Chapter Thirty-Three

Dakota City

United States

21:24 – Eastern Standard Time

March 16, 2007

Both not wanting to stay up too late and also needing to set off early tomorrow, Emil had decided that they should all get an early night. With him going off to his own room, Galatea and Pauline stepped into theirs only to find a single double-bed that presumably they were meant to share.

While it was true that Emil's friend Delina Gibson had a large house, it still only had four bedrooms. They had known they would have to share a room, they had just hoped that there were separate beds. That was clearly not the case.

Galatea stood and stared at it for a few moments. "This isn't going to work," she said finally.

Galatea put down her small bag which contained just a few items of clothing, one of them being her white leotard. Back at the facility where she had spent the last year, she'd had multiple of them, but she had only left with one, the others most likely damaged or destroyed when she pulverised the place. Pauline on the other hand, had brought a lot of clothes in a few cases whereas both Galatea and Emil had precious few.

"I can go downstairs and sleep on the couch," Pauline suggested.

"Nah, you take the bed. I'm not even tired." Galatea sat down on a chair in the corner and leant back, the wood creaking beneath her.

"You sure?" Pauline asked.

Galatea looked towards the window. "I'm sure. I know how you humans need your sleep."

"Don't you need sleep?"

"Sure, but not as much as you do." Galatea rose up and looked out of the window to the dark street outside. The only source of light was the street lights and that coming from the windows of other houses. In the distance, she could see the glow from the city proper, which was denser with taller buildings. Even so, they weren't even an eighteenth as tall as the ones in Metropolis, the ones here only being around four to fourteen storeys tall.

She continued to look out of the window while Pauline got ready for bed and didn't sit back down until the older woman was under the covers. There she remained, till she started to drift off to sleep despite the rather old hard wooden chair she was perched on.

That's when she heard what sounded like gunfire on the wind. She stood up and made her way back to the window and opened it. The sounds were more clear to her now and it sounded like it was coming from somewhere on the other side of the city. She doubted that even if Pauline was awake that she would be able to hear it, as human hearing was pitiful.

Galatea closed the window and sat back down, folding her arms over her chest. She then looked down at the bag that held her white one-piece. There was more than a little temptation to go out there and have a look at what was going on. Slowly, she leant forward and unzipped the bag and stared at the white material, before zipping it back up.

The gunfire was none of her business. It wasn't her fault if someone was getting shot at, it was whoever was being shot at for getting into that mess. She had her own problems and going out there would just add to them.

With the sounds of more gunshots, a small explosion, she reached down and unzipped the bag again, pulling out her white outfit. She looked at it for a moment before glancing over to Pauline.

"This is stupid," she muttered in annoyance under her breath. "Don't do it," she told herself. "I shouldn't even care."

Unfortunately, or perhaps, fortunately, she didn't listen to herself and changed, throwing her t-shirt and jeans to the side as she pulled on her white leotard and boots. Her gloves were missing and her outfit still had the graze in the arm from where she had been shot when she had first escaped, but those minor grievances were unimportant.

Outfitted, she made her way over to the window and pulled it open. She had one foot on the windowsill when she heard movement behind her.

"Going somewhere?"

Galatea looked back to see that Pauline was now sat up in bed staring at her.

"There's something I need to do," she told her.

Pauline frowned. "What could you possibly need to do at this time of night?"

"I heard gunfire." With that she climbed out of the window and flew up into the night, streaking towards the source of the gunfire not waiting for the older woman's response.

As she approached the city proper, Galatea caught sight of someone else in the sky ahead. She altered course to intercept as more gunshots rang out. The figure ahead began to spiral out of control, smoke appearing to be coming from his left boot.

She rushed over, grabbing him out of the sky, before dropping him onto a nearby roof. He hit the flat roof with a pained yelp, but she wasn't interested in him, or if he was hurt. She was more interested in the two gunmen.

She landed in the alleyway where the two gunmen were stood, their weapons drawn. The one on the left was in a button shirt and jeans, while the other one had a cheap blazer on.

"Who the hell are you?" the one on the left demanded. The one on the right simply aimed his gun and fired.

If she had been human then she would have received a fatal bullet in the heart. As it was, the bullet exploded on impact, the shrapnel harmlessly falling to the ground.

"Crap," he shouted in surprise.

Galatea wasn't impressed. She turned her fiery gaze to his gun. He let out a yelp and dropped it as it began to heat up rapidly. She then turned her attention to the other gunman in the blazer. He quickly raised his gun and started firing wildly at her. She stood there and waited until he was out of bullets before she smiled.

"Finished?" she asked with amusement.

The one on the left looked to the one on the right. "Run!" he yelled.

They turned on their heels and bolted out of the alleyway, only to find that their way was blocked. Galatea stood there with her hands on her hips and a grin on her face. They stared at her wide-eyed and slowly backed away.

"Going somewhere?" she asked them.

"What do we do?" the one on the left said frantically.

"Just run for it, idiot," the other said as he turned around and bolted.

The other was close behind, following his comrade as they navigated the network of back alleys. They turned a corner to find her stood at the end, hands on hips, the same grin on her face.

"How many of you are there?" the one in the blazer asked fearfully.

"Just one," she replied. "Have you decided to give up yet?"

They didn't reply and with the sounds of police sirens on the wind, she knew she would have to take the initiative. She rushed forwards and grabbed them by the scruff of the neck before they could react and dragged them over to a nearby dumpster and threw them in, closing the lid on top of them and using her heat vision to seal the lid shut. Knowing that she probably shouldn't let them suffocate, she punched an airhole in the side, getting a satisfying yelp from the two inside.

She dusted off her hands with satisfaction. "That'll hold you," she said loudly.

With them secured she took to the sky and flew back to where she had left the so-called "hero" the other two had been initially shooting at. He was stood on the roof with his damaged boot in his hand looking at it.

He stopped and turned his attention to her. "Who're you?" he asked.

She looked at his outfit which appeared to be modified sports equipment. The visor on his helmet didn't particularly hide much of his face and over-all she had to admit that he didn't look quite as idiotic or clownish as most 'heroes' did, though that wasn't saying much. By the look of him, she guessed that he was in his late teens, closing in on his twenties.

"I ask the questions," she said, folding her arms with a glare.

"Oookaay," he said nervously. "Go ahead."

"Why were they shooting at you?"

"They were planning on kidnapping the Mayor's kids for ransom. I managed to get the whole thing recorded, video and audio, but they caught me, or rather they saw Backpack moving off and followed it right too me."

Galatea decided she didn't care to know what "Backpack" was. Instead, she simply told him what she believed he wanted to know. "They're locked in a dumpster, so they won't be kidnapping anyone."

"You caught 'em?"

"Yes," she said. "I'll take you to them."

"About that," he said gesturing to his boot. "They shot out one of my Jet Blades."

She didn't hide her annoyance. "You should have designed it better."

He frowned. "Yeah, maybe. My name's Gear by the way. What's yours?"

"Unimportant," she replied as she stepped forward. She grabbed him by the underarms and flew down to the alleyway, literally dropping him off. He hit the concrete with a slap followed by another pained yelp.

"Would it hurt you to put me down gently?" he asked as he picked himself up off the ground. "You could've broken my arm."

"I caught your criminals for you, you should be grateful." She didn't wait for his reply as she flew off, heading back towards Delina's house as fast as she could. Not wanting to draw too much attention to herself, she landed a block away and walked the rest of the way.

It was a rather pleasant night. The sky was clear and even with all the light pollution she could make out perhaps a dozen or so stars. Unfortunately, her stroll was over far too quickly as she soon found herself outside of Delina's house.

After checking that no one was watching, she flew up to the still open window and climbed inside.

She heard Pauline speak the moment her foot hit the floor. "I heard sirens."

Galatea looked over to see Pauline still sat up in bed looking over at her in the darkness.

"If you must know, they weren't after me, just some criminals."

"Were you seen?" she questioned.

"Only by the criminals and the local vigilante crime-fighter. Not that I'm impressed, far from it. I doubt he catches many criminals."

"Going out like that was risky. You can't afford to let people know you're here."

"We'll be on the road and well out of the city by midday tomorrow," Galatea pointed out.

"It was still risky."

"You worry too much," Galatea dismissed.

"You're too carefree," Pauline retorted.

"We haven't seen any indication that I'm even being pursued. None whatsoever. Since I left Keystone City, I haven't seen any sign that I'm being followed, apart from the Justice League, which we ditched back in Metropolis, so calm down. I did some good, you should be happy."

"I guess it's a good step. But you still have to be careful."

"You sound like my father," Galatea said.

"I assume that's a compliment."

"Aren't you supposed to be asleep?" the clone questioned. "We are setting off early tomorrow."

"I was on the cusp of sleep earlier when someone decided to wake me up by climbing out of the window."

"Well, I'm not going anywhere now. So you can lay down and stop talking."

"Maybe I want to use this opportunity to get to know you better," Pauline said. "I know what Emil's told me, but that's it. He's worried about you."

"He shouldn't be. I'm nigh on indestructible. I have more reason to be worried about him. Pretty much everything and anything can kill a human. I don't know how you function when at any moment something could happen that seriously injures or kills you."

"That's life for us. That's life for most creatures on this planet. It must be nice to know that nothing can hurt you. That you're pretty much invulnerable."

"Pretty much invulnerable is maybe an exaggeration. There are things I need to avoid."

"Like Kryptonite."

"And giant power conduits. They'll put you in a coma for several months."

"That must have been unpleasant."

"Unpleasant isn't the word to describe it. I can't think of one that does. Not even agonising covers it. There was huge amounts of energy in that cable and Supergirl tried to fry me with it. Granted, I was trying to blow up their Watchtower at the time and I guess I deserved it. I was ordered to stand down by my superiors and I ignored them. I saw the chance to end her, to end my double and I took it. Only she got the upper hand."

"How did you get off their space station?" Pauline wondered.

"They were told to hand me over. After their weapon had just been used to obliterate the Cadmus headquarters and injure hundreds if not thousands, they didn't push their luck and did as they were told."

"How long were you out?"

"I was in a coma for months. When I awoke, I found myself in a room with a red sun lamp. I probably would have woken sooner if I'd been under a yellow sun, but as it was I was out of energy and as weak as a human."

"Emil told me that they retrained you?"

"He was assigned to me but didn't get to see me as often as we'd both have liked, which was usually twice a week. They had him off elsewhere a lot of the time, though I don't know what it was he was doing."

"He said they trained you in hand-to-hand combat?"

"Yes, unpowered combat. Some martial arts and weapons training. They also taught me discipline, but I don't think it took. Then one day it stopped, even Dad stopped visiting me. Maybe they knew they couldn't control me and were trying to figure out what to do with me."

"Emil told me all about it. He was blocked from visiting you. He wasn't even told that they were planning on disposing of you. He found out from a friend and co-worker. That's when he decided to get you out of there. He also contacted me and I agreed to let you stay at mine for a while."

"If you'd known it would have ended up with you on the run with us, would you have let us stay?" Galatea asked her.

Pauline shrugged. "I don't know."

"Is that the truth?"

"The truth is probably not. Not if I knew that I'd lose my job and have to face the founders of the Justice League. They're very intimidating. I was close to soiling my underwear when they were questioning me."

"Sorry," Galatea offered.

Pauline smiled warmly. "I think that's the first time I've heard you say that and it sounds like you meant it."

"I'm as surprised as you are. I was taught not to feel, just to follow orders."

"But you do feel. You're a good person y'know. No matter how Cadmus tried to warp you and make you into nothing more than a tool, it's not who you are."

"You sure about that?"

"You heard gunfire and you flew off to check it out. You could have just ignored it, but you didn't."

"I was just curious, that's all," Galatea said firmly. "Now you should really be getting some rest."

"I will if you promise not to go flying off anymore tonight."

"Sure."

"Promise?"

Galatea rolled her eyes with a smirk. "Okay, I promise."

Satisfied, Pauline lay back down and pulled the sheet up around her neck. Galatea's smirk turned into a small smile. While she still couldn't say she entirely trusted the older woman, she could say that she was starting to become somewhat of a friend.

Friend. The word felt strange to her. In the clone's relatively short existence there hadn't really been anyone she could call that. There was Emil, But she saw him as more than just a friend, she saw him as her father, as the one who gave her life. He was the one she trusted and respected.

Beyond Emil and to a much lesser extent, Pauline she didn't have anyone. She didn't quite know what to make of Delina and considering they were leaving early tomorrow morning, there wouldn't be enough time to get to know her with any real depth.

For the foreseeable future, it would be just her, her father and Pauline. That suited her just fine, for the time being at least. While she would like to be able to have more people she could trust, that wasn't feasible at this point in time.

One day she hoped.

Galatea leant back in the chair and decided to rest her eyes for a few minutes.

She then drifted off to sleep.

Gateway City

United States

19:33 – Pacific Standard Time

March 16, 2007

Giganta sat on the edge of the old bed in the small room in the upstairs of the old abandoned house. She had contemplated fleeing but didn't know where to go in this city or where exactly in California Gateway City even was. It wasn't like there was anyone out here she could turn to. She could hardly call the cops. They would get their collective asses handed to them.

There was also the problem that Aresia would most likely hunt her down and murder her. There was something unsettling about the woman. She was dangerous and Giganta was too much of a coward to dare get on her bad side.

That was the hurtful truth that she couldn't avoid. Historically, every confrontation she had been in, she had given up as soon as things started to turn sour. She surrendered, threw in the towel, waved the white flag. She was a coward and she couldn't escape it.

That upsetting fact was the only reason she was still here. She was too scared to try and flee. What would they do to her if they caught her? Most of them would do nothing, but Aresia had threatened her with death multiple times and she was sure she might actually go through with it if Giganta gave her reason too. Trying to run away would probably be an adequate reason for her to off her. The woman certainly seemed cold-hearted enough to not think twice about it.

"You don't want to be here do you?"

Giganta looked up to see Catwoman stood leaning against the open door, her hand on her hip.

The size-shifter didn't answer, she just cast her gaze to the bare wood floor.

The leather-clad thief moved over and sat down on the bed next to her. "You can talk to me."

Giganta looked over at her but said nothing.

"You don't trust me, that's fine," Catowoman said. "I don't trust you or anyone else here either, so we've got that much in common."

"Have you got a point?" Giganta asked wearily.

Catwoman offered her hand. "Selina," she said.

"That your name?" Giganta asked, eyeing the hand.

"I thought it was common knowledge. It's not exactly a secret. Now usually when someone offers a hand, the other person shakes it."

She did so, albeit cautiously. "Giganta."

"Not gonna tell me your real name, then?"

"It's Giganta."

"Seriously. That's your real name?"

"The name I had before, back in my old life has no meaning anymore. Maybe it's time to ditch this name too. Come up with something fresh and new. Giganta's the name of a super-villain and I don't want to be that anymore."

Catwoman seemed surprised by that. "You don't?"

"No. I hate it. I just want things to be normal."

Catwoman stared at her for a moment, before casting her gaze forward at the wall. "Honestly, I don't know what it's like to be a super-villain, so I guess I can't really say I know what you're going through."

It was gIganta's turn to be surprised. "I thought you were one?"

The cat themed villain smiled and shook her head. "I'm just a thief that has a love of animals. I have no interest in being a megalomaniac or inflicting actual harm on people I don't think deserve it. Sure, I find a thrill in this kind of work and this job showed a lot of promise for a big payout. That's why I took it. Not quite so sure about that now though."

"Why's that?"

"Because Nightwing and his girlfriend are here in the city."

"Nightwing?" Giganta repeated. "I know the name, but I've never fought him."

"I saw him not long ago, back on the East coast. He was helping Wonder Woman with something. With him here and Aresia telling us that the museum holds Themysciran artefacts, I'm positive that we're the reason they're here. They found out somehow."

"Have you told the others?" Giganta questioned.

Catwoman pursed her lips before answering. "No, and neither are you."

"Why?"

"Forewarning is a powerful thing. We help each other and we'll get out of this in one piece. Not just with our skin, but also with a few expensive trinkets in our possession."

"You want Aresia and the others to take a fall," Giganta realised.

"You're a clever one."

"But why?"

"Because I know that she only cares about getting what she wants. We're only here to carry everything. I doubt she expects any resistance. You, in fact, are a great asset to her."

"I am?"

"You can carry half the museum's artefacts without any trouble. They'll be like toys to you."

"Yeah, but I'm also likely to break everything. I'm not exactly delicate when I'm big."

"Properly packaged and stored and you don't need to be delicate," Catwoman said. "And Aresia has some cases ready."

"So what's the issue then? We can clear out the whole museum then without any trouble."

"Except Nightwing," Catwoman pointed out.

"How exactly do you know he's here?"

"Aresia sent me out to scope the museum earlier. I spotted him and his girlfriend. No sign of Wonder Woman, but she's here if they're here."

"So you think that they'll intervene."

"They were watching the museum."

"So they will intervene," Giganta surmised.

"Yes they will and all we have to do is not confront them directly. Let the others fight while we grab some trinkets and make our escape."

Giganta slowly shook her head. "What if I don't want to steal anything?"

"Why wouldn't you? It's easy money, a win-win."

"Is it?"

Catwoman rested a hand on her shoulder. "Oh dear, he's gotten to you, hasn't he?" She sighed. "You shouldn't let him control your life."

"Who?"

"The Flash."

"He's not controlling my life," Giganta objected.

Catwoman was sceptical. "Isn't he? Then why are you changing for him?"

"I'm not changing for him."

"Then what's the problem?" Catwoman questioned. "I've heard enough to know you don't have any problems with this line of work."

"I told you, I don't want to do this anymore. I shouldn't even be here, I was brought here against my will. I never agreed to this."

"No, you didn't and like I said, if you look out for me, I'll look out for you. It's simple. We'll get out of this and you can go back to lover-boy, I'll even make sure you get there safe. Do we have a deal?"

Giganta looked down at the floor. She knew she couldn't entirely trust the cat-themed thief, but she also knew that if she was going to get out of this, then she would need a friend. From what she knew, Catwoman skirted the line between good and bad. If there was anyone here that had any chance of helping her, it was Catwoman.

Giganta looked back at her. "Fine, it's a deal. And to add, you can take the loot, I don't care about it."

Catwoman smiled. "If only all my partners were like that." She held out her gloved hand. Giganta reached out and they shook hands and the deal was made.

Updated December 2017