In Batman's Shadow

Chapter One

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Jonah Hex High School was a school founded to teach the children of Justice League members. Yeah, brilliant idea: get a bunch of super-powered emotionally unstable teens, and stick them in one building. There were all these stupid cliques, the alien kids, the kids with meta-human powers, and the kids with gadgets or training, stuff like that. They had this class, just called 'Training', where you practiced using your powers or whatever by fighting with other students. I don't have any powers, and I'm not much of a fighter, but everyone expects me to be some martial arts/detective genius. My name is Ib'n Al Xuffasch Wayne, and I am the son of Bruce Wayne, the Batman.

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It's not as cool as it sounds. I mean, growing up living in the shadow of a man considered to be the world's greatest hero, do you know what that does to your self esteem? And people say they're jealous of me, saying how awesome it must have been to have him as my dad. They assume I learned to drive in the Batmobile, that Dad taught me how to dodge bullets and that stuff. Yeah, I wish. Dad's always going out on missions to far away locations, always leaving me behind and telling me not to contact him. I always wished I could go live with my mom, but the trouble is, I don't know where she is. I mean, Dad has a lot of girls stay over, like 'aunt' Zatanna, 'aunt' Diana, 'aunt' Selina…you get the idea. Dad said that even he didn't know who my mom was.

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Anyway, it was two weeks before winter break when my troubles started. It was just before Training, and I was getting changed. Most students wore some kind of costume to training, but I just had on my spare pair of clothes, sometimes I'd wear a domino mask. So there I am, leather jacket and sneakers, minding my own business, and then I start to get a warm feeling in the back of my neck…

"Ah!" I groaned

I turned around and saw the Justice Jerks standing behind me. That was the nickname I had given them, Connor Kent, Rex Stewart, Bart West, and Drusilla Prince. They liked nothing better than picking on non-powered kids.

"Hot enough for you, Ib'n?" Connor grinned, switching off his heat vision

"Leave me alone…" I growled

"Come on," Rex slapped me on the back, almost knocking my spine out, "We're just messing with you."

"Shut up you Nazi," I replied, "Oh! I mean Thanagarian. Sorry, I have trouble telling the difference…"

Rex punched me right in the stomach, which really hurt. Because of his Thanagarian genes, he was a lot tougher than most people.

"Rrrg…" I groaned

"Weakling," grinned Bart

Bart shot forward, and slapped me at super-speed.

"OK, I didn't want to do this," I growled, "Connor, you and I, Level-four fight."

The entire locker room was silent. Level-four duels involved fighting an opponent until they were too injured to continue. The idea of a non-powered student against Super-Boy in a level-four duel was considered suicide.

"Really?" Connor grinned, "OK, that could be fun…"

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The five of us told Coach Saunders (AKA Vigilante) about our fight.

"Shoot, Ib'n," he said, from behind his neckerchief, "Are you sure? Level four? You know we can't be held accountable for anything that could happen to you!"

"I know, sir," I replied, "Don't worry, I have a lot of health insurance."

"Well…can I at least give you a weapon or something?"

"No thank you, sir, I'll be fine on my own."

"OK…attention everyone! Level four fight in the gym!"

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Soon, most of the school was in the gym, sitting in the bleachers. The two of us walked into the basketball court (Yes, that's where we fight); Connor wearing his Super-boy costume, me in my leather jacket, sneakers, and mask.

"Ib'n!" came a yell

I turned around, and saw Jill Palmer standing behind me. She was sort of my girlfriend, and the daughter of The Atom.

"Hey Jill," I said

"Ib'n, are you crazy?" Jill asked

"Yeah, I guess," I shrugged

"Here," Jill slipped off her wrist gauntlets, "take my Atom-guns, at least."

"I don't use those," I said, turning her down

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I walked to the center of the court, and the electronic force field went up around us, to protect the crowd. A countdown began until the beginning of the fight; the Justice Jerks were miming various fighting positions towards me.

"Attention students!" Coach Saunders yelled, "Begin fighting, in five, four three two one…"

A loud buzzer went off, and I stood there, ready to fight. Connor walked towards me slowly, building up suspense.

"Hey, Ib'n, I'll give you a free punch," Connor said, grinning

"OK."

I shot my fist out right at Connor's face, knocking him to the ground. The students stopped jeering; this was a shocker: the suicidal son-of-the-bat just took down the boy of steel.

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Coach Saunders leapt from the bleachers right to me. He was the only one who was glad I had won.

"Ib'n, that's the best punch I've ever seen," he said, "How did you take down…?"

Suddenly, Saunders noticed the green glow coming from my jacket pocket. He reached inside, and took out the chunk of kryptonite I had been carrying.

"Ib'n, go to the principal's office," Saunders ordered

To be continued…