Doctor Nemesis Chronicles

Issue 1: Chapter 4. A New Home And Adoption?
Part 1

Hope had trouble sleeping, having nightmares about her time on the streets and the bad man with his giant size and his faceless head. That man was scary. When she woke up, she lay still, enjoying the softness of the bed she had.
"Hope! Breakfast!" Matron called to her.
Hope smiled and scrambled out of bed to find a breakfast waiting for her.
A nice bowl of cereal. "Wow...is that for me?"
"You bet it is Hope." Matron smiled sweetly.
"Yay! Thanks!" Hope said and ran over and climbed onto the chair and began eating. It was Cheeri-O's. After eating the cereal and drinking her juice, Matron took her to the bathroom and helped Hope with teeth brushing.

Once she was done, Hope spit in the sink and washed her toothbrush, leaning onto the sink to do so. She almost slipped and fell but Matron caught her. "Th-thank...thank you."
"Think nothing of it dear."
After this Matron gave her a bath and dressed her in a new dress.  Hope walked out of her room. "Ummm...h-h-how do I look?"

Matron smiled down at her. "You look adorable Hope. Come along now, it's time to learn to read and write. You can can't you?'
Hope shook her head. "Mommy and Daddy never got to teach me."
"So I see. Well, no time like the present."

For the next hour, Matron pulled out books and pencils and taught the child how to read and write. She read storybooks to Hope and then helped Hope say the words, read them and then write them down. Hope learned very quickly. From there, they moved onto math, during Matron bemoaned the fact that she did not have a calculator available and then had to explain what that was to Hope, who laughed at the idea of such a crazy device.
Matron then introduced Hope to the Monopoly Board Game and then Checkers. It took Hope quite some time to get used to both but once she did, she was creating complex strategies out of thin air, even though she had to ask Matron what that word meant. Matron laughed at the child's innocence.
After playing games together, they sat down and watched television.
Justice Lad was on the news and was talking to reporters.
"Matron? Who's that?"
"Why, that's Justice Lad dear. He's a superhero."
"A superhero? But he's a little boy."
"Heroes can come in and all shapes and sizes and ages dear."
Ohhhh....then you're a superhero too Matron! You saved me!"
"That I did dear." Matron said and hugged her.

Over the next few days Matron taught her so many new things, how to make macaroni art, introduced her to cartoons, sang her lullabies, and even picked flowers with her. She still had the cough and the occasional dream of the bad man, but it didn't bother her anymore.
Hope's parents were gone but she had Matron now and that was all she needed.
After a month however, things changed. A rich couple knocked on the door and Matron spoke with them. She called Hope the door.

"Matron!" Hope ran up and hugged her. She turned to the rich couple. "Hello. My name is Hope." She said and curtsied.
"Isn't she adorable darling?" The woman asked.
The man smiled. "Yes. Yes she is."
Then the man said 5 terrifying words. "We'd like to adopt her."
"I see...right this way and we'll fill out the paperwork."
"........Matron?"

A short while later, the rich couple came out of the backroom and shook Matron's hand. "Come on Hope! We'll take you to a new home!"
"B-b-but..." She turned to Matron, tears in her eyes. "MATRON!" She ran up and grabbed the old woman's dress. "Please! Please! I don't wanna go anywhere else! I wanna stay with you!" She pleaded as she cried on her dress.
Matron knelt down and hugged her. "Shhh...shhh..there there dear. This is for the best. They can give you a better life then I can."
"I don't want that! I just wanna stay with you!"
Matron turned her around. "Please Hope, they can give you everything you would ever dream of. I love you like my own daughter but there is more for you out there then in here. I know they will be good to you."
"Y-y..you...you mean it?"
"Oh yes. We will never hurt you Hope."
Hope looked back at Matron who nodded. Hope hugged the old woman one last time and then ran off to be with her new family.
As they started up their limosine, Hope looked out the window and waved goodbye to Matron.

After she left, Matron silently walked into the orphanage and sat down and wept.

"Ummmm...M-M-Miss?" Hope asked.

The woman looked down to her and smiled. "Yes dear?"

"What's your name?"

"Oh, please forgive me. It's Rhamnous. Jezebel Rhamnous."

Doctor Nemesis Chronicles

Doctor Nemesis
Issue 1 Chapter 3
The Orphanage

The girl ran for her life from the tall man. She ran out of the warehouse and down the road. She ran and ran until she collapsed from exhaustion. She was gasping for air and breathing hard. Her heart was pounding in her chest, sweat dripped down her face. The girl could not run any more. She dragged herself over to a series of trashcans and hid behind them, trembling and gasping for breath. She just sat for hours before she dared crawl out from behind them and looked around. Whatever that monster was, it was gone. Sighing with relief, the girl resumed her wanderings.

Some time later, she was wandering the streets when her stomach growled. She was hungry and thirsty and tired. She looked around. She had no money of course and she knew none of these scary people. So she walked the streets, trying to find some food.

Over an hour passed and she found nothing. Tired and weak from hunger and thirst, the girl sat down on some steps to rest. A moment later, a door opened behind her. The girl jumped and turned to see who it was, terrified of the possibility of the monster appearing once more.
Instead, there was an elderly woman looking down on her.

"Good heavens! And just what is your name little one?"
"H-h-h-"
"Hmmmm? Oh my just look at you! You're a mess! Come inside and lets get you all cleaned up."
The old woman knelt down and offered her hand. The girl hesitated until she smelled the food inside. "F-food?"
"Oh yes. That's Pie. You can eat up after you've had your bath."
The girl ran and hugged the old woman, sobbing in her arms.
The old woman smiled and brought her inside, closing the door behind her.

The girl was bathed, cleaned and dried and finally given a new dress to wear.
she sat down at the table and began to eat a piece of pie.
"Now then dearie, can I ask you your name?"
"Hope!" The girl said, happier then she had been in days. She was warm, she was clean, she had new clothes and fresh food.
"Hope. It is nice to meet you. You can call me Matron."
"Hi Miss Matron!"
After finishing the first piece of pie, she had a second.
"So Hope, what did happen to your parents?"
"A good guy and a bad guy were fighting and they blew up our home."
Matron shook her head. "Tsk, tsk, tsk...this happens all too often. I wish they would think before they fight. I am so, so very sorry for your loss Hope."
"Thank you. Miss Matron." Hope said. She yawned. "I wanna sleep."

Matron smiled and lifted her up and carried her and laid Hope down in bed. "Sleep tight Hope."

After laying her to sleep, Matron walked across the orphanage and into her own room where she pulled out a small book. She sat down at her desk and went through the pages and stopped at one. She smiled at it. "Ah my little goddess, tomorrow your new life begins."

Doctor Nemesis Chronicles

Doctor Nemesis
Issue 1 Chapter 2
Wanderings.
The girl walked and found herself in the inner city. She was still hurt and alone and scared. Morbid though it was, the rain had cleaned her face and she had caught some of it in her mouth. It seemed to help her throat and she wasn't thirsty but now she was cold and wet. The girl had nothing. By chance, she wandered by a restaurant and saw a man walking out of it. She hid behind a wall and saw the man throwing away some food, muttering something about guests and waste before walking back in. The girl stood still for a moment before creeping over to the dumpster and jumping up at it. After a few jumps she made it and barely managed to pull herself up and then fell into the dumpster. The smell made her gag but she found the food and looked at it. It was still good, well, kind of. The girl picked it up and tossed it out before climbing out of the dumpster and dropping down. She fell on her butt and yelled out but she still got up and grabbed the food and ran off. She ran as fast as her little legs could carry her and found a corner and ate the food. Even cold and wet as it was it was still good. She ate and ate until the food was gone and threw away the remains. She sat down and thought about her parents and how they would never eat a good meal like this again and cried some more. Eventually she stopped crying and, wiping her eyes, she found a cardboard box and crawled inside, curled up into a ball and laid down, shivering but happy to be out of the rain.
Despite the cold, she soon fell asleep.

Morning.

The girl crawled out of the box and looked around. The rain had stopped and the sun was shining down on her. It's warmth felt good on her and she smiled up at it. On a normal day, she would be out playing catch right now with her dad. But not today. Today she was all on her own. The girl slowly walked out of the alley and looked out. Cars were zooming down the street and people in suits were walking around chatting on devices they held up to their ears. Along with the suits, there were other children running around and people who were older then them, but not as old as the suits. The suits were so big and scary looking but the children were colorful looking. She caught a few names as the people walked by. Seraph, Eagle, Bella and others. But she knew none of these people. The little girl's parents had drilled into her head not to trust strangers. That was, anyone besides them. Seeing a gap in the scary people, the little girl dashed forward and began running down the street, stumbling and terrified of being alone in this big, wide world.
Some of the people watched her go, but none of them did anything.

The girl ran and ran and ran and bumped into somebody. "Hey! Watch it brat!"
The little girl fell down and saw a much taller boy standing over her. She wasn't a suit or a colorful child or one of the smiling people. The man wore a brown leather coat and black pants and boots with a white shirt. "Hey, you deaf or something?!" The boy asked her. He lifted his leg and something hard struck the little girl, sending her sprawling. Pain. That's what she felt. The little girl was hurting now. She had trouble getting up and the boy took something out of his pocket and then there was a knife in his hand. The girl stared up in terror, her whole body trembling and the knife glistening in the sunlight. "Hey little s-t, you don't got parents do ya? That means nobody's gonna miss ya." The boy smiled. His psychotic grin would haunt her nightmares.
Fate intervened however as another boy grabbed his arm. "We're not killing a kid!"
The two boys began arguing with each other and the little girl ran away from them.

The little girl ran until she couldn't run anymore and fell on her face. She shuddered and soon began to cry. "Why? Why? Why? What did I do? I haven't hurt anyone. I'm good.I'm good. Why does everyone hate me? Why are my mommy and daddy gone? Mommy........Daddy...." The girl sobbed.

Eventually, the girl stopped crying and walked some more and ended up in a warehouse where she sat against a wall. She looked around. It seemed empty. There was a backroom but the girl didn't want to go there. Her chest hurt from all the running and she was tired. Right now she just wanted to rest. She started coughing. This lasted for a moment before it stopped and she got about a minute's rest before she the door to the backroom open and then the strangest man walked out. The girl began coughing again. He was tall, oh so tall, the men in suits were small compared to the giant and quite skinny. he had two lanky arms down to his sides. It didn't look like he had any hair on his head. The tall man was dressed in a suit with nice shoes. He walked over to her slowly, as if he was taking his time. "H-hello?" the little girl said to him. The man kept walking. "P-please...don't hurt me." It was dark in the warehouse, so she couldn't see his face at first. The girl stood up. "I-I'm just a little girl....my mommy and daddy are gone...a-and I need help and I-" the girl froze up when he passed through a sunbeam and the girl clearly saw his face....except there wasn't a face. The tall man had no face.

 The girl had nightmares before, scary ones, ones of monsters coming to get her but this was different. There were nowhere near as terrifying as this tall man. A single thought ran through her mind: RUN! The girl bolted out of the warehouse, screaming bloody murder.
She didn't dare look back...

Interlude: Doctor Nemeis Chronicles

Doctor Nemesis
Issue 1 chapter 1
Before the Evil

A little girl was sitting in the broke down house on the floor, her stomach hurt from hunger. She was skinny even for her age with her ribs showing. They never had any food and what they did get didn't last long, it only gave them enough to get by. Her mother was sitting across from her coughing. She was sick and her daddy had gone out to find medicine. He said he would steal it if he had too. Her mother tried to talk him out of it but he said the had to do what he had to do. No one cared about them, so they had to get what they could. Raven never got to play with the other children in the city. They always laughed at her and hurt her because she didn't have money and they did. But the little girl didn't care. She didn't care about her pain or her dirty clothes or sad life. She had her mother and father and that was all that mattered to her. Her parents had taught her that having money was the cause of their problems. That the 'rich people' had caused their pain and sorrow and kept them down. As you can guess, the girl hated them for that.
A door opened. The little girl looked up. Her father ran in, panting and sweating from running. "Here.....I got it....I got it." He said and ran to his wife, opening the bottle and pouring the pills into his hand. "Here..take them. Take them."
"Bless you Gerald. Bless you." She said and accepted the pills and swallowed them.
Gerald smiled and reached into his pockets, pulling out two burgers. "And-and I even got some food while I was out. Eat. Eat up."
"Daddy!" The little girl hugged him and he hugged her back and the family ate. The father splitting his food with his wife and the little girl getting one to herself.
It was the best meal they'd had in days.

Once everyone was feeling better, the family gathered around and the father told a story about a poor little girl who grew up to be a beautiful woman who could do anything she wanted and she had all the money in the world and she married a prince and they lived happily ever after.
The girl giggled. She like the story. She knew who he was talking about and she would do it. She grow up to be that woman who could do whatever she wanted..
The wife told him she liked the story and they hugged.

Then it happened. An explosion. The family fell over from the shock. The father ran over to the window and looked out. A fight. A fight between two supers. And they were getting closer. One of them was tall and wearing a red cape. The other was wearing some kind of metal that was glowing dark green. The two fought in the air, clashing. The armor man knocked back the caped man and fired off a blast of energy. The hero dodged it and the blast flew towards their home.
"Oh my God...GET DOWN!" He yelled as he ran to his wife. They locked eyes for just a moment and jumped over to their daughter and covered her with their bodies.
There was a sound of thunder and the house was destroyed.


A cough.
Struggle.
The little girl picked herself up and crawled away. She was hurt. She was bruised and cut and had smoke on her face. The girl coughed a couple more times and looked for her mother and father. "Mommy? Daddy? Where are you?" The girl looked behind her and saw her parents burnt and smoking bodies laying under the remains of their house.

 "M-mommy? Daddy?" The girl crawled over to them and shook their bodies. "...Wake up. This this isn't funny! Wake up! WAKE UP!" She screamed in desperation. But they didn't move. The little girl's parents were dead. Died shielding her with their bodies. The only people in the whole wide world who loved her were gone. She was alone in the world.
The girl laid there and cried her eyes out, begging her parents over and over to wake up but they didn't. In her sorrow and anger at the world, the girl screamed at the heavens in futility.

The girl didn't know how much time had passed before the rain came down and she slowly got up and walked away. She didn't where she was going or what she would do. The girl had nothing now so she had nothing to live for. So she would walk and walk and walk. Walk to find her place in a world that didn't want her...