"Today we're going to be discussing the big news around the world," Lesslie Willis announced. "Superman, aka Kal-El is an alien, just like those monsters that attacked Manhattan. This just proves I've been right all along people! Superman is a menace and should be kicked off of our planet. Be sure to ring in so you can have your say on the big blue alien. First caller, you're on."
"Hi, this is Lois Lane from the Daily Planet."
"Hello Ms Lane what do you have to say about the red and blue not so super dude?"
"Actually I had a question for you?" Lois replied to Leslie's surprise. "What the hell happened in your life that you can't understand when someone is doing something good?"
"Are you trying to say you approve of having this alien flying around our sky's when at any moment he could attack us."
"He has never given us any reason to doubt his intentions. After losing his entire planet he's still able to be so good. You could learn a thing or two from him."
Leslie slammed her fist on her desk in rage. "Superman is a menace and it's people like you that are stopping our country from excelling. Next caller!" she ordered.
"Now wait just a min…" Lois was cut off as they ended her call.
"That little weasel!" Lois cried.
"Whoa, Lo calm down," Chloe insisted as she entered the bowl pen of the Daily Planet.
"Can you believe this?" Lois demanded. "Bigoted people like her shouldn't be allowed on the radio."
"Hey I agree, but unfortunately there's a lot of people out there who are scared to discover that Superman's an alien. Not everyone's as open minded as we are."
"Thanks caller, for your not so nice words about Superman. Before we go to ads let me say this. Superman, come to my show any day of the week and I'll be happy to personally interview you. In fact, where is he now, probably planning evil schemes to destroy the world or maybe he's crying over poor little Krypton." She broke out into laughter at her own joke. "Ladies and gentlemen this had been Leslie Willis, the Live Wire, peace out!"
GULF OF MEXICO
Superman held a collapsing oil rig in place, where one of the supporting pillars had collapsed, while Iron Man and Impulse rescued trapped civilians from inside. From the water Aquaman used his hydrokenesis, shooting columns of water into the sky extinguishing as many of the flames as he could. Despite his best attempts, the fire was still rapidly spreading. A boom filled the air as another section of the rig exploded. Superman stayed in place, holding the oil rig above his head. He wore his new blue suit, red cape flapping wildly behind him. An addition he'd made was a red belt around his waist that had a gold diamond as a buckle. A giant column of water rose from the sea and dispersed over the flames, curtesy of Arthur. A large amount of the flames where put out and just when they thought they were making progress more of the rig exploded.
Bart raced through the halls of the oil rig, searching for any civilians still left on site.
"It looks like that's everyone," Bart reported through his comm.
"Sensors can't pick up anyone either," Tony replied from up in the air. "Get on out of their kid," Tony ordered.
"No problemo," Bart replied as he began to run for the nearest exit. He only got a few metres when his powers faded away.
"No, no not now!" he cried.
"What's wrong?" Clark asked.
"My powers, they're gown again!" he exclaimed.
"Shit, Bart I'm coming for you!" Tony shouted as he began flying towards the rig. Suddenly the entire rig exploded, engulfing the team. Bart ran through the hallways, using his new electrostatic energy racers, he desperately ran as fast as he could, the flames licking at his feet. Despite his best attempts, Bart couldn't outrun the flames. He was engulfed in the explosion.
Iron Man, caught in the end of the explosion was sent spinning uncontrollably backwards, his suit protecting him from any serious harm. He flew out of the explosion and managed to stabilise himself just in time to see a streak of lightning fly out the explosion and into the air.
"Woooo!" he heard Bart shout as he flew by. Tony grabbed Impulse out of the air saving him from the quickly approaching ground.
"Powers came back just in time I see," Tony noted.
"Please, I had it covered," Bart replied with a smirk. Tony noticed that most of Bart's suit had burnt off in the explosion. Despite his cocky remarks Bart had almost died. This whole losing his powers thing was becoming even more of an issue, especially if it made him a liability of missions. From the ocean, Aquaman rocketed downwards, rapidly dodging massive chunks of debris. Superman caught in the explosion took the blast full force and was sent into the water, the rig crashing down on top of him.
The Avengers and the survivors of the rig waited nervously on their safety rafts to see if Superman would rise from the ocean. A few moments passed and they began to fear the worst. All of a sudden Superman shot out of the water, the sun's rays breaking through the clouds and silhouetting him to the men on the rafts. The crowd cheered and applauded the super friends as they took off towards the horizon.
GOTHAM
From her kitchen Barbara watched the news, reporting on the oil rig incident. She was proud of Clark, despite everything the world had thrown at him these last couple of days he wasn't letting it get to him. Of course she had been just as shocked as everyone else to discover he was an alien but unlike a lot of people she knew who he was and new he wasn't a threat to them. Just as she was thinking about him her phone binged.
'Can you meet me?' The text from Clark read.
"Alysia, I'm going out!" she called out as she replied to Clark's message and and headed for the door.
She met Clark at a nearby café, he waited for her, sipping on a cup of coffee.
"I saw you on the news this morning, very impressive," she whispered as she sat opposite him. Luckily the shop was bustling with people so no one could hear them.
"Thanks," he replied with a smile. "What about you? How have you been?"
"Busy," she replied. "B-mans had me working extra hard. I've had to take up multiple cases while he's been focussing on one for a while now."
"What's the case?" Clark queried. Barb hesitated before answering.
"I don't really feel like talking about it," she replied starring at the ground. Clark noticing her obvious discomfort didn't push her further. "It was really brave what you did, coming out like that." She not so obviously changed the subject.
"You're not freaked out by it?"
"I'll admit I was shocked, but I know you and I know you're here to do good."
"I'm glad to hear that, it means a lot. There's another reason I wanted to talk to you," he revealed.
"What's that?" Barbara noticed him rubbing the back of his neck, something she'd realised he did when he was nervous.
"I was wandering if you would you like to go out sometime?" he eventually asked. Clark pushed his glasses up his nose as silence came between them. "It's okay if you don't want to," he blurted out. "My life's pretty crazy, more so then ever and if you don't wan,"
"Clark," she interrupted him. "My life's pretty crazy too. I'd love to go out with you." She answered with a smile. A smile spread across Clark's face from ear to ear.
"Great," he beamed. "I was thinking dinner. What night are you free?"
"What about tomorrow?" she suggested.
"Works for me."
The next night, while Clark and Barbara were on their date, Batman sped down the streets of Gotham in his Batmobile. He dodged a slow moving taxi before punching down on the accelerator. He came to a screeching halt in front of a warehouse where he immediately ejected from the Batmobile and raced inside. He scanned the building, searching for any sign of life. Batman whipped out a batarang and prepared to throw it. He tensed when the joker walked out of an upstairs office, a big, red grin plastered on his face. He wore his usual purple suit, orange undershirt and purple tie hanging around his neck.
"Gasp, can it be, the one and only Batman?" he asked in shock. "You know Bats, over these last few months I've been having so much fun teasing you, watching you try and find me, desperately scrapping for clues. The only reason you found me tonight is because I lead you here."
"I know," Batman replied as he began to approach the Joker, still holding the batarang, ready to throw it.
"You know Bats these last couple of months have been interesting, the world was attacked by an Asgardian god and his army of aliens only to be stopped by a group of superheroes. And now we learnt that the man who saved Manhattan is an alien. How can anyone feel safe with all these weirdos running around?" He began to laugh manically. "Remember when things were simple, I'd kill some people, who'd stop me before I killed even more, I'd break out of Arkham and we'd start the show all over again." His eyes widened as he remembered something. "Hey, remember that time I killed your sidekick." Joker dove out of the way as a batarang flew past his head. "Oh, did I hit a nerve did I?" He began running up the stairs into the office he appeared from, Batman chasing after him. Batman ran into the office to discover the joker had disappeared. He searched the room, finding no clue as the where the joker had gone.
After a few moments he found a man sized hole in the ground under a desk. Without hesitation he jumped down the hole into the dark abyss. He landed in a dark room, keeping his senses peeled, slowly looking around the dark room. A spotlight shone directly on him from the ceiling. Another light switched on above the joker aiming a gatling gun at him from a stage.
"I could kill you, right here right now. But why would I want to? I mean with all these nuts running around it's nice to know that we'll always have each other." He paused to wipe away a fake tear. "We are the two constant things in each other's lives. You unleash your brash vigilante justice and I try and push you to your breaking point. Yep, we're two star crossed lovers, a real Romeo and Juliet. You can be Juliet." Before Joker could continue his watch began to beep.
"Well, Guano Man, it's been fun, I love these little talks of ours," he announced. "Even if they are a little one-sided," he mumbled. "Oh by the way, the warehouse is going to blow up in sixty seconds. And in a measly five minutes, so will the Gotham Heights Hotel. Now fly bat fly. I have schemes to scheme, laws to break and people to kill."
Batman clenched his fists in rage. All he wanted to do right now was grab the joker and punch him as hard as he could but he knew he wasn't bluffing about the hotel. Batman grappled out of the hole he'd jumped in, racing out of the warehouse just as it blew up.
"Alfred, call the Gotham Heights Hotel and get them to evacuate the building," Bruce ordered as he raced through the city.
"Right away," Alfred replied.
Batman arrived at the hotel just as people were beginning to evacuate. Suddenly, the top level of the building exploded. Without hesitation, Batman grappled up to the top floor jumping into the burning building.
Clark and Barbra sat opposite each other at a Mexican restaurant.
"Nice pick of restaurant," Clark complimented her as he took a bite from his nachos.
"Thanks," she replied with a smile. "My dad brought me here when I way a kid. I loved all the pretty lights and would stare at them while I waited for my food," she explained. "You know Clark, I'm having a really nice time tonight. I have to admit it's been awhile since I've been on a date. With my job, after some stuff that happened, I kind of shut myself off from the dating life," she admitted nervously.
"Me to," he replied. "At least with you I don't have to keep secrets."
"Likewise," she replied, placing one of her hands on top of his. Suddenly an explosion boomed a few blocks away.
"What is it?" Barbara asked as Clark starred off into the distance.
"Top floor of a buildings exploded," he replied, standing up and racing towards the exit just as a second explosion went off in the same building.
Clark sprinted down a nearby alleyway, ripping away his dress shirt, revealing the red and yellow S of his suit. In just moments he'd reached the building, extinguishing the fire with his super breath. He began scanning the building for survivors when he noticed a third bomb on a lower fall. He raced towards it but was unable to stop it in time. The bomb erupted and Superman did his best to contain the blast with his super breath. Clark flew through the buildings, finding survivors and carrying them to the ground. Unfortunately, he'd missed the initial explosions and from what he could tell eight people had died. Then he noticed another unconscious body. He raced up to the body and threw a pile of debris off of them as he scanned their vitals. They were alive, but seriously hurt. Clark picked up Batman, half his mask ripped blown off, revealing his identity.
Barbara ran down the street, pushing through the crowd towards the building. Her phone began to ring, seeing it was Clark calling she answered.
"Clark," she began.
"Batman was caught in the explosion. Where do I take him?"
"Crap!" she cried.
"Barb, Bruce needs immediate help."
"Bruce?" she asked worried for her partner.
"Barb!" Clark shouted snapping her out of her worry.
"Okay, okay," she replied.
From the Batcave Alfred, desperately tried to contact Bruce through his communicator. Footage of a security camera popped up on the computer as the doorbell to Wayne Manor was rung. Alfred looked up in shock as he saw Superman holding an unconscious Batman.
"Oh God," he mumbled.
A few hours later Bruce woke up in the medical portion of the Batcave, pain running through his entire body.
"You're awake," Superman noticed, standing beside the bed along with Barbara and Alfred.
"You should have called for backup!" Barbara exclaimed angrily.
"There wasn't any time," Bruce replied, slowly sitting up.
"Master Wayne, I stress you take it easy and rest, you've suffered serious injury," Alfred insisted.
"He's not wrong," Clark added. "You've got four broken ribs, a broken arm, three broken fingers, a broken foot and a fractured collar bone." Superman listed off.
"If it weren't for Superman you wouldn't have made it out of there alive," Alfred admitted.
"Thank you." Clark was surprised, two words he didn't expect to ever hear from Batman.
"Well, I better get going," Clark decided. "It was a pleasure meeting you," he spoke to Alfred.
"I'll call you," he turned to Barb.
"Looking forward to it. Hopefully next time we go on a date it won't end with a building on fire," she joked.
"Bruce," he waved goodbye.
"Clark," he replied. Clark was about to fly off when he froze in his tracks.
"You know?" he asked in disbelief.
"Of course I know." Bruce replied. "And take the back way out," he instructed pointing towards the exit to the Batcave. "I don't need you drawing any more attention."
"Pleasure as always." In a blur Superman flew out of the cave leaving the Bat family.
"How long have you known who he was?" Barbara demanded.
"Since the invasion," Bruce replied causing Barbara to sigh.
"I suppose I really shouldn't be surprised."
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
So I had a bit of the world dealing with Clark's revelation and Clark dealing with the world. I decided I've been mentioning the Joker for long enough now and added him in this chapter. Next chapter we'll finally discover what's been happening with Bart and his powers.