It was a quiet night in Central City, just a little after eleven. It had been a while since a disaster struck the city and the citizens of both Central and Keystone City were feeling confident. If there was any crime going on, one of the city's speedsters was sure to take care of it. In a small dive bar on the shifty side of town, a man named George Harkness was drinking the night away.
George actually preferred to go by the nickname "Digger". But most people called him by a different name; "Captain Boomerang". Tonight he was just plain old Digger Harkness though. No funny costumes, no boomerangs. He had recently been able to worm his way out of his service on the Suicide Squad so to celebrate he'd gone back to his old town. Digger would have preferred to go back to Australia but that journey would have taken much longer. So he settled for the next best thing.
"Barkeep, gimme another beer." said Digger after he'd finished off the last of his second drink. "I gotta go take a piss." he put down a twenty dollar bill on the table and rose from his barstool.
The bartender mumbled something to himself and went to go refill Digger's glass.
"Ah good to be back." Digger sighed as he entered the men's restroom. "Even this ol' place is a sight for sore eyes." he chuckled as he made his way over to the urinal.
Just as Digger was unzipping his fly he heard the door to the bathroom open up and somebody step in. When you're a supervillain, you make yourself a lot of enemies; so Digger wanted to make sure that nobody was about to stab him in the back.
A quick glance behind him revealed that it didn't appear to be the aforementioned situation. Just someone who had gotten very lost. It turned out a woman had entered the men's room for some reason. Judging by her slightly ripped tank top, tight leather pants, and white mohawk haircut she was going for some kind of punk rock aesthetic. Noticing the woman's apparent mistake, Digger zipped up his pants and turned around.
"Mate, you got yourself the wrong washroom." Digger tried to be as polite as he could. "Ladies room is just down the hall."
"You got it wrong, I'm right where I need to be." the woman approached Digger
"Oh, I see where this goin'..." he playfully smirked. "You naughty dog… How 'bout you buy me a drink first? Then we can go back to my place and-"
The next thing out of Digger's mouth was a confused scream. His vision was filled with images of giant animals. Snakes, spiders, lions, and more. All of which looked like they wanted to attack or eat him.
"No, get 'em away!" he fell over to the floor.
The lion lunged at Digger but turned into a cloud of purple smoke before it landed on him. The other animals disappeared as well. The woman who seemed to have summoned the animals approached him.
"Bloody hell! Who are you?!"
"You don't remember?" the woman's tone seemed deeply resentful. "My name is Leah Wasserman. But perhaps you know me by a different name. Mindboggler!"
Digger stared up at her, completely confused by the whole situation. "What the hell is a mindboggler!?"
"I am!" Mindboggler grabbed Digger by his collar and picked him up from the ground. "And you, Captain, are going to pay for what you let happen to me."
"Oh of all the times to leave me boomerangs at home…" Digger mumbled. He looked into Mindboggler's eyes, trying to see if he recognized her from anywhere. "Wanna talk things out?"
"You are going to remember me before I kill you." Mindboggler pushed her target back to the ground. She grabbed him by the back of the collar and started to drag him across the floor.
Digger wanted to fight back but more horrifying visions came into his view. Strange, deformed faces floating above him. All laughing at him.
"Are you doing this…" Digger tried to ignore the faces and look at Mindboggler.
"Of course I am. It's in the name." Mindboggler dragged Digger out of the background and into the main area of the bar. The few patrons in the dive turned their attention to them. "Attention everybody, clear out! If you don't, things are about to get very scary for you…"
The customers in the bar, as well as the bartender, fled the area. All that remained was Digger and Mindblogger in an empty bar.
"Take a seat, Boomerang." Mindboggler got Digger to his feet and directed him to a table.
All the increasingly deranged visions before his eyes made it hard for Digger to concentrate or fight back so he allowed himself to be set down at the table. The laughing heads in front of him disappeared as Mindboggler sat down across from him at the table.
"Can you explain who you are…" Digger mumbled. "You're drivin' me insane here…"
"How can you not remember!" Mindboggler banged her fist against the table. "I was on the Suicide Squad with you! On one of their first ever missions! We went to Qurac!"
"Qurac… Qurac… Startin' to sound familiar."
"You let me die!" Mindboggler's voice somehow got more intense. "You could have told me 'Watch out, those guys behind you have machine guns'. But you didn't… You hated me and wanted to watch me die."
"Oh, now I remember you." Digger chuckled. "Wait, aren't you 'sposed to be dead?"
"I was." Mindboggler scowled. "But then the assholes who killed me brought me back to life as their digital assassin. But I guess you don't remember that either? They called me Ifrit."
"Oh yeah… That's right…" said Digger. "I remember that too. So how come you got a body. A very lovely one I might add."
Mindboggler ignored the comment and continued talking. "I don't really know what happened. Some kind of, I don't know, evil scientist I guess... He cloned me and a bunch of other dead guys back to life. Wanted me to fight for him. But I escaped."
"And now what? You gonna kill me now, huh Sheila?"
"That's the idea." Mindboggler nodded.
"Well, you ain't gonna accomplish anything." Digger smiled. "I still barely remember you. Can't even remember why I hated you enough to let'cha die."
"That doesn't matter to me. I'm still going to kill you."
"Alright go ahead." Digger shrugged and put his hands behind his head. "But do us both a favour and kill Waller once yer done with me."
For just one moment, Mindboggler looked shocked at Digger's attitude towards everything. But she quickly pulled herself back together and then just looked plain mad. "Listen to me... I will have you on your knees begging for mercy before I'm through!"
"Kinky one, aren't you?"
"Care about me, dammit! I am the woman who will kill you!"
"Mate, I don't care about you. I can't even remember your name."
"Mindboggler… My name is Mindboggler."
"Great, great, now are ya gonna kill me or not? If ya are, I'd like one last cold beer before I die. If not, I'd still like the beer."
Mindboggler's frustration and anger faded away to give way to sadness and disappointment. She stood up from her chair and turned away from Digger.
"See you around."
"So you're lettin' me go?"
"For now. I want it to mean something when I finally kill you, Captain Boomerang."
"It's Digger. You can call me Digger."
Mindboggler looked over her shoulder back at Digger. "Then you can call me Leah." she went back to leaving the bar.
"So you stickin' around Central City, Leah?"
"As long as you're here. Don't think I'm some sentimental schmuck. Once I give you a reason to hate me again, I will kill you." Mindboggler opened up the exit to the dive bar. "Other than that, I got me some other reasons to stick around. Might be fun to tangle with the Fastest Man Alive."
"Good luck with that, whoever you are."
"I'm Mindboggler, goddammit. That's who."
Mindboggler closed the door behind her, leaving Digger in an empty bar. Once he was sure that Mindboggler had left, Digger's smile faded.
"Crazy bitch… I thought she really was gonna kill me." Digger looked around the empty bar. "Maybe comin' back here wasn't such a good idea…" he sighed. "Might as well grab a beer while I'm still on me own."
The End
A/N: Everything except Mindboggler being brought back to life by a scientist is canon in my comics. I have the first five volumes of the '80s Suicide Squad comics so I mostly know what I'm talking about. But if somehow this story contradicts something about Mindboggler's history, all I can say is "Whoops". In my defence she is a very obscure character. Pretty sure her last major appearance was in "Blackest Night" as a zombie. I considered this being a multiple chapter story about Captain Boomerang coming back to Central City after escaping the Suicide Squad but I wasn't quite feeling it. So this is what it ended up as. I still think it went pretty well.
