Be sure not to miss the opening issue that started it all: DC Mayhem Presents: Sensation Comics #1
If you are ready, then behold as DC Mayhem Presents: Sensation Comics...
Tis the Season: Part Two
December 22, 2012 12:22 AM
The world had not ended, and it was snowing. So the Mayans were wrong, and maybe that meant that Gotham was in for a white Christmas. These were the thoughts that were going through the minds of the common populace living in Gotham City; however, there was one particular young woman in Gotham City who did not have time for such thoughts. Kitrina Falcone was on a mission, a mission to find the person who had murdered her twelve year old cousin.
If Kitrina did give way to one thought that was not about her mission it was the fact that leather was not so great about blocking out the cold. This wasn’t really her first time wearing a strange outfit as she ran across the rooftops and jumped from building to building using the terrain to help propel her along. Still this was the first time she had worn this costume, and though she felt it looked kind of stylish she probably should have considered practicality a little more than she did. She had it tailored to fit to her form without necessarily hindering her mobility and it was a special blend of leather and Kevlar so it would protect her to an extent, but she knew it was probably best if she avoided any sort of skirmishes wherever possible. It was a good outfit for what she needed, but when she had it built she had a fit of nostalgia to where she had felt the need to customize the outfit, and that’s where all the pink accents came from.
“Stupid ass, should have added in a thermal layer, or at least have worn thermals Way to go Kat. Great job not thinking that it gets below freezing in the winter.” She thought to herself as she felt her skin starting to go numb underneath the leather. “Oh well, at least this time I went with boots and pockets instead of high heels and a studded belt.” She was of course referring to the fact that not only did the boots make it easier to run, but also made it easier to handle the terrain without heavily bruising an ankle. As for the belt, she still felt it had been cute and “her”, but the small pockets that lined her costume held a variety of tools that could help her break in and otherwise sabotage if needed. On her head was a set of custom infrared goggles that she had procured some time ago, and they were worth more than a neurosurgeon could make in a month, but they were by far one of her most useful devices. Then the cap with the cat ears was more of a sort of call back to an old life, but she felt it to be fitting, and at the very least the cap kept her ears warm.
The only part of her outfit which was not standard just so happened to be the large set of bolt cutters she had tied to her back. It offset her weight a little bit, but shipping containers were known to have heavy locks, and they just might come in handy.
When she had finally reached the docks her heart was racing from all the running, and though she could feel her skin freezing it felt like her insides were boiling. Across the street from the rooftop she had stopped on were the Gotham City docks, which was one of the city’s largest districts. The docks were huge, stretching for miles down the waterfront, and her first objective would be to find out where the container she was looking for was out of the thousands that were stored there. It would be a simple enough job, break into the offices, boot up a computer, and look up the location. If she was lucky she wouldn’t have to travel too far from the offices, or even worse have to use a crane to get to the container, but in her experience luck was not usually her ally.
As she stood on the roof attempting to catch her breath she reached up and pulled the infrared goggles down over her eyes, and turned them on. What had been darkness suddenly light up in a blue color, but with a slight red hue which covered most of the landscape. Outside of that the goggles could pick up on heat signatures, particularly those belonging to human beings. Out on the yard of the docks from where she was standing she could make out at least three guards patrolling, One guard at the gate she was closest too, and another outside the office complex who appeared to be on a smoke break.
“They’re understaffed. They must have let most of the staff off for Christmas or something. That would explain the skeleton crew.” she muttered to herself, as she attempted to look closer she noticed that it looked as if the guard at the gate was asleep, “No wonder the family liked to do a lot of business here, there’s no regard for security at all.” When she felt she had finally got a good lay of the docks from her position she moved to the edge of the roof, and grabbed a hold of gutter and used that to help her climb down to the ground.
The best way in would be through the front gates, but she would have to be quick and be very quiet at the same time. The guard was asleep, but there were security cameras around the gate, and the gate was mechanized. The Cameras were stationary though, and Katrina could see a blind spot on the side of the guard shack facing away from the gate.
“So I just need to sneak up to the booth incapacitate the guard, and open the gates…easy enough.” She thought to herself. When she finally felt like she was ready she darted across the street, and dropped down into a slide as she got near the booth. She lifted her goggles and eased up to the window of the booth, so she could get a good look inside. What she saw there made her stop. It was just an old man. He was passed out, and snoring. He even had hearing aids that appeared to be switched into the off position. One side of her felt like this was lazy security, but the other side of her really did not want to have to hurt this old man if she didn’t have to. She could see the panel that controlled the gate right in front of the old man, so moving very carefully she eased the window open, reached across the old man, and turned the switch to open the gate.
The gate clang and screeched causing Kitrina to wince. She had not considered that the gate opening might cause a lot of noise. She had closed her eyes in fear that she had awakened the old security guard, but when she slowly opened them she stopped. The man had not even moved. As a matter of a fact it didn’t even look like he was breathing. Kitrina reached for the man’s neck to check for a pulse.
Suddenly the man snored loudly causing Kitrina to jump in surprise! It took everything in her power not to scream. She even sat back down outside the booth and clamped both hands over her mouth to be sure she hadn’t.
“STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!” She mentally cursed herself, “Jesus Christ! No more caring about the well-being of old dudes.” When she calmed down a little and finally caught her breath she got up and sprinted as fast as she could through the gate, and finally stopped running when she reached a set of containers. Now all that was left was to find out where the container was, and hopefully that would go off without a hitch.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
30 Minutes Later…
Things had not gone quite as well as Kitrina had hoped. She had been forced to knock out the guard that was patrolling the offices, and there just so happened to be another one inside that she had not spotted earlier when looking across the docks from the outside. When she finally made it to a computer and found out where the container she was looking for was located it just so happened to be in warehouse K -2910 which just so happened to be with the set of warehouses that were the farthest from the offices. After a mad dash across the dock yard, a few close calls with some gaurds, and judging by how her ring finger on her right hand was throbbing she had probably cracked a nail after nearly missing a jump between two containers stacked up on the docks.
By the time she had reached the warehouse, she had already torn her jumpsuit on the backside of her left thigh, and she was sweating profusely underneath the jumpsuit, and with it being below freezing outside that made her feel even colder. When she walked up to the door of the warehouse her feet were numb and she was shaking and her teeth were chattering from the cold.
The side door was shut with a standard padlock. Mustering what strength she had she pulled the bolt cutters from her back and cut the padlock loose. Kitrina dropped the bolt cutters, letting them clang against ground feeling too tired to sustain their weight. She removed the broken lock and eased open the door, before slipping inside.
It was pitch black inside the ware house, but on an improved note at least it was not as cold in the warehouse since it was sort of protected from the chilling wind outside. Kitrina rubbed her hands together to try and get some warmth and feeling back into them before she reached up and pulled her goggles back down over her eyes. The goggles illuminated the warehouse, but what Kitrina saw there surprised her. In the center of the warehouse was a single container, and the rest of the warehouse was completely bare. She looked down and saw mud in the shape of tire marks all leading up to the container, and judging from the quantity it looked as if this container was visited several times.
Kitrina walked up to the container and sure enough she found the number: A00035691 printed on the side. This was definitely her container, but she was shocked to see the doors were slightly open and light was pouring out from where it was cracked. She lifted up her goggles, and snuck quietly up to the door. She couldn’t really hear anything inside other than a small humming sound, but whatever it was that was inside that container gave her a really bad feeling. There could be someone on the other side of that door just waiting to attack her. She peered in through the crack and didn’t see anything, so finally after taking a deep breath she eased the door open and stepped in.
What she found was beyond perplexing, and truthfully the last thing she would have expected her Uncle Mario to have stored. Inside the container illuminated by a utility light was an operating table draped over with a blood stained sheet. With a bit of hesitation in her step she walked up closer to the table, and felt her stomach lurch slightly at the fact that the sheet was still slightly wet and covered with bits of gray hair. Next to the table she spotted a small tray with surgical tools: clamps, scalpels, and scissors, all stained with blood and what looked like small bits of flesh. Lying on the floor next to the table was a heap of dirty bandages that smelt foul, and was beginning to draw flies. Near the bandages, she spotted something small and metal, and whatever it was it didn’t look like any surgical tool that she knew of, so she knelt down and picked it up.
It was a money clip made of pure silver, and etched on the side was the name: Mario Falcone.
“This must have been where Doctor Loeb did whatever it was Mario wanted him to.” Kitrina thought as she looked from the surgical tools and then back at the money clip, “And I suppose since this was here that Mario must have sit in on Loeb’s work. So just what is this place, A torture chamber of some kind? What the hell were you in to Mario?”
Suddenly Kitrina felt her goggles slip over and off her head, and her eyes went wide. Someone had snuck in behind her! Reacting Kitrina spun around, launching a spinning kick at the intruder hoping to catch them off-guard, but instead her kick was block throwing her off-balance. The something hit her other leg, and before she knew it she flipped over onto the ground and hit her head against the floor of the container. It blurred her vision for a second, and she instinctively grabbed the back of her head as it reeled. She was vulnerable now, and was open to attack, but strangely the attack never came.
“Well, what do we have here?” A sultry voice purred, “It looks like our little long lost kitten has come back home.” It was a voice Kitrina knew all too well.
“What the hell!? Selina?” Kitrina looked up and the black clad Catwoman with her high heels and unzipped top standing over her.
“In the flesh.” Selina quipped while making presenting gesture with her right hand, in which she held Kitrina’s goggles. “You know I looked for these for the longest after you skipped town, and after all we’ve been through. I really can’t believe, Kitrina, that you actually would have had the nerve to steal from me.” Selina wagged her finger. “tsk, tsk. Shame on you little girl. Mama’s gonna have to spank.”
Kitrina slowly pushed herself up off the ground and glared at the woman.
“First off, you weren’t going to do anything with them, but sell them. You wouldn’t have made as much on them as you would have with any other heist you normally run, and I felt I could have put them to better use. Secondly, I didn’t skip town, you, the Bat, and Night-Jerk, told me to leave, and finally! What are you doing here?”
“I was just in the neighborhood.” Selina teased pacing slightly back and forth in front of Kitrina, “I saw a bit of commotion going on at the docks, so I decided to check it out. Then lo and behold, I find my long lost protégé. “
“I’m not your proto…whatever! Now will you please give me the goggles back? I’ve got more important things to do.” Kitrina spat.
“My, My, what’s the rush?”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“It’s about your cousin isn’t it.” Selina perused. Kitrina gritted her teeth at the invasive comment and looked away. The last thing she wanted to do right now was have a heart to heart with the Catwoman, “Look, Kitrina,” Selina continued, “I’m not heartless you know. You talked about that little girl all the time, so I know how much she meant to you.”
“YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT ANA MEANT TO ME!” Kitrina shouted. She had been unable to control the outburst. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes, but she still did not cry. Selina only glared back at the girl, appearing unfazed by the outburst.
“Kitrina, if you need help. Don’t hesitate to…”
“I will never need help from someone like you!”
“Well I’m sorry you feel that way.” Selina looked away and walked over to the operating table, and Kitrina saw something she thought she would have never seen Catwoman do. Catwoman actually froze, and her eyes went wide. She reached down and picked up one of scalpels, and then dropped it back on the tray as soon as she had picked it up. Almost as if the blade had been red hot in her hands
“Kid, I think this is over your head.” Selina said in a serious tone that Kitrina was not used to. “Judging by the look of this set up, it looks like it was used recently, and whoever it was that used it was in a hurry, so that probably means they haven’t gone far.”
“Wait, you know something about this don’t you?” Kitrina asked.
“I’m not sure, but you need to get out of here?”
“No!” Kitrina spat, “You’re going to tell me what you know or I’ll…” Suddenly her head quickly snapped to the side as Selina slapped her across the face.
“You’re not going to do anything! This is bigger than you, and you’re going to need help. I know I’m not going to like it, but I’m going to get you help. I just need you to trust me this once.”
“I don’t trust you with damn thing.” Kitrina growled. Selina sighed, before reaching into the inside of her belt and pulling out what looked like white pouches. She put the pouches with the goggles and held them out to Kitrina who furiously swiped them from her grasp.
“Heating pads?” Kitrina said as she held them in her hand.
“Yep, judging from how you were shivering a little while ago I guess you hadn’t figured on the cold. There are three of them. Put two of them in each of your boots to keep your feet warm, as for the other…” Selina smiled devilishly, “Well I think you know where to put that one.”
Kitrina blushed brightly and glared at Catwoman.
“Why you!”
"You can call me names later. Just do what I said, and get the hell out of here.” Selina ran for the door, but looked back and started to say something, but instead she just decided to smile before disappearing out the door of the container.
A few moments later Kitrina had put the heating pads in her boots and the other she stuffed in the appropriate place. She could feel the warmth surging through her body, and she was more than thankful for it. She looked back at the operating table one last time hoping to spot maybe another clue that might lead her to Doctor Loeb, but when she spotted nothing she sighed and turned to leave only to find darkness behind a pair of piercing blue eyes.
Log in to comment