Pain. Excruciating pain.
Not just physical pain, but mental pain as well. All Mindy could see was darkness, and from within it came the emotionless murmurs of countless people.
It was like several thousand people suddenly moving into the room next door in the middle of the night, all speaking quietly. You could not make out what they were saying, but once their voices blended together, they became unbearably noisy.
Buzz, buzz, buzz. It was as though a swarm of huge flies kept circling inside her head. She wanted to break free, but she simply could not. Her body was beyond her control.
She wondered if she was about to die. Her mind was clear, yet she could not connect with her own body. Some Vegetative State patients who woke up had apparently described similar experiences.
But then she remembered that Batwoman was still by her side, and her worries receded like the tide. She believed in that dark hero.
Once she had faith, the pain became easier to endure. Gradually, she began to feel sensation in her fingertips, and then the muscles in her face started responding.
So she smiled.
For other people, being tortured might be agonizing, but Big Daddy had said that feeling pain was also a kind of pleasure. She should not lose that pleasure.
For a Superhero, experiencing pain was perfectly normal, just as Batwoman possessed extraordinarily strong willpower.
So she smiled. Though only her fingers and face could move, and her entire body hurt as if she had been run over by a truck, she could treat it as a unique experience and enjoy it.
If other people did not become Superheroes, they would not get shot by villains. But she was different. Being shot was one more life experience than others had. Was