Poison to beat poison

He was on fire…

He was on fire and could ACTUALLY feel his fur and flesh burning. He never knew he could be harmed; he never knew what pain WAS until now. All he could see was flame all around him as the winged monster, the vampire in dragon form breathed pain and destruction down on him from on high. The dead thing, the king of vampires was a foe he never assumed was this powerful. He had never known.

No! This was not how the prophecy played out. HE would be the one victorious. The queen of cats told him so. Rearing his head back, Carn’el raged, howling out despite his fur seared off his hide. Eyeing the monstrosity in front of him, he charged forward with all four claws open, and flew towards the wyrm at supersonic speed. The airburst that went off when he made contact cleared the sky almost instantly, creating an eye within the storm with the full moon acting like an iris looking down at him, leering at him. Mocking him.

But now the dragon was nowhere to be seen, he knew he hit it, hit something. But now there was nothing there. And as he looked around in his confusion, the storm closed in around him, enveloping the moon until it grew dark again.

“Congratulations beast, you landed a single blow. The last blow.”

Darting his head to the source of the voice, Carn’el was so beyond the pale of reason he snapped and snarled at the cruel laughter that echoed off the clouds.

“You think yourself mighty? Powerful?”

At that moment, Carn’el saw… Something. The clouds had… Eyes. Red, slit like a cat’s eye and glaring back at him. Then more eyes appeared, clusters, bundles, the entire storm cloud he was surrounded by was nothing but shadow and eyes that glared back at him.

“You know only strength, the ability to strike a blow with your fists. Like an animal. But you have never known power. The power to command an army by your sheer presence. The power to bend the world to your will.”

“I KNOW POWER DEAD THING! I COMMAND THE STRONGEST PACK IN NEW GOTHAM! I AM THE MOST POWERFUL WOLF AMONGST THE TRIBES! YOU ARE DEAD AND THIS WORLD IS MINE!”

“No… You only know how to betray your pack. Betray your king. Betray your mother. Betray ME! You slink and scurry about, scheming, plotting from the shadows. You are not a wolf… You are a bug! My love saw that in you, as did I. She wishes for your death to be so terrible it would leave a SCAR in the minds of those who would remember you. So, for that, I grant you a hint of insight. Behold TRUE power!”

Yawning fanged mouths opened between the wild red eyes that stared back at him, along with coiling tendrils of shadow that licked and slithered out from the billowing storm cloud that grew so thick it almost looked yielding like flesh. Flesh. Carn’el suddenly realised he was not in a storm, he never was, the dead man, the vampire count had been toying with him. He was now a minnow, floating in a pool surrounded by hungry sharks’ worth of teeth and eyes staring with a murderous gaze, and all at once… The cloud collapsed and closed in on him.

And he screamed!

*

Streaks of red cut through the brick work of the buildings surrounding the festival. Heat vision just barely dodged by the three fighting back while others braver than the pedestrians cowering under benches and cars tried to guide everyone out. One werewolf charged towards the krypto-wolf who pinned down the white wolfess. A single turn of Lois’s horned head to look at the attacker and a streak of red light was all it took to obliterate the wolf man to dust with heat vision, causing panic to only intensify.

From there, any preamble the Kryptonian werewolves only intended to keep anyone out of the way had gone to the wayside. Carving out scars into the streets, cars and shops with heat vision that incinerated anything they passed over. Ducking low and keeping his eyes sharp of the madness all around him, Umbra kept Basset low for her safety when a beam of heat vision carved over the roof’s facade like it was tissue paper to a lit match. Snarling, he made to stand and join the fight as the others had in freeing the Wolf King and his mates when Basset stopped him.

“No! This is a foe you cannot face; one wrong step and they will burn this city to cinders.”

His clawed hands white at the knuckle under his onyx fur, Umbra was forced to relent and keep low… And be forced to watch as the alien wolves burned down the streets. But while chaos reigned in the heart of the world tree, turning the Halloween festival into a warzone, Lamia was poised in a battle of her own. Staring into the eyes of the former alpha of the krypto-wolves, Lamia bore into the woman’s mind and dug through her mind and memories, never blinking despite looking deep into red hot coals that were painful to look through. She knew the moment she’d blink, or drop her guard, then she would be gone. Flash fried with the heat of a burning sun until there was nothing left.

“This… This is not mind control…” Lamia whispered, going over Karen’s memories, her eyes narrowing as she was almost tempted to look away when she heard someone scream behind her, the smell of charcoal in her nostrils she tried desperately to ignore. “It’s… A drug. A toxin.”

“Bite…” Lamia heard Karen whisper, her red glowing eyes twitching as she tried desperately to fight the drug’s effect on her, hot tears ran down either side of her snout and becoming steam from the heat her eyes exuded. “King’s… Bite…”

Looking deeper, Lamia found what Karen was trying to say. She was gifted the king’s bite by Bruce in the Umbral realm. Her newly enhanced healing was burning through the drug, even now, but its effects would still not dissipate for many hours. By then Gotham would be a funeral pyre. She knew what the cause of Carn’el’s coup d’état against the tribes was, and its effects were now.

“But how can I stop it?”

“Bite… Bite…” Karen whispered, trapped in the mental tug of war between the pheromone binding her to Carn’el’s will, and the queen of serpents pulling back. “Bite… Me…”

Her reptilian eyes going wide, Lamia realised what Karen was trying to tell her. “My venom. Poison to kill poison. It would burn through your blood, force your heart to beat like a jackhammer and ride out the drug in seconds instead of hours… But the pain.”

Another scream could be heard between the two as one of Karen’s children burned away more victims who either tried to flee or fight back. Steeling herself, Lamia breathed in sharply, timing her actions just right so she could act without being killed. In that split second, she broke eye contact with Karen, searing pain burned through her shoulder and arm as she opened her unhinged jaws to extend her fangs and bite deeply into Power Girl’s neck. No longer held back in Lamia’s gaze, Karen’s heat vision kept going, nearly carving a building in half as she closed her eyes tight and wailed out in pain as the wereserpent’s venom coursed through her. Swatting the serpent off her, Karen took to her feet and writhed as her heart boomed in her chest and every muscle in her body felt it was burning from the inside out.

Roaring out in agony and rage, Karen slammed her four clawed fists in the ground, cracking the concrete and causing a small quake as the venom burned through her veins. Over and over again, she slammed her fists into the now pulverised gravel and concrete, drool slipping from her peeled, fanged lips. Breathing hard and falling to all sixes, Power Girl could feel her heart beat slow, a dull thump in her ears where before it was nearly deafening. Turning her attention to Lamia, she found the wereserpent clutching at her scorched neck and the stump where her left arm once was, sizzling, yet healing, slowly growing anew. Making eye contact again, the serpent’s coils looped close in until it looked like she had bundled herself into a ball to guard herself, breathing deep breathes as she steeled herself from her injuries.

Slowly approaching the serpent, Karen looked around her to find her children and loved ones turned into weapons to cause destruction. Destruction in the name of her son who had gone mad with ambition. Glaring up at the sky where she could hear him screaming, she turned her gaze back to Lamia and offered her hand under the snake woman’s mouth. Getting the idea, with her good hand, she plucked her fang with her thumb and milked her venom to drip and pool into Karen’s hand until she had none left to give. Nodding back, Power Girl looked around and took stock of what was going on, seeing her cousin watching over Bruce and his two lovers while her children executed anyone who looked a threat. Licking the venom from her hand and swishing it into her mouth, Karen struck.

Faster than a speeding bullet, the blonde wolfess disappeared, slamming into superman and freeing Bruce under Lois’s iron grip. The only time she could be seen was when she slammed her cousin and his wife against the brick wall of a building and bit down on their shoulders, dropping the two to the ground as they writhed and shuddered before she disappeared again in a wake of a supersonic boom. Doing the same to Conner and Kara and freeing the red and white wolfess in the process.

“Are you two alright?” Called out the Wolf King as he reached out to Aloe Vera, then turning his attention to Harley when he got a relieved sigh from the red wolfess. Conner and Kara writhed on the ground, whimpering as their bite wounds burned.

“I’m fine, damn he’s got a strong grip… Thought he was going to crush my neck with…”

Getting up, Bruce looked to his two mates just as a krypto-wolf descended from the sky, staring red eyed down at the three and getting ready to blast them with its heat vision. Or would have when a black furred monster of a super wolf punched the beast with so much force, the air burst with a wake of sonic pressure and sending the krypto-wolf across the festival grounds. Turning his horned head to address the three as they stared warily back at their former attacker. The massive black horned wolf lowered to his clawed feet to the ground. Gone was the lifeless stare he and the others had; his eyes now focussed, filled with will, anger… And shame.

Reaching out with one of his clawed hands, hesitantly looking down at it like he didn’t recognise his arm, Superman helped Aloe Vera back to her feet. Harley got a start when she felt two sets of hands easily help her up off the ground, looking behind her she peered into the sad, regretful eyes of Lois Lane looking back at her. Slowly, she joined her husband’s side and subconsciously snaking a hand at his.

“Clark.”

“Bruce… I’m so sorry.”

Hearing an explosion on the other side of the festival, the two black furred wolves turned their attention to where Karen tried to wrestle control back over her pack from her son, one bite at a time.

“We’ll talk once we have this under control.”

Nodding, Superman then looked out to the rest of the fighting going on around him and took off like a blur. Joining Karen in restoring sanity to the pack.