THE HEADY KNIGHT
Chapter 3
"…and, again, Ms. Lane," said Bruce Wayne as his patience with reporters, especially this beautiful brunette, standing next to his crimefighting colleague-in-common disguise, Clark Kent, wore very, very thin, "I have no comment at the moment. For now, I am simply entertaining my date, Ms. Elka LeBaron, current holder of the Ms. Gotham City crown and…"
"I'm sure that's all very interesting, Mr. Wayne," abruptly interrupted Lois Lane in the stern style for which such as she had developed a reputation as the pit-bull reporter for The Daily Planet. "But I'm not doing a story for The National Enquirer, so let's stick with the reliable rumors regarding your true reason for visiting Metropolis and how it might apply to a LexCorp-versus-Wayne Enterprises situation that…"
Suddenly, the ground began to quake uncontrollably, causing Ms. LeBaron to cry out, "Wh-what's happening, Bruce? This c-can't be an earthquake…this is Metropolis not L.A.!"
"I don't know, Elka!" Bruce also shouted, even as he mentally entered Batman mode, his magnificent mind swiftly shifting from casual socializing to Dark Knight detecting. "Get under the table! Quickly!"
So, too, did Clark Kent's seemingly clumsy, mild-mannered Self shift swiftly into Superman mode as his X-ray/telescopic vision revealed that, indeed, all of Metropolis was subject to this continuing quake. To the point where it became quite clear that he needed to slip away and become the Man of Steel in order to save lives.
"Uh, yes, get under the table, Lois, and cover your head!" Clark also strongly suggested loud enough to be more readily heard over the rumbling, worsening, tremors.
As both beautiful ladies climbed under said table and quickly covered their heads, just as virtually everyone else in the fine eatery was doing…
Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne hurriedly ran for some less visible section in order to ditch outer clothing in favor of one blue-red and one blue-gray costume, the first with easily understood "S" chest shield and the second with an equally recognizable bat-in-yellow chest shield.
"I'll go keep people from being flattened by falling building debris!" loudly said Superman a few short seconds before streaking up-and-away.
"It's gonna take time to have my Batmobile self-drive itself from Gotham to Metropolis," huskily, though loudly, replied Batman, adjusting his cruel costume's impermeable half-hood, "but I'll do whatever I can to help, Kal-El!"
Even as the earthquake caused fixtures to fall and dishes to crash and people to scream in terror…
Superman was soaring skyward, then, just as swiftly, streaking to quickly catch huge hunks of concrete in order to prevent such from causing dozens of bloody deaths.
Batman used his one-of-a-kind cunning and infallible acrobatic balance, combined with the pure courage of the Caped Crusader, to save several via his all-too-Human abilities…
"Quickly! Duck in this doorway!"
All along the downtown streets a cacophonous symphony of car alarms could be heard…
WEEEE-ooooo! WEEEE-ooooo! WEEEE-ooooo! WEEEE-ooooo!
Beeep! Beeep! Beeep! Beeep! Beeep! Beeep!
…until the remaining screams were mercilessly drowned out.
As suddenly as it started, the seemingly relentless quaking concluded.
And as Batman stood in the midst of a debris-strewn street, with Superman streaking down to stand at the Dark Knight's side…
"What could've caused this, Batman?" pondered the super-powered Man of Steel as his handsome, square-jawed countenance bore an intense scowl. "My super-vision and super-hearing found no evidence of any sort of explosive device and Lex, it seems, is still out of town…which could still be suspicious enough to…"
"I don't believe Lex Luthor is at the heart of this, Superman," huskily said Batman while looking up into the nighttime Metropolitan sky. "Take a look."
Superman didn't even need his vaunted super-vision, as the obvious object of Batman's detection slowly lowered into view…
"What in Rao's name…?" slowly exclaimed Superman as his true-blue eyes beheld a bald, green-skinned, mechanically enhanced, hulking being with blinking, glowing red diodes deliberately placed geometrically about his hairless head.
Finally landing a half-block from the World's Finest, one in blue-red and one in blue-gray, the greatly restructured physicality that, very recently, rested within the curious confines of a single-person starship, currently in low orbit about the Earth, spoke with an amplified, synthetically-sounding voice that rattled windows.
"I am Brainiac! Former resident of a now-destroyed world called Colu!"
Batman was quick to ask of Superman, "Brainiac? Colu? Wasn't there a Brainiac-5 from Colu in the Legion of Super-Heroes we'd recently helped against Composite Superman?"
"Yes," Superman was swift to explain, "but that was in a different time-reality than ours. Remember? Apparently, in this reality, Colu has been destroyed and this Brainiac is here to…"
"Silence, Kryptonian!" loudly came the amplified command from Brainiac, much more muscular than the blonde-haired, green-skinned B-5 in that other reality, as well as heavily augmented by readily recognizable cybernetic and mechanical attachments all about his beefed-up body. The red head diodes blinking much more rapidly and glowing much more brightly.
"What do you want, Brainiac?" Superman shouted back, even as his super-muscles flexed significantly beneath his skin-tight blue-red costume.
"I should think that would be quite clear, Kryptonian," said Brainiac less vociferously as a ghost of a smile played upon his otherwise emotionless face of green. "I am here to destroy you, then…I shall destroy this planet!"
As Superman glanced to Batman, the Cowled One tensely intoned, "Just when I was looking forward to a pleasant night out."
END OF CHAPTER 3