Steve Zink's Stories - A Rose Has Many Thorns

A Rose Bush Has Many Thorns

Story © Steve Zink

The following story contains characters owned by DC Comics/Warner Bros. It is written as a fanfic parody story not intended to make any use of actual story lines in published books. The story is purely for fun, with no profit to be made by the author.

Rose Forrest was a secretary working in the executive offices of Hill's Funeral Home. Rose was twenty-six years old, with short cut blonde hair, brown eyes, and a figure that had many people wondering why she never became a model. She stood only five feet, four inches tall, but within that tiny frame was a 38DD-22-36 figure, hidden almost all the time in conservative suits. She had a rather demure personality, and found it difficult to accept compliments, keeping to herself as much as she could.

Rose's boyfriend, for want of a better term, was Det Danny Stone with the Metropolis Police Department. Det Stone was the partner of Rose's father, Sgt James Forrest. Was being the key word. Two years earlier, the elder Forrest was killed in the process of making a bust on a large drug deal involving the 100, a crime cartel centered in Metropolis, but having arms across the United States and even overseas. Det Stone was injured in the bust, but Sgt Forrest's wounds were fatal.

When Danny brought the news of her father's death to Rose, she went into a state of shock. Rose was in a coma for three days, watched carefully by the hospital staff and visited regularly by Danny. Det Stone never witnessed it, but the hospital care givers made note on her record that Rose seemed to grimace, then toss and turn in her bed a number of times, all the while still in a coma.

When Rose came out of her coma, Danny took her home for a rest period before getting her back to work. It was during this rest period that her father was buried, and Danny was the only person present at the funeral that noted the rage on Rose's face as she took hold of her father's tombstone and swore to him that the 100 would pay dearly for his death. He passed off this display of rage as a normal reaction to the loss of Rose's last close family member. Had Danny been made aware of the notes taken while she was in the hospital, it is doubtful that he would have had the same reaction to Rose's rage.

While she was in the coma, Rose developed a split personality. While she was awake, the demure Rose was in charge. However, when she slept, a darker personality took over. This personality was given form while Rose was on her at home rest period.

The brownstone in which Rose lived was a relic from the Depression, with shops on the ground floor and apartments on the upper floors. When Rose was a child, she had made a game of exploring the hallways and rooms of the old brownstone. Many of the hallways led to old abandoned shops, but one she found by accident was a hidden passageway to a closed off costume shop, owned in the 30's and 40's by a supplier to the mob.

Rose's new violent personality remembered this costume shop, and while Rose went "sleep walking" one night, her very much awake other self made her way through the long unused hidden passageway and came to the costume shop. There, she found a collection of costumes, all to a similar motif, but not a one the same as any other, originally intended for the use of a gangster's female assistant. They had never been used, because the shop was closed and the gang put in prison before she could even try them on. Here, Rose's vengeful night self set up a base of operations, using the wardrobe to adopt her new crime fighting identity.

All the costumes she used were in basic green, some with alternating light and dark shades, others simply dark green overall. The initial one she adopted had a pair of hotpants with a small vertical extension leading to the boustiere, supported by a halter strap going behind her neck. There were shoulder length gloves, and stiletto heeled thigh high boots, the whole outfit being dark field green. To top it off, and give her new self a completely different look, the costume had a waist length brown wig, under which Rose's blonde hair could be hidden, just as her personality was. In this guise, the Thorn was born as the avenger of Sgt Forrest.

The irony of Rose's situation was that the funeral home at which she worked was the cover organization for a large arm of the Metropolis 100 network, and was responsible for her father's killing. The Thorn was constantly aware of what was happening in the daytime world of Rose, but had yet to see any connections between her employer and the 100, they were that well entrenched.

Rose often wondered why she felt so drowsy at work, passing it off as the result of a slow paced job. In reality, she was getting very little sleep, with her dark sister Thorn taking over her body almost nightly in her efforts to shut down the 100.

On rare occasions, Thorn had taken over from Rose in broad daylight, when she felt Rose was getting in too deep to handle a situation she was better able to handle. Rose carried her shoulder bag everywhere she went, using it to replace her purse. This was because Thorn had one of her costumes secreted in a hidden bottom of the bag, for use in just this type of situation.

The Thorn had rarely been photographed, because of her primarily nocturnal activities, but her reputation as a vigilante had made Thorn a source of many questions to the Police, Det Stone in particular, because of his ties to her father.

Thorn got the break she had been looking for one day, watching through Rose's eyes at work. A chance stray entry on a computer printout caught her attention, then she coerced her weak sister Rose to dig deeper in the computer's files for connected data. Then that night, Thorn herself made a visit to the shop, borrowing Rose's key so that for once, she didn't have to break in to do her work. Thorn discovered a data trail so deep that it was almost a miracle that the stray printout bit sparked the search. The information gave her times and places for the 100's upcoming misdeeds.

Thorn considered asking Superman to aid her in using this information to bring down her foes, since she had worked with him on occasion and felt reasonably sure he would give his aid. Two things kept her from asking the Man of Steel for help, though. Superman was of very high moral standards, and might not want to get involved in some of the dirtier aspects of the upcoming battles. Thorn also wanted to have the 100 know that it was she alone who was their downfall.

Thorn came to the answer she needed shortly after changing in her brownstone's hideaway that evening. She packed one of her alternate costumes in her bag, then made her way to the apartment of the one friend she knew she could count on to help her no matter what. Superman's girl friend, Lois Lane, had given her copious amounts of help in her two year old quest, both physically and in a research mode. Thorn felt certain that she could count on Lois to become the daytime attacker of the 100 while she kept the pressure on at night.

Using fire escapes and gutter downspouts, Thorn climbed the sixteen stories of Lois' apartment complex to her bedroom window. She wanted to be certain that no one on the inside of the building saw Thorn entering the apartment. After she deftly jimmied open the window, Thorn climbed into the bedroom. Lois was sleeping soundly, as Thorn had hoped. Though she felt she could count on Lois' help, Thorn wasn't going to take any chances.

Thorn gently shook Lois by her shoulder, and as her eyes blinked open, Lois saw a dark shape standing over her. Thorn pressed a gloved finger to Lois' lips, then said, "Shh, Lois, it's me, Thorn. Don't be alarmed. I came here to get your help. I have a major break in my hunt for the 100, and am going to have my hands full with my nightly activities. I need to be going after them in the daytime also, and that's where you come in. Will you help me?"

Lois nodded her head, then said, "Sure, Thorn, I'd be glad to help you any way I can. You know how I've helped you in the past, you should have no question."

"But would you be willing to do whatever I ask Lois, with no trepidations?"

"Yes, Thorn. I trust you enough to give you whatever aid you need, without question."

Thorn lowered the blinds on the two windows of the bedroom, then turned on the small lamp on Lois' nightstand. "Okay, Lois. Take off your nightie, and any underwear you might have on," instructed Thorn.

Lois lifted an eyebrow in question, then did as she was asked, wondering just what Thorn had in mind.

Thorn unzipped her boots, then handed them to Lois, saying, "Here, Lois, see if these will fit you."

Lois set aside the left boot, then slipped her foot into the right boot, finding just enough room in the toe to wiggle hers slightly. Confidently, she zipped it up her leg, almost all the way to her crotch. Without any question of size, Lois picked up the left boot and eased her foot in. When it, too, had been zipped up, Lois stood, then asked Thorn, "These seem to fit quite well, but I can't recall ever wearing any boots that came this high up my legs before. And these heels! How the hell to you walk in them? Geez, I've even seen you running in them!"

As Thorn was pulling off her gloves, she replied, "I've got a feel for the balance required, I guess. I've never had any problem at all with them."

Thorn unzipped her boustiere, then pulled it free of her chest by unhooking the halter strap behind her neck. She then pulled down the attached hotpants. "See if this will fit you, Lois."

Lois took hold of the unit, then put her legs through the pants and pulled it up over the boots. The hotpants had been made eons before spandex was invented, but still managed to cling to the shape of Lois' hips and ass as if they were made for her. She then pulled the chest piece up and over her own well developed breasts, finding them to fall just short of complete coverage. Lois zipped it up, then hooked the halter strap. She started to notice a sort of light headed feeling, but passed it off as something related to her early awakening. "Fits like a charm, Thorn, except that I must have been slightly more endowed than you. What's with my trying on your costume, though?"

"I needed to make sure you could and would help me," replied Thorn. "To do so, I needed to see if you would follow my instructions, no matter how odd they seemed. This is merely a test."

Lois nodded, accepting Thorn's explanation. She was about to find out, however, just how thorough a test it would become.

Thorn passed the gloves to Lois, which she had removed earlier. As Lois reached to take them from her, she felt an urge to do so. This was what her light headed feeling had been leading to. Lois slipped her hands into the gloves, spreading her fingers for fit, then pulled them up to her shoulders, now feeling a deep compulsion as she did so.

"Have you noticed a need to put on more of the costume as each piece was put on, Lois?" asked Thorn. "This costume is the original with which I became Thorn. It gave me my identity, by almost forcing itself upon me. Now, so that you, too, can attack the 100 in daylight, finish putting on the costume so it can give you your new identity." Thorn reached up, and pulled off the long brown wig, revealing the short blonde hair beneath.

Lois reached to grab the wig from Thorn, with no way to keep from doing so. She put the wig on top of her own medium length black hair after pulling her own hair up behind her head. She shook her head to loosen the hair, and have it fall naturally about her shoulders. For all intents and purposes, Lois now looked identical to the person who had climbed through her window a bit earlier. Thanks to the costume, she not only looked identical to that person, she now was that person!

Placing dark green gloved hands on like colored hips, with her legs spread defiantly, she said, "I am the Thorn. Who are you?"

As the blonde started to put on the alternate costume she'd brought with her, she replied, "I am the original Thorn. You are my twin, now. Together, we will conduct a two pronged attack on the 100, you in the daytime, and myself at night. You're the lucky one, in that you will be able to sleep at night. Until our work is finished, I want you to leave your wig on. That way, you will retain your identity, Thorn, and not let Lois interfere with what you're doing. If you have to remove your wig to wash your hair, make sure to have some other part of the costume on."

The new Thorn watched as her maker put on a similar wig, completing her own suppression of an alternate personality. Her new costume was a neck to toe dark green body suit, with boots and gloves similar to the old costume.

The two Thorns discussed the plans for their upcoming battle, then let the new Thorn get back to bed, ready to get underway in the morning. The older Thorn, before Rose took over to get a nap, left a message at the Daily Planet that Lois Lane was going to be unavailable for an undetermined amount of time, while she was going undercover for some work.

to be continued....

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