Action FanFic #13

The Dark Knight

No sooner did I shake Mayor Hamilton Hill's hand when I took off towards Gotham City. Of course it didn't take me long to get there, which I suppose I could've waited. Still, that semi-early morning arrival did do a few favors for me. The biggest being trying to get a lay of the land. The strangest thing about Gotham is that despite the fact it was so early, it still felt like I was in perpetual darkness. Some towns are like that though, it's almost the personification of the grim attitude people feel while being somewhere. The moment I fly overhead I feel something deep in my gut; this is a gray city with little in the way of hope.

After a few hours I decide it might be best if I introduce myself to the police so that they know who I am and what it is I'm doing. I'm sure that Mayor Hill told them already, but it's a courtesy that I do make my presence known in person instead of just flying overhead and letting them figure out what it is I'm here to do. The minute I set foot on the ground every officer outside the building turns their attentions towards me. Some of them have decidedly panicked looks on their faces. They whisper as I start to wander towards the largest collected group. I can hear every word of it, and yet they continue to chatter away. "What the hell is he doing here? That's Superman! Is he here to clean up the city? I bet he's here to start taking out crime bosses!"

"Hello ladies and gentlemen. I'm here to see your commissioner about a special project handed to me by the mayor?"

"Sure Mr. Superman, sir. Right this way."

We step inside and the building just reeks of age, drunks, and a slight urine smell. Sometimes it's hard to have such advanced senses. Trace things smell like a garlic factory to me. The officer that's leading obviously wants to parade me through the building. As we pass up many places along the way to the Commissioner's office I decided to scan the area for the most direct route. I'm not sure what the deal is, but he seems to want people to see me. I don't know if it's for some sort of prestige or if it's a warning to others that I'm here. I'm a little curious. "What's with the scenic route?" I ask with a light and happy tone.

His nerves get the best of him as he turns around, "You...you know?"

I chuckle slightly, "Well, the X-Ray Vision helps."

He gives me that look like my skin just turned to slime and turns his head, "Yeah…X-Ray Vision. Must be nice to be able and scan your own luggage at an airport, eh?"

"If you're so nervous, why take me this way?"

"Who's gonna believe me if I didn't?"

"Touché." For the rest of our short walk things are quiet. There are gasps, gawking and some rather interesting whispers that float around. Needless to say I doubt I'd take up offers that being thrown out. In Metropolis people acted like I was someone to be trusted, here I feel like the off-worlder that I am.

As he knocks on the door to the Commissioner's office, a gruff sounding comes barking out. "What is it?!"

"Commissioner Loeb? I have Superman out here to see you, sir."

"Superman? Yeah, right! Next you'll be telling me we've got the Batman out there too." The door swings open quickly and there stands this short, portly and balding man. His glasses start to ride back up his nose as he looks up to see me. "Superman! My goodness, I didn't realize that my officer here was so serious. Come on in!"

"I'm sorry for dropping by unannounced like this."

"Nonsense! A hero of your obvious caliber is always welcome in our fair city. Which brings me to the obvious question, why have you come?"

"I'm actually here at the request of Mayor Hill, he wants me to look for this..., what did you call him? Batman?"

His placating looked faded and became a more serious tone. It was as if he wasn't expecting Mayor Hill to do anything at all about the situation. I can understand that, it's undermining. Still, if the situation is bad as it's been made out to be then I suppose he won't mind a little help. "Did he now? Well, I'll have to talk to him about that. We've set up a special taskforce, so it's only a matter of time before we catch up to him. I think the mayor was a bit premature in bringing you in to this."

"Maybe so, but he did ask. I gave him my word that I'd look into the matter and see what I couldn't do to resolve it."

"Surely there are more important matters to attend to then some psycho in a bat suit. Metropolis is always so full of danger."

"Commissioner Loeb, I don't mean to step on toes, but I was asked here and I will do the job that was appointed to me. I'm sorry to do that, but this is a task that was asked to me by your mayor and I will see it through. I'm just letting you know about it before I started."

"Don't you think we can handle it? We mere mortals might not have the advanced powers you do, but we can muddle through without the need of Heat Vision and flying."

"I'm sorry to ask, but do you want me gone for some reason? You seem awfully bent to turn away help, even if it's been asked for by someone of higher authority than you."

"Now see here young man! I've been a cop on these streets for better than 40 years. Man and boy I've done my duty and didn't need any snot nosed punks to show me up. I don't have anything to hide from you or anyone else!"

"Well, then you won't mind me being out there then."

"No, by all means, go and search him out. I suppose you want our taskforce to back off too?"

"No, sir. They have a job to do I won't impede upon that. Merely, look at me as a second pair of hands in the task. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I want to get a second look at the city before nightfall, it's big and there's only one of me." I walk out of the office flustered at Loeb. He's trying to work around me. If he weren't older I'd swear he was trying to play pretend that he's Lex. It'll be 100 degrees in the arctic before he succeeds in that. I want to come back as Clark sometime soon and do a bit of journalism. I might try to expose some of the slime here. It's no wonder someone put on a costume and tried to knock some sense into people. No…I don't care that they've done wrong, this Batman should've at least tried to work with police instead of against them. Still…who do you work with when the head of the department seems to be corrupt?

I fly for hours, trying to get the idea as to where to start my first watch. I find a place that graffiti calls Crime Alley. Underneath is an old, faded sign that says Park Row. It looks like a neighborhood built back in the 40's, just after the Depression ended. I can see where this was once a beautiful neighborhood. It reminds me, the old Justice Society Headquarters is actually here in Gotham! I'm going to have to check that out! Too bad I'll have to wait to get inside. Oh well, that just means I might have to come back if I don't find this Batman character before then.

10:00pm rolls around and it's not long before I can hear guns going off and screaming. There's a lot of it here. As bad as it is in Suicide Slum, I can't imagine it being this bad. It's like I stepped into a nightmare someone had. I respond as quickly as I can to the first gunshots and the 10 thugs chasing after a couple of teens. The boy's been hit in the shoulder and he's screaming for his girlfriend to run as quickly as she can away. The obvious leader of the group speaks up to him.

"Ain't that nice, boys? Little punk here is gonna try and hold us back!"

"What we gonna do to him Axe?"

"I think we should let him try to be a hero, Blood. Let him try to beat us with his mad skills."

"How about you try to beat me up instead?" I say as I land in-between the gang and boy. They're taken back for a minute. Axe backs up for a minute then smiles as he looks to have arrived at some epiphany.

"This can't be Superman. This ain't Metropolis, and all he had to do was jump from one of those fire escapes. Don't back down, get the fool!" They advance onto the attack. Axe is the first one to attack. It'd almost be admirable that he'd join in the fight first instead of letting his men do it for him. If he wasn't some thug trying to kill people, I think I would admire him. Instead I'll just have to be amused at the look his face when he brings down an actual fire axe down on my chest and the blade breaks into several pieces. Its shock and panic wrapped up in that expression kids get when you tell them Santa isn't real for the first time. I grab what's left of the axe and break it down to splinters. That automatically tells the others to fire their guns. The hail of gunfire does worry me. If this boy gets hit, then he's going to be in worse shape. I use tiny bolts of Heat Vision to make the guns too hot to handle. They drop them almost immediately. For bravery's sake, instead of turning back and running the other direction from me they try a full on assault. I wish I could just let this happen, but I've wasted enough time with them. I use my breath to cause a wind that pushes them back into the wall. They impact with a light thud, which stunned them. As much as hauling them in would be satisfying I need to get the kid out of here first, I dump them into the dumpster and I weld the lid shut poking in a few holes for air.

I scoop the boy up and I start to fly off I keep a watch out for his girlfriend. As soon as I spot her I swoop down which causes her to scream. "Don't worry Ms. I won't hurt you."

"SUPERMAN?!"

"Yes, ma'am, I need to get your boyfriend to the hospital. I don't want to leave you here though. Would you jump onto my back and wrap your arms around my neck? You'll be safe, I promise."

"Uh…yeah…sure," she does so without much hesitation. She puts a good bear hug on me, and I fly gentle towards the hospital. I don't want to irritate his wounds too much. It looks like the bullet went in deep. I descend slowly when we get to the hospital and I tell her to jump off. The minute the on-duty officer sees me he hit's the emergency button and the nurses come running. To my delight, even though it's obvious they're surprised to see me; they take the boy and only ask me the pertinent questions.

"What happened?"

"He and his girlfriend were jumped by a gang."

"Are you hurt?" they ask her. For a second there I the nurse was asking me.

"No ma'am. Superman saved us!"

"Ma'am, I'm sorry I can't stay. I have to go and bag those crooks before they get away."

"Thank you Superman, you do that." I take off out of there like a bolt of lightning heading back towards the scene. I no sooner arrive when I find that they busted out of the dumpster, but they weren't alone. I move myself around the corner and watch using my X-Ray Vision.

There in a black cape and cowl….no wait! That's not black, it's blue! Adaptive blue! That's why they can't see him, the cape and cowl take on the color of what he's surrounded by! His movements are fluid. No sooner does one swing when somehow instinctively he moves. As he turns to face the man I get a glimpse of his face. Actually I get a picture of his frontal silhouette. Axe is in his grasp and this figure stares downwards towards the gang leader. His eyes are completely white! What little outline I can make, puts a shiver down my spine. I listen closely to what he says as his voice hisses almost as if he's decided to disguise it. It sounds like an angered wraith ready to scare the life from its victim.

"I thought I shut down your gang a month ago, Axe? You should be rotting in jail."

"GET AWAY FROM ME MAN!"

"Not until I find out what you're doing back out on the streets. Who set you free?"

"I DUNNO, SOME COPS!"

"Names, Axe. I want names."

"I ain't got names! I swear! He just told me and my boys to go back out and cause some damage!"

"And you listened to him," he hits him in the jaw knocking him out cold. "Maybe next time you get let out you'll leave Gotham period."

He reaches under his cape, pulls out a length of rope, and ties them down a dumpster. After he's done he looks straight towards the dumpster and starts to speak. "You're insulting my intelligence, Superman."

I step around the corner slowly. "How did you know I was there?"

"I noticed a marked change in the wind patterns when you flew in and suddenly they stopped instead of slowly fading."

"So you're the infamous Batman I've been told about."

"This isn't Metropolis. You're not welcome here."

"Mayor Hill seems to think otherwise."

"Mayor Hill is a pawn in a much larger game. He only wants you here because there are people out there pressuring him to get rid of me."

"Be that as it may, they want me to bring you in for dispensing vigilante justice."

"They can want me under arrest all day long, I'm not going anywhere."

"I don't think you have a choice."

"That's where you're wrong." He pulls out a small green chunk of what looks to be part metal and part quartz crystal. The minute it starts to glow I feel weak. Almost like when Kenny started blasting me in Metropolis.

"This mineral sample is dubbed K-Metal. It's a strange combination of several different elements which produces a radiation that can have long-term effects on a human if over exposed and immediate problems to Kryptonians. Which is how it got it's designation. The name they plan to use for general purposes is Kryptonite."

"How do you know that?"

"It's a sample that was discovered in Europe about 15 years ago. S.T.A.R. Labs did some research on a piece they found and it matched the same kind of properties as the piece you see before you." He slips it back into his belt and I start to feel better. I'm still weak as a kitten from it, but it could've killed me! "The HAZMAT team that went in to check for any residual radiation after your fight found that it matched the same properties as that of the samples such as the one I showed you."

"You stole it?"

"I found it. I kept it because its properties weren't anything I'd studied about or heard of on this planet. It has close properties, but too far for it to be terrestrial. I kept it and searched out references, been keeping tabs on it ever since. I knew what to use it for the minute those scans came back positive for the radiation that it emits."

"So you started carrying the piece with you wherever you went?"

"There was a probability that we'd meet. After keeping up with your activities it wasn't long before I realized that if we did come face to face you would likely try and arrest me for working outside the law. It gave me an edge since I know limited exposure without killing you in the process."

"Why are you telling me this?" I get to my feet and yet I want to fall again.

"Because, there's a weapon out there that can be used against you. I have it and I will use it to toss your weakened carcass over the city limits if I have to. I don't need your kind of crime fighting here. You're a liability that will end up with someone being killed."

"You were watching me when I stopped those thugs earlier?"

"Yes."

"Then what do you call what I did back there?"

"Sloppy. You wasted precious time showing off your invulnerability. YOU know they've got nothing that can stop you, it doesn't matter if THEY do. Flex your muscles when there isn't innocent lives at risk. Then when you're done showboating for the masses you lightly knock them out and leave to take the kid to the hospital. It would've taken you maybe two seconds to find something to use to tie them up, really keep them disabled. Instead you rested on your laurels that you knocked them out hard enough so that welding the metal sides and the PLASTIC lid would work well enough for you to leave. The dumpster was mostly empty, and this is a big city. These are bigger dumpsters in this area, meant for an overcrowded neighborhood. Even with 10 of them in there they still had enough room to move the way you stacked them in. At least four were laying on the backs of the other six. Another mistake, you saw the weaponry they were flashing, not what they kept hidden. They still had knives; stolen shipment of cold steel. With at least two of them at work, it would've taken a few minutes cut the lid off. In the meantime there are people others wandering the streets that could've been stabbed, beaten, raped or any number of things. Metropolis might not have those sorts of worries that often where you've got police backing you up wherever you go. Here, you've got no one but yourself to rely on."

"And you beating them to a pulp is the answer?"

"They're out breaking every law they can find under their meager intellect. To use a cliché, they had it coming. Unfortunately there's always someone wandering these streets this late at night that doesn't. It makes sure they're not just lightly sleeping and makes it easier to tie them up."

"I stand by what I did."

"It might be admirable that you saved two lives, but how many more were at risk?"

"Instead of criticizing me, why didn't you jump down and tell me where I was going wrong at the time?"

"I was assessing the situation."

"You were testing me."

"Essentially. The TV footage doesn't do you justice. It's one thing to go after people that are as powerful as you, but I wanted to see how you treated the common crook. And it was what I expected, people have treated you so much like some sort of god-like figure you've taken on an above-the-common man attitude."

"Which means you busted them out and they scattered, which means they were still caught."

"You're looking at a small piece of a bigger puzzle. Get over that! Look at what could've happened, not what did. Had I not been here they might've escaped; the scenario placed down continues. The argument's done, you're leaving."

"I'm staying."

"You're not, Gotham City doesn't need the kind of attention you attract."

"What's that supposed to me."

"The first three days in action and you're dealing with two highly powered metahumans that help to wreck a city block. It's fortunate that the fight was that contained. It's also very lucky that they didn't play up the innocent life card."

"Metahuman?"

"A term used by the government to describe someone that has abilities that normal humans don't."

"So I'm classified a metahuman."

"No. They classify you extraterrestrial. If the information you've given about your world in interviews is correct then others of your planet would have the same powers you do. Humans are generally exposed to or have some sort of natural activation of their abilities that make them different from their fellow man. To further than along; although the government classification of says otherwise, seemingly there are others in the slowly growing meta-community that are looking up to your example."

"There are others that actually think that I'm doing a good job instead of screwing up like some people, eh?"

"It would seem that way. I feel justified in my beliefs. Despite the one child you managed to get out of harms way, Parasite and Conduit could've started destroying buildings that would've kept you busy for quite some time. No matter what your best attempt was, you couldn't have saved them all."

"But it didn't happen that way. Look at what was, not what could've been."

"The could's and the would's are what help plan for contingencies. There are always factors that are unknown. Things going on without your knowledge, that will happen and you react as best as you can to contain the situation. Things like two super powered menaces wanting to kill others to keep you away from them isn't something that I would consider generally unknown. For those reasons, I don't want you here. Right now there the mobs, corrupt politicians and crooked police are enough to deal with. The power vacuum will be bad enough once they're destroyed, I don't need your kind of evil taking it over."

"I see…" What could I say to him? It's obvious if he wanted me dead he could've killed me quickly and gone about his business. It still confuses me as to why he's told me all of this. He obviously doesn't want me here, but he's given me a lot of information. I won't leave until I have all the answers to the questions running through my head now. Because now a simple arrest doesn't seem to be the right way to go with this. There's more to this man than meets the eye.

My thoughts are broken when I hear a group somewhere near the docks start to scream. "There's trouble down at the docks!" He leaps into action without so much as a word. I leap into the air and start to gain speed when I feel a new weight on my leg. There attached to my leg was a cable and Batman gripped on.

"I told you to leave!"

"Accept that I'm not for now. You say that I don't examine things close enough, well congratulations, I'm examining you! Now if you don't mind, there's something that requires our attention!"

As I stop talking an explosion rocks the warehouse and something takes to the air. It's shadowed from the small amount of distance between us, but this person is obviously hovering there and he too is wearing a cape. In mere moments two red beams, like my own Heat Vision burns towards the warehouse.

Batman screams towards me, "GO FASTER, WE HAVE TO STOP THAT MANIAC!" I do as he says as pour the speed on. As we arrive I look at a familiar S on his chest. His costume is a duplicate of mine! I look up at his face and he looks like me! Slowly though, the features start to harden and become angular. The skin becomes chalk white. He stares at me only for moment.

"Who am you?"

"I'm Superman!"

"NO YOU AM NOT! ME AM!"

As I'm punched I realize that he's hit me with the same amount of strength that I'm capable of producing. I go flying into a warehouse. Batman is detached from me at least. I can't tell where he's gone to. The impact hurts worse than anything I've ever experienced. That's hard to believe considering the damage Parasite did to me when we fought.

"You am a goner fake Superman! World only need one Superman and me am it!"

I don't know where this creature came from or what created it, but I do know that I'm in big trouble!