CHAPTER 6
.:The Seventh Floor:.
Lily looked sharply at the teenager. "No... you know my sister?"
Then Helena spoke up in her usual no-nonsense way. "Okay, we'll ask the questions. First of all, who are you? Second of all, how did you do that changing-thingy? Third," she turned to Dinah, "Who's May?"
"I'm Lily, and I've been able to do that 'changing-thingy' for a long time. I don't know how, I just know I can." She stated. "May is my sister."
"Twin sister, right?" Dinah asked faintly.
"Yeah, you've got it." Lily smiled slightly. "How do you know my sister?"
"She's new to my school- we're friends."
Barbara listened to this exchange through her surprise, but finally she spoke up. "You may as well come in, it must be cold." She turned her chair around and came face-to-face with Wade, who had worried about the cat harming his sweetheart. He stared blankly ahead until Barbara snapped her fingers in front of his face.
Everyone headed inside and trooped to the kitchen, where Alfred had made tea. As he saw Lily walk in he shot an inquisitive look at Barbara then brought an extra teacup to the table. As they waited for the kettle to boil the group talked.
"So, are you from Pinto?" Dinah asked politely.
"Yes." She smiled as pleasant memories drifted into her mind. Playing in the park with her sister... lifting the rabbits out of their hutches in the backyard and showing them off to her friends...
She came back to reality just in time to catch Helena's question.
"Are you meta?"
Lily looked around the table in case this was some kind of joke, but seeing it apparently wasn't, inquired on the subject. "Meta? What's that?"
"Metahuman. I'm sure you are meta, but a lot of people who are have never heard of the term, especially when they're from other places." Barbara said.
"Oh."
"Tea, Miss Lily?" Alfred's kindly voice cut into the conversation and dispelled the tension. The aroma of the tea filled the air as it was poured from the flowered teapot into the slightly mismatched cups. As everyone sipped their tea, Wade took the chance to ask a question of Lily.
"Why don't you go to school?"
It was something that had never really crossed her mind; she'd never stayed anywhere long enough to really settle down into a routine.
"Um... just a... mixture of circumstances really."
A platter of cookies- personally baked by Alfred- was set down in the centre of the table, and, in all their chocolaty glory, were quickly devoured. The surprise of meeting Lily was starting to wear off already, though the atmosphere remained tense.
*******
"So what's happening?" asked Detective Reese as he arrived in front of the ten-story apartment building.
"An anonymous tipper told us that the 10th street child abductors were hiding out here. They've got a girl in there too."
"So what are we going to do?"
"Wait until the detective who's on this case gets here."
Reese's face showed no emotion as he walked away. Looking around and seeing no one was watching him, he squeezed the sides of the ring on his finger then ducked into a nearby alley. After a few minutes he heard a soft noise behind him and turned around- and came face to face with Huntress.
"Got anything on this one?"
"The child abductors that have been all over the news. They're here, and they've got a girl up there with them on the seventh floor."
Helena glanced upwards at the seventh floor window. When her eyes came back down to rest on Reese, he saw the pupils were cat-like slits against her pale turquoise irises. Then she jumped vertically to the first floor window, then to the second, each window ledge like a step on a staircase which was rapidly carrying her to her goal. Just before Reese let his eyes fall back ground ward a dark figure with blonde hair jumped off the roof and onto the fire escape, and from there making her way to the seventh floor window. The only difference was that she actually used the stairs.
Reese smiled, and, after staring a second longer at the window that the Huntress had just disappeared through, moved back to where his fellow officers-of-the-law were gathered.
*******
Lily watched from her place on a neighbouring rooftop as Helena spoke with Reese then started scaling the wall- straight up! Dinah tapped her on the shoulder.
"Hey, are you coming?" She asked.
"Wouldn't miss it for the world!" Lily replied with a reckless grin. Then without warning Dinah leaped off the roof and landed squarely on the fire escape. She climbed steadily after Huntress, who had taken the less… conventional route. Lily took one look at the distance from her present position to the fire escape and decided against jumping.
Maybe eventually I'll learn how to do that... She thought to herself. Probably. But for now I'll just do it my way!
Within a minute Detective Reese would have seen a huge bald eagle fly straight into the seventh story window. If he had stayed, that is.
Let's see. What would be good against- Lily's eagle eyes peered into the darkness. five guys? I know! If an eagle could smile, this one was. Even as feathers melted into grey fur and ears sprouted, rather grotesquely, from her skull, she was smiling. Even as her beak lengthened and softened into a flesh-and-blood muzzle, she was smiling. And even as five guys with automatic weapons shrunk back from the arctic wolf that had suddenly appeared in their midst, her lips were pulled back from her teeth in a terrifying wolf smile.
*******
As the guards in the room started to yell, May stared nervously at the door as if she could see through it. As her eyes bored into the solid wood her mind raced with questions.
Lily? It could be her... but why? Why would she bother? Does she know it's me? What did she turn into this time? What ever it is- sounds vicious.
Gunshots. Then the door shuddered as one of the guys was thrown into it. May looked around at the dark, plain hallway.
What am I doing? My sister's in there fighting and I'm out here, listening.
Another round of gunfire pierced the air, followed by a wolf yelp.
"No! I have to help her!" May shouted and frantically began beating at the door and fumbling with the shiny brass doorknob. Shiny, cold, and very smooth. She pounded frantically, ignoring the lock that held the door against her battering fists.
"Now, now, we can't have this!" May jumped as a tall, muscular shadow appeared behind her. A second later a head appeared, forehead traced with a huge whitish scar.
"Richard... I..." she stammered.
"May... you..." he mocked. "I'm sorry, I must have missed something. You think some little friend of yours is in there?" Richard took a bundle of keys out of his pocket and selected one. He unlocked the door and peeked inside the room. "Why don't you go see?" He shoved the hapless girl into the room.
May looked back towards the safety of the hallway- except Richard had already closed the door. Then she felt a searing pain on the side of her head and the world faded into a blessed unconsciousness.
*******
When the wolf had suddenly appeared in the room, Barbara could hear it's snarling. The smile that had snuck onto her face faded instantly as the first gunshot rang out.
"Huntress, what's going on in there?"
Huntress's voice cut through the gunshots in the background. "Four little boys with big toys."
Short bursts, followed by more firing from elsewhere in the room. There's four automatic weapons in there- big ones by the sound of it.
Over the communicator Barbara heard an audible thump, followed by the distinct sound of splintering metal.
"Make that three."
"I want you all back here right now!" Barbara half-shouted, her voice tense. "You're not messing with guns at close range."
"No way in hell, Oracle."
Well, I knew that was coming!
"No arguments."
"There's a girl here that needs my help, and I'm going to help her."
This surprised Barbara, who thought that some tough-sounding retort about how "the Huntress never backs down from a fight" was going to be her answer.
"Since when did you become little miss leave-no-one-behind?"
"Just because you're scared to death of guns doesn't mean I have to be!" Huntress countered. Barbara decided to ignore her co-worker's retort, at least for now. But before she had time to speak again, she heard two words she wished had never been invented and the communicator went offline. One green dot turned yellow on an overhead monitor.
"Huntress out."
Dammit! Why? Why does she have to do that?!
Barbara stared up at the one remaining green dot on the overhead tracking monitor.
"I just hope Dinah doesn't..." Barbara muttered, then stopped mid-sentence as the dot took off across the room.
"What the..." The dot darted across the screen then stopped dead.
.:The Seventh Floor:.
Lily looked sharply at the teenager. "No... you know my sister?"
Then Helena spoke up in her usual no-nonsense way. "Okay, we'll ask the questions. First of all, who are you? Second of all, how did you do that changing-thingy? Third," she turned to Dinah, "Who's May?"
"I'm Lily, and I've been able to do that 'changing-thingy' for a long time. I don't know how, I just know I can." She stated. "May is my sister."
"Twin sister, right?" Dinah asked faintly.
"Yeah, you've got it." Lily smiled slightly. "How do you know my sister?"
"She's new to my school- we're friends."
Barbara listened to this exchange through her surprise, but finally she spoke up. "You may as well come in, it must be cold." She turned her chair around and came face-to-face with Wade, who had worried about the cat harming his sweetheart. He stared blankly ahead until Barbara snapped her fingers in front of his face.
Everyone headed inside and trooped to the kitchen, where Alfred had made tea. As he saw Lily walk in he shot an inquisitive look at Barbara then brought an extra teacup to the table. As they waited for the kettle to boil the group talked.
"So, are you from Pinto?" Dinah asked politely.
"Yes." She smiled as pleasant memories drifted into her mind. Playing in the park with her sister... lifting the rabbits out of their hutches in the backyard and showing them off to her friends...
She came back to reality just in time to catch Helena's question.
"Are you meta?"
Lily looked around the table in case this was some kind of joke, but seeing it apparently wasn't, inquired on the subject. "Meta? What's that?"
"Metahuman. I'm sure you are meta, but a lot of people who are have never heard of the term, especially when they're from other places." Barbara said.
"Oh."
"Tea, Miss Lily?" Alfred's kindly voice cut into the conversation and dispelled the tension. The aroma of the tea filled the air as it was poured from the flowered teapot into the slightly mismatched cups. As everyone sipped their tea, Wade took the chance to ask a question of Lily.
"Why don't you go to school?"
It was something that had never really crossed her mind; she'd never stayed anywhere long enough to really settle down into a routine.
"Um... just a... mixture of circumstances really."
A platter of cookies- personally baked by Alfred- was set down in the centre of the table, and, in all their chocolaty glory, were quickly devoured. The surprise of meeting Lily was starting to wear off already, though the atmosphere remained tense.
*******
"So what's happening?" asked Detective Reese as he arrived in front of the ten-story apartment building.
"An anonymous tipper told us that the 10th street child abductors were hiding out here. They've got a girl in there too."
"So what are we going to do?"
"Wait until the detective who's on this case gets here."
Reese's face showed no emotion as he walked away. Looking around and seeing no one was watching him, he squeezed the sides of the ring on his finger then ducked into a nearby alley. After a few minutes he heard a soft noise behind him and turned around- and came face to face with Huntress.
"Got anything on this one?"
"The child abductors that have been all over the news. They're here, and they've got a girl up there with them on the seventh floor."
Helena glanced upwards at the seventh floor window. When her eyes came back down to rest on Reese, he saw the pupils were cat-like slits against her pale turquoise irises. Then she jumped vertically to the first floor window, then to the second, each window ledge like a step on a staircase which was rapidly carrying her to her goal. Just before Reese let his eyes fall back ground ward a dark figure with blonde hair jumped off the roof and onto the fire escape, and from there making her way to the seventh floor window. The only difference was that she actually used the stairs.
Reese smiled, and, after staring a second longer at the window that the Huntress had just disappeared through, moved back to where his fellow officers-of-the-law were gathered.
*******
Lily watched from her place on a neighbouring rooftop as Helena spoke with Reese then started scaling the wall- straight up! Dinah tapped her on the shoulder.
"Hey, are you coming?" She asked.
"Wouldn't miss it for the world!" Lily replied with a reckless grin. Then without warning Dinah leaped off the roof and landed squarely on the fire escape. She climbed steadily after Huntress, who had taken the less… conventional route. Lily took one look at the distance from her present position to the fire escape and decided against jumping.
Maybe eventually I'll learn how to do that... She thought to herself. Probably. But for now I'll just do it my way!
Within a minute Detective Reese would have seen a huge bald eagle fly straight into the seventh story window. If he had stayed, that is.
Let's see. What would be good against- Lily's eagle eyes peered into the darkness. five guys? I know! If an eagle could smile, this one was. Even as feathers melted into grey fur and ears sprouted, rather grotesquely, from her skull, she was smiling. Even as her beak lengthened and softened into a flesh-and-blood muzzle, she was smiling. And even as five guys with automatic weapons shrunk back from the arctic wolf that had suddenly appeared in their midst, her lips were pulled back from her teeth in a terrifying wolf smile.
*******
As the guards in the room started to yell, May stared nervously at the door as if she could see through it. As her eyes bored into the solid wood her mind raced with questions.
Lily? It could be her... but why? Why would she bother? Does she know it's me? What did she turn into this time? What ever it is- sounds vicious.
Gunshots. Then the door shuddered as one of the guys was thrown into it. May looked around at the dark, plain hallway.
What am I doing? My sister's in there fighting and I'm out here, listening.
Another round of gunfire pierced the air, followed by a wolf yelp.
"No! I have to help her!" May shouted and frantically began beating at the door and fumbling with the shiny brass doorknob. Shiny, cold, and very smooth. She pounded frantically, ignoring the lock that held the door against her battering fists.
"Now, now, we can't have this!" May jumped as a tall, muscular shadow appeared behind her. A second later a head appeared, forehead traced with a huge whitish scar.
"Richard... I..." she stammered.
"May... you..." he mocked. "I'm sorry, I must have missed something. You think some little friend of yours is in there?" Richard took a bundle of keys out of his pocket and selected one. He unlocked the door and peeked inside the room. "Why don't you go see?" He shoved the hapless girl into the room.
May looked back towards the safety of the hallway- except Richard had already closed the door. Then she felt a searing pain on the side of her head and the world faded into a blessed unconsciousness.
*******
When the wolf had suddenly appeared in the room, Barbara could hear it's snarling. The smile that had snuck onto her face faded instantly as the first gunshot rang out.
"Huntress, what's going on in there?"
Huntress's voice cut through the gunshots in the background. "Four little boys with big toys."
Short bursts, followed by more firing from elsewhere in the room. There's four automatic weapons in there- big ones by the sound of it.
Over the communicator Barbara heard an audible thump, followed by the distinct sound of splintering metal.
"Make that three."
"I want you all back here right now!" Barbara half-shouted, her voice tense. "You're not messing with guns at close range."
"No way in hell, Oracle."
Well, I knew that was coming!
"No arguments."
"There's a girl here that needs my help, and I'm going to help her."
This surprised Barbara, who thought that some tough-sounding retort about how "the Huntress never backs down from a fight" was going to be her answer.
"Since when did you become little miss leave-no-one-behind?"
"Just because you're scared to death of guns doesn't mean I have to be!" Huntress countered. Barbara decided to ignore her co-worker's retort, at least for now. But before she had time to speak again, she heard two words she wished had never been invented and the communicator went offline. One green dot turned yellow on an overhead monitor.
"Huntress out."
Dammit! Why? Why does she have to do that?!
Barbara stared up at the one remaining green dot on the overhead tracking monitor.
"I just hope Dinah doesn't..." Barbara muttered, then stopped mid-sentence as the dot took off across the room.
"What the..." The dot darted across the screen then stopped dead.