A/N Don't own the characters so don't sue me.

Many Many Many thanks to DaisyJane, I swear she is psychic. That or my stories don't have that much mystery to them. And a thanks to Lady Isis for listening to me drone on about how great I am. Lol jk ;)

Enjoy all.

Dark Claw

Chapter 3: Claws

Batman flew back to the batcave without seeing J'onn as his thoughts were what he had done with Diana. He had only known her, and the other new members of the League for less then a year. Sure he had been attracted to her, she was beautiful for Christ's sake, but he had never thought of crossing the line and making sexual advances on her. Still, just the thought of her lips had him seriously contemplating turning the batwing around. Did the accident change his mental processes? He had never acted that way before. He sighed as he parked the batwing in the cave.

He made his way over to his computer and the cigar box on the console. He grabbed one and lit it up. Exhaling the smoke, he relaxed somewhat. He sat down on his large throne sized chair. His computer started to beep. The screen was flashing the black bat symbol but the background was red, meaning there was an emergency.

He pressed a few keys on his keyboard. The Scarecrow was on the loose. He had a theater full of people that he was holding hostage. Batman threw his cigar down one of the bottomless cliffs in the cave and ran towards the batmobile.

When he got there the theater was surrounded by the police. He shot off his grappling hook and landed next to commissioner Gordon Gordon who turned and faced him.

"Crane said he wants ten million dollars or he is going to release a new variant of his fear toxin on all the people being held in the theater." Gordon told Batman.

"Any thugs with him?" he asked. Gordon looked at the building.

"We don't know the exact number, but we think its only a few." When the commissioner turned his attention back to Batman, he was gone. Gordon rolled his eyes. Damn Bat! he thought.

Batman entered the building through the sewer system. It sickened him because of his now heightened sense of smell. He shook off the feeling of throwing up and made his way up from the basement. He saw one guard watching the front doorway. Batman stealthily moved towards him. With a quick punch to the temple the man was unconscious. He dragged him off to a corner and handcuffed him.

It took him a few minutes to find and dispatch all the thugs. Jonathan Crane was on the stage holding a canister. The people in the audience sat there quietly and all looked scared out of their minds. This was giving Crane the rush he wanted. He scanned the room, enjoying the feeling of fear from all of them.

Suddenly he saw hope in their eyes. Crane growled at them but then he felt like someone was behind him. He whipped around and saw Batman standing there and Crane's eyes lit up with anger. Batman quickly moved towards him. Crane released the leaver on the canister. Batman took the full force of the chemical blast.

He tried to hold his breath but he wasn't quick enough and he inhaled some of the toxin. He heard people screaming and running from the theater. He managed to grabbed a hold of Crane. The waking nightmare started at that moment.

Scarecrows mask started to distort into a devil looking figure. The devil face started to laugh.

"Fear me Batman!" the ominous voice commanded. Batman's mind and vision started to see things that disturbed him. The devil lifted a red clawed hand towards him but something in him took control. Bruce watched as silver daggers shot out of his hands. The devil looking creature looked at Batman's hands in horror.

The devil tried to pull away from Batman, clearly frightened. It caused Batman to laugh.

"Not so scary now, are you bub!" Batman growled. He lifted his hand ready to plunge these silver daggers into Crane's chest. Luckily his new healing powers quickly cleaned the fear toxin out of his system. He regained control of himself in time not to kill the Scarecrow. Batman released Crane and watched him fall to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Crane crawled backwards away from him, completely terrified.

Batman looked at the claws sticking out of his hands. He had almost killed Crane and Batman could still feel the desire to do so within him. He pushed down the feeling and the claws slowly retracted back into his body. He heard Crane crying.

"What the hell are you?" the frightened man squealed. Batman calmly walked over to the shaking man and picked him up. Grabbing his wrist he rotated him around and handcuffed him while Crane put up no resistance. He was just to scared of this demon Batman. Batman lead him out of the theater. Crane continued to babble on about what he saw, acting as though he had inhaled a good portion of his own fear toxin. Once outside Batman handed him over to the police.

Gordon walked up to him. "Great job Batman." Batman nodded his head.

"There are four more men in the theater." he told Gordon

Crane cried out again, "What the hell are you!" Everyone turned and looked at Crane. Gordon turned back and Batman was gone. They placed Crane in the patrol car as he continued to mumble about the clawed demon Batman was now.

Batman returned to the cave. He needed time to think about what had just happened. Once he was back at the cave he tried to get the claws to come back out. When they popped out he jerked in fright. He looked at them. They looked like polished steel and were razor sharp.

He slashed out at a sheet of metal on one of his work tables. The blades sliced the metal like it was tissue paper. That puzzled him, how could the metal claws effortlessly cut one inch solid metal. Wayne Tech was working on similar metals, but none had the capabilities of the stuff in him. He tried to scrape a sample of the metal, but nothing he used to take the sample could even scratch the surface.

He tried dabbing a small amount of acid on it. The tiny drop did nothing. Wiping it away he tried it against the hard granite of the cave. The claws entered the harden rock like loose sand. Once set he could lift himself up by them. He climbed the rock face, testing out the limits. It was slow going at first. Once he got his rhythm down he could scale the walls in moments.

Alfred came down and noticed Bruce twenty meters above him. He watched as he continued to climb higher. He noticed metal spears from his fists. Alfred coughed causing Bruce to lose his footing. He fell to the ground. Alfred ran up to him worried that he had injured himself.

"Master Bruce you alright?" he asked in concern. Bruce nodded his head and flipped back up to his feet.

"I'm fine Alfred. Just testing something out." Bruce said as he extracted the claws. Stoic Alfred actually jerked away from the lethal looking blades. Bruce waved them around showing them to Alfred.

"I say, Master Bruce. Those look very frightening." he said in amazement. Bruce retracted them and walked over to his massive computer. He sat down and started to explain what had happened to him tonight. Alfred listened in awe.

"But the strangest thing happened tonight during my hallucinations, Alfred. It felt like someone else was in control of my body. I even heard myself say call Crane bub." Bruce told him as he ran his hands through his hair.

"This sounds like a mystery Master Bruce. If I might say so, you need to investigate throughly the changes that are happening to you. You wouldn't want anymore surprises in the field that could potentially lead to disaster." Alfred told him. Bruce nodded his head, but found he wasn't as excited or driven to do research on the mystery as he usually was. He looked over at the box of cigars and grabbed one. After lighting it and inhaling the smoke he turned to Alfred.

"It was a dimensional device that cause this. Maybe I was merged with someone? From what Tim said he saw someone in the exact location I was in." He inhaled on his cigar. Alfred nodded his head.

"I would say that could be true sir as I've never see you smoke before." Alfred said. Bruce held the cigar away from himself. He'd never craved them before. But now he did, and he enjoyed the taste and feel of them.

"You're right; I have to get to the bottom of this." Bruce said then looked at Alfred. "Alfred.. to tell you the truth.. I sort of like this.. You just watched me drop over 20 meters and not even get hurt.. This power could be a blessing.. but.." he sighed, "I know I have to undo this, something inside of me knows this situation isn't right. Also.. I felt an almost unstoppable urge tonight.. I was very tempted to stick these claws into Crane's chest." Bruce knew he would've done it if he hadn't regained control.

Alfred looked at him and said, "Maybe more mediation would help, sir." Bruce simply nodded his head. Alfred started his way back up to the manor. "Dinner will be ready soon, Master Bruce. I suggest you get cleaned up...you smell of cigars and jasmine,"Alfred twitched his acute nose and continued, "Which is a peculiar smell even for you." Alfred disappeared into the darkness of the stairwell. Bruce thought he heard Alfred mutter, "I wonder who she is?" and a smile spread over his face.

He continued to smile as he remembered how he got the smell of jasmine on him. His body became aroused as he thought of his sparring session with the Princess. He got up and threw the cigar down the shaft of the cave. As he walked over to the changing area of the cave his mind was on her.

He licked his lips and he could still taste her on his mouth. Remembering her moaning in his arms made his heart race. His body was fully aroused as he stepped into the shower and he immediately switched the faucets to cold to clear his mind. What was he doing thinking of her this way. Not only was she a respected colleague she was a virgin as well. She had no sexual experience and here he was pouncing on her. She didn't kiss like a virgin, he thought to himself. He angrily made himself stand in the cold water until he stopped thinking lewd thoughts about her.

He had more important things to worry about. He frowned when he thought about how he had been tempted to kill or at the least maim Crane tonight. He knew he couldn't function as Batman if he couldn't control his rage. He would have to lock himself up in the cave until he figured out how to reverse the changes he was experiencing.