The Return of the Wolfking. Batman finally understands what it means to be a Werwolf.... and the End of the World... starts (Point of View from Batman)

It was all a pain filled blur to Bruce, he couldn’t feel his arms or his legs, they weren’t there anymore. Dracula had torn him limb from limb and crushed his rib cage into splinters. Suffocating on his own blood in his mouth and the iron grip on his neck, he was hoisted up like the spoils of some great victory for the crowd of Gothamites who had gathered to bear witness to the fight.

He had to keep fighting, if he didn’t, Dracula would wipe out Gotham city to make sure no sign of the lycanthropy plague remained. But he had nothing left in him, even now he was aware of the amount of blood loss he suffered, and his heart was giving in, the thump of its beat in his ears slowly going dim.

“YOU’RE HERO IS NOTHING MORE THAN A BEAST! AND I HAVE PUT HIM DOWN! YOUR FATE IS NOW IN MY HANDS!” Pulling the Wolf King close, Dracula whispered loud enough for only Bruce to hear. “You have fought long and hard warrior, but your duty is now ended, I shall cleanse this city of your blight, and all you will be remembered as is an orphan boy who dressed as a bat to scare the night away.” Wrapping his hand around Bruce’s lupine skull, Dracula made to finish it. He paused when he heard the crowd yell and chant at him, calling out the Batman’s name repeatedly as if the mantra could give the broken wolf the strength to keep going. Looking up at the man’s face, Bruce could tell Dracula looked confused, almost offended that even now the city was cheering for him.

Then, for a split second, Dracula heard a rustling sound that had caught his ear. In that split second he turned to look, a vine had shot out from the Earth and pierced through his back and out his chest. Crying out in shock and dropping the Wolf King, Dracula found more vines fire out from the ground to pierce his torso, arms and legs. Sneering at the audacity, he looked down to find a white wolfess gather Bruce in her arms and flee to safety to the others who had surrounded the battlefield. The red wolfess waving her claws like a conductor and making the vines wrap around his body.

“Bruce! Stay with us! PLEASE!!!” Whimpered Harley, licking at his wounds desperately as she was joined by Pamela, the two trying to stem the bleeding while the rest of the pack surrounded him for protection.

“THE AUDACITY!” Roared Dracula, the vines exploding into splinters and ash as a wake of death withered everything for a meter at his feet. Storming towards the remainder of the pack, Bruce couldn’t see any of it as his vision turned black, looking up to see Pamela and Harleen calling out to him to stay awake.

*

Opening his eyes, Bruce found himself in his human form, dressed in his batman costume in the same place he found himself when he ventured into his mind to find the wolf. A schism where one end was the alley where his parents died, the other, the lush forest where the wolf king resided.

“So… This vessel ends.” Turning, Bruce found himself looking up at the massive black wolf, the animal looming over him with a look of failure in its eyes. “The cycle begins anew.”

“We need to keep fighting, if we don’t, Dracula will burn Gotham to cinders to snuff out lycanthropy, millions will die.”

“Millions have already; He has done so, so many times before, and many times he was justified.” Breathing in deeply, the Wolf King lowered its head. “Your mate, the red one… With her I had hoped it would be different.”

“We nearly beat him last time, how?”

Staring into Bruce’s eyes with its own, the wolf answered. “Before we were joined, I was the one in control, I was the one who prowled your city and guarded its people when the moon was full, my connection to the umbra hurts the king of undeath.”

“So why don’t I have that?”

“When we joined, you only embraced my form and memories, you hold back the rest of me even now because you feel only YOU can defeat him… And you fear what our nature will do to you.”

Narrowing hid eyes, Bruce was too stubborn to agree, but deep down he knew the wolf was right. He knew what embracing the wolf fully would mean. He would become a creature that was neither Bruce Wayne or the Wolf King, a creature that could easily become the city’s saviour or its worst nightmare. Those doubts alone prevented him from fully embracing what he had become. But he no longer had time.

“When we first spoke, you told me deep down we are all two wolves; one vicious, the other noble, the one you let out is the one you feed.”

“Yes… Yes I…”

“Feeding time!”

Grabbing hold of the wolf’s jaws, Bruce pried them open and leapt into his mouth. The moment he did, the schism blurred. Plant life and moonlight filled the alley of his parent’s death, while streets and buildings became visible in the forests at the other side. Rising to his hind feet, the wolf king clutched at his head as memories flowed through him. Happiness as a child, misery and pain from the loss of Bruce’s parents, years spent training, building himself into a weapon for justice before the skies exploded with the screeching of billions of bats, blotting out the stars.

*

The wolves were overwhelmed!

The first that tried to face Dracula was backhanded with enough force to send the 9-foot-tall animal tumbling into the husk of a tree 100 yards away. Another tried and failed when he reared up to take him on and was torn in half with the same ease as tearing a magazine in both hands. Lamia slithered between the Count and the pack, glaring into his eyes with her own. The moment they each made eye contact, Dracula’s bloody glare sent the serpent back, recoiling and clutching her eyes as his will ravaged at her senses just as he back handed her out of his way. The spiders fared no better, circling him and trying to bind him in webbing, only to be blasted away in a plume of dark flames that scorched their fur and stunned them on their backs.

Marching forward, Dracula gasped when he felt a blade stick him from the side. Turning, he glared with red-eyed rage at the amazon Princess, her beautiful face stern as she twisted the sword in her hand and kept her shield up, guarding herself. Like a blur, he struck the shield out of her hands and grabbed her by her neck, pulling out the sword in his side and observing it before dropping it to the ground, tossing Wonder woman away but keeping enough control not to truly harm her despite his rage telling him otherwise. Instead all his focus was on his prize.

“I have humoured your existence LONG enough!”

Finding only the two mates of the wolf king to contend with, Harleen rushed forward, only for a metal clad boot to swing down and pin her head to the dirt, causing her to whimper while he reached for Aloe Vera. “YOU especially!” winding back a clenched fist, Dracula put all his strength into the potential blow to end the Wolf’ King’s mate there and then. The shockwave cracking the earth underfoot. Looking down, Dracula found his punch stopped just a foot from the red wolfess’ s head, his fist in the clutches of a black claw that clenched at his hand so tightly he heard bones crack. Like a mist, Bruce’s flesh instantly healed, his arms and legs regrowing so quickly they that one only needed to blink to miss that it ever happened. Growling up at Dracula, the glowing yellow eyes of the black wolf glared into Dracula’s red eyes and roared. The force of it made the Count’s face warble from its intensity. Hurled up into the air, Dracula tumbled like a rag doll only to land like a lead weight, stumbling from the intense force as he got back to his feet. Regaining his bearings, he turned to face the massive wolf.

Whatever reason was in the wolf’s eyes were gone, a pure monster roared out a challenge and disappeared in a blur of speed past the Count. Looking down, Dracula found his left arm missing. Hearing a howl to the right of him, Dracula looked only to be struck again, his right arm gone before his left arm had time to grow back. Stumbling from shock, he heard a growl behind him, and his legs were taken out from under him, his bloody stumps floating in mid air just as gravity finally took him. Collapsing onto his back, Dracula glared up to find the massive black wolf holding onto his severed ankles in his claw, tossing them aside and glaring down at him just as the rest of the pack rejoined him.

“My LOVE! You are alright.” Called out Aloe Vera, joining Bruce’s side, only to be surprised when he snapped his attention to her, baring his teeth aggressively. Alarmed, the red wolfess backed up slightly before the Wolf King sniffed her, then pulled her in for a fierce and passionate kiss while his clawed hand groped at her furry rear possessively. Swooning into the kiss, Pamela separated to look up into the golden eyes of the Wolf King. “Still here… But not Bruce… MORE than Bruce… We’re the Wolf King now.” Seeing Harleen join the two and embraced his other shoulder, she was pleased when he pulled her in for the same attention, pulling her in close enough her many breasts mashed against his burly chest and shoulders as they kissed.

He had done it, finally allowing himself to be taken fully by the wolf, Bruce Wayne had become the true reincarnation of the Wolf King; Romulus. The entire night was open to him now, his senses could pick up almost everything, his strength and speed were inhuman, and he could finally tap into the flow of the Umbra, almost as if he now had a foot in both worlds. But there was a price. He had embraced the wolf for good or worse, and all that encumbered. Looking down at his two mates, he could already feel the drive and hunger take root. He wanted to mate with them, here and now, to fatten them with his progeny again and again. He wanted to hunt, to feed on fresh game and to sink his teeth on still warm flesh. Looking onto the crowd of people, the desire was strong, even now he was tempted to launch himself into the unsuspecting crowd to feed, to bite and add more to his pack, before he shook his head and reeled back the urge. He was not his mad brother Remus, he wasn’t here to spread the gift, he was here to stop Him!

“So… My OLD nemesis has finally awoken.” Hissed Dracula, standing on his fully grown feet. “This changes nothing, I have defeated you before and shall again!” Opening his hands, balls of blue flame ignited in his palms.

“You wont harm this city ever again.” Growled the Wolf King, glaring back at him.

“And what makes you think THIS century will be different?”

Smirking back at Dracula, he surprised everyone when he turned to Aloe Vera, and bit her on the shoulder, making her cry out before he snapped and turned to do the same to Harley Quinn, the white wolfess laughing at the pain before the two suddenly felt flush with power. Grimacing, the two wolfesses felt their bodies grow and surge with power, their muscles going taut with strength as they grew taller, their curves swelling along with their muscles. Panting, Aloe Vera could feel her connection to the Umbra grow along with her. When the growth had finally stopped, she looked to her loving mate and was surprised to find she now stood tall enough to see him eye to eye. As did Harley, who smiled impishly back to the two.

“In the past you killed a Wolf King, now you face a Wolf King PACK!” Darting in three different directions, the vampire count found himself overwhelmed with a barrage of strikes that swiped past him. Throwing attacks and necrotic flames only to see it all miss their mark. A white furred claw swiped past his face, taking it clean off his skull before he healed it all back, only to see the red furred jaws of a wolfess claim his arm from the elbow. Picking at him piece by bloody piece, Dracula healed as quickly as he was damaged, but it was already taking its toll on him. His wounds were taking longer to heal, his strength slowly leaving him, even as he engulphed the battlefield in blue cold flames. Then just as quickly, Dracula found himself pulled apart and quartered, and a briar thorn vine shot out from the earth and pierced through his chest, hoisting his torso off the ground.

The Wolf King and his two Queens stood before the broken Vampire Count; their attacks ended as they looked down at the man. “This is over, you will never return to Gotham ever again.” Declared Bruce, looking down at the Vampire coughing up blood and struggling to regrow his missing limbs.

“I cannot be defeated, I am as certain as death itself, I have travelled and sailed an ocean of time, you cannot defeat me…”

Raising his claw up, Bruce made to rip Dracula’s heart out, when an explosion rocked the battlefield and sent the four reeling, tumbling to the ground as they looked up to a crater, and a massive claw pull out of the Earth. Getting up to their feet, the lycanthropes looked on to see a new player enter the battle. Hulking in size, he dwarfed even the Wolf King and his Queens by at least 2 feet, a sheen of black fur covering his entire body, save for a chrome coloured device at his neck with a clear tube linking it to the back of his ursine skull.

“GOTHAM! YOUR CHAMPIONS ARE WEAKENED, I AM THE NEW RULER OF THE NIGHT, I AM THE MIGHTY, I AM THE INVINCIBLE! I AM BANE!!!”

“Is that… a were bear?!” asked Harley out loud, looking at the massive bear glaring back at them.

Raising a massive clawed finger at the Wolf King, the creature smirked. “YOU CLAIM TO BE THE HERO OF THIS CITY, YET YOU HAVE ABANDONED THE MAD, THE DESPERATE AND THE DISPOSSESSED, BANE HAS EMBRACED THEM, AND THEY HAVE A WORD TO SAY OF YOUR RULE!”

At that a horde of feral werewolves poured out of the crater, spilling out and heading towards the crowds in a daze of bloodlust, their blank eyes already telling them they had become lost and mindless. Getting up to his regrown knees, Dracula pulled the briar vine out of his chest as he looked up at the demagogue of a bear. “What new devilry is this? One of yours?” To the vampire’s surprise, Bruce helped him to his feet, his claws up and ready to fight but not against him.

“He calls himself Bane, he’s one of the worst in this city… And I propose a truce!”