No Greater Hive of Scum and Villainy

She crawled out of the ooze of endless bureaucracy...

A week's long stay in the hospital couldn't kill her. The poking, the prodding, the needles, the beeping machines, the tasteless meals, the flapping gown with her nether regions slapping in the wind - they transformed her into something not recognizable. Quack doctors coming in to sneak fees onto her bill for “consultations.” The experimental drugs, the interruptions of sleep cycle... Come on, people, no one needs to be woken up that bleeping early for meds!

It didn't kill her. But the one hundred forty-five thousand dollar bill that arrived afterwards almost did.

They tried grinding her down with delays, and denied reimbursements, and ridiculous excuses for having her pay out of pocket.

Forty dollars for a pregnancy test?? They'd taken that part out years before! Did they think it would spontaneously regenerate, or that she wouldn't notice the charge on top of all the other nonsense?

But that shiny spine, it began to grow. It was self-polishing.

The experience changed her. It angered her. And she channeled that hate into the proper enemy: the healthcare system, with its inflated adminstration, that only lived to deny benefits and make you die sooner...

Theseus was long gone. Brendan was sleeping at the helm. In every culture, someone must be born, destined to become the navigator of the red tape, the threader of the maze of futile paperwork, filer of properly-filled forms in triplicate. The one chosen by birth and destiny to fight the system, and bring it to its knees.

Apropos of nothing, she became...

The Atropotrix!

Taking out obstructionist middlemen! Slicing through paltry excuses with her Scissors of Infinite Co-Pay Cutting! Spouting words like "Not for profit!"

The advocate we need! The defender we desperately desire!