The mock turtle

Standing at the windows to his penthouse suite at the Gotham hotel, Damien looked out to the calamity happening at the world tree, narrowing his eyes, and clenching his fists, he quickly darted to his quarters to pull out a casket under his bed, unlatching the wooden crate to reveal the black cloth and armor of the bat suit.

*

Shivering from his hiding spot along with Jimmy Olsen, Vincent held his camera to his eye with shaking hands while he continued to hide from all the chaos around him. Taking as many pictures as he could sneak in while all this acted out. The krypto-wolves and the battle up in the night’s sky was one thing, he was worried he didn’t have enough film to cover it all. He already had to replace a roll or two already.

But this? This he was trying everything he could to keep his hands steady from shaking just to capture the massive, hulking monster all on camera.

It was huge! At least the size of a city bus and even that still wasn’t enough to properly scale the monster lumbering its way out of the hole in the ground it dug itself out of. Its entire body was scaly, covered in a tough hide and armored over with chitinous plates down its shoulders, flanks and back, almost like the shell of a tortoise. Its stance was like a bull dog’s; Its chest puffed out, and its forearms dominating its front with oversized talons. Ones where the claws were so large, they could have easily carved a man in half with one swipe, but were so unwieldy, the thing folded them back to hold itself up by its knuckles. It had two pairs of hindlegs, but unlike the forelimbs, they were so small they didn’t even look strong enough to keep the rest of it off the ground. Likely that job was to the long, heavy, serpentine forked tail that slithered behind it like the body of a slug. Rearing its two heads high, they looked like the long-necked heads of a massive brontosaurus, only their mouths were beaked, chipped, and jagged, sporting a spire of a horn on either of its noses.

Overall, it appeared like some mutated alligator snapping turtle, bloated and oversized as it crawled and slithered towards the Wolf King. But to everyone recoiling at its presence. It was unanimous that the beast was an atrocity. Forced to look up at the monster as it stopped just a few meters from the prone Wolf King, the monster’s two heads lowered to see their prize, grinning despite their beaked visage.

“We have them, just like you wanted boss.” Answered the robed gunman, keeping a safe distance.

Grinning down at his subordinate and back the Wolf King, the creature’s left head chuckled a low, throaty laugh to itself. “GoOd… GoOd…”

The right however diverted its attention to the groups of people being detained along with the werewolves, cats, spiders, and snakes. Narrowing its four eyes, a growl escaped its beak as it turned to its left brother. “We agreed the people wouldn’t be harmed in our plans… We agreed only the animals would be detained.”

“YoU tHiNk I’d LeT oFf SoMe MoOn HoWlInG fReAkS AND tHeIr LeG hUmPiNg LoVeRs? AlL tHe SaMe If YoU aSk Me.”

“Can’t win the people back if we kill them off along with the werewolves.”

“ThEy’Ll FoLlOw… WhEn ThEy SeE WhAt DiReCtIoN ThE WiNd’S BlOwInG.”

“Harvey Dent.”

Hearing their names, the two heads looked down at the stern glare of Bruce, and the two smiled. Lowering their gaze, the two snorted, their forked tongues flicking out of their beaked mouths like serpents as they took up the left and right side of the Wolf King’s vision.

“Bruce.” “WaYnE…” “It’s been a…” “LoNg TiMe SiNcE We…” “Met last, I see you’ve been…” “DoInG WeLl FoR YoUrSeLf…” “Almost half as good as we’ve been doing. What’s your…” “SeCrEt?”

Looking up at the two-headed monstrosity, Harleen blinked back in a double take. Turning to Pam and Bruce who looked up at the massive turtle. “Wait a minute… TWO-FACE?!”

Snorting out in annoyance, the right head of the creature harrumphed. “So, it took the clown THIS long to figure it out?”

“ShE WaSn’T HiReD FoR HeR BrAiNs.”

Looking up and giving the massive two-headed snapping turtle a look over, Aloe Vera could only shiver at the aura the beast gave off. Chaos and Order swirled like a whirlpool, a perfect balance between the two, granting both to finally have voice in the same body without fighting the other. Shaking her head, she couldn’t believe the man would go this far.

“What HAPPENED to you Harvey?”

“WhAt HaPpEnEd?!” “You destroyed the city and…” “We AlL GoT LeFt BeHiNd…” “Just look around here, you think these people followed me because I’m paying them?”

Rearing back his two heads to look down at the rest of the festival held hostage by his crew, the massive turtle creature let a low purr escape his two jaws. Nearby, Dracula was paralysed in agony as four of his crew recited the holy word while brandishing crosses, his feline wife pinned down with a gun to her head to keep her in line. His other bride, the assassin was no better. Talia shuddered and folded into herself in a rigor pose while Nightwing and Starfire were forced to watch at gunpoint. One by one the lycanthropes in the festival were separated from the rest of the crowd and forced to stand in a group, the lot with their respective leaders standing in front of the group to face the armed mob.

The krypto-wolves, with their heightened sensitivity to silver, recoiled at the presence of the robed men and women who waved silver crosses in front of them, making the massive horned wolves whine and drag themselves away lethargically. Rounding them up next to the rest of the were-creatures.

“EaCh AnD EvErY OnE Of ThEm LoSt SoMeOnE ClOsE In YoUr PeRsOnAl WaR. ThEy WaNt PAYBACK!”

“They want JUSTICE!” Growled the right head, narrowing his eyes back at his left brother. “They’ve been wronged, used, and even fed off like they were food. And then one day it all ended, and they were told to get on with their lives.”

“So We GaVe ThEm ThE MeAnS To FiGhT BaCk… ToOk FiVe YeArS To PrEpArE, BuT WiTh ThE BlOod SuCkEr HeRe AnD ThE ReSt Of YoU FrEaKs AlL In OnE PlAcE…”

“We could finally hold you all accountable.”

“So why the facelift?” Asked Harleen, eyeing up the former prosecutor. “Aint’cha callin the kettle black by being like us?”

Both heads sneered down at the white wolfess. “Ever heard of fighting fire with fire?” “We DeCiDeD To FiGhT FiRe WiTh A BlOwToRcH!” “Bruce here destroyed Langstrom’s lab in the hopes it would turn the city into more of a zoo than it already was, but some of his research survived the explosion.” “We FiGuReD We’D GeT a FiFtY FiFty ChAnCe Of GeTtInG SoMeThInG UsEfUl.” “And I’d say its pretty useful, I’ve always liked justice to be poetic. And what’s more poetic…” “ThEn A MoNsTeR KiLlInG MoNsTeRs?”

“But Harvey.” Pleaded Pamela, eyeing the gunmen behind her when she heard the machine gun cock and tap against the back of her head. “You cannot blame them for their actions, the inner wolf… It was a madness those people could not face. We’ve tried desperately to bring them back from it. To bring balance.”

“It doesn’t matter. When they did it, they were all mad dogs.” “AnD MaD DoGs GeT PuT DoWn ToOtS…” Chuckled the left head, his grin devilish. “StArTiN WiTh YoU ThReE!”

Reaching out with one of his talons, Harleen and Pamela cried out when Bruce was snatched up and hoisted up into the air, powerless to do anything as Two-Face raised the black wolf up over his two heads. The left opened his beak wide, eager to bite the wolf’s head off, while the other looked up to see the Bat signal shining through the canopy of the world tree.

“You know Bruce, its funny, years ago, that symbol would have scared crooks into staying at home. Now? Well… No more Bruce Wayne, no more big bad wolf… No more Batman!”