” Selina shoved the handcuffs into Vincent’s hands.
“Whatever you’re planning, do it now.
My life is in your hands.” “What about you?” Vincent asked.
“I’ll buy us time.” A cold and determined look appeared in Catwoman’s eyes.
She tossed the borrowed gun back to Gordon, her other hand sliding behind her waist to get her long, leather whip.
“Captain Gordon, I am going to need your support.” Gordon noded, slightly confused.
He was still just a detective, yet every single person down here kept calling him Captain.
Still, the title had a nice ring to it.
If he ever actually made captain, the very first thing he’d do would be to purge the goddamn cancer inside the department, declare an absolute war on the Gotham mobs, and drag every last one of those sons of bitches into a cell.
But before any of that, he would make sure his daughter left this goddamn city for good.
“Count on it.
I’ve got your back,” Gordon said, his deep, gravelly voice carrying an unspoken weight that gave off absolute reliability.
Selina charged.
The barbed leather whip tore through the air, making a violent, deafening sonic crack before slamming directly into the charging Bio-Human’s face.
*Crack!* The strike hit the monster’s shoulder.
The grey-green skin split instantly, spraying a fine mist of blood and shredded tissue, exposing the white bone beneath the meat.
An injury like that would have ended the fight against any ordinary man, but against the thick, frenzied Bio-Human, it barely considered as an inconvenience.
It didn’t matter.
Selina’s only goal was to draw their attention away from Vincent.
The pain did the trick.
The blinded monster shifted its attention to Catwoman and charged at her, planning to crush her with its huge body.
In terms of pure strength, Selina was nowhere near fighters like Batman, Bane, or Deathstroke.
But when it came to speed and agility, very few people in Gotham could keep up with her.
Jumping, flipping, and twisting, she moved gracefully between the paths of the two monsters.
The loud crashes of their massive bodies colliding echoed through the drainage shaft like constant thunder.
In one smooth move, Selina wrapped her whip around a monster’s neck.
Using the recoil, she launched herself high into the air, landing perfectly on the beast’s massive shoulders.
The second Bio-Human caught the sound, its massive, hairy hand swinging around in a brutal, blind backhand aimed straight at her head.
Selina used the creature’s shoulder as a jumping point, executing a secondary leap that cleared the incoming attack by a mere fraction of an inch.
She escaped, but the monster she had been standing on wasn’t so lucky.
Before it could even reach up to grab her, its packmate’s massive fist slammed directly into its face.
The violent shockwave of the impact rippled through the shaft.
The unlucky Bio-Human was throwen dozens of feet across the grate, its heavy frame slamming into the concrete wall with enough force to destroy the structure.
The deafening rumble made everyone’s ears ring.
Watching from the corner, Vincent’s heart felt like it was leaping out of his throat.
He knew Selina wasn’t pumped full of super-soldier serum or bio-engineered modifications.
At this level of constant dodging, her muscles would quickly tire, and exhaustion would catch up with her.
She couldn’t keep going much longer.
The situation was worse than he expected.
In mid-air, a sharp cramp hit Selina’s calf.
She lost her balance and crashed hard onto the wet metal grate.
Her leg was cramping, and the impact had severely twisted her ankle.
She grabbed her leg, unable to pull herself up.
The remaining Bio-Human didn’t show any intention of mercy.
It raised its massive fists high, locking them together into a heavy club to smash the trapped woman into a pile of flesh.
In that second, Gordon moved.
His marksmanship wasn’t as precise as Bullock’s, so he chose to close the distance.
The man tore off his suit jacket, lunged forward, and executed a desperate, sliding across the slick grate, firing three consecutive shots from his knees.
*Bang!* The first bullet went straight through the Bio-Human’s right eye.
But as Catwoman had already proven, a single shot to the eye wasn’t enough to take down this monster.
*Bang!* Gordon was still sliding forward, his gun smoking as he fired a second shot.
The hot bullet spun through the smoke and gunpowder and buried itself in the bloody hole left by the first shot.
The bullet finally broke through the skull, cracking the inner bone.
But the monster still didn’t stop.
Blood and black fluid sprayed from its mouth, yet its huge fists stayed raised.
*Bang!* The final gunshot shattered the air.
The friction against the steel mesh had torn a large patch of skin from Gordon’s legs, and blood soaked through his ripped pants.
But it worked.
Thanks to the path created by the first two shots, the third bullet met no resistance and went straight into the Bio-Human’s brain stem, destroying its nervous system completely.
*Boom!* The massive mountain of flesh collapsed like a felled tree.
Gordon remained kneeling, his smoking service weapon still raised.
Cold sweat ruined his neatly combed hair, his wet shirt collar clinging tightly to his neck.
His legs were shaking so violently he couldn’t even stand.
A wave of delayed terror washed up his spine.
He had only three bullets left, and he had deliberately thrown himself into the monster’s kill zone to make them count.
If that final shot hadn’t scrambled its brain, he didn’t even want to imagine what would be left of him.
*I almost never got to see Barbara again…* “Thank you, Captain Gordon,” Selina said as she limped over and held out her hand to him.
Gordon offered a tired smile, using her hand to pull his bruised body up.
“I should be thanking you, sweetheart.
You look barely older than my daughter, yet you’re down here dealing with these goddamn freaks.” “Your daughter must be proud of you.” As she spoke, something weird flickered deep within Selina’s eyes.
Watching this bruised, exhausted father risk everything to protect a stranger made her think of Carmine Falcone; the man who had abandoned his own dautghter without looking back.
They played the same role, yet the difference was night and day.
Selina hated to admit it, but a bitter spike of jealousy flared in her chest toward a girl named Barbara she had never even met.
But the real crisis wasn’t over.
The Bio-Human that had been slammed into the wall was groaning, its fingers twitching as it recovered from the shock.
Worse, they had no bullets left to stop it.
“Get behind me.
It’s my turn to hold the line,” Gordon growled, stepping in front of Catwoman.
No matter how much he hated leaving his life unfinished, it was time to do his goddamn job as a cop.
“Cut the heroic shit and get over here!
I’ve got a plan!” Vincent’s shout echoed from behind.
Gordon turned and saw him crouching next to the corpse of the first fallen Bio-Human, fastening the handcuffs to a thick part of the metal grate.
“Selina!
Toss me the whip!” The thief didn’t hesitate and flicked her wrist, sending the leather handle into his hand.
On the other side of the shaft, the surviving Bio-Human pulled itself out of the crater, beating its chest as it prepared for a final deadly attack on the remaining targets.
“Run toward me!
Now!” Vincent yelled, picking up the whip.
His original plan was to loop the leather length through the anchored handcuffs, tie it securely around the dead monster’s limbs, and then trick the living freak into crashing into the corpse, using that massive force to tear the grate open.
But plans usually don’t work out.
As Vincent raised his head, he realized the surviving Bio-Human was already getting close to Gordon and Selina.
One swing of those massive arms would could kill them both before his trap could even be set.
There was no time to think things through.
Vincent did something completely crazy.
He started jumping up and down, clapping his hands hard, and letting out a series of strange, high-pitched screams.
“Ah!
Hey!
Over here, you ugly piece of shit!” What Vincent did was basically asking to be attacked, and the monster instantly focused all its attention on him.
The Bio-Human stopped chasing the two officers and turned toward Vincent, charging like a damn train.
Seeing its twisted face, flying saliva, and bulging muscles, Vincent had a terrifying hallucination.
It no longer looked like a bio-weapon, but like a huge angry grizzly bear coming to kill him.