Issue #11
Psychotic Psychoses
"Well, well. Look at the new Boy Wonder!" Stephanie smiled at the familiar voice and turned to meet the source. The man countered with a warm, earnest grin that had melted the heart of more than a handful of super-heroines. "Funny, you don't exactly look like a boy though."
"Well, it's high time that there be a Robin with actual breasts." Stephanie sat down on the rooftop of Wayne Enterprises as the other person broke out in laughter.
"So, how does Tim feel about this?"
Stephanie bit her lip, her personal hallmark of hesitance.
"Ah, jeez. I'm not going to have to break the news to him, am I?"
"I wouldn't be surprised if Overlord Oracle hadn't told him already." Stephanie replied in a tone that was downright petulant.
Of course, this only caused Dick Grayson to flash that heart-melting smile once again. She didn't want to sound like those moopy girls that Tim always hung out with over in Young Justice, but there could be no argument that the man known as Nightwing was quite the catch. He was six feet and 190 pounds of pure, lean muscle. Smart, funny, strong-willed, and had just enough "bad boy" in him to look cool without acting like an asshole.
And the butt. Damn, can't forget about that ass.
It was quite clear that Dick thought of her as an irritating little sister, a somewhat disconcerting idea seeing as how he viewed Tim as a little brother. Still, the arrangement wasn't too bad and it made it much easier for her to get some good dirt on Tim and make cracks on Dick's seemingly horrible taste in significant others. Exhibit A was Barbara Gordon, the aforementioned Oracle, who seemed to make it her life's mission to drag the people that cared about her by a string. Sort of like Batman without the competence and finances.
"Come on, sprout. How about laying off Babs? She just wants to make sure you're well-prepared for what's out there."
"No, she needs somebody to put under her thumb now that you've gone off to San Francisco. I even had to deal with a call from that Starfire chica who tried to ring up Bats so she could yell at him. Why am I the one that has to deal with your exes?"
Nightwing's counter was simple and elegant. "Tim's got a crush on Barbara."
Stephanie's growling was a simple and non-elegant reply. "So, I suppose you're here to tell me that my being Robin is a bad idea."
"Well, no. In fact, to be honest, I kind of like it."
"You're kidding."
"Tim'll do just find with the Titans. Personally, and don't spread this around to the others, but I think Bruce needs somebody around that will keep him on his toes."
Stephanie tried very hard not to blush due to Nightwing's glowing comments. "Ya know, you could help me out in that department?"
Dick sighed and rolled his eyes. "Sorry, sprout, but I'm 26 years old. The idea of coming back to my domineering father figure full-time is not at the top of my list of things I wish to do."
"Oh, quit bitching about your father issues. At least your dad was around long enough to be domineering."
Dick playfully ruffled Stephanie's hair. "All right, I'll give you that one. Just do two favors for me all right?"
"Shoot," Stephanie grumbled as she worked to put her tresses back in order.
"One, take care of Batman for me, will ya? Something tells me he'll need somebody like you."
"Done. Second?"
"Second favor? Wake your lazy ass up before Alfred kills Jason."
Stephanie was snapped out of her dream with the unpleasant cacophony of grown men shouting at one another.
"Mister Todd, I will no longer have you go on with these disparaging remarks concerning Master Bruce! He never wished you the slightest bit of harm!"
"Bullshit, Pennyworth!" Jason fired back. "All the two of you did was look down your noses at me, looking for a way to be rid of me because you thought I wasn't good enough, I wasn't little Dickie Grayson!"
Damn right you're not, Stephanie thought as she silently took stock of her surroundings. Hm, comfy bed, nice goose down pillow, and a bunch of bats hanging up above. This meant either the cave setting at Splash Mountain or the hospital cots in the Batcave. The close proximity of Jason probably meant he was close to her and her steady pulse indicated that he was probably restrained one way or another. See? And Barbara said she was a lousy detective.
Her arm still hurt like a bitch, so she probably wasn't out long. The bone was healing nicely, however. She had worked long and hard to learn how to use the ring to heal injuries. Despite her recovery, she had no desire to argue with Jason or Alfred at the moment.
So she hit Jason with her pillow.
There was a brief, wonderful little moment where time seemed to stop to try and process the sheer ludicrousness of the situation. Stephanie lived for them.
"What the hell did you do that for, you whacked-out bitch!" Jason all but squawked. Stephanie found that insulting, so she hit him again.
"Shut up or I hit you with the bedpan, nasty contents and all."
Jason Todd. The villainous Red Hood and fearer killer of drug dealers, mafia hitmen, and small-time crooks, was cowed by a 16-year-old girl.
"You've only been in that thing for five minutes," Jason grumbled. "No way you could have that much in there."
"There you go underestimating me again, J.T."
Lloyd never liked it when people stared at him. This was especially true when he felt like he had been hit by a Mack truck, backed up over, and then run over again. Still, it wasn't as if he could blame the 6-year-old kid staring at him with his almost comically large black eyes. I guess anybody would be a touch surprised if someone crashed into your apartment and left a human-shaped hole in the living room wall. Or was this the dining room wall?
"'Ello, kid."
"Hello." The boy replied, his eyes still wide. "Are you all right?"
"Been better," said Lloyd as he slowly rose to his feet. Dusting himself off, he took inventory of his predicament. "'S not the first time I've been knocked through plaster. Guess it beats the Lincoln Continental I got thrown at."
He turned his attention to the room's other three inhabitants: a portly middle-aged couple who were obviously the child's parents and a withered old woman who looked ready to shoot flames from her nostrils.
"Sorry 'bout the mess," Lloyd said sounding understandably sheepish.
"Sorry, my ass! What is this shit? There's a goddamn hole in my kitchen and unless you don't want to make another one that looks just like it, you gonna tell me who's going to pay for the first one!"
Lloyd was momentarily taken aback by the old woman's tone. "Look, madam. Not to sound bossy, but there's going to be four mightily hacked-off wankers stormin' in here in about 20 seconds. My advice is that you take your family and clear out 'fore someone gets 'urt!"
As the mother and father called to their child, the old woman continued. "Hell naw! I ain't going nowhere 'till you tell me who's payin' for this!"
Lloyd sincerely considered the idea of performing a mind-wipe of his own but thought the better of it. Groaning, he pulled out one of Mao's old business cards from the side pocket of his leather jacket. "Call these guys, they'll take care of it! Now, OUT!"
Perhaps that wasn't the best way to handle the potentially volatile situation, but the loud crash that marked the arrival of Psimon, Jinx, and Mammoth was good enough to settle the matter. Using a telekinetic wave to send Mammoth back the way he came, Lloyd soon had to deal with the combined assault of Psimon and Jinx. Despite his significant strain, the Black Dog was managing to hold off the combined assault of magic and telepathy. Of course, that was when he felt a horrific burning sensation well up in the pit of his stomach.
Shimmer had arrived.
Significantly weakened, off-balance, and under a triple assault, Lloyd worked frantically to generate a significant enough well of energy to deploy and buy himself some time to recover. There was no way he could abandon the innocent people within the building to these maniacs. Plus there was still Deathstroke to deal with. The matter was made even worse as he saw Mammoth bound back into the apartment, looking quite furious.
"Not feeling so clever now, are you doggie?" Shimmer said as she poured more force into her assault. "I'll teach you to hurt me and my brothAGGH!"
Shimmer's threats were interrupted as two arrows struck her, one in each of her shoulder blades. This not only caused the attack to stop but also caused Mammoth to scream with worry, effectively cutting Lloyd's workload in half.
"Now ya gotta admit," said Green Arrow, two more arrows already on the string, "that was a damn fine shot."
"GRAAGH!" Mammoth charged the emerald archer in a murderous rage. However, the modern-day Robin Hood was able to dodge quite easily.
"Toro! Toro, dumbass!" As Mammoth attempted to turn around, Ollie shot a steel-tipped arrow that sliced into the tendons of Mammoth's right knee, sending him down in an awkward heap. Jinx was the next foe to center on him, sending a nasty looking purplish ball of energy at him. The archer dodged again, rolling left as he readied another arrow. Ollie won the next draw, blinding the witch with a flash arrow and causing her to scream in pain and frantically rub at her eyes.
"Can't hit what you can't see, Marvin Hagler," Ollie said with a roguish grin.
"I can."
Green Arrow was flung against the wall by some invisible force. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this was Psimon's doing.
"So can I."
Psimon turned around to catch a full showing of Lloyd's right foot coming straight for his gullet. The flying kick connected, shattering several important teeth and leaving the telepath in a significant amount of pain.
"Thanks for the save, mate." Lloyd said with a tired smile. "Owe ya one."
"Actually, I think I still owe you two," Ollie fired back. "Although come to think of it, you just helped me out again, so damnit I guess I'm back to owing you three."
"There's a tremendous amount of energy pouring from the top of that radio tower. 'M trustin' that's where this Key fellow is?"
"Yeah, him and Raven. You still got enough to handle these jokers?"
"Certainly," Lloyd replied, watching Mammoth rise to his feet and Jynx beginning to recover. "I'll join you when I can. Where's Canary?"
Dinah thought she really needed to stop creating opportunities where she could marvel at her own stupidity.
Oh, don't worry Ollie! Just go help the kid! I can take on the world's deadliest assassin on my own! What's that? Yes, I know he nearly beat the hell out of me, you and five other Justice Leaguers a couple of weeks back! Those were just lucky shots!
After five minutes of fighting, the only accomplishment she could really give herself credit for is that she hadn't acquired any significant injuries.
Even Slade seemed impressed by this feat. "Not bad, Canary, but you're getting in the way of my contract. Normally, I'd let you fly off but an associate of mine has been looking for you and I owe the man a favor."
With the speed of a panther, Deathstroke the Terminator leapt towards his prey, sword at the ready. The moment Dinah prepared for her canary cry to counter, he flung a small dagger he had fetched in mid-air from his hip. The blade missed its target, but only because Dinah had dodged in the nick of time. The projectile gave Slade more than enough time to bash her in the side of the face with the hilt of his sword. As the Black Canary toppled face first to the ground, Slade raised the blade over his head.
"Sweet dreams, songbird."
Before Slade could strike, however, a flying object crashed into his fists, causing the sword to fall from his grasp. As Dinah rolled to relative safety, Slade was sent flying by a double-footed kick. Watching Slade crash to the ground, the Black Canary was caught unawares of somebody helping her to her feet.
"Good evening, Canary," said Batman.
"In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight." Stephanie's voice took on a nasal, concrete-penetrating tone. "Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power, Green Lantern's light."
Taking the now recharged ring from the Oa power battery, Robin rolled her shoulders and twisted her neck to and fro to take out some of the kinks. Placing the ring back onto her right hand, she brought it to life. The previously broken bone in her arm was already well on the road to recovery and the rest of her body felt like it had just been in a hot shower.
"Miss Stephanie, I find what you are doing to be remarkably foolish. You were unconscious only a half hour ago."
Stephanie turned to Alfred with a winsome smile. "Well, I'll admit that it isn't the best idea I've ever had, but it still needs to be done. We've got that Deathstroke guy, the Society, and the Key all still on the loose and somebody needs to even the odds. And, since nobody else is around, I guess that someone's gonna be me."
"Well, it appears that it did not take long at all for you to acquire Master Bruce's inclination of ignoring perfectly sound medical advice."
"Yeah. You should be careful, Alfie. It might be contagious."
"Yes, I remember Master Dick saying something along those lines long ago."
The sharp-tongued butler then returned to the computer, leaving Stephanie to stew in the sensation of losing yet another war of words to the former Interpol agent. Despite that, however, Alfred brooked no further argument, so she supposed that she could view it as a split-decision.
"You'll never get it right."
Speaking of split decisions. . .
"Funny, Jason. I don't remember asking for you to speak."
"Rushing out to do the right thing, playing hurt, giving all those pep talks and words of encouragement." Despite his confinement within the hospital cot, he appeared to be quite relaxed. "You won't impress him. He'll never really care for you. No matter what you do, you'll always just be another tool for him. 'Cause that's how he sees people, kiddo. He's got Oracle for doing the white-collar work, Alfred to feed him and wipe his ass, and you and Dogboy are there to run the streets for him."
"It's called a relationship, Jason." Stephanie said as she donned her mask. "An agreement between two people to associate with one another in order to achieve positive results for both parties. You should look into it."
"You didn't quite hear me, Steffie. He doesn't view you as a person. You're what, the fourth Robin? How many times has he put us all in danger needlessly? How many innocent people have been hurt because of his supposed morality and noble ideals? Somebody like Bruce doesn't give a damn about anybody. You may as well be a new alternator for the Batmobile as far as he's concerned."
Stephanie huffed and pretended to look up to the heavens for guidance to deal with this garrulous intruder. "Wellllllll, if I'm an alternator than you must be an exhaust pipe for all the smoke you're blowin'. And, all car part comparisons aside, let me tell you something about the both of you."
"Oh, this should be insightful," Jason said with that sycophantic smirk. "Ah well, it's not like I've got anywhere else to go right now," he indicated the steel manacles encircling his hands and legs.
"Look, trying to get an explanation for your actions was only part of the reason I wanted to talk to you. Truth be told, you intrigued me from the first time I heard about you."
"So, I have an admirer. Well, I hate to disappoint you but you are a little young for me."
"And you're a little too much of a moron for me. Anyway, Nightwing once told me that you were once a lot like me. We both grew up in Gotham, we both didn't exactly have pristine childhoods, we'd both rather fight than talk, and we both like to leap into things we probably should stay away from. So, I read into how you died, how you got duped by your mother and the Joker and it reminded me of the stupid mistakes that I made. I figured that we would have a lot in common and I could level with you. But the bottom line is that there's a big difference between the two of us."
Jason's upraised left eyebrow indicated that he was at least somewhat interested in where this was going.
"We may both wake up in the morning and look at ourselves in the mirror and be proud of what we see. The difference is I still know there's a long way to go to get to where I need to be. We both may have been dealt bad hands, but you can't run around blaming other people for the cards you get.
You did something phenomenally stupid and got yourself killed and now you blame Bruce because you screwed up? You want to get mad at him for not killing the Joker because he killed you? You say that if he truly loved you he would have done him in? Love isn't about vengeance, it's about honoring and fighting for the people you care about. And if you don't think for one moment that Bruce didn't love you take a good look at that stupid-ass costume in the corner! Listen to his voice when he hears or sees about some of the horrible things you're doing! If you still think he doesn't care for you, then I'll rip that stupid Al Pacino wannabe bad-ass smirk off your face and feed it to Ace the Bathound!"
Bruce doesn't kill. Not for you, not for me, not even for his mother and father. I don't know why, but he doesn't and I'll honor his pledge so long as he'll have me. However, I've got a pledge of my own. No one hurts the people I care about, and if you think for an instant that I'll ever let you lay so much as a fingertip on him in anger again I will rip you limb from limb, pledge be damned." At this promise, a tremendous green aura resonated from her body and brought a blinding light to the dim confines of the Batcave. "Don't think I can't. Don't think I won't."
Just like that, the luminous aura faded away leaving the two of them alone in the lowlights.
"Okay! That's pretty much all I felt like saying!" Stephanie clapped her hands together and an adventurous twinkle sparkled in her blue eyes. "Now, I've got some work to do. Peace out, Jase!"
Stephanie Brown thundered out of the Batcave, nothing more than a blur of emerald, leaving Jason Todd alone in his former home.
Bruce Wayne and Dinah Lance are two of the most renowned martial artists walking the planet. They have each spent over 20 years honing their craft under the watchful eyes of some of the most respected and feared masters of the art of combat. In addition to their incredible proficiency in the world of hand-to-hand combat, Bruce Wayne is capable of tremendous proficiency with dozens of different weapons, sidearms, and projectile weapons and has access to the premier in armor and weapon technology. The Black Canary herself is capable of shattering walls of solid concrete with her innate talents of sonic manipulation.
To Slade Wilson, they may as well have been toddlers.
It wasn't a question of skill. Both Bruce and Dinah would most likely had emerged the victor in a one-on-one encounter with Slade were it not for the serum that coursed through his veins, if his strength, speed, and intelligence were not far well beyond even the highest reaches of normal human potential. Batman had worked for years to become more skilled, seeking to become the perfect specimen of efficiency and cunning, but Slade was already there. Together, Batman and Dinah had put up a spirited fight, even scoring some solid blows against the superhuman assassin extraordinaire, but Slade's ruthless ability and flawless strategy soon overwhelmed them.
"Well, let me just say that this has been very entertaining," Deathstroke said as he ducked, dodged, and parried the Batman's strikes, each of them targeting a nerve center or pressure point in the hopes of incapacitating him. "Probably explains why I just haven't pulled out my gun and blasted the two of you into bite-size pieces."
The Black Canary came at him from behind, hitting him with a kick to the side of the chest that would have smashed a couple of ribs in any normal human. Slade merely shrugged it off, grabbed her leg with inhuman speed and slammed her into Batman, sending both of them down in a heap.
"However, I do have a contract that I must keep and you're one of the names on my list Mr. Wayne."
"Can't always get what you want, Deathstroke," Dinah said with a sneer as she and Bruce charged at him again. It was a brave action, but also an inefficient one. Slade merely dodged the incoming Batarang, ducked under Dinah's hook kick and slammed both fists into Batman's gut. As Dinah was about to launch into another sonic cry, he pulled out a small object from one of his waist pouches.
A yo-yo, of all things.
However, as Slade twirled one end of the steel cord around Dinah's neck, it was hardly a laughing matter as she fell to the ground clutching at the binding.
"But I get what I need." Slade said as he stood over the prone Batman, sword at the ready. "And I'm not even trying."
Slade was once again stopped from performing a killing blow, this time by a green beam of energy that disintegrated the blade altogether.
"Son of a bitch!" Slade yelled in obvious frustration. "Just how many of you are there?"
He turned to see the face of his third and final target, the blonde haired girl who was already removing the yo-yo from around Canary's neck. "I wouldn't worry about that, Breathstroke," she said as she succeeded in undoing the bindings. "You've got enough to deal with right now."
Robin looked over at Batman. "You okay, B? Lloyd says the Key wants to do a brain drain on Gotham. Green Arrow's already on his way up the tower."
Coughing lightly as he rose back up, Batman turned his eyes toward the massive structure that served as the most powerful communications receiver on the eastern seaboard. "Can you handle him?"
"This old coot? Sure thing."
"Let's move, Dinah!"
As Batman began to rush towards the tower, Dinah took one last look at her familiar-looking rescuer. "Do I know you?"
"Let's go, Black Canary!"
Choosing practicality over curiosity, Dinah rushed off after Batman, leaving a 16-year-old girl to deal with the world's most dreaded assassin.
"Does she know you, Miss Brown?" Slade asked as he watched his two former opponents rush off.
Stephanie didn't react to Slade saying her true name. Judging from the last month or so, she was beginning to think there wasn't anybody who didn't know who the Batman was. "Not too well apparently. Kind of surprised that you're letting my boss just go like that. I thought you were like this big deal professional psychopath."
"I can kill Batman anytime I choose, my dear. You're the more suitable target right now."
"Is that right?"
"Yes. I've always wanted an Oa power ring. You shouldn't have shown your hand so soon."
"What, this? But it's such a gooood card. How could I not? You might as well just fold and go home, old man."
"Hmm. I think the last Green Lantern I fought said something like that to me. That was before I broke four of his fingers and he started screaming like a child."
"Oh yeah, ya mean Kyle Rayner? Well, he's a friend of mine so I can get you back for what you did to him too while I'm here. All these birds and I don't even have a stone."
"Well, seeing as how I nearly killed Wayne and the Black Canary and once managed to hold off an entire regiment of the Justice League, exactly how do you think you're going to beat me?"
"Yes, yes. You beat down the Jackoff League! Big damn deal! You beat up Hawkman and The Atom, for pete's sake! Well, I admit I don't have six people backin' me up. . ."
Out of nowhere, the battered and beaten body of Baran Flanders flew past the both of them, crashing into an abandoned dump truck.
"I've just got the one."
Lloyd moved towards them, his clothing torn, his nose bleeding, his teeth bared, and the rest of him quite ready to keep on fighting.
"All sorts of rubbish on the streets this hour," Lloyd said as he stood at Stephanie's side. "High time we break out the streetsweepers, ey pet?"
"Oh, lets."
"Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Spoiler!"
"Yes, Dinah."
"The little girl in the eggplant cape that rode her moped to the Batcave? That Spoiler?"
Batman somehow managed to work up the necessary amount of oxygen to sigh in irritation as they rushed up the stairwells of the radio tower at a phenomenal pace. "One and the same."
"And she's a Green Lantern now? The little weird girl that Cassie kept knocking out? The kid that Babs would send to track down purse snatchers just to get rid of her?"
"I sense you're having a hard time accepting this, Canary."
"Well, I'm sorry if I've been out of the gossip loop for a while! I've been busy what with the Justice League disintegrating and Superman nearly killing poor Wally while under hypnosis and all the OMACs, and Ollie's normal crap."
Dinah ceased her rambling as the two of them arrived at the top of the tower. Ollie was already there, his back turned to the two of them. On the other end of the tower stood Manitou Raven, the Mayan empath and an apparent hostage.
Standing next to her was a haggard, emaciated looking man with near-skeletal features and iron-gray hair obviously not borne from old age. In fact, it was due to a lifetime of physical and physiological pain endured while attempting to hold an enormous amount of energy within a human frame that was hardly fit to do so. The rigors had, in fact, been so gargantuan that the man could no longer even remember his own name. Now, driven into dementia by his own power, he simply referred to himself as the Key.
Over a year ago, he had been placed in Arkham Asylum due to the work of Batman and the alien known to the world as the Martian Manhunter. It was believed that J'onn had removed the Key's superhuman talents.
It was quite obvious that his efforts were not entirely successful.
"Ollie! Are you all right?" Dinah yelled, looking quite cautious. Ollie did not move so much as a muscle. The Key laughed, a wispy gasp that was barely audible. Manitou Raven, on the other hand, stood stock still, obviously in some kind of shell shock.
"Dinah, by any chance did you and Ollie happen to bring telepathic dampeners with you on the way to Gotham?" asked Batman.
"Of course we did." Dinah replied. "Why?"
With a speed and precision that put Olympic caliber archers to shame, Oliver Queen set an explosive arrow to the string and fired. Both Bruce and Dinah leaped left to avoid any personal contact with the device as it collided with the top stairwell supports, resulting in an explosion that sent down 10 tons of mangled steel down upon the staircase that the two heroes had just scaled.
"Just a question." Batman said.
"Awwwwwwwwww! Look at him! Isn't he cuuuuuuuuute?" Robin cooed.
"Not remotely. Then again, he did attempt to blow me into a million pieces, so my judgment may be a touch skewed."
"Well, I think he's adorable," Stephanie said with a rascally grin. "Are you sure we can't keep him?"
"No, Steph. We all know what's gonna happen. After a couple of months, you're gonna get bored and then I'm gonna have to be the one to feed him and bathe him and clean up his turds when he messes on the carpet."
"Awwwwww."
"Put him back where you found him, Steph." Lloyd said in an authoritative tone.
Making another huff of resistance, Robin used her ring to create a giant scoop shovel. After using it to pick up the now very unconscious Deathstroke, Stephanie whisked it over to the dumpster that Lloyd had previously sent Mammoth crashing into. With a sweep of her hand, she made the shovel disappear, leaving Deathstroke to fall quite unceremoniously into the filthy waste receptacle.
"All right. Enough with the mid-card crap! It's time to crash the main event!" Stephanie whooped, taking to the sky. As she was doing so, however, Lloyd grabbed her right ankle and pulled her back down. "Hey! What's up with you?"
"Something's wrong." Stephanie's eyes widened at Lloyd's suddenly serious tone. "Something's very wrong."
"What? You think the Gotham Recycling Committee might try and give us an environmental citation for not putting Deathstroke in bottles or cans?"
Lloyd's worry was snapped by the sheer ridiculousness of Robin's words. Holding back a biting remark, he went on. "'S just the closer I've been getting to this Key guy, I feel something acting up with me powers. Sort of like an ice cream headache."
"Well, this dude is supposed to be like this major league telepath, which is why we should go up there and help out."
Steph tried to squirm away from Lloyd's grasping of her shoulder but the Black Dog held firm.
"'S the thing, though. This isn't telepathy. This is out and out magic."
That did get Robin's attention. "But Batman's files said the Key didn't have any magic in him."
"Which means we're not dealin' with the Key here," Lloyd said as he looked forebodingly up the tower. "An' from all this hardcore mojo vibes I'm getting, I think whatever's up there is big time bad."
"Ollie! Snap out of it!" Dinah cried as she dodged a bolo arrow fired by her former boyfriend. "You can beat this!"
"No, he can't!" Batman snapped angrily. "And would you like to know why, Dinah? Because he's weak! Nothing but a spoiled rich kid who let every opportunity that's ever been handed to him fall away because he knew somebody would be there to pick him back up!"
"What on earth are you. . .?" Dinah felt as if someone had filled her veins with ice water. "Oh, Jesus no."
"It's time to put you down, Ollie," Batman said. Launching himself over another arrow, Batman used his heavy cape to glide through the high winds and crash into Ollie with a flying tackle. Within moments, the two costumed vigilantes were clawing at one another.
Dinah was aghast. The Key was laughing.
"Oh dear. Did I pick the right place to go to after the Spectre busted me out! So many souls with so much and so little. Throw in these two insecure little fellows and Gotham is nothing more than a breeding den of envy!"
Misfits Confidential
AHH! Another chapter that's run too long. No time for meaningless chit-chat! Read the story! Please review because I want to know what you think! Time for the next issue preview!
Issue #12 Preview
Envy, the demonic embodiment of one of the Seven Sins is in town and he's got Batman and Green Arrow fighting to the death for his opening act! Well, I expect that's better than the vocal stylings of Vicki Lawrence. Can Dinah, Lloyd, and Stephanie stop them and turn the tide before the lights go out in Gotham? (Shame on you if you understand that joke) Find out in the conclusion of the Responsibilities arc: Understanding through Arsekickings! See you in seven!
