Chapter Two: Fatal Attraction

Wonder Woman was flying late that night. The villain known as The Trickster was up to his old tricks, setting up deadly pranks for people to fall into. The Trickster being a very low-threat villain, Batman had deployed only Wonder Woman to face him, saving the rest of the league in case a greater threat emerged. As Wonder Woman flew to Metropolis, the location of this threat, she thought deeply about her relationship with Bruce Wayne, a.k.a. Batman, if you could really call it a relationship. They had been "together" for a year now, but Bruce was always so secluded… he rarely had time to be with her, and even when he did, he showed very little emotion. She knew he loved her, she could tell he did, but he was just too emotionally distant to express it. She had been trying for months to break him out of his shell, but her attempts only made him retreat further into solitude. Why was he so afraid to be with her? She loved him, but if he didn't man up and show some affection soon… it was over.

Wonder Woman soon arrived at the location of the prank, a large bowling had rolled through the street, crushing several cars. Exactly what had triggered this prank, she did not know, but police had reported seeing The Trickster retreat into an old apartment building scheduled for demolition, and no one had seen him come out. Wonder Woman flew through a broken top floor window of the old apartment, and began scanning the building for any sign of The Trickster. He was apparently somewhere on the top floor, but she would have to check every room. She crept silently down the hall, listening for any noise whatsoever to tip her off to his location. Soon she had checked over twenty rooms. Where was he? Then she heard a deep laughter from a room at the end of the hall. She crept silently down to it, prepared herself to fight, and kicked open the door. There was no response, but the laughter continued, a deep, manic laughter. She crept around the corner of the room, where she was surprised to see Superman sitting on the bed! His back was facing her, and his hands cupped his ears, as if he were trying to block out some sort of noise. And he was laughing. The laughter to had been from Superman! "Clark?" She gasped, but he did not hear her, because of his hands cupping his ears.

She tapped his shoulder, and in a blur he whipped around to face her, a soulless look in his eyes. "Diana!" He cried without removing his hands. "Has he stopped yet! Has the screaming stopped!" He asked frantically.

"Screaming? Clark what the hell are you talking about? What's going on here?" She asked, very disturbed by his behavior.

"Go Diana! Go look in the bathroom!" He insisted. Wonder Woman was very uncertain, but with reluctance she moved over to the apartment bathroom. The door was closed, and when she opened it up, there was blood everywhere. All over the floor, the toilet, the walls, everything. And lying in the bathtub, which was filled with bloody water, was the mangled, twisted body of The Prankster. He was hardly even identifiable, he was so messed up. His skin was burned and torn, revealing several clumps of mutilated meat and broken bone.

"Oh God…" She moaned in surprise and disgust. She backed away, for the stench of his rotting, burnt corpse was unbearable. She shut the door, and turned around to see Superman less than two inches behind her!

"Do you like it!" He shouted with an exhilarated tone in his voice.

"Clark… what- what happened!"

"I killed him Diana." Superman said calmly, as if it were completely normal.

"What! Why!"

"He was hurting people." Superman said, moving even closer to her. "And now he'll never hurt anyone again, ever." Superman said with a smile.

"Clark! No, no… h- how could you do something like that!"

"I ended him Diana! I ended all the terror he brings. All the bad things he causes, those will all go away now! Just like with Toyman!"

"You mean…" She stammered, turning even paler. "You killed Toyman too?"

"Yes! And it felt so good… you have to try it Diana! This one, I did it for you! I knew you were coming here, so I came and I fixed it early, so that you could see, you could understand!"

"Clark you're crazy!" She said, backing as far away as the wall behind her would allow. Superman began scanning her, looking up and down at her, whiteness in his eyes. He was using his x-ray vision on her, looking through her clothing. Wonder Woman soon noticed this. "Huh! Clark, are you-" She wrapped her arms around her chest. She turned and tried to run, tried to leave the room, but Superman grabbed her shoulder. "I need you Diana."

"What!" She gasped as he pulled her back to him.

"I want you. I need you. Please…" He put his hands on her waist.

"Clark… I- I'm in love with Bruce…"

"Then what if I killed Bruce! Then could we be together!"

"No! Clark no! This is insane! You need help, we have to-"

"Please." Superman whispered into her ear, taking his hands a bit lower, down onto her backside. Wonder Woman clenched her fists and punched him in the face, sending him spiraling into a wall. His head put a hole in the wall, and Wonder Woman began to run for the door. Superman pulled his head out the wall angrily, heat vision burning in his eyes.

"Oh… you shouldn't have done that." He said violently. As she reached for the doorknob, he used his super speed and zoomed in front of her, snapping her wrist like a twig. Wonder Woman screamed and stumbled back, massaging her wrist. Superman then grabbed her by the throat and slammed her into the wall. She was punching and kicking, and bruising Superman up, but he did not stop. He refused to stop. "I thought you'd understand." He said, his voice filled with rage. "You can't understand." Then he fired his heat vision into her eyeballs, and she immediately dropped to the ground, her eye sockets empty and smoldering. "You hurt me Diana… and now you'll never hurt anyone again." He said with pleasure in his voice, grabbing her motionless body and flying off into the night.