Beyond the gate, there were more tiger-men.

A dozen of them.

Outstanding.

I'd proven that I could take one of them at a time without a problem. Two would be a bit more interesting, but I could do it.

I did not want to try going for three. The prize was not going to be a quick reload. It might cost me my life. Or my mind, which might actually be worse. This part of the warehouse was dominated by boxes and crates. I thought for a second and looked at one stack. They were stacked in a sensible way, larger heavier boxes toward the bottom, smaller ones at the top. So I took to climbing them.

I couldn't go all the way up, the ones on top wouldn't support my weight. But I was far enough up that I could remain out of sight of anyone looking at eye level.

I fished around in the pockets of the Ghi that doubled as my superhero uniform, coming up with some coins. (As a brief aside, Sheri had actually received commissions from other exobyte infused heroes. I'm quite amazed with some of the things she's come up with. Her dream of being Edna Mode has come to reality!)

I tossed the coins against the nearby wall. The gave out a large clinking noise when they hit it. One of the tiger-folk came to investigate it. As soon as it was out of line of sight of any of the others, I did what any self respecting cat would do. I put my paws out and pounced. I grabbed my target around the shoulders and pulled it down. I stuffed my own paw over it's mouth muffling any noise it would try to make.

Or at least I tried to. It let out a roar that echoed through the chamber, only to be silenced by a firm strike of my fist to the nose. Another pop, and the thing was out like a light. I was ready to bolt the moment I saw a swarm of them coming.

But they never came.

After almost a minute, I looked around the corner. The rest of them were still kind of wandering around the large open area.

Whatever magic was affecting the form was clearly addling their brain.

On the other hand, while I was staring two of them spotted me and headed towards my position. I backed up and made ready to sucker punch the first one that came around the corner.

WHAM.

There must have been some kind of battle going on in the mind. The first two I had fought at the entrance had seemed more alert and ready for battle than anything I was facing here. Once they got into range, the first knee into their face manged to knock one down, allowing me to fire rapid fire punches into the other to knock one out. The second dropped after another flurry.

This thinned them out nicely, and the remaining eight or so still showed no signs of understanding that there was an assailant. I was feeling a bit braver now. The creatures had the strength to do some serious damage, but they had no skill.

I was nothing if not cautious, but I slowly made my way around the room. As I went, I got the attention of one of them at a time, putting each one down. Eventually. I made it to the only exit. It was a small hallway. I was confident and even sped up towards the far end.

For the second time this evening, I was blindsided by a giant feline-humanoid. This one was a pitch black panther. His claws raked my shoulder, and blood matted my fur. I yowled in pain, spinning instinctively and lashing out. The panther wasn't as strong as the tigers had been, but he did have the skill as he dodged my reflexive counter attack.

I forced myself to reclaim to my thought, focus on using energy to knit my shoulder back together. After the panther had exposed itself, it was a lot more cautious. This was good. If it had immediately followed up, I think it might have been fatal. Instead, I feinted, and it bit on my jab. I grabbed its arm on the counter attack and pulled it forward. From there, I landed a kick into its chest, knocking the wind out of it.

One last hard punch to the head knocked it out.

He was still breathing though, I checked. I let out a sigh of relief. I wasn't sure if they were people who'd been transformed by the magical energy of the statues, or some sort of magical prisoner that had been trapped by them, but it didn't matter. I still did not enjoy causing pain.

I fight because I have to, not because I enjoy it.

I'm no killer.

The second room wasn't as big, but was laid out similar to the first one. Complete with patrolling tiger-folk.

Score.

They weren't really any harder to take out, though. I didn't want them waking up, though, so I moved quickly. It was like some kind of weird stealth game.

Anyway.

I found the boss at the end of the third room.

Boss?

I swear. It was like something out of a Legend of Zelda game. It was about two times as tall as I was, and at least three times as heavy. Selena could probably have heard it jump to the floor from the upper level of the warehouse room. It was like a tiger man. On titan. Something sparkled around its neck.

This was going to go so well.

I wasted to no time. He was stronger than me, so a straight up fight was going to be a joke. I threw a quick one two and immediately rolled out of the way.

He didn't even try to counter. He simply mocked me, "A kitten could do better."

If he was trying to get me to lose my cool and come at him, he had the wrong cat. I responded by hurling a small box of something. Thankfully, not a fragile something, it hit him with a small *thump*. Then it was on. If he hit me once, well, I might survive it. If he hit me twice...

He'd primarily play the waiting game, knowing I would have to come to him. There was only so many things I could throw.

I would dart in (or jump in with a kick), try to land a few blows and then dart away again. It was a reasonable strategy, if not a particularly effective one. Unlike the others, this guy knew how to be hurt. I mean, it was obvious he felt each blow. He flinched from them, but the combined impact wasn't having the toll I'd hoped for.

So, when he finally laid a huge heavy paw on me, I went flying. I managed to turn my head and avoid cracking my face and skull on the stone wall. Then I slumped to the ground, dazed.

"So funny," he said. "You think you have claws?"

I gave him a dazed look. I did have claws. I kept them manicured so they didn't scratch my furniture when I just wanted to watch TV. Sadly, I did not have retractable claws. My hands were still too human for that.

He thudded towards me. I had to focus, I had to, or it was going to be all over. I closed my eyes, trying to focus on the energies I'd been teaching myself to use. Then my concentration was shattered by him grabbing me by the scruff of the neck.

He shook me.

It hurt.

I opened my eyes. I could see the thing laughing at me. I could also see the necklace it wore, with two yellow gems on it. I'm sure there's a more technical name, but I was in a lot of pain. So I did the only thing that I could think of that might have an impact.

I reached up, managed to get the necklace between my fingers, and pulled. There was a snap, and the necklace came off in my hand. The gemstones remain fixed, attached by some unknown method.

My eyes went wide in shock. There was an energy in those gems that ran through my body like an electric current. This was Power with a capital P. It felt electrifying. He screamed in rage and... fear?

He shook me again. I held onto my consciousness and that necklace. I could feel myself tapping into it. It felt... well, wrong. I can't explain it. It wanted to consume me, to make me part of it. I had to mentally fight it, to keep control of that power and control of myself.

Sorry. It's not the best explanation. Even now, I'm not quite sure what was really going on.

After a few moments though, the large tiger beast was not nearly as strong as it had been, and disconcerted on top of it. It tried to snatch the necklace back, but had to let go of my neck to do it. I managed to fight myself free, still feeling the tainted energy powering my body. I stuffed the necklace into my uniform and returned to the fight.

I didn't really want to fight, but if any of those other tigers had decided to cold cock me with Tony the Titan Tiger chasing me, it wouldn't be a fair fight.

Still, the longer we went, the slower he got and the more confident I felt. Finally with an uppercut, I laid him out.

I panted for a moment, then took off back the way I'd come. As I came back into the center area, Catwoman locked the gate behind me. After catching my breath, I pulled out the necklace. I finally figured out the velcro-ish way that the gems were attached. Together, Selena and I managed to detach them and place them into the tiger statue.

I could feel the energy in the area diminish immediately.

"One down, three left," Selena told me.

"I'm going to need another minute or two. Wave one almost killed me," I told her.

She looked at me. There was more warmth in her eyes than in Batman's. "Take as much time as you dare. I just think the clock's ticking."