Rudy walked through the streets of Metropolis. He'd put on a long black coat with a hood, a pair of black leather gloves, and was wearing a scarf around the bottom half of his face, a pair of sunglasses covering his now yellow eyes. He was lucky it was winter, so no one paid him any heed.
That was the last thing he'd need in this day and age. An age where there were men of steel, dark knights and women who gave new meaning to the term 'screamer.'
He turned the corner into an alley, keeping his head down. As he did, he failed to notice a pair of men in hoodies follow him. He continued down the alley, before another man came out from behind a dumpster, a switchblade in hand.
"Hey, freakazoid, gimme your wallet." The man with the knife said.
"Phone too." One of the men behind Rudy said, causing him to turn.
"P...Please, I don't want an... Any trouble." Rudy said, his voice sounding deeper, with a slight hiss to it as he struggled to form words, rummaging around his pockets for his wallet, tossing it at one of the men "Th... There's not much."
"Too bad for you." The man with the knife said, grabbing Rudy by the shoulder, turning him around and stabbing him in the throat, watching as a yellow liquid oozed from Rudy's neck, sizzling as it began to dissolve the coat "What the hell..."
Rudy gurgled as he tried to speak, the man grabbing Rudy's scarf and pulling it off him, revealing the purple face with the leech like mouth. Rudy looked up at the man, apparently helpless, before a sick grin formed on his face as he leapt at the man, biting into him, eliciting a scream. As Rudy fed, his wounds slowly closed. He finished with the man, then turned to the other two assailants.
"Who's next?" He asked "I'm sorry, but I'm just so hungry..."
...
Clark walked into the Daily Planet office. He'd left BrainIAC making the calculations to restore Zod from his refuge in the Phantom Zone. In the meantime, he'd decided to go about life as normal, without the red Kryptonite ring. He'd managed to get through to Pete on the phone, and apologise profusely for the incident at the hospital. His friend had been very forgiving, given the circumstances. However, Clark couldn't help but worry about if his strength got that out of hand again.
He sat down at his desk, noting Lois' absence. It was unusual; he had never seen her take a lunch break in the year and a half he'd been at the Daily Planet, and she was very pointed in making sure everyone was abuzz about her going to chase a lead, so that wasn't an option.
As he thought about it, he looked at his computer, logging in and pulling up the article he'd been working on. A group of gangsters, Intergang, had been apprehended by the GCPD last week, with evidence linking them to nightclub owner Oswald Cobblepot, or as Clark knew him from the files Bruce kept in his cave lair, The Penguin. He'd reached out to the GCPD for comment but got no response initially... Until the Commissioner had ordered the detective on the case, Bullock, to talk to Clark, based on the request from a 'silent partner.'
He logged into the e-mail account on the computer, pulling up his correspondence with Bullock, quickly typing in a thank you and saying he'd send the detective a copy of the article. He knew Bullock wouldn't want it, and part of him just wanted to wind with bulky detective up. Bruce had spoke about Bullock on more than one occasion, describing him as 'a good cop but not a people person.' Clark couldn't help but laugh when Bruce had described someone as not a people person, apparently not the first time the billionaire vigilante had got that reaction.
He finished typing, adding the quote from the e-mail to the article before saving it to a PDF file and sending it on to Perry for editing and print. Well, for print; he'd never had to be edited, he never made a spelling or grammatical error, he always formatted it correctly, he was shocked no one had accused him of being too accurate. Well, except Lois, she said it every time, but Clark assumed it was due to her continually being flagged up on spelling, grammar and formatting.
He stood, moving over to the water cooler and getting a plastic cup full, taking a swig before a blue envelope was shoved in front of his face. He turned around, seeing it was Lois holding it.
"Not a word." She said, grimacing slightly "Just take the card, say thank you and never speak of it again."
"O...Kay?" Clark said, taking the card and opening it, seeing it was a condolence card "Oh. Thanks."
"Listen, Smallville, I..." She began, hesitating before saying "I've never been close with my dad, and my mom died when I was a kid, but... If you need to talk... Well, I'm here and can listen."
"And it won't show up in an article the next day?" Clark quipped, cocking an eyebrow "Thanks, Lois. It's appreciated."
"Guys, guys, you've got to-" Came the voice of Jimmy, who ran over, stopping in his tracks as he saw Lois and Clark stood there, the card in Clark's hand "Am I interrupting something? Again?"
"That was an undercover investigation." Lois said, as both her and Clark turned shades of beetroot, recalling an incident when Jimmy had walked into a honeymoon suite only to find the two of them in a hot tub with a blonde, who'd turned out to be the girlfriend of an Intergang mob boss "What is it, Jimmy?"
"There's been a murder." Jimmy said "Reports claim to have seen a monster fleeing the scene in tattered clothes less than two minutes ago."
"Sounds like a story." Lois said "Come on, Smallville."
Lois began to lead Clark and Jimmy out of the office. As she did, Clark snapped his fingers.
"Oh, shoot, I forgot something." He said "I'll catch you up!"
Lois shook her head, irritated at Clark's apparent constant forgetfulness whilst Jimmy just laughed at it. Clark waited for the elevator doors to close before heading for the stairwell to the roof, beginning to run up it as he pulled off his glasses and ripped open his shirt.
...
Detective Dan Turpin walked down the alley, his messy brown hair covered in a thin sheen of sweat, his gun in hand. He'd been covertly following the creature that had devoured the three street hoods. Coroners had radioed in that they were part of a gang traced back to Gotham, the Red Hoods. If he didn't get this guy caught, there was a strong chance that the gang might show up in Metropolis, looking for revenge. Especially if the rumours of who their new leader was were true. Gotham and it's stinking clowns...
He watched as the creature turned a corner, raising his gun as he turned it himself. As he did, the creature smacked the gun out of Turpin's hand and tackled him to the floor.
"You've been following me!" The creature shrieked "You want to kill me! Well, you can't. I'll-"
Before the creature could finish it's threat, it was struck by a red and blue blur, being flung into the wall as Superman slowly lowered himself to the ground. Turpin quickly grabbed his gun, aiming at the creature.
"Stand down, Detective." Superman said, his eyes glowing red as they often did "I can handle him. Get back to the precinct."
"No can do, Superman." Turpin said, aiming and firing at the creature several times, Superman moving quickly and catching all but one of the bullets, which embedded itself in the creature, who gave a primal scream.
"You tried to kill me!" The creature yelled, clutching the wound on it's stomach as more of it's clothes were slowly burned away by the yellow liquid oozing from it's wound "No I kill you!"
The creature charged Turpin, Superman intercepting, the creature grabbing at Superman's costume, clawing at it, leaving small tears in it. Superman looked shocked, like that shouldn't happen. As the creature continued to attack, it clutched Superman's hands, before biting down into his neck, apparently beginning to feed.
As it did, Turpin saw Superman's eyes slowly lose their glow, and the creature's slowly gain the same glow. The creature stopped feeding, tossing Superman to the floor, apparently unconscious, before beginning to slowly advance on Turpin, quickly accelerating to a blur.
"This is amazing..." The creature said, picking Turpin up and hurling him into the dumpster before crushing the lid down around the edges "There's enough of an air hole there for you to be retrieved, if they're quick. Have a nice day."
Turpin heard a noise, like something taking off into the sky, waiting a moment before he heard someone slowly shuffling towards him, the sound of metal being forced, slowly but surely, audible before the top was opened, Turpin standing up to see Superman stood there, part of his cape torn off and made into a makeshift bandage on his neck.
Turpin got out, catching Superman as the alien collapsed. He pulled out his radio, pressing the button on top.
"Dispatch, this is Turpin. I need an ambulance to the alley just off of third." He said, pausing, before saying "Superman is down. Breathing's shallow, injuries severe. I need an Ambulance and Police escort, now!"
...
Rudy flew over the city, looking over it. The hunger had actually stopped. Feeding on Superman had satiated it. However, he could feel something in the back of his mind. Like the hunger was slowly clawing it's way back.
He made an attempt to set down in an alley, instead dive bombing into it, hitting the pavement hard. He barely felt a thing, but noted the yellow blood oozing onto the pavement. Whatever power he'd got from Superman was fading, but he needed more.
"You're on our turf, freak!" Came a voice from behind him, Rudy turning to see a group of four men, all in tattered suits with red masks, one of them, who Rudy assumed was the same guy, continuing "Get the hell out, or we take you to our boss!"
"Please... I'm so hungry..." Rudy said, feeling his energy slipping away faster and faster "I just need to eat..."
"Oh, well I'm never one to turn away a good monster!" Came a voice from behind a dumpster, a main with bleached skin and green hair, his face in a grin with lines cut further out from the edge of the mouth "Come on boys, clean him up. Harley will give him a good meal and then, well, maybe he can help us with our little pest preparation problem."
"You heard the boss." One of the men said, walking towards Rudy and putting a hand on him to hoist him up, less than comfortably, before Rudy put his hand on the man's, the man shrieking in pain before falling to the floor, dead.
As before, Rudy felt his wounds heal, before turning on the other men, charging two of them and beginning to feed. As he did, he felt gunshots impact him, turning and growling at the final man in the red hood, growling before tackling the man, the gun clattering away. As he finished feeding, he looked up at the clown, his look one of an animal that didn't want it's meal to end.
"Run, clown." Rudy hissed "Or I'll kill you too!"
"Run? Why would I run?" The man laughed "You know who I am? C'mon, I know my work at that circus three years ago was on TV, you must've seen me. Unless you're another monster man who lives in the sewers?"
"Joker..." Rudy said "Why aren't you afraid?"
"Oh please, once you've faced the Batman, someone like you isn't even intimidating!" Joker replied, laughing "I might, however, have a little suggestion. Something to our mutual interests."
"Go on..." Rudy said "I'm listening..."
"You get all the food you want. I'll take you somewhere for an all you can eat buffet." Joker said "Imagine the chaos!"
"And what do you get in return?" Rudy asked, tilting his head.
"It'll draw out Superman." Joker said "And when he goes down-"
"Superman's already dead." Rudy said, looking away with a slight hint of shame with what little Humanity he had left "I killed him..."
"Wowy, then you are good, Leechey!" Joker cackled "That means the next part's already coming. We're going to take this city, and when he arrives, we are going to kill the Batman."
...
Okay, so a little context here; the timeline of my DC fics is a little out. This is the first of my volumed fics to occur after Justice League Volume one, with this first part of it taking place a week or two before Flash Volume one, and about a year before volume 2 of The Bat starts. That places this as before Superman shows up at the end of the first part of that fic, and before the incident Batman mentions in it. Actually, this is the incident, but more on that later. In short, I guess this first arc could be called a World's Finest arc rather than Superman, but hey, enough exposition haha. R&R, please, no flames. B.