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Description
In the wake of the alien invasion of Earth, and the insurgents' defeat at the hands of seven meta-talented vigilantes, collectively known as The Justice League, the world was ablaze with the rise of superheroes as a huge part of the cultural zeitgeist. They were praised as heroes by many for their ability to quell the crises that no police force or military intervention can handle, but there are many others still who criticize these heroes for taking the law into their own hands, not taking responsibility for the massive property damage they cause in battles with criminals and terrorists, and sheltering the identities they have in their normal lives, which arouses suspicion that the “heroes” may have ill intentions shrouded by their heroism. The concept of empowered heroism spread like a virus throughout the media, and soon managed to find itself in the minds of those who are, shall we say, less inhibited.
July of last year, approximately, saw the emergence of non-powered vigilantes intervening in criminal investigations in sparse cities across the world, and even getting arrested or crucially injured for their troubles. Many of them are either juvenile delinquents with misplaced priorities or mentally unwell adults that absorbed the news stories of actual superheroes, or other superhero-centered media, such as “The Phone Booth”, a reality show hosted by public-identity hero and JL member Barry “The Flash” Allen, and mistook them as their own. The dangers that these vigilantes pose further stokes the flames of anti-vigilantism movements formed amongst the citizenry, with the internet hackers of the cyber-justice movement Matchstick (which was founded by the man who later became The Batman) being amongst the first in their metaphorical cross-hairs.

Patrick Edward O'Brien was a former FBI agent and an organizer for his hometown's chapter of CAPE (Citizens Against Private Enforcers), an anti-vigilante protest organization rallying for stricter vigilantism laws. Patrick was forced into early retirement when he went blind; a botched sting operation lead to his eyes being practically shot off by a deranged private crime-fighter named Charles Sage.
Living off a substantial settlement for the incident with his wife Angel and their young son Lucas, Patrick became a member of CAPE.
Some time ago, Members of CAPE from across America organized in Washington DC for a huge protest rally in favor of revised vigilantism laws and for the members of the Justice League to be arrested and tried for their crimes. Camping in the park one night, Patrick and his seeing eye dog were kidnapped from their tent, blindfolded, gagged and dragged to an abandoned industrial area. It seems that the costumed vigilantes, mentally unstable as they tend to be, had learned to organize themselves, and this group united themselves as a team called The Conglomerate. These dangerous men, lead by one calling himself Ambush Bug, threatened Patrick into disassembling the protest and leaving DC or there will be consequences; he demonstrated this by feeding the dog to Animal Man, the most feral and most dangerous member of this group (who claimed that he gained strength from eating it). The police caught wind of Patrick's kidnapping from an eyewitness and raided the chemical refinery they were held up in. Two of the Conglomerate were wounded in the fight, and Patrick, panicking and blindly trying to escape, fell head first into a chemical vat. An officer, at great risk to himself, plunged his hand into the chemicals; he received major burns, but Patrick was crucially injured.

Recovering in the hospital, Patrick suddenly awoke with a shock! His vision, for the first time in a year, had returned, to some degree, but when he awoke, the orderlies and nurses screamed in terror... of him! His body is mutating into some terrible mass of living ooze, and he was horrified by the sight of himself. He escaped the hospital, liquifying himself to move through the ventilation shafts and plumbing.
Disoriented and scared, Patrick's twisted, no-longer-organic brain came to the illogical conclusion that the vigilantes planned all along on turning him into “an insult against God” in order to combat the CAPE protestors.
The next morning, the second day of the protests turned violent when the Conglomerate opened fire on the protestors and DC police, but then Patrick's ooze form, pouring out of his recovered clothing, erupted from the sewer system and attacked the Conglomerate! Two of them drowned in his mass, while Animal Man, Ambush Bug, and Bug's moll Dumb Bunny managed to escape (although Patrick launched a blade-like mass from his body that sliced off Bunny's arm). Patrick then formed a massive half-sphere that bore through the underground and arose as a wall around the city, determined to keep the surviving vigilante from escaping so he can kill them all!
The FBI, CIA, and National Guard barricaded the outside perimeter of Patrick's barrier; they tried in vain to penetrate the solidified ooze of organic plastics but to no avail. Patrick sensed their efforts and warned them to step away, or he'll start killing the civilians inside as well. FBI Agent Wolfgang Winks, Patrick's former partner, attempted to negotiate, but his mind is too far gone. Arriving in one of the JL's airships, The Batman arrived to aide in anyway he can. CIA deputy director James Gordon, though enemies with the Dark Knight, offered him a sample of the organic polymer they were able to siphon from the perpetrator to study it (in exchange for his help, the CIA will give Batman “a ten second head start”.)
Batman and the CIA scientists discovered a new form of nervous system that is integrated throughout the living polymer, and the more spread out the mass is, the less sensitive the nerves are. With this knowledge, Batman was able to deduce a weakness in the living barrier and puncture a hole in it without him noticing. They began evacuating as many people, and Conglomerate members, as they could before Patrick took notice and attacked the Bat!
Patrick tried to kill our hero, but the Batman didn't try to fight back; he knew that Patrick wasn't a heartless criminal, just a man who is sick and scared.
He finally managed to reason with Patrick by reminding him of his family back at home. Patrick took down the barrier he formed and gave up on hunting the vigilante, realizing he became the thing he hated most. But before anything could happen, he was attacked by an even MORE powerful meta-talented vigilante... The Marvel!

How ironic that Patrick gave up on hunting threatening and unbalanced vigilantes, only to be attacked by the most powerful of them all! The Marvel, blindly swinging at anything that moved, was firing on all magical cylinders on the prowl for the evils of Earth. He had previously battled Superman, the Batman's teammate in the League, to a standstill a few months back; if HE couldn't defeat the Marvel, how could Batman or Patrick hope to do so? The battle between them decimated the city until Patrick attempted to suffocate him in his mass; the Marvel then managed to free his head and incite the magic word SHAZAM!, activating his ability to draw energy from all nearby sources. The overflow of energy caused him to expel the energy in an explosive force, reducing Patrick to ash and transforming the Marvel back to young Billy Batson.
In the aftermath of the incident, Billy was apprehended by agents of CADMUS and taken to a holding facility (until he managed to escape), people began turning away more and more from superheroism (blaming unchecked vigilantism for the massive destruction to Washington), the Conglomerate fell of the grid, and Patrick's recovered remains were buried in his home city. His friends and family had a respectable funeral for him, and Batman left a single flower on his grave in the cover of night, soon returning to his mission with questions about his own effectiveness rattling throughout his mind...

Notes:
* Yes... I just did that to Plastic Man. Come get me, America.
* At first, I never planned on making an Absolute Plas, and at least 1 person suggested it to me. But then I started thinking about his story as a dark, biting satire of heroism's futility, with the hero as a self-hating victim of circumstance instead of the happy-go-lucky goof he usually is.
** Phil Foglio's interpretation of Plas' origin served as some inspiration, mainly Patrick planning to kill himself (or at least going into exile) after taking down the vigilantes responsible for his mutation so his family wouldn't have to deal with him being a freak of nature.
* The rise of amateur costumed vigilantes in AbDC is based on both the story of IRL hero Phoenix Jones and a scene from Ultimate Marvel where you see a bunch of arrested vigilantes dressed like heroes from the mainstream comics (including Cloak and Dagger).
* “Edward”, Patrick's middle name, is Plas' first name in the canon of the TV series “Batman: The Brave & The Bold”. It could also be accepted as a reference to mainstream Plas' old criminal nickname “Eel”.
* Patrick starting off as a retired FBI agent before his mutation is another biting twist of Plastic Man's origin, where in the original was a criminal before becoming a hero.
** I made Patrick blind to reference the goggles Plas usually wears.
** The vigilante who caused Patrick to go blind is Charles Sage, aka The Question. His name was originally Charles Zsasz, but he changed it after he was nearly killed by his brother, Victor Zsasz, after discovering his double life as a serial killer. Charles survived, but wears bandages over his face (instead of a mask that make him look faceless) to hide his mutilation.
* Patrick having a wife and son refers back to the mainstream comic, where Plas had an affair and produced a son from it, one who inherited his powers and became the hero Offspring.
* “The Conglomerate” in AbDC is radically different from the mainstream one, similar only by name. Here, humorous and unorthodox heroes, such as Ambush Bug, the members of the Inferior Five, Heckler, 'Mazing-Man, Oddman, and Grant Morrison's metaphysical interpretation of Animal Man are mentally unstable, powerless, are violent vigilantes.
** They haven't appeared since Patrick's death at the hands of The Marvel and most are dead anyway (except Ambush Bug, Animal Man, and Dumb Bunny).
* Patrick's mutation allowed him to subconsciously repair his damaged eyes, but his genetics went downhill from there.
* Normal Plas' costume changed shape along with him, but Patrick's clothes don't, so they just ooze out of openings like an gaping, pus-filled wound.
* Wolfgang Winks, the name of Patrick's former FBI partner, is the real name of Woozy Winks, mainstream Plas' good buddy and luckily unlucky sidekick.
* Absolute Batman's bio: red-rum-18.deviantart.com/art/…
* Batman refused to fight Patrick because he's just an innocent person trapped in a horrible situation... like his mother...
* The Marvel's bio: fav.me/d4wmu2k
* No, Patrick is not coming back from the dead. I intend his death being permanent to be a jab at comic book heroes usually coming back to life, mainly due to popularity among readership. You guys, reading this on DA, wanting Absolute Plas back won't change it; he WANTS to be dead.

Description
In the wake of the alien invasion of Earth, and the insurgents' defeat at the hands of seven meta-talented vigilantes, collectively known as The Justice League, the world was ablaze with the rise of superheroes as a huge part of the cultural zeitgeist. They were praised as heroes by many for their ability to quell the crises that no police force or military intervention can handle, but there are many others still who criticize these heroes for taking the law into their own hands, not taking responsibility for the massive property damage they cause in battles with criminals and terrorists, and sheltering the identities they have in their normal lives, which arouses suspicion that the “heroes” may have ill intentions shrouded by their heroism. The concept of empowered heroism spread like a virus throughout the media, and soon managed to find itself in the minds of those who are, shall we say, less inhibited.
July of last year, approximately, saw the emergence of non-powered vigilantes intervening in criminal investigations in sparse cities across the world, and even getting arrested or crucially injured for their troubles. Many of them are either juvenile delinquents with misplaced priorities or mentally unwell adults that absorbed the news stories of actual superheroes, or other superhero-centered media, such as “The Phone Booth”, a reality show hosted by public-identity hero and JL member Barry “The Flash” Allen, and mistook them as their own. The dangers that these vigilantes pose further stokes the flames of anti-vigilantism movements formed amongst the citizenry, with the internet hackers of the cyber-justice movement Matchstick (which was founded by the man who later became The Batman) being amongst the first in their metaphorical cross-hairs.

Patrick Edward O'Brien was a former FBI agent and an organizer for his hometown's chapter of CAPE (Citizens Against Private Enforcers), an anti-vigilante protest organization rallying for stricter vigilantism laws. Patrick was forced into early retirement when he went blind; a botched sting operation lead to his eyes being practically shot off by a deranged private crime-fighter named Charles Sage.
Living off a substantial settlement for the incident with his wife Angel and their young son Lucas, Patrick became a member of CAPE.
Some time ago, Members of CAPE from across America organized in Washington DC for a huge protest rally in favor of revised vigilantism laws and for the members of the Justice League to be arrested and tried for their crimes. Camping in the park one night, Patrick and his seeing eye dog were kidnapped from their tent, blindfolded, gagged and dragged to an abandoned industrial area. It seems that the costumed vigilantes, mentally unstable as they tend to be, had learned to organize themselves, and this group united themselves as a team called The Conglomerate. These dangerous men, lead by one calling himself Ambush Bug, threatened Patrick into disassembling the protest and leaving DC or there will be consequences; he demonstrated this by feeding the dog to Animal Man, the most feral and most dangerous member of this group (who claimed that he gained strength from eating it). The police caught wind of Patrick's kidnapping from an eyewitness and raided the chemical refinery they were held up in. Two of the Conglomerate were wounded in the fight, and Patrick, panicking and blindly trying to escape, fell head first into a chemical vat. An officer, at great risk to himself, plunged his hand into the chemicals; he received major burns, but Patrick was crucially injured.

Recovering in the hospital, Patrick suddenly awoke with a shock! His vision, for the first time in a year, had returned, to some degree, but when he awoke, the orderlies and nurses screamed in terror... of him! His body is mutating into some terrible mass of living ooze, and he was horrified by the sight of himself. He escaped the hospital, liquifying himself to move through the ventilation shafts and plumbing.
Disoriented and scared, Patrick's twisted, no-longer-organic brain came to the illogical conclusion that the vigilantes planned all along on turning him into “an insult against God” in order to combat the CAPE protestors.
The next morning, the second day of the protests turned violent when the Conglomerate opened fire on the protestors and DC police, but then Patrick's ooze form, pouring out of his recovered clothing, erupted from the sewer system and attacked the Conglomerate! Two of them drowned in his mass, while Animal Man, Ambush Bug, and Bug's moll Dumb Bunny managed to escape (although Patrick launched a blade-like mass from his body that sliced off Bunny's arm). Patrick then formed a massive half-sphere that bore through the underground and arose as a wall around the city, determined to keep the surviving vigilante from escaping so he can kill them all!
The FBI, CIA, and National Guard barricaded the outside perimeter of Patrick's barrier; they tried in vain to penetrate the solidified ooze of organic plastics but to no avail. Patrick sensed their efforts and warned them to step away, or he'll start killing the civilians inside as well. FBI Agent Wolfgang Winks, Patrick's former partner, attempted to negotiate, but his mind is too far gone. Arriving in one of the JL's airships, The Batman arrived to aide in anyway he can. CIA deputy director James Gordon, though enemies with the Dark Knight, offered him a sample of the organic polymer they were able to siphon from the perpetrator to study it (in exchange for his help, the CIA will give Batman “a ten second head start”.)
Batman and the CIA scientists discovered a new form of nervous system that is integrated throughout the living polymer, and the more spread out the mass is, the less sensitive the nerves are. With this knowledge, Batman was able to deduce a weakness in the living barrier and puncture a hole in it without him noticing. They began evacuating as many people, and Conglomerate members, as they could before Patrick took notice and attacked the Bat!
Patrick tried to kill our hero, but the Batman didn't try to fight back; he knew that Patrick wasn't a heartless criminal, just a man who is sick and scared.
He finally managed to reason with Patrick by reminding him of his family back at home. Patrick took down the barrier he formed and gave up on hunting the vigilante, realizing he became the thing he hated most. But before anything could happen, he was attacked by an even MORE powerful meta-talented vigilante... The Marvel!

How ironic that Patrick gave up on hunting threatening and unbalanced vigilantes, only to be attacked by the most powerful of them all! The Marvel, blindly swinging at anything that moved, was firing on all magical cylinders on the prowl for the evils of Earth. He had previously battled Superman, the Batman's teammate in the League, to a standstill a few months back; if HE couldn't defeat the Marvel, how could Batman or Patrick hope to do so? The battle between them decimated the city until Patrick attempted to suffocate him in his mass; the Marvel then managed to free his head and incite the magic word SHAZAM!, activating his ability to draw energy from all nearby sources. The overflow of energy caused him to expel the energy in an explosive force, reducing Patrick to ash and transforming the Marvel back to young Billy Batson.
In the aftermath of the incident, Billy was apprehended by agents of CADMUS and taken to a holding facility (until he managed to escape), people began turning away more and more from superheroism (blaming unchecked vigilantism for the massive destruction to Washington), the Conglomerate fell of the grid, and Patrick's recovered remains were buried in his home city. His friends and family had a respectable funeral for him, and Batman left a single flower on his grave in the cover of night, soon returning to his mission with questions about his own effectiveness rattling throughout his mind...

Notes:
* Yes... I just did that to Plastic Man. Come get me, America.
* At first, I never planned on making an Absolute Plas, and at least 1 person suggested it to me. But then I started thinking about his story as a dark, biting satire of heroism's futility, with the hero as a self-hating victim of circumstance instead of the happy-go-lucky goof he usually is.
** Phil Foglio's interpretation of Plas' origin served as some inspiration, mainly Patrick planning to kill himself (or at least going into exile) after taking down the vigilantes responsible for his mutation so his family wouldn't have to deal with him being a freak of nature.
* The rise of amateur costumed vigilantes in AbDC is based on both the story of IRL hero Phoenix Jones and a scene from Ultimate Marvel where you see a bunch of arrested vigilantes dressed like heroes from the mainstream comics (including Cloak and Dagger).
* “Edward”, Patrick's middle name, is Plas' first name in the canon of the TV series “Batman: The Brave & The Bold”. It could also be accepted as a reference to mainstream Plas' old criminal nickname “Eel”.
* Patrick starting off as a retired FBI agent before his mutation is another biting twist of Plastic Man's origin, where in the original was a criminal before becoming a hero.
** I made Patrick blind to reference the goggles Plas usually wears.
** The vigilante who caused Patrick to go blind is Charles Sage, aka The Question. His name was originally Charles Zsasz, but he changed it after he was nearly killed by his brother, Victor Zsasz, after discovering his double life as a serial killer. Charles survived, but wears bandages over his face (instead of a mask that make him look faceless) to hide his mutilation.
* Patrick having a wife and son refers back to the mainstream comic, where Plas had an affair and produced a son from it, one who inherited his powers and became the hero Offspring.
* “The Conglomerate” in AbDC is radically different from the mainstream one, similar only by name. Here, humorous and unorthodox heroes, such as Ambush Bug, the members of the Inferior Five, Heckler, 'Mazing-Man, Oddman, and Grant Morrison's metaphysical interpretation of Animal Man are mentally unstable, powerless, are violent vigilantes.
** They haven't appeared since Patrick's death at the hands of The Marvel and most are dead anyway (except Ambush Bug, Animal Man, and Dumb Bunny).
* Patrick's mutation allowed him to subconsciously repair his damaged eyes, but his genetics went downhill from there.
* Normal Plas' costume changed shape along with him, but Patrick's clothes don't, so they just ooze out of openings like an gaping, pus-filled wound.
* Wolfgang Winks, the name of Patrick's former FBI partner, is the real name of Woozy Winks, mainstream Plas' good buddy and luckily unlucky sidekick.
* Absolute Batman's bio: red-rum-18.deviantart.com/art/…
* Batman refused to fight Patrick because he's just an innocent person trapped in a horrible situation... like his mother...
* The Marvel's bio: fav.me/d4wmu2k
* No, Patrick is not coming back from the dead. I intend his death being permanent to be a jab at comic book heroes usually coming back to life, mainly due to popularity among readership. You guys, reading this on DA, wanting Absolute Plas back won't change it; he WANTS to be dead.