Huntress pursues the latest lead on her parents' killer's location, which leads her of course to a rather exquisite looking mansion. It is a very scarcely guarded one too, which should have set off something in the back of her brain.
However when it comes to her ongoing search for Steven Mandragora, her compulsion to take him down overrides everything else, but then she never could tell how Batman put up with such memories, his parents were murdered by a mugger. He had been in plain sight with them yet was not killed along with them.
She on the other hand, she was hidden from her parents' killer, hidden by her father, there were times where she actually had wished to have died along side them simply because she did not want to grow up in a world without them. There are also times when she wonders if she ever left that closet at all, that some part of her is still watching the scene unfold again and again and again.
Some part of her refuses to forget because if she did then they really are dead though even she had to wonder...
Would that be so bad?
The two in front of the limo are talking about scones of all things. One dart arrow to pin one to the limo and as for the other with the gun, a second dart arrow destroys the gun in his hand. Huntress closes the gap then vaults over his shoulder. She tosses Tony into Cecil, Cecil passes out from the weight of Tony's body colliding with his, but Tony gets the receiving end of the second vault as it enables her to land on both of them to make sure they were both out cold.
Mandragora is either getting bold or stupid to be this lax with security.
[+++]
She lets off a grappler arrow then propels herself upward to a window that she knows would place her in the corridor closest to Mandragora's bedroom. She felt on edge though this is the closest she has gotten to him since the night he killed her parents. She enters through the window after making sure it would not trip the silent alarm. Next she sprays the corridor to make the lasers visible, which in theory is possible though some laugh off the idea as some fictional contrivance. She follows up with hand over head flips in order to bypass the now visible lasers.
The bedroom door like the grounds, the window, and the lasers seems too easy to bypass though she pushes it away despite the nagging feeling that is a setup. She prepares to fire several arrow darts into the bed after saying her piece to the presumably sleeping Mandragora except the next thing to amp up her suspicions is the absence of any breathing except her own. However she still fires yet not even a death rattle or whatever noise something his size would make when dying can be heard so she yanks away the covers.
Oldest bedroom fake out trick in the book, use the pillows to mimic a sleeping body, but it would have been a better fake out if they had a tape player with sounds of his breathing or snoring.
Her earpiece comlink goes off, it is J'onn, and of course he sounds unhappy. She feels the familiar tingle of a teleport beam and then she is on the teleport pad with J'onn approaching her.
"You were warned. You were told to stay away from Mandragora. You have violated my direct orders. You have crossed the line."
"You have been watching me?!?"
"Given what occurred tonight what I'd say it was a wise precaution."
"You know what Mandragora did and I almost had him… he should have been there but someone tipped him."
It occurs to her at the exact second that J'onn had given her away.
"I had Mandragora moved yes for his own protection and yours."
"So I get some Justice League demerits, but spare me the lecture."
"You misunderstand, tonight was a test, and you failed. Pack your things Huntress, you are out. You'll need to turn your identification card…"
It is not quite the turn she had thought would come from this yet her aim remains impeccable as she flings the card at J'onn before leaving the teleport pad.
"I hope you choke on it!"
[+++]
She figures this day was bound to come sooner or later as her tendencies are not that favorable least of all with the Founders. Her door codes will remain valid until she beams back to the surface permanently, but in a way it is better to be back to freelance, to be solo, the only part that surprisingly bothers her is leaving Question alone up here to weather the chatter that paints him so negatively. The lights go on dim after she opens the door, two Leaguers pass behind her, but she is too drawn inward to bother looking back.
"Oh Cadmus, Cadmus, wherefore art thou Cadmus?"
She straightens up in an effort to look her sensual best because she needs his help without looking like she needs it. In a rather confident move, she fires a dart into the far wall above his head, which gets his attention.
"Maybe you are not looking in the right direction. You're the League's data guy, conspiracy buff, right? Wildcat says you're a nut job."
It is not like I agree with that assessment about you Question.
"Funny. He said the same thing about you."
Oh, he is good at this.
"He's right."
Let's see what you can do with that one.
He says very little after his quick redirect about Wildcat's assessment about her.
"You must be the ugliest guy of all time, Question, hiding your face like that."
I am only teasing though of course you would probably take it literal you being you and all.
Their chat revolves around the conspiracy theory in all its details.
"Well I have a question for you. Do you know what apophenia is?"
She moves up behind him.
"Apophenia - noun. The tendency to see connections where none exist. Did you come here just to make fun of my work?"
"No Q I came here to help you..."
Huntress pulls herself up onto his desk facing him with her back to the wall. She moves her body in tandem with the words of her proposition. She crosses her legs before she slides the heel of her left boot closer to his legs then leans forward bringing her upper body into his presumed line of sight. It is possible that she arouses him in some way, but then she wonders if she misread his body language except he appears to be pulling away from her despite how his body appears to be reacting to her get this close to him. It is really a bit of guess work with his facial features hidden behind that mask. He hears her out, which is reassuring and then he agrees to help except they will have to meet up on the surface.
She goes back to her room and packs her scarce amount of belongings. He hand gestures that he will call her after he locks up his quarters.
She raises an eyebrow then realizes this is Question she is dealing with now. He could probably find anyone's number without a phone directory. As she returns to the teleport pad, she thinks only about going on a date and hopes that the Martian is not trying to get a sense of her surface thoughts. She had a few hours to wait before she would hear from Question though he is often notoriously punctual, but she did not understand the delay entirely.
[+++]
As for ways to pass the time, she slips out of her costume and into the shower. Some fixation always made her check all the locks before she went to bed or into the shower. It could be mere survival instinct, but it could also be she had no intent in being caught in bed or more embarrassing in the shower. Helena does a couple of quick flexes then removes the mask, next the cape, and after that she slides her legs out of the high heeled boots after unhooking them from the rest of her costume. The remainder of the costume comes off in short order and after that she steps into the shower then pulls curtain over. As the water runs down against her skin, her mind tumbles back to the day her parents were buried and she remembers it rained heavily that morning. It felt strange for the weather to reflect her feelings and her mood that day, but of course it seem fitting.
This is also the first time she would wear black and somehow it felt fitting too as to convey mourning as well as death. She was told to keep quiet about who killed her parents for her own safety, but some part of her had begun to want to kill the fat man herself. No amount of psychiatric 'help' did much 'good' for her mind or her heart. She had taken plenty martial arts classes in the intervening years after her parents' murder, but of course no amount of training quite prepares anyone for trading jabs with opponents who fight dirty though she could slug it out even with some of the dirtiest fighters.
It took even more years to master marksmanship yet it felt worth the wait when she could virtually hit all targets with such precision that she could live up to an alias worthy of that level of marksmanship. She also had to take the time to learn how to fight with non-lethal weapons such as staffs. A skill that likewise had its uses in the field and at first Batman is receptive Huntress until her tendency to employ weapons as well as fight with an intensity that suggest she would do more than injure in a fight. He gradually put distance between himself and her much to her confusion then eventual disgust.
Her perspective on that took a hit when finding out how exactly his parents died, but of course perspective of Batman and by extension Bruce Wayne becomes a slippery space when considering how much those deaths have affected his crime fighting style. She had met Nightwing later on during his first years as Huntress and learns that he had once been Batman's sidekick/partner. She left it up to him as to tell her or not tell her why they are no longer partners. At first glance it seems a disagreement over tactics, but it runs deeper as he once thought Batman to becoming far too ruthless, too cold about handing all the criminals they went up against.
It made some grain of sense with someone like Joker, but roughing up someone who got wrangled into the situation yet had done nothing even struck her as unusual. As Wayne however, he had made some arrangements to help the man, which conveys that perhaps he sought to make amends for what he had done to the man as Batman. Nightwing concedes to having forgiven him on some level yet things would never go back to the way they were before.
How could anything ever revert to the way anyone remembers it?
It never can revert, it can only become something like it yet even then there is always something to be done. She also occasionally would encounter Robin II and he too had a taste of death in the family. It felt like every crime fighter she met in Gotham had a taste of death in their personal history except for Batgirl though she gotten a glimpse of a nightmarish outcome of her own death. Scarecrow is also not a villain to be taken lightly with the ability to manipulate people through fears or occasionally take those fears away.
Batman once told her two separate tales about getting gassed by Scarecrow. The first almost made it impossible to function as it made manifest his worries that his mission was pointless and that by continuing he only shames himself as well as his dead family. It took apparently an unbelievable amount of will power to push through it. The other story is one where he had become totally fearless and it is a tale that Robin II recalls all too well as having been there to witness what being fearless does to someone like Batman. He had become in a word a maverick at least until Robin had gotten his hands on the antidote that Scarecrow was carrying otherwise Batman could have possibly killed Scarecrow. A Batman who could kill is not a pleasant image to have in mind.
The next few times she saw any of the Batclan is usually went as well as it could, but even so, her reputation for being rougher than most of them had put a strain on her friendships with all of them. She had not come from as squeaky clean background as most of the Batclan with exception of Robin II aka Tim Drake. Tim's father was caught in some nasty business with Two-Face, which is how Tim ended up meeting and working with Batman. She kept apart from the Batclan because at the best of times they got along okay and at the worst she was better off not going near Gotham.
Things however became drastically different went the Hawkmen were policing cities like Gotham, Bludhaven, Metropolis, Central City, and others in full force. The League got the receiving of a trap from the Thanagarians. They rounded up costumes all over the globe without so much as a breaking sweat in some cases, but not everyone went quietly, she was not about to let them put her in a cell. She did manage to evade them often enough except what little news did get out indicated that plenty of familiar Gotham costumes were now in custody of the Thanagarians.
She had almost no one to call upon for help at that stage except for anyone who did manage to dodge the Hawkmen as the news kept calling them whenever they did manage to break through the jamming of Earth based transmissions. The monotonous broadcasts made to implore Earth's citizens to obey the Occupational Authority's rules was enough to aggravate her into smashing a lot of televisions on her way to find some kind of help. It was strange approaching the GCPD for help given that plenty of them liked her even less than they liked Batman, but with Batman out of Gotham and being held by the Thanagarians, Gotham needs all the help it can get for the moment.
As for how to break out the Batclan while keep casualties to a minimal among the SWATs accompanying her under the direction of Detective Montoya, now that would be tricky, but somebody had to get them out. She had known from the minute she appeared on the rooftop of GCPD Central that it would be a long night getting them out of captivity. However another unexpected arrival appears beside her and Montoya. Catwoman is on hand surprisingly as she had heard about what happen in some fashion is looking to help and neither woman is about to turn down her offer.
Catwoman and Huntress lead the charge by deftly fighting their way through the Hawkmen who had mistakenly thought they had caught everyone in costume. Another drops in from the roof, it is Jason Blood who had also dodged the Hawkmen. The odds were certainly in their favor unless the Hawkmen had some way of neutralizing them too. Section by section they break through the light guard force left here to watch over Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin, Supergirl, Steel, and Zatanna who was apparently planning to make a surprise visit to see Batman. Huntress was uncertain of how she had known Batman or for that matter that he was Bruce Wayne too. Selina likewise seems to be on a first name basis with most of the Batclan.
The amalgam team afterward helps to reclaim Gotham and Bludhaven from the Hawkmen. A woman called Black Canary went into the fray yet Huntress had not seen her though based on some descriptions it would seem that she made good use of her body as a distraction as well as being one of Wildcat's students.
The Hawkmen eventually fall back world wide once whatever they were building in the Gobi Desert was destroyed by the Watchtower being taken out of orbit in order to smash into it. The Justice League almost seemed likely to dissolve after this incident yet it did not, not only that, but a whole new Watchtower array went into the works only weeks after the Thanagarian Occupation.
Batman and the Batclan react thankfully towards Huntress for helping out during the crisis though she attributes a great deal of help to the GCPD's finest as well as Catwoman and Jason Blood. The mention of Catwoman makes both Bruce and Dick uneasy though she could discern why with ease though said nothing further on the matter.
She went back to freelance though even she had doubts about continuing as Huntress yet it was almost all she had left after devoting so many years to training herself as a crime fighter. She almost laughed at the notion that she could be, is, or was a crime fighter though Batman's invitation for her to join the expanding roster had gotten her interest.
[+++]
Her decision to accept Batman's invitations to join the League becomes yet another regret except when she had begun to see Question more often. His presence tended soothe her doubts just a little. He also appeared to be less judgmental of her than most men she had met in the crime fighting profession, but then her experiences in that area are limited to the likes of Batman and Nightwing. She had mocked him, teased him, and even flirted with him, but he was different in a way she had grown fond of lately. Helena exits the shower dripping wet and aware that somewhere in the midst of the flashbacks she had cried just a little with the taste of salt on her lips. She is quick to down some purified water and then settles into drying herself off though some part of her always felt like she never dry out, that some part of her was always watching her parents' coffins descend into the ground.
She shoves the thought away as she lets the towel fall to the bed and walks over to her closet to pull out a fresh costume. She kept a few spares for the sake of well having some extras if necessary plus it beats having to repair the same costume repeatedly. Before completely getting every piece on, she does a light work out then sits down to pull on her high heeled boots and for once in some years she felt rather feminine instead of just looking it. The hook straps connect with ease and then she attaches the cape before latching on the utility belt. The last detail is the mask, which she pulls down quickly though as a last minute extra she applies a bit of lipstick though she cannot rationalize why exactly so forgets about it for now.
Her cell phone starts ringing yet there is no indication of who the caller is so she wonders if she should answer it. She presses it to her ear then answers since it is one of those models that respond to voice commands.
"I said I would call you remember?"
"You had me waiting me."
"Trust me it was worth it. However you will have to meet me at the location in the message I sent to your laptop and before you ask how I could do that… remind yourself who you are talking to... so uh see you there."
The call ends before she could respond though he is probably working his way to wherever they were going to meet right now. Next time she would end the call on him that would show him she thinks to herself. She checks the laptop at his suggestion and indeed there are directions. She would have to drive a bit of distance though it would bring her closer to nabbing Mandragora so it would be worth the trip. She memorizes the route then deletes it per Question's request. The man was a bit paranoid even about a simple e-mail message, but then again it fits with Question's line of thinking.
[+++]
She had taken her loft's new look a little from the rig that Dick is using for his, but of course she made her own spin on it so instead of a descending tunnel, she had made use of an ascending one. The ground retracts as she on motorcycle launches through the opening and onto pavement in front of it then she revs the engine before accelerating away to her 'date' with Question. It registers as strange that he would have her drive to some underpass yet it would be the only way to get to Mandragora presumably. As she accelerates, the wind does cause her hair and cape to flow along with it.
"He's taken the lead this time, unexpected coming from him, still he must have seen I lied through my teeth about Cadmus, so why he is doing this?" murmurs Huntress.
After following all the directions, she is finally slowing up near the underpass so pulls her motorcycle into what appears to be abandoned tunnel sized pipe. As she walks out, her cell phone hidden in her utility belt goes off again and she jumps a little before realizing where she left it so quickly pulls out then answers it.
"I presume you made it to the rendezvous point."
"Alright Q you said you help me so where are they keeping Mandragora?"
He hangs up on her again.
"Oh, you didn't just hang up on me…"
She can hear the sound of a car engine behind her so she turns about to see who and what is heading her way. It zips past her after she steps closer to where she put her motorcycle then spins around leaving a bit of a smoke trail. She almost cringes at the fact that her gaze never left the movement of the Pontiac yet she notes that is Question driving it.
"I figured I'd cut out the middleman."
You really have a way with words Q.
He revs the engine as if showing off the vehicle's power and to her it sounds well maintained for a car belonging to admittedly one of her favorite models from the late sixties. It purrs and roars then he slides over as if inviting her to drive it. She almost eyes him suspiciously. She still pulls the door out then slides into the driver's seat. Both buckle up and she grips the wheel.
"Oh, babydoll…"
She makes a side long glance at him noting he did not appear to expect her to say that to him.
"… and just for the record, I usually prefer my date's to have a face."
She pulls the shifter back, the engine purrs again only louder, and then she floors it. The 'date' is on as the Pontiac driven by Huntress exits the underpass and so Question directs her to the address of where they would find Mandragora. Men in her experience are usually very sensitive about their vehicles of choice yet letting her drive his is confusing and exciting at the same time. Some part of her still questions Question's motives here.
I can't figure you out Q so I'll have to figure out a way to nail Mandragora when we get to him.
She might be stringing him along for this yet she is feeling attracted to him for his trust, maybe even his kindness if Question is really capable of such qualities. Her mind hisses that she is making a mistake to ask for help yet her heart… she feels surprise to think it still can feel… her heart tells her to trust him.
A/N 1: This segment shifts to Huntress since it set during Double Date, but there will be a Question centric take as well. Not that I couldn't have just done with him alone, but it felt important to let her take the 'wheel' so to speak. This is only the first of several for her this is after all a story about Question and Huntress.
A/N 2: The dialogue is mostly from the first several minutes of Double Date though some it is new. Helena's down time scene as well the scene leading towards her rendezvous with Question are the new parts plus they are meant to more or less happen around the same time as Black Canary and Green Arrow are placed as League security for Mandragora.
A/N 3: The flashbacks, while not exactly linear, pertain to memories that have resurfaced during her hunt for Mandragora.
