Christiana AndersonAcutally that is how you spell Ra's name: Ra's Al Ghul. I had to look it up myself cause I knew I would get nailed if I got it wrong.
markmark261: Well I tried can't seem to catch all the spelling mistakes, you are the master! Keep 'em coming and when I'm done with the story and fix them all at once.
Scary-Girly: I wrote this from Clark's perspective, so you only get to see what he sees. I think my next story will do a revolving pov, you might enjoy that more. I'm the type of person that does one thing at a time, so you'll have to wait until this story is done before I start on the next one.
Thanks all for reading and reviewing.
Chapter 7 - Rescue
Clark sped through the sky like a wraith; the new moon shedding no light on him. As he neared the Sahara desert he began to drop his altitude rapidly until he was almost skimming the sand dunes. Only slowing down to a halt when he was a several hundred yards from the fortress.
With his vision he was able to see the guards patrolling the top of the wall and he began to time their patrols. Once sure of himself he raced towards the wall, flying as low to the ground as possible. He landed next to the base and used his X-Ray vision to check the patrols above. Seeing that they were right where they should be he leapt over the wall and quietly lowered himself into the shadows on the other side.
On seeing a lone guard reporting for duty he quietly snuck up behind him and knocked the man unconscious and took his keycard.
Again waiting for the timing of the guards above him on the wall, he broke for the door and made it inside without raising an alarm. He felt a little unsure of himself as the door closed behind him.
He tried to click on his GPS receiver to record his movements but the mountain blocked all communication it seemed. Going to do this the hard way. Clark thought to himself.
He started to walk down one of the corridors, speeding through the field of vision of the cameras. If it wasn't for his x-ray vision he knew he would have gotten totally turned around, using it allowed him to get an idea of where he was. And then it hit him, no wonder I never found him, he was under this mountain and it's lined with led and concrete.
After about twenty minutes of searching he stumbled across three guards on patrol, as they passed his hidden position he quickly disarmed them, tied them up and hid them in the darkness.
He grabbed the youngest guard and dragged him up to face level, "If you value your life, you will tell me quietly where the prisoners are kept."
The man nodded his head and Superman removed the gag, "Those stairs…take those stairs down two levels, take your first right."
Superman re-gagged the man and made his way down two levels, this is too easy…this could be a trap. Deciding that there was nothing he could do about it but continue Clark walked down the hallway. He began to x-ray the doors as he passed them, the first several doors were all barracks for the guards, probably the ones assigned to guard these prisoners. And then he came to a heavily bared door, he didn't even have to use his vision to know who was inside. As quietly as he could he broke the locks and removed the huge bar that went across the door and swung the huge door silently open.
He almost lost the contents of his stomach with what he saw inside. It was most certainly Bruce; he still wore his cowl or what was left of it. One of the ears was torn off and the back of the cowl looked like it had been rubbed clean off, maybe he was dragged around. The part of his face that was uncovered was black and blue. No bones were broken, someone knew what they were doing. His bare chest was red and burnt from fire burns and probably electrical shock. He probably weighed all of one hundred twenty pounds.
"Bruce?" Clark said with a shaky voice.
The man looked up at him, "Clark?"
Clark slowly undid the restraints and carefully gathered the broken man into his arms. "My God, what did they do to you?"
Bruce waved his hand wearily, "Later…we have to stop Ra's."
Clark, put his feelings to the side checked the hallway; "Ok we are clear. Which way?"
Bruce pointed back towards the stairway, "All the way down."
Clark supported Bruce and they slowly made their way down the flights of stairs. They could have gone faster if Bruce would have let Clark carry him. But he knew that wasn't an option for Bruce, he would never show weakness. On reaching the bottom, the stairs opened into a huge cavern. Clark could see Ra's talking to several men, probably making last minute arrangements for whatever he had planned. The room was loaded with guards and equipment; this was not going to be easy.
Bruce caught sight of Lois and motioned for Clark to circle around to rescue her, he would provide the distraction.
He gathered his remaining strength and pulled himself upright.
"Ra's." Bruce spoke with a commanding voice as he marched straight into the middle of the room.
All the guards took aim at Bruce, Ra's looked up from the plans he was going over with his men. "Ah, Detective, you have been released from your cell."
He waved his hand to signal his men to lower their weapons, "I can only assume that your protégé has arrived now. You have trained him well, I was even expecting him and he made it though my defenses without my knowledge." Ra's looked around to where Lois had been tied up. "And he is very quick."
Clark appeared at Bruce's side, "Ra's whatever madness you have planned must stop now."
"It is too late Icon. By now my plans are underway and can not be stopped. Around the world I have planted a toxic nerve gas that will kill instantly every human that inhales it. In exactly eight minutes and twenty seconds all of those bombs will go off and cleanse all of the world's countries of their capital cities." Ra's said with a deadly smile. "I led you here so you would be safe from the toxin, as I need you to help me rebuild the world."
Clark hit a few buttons on his belt computer.
8 min 10 sec. The LCD display read.
Bruce was filled with outrage, his eyes burned with it, his back straightened as the adrenaline flowed through his veins. he spoke quietly to Clark. "Lois is safe?"
"Yes."
"Even the playing field here, bar the door and then dispose of the bombs."
"Done."
Clark removed all the guns from the room and threw them in a pile and melted them; he found a long rope and tied all the guards together, hanging them from a support beam. He turned back to where Ra's was standing and he was surprised to see Ra's right behind him. He was even more surprised to feel the Kryptonite sap his strength away as he hit the ground. How could I have forgotten the Kryptonite? He thought as the pain ate through his body.
"You Bastard!" Lois cried before Bruce could react, she had ran from her hiding place and hit Ra's hand with a lead pipe. Ra's was surprised as the rock flew from his hand but quickly recovered and blocked her second attack. And he quickly disarmed her and throwing her into a pile of crates knocking her out.
Clark quickly began to recover as the rock was no longer close and got shakily to his feet.
"Finish the job. Ra's is mine." Bruce said.
6 min 2 sec
Clark hesitated for a sec and looked at Lois. Focus! She'll be ok; millions will die if you don't go now. He forced himself to leap into the air and plowed straight through the mountain side leaving a gaping hole behind him. He quickly ramped up to his fastest speed, leaving a sonic boom in his wake and began to look for the bombs. He had seen an extra one in the cave so he had a good idea of what he was looking for. He started at the closet capital and began to work his way around the world, thanking his geography teacher for covering this material so thoroughly.
5 min 33 sec
His countdown clock on his belt beeped as the time ticked down. He quickly fell into a rhythm and began to increase his speed. He was now flying faster than ever; he could feel the heat from the friction of the air as he flew. Everything became a blur as he raced to reach all 193 bombs, the countdown timer on his belt which he had set to beep every five seconds now took what felt like an eternity to beep.
It took him two minutes to clean out Africa, Europe and half of Asia. At three minutes he was heading towards South America after destroying the bombs in Eastern Asia and Australia. At four minutes, forty seconds he was disposing of the last bomb in Canada and turned to head back towards Ra's hideout.
At five minutes he landed next to the remains of the mountain. His eyes were wide with shock seeing the total destruction of the base. The mountain looked like it had been squeezed out like a sponge.
"Lois! Bruce?" Clark called out.
Silence answered his call; he turned on his x-ray vision and began to franticly search the area. Several long seconds later he spotted them, it looked like they had been blown free of the mountain, and from what he could tell Lois had a broken arm but otherwise they were ok.
"Lois?" He said shaking her good arm.
"Clark?" She said hoarsely.
"Are you ok? Your arm is broke but…" He fussed over her.
"Settle down, I'll be ok. How's Bruce?" Lois said as she cradled her broken arm.
Bruce began to stir, "I'll survive. Home." The adrenaline gone, he was completely exhausted.
"Ra's?" Clark asked.
"Not sure, he didn't make it out the same way we did after he triggered the self destruct timer." Lois offered.
Clark carefully picked up them up and very slowly he flew them back to Rome, shielding them from the wind as much as he could. They were quiet for most of the trip, digesting all that had happened. When they landed at the hotel in Rome, Alfred was waiting with food, hot baths and a smile.
"Welcome home Master Bruce. Ms. Lane." He said with almost a giddy note in his voice, "I'm glad to see you safe."
Alfred helped Bruce into one of the Bathrooms and helped him into the warm tub and saw to his wounds. Clark took Lois into another room and checked her arm out, the fracture was not severe and the bone would heal nicely. Clark grabbed one of the medical boxes and gave her some pain medication before he started on her cast.
"Thanks Clark." Lois said, her voice full of emotion.
Clark looked up, "For what?"
"For coming for me, I've been in a lot of bad situations before. But I wasn't as scared this time because I knew you would come and it would be alright." She said softly.
Clark smiled, "Well you know, someone has to keep Lois Lane safe, we in the superhero world drew straws and I got stuck with the duty."
"SMALLVILLE! I pour out my feelings to you, which everyone knows is not an easy thing for me to do. We all know that I don't wear my emotions on my sleeve. I thank you for saving me, and this is what I get! I…."
Clark cut her off by kissing her, carefully watching out for her arm. Her anger dissipated quickly as she deepened the kiss.
"Don't think that a kiss will get you out of trouble every time." She said breathlessly when they broke the kiss.
"You're welcome…" Clark said as he stood. "Get some sleep; it's been a rough couple of days."