Showdown at Slaughter Swamp

[newoutsiders]

Batgirl and Green Arrow have been riding for a few hours now, on their way to Slaughter Swamp: the last sighting of the mutated, truck driving zombie dubbed "Gingross." The red-tinged air pollution of Gotham fades behind you, giving way to the muted moonlight of a cloudy night sky. The swamp carries something of a supernatural reputation, as you're well aware- if the "hauntings" in Connor's building can be traced anywhere, Slaughter Swamp is as likely a point of origin as any.

Eventually, you run out of road and park the Batcycle. The nearest source of real light is coming through the window of a nearby, small wooden shack right on the edge of the swamp.

Comments

[not_easy_being_green]

In the swamp surrounding them, crickets chirp loudly.

He offers Steph a small shrug. Connor's got nothing, man.

He turns to the scientist.

"Professor Bravo. Do you know who took you?"

[newoutsiders]

He looks at Steph and Connor in annoyance.

"...Creator of the Plastic Perils? Arch-nemesis of that hack Will Magnus and his Metal Men? Bah! Kids. Well, I was a big deal once. Ask your father, Batgirl. I'm sure the Batman has cursed the name of Professor Bravo many a time."

He grunts.

"And of course I know who took me. It was that asshole, Grundy. Where do you think we are, boy? This is Slaughter Swamp."

[stephbrown]

Steph represses a mighty shudder. It's not the first time someone's referred to Bruce as her dad, but it's never any less creepy and weird. "Right, sure. I bet Batman's just got loads of files on you somewhere that he didn't share." He probably does, actually, but Steph's pretty sure that this guy isn't in many of them, if he appears at all.

"Grundy," Steph mutters. "That's... not good." They're definitely gonna need backup if it's Grundy; Steph has sen the guy punch a tree off of its base. She likes her head where it is, thanks: firmly attached to the rest of her.

[not_easy_being_green]

"Solomon Grundy??" He remembers the stories his father had told about him - he and Roy had encountered him not too long ago, in fact. "What's he have to do with Gingold juice?"

Connor takes a moment to glance around the cabin... and spots a strange controller on the unconscious guard's belt. He walks over to retrieve it.

[newoutsiders]

"It's not about the gingold," Bravo tells you. He pulls from his coat what looks like a translucent pocket watch flattened into a disc in his palm. "It's about these."

[stephbrown]

Steph reaches out to take it, but hesitates. She doesn't have a clue what it is, other than round. For all she knows, it's some mystical item that's gonna zap her if she touches it.

"It's a nice one," she ventures. "I have no idea what it is, but wow, is it nice."

[newoutsiders]

He looks at you incredulously.

"No idea what it-- it's a responsometer, girl! The most incredible computer ever created by man- based on ideas that cad Magnus stole from my research, I might add."

[not_easy_being_green]

'Responsometer.' That rings a bell, and Connor suddenly understands. "Is that how they've been controlling them?" He stands up, remote in hand.

[newoutsiders]

He sneers at you derisively.

"Ha! Well, yes. But that's so little of it! You might as well say a NASA computer could beat you at checkers."

[not_easy_being_green]

"Then what else does it do?"

[newoutsiders]

"Oh, nothing special. Just GRANT THE GIFT OF LIFE!" He dramatically looks up to the sky, as if hoping for a thunderbolt to punctuate his statement. It doesn't come.

[stephbrown]

"The gift of life," Steph repeats. "So, what, if you have one you're immortal? Or does it raise the dead?"

[newoutsiders]

"It grants life to that which had none! Traditionally, that is. Magnus used these to create those damnable Metal Men, imbuing them with life and personality. I used mine to create the Plastic Perils. But... we were practically children then. We weren't thinking big enough. That's all well and good to give life to the inanimate. But... if you were to install one in the dead! Just imagine!"

[not_easy_being_green]

"Sal," Connor realizes aloud. "The man who was driving the truck - he was found dead in his apartment a few weeks ago, along with some others. That's what Grundy's been doing? He's been - what, stealing bodies, resurrecting them with this responsometer and controlling them?" He looks a little bit sick. That's horrifying.

[stephbrown]

"But then what's with the Ginkgold juice?" Steph asks. "Don't tell me that isn't related. One, my day's been bad enough, and two, that means we have more problems on our hands than I thought."

[newoutsiders]

"The responometers weren't for them! They were for him! This has never been done before. And, even under duress, I admit it's been a little thrilling to test the limits of this technology. And before he lets his goons bury that responsometer in him, he's got to make sure it works. You heroes might have forgotten me, but Grundy hadn't. Not this time around. He's been in the supervillainy game since the original Green Lantern was your age. And I suppose he was right to test it- there have been plenty of complications. That's where the gingo concentrate comes in. You see, the responsometers worked because the material we used them on was made to be fluid. Transmutable. That's not quite true of the human body, is it? So how would you get around that problem, hmm?"

[not_easy_being_green]

"Grundy? But - he already comes back. Why would he need a responsometer?"

[newoutsiders]

"Ah, see. That's the funny thing about Grundy. He always comes back- but he's never certain who he'll come back as. Sometimes he's a monster. Sometimes, a simple, brutish thug. Sometimes a manipulable child. And, rarely, just rarely, he retains the intelligence of the crime lord he was in life. It's not enough for him to come back, you see. He wants to come back as himself."

[stephbrown]

Steph blinks a few times. She... can't exactly fault Grundy for that train of thinking, even though she definitely faults him for all the crap he's done and people he's hurt to fix the problem.

She frowns. "And you've been helping him?"

[newoutsiders]

He nods over towards the unconscious guard.

"I didn't exactly have a choice," he said. "He had me abducted. It's been awful. Look at me! Smell me! Who would do this to themselves? I've been Grundy's hostage here, mixing his gingo extract and crafting these responsometers. Not that it hasn't been a delight to finally work on my dream project."

[stephbrown]

Steph nods slowly. "I'm back to wondering if we shoulda tied him up," she mutters to Connor. "Captive mad scientists are still mad scientists."

[not_easy_being_green]

"He's clearly harmless," Connor replies. More quietly, he adds, "There might be warrants out for him, though."

Connor turns to Professor Bravo. "Where have they been keeping the other captives?"

[stephbrown]

Steph shrugs. "We'd probably need a real name for a warrant search. It's always possible, though."

[newoutsiders]

He coughs loudly.

"Bravo is my real name. Dr. Gunter Bravo. And I have paid my 'debt to society.' I'll have you know I'm a model employee of WayneTech's Ex-Offender program."

[not_easy_being_green]

"Doctor Bravo. The other captives. The ones they've been experimenting on. Do you know where they are?"