Ch 2: Interrogations
AN: Wow guys. I am overwhelmed at your response. Thank so much to everyone who favorited and reviewed and such. It really means a lot to me. Y'all were so good to me that I felt guilty about holding on to this and I finally caved. So here's the next chapter! Unfortunately, this will probably just mean a longer gap when I finally run out of pre-written chapters/get back into the thick of things at school. Anyways, I really hope y'all enjoy this as much as you seemed to like the first chapter!
As before, I own nothing, potential spoilers for anything in YJ, and a lot of JLU stuff, and thanks to IronicVeghead for letting me use her JLU Style Spitfire picture.
" 'Lax guys. She's 'kay. She's my ninja girlfriend."
With that, Flash slumps to the teleporter floor, the pool of crimson growing from his side obvious to all. The villain, Tigress crouches over him, and that's too much for John. He had more than enough willpower to protect Wally in his injured, confused state. A glowing green hand materializes and yanks the woman away from his friend before slamming her into the ground.
"I told you to stay away from him." He's knocked the wind out of her, but still she struggles in his ring's grip.
"He needs medical help." He snorts. As if he would loosen his grip on this torturer just because she expressed fake worry for Flash.
"Besides the obvious, he's got broken ribs, they'll need to check for punctured organs. Scan for drugs before you put anything else into his system. Except nutrients. His metabolism's undernourished, but if you can kick-start that and set the broken bones, he'll be able to start recovering some on his own."
"Yeah, yeah, we heard you, girlie. We're just not going to listen to the one who did this to him." Hawkgirl advanced on her, brandishing her mace.
The dark-haired woman is clearly unimpressed. "Will you forget that? He needs medical, Stat!"
"Why I oughta…" Shayera raised her mace, ready to shut up the villain that had hurt her friend, her little brother so cruelly.
"No! Stop!" John focused back on the platform where J'onn was aiding a technician with Flash's wounds. The speedster is struggling against both his injuries and his Martian friend's firm hands. If John didn't know better, he'd think the man looked worried for the villain.
"Told ya. She's 'kay." The injured hero slurred again.
"Hush Flash. You need to conserve your strength." Wally continues to struggle against J'onn, but the technician jabs a needle in his arm, and the red-suited hero finally slumps into unconsciousness. "I'll take him to the sick bay. And it won't hurt to test her claims."
With their departure, the woman finally stops fighting him. Superman is running damage control, keeping the other heroes away from their wounded comrade and his tormentor, allowing the Green Lantern to advance on her.
"I'll take her to the detention cells. We'll find out what's going on." He announces to the room. He'd take the first crack at interrogating her. And he'd enjoy it.
XxXxX
"I told you. Contact Batman. I'm not saying anything until you let me see him."
"And I told you, you don't get to demand to see Batman any more than you get to demand to see Flash."
"Then I'm not telling you anything!"
Superman took a deep breath, and stalked out of the cell before he did something he would regret. He would not harm her. Especially not after dealing with the Question's insinuations for the past two weeks of Flash's disappearance. They had all been frantic, of course, but Question in particular seemed convinced this would push him into becoming Lord Superman. But their friend was safe, and stable. He would not kill.
"Six hours. It is impressive that we have been unable to get anything from her in that time." J'onn intoned as Clark stepped into the observation room.
"Certainly not from lack from trying." They watched as Question took a turn with the prisoner.
"Something tells me you have some of the answers to the conspiracy. I just need the right questions."
"Aren't you the one dating Huntress?"
"No, I do not believe that is the question that needs to be asked here."
The woman cracked up, as if she was aware of some inside joke.
"So her first statement not about Batman or Flash is about Q's love life? What does that tell us?" The Man of Steel wondered.
"Not the Question's love life. Huntress's," came a growl from the corner. It seemed the Dark Knight had finally deigned to grace them with his presence.
"Gosh darn it, Bruce. I hate when you sneak up on us like that."
"What do you mean, she was asking about Huntress?" Batman ignored them both, instead examining the feed from the interrogation room.
"Debrief. Now."
Clark sighs, but knows better than to test the man's recalcitrance in a situation like this. He would never admit it, but the dark hero had been worried about his comrade – his friend. Knowing Bruce, he had been pulling double shifts, using all of Batman's considerable resources to track down the missing hero who held the League together.
"About six hours ago, Flash's Comm and locator came back online. He requested immediate teleportation to the Watchtower for himself and the person next to him. Flash is stable and healing now, since you won't ask, but he was in a bad way when they first appeared. We don't know if she was the wrong person to grab, or if he was confused as to her intentions. Also, he called her his 'ninja girlfriend.'" Here he can't hold back a snort. "John detained her, and we've been unable to get much out of her since. She keeps asking to speak to you, actually. We thought it might be a trap."
"J'onn?"
"I do not know how, but her mind is guarded from mine. It is almost as if she is familiar with how Martian telepathy works… We have also been unable to hail Wonder Woman since she left to tap her resources in Themyscira. We felt it best to continue manual interrogation until Diana could return with her Lasso."
The Dark Knight sighed with… Clark would label it weariness if he didn't know any better. "Pull Question out. I'll speak to her." He turned towards the door only to find the Martian blocking his way.
"Batman, I must protest. This could be a trap."
"It's not, J'onn."
"But Bruce, you don't know-!" Batman waved away the Kryptonian's protest.
"Yes, I do."
XxXxX
If she hadn't worked with the Bat for so many years, she wouldn't have known he was there. It was his style, intimidating his 'victims' with imposing silence, steely glares, and his infamous tendency to appear as if from no where. She remembered how impressed she had been the first time she met him in person. She had never seen anyone move like him. Not Jade, not Sportsmaster, not any of the Shadows she had come across in the early years of her training. The trick became less impressive after she spent years watching Robin do the same thing from his own eyes via mind-link. She could usually track such movements now. But there were more important matters to attend to than her own musings.
"How is he?"
Silence Still. Oh, she was not playing this game. Not right now.
"Quit the Big Bad Batglare already. I don't regret breaking cover and I'm not sorry I saved him." She folded her arms and returned his glare.
He looked away, turning to stare at his own reflection in the one-way glass to the observation room. "You should have contacted me. We would have gotten him our without compromising your position."
"They were torturing him!"
He turned back to her, sharply. "And if they had caught you?"
"There is nothing," she said vehemently, "that they could do to me that would hurt as much as losing him again."
"You allowed your emotions to cloud your judgment. He may look like your Wally-"
"He is my Wally."
If there was such a thing as stunned silence, this was it.
"Explain." Batman recovered quickly, snapping out the order.
She closes her eyes as the hope, relief, and love of that moment comes crashing back to her. It threatens to break the barriers that held her together through the last few hours of interrogation; through the last few years of this life…
"He recognized me, when I went to free him." She opened her eyes to stare the Batman down. "He told… he told me to get 'traught."
She could swear he was raising an eyebrow behind that cowl.
"To us, it was the opposite of 'distraught.' I- there's a story to it, okay?"
"You will give a full debrief later." He says, but it seems that finally, finally, he's satisfied enough to answer her question. "He's stable and healing. Given his metabolism, I estimate he will be awake in the next half hour."
And this time, the walls around her heart do crumble. She sinks into the chair and puts her head in her hands, fighting the urge to just cry. He's here and he's safe and they're both alive… Did the lights in the room just get brighter? For the first time since she came to this place, she has more than just herself to depend on. Heck, she has more even than just hope. She has a tangible chance at something she didn't before: a happy life, where she can be herself, and not just the villain Tigress.
"Green Lantern will likely be heading down to the Med Bay to be there when Flash wakes up. He can escort you to see Wally."
"Thank you. So much." She murmurs. She's willing to play nice now that he had made his own concessions. "The League confiscated my things, but there should still be a USB in my belt with copies of every Legion file I could get my hand on."
"I'll retrieve it now." He unlocks the cell door and steps out. "Oh, and Tigress? Good job." He disappears with a swish of black cape.
She grins.