Title: Incarnate
Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize here belongs to me, except Incarnated!New York. She's mine.
Originally Published: On the YJ_Anon_Meme, but it's really a very general DCU fic.
Rating: T for violence. Some incesty under/overtones.
Summary: On April Fools, the cities of the world come to life, but it's no joke, and if they JL can't figure out how to undo the spell, the consequences could be dire. Weird little oneshot, more about atmosphere than plot.
And now on to our feature presentation:
It's five minutes into April on the East Coast when someone first notices it. There's a naked woman sitting in the center of Times Square, but it's not the nakedness they notice first. It's how her hair is the color of asphalt and here eyes are like hardened steel. Oh. And she has a Blackberry.
A tourist stop in front of her, gets on his knees, and snaps a photograph. He has to arch his head back. It makes his neck hurt.
She poses for him: tall, imposing, cosmopolitan, cold, welcoming, unrelenting. And then she walks away. Hours later, she walks into Saks, even though it's not open yet, venti iced latte in one hand, blackberry in the other. When she walks back out, she's wearing a sleek black suit. The markets are about to open.
oOo
Mercy's first instinct is to point her arm-canon at the naked woman sitting on Luthor's desk, but Lex holds up his hand.
"That's quite alright," he tells her, as he steps between Mercy and the naked woman.
The woman smiles and holds out her hand.
Lex takes it in his and brings it to his lips.
"I knew you'd know me," she says with a smile.
"Of course, darling," he says as he takes off his jacket and wraps it around her, "I made you didn't I?"
"Not before I made you," she answers.
Mercy wonders if she hasn't gone mad, because no one ever talks to Lex like that. Not if they want to live.
oOo
Central shows up on the news, naked like the other. No one thinks to censor it.
oOo
Clark likes her.
He likes her a lot.
What he doesn't like is the way Lex has his arm wrapped possessively around her waist.
"He doesn't own you," Clark tells her when Lex leaves for the bathroom. He'd waited until the last possible second to leave her.
"Of course he doesn't," she answers. Her eyes sparkle, like Lois's. "But he doesn't need to know that. There's a lot of things my Lex doesn't need to know, wouldn't you agree, Clark?"
oOo
Keystone looks like Central. Sisters. Wally doesn't know who he likes better. They're both kind and sweet.
oOo
Even without the Wisdom of Solomon, Billy recognizes the girl right away.
"Fawcett, why aren't you wearing any clothes?" he asks.
She shrugs. "I don't know. Wanna play double dutch?"
"Sure."
When she falls and scrapes her knee, a building crumbles and five people die. That's how people realize that something is seriously wrong.
oOo
Luthor has to be pried, kicking and screaming from Metropolis.
"She's mine! She's mine!" he screams, "Get your damn alien paws off of her."
He pulls out a shard of kryptonite. Mercy has to hold him back.
"It'll be alright, my pet," she tells him. "Superman will keep me safe."
"No he won't! He won't! He won't!"
oOo
The League works round the clock to gather them all. Three days of pandemonium. Luthor won't stop screaming—they have to sedate him.
It's three days, before someone notices something else:
Gotham is unaccounted for, and for that matter, so is Batman.
Superman finds them both in the Batcave.
Gotham is wearing an old moth-eaten gown with faded feather boa and pearls. If New York is asphalt and steel, this one is sin and daggers. Her eyes are cold and cruel.
Her face belonged to Martha Wayne.
It's all wrong. Never has Superman been so afraid before.
And Bruce… Bruce is standing by her, half-dressed, cloaked in bruises, cuts, and burns.
"Neither one of us wants you here," she says as she traces the line of Bruce's jaw with her too-sharp nails. To back it up, there's a chunk of kryptonite at her foot. It's the size of a baseball. Clark can't get close.
"Bruce, we need to get her to the Watchtower," Superman explains. "We need to keep her safe."
"I'll keep her safe," Batman answers, voice low and dangerous.
"We need to find a way to turn her back. We need to turn them all back."
"No," Gotham says. "I like this." She presses her hand to Bruce's chest, and then presses all of herself against him. "Bruce, Bruce, my favored son," she whispers into Bruce's ears, so low Clark can only hear it because he has super-hearing. "How your heart beats. Bu-thump, bu-thump. You're so strong." She takes Bruce's arm and wraps it around her waist. "So strong. How many times have I ripped your heart out? And it still beats. Tell him, tell him Bruce, why does your heart beat? Why are you alive?"
"For you."
Her eyes are full of malice as they meet Clark's. She reaches down into Bruce's belt, taking out a batarang and bringing it up to his chest. She drags it down, over his heart, and Bruce lets out a gasp of pain. A dark red line follows.
"I'll kill him," she states matter-of-factly. "I made him and I'll kill him. One way or another. But this way, this way, I can feel his heart beat." She presses her lips to his, and Bruce, like a man possessed, kisses her back. She bites hard on his lip as she breaks the kiss, drawing blood. "This way, I can taste his blood and smell his sweat.
"Now leave. You're not welcome here." She picks up the chunk of glowing green rock, and Clark can't tell if the sickly-green color of her face is her, or if it's the poisonous radiation.
Clark is frozen in place. He can't leave. Can't stay. Can't fight. Can't harm a hair on Gotham's head. And Bruce? Bruce is lost to Gotham.
Author's Note: I don't really have a plot or an ending for this… really, I just had the image of Bruce being in an abusive relationship with Gotham. I haven't quite captured it how I wanted, but whatever. Lex here is the Lex who came out of Suicide Slum, built his own fortune, and then built half of Metropolis. Unlike Lex, Clark isn't a son of Metropolis, more a friend and guardian.