Chapter Summary: After another altercation at school, Alfred decides to send Bruce to public school where he could learn to socialize with other kids better. Along the way, he meets a certain Kansas farm boy who looks familiar to a blur he saw in Gotham one night.

First Meeting (Bruce)

It was a quiet night out in Gotham. The streets were empty and covered in litter as usual. Police sirens rang through the city as crimes occurred throughout the block. I was sitting in my study, having just returned from my regular patrol.

On my laptop, I was scanning through surveillance footage to see if there was anything unusual happening. Tonight was a slow night. Besides a couple thugs breaking into a building, nothing was going on throughout Gotham. Staring at the screen for the past hour, my thoughts were interrupted as Alfred called my name.

"Master Bruce!" Alfred said sternly. It wasn't quite a yell, but it was loud enough to catch my attention. "I received a call from the head of the school again. Did you get into another altercation with a student?"

I sighed. "Yes, Alfred. I did."

"You know that this kind of behavior is unacceptable in school, right?" he said, closing my laptop. "As the Batman, it would be different. But as Bruce Wayne-"

"The guy was picking on a little kid. What was I supposed to do?!" I snapped.

"I suppose, reasoning with him would have been a better option?"

"People like him can't be reasoned with, Alfred. People like him only listen to violence."

"Perhaps so, but it doesn't give you the right to act out like that," Alfred sighed. "Since you have gotten yourself in so much trouble with the school, I have taken the liberty of switching you into public school."

I furrowed my brow at him. "Why would you need to do that? I don't need to go to school, I need to be Batman."

"Well for one, you really do need to make some new friends. Second, I think you need to work on your 'Bruce Wayne' persona; you're very out of touch with the times."

"I'm not going," I asserted. I gave him a stern glare, but he kept a straight if unimpressed face.

"Master Bruce, I have served in the SAS for a number of years and I have also changed your diapers when you were a baby. If you really want to intimidate me, you're going to have to try harder than that." I relaxed my glare and slumped my shoulders in defeat. I couldn't argue with him on that and plus he never let me get away with anything either. Looking at my posture, he took that as a sign of acceptance. "You'll be starting next Monday. I'll pack your supplies for then," Alfred said as he left the room.

As the door closed, I plopped back into my armchair and reopened my laptop to check for any last minute things happening in the city. Flipping through the cameras, I stopped on footage showing a mugger holding up a man. He had a gun pressed up against his chest and demanded for his wallet. Suddenly, a blur swept through the alley, leaving just the would-be mugging victim in confusion. There was no sign of the mugger anywhere.

Stunned by what I just saw, I rewinded the footage over and over again to sink in what just happened. Slowing it down, I tried to zoom on the blur and get a closer look at it. I managed to capture what looked like a face and focused the image to get a better look at it. It looked a teenager, no older than 17 or 18 with black hair and striking eyes. He had a cape on and what looked like a giant S on his chest.

I ran him through a facial recognition program, but nothing came up. I searched him up and saw that there were several sightings of him in the past month. Seems like he only appeared just recently. Witnesses described him as a flying man with super strength and impossible speed. The "Red-Blue Blur", they dubbed him.

Studying this mysterious man for a little while longer, Alfred called me to go to bed. I filed this under "miscellaneous cases" and left wondering how such a man is capable of such feats.

"What are we doing in the middle of Kansas, Alfred?" I asked.

"Well, since private school and the big city life seemed too troublesome for you, I figured a small town in a nicer area will do you well, Master Bruce."

"But what about Gotham? And Batman?" I asked worriedly.

"The GCPD will have everything under control for the time being. With Lieutenant Gordon being promoted to Chief of the Police Department, Gotham will be in good hands until your return. As for the Batman, just in case you want to frolic around town dressed as a bat, I've packed your costume and gear as well." Oh, Alfred and his reassuring words…

As I looked out the car window, all I saw were vast fields and farmhouses here and there. We passed through the small town and went over a bridge. We drove a few more miles finally reaching our destination.

"Where exactly are we?" I asked. In front of us was an average-sized house with crop fields surrounding it. Behind it, I saw a farmhouse and an old, beat-up truck.

"We are in Smallville, Kansas, to answer your question. I've contact a lovely woman who was willing to house you for the semester. I only pray that she has the same amount of patience as me to deal with you."

"Very funny," I responded flatly.

"I try," the butler smirked. We got out the car and approached the door. A few knocks on the door and we were greeted by a woman. She had brown hair, looked to be about in her early to mid-40's and she was wearing jeans, a tucked-in shirt and an apron.

"Hello. Can I help you?" she asked, leaning on the door frame with a hand on her hip.

"Yes, Mrs. Kent. I am Alfred Pennyworth and I'm here to drop off Bruce."

"Oh my, you must be Bruce Wayne!" she said with a smile. "Here, call me Martha."

"Nice to meet you… Martha," I said hesitantly. She has the same name as my mother…

"Is something the matter, Bruce?" she asked in a concerned tone.

I shook my head and put my 'Bruce Wayne' persona back up. "Um, no. It's just that you have my mother's name. You kinda look a bit like her too…"

"Oh dear, I heard about what happened to your parents years ago! How are you holding up?"

"I'm doing fine, thank you," I said, forcing a smile.

"You know, now that you mention it Bruce, you look a lot like my own son."

"Really?" I asked skeptically.

"Yeah, down to the black hair and blue eyes. In fact, here he comes right now!" Martha said. I looked behind me, I saw a teenage boy getting out of a car and heading towards the house. I faintly heard him yell behind him "Thanks for the ride, Pete! See ya, Lana!" as the car drove away.

"Bruce, Alfred, this is my son, Clark," Martha introduced us. Clark had scruffy black hair and blue eyes just like his mother described. He was wearing jeans, sneakers and an unbuttoned red flannel with a white shirt underneath and a messenger bag slung over his shoulder. He also wore big-rimmed glasses, coupled with a meek but friendly smile, that gave him somewhat of an innocent appearance.

"Clark, say hello to Mr. Wayne and Mr. Pennyworth," his mother commanded.

"Mr. Pennyworth," Clark said politely, shaking his hand firmly.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance, Master Kent."

"Mr. Wayne." He reached out his hand to shake mine, to which I complied. Pretty strong grip for a guy like him. His face though, it looked strangely familiar…

"Please, call me Bruce," I told him, to which he nodded in response.

"Clark, why don't you show Bruce to his room?" Martha said to her son.

"Sure thing, Ma." The two of us headed back to the car to get my stuff while Alfred and Martha went inside to converse. Clark took half of my luggage while I took the other half into the house. Again, pretty strong for a guy like him since all of those bags are heavy. Then again, he lives on a farm so he must do a lot of heavy lifting.

We headed upstairs into the guest room and dropped off all of my things. "Do you need help unpacking, Bruce?"

"It's fine, Clark; I'll unpack later," I replied. The farm boy nodded in response and took off his glasses to rub his eyes. While he did so, I got a better look at his face. Wait. That face. I thought it looked familiar! His face looked exactly like the Red-Blue Blur! Could this guy… possibly be that blur I saw in Gotham a few nights ago…?

"Um, Bruce? There something wrong?" Clark asked. I realized that I'd just been staring at him for these past few moments.

"Oh, um, nothing," I scrambled. "You just got a little something on your face."

"Oh," he responded rubbing his face. "Is it off?"

"Yeah. Look Clark, I'll talk to you later, okay? I just wanna get settled in real quick."

"Sure thing. See you at dinner," Clark said before leaving the room. As the door closed, I sat down on the bed and booted up my laptop. I marked his file as 'solved', but I only raised more questions. What's his motive for being here? How is he capable of all these feats? Looks like I'll need to keep a closer eye on him for the time being.