Life as the BatGirl Issue # 3
Gotham Old Town – Abandoned Shop
Detective Ellen Yin felt rather silly standing out in the cold in front of a dilapidated store front. The windows were boarded up; trash and graffiti could be seen everywhere, but there were still the remains of the original sign hanging up above the front door. The sign was missing an A and an L, but it was not hard to tell that it used to say, Baby Girl.
Baby Girl had once been a big doll making company that had started on its decline when she was a kid. Despite the dolls going out of style, one of her first dolls had been a Baby Girl doll and she had fallen in love with it. She had actually been a bit of an avid collector until the company went out of business a few years later. Apparently this storefront in Gotham had been the last to close.
There was one unique thing about Baby Girl dolls. Each doll had at least one button on them that had the initials
B and
G engraved on them. The button was a sort of watermark to show that the doll had been one of theirs. The button she had seen back at the lab, she had recognized as one of those buttons, and she seriously doubted a mobster would be a fan of dolls.
As no self-important mobster would ever be caught dead with such a thing, the mere presence of the button was strange. It was not like you could just easily fake such a button either so the logical conclusion was it had come from either a collection or an old store. It was still only a hunch but Yin felt like this potential lead just might bear fruit.
Yin went up to the door and tired the doorknob, it was unlocked. Yin carefully drew her handgun, and wrenched the door open. She was greeted by the dusty remains of an abandoned storefront, strangely a few old dolls had been left behind on the shelves but aside from them there was nothing else. While there was a lot of dust and cobwebs, Yin couldn’t help but noticed there seemed to be a slightly cleaner path through the debris, leading toward the back of the store. Keeping a careful grip on her glock she crept further into the abandoned store.
It was very creepy walking through the abandoned building with the occasional doll to stare lifelessly at you from the sidelines. Ellen Yin could feel her heart rate increase with each step, the dust trying to tickle her nose and throat to make her cough or sneeze. After a minute or two she reached a door in the back, which should lead her to the back of the building, usually in a Baby Girl store there was a workshop area in the back where they would work on new dolls or repair old ones, which is what she should find if she went through.
Detective Yin noticed some light coming from the bottom of the door, there was definitely someone in the back room. With her gun in one hand she reached for the doorknob and turned the handle, once again the door was unlocked, which instantly rang alarm bells in her head. She quickly knocked the door open and charged in a few steps, gun firmly in front of her.
“Freeze! This is the police!” She shouted as she quickly took in her surroundings.
What greeted her on the other side of the door were several things: First there were several large dolls, expertly taken care of and looking as fresh and lifelike as she remembered. Second there appeared to be a fair amount of medical equipment and even a gurney in the middle of the room along with fabric and doll parts. Third was a rather rotund but large man standing next to the gurney with a rather lifelike pig mask on his face. The man had a scalpel in his hand and what appeared to be a butcher’s apron on instead of surgical attire with a decent amount of blood on it.
Yin fought the urge to gag as she realized the gurney was occupied by a man, his face being replaced by grizzly bear mask. Blood could be seen dripping from the sides of his face where the surgery had been done. Yin glared at the pig-man and made sure her finger was on the trigger and stepped further into the room to get a better look.
“Oh, what a shock I daresay! I wasn’t expecting any company for at least another hour, still a most fortuitous series of events since I had just finished the procedure.” The man carefully put the scalpel down and made sure to put his full attention on the detective.
“What did you do to him!?” Yin demanded as she tried her best to stay calm in front of the mad man while keeping an eye on her surroundings in case there were more.
“Oh? Are you interested in my work? Well yes who wouldn’t be? I was making him better of course. Admittedly he was too malformed to be properly corrected so I did the next best thing and connected him back to his animal side. Oh how we are all just animals in the end but there are those fortunate enough to reach true perfection, will a little help from my humble hands of course.”
As if on cue, another man stepped into view from further back in the shop, but his face had been replaced with that of the pure white face of a porcelain doll, though it seemed that more than just the face had been modified.
“Look at that fellow, such a marvelous work of art! With just a little help I have given him so perfect a form that even the greatest of artists would weep in shame upon seeing him!”
Detective Yin wanted to weep alright, weep for the poor soul whose body had been mutilated forever.
“Alright you sick bastard! Hands up where I can see them, same goes for him too! You’re under arrest for kidnapping, torture, and possibly murder if I can connect you to it.”
“Let’s do what the fair lady says for now.” The pig-man lifted up his arms and the doll-face did the same. “I must say detective, you could easily reach perfect yourself! A tuck here and nip there, of course I would have to do something about that face…”
“Shut up you pig! Turn around slowly!”
“Oh how rude of me! I never did introduce myself did I! Professor Pyg at your service! While I normally would acquiesce to such a fair lady’s request the thing is, you’re here at my invitation and I must take care of my guests.”
Detective Yin’s eyes widened in disbelief when she heard the cocking of a gun right behind her. But that was impossible! There was no way she could have missed someone coming in! The only things behind her were some dolls…she heard a cheerful giggle from behind and turned her head to see a small, blond doll with giant curls holding a stuffed bear, which had the barrel of a gun sticking out of its mouth.
“Hello sweetie! Now why doesn’t big sister here put the mean old gun down before someone gets a boo-boo?” The sweet little doll’s voice dripped with sugar but was laced with cyanide. Realizing she was outmaneuvered, detective Yin had no choice but to drop her gun as the small child threatened her.
Professor Pyg smiled from behind his mask as yet another masked human, this time with a wolf face, came into the room to join up with the doll-face.
“Thank you Baby-Doll, it is always marvelous to see your wonderful face, to think such perfect beauty existed in the natural world.”
“Ya ya, stuff it porky, I expect my bonus for your little trap of yours actually catching someone.” Baby-Doll kept her gun trained on Yin but she let her feelings of disgust for the professor show on her face.
“But of course, you’ll find the extra cash safely in your account by the end of the day, I would never think about going back on my word! A perfect existence such as yourself deserves every penny! Now my Dollotrons, let’s welcome our newest addition into the fold!” The wolf and doll mask quickly grabbed detective Yin who struggled for a bit but the two easily overpowered her and of course she knew a gun was still trained on her so she only slightly resisted. The doll mask also kicked the gun away into a pile of parts so there would be no getting to it.
“You know you won’t get away with this!” Yin yelled with bravado but inside she knew there was little hope, with the way everything had been going it had obviously been a trap.
“I admire your spirit but both you and I know that isn’t true. I seriously wondered if there was anyone in the GCPD who would recognize the little bobble I added to the scene. If there was, there was a 90 percent chance it would be a woman at least, which I find much easier to perfect with my craft. Low and behold my assumptions were right on the money as here I have such a moldable figure before me!”
“What’s your game here? Why go out of your way to target a member of the GCPD, you’ve already targeted the mob; pretty soon you’ll have the entire city on your back!” Yin tried to reason her way through the situation to see if she could learn Pyg’s game, as it turned out Pyg was more than happy to oblige.
“You see my lovely cherub, once everyone knows about my talents they will start to flock to me! Right now I am but a hidden gem of an artist, lost in the filth of the city! But, as my talents start to spread and be well known, I will soon be recognized for having the gift of giving people the perfection they have always been searching for! Before long the entire city of Gotham will be begging for a chance to save them from their accused incomplete existence! As Pygmalion did before me, I have been gifted with the ability to right the wrongs of the perfect form and make as many people as possibly as magnificent as the pantheon itself! Ah, this burden I must bear, I must share my gift with the world as quickly as possible!”
Ellen Yin's heart sank deep in her chest as she realized just what kind of trouble she was in. This Professor Pyg was a complete madman whose sanity had left him long ago. Despite this, his surgery skills and his sharp mind were still working, which made him infinitely more dangerous.
With Ellen Yin completely at Professor Pyg’s mercy, Baby-Doll started to walk to the back of the room, not bothering to train her gun on the detective anymore.
“Hey pork-chop my work is done so I’m just going to go home. I have such adoring fans waiting for me after all and I wouldn’t want to disappoint them.”
“Seeing you leave so soon pains my heart, but I understand Baby. May the joy of perfection be with you till the end of time!”
“Ya, sure whatever…what the?!” Without warning a black object whirled through the air and struck the lights, throwing the room into darkness. Baby-Doll panicked and dived for cover as sounds of a fight broke out where detective Yin was. Professor Pyg groped around in the dark, trying to find the switch for more lights as a crash and various grunts could be heard in the darkness. It was only a few seconds but he managed to find the switch and put on a second, dimmer set of lights.
Before him were the sprawled out forms of his two dollotrons and a woman in a bat cowl helping up detective Yin. Professor Pyg’s eyes grew wide in delight as he took her figure in.
“Well well, I did not expect to see a bat in the belfry! My my, I can certainly see the potential in this one! It would only take a little work to perfect one such as you, I can guarantee it!”
Batgirl stared down the pig-man with a scowl.
“I don’t want any part of your so called perfection. I’ll make sure to put a stop to your nightmare once and for all! You'll pay for ruining these people's lives!”Certain the detective was alright, Batgirl let go of her and started to walk toward Professor Pyg, more than ready to fry some bacon.
“It really is a shame that so few people appreciate my talents, but I’m sure you’ll be a believer soon enough.”
Barbara clenched her fists, she was going to have that pig
squeal before long.
Lord Wraith
