He waited patiently at the place Morton had told him to meet with him. He didn't understand why Oracle had ordered him to try to keep Morton entertained as long as possible. Knowing her, she had something in mind; but he didn't have any idea as to what it could be.
He was on the corner of a park, a male voice behind him ordered him to walk to the next block and climb inside a black van. He didn't turn; he just obeyed and followed the instructions.
"I think she is playing with us," Dr. Moore said to Morton in the hallway. He was worried, he had been checking the notes and they didn't seem right.
Morton took the notes and checked them. "Are you sure?"
" Yes, I'm sure of the formula, she... she is not creating one that works well," Moore explained, "she erased our data files with the excuse of rewriting them, and I'm sure that information is wrong."
"I need go to talk to her, I'll be right back.." He gave him the notes and walked to the other side of the corridor. Moore sighed and shook his head.
The guard that kept the cells and was standing up outside the door, heard a noise inside. He looked inside the cells through a window and saw the brunette lying unmoving on the floor. He called one of the guards that was in the corridor and both walked inside.
Moore turned his head and looked at them. "What happened?"
"She is on the floor," the guard said opening the door.
"What?" Moore ran inside. He kneeled next to the young woman and took her pulse. She growled softly. "Are you okay?"
She growled softly again.
"Open the door," Moore ordered.
"But sir...."
"Open the door and take her to the infirmary now!"
The guards opened the cell and took her by her armpits. As soon as they moved her out, she hit both of them with two fast moves. Moore tried to escape, but she took him by his back; slamming him against the floor she buried her feral eyes on him. He trembled. She smirked at her prey.
"If you touch me again with your nasty hands, I'll rip your head off of your neck, understand?"
The man nodded.
"I heard you talking about Leslie Thompkins, where is she?"
"Lower floor, left corridor, first stairway."
"And the blonde? Where is she?"
"Downstairs too, second cell."
"Good." She hit him roughly in his face, knocking him out. She turned, the guards were standing up, she ran to the open door and turned to the left, but she stopped running when a man with pointed a rifle at her and shot, she rolled to a corridor on the right side, the shot alerted the other guards. She hid behind a wall. Things were going worse. Maybe she had pushed her luck. Well, what luck? The last few days have been nasty.
She was feeling much better, but still wasn't one hundred percent, well, maybe not even seventy percent. She limped lightly to the next corridor. She heard a click and ducked in time to avoid a shot. She ran as fast as she could and found a closed door. The last door of that part of the building. She pushed with her right shoulder and opened it. Dammit, it hurt but she didn't have any other choice.
She looked around, it was a kind of old storage room. Near the ceiling, she could see some holes in the air conditioner ducts and pipes that crossed the ceiling. Many old storage boxes were lying about. End of the road. Great, she was trapped again.
She heard a gun click. She turned her head. A man pointed his rifle at her. Well, maybe this was the end of a bad week.
She felt strong hands on her back that raised her by her armpits, the movement was fast, but in time. The shot missed her. Suddenly she was flying up. More shots crossed next to her head. Before she could turn back, the hands pushed her through one of the air conditioner ducts on the wall. The movement was rude and she just closed her eyes, she stumbled and slipped down until a wall stopped her.
"Shit..." she grunted and held her back. Lately, the blows to her back were frequent, they had never bothered her until last week. A noise called her attention. She raised her head, someone was slipping from the same duct where she had fallen. A familiar figure appeared, slipping down softly.
Leslie was with Dinah inside the laboratory, she was preventing, as she did with Huntress, Moore from keeping her drugged. She finished her check on the girl, she was okay, still a little woozy. "Do you feel better?" Leslie asked softly looking her.
"Yes, thanks..." the blonde said.
"I got a message from Oracle, she will help us. Don't try anything, Morton can still hurt Huntress. She is having a hard time healing with that man attacking her every minute." Leslie looked Dinah. "Are you okay?"
"Yes," Dinah couldn't hide her nervousness, she sat up, "I think so.... Oracle talked to me about you..."
"I hope in a good way." Leslie smiled.
"She told me you are so kind and gentle... I never guessed..."
"You never guessed what?" the doctor raised a brow.
"Well, that you would be gentle with me... you don't know me."
"You can be nice with everyone, it doesn't matter if you know them or not."
"Well..." Dinah muttered brushing her hair back behind her ear, "it's... it's that... just, well, usually people are not nice with me."
"I don't understand…" Leslie frowned.
"My parents thought I was a freak…" Dinah said with low voice.
Leslie remembered that Oracle had talked with her a bit about the teen's sad childhood experience. "Well… but… they weren't you real parents."
"I know but…" Dinah hugged her self "well, right until school it has been difficult. I'm feel strange there."
"Dinah, everybody feels strange in High School, it's the closest thing our society has to
institutionalized torture."
"Helena says he same."
"Of course, she told me that once." Leslie explained, "she used to run away often."
The blonde smiled lightly. "And now she is…"
Leslie touched her shoulder. "Don't worry, she has been in worse trouble. Trust in Oracle."
"I am"
They heard steps, Leslie stood up and checked the girl's pulse while the blonde closed her eyes as if she were sleeping.
"Dr. Thompkins." Morton stood up at in the doorway, "I need to talk with you, alone."
The old woman nodded and followed him.
"Barbara?" she blinked.
"Yes, it's me." She picked up the rope tied to her back. Huntress noticed she had wrapped her legs back with a strange harness.
"What's...?"
"It's the best way to move in this place, climbing and swinging."
"The transponder?"
"Not useful now..." She removed a bag from her waist.
"How did you find us?" Huntress asked slowly.
"Leslie and some help from Reese, how do you feel?" Barbara asked, looking at her back.
"A bit sore... but I'll survive."
"Your leg?"
"Bothers me a bit..."
Before the brunette could say anything, Barbara buried a needle in her arm.
"Dammit!!" the young crime fighter growled. "What is with you people and needles?"
"Morphine, it will help you with the pain," Barbara said. "I brought you some clothes, I don't think you enjoy fighting in a medical robe. Where's Dinah and Leslie?" The redhead cleaned her arm.
"Downstairs... Morton told me he had found out who was looking for me. I thought it was you."
"Reese, it's him. Don't worry."
"We need to hurry, they know Leslie has been tricking them."
"Right, change your clothes and follow me." The redhead began to crawl in the air duct and taped a small box on one of the walls.
Huntress marvelled as she watched her. Her mentor never ceased to amaze her. She looked at the pants that Barbara had brought her. She frowned. "These aren't my leather pants. These are my training pants."
"I don't think you will be able to wear the leather ones for at least two weeks with your leg hurt. Hurry up."
"What is that thing you are wearing?"
"I can do my gymnastic routine very well, Hel, but my legs do not respond, so I keep them far from any risky situation and to give me more free movement. Let's go." She showed her a map on her palm. "We need to move out of here, we can move over the pipes and go to the lower level to find Dinah and Leslie."
The brunette looked the screen, "We don't have time, go for Dinah, I'll go for Leslie. We need the kid and her powers now."
"Are you sure you can...?"
"I can."
"Wait. Take this." Oracle took her transceiver out her pocket. "We must be in contact. I'll go down, you look in the next floor. Got it?"
The brunette nodded
Dinah felt Leslie was in trouble, she focused on the main control of the cells. She never had done anything like that but Leslie had told her she could do anything she wanted, she just needed try. It was hard, she couldn't see it, Leslie had told her just where it was. She sat at the bed and closed her eyes trying to focus.
Morton circled Leslie in his office. She felt nervous, she felt something was wrong. That man was not stupid; she had played so much with time. She had finished to erase all the research that they have been doing; and she was giving Huntress time to recover, but she wasn't helping much. She stayed still, not showing him any emotion.
"Do you think I'm an asshole?" he asked.
"No, I would never think that."
"No.." he stood up in front of her, "So... what is this?" He showed her some papers.
Leslie recognized the notes from the formula. "What? It's our work, I don't understand."
"You have been screwing up our work." He glared at her.
A short circuit made Dinah opened her eyes. She looked at the bars of her cell stunned and touched it. The electricity had gone. She smiled and pushed the door. It opened easily. "It worked!" she thought, it was incredible the confidence in herself what she could do. She walked outside the cell and looked at the people lying in the other cells. She could help them later, she needed to help Leslie and Huntress first. The main door opened suddenly.
"What the...?" a guard shouted.
She raised her hand and pulled him inside crashing his back against a wall. Another guard walked inside and she ducked to avoid his blow, she hit him harder on his face. The guard that was lying on the floor shook his head and taking the gun pointed it at her. The grill of the air conditioner by the ceiling opened with a big noise falling over the man's hand. He dropped the gun. Dinah knocked the first man and turned, she kicked the second man on his jaw an he fell unconscious too.
Immediately she looked up. "Oracle?" she blinked.
"You did well," the redhead smiled, "I'm glad you are okay, where is Leslie?"
"Morton took her to his office."
"Come here." Oracle crawled back and took her palm. She pressed some buttons. "I got her." she took her lapel "I got Leslie. Dinah said she's in Morton's office. Second level."
::Copy that. I'm near.::
"Huntress? But.." Dinah climbed inside the duct.
"She is hurt. But we didn't have time. came on, follow me."
Dinah noticed her legs. "Oracle..." she mumbled.
"Later Dinah, just move." the red head interrupted. She crawled through the duct again. The blonde, amazed, followed her, she was an incredible woman.
"Detective Reese?" a man removed the bandage over the detective's eyes.
"Yes." he rubbed his eyes and looked around, the place was totally unfamiliar to him.
"Follow me please." the man opened a door and he walked inside.
His eyes changed to feline pupils. Leslie froze, how had he taken Selina's child's abilities? She was not there. He smirked. "I improved my own serum, thankfully I didn't give it to you."
She stepped back.
"Now, tell me, why did you screw up all my work? tell me and ill give to you a fast and not so painful death."
Leslie reacted quickly and slammed her knee in his crotch, she ran outside and pushed the guard at the entrance; but in the corridor, two more men were blocking the way. She tried to step back, but she could see Morton walking towards her.
"Now Doctor Thomkins, your time is over." Morton said, "Maybe we can test some of our formulas with you too."
"Now Doctor Thompkins, your time is over." Morton said, "Maybe we can test some of our formulas on you too."
A man grabbed Leslie by her back. She tried to free her self but the man was strong. The door next to them opened, Huntress appeared and hit his back with a big pipe.
"Get behind my back!" the brunette shouted, hitting the second thug with the pipe and making him release the gun. She turned and punched the men that had been grabbing Leslie knocking him out. She winced in pain and bit her lip. Leslie noticed it and looked at her in concern.
"Good, Huntress, good," Morton grumbled. "It will be a pleasure to finally finish with you. This is going to be your fight to the death."
"Try it," her blue eyes turned feral, she looked him, "your luck is finished."
"You can't!" Leslie touched her arm.
"Move back!" the young woman shouted with firm voice preparing to attack