Chapter 30

As soon as Helena hit the ground she could feel the ship fly up and leave her and her father alone. Out of the corner of her eye she could see a huge hole had been blown into the wall of the prison. She didn't have time to inspect it closely as she unholstered her crossbow and fired stun arrows at the few parademons that were around.

She ran towards the prison, expecting her father to be right on her trail. She didn't feel him around her and looked back to find him. He was far away from her, fighting a parademon in hand to hand combat. Helena was furious at him for not sticking to the plan. A hundred situations where he had told her the importance of sticking to the plan ran through her mind.

"Batman," she yelled at him, careful not to call him dad. He either couldn't hear her, or he was choosing to ignore her. He made no motion towards her, and instead activated the rockets of his boots and flew up to attack a parademon riding a personal hovercraft. She knew she had to keep to the task at hand and ignore him.

Helena ran through the hole that had been blasted in the large metal door of the prison. She found herself in one large room lined with cells. She quickly scanned them to find most of the superheroes relatively okay. Many of the ones with super powers were being held in cells which contained mechanisms to suppress their superpowers. The Flash family was all underneath a massive gravity beam, unable to move. J'onn was wearing a headband that was likely keeping him from decreasing his density so he could pass through the cell door. Several of the heroes with super strength were behind cell doors that appeared to be too well constructed to bust through. It looked like most of the cells were going to have to be hacked open.

"Helena," a familiar voice called to her. She looked in the direction of the voice and saw Connor's father, Oliver calling to her. She wondered if Connor was in the cell with him and her question was immediately answered when he appeared at the cell door. Helena didn't have a clear view of him behind the cell bars, but she could make out a collar around his neck which was likely keeping him from using his destructive roar.

Without thinking she ran to the cell door and grabbed the bars. "Stand back," she yelled at them. She didn't notice whether or not the door was too strong and thick for her to pull it off, she just wanted to get Connor out of there as quickly as possible.

Connor and his father both moved back and she pulled the door off the wall and tossed it aside. Now that she had pulled it off, she was surprised over what she had done.

"They didn't put us in such a strong cell," Oliver answered, as he realized what she was thinking. It was disappointing to know she couldn't just pull off all the cell doors, but she had other things to think about first.

She tore the collar off of Connor's throat and before he could say thanks she gave him a deep kiss on the lips. "Thanks," he replied softly as he rubbed his throat. "Can you get the rest of my family?"

"Just get the collars," he said as she ripped off Theodore's collar. Their mother was sitting on the ground and looked to be in pain, but she still motioned for Helena to rip her collar off. She did so and Ted helped his mother to her feet.

"Is Olivia here?" she asked them.

"She's with Richie a few cells over," Dinah replied in a weak voice. We saw them bring the two of them in here.

"We've got a full army advancing on us," Oliver yelled at them.

"They took our bows and arrows, but we can still break out everyone else," Connor said in a much stronger voice. "Just hold off this army for us."

Helena ran past Connor and his family and out into the open space of the prison. She had wanted to stop and give Connor one last kiss, but thought better of it. When she turned her attention to the hole in the door she saw a line of tanks flanked by parademons slowly advancing towards them. The first tank was right at the prison wall and was beginning to blast open a larger hole for itself.

As Helena ran towards the oncoming tanks she heard Connor's sonic roar and could feel the prison shaking. She could hear the sound of metal clanging against the ground as her friends were beginning to break out of their cells.

Helena reached the first tank and grabbed a hold of it. With all her strength she threw it up in the air. It flipped over and landed on the tank behind it, destroying both of them.

The parademons that had been flanking the tank began firing their weapons at her. She was able to block the beams with her gauntlets, but had no idea how she would counterattack against them. All of a sudden she heard a scream and felt a force pass by her on the right and push back the parademons on that side. Meanwhile, several green blasts of energy took out the ones on her left.

Helena looked back to see Olivia running towards here while Richie flew over her head. An approaching gunship started firing at Richie, but he evaded the blasts before a huge green serpent bit into the ship and threw it to the ground. J'onn reverted to his humanoid form and then flew off after Richie.

"Thanks for coming," Olivia said when she reached Helena. "Who's here?" Several other superheroes passed by them and started engaging the parademons and tanks as they tried to retreat.

"My parents and Superman," she replied. "Richie's dad, the twins, and Barbara are back at the manor. Dick's injured, but alive."

"Thanks," Olivia replied, obviously relieved to hear her in-laws were relatively okay.

Helena looked back at the Queens helping the last of the superheroes out of their cell. "Do me a favor and look after your family. Make sure no one does anything stupid. I need to do the same thing with my family."

Helena didn't wait for any reply before she ran out into the action. The freed Justice League members were more than holding their own. Helena felt free to look for her parents and took off in the direction of the command tower. She saw a tank get tossed from the ground and aimed at a command ship in the sky. The tank tore through the ship and it began descending to the ground. Helena figured her mother had to be responsible for that and headed in that direction.

As she ran through the battle she noticed Offspring had stretched himself out in order to wrap up several parademons. She noticed a gunship heading for him and knew he was presenting an easy target for them. She ran in front of the gunship and blocked the beams it fired. Once again she found her arms singed from the intense energy of the beams.

The gunship flew past them, but before it could circle around a missile appeared out of nowhere and tore it to pieces. Helena knew it was Lois in the invisible jet firing the missiles. Several other gunships were taken out by the weaponry of the jet.

Helena fought and dodged her way in the direction of the command tower. When she was in the vicinity of it she made a huge leap and landed on top of it. From her perch on top of the tower Helena was able to see a good amount of the battlefield. The rescued superheroes had fanned out everywhere and were engaging the forces of Apokolips all over the base. Both superheroes and gunships were flying around. They were attacking each other as well as lending support on the ground for their respective sides.

Helena tried to search for her father, but knew it would be harder than picking a needle out of a haystack. She felt the ground shake. She knew the only thing that could have caused that was Superman battling with his son. If they were here it meant this battle just got a lot more serious.

Helena's attention was grabbed by the sound of a struggle below. She went to the edge of the roof and looked over it to see her mother taking on three large battle robots. She was doing well, but Helena saw a gunship heading for her. She leaped the hundred feet over to the gunship, landing directly on the cockpit. She punched the glass out and grabbed the parademon pilot.

The parademon pilot responded to the attack by aiming the ship for the ground and heading there at full speed. Helena initially thought she had no reason to stop the ship if the pilot was intent on destroying it himself, but when she looked at where they were headed she saw they were making a kamikaze strike at her mother. She was engaged with a battle robot and had her back turned to them.

Helena had a mere second to act and launched herself at her mother. She landed on her back and knocked her down. Still holding on to her she rolled them around on the ground under the feet of the robot and away from the ship as it impacted the ground. After they had evaded the crashing ship Helena stopped, got to her feet, and attacked the battle robot. She knocked it to the ground and then jumped on it and tore off its head.

"You enjoyed that too much," her mother said to her as she got to her feet.

"Even Dad would have been more appreciative," she said to her. It felt good to Helena to enjoy a little family moment in the midst of the chaos all around them.

Their moment was immediately interrupted by the sound of a boom tube. Helena and her mother both braced themselves against the gale of wind that came from it. Four female furies walked through and the opening behind them disappeared.

"It's good to see we didn't get here too late," a red-headed fury said.

"We were afraid most of the superheroes would be killed before we could make it," another one with dirty blond hair said.

"It's a little harder to kill us then you might think," Helena said in reply to them. Her mother shot her a disapproving look. "Like you never made a snappy comeback."

The Female Furies didn't care about their conversation and rushed right at them. Two attacked Helena, and two charged at her mother. Helena let the two Furies attack her with their swords while she blocked their attacks with her gauntlets. She was letting them attack her like that so she could study them and learn their techniques.

Her mother, on the other hand, took a much more aggressive approach to the battle. She counterattacked before the first fury reached her and kicked her back. As the other one swung at her she flew up and out of her range. She then came down behind her, grabbed her, and threw her in the direction she had kicked the first Fury. She ran after the two of them and Helena lost sight of her as she had to concentrate on the two she was facing.

The two Furies Helena was facing pushed her back towards the command center. The wall had been destroyed earlier in the battle and the ground was covered with its rubble. Helena had to be careful as she stepped around the rubble. She wondered if the plan had been to force her onto the rubble and wait for her to stumble.

Helena stumbled slightly and one of the Furies took a swing she was unable to block. She was able to dodge it, but not completely. The sword tore through her holster and caused her crossbow to fall out and onto the rubble.

Helena got an idea to use the rubble to her advantage. She had a good idea on how the two of them attacked and knew what they were trying to do. She pretended to stumble and the two Furies took a moment to change their attacks and go in for the killing blow.

Helena had expected this pause and used it to her advantage. Since she wasn't really stumbling she was able to gather herself much quicker then they had expected. She counterattacked before they could deliver their major blows. She kicked one Fury and knocked her straight back. The other Fury received a major punch in the chin that made her drop her blades and stumble back.

Helena grabbed one of the blades the Fury had dropped and jumped straight up. She came down on top of the Fury she had kicked seconds earlier. Helena held the blade to her throat as she barked at the girl. "You better hope your friends value your life enough to surrender."

"Actually, it is your mother who better hope you value her life enough," a gruff female voice yelled. Helena looked up to see her mother on her knees with her hands tied behind her back. She was powerless now. The other end of the rope was held by one of the Furies that had been fighting her earlier. The other Fury that had been part of the combat was holding a blade to her mother's neck. From the look on her mother's face Helena could tell she was in fear for her life. She was trembling, but doing her best to fight back any tears.

"Lash made sure we studied up on every superhero and knew their weaknesses. The file he gave us on your mother certainly proved to be accurate. And as for you, we know you're not a killer. You might as well give it up and let go of Precious there.

Helena glanced down at the Fury underneath her and pushed the blade against her neck a little more. The Fury knew what was best for her and didn't make any attempt to fight back. With her life on the line, she didn't seem to be willing to take a chance.

Helena's attention was diverted by the sound of rustling in the nearby rubble. Helena looked over to see the Fury she had nearly knocked out slowly getting to her feet. She was obviously woozy, but steady enough to find the blade Helena had not retrieved. She grabbed it and walked over to join her compatriots.

When Helena watched the Fury retrieve her blade, she saw her crossbow lying in the rubble. The end was pointed right at the Furies holding her mother. Helena saw a way to save her mother and went about formulating her plan. It was going to require quick action on her part, but she knew she could do it.

Her heart started pumping furiously as it sunk in her mother's life was on the line. She nearly started hyperventilating, but she got herself under control. She had trouble concentrating, but was able to think hard enough to get a flash arrow to appear in her crossbow. She slowly reached into her utility belt with her free hand and pulled out a batarang. She once again assessed the situation as she readied to make her attack.