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Magic Show	By : Isabelle_Jennings Category: DC Verse Comics > Catwoman Views: 5162 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: this story is non-profit, I don't own Catwoman or any DC Comics characters

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
PART 3: READY OR NOT...
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---HAILEY---
She watched kitty fall to sleep, and sighed, kissing her neck from behind, feeling protective and just so... good. She'd have to offer to make kitty a dose of Ivy's formula at the soonest opportunity though. She'd lasted longer than any baseline human had any right too (kitty was obviously in exquisite physical condition; as close to perfect as Hailey could imagine, really, except for the scars she had here and there that looked to be from early attempts at her cat-like 'gymnastics', though even those seemed perfect), but it had still been disappointing that they'd had to stop before the sun came up. And it had been kind of frustrating that she'd had to be so careful not to hurt her too--she didn't want even that barrier between them.
There was this soft little smile on her lover's lips though--this peaceful and thoroughly content looking smile that told Hailey that kitty... that Selena felt safe with her. Really safe, like she didn't have a care in the world. Warm feelings bloomed in her heart anew at seeing that, and she knew this was the start of a truly epic obsession for her. She was going to get it right this time, and she wasn't going to quit until she did. She just hoped kitty would like all that attention, because by this point, she knew herself well enough to know that it would take a lot -a lot- for her to get anywhere near over this enough for her to back down or back off.
She was hooked, and there was no going back, not now.
Still... she was hopeful this would work out anyway. That kitty would want her as much as she wanted kitty--that look in her eyes... that... That greed for her... Hailey was sure she'd be seeing that look in her dreams... frequently.
So, with an almost giddy sort of anticipation, she closed her eyes, snuggled up nice and close to her new kitty, and fell off to sleep.
In the morning, she woke up happy and rested and her kitty was gone...
She couldn't help it, she cried.
At least, that is, until she saw the note on the pillow. She snatched it up kind of desperately and read it: 'I could get addicted to you, I think. Tomorrow 10pm. Find me. Love, ~kitty'
Under the note, there was a small ruby.
Hailey clutched the ruby to her heart and laughed, falling back on her back on the bed and feeling positively giddy again. "She wants to date me!"
She wiped the tears from her eyes and couldn't stop smiling as she got out of bed and walked over to the mirror and left.
Her future-tech did have a teleport feature, but she liked the mirror thing better because it was so pretty. And right now especially, she was in the mood for pretty sparkly landscapes that went on forever and looked like something out of a fairytale.
As she walked through the mirror world, she looked down at the ruby in her hand. "I wonder if it's a clue?" She thought out loud to herself. She had kitty's location locked in, all she'd have to do would be to ping her to find where she was anytime at all. But, she considered, what fun would that be? Nope, she was going to play kitty's game and follow the clue. It would be downright unromantic not to, after all.
A little while later, she walked into her living room through her mirror there and saw she had a houseguest sleeping on her couch. One she recognized right away.
"Aw, cute." She smiled fondly.
She blinked and used her future-tech to get dressed in a white tank top and pale blue-jeans (just casual stuff, no socks or anything). She went over to the couch and nudged him awake, curious why he was here. They talked on the phone a lot, but she honestly hadn't thought he'd come all the way to Gotham-Metropolis for a visit like this. What a nice surprise. Today was turning out to be a really great day so far... Not as good as yesterday evening yet by any means, but still, she had hopes of getting kitty in bed again later, so things were really looking up for her about now.
"Wakey, wakey, my darling James. Rise and shine." She ruffled his hair and kissed his forehead fondly.
James Jesse blinked and woke, getting up a little and leaning on an arm. "Oh, hey. You're back." He smiled in that causally confident way he had about him.
"Back I am." Hailey replied easily, getting up and walking over to the sink to get herself a glass of water. "Water?" She asked.
"Sure." He agreed, sitting up and getting up, in typical graceful fashion, and following along over to the kitchen. "So... You're probably wondering why I'm here?" He asked.
"Nope." Hailey answered, handing him his glass of water. "You're in trouble--sacred and in trouble." She took a sip of her water. She'd figured it was either that or a break up, but she couldn't tell which while he was sleeping. Awake, she could read him like a book. It wasn't even hard, even though he was trying to hide it. "Don't worry, I'll fix it."
He looked at her bemused. "I'd almost forgot how good you are at reading me. You're probably the only person in the world I couldn't pull something on if I tried."
"Mm, maybe. Don't take that as a challenge though--you know you'd probably regret it." Hailey told him playfully. She didn't really mean it of course. James Jessie (alias: The Trickster) was her friend, and she had precious few of those. He was probably (okay, definitely) her best friend in the world, really, if she were honest. He'd have to do something really awful and monumentally stupid for her to really get mad at him that way.
He just smiled and looked troublesomely thoughtful. Like he was trying to think of a trick she would fall for. Actually, she kind of hoped he'd try it. She'd always been a little curious if he actually could do it. And at least it would be fun... probably. Just not now. Preferably, not until she and kitty were happily married or something... Mm, talk about a nice thought.
Hailey shook her head. "So who's the dead guy? Dead guys?" She asked after who she'd be killing shortly.
"Alas, would that I knew." He confessed.
"Really?" Hailey asked, her interest piqued. "Curioser and curioser. Do tell? And where's Jace in all this by the way?"
James sighed. He ticked off the points on his fingers. "Kidnapped boyfriend. A con gone wrong. Nightmares about being sent to hell. My apartment blew up. Then there's those things." He pointed over to the left at the wall.
Hailey's eyes widened a little. There was some kind of symbol burned into her wall! "Now how in the name of all things whacky did that get there?" She wondered, walking over to where it was, her curiosity well and truly piqued. She was going to touch it, then decided to use her futurey not-magic magic to scan it instead. The magical signature came back with a match in her future records in no time flat. She whistled. "James? Darling? I hate to break it to you, but you've really been cursed or something." She turned and looked at him. "That basically says your soul's gonna get dragged to hell, but not before she messes with your mind some first."
"She? She who?" James asked, leaning back against the counter and trying not to look as nervous and scared as Hailey could tell he was.
Hailey shrugged. "Some black magic hottie I've never heard of before, apparently." She tapped the side of her head. "He who shall not be named's gizmos have all sorts of interesting info on file. This lady's apparently a big deal--the queen of Hell, believe it or not. Serious dark magic--real magic--not like what I do... James, really, what'd you do?" Hailey asked.
James just smiled that smile of his that made her want to either whack him on the back of his head or laugh because it was funny and charming and sweet. This time she was more in the whacking state of mind. "I don't know. Nothing jumps out. Could be anything, I guess."
"Really." Hailey replied absently, yawning and plopping down on a chair. This was going to take a while, she could just tell. It was frustrating. She -wanted- to be figuring out kitty's clue right now. But, she had time she supposed, and James was her best friend and all. She could be patient--to a point... If he kept being annoying about it though, she -was- going to whack him on the head or something so he'd get to the point faster.
"Really." James replied, going to sit down on the couch where he'd been sleeping, elbows on his knees, hands joined. "See... Jace... he kind of had this way of inspiring me..."
"I bet he did." Hailey couldn't help a knowing smile at that. Jace Station -was- devastatingly handsome, for a guy (she wasn't the best judge for guys, of course, because they had never interested her that way, but even she could see why James would go for him in a heartbeat). He was built like a model, had a smile that was pure trouble, and eyes that were all lusty bad intentions. In other words, James hadn't had a chance.
James had met Jace shortly after Hailey had left the Gems; after his last boyfriend (Hartley Rathaway, a.k.a. the Pied Piper) had dumped him and gone 'legit' (little weasel was probably giving The Flash a blowjob even as they spoke). Jace'd been trouble from the start, and the two of them had been chased out of town in no time flat. They'd ended up in Faucet City, and Hailey had had to come break them out of prison once. Sylvan had come with her for that, she recalled absently... A flash of Sylvan's eyes when she'd broken things off with her came to her mind unbidden, accompanied by more than a little guilt.
"Well, there was that." He agreed with a sparkle in his eyes, one that quickly faded to concern and sadness.
"We'll get him back... You know, if possible." Hailey assured him, sitting forward and assuming a more thoughtful pose. "Okay, so lets start at the start. What were you and lover boy up to just before this whole damned to hell stuff started up?"
"Nothing big. I swear. Wait. Do those future records have her name--this 'black magic hottie'--or a picture?"
"Blaze." Hailey replied, snapping her fingers and causing a life size, very real looking projection of the woman in question to appear before them. Hailey wasn't above enjoying the view, either. She couldn't help it, she had a thing for women who knew how to cause trouble. This one looked like she was trouble down to her toes! "Be still my heart, by the way." She licked her lips a little. True, she was going out with kitty now, and she wasn't dumb enough to want to date the queen of Hell or anything, but none of that meant she couldn't enjoy looking.
"Blaze..." He spoke, understanding clicking in his eyes. "Angelica Blaze--that's got to be it. Fuck..." He got up and started to pace a little.
"Let me guess, Angie's a mark, you conned her, kapow--cursed to hell?" Hailey stopped the projection with a little bit of regret. Apparently, being bad had it's benefits. If there was a heaven and a hell like a bunch of religions said, she'd take Hell any day over some shiny cloudy place with a beard guy if the women there looked like that! The again, religions said hell was supposed to be run by a horny guy, not a horny gal, so obviously they couldn't be trusted as travel guides.
He looked at her. "Yeah." He shrugged. "Basically."
Hailey did a hack and records search in Faucet City and found her. Angelica Blaze--blonde, Caucasian, blue eyes, but that was the same lady alright. Some things a magical makeover just couldn't hide. And this was definitely the same back magic hottie in question. "That's her all right." Hailey relayed.
"...Any idea what we do next?" James asked hopefully.
"Well, this for starters." She went over and tapped James on the center of his forehead. "Now your soul should be locked where it is. Your dreams should be shut tight too."
"Well, that's a relief." James replied. "What next?"
Hailey shrugged. "I'on'know. Wait I guess."
"Wait? That's it?" He asked.
"Yeah, well, unfortunately, my bag of tricks came inconveniently lacking a teleport me to hell feature. Besides, I have a date later. I'm not missing it." Hailey told him.
"Even if she comes to collect my soul and drag me down to hell?" James asked, a little incredulously.
Hailey pondered that a moment playfully. "Well..."
"Hailey!" James cried.
She smiled. "Kidding. I'm not going to let any luscious hell hotties muss your perfectly styled hair. Promise. If it happens, kitty will just have to understand."
He sighed in relief. "Well, that's good then." He sat down. "Poor Jace though. I don't suppose there's any chance we can save him, you think?" He asked hopefully.
"Oh, I think he can probably take care of himself." She replied, getting up to go get cookies.
"You're being cryptic again, you know." James replied, getting up.
"Cookie?" Hailey offered.
"No thanks. What aren't you telling me?" He pressed.
Hailey sighed and took a bite of her cookie. "Well... when my future 'magic' I.D.d Blaze, it also pinged Jace from my personal past records it auto-stores. They, um, sort of matched."
"Matched?" James asked, a look of apprehension coming over his face.
"As in brother and sister." Hailey supplied.
"Brother and..." James's voice trailed off.
"Yes, dear James, loveable ne'er-do-well friend of mine... You've been dating Satanis, exiled twin brother of the queen of Hell... It doesn't necessarily mean you have to break up with him though." She qualified. "He could have real feelings for you. Granted, this brings up trust issues, but I'm a romantic, so I tend to hope for the best."
He rubbed his face. "Fuck..."
"Well, that was how you got into this mess, I imagine... Not that I couldn't imagine how that could happen. If Angie had met me when I was single, I might be in the exact same boat. Who knew the royalty in Hell were so damn pretty anyway?"
"Not me. So... We're basically going to wait for her to make the first move?" He asked.
"Yeah... My guess is she's using you for leverage on her brother though. That is, unless you did something that -really- got her mad at you. You didn't, did you?" Hailey asked.
"I don't think so. We just stole a lot of money from her, that's all... Well, as far as I know, I suppose." James allowed.
"You think Jace/Satan-hunk was up to something else, I take it." Hailey replied.
"Don't you? It doesn't make sense any other way. Exiled means bad blood. Doesn't track he'd risk bad sister's boot prints on his finely shaped ass if he didn't have more in the game than just money. Any number of ways he could get that without putting his head in the lion's maw, and mine with it by the way." He explained a little bitterly.
"Can I take it Satan-hunk probably just found himself dumped?" Hailey asked.
"Looking that way, yeah." He replied bitterly. "If it was real between us, he would have told me the score going in."
"...Probably for the best then." She answered softly, setting down her cookie, having lost her appetite. "I hate break-ups." She muttered.
"Right there with you." James replied. "...at least he was drop-dead gorgeous and the prince or king of Hell or something though. Otherwise this would be downright embarrassing. Me, the mark for once."
"It's still embarrassing." Hailey teased him.
"Well, okay, not -as- embarrassing then." He corrected.
"True." She agreed absently, already having moved on to thinking about a certain ruby again.
---SELENA---
She was sitting in her bed, legs tucked up against her chest, arms folded on her knees, gazing out her windows at her room's view of the city skyline. She'd spent the morning putting together a romantic scavenger hunt for her and feeling ridiculously happy while she was doing it, and now she was just sitting here in her bed and she couldn't stop thinking about her. It... It actually scared her a little, now that she'd had time to really think about it.
"What am I doing, Isis?" She asked her cat softly.
Isis came over and rubbed her leg and purred to her. Selena absently scratched her chin.
Arizona hadn't come home yet, and it was bugging her that she hadn't. She needed someone to talk to about this, and, as much as she liked Isis's company, her cat just wasn't up to this particular job. For that, her best friend was needed.
Of course, she could hardly blame Arizona for being out. She was probably having wake-up sex with her latest lover. After last night, she felt she understood the need for a lover in a way she hadn't ever quite understood before. She'd had exactly six other lovers in her life--four men, two women. They'd all made her feel really good about herself... well, most of the time anyway. But the point was, a lover was always someone who made her feel nice, gave her comfort, made her feel less alone in the world... Once or twice, she'd even imagined she might have found love, fleeting though it would turn out to be in the end. Even then though, she hadn't felt like this.
Hailey's every touch, her every look, they seemed to live on her skin, be burned into her heart... They'd hardly even really talked, had they?
Just a little simultaneous illegal entry, a little scantily clad close-quarters dancing at a beach-themed lesbian night club, a little flirting, then hours and hours of the best, most mind-blowing love making she'd ever had... Tonight, she was definitely going to have to make it a point to have an actual conversation. It only seemed sensible, right?
...When she'd gotten home, she'd web-searched her new lover. The Harlequin... She'd known her by reputation before, just about everyone in the city did, but she hadn't ever actually looked into her.
Wanted as an eco-terrorist, a serial-killer... she was suspected of all sorts of crimes, really--through, apparently, only a few of them would actually stick if anyone ever managed to get her into a court of law (which they hadn't yet). Of personal information, there was precious little. The common consensus was that she had to be some kind of genius, or maybe a telepathic meta-human. Genius, Selena would guess. Those eyes--had to be.
There was a lot of speculation. Some people claimed she was a Robin Hood type. Lots of accounts of her saving people's lives--just as many of her ending them though. Some were kind of really asking for it, she supposed, but a significant number of them didn't appear to be particularly bad people and she'd killed them anyway (probably Hailey had her reasons of course, or she'd at least hope so). No acts of -mass- destruction though--so, there was that at least...
How did she feel about that? She, herself, had only killed anyone once... And that was undeniably self-defense (even though the cops might not see it that way if they ever found out about it). She'd rarely even hurt anyone... She was not a cold-blooded killer, or a hardened criminal. She was a thief, a compulsive and exceptional thief, one of the best that ever was, she was sure, but still, a thief, pure and simple.
Was she really going to... do whatever it was she was going to do with Hailey... with The Harlequin? What if Hailey wanted her to help her kill people?
And even if she didn't, could she really live with herself? Having a cold blooded murderer as a lover? And then there was the obvious question... If it didn't work out between them... If Selena ended up turning her down, would she end up Hailey's next victim?
Intellectually, she was worried those things... Somewhat worried. Okay, a -little- worried, if that. (Did that make her a bad person?) At heart though, she wasn't actually at all scared of any of that. Having danced with her, having gazed into her eyes, tasted her lips, tasted... other things... Her head was inclined to give Hailey the benefit of the doubt for now. And her heart? Well, it was obvious by how fast her heart beat and how warm-all-over good she felt whenever she thought of Hailey that her heart thought the woman walked on water or something. So, she couldn't actually get herself to believe there was a chance Hailey would kill her, even though, logically, maybe that would be a good idea to be at least cautious of... No, she was more scared of what would happen if things actually worked out... She wouldn't have pegged herself as being scared of commitment, but apparently she was a little... maybe more than a little...
Still... eco-terrorism she could understand. She was a big proponent of animal rights herself. She at least partially funded most of the cat rescue organizations in the country, in fact. It actually was a point in Hailey's favor for her that she seemed to care about a cause like that. The murders though... maybe Hailey would stop doing that sort of thing if she asked? Ethics aside, that kind of public attention she did not need, and certainly didn't want...
It was at least worth the discussion, right? She had yet another very pleasant flashback to Hailey under her in bed... Hailey on top of her in bed... Okay, so the murder thing, it didn't have to be a sticking point, did it?...Fuck, she really was a bad person, wasn't she? She smiled to herself. Well, she'd kind of suspected it for years anyway... She could live with it.
She was tired of staying in one place now though, so she rolled up onto her knees and stretched a little, her body still feeling like it was fairly glowing with satisfaction from last night. She couldn't help the happy, kind of sappy love-struck sort of smile that came to her lips. She looked at the clock. Ten PM was about eleven and a half hours away... She sighed.
What was she going to do with herself all day?
It was then that she heard the door open and she smiled. Arizona was home. Thank fucking goodness.
She put on a shirt (she'd only been wearing bike shorts) and went out to meet her. Thankfully, she'd come home alone. "Good, you're here." She grabbed her hand and pulled her along with her back to her room.
"Hey, Selena, what are..." Arizona good-naturedly protested, following along and giggling a little.
"I'm in serious need of girl talk." She hopped up on her bed, crossed her legs Indian style and patted the bed. "Sit." She prompted.
Arizona giggled some more. "Am I off base here, or did you meet someone?" She asked, getting up on the bed and crossing her legs too.
"Met her, danced with her, kissed her, dragged her up to a room with me, had my way with her..." She smiled bemusedly. "Okay so we had our way with each other... for hours... She tired me out, Arizona... She had my number... like no one else ever has..." She finished softly, looking down at her hands.
"Well, hey, that's great. I mean wow. Has that ever happened to you before? Like, in bed? That you were the one who got tired?" She could tell Arizona doubted it. "Hey, I've seen you naked, -and- I've seen you work out. It's -insane-."
Selena smiled bemusedly at that. "No, insane is who I was in bed with last night."
"...You mean her, don't you?" Arizona looked over at the small chest full of treasure displayed prominently on a table over by her dresser.
"Hailey." Selena supplied.
"Harlequin, you mean." Arizona countered softly, meeting her eyes. She was scared.
"You're scared for me, aren't you?" Selena asked softly.
"Selena... My best friend just got very serious with a stone cold, probably dangerously psychotic, serial killer. How in that situation am I not scared for you? For me, for that matter? What if she sees me as competition for your affections or something?"
"That wouldn't happen." Selena told her adamantly.
"And you know that how? I mean, great sex is nice and all... really nice, but it's never been any sort of guarantee of good behavior. Heck, it's fifty-fifty sometimes if she's even going to be there in the morning, let alone make you breakfast." Arizona argued.
"Yeah, you're always good about that though." Selena spoke. It was true. For all her faults, Arizona always treated her lovers with complete respect. She always made breakfast.
"Was she?" Arizona asked.
Selena felt a little guilt at that. "I, um... wouldn't know." She admitted.
"...What... Wait, you ditched her, didn't you? ...You did, you totally walk of shamed a serial killer! Selena! Are you freaking nuts or something!?" Arizona exclaimed.
"I left her a note." Selena defended herself.
"Oh, phew, well, if you left her a -note- that's -completely- different. We're totally dead, aren't we..." Arizona looked actually pretty scared that they might be.
"Arizona, hey. I wouldn't let that happen. And Hailey's not like that, I swear. She's got a good heart, I can tell..." She told her. "Besides, it was a good note. I asked her on a date later. It was supposed to be, you know... romantic." She smiled hopefully.
Arizona let out a breath. "Damn..." She smiled a little hesitantly to her. "You really are kinda nuts sometimes, you know that right?"
"The thought has occurred to me on occasion, yes." Selena smiled.
"...You really don't think she's dangerous? You swear?" Arizona asked.
Selena smiled, kind of smirked a little. "Well, I wouldn't say -that-... I just don't think she's dangerous to -us-, physically I mean."
Arizona rubbed her face. "Well, that's something, right?" She sighed.
"...Hey... if you're really worried, just say the word. Seriously, all expenses paid trip, anywhere in the world. Paris? Sidney? The Caribbean? A cruse around the world? Whatever you want. I can call you and let you know when I'm one-hundred and ten percent sure we're safe." Selena offered in all sincerity.
Arizona smiled, looking genuinely grateful. She seemed to be considering it a moment. "Thanks, but... I... um, I think I'm staying." She replied softly.
"But why?" Selena asked, curious. She'd honestly thought, the things she'd been saying, her friend would take her up on it in a heartbeat.
Arizona sighed. "You might need me. I mean, who're you gonna get your girl talk from, if not me? ...And besides... I couldn't really enjoy myself at all if I was always worrying about you, could I?" She smiled, almost a little shyly in fact.
Selena smiled back, wondering, just for a moment, why she and her best friend had never been lovers. "Well... You know, we haven't really gotten to the girl talk part yet, you know?"
Arizona shook her head and rubbed her face again. "Fine, so... go on crazy cat lady, spill."
Selena smiled happily at that. "Okay, so I was just getting out of the water at The Beach, and I was getting something to drink..."
---HAILEY---
Somewhere in her head, because that's where the interface was for her future-tech, there was something like a blinking indicator light (it wasn't really like that, it was more like a thought, just a certain kind of thought, laid out among other thoughts in a remarkably fluid and intuitive sort of way), it told her that she had a message waiting to be listened to on her 'phone' (it wasn't really a phone, she'd just set one of her future apps to monitor her phone number and record the messages. She'd known it was from Holly of course, but she'd had... other things on her mind, with kitty at first, then the James of it all, but she was back to eating a cookie, so she thought she should check what it was.
"Um, hi... Hailey?" Holly Robinson's voice spoke in her head. "It's, um, it's Holly. You said I could call, and well, you, um... I don't really think you did, but I guess, anyway, I guess I just have to ask... Jason... When he got home last night, his adopted daughter, Kelly, was killed and his son, Zane, was kidnapped... He got a note saying that if he didn't kill himself by noon today, Zane would die... He thinks you did it. But um, you didn't right?"
Hailey stopped listening. "James, darling? We have to go." She went over to him and grabbed his hand, pulling him up to his feet. She activated her teleport app and was in Holly's living room in the plink of an eye.
"Hailey, what the?" James started to say.
"Shush. Important stuff." Hailey scolded him.
Holly was there, and so was Jason. When Jason saw her, he grit his teeth, stood up, and asked. "Was it you?" With a parent's barely contained furry and terror.
"Nope." Hailey answered. "I've never hurt a kid in my life, and I didn't kill or kidnap yours." She looked to Holly and smiled a little, then looked back to Jason. "I will, however, happily hunt down the walking dead people who did and get your son back for you if you want?" She offered brightly. That would get Holly to be her friend for sure (probably)... Not that she wouldn't have helped the little kid anyway, but it -was- a happy fringe benefit, wasn't it?
"...Yes." He spoke.
"Stay here, you. Find out stuff in case I don't." She told James, activating her app and teleporting away again, appearing in Jason Todd's apartment (which one of her apps had searched out in less than a second once she'd asked it to). There were two cops there, who were startled by her appearance. She touched their foreheads in quick succession though, and they fainted at her touch. She went down on her knees by Kelly's dead body, touched her forehead and, after about thirty seconds, her body healed and she came back to life with a start. It was another app she had. Bring back the dead app--very nifty (standard stuff in the future, apparently). It worked as long as the body was in fairly good shape, not missing too many parts, and hadn't been dead too long.
"What on... ohh, my head..." Kelly sat up and rubbed her head, looking around. "What's going on? Who are you? Cops... Ohmygod, Zane!" She got up and looked around.
"He was kidnapped. Mind if I look in your head to see who did it?" She asked solicitously.
"I what... Who are..." She closed her eyes. "I... I was dead, wasn't I?"
Under other circumstances, Hailey might have asked her if she'd seen a certain Hell queen hottie while she was away, because she was a little curious, but she put that thought aside for now. Her new friend's friend needed her help, and so did a little kid. "Yup, I brought you back to life. I'm handy like that. Now, head looking? Yes? No?" She asked impatiently.
"Um, yes?" Kelly offered, confused.
"Good girl." Hailey smiled, touching her forehead with a finger again and looking through her brain's visual and auditory memory for the last bit of time before her death. It actually startled her a little when she saw who it was. Not that she recognized him, but there was just something... hollow--cold about him. She scanned him though, and then took her finger away from Kelly's head and let her info search app work, looking through every scrap of information available to it in the world today and in her future archive, while she also scanned the apartment for an energy signature. The results cross-referenced with each other and came back with one result. "The Untitled." She spoke the word.
Only a few vague references of them had serviced to the time her future-tech was from, but there was more info on them from a few government servers in the here and now. Still, not much. They were magic, and immortal. Though obviously killable if they'd died off long before her tech's time. They were body jumpers--secretive and hard to track. They did damage and moved on. They were apparently very dangerous, and she had no info on how to kill them. "Oh well." She tapped Kelly on the forehead and teleported her back to Holly's place.
She didn't have enough info to track the Untitled who'd done this, but she had a complete bio imprint of Jason Todd and used it to geo-lock his only living close biological relative. She didn't even have to use satellites, he was here in the city. She teleported to his location.
There was a man on a chair, his arms on his knees, hands dangling in the air. He was looking at the floor, but slowly looked up when she appeared next to his (thankfully still alive and mostly unharmed) hostage. Their eyes met.
The man must have kept the child alive in case his father didn't go through with his suicide, for leverage. Looking into his eyes, she couldn't believe he would abstain from killing the boy just because he'd said he would. "Damn. You are one ugly ball of monster gunk, aren't you fella." She smiled to him.
"You should know, you're dead." He spoke, tearing out of his chair and coming at her, inhumanly fast. He promptly vanished through a hole in the air she'd made that lead to, um, somewhere in outer space. She didn't really care where particularly.
She did kind of smile a little though, 'cause it was kinda funny. "Bye now." She spoke to the empty air. See, she'd had no idea if she could have won against him in a fight or anything, so the sensible thing was not to fight. Especially 'cause there was a kid in the room an all. "Annnnywaaay..." She turned around on the spot and went over to Zane and knelt down before him so their eyes could meet. "Hey, Zane. Has anyone ever nicknamed you 'Zany' by they way? Never mind, not important. Daddy yours sent me. Here, he's probably really worried." She tapped his forehead lightly and teleported him back to Holly's place. She stood, activating her app, and she was back at Holly's too. Her and Holly's eyes met first. "There, all better. Anyone want cookies?" She asked, looking around the room. "What?" She asked a silent Holly.
"Um, thanks?" Holly replied.
"You're welcome." Hailey smiled brightly. "So, is that a no on the cookies?" She asked. She looked over at Jason who was hugging his family.
"Thank you." He told her.
Hailey sighed. "Whatever. Bored now." She looked over at Holly again. "Call me sometime, we can hang out. Preferably without all the bothersome kidnapping stuff. James? Darling? Stay here and seduce the happy dad or something. He's hot. And he's got scruples and then some up that cute ass of his. You could do lot worse... and he's probably not going to get you in trouble like the last one." She teleported away again before he could answer, leaving darling James with them for now. She really wanted to figure out that ruby, and people kept interrupting her. It was getting annoying! ...She did tag and geo-lock them all before she left though, just to be safe, so she'd get an alert from one of her apps if any of them got into any more trouble while she was off playing kitty's dating game.
Bright side? She seemed to be making friends and meeting people. (Emotionally healthy! Yay!) Bad news? They apparently were the kind that got into trouble. (Not a deal breaker, but it was kind of dull.)
She went home and got cookies. For some reason she was craving them today. She didn't usually.
"What's that about?" She wondered absently to herself as she pondered the ruby.
It surprised her that she hadn't figured it out yet, even with all the distractions. It meant either kitty was smarter than her (which would be awesome, unlikely as it was), she was being really obscure, or the clue was some place she had to go to figure it out.
She smiled happily. Kitty was clever. She liked that. A lot.
She ate the cookie and stared at the ruby and thought.
It was part of a crown that had been in a downtown museum. Surprise, surprise: Stolen two months ago. Of her three options, the first was the unlikely one, the second undesirable and also unlikely, so that left the third.
"In other words: Fieldtrip." She spoke to the ruby.
She put down another half-eaten cookie, changed clothes from the jeans and tank-top to something more for everyday walks about town, and teleported there. Not inside, outside. It was open today. She bought a ticket and went in to look around with the rest of the art aficionados that were visiting that day. She had plenty of time to figure it out, and this was fun. She didn't want to rush it.
---JASON---
"Hailey!" That James guy called in protest as the woman he'd come with disappeared before their eyes.
The Harlequin. Or, Hailey, apparently... He never thought she would... It had only taken her, what, five minutes? Fuck... "Kelly? Kid, hey, can you tell me what happened? I mean..." He felt shaky just looking at her. Crazy grateful, but he still wasn't quite sure he believed it. She'd been dead. He'd checked her pulse. Dead. How on Earth...
"I died, yeah... I know..." Kelly replied quietly. She looked up and met his eyes. "She um, she brought me back to life... I guess..." She told him.
He looked over to 'darling James', who'd taken a seat in a chair and was watching them with what he'd describe as mild curiosity. "She's your friend, I guess... Can do that?"
"I don't know. Probably. You'd think she would have brought Len back if she could've though. So, who knows?" James replied.
"Who's Len?" Holly asked.
"Len. Leonard Snart. Her ex's bead brother. She accidentally got him killed. Broke them up, too. Bad times, those." He told them soberly. "Even I steered clear of her for a week or so after it ended with them. Seriously, heartbroken Hailey is -not- a woman you want to meet."
"Huh..." Jason replied. "Kelly, Zane... what, um, what can you tell me about who..."
"Killed me?" Kelly asked. "Freak broke down the door like it wasn't there. I tried to hide... Went for the gun." He kept one in the apartment and had taught Kelly how to use it. "Shot him. Didn't work though..." She related in a quiet, almost shy voice. She tried to sound tough, but the act wasn't very convincing. She was still scared. Of course she was. Kelly had been a twelve year old runaway when they'd met. He'd been a high-class whore who'd been stuck with a baby by a Jane who didn't want the kid they'd accidentally made together. He'd needed a baby sitter, she'd needed a place to stay that... well, a place that would be safe. And she'd impressed him right off with how much help she'd been. Over the years, it just... kind of started to feel like he had two kids, not one. He was ridiculously glad she wasn't dead, however it had happened. "He had these eyes, see... I don't know how to describe... Looking into'm though, felt worse than when he hit me in the head and I died." She admitted softly. "He never said anything but 'Bah!' and 'Annoyance' before he whacked me over the head... Who even says 'Bah!' anyway?" She muttered.
"Only a truly uncouth individual, I'm sure." James provided unhelpfully. Damn he could work a smile though.
"Duh." Kelly told him mockingly, but smiled a little when she did it.
"They call football 'soccer' in the rest of the world." James replied.
"Huh?" Kelly asked.
"I was on a role. You know, being duh." He smiled.
"Really." Kelly told him.
"Anyway." Holly interjected.
"Now you're imitating her. That can't be good." James put in before Holly could say whatever it was she'd planned to say.
"Huh?" Holly asked.
"Hailey. It's a thing with her. 'Annnnywaaay'. Of course you know this means you're probably soul buddies or something." He answered.
Holly just looked at him oddly. "Anyway. You know, we really don't even know what happened. What Hailey did... You three should stay here with me. At least for now. It's safer."
Jason looked at her in question.
"Look, I know we're not -exactly- friends or anything, but say yes anyway. I'm trying to help out here." Holly told her. "So don't let your pride make you an ass or something."
"Fine." Jason told her. It kind of grated him, but she was right. He needed a safe place to stay. Safer anyway. His apartment was probably a crime scene by now, he'd have to assume. He had that jewelry stashed of course, but if there were people still after him, going back to his old neighborhood was a -bad- idea. Holly was an opportunistic murder. And by staying with her, it was pretty close to him saying he was okay with that. He wasn't. But his kids... And Harlequin had saved them, even though she was probably the worst person, on paper at least, that he'd ever met. Fuck though, he hated being associated with murderers. It felt like he was betraying his family or something... Not the family he had now, just the one he -used- to have...
"Well, I, at least, should probably be going." James put in.
"What? Why?" Holly asked.
"Kids on the premises. Not sure Hailey really thought this one through... I'm not exactly safe to be around right now. Cursed by the queen of Hell as I seem to be." He told them.
"The queen of Hell?" Kelly asked, clearly doubting it.
"Believe it or not, some people find me even more annoying than they probably find you." He smiled charmingly to her.
She was quiet and actually blushed a little at that.
"If I get un-cursed though, I might just take Hailey up on her suggestion and give -you- a call." James smiled very flirty to him.
Jason smiled back, a little flattered actually. James was really something to look at, he had to admit. And that smile was a heart-stopper for sure. "I'm not exactly dating material, you know." Jason told him. "And your best friend -is- a murder. Maybe you are too, for all I know."
"Being a little judgy, aren't you? After what she just did for you?" James countered, opening the door. "Ta, all." He waved, and was gone, the door closing behind him.
"He's got a point, you know." Holly put in.
"Maybe..." He allowed. Still not liking it one bit though.
"Hey, come on... Zane... What's wrong, kiddo?" He heard Kelly saying.
He looked over at Zane, who was crying in Kelly's arms. Jason felt well and truly frozen in his tracks.
"Has he said anything since Hailey brought him back?" Holly asked in concern, sitting down on the floor next to him and looking at his kids now too.
"No..." Jason spoke, feeling his mind kick into gear again, and he went over to his son. "Zane?"
It felt like the world had been kicked out from under him again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(to be continued)
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