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While mowing his backyard, Dylan Battles reminisces on his old life. Thinking to himself, that his old life was a dangerous and scary... he was the best. Dylan was the most sought after "go-to" tech guy for psychotic killers and sadistic megalomaniacs. Dylan continues to remember that he used to live in Gotham, Pittsburgh , San Deigo, that he has faced pain, exposure and humiliation. "I miss my old life." Dylan thinks as he is snapped out of his daydream by his wife yelling his name.

Dylan puts his shirt back on and walks into his house stating "Scream a little louder next time. They didn't hear you in Los Feliz." Linda says, "You have a visitor." "Who?" Dylan asks, "A female visitor. A pretty female visitor." She answers. "Really? Cool." Dylan says with a smirk on his face. Linda says under her breath... "Bastard." Dylan begins to wonder who it could be at the door, hoping that it isn't that new girl from work, the last thing he needed was a stalker. Dylan answers the door saying, "Hi, can I help yo--?!" Just then Kate turns around and says, "Hello Rich-- I mean 'Dylan'. It's been a long time, huh?" Kate begins to tell him that it took her awhile, but she remembers who he was, besides the worst busboy in the greater L.A area. Dylan asks Kate why she was there and Kate responds that it wouldn't take long. Dylan begins to ask a series of questions, as Linda looks from around the corner, "What do you want? Is it Queen Bee? Did she track me down? Or Harvey Dent? Jeez, I have a family now and..." "My god, Dylan, you area a tense one, huh?" Kate says interrupting him. Dylan shuts his door and walks out on the porch and begins to tell Kate that his wife knows nothing of his past life and that he thought he would be safe in LA -- or at least safer than Gotham or Metropolis. Kate tells Dylan that she likes his new name, Dylan Battles, it's a name and a sentence. Dylan asks Kate if one of his former bosses hadn't tracked him down, why was she there. Kate suggests that they discuss it elsewhere as Linda peers out the window.

Town Tavern. Dylan and Kate sit down in a booth, in the nearly empty bar. Dylan pulls out a pack of cigarettes and starts to pull out one when Kate asks him "You think it's wise to break the law on front of an Officer of the Court?" "You want one?" Dylan asks, Kate says sure. Dylan asks Kate what was going on as he lights her cigarette, which Kate responds "You... are going to help me." Dylan asks how and Kate waits until the waitress delivers two beers to them. After the waitress leaves, Dylan tells Kate, "Look, I told you and the witness protection guys everything about every bad guy I worked for. That was the deal you offered, remember? I've been out of the loop for so long now, my sources are all in Arkham or Blackgate. Or dead." Kate responds "This is more of a personal favor." Dylan gets a smirk on his face, "A personal favor. Sounds sorta kinky, sorta hot." Kate tells Dylan to cool down, that she likes her men without a criminal record and less body hair. She tells him that she had him on "different counts with 15 of the most prolific metavillains." Kate went on saying that instead of prosecuting him, she made the deal that allowed him to have a civilian life. "Now I'm calling in your I.O.U." Kate tells Dylan that she needs his technical expertise. Dylan starts to get up from the booth says that he wasn't going to deactivate another smylex bomb. Kate tries to stop him, but he leaves the tavern saying not interested.

Dylan stands in an alleyway, when Kate's BMW pulls into the alley knocking over a garbage can, startling Dylan. Dylan begins to yell at Kate, telling her that he isn't going to help her, "I did once and look where it got me! I'd have a better life if I was in maximum dodging super-powered prison rape in the showers!" Kate tells Dylan that she wasn't there to ask, she was there to tell him what he will do. Dylan begins to think that what Kate is doing is a set-up and asks her if it is. Kate tells Dylan that the Feds aren't interested in him anymore. "Okay then, talk." Dylan tells Kate. Kate tosses Dylan a newspaper stating first a backstory. Dylan looks and sees a picture of Shadow Thief and Manhunter from their last fight. "Yeah, another Superhero, so?" Dylan retorts. Kate walks around to the trunk of her car and opens it telling Dylan that she had something that she wants him to look at. Dylan peers into the trunk and his face lights up with surprise. "Think you could fix it?" Kate asks Dylan. Dylan asks if 'this' (referring to the picture in the paper) is you, and Kate returns "What do you think?" Dylan asks Kate if killing doesn't conflict of interest with her day job, which Kate replies, "I think of it as overtime." Dylan asks where she got all of this stuff, that "some of it looks" -- "Familiar? Lets just say it's a perk from my 9-5" Kate tells Dylan.

Kate continues to tell Dylan that he will fix, build and design whatever she may need, whenever she tells him. Dylan begins to say that most of the stuff he could fix blindfolded, but the "staff... this is intriguing." Just then Kate grabs the other end of the broken staff and flips Dylan up over her shoulder and into the wall. Dylan yells, "what the hell was that for?!?!" "I don't like weapons pointed in my direction." Kate tells him. Dylan then tells Kate that since they are sharing personal quirks, he is not a fan of full body cement burns, and then asks if super-strength is one of her powers. Kate tells him, "Not that I know of. You're just a wuss." Dylan tells Kate that she has a messed-up way of asking for help, in which Kate tells him that's there was no 'asking', that Dylan was going to be her "Mr. Fix-it", my "Q", whatever he wants to call it. Kate continues telling Dylan that its going to be their secret and that she would hate to be at his house when his wife finds out about his past life. "A Federal Lawyer is gonna blackmail a protected witness into re-breaking the law?" Dylan asks Kate. She tells him, "It's for a good cause." Dylan then ponders for a minute, thinking that he goes from freakin' psycho villains to psycho lawyers. He continues thinking that she has access to all sorts of cool tech and that he had been out of the game for... no, I can't... Dylan tells Kate that he will think about it. He then tells her to take him home.

When Kate drops off Dylan, he begins to hope that his wife is asleep but sees her shadow in the door window. "Uh, hi honey." Dylan tells Linda. "So, are you planning on telling me who the whore was?" Linda asks Dylan bluntly. "Linda, she wasn't a--" "You think I'm stupid?" and Linda slaps Dylan across the face. Linda continues to yell at Dylan saying, "I let all the other women go ignored 'cuz none of them showed up at my front-goddamn-door!" Dylan tries to calm her down and tells her "Baby, the neighbors..." "What? You afraid they'll find out what a cheatin', heartless jerk you are?!?" Linda yells at him walking into the house. Dylan turns to his neighbor and says, "Don't forget to bring popcorn next time Mrs. Ramirez." and walks into the house. Dylan asks Linda what she was doing, which Linda replies "It's obvious there is a part of your life you don't wasn't to share with us, so I'm making it easy for you. I'm leaving." "Watch out, Linda. Your stigmata are dripping on the carpet." Dylan says rubbing the bridge of his nose. Linda tells Dylan to joke all he wants, then tells him goodbye. Dylan looks out the window as Linda drives away thinking to himself, I guess its over. Then he smiles a bit, Yeah, I guess it is. Dylan grabs a beer and walks to his shed in his backyard, and starts to unlock it then walks inside. He walks over to a panel hidden behind a plug outlet and begins to put in a numerical code. Behind his wall of tools, a secret room appears.

While driving on the freeway, Kate's cell phone rings. "Look, I--" "Careful, Dylan, you give me the wrong answer and I'm one keystroke away from e-mailing your file to every super-villain fansite on the net." Kate says interrupting Dylan. "You're a charmer aren't you?" Dylan asks. Kate tells Dylan that she is not his friend and that she will never be, and that he will either be working for her or spend what remaining time he has running from super-powered trash he used to work for. "Okay, okay... I'm in." Dylan tells her as he looks at his real workshop.

Back at Kate's office, she is looking at a list of villains still at large on her computer, thinking to herself that she didn't realize how many of these freaks are running around. She continues to think that she is taking in another full time job when she hears a couple of staff members talking in the hall. Kate pops her head out her door and asks, "What's up?" One of the staff members says to Kate "Didn't you hear?" "Hear what?" Kate replies.





"Firestorm. He was murdered.




A verdict of death.And they say the Shadow Thief did it!"

Characters:

Dylan (Rich) Battles (waiter at the restaurant)

Dylan's past employers:

Harvey Dent
Killer Frost
Black Manta
Queen Bee (Not shown)
Unnamed Henchmen

Super-Hero's shown in flashback:

Gotham - pain
Batman
Robin
Batgirl
Nightwing

Pittsburgh - exposure
Firestorm

San Deigo - humiliation
Aquaman

Linda Battles (Dylan's Wife)
Baby Battles (Son - name not given)
Kate Spencer / Manhunter (LA District Attorney)

Unnamed Waitress at Town Tavern
Mrs. Ramirez
Unnamed Staff at Kate's Office

Notes:

The Batgirl shown in flashback appears to be Barbara Gordon. To my knowledge she was not Batgirl when Tim Drake became or has been Robin.
Also Barbara was not Batgirl when Nightwing took the current look.

Issue summary written by: glguardian (Tad Dupre)