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Right now, Lois didn’t know how to feel. Her boss had told her only ten minutes ago they were going to be getting an intern soon, and that this person would be going with Lois. Not that she was against it, but the reporter would be doing work that was easier to complete solo. She decided it would just end up seeing how good this intern would be.
It was about an hour after the news was received that the intern finally showed up, instantly met by the newspaper’s editor. He was shaking their hand and leading them over before Lois could even realise they had their new arrival in the building.
“Lois, this our intern”, her boss introduced. “Her name is Helena Wayne. Be nice.”
With that he was gone, back to his duties that were above Lois’s pay grade. Now that there was no escaping, the reporter overlooked the intern. The girl was about her height, with dark hair- darker than Lois’s the woman realised- and a very disarming smile. It reminded Lois of someone. The thing that stuck out most to Lois though was the Wayne Tech cap that sat on the younger woman’s head.
“Hi”, the intern greeted. “I’m Helena.”
“Lois Lane”, the other woman replied. “Nice to meet you. Helena smiled, and Lois couldn’t help but give one back. Her curiosity getting the best of her, she pointed at the girl’s hat. “What’s with that, if you don’t mind me asking?”
Helena gave a careless shrug. “I basically interned at Wayne Enterprises last summer. My... my dad works at the company and was able to get me some brief work in the security sector.”
“Interesting”, Lois muttered. “Well it must be quite a change from security to journalism.”
“Maybe”, the younger of the two mused. “As they say: this is Gotham. You never quite know what’ll happen.”
“That’s very true”, Lois agreed. There was a small stretch of no conversation before the woman started up again. “So, let’s go do some reporting.” Helena grinned to herself as she followed the reporter.
“Yes ma’am.” As the two left the office and exited the building, the younger grew curious. “Say Miss Lane, what are we working on today?”
Lois turned her head, half addressing the intern. “Today I- or I guess we now- have been stuck with writing up a damage report of Batman’s latest fight with Clayface. If you ask me these pieces are a bit of a drag, but it’s still good to inform everyone on what happened.”
“They usually seem to push around the good guys to me”, Helena declared, not hiding an irritated tone. “Those damage reports never mention how many people are saved or what the criminals did, they only care that Batman and all that messed up some property or mention nothing but slip-ups.”
Lois raised an eyebrow at the girl’s opinion. “Those are some strong words, Helena.”
Helena just crossed her arms. “I just don’t like ‘em, that’s all I’m trying to say.”
The reporter sighed, but continued on. “Hey, maybe your opinion will change after being here on the front lines and seeing what the people have to say.”
“Maybe”, the intern replied reluctantly. “But I still reserve the right to strong opinions!”
Lois chuckled. “I wouldn’t plan on taking them from you kid.”
...
Now in the reporter’s car and driving down the streets of Gotham, Lois noticed the younger woman throwing glances in her direction. After a few more minutes she caved into herself, making sure her throat clearing was loud.
“Something you’d like to ask, Helena?” Lois asked nicely. “I’m not afraid of any difficult answers.”
Helena let out a small puff. “Well I was just wondering Miss Lane, would you have any reporter tips for me? I mean, I’ve seen the stuff they do on the news and TV shows, but I don’t really have any personal experience.”
Lois kept her eyes on the road as she answered. “I can say without hesitation the most important part of journalism is taking risks no matter what. And believe me, I know a thing or two about risk taking to get a story.”
“And what’s that”, the intern asked, very intrigued. Lois smiled to herself.
“To start off, just the other day I was sneaking onto a Falcone-owned pier to get some proof of a drug op running out of there.”
The reporter heard snapping fingers. “I actually heard about that on the news the other day! Alf- uh, one of the people I live with read it in the paper too. That must have been intense, Miss Lane.”
Lois chuckled. “You don’t know the half of it. Luckily it was an off day for them, otherwise I might have actually been caught. And luckily it actually was a dirty pier, because I might have botched the story if there wasn’t anything there.”
There was a brief lull in conversation before Helena piped in again. “So an integral part of reporting is being sneaky and breaking into places?”
For a moment Lois stuttered to answer before she righted herself. “W-well no, not necessarily, but I-I did it because I had to.”
“Like you have something to prove?” Helena carefully asked. Lois didn’t say anything for a long time. Realising this the younger girl let out an awkward cough. “Uh, i-if that’s too personal you don’t have to answer.”
“No. No, it’s alright Helena”, Lois breathed out. “I just... I guess I’ve never really reflected that intensely. Sure, I sometimes look back and wonder why I did this, or I did that, but I’ve never answered my own questions. How about you let me get back to you with an answer?”
“Sounds good to me”, Helena cheerfully replied, lightening up the ride with a bright smile. After another beat she had one last question. “So are we good to do reporting yet?”
Lois smiled. “Yep. Pullin’ in now.”
...
They got a door slammed in their face.
Lois and Helena shared a sigh. That was the third eye witness they’d try to get a statement from, and so far all of them had denied the two reporters- or in Helena’s case: upcoming reporter- any sort of answer. Knowing they wouldn’t be able to convince this person to change their mind, the two just left.
On the way out Lois glanced down at her list. “Well Helena, we’ve got two more people to try and get something out of, and then this part of our job is done.”
“Sounds fun”, Helena remarked sarcastically. “I’m totally sure we won’t get any slammed doors. Honestly I’d be fine with one of these eye witnesses just giving a statement that said ‘it was scary’.”
“Same here”, Lois agreed with a chuckle. As they started walking down the street, back to the car, the woman noticed her younger acquaintance started to slow her path. “Is... something wrong, Helena?”
She looked over at the question, answering in a hushed tone. “Someone’s following us.”
Lois gave a confused expression. “We’ve been walking for like, ten seconds! No one’s following us.”
“Say that to HIM!” Helena exclaimed as a man across the street from them actually tore himself in half. Lois gagged at the sight, and found herself being pulled along by the intern. “C’mon Lane! Maybe if we’re lucky...”
As Lois was pushed behind a car just next to them, she just stared in horror as the horror started spilling clay out of his ripped torso, and then a moment later he had morphed, almost three times taller than he was before, his width taking up most of the narrow pathway as well. It was quite obvious who had been following them.
“Aw, hell”, Lois groaned. “Clayface?! We’ve been tracked by f***ing Clayface?!” At no reply, the reporter looked around wildly. “Helena? Helena?! Where the hell...?”
Her half-finished answer was quick to be pushed to the side, as before it could even be realised by anyone, Lois was quick to see Huntress jump out from the roofs, shooting an explosive bolt at Clayface. As his shoulder splat across the pavement, he angrily swore, looking around.
“Huntress. Didn’t expect to see you”, he sneered. “Batman too afraid to fight me?”
Huntress jumped down, staring down the villain. “Karlo, please! You and I both know he would annihilate you. And I will too.”
Clayface scoffed. “Good for you. Now get outta my way. I’m here for the reporter and her friend. Where’d they go?”
As the clay villain started looming forward, the vigilante loaded another crossbow bolt, shooting Clayface through the shoulder. It was expertly aimed, the small explosion from the modified bolt causing a reaction the made the man’s arm fall off. He roared, all attention on Huntress.
As he prepared himself to charge, the female vigilante looked over in Lois’s direction, giving a look to ‘get out of here!’ The woman complied without a fuss, knowing already she wouldn’t be able to do something to the villain no matter what.
While Lois started gunning it to safety, she tried to catch snippets of the fight between Huntress and Clayface. It seemed the woman was winning, easily dodging and weaving through brash attacks, then replying with calculated hits of her own. It was impressive to Lois, even after meeting the actual vigilante a number of times.
Now in a safe position, the reporter side of Lois decided to jump up, and without even consciously thinking about it she raised her camera up to take pictures. If she couldn’t get anything for the damage report, she sure as hell could write up this new story/development. But thanks to the inner reporter, the woman also found her mind wandering. Where had Helena gone? Why didn’t she say anything? Was she injured?
And then it clicked.
Lois had to choke back a scream, the realisation that Helena Wayne was Huntress hitting her hard. The reporter mentally slapped herself for concluding this only now. It had been so obvious! The girl’s opinion on the paper, her questions and answers- that might be pushing it but Lois thought they were way too detailed for a normal intern- and after another mental slap Lois realised general appearance as well. How that hadn’t been identified straight away baffled her.
So focusing on the fight again Lois felt a case of anxiety, especially when Huntress was bat out of the air by a cinder block-type hand from Clayface. Luckily the vigilante didn’t stay down for long, rolling out of the way of another hit, then jumping to her knees. The reporter could hear the woman’s cry of pain even from her vantage point.
With only a split-second thought of doing the opposite, Lois started heading back down closer to the fight. When in range she started yelling out. “Hey, Clayface! I heard you’re looking for me!”
“YOU”, he exclaimed, absentmindedly throwing out a hand that- luckily for him- hit Huntress. “I hear you’re trying to get dirt on me.”
Lois gave a shaky shrug. Clayface was way bigger right in front of her. “Just trying to give people the facts.”
Clayface’s already deformed features contorted even more, flashing with anger. “Think you’re smart, huh? I’ll shall you getting facts!”
When he started moving closer Lois took steps back, growing more and more frantic as they went. She liked to think she was a brave and courageous person, but when you’re looking up at Clayface’s rage, it’s not very easy to stay that way. As he moved closer and closer, any distance between them rapidly disappearing, the two heard loud clicks and beeps behind them, and when Huntress suddenly jumped out from behind the villain, once again dragging Lois along, the man’s face fell.
“Oh”, Clayface simply said as his whole body exploded, sending clay everywhere.
There was a moment of a pure mute street, until it was broken by car alarms going off. In the middle of all this sudden chaos, Lois coughed and cried out, pulling herself out of a large chunk of clay. In a flash Huntress was next to her, helping to get the reporter out. Once that was done the vigilante wrapped an arm around the woman, pulling her up to a roof.
As they landed Lois deeply breathed. In and out. In and out. When she knew she was calm, she let out a very loud, stressed and strangled noise. “You’re Huntress, Helena?!”
The vigilante froze, all sorts of expressions crossing her face. After what seemed to be a few agonizing moments for the woman, she sagged, letting out a long sigh. “You know. Of course you know. How?”
“I realised halfway through that fight”, Lois admitted. “Can’t believe it took me that long.”
Helena hummed in agreement. She dropped her crossbow, sitting on the roof. She gave a half hearted look to see if Lois wanted to join her. The older woman shrugged, taking a seat on the ground. “Are you going to tell anyone”, Huntress asked.
Lois scoffed. “As if. I mostly believe in the things you and Batman do, and I wouldn’t even think of getting in the way of that. Plus, I’m pretty sure the guy would kill me if I revealed your secret.”
The vigilante laughed, seemingly relaxing a little. “I’m-I’m glad to hear that. Uh, what about- what about the newspaper? Will you tell them to kick me out?”
“Calm down Helena”, Lois soothingly said, even if her face was the opposite. “I’m not telling anyone, I’m not forcing you away, I’m not blackmailing. Nothing. I just have one question though. Did you plan to be stuck with me when you went to intern?”
At that, Helena seemed to relax entirely, chuckling. “Miss Lane, just because I’m Batman’s protégé and partner doesn’t mean I bend the world to my will. In honesty, I knew you worked there, but I thought I’d just be put in as a receptionist or like, a phone answerer or something. Didn’t think I’d be fielding straight away.”
Lois slightly sighed at that. “Okay. That’s alright. But now I feel I have to ask. You worked at Wayne Enterprises and your last name is Wayne. Is that a coincidence?”
Helena chuckled, and was glad to see Lois didn’t realise the nerves that were in it. “Nope. Definitely no relation there. At all.”
“Alright. I can believe that.” For a while after, there was quiet, until Helena cleared her throat.
“Uh, so, Miss Lane... what happens now?”
“Now”, Lois echoed. “Now... well I guess we’ll move on. No reason to make a big deal out of this, right? Sure, my kindness will probably make me worry at night, and if you come in to work with bruises I might freak out, but I think we should just see what happens. I’d like to become your friend, Helena.”
At this admission, the younger woman gave a sheepish smile. “That... sounds nice. Is it okay if I already call you a friend? I feel I’ve saved you enough to earn the right to call you that.”
It was Lois’s turn to laugh now. “Nice to see my friendship can be won that easy. But when you say it like that, I’ll call you a friend now too.” Helena beamed at the words, and didn’t seem to be letting it up soon. On the other woman’s end though, she had other plans. “So. Wanna get us off this roof now?”
Reminded, Helena jumped to her feet, picking up her crossbow. “Yeah, right. Let’s do that.”
With this they swung off thanks to Helena’s grapple gun, and after a friendly reminder from Lois they started going for the Gotham Gazette. Once there the vigilante snuck in through the side, changing out of costume while the reporter went up the normal way. When they rendezvoused back at Lois’s desk, they made their way to the final destination of the boss’s office.
It sure was going to be fun to explain their run in with Clayface, but that was nothing in Lois’s book. With a new friend- and probably partner of her own here at the paper- in Helena, she believed the payoff was well worth it. She was excited to see what they would get up to in the future...