JULY 2002 - #39

Searching For Shaw by Paul Hahn

"We'll be arriving soon," the pilot called back. He worked for the Hellfire Club, as did the other crew members aboard the ultra-fast, ultra-expensive, ultra-private jet.

"Good," answered Emma Frost, the White Queen of the Inner Circle. She looked back upon the others traveling with her. "I'm not quite sure what to expect. The Club would dictate they accept us as friends, but chances are, that won't exactly happen."

"I bet," was the answer. Chuck Barnes sighed. I still can't believe we're doing this. He was better known as Nightwing, leader of Young Justice. He and his team were passengers aboard Frost's jet. Willing passengers, no less. But all still troubled. We're riding a jet with one of our greatest enemies . . . to help her find another of our foes! It's insane.

We had just gotten back from our second encounter with the Imperial Forces of America, a group that had given Jolt and Wonder Girl their powers. We went up against Arnim Zola again, and barely got away from our fight with his 'Armageddon Man'. In the process, the Imperials destroyed over half of our mansion base . . . but gave a hint that Cassie . . . Wonder Girl . . . might be alive after all. Of course, I didn't get a chance to investigate that. Frost was waiting for us in a limo. She wanted our help.

"No way," Superboy said angrily. "We don't owe you anything."

"So quick to judge?" Frost asked. "Think of all that our former member Wyngarde did for the woman you love . . . "

"Kon, no!" Phoenix exclaimed, holding him back. "I don't need anyone to protect me. She's just trying to unnerve you."

"For someone who says she needs our help, she's certainly going about getting it the wrong way," Kon frowned.

"I merely meant that, without him, Ms. Danvers would never be at the power level she's now enjoying," Frost said.

"Cut to the chase," I frowned. "What do you want, Frost?"

"Our Black King, Sebastian Shaw, has disappeared," she explained. "I need to find him."

"Why?" Arrowette questioned. "With him gone, wouldn't that put you in charge?"

"Normally, yes," she frowned. "But I had not picked Shaw's mind clean of all the information he has. Codes and access to so much that made him worthy of his title."

"You're not helping your case," I continued. "You want us to help you find one of our greatest enemies, so you can steal information from his brain and replace him as head of the Hellfire Club? You're insane."

"Am I?" Frost asked. "Think of it another way. If you help me, and I become the head of the Hellfire Club . . . I can guarantee that we stay out of your way. It will be in my power to do that. It would create a comfy, cozy little non-aggression pact that would serve you greatly."

"What makes you think we couldn't handle anything you throw at us?" Superboy asked. "What makes you think we aren't planning to take you down?"

"Don't be foolish, child," she sighed. "But I suppose, as an additional enticement, I can offer you a list of information on every terrorist, mutant or otherwise, in the known world . . . information that could be very useful to you . . . the Avengers League . . . the government. Whomever you should choose to give it to. It would be a huge step towards stopping evil."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why? Why give us that?"

"Because . . . I don't care for them. Terrorists are so . . . cliche . . . they're filth we could all do without. And with all the information the Hellfire Club has on them, well . . . it's an offer you can't refuse."

"Why can't your Hellions assist you?" Linda asked.

"My Hellions are . . . unavailable," she frowned. Her tone of voice had changed there a lot. Something was weird. The mention of the Hellions definitely affected her.

"What do you need?" I asked.

"We're going to Montreal, another branch of the Hellfire Club . . . it's where he was last seen. We're going to investigate and find him."

"How do we know we can trust you?" Arrowette asked.

"You don't," was her reply.

And now, here we are, approaching another nest of probably hostile enemies. I must be crazy.

"Lowering landing gear," the pilot said.

"Here we go," Superboy said under his breath.

"You never did tell us why we're heading to this branch in specific," Arrowette said.

"This was his last known location," Frost answered. "He was supposed to leave from here to the San Francisco branch . . . and then, when I placed in a call to inquire, I noticed something . . . strange . . . "

"Strange?" Nightwing asked. "How so?"

"I'm not sure," she frowned. "But I got a feeling . . . I sensed something. I couldn't identify it."

"Great," Superboy frowned. "We're walking into a totally unknown situation."

"You're superheroes," Frost said as the jet landed and shut off it's engines. "You should be used to this sort of activity."

A door opened and a ladder lowered. Two Hellfire guards walked down first to make sure it was safe. Standard procedure. Frost came second, with Young Justice behind.

They were soon met by two people, a man and woman, dressed similarly. They appeared to be brother and sister.

"Frost?" the man asked.

"Mr. and Ms. Beaubier, I assume?" Frost asked as she approached.

The two nodded in unison. "Your guests?" the girl asked.

"American super-humans," Frost shrugged. "Serving me." At the same time, Frost spoke into Young Justice's minds telepathically: {Relax . . . go along. He is Jean-Paul, she is Jeanne-Marie . . . they are brother and sister, both mutants . . . King and Queen of this particular branch.}

"To what do we owe this visit?" Jean-Paul asked.

"As I called in earlier, I am looking for Sebastian," the White Queen explained.

"As we told you earlier, he is not here," Jeanne-Marie frowned.

"I thought I would see for myself."

"You don't trust us?"

Nightwing cleared his throat, loudly, cutting through the tension. "I'm sure our hosts would be kind enough to show us to where we might use some restrooms? It was a long flight . . . "

Jean-Paul frowned. "Of course." He snapped a finger, causing a miniature spark of light to appear. A servant ran over. "Show our guests inside . . . "

"Yes sir."

Young Justice was sitting inside a small lobby by themselves.

"This room is no doubt being monitored," Nightwing frowned.

{I can conduct a meeting telepathically,} Linda spoke into everyone's minds. The next thing the team knew, they were sitting around the old table in their former briefing room, back in their first base at Happy Harbor, Rhode Island. It was a psychic projection, sending all the teammates into it.

"Whoa," Empress said.

"Since when are you this powerful?" Arrowette asked.

"Since I broke down my own barriers," Linda shrugged. "I've always had this power inside me . . . I've just never embraced it before. Now I am . . . and it's coming in handy, wouldn't you say?"

"This is secure?" Nightwing asked.

"I'll know if another telepath is trying to spy," Linda replied.

"What if someone walks into the lobby in Montreal?" Superboy asked. "We'll all be frozen and silent . . . "

"Then we'd best make this quick," Linda replied.

"Alright," Nightwing said, taking charge. "We know Frost is up to no good. But we have agreed to help her."

"You agreed to help her," Superboy cut in.

Rebel sat quietly, twiddling her thumbs, watching everything happen.

Nightwing frowned, then continued. "The tension between the twins and Frost was very visible. And I know they're hiding something. I'm gonna suggest that you all split up and do a little recon of the mansion and surrounding area. See if you can learn anything about the place, the people and Shaw."

"What are you gonna do?" Arrowette asked.

"I'm gonna go back to Frost," he explained. "Make sure she doesn't do anything stupid or turn this whole thing against the team. We'll trade what we know, look into some things . . . talk to the Inner Circle here."

"Oh, sure, look into some things," Arrowette rolled her eyes. "Just spending time with the blond who walks around in lingerie and shoves her cleavage in your face."

Nightwing rolled his eyes. "Let's break people . . . the sooner we get this done, the sooner we get out of here. Let's go."

The telepathic scene faded away, leaving Young Justice back inside the Hellfire mansion at Montreal, right where they had left off. They all nodded to each other and one by one, left the room.

"Scanning anything?" Kon asked.

"No sign of Shaw," she said. "But most of this place has Psi-shielding throughout it. Makes sense for them to be protected from telepaths. But it means that we're gonna have to keep searching the old fashioned way."

"I still can't believe we're even helping Frost," Superboy frowned. "After all the Hellfire Club did to you . . . to us! And now we're helping them. You ask me, I think Chuck's slipping."

"I know how much you hate the Hellfire Club," Linda replied. "And honestly, I don't know why I don't hate them more. I know I hate Wyngarde and all, but I can't help thinking that if I hadn't gone through all that, I wouldn't be anywhere near the power levels I'm currently enjoying, y'know?"

"I guess you're just a glass-half-full kinda girl," Kon shrugged.

"Chuck's actions may seem a bit wrong to us, but I think he's trying to make the best of the situation. Shaw is an evil man, and if we can set it up that he's out of the picture, then that will be better for us. And then Frost has agreed to leave us alone on top of it. That means that the Hellfire Club, who had been our greatest enemies of late, will be out of our picture."

"Seems kinda lax in his duties to protect people," Kon frowned. "It's like we're signing a non-aggression pact . . . meaning that the Hellfire Club won't target us, but they will be targeting someone else . . . and we'll have to ignore them."

"I doubt it'll come to that," Linda shrugged. "Come on . . . let's try the basement."

"Stupid Chuck finding excuses to hang around Ms. Cleavage," Arrowette muttered angrily. "Do you think he's attracted to her? Is that why he accepted this mission? Maybe I need to get cleavage . . . "

Empress laughed. "Cissie, you've got to relax some. He knows Frost is evil. Everyone does . . . even me an' Rebel here. We read the file you guys have on her. Hellfire equals bad, we all got it. He's probably just using that fancy brain of his to put together some kind of trap for her and Shaw."

"That better be it," Arrowette frowned. "Hey . . . where'd Rebel go?"

"She went up those stairs," Empress pointed. "Maybe she's on to something?"

"Could be . . . let's go."

"Well, I just thought it would be nice to do things the old fashioned way," Hallie smiled.

"But does it have to be so slow?"

"It gives us a chance to talk, Bart," Hallie replied. "I mean, after being kidnapped by the Imperial Forces again, I could use the chance to do some talking."

"Oh . . . okay," Bart said.

"I'm just worried," she shrugged. "Arnim Zola made all these powerful creations . . . and Wonder Girl is one of them. And he said his creations can't die . . . but does that mean that Cassie's--"

"Hold on," Bart said. "I've gotta do a fast search, or I'm gonna go crazy!"

"But, Bart--" Hallie started, then sighed. He was gone in a flash.

Impulse went from where he was to the upper levels, then down, and finally out around the mansion. He came to a screeching halt suddenly as he found a group of four standing outside in front of him.

A woman in a green suit with red hair spoke. "My name's Vindicator. This is Alpha Flight. We're here to take you down, Hellfire!"