Chapter 15: Arkham City

Gotham Gazette:

BRUCE WAYNE OPPOSES ARKHAM CITY

February 3, 2016:

Bruce Wayne, billionaire playboy CEO of Wayne Enterprises and head of the Wayne Foundation has come out in opposition to Arkham City. Bruce Wayne recently had been involved with supporting the Family Needs For Benefits Act that was a bill that was supposed to give working families benefits including Maternity and Paternity leave mandated by the state government. The bill is being reintroduced by Senator Zach Mosart after the sudden deaths of Senator Joseph Simonson and John Stevenson, the former owner of the Lifeline Insurance Company who were both known to be in stark opposition to the bill.
Today, with the powerful Bruce Wayne and new Mayor of Gotham City Quincy Sharp on opposite ends, it looks like the duo are destined for a collision course.

"So it's true then?" Pam crossed her arms. "Lana is Hanna?"
James nodded sadly. "Yes. She's been committing all of these murders."
James and Pam met up with the rest of the team at the base to discuss the unfolding developments.
"So what are you gonna do?" Joe asked. "It's obvious she needs to be stopped."
"It was obvious." Leslie corrected. "But then this started happening."
She grabbed the remote and turned on the large TV.

"This is Vicki Vale reporting live from Gotham City Hall." The blond reporter said. "Behind me is a large crowd of people protesting outside the hall, demanding the city council to vote on the reintroduced Family Needs For Benefits Act. This crowd appears to be—"
"Wearing Lana's cloak…" James finished, stunned. "These people…are her supporters."
"That's…uncanny!" Georgina said worriedly.
"I know! Why didn't I ever think of that?" Pam huffed.
Everyone looked at her.
"I'm not talking about now!" Pam said quickly. "When I was Poison Ivy!"
Shaking his head, Joe turned back to the TV.

"She hasn't just been targeting these people for the retribution. She knows the public hates these people. Killing them is changing things. Because both Senator Simonson and John Stevenson are both dead, that now clears the way for the bill to pass."
"A very bloody solution." George sighed. "She's forcing change by extreme measures."
"It doesn't look like a big crowd though." Leslie said optimistically. "Maybe—"
"This crowd is not the only group that supports her." Vicki Vale spoke. "According to recent reports, this 'Lana' person has set up a twitter account and is already up to 2 million followers."
"Oh fuck…" James groaned. "My sister is committing multiple murders and she's being rewarded for it. This is insane! I need to meet with her again."
"But James!" Joe protested. "If you—"

"Let him." Pam interrupted. "I know what he's going through. Let him see her on his own."
Joe fell silent, as did everyone else.
She suddenly started coughing heavily, prompting James to quickly place her on the couch.
Just then, James's Ari1 rang.
"Hello?" He answered.
"Hello brother." Hanna's voice flooded the speaker.
"Hanna…" James sighed. "We need to—"
"Talk." She finished. "I know. Meet me at the old diner. You know the one."
Nodding, he hung up and turned to his friends.

"I'll be back."

Nightshroud floated down to the ruins of the Sight Round Dome Diner and reentered through the back. He made his way down to Lana/Hanna's old hideout and as he reached the bottom immediately saw Hanna looking at a large screen.
"I miss this place." Hanna turned to him. "We as a family used to go all the time. So much that even the waiters and waitresses knew us."
"And I used to take Abigail here too." James added.
Hanna looked at him then sighed.
"James…" She started. "Back then…it pained me to see you so lonely in High School. Sure you had your friends, but never one that told you 'I love you.' So when you started dating Abigail…I was suspicious."
James sat down on a nearby chair and folded his arms. "Was it because of my poor track record with girls before?"

She slowly nodded. "I'm not belittling you. I think any girl would be lucky to have you. You're intelligent, good looking and kind."

James laughed. I'm not that good looking."
"Of course you are." Hanna shook her head. "And—"
"Tell that to all the girls that ghosted me." James said bitterly. "That's the worst kind of insult to me; when you can't even tell me that you're not interested in me and just decide that I'll get the hint if they stopped texting me."
Hanna sighed again. "I know. And I was ready to beat the shit out of those girls because of how sad they made you."

James chuckled. "Well I am honored."

Hanna gave a small smile. "It's what big sisters do. But Abigail felt different. Seeing you happy made our parents and me happy. Before you were very aloof and depressed all the time. You barely spoke to us and just did your own thing. But Abigail was genuine. And—"
"Also a liar." James interrupted angrily. "She was only doing that to set me up for a fall. A deep fall."
"I don't know about that James." Hanna questioned. "Remember I told you that I met her recently."
"Oh yeah!" James pushed his seat closer. "You never finished that story."
"Ah. Well then I captured Abigail after she was spying on you during the Brainiac fight." Hanna explained. "I took her back to my hideout and was about to torture her when…"

Abigail started crying. "Please! I know I deserve this but let me speak to him! I need to speak to James!"
"Fuck off." Hanna gritted her teeth. "You destroyed James that day. You wrecked his self-confidence and he nearly slaughtered the whole school because of it! THAT WAS YOUR FAULT."
"I know!" Hanna banged on the large tube she was trapped in. "But I can explain that!"
Hanna hovered over the activation switch, which would send 10,000 volts of electricity coursing through the tube and would shock her badly.

"You have 10 seconds." Hanna demanded. "Explain. Now."

"I was in love with James." Abigail insisted. "I truly loved him. But I am infected. I have another personality. Her name is Lilith and she takes control of me from time to time! I have these powers that I can't control and it scares me! My father experimented on me years ago and injected some stuff called "exolytes" or something and it created this new person! I did not betray James! Lilith controls me and tells me that she worships this organization called N.S.O or something!"

"That stopped me." Abigail said to an astonished James. "A supposedly innocent girl knew about N.S.O and that her parents are dark people? It sounded too suspicious."
"It does." James agreed. "I mean how are we supposed to believe her?"
"By forcing Lilith out." Hanna said darkly. "Since she was in that large tube already, I ripped Lilith out of Abigail's body and imprisoned her. I interrogated her and found out something very disturbing."

"What?" He asked.

"I'll show you." Hanna pressed a button, and a video of two Abigails in two different prison tubes was showing.
"Lilith…" James started.
"Takes the form of its host." Hanna answered. "Don't worry, you'll know who's who once they start talking."

"Quit being such a bitch and let me out." Lilith said. "You can't stop me. I am the most powerful being of my generation."
"Really?" Lana placed her hand on her tube and kinetium flooded into the tube. She screamed loudly as the red energy burned her skin.
"Had enough?" She took her hand off the tube and crossed her arms.

"You fucking c**t!" Lilith screamed out. "You can't keep me in this goddamn cylinder forever!"

"I'd like to try that actually." Lana smiled. "So you follow N.S.O do you?"
Lilith grinned. "I do more than follow them, I live them. This world is flawed and decrepit. Other races look at this planet and its species and scoff at it because it is so pathetic. You know why that is? It is because we are the only species that tries to actively destroy each other! We have always fought our own kind whether its skin color, wealth, or ownership, when we really should be uniting our species and dividing our differences. This is why I was created!"

"You had me at 'dividing.'" Lana growled. "Elaborate on that."

"Race will never be solved." Lilith stared at her intently. "We will never achieve full equality of rights and opportunity. Therefore we should stop that fight and instead create subcultures in order to silence the idea."
"Ah so you're segregating them is that it?" Lana chuckled.
"Bah! Such an obsolete term!" Lilith shook her head. "I may be a piece of that whore's body, but I think for myself and I make the decisions. She cannot."
"Back off!" Abigail banged on the tube again. "I was perfectly fine until you ruined my life!"

Lilith laughed maniacally "I ruined your life? You sucked away any class you had by dating James."
Abigail punched the tube with both of her hands. "TAKE THAT BACK! GO FUCK YOURSELF!"
Lilith kept laughing. "You know I'm right! That little shithead was too much of an idealist to live in the real world. I should've had his power right about now. I came an inch away from killing him and then—"
"James annihilated you!" Abigail cut in. "He embarrassed you and kicked your bitch ass to the ground!"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Lilith banged on the glass too. "The Order had no idea that the power inside him was pure rage. He caught everyone by surprise."

Hanna looked next to her and saw James with his fists shaking. She noticed that he was staring right at Lilith.
Turning back to the video, they continued to watch:

"Regardless…" Lilith continued. "Now that he's this big shot superhero the Order can no longer touch him. The lucky dillhole managed to make some super powered friends including the Batman. He doesn't deserve it. That little p***y should've committed suicide and thus make the world a better place."
"Alright that's enough." Lana slammed a red button next to her and suddenly yellow gas flooded Lilith's tank. She screamed as her body melted away in the gas and her powers faded. Soon there was nothing but ash remaining.

"W-what was that!?" Abigail stammered.

"Synthetic X." Lana explained. "A chemical compound that destroys a person at the atomic level. Don't worry, with that last blast, it's now extinct. You should be fine now and free of her influence."
Walking over to Abigail's tube, she stared intently into her eyes.
"Do you still love James?" Lana asked.
She nodded. "I always have."
The Kinetium user turned away. "Well you're out of luck. He's now dating Pamela Isley."

"I'm aware." Abigail slid down to her knees depressed. "At least he's happy."
"Cheer up." Lana pressed a button and the tube lifted into the ceiling, setting her free.
"At least you're no longer on my list." Lana crossed her arms.
"Good to know." Abigail replied sadly. "I don't know what to do now. My parents are dead, the boy I loved hates me like I deserve, and I have no other family to go to. My home is too lonely to live in. My parents were rich, yes, but it's dirty money. I'm not taking any of that."

"Goody two shoes." Lana remarked. "I would've still used at least some of the money."

Hanna looked at James after the video stopped.
"Well?" She asked.
"I…" James couldn't find the words to answer. "She…didn't turn the school against me? It was this 'Lilith' girl? Unbelievable."
James turned to face Hanna.
"Where is she now?"
"Right here." A voice spoke.

James whipped around as Nightshroud and readied for battle. But he suddenly stopped after what he saw.

Standing there at the door was Abigail Gullucci.