Inque

Bio

A villain from the DC Animated Universe. The result of a clandestine mutagenic experiment, Inque is a treacherous shape-shifting femme fatale. She has the ability to transform from her natural human form into a pitch-black, semi-liquid state, in which she can slip through the smallest crack, mimic any object, or harden herself to deliver a mean wallop in a fight. Inque's knack for sliding under doors and through narrow air vents made her a perfect corporate saboteur for hire, an occupation that had Interpol on her tail for years. But more recently, after being briefly captured by Batman and the elder Bruce Wayne, Inque has set aside her usual job to dedicate herself to shutting the pair down for good.

When Inque was a child she lived a hard life in poverty so she participated in a mutagenic experiment that turned her into a black liquid polimorph. At some point she gave birth to a girl named Deanna Clay. Inque abandoned her but continued sending money into Deanna's Bank accounts.

Inque first met the Batmans when she was working for Derek Powers, the CEO of Wayne Powers. She worked as an industrial saboteur when she faced Batman (Terry McGinnis) , when they met the third time she entered into the Batcave. She was defeated by Bruce Wayne and Terry when he immobilized her in a block of ice with Mr. Freeze's gun.

Inque escaped from the ice with the help of Aaron Herbst. Batman tried to stop her once again with Freeze's gun, but she destroyed it and escaped. After curing herself with the help of Aaron, she betrayed him. Inque then captured Batman, but Bruce appeared with a Batman exo-suit and battled her. She was defeated when Terry threw a Batarang at the glass dome overhead while it was raining outside and Inque was then washed away into the sewers.

Inque pulls herself together after Aaron Herbst's failure, thanks to an elusive scientist named Dr. Melwyn. Melwyn planted fail-safes inside of Inque to forcibly gain her compliance and instructs Inque to download data from Gamma Tech to his remote server then delete it because the data contains research on bio-technology. When Inque breaks in, she trips a silent alarm that alerts Terry. Inque overwhelms Terry when he arrives and leaves him with the facility's security to take the rap for the break in.

Terry meets up with Bruce at the Batcave and Bruce tells Terry about something unique in Inque's physiology. Bruce had gathered a piece of Inque after his last encounter with her and discovered that any part of Inque can be inert at onepoint or it can be active as if it has a kinetic bond with Inque. As Bruce looked inside the vile that had Inque's essence, Terry notices jolts of electricity inside the vile as well.

The reason behind the agitation in Inque's essence within the vile was attributed to the actual pain that Inque was suffering because Melwyn was angry at Inque's foolishness to let the Batman get involved. Melwyn gives Inque a second chance by telling her to head to Gotham's General Hospital and eliminate Xercan Moldavo, the head scientist who created the bio-technology that Inque had stolen.

Meanwhile, Bruce gives Terry the vile with Inque's essence so that he can use it as a compass because which ever direction the essence wants to go, Terry will follow and eventually the kinetic bond that Inque has to her essence will lead Terry to Inque. Terry follows the essence to Gotham General Hospital and Terry defeats Inque before she can get to Xercan, by using a defibrillator but Terry's view towards Inque changes when she pleads for help.

Inque destroys the defibrillator and escapes. Terry uses the essence as a compass again and finds Melwyn's laboratory. Inque is tortured further for her latest failure but Terry arrives to the rescue. Melwyn demonstrated his ability to manipulate things like animals or Inque through bio implants in his body as well as his mind. The implants are similar to Terry's batsuit which give him enhanced strength and abilities but Melwyn's implants generate an energy field. At first, Terry didn't stand a chance until Inque melded with the fibers of Terry's bat suit. With their combined strength, Terry sucker punched Melwyn into a high voltage fuse box.

Inque detached from Terry and expressed her gratitude but Melwyn got his revenge by using a flame thrower on Inque before Terry knocked him out permanently. Terry assumes that Inque evaporated after being burnt but she simply grafted herself to the pelt of an albino gorilla, making him look like an ordinary ape. When the animal rescue team arrived to help the scientist's animal test subjects, Inque surprised a member of the rescue team and grafted herself to the member. It was at this point that Inque realized she could mentally control people by binding herself to someone else's skin.

Inque can no longer hold herself together without clinging to a host like a parasite. The upside for her is Inque can control her host's actions but she has difficulty controlling the individual's thoughts. A string of heists occur throughout Gotham where reports of a shadowy figure makes off with hard currency like diamonds or rare coins in order to avoid any trace of ownership. The only thing is the authorities can't narrow down any potential suspects because each time they or Terry apprehends one of the thieves, the individual has lost their shadowy disguise and they have no recollection of the robbery.

Terry deduces that the disguise has tensile strength like steel, it is pliable thereby allowing the robber to be agile and it must be toxic as well as disposable since the robber suffers from temporary amnesia after ditching the suit. Bruce, of course, thinks its more complex than that so he makes a list of private collectors that have not been robbed yet. While scouring the city, Terry is alerted by an alarm at Gotham's First National Bank. Terry receives a message from the police band stating a Miss Hammersmith has broken into several safety deposit boxes and is trying to make off with the goods.

Terry arrives to witness Inque in action. Inque detaches herself from Miss Hammersmith after her cover was blown and grafts herself to Freddie, one of the bank's security guards. Terry tries to seperate Inque from the guard but Inque makes an attempt to attach herself to Terry's suit again. Terry stops her by breaking a fire hydrant and the water hoses down Inque which causes her to lose consistency. Inque doesn't leave any trace of herself for Batman to follow. Fortunately, Terry still has the compass with Inque's essence so it can point him in the right direction.

Terry finds Inque at the newly constructed Gotham Med Labs where she has Dr. Melwyn under her heel now. Inque reveals that Melwyn was responsible for creating the mutagens that altered Inque's body. Melwyn warns Inque that since her biochemistry has taken too many assaults from water, electricity and freezing, the new mutagen he has developed may not work or it can create an imbalance in her cohesion which could cause her to solidify into a statue or liquefy into nothing. Inque was willing to take the risk and she ingested the formula.

The mutagen appeared to work because Inque could no longer shapeshift at will anymore. Terry arrives and tries to convince Melwyn as well as Inque to turn themselves in. Inque refuses and starts a chemical fire that will engulf the entire facility. An explosion causes Inque to fall over the edge of a balcony. Terry pleads with Inque to reach for his hand but Inque chose to fall to her death. Terry rescues Melwyn and takes him to the authorities. As for Inque, she survived her fall because Melwyn's formula didn't restore her humanity but it did make her cohesion stable. Like Catwoman, Inque can't be killed.

Powers

Inque is a polymorph able to change her size and shape at will, while remaining in a bluish-black and white form. Transformed into a fluid dark blob after a bizarre lab experiment, Inque turned to a life of corporate sabotage, offering her services to anyone who agreed to meet her price. Inque usually forms deadly tentacles or flatten herself into an oozing puddle. She is difficult to capture and can regenerate herself if cut in two. She has super strength and the ability to climb up walls and ceilings. Inque is a wily and agile opponent who brings plenty of trouble to Batman's door. Her only known weaknesses are water, electricity, and molecular solvents.