Huntress

Ms. Helena Bertinelli is a teacher in good standing at Edison High, in Gotham City. She's quiet and effective, moderately dependable, and relates well to her students. She teaches English Composition and Literature.

Huntress is a well-known vigilante in Gotham. She has a reputation amongst criminals of being a killer when it suits her, and being vicious regardless. In the superhero community, she's considered something of a loose-cannon; good to have at your back, just make sure you know which way she's pointed. And as far as the GCPD goes, she's officially on their 'Wanted' list.

Background
Helena Rosa Bertinelli was born to Franco Bertinelli, the capo di tutti capi of Gotham's Five Familes, and his wife Maria in Gotham City. While she didn't understand how or why, little Helena was a Mafia princess through and through. She got what she wanted, and was sheltered from all the bad things outside.

When Helena was eight years old, a man broke into their house during dinner. Right in front of Helena's eyes, he shot her father, mother, and older brother in that order. Leaving her alive and in shock, he left the house without saying a word.

Helena's Uncle Tomaso Panessa, now the new capo di tutti capi, sent her to Sicily for her own protection. She lived there for seven years on a farm with her aunt and uncle. For the first three years, she screamed in her sleep every night. Her Uncle Nicola and Cousin Salvatore taught her how to stop the screaming when she was eleven. They taught her that she could be the hunter rather than the hunted. They taught her about omerta. They taught her how to fight and how to kill, but she didn't know who her enemy really was.

Helena trained until she was fifteen, and when her Uncle and Cousin were arrested she was sent to boarding school in Switzerland. There, she learned the truth about the Mafia, and she found her enemy.

When she was sixteen, Helena went back to Gotham for a family party. There, she watched while Batman assaulted and terrorized her Mafia family. She saw how he took the fight to them, and she decided to do the same.

Returning to Sicily, to the abandoned farm, Helena started training herself. There, she honed her skills in private, developing her mind as well as her body into a warrior.

Helena went to college in New York, majoring in English literature and education. But while she pursued her degree work, she continued to train and push herself, honing her skills.

When she graduated, Helena took a teaching position in high school English at Gotham Heights. She also took up the mantle of the Huntress by night, fighting violence with violence.

After two years on the streets she was making some headway in Gotham, breaking up smaller Mafioso operations and slowly impacting the larger organized crime picture. By this time she was well on Batman's radar, and although they occasionally combined forces he could not condone her brutal and vicious methods. She met other heroes and went to other cities, but always ended up back in Gotham.

It was Batman who nominated her to the Justice League, where she took her place in the ranks of Superman and Wonder Woman. Huntress accepted, not knowing that this was the first test of many the Bat would put before her.

Huntress worked well with the League, and proved to be a valuable asset. However, her training and old habits weren't easy things to break. After she nearly shot a downed adversary in the face, Batman expelled her on the spot.

Back in Gotham, she resumed her work until the earthquake hit the city and turned it into No Man's Land. Batman had disappeared, and Huntress knew that Gotham needed a Bat. So she made a black costume with a bat insignia, and called herself Batgirl.

As both Batgirl and Huntress, Helena fought to protect Gotham and hold the Bat-Cabal's territory. Batman returned after three months, leaving her in charge against overwhelming odds. After she lost much territory to Two-Face and Penguin's armies, Batman stripped her of the Batgirl costume.

Back as only Huntress, now, she left the Bats and joined a rogue GCPD cop's gang instead. When the Joker came up with a plan to kill all of Gotham's children, Huntress faced him and his gang single-handedly. Fighting initially to delay him, she ended up defeating the whole lot of them instead. That was right before he shot her several times. Batman and Nightwing arrived to round up the gang before Joker could finish her off, however.

While Huntress recovered from her wounds, Gotham recovered as well. The city slowly rebuilt. By the time she was back on the streets, there was a new problem. Someone was killing Mafiosos with a crossbow, and all the evidence pointed to Huntress. Batman and Nightwing confronted her about it, and while she was arguing her innocence she accidently shot Batman. Nightwing beat her half to death, and only a fall into Gotham Harbor saved her life.

Huntress was pulled from the water by Vic Sage, the enigmatic Question. Vic brought her to Canada to hopefully learn from his old sensei, Richard Dragon. His intention was for her to learn to deal with her anger and her past, and to find inner peace through Dragon's teachings. She remained with Dragon and Sage for months before returning.

Returning to Gotham with Question, Huntress discovered that the shooter was none other than Don Santo Cassamento, a man who not only claimed to be her biological father but who also knew her secret identity.

Huntress was still trying to clear her own name, so she couldn't very well kill Cassamento. Instead, she asked her Uncle Tomaso for a 'favor'? Cassamento was set up, ambushed, and killed.

It took her some time to mend bridges with the Question after that, but not all of Dragon's teachings fell by the wayside. Huntress helped out a couple of successful operations with Oracle's Birds of Prey, and was accepted back into their fold as well. Zen is hard. Rage is easy. And Huntress continues to walk the tightrope between the two.

Personality
Determined - Once she commits to a cause, Huntress is absolutely relentless. She pushes herself, as well as anyone standing in her way, until she achieves what she's after. While sometimes this isn't the most -appropriate- approach, and it has certainly earned her no small amount of animosity, it is quite often effective.

Survivor - Helena is the sole survivor of her immediate family, having watched her father and mother murdered in cold blood by Mafia assassins. She's been beaten half to death, shot and left for dead, and yet she recovers and keeps coming back. Perhaps it's because she's too stubborn to quit, or just refuses to die.

Emotional - If there's anything you can depend on from Huntress, it's an emotional response. It doesn't take much button pushing to send her off in a rage, following some knee-jerk reaction. It's not that she doesn't -think- before she acts, it's just that her responses are based much more on emotion than reason.

Omerta - The Mafia code of honor, it means you handle your own affairs personally. If a man requires vengeance, he doesn't involve the government or anyone 'outside'. As much as Helena hates the Mafia, she was also raised to follow this code. It's a big part of the reason why she went vigilante, actually. 'Blood calls for blood', and in the case of vengeance for her parents' death there will never be enough.

Loner - Okay, so some of the reason Huntress works alone is that she can be difficult to get along with. But the truth is, she really has a hard time trusting anyone but herself. Yes, she can play well enough on a team for a while, but it's certainly not her preferred way to operate.

Zen - Helena studied with Richard Dragon during her recovery in Canada. While she may claim that all he taught her was how to make tea, she truly did learn enough zen principles to soothe her inner beast. At least temporarily.