Chapter 2

Clark's day was going really good so far: an article he'd been working on for weeks finally got approved by the column manager, it was just barely afternoon but Superman already reached his daily rescue quota and best of all, Clark found out that his favourite 'nephew' (Bruce would absolutely hate him for calling Dick that, but Clark couldn't care less) is apparently in town.

It's too bad he couldn't greet the little incognito hero properly when he saw him two hours ago, but he'll definitely swing by his hotel when justice will have finished calling for today.

He was just about to round up the last of some badly organised amateur jewel robbers, when his cell phone buzzed in his suit. Superman recognised the phone number on his screen and was surprised: the younger one of the bats didn't call often and it had barely been two hours since they last saw each other.

'Little bird? That you? I'm still a bit busy you kno-' 'Central Metropolian Bank, now.' Not a second later, the line went dead.

That wasn't Dick's voice, that was Robin's.

Of course there is trouble at the bank exactly when Dick is visiting. Superman exasperatingly thought. The moment he put away his cell phone to head towards the CMB however, a commotion sounded from the crowd around him and he looked to see one of the jewel thieves throwing something towards them: a bomb.

The veteran superhero immediately threw himself on top of the weapon, knowing this bomb size wouldn't do any damage to him. As expected, barely a second later he felt it explode underneath him.

What he didn't expect however, was the sudden drain of energy that followed the blast.

He heaved himself with effort onto hands and knees and blanched when he looked down and his super sight revealed tiny fragments of kryptonite protruding from his chest and upper legs.

The crowds surrounding him noticed his laboured movements and made a hesitant attempt to help him up. As he got lifted onto his feet by a few of the men, he looked back in the direction where he left the thieves to find they were not there anymore.

He quickly scanned the surroundings, but found his vision could not see through as many buildings as he was used to. He shaked his head in frustration: he lost them.

How in Pete's sake did they know about the kryptonite?!

However he didn't have time to ponder: there is an undercover junior superhero that needed saving.

He hovered slightly to test out his flight power and when he felt steady enough, he took off towards the Central Metropolian Bank as quickly as he could.

He finally had a visual on the bank just as he heard a faint sound of a bomb going off. At the distance he was, he should have heard it deafeningly loud. Damn it.

'…DICK!' A faint cry but this sound increased Superman's worry so much more than the previous one did.

Half a minute later – a much longer time than the super alien would have liked – he flew through an open window of the building and looked around the Central Hall.

The first thing he noticed was that Dick wasn't among the crowd.

A few dozen citizens were running haphazardly in seemingly all directions. As he looked closer though, he found a method to the madness: the people were running away from what looks to be the cashiers; some who were screaming and running towards the masses in pure panic, others who were sobbing and trying desperately to reach for something on their back: a device of some sort with a display reading [00:08]. Shit.

A wave of desperation passed through the crowd as the people saw that their saviour had come and many of them started to run towards him.

[00:07].

Superman didn't stay at the same place for long however. He rushed towards the two cashiers closest to him and quickly cut through the straps holding the bombs in place using his eyes. He heard the male inhale sharply; he must have cut a little bit to far into the fabric. He will apologise later.

[00:06].

It took a lot longer than Superman would have liked for his vision to turn back to normal again, but luckily he could hear a distinctive sound on his right that could belong to another cashier: loose floor tiles lightly vibrating against each other accompanied with sobbing. When he finally could look in that direction, he saw a woman tucked away in the corner, hands folded in a prayer while shaking uncontrollably.

[00:05].

Superman flew in a hurry towards her, his vision blurring for a fraction of a second again – God he HATED kryptonite – got her to her feet and quickly removed the bomb from her person. She immediately crumbled to the floor again in relief and thanked the lord over and over again for saving her. Rude.

[00:04].

Superman grabbed her shoulders strongly and held her gaze: 'Ma'am please concentrate. Are there any left?' She glanced around the room and eventually locked eyes with her colleagues. '…Laurence… you guys were is Laurence?'

'The guy ran through there!' He looked at the direction of the voice to see a platinum blond kid pointing towards a door marked 'personnel only'.

[00:03].

He tensely scanned the room behind the door for any sign of the last hostage and his limited vision finally found the last man in a whole different room than he expected: he was in a staircase a little ways off, desperately heading for the roof.

Superman would beat him there.

[00:02].

He shifted his eyes and arms upwards before shooting through the same window he came in. The door to the roof opened on the exact moment Superman joined the man on the same level. He reached the cashier half a second later and forcefully ripped the bomb off of him before the cashier even knew what happened.

[00:01].

Not waiting to be thanked, Superman flew as quickly as he could straight towards the open sky before throwing the four bombs with all his strength upwards, making sure there were no airplanes passing by at that moment.

His timing was a little bit off however, as the four bombs went off just as Superman let go of the packages.

BOOM!

He felt a sharp pain course from his arms towards the rest of his body and he quickly brought the burned appendages to his chest. The moment he did however, the kryptonite in his chest reacted to the super healing and it made his arms burn even more. Superman grunted out in pain and quickly and painfully put his arms on his side as he slowly floated back towards the roof of the bank.

'Oh Superman thank the gods!' The alien looked back towards the cashier: he was stark-white and his appearance was dishevelled, but he looked so very relieved as Superman approached him.

'That was a very noble thing you did Laurence.' Superman said as he attempted to pick up the man, being careful not to aggravate his burned arms. The man started blushing: 'I just thought that- if- if I was going to die...'

'But you didn't.' Superman felt the tenseness in the man's body flowing away. '…And the others?' The man asked.

'See for yourself.'

'Oh Laurence thank god!'

As Superman made his way back through the window, the crowd - including the other cashiers – rushed towards them in relief.

'Joanne, you guys, you're OK.' The man sounded weak, but Superman estimated he would be fine.

Speaking about being fine… Superman looked around for something he spotted earlier: near the boy who pointed towards the door was a woman, laying on the ground unmoving. He quickly found them in the crowd and moved towards them.

The platinum blond kid was being held by a brown haired one, his head buried in the other one's chest as both had tears flowing freely from their eyes.

Superman was concentrating all his hearing on the female as he approached the trio, but he could hear no sound from her.

As Superman got closer, he could see the face of the woman and he unconsciously took a step back as he recognised her. Oh no… that's Dick's teacher.

As he looked closer at the two boys crying in a puddle of her blood, he found he recognised them as well: the smaller of the two boys was the kid who spotted him flying by earlier.

Superman crouched down as he said softly: 'Hiya kids, remember me?' They both looked op to meet his gaze. The younger one simply nodded and looked towards his teacher again. The older boy however, leaned forward and grabbed Superman's arm desperately. He quickly retracted his hand when he felt his palm touch something sticky and saw Superman flinch in pain.

'MISS APPLEGATE! PLEASE HELP HER SHE'S NOT BREATING!'

'Kid… I'm afraid…' He always hated this part of the job, 'it's too late.' Both boys hugged each other tighter at the news.

Superman noticed the crowd was starting to gather around them with feelings of mourning as well. One couple approached the two blood-soaked boys and slowly coerced them in moving away from their teacher.

'Dick…'

The blond-haired kid said it softly, but it was loud enough for Superman to hear. They turned towards each other; the kid with desperation and Superman with increasing dread.

'The bad guys… They took Richard! Please if you can't save miss Applegate, then at least save him!'

Clark's stomach sank, but Superman needed to remain level-headed for both their sakes. He needed more information.

'Where'd they take him?' The kid straightened up. 'I- I don't know, but they left through that door and I think I heard a car speed off afterwards.' Damn that doesn't help him much.

'Ok next question: why'd they take him?'

'They said they wanted him for ransom.' The brown-haired boy spoke up this time. 'So they wouldn't carelessly kill him.'

'Good thinking kid.' Superman gave him a wink. 'Last question: how'd they do it?'

Hopefully this question wouldn't arouse suspicion, but Superman doubted Robin would have been kidnapped without any resistance, even if he is undercover. He needed to know what his condition would be.

The two boys glanced back at the body of their teacher and the brown haired boy grit his teeth in anger. 'They threatened to kill miss Applegate if he didn't surrender.' Superman was momentarily shocked: had Dick sacrificed his teacher to try and get away?

'So he surrendered.' Ah.

The boy stomped loudly on the ground: 'Those filthy shitheads!' He chocked out the words before Superman did and a female half of the couple was quick to wrap her arms around the sobbing boy for comfort.

'They hit him here and here' – Superman redirected his attention to the blond boy again, who was pointing to his abdomen and temple – 'before they carried him off, he still looked conscious then.'

Superman was slightly relieved to hear that. So possible concussion, but nothing the junior hero couldn't fight off if needed to. He padded the blond boy's buzzed head: 'That was great information kid thanks.'

It was at that exact moment, that the Metropolian police bust into the Hall; guns out and expressions serious. A few people exclaimed in panic, but Superman stood up quickly to defuse the situation.

'Don't fire! they aren't here anymore!'

The policemen – seeing that the danger had indeed passed – immediately put away their guns to tend to the public.

Superman immediately a familiar face in between the officers: Captain Sawyer was loudly directing her colleagues to scout the perimeter for any sign of the burglars. Superman was sceptic that they would be of much help.

He crouched back down to towards the two kids and extended both his fists out towards them: 'Don't worry I'll get him back. You can count on that.'

The kids fist bumped him back. 'You better.'