The buildings around Flash blurred until they were just streaks of random colors mingling on top of each other. The street was just one long grey strip that branched off every nanosecond as he raced through intersection after intersection. Traffic was light, but that was to be expected when an insane Kryptonian was smashing everything in sight.
Clutched in his arms was Hawkgirl, who had her own arms wrapped around his neck as she hung on. That was probably the only time the winged woman would willing press herself against him, considering if she didn't she would be creating some serious drag, which would slow them down. Now, Flash was a gentleman; he knew there were times when to and when not to cop a feel.
This wasn't the time to try.
Glancing over his shoulder, the red-clad man caught sight of Superman flying level with the top of the buildings next to them. That was four or five stories up, give or take. Sadly enough, he was keeping up with their speed, but fortunately wasn't closing the distance either.
Unfortunately, Superman didn't have to be within grabbing distance to wring his neck.
A flash of light alerted Flash to incoming beams of Heat Vision. Without breaking a sweat, twisting an ankle, or shrieking like a little girl, Flash darted to a side, just as the beams hit the ground, drilling into the asphalt. Picking up his pace, he pulled aside of the beams just as they swept over to his previous spot. Shooting to the other side of the street, he led the blasts as they destroyed lane after lane of the road.
"Ha! Nice shooting, Tex!" the speedster shouted over his shoulder the moment he noticed Superman stopped chasing them with his Heat Vision.
"Don't encourage him!" Hawkgirl reprimanded in his ear, causing him to wince. "I'd rather not end up a cooked goose here!"
"Hey, relax," Flash replied soothingly, if not with a healthy dose of cockiness—though he rather consider it confidence. Chicks dug confidence. "I can kick it up another gear. Supes is not going to—"
"Look out!" she interrupted in a loud scream.
Flash didn't bother peeking over his shoulder, nor did he do the River Dance from one side of the road to the other. Instead, he opted to taking a left turn, just before another blast of Heat Vision tore up the pavement. Dashing down a new street, he quickly reached another intersection and took a right this time.
"You were saying?" Flash asked smugly, eyeing the redhead.
Hawkgirl just gave him a deadpanned look. "Don't get full of yourself."
"An utter impossibility. The Flash cannot ever be full."
If Hawkgirl was going to reply to that, she never got the chance. That was mostly due to Flash picking that moment to look further up the street they were on and caught Superman darting out in front of them two intersections down, coming to a stop as he stared right at them. He had his arms crossed over his chest and that wide, creepy smile on his face.
"Oh boy," Flash groaned.
Passing through the first intersection as the two heroes closed the distance between them and the imminent threat, the Man of Steel fired another blast of his Heat Vision at them. Flash had all of two seconds to decide what his next course of action would be or suffer having his head removed with the energy equivalent of a red hot guillotine.
It took him less than one to dart to his right. Closing in on the buildings, his and Hawkgirl's world made a ninety degree turn the moment his foot made contact with the structures, the speedster running across their faces.
With the street acting as a wall to his left and the open sky to his right, Flash raced over concrete and stone. Seeing as he was reaching the edge of the current block, he timed his steps to the very last one, using it to spring off and sail through the air.
Extending a leg out, the moment he reached the next block of buildings, he was immediately running on them, completely bypassing Superman's position in the center of the intersection. Edging to his left, he again timed himself until he once again forced the world to turn, returning to running on the street.
The entire time Hawkgirl's arms had tightened on him, the Thanagarian oddly quiet. The moment the city was right-side up, and they had cleared a few hundred yards, the winged woman turned her head to stare at him and said, "Don't ever do that again."
"No promises," Flash rebutted her.
A big reason for that was because the red-clad hero was a pragmatic kind of guy. He didn't throw out his entire toolbox because someone didn't like one of his hammers. He couldn't fly or bounce bullets off his pecs, but he could run up and down anything he put his foot on. And considering they were heading right for a T-intersection, he felt he needed a third option over turning left or right.
Unfortunately, all of those choices were taken away the moment a pair of red beams flew right by him. They weren't even close, which confused Flash for a moment until he noticed they were at an angle, tearing into the road the moment they hit the pavement.
For a man that was used to having all the time in the world, there wasn't enough for Flash to react as he was immediately upon the impact site. The moment the toe of his foot collided with the broken piece of the street, his balance was shot, and the two heroes were thrown through the air, momentum making sure to carrying them forward.
Oh, this is going to suck…
Because he was a gentleman first, Flash made sure he was the one to hit the ground first. His shoulder took the brunt of the crash. The next was his back and hip as he and his lovely cargo went flipping, rolling, and bouncing down the street. He could've sworn one of them cried out, be it from surprise, pain, and/or fear, but...it was best left unsaid who exactly that was, especially if he wanted his health to stay good.
The sound of glass shattering filled his ears as his back crashed into what he figured was a door—was being the key word here. Cold air blasted onto him as he and Hawkgirl entered a building, the hard pavement being replaced with slick, cool linoleum. A shrilling sound started as they slowed down, stopping the moment they did.
"Last stop…" Flash gasped out, his body throbbing from the beating. "Diapers, beer, and two whipped superheroes."
Hawkgirl stirred against him, slowly pulling herself away. She was silent for a moment before she responded, "Next time, say that when we crash into a grocery store. Would have worked a lot better."
Lifting his head up, Flash glanced around, finding out they were in the lobby of some office building. Okay, so she had a point. Next time he was so using that in an actual grocery store.
That thought died a second later when he saw the shattered door they had crashed through. It was one of several double door sets and one set was definitely broken. However, it was the thing he saw through that opening that caused him to stiffen: a charging Superman, the word giddy doing absolutely nothing to describe the look on his face.
Uh oh…
Then, out of nowhere, J'onn dropped on top of the Kryptonian, his feet slamming on top of his head, smashing it onto the ground. There was a tight look on the Martian's face, something Flash was willing to call his serious face...not that J'onn wasn't ever not serious. The red-clad man released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, hearing it come out as a breathless gasp.
It wasn't often Flash had seen J'onn actively take part in a battle. There were many things the Martian did, but most of it did not require violence. It only spoke to how awful this situation was that the Martian had lashed out.
With that said, why was it Flash was hearing Michael Buffer say, "Let's get ready to rumblllllllllllle!"?
The air was cold and damp, two things Lois did not like seperately and definitely together. There was a stench that made her nose crinkle up in offense; she just knew she was going to have to burn her clothes since that smell was never coming out. Hugging her arms around her body in an attempt to warm herself, she couldn't help but glare at the dark-clad vigilante ahead of her.
It was times like this that the reporter completely regretted ever finding out the secret identity of Batman. Aside from sitting on the hottest story of her career, she had been used as beautiful eye candy to distract targets during the man's investigations, roped into stopping walking refrigerators, and now led to what she had been told was the safest place in Metropolis, but was looking more like an abandoned subway tunnel—and one that had suffered some sewage backup in the not-too-distant past. Grime-covered cement walls surrounded the two on all sides, a pain of train rails leading further down the tunnel with an occasional light fixture attached to the ceiling. Perhaps she needed to be grateful that he hadn't taken her into a sewer—that seemed more his style.
A tremor suddenly shook the tunnel, causing Lois to stop as she looked behind her. A layer of dust and grime that had been sticking to the ceiling was shook off, drifting down as a cloud in the dim lighting.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say someone's having a bad day and they're sharing their grief with the street," she remarked, keeping her slow pace as she continued to follow Batman, turning her head back to look at him.
In response, Batman actually stopped in his tracks and turned to look down the tunnel as well. "They're close," he said more to himself before he picked up his pace. A flashlight was in his hand, its beam providing more light in the subway tunnel.
"That's not exactly a good thing," Lois replied as she hurried to keep up with him. "I mean, we just spent all this time trying to not get caught and now the Justice League is bringing their brawl right up to us."
When Batman remained silent, the dark-haired woman couldn't help but narrow her eyes. "I am right that we don't want them to find us, right?" she asked with a hint of steel in her voice.
"At the moment, yes," he answered her, not once stopping his stride. "But when we get to where we're going, they can show up at any time."
Lois liked to think she knew Bruce Wayne better than most people, mostly due to her knowing his most important secret. That sort of gave her an edge on a lot of people in that regard. So when she listened to his words, she immediately realized that there was another reason why they were down here. "You're planning on them reaching us," she stated then, her nose metaphorically twitching in interest. There was no way she would do that literally because she found the gesture rather unsightly.
It was then that one portion of the wall changed from the dirty cement into solid steel. Noticing the change immediately, most of which had to do with Batman pointing his flashlight right at it, Lois couldn't help but feel like she was about to get her answer in a nonverbal form.
As the light danced over the metal surface, a familiar L-shaped logo appeared, causing the reporter to stop. "What is this?" she demanded. "This belongs to Lexcorp."
"Your point?" Batman asked in return, finally finding what he was apparently looking for—that being a door.
As he approached it, Lois couldn't help but say, "Why would you want to be involved in anything with Luthor's name on it? I mean, the guy practically oozes evil. Don't you hero-types stay way from that kind of person just on principle?"
Instead of offering a viable explanation, the guy in the bat costume answered her question with another question—something that galled her to no end. "If you were going to hide something in Metropolis, what would you hide it as?"
"What does that have to do with anything?" she reprimanded heatedly. "There's no way you could hide anything in this town, especially with Superman around. He could use his x-ray vision and find it, no problem."
"Except in Lexcorp buildings," Batman returned, opening a small panel next to the door. "Luthor's lined all of his buildings with lead, especially the underground levels."
Well, the guy did have a point, as much as Lois was loathe to admit. However, that did get her brain thinking in a higher gear. "So wait, you mean this is—"
"One of Luthor's secret, underground floors? Yes and no." Batman began punching in a code on the keypad, punctuating it with a hard tap on the last key. "Though we are underneath one of Luthor's buildings, he doesn't know this one exists."
"And how would he not know that?" Lois pressed, her interest in this revelation skyrocketing.
"Because this is underneath his secret floors. During construction, this floor was sealed off and consciously forgotten by the contractor and never reported to Luthor. For all he knows, this floor doesn't exist. Any additions that were needed were made by Wayne Enterprises, but a Lexcorp logo was slapped on it to ward off any snoopers. No one messes with Lexcorp property unless they have a good reason to believe they can get away with it."
It went without saying just how often that was accomplished.
Now, Lois had a pretty good idea of why the contractor conveniently forgot about this floor—a lot of it having to involve cold, hard cash, which Bruce Wayne was in no shortage of. And as he explained it, she couldn't help but admire to gall this man had to pull such a fast one on Metropolis' answer to...well, him.
However, she just had to know what was inside this secret place and why Batman had hidden it beneath a Lexcorp building. As the door opened, moving inwards before sliding off to the left, a bright, blue light suddenly flooded out, causing her to squint her eyes as she try to adjust to it.
Unaffected, Batman strode inside, leaving Lois to quickly hurry to the door. Poking her head, she took a good look around and suddenly realized just why the vigilante had come here.
And now she had a second story to sit on...damn it.
Enough was enough.
J'onn was not a narcissistic man. He did not revel in carnage and mass destruction. However, he could not tolerate watching his friends being hunted down and viciously attacked. While the doer of such offense was his friend and he was not in his right mind, that would only cause him to hold back.
But only so much.
Reaching down, he grabbed Superman by his neck and hauled him up into the air, holding him off the ground as his legs dangled beneath him. Drawing back his free hand, he made a fist with it and let out a mighty roar. Swinging his arm, he leveled a powerful punch against the side of Superman's face and sent him flying high into the air.
However, he didn't release his grip though, instead letting his arm stretch out until he felt his foe reached the peak of his arch. Immediately he swung his elongated arm down, slamming Superman back down on the street of a nearby intersection. This time he released his grip and allowed his arm to return to him, returning it to its original form.
That would not be enough to defeat the Kryptonian, he knew that. That was why he patiently waited for the other man to get back onto his feet.
He was not disappointed. "Where did you come from, Tree Trunk?" Superman exclaimed as he staggered back onto his feet. "If I knew you wanted your turn, I would've said yes."
"That is enough out of you." J'onn began striding towards his opponent. "What has been done can be repaired, but I am putting it to an end."
"Who are you kidding, Johnny? We've only just begun!"
There was a silent cue, each of them lifting up into the air and flying head first at each other. At the same time they both drew back their right first, holding it there until the last possible second, and threw it at each other.
A thunder clap rang out as pain exploded in J'onn's face, his head snapping back from the blow. His lower body continued its forward momentum even as his upper body leaned backwards. Spit flew from his mouth. Faintly, he was aware of Superman mirroring his pose, having received the exact same punch to his own face.
That was just the first sign of damage. A split-second later, glass from doors and windows cracked and shattered as the force of the combined blows blew out and rammed into them, sending shards all over the place.
For a moment, they hung there, the world frozen around them. It was an incredibly silent moment despite the immense power that had been used. For a second, J'onn wished everything could've stayed just like that if only to ensure further strife would end.
And then he felt his foot touch the ground and the world began to speed back up. Recovering as quickly as he could, he directed his attention back to Superman; unfortunately, the Man of Steel was quicker to shrug off the Martian's punch and had thrown another one. Unable to react, J'onn took the full brunt of the hit, the fist ramming into his abdomen. A pained cry tore out of his mouth as the air in his lungs was forced out.
The next one caught him in the face and jerked his head to a side, silencing him; the third hit the opposite side and spun his head the other way. There would not be a fourth one as J'onn ducked down, narrowly avoiding the blow. Countering, he sent his own punch, landing an uppercut that landed under Superman's chin and forced him up into the air.
J'onn gave chase, taking advantage of his turn as he landed blow after blow into the Man of Steel's abdomen, causing him to loom over the green alien helplessly. Each one pushed Superman higher up into the air, which the Martian was happy to close the distance with another punch. It wouldn't last though, as Superman recovered much too quickly again following another gut punch, lashing out with a fist to the Martian's face. That was followed by a kick this time, one that caught him in the side and pushed him away from his foe.
"Hey Johnny, what's black and causes forest fires?" Superman taunted him. His eyes glowed red. "You'll soon find out!"
Eyes widening, J'onn immediately accessed his Martian vision and fired a white beam from his eyes. He was fortunate he reacted so quickly as Superman blasted his own Heat Vision, the red and white beams slamming right into each other.
J'onn couldn't help the grunt that escaped his lips then. Gritting his teeth, he poured more power into his Martian Vision, holding off the Kryptonian's Heat Vision. They were at a stalemate, the two colliding blasts barely giving ground in either direction. Pressed against each other, white and red light bathed the surrounding area, cracklings of electricity filling the air.
They could keep this up forever if they truly wanted to and J'onn was certain Superman wouldn't give up on burning him to a crisp. J'onn, on the other hand, did not care to continue this standstill. However, if he was going to make a move, he needed to do so in a way that didn't harm himself as well.
It would be a risk, but that was a constant in life.
Holding his beam, he didn't increase its strength nor decrease it lest he give away his intent. Superman didn't seem to indicate he was giving up on their stare down. Steeling his nerves, J'onn stopped his Martian Vision while simultaneously dashing to his left. Altering his body, he went translucent before reflecting the colors of his environment, becoming invisible to the naked eye. A moment later, Superman's Heat Vision streaked by him, the heat of the beams sending a mental scream throughout his head, his body flinching.
There was an explosion soon after, but the Martian didn't dare look to see what had been destroyed. He was solely focused on his foe, who ended his red blast, continuing to smile the same grotesque smile. There was no indication he suspected foul play. In fact, he gloated, "Looks like I was wrong, you can't start a forest fire when you're a crisp, ha ha!"
Drifting towards the Kryptonian, J'onn made sure to make as little sound as possible. Though his faculties were impaired, Superman's hearing wasn't and if he even detected movement, he'd be on him. Fortunately, he was easily distracted as he turned his attention elsewhere. "Now where was I? Oh right! Red and Birdgirl!"
By then the Martian was definitely within hitting distance. With an arm already drawn back, J'onn didn't hold back at all as he threw his punch, slamming it into the side of the Kryptonian's head. The force of the blow sent the man crashing into the side of the building next to him, burst through it as he left a hole in his wake.
Though he wasn't a violent man by nature, that had felt satisfying.
With a sigh, Flash laid flat on his back. He wasn't going to lie, he was a little tired. Using your body like a bouncy ball can do that to a fellow. Besides, J'onn had this. He had managed to sneak up on Supes and forced him into a little dirt nap.
What was the worse that could happen?
"You okay to move?" Hawkgirl asked him, drawing his attention away from his musings, even as the sounds of more destruction outside were being made.
"All things being equal, I'd rather sleep here if that's alright," he answered, not bothering to look at the Thanagarian. Instead he was looking up towards the ceiling, one that had to at least be three stories up. Vaulted ceilings could do that, ya know.
"This might not be the safest place for that," the redhead pressed, much to Flash's annoyance. "I'm hurt and you pissed off an insane Superman. The last place we need to be is where he can get his hands on us."
"Well, when you put it that way, give me a second—"
Suddenly, a thunderous clap rang out, causing the doors to shatter and send pieces of glass flying at them. Instinctively, Flash rolled onto his side, his arms covering his head as he felt the glass pelt his back. What the hell had caused that?!
"On second thought, I think we should get moving, like right now."
"Yeah, I thought you'd say something like that," Hawkgirl said smugly.
Picking himself up, Flash was soon on his feet, glancing around the lobby for another exit—you know, one that currently didn't have the sounds of fighting coming from the other side. "Any idea on how to get out of here?"
As if to agree with his silent thoughts, the winged woman said, "Not that way," with a nod towards the entrance. Red and white light was flooding through the broken doors, which was really making the speedster uncomfortable. Considering that wasn't much of anything that could actually hit him when he was on his guard, he still had that survival instinct in the back of his head that warned him not to go check out those lights. He was inclined to agree with instinct on this one.
And then the wall further down the room exploded, a huge hole being made towards the ceiling as chunks of debris crashed to the floor. Flash flinched away from the wreckage, holding an arm up in front of his face to protected it from random pieces of sheetrock and stone.
That was when J'onn appeared through the hole in the wall. To say that he moved through it wasn't exactly right as much as he seemed to fade into existence. The Martian didn't seem too worse for wear, instead looking down at the rubble below him intently.
Was it just him, or was J'onn actually winning?
As if to prove it, pieces of debris began to shift until they were shoved aside, Superman emerging out like some disfigured flower. Even more irritating was that he still had that smile on his face.
J'onn did not bother to waste time, choosing to charge down like a Martian missile to continue his beat down. Flash wasn't going to lie, he actually was waiting in suspense to see just what would happen.
What he got was completely different from what he expected—and that was not a good thing. As J'onn closed the distance between him and the Kryptonian, the Man of Steel's chest expanded out as if he were taking a deep breath. Then he let it all out, blowing a powerful wind at the charging Martian. Yet, this was no ordinary wind; though slowed down by what had to be hurricane level winds, ice crystals began forming on the green alien's skin, slowly, but surely, encasing him in ice.
By the time Superman stopped his blowing, J'onn had stopped moving, standing in front of the Kryptonian as a posed ice sculpture. He was leaning forward, his cape sticking out from behind him as his arms were raised up, one extended outward as if it had been thrown. "You need to cool down, Johnny," the dark-haired man crowed before he raised a fist up.
Flash was the Fastest Man Alive. He knew what was going to happen before anything was put into motion. Yet, he found himself rooted to the floor as Superman swung his fist and slammed it into J'onn. J'onn's body shattered into what had to be a million pieces, chunks of ice and Martian exploding out in all directions. The pieces scattered all over the room, bouncing on the floor and off walls, a macabre sight if the young man had ever seen one.
"J'ONN!" Hawkgirl screamed, her voice full of rage and sorrow. Before Flash knew it, the winged woman had launched herself forward, flying right by him as she charged right at Superman, fully intent on ripping him apart with her bare hands. Unfortunately, the speedster knew how that story would end and he wasn't going to let it happen a second time if he could help it.
The only problem was that he didn't have enough time to not only prevent Hawkgirl from adding her name to the deceased and do some serious damage to Superman, not the way he was. So he needed to make time. Instantly, he began vibrating his body, the world around him slowly down. What had been a full-on charged by Wings had gone into slow motion, the woman edging at a snail's pace through the air. Superman had his arm extend out, he too moving like molasses as he brought it down.
And the entire time Flash let the kinetic energy he was creating gather throughout his body. Bolts of electricity danced all over his body, growing in frequency the longer he was at this. Vibrating his right fist faster than the rest of his body, the energy began to gather there, draining from the other parts of his body as it was collected.
Ideally Flash would have kept this up for as long as he needed to, to make sure that this would end this miserable fight. Unfortunately, he didn't have that much time, no matter how fast he moved. Every nanosecond brought Hawkgirl closer to her target and that much closer to certain doom.
Gritting his teeth, he knew what he had to do. Launching himself forward, the red-clad man raced towards Superman, who was now beginning to turn towards the airborne Thanagarian. Flash easily overtook her, passing by her in a step. Glancing to her, he couldn't help but see rage and even hate twisting her normally pretty face—at least he assumed it was pretty, what with her mask covering most of it. She definitely looked very hawk-like at the moment.
Arms pumping at his sides, Flash returned his attention to Superman, who was drawing closer with every step he took. Pulling back his power-charged fist, he threw it at the last moment and slammed it right into the side of Superman's face.
Now, the kinetic energy Flash had been storing in his hand was rather potent. Had he had enough time, he could've equaled the energy output of a dwarf star; unfortunately, he had to settle for something a lot less than that. That didn't mean he wasn't packing a powerful enough punch, mind you, cause damage would be done.
In an instant, the world went into normal speed, moment his knuckles came into contact with his foe. Superman was sent flying headfirst into the wall, smashing right through it. From what Flash could see, his body soared through the air until it hit the ground and bounced off it, skipping down the street like a rock over a pond. Simultaneously, pain exploded through his hand and went up passed his wrist. He only gritted his teeth in response, mostly as he stiffened his legs in an attempt to stop, his feet ending up skidding across the floor. The heat of the friction burned at the bottom of his boots as he slid clear out of the building, finally stopping on the sidewalk just before he reached the curb.
Hissing, the speedster slowly knelt down onto a knee, cradling his injured hand with his other. Looking at it through squinted eyes, he could barely spread his fingers as more pain screamed down his arm. Oh yeah, he totally broke something. This hand was useless for the day.
Totally worth it though.
It was several seconds before he felt a presence behind him, Hawkgirl placing a hand on his shoulder. "Flash, what did you do?" she asked in a breathy tone. "That...that was just…"
"Oh, nothing much," he finished for her. "Just decked the Boy Scout and sent him on an all-expense paid trip to Dreamsville. I just hope he stays there because I don't think I can do that again."
"Huh? Why not?"
"I kinda broke two of my knuckles and probably fifteen bones in my hand—but hey, who's counting?"
"Oh." Hawkgirl offered him a comforting smile. "Considering what's happened today, I think we can forgive you for that."
"Thanks. You don't know how much that means to me," the red-clad man replied sarcastically.
It was about then that Wonder Woman showed up, landing next to them gracefully. Her eyes were wide as she took in the scene around them. "What happened here?" she couldn't help but ask.
"About time you showed up, Princess," the Thanagarian responded. "We've had a hell of a time here. Flash just knocked Superman into the next town and J'onn is…" she trailed off then.
That got the Amazon's attention. "What happened to J'onn?" she demanded.
"He's in about a million pieces inside there," Flash answered her, tilted his head towards her so he could nod to the building behind them. "Supes decided to flash freeze him and make confetti out of him."
"Hera."
Unfortunately, a cloud of smoke suddenly shot up into the air down the street, causing the three heroes to look in its direction. Though it was a pretty good distance away, neither of them could mistake the figure of a man emerging from it, walking down the street at a slow pace.
"Damn it all!" Hawkgirl snarled. "What does it take to put this son of a bitch down?!"
Flash was inclined to agree. They were really running low on options here, what with his hand busted up, J'onn out of commission, and Hawkgirl hurt in who knows where. That left them with one fully functioning Amazon.
Those weren't betting odds by far.
If they were going to come out of this in the best way possible, they needed a plan. No more of this one-on-one stuff they had been doing. All that had gotten them was slowing down Superman, but it had the price of picking them off one by one. It was a little late for a coordinated effort considering they weren't anywhere close to being at one hundred percent, so planning out their next move would...would…
Wait, plan.
It was going to be considered reckless, but there weren't a lot of options at the moment. "Wondy, do you think you can distract Supes for me?" he suddenly asked, drawing the attention of the two women next to him.
"Distraction?" the Amazon echoed in confusion. "Why do you need me to do so?"
"Because it was high time we got Supes to the location Bats told us about. If I charge in right now, he's going to be ready for me. But if you get his attention on you, I can surprise him and get him there before he has a chance to figure out up from down."
"Uhhh, that's your idea?" Hawkgirl interjected with disbelief in her tone. "I hate to break it to you, Flash, but if we can't put a dent in Mr. Tomorrow over there, there's no way a rich guy in body armor is going to do anything."
Surprisingly, it was Wonder Woman who jumped in to defend Flash's idea and subsequently Batman—read, ulterior motive. "Batman wouldn't have told us to bring Superman there if he didn't have some sort of plan that could end this conflict. If he does have a countermeasure, we need to make use of it."
That made the redheaded woman pause. "Okay, you've got a point. Let's make this happen."
"Alright, Wondy, just make sure he's all eyes on you. Don't actually fight him unless you have too," Flash ordered.
"Consider it done," the dark-haired woman replied before she began to hover in air, shooting forward towards the approaching Kryptonian.
And just like Flash wanted, Superman focused his attention right on the charging Amazon. "Back for more, Sweety? I hope you're ready for something hot!"
Steeling his features, Flash took off to his right, racing up the face of a building until he reached the roof. Taking a left there, he ran until he reached its edge and subsequently a street creating one edge of a block. He ignored it as he leaped over the street, reaching the buildings on the other side and continued running.
He did this a couple more times before he chose to run down the side of one set of buildings, reaching street level in the blink of an eye. As he glanced to his left, he could clearly see Superman and Wonder Woman in mid-charge, both combatants on one side of the intersection with their arms raised up to fight and inching closer towards each other.
This time Flash shot towards Superman, the entire time seeing no change in the man's posture. Normally it was a lot harder to sneak up on the guy, what with his enhanced hearing and other powers, but thanks to whatever was making him a walking, talking Joker clone, his focus was way too narrow to make use of those other powers. That was why he was able to run right up to the man, grab him by his arm and immediately began spinning in place, swinging the Kryptonian in a circle.
The world blurred around the two of them, taking on a reddish, bluish tint thanks to Superman's colors. The spinning was to disorient that man long enough that Flash could get him underground without so much as moving a finger and so far it was working. Picking out a nearby set of stairs that led down to a subway station, Flash stopped his spinning and dashed towards, dragging Superman along with him. Before either of them could blink, they were in the station, moving onto the tracks. By the time the red-clad man blinked again, he was in the middle of a dark tunnel, one broken up occasionally by the lights of another subway station. Fortunately there were no trains on the tracks right now, otherwise things would be a little difficult.
Suddenly, a hand grabbed onto the hero's shoulder, squeezing it painfully. Jerking his head to a side, Flash was horrified to see an oriented Superman looking back at him. "You missed your stop."
And that's when something collided with the toe of Flash's boot, throwing him off balance. For the love of God! he screamed in his head as he went crashing headfirst into the ground, skidding over it several feet. At the very least, it separated him from Superman though, the Kryptonian landing further up ahead and also sliding until he came to a stop.
"Ow," Flash moaned before he started to push himself up. A look around told him they were both in some subway tunnel, though if this was where Batman said to go, he wasn't quite sure. While he always had a general idea of where everything was and where he needed to be, doing so without any visible markers around didn't make it easy as such was the case.
And considering he had a crazy Kryptonian also getting back to his feet, that wasn't a good thing.
Just as Flash scrambled back onto his feet, readying himself for whatever heinous things his friend was about to do to him, red light suddenly filled the tunnel. Both men were surprised as they jerked their heads to different sides. The source of the light, Flash was quick to spot, were these three foot rods that stuck out of the ground, the light itself coming from a square box on top of the rods. It almost looked like a red reflector off a bicycle.
These rods were each placed at even intervals, forming a circle around them—and a big one at that. Glancing behind him, Flash noticed one of the rods was pointed at an angle, completely different from the others that stood straight up. He must've tripped over that one, if he had any guess.
"Oooh, I just love red," Superman giggled. "It looks just like the color of blood."
Ugh, really? Flash couldn't help but facepalm himself. Sometimes he wondered if Supes actually worked to be as corny as he was at times. This was no different. However, when he dropped his hand from his face, he quickly spotted another source of red light, one that didn't belong to the circle. In fact it was coming from outside the circle and it was getting closer.
The sound of crunching gravel reached his ears then. That had to belong to a person. As the light grew bigger, the sound grew louder. Unfortunately, due to the light, there was no telling who was creating it.
That all changed when the person entered the circle of red light and relief flooded within Flash's body. There stood Batman with what looked like two bulky gauntlets on his hands. There was a single plate covering his knuckles, emitting a red light. These were definitely different from his usual gauntlets.
"I hope you've had your fun, Superman," the Dark Knight spoke then, flexing his fingers as they contracted and relaxed.
"Because now it's my turn."
The punch Flash uses is right out of the comics, though the exact issue I honestly can't say. Needless to say, a punch like that could've leveled Superman; too bad he couldn't quite reach that energy output, no?
There's a couple of references here to previous stories as well. I'm sure y'all can pick those out lol.
