Chapter 6
"It's a uh, beautiful night, uh, isn't it," Rex said to Maril.
"It's more like a pretty average night for Tamaran," Maril said, correcting him. The two of them were walking through the royal gardens. Rex had said he wanted to take one last trip through them, so they could have a little alone time before they headed to his farewell dinner. Rex thought Maril didn't know what was coming, but with her detective skills he wasn't exactly willing to bet on it.
Maril was wearing a long, elegant red dress that Rex thought belonged in the evening gown competition of a beauty pageant, not a small farewell party. While the bottom of the dress fell all the way to the floor, the top did not do as much to cover her modesty. It was strapless and cut low, giving exposure to her ample bosom. At least it would have, if she hadn't brushed out her long and thick hair so much that it almost completely covered her back and front.
The two of them reached the edge of the gardens. The gardens ended in a cliff that overlooked the city. The high vantage point also gave them a good look at the night sky.
"There it is, Thanagar," Maril said as she pointed to a bright star in the sky.
"Yes, I know," Rex replied, his mouth dry with nervousness.
"On Earth, I'll look up at it every day and think of you," she said.
Rex remembered back to when they were kids, and the very first night when they located Thanagar in the night sky of Earth. They had snuck out to play around the oak tree on the hill near the Metrotower.
"Do you remember the first night we found it in the night sky on Earth?" he asked her.
"Of course," she replied. "We all snuck out in the middle of the night so I could show you guys where Tamaran was. You asked if I knew where Thanagar was and I pointed it out for you."
What Rex remembered so well, was the way she pointed it out to him. He was having trouble finding it, so she came up behind him and pointed it out for him. She was so close to him he could feel her breath on his neck. It was that moment when he knew there was a spark between them.
"Do you remember we saw a shooting star that night?" Maril asked him.
"Yeah, we all made a wish on it, and we all wished for the same thing, to be the most powerful superhero on the planet." Rex started laughing thinking about that night. "We all revealed our wishes, and you got mad at us because you said by doing so we were keeping them from coming true. Of course, none of us quite understood we couldn't all be the most powerful superhero anyway."
"I never did say what I wished for," Maril told him.
Rex was puzzled by her reply. "But after we all went you said you wished for the same thing as well."
"That wasn't what I actually wished for," she replied.
"Well, I guess I could ask you to reveal what you wished for, but then it might not come true."
"I'm not worried about that superstition, because I think my wish is about to come true," she said.
Rex had to think for a little while about what she said. His eyes grew wide as it dawned on him what she was talking about. "Do you mean. . ." he was so stunned he couldn't finish the sentence.
"That I wished one day I would be marrying you? Yes, I did."
Rex was startled by this revelation. He was overjoyed to know it, but a little disappointed she had figured out he was proposing.
"Don't feel bad that I knew you were proposing," she said. "It just shows how well we know each other."
"You're right, I guess it does," Rex said as he pulled out the ring. He dropped to one knee and Maril started crying.
"I had this whole speech planned, but-"
"I'd like to hear it," she said as she wiped some tears away.
"Okay," Rex said as he struggled to remember what the speech was supposed to be. Everything suddenly came back to him and he took a deep breath before he started. "When I get to Thanagar, I know my grandparents are going to ask me if I'm seeing anyone. I can't wait to tell them I have the most incredible girl in the world, but I don't want to tell them she is merely my girlfriend. I want to tell them we are going to spend the rest of our lives together. So I need to know, Maril, will you marry me."
Maril took a moment to look at the ring before she said yes. Rex put it on her finger as he stood. The two embraced and kissed for so long a servant had to come and find them and bring them in for dinner.
Helena and Olivia sat in the car outside the Cellar. "That place doesn't look bad at all," Olivia said. "But it appears to be a bunch of older guys going in there."
"Doesn't matter, the young'uns will start showing up once we are in," Helena informed her. "They should have at least one young bartender, that's all we need."
Helena got out of the car and Olivia followed her. They walked through the door and the minute they reached the downstairs bar all the heads turned their way and everyone stopped talking. They were met by skeptical looks of everyone in the bar.
There was no music playing so everything became quiet real quick. After a few seconds of quiet, people started whispering to each other, they were asking their friends if the two girls were who they thought they were. When Helena saw people whipping out their cell phones she knew things were proceeding as they needed to and she led Olivia to the bar.
Olivia sat up on the bar and crossed her legs. Helena leaned over it and the middle aged bartender came over to service them. "Two Martinis, please," she said in a high pitched voice.
"Aren't you two a little young to be buying alcohol?" the bartender asked them.
Olivia laid out on the bar and started running a finger along the arm of one of the regulars sitting there. "What if someone else, like this guy, bought the alcohol for us, would that be okay?"
"We can't have you drinking on the premises at all. We could lose our. . ."
"But no place else we go ever has a problem serving us," Helena said to him. She leaned closer to him so she could talk to him quietly. "Most places would die to have Helena Wayne and Olivia Queen seen partying at their bar. Look around, everyone is on their cell phone telling their friends we're here. If you don't want the huge crowd that is about to descend on this place, please don't serve us and we can go somewhere else."
The bartender looked around at all the other patrons. Anyone who hadn't been on their cell phone before grabbed it the minute Helena confirmed who they were. The bartender suddenly realized how much money would slip away if he told them to leave.
"Your friend is right, it's not a big deal as long as you don't buy the alcohol," he said as he started taking out what he needed for the martinis. "Since these will be on the house, you won't actually be buying them."
"Thank you," Olivia said as she sat up on the bar again. The bartender gave them their drinks and then made a call. It didn't take super hearing to overhear the conversation. He was calling in more help for the coming crowd. The guy on the other line was protesting, but a mention of Helena's name seemed to be all he needed to convince the other guy to come in. He hung up the phone and checked on the two girls to make sure they had everything they needed.
The bar filled with people pretty quickly. Helena and Olivia mostly kept to themselves. Every once in a while a guy would get the courage to talk to them, but they didn't talk long.
When a young bartender finally walked in Helena knew she had her mark. She called him over under the premise she wanted to do some shots with Olivia. She talked with him for a long time and struck up a rapport with him. When he finally brought the girls two shots Olivia declined hers and the bartender had to drink it.
Instead of letting him leave she started talking to him about the bar. He knew the history of it and how it used to be a speakeasy during prohibition. She said she found that fascinating and mentioned that she had heard stories about how most speakeasies had secret passages for transporting the alcohol. She asked him if this place had one, and he suddenly became coy.
Helena changed gears and started flirting with the guy. Now that she had him thinking about any secret passages, she mentioned that it would be nice if there was a quiet, secluded place they could go. She could see the man was having trouble holding his composure. He poured himself a shot to calm his nerves and told her they had a downstairs office they could go to.
Helena sat up on the bar, through her feet to the other side, and slid down. She wrapped her arms around the bartender and started nibbling his ear. She whispered in his ear she would like to see the place and he hurriedly led her down there. They went to the office and he closed the door behind them. She was going to ask him some questions about the place, but he immediately started kissing her. He walked her over to a wall and pushed her up against it. She took out a sonar device and hid it behind a bookshelf.
The bartender tried to reach second base and she had to push his hands away. "Doesn't anyone believe in foreplay anymore," she said slyly as she pushed him away.
"Sorry," he said as she walked to the back of the office. "You're just so beautiful."
She leaned over the desk so he could get a good look at her cleavage. "Are you just going to stand there with your mouth open like a dumbass or are you going to chase me?" she said in a sultry voice.
He hesitantly walked over to her and she met him. They started kissing and this time she pushed him up against a wall. She took another sonar device and lifted up a picture on the back wall slightly in order to hide the device behind the picture. She did this without the guy noticing a thing.
The guy felt up her ass and once again Helena had to back up. "Can't we take things slow?" she asked as she moved back and sat up on the desk.
"How slow did you have in mind?" he asked her.
"All night, till the place closes," she said as she leaned forward again.
"We have three hours until the owner's friend needs it," he said in a hurry as he moved to kiss her again.
"What's that?" she asked as she held him at bay.
"We have the place for three hours, that's more than enough time-"
"I can't work with that little time," she said as she walked away from him. She looked back and he was completely dumbfounded. She had everything she needed and it was time to leave. She wondered if this would make the tabloids, not that she cared.
Helena reached the upper floor to find Olivia dancing around on the bar and singing a Blondie song that was playing on the radio. She walked up to her so she could grab her to leave. Olivia leaned over to sing to her and Helena pulled her down. She then dragged her out of the bar.
When they were alone in their SUV with its tinted windows they could be themselves. "Thanks for being my wing girl," Helena told Olivia. "I got everything I need."
She pulled her phone out to contact her father and noticed a message from Maril. "Oh my God, look," she yelled to Olivia as she held the phone in between them so they could both watch the video message. Maril gave a quick explanation on how Rex proposed and showed them the ring. She promised Helena she would see her the moment she got back to Earth.
After watching the message again Helena called her father and told him the meeting was in three hours and the sonar devices were in place. She then dropped Olivia off at her apartment so she could change into her Black Arrow outfit and take her bike over to Bludhaven.
Diana flew down into the Batcave carrying Helena's gift. Once inside the cave, she saw him working at the Batcomputer and slowly walked up to him. As she walked up to him she passed the case holding Jason Todd's Robin costume, and was reminded how that event led them to get married. Her mind started wondering and she thought about how she had been both looking forward to and dreading this day since Helena was born.
Eighteen years ago, as Diana approached her due date, she went to stay on Themyscira so her Amazonian sisters could be her midwives. She was mostly unplugged from the happenings of the League, but one day she heard the Code Red alarm emanating from her communicator. Even though she couldn't do anything, she couldn't just ignore the alarm. She grabbed the communicator and put it in her ear so she could hear the intercom chatter.
She heard J'onn alert the League about some monster that had emerged from the depths of the Earth. He was calling in all superheroes because the American military and the first group of superheroes to meet it were all subdued. For the next several hours she listened to the messages of each Leaguer as they described the unstoppable beast. He was rampaging across the US destroying everything in his path. The League had no idea what would defeat him, so initially they were very cautious. They held everyone back and tried to save the people in the creature's path while they hit him with every long distance weapon they had. None of the weapons had any effect, and soon the all the super powered heroes simply ganged up on him. They fought him ferociously, but he fought even harder. As Diana listened to the fight she was pained that she couldn't be there, she knew they really could have used her help.
Superman stayed out of it, initially. He was still keeping a low profile after the episode with Darkseid and the invasion of Apokolips. The League needed the full cooperation of all the local rescue workers and military and police forces. This was better achieved by having Superman take an unseen leadership role.
Most of the heroes couldn't take the punishment the creature gave them. Superman was directing them, and practically every minute he was telling another hero to break off, that they would just get themselves killed if they continued to fight. Diana knew it must be tough for them to admit they couldn't do much good, but she knew Superman was still held in such high esteem among the Justice League they would obey him.
It wasn't long until the creature reached Metropolis, and there was no super hero in any condition to fight him but Superman. He initiated a fight with him and the two gladiators were soon tussling over the entire city. As Diana listened, she wondered how Superman could face the creature alone when a whole team of super beings could do nothing. As she listened to descriptions of what was happening, it seemed that Superman found a level of strength he never knew he had before.
Bruce had long told Diana that Clark was much stronger physically then he ever showed. Bruce believed that under his mother's tutelage he had actually learned to put up psychological barriers to restrain his powers, as full use of them would have made it easy for him to harm everyone around him. Bruce had believed that his brainwashing by Darkseid removed those barriers. That was why he killed Kara so easily. However, after he became himself again, the barriers returned.
As Diana listened to a description of the fight between Superman and Darkseid, she started having contractions. She didn't think much of it, she believed it was just a response to the anxiety she was having. As the fight continued, and the pains worsened, she remembered how many women went into labor due to stress and fear. She began to think that she might be going through that.
As she listened to the fight she heard the descriptions of the injuries Clark was sustaining. She had never known him to suffer injuries like that and knew he couldn't be holding up well. She tried to listen hard to what was happening, but the sounds from the communicator soon became drowned out by her own screams of pain. She clutched her stomach as she fell to the ground. She felt the lower half of her robes become wet and she knew her water had broken.
"Mother, mother," she shouted. "It's coming," she yelled again.
The young looking Amazon Alexis ran into the room and helped Diana into her bed. The reassurance that came from having another person present eased Diana's pain enough to allow her to hear that the creature and Superman both laid what appeared to be fatal blows on each other.
"You should take that communicator out," Alexis said, oblivious to what was happening. Diana grabbed Alexis' hand as she reached for it.
"It stays in," she barked at the girl. "There is a communicator in my ship. Go out there and try to contact Bruce. Tell him what's happening."
"Artemis can handle the communication," Diana heard her mother's voice say. "Alexis needs to stay here and help you."
Diana looked around Alexis to see her mother waking towards her. She couldn't see Artemis, but guessed she had gone to do what she was told. When her mother reached her, she could tell her daughter was dealing with more than just the birth of her child.
"Why do you need the communicator, dear?" she asked.
"I think Superman just died," she said with tears welling up in her eyes. "There was no sound coming through her communicator anymore. Whoever had been narrating the fight was too shocked to speak."
"You have other things to worry about," her mother replied as she stroked her daughter's face. She looked her over, taking in the wet robes.
For the next couple hours her sisters helped her deal with her labor pains. She had really wanted Bruce by her side, but Artemis had been unable to reach him directly. She prayed in all the commotion nothing happened to him.
She continued to listen to the news on Superman through her labor. Every superhero around tried to do whatever they could to revive him. Nothing worked. After several failed attempts they cleared the area so Captain Atom could blast him with as much yellow sun radiation as he could muster.
As Diana listened in to what the superheroes were doing, her pains increased greatly. Alexis looked under her robes and announced the baby was coming. Diana started pushing as she heard Captain Atom begin his attempt to revive Clark. He hit Clark with everything he had, but he couldn't see any signs of life out of him. Finally, he gave up. The other superheroes rushed back in to check on Superman. Diana heard all their chatter as she made her final push. Dr. Fate pronounced Superman dead right as Diana heard her baby cry for the first time. Her mother proudly proclaimed she had given birth to a beautiful girl. Her sisters quickly wiped the baby off and handed her to Diana. Helena stopped crying as she looked for the first time at her mother's face. Diana looked back as the tears over Superman's death mixed with her tears of joy over having her first child.
Her sisters soon left her alone and Diana tried to put Clark's death out of her mind as she tried to enjoy her first moments with her daughter. She only managed to forget about Clark when she started thinking about Bruce and whether or not he was okay. She had no idea where he was during everything and wondered why Artemis couldn't reach him.
Helena fell asleep after an hour and Diana laid her in the cradle. With the baby asleep, Diana's mind really started going through scenarios about what could have happened to Bruce. Just as she convinced herself he had to be dead the Batwing flew overhead.
Diana breathed a huge sigh of relief as she watched it circle back around. The vehicle landed in a nearby clearing and Bruce, in costume, jumped out. He ran up to Diana's room and when he saw they were alone he removed his mask.
Bruce was always most comfortable with the mask on, for some reason Diana never knew. Alfred and Diana were always the only two people he consistently removed his mask for while in costume. She was surprised he had removed the mask this time and revealed the look on his face to her. He had a look of sadness and defeat she had only seen once before; after Jason had died.
"Where is the baby?" he asked as he reached them. Diana didn't need to answer as his eyes immediately fell upon the cradle by Diana's bed. Bruce went over and picked up his daughter and held her in his arms. There was little change in his facial expression as he did so.
"It's a girl," Diana told him.
"So her name is Helena then," he said with just a hint of happiness.
Helena opened her eyes briefly to look at her father. Without changing her expression either, she closed them again and went back to sleep. Bruce continued to look at her as he held her.
Diana could tell he was happy, but knew something was nagging at him. She knew it was more than just Superman's death. She had to ask him about it.
"Were. . .were you there when he died?" she asked.
"I saw the beginning of the fight, but it wasn't long until there were people who needed rescuing. I didn't make it to Clark until long after he had died at the hands of the creature. I was there when everyone gave their best efforts to revive him, for almost two hours I could barely think of anything."
He continued holding their daughter. He shifted her and brought her closer to him. "I'm sorry I wasn't here for the two of you," he said.
"We were fine," she replied.
"I didn't think I was going to have to worry about her," Bruce admitted abruptly. "I thought she would be strong enough I would never have to worry about her suffering the fate Jason did. But now, after Clark-" Bruce had to fight back tears. It was the first time Diana had ever seen him cry. Even with Jason's death there wasn't tears, just a melancholy and a never-ending sadness.
"With Clark's death I can't stop thinking there are things that could harm and kill even her and you."
Diana had been having the same fears and she was glad to have Bruce give voice to them. "I worry for her too," she declared. "There is always the possibility she won't want to follow in our footsteps."
Bruce glanced up at her and then back at Helena. "I don't think any child of mine is going to decline the opportunity to be a superhero."
For a moment Diana thought about keeping Helena on the island forever. After all, Diana had spent two millennia in isolation on Themyscira. The thought flashed in her mind for just a second as she watched Bruce with their daughter. She knew she could never keep her daughter chained to this island. She knew it would have been the wrong thing to do.
"We're going to have to train her," Bruce said softly. "She's going to have to train her entire life, just as I did. If we train her right, she can have my skill with your power. Maybe then, we won't have to worry about anyone ever killing her."
"Are you going to talk to me, or are you going to remain silent until Helena comes back?" Bruce asked her.
"I didn't mean to be rude," she answered. "I was just thinking about something."
Bruce didn't ask her what she was thinking about. Instead he continued with his work on the computer.
Diana walked closer to him and laid the gift down on the evidence table. She looked at the monitor to see what he was doing. He was looking at a computerized mock-up of some underground room. She had seen this kind of thing before; he had small devices that could send out radar pulses to show all the details of a room and the position of anyone inside it.
"What are you looking at?" she asked him.
"A mock-up of a room in a bar where I thought a weapons sale would be going down tonight," he answered.
"How did you get the radar devices in there?" she asked.
"Helena put them there. She said it was best if I don't know how she did it."
Diana smiled over Helena's attempts to protect her father. As she continued to watch him work on the computer she saw he was moving the model away from examining the room itself. There were apparently passageways lining the outside of the room and Bruce was bringing up all the information he could find on them.
"What are you looking at now?" she asked.
"The new devices I have take images of what is on the other side of the wall. They can't give us any details, but they can tell us where the hollow spots are where there might be secret passageways and escape tunnels. I'm pulling up any information I can find on the old subway tunnels and sewers that may have been used for smuggling into the bar. It's likely the meeting that is taking place tonight is taking place in one of these abandoned passageways. The information I'm pulling up appears incomplete, I can find tunnels that lead around the bar, but nothing to it. Helena is going to have to find a passageway on her own."
"Sounds fun," Diana heard her daughter say as she walked down the stairs to the Batcave. "I thought the meeting would be in that old office. It's secluded enough."
"But the only way to enter or leave is to go through the bar. That would be too conspicuous, even if it was happening when the place was closed. Our seller likely gave out the information on how to travel the tunnels to reach the room. There's a subway track which runs parallel to the tunnels he must be using. You will have to go along it and find a way to get through."
"Why don't you have Helena make a frontal assault?" Diana asked.
"Because we need the element of surprise," Bruce answered. "If she tries to go through the bar they will have enough time to make their escape." Bruce looked around his wife and saw Helena doing something she shouldn't. "Hey, don't touch that yet."
Helena pulled her hand away from the gift. "Sorry, just a little curious."
"If you want to see it you should go and change," her father told her. Without saying a word, she followed his advice and headed for the changing tent.
Helena pulled her second boot all the way up and inspected it. It still fit snugly, but not too snug. The purple leather was still shiny and the white trim around the boots was still clean and bright.
She adjusted her suit slightly. She ran her fingers along the edges of her bikini bottoms, making sure they covered her ass properly. She next adjusted the metal brassiere to make sure it clung to her breasts enough that she wouldn't pop out when she moved.
She inspected herself in the mirror. Her costume was mostly modeled after her mother's. It was essentially a swimsuit with a dark purple bottom and a light purple top. A metallic yellow circle was emblazoned across her bosom. It contained a crest she had made for herself that consisted of a dark purple 'W' superimposed over a light purple 'H'. She had created the symbol as homage to the gold circle with the dark blue bat symbol her father used to wear on his chest. The 'W' of her crest had its ends curved similar to the way the wings of her father's bat symbol were curved. In a similar vein, the lines of her 'H' were pointed like the bat ears in the bat symbol.
She turned back to the bench and grabbed the utility belt and inspected it to make sure it contained everything she needed. When she had confirmed that, she checked the harness for her crossbow, making sure it was attached correctly.
"Are you going to be done soon?" her mother yelled to her. Helena was hidden from her parents by the curtains. "We're anxious to see you're costume," she added.
Helena knew her mother was incorrectly speaking for her father when she said they were both anxious to see her costume. Her father didn't do anxious, or care enough about costumes to get excited about that kind of thing. "Hold on, it's not like this is prom," she tried to remind them as she buckled her utility belt around her waist.
"I won't be too much longer, I promise," she yelled out to her parents. She grabbed her crossbow and looked it over. When she was young, Mercury took notice of her archery skills and gave her one of his bows as a gift. A year ago, when she started putting together her new superhero identity, Artemis helped her convert the bow into a crossbow.
When she was done looking the crossbow over, she closed it up and put it in its harness. She grabbed her dark purple cape and wrapped it around herself. With most f fthe costume on, she could let her hair down. She undid her ponytail and let her wavy hair fall around her face.
She then grabbed the final piece of her costume; the Amazonian gauntlets her grandmother, Queen Hippolyta, had given her a couple months ago. They were dark purple like the rest of her outfit. The one for her left hand had a computer built into it. When she put them on, she could feel a force pulsing through her and increasing her strength.
With the bench now bare she looked herself over in the mirror. . She looked herself up and down, smiling over the job she did on her costume. She hoped the mask her parents had for her would fit in with the rest of it.
"I'm done," she yelled to her parents. "Get your cameras ready," she said to them in a joking tone. She walked to the edge of the curtains and paused, taking a deep breath. She was quite anxious as she wondered what her parents were going to think of her costume. She felt dumb for getting worked up over it. She thought back to earlier in the day when she had been at her grandparents' tombstone. It reminded her there were more important things to be thinking about.
She took a deep breath and pushed aside the curtains as she walked out of the tent. She tried to suppress a smile as her parents looked over her costume. She was quite proud of the job she did on it and the way she designed something that honored both of them. She hoped her parents would feel the same way.
As her parents looked her over she grabbed her cape with both hands and held it back so they could get a good view of the full costume. Her mother was expressionless as she looked over her daughter. Helena thought she saw the beginnings of a smile, though, when she was done. Her father, on the other hand, didn't look her over for too long as he averted his eyes the second he saw her exposed cleavage.
"Is something wrong Dad?" she said through a giggle, as she saw him looking around uncomfortably.
"No, nothing's wrong," he said unconvincingly. He glanced over at Wonder Woman to make sure she knew she was to blame for the skimpiness of their daughter's outfit.
"Now, you need just one more thing," her mother said to her. She grabbed the gift from the evidence table and handed it to Helena.
"I didn't think you would go through the trouble of gift wrapping it" she said to them.
"It's hard to find good gifts to give you," her mother said. "We couldn't think when else we might get the chance to give you something like this."
Helena held it for a while merely inspecting the wrapping. She was surprised, but she was actually getting emotional over the moment.
"Go ahead and open it," her father said to her.
She grabbed one end of the bow and pulled it apart. The ribbon came undone and fell from the gift. She tore the wrapping paper off the package to reveal a plain white box. She opened the top of it, pulled back the flaps, and took a good look at what was inside.
Helena was looking at the front of the mask her parents' had made for her. The mask was metallic and consisted of a light purple tiara that had been designed to mimic her mother's tiara. There was a dark purple star in the center of it, the same design as her mother's. The mask that came down from the tiara resembled her father's cowl and was dark purple in color.
Helena pulled it out of the box and inspected the whole thing as the box hit the floor. Now that it was out of the box, Helena could see the mask would only cover the front of her face. It didn't circle her whole head like her father's cowl. The other thing Helena noticed was the dark purple of the mask streaked through the light purple of the tiara and formed two bat ears, one on each side of the mask.
Helena was taken aback by how perfect the mask was. It encompassed elements of the costumes of both her father and mother. She absolutely loved it. Despite her best efforts, a smile actually started forming on her lips.
"Is that. . .is that a smile," her mother asked, almost screeching. "Is our daughter actually smiling over something we did for her?"
"I think we might have finally done something right," her father added.
Helena couldn't suppress it anymore, a huge grin spread across her lips. "Thank you," she said to them. "I love it."
"Maril helped us with the color scheme," her father informed her. "You should remember to thank her."
"Try it on," her mother commanded.
Helena turned the mask around and slowly placed it over her head. For a moment everything went dark until the mask was in place and she could see through her eye holes.
"Can you see through it?" her father asked. Your mother was worried about that."
"Can you still breathe? Your father was worried about that," her mother said.
"I can breathe and see just fine," she told the two of them.
"Now, there's just one more thing," her father told her. He held out a small earpiece and Helena took it from him.
"You put a camera in my helmet, didn't you?" she asked her father as she put the speaker in her ear.
"Among other things. I can give you valuable assistance from back here in the cave," her father said to her.
"I know that. I don't mind you watching over me." As she talked she turned away from them and walked towards the vehicles.
"Which one are you taking?" her father asked.
"The bike," she said as she turned her head to glance back at the two of them. "I kind of want to be seen on my first night out."
She walked to the bike and mounted it. Before she started it up she looked over at her parents again. "Don't wait up for me," she said to them in a deep and gravelly voice. She started the bike up and rode out of the cave.
When Helena was gone Diana looked over at Bruce with a scowl on her face. "You just had to convince her to go with the growling voice, didn't you?"