This chapter probably contains one of the bloodiest and graphic scenes I have ever wrote. If you can't handle blood well please leave. You've been warned.
News of Catwoman fleeing quickly reached Strange and Ra's al Ghul. With Talia working undercover in the police force she was one of the first to hear of Catwoman's escape and quickly passed the word to her father and their associate.
"So what's the plan now that the cat has fled?" Talia asked when she returned to Hugo's lab. "She is going to go to the cops and spill everything before we are ready. We should have never let her in, we could have had any of our assassins break into those labs instead of putting our faith with that untrustworthy cat."
"She won't get the chance to talk," Hugo said calmly, not even looking at Talia as he held a syringe in his hand and studied the contents inside it closely. "Ms. Kyle has served her purpose, she is no use to me anymore. I warned her of the consequences of trying to flee but she didn't heed my warning efficiently enough. Now, she will soon learn of the consequences of her actions.
Hugo walked over to a prisoner strapped to a table. The prisoner was only in his underwear, sweating with fear as he stared at the long syringe that Hugo was pointing right towards him.
"No," the prisoner cried as Hugo lowered the needle and poked it against his upper arm. "NO!"
Hugo injected the mutagen into the prisoner's system then all three watched as the prisoner screamed in agony as the mutagen flowed through his blood stream. Soon they all watched as he grew in size, his skin went from white to grey and callus, his nail and teeth became long and sharp and his eyes went from brown to yellow and his hair disappeared. His entire body also became hard and bony and he became three times stronger then his usual self. He was no longer a normal human being anymore, he was a monster, a mutant, and worse a mindless slave whose sole purpose was to do as Hugo wished.
As the transformation stopped Hugo stared into the eyes of his minion and barked his order.
"Find Selina Kyle, and kill her."
Catwoman was still driving the stolen police car when she approached the city limits. She turned around to give one last look at Gotham City aiming for this to be the last time she stepped foot in this city.
"Goodbye Gotham,"
Suddenly her phone rang, picking it up her eyes widened to see it was her roommate.
"Adrian what's wrong?"
"Selina come home quick!" Adrian's panic stricken voice cried over the phone. "There's…. There's something here, something I've never seen before, you got to…" Adrain suddenly let out a blood curling scream as Selina heard a monstrous roar. She recognized that roar too, it was from the monsters Hugo created, and he had sent one to her house.
"Adrian? Adrian!?" The phone went dead. "Shit!" Turning the car around Selina turned on the sirens and sped back home as fast as the car could take her. "I'm going to kill him, I'm going to kill that son of a bitch Hugo! Hang on Adrian, hang on!"
Catwoman broke every traffic law in the book getting home, but as soon as she slammed the brakes and the car came to a stop she flew out the drivers seat and ran to the steps. And that is when she paused. Gasping she saw the front door of her apartment had been ripped completely off it's hinges and laying in the side walk.
"Adrian?" Selina called out walking inside hoping, and pleading for her to be okay.
Selina soon screamed in horror as her worst fears soon became a reality. Laying in the middle of the floor in a pool of blood was a arm.
"No, no, no, no." Selina cried. Looking to her right she saw a leg laying next to a table lamp. Selina couldn't hold back her tears as she saw pieces of her roommate scattered around their blood soaked apartment. There was another arm laying in the middle of a hallway, and another leg right outside the bathroom door. The blood continued inside the bathroom, opening the door Selina let out a scream when she saw the head of Adrian floating inside the toilet. Selina almost gagged as she ran out the bathroom as fast as she could. Sobbing as she imagined the horror her friend must have witnessed the last few moments of her life. She then saw another trail of blood leading to the kitchen. Walking slowly towards the kitchen she saw the trail lead to the refrigerator. Opening the refrigerator that is when she saw Adrian's torso laying in the middle self, blood spilling all down below the lower self.
Selina cupped her right hand over her mouth as she sobbed, "I'm sorry, this is all my fault, this is all my fault."
Selina heard a familiar growl behind her. Slowly reaching into the kitchen drawer she grabbed a knife and prepared herself to face that monster that took her friend. Turning around that is when it shot out of the shadows and lunged at Catwoman.
Catwoman had no time to be scared, she was angry. She stabbed that knife into the monster's chest, digging it in as deep as she could as the monster let out in pain. Ripping out the knife Selina raised it ready to bury it into that monster again. This time it was ready for her though and swung his arm, sending her flying into against the kitchen table. The monster then lunged for Catwoman, quickly gaining back her senses she stabbed the beast in the hand right as it reached for her leg.
The monster let out a shriek in pain allowing Catwoman to swing the knife and slice the monster's throat. Selina then made a dash for the exit as the monster grabbed it's bleeding throat. Selina ran towards the stolen police car and instantly started it up. As she started speeding off she saw the monster run out the door and chase after her.
"What the hell?" Selina gasped "How is that thing still alive?" Selina floored the gas speeding down the streets as fast as the car could take her. But the monster was still on her trail. It hardly slowed down as it knocked other cars out of it's way, refusing to let anything stand in the way of it's target.
"Jesus Hugo, how powerful did you make this demon?"
Selina was just reaching the bridge when the monster lunged into the air and crash landed on the roof of the car. Selina saw a huge imprint from the monster landing on the roof appear, and she heard the demon rip the sirens off the car. A huge fist smashed through the window causing Catwoman to swerve trying to shake the demon off the car. All her efforts did however was cause her to drive into the railing, the front of the car crashing through the railing and lean over the bridge.
The monster's fist came crashing through the railing again and this time Selina swung her knife, stabbing the beast in the hand again. Once again the demon screamed and pulled back. She was hoping that the demon would finally retreat.
Instead what it did was rip off the roof, leaving Selina right in the open. Selina screamed thinking for sure this was the end, when something suddenly came flying out open and hit the beast in the back of the head. With the beast temporarily stunned Selina turned to see Robin standing behind the beast with a shuriken in his hand.
"How did you find me?" Catwoman asked as she quickly unbuckled herself from her seat and ran over to Robin's side.
"Hard to ignore a raging monster chasing after a police car being driven by a girl in a catsuit."
The beast quickly gained back control and charged the duo. With Robin by her side Catwoman felt confident they could take down this beast. Catwoman taking out her whip and Robin his staff they quickly countered the monster. Robin leaped over it's head and whacked it over the head with his staff. Catwoman took out a pair of bolas and tossed them at the monster's tangling the beast up and causing him to trip. Catwoman then wrapped her whip around the beast's neck hoping to strangle that demon.
"This is for Adrian you son of a…" That is when the beast grabbed Selina by her shirt and slung her over his shoulder and slammed her against the ground. The monster then got on top of her and wrapped his fist around her throat in a attempt to strangle her.
"Catwoman!" Robin cried out. Robin then pressed button on his staff and a blade came out. Charging the monster he ran the blade into the monster's back, the demon screamed and let go of Catwoman's neck. Catwoman gasped and coughed, grabbing her neck and trying to catch her breath as the monster tried to reach for the blade in it's back. As Robin pulled the blade out he kicked the beast in the chest. The monster fell backwards and Catwoman, having caught her breath got up and threw another set of bolas, this set wrapping around the monster's waist and around the chair.
To ensure the monster didn't escape Robin threw two more Shurikens, each one stabbing the beast's hands trapping him in it's seat. Robin then took out his staff again and as soon as the blade popped out he ran the blade right threw the monster's chest, impaling him. The monster screamed in pain as Catwoman pushed the car off the edge of the bridge, sending the beast falling to his death. Catwoman and Robin watched as the car exploded, and both let out a sigh of relief knowing the beast was gone.
"I hope that doesn't count as murder," Catwoman spoke.
"That thing wasn't human," Robin replied. "Not anymore at least."
"Thank you," Catwoman said turning to Robin.
"Don't mention it," Robin replied. "But you need to mention everything you know about Hugo Strange. I can't help you unless I know what he's planning.
"I didn't want to help him," Catwoman stated "When he bailed me out of Blackgate and told me what was planning I knew he had a few screws loose. But then he threatened me and told me I would be spared only if I did what he said."
"And what he said involved you stealing the mutagen used to create that thing." Robin pointed down below where the flame was burning.
"He said he would turn me into one of those things, I was working out of fear. That is why I tried to bail when Batgirl had me arrested, to try to escape him, to try to escape what is coming.
"And what is coming exactly?"
"He has hundreds of these things, a army that he is planning to release onto Gotham. He calls it the cleansing of Gotham. His plan is to wipe out all the criminals in Gotham so the survivors can start new in a purified Gotham. But those things are unstable and they will kill anything that stands in their way, guilty or innocent."
"So I can tell."
"There is one thing else you should know. He's not working alone. He was hired, by one of the most dangerous terrorist in the planet. The leader of the League of Shadows himself. Ra's Al Ghul."
Robin's eyes went wide when he heard that name. He had only heard stories about that man, and none of them were good stories.
"How soon are they to releasing these things?"
"I don't know, but I have a feeling it's going to be soon."
Back in Hugo's lab him, Talia, and Ra's all stared gloriously at a room filled with rows among rows of cages filled with his monster's.
"Look at them, hundreds of Blackgate's and Arkham's worst, all mutated and reduced to nothing more then puppets to serve me."
"You did good Strange, soon they will rid this crime ridden city off it's scum once and for all."
"Oh we won't just stop there Ra's. After Gothem, we will use these things to cleanse… the world."
I know Batgirl was not in this chapter. I wanted a chapter that focused more on Catwoman and Robin so they didn't seem like background characters. Batgirl will be back to her lead role next chapter.