He finished his workout and went back upstairs. He found that again, Alfred had laid out another suit. Man I could get used to this.
At the office Bruce had several new research projects for Clark to start on; Maya had left the folders on his desk. They were far less interesting than GothChem. Clark did his best to work on them but his thoughts kept drifting back to the previous nights events.
Why was there a hit on the Maroni's last night? Why had the time and place leaked to the police? He took a long drink of his coffee.
Maybe so that they could have Batman watching there while they do something else.
Clark logged into the Batcomputer and hacked into GothChem's bank account. There had been a lot of transactions during the day but only one really stood out. It was the second to last for the day, a payment of fifty thousand dollars to J.J.'s Trucking Co. That sounds a little high for a delivery payment. Clark hacked into the trucking company's database. He found that once a month they sent a truck to GothChem from their branch location in Miami. What would GothChem be receiving from Miami?
Knowing that Bruce was in meetings most of the day. He quickly typed out an email with what he found to Bruce and sent it through the Batcomputer. And tried his best to return to his other work while he waited for Bruce to respond.
Bruce didn't get back to him until later when they were driving home.
"Nice job with the detective work. I was asking myself the same questions last night and I think that tonight we'll take a peak inside GothChem." Bruce told him.
They made their way down to the cave and began to change into their clothing for the night. Alfred came down as Clark was picking up his ski mask.
"Master Kent, I took the liberty of creating a belt for you and I have put a few of Batman's tools in it." Alfred said handing him a yellow belt similar to the one Batman wore except it was thinner and the pockets were smaller and built inside the belt. There was a pouch for smoke balls, sleeping gas balls, some long zip ties, and there were spaces in the back to clip in two grappling guns.
Clark buckled the belt over his black pants and tried the pouches. He found that if he pressed the pouch from the top with his thump the item would drop into his palm.
"Thanks Alfred, this is great." Clark said as replacing the items he had taken from the belt. He also took three of the grappling guns from the wall, hooking two of them on the belt, and walked out of the vault towards the practice area of the cave. He began to shoot the third grapple at the ceiling of the cave. It took him several tries before he managed to hit where he was aiming. After tugging lightly on the line, he was satisfied that it was anchored and he hit the button to reel him up. After allowing Clark to experiment with the grapple, Batman motioned for Clark to follow him to the Batmobile. Alfred met them next to the car and handed Clark one of Bruce's capes.
Bruce smiled as he said, "Capes are very cool."
Batman parked the Batmobile in an alley behind GothChem, the duo shot their grapples and swung up to the roof. Clark followed him into one of the roof access doors. He was amazed at how quickly Batman picked the lock and disabled the alarm. They crept downstairs until they could hear voices coming from the small office area in the corner of the plant. Batman nodded for Clark to tell him what he saw.
"There are nine men, it looks like two of them are packing records and five of them are taking the boxes out to a truck."
Batman thought for a moment. "They are going to torch the place. Your thoughts on how the Roman must think the place is too hot to keep is proving to be correct." Batman motioned for Clark to follow him
They snuck into the office and Batman peaked around the corner to where the men were working.
"No time to be subtle, they are almost done."
He palmed a few smoke balls and threw them into the middle where the men were working.
Clark followed his lead throwing a few of his own smoke balls towards the door to help block the escape. The men drew their guns and fired, rushing Batman and Clark. Batman was caught off guard and Clark dove to push him out of the way.
"Boss I see two Bats! Lets get out of here!" On of the thugs yelled as they continued to fire in the duo's direction. The thugs disappeared into the plant trying to make their escape.
Batman and Clark quickly ran after the escaping gangsters. Clark caught the first one, taking him to the ground. Clark took out his zip ties and quickly tied the man's hands and feet. Seeing that Clark could handle clearing the ground floor, Batman shot his grapple to follow the two men that had gone upstairs.
Batman found the first man hiding behind some machinery, the man didn't even try to shoot Batman. He just screamed as the Dark Knight approached him and he left a yellow puddle on the ground as Batman grabbed the man and zip tied his hands. He dragged the thug towards the railing and then tied the man's feet to a post of the railing.
He then began to track down the last thug. He found him in a control room high above the ground. The thug opened fire on him, Batman threw a Batarang at the thug. The Batarang embedded itself in the gun instantly rendering the gun useless. The man ran out a side door of the room and onto a long walkway overlooking huge vats of chemicals. Batman threw a bola at the man's feet and the bola wrapped around his feet and the man fell on his face.
Batman picked the man up off his face and spun the man around to face him. The man pulled a knife and plunged it deep into Batman's right shoulder. Batman in shock from the man knifing him, let go of the gangster who fell backwards into the railing of the walkway. The railing broke and the man fell headfirst into one of the vats below.
Clark saw the whole thing in slow motion below. He was finishing with the last thug down below when he heard the man scream as he fell to his death. Clark super-speeded to the vat and climbed up the ladder on the side of the vat, he used his X-Ray vision to locate the man but he simply wasn't there. Clark noticed the label on the side of the vat that it was some sort of Acid. There is no way the acid ate the gangster that fast. Batman was walking towards him as he climbed down from the vat; his right arm was covered in blood, his left hand applying pressure to the wound.
"Clark there was nothing you could have done; you had your hands full. You could not have saved him; I could not have saved him." Batman said sadly, trying to reassure himself as much as Clark. Clark took his cape off and tied it around Batman's arm. He and Batman made their way back to the Batmobile. Batman told Clark to get in the driver's seat as he got in the other side. He then called Gordon.
"Jim"
"Hello"
"There is a truck over at GothChem that you need to pick up and there are nine…no eight men that need to be picked up. One fell in a vat of acid; we can't find any trace of him."
"We are on our way."
They waited until the cops began to arrive and then Batman told Clark how to start the car and walked him through how to drive it. Clark couldn't help his huge smile as he slowly guided it out of the alley and they made their way back on to the street. The car handled like a dream to even the slightest touch from Clark. Batman called Alfred and told him to be ready with the medical equipment.
Clark got on the freeway that would take them out of the city.
"Clark we are being followed."
Clark looked at the monitor showing a view behind the car and he saw 3 men start to fire on the Batmobile.
"Let's lead them away from innocent people." Batman using his good hand plotted Clark a course using the GPS system. Clark pushed the throttle and swerved to get off the freeway. The car behind them swerved to follow, almost hitting a minivan.
Clark kept them out of range of the guns but did not loose the following car. They zipped out in and out of traffic, doing their best to stear the chase away from pedestrians. As they approached the outskirts of the city and Batman told him to stop the car. Clark flipped the steering wheel and drove the car into an expert 180 degree slide. Clark jumped out and super-speeded towards the oncoming car. He grabbed the frame of the oncoming car, stopping it cold and he gave it a few light shakes. Looking through the windshield he could see that the men were out cold. He proceeded to tie up the men as Batman put in another call to the commissioner.
The police arrived a little later as the Batmobile sped away. The commissioner walked over to the vehicle as it was being put on to a tow truck. It looked like the car had gone through the wash. The whole frame was bent like it was cardboard. He scratched his head, not knowing quite what to think of it.
Hope you guys liked the chapter, I had a great time writing it. I thought since I will never get to drive the Batmobile, Clark should get a chance. :)