***Harley and the Dragon*** (An "Iwassent & Giantmutantcrab" production)

[Giantmutantcrab]

Gotham City.

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Gotham City is the birthplace and residence of the fearsome vigilante known as the Batman. It is a large bustling city located on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, in the federated state of New Jersey, only across the bay from its sister city, Metropolis, Delaware in the District of Metropolis. Always a literal cesspool filled with criminals, corruption, pollution and vermin infestations, Gotham is considered by some to be the most dangerous and criminally corrupt city in the world. By day, it is an attractive and alluring tourist location, while by night, the place transforms into every decent person's worst nightmare.

Midtown.

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Midtown is a district located in the center of Gotham City. Almost all of Gotham's business headquarters are located in Midtown. It is surrounded by four rivers: North is the River Monchant, South is the Gotham River, East is the East River and West is Queens River. Midtown Gotham City is also where Gotham Tower, Wayne Tower, Gotham Pier and the Prewitt Building are located.

Robinson Park.

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Established in 1782, Robinson Park is the largest park in Gotham City, covering an area of three hundred acres in central Gotham. The park included an Alice in Wonderland statue near its entrance gates, a statue of a rifle-wielding soldier on horseback near its south gate, and also hosted the periodic Robinson Park Carnival. The Wayne Botanical Gardens is located at the north end of the park. A statue representing the faceless civilian heroes of Gotham rests within Robinson Park as well, as a silent inspiration to the citizens of the city. The park also possesses a Greco-roman amphitheater. Containing a reservoir that feeds from the Finger River which runs through Midtown, the park features a memorial/dedication site to many of the city's servicemen, such as police, firemen and medical teams, who have helped save the city from some of its many catastrophic events.Many names of those who died in service protecting the city are engraved in the stone wall surrounding the park.

It is here, in Robinson Park, that this adventure begins.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

SHADOWS in the SEWERS!!!​

The newspaper’s title was trying to tear itself off of the paper it was printed on to leap in the reader’s face to scare them. In big, bold, black letters, the headline was followed by a singular, grainy picture of some… thing… skulking around in one of the multiple tunnels that mazed beneath Gotham City. With a place made of multiple islands and surrounded by rivers, The Gotham City Sewers was one of the most complex municipal water systems in the country. It relied on a combination of tunnels, aqueducts, reservoirs and distribution pipes built underneath Gotham City to meet the daily needs of the city's residents and visitors.

And, apparently, there was something down there. The article explained that for the past few days, sanitation workers had been hearing strange noises in the sewers. Which was almost normal, for a place like Gotham City where one could potentially see Killer Croc stepping into an AA meeting with both criminals and heroes to speak about their consumption problems.

But yesterday, someone was able to snap a picture of the thing. And… Whatever the hell it was, it wasn’t something that had been seen before in the city. It didn’t look like anything other than a very large, very tall biped. A sasquatch that got lost? Swamp Thing that was sucked in through a vent pipe and got lost down there? Teen-aged, mutated ninja tortoises?

None of the workers had been maimed or killed, so that was a nice start. Maybe the thing wasn’t too dangerous, or wasn’t hungry.

Whatever was going on, there was only one way to find out. Go down there and find it! Luckily, a relatively well-known (to the costumed folk of the city) entrance to the sewer system was behind the Wayne Botanical Gardens in Robinson Park. The place was pretty much the center of the city and was as good a place as any to start searching for tall, wide creatures shot in low-quality pixel photos.

But who in their right mind would step into the Gotham City sewers on such a bizarre quest?

 

[Iwassent]

People often asked Harley how on earth she didn't get cold in that red and black latex. Especially when she was out on a crisp autumn evening, delving into sewers. Depending on her mood she'd either joke that she liked the cold making her nipples all perky, or that her alabaster white skin acted like polar bear fur. In truth, she barely ever got cold. When she spoke to other feminine costumed characters, they said something similar. Could it be that some higher power was conspiring to keep them scantily clad? Who knows.

What she did know, was that you should never look the other way when weird things pop up in your sewers. If that weird thing came from someone's rear end, they should go see a doctor. If it came from anywhere else, someone in a ridiculous get up needs to delve into the sewers and beat some sense into it!

And today, out of all the sirens, Harley had picked the short straw. With her trusty toolkit of Hammer, baseball bat, pistols and nose plugs, she crept into the sewers, ready to go monster hunting...

 

[Giantmutantcrab]

The sewers were…

Fairly clean and were not smelly at all. It was a silly notion to believe that human workers would willingly wade into shoulder-deep wastes filled with waste and excrement on a daily basis. Thousands would die on a regular basis. So modern-day sewer systems were more like elaborate, labyrinthine water treatment plants. At key areas within the tunnels, there were stations with complex machinery and regular water sampling, as well as flood drains and other devices to care for the city’s water system.

However, there were traces of activity that seemed out of the ordinary. Namely, there was chain link fencing with doors and the padlocks had been… Removed. Torn off with the same ease as if someone was tearing out the pages of a book. And yet there was something… Gentle would not be the correct word, but… Controlled? There was apparently no need to rip off the door or damage the walls. So there was applied force, clearly out of the ordinary, but nothing akin to creatures like Solomon Grundy, who made it a point of pride to demolish anything they could get their hands upon.

Also, as a specific tunnel was explored, there were… Robot parts? Bits and pieces left a trail along the ground. These were a striking contrast to the broken-in padlocks; these were torn asunder. The robots seemed… Human-like? At least bipedal in shape. Arms, legs, some kind of smooth cylindrical torso and a… Well, there was a "severed" head from its torso, if "torn off its hinges" can be counted as decapitation?

And there was a weapon! Some kind of… laser gun? Are lasers ever guns, or must they be “blasters”?

What a bizarre, unwieldly hunk of machinery! It looked like someone had just glued bits and pieces of various gun pieces laying around in a movie prop basement and called it "future gun".

Anyway… So there was a trail of these things. Further down the corridor, there was the peculiar noise of… Well, what would possibly be laser blaster fire! Flashes of red emanating from the corridor, making shadows stretch into the hallway. They must be evil, they have red blasters! Then, a much larger shadow appeared and there was the noise of steel ripping and tearing… And no more blaster fire. Instead, the soft echoes of bared feet upon hard concrete. The steps were light, but the creature making those steps was heavy.

According to the map on the wall besides Harley, the shadow and its metal hunters were heading towards a dead end. Perfect spot for a tense facedown!

 

[Iwassent]

Harley took out her nose plugs and took an experimental sniff of the air. Not bad! Far better than some of the places she'd had to hide out in when she was with mister J.



Exploring deeper, she took careful note of the broken gate. She went into most fights with the mental note "don't get hit", but she updated that to "really don't get hit" until she found the blaster. "Fucking sick!" She whispered to herself, hoisting it, ready to fire.



When she came across the fight, she gave her actions a slight modicum of thought. She had no idea which were the bad guys here, the rebels in Star Wars had red blasters after all, so she aimed the blaster above the heads of all the fighters and squeezed off a few warning shots to see who would start shooting at her...

 

[Giantmutantcrab]

The bullpup rifle shot off a few blasts and the first thing Harley could notice was… There was absolutely no recoil. None, whatsoever. It was like shooting a NERF gun. The sound was like… A light whooping noise? It was quite peculiar to try and explain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmlXPgsyxU4

But it was so easy to shoot! Press the trigger and a shot came out. Simple and fun. Perhaps there was a button somewhere that allowed her to shoot fully-automatic. Or maybe she could keep the trigger pressed and make a charged shot, like Mega Man! But while such laser fantasies were running about, her shots had an immediate reaction.

She could see the shadows move and react to her action. One shadow was that of a bipedal humanoid, holding a gun similar to hers. There were flashes of red light where the shadows vanished, giving the effect of an inverted strobe light. After a few flashes… The bipedal robot was now half its size, as the torso had been unceremoniously removed from the rest. Then… The shadow moved.

Green-skinned fingertips grasped at the edge of the wall and a figure emerged.

It was a man… But like a dragon.

Like a dragon-man.

Or a man-dragon?

It was easy to be confused; there was a Batman, who was a man dressed as a bat. And then there was Man-Bat, who was… a man who had tested a serum on himself and turned into a man…bat. Did the “man” part appear at the end when the being had conscience, sentience? And is the “man” part at the front when it’s something like an animal that has human traits?

Man, who knew hunting big green monsters in the Gotham City sewers were going to be such a deep dive into psychological issues?

It was big and green and muscular and… obviously male. The loincloth that covered its crotch area was stretched around a package that looked like Mr. Dragon Dude was packing some heavy duty gear himself down there. His eyes were golden and they glowed a little in the dim lighting of the sewer tunnel. There was a shock of hair along the back of his head that was black. Big, heavy-looking bracers of some metal were around his wrists and ankles. Brass? Copper? Some mysterious alien metal? In one hand the thing had a large chain and at the end of it, three long blades of the same matte, bronze-colored metal.

It looked at Harley, then down at her gun.

Its head tilted to the side, as if it were deciding if she was a threat or not. But she was still pointing that gun at him… Black brows furrowed and suddenly, tattoos appeared on his chest and biceps. They glowed, with a golden color like his eyes.

Was that a threat? An intimidation tactic? Was he going to transform into something?

 

[Iwassent]

Harley's jaw steadily dropped as the creature emerged, her eyes tracing over it's form, her mouth fully hanging agape when she reached that INSANE package! Holy hell, that thing could crack a girl right open! And she kinda wanted to have a crack at it herself!

The laser gun fell from her hands without her realizing. She was too busy puzzling out the ethics of this situation... She'd done stuff with Ivy, who was a living plant, so surely doing something with this guy would be okay! So long as he was sentient and consenting...

She flung her hands in the air and declared "YOU'RE SO FUCKING HAWT! AH MEAN, AH SURRENDER! Oh, mighty reptilian overlord..."

 

[Giantmutantcrab]

The emotions that had crossed the man-thing's visage was one of caution, followed by a show of aggression. Now, with the way that Harley had reacted, it blinked in a show of absolute confusion. It blinked, twice, then the tattoos upon its torso faded and became invisible once more. He walked with precise motion, more like a man than a lizard. He brought a hand closer to the base of the large chain- claw-thing-weapon he carried, wanting to carry it rather than use it.

With a great big breath, he inhaled and exhaled slowly. His muscles contracted in a display of physical intensity, but not of intimidation. It was… Relaxing? Another glance from all directions showed him that they were not in any immediate danger. He opened his mouth lightly and a long (very long!) bright blue tongue slipped out. It was forked at the end and he took a moment before bringing it back into his mouth. Again, he did this strange gesture, presenting this foot-long, forked, blue tongue… And then it was quickly drawn back behind his lips. Was he tasting the air, like a lizard would? Was he showing off the goods? He was enormous! This individual towered over Harley and would probably only be compared to heavyweights like Bane or Solomon Grundy.

The near-naked creature walked towards her, growing in size and mass with each step… And with each step, that package of his bobbed lightly. There was some girth in there! If his junk was proportional to his physical mass, this dragon-guy was going to be the size of her forearm. Now they were much closer, with him being only an arm's length away from the beautiful alabaster-skinned anti-hero. He looked her over, curiously… And with something more. Interest, maybe? It was hard to decipher with his lack of mammalian facial features. He did not have scales, or perhaps they were so small and well interlinked that it was like flesh over his slabs of muscle. Was there intergalactic cross-fit? Or were the members of his species all blessed with walls of prominent abdominal muscles and he was actually average?

Regardless of those questions, he looked at her and tilted his head to the side. He was curious about her… And judging by the way his eyes focused and his lids grew a shade heavier, there was more than just curiosity. Standing about two full feet taller than her, he looked like he could crush her… But seemed more interested in other things about her. In fact, the dragon-man stalked around her, eyes rolling over her barely-covered curves with acute interest. The danger was past and now, apparently, this being wanted to know more about her. Boldly, his large hands moved from her shoulders down her arms and waist, back up to her breasts, his palms rolling along her physique… Until they landed to her ass-cheeks, gripping her warmly. He pulled her closer by her backside, so that his generous, barely-hidden package rested against her stomach, above her navel. "Hmmmm…" There was a very low, very notable noise that escaped from him. A guttural sound of interest. Conscious consent was thusly offered.

His long blue forked tongue slid out of his mouth, except this time it stretched downward, displaying its length and width, before slowly bringing it back into his mouth… And the corner of his lips curled upwards into a smile. There was nothing mystical about that smirk; he wanted to shove parts of his anatomy into her anatomy. As if him grabbing her ass and rubbing his huge crotch against her body wasn't proof enough of his desire. He glanced down at said thong, then back at her, tilting his head to the side lightly… As if asking if she was going to do anything about what made her jaw drop earlier?