UFC: The Dark Daughter Strikes Again
Summary: A visitor from another reality could be the most dangerous foe the Justice League has ever faced. Their one hope; Superman and Wonder Woman...and the special connection they have to this mysterious new arrival.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Author's Note: The 4th of my Unfinished Chronicles.
'Inside the mind of a mad genius'.
The Joker's first thought is that it was the title of a television show about him. When he discovered it wasn't he decided to go to the television studios himself and make it about him. Oh the laughs he was planning to have.
Of course what happened next fell into the usual pattern. Joker and goons break in, round everyone up, Joker has great, great fun with his newly acquired 'guests' as he takes the viewer on a riveting telling of his life story. He is just getting to the conclusion when surprise, surprise old Batsy shows up.
"Show's over Joker," Batman declares in his usual deep gruff tone.
"You know Batman," Joker drawls. "I think you are getting stuck in a rut. That is what you said to me last time we found ourselves in this situation...but never fear Joker's here! I've got just the thing to reinvigorate our little game."
Batman's eyes narrow to slits. Whenever Joker says something like that it is usually not good.
Joker begins searching through his pockets seemingly without much luck while the goons slow down Batman. "Come on, come on," Joker mutters to himself. "It's here somewhere." He starts tapping his chin with his finger as he tries to remember all the while the studio set is being destroyed as the rapidly diminishing number of goons get dispatched by Batman. That's when it strikes Joker what to do. "Harley!" he yells.
In what seems an instant the woman dressed in red and black like a jester appears next to his side. "Yes Mr J?" she queries with an almost love-sick quality to her tone.
"Harley where did I put it?"
"Put what Mr J?"
"You know...the thing...the big surprise I was saving up for Batman."
Realisation dawns in Harley's eyes. "Oh that thing...you left it at the hideout."
Some days it just doesn't pay to be the clown prince of crime. Joker can feel his temper rising. "And why didn't you mention this before?!"
Harley shrugs. "You never asked."
Before Joker can respond to that a thump draws both his and Harley's attention as Batman lands next to them after knocking out the last goon. He rises from a slightly crouched position in that well practised intimidating way.
Lesser mortals would panic right now but not Joker. "Well it seems Bats that due to technical difficulties the demonstration of my...latest toy will have to wait. How about we call a rain-check and do this another day?"
Batman's eyes narrow.
"No?"
"I don't think he's goin' to agree Mr J," Harley says in conclusion.
"Why thank you for that insight Harley. I would never have worked out that by myself," Joker says with intentional sarcasm.
"You're welcome puddin," Harley replies having totally missed the sarcasm.
Joker turns back to Batman. "Let me guess this is the part where I put my hands up and surrender."
Batman eyes Joker suspiciously. Joker never gives up this easily.
Joker sighs. "Very well," he seems to submit. He then raises his hands and then Batman can see in Joker's palm attached to a ring is a small red button which he presses. Trapdoor either side of where Batman is standing open up, two giant hands spring up and then clap together trapping Batman in their grip.
Joker breaks out into his insane laughter. "Raise my hands up! I never said that it would only be the pair on my arms."
Harley giggles. "Good one Mr J."
The giant mechanical hands then fizzle and short out, no doubt due to one of Batman's toys from his utility belt. As Batman starts to push the fingers holding him apart Joker decides now might be the time to leave. He gives Batman a little joky salute. "Well nice seeing you again Bats. Until next time. Ta. Ta."
As Joker and Harley make their escape Batman grumbles inaudibly as he finally frees himself and heads off in pursuit of the insane clown.
Meanwhile in another universe a man with with greying red hair tries desperately to finish building his device. To most people he is nothing special really. A scientist basically but one who worked for the old regime. A regime that was overthrown in revolution and those now in charge are hunting all those down from the old regime.
The sounds of gunfire and explosions going off does not distract him. He knows at best that the men whose lives are right now being sacrificed will only slow her down for a short time.
Her.
Her who sweeps down from the sky like an avenging angel but with eyes as red as a demon. Maybe she's both. Maybe she's neither. What she is is a power, a force of nature, unleashed. Nothing and no-one that tries to stand up to her lives very long so he isn't trying. It isn't some weapon he is trying to build. He is simply going to use it to run away somewhere she can't find him.
Sweat beads on his brow as the gunfire gets closer. Those men aren't dying for him. He isn't in charge. They were hoping like him to escape using his invention. Instead they are dying for a cause that is lost. His pursuer and her parents and allies had made sure of that.
All he can do now is save his own neck. He works frantically to complete the last few circuits and the device lights up. A smile comes to his face. A smile that lasts all of a few seconds as the door to the room he is in is smashed to pieces and there she stands, eyes glowing like a demon. Forget that angel analogy altogether.
He flips the switch, a blinding flash encompasses him. When his eyes open he can clearly see he is somewhere else and she is not anywhere in sight. He laughs. He did it. He escaped.
"Now tell me what is it you find so funny?"
The man looks up to find a man with green hair, white skin and garish red clown lipstick staring down at him with a horrific gleam in his eye. Yet for all its danger that it seems to hint at he can't help but think that whoever this person is he can't possibly be worse than what he just escaped.
After a good old fashioned car chase through Gotham Joker and Harley make it back to their headquarters after losing Batman only to find a man in a white coat splayed across their floor. Now Joker can't help but think that is just rude, someone breaking into his home like that. After all does no-one have any respect for another person's property any more. What intrigues him is that the man laughs. Joker has a burning desire flare up within him to find out what it is he finds so funny.
So Joker ties the man to a chair. Clichéd he knows but Joker just can't resist a classic.
The man laughs again. "You think this is suppose to scare me, intimidate me? Compared to what I have been through this is nothing. Compared to her you are nothing."
"Her?" Harley asks while making sure she hasn't intruded upon Mr J's moment.
Joker moves next to the man and puts his arm across the guy's shoulders. "Now look here we don't have to be adversaries. I am quite an easy going guy. Right Harley?"
"Well..." Harley starts to procrastinate.
"Right Harley?!" Joker says with a much more dangerous tone of voice.
"Of course Mr J," Harley says with patently false cheer.
Joker glares at Harley for a second before turning his attention back to his stranger. "Now you know why don't you tell me your name and we'll start from there," Joker says keeping up this pretence of being friendly. Although he has some ideas for later to have his guest share in the fun that is his life.
The man turns his head and looks at his captor. He knows insanity when he sees it. His entire world was insane. Millions died just so those who ran his world could crush the hopes of the people and that was before the revolution. It is because of those things that he isn't scared. She scared him because it wasn't insanity that ruled her. It was a pragmatic realism. She knew and accepted what needed to be done and did it without any of the dressings that the insane add to their madness.
It is then he hears a noise. A familiar noise. The same one he heard when he activated his device and ended up here. Now he is afraid. Now panic sets in as the possibility of what this is occurs within his mind. The scientist in him takes over. When he activated his device she rushed at him. The energy aura around her body could have distorted the Einstein-Rosen bridge which would result in time becoming a variable allowing her arrival in this quantum reality to either be before him or after him if you assume a linear time coefficient to be the dominant one in this universe.
The sounds of animals fill the air. It is Joker's Hyenas, Bud and Lou, as they rush towards something.
There are pained yelps and then silence.
"Babies?" Harley asks with great concern for her pets.
Both her and Joker look in the particular direction the Hyenas ran to and in the darkness two strange red dots appear.
"Oh god," the man whispers in pure terror. "She's here." He starts to struggle at his bonds. "We have to run," he tries to tell his captors desperately.
"Run?" a female voice asks from the shadows sounding almost amused at the suggestion. "There will be no more running. There is no place you can hide from me you pathetic earth-bound...human." The disdain is practically dripping from every word.
"But you don't understand!" he shouts back at her. "This isn't our world."
"I understand," the voice says coolly. "You think I am stupid or did you forget who my parents are?"
No he had not forgotten. How could he?
"It makes no difference," she tells him. "Justice will be served."
"Silence!" Joker shouts. "Who are you?" he asks in the direction of the voice.
The man in the chair laughs, laughs in the face of his own demise. "She is death!"
Batman creeps along the roof of where he followed Joker and Harley too. When the car chase had gotten too out of hand and innocent people's lives were in danger he had let them escape but not before making sure to have placed a tracer on their car. That had led him here. He was cautiously walking along towards a sky-light. Joker may be crazy but stupid he is not. There is no telling what booby traps he might have laid. He has just about reached it when explosions from within shake the building.
Sensing the time for caution may have passed Batman jumps through the sky-light, uses his cape to slow his descent and lands in a crouched position. He immediately tries to ascertain the situation. There is fire and smoke, signs of blast damage and as his eyes takes in two parallel scorch marks on a wall Batman can't help but think how that reminds him of what the use of heat vision looks like.
What catches his eye next is a man tied to a chair. He makes his way over and feels the neck for a pulse. It is an almost pointless act. The angle of the man's neck indicates it has been broken.
A noise causes him to spin round poised in a defence position to find it is Harley stumbling out of the smoke, her costume torn and he can see bruises and cuts on her face and on her body where the costume is torn. "Harley!"
Harley's eyes move wildly from side to side before they widen in horror but not at him but at something behind him
Batman's eyes widen as she lifts the bazooka in her hand and aims it right at him with a swiftness he didn't know she possessed. It is all he can do to throw himself out of the way as she fires. He can hear and feel the explosion as the rocket impacts on something. Then there is a whoosh, a very familiar whoosh. Batman knows it. It is caused by the air rippling around someone moving at superspeed.
Next is a thump as Harley's body hits the floor. Next to her drops the bazooka, bent in two.
Batman gets back to his feet and looks around as well as using all his other senses. Someone who could move that fast was a dangerous foe. He makes a mental note to check on Harley after he has dealt with what may be an imminent threat on his life.
"I know you," a cool voice states.
That was all Batman needed as he grabs a Batarang and throws it in the direction that came from. It heads for a cloud of smoke. A hand shoots out and catches it before crushing it into a ball as if it was a piece of paper and dropping it to the floor.
"I can see you are as arrogant and presumptuous in this world as you are in mine."
That's interesting Batman notes considering the arrogance he can detect in her tone and the voice is unmistakably feminine. He would say it is from someone fairly young, a teenager maybe, and is accented. In fact it is almost exactly the same accent that Wonder Woman has. He's trained to pick up on these things. "Who are you?" Batman asks.
He gets his answer as the source of the voice steps forward out of the smoke and into view.
Meanwhile in Metropolis the dynamic duo known as Lane and Kent are in his apartment working on a story or at least that was the original intention. It had digressed from their original intention. They were eating take-out when some sauce had dripped onto Lois' cheek and Clark had been unable to help himself when he just had to lick it off and it had progressed from their into some serious making out on the couch.
Lois lets out a loan moan as Clark places tiny biting kisses along her neck. She can barely believe that she, Lois Lane, is making out on the couch with Superman. Oh yes she knows who he is. He had finally grown a pair and told her. Lois was mad at him at first for keeping it a secret. She had been chasing after Superman for over 2 years and it turns out for those very same 2 years he was there, sitting across the room from her all the time. Lying to her all that time so some anger was understandable.
She forgave him. She always forgives him and now...now she is the envy of every woman in the world. She finally has Superman. She is the one that gets to know what it feels like to kiss him, to have his powerful hands caress her and make her shiver and in return she gets to run her hands all over that incredible body of his.
His lips move to the exposed part of her neck where her blouse is open. "Oh god," she groans out.
It had been 6 months since she started dating Clark and making out was as far as they had gotten but considering the effect he is having on her right now Lois thinks that tonight may be the night they finally take that final step. She plants vicious kisses along his jaw until she reaches his ear. "Clark," she whispers.
"Yes Lo," he whispers back, his voice low and husky making another shiver run up Lois' spine.
"Bed. Now!"
Her words don't have the desired effect. In fact it is the opposite. Clark virtually jumps off of her like someone just dumped a bucket of cold water on him. Lois sits up. "Smallville! What the hell!" she starts to demand to know before she then wonders if he heard something. "What is it? Is there a big emergency? You need to rush off somewhere?"
God how Clark wishes it was that simple. "No."
"Then what is it Clark?"
Clark looks at the frustration on Lois' face. He can't blame her really. He should have explained this to her before now he guesses but he was so caught up in the moment. After pinning for her for years he finally had worked up the courage to tell Lois who he was. He had always found Lois to be perhaps the most intriguing woman he had ever met. She was a mass of contradictions. She was brash, loud and forthright. She never held her opinion back or believe in mollycoddling the truth to spare anyone's feelings. She told it as it was. Yet underneath it all she did have a good heart. She did care. She tried to right wrongs in her own way through the power of her words.
'Mad Dog'
That is her nickname at the Planet. It is to reflect that when she sinks her teeth into a story she is like a pit-bull on a pant leg. She will just never let go no matter how hard you shake. It was what made her a good reporter. It was also what got her into trouble that ended up with him saving her what seemed like every other week. It also means he isn't getting out of here without explaining why he pulled away like he did.
"Lois," Clark begins. "What you are proposing...it is not that simple..." he trails off thinking that he is starting this wrong.
Lois folds her arms across her chest. "Spit it out Smallville," she demands.
"Lois I am a Kryptonian."
"Yeah."
"And you are a human being."
"And that plant on your table is a cactus," she says with an impatient sarcasm. "Get to the point will ya."
"You see if you and I...there are some things you will need to know if you and I..." It is just then his League communicator goes off.
"Ignore it," Lois tells him wanting Clark to get to whatever point he was trying to get to.
Clark obviously doesn't as he walks over to where he left it. "It could be important," he says in response which causes Lois to roll her eyes. This was the part of the relationship she didn't like. The part where she had to share Clark with his duty and even though it has been 6 months whenever she meets his friends from the League she still feels like an outsider and worse. She feels like they seem to know a part of Clark that he hasn't let her see yet. A part he still seems unwilling to open up to her. He keeps it cut off, secret.
Lois watches him as he listens to what is being said.
"Why do you need me?" Clark asks back. "Uh huh...oh Batman says it is important," he drawls with utter sarcasm. "He always says that when it is to do with him and yet it is never important when it is anyone else when they need him...You still haven't said why it is important J'onn...I have to see it." Clark rubs his temples. "Alright give me 5 minutes and I'll be there."
Lois' eyebrows rise up into her hairline. "Oh that is just typical," she complains vigorously.
"I'm sorry Lois. I really am but..."
"Batman said it was important," she finishes for him. "Yeah I heard ya. Tell Bruce to deal with it himself," she says knowing she sounds petulant but not caring right now. "We are in the middle of something," she tells him in no uncertain terms.
"I can't Lois. I already said I would be there." Clark doesn't break his word. In a blur of motion he darts into his bedroom and reappears dressed in the famous red and blue costume with its red cape. Even though she is pissed Lois is still in awe at how he looks.
"Clark we aren't finished here."
"Look I promise we'll finish this later Lois but I have to go," Clark says as he walks to his balcony and flies off.
Lois stands up and walks out after him. "Smallville!" she shouts in a mixture of anger and frustration knowing he can hear her. "We aren't done with this! Not by a long shot!"
Clark grimaces as he flies upward toward the Watchtower. He is so not looking forward to that conversation. He flies in through an airlock and waits what seems like an eternity for him for it to re-pressurise. When the inner door opens he finds J'onn and Batman waiting for him. "What is this about?" he asks deliberately sounding unhappy to make Bruce know he doesn't appreciate having his night interrupted.
"Joker and Harley are dead," Batman answers in his usual gravely voice.
Conflicting emotions flitter across Clark's face. "How?"
"They were killed."
"By whom?"
"That is why we called you Superman," J'onn explains. "We have her here."
"Here?"
"You need to see her," Bruce tells him.
Clark wonders what is going on. If Bruce caught the killer then why isn't she in jail. He follows Bruce and J'onn as they head down to a conference room. The door slides open and that is when his eyes fall upon her. She is tall, young and has hair the colour of midnight. Her hair is long, reaching her mid-back and is tied in a ponytail. She is wearing a blue dress with red tights covering her legs and red boots. Around her ankle is a pendant on a chain and the pendant is a mark. The same one she wears on her chest. The same one he wears on his chest. She looks back at him with cerulean blue eyes so like his own...
"She has an...interesting story to tell," Bruce mentions. He looks at her. "But first tell him what you told me. Tell him your name."
The girl frowns like she doesn't like being told what to do but she complies anyway. Her answer is truly the most shocking and surprising revelation Clark has ever heard in his life.
"My name is Lara. Lara Kent."
Author's Note: This was going to be a story about Lara Kent from the Dark Knight Strikes Again. The daughter of Superman and Wonder Woman but who grew up hidden away on Themyscira meaning while she has all her father's power she has none of his respect for humanity. In fact the exact opposite. She has inherited the Amazon arrogance and superiority complex and sees humans as small, greedy, selfish...basically all the worst in the species. It's pretty close to her seeing humans like that unpleasant something you accidentally step on. There was going to be a journey for her in this different world that would allow her to grasp at least a little of what her father sees in humans and soften her down if I ever continued it but I could never actually imagine how to end it, hence why I abandoned it. And I never was sure on the title. It's not wrong. In some ways she is the dark daughter. Cold and callous and dripping with disdain for humanity but it is a very dark world Frank Miller created. All the characters were dark. Thanks to everyone who has previously written reviews.