Batwoman: Victorious
Chapter Nine: Darkness
Chase tightly held his eyes closed as he rolled onto his side atop the small prison bed in The Asylum. His forehead drenched in sweat and his pulse racing like a rabid dog, the teenager's body viciously craved Venom. For so long, he swore he'd never touch it again; for himself, for Zoey, for everything. He was an animal when he used Venom...but he felt so amazing; everything felt right and almost like he was in control when Venom was coursing through his veins. Times were tough. Nights were filled with chills, intense sweating, night terrors, and the fear of relapsing. But he would suffer for Zoey. Rain poured onto the windows allowed for the prisoners within their red-colored cages. Clenching his sheets, Chase tightened his teeth as his body surged with agony.
"You're thirsty...I know," a comforting voice said.
"Who is that?" the young man asked, not moving from his desperate position. "If you're the old man, get the hell outta here."
"I'm not..." the man answered. "I'm a friend...you need Venom, don't you?"
"I don't want it," Chase snarled.
"You don't think the police care about you, do you?" the man asked, his tone persistent. "Or your little girlfriend? Last I checked, she wanted nothing to do with you." Chase remained half-asleep. "I can give you all the Venom you want...I won't leave you like those others did...Above all, I can get you out of here." The room fell to silence. Maybe Zoey was only interested on a trial basis. Maybe the pain wasn't worth it...
Tori, Andre', Cat, and Trina sat in the Vegas' living room, looking over the cards in their hands. Andre' glanced over at the red-haired girl, who gave a sneaky look to Trina. "You guys have no idea what you've gotten into," Victoria warned.
"We knew long ago," Katrina gravely replied. Alfred passed by, giving a concerned glance at the children.
"This is gonna change everything..." Tori warned. The teen threw down her second to last card. "Uno!"
"Dah!" Andre' yelled. "So close!" Bursting into laughter, the teens looked at one another.
"This is so nice," Cat said, her voice sweet and innocent. "We should hang out more often."
"Yeah," Tori replied. Suddenly, a buzzing sound interrupted the conversation. "Sorry, this might be important." The brunette left the room.
"Maybe this is why we're not together as often," an upset Catarina said, staring down at her hand.
"She's not doing it on purpose, Little Red," Andre' comforted his friend. "It might be a relative...Tori cares about you...she'd be with us if she could." Hearing this, Alfred dropped his head slightly, then left the room to see his charge viewing the Bat-Wave.
"Break in down the block from Arkham," the brunette said, not looking up from her hand-held device. "Could be an inmate escaping."
"You do have friends waiting," the Englishman replied. "Perhaps the authorities can handle this."
"...They never can," Tori sadly answered. "Besides, trafficking's been up lately; this might get ugly...I'll be back as soon as I can." After another lie to her sister and friends, the teenager rushed outside, dawned her emergency Batsuit, and stealthfully approached the scene of the crime. With any luck, it'll be that kid with the hood, Tori thought.
Arkham Asylum, said to be the center of terror and suffering in the entire western hemisphere. Constantly kept under lock and key by Amadeus Arkham, it was the eternal prison for all criminals and lowlifes. However, some had it within themselves to escape. Resting on top of a shattered street light, Tori watched the scene of the break-in. A figure shrouded in shadow walked into the alley, holding a large crate on its shoulder. In front of the two buildings were several injured men, showing signs of drug withdrawal.
Chase walked straight forward, carrying the crate his superior ordered him to deliver. "Going somewhere?" asked a gruff, smokey voice. Turning around, the Venom-enhanced thief saw none other than the young woman he had crippled. Recognizing the behemoth, Tori readied herself for a rematch.
"Hey, senorita," the young man mocking greeted, eager to attack. "Ready for me to break your other wing?" Chase charged forward, his bloodlust burning within his Venom-bloated veins. Batwoman lept into the air and slashed one of the tubes carrying the mutagenic fluid. The monstrous boy stopped dead in his tracks.
"I've made some upgrades to my suit," Batwoman proudly declared, shaking the ooze off her bladed gloves. "Wish I could say the same for you, Meatloaf."
"You don't have to," Chase growled, chucking a large box at the girl. "Your headstone'll explain it all." Due to the upgrades given by Chase's new push, Venom would be put into his body through various ports adapting to blockages or damages. Tori grunted in pain as she smashed into the brick wall behind her. As the behemoth rampaged onward, Batwoman lunged away from him, her boots gliding across the pavement.
"What got you back on the drug, Matthews?" Tori asked, maneuvering away from the criminal. "On top of that, who?" Ignoring the questions, Chase charged towards the vigilante once again. Ducking down to her back, Batwoman chucked a Batarang into the air, slashing into the Venom-distributing machine. Shifting her weight around, Tori wound up on her stomach, then lept into the air and onto the thug's back.
"Get off!" Chase screamed, feeling his heart rate double as he attempted to throw the pest off. Batwoman roughly wrapped her arms around the boy's neck, pressing into a pressure point she'd learned of in the League of Shadows. Chase began to slow down, starting to see double. Soon, the drug-powered criminal collapsed on the ground with a heavy impact. He's just started back on the drug...system's not adjusted, pulse racing, Tori diagnosed, studying the subject before her. Quickly taking a sample of Chase's blood, Batwoman poured it into a small vile, then glided into the night.
Their sirens squealing and their lights flashing, the police swarmed around the criminal. "Chase was just arrested," the man from Arkham informed his fellow agents. "The Batwoman seems distracted..."
"Exactly as planned," a near-elderly man replied, his voice deepened by the machine in front of his mouth. With that, the connection failed.
Tori ran into her home to see all of her friends still playing their game. "Hey, really sorry, you guys," she said, praying everything would be okay.
"It's fine," Cat replied, her voice sweet as always. "Come on, we're playing Bingo now."
"Awesome," Tori replied with a wide smile on her face as she took a seat on the floor. Andre', Catarina, Tori, and Katrina started up another conversation, laughing like school children again. Alfred heard them enjoying their youth, feeling light inside. However, knowing it was only temporary took a stronger toll.
Meanwhile, several children ran down the sidewalk from their school's playground. They were laughing at nothing, joking, and having fun. One of the children, a blond little girl with pigtails, suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, feeling dread within herself. "Sorry, guys," she said, her voice sweet and innocent but weighed down. "I have to go." Not really wanting their friend to go, the kids bid farewell to Cassie, and parted ways with her. Running to that place; that place her parents and teachers had vaguely described to her as a bad place, the child kept on. There, an older man was waiting for her. "Were you with your friends?" he asked.
"Yeah," Cassandra answered, kind of scared, but feeling at home in this place.
"I don't want you hanging around those kids anymore," the man continued, making the impressionable child feel guilty. "I've seen 'em around town. They're bad influences. Ready?" The girl nodded, and walked with the man into his office.
"Cat...C. to the A. to the T. and that is me, I'm Cat!" Tori and Cat sang, doing little dances with one another as they performed their original kareoki song. The black-haired girl purred between verses, causing Andre' and Katrina to giggle. "Thank you!" Victoria yelled out with a humorous, drama queen tone to her voice as she and Catarina took their bows. Alfred and the teens clapped their hands together, the Englishman doing so in an elegant, cupped style.
"Nice one," Andre' said, flipping his long locks to the side. "That is so much better than anything Justin Bieber sings." Tori laughed as she took a seat next to her friend. As her chuckles grew, the brunette leaned back, letting her head rest on the African American teenager's shoulder for a moment.
The song made both Cat and Victoria feel all-around silly, but who better to feel that way with than your closest friends? Then, to ruin everything, the Bat-Wave began to vibrate. Alfred's heart sank. Tori reached into her pocket and shut off the machine. Bane's out of the way, she thought with a comforting smile. The police can handle the minor stuff. Seeing this, the Vega family butler's heart warmed over, and a smile formed on his face. "Who is in the mood for s'mores?" he asked, only to be answered with the inevitable "yes, please!" he hoped for.
"Thanks, Alfred," Catarina said, her voice excited like a child's.
"I made a song just like that one when I was nine," Katrina announced. "And I made Tori sing it with me. Remember that, sis?"
"Oh yeah," the younger brunette answered. "You called it...Super Trina, right?" Everyone burst into laughter.
Later that night, after Andre' had gone back home and Trina was making some phone calls to her talent agents, Tori and Cat, who was sleeping over, sat on the floor in their pajamas, flipping back and forth between old The Gray Ghost serials and music videos. "This was fun," the dark-haired girl said.
"Yeah," Tori replied. "We should do this kind of stuff more often." Cat felt some sadness sneak into her heart at that comment, knowing how rare this kind of thing was anymore. "What the?" The two teenagers looked at the television, where a news broadcast interrupted VH1's programming. "I didn't think they did that anymore."
A young man with brown hair appeared on the screen, nursing a grave expression from behind his glasses. "A recent member of a massive child pornography ring was apprehended last night," he declared. "Sources say he was only one of hundreds in Los Angeles alone. Investigations are being held, but few are coming back with information."
"Oh my gosh," Catarina whispered, horrified by the announcement. Tori sat up, staring intensely at the screen. Glancing up the stairs, the younger brunette saw her sister standing still, her jaw dropped; her skin was pale. Soon, Katrina, Cat, and Tori went to bed. However, Victoria was unable to fall asleep.
Walking down to the kitchen, the younger brunette poured herself a glass of water in the sink. "Unable to sleep as well, Miss Vega?" Alfred asked, trying to keep his voice hushed.
"No," Tori answered, looking over at her father figure. "Can't believe something like this was going on, and I didn't even know about it! This stuff goes on all the time, I know...but...I don't know."
"Miss Trina seemed to be taking the news rather hard," the Englishman replied. "Perhaps Tori Vega is needed more than Batwoman tonight."
The brunette girl looked at the floor, not sure of herself. "I don't know what's up...Trina's asleep..." she finally said. "But every night those scum balls are free and operating...more kids are getting hurt or used..." Tori remained silent for a moment, then looked at her butler. "Maybe The Batwoman isn't needed tonight..."
Shrouded in a veil of darkness, the filthy downtown region of Los Angeles was abuzz with alarms left unanswered, screams, drunken swears, and blaring music. Everyone knew this area as a living nightmare. Men and women would never dream of raising their children here willingly. One spot in particular, an underground tavern known as BlueLite seemed to emanate its own malicious presence.
A young woman walked in through the door, catching several people's eyes. Her hair short, jet black and gelled into spikes, the girl's short black skirt, blue belly shirt with red rhinestones, and black jacket barely stood out among the crowd. The girl gazed around the shady bar with black-hued eyes, then found her target; a young man, roughly twenty, nursing a drink at a table by himself. "Hey," said the young woman, pulling up a chair next to him.
"Hi," the man replied, obviously taken back by his guest's appearance, and the fact she was actually speaking to him. "Haven't seen you around here before...gotta name?"
"They call me Matches," the raven-haired girl answered. "You?"
"Ginny," the man answered, staring at his new friend. "What brings you down to the meanstreets?"
"Lookin' for something," Matches answered with a sleazy smile. "Maybe you can help me out."
"What's the caper?" Ginny asked, trying to be flirtatious.
"Porn...cheap," the girl answered. "Any names?"
Leaning closer and hushing his voice, the man gave the girl everything she wanted; "I know this guy...works out of an abandoned DMV just west of here," he confessed. "Tell him you wanna renewal...tell 'em Ginny sent you. He'll know what to do."
"Thanks, pal," Matches replied, giving the extortionist a quick stroke under his chin and a smile. "...See you around." Leaving the tacky young man helpless, the young woman went about her way.
Getting into the limo that had been circling the block for the past ten minutes, Matches threw off her wig, revealing her flowing brown hair and disgustedly wiped off her cheap, gaudy lipstick. "Was the mission successful, Miss Victoria?" Alfred asked, glancing at his charge through the rear-view mirror.
"Think so," Tori answered, covering up her exposed tummy. "A DMV west of here. I find the peddlers, I should be able to find the source."
"Well, your quest will have to wait until tomorrow, I'm afraid," the Englishman replied. "It is very late, and we do have guests."
"What?" the teenager blurted out.
"I'm sorry, Miss Victoria, but as your butler and legal guardian, I am putting my foot down," Alfred explained. "We are going home."
"...Alright," Tori gave in. "I'm beat, anyway...Thanks, Alfred." The butler smiled, and turned the limo around. "I dare say," Alfred continued. "Should I have stopped at anytime during your hunt, I would have lost the hubcaps right from under my nose." Victoria chuckled.
Under the hushed darkness of night, Tori's dreams flashed vague images of those scared exploited children in her mind, causing her to jolt slightly. Batwoman wasn't there to help them. Meanwhile, several middle-aged to elderly men were gathered in an abandoned warehouse. "Batwoman disappeared after Operation Venom," one of the men declared. "Tell Falcone the package was delivered. Decoy was lost, though." An overweight man with silver hair and black sunglasses on nodded.
As the sun rose from over the skyline, Cat and Tori awoke next to one another, and met the day their own ways (Cat with a smile and gentle yawn, Tori with groans and the cracking of her neck from side to side). "Morning, Kitten," the brunette greeted her friend.
"Hey, Tori," the black-haired teen cheerily replied. "How'd you sleep?"
"Okay, I guess," Tori answered. "Kind of worried 'bout Trina, though...she seemed really uneasy last night."
"You can go talk to her...I'll make breakfast," Cat volunteered.
"Thanks, Cat," the brunette replied with a smile before departing to see her sister.
Gently tapping on her older sibling's slightly opened door, Victoria gently whispered, "Trina?" The older brunette was sitting on her bed, staring at the wall. "...Is everything...okay?"
"Yeah," Katrina lied, not showing much emotion. "Just tired...I had some trouble sleeping."
"You seemed kind of tore up last night," the brunette continued, walking over to her sister's bed and taking a seat. "I was just kind of worried."
Staring at the floor, Trina said nothing, obviously growing uneasy. "It's...that child porn thing they were talking about last night," the older girl finally answered. "...Look, I never told anyone but Mom and Dad this..." Tori felt her stomach start to turn on its side. Wiping a tear from her eye, Trina steadied her voice. "You know how I was always looking for...like, movie roles, singing gigs when I was a kid?"
"Yeah," Victoria answered, her voice weak and her heart starting to pound.
"...Our parents told me it wasn't a good idea...but I found someone," the older Vega girl continued on, not strong enough to look at her sister. "He... said he could put me on t.v... All he needed was some pictures...and he told me to take my pants off..." Katrina swallowed hard, her voice cracking. "...And I did...He started...touching me...so I told Mom and Dad...But he'd already taken the pictures..."
"Oh my gosh," Tori whispered, devastated. "Trina, I...I'm so sorry."
"Dad went after that jerk...got him arrested..." the older brunette said, barely able to speak. "But I know he wasn't the only one like him...These guys might be working for the same company...And those pictures of me are still out there." No longer composed, the once-proud, strong Katrina broke down crying into her sister's shoulder.
"It's okay," Victoria whispered, gently stroking her sister's hair. She felt every ounce of pain Trina felt. "...It's okay." Trina took in several heavy, cracking breaths, her eyes tightly closed and her face blood red and soaked with tears. Despite her outward composure, the younger brunette felt rage burning within her. They broke her; someone would pay.
I never knew that about her...She's my sister...She was a child. Those scum have no right doing that...to anyone! Tori snarled in her mind, feeling her pulse spike and her neck start to burn. They're going down...tonight. Dawning her primary Batsuit, Victoria looked at Alfred. "Do be careful," he begged.
"...I'll do whatever it takes," Batwoman replied before diving out of the window. Spreading her cape to form a pair of bat wings, Victoria glided through the night's sky. Rage burning inside her, the teenager forced herself forward. Katrina had been used, reduced to a piece of meat. It would end here. No more children are going to suffer!
The bell on the door rang, causing the owner of the so-called DMV to look up, as usual. A black-gloved hand viciously clenched the thin middle-aged man's throat, gagging him. "Who gives you supplies for your renewals?" Batwoman snarled, her white eyes locked into a horrifying scowl. Outside, several pale teenagers stared at the shocking scene, some of them shaking uncontrollably. By the time the police arrived, all that remained was some shattered glass and a middle-aged bound against a wall. A black bat emblem was painted over the ropes surrounding the extortionist. "The Bat," one of the officers declared.
Two men thew their money on the counter, knowing what sweet reward they were to receive. "Have fun, kids," a black-haired man with a raspy voice said, handing the teenagers a cigar box. Opening the case and removing the pills inside, the boys charged off into the night, laughing and planning their next high. "Quite a business you have going here," a grave, smokey voice announced from behind the vendor.
"I knew I'd be hearing from you soon enough," the push replied, turning around to see only shadow. "So, what do you want? Money? The goods?"
"Not exactly," Batwoman fiercely answered, dragging the man into the darkness. The man screamed, though no one was around to hear him. Smashing through the window and into the alley, the girl clenched the criminal's coat. "Who are you working for? Who?"
"I'm no rat!" the man screamed, his pulse racing like a scalded animal.
Deploying her grappling gun, Tori clenched her teeth until they ached, and attached the cord to the man's jacket. Suddenly, the two tore into the air, the man ending up dangling from the top of the massive buildings surrounding the alley. "You'd be surprised what you'll say when you're pushed," Batwoman declared. Looking down at what looked like a spinning abyss, the man began to sweat viciously, then made his decision.
Cat awoke groggy and aching. Dialing the familiar number, the girl cleared her throat. "Hey, Tori," she said, her voice sweet. "Hey, I just wanted to say thanks for letting me sleep over again. I had a great time, and...I hope everything okay with you and Trina. Um, call me back when you get the chance. Okay, bye." Listening to the voice mail on his charge's abandoned cell phone, Alfred found himself fighting back tears; Tori was a child. She should have taken that call, spending time with her friends and sister, or at least with Jade while she recovered. Instead, she was off who-knows-where hunting down criminals.
"Sir...the police got two of our boys," a young woman with a shaved head nervously declared, running into Falcone's office. "They said it was The Batwoman."
"Doesn't matter," the gruff-voiced man answered, his minor Brooklyn accent showing. "We've got twenty shipments already being shipped, fifty photo shoots taken care of...She can't stop us."
Suddenly, the florescent lights shattered, raining down burning glass onto the floor, and scalding those standing under them. A thin, death-star-like device in the shape of a bat dropped to the floor. Unable to see through the darkness, the gangsters scattered around like frightened rats. A grizzly clasp silenced one of the extortionists. "What's going on?" a teenage boy demanded. With a gasp, the boy was forced against a wall and assaulted with a blow to the face that rendered him unconscious.
"What the hell's going on here!" Falcone demanded, standing up at his desk. A black arm laced with blades grasped the gangster's coat, tearing some of the fabric, then forcefully chucked his back onto the desk.
Batwoman thrust herself on top of the mob boss, rendering him barely able to breathe; Fury bled inside of her entire body. Her hot breath burning on the older Italian man's neck, the vigilante glared into his very soul. "You've eaten this city's wealth," Tori snarled, her voice striking pure terror into the gangster's entire body. A young, terrified little Trina flashed in the girl's memory. The countless swarms of suffering drug addicts and abused children faded into the teen's raging mind as well. "Preyed on its innocent...and from this moment on...None of you are safe." Viciously chucking the aged man into the wall, smashing his secretaries through the window, and savagely clawing at the hitmen, Batwoman made her decision; all crime was a burden on existence. All who threaten the helpless would be stopped; fury would be embraced.
"What happened?" a young police officer asked, climbing up the stairs of the large building.
"Some sort of attack," a young policewoman of Asian decent answered, viewing the area. "Almost all mobsters...what the...?" The two, followed by Commissioner White walked on the roof of the apartment, coming to a massive spotlight. There, strapped tightly, blocking out only a small section of the shining beacon, was none other than Falcone; his coat and suit were torn to rags. The officers looked up into the air, and saw a massive rendering of what looked like a bat shining in the sky.
"My gosh," the police commissioner exclaimed. Searches of the captured citizen's places of business revealed countless amounts of illegal substances, child pornography, and shaved-off machine guns. "Looks like this bat's a vigilante...Find her." White walked away from the scene, leaving a grave feeling with the police.
Staring into the beacon in the sky, Batwoman let her cape flow in the rough winds, waiting atop a large building's edge.
Crawling in my skin. These wounds, they will not heal.
A war had been waged, and she would be ready.
Fear is how I fall. Confusing what is real.
Thomas and Martha flashed in her memory, as did Trina and her friends, and Tori tightened her eyes around the city.