A/N: As you may have noticed, I changed this series to 20 one-shots. This is because I've started writing crazy long things that end up not being one-shots (like this). Therefore, after I finished these 20 I'm going to start on an actual chapter fic.
~Sick~
~Part One~
Bruce kicked Killer Croc off, throwing the monster back. Croc splashed as he landed back in the sewer. Batman jumped back on him and cuffed him to a lead pipe. The cuffs were Mr. Miracle's design. There was no way Croc would be able to get out of it.
With his free hand, Croc slashed Bruce's shoulder, cutting through the Kevlar. Bruce hit Croc across the jaw with his other hand, knocking him out. Then, he hauled the creature up to the GCPD waiting outside above the manhole.
*******************
He had monitor duty two hours later. By that time his shoulder ached where Croc had cut him, but it wasn't bad enough to warrant more than a bandage. He sat at the monitor and ran patrol screenings.
About two hours in a headache started up at his temples. He ignored it and tried to focus on coordinating missions for the rest of his shift.
"Superman, Flash, Green Lantern and Batman please report to the teleport pad," J'onn's voice crackled over the intercom. Another mission. Bruce sighed. He'd been hoping to actually get some sleep before the Founder's weekly meeting.
Instead, he went off to fight Weather Wizard, Grodd, and Toyman.
*******************
They'd already been fighting for an hour.
One of Toyman's deadly jack-in-the-boxes exploded over Flash's head. Superman grabbed a manhole cover and threw it towards the advancing horde of mini robots. Green Lantern sparred with Weather Wizard, deflecting a cyclone of hail. Batman was left to face Grodd.
"Give up," Grodd said, growling. Even with his psychic powers disabled, he was an intelligent and formidable foe. "You biped."
Bruce just shook his head at the poor excuse for an insult and threw an exploding grenade at Grodd. It exploded in the gorilla's face, putting him off balance. Batman leapt forward, ready to knock him out.
He pulled back his hand for a kai punch. It would be plenty of force to drop Grodd.
Bruce went for the blow. Grodd snarled, but he was still blinking away sparks from the explosion. Bruce swung at Grodd, and suddenly his headache intensified to a wave of dizziness. He stumbled and Grodd took the opportunity to leap up and pin him to the ground.
Batman kicked the gorilla in the chest, aiming for the soft spot below the sternum. Grodd coughed but was still able to hold him down. Bruce kicked him again, with both feet, and managed to get a batarang from his belt. This he stabbed into the gorilla's arm.
Grodd reared back, letting him go for an instant. This time Bruce took no chances. He hit Grodd as hard as he could with a pair of brass knuckles and Grodd fell, unconscious.
Clark swooped down, holding a similarly incapacitated Toyman by the collar. Flash zoomed up to them, holding the controls for Toyman's robo-army. Green Lantern brought Weather Wizard, wrapped in a piece of chain-link fencing. The cuffed the villains together.
"Good job," Clark said.
Flash stuck his tongue out at Weather Wizard. Green Lantern sighed and shook his head.
They all noticed Batman staring off into space.
Clark switched to x-ray vision, but Bruce was wearing a lead-lined cowl so it was no use.
"Are you okay?" He asked. Bruce jumped slightly and snapped back to reality. "You look pale. More so than usual."
"I'm fine," Bruce snapped, too sharply.
"Your hands are shaking," Flash said. Bruce glanced down and curled his hands into fists. It was cold out.
"I said I'm fine!"
"All right," Clark said, and took a step back from him. "Whatever you say." Then, to all of them, he said, "Remember, the meeting's in a half hour."
They teleported back to the Watchtower.
Diana made soup. She'd been trying to steadily introduce the other leaguers to Themysicra's somewhat unusual delicacies. So far, the only one that everyone loved was Bollidash Soup.
"Look what I made!" She carried in a pot of soup and eight bowls.
"First dibs!" Flash yelled, and ladled himself some as soon as she had set down the pot. Diana served the others, them herself.
"No thanks," Bruce said. The thought of eating made his stomach turn.
Diana looked a little hurt. "You had two helpings last time I made it."
"I'm just not hungry."
Diana watched him for a couple seconds, then put the pot on the counter without serving him any. "Are you sure? You look cold."
He was cold, and hot at the same time. Mostly he just felt feverish. Not that he would ever tell them that.
The meeting was an hour long but Bruce really didn't remember much of what happened. Flash gave some presentation on why they should serve energy drinks in the cafeteria, and Clark talked about a new thing J'onn had installed on the Watchtower. What "it" was, Bruce couldn't say.
"Where are you headed?" Clark asked, when it was over.
"Monitor duty," Bruce pushed in his chair. "I pulled the two-day shift."
Clark looked like he was going to say something, then thought better of it. Instead he just nodded and left.
Bruce took the stairs. Halfway down, he had to grab the railing when he suddenly felt lightheaded. He shook it off and went to the monitor room
******************
He stared at the computer screen for twenty minutes before the headache got to him.
Bruce closed his eyes for just a second.
*****************
"He's running a temperature."
Bruce opened his eyes to see Clark and Diana standing over him. Diana had her hand on his forehead. He shook her off and sat up.
Clark scanned him with a tricorder. "Before you say 'I'm fine' let me tell you that you've got a fever of a hundred and three."
"Just the fact that you were fast asleep on monitor duty with your mask off shows you need to go to bed," Diana said.
Bruce stood up, and everything tilted. He brushed past Clark and Diana, ran to the bathroom, and threw up.
Clark was next to him in an instant, and handed him a glass of water. "Rinse your mouth out." Bruce did as he was told and let Clark put his arm around his shoulders. "You need rest."
"I know."
"Are you in or out, Dent? We only have a week before the effects wear of, and this is the optimal time."
"I dunno. Let me flip the coin."
"Well?"
"I'm in."
Clark found Bruce a sweater and a pair of fleece pajama pants. Bruce really didn't care enough to ask where they came from. He just put them on and crawled into bed. His room on the Watchtower was comfortable enough, and he hadn't wanted to deal with the teleporter.
"Where's Alfred?" Clark asked. "He wasn't home when I called."
Bruce decided to ignore the fact the Clark thought he needed a babysitter. "England." He yawned and snuggled deeper under the covers. "Or Scotland. I don't know. It's his second-cousin's wedding."
Clark nodded as if it was any help. He set a glass of ginger ale by the bedside. "Drink that sometime. You don't want to get dehydrated."
"But sleep first," Diana said from the doorway.
Clark looked down at Bruce, who was fast asleep with the covers pulled up over his chin. "I don't think that's necessary."
They turned out the lights and left.
In Gotham, Two-Face placed bombs at the furthest north and furthest south points of the city. They went off at two o'clock, just as planned. All the buildings with the word "double" in their names suddenly had the power go out, and in all the hotels called Two Tree or Two Gardens the water pipes suddenly burst.
Harvey Dent stood on top of the Second Avenue publishing company and laughed at the citizens running haywire in the streets, and at the flooded roads. Cars were still trying to drive down Twenty-Second Street, stopping halfway down when the drivers realized that water was seeping in under the doors.
Harvey stopped laughing when he saw the blue streak coming at him from the west.
He was swept into the air, high enough for him to be able to make out a tugboat coming into the far east harbor.
Superman stopped at about two thousand feet up, and held Two-Face by the collar. "What are you doing?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Two-Face's evil half grinned. "Two times two is four divided by two is two."
"That makes absolutely no sense," Superman said. Two face reached up, holding a knife. Clark paused, "Really, that's not going to hurt me—"
Two face sliced off the collar of his shirt, and started falling. Superman dove to catch him. Something whizzed past Clark's face, and by instinct, he turned to see what it was.
When he turned back, To-Face had vanished into thin air.
"You lost him?" Bruce asked. "And he was freefalling?"
"Yes," Clark said.
Bruce was still curled up in bed. There were dark circles under his eyes despite the fact that he had slept for a good seven hours. Clark scanned him discreetly with a tricorder and saw that his fever had gone up.
Bruce forced himself to sit up and looked at Clark. "It's April 22nd."
"So?"
"Tuesday."
Again, Clark shrugged. "Yeah."
Bruce gave him a look that obviously meant that he thought Clark should have already thought of whatever he was going to say. "That's wrong. Two-Face doesn't pull any schemes on Thursdays."
Clark must have had an utterly puzzled expression on his face because Bruce continued, "Wednesday is the middle of the week, while Monday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Thursday all have an even number of letters."
"So all the other days are okay to attack on. Then why start on Tuesdays now?" Clark thought it over for a few minutes, but couldn't come to a logical conclusion. Part of it, he decided, was the fact that Two-Face was mad, but he still asked, "Well, Bruce?"
No answer.
Clark turned. Bruce had his head resting on his knees and his eyes were closed. Clark shook him gently. "Bruce?"
"What?" Batman sat up. It took him a minute to realize where he was. "Two-Face…right. I don't know why he would start on Tuesdays."
"We'll get him," Clark said.
"No," Bruce pushed the covers off and started to get up. "It's my city."
He stood up, too fast, and stumbled. Clark caught him before he fell.
"You're not going anywhere. Not with a fever of…" Clark paused to scan him with the tricorder again. He looked at the reading then at Batman, and then at the device. "Geez, Bruce."
"What is it."
"One hundred and three point nine," Clark said. He got up, went into the small kitchen, and brought back a glass of water. Bruce shook his head and pushed the cup away. Clark set it by the bedside. "You need to drink that."
"I don't want to."
Clark pressed it into his hands. "Drink it slowly. Honestly, you have the worst case of the flu I've ever seen."
"The Gotham Harbor isn't the cleanest," Bruce took one small sip of the water and placed it back on the nightstand. He laid his head back on the pillow and tried to keep his eyes open.
"Don't worry, we'll figure it out," Clark said. "Diana, Wally, and I are heading to Gotham in a minute."
End Part One
Cue suspenseful music