I can't believe I am actually going through with this...
Bruce had spent months planning this encounter out, getting everything ready to an absolute 'T'. He was Batman, he was supposed to be methodical and emotionless when it came to accomplishing the mission, but this time even he was worried that he was about to push it too far.
Although he hated admitting it, he loved Clark like a brother and Diana like a sister, they were the closest family he had, next to Dick and Tim. He never thought he'd ever find himself in this situation. Both of them could end up hating him after he followed through with what he had planned, especially Diana. He had fought with Clark on several occasions, whether it be mind-control, Poison Ivy's pheromones, or just general disagreements. He knew what it was like to take a punch from the Man of Steel. If it hadn't been for his composite armour that Clark himself had helped him design, and a healthy dose of kryptonite dust, then he wouldn't be standing here today. He couldn't believe that he was actually ready to deliberately pick a fight with Clark, when Clark hadn't done anything to merit the pain that he was about to make him endure.
"That's not true, he has had this coming for years".
Bruce was not surprised to hear the gravel in his voice as he could hear Batman coming to the surface. He shook his head and steeled his mind, he would need it for what was about to happen. He was about to betray his brother and put him through hell...all to prove a point.
The Batman was not a matchmaker, and Clark was about to find out what happened when he tried his hand at it. There was nothing cute about what was to come. It was going to be dark, it was going to be brutal, and if Selina had been right when he told her his plan, it was going to be beautiful.
A brutal deconstruction of Clark's consciousness and physical being until only the man was left. Bruce was going to mutilate and burn the 'Super'.
Bruce would be lying to himself if he didn't take some perverse joy in what was about to happen. He was about to pound the Man of Steel up to his curled forelock in the kryptonite-laced dirt.
People understood that the Batman had a moral code not to kill or be overly brutal at unnecessary times, to be in complete control at all times, but as several incarcerated felons could now attest to, sometimes it would have been better if he had actually killed them, so they didn't have to live with what he left them with, nothing but their guilt to keep them company in the dark holes they would spend the rest of their lives in.
He was the Night and Clark was the Day, the moon and the sun next to eachother, and he was about to give Clark a lesson in what happened when the darkness enveloped him and there was no pretty sunshine to reload on.
"Master Bruce, the power generators are plugged in. You may plunge the entire eastern United States into darkness but I assume it will be worth it after you beat your best friend to a pulp for no good reason".
Bruce couldn't help but feel the tug of a smile on his lips as he watched Alfred enter in the cave where he was working on his custom armour that he had built specifically for this encounter.
"I doubt Mr. Kent is going to be pleased when he finds out that the last time you were in his Fortress, you stole the designs for a Kryptonian battle suit, just so you could last a few more moments against him".
Bruce was about to respond, but he couldn't help but step back and admire what he'd managed to accomplish in just a few short months. The Batman doesn't gloat or bask, but he sure as hell can enjoy a good piece of work when he sees it.
Nearly twenty feet tall, jet black, and made of a custom alloy, built from Kryptonian and Olympian technology. It was powered by a red-solar generator and the lead-lined gauntlets concealed gloved armour made of pure kryptonite. Most people thought that after they destroyed the Annihilator suit that had been crafted by Hephaestus that it had been returned to the smith-god to be destroyed, but that wasn't completely true.
Hephaestus had only been too happy to provide Bruce with pieces of the enchanted battle suit that were now affixed to the mechanized suit that stood before him.
"I didn't even have to offer him anything" Bruce chuckled to himself, remembering that Hephaestus had liked the idea that Batman planned to use the armour as a countermeasure against both Clark and Diana should either of them go rogue. Bruce hated magic because it lacked the logic he was used to, and dealing with the Greek Pantheon was even more so taxing, but it was worth it in the end. The ends always had to justify the means, otherwise he was no better than any of the criminals that he dealt with on a nightly basis.
"No one except Zeus can be all powerful" The god had said, before swiftly handing over the parts that he had asked for.
"The meal is ready Master Bruce, and if my old ears do not deceive me, not a moment too soon" Alfred said, just as the sound of the manor's doorbell rang throughout the cave walls.
"Here we go". Batman stood up, his doubts gone, Bruce Wayne at the back of his mind. He was ready to do what he had to.
Clark stood out front of Bruce's home, shuffling slightly from side-to-side. He always felt uneasy when he visited the manor, fact was he just didn't understand why Bruce needed so much enclosed space. Now a twelve hectare open field, that was something Clark could agree with.
"He's only at this home maybe three hours at a time, and that's just to sleep, why the hell does he need a house this big" Clark thought out loud, but quickly steeled his curiosity, just in time for Alfred to answer the door.
Clark smiled the moment he saw the smiling, almost paternal, gaze from the kindly old man. He knew that despite Alfred's old age, he was still an extremely sharp man, being both ex-MI6 British intelligence and now the caretaker for the world's greatest detective. As far as Clark was concerned, this man was a hero in his own right.
"Welcome back Mr. Kent, Master Bruce is waiting for you in the dining room. I hope you don't mind, but the meal is already on the table. In your line of work, I'm sure you understand the need to have food prepared as quickly as possible in case you decide to prowl on rooftops sooner than expected"
Clark couldn't help but laugh at that, noting that Alfred seemed to reference Bruce's nocturnal activities as the Batman as nothing more than an unusual hobby.
"Thank you Alfred, it is good to be back" Clark said, moving past the older gentleman and in towards the dining room. Clark was not comfortable with being lead down the hallway by Alfred or making the man stand on ceremony for him, his humble beginnings not allowing him to.
Clark thought he detected some uneasiness in Alfred's manner, but dismissed the feeling quickly, chalking it up to his daily paternal concern for Bruce.
"It's not easy being Batman's father" Clark thought as he moved into the dining room where Bruce stood from the table and immediately walked over to him, dressed in what was most likely a suit that cost more than his parents' farm in Smallville.
"Kent good to see you and I'm glad you could come to dinner tonight, we have things to discuss" He said, allowing a smile to plaster on his face, before warmly shaking his hand, causing Clark to arch his eyebrow at him.
"The Batman is smiling, this must be really serious if you're starting that way" Clark watched with some satisfaction as the smile immediately fell off and Batman crept to the surface.
"Don't read too much into it, I don't get many opportunities to smile you know" He said, before moving back to the table and indicating a chair to his immediate left on the long oak dining table. Bruce was glad that his smile had distracted Clark momentarily, he knew his friend trusted him, but didn't trust that Clark's battle-hardened nature wouldn't cause him the impulse to quickly x-ray the room, at which point he was sure that he would notice that his suit was lined with lead, concealing both the kryptonite in his left-jacket pocket and the fact that he was already wearing the inner-layer of his armour.
"Oh don't worry I won't" Clark said before sitting down immediately.
Alfred almost right away brought the food out and Clark was delighted to see that Bruce had decided to go old-school for his guest, providing massive home-made double-bacon cheeseburgers, fresh cut fries, and thick blended chocolate milkshakes.
Bruce shook his head, watching Clark almost with super-speed begin to dig into his plate. "I know it's not the Smallville maltshop, but I like to think that Alfred puts together the food very well" He commented, before beginning to eat from his own spread.
"Good, he was so distracted by the type of food, that his senses didn't even detect it". Bruce was about to give Clark one more chance to fess up to his feelings for Diana. Despite his best-laid plans and months of preparation, Clark was his brother and he owed it to him to try again, even it was for the thousandth time.
"Yes, this tastes wonderful, but now I know you want something, you wouldn't have put Alfred through this if you didn't" Clark said, glancing up from his burger.
Clark watched as Bruce leaned forward, and Clark couldn't help but frown as his super-hearing picked up the extreme unease in Bruce's heartbeat and the change in his posture. "This isn't going to be good".
"Clark, despite our differences, you are still practically my brother, and I know you feel the same way" Bruce paused and watched as Clark smiled slightly and nodded in affirmation. "And yet you still feel it necessary to lie to both myself and Diana repeatedly".
Clark was surprised by the abrupt shift in Bruce's tone, but quickly responded, "I don't know what you're talking about, I've been nothing but honest with both of you".
"We both know that's a lie Kent, we also both know that you're lying to yourself as well and you've been putting yourself through hell for more years than I can even fathom" Bruce said, before leaning back and sighing out loud.
"I'm going to give you one more chance to be honest with me and yourself so you can be honest with that poor woman that you've been putting through hell for over a thousand years. God I'm Bruce Wayne, I've broken more hearts than I care to imagine before I settled down with Selina, and I've done so in some pretty brutal ways and even I think you're an ass".
Clark was left speechless, his eyes widening behind the frames of his glasses. "What the hell are you on about now Bruce?"
"You're going to admit to me and yourself that you're in love with the Amazon" Bruce said quietly, without looking up, as if he had just asked Clark how the local baseball team was faring.
Clark was jarred by that one, but this wasn't the first time that Bruce had accused him of harbouring feelings for Diana. Clark had gone a thousand years in Asgard without touching Diana or even coming close to telling her that he had any inkling of personal feelings towards her beyond their deep friendship, and they had experienced many moments over the past few years especially, but Clark would never make a move towards her, being reminded that despite all they had been through, she was a Princess from a mythical island and he was a newspaper reporter in the digital age. He would live thousands of years more and he would spend none of them with Diana as anymore than a friend. This is what he had decided even before they travelled to Asgard.
"Diana is my friend Bruce, I think the paranoia is finally getting to you, maybe you need to spend a little less time wearing the cowl and talking as if you have a constant case of laryngitis" Clark quipped, beginning to stand up, not at all pleased at Bruce's tone or chosen topic of conversation.
The moment Clark stood he immediately felt light-headed and stumbled to the left where he had to use his hand against the edge of the table to brace himself from falling. "I don't get dizzy, what the hell is going on?" He thought, immediately beginning to feel an extreme sense of nausea overwhelm him. He looked up to see Bruce standing next to him holding a glowing yellow vial in front of his eyes.
"Do you know what this is Clark? It is concentrated yellow sunlight, or more specifically, a patented Wayne Industries invention that I am particularly proud of. Please don't pass out yet until you've heard this, it is really amazing" Bruce said, watching Clark begin to stumble around the dining room, as he finally decided to use his X-ray vision on the room.
"Why can't I see anything Bruce? Why can't I see through your suit? Did you lead-line this entire room?" The warm tone in Clark's voice was gone, replaced by the angry baritone of a Superman who was displaced.
"You're not paying attention to the vial Kent, it is the most important. I had decided against my better judgement to give you one last chance to admit to your pining feelings for the Princess, but once again you decided to pretend that you're just an emotionless automaton who is no good to anyone who cares for him. This vial is essentially a cure for kryptonite poisoning if say you were to ingest it by mouth for example".
Clark turned in horror to the half-eaten food on his plate, where now his super-vision, eventhough it was blurry, still managed to finally pick up the microscopic pieces of sickly glowing meteor rock that was laced all the way through it.
"Alfred really is an amazing cook and you are so bloody predictable, always blinded by your down-home country roots over everything else". Bruce moved closer to Clark, only to be roughly grabbed around the collar by the sick Kryptonian before him.
"Why Bruce? Why the hell would you do this?" The look of betrayal in Clark's eyes almost caused Bruce to break and help him...almost.
"You're not paying attention Clark, that was always yours and Diana's biggest problem, rushing in headlong without a strategy, but don't worry, your education is just beginning...here catch!" Bruce reached into his jacket pocket and tossed a quarter-sized rock at Clark's face, where he instinctively reached up and grabbed it, only to immediately drop it as if he had been scalded.
"More kryptonite Bruce? Why the hell would you throw it at me? You knew I would just drop it as soon as I caught it!" Clark said, putting some distance between him and the offending green rock.
"I needed you just a bit further to your left, where you're standing now and you're not easy to move when you don't want to". Bruce reached for his belt, triggering a hidden switch, immediately causing the ceiling to break open and a seven-ton hunk of concrete to fall towards Clark's head.
Eventhough his strength and senses had been affected by the kryptonite poisoning, Clark was still strong enough to catch the falling piece of rock with relative ease, holding it over his head, and turning to look at Bruce, who was just standing there watching him.
"You were trying to drop this on my head? That won't hold me Bruce, you know that" He said, and Bruce couldn't help but be momentarily impressed yet again by the way his friend nonchalantly held the large chunk of rock above his head, even with kryptonite coursing through his body.
"You're right Clark, you can hold up that rock pretty well on your own, now the floor on the other hand..." Bruce trailed off just as Clark glanced down to see the rich wood panelling on the floor give way. On any other occasion, Clark would merely have hovered there in flight, not requiring a floor to stand on, but Bruce was right that Clark was just weakened enough to slowly be brought down to the basement level where his cave was.
The moment his feet hit the ground with a soft thud, Clark immediately tossed the rock to his left, completely flattening Bruce's latest Batmobile in a fiery heap. Even in his weakened state, he couldn't help but smile as he listened to the slow escape of air from the crushed tires.
"You should know to never damage a man's car Clark, it just pisses him off"
Clark's eyes darted to his left and right, still not being able to make anything out in the darkness, and beginning to cough violently.
"You lined your entire cave with lead Bruce?! How long have you been planning this?" Clark bellowed out loud, now realizing that he would have to rely on his hearing if he wanted to find the hidden Dark Knight.
"Not just lined with lead Clark, you may notice you're beginning to have trouble breathing, that's what happens when there is two hundred pounds of kryptonite dust floating in the air down here". Clark's eyes moved to the right, briefly making out a dark shape moving on the right side of the cave.
His eyes glowed red, emitting a brief flare-pulse with his heat-vision, and catching a surprised Batman square in the chest, burning away his suit in an instant, revealing the armoured bodysuit underneath.
"That hurt Kent and that was my best dinner jacket, how did you know you wouldn't burn me up with that shot?" Bruce said, moving closer to where the armoured suit was waiting for him.
"Strategy Bruce, call it a bit of you rubbing off on me, once I realized your suit was lined with lead, I knew it was concealing more than just the kryptonite" Clark said, turning towards where he was now able to follow Bruce in the shadows.
"I don't care what kind of game you're playing, I'm leaving you down here, I'm done" Clark said and with that he began to float up towards the hole that he had fallen through.
"You don't get to leave that easily" Bruce responded, immediately flicking a switch to his left, causing the entire room to be bathed in red sunlight, immediately bringing Clark down to the floor of the cave with a loud thud.
"Red solar generator, courtesy of some Kryptonian technology at the Fortress, not enough to hurt you, but just enough to keep you from defying gravity again" Bruce commented, finally reaching the armoured suit and he began to power it up.
"What the hell do you want Bruce?" Clark shakily forced himself to his feet, pushing through the increasing level of kryptonite poisoning that was sapping at his solar-powered cells.
Clark listened for Bruce's response to again pinpoint his location, but instead was greeted by a loud noise, similar to that of a jet engine powering up, and was bathed in further red sunlight, coming from the new hostile source. Clark used his Kryptonian meditation techniques to force his eyes to focus, and they immediately widened upon realizing what it was.
It was a black monstrosity of a machine, towering in size, and made a noise like a screeching banshee when it moved. Clark's mouth opened in further surprise upon noticing the symbol of the Greek god Hephaestus on the suit's chest, immediately recognizing it as the salvaged breastplate from the armour of the Annihilator. He watched as the thing's gauntlets sprung to life, black metal being ripped apart to reveal glowing kryptonite gloves.
"This ends as soon as you admit it Clark".
Clark heard the amplified voice of Batman through the speakers as the suit began to move towards him.
"Admit what Bruce?" Clark watched the suit moving towards him, using his vision to begin to notice every moving joint, looking for a weak spot or opening to strike.
"That you're in love with Diana".
Clark froze at that sentence, his shock lasting less than a second, but it was enough for Batman to strike a full blow to the side of his head with the kryptonite gauntlets, sending him flying into the nearby cave wall with a sickening crunch.
Clark could not remember the last time he had been in so much pain, and so damned weak. He couldn't fly, he could barely move, and was lucky if he could see anything. And to make matter's worse, one of his best friends, a man who had called him brother not ten minutes ago, was the one who was doing it to him, and all because he wouldn't give in to Bruce's delusion that he was in love with the Amazon.
"Shut up Bruce. I'm not even going to acknowledge that train of thought anymore, I'm so tired of it".
Clark began to extract himself from the wall, only to be repeatedly punched back into it by shot after shot from the brutally aimed mechanical fists from the suit. He couldn't even begin to focus before he was knocked down again, repeatedly.
"Come on Clark. The. Sooner. You. Admit. It. The. Sooner. This. Ends" Bruce said, emphasizing each word with another strike to Clark's face or body, as he began to notice the gauntlets were beginning to become bloody, they having finally cut into the invulnerable flesh of the Man of Steel.
Clark was getting tired...fast. He had fought Batman on several occasions before for many different reasons, but never just because he wanted him to admit something, but Superman was not so easily beaten, even with all the kryptonite in the world. That was something he wasn't sure that Batman ever understood, that despite all his abilities, it was his will and resolve that won the tougher battles.
"I've had enough Bruce".
Bruce noted the change in Clark's voice in between strikes, noticing the cold and emotionless tone that it took. It was Clark's Kryptonian voice, his baser instincts coming to the surface. "Now we're getting somewhere" He thought to himself, but he stopped himself before allowing any satisfaction as he noticed the red glow coming from the darkness.
"Oh hell..."
Even inside his powered armour, Bruce felt the intense heat from a full-blast from Clark's heat-vision. "Jesus I didn't know he had that left in him" He thought as to his dismay, the blast from the heat had done exactly what Clark had wanted it to do, pulverize the kryptonite gloves and vapourize the dust in the cave's damp atmosphere, literally setting the air on fire.
"I'm leaving Bruce and this time you can't stop me".
Clark turned to leave the cave, simply walking through the armoured wall, his energy levels nearly depleted, and his exhaustion at such high levels that it took considerable effort just to put one boot infront of the other.
"Not so fast, we're not done". Bruce pressed a button to his immediate left, launching a lead ball no bigger than a baseball at Clark's head. Clark grabbed it out of mid-air and frowned at Bruce.
"More kryptonite? Really?" Clark said, just as he tossed it into the corner, before the poisonous rock could reveal itself from its metal shielding.
"Not just any kryptonite Clark, kryptonite flash-bang grenade" Bruce said, causing Clark to try to move as quickly as he could to shield his face, but he was a millisecond too late before there was an explosion followed by an intense green flash, immediately blinding him, causing him to cry out in pain.
Clark barely had time to register his lack of sight before he heard Bruce toss something else towards him.
"Bruce...what?" Before he could finish his sentence, Clark was brought to his knees again by an ear-splitting whine.
"That would be ultra-high-frequency Kryptonian radio-waves. You know that signal watch you gave Jimmy? Picture that noise right next to your ears amplified 1000x".
Clark began to stagger. He couldn't see. He couldn't hear anything. All he could feel was the blood pouring from his ears and his kryptonite-damaged pupils.
"You're done Kent, beaten by an ordinary human being, and all because you couldn't be a man yourself and admit that you love a woman" Bruce moved closer to Clark where he then proceeded to slap him to the side with the remaining stumps of the suit's arms.
Bruce looked down at the bloody heap that was left of the Man of Steel, and felt his sadness and bitterness that he had to push him this far, and yet the jack-ass was still being so damned stubborn. He was running out of options and Clark was close to losing consciousness.
"What about now? Can you..." He was brutally caught off guard by the sudden jerk in the cave floor, knocking him off balance and causing him to land hard on his back. He felt the cave lurch from left to right violently, causing his teeth to literally rattle in his skull. He hit the eject button, throwing him up into the air and away from the suit that was being ripped apart by the earthquake in the ground. He stared down to see that Clark had grabbed the floor of the cave and had begun to vibrate, causing the whole damn place to literally begin to shake apart.
Before he could even land back on the ground, Clark knocked him head-on, with a rough bodycheck to his chest, immediately knocking all the wind out of his lungs despite still wearing his base armoured suit. Next thing he knew, Clark hit him roughly in the side of the head, hard enough to snap his reinforced cowl right off and crack it into a thousand pieces, causing his ears to ring and his vision to blacken.
Clark picked his friend up by the neck of his armour and drew back his fist before slamming it into the cave wall next to his head. Bruce was surprised to see that tears were streaming down Clark's face, and not from anything that he had done to him.
"Of course I love her. That was never the issue. She's a Princess of the Amazons! God-damn it Bruce! I'm a farm-boy reporter from Kansas. I'm not good enough for her! I never was and I never will be! You think I didn't want to love her every night that we were in Asgard? How the hell did you think I could love her one night just to see her get killed the next?!"
Bruce exhaled, seeing the pain finally coming to the surface on his brother's face. "There it is".
"You're an idiot you know that, a right-round-idiot. You think Diana cares about any of that? You think her to be that shallow? God damn it Clark, she's loved you from the moment she saw you I think. For someone from a superior alien race, you can be really stupid" He said, as Clark slowly released his grip, causing Bruce to fall to the floor in a heap.
"You know what you have to do Clark, you've just admitted it to me and yourself. Stop being afraid and take a risk. We take so many every day. I took the risk when I pulled my cowl down for Selina to see who I was, it's your turn to tell her how you feel".
Bruce then shielded his eyes and turned to the cave wall, pulling down a massive switch, immediately flooding the cave with a burning yellow light.
In seconds, Clark felt all his strength and senses return to him, and he immediately felt better than he had in days.
"What was that?" He said, blinking and feeling that all of his cuts had healed.
"Concentrated solar-flare. After you came to the cave that one day with kryptonite poisoning, I figured I'd better have it ready. Can't have you dying in here. I'd never be able to move your dense body out of here" Bruce said, beginning to dust himself off.
"Why the hell did you put me through all of that Bruce just so that I would tell you that I loved Diana?"
Bruce sighed heavily, feeling all the exhaustion in his bones and head from what had just transpired. "He gets a solar recharge and I get two weeks in intensive care, that is not a fair trade-off".
"You both endangered the mission Clark, that is the most important thing, it always has been. Your side-stepping around the issue for so many years was finally beginning to take its toll, I can't have that" He said, moving closer to where Clark was standing, dazed by all that had happened.
"You're too mission-oriented for your own good Bruce. Did you really have to put me through all that and almost get both of us killed in the process though?"
Bruce regarded Clark and frowned slightly, "I'm not a matchmaker Kent. I handled this my way".
"No you're not, and you may be an ass, but I forgive you" He said, sticking his hand out to Bruce, who surprised that his friend had come around so quickly, took it and shook it.
"It's what brothers do for eachother" Bruce said, allowing a genuine smile to cross his face.
"So what now?" Clark said, looking around at the decimated cave.
"I clean this up and you get your ass to Themyscira and deal with your Princess is what".
"So you think just because you made me say that I loved her that I'm suddenly going to go off and tell her on her Amazon homeland?" Clark folded his arms over his chest, regarding Bruce with a skeptical look.
"Of course you are. You're mission-oriented just like I am, no matter what you say otherwise. And right now the mission calls for you to go there, so get the hell out of my cave"
Bruce then turned from Clark and began to survey the damage and figure out where to start.
"Oh and Bruce, one more thing?" Bruce turned in shock to see Clark's eyes glow red before a lance of heat sliced apart the miraculously-still-intact Batplane that was perched in the rafters, causing it to explode in a ball of flame.
"Jesus Kent, what the hell?!"
"Now we're even Bruce. I'll tell Diana you said hi"
Bruce shook his head in disbelief as Clark rocketed out through the ceiling and headed off towards the east.
Surveying the wreckage of the cave, Bruce sighed out loud.
The things I do for my friends...
A/N: So Clark's on his way to tell Diana how he feels. Will he be able to get to her before things get out of hand? Next up, Diana arrives on Themyscira to visit her sister, who has some urgent news for her.
