Gotham: Arkham Wolf

The Rescue

Brin awoke with a cough as he tumbled out of bed. He then scrambled to his feet to spot a fire outside of his window. He let out a deep sigh. That Pyromaniac must've made it to his apartment by now. Brin slugged to the bathroom to brush his teeth, but then heard a "ticking"-noise coming from underneath him. Brin sighed once more, and ran to grab his gray-leather-trench-coat, and backpack. He grabbed each of them, and checked under his window to find a time-bomb getting ready to go off, stuck to the wall underneath his bedroom-window. Brin casually grabbed it, and crushed it to pieces with his strength, and then dropped its remains into the dumpster.

Brin then was ready to take a casual-stroll (in which he would've had to fend-off a few criminals), but then received a phone-call from Jodi. Brin picked it up, and answered the call he had received. "Hello?" Brin asked. A hazy-mumble and shout came from the phone, and it sounded like Jodi's voice.

"B-BRIN, T-THEY-AGH! COME-N-N-" Jodi's call ended, or was cut off by something.

Brin's eyes widened. It sounded like she was struggling against somebody. He had already lost a few friends to the crime of Gotham City, he wasn't going to lose another. Brin tossed his backpack on the ground, and rushed to his closet to find something to disguise himself. He found a mask, a Halloween-mask that was flat, and designed with pointy-ears and gray, white, red, and black colors painted on it. He slipped on black-finger-less gloves so he'd have room for his retractable-claws. He then tossed up his trench-coat's hood, and wore the mask.

Now, he appeared as a "vigilante" of some-sort, but it didn't matter to him: He had a friend to save. He dashed out of his house as he retracted his claws from his nails, and ran down the streets, ignoring all of the criminals rushing-down the bridge, and he kept running until he made-it to Jodi's apartment-complex. He then ran to the door, to see two Thugs standing outside of it.

"Heh..." One of the Thugs started. "I-" Brin dashed at them, and tackled both of them to the ground, using both-arms. Brin had immense-strength due to being a metahuman, so it didn't take-much before both Thugs were unconscious, and it only required a few blows to the head. Brin kicked the locked-door open, and rushed inside to see one Thug holding Jodi with a gun in his hand.

"STEP BACK MAN!" The Thug shouted as Jodi struggled, her face red.

"I DON'T WANNA HARM HER, JUST LEAVE AND WE'LL BE-"

The Thug froze as blood dripped to the ground under him. Jodi growled as the Thug fell to the ground, and didn't move. Jodi then turned to face him, only for Brin to notice that weird leg-bone-tendrils that were yellow were sprouting of Jodi's back, and twitching on their own.

"U-uh, J-Jodi..." Brin stammered. Jodi whipped around to spot what Brin had seen, and the tendrils immediately retracted back into her back. Jodi smiled nervously as she hopped that Brin hadn't of seen her tendrils.

"Y-yes Brin?"

"You can drop the act, I saw them." Brin stated. Jodi let out a sigh.

"I know Brin, I-I've been hiding that for a while now. I used to be glad that I never had to use them, but now, it was either my life, or his Brin, and I didn't want it to be mines."

"Please explain Jodi, I still feel left in the dust here..."

"Alright, one day, as a little-kid, before I moved to Gotham, I lived in Ohio. Over in Ohio, I was playing in the fields one day, until I fell into a ditch, and discovered a secret-weapon called the 'Scarab.'" Jodi explained. "After meeting with a strange-expert, he told me that it's not the only Scarab out there, it's just that I happened to find one of them, a Yellow-Scarab. Unfortunately, ever since it stuck to me, I've never found a way to get it off, however, it can disguise itself as clothes, so that's how nobody found out. Until now." Jodi finished.

"Hmm, well, after all I've seen, that doesn't come as too surprising. However, if you're wondering what I'm doing in this suit, with claws, I'm a metahuman, I've always been from birth." Brin explained. "I never wanted to get involved in this detective-business, I was never cut-out for it, so that's why I kept my powers hidden. I didn't want anybody to find out, because of they did, they could tell the public, and at that point, I'd have no choice but to step into the spotlight."

"That's actually the same for me. I'm not into this crime-business either. It's never been my plan for the future, but now, I suppose we no longer have a choice." Jodi said sternly.

"You're right, but should we even worry? With that Scarab of yours, aren't you more powerful than a few random-street-thugs?" Brin questioned.

"Heh, well, I forgot to tell you: When I first found this Scarab, it was already previously-damaged. Although it doesn't look too damaged at first glimpse if I were to wear the full-scarab right now, it is. Basically, it must've taken a hit hard-enough to remove some of its power. For example: It's no longer bullet-proof, after its shields were damaged, it could no longer take a bullet like it used to, so now, if the user has it on if they get shot, they'll still get critically-hurt, or worse. It also lost some of its powers too: It used to be able to fly, but now, the wings only allow it to hover, which can help, but it's no longer powerful enough to take you into the sky, and it's sonic-canons can't work anymore either. All it has left are its hovering-wings, spider-tendrils, and it's super-strength that it gifts to the host, and that's it." Jodi finished.

"W-wow, that's a lot to take in." Brin said. Jodi chuckled, but then her smiled faded as she thought about the riot, and then she sighed, once again. Brin was reminded about it as well as soon as he saw the new-look on Jodi's face, and stopped his laughter as well.

"So, what are we going to do about this prison-outbreak?" Jodi asked.

"W-we could maybe try to stop it...?" Brin suggested. "We have powers, we can give it a shot." Brin wondered.

"Are you sure Brin? I don't want to step into the spotlight, we could simply just move out of here with every other evacuating-citizen, couldn't we?" Jodi asked.

"Y-you're right about that, however, I suppose we should do something now, right, or at least investigate what caused this, and with these suits, we could simply just remain hidden. Nobody would know who we truly are, and if they suspect us, we could wipe their memory if required. You're suit can-oh, yeah right..." Brin finished.

"You have a point, so I'll take it. Fine, we'll head to GPD, but just to investigate, if we get anything valuable, sure, we can do something about it, but let's not get ahead of ourselves, got it?" Jodi said as the Yellow-Scarab spread through her body, and it formed around her like armor of some-sort. It had black-and-yellow on it, and when it reached her head, it formed a yellow-helmet around the back of her head, covering most of her hair, but then, her face took a drastic-change as the Scarab changed it too. The Scarab changed Jodi's face to become the color-black, removing her nose, and turning her eye-color to a bright-yellow, and her scelras to a deep-black. A yellow-alien-pattern-tattoo also covered her face along with the change, and now, she looked almost completely-different. When the transformation was complete, Jodi's voice now sounded distorted. "D-don't worry, I'm still here." Jodi said.

Brin shook his head, letting reality take him again. "Got it." Brin finally answered.

"Nice, meet me at GPD as fast as you can." Jodi told him as she rushed out the door, and activated her hover-wings as she flew over the water and to the GPD-building. Wolf nodded as he rushed out the window, and ran across the bridge on all-fours like a wolf, running quicker on all-fours than he did on two-feet, and running faster on all-fours than anybody else could: whether on two-feet, or attempting to run like he did on all-fours.