Calling Cardinal

No Good Deed

I wake in a bright, glass box and in extreme pain. I'm stretched out on a cot. An IV extends from my arm up to a drip. It slowly extracts my blood for some deranged experiment, I'm sure. I rip the needle from my flesh and gradually stand.

Every inch feels like my spine is about to crush under my own body weight, but I refuse to die here. Once I'm on my own two feet, I steady myself to scream.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a woman's voice says from the shadows. An older lady, perhaps in her 70's, appears in golden attire. "This is a cage made especially for you. Should you scream, the soundwaves will reverberate and you'll get a taste of your own medicine."

"Katherine, I presume?"

Her grin is a sinister one. "How did you guess?"

"Penguin told me."

"Yes, so I expected. I must confess that's why you're here, Cardinal. Your meeting with Frank Gordon was unauthorized. We need to know what you learned."

"Look, all I learned is that my uncle, Dad, and Thomas Wayne's dad was in your little club. That's it."

"You must've learned more than that."

I throw up my hands in innocence. "I'm being honest."

She nods while thinking it over. "We shall see. Try to rest. You'll need your strength. Good day, Cardinal."

I pace around the box. Oswald will find me. By now, I'm sure he's already informed Jim. Jim's probably already gotten in touch with Uncle Frank, and they're on their way to me. I'll be fine. I've been in worse positions.

The hours slip away from me. I find myself in bouts of waking and sleeping. My thirst and hunger grow. My lips start to crack with dehydration. My last meal was at the diner with Uncle Frank. That must've at least happened 24 hours ago.

Katerine returns with Talon, who's looking a little worse for wear. Hugo Strange trails behind them.

"Ah, my pretty songbird."

"They've got you on their payroll, Strange?"

Talon enters the cage. I imagine he's going to try and subdue me once again.

"My dear, I have always been on their payroll."

What? Fear forces me to the edge of the cage. "Always?"

Talon's fingers grip my throat, and I succumb to the darkness.

I awake with all my limbs tied down to the cot. The IV is re-inserted into my veins. Doctor Strange talks quietly with Katherine overhead. Talon stands at the foot of my bed.

"What are you doing to me?" I groan.

Katherine speaks first. "We're correcting the mistakes we made the past."

I struggle to keep my eyes open. I must be drugged. "What mistakes? What are you talking about?"

"In this state, you're of no use to us. Not when you remember the past we pried you from."

"I'm sorry. I don't understand."

"The court has watched you for quite a while. We just needed a way to grow closer to you, my dear."

"When did you start watching me? What do you want with me?" I ask.

"We want you to be one of us! We want you to take the role you were reborn to play."

"I was reborn from the mind of a mad man. Not some secret organization."

The leader of the court sighs, pitifully. "Nothing in your life has occurred by mistake, Cardinal. The organization has orchestrated it all. It's high time you realized that."