Beware the Batman fanfic – Bring on the Badguys!
Written by WDCain Man

Disclaimer: Batman was created by Bob Kane and owned by DC Comics, which is owned by Warner-Brothers. No money is being made with this story. No profit is being made from this fanfic.

Oh boy, oh boy! I FOUND THE NEW EPISODES! AND THEY ARE AWESOME! The show has really hit its stride now and has even put Batman through a character arc. I haven't been this jazzed about Batman since Grant Morrison and Paul Dini took over the comics after One Year Later. Since I'm in the mood, here's another story from yours truly.

Enjoy the story!

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Bring on the Badguys!

Part Eight:

Jane Doe

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Candace Cane, secretary and right hand (wo)man of mob kingpin Rupert Thorn, was running to her boss' office. It didn't matter she was in heels. It was high time he explained himself.

She didn't knock. She slammed the door open so hard it nearly went off its hinges. Her boss paid her no mind. He sat behind his solid oak desk watching John Carpenter's The Thing on his giant plasma screen television. He was even sipping on a soda.

"Rupert! You owe me an explanation! Hell, you owe everyone an explanation!"

The crime lord put down his soda turned off the movie before addressing his second-in-command. "An explanation, Candace? Whatever for?"

Candace took a breath and tried to steady herself. Even though she spoke at an even tone, every word was backed by anger. "Every decision you've made in the last month has been insane. You ended our business arrangement with the Falcone's, one of the biggest games in town, by having our boys cripple his daughter because she wouldn't sleep with you."

"I am a male pig, you can't deny that. And it's not like Sofia is innocent. She just got done serving a dime for murder one on poppy's orders."

She ignored him. "You exposed the cops on our payroll because they wouldn't do your work for free. You sent our best hit men into China Town to kill the Triads and broke our truce with them. We're in a war with three different groups! The men are terrified and a few have even gone to Gordon hoping to be put into witness protection in exchange for testifying against you!" She hissed, glaring at him. "Do I need to explain further?"

Rupert started playing with his deck of cards like he always would do in meetings. "I still don't see the problem so please elaborate, Candace."

She just looked at her boss incredibly. "Every decision you've made in the last month has been so stupidly evil. You've managed to enrage every ally into gunning for us for insanely petty reasons. It's almost like you want to bring down your criminal empire." Candace had to rub her head to because of the migraine he caused. "Jesus, Rupert. What has gotten into you?"

"What has gotten into me, you say?" Rupert gave a little laugh. "You have no idea how ironic that question is."

"Then explain it to me because I don't see the funny side!"

Rupert put down his deck of cards and looked at Candace, grinning all the while. "It began a month ago. We sent some of our men to rob Ace Chemicals. You helped planned it. Night security was light so no problems were anticipated. But there was a surprise, a big surprise. Remember?"

"I heard it from the boys. It turned out some low-class movie studio got permission to film some scenes there for a cheap B-movie." It was crazy but she still didn't see what this had to do with Rupert's derange behavior.

"Low-class?" Rupert looked miffed. "I'll have you know that they were quite good in their field of work. They even did several projects for the late Burt Edison Weston. It was a family of professionals. The father was an expert in make-up. The mother was a genus in costume design. Their son was quite a clever handyman who could operate and repair any machine or camera. And their daughter? She was an okay actress. Nowhere near as skilled as Basil Karlo but she was okay. Her real talent was in mimicry and being an understudy."

"An understudy? What does that have to do with anything? Rupert, you're rambling. You need to-"

"Patience, Candace. Let me finish." He cut her off. "You see, she had the remarkable ability to perfectly duplicate the performance of any actor or actress just be watching them. She could mimic the way they walked, they way they talked, even body language was not a problem. Gender was no obstacle to her. She was even a good enough judge of character to nigh impeccably think the way they would act. Brilliant Burt Edison Weston made great use of her talent. He would have her watch all the auditions and then have her reenact the performances he liked. She was quite remarkable. All of them were."

"It didn't save them though. They still died like rats when our boys gunned them down." Candace said it with a sick smile. She dropped the grin when she saw her boss looking ready to kill her.

"You're right. It didn't save them. The family died."

Candace stepped back and reached for her pistol. But Rupert smiled coldly and continued his tale before she pulled it out.

"Our men killed the mother and father before they could hit the alarm. The girl and her brother fled up a ladder to a catwalk over the chemical vats to escape. It did them no good. They were gunned down. The brother fell back to the ground floor while the poor girl fell into a vat of experimental chemicals. Her life was over."

"I know this, Rupert. I've heard all the jokes the men made. How does that incident justify your actions?"

"You didn't let me finish, Candace. Naughty girl." Rupert got up from his desk and slowly made his way over to his secretary. "While her life was over, that girl did not die. She crawled her way out of the vat not long after the crooks left. But she had changed. The chemicals altered her, removing her skin and making her into something new. She wasn't human now. No one could tell who she was anymore. She became a Jane Doe." Rupert's voice lowered and Candace had to strain to hear him. "But a Jane Doe with an interesting power."

Candace looked at her boss no longer thinking he was just playing her and perhaps had just gone mad. "And what power did she get?"

Rupert looked to the television. The movie was at the part where Windows found Bennings being taken over by the Thing. "She could take over people. She could actually enter their bodies and take them over, wearing their skin like a set of clothing. Jane Doe, let's call her that, learned she had this power after she stumbled out of the factory in a daze and was confronted by a mugger. With just a touch, she entered him and was walking around Gotham wearing his body."

"Oh, no. You've gone insane." Candace looked at her boss, one of the most powerful men in Gotham, with pity.

Rupert ignored her. "She practiced this ability on mobsters, learning how to enter and how to exit. Soon she mastered her power and vowed to use it to destroy the crooked establishment that controlled the city." He paused dramatically. "Then I came and took control of Rupert Thorn. Every crazy stupid thing I've done in the last month was to destroy his empire from the inside."

"Rupert, I'm sorry; but you know that's impossible." Candace looked her boss like she would a parent with Alzheimer's. "I don't know why the guilt of murdering some actors disturbed you so considering you've ordered much worst. But for some reason, you've cracked. And now it's up to me to take care of you and take control of the cartel. Let's just hope I can fix the damage your madness wrought."

"Oh ye of little faith." Rupert smiled and acted.

Candace paused; not entirely certain what she was seeing was real.

Rupert's skin bubbled like a fire was lit inside him. Then his flesh melted like ice-cubes, baize liquid spilling onto the hardwood floor, gallon after gallon, leaving behind a red woman in Rupert's clothes. The large suit he wore was too big for the slender girl. It slid off her and pooled around her bare red feet like a black rose. Despite being naked with her curves displayed, she had total confidence in herself with no shame over nudity.

The young woman, Jane Doe, was red. She wasn't exactly skinless. Rather her skin had turned red with tiny scales appearing in patches around her joints and face. She almost looked reptilian in nature, like a chameleon. Her eyes were a bright yellow with black iris' inside. She carried herself proud and bold, like an actress bowing to the audience.

"Do you still think I'm crazy?" Her voice had a deep alien tone that stung her ears.

Candace opened her mouth to scream. The scarlet woman covered her mouth with her palm. Her flesh fused to Candace's face. The mob woman had no mouth and needed to scream.

Candace pulled out her gun. Jane Doe crane kicked her arm, knocking the gun free. The red woman caught it briskly in mid-air and looked at the petrified Candace with mirth. "I am a fully trained fight coordinator and stunt woman. Did I forget to mention that?"

Candace, her eyes pleading with Jane Doe, but that only made the mutated creature chuckle ironically. "My mother had that exact same look right before your men riddled her full of bullets."

With that said, Jane Doe's entire being poured into Candace's mouth. Like water through a funnel, she filled the insides of the mob moll. As the last bit was swallowed, Candace gave one final spasm, her death rattle. Then she was gone.

Jane Doe took stock of her new form. This shell would be useful. Candace's figure was to die for and she wore her red mini-skirt so well. Already the next steps in her plan to rot away Gotham's mob families were coming to her.

She would leave Thorn's mansion, telling the henchmen she had new tasks. She would leave and head to… Arnold Stromwell, the largest drug lord in Gotham. Yes, he would do. First, she would approach him and offer the service of 'Candace' and tell him where the last vestiges of Rupert's powerbase were at. Stromwell would then swoop in and take over Thorn's racket with his new hot secretary by his side.

And while Arnold Stromwell basked in his victories and expansion of his empire, she would study his every mannerism the inner workings of his business until she had them all memorized. Next she would discard this shell and take him over. Then she would redo what she did here: Issuing ever increasing insane orders, angering every ally, making enemies, and destroying the kingdom he built.

Finally she would move on, take over a new form and infiltrating another syndicate to start the whole thing over again.

'Candace' walked out of Rupert's office, mimicking her sexy strut perfectly. It was nice being back in heels. The mob moll's confidence and coy attitude were perfectly emulated, allowing Jane Doe, a cipher none had record of, to leave the premises with none of the guards knowing better.

And like a puff of smoke, she was gone.

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End Part Eight…
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Ah, Jane Doe. She's right up there with Prof. Pyg as the most disturbing and horrifying villains in Batman's rogues gallery. She's a skinless lunatic who peels off the skin of people to wear it while pretending she's them. It's pretty gruesome. Obviously her character would have to be completely reworked to make it into a cartoon.

The essence of the character is a crazy woman who takes over the lives of her victims. Sadly, DC really hasn't explained her origins. While that may work for the Joker, I feel that Jane Doe needs to be fleshed out. The Bat books focus too much on what she does then on her character. Since I didn't have much to work with, I really had to put some thought into this fic.

Visually, I based Jane Doe's look here off of a red Mystique from the X-Men movies. I had a lot of problems deciding Jane Doe's disguising ability. I almost gave up and just made her into Lady Clayface. Fortunately, I was channel surfing a few days ago and came across John Carpenter's The Thing. I realized that The Thing's desire to take over the lives of Outpost 31's personal is very similar to Jane Doe's need to take over other people's lives.

It's funny. My take on White Knight was heavily inspired by John Carpenter's Halloween and Jane Doe by another of his film. I must admit, the man is a genius. Maybe I should have based Film Freak off of him instead of Vincent Price.

It's funny but I noticed that a lot of the new rogues introduced in BtB first appeared in Arkham: Living Hell. Doodlebug, Junkyard Dog, Lunkhead, and Humpty Dumpty all showed up in that mini-series. Magpie was even reintroduce to the DCverse in that comic after being absence for two decades. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised that in pre-production that Tobias 'The Whale' Manning was originally going to be Great White Shark. So to the writers of Beware the Batman, here's a freebie on how to bring Jane Doe into the show. I hope everyone enjoys this.

Read and review, my loyal readers!