Firefly: Return of The Bat
Chapter Two
The day was uneventful. Bruce and Jason stayed in their room, and the crew carried out their duties. Wash piloted the ship lazily, whilst playing with his dinosaurs. Suddenly, a warning light flashed on his console.
"What've we got?" Wash muttered
He pressed the flashing button, and a terrifying image appeared on the main screen. It was a large ship, with blood and skeletons on the hull. Spikes stuck out of it, and the scanners reported a lack of radiation shielding.
"Wuh de tyen ah!" Wash exclaimed
He picked up his communicator.
"Captain, we've got Reavers!" he croaked
All the crew and passengers gathered in the cockpit.
"I'm familiar with what Reavers do," Bruce said, "Tell me, are they on a collision course?"
"They're heading in our direction," Wash explained, "if we try to run, then they'll go after us. The best thing to do is to stay on our present course and see what happens."
"What if it's the worst case scenario?" Bruce asked
"Then…" Mal didn't like to think about it
"I'm sorry we got you into this," Kaylee said
Kaylee tried to hug Jason, but he backed away.
"Don't touch me!" he growled
The Reaver ship did not simply pass by; a magnetic grapple hook lashed onto them, and a forced docking occurred. At once, Reavers piled in. Bruce Wayne saw this on the view screen.
"I have a way of getting us out of this," Bruce said, "But can you keep a secret?"
"If there's anything you can do, then do it!" Mal ordered
Bruce and Jason eyed each other.
"OK, let's do it," Bruce nodded
Bruce pushed past Jayne, and ran to the cargo bay. He reached to his belt, and activated a transformation: his suit sleeves disappeared, revealing grey sleeves and two metal gauntlets. Bruce aimed them at the Reavers, and a crossbow-like weapon formed on the gauntlets.
"Aim," he ordered, "Lock…fire!"
A Batarang shot out of each gauntlet; each one hit a Reaver.
"That's all you're going to do?" Jayne asked
The Batarangs exploded, tearing the Reavers apart. Jason aimed his hands at the ceiling.
"Fire!" he ordered
To Jayne's surprise, an thin-but-strong rope fired out of Jason's wrist, and Jason swung across the room, kicking several Reavers back into their ship.
"The Dark Knight is upon us!" Bruce yelled
There was a bright flash, and The Bat stood where Bruce Wayne had been. Jayne was surprised, but not by The Bat's appearance; the fact that The Bat's appearance spooked the Reavers was what scared him.
"I've never seen Reavers run before," Jayne said, "That was really amazing how you fought them off."
It was much later. Serenity had managed to get away from the Reavers…well, what was left of them.
"Fear is universal," Bruce explained, "even the scariest of creatures have a fear."
"If they're afraid of anything, it would be you," Zoe said
They were sitting at the kitchen table, eating dinner. Jayne was staring at Bruce in awe.
"My dad used to tell me the stories of The Bat from Earth That Was," Jayne asked, "How he was active in the twentieth, twenty-first, and then the twenty-fourth. Which one are you?"
"I'm neither of those. The Bat was always a determined man who hated crime and corruption. My Wayne Foundation tries to promote justice, but that isn't enough."
"So you decided to use The Bat's identity?" Mal asked
"No. Several months ago, I was sitting around my private moon, trying to think of a way, and then I fell into a cavern. After this swarm of bats engulfed me, I saw all these crime fighting tools, and some journals. It was then that I realized that I'm a descendant of The Bat. So, what better way to fight the Alliance?"
"What about the kid?" Mal asked, "What do they call 'im? Nightwing?"
"Don't call me Nightwing!" Jason growled, "I'm The Robin!"
"Calm down Jason," Bruce ordered, "Anyway, Captain, it's imperative that you don't tell anyone who my son and I are, for your own good."
"Hey, any enemy of the Alliance is a friend o' mine," Mal said
"That's a relief. But you should know…"
Bruce was interrupted by a bleeping noise from his belt.
"Excuse me," he said
Bruce took out a communicator; it wasn't like the kind Mal and Jayne used, it was red, with a circuit board on the bottom.
"Talk to me," he ordered
A series of squawks came out of the box. Kaylee cringed, and held her hands over her ears.
"What?" Bruce exclaimed, "Alfred! I…of course I did! Hey! Yelling at me won't help…then don't give me a reason to!"
The squawks stopped.
"You're right," Bruce nodded, "I'll get onto it."
Bruce clipped the communicator back onto his belt.
"Someone just made a call on an Alliance frequency," Bruce announced, "Alfred, one of my agents, managed to jam it, but I need to know who did it."
Bruce eyed everyone in the room.
"None of us did it!" Jayne blurted out
"Jayne, he's trying to tell who isn't here," Zoe groaned
Bruce covered Jason's ears.
"Where's that prostitute who was here?" Bruce asked
"The proper term is…" Kaylee began
Bruce gave her the Bat-glare; it was a technique used by Bruce Wayne the First that was just a stern glare, but had evolved into a super power. Basically, it was the ability to shut someone up by glaring at them.
Bruce and Mal ran down the hallway, guns and Batarangs a'blazing.
"Inara!" Mal yelled
The door to Inara's shuttle slammed shut, and Mal heard the hiss as the shuttle pressurized.
"No…" Mal groaned, "We'll never get inside now."
Bruce lifted up his communicator.
"Alfred, open Inara's door," Bruce ordered
There was a series of squawks, and the door blasted open. The two men walked inside, and saw Inara was trying to make a call. Mal fired a warning shot at her, punching a hole in her sleeve.
"Mal, you're paying for that!" Inara said
Bruce walked up to the monitor, and checked the history.
"She sent a message on an Alliance frequency," Bruce growled
"What did it say?" Mal asked
"It said: this is Companion 10069, The Bat is on my ship, a Firefly-class transport tagged Serenity. The Bat's true identity is…and that's where the message got cut off."
"Inara…" Mal growled
"You don't understand!" Inara said, "This man is an anarchist, a criminal. It's my duty as a concerned citizen to turn him in."
"Would you turn in Simon and River?" Mal asked
"No, but they didn't…"
"You'll have to forgive her, Mal," Bruce said, "Companions get mad when you have their clients arrested."
"I see," Mal said
"Companions thrive on crime," Bruce continued, "They also have a very warped concept of justice. Bad combination."
"Well, Bruce, what do we do?" Mal asked, "I've got no problem with dumping her on the next M-Class planet."
"That's not a bad idea, since we're very close to a planet where I drop off criminals who are too dangerous for regular prisons, but she knows too much," Bruce explained, "and for some reason, in our society the word of a prostitute is usually held over that of the guy with the real job."
"I'm not a prostitute!" Inara growled
"Do you screw guys out of their money?" Bruce asked, "What, you think just because you have some silk drapes and tea that makes you some kind of a priestess?"
Inara opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came to her.