Chapter Twenty-Nine: Consequences
Tommy regained consciousness, and with it came fury. She tricked me, he thought, his mind racing back to the moments before sleep had taken him—his lips pulling away from Allie's, the remorseful look on her face, her words as he'd began to feel drowsy—"I'm really, really sorry… I love you." Damn it.
His head throbbed, his stomach queasy, his limbs lethargic, like a bad hangover. Slowly, he opened his eyes and surprised by a bright light overhead, shooting pain into the back of his skull. He tried to shield his face with his arm, and found that he couldn't—his arm was held in place at his side. He tried to move again, and found more resistance, accompanied by the rattling of chains. "What the hell…?" Tommy opened his eyes again, blinking against the harsh light, forcing the world around him to come into focus. He knew right away that this was not the place where he had fallen asleep—too many sounds. Something dragging, people talking—he didn't recognize the voices. What is this? He struggled against the chains again.
"Hey, Jedidiah! Another one of these kids is movin!" A voice echoes through the chamber—Tommy couldn't see who it belonged to.
"Well, let me take care of that real quick," a second voice replied. A moment later, a face loomed above Tommy, obscuring the ceiling light—Jedidiah was a ragged and unkempt man, his hair long at the sides and balding on top, skin pulled taught against the bones of his skull, caked in grime and oil. When he opened his mouth to speak, Tommy counted only four teeth, one of them ash-black and ready to drop from its socket at any moment—"Wakey, wakey hero boy. We been waitin' all mornin'!"
"Who are you?" Tommy demanded. He kept his voice level, careful not to let his anxiety slip loose.
"Don't you worry none 'bout that, hero boy," Jedidiah poured something from an old bottle onto a rag in his palm. The smell immediately made Tommy nauseous. "Go back to sleep." He pressed the rag against Tommy's face. Tommy gnashed his teeth—a desperate act, but one that would have inflicted damage had it not been for the man's thick glove. "Whoa!" Jedidiah jeered. "Ooohooho, Mabel is gonna' love this one." He pressed the rag to Tommy's face again.
Tommy held tightly to the air in his lungs, careful not to breath, fighting against the odor. Then Jedidiah punched Tommy in the ribs, and Tommy gasped in surprise and pain, breathed in sharply, and the world started to go fuzzy again.
Before losing consciousness, Tommy saw Jedidiah turn his back to him, and lift up a loose end of chain from the ground. He pulled it, dragging Tommy across the floor with the scraping of chains, and then—blackness.
….
The next time that Tommy awoke, it was to a surge of pain, an electric cattle prod jammed into his ribs. He gasped, choking on saliva as his eyes opened and he found himself in a world turned upside-down. No… he realized, I'm upside down. Chains were still coiled around his body, and now he dangled above the floor, suspended by what appeared to be an old engine lift, long-since rusted to disrepair. He craned his neck left, trying to get an idea of his surroundings. Beside him, Conner Queen and McKayla Saunders were also bound by chains, dangling above the floor. Both of them were still unconscious.
They were in some sort of dimly lit building—small and cramped, with barely enough room for the three engine lifts that held them. The man with the cattle prod had to squeeze along the wall as he stepped past Tommy—Tommy could only see his boots, and wasn't sure whether or not it was one of the men from before.
The man stopped in front of Conner and lifted the cattle prod, jamming it into his ribs as he done to Tommy. Conner did not wake up, however, his sleeping body swaying back and forth, suspended by the rusty chains. "Goddangit," the man with the cattle prod scoffed. "Can't get these two blond headed suckers to wake up. If I didn't know better I'd think they was dead."
The sleeping potion, Tommy thought, anger again pulsing through his chest. Those two haven't recovered from it yet. I probably shook it off a little faster. Then, another thought crept up on him—If I shook the potion off, I bet Kavita did too. So where is she? "Why are we here?" Tommy asked, his voice echoing in the tiny space.
"Shut it," the man said. "Mabel's on her way for ya."
The man turned and shut off the light, leaving Tommy in pitch blackness. There was the sound of a door closing, and then Tommy was alone. He wrestled against the chains again, hoping perhaps he could draw upon a burst of Amazonian strength to shatter them—but nothing came. His mind felt distant and foggy, his limbs lethargic, like someone had spiked his drink. Nothing felt quite right.
He jerked to the left as much as he could manage, trying to build momentum and get himself swinging, hoping he could crash into something and knock himself loose, but there was nothing within reach. So, with a defeated sigh, he shut his eyes and merely tried his best to not think about Allie's betrayal. Instead, he focused on the current predicament—Who are these people? Why did they take us? Where are we? He felt reasonably sure that these people were not agents of Apokolips—they had no high-tech equipment, they had rusty chains and old engine lifts. They weren't a well outfitted combat force, they were ragged and malnourished. So what do they want with us?
He didn't know how much time had passed before the door opened again. No light came in through the doorway—it was night outside. Footsteps entered, and a second later, the light flicked on again. Tommy blinked away spots, craning his neck to try and see who had entered. There were three sets of feet in front of his face, all of them dressed in muddy, beaten-up combat boots.
"Here they are, Ms. Mabel." One of the men said—Tommy recognized that voice, it was Jedidiah, the man who had been dragging him earlier.
"My God," a woman remarked—this, Tommy guessed, must have been Mabel. "You were actually right!" Mabel knelt down, meeting Tommy's eyes. She was older than he had expected, probably in her mid-forties. She had dreadlocks in her hair, and a large flower tattoo on her neck. She studied Tommy with a quiet intensity, the kind he'd learned to be leery off.
"Thomas Grayson," she spoke with an air of sophistication. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"I'd shake your hand," Tommy said, "But your toothless friend over there is a little overzealous when it comes to chains, I think."
"Well I would let you out of those chains, except that I don't trust you to stick around long," Mabel stood up, leaving Tommy to again study her feet. She turned back to Jedidiah. "Tell me again where you found them?"
"Underneath a collapsed tunnel on the east side of the city, ma'am. We were looking for the runner from a few days back, figured the attack might've driven him underground. Lo and behold, we stumbled onto these four instead, fast asleep."
"Only the four? You didn't find anyone else?"
"No ma'am, and we checked, too."
"And you're certain you weren't followed?" She asked.
"Certain, ma'am," Jedidiah said. "We covered our tracks real good."
"Where are you keeping Kavita Stewart?" Mabel asked.
"Which one is that, ma'am? The one with the wings?"
"The Thanagarian, yes."
"We got her in the Ice Box. Had to separate her from the others, on account of the fact that she kept wakin' up and bustin' the chains."
"You have someone guarding her?"
"Yes ma'am, I put Colton on watch. Gave him one of the big guns."
"Good. When we're done here, find two more men to join him. I don't care what they're busy doing, this is more important."
"Yes ma'am."
Mabel turned her attention to Conner Queen, studied his face briefly, and then moved on to McKayla. Suddenly, anger flared in Mabel's voice. "You left the ring on her?"
"We didn't want to touch it, ma'am," Jedidiah gulped. "We were scared we'd accidentally do something wrong with it and mess things up."
"You're damn lucky this one never woke up," Mabel snapped. She slipped the Green Lantern carefully off of Mckayla's finger, and slipped it into a pouch strapped to her hip. "There, that's better," Mabel turned away, headed toward the door. "I'm gonna' send out the signal to our buyer, we'll get this show on the road. And Jedidiah, put our friend Mr. Grayson back to sleep, if you don't mind."
"Wait a minute!" Tommy shouted, rattling against his chains. "What's going on? Who are you?"
"Shut your mouth, hero boy!" Jedidiah kicked Tommy, swinging him back against the side of the engine lift with a painful thud. "Ain't nobody talks to Ms. Mabel that way!"
"Simmer down, Jedidiah." Mabel said, her back still toward Tommy. He could see her better now; she wore a loose black t-shirt over cargo pants. There was a gun strapped at her hip on one side, and a knife on the other, but apart from that, there was nothing that would have made her stand in a crowd. Tommy noticed a wedding ring on her finger, and a sleeve of flowery tattoos over her left arm. She looked like anyone else, innocuous. Why was she holding him captive? Why did these people obey her?
"I need answers," Tommy said. "You aren't working for Darkseid. So who are you?"
"I'm just a woman trying to make a living." Mabel said.
Tommy racked his brain. She said she was going to contact her buyer… "What are you selling?" He asked. "Mckayla's ring? Because that won't get you far. Whoever you pawn it on won't be able to use it. That's a good way to make enemies fast."
At this, Mabel laughed aloud—a caustic, biting laugh, like a slap across the face. "Your belongings aren't the product, sugar. You're the product."
"You're selling us?"
"Apokolips doesn't like disruptions to the status quo. There's quite a price on you and your gang—enough to set me and my friends up nicely."
"You're an idiot," Tommy spot. "You think Darkseid is just going to write you a check? They'll kill you and your goons too."
"It's worked well so far," Mabel shrugged, turning to face Tommy again. "We've been able to make a decent living selling off powered kids to the Apokoliptians."
"You… what?"
"How do you think they fill those orphanages, sweetheart? People run and hide from the Parademons. But they see me walking down the street? They don't even think twice."
"You…" Tommy grit his teeth. "You're scum!" He pushed against the chains again. They creaked more this time, his strength was returning.
"I'm just trying to make a living," Mabel said again. "People like you have gone and made that pretty damn difficult in this world."
"Why do you think they put a bounty on my head in the first place?" Tommy snarled. "I'm trying to fix this world!"
"Is that what you're doing?" Mabel eyed Tommy. There was something dangerous in her gaze, something he couldn't quite read. "Jedidiah, cut him down."
"Are you sure, Ms. Mabel?"
"Do it."
With only a moment's hesitation, Jedidiah slashed with his knife and cut loose the chain that held Tommy above the floor. Tommy crashed to the concrete head-first, shooting pain from his skull to his toes, the sound of the clanging chains obscured by a sudden ringing in his ears. He tried to jump up, to break the chains still around his legs and torso, but as soon as he got onto his knees, the cattle prod was jammed against his neck again, sending a ripple of electricity into his nervous system. He flopped back to the floor, smacking his cheek against the cold cement.
"Bring him with." Mabel ordered, nodding toward the door. Jedidiah grabbed Tommy and began to drag him across the ground again. The skin of Tommy's knees was ground raw as Jedidiah pulled him through the doorway, following Mabel's lead.
Outside, Tommy saw that they were at what appeared to be an old train station. The structure they'd been hung inside of was a dilapidated train car, caked with layers of grime and graffiti. "Bring him to the crane." Mabel commanded. At her order, Jedidiah carried Tommy across the train yard, coming to a stop at a slab of scrap metal welded together into a platform. Looking up, Tommy saw that the platform was attached to a cable affixed to the end of a crane arm. The crane had once been orange, but time had rusted much of it to a sickly brown.
Jedidiah threw Tommy down onto the platform, knocking the wind out of him. Mabel stepped onto the platform beside Tommy and said, "Lift us up, Jed."
"Are you sure you want to be alone up there with him, Ms. Mabel?"
"I can hold my own." She assured.
With a nod, Jedidiah approached the controls for the crane arm. The crane roared to life, and the platform beneath Tommy and Mabel began to raise into the air with a groan. Tommy took the opportunity to rattle at the chains, but he didn't get far before Mabel pressed the heal of her boot into the base of his skull, pressing his face against the platform. He could hear her cock her gun, ready to fire if he struggled again.
By the time another full minute passed, they were high above the train yard, swaying in the air on the elevated platform. Mabel lifted her foot, releasing the pressure on Tommy's skull. "Sit up." She said.
Tommy bit his lip and did as she had instructed, wedging his knees underneath himself and thrusting up with his abdomen, so that he was now sitting on his knees. He looked out over the edge of the platform, and into oblivion.
The ruins of Central City surrounded them, collapsed and desolate, fires still burning. Even from this high up, he could see piles of dead in parts of the city streets, obscured by clouds of smog. "You see that?" Mabel asked, a razor's edge lining her voice.
"More than I care to." Tommy said.
"Such a senseless waste of life," Mabel shook her head. "So utterly pointless, for people to die like this."
"It sounds like you and I have a common enemy, then," Tommy said. "Don't know if anybody's told you, lady, but Apokolips is responsible for all this."
"No, Mr. Grayson, that's not how I see it," Mabel put a hand on his shoulder, and for a moment, he was afraid she might push him off of the platform. "Before you and your gang came along and started trying to change the status quo, the city didn't look like that."
"No, there were Apokoliptian patrols on every corner making sure nobody stepped out of line."
"And if we didn't step out of line, everything was fine," Mabel snapped. "There were laws, yes. We followed them, and we were fine. Life wasn't perfect, but we could get by—scrounge our food, make our friends, raise our children—safe in the knowledge that we weren't worth killing. And then you came along and ruined all that. They bombed our city to get to you. They withheld our food to get to you. They killed our children to get to you!"
"I'm sorry," Tommy said. "I truly am. I never meant to bring that down on you. But we did everything we could to stop it, and—"
"And you left even more collateral damage in your wake, when you could have just turned yourselves in and ended the whole mess. But no, you had to be heroes. Heroes already failed this world once. We don't need heroes. We just need to get by."
"We didn't attack you, we didn't enslave you. We're trying to beat the people who did. You don't like the way things are, but you're going to help the people who made it that way? Are you kidding me?"
"My son used to be able to run down to the old baseball diamond and play ball with his friends," Mabel scowled. "As long as they didn't get in the way of any Apokoliptian scouts, they didn't get bothered. Now that baseball diamond doesn't exist anymore, instead there's a radioactive crater where your Kryptonian friend dodged a stray shot. I used to be able to go down to the city square and trade for some baby food, to feed my daughter. The woman who made it would give me a special discount. Now that woman is dead, because a horde of Parademons were trying to flush your team out of hiding. This is your fault. You had to change the status quo. You've only made things worse."
Tommy gulped against a lump in his throat. "I was trying to do the right thing…"
"If you gave a damn about the right thing, you would've handed yourself over the moment bodies started to hit the floor. You wanted to be a hero. You wanted to make up for your parents' failure."
Tommy looked out over the desolation of Central City again, crushed under the weight of guilt. No matter how he fought to push it out of his mind, he couldn't shake the feeling that she was right. "No," he said aloud. "No, no… you sell children to Orphanages. You don't get to take the moral high ground."
Mabel frowned. "I sell powered individuals, and only after they've already proven disruptive. Sometimes that isn't pretty. But as long as my children are safe and fed, I'll sleep like a baby."
"You're selfish."
"I'm realistic. If they didn't want trouble, they wouldn't have used their powers to try and stand out. They wouldn't have tried to be heroes. When they do, I take them off the streets, and normal people get to keep on living."
"Whatever you need to tell yourself. Its bullshit all the same. When the rest of my team comes for me, you can give them your little speech too, right before we put you down with the rest of the scum."
"And you're calling me a liar," Mabel laughed. "How'd you four wind up passed out in those catacombs, anyhow? That's quite a sleeping spell you must have been under for my boys to chain you up and drag you here. I'm gonna' go out on a limb and guess the magical one brewed that up… what's her name, Zatina?"
Tommy frowned. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"I can recognize betrayal when I see it, hon," Mabel smiled. "I don't think there's anybody coming to help you."
Mabel turned away from Tommy and walked to the edge of the platform. "Jed!" She called, "You can lower us now!"
As the platform descended, Tommy studied what he could of the train yard carefully—from what he could estimate, Mabel's forces consisted of only about a dozen men. Everyone was armed, but only with basic Earth weaponry—nothing he couldn't handle. Still, there was a question that lingered in his mind, one that stopped him from trying to put up a fight then and there—If this is all that she has up her sleeve, then how have they been capturing metahumans? Not everybody can be under a sleeping spell when Mabel finds them.
Tommy decided to hang back and try to observe more before he made a move, he wanted to be more sure about exactly what he was up against. And maybe, if he waited it out, Allie and the others really would come to back him up.
Or maybe they wouldn't.
…
Kavita stumbled across the floor of the train car, shackles dragging behind her wrists and ankles. The floor sent cold shivers through her body—the men had removed her shirt and covered her back with bulbous, purple leeches. She didn't know exactly what they were, and she had given up on trying to pry them off of her skin—they made her weak, as though they were draining the very life from her body.
"Don't bother fightin' em," shouted the man with a gun trained on her. She'd been able to gather than his name was Colton. He was seated in an old rocking chair on the far end of the train car, out her reach. "Those parasites have put tougher sons of bitches than you on their knees."
Kavita dropped to her elbows, unable to support her own weight, gasping for breath. The purple slug-like blobs writhed on her back, growing larger as they sapped her energy away. "W-wh-what… are… these things?" She wheezed.
"You know much about the old heroes, birdie?" Colton spit tobacco onto the floor as he spoke. "The ones who died back during the Invasion? Well, I'm willing to bet you don't know as much about em as Ms. Mabel. Ms. Mabel knows all about the powered folk who came before, she used to study em for S.T.A.R. Labs back in the day. So after the Invasion, when Ms. Mabel was presented with certain… business opportunities, she knew just where to look for the old science experiments to give her an edge."
"What's the point?" Kavita asked.
"You ever heard of the Parasite? Purple guy, fought with Superman and the Justice League way back when? Well, those leeches on yer back are pieces of him. It's a project Ms. Mabel was working on before the Invasion, tryin' to see if they could use the pieces of Parasite's body for medical purposes. Draining illnesses, stuff like that. After the Invasion happened, Ms. Mabel decided it could be put to be better use keeping metahumans in line."
So they're draining my powers away, Kavita thought with a scowl. "This Ms. Mabel sounds pretty smart…" she forced the words out, trying to navigate the situation, to find an edge she could exploit. "Do you like working for her?"
"She keeps the cash flowing," Colton shrugged, spitting a wad of tobacco. "You know how much it costs to get nicotine nowadays? People horde the shit like water in a drought. I can afford it because of Ms. Mabel. Just gotta' watch some super powered kids for her every once in a while, make sure they don't make any trouble before we get em sold."
"Do you have children?" She asked.
"Used to," a shadow fell over the Colton's face. "Twins, two little girls. They died in the Invasion though. I quit chewin' and smokin' for em' back in the day. They learned about cancer in school, got all worked up that I was gonna' kill myself if I kept it up, so they begged me 'till I stopped," he lit up a cigarette and placed it between his lips. "Shoot, now I pray for cancer. Let it take me outta' this hellhole."
"If you hate Apokolips so much, you should be helping us stop them. Not turning us over to them."
"Heh," he scoffed, "Nobody's gonna' stop them. I saw heroes try and try—Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the whole lot—they all got killed trying. And I'm sorry sweetheart, but you ain't no Superman."
"We can at least try."
"You know, Ms. Mabel always says it was the superheroes who brought Apokolips to Earth in the first place. I never put much stock in that, 'till the other day, when that big Darkseid hologram showed up and demanded you all turn yourselves in, or else he was gonna' bomb our city. Yup, turns out Ms. Mabel was right. Us normal people, we don't matter to you—we're pawns in the games you powered people play. They use us to get to you, you try to convince us to help you fight them, round and round we go. We'd be better off without you in the first place."
He stood up from the rocking chair and walked toward Kavita, slowly. He knelt down and met her gaze, hot cigarrete breath hitting her face. "Twenty years ago, I lost both my beautiful daughters because Darkseid wanted to draw out Superman. Just a couple days ago, I lost friends in Central City, because Darkseid wanted to draw out you and your friends. You could've turned yourselves in, but instead you just wanna' keep fighting, keep throwing our lives into the grinder—and you have the nerve to look me in the eye, and tell me that you're fighting for us?" He took his cigarette and pressed it against Kavita's head, burning her skin, causing her to cry out. "You powered people ain't never done a damn thing for me. Don't go thinkin' you can trick me into helping you now."
He tossed the cigarette aside and turned toward the door. "I gotta' take a leak. Don't fly off anywhere now, birdie." He reached for the door handle.
"W-would your daughters be proud of you… if you they saw today?" Kavita asked.
Colton paused, fist clenched around the door handle. "Don't you talk about my little girls."
"Would you sell them to Darkseid too, if it meant you could buy a pack of smokes? Would you let Ms. Mabel shackle them up and auction them like cattle?"
"Shut your mouth, bitch!" Colton barked. "You don't know what you're talking about!"
"It's no wonder you lost your little girls…" Kavita pushed herself up onto her palms, fighting the fatigue. "You didn't deserve to be a father."
A cold silence fell over the room. When Colton finally spoke, his voice was lower than it had been before, heavier. "Okay birdie," he took his hand off the door handle and turned back toward her. He set his gun on the floor, lit another cigarette, and cracked his knuckles. "You want it, you got it. Let's play."
He took a slow step forward, but his instep was punctuated by a sudden knock on the door. Colton jumped and, for a moment, seemed confused. There was a knock at the door again. "Colton!" A voice called from outside, "Everything cool in there?"
With a frown, Colton slid the door open, revealing two men on the outside, both of them heavily armed. "All good." Colton said.
"Ms. Mabel wants more men guarding the Thanagarian," one of the men said. "So we're here to join you."
"Er…" Colton shifted, clearly caught off guard. "Are you sure? I know there's a lot of prep that's gotta' be done for the trip tomorrow, I can handle it here if—"
"Ms. Mabel's orders," the other gunman shrugged, entering the train car. "Jesus, Colton, are you alright? You look sick."
"I'm just…" Colton looked away uncomfortably. Kavita saw that his hands were still trembling with rage. "I just need to step outside. Been locked up with the bird shit for too long."
"Go take a breather buddy, we'll take it from here." One of the men said. In a moment, Colton was gone, leaving the two armed strangers to watch over Kavita.
Damn it, she thought to herself, I almost had him.
…
Tommy hit the floor of the train car on his hands and knees. After his conversation with Mabel, he had not been taken back to the engine lift where he'd woken up—instead, he'd been transported to a larger train car, this one newer and, as far as he could tell, operational. The inside of this new train car had been outfitted with four steel cages. Before they cut the chains off him, they had injected him with something that made him feel uncoordinated and drowsy. That's their strategy, he thought, Keep you drugged up and sedated, so you can't fight back.
"Get the collar on him!" He heard Jedidiah order from behind him. One of the guards knelt down behind Tommy and looped cold steel around his neck, locking it with a metallic click. Tommy spun around on his knees, trying to get ahold of the man, but was met with a strike to the face from the butt of Jedidiah's rifle instead. Tommy tumbled to his back, groggy and delirious.
"That collar on yer neck is packin' enough explosive power to make your head disappear," Jedidiah said. "There's an invisible fence wired into this train car. You step outside the car, it detonates. You tamper with it, it detonates. You piss me off enough to push a button, it detonates. Get me?"
"How many scared little kids have you given that speech to?" Tommy spat, locking eyes with Jedidiah.
"Powered kids?" Jedidiah grinned, "Not nearly enough."
Jedidiah swung the cage door closed, sealing it shut and trapping Tommy inside. "See ya' tomorrow, hero boy." And with that, Jedidiah and his two guards exited the train car. With them out of the way, Tommy noticed for the first time two of the other cages were also occupied—Conner and Mckayla had been moved to this car while Tommy was out with Mabel.
Conner was awake now, sitting cross-legged in the corner of his cage, head sunk down toward his lap, a mop of shaggy blond hair falling around his face. There was a collar around his neck as well. "Conner? Are you alright?" Tommy asked.
"I feel like I got hit by a truck full of Ambien," Conner groaned. Looking up seemed to be a struggle for him as he met Tommy's gaze, and Tommy saw that at some point Conner had gotten a black eye from one of Mabel's men. "What's going on? Where the hell are we?"
"How long have you been awake?" Tommy asked.
"Not long," Conner said. "I woke up to some asshole putting this collar on my neck, tried to get it off but there were four of them in a circle around me, they all had guns…"
"These guys are good at what they do," Tommy nodded. "They know we're stronger than them, so they compensate with their greater numbers, and keep us drugged up and sedated to even the playing field."
"Who are they? How did this even happen? I mean, last thing I remember, I was following Zatina somewhere because she wanted to show me something, and—"
"Zatina used a sleeping spell on you," Tommy frowned. "Me too. And Mckayla and Kavita."
"Why would she do that?"
"Because we were the only four who wanted to stay put, rather than go looking for Quinton. It was Allie's idea, I think. Or Jesse's. Or both of them together. I'm not really sure. Point is, while we were passed out, a few of these scavengers stumbled across us. They're looking to sell us to Darkseid and collect the bounty on our heads."
"They seem awfully prepared, for having stumbled across us by chance…"
"They do this a lot," Tommy scowled. "They lure in kids with powers and sell them to the Orphanages. Places like The Hole and Hell's Gate."
"Wait a minute…" Conner's eyes widened. "Tommy, are we dealing with Ms. Mabel?"
"You know her?" Tommy perked up, surprised.
"I know of her," Conner said. "Corey heard all about her while he was in The Hole. Half the kids in there got there because of her. When Corey and I were recruiting for our army, Corey was obsessed with finding her and putting a stop to her… but she's a ghost, nobody can figure out where she's hiding. Kids just disappear with her, and never turn up again."
"Well… we found her."
"Shit."
"Yeah."
Silence hung in the air between them for a moment. Tommy choked against the lump his throat. "I know what you're thinking." He said.
"What?"
"This is my fault," Tommy looked away from him. "If I weren't so indecisive, we would've had a plan in place and Allie wouldn't have felt so desperate. If I had kept my guard up and not been so trusting, she wouldn't have been able to trick me with the potion. If I were a stronger leader—"
"Tommy, stop. This isn't your fault, man," Conner said. "You were trying to keep up all of us alive. We had every reason to believe Quinton was dead. I understand that. And I also understand that if Allie got in her head that she had to go looking for him, then you were never going to stop her. That's just how she is."
"I wanted to look for him too," Tommy said. "I just… everything pointed toward there being a trap, and I couldn't bear the thought of losing anybody else."
"Tommy…" there was another pause. "I'm sorry I've been so shitty to you, these last few days. Losing Corey, and then losing Chris, so close together… I didn't cope well. You were the leader, so it was easy to blame you. But I was wrong to do that, and you are too. It's not your fault. We all understand you did everything you could."
"Are you two about done?" Mckayla groaned from her cage, pushing herself up from the floor for the first time. "Jesus… I did not expect to wake up to you two playing Real Housewives of Apokolips."
"Good to have you join us in the land of the living," Conner managed a grin. "Sleep well?"
"Bad dreams," Mckayla shook her head. She moved to wipe sleep from her eyes, and realized that her hand was bare. "Where's my ring?"
"Mabel took it," Tommy said. "Where, I'm not sure."
"Well then, we're going to have to get it back. What's the plan?"
…
By the time the door to Kavita's cell opened, she could barely keep her eyes open. The parasitic leeches on her back had drained so much of her essence away, her skin had begun to look as though she'd been in a bathtub too long, shriveled and taught. As the door to the train car slid open, she expected another simple guard rotation—there had been two since Colton left, and thankfully, she had not seen him again. She'd pushed the man's buttons enough to goad him into a fight, but now that more time had passed and the leeches had eaten more from her, she was no longer sure she could win. What stepped into the train car, though was no mere rotation of guards—it was Ms. Mabel herself, sauntering in the light with unabashed confidence. Upon seeing her, both guardsmen stood at attention.
"Drey, Dennis," Ms. Mabel nodded to the men, "Go take a breather. I'd like a moment alone with the captive."
"Yes ma'am." both men nodded and exited the train car. The door sealed shut, and just like that, Kavita was alone with the ring leader.
"Kavita Stewart," Ms. Mabel smiled politely. "I apologize for the… discomfort, of your holdings. Your abilities required that we take measures more drastic than for your friends. You understand."
"You…" Kavita strained to make her voice audible. "I heard your name a thousand times, when I worked for Granny Goodness. You kept a steady supply of metahuman kids. You fucking monster."
"I'm sorry you feel that way," Ms. Mabel folded her hands. "But you of all people should understand the nature of these things. The atrocities we commit to survive."
"There are a million ways to survive, lady…" Kavita said. "You didn't have to choose this one."
"With this arrangement, not only do I have a steady income, but I have protection. As long as I'm useful to Apokolips, they won't see me harmed. That safety extends to my children, Ms. Stewart. If it weren't for them, I'd be willing to take the risk. But I have to ensure their safety. I'll do whatever I have to do to ensure that."
"I said the same thing for a long time… I'll do what I have to. Leaves you just a little bit emptier inside every time you say it, doesn't it?"
For a long moment, Mabel was silent. Then, she approached Kavita, boots thudding against the steel floor. Mabel unsnapped a short, electric baton from her hip, and a rush of panic overcame Kavita. Then, Mabel reached out gently, and pressed the baton against one of the leeches on Kavita's back. The creature spasmed into a bulbous blob of purple goo, leaping off of Kavita's flesh. Mabel repeated this process on the other two leeches, until all of them had been removed.
Relief flooded over Kavita. Already she felt better, as if someone had been drinking her through a straw and now they'd finally let up. "You need a break," Mabel said. "Apokolips won't pay as much if you're already dead." Newly emboldened, Kavita tugged against the chains, but it was no use. It would be some time still before her strength returned to her. Ms. Mabel gently caressed one of Kavita's wings, feathers lined with the Nth metal so that they glimmered. "I always wanted the chance to study a Thanagarian up close." She said.
"When you worked for S.T.A.R. Labs?" Kavita asked.
"Yes. Colton told you about me, I see."
"You used to help people…" Kavita shook her head. "Unbelievable."
"A lifetime ago, hon. Before people like you broke the world."
"If you hate me so much, why are you here?"
"Before my husband died, he used to complain that I couldn't stop working," Mabel
continued to fidget with one of Kavita's wings. "I was never one to leave work at the door. Always thinking, always working on the next thing…"
"What's your point?"
"In the type of work I do now, there's always an expiration date. I understand that. Eventually, I'll slip up, and someone will find me, someone will kill me. I always thought I would quit while I was ahead, beat the Devil before he ever showed up on my doorstep. But the longer I've been doing this, the deeper the hole has gotten, the harder it's been to see any way out. Until today." Mabel took a step back, approaching the bag she'd set beside the chair at the far side of the train car. "I'm meeting with Desaad tomorrow to arrange the sale of the four of you. That sale should net me upwards of a hundred million units. That's a lot of extra meal tickets, a lot of weapons, a lot of distance travelled… a lot of people willing to look the other way, if I line their pockets well enough. I'll be able to take my kids and run, leave this hellhole in the dust before somebody with a grudge catches up to me."
"You plan for us to be your last sale?"
"The very last one, and then I can disappear. I'll find someplace isolated, somewhere safe for my children, where they won't have to spend their days holed up in a bunker until I get home. But I'll need some assurance… I won't actively have Darkseid's protection, so I'll need another edge," Kavita turned back around, holding a syringe she'd taken from the bag. "Some indestructible Nth metal coating my children's bones should help with that."
"You can't be serious?" Kavita's heart skipped.
"I'm afraid I am, hon," Mabel said. "The separation process will be very painful for you, I'm sure, but it shouldn't kill you. Not if I do it right."
"You'd risk that? You said yourself I'm not worth as much dead."
"I'm quite confident in my abilities," Mabel said, "But even in the worst case scenario, I still have three living captives to deliver Darkseid. A smaller bounty on the fourth won't kill me."
Mabel reached forward and injected the syringe into Kavita's neck. Kavita felt her veins catch on fire, an agony like she'd never felt before. She screamed, echoing in the train car, and collapsed face-first to the floor. "That will only be the first of several injections throughout the next twenty-four hours," Mabel said. "I need to gradually weaken the bonds between your body and the metal. Once I've broken down the bonds enough, your body should begin to reject the metal on its own. That part will be the most unpleasant for you."
Mabel reached up and stroked Kavita's wing again. This time, she tripped the wingtip harder, prying against it. To Kavita's horror, the tip of the wing snapped off, a shard of Nth metal coming loose in Mabel's palm. "Look at that!" Mabel smiled. "The bonds are already weakening." She tucked the Nth metal shard into her pouch.
The walkie-talkie on Mabel's hip buzzed, crashing into the echoes of Kavita's screams. Mabel unhooked the walkie-talkie from her belt and answered—"Yes?"
"Ms. Mabel," Jedidiah's voice came through the speaker, "There's a situation with the other captives. You're gonna' want to see this."
"I'll be there in a moment," Mabel returned the walkie-talkie to her belt, and gave Kavita another glance. "I'm sorry that I have to put you through this in your final days. I'll give you a shot of morphine to hopefully help the pain—with your physiology, I can give you a good deal more than a human could take."
Mabel pressed another, larger needle into Kavita's neck, and in a moment Kavita felt a cooling force against the heat in her blood, blunting the pain somewhat. The world around her became hazy, and as her rational mind started to drift away, she saw Mabel up and start for the door.
"If you had children of your own, you would understand," Mabel said. "I'll do as many terrible things as I have to do to ensure their safety. I'll try to make that as painless for you as I can in the meantime. Goodnight, Kavita."
And with that, Mabel was gone.
…
"This is your fault!" Conner reached his arms through the bars of his cage and into Tommy's. He grabbed ahold of Tommy shackles and yanked him against the bars. "You got us into this mess! You were supposed to be our leader, and now we're going to die because of you!"
"Bullshit!" Tommy snapped. "All I've done is try to keep you idiots out of trouble, but you made that impossible. You can't do anything I tell you!"
"I don't know if you're just a moron or if you're secretly trying to screw us over, but one way or another you've done a fine job of screwing us over, Grayson!" Conner rattled him against the cage bars again.
"You just can't deal with the fact that I'm dating your sister!" Tommy snapped. At that, Conner snapped his arms through the bars again and struck Tommy in the nose, drawing blood. Tommy staggered forward and Conner was able to just barely reach his hands around Tommy's neck. He began to choke, fingers pressed in the skin around the bomb collar on Tommy's throat.
"I'll kill you right here! Darkseid won't get the chance!" Conner growled.
"Stop it! Please!" Mckayla pleaded from her cage, but she was unable to reach either of them, her cries falling on deaf ears. Tommy struggled against Conner's grip, but couldn't break free, his face beginning to change color as his lungs cried out for oxygen.
As Conner choked Tommy, he began to jerk him back and forth, smashing Tommy's face repeatedly against the walls of the cage. Blood spilled out of Tommy's nose, forehead, lip, and from his blackened left eye. With his good eye, he glanced up to make sure that they were plainly in view of the security cameras.
Tommy's head cracked against the cell bars one final time, and a loud ringing sound pulsed through his skull. A stream of blood poured down from his forehead and into his eyes.
"Jesus, Conner… dial it back." Mckayla muttered.
On cue, the door burst open. Mabel entered the train car, followed by six of her men, all of them armed. "Get them separated!" Mabel shouted. "If he keeps choking him like that, it's going to set off the bomb collar!"
Two of the guards rushed into Conner's cell and jabbed him with cattle prods, shocking him. Conner fell to the floor, screaming, "Let me have him! I'm gonna' kill him!"
Once Conner's grip came free, Tommy gasped for breath and collapsed on the floor, blood wetting his hair. Suddenly, through the veneer of blood, he could see Mabel crouched above him, shining a small flashlight in his eyes.
"Looks like no concussion, lucky enough," Mabel said. She reached into the pouch on her hip and withdrew a small, electronic key. She inserted the key into a slot on Tommy's collar, and there was a beeping noise, to signal that the bomb had been deactivated. "Take him to the infirmary, get stitches in that head wound and clean up his face. And make absolutely sure you keep him sedated."
"Want us to bring him back here after he's stitched up, Ms. Mabel?" One of the guards asked.
"No," Mabel replied, "We'll keep some distance between these two for a bit. Grayson should probably get a session with the Parasites anyway, to make sure none of that Amazon strength bleeds through the sedatives."
Mabel looked away for a moment, and Tommy lunged, sinking his teeth into her hand. Mabel let out a yelp as Tommy's bite broke skin. Immediately, her guards were on top of him, striking him with batons. One of them dragged Tommy up onto his knees, holding him by the scruff of his hair.
He looked up to Mabel and saw rage burning behind her steel eyes. Mabel cradled her bloodied hand where Tommy's teeth had sank in. "I hope you feel better about yourself now, Mr. Grayson." She said.
Tommy gathered up the blood in his mouth and spit at her. The glob of blood and saliva missed Mabel, sailing over her shoulder and plinking onto the floor behind her. With a look of disgust, Mabel waved her good hand toward the guards. "Get him out of here."
The guards dragged Tommy away, and Mabel followed behind them. As soon as the door closed, Mckayla pressed herself against the bars of her cage, peering out onto the floor. "Did he get it?"
"I think so," Conner said, pressing his belly to the floor. He forced his hand through the small gap at the bottom of the cage, slicing his knuckles against the mettle, and strained to reach the glob of blood that Tommy had spit onto the floor. His hand touched the blood, still warm and watered down by spit, and felt something metal. "Got it! The son of a bitch actually got it!"
He dragged forward, pulling the bit of metal into the cage with him. It was the key that Mabel had used to deactivate Tommy's bomb collar. It had still been in her hand when Tommy bit her, and he'd managed to get it into his mouth when he pulled away. Caught up in the shock and pain, Mabel hadn't noticed.
"Alright," Conner smiled, turning the key over in his fingers. "We can leave the train car without blowing our heads off. But we still have to get out of these cages. Any ideas?"
"Hang tight," Mckayla said. "I'm working on that."
…
The infirmary had once been a break room for employees of the train station. They had chosen this room because it was the only one, aside from the bathroom, that had a sink where instruments could be cleaned. Space was tight, with just one bed pressed into a corner, and old, poorly refurbished equipment cluttering the area.
Tommy lay strapped to the bed, stiches freshly sewn into his forehead, and a bandage tacked onto his nose. The man who had put the stitches in had turned his back now, washing Tommy's blood off his hands in the sink. "You were a doctor before the Invasion?" Tommy asked.
"Med student," the man replied. "I never actually finished school before the Invasion happened."
"And now you work for Ms. Mabel. How's a guy go from helping sick kids to selling them?"
"I have a life outside of this, Mr. Grayson," the doctor said. "I operate a small clinic. It used to be a Walgreens, before the Invasion happened. People come to me when they're sick, or wounded, and I can treat them. For free. That wouldn't be possible without Ms. Mabel. It's not easy to get medical supplies in this day and age—it's not like anyone manufactures them anymore. You can find drugs and supplies, but they run on the black market, and none of it is cheap. Not to mention, I'd have looters breaking down my door to kill me and steal my drugs once I did get them in. But because I do work for Ms. Mabel, I get a cut of every sale—that's a couple thousand units per month. With that money, I can buy my supplies, and I can pay off the looters so they don't come after me," the doctor turned around, folding his arms. "This morning, I removed a piece of shrapnel from an eight year old boy's leg, and gave him antibiotics to tackle the infection. Shrapnel from the attack that you caused, I might add. That wouldn't have been possible without Ms. Mabel. There would have been nothing I could do for that boy, and he'd be dead in a couple of days. If a few super powered individuals have to suffer so that I can help hundreds of ordinary people who are just trying to get by… so be it."
Tommy looked away from the doctor, feeling sick in his chest. These people aren't evil, as much as I wish it were that easy, he thought. At least when I'm fighting Parademons, I never have to question whether or not I'm doing the right thing.
"Anyway…" the doctor said, turning back to his supplies. "It's time for you to get another round of sedative. That last one's probably wearing off now, what with all the adrenaline from that beating you took…"
While the doctor's back was turned, Tommy craned his neck as hard as he could and smacked his head against the wall. There was a sudden sting in his forehead, as one of the stitches popped open, and a trickle of blood ran down his face.
The doctor approached Tommy's bedside with a needle in hand, and stopped short when he noticed the blood.
"I think I busted a stitch open." Tommy said.
"Ugh… what is it about your kind that makes you all so reckless?" The doctor shook his head. He set the needle down on the table next to Tommy's bed, and turned to get a rag to wipe the blood away. As soon as the doctor's back was turned, Tommy closed his eyes, inhaled sharply, and he thought about Allie's betrayal—the kiss coated with a sleeping potion, the lie that had landed him here. She'd turned his trust against him. She'd hit him where he was supposed to be safe. The rage boiled over inside him, and with it—strength.
"You were right doc," Tommy growled, "That last sedative is wearing off." He erupted forth with a burst of Amazonian strength, snapping the restraints around him. The doctor jolted around just in time for Tommy to grab the syringe and ram it into the doctor's arm. A powerful sedative entered the doctor's bloodstream—one meant to subdue a superhuman—and the doctor collapsed, drifting into sleep.
Tommy lifted the doctor up and laid him gently on the bed, re-tying the restraints around him. He looked around a moment, trying to decide what he could most effectively use a weapon, and eventually settled on a fire extinguisher, carrying it with him as he slipped out the door.
…
Leaned against a train car, cloaked in moonlight, Colton had a smoke. With his rifle at his side, he kept his eyes trained on the Ice Box—that was what they called the largest train car, where they kept the Parasites. That was the car where they held the most dangerous metahumans, the one who couldn't be restrained by bomb collars and steel cages.
He'd gone through four cigarettes waiting for the guard shift to change. When the two guards currently watching Kavita Stewart left the Ice Box, Colton would take their place. He would bring his rifle. And he would put a bullet right in between Kavita's eyes, Ms. Mabel be damned. Kavita had talked about his daughters—he could not let her get away with that. No one got away with that. So he'd kill her, and then he'd run.
Finally, the door opened, and Drey and Chase came marching out. "My turn?" Colton called through the chill night air.
"Looks like it," Drey shrugged. "There's not much to watch. Whatever Ms. Mabel did when she stopped by, she's got the prisoner completely sedated. She's unresponsive."
"Yeah," Chase nodded, "We really don't even need to be in there."
"Well, better to be safe than sorry, ain't it?" Colton grinned. "You two go rest up. I'll watch her the rest of the night."
"More power to you." Drey shrugged, and then he and Chase walked off, vanishing into the dark. Hands shaking in anticipation, Colton took one final drag on his cigarette, and then stepped into the train car. As he entered, there was a quick breeze, and he swore that he heard the emergency hatch on the roof of the car slam shut. He jumped, but when he looked around, the hatched was sealed tight, and there was nothing unusual in sight. Well, other than the girl with metal wings chained to the floor, of course.
"Musta' been my imagination," Colton muttered, shaking his head. He stepped the rest of the way into the car, locking the door behind him. He stepped into the center of the car, eyeing Kavita. The two guards had been right; Kavita was incapacitated, sprawled out on the floor, the color drained from her skin. Drey and Chase had replaced the Parasites on her back, and they drained away at her, shriveling her body. Colton raised his rifle, putting her head squarely in the sights. "Wakey, wakey, birdie…"
Kavita did not move. Colton frowned, anger welling up inside him. He wanted her awake. He wanted her to know that she was about to die. He wanted her to beg. He stepped forward and kicked her shoulder, trying to jolt her. She did not respond. "Damn it, birdie, what did Ms. Mabel give you?" He muttered.
He kicked her again, and again, and again. Nothing. Frustrated, Colton grabbed ahold of her wings and tried to hoist her up off of the floor. He was amazed by how heavy she was—he couldn't lift her more than an inch off the ground. "Must be the friggin' metal in her bones," he realized. "Well, what's metal good for if it ain't a lightning rod?"
He reached down to his belt and found his electric baton. He charged up the baton, feeling the handle heat up through his gloves, an electronic buzz filling the air. He swung the baton and struck her wing, conducting electricity through the metal, sending a jolt into her bones. Kavita gasped, shooting up onto her palms, screaming as she awoke. "That's more like it!" Colton kicked her again, knocking her back onto her rear. She looked up, dazed, drained, disoriented. Colton raised his rifle again, putting the barrel to her forehead. "You never shoulda' talked about my little girls like that, birdie. Shoulda' just kept those words outta' yer mouth. Now yer gonna—"
Something behind him moved. Colton spun around on his heels, with only one thought on his mind; The friggin' hatch! He caught sight of Tommy Grayson just in time for the thrown fire extinguisher to connect with his face.
The fire extinguisher clunked against Colton's head, knocking him onto the floor, his gun skittering out of his hands. Tommy lunged forward. Colton swung out with his baton, but Tommy caught his wrist and snapped at back, forcing him to drop the weapon. Colton opened his mouth to scream, but before he could, Tommy clenched a hand around his throat, slamming him against the wall. "Mabel. Where do I find her? Go."
"You… you… piss head little shi—" Colton was interrupted as Tommy's fist connected with his face.
"I want to know where Mabel is," Tommy growled. "Every time you say anything else, you get hit harder."
"You ain't gonna' find Ms. Mabel if she don't wanna' be—"
"Wrong," Tommy struck him again, harder this time, as promised. "Try again."
"I don't know where she is!" Colton spat.
"Bullshit." Tommy hit him again.
"We ain't allowed to know where Ms. Mabel lives, she don't tell us. Her kids are there, and she don't want us goin' anywhere near em. If we need to reach her, we reach her by walkie talkie, or else we wait till morning."
"Are you not getting the rules to this game yet?" Tommy pulled back to punch him again.
"Tommy, wait…" Kavita said, her voice weak.
Tommy paused, turning to look at her. "What is it, Kavita?"
"He's probably telling the truth," she said. "Mabel is protective of her kids. She said they stay in a bunker when she's not home. She probably really doesn't tell these guys where they are."
"L-listen to the birdie," Colton choked. "I don't know nothin' I ain't already you, I—"
"Goodnight," Tommy struck Colton one final time, knocking him unconscious. Tommy dropped Colton to the floor and turned back to Kavita. "Are you alright? What are those things on your back?"
"Parasites," Kavita said. "Mind getting them off?"
"Sure thing," Tommy picked up Colton's fallen baton and whacked away the Parasites, careful not to harm Kavita, knocking the globes of living purple goo onto the floor. "So we're at a dead end, then? I don't know how to find Mabel, and I'm not sure I want to wait around here until morning."
"There is one thing…" Kavita groaned, groggy and weak. "She broke off a piece of my wing earlier. She took it with her."
"What?" Tommy glanced up, noticing a sliver of Kavita's right wing splintered off. "How did she manage that? I thought Nth metal was—"
"Virtually indestructible," Kavita nodded. "It is. That's why she wants it."
"So I'd better put her down before she gets more of it."
"That's just the thing, Tommy," Kavita said. "The Nth metal… its part of me. I can still feel it, even when it's no longer attached… like a phantom limb, only real."
"So if she's still holding onto the shard…"
"I can find her." Kavita nodded.
"Well then," Tommy helped her to her feet, pulling apart her restraints. "Let's not waste any time."
…
Mabel's home was just a few miles outside the train yard, but tucked away in a throng of trees, cut off by a river and guarded on the perimeter by a pack of Apokoliptian hellhounds, which Mabel had traded one of her very first captives for in lieu of payment.
As Tommy approached, he marveled at how ordinary the home appeared. It was a small log cabin, probably older than he was. It was secluded enough that had managed to avoid damage during the Invasion, or in any subsequent battles. The cabin was like a time capsule, a relic of a world before the Invasion. It was no wonder Mabel had chosen it to raise her children.
Tommy dropped from a tree branch and landed atop a patrolling Hellhound. The beast bucked underneath him, and Tommy jammed a syringe into its neck, barely working through its matted fur, and injected it with the last of the sedative he'd stolen from the infirmary. The beast staggered a moment, and then quietly collapsed to the dirt, sound asleep.
"How many more of these things do you there are in these woods?" Tommy whispered.
"Enough that we don't want to hang around long." Kavita replied.
Tommy eyed the cabin. "Can you get me onto the roof?" He asked.
"You got it." Kavita gripped Tommy by the armpits and fluttered her wings, rising into the air. It took longer to get airborne than she was accustomed to, and by the time her feet left the ground, she was already exhausted. Her strength had only begun to recover, and she still had a long way to go. With sweat beading on her brow and her heart pounding her chest, she lifted them up over the cabin, and swung her arms out, throwing Tommy.
Tommy lunged through the air and landed on the roof of Mabel's cabin. From there, he made his way to the small skylight overlooking what he quickly realized was her dining room. He peered in through the glass into the home, and what he saw churned his stomach.
A small boy sat at the table, no older than ten. He appeared to be drawing something, and a few action figures were scattered on the floor around his seat. "Damn it…" Tommy ran a nervous hand through his hair. "Kavita," he whispered into the night air, "I… I don't know if I can do this. He's just a kid."
Kavita did not answer immediately. And then, just as Tommy looked up to try and find her, he heard the roar of a Hellhound, and he heard Kavita scream. Tommy looked to the source of the sound, and saw that a Hellhound had leapt up and tackled Kavita out of the air. They plummeted to the roof of the cabin, and with Kavita's metal-weighted bones, she crashed through the wooden ceiling, smashing into the dining room below, pressed against the wooden floor with a Hellhound gnashing at her. The boy at the dining room table cried out in horror. He tried to run and tipped over his chair, crashing to the floor with them, crying and confused.
"Shit!" Tommy leapt through the skylight, abandoning subtlety. Upon landing, he knelt over the child and shielded him from the falling glass. "Run away! Now!" Tommy said.
"You're… you're… the boy backed away, "You're metahumans!"
"Yes, we are. Run away from us."
The boy turned and made a break for the next room, screaming, "Mom! Mom!"
Tommy knew that Mabel would already be on her way, but he didn't have time to worry about that yet. He spun around to where the Hellhound had Kavita pinned to the kitchen floor. She pressed against its neck, managing to keep its teeth just out of reach of her face, which was now coated in a layer of hot drool.
Tommy kicked the dining room table, sending it flying into the side of the Hellhound. The creature staggered, and Kavita was able to push it off of her and fling it to the other side of the kitchen. The creature flipped back onto his paws, rearing back to lunge at them. Tommy moved into a battle stance, but just as his feet fell into place, a surge of pain exploded in his shoulder and down his torso. A second later, he heard the sound of the gunshot.
He spun around, clutching the fresh bullet hole in his shoulder, and saw Mabel standing in the doorway, pistol in hand. "You shouldn't have come here," She said, her voice colder than Tommy had ever heard before. "This is where I raise my children. You should never have come here."
"Switch me!" Kavita shouted, swinging in front of Tommy just as another gunshot rang out. Kavita folded in her wing, using it to shield against the oncoming bullet. However, her metal was still weak from the serum Mabel had injected her with earlier, and the bullet punched a hole through her wing, hitting her forearm. Kavita cried out as the Hellhound leapt again, zeroing in on Tommy this time. Tommy ducked the creature's claws and rammed into its chest, knocking it into its back. As the Hellhound tumbled back, one of its claws snagged Tommy's side, leaving a deep gash above the hip.
Tommy reached down and grabbed a shard of broken glass from the skylight—the largest one he could find. He rolled passed Kavita, flinching as he pressed against his wounded shoulder, and flung the like a projectile, sticking into Mabel's hand. Mabel jerked that hand away, but did not drop the gun completely. Tommy bolted toward her and she began to fire, her aim inhibited now that she only had one hand on the gun. Tommy sidestepped and heard bullets whip past him, striking the Hellhound as it chased him from behind. He leapt and tackled Mabel around the waist, tumbling through the door and into the living room beyond.
The rolled on the carpet, and Tommy pushed against her, smacking her head against the leg of a table. He swatted away the gun. With the shard of glass still sticking out of her wounded hand, Mabel pressed it against Tommy's face, slicing his cheek open, digging in. Tommy pulled away from her, and she made a mad scramble for her fallen gun. He ran after her, but then, through the rush of adrenaline, a sound caught his attention—the sound of a baby crying. Tommy flinched, his eyes darted upward, and he saw, to his horror, a crib tucked into the corner of the room, with a terrified baby screaming inside. By the time Tommy caught himself and looked back at Mabel, she rolled onto her back, gun in her grip. She fired off three shots—the first catching Tommy's thigh, the next two piercing his stomach. He fell to his knees, and to his surprise, there was no pain. Instead, there was shock. He touched his stomach, and then looked at his hands, finding them soaked in red.
"Tommy!" Kavita screamed, coming in from the flank. She delivered a hard left hook to Mabel's chin, knocking her across the carpet and into a bookshelf across the room. Kavita knelt before Tommy, trying to get a look at his wounds.
"It's just a little baby…" Tommy said, his voice airy and distant. "Just a… just a baby…"
"Tommy, I need you to focus, okay? Keep pressure on that wound. Do you hear me?"
Tommy didn't hear her. He didn't hear a thing except for the crying infant who had just witnessed bloodshed she couldn't possibly understand. I should never have brought this here, he thought. I should have just busted out Conner and Mckayla and ran, disappeared… why did I have to come for Mabel? Why'd I have to try and be the hero? Now… now this poor baby…
"Tommy, get out of your head right now, okay? I need you here, with me. Pressure, okay Tommy? Pressure." Kavita shook his shoulders, trying to jar his attention.
"She isn't biologically mine, you know…" Mabel spoke, hoisting herself up from the floor and cocking her gun. "Little baby Adaline. Before my husband passed away, we had Jackson, our son… but we always wanted a girl. By then, though, it was clear that the heroes were all defeated, and that we were never winning the Earth back from Apokolips. We couldn't bear to bring another child into that world, and so we held off. And then he died…" Mabel lifted Adaline up from her crib, cradling her against her chest with one arm, and aiming the gun toward Kavita with her other. "I thought I'd never have a little girl. Then, about a year ago, I tracked down a metahuman kid I'd been hearing rumors about. Her name was Sara. She was some D-list supervillain's kid, don't remember the name. Sara was hiding out in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island, trying to help people liberate the people there with her powers. Making a mess of things, causing a stir. I tracked her down, lured her in, was going to sell her to Apokolips… business as usual, you know. Then, I realized something that threw a monkey wrench into the whole thing… Sara was seven months pregnant."
Mabel stepped toward them, gun still aimed at Kavita. "I decided I couldn't sell Sara to Darkseid. Not if she was gonna' have a baby. Sara had made her own mistakes, but I couldn't handle the thought of an innocent child being born in an Orphanage because of me. So I decided I was going to help Sara go into hiding, get her somewhere safe so she could have her baby. I'd heard rumors about a place nearby… an old superhero hangout from before the Invasion. The Justice Cave."
Suddenly, through the haze of his shock, Tommy's heart clenched, climbing up into his throat. "No…" he gulped.
"I thought, if I could get Sara to the Justice Cave and set her up nice and safe there, I'd be all set. I didn't know at the time that it was already inhabited. That was October 15th of last year, Tommy. Do you know what day that was?"
"Tommy, what the hell is she rambling about?" Kavita asked.
"That was… that was my sixteenth birthday..." Tommy huffed, pale and trembling. "The day I stole the batcycle and went out for a joyride. The day I started this whole thing."
"That's right," Mabel grit her teeth. "And what happened when you went out for your joyride, Tommy?"
"I… I was attacked by Apokoliptian scouts, in airships… they knocked me into the harbor, destroyed the bike…"
"But you put up a pretty good fight before that," Mabel said. "Dodged a whole lot of their blasts. And you didn't even worry about where some of those stray shots might wind up, did you?"
"No… no, no, no…"
"Tommy, what's she talking about?" Kavita asked.
"I was in those woods that day, Tommy. Escorting a scared, pregnant, seventeen year old girl, trying to get her to safety. But it didn't work out like that, because two airships were chasing you down on a motorcycle… you dodged a missile, and it struck a tree twenty feet away from us instead. Shrapnel pierced Sara's heart. She bled out in minutes."
"Tommy, she's lying," Kavita said. "What are the chances she was there right at that time? Seriously? This is BS."
"I couldn't save Sara that day," Mabel continued, "But I was able to save her child. Premature, sickly, born of a dead mother. My baby Adaline." She hugged the baby tight against her chest.
"She's lying to you, Tommy." Kavita repeated.
"Then how did I know any of that?" Mabel snarled. "How did I know you were out that day? How did I know you were so careless, so blatantly unaware of the consequences of your actions, that you caused a girl to die the moment you left your home? How do I know?"
"I'm so sorry…" Tommy wheezed, blood beginning to pool around him now. "I'm so sorry… I'm so sorry…"
"Don't worry," Mabel said. "You'll make up for it. The money I'm going to make by selling you will be enough to take care of Adaline for the rest of her life."
"That's enough," Kavita stood up, wings flared in front of her as makeshift shields. "I'd put baby Adaline down if I were you. Because one way or another, you're about to get a beating."
Mabel readied her gun to fire again. Kavita lunged forward to stop her. A blast rang out in the air—but not from Mabel's pistol. Several wire cables lashed around Kavita's wings, and delivered a powerful electric shock into her body. Kavita yelped, tumbling to her knees, and craned her neck to see Jackson, Mabel's ten year old son, holding a gun that was much too big for him—and from it, he'd fired the tazer cables into Kavita's back.
"Good boy," Mabel said, swinging the gun and striking Kavita's temple, knocking her to the floor. "Now run and get mommy's medical kit. Make sure you grab the sedatives."
"Yes, momma." Jackson said, running off in the direction he'd come.
Mabel stepped over to Tommy and knelt down in the puddle of his blood, holding baby Adaline for him to see. "Say hello to Tommy, Adaline," Mabel said. "You share a birthday!"
"I… I didn't want to… I didn't want to hurt anyone…" Tommy stammered, growing delirious, his head swimming from blood loss.
"I know you didn't, hon," Mabel said. "That's just what happens when you try to play hero."
