"Gotham"
A 'Smallville' fan fiction
All characters are owned by DC Comics, Warner Brothers, and their respective partners.
'Superman' was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
'Batman' was created by Bob Kane
Timeframe: The summer between "Vortex" and "Heat" in season two
Disclaimer: I own plenty, but not these characters (not even Kaminski, not yet anyway…)
Rating: PG-13
Author's Note: Instead of having Bruce Wayne come to Smallville, I wanted Clark Kent to come to Gotham. I wanted to re-imagine Batman's origin to a very short extent. You will see many, many of the same things about Batman's past you've always heard. But if you look at it, there is room to grow in the origin of Batman, and since Smallville is all about origins, why not introduce another of the World's Finest? I'm not going to pull a JJ Abrams and make Bruce homosexual, have Alfred be a robot, or the existence of Wayne Enterprises a mere myth. I loved these characters since I was very young, starting with Batman: The Animated Series and with this fiction I am just putting the characters in different places. What if Clark Kent witnessed the murder of Bruce's parents, and who exactly was behind it? I'm only bringing you a "what if?" story that hopefully will entertain and make you happy when it ends.
Prologue
A town quite some distance from Smallville, Gotham City was not always the most beautiful town, but compared to what the city was like at night, the day hours were paradise. Gotham was a wounded city, riddled with bullets and pain of over a hundred years. But within the cracks in the sidewalk that was Gotham, were internet companies, furniture manufacturers, and enterprises such as that of the Wayne's. Wayne Enterprises was still young, yet very powerful nevertheless. The enterprise held the largest broadcasting television station in the nation, a nation-wide chain of banks, and even a newly founded recording company which supported up and coming artists.
Wayne Enterprises had its flaws, though minor, that led to a sinking stock for shareholders, but was definitely being worked hard to improve. But perhaps the most major flaw, of them all, was the head of Wayne Enterprises, Gerald Kaminski. Since Thomas Wayne himself lowered his position to that of Vice President to raise a family and lower a rising blood pressure a few years back, Kaminski had not helped the enterprise whatsoever. Wayne had finally felt the need to step back up and head his company after several years of slacking sales, but Kaminski wouldn't have it. When the board of administrators finally approved Thomas Wayne to be head and CEO of Wayne Enterprises once again Kaminski stormed out and was not heard of for several years.
As Wayne continued as CEO of his company, the stock slowly rose and profits as well. Sales were better than ever, and the genius of the Wayne family had once again brought the enterprise back from mediocrity. But while Wayne and the company may have forgotten about Kaminski, he surely had not forgotten about them…
One: Getting There
The summer was getting dry and quiet; Clark was bored out of his mind in Smallville. The vacation to Coast City his parents had planned fell through after the tornado, and Chloe was off in Metropolis at the Daily Planet. Pete had gone away for two weeks with his family to stay with his Grandmother, and Lana, she was busy running The Talon. Lex had mentioned something about a trip to Gotham to meet an old friend, but Clark wasn't one to ask and Lex would ask if he thought Clark were interested.
"Don't chop all that wood at once, son…" Jonathan startled Clark. He picked up the extra axe and started chopping.
"Sorry, just drifting into my own little world," Clark smiled; his dad obviously noticed his boredom. Clark grabbed another piece of wood and sliced it in half.
"You know Clark, if you're that bored, your mother and I could handle the farm for a few days if you wanted to go somewhere with one of your friends," Jonathan squinted, waiting for a response.
"That seems impossible with every one of them either busy or go…" He was cut off by the roar of Lex's car roaring into the drive. Clark waved along with Jonathan.
Lex swiftly walked up to them both, "Hey Clark, Mister Kent…" He smiled, "I was wondering Clark if you wanted to head off with me to Gotham, you mentioned you were getting tired of this place." Lex gazed at Clark, anticipating the answer.
Clark looked at Jonathan, who nodded, "Yeah, how long will we be there?"
"A week, you even get to meet my old friend Bruce, along with the inner-workings of Wayne Enterprises…"
"Sounds good, Clark, I'll go let your mother know," Jonathan walked to the house. Clark looked around at all the wood left to chop, "When we leaving?"
"The plane leaves at six, sharp," Lex checked his watch; it was noon at the moment.
"Great, I'll finish my chores, pack my things, and I'll be to the mansion at five." Clark picked back up his axe, and readied another piece of wood.
"Good, see you then…" Lex walked back down to his car and sped off, blaring music as usual.
"This should be interesting…" Clark sighed.
"Master Bruce, I'm terribly sorry, but you're going to be late if you don't get up soon…" Alfred smiled; he had gone through this too many times to even care.
"Sorry, Alfred, it was a late night…" the handsome man threw off the covers of his bed.
"As usual," Alfred grinned, "I will ready your breakfast and let your father know you'll be arriving shortly. He walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.
"I ask for an alarm clock, my father gets a butler…" Bruce sighed to himself. He got up and ready for work, leading him into the kitchen for the usual breakfast of strawberry toast, an egg muffin, and a glass of milk. "This is delicious, Alfred," Bruce smiled, it really was.
"I aim to please," Alfred smiled, as he always was, "I told your father you would arrive by noon, I suspect you'll be going quickly?"
Bruce grabbed the last piece of toast and started off for his garage. Alfred cleaned the dishes as he listened to the quiet roar of Bruce's car speeding off, and then screeching to a halt. He dropped the dishes back into the sink and rushed out to the driveway to see what had happened.
"Alfred, call an ambulance!" Bruce yelled from far away. Alfred didn't reply, just ran off back to the nearest phone in the garage to call for help. While he was concerned, the curiosity as to what happened burned in his mind.
Thomas Wayne, Bruce's father and CEO of Wayne Enterprises, was not happy with what was going on. Not happy at all.
"You hit him?" Thomas asked, glaring through Bruce.
"No!" Bruce roared, "He leapt out in front of me, like suicide or something!" Bruce was telling the truth, but he knew many people wouldn't believe it.
"Just be glad he's going to survive, that is, if the operation goes well…" His father eyed him, "…and even after that he may be paralyzed!" Thomas threw up his arms.
"It's not my fault," Bruce shrugged, "if he wouldn't have been snooping around our property and leaping out in front of fast moving objects…"
Thomas cut him off, "And maybe if we hadn't bought you that Lamborghini!"
"I wasn't speeding, that much…" Bruce smirked for a moment, but this was no laughing matter. The papers would get a hold of this, then the tabloids, and once again try to destroy the Wayne name.
"This man is a good worker; he works in marketing a couple floors under me, why would he be snooping around his boss's home?" Thomas calmly asked, "It makes no sense."
"Perhaps that is the point…" Bruce speculated; gazing out the window as the small sparrows hopped around on the tree branches. His father had already had many assassination attempts on him, and this would not surprise him if this was another. Maybe a part of something bigger, but he didn't have time to think about it right now.
"Well, Bruce, let's just go to work and see what happens throughout the day, hopefully this will just be a small inconvenience…and we will all go visit Bill after the operation tonight to see how he is and give him our well wishes."
"Okay, sounds nice," Bruce smiled; this was going to be a long day. He got up and went with his dad to his car, and flew off into the city praying the situation would not get any worse. But Bruce somehow forgot in the midst of all the commotion that his old friend would be arriving later that night…