A/N: I don't own any members of the Justice League. They belong to Cartoon Network, Marvel, and DC Comics. I do, however, own Taipana.
Chapter 9: Core Overload
"What happened," Batman asked quickly, turning to Shayera. She looked at the others hesitantly before telling them everything. The reaction was a mixture of confusion and, on Batman's part, a lack of surprise. Shayera then handed the broken needle to J'ohn, who examined it for a moment.
"Wait outside. I'll see what I can do," J'ohn said and the others left the room. Everyone stood around outside, waiting.
Shayera was staying somewhat close to John, but remained with Flash. He was trying to keep her spirits up while, on the other side of the room, Diana was glaring at Shayera. Batman stood by himself, leaning against the wall with crossed arms. Superman looked at his dark companion with sympathy. Superman knew all too well the stress of waiting rooms, so he decided to join him.
"J'ohn read her mind when she and Shayera came back, just before she fainted," he whispered to the dark knight, as not to let the others hear him. "He says that she was very fond of you."
"I was a different person then," he replied dryly.
"Yeah. Intense, driven, moody…she'd never recognize you now," he retorted, smirking at the Dark Knight, and received a glare in return. It was then that J'ohn opened the door and all of them came in to see Taipana attached to an IV drip and monitor. How good was government funding?
"How is," Shayera asked before anyone else could. "Do you know what happened?"
"Based on what you told me, I took some of her blood and analyzed it. What I found is highly disturbing."
"Well, what did you find," she asked, annoyed with J'ohn's pause.
"I found a steroid compound of the slicing drug. It is highly volatile. I read her mind. She did not inject herself with this compound," he explained, discretely eyeing the paling Batman. "If we do not find an antidote, she could become the animal the splicing gave her the characteristics of. In reality, the animal would live and she would watch everything it did from inside, unable to do anything."
"Eternal life trapped in the wretched shell of an animal – what a miserable joke," Flash said with a shake of his head.
"There are other possibilities," J'ohn stated tonelessly, per usual.
"One in which she doesn't end up a snake, I hope," Batman interjected in his usual tone, yet the others knew he was concerned, much to Diana's dismay.
"Yes," he replied. "The first possibility is that she would remain as she is, but with her power increased ten times over. The downside, sadly, is that as her strength and power increased, her dopamine levels and mental capacity would decrease. She would become clinically insane."
"Not like she isn't already," Diana muttered under her breath.
"The second possibility is similar to the last," he continued. "She will stay the same with her poisonous abilities, but have others as well. Night vision, speed, stealth, and any other number of abilities that could be associated with, for lack of a better term, a mutant snake."
"She'd be an advanced version of Copperhead," John stated, happy to simplify what J'ohn had told them.
"She won't have super speed though," Flash added quickly. "That's reserved me and me alone. I'm even faster than you, Supes! Some people get all the best powers."
"You are so egotistical sometimes, Flash, I swear," Shayera commented with a scowl.
"Did you just call me egotistical," he questioned in shock.
"Did I say "egotistical?" Forgive me. I meant "idiotic,"" she retorted, making him stick his tongue out at her. Unbeknownst to the others, a small bug crawled on the floor, across Shayera's foot. "Ugh, filthy creature," she exclaimed, stomping on it.
"I've been called worse."
Everyone looked to the bed to see Taipana starting to wake up. J'ohn moved to her quickly, helping her to sit up.
"Wow, you all look like your dog just died," she mused, giving all of them a once-over. "I guess I know how bleak my future is then."
"Actually, you could end up trapped in the body of a snake, never escaping, or become insane, or a super mutant superhero like the rest of us," Flash told her with a broad smile, trying to lighten the situation and failing miserably.
"Are those my only options," she asked with a frown, closing her eyes from the brightness of the light.
"Unfortunately, yes," Batman said, and Taipana looked at him sadly. She looked near tears and leaned back in the bed, sighing heavily. It was then that he noticed how shaky she was. Walking over to her bedside, he felt her forehead and saw then that she was sweating. "You're hot."
"Now you notice," she joked quietly with a smirk, and was happy to see him smirk back.
"J'ohn," he called and the Martian Man-hunter nodded to him. His back was turned for a moment before he walked over to Taipana with a filled needle.
"If that needle's going where I think it is, I will twist off your hand and you will be known as "Stumpy" for the rest of your life," she said immediately, scowling at J'ohn.
"Afraid of needles," he questioned in his usual monotone.
"No," Batman and Taipana said at the same time. The two looked at one another afterwards, glaring. Taipana had simply meant that she wasn't afraid of needles, while Batman was referring to her frequent use of them in the past.
"Either J'ohn gives you the shot and brings your fever down, or you don't get it and possibly die from it. Choice is yours," Batman stated firmly, and she nodded after a moment and received the shot.
"We'll leave you two alone," Superman said, silently ordering the others to leave the room. Everyone noticed Diana's hesitance before she left the room, closing the door behind her.
"Kendra," he sighed quietly, looking her over in her worsening condition. "If you aren't careful, you're going to get yourself killed." Taipana just smiled weakly as the shot, which had conveniently been a sedative, set in.
"Are you getting soft on criminals, or just on me?"
"I think the fever is making you delusional."
"Ever the escape artist, I see. Some thing will never change," she stated, smirking. "So, tell me, what do you care about some leggy dame in leather, Bruce? Or have I answered my own question?"
"Delusional," he said simply, smirking at her. "Get some sleep," he ordered and turned to leave, but she grabbed his hand.
"Stay with me, please. Just until I'm out. I don't want to be alone, Bruce," she begged softly, which was odd for her, so he nodded and moved back to her side. "You know, in all the time that we've known each other, you never did tell me what happened that made you put this on," she said, touching his cowl. "Though I have a good idea, why?"
"A painful memory…and a promise," he admitted softly, thinking of his parents and still holding her hand tightly. No matter how much he wanted to admit it, he still loved her like he loved all the women he had been with at one time or another.
"Thought so," she mused. "I'd say you're keeping that promise pretty well…unlike me."
"You were doing fine, until Crane," he told her, completely honest, and she just nodded. "How'd you find him anyway?"
"I didn't. He found me. I helped him; he helped me. He trained me; I betrayed him. Weird thing is, he saved me. I found my soul after my family wrote me out of their life."
"It sounds like you found the self-help section of the bookstore."
"You making jokes now? That's different. You should crack some more often. It looks good on you," she said and silence fell between them for a moment. "Someone purposely injected me, Bruce. It was planned; I know it, I can feel it. So, the question is, who wants to get rid of me?"
"That line is slowly forming around the block," he told her seriously.
"The Princess right behind you, I assume," she snapped angrily. "I'm sorry I lied, Bruce. I really am, but I didn't know what else to do."
"You get to a point where you can't lie anymore, Kendra," he said. In that moment, she didn't even care that he was calling her by her real name.
"I wouldn't know. I've never reached that point. You'll have to tell me about it," she requested, and he nodded slowly. Batman stayed with her a little longer, holding her hand, until she was asleep and left the room.
"She's out," he announced to the others, who just nodded in what he could only think was relief.
"So, what do we do now," Flash asked curiously. It was a good question. What were they going to do? After all, Taipana had lied to them.
"We find the antidote," Batman said as if it was the simplest thing in the world, then turned to J'ohn. "How long does she have until the transformation?"
"At best, twenty four hours, but I cannot be certain. It may be less than that. We will have to hurry, but where do we start?"
"We should go back to Oz Corp.," Shayera suggested. "After all, that's where it happened; that's where the antidote should be."
"I'll go," Batman stated firmly, leaving no room for argument, so Superman just nodded.
"Me, too," Shayera said a little guiltily. "I mean, I should've been watching her back better. If I had…let's go to the teleporter, J'ohn," she finished sadly, head hung low, and the two left quietly.
"I'll go, too. John, go grab Vixen. If she stays here any longer, I think she'll start climbing the walls. As for the rest of you, you're to stay here and monitor Taipana's condition with J'ohn," Superman ordered with a tone that left no room for argument. Flash and Diana went into Taipana's room, while John left to retrieve Vixen. Batman just stood in the same spot, arms crossed and a scowl on his face. "You gonna be okay?"
"I'll be fine," he replied. "I always am."
"I know," he said and sighed quietly, more than concerned for the Dark Knight. "You and her, you were…?"
"Yeah," he replied simply with a nod.
"When?"
"Before Rachel," he said simply and Superman nodded, knowing that meant Taipana was the first. "We were friends for years. I met her before my parents…well, we met through our father's businesses. She didn't know about this for a long time," he told the man of steel, pointing to his cowl. "At least, not until after I put her in Arkham."
Unfortunately, Batman didn't know that Taipana had known for a long time, and Shayera certainly wasn't going to be the one to tell him. It wasn't her place.
"When I told her, she…well, let's just say she went crazier than she already was. No one believed her when she told them."
"That's the downside of having a secret identity: the secrecy," Superman stated, then became very serious with Batman. "You haven't spoken to her since then, and now she needs your help. Maybe you should give things with her another shot. She needs you."
"She's need the antidote," he corrected forcefully and walked away. Superman just sighed, shaking his head, and followed reluctantly.
P.S.: Five pages total.