Bruce Chapter 5

When Bruce Wayne saw Clark's eyes focus on Jonathan and Martha Kent he leaped towards them. He knocked them through the open doorway and into safely into their house as the heat ray struck the ground where they had been. The trio hit the farmhouse floor in a tangle of limbs, from which Bruce rose immediately. As he ran back to the door he quickly and carefully attached a piece of Kryptonite to the grapple end of one of his rope guns. When he reached the door he saw Clark heading towards the house.

"So much for hunting for Clark" Bruce hissed angrily.

Aiming carefully he fired, the rope wrapped itself round Clarks legs. The effect was immediate. Clark fell to the ground screaming. All four of them where at Clark's side, Jonathan and Martha were trying to get the Kryptonite away from their son. The kid held them back as he removed a syringe from his pocket and filled it from a bottle from his belt.

"Not yet" he said to the Kents "don't worry I won't leave this on long enough to hurt him"

He then inserted the needle into a vain in Clarks leg as carefully as he could, As he had thought as well as weakening him the Kryptonite also took down Clarks shield.

"What's in that?" asked Chloe

"And how did you pierce his skin?" asked Jonathan

"A broad-spectrum tranquilliser, enough to knock-out ten elephants, " said the kid answering both questions in order " and Clark's body is normally protected by a bio-forcefield. The Kryptonite destroys that field temporarily."

As they spoke the pain faded from Clarks face and he lost conciousness. Bruce quickly checked that he was unconscious, then he removed the rope and the Kryptonite from Clark's leg. The effect of the Kryptonite wore off quickly but the tranquilliser kept him unconscious.

Chloe watched as the kid used a remote control to unlock his car, then drag Clark to it and secure him in the middle seat. She got into the other passenger seat, she half expected the kid to say she couldn't come. When he didn't she asked why.

"I partly because I like your company, you impress me," the kid answered " but mostly because Clark will be very confused when we undo whatever Zod has done to him and I need someone Clark knows to help calm him down. Also so I can protect you from Lionel Luthor"

Then to the Kents he said, "Mr and Mrs Kent try not to worry. I will bring Clark back as soon as possible."

As they nodded they're thanks he closed the car door and set off for the caves.

"How do we help Clark?" asked Chloe as they drove

"I am not a hundred percent sure but I believe setting off a small EMP should delete Zod's A.I. matrix and allow Jor El's to take over. Jor El should then help Clark. I asked Alfred to bring one, just before Clark showed up at the farm."

"Will he bring my father?" asked Chloe hopefully

" I am sorry but no" answered the kid "he's not a hundred percent yet and he will be safer in my cave

"OK" said Chloe realising this was true.

They drove in silence for a while, as they did Chloe turned her attention to Clark. She was worried about him but trusted the kid, she was sure his name was not John Smith. Clark seemed at least physically OK, so Chloe asked the other question that was on her mind.

"What is he wearing?" she asked "and what does that odd 'S' stand for"

"The suit I don't know but the 'S' is the symbol for Clark's Kryptonian family, the family 'El'.

They drove on in silence the rest of the way, leaving Chloe alone with her thoughts. Who she wondered was this amazing young man who had done so much for her, her father and the friends. She concentrated all her thoughts to try and solve this puzzle He was obviously extremely rich very driven, perhaps in his past there had been some sort of major trauma.

Chloe had always been very interested in the media and the news. Something that bad, happening to someone this rich, had to have been in the papers. Just after the explosion they had been on their way to Gotham, she was sure. He helped those who needed help, but also defended the defenceless, so what ever happened was likely linked to violence. His skills, knowledge, fitness and intelligence were amazing and obviously were the result of year of discipline. So whatever had happened must have happened when he was a very young boy, possibly ten or less. He appeared to be about twenty to twenty-five now. With this in mind Chloe would needed to look at newspaper archives dating about fifteen years ago, if she survived this situation. In the meantime she would try to remember articles from that time.

"Chloe" said the kid interrupting her thoughts "we're here. I want you to put this on" he told her as he handed her a kevlar vest "Just to be on the safe side. I am fairly sure we have slipped under Luthor's radar but I don't want to take any chances."

The car was a confined space, which did not help but Chloe quickly managed to get the vest on under her jacket and concealed. She was about to open the door when a beeping stopped her. Chloe had learned than when the kid's equipment beeped at you it meant something.

"What?" she asked.

"There are men over-there, in those bushes." said the kid "and I doubt they are ordinary Luthorcorp security. The car's sonar detects automatic weapons, probably P90s, and swords. They are probably martial artists, maybe ninjas. Luthor probably figure we might come here to find of help Clark. I mustn't underestimate him again Stay in the car."

As the kid said the last sentence the men in the trees started firing but the bullets were unable to penetrate the cars armour. Chloe screamed with the initial shock but quickly pulled her self together. Her confidence in the kid's abilities helped.

I knew this car was armoured she thought to her self. This though had just entered her head when the kid started pressing buttons.

The first opened a hatch in the roof of the car. The second brought what looked like a hand glider into position just over the hole and at the same time a harness came out of the kids seat as it did he secured it to himself. The third activated powerful jets of air that shot the kid through the hole. As the kid passed the glider it attached itself to the kid's harness. The whole sequence took only a few seconds. As Chloe watched the kid soar, the roof moved back in to place.

Bruce manoeuvred the glider in a tight arch towards the trees. As he did so he took a pair of thermal imaging goggles from his backpack and put them on. As he switched them on he saw five men attached to the trunks of the trees with clawed boots, ninjas. The must have realised the car was armoured because they stopped firing their P90s at that moment.

As Bruce watched the ninjas dropped from the trees. Four drew swords as they landed the other went to a nearby van and returned to the others with a rocket-launcher. As the ninja aimed at the car, Bruce knew it was time to act. He took a titanium boomerang out of a pocket in his belt and threw it at the rocket-launcher before the ninja could fire. The boomerang sliced clean through the weapon. Bruce landed and detached himself from the glider and harness and caught the returning boomerang as the two halves of the rocket-launcher hit the ground.

Chloe watched from the car in amazement as the boomerang cut though the rocket-launcher and the kid caught it. She had been scared when she had seen the launcher and had been about to try to drag Clark out of the car but the kid had told her to stay put and her growing confidence in him and his abilities had overcome her fear. Now she watched as the five ninja sank into combat stances and advanced on the kid. The kid stood straight and waited as they came to him. He took out another boomerang and stood ready.

The first two ninjas came fast at the kid; the kid kicked one of them in the throat. As he went down coughing, the kid caught the second ninja's sword between his boomerangs and used the grip to pull him off balance. He then threw him over his hip. The ninja hit and knocked one of the other ninjas over. The kid ran to the two fallen ninjas and delivered a low leg-sweep that caught them both in the face, knocking them out. This only took a few seconds, the kid then rose to face the last two ninjas.

As they came for him the kid dodged to the side and whacked one of the ninjas across the face with a boomerang, he crumpled to the ground immediately. As he went down the kid threw one of his boomerangs at the last ninja. It struck him on the side of the head. He too was unconscious before he hit the ground.

As Chloe got out of the car she watched as the kid checked that each of the attackers was alive. Then he ran to the car and returned to the attackers with handcuffs and cuffed their arms and legs together. He then came over to Chloe.

"How is Clark?" the kid asked

"He still asleep but otherwise OK" said Chloe, who had just checked Clark before getting out of the car.

"Good! Let's get him down to the caves as soon as possible."

Clarks was very heavy but they managed to get him out of the car and down to the caves using one of the kid's rope guns. Chloe was again impressed by the kid strength because although she helped she knew that he was doing most of the work. Once they were in the cave Chloe heard the sound of a plane landing.

"That will be Alfred with the EMP generator" said the kid.

The kid then left Chloe with Clark after making sure she had some Kryptonite and some tranquilliser. He returned about a minute later with what Chloe guessed must be an EMP generator. The kid confirmed this as he switched it on.

"This will take a few minutes," said the kid

As he said this Alfred came down the rope. He walked over to Chloe with a reassuring look on his face,

"Your father is going to be fine Miss Sullivan"

Chloe was about to thank him when the generator started to work. As it did so Alfred returned to the rope and started to climb back up. He nodded to Chloe then turned to the kid.

"If that is all you require 'John' I shall return home" he said.

"Yes," said the kid "Thank you"

Alfred continued to climb, he than disappeared out of the caves. Shortly afterwards Chloe heard the plane lift off and leave. Just as the sound of the plane faded the EMP went off. There was no evidence of this except that the paintings on the cave walls glowed. As this happened a projected hologram, of a man wearing the same stylised S that Clark was wearing, appeared changed to another man wearing a black overall, then the hologram vanished. As it did the paintings stopped glowing.

The kid quickly switched off the generator.

"Now we wait for Jor-El's AI to come back on line" he said to Chloe.

They waited for about five minutes then the cave paintings started to glow again. As they did so the hologram reappeared. It was the same man as the original hologram had been but his posture and expressions were very different, He appeared much kinder.

"Greetings my son" said the hologram "I am Jor-El. I am you're.. " he stopped when he saw Chloe and Bruce instead of his son. Then he noticed Clark.

Chloe was scared as the hologram turned to face the kid. She though this might turn nasty if the AI thought that she and the kid had hurt Clark.

"He's OK Jor-El," the kid said "check your memory of what has happened"

The hologram's face went blank for a few moments as if he were thinking deeply about something. Chloe realised that he was. Suddenly a look of concern came over Jor-El face

"Zod" he said angrily, He than looked from the kid to Chloe and back again a smile crossing his face as he did so "I was right about you people" he continued "you saved my son from Zod. Bring him over here. I will restore him back to the Kal-El" he paused "the Clark that you know."

TBC.