Hidden Monsters

The shadows were a terrible place, especially in a city that was perpetually shrouded in darkness, where the very worst of humanity sprouted like weeds, spreading crime, death, and mayhem like a disease.

For the past few hours, Megan and I had been doing our nightly patrol, and what started as a slow night in the streets of Gotham quickly turned into something much more sinister.

It all started when we stumbled upon fresh blood trails that led into a suspiciously dark alleyway and after a brief discussion we both decided to investigate its source.

What was most alarming thought was the fact that the blood trails eventually led to an open manhole cover. Which was why Megan, and I were currently trudging through Gotham's underground sewer system.

"This is not what I imagined how my night would go when you told me we were going on patrol." Megan complained.

I shot her an annoyed look, " I would have more sympathy if you could smell what I was smelling. Honestly, your powers are even more broken than mine. "

As it turns out, Megan had decided to get rid of her sense of smell and since Martians were bullshit shapeshifting bastards. I alone had to suffer the pungent smell of Gotham's ass crack.

She blew me a raspberry," I'm not good at shapeshifting like my uncle John, but I'm good enough to do stuff like this. It's not my fault that you can only turn into animals."

" Yeah, Yeah rub it in." I drawled, as she giggled.

As we moved forward, I could see that the tunnel we were moving in was coming to an end. I quickly signaled to Megan to telepathically connect us and with a nod she did so.

'I think we're getting closer; the blood trail is growing fainter and I suspect we're approaching our culprit.' She nodded.

' I can sense the presence of another mind, but its hard to pin down.' She said.

We continued moving slowly, trying not to make too much noise as we followed the blood trail until we came upon a dead end.

There stood a large rusty steel door, which was covered by a heavy padlock.

We both looked around, wondering if we should break the door down, or just find some other means of entry. We weren't sure what inhabited these sewers, but it seemed it was intelligent enough to use locks.

So, with no other choice, we decided to forcefully break it. As soon as we stepped through the metal doors though, I could feel the air visibly shift.

The chamber looked like some abandoned maintenance room in the sewage system and was littered with waste.

And, judging by the human remains scattered around the room it seems we had just stumbled upon its lair. I could hear heavy footsteps coming towards us from the depths of the chamber. But, whoever it was he was partially hidden by the shadows.

The figure was clearly bi-pedal and judging by the mouth full of razor-sharp teeth and the claws that gleamed in the dark and the tail trailing behind it, it wasn't human.

The figure finally stepped out of the shadows, and I could see a hulking reptilian humanoid creature covered in incredibly thick skin. His deep voice echoed throughout the room. "I'm getting tired of being chased every time I go out for dinner."

His head then rose up and he sniffed the air "But I could definitely go for some dessert."

He pointed towards Megan. "That pretty little thing right there. She'll be easy prey." He took another step forward and I noticed he held something in his hand, a severed human arm and judging by the bite marks all over it, it looked like we had just interrupted his dinner.

He gave a deep chuckle. "I've always liked young flesh, it just melts in your mouth." He suddenly stopped walking and cocked his bald head to the side.

"Usually, they run by now. Why aren't ya running?" He asked, curiosily.

" We're here to stop you, Waylon." I said, immediately recognizing who he was.

He growled, " It's Killer Croc now. Waylon Jones is long dead and buried."

' What is he? His mind feels strange. Part of it feels like a person but the other part feels more like an animal.' Megan spoke in my mind.

' His real name is Waylon Jones. He's the byproduct of an attempt at bonding animal DNA to human DNA. He is a cannibalistic murderer, who is often hired by the mob for cash. I saw him on the news a while back. Batman apprehended him a few months ago, but he escaped from Arkham and has been on the loose for the past 6 months.'

' That's terrible! Why would anyone turn him into this? Jason, he's in so much pain I can feel it' She said.

' Can you knock him out using your telepathy?' I quickly asked.

' I don't know, his mind is too different. I need time.'

'That's alright I can buy you some time.' I said.

" Hey ugly! You kiss your momma with that mouth or do the teeth get in the way?" I said trying to provoke him.

He laughed and then pointed at me. "Don't worry, you will find out what it feels like soon enough." He said, before lunging at me.

I easily dodged and kicked him in the chest sending him flying backwards. He slowly got up and started cackling, "I actually felt that, come! I love it when prey fights back."

Killer Croc was a lot bigger in this universe than what was shown in the comics. At this point he was more beast than man and actually looked alot like the Lizard from the amazing spiderman movie.

He also was also incredibly big, standing at 8 feet tall. He definitely had the height and reach advantage, so my hand quickly went to the monkey talisman and I used it to turn myself into a 7 ft gorilla.

We started trading blows and although I clearly overpowered him he was still incredibly tough and could take a lot of punishment. A mad grin seemed to etch itself on his face and he seemed to be enjoying himself.

I could only imagine how all of this would look like to a normal person, two monsters duking it out and reenacting what amounted to a scaled down version of godzilla vs King Kong.

He suddenly winced in pain, which gave me a chance to land a solid hit on his jaw. He was knocked down to ground but seemed more angry than hurt.

He turned towards Megan who had her hands on her temple and was scrunching her brows in concentration, " Get out of my head you bitch!" He roared and lunged at her.

I quickly switched to my human form and activated the pig talisman.

Immediately, I felt a ray of heat passing through my vision and before I knew it the heat ray hit him dead center and seared the outer layer of his back. He gave out a roar of pain and was screaming profanities as he skidded on the floor.

Unfortunately he managed to grab onto Megan's legs and tried to pull her down with him, but Megan flew up lifting them both of the ground and started kicking him in the head until he let go.

I quickly charged forward and let my fist crash into his face. He was thrown into the brick wall, making it crumble and break apart under his weight. He was pinned under the rubble, but quickly got out from under it and the next moment was lunging at me with an animalistic roar.

This time I held nothing back and drew from the well of strength provided by the Ox Talisman.

I kept it up till it felt like I was going to burst and held it. He tried to swipe at my face with his claws, but I was able to duck under his swipe and proceeded to swing my right fist towards his chest.

I could feel his ribs break under my fist as he flew back and slammed into the brick wall once again. But, this time he wasn't getting back up. He slid down to the floor out for the count.

Megan came rushing towards me and seemed panicked . "Oh my God Jason, your back!"

I winced, now that she pointed it out I could feel searing pain in my back. It seems Waylon was able to get a hit in before he went down, on the upside I now knew the limits of the durability provided by the Ox talisman.

" Don't worry I'm going to be fine. I should probably go and make sure I didn't kill him though. I put a lot of power into that last blow." I said.

I slowly walked over to his prone form, he was lying on the ground with his chest caved in and it looked like he wasn't breathing. I knelt next to him and put my hand to his neck.

He was alive, but barely. I sighed in relief.

I then turned to Megan. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"Me? You could have died! he was seconds away from taking a bite out of your neck" She frantically said.

Huh, must have missed it in all the excitement.

Her eyes watered. "You scared me." She wrapped her arms around me in a hug. It was the first time I had ever felt touched by anyone, but I welcomed it anyway.

A few seconds later I pulled away and said. "I think it's safe to go now."

We started to make our way through the ruins of the sewers. I was carrying Killer Croc's passed out body using the Rooster talisman, and he could be seen floating behind us as we made our way outside of the sewers. By the time we made it out, the sun was starting to come up.

I was just about to use the snake talisman to turn Killer Croc and I invisible, when I was interrupted by the sound of a fluttering cape. Megan seemed to pale and I tensed a bit, crap Batman found us, and judging by his tensed jaw he was pissed.

" I thought I told you not to go to Gotham." He said.

I decided to go for humor, "What can I say I was feeling nostalgic." I answered.

He almost seemed to growl, "You knew Falcone was looking for you and you still went ahead and disobeyed orders."

Orders? Did he think I was one of his Robins or something? He wasn't my commander and he certainly wasn't my parent. I appreciated the help and assistance he gave me, but this didn't mean he got to boss me around. I more than paid my dues with all the good PR I've been getting the league, not to mention the fact that I saved his life.

" Falcone?" I scoffed. " He's the one that should be afraid of me not the other way around. The fact that I'm wearing a mask and doing things discreetly, should let you know I wasn't planning on confronting him or drawing attention to myself." I said.

" You call this discreet?" He asked, pointing at Killer Croc's passed out form.

I shrugged," That's different, Croc literally left us a trail of blood and we just followed it. The place we found him in, it was filled with human remains and if it weren't for us he'd still be out there killing people."

I wasn't backing down on this, and I could tell he realized it by the set of his jaws.

I could be stubborn sometimes, and I wasn't one to blindly follow orders. I understood his point but It wasn't like I went looking for trouble. I wasn't the same helpless kid that arrived here 8 months ago.

" We will talk about this later. Leave him here. I'll call somebody to come over and pick him up. " He finally decided.

I nodded and slowly let him down. I had already repaired some of the damage I did to his chest using the horse talisman, and it seemed his healing factor was taking care of the rest. I knew this conversation would have gone a lot differently if I had ended up killing Croc. Luckily that wasn't the case.

Batman then turned to Megan, " Your uncle wants to speak to you and says that he will be expecting you tonight back at his house."

Megan looked terrified, and honestly, I couldn't blame her. There was nothing worse than disappointing someone you looked up to and respected.

He then turned to me, " Black Canary also wishes to speak to you."

Damn, he wasn't pulling any punches. He probably knew his intimidation tactics weren't going to work on me, so instead he went for the nuclear option.

You had to understand that Dinah wasn't just a mentor to me, and was more like a big sister. She didn't just teach me martial arts, she also taught me what it meant to be a hero and was always there for me whenever I needed someone to talk to.

Sigh. Talking to her was going to suck but I wasn't going to run away and hide.

" Fine. Tell her I'll be waiting for her at the mountain."

(Chapter End)

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