Chapter 21
The clatter of a metal bowl on the cold hard concrete floor tells her it must be feeding time. Tired blue eyes, that show a battered but not broken spirit, peer through the knotted, filthy, mess of black hair and fixate on the holy unappetising grey mush that passes for her meal. For the few moments it is here it fills a space in her otherwise bare empty cell.
She uncurls from the ball in the corner she had folded herself into to offer maximum protection and gets to her feet with a defiant posture that shows her captures they haven't broken her. She then makes her battered, bruised, tired body move towards the sustenance. The fact it came means they have decided they don't want her dead yet which means soon another round of 'interrogation' is coming.
She sits down where the metal bowl stopped and scoops the grey mush into her mouth. The first time she ate it the taste made her ill but when you are starved almost anything tastes good.
Her eyes flicker to the door. A few days ago she would have waited until it opened and used her sonic cry to try and escape but they damaged her vocal chords and keep re-injuring them. She can speak just above a croaked whisper. They don't want her not to be able to speak because they want to know her secrets...not that she will tell them what they want to know in any case.
'Let them do their worse,' she think with grim determination. Dinah Lance isn't for spilling secrets or betraying anyone.
"Cadmus?" Batgirl asks him to confirm.
"That's what I heard," Clark reports. From Barbara's expression in response Clark can assumes the following. "I take it it doesn't mean anything to you."
"No," she confirms. "But it gives me something to look into until your next check in."
It had been a week since he successfully managed to get himself employed as a fighter in what was dubbed 'Meta-Brawl'. He had had two fights, both of which he won. The first one against Amygdala had left him feeling guilty. While strong, by human standards, it was clear that Amygdala had the mind of a child and was being manipulated and used. Clark resolved to make sure all these people were helped as soon as he found Black Canary and helped shut this fight club down. Right now Clark was checking in as scheduled with Barbara at the designated rendezvous point and reporting on what he found.
"Any word on Canary?" Barbara asks.
Clark shakes his head. "Apart from the assumption it was her Roulette was referring to no," he says with some regret. "I'm trying Babs," he promises her. "But she hasn't been anywhere I was this last week and I haven't overheard another mention like that one. My fellow fighters aren't the most talkative of people either," he points out as in he tried to strike up the odd conversation to see if he could learn anything. He was mostly rebuffed.
"Probably out of fear Roulette is watching them," Barbara assumes why they are clammed up. "I know you're doing your best Clark," she assures him.
"So what's next?"
"Just keep your eyes and ears open. When you've been around longer perhaps someone will let their guard down, slip up and say something. I'll look into this Cadmus and drop by that building you were taken to where you met Roulette."
"Do you know her?" Clark asks at the tone of familiarity Barbara says the name 'Roulette'.
"I know of her more than I know her," Barbara corrects. "Canary mentioned her too but getting close to her is difficult. Before this she had a certain reputation as an organiser and planner. She has an almost superhuman ability to assess the odds of say a bank job succeeding or not. People use to pay her fortunes to plan their heists to ensure the greatest chance of success. She decided to move into illegal games and gambling and run them herself. This fight club is her latest 'business venture'," she mocks with a certain disdain at referring to people beating each other to near death as if it is like opening a corner store or something. "I'll look again into Roulette's background. See if there is something I missed before but it is more likely you can find something if you can get close to her."
Clark frowns. "How close are you meaning here Barbara?" he asks, worried about what she is implying he do.
"Clark, Canary is missing...probably being tortured. Does it matter?" she asks him harshly. "Just do whatever you have to."
"I have my morals Barbara. Don't ever try and take them from me," he warns her off trying to get him to do certain things. "Setting an example is more than just a PR gimmick. You have to live as you preach otherwise it is meaningless."
"What?"
"Something I learned while I was travelling. I'll find Canary, Barbara. I give you my word on that but it won't be by me compromising who I am." With that Clark turns to leave. "I'll see you here next week assuming this isn't over by then," he tells her before he vanishes with a gust of wind.
Barbara frowns under her cowl. Clark certainly has some backbone she has to admire. It can be too easy in this game to compromise your values to get the job done. Clark it seems won't.
Barbara focusses on her end. Roulette was a slippery one. Barbara really doesn't expect to find much of anything at the place Clark met her. Roulette's probably cleared it out by now and changed the location of where she operates from. From Barbara's previous experience with what Dinah passed on to her that was always the situation when she dropped in but she can hope Roulette made a mistake this time and left something behind. She has little else to go at the moment but that hope.
A couple of days later and Clark finds himself back in the literal steel mesh cage in the middle of yet another fight. A fist connects with his face and the superstrength behind it catches him a little off guard and he flies into the cage with not enough force to break it. He bounces off the electrified cage and lands on the ground. He looks up as his opponent stands over him. A man dressed with a kind of green armoured vest on top of a lighter green costume with darker green boots and armoured wrist guards and above that almost floating in what looks like green fire is a human skull. The Atomic Skull as he is called and as Clark has learned he packs quite a wallop.
Atomic Skull raises his hands in celebration playing to the crowd who roar their approval in response.
Clark rubs his chin and gets back to his feet. He throws off his leather jacket, leaving him in a black t-shirt and jeans. He never felt it necessary to dress up. In fact that would contradict the persona he has been trying to present by tapping into his inner 'Kal'. It was in a sense how Clark got through these fights when in reality he hates violence.
Clark charges forward and slams 3 quick punches to Atomic Skull's skull, followed by a kick to the mid-section and a big right which sends the large man with the flaming skull into the cage. Clark mentally sends some thanks to Barbara for teaching him the basics of fighting and moves in, slower than he could, to continue his advantage. He throws a punch which Atomic Skull spins out the way to avoid.
Clark's fist hits the electrified cage as Skull blind-sides him with a right followed by a left then another right as Clark is driven back. A kick to Clark's side sends him spiralling back into the cage. Hands grip Clark around his waist, lift him up and slam him down to the concrete which cracks under the impact of Clark's invulnerable head. Slightly dazed he doesn't see the foot coming until it slams into his middle. He uses the momentum to roll through and pop back to his feet.
Skull charges into him and forces him back into the cage. Skull throws a punch. Clark blocks and counters. Skull ducks under the follow up and when Clark spins round he is met by a blast of green energy from the Atomic Skull's mouth.
Clark raises his arms as the green blast encompasses his whole body, burning away at his clothes and skin. When it ends Clark barley has time to lower his arms before an upper cut sends him literally spinning into the air. He crashes down in a heap and Atomic Skull raises his hands in what he perceives to be his triumph. He slowly turns on the spot with his arms raised.
"Not bad."
If Atomic Skull still had a face it would be showing complete shock. He turns to find his blond haired opponent back to his feet, shirt burned off but otherwise unharmed.
"My turn," Clark states as he almost blurs forward but holds himself short of using anywhere near his full speed and delivers his turn with a series of punches. Atomic Skull almost tumbles over until Clark grabs a flailing arm and yanks Skull back to him where he delivers a good old fashioned clothesline sending the metahuman who emits blasts of radiation to the ground. Channelling far too many hours of watching pro-wrestling Clark leaps into the air and drops an elbow.
Clark gets to his feet and deliberately allows Skull back to his, though by this point the large man is definitely a little wobbly. Skull throws a rather weak, badly aimed, punch. Clark knocks the arm aside, spins inward, delivers an elbow to the head, a knee to the mid-section and finally a hard right. Before Skull can recover Clark charges into the man and slams him into the electrified cage and holds him against it as the voltage shoots through him.
The lights in the whole arena flicker before Clark lets Skull go. The large man lets out a last gasp of effort before toppling over face first and Atomic Skull doesn't get back up by the count of 10.
Clark raises one hand in salute to the crowd playing to them. The announcer speaks. "Ladies and Gentlemen your winner and still undefeated...the Man of Steel."
Man of Steel. That had been Roulette's idea for a name for him.
Clark walks out of the cage as Atomic Skull is helped out. He hides the guilt he feels at having to beat someone up off his face. On his way to the back he passes one of Roulette's goons who says she wants to see him up in her executive box at the top of the arena. Clark makes his way up mentally noting to use his senses to look around and listen. This is the 4th different venue he has been in which begs the question of how Roulette managed this without no-one catching her. This Cadmus must have a lot of influence is the only answer Clark can think of which ticks him off. When this is over Clark is going to make sure the people responsible are held to account for this. Just like those extremists he met in Somalia needed to held to account by the law so do these people and if the authorities can't do it then Superman will...in the proper correct way Clark is meaning.
He reaches Roulette's office and finds her looking out at the next fight in her usual red dress. She is sipping on a drink. "You're improving," she compliments him.
"Thanks."
Roulette turns round to face him before walking over. Her eyes drift over his bare torso. "Interesting," she remarks. "I've seen Atomic Skull reduce men to ash with his blasts. You don't even have a mark on your magnificent body. You were playing with him weren't you? You could have ended that fight much earlier."
Clark folds his arms across his chest hiding the fact he finds it uncomfortable the way Roulette is looking at him. "Just following a pretty lady's advice," he replies.
Roulette arches an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"After my 1st fight you said I needed to give the spectators a show...to maximise the bang for their buck."
Roulette's lip curve up into a, rare for her, smile. She had said that to him after he won his 1st fight in a minute and was horrendously stiff and dull and not entertaining. "I'm glad you are taking my advice. Continue to do so and there will be many...rewards," she promises suggestively as a well manicured finger trails over his right bicep.
"I'm certain," Clark says back with a tiny smirk.
"You'll receive your pay on the way out," Roulette informs him of the usual.
"I already received it when I was blessed to be allowed in your company."
"Flattery gets you nowhere," Roulette tells him, repeating her line from when they first met but this time she adds, letting him know she is not irritated by his flirting, "But don't let that stop you."
Roulette is being truthful with herself when she no longer finds his flattery annoying. Quite the opposite really. There is just something about him...an aura that draws you in. She could make him a star. No question. She watches him leave, her gaze drifting over his strong broad muscled back and a pleasant quiver runs through her at the thoughts of what she could do with him.
Clark makes his way down to the locker room to pick up his things. Another day, another fight, still no sign of Black Canary and he hasn't seen or heard anything that is likely to give him a clue to her whereabouts. He thinks he might need to start being more proactive beyond looking and listening. He gets to his locker to find his leather jacket has been returned. He grabs his bag out of his locker and pulls out a new t-shirt to put on. Clark has just pulled it over his head when he receives a pat on the back.
"Good fight there pal. We really had the crowd up. I take it Roulette is happy."
Clark turns his head to find it is Atomic Skull. For a moment he is a little flustered by the fact the guy he just beat up is being...well...nice to him. "Uh...yeah. Roulette's happy," he lamely replies.
"That means a decent paycheck," Atomic Skull reflects on what he consider a bonus. "The alternative when she's not happy..." he trails off.
"When she's not happy?" Clark queries. "What does she do? Throw a tantrum?" he says in jest.
An actual chuckle comes out of the mouth of the floating skull. "You wish that was all. The last one to make her unhappy was Scream Queen and she hasn't been seen since."
Scream Queen? Black Canary Clark equates that to who Atomic Skull is talking about. "Well if the screaming banshee wasn't smart enough to keep the boss happy then I guess that's her problem. Think we'll ever see her again though? I always could do with a decent challenge," he says in such a way to jokingly imply Atomic Skull wasn't one.
Atomic Skull laughs harder. "You're know something Kal you're alright," he praises his comrade in arms for his humour.
"Thanks. You're alright yourself."
"And as for Scream Queen I doubt we'll see her again in the flesh. Roulette has a place for people who cross her."
"A place?"
"Some place outside town. That's the rumour. That's where she keeps Titan."
Titan. Clark had seen him on the video feed fighting. He was a huge bald man with this retractable spike that came out of his right forearm.
"Chances are the last you'll ever see of the Scream Queen is when Roulette sends her into her last ever fight against that guy. No-one ever survives that fight. That's why no-one around here messes with Roulette...and it isn't like there is much else for freaks like us to do," Skull adds almost lamenting the situation he has ended up in. "It's either this or go work for the Injustice League or Intergang. Sure the pay is just as good but that always involves fighting the Justice League and usually prison and I for one ain't going back to prison."
"Never have to worry about that. No prison exists that can hold me," Clark boats with put-on bravado.
That elicits another laugh out of Atomic Skull who the attends to changing. Clark sits down on the wooden bench that stretches across the room and ponders his next move. He is a little closer to finding Black Canary. Roulette has a 'place'. Now all Clark has to do is to find out where this place is before it is too late. Now how does he go about doing it?
"You know you're making this a lot harder than it needs to be."
Dinah peers up through her dirty tangled hair to see the literal woman in the red dress has stopped by to visit her.
Roulette bends down to be closer to eye level with her 'guest'. "I can make this all stop," she says. "All you have to do is tell me who you actually are, who you are working for and how much did you tell them and then all of the pain and suffering stops," she makes the offer.
Dinah just glares.
"No? Still don't feel like cooperating?" Roulette sighs and shakes her had in what could be construed as a sad manner. "You know I never wanted this. You were a great fighter. One of the best. You could have been great but instead you had to turn out to be a little spy. That's what you were doing weren't you when my men caught you in my office? You were spying. Looking through my files trying to find out all my secrets. Let me tell you Laura...and I'm assuming that's not your real name...but let me tell you anyway. My secrets are my own. I do not appreciate little spies trying to steal them!" she snaps coldly.
Dinah just continues to glare.
Roulette stands up straight. "This is your last chance. Tell me what I want to know and your suffering will end quickly and relatively painlessly. Don't and your end will be the stuff of legends," she states in a hard tone which indicates she means what she says.
A croaky sound comes from Dinah's voice and Roulette bends down once again. "What was that?" she asks assuming 'Laura' was about to say something. Roulette bends down nearer so she can hear.
Dinah finds what remains of her voice. "Go...to...hell!"
Roulette's look turns to ice and her upper lip curls up in anger. She stands up and turns to leave. She stops at the door next to the two guards in the room with her. "Clean her up. Feed her," she instructs them. "We want her to have some fight in her for her last performance." Roulette's lips curls up in a cruel smile. "Titan always enjoys it more when they put up a struggle."
"Yes Roulette," the two guards reply obediently.
Production. That's what finally hit Clark as a solution to how to find Dinah. Roulette never had everything in the same place at the same time. Fights in other locations were fed in to giant screens and that meant production trucks communicating with each other. Surely for that to work they had to know where the others were. Then it occurred to him that that was the explanation as to why those trucks were always so well guarded at every venue he attended to fight. Roulette was ensuring that that information was kept on a need to know basis. She obviously trusted next to no-one. Luckily for Clark he doesn't need to get into the truck. He can see into them with his x-ray vision. So all Clark has to do is show up for his next scheduled fight, peer into the truck parked outside and with just a tiny bit of luck learn the location of this 'place' that Atomic Skull mentioned.
His next fight was a few days after his last one against a man dressed in this purple costume with a red star shaped mask over his face, called Evil Star. It was a difficult fight yet it wasn't. Evil Star could create these light constructs to create force fields like solid walls or duplicates of himself to confuse Clark. However the strange thing was the force blasts he shot at Clark didn't really hurt. In fact if anything Clark felt stronger and healthier at the end of the fight then he did at the beginning. A fight he won by the way.
Afterwards Clark found himself once again up in Roulette's office. He was slightly curious that she had chosen to attend the venue he was fighting again when there were other places she could be.
"Another impressive performance," Roulette congratulates him from her position sitting on a expensive looking couch with her legs crossed and her arms stretched out across the back.
"I always give impressive performances," Clark boasts keeping up the egotistical act he chose for this persona.
"I'm sure you do," Roulette practically purrs in response. She pats down the space next to herself. "Come sit. Enjoy the rest of the show. You won't want to miss the surprise finale I'm putting on."
Clark hesitates for a moment. He really needs to get on with what he planned to do in trying to find Black Canary but he really can't think of an excuse to leave that won't be out of character for the persona he has been portraying so he sits down next to Roulette, not too close but not too far away either.
With a simple snap of her fingers Roulette has a glass of champagne brought for him. Clark sips on it to keep up appearances as the fights continue. Reluctantly Clark has to admit Roulette had this organised extremely efficiently and it only needed her attention fleetingly which is not necessarily a good thing when her hands keep 'accidentally' touching him.
Even Clark is not so naïve to not see what is going on but as he said to Barbara he has his morals. He won't sacrifice them. He just has to walk this line carefully so as to not risk Roulette's wrath and therefore risk his chances of being here long enough finding Black Canary. Somehow he manages to do this until they reach the final fight of the evening.
Roulette stands up. "You'll excuse me. I'm going to introduce this one personally," she says before she bends down and lays a kiss on Clark's lips. "And then afterwards you and I can celebrate," she promises in a husky tone full of sultry promise.
"I always enjoy a good celebration," Clark quips back.
Roulette almost chortles. "Make yourself at home. I'll be back."
Clark smiles at her as she leaves him. He x-rays through the door. She leaves two guards there standing outside although she can't genuinely believe they could keep him here if he genuinely wanted to leave. Clark's hand nervously taps on his thigh as he contemplates how to get himself out of this in a way that doesn't mean he ends up doing what he thinks Roulette wants to.
'Come on Clark. Think,' he mentally says in his head.
Clark's thinking is interrupted by Roulette beginning her introduction of the last fight.
"Have we had a good time?" she asks the audience who yell back "Yeah!"
"Then I have done my job which is to make you happy," Roulette says playing to the crowd. In reality her job was to get them to bet and make her money. "And now we have a very special main event. The return of Titan!"
The crowd cheer, whoop and holler ecstatically.
"This will be a fight to the finish!" Roulette promises and the crowd cheer louder. Clark feels slightly nauseous at the notion of people cheering a fight to the death. However if Titan is fighting tonight then this is his chance. He can stop Titan before anyone does die and save Black Canary...unless...
Before Clark can finish that thought Roulette finishes it for him. "And his opponent is your favourite...the Scream Queen!"
In an instant Clark is gone from Roulette's office. All the two guard outside notice is an strange gust of wind. The next time anyone sees Clark he is inside the production truck.
"Who are you? How did you get in here?" one of the producers asks.
"Where is that?" Clark demands to know pointing at the video feed of Titan.
"I...guards!" the producer yells.
Clark grabs him by his shirt and lifts the guy up. "They're unconscious," he relays what he did to them on his way in. "Now where is that?" he repeats his question.
The producer shakes his head. "I can't tell you. What Roulette would do..."
"Is nothing to what I will do if you make me ask again," Clark warns him. "Let me ask you something you've watched my fights right?"
The producer nods.
"I was holding back. What you saw is only a tiny fraction of what I can do and when this is over Roulette will be facing her proper justice so let me ask you which side do you want to be on. Hers or mine?"
"I...you don't know Roulette," the producer says in fear of her.
Clark sighs. He uses his spare hand and removes the lenses he has been using to change his eye colour. He then focusses his now red glowing eyes on the producer. "You don't know me either. Look I get it. Roulette is powerful but not more powerful than me. I've seen Titan fight. That woman is going to die. You know that. Now do you really want that on your conscious and more importantly do you really want it to be another thing I get angry at you about." Then to demonstrate his point Clark turns his head and unleashes a blast of his heat vision which explodes several of the monitors. Clark lifts the man higher. "People like Roulette will soon know that if they break the law, if they use and exploit people then they can expect a visit from me."
"You?" the producer scoffs. "You're..." He was about to say nothing but doesn't get a chance.
Clark jerks the producer so they are nose to nose. "I'm Superman."
The next thing the producer knows is that they are soaring upward above the city.
"Nice view isn't it?" Clark asks him. "Enjoy it while you can because it's about to become really small."
"What?"
"I'm taking you for a little trip...into orbit. The view's spectacular. I mean you can survive a vacuum right. I mean I know I can," Clark says with a light chuckle.
The producer's eyes widen. "I...what? No! I can't survive a vacuum!"
"You can't?" Clark says surprised, like he didn't know that. "Oh well. In that case you have about a minute before your lungs explode and you bleed out of your eyeballs...unless of course you give me somewhere else to take you like where Titan is!"
"I..."
"50 seconds," Clark tells him. "You'll start to find it hard to breath in a tick."
"I..."
"40 seconds. We just surpassed the summit height of Everest."
The producer does find it hard to breathe. "Alright!" he capitulates and Clark brings them to a screeching halt before slowly descending. "Alright," he repeats. "The abandoned army barracks about 10 miles north of Metropolis. That's where she keeps Titan."
"Now you see was that so hard? Hold on. We're going for a ride," Clark tells the guy as he accelerates across the sky in a blur.
Dinah had been given these figure hugging red leather pants and vest top to wear and since it was better than the torn, tattered clothes she had been wearing she decided she might as well wear them. It was all to give the men in her perspective audience a free show naturally. She was then essentially dragged and shoved into the metal cage where now she waits for Titan. Waits to fight him without the ability to use her Canary Cry thanks to the bruising her captures had inflicted on her vocal chords.
Dinah knows what they expect to happen. She'll put on a show for them but in the end Titan will defeat and kill her and remove their problem, i.e. her, for them.
The cage is opened and Dinah prepares herself as the huge bald man, dressed in a grey boiler suit with the arms torn off, walks in. Titan.
Titan's cold, almost inhuman looking eyes, appraise his prey for the night. His lips curls up in a dismissive sneer. "You're not the fight I'm looking for," he tells her.
"Appearances can be deceptive," Dinah says back.
"Not in this case...but you'll provide me with some entertainment." Titan's head nods in the direction of the cameras. "She thinks she can control me but all she does is provide the means to pass the time while I await for him to find me."
Dinah's brows draw closer together in puzzlement. "What does that mean?"
Titan chuckles deeply. "The end of your world as you know it is here but it is not something you, you primitive little ape, have to worry about because you won't live to see the birth of the New Order."
A buzzer sounds around the otherwise empty space. This is the one place Roulette keeps people away from. The buzzer signals the fight has begun.
Dinah circles away. She is use to fighting opponents bigger and stronger than her. It's about avoiding their blows and hitting them on the weak points like the knees, the joints, for men that spot between their legs. She has watched Titan fight a couple of times. He's a bruiser using his extreme power to essentially mow his opponents down. Dinah just has to avoid being the grass.
Dodge and weave.
That's Dinah's first thought as Titan moves in and throws the first punch. Duck, move, await her opening. It'll come.
A second punch. Rolls out the way. Titan leaves his side open. Dinah throws a blow that connects with a rib. She instantly cries out in pain. Felt like hitting a brick wall. Momentarily she pauses and gets a skull rattling backhand across her face for her trouble. If the blow had landed any more solidly she is pretty certain her cheek bones would just have been shattered. As it is that's going to leave a nasty bruise. She goes flying and rolls across the concrete floor.
'Get up Dinah!' she mentally tells herself. She pushes herself up and flips herself out of the way just missing the boot that slams down where her head was. The concrete floor cracks under the impact. Ok so Titan is really really strong Dinah realises. Back to dodge and weave until she figures out a plan.
The fight pans out like Dinah plans. Dodging, weaving, restricting her hits to the joints which hurts almost as much as hitting Titan anywhere else. It's like the guy is invulnerable. Plan B then. If she can't beat him she needs to use him to help her escape. Lure him to the cage and get him to knock it down. That at least gives her a chance of escape. Dinah has the wisdom to know when to leave a fight and resume it another day on better terms.
Dinah makes a move to dash for the cage but she misjudges it. Titan catches her and a huge hand tightly wraps around her throat. "Time to die human," Titan states coldly and his hand tightens with crushing force around Dinah's neck and then suddenly it is gone and Titan is flying into the cage and bouncing off. All the cameras and other electrical equipment blow up as hit by some force. Dinah gasps for breath, staggers and finds herself caught in powerful arms. She looks up and finds cerulean blue eyes looking at her with deep concern. Unique eyes Dinah has only ever seen on one previous person. Therefore she knows the identity of her rescuer.
"You ok?" he asks, sounding a little worried about her.
Dinah swallows. "You're late," she says in a croaky tone.
Clark smiles apologetically. "Sorry. Traffic was murder," he quips. That and he had had to drop off his passenger first. Clark just dropped him off back where he found him since he had more pressing concerns.
"Kal-El!"
Clark snaps his head round to Titan, already back on his feet. Clark's eyes express his total shock at hearing that name spoken. He gently moves Dinah behind him for protection. "How do you know that name?"
Titan points at Clark. "It was your father who banished me to a formless hell for all eternity," he accuses with complete vitriol. "You are almost the mirror image of him," Titan spits out in near disgust as he essentially explains how he knows who Clark is.
Clark's puzzled eyes flash electric blue as he compares what he sees in front of him to what he knows about himself and comes to a conclusion from what he sees. "You're not like me."
Titan snorts revolted at the idea of being like Kal-El. "If you mean I am not Kryptonian you are correct...but they did create me." He lets out a hollow laugh. "The great and mighty Kryptonian race," he mocks before continuing, "that indulged in a little genetic experimentation." Titan holds his arms out. "Witness just one of their...mistakes," Titan says with utter fury at what his creators labelled him as. "They created me and when I didn't turn out as they wanted your father had me tossed away like...to use the term on this planet...like garbage but I escaped my prison and ended up here stuck on this pathetic rock, infested by these primitive apes."
Clark isn't sure what to make of that. He can't prove or disprove either way what Titan is saying. He simply doesn't know anything about his people to form a judgement. "Look I don't know what happened to you and if you were mistreated I'm sorry. However Krypton is gone. My father is gone. You can make any life for yourself you choose. You don't have to continue with this," Clark says gesturing at their surroundings trying to persuade his fellow non-earthling that they don't have to fight. "Let me help you," he offers.
Titan muses on that as he slowly walks nearer Clark. "That's a generous offer." Titan gets within striking range. "However I'll think I'll go with gaining my vengeance on Jor-El by killing his only son!" he shouts with pure rage as he throws a right with speed and strength that catches Clark off guard. He literally goes flying bouncing off the cage and unlike previous times that has happened he isn't playing to the crowd.
Clark lands hard on the floor and spits up blood. His hand goes to his lip which is split. He shakes his dazed head. Boy was that ever a punch. Clark thinks that might have even knocked a couple of teeth loose. He hasn't felt anything like that since he fought Wonder Woman in Gotham.
Titan advances on the fallen Kryptonian eager to inflict his revenge for what he suffered thanks to Jor-El only to find a slim arm slip under his chin and around his throat as he feels a tiny figure leap onto his back. The human. Pathetic creature. He grabs the arm and throws her like a rag doll to the ground. Perhaps he will just end her worthless insect existence now and be done with the irritation. He takes one step toward her. "Leave her alone!" Kal-El's voice commands.
Titan turns to face Kal-El who is back to his feet. "The female means nothing," he dismisses her. "You're the calibre of fight I have been waiting for."
"We don't have to this," Clark pleads one last time.
"But we do...and if you want someone to blame Kal-El for what happens next blame your father for it is all upon his head!"
Clark stands off a little. He doesn't want to fight Titan. There has to be some way to reach him.
Titan can see Kal-El hesitate. "If you won't fight me Kal-El I'll just have to fight her instead," he states as he resumes his march towards Dinah. He bends down to pick her up by her delicate neck.
Clark breaks out of his reluctance at seeing what Titan intends to do to Black Canary and charges into Titan slamming his shoulder the huge man's middle. The man bigger than himself by at least half a foot. Dinah gets dropped and the two superpowered beings crash out of the cage and slam into a concrete support pillar which shatters into pieces under the force.
Back in the arena Roulette's cold green eyes try to absorb what she has just witnessed. What has she just witnessed? One second Titan is about to crush the woman's neck and bring an end to that irritation. The next moment a black blur flies into the picture before it all goes blank leaving nothing but that annoying snowy static.
Boos begin to ring out from the crowd. Oh super. Next they'll be demanding a refund. She...what does she do?
This is a disaster. Roulette purposefully and rapidly strides towards the exit passing on instructions to her men as she goes about clearing out the audience. The fights for tonight were over. She has to find out what has happened and when she gets her hands on the people responsible for this...their suffering hadn't even begun yet Roulette vows.
Dinah raises a hand to her head and shakes it to clear her blurry vision. God Titan hit like his fists were sledgehammers...oh wait he only threw her. That alone had enough force for Dinah to know she is bruised all over. She tries to get a proper perspective on her surroundings and that is when she spots them off across the open space slugging it out with blows that make the entire building she is in shake due to the sheer raw power of the two combatants.
Titan grabs Clark by his black leather jacket and slams his head into Kryptonian's. He tries to follow that up with a right but Clark blocks and jabs a series of rights into Titan's midsection. Titan slams his knee into Clark and hits a massive uppercut onto Clark's jaw. Clark flies through the air and rolls to a stop near Dinah.
Dinah sees Clark cough painfully and can see blood streaming from a huge cut on the right side of his face...or it was a huge cut as she can see it shrinking before her eyes as it begins to heal. She turns her head upward as Titan walks towards him and can see blood, black in colour, run down the left side of the massive man's face from a cut on the left temple.
Titan grabs Clark by the back of his jacket and yanks him to his feet. He hits Clark with a couple of lefts before Clark ducks under the third and lays a few punches into Titan's back. Dinah has to hold back rolling her eyes. She thought Barbara taught him the basics of fighting. He is in bad need of a refresher course.
Titan slams his elbow into Clark's face sending him staggering back. Titan then picks Clark up high above his head and brings him down, slamming Clark's back across his knee. Dinah winces in reaction as Clark cries out in pain and rolls across the ground, struggling a little for breath.
The bony spike in Titan's right arm extends out of the top of the forearm. "Time to die son of Jor-El," he states coldly. "And when you see your father again in the world after this..."
Titan's diatribe is cut off by Dinah hitting his arm with a flying kick. "You know what," she says. "It gets really tiresome after awhile all these little speeches people make about why they are assholes. Boo hoo. Your father wronged me. Seriously cry me a river," she mocks him.
Titan's eyes lock onto her with inhuman intensity and utter contempt. "You have no idea what you are getting into human insect," he hisses.
"Maybe I don't know what happened to you but he gave you a choice," she reminds him what Clark said at the start. "Yet you chose revenge over a fresh beginning."
"Like I told you a New Order is coming and it will begin when I paint the ground red with the blood of Krypton's fabled Last Son...and with your blood," he vows before he moves superhumanly fast as he seeks to slam the bony spike from his arm right through Dinah.
Dinah barely has time to flinch before the spike comes to a stop just touching the bare skin on her stomach. Both she and Titan look to find the hand gripped strongly by Clark.
"That is no way to treat a lady," Clark says in a low, tight, angry voice. Clark retches the arm away and slams his right fist across Titan's face. Dinah can see the air ripple with power as he delivers it and Titan goes spinning backward from the force.
Clark advances and Titan swings his spike at him. Clark blocks the blow with his left, slams his right fist into the elbow joint, spins and slams his left elbow in Titan's throat. He then grabs Titan by his overalls and smashes a head butt into the man. He follows up with a right across the face followed by a back-kick to Titan's jaw sending the huge humanoid tumbling backward head over heels.
Dinah has to admit that was better technique fighting wise. He did learn something from Barbara after all.
Clark seethes with anger at the callous way Titan almost killed Black Canary. "Yield," he demands.
Titan gets back to his feet, blood dripping down his face from more open wounds, courtesy of Clark, laughing mockingly at such a ridiculous suggestion. "Not until you're dead," he swears as he spits up some of his black blood.
Titan charges forward and Clark inhales deeply and unleashes his freeze breath. Titan's advance slows until he freezes solid. Clark lets out a sigh of relief that that has stopped his foe. He looks to Dinah. "You alr..."
CRACK!
Clark's head snaps back round as the ice around Titan cracks and he breaks free of his prison.
Titan snorts in derision at what he sees as the paltry attempt to stop him. "I was made by your people to fight. You didn't really think that they didn't make me strong enough to resist anything you are capable of did you. You have no idea do you Kal-El what I am or what your people were truly capable of and that is why you will die!"
Titan stabs forward right at Clark's heart with his spike. Clark partially deflects the blow up and to the side where it pierces, what he thought was, his impenetrable skin and goes through his left shoulder. He cries out in pain. Titan grins, relishing the pain of the son of his jailer.
Clark grimaces in pain with his eyes shut.
"Face your end Kal-El and then I will have some fun with the human female," Titan vows.
How dare he? This fight was between them. Black Canary had nothing to do with it. Clark's eyes open glowing intensely red. "BURN!" he says with more than a little venom as an intense beams of heat vision envelop Titan's face.
Titan cries out as the burning heat blinds him. He staggers back yanking the spike out of Clark's shoulder as he covers his face. Clark drops to one knee and raises his hand to the hole in his shoulder to cover up the wound and try and staunch the flow of blood.
Titan pulls his hands back to reveal his face burnt red. Not as immune to Clark's powers as he claimed to be. Titan's face twists in rage. "DIE!" he screams in pure anger and he sings at Clark who rolls out of the way. In his rage Titan staggers forward completely off balance. He turns to be met with an uppercut delivered with all of Clark's strength. The blow lifts Titan clean off his feet and sends him flying, straight up, all the way through the roof of this warehouse.
Dinah moves to stand next to Clark who is flinching in pain at his shoulder wound. "He's coming back," Clark warns her.
Dinah looks up as Titan returns and slams face first into the concrete floor cracking it. The whole place shakes and she almost falls over. For several moments there is no movement until Titan's limbs start to move to push himself up.
Dinah looks on in a little disbelief because if that didn't stop this guy nothing would.
Titan stands up straight and turns round...to reveal his own spike, broken off, sticking out the middle of his chest. Dinah winces at the sight. Clark's eyes flash their electric blue. The spike has gone right through the heart.
To Dinah's complete confusion Titan starts to smile and laugh slightly, even as blood bubbles out of his lips. "Good fight," Titan complements Clark before he rocks on his heels and falls back with a echoing thud.
Clark walks over, limping slightly, to the fallen body and kneels down next to it. "I didn't mean...I'm sorry," he says with overwhelming guilt.
Titan's eyes start to close. "Kill or be killed Kal-El," he says with a weakening voice. "That will be your only choice the day you meet him."
"Meet him who?"
No answer.
"Meet him who?" Clark repeats but it is pointless. Titan is gone.
Dinah moves next to Clark and places a hand on his good shoulder.
"I...he's dead...I didn't mean," he says utterly lost at what to do or say.
"I know," Dinah reassures him. "I know you didn't mean to. It was an accident." After all he had tried everything else. Reason. Freezing his opponent. Titan just wasn't going to stop until one of them was dead. Better it not be the guy she knows is good at his core.
Clark looks at Titan's still form unable to process what he is suppose to feel. He buried every feeling, every emotion, relating to his people and here is something they created, apparently, and he just ended a living being's life.
Dinah comes round to examine the wound on his shoulder which is already closing up.
Clark looks down at it. "I didn't heal this fast after I fought Grundy. I don't know why the difference," he remarks, his speech and look a little vacant.
Dinah can see he is in shock. She places her hands on his face. "Hey. Look at me. This wasn't your fault. Ok. He wasn't going to stop until we were both dead and if he can hurt you this badly I doubt there's a prison on this planet that could hold him."
Rationally Clark knows she is correct. If Titan could hurt him this badly it is extremely unlikely any facility on Earth could safely incarcerate him.
The sound of doors opening hits both their ears.
"That'll be Roulette's men," Dinah realises.
Clark snaps out of his shocked stupor. Roulette. She is responsible for this. Clark will make sure she sees her justice but first things first. He has to do what he promised Barbara he would do and that is save Black Canary. He also can't leave Titan here. He won't. The least he can do is give Titan a proper burial. He picks the corpse up and puts it over his shoulder and wraps his other arm around Black Canary's petite waist. Then just as Roulette's men storm in they all vanish in a blur of colour and a gust of wind.
Author's Note: For those of us in the know this chapter is meant to indicate that the Phantom Zone has been cracked open at some point in the recent past and we all know the kind of monsters that live in there. Who's the 'him' behind the 'New Order'? That's going to be a very important question moving forward. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; The clear up of events from this chapter essentially.