A Beware the Batman fanfic – Bring on the Badguys!
Written by WDCain Man
Disclaimer: Batman was created by Bob Kane and owned by DC Comics, which is owned by Warner-Brothers. No money is being made with this story. No profit is being made from this fanfic.
I love Signalman. He's got one of those awesomely bad costumes that hasn't held up at all even though he has an interesting gimmick. Yet he's now considered one of DC's joke villains like Catman once was. Yet if Gail Simone could make him cool then maybe I could do the same for the former Blue Bowman? Here's my chance to see if I can. Enjoy!
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Bring on the Badguys!
Part Eighteen:
Signalman
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Second Lieutenant Roy Hauser crawled through the desert bloodied and broken with the smoldering wreckage of the burning warzone behind him, desolation as far as the eye could see. Five whole divisions of the US Army's finest consisting of 15,000 combat troops and 8,000 support staff per unit; 115,000 in total and as far as Hauser knew he was the only survivor.
The President had issued an emergency intervention into the Gulf nation of Qurac since the IAEA had determined President Rumaan Harjavti was in illegal possession of nuclear weapons and US intelligence determined he was planning to fire them into neighboring Bialya to destabilize the entire Middle East. The order was given and they were sent in.
This front would take the country's capital of Abu Dhabi and then onto their main military fortress of Jotunheim to bring the fighting to a quick end. If they failed then this area would turn into a hotbed for regional conflict and nuclear terrorism for generators.
General Wade Eiling swore he would not let that happened. He was an old veteran of military actions in Pokolistan and Kahndaq and undergone all the horrors that occurred during them. A hard man who accepted no compromises from his troops or from the enemy, he was the perfect man to lead the taking of the capital.
Roy Hauser was in the command center relaying the General's orders when the man suddenly grew rigid and silent like someone had committed a grave offense. He still had no idea what possessed the respected military man when he suddenly turned around and shot the second and third in command of the entire operation dead. By the time the young officer could get to cover, 60 of the senior command staff were dead or wounded, bleeding out as their CO fired non-stop.
Two guards capped their leader and left behind an awful silence in the mobile command center as everyone still alive tried to come to terms with what just happened. Curiously, while the venerable general they all were entrusting to ignored the obvious threat of the guards just to continue slaughtering the upper echelon chain of command. It was like he truly believed those few men wouldn't attack him as if he was seeing and hearing things they were not.
The survivors ran to the intercoms to issue emergency orders but found all communications were scrambled with babble and IFF codes set to random. Just as Hauser was trying his hardest to get a sit-rep, the two guards opened fire on the surviving officers while screaming obscenities. All the radio equipment was shot to hell, effectively decapitating the US Army's assault force and ending their ability to effectively communicate between units and the outside world.
Roy Hauser escaped to find some men in a mad hope to salvage some order only to see the utter FUBAR the situation outside had become.
A flight of their own helicopters fired their anti-tank missiles onto the advancing battalion, decimating them in seconds. Hauser knew it was due to their IFF now reading hostile just like he knew there was no way he could inform them they were slaughtering their fellow soldiers.
Just as the last of their mistaken targets hit the bloody sand, the gunships were swatted from the sky by encroaching tanks then indiscriminately engaging every aircraft they could find. Hauser knew targeting screens had to be suddenly flooded with confirmed hostile targets just as a squad attacked them with Stinger SAMs.
Another tank unit encroached from one side and lobbed counter fire on the heavy artillery unit, green tracer shells arching back and forth in a twisted display of firepower while the surrounding units fought wildly for their lives against an imaginary enemy that was everywhere.
It was an ugly waste of the beautiful US military as they viciously attacked the other thinking them to be the enemy.
On one side, infantry scrambled for cover as mortars were dropped onto their positions from their own fire support while on the other a machinegun squad tore into the backs of an assault team while the survivors found what minimal cover was available and poured it back on the enemy. All around were screams as they killed their comrades.
Roy ran. This was a catastrophe beyond anything he had ever seen. Within a few minutes the bulk of the intervention army was shooting at itself. With the command staff dead, comm.-lines scrambled, and IFFs switching between friend and foe, rampant paranoia took over. Everyone was screaming as they fired wildly, not knowing who they were attacking or who was attacking them.
He almost found the whole thing curiously fascinating. This went beyond a mere SNAFU. This situation would be discussed by future generations of soldiers and military historians in books and lectures. It would penetrate the cultural subconscious to where all future military disasters as a "General Eiling" for centuries to come.
Ancient Aliens would dedicate an entire season thinking spacemen were behind this on the History Channel!
Hauser would have sobbed if he had the strength. "Why…? Why did all this happen?! Why, god?! Why?!"
"I DID IT FOR POWER!" A powerful voice, laced with a British accent, boomed.
The beaten soldier looked to see a giant of a man, 6'6" tall and very muscular with golden blonde hair. He was handsome but his eyes were so piercing like they could see his every weakness. His outfit was curious: Gold colored knee-high leather boots with matching fingerless wrist gloves for his extremities while blood red leather pants and a matching open scarlet vest with a netted undershirt beneath. The only physical flaw on his Adonis-like body was a large oval-like scar across his chest as if he was branded with a strange iron poker long ago.
"Congratulations peon, you managed to survive my attack! Not many lower life forms can do that! So as a sign of respect, I, SIGNALMAN, will answer your questions to make your last feeble moments alive worthwhile!"
The over the top figure struck a pose with his arms crossed yet his fingers stroking his chin, his back turn to Hauser, and looking directly at the sun. "Qurac's nuclear armaments are poised at Bialya vast oil fields! With them burning by the fire of the atom, the global economy will collapse! Nations will quarrel as their economies slow to a snail's craw making the lands ripe for rebellion as I, SIGNALMAN, seize power!"
"…a madman… an utter madman killed everyone…" Hauser was still too exhausted to cry.
"All men of vision are called mad!" Signalman reached for the sun, making it look like he was holding it in his hand. "Those that flock to my army will have their every desire granted but only if my will is first and foremost followed! I, SIGNALMAN, am magnanimous with gifts! You can be made beautiful, powerful, and never know sadness or misery but only if one swears absolute fealty to me as their master!"
"But… how? How was… this all possible?"
"All too easy with my powers. Your general was convinced he was hearing all his staff talking how they would defect then launch Qurac's atomic weapons at America. A subtle prod here, a blurred perception there, and before the mighty US army knew what was happening they were shooting one another. They died like everyone else who stood between me and greatness, bloodied and broken."
Hauser understood at last. This was a man of peerless ambition, a villain of little conscience, vast cunning, and an insatiable hunger for power. And Hauser was far too weak to stop him. But he would not let that keep him from trying.
The lieutenant lunged at Signalman like a wild beast. There was a wicked gleam in the megalomaniacal super-villain's eyes as he unleashed a barrage of punches so fast that they broke the sound barrier. Despite the eardrum bursting sonic booms, he could see the devilish smirk on Signalman's face while he attacked.
"IT'S USELESS, USELESS, USELESS, USELESS, USELESS, USELESS, USELESS!"
The soldier was thrown far back, strangely feeling no real pain. "This won't… stop me…"
"It will, you see..." Signalman's devilish smile somehow grew even larger "-you're already dead."
Roy Hauser's eyes bugged out as pressure built up within him. He thrashed as his blood boiled and his stomach expanded to cartoonish levels before he exploded in a bright red blood explosion with bits of him flying high to the sky.
Signalman smirked as he walked away. It was so easy to trigger nerve signals to generate massive energy and make the body explode. Almost as easy as it was for him to master every martial arts known to man. That was easy, but not quite as fun as devising his evil plans.
Mouse and Giz would do well crippling the economy of South America while Stallion and Thrill Devil would be useful sending South Africa back a century. Jimmy Nice alone should be enough to wipe out the Russian government. There was no one who could stop him now!
But he knew this was not true. There was word of a vigilante organization in Gotham City and if this Batman brought his forces against his own then the war could prove costly. It was best to nip this in the bud.
Defacer and the Pigeon were busy in Japan recruiting a whale woman who escaped from an ABKRO lab. Gorilla Grimm could perform this task but he did get caught up in his work.
Signalman smiled. There were so many options to choose. This was one winged rodent he would enjoy killing.
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End Part Eighteen…
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I've wanted to do Signalman for a long time but, like Killer Moth, I couldn't think of an angle to take on him. It was while reading his Wikipedia page hoping for inspiration when I noticed it said that in one story he had a device that messed up electronic signals and that reminded me of the Tower of Babble storyline from Mark Waid's run on JLA then this train of thought reminded me of the Talking Head stand from JoJo's Bizarre Adventures which screws up dialogue for misdirection when it finally occurred to me: Make Signalman a JoJo villain!
So I made him DIO, which is hilarious considering Signalman is now a joke villain of the DCverse. But in all seriousness, in our world so reliant on wireless communication, someone who has the power to distort and manipulate all of that into whatever he wants would make him a global threat. Just imagine the possible devastation if he messed with airliner communications. The damage would literally be 9/11 times a hundred.
My big problem with Signalman was finding a motive. I knew his powers would cause massive chaos so I originally envisioned him as a simple anarchist but this show already has Anarky so I would have to pick a different motive. So since he's already physically similar to DIO Brando, I chose his god complex and made him a world conqueror. I also gave him some crazy martial art skills since I recently played the Koei Fist of the North Star game. So my Signalman is DIO with a supped up Talking Head stand with Kenshiro's martial arts
Batman is dead meat.
I almost showed off the Run-Offs here but I might give them their own chapter. Changing them into JoJo villains would make them a real hoot to write. Truthfully, the last several chapters of this fanfic haven't been too much fun to write. Yet this one was a total blast. I credit my success to the JoJo influence!
Hopefully all my future stories will be just as fun. Read and review, everyone!