“Barbara, you can’t be serious about this. We should be calling down our ‘big guns’ on
that place not -,” Dinah Lance aka the Black Canary gestured towards Oracle’s
computer screen in speechless frustration at her friends crazy idea. “Huntress, you tell her,” she finally said.
“Dinah thinks it’s a bad idea, Barbara,” the Huntress
said.
Dinah scowled at the Huntress.
Oracle aka Batgirl aka Barbara Gordon had called her two closest friends and
members of the group: the Birds of Prey, over to her apartment to help her put
together a response to the two missing Amazons in .
She was almost beginning to regret it but she needed them both on
board. Barbara Gordon
looked at her two closest friends and drew breath to try again to convince them.
“If we send in our ‘big guns’ I have two questions
and, if you can answer them, I’m all for doing it; okay?”
“Fine!” said Dinah with a roll of her eyes.
“Sounds reasonable,” agreed the Huntress a bit more
gracefully.
“Okay. Here
are the questions: where do we send them and what will they find when they get
there?”
“Hmph, that’s easy,” answered Dinah, “Down South and
Trouble. Do you want me to call the
Watchtower or will you?”
“Be serious, Canary.
Where down south? Where, even
within ,
it’s a big place?”
“The Flash could search it all in a day,” Dinah
countered.
“And what would he find: a threat that has taken out
the two most powerful Amazons on this planet without any indication as to what
it is. How will he cope?”
“That’s a third question, Babs,” the Huntress pointed
out, “And we don’t know either Donna or Wonder Woman is in trouble or trouble
they can’t handle.”
“My point exactly,” Barbara exclaimed, “For all we
know there might be nothing more than an Amazon’s issues with modern technology
or something so dangerous we daren’t send less than a reinforced JLA team down
there all at once with considerable intel.
What if the Flash also succumbed?”
“That’s four,” muttered the Huntress.
“,
will you cut it out!”
“Yeah, ,
it’s enough,” Dinah added.
Barbara ran a hand through her long red hair as it
had got a little wild.
“All I’m saying,” she continued, “is we use
caution. Rather than stampede into who
knows what let’s poke it a little and run like hell if it squeals.”
“By using seven kids,” Dinah said clearly unhappy.
“By using young heroines who have been trained by the
best,” Barbara corrected. “If there is
something down there and if it has defeated Wonder Woman and Donna then I would
think it would think we would react with force – sending in the big guns.”
The Huntress shifted in her seat, “Too many thinks,
Barbara. You think it would be waiting
for them?”
“I fear it might be wanting them to come. What if it’s Circe, Ares or Dr Psycho –“
“Dr Psycho?
Seriously?” Dinah giggled.
“He can be
very dangerous.”
“Barbara, perhaps you should explain your plan
again?” the Huntress said.
“It’s very simple really. The team goes in undercover –“
“We’ve tried that twice already,” groaned Dinah.
“No we haven’t.
Two Amazons have and they are not like us. This group know what ‘man’s world’ is like
and what to expect down there in those southern backwaters. They will see subtle hints of danger long
before Donna or Diana would.”
“You hope,” Dinah said.
“As long as they remain under cover there’s no reason
to expect them to be at risk. If they
should encounter a real threat they will have some element of surprise; as the
threat won’t be expecting meta-human powers.
That should be enough to enable them to escape and that’s then main
thing – escaping and bringing back data not trying to take down what’s there or
even rescuing Donna and Diana.”
“Seriously?” the Huntress chirped.
“Absolutely!
Their safety and intel are my main concerns. Better to learn nothing though than risk any
of them being harmed but, I hope, they will learn something.”
Dinah was still not convinced, “It’s an awfully long
way to send them alone without backup.”
“Alone?” Barbara said with mock surprise, “oh, I
never said ‘alone’. That wouldn’t look
right given their cover story.”
“What cover story?” asked the Huntress suspiciously.
“Didn’t I tell you?” Barbara said surprised. “A school trip.”
“Oh, God!” groaned the Huntress and buried her head
in her hands.
“,”
Barbara addressed the Huntress, “How else would you get seven teenage girls down
there without arousing someone’s curiosity?”
“You want me to act as chaperon to seven teenage
girls on a field trip,” Helen said with her head still in her hands, “Couldn’t
I wrestle Killer Crock or Solomon Grundy or both of them together instead?””
“Why not include some boys?” asked Dinah.
That got ’s
head out of her hands in an instant, “You have got to be kidding! Bad enough you’ve got seven girls let loose
in the backwoods without adding seven boys. That’s a
recipe for disaster on it’s own without adding in the local talent.”
“Local talent?” Dinah echoed.
“You know what I mean – they’re teenagers! Don’t you remember what that was like when
you went on holiday?”
“I’m sure you’ll manage, ,” laughed the Black Canary. “Send a postcard if you need help.”
“Me? Oh, Baaaabs,
didn’t you mention to Dinah the legal staffing level requirements, as stated by
Gotham City Council, for a field trip like this? We will need two members of staff minimum advisably three.”
“What!” Black Canary’s head switched focus from to Barbara to
to Barbara a few time, “Wait! No! No! Wait! Think about it. Think about it right – I’m no teacher.”
“You are a martial arts Sensei,” Barbara pointed out.
“Which I learned from Lady Shiva – I teach
assassination. That’s not the same thing
as high school.”
“You’d be surprised,” murmured.
“Relax, Dinah,” Barbara giggled, “I was only teasing
you. You’re not going.”
“What!” exclaimed .
“Dinah’s too high profile. A member of the JLA who doesn’t wear a mask;
no, we can’t risk a chance exposure.”
“Not in her costume,” muttered sotto voce.
“I’ve pulled a few strings and begged a few favours
to get a replacement or two. They should
be here any sec – “
There was a colourful flash in the centre of the old
oval rug Barbara kept as a memento of her old flat and three figures appeared.
“Ta-Dah!” exclaimed a leggy, raven-haired woman
dressed up as a
magician. “Sorry. I just can’t resist saying it each time I
teleport.”
“Zatanna!”
Dinah choked out in surprise.
“Oracle, she’s even more high profile than me: world famous stage
magician. You may as well have sent for
David Copperfield.”
“He’s an illusionist,” Zatanna, the leggy magician,
sniffed.
had sprung to her feet as
soon as the flash had happened and brought out her short crossbow too. Now she lowered it as she realised there was
no threat even though she didn’t know the other two women with Zatanna.
“Who are you friend’s, Zee,” she asked.
Zatanna preened and, with a very theatrical flourish,
declared, “The lovely lady to my left is none other than: Goldstar mistress of
magnetism! And the delightful damsel to
my right is Dove.”
“Hi,” said Dove with a timid little wave.
The two newcomers were very different from each
other. Goldstar stood like a confident model
super-heroine should: tall, hands on hips, chest out and thick, curling, golden
locks cascading across her broad shoulders.
Dove was slender and stood like a wallflower without a wall to call her
own. Her hair was straighter than
Goldstar’s and longer, silvery white and tied back in a pony tail that reached
her slim waist. Her costume was pale
blue with white boots, gloves and cloak.
Her ‘domino’ mask was large and the eye pieces silvered so that she had
an almost insect rather than a bird like look.
Goldstar’s costume was white with gold, metallic highlights around her boot and
glove tops and belt. A gold ‘v’ design
was across her chest and it spread out across her shoulders and neck. Oddly for a heroine called Goldstar the only
star on her costume, across her chest, was a sapphire blue that matched her
eyes.
“And what does Dove do?”
“Dinah!” scolded Barbara.
“I’m a good judge of character,” Dove said
quietly.
“What Dove means is she is an exceptional judge of
character and can predict exactly how someone will act or react in a
situation,” Barbara explained seeing Dinah’s expression turn black, “a very useful ability
when undercover.”
“I can fly too, am very athletic and tougher than I
look.”
“Hmmm,” was all Dinah said, implying that last power
couldn’t be that hard to achieve.
“Well I’m Goldstar; sister to Booster Gold,” said the
blonde heroine. “I can manipulate
magnetism, causing energy bolts, flight and force fields if necessary.”
“Have either of you done undercover work before?” asked not beating
around the bush, “Or supervised kids?”
“Not as such,” muttered Dove.
“How hard can it be?” replied Goldstar. “From what Oracle says the ‘kids’ as you call
them are trained super-heroines.”
“They’re still teenage,” said flatly.
“Not all of them,” interjected Zatanna, “Regane et
aemekam!” she said and suddenly she was in a badly fitting costume. “Stupid magic! Emtifo te mutso cym xif!” and the costume
fitted her younger frame. “Magic can be
too damn literal sometimes,” the younger Zatanna explained. “Hay, does my chest
look a bit too small now?” she added cupping her breasts. “Magic can be a bit on the conservative side
and if I’m going to be mingling with Super Girl and “
“Their fine, Zee.
Leave them alone and pay attention whilst I outline the plan,” Oracle
said.
“Sheesh! Yes,
mother,” teenage Zatanna pouted.