Post by redsycorax on Aug 13, 2023 3:17:03 GMT
Terry (Catman) Blake has reformed and is now in a relationship with Jose (Green Lantern) Hernandez. So, what's going to happen when he runs up against his past loves and life as a supervillain? And who is Shulamith Grundy and what is her connection to Gotham's Slaughter Swamp?
++
CENTRAL CITY:
"Stay where you are, Captain Cold. I'll try to make this quick and get it over with."
"No, you don't, speedster. Not one inch closer- hey!" A boomerang hit her hand, causing her to drop her cryogun. She turned and was exposed to a right hook from Robin:
"Sorry, you were expecting someone else?" As Captain Cold fell back, her accomplice in this rogues mission, Captain Boomerang, was startled as a familiar figure barreled into him:
"Terry?! What the hell do you think you're- unnnhhhhh!"
"No, Terry. Tell me it's not true. Not after what Lon meant to you." Captain Cold gasped, as she witnessed Catman throw Boomerang over his shoulder against a wall.
"Look, Lisa. I'm sorry. But after what happened to Lon, can you blame me? Our life was getting too dark. Please. I'd hate to open the newspaper one morning and find out you'd joined him."
"All right. All right, seeing it's you, I won't resist." Robin looked up as she secured Captain Cold and Boomerang, ready for the CCPD:
"Thanks, folks." Tanaka (The Flash) Rei grinned, as Robin shook hands with Catman:
"Nicely done, Terry. Thanks."
The Flash raised an eyebrow: "Wow, so it is true. You have turned over a new leaf."
Catman nodded: "Yeah. Not that I blame Lisa here for what she did to Frostbite."
"But you wouldn't have. And neither would she, usually. Hell, though, that was a good drug bust after she got through with that gang house."
"We do have limits, speedster. Drugs are off the list. The Rogues and you may have differences, but that's not one of them."
"I've never doubted that, Lisa. Perhaps one day...?"
"Dream on, speedster."
REI RESIDENCE:
"Wow, you should have seen him, Hoshi! Terry floored Boomer just as he was about to ambush Tanaka!"
"Thank you for helping him, Helena. More coconut slice?"
"And thanks too, Terry. I thought Jose would never get over Hermes' death. I'm glad you two are an item."
"Let's just say we were in the same place in the same time."
Hoshi sighed: "I wish some of Tan's rogues would take the hint and do the right thing too, Terry."
"You should have seen Captain Cold though, honey. Good gosh, she was utterly co-operative."
"She might be willing to change, but she's still in love with Roscoe Dillon, remember? He's keeping her onside with the rogues. For all her strict moral code against drugs, there is still that. And she did kill Frostbite."
"His theft of the cryogun caused Lonny's death. I'm not saying that I condone it, but I do understand it. I don't think she'll do it again, Dr. Rei."
"Even if Tan and I were enemies of Lon Sharif, neither of us wanted him to die in the course of battle. Even if it nudged you across the morality barrier, that was too high a cost. We're sorry, Terry. We know what he meant to you."
"And hopefully one day, Lisa will, too."
"You're an optimist when it comes to human nature, Tan darling. I wish I was."
JAA SEABASE:
"Oliver!"
"Man, Jose, what happened to you?" Green Arrow whistled as he saw the condition of Green Lantern's combat uniform, although his was similarly in compromised condition.
"Apparently, the only way to deter the H'draiti, who have a sulphuric acid based ecosystem on their world, is to throw large amounts of alkaline slime at them. It ruined my outfit."
"So what happens? Do the Overlords spring for a replacement?"
"Well, yeah. That's part of the deal. I take it Merlyn and you had a tussle?"
"That's the problem with us, Jose. While I wield the Green Archery of virtue, Merlyn Firemark got the Black Archery of evil from some of the nastier side of our pantheon. It means that with our respective skills and weapons, we cancel each other out. So, often, we go at it hammers and tongs."
"Anyhow, man, I'm offshift. Terry did good in Central City today and I intend to reward him."
"Aw man, I'm happy for you both. And after what you've been through with Hermes, you deserve a break."
SLAUGHTER SWAMP, GOTHAM:
Born on a Monday
Christened on Tuesday
Married On Wednesday
Gave birth on Thursday
Killed on a Friday
Buried on Saturday
Rose from the grave
on a Sunday...
Shulamith was a hitwoman for the Zaccone mob. She hated her job sometimes, but she only had herself to blame for it. She'd grown up in the Suicide Slum area of Metropolis and met a teenage guy, Sil. Those days seemed so long ago now. One thing led to another and high school romance led to some intimate and passionate activity near an adjacent river. She got pregnant and as a consequence, both of them had to leave school. They got married in a registry office, with no bridal veil or tuxedo and for a while, Sil worked construction for a Gotham-backed company... until he fell from the gantry into wet concrete below. Widowed, and on a single income, she probably shouldn't have taken the step into criminality, but they'd made her an offer she couldn't refuse, given that she was bringing up her daughter alone except for her own elderly mother, she had few options, especially given the limits on social security these days. She wouldn't kill kids and she wouldn't shoot pregnant women, that was that. However, apart from those scruples, she was deadly efficient and good at her job. In fact, she was too good, which raised fury and the inevitable reprisal. Thus it was that one day, Shulamith was ambushed on a remote road near Gotham, pumped full of bullets and presumed dead, dragged into the murky recesses of Slaughter Swamp. But that wasn't the end of this story, given the proximity of the Scarlet O chemical factory. Because of Gotham's endemic corruption, there was lax regulation of the waste disposal from the plant, with certain implications. Despite the fact that Shulamith's corpse should have been rotting, a perverse miracle was in process. As the chemicals interacted with her mortal remains, they caused preservation of her bones and muscles, despite the fact that her flesh became chalky white. Even her brain returned to activity, stirring as two felons approached, hesitantly, relating the story of the sad fate of the Zaccone gunwoman. However, as her eyes blinked open once more, the two men stopped short at the statuesque, pallid woman that had arisen before them. One screamed, another fainted. Looking down at them, she shook her head and then stalked away, her visage dark and foreboding
Shulamith Grundy had rejoined the living and before the month was out, she would have her revenge on those who had killed her...
GOTHAM:
Shulamith managed to uneasily traverse the rickety fire escape until it reached the tenement floor where her mother and her daughter were sleeping and looked in on the two people she loved most in this world, even if she was now a creature of what might be construed as the next. A lump came into her throat as she watched her little girl asleep amidst her dolls and toys, and she realised that it would be impossible for her to ever see her child again. She wouldn't understand. She would be terrified of this thing that her mother had become and wouldn't recognise that inside, Shulamith was still the same. She saw her own reflection as an ambulance passed through the streets below with its lights blazing and then she turned away from the building as the night swallowed her whole.
But because this was the home city of the Batman, Robin and Batboy, inevitably signs of her presence began to show amidst the debris, the mysterious corpses found in back end alleyways and the terrified expressions of rival mobsters as they met their ends. Only the Zaccone mob was free from reprisals and depredation, Batman mused in his cave late at night. As Robin came down the stairs with coffee for the two of them, she frowned at her father's data display on the Batcomputer screens:
"Dad? Does that mean that we're looking for someone in the Zaccone syndicate?"
"They seem to be the only ones immune from the current Gotham gangland war, Helena."
"Just a thought, but could this be tied up with the Shulamith Robowski Missing Persons case? She was a Zaccone hitwoman, after all."
"Good thinking, sweetheart. Calling up her modus operandi stats now... blazes."
Robin frowned: "Look at that forensic detail data, Dad. That's an exact match for the fragrance Robowski used in life, that broken fingernail will probably have a DNA match...yes, thought so... and so does that hair fragment. But those other chemical traces... they're toxins. They would have killed her if she'd had prolonged exposure, at that level of saturation within her hair and fingernails."
"I'm calling in the Alliance, Helena. I don't think we can bring Shulamith Robowski in alone. Not if she's become what I fear she has."
SLAUGHTER SWAMP:
"So it is you, Shulie," "Boss" Enrico Zaccone said, then stifled a gasp as the cadaverous form lurched into the flickering light of the hesitant bulb, "sorry. I wasn't prepared...good to see you're on your feet. And thanks for the assist. The boys, girls and I are grateful for your very thorough spring cleaning of the city low life. What happened to you?"
In a low, menacing voice, Shulamith Grundy replied: "I know what you're thinking, Boss. A monster."
"What the hell, Shulie, you're our monster. And hey, ain't that a relative term? Given some of the involvement of the street slime engaged in drug distribution and other bottom feeders that you've disposed of, I am definitely not complaining! Nor does anyone in our syndicate. How you look don't matter to me."
Shulamith nodded: "The only thing that matters to me now is my daughter, Boss. Keep my ma and Hildie safe is all I ask."
"You were always a good mother, Shulie. Nah, don't worry. We had a contract and my family always honours its contracts. What is it, Arnie?"
"Trouble, Boss. We'd better light out of here. A sentry down in Crime Alley spotted the Bat, his Girl Wonder and some'a his JAA sidekicks headin' this way."
"Hell. Shulie, would you take care a' Bats and his entourage for us?"
Shulamith Grundy said nothing, but looked out into the night, her scarlet eyes looking out from the hollows of her face. As Zaccone and his mobsters hurriedly left, she stalked out into the foetid night of Slaughter Swamp, ready to await her enemies.
Hawkboy flew ahead of the others, despite expressions of concern from his colleagues. Brashness and bravado was definitely one of Kator's problems, but despite his courage and prowess with the mace, he wasn't ready for the hard blow that stopped his swoop downward in his tracks and smashed him into the trunk of a rotting forest mangrove:
"Kator!" Robin managed to catch Hawkboy before he could fall into the heavily polluted swamp below, but she was startled to witness the expression on Lightning Girl's face as the World's Mightiest Maiden accelerated past her, her face set in fury. With the others, Catman whistled as he ran past with Green Lantern flying beside him:
"Uh oh. Jose, do Bella and Kator have a thing going with one another?"
"I thought they were spending a lot of downtime together. That's the expression of an outraged lover who's just seen her man downed."
"Just as well Shayera's away in Metropolis while Kal and Kara are on parental leave. Uh oh."
"Yeah, your ring's got its limits? Like certain fungal growths? Don't worry. I'll help out here." And with that, Catman leapfrogged a fallen tree trunk, as Robin looked on and joined him. Meanwhile, Batman had spotted the Scarlet O factory. He frowned to himself. Then his utility belt hazard sensor activated and his eyes widened. The chemical outflow was an exact match for the substances that the Batcomputer had found on Shulamith's body samples. He waved to Robin, who had received the same intel, and signalled to Green Lantern. After a worried gaze at the last area of the swamp where he'd seen his life's love, Jose Hernandez joined Batman and Robin as they turned toward the factory.
Several hundred metres ahead, Lightning Girl angrily cannonballed into the hulking intruder:
"You!!! You injured Kator Hol, badly! If he's badly injured, if he dies, I will make you regret it!"
"Bring it on, girly. You need taking down a step or two, that's for sure." Shulamith Grundy's fist impacted hard and knocked Lightning Girl into the sky, startling her with the strength of her assailant momentarily. Then Merokee's Daughter regained her equilibrium, brushed a stray strand of hair back, set her face in determination, and hurtled back downward. And this time, it was Shulamith Grundy who fell, catapulted across a row of rotted trees and slamming through their trunks. Before she could get up, Lightning Girl slammed her into the ground, hammering at her already disfigured face:
"I will stop you! Any way I can!" And then a yellow, male arm stayed her fist:
"Easy, Bella."
"Stay out of this, Terry. She needs to pay for what she-"
"Bella, you aren't a killer. That's not what Merokee gave you your powers for. Don't betray your gifts, who you are, the hope you represent to so many people, just for the sake of outrage. Kator's had the wind knocked out of him, sure, but he's basically recovering up at the satellite. He needs you now."
"T-thanks for that. I'm sorry. I don't know why I lost control like that. I think I need to talk to Willie once he gets back from Metropolis with Shay and the others. And the Shaman."
"Hey, you just saw the guy you care for getting his clock cleaned. That's provocation enough. I'm not judging you, nor is anyone else." As Lightning Girl flew off, Catman knelt by the still prone Shulamith Grundy:
"I'm not going to patronise you by asking if you're okay, because you're obviously not. My enhanced senses say not, even given that screwed up physiology of yours."
"What do you care?"
"You'd be surprised. You've been guyed, Ms Robowski."
"Don't call me that. Call me Grundy, Shulamith Grundy."
"Right, like the old kid's nursery rhyme? Look, I hacked into Bats' hazard sensor and did some digging of my own. That factory that spewed the poison into Slaughter Swamp that transformed you into this? It's a Cadmus Biotech subsidiary. And its owner is one James Olsen, one helluva black tech specialist. That hit that was called on you was intended to use you as a guinea pig, resurrecting you as a test case."
"Ironic, eh, Catman? Lightning Girl there counts her coup with me and I end up dying anyway. Because of this rat's nest of an unstable body that I inhabit, because it's unstable and not fit for purpose..."
"Never say never, Ms. Grundy. And don't worry. We'll keep this whole thing confidential, your mother and daughter won't know you're still around. Because you will be."
'Don't lie to me, Catman, I... what's that?"
As Catman activated the Survival Zone Projector, he cleared his throat:
"Look, you're not the only one in there for rest and rehab. But you're only doing this because you thought you had no other way out, and to make sure your kid had a better life than how you grew up. I can relate. You don't deserve to die, Shulamith. Not permanently. So you won't." And as he spoke, Shulamith Grundy's form gradually faded from the uncanny stillness of Slaughter Swamp. He turned the Survival Zone Projector off and then swung toward the adjacent factory.
EPILOGUE:
James Olsen was not happy when he read that evening's online edition of the Gotham Gazette. Angrily, the crime lord's finger stabbed down on the keyboard, cutting off the offending masthead and story below it. He got up and scowled at the viewscreen across the room. Shulamith Grundy had been meant to take down the Justice Alliance, specifically one of its weaker members, but she had betrayed her purpose. She'd been intended to be a hulking, violent and insensate beast, but instead, she had retained enough of her intelligence for his adversaries to take pity on her and give her a second chance. He had never intended the misbegotten creature to survive, for she was a tool and once her purpose was served, she would have been discarded. And then, James Olsen had the feeling that he was not alone, that somewhere, something snarled and expressed its revulsion and disgust at him. And despite his razor intellect, James Olsen felt chilled to the bone, as, dimensions away, Shulamith Grundy regarded him with ferocity and murder in her charcoal heart...
THE END [12.45 PM, AUGUST 29, 2023]
++
CENTRAL CITY:
"Stay where you are, Captain Cold. I'll try to make this quick and get it over with."
"No, you don't, speedster. Not one inch closer- hey!" A boomerang hit her hand, causing her to drop her cryogun. She turned and was exposed to a right hook from Robin:
"Sorry, you were expecting someone else?" As Captain Cold fell back, her accomplice in this rogues mission, Captain Boomerang, was startled as a familiar figure barreled into him:
"Terry?! What the hell do you think you're- unnnhhhhh!"
"No, Terry. Tell me it's not true. Not after what Lon meant to you." Captain Cold gasped, as she witnessed Catman throw Boomerang over his shoulder against a wall.
"Look, Lisa. I'm sorry. But after what happened to Lon, can you blame me? Our life was getting too dark. Please. I'd hate to open the newspaper one morning and find out you'd joined him."
"All right. All right, seeing it's you, I won't resist." Robin looked up as she secured Captain Cold and Boomerang, ready for the CCPD:
"Thanks, folks." Tanaka (The Flash) Rei grinned, as Robin shook hands with Catman:
"Nicely done, Terry. Thanks."
The Flash raised an eyebrow: "Wow, so it is true. You have turned over a new leaf."
Catman nodded: "Yeah. Not that I blame Lisa here for what she did to Frostbite."
"But you wouldn't have. And neither would she, usually. Hell, though, that was a good drug bust after she got through with that gang house."
"We do have limits, speedster. Drugs are off the list. The Rogues and you may have differences, but that's not one of them."
"I've never doubted that, Lisa. Perhaps one day...?"
"Dream on, speedster."
REI RESIDENCE:
"Wow, you should have seen him, Hoshi! Terry floored Boomer just as he was about to ambush Tanaka!"
"Thank you for helping him, Helena. More coconut slice?"
"And thanks too, Terry. I thought Jose would never get over Hermes' death. I'm glad you two are an item."
"Let's just say we were in the same place in the same time."
Hoshi sighed: "I wish some of Tan's rogues would take the hint and do the right thing too, Terry."
"You should have seen Captain Cold though, honey. Good gosh, she was utterly co-operative."
"She might be willing to change, but she's still in love with Roscoe Dillon, remember? He's keeping her onside with the rogues. For all her strict moral code against drugs, there is still that. And she did kill Frostbite."
"His theft of the cryogun caused Lonny's death. I'm not saying that I condone it, but I do understand it. I don't think she'll do it again, Dr. Rei."
"Even if Tan and I were enemies of Lon Sharif, neither of us wanted him to die in the course of battle. Even if it nudged you across the morality barrier, that was too high a cost. We're sorry, Terry. We know what he meant to you."
"And hopefully one day, Lisa will, too."
"You're an optimist when it comes to human nature, Tan darling. I wish I was."
JAA SEABASE:
"Oliver!"
"Man, Jose, what happened to you?" Green Arrow whistled as he saw the condition of Green Lantern's combat uniform, although his was similarly in compromised condition.
"Apparently, the only way to deter the H'draiti, who have a sulphuric acid based ecosystem on their world, is to throw large amounts of alkaline slime at them. It ruined my outfit."
"So what happens? Do the Overlords spring for a replacement?"
"Well, yeah. That's part of the deal. I take it Merlyn and you had a tussle?"
"That's the problem with us, Jose. While I wield the Green Archery of virtue, Merlyn Firemark got the Black Archery of evil from some of the nastier side of our pantheon. It means that with our respective skills and weapons, we cancel each other out. So, often, we go at it hammers and tongs."
"Anyhow, man, I'm offshift. Terry did good in Central City today and I intend to reward him."
"Aw man, I'm happy for you both. And after what you've been through with Hermes, you deserve a break."
SLAUGHTER SWAMP, GOTHAM:
Born on a Monday
Christened on Tuesday
Married On Wednesday
Gave birth on Thursday
Killed on a Friday
Buried on Saturday
Rose from the grave
on a Sunday...
Shulamith was a hitwoman for the Zaccone mob. She hated her job sometimes, but she only had herself to blame for it. She'd grown up in the Suicide Slum area of Metropolis and met a teenage guy, Sil. Those days seemed so long ago now. One thing led to another and high school romance led to some intimate and passionate activity near an adjacent river. She got pregnant and as a consequence, both of them had to leave school. They got married in a registry office, with no bridal veil or tuxedo and for a while, Sil worked construction for a Gotham-backed company... until he fell from the gantry into wet concrete below. Widowed, and on a single income, she probably shouldn't have taken the step into criminality, but they'd made her an offer she couldn't refuse, given that she was bringing up her daughter alone except for her own elderly mother, she had few options, especially given the limits on social security these days. She wouldn't kill kids and she wouldn't shoot pregnant women, that was that. However, apart from those scruples, she was deadly efficient and good at her job. In fact, she was too good, which raised fury and the inevitable reprisal. Thus it was that one day, Shulamith was ambushed on a remote road near Gotham, pumped full of bullets and presumed dead, dragged into the murky recesses of Slaughter Swamp. But that wasn't the end of this story, given the proximity of the Scarlet O chemical factory. Because of Gotham's endemic corruption, there was lax regulation of the waste disposal from the plant, with certain implications. Despite the fact that Shulamith's corpse should have been rotting, a perverse miracle was in process. As the chemicals interacted with her mortal remains, they caused preservation of her bones and muscles, despite the fact that her flesh became chalky white. Even her brain returned to activity, stirring as two felons approached, hesitantly, relating the story of the sad fate of the Zaccone gunwoman. However, as her eyes blinked open once more, the two men stopped short at the statuesque, pallid woman that had arisen before them. One screamed, another fainted. Looking down at them, she shook her head and then stalked away, her visage dark and foreboding
Shulamith Grundy had rejoined the living and before the month was out, she would have her revenge on those who had killed her...
GOTHAM:
Shulamith managed to uneasily traverse the rickety fire escape until it reached the tenement floor where her mother and her daughter were sleeping and looked in on the two people she loved most in this world, even if she was now a creature of what might be construed as the next. A lump came into her throat as she watched her little girl asleep amidst her dolls and toys, and she realised that it would be impossible for her to ever see her child again. She wouldn't understand. She would be terrified of this thing that her mother had become and wouldn't recognise that inside, Shulamith was still the same. She saw her own reflection as an ambulance passed through the streets below with its lights blazing and then she turned away from the building as the night swallowed her whole.
But because this was the home city of the Batman, Robin and Batboy, inevitably signs of her presence began to show amidst the debris, the mysterious corpses found in back end alleyways and the terrified expressions of rival mobsters as they met their ends. Only the Zaccone mob was free from reprisals and depredation, Batman mused in his cave late at night. As Robin came down the stairs with coffee for the two of them, she frowned at her father's data display on the Batcomputer screens:
"Dad? Does that mean that we're looking for someone in the Zaccone syndicate?"
"They seem to be the only ones immune from the current Gotham gangland war, Helena."
"Just a thought, but could this be tied up with the Shulamith Robowski Missing Persons case? She was a Zaccone hitwoman, after all."
"Good thinking, sweetheart. Calling up her modus operandi stats now... blazes."
Robin frowned: "Look at that forensic detail data, Dad. That's an exact match for the fragrance Robowski used in life, that broken fingernail will probably have a DNA match...yes, thought so... and so does that hair fragment. But those other chemical traces... they're toxins. They would have killed her if she'd had prolonged exposure, at that level of saturation within her hair and fingernails."
"I'm calling in the Alliance, Helena. I don't think we can bring Shulamith Robowski in alone. Not if she's become what I fear she has."
SLAUGHTER SWAMP:
"So it is you, Shulie," "Boss" Enrico Zaccone said, then stifled a gasp as the cadaverous form lurched into the flickering light of the hesitant bulb, "sorry. I wasn't prepared...good to see you're on your feet. And thanks for the assist. The boys, girls and I are grateful for your very thorough spring cleaning of the city low life. What happened to you?"
In a low, menacing voice, Shulamith Grundy replied: "I know what you're thinking, Boss. A monster."
"What the hell, Shulie, you're our monster. And hey, ain't that a relative term? Given some of the involvement of the street slime engaged in drug distribution and other bottom feeders that you've disposed of, I am definitely not complaining! Nor does anyone in our syndicate. How you look don't matter to me."
Shulamith nodded: "The only thing that matters to me now is my daughter, Boss. Keep my ma and Hildie safe is all I ask."
"You were always a good mother, Shulie. Nah, don't worry. We had a contract and my family always honours its contracts. What is it, Arnie?"
"Trouble, Boss. We'd better light out of here. A sentry down in Crime Alley spotted the Bat, his Girl Wonder and some'a his JAA sidekicks headin' this way."
"Hell. Shulie, would you take care a' Bats and his entourage for us?"
Shulamith Grundy said nothing, but looked out into the night, her scarlet eyes looking out from the hollows of her face. As Zaccone and his mobsters hurriedly left, she stalked out into the foetid night of Slaughter Swamp, ready to await her enemies.
Hawkboy flew ahead of the others, despite expressions of concern from his colleagues. Brashness and bravado was definitely one of Kator's problems, but despite his courage and prowess with the mace, he wasn't ready for the hard blow that stopped his swoop downward in his tracks and smashed him into the trunk of a rotting forest mangrove:
"Kator!" Robin managed to catch Hawkboy before he could fall into the heavily polluted swamp below, but she was startled to witness the expression on Lightning Girl's face as the World's Mightiest Maiden accelerated past her, her face set in fury. With the others, Catman whistled as he ran past with Green Lantern flying beside him:
"Uh oh. Jose, do Bella and Kator have a thing going with one another?"
"I thought they were spending a lot of downtime together. That's the expression of an outraged lover who's just seen her man downed."
"Just as well Shayera's away in Metropolis while Kal and Kara are on parental leave. Uh oh."
"Yeah, your ring's got its limits? Like certain fungal growths? Don't worry. I'll help out here." And with that, Catman leapfrogged a fallen tree trunk, as Robin looked on and joined him. Meanwhile, Batman had spotted the Scarlet O factory. He frowned to himself. Then his utility belt hazard sensor activated and his eyes widened. The chemical outflow was an exact match for the substances that the Batcomputer had found on Shulamith's body samples. He waved to Robin, who had received the same intel, and signalled to Green Lantern. After a worried gaze at the last area of the swamp where he'd seen his life's love, Jose Hernandez joined Batman and Robin as they turned toward the factory.
Several hundred metres ahead, Lightning Girl angrily cannonballed into the hulking intruder:
"You!!! You injured Kator Hol, badly! If he's badly injured, if he dies, I will make you regret it!"
"Bring it on, girly. You need taking down a step or two, that's for sure." Shulamith Grundy's fist impacted hard and knocked Lightning Girl into the sky, startling her with the strength of her assailant momentarily. Then Merokee's Daughter regained her equilibrium, brushed a stray strand of hair back, set her face in determination, and hurtled back downward. And this time, it was Shulamith Grundy who fell, catapulted across a row of rotted trees and slamming through their trunks. Before she could get up, Lightning Girl slammed her into the ground, hammering at her already disfigured face:
"I will stop you! Any way I can!" And then a yellow, male arm stayed her fist:
"Easy, Bella."
"Stay out of this, Terry. She needs to pay for what she-"
"Bella, you aren't a killer. That's not what Merokee gave you your powers for. Don't betray your gifts, who you are, the hope you represent to so many people, just for the sake of outrage. Kator's had the wind knocked out of him, sure, but he's basically recovering up at the satellite. He needs you now."
"T-thanks for that. I'm sorry. I don't know why I lost control like that. I think I need to talk to Willie once he gets back from Metropolis with Shay and the others. And the Shaman."
"Hey, you just saw the guy you care for getting his clock cleaned. That's provocation enough. I'm not judging you, nor is anyone else." As Lightning Girl flew off, Catman knelt by the still prone Shulamith Grundy:
"I'm not going to patronise you by asking if you're okay, because you're obviously not. My enhanced senses say not, even given that screwed up physiology of yours."
"What do you care?"
"You'd be surprised. You've been guyed, Ms Robowski."
"Don't call me that. Call me Grundy, Shulamith Grundy."
"Right, like the old kid's nursery rhyme? Look, I hacked into Bats' hazard sensor and did some digging of my own. That factory that spewed the poison into Slaughter Swamp that transformed you into this? It's a Cadmus Biotech subsidiary. And its owner is one James Olsen, one helluva black tech specialist. That hit that was called on you was intended to use you as a guinea pig, resurrecting you as a test case."
"Ironic, eh, Catman? Lightning Girl there counts her coup with me and I end up dying anyway. Because of this rat's nest of an unstable body that I inhabit, because it's unstable and not fit for purpose..."
"Never say never, Ms. Grundy. And don't worry. We'll keep this whole thing confidential, your mother and daughter won't know you're still around. Because you will be."
'Don't lie to me, Catman, I... what's that?"
As Catman activated the Survival Zone Projector, he cleared his throat:
"Look, you're not the only one in there for rest and rehab. But you're only doing this because you thought you had no other way out, and to make sure your kid had a better life than how you grew up. I can relate. You don't deserve to die, Shulamith. Not permanently. So you won't." And as he spoke, Shulamith Grundy's form gradually faded from the uncanny stillness of Slaughter Swamp. He turned the Survival Zone Projector off and then swung toward the adjacent factory.
EPILOGUE:
James Olsen was not happy when he read that evening's online edition of the Gotham Gazette. Angrily, the crime lord's finger stabbed down on the keyboard, cutting off the offending masthead and story below it. He got up and scowled at the viewscreen across the room. Shulamith Grundy had been meant to take down the Justice Alliance, specifically one of its weaker members, but she had betrayed her purpose. She'd been intended to be a hulking, violent and insensate beast, but instead, she had retained enough of her intelligence for his adversaries to take pity on her and give her a second chance. He had never intended the misbegotten creature to survive, for she was a tool and once her purpose was served, she would have been discarded. And then, James Olsen had the feeling that he was not alone, that somewhere, something snarled and expressed its revulsion and disgust at him. And despite his razor intellect, James Olsen felt chilled to the bone, as, dimensions away, Shulamith Grundy regarded him with ferocity and murder in her charcoal heart...
THE END [12.45 PM, AUGUST 29, 2023]