Were-Spiders...

Darting forward to tackle the pair of women turned arachnids, Batman felt he was moving in slow motion in comparison to their speed. Just barely reaching Helena and shoving her into Barbara to divert them away from Pamela, still screaming in labour. Tumbling backwards, the two werespiders hissed in protest, with Helena kicking Bruce away with one of her scuttling legs. The strength she now possessed flung the Batman back several meters and collide into the cave wall. Stars filled his eyes after getting stunned from the impact, dropping to his feet and nearly falling to his knees before quickly recovering. But even then the few seconds he was left vulnerable was more than enough for the two arachnids to pounce on him, his arm raised up instinctively just when a pair of fangs and mandibles snapped shut around his metal bracers and gnawed on the material, dripping saliva and venom over his chest.

Helena’s thin, strong talons gripped at his shoulders, pinning him to the ground while he avoided her many legs stamping and scratching at his body underneath her. Darting his eyes over to the still prone Aloe Vera, he could see Barbara scuttle into view, her black glossy eyes glaring at him in a mix of hunger and rage. A part of him was grateful for that, it meant all their attention was on him instead of Pamela. Looking over to his left, Arachne watched with curiosity, too dumbfounded to know who to help or why.

They were fast, if werewolves had raw power and a pack mentality as their strength, these werespiders were lightning quick, couple with their steel strong webbing and venom, they were the perfect ambush killers… All on their own. The clicking scuttle of Barbara’s eight spindly legs belied an inhuman strength, like pneumatic pistons each of her legs could overpower a horse on their own. Her waist and arms were just as slender save for a bulbous mass behind her the size of a large backback, like a starving woman she appeared almost frail, but he knew better than that. Her fingers had lengthened into talons that clicked together as she kept them close in a timid looking display, folded over like that of a praying mantis. Her face was a collection of eyes and mandibles that flexed and drooled venom at her feet, her glossy eyes expressionless and soulless. It was only when she stopped moving that he knew she found her opportunity to strike and was ready to join Huntress on top of him.

Sneering under his cowl, Bruce angled his knee under Helena’s waist and managed to kick her off him, just when Barbara lunged forward to strike. The moment she did, Bruce undid the clip to his cloak and flourished it in between them like a matador, enveloping the massive spider woman and letting her inertia take her scuttling into the wall. Stunned from the impact, Barbara lay twitching on her back while Bruce pulled back his cloak and rebuttoned it around his neck, glaring back at Helena who darted back and forth, trying to find an opening to strike. Not wanting to end up in the same position again, Batman charged towards her, his hand obscuring a taser between his fingers as he kept low in mid run. Rearing up her talons and the front two pairs of legs, the arachnid made an intimidation display, hissing at Bruce to scare him into hesitating. With her defenses wide open, he lunged out with the taser… Only to be surprised when she suddenly snapped to the right, and something tacky smeared against his chest when he lost his footing, a split second to look down to investigate revealed a glob of organic silk clung to him, a split second later Bruce found himself pulled back and gripped under her talons and legs, spun around while the thread to that silk coiled and wrapped around him, enveloping him into a cocoon of iron strong silk.

Dropping him to the ground and circling his prone form, Bruce struggled against his bonds, looking over to the wall to see Barbara recover from her concussion and glare back at him, wiping a healing bruise to her fanged chin.

“Hey! Get away from him!” Cried out Jason, whimpering against the lasso still around his neck but having regained enough of his wits to realise what was happening. Staring at Arachne, Jason growled under his breath, struggling impotently to keep his calm. “You fucking bug, tell them to stop!”

Blinking back at the werewolf against the wall, Arachne unfolded her mandibles and fangs, leering at the prone Batman as he struggled. “But… Tasty wolf is a tasty MAN now, yes, yes… Tasty man we share…”

“YOU FUCKING INSECT! I”LL TEAR YOU APART!” Growling and barking like a mad wolf again, his raging howls were intermixed with cries of pain, pulling too hard on the cable tied around his neck to the cave wall and slumping back down in exhaustion.

Gritting his teeth to the point of biting his lip, Bruce struggled as hard as he could against the webbing wrapped around him, by now the three arachnids had finally surrounded him and looked ready to sink their fangs into his flesh. He hated resorting to this, not only because it damaged his image amongst criminals… But because she would never let him hear the end of this.

“KAREN!”

In that split second, the three arachnids found themselves struck by a golden blur, faster than any of them ever could be, and pinned to the ground by three clawed hands that kept them in place. Looming over them was the smirking form of Power Girl, her furry saurian tail wagging slowly with amusement behind her. The massive Kryptonian werewolf chuckling at the sight of Bruce wrapped in webbing. “Well, well… It’s a good thing you called out for help love.” Seeing something sharp and metallic pierce the silk binding and cut a slit from Bruce’s waist to his chin, Karen pouted that he managed to slip free and pull himself out of the webbing.

Looking over to the other side of the cave, Batman found an exhausted Pamela curled onto her side while five newborn wolf cubs whimpered and suckled from her breasts, a look of fatigue and pride etched into her lupine face. Moving up to kneel at the massive werewolf, Bruce petted the head of one of his newborn daughters before turning his attention to Aloe Vera. “Pamela, I…” Grabbing the fabric of his costume, Aloe Vera pulled his face close and kiss the man hard, licking his chin and face. Pulling him away slightly, it was enough to see the smoldering look in Pamela’s eyes, looking back up at him.

Still tired but no longer prone, Aloe Vera gestured towards Karen’s prisoners. “The Spiders, bring them to me my love…” Waving over Karen who held the three struggling spiders in her grasp, Power Girl brought the red furred arachnid up for Aloe Vera to reach, the she-spider hissing and snapping until Pam pressed her clawed hand against the spider’s forehead. Stunned silent for several seconds, a nod from the red wolfess was enough for Karen to let Barbara go and let her stagger uneasily on her eight legs, clutching at her fanged face and groan as if just waking up. Blinking with all six of her eyes and shifting her jaws until her fangs retracted back under her upper jaw and her mandibles joined back together into her lower jaw, Oracle looked around confused until she spotted Pamela doing the same to Helena, Arachne at this point decided to behave and remain docile.

Looking down at her talons and over her slim figure and scuttling limbs, Barbara Gordon breathed in quick and sharp before screaming out in horror. Followed swiftly be the Huntress when she too regained her wits and self control. “What… What am I? WHAT THE FUCK AM I?!” Looking down at her talons with hot tears, Barbara turned her attention to the skittish Arachne, having been released by Karen after the two new werespiders were in control of themselves. Very quickly putting two and two together, Barbara began to stare daggers at the black arachnid in front of her. “You…” With inhuman speed, Barbara lunged for the insane werespider, only stopping when she found Batman standing between her and it.

“Don’t kill her Barbara.”

“Oh I’m not going to kill her… I’m just going to find out if you can pluck the legs off a spider and see if they grow back.”

“I need her alive and unharmed Barbara, I’m sorry for what happened, but we need her for information.”

Sneering back at the caped crusader and slowly calming her breathing, Oracle calmly walked around Bruce and approached Arachne. The werespider was hunched low, snipping the air with her talons, looking up at the red arachnid looming over her. “You want to stay alive around here bitch? Then you do what I tell you!”

“Same here!” Hissed Huntress, folding her arms and joining Oracle shoulder to shoulder. “You pull a stunt like that again and the next one to get bit is you… Got it?”

Seeing the insane arachnid nod her head furiously, the two new werespiders relented and gave it space.

Looking around to see an injured Batman, Red Hood turned wolf with a rope around his neck and Aloe Vera tending to a litter of cubs and a trio of werespiders eyeing each other angrily, Karen snorted. “You guys have WAY too much fun when I’m not around do you…”