Chapter Three: Induction


The date went well, for all the pretenses that were layered on it like a shroud of oppression that threatened to make Helena suffocate. Yes, slightly dramatic, but the edge of tension between herself and Nate had sharpened between yesterday and today until it seemed as if every small touch and comment was a blade aimed for a crucial point of the body.

Helena sighed. She really needed to stop reading romance novels. As attracted as she was to Captain Atom in this illusional form of his, Nate wasn't real. Ever since that radiation accident, Nathaniel had become Captain Atom. This date was just a job for him. Much like the Question, the pleasantries of normal life were lost on the superhero. What was it about aloof men that drew Helena? Probably the same thing that drew normal women to unobtainable men, the challenge.

"Something wrong, darlin'?"

Helena forced a smile on her face. "What do you mean?"

"You're frowning," Nate replied as he toyed with her hand on the tablecloth. Helena drew it away and placed it on her lap. "Did I do something?"

"Let's get out of here. I'm not hungry," Helena said by way of explanation. This was their first date, and already she was unhappy with him. This didn't bode well for the relationship.

Nate paid the tab for their drinks and they left the posh restaurant. Helena would have preferred to walk, but it was raining so they caught a cab. The entire way to her apartment they were silent. Nate studied her, and she stared unseeing out the window. Despite their intense attraction to one another, Helena couldn't even contemplate spending time with him until she knew the truth. A glance at the cabbie in front told her that this was not the place however.

Nate studied Helena's tense face and knew something was wrong. After dropping Helena off yesterday, he hadn't left. He'd circled the block and used an alley stairway to gain access to the roof across the street. He'd seen her and the Question arguing through the front window and had watched as she'd slammed the door in Q's face. It hadn't surprised him to see the Question there; it was common knowledge that Q and Huntress had had a "thing" after she was evicted from the Justice League. Apparently, the "thing" lapsed quickly, but the jealousy Q was now exhibiting seemed to make more of the situation than was popularly believed. It didn't matter to much to Nate because it still had given him to opportunity to use his charm to observe and test Huntress under Justice League orders. Unbeknownst to Helena, those orders had ended yesterday, when he'd delivered her safely home and had taken up his observation perch.

This date was all his doing.

Within minutes, they were outside Helena's apartment. Wordlessly they entered, with Nate removing her soaked coat and setting it on a coat hanger near the door. She'd continued wordlessly into the living room, leaving him to remove his own coat and join her.

"What's wrong, Helena?"

She sat in the lounge chair, covered in shadows, not realizing that she was mirroring Question's position from yesterday. "Isn't it better that you call me Huntress?" Nate froze in the act of sitting down for only a second, but it was enough to confirm Helena's suspicions. "And I guess I'll call you Captain?"

Nate sat back and watched as Helena leaned forward, allowing the light to expose the anger on her face. He sighed softly and pressed several buttons on the watch on his wrist. The image projected by the small device, that of a normal pink-skinned human, dissipated and left in its place his true form.

Captain Atom's true form was baby blue gas contained by a special U.S. Army designed suit, and all Helena could think about what how it might feel under her fingers.

He waited until she'd looked her fill to speak again. "Are you upset that I hid it from you?"

Helena laughed and sat back into the shadows again. "Upset? Yes. But not for that. I'm upset that the Justice League thinks it's alright to use people the way they do. I wasn't good enough before, but hey! Let's test her again and see if she's better now?" Helena replied mockingly.

"It's not like that."

"It's exactly like that. And you're helping them to do it to me again. What was on the agenda tonight, Cap'? Was someone going to try to rape me? Were you going to watch and see if I killed him?"

Nate frowned. "The mugging yesterday-..."

"Was set up by the Justice League. Remind me to smack the Flash for the bruise he caused me. It also might be less telling if the culprit and my purse weren't gone literally a second after the incident."

Nate gritted his teeth. "They weren't sure you were safe."

"So they test me? Like a child? I teach children, Cap'...I don't need to be treated like one by hypocrites who govern over the world like tyrants."

"Is that how you really feel?"

Helena, once again, was not surprised by the sudden appearance of people in her house. She really needed new locks. "Why, yes, Batman, it is."

The dark knight took a step out of the darkness of her hallway and took in the situation, Helena pissed off and dangerous in a chair, and Captain Atom barely restraining his own anger on the couch. "Then I assume you're going to refuse the invitation to come back, even though I worked very hard to procure it for you."

"And why did you do that, Batty?" Helena asked with false sweetness in her tone, her eyes still locked angrily on Captain Atom.

"Because I agree with you. The Justice League needs someone willing to challenge them from within to their own misconceptions. I do not want that job."

"So you're assigning it to me?" Helena asked incredulously as she stood and turned to stare at the Dark Knight where he stood in the shadows behind her.

Batman quirked his eyebrow. "Yes."

"And why should I accept it?" Helena asked in response, her sauciness flaring up again. She always did love irking Batman.

"Despite appearances, you care for people, and enjoy protecting and helping them."

"What makes you think that, Mr. Black Bat?"

"Your actions speak louder than words, Huntress," Nate interjected.

"I'm not Huntress," Helena responded, glaring at Captain Atom, "And I haven't been for weeks."

"Would you give it up forever?" Batman asked, already melting into the shadows, knowing her answer. Would she give up the exhilaration of saving lives and being needed? Would she give up the rush of being high above the city and on a mission that most people would never know about? Would she give up her mask and crossbow? Two things that had defined her for the past five years?

"No. I wouldn't. But I don't need the Justice League to do it."

Captain Atom rose and towered over her where she sat leisurely in her chair. "You would ignore that the people need you?"

"Yeah, if the Justice League is doing the calling," Helena nodded before walking away.

Behind her, Nate's voice called out. "And if I asked you back?"

She froze in the doorway and turned to him. "Why would you do that?"

He smiled. "Because you're not as unstable and crazy as rumors say?"

She couldn't help it, she smiled. "Even if I do curse like a sailor?"

"Even if," Nate replied, stepping close and brushing a lock of hair off her face. "Tonight had nothing to do with the League, and everything to do with you and me. I wasn't even supposed to contact you after yesterday."

"Why did you?"

"You're hot...and I've seen you in a leather leotard."

"Oooohhh...Cap'n!" Helena grinned contemptuously. "It seems I'm not the only one who likes to disobey the powers that be."

"You're already a bad influence on me."

Helena liked the sound of that. "Really? Interesting. Still doesn't tell me why I should come back."

Nate looked serious. "Something is coming. No one knows what, but all the magically inclined people are agreeing on this. Dr. Fate has come out of retirement to help us figure it out, but whatever it is, its coming in under the radar. We're going to need all the help we can get."

"You need team players, not me."

Nate grinned and stepped even closer, so that now the lines of their bodies were touching. "I think you play pretty well with me, sugah."

"That's different."

"How? You wouldn't have to work with many people you dislike." Black Canary comes to mind, Helena thought as she considered the proposal Nate was making.

"And you?"

"And me?"

"What about you? How do you feel about me joining the League again?"

"Well...we've barely had a first date...but if you come back I'm almost guaranteed a second."

"All you care about is your libido, huh?"

Nate grinned and dipped his head to kiss Helena lightly. "Oh, yeah. I'm very selfish, babe."

Helena grinned. "I can see that. You know...Batman is probably still watching..."

Nate grinned and kissed Helena again. "How exciting..."


Question leaned on the wall outside the conference room and waited for the founders of the Justice League to come out. They were inside conferencing with Batman and several others, including Huntress. This meeting was supposed to be secret, but on an installation like this one, nothing was secret, especially not to him.

Question knew that one of the things they were discussing was Huntress and her return to the League, but even he didn't know if she was. The Justice League was setting conditions for her return, and if he knew Huntress then she would have a few of her own.

She hadn't even glanced his way when she'd entered the room.

With a sense of unease, he waited outside for the official announcement. He wasn't the only one, though. Captain Atom was also standing outside. He'd showed up seconds after the doors had shut and set himself up opposite Question.

After twenty minutes, Captain Atom felt the need to speak, an impulse that Question had long ago mastered and subdued. Captain Atom's very act of speaking first put him in the disadvantage, something Question appreciated.

"So...nice day, isn't it?"

Question stared at the man through his face masked, his dislike flowing off him in waves. "Do you really think she's going to continue to date you?"

Captain Atom could see that pleasantries were abandoned on the floor, so he responded in kind. "She and I have decided to continue seeing each other, though that's none of your business."

"It's only my business."

"It's not my fault you let her slip away, Q. But where you lapsed, I'm picking up."

Question stopped slouching and stood at attention. "I let nothing lapse."

"She's talked to me about it, Q. Last night, all night, we spoke. You let your work dominate your life, and she lost interest. It's no one's fault. You can't change the way you are."

"Says the gaseous being, who quite literally, became his work." It was a low blow, and Question regretted saying it. It was a touché subject, that of Captain Atom's accident. While working for the government, an explosion at a crucial lab on a late night had resulted in government scientist First Sergeant Nathaniel Adam had been atomized, quite literally becoming a cloud of gas that could only be contained by a special suit. It had been extremely painful, and Captain Atom rarely spoke of it.

"Listen here, face-boy-..."

The doors opened and revealed to Helena a comical scene. Her new boyfriend, several inches taller than her old one, was face to face (so to speak) with her old one. They were glaring at each other and clearly in the middle of an argument.

"Cap'n? I think you said something about lunch?" Huntress asked, for she was Huntress again. The two men jumped apart, and Captain Atom was the first to react first.

"Yes...a celebration lunch...we got something to celebrate, darlin'?" Captain Atom asked, laying his accent on thick, knowing that women loved it.

"Yeah, we do. See you later, Q," Huntress said as she took Captain Atom's arm and they walked away. Question couldn't keep his eyes away from her swaying hips, and admitted to himself that she fit her outfit a little too well.

Flash stepped out next to him and followed the new couple as they walked away as well. He was rubbing his arm as if hurt. "She's vicious." Question turned in inquiry to Flash, so he explained. "She hit me."

Question smiled underneath his mask where Flash couldn't see it. "She hates it when she bruises. It shows her how human she is."

"I didn't mean to. I was just doing what I was supposed to."

"Yeah...you threw her into a car."

Flash sighed. "I'm beginning to think you're on her side."

"Always was."