Summary:Helena responds to a distress call from her mother and is brought up to speed on the Morlun incident. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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(This scene takes place shortly after Spider-Hunt 1: LOCATE PREY)
Long minutes after Catwoman's last broadcast, her tracking signal starts moving slowly away from the warehouses, as she calls on the comlink: "Nearest person with a car, come grab me. Bring a- *shit*!" The line goes quiet for a minute and a slightly more breathless Catwoman continues: "Bring a medkit."
There's an alarming lack of sass in that request, as Selina Kyle limps out of immediate range of the warehouse before the cops can come swarming in, leaning her weight against the wall in an alleyway. There are scrapes and tears in her costume; particularly on her right arm and thigh, the former of which is almost bare, riddled with abrasions, scrapes and bruises, and is, uh… clearly dislocated.
Since she signed on with SHIELD, Helena isn't exactly as available as she usually is. But luckily, she's on her way back to the manor when the call comes through.
She leans over to flip a couple of switches under the console, turning on the comms and flipping the license plate on her car before she guns it for the warehouses. "Blackbird, responding," she says over the comms. The way she drives, it doesn't take her long to get there, pulling up outside the alley and leaning over to push open the door.
"Uber for Catwoman," she announces. She is her mother's daughter.
There's a lot of police commotion several blocks away, but they seem to be clear of it for now.
Catwoman winces when Helena is the one to respond, not *particularly* wanting her daughter to see her like this, but… well, beggars can't be choosers.
Regardless, she greets Helena with a tired grin, "Hey there, Kitten." She greets, clutching her upper arm as she limps out of the alleyway. "What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like th-rrk!" She interrupts herself with a soft grunt of pain, seemingly punctuated by a line of blood running down her arm from where her hand is grasping her, the state of her becoming apparent as she steps into the light. Catwoman heaves a sigh. "… Real quick, we taught you how to pop arms back in right? That would…" Selina shakes her head, "… I'd appreciate that."
"Yeah, after Dick pulled his doing some acrobatic stunt years ago," Helena answers, starting to pull away from the alley at a quiet, careful pace. No need to startle the cops and draw attention. "But first, secure location."
It's far from the first time she's seen one of her parents in rough shape. She doesn't drive too far, just enough to get clear of any police cordon, then turns in the drivers seat to get a closer look at Selina's arm. "What'd you do, fall off the bike?" she asks, brows furrowing in a frown.
Catwoman hauls herself into the car and sits down, wincing as she opens the medkit in transit, doing what she can for her wounds by herself for now.
"Please." Catwoman replies, as though the mere notion doesn't merit comment. "Picked a fight with Dracula's what I did." She mutters in irritation. "Stupid. Bastard was swatting away like twelve Spider-people, and here I am with my *whip* just because one of them was about to get punched. Threw me halfway to Denver. All your dad's fault." She explains, clearly distracted by her own self-repair.
Helena quirks a brow, still looking confused. "What's Dad got to do with it?" she asks, taking the medkit to take over the patching up on her own. "And what about the Spider-people? Dracula? Mom, give it here," she finally says, exasperated.
Once she has the medkit and her mother's attention, she settles a look on Selina that's far too much like her father. "Start at the beginning."
"Tried to make an honest woman out of me, is what he did. Some of it stuck, apparently." Selina answers, finally looking up as the car stops and Helena takes the medkit and sets to work. She's about to say something… catty when she's met with that stern look, and frowns a little despite herself, sighing.
"At one of the warehouses back there. Some huge guy - called himself Morlun - tore a bunch of people apart. Complete slaughterhouse in there. Tccch!" She hesitates briefly to hiss with pain as Helena tends to her bleeding wound. "Spider-Boy and his Amazing Friends show up. Two more Spider-Girls, and some slime-guy and a… lady on a… pegasus?" She begins to slow down as if only now realizing how absurd her own memories are on re-examination. "I don't know. I hate Brooklyn."
She sighs. "He kicked the crap out of *all* of them."
"Dani," Helena says absently as she works when Selina mentions the flying horse. "Mutant, now also a valkyrie. She's with the Young Avengers. The horse is Brightwind." Who needs a Batcomputer when you've got a Helena?
Step one is getting the field clean, which means tearing off what's left of the sleeve, then doing a quick wash of the skin. Good thing Alfred knows all the tricks for getting blood out of upholstery. Step two is at least getting the open wounds covered.
"Slime guy sounds new, though." She looks up from her bandaging, lips pursing slightly. "Did they get out?" she asks, voice carefully under control.
"Of course." Selina says blandly in regards to a 'Valkyrie'. But who's she to judge? Her sort-of-husband palled around with these types in the Avengers, she PROBABLY got exposed to a lot of weird stuff, as much as she likes to play it 'normal'. Assuming Batman wasn't too ashamed of his ex-con girlfriend.
"I think so. Spider-Boy-" okay she might actually not know his name "-ran off with Dani after he got smacked around a little. Morlun went after him in a car after he was done smacking all of us around, like he didn't even care. I think everyone went after him, or…" Selina trails off and furrows her brow. In the rush she hadn't noticed but, "… didn't see one of the Spider-Girls leave, actually. Didn't see her *stay* either." Selina pushes her cracked goggles up with one hand and pinches the bridge of her nose. She's getting old and slow. "Shit. God damn it. I don't know. He just seemed to want the red one. … Told him he'd hunt him wherever he went. Just figured… 'nutcase with a grudge' you know, but this guy…" Selina shakes her head. "… I'm gonna put everyone on notice to keep an eye out for this guy. Keep collatoral damage down if nothing else."
Helena grimaces, making a mental note to call Peter later and make sure he's still in one piece. And that the Spider-ladies are doing all right as well. "Morlun doesn't sound familiar," she says thoughtfully, tying off the last of the bandages and setting one hand on Selina's shoulder, taking her wrist in her other hand.
"All right, on three. One, two-" CRACK. Yeah, she's not going all the way to three. Another one of the fun things she's learned from her parents.
Selina sighs and braces herself. "All right." She says, and closes her eyes.
Then she opens them again, "Wait, you're gonna-"
CRACK!
"*FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF*FFFFFFFFFfffffffffff*frank* *SINATRA!*" Batman always did that. It was practically first base, the way their lives were. "Guuoooookay." She sighs, "Thanks, Kitten." She says tiredly, smiling a little now that the worst has passed.
Helena doesn't waste any time. While Selina is still reeling from the pain of putting her shoulder back where it belongs, she gets a sling wrapped beneath her arm and around her shoulder, tying it off to help keep the arm in place. "Sooner's better," she says as she takes out an alcohol wipe to clean off her hands, then closes up the kit to turn back to the wheel. "Before things have a chance to stiffen up."
"All right. Let's get you home, then we can figure out why some random…Morlun?" She squints again, shaking her head. "Seriously, I've never heard of it. Super strong, if he was beating off the spiders."
"Yeah. Home sounds nice right now." She is a bit torn between the Batman influence making her want to chase after Morlun and try to help - which is probably suicidal and dumb and heroic and she hates it - and the mother in her who's just happy to have her daughter driving further *away* from the violence that may be filling the airwaves soon; which isn't terribly heroic of her. Then again, peacing-out to leave the danger for others *is* a Classic Catwoman move, but… she hasn't really been Classic Catwoman in awhile.
Regardless, she nods as Helena speaks and says, "It was like he didn't even care when they hit him. That's… ridiculous. Those guys are supposed to be strong, right?"
"Not just supposed. We're talking catch and throw a bus levels of strength," Helena answers, frowning out at the road. "The strength isn't even the impressive part. Spider-Man's got like…a low-level precog thing going on. Warns him when danger is coming. It's part of how he gets out of the way of things. I mean, it helps to be super strong and fast and agile, but…That also tells you what level we're talking about to get around it."
Catwoman goes uncharacteristically quiet at Helena's response, turning her head to look out the window as they drive; pulling her mask and goggles away so there isn't a costumed miscreant spotted in the back of a Wayne-driven car. "… Must be some kind of Mutant, then." She mutters. She presses her lips tightly together and says, "… I know I worked hard to make it useless to say this, but… for the record?" Selina gives a concerned little smile, "… Try and stay away from this one, if you can."
"Well, the good news for you is that being in SHIELD means I've got a lot more obligations and a lot more people watching what I'm doing, which makes going out hunting Spider-hunters a lot harder," Helena drawls, the words dry. "The bad news is it gives me a whole new world of new resources to use for it."
She glances over at the last, a wry smile curving. "I get it, Mom, but there's always going to be something super dangerous going on. We're not the people who stay away from something because it's dangerous. We're the people who go in to keep other people safe."
Selina just smirks a little despite herself. "I know… I know." She says, adding wistfully, "That's your dad's fault too."