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The Atomic Bat · **Yesterday, 11:00 AM**

Grand City

Mid-June, 2026

A drink cart rockets down the sidewalk.

Its attendant chases 12 paces behind.

Oh, and a little girl who's about to get—

**WHAM!**

—the cart stops dead in its tracks.

Close up on Atomic Bat's brow giving no hint of real exertion as she stands between it and the kid with one hand planted firmly on the front rail and a perfect heroic pose.

She glances over her shoulder.

"Citizen?"

The little girl blinks in awe.

"Were you harmed?"

"You're The Atomic Bat!"

"I am!"

The girl hugs her.

Atomic Bat freezes.

Looks down.

Then around.

Then smiles and hugs back.

A collective: "Awww."

Phones rise all around them as the delivery driver finally catches up, now bent over and gasping for air.

"Oh my God—"

Atomic Bat activates: STERN POINT!

"Sir, your beverage containment vehicle attempted vehicular manslaughter."

The driver stares at her for a sec.

"...I'm sorry. I don't know how it got away from me!"

"Just be glad no harm came today and learn to be more mindful in your duties."

He sighs in relief and collects his cart as a boy in an Atomic Bat shirt pushes through the crowd.

"Can you sign this?!"

Her smile returns as she takes the marker and signs with a little bat beneath her name.

The kid looks at it.

"It looks like a butt."

A few people laugh.

Suddenly!

"WAIT!"

Everyone looks toward the voice.

A guy near the back, staring at his phone.

"No fucking way."

Someone beside him leans over.

"What?"

"Yo! RassleSlap's reporting Lane'l Pennyfarthing just exposed Atomic Bat!"

Atomic Bat's smile twitches.

Dude turns his phone to the crowd.

"She's Vita—Frickin'—Valenteen."

Almost complete silence.

Atomic Bat slowly lowers her arm from around the kid as someone in the crowd laughs nervously.

"Vita?"

Another phone comes out.

Then another.

"Wait, THAT Vita Valenteen?"

Atomic Bat's eyes nervously dart across the crowd.

"...Wait, isn't Vita Valenteen a vampire?"

"A VAMPIRE!?"

A mother reaches down and takes her son's hand to leave.

The boy in the Atomic Bat shirt looks up at her.

Atomic Bat looks back.

"...please don't drink my blood!"

Later...

Now...

Vita Valenteen sits alone on a rooftop with the Atomic Bat mask resting on the ledge.

Her phone buzzes with a notification.

Vita doesn't look, and instead, reaches over and turns it face-down.

Vita looks at the mask beside her for a long moment.

"Y'know what really sucks about all that hate?

Some of 'em are right.

I lied. I told everybody science gave me these powers because admitting vampire was harder. I've walked away when things got bad. I promised I'd expose Micheal Graves and failed. And if somebody wants to pull up my in-ring record?

Go ahead.

It ain't great.

Being The Atomic Bat was easier. Nobody knew her mistakes. Nobody looked at her and saw every stupid thing Vita Valenteen ever did. They just saw the person I wanted them to see.

But it wasn't fake and I don't regret her.

She was me without all the crap that made me think Vita Valenteen was impossible to believe in.

I only regret thinking I needed the mask before I could be her."

Vita picks up the mask and stares at it.

"I wanna be better because I want to be better.

So I’m stripping the gimmick and embracing who and what I am.”

She tosses the mask over the ledge.

”And that's where you come in, Dom.

Going into Bad Medicine, you spent all that time ripping everybody else apart for being bland. Reheated. One-note gimmicks pretending they're something more.

Dude...

Have you listened to yourself, like... ever?

You're cold, you're hungry, and you hurt people. That's it. Graves broke Chef Dom and you responded by throwing everything that made you Dom Durango into the garbage.

You didn't stop being a gimmick, you just traded the fake accent for a thousand-yard stare.

Then you said something that I can't stop thinking about.

You could build Michelin Star establishments. You could chase championships. You could care whether you win or lose.

But you won't.

You call that being empty and think it makes you scary. I think it just makes you scared. Because if nothing matters, nobody can ever take anything away from you again, right?

Trust me, Dom. I TOTALLY know that trick.

I've spent years making it easier not to care when Vita Valenteen failed.

I'm done with easy.

You wanted a backstage brawl because you wanna hurt somebody. Fine. Hurt me.

Throw me through a table. Crack me with a chair. Keep swinging because that hunger is never satisfied.

Trust me, Dom, I know hunger.

I also know how to control it.

But while you're trying to feed whatever void Graves left inside you, I'm gonna be trying to win, and when the opening comes, you're gonna keep trying to hurt me because hurting me is the point.

But I'm gonna end it because winning is mine.

You asked for something easy to break?

Lane'l ripped my mask off and all he did was make me stop hiding.

Graves ripped yours off, and proved you got one thing wrong.

When you asked for something easy to break, you shouldn't have been looking around backstage.

You only needed to look in a mirror."

Threaded Mode \| Linear Mode THE ATOMIC BAT - Breaking Character - Issue #5
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