THE TIMELESS KNIGHT

Chapter 2

Batman had endured this middle-of-the-night bat-and-mouse chase, across rooftops via acrobatic Bat-booted feet and Bat-belt obtained Batarang-and-line, for longer than he'd normally allow.

Truth was, he had been getting a bit bored or late.

It had been weeks since the last super-trouble of any given level had arisen, in the unlikely dual embodiment of both Dr. Hugo Strange, former psychiatre extraordinaire of Gotham's own Arkham Asylum, and the suddenly insane ex-psychiatric intern, Dr. Jonathan Crane, now known as Scarecrow. Who had, via Dr. Strange using singular mind control techniques, been turned from formerly meek mind into the exact opposite. Two threats that the Batman, with Superman's assistance, were swiftly stopped and, as expected in such situations, sent back to Arkham Asylum as equally-insane inmates.

Weeks of minor criminal activity that had no ready need of a Caped Crusader, yet had been Batman's sole source of nocturnal activity as a cowl-and-caped crimefighter.

Such was why, when the Dark Knight had arrived at a cat burglary-in-progress, he left his self-protected Batmobile parked. And avoided reaching for anything offensive inside a single one of the multitude of compartments making up the yellow Bat-belt worn snuggly about the well-muscled waist of this non-super-powered hero in blue-gray.

Curiously, he hadn't yet been able to fully identify the thief in shiny black leather currently crossing from gothic rooftop to gothic rooftop in some impossibly similar manner as the Batman's Batarang-and-line.

Still, judging from the indisputable fact that this fleeing black-garbed, in glistening leather, criminal had not so much as shot a handgun in his direction nor used any other super-criminal type weapon, Batman merely believed it to be a slightly better-than-average burglar.

Little could the Caped Crimefighter know that, even as he caught up to the criminal whose moves mirrored much of his own, save for the stealing of jewelry and stolen-from-safe cash being totted in some sort of equally black, but not leather, backpack…

"You!" exclaimed the Cowled One with quick recognition, after using some curiously small semi-circular objects whose sole design was to break the running tread contact between booted feet and rooftop surfaces and, as such, cause said criminal to fall flat and hard on their rear. "But I thought you quit after…!"

"I did!" grunted what turned out to be an exceptionally beautiful, assuredly unforgettable, lady beneath the formfitting outfit of glistening black leather, black booted, black masked design, which she swiftly pulled off a black-haired head with one curiously claw-gloved hand. "But, really, Batman, how long did you expect someone like me to play the role of a 'good little girl'? You should've known me better than that, Dark Knight."

"Yes, perhaps I should," softly said the Batman even as his half-exposed, beneath the impermeable indigo cowl, square-jawed countenance formed a decidedly pleased half-smile, "Selina Kyle."

Gradually drawn together by an excitement essentially sexual in basic nature, although never completely acted upon, the Batman and the Catwoman were very close to a kiss.

When…

"Sorry to bother you, Batman," said an all-to-familiar somniferous voice, even as it gradually landed directly to the Dark Knight's Bat-caped backside, "but I need your help."

No sooner had the sexual tension of this little Hallmark moment been obliterated, than Catwoman tugged her black mask back over her dark-haired, dark-eyed head while simultaneously snatching up a temporarily lowered-to-the rooftop backpack of misbegotten booty…

"Maybe another night, Bats. See ya!"

…than Catwoman utilized her signature black whip to, in essence, swing-jump onto yet another Gotham City high-rise rooftop before, faster than expected, disappearing into the moonless midnight.

"Thanks, Kal-El," grumbled the blue-gray costumed crimefighter sarcastically with narrowed-within-cowl eyes locked onto those true blues of the Last Son of Krypton. "What's wrong…Lois in trouble again?"

Slowly shaking his square-jawed, spit-curled head, Superman stepped considerably closer while seriously saying, "It would appear an enemy is causing super-trouble for some, uh, friends of mine."

His always-analytical billionaire mind beneath the cowl was quick to do its deductive dance, as the suddenly sneering Dark Knight knowingly said, "Composite Superman."

Nodding deeply, Superman gently placed a hand on the cape-covered, protectively padded, beneath gray surface, Bat-suit, then partially explained, "I'm afraid, after taking you back to your Batmobile, you'll have to trust me to take it and you…someplace strange."

"Someplace strange?" said Batman in a smugly rhetorical tone and half-affectation. "Normally, I'd say we were standing there already, but…"

Meanwhile, within the daytime super-city of the 31st Century time-reality, a very colorfully costumed, as varied as their individualized super-powers, Legion of Super-Heroes were streaking through the self-same skies, via Brainiac-5's flight rings. Save for Mon-El, whose Daxamite capability to produce and direct gravitons for self-flight made him more like Superman. All swiftly strike as a super-team supreme.

"If not for my desire to be amused by such as you," said the literally half-Superman/half-Batman, with exposed skin as green as that of Brainiac-5's Coluan coloring. "I would call upon a number of 'stolen' super-powers, running the entire range of you greatly beloved Legionnaires, to have utterly destroyed you all! Instead…I shall toy with you. Especially since it seems Superman has, apparently, abandoned you following the laughable, to me, demise of that self-inflating fool called…Bouncing Boy!"

"Shut the hell up!" screamed an enraged Lightning Lad as he, as per normal for his electrically volatile nature, unleashed huge lightning bolts with the concentrated force of billions of bombs being sent with super-precision. Sent onto a single, specific point not one single centimeter bigger than the bi-symbol christened muscular chest.

All while all their thoughts swiftly saw how Chuck Taine, Bouncing Boy…he of the seemingly useless super-ability to essentially inflate his physical Self!…had been obliterated before Brainiac 5's trans-time transmission into Superman's Time-Reality.

As with a seemingly endless number of previous power-bolts from the hovering via flight ring super-hero hailing from an agrarian planet called Winath, where he was one of many electrically-endowed humanoids named Garth Ranzz, such had very little effect, if that on the half-and-half super-villain.

Lightning Lad, like Brainiac 5, Cosmic Boy, and Saturn Girl…not to mention the late-and-lamented Bouncing Boy killed earlier!…was one of the original core members of the Legion of Super-Heroes that was now home to so many super-powered members. Some by birth on Earth-like planets, others through accidental actions. All of whom was now part and parcel to periodically patrol throughout United Planet's space-boundaries via Legionnaire starships.

Even as Mon-El took the brunt of the super-battle to Composite Superman, being the only such super-strong/invulnerable superhero in this time-reality, save for whenever Superman pays a visit…

"Uhnnnnn!"

…while Star Boy, swooping in swift flight ring spirals about their under siege half-Superman/half-Batman nemesis, exerts his power specific super-ability to significantly increase the mass of anything, inanimate object or person, to, at the very least, manage to mass-confuse Composite Superman for the span of, perhaps, eight-to-ten seconds. Before the half-and-half super-villain countered with the self-same mass-controlling abilities combined with Lightning Lad's and Saturn Girl's, who managed to mangle the mind as well as the unprotected physicality of Star Boy…

"Eeeeeiiiiiii!"

Meanwhile, just then passing through the unseen something separating one reality from another…

SSSSSSSHHHHHHHssssssssssshhhhhhhhhh-Mmmppt! Mmmppt!

Superman, struggling to desperately hang onto the nearly three-ton Batmobile wherein the Batman, sealed into the self-protected super-car, while wearing a special Bat-breather covering the nose area and exposed face, strained to maintain graviton-producing/directing capabilities a little longer.

"Come on, Kal-El," Superman said to himself, super-teeth clenched tightly enough to shatter same in normal non-invulnerable mortals, as his handsome square-jawed features had become a grimaced mask of super-will. "Just…sit it…down…nice and…easy!"

Just when it seemed as though the Man of Steel was about to allow the bat-like vehicle to crash hard enough to potentially damage the seemingly indestructible creation of billionaire Bruce Wayne/Batman…

"Uhnn!"

No sooner was it clear to the Cowled One that the Batmobile has, basically, landed, than he unsealed same from within while removing his Bat-breather before leaping headlong into the light of day on a 31st Century Earth.

"Amazing," muttered the man within the cowl-and-cape as he took in, at a single glance, the marvelous magnificence of a super-city unlike anything even the founding fathers of Gotham City could conceive. Then, upon hearing the groans of his crimefighting colleague…

"Superman! Are you all right?"

"Yes," the man in blue-red said, even as he slowly stood, as if doing so might somehow manage to downplay the palpable pain in the broad of his back and the dense musculature of his legs. "It's just…that's the first time I actually brought something like the Batmobile with me. It was…a lot more of a strain than I thought it'd be."

"Good," Batman said in a seemingly passionless fashion, "because if someone like you and this Legion of Super-Heroes need my help…well, let's just say you've got to suck it up, my super-friend. Or else there's absolutely no chance in stopping Composite Superman!"

"Understood," said Superman after finally exerting his super-will to the point where pain was no longer a lingering issue. "All right…I'll fly above the Batmobile and lead you to where the Legionnaires and Composite Superman are currently embattled. The in-ear communications device will establish and hold the link so I can basically talk you in."

"Ready when you are, Kal-El," said the Batman, making certain his in-cowl communications contrivance was also fully functional before leaping inside the cockpit of his Batmobile once more. "Lead the way!"

Lightly lifting off, Superman, seconds later, super-flew a few hundred feet higher than the turbo-engine, flame-spewing Batmobile made its way, in a more roundabout manner, through seldom-used streets, save for citizens to walk along whenever their super-city was not under such sustained attacks, in the self-same general direction.

"Am I coming in, okay, Batman?" asked the streaking along, at ground-speed equivalents, Man of Steel, testing the essential electronic link between the two.

"Five-by-five, Superman," said the Dark Knight in prompt reply, his Bat-gloved hands expertly handling the Batmobile's wheel while Bat-booted feet expertly alternated between brake and accelerator in order to keep pace with the Last Son of Krypton flying overhead. "Now…you do realize that we're not going to be able to take advantage of Composite Superman's lead-allergy right away. He'll be expecting it this time. Besides, we have to make certain not to unnecessarily expose Mon-El to the lead. No need in endangering the Daxamite super-man's life."

"Understood," said Superman by way of an electronically transmitted reply, while swiftly zipping in and around the buildings of unbelievably tall architecture, even as Batman expertly sent his turbo-engine, 0-to-100 in three seconds, Batmobile in much the same manner along the streets themselves. "For the time being, let's just hope having you here will help with the Element-of-Surprise factor and give us just enough of a pause to set him up for an eventual fall."

"Not before I get tossed about like the non-super hero that I am I'll wager," grumbled the Batman barely loud enough to be transmitted into the Man of Steel's in-ear device, which, of course, such as he didn't need since his super-hearing would've done just as well.

All that the World's Finest, in their time-reality, could conceivably believe would swiftly greet their eyes in the microseconds to come was, hopefully, some semblance of survival by all superheroes set against a villain as powerful as the Legionnaires, Superman, and even the Dark Knight combined.

"Here goes nothing…!"

END OF CHAPTER 3