ISSUE 17:
Lois Lane, star investigative reporter for Metropolis' Daily Planet, got out of her cab and stepped out onto the grimy streets of Gotham. She didn't like coming here, it scared her; it scared her to see what a once great city could become.
She adjusted her purple blazer and her pleated skirt as she waited for the taxi driver to hand her suitcase over from the trunk of the car. She slipped him the fee in notes and turned towards her hotel; which Perry had one of the new interns book.
Her high heels tapped up the steps and through the glass doors; into the hotel. She quickly book in, flashing her Daily Planet Press Pass, took her rooms card and went straight to the elevator.
She went up, pushing the thought of the possible crime that was happening outside from her head, in the posh elevator and waited for the ding. She finally reached the top and went straight to her room.
With a swipe of her card, she entered the room and locked the door. With a sigh, she walked into her room and slammed her case onto the bed and sat down with a weary sigh.
It had been a long flight over to Gotham and all she was doing was attending a Wayne Enterprises' Press Conference. Perry had pushed her to come here though she really wanted to be hitting the big time marks, like following up on the rumour of a man controlling water or a woman who can make men tell her the truth against their will.
Yet sadly, she was in Gotham; sitting in an overpriced hotel, waiting for the press conference the next day.
As she felt depressed and slightly angry about her situation, a loud crash came from outside. She kicked off her heels and rushed to the large balcony and pushed open the glass panelled doors.
Smoke rose from a large crater in the road as two figure emerged from the ground. One was a large, bulky, male and the other was a skinnier, but equally toned, woman. They looked very similar with their blonde hair, which had shaved streaks at the sides, and their blue eyes.
They both looked up into the sky to see a blue and red blur move towards the ground. The man and the woman were both dressed in white sleeveless work out shirts, which look stretched, black trousers, combat boots and fingerless gloves; topped off with red suspenders.
Superman's, alien made, dark red boots touched the ground and he stood perfectly still; staring at the two people ahead of him.
"I told you to leave that bus alone," he said in a deep, silk like, voice.
Lois looked at the man dressed in the strange blue and red outfit, his cape fluttering in the night time breeze. She was instantly mesmerised by his perfect face, his wavy black hair and his toned body. In that instant she realised she could listen to his voice all day long.
"Well we told you to back off!" the girl barked at him.
"Well that's going to be a problem," Superman replied.
"Are you stupid or something?" asked the bulky male. "We're not called the Terror Twins for nothing!"
"And I'm not called Superman for nothing either."
"I don't get it," the girl snapped back at him.
"You don't have to."
Superman ran at super speed straight at the two of them and close lined them, knocking them into the ground. The two twins fell but were straight back up. The man instantly punched Superman in the back, knocking him to the ground. The girl then picked up the blue and red clothed man and held him over her head.
With a grunt, she threw him into the road and watched as the tarmac was up turned by the man's dense body.
Lois watched with horror as Superman climbed to his feet and stared at the twins with a grimace.
"Don't make me hurt you," Superman growled, warningly.
"You can't hurt us," the woman scoffed.
"But we can hurt you," the man continued.
"Are you going to bet your suspenders on that?" Superman said, balling his hands into fists.
Suddenly red beams poured out his eyes and he made some sort of primeval cry as they sliced through the air and struck the twins. They were ploughed off their feet and smacked into the ground.
Superman shook his head as he cut off the beams, Lois could tell from the balcony that he struggled to control the mighty beams. Lois stared at the man in awe, her heart fluttering in her chest.
Superman could hear something above, turned his head to see a beautiful woman watching him from the balcony of a hotel. Her long flowing black hair was dark like the night sky and her deep blue eyes were the stars. She was at least 5ft 5" and wore a blouse, blazer and short shirt. From the ground he could smell her perfume and he couldn't help but stare at her radiant beauty.
Their eyes locked and the two stared at each other with a deep longing.
"Look out!" screamed the woman.
He'd been so focused on her that he hadn't been looking or listening at the world around him. Tommy Terror slugged the man from Krypton in the face while his sister kicked his feet from underneath him. The two twins raised their feet and stamped on Superman, over and over again.
Superman groaned with every super powered strike, he couldn't get up, all he could do was take the hits and come back stronger.
"Stop!" Lois screamed. "You're hurting him!"
The two twins stopped and turned around to stare at Lois. They didn't even need to speak. They knew they couldn't beat this 'Superman', the only thing they could do was run.
Tommy bent his powerful knees and jumped into the air. He dipped and touched down hard on the balcony, making it crack slightly. He grabbed the woman round the waist, gripping her so that she couldn't escape but not kill her, and lifted her over his shoulder. He then jumped down back onto the pavement, just as Tuppence stomped on Superman's face one more time.
"Don't follow us or we'll kill her!" Tommy barked over Lois screaming and protests.
The two twins turned round and bounced off on their powerful legs like they were on space hoppers. They bounded across the streets of Gotham, crushing deserted cars and anything underfoot.
Superman sat up as quick as he could, feeling slightly tired.
I need to get under the sun, he thought to himself. But not while that woman is their captive. I have to save her.
He bent his knees and hovered off the ground. He felt the tug in his gut as he jetted off across the ground. The world became a blur as he picked up more and more speed.
When he flew, he felt free. At first he found it easy to fly but as he learnt he could go faster and faster it became less natural and more of a test, just to see how far he could go. But nothing was quite like the sensation of defying gravity, yet it was another sign that he was different from the humans.
He could see the two twins up ahead and pushed a little harder, with his enhanced eye sight he could see the woman being battered around by the force of Tommy's jump.
This made him angry which, with his strength, he needed to keep in check. He got closer and closer, he sucked in and then blew as hard as he could.
He expected them to be knocked over but ice began to form. Suddenly the lower bodies of the twins turned into blocks of ice and they hit the ground.
Before they could escape, Superman moved at super speed and freed the woman from Tommy's grasp. He away and placed the woman down, who wasn't really sure what happened as the alien moved so fast.
The Kryptonian turned back around to see the twins escaping the ice that enclosed them. It shattered with a loud bang and shards of frozen water flew across the street which they stood on, one piece shattered a glass window nearby with its momentum.
"Leave her alone!" Superman snarled.
"I told you to back off," Tommy snarled.
"And I told you no way," Superman retorted. "And now you've made me mad!"
Before the twins could make another remark, Superman became a blur of colour. He ran straight Tommy and punched him repeatedly in the face; he swore he could hear at least a slow motion groan. With a final punch, he moved onto Tuppence. He punched her in the stomach and chopped her hard on the neck.
He watched as they fell in slow motion and when they were at the right height; he kicked them both in the head, the twins bashing heads; hard.
He ran back to the woman in the jacket and slowed down. He turned to see the two twins fall to the ground, nearly unconscious.
Without thinking, Superman reached to the ear piece, "Where's the nearest prison from here?"
"About ten miles west," Bruce's voice said through the miniature speaker. "Should take you a minute if you go fast enough."
"Okay," Superman said wearily, shutting off the ear piece. He turned to the beautiful woman who still staring at him. "One moment, I have to get these two to the proper authorities."
Superman plucked them off the ground by their waistbands and sped off into the distance.
"What's the point, you're more effective than them anyway," muttered Lois under her breath.
Superman returned in a flash, looking slightly weary, he appeared right in front of her with a smile.
"Are you okay?" he asked, flashing his dazzling white teeth.
Lois stared for a moment, stammered and said, "Ye-ye-yes I'm fine thanks."
"Good," he smiled again. "I was worried that the jumps would have harmed you but I can't see any wounds on you."
"See any wounds?" she asked. "What about internal wounds?"
"I have X-Ray vision," he explained. "I can see that you're fine though."
"What can't you do?" she asked with a flirtatious smile.
"Well I can't read minds," he joked. "But then with you I don't think that'll be a problem."
The two smiled at each other, Superman trying to keep himself on the ground; happiness clearly gave him a tendency to fly away.
"Anyway I should get you back to the hotel," he said, slicing through the silence.
Without saying anything else, he picked her up and leapt into the air, trying to slow down because she wasn't used to the sensation of flight like she was. He tried to keep his mind on the journey ahead but he couldn't help but hear her elevated heartbeat and sense her body warmth up close to him. He could tell she was looking at him.
Lois couldn't help but look at the tall, supernatural, muscular man that held her in his arms and lifted her across the sky. She'd only ever been obsessed with one man this much, but he turned out to be a completely jerk and she left him behind but this man...he was something else.
They made their way through the dark Gotham streets. Men, woman and children all looked up to see a man flying through the sky with a woman in his arms. Camera phones went off and suddenly hundreds of images were uploaded to the internet.
Superman, a flying super man with super strength, was nothing new but the woman was something very intriguing. Did this god like urban myth, which was slowly becoming more real, have a female companion?
The two of them touched down onto the balcony of Lois' hotel room. He placed her on the ground and stepped back.
"Thanks for the lift," Lois replied with a smile.
"It was my pleasure," he replied. "Before I go and repair the massive hole in the road, may I ask your name?"
"Lois," she stammered. "Lois Lane, reporter for the Daily Planet."
Daily Planet, he thought with a smile. Isn't that the paper Bruce was going to get me a job at?
"Well it's been great to meet you Miss Lane." Superman stepped back off the balcony and slowly ascended to the ground, not taking his eyes off the woman.
As soon as his feet hit the ground, he ran at super speed. He collected all the rubble, being careful not to break it with his awesome strength, and then laid it down in the carter in the road and the rest of the broken off rubble around it.
Using his heat vision, he melted all the pieces back together and then blew onto them; though not hard enough to form ice but to cool it down.
Still moving as a blur, he turned to the multiple broken shop windows and moved them back into place, using his heat vision to seal them together, though he struggled to keep it precise while moving as fast as he could.
Once he'd repaired the whole street, he slowed down and admired his handiwork. The whole street looked like it hadn't hosted a super hero brawl at all. He turned back to the balcony to see the woman still looking at him.
He smiled at her, gave her cheeky wink and turned off into the sky. In a blur he was gone and Lois was left admiring the ground where he had once stood.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
That was Issue 17 guys. It was probably the longest so far and I honestly liked writing Superman but sadly this is The Mantle of the Dark Knight, which means that I will have to focus on Ryan and Bruce. As some may have guess this is more of a send of story for the Man of Tomorrow, indicating that his time at Wayne Manor is up and Ryan is once again to take center stage. As always, thanks for reading and a review would be great.