Burn

3: 26 AM

"Are you saying that the man was made out of metal?" Lucius asks.

Bruce, dressed in a white vest held an icepack to his knuckles "I don't know what he was. All I know is that I couldn't even hurt him. And yes, he sure as hell felt like he was made of some kind of metal. My thermography scanner barely picked up any signs of heat from him, except for his chest. If he is made of metal as I think, that heat must have been coming from his power source. Which means I now know how to beat him" Bruce's knuckles were bright red and looked to be misshaped like they were slightly broken.

"My thoughts exactly, Mr Wayne. If he requires the used of a power generator, then I for one believe that he must have some sort of machinery inside of him, far more than I have ever encountered before, but given enough time, I could, in theory, make a kind of EMP blast to disrupt the flow of energy and thus rendering this John Corben out of commission long enough for you to properly restrain him from any further action" Lucius tells Bruce.

"Cyborgs? Huh, and here I was thinking that Gotham was weird" Bruce sets the icepack down to the table next to Lucius "Lex knows that someone is trying to hack into his systems. Since he knows that Bruce Wayne is in the city at the same time as his first encounter with The Batman...I won't be too shocked if he manages to piece together that Bruce Wayne and Batman are the same people. Here I was just trying to stop some run-of-the-mill illegal dealings, only to get my hand crushed and to be almost strangulated to death by a cyborg. What scares me the most is how normal that sounds when it comes to my life"

"Indeed...indeed, Mr Wayne. What do you suggest we do now? If Lex is onto us...any further breach of his network could send him our location" Lucius warns Bruce who gave a roll of eyes. Bruce looks across the table where his Batsuit was scattered.

"You're right, it's too risky. I say we change course. Start working on that EMP device...I am going to pay Luthor another visit...see if I can get him to tell me what the signal is meant for" Bruce steps over to the pieces of the Batsuit, the gloves, the boots, all of it was in a pile placed on the table "Bruce already had his chance to get Lex to talk, it is time for a more...direct approach. Let me know when work on the device is complete" Bruce taps his earpiece.

"Alfred. Tell me everything about John Corben, any possible motives he might have working for Lex Luthor, where he lives, his work. There must be something that I can use to track him down"

"Let's see...hold on a moment, sir. Ah yes...as previously said, John Corben has pronounced dead almost a year ago, there was no body ever found. Oh...he spent most of his career as a field reporter. He returned to Metropolis around two years ago and lived with his sister"

"I see. Give me her address...she may be able to give me some useful information"

"About that, Master Bruce. She was killed not too long after her brother returned home. She was killed in a botched robbery...from these reports, her killer was: Frank Delanco, he was serving time but during his prison transfer...the bus crashed and the prisoners were saved by Superman, though Frank Delanco managed to escape when Superman was tending to the other prisoners"

"That's it. He blames Superman for her death, that's why he chose to work for Lex. Lex said something about standing up to the gods of the world. Lex must have seen the distress that Corben was in and used it to manipulate him into working for him, though that still does not explain why he is part machine. I need to look into this more...I need more information before I can plan out my next move" Bruce tells Alfred as he looks down to his cowl.

"Tragedy can drive a person to make drastic decisions"

"Even with his grief...he still made the choice to work for Lex. He is responsible for his actions and he will pay for his crimes"

"And where are going now, Master Bruce? What should we do now?"

"I'm heading for LeX corp to pay Lex a visit. Since Corben is publicly known as being deceased...Lex wouldn't take the chance of having him in the building which means Lex will have no means to stop me, he may have a few guards, but when has that ever stopped me? I'll make him talk, I'll show him that it's not gods that he should be afraid of...I will make him fear me...a fellow man. In the meantime use the face recognition software to track down Corben and keep me posted on his location" Bruce tells Alfred.

"Of course, sir. Oh..."

"Alfred?"

"I got something from the Bank of the south district, on Siegel Street"

"I'll look into it, but Lex is the main priority"

"Understandable, Master Bruce. But...this one may warrant your full attention" Alfred counters.

"What?"

"It seems that you and Lucius aren't the only Gothamites currently in Metropolis. Miss Kyle is the perpetrator...or should I say...The Catwoman. It seems you were right to add her to the facial recognition software that you had Lucius build"

"Catwoman...in Metropolis? And she is hitting a Bank? That doesn't match her MO, unless she is working for someone, that would mean that she could be in more trouble than she realizes" Batman walks over to one of the monitors and types on the keyboard "Whoever hired Catwoman went a long way to do so, she is the only person that could break into the building completely undetected, so whoever has hired her didn't do so to have her steal the money, she must be after something smaller, small enough to let her make an escape without risk of being noticed.."

"Sir?"

"From these records...the Bank has an assortment of safety deposit boxes that are used by the wealthy of the city. They need specialized keys to open, with only two copies, one for the user of the box and one for the bank itself...the lock can't be lockpicked, as the keyhole is made to only fit the keys. If the wrong key is entered; the alarm would trip...so whoever hired her wouldn't take that risk...unless the person who hired her owned the Bank or had a heavy influence inside it..." Batman's eyes focus on the screen in front of him as a number of files pop-up "Investor data shows that Lex Luthor has a controlling interest in the bank, roughly 23%, but nearly all the others with shares work for him; he basically owns the bank and would have the most influence, plus he would have the means to know what is inside those safe deposit boxes..."

"So that begs the question...just what is miss Kyle trying to steal?"

"I'll be sure to ask her in person...I'm heading to the South District first...then I am dealing with Lex"

Suiting up, Bruce clips his utility belt in place and pulls his cowl over his head. Tightening his gloves, the fins eject outward. Batman's eyes narrow as he attaches his grapple gun to the side of his belt. His cape falls downward, just a few inches from the floor. The suit was different from the one still in the Batcave, instead of the full-black armour, this one was a dark grey with the cowl, gloves, boots and cape being jet black. It was nowhere as protective as his other, but it could still take a beating "Superman may keep the innocents in hope..." he presses the neckpiece of his cowl "...But Batman is needed to bring the criminals to fear" Batman looks over to Lucius "Keep me up to date, Lucius"

"Before you leave, sir. I believe you would be interested in this. Though I couldn't arrange for the Batmobile to be shipped here...I managed to get the next best thing. The first vehicle that we built...of course at this stage it is still a prototype" Lucius informs Batman.

"You don't mean?"

"Yes sir, The Batcycle is primed for use. It has enough power to easily go over three hundred miles per hours in a simple press, armoured plates to be protected from any fires arms that would be shot at it, and it is built to work with your suit, so you don't have to worry about it being stolen. Even with Metropolis' more lively populous...even they need to sleep at 3 in the morning...you sure that you aren't tired sir? You have been up for almost thirty hours"

"I'm fine, Lucius. Now that I know what I am up against...this will be easy"

[3: 37 PM]

Batman, now riding a black armoured motorcycle drives through the now empty streets of Metropolis. The Batcycle, just like the Batmobile was heavily armoured and almost impossible to be broken. The wheels were covered in their own special kind of armour plating. Their performance would not be affected, but anything that tried to flatten them would be stopped or simply have no effect on them, as well it made its wheels do not leave a single mark on the road, as if they were never there, to begin with. The cycle on its own could go up to speeds of three hundred miles per hour with ease. Batman's cape was going crazy, as it blows in the force created at the speed that he was travelling.

"Hurry along! We don't have much time!" Firefly scorns Catwoman.

Catwoman manoeuvres her way through a room of red lasers that cover the room towards the vault. Sliding under one red beam, she rolls on her back with her nose just barely avoid contact with another one "Cooldown, you can't rush purr-fiction" she smiles as she cartwheels over two of the lasers that were horizontal with the floor "I can't risk being caught, remember?" she adds jumps over another set of beams. Her eyes look at the vault that was not too far away, just a couple of more lasers to get through.
"Just get it done!"

Catwoman slides under another laser while she holds her arms close to her body to not touch the vertical lasers on her sides "What do you think that I'm doing? Just give a few more seconds...it won't kill you" she breaths in as she scoots across two lasers that were close together, she then steps over the last one that blocked her from the Vault. She rakes her claws and reaches for the dial. Holding her ears close to it she gives a light smile "Alright, what was the combination again...oh yeah. Let's see...25 left...seven right...12 right...14 left and 3 to the right" she hears a loud click from the vault door "Alright...time for the next one..." she reaches into her pocket and pulls out a small key and twists in the lock of the door.

"So much security...well not for me...but hey I can see why this bank hasn't had any break-ins for the last twenty-three years. The folks in Gotham ought to learn something from these guys" Catwoman thinks to herself as she spins opens the Vault door and pushes it open as the leads into a much smaller room that was full of safe boxes, rows upon rows that were as high as the ceiling. She saw another door at the end of the room which she guessed would lead to the gold and bags of money, that's what the movies taught her anyway.

She watches her every step to not trip any wires or step through any of those lasers. She was told that the cameras wouldn't be an issue as someone else was supposed to be dealing with them, apparently whoever planned this also has one of the guards on the payroll too. It was nice for her to know that she didn't have to do all the work her, but she was slightly disappointed that she couldn't do it all by herself, she would have found it to be a fun challenge for herself.

From across the rooftops, Batman glanced as he looks to the Bank. His eyes focus on Firefly who was standing guard on the roof of the bank. Batman was grateful that the night was still weighing heavily over the city which helped him blend into the darkness. Kneeling one edge of the roof, he plants one fist on the ground of the roof. Pressing the button on his cowl. His vision was changed to search for heat signatures and with that, he saw Firefly and a figure in the bank who he could tell was Catwoman.

His vision also picks up several other guards on the lower floors with one in what appeared to be the security office who showed no sign that he was worried about Catwoman being caught on the camera "The Guard must be in on this operation. I'll be sure to get him to tell me all about this job" The Dark Knight's eyes narrow "Alfred, I have eyes on the Bank, but you are never going to believe who I am looking at right now. Brigit Pike aka Firefly, she hasn't been seen since she and Freeze were at war in Gotham. She was always believed to have got out of Gotham during reunification, looks like we now know who has been causing all those fires in this city"

"Miss Kyle has a strange interpretation of a ladies night"

"A night that is going to be short-lived. Whatever Catwoman is paid to steal...it has to be bad news...change of plan. I'm going to keep an eye on them and follow them to wherever their base is. That way I can retrieve the item and make sure that Luthor never gets his hands on it. Putting it back into the bank will only be asking for Lex to pull another stunt like this. As well they will lead me right to their base of operations. I need to put a tracker on Firefly...I need to be silent and not draw her attention" Batman looks over to Firefly who had her back turned to him across buildings. He draws his grapple gun and aims it at the building next to the Bank. Launching the line outward, Batman is propelled towards the building.

"Are you almost finished in there?" Firefly speaks through her communicator as she looks through the skylight. Batman creeps up behind her and gently plants a tracker on her shoulder. Firefly quickly turns as she feels the contact. Her eyes look all around the roof, but there was no one there "What was that?" she thinks to herself as she turns back to the skylight.

From inside the Bank. Catwoman makes her way to the last row of the safe deposit boxes. Her green eyes look at as many as they could until she finds the one that she was sent here for "34H, and bingo" she comments as she pulls out another key and turns in the lock; opening the safe. Pulling open the safe door. She was greeted with what looked like a wooden box. Her mind wandered to when she was explicitly told not to open the box, that she was not meant to look at what was inside.

"They really should have known better to ramp up a cat's curiosity" she opens up the box as her eyes were suddenly full of great disappointment "Wait just a moment...I went through all of this for a dumb rock?" Catwoman rolls her eyes as and glances back down to the rock that appeared to be glowing bright red "It is still a pretty rock though...is it some kind of ruby?" she thinks to herself as she closes the box and puts it into her backpack "Oh well,...three million bucks here I come"

Firefly watches Catwoman crawl out of the skyline and onto the roof. Catwoman brushes her claws against her sides as she smirks "Done. Easiest three mill that I have ever earned - well it's the only three mill that I have earned, but you get the point" she tells Firefly who glared back to her. Catwoman's eyes focus on something in the distance across the rooftops. Slightly tilting her head; Batman from a distance was reflected in the lenses of her orange goggles. Batman quickly caught on from across the skyline and runs out of view, his cape follows behind with a whoosh.

"What's wrong now?" Firefly asks annoyed.

"Nothing, it looks like the sun is coming up soon...we better head back. We both get our money and our boss gets his...whatever" Catwoman begins to walk away. Firefly holds out her arms to stop her.
"Not yet, remember we still have one more thing to do" Firefly snarls as she reaches into her own backpack and pulls out a device "We need to burn this place down" she adds as she sets the timer and drops it through the skyline and into the Bank.

"A bomb? You said a fire...not a bomb!" Catwoman hisses.

"It's not a bomb, princess. It's a small methane tank that is designed to heat up, once it does...it will go boom and spread a large fire across the whole building" Firefly grins as she sees the timer had started counting down from under ten seconds.

"That's a bomb! What about the people inside? You can't seriously be willing to kill them...?"

"We both know that I am" Firefly replies as she hurries her away from the building "Speed it up unless you want to burn to a crisp". Catwoman looks back over across the buildings to the silhouette. She gives a firm nod towards the direction as she then follows after Firefly, they both jump across the small gap to the next building across.

Batman's eyes track the movement of the women; knowing that Catwoman must have seen him
The Dark Knight's eyes widen as the Bank was sent up in flames in less than a few seconds as the building was suddenly shaken by the powerful blast "Lucius, is this suit is fire resistant?" he reaches for his grapple gun and shoots it out to the now burning Bank as he is sent towards it.

"Uh...not quite Mr Wayne. It should give some protection, but not enough to last more than a few minutes"

"Good. I only need a few minutes" Batman crashes through one of the windows into the Bank. He lands in the same room that Catwoman was previously in. Fire swept across the room along with that cane large bursts of smoke. Batman pressed his cowl and his vision was changed to thermal vision. He tried to look for the guards, but the flames were messing with his sight, making it impossible to track down the guards "Thermal is useless...I need to work on something else soon"

Batman runs through the blazing flames as he feels his feet and legs start to burn through the suit by the flames. His cape was beginning to be burned by the unwavering flames. He follows the sounds of the screams which were not too far away, more like in the next room across. Batman barges into the room as sees one of the guards. The man was in a fit of coughs as he used his arms to shield himself from the fire. Batman quickly grabs the man by the collar and runs out of the window of the floor with him.

Batman pulls out his grapple gun and fires it across to the next building away. Both he and the Guard were thrown towards the roof of the building. The Dark Knight drops the man on the roof as he stands over him "You're safe. How many of you are still left in the Bank?"

"You're-you're-you're The Batman? Wh-what the hell are you doing here?" the guard asks as he hits at his chest "I thought you were a myth..."

"Focus! How many of you are left?"

"Four...there are four more, three of them should be patrolling the place but there is one in the security room"

"Is there a fire suppression system that can be used?"

"Yeah! But it should have already gone off by now...it must have malfunctioned or something..." the guard looks up to The Dark Knight.

"That or it has been sabotaged. Stay here for now...I'm going back to manually activate the fire suppresser" Batman runs off of the roof and glides back into the Bank that was covered in flames. The smoke has become denser and was almost impossible to see through. Batman coughs heavily "Lucius, the Bank is in flames...the fire suppression system has been tampered with...and there of multiple people still stuck in here...is there a way to activate the system manually?"

"I'll look! Got it, the system was only tampered with when it comes to its smoke sensor. It is already prepared to combat the fire, but something must be stopping it from sensing the smoke. There is a switch in the security room" Lucius tells Bruce.

"Thanks, Lucius" Batman runs through the flames that were searing high. Jumping across a large assortment of spiralling, Batman looks to his side as he sees another one of the Guards that was trapped beneath a pile of debris, he screams for help as the flames surround him as the slightly burn him. The Dark Knight's eyes widen as he hurries to the man and begins to lift the fallen debris "Hold on" he comforts the wounded man. Batman winces as he has trouble lifting the rubble off of the man.

Seeing that the man's arm was now covered in fire, Batman gave one last pull as he lifts the debris off of the guard "You are going to be alright...can you..." Batman stops in mid-sentence as he sees the man's legs were broken, twisted and bloodied. Batman could see the bone of the guard's leg punctured through his skin. Using his cape he gets rid of the flames on the man's arm. The guard was petrified by the sight of his own mangled legs, he panics and screams.

"Stay with me, I need to turn on the fire suppresser, if I don't... your co-workers could die. I'll be back for you" the guard gives a weak nod, showing that he understood and agreed with The Dark Knight's plan. Batman dashes off once more and kicks the door to the next room off its hinges. His eyes peak up the second floor's small balcony with the security office. He brings out his grappling gun and shoots it at the balcony. Batman is launched forward and climbs over the railings onto the second floor.

He jumps through the window to the room; shattering it and walking towards the console. The Guard quickly backs away from The Dark Knight in fear "You and I need to have a word later..." Batman throws him onto the grounds still untouched by the rapidly approaching flames. Batman's eyes look to a glass-covered large button. He rams his fist through the glass and onto the large red button. The sprinklers of the Bank begins to let loose and drown the flames until they were fizzled out and the last of the smoke slowly dissipated.

Taking a long overdue deep breather, Batman looks over his shoulders and sees the guard trying to crawl away backwards. Batman moves forward and presses his boot to the man's throat "I know you work for Luthor! You let a maniac set a bomb off in this building! You and your co-workers could have died! What made you such a lowlife to do something like that!" Batman growls as he sees the fear in the man's eyes.

The guard was an easy-going blonde man with green eyes "He promised me that he would pay off my family mortgage! I can't let my little girl and wife live on the streets. If I did this...they wouldn't have to pay for my bad decisions!" the man squirms under Batman.

"You are right about that. They are better off without a piece of scum like you in their lives" Batman slams his boot down and knocks the man out. The Dark Knight jumps out of the window to the room and lands back on the floor below. He returns to the heavily wounded man, his eyes widen as he slowly makes his way to the man's side. He had stopped breathing, and the amount of the blood on the floor was more than the human body could afford to lose.

Shaking his head in disbelief, Batman looks away from the deceased man "Damn it. I couldn't save him..." kneeling down Batman uses his fingers to close the man's eyes "There should still be two more men here. I better check on them..." Batman stands up and walks off from the guards" Batman presses a button on his cowl; causing his thermal vision to once again to take over his sight. He sees two of the guards standing next to each other near the exit. through the wall. They seemed to be alright.

"Mr Wayne, it looks like you saved the day. Those men owe you their lives" Lucius congratulated Batman.

"Not all of them, one of them is dead. The debris was the only thing blocking the bleeding...by removing it...I only quickened his end. It's all my fault. I should have used one of my Batarangs and the flames to cauterize his wounds before moving on"

"This isn't your fault, Bruce. You didn't set the bomb off"

"No, but I could have prevented it altogether if I just took out Firefly back there. That man's death is on me before Firefly and Catwoman"

"The police and emergency workers should be there any minute. And I don't think they will be as big of a fan of you like the GCPD are. You better move out, Bruce"

"Not yet. The fire was meant to destroy the evidence...so I'm going to see just what they were trying to hide, and the best thing to figure out is what was stolen. Knowing that could give me enough information to figure out what Lex is planning" Batman's eyes focus on the vault door that was slightly opened "Catwoman didn't see me until she left here, that means there is a high chance that she was more reckless here and left her tracks in the open"

"How do you figure that, Mr Wayne?" Lucius inquires.

"The safe deposit box needs a specialized key to be opened, for each safe is a pair of unique keys made just for it. That means she couldn't have opened any other boxes besides the one she was paid to take" Batman pulls open the vault door and walks into the room "She is smart. She wouldn't have made the armature mistake of leaving the safe opened. She would have closed it to be absolutely sure that no one would catch onto to the theft. And since Roger is dead...he wouldn't report it missing" Batman wanders through the countless rows of safes "There must be some way to tell which box was the one that she went to" Batman tells Lucius.

"Like what, Mr Wayne?"

"Catwoman would have been the only to use the safes in the last few hours. Even though the safes needs a key to be opened, the handle still needs to be pulled to open it. She is too smart to leave fingerprints, but I can use my Blacklight scanner to find a handprint of her glove on one of these safes that match the size of her palm. She had her gloves on which have claws...so it shouldn't be too hard to locate the safe. The material of the glove will leave a unique pattern due to the line work" Batman pulls out a small torch from his utility belt and shines it over the locks to the safes. The blacklight caught various amounts of handprints, but nothing that would belong to Catwoman. Batman shines the touch across several rows until he stumbles upon one that stood out.

"34H?" Batman thought to himself as the Blacklight reveals a handprint completely different from the others. The print fits the match for a woman's hand and the fingers got slimmer and slimmer until they were scratch marks. Batman's eyes look to the lock as it was only a quarter-way turned compared to most of the others "Alfred. The 34H vault of the Metropolis Bank in the south district, can you find what was in it?" Batman asks the man in all the way over in Gotham.

"Alright Master B, I'll give it a shot. One moment please..."

"Nothing too major on what was inside the vault, but the records show that the vault was in use by a Roger Anderson. He was a known collector that specialized in the same type of meteor rocks that Lucius retrieved last month, though from his own written letters...he said that he had a red variation of the usual green rock. He was hoping to sell it off for quite the pocket change, but it was not mean to be" Alfred informs Batman who raised an eyebrow to Alfred's words.

"Was?"

"Roger Anderson is dead sir. He was killed in a hit and run a few weeks ago. The meteor rocks that he was trying to sell was way too radioactive even more so than a green variant. It was far too dangerous for anyone in their right mind to buy. Protective casing apparently had little to no effect to damper the radiation. My best bet is that Roger kept the rock in the vault until he could secure a buyer"

"Lex went through all this trouble just for a meteor rock? There must be more too this. Lex could have had Catwoman steal way more...than just the rock, this has nothing to do with monetary gain. All this work? All the trouble that is has stirred. This is personal, Lex wants revenge, but on who? The Vault owner is already dead and Lex has his money filling the pockets of nearly everyone in power in this city...except one single person"

"One single man..."

"Superman" Batman then looks to the closed safe "The Bank wouldn't have allowed for such a dangerous object to hold in the safe unless Luthor was planning to steal it the whole time and made it so that the meteor rock would be stored here. Alfred, was the person behind the hit and run ever caught?"

"No arrests were ever made and the case was mysteriously closed. The MPD claimed that they found a high concentration of alcohol in his system and that he must have drunkenly stumbled into the road. There have been no eye-witnesses to dispute their claim, but Roger Anderson had no history of being an alcoholic, in fact, he was said to have never touched a single drop of alcohol for years. Very curious, sir" Alfred observes.

Batman's eyes narrow "Curious? How about premeditated cold-blooded murder. Lex had Roger store the meteor rock in the safe, Lex then had him killed so he wouldn't try to take it back, he probably bribed someone high ranking in the MPD to intervein with the investigation - to tamper with the evidence. Lex then hired Catwoman - a notorious cat bugler to the criminal underworld, the best in the business to steal the meteor rock, he even paid a guard to turn a blind eye to the theft. Lex would then have Firefly burn down the building to destroy all evidence, including any loose lends - Catwoman could be in danger" Batman tells Alfred through the communicator.

"Is that is true, then what about the other fires that have occurred in Metropolis the last few weeks? What would Lex want to steal from those buildings?"

"Let's see. There have been ten large scale fires in the last two weeks, tonight would be the eleventh. The Targets have been two blocks of apartments, The Metropolis Bank, a library. One of LeX corps warehouses, the museum, a gymnasium and several other small landmarks. They have nothing in common. Lex must have even had one of his Wearhouse burned to keep suspicion off of him. Most of those places had nothing valuable to steal - so they must have been done to make this one less suspicious. Several fires are bound to divert police resources far more than a single one. The MPD would have just ruled tonight just another in the string of fires. They wouldn't even look twice at this one"

"They were all decoys. Lex is certainly a forward thinker"

"Maybe, but I'm still several steps ahead of him. The tracker than I placed on Firefly should lead me right to their base of operations, no doubt Lex would want to pick up the meteor rock himself. If I hurry, I could find Lex, Firefly and John Corbin all at once. I still don't know what the meteor rock is for, a power source maybe? Whatever it is going to be used for...Lex won't have good intentions in mind - It's time that I end this" Batman turns around and walks out of the vault room, hearing sirens quickly approaching he walks over to one of the broken windows, pulling out his grapple gun he shoots it at the building across from him.

Batman turns his head to look at the deceased guard for a moment before he was launched forward and out of the building. The Dark Knight lands on the roof of the building and walks over to the edge "Good work in there...your deductions were on point. I was tempted to grab a bag of popcorn while I listened to you figure it all out" a voice calls out from above. Batman lifts his head as he looks up in the sky. Superman descends onto the ground and folds his arms "Also good work with stopping the fire - you did that before I caught wind of it. You know I always figured you for a creep who just brutalizes the bad guys, but it seems that you do have a heart too. You saved those men's lives - you have my gratitude"

"Super hearing? Don't you know that eavesdropping is rude? How much did you hear?" Batman asks in an annoyed tone.

"More than you would like, Mr Wayne. I knew millionaires were supposed to have exciting hobbies, but I never figured one would dress up like a bat and scare the crap out of criminals" Superman smiles, placing his hands on his hips.

"It's billionaire, and it's more exciting than working at the Daily Planet...Mr Kent. Smart move by hiding in plain sight by the way. People often struggle to see just what is right under their noses, and you shouldn't be critiquing other people for their fashion sense" Batman retorts.

"W-What? How could you possibly know?" Superman tilts his head.

"Smallville is ground zero for the meteor shower all those years ago which brought those green rocks to our-my planet. I looked into it a little more and saw that there was a school newspaper that chronicled a number of miraculous saves, and your name came up in every single article. Seeing that you were adopted right after the Meteor shower and there is no record of your birth parents on this planet...well it was a lot easier than you think"

"Okay-okay, time out! Since I know who you are behind the mask and that we are alone here - can you please turn off that voice-changer-thingy that you have? It's really hard to understand you in prolonged sentences. I can't tell if you are trying to sound smart or threatening. come on help a Super...Man out. I don't want to fight you and you certainly do not want to fight me. We should work together on this one" Superman asks Batman.

"I work alone" Batman snaps back.

"Yeah sure...except for your butler and your tech guy. We don't have to like each other, but you and I both know that there could be a lot of lives at risk here. You said that Lex has some-sort of red Kryptonite, right? I have only encountered the green kind. This is just as new to me as it is to you, also your voice changer? Are you seriously keeping that thing on? Whatever...anyway. This task could use both of us on it, once it is done...we can part ways and never see each other again" Superman tries to reason with The Dark Knight.

"How about I meet you half way and just part ways now. I will go stop Luthor and you can go back to saving cats that are stuck up trees"

"For your information...I have already done that today. In all seriousness, we need to work together. Normal Kryptonite severely weakens me...that's what is powering Metallo. I can't get close to him for too long without being rendered powerless...I can't imagine what this red kryptonite could do to me"

"And you are telling me your one weakness...because...?"

"As a sign of trust. You try it. What is your greatest weakness...?"

"Anything that isn't bat-shaped"

Chapter End