Chapter Eleven: Intercession


Gotham was quiet tonight, and Huntress appreciated the reprieve that it was. The city appeared to be taking it easy on the still recovering superhero. She'd only gotten the cast taken off yesterday. On her first day "officially" back in action, her boyfriend, Captain Atom, had decided to join her on patrol.

He sidestepped a bum in the alley, and followed Huntress as she stalked her prey, a drug-dealer who'd just murdered said bum. "This is...niiiiice."

"Sarcasm isn't appreciated," she replied saccharinely as she hid in the shadows of a corner, watching as the dealer ran through the streets ahead of her.

"But you're so good at it," Atom replied, glowing in all his blue might behind her. There was a reason she was going first here. Captain Atom didn't have a "hometown" like she that he protected, and he definitely didn't fit in in Gotham. Here in Gotham, you had to blend with the shadows, be one with the night. Atom looked like a bug zapper.

"My sarcasm is always appreciated. Yours isn't."

"Are we in a bad mood tonight?"

"Not really. This is me, Atom. Get used to it."

Captain Atom hesitated at the vehemence of her sentence, though he didn't get to ask her about it because at that second she swung into action. It was slightly awe-inspiring to watch her twist and curve in the air, a being of raw force that took out the drug dealer, a man twice her size, in seconds. The lingering trouble with her last statement took all the fun out of it.

As she cuffed the unconscious man to a light pole, he walked up behind her, and asked, "Are you going to call the police?"

"I should just let him sit here. Let a rival shoot him, or maybe let him get hypothermia," she answered with a sneer.

Atom stiffened. "That wouldn't be right."

"Why not? He's probably killed countless people with his gun," she pulled from his jacket, "or with his actions. This man sold drugs to kids, Atom! Kids! He's the scum of the Earth, and deserves to die. Instead, the police will lock him up for a couple years, and he'll get out and do it all again. That isn't right."

Huntress walked off into another alley, reaching up and climbing onto a fire escape before Atom could even think to assist her. He would've, because he was a gentleman, and that was just another one of his faults in Helena's mind. She didn't want a man who'd coddle her, or patronize her. She was a warrior and she didn't need help!

As she reached the roof, Atom arrived just seconds after, and grabbed her arm before she could walk off. "What's wrong?"

"What do you mean?" Obstinate to the last.

"That statement down there. 'This is me! Get used to it'. The little tirade about how that criminal deserved to die."

"What's to question?"

"What's wrong?"

"You're wrong!" She'd blurted it out, and now she'd gone and ruined everything. Huntress rushed to explain as Atom released her arm and stood there stiffly. "I've been thinking. I've been thinking a lot. I can't do this anymore, Nate. We don't fit. Never have. It was laugh, a little fun, but this was never serious," Huntress gestured to him then to her, and smiled bitterly. "Good boys don't take bad girls home."

Atom, thinking she was just in a self-deprecating mood, sought to comfort her. "You're not a bad girl, Helena. You're good! You're Justice League!"

"Not anymore. I haven't been for a long time."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm quitting the Justice League."

Silence. Captain Atom looked at her incredulously. "Why would you do that?"

"Because I hate it there. All the rules, and regulations, and everything...I don't fit in there. I'm not team material! I'm a vigilante. I give criminals what they deserve, and most of the time, they deserve worse than the cops will give them. I want to give victims justice! Not some paper that says the perp has been caught! I'm a murderer. Before I went to the Justice League, I didn't see anything wrong with that. I'm not Justice League. I never was. I tried."

"For me? You tried for me! That means you care for me! I can forgive what you've done in the past. Don't give this up, Helena!"

Huntress stood strong. "I didn't ask for forgiveness and I never said I didn't care for you, Nate. I just...I do. Just not enough."

Atom got it, he wasn't dense. He could connect the dots as well as any spurned man. "Question."

"What about him?"

"He's got something to do with this. I know it. He put ideas in your head, made you think things..."

"Question has nothing to do with this. I don't give a shit about Question. This is about you and me! I've been trying to work up to this for a long time. I just didn't know it."

"Really? So that's why we've been going out every weekend? You're supposed to meet my parents, Helena! I love you!" He was hurting, so bad, and Helena wanted to soothe him. He was a good man. She wasn't a good woman, though. She would only bring him down in the end.

"I don't love you." Atom paced in front of her, and Huntress felt like she was standing there naked. She didn't want to do this to him, but she couldn't go on lying anymore. "I love the Question."

"I thought he didn't have anything to do with this?"

"He doesn't. I love him, but he didn't influence this is any way. I can't love you or even try while I'm still in love with him."

"So...what? You'll go back to him, fuck your brains out, and then when you're tired of him, you'll come back to me! I'm not going to wait!"

"I'm not asking you to, and that's not what I'm going to do. Question and me are over. But I went from him right to you; I didn't have a chance to recover. To heal. I need time, Nate."

He stopped pacing and stood by her now. He passed his hands over her hair, and she turned her cheek into his palm. "I love you."

"I care for you. Time, Nate. I need time."

"How long?"

"I don't know. I need to be alone. To think."

"You won't go to him."

Huntress ducked her head, and spoke the truth. "I don't know. I don't know what I'm going to do."

Captain Atom nodded his head, and his smile was bitter. "Come to me first. If it's not going to be me, tell me to my face."

Huntress kissed his palm, and nodded. "I promise."

Captain Atom walked away, and Helena continued to nod. I'm not good for you, Nathanial. I'm not good at all. I've broken your heart, but mine has always been broken. Me and Vic, we got some issues, and we need to work through them. I don't know if I'll love him when we're done, I don't know if I can love you. I tried to, I tried so hard. I'm not a good person. I'm good enough to keep that promise, though.