Chapter 3 – Curaré's Disciple

Instead of going to the hospital, Terry went to Wayne Manor. Bruce Wayne helped him stop the bleeding and bandaged the long cut for him. "Curaré is back," he mused when they were done.

"Curaré's back," Terry echoed. He decided not to mention Inque. She had changed, definitely, but Wayne would probably still see her as a criminal. "She escaped the rest of the Society of Assassins, apparently. Probably by killing them all."

Inque spiralled out of the apartment window in a barely perceptible black arc. She went after Deanna, who was running hard and glancing back fearfully to see if she was still there. She bounced off a car on the road and zipped straight towards Deanna.

Suddenly, a blue blur barrelled out of a side alley. Several knife-edged darts flew Inque's way. She twisted her metamorphic body to avoid them. Curaré threw more darts to distract Inque. When she could look again, both were gone.

"Deanna!" Inque called, running into the alley Curaré had appeared from. It was empty. She stood in the dark alley, baffled. Finally she made a decision. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

Back in Wayne Manor, Bruce Wayne's computer screen began to flash and beep. He pulled up an alert message. "Something's just triggered the alarm at a jewellery store. Something that never touched the doors."

Inque, Terry thought. "Consider me gone."

Five minutes later, Batman arrived at the affected jewellery store. He had to find Inque, and fast. The police would be there any minute. He was wary – he knew how stealthily and quickly she could hit.

He felt pressure on his shoulder. He whirled, fist drawn back in preparation to strike. Inque ducked the blow.

"Why?" Terry asked when it was quite clear she was not going to attack.

"I didn't actually take anything," Inque replied. "It was the only way I knew to call you."

Police sirens sounded in the distance. They glanced at each other, then upon unspoken consent, both ran for cover. Inque became an inky arc. She propelled herself onto a rooftop. Batman activated the flight function in his batsuit and followed. They ducked behind a generator to avoid the police searchlights.

"The blue-skinned assassin who was after you – Curaré – kidnapped Deanna. I need your help to find them," Inque said straightforwardly.

A pause, then, "She betrayed you."

"She's still my daughter," Inque insisted. She looked Batman in the eye. He stared back for a long moment before agreeing to help.

Inque's kiss caught Terry completely off guard. She had done it before, the second time he faced her, but this time was different, somehow. Perhaps the absence of chains restraining him did it. But whatever the reason, he kissed her back.

"Someday I'm going to find out who you are," Inque whispered, turning her head sideways slightly to free her mouth. Then she slipped away in a quiet wisp of liquid shadow.

Inque left hurriedly, hating herself more every second. She had let her resolve slip for a fraction of a second, and … she ended up kissing him. He was human, she was quite sure of it. She could be many things, but not that. Never again would she be human. She understood that much.

And she remembered Aaron – all too well. He had been in love with her. And she had used him to escape from cryogenic storage. He had ended up as a pool of multicoloured glop, or close to it. Manipulating … it seemed be have become a part of her nature after all those years …

She was afraid, too. Inque knew that once she had retrieved Deanna she had to take her daughter away from Gotham – away from danger – and stay with her to make sure she stayed safe. She was afraid that when the time comes, she would not be able to leave. For Deanna, she had to control herself. Never again.

Pushing all thoughts of … him out of her mind, she began a systematic search of the city for Deanna and Curaré. She travelled over the rooftops, then seeped into buildings using ventilation shafts or open windows, scouring the building before moving on to the next. Never a whiff of either woman reached her. On the twenty-first rooftop, she simply snapped back into her human form and collapsed from exhaustion. She was not completely healed yet, after all.

"Who were you talking to?" Bruce Wayne asked the moment Terry got back to the Manor. "It was Inque, wasn't it? Her daughter ... Deanna."

Terry said nothing. He should have used the shorted-out suit, but he had gotten a spare one instead … now Wayne knew. The computer beeped an alert. Both turned to look at the details. "This is serious," Bruce Wayne said gravely. "Go." Grateful towards whoever was causing the trouble on top of the SynPlas building, Terry donned his mask and left.

Inque raised her head to look at the woman who stood over her. How had she gotten there? The woman was dressed in a half-white, half-black suit divided down the length of her body.

"Who are you?" she asked tiredly.

The woman looked at her coldly. "Ten. Curaré is my teacher."

"What do you want?" Inque said irritably.

Suddenly Ten threw out a hand. A razor-edged playing card flew towards Inque. She ducked it hurriedly. It passed less than a centimetre from her face. She could smell solvent. Not enough to dissolve her, but enough to weaken her to the point of uselessness.

Inque switched to fighting mode, avoiding solvent-covered cards and trying to hit Ten. But Curaré's new disciple had apparently learnt well. She was every bit as fast as her teacher. Her shoulder stung – she had been hit. She whirled in the direction where the card had come from. Another grazed her side from behind.

Dizzy from the solvent, Inque just started lashing out in all directions, knocking crates and rusty generators off the roof. Several more cards hit her in various places. It was going to reach a fatal dose soon.

Inque threw herself onto the roof of the next building. Two more cards sliced into her back and fell off before she landed. Then they stopped coming. She could not keep up her shapeshifting any longer. She went back to looking human. Bracing herself against the railing on the roof, she turned and looked.

Batman was grappling with Ten, holding her wrists and forcing her hands back. Each still held a sharp playing card. He was saying something to her too. Abruptly she stopped struggling and dropped the cards. She pulled one hand free and slapped him on the face. He released her other hand. Ten wasted no time in escaping over the roofs.

Terry did not bother to go after Melanie – she would never let him catch up. Instead he crossed over to the other building. Inque let go of the railing, stumbled towards him and fell forward for her trouble.

Inque's legs would not support her when she tried to walk towards Batman. They crumpled, and she fell. He caught her. She thought she heard him ask her what was wrong.

She passed out.