Oracle and the Network
8.0
The problem with supervillains, Huntress found, was that they not only broke their own lives but twisted the lives of their victims too. Take Delores Winters: a lovely actress from the 1940's who was kidnapped by the Ultra Humanite. The mad scientist had his brain transplanted into Winters' body, and the actress' brain stuck inside a suicide.
Maybe the brain transplant drove Winters insane, or maybe there was something evil inside her all along, but Winters went deeply bad. Using the brain transplant scientist Winters had her 'new' body rebuilt and improved, then later kidnapped and killed the daughter of her original body, taking over that shell. She then began to sell medical services of a criminal nature, doing illegal transplants and even enhancing herself with superhuman parts.
Huntress had tracked Winters latest set of labs down to a supposedly abandoned Lexcorp lab in Gotham, and she covertly spied on the facility. Super-crooks of various types came and went, while Huntress listened in via a bug she planted on one goon's cape.
"... come on, we want to see the real stuff," a voice scoffed.
Winters' voice is smooth, almost silky as she said, "I have something very interesting to auction off later."
"And what's that?" the crook demanded.
"The ultimate in power and disguise," Winters sounded smug, "the shape changing skin of a alien White Martian."
"I thought the JLA got rid of them!" another man demanded, sounding surprised.
"Maybe they did, maybe they didn't," Winters replied, "but I have one. Imagine the kind of power it could grant you..."
Huntress listened to the rest of the conversation, her eyes narrowed intently. She had joined the JLA not too long after the Martians attacked, and knew their ultimate fate. There shouldn't have been any White Martians for Winters to capture...
"Oh shit," Huntress muttered, realizing there was at least one out there. 'I'd better call for backup,' she decided grimly.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
The green skinned girl in a red and white shirt and blue skirt sat in the containment chamber, fire flickering around the pod. Miss Martian, aka M'gann M'orzz was a Martian, born far in the past and sent via rocket away from a civil war on her home world. She possessed the same abilities as the Martian Manhunter, more or less, and shared the same vulnerability to fire.
'I knew I should have brought someone along with me,' Miss Martian sighed to herself mentally. She had heard of Winters while investigating a fighting ring for super-humans, and after busting that case decided to investigate Winters activities. But it seemed the criminal was smarter than she expected, and caught the young shape shifter.
One of her watchers, a fire powered woman calling herself Scorch, frowned as she studied M'gann. "Why do you stay green?" she demanded, the blond sneering as she added, "I thought your skin was white, naturally."
"It is," M'gann answered, flinching slightly from the flames she was taunting her with, "but my people were evil. I'd rather stay a Green Martian."
"Isn't that sweet," the older woman sniffed.
"Don't tease the freak," the other guard said, the strange, faceless woman dressed in a muscle shirt and jeans.
"Don't order me around, Answer," the woman growled, fire dancing along her clenched fists.
The woman calling herself Answer got up, her stance calm as she said, "Do you really want me to beat you up again, Scorch?"
The villainess hesitated a moment, then sniffed. "Later," she said, stalking out of the lab with her head held high.
M'gann watched the villains as the woman left, then tentatively reached out her mind to the Answer. She did,'t like using her telepathy on others, and had chosen to only use it on bad people. She gently brushed the woman's mind and froze, gasping, "Oh!"
"Shh!" the faceless woman hissed. "I'm here to help," she murmured.
"But how...?" M'gann asked, blinking.
Before the woman could answer, the whole building shook as if something had hit it. "Damn," the woman sighed, "so much for subtle." Picking up a nearby chair she braced herself, then swung the chair as hard as she could against the glass walls. They shattered nicely, as well as scattering the candles that had been sapping Miss Martian's strength.
"Thank you!" M'gann beamed as the hero known as the Question helped her out.
"Less talk, more hurrying," Question ordered with a smile, "I don't know how long it'll take for Winters to get someone back here."
"I think they're a little busy," M'gann said as they hurried out of the lab and into a empty hallway, the building shaking again.
They opened doors as the sounds of battle grew louder, in the process finding at least two victims of Winters experiments. "Shit," Question cursed as she saw the body floating in a jar, the hands having been surgically removed.
Just then Scorch hurried up the hall, fire dancing around her hands as she growled, "I knew you couldn't be trusted!"
The Question didn't respond, instead stepping forward to dodge the first swing of the crazed villain. As Scorch was off balance the Question drove a elbow into her gut, knocking the woman's breath out of her. Scorch staggered backwards then the Question punched her in the face, knocking the older woman cold.
"How...?" M'gann blurted, eyes wide.
"Practice," Question answered, the two abandoning the villain as they raced down the hall.
"That injured man..." M'gann protested as Question hauled her along.
"We'll try to help him once we get you out," Question said firmly even as she kicked open a door into a much larger room. "Wow," she blurted as she saw the battle raging within.
The Teen Titans were tearing into a crowded room of super villains, the kids doing incredible damage. Red Robin was leading them, the cowled hero leaping and dodging as he punched and kicked, while right behind him Blue Beetle blasted enemies with his alien armor. Above them Superboy and Wonder Girl were dealing with the big guns, both impossibly strong kids doing incredible damage.
"Hey, Megan!" Ravager waved, the white haired girl dressed in her blue and orange combat gear, her swords gleaming. "Damn idiot," she growled as she fought over to their side, "you should have told us where you were going!"
"Sorry, Rose," M'gann looked sheepish, "I thought I could handle it myself."
"Idiot," Ravager repeated, but there was fondness in the tone.
Superboy punched the villain Blackrock unconscious, then dropped to their side. "Has anyone seen Winters?" he asked curiously, the black haired teen frowning slightly.
"Huntress said she'll get her," Question said, smiling grimly.
"She's the one who called us in," Superboy admitted as he casually backhanded a b-lister calling himself Priex, "how's you get involved?"
"Called in by Oracle to go undercover," Question answered casually as she ducked under the Wasp's stingers then kicked him in the face.
The door to the rear of the meeting room was kicked open, and Huntress dragged the white skinned Winters inside, her uniform marked with ice. "Ugh," Huntress sight as she tossed the villain to the floor, "I'm freezing!"
"Let me," Superboy bathed her in his heat vision, melting the ice and swiftly warming the older woman up.
"Thanks," Huntress sighed in relief.
"I'll put a call in to Checkmate, they can round up these guys and hopefully help the injured," Red Robin said briskly. He smiled, "Good work everyone."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Oracle smiled as she checked her messages, the redhead running through various files as she sat in front of the computers in the Aerie. "Huntress," she smiled as her friend checked in, "did things turn out all right?"
"Pretty much," Huntress answered over the radio, "M'gann is fine, we broke up the surgery ring, and Winters is behind bars." Her voice dropped, "I am a bit annoyed with you, boss."
Oracle flinched, well aware what Huntress might be cranky about. "Oh?" she asked mildly.
"Why didn't you tell me Question was in there undercover?" Huntress demanded. "We could have worked together to get Megan out without calling in the Titans," she complained.
"To be honest Question could only check in with me to a limited extent," Oracle said sheepishly, "I didn't know exactly where she was at the time."
"Huh, I hadn't thought of that," Huntress admitted.
"Her and her associate Tot got involved via a request off their 'answer the question' website," Oracle revealed, "apparently the relative of a kidnapped villain asked for help. I was digging into the money at the time, and we agreed to team up."
Huntress sighed quietly. "I suppose that makes sense," she conceded, "but next time, at least try to keep me informed."
"Will do," Oracle promised. She smiled slightly, "I guess you need to know why I was digging into Winters? It relates to our ongoing Intergang case."
Huntress hesitated then said, "Oh hell... they're enhancing Intergang soldiers?"
"Well, thankfully you've just closed that down," Oracle said cheerfully. "I'm hoping they haven't created too many enhanciles before we stopped them."
"We'd better keep an eye out," Huntress agreed. "What is the rest of the team up to?" she asked.
"Charlie and Cass are at school," Oracle said as she tracked them by GPS, "Black Canary's at work, Lady Blackhawk is with my dad doing things I don't want to think about..."
"That bothers you a bit?" Huntress asked as she ran across the city's rooftops.
"Yeah, a little," Oracle admitted. She smiled to herself wryly, "No one wants to imagine their parents still having a sex life."
Huntress snickered, "Poor thing."
"Your sympathy overwhelms me," Oracle said dryly. "See you back at base?"
"Yeah once I finish my patrol," Huntress agreed, signing out.
To be continued...
Notes: Delores Winters is a real DC comics character with that history in the comics. I swear, I never made ANY of it up. Scary, huh?
