Just a little push (a batman fanfiction)

Chapter One: Chemical Change

The factory was dark inside with only a select few lights flickering making the winding hallways and corridors filled with enormous pipes manageable to get through. I still ran into the stray pipe here and there once even a jagged edge tearing my shirt and cutting into my skin with a sharp stinging sensation.

The building echoed and one pathway melded into another and I quickly found myself lost but that's not what had my heart pounding. The sound of my dad's bellows behind me somewhere in this enormous hollow building and an occasional gunshot made me worry. I wasn't sure if I was really going to be able to get away from him this time, he was wearing out like he normally did.

He seemed more riled up then he had ever been before that's how I knew this couldn't just be the whiskey he'd definitely had taken something else. He'd never ventured beyond the whiskey before and I'd always been able to get him to calm down or give up before.

I finally came out into a large open room with giant vats of chemicals lining it wall to wall and the room glowed with some sort of ghastly green glow. It was clear the stench of this place sourced from this room and looking up I saw a catwalk above barely distinguishable in the darkness but it's metals shinning in the chemical glow.

For a moment it felt as though I was being watch but a quick glance around proved that there was noone and nothing here. That's when my father tore into the room from across the way stumbling clumsily and almost loosing his footing.

"Phoebe!!!" He growled at me baring his yellow stained teeth eyes locking on me once more.

Before either of us could move one of the old pipes next to my father rumbled and spat out some sort of gas into his face. He waved his arms around his face throwing away both his bottle and the gun as he gagged on the smoke choking.

"Dad...?" I asked hesitantly a little worried as he hacked and coughed falling to his knees.

His eyes darted back up to meet me but they were wide and crazed and he let out a yelp before scrambling backwards away from me. "Who... who are you?" He squeaked

"It's me dad..." I said a little bewildered, "It's Phoebe."

"You're not my daughter!" He snarled rising a horrible mixture of fear and hatred on his face, "Your some sort of monster!" He lurched forward towards me taking me by surprise. I shot away towards the later nestled in the far side of the room to the cat walk and began climbing when his firm grip caught my ankle roughly.

"OW." I cried kicking him panicked with my free foot, "Get off!" I screamed as he grunted trying to block my kicks with his hand but his drunken reflexes were slowed and lacking. Finally I kicked myself free as he stumbled backwards away from the latter and I began pushing myself upwards heart pounding in my ears my ankle throbbing painfully.

"Stupid bitch!" He cried as he flung himself at the latter making the thing rattle and creek as he tried to push himself upwards after me. I reached the cat walk realizing how truly narrow it was and how very little the guards on it were. I glanced down the hair on the back of my neck raising as I noticed the vats were all uncovered and I swallowed realizing how horrible easy it would be to fall into one.

I was paralyzed caught between my fear of falling and my perusing father and I could feel that feeling.. that horrible feeling that always happened when I got overly stressed or scared. Not wanting to test if the walk could withstand it I turned back to the latter as my father clumsily climbed atop the catwalk to face me his face warped into a snarl.

"Dad... it's happening again, I have to.." I began trying to reason with him as he twisted my blond hair into his beefy fingers and ripped me towards him.

"Shut up." He snarled, "I'm putting an end to you once and for all you little beast." His hand was extremely steady for how drunk he was and he pulled me by my hair teetering over the edge of the catwalk.

"Dad stop it." I gasped staring at the giant vats beneath me with wide eyes.

Before he could say another word before I could coax him to let me back onto the catwalk I felt a terrible pain ripping through me. Once it reached the outside of me a loud boom shook the catwalk dislodging it from its rusted supports. I watched in horror as everything around me seemed to move in fast forwards but I didn't miss a single thing.

The explosion that had ripped through me severed my father's hand from his arm, burned, and injured him quite terribly. We both fell with the catwalk his screams echoing in my ears seconds before I found myself entirely engulfed inside a chemical vat below.

I pushed myself to the top of the vat gagging at the wretched smell trying to claw my way back out of it trying get the burning chemicals off of my skin. I could feel the sensation of my powers bubbling to the surface again in my panic but this time felt different then all the times before.

The cat walk had knocked one of the other vats over and chemicals covered the ground and I could barely make out the limp form of my father crushed beneath the giant metal beams. I took a sharp breath and just screamed into towards the ceiling the sound echoing horribly around my as my powers burst through me with more force then ever before.

It was as though my body were being blown apart into millions of tiny little pieces and then pulled back together within a matter of seconds. I blinked back my surprise when I looked around me and the factory had been destroyed as though a bomb had been detonated in it's core. Nothing was left standing and I found myself in a little crater on the cement ground staring at the scorch marks and the destruction around me staring at my trembling hands.

One thing was abundantly clear to me as I stared at my shaking hands my breath catching in my throat and head reeling in the events of the night. My powers had become more powerful more dangerous than ever and I had no idea still how to control it.