly stiffened, head jerking up to gaze at the skylight.
Superman hovered just outside the open window, arms crossed and looking thoroughly ticked. "I really don't…"
He never got to finish his sentence.
Quick as a flash, she laid Lex down and lunged at the superhero. Sharp claws appeared and she swiped them down Superman's arm before he could react. He stared down in shock at the bleeding scratches, wondering how she could have harmed his titanium skin before the overwhelming need to sleep hit him. He gently fell to the roof with a satisfying thunk.
Not waiting to see if the Man of Steel was truly out, the woman scooped Lex up in her arms and leapt out onto the roof.
She ran across the rooftops and was almost out of normal sight when Superman regained consciousness.
He turned on his comm. "Emergency alert to all nearby Justice League members. An unknown villain has just broken Lex Luthor out of jail. They are extremely dangerous, and managed to knock me out before I could do a thing."
A familiar voice crackled over the line. "Good thing I was visiting. Batman out."
Yellow headlights flicked on just as the villain dropped down in front of the Batmobile. Batman cocked an eyebrow; though the figure had moved far too quickly for him to get a good look, it seemed to be taunting him. It clearly knew he was parked there but had chosen to land in front of him anyway.
He peeled out of the dark alleyway only to find the street empty. He glanced at the rooftop, spying the villain leaping across them, already far off in the distance. Batman floored the accelerator, but every time he got close, they would leap in a different direction. Every time it would be somewhere the street didn't turn, forcing him to overshoot and find someplace to turn and then relocate the fugitive.
"Kal-El, I could use some help."
"Sorry…Bat…man. Whatever knocked me out…is still in my system. It's making…flying…hard."
"I guess saving the day is up to me again."
Batman was feeling more than a little miffed by how difficult the chase was proving, especially since the villain seemed to be enjoying it.
After having sped past them and turning down yet another street, he slammed on his brakes, fishtailing to a stop. Standing in the wide-open intersection was the villain, a swirling vortex of blue behind them. She made eye contact with him and Batman's eyes widened in recognition. After making sure the hero had seen them, the woman and her cargo fled, the vortex closing behind her.
Superman commed. "Any luck?"
"No, she got away." But Batman had a good idea where to find her.
Batman drove slowly back to the Batcave. He parked the Batmobile and trailed his finger softly along its hood before climbing the stairs to the computer console. He had barely begun to type when he sensed her.
"It's been a long time." He said without turning.
"I know." Said a voice behind him.
"Any particular reason you didn't just let me know it was you sooner?"
"Bruce, Bruce, Bruce," the voice clucked "you know I had to make it look good."
Batman smiled a bit and turned around to face the woman he had just been chasing, her mask nowhere to be seen. Blue eyes twinkled at him and he removed his cowl.
"Fierra…" he began.
But she held up a hand to stop him. "Now, don't go asking me questions I can't answer. You know I would have told you if I could."
"You just broke a supervillain out of prison. What am I supposed to do? They don't know who Foxglove is."
The woman, Fierra, moved toward the computer console and ran a finger down its keyboard. "I guess you'll just have to trust me. I'll let you know once I have all the details, but so far it's only a hunch."
"A hunch?" he asked teasingly.
"For now, yes."
"So, I suppose you'll be wanting me to keep quiet about this?"
"Naturally."
Bruce shook his head. "I haven't seen you in ten years and you're leaving me with nothing but a hunch. How typical of you."
Fierra looked at him, miffed. "Oh, stop your belly aching. If I'm wrong, you'll wake up one morning to find Lex back in his cell."
"And if you're right?"
She smiled. "I'll let you know." And with that she transformed into a bat and flew away.
Batman slapped his forehead. "A bat? Really?" How typical of her. He punched the wall.
Alfred appeared and noted the action. "And who might that have been?"
"Your niece."
"I take it you didn't ask her."
"Didn't get the chance."
" Patience, Master Bruce, your chance will come."
Foxglove came through the window of her home, slipping in, her boots hitting the ground soundlessly. Her costume fell like water from her body as her mask receded into nothing. Fierra opened her bedroom door and stepped out into the hallway.
Hevy, a tan skinned man with jet black hair and firm, muscular build, gently fed a starved wolf, another wounded animal he'd picked up over the last week. Fierra watched as the hardened soldier whispered to the beast, intelligence flickering in the animal's eyes.
"Another guest for the preserve? You're going to run out of room eventually." she said teasingly.
Hevy smiled, his brown eyes twinkling warmly. "I might, ma'am, if it wasn't a rehabilitate and release sanctuary. Sentient beasts are rare enough, I'm proud to give them a helping hand."
"I always took you for more of a weapons man."
"Any decent soldier knows you can't replace nature's warriors. With proper training, they'll always outperform any machine."
Fierra agreed with that. She'd seen it on other worlds, places where horses still rode into battle and defeated great rolling machines that made cars and tanks look slow and weak. Perfect examples of a symbiotic relationship between man and beast where sentience was acknowledged in both and their combined forces became unstoppable.
She planned to support Hevy's dream of helping any sentient animals along, training them to aid humanity if returning to the wild wasn't an option. She had several people lined up who were willing to keep their mouths shut. They already had wolves working as mountain rescue animals, mice detecting land mines, and birds running surveillance.
Foxglove paused and looked at Hevy carefully. He was sitting cross-legged on the floor, shoulders hunched forward, head low, not his usual straight-backed head high stance.
She silently raised a comm as she entered her "healer's hole" as Hevy had dubbed it.
"99, will you please make sure your brother Hevy goes to bed soon? I don't think he's been sleeping well lately; I'm going to fix up something to help."
::Will do, ma'am, thank you.::
Fierra was a healer, it was part of her name. Foxglove: a poisonous flower of great beauty that with some tweaking could become a medicine. Lifesaving when used right, lethal otherwise. Like her alias, Foxglove knew how to heal and hurt.
She selected herbs and flowers she'd gathered from across the globe and beyond, and mixed them into a glass of hot cider. Satisfied, she left and walked up the stairs, pausing to glance at the wolf.
Can I trust him? he asked.
She gave a brief nod and continued on her way.
Fierra entered Hevy's room and set the glass down on his nightstand. She glanced around the room and noted the variety of weapons that lined the walls along with the floor covered in dozens of books on animal rehabilitation. Humans were not two-dimensional beings; they were full of seeming contradictions.
She walked down the hallway to a different door and knocked. "Come in" said a quiet, husky voice.
"How is he, 99?"
99, a wrinkled, deformed fellow with a slow eye and hunched back, stood by a bed and looked up at her with a sad expression. "He's not well, mistress, not well at all."
Fierra knelt beside the bed. 99 moved aside to reveal Lex Luthor's unconscious form.
Lex's skin was pasty and he was drenched in sweat. He moaned feebly and felt cold to the touch.
"We have to get him healthy enough to survive a level five brain scan," Fierra commented, "but whatever we need the scan to find is probably what's making him sick."
99 looked at her with admiration. "M'lady, if anyone can heal him, it's the great Foxglove."
Fierra was flattered and set to work. After a few minutes Lex had relaxed and stopped moaning.
"Keep him warm and comfortable, 99. Let me know when he wakes up. But first, go get that brother of yours to bed."
99 hobbled out the door, leaving the two alone.
Fierra sighed. "Do you have any idea how much trouble you're causing me? I'm a hero, I don't go breaking villains out of jail; I put them in there. And now Batman knows I'm here. Can you believe it? I want to be out of Gotham as soon as possible; if I stay too long trouble will find me. He'll try to help and…"
She fell silent and focused on easing Lex' pain. She placed a wet cloth across his bald head, where, if her source was to be believed, the trouble came from.
After a few minutes, 99 came back in. "Out like a light, m'lady, that drink really helped. He promises to let you know if he has any more nightmares."
"He better; I can't heal what I don't know is broken."
99 hesitated, thinking. "M'lady? Does this have to do with…?"
"It might, but don't get your hopes up. If he dies, we lose our lead. If he lives, we might finally have a chance. But those are very big ifs."
99 nodded. "How did breaking him out go?"
Fierra groaned.
"That good, eh?"
"Well, the Justice League thinks I'm a dangerous villain now..."
"Not completely wrong."
"and the Dark Knight is on to me."
"Batman? I did some research, like you suggested. He seems like an extraordinary man, right up your alley."
"Oh, that will be the day."
99 gave a low chuckle. "When will you recognize that deep down, he's still the man you knew?"
"Sounds like you did more than just a little research."
99 shrugged. "What can I say? Espionage is contagious."
The first bounty hunter was sighted at Red Robin's favorite deli at 9:30 p.m. on a Tuesday. He had a criminal record as long as the Batmobile in fine print. And rumor had it he was the first of many who would come to Gotham hoping to collect the various bounties on Lex Luthor's bald head.
Bruce absently wondered how they'd tracked the man to Gotham. He knew Fierra would be furious about that. He briefly toyed with the idea of letting Foxglove handle the scum on her own; she'd appreciate having someone to punch. Or he could help.
Helping was preferable; it was an opportunity to talk. He simply had to make sure he wasn't followed. He was not in a situation where he could explain Foxglove to the Robins.
He suited up and started the engine of the Batmobile.
"Hey, wait up!"
He peered in his rearview mirror to find Grayson, Tim, and Damien running to join him. "Why didn't you say it was time for patrol?" Tim asked, slightly offended.
"You all stay inside tonight."
Damien frowned and folded his arms, "You only say that when things are getting serious, Father."
Grayson snickered. "Like a date." he joked.
"Possibly."
"Shut up Grayson-Wait, what?" Tim exclaimed.
But the Bat dad was gone.
Foxglove was there first. She had just finished knocking the bounty hunter's lights out when Batman stepped out.
"I see you didn't need me."
She turned and cried. "Look out!"
In one smooth motion he ducked and turned in a crouch. Unfortunately, Lady Luck wasn't fond of him that evening. The second bounty hunter's knee was coming up for a kick and connected with Batman's jaw, leaving a glorious bruise. Fortunately, it threw the hunter off balance and he fell, cracking his head against the ground hard enough to knock him out.
Foxglove grimaced. "Ouch, rotten luck." She came over and offered a hand. "Does the Bat have a booboo? Want me to kiss it and make it better?" she teased.
"A kiss would be nice." Batman teased back, taking the offered hand.
Foxglove let go of him before he could fully stand, sending him stumbling backwards, "Don't be a dork." she scolded.
For a moment Batman was worried he'd been too crass, but Foxglove smiled and he relaxed. It was good to have her back, even if it was only to beat up bounty hunters. Speaking of which…
"I thought there was only one."
"There was. Lex had a tracker in his bloodstream, but I managed to turn it off. Sorry for the trouble, but I can't move him now."
Batman glanced at the two downed men. "That was over faster than expected. You doing anything tonight?"
"Yes. Dropping these men off at the police station and taking care of the half-dead man in my house, thank you."
Batman nodded understandingly. Then made a slightly more dramatic than necessary wince as he turned his head to look at her.
She raised an eyebrow and sighed. "Oh, come on you big baby. I might be able to spare thirty minutes." Then in a mocking tone she added, as if speaking to a small child who just fell off his tricycle, "Besides, we can't have you going home like that. Alfredo will wonder where you got such a big booboo."
"It's not a 'booboo', it's an injury and I don't know who you are referring to."
"Right, and Clark Kent is definitely not Superman."
Fast forward a few minutes as Batman and Foxglove dropped in from the roof of the F.O.X Café.
"Now get in and get changed. Just ask for the 'private restroom'."
"Get changed? I thought you were just fixing up my booboo?"
"I thought it was an injury. And I did say it was a half an hour."
"Well, if you insist."
"Be careful, or you'll lose your heartless reputation, Batman."
Right, he mentally chided himself, he had to watch that. He couldn't remember being this lighthearted in costume ever. Fierra had ways of making even the dullest piece of cardboard charismatic.
Soon they were sitting by the window of the café, Bruce wearing a tuxedo.
"Do you always wear a tux when you're off work?" Fierra asked.
Bruce shrugged "Maybe. Or maybe I had a feeling you might be available."
Fiera was silent for a moment, sipping her hot cocoa. "You know," she finally said, "we could never be more than friends."
There was a small pause and Bruce said, "Because of your religion, right?"
"Not necessarily," Fierra said, frowning, "but I'll be taking my eternal mate to the temple to be sealed for all time. And I can't do that unless…"
"Unless I'm temple worthy, and I am, Fiera. I've been baptized and become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints."
She choked on her hot chocolate a little. "Have you now? Since when?"
"Yes. Some months ago, actually." Bruce admitted.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"You didn't exactly leave a forwarding address when you left ten years ago."
"But what about all that 'religion is stupid' nonsense?"
"I was wrong. Is that really so hard to believe?"
"No, it's actually quite believable if you ask me." She said matter-of-factly.
Bruce winced, "Ouch, right in the pride."
"What changed?"
He grew distant. "Let's just say family has always been important."
Doctor Strange took a moment to think over that last conversation. He could recall hearing something about Mormons and their temples. They were sacred places where only members of their religion could go. They believed marriages that happened within those walls lasted for eternity, linking families together beyond the veil. He could respect Fierra's refusal to give up such a lasting and sacred union.
He was puzzled as to why she would spring Lex from prison. He was a well known villain, a dangerous man. Surely the prison could have handled his illness?
It was a mystery, one hopefully the vision would reveal.