DC Infinity - Animal Man

#14
Cityscapes Part 1
By Ed Ainsworth

That was the last box in this area. Buddy wiped some sweat from his forehead, looking over his shoulder at his wife, who stood in the doorway of another nook of the Cave. The place was massive, a bat-cave that was no longer in use from the Batman, now that Batman wasn't a functioning part of the world, as such.

There was enough room for everyone to have their own quarters, though some opted to co-habit, like Metamorpho and Lady Quark. Buddy was really surprised by how much Tashana had changed (The fact she let everyone call her that, was a great indicator of how much she had softened under the Crisis and also her relationship with Rex).

The main area was large enough to have a large computer display and consoles, where Rita tended to sit herself these days. Buddy had never seen someone with so much potential and purpose feel and act so rudderless. Still, she was good with Maxine. Maxine seemed to really find some comfort from Rita's words and her face. The meeting table was also something new, and the large white board with a list of things to deal with on it. It seemed the list was growing every day, and the operatives list was ever expanding. The surreal nature of the job Buddy was tasked with had caught up to him a few minutes earlier, as he took a momentary respite from his moving boxes to talk on the phone to Detective Chimp and Rex the Wonder dog about some meteor falls and possible liaisons with the Bureau of Amplified Animals about a number of Evolutionary events, and possibly helping them find the re-establishment of the springs that helped give them their immortality.

He smiled at the thought of it, looking towards Ellen.

“You okay, Honey?” he asked, a smirk on his face.

“YOU HAD A BABY WITH SOMEONE ELSE? A LITTLE GIRL AND YOU DIDN'T EVEN TELL ME?” Ellen yelled, throwing her hands into the air, as tears rolled down her cheeks. Her fists threw out, slapping him across the face and punching him repeatedly. She was a fiery one was Ellen, holding her own in most difficult situations, she was hardy, but this had to be one that dragged her down and upset her. Probably coupled with the fact that her house had been destroyed, she was put into mortal danger by a mental gay magician and her daughter had been talking to Buddy's illegitimate child without her knowledge of it's existence.

Buddy's now puffed face made it difficult for him to hold this conversation now, but he soldiered on.

“Damn it, Ellen. This wasn't exactly something I planned, you know? It just happened. There was a lot of turmoil in those days.”

“THE ONLY TURMOIL WAS IN YOUR PANTS, BUDDY!”

“Well, there's no need for that sort of language is there, Ellen. After all, you're the one that left me for another woman.” He thrust her an accusing look. If he was going down he was taking her with him.

“Don't you DARE bring that up, Baker. Don't you DARE! You LEFT me!”

Buddy got to his feet, throwing his arms in the air as a gesture of disbelief.

“Left you? LEFT YOU! I WAS A MONSTER! YOU WOULDN'T COME NEAR ME!”

“How could I? You were a monster, not a trace of the man I loved in there.”

“Oh, am I still a Monster, Ellen? Am I still a beast you couldn't love?”

“This isn't about that Buddy. It's about you betraying me!”

“Try and stay on topic, Ellen. It's more than that, you betrayed me and I don't think you're going to run off to the nearest gay bar.”

“BUDDY! That's not going to happen.”

“Isn't it? Because lets be honest here, you left me because I became something more than a Man. I let you touch the Red when we made love, and it scared you, it scared you more when I became the Red, and then you went off to find yourself a bit of secret eye action, didn't you?”

Ellen stood, seething, watching Buddy, equally angry, storm out of the room.

“Where are you going?”

“City. With Traci. Don't wait up, Oh, by the way, Rita isn't gay, but I'm sure you could try and turn her.”

Ellen pushed a box load of possessions off the desk and onto the floor, screaming expletives at Buddy as he pulled his mask over his face and grabbed his jacket, pulling a mobile out of his pocket and dialing for Traci.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Buddy got off the bus, stretching and cracking his back. He'd been riding around the city for the last hour with Traci 13. She was a nice girl, he hoped Maxine turned out to be a bit like her. She was confident and definitely in tune with who she was and what she wanted from life. It was refreshing to see a teenager who was certain on her path, and not treading water.

“So,” he said, awkwardly. He felt like he was her father or something, rather than a work colleague.

“So,” she said, equally vaguely.

“If you're going to ask me about Martin and my relationship and how I figure into Firestorm, then you're asking for a lot of information in a short amount of time. The answer is yes, it's love. I know he's older than me, but I don't care.”

“Right then.” Buddy answered, stuffing his hands into his pocket and hunching his back.

“I don't get the Firestorm thing, but we're part of it, it's a composite being, and it needs me for some reason rather than anyone else. I think it's the love connection that makes it stronger.”

“Okay.”

“So, what we looking for?” Buddy asked after a few minutes of silent walking.

“Put simply,” Traci said, holding the door of the soup kitchen open for Buddy, and following him inside. “Something is trying to exhort itself over the Urbanisation of the city. I don't know what It is, but I have a rough idea.” She walked towards the back doors, a “staff area only” sign hung on the door. She pushed through, and Buddy followed out into the back area.

“What is all this Traci?”

“This is where I work from – Where better for an Urbomancer to practice her arts from than where the cities heart truly is.”

Buddy snorted, and looked around. The place was pretty rank looking and covered in mold, peeling wall paper and smelt of maggotts.

“Traci, should you really be staying in he...”

She moved her arms and the entire room changed, the smell was gone, it was shiny, polished concrete, walls covered in blue-prints of the city, buildings, streets, subways, even postal routes. Something sang to him, and he realised there were speakers everywhere, the sound of traffic, and shop doors, foot-falls on the pavements above as well as the announcements of the subways, bus stations and police-radios.

“This is my home, Buddy,” she said, sitting down and picking up a piece of metal, something she stroked silently.

“What's that?”

“I have totems for every city I visit, something I can connect to, like if you wanted a bird power, you'd automatically reach for Eagle or something, if I need to talk to New York, I touch this original piece of the Statue of Liberty, or if I want Washington, this chunk of the Washington Memorial.”

“Wow.” Buddy rubbed the back of his head, taking his jacket off and sitting down.

“It's all a bit beyond me, I think.”

“Says the man who can turn into animals and got his powers from Aliens.” She said with a smirk, pushing him a camping hob, and a kettle.

“Make tea. Then we'll talk.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zauriel stood on the top of the Cave mouth, or rather one of the cave mouths. The system where the Animal Men, as they were calling themselves in jest, opened up to the world. He looked down at the crying woman before him, and chastised himself that as an angel, he should have more to say and comfort her.

Folding his wings behind himself, he walked down the verge to Ellen and sat next to her, putting his arm on her shoulder and sitting down next to her.

“Be at peace, Ellen Baker. Every marriage has their trials.” He said, with a tiny smile on his face, one of those all knowing smiles that pissed Ellen off even more.

She turned away from him, shrugging Zauriel's arm off her shoulders. He let it fall into his lap and sighed deeply.

“I never was very good at this, Ellen. I left my home in the Pax Dei to be with my mortal love, and I couldn't even do that correctly. My words of advice are as hollow as my chest.” He hung his head, as Ellen turned to him, taking his hand gently.

“It's not you Zauriel..It's nice to have someone be honest with me for a change.” She offered him a puffy eyed smile, and returned to her gazing over the verge. “It's just, Buddy is so focused on what's happening now, he's forgotten about me. When he first came back from...I don't know, space or wherever he was for that year, he was my Buddy, he made love to me the way he used too and we had each other, but this quest, and that Invasion has slowly taken him from me, and Cliff, and even Maxine. She spends more time with his love child in that...creepy meat-womb thing she's in and I can't...I don't have powers, Zauriel. I'm the only normal person.”

“We're all normal people, under it all, Ellen. You just have a different way to cope.” He said with a smile.

“They have the powers of animals and beetles, and others have powers of chemicals, size, and various others. I myself, am an Angel, but you Ellen, you have something far more powerful than that.” He touched her shoulder gently with his other hand, and sighed, gazing into her eyes.

“You have a heart, Ellen, and that is more important than anything else.”

Ellen blushed and put her head on Zauriel's shoulder.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Something is attacking the homeless, Buddy,” Traci said, holding a cup of Green tea between her hands and sipping it gently.

“Something?” He asked, his eyebrows furrowing underneath his mask, as he stared down at the bits floating in the green liquid.

“Yes, and I think I know what it is,” She said, taking a final sip from her drink.

“Oh. Why didn't you tell me before?”

“Because I needed to ask the City itself. Metropolis, this city, is more than just a home for Superman. He doesn't touch every element of it, that's why it has people like Steel, and Power Girl and Gangbuster.”

“Well, what is it?”

“I think it's...” Before Traci could reply to Buddy, her sanctum was invaded. Huge creatures burst through the walls, tearing through the polished concrete and spraying decorated granite onto Buddy and Traci. The materials passed harmlessly through Traci's body, this was her place of power after all, but Buddy was taken by surprise, hit in the back and the side with large chunks of substrate and powdered in dust and debris. He hit the ground hard, as Traci lifted her hands to defend herself.

Buddy managed to roll onto his back, to look at the creatures before them. A giant Rat-Man, what looked like a Tabby Cat-woman, A pigeon-man, and a giant, angry looking woodlouse. Buddy reached into the Red for something to help him push the rubble off his body, but he found himself boxed out. The Red didn't want him accessing it's power.

This was the first time Buddy felt a ...consciousness behind the Red, something other than himself and the Animal Masters, and it felt drenched in blood and instinct.

“Traci...I can't...” He reached out for her, as the creatures charged forwards towards her. She uttered something under her breath and sank into the floor, pulling Buddy with her. As his head went under the surface he held his breath and prayed for the first time in a long time that he wasn't going to die in Concrete.

The creatures raged above, bursting through the walls into the Soup kitchen and biting every homeless person, and volunteer they could get their teeth into. Every bite moved the infection onto the next host, transforming them into creatures like themselves, or similar. Mice, Rats, Pigeons, Smaller Birds, Moths, Woodlice, Cats, Dogs, Parrots, Snakes, Lizards, Eagles. They all presented themselves in some form or another in this homeless shelter until no human was left, then they sat, all of them, cross legged on the ground, and began to chant in a way that was human, but with animal voices and guttural growls.

Traci pulled Buddy from under the road surface by the front of his shirt, and onto the pavement, where he gasped for breath and coughed, hurt from his experiences inside Traci's home.

“What the hell happened?” he asked, hoping Traci might know.

“They attacked us, and infected the homeless people. My sanctum is gone.” She said, with a slight twinge of sadness.

“Traci,” Buddy said, getting to his feet unsteadily. “I'm sorry.”

“So am I, Buddy.” She pulled a mail-box out off the street effortlessly, and hit him square in the chest with it.

“So am I.”

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Next Issue: Forced out of the Red, and hit by his work colleague with a mail box, just what IS Traci's angle?

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