THE MAID OF STEEL # 33

Fifteen minutes ago it had been a pleasant summer afternoon. The weather had been warm and bright, but not too hot. Summers in Midway City could be grueling-the heat and humidity reducing the city and it's citizens to the edge of their ability to cope with it as it slowly cooked them.

On Midway City's trendy East-Side, a lovely summer day had come grinding to a halt.

Cars, bodies, glass, and ruined buildings littered the streets. At the center of the carnage stood a woman in a black leather body-suit and a long red cape. Her face was a ruined mess of melted scarred skin stretched so tightly and thinly across her face that her skull was revealed. Her head was topped by a banner of jet-black hair attached to a scalp that appeared held in place by the bubbly scabby flesh that ran along the top of her forehead.

It had only been a few minutes since her last sonic scream, but it had been long enough to leave many dead and do untold damage.

"Good job Skeleta." The 1st Ghost floating around Skeleta's head said cheerfully. "You really showed all of them! Especially that skanky Supergirl."

"You sure did!" The 2nd Ghost said. "You did us proud."

"You should scream at them again." The 1st Ghost said. "Just so that they all know who's boss!"

"Yeah!" The 2nd Ghost chirped. "Show them you can't stop Skeleta."

"Soon." Skeleta said through clenched teeth. She could hear sirens in the distance. Lots of them. They were coming. Skeleta remembered the last time she'd faced the Midway City police and Supergirl through the shattered fragments of her mind. The months on the run had sent the girl further into madness.* Her mind was so far gone she might never recover. In what remained of her mind, she wasn't sure she wanted to recover it. Some of her pain was muted and forgotten when she damaged others with her powers.

*see "Winter Scream" in Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion Halloween Special #1 for some of Skeleta's time on the run.

"Now. Please." The 1st Ghost said.

"The police will be here soon." Skeleta said. "You can wait."

She walked away from the two ghosts, heading toward a cameraman, hunched behind a trashed car. He was pointing his camera at her.

"I'm ready for my close-up Mr. DeMille." Skeleta whispered-unaware that the cameraman was transmitting a signal to the Channel 8 news. Channel 8 had already broken into regular programming to report of the devastation on the East-Side.

"No. Please…" The cameraman whispered. He'd come down here with director Peter Barton and Channel 8's new on-air talent Linda Danvers to film promos for her entertainment and lifestyle segments. But, this Skeleta had shown up. The cameraman wasn't even sure where Peter Barton or Linda Danvers were. Linda had disappeared during the first sonic scream. Peter Barton during the second. Then Supergirl had shown up-Skeleta had issued a third scream that had taken Supergirl out. Then had been the fifth scream-the one that had done the most damage. The cameraman had ducked into an alley, mostly escaping the carnage. Then, once he could, the newsman in him took over and he'd crept out of the alley-starting his broadcast.

"Please?" Skeleta scoffed. "Why does everyone get so polite before I kill them? No one is ever so polite until they realize I'm gonna kill them. People are so weird after death. Politics make strange bedfellows they say. Impending doom makes 'em even stranger." She cackled madly.

The cameraman was trembling, but he did not turn the camera's lens away-nor did he try to run. He wanted to get every moment of footage. If he was going to die, he wanted to go out like a hero. Or at least as a competent newsman.

"You say please. If I don't kill you, what do I get?"

"You get to avoid the warm tingly sensation of the electric chair." Supergirl said, grabbing Skeleta by the shoulders and clasping a hand over her mouth. "I figure if you try to scream with my hand clamped over your mouth, you'll probably make your own head explode-because my hand can take the pressure."

One of the Ghosts dropped down next to Supergirl.

"You're not going to trounce her this time." The 1st Ghost said. "She's even crazier now than last time."

"Oh, I'm going to trounce her. But, first, I'm going to get her out of the city and all these innocent people." Supergirl said pleasantly.

"Oh. I doubt that." The 1st Ghost said.

"Doubt it all you want tool."

With one quick movement, Supergirl tossed Skeleta into the sky-sending her spinning.

"Oh." The 1st Ghost said. "I wasn't expecting that."

"Of course you weren't." Supergirl mumbled, flying after Skeleta. Where could she deal with Skeleta? The sonic scream made her a threat to anything-including nature. If she took her to an abandoned forest, she would level it, doing it untold damage to the eco-system and environment.

Catching Skeleta in mid-air, Supergirl found the woman screaming in fear.

"Hi. Remember me?" Supergirl asked.

Skeleta screamed what sounded like a yes.

There was no option of sending Skeleta into space like she had Phillip Decker's monster sister Giselda. Skeleta was still human-just deformed and scarred and crazy as hell. It would be murder to send her into the vacuum of space. Despite Supergirl's recent brushes with dark methods, she didn't want to be a murderer. She still resisted such ultimate measures.

"Ah… I know just the place." Supergirl said, dragging Skeleta with her as she flew toward a destination.

Dick Malverne was in a private study room at Midway City University Library, working on a paper for sociology. His eyes kept moving to the thick manila folder sitting to the side. The one labeled 242-Lindas Apt.

It was filled with articles and information he had located on Linda's apartment building. None of it good. Most of it quite terrifying. All of it weird. He'd located most of this last month just before Phillip Decker had sent Baron Blitzkrieg and the New Reich to capture him. He'd forgotten all, about Genoa Park Arms Apartments and Linda's creepy neighbor Cynthia Stanley who prowled it's halls in camouflage pants, a ratty t-shirt, and a short buzzed haircut. There was information in those files about her-information that didn't make any sense.

Of course, he'd learned over the past few years, since Leesburg and since Linda and Supergirl had come into his life, that there was more to life than what could be seen and the "rules" that most people believed in. Science had used the meta-gene to explain meta-humans. But science still couldn't explain magic and the supernatural.

Linda's apartment building fell into the realm of the supernatural.

He would bring this to her tonight-letting her see it, and maybe she could make sense of it. Although in his heart, Dick knew what the answer was.

The desert was blistering hot. Invulnerable as she was, Supergirl wasn't bothered as she landed in the blasted wastelands that was all the remained of Qurac.

Nuked by Chesire, it was still considered too toxic to live in-despite repeated attempts to clean it up by various countries and environmental groups. Hopefully it would be alright for Skeleta here-for a limited time. Supergirl wasn't entirely convinced. The skin on her face was paper-thin.

"Where are we?" Skeleta sputtered, wobbling on her feet on hard-blasted desert floor. The heat and intensity of the nuclear explosion had left huge patches of black glass.

"Qurac." Supergirl said, folding her arms across her chest. Rough winds ravaging the area tossed what sand remained up-stinging her and Skeleta with it. Again her invulnerability made it more of an annoyance than anything.

"Why?!"

"Because I have no problem with fighting you. I can take you. However, when you fight, you let loose with one of those sonic screams and people get hurt; the city gets trashed… Out here, you can scream your head off and you only hurt yourself."

"Do you hear that?" The 1st Ghost appeared beside Skeleta. "She's minimizing you. Insulting you. Talking down to you."

"She hates you." The 2nd Ghost said. "Hates you so much she's going to kill you. KILL! KILL! KILL!!"

"You should kill her first." The 1st Ghost said.

"This is a compelling psycho-drama playing out here." Supergirl said with a roll of her eyes. "But I don't hate her. I don't want to kill her. All I want is for her to not hurt other people or destroy city blocks. If she can stop screaming and destroying stuff, maybe we can get the girl some help."

"Look at her. She looks like the Crypt Keeper." The 1st Ghost sighed. "All that's going to help her is a bag on her head."

"Or stealing someone else's face." The 2nd Ghost said.

"Come on guys." Supergirl said. "Plastic surgery has come a long way." Turning to Skeleta she said, "Your ghost friends aren't very helpful. Are they?"

"Not really." Skeleta sighed. "But, they are my friends. I guess."

Supergirl's fiery wings exploded from her back-and fire sprang from her eyes.

"With friends like that, who needs enemies?" Supergirl asked.

"She does." The 1st Ghost said.

"Let's get out of here!" The 2nd Ghost's voice was frantic. "Those flames can kill us again."

"You didn't die forever." The 1st Ghost shrugged.

"But, it did send me BACK THERE!"

"Oooh.. good point. I forgot about that." The 1st Ghost said, "We definitely don't want to go back there."

"Skeleta… sweetie. I need you to scream at Supergirl. With all your might." The 1st Ghost said.

"Skeleta, don't listen to that floating phlegm ball. He just wants to keep you down."

"I'm a HER!" The 1st Ghost said indignantly.

"Honest mistake. Your hazy green floaty exterior is very androgenous." Supergirl said, advancing toward them, her fiery eyes blazing.

"SKELETA! NOW!!!" The 2nd Ghost screamed.

Skeleta opened her mouth and screamed. At this point in her life, she'd grown conditioned to the ghosts and following their demands. It was too late for her to try to exert her independence now-especially as damaged as her psyche was.

Supergirl let her fiery wings carry her upward. She was much faster than sound-and easily avoided the sonic blast when she was aware it was coming.

Looking down Supergirl noted the small green fissure open in reality beside the ghosts and Skeleta.

"Interesting." Supergirl said, flying down at break-neck speed. She knocked Skeleta over, sending her spinning, tumbling end over end. She landed awkwardly on her side-the jolt of the hard-blasted ground knocking her out.

"What do we have here?" Supergirl asked, her wings bright fiery orange red.

"OH NO!" The two ghosts scattered.

Supergirl looked at the small fissure. A small green mist began creeping out.

Supergirl watched, mildly amazed, as a 3rd Ghost slipped out.

"Thank God that ugly cow finally got me out of there. I thought I'd be stuck-" The 3rd Ghost saw Supergirl. "Oh FU-"

Before it could finish the thought Supergirl incinerated the 3rd Ghost with a billowing blast of fire vision.

The small green fissure continued to shimmer over the desert.

Pushing her hand through, Supergirl withdrew it-finding ectoplasm clinging to it.

"Gross." Supergirl wrinkled her nose. Shaking the ectoplasm free of her hand.

From behind her, the other two ghosts appeared. Quickly and before she could blast them, they gave her a shove-sending her through the fissure, which closed behind her.

"That should take care of Super-Cow." The 1st Ghost said.

"Don't you know any other rude name to use?" The 2nd Ghost asked.

"No."

"Let's go find Skeleton-face." The 2nd Ghost said.

"OK."

The two ghosts headed in the direction Skeleta had been flung in.

Brains sat her desk, twiddling her thumbs. She hated waiting. But she had no choice.

Finally after an eternity her receptionist buzzed in a visitor.

The door opened and a tall lanky man wearing a nice suit walked in. He looked out of place in the dark suit-as though he should be in rags instead.

"You have news?" Brains asked. She knew that she looked delectable in her red suit. She also knew this man-a key member of their operation here called Stitches, had more than small bit of lust in his heart for her.

"Yes." Stitches said, sitting down. "Lt. Jacobs contacted me earlier today. He wants to use Dynamic again."

"And this is news? Lots of seemingly legitimate individuals contract meta's through us. Happens all the time. It's one of our main businesses." Brains scoffed. "Even so-called cops with grudges against metas."

"It's news because he said to one word you said I was to report back to you any time it came up in more than casual conversation."

Brains perked up. "Go on…"

"So, he wants me to contract Dynamic for the night of the charity fundraiser at Our Queen of Heaven Church. And to say it's retaliation against Supergirl." Stitches said, leaning in and giving Brains more of a look than she wanted of his crooked teeth and protruding nose hairs.

"Did he say why?"

"No." Stitches said. "But, my people have followed him. And he's been seen visiting with Senator Gayle Marsh and the Anti-Meta League people."

"The Pro-Homosapiens." Brains whispered, the various possibilities and implications whirling around in her head. "They are totally gunning for all meta's to be outlawed or regulated."

"Yep. And Senator Marsh is backing a bill to severely regulate meta-activity in this state."

"A bill that could gain support if Supergirl is seen more of a menace and less as a savior." Brains said excitedly. "I need to contact the Council. They need to hear this."

"Where am I?" Supergirl looked around her.

The air was thick with green and pink ectoplasm. The sight of it floating in the sky sent shivers down her spine-reminding her of her own pink protoplasmic origins.

"Purgatory."

Supergirl turned around to the voice, finding an ancient looking woman standing there wearing flowing red robes.

"Like Catholic purgatory? It seems awfully empty." Supergirl remarked casually. Something about the woman's flinty eyes were even creepier than the odd chunky globs of ectoplasm floating in the air.

"Not Catholic purgatory." The woman chuckled; although the sound was completely bereft of humor. "Hell's Purgatory."

"Hell's Purgatory? Why would Hell have it's own purgatory?"

"for the sadomasochistics of course." The old woman said. "For those of us into torture and pain, Hell is no punishment. The racks, the burning… the exquisite pain. And you can take it… more and more… and in Hell you never die and can't be killed. So torture is divine. All the pleasure you want and---"

"ENOUGH!! I get the picture." Supergirl shook her head, trying the chase the images out of it.

"You're here after the Wicked Three." The old woman said.

"The who?"

"The Wicked Three. They have managed to tether themselves to a flesh and blood human girl in your world. And that tether gives them the ability to escape exile. When she screams, her screams open a Gateway between here and there. A gateway their tether allows them to travel."

"Who are the Wicked Three?"

"No one is really sure. They've been here longer than anyone. They're Hell's original rejects. Some say lost souls. Others say they somehow offended a previous ruler of Hell. Others, myself included, think they were exiled here for siding with the Carnivean during his attempt to take over Hell-before he was cast out of Hell."

"The Carnivean." Supergirl remembered Wally the God-Boy mentioning him. Wally had asked for her original angel powers back to help him fight the Carnivean.

"You could always ask him-" The old woman pointed to a man in the distance. "He's one of the Wicked Three."

"Really? I thought they were green floaty ghosts."

"On your side maybe. On our side they look like they did in life. Poor things."

"Thanks for you help. I guess." Supergirl mumbled. She attempted to fly, but found she couldn't.

"Oh. Your powers probably won't work here." The woman said. "It's Purgatory after all."

Supergirl re-ignited her wings of fire.

"Angel powers work." She mumbled.

With the sight of her angel-wings, the old woman hissed-giving her the evil eye.

"BACK FOUL AGENT OF HEAVEN!" The woman said, stumbling away.

Using her wings of fire, Supergirl lifted off from the strange gray ground beneath her-cutting a swath through the ectoplasm. The fiery wings burned the ectoplasm away as she passed through, heading toward the man the old woman had pointed out.

"Oh… God.. NO!" The man cried out, running from Supergirl.

"Not quite who I'd suspect you'd call out to in a time of need." Supergirl commented, "Not very wicked."

"STAY AWAY!!" The man turned toward her-his eyes growing red and malevolent.

"You and I need to talk." Supergirl said.

"APO DONDIS MALACAREIS DUNAMIS KREE TRALARGO DUNAMIS KOO!" The man said.

For a moment time suspended and everything stopped. Then from the air in front of her appeared a giant winged beast--eyes blood-red and a mouth lined with needle-sharp teeth.

"Supergirl meet Dunamis, the former concubine of Beelzebub." The man shouted, running away.

Before Supergirl could even react, Dunamis knocked her from the air. Supergirl could feel the sting of claws.

Meanwhile, in Midway City, Dick Malverne made his way down the sidewalk to Linda's apartment building.

The other building in the neighborhood were bright and full of life, lush trees spotted the parking strips and lined the streets. It gave the Genoa Park neighborhood a smaller town feel. If not for the tall skyscrapers in downtown Midway City visible from the skyline.

But Linda's building was darker than the others. It was a massive building that probably had just under fifty units. AS far as Dick could tell, Linda, her landlord Mr. Didio, and Cynthia Stanley were the only people living there.

Dick frowned. "Living is a subjective term." He said aloud as he made his way into the building.

Using the key Linda had given him, he let himself in. He glanced at the clock. Linda had said she'd be at work until six today. But, the news had mentioned some super-villain attack over on the East-Side, where Linda had been filming. So, she was probably busy being Supergirl right now.

At first, when Dick had figured out Linda was Supergirl, he'd been hesitant to continue seeing her. The fact that she was always off saving the world meant she was in danger and gone. It could mean that one day she wouldn't return from fighting whatever big bad menace threatened Midway City or the planet. But, he'd made peace with it when he realized that someone had to do it. And he liked that his girlfriend was important and helping make the world a better place.

Girlfriend. Dick thought. It felt so weird after all their attempts all these months to get going. The only good thing about Phillip Decker's attack was that it had gotten Linda and Dick to confess their love.

I love her. He thought. It felt weird to think. But, it felt complete right at the same time.

Dick was getting chicken breasts out of the freezer to thaw when the door bell rang. Setting the frozen breasts in the sink, he walked toward the front door.

Standing there was Cynthia Stanley, her empty eyes staring at Dick intently.

"Cynthia." Dick's words felt hollow. He knew a little bit about Cynthia Stanley. Enough that he was trying not to let her see his fear.

"Hi Dick." She said, her voice sullen. "He says you know…"

"What?"

"He said you know. The truth about me and this building." Cynthia said. "You figured it all over. 242: Everyone dies."

"I don't…." Dick couldn't complete the denial. Cynthia's odd empty eyes had locked on him, drawing him in.

"I had hoped Linda could help me before it was time." Cynthia whispered, her voice filled with terror as Dick found himself drawn deeper and deeper into her empty eyes. It felt like he was falling. The sensation of vertigo swept over him. "But it's too late. 242. Everyone dies. Everyone. Even you Dick. Especially you."

Cynthia started screaming. As she launched herself at Dick Malverne.

From outside the apartment building, had anyone been walking by the dark building, they might have heard muffled screams and a man calling for help in a state of total desperation and fear.

Then his cries for help died abruptly.

Supergirl rolled over, missing the winged beast Dunamis squashing her flat. Angel powers were handy; but not a lot of help against a monster birthed by Hell. The loss of her strength and invulnerability gave her a disadvantage.

"I've become too reliant on my powers." She whispered, managing to climb up on her feet.

She blasted Dunamis with the Heavenly flames from her eyes. The beast cried out, flapping it's wings wildly as it tried to shake off the flames dancing on it's chest. Supergirl could see the man running off in the distance.

While Dunamis was distracted, Supergirl flew after the escaping man.

"Gotcha!" She said, tackling him. She had tried to pick him up, but without super-strength he was too heavy.

"DON'T HURT ME!" He squealed.

"You aren't much living up to your name of The Wicked Three very well." Supergirl commented.

"We aren't the Tough Three you stupid cow!! We're the Wicked Three! WICKED!! Wicked and strong aren't the same. We do wicked things. Wicked people can be wimps." The man whined, appearing to be on the verge of tears.

"Thanks for the vocabulary lesson. And thanks for sicking that overgrown dog on me." Supergirl said. "Now, who are you?"

"I'm Tuartaro. I was once a member of the Spanish royal court. Back in the 1300's. I was infamous in my day. I tortured and murdered small children. Until they burned me at the stake as a witch. I wasn't a witch."

"Just a psychotic pervert. In the 1300's it was probably the closest thing." Supergirl couldn't keep the look of disgust from her face.

"Oh sure. Judge me because I like to take children and break their tiny helpless little bodies. Condemn me because-"

Supergirl punched him in the face as hard as she could. The pleasure of seeing the blood squirting from his nose soothed the aching of her knuckles.

"I will judge and condemn you less if you don't go on about it."

"You hit me!" The man wept, covering his blood gushing nose.

"Yep. And if you start talking about hurting kids again, I'll hurt you more." Supergirl said.

"Hurt me all you want. Unlike you, I can't die here."

"Speaking of here, how do I get out of here?"

"Not sure." Tuataro said. "We're able to come and go because Skeleta's sonic cry opens a fissure between this world and your world. Eventually we'll be able to get out bodies across and cast Skeleta aside. If you would stop trashing our ecto-forms and sending us back here."

Supergirl heard Dunamis right behind her, moving just in time to avoid the razor-sharp talons on her clawed hands.

Tuartaro was not as lucky. The razory claws tore through him-cutting him into four parts.

"BAD DUNAMIS!!" Tuartaro screamed. "BAD!!"

Supergirl let her fiery wings carry her up as high as she could go. Once she was several thousand feet above the ground below; she looked up to see what appeared to be a dark infinite oblivion.

"Can't get out that way." Supergirl sighed.

Hovering in place, she watched as Dunamis flew toward her, moving far more rapidly.

"I can't take her." Supergirl said. Her angel powers wouldn't over-power that thing. While there was the potential within to do so, she wasn't experienced enough with using them. She relied too much on her Supergirl powers. "If I get out of this, I swear I will just practice being an angel more."

Her flaming wings grew in size and the fire dancing from her eyes exploded, obscuring her face. Supergirl steeled herself, preparing for the onslaught while trying to psyche herself up to it.

"If only I understood shunting---"

Supergirl had only begun the sentence when the world blurred away at a sickeningly quick pace.

Dunamis arrived where Supergirl had been only moments before-finding only empty air.

Far down below, Tuataro laid in pieces on the ground. The pain was terrific. Standing above him was the old woman Supergirl had spoken to earlier.

"Is the pain exquisite?" She asked breathlessly.

"Yes." Tuataro groaned. With his detached torso which had both arms, he attempted to push himself back together so the healing process could begin. Here in Purgatory he couldn't be killed, eventually his body would regenerate, drawing back together.

"Do you think Dunamis will slash me to ribbons?" The old woman asked, her eyes wide with excitement at the prospect.

"SHUT UP YOU OLD COW!!" Tuataro shouted.

The old woman kicked his head, sending it rolling away.

"Good luck regenerating anytime soon with your head over there!" The old woman spat, wandering off.

High above, the spell that had drawn Dunamis to this plane of existence faded, sending her back to the ring of Hell she normally dwelled in.

"---understood shunting I would escape."

Supergirl found herself hovering above Midway City, the devastation brought by Skeleta below her.

"Um… ok." Supergirl mumbled, her mind disoriented. She felt different and suspected her Supergirl abilities were back.

Extinguishing her wings of fire and fiery vision, she flew down to help with the clean-up and survivors.

Several hours later, after she'd called the TV station to let them know she was OK and after having helped all that she could, Supergirl flew back to the ruins of Qurac, looking for Skeleta. However, Skeleta and the other 2 Ghosts, the other two members of the Wicked Three were long gone.

Exhausted, Supergirl returned home.

Switching to Linda down the street, she made her way home along the sidewalk, hoping that Dick was there. She couldn't wait to share her day with him and curl up in his arms.

It had been eventful, between her TV work and fighting Skeleta and being sent to Purgatory. Also she wanted to discuss her shunting ability with him. Maybe he could help her figure out how to turn it off and on.

Coming into the apartment, Linda flipped on lights.

"What?!" Linda gasped, looking at the apartment.

It was trashed, broken furniture littering the floor. Linda's eyes settled on a shredded jacket, stained with a dark red fluid.

It was Dick's suede jacket.

Rushing over to it, Linda picked it up.

"Dick?"

Under the jacket was a thick manila folder, bloated with clippings and print-outs.

Linda looked at it.

It said: Linda's Apt 242.

Opening the folder, Linda found her eyes drawn to a bold black headline dated February 23rd 1957.

GENOA PARK HORROR-5 MURDERED!

TO BE CONTINUED

NEXT ISSUE: Something has been just a little off about Linda Danver's apartment building since the beginning. Such as the weird girl who haunts it's halls and the fact that Linda appears to be the only tenant. Linda finds out just how weird it is in "Supergirl: The Maid of Steel Annual #3" and finds her and Dick's lives in danger as they come face to face with "The Genoa Park Horror."