ISSUE 13:

The Bat Tank, the name Ryan had picked, rolled down the thick desert and woodland area. The vehicle was a tank with wheels and thicker armour, so it rolled easily over the fallen tree logs and rocks which lay along the ground.

Nightwing checked the sensors on the dashboard and saw that their destination was up ahead. Though he didn't really need it as he could see up ahead was a large mountain which had a large 'S' inside an upside down triangle carved into it. It was quite an amazing spectacle and it made him wonder how no one had noticed this base before.

"How did you not find out about this place?" Nightwing asked.

"It's had a lot of masking covering it," the Bat replied, staring forwards, he was clearly reading data from inside his cowl.

"Well what do you actually know about this place?"

"It's in a mountain, one of the most secure prisons on the planet and it's made so that no sun light will ever get in."

"Why's that?" Nightwing asked, slowing down the tank.

"Because of the two inmates," the Bat said as Nightwing parked the tank a few metres from the base large stone entrance.

Nightwing popped the top of the cockpit and the two vigilantes jumped out. Nightwing closed the car with a button on his gauntlet and using his hand motion controlled computer inside his suit, he activated the vehicles security protocols.

Extra armour plating slid over the windows and the suspension dipped and the car sank towards the ground. It acted like a tortoise, ready to defend itself from attack. It also had a special feature which is if someone got too close it would electrocute the exterior shell when anyone or anything came into contact with it.

The Bat turned off and strutted across the early morning desert plane. It slowly dawned on Nightwing on how he hadn't slept in a while and it was 6am, Alfred had complained to him a few times about Bruce's lack of sleep and honestly Nightwing could understand how the Bat didn't sleep, being a hero was too much fun!

The two arrived at the large 'S' insignia and the Bat produced a small bat shaped device and he threw it at the large double electronic doors at the bottom. The device beeped and suddenly the door opened.

Electronic door hacking device, Ryan thought with a smile. As the Bat passed the door he ripped the device off and stuffed it in his utility belt. The two moved into the base and the two of them looked about.

The place was a maze of corridors and in the far corner was a computer. The Bat instantly went to it and took a wire from his belt and plugged his suit into a computer. He began to move his hands in a strange way, though Nightwing knew he was using the hand motion technology in the suit.

He rapidly hacked into the computer system of the entire base. Nightwing looked along the corridors to see that this place was chocked full of cameras and sensors, though his hacking device had nullified the ones at the entrance.

The Bat began to slowly go through the camera, watching what they had on offer and then nullified them. He'd identified their targets and now they were going to collect them.

The two costumed heroes made their way down the corridor, the Bat guiding them down different corridors with his map which he had displayed in the one way lenses of his cowl. Nightwing took instructions as he saw a large steel door up ahead with the same insignia that had been carved into the mountain. Someone had paid close attention to the decoration.

"I've sort of read the file but tell me, what is this place?"

"It's a prison and research facility built around two living specimens of extra terrestrial life," the Bat said, using his in built computer to open the doors automatically, since he was now partially hooked into the system.

The door slid open and the two heroes looked inside to see the two living inhabitants of the base, sitting in the face corner, looking malnourished and terrified. The Bat and Nightwing walked inside and the door slid shut behind them. The Bat used his computer to turn on the artificial lights inside the spacious metal cell.

"Please don't hurt us!" exclaimed the man inside.

The, what Ryan thought was an, alien was skinny and tall with wavy black hair and scared blue eyes. He was wearing some sort of skin tight body suit which had the same 'S' insignia that was all around the base covering it.

"We're not here to hurt you," Nightwing told him.

"Please don't hurt us!" he said again. But this time a small, malnourished, white dog whimpered along with him, the dog snuggled up close to his skinny rib cage.

Nightwing looked about, though knowing no one was around, and then took off his domino mask. "I'm a friend."

"Friend?" asked the skinny man, almost as if he hadn't heard the word.

"Yes friend," Ryan told him, getting closer and crouching to his level. "We're here to get you out of here."

"Get out?"

"Get you out of this cell," Ryan told him with a smile.

"We've got guards coming, they've been alerted to our position," the Bat told the two of them, opening the cell doors automatically.

Ryan pressed on the mask and became Nightwing again. "Come on let's go."

Nightwing helped the skinny man to his feet and the dog slowly got up after him. Nightwing propped him up as he walked, he was very weak and tire looking, as the Bat exited.

"We can't take the corridor but we can cut through the lab," the Bat instructed and instead of pointing opened the door they needed to use through his automatic control, he was seriously over using it at this point; well that's what Nightwing thought anyway.

The two men, the alien and the dog made their way down the corridor and into the 'lab' which the Bat shut off behind them.

This room wasn't the stereotypical lab, it was a large metallic temple to science of another world. The tables were filled with clutter but the main thing in the room was a large object which was a sphere with a cylinder attached to the bottom and burnt onto the sphere was the 'S' insignia that was practically on every surface across the base.

The far door was in the opposite direction, so they had to pass the ship. As they made their way across the room, the skinny man stared at the strange hunk of metal. Nightwing tried to keep him moving but the alien reached out and touched the ship's cold exterior.

Suddenly the ship buzzed and everyone in the room looked at the object. Light built up around the sphere and then disappeared; a man appeared. The man looked middle aged and a lot like the alien but more fuller and less bony looking, he wore long robes and also had the 'S' symbol on his chest.

"Hello Kal-El," the man said. "I am Jor-El your father. You are not of this world, you are not one of them though you may look like one; you are actually from your home planet, Krypton."

"What the hell?" Nightwing muttered as they all stared at the unrealistic looking man who spoke in a posh tone.

"Your home, Krypton, has fallen a great tragedy," Jor-El said. "Our planet has exploded and I am sadly deceased. But you have been sent from our planet to Earth where you will be a God. The sun here is yellow, unlike our native red, which will grant you great powers and create a division between you and the homosapiens. They can be a great people Kal-El, they only need the light to show them the way."

The man composed himself and disappeared. All of them stared at the, what they thought was a, space ship. It began to rumble again and a beam shot out and directly shot the skinny alien, who they thought was the Kal-El the holographic man spoke of, in the face.

Kal-El went rigid and began to twitch. Nightwing stepped back and watched as the skinny man began to stand more firmly, as if he could now hold himself properly. The small white dog whimpered for his master as he began to shake violently.

Another beam of light moved across him and slowly, molecule by molecule the skin tight suit fell away from his body and was replaced by another costume entirely. The light stopped moving down his body and Nightwing looked at his new clothes. His suit was a dark navy blue which looked like it was partially organic suit of armour, the 'S' symbol was on his chest but it was coloured red and gold. A gold thread ran along his waist and on his feet were knee high red boots with the same design as the rest of the suit. Coming from the 'S' shield on his chest was a long flowing dark red cape which was made of strange material. The suit looked completely alien of design and origin.

The light disappeared around his head and slowly Kal-El looked about the room with a less fearful gaze. He then looked down at the small white dog and smiled. "Krypto, are you okay boy?"

The dog barked happily at the alien, knowing he was okay.

"I need to get into the sun," the alien told Nightwing.

A loud bang came from the door as the soldiers from the base began to try and get in.

"This way," the Bat commanded in his gruff voice, turning to the door at the back of the large lab.

Nightwing gripped Kal-El under the arm and helped him walk, he had completely changed his demeanour but he was still weak; his dog was just a little bit stronger. They crossed the lab, with the alien's cape flowing behind him.

The Bat opened the door automatically and the four of them stepped through into a smaller corridor. It was darker than the rest of the room.

"This runs under the complex, it's only used in emergencies, and will lead us straight to the car."

"Okay," Nightwing replied. "What happened there back in the lab?"

Kal-El looked weak but turned his head to him. "That's the ship that brought me here and I'm psychically linked to it; thanks to my father. When I told it by mistake that there wasn't much time, the ship instantly pushed all the kryptonian knowledge that would have taken me at least ten years to learn into my mind."

"Like an instant knowledge download?" Nightwing checked.

"Yes," Kal-El replied with a weak smile. "This suit is Kryptonian battle armour and has been designed to fit me perfectly by the ship. All I need now is the sun."

"The sun?"

"It recharges his cells," the Bat interjected up ahead, clearly checking the map in his cowl. "It makes him have abilities of no human. So far the lab here have listed at least three, flight, strength and invulnerability, but they believe there might be even."

"My father wasn't sure of how many powers a Kryptonian would attain here," Kal-El told Nightwing in a friendlier tone. "But he had listed those three mainly."

The end of the corridor neared and the Bat quickly opened it with a movement of his hand. The four of them reached the end and they looked out to see the large yellow sun slowly rising into the sky.

Nightwing stepped back and Kal-El dropped to his knees, staring up at the big ball of radiation in the sky.

"It's so beautiful," he smiled. The white dog, Krypto, made his way over to the alien and snuggled up next to him. The sun light washed over them and they both smiled and took in the light.

Nightwing and the Bat watched as the two extraterrestrials charged themselves up with the yellow sun's radiation. The Bat watched with cold and calculating eyes, analysing every detail, while Nightwing watched with a smile; they were two captives who just wanted to see the sun.

Kal-El and Krypto slowly began to rise off the ground, though completely oblivious, they just stared into the sun. They hovered off the ground, gaining more and more altitude until they were as high as the mountain.

"Ah!" Kal-El cried, looking down at the ground. He began to wobble in the air, it was like he was learning to walk over again. Krypto just barked with excitement and rolled about in the air. Kal-El slowly stopped wobbling, straightened up and hovered above them all.

He dipped down and flew straight at the ground, looking like a god. He stopped himself at the last minute, wobbled a bit and then touched down onto the sandy rock ground.

"That's so cool," Nightwing grinned.

"That was fun," Kal-El grinned at him.

"We need to get moving," the Bat told them both.

The Bat turned around and walked off into the dusk. Nightwing followed after him and Kal-El turned around to see Krypto flying behind him. "Come on you," he grinned.

The snow white barked happily and flew next to him. The four of them, two black dressed vigilantes and two aliens who could both fly, made their way towards the large black tank-like automobile which sat in the desert.

"Stop where you are!" shouted a loud voice from behind them.

Instantly the Bat and Nightwing produced their sharp batarangs and go ready for a fight. Soldiers dressed in black armour swooped in from all angles, carrying large machine guns with round and rounds of ammunition.

"Shit!" shouted one voice. "They've got the Superman!"

Superman, Nightwing mused in his head. That sounds pretty cool.

Suddenly the army looked slightly scared. "Open fire," shouted one of the largest officers.

Kal-El closed his eyes and rose of the ground with his arms spread, his red cape slowly moving behind him. The army lowered their weapons in fear. The alien opened his eyes which were now glowing red.

Beams of red hot energy coursed out of his eyes and hit the soldiers for hire. The energy swept across them and knocked them all to the ground and their guns exploded. Kal-El kept looking across the desert, taking out the men and then the rocky ground below them.

"Superman!" Nightwing shouted. "Close your eyes!"

Kal-El put his hands over his eyes, stifling the powerful beams. He shut his eyelids and the beams slowly stopped and when he opened them, he took in the chaos he had caused. He lowered himself to the ground and started crying.

"What have I done?" he whimpered to himself.

Nightwing looked to his ice cold mentor, who simply stared at the crying man, and then ran towards him and wrapped his arm around him; he also noted that he had denser muscles than back in the lab earlier.

"It's okay," Nightwing told him. "You're learning, it's okay."

"Look what I did!"

"You made a mistake and that's okay," Nightwing told him. "People make mistakes, that's how me learn. I'm an example of that. I learned from my mistakes and turned myself into what I am now."

The Bat almost smiled as Nightwing quoted Bruce to the weeping alien. Who knew that Bruce Wayne's words could actually comfort someone, Nightwing smiled to himself as Kal-El stopped sobbing.

"Now let's get you back to the Bat Cave where we can talk properly," Nightwing smiled to him. Kal-El looked round with a weak smile.

Nightwing helped him up and they turned to the Bat Tank. Krypto floated next to him and licked his face; making the Kryptonian smile. "Thanks boy."

The Bat turned off the security systems and popped open the cockpit of the automobile.

This guy could definitely make a kick-ass hero, Nightwing smiled to himself. With a bit of practice first!

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Okay so that was the climatic Issue 13. I know that some of these seem ant-climatic because of the way I cut the fights short but trust me, I will get better...one day. For the people who don't know, this Superman is rather like the Flash Point Superman but I will eventually have him on track to be the Man of Tomorrow. So yeah the costume is based off the cartoon version of Flashpoint and is then changed to be more of a 'Man of Steel' type costume. So as always, a review, favourite or a follow would because I think I might stop writing these because I don't think they're actually being read and enjoyed.