Commissioner Gordon and Detective Harvey Bullock stood waiting by the 'bat signal'.  Gordon knew sooner or later, Batman would arrive.  The cold night air blew by, sweeping up some leaves on the roof of the police station. 

"Commissioner Gordon?"

They jumped slightly at the sound of Batman's voice.

"One of these days you're going to give me a heart attack."  Gordon stated, "Well, as long as I'm still breathing, I'd better fill you in—"

Gordon was interrupted by a low 'oof' and the sound of someone scaling the side of the police station.

"You didn't say we were heading to the top of a police station." Faith stated as she climbed over the ledge to the roof.

"You didn't ask." Batman replied.

"I thought your friends all wore silly masks?" Bullock commented.

Faith arched an eyebrow at that and smiled slightly, "Glad to be one to break the trend."

"So, what do we call you, Night-Girl?"

"My name's Faith. But if you want to give me a lame-ass nickname, just call me the Slayer."  She answered Bullock.

"She's working with me for now." Batman told Gordon.

"Well, the more the minds on this case the better. We've found three bodies in the past three nights." Gordon Began.

'If you say they've had their throats torn out and blood drained, I'm so…' Faith did not finish the thought as Gordon finished his sentence.

"All have been torn to pieces, nearly 80% of the flesh was missing. It looks like some kind of animal attack. What it is, we were hopping you would be able to figure out. It sure has us stumped." Gordon handed Batman a file. Faith peered over the Batman's shoulder.

"We've found scales and feathers their, but no one's been able to figure out what their from. Then there's the sound…it's like some waked out rooster." Bullock added.

Faith paled slightly, "…you…have a copy of that sound?"

Batman pulled out the tape in the file, put it in a player and played the sound. After a moment of silence, a screeching crowing sound burst forth from the speaker.  Her visage darkened at that sound. Her face was pained as if a part of her heart was torn from her chest.

"Looks like the Slayer here's figured it out. Care to fill us in on what we're dealing with?" Bullock asked.

Faith felt firm hands grab onto her and the next thing she knew, she was airborne, hearing the muttering of Bullock fading into the distance.

"I take it from the look you had when you heard that sound, you know that the police are in not capable of handling it." Batman stated.

"It's a Cockatrice. There is a Cockatrice in Gotham Batman. And the deaths will only stop when that thing is dead."

*

It still had the head, neck and legs of a rooster, and the tail of a dragon. It was still extraordinarily poisonous, and it could still kill with a look. But now, it had changed. Its wings were gone, as were its body. Replaced with mechanical counterparts. And it's poison had changed to a strange, green-glowing venom that, like the cockatrice itself, was not from this place.  It had not fed yet tonight. Though it no longer needed to eat, the need for food still gnawed at his brain. It needed to feed. And it needed to feed tonight.

*

**Flashback Sequence**

1998, Louisiana

Faith was helpless. She couldn't move, couldn't scream, and couldn't save her watcher.

She could only watch. Watch as Kakistos masterfully employed a cat-o-nine-tails whip repeatedly on her watcher. The small hooks at the end of the whip gouging holes in her flesh. This had been going on for hours. Before, it had been hot pokers, then it was pokers tipped with dry ice, at one point, their had been various snake venoms.

And this torture wasn't to get information. It was for the hell of it.

Then, Kakistos stopped.

"This is getting old." He said, "Let's introduce them to their fate" his lips formed a cruel smile, throwing the cat aside like an empty gun in the Matrix

From the darkness of the warehouse, a creature was brought fourth. It's head covered in a shroud, its body was some odd cross of a dinosaur and a chicken. It's claws clacked against the floor as it stepped closer to the watcher. Quickly, the vampires all averted their eyes as one yanked the hood off of the creature, revealing a demonic roosters head. A red beam shot forth from the creature's eyes, directly into the eyes of the watcher. She screamed only for a moment as her soul and spirit were harvested from her body. 

"For you, there is no heaven or hell." Kakistos began. "No freedom from my wrath, you will both spend eternity in the belly of the Cockatrice!"

Faith screamed in horror but not for long. She heard something…and began to chant softly: "…Dark God I beseech you. Channel your strength through your chosen. God of War, I beseech you. Fill this vessel with the strength to fight her enemies. God of Destruction, I beseech you. Unleash your wrath upon my enemies. King of the New Gods, I beseech you. Unleash your fury through me. I am your vessel…" as she chanted, her cries grew louder and coarser, "…Dark God, Hear your warrior, Answer her plea. Dark God! ARRISE!"

A column of white light rose from the earth and engulfed the Slayer. It shone with an iridescent, eerie green/blue glow. All those before her averted their eyes. When the light faded, Faith was floating in mid air, free of her bonds – a puppet of the Dark God. Faith's pupils were gone, only white filled her eyes as the Dark God possessed her.

She opened her mouth and issued an unearthly deep and roar that broke the windows with the force of the sound. All in the room recognized the sound. It was the sound of arguably the strongest meta-animal ever to exist. They thought of it as a meta-animal, not knowing it's true, demonic nature. They stepped away in fear as the Dark God set out to fulfilled Faith's wishes…

*

**Present**

"We need weapons, bats, if we're going to stop that thing" Faith told him as they travers they Gotham city Skyline

"What did you have in mind?" He asked.

"When fighting demons, there's only one thing to do…Go Medieval."

*

**Flashback**

Invisible for most of the time, they only saw Faith, surrounded by the Dark God's outline as the light's flickered and swayed. It towered over them all at 10 feet in height. Kakistos knew that this was only a small fraction of the Dark God's power, but it was more than enough to kill him and all of his followers.

It lurched forward and as Faith Bent down and opened and shut her jaws, the cockatrice was ensnared in an unseen vice. The creature's black bloodstained the invisible entities lips, revealing a sharp, carnosaur-like jaw. The Dark God shook the demonic bird until it fell limp. It tossed it aside like a broken toy, and turned its fury upon the vampires. It slashed off heads with its claws and crushed them with an unseen tail, it pulverized them the black-stained jaws. Kakistos was crushed beneath the incredible weight of one of the creature's unseen feet, one of its claws gouging out one of his eyes. He laid, prostate on the floor as the Dark God left.

But the Dark God was not finished. As it left the warehouse far behind it, the Dark God froze, power surged up it's back, it turned around and in a burst of white light, destroyed the warehouse in a mushroom cloud. The Dark God's roar echoed through the artificial canyons as he left Faith's form and she slumped to the ground.

* To Be Continued*

(Sorry for the shortness of this chapter—Exams)