The Batwing glided over the city as they headed towards the restaurant. Batman slowed the plane as they neared their destination and hovered next to a building across from the restaurant. He and Clark got out and found a place where they could watch the building below, the Batwing settled on a rooftop a few blocks away. Clark switched on his x-ray vision and saw the skeletons of several men in the building below.
"I count 8 men in the building Batman."
Batman was visibly shocked. In the plane they had covered where he had come from and the stories about Jor-El but they didn't get a chance to talk about his powers.
Clark quietly explained, "X-Ray vision is what we call it at home. I can see through walls, I get a X-Ray type of picture."
Before Batman could question Clark further. They both saw a black limo racing down the street.
"Stay here. Watch my back." Batman said as he leapt from the building.
Batman's cape opened and he used it like a parachute, landing on the front of the limo. He allowed his cape to cover the windshield, causing the car to swerve wildly. One of the passengers in the back fired off a few shots but with the car's wild movement he was unable to hit Batman. The diver unable to shake Batman and the fact that he couldn't see, slammed on his breaks and the car came to a screeching halt. Batman tumbled off the front of the car, landing on his feet. The passengers piled out and started firing at Batman. Batman ducked and threw a Batarang and a couple of smoke bombs. As the area started to fill with smoke the gangsters in the restaurant hearing the gunfire began to shoot at Batman and the limo.
Clark had seen enough and could no longer wait. He jumped off the building, landing in the smoke. He ran into the restaurant and began to disarm the gangsters. He grabbed one of the guns, squeezing the gun into scrap metal as he threw the gun's owner against the wall instantly knocking him unconscious. Another man cam after him with a knife; Clark dodged like Bruce had taught him and took the man's feet out from under him. A third started throwing punches at Clark. Clark grinned and gave him a light right hook sending the man flying into the back of the room.. By this time Batman had already subdued the criminals in the limo and joined Clark in finishing off the fight. Once Batman was satisfied that the men were down he handed Clark several long zip-ties and they tied up the two gangs.
The police started to arrive on the scene, Batman having decided that there was nothing more to be gained by staying, pressed a button on his belt and the Batwing swung low and stopped in a hover next to them. They both climbed in and took to the sky.
"Good job." Batman told Clark as he keyed a switch. "Alfred we're on our way."
"Very good sir, dinner will be waiting on your arrival."
They flew low over the ocean near the estate and Clark saw the rock wall split open about 100 feet above the water. Batman skillfully guided them inside the cave, coming to a rest on the landing pad. Ok, I'm going to have to learn to fly this thing, man it looks like fun.
Clark thought. The duo hopped out and walked over to the waiting meal. Clark began to tell Alfred about their night's adventure.
"It is fortunate, young sir, that you are bullet proof, as your clothes are not." Clark looked down at his shirt; there were several bullet holes in it. He looked up at Alfred with a sheepish look.
"It's ok young sir, I'm actually very surprised with how well Master Bruce kept his costume together tonight. Why do you think he has more than one?" Clark laughed as Bruce smirked a little.
Bruce finished his meal and finally spoke, "Lets see what you can do Clark."
They walked down the stairs to where the Batboat was tied and walked along the waterway towards the water exit of the Batcave. They came to an area that looked like a junkyard.
"This is where I keep the old equipment and stuff that is not totally destroyed during my fights. I can't just throw it away, so it ends up here." There was an old Batmobile that looked like it would never run again. Several old Computer main frames were sitting towards the back. There was some equipment that looked like they were prototypes that had gone bad. "This is what I want you to do, start stacking and compressing this junk until you get to a weight that is no longer very easy for you to lift."
Clark grinned and took the old Batmobile over to a corner and set it down, he picked up a few more items and stacked them on top. He continued this process until his stack was fairly tall. He then began to squeeze and compact the items. He picked them up but they were still not hard to move. He picked up several more items and compressed them together, this time he used his heat vision to heat up and slightly melt the metal as he squeezed it. He finally compressed it into a long brick like object. He picked it up, grunting a little. Bruce quickly guessed that it was probably nearing 80 tons of junk.
"Good, now you have a weight to work out with. Before work and after work I want you to come down here and start lifting this weight. As it gets easier, add more junk to it until it becomes as difficult as it is now."
"So you have some sort of heat vision too huh?" Bruce asked.
"Yeah, funny story about that too..." Clark told him the story of when he set the school and barn on fire.
"…But I've learned how to control it."
Bruce smiled at the story and walked over to a tall metal box.
"Let's see how well you control your heat vision. Cut the top off this box."
Clark focused his eyes on the box and his eyes turned red as he sliced off the top of the box.
"Now, try burning the paint off the whole box without melting the box."
Clark focused his eyes again, this time not concentrating so hard and focusing on the whole box. At first he started to melt the box but he quickly adjusted and he slowly burned the paint off the box leaving the lower half un-melted.
"Good." Bruce said pulling a device from his utility belt. "This is an industrial thermometer. Try using your vision to keep the display showing a constant temperature. It will take some abuse but be careful like you did with the paint."
Clark once again focused and watched as the LCD showed the temperature rise. He brought the temp up to one-hundred degrees and then kept it constant. The concentration was starting to wear on him, as beads of sweat started to form on his head. But he kept the display reading one-hundred for a full five minutes.
"You can use this exercise to build your heat vision stamina." Bruce smirked, "Now for the fun part, melt the box down to slag." Clark grinned, every guy liked to destroy stuff. He mentally turned his heat vision to 'High' and the box quickly melted like ice on a hot stove. Alfred joined them in time to see the box melt.
"My Word! Uh…Master Bruce, the police have the gangsters downtown and have questioned them, unfortunately no one is talking."
" Clark, I'm going to go talk to Gordon and ask the men a few questions." Alfred nodded at Bruce, "While I'm gone, Alfred wants to talk to you."
Bruce put his mask back in place and headed for the Batmobile. Clark followed Alfred up the stairs and into the costume vault.
"If you are going to be working with Master Bruce, you are going to need to create an identity for yourself. Bruce chose the darkness, Batman was designed to scare the criminals he was dealing with. To make them hesitate for a minute and give Bruce an edge over them." Alfred began to put away a few loose items.
"You on the other hand might want to choose power; you have raw power that no normal human has, or has ever seen. You want criminals to hesitate when they see you because of that power; because they have no chance against you. Having a dual identity is not an easy thing, but it does give you time to just be yourself and not the hero. It will give you a semi-normal life."
Clark looked through the costumes that Bruce had created. A semi-normal life, that's what he has wanted for the past few years sense his powers had started to develop.
Alfred handed him a notebook.
"While you are waiting for Master Bruce to get back, I would suggest that you start thinking of names for yourself and costume ideas." Clark took the paper and smiled.
He walked over to one of the chairs by the Batcomputer and sat down. What to call myself...
He began to just write down whatever names came to his head. Wonder guy, nope. Speed Boy, no way, they would think I'm on drugs or something. Mr. Incredible, nah... Masked Avenger, no that sounds corny. Corn...Corn... Corn Man, yeah from Kansas Clark laughed; this was going to be harder than he thought.