Shell Shocked!

It still took Damien a split second to register what happened. Gravity was still pulling him down, the world running in slow motion as he turned after feeling the shove that pushed him out of the way and to find the look of horror on his mother’s face … Just as the serrated, chipped beak of Two-face clamped down on her like a rusty bear trap and pulled her off her feet. Pulling back his beaked jaws, Harvey Dent had bit off the taser that had kept him prone and in agony while his darker half raised his horned head, thrashing back and forth and licking his beak to taste his catch and finding the blood sour. Realising it wasn’t human blood he was tasting, Big Bad Harv looked down to find a stunned Batman look up in horror.

“MOTHER!”

Throwing his head to the side and opening his maw, Harv roared out in fury as Talia flew out of his mouth and crashed through the window of a closed shop, turning his two attentions back at the Batman and Lycanthropes as he stomped his clawed fists to the ground and gave off a bellowing roar from both his mouths. Focussing all his indignant rage at the one dressed as Batman.

“TALIA!”

“Friend Talia!”

Scrambling to their feet, Dick and Kori raced over to where Talia Ghul had landed to help dig her out and try to save her. The two too far into a panic to dig the woman out of the debris to see Harvey behind them. Fortunately they didn’t have to worry about him attacking, his dual focus was strictly on the Dark Knight standing between them.

“DID YOU THINK WE WERE FUCKING AROUND HERE?!” “DID YOU THINK WE CAME ALL THIS WAY TO BE TAKEN DOWN BY THE BAT’S BASTARD SON?” “THIS CITY IS OURS! AND YOU ARE NOT STOPPING US!!!”

Narrowing his eyes and unsheathing his sword, Damien side stepped deeper into the festival streets, both heads of Harvey Dent glaring back at him like a pair of snakes ready to strike. The rest of the Lycanthropes and Dracula made ready to deal with the giant wereturtle when Bruce raised a clawed hand to stop them. Clarke and Kara looking back at him confused, wondering why he would hold them all back.

“What are you doing?” Questioned the Man of Steel, his ears perched back, and his teeth bared. “He’s going to get killed!”

“No, he won’t…”

Lois nearly did a double take, her current appearance swiftly ignored to focus her attention on the massive abomination now surrounded by the others, boxing the two combatants together in what was best described as an alleyway brawl.

“Are you insane?! Why would you leave him to face that alone?”

“Because it’s the only way they’ll accept him.” Bruce answered, his pack staying close to keep an eye on the two-headed beast as it stared down the Dark Knight, a low growl like that of a crocodile rumbling in its chest as he eyed the young cape wearing man hungrily.

Barreling forward with a surprisingly quick gait, Harvey propelled himself forward with his front claws like the charging run of some vicious bear or gorilla, both his heads roaring out with beaks drooling open as they tried to snap at Damien with a dual bite. The thrum of an engine and the high beams of the batmobile blinded Harvey at his right side, forcing him to close his eyes and turn to face the black vehicle as it drove into him from the side with enough force to knock him off his feet and tumble through a pair of parked cars, all while Damien simply rolled out of the way. Landing crouched on his feet, his hand still on the remote control for the batmobile situated in his utility belt.

The vehicle was still in motion, the rocket booster in full thrust, pinning the massive turtle against the building it had Harvey pinned against. Snarling and righting himself, Harvey swatted the batmobile aside with his powerful tail, the nearly indestructible vehicle bouncing off the pavement before landing with a slow spin upside down, the thrusters finally sputtering out of life. Stomping his clawed fists down on the pavement and glaring furiously back at Batman, who now had his sword ready in one hand and his other hand obscured behind his cape. The monster snorted, taking a step forward, his mass caused the ground to shake.

“Very clever of you Harvey.” Spoke up Batman for everyone to hear. “Enlisting people who got the short end of the stick during the wolf and vampire war.”

Pacing into a circle as did Damien, Harv snorted. “The blood suckers treated this city like a fox in a chicken coop, and the wolves were no better. Why SHOULDN’T these people get justice for their loved ones being turned into wolf and bat food?”

“I agree. They SHOULD get justice… Just like Herschel Welsh does.”

Stopping in his pace, Harvey’s left head sneered with a low growl.

“You KNOW him, knew his way around a smelting plant, good with his hands… When he had them. By the way, I take it he tasted like chicken?”

Trading a look with his left head, Harvey Dent kept his sights on the man.

“What did he do to make you want to bite him in half? Say something you didn’t like or did you just have the munchies?”

“Grrrr….”

“You’re right, you’re right… You never needed an excuse to kill someone, it was always a coinflip.” Snarked Batman, eyeing his surroundings and over to Dent’s crew who watched from where they were being detained by the werewolves and cats. “Speaking of which, I take it the coin landed tails for Dr. Gavin Saul? Wasn’t HE the one who procured the blood sample that turned you into the freakshow from Willow?”

With a snort of hot air from his nostrils, Harv turned his attention to his robed men and women who helped him plot this night, seeing them whisper to each other. Turning to look back to Batman, he found him seeing the same thing.

“Guess you didn’t tell them that… Or how you killed off your old lieutenants when they didn’t get on board? OR how you killed off a lycanthrope couple in the park, JUST to see if you could.”

Glaring furiously at the man in front of him, Harv dug his claws into the pavement, smoldering in his rage. All while his right head looked almost guilty, ashamed.

“I can see the glamour of what you were selling, the big tough turtle whose shell will protect Gotham from ALL the nasty predators plaguing it. But here’s the thing most people don’t consider… Turtles are predators too. So, once all the vampires and werewolves are gone, and all the monsters go away, all that’s left is the one predator with all he can eat. I bet it worked that way when you were a lawyer too.”

With a gurgling roar, Harv was beyond reason and charged again, snapping out with his left beak, too wild eyed with rage to foresee a counter when Batman spun out of the way and threw smoke bombs into the gapping mouth, making it snap shut on impulse. A split second later, a small explosion could be heard as a gust of black smoke blew out of the cracks in Harv’s beak and nostrils. Harvey snarled and snapped at Damien, the Dark Knight dodging the strike while flinging a pair of batarangs that whizzed under Harvey’s right arm and got stuck under what looked like hid arm pit. The explosion sending the two-headed monster collapsing to the pavement while his injuries sprayed blood and matter across the pavement.

Taking this small reprieve while Harvey was down, his wounds rapidly regenerating by the second, Damien pressed a button at his utility belt, where off at the other side of the fight, the Batmobile gave a hiss of compressed air and flipped itself upright again, the engine thrumming back to life with it’s high beams on.

“YOU THINK YOU CAN TAKE A POT SHOT AT US LIKE THAT YOU LITTLE TWERP?!” Snarled Harv, black smoke still steaming out his nostrils as he got himself upright to turn his horned head to where Batman had fled to. “WHEN I SINK MY…”

A concussive blast sent the two-headed turtle onto his side, another hitting him over the shoulder and a third directly into his stomach.

“ENOUGH!!!!!”

Snapping out with his tail, the batmobile’s wheels turned 90 degrees to the left and created a plume of smoke as it peeled the tires to avoid the strike at the last minute, still firing its riot cannons back at the monster as it tried to right itself. Taking another shot across the broadside of his armored shell, Harvey growled back at his darker self, getting his attention as he winced at another grenade blast against him.

“He’s distracting us you idiot!”

Snarling, Harv darted his eyes to where he saw the Batman last, finding him crouched over something he didn’t spot when he roared out in rage and charged towards him. At the moment, Damien turned and stood to his full height, just as a massive claw wrapped itself around him and hoisted him off his feet. Ignoring the crowd screaming of the people surrounding the fight as he raised Batman over his horned heads.

“FiNaLlY GoT YoU, YoU LiTtLe PiPsQuEk…”

“No more flipping around like a damn squirrel.”

Raising Damien high over his head, Harv opened his beak wide, tilting Batman over so that would fall into his maw headfirst. When his claw turned the young man over, Damien showed what was in his free arm when he had been snatched up; the bag of silver crosses he gathered from Harvey’s crew. Their eyes going wide, Harv could only stare up as Damien dropped the bag. The crowd gasped as they watched in slow motion the makeshift sack fall towards Harv’s open maw, that is until a thin tongue snapped out from Harvey’s mouth and caught the bag, letting it fall like a bag of rocks by his other clawed hand keeping him elevated.

“Did you REALLY think we were that stupid?” Scoffed Harvey, raising his horned head high to smirk back at Batman. “Did you REALLY think we were some two-bit thugs like the rest of the losers in this town?!”

“We’Re NoT FuCkInG KiTe-MaN HeRe…” Laughed Harv, the two heads chuckling at their prize. “OnCe YoU’Re OuT Of ThE WaY, We’Ll KiLl EvErY OnE Of ThOsE FrEaKs, AnD ThEn ThIs ToWn Is OURS To FeAsT OfF.”

“What…” Harvey asked, his four eyes narrowing at his left persona. “You promised me we would only be a deterrent, to give the city back to the people.”

“HALF ThE CiTy… HaLf ThE pEoPlE…” Grinned Harv, the two facing each other as they argued over their plans. “AnD YeAh, ThEy TaStE LiKe ChIcKeN.”

“WE DIDN’T AGREE TO THAT!” Growled Harvey, disgusted by his other half. “We did this to help the… AAAAGH!”

Biting into Harvey’s neck, Harv was a mask of feral rage as he thrashed and injured his right persona, letting him go and opening his blood-stained beak wide to go back to his prey held in his massive claw. “WE’LL SETTLE THIS LATER, FOR NOW I’M HUNGRY!”

“Seems you two have the worst of it going.” Smirked Damien, flicking a glittering coin into view from between his fingers like a parlour trick. “Here, have a buck on me.”

Flicking the coin into Harv’s mouth, the abominable wereturtle’s eyes went wide when he recognised too late that it was his own silver dollar. Too late to turn away, Harv snapped his beak shut on reflex when it fell down his throat… And he swallowed.