 | ShatterStorm Productions
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| ShatterStorm Productions
|
Dance Into the Light
++Davie++
I was shocked that Shan had managed to charm herself an invite to Oracle’s lair. On the other hand, that flirt was just the woman for the job. So I prodded Ro into wakefulness. She came around with an instant-alert jerk that made her hiss in agony and clutch her right shoulder. “Down Frisky,” I soothed her softly and put both hands on her arm. “Your sib managed to wrangle an invite to go meet the famous Oracle.”
“Should we bring flowers?” Ro groaned as I helped her sit up.
“Nope, just the miracle fleas.”
“Ah damn, she didn’t.”
“’Fraid so.”
“There aren’t enough of the little bastards right now.”
“I know, but let’s see what Canary says.”
Ro scowled at her sister’s antics, but gamely let me give her an injection of heavy-duty painkillers so that she climb to her feet and help me gather our gear. A scuffle of sound heralded the arrival of the rest of the party and we turned to face them. Canary was hoodless, and her pretty blonde features were clearer in this better light. She blinked in astonishment at Ro, who was in jeans, a tank top, boots and a sling. “Wow,” she breathed in awe. “You two are sisters all right.”
“Identical,” Ro supplied gruffly and glared at her twin, who grinned triumphantly. “You know the fleas aren’t ready for something like healing a double break.”
Shan’s face crumpled and her disappointment was tangible. “Damn. I forgot.”
Ro sighed heavily and crooked a finger at Canary, who stepped over trustingly. She was utterly unfazed by the ever-tactile sisters and the way they would constantly touch people in their immediate vicinity. The more introverted Ro noticed the fearlessness and smiled softly. “Oracle? The nanites are in the process of replicating up to useful levels right now. They won’t be helpful to Huntress I’m afraid.” I couldn’t hear squat, but Ro one-shoulder shrugged in response to whatever she heard Oracle say. “Yes. They’re useful, but very limited. I can have them do some repair, but it’ll set my timetable back a couple of months. I’m sorry to get your hopes up.” Then both twins looked mildly surprised and Canary triumphant.
“So,” I interjected dryly. “I take it the date is still on?”
Sticking to dark alleys and streets that saw little traffic in the night, we moved across New Gotham until Canary halted suddenly at a towering building. From here, there was nothing that made it stand out from every other damn office building we had passed in the last hour. Poor Ro was looking tired, wan and pained from the hike and I was concerned. Whatever had blown that hole in her shoulder had left an ugly and painful wound from back to front and it was still hurting her. Shan looked upset enough to cry and hovered well within her twin’s personal space. Canary just watched us quietly, still gamely hauling the heavy pack Ro usually carried. Both twins looked up the face of the building, obviously aware of where they were. But, then again, they were always aware of where they were. “The clocktower?” Shan queried and Canary stepped into a hidden alcove with a grin.
“Hiding in plain sight is quite effective,” the blonde said and we followed her into an alcove. The wall slid open along a seam that was unnoticeable at first glance to reveal gleaming steel doors. As Canary dropped her hand, I realized that she had punched something into a keypad off to the side and the comfortable elevator opened silently. “C’mon.”
“Cool,” Ro said softly and carefully maneuvered her weary body in. There wasn’t a hell of a lot of space with four bodies and our gear. Reaching out with my telepathic abilities, I ‘felt’ through the building and came up empty. Except way up at the top. It went against my nature to pry, so I waited for the pieces of the puzzle to come to me in the old fashioned way. That’s why Canary’s name was still her own business and not ours. Though it felt weird to trust her like this without even a name, such were the personalities of the metahumans that lived in the shadows of humanity. It wasn’t as though I had volunteered mine. Shan caught Ro as the latter suddenly stumbled.
“Just a little further, Boo,” she encouraged urgently and Ro nodded wearily. The desperate look she fired us shorter girls broke my heart. I hated it when one of them was hurt, and the other had to suffer along. Thank the Almighty it rarely happened. On cue, the doors slid back and Canary backed out, watching the twins closely.
“Welcome to the clocktower. God, Ro, come sit down.”
Then we became aware of an intense stare and I felt the twin’s reaction even as my own rose up. The first thing one noticed about Oracle was the way she was a part of her lair, like a spider in the center of her web. Master of her domain, she was a striking woman with flaming red hair and classic features. A dark-haired woman the twin’s memories confirmed as Huntress was curled up in Oracle’s lap like a sleeping baby. That piercing green gaze left a soul feeling naked and exposed. It was intimidating and oddly intimate. The woman must be a hell of a motivator. She quirked a small grin at us, the gesture a bit nervous but gamely trying to be cool about us being here. Then, and only then did I realize that her fancy sci-fi chair had wheels.
++Barbara++
Whatever I had expected, the twins still shocked me. Now, I knew that Metahumans came in all shapes and sizes, but they were truly unique. Beautiful in a feral and furry kind of way, one was hunched up in discomfort and I knew my curiosity would have to wait. “I’m Oracle,” I said needlessly and the three women looked at me with utter attention. “You were looking for me?”
The short woman opened her mouth to speak, but the wounded twin beat her to it, stepping forward to the dismay of her other half. “Oracle,” she murmured and was suddenly looming over me, only to kneel less awkwardly than I would have thought in her condition. “There’s a madwoman in your town.”
“Isn’t there always?” I hadn’t meant to sound so bitter and she blinked blankly. Oh wow, she had nictitating membranes like a cat… my sudden grin was returned and I had a feeling I could really like this woman. “That came out more rudely than I meant. I’m not used to… company.” That fanged smile was endearing. Up close like this, I could see that the woman was as indeed as pure white as she first appeared. She was albino; the eyes a shade of violet that was almost the expected pink, the nearly colorless irises unnaturally huge in her delicately featured face. Faint, soft fur dusted over her skin, growing thicker near her hairline. Heavy swaths of the stuff traced down her jugular to vanish into the open ‘v’ of her flannel shirt. “You need to rest. Your friends can tell me about whatever threat is here.” Again Ro blinked at me as though her brain was half a step behind and she suddenly looked down. The undamaged left arm raised up to place a pale, lightly furred hand on Helena’s forehead. She tenderly ruffled the dark bangs back and I was struck by the sweetness of the gesture.
“Is she okay?”
“She will be,” I reassured Ro, struck by the desperation in the question. “Thanks to you.” I punctuated the statement by drawing a finger down the neat sling holding her right arm stable. Shan was suddenly behind her sister, helping her stand up.
“C’mon, Boo, lemme give Oracle here a hand.” A brighter, more enthusiastic version of that toothy smile was flashed at me and Shan leaned over me. “I’ve got her,” she murmured softly and wriggled her arms under Helena’s limp body. With effortless grace, my partner was lifted away and cradled with easy strength and utter gentleness. I realized that the tail was cradling Helena’s head and upper shoulders so the broken collarbone was less likely to be jostled.
“Prehensile?” I asked without thinking and Shan grinned suggestively. In response, the furry white rope I hadn’t noticed on Ro twitched where it was lazily coiled on the floor. The tip rose up like a cobra to wave lazily at me as though saying hello. Shan stepped off of the Delphi dais and her voice carried across the room.
“C’mon, Pretty Bird, lead the way.”
I moved the chair to follow and noticed that Ro had only stood aside to let me pass. Her gaze was piercing and frankly curious. Feeling pleased and self-conscious at the appraisal, I gave her a questioning eyebrow. “What?” Ro only one armed shrugged and ducked her eyes away as though suddenly shy. “You should sit. Bullet holes are nothing to be stoic about.” The comment made me wince as the memories of my own bullet wounds washed through my mind. I wasn’t about to share that one with a complete stranger and Ro thankfully moved off to sink gratefully onto the big couch.
There was a murmuring of voices that grew only slightly louder as the rest of the women came back into the main room. “Helena’s laid out, nice and comfy,” Dinah enthused and I winced at the use of the real name. Shan caught the expression and stepped over to me and pulling her right glove off. I accepted the offer of the handshake and looked up her long frame. “Killashandra Jones and my identical twin, Rowan. This is Sister Mary David of the Greek Orthodox Church. Pleased to meet you, Oracle.”
I knew that she had given me her real name, I could sense the truth of it, and I knew I really should return the favor. Gripping her hand firmly, I smiled openly and noted that she visibly relaxed at the expression. “Barbara Gordon. You’ve already met Dinah Redmond.” Shan grinned warmly at me and glanced over her shoulder at the suddenly shy Dinah, who was nervously tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. I still had to wonder if the girl would take her mother’s name and find some kind of closure. I still missed Carolyn myself. Shaking the melancholy off, I gestured to the couch. “Take a seat and tell me about what brought you to New Gotham.”
Immediately, Shan stripped off her heavy armored trench coat and the other glove before plopping down beside her sister and tugging at her to lie down. In moments, a weary Rowan was sprawled out on her back with her head in Shan’s lap. Then Sister Mary David spoke up. “These two are being hunted by a group of mad scientists and we’ve gotten wind that the worst of the lot is here in New Gotham.”
Dinah beat me to the slightly sarcastic, “mad scientists?”
“Sister,” I began and she waved me down with a sigh.
“Call me Davie, please. The title doesn’t fit well any more.”
“Okay, Davie. What makes you believe that whoever it is that’s looking for you is here?”
She smiled humorlessly and ran gloved fingers through her short, wild curls. “I don’t tell the story as well as Ro does.”
“Sure ya do,” Ro murmured softly and made her sister and Dinah chuckle.
“Flatterer. All right, I’ll try. Ro and Shan here are purebred metahuman, but they’re even more than that. There’s a man named Sevarius Smith who…”
It was a flashfire of realization and I cut Davie off. “My God, you two are the South Fork White Devils.”
Shan was shocked and impressed. Ro was all that and wary too when she craned her head to stare at me. It was a striking picture, illustrating just how much they looked alike.
“White devils?” Dinah asked tentatively and Shan sighed and shifted her attention to the teen.
“In a nutshell, there’s this mad scientist named Smith that decided he wanted to play God or Doctor Moreau, and starting splicing human and animal DNA. Me and Ro here are the results of ten years of his work. He found out that Metahuman DNA worked better, since it’s already in the process of change, and he wasn’t expecting us to suddenly learn to teleport.” Her wild grin made the rest of us smile back. “So we escaped when we were ten and ran wild until we ended up in this isolated little town in western Canada called South Fork.” Her expression was wistful now as the memories turned fond. “The schoolteacher there found us and taught us how to be people and not lab animals. Eventually, Smith’s people tracked us down, but Davie here got to us first. We’ve been sidekicking ever since.”
Silence hung over the room as we processed all that. “There’s more obviously,” Ro murmured. “But that’s the basics. The cover story of why Smith’s people came down on South Fork so hard was that there were dangerous animals in the forest that needed to be captured and destroyed. That would be us.” Shan gave a funny little ‘hello’ wave. “They’re still looking for us. His top henchwoman is a scientist named Julia Blackwell.” The venom in her tone was duly noted by my brain and filed away. “She’s here in New Gotham. Someone was looking for some brainy muscle to get their freedom and rebuild an empire here.”
Dinah snorted, “that’s half of Arkham Asylum.”
“Yeah, but the information only disseminated out within the last six months.”
Uh oh.
++Helena++
There were times that I really didn’t understand my animal instincts. That wild, untamed part of me that roared to the forefront when I became the Huntress. It was a thrill, but it was a bit terrifying too. Years ago, I remembered looking into my mother’s eyes and sensing that there was more to her than even I could see. Now, I knew what that feral spark was. It was the part of her that belonged to the cats, the slinky, four-legged predators that were so much a part of humanity, yet so very aloof from it. They had always fascinated and scared me, with their knowing eyes and fickle affections. I felt those same urges, the need to toy with my prey before moving in for the kill, even if the kill was proverbial for me. I understood the need to be aloof and I understood the need to roll over and purr. And I understood the need to curl into the warm, safe body sprawled half beside and half on top of me. The inner feline purred happily at the soft fur warming my nose and the twitch of a sensitive ear in response to my breath. This was heaven, even with the pain still radiating from my shoulder.
Cats will often purr and cuddle when in distress, the need for safety and contact outweighing everything else. I knew this, but I also felt it, right down to my bones. So, there was no immediate issue with rubbing my nose into my companion’s fur, breathing in the soft, comforting scent of her. The nose buried near my ear twitched and she gave a growly yawn that nuzzled her more closely to my warm skin. A hand twitched against my damaged arm, a caress that made me mumble incoherently.
For someone accustomed to waking up in a heartbeat, this lazy process kinda sucked. Though I could see how it was certainly more relaxing. Except that I was still a bit confused by the hard yet cushy body draped all over me and the soft breathing against my cheek. Actually, I felt pretty damn good. Where was I? As memories of falling asleep in Barbara’s lap bubbled up from my hazy brain, I let my acute sense of smell draw my nose over to investigate the intoxicating scent surrounding me.
Musky and predatory, with a clean tang to mellow it, like expensive wine, her smell was like freakin’ catnip. It mixed with the memories of Barbara and the woman’s faint scent in the room. Soft silky threads brushed over my face as I burrowed in to breathe heavily against warm skin. A moan bubbled up, completely out of my control, as the upper brain started arguing with the lusty lizard brain. My tongue snaked out to taste the light sweat caught in the silky hair, drawing the flavor across sensitive taste buds. Growling with pleasure, I grabbed some of the strands in my teeth to suck at them aggressively. The body sprawled over me jerked awake with a snarl and my own inner beast came fully to life. The change swept over me like an adrenaline rush, firing my nervous system up and morphing my eyes where they lay hidden behind my lids. I managed to get in a quick nip at an oddly shaped ear before my prey recoiled with a sharp, feral sound like a yip. Pain flared up dully and something thumped across my nose hard enough to get my lazy ass eyes to try and open. The brush of a soft mouth gave me something else to nip at, playful and not at all threatening. The gentle curve of a lip pulled away from strong teeth that was caught by mine and worried at while my half-mast vision tried to clear. It was like swimming through honey, trying to get the playful kitten brain, the predator and the logical woman to get on the same page. The almost kisses with my bedmate weren’t helping any. That low growl made me a little crazy where it echoed into my mouth.
She wasn’t certain how to respond to the pressure of my mouth, teeth still half bared, but the annoyed growls were silent now. In those last twilight moments of feral madness, I forced my lazy body to curl into her heat and really taste her. Lips soft and compliant, she let me share breath with her, mouths intertwined. When I tentatively ran my tongue along her teeth, it was a thrill to feel the elongated canines that caught at my tongue piercing. Then the screaming pain registered when I tried to touch her silky hair and reality came crashing in. Jerking my head back, I could imagine that her surprised and dazed expression matched my own.
“Ummm… hi,” I stammered like an utter idiot. When the white woman blinked back like a deer in headlights, I saw a nictitating membrane slide over her eyes in concert with her eyelids. Hell of a time to start noticing details! Vague memories of Dinah telling me about her new playmates paraded across my fuzzy brain. “I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced. I’m…” A gentle touch on my bottom lip utterly derailed my already shaky train of thought. I stared at the strange rose-violet eyes as they followed the rough-soft pad of the thumb tracing the shape of my mouth.
“Helena,” she whispered like a dream lover and a sharp shiver rushed across my nerves. The predator within recognized her as an equal… as someone who knew exactly what I was. It was a profound shock of recognition and connection. “Rowan.” It was said so softly that I wouldn’t have heard it without the Meta senses. There was an odd purring quality to her speech that thrilled me. This was insane, but I couldn’t seem to make the inner beast believe that.
“Rowan,” I breathed softly just for the pleasure of tasting the word. A shy smile flickered across her features and I grinned back. Then I noticed the heavy bandages wrapped around her shoulder and realized something with profound shock. “You… you’re the one that saved my life. Di told me…”
Again she stroked my lower lip, her expression almost sad. “I’d been watching you in such pain for days before they attacked you. I wasn’t going to let you die. This bullet hole is scant payment for your life.”
I was speechless with shock and thankfulness. I understood the drive behind self-sacrifice, I really did, but no stranger had ever risked their life for me before. My good arm, trapped beneath her larger body, stroked over her baby-fine hair while my eyes traced over the details of my new companion. There was ivory fuzz dusted over the curve of her jaw near her ears and thicker over her jugulars. Wispy white hair grew short and wild over her head like rabbit fur and elongated pointed ears poked through it. Her eyes were the palest violet I’d ever seen, almost colorless, as she stared back at me with unabashed curiosity. Then one of her ears twitched minutely, the movement so catlike that I actually giggled.
Dammit, Barbara must have given me more drugs or I would have never made that undignified sound, but it certainly made the stranger smile. Snorting in half-hearted annoyance at the drunken lethargy, I watched Rowan’s smile deepen, flashing white teeth. “Helena? We should call for the others, but…” She snuggled back into my body and I was utterly delighted with the lithe move. “I can’t find the energy.” There was a long, comfortable quiet while I continued to pet her silky hair. “Barbara and Dinah will be relieved to see that you’re feeling better.”
That finally made my smart, human brain get a clue and try to fight its way free of the drugs in my system. I was acting more than a little silly over a complete stranger. Defensiveness swirled with the fascination and Rowan stiffened in response. So astute, so sensitive to subtleties that no one could ever read on me… no wonder I was so instantly smitten.
“Yeah,” I mumbled stupidly but made no move whatsoever. My left arm was tingling where it was trapped under her limp body. “This is the last time I let you sleep on top,” I groused good-naturedly and chuckled, despite the conflicting sensations and images running through me. Once more she melted into a boneless blanket and I was delighted with the show of trust. I was barely surprised to notice a thick length of furry rope twitch into a lazy curl halfway down the bed. After the teeth and ears, the tail seemed totally appropriate on her.
“Fair enough,” Rowan agreed lazily.
A comfy quiet that I was learning to enjoy settle over the room that I suddenly realized was Barbara’s. Comforted by her loving presence around me, I let darkness close in again.
++Barbara++
It had seemed only reasonable to put both wounded women in my big bed to sleep. Dinah had graciously offered her bed to me and the rest of them had curled up in the living area on couch and chairs and floor. I had expected Helena and Rowan to shift around in their sleep, but this was… this was… captivating.
Like a pile of sleepy kittens, the two women were sprawled in utter tangled unselfconsciousness. It was possibly the sweetest and most sensual sight I had ever witnessed. Helena with her nose buried in Ro’s white hair, the bigger woman’s hand curled over her bedmate’s heart, their limbs tangled together. Warm sunlight filtered through the thin curtains to paint the whole picture soft and accessible.
Time vanished as I stared at the sexy tableau until my eyes were dry and blurry. Only someone thumping roughly into the back of my wheelchair finally snapped me out of it. “Whoa,” Dinah breathed only inches from my ear and I silently agreed. A low chuckle from behind me let me know that the girl wasn’t alone.
“Boo always was the snuggly sort,” Shan chuckled and gave my shoulder a squeeze as she bonelessly slipped past me. Standing over the bed, she grinned in that ‘sibling contemplating doing something mean’ kind of way and raked her hand through her short hair. “Man, I’d give my tail to jump on this bed right now.” Dinah snorted a giggle into my ear and ‘mmhmm’ed in agreement. The sound was more than a little suggestive and I had to remind myself that she’d be a legal adult soon enough and wouldn’t that be strange…
Rather than startle the wounded twosome, Shan leaned over her sibling and rubbed her nose into the hair at her sister’s temple. Ro rumbled like a lioness and shifted sleepily. The movements were so like a lazy predator that it was almost eerie. Immediately, Helena began to wake, seemingly a bit startled by Shan’s proximity.
“Good morning, Huntress,” Shan purred oh-so-softly and Helena yawned hugely. Then her cute nose wrinkled up and she suddenly whined plaintively.
“God, I gotta pee.”
“Let me give you a hand up. Or in my case, a tail,” Shan smirked and helped her sister carefully roll onto her back so that Helena could painfully sit up. How I hated to watch her in such agony, every little movement pulling at the bone shattered inside of her chest. It did give me a chance to see how handy those tails really were… as Shan looped the appendage under Helena’s butt to get her upright without tugging at her arms. “You okay?”
“Yeah sure,” Helena breathed heavily. “Peachy. I think you might be goosing me.”
“Me?” Shan protested in all mock innocence and the tail tightened its grip around Helena’s hips. “Perish the thought. Bathroom I believe was your request?”
“Get me the medical kit,” I told my younger crime fighter and she was gone in a flash.
“Need a hand getting naked?” Shan asked calmly and earned an odd look from the woman she was half-carrying. The snorting laugh made Helena wince and she clutched at her self-appointed nursemaid, which made it even worse. “Easy Helena, easy. Take a deep breath. That’s it.”
It calmed her enough so that I could draw a vial of the clear liquid into a syringe and inject the drug into the muscle closest to the break. Almost immediately, Helena began to relax and we all released our collectively held breath. Helena cocked her head curiously up at Shan. “Either this is really good shit, or I’m seeing double.”
“We’re identical twins. Even if we don’t look quite identical.”
“Really? Sweet.”
“Huntress?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you need a hand doing your business?”
“Oh, right. Yeah, that’d be great.”
“C’mon then.”
I wasn’t certain how I was feeling in that moment. Relieved at the help from these strangers and jealous as hell at their easiness around the normally volatile Helena, not to mention pleased and baffled and threatened at their bonding to Dinah as well.
“Oracle,” Ro groaned as though sensing my train of thought. I spent another long moment staring at the bathroom door before looking over at her. In the hazy sunlight, she looked like some kind of science fiction angel and the whimsical thought perversely amused me. “Would you like to meet the nanites?” Okay, that got my attention very efficiently.
“Yes, actually.” Watching Rowan stand up made me wince in sympathy. A lower-body stretch only alleviated a bit of her discomfort. “Need some?” I offered and waved the vial in her direction. It earned me a shyer version of Shan’s engaging grin as she came to me. I was beginning to see the distinct differences between the twins, besides Ro’s slightly larger, heavier build. Ro’s nostrils flared as though she was testing the air and she fired me a quizzical glance.
“Morphine?”
Only then did I realize that she could smell what was in the tiny vial. I had no idea their animal senses were that good…
“She only gets it for a few days, and then I have to listen to the complaining.”
Okay, that comment earned me a big, toothy smile and I was grateful. Ro was the introverted one but seemed to run deeper than her sister. Her smile meant more because she wasn’t as generous with it. The shy, almost innocently seductive quality to the expression was also very appealing. The obviously agile brain behind her freaky eyes was intriguing as well. The smile shifted to Dinah and Ro’s good hand came up to hook around the teen’s neck.
“Thank you,” she murmured softly into the blonde hair while I looked up to watch. Ro rubbed her nose and cheek against Dinah’s face in a gesture that was all cat, or dog. Utterly unfazed by the strangeness of these women, Dinah returned the gesture with a giggle. “Are you hungry? You should come meet Alfred, because your sister already scared him half to death. It was hysterical.”
“Saints,” Ro groaned and dropped her hand to my shoulder to curl loosely around the base of my neck. “What’s she done now?” They were so tactile. Their hands and faces and tails touching everyone around them as though they weren’t even aware of it. Dinah obviously loved it, but I was still a bit wary and Ro pulled her hand away as though sensing that. “Sorry. Here.” She apologized and reached up to pull off the chain I had noticed around her neck. From beneath the tank top came a bauble that was perhaps two inches in diameter and shaped like a half-sphere. There were small windows on both the flat and convex sides. In my hands, the thing was body-heat warm and far heavier than I would have expected.
“What is it?”
“That would be the flea circus. It’s the factory for the nanites. There’s a neutral solution in there that they breed in, so to speak. Once the liquid starts to appear cloudy that’s when they’re ready to be used. Unfortunately the little buggers are fairly useless in small quantities. I’ve mostly used them for micro circuitry, but they work just as well for biological applications.”
I heard her, but was also enthralled with the device in my hand. If she wasn’t yanking my chain, then there were thousand, perhaps millions of the microscopic robots in my palms. The thought was stunning.
“Smith would like that back as much as he’d like us,” Ro growled softly and ruffled her hair up in agitation. “The things fascinated me as a kid and I managed to steal that when we escaped and have been propagating them ever since. You look confused Dinah.”
“Fleas? Nanites? Huh?”
“You feed me and I’ll tell you.”
“Sounds fair to me,” Dinah enthused happily and pounded on the bathroom door. “Come eat! Alfred made us pizza!”
++Davie++
I had spent the last three years of my life with these strange young women I adored like sisters. They had taught me so much about humanity with the mix of animal and human that was so integral to them. I had seen them in combat, I had watched them learn new skills and technology, and I had borne witness to their utter devotion to one another and the sacred need to protect everything more helpless than themselves. A half-dozen times I had seen them befriend another person, when those precious few would see past the fur and tails and teeth to the beautiful souls beneath. And I had never seen them as happy as they had been in the last couple of days.
It was utterly heartwarming. I hadn’t actually seen Ro and Helena curled up in the bed, but Shan had been happy to share the sight. Ro left the bathroom with Dinah, trying to explain the nanites. “They’re robots about the size of a human cell. In massive quantities they can build things on a microscopic level, like circuitry and damaged nerves and things.”
I saw Barbara stiffen as Dinah happily prattled in response to Ro’s lazy lecture, “Like Shan was going to have them fix Helena’s collarbone?”
“Exactly. I don’t really ask too much of the little bugs, but they should be able to do more than I’ve asked before.” There was no mistaking that Ro was eyeing Barbara speculatively, her agile brain wondering if the fleas could fix whatever had put her in that wheelchair.
And a memory jogged loose.
The Joker had shot Barbara Gordon, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down before Batman had put him in Arkham and slunk off to New York.
Barbara Gordon was now the famous and invaluable Oracle.
Astonishing really, how these things worked out. If that maniac ever escaped, God forbid, he would find that he had created himself a nemesis of astronomical proportions.
How I loved divine justice.
Shan finally walked out with a wobbly Helena in tail. Literally. The darker woman seemed unfazed by the appendage coiled around her waist to keep her upright and on track. “Smells good Alfred,” Helena crowed as she was placed gently in a chair and Shan could go for the food. She grinned wickedly at the older man she had accidentally startled with her presence earlier. He merely ruffled her hair and kept walking. Her look of delighted shock earned laughter all around.
“Good afternoon, Miss Helena. Good to see you up and about. I have something for you in reward for being a good patient.”
“Only while she’s on the drugs,” Barbara sassed dryly and earned a blue-eyed glower.
“Just for that I promise to be a pain when I’m in pain later.” They glowered fondly at each other before chuckling it off. It didn’t take a telepath to notice that they were delighted with one another and their presence in one another’s lives. Helena sipped at the mug of something pink and frothy that Alfred handed to her. “Mmmm… strawberries. You are a god among men, Alfred Pennyworth.”
“I know,” he responded dryly and we all dissolved into laugher again.
++Harley++
Kitty in a box, rat behind glass, dog on a chain, birdie in a cage, la la la.
I should have been a singer. The stage lost a good one with me! The patter of noise in my mind drove me a little batty if it had no one to be let loose on. Batty, oh that’s a good one, Harleen. I scowled and slumped down further into my corner. Now I had my own damned Batman to keep ruining all my beautiful plans! My pookie would be so proud that I rated my own superhero. Three of them even! It still burned my butt that she was right there all that time! So not fair.
They would rue the day. What kind of lame expression was that anyway? How the hell did you rue a day? And what was a rue?
My pretty monologue was interrupted by the outside door. It was just stoic ole Jeff, the guard, letting in some new stranger to treat me like a lab rat. Wee… The asylum people must have made an effort to assign me the dullest guards ever. No fun at all when they were such stupid sheep that they wouldn’t even respond to my brilliance!
I was feverish with boredom and the kind of captivity that was only worthy of those stupid enough to oppose me. Damn them! Damn them all…
“Harley Quinn?”
It was the newest lab coat addressing me by the name they should only be using when begging for mercy. Damn them all! I called up the good doctor persona and drew her around me like a protective blanket. In an instant, all was calm and clear, the feverish heat gone in calm reserve of the doctor mantle I had been for so long. That I had been before my sweet Mister J had shown me the truth in madness. “Did you require something?”
“No.”
That answer sent up an internal jabber of confusion and I crawled from my corner to stand awkwardly in the straightjacket. I was curious now and I never had been able to ignore my curiosity for squat. “Then why are you here?” In the reflections of my polymer prison, I could barely make out anything about her except for a tall frame and long, pale hair drawn up into a severe French twist.
“Because you require something of me.”
And there was a blinding flash of light.
To Be Continued…
By Phil Collins
It’s there in the eyes of the children,
In the faces smiling in the windows
You can come on out,
Come on open the doors,
Brush away the tears of freedom.
Now we’re here there’s no turning back,
We have each other,
We have one voice
Hand in hand, we will lay the track
Because the train is coming to carry you home
(Chorus)
Come dance with me.
Dance into the light,
Everybody dance into the light.
There’ll be no more hiding in the shadows of fear
There’ll be no more chains to hold you.
The future is yours,
You hold the key
And there are no walls with freedom
Now we're here, we won't go back,
We are one world,
We have one voice:
Side by side we are not afraid
Because the train is coming to carry you home
(Chorus)
Do you see the sun; it's a brand new day?
All the world’s in your hands, now use it –
What’s past is past,
Don't turn around
Brush away the cobwebs of freedom.
Now we're here there's no turning back,
You have each other,
You have one voice
Hand in hand, you can lay the tracks
Because the train is coming to carry you home
(Chorus)
