"I'm putting my life in your hands"

Selina pressed the handcuffs into Qin Wei's hand.

"Whatever you've got in mind, do it. I'm putting my life in your hands!"

"What about you?"

"I'll buy you time!"

A flash of grim resolve crossed Catwoman's eyes. She handed the gun back to Gordon, then drew a long whip from behind her waist.

"Commissioner Gordon, I need your help."

Gordon was puzzled. He was only a detective, so why did everyone keep calling him commissioner? Still, the title had a nice ring to it. If he ever became commissioner, the first thing he would do was purge the rot from the police force, one officer at a time. Then he would declare war on Gotham's gangs and throw every last one of those sons of bitches in prison.

Before any of that, though, he would send his daughter away from Gotham.

"Don't worry! I've got your back!" Gordon nodded solemnly. His low, gravelly voice always offered a strange sense of reassurance.

Catwoman charged forward. Her barbed whip sliced through the air with a piercing sonic crack, lashing viciously at the Bioman's face.

Crack!

The whip struck the Bioman's shoulder, tearing open its grayish-blue skin. Blood and flesh burst like fireworks, exposing stark white bone beneath the wound.

An injury like that would have incapacitated an ordinary person, but against the thick-skinned Bioman, it barely made a difference.

That was fine. Selina had only meant to draw them away and buy Qin Wei time.

The Biomen's attention shifted, and they charged at Catwoman with long strides, trying to crush the little kitty beneath their massive bodies. In terms of one-on-one combat, Catwoman fell well short of powerhouses like Batman, Bane, and Deathstroke. But when it came to agility, few in Gotham's world could match her.

Leaping, flipping, and dodging, she wove effortlessly through the two Biomen's overlapping attacks. The booming collisions of their muscular bodies echoed through the Well like rolling thunder.

Selina lashed her whip around a Bioman's neck, then used the force of its head jerking back to vault high into the air and land on the monster's shoulder.

Hearing the sound, the other Bioman swung a backhand slap straight at Catwoman.

Selina pushed off the shoulder for a second leap, narrowly evading the attack.

With her out of the way, the other Bioman was the one who suffered. It had only just felt something land on its shoulder and had yet to grab for it when its companion's attack struck its face.

The gale stirred up by the slap raged through the Well. The unlucky Bioman flew dozens of meters and slammed headfirst into the wall, blasting a huge crater into the concrete.

Amid the thunderous crash, everyone's eardrums stung.

Watching from the side, Qin Wei's heart nearly leaped into his throat. He knew Selina had neither received a serum nor undergone genetic modification. Such intense exertion would soon cause lactic acid to build up in her muscles and leave her exhausted.

She couldn't hold out much longer.

The situation was even worse than he had imagined.

Still airborne, Selina felt a stabbing spasm in her calf. She lost her balance and fell to the ground.

Her calf had cramped. Worse, she seemed to have twisted her ankle on landing. Selina clutched it, unable to get up. The Bioman had no notion of showing a woman mercy. It raised both hands high and clasped them into a hammer, ready to pound Catwoman into scraps of flesh.

At that critical moment, Gordon acted.

His marksmanship wasn't as good as Bullock's, so he had to close the distance as much as possible. Tearing off his cumbersome suit jacket, he rushed forward, dropped into a slide to steady himself, and fired three shots in succession.

Bang!

The first shot pierced the Bioman's right eye, but Catwoman had already proved that shooting its eyes couldn't stop the berserk monster.

Bang!

Still sliding forward, Gordon fired his second shot.

Flame spat from the muzzle. The scorching bullet spun through the gunsmoke and plunged into the wound left by the first shot.

The bullet finally broke through and damaged the Bioman's brain, but that still wasn't enough to incapacitate it. Blood gushed from its mouth and nose, yet its fists remained raised.

Bang!

Another gunshot rang out.

The mesh had scraped away patches of skin and flesh from Gordon's lower legs, and blotches of blood seeped through his trousers. But his efforts finally paid off. With the path cleared by the first two shots, the third bullet punched unimpeded into the Bioman's skull and churned the monster's brain into mush.

Boom!

A mountain came crashing down!

Gordon remained kneeling, his gun still raised. Cold sweat had ruined his meticulously combed hair, and his soaked shirt collar clung to his neck.

His legs trembled so badly that he couldn't stand.

A wave of belated fear crept up his spine.

There had been only three bullets in the gun, and he had deliberately put himself within the Bioman's reach. If he hadn't killed the monster, Gordon didn't dare imagine what would have happened to him.

I almost never saw Barbara again...

"Thank you, Commissioner Gordon."

Selina limped over and held out a hand to Gordon.

Gordon gave a weary smile and got to his feet with Catwoman's help. "I'm the one who should thank you. You look only a few years older than my daughter, yet you have to face monsters like these."

"Your daughter must be proud of you."

Something flickered in Selina's eyes as she said it.

This gentle, courageous father reminded her of Falcone, who had abandoned his wife and daughter.

They were both fathers. Why were they so different?

Selina didn't want to admit it, but she seemed to feel a little jealous of Barbara, even though they had never met.

But the real danger hadn't passed. The Bioman that had been slapped into the wall came around, clutching its head. Worse still, they no longer had anything that could threaten it.

"You go first. It's my turn now!"

Gordon shielded Catwoman behind him. However reluctant he was to leave this battered world behind, the time had come to fulfill his duty as a police officer.

"Stop taking turns! Both of you, get over here! I've got a plan!"

Qin Wei's shout came from behind them. Gordon turned and saw him crouching beneath a Bioman's corpse, fastening the handcuffs to the mesh.

"Selina, give me the whip!"

Catwoman understood at once and threw it over. By then, the Bioman had climbed to its feet and was pounding its chest, preparing for another charge.

"Run toward me! Hurry!"

Qin Wei ran forward and picked up the whip. His original plan had been to thread it through the handcuffs and tie it around the Bioman's corpse, then lure the living Bioman into attacking its dead companion and use the force to pry open the mesh.

But events outpaced his plan. Just as he was about to return, he looked up and saw that the Bioman was already within arm's reach of Gordon and Selina. One swipe would turn them both into mincemeat.

With no time to think, he did something insane. He jumped up and down, clapping his hands and letting out meaningless howls.

"Aah-! Hey-!"

It was naked provocation, practically slapped right in the Bioman's face. In an instant, its fury fixed entirely on him.

The Bioman abandoned its pursuit of Gordon and Catwoman and charged toward Qin Wei instead.

That hideous face, the flying spittle, the terrifying muscles rippling with every stride-for a moment, Qin Wei saw something else. It was as though the creature bearing down on him wasn't a Bioman at all, but an enraged Kodiak Island brown bear.