Batman looks for the Count in his city.

It didn’t take long for Batman to be geared up and prepared to set back out into the city, with the Batmobile and Batwing out of commission, that only left his Batcycle left for use. Filling his utility belt with the custom-made equipment he would need tonight, Batman made his way to the launch platform of the Batcave where the Batmobile would have stood ready, its hulk now tipped over and laying on the far side of the cave. Straddling the Batcycle and revving its silent electric engine, Batman looked to his hand, before it felt that every bone should have been reduced to powder, now it simply felt like his finger tips were numb. An oddity, but not one he had the priority to investigate. Right now, there was a creature of the night plaguing his city, nothing else mattered.

In a span of just a few minutes, Batman was already in the heart of Gotham, the silent hum of the bike going unnoticed in the darkness of late night in the city where fire truck clarions and car horns drowned out everything else. Had anyone been perceptive they would have only seen a black blur pass by, darting between cars towards where the fire brigade was already putting out the remains of the warehouse Power Girl was last seen. Parking the bike within an alley and grappling up the side of a ten-story building from his cable shooter, the Dark Knight loomed over the building’s edge to get a look at what had happened. Whatever Karen had been fighting, it gave her a run for her money. The place looked like a bomb had gone off, several bombs in fact, but there was still no sign of whomever she had fought to a stand still. Toggling the lenses in his cowl, Batman checked for heat marks and disturbances from his vantage point. Nothing. “Should have figured, vampires wouldn’t leave so much as a finger print let alone body heat or foot prints” Still not deterred, Batman moved from his perch to drop back down to ground level, if he could not find anything here, then he would ask around, after all someone should have been able to see something.

“Interesting… They say imitation is a sign of admiration, yet I doubt we’ve ever TRULY met… Have we?” Turning to face the sound of the voice, Batman found no one, the alley still empty and dark as how he found it. “I must admit, sending the goddess to kill you WAS underhanded, there would have been no honour in killing you in such a way, but I also felt that turn about was fair play after all.” Darting his eyes around himself, he finally found the source of the voice with the thick European accent. Standing on the wall of the adjacent building 3 stories up was the count himself, Dracula. Everything about the man threw Batman off; he stood on the wall as if it were the ground, his green cloak swaying in defiance of the breeze and gravity, never draping downwards or flowing when a gust passed by. But the face he recognized, the same as the man who visited his home last month.

“Count Bolg Varcolac I presume? Or would you prefer Dracula?”

Stepping towards the ground and landing as if he didn’t weigh a thing, the undead king moved to stand adjacent with Batman on the other side of the alleyway, his smirk never leaving his features as he looked the Dark Knight over. “I have been given many names over many centuries, I have adopted them all as those ages had passed, but yes, you may call me by that.”

“We’re you the one who turned Doctor Mendez? The one who killed her?”

His smirk finally gone, Dracula narrowed his eyes, offended by the accusation. “I showed her another world, one she was denied, a world of eternal night and passion, a world where she would have been the queen of… A better question is, were YOU the one who killed her?”

“I didn’t send Power Girl to kill her if that’s what you are wondering, Dr. Mendez bit off more than she could chew when she tried to feed off of her.”

Raising an eyebrow to Karen’s name, Dracula answered back. “She tried to impress me, avenge my honour after you nearly killed me and my brides a few nights ago… You still don’t know, do you?”

“Know what?”

His smirk returning, Dracula crossed his arms, the bottom hem of the man’s cloak seemed to rile up like the tentacles of an octopus. “You think me a threat to your city, the REAL danger to these… Fine people is glaring right back at me.” Taken back with confusion, Batman continued to listen to the no life king. “There is a plague among your citizenry, one that will spread if left unchecked, I am here to keep it in check, and the SOURCE? Well, that would be you.”

Hearing enough, Batman already had one of his batarangs in hand and threw it straight at the count, the razor-sharp blade was easily caught between two fingers with inhuman speed, observed and admired by Dracula like one would appraise a well-crafted pen. “Toys Mister Wayne? And to think I believed we were having a gentlemen’s conversation.”

“You killed dozens, hundreds of people, left them as dried out husks like trash on the streets, you are very far from what I would call a gentleman.”

“And YOU are very far from what I would call a man!” Chuckled the count, crumpling the batarang in his hand like it was tinfoil. “Let me guess, having trouble remembering? Do you wake in the day covered in blood? Misplaced your belongings when you come to? Lycanthropy takes a toll on the mind as it does the body doesn’t it?”

Lycanthropy? Batman wondered, he already realised he was in for a fight, but the information drop stunned him, was he responsible for what happened to the Joker? All those people, dead? How many more? How many blackouts resulted in more murders in his city, how many more dead parents? Dropping a smoke pellet on the ground and waiting for it to fill the space of the alley, Batman made to escape, only to find Dracula already in front of him. There was no sign that he had ever moved, no gust to his cloths or exertion on his features, it was as if he was always there. Narrowing his eyes, Batman bought time. “Brides…”

“Hmm?” Curious of the Dark Knight’s question, Dracula raised his eyebrow again.

“You said I nearly killed you and your brides, I know about Mendez, who else did you turn?”

“He’s talking about me Batman.” Seeing a pair of feminine hands snake out from behind Dracula and wrap affectionately around his shoulders, Batman’s eyes turned to shock when he saw the smiling face of Zatanna reveal herself and perch her chin over her lover’s shoulder. Her lips were jet black, her dark hair flowing all around her like a fog, pulling away briefly to stand next to her Count, Zatanna wore a revealing black corset which exposed her pushed up cleavage and legs. Black silk fishnet gloves, stockings and high heels completed the attire along with a black top hat she conjured before placing it on her head. She looked like a burlesque dancer, yet with her chalk white skin and burning red irises, she was a predatory creature in the guise of a beautiful woman.

“Zatanna…”

“You might not like it Bruce, but Dracula is right, he… WE would only take what we need to feed, but you?” With her heels clicking with each step as she circled the Dark Knight, it sickened Bruce to his core to see one of his best friends turned into such a creature, a creature that now looked at him with the same regard as a lioness would a trapped rabbit. “Werewolves are butchers Bruce, the next full moon you’d kill anything that moved or anyone who gets in your way, and the survivors? Well they’d end up just as bad as you.”

“Two predators cannot exist in the same hunting ground Mr. Wayne, with me and my bride, we would only feed to live. You? This city would be dead in a year.”

“So, you intend to kill me?”

“I intend to slay a beast and its kin, then return home.” Dracula answered, his hand gestured to Zatanna to join his side. “I have no intention to ‘kill’ a good man protecting his home and kingdom, after all I would do the same in my stead.” With his cape still obscuring his arms, Bruce ignored Zatanna whispering into Dracula’s ear as Batman reached for another smoke bomb in his belt. “But come next full moon, you and the rest of your kind will be dead, unless it’ll be sooner than later…” He never had a chance to use the smoke bomb however when like a blur, Dracula was already in front of him and holding his wrist at his side. Pulling Bruce’s arm out of his cape to reveal a small plastic ball between his pinned fingers. “More toys Mr. Wayne?” Shaking his head, Dracula’s smile became more predatory, exposing sharp teeth that went as far back as the end of his jaw, his eyes going blood red as he stared back into Batman’s own eyes. “It takes a man to slay a monster, and yet as you are, all I see is another stray dog.”

With only a flick of his finger, Batman pressed the dimple of the smoke bomb, catching the bemused attention of Dracula before it began to fill the alley with grey smoke. But unlike the previous bomb, THIS one had an effect. Coughing, wheezing and collapsing to the ground, Dracula and Zatanna were blistered from the garlic powder smoke that burned at their flesh. Desperate to escape the burning mist, the two vampires made their escape while Batman did the same, leaping towards his bat cycle and fleeing the area at top speed.

Even by the time he was halfway across the city and keeping low to avoid being spotted, the same word kept repeating in his head.

Lycanthropy.