Bruce looks for evidence and Two-Face makes his move.

Looking around the area, Bruce sniffed the air. Whoever had attacked Red Hood should still be nearby, but for some reason he didn’t smell another werewolf, whatever odour he did smell seemed… stale, almost a chemical smell, he couldn’t quite describe it. Leaping down to the ground from the five-story building, Bruce’s wounds ached but they were rapidly healing. Sniffing the air again, Bruce fell to all fours and tried to follow the scent. If this was a werewolf, it wasn’t behaving like a feral, nor was it behaving like a harmonized werewolf. Seeing a police cruiser turn the corner, Bruce darted into the alleyway and was nearly caught off guard by the mass of cobwebs that filled the entire space. Looking back to find the police car drive by and leaving him unnoticed, the Dark Knight stood up to his 13-foot height.

“You’re not like the last one who passed by here…” Called out a feminine voice that echoed around the alley. “He was bigger, MUCH bigger!”

Looking up and around, Bruce didn’t notice anything at all except the tangle of webs that filled the entire alley, taking a step, his clawed foot crunched what looked like a human bone. His eyes narrowing when he noticed several bones littered the ground. “I’m looking for the one who hurt my friend, did you see him?”

“You have little friends; little friends make little morsels.” Giggled the voice, followed by what sounded like something moving above him. “You friend was made a little morsel by the bear.”

“The bear?”

“He was too big to eat… But you…”

With honed instincts, Bruce jumped and rolled to the side, just in time to avoid being tackled by the giant spider that landed where he once stood. Spinning around to face the now ready werewolf, the giant black spider’s legs clicked and scuttled, poised to pounce again when ready. She was large, easily the size of a horse with 8 10-meter legs and an abdomen the size of a recliner seat. But what stood out was that instead of a fanged face, there was an entire woman’s upper body. Her skin was jet black, with a pair of red eyes and four others above her eyebrows. Where there should have been a pair of lips, dripped two pairs of mandibles that clicked and hissed.

“You’re quick!

“And you can talk!” Standing back up and guarding himself, Bruce immediately recognised her. “You’re from Dr. Langstrum’s research, I assumed you all died in the explosion.”

Tilting her head in confusion, the Drider’s fangs rattled “Lots of fire and noise, tasty little morsel in a cape tried to kill me… We escaped.”

“Who do you mean we?” His answer was the arachnid she-creature leaping towards him, with a speed that was nearly too quick even for him, wrapping her in an arm hold, Bruce winced as she struggled to free herself, hissing and scratching as best she could. Despite his current state he was still too strong for her to free from. Flipping the creature onto her back, Bruce pinned her down by her many limbs. Hissing menacingly at him, his reply was a roar that shook the alleyway. Shaken and quivering, the were-spider retracted her fangs and mandibles, giving her the semblance of a timid young woman.

“You said ‘WE’, who else survived?”

*

“Magnificent!” Gasped Talia, staring out into the horizon to take in Dracula’s castle in all its glory.

“Sure is, sister, I knew our lover was mighty, but this?” They were both beyond impressed, there was no chance for the wolf king now, in time Dracula would defeat the lycanthropes and make Gotham his, nothing stood in the way. Looking down to the front of the lounge, Vicky was mildly intrigued when a pair of service vans arrived and parked at the front of the building. The side doors on either side of both vehicles opened wide, but no one exited the vehicles. “Who is…?” Seeing the tips of several RPG missile launcher poke out through the doors of the two vans, Vicky didn’t have the chance to cry out when the front of the Iceberg lounge went up in a cloud of dust and debris.

Looking out the window of his seat in the van, Harvey Dent flipped his coin and found it fell on tails. “Give’em a second volley!”

Reloading their weapons, Harvey’s crew fired again, blowing out the interior of the large building and causing it to collapse under its own weight, sending smoke and dust everywhere. Stepping out of the van and pulling a silver-plated handgun out with his right hand and an onyx black handgun in his left, Two-Face knocked on the side of the van to tell his crew to get out. Over a dozen armed crew got out and readied their weapons when they all stepped through the rubble of the lounge. The area was quite except for the lick of flames from the explosions and the occasional rumble of fallen stone.

“Hey boss, looks like we got some survivors.” Looking over to where one of his men pointed towards, Harvey could see several men and women crawl out of the wreckage, terrified and filthy and cowering before the armed crew and their leader, the Penguin’s staff shivered under the gaze of Two-Face and his crew.

“PLEASE! Don’t kill us, we’ll give you whatever you want.”

“SHUT UP! Yelled the one henchman, pointing his machine gun at the whimpering survivors. “We’re here to kill the whole lot of yeah, isn’t that right boss?”

Putting his pistol away to pull out his silver dollar, Two-Face flipped the coin, and found it landed on heads. “We’re here to kill monsters, not people, they can go.” He answered, his voice smooth and calm.

“WHAT? Fuck that! This our chance to stick it to that fat bird Penguin!”

Flipping his coin again, Harvey raised his gun and shot the man between the eyes. “They can leave, you get to stay right where you are… Alright, get these people out of here, and find those vampire freaks!”

Assisting anyone they found trying to pull themselves free of the wreckage, Two-Face’s crew dug and rummaged through the debris to search for Dracula and his brides. One of them thought he found a woman’s hand reaching out for help. When he grabbed hold of her hand, stone and wood exploded out when Vicky lunged out of her prison and pinned the man to the ground, her eyes blood red with rage and her fangs bared. Behind her, Talia shot out of the debris with a roar, hoisting one of Harvey’s men by the throat high enough that his feet dangled in the air kicking.

“YOU INSIGNIFICANT SPECK OF A MAN! WHEN I’M DONE WITH YOU, THEY’LL NEED TO FIND YOUR FINGERNAILS TO IDENTIFY YOU!!!”

“DAMN RIGHT! YOU WON’T EVEN LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO… Regret…” Shaking her head and staggering back, Talia noticed a smell that drove her dizzy to the point of nausea. Vicky felt the same, keeping herself from vomiting as she pulled herself away from her prey and joined Talia backing away from Two-Face’s crew. They never felt this sick even when they were alive, their sense of balance betraying them as the world around them became blurry the longer they were near the armed goons. Backing off and holding each other to keep balance, Vicky’s eyes narrowed on the armed men and noticed a wreath hanging from each of their necks, wreaths of garlic.

“Like the accessories ladies? The chances of my boys going to a church for holy water is just as ridiculous as a pig going to a hair salon, but then again you dead freaks got OTHER weaknesses too, don’t you.” Gesturing for his men to surround the two vampires, the men raised their guns, ready for the word. Sneering back at them, Vicky Vale turned her attention back to Two-Face and softened her demeanor.

“Now Harvey, you don’t want to hurt us, don’t you?” Making eye contact, Vicky could already see the man wager, blinking as if he were suddenly tired. “You’d never hurt us, wouldn’t you? Not in a million years.” Vicky’s voice was smooth and alluring, her powers already seeping into Two-Face’s mind as she tried to make him do as she willed.

“N-no… I wouldn’t…” slowly lowering his silver pistol, the man looked like he was distracted, his mind somewhere else.

“Good Harvey… Let us go, and we’ll forget all of this ever happened.”

“OK…” He murmured, the pistol looking though it could fall out of his grip at any second.

“And when we’re gone, take that pistol and place it in your mouth, and pull the trigger… Do that for me would you Harvey.”

Suddenly Two-Face pulled out the black pistol he had in his other holster and shot Vicky right in the chest, sending the undead woman screeching with her fangs bared, confused of how her powers failed her.

“Nice try Miss Vale, but anyone who’s dealt with us knows we’re two minds about everything.” Aiming both his pistols at the vampire women, Two-Face gestured to his men. “Perforate these corpses boys!” With that, a dozen machine guns fired, spraying military grade ammunition into the two women, the bullets shredding them apart until they were a ruined bloody mess in the debris of the Iceberg lounge. Not even a twitch when one of the henchmen nudged the ruined corpse of Talia Ghul.

“Looks like that did it, boss.”

“Not quite, we still have the main blood sucker himself, and I’ll give you two guesses where he’s holding out.” Holstering his guns, Two-Face pulled out a pair of cigarettes; one black, the other white and snapped his fingers for one of his men to give him a light. “We’re gonna need some extra firepower if we want to make that thing drop.”

“Guess we don’t need these no more, damn this stuff reeks!” Chuckled on of the henchmen, pulling off his wreath of garlic and tossing it into one of the many fires yet to be put out on the ruins. The rest of the men began doing the same before Harvey yelled back at them. “Don’t be stupid! We still need those for Dracula!” Before they could put the garlic back on, the man who threw his wreath in the fire gasped when he felt a pair of arms wrap around his waist from behind, finding the two bodies on the ground missing. Looking over his shoulder, he cried out when he was looking eye to eye with the ruined corpse of Vicky Vale. “Sssssuchhh a bad dog… Taking your collar of…” His screams cut short when she sank her teeth into his neck.

*

“Well this is a right fucking mess!” Bellowed the Penguin with his two secretaries in tow, running down the alley while the Iceberg lounge behind him burned to the ground. “Should never have let that crazed tosser into me lounge, now me profits are going up in fucking smoke!” Running towards the docks where his ship ‘The Final Offer’ was anchored, the three didn’t look back to know that the Penguin’s little corner of Gotham had been destroyed.

“But Mr. Cobblepot, we can’t leave the city, what about the ring of fire?”

“You want to stay here and deal with dem fruit baskets? Or come with me?”

Not answering but also not going their own way, Candy and Tracy followed the limping squat man as he hobbled down the dock towards a small motorboat, his personal ship just out into the waters and just meters away from the wall of fire. Stopping at the edge, Oswald tried to undo the rope holding the small motorboat at the dock. “Well? Get inside and turn this tub on! I want to get away from this freak show and pray with enough booze and smokes we can hold out and wait for all this to blow over!”

Frantically stepping onto the boat and panicking at the controls, the two women knew better than to keep their boss waiting. Turning the key and getting the motor to sputter to life, Candy turned to look at her employer. “It’s ready to… Go…” Her response caught in her throat; the women looked up to find the Penguin’s back turned, staring up at something that left him stunned and motionless. Along with the two of them when they looked up to find a massive serpent coiled around the dock, constricting the wooden planks and surrounding their stunned employer. Bands of black, white and red passing by each other as the serpent wrapped around the Penguin. But as hypnotic as the shifting colours of its body were, what transfixed the trio most was its eyes. Constantly shifting shades of crystal colour melding from green, to blue, to red, and yellow and back again. To anyone stumbling on the scene they would have witnessed a gigantic snake coiling around a man too scared to move. To the penguin… She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

“Where are you going little birdy? Are you scared? She asked, her voice smooth and sweet as honey. “I can keep you safe, safe from everyone, if you want me to.” Pressing her reptilian hands against his chest affectionately, Oswald could only chuckle as he stared into the woman’s eyes, completely oblivious to her cream smooth scaly skin or the fringes that draped over her scalp like hair. “Wha-what about dem freaks at me lounge, they’ll be…” Feeling a delicate finger press against his mouth with an almost motherly “Shhhhh.” The Penguin felt her embrace get tighter, making him feel safe. “It’s okay, you’re with me, I’d NEVER let anyone hurt you… Trust me.” Feeling her hands gently cup at his chin, the snake woman leaned down to kiss him.

At no time did he feel in danger, not when her mouth opened wide, not when that mouth enveloped his head, not even when he couldn’t breath and he passed down into her stomach while Tracy and Candy screamed.