In The Shadow of the Bat
Outsiders
The Spider was doing her damnedest to convince herself she was NOT a superhero, but more and more she realized she was failing. Teresa Ludlow-Dalt became the Spider to save herself from crazed fans of the Seven Soldiers of Victory, a team that had been betrayed by her father the original Spider. Using a mini crossbow and natural athletic ability she had survived several attacks be the cult, and had even found herself doing heroic things when needed. But she was NOT a superhero.
The problem was, OTHER people were becoming convinced she was a hero. Members of the JSA had approached her. She had regular conversations with a few cops in the Gotham PD. The Teen Titans scouted her but decided she was too old (thank goodness). It was getting pretty crazy.
And now THIS.
The Outsiders were a odd, sort of 'b-list' group of heroes. First assembled by Batman they had been a powerful force of heroes. But after he left the group they became rather aimless, and drifted into the lower level of heroes. Worse they developed a reputation for disaster., members dying and turning against the team, wreaking havok. And now it appeared they wanted to recruit her.
Halo aka Violet Harper seemed like a nice kid, the pretty blond haired woman dressed in a skirt and blouse. Beside her the heroine Katana looked much more serious. Tatsu Yamashiro dressed in a formal woman's suit and carrying a briefcase.
"Thank you for agreeing to see us," Halo beamed cheerfully.
"Indeed," Tatsu agreed.
Teresa nodded to both women respectfully, though to be honest she rather dreaded what they might be here to do. "You're welcome," she said, "and I understand you had information for me?"
Tatsu opened the case and took out some papers. "You contacted our leader Geo-Force about Ludlow-Dalt activities in Markovia," she passed the papers over, "it seems one of your ancestors was quite busy there."
Teresa brightened, "Oh, thank you!"
The files were as impressive as she hoped. The Ludlow-Dalts had escaped crimes in Europe by retreating to Markovia, in the process coning the prince at the time. He had managed to string along the Royal family for nearly a decade, then his criminal activities were discovered and he was expelled.
"Did that help?" Halo asked curiously, looking at Teresa thoughtfully.
"It fills a gap," Teresa admitted, "I've been trying to track this one down after he encountered the Shade and escaped."
"He also had children there," Tatsu noted, "and sadly his infamy was carried down the bloodline."
Teresa really wasn't sure she wanted to know, but... "Yes?" she asked.
"Doctor Helga Jace was one of his descendants," Tatsu noted calmly, "and in the end she betrayed the Outsiders to the Manhunters."
Teresa sighed. She really wanted to believe you could triumph over your ancestry, but her family tree seemed to show the opposite. If you carried Ludlow-Dalt blood, it seemed pretty damn likely you would go bad at one point or another.
Halo clearly read her reaction, because the pretty blond reached over to pat her hand. "Not that that means anything..."
Before Teresa could react a voice yelled. "GET AWAY FROM MY GIRLFRIEND!"
Teresa jerked in surprise as a young woman with brown hair just... burst from the back of the cafe, literally flying on gusts of air. Reflexedly Teresa grabbed her mini-crossbow from her bag as she blurted, "What the hell."
"Windfall," Tatsu said grimly. She looked at Halo, "I thought you two..."
"We talked!" Halo said quickly, "I thought I convinced her..."
The next wind burst nearly blasted Teresa and Tatsu off their feet, even as the room itself shook dangerously. Windfall soared in, grabbing for Halo even as the young woman cried, "You promised we'd always be together, Halo!"
"Messy breakups are always so embarassing," Teresa muttered as she picked up a chair and clocked the flying girl.
The impact sent Windfall flying. Sadly it ALSO got the attention of her friends, who got rather angry at seeing their pall get hit. A massive man made of stone, a firey guy and a woman with water powers charged them, looking pissed.
"Oh dear," Tatsu said, drawing her namesake Katana and taking up a battle pose.
Halo blew out a wall with one enegy blast, then used a forcefield to shove the attackers back. "Run!" she yelled.
"I thought the Masters of Disaster broke up?" Teresa asked as they bolted out the hole, the young woman recognizing the villains from her research.
"You are well informed," Tatsu nodded, "and I had thought they were gone for good too. Though these do not seem to be the originals..."
"So that's Windfall, and I think that's her sister New Wave," Teresa noted, loading up a exploding arrow and firing it at the giant stone guy, "who are the others?"
"Ah'm Rubble!" the stone man declared as he charged towards them, his steps actually making the ground shake.
"I was Sparkler before Dr. Light killed me," the blazing man snarled, "now I'm Blowtorch!"
Before the group could hit the three women a bolt of power exploded down from the sky, hammering the self named Rubble into the ground, hard. "Reinforcements have arrived!" Black Lightning cried as he lead several members of the Outsiders in as reinforcements.
Thunder, his daughter, hit the ground hard and smiled coldly as the concrete buckled. "Gentlemen, ladies," she said, "I strongly advise you to surrender before someone gets hurt."
"Give me Halo and the fight ends," Windfall demanded.
"Give!" New Wave repeated, glaring madly.
"I thought New Wave was the leader?" Teresa asked as she fired a trick arrow at Blowtorch, engulfing him in fire fighting foam.
"She was," Halo agreed a bit sadly as she used her power bolt to send New Wave reeling backwards, "but she pissed off Lex Luthor, I think. He did something to her water form that damaged her mind."
"Ouch," Teresa winced.
Black Lightning, Thunder, Halo, Looker, Grace and Katana worked together as a fine tuned machine, quickly disabling and capturing each Master of Disaster. It helped that Windfall and New Wave weren't exactly rational, so they weren't coordinating their team all that well.
"Look at me, sweety," Looker smiled, her eyes glowing as she used her psychic powers to entrance New Wave and calm her down.
Grace was not how Teresa envisioned a superhero, honestly. She was tattooed and rough around the edges, wearing street clothes rather than a costime. But her and Thunder we nt toe to toe with Rubble, hammering the stone man down until he finally collapsed.
Black Lightning put down Blowtorch with a lighning bolt, even as Teresa hit him with fore fire fighting foam. "Thanks," Black Lightning nodded to her.
"No problem. Hopefully that keeps him down," Teresa sighed.
"Give it up, Windfall," Halo plead as she and Katana surrounded the flying girl.
"Never! I won't give you up," Windfall raved, her eyes blazing angrilly, "I'll kill you all if you try to keep us apart!"
Katana, finally tired of the ranting, casually tossed her sword hilt first and with a eerie degree of accuracy clipped the girl in the head, knocking her out and sending her crashing to the floor. She hit the ground with a loud thump, even as Halo rushed to her side.
"Tatsu!" Halo said angrilly as she checked the girl for injuries.
"She was threatening to kill us all," Tatsu answered stonily, "and I disabled her with the minimum required force."
Teresa wasn't sure she wanted to get involved with a inner group spat, especially considering it didn't really involve her. Instead she tiredly nodded to Black Lightning and said, "Thanks for the help."
"No problem," the taller, very well built man smiled wryly as he said, "We were sort of shadowing Halo anyway, after we saw Windfall's stalker letters get more violent."
"What's her story?" Teresa asked curiously.
Black Lightning sighed tiredly. "Back when we first ran into the Masters, Windfall was a reluctant member, and Halo reached out to her," he said. "She even left the group and joined the Outsiders for awhile."
"But...?" Teresa prompted.
"The group disbanded for awhile, and Windfall started losing her grip. She became obsessive over Halo, and now..." he sighed and shrugged. Black Lightning added, "Anyway, I'm sorry you got caught up in this."
"It's fine," Teresa smiled slightly, "I'm getting used to it."
As they were talking the Gotham PD had arrives, and were bagging up the crooks in various containment systems. The cops here had a LOT of experience in containing crooks with unusual powers and abilities, and had methods to hold them all. Of course, considering the lax security in their jails, there was no way to know how long they'd stay captive.
"Good bye," Halo waved sadly as they hauled off the Masters in a paddy wagon, Windfall looking back at Halo sadly.
"And you wonder why she still thinks she has a chance with you?" Grace asked wryly as she and Thunder stood close together. "Hey Dad!" Grace called to Black Lightning, "Can Thunder and I take off for a bit?"
"I wish you wouldn't call me that," Black Lightning sighed. "Yeah, it should be fine," he waved as the two women took off, walking closely.
"Dad?" Teresa had to ask, amused.
"They're dating and Grace kind of enjoys bugging me about it," Black Lightning admitted. "I don't mind it too much, and it makes the kids happy."
"He's a big softy, really," Looker teased, laughing.
"You fought beside us quite effectively," Katana noted to Teresa, having retrieved her namesake weapon and stashed it away. "Would you consider joining our team as the Spider?"
As Black Lightning, Halo and Looker all gazed at her expectantly Tewresa groaned mentally. 'How the hell do I turn them down politely?' she wondered.
To be continued...
Notes: I need a different way to get Teresa into trouble, since this is the third time I've had her get jumped meeting a source. Heh! This Outsiders kind of sidesteps some of the odd shit that happened One Year Later and so on.