Part One
Rebecca Hooper still checked every other day with the Granite City Police Media Center for messages meant for Glory Girl. Anyone who wanted to send a note or make a request was allowed to do so, and Becky went through the stuff at least once a week. There were lots of messages from the media for interviews, requests from stores and malls for public appearances, notes begging for photos and autographs, and the occasional marraige proposal. Then there was this letter... It said "...if Glory Girl was interested in getting evidence to put Kagen Noll away for a long time, call the number listed below at noon on Wednesday the 14th." She wondered about that for awhile, then when the day arrived, decided her curiosity would not allow her to avoid this. When she phoned the number, she used a pay phone at the bus depot. She wasn't taking any chances with the number being traced in an attempt to find out her secret identity. When she called, it rang twice and a woman's voice answered. "Hello, who is it?" she said. When Becky identified herself as Glory Girl, the woman on the line paused, then rattled off some information. "Kagen Noll is planning a deal with a group of men in town from the west coast. They are bringing up a shipment of drugs and Noll has smuggled weapons from overseas to exchange for them. They will meet tomorrow night in a garage behind 2531 South Grafton Street. If you can catch him with this stuff, you can get him off the streets." Becky asked. "Why are you after Noll? And why are you telling me instead of the cops?" The voice replied. "I work for Noll. My sister also worked for him. She ended up dead and I'm sure he was responsible. I can't prove anything, and the cops wouldn't try very hard to find out why a hooker got killed. Noll has a few connections on the force. If I go to them, I'm afraid he would find out I did. Then my life won't be worth spit." Rebeccca wanted to ask more questions, but the woman hung up. It sounded interesting. Becky had been looking into Noll secretly since the trouble she and Wonder Woman had with the gang boss not too long ago. But she thought she'd been careful enough that people wouldn't know she was after him. If the word was out, and Noll knew, he might set up a trap. So she would check this out, but be extra careful to keep from being suckered into something.
In an apartment on the east side of town, the woman hung up the phone. She sat in a room with three men. One, a a tall bearded man with slight arabic features, spoke. "So, we are ready for our plan to go into effect tomorrow. Wahid, you will be working the counter when Rafiq enters. He will threaten you and you will hand the money over to him. Then you will bear witness to what follows. Here is the partial advance payment we agreed to." Wahid, a stoop-shouldered grey-haired man, took the fat envelope and glanced inside. He smiled and left. The bearded man, who seemed to show indications he was in charge here, turned to Rafiq. "He is greedy and would turn on us and reveal what really happened if offered enough money. Wahid will bear no witness against our story if he is dead. Your payment is tripled and then as soon as you are released on bail, you will be leaving the country. Everything must go as planned." Rafiq, a tall thin man with deepset dark eyes which made most people nervous, nodded his head and said, "I will gladly do this for our cause." Then Rafiq also left. The leader sat at the desk, smiling. The woman who had made the phone call came to his side and asked, "Can we be sure they are that gullible? What if either suspects?" The bearded man continued to smile. "The are both too trusting. In the money, or in me, to see what is going to happen. That is why I chose them. Only one person needs to know how things will really turn out tomorrow night. And that is you, Shadiyah." He stood up and took the blonde-haired woman in his arms and they grew passionate as they went into the bedroom, stripped and got into bed. He laid on her and sucked at her nipple whle a hand massaged her pussy. She moaned and gyrated under him. After her cunt was wet with juices, he took his cock and rammed it into her. He pumped back and forth and she moved in a rhythym to match him. His seed spurted into her and she twitched and moaned as she orgasmed under him. But the man's thoughts were not totally on the woman he was fucking. In the back of his mind he thought, "So soon, I will have my revenge!"
Part Two
The next day, Becky discretely checked out that address. She had Arnie run backround info on his computer. The place was owned by a fellow who had worked for Kagen Noll. No one was living there, and a for sale sign was posted. It was a rather beat-up place, but there was a big two-car garage that faced the alley in back. Rebecca didn't go in the place. The lead might be just a lure. They might be waiting for anyone to show up after dangling the bait in Glory Girl's face. If she went in there, they might be ready for any tall blonde woman to show up. Becky figured she was going to be extra careful. She found a spot a few houses down the street where she could keep a close eye on the garage and kept watch as soon as it got dark. With her night vision goggles, she could see when they had the meet, and what the security was before she acted. But her night was very long. She watched it until 3AM and nobody ever showed up.
She wondered why the lady on the phone had given her a bum lead. Had they discovered she'd been tipped off? Or was it all phony? She worked her way back to where her bike was parked and roared off on her way home. She arrived and as she went in, she was surprised to see the lights were on and her folks were up. When she went in, her mom came over and said, "Oh, Becky! You made it! How's your arm?" Her arm? what about her arm? Becky asked, "I'm fine, Mom. What are you guys all excited about? I never ran into anything tonight." Her parents looked at each other with puzzled expressions, and her dad picked up the remote for the TV. "Punkin, you have to see this..." He pushed the button, the TV went on, then he pushed play...
The screen showed the woman who anchored the evening news. They must have taped something on last night's newscast for her... "and we are going to repeat the footage we showed you earlier in our newscast. This material was provided to us by a anonymous source and shows the tragic happenings at a gas station-convienence store on 30th and Grafton just hours ago, as captured by the surveillance cameras. We warn you it is quite violent, and you may not want young children to see it." Becky sat down to watch the report. She realised she'd been pretty close to that location last night. The TV image became a split screen showing the counter and the entrance of the store they mentioned. As it started, a tall, thin man with dark hair and ruddy features came in the store and walked up to the counter. He pulled out a gun and pointed it at the the stoop-shouldered older man who was working there. "Give me all your cash!" the tall man shouted. The cashier complied, and stuffed bills in a paper bag that he gave the robber. After the armed man glanced inside, he growled. "That's it? You gotta have more! Hold out on me, will ya!" He fired twice into the chest of the cashier, who collapsed in a heap on the floor. Then the half of the screen that was aimed at the entrance showed the door opening and someone entered. It was a tall blonde woman in a mask and... Becky stiffened in her chair -- it was her! But she'd never been there! What the hell.... The Glory Girl on the screen slammed the door shut and yelled, "Drop the gun, you killer. I've got you!" The robber spun and spat out, "No you don't!" He fired, and blood spurted from Glory Girl's left arm up near the shoulder. "Damn you!" she yelled, and her right hand went to the small of her back, where it pulled out a small revolver. She snapped off two shots and the robber's gun flew from his hand. He'd been hit in the right hand and in the right shoulder and blood was spurting out. He looked down at this and then back at the costumed woman. "Hey... you shot me! What the hell!" She walked closer, holding the gun out still aimed at him. His other arm went up and he cried out, "I give up! Call the cops and get me to a hospital!" But Glory Girl, with a furious look on her face, walked right up to the crook. "You don't deserve that. The cops will take you to be patched up and then some god-damned lawyer will put you right back on the street. I'm not going to let that happen this time." The gun that the masked blonde had pointing at the crooks chest came up, and she placed it against his temple. His deepset dark eyes grew wide with terror and then she pulled the trigger. The blast sent blood and brains spurting, and the the man crumpled to the floor. She looked down and snarled. "That's the kind of justice people like you deserve!" She spat at the corpse and turned and walked out the door. The screen switched back to the anchorwoman, who looked into the camera. "Police have issued a statement that a warrant has been issued for the arrest of the individual known as Glory Girl. People are asked to forward any information possible to the authorities that might lead to the discovery and arrest of the vigilante crimefighter."
Becky stared at the TV for a while, then her Mom came over and put her arms around her. Becky snapped out of her haze and spoke. "Mom - Dad - I didn't do that - it wasn't me." "We know that," her father said, "...but you are in a big hole. Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to frame you. Every cop in the city will be looking for Glory Girl." Rebecca put her head in her hands and sobbed. "What am I gonna do about this!" Her dad's hand came to rest on her shoulder. "The first thing you need is to get some sleep. In the morning we'll try to figure a way out of this."
Part Three
But she didn't get much sleep. She lay in bed for a long time seeing that footage flash in front of her eyes. Seeing Glory Girl brutally execute a man. Her career as a heroine, the thing she'd wanted all her life, was crashing down around her. If she set foot out of the house with her costume on, she would be arrested. Instead of respecting her, people would run from her in fear. After a long time she finally did get to sleep. The next morning, at breakfast, Wonder Woman and J'onn J'onzz burst in the door and shouted "Don't move Glory Girl, we're here to take you into custody." She had forgotten they both knew her secret identity and sitting at home as Rebecca Hooper was no way to get away from what she'd done. Wonder Woman looked at Pat and Donna and told them that they were not to try to stop the Justice League from taking the murderous ex-heroine away. Pat's chin slumped to his chest and he sighed. "You're right. she has to pay for what she did." Donna was in Pat's arms crying as Becky was pulled out of the house where a crowd of reporters lined the front walk. She had to listen to their comments as she was walked to the patrol car waiting at the curb. "Have you confessed?" "Is this the only time you have taken a life?" "Did you really stop those terrorists or just take the credit for it when somebody else did the real job?" "How could you do this to me?" This last question stunned her. The voice sounded familiar. She looked up and saw it was Arnie! He had a look of disgust in his face as he turned away from her. She realized she'd never see him again.
In the jail, she got the treatment she deserved. Other prisoners spat on her. The guards pushed her around and if she didn't move fast enough she got a billy club against her back or in the gut. One night a guard walked in with Becky's friend, Leona, who had been picked up for soliciting. He opened Becky's cell, and Leona looked in and spoke to the guard. "You gotta find me another cell. No'way I'm gonna share space with that god-damn killer bitch." At the trial every single bit of evidence shouted that she was guilty. The DA just kept playing that damned footage over and over. The jury had already seen it so many times on the news, that they only took five minutes to decide. She was found guilty of first-degree murder. The judge said he regretted that the state did not have the death penalty, because this was a case where the person convicted really deserved it. Instead, he sentenced her to life at hard labor with no possibility of parole.
She was taken away and transported to a prison facility. When she got there she was stripped and the guards felt her breasts and put their fingers into her pussy over and over. They laughed at her discomfort. "High security risk like you, bitch, we'll have to do a full body cavity search at least once a day to be sure you ain't hiding anything." The guard behind her stuck his finger in her asshole, and she screamed. "Hey Rob, I done found somethin' in her butthole -- Why it's my dick!" And the guard savagely rammed his cock into her tight ass. His hands were gripped to her waist and he roughly pumped his shaft back and forth in her tight ass. The other guard dropped his pants, and his erect cock was quickly shoved into her pussy. "Shit, no way I'm gonna let you be the only one to have fun." The two pricks sandwiched her in the middle, and pumped her mercilessly. Finally one, then the other came and blew their seed into her, and she twitched with an orgasm from the rough attack on her. The guard behind her smacked her at the back of her knees and she dropped to kneel on the cement floor. Then the guard who had fucked her pussy shoved his dripping cock in her mouth and ordered her to clean it off. When she finished, the other guard was waiting for the same. She licked it clean, but by then he was getting another hard-on. As she continued to work on it, the guard felt himself about to come again, so he pulled his cock back and sprayed the semen on her face and tits. Then the two guards threw her in the shower room and sprayed her with cold water from a fire hose. The water pressure knocked her over and threw her heavily against the wall. In a short time, she was covered with bruises and she thought she had cracked a couple of ribs. They gave her a course rough cloth for a towel and a skimpy theadbare tattered grey outfit to wear. They told her she would sleep on the hard, wet cement floor that night. That was all the likes of a murderous bitch like her deserved. And the next day she would pleasure the warden, followed by every guard in the place. That was what they did with bitches in this prison. And Becky tried to get to sleep. She knew she deserved every horrible thing that did to her. She was a convicted murderess. Her eyes closed...
And she woke up the next morning in her own bed, at home. The trial and prison had been a nightmare. But the footage that showed her killing a man had not been a dream but grim reality. What could she do? And the Justice League members did know her secret identity. Would they... would Wonder Woman come to arrest her? Oh, god... if Wonder Woman did that, Becky would just break down and cry,
Part Four
Far above the surface of the world spun a massive structure in the vacuum of space. The Justice League Watchtower served as a headquarters for the group of heroes and heroines dedicated to battling injustice and disasters all over the globe. The seven members who made up the governing council of the organization were meeting in a special closed session to discuss what had happened in Granite City. A black man in a skin tight green outfit spoke first. "She's got to be captured and put away! She's turned into the kind of over-the-top vigilante who is worse than the villains we fight. If we don't stop her everybody out there will think we condone her actions. We'll be thought of as bad as her..." The Amazon Princess broke in. "Lantern, I know this young woman and never would have thought her capable of what we saw. There must be some sort of explanation." A woman from another planet who had wings growing from her shoulder blades then spoke. "In certain situations, anyone is capable of anything. If she has gone this far, she has to accept the consequences. We threw Huntress out of the League for actions that were not nearly as bad. We can't ignore this." The red-clad speedster broke in. "Hawkgirl may be right. This Glory Girl has gone too far and we're the ones people expect to bring her to justice, Hey, that's what we gotta do!" The Martian Manhunter commented. "She did seem to be a fine young woman when I met here, and I sensed a noble quality about her that very much impressed me. I was shocked when I saw that footage. Perhaps events she became involved in have changed her and forced her into a new, dangerous way of thinking. But it does seem we must act." Superman, at the head of the table stood. "Alright, I also was impressed by her in my recent meetings with her, I would not have thought her capable of what we saw, but all of us are aware that people can be forced into actions that they previously would not have considered. In this case, it would seem she has gone to far. No matter what made her do it, she has to pay for her actions and it would seem we are the ones..."
Batman broke in. "Yes, she appears guilty of murder. In the media, where everyone can see it. Those of you who had prior contact with her have all phrased it the same way. You never would have thought she would do this. Now suddenly, she is shown to be a blood-thirsty killer. The case is cut and dry. This whole case stinks. She never hurt a fly and suddenly she kills in front of a million witnesses? It's way over the edge. I've only had a short time to examine this, but..." Batman held up a remote control and a large monitor screen began to show the footage of the crime. He fast forwarded through the material until the thief shot the man behind the counter. "He opened the bag and barely glanced in it. He probably didn't even know how much cash was there, yet he got mad enough to kill the cashier. The robber had glanced to the door several times so far. That makes sense, as he would not want to be surprised by someone coming in. But right here..." Batman played the sequence where the door opened and Glory Girl entered... "...if you listen carefully even in this you can hear the door click as it opens. The thief had to hear it, but he doesn't even glance over. In his overall body language, right there he relaxes. That means he was expecting someone. And not an enemy. But the most interesting thing is right here. When Glory Girl enters, she stops at the door. The thief moves a little to his left, and they turn and face one another. Why did he move to the left? It didn't improve his view or make it a better shot at the person who came in. The only reason he would have done it was that it put him right in the middle of where the surveillance camera was pointed. He wanted to be seen. He doesn't act surprised when he sees Glory Girl. The first shock on his face was when she shot him. Before we convict her of murder, I want this looked at. I have to get back to Gotham on another matter, but I have sent a message to the Question. If anybody can ferret out what really happened instead of what we are supposed to see, he can."
Superman spoke. "Alright, if you feel there is something amiss in the way everything looks, we'll go slow. I want officially to have the Justice League looking into the matter and making an effort to pursue this woman who has been charged with a crime. But the public is not aware we know that Glory Girl is actually Rebecca Hooper. We will not take her in and hopefully she can stay out of sight long enough for us to find something that may clear her."
On the north side of Granite City, in a seedy motel, the blonde haired woman who had pretended to be Glory Girl waited. The job had gone perfectly. The two men were dead and the footage was being shown on all the local channels. Even the national news programs were showing it. This Glory Girl that her man hated so would soon be arrested and spend the remainder of her days in prison. He would have his revenge on her and that would make him very, very horny. Shadiyah liked the thought of that. Soon he would be very passionate with her and she had proven her loyalty to him with this task she had done. There was a tap on her door, and the bearded man entered. Until she recognized him, she held a pistol aimed at the door. He looked at her and smiled. "My love. Always cautious. I am happy to see you." He began to undress, and his lover did the same after she put the pistol on the nightstand. They got into bed and at once started to have hot, steamy sex. She smiled. She had hoped the success of this task would build his passion, and it seemed to be so. In the hours they were there he shot his seed into her several times and she shuddered through orgasms brought on by the energetic, prolonged work of the bearded man. During a respite while they revived their energies, she whispered in his ear. "It is perfect, my love. Rafiq and Wahid are dead. You and I are the only ones who know what really happened." As soon as she said it, she saw the truth in his eyes... He had reached over to the hightstand and the pistol went against her head and spat a bullet once through her brain. Her very last thought was about what she knew he was thinking. No loose ends except one -- you, Shadiyah. He got up and got dressed. From a back pocket he pulled a plastic garbage bag. Into it went all of Shadiyah's clothes, identification, purse and property. The police would find nothing to identify the dead woman. Her fingerprints had never been put on file anywhere. The bearded man walked out of the motel room, got in his car and drove several miles north to Gotham City. At the airport, he threw the garbage bag in a dumpster and took his suitcase out of the trunk. He went in, used fake credentials to pass through security, boarded a plane and flew to Amsterdam.
Part Five
Rebecca spent that morning in the house, afraid to go out. She sat there, depressed. Finally Donna insisted they get out, and said she was taking her daughter down to Denny's for lunch. As they drove off, Becky was totally un-nerved. She stared around, terrified someone would see her. She kept looking back and wondering if any cars were following them. At the restaurant, she picked at her food. Ever her favorite meal, belgian waffles, did not cheer her up. She could not stand anybody looking at her, and she was acting so nervous, she had everyone glancing in her direction. Donna had thought about taking Becky shopping to get her out of her funk, but she could see that the troubles had the girl so overwrought that it probably wouldn't help. They ended up going back home instead. They were not there very long when the door bell chimed. Becky, was startled, and she got up from the couch and went to the door. Teough the eyehole, she saw a man in a dark blue topcoat and hat facing away from the door, waiting for the door to open. She felt her heart in her throat as she wondered if the visitor was a police detective looking for her.
She opened the door and gulped out a greeting. The person waiting turned and she saw a blank face that had no eyes or mouth. She'd seen him once before, and recognized the Question, investigator-hero who worked with the Justice League. She welcomed him in. "Hello, Question. Why are you here?" He came in the house and removed his hat and coat. "Batman feels your problem needs to be looked into. He asked me to do that. In order to do so, I need to learn everything I can about you and what you have been up to in the recent past. You may have information that will lead us to the person behind all this trouble." Becky described the events of that day. She told him about the note, the phone call, the fruitless stakeout. He considered all of this. "A very complicated plan was set up to frame you. You have an enemy who would go through all this trouble to get you in this predicament. The answers to this are further back in your past. Go back to when you first started as Glory Girl. Tell me everything. Any litle fact that you think isn't important many be just what I need to know." So Rebecca went back over her life, telling the Question about everything that she'd been through since she first started out as Glory Girl. She told him how she had started out and been captured by Arnie. How she had become close to the son of her father's worst enemy. Her frustrating months trying to make a name for herself when the world ignored Glory Girl. Hector Castovel and her ordeal at the auto yard. The time when she stumbled across the Brotherhood of Allah and stopped their nuclear warhead from wiping out Granite City. Her night out with Batgirl and Huntress when the trio were captured by Catwoman. How her mother had disappeared one day when they were shopping and how she ahd contacted the JLA for help. How she spent a while travelling through the dimensions searching for her mother. She told him about the time Wonder Woman got together with her to look for missing weapons and fought Kagen Noll. She described the events that occured when her father's worst enemy had escaped from prison and how her family had all been captured and threatened by Professor Cargill, the Shady Lady's old enemy. She related her horrid ordeal when the Roumanian dream master had captured and tortured her. She spoke about the discovery of the Goddess Dasiana when she and her mother found out the connection their family had to the diety. She told him about the Aztec warrior who tried to murder her only to be foiled by the first appearance of Dasiana in Becky's life. She went over the day when the strange alien probe had given her a weird power of sexual attraction that had been meant for Supergirl. And she told him about the rite of homage for the Goddess that she and her mother had performed several weeks ago.
The Question joined the Hoopers for dinner, and they saw him use the aerosol to remove the covering on his face. He questioned Donna about Professor Cargill, and talked to Patrick about the enemies he had during his career as Mister Patriot. He spent a lot of time thinking over things as he ate, and finally he told them what he had decided. "This frame is very complicated, and was planned out well in advance. It means it was the product of someone who really is out to get Becky. There are several possible suspects. Catwoman has long wanted to get her hands on Batgirl, and Glory Girl thwarted her that time they encountered each other. But this is not the kind of thing Selena Kyle would do, so I think we can put her out of the picture. Professor Cargill and Kagen Noll come to mind, but both of them were forced to forget memories by Wonder Woman's lasso. Cargill is still in custody, and Kagen Noll's name was used to put you on that useless stakeout that night. I doubt he would have used his own name to do that. So those two seem to be unsuitable as suspects. Hector Castovel had a vendetta against you for jailing his brother, but was more interested in the direct approach and probably would not have gone to this much trouble. That leaves Arakim Daraba, the guy from the Brotherhood of Allah who has a very deep wish to do you harm. You stopped his big scheme with the warhead, and then you got away when he sent the Roumanian after you. I will concentrate on Daraba, trying to find out where he is and what he has done recently. But that won't be easy. After what you've done to him, he will be going to great lengths to cover up anything that can lead to him. I wil also go over the evidence the police and the media have against you. We can only hope that I can find something that can unravel the frame." Vic Sage re-attached his mask of skin over his face, and shook the hands of the Hoopers. "I'm sorry I can't sound more positive, but the conspiracy to frame you has been planned out for weeks, maybe months. If I can destroy it, I will." As the Question left, Becky's taste of relief faded. The investigator had not sounded very encouraging. She wondered if he would be able to help. Or would the authorities find her and arrest her before the truth could be brought out?
The next few days were living hell for Rebecca. When she was home, she felt trapped and horridly depressed. But when she did get out of the house, it was nerve-wracking enough to drive her crazy. Every minute she felt someone was going to recognize her. Every bit of her body was tense. She could not help but constantly glance around, wondering who was there. At night she slept fitfully, dreaming of shame and imprisonment. She prayed that something would get her out of this mess.
Part Six
A couple of days later, Batman entered the ramshackle hotel on the south side of Granite City and walked past the desk clerk. The guy behind the counter was startled by the crimefighter's presence. But the Gothan Knight didn't pause to ask what the desk clerk was so nervous about. He had someone to meet upstairs. Climbing the stairs, he tapped on the door of room 404 and entered. The man at the desk turned to look at who had entered, and he had a blank face with no mouth or eyes. Judging by his reaction, he was expecting the Dark Knight. "Hello Batman. Here to see what I've been able to ferret out?" Batman replied, "With your abilities, I would think you have been able to find out a lot by now, Question." The mysterious investigator, who usually exhibited enthusiam bordering on paranoia in his work, turned back to his equipment. A massive assortment of computer gear was set up on a few folding tables squeezed into a corner of the delapidated room. Batman asked, "This is a lot of equipment. Why move it all the way here to Granite City? You could have done the stuff at your place in Hub City and saved a lot of trouble." Question kept staring at the monitor, which flashed from web-site to web-site, picture to picture as he clicked his mouse. "Even today, there are a few things that can't be found with a computer. I had to go out and check out some items in person. The trap is there. Glory Girl was caught in a spider-web that was carefully spun to get her. And I needed to look very close to see the tiniest strands. You want to know what I found?" Batman nodded. The Question clicked his mouse and the crime footage of the incident started on his screen. "That gas station was one of a chain that were recently bought up by a company based in Houston. The ownership -- which was rather hard to trace -- went back to Ghiyath Khaldoona, a Dubai muslim who is suspected of helping to finance the Brotherhood of Allah. After the chain was purchased, there was a little money spent on improving this place. The bathrooms are still out of order, the air pump and two of the six gas pumps still don't work, but a new surveiliance system was installed. They replaced the old stuff, which worked fine, but had the old, grainy black-and-white type of recording, with this state of the art digital color technology. And the equipment has a little added module hooked in. A modem, that allowed the footage to be transferred to an outside contact as soon as it happened." Batman commented. "So, they wanted the footage to be as clear as possible -- to show what Glory Girl did. And they had a way to quickly download the files and send out copies to the media."
The Question brought the scene up on the monitor where Glory Girl is shot in the arm. "I enhanced this footage even more. Watch right here. The thief fires one shot at her..." The picture showed blood suddenly spurt from her left arm. But it also showed a bag of chips in a rack next to her suddenly jerk. "I went to the crime scene and took a closer look. That bag of chips had a bullet go through it. He never hit her. Hollywood special effects -- a squib and a blood pack under the woman's sleeve. Poof! A wound. The little exploding pellet would have pushed the blood out and made it look like a gunshot wound. The lady would have had a nasty bruise on her arm there, but that's better than a bullet hole. The woman's blood at the crime scene has been DNA typed by the police to cross-check it with Glory Girl's DNA when they catch her. I spoke with Rebecca Hooper. When Glory Girl made an appearance at Santa Maria Children's Hospital a couple of months ago, to help promote an event, she participated in the blood drive. I checked with the hospital workers yesterday. They got a lot of publicity at that event and quite a few people came in to give blood. Several temp workers came in to help handle the extra work and in the confusion, the packet of Becky's blood -- disappeared." Batman said, "Sounds like a conspiracy." Question chuckled. "Yes, thanks for giving me this job. It's been fun."
"In a cheap motel on the other side of town, a young woman was found dead from a gunshot to the temple. All her possessions and clothes were gone. The police report mentioned she was a tall woman with dark hair that had been dyed blonde. She wasn't identified. The investigator saw that it wasn't suicide, so he put in his report she was probably a hooker who got killed by a john and robbed. He could not find any witnesses and threw the case into the unsolved file and went to the next murder in his district. This guy should be put on traffic detail, he's a crappy homicide dick." Batman looked at the screen, which had a photo, obviously taken in the morgue, of the face of dead young woman with a nasty hole in her temple. "So you have a woman whose blonde hair came out of a bottle? How does she tie in?" "On her left arm," the Question continued, "...she has a small circular bruise right where that 'Glory Girl' was shot. And I took this photo and cracked into the Homeland Security web files..." Batman interrupted. "I didn't hear you say that. We don't sneak in there. You could have sent a request through the JLA and we..." Question snorted, "...and we'd get an answer in a week or two. The picture matched one of Shadiyah Kamilak, an Egyptian national who arrived at Gotham City Airport on a flight from Frankfurt and went through the security checkpoints a couple of weeks ago. And I tracked back and found she was on a flight that took her from Beirut to Frankfurt the day before that. She has in the past been linked to..." The screen of the computer suddenly switched to show the young woman in a candid photo. She was embracing a bearded man. Batman recognized him. "Arakim Daraba! So he is behind this. He sent that Romanian dream-manipulator after Glory Girl not too long ago. He really wants to get her. Good work, Q, we have a lot that shows this case against our friend is shakey. But we need something that can totally prove..." Again, the monitor flickered and it began to show the events in convienence store. It ran until the point when the fake Glory Girl turned to leave. Question pointed to the screen at the instant the woman spat on the dead thief. "She got too theatrical right there. The DNA in the blood spattered all over the floor will match that of Rebecca Hooper. But the little batch of phlegm on the thug's shirt was also tested, thanks to a little urging on my part. That DNA didn't match the blood. But it did match that of Shadiyah Kamilak." Batman clapped the Question on his shoulder. "Nice job. I am sure Glory Girl will be very grateful. Pack up copies of what you have and I will personally deliver them to the DA and the Granite City Chief of Police. You want to leak all this to the media? Make sure it gets to each of the ones that were calling for her head." The Question turned from his computer. "It will be a pleasure. You know, Bats, you weren't here in Granite City for that Superhero Symposium to discuss anti-terrorist planning earlier this year, but I was. If Glory Girl had not stopped Daraba's plan to nuke the city, I would have been nothing but glowing ash that day. This doesn't come even close to paying her back, but I'm glad I could do her this little favor."
Part Seven
Rebecca was in front of the TV in her living room, flipping from channel to channel, as the stations broke in with the news of the conspiracy. A giddy wave of relief washed over her as she realized she was cleared of the frame. The doorbell rang, and now Becky was happy she didn't have to fear what that meant. She opened the door to see Diana Prince and Barbara Gordon. She welcomed them in. "Why are you here? Did you see the news? My god, I am so relieved..." Diana broke in. "Becky, we need you to come with us." Rebecca was puzzled, and it came to her that those exact words would have terrified her just hours ago. "Where?" she asked. Diana put her arms out, spun in place and with a golden glow became Wonder Woman. At the same time, Barbara removed her outer garments and flipped up her cowl to stand as Batgirl. During this, Becky's parents came in the room. Barbara turned to them and spoke. "I think it would be nice if Mister Patriot and the Shady Lady accompanied us." Turning back to Becky, she added, "...well girl, get your duds on!" As soon as all five figures stood in the living room in costume, Diana tapped one of her earrings and spoke. "Ready, J'onn." There was a shimmering in the air around the figures, and they suddenly faded to re-appear on the transport pad up in the JLA Watchtower.
There were dozens of heroes assembled in a hall in the station. Becky was reminded of the day after she stopped the terrorists' nuclear threat in Granite City. That day she had been surrounded by the famous heroes who had wanted to congratulate her on a job well done. This time, they wanted to celebrate how she had escaped a horrid plot to destroy her. She relished their handshakes and heard details of how she had been exonerated. When the Question came up to shake her hand, she threw her arms around him and said, "Oh man, if you hadn't done what you did, I would have been ruined as a crime-fighter and probably ended up in jail. Thank you.. thank you very, very much!." She hugged him again. She stopped as the Huntress tapped her on the shoulder. "Hey, stop being so grateful to my boyfriend, blondie! The next time we get intimate, I don't want him moaning, 'Oh, Becky!' " Glory Girl blushed and let him go. But she thought of something she'd forgotten to ask when he had visited her house. "Question..." she asked, "...at the symposium, you said you thought it was an interesting way I disabled the bomb. But I didn't want anybody to know the real way I stopped the timer on that bomb. How did you figure it out?" The Question chuckled. "You aren't a physicist or trained at bomb disposal. I didn't know but I guessed that you must have done something very unusual to stop that bomb. When I congratulated you, I phrased it that way to make you think I knew more then I really did. That's a trick I use to find out things from people. Folks reveal so much when they think you already know a lot."
She continued around the room, taking well wishes from the members and finally looked for one person she didn't see. She asked and was told he was on monitor duty. She snuck out and went down the corridors to the monitor room and saw the Dark Knight sitting there, watching the view screens. She walked up to him. "I really need to thank you. From what I've been told, you were the one who believed in me when the others wondered if they had to turn me in. You..." Batman turned and looked her in the eye. "People sometimes forget the phrase 'Innocent until proven guilty.' You were proven guilty in the eyes of the media, but that's not how it works. You have to look at the evidence -- all the evidence before you decide a case. I merely reminded everyone of that and pointed out there were things that were on your side in the evidence. I'm glad to see you were innocent and I hope you will remember this any time in the future when you see half the evidence proves a suspect is guilty. Always be thorough when lives... or even one accused man's life... depends on it." She told him she would keep that advice in mind in the future and went back to the party.
And in a small apartment in Beruit, an arabic man sat in a easy chair, seething. What would it take for him to bring her down? This plan had been perfect! How many times would this Glory Girl foil his plans? What could he do to make her suffer?...
Alias the Rat 3/08
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