Chapter 10, Superman and Batman part 2
Present Day
The dark knight had heard of this guy, it was hard not to read a news report without hearing about this so called 'Superman'. Batman had done very little research on him, being busy with other priorities. He knew that he was an alien who inexplicable looked human, who was sent to Earth. Watching vids of some of his heroics, Batman saw first-hand the incredible abilities he possessed and classified him as a possible risk.
This 'Superman' claims to fight for good, but with such an arsenal of abilities, it would be hard to be sure.
Batman had estimated that the fuel for his abilities were solar, and now the red radiation confirmed it.
He examined the confined man and noted the metal beams holding him; they seemed to be made of something extremely strong and durable. Batman looked around the room and saw the control panel on the other side against the wall. He activated his dark blue omni-tool and began to hack the system. Acquiring the codes needed, he then adjusted the ventilation system; dispersing the knock out gas. He then deactivated the red solar radiation lights and turned back to the unconscious man.
Expecting him to immediately wake up and break out of his restraints, Batman cautiously got closer. He was standing right in front of the brightly colored man now and saw no indication of him waking up.
Not having time for this, Batman brought his armored hand across the face of the unconscious man, "Wake up!" he barked.
The slap was noticeable hard, but Batman was interested to see that the man opened his eyes and seemed to be in pain. Batman could remember seeing this man survive missile launchers to the face without a scratch on holo-vids. The great detective deduced the red solar energy robbed him of his abilities and not merely suppress them.
The man blinked his blue eyes a few times and then looked up to the black clad figure standing in front of him.
"Thanks" he exhaled, exhausted and hurt.
The dark knight said nothing as he turned his head to look back at the control panel. He waved his hand towards it with his omin-tool active and with a clicking noise the metal restraints released. The man fell to the ground on his knees and caught himself with his right hand.
He slowly got up, stretching his back by twisting and turning.
This was wasting time, "So are you totally useless without your abilities?" growled the caped knight.
The black haired man folded his arms on the oversized \S/ on his chest. "Well, that depends, where are we now?"
Batman stood facing the man with his cape draped around him, "Pax system, Horse Head Nebula."
The capeless man looked down, thinking, "Class K star. Yea I'll be fine. Thanks again" he said with a smile as he put his hand out for a handshake.
Batman looked down at his hand and then back to the man's face. "What was Poison Ivy going to do with you?"
The man shrugged, putting down his hand, "My guess? Somehow persuade or control me to help her."
Batman lunged at the man, grabbing his collared suit and pinning him against the back wall. "Then it's in my best interest to take you out now!" he yelled. Batman had no intention to kill him, but wanted to gage a reaction from the man while depowered, see what he would do when threatened. To Batman's surprise, the other man barely blinked or lowered an eyebrow.
"Well before we do this, I suggest we deal with them first" the man said non-chalantly, tilting his head up looking over Batman's left shoulder.
Batman tilted his head and checked his sensors, noticing that a squad of six had come into the room to investigate the commotion. He knew this so called 'superman' had seen them come in and surround them, knowing they would be armed with stun rounds to preserve the weapon for Ivy. Batman growled in his helmet and then pushed himself off the pinned man and landed a gut wrenching uppercut to the closest guard's stomach.
The human had the wind knocked out of him as he fell face first on the floor. Stun rounds were shot everywhere, attempting to take down the armored knight leaping around the room. Batman swept the legs of one trooper while simultaneously throwing several batarangs at another.
One batarian had unholstered a shotgun from his back and pointed it right at the caped knight. Seconds from pulling the trigger, the batarian was tackled by the red and blue suited man. Both went down with a grunt, as the man landed a two fist combo in the batarian's face, stunning him. The man then grabbed the shotgun from the ground and went back to help the dark knight.
Batman shifted around in time to see a salarian with his omni-tool, shifted into an omni-blade, fall unconsciousness in front of him. Batman looked up to see that the red and blue man had hit the salarian in the back of the head with the butt-end of a shotgun.
Batman eyed the shotgun that the man had lowered and then quickly tossed away, "I know your rules, and mine are actually the same."
"You know who I am?" questioned the dark knight standing upright.
"Well to be honest I thought you were just a myth, a spooky story to scare criminals."
Casey couldn't help but feel good about that.
"Well so far, I have seen nothing 'super' about you."
The man let out a small laugh, "Let's fix that." He turned and started down the hall with Batman following behind. They made their way through the hall and came to a split.
"This way" Batman said, already taking the lead. He stopped when noticed he wasn't being followed.
"I've got a better idea" said the brightly colored man walking towards an emergency exit port. He hit the button, activating an alarm throughout the frigate and opening the pod door. He strode in and then closed it.
Batman quickly got defensive looking around for more guards and was finally fed up with playing baby-sitter. He obviously knows what he's doing.
Batman figured the God-like abilities that the man normally possessed had made him cocky and not fearful of most situations. With these thoughts racing through his head he made his way back to the hidden hull-hatch. He opened it and slid into the Bat-Fighter, prepping all controls and then detaching from the frigates hull. He floated for a few seconds and then activated the thrusts and started to move away from the mercenary armada.
The other ships started to break formation; they received the alarm signifying the weapon was free. Still cloaked, Batman looked out from the cockpit trying to spot the man he had just freed. The system's orange sun was shining brightly through and after the caped knight filtered the orange light out, he spotted him.
He was floating in the nothingness of space and seemed to have put on a breathing mask. Batman zoomed in on his location, and noticed that he was not moving.
Sure that he was unconscious again, Batman maneuvered his ship through the vigilant enemy fighters. When Batman was only a few meters from the man, the dark knight saw him arch his back and curl his fists.
The brightly dressed man then moved himself in front of where Batman was cloaked and started to speak into his breathing mask.
Batman scanned local channels and located the signal in which the man was using, "…and yes I can see your cloaked ship. Good you found the channel. Now if you can hack into the frigate's mainframe, you can figure out where a fleet like this came from."
Batman was curious himself; an armada such as this had to have come from some control base or headquarters.
"I'll buy you time by distracting them."
"Can you handle it?" asked Batman, already typing on the holo-screens.
"Sure, I am Superman after all" with that he disappeared into a red and blue blur overtop of the cloaked Bat-fighter. He streaked towards the fighters and tore the engines from off the backside of the ships, one by one. Batman was lost in thought, hacking into the frigate's navigation and operation systems, when the synthesized AI voice interrupted him.
"Sir, I was doing scans of this 'Superman' while you were talking and your original hypothesis of this man was correct. His body absorbs high level solar radiation to attribute to his super-human abilities. But it seems that this system's class K star is only minimally charging him."
Batman looked up from his screens, "Minimally?" He thought to himself for a moment, remembering that the red solar energy had robbed him of his abilities, essentially making red solar power neutral to Superman. Casey knew that Superman was originally titled 'Earth's Champion' having been first spotted on Earth, which orbits a class G star, which is seen as yellow.
Batman deduced that it must be the higher energy output of a yellow sun that makes Superman super. The dark knight maneuvered the Bat-fighter around to see the fleet behind the small ship.
Metal debris and wreckage was scattered amongst several derelict fighters. Small burst of missiles could be seen and when Batman enhanced the image to get a closer look, he could see the missiles striking Superman and putting him in serious pain.
He de-cloaked the Bat-fighter and activated all weapon systems. Zig-zagging between several other fighters, a small cannon on the underside of the bat shaped fighter fired concentrated electrical shells that completely disabled any machinery it impacted.
Between Superman and Batman, it did not take them long leave all the ships that were supposed to be guarding the frigate derelict in space.
"Thanks," Superman breathed heavily into his breathing mask, "did you find where the group is from?"
"Standby" Batman replied, working away on the holo-screens.
Superman had crossed his arms over his chest again, "You don't talk much do you?"
Batman didn't look up from his screens, "You talk too much." He could hear through the comm a small chuckle come from floating hero.
"Sir, the hack of the frigates systems is nearly complete, but I detect it is powering up its engines to flee the system" politely said Alfred inside the cockpit of the fighter.
Batman then quickly looked up from his screens, noticing the large frigate's engines starting to power on. Thoughts were racing through Batman's head; his electric pulse cannon would not stun an engine that size. He then looked to Superman, who had apparently heard Alfred, and saw that he was already on his way towards the frigate. Superman gained speed through the emptiness of space and was soon nothing more than a red and blue blur.
Batman thought he was going to rip off the engine, like he did the other fighters, but instead the dark knight sat wide-eyed as Superman tore through the engine itself. Fire sprouted into space and quickly turned into vacuum. Superman ripped through the engine and then started to tear the metal from the inside. No more than a minute later, the huge engine detached from the ship as explosions still blew from the frigate backside, where the engine used to be.
"Sir, the analysis is complete. The frigate has been completely neutralized by the Superman."
"Thanks Alfred" Batman brought the Bat-fighter closer to the wreckage, scanning for Superman. Batman scanned closely in the wreckage, and saw metal twisting and bending from inside the frigate. Enhancing the image, Batman saw Superman emerge into space and begin slowly floating to the Bat-Fighter.
"So you found the base?" exhaled Superman as he reached the bow of the Bat-Fighter.
"Argos Rho, Gorgon system, planet Sharblu" Batman replied.
Superman looked away for a second then smiled, "Blue star, good. I'll take care of the facility there and make sure they can never create an armada again."
Batman nodded his head, "I think its best you stay away from Ivy's primary operations, at least for now."
Superman floated right to the cockpit window, "It was nice meeting you, and thanks for all your help. If you ever need any assistance, look me up, I won't be far." Superman then nodded his head, smiling and then rocketed away to the closest Mass Relay.
Batman followed the red blue streak until it was out of the system, and then nodded his helmeted head in approval.
"Sir, can this Superman be trusted?" asked Alfred.
"For now, and if he is handling the main resource base, we can now focus entirely on Ivy"