Batman and the associated characters are owned by DC. With grateful thanks for cmar for beta reading this chapter and thanks for all the reviews so far! All reviews welcome!
Chapter Fourteen – Batman – Time of the Wolf
Robin pulled on the cord and cartwheeled back just before a huge desk landed squarely on the Joker werewolf.
The beast howled with pain; claws elongated from his paws and he ripped through the remnants of the desk. The roar changed to the laughing howl of the hyena. The Joker-beast's attention was now fully on Robin.
This was not something he was overly pleased with.
Robin dashed for the wall and started scaling it again quickly. He reached for a windowsill and pulled himself up before leaping again for the brickwork above him. His probing fingers soon found enough purchase to clamber up the sheer face of the building. The Joker beast leapt up to follow him, his claws digging into the brick work with a thunk, thunk sound.
The wall was damp here and Robin could smell the clammy odour of moss and ferns, both of which were struggling for life up here on the wall. They were not the only things.
He looked down and could see the small red eyes of the Joker-beast and his slathering jaws.
CRACK!
The beast snapped its jaws a mere centimetre from his boots. This was getting way to close for comfort. The Joker beast could climb faster than he could; the next window he got to he smashed through and rolled into a decrepit office in a shower of glass splinters and dust.
Coughing because of the dust, he sprinted to the door. Damn it, the door was locked. Hardly daring to look behind him he was cast in shadow as the huge Joker-beast clambered through the smashed window.
The door lock was strictly Mickey Mouse. He got a lock pick from his belt and tried to open it.
Stop shaking!
Breathe deeply. That's it; you've been in worse than this! His mind refused to give him details of what, but thankfully he picked the lock and opened the door and ran into the corridor. He slammed the door behind him.
Got to keep him occupied. The door behind him exploded in a shower of splinters and dust. Robin ran down the corridor closely followed by the huge werewolf. In one of the rooms ahead of him was a strange glow. He ran in, to be confronted by two men trying to cut their way into the company safe.
One of the gang whipped out a long, wickedly curved knife from his belt, and pointed it at the boy. Robin saw the glint of moonlight on the blade and the man's teeth, white in the dark.
"Slit his throat quietly and get back to work," hissed the other man as he cut through the safe.
This day is getting better and better.
The Batman lowered his face, casting his chin into shadow and giving himself a demonic look. The guards and Team Luthor men surrounding him backed off slightly at this.
From outside the building could be heard a roaring sound.
Boom!
The door exploded in a shower of splinters and metalwork as the Batmobile crashed into the building. Its onboard defence systems sent a deadly accurate hail of batarangs towards the guards and the lights, casting the room into stygian blackness.
Luthor looked at this in shock and then looked back at the Batman. Emergency lights flickered on, casting the place into an orange glow. Where the Batman had stood were the handcuffs, still rolling slightly where he had dropped them.
"Destroy that car and kill the Batman!" he roared. Some of the non-armoured guards were already dropping, stunned, to the floor. Luthor rolled to the floor and knocked over a huge walnut desk to hide behind. The top of the desk splintered and broke as a batarang loosed by the car took the top section of it away.
He swore and reached for his silver Magnum. He peered nervously over the top of the desk and nearly fainted in shock. The car was projecting half a dozen holograms of the Batman around the room. With the demonic look of the Batman and the smoke and red glow from the car it was like hell itself had spilled its madness into this room.
His armoured men were shooting at everything, and the car. Shooting at the car was worse than useless since the shots just bounced off it, sending shot and shell whining into the ceiling.
He cursed again as a shower of plaster and wood rained down on him. His men were taking this building apart in their efforts to contain the Batmobile and Batman.
Pure white smoke poured out of the bottom of the Batmobile, hiding it and its elusive master. There were several loud metallic thumps as the surviving members of Team Luthor tried to batter their way in. The smoke glowed occasionally as explosions were hidden from sight.
The sound of the car's engines reverberated around again as it reversed out of the building. The Batman was nowhere to be seen.
"He's got to be in the goddamm car! Kill him! Kill him!" roared Luthor. "Get after him and destroy that cursed car!"
Half a dozen surviving members of Team Luthor used their rocket boots to follow the Batmobile.
There was a strange silence as the car left, punctuated by the creaks and groans of the tortured, battered building. As the smoke slowly cleared he could see the unconscious forms of a dozen of his guards.
He looked back to where the energy field was holding Slade and could see that the man was slumped on the floor of the holding cell. His hair was white and his face was almost skull like. His skin was like parchment and the only evidence he was alive was his eyes flickering. After a few seconds this stopped as he breathed his last.
"God damn it!" he said. He grabbed one of the surviving technicians by the collar and dragged him in front of him. "Where the hell is the energy source that was inside Slade?"
"It seems to have gone, Mr Luthor, sir."
"Get it back." Luthor pushed the technician back to his seat. There was a metallic clicking sound. "What the…" He looked at his hand to see that the handcuff that had held Batman now held him. "Get this goddamm thing off…" He slumped unconscious to the floor as the Batman gently held his carotid artery until he was unconscious.
The Batman stared at Slade and shook his head. Whatever had possessed him had long since gone.
Three of the technicians were cowering under their desks as the Batman stalked towards them. One of them held his ground.
This technician grinned at him as he approached. "Well, well, long time no see, Batman." He raised one hand and the Batman could see some wickedly sharp claws come out of his fingers.
"You seem to have abandoned Slade."
Silence. The lights flickered on and off to this badly damaged building. The man's eyes had a strange ethereal glow to them.
"You can visit the spirit world, can you not?"
The man grinned, his smile like jagged glass.
"I need you to return a spirit to me. One taken before his time."
"Your servant Alfred?"
"Yes."
The technician closed his eyes a moment. "I see him, he is wandering the land between this world and the next, but he will not be there for long. There will be a cost."
There was several seconds of interminable silence. "What?"
"I would say your soul, fair exchange. But let's make it interesting. I will fight you for this paltry soul. If you win, you can have it."
"And if I lose?"
"I will keep your soul and his. And we will fight in a place of my choosing."
Batman looked around at the wreckage that surrounded him. He breathed deeply and steeled himself. "Name your place."
"The spirit world."
Batman gasped as the world that surrounded him disappeared, to be replaced by a desolate grey landscape. Mist surrounded him and a sun was in the distance, half shrouded by mist. This sun was cold and did not heat the landscape. The wind whistled forlornly through this landscape as if it did not want to be here. It was not the only thing.
The technician had disappeared and what was there now was a huge beast with twisted horns and razor sharp incisors. The spirit's true form. Batman's own normal black costume was now a golden colour and he had a golden shield on one arm and a golden sword held by the other. He was curiously unsurprised to see a bat embossed in gold on the shield. Unconsciously, he checked his waist to find he still had his utility belt.
"This is the world between your world and the next," rumbled the spirit.
Batman could see Alfred standing close by, looking at him in shock. "My word sir, what are you doing here? I apologise I didn't give the standard month's notice, sir, but I didn't think you would follow me to the afterlife for it?"
The huge evil spirit roared and leapt at the Batman.
The knife lunged at Robin but he had already dropped to the ground, under the swing, and he used his feet to knock the would be assassin off his feet. He grabbed the man by the chest and thumped his head against the floor. Once. Twice, then he stopped struggling.
Not graceful. Not elegant. Batman would not approve, but it was results, which counted at the moment. One of the other gang members drew a small snub-nosed pistol that Robin immediately kicked out of his hand.
"What the hell is…" The thug started to say just as the Joker beast crashed into the room.
"Oh brother." Robin kicked one of the criminals out of the window and attached him to a line to the other one. There was a scream and a thump as the other one landed outside, his fall slowed drastically by the line. Shortly followed by his colleague who at least had a softer landing.
They would be alive. Hurting and probably in need of some hospital food but both alive. Which were better odds than he would give himself at the moment.
The desk offered some small safety at the moment. The safe the hapless criminals had been trying to cut their way into was glowing slightly and making small plinking noises as it cooled.
The Joker beast gave a huge roaring sound and with a seemingly gentle swipe turned the mahogany desk into so much matchwood. Robin picked up a wooden pole that was used to open the top windows in the office and swiped it at him like it was a sword.
It was a clumsy weapon at best. Damn the advice Batman gave him about weapons. Batman had taught him to fight with a stick like he was a fencer. You respond to the opponent's move as opposed to just an instinctive reaction. You create an advantage of distance and timing and, most importantly, you do it without being hit.
Robin ignored all this and just swiped and stabbed at the Joker-beast in a vain attempt to avoid being bitten. Sweat beaded his brow and his breath was coming in ragged gasps. The Joker-beast was trying to back him into a corner. He grabbed the stick two-handed and tried to send it crashing on the werewolf's head. The Joker grabbed it with his teeth and crunched it into splinters.
The Boy Wonder jammed the rest of the stick into the Joker's mouth and vaulted over his head back into the corridor. With a howl of pain and rage the Joker beast scampered after him.
The demon facing the Batman was over twenty feet tall, and it was covered in chitinous black glistening armour. It was the true form of the evil immortal spirit. Batman lunged at the beast with his golden blade but the beast seemed to melt away before he could strike.
The demon swiped at him with a massively clawed hand. The Batman raised his shield and there was a horrendous clanging sound. He hissed with pain as the claws pierced the shield and stabbed into his upper arm. He could feel blood run down his arm.
Even in this spirit world he could suffer physical pain.
"Dear god!"
"Stay behind me, Alfred."
He ran at the demon and swept his sword like a scythe at him. The demon howled with pain as he took one of its clawed fingers off. Green smoke poured out from where he had wounded it.
Surrounding him he could see a line of souls, stretched as far as the eye could see. All victims of this demon.
The demon's tail swept round and caught the Batman squarely on the side, sending him flying into a dried out dead tree. The branches cracked and fell on top of him.
A spasm of pain took him. Ignore the pain. Ignore it. He grabbed a branch and threw it at the demon as it leapt towards him. The branch disintegrated as the demon, in an almost irritated way, batted it out of his way.
He's got the advantage of reach and strength, Batman thought. I need to get under those huge arms of his or behind him to use this sword effectively. The demon swiped at him but this time Batman rolled under it and started hacking at its feet.
Clink! Clink!
The sword just bounced off its armour. Some sort of sixth sense alerted the Batman to the danger and he leapt to one side just before a huge armoured fist pounded the ground where he had been.
The demon roared with rage again and this time started kicking at the Batman.
This was not good; the sword was useless against the armour. He ran back and studied his opponent.
Get rid of the fear. Fear is useless. He's big, that's for sure, but if I can dig this sword under the armour…
"Take that!" Alfred started throwing rocks at the demon. "And that!"
"Alfred, leave it to me."
"With respect sir, I am already dead and you look like you need all the help you can get."
The demon roared as the rocks bounced harmlessly off its head. Like a huge wolf it got to all four feet and leapt towards Alfred.
Robin ran through the darkened corridors. Behind him he could hear the crashing sound as the huge werewolf bounded towards him. The sound echoed through the empty offices. The beast overturned tables and filing cabinets as it chased after him.
Robin's breath was loud in his ears as he ran. He did not dare look back, his ears telling him where his belligerent pursuer was. He crashed painfully through fire doors and raced up empty staircases.
He passed several motivating posters designed to depress their work staff. Stay out of its way and make sure no civilians are hurt, the Batman's last command echoed through his mind.
How the hell are you meant to stay out of the way of a huge supernatural wolf?
Time to vacate this poor office block. He must be on the seventh or eighth floor by now. He ran to a window and kicked a metal waste paper basket straight through the glass. It shattered and broke and he leapt through the gap, jagged glass just inches away from him on all sides, and into the cool night air eight floors above the ground.
The Batman used his shield to push Alfred out of the demon's way. He then crouched to the ground, hiding behind his shield when the demon struck him. It hit him like a runaway train. He was sent flying back thirty feet where he was only stopped by an old dead tree. The tree cracked and groaned under the pressure and fell in a cloud of dust and debris.
"Aaaaah!"
Batman groaned woozily as he tried to get to his feet. Only his instincts made him duck as a razor sharp claw swiped at him at throat height. He recovered quickly from the dizziness. Part of his training had involved hours of getting purposefully dizzy, and then fighting and target practice immediately afterwards. It helped him recover from being hit straight away. In a fight if you are dizzy you are down and if you are down you are dead.
There had to be a weak spot to this monster?
Had to be?
Had to.
The beast was big, strong, and fast, but he might be able to use that against him. If he stayed alive long to do that. He rolled through the beast's legs, coming up behind the monster, and swung his sword viciously at its tail.
"Eeaaaahhh!"
The demon leapt up in the air, ancient leathery wings giving it flight. The Batman clung onto its tail and scrambled up its back. He jammed one foot under a huge scale and then started stabbing at the beast.
The wind whistled past him and the view changed stomach-lurchingly about him as the beast started trying to throw him off.
Fear is lack of confidence in the situation you are in. Batman never lacked confidence with his skills. Even with the beast flapping his huge leathery wings about him he continued stabbing down, his incredible sense of balance stopping him falling. Specks of blue light shot out of the beast as he at last started damaging it.
"Ha! Ha! Ha! Little gnat!"
Batman looked up in shock. A huge bright light was above him and they were flying straight for it.
"That is a one-way door, little gnat. I can not go there but your soul can never return from it."
The Boy Wonder twisted in midair and reached for a grappling hook from his belt. With unerring aim he twisted it around a fire escape and was swinging through the cool night air.
Robin looked back and he saw the huge form of a werewolf leaping towards him. It was giving a cackling laugh as it did.
Robin abandoned his grappling hook and trusted to gravity. The Joker werewolf gave an almost comical double take as it flew overhead and crashed through a window on the other side of the alleyway.
Robin did not see any of this since he was too busy falling to care.
