Chapter 13

Her name was Samantha Warren. She worked as a clerk at a gas station in Jump City for about ten years before having wound up reported missing a few days ago. She had no previous known criminal history nor any sort of prior relationship with Kirk Langstrom, aka Man-Bat. Who was apparently still in Arkham.

Which of course begged the question of how did she become this bat creature, and why? Unfortunately, the girl herself couldn’t give answers as she was currently in a pretty deep sleep, and not the kind that was caused by my sedatives.

Apparently, her body was completely drained by the transformation and how long she had been in it. Which seemed to propose that if she stayed another day or two in that form, she likely wouldn’t have been able to wake up at all. While all the Titans were somewhat curious as to this new event, there was only two individuals that were actually capable of gathering more information from her body.

Those two people being me, and Robin.

Robin examined her before coming to the same conclusion I had, that she was in a very deep exhaustion-based sleep. Which was good. I wasn’t an actual doctor or anything, hell I wasn’t trained in the field of medical science at all really. So on this matter Robin was much more experienced than me.

He then injected her with a needle and took a small amount of her blood before passing it to me.

“Can you analyze the man-bat serum in her blood? I have a suspicion about it, but I’m not sure what it has to do with this situation.”

I took the needle from his hands and shrugged. I doubt I could get much from this, but I’d try.

“Can you give me the results tomorrow?”

Robin asked me with a complete straight face. Causing me to blink rapidly as I digested his words while being completely flabbergasted.

“…Robin, I’m not sure what you’re expecting of me here.”

“What do you mean?”

To be honest I was just as confused as he was.

“There is literally no way for me to analyze the blood for traces of the drug in less than twenty four hours. I’d need like…a few weeks. At least. What-what are you even hoping to use it for?”

Robin seemed surprised by this. Like, actually taken aback. Did he think I was some sort of magical chemical analyzer or something? That I could just look at shit and know exactly what it was?

“Uh…I was hoping to compare it to the original Man-Bat serum to see if there’s any differences.”

“Alright, that’s fine, but it’s going to take a bit to do that. And that’s even if there’s enough of the serum still in her blood to analyze and then synthesize an exact duplicate of the formula.”

Robin slowly nodded at that.

“And then you can make an antidote from that, right?”

…Holy fuck. How easy does this guy think making an antidote is?

Look. I’ve taken a lot of poisons into my system. And I’ve produced these poisons for others to use. Could I theoretically make antidotes of these poisons? Yes, hell I’ve done it before. The problem is that it’s an effort that takes a lot of time and understanding about what I’m doing.

It’s like Robin was expecting me to be able to remake a car with a broken windshield wiper, the steering wheel, an engine that may or may not still work, and a tire. And then on top of that, to make something that could destroy it.

I’ll grant him that I’m probably one of the best people to ask that of in the entire world, as if it’s something I completely understand, I could do that in a heartbeat. The problem is I can’t just wave my hand and make magic happen. It honestly blows my mind that he thinks I could.

What the hell does Batman do that makes him think that way? Is he the world’s greatest chemist on top of detective?

“…With even more time, yes Robin.”

I simply answered. Robin rubbed his chin at that before gesturing towards the needle.

“Will it help if you…you know?”

Hmm?

“If I what?”

Robin made a gesture as if he was cupping something and then drink-

Oh fuck no.

“Robin, I’m not sticking someone’s blood into my mouth. That’s fucking disgusting.”

Robin threw up his hands in surrender.

“Alright, alright…but I mean, would it have worked-“

“Not unless her blood was mostly Man-Bat serum, no.”

“Sorry, guess I’m just too used to the Bat-er…”

He seemed to be explaining something before his eyes widened. Immediately looking over to me before pretending to be calm. I’m not sure why, it wasn’t like he was going to say something I wasn’t strongly suspecting already. Such as Batman somehow being a master chemist.

We then went our separate ways to work on this case. He would go look for leads while I did the lab work. Though he did say that he’d try to get me the formula for the original Man-Bat serum. For about two hours I worked in order to set things up for blood testing later. Then I decided that it was much too late and that it was much healthier for me to get some sleep.

My personal wellbeing was more important than this case after all.

Thankfully the next day I had a mostly free schedule. Leading me to walk around aimlessly around the tower in order to relax. Which is how I stumbled onto Galatea training with weights in the gym. Which was a bit unusual, as she usually was sunbathing around noon.

Sweat poured down her face as she lifted weights that probably weighed more than all of the Titans combined. Hell, she was even curling them. She had a pretty intense look as she pushed herself to continue. Honestly considering the massive b-muscles she already had, I didn’t think she’d be so focused on exercising.

Then again, ever since the event at Cadmus where the scientist who turned into a monster attempted to kill her with some device, she’s been notably weaker. It practically forced her to live on all the solar energy she’s able to gather.

Her eyes immediately locked onto me as I took several steps into the gym.

“Good…timing…sidekick…”

She grunted out as she continued to lift weights with both hands. Taking deep breaths as she did so in her white leotard like uniform.

“Towel…”

I was already on it. This wasn’t the first time I had been forced to help her out with her gym activities, and it wouldn’t be the last. Grabbing a nearby towel I traveled towards her and began to dab and brush the towel on her face. Soaking up all the sweat that I could.

And boy, could she sweat. Honestly, it was pretty amazing how hard she’d work herself. Or maybe Kryptonians just sweat a lot more than humans do?

“Arms.”

As she continued to curl, I ran the towel around her arm. Once more being reminded why superman was called the man of steel. Jesus, it was like rubbing down a steel girder. Before she could even continue, I already moved towards her neck and back. Brushing the towel against her in order to get everything.

Whatever her uniform was made out of, it was good stuff. She never seemed to get sweat stains on it, or even tear it during things like this. Shoot, maybe I should ask Cadmus the next time I need a costume.

“Chest!”

Galatea grunted as she was starting to feel the burn. I immediately started to move before realizing what she just said. Chest. Was she…giving me permission to touch her breasts? To clean off sweat of course, but still.

Nice.

I hesitated for a second before immediately toweling the top of her breasts. Judging her reaction before going any further. To which I of course did, and holy shit did sweat build up on her breasts.

I immediately stopped once Galatea dropped her weights to the ground. Resulting in a resounding THUD across the tower. I wouldn’t be surprised if the floor had a dent in it. Galatea sighed before applying pressure to her neck. Causing it to make a loud snapping sound before groaning in pleasure.

Honestly, it was impressive that her white outfit didn’t…

Wait…

“Hey Galatea, do you have clothes besides that uniform?”

She looked over at me with a raised eyebrow.

“No why?”

Ah fuck. Well, that was solely on me. I probably should have realized that earlier.

“Hmm. Then we need to get you more clothes then. In order to wash your uniform, as well as give you other clothes to wear.”

Galatea narrowed her eyes at me. Her arms crossed as she thought about something.

“Clothes are obtained in malls, correct? Shops with human civilians manning them? Don’t you need money to get them, or are we going to obtain them by force?”

Right. Sometimes I forget that she’s just constantly ready to throw down with anyone. Which honestly is a trait I find refreshing amongst the very kind and soft members of the Titans. Talking to her always made me feel just a little less homesick of Gotham.

“We’ll buy them.”

She was about to speak before I raised my hand to stop her. I already knew what she was going to say anyway.

“I know you don’t have money. I’ll be buying them.”

Galatea nodded at this before walking over to me and sweeping me off my feet as if I weighed nothing at all. Holding me in her arms as she walked towards the window nearby. I immediately attempted to squirm out of her hold, but to no avail.

“Wait. Wait damn it. I haven’t even gotten my wallet ye-“

After opening the window with her leg, she immediately jumped out of it with me in her arms. To which I immediately stopped squirming. I don’t care if falling this distance into the lake was survivable, which I doubt it was. I straight up wasn’t going to even entertain the idea.

I doubt there’s many men out there that have been bridal carried easily by a woman. And no, I’m not counting as a toddler. The feeling was very surreal, especially if the woman carrying you was flying in the air while doing so. It was a pretty scary experience, like a roller coaster. But also like a roller coaster…it was kind of fun.

I can totally get how women fall head over heels for Superman if this is the treatment they get. Of course, the moment she flies to the nearest mall I have to remind her that I don’t have my wallet. Requiring us to go all the way back to the Tower, and then all the way back again.

…I hope no one took pictures of this, or I wouldn’t be able to look Ethan or Min-Jun in the eyes. After some walking around, we finally went to a clothing store that had stuff Galatea wanted. Thankfully we didn’t draw much attention to ourselves, despite her still being in her superhero uniform. Because she hadn’t really made any sort of public debut so far.

And after looking around the mall, I shudder to think of what would happen if she did. Titans merch was everywhere. Toys, shirts, costumes, you name it. I hadn’t really stepped outside the Titans tower much lately, besides to get groceries, so I was unaware of just how…popular we had become.

On one hand, I realized that we could probably make a good mint by forcing everyone that’s using our name and likeness to give us royalties, but on the other hand, they were probably selling all this stuff because we weren’t asking for stuff like that. I must say, I do fancy myself on a keychain…

While I was looking at Titan merch, Galatea was looking at clothing in her size. It seemed that I didn’t need to explain to her how this worked, as she easily chose some clothes her size before going into a changing room.

Her knowledge was very strange. It was like a patchwork of understanding. It was like I could ask her to tell me every president after Lincoln and she could, but if I asked her something simple like how many presidents have there been, then she wouldn’t be able to answer.

I noticed that a saleswoman was now attempting to talk to Galatea through the curtain. Likely trying to get her to buy as much clothes as she could. Well, as long as she bought clothes, I guess there wasn’t much of an issue. Still, I wasn’t going to pay more than I owed her, or any clothes above what was strictly necessary.

I wasn’t a charity after all.

As I approached the saleswoman and the changing area, the curtain was suddenly pulled back, and Galatea stepped out. The Saleswoman panicked and immediately took several steps backwards as she did so. Galatea barely even gave her a second glance as she looked over to me.

“Well? How do I look?”

For a few moments I lost the ability to even talk. Galatea had walked out of the curtain with just a bra and a pair of panties on. Very tasteful panties, a very tasteful bra, and even more tasteful skin.

I saw more of her than I thought I ever would in my entire life.

“You look amazing.”

I said with only a moments hesitation. Galatea smirked at that before walking back into the changing room. The saleswoman seemed speechless for a few moments as she seemed to digest the events that just transpired.

If she seemed to be about to call security, I would probably just sedate her. But to my surprise, she didn’t. Instead, simply reaching up to put a hand over her heart with a shocked look.

“…I wish I had that kind of confidence.”

She wasn’t wrong. Galatea was hot shit, and she knew it too. The next time Galatea exited the curtains, she actually had an outfit on. Surprisingly, it actually looked very good on her. I’m not sure what I expected from a clone that was raised underground away from society, but it definitely wasn’t style.

“Do I look great?”

She asked, looking at herself in the mirror still in the changing room while posing. This time the saleswoman spoke up.

“You look so beautiful!”

Galatea raised an unimpressed eyebrow towards her.

“I wasn’t asking you.”

“S-sorry…”

The saleswoman apologized before bowing her head. Her cheeks started to redden in embarrassment and…wait a fucking second. Was she getting off on that?

What the fuck.

It took me a few seconds to remember that Galatea had asked me a question.

“Eight out of ten. It’s pretty good.”

Galatea frowned at my words.

“Pretty good isn’t good enough.”

She stated before walking back into the changing room to put on more clothes. Sheesh, someone was a bit of a perfectionist. It took about forty-five more minutes for her to try on everything that she wanted to before finally purchasing them. The price was painful, but digestible. At the very least it went towards my debt.

As I still had a decent amount of money on hand, I decided that we could stop to get some food. Once again, I allowed Galatea to pick and she didn’t hesitate in doing so.

She chose a small little booth like restaurant that seemed to focus on corndogs. But not just any normal corndogs, these didn’t have hotdogs in them. Instead, they were filled with various sorts of cheeses. As the corndogs themselves were of a decent size, I only grabbed two with a basket of fries. Galatea got twelve and four baskets of fries.

At first the cashier thought she was joking, before realizing she was dead serious. Afterwards he prepared us a large take-out basket that…we probably wouldn’t use. I had forgotten that she shoveled down food about as much as Starfire did.

After sitting in a small U shaped booth across from each other, I decided to make conversation while eating.

“So…having fun?”

I thought to ask. Mildly curious as to just how she was feeling about all of this. After downing a basket of fries in half a minute, she looked back up at me.

“Fun? This? Hmm…not particularly. I’m just obtaining things that are necessary, no?”

Well, she wasn’t wrong.

“Fair enough. Did you see anything or anybody interesting?”

I remember her talking about how she lost the ability to do some vision-based abilities, so I was curious if she still had any. At my question she frowned slightly, but not in a annoyed way.

“No. All I see is humans.”

Hmm?

“Is there something wrong with that?”

“They’re so…weak. Fragile. Uninteresting.”

Galatea stated, attempting to find her words before dismissing them with awave of her hand. She wasn’t exactly wrong of course. Most humans weren’t shit compared to her or Superman. Hell, I wasn’t shit in comparison, so I didn’t take any offense to that. It’d be crazy if I did.

“Then how do you feel about the Titans?”

Her eyes sparkled at that as she looked away in thought.

“They are interesting. Strong. Fast. Cunning…”

She then turned towards me.

“And useful.”

She probably didn’t mean for it to come off as a backhanded compliment, but damn. Wasn’t that a kick in the balls? Before I could ask another question, she seemed to have decided that it was her turn.

“How do you feel about the Titans?”

Hmm…

“As you said, they’re very useful. I think I get along with them pretty well.”

She nodded at that, which made it seem as if she got the answer she wanted. Which of course made me curious as to why she asked the question at all.

“Why do you ask?”

“Because you’re my sidekick. If something or someone is bothering you, I’ll crush it.”

Maybe it’s the Gothamite in me, but despite her saying that rather menacingly, I still felt a bit…touched. I cleared my throat before responding back.

“Well, I do still owe you a bit so…if you’re having trouble, I’ll also be there for you.”

Galatea blinked at that as she finished a corndog in three bites. Holy shit, did she just eat the fucking stick?

“Of course, you will. You’re my sidekick.”

…I wish to take back my touched feelings.

After extending the conversation a bit, I excused myself to go to the restroom. As I made my way towards the public bathroom, my phone started to go off. Which was weird because of two reasons. One, my phone was always on silent. Two, it was ringing with a tone I’ve never heard in my life.

After unlocking my phone, it showed that someone sent me a message. It was a list of directions, which made my eyes narrow. I continued forward as they asked, before going into what seemed like a store that didn’t get much in the way of customers. Likely due to the fact they were just selling old TVs.

My eyes caught on one that flashed static, before changing into an arrow. Pointing me in the direction of the back of the store. After opening up the employees only door, I was greeted to a long dark hallway. The nearby light didn’t work, so I walked in darkness until I got the other end of the hall.

And gradually opened the door.

Inside the room was a solitary light source overhead. Illuminating a short, fat person behind a desk. They had beady eyes, blonde hair that seemed like it was already receding, and sharp shark like teeth. He was ugly, there was no putting it gently.

In the darkness I could hear a small but constant creaking sound. Likely to just put me on edge, but it didn’t get rid of the paranoia that someone could be there.

I looked back to the man behind the desk. Giving him a look of disgust as I approached.

“I thought I smelled the stench of a Cobblepot.”

He simply raised an eyebrow at my words.

“Choose your words carefully. I wouldn’t want you to end up as a pincushion for the government again...”

We both glared at each other for a long moment, before I continued forth. Until I was finally in front of his table. He stood up slowly to face me as I reached forward.

And we both gripped each other’s hands with a smile.

“I’ve missed you, Chuckles.”

“Likewise, Ethan.”