The offices above the lab storage room were not as dark as Helena expected. Faint glows from the electronics left her feeling exposed—and like someone was in the room. Selina was already removing the vent cover.

"Are you coming, Bertinelli?"

"Just making sure we were alone." Helena slid in behind Selina through the vent.

Helena had never been claustrophobic, but that didn't mean she wasn't uncomfortable with the physically tight space. She waited behind Selina as she unhinged the vent of the lab storage room from the inside. She heard a clang, and a moment later Selina was gone and Helena could see the opening. She climbed out to find herself in a sterile and unwelcoming holding facility, with refrigerator-like lockboxes on either side of the wall and other, more unusual holding containers scattered around the room. Selina examined one as Helena ran a gloved finger across the lockboxes until she found the right one. 329.

"So you can crack this thing?" Selina asked, walking towards her.

"Yeah. I was working on these babies before I could drive."

"This model came out last year," Selina said.

"I learned to drive last year?" Helena offered by way of explanation.

Selina rolled her eyes. "Just hurry up."

It took Helena less than a minute to get the lockbox open. "Ah," she said. "There you are." She took out the capsule and opened it up. The stone was definitely the same type as the one that had originated from the machine. The glow even had the same tint.

There was suddenly a commotion from downstairs. An alarm blared once before shutting off, and they heard footsteps and a gunshot.

Both Helena and Selina jerked to look at each other, eyes wide.

"That's not us," Helena said, stating the obvious.

Selina flew to the other side of the room to look through the window of the door and Helena hurriedly wrapped the stone in a cloth napkin she had brought and tucked it into her jacket. She replaced the missing stone with the remains of her shattered one, just in case she was messing up the timeline by stealing it.

"It seems this place was double booked for a heist," Selina said. "There are three armed men coming this way. We need to get out of here."

"Is barging in with guns blazing really a heist, though?" Helena asked, squinting. "I think it's just breaking and entering."

"We can argue about semantics later," Selina said. "Out."

Both girls were up through the vents within moment and they landed with thuds on the office room floor. Helena tried not to sigh with relief. She really hadn't thought they would have gotten out of there so easily.

"We're not out of this yet," Selina said, as if reading her mind.

Helena ran towards the window. That had been their escape route—down, back to the car where Bruce would be waiting. She glanced at Selina, who was swearing at the small communication device in her hand. It was something halfway between a cell phone and walkie-talkie, and Helena supposed it was an early example of the earpieces they'd all be wearing decades from now.

"I can't get through. We're on our own," Selina said.

"I bet they're jamming all signals," Helena said. "We can still get out through the window."

The door to the office flew open with a small explosion. Helena ducked on instinct. Freaking villains. She had left the door unlocked. Had they even checked the knob before jumping straight to explosions?

"Well, what do we have here?"

"Who are you?" Helena wrinkled her nose in disgust. She was used to villains who had flair, at least. This man looked liked he'd just rolled out of bed and strapped some guns to his side.

"How about we leave, and you don't mess with us and we don't mess with you," Selina said, backing up slowly towards Helena. "Deal?"

"Hey, Howie!" the man yelled towards the door. "We aren't the only ones after the labs tonight."

Selina gave Helena a sideways glance.

"You know these guys?" Helena asked.

Selina shook her head. "You?"

"Not a clue." Helena swallowed and spoke up towards the intruder. "I'm sure we're not after the same thing. Believe me, just let us leave and we'll leave you to your robbing."

"Well, if there's something good enough for you to take, I think it's good enough for us," the man said, as two more men entered the room.

Helena glanced around. There were no doors, only walls of windows that looked out three stories above the ground. It wasn't a high building, but still not one a girl could just…jump through and survive without injury. They were going to have to fight their way out of this one.

"Break the window," Selina muttered under her breath to Helena as her fingers inched towards the whip at her waist. "I'll hold these guys off."

"Not so fast, little one," the man said as Helena started to move backward. He lifted something from his side and Helena screamed "get down!" just in time. She and Selina dove to the side as a fireball flew from the launcher in his hands and set one of the office desks on fire.

"What the—"

Helena pulled Selina down as the man aimed at them again. Selina swore and aimed her whip at the man's wrist. It wrapped around him and she slid underneath his arm, pulling him down. The launcher fell to the ground and Helena only had time to kick it away when someone grabbed her from behind. She slid out of his grasp in a swift turn and her fist caught him underneath the chin.

They did not have time for this.

The man grabbed her and in one fell swoop he'd flipped her over on the floor. She couldn't help the cry that came from her mouth; she'd come down hard. And now she was pinned underneath him, his hands around her throat. She kneed him to no avail. Struggling with her left arm, she tried to reach the knife hidden in her boot. She could hear Selina struggling against the wall on the other side of the room.

Helena's fingers reached the tip of the knife handle. She pulled it upward and jabbed it into the man's leg. He cried out and lost his balance; she used that to knock him to the floor. She pulled the knife from his leg and felt someone's presence behind her. Still on the ground, she turned to see one of the burglars, arm raised to kill, topple over with a groan to reveal—Dad.

Helena was breathing heavily. "Thanks," she said, as she took his offered hand to help her up and they stood back-to-back for a moment.

Of course Bruce would come in once he saw there was trouble. He wasn't one to wait behind in the car. In her peripheral vision, Helena saw Selina roundhouse kick a man in the face. Bruce caught the man as he stumbled and then punched him, making sure he wouldn't come back up once he hit the ground. Bruce tossed Selina one of the man's guns, and she used it to shatter the window. Helena shot her crossbow across to the next building.

"The car's around the back," Bruce said.

"Not a problem." Helena slid down first. Bruce had his own grappling hook and used that instead of waiting after Selina. The two of them hit the ground moments apart just as a small explosion rocked the building.

"What were they here for?" she asked as they ran.

"They weren't here to steal," Bruce said. "They were there to blow up the building."

"That doesn't make any sense!" Helena complained. Bruce didn't have time to explain anything more; footsteps sounded behind them. By now, they could hear sirens in the distance.

"It's about time," Selina muttered.

Bruce unlocked the car doors remotely and Helena dove in. He started the car and she heard a bullet ping off the trunk.

"They're shooting at us!"

"We can take it." Bruce revved the engine and sped out from behind the lab. He changed the car settings to stealth a moment later. Helena fell back against the back of the seat and pulled off her mask with a relieved laugh.

"We did it." Helena close her eyes and pressed her hand to her jacket, where the stone remained safely tucked away. "We did it."

"What was the deal with those guys?" Selina said. "Who were they?"

"I don't know," Bruce said. "It's something I'll need to look into. But I was watching them when they came in. They were supposed to destroy specific research on a project we're working on here." He glanced at Helena. "Maybe that's what Strange was after, rather than the stone."

"I wouldn't put my money on Strange," Helena said. Considering I made the whole story up. "But I think we slowed them down enough before the cops got there, so I think the whole situation was not nearly as bad as it could have been."

"We all almost died, so…" Selina reminded them.

Bruce laughed, and Helena realized with a start it was the first genuine one she'd heard from him since she'd been here. He'd smiled, but never laughed.

"We've been in much worse, Cat." He grinned. "Besides, you loved every minute of it."

Selina smirked at him, and for that moment, Helena felt that all was right with the world.