Whatever Happened To..?
Note, the parenthesis indicate languages other than English, in this case, Spanish. (I'll add the parenthesis for Greek later)
Please Read and Review. I'd like to know what I'm doing right (to keep doing it), and what I'm I doing wrong (to correct it).
Harley Quinn, 2006
The Central City Mental Health Institute was full to the brim. Soldiers, policemen, civilians. All of them suffering from diverse mental traumas.
After the Iceberg Lounge Slaughter, Harley Quinn languished in an overfull room. Formerly the henchwoman of the worst serial and mass killer in history, the Joker, she had witnessed the death of almost all the Batman's Rogue Gallery at the hands of her paramour; and her mind had snapped.
Speculation ran wild about what had happened to her in the hours previous to the massacre. No one really knew if she had cracked before, or during the event. What was known, was that her mind had practically shut down. She had hidden inside her own mind. Her once lustrous blond hair was now almost white. Her once impish blue eyes, now were dull, always looking a thousand yards away. She constantly rocked her body back and forth, mumbling the same words again and again. "I'll be good, Puddin'. I'll be good."
"Well, ladies, time to go back to your rooms. Sun time is over." Several orderlies moved patients back to their rooms so they could spend the night in their own beds.
Wonder Woman, 2001
"Have heart, my sisters! Send these abominations back into Tartarus!" Queen Diana of the Amazons, pointed with her sword towards the horde of monsters that hours before had threatened to overrun the armored warriors. Swords, shields, spears, nets, tridents, catapults, all the war panoply the greeks had used back when the gods walked the Earth. Now, the survivors of that same horde tried to return to their dark caverns.
A runner, a lithe dark skinned girl the Amazons had rescued from the sea, stopped near her liege. "My Queen! One of the Hecatonchires is free!" The runner panted, she had hurried to arrive, her legs trembled with fatigue. Despite the grueling training regimen she had endured, she was no Amazon yet. She was still a human, very fit, but human.
Diana nodded, her eagle headed helmet tightly strapped on her head. Far away, heavy footsteps echoed in the dimly lit cavern. "Everybody! Raise your shields! Raise your swords!" she yelled, her voice reaching to the last Amazon. "Demolishers! Ready your equipment!" Diana turned to her right hand woman. "Phillipa, you and me will distract that monster."
Phillipa's lips twitched in a smile. The right side of her face covered in scars. A reminder of Second Impact. "High and low, my Queen? As Queen Hyppolyta taught you?"
"As Queen Hyppolyta taught us." Diana nodded gravely, her blue eyes darkened for a moment.
"Long be her memory in us." Phillipa mused.
"Long be her memory in us." Diana answered, adjusting her grip on her sword.
Batman, 2000
"Nightwing, do you copy?" the Batman's voice strained. He and Katana had to fight against a whole group on members of the League of Assassins. He swayed on his feet. Locking the heavy steel doors had been a superhuman effort. Sitting on the floor, surrounded by a whole gang of mutated creatures, Katana held her arm against her body, a long gash bled freely over her red and yellow uniform. She gritted her teeth, and bandaged her wound stoically. She nodded at the Batman. Wounded, but still able to fight.
"Copy. Things here do not look good. Not good at all." Nightwing panted heavily. "Metamorpho is trying to cut down the energy from the reactor, but no luck so far."
"Understood. Stand by, Nightwing. Huntress, report." A pause, "Huntress, report."
Nothing. Batman's mouth became a thin line. A tapping code answered instead of a verbal message "Batgirl. Huntress down." Cassandra Cain was not very communicative, even in the better of times.
This was not one of those times.
Captain Marvel, 2000
"Holey Moley..!" The World's Mightiest Mortal gasped at the scale of the destruction caused by the so-called Second Impact. The shockwave had been apocalyptic. The whole city had crumbled like a house of cards. Only a few buildings still stood. And their foundations wouldn't last long. The whole area had become unstable. The tectonic plates would settle down eventually, but at the moment, it was only a matter of time before an earthquake shook the area and finished the city forever.
He had been assigned to Search and Rescue operations in Santiago, Chile. "I'm gonna need help with this." He transmitted to the Watchtower.
Plastic Man's grating voice answered. "Sorry, kid, even J'Onn went down to help, it's only me and Mr. Terrific up here, we are stretched thin as it is; and let me tell you I know about that. Do what you can, I'll try to get somebody to help you as soon as possible."
"Got it." Marvel mumbled, more to himself than for Plas. It was really clear just how grave the catastrophe was, if even Plastic Man acted seriously.
Marvel used Solomon's wisdom to look for the most probable place for survivors. It was an old home. The building had probably endured for decades, if not centuries. Until now.
The ground floor had collapsed, the upper floor weight had been too much. He looked down a broken window. He held his breath, listening.
"(Help us…)" a small voice said.
"(Are you okay? Do you need a doctor? Are you alone, is there somebody with you?)" he asked, keeping his voice low. Suddenly, he felt very glad he had gotten good scores in his Spanish class back at school.
"(We are okay, just a few scratches, but we are trapped in the basement. We are four boys and two girls. The others are d-dead, I think… The stairs fell down and we can't get up.)"
Marvel licked his lips. He was about to lift the building when Solomon's wisdom stopped him. The building would crumble into rubble if he tried to do so, crushing everybody inside. "(I'll get help, don't move.)"
"(Hurry up. This thing is gonna fall on us any time now.)"
Captain Marvel radioed to the closest emergency service vehicle. Which happened to be a big yellow bulldozer, that had been recommissioned as both ambulance and debris clearing tool. "(Yellow Tiger, Yellow Tiger. Marvel here. I have found a group of survivors, the building is unstable, I will try to get them out. Need Evac. All children.)"
"Entendido, Capitán Maravilla." The driver answered, using the literal translation of "Captain Marvel". The mightiest mortal smiled. His Spanish was atrocious, but it had gotten him a measure of respect from the people here.
There was only one way. He flew back a few dozens of yards. Softly, he landed and looked around. He hid behind a crumbled wall, inhaled deeply, and said a word.
"Shazam!"
A lightning bolt fell down from the clouded sky. And instead of Captain Marvel, in his place stood a young boy, Billy Batson.
He ran back to the fallen house.
Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, A Possible 26th Century
"Where are we, exactly?" The Blue Beetle had been removed his cowl and googles. "How come we jump from a crumbling city to a freaking forest?"
"I don't know, Ted. This isn't the way the 25th Century should look…" Booster Gold shook his wrist, hoping his emergency time jump device wasn't broken. It wasn't, but it had no energy, a red bar blinked for a few moments, before disappearing completely. He shook his head. The device's automatic system fritzed on his wrist. A second later, there was a small crackling noise. Then a synthetic voice chimed in their communicators. "Sir! Sir! Is that you? Over."
"Skeets! Oh, boy, am I glad to hear your voice! Buddy, where are you?"
Beetle tapped on Booster's shoulder. "Say 'Over', Michael. Follow the protocol."
"Oh, yes, I forgot. Over."
"Uh, you are just not going to believe me, Sir. Um… over." Skeets sounded strangely hesitant.
Blue Beetle pressed his communicator against his ear. "Just tell us, Skeets. Over"
"Ah, well… I'm about five miles from your current position. I'll be there in a little while, with some… um, friends. Just don't freak out when we arrive, over."
"What do you mean, buddy? Over"
"Something went very wrong with the time jump. Over"
"Well… duh! We already know that! We are in a forest! Not even close to 25th Century Metropolis!" he pushed up his yellow tinted visor, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Over."
"It's the 26th Century, Sir, not the 25th. And… Well… Things really went to heck and back while we arrived here and now. Over"
"What do you mean, Skeets? Over."
"I'll explain everything when we arrive, Sir. My batteries are not what they used to be, broadcasting takes a lot of them. Recharging here is a pain in the processor. Please wait where you are and try not to make too much noise. The Wolf Tribe is in the hunt. Skeets over."
"Okay, we will sit still, Booster over and out."
"Well, we better get comfy and wait." Beetle sat down on a rock.
"Yeah, no need to provoke the Wolf Tribe."
They settled down on the rock. A few seconds passed. Then both turned to each other, "The Wolf Tribe?"
Under them, the ground shook.
"Uh, Michael… I already saw this movie… The T-Rex is coming…"
"Just what we were missing out…"
Harley Quinn
Two of the orderlies, two very strong women, took care of the Special Treatment patients. Harley Quinn was close to be downgraded from "Potentially Dangerous" to "Keep Under Vigilance".
The orderlies were both veterans, and knew all the tells a of a patient who was merely pretending to be harmless. Unlike the staff at Arkham Asylum, the CCMHI has a very low turn-out, so the doctors and orderlies were experienced, but not complacent.
"Who knows, maybe there's hope for her. Remember the Katsuragi girl? She recovered quite nicely from her aphasia. It took her almost two years, but she recovered. "
"You're right. Quite a smart girl. Even without being able to talk. Thet Fujutsuki guy sponsored her studies, you know."
"And she was lucky Dr. Samson accepted to work here; he might be a bit eccentric, but he knows his stuff."
"And you have to admit he's easy on the eyes, isn't he?"
"He is, even with that green tinted hair. Dr. Campos almost had a stroke the first time she saw him!"
They kept on talking, while they pushed the wheelchair to Harley's bedroom.
Once they had put the former supervillain on her bed, they left. The light was left on, so the staff could watch over the patient.
At the other side of the window, an ivy vine was visible.
Harley looked at it from her bed. Still as vacant as ever.
However, something unusual happened this night. From the ivy vine, a flower grew and opened.
A rose.
Harley smiled. A single word escaped from her lips. "Pammy."
Wonder Woman
"This will buy us a little time." Wonder Woman pushed the Hecatonchires body until it blocked the tunnel, almost completely.
"Bring the construction tools, my sisters." She said, sliding her sword back into the scabbard. "we shall build a new wall here. Prepare a sacrifice to Hephaestos, for we will need his blessing. This wall must be able to contain the abominations." Tiredly, she sat down, removing her helmet. She wiped her brow and closed her eyes
Phillipa sat next to her Queen. "You need to rest, Diana."
"I can't."
Phillipa put a hand on her Queen's armored shoulder. "You must. Remember what Queen Hypolitta taught us. A warrior must rest whenever she can. Rest now, my Queen. I will wake you up when you are needed. I will take care of everything."
Queen Diana tried to smile. "You are as tired as I am."
"True. But I don't have to rule a city. Just go and nap, Diana."
Queen Diana nodded, "You are right. As always, Phillipa.
"Well… It's a gift." Phillipa tried to smile, but the scars on her face twisted what used to be a welcoming and warm smile into a grimace. Still, her eyes shone warmly.
The support teams already deployed the tents. One of them had been reserved for their Queen. Diana pushed the flap open, and entered, closing the flap after her.
Inside, a simple bed of animal skins and wool blankets waited for her.
Removing the rest of her armor, Wonder Woman put the pieces on their stand, and used a stone to sharpen her sword. It wasn't really necessary. Hephaestus had forged that sword to an impossible sharpness. It was sharp enough as to be able to pluck out the electrons of an atom.
The familiar movements quieted her mind. Cleaning and caring for her panoply was more than simple maintenance. It was a holy ritual for a warrior race.
Once she finished, she lay down on her bed. Sleep came to her, eventually.
Batman
"Teams, report." Batman hissed into his communicator.
One by one, they all answered. Everybody was in position. Ra's al Ghul had seeded a lot of secondary bombs. He was the main suspect of the detonation of a nuclear bomb over the Pakistan-India border back in 2000. Followed by a similar one in Japan less than a week later. The Tokyo catastrophe had costed the JSA the life of the original Flash, while Captain Atom, of the JLA, had overloaded his quantum limit when he absorbed the worst of the radiation and radioactive fall-out. No one could know when he would re-enter the time stream.
The city had been dealt a death blow. The population had been evacuated to Tokyo-2, a technologically developed city, that was still under construction. This accelerated the city's development. And also proved that the construction methods developed by Gehirn worked as intended.
Batman shook those thoughts away. Now, he had to analyse Ra's al Ghul's plan. The devices in this base would launch a nuclear missile. And only one. The damned immortal had managed to steal enough missiles to start and maybe finish World War Three.
The reports began to flow. "Missile loaded and primed." Said Nightwing. "Same", tapped Batgirl. "I got the same here. It's already in countdown." Robin III reported.
"We cannot allow them to launch." Batman whispered. "Robin, can you and Oracle hack the system?"
A stacatto of keys sounded frantically. "No. Not before they launch." His voice cracked.
Metamorpho spoke then. "Hey, Bats. How about we simply lock them in? They will blow up inside subterranean, inexpugnable bases. In remote enough places to not hurt anybody." Of course. It had to be Rex Mason the one to find the obvious solution to the problem.
"Well thought, Rex. Oracle, be ready to hack the doors."
"I'm on it, Batman." The heavily modified voice of Oracle answered.
Tense seconds passed.
"Done. You have now manual control." She hesitated. "You can use the emergency capsules Ra's always uses to escape."
"Everybody, make sure the charges are set, those doors must not open."
The other teams answered immediately, signalling their acknowledgement of the orders. Less than a minute later, they all reported back. Charges set and ready for detonation.
Author Notes:
Back in the 1980's, DC decided to run a nice little second feature in the Superman Team-Up book, DC Comics Presents. It was titled, "Whatever Happened To..?" and each installment took a character that had not been used in quite a good while. The Black Pirate. Not all issues of DCP had this feature; but the ones who had them, usually had a good story.
It was a nice way to give an ending to several characters, like the original Crimson Avenger, who died heroically in DCP issue 38 (October, 1981); to fill a hole in continuity, like with the Golden Age Sandy the Golden Boy (issue 47, July, 1982); or to set up future stories, like with Richard Dragon (issue 39, November, 1981), although this one didn't really went anywhere.
After a quick check on the DC Wikia, I decided that Psychiatrists in the DCU are either evil, incompetent, crazy, or dead. So, another visitor from Marvel comes to say hi. Dr. Leonard Samson, about the only mental health professional who does a good job of it in mainstream comics. He might be a gamma-enhanced hero in the Marvel Universe, but his main contribution to the Marvel Universe is that he is uniquely qualified to work with superpowered individuals, being one himself. This version is just a normal human, without the metagene. He is just very good at what he does.
Captain Marvel has a bit of a conflict with translations. Editorial Novaro, the publisher who for decades held the rights to the DC characters, simply translated the Captain part, and left Marvel as it was. When Editorial Vid picked up the licenses after Novaro went bankrupt, they stuck to it.
In other media, like in the JLU cartoon, the name is usually translated to Capitán Maravilla. I must admit I didn't see the 2019 movie, so I don't know if they went with Marvel or Maravilla.