“What?”
“When Nero came onto the set after the kangaroo attack. He said I couldn’t play Red Wolf. That you’d be….” He passed back the phone. “You’d turn into that.”
Bing nodded. “But if I gave it up, if I pushed the energy out like you did with Monkey….” He was obviously considering it.
Walter shook his head. “Don’t do it.”
“Why not? Why not return to being me? Ever since that day on the set, ever since I woke up in a cage as a wolf, I’ve been lost. I don’t know who I am anymore.”
“Everyone feels that way after something big happens. And Grand Master Asshole screwed you over.”
“Yes, he did. And I disappeared into Red Wolf and a whole new life. I never even tried to call you, not even when I could finally have a phone. I didn’t even try.” He looked down at his hands. “This isn’t me. It never was. It’s just a character I played on TV.”
“But what happens if you turn into that?” Walter gestured to the video of the man who had once been Batman.
“How can I live as a character created in your head?”
Walter didn’t have an answer to that. He’d built Red Wolf around Bing. The idea that Bing would bejustRed Wolf was too small. Bing was so much more. And yet the thought that he might becomelesswas horrifying. “You can’t risk—”
Too late.
“Leave me, Red Wolf,” he said loudly. “I reject who you are. I am Bing Wen Hao, and you are just a persona I put on for a time.”
“Oh shit,” Walter murmured. Then he repeated it as Bing’s eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out.
