Chapter 16: Rescue

            "And how do I get up into the basement from here then," Helena asked and looked up at the grey concrete over her head.

"The collection of small objects I got you, there should be a large oval one with a red edge around the middle. Take it, press the small catch at the top and throw at the concrete as hard as you from as far away as you can then dodge. You should have five seconds to take cover after impact. It's a very high powered thermal charge. Try not to breathe too many fumes though," Barbara explained over her com.

Helena looked at the innocent looking black object, flipped the catch and made her best pitcher imitation aiming at the overhead oval. The black thing shattered against the hard surface, but Helena was already spurting away for a bit of relative safety. Suddenly a strange smelling cloud blew past her, making her hold her breath to avoid the noxious smell.

She slowly made her way back. The charge seemed to have created enough heat to liquefy the cement and create hole that looked wide enough to crawl through. Gingerly Helena checked the edges and after a slight sizzle from the leather she decided to wait a bit.

"The police just transferred the money to the account. They should be bringing in the helicopters in an hour," Barbara reported as she sat near the hole, waiting for the stone to cool.

"I thought, they were going to go with the standard, we don't negotiate with terrorists stick. I can't believe they're caving to their demands," Helena replied.

"They aren't, they're just trying to gain time and stop any more killings. As far as I can tell from the police computers and communications they're planning to have the transport helicopters loaded with SWAT or something like that. It's the best insertion plan they've got," Barbara explained.

Helena cursed under her breath. "I've got to get up there. The kid is in there and they're about to turn it into a pigeon shoot," she said.

"You have less than an hour," Barbara reminded her. Helena felt that Barbara was agreeing with her. The plan of the police could very well turn the hostage taking into an even more bloody mess. She walked over to the hole and looked up. She jumped up, grabbed the sizzling hot stone and pushed herself through ignoring the pain spreading through her gloves and into her fingers.

Helena got up and quickly danced away from the hole, while shaking her smoking leather gloves and expressing her pain. "You could have waited," Barbara's voice suggested in her ear, but she just ignored her, while she stripped off her gloves.

"I'm in the basement, which direction should I take," Helena asked and looked left and right.

"Go to your left. At the first T-cross head in, you should find a stair on your right after a couple of yards," Barbara explained and off she went.

Dinah stopped dead in her tracks. Far away she could hear the sound of steps, someone was running… through the basement. Making a quick decision, she withdrew deeper back into the crawlspace hiding in the darkness. She hoped whoever it was didn't know to look up here. The sound stopped and continued in another direction. Dinah sighed and pushed a dusty and sweaty strand of hair out of her face before heading forward. A quick push and she was out of the crawlspace and down on the floor of a basement corridor.

For a moment she just sat there ignoring her messy almost sooty clothes, her sticky hair and the taste of dust in her mouth. She just had to stop and catch her breath for a while. "You need to get out of here," a voice in her head said and sounded much like her mother would've. "No, you should see if you can do any good before you simply run away," another voice wheedled. It sounded a lot like a cross between Helena and what she remembered of Carolyn's voice.

Dinah fought with her fear for a while. She knew very well that the men up there had automatic weapons and probably a lot of other military gear, but there was probably still no easy way out of the school without risking being shot by a sniper. And maybe she could do some good by scouting around, while looking for a safe escape route. She wished she could get in contact with her mom, but she didn't have a com set like Helena… Her cell phone was in her locker. If she could find a way to get it, she could at least talk to her mom. Dinah got up and walked carefully down the corridor hoping to find some kind of stairs out of the basement.

"Ready," Barbara's voice asked in her ear. Helena smiled and all her muscles were at attention ready to spring into action. A pair of footsteps was getting closer.

"Now," she whispered and sprang up the last flight of stairs as a cigarette smoking block fellow wearing overalls, carrying a headset and assault rifle appeared at the top of the stairs. Her stretched-out foot hammered into the side of his head. He flew across the empty school hall and slammed into a closed door. Before he could talk or point his gun, she had flipped up, over and put her full weight behind a heel kick into his solar plexus. The already woozy crook was left stunned without any breath in his lungs. Helena finished him off with a solid punch to his head leaving him unconscious.

She padded him down and found plastic strips usually used for quick handcuffing. With a smile she grabbed the small bundle and dragged her first victim into an empty classroom. She saw that there was a cupboard about the size of a man. A few strips and a hard shove later she set off to find more, while somewhere out side Delphi took over this guy's voice. "Alright who is next?" Helena asked.

"There should be two more on the floor you're on. Head away from the entrance, I have the voice id of the one down that way pegged as the next on my list," Barbara suggested.

Dinah quietly headed up the stairs and looked around. She had to be really careful, she knew that. She looked out into the corridor and carefully checked each direction, before heading towards the entrance. The corridor branching off along the building that way contained her locker. Using the opportunity of an empty hall she quickly ran down the hall.

Halfway there she heard a few faint sounds from somewhere behind her and she practically roll dodged in through an open classroom door and slid out of easy view from the corridor. A while she sat there, feeling as if her heart was beating loud enough to be heard. The sound had disappeared again. She got up and looked out the door again. Then the sound of steps came back and she saw a thin guy in overalls walk into view and then continue down the corridor she had been heading towards.

Dinah ducked back inside the classroom and wondered if she should stay, head towards her cell phone or try and find a better place to hide. The corridor the guy had headed down into was a dead-end. Sooner or later he would return and maybe even search the classroom she was in. She needed a better hiding place. Dinah considered it, while she got up, looked both ways again and ran back up towards the basement stairs.

She just managed to reach them, when he heard someone behind her yell, "You there stop." There was a sound almost as if really pissed off supersonic bees flew past behind her. The lockers rang from the impacts and there were sparks. Dinah cursed and quickly ran down the stairs. They knew she was here now. She needed to find a way to hide or stop them and she had no idea, how many would be going down after her.

Barbara heard a call go out over the hostage takers communications channel coming from the only still conscious one on the ground floor of the main building. "Stephenson here, student sighted running free in the halls, probable hiding place the basement," he said.

A few moments later, the voice of the leader, who called himself Colonel, replied, "Stephenson, you and Gomez head down there and terminate. Webber, head down to the ground floor until they return."

"Confirmed," all three replied, not knowing that only two of the three voices were actually not being produced by Delphi. Barbara looked up at the army personnel database search running in a small window, but it hadn't produced any solid leads yet.

She switched the headset over to her channel to Helena and said, "Alright Helena, a guy is heading down the stairs you're close to. I want you to take him out. That'll leave the ground floor with only one guy. After that your next target should be somewhere over by one of the classrooms over the entrance." She felt sick for not telling Helena about the student in the basement, but the needs of the many came before the needs of one person, even if it could be Dinah or anyone else.

"Alright… What about the last guy down here," Helena asked.

"He's distracted for now, we're behind schedule, you need to get to that sniper and soon. I don't know where he is though, he's been radio silent, but we've both seen evidence of his handiwork," she explained.

"I am going up now," Helena replied.

Dinah felt every breath burning in her throat and her side stung already, but she couldn't stop. Somewhere not too far behind her one or more men were coming… with weapons. She didn't have any way to stop a bullet they were too fast to catch with her telekinesis, so she continued doing the logical thing and kept on running.

Somewhere behind her she could only just make out the sound of boots running on the concrete. She headed in the opposite direction of where she had crawled out of the ducts. The corridor ended up feeding into another lighted long one. She dashed to left only in time to avoid another spray of bullets, which peppered the wall in front of her. Dust and concrete fell from the wall. Panic spread through her mind and she screamed in shock, while holding her ears. "Run Dinah," something still sane and thinking inside of her screamed.

Dinah ran down the corridor looking for another cover. She knew that the second her enemies turned the corner behind her and saw her exposed, he or they would open fire. She saw another corner and turned it only to find her way blocked by metal door. She barely avoided slamming into it. She grabbed the handle and pushed. The door remained locked.

A sudden insight told her that a single pair of boots was skidding to a stop down the corridor. She stared down at the handle and tried to pull some energy out of her bone-tired mind to blow in the door. "Just surrender and I'll make it quick and painless," her enemy called down the corridor. Panic surged back into her system feeding into her TK and the door tore open.

Dinah stumbled into the room, her vision swam and she barely had enough concentration to push the door closed behind her. She had found the boiler room. Dinah wearily sat down facing the door. She felt almost resigned with her fate. She doubted she had enough strength left in her to lift a leaf, much less stop an insane bastard like the one headed towards her.

Still a lifetime with Barbara Gordon had instilled a deep seated will in her. "Pull yourself together, you can beat them. You don't have to rely on your abilities. You have a mind, use it," she told herself and her eyes started darting around the room looking for something to use against her assailant. The room was mostly bare except for a myriad of overhead pipes, the boiler and an old table on which a couple of iron saws and long pieces of pipe lay.

Dinah's eyes settled on the pipes. Quickly she reached down and pulled off her jeans and her shoes. She grabbed a pipe, ran over and placed her shoes and her jeans behind the boiler to make it look like she was hiding in the corner between the boiler and the wall. From the door you could just make the hind part of her shoes and her jeans out. Dinah kept a good hold on the pipe, and hid under the big table.

She barely got in before someone kicked the door open. She bit her lip to keep from crying out and watched as a thin man in overalls, brandishing an automatic rifle and wearing a headset radio walked in. She took better hold of the pipe and got ready to move. The man looked around and luckily saw her trap before he saw her. He smiled and jumped sideways and opened fire. Dinah half-crawled half-ran out of her hiding place and pulled the pipe back for a big swing.

The guy caught on, but before he could turn towards her, the pipe smacked against his head. Dinah didn't think, all she did was hit the man in the head twice… thrice then he finally stumbled back and fell down. Thinking quickly Dinah hammered the pipe against the rifle, sending it out of his grip. However she was neither strong nor trained to fight.

The man recovered quickly, jumped up and crashed into her. He tackled her to the ground. She lost her grip on the pipe and it clattered away. Dinah was pinned beneath his heavy weight. "You damned little bitch," the man cursed. Dinah saw blood trickling down the side of the man's head. His eyes seemed slightly glazed with both pain and what she imagined berserker rage would look like. She pounded weakly against his arms, but they slid down and grabbed her throat. "You'll die choking," he said and squeezed.

She clawed at his hands and felt flesh touch flesh. Using her last ounce of strength she forced herself to push against his mind instead of his much stronger arms. Her world turned black and white. Here she was bigger and stronger. She stood in the middle of the room. She looked over and saw the man sitting on top of her a few feet away. She walked over, put a hand on his shoulder and said, "You'll listen too me now. You'll go to sleep now. Sleep," she commanded and let go.

Her world swiveled and turned back to color. She was still on the floor under him. His grip went limp and he tumbled down to lie half besides half on top of her. She struggled free of him, carefully trying not wake the sleeping man. She pushed herself across the floor and just sat there staring, while the pain in her neck slowly went away.

Helena threw the guy into wall high over the stairwell and he slid down several yards before he had a painful landing. She saw to her joy that he was unconscious. "I got him," she reported.

"Good, that makes nearly all of them. You need to get over to the floor above the gym. I am pretty sure the sniper is up there," Barbara reported.

"How long time is it until the helicopters arrive?" She had to ask and she ran down the hall heading over to the stairs that would take her to where she needed to go if memory served correctly.

"They just left the airbase with the SWAT people aboard. It is really a mess out here. Parents, relatives and students are milling around knowing that their classmates and children may already be dead or could soon be. A lot want blood already I can tell you that," Barbara explained.

"How about you, I am feeling about ready to seriously maim these people, you must feel worse," she commented as she dashed up the stairs leading to the floor she was looking for.

"I am fine. At least we're doing something. If we can just free the hostages, everything will be fine. But remember Helena you mustn't acknowledge Dinah in there," Barbara replied, while she slowed down. Now she had to try and pinpoint the sniper they knew was hiding somewhere.

"Alright, I just got a hit on Delphi. We know who these people are now. Their leader is an actual Army Colonel named Eric Ronald. He and most of his unit disappeared along with a good bit of equipment several months ago during an exercise all the way over in Wyoming. Military Police have been hunting for them for a while now, but I don't think anyone could have expected this to be the result," Barbara explained.

Helena thought she heard something and whispered, "Oracle could you keep quiet I think I heard something." She got no response.

Helena looked through a small glass window and saw a man lying on a table wearing a cloth over him that was the same color as the table. A very large rifle peeked out of the cover long with some kind of lens. He had a full view of the field on which the helicopters would land. She smiled fiercely and carefully opened the door to the classroom. The guy was about to join his comrades in dreamland.

Dinah sat staring. She had been sitting there for a while. "This is stupid, no one else is coming, but if you stay here you won't do either yourself or anybody else any good," she thought. She then slowly got up, put her now bullet-hole riddled jeans and shoes on, grabbed the rifle and headed for the door. Halfway there she stopped and went over to carefully retrieve the headset.

On her way down a corridor she took the clip out of the rifle and threw it into an overhead crawlspace full of pipes. A little while later she repeated her actions with the rifle.

She was walking down the corridor looking for a better hiding place or maybe some kind of sewer access, when she heard someone call, "Stephenson, report in damn it," in the headset. She didn't dare reply instead just picked up pace.

"Gomez, what happened to Stephenson," the same male voice demanded. Again there was no reply.

"Webber, report in," the now a little desperate voice demanded.

"This is Webber's voice mail. Please leave a message and I'll get back to you," her mother's voice replied dryly. Dinah almost cried at the sound, she wanted to talk to her, but she knew that someone inside the school with her, probably the leader of these people was listening as well.

"Who are you?" The man demanded.

"I am the all-knowing Oracle, and I know all about you Colonel Eric Ronald," her mom replied. Dinah almost giggled with joy. She knew if her mom was involved then so was Helena. When taking into account that no one had replied to the radio messages meant that either her mom was blocking their radios, which would have required noise on the channel, or Helena was here inside the school at this moment. Suddenly she felt a lot safer.

"Well, Miss Oracle, I don't have time to talk to you. Everyone else shift to the next protocol we've been branched," he said and there was a series of pops and clicks. They had probably changed frequencies. She considered talking to her mom, but they might still be listening so instead she opted to get rid of the headset like she had done with the rifle and its clip, and threw it into a crawlspace.

Up in the room next the gym Eric tore off his headset in anger. His plan was being disrupted. "Alright, make sure everyone is switched over then give me a remaining headcount. We need to pick up the most docile of the kids and get ready. The helicopters are landing any minute now," he said to his wife.

"What about the teachers, administrators and the rest of the kids?" His wife asked.

"Gas them then they're out of the way at least," he said, while taking up a small remote trigger. "I guess it'll be time for our second surprise soon," he said and switched it on. His wife nodded, while unpacking a couple of gas grenades and masks.

"Helena, they know something is up. The helicopters are landing as we speak. Be really careful when you go in," her friend explained in her ear, while she slowly crawled up the grate that was the last barrier between her and the kids. She looked down and saw only two guards down near the exit. They had machine guns and looked very acute. She gazed out of the kids they held hostage and knew that there was no way she would let even a single one of them get hurt.

Her eyes shifted to feline, she could feel her power surging through her body. She grabbed the grate and pushed away as hard as her enhanced legs would allow. As she flew through the air with one hand she threw the gas bombs Barbara had given her earlier. Quicker than she had imagined the room filled with thick grey smoke. The kids screamed and started to cough.

Helena's enhanced eyes could just pierce the smoke covered as they were behind her mask. She easily swiveled her body in the air and pushed away from the opposite wall sending her towards her by now confused enemies.

Eric glanced out and saw the suddenly grayed out gym. "Quick, grab a teacher and head for the first helicopter," he said to his wife, while pushing down the remote trigger. Bombs placed next to power lines, phone lines and in sewers all over the neighborhood exploded, dipping the entire place in darkness and chaos. He followed his wife into the meeting room, where they had kept the teachers. Like his wife he had put on a gasmask. He grabbed the principal and followed his wife out the door, tossing a gas grenade in the room, while his retreat was covered by his staff sergeant.

Helena grabbed the coughing watery eyed goon and while pushing down his shoulders she launched a full on jump knee first into his groin. He went limp enough for her to spin around and throw as hard as she could into his partner, who looked about ready to fire around randomly. Her lungs burned from the smoke, but still she noted with satisfaction that they both went down and stayed down. "Huntress, the police are about to bust in. Head for the basement and get out now," Barbara said with urgency in her ear. Helena looked around, she wanted to find Dinah and make sure she was okay, but she knew that it wouldn't be an option. Instead she ran for the nearest entrance to the school halls.

Eric cursed under his breath as they headed towards the exit. He had no idea, who or what had ruined his plans like this. But he knew it wasn't the unimaginative police. His wife reached around her hostage and pulled the door open. They ran for their escape craft, while he thought; that the best the police could have come up with was putting SWAT inside the helicopters, but his snipers would have seen that. But they might also be... He skidded to a stop and opened his mouth to yell, when suddenly there was a short staccato series of bursts from behind them as the SWAT team hiding next to the door shot them to save their hostages. Eric slipped away, chagrinned that he had never figured out or seen his real opponent.