Issue# 13, Jan. Yr. 3

"Reappearing Inque"

By Gord Thompson

---

There is a mist in the air, but there's nothing normal about it. Chemicals from the draining system of a plant seep into the waters through tunnels. The color is green but weaving itself through is a thick black liquid.

The two substances react and the pieces of black begin to come together and form into one, as if it was once whole. It moves its way towards the shore where it oozes onto the beach infested with toxic waste. A black figure forms as it rises. The form of a woman appears and a beautiful bluish white face comes out of the black and a shapely figure now stands.

She stands there for a moment looking herself over, extremely pleased. Her reflection is shown in a near by metal shard which pleases her more, as she sees the woman she is.

"Figures that toxic chemicals would bring me back," she said as she walks up the shoreline. "Now, I think I'll pay some old friends a visit!"

---

"Terry. Mr. McGinnis? Mr. McGinnis!" The impatient teacher shouted at her student asleep at his desk.

The boy shot awake and looked up to see the rest of the class starring at him. Terry turned his attention to his teacher. "Thank you for coming out of your nap, Mr. McGinnis." She turned a few pages in her book and asked, "Now, what natural disaster took Gotham City 'off the map' in the late 20th century, Mr. McGinnis?"

Terry detested when his teachers called him that. He stuttered for a moment, thinking about the answer. "Uh, duh... a-an earthquake, Mrs. Finkle."

"Correct," the old woman sighed. She hoped to catch him off guard but Terry was an average enough student to know that.

The bell sound ending the day of classes and all the students quickly packed up their books and rushed out the door. Terry was between them and walked over to the lockers - once leaving the room - where Dana Tan waited.

"Terry," she began, opening her locker, "are we still going to the movies tonight?"

They had been having trouble lately with their relationship, because of Terry's very demanding job. He rubbed the back of his head, "I-I think so, Dana. I mean I don't think Mr. Wayne needs me much tonight."

"Good," she started walking away with her arms wrapped around two books, Terry quickly caught up, "because I'm getting tired of you cutting our dates short, when you SHOW UP of course."

"Oh come on Dana, I've made it up to you before. Besides, a guy's gotta make a living, right?"

Terry walked along Dana now with his arm around her waste, "I guess," she said, "But that Wayne guy seems to be TRYING to keep you away from me. Can't you ask him for some time off?"

"'Fraid not. And speaking of 'that Wayne guy', I gotta be off. I'll meet you at the Cineplex at 8!"

He quickly rushed off after pecking Dana on the cheek as Max Gibson walked up, "Oh, off to work I see. Later, Terry!" She shouted off at her friend. She looked at Dana, "So what homework do you have," the pink haired girl asked.

---

Because of the season and the very high buildings Gotham had, it was night early. So the Dark Knight was out early. His sleek black car flew through the air on a routine patrol.

"Nothing yet," he said to Bruce Wayne who listened through the radio link. He looked at the block on the dashboard, which read '7:13'. "OK, 15 minutes and I'm done. I got a date with Dana tonight and I can't afford to miss this one."

"Fine, Terry. 15 minutes. That's if you don't find anything," the old hero responded. Despite his old age he is still the detective he's always been.

Batman looked at the video map in front of him and saw a red flashing light. He tapped the screen and a name popped up, 'North Gotham Bank'.

"Oh man, just my luck. Bank robbery, North Gotham Bank." He opened the hood of the car and jumped out, extending his red wings and igniting his boots he flew to the nearby building. His car flew off, now on autopilot.

He could see the skylight of the building shattered. It was after hours now, but the security system was still active with its silent alarm now on. It would take the police a few minutes to get there, so Batman had enough time to wrap up the bad guys.

A very light sound of feet touched the floor of the large bank after Batman glided down through skylight. Most of it was dark except for the moonlight peering through windows. He looked around but didn't see the presence of any intruders. Was he too late?

"Nothing yet, but it's dark." He tapped the base of his bat ears to change his vision. Now most of the room was much clearer.

He walked around a little bit, looking every way for anyone, or anything.

Out of the darkness came something that threw Batman clear across the room to strike the wall. He was stunned for a moment but was quick enough to dodge three more attacks. A familiar figure stepped from the shadows, black with a circle of white for what could be a face or an eye. It was Inque!

"Hello, Batman," she said in a sinister tone. Her intentions weren't to rob the bank, but to lure her foe into this trap. She stretched her arms in another fury of attacks on the Dark Knight with the final striking him against another wall when he got too close.

Inque was having some fun with him now. A series of four red bat shaped discs shot from his arms slicing through Inque. They passed right through her thick opaque form and she laughed. Terry had been through this before: countless attacks that didn't do much. Like before he'll have to use his mind, and Bruce's.

Batman turned his head to see flashing lights and sirens of the police finally arriving. They wouldn't be able to do anything against Inque and they were never too keen on Batman, so he'd have to take this battle outside.

His enemy was close enough to the window that he could get a good hit before going all the way through her liquid form, so with a quick run he hit into Inque and they crashed through the window. He extended his red wings and propelled himself with his boots, but surprising to him Inque was still on him.

This wasn't what he wanted at all. He tried to shake Inque off of him without luck and she was getting a tighter grip around him. Now Batman was in pain. Inque was stronger than she was before because he could feel the binding pain through the bat-suit! Something was definitely different.

"Aren't we jumping the gun in our relationship," Batman sarcastically asked in attempt to spread his wit, even in this situation. He got a good grip on Inque and in a quick enough motion for her to not get out of his grip; he flung her off and into a building. He flew in a loop to turn back at the building for another attack, but she was gone.

"Did you get all that," Terry asked to his mentor through the microphone.

In his old rough voice Bruce responded, "Get back here right away. We need to devise a plan to capture Inque."

He acknowledged and flew off to rendezvous with the Batmobile.

---

Terry walked out of a room in the Batcave where he had finished dressing into his normal clothes and walked toward Bruce Wayne who was examining something under a microscope beside the batcomputer. He was looking at a piece of Inque that was left of the bat-suit after the battle. He had done this before in the other encounters with Inque but there was something different. "Anything?"

Bruce looked up as Terry reached the table. He took out the slide and put it under another on the batcomputer, which translated the image on the screen. Science was never one of the boy's strong points so the data from the computer's analysis didn't make much sense. "This is the sample I got off your suit tonight," he began, then he pressed another button on the console, "And this is from our last encounter. See any differences?"

Terry of course didn't know the answer so he jokingly responded, "She's got a better complexion."

With a sigh, Wayne pressed another button, which brought up two DNA strands and pointed out the differences. "Something has changed Inque's DNA in some way, which explains why she's back." He sat down and rubbed his chin in thought, "Closest I can come to is that her liquid form mixed with some chemical byproducts, most likely from Axis Chemicals."

Axis Chemicals was a chemical company that had been reorganized a few years earlier. It had been inactive for at least 30 years before Wayne-Powers Enterprises bought it, but it was Derek Powers' idea.

"Whoa," the boy said, "That would also explain why she's stronger than before. It felt like her form was thicker than before, too."

"Without Mr. Freeze's gun I'll have to make something else to capture Inque, but it will take time. Until then I suggest you keep an extra eye out for-"

Terry was startled in a thought that struck like a bolt of lightning. "Oh no! Dana!" He just remembered his date with Dana Tan and knew he couldn't miss it. Bruce shouted after him but he shot off; if he missed this, his relationship with her would probably be over for good this time.

---

The young girl named Dana Tan waited at the curb of a movie theatre. The movie was about to start in 15 minutes, and Terry McGinnis was 15 minutes late. She kept checking her watch every couple of minutes, as if for her they felt much longer. She was about to go inside and wait just a little while longer when she heard footsteps and a boys voice caller her name.

Terry finally caught up to Dana but rested one hand on his knee and clutched his chest to catch his breath. "Hey... Dana," he finally stood up strait with his entire breath now, "Sorry I'm late, I got... sidetracked on the way over here." His girlfriend had a look of disbelief on her face and looked the other way. "Oh come on Dana, I'm not that late, am it?"

"Late enough," she said as she turned towards the theatre. She noticed one of her friends going in and caught up with her. "See you around, Terry," she said with sadness in her voice.

"Dana!" He ran after her but when she was in the building he gave up, knowing that he couldn't fix this mess. Their relationship had been unstable ever since Terry dawned the bat-suit. Dana wanted him to give her all of his attention, which was unfortunately impossible.

---

The smooth black exterior of the Batmobile shinned in the moonlight as it flew through the high buildings of Gotham, which gave it a very gothic look at feel to the massive city. Batman was out again. His date with Dana was ruined, not to mention their whole relationship, so what else was he to do? This was no ordinary patrol. He was on the lookout for Inque after the previous battle.

Terry hoped that this time it would go more in his favor, and hopefully Bruce would devise a weapon against their liquid enemy. The computers of the high-tech vehicle were scanning through the city around it for a certain type of chemical: one that would not normally be in the city, only on the outskirts at Axis Chemicals.

A light on the dashboard alerted the presence of the chemical and displayed it on the map in front of Terry. Bruce saw the same thing back in the Batcave and ordered to have it checked out, even though it was Batman's plan anyway.

Batman glided out of the batmobile towards the parking lot building where Inque was. He tapped the site of his cowl and enabled the night vision to assist in his search. It wasn't long before he found her.

She spoke with the same words as before, "Hello Batman." There was no attack this time; rather she began to walk in a wide circle around the masked vigilante with her hands cupped behind her. She was in her human form, or at least the closest thing she could get to make herself look like she once was. "We didn't get to finish our business last time. I want the old man."

It sounded like revenge was on her mind, but why wasn't she attacking? "Sorry, can't have him," Batman responded in his intentionally deeper voice. He shot 2 red bat discs from his wrists, which caught Inque off guard and almost turned to her fully liquid form too late. "Make it easy on yourself and come quietly."

"I'm afraid not!" She exclaimed as he arms stretched. They smashed down with the ends now in the form of axes that smashed into the cement floor. Terry barely missed it and returned with an array of discs that went right through her liquid form.

Another fury of attacks came from Inque, smashing the cement into dust and rubble. Batman lost his footing and was hit hard out of the building, landing on a deserted road. He heard something else familiar, laughter accompanied by the rumble of motorcycles. The Jokerz were a group Batman knew all too well.

They came screaming down the road. When they saw who was ahead of them they were ecstatic; they always liked to get their hands on the Batman. As usual their weapons were at the ready, and one of them struck Batman in the head with a club as he tried to get up.

"Looky what we got here," the leader said, dressed similarly to the one and only Joker from the past, "Time to clip this bat's wings!"

Their cycles came to a screeching halt as they swerved around. They walked towards Batman who shot his hand out in protest, "You don't know what you're doing," He said, finally getting to his feet.

"Oh yeah we do. We're gonn-" The leader was suddenly struck by something large and black, and smashed in a building at the side of the road. Inque was now attacking the Jokerz. She wanted Batman all to herself.

They scattered back to their motorcycles with the leader being helped along the way, which distracted her long enough for Batman to activate the light bending feature of the bat-suit to make him invisible. He hid on the side of a nearby building with his eye on Inque.

"What do you have for me?" He spoke into his cowl's radio to Bruce Wayne who had been researching a way to defeat Inque.

"Yes. I've analyzed the data a bit more closely and the extra chemical that seems to make her stronger, it's actually killing her."

Inque looked around the Batman but couldn't see him. "How long until she's gone?"

"Years," Bruce responded, but he had more, "But more will speed up the process. Try to get her to Axis Chemicals, that's the only way to stop her."

"Are you sure? Can't we just freeze her again?"

"Not enough time."

Terry sighed, "Alright, boss." He'd have to think quickly on a way to get her back to the chemical plant. He looked back at the road, but Inque was gone. "Oh know..."

"What is it?"

Batman was suddenly wrapped in Inque who had somehow seen him up there, probably another strengthened ability. He activated the rockets in his boots to shoot off into the direction of the plant. He tried to fly erratically as part of his plan, but he didn't have to.

Inque's grip grew tighter on him but he was still in the proper direction to the plant. "You have no idea what it's like," she said in a tone of extreme anger, "To be what I am."

The plant was just on the horizon, so he decided to stall to keep her attention on him still. "But why attack me? I didn't make you what you are."

"Oh but you did," she said looking at his with her big white 'eye', "ALL of Gotham did! Just wait to see what I have in store for you!"

Batmen smashing through a window in the big chemical plant with Inque still attached to him, glass shooting everywhere and below were large fats of chemicals. Her grabbed onto a pipe for a sudden stop which sent Inque flying abruptly off. The caught herself on another pipe and stared at the dark knight enraged.

Her arms were axes again and stretched across to destroy the pipe Batman hung to. He glided down to the edge of a vat. Not wanted to fall in he rocketed up at Inque and he connected with the villain.

Inque fell off the pipe and down to a large vat of chemicals. An attempt was made to save herself but the pipe she grasped was loose and fell off. Now she fell straight into the vat of chemicals and a glass-shattering scream emanated from her.

Batman had done his job. He now rid the city of this menace. Despite the victory her couldn't stand to see her dissolve and melt away, so he turned his head. The screams however stayed and he would never forget them.

She was gone, he hoped, and looked back only to see a small piece of black ooze turn to the same green as the chemicals.

Bruce was on the radio again, "Did you get her?"

"Yeah," Batman sighed again, "I got her."