THE FOLLOWING IS RATED FR-18 BY THE LRCC [A DIVISION OF WAYNE ENTERPRISES]
The dead suffer a distinct smell. One that training and experience both can’t save your eyes from watering, and your whole body cringing. Here now, at the grimy fish gut stained boardwalks of the Gotham Shipyards, the moon reflecting off the water is our only light as I face a marching tide of corpses. All controlled by a ghoulish new comer to the Gotham Villain Market: The Grave Robber. The approaching army lays speckled with familiar faces. Living people the Batman has saved, Bruce Wayne has done business with. Some I’ve apprehended... All dead now. Can’t let the fact they were once alive stop me from saving Gotham. Hell, probably the whole damned world. Ignore their past lives... And ask yourself: “What happens when you take away the only thing holding back the most dangerous man alive?”
Chills rise under the kevlar body suit. I pull out the transceiver.
“Override Code Command. Enter: MillerGrantMorrison. Command: Locate and accelerate.”
The glorious hum, like a distant neighbor’s chainsaw ready for blood, draws close before evolving into the fiery, explosive roar I know and love. The Batmobile whips around the corner of an aging warehouse at my back charges straight at me. If I screw this up, my back is broken... Again.
“Command: Brights on and accelerate. Self-destruct in 5.”
An undead soldier reaches out for my face. I feel the tip of his rotted nail as I leap into the air, letting the lights blind them and conceal my move. The car crushes he front line - and I crack a smile at the sound of crunching skulls forcing brains through skin, and tendons snapping louder than any Autumn twig. But, they don’t show fear. Or pain. Or any desire to retreat. Hell, for all I know, they’re having a great time.
Good.
Let ‘em have it. I’m having a great time too...
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The black night sky turns brighter than noon. I make the clouds tonight. Gray and billowing - carrying the scent of his undead failures straight back to the Robber himself.
Ask yourself: “What happens when you take away the only thing holding back the most dangerous man alive?”
Answer: “Whatever the f--k he wants.”
Earlier, I stuck one of those grave yard rejects loading himself onto a carrier with a remote detonated mine. Everything out here is dead. No question. But, in there? The Grave Robber is a living, breathing freak of nature. He’s not dying tonight. He’s not that lucky. Seeing what I have in store for him? The eyelids? The fingers? The help he’s going to need taking a piss? Yeah... He’ll be begging for death. He’ll be begging me to turn him into one of his unfeeling undead. He’ll beg me to bury him in the same cursed earth he raised these demons from. And, I’ll just let him beg...
NEXT WEEK IN BATMAN: CURSED EARTH PART III -
-MEET: THE GRAVE ROBBER! HE’S REALLY FRIENDLY! AS LONG AS YOU’RE DEAD!
-WHAT HAPPENS IF THE ROBBER REANIMATES THE CORPSE OF... CLARK KENT?
-AND, OLIVER QUEEN NEEDS BUSINESS ADVICE FROM BRUCE WAYNE... BUT, GETS REJECTED [spoiler]
tune in next week.
Log in to comment