Worm's Finest: Darkness Rising
Shade 2.5

I did not start this night expecting to fight a giant bladed wolf thing.

Still, I had been focusing on the Empire for a while, and it was inevitable that I was going to run into one of their capes eventually, so I was still prepared. Or at least as prepared as I could be.

"Fries, get out of here!" I ordered, pushing Fries away from Hookwolf as I spread my darkness. I refrained from filling the room in order to let Fries see, instead restricting it to the area immediately around Hookwolf. The Empire cape wasn't fully transformed - arrogance, maybe? - so as he continued his now-blind charge, I smashed my fist into one of the few fleshy gaps in the metal with a left hook that bruised my knuckles even through my gauntlet. The Changer/Brute stumbled only momentarily before lashing out with a hooked claw.

I jumped back, stepping out of range of the wild swing, then unclipped a canister of mace from my utility belt, spraying his head with it.

No effect. I ducked under a reckless lunge and used his momentum to flip him over, sending him skidding and scraping across the floor before he dug his claws in to arrest his motion.

While he was busy with that, I affixed the rebreather in place and extracted another tinkertech gadget, this one a knockout gas grenade, and armed it, tossing it toward him.

Hookwolf ignored the gas as he walked in my general direction. The metal cabinet doors screeched as he dragged a claw through them. His hand dipped down, and he picked up a microscope, hurling it in my general direction.

It was nowhere near me; instead, it flew past and struck some other equipment, but I had other things to worry about.

"NORA!"

"Fries!" I snapped, but he didn't listen, instead rushing to his wife's capsule. I turned my attention back to Hookwolf, jerking my head back as he struck at my face, one of his hooks grazing my cheek.

I backpedaled. This wasn't working, but Hookwolf seemed focused on me. If I couldn't win this fight quickly, I had to at least get Fries out of the line of fire, but he obviously wasn't going to leave the lab.

Well, if you can't bring Mohammed to the mountain...

I pulled my darkness back enough to let Hookwolf see me as I dove for the door, and he took the bait. Flooding the area with my darkness, I extracted another tinkertech gadget and hurled it at Hookwolf.

I hadn't used this one earlier because of his metallic biology. I couldn't predict what it would do. For all I knew, it would kill him, and that was a line wouldn't cross if I could avoid it.

The electrified batarang struck Hookwolf, sending a hundred thousand volts of electricity into his system, and I could smell his flesh singeing before he pulled it off and hurled it aside. He roared and charged in my general direction.

I dove out of the way. For all that Hookwolf was an experienced pit fighter, he still needed to see, and for a while, we danced around the hallway like a bull and a matador. Well, a blinded giant metal bull made of knives and a matador without a sword, anyway.

I tried a set of bolas next, but despite its impressive tensile strength, it didn't last long against Hookwolf's combination of strength and sharp edges. Still, it gave me enough time to catch my breath.

I was glad that, despite his cape name and the appearance of his favorite form, Hookwolf didn't actually have wolf senses. That probably would have ended messily.

As it was, he was standing stock still. Listening.

He took a deliberate step in my direction, tentatively swiping a razor-edged claw through the air.

I looked around. The only thing I'd tried that seemed to work at all was my electric batarang, and I was rapidly running out of tricks.

Palming a cylindrical capsule, I underhanded it toward him. It rolled across the floor and bumped against his foot, and he immediately leaped over it, allowing it to spray its adhesive goo harmlessly on the ground behind him. Pity. It wasn't as good as containment foam - something that good was too bulky - but it might have worked if it had hit.

I hurled myself to the side, smashing a door open into another lab, but with his arms outstretched, he still managed to tag my arm, putting a shallow gash along it. Clutching my arm, I stumbled against the lab island, then circled around it.

Hookwolf followed, stopping in the doorway as he tried futilely to see through my darkness.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," he sang with a guttural growl. "Come on, Batman. I heard a lot about you, but what do I find? A coward who hides in the shadows."

He stepped forward, lashing out and taking the top off the faucet in the lab island's sink.

"Hookwolf!" I heard Fries call out from the hallway. "Are you here for Batman or for me?"

Hookwolf turned and stepped back out into the hallway. "Kaiser sent me to check up on you," he snarled. "See if you needed help... or if you were turning on us."

"That's all I needed to hear," Fries said coldly. A blue-white beam lanced out and struck the Empire cape, and within seconds, he was covered in ice.

I pulled my darkness mostly in and stepped out of the lab, giving Hookwolf as wide a berth as I could. "Fries?"

"Batman," he said. He held up the obviously cobbled-together tinkertech gun in his hands. "I put this together from the cryogenic inducer you brought back."

"Your wife," I said. "Is she...?"

"Deep stasis," he answered. "Too deep. I... don't know if I can bring her out of it without brain damage."

Damn it.

I heard something cracking and turned. The ice around Hookwolf was beginning to break apart. I released my darkness again.

"Go, Fries!" I ordered. "Get out of here!"

This time, he went.