Batman: The Family of Clay
Birth of the 1st Clay-Face
Author's Note
Birth of the 1st Clay-Face
Birth of the 1st Clay-Face
Meanwhile, in Gotham central, a play is taking place inside the monarch theatre.
The play was known as, "Dread Castle," which was a remake of an old horror play known as, "The Terror." The Terror was made by Lucas Donnell, and Dread Castle was directed by award-winning actor Basil Karlo.
The Main Protagonist, Danny Crescent, was played by fellow Actor, Matthew Hagan, while the antagonist, Clay-Face, was played by Basil Karlo's prized pupil, Sunset Shimmer.
Sunset Shimmer had always had a reputation for playing deformed and demented characters, mostly villains, like when she played The Ten-Eyed Man from the Cult Classic, "The Mystery of the Ten-Eyed Man." Or when she played as an obsessive stalker in "Branches of Sin."
"Alright Sunset, let's bring it to our A-Game tonight," Basil Karlo said as Sunset was putting on her make-up.
"Of course, I always do Mr. Karlo," Sunset said. Then once she got her signature Clay Mask on, she headed backstage.
"Of course, I always do Mr. Karlo," Trixie sarcastically taunted. "I should be the star of the show, not Sunset Bummer."
"Well, maybe you would be a star if you weren't always late for rehearsals or when you could never memorize your lines," Matt Hagan said as he then went backstage.
"Oh, She'll be regretting that she ever up-staged me when tonight's over," Trixie said under her breath. "That is a promise."
As the Play had begun, Sunset could only watch from a Tv monitor backstage to see how much the audience loved the play. Then the time finally came for Sunset to come out and play her part as the lights went off.
As one of the victim characters Frankie Swift, played by Sunny Flare was walking through a hallway in the castle where Sunset as Clayface was hiding underneath a trapdoor.
"Fools, they played at murder, but it will I that shall, in reality, bring death," Sunset said speaking in a sinister voice.
Then as Sunny Flare inched closer, Clayface leaped out from the trapdoor, Sunny Flare cringed at the man with a Face made of Clay.
"AIEEE, THE TERROR," Sunny Flare screamed in terror.
"Yes, you look upon my face, a face devolved of beauty and replaced with horror, queer, frightening isn't it," Sunset said. "But do not worry, you won't have to look at it for long."
"Now Frankie Swift, DIE," Sunset said as she brought the knife down before the spotlights went out.
As soon as the Lights went out, Sunset then went through the same trapdoor and waited as the lights turned on, revealing Frankie's dead body.
"Oh no, it's Frankie Swift, and she's dead," Danny Crescent said in despair.
As the rest of the characters had taken away Frankie's body, The Clay-Faced Man peeked through the Trapdoor and spoke, "The Scene ends, for Death is the Director."
As the Play progressed, another victim character named Olivia Spice (Played by Aria Blaze), was the next to fall to the blade of The Clay-Faced Man.
Then at the end, The Clay-Faced Man was finally stopped, and when unmasked, it was revealed to be disfigured actress, Abagail Cross.
"Abagail, but why," Danny said.
"Preston Payne was going to star in a schlock-fest of my masterpiece, to remake such a beauty would be blasphemy," Abagail sneered. "This isn't over, Danny, I'll be back and next time, the Curtain of fate will be dropping on you."
Sunset Shimmer, as usual, had done a stellar performance playing the role of The Terror. Sunset was in the breakroom cleaning her face from the residue from the clay mask she was wearing.
"Hey, Sunset nice performance you had there," Trixie said in a sarcastic tone of voice. "You were such a superstar as usual."
“Well, Trixie maybe if you spent most of your time memorizing your lines and not running off all the time, maybe Basil would choose you," Sunset said.
"I don't understand why they love you more than they love me,” Trixie said jealously. “I'm prettier than you."
"Trix, I don't get why you're so worked up about all this," Sunset said to Trixie’s growing anger.
“ SHUT THE FUCK UP! DON'T CALL ME TRIX, EVER!” Trixie roared. “So, you think you're so clever and famous and more loved, well that will change when I'm done with you.”
Trixie then has a barrel full of clay.
“You know, I was just going to put a bullet in your brain, but now that you've pissed me off, I'm going to do this,” Trixie said as she got ready to dump the clay all over Sunset.
"Hey what are you...," Sunset said as Trixie poured the clay all over Sunset's body. "Trixie help me, It's covering me, I can't breathe."
"So long, Lil Miss Popular," Trixie said as she left the room, leaving Sunset in the heap of clay.
(4 hours later)
The clay solidified over time and formed into a cocoon. Basil walked in, looking for Sunset.
“Sunset, Sunset, where are you?” Basil Karlo asked. “It's been 4 hours since the end of showtime, and your parents have been worried sick."
Then, the hardened clay began to crack, until it burst open, revealing Sunset to be inside it.
"Good heavens, Sunset are you ok," Basil said as he put a jacket on Sunset since she was naked.
“(Cough, Cough) I-I'm fine, (Cough Cough) I j-j-just feel s-so cold,” Sunset said in a sickly tone of voice.
“Don't worry, I'll call your folks and tell them you're on your way home.” Basil Karlo said as he was dialing the phone.
“O-Ok, (Cough Cough),” Sunset said as she headed home after getting her clothes back on, not noticing that a drip of skin came off from her arm.
At her parents’ house, Sunset was sitting down to eat her dinner when she started having coughing fits again, but when her dad asked her what was wrong, she said that she was fine and just was a little tired from the night's show.
When Sunset took her first bite of Sesame Chicken, everything was normal, but when she took the fork out, pieces of her were sticking to the fork.
Sunset saw this and threw the fork to the ground.
"Sunset, what's...Before her Dad could finish, Sunset's entire body turned into brown clay. "Oh my God, Abby, call an ambulance, now!"
"Mom, Dad, what happening to me," Sunset said as her voice turned gurgled. Sunset looked into a mirror and saw her face turned into that of clay.
"No...Nooo...NOOOOOOOOOO!" Sunset screamed as she smashes the mirror.
"Oh god, Momma, what did Trixie do to me," Sunset said in despair. "Trixie was right, my career and my life really are over, and I can never get it back now."
Sunset then started crying as her parents tried to comfort her.
"I'm not an actress anymore...I'm not even, a human being." Sunset said as she continued crying.
Sunset didn’t leave her room after that day, for she didn’t want anyone to look upon her new hideous clay body.
"Sunset, honey, I have some water if you want it," Sunset's mother said.
"GO AWAY," Sunset hollered. "LEAVE ME ALONE!"
Sunset's mother just put the cup of water near her door.
"My career, my life, IT IS GONE, FOREVER!" Sunset cried as she threw a chair at the wall.
Sunset then looked upon a mirror and saw her clay visage through her now yellow eyes.
"Oh, if only I looked like how I was before, oh if only," Sunset said as she started to cry.
However, as soon as she said this, she felt something start to happen from within her body, almost like her body was starting to change, and her vision started getting blurry.
"What's happening to me," Sunset said as she was clenching her face.
When Sunset regained her vision, she looked back into the mirror and saw that her skin still looked like brown clay, but she looked...normal, like herself.
"What the hell," Sunset said with a surprised expression on her face.
"Wait, what if I...," Sunset said as she began to concentrate as the clay started changing again, but now she looked completely normal.
"Unbelievable," Sunset said with a look of astonishment. "That Renuyu must've mixed with every cell of my body."
"Hmm, I want a Tuxedo," Sunset said as her normal clothes morphed into a tuxedo.
"Hmm, I want to look like Elvis Presley," Sunset said until her whole body morphed to look like Elvis Presley, even her voice sounded like Elvis.
"Thank you, thank you very much," Sunset said in Elvis's voice before changing back to normal.
"This...is...amazing, I can morph into anyone and anything I desire," Sunset said as she kept trying out more forms.
Sunset then made herself morph into a Table, and then into a Comedy mask which then turned into a Tragedy Mask, an alligator, a Tiger, an Egyptian Sphinx, and then into herself but with her Clay-Face Costume and hat on.
"Like the Pheonix from the ashes, I, Clay-face, rise once more," Sunset said as she bowed towards her mirror.
"My life...it isn't over, it's just gotten better and better," Sunset said happily.
"Momma," Sunset said from across her room.
"Yes, honey," Sunshine said from her study. "Oh, Sunset, you look normal, but how?"
"It must have been that clay I was covered in," Sunset said. "Oh, I can't wait to see the look on Trixie's face when...Trixie," Sunset said with a look of disdain.
"Perhaps this would be a great chance to get a little payback for what she did to me," Sunset said as she turned into a blob of clay and slithered through her shower drain. "You better be vigilant tonight Trixie, because Clay-Face is coming for you."
(This will continue in Chapter 1: Dropping the Curtain).
Dropping the Curtain, Birth of the 2nd Clayface
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Batman: The Family of Clay
Dropping the Curtain, Birth of the 2nd Clayface
Author's Note
Dropping the Curtain, Birth of the 2nd Clayface
Trixie was heading toward her apartment complex when she got a phone call from her cameraman, Zephyr Breeze.
"Hey Zephir, I'm almost home, what's up," Trixie asked Zephir.
"Have you been watching the news lately," Zephir asked.
"No, why," Trixie asked in confusion.
"It's about Sunset, she's at a hospital recovering from corrosive burns to her face, and reporters are calling her a survivor," Zephir said.
"WHAT," Trixie roared with rage. "IF THAT BITCH THINKS SHE CAN GET THE LAST LAUGH ON ME, SHE'S GOT ANOTHER THING COMING," Trixie roared as she hung up the phone.
"Yeah that's right, walk right into my trap," Zephir said as it was revealed to be Sunset Shimmer aka Clayface, in Zephir's form. "You're about to take your final bow, and I'm going to make you the biggest laughingstock in Gotham."
(Meanwhile, in the Gotham Bowery)
"Where do you think you're going, you loner weirdo," A street punk said as he was chasing a young girl down a dark alleyway. "You don't have any friends, well, besides your plants, ha ha!"
"Please, leave me alone," Wallflower pleaded as she tried to run away from the street punks.
Wallflower Blush has always been alone, no one not even her parents acknowledged her existence. She felt so...forgotten...and no one likes to be forgotten.
In her desperation to be remembered, she angered the wrong set of people, and now she was going to be regretting those actions.
As Wallflower was running she then spotted a cave nearby, and she thought of this as the best course of action to get away from the street punks.
"We're almost to you, weirdo," The Head Punk retorted. "No one makes fun of the Black Skulls and gets away with it!"
However, the punks were unaware of a dark shadow above them, the shadow of...The Batman.
Then the Batman landed on the ground right in front of the street punks.
"IT'S THE BAT," One of the punks squealed.
"Alright you three, we can either do this the easy way or the hard way, what's it going to be," Batman said.
"Go to hell Batman," The Head Punk said as they then attacked Batman.
Wallflower thinking this would be a perfect distraction took off running toward the cave system.
However, what Wallflower didn't see was that someone else saw her go into the cave, and that person was the 2nd Robin, Jason Todd, aka, The Red Hood.
Sunset was in a Bar that resided near the Bowery, just to get a quick bite to eat and read her newspaper. Then Sunset saw a story in her Newspaper about Batman's most recent victory against the Clown Prince of Crime, The Joker.
Sunset had always thought of Batman as a hero ever since she was little, despite what others said about the Dark Knight, and it wasn't just because of Batman's costume. Sunset idolized Batman for his attempts to halt the crime and corruption that had been polluting Gotham for many years.
Sunset also knew about Batman's allies, Nightwing (Dick Grayson), Batgirl (Barbara Gordon), Red-Hood (Jason Todd), Red-Robin (Tim Drake), and Robin (Damian Wayne).
Sunset had also been thinking about how these shape-shifting clay powers were destined for someone like her. Because, isn't it an actor's job to change their face for every role they're in?
Sunset was also thinking about Trixie. Sunset didn't want to kill her, but to humiliate her in the worst possible way, in front of everyone on Live T, V and make her the biggest laughing-stock in Gotham.
So she would plan to meet up with Basil Karlo and Matthew Hagan to put up a "play" known as, Tale Tale of Lady-Clay."
Sunset then wore a devilish grin, as she knew that this would be a sweet, satisfying, and most of all, legal revenge.
When Wallflower ran into a dark section of the cave, she sat down in the stony corridor as she was out of breath.
"Those punks will never find me now," Wallflower murmured to herself as she got her phone out of her pocket and used the Phone's flashlight app, so she would be able to see through her surroundings.
As Wallflower continued to explore until she found a green light that was coming from a passageway of the cave.
Once Wallflower saw the source of the light, she saw that it was a glowing green pool of Protoplasm that was writhing and bubbling.
"Hey kid," Red Hood said behind Wallflower. "Don't worry, Batman's taken care of those punks, why don't you come with me to the nearest station and..."
"No, stay away from me, don't come any closer you monster," Wallflower said as she started to panic, walking closer to the protoplasm pool.
Then Wallflower lost her footing as she then tripped and fell into the green pool of clay.
This incident would be symbolic of the incident at Ace Chemical when Batman confronted The Red Hood, The Supposed leader of the Red Hood Mob. The Red Hood would fall into a vat of chemicals and become one of Batman's most dangerous and unpredictable foes..."The Joker."
However as Red-Hood left the cave, he didn't know that a Clay arm rose from the pool of protoplasm, and thus started the beginning of the 2nd Clayface.
(Revenge is a dish, Best served Cold).
Sunset had everything in motion, Basil Karlo and Matt Hagan had everything prepared, and the audience was waiting. Now Sunset was waiting for Trixie, "The Guest of Honor," to show up.
"Mr. Karlo, what is this about," Trixie asked.
"We are opening a new play, The Tragedy and Triumph of Lady-Clay," Basil Karlo stated.
"And guess what Trixie, you're the leading lady," Matt Hagan retorted.
"I...I am," Trixie said in excitement. "Yes, finally, I can get the attention I so rightfully deserve."
"Come along now Lulamoon, the audience is waiting," Basil Karlo said.
Then, Basil Karlo, Matt Hagan, and Trixie Lulamoo entered the stage.
"Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen good evening," Basil Karlo said as Matt Hagan left the stage.
"It is my devilish pleasure to start tonight's performance, The Tragedy and Triumph of Lady-Clay," Basil retorted.
"And let me introduce you all to Trixie Lulamoon, the leading lady, the guest of honor...The Villian," Basil Karlo said as his body started to morph into that of Sunset Shimmer, aka, Lady-Clay. "Hello Trix, miss me?"
"Sunset," Trixie said in shock. "But, I thought you were at a hospital."
"Oh but a clever ploy Trix," Sunset said. "A ploy that would lure you here, and in front of a captive audience no less."
"Now ladies and Gentlemen of the jury," Sunset stated to the audience. "Allow me to start the Tragedy and Triumph of lady -Clay."
"What separates a man from a monster," Sunset said as she got into character. "Evil, Greed, and Jealously are examples of that."
"But in this case, man and monster are one of the same," Sunset said as she morphed into her Clay-Form.
Trixie gasped in fright.
"Not a pretty sight, is it," Sunset sneered as she reverted to her human form. "Oh, but it was you that put me through this ordeal Lulamoon, you turned me into Clay."
"What, you have no proof of this," Trixie protested.
"Oh, but I do Trix," Sunset replied. "And please don't interrupt while a performance is in play, it's simply impolite."
Then, the Real Basil Karlo came onto the stage with a sample of Renuyu.
"Renuyu was an experimental chemical protoplasm that was being made by a partnership between Roland Dagget and Luminous Lulamoon, Trixie's father," Basil stated to the audience.
"You were jealous of me Trixie, even you can't deny that," Sunset said as her hand morphed into that of a clay figurine that started dancing.
"However, in your chance to get rid of me, you only made me stronger as an actor," Sunset said as she danced around the stage as the crowd applauded Sunset by chanting the name Lady-Clay.
The Crowd then started booing Trixie, as they started throwing stuff at Trixie, calling her a cheat and her father a fraud.
Trixie then gave Sunset a look of utter hatred, and in a blind rage, charged at Sunset, before Matt Hagan pinned Trixie to the ground. Since she was raving and acting like a completely crazy person, she was sent to Arkham Asylum for a few days to calm down. However, it would be venomous words from those such as Professor Hugo Strange, Edward Nygma (The Riddler), Jonathan Crane (The Scarecrow), and most of all the Joker that made her hatred for Sunset intensify. All Trixie knew was that she had one goal...To get revenge on Lady Clay.
Due to that night, Roland Dagget cut all ties with Luminous Lulamoon, and thus, their partnership ended. Luminous blamed Trixie for ruining his life.
After this, Sunset offered to turn herself in Arkham Asylum to try and find a cure for her affliction, but after a meet-in with Batman, he told her that she could either live her life as a criminal or a crusader to save those who may suffer from similar afflictions as her.
Sunset agreed to Batman's offer and returned with her family as she continued her acting career.
However, the story of the Family of Clay is just beginning.
