Gotham Nights, Part 2 of ??
by: C. Leuch
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It took CJ around 10 minutes to change clothes and get to the scene. The explosion had set off an inferno that had engulfed several blocks around the initial blast site. Superman had been hard at work tending to the injured and the dying, gently shepherding them to hospitals, and later to the waiting paramedics. While freeing some of those trapped by the flames, he had attempted to tackle the fire, though the smell in the air made it clear that a gas leak somewhere in the vicinity was fueling the flames, and his firefighting efforts wouldn’t get very far without first tackling that. His focus had instead stayed on the human casualties.
Batman parked his motorcycle in an alley near the site. People were gathered around the edge of the destruction, reporters setting up cameras, survivors straining to see what had happened to their neighborhood. Normally CJ would try to avoid the crowds by traversing the rooftops, though the fire made that impossible this night. The flames also left precious few shadows to hide in, so he fought back any lingering shyness and confidently made his way out into the middle of the street. There were a few gasps and surprised murmurs as he strode past the onlookers, toward the inferno.
The first order of business for Batman would need to be stopping the gas leak, then he could worry about containing the fire. There were still enough of the wounded to keep his father busy for at least the next few minutes. And although stopping the leak would be a task unique to someone in possession of superpowers, it wasn’t as if Batman had been a stranger to such things in the last couple years, nor had he tried to hide what he could do. The genie had been out of the bottle almost as long as CJ had been in Gotham, though his superhuman feats tended to have few witnesses and were more the stuff of urban legend. As far as he was aware, the only pictures of his exploits were grainy at best, and the video was nonexistent, though it was probably only a matter of time before that changed. There were certainly a lot of people watching tonight, and as he reached the epicenter of destruction, he heard helicopters reach the scene and begin to circle overhead.
In front of him was a crater where a row house used to be. The homes on each side of it were about half gone, the brick walls standing like skeletons, the interiors collapsed in upon themselves. The street in front of the crater had largely been rubblized, and it was through a rift in the pavement that the most intense flames were shooting through. CJ knew that the older portions of town such as this were underlain with ancient utilities, including 100 year old gas mains made of brittle ductile iron. It only took a brief glimpse with X-ray vision to locate the crack in the pipe causing the problem, and he quickly made his way toward the spot, taking his cape and utility belt off as he went. Only something absolutely skintight would survive the intense heat he was about to experience, and he hoped to hell that the cowl would stand up. Before jumping into the schism, he looked down the block and found Superman, locked eyes with him, and nodded. Then he leapt.
It was safe to say that his time in Gotham had been filled with new experiences. In addition to his skyscraper leap, there had been the time a skyscraper collapsed on him, his extended trip to the bottom of the harbor to gather evidence, a few assorted bomb blasts, fatherhood…. Now he could add natural gas-fueled inferno to that list. Although the heat was no doubt intense, it didn’t feel uncomfortable. The pipe itself was white-hot, and quick poke with his finger showed that it easily deformed, though it wasn’t so hot that it had liquefied. Steeling himself, CJ put his hands on either side of the crack, crimping the pipe shut, then rubbing his thumb over the ends smooth out any holes and ensure a complete closure. He then took a deep breath and blew cold air over everything, serving to stiffen the metal and deprive the remaining flames of oxygen.
A cheer went out from the surrounding area as the fire died and CJ climbed back to the surface. In the distance he could hear the clicking of camera shutters, and his skin practically crawled with the feeling of being watched. In quick succession, he picked up his discarded cape and belt, put them on, then checked the integrity of his cowl. It was a little charred and melted around the edges, but otherwise intact. With a quick sigh of relief, he then started going building to building, squelching the last of the fires, and putting out the hotspots. After finishing up with the injured, his father did the same near where he was. Gradually, the emergency responders began to filter into the area, going building to building, slowly making their way toward the initial blast location. Within a matter of minutes, the site was secure, and the emergency was over.
Superman landed next to Batman. “Thanks for the assist,” CJ said, surveying the scene.
“De nada,” Superman answered. “I was looking for an excuse to get out of that party, anyway. There’s only so much small talk in the world, and I think I wore most of it out two charity parties ago.”
“You should make Jon take a few of the parties. Ooh, or better yet, make Mom.” CJ knew as well as anyone that inserting the costumed version of his mother into a party with vapid celebrities and millionaires would probably result in some unpleasant scenes, or at least a lot of pointed stares and muttering. Probably not the best thing for a charity trying to bring in generous donations, but high entertainment as far as he was concerned.
Superman made a face. “For the good of my marriage, my sanity, party attendees, and the people of Metropolis in general, I graciously offered to let your mom sit these out. As for your brother, he’s on the hook once a movie comes out that he’s actually in.”
CJ looked back toward Wayne tower, and could see his wife still standing next to the window, looking toward him. He held up his hand ever so slightly in greeting, and she returned the gesture in kind with a weak smile. “Looks like the party is still on. Are you going back? I have some more work to do around here, so….”
Superman followed his gaze, gave Jenny a smile of his own, then looked down at his chest. “Between the blood and the fire, I think I’m a little too grimy for the jet set right now.” He cocked an eyebrow and regarded CJ’s cowl. “You’re looking a little worse for the wear yourself.”
CJ shrugged. “I’m just happy it’s still in one piece. Putting my face in a blast furnace is a new one for me, and it’s not exactly something I contemplated when we designed the suit.” He looked down at his hands and noticed that his gloves had some metal bits on them, cooled remnants of the pipe he had crushed. “Maybe a somewhat singed Batman will be more intimidating or something. Management thinks I need a little more of that.” The refrain was actually starting to grate on CJ a little. It was hard for Bruce to let go of the image and persona he had created, that he still felt ownership over. CJ was patient, as always, but he was beginning to question its limits.
“Intimidation doesn’t stop fires or save lives,” Superman said, parroting an argument that CJ has used many times. “Anyway, I think management would find your party repartee more frightening than that mask. He never could take a joke.”
“Tell me about it,” CJ muttered. He noticed that the emergency workers moving ever closer to their location. Very soon they would be within earshot, and the conversation would have to fall back to generalities…again. “Say, maybe we can fit in a lunch next week sometime? We can finally have a good conversation without any pretense,” CJ said, pointing a thumb at Superman’s chest. “Plus, I have two months worth of witty banter built up and there’s nobody around here I can dish it out on. Dick’s trying, but it’s just not the same.”
“It’s a date.” Superman’s expression said that he noticed the impending company, too. He clapped CJ on the shoulder, gave a half smile, then took off. CJ sighed, and turned his attention to the epicenter of destruction. Might as well get to work, he thought, sauntering over to the pit that was once a townhouse basement.
By all appearances, this was the scene of a tragic accident. But he would be remiss if he didn’t at least do a cursory review to determine if there was something else going on, and his gut was practically screaming at him that it was. Almost immediately, he noticed that the gas supply meter to the townhouse didn’t look right. The damage on it appeared more consistent with tampering than with an explosion, though there was certainly some of that, too. Couplings don’t just unscrew themselves. Circling closer, he started to scan the rubble in the middle of the basement. Assuming someone intentionally started a gas leak, then they intended for the resulting explosion, but to what end? Insurance fraud was one angle, but surely the vandalized meter was enough of a giveaway that the scheme could never work. There must be something more sinister at play. Almost as soon as the thought crossed his mind, he found what he was looking for.
“Chief!” he called over his shoulder, getting the attention of the fire chief. He then gestured toward the basement, and jumped in. He used his meager levitation powers to keep his feet above the unstable pile of rubble, then used his hands to dig. He tossed aside charred beams, mattress springs, a bathtub…he probably dug through three feet of rubble before finally reaching what he had picked up with his x-ray vision.
“Batman?” the fire chief said from up top, leaning gingerly over the edge.
“Fetch the medical examiner. We have a body,” he said, gesturing to the charred remains. He let himself drop onto the basement floor as the fire chief nodded and disappeared. CJ regarded the body for a second, then knelt down next to it. Given its state, it was almost impossible to tell if it was male or female, young or old. Nothing on the ground around the body seemed remarkable, and there were no identifying marks or unique features. “Who are you?” he whispered, reaching out to touch it.
Almost immediately, his hand began to tingle. He pulled it back quickly, but he was already beginning to feel dizzy, his mouth dry. Before he could even stand up, his vision began to restrict. It was then that all conscious thought ceased.
---
Laura Kent liked to think of herself as a normal, run-of-the-mill college student, and from all outward appearances she was. She had recently started her junior year at Gotham State, studying biology and chemistry, living in a studio apartment near campus, and working at the student newspaper. Her parents had tried to talk her into majoring in journalism, because there was no denying she had a knack for it. It wasn’t just anyone who could boast of having been published in the Daily Planet at the tender age of 15, after all. But there was a stubborn streak within her, one that wasn’t willing to let her settle for the same career as her parents, her brother, and her sister-in-law. Besides, she was pretty sure that print media was on the wane. All the overheard grumblings at family outings told her that even the vaunted Daily Planet, the most respected newspaper in the world, had fallen on hard times, and if the Planet was in trouble, then what hope was there for the rest of the industry? Plus, it’s not like she needed a degree in journalism to be a writer – anyone could write. And in these days of blogs and social media, a lot people out there took it upon themselves to write, whether they had any actual talent for it or not. She felt her time in school was better spent learning about things with which she was not already intimately familiar.
Her friends were mostly people she met at the newspaper, their friendship forged through many evenings and late nights spent putting the paper together. In their free time, they liked to hang out, go to movies and campus events, play games, and generally do the types of things that college students do. There was a core group of 6 or 7 friends that stuck together, though Laura had to admit that she spent more time with her friend Matt than with anyone else. She supposed that she considered him her best friend, though that was all the farther it went. Matt liked all the same shows and music that she did, seemed to have a similar sense of humor, and was possibly the most genuinely nice person she’d met at Gotham State. She supposed that he wasn’t bad on the eyes, not that she ever looked, and had a certain charm that came from growing up in a smallish town in Ohio. It also helped that he was willing to put up with her, because Laura had to admit that she was not the easiest person to get to know.
Her stubbornness lead her to be a bit of a contrarian, and she found herself arguing the opposite side of issues from her friends just for sport. She also had a low tolerance for political correctness, preferring to tell people the simple truth whether they liked it or not. Because of that, some viewed her as stuck up or self-important, but she preferred to think of herself as honest. Anyway, she really didn’t care what most people thought of her. She knew who she was, and that was someone who had profound respect for life and the law, who wanted the world to be a better place, and who was intensely loyal to those who were loyal to her. She tended to be an optimist, to always expect the best out of people, but she also liked to challenge people to step away from their preconceived ideas and see the world from different perspectives. Her father liked to tease that she was essentially a younger version of her mother, a fact that used to bother her when she was in high school. These days, however, she figured that there were worse people to emulate.
Contributing to the puzzle of her personality, of course, was her Super heritage and all that imparted upon her. The powers were an important part of who she was, helped to shape her perspectives on life, but she hid that part of herself away from her friends. It made for a lonely existence at times, but the powers also gave her the ability to chase that loneliness away. Many was the night that she took it upon herself to travel to some exotic location for a solitary evening away, feeling alive amongst the crowds of Hong Kong or Berlin, feeling at one with the wide open spaces of the Midwest or in the mountains of Tibet. She wasn’t quite sure how much her family knew of her wanderlust, though based on the stories that her dad told of his younger days, she knew that he would understand. Then he would tell her to get back to her homework.
One of her other hobbies, if you could call it that, was playing Robin to her brother’s Batman. It started out as a fun way to spend her summers, then once she started at Gotham State, she started to regard it as…less fun. She didn’t mind the companionship or the action, but what CJ did was fundamentally different from what her dad and Jon did, and she mostly didn’t have the patience anymore for the type of investigations that Batman got involved with, especially with so many other things going on in her life. It also got old being second banana. Still, she still played along on the rare occasions she was asked, the positive side of her regarding it as a type of remedial superhero training. At some point she would have to set out and be her own hero, and it helped to see how different people got the job done.
Tonight she had embarked upon what she jokingly called her part-time job, babysitting her nephew Adam. A big part of her decision to go to school in Gotham had been the opportunity to spend time with him, and she had let it be known that she was available for babysitting duty whenever they needed her. In the first year or so, the calls were basically nonexistent. On a few occasions that year, her parents had come into town just to gift CJ and Jenny a night of uninterrupted sleep. Though Laura felt somewhat offended that she hadn’t been called, her mother waived off her concern.
“Patience. They’re first-time parents. Dr. Spock himself wouldn’t be a good enough babysitter right now,” her mom had said.
Laura had to think about that for a second. “The guy from Star Trek?” she had asked, eliciting a sigh from her mom.
“Nevermind,” she had said. Laura still wasn’t sure what that exchange meant, exactly, except that maybe it was too soon to worry. Even though she didn’t get to babysit that year, she still got to see him frequently, during weekend visits or trips to the park.
The second year things had picked up, with Batman assuming a few more complicated cases, Jenny putting more time in at the magazine, and the two of them rediscovering their libidos. Laura hadn’t been especially good at changing diapers at first, being the youngest child and lacking in practical experience, but she got better. She also found herself enjoying the babysitting trips more as Adam developed a personality. She told her friends that she was looking after her brother’s kid, but she didn’t ever broach to them the subject of who exactly her brother was…or wasn’t, technically. Fortunately none of her friends were all that curious, and fortunately Sam Wayne’s celebrity didn’t rate high enough that he had paparazzi following him around all the time. It meant a semi-private life for her brother, and more opportunities for Laura to enjoy their company without anyone the wiser.
Tonight had been on her calendar for a long time – the big Superman movie premiere. The movie itself had been in development for years, and even before leaving home for college, she had seen the script that her Dad had brought home from the Foundation. And she knew what lengths her parents had gone to in offering notes to the screenwriter, deliberately leading them away from anything resembling the truth such that the result was rather…comic. Laura really had no desire to watch the movie, except maybe to observe the actors that they cast in the parts of her parents. But the silliness of the script was right up CJ’s alley – the chance to snicker at all the outrageous locations and scenes that the movie had dreamt up, and of the wooden characterization of their family members. It was comedic gold to him, which she could appreciate, since the truth was actually kind of bland, at least in her mind. Of course, after the movie was the fancy reception, which gave CJ the chance to torture their father while he was in his other guise. That dumb bet that her brothers had…CJ took it very seriously. Jon would undoubtedly roll his eyes at the spectacle of the richest 20-something in Gotham publicly inundating the Man of Steel with puns and non-sequiters, probably because a similar thing happened at practically every Kent family gathering. Her Dad was a pretty tough nut to crack when he was in superhero mode, plus he let it be known that he had mastered CJ’s act before any of them were even a twinkle in his eye.
It was entirely possible that the public confrontation never happened, though, judging by the giant explosion she had heard about an hour before Jenny arrived back at the mansion. Pictures from the late news had shown Batman and Superman at the scene, battling a giant fire and, later, talking. After saying good night to Jenny, Laura had taken a zip over the explosion scene, and it was impressive. There was also quite the buzz about how the fire had been extinguished, which probably meant that the way Batman was viewed by the public was about to be changed forever. It had been around midnight when she had finally arrived back at her apartment.
She had contemplated getting out of town for a couple hours, just for the heck of it, but she decided that some of her chemistry texts required her attention and spent a couple hours on those, instead. Studying on a Saturday night was usually against her personal code, somewhere after “Be true to yourself at all times” but before “No snacks after midnight.” But that also assumed that she would be hanging out with friends instead, and the babysitting gig had meant no friends tonight. It was around 2 AM when she finally made her was to bed. And at 3 AM her phone rang.
“Hmm,” she said sleepily into the receiver. She wasn’t quite sure she wasn’t currently dreaming.
“It’s me,” came the voice from the other end, and instantly she was awake. That was unmistakably Dick Grayson, Nightwing, and although he was one of her close friends, he very rarely called her. They met from time to time on lonely rooftops on dark nights and discussed life; every now and then he would run into her when she was having lunch alone at a campustown restaurant, though she knew the meetings were never coincidence. It was a different kind of friendship than what she had with her college buddies, mostly because Dick was the only person alive that knew everything about her who wasn’t also related to her. But Nightwing worked with Batman, and if there was trouble, the two of them could usually handle it. If they needed help, CJ would be the one to call Laura in to the action, because he and their Dad had long ago agreed that Laura was to be kept away from anything too gruesome. “I need you to come down here,” he continued.
“What’s wrong? Where are you?” She sat up in bed and switched her grip on the phone, her heart beginning to pound.
“Pier 39. It’s your brother…something’s wrong.”
Almost before he could complete the sentence, she changed into her Shadow Woman / Robin outfit and was at his side. Pier 39 was located in Suicide Slum, a place that was so violent it had been deemed un-policeable in the past. It was home to numerous street gangs, who were constantly fighting over turf, and flooding the area with drugs and guns. There were those in Gotham society that were content to let the neighborhood kill itself off, but innocent people also lived there, people who were too poor to get out. Batman had made a concentrated effort in recent years to try and straighten the neighborhood out, if only to give some hope to the generation of children that were growing up there. Being a parent had given CJ new perspective, and he wanted all the children in Gotham to feel safe, and to know that society had not forgotten about them. The time spent was beginning to make a difference, but it was going to take time before the city would be able to get away from the grip of crime.
Right now, a fire raged in a warehouse just off the pier; other fires also burned in houses throughout Suicide Slum. The surrounding streets were littered with guns, spent ammunition, and bodies, all still alive, most hogtied or otherwise restrained. Some people with dazed expressions loitered around the fires or in the streets, and the police presence was heavy. The firefighters battling the house fires hadn’t yet made it to the warehouse, though other curious people had. Laura was fairly certain that a reporter or two was among the crowd, and it probably wouldn’t be long before a television crew showed up the photograph the devastation, regardless of the reputation of the neighborhood.
Laura gave a questioning look toward Nightwing, and he pointed to the top of an abandoned building two piers down. There in a dark shadow lit only by the flickering of the warehouse fire was Batman, one foot on the ledge, staring intently at a ship docked nearby. “He’s been a one man wrecking crew,” Nightwing said. “I think he took down an entire street gang and a half dozen drug houses. But he won’t talk to me, won’t even acknowledge my presence.”
“And the warehouse?” Laura asked.
“Operational headquarters of the gang. I’ve seen military installations that were less well armed.” At the words, Laura looked closer at the surrounding streets and saw evidence that a gunfight that had taken place there, small craters in the surrounding walls speaking to the sheet volume of shots fired, and the absence of blood on the pavement proving that the intended target couldn’t be stopped by mere bullets. The gunmen were now restrained at the foot of the building Laura and Nightwing stood atop. The warehouse fire had only grown in the moments that Laura had been there, fueled by the centuries-old wood beams supporting the roof. Every now and then, the flames were punctuated by a sound like popcorn, the sound of the ammunition inside exploding. Laura was actually surprised that a stray bullet hadn’t yet taken out an innocent bystander.
“Let me take care of this quick,” she said, then jumped down to tackle the fire. She wasn’t used to performing truly super feats such as this, with most of her time in Gotham spent on observation or minor rescues. As she took a deep breath and doused the flames, she thought of how good it felt exploring the limits of her powers, to push herself to do all that she was capable of. The fire didn’t take long to succumb, and she took a second to enjoy the achievement before turning her sights to her brother.
CJ hadn’t seemed to take any notice of what she had done. In fact, he seemed almost ready to move into action himself, his hand moving toward the grappling hook on his utility belt. In the blink of an eye, Laura was on the roof beside him. “Hey,” she said, expecting him to turn toward her and give her that little smile that always seemed to be just a word away. But he just kept looking off into the distance, and she felt a shiver begin to work its way up the back for her neck. “Batman?” she asked, taking a step closer. Her eyes locked onto his face, and she noticed the frown played across his lips. Even in his darkest hours, CJ always seemed to find life amusing, and Laura wasn’t sure she’s ever seen him frown. She was really starting to get scared now. She looked around to make sure nobody was in immediate earshot, then put her hand on his shoulder. “Sam?” she whispered.
The blow was unexpected, and knocked her about half way across the roof. Nightwing let out a curse, and out of the corner of her eye she could see him moving to come her way, but she put out a hand to stop him. She kept her gaze locked on the man who was ostensibly her brother, his fist still in the air from where it had contacted her. It was a pulled punch, she knew, the kind that shouldn’t hurt a normal human being, at least not too badly, and that certainly wouldn’t have done anything to her if she hadn’t been caught off-guard. As she watched, he turned to look her way, and she gasped as she finally caught sight of his eyes. They were utterly lifeless, devoid of any recognition or intelligence; they looked like the eyes of a feral animal.
Laura stood up slowly, squaring her shoulders, clenching her fists. Based on everything she’d seen in the few short minutes she’d been on site, the man in front of her had been an army of one, setting fires, doling out justice, being the vigilante that Batman had long been known to be, the persona that CJ had been trying hard to make into nothing but a distant memory. He needed to be stopped, if only for the sake of the progress that he’d already made, and she was more than capable of the task. Despite her smaller stature, she was just as strong as he was, and better, she had the speed and flight abilities that he lacked. Although she had never actually fought either of brothers while they were all at full strength, she couldn’t think of any reason why she couldn’t win, given her advantages. Setting her jaw, she took a breath and went toward her brother at full speed.
Almost in slow motion, she saw him gracefully turn, one arm blocking her outstretched hands, the other flying toward her midsection. Before she knew what happened, she was flying backward through the air, eventually crashing onto the roof of a building about a block away, crumbling the knee wall around the roof edge and almost falling to the ground below. Her hand clutched her chest, which now ached from the full force of a superpowered punch. “Robin!” Nightwing yelled from his perch, and she knew he was headed her way. Standing slowly, an involuntarily groan escaped her lips. She had underestimated his speed, especially when paired with his martial arts skills.
In the distance, Batman turned back toward the boat as if nothing had happened, then leapt off the roof and took off at a dead run toward the water. As he approached the end of the wharf, he shot off a line and swung onto the boat deck, taking out the guards before quickly disappearing below deck. The muffled sound of gunshots could be heard after a few moments, then a small explosion. Laura considered going over there to stop CJ from doing any more damage, but she was still feeling a little dazed. Besides, her brother had just bested her twice, and she wasn’t all that confident at this point that the third time would be a charm. As Nightwing reached the roof of the building she was on, a loud bang came from the ship, and a portion of the hull above the waterline bulged out as if hit by a giant hammer. A second bang split the bulge wide open, and the next moment men were flying out the hole and into the bay. Laura looked on in horror as she observed the rage on Batman’s face as he manhandled the men, the charred mask on his face making him appear demonic. Behind him, cowering against an interior wall of the ship, were women and children, some looking on in awe, others covering their faces. And then, just like that, the fight was over, and Batman disappeared into the bowels of the ship once again.
“He’s completely lost it,” Nightwing said, shaking his head. His expression was more that of disgust, and Laura supposed she could understand. Dick was not shy about trying to impart upon her the lessons he learned the hard way under Bruce Wayne. And one of those lessons was that someone with darkness in his heart will never be able to completely embrace the light, that the darkness will always come calling. It was cynicism that he came by honestly, and it made him unable to truly trust anyone, even those who had never given him any reason not to. “I can’t believe he hit you.”
“That’s not my brother,” Laura said, her voice surprisingly shaky. “I mean, it looks like him, does all the things he can do, but it’s not him. His eyes…it’s like they’re dead inside.” They stared at each other for a few seconds, then she took a deep breath and felt a tear begin to form in her eye. “He’s in there somewhere, though, he has to be. We have to figure out a way not just to stop him, but to get him back.”
Nightwing put his hand on her shoulder. “Maybe we need to call in the big guns,” he said, raising his eyebrows, simultaneously trying to comfort her and give her strength. “Go get your dad, and we can figure out what to do from there.”
Laura nodded once, looked at the ship, then took off into the air, quickly heading toward Metropolis after making a quick stop at her apartment to grab her keys. In a matter of seconds she landed in the backyard of her childhood home. It took a little bit of fumbling with the lock before getting inside, then she hurried upstairs. The door to her parents’ room was closed, and although it would be easy enough to look inside and assess the situation, she knew better than to x-ray into their room. There had been too many awkward moments throughout the years created by her or her brothers doing just that. Instead, she knocked gently.
“Dad?” she whispered. He might have super hearing, but he could be a very deep sleeper. She knocked again, a little louder this time.
“Your turn with the baby,” her mom mumbled, shifting in bed. Laura could hear a deep intake of breath, and assumed her dad was now awake.
“Dad?” she said again.
“Yeah,” he answered, his voice heavy with sleep. She let herself look into the room, and as the wall melted away in front of her, she saw her folks laying together, her dad propped up on his elbow looking toward her.
“CJ’s in trouble. We need your help.”
***
Laura filled Clark in on the situation during the flight to Gotham. Once they arrived in town, Laura quickly found Nightwing where she had left him and dropped down next to him. Clark stayed in the air for a few additional moments, surveying the scene.
If anything, it was worse than Laura had said. The boldness of Batman’s actions, the sheer destruction and message it was meant to convey, it was vintage Batman, only on steroids. Historically, the attitude behind those actions conveyed a lack of respect for the law, and a lack of empathy for the people of Gotham, who might end up more terrified of their vigilante protector than they ever were of the street gangs. It made it infinitely worse now that he had God-like powers that his predecessor didn’t, and the result was startling, to say the least.
One of the hardest parts about being an empty nester, apart from missing the daily interactions with the kids, was realizing that he and Lois were not the most important people in their children’s life anymore. But with that went the pride in seeing the kids’ accomplishments and knowing that they did something right in guiding them along the correct path. And Clark was certainly proud of CJ; he had said as much when they met earlier in the evening. Even more than that, though, he was proud of how CJ had approached his after hours job, and the work he had done to turn Batman into a hero worth cheering for. The destruction he was now seeing throughout Gotham wasn’t anything that he would’ve ever expected from CJ, and he would have a hard time believing that CJ was even capable of such a thing except for the inescapable fact that no ordinary human could’ve caused it. It had only been a few hours earlier that Superman had been joking with CJ, working alongside him, acutely aware of how much he missed their interactions. What could’ve possibly happened between then and now to make this possible?
Clark landed on the roof next to Laura. “Nightwing,” he said, nodding to Dick.
“Superman,” Dick said, nodding back. He extended his arm and waived it toward the neighborhood. “It’s been rather interesting around here since you left.”
“So I see.” In the minutes since Laura had left, the criminals, far from being intimidated by the Batman, had gotten bolder. Their latest attempt to thwart their nemesis involved trying to run him down, despite ample evidence harsher measures had no effect on him. As the trio watched, Batman walked slowly out into the center of the street about a block from their location and stood calmly, relaxed, as a car wove dangerously through the city streets and approached at highway speeds. A second later came the crash and the horrible sound of the car collapsing in upon itself. In the middle of it all, Batman remained completely unfazed, still standing tall as the engine wrapped around his body. The two passengers, obviously not wearing their seatbelts, crashed forward through the windshield, and Batman snatched them out of the air, one in each hand. The men went limp with the sheer shock of the moment, and Batman dropped them like rag dolls onto the street in front of him before freeing himself from the crumpled vehicle and calmly walking away.
Clark balled his hands into fists and set his jaw as the bile rose in his throat. There were people on the sidewalks at the accident site, people that had either come to observe what had been happening or were driven from their homes by the destruction, and had ended up being inundated with debris. Screams echoed up from the street, and the crowd began to turn toward the assembled heroes.
“Daddy!” Laura whispered urgently.
Clark unballed has fists and sighed. “Okay,” he said, taking a step away from the edge of the building, his mind processing the possibilities. “Whatever did this to him is not on him, right?” He looked at Laura “You didn’t feel any adverse effects from being near him, did you?”
“Besides a bruise on my chest, no,” Laura answered flatly. “But I wouldn’t recommend getting close unless you’re up for a fight. He’s a little…punchy.”
Clark shook his head, letting the pun slide. “I have no desire to throw punches at him, no matter how much trouble he’s causing. Besides, I don’t think a fight between Batman and Superman would make good press for either of us. And the people down there have been through enough without us getting into it and making things worse.”
“There’s always kryptonite,” Dick said, his voice soft.
Clark blanched slightly at the thought. There might be a fair amount of destruction throughout the area, but as far as he knew, nobody had died as a result of it. “Things would have to be much worse before we even considered that. We don’t want to hurt him, we just want to shock him back to normal.”
Clark allowed himself the barest of smiles as idea suddenly occurred to him. “I’m going to try something,” he said to Dick. “If it works, I’m going to take him home, and Robin will come back and get you up to speed.” Clark stopped and allowed himself a moment to regard Nightwing. He was the other half of the tandem that protected Gotham, and he was just as much responsible for the new direction that crime fighting had taken in Gotham as CJ was. “I appreciate your keeping an eye on him tonight,” Clark said, then turned toward Laura, pointing wordlessly up into the air. She nodded and they took off, then looped around, getting several miles away and out of super hearing range before stopping and turning back.
“So what’s the plan?” Laura asked, equal parts confident and apprehensive.
“Basically, we’re going to give him a cold bath,” Clark replied. “The trick is going to be to break the sound barrier before getting to CJ so he won’t be able to hear us, and can’t prepare a defense. I’ll grab one arm if you grab the other, and we’ll take off over the bay and dump him in the water. Let’s get a few miles out before we drop him, just to make sure we’re away from prying eyes.”
Laura nodded. They had flown together often, and he knew she was up to the speed. It was a simple plan, but even if it didn’t work, it got CJ away from the people and into a situation they could control. With a gesture they were off. They actually flew in behind his back, snatching him quicker than the human eye could see, and were a couple miles out to sea before Batman recognized the situation he found himself in. He let out a growl and started to squirm, but at that point they were far enough out, so Clark told Laura to let him go. Batman thrashed around in the water for a few moments, then seemed to recognize that it wasn’t getting him anywhere, so he spread his arms out into a back float and was calm. After a moment he blinked a few times, and the blank expression of his face morphed into something more familiar. Then recognition seemed to come.
“Dad?!” he said. Clark and Laura let out a cheer, which only seemed to confuse him. He attempted to sit up, then realized he was in the water and laid back again to float. “What’s going on? What am I doing here?”
Clark told Laura to debrief Nightwing and head back home, and she left, a smile on her face. Then he flew down and extended a hand toward CJ. “How much of tonight do you remember?” he asked.
CJ reached up and took his hand, and they took off into the air. “Well, after you left from helping with that fire, I found a body at its epicenter, then…I’m here in the water.” As they headed back toward the city, CJ seemed to notice the smoldering fires, the police presence, and the relative crowds of people that had gathered in Suicide Slum. “What happened over there?”
Clark’s expression was grim. “I’ll tell you after we get you home.”
