AN: Sorry it's been so long since my last update. School has been taking its toll on me and my health, but thank god it's almost over! Two and a half weeks left!
This chapter is fairly fast paced, and I'm not entirely happy with the way it turned out ie: the story development is too swift. All this will be fixed when I finally upload each chapter to LJ.
I'd just like to thank everyone for the lovely reviews. I know I was a little bit ungrateful, but I really do appreciate every comment. And a special thank you to everyone who agreed with my portrayal of Clark on redK, you have no idea how much I needed that. Thank you all so much!
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Clark knows about living comfortably, and he knows that he's not really happy that way. Sure, he wants things, material things, but he doesn't want to sit around the apartment all day looking at his stuff. He wants excitement and action and danger. All at the same time if possible. And he wants Smiley to want those things too, because it's more fun when you have someone to share the thrill with.
Clark tries to content himself with the strangely domestic life he seems to have helped to create here in Gotham. He revels in the oddity of it all, pretending for a short while that he is normal.
Or as normal as a murderous alien from outer space can really be.
He spends at least two days with Smiley just fucking and eating and being generally lazy, and he loves it. But by the beginning of the third day it all begins to wear thin. He craves the adrenaline rush of doing the wrong thing all the time, and by the end of the fourth day he has made up his mind.
Smiley doesn't ask where the black clothes and balaclavas came from, and she doesn't ask where they're going when he hustles her out the back way to the car. It's only when they reach their destination that she looks at him beseechingly.
"When we get inside, an alarm might go off. I need you to hold this." He hands her a gleaming black gun. She takes it with a shaking hand and her pulls her balaclava up to kiss her. Her whole body is shaking. "It's going to be fine." He tells her. "It's going to be great."
They're parked in an alley beside the bank. He knows he can't make the same huge scenes he did in Metropolis and he can't really do anything an ordinary man wouldn't be able to. He's learning to be more cautious with his powers. He has to be if he wants to stay undetected. He doesn't know who, if anyone, is looking for him, but he suspects at least Martha and Jonathan, if the confrontation in Metropolis showed any indication.
The thought doesn't warm his heart. He knows how close the weaker Clark came to winning that night and he's vowed not to let it come that close ever again.
A missed step brings him back to the present. He looks down and makes sure he doesn't trip again, and follows stealthily behind Smiley. They reach the corner and Clark stops them before rounding it. He peers through the brick and sees one security camera set up above the door. "Wait." He takes her wrist and pulls out ahead of her. He sticks his hand into the back of his pants and pulls out another black gun, this one with a long tube attached to the end. He puts his arm around the corner and, with his x-ray vision, aims and fires.
The silencer works like a charm, and the camera is in smithereens on the ground. Their steps crackle with broken glass and plastic as they approach the rear door. Clark shoots the locked knob off and they step inside. There is no one there to confront them, so they're safe for a moment. Smiley stays silent and Clark leads them through a series of rooms and hallways until they reach the correct hall. She doesn't question his ability to know exactly where they're going, and he doesn't tell her about x-ray vision.
As they round a corner they are confronted two armed guards who immediately spring to action, calling; "Hey! Stop! Who are you?"
When Clark doesn't answer they cock their pistols, seeing the guns in both Clark's and Smiley's hands. Clark pushes his small sidekick behind him, holding tightly onto her arm. As they continue to advance, the guards continue to shout warnings until it's clear they aren't being heeded. They open fire.
Below the loud spatter of security gunfire, the cries of the guards, and the short, sharp bursts of his own gun, he hears a stuttered half-moan. He loosens his hold on Smiley's arm and makes two kill shots in rapid succession. The two men slump to the floor, but he ignores them, instead turning to look at Smiley.
She's uninjured as far as his cursory glance tells him, but she stares up at him with huge, black, round cow eyes. "Stay here." He tells her, and takes the short walk down the hall, stepping over the men on the floor and walking up to the safe. He doesn't look back at Smiley when he peels back the thick steel of the vault door and steps inside.
Everything after that moment happens very quickly. He's stuffing the contents of many a safety deposit box into his large black duffel bag, when he hears two shots from the hall. He doesn't pause, however, knowing that either someone will be coming in to ineffectually try to shoot him, or Smiley has just taken someone down. After a few moments of pretending not to care, his entire body relaxes, and he finishes up with his loading.
When Clark steps into the hall he is confronted with a very odd sight.
Smiley is standing in the middle of the hall, another guard lying on his back just in front of her, obviously either dead or seriously wounded. Her hands are still gripping the gun tightly in front of her, pointed at some shadow at the end of the hallway. The lights closest to him are still burning bright, but from Smiley to the end of the long hallway the lights have been extinguished.
"Smiley-" Clark begins, stepping forward. At the same time another man steps forward. He's dressed all in shiny black, wearing a cape and a mask adorned with what can only be described as bat-like ears protruding from the top.
"Put the gun down." He orders in a strong, commanding voice.
"Who the hell are you?" Clark asks him, anger and a faint fear stirring inside him.
"Batman." Smiley says with a tremulous voice. She looks remarkably absurd standing there. She's so petite that there is nothing intimidating about her; not even the gun in her shaking hand.
The Batman takes a step forward. "Stop right there." She says, but he ignores her command and continues to move slowly toward her, murmuring things Clark can't hear without his super-hearing.
"Don't listen to a word he says." Clark says, getting the gist of the strange man's purpose. "He's going to try to take us to prison." He scoffs at that.
The man in black keeps advancing on Smiley. "Stay back." She says more forcefully, continuing her warnings with a more panicked note in her voice. "Stay back, I said!" Clark can tell she's working herself into a panic, and he waits to see what she'll do. If she'll give in to the Batman's persistence or retaliate.
He's given his answer as Smiley screams: "I told you to get back!" Her hands are shaking so hard Clark can't tell if the gunfire is on purpose or if it's accidental, but he likes to think it was deliberate. Batman grunts as he falls back, and Clark takes the opportunity to grab his girl and run. They get outside in a shock of air and run-normal speed- to the car.
The strange man isn't chasing them. He hopes Smiley was dazed enough to not have noticed the super speed he used to get by the Batman, and also hopes her shots were enough to put him out of whatever deranged misery he must have been in to dress up like a bat and confront a couple of bank robbers.