Tempest: Chapter Three: Cupid's Entanglements
Roy Harper hadn't been Speedy, the protégé to Green Arrow, for very long, but at least he had a few years on Black Canary's cheerful shadow, Storm Chaser.
Her grey hair was spiky with static and her eyes were green behind her simple black mask. Goggles (night-vision, Roy was almost certain of) were perched on top of her head and she was wearing dark pants and a tight shirt of a similar black with a streak of grey from her throat to her waist where a utility belt rested.
Her boots scuffed the ground as she hopped off Black Canary's motorbike, her fingers twitching in her fingerless gloves.
"Hi!" She waved her hand wildly in a childlike manner befitting of her age (what was she? Ten?) and grinned broadly at Green Arrow and Speedy. "I'm Storm Chaser!"
"Hello," Green Arrow chuckled. "I'm Green Arrow and this is Speedy." He nudged his apprentice forward slightly with his elbow and the vexed archer grunted.
"I don't see why we're being saddled with a kid," Speedy muttered.
"I've got almost as much training as you," Storm Chaser pointed out, and Roy's cheeks reddened at being called out on his words.
"She's my protégé, so you two are probably going to be seeing a bit more of each other," Black Canary said with a smile, dropping a hand to Storm Chaser's shoulder. "Let's head inside so we can explain the situation."
Once all four were situated inside one of Green Arrow's storage lockers –it wasn't much, but at least it was secure from prying ears.
"This is our target," Black Canary said, tapping on the keyboard until an image was displayed on the screen. It was a woman with short crimson hair and green eyes. "Carrie Cutter, Cupid. We caught her a few months ago after she started dropping our enemies like flies."
"And that's not good?" Storm Chaser asked in confusion.
Roy couldn't blame her, it did sound a bit confusing.
"Not when she's doing it out of an obsession with the Green Arrow," Black Canary said, glancing pointedly towards the man in question who rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "She escaped prison again and is now using Green Arrow's arrows and killing again."
"Not good for business," Roy added, "I haven't had a good mission in weeks."
Storm Chaser giggled as the auburn-haired male quailed under the glare Black Canary gave him.
"Cupid could be working with someone," Green Arrow added, "which is why we're going to be working in two separate teams. Speedy and Storm Chaser, you will be infiltrating what we believe to be Cupid's hideout, Black Canary and I will be scouting for any of her potential targets."
"I'm babysitting?" Speedy demanded.
Black Canary gave him another look. "Storm Chaser's never worked alongside someone of a similar age to her; it'll be good practice for both of you."
Blue eyes sized up the shorter and younger girl from behind his domino mask and his shoulders slumped slightly. "Fine."
Storm Chaser's eye twitched behind her mask at his grated reply, but she surprised him by keeping her mouth shut as new encrypted comm-links were handed out and placed in their ears.
"I guess you're catching a ride with me, then?" Roy prompted after their respective mentors darted away, jerking a thumb towards his motorbike.
Storm Chaser shrugged her shoulders with a sigh. "I suppose a storm cloud would be too obvious," she admitted and the blue-eyed boy stared at her for good measure. It seemed she was well named.
He held out a spare helmet to her and she fixed it to her head, though it didn't seem to quite fit. Roy smirked as she hopped on the back of his bike.
"So, where'd Black Canary dig you up?" he asked through the comm.
"I'm Flash's daughter," Storm Chaser said over the wind rushing past them.
Roy's eyes widened in surprise at that admission. "And you don't have super-speed?"
"I'm adopted," Storm Chaser informed him cheerfully. "My biological father isn't someone you'd want to meet."
"Why's that?"
"He gave me some serious burns when he tried to electrocute Flash and I stepped between them," Storm Chaser said in a rather unconcerned manner.
The flippant way she described her near-death experience made Roy think of Black Canary. No wonder she'd chosen Storm Chaser as her companion; both of them didn't seem to care much about the injuries their body sustained.
"So, what's your skill, then?" Roy asked after a short stretch of silence as he turned the bike carefully around a wide turn as they headed towards the outskirts of Star City. "Electrokinesis?"
"Among other things," Storm Chaser hummed. "Generally anything to do with the weather…mostly just the air and lightning right now, but Black Canary's working with me to make those stronger."
Speedy wondered how badly the Flash would kill him if his daughter was injured on her first mission as a sidekick. Hopefully the metahuman girl would keep her head down, but he knew cuts and bruises came with the job.
"We're nearly there," he said, coming to a stop near a sewage drain and cutting the engine. "This way."
Storm Chaser followed after him and he was surprised to find he didn't really mind her company, especially since she didn't seem to be much of a complainer –and the sewer reeked something terrible, so it was impressive to Roy that she maintained her silence– and she walked in a manner that was nearly silent.
Roy followed the tracker Green Arrow had given him, unaware of how Storm Chaser kept feverishly checking around them to see if they were being followed, but it didn't seem as though that was the case.
She fixed the night vision goggles over her mask and peered around once more before turning back around.
Consequently, she missed the figure that was following the pair at a great enough distance away not to be detected.
"I thought you were against taking on a protégé," Oliver Queen commented as he looked through his binoculars, scrutinizing his enemies closely.
"It depends more on the protégé, I think," Dinah replied in a mild tone, a smirk on her lips. "Storm Chaser's a good kid, a bit raw, but she's got a good head on her shoulders. She must have been begging Flash for weeks to get him to let her come out with me. This is her trial run; if she does well I'll take her out more."
Green Arrow smirked. "Flash not pleased his kid's in the family business?" Word traveled fast in the League when the Flash had adopted an atmokinetic metahuman, it was how Black Canary had become Amara's trainer in the first place.
"I think it was more of a general assumption that she would," Black Canary countered. "I just think he thought it might be another year or two before then."
"This quadrant's clear," Green Arrow added after a moment, stowing his binoculars. "Off to the next one."
And then he and Dinah were rushing along the roofs, jumping and leaping from one to the next.
"Heard her dear old dad is Weather Wizard," Oliver said as they came to a stop. "That true?"
"Well, she did nearly flood Keystone with a terrible storm a couple months back," Dinah replied with a cheeky smile. "What does that tell you?"
"That you sure know how to pick your protégés," Oliver commented.
"I've only had one, so you don't have any to compare her to," Dinah said in a dry tone as Oliver removed the binoculars to survey this city once more for his various enemies. So far he'd caught sight of three, but none of them seemed to have been the target of Cupid's impending attack.
So what was her plan? Or perhaps it was her partner's plan?
"How are things going with Speedy?"
He pulled himself out of his thoughts. "He's got the makings of a great archer…maybe even better than me."
Black Canary smirked. "You're getting soft, old man."
"Old man?" Oliver spluttered.
Dinah laughed. "Dinner tomorrow at the Chinese place you like?"
Green Arrow grinned broadly even with his eyes trained on the street below. "I'll pick you up at six?"
"Will you be going as yourself or am I going to have to bring a mask too?" Dinah asked instead of answering an affirmative.
"Myself…for once." Oliver's eyes flitted to a fleeing shadow. "Hold up, I think I've got something."
Black Canary straightened into a battle stance at his words. "Cutter? Or one of your enemies?"
"I can't be sure…but it's more likely to be her than any of them," he said, following the shadow carefully. "She's moving fast."
Black Canary cracked her knuckles and grinned in a dangerous way that sent a shiver down his spine. "Then what are we waiting for?"
And then she leapt over the building after the woman with Green Arrow hot on her heels.
Speedy removed the storm drain that led up into Cutter's hideout and hoisted himself up before holding a hand out to Storm Chaser, but she'd already made in after him.
"Nice place," she muttered, "really…homey."
Storm Chaser surveyed the widened hole with veiled interest from behind her night vision goggles.
"I'm reading no heat signatures," she said finally, "looks like if she was here, she's long gone now."
"Great," Speedy grumbled; he would kill for some action.
"Keep investigating," Dinah's voice uttered in their ears, "we're on Cutter but we need you to figure out her plan."
Both sidekicks shared a nod and split the search of the hideout.
"It looks like she hasn't been back here in a few days," Speedy muttered before reaching behind the bed to withdraw a bulky laptop. "Jackpot!" But, of course it was encrypted.
"You wouldn't happen to be a hacker, would you?" he asked his companion and Storm Chaser looked up from examining several newspaper clippings that Cutter had pasted to the wall as he set the opened laptop on a rickety desk that had been seriously damaged by termites and possibly a few arrows.
"I'm not great with technology," Storm Chaser said with a shrug before reaching into a small pocket at her utility belt and withdrawing a flash-drive. "But I do have this. Early birthday present."
She connected it to the computer and a green screen of numbers and letters appeared briefly before the computer unlocked.
"A present from your dad?" Speedy asked, impressed.
"He'd probably have a freak out if he knew I had it," Storm Chaser disagreed with a giggle. "Black Canary got it for me."
And then she stepped away to examine the newspaper clippings again. "She's got a lot of stuff on Green Arrow…and she's exed out you and Black Canary every time you're pictured together."
"That's because she's crazy obsessed with my mentor," Speedy drawled with distaste.
"Crazy like crazy or crazy like psycho?"
Roy wasn't sure there was much of a difference, but he was sure there was a difference in Storm Chaser's mind.
"Crazy like she should be locked up," he responded instead, sifting through Cutter's files in search of something that didn't fit. "Found something…Project: Everyman, ever heard of it?"
"Ooh, yeah!" Storm Chaser was at his side in an instant, her green eyes reflecting the bright screen and the various scientific technological terms that just went over Roy's head. "Flash was really annoyed by it –he had to go all the way to Metropolis. Lexcorp came up with this toxic gene therapy called exogene that could give non-metahumans superpowers…a lot of them were killed, I think…Could she be working with a former member of Project: Everyman?"
"Well, if I was mentally unstable, I'd want to work with someone similar," Speedy had to concede, "and if they had superpowers that would be a plus."
Storm Chaser said nothing to that as he lifted a hand to his ear. "Speedy to Green Arrow, we think we've found something."
"Go ahead Speedy."
"We have reason to believe that Cutter may be—"
"Get down!"
Storm Chaser collided violently against his side, sending both of them vaulting to the ground and Speedy was just about to open his mouth to berate her when he saw the arrow lodged in the computer he had just been sitting in front of, the screen black.
She threw up her hands and the dark figure that could have only been the archer was sent reeling back against the wall.
"Black Canary to Storm Chaser –what's going on?"
Storm Chaser gritted her teeth and Speedy, who already had an arrow notched ready to fire, stilled to watch as the air condensed around their attacker, lightning sparking within the storm cloud. "A little busy!"
She clenched her fists and the man gave a yell as the electricity zapped him painfully before he slumped into unconsciousness.
Speedy's eyes widened behind his domino mask and Storm Chaser looked down at her hands, surprise painted across her face.
"I wasn't sure that would work."
Now Speedy's eye twitched in irritation. "You just risked our lives on a maybe?!"
"Well, it's not like I can practice electrocuting people into unconsciousness!" Storm Chaser retorted, clearly vexed by his tone, raising a hand glowing just slightly with lightning. "Would you like me to try it out on you?"
Roy growled under his breath, opening his mouth to return fire when Oliver interrupted him over his comm.
"That's enough from both of you," his mentor commanded. "Status update, Speedy."
Speedy threw a look Storm Chaser's way and she rested her hands on her hips and stuck out her tongue at him.
"Cutter's hideout was abandoned, but we found an encrypted laptop with a file on the Everyman Project in Metropolis, shortly after this discovery we were attacked—"
"Hey, Arrowhead, c'mere and look at this."
Storm Chaser was curling her fingers towards him, interrupting his update as she crouched by their attacker. Getting that close wasn't the best idea, but Roy could tell that from the way she was crouching she was prepared to leap back immediately.
"What?" Speedy demanded, stalking closer before balking. "What the—?"
"What is it?" Black Canary asked in Storm Chaser's ear as she took a quick picture of the man with her phone to show to her mentor when their paths crossed again.
"The man that attacked us looks just like Green Arrow," she said, looking down at the man, visibly startled.
There was silence on the other end of their comms and Speedy imagined Green Arrow and Black Canary were sharing a look.
"Hannibal Bates," Green Arrow said, "but we call him Everyman, after the project that made him into a metahuman."
"And what's his skill?" Speedy asked.
"Replicating the appearance of others after consuming a piece of their DNA," Black Canary said ominously and both Speedy and Storm Chaser gagged at that.
Did that mean the guy had eaten some of Green Arrow's hair? Or something worse…like a toenail clipping?
The mere thought sent a shiver down Storm Chaser's spine as she looked down at the man with his blonde hair and short beard. Imagine if all he had needed was contact to become someone else…that could have truly been disastrous.
"Creepy…but what should we do with him?" Storm Chaser asked, tilting her head curiously as she stood in a fluid movement. She reminded Roy of a cat in the way she moved and for a brief moment he wondered if he tossed her out of tree if she would twist in midair to land on her own two feet.
He had a feeling that she just might.
"Are we supposed to tie him up or something?" she added in befuddlement. "I don't know how long he's going to be ou—"
Before she could finish her words, a pair of blue eyes had shot open and he had leapt to his feet in time for Storm Chaser to somersault backwards and for Speedy to release a foam arrow that had intended on trapping Everyman, but he moved too quick, and the arrow lodged in the wall behind him instead.
Roy grunted as his mentor's copy shot out of the opening they had hoisted themselves up through in order to find the hideout.
Storm Chaser dropped through to land in murky sewage water, glancing around feverishly with her goggles back over her eyes as Speedy came to land beside, sending a wave of water towards the younger girl, who became considerably wetter compared to Speedy, who had his height as an advantage, but the grey-haired girl hadn't had much of a growth spurt yet.
Roy aimed his arrow-notched bow into the darkness. "Did you see which way he went?"
"No," Storm Chaser said sourly, "he must've really bolted…should we split up and attempt to pursue?" The second part was clearly directed towards their mentors listening in on the other end.
"No, we'll regroup," Green Arrow said, "meet us at the coordinates we've sent and we'll come up with our next plan of attack."
"Coordinates received," Speedy said with just a hint of annoyance that made Storm Chaser scowl slightly; was he annoyed at her for not managing to knock Everyman out for an extended amount of time or for not being able to catch him as he made his escape?
She sighed. Her first mission and it wasn't going so well (granted, it wasn't really her fault there, maybe if Cutter had been working alone…).
"An old abandoned warehouse…am I the only one seeing the cliché?"
"It looks like a trap, so, that's what I'm going with."
Oliver and Dinah exchanged a look over the heads of their protégés, an expression of fond exasperation.
"Have you scouted the perimeter?" Black Canary asked.
"Well, yeah," Storm Chaser said in a 'duh!' sort of tone that made her mentor's eyebrow twitch. "Don't worry, everything's totally crash. No booby traps…it seems safe to enter."
"But inside is an unknown," Speedy interjected. "I'm with Storm Warning on this; definitely a trap."
Storm Chaser squawked in indignation at the nickname. "What'd you just call me?!"
She was unfortunately ignored and she crossed her arms and huffed a bit at that, clearly disapproving of her new nickname (but she'd started it by calling Speedy Arrowhead, so just desserts and all).
Black Canary inspected the warehouse with just her eyes, scowling deeply. It had all seemed like a game to Cutter, the way she'd deliberately stayed in their sights all the way out of town. The news that she had been working with Everyman under the guise of Oliver Queen couldn't really have been a surprise, given her obsession with him.
"If she wanted to blow us up, she would have done so already," Dinah decided finally. "Besides, you're too valuable to her for her to kill you."
There was no need to question who she was directing her words to, especially when Green Arrow rubbed the back of his head nervously before hooking his bow over his arm and assisting his companion in sliding the door open.
His bow was back in his hands in an instant, an arrow notched and ready to fire, exactly like Speedy was positioned. Storm Chaser and Black Canary had no physical weapons to arm themselves with; their skills were internalized.
The muscles in Black Canary's neck tightened and Storm Chaser's fingertips sparked with lightning.
"It's too quiet," Storm Chaser whispered out of the corner of her mouth to the one she was closest too, which happened to be Speedy. The boy didn't say anything, but she got the feeling that he thought so as well.
"Aw~! Did you get my little presents~?"
The sudden voice started Storm Chaser and she nearly jumped out of her skin attempting to locate where exactly the speaker was standing before landing on the figure standing on a high railing above them.
Carrie Cutter looked even more insane than her picture had made her seem. Her red hair was wild and ratty, falling into her over-bright eyes and there was a heart-shaped scar over her breast (Storm Chaser had to wonder if she'd carved it herself given her new alias as Cupid, or whether she had gotten it through some accident). The green of her outfit was undoubtedly to do with her obsession's color of clothing, though a much lighter green than what Green Arrow wore and far more exposing (it wasn't something that Iris would wear, that was for sure; Storm Chaser's mother had some serious class that couldn't be ignored).
Beside her stood Everyman, looking as identical to Green Arrow as he had less than an hour ago when Storm Chaser had electrocuted him herself. They could have been identical twin brothers, but where Green Arrow wore green, this man wore much darker colors.
"Dark Arrow and I were starting to get worried~!" Cupid sang, her eyes glinting in the dark.
"Dark Arrow?" Speedy scoffed. "Are you kidding me?"
Storm Chaser couldn't disagree with him there. Cupid couldn't get the original, so she'd settled for the next best thing and given him basically the opposite name to the one the original used.
Cutter seemed not to hear him; rather selective hearing, Storm Chaser gathered.
The woman grinned widely, waving a small trigger in her hand that sent a wave of unease through those gathered and Storm Chaser glanced quickly around the warehouse.
The outside hadn't been wired because the inside was where the bombs had been placed, strewn throughout the structure. There were enough explosives to cause some serious damage.
"Bye, bye, darling~!"
Two arrows were shot towards her, but not fast enough to stop her from hitting the button and the warehouse exploded in fire.
