Author's Note: Just wanted to say to Krowe, thank you for the encouragement.


Eleven – The Broadcast

Batman was already headed for LexCorp along a narrow dirt road. The security fences were visible from this distance. They were electrified, mounted with motion-activated cameras. Lining the road, under scrubby bushes and sand, were hidden turrets. This place was about as well-protected as Area 51. There were warning signs for trespassers everywhere. RESTRICTED AREA: TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED. LETHAL FORCE AUTHORIZED.

As Batman approached the turret range, a panel beeped on his dashboard, signaling an incoming call. Batman pressed a couple of buttons to make sure the call was encrypted from his end, and answered, "Yes, Alfred."

"Sir, you'll want to see this."

The four-paneled monitor on his dashboard lit up. Batman's eyes narrowed at the screen as he kept a watchful eye on where he was driving.

Lois Lane of the Daily Planet—the reporter he'd met some weeks back during the meteorite exhibit—sat timidly at the News Studio 8 desk, a rumpled letter in her hands and Superman at her back. He remembered their brief chat about weaknesses.

Batman simultaneously slammed the brakes and spun the steering wheel, making a tight, exquisitely controlled spin worthy of any stunt driver. A spray of gravel and dust fanned out from the under the Tumbler's wheels. "Alfred, is it ready?"

"The suit is waiting for you, Sir."

#

Lois' voice was hardly above a dry whisper. Her eyes scanned the rumpled letter she was holding. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. And she could hardly bring herself to say the ominous words. If Superman hadn't given her shoulders a hard squeeze, enough to make her grimace on LIVE TV, she might not have even been able to speak. "People of earth," she croaked at the shiny camera lens. "I am Lord Darkseid, ruler of the planet Apokolips. Soon, I will rule you."

A murmur went through the studio crew.

"Even as you hear my words, I am enlisting the greatest warriors your planet has to offer. The Kryptonian whom you have fostered these past thirty-three years is the first. I am installing General Kal-El as overlord of Earth in my absence. There will be others to follow.

"As your new master, I issue this first command: Find the one called Conduit. She is a human female and an ally of Brainiac, an intergalactic thief of intelligence and destroyer of planets. If you fail to find this Conduit, I will allow Brainiac to annihilate you on his terms. If you succeed, I will let you live on mine."

Lois raised her head and met her gaze with the camera lens. "That's it," she said numbly. She tried to stand, but Superman held her down. "Ow!" She cried out. "You're hurting me!"

Superman didn't seem to care. A tremor went through his hands and into her shoulders. She looked back at him and saw his head was tilted to the side a little bit, eyes closed. Perspiration—she'd never seen him sweat—dotted his hairline, the bridge of his nose. That's when she realized that he was fighting. The entire time, all the days that he'd been missing, Superman had been fighting a nonstop battle against something. Something that was controlling his mind. It was just matter of time before he gave in completely. It was why he had to give in sometimes, because it gave him strength to fight when he really had to.

The lights began to flicker. Suddenly everything in the whole building shut off. The central air conditioning died with a droning, fading hum. The lights blinked out. The camera made a high-pitched whine and cut off abruptly. Everything was. Pitch. Black.

Superman let Lois go. She heard him breathing heavily, panting, staggering on his feet.

An eerie red glow began to appear near his head. He turned his head back and forth, a red-eyed demon scanning for threats. "Everyone, get out!" Lois shrieked and really, that was all it took. People began stumbling over each other in the dark, cell phones came out, blue rectangles started bouncing, dancing with the crowd like some twisted horror night club.

Superman looked down at the ground. The angry red halo enveloped his head. Wisps of smoke coiled into the air as his lashes burned. Then suddenly two bright beams of scarlet crashed forward. They were loud—like a pair of searing blowtorches.

Lois darted around the anchor's desk and was preparing to run for it, but she couldn't. She couldn't leave him. She had to witness what was happening and tell the world. It was her job. Clark wanted her to do her job. Otherwise he would have left her sound asleep in bed.

The floor around his feet began to melt. The acrid scent of burning linoleum, tile glue entered her nose.

She spotted a cell phone someone had dropped in the mad rush for escape. She picked it up and began to record. That's when she noticed a green glow appear in the hallway from the snack room backstage.

The floor began to shake from what Superman was doing. The building was trembling as he destroyed concrete, steel, holding still so he didn't hurt people—so he didn't hurt her. But Lois detected a rhythm to the trembling also, like heavy, metallic footsteps. In fact, the heavier those steps became, the brighter the green began to glow.

A black shadow came from around the corner. A man in an exo-suit. With two very pointy ears.

#

A few minutes earlier.

Kyle Rayner began to think Batman wasn't coming. He'd been waiting for hours now, and his arm was getting tired. His focus was splintering and his stomach rumbled. Despite that, he had no appetite. He was worried about his best friend, Wally. Wally hadn't eaten either. In fact, Wally hadn't done much of anything these past couple of days. Kyle had been keeping him sedated so he didn't accidentally kill Kyle. Or anyone else for that matter. He only hoped that Batman hadn't lost his mind too.

With each passing hour, though, Kyle's apprehension grew. Maybe Batman had become the enemy and Kyle didn't even know it. After all, it had taken him too long to realize something was wrong with Wally—and that guy was his best friend.

Kyle definitely looked up to Batman. But really, he'd heard the guy was a total douchebag. Could Kyle really differentiate Batman's regular douchebag personality from a more sinister, dangerous, homicidal personality? Kyle didn't think so. But he didn't have other choice. Superman was missing, and frankly that was out of character for him. Kyle knew Superman cared too much to just go AWOL like that. And if Superman couldn't be trusted, Kyle knew he couldn't handle someone that powerful. Better to stay with a human. Batman, he was sure, he could deal with—should it come to that. He hoped it wouldn't, though.

The Bat Signal hovering in the sky flickered as Kyle's concentration faltered. He hadn't slept for three days—keeping constant guard over Wally. He was also running out of access to sedatives—Wally's metabolism kept using it up so fast he'd actually woken up a couple of times and almost got the best of Kyle. Kyle was nursing a shiner, a bruised jaw, broken ribs and a twisted ankle. He began feeling a little bad for himself when suddenly, one of the motion sensors Kyle had set up began to go off.

Kyle spun around. The Bat Signal he shone into the sky from the ring on his hand vanished. "Stop!" He ordered. It was Batman. He'd answered the Signal after all.

Batman stalked closer. Kyle was caught between the pull of hero-worship and real genuine fear. The guy was about six-four, almost crowning seven feet with the ears on the cowl. Kyle knew now that Batman wasn't taking any chances with him—just as Kyle wasn't taking any chances with Batman.

He was wearing a gas mask over his face. His eyes blazed from behind the cowl.

"Stop!" Kyle barked again.

But Batman kept coming. He was about ten feet away.

"I said stop!" Kyle shouted and raised his fist. The ring began to glow.

Batman stopped. But then he skipped something across the asphalt like pebbles over a lake.

Kyle fired off an arc of emerald light, blinding Batman and simultaneously erecting a green, transparent box around him. Batman whipped his head his head away, squinting. As smoke began to spray and curl up from the pellet, Kyle put his free hand up to his mouth and nose, but it was too late. A cough fought its way from his chest like a sledgehammer. Kyle groaned in pain. His ribs felt like a chainsaw trapped in his chest.

Batman watched silently from inside the box as Kyle fought a losing battle. The box around Batman flickered, thinned and shattered. The pieces disappeared before they hit the ground.

Kyle gagged and dropped to his knees, his breath ragged, eyes streaming. He raised his hand, formed a weak fist and a wall of green, wobbly light appeared in front of Batman.

But Batman walked right through it. It crumbled like blown glass.

Kyle pushed himself to his feet, tightened his fist and slammed Batman with a wrecking ball of blindingly green tsavorite. Batman flew back with a grunt and hit a tree on a street corner. He bounced off and fell on a parked car, flattening the top.

Kyle was coughing uncontrollably, gasping for air, hugging his chest. Batman lay there, winded. It bought Kyle a few moments. When he collected himself, he weaved closer, his arm up and at the ready.

Batman reached for his belt, but Kyle lifted him off the car, encased in green, and pinned him to the side of a building. Batman struggled against the green light for a few seconds, but it was no use. He was pinned in place with a full-body casing.

Kyle cleared his throat. "I told you to stop," Kyle rasped. "For God's sake, you can trust me."

"How do I know that?" Batman asked.

"I called you."

"Why?"

"I'm an officer of the Green Lantern Corps. We're investigating the extraterrestrial eggs that entered earth's atmosphere some weeks ago." He cleared his throat again. He released Batman, who dropped to the ground.

"So you're the Green Lantern."

"Yes."

"Have you seen the broadcast?"

Kyle's brows furrowed in puzzlement. "What broadcast?"'

There was a sudden, nearby humming in the sky. Kyle looked up, but couldn't see anything. The noise was unsettling, getting louder. He feared it was something dangerous, something Batman was going to hit him with. His hand clenched into a fist.

"No time to explain," Batman said. "Meet me at News Studio 8 in Metropolis."

Green Lantern floated upward, unable to resist showing off. He smiled awkwardly. "It would be faster if…uh…I carried you there."

Batman pulled his grapple gun from his belt, and cinched the cord around the wheel on his belt. "No need. I already have a ride." He looked up and Kyle saw the thing that was making all that noise. The Batwing. Dropping by for a pick up. Kyle watched as Batman vanished into the port under the aircraft.

The meeting hadn't gone exactly as Kyle had hoped. As he shot off toward Studio 8, he muttered glumly, "It's a pleasure to meet you, too."