DC Infinity Presents
Batgirl #37
Over the Edge
Finale
Gotham
Denise Moore pressed the needle into the single remaining vein between her toes, and pressed the plunger down.
Almost instantly, she felt the liquid ecstasy spill into her body. She fell back on her ancient mattress, and her mind drifted from this world. The memories that haunted her became a vague fog that could no longer hurt her.
Denise wouldn't have returned if Superman himself had crashed through her wall. She was in the perfect haze, where the world and her failures in it, could no longer touch her, could no longer weigh her down.
That was why, even though she was looking straight at him, she never noticed the man in the dark blue uniform as he entered her apartment through her window.
"The more things change," Vigilante sighed, "I hoped that I wouldn't find you here. I actually thought you might have turned your life around."
Vigilante leveled his pistol with a heavy sigh.
"It makes me sad to think that this is the greatest contribution you'll make to Gotham."
oooOOooo
Elsewhere
Batgirl slipped into the apartment as silent breathe of air.
Night had taken Gotham, and the apartment was as dark as the night itself. Newspapers were taped over the windows, and a thin layer of dust rested over most everything.
"What is the Magna Carta," said a voice.
Batgirl took a heavy step, allow the floorboards to creek underneath her. She was an invited guest, and she preferred not to startle her host.
"What are the Swiss Alps."
The resident of the apartment Arthur Brown, was slumped in a chair in front of his television, that providing the only light in the room.
"Arthur," Batgirl said, "you wanted to see me."
"Not an entirely accurate summary," he said, never turning his head.
"Why?"
"You've been on the streets, haven't you?" Arthur said, "felt the tension? The Gotham Game's changing, and no one likes it."
Batgirl said nothing, but she felt the truth in the former Rogue's world. First it was Thorne, now this Vigilante. The underworld that had spent so much time growing accustomed to The Bat was now thrown into upheaval at the appearance of such lethal actors.
"What is your point?"
"Two third stringers think that the Vigilante is really the GCPD acting out some cowboy fantasies," said the former Cluemaster, "I was invited."
"You turned them down," said Batgirl.
"I had a marathon to watch," Arthur said, "but you're in luck."
Batgirl knew enough to know what he would say next wouldn't qualify as luck.
"I gave them a plan."
"So that you could give it to me, later," Batgirl said, "yes?"
Arthur Brown said nothing.
oooOOooo
Show me the Keys, later
"Cluemaster's plan is going to be worth every penny," said Garfield Lynns, known to the police and world at large as the pyromaniac Firefly, said to his partner, "we'll burn so many pigs, people walking by will think this place is a BBQ pit."
"We've barely started," Harlan Combs, AKA Firebug, replied, "try to hold in the fire until we've set the first bomb."
The two pyro-maniacs were in a small, independent car dealership. It was a small plot of land with a relatively small amount of used cars to sell, with a trailer in the middle to serve as the main office.
It was the simplicity of the layout that made it appealing for what Firefly and Firebug had had in mind.
The plan was simple. Hide several napalm bombs all around the dealership in the trunk of the cars. Take the manager hostage when he showed up, and wait for Gotham PD to arrive. Once they had the office surrounded, detonate the firebombs, and enjoy the smell of bacon.
If they didn't kill the cop who was the Vigilante, at least it meant more dead cops.
"Try to place the bombs in the outer most cars and space them apart," Firefly said, "we want to trap them inside a ring of fire when we detonate."
"Got it," Firebug said. He made his way to the van that held their equipment.
For a moment, Firebug reflected on whether or not being Firefly's apprentice was really the brilliant idea he first thought it was when he approached the more senior Rogue. He assumed that Firefly would show him the ropes slowly, help him improve his uniform and set him up with contacts and jobs.
But instead, Firefly was dumping him in the deep end, a damn war on the Gotham PD! before their partnership was even a week old.
"In for a penny, in for a pound," Firebug muttered to himself.
"Pound."
Firebug felt Batgirl's fist before her voice registered. He felt unconscious immediately.
Despite knowing that only one other person was anywhere close to her, Batgirl glanced around. The pun had sounded clever in her head, but from the moment she said it, she wished she could take it back.
oooOOooo
"Damn it," Firefly growled, the second he realized that Firebug was late getting back with the bombs and what that meant.
After having fought Batman so many times, he could all but feel the glare on the back of his neck, and smell the whiff of righteous anger.
"Surrender," Batgirl ordered, "because I know how to make you hurt through the armor and through the scars."
Firefly said nothing clever. He simply grabbed his torch, spun around, and pulled the trigger.
The only thing that happened was Batgirl glared at him harder.
"I let you know I was here," Batgirl hissed. She had long since studied the design of Firefly's armor. Sabotaging the trigger mechanisms without making a sound was a challenge, but not impossible.
"Smart," Firefly dropped his torch, and then made a gesture with his hands. A hollow spike about five inches long, lanced out from each gauntlet. With a flick of his wrist, they became wreathed in flames, "I'm smarter."
Batgirl made sure Firefly didn't see her scowl. She hated it when people were clever when she was trying to be clever, and her body still ached from battles previous.
Wasn't she entitled to a break?
Firefly swung for Batgirl's neck. She responded by leaning back on her left leg while kicking out with her right leg, catching him in the stomach while she was balanced parallel to the ground on one leg.
Firefly staggered back, but recovered more quickly than Batgirl would have liked. He pulled his right fist back and lunged for her stomach, trying to impale her on his flaming spike.
Batgirl, uniform easily protecting her from the heat, sidestepped the attack perfectly as Firefly came at her, spinning in place and slamming her right elbow into the back of Firefly's head as he passed.
The pyromaniac growled underneath his helmet and spun around.
"Stand still and fight!" Firefly shouted.
Batgirl said nothing. The pains in her body demanded the extra focus that she might have spared to sound intimidating. Instead, she just motioned for Firefly to come with it, as if he were nothing more than a bull and she the matador.
Firefly complied happily, rushing towards Batgirl with his flaming spikes held out, ready to burn her into several different pieces.
As easily as opening a door, Batgirl removed a batarange from her belt and sent it sailing at Firefly's left shin.
It painfully smacked the rogue's shin and his leg slipped behind him, forcing him to one knee.
For the moment that his brain was consumed with pain, Firefly didn't see Batgirl moving towards him. He didn't see it when she stepped up on his bended with her left foot, while raising her right knee up to collide with his jaw while bringing her right elbow down atop his head.
Firefly saw none of that, and only felt it for a split second before he went into blissful unconsciousness.
"Firefly and Firebug disabled," Batgirl said into her radio.
"Copy, sending the blue boys now," replied Oracle.
Batgirl took a moment to look around, and what she saw, from a tactical perspective, was sobering. The cars that would have been the perfect cover to approach could have easily concealed twice as many firebombs. The potential body count was staggering.
Batgirl felt a sharp pain in her shoulder, a remnant of her fight with Mr. Myth. As she rotated the aching shoulder, she felt her anger beginning to boil over. The Vigilante, and her own inability to stop him, and how it was threatening to change Gotham.
Before she could stop herself, Batgirl pulled her foot back and kicked Firefly in the stomach. Batgirl realized what she'd done a moment later, and snapped her head around quickly, hoping no one saw her lapse of self control.
oooOOooo
Gotham PD
"We got it! DNA on the hair came back!" Detective Steve Crosby bellowed as he stepped into the room. He had the report in his hands, and waved it about the room like a sports trophy.
All the Detectives took a moment to stop their work and applaud.
"…knew Crews was guilty!"
"Get your best tie for the TV crews, man!"
Only one Detective was an exception.
Peter Akins hung back, as his fellow Detectives all congratulated the man who they thought would soon have the honor of arresting Shane Crews.
To the cops of Gotham, Shane Crews was an embarrassment that refused to go away. The way he'd sued the department for millions, all the interviews about how corrupt or incompetent GCPD was, there almost wasn't a single cop who didn't want to arrest the smug bastard, especially now the self styled saint had murdered one of their own.
Virtually the entire department considered him a traitor of some fashion. To the crooked cops, he was a threat. To the good cops, he was a weight around the department, dragging the good down with the bad.
But not everyone shared the same level of bloodlust. Detective Akins waited patiently for the room to die down for his fellow Detectives to get back, before he confronted his friend.
"Steve, don't you think this is too easy?" Peter said, "our boy, a former cop, just leaves his DNA in the hands of his victim? I mean, come on! Anyone who watched half of a CSI episode would know better."
"He's an arrogant prick who thinks we don't have the balls to move on him," Steve replied, "he should have just taken his pay off and left town, instead of killing his brothers in blue. I'd be on a beach if I were him."
"Nah," Peter tapped Crosby's large gut, "you'd be in the morgue. I'm just thinking that maybe you ought to slow walk this."
"Hell with that," Crosby said, "I already got the Uni's ready to bring him in, and camera crews on standby. I get moving now, we'll make the seven o clock news cycle!"
Steve rushed out the door before Peter could say another word. The younger detective made a mental note not to watch the news tonight. What was the point?
He knew tonight's headlines, and in all likelihood, tomorrow's as well.
Elsewhere
"..Cassandra, wake up."
The voice sounded a million miles away.
"Time to get up, dear. You can't spend all day in bed."
Cassandra recognized the voice as belonging to Tatsu, and that sent a jolt of energy surging through her body as she realized the implications.
"Up, I'm up!" Cassandra sat up, instantly alert. She threw her sheets off, swung her legs off the bed, and barely made to another inch before a combination of cramps and bruised muscles stopped her cold.
"Cassandra, calm down," Tatsu offered Cassandra two aspirin and a glass of water. She took both and gulped them quickly.
"School, late," Cassandra snapped. She was on her feet, but Tatsu grabbed her wrist before she got too far.
"Please use proper English," Tatsu said.
Cassandra scowled and pulled her hand free, "I'm late for school. Okay?"
"That's proper English, but not the proper facts," Tatsu smiled gently, "it's Saturday."
"Oh," Cassandra breathed a sigh of relief, and then plopped back on her bed. She glanced at her clock, and saw that it was only 9, though for a member of the Batclan, that constituted sleeping half the day away, "why did you wake me then?"
"Two reasons," Tatsu said, "when you came in last night, you seemed off. What happened?"
"When I fought Firefly and Firebug, they weren't aimed at me," Cassandra pulled her legs up to her chest, "supposed to come at us, not civilians. what if that becomes normal?"
Tatsu nodded. She knew that one of the Batclan's lesser known tactics was to engage their rogues on a personal level. They wanted the sociopaths of Gotham focused on hurting them, and not civilians. It was hardly a science, and didn't work all the time, but more often than not it was a tool that saved lives.
"No weapon of war lasts forever," said Tatsu, "what's important is to adapt to the situation, and evolve along with the battle."
Cassandra said nothing. Gotham had belonged to Batman for so long, she had no idea what it might look like under her and Nightwing.
Cassandra decided she had enough to worry, "What was the second reason?"
"There's been a development with your Vigilante case." Tatsu picked up the up the remote for Cassandra's television, and selected the DVR.
"Recently released Shane Crews, formerly of the Gotham PD…"
Cassandra moved like a cat, snatching the remote from Tatsu and muting the television.
Several seconds passed.
"He's innocent. Or has something planned," said Cassandra.
"Are you certain?" Tatsu said, "he may simply think he does."
"Former cop," Cassandra said, "seen it in others, too. He's…nesting, no, sitting on something important."
"I guess it was too much to hope that this might be so easily resolved," Tatsu sighed, "well, at least promise me you'll make the most of the daylight hours."
oooOOooo
Later, Gotham City Airport
The plane from Markovia taxied down the runway, and within ten minutes, unloaded it's passengers.
Among them was a young, blond woman, carrying only one bag.
"Gotham," she sniffed and wrinkled her nose, a little annoyed, "I've been around the world, and still only one city smells like this."
Still, she had been in Gotham before, she knew what to expect.
She made her way out of the airport, and struggled to remember the address she was given. True, she could call, but she wanted her appearance, or reappearance, depending on who you asked, to be a real surprise.
oooOOooo
Batgirl slipped into Crews' mansion as easily as she had before. The police were stationed outside, but the CSI crew had come and gone and no one wanted to be responsible for damaged in a mansion where the average room cost more than their annual salary.
She had no idea what she might be looking for, but Nightwing always said that you never found clues by looking away.
Batgirl examined the bed room, the exercise room, and everything in between. In some ways, it reminded her of Wayne Manor, but without the history. Bruce had little in the way of sentimental trinkets of his own. Everything in his home served a purpose, be it to fool the casual visitor or to hone the muscles of the Bat.
A victim of injustice, forged by tragedy into a weapon. If she was right about Shane Crews, Batgirl knew there had to be more to his home than what just casual eye revealed.
She was moving through the kitchen, when she first realized that something was off.
In the east wing, there was a covered swimming pool, connected to a wide living room on one side, and a fully furnished kitchen. And dividing the kitchen and living room was a fireplace at least eight by ten feet wide.
Batgirl felt her instincts blaring at her. Even for a multi-millionaire, such a thing was such a waste of space and money that it couldn't be anything other than suspicious.
She circled it twice, looking for any obvious means of entry. Nothing that said 'Secret Entrance button'. Not even a Grand Father clock.
But Batgirl wasn't worried, as she approached from the kitchen side. She was well trained, and had a keen eye. Now that she knew where to look, she was confident that the truth was within reach.
Batgirl leaned close to examine the wall, and wasn't prepared as the wall itself snapped open, and the Vigilante exploded out of it.
"Raagh!" he roared as he threw a punch at Batgirl's head.
Caught by surprise, all she could do was raise her wrists to protect her face from the blow.
The strength was far greater than anything she could have expected, and Batgirl stumbled backwards, her back sitting the backside of the kitchen's tastefully designed island.
Batgirl saw Vigilante charging her like a rabid dog, and stepped to the side as she lashed out with her right leg. Vigilante fell forward, off balance just enough for Batgirl to grab his right arm in one hand and the back of his head with the other, and slammed into the island.
"Who are you?" Batgirl growled. She twisted the man's arm behind his back, "how much is he paying you?"
"Just absolution."
The Vigilante shouldn't have been able to break the arm-lock Batgirl had him in, but he did. But Batgirl was a professional, already moving into place as he turned to face her.
Batgirl saw that the man in front of her was all strength and anger. Good in an ambush, but it only carried so far.
Batgirl smashed the palms of her hands into the Vigilante's helmet, a dozen blows in less than six seconds before leaping toward and mule kicking him with both legs.
Vigilante was thrown backwards, the left half of his helmet shattered as he struck the ground. Dramatic to someone else, but Batgirl wasn't surprised by who stood revealed.
"Jerry Digger," Batgirl said as she stalked forward. That Shane would rope his partner into his own insanity wasn't the least bit surprising, not after everything she'd seen in Gotham.
She knew the power of guilt.
"It was all me," Digger said, "I had to make those bastards pay for what they did to my partner, and forcing me into silence!"
Batgirl didn't need to be an expert in reading body language to know that the man was lying, and she had a good idea about the nature of them.
But rather than reply, she removed a pair of cuffs from her belt. She would let law enforcement tackle this particular problem.
"No!"
Faster than he should have been able, Digger removed a knife from his belt, and threw it towards Batgirl.
She sidestepped it easily, but was stunned when she heard someone cry out. She spun around and saw a second man dressed as the infamous Vigilante, with a slash on his shoulder.
"Two," Batgirl muttered, as she realized she was surrounded.
oooOOooo
Gotham Docks
Alexander Spencer tapped his foot impatiently. He wasn't a man who liked to be kept waiting, especially not for the money he was shelling out, but his goal was too important.
He rubbed his right hand, his fingers traveling over the slight scar. Despite countless specialists, he still couldn't hold a gun or pull the trigger right.
And if he couldn't do that, what did he have to live for?
"Mr. Spencer?"
Alexander snapped his head to the side, towards the voice. He'd been a professional for years, and in all that time only a handful of people had ever snuck up.
The man wore a trench coat and fedora that was at least thirty years out of date. Alexander tried to look at the man's features, but even as he stared straight at the man's face, it was almost as if he could feel the memory of them draining away.
"Do you have the money?"
Spencer handed the man a suitcase, "It's here, every last dollar."
"Good," the man withdrew a scroll from his pocket, "this will allow you revenge on your enemy, and that which she cares about most. But be warned, should the creatures within find any indecision or have a goal that is less than clear, they were turn."
"Not a worry. I'll destroy whatever that ninja chick loves most. Thanks man, this is worth every penny."
oooOOooo
"Who the hell are you?" Jerry demanded.
That question was all Batgirl needed to know to whom she had to focus on.
She lunged at the second Vigilante just as his right hand flew to his gun.
Batgirl swatted it aside, and was surprised when Vigilante managed to swing his left elbow into her face and then smash his knee into her stomach.
"Sophie, just back off!" he said, and then Batgirl realized the truth.
"Abel," Batgirl clenched her fists.
Some of the Vigilante killings hadn't fit the pattern of simple revenge. Only now did the young crime fighter realize their true purpose, and made a note to kick herself later.
Silver Shrike, as Vigilante, pulled his secondary weapon, but Batgirl lunged, knocking his weapon aside.
"How could you do this?" Batgirl slammed the palm of her left hand into Silver Shrike's chin, and then swung her right leg into his side.
"Sophie…"
"Rarrgh!"
Silver Shrike and Batgirl felt as if a car had crashed into them, as Jerry Digger tackled the both of them.
He grabbed each of them by the neck, and hoisted them into the air.
Batgirl struggled to breathe, and for a moment, was dumbstruck.
Jerry Digger had grown two sizes, muscles literally bursting through every inch of his Vigilante uniform.
"Venom," Batgirl managed to force out. She only hoped that Silver Shrike had researched the drug, and knew what it meant.
Batgirl and Silver Shrike reacted as one, grabbing the wrists that held them and applying precise pressure to the nerves in the arm.
Digger dropped them both, and stumbled back. His head was swimming and he struggled to think, which was why he focused on trying to close his hands instead of what Silver Shrike and Batgirl were doing.
Silver Shrike attacked first, punching Digger's right kidney. When Digger tried to backhand him away, Batgirl moved in with a kick to his chest.
When Jerry moved towards her, Silver Shrike aimed at kick at Jerry's knee that would have crippled anyone else.
Batgirl and Silver Shrike moved in perfect unison. Each time he went for one, the other went on the attack, perfectly filling the space left by the other.
Silver Shrike fist connected with Jerry's jaw, Batgirl's foot slammed into his instep, Silver Shrike brought his right elbow down on Jerry's shoulder and Batgirl's fist connected perfectly with Jerry's stomach.
The barrage of blows brought Jerry Digger to a stand-still, in too much pain and far too damaged, to stop what came next.
Almost as one body, Batgirl and Silver Shrike pulled their fists back and swung an uppercut that lifted Jerry from his feet and he fell backwards, like a puppet with its strings cut.
"That was pretty awesome," Abel gasped, "didn't you think that was cool, Sophie?"
Batgirl swung her left fist into Silver Shrike's jaw without a word or so much as a glance sideways.
When Abel fell over unconscious, Batgirl felt a tinge of guilt. In so many ways, he was only here because of her, and she was loath to hurt him more.
But she knew she couldn't see to Jerry Digger if she had to worry about Abel. She removed a bladed batarange, and moved towards the detective.
Venom was a miracle steroid, but Batgirl knew that it had limits. In the hands of a skilled body builder, it was an exceptionally lethal weapon. But in the hands of a middle aged Detective, it's advantages were dulled.
"Shane…?" Jerry tried to sit up, but it was a futile gesture.
Batgirl was silent, as she began to carefully cut away at the uniform. His expanded muscles, struggling to break through the Kevlar reinforced uniform threatened to cut the oxygen to his limbs.
"I'm sorry, man. I wanted to help you…"
Batgirl still said nothing. She knew Jerry was too far gone. Instead, she tapped her belt, automatically summoning both paramedics and Gotham PD. The scent of Jerry was worse than some of the corpses Batgirl had come across, and she feared what the venom might have done to the man that she couldn't see.
"…best I can do."
Jerry coughed. And blood and bile spilled from his mouth.
"No, no, no!"
Batgirl struggled to think of what to do, as Jerry began bleeding like a stuck pig. From his mouth, from his eyes and from his ears, it was clear whatever tipping point Venom had brought him too, he was now in freefall.
"Hold on, please!" Batgirl begged, "help is coming."
"Help is here," Jerry gasped, "thank you."
Two bullets slammed into Jerry. One in the heart, and one in the head.
"Abel!" Batgirl turned to face her former friend, and he didn't hesitate to level it at her.
"I did him a favor," Silver Shrike said.
"And yourself."
"Sophie, I…"
"Gotham police, freeze!"
Batgir turned to face the police for a moment, and then mentally kicked herself. She didn't bother to turn around, she already knew Abel was long gone.
"On your knees!" one officer shouted, his weapon pointed at Batgirl.
"Get the coroner," Batgirl hissed, "and get out of my way."
To his credit, the officer only took about five seconds to comply.
oooOOooo
Later
"God damn it, Digger," Detective Atkins watched from a distance as the former Detective was loaded into the coroner's van, "the pile of shit you left us. Couldn't you have just drowned in a bottle like a cop's supposed to do?"
The CSI team had returned to Crews' mansion, humbled by their oversight. But Atkins knew it didn't matter. The media had shown up only seconds after the original officers, and he could only imagine tonight's headlines.
As his fellow officers processed the scene, Aktins walked unnoticed to a tree on the far edge of the property.
"Get a weird feeling when I look at this thing. Am I crazy?"
"No."
"Yes I am," Detective Atkins sighed, "guess you can figure out what happened. Digger wrote a confession, claiming responsibility for everything. Crews is already out, and his lawyer's already screaming lawsuit."
"They planned this."
"No kidding," Peter ran his hand through his hair, "damn it Crosby, I warned you."
"Untouchable."
"Yeah, for now," Atkins said, "we even look at him without evidence, he'll sue us back to the 40s."
"Won't stop me."
"Never thought it would," said Atkins, "one last thing, the two patrol officers said that they think they saw two guys in a Vigilante costume. Know anything about that?"
"Close the case," Batgirl said sharply. She knew that if the case remained open, Jacob Thorn wouldn't hesitate to exploit that to kill more rivals.
"If you say so," Aktins said, "better luck next round, huh?"
The Detective was met with silence, and knew that he was now alone.
"Hopefully not a many bodies drop next round."
oooOOoo
"I just don't understand why we had to kill Victor," Abel folded up his fake Vigilante uniform, and then set it in the broiler that Jacob Thorn had installed under his mansion, "he was always nice to me."
"It's not a decision I made lightly," replied his uncle, Jacob Thorn, "but there was no other way that I could keep his smuggling contacts, and reach out to the Russians at the same time. A sad but needed sacrifice to elevate our family."
"I could have killed those people myself," Abel said, "dressing up as someone else just feels wrong."
Jacob Thorn shot his nephew an odd look, "As I've explained, you going out as Silver Shrike would have brought retaliation back on us. No, Crews' actions couldn't have been more transparent, and more helpful to our cause."
Jacob Thorn watched the uniform burn.
"And when the time is right, we'll handle him."
oooOOooo
Home
The ache of her body matched Cassandra's foul mood as she changed from her Batgirl uniform to civilian clothes.
Jerry Digger might not hurt anyone else, but he'd already absolved Shane Crews, a man far more dangerous. The use of Venom was ingenious, in some ways. If it were ever traced back to Crews, he could simply say they were trying to enhance the steroids Digger was already receiving for his cancer treatments.
And any flaws in Digger's MO could be blamed on the Venom as well. Crews' lawyers had no doubt immunized him against active police investigation. To them, he was radioactive.
As if that somehow weren't bad enough, Cassandra knew now that Jacob Thorn had used Crews' revenge rampage to quietly eliminate is enemies. The killings had only strengthened the rising head of organized crime in Gotham, and protected him from retaliation.
So wrapped up in self recrimination, Cassandra barely noticed the blinking green light on her computer consul until she walked right past it.
It was blinking green in quick intervals, which meant they she had guests who knew her identity. A courtesy warning more than anything else.
But after today's debacle and aches that refused to go away, Cassandra was in no mood to greet guests. Instead, she planned to slip by them and head straight to bed.
At least, that had been the plan, until Cassandra found Tatsu on the couch, sitting and chatting with a blond woman Cassandra had never seen before.
What baffled Cassandra was that the signal in her cave had read as all clear, so why was this woman here, and was that Tatsu laughing?
"Oh, Cassandra!"
Tatsu caught sight of her ward out of the corner of her eye.
"I'm so glad you're here," Tatsu motioned for Cassandra to join them, and Cassandra stepped forward curiously. She respected Tatsu's judgment, but was still baffled as to what was going on, "there's someone I'd like you to meet."
Still sore and not expecting much, Cassandra was caught off guard when the young woman leapt to her feet and gave Cassandra a warm hug, causing lancing pain to shoot through her body.
"I'm so happy to finally meet you," she said, "Tatsu's told me so much about you!"
"She has…?" Cassandra looked at Tatsu, confused.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," she said, "I should introduce myself. My name's Gabrielle Doe, and…uhh, well, I guess I'm your sister."
It took Cassandra a moment to process what exactly was said.
"Yeahbutwhat?"
Next Issue: A stand alone issue, and then Cassandra has some family bonding, whether she likes it or not!