[K]nightfall
by LaraMoon
Rated PG
~.~.~.~.~
Author's Notes:
This story fits into my "
Clark Kent is Batman... NOT! " series, but be warned that this is not a comedy piece.
A few things you should know: this is pretty much a rewrite of
All Shook Up. Now, since this is set in my series, it means that Lois already knows that Clark is Superman and they're a couple by this point. Oh... and you all knew that Bruce Wayne is Batman, right?
I don't own these characters – I just like to play with them... And I shamelessly stole a few lines and ideas, both from the
All Shook Up episode and from the Batman comics, but I meant no disrespect in doing so – I have nothing but admiration from the folks who wrote them, in fact.
Check with the Bottom Dweller for the rest of the notes.
~.~.~.~.~
~ [K]nightfall ~ Chapter I - "Holy Asteroid, Batman!" Lois had been pacing restlessly in her apartment for several long minutes by the time Clark arrived. She had known all along that something wasn't right. The scientists at EPRAD would not have asked to see Superman if everything was under control, that much was a given. A shiver of anxiety ran through her when she opened the door to find Clark there, looking somber and preoccupied.
"It's that bad, huh?" she asked, trying not to let him see just how worried she was.
"Mmm," he answered dazedly before proceeding towards one of her loveseats.
It wasn't that bad. It was
worse. He had not for one second anticipated what had been asked of him tonight. The fate of the earth pretty much rested on his shoulders. And as powerful as he was, this was one responsibility he wasn't convinced he'd be strong enough to carry.
Lois came to sit next to him and placed a hand on his arm affectionately. "Want to tell me about it?"
She hadn't expected to see him in such a state. She'd sometimes seen him look dispirited - to a point - when he came back from daunting rescues. But this was different. He looked unsure; almost afraid. And it was really scaring her.
Clark looked up at her and tried to crack a weak smile. Ever since Lois had figured out that he was Superman, Clark had gradually allowed himself to let out some of the thoughts and feelings - when he was with her - that he otherwise kept locked up deep inside. His fears, and sometimes, even his failures. Things the rest of the universe was not permitted to know that Clark Kent felt and certainly didn't believe that Superman could feel or even experience. Having someone around who he could talk to was the most precious gift he could ever have asked for.
"The asteroid is headed straight for Earth," Clark explained. "They say it could knock the planet off its axis, even throw us out of our solar orbit."
Lois looked at him, eyes wide with worry and fear. "That's awful," she said, in a whisper.
Clark was immediately glad he had chosen to leave out a few of the other gruesome details for the moment. Besides, the information was supposed to be classified.
"It is," was all he could answer.
"And they think Superman can help?" Lois asked, after the shock had died down a little bit. "What is it they expect you to do?"
"Smash it to smithereens." It was all Clark could do not to laugh at the statement. Put like that, it sounded so ridiculously easy. But an asteroid was no laughing matter, especially one the size of Nightfall.
"Is that all?" She chuckled humorlessly.
"I could try moving the earth out of the asteroid's way instead," he deadpanned, suddenly unable to help himself from making a joke. There was just so much tension he could take.
"Can you?" Lois asked, frowning. What if this was too big a task for one man, she thought? Even for a
super man? Nervously, she added, "Destroy the asteroid, I mean. Not that other thing. You're just kidding about that, right? I mean, I don't see how it would be possible to move... What? What is it?"
Much to Lois's annoyance, Clark was now grinning like a Cheshire cat. "You're babbling," he told her.
"Well, can I help it if I'm worried?" Tears formed at the corners of her eyes as a dozen 'what if' started dancing around in her head.
"I'm sorry," he said, pulling her into a hug. "I didn't mean to tease. I'm worried too." He sighed. "I want to say I can do this, but I just don't know..."
"So, um, when are you... Uh, when..." Lois's voice was trembling and she couldn't bring herself to ask the question. She had a bad feeling it would be a lot sooner than she'd be able to cope with.
Clark cleared his throat but said nothing for a long moment. "Tomorrow," he told her finally.
"Tomorrow?" she echoed slowly, her voice barely above a whisper. "But that's so soon..."
"I don't exactly have much choice."
"No, I don't suppose so." Lois swallowed back the lump in her throat before going on. "Would it be selfish if I wished you did?"
"Maybe. A little bit. But I wouldn't love you any less for it."
"You know, this whole
'sharing you with the rest of the world' thing? Not all it's cracked up to be." She laughed nervously as she rested her head in the crook of his shoulder. "What if you don't... and this is the last... and... Clark? I'm, um, I'm really scared. I don't think I can... if..." Lois's thoughts went unfinished as the barrage crumbled and tears ran down from her eyes.
"It'll be all right," he whispered softly, smoothing his hand on her back. "It'll be all right," he said again, trying hard to believe it as well.
~.~.~
Superman stood outside the building at EPRAD, getting ready to fly into space. To everyone there, he seemed his usual self. But a torrent of doubt was eating him up on the inside. What if he wasn't strong enough, precise enough,
super enough? What if he failed? What would happen - to all of them - if he wasn't able to do this?
A young man walked up to him, startling him out of his thoughts. He was clad in a familiar black and blue spandex suit.
"Nightwing? What brings you here?" Superman inquired, surprised by his presence.
"
He wanted you to have this." He handed Superman one of Batman's utility belts. "There's a rebreather in there. He thought it might be useful. You know... in case you need air up there."
"Thank him for the loan," the Man of Steel said, as he tightened the utility belt around his waist. "I'll be sure to bring it back to him myself as soon as I'm done here."
"It's not a loan," Nightwing explained in a low voice, careful not to be overheard. "I mean, he expects you'll come back of course, but he says he won't ever need that again, so..."
Superman looked at the younger man, surprise obvious on his face. "Seriously?"
Last he knew, the Dark Knight had been in an awful fight with a nasty villain named Bane whose sole goal had been to destroy him. As a result of overexertion following the escape of several dangerous criminals from the Arkham Asylum, Batman had been unable to stand up to Bane who had broken his back and left him for dead.
Of course, no one outside a very small circle of people actually knew about this. And while it was common knowledge that
Bruce Wayne had been seriously injured – in a car accident, as the cover story went – no one was supposed to know that
Batman was out of commission. He hadn't been seen for a few days, but that wasn't altogether uncommon for someone whose strongest asset was hiding in the shadows.
The injuries must have been a lot more serious than what Clark had heard about, if his friend was considering giving up the mantle of the bat for good.
"Oh yeah. He's dead serious about it. You know how he is..." Nightwing said. He shook his head and sighed heavily. "Well, be careful up there, friend. We're all pulling for you."
Superman placed a hand on the other man's shoulder and thanked him again, before turning his attention to the group of reporters assembled there. He took Lois aside for a short moment.
"It's going to work," he promised her, answering her unspoken question and praying that the words would serve to quell his own doubts as well. "It has to."
"I hope so," she replied, her eyes filling with tears.
She didn't want to say goodbye. She didn't even know how. Lois knew there was no guarantee that he'd succeed or that he'd make it back. These could be their last moments together and she was fully aware of it.
The worst of it all was that she couldn't tell him now what she was really thinking, what she really felt, what she really wanted to say to him. She couldn't say all these things – not to Superman. And especially not with reporters standing around them.
"I'll be back," he said, cupping her cheek tenderly with one hand. It wasn't nearly enough for either of them, he knew, but this was as much of an intimate gesture as he could allow himself under the circumstances. "We'll go flying."
"You'd better," Lois whispered, the words barely making it past the lump in her throat.
Even though he'd already promised her a million times over that he'd be back, she knew that he might not be able to keep this promise. She knew there was a chance she might never see him again. And though she had told him so many times last night that she loved him, it still didn't seem enough. Lois silently cursed the shroud of secrecy that prevented her from being able to tell him one more time. One last time. It was tearing her apart to have to stand there and pretend that they didn't have a relationship. Pretend, for the rest of the world, that his leaving wasn't slowly destroying her, heart and soul.
Unable to just stand there and go on with the charade, and ignoring the fact that there were cameras pointed straight at them, Lois leaned in and kissed him.
So what if the entire world saw her do it? The rest of the world didn't matter much to her right now. All that mattered was Clark. And for a short, much too short moment, the rest of the world melted away; there was no one else, there was no asteroid and this wasn't goodbye.
"I've got to go," he told her, reluctantly breaking the kiss.
"Good luck," she said, though her eyes screamed
'don't leave me'.
Seeing her there, bottom lip quivering, barely holding back her tears, was almost more than his heart could take. For a moment, he wasn't sure he'd be able to leave at all. Strengthening his resolve, he finally unglued his feet from the ground and walked towards the group of EPRAD technicians and government officials.
~.~.~
The entire planet seemed to hold its breath as Superman took off to the sky, that morning. Cameras from every media, every news agency on the globe were pointed directly at him and throughout the world, millions of people watched anxiously as the Man of Steel headed towards the Nightfall asteroid.
He stopped briefly and looked upon the crowd below him one last time, conscious of the fact that he was the only one who could do anything to save them. And he would. He would do everything to save the pople of Earth, just as they had saved him when his planet had been destroyed. Earth was the only home he'd ever known and he would protect it with his very last breath.
Superman filled his lungs with as much oxygen as he could before shooting straight through the earth's atmosphere and into outer space, flying as fast as his abilities would allow.
Until finally, he saw it. Nightfall.
A crackling sound in his earpiece reminded him of the communications link he shared with ground control, back at EPRAD. Broken words and sentences were all that came through at first and then gradually the signal became clearer and he could hear them almost perfectly.
"I can see it now," he told them, answering the repeated question. "In fact, it's hard to see anything else."
Thousands of miles away and yet all he could see now was the massive asteroid. It was immense. More than that... it was colossal. Gigantic.
"Roger, Superman. We copy you on the ground," said the voice at flight control. "Do you have stress point acquisition in visual?"
"Yes, I do."
"Stand by for final briefing procedure."
"I know what I have to do," Superman said simply. He closed his eyes for a second, summoning the strength and determination he needed. "Well, here I go."
With that, the Man of Steel shot towards the asteroid, flying nearly at light speed. Head bent down, arms extended in front of him and fists closed tightly, he turned into a living missile, heading straight for Nightfall.
"Impact in five, four, three, two..." the voice in his earpiece announced.
The last thing that went through Superman's mind, as his fists collided heavily with the celestial body, was a fleeting image of Lois, looking lovingly up at him as they flew into the evening sky.
A split second later, there was nothing. Nothing but darkness as the Nightfall asteroid disintegrated into tiny morsels, hurtled into space in every direction.
Undetected amidst the hundreds of millions of rock particles was one tiny, human shaped form. It soared right through the earth's atmosphere, turning into a fireball along with several other small chunks of the asteroid.
~.~.~
Around the world, on every TV screen, people saw the very same images, captured by an EPRAD satellite: footage of the asteroid being blown up into tiny little bits of itself. Then, a voice from ground control, confirming that the target had indeed been destroyed. And, finally, static as the satellite was hit full force by a flying boulder.
"We have lost transmission with Superman," another voice announced after a moment.
For several long minutes, flight control tried to re-establish contact with the superhero. Over and over, the astronaut in charge of communications repeated the same words in the hopes that the Man of Steel would hear them and respond.
Sweat started beading on the man's forehead as doubt crept up in his mind. He should have received an answer by now. Superman should have reported back.
But he hadn't...
Radars from around the world scanned the skies, but it was impossible to detect anything specific amidst the debris of space rock flying towards the earth. Assuming he hadn't been thrown clear through the solar system, Superman was probably one of these objects, but there was no telling which one or where it would land, if at all.
~.~.~
Every reporter had left; all headed back to their newspapers, radio and TV stations with stories of the destruction of Nightfall to tell. Every reporter but one, who now stood, frozen, in front of the main view screen in EPRAD's broadcast center.
"His microphone went out. He's fine," Lois had immediately said, when she'd learned that mission control was no longer able to contact Superman. "He's got to be."
And at first, she had believed it. Just like everyone else.
But that was over an hour ago.
Lois's eyes were still fixed on the same monitor they had been since she'd seen the first images of the asteroid being blown to pieces. But she no longer saw the screen. She just stood there, stiff as a statue.
We have lost transmission with Superman.
Lost transmission...
Superman...
Lost...
The words kept repeating in her mind, like a broken record. Ad infinitum.
"Miss Lane?" a man said, placing a hand on her shoulder to shake her out of her reverie. "Miss? I'm going to have to ask you to leave. Everyone else has already left. Even the guys at mission control are leaving now."
"But..." Lois turned towards him, a sad, almost haunted look in her eyes. "But he's... We don't know if he's..."
"I know. But there's nothing left for us to do now, except wait. If Superman made it back to earth, I'm sure he'll let us know he did."
"If?" she whispered.
"I'm sure he's here somewhere. Perhaps he's just busy someplace else, making sure the debris haven't caused any casualties in populated areas and he hasn't been able to contact anyone."
"But he would have... He wouldn't let... He..." Lois babbled semi-incoherently as the man escorted her gently out of the building and put her in a cab with instructions to take her back to the Daily Planet.
~.~.~
Jimmy caught up with Lois as she stumbled dazedly into the newsroom, some fifteen minutes later.
"Lois? Where have you been? Perry's going ballistic. You were supposed to call your piece in over an hour ago."
"Mmm? Oh. Hi, Jimmy," she mumbled. "I was just... you know. Over there, and..."
"You OK?" he asked, his brow furrowed with concern. "Lois?"
"Has Clark called in?" Lois looked around the newsroom nervously.
"I thought he was with you?"
"Oh. He, um..." She hesitated for a second, realizing she'd better try and make an excuse for him. Over the last few weeks, she'd gotten used to making up stories to explain her partner's absences, but this time... this time was different. "He... went to help locate Superman. You haven't heard from him at all?"
"Nope. Not a word."
"Still no news on Superman?" Her eyes had a sad, worried look that almost gave Jimmy the chills.
"Sorry," he said with a small shrug. "You, um... you'd better stop by the chief's office before he blows a gasket or something."
Lois nodded absently and, sighing, she walked over to the editor's office.
~.~.~
Miles away, in Gotham city, Bruce Wayne lay in the master bedroom of his manor, watching simultaneous news broadcasts on three different TV sets. He had spent the last five days there, nailed to his bed, a broken spine having turned the agile vigilante into a bitter and frustrated invalid.
As he observed the images of the asteroid's debris, falling back to earth in a shower of rock and meteoric dust, he felt what could only be described as a seismic wave.
For a few short seconds, the entire house shook, around and under him as – unbeknownst to him and to the rest of the world - a ball of flames collided heavily with the ground. Breaking right through a thick layer of schist and gneiss, the object continued its course inside a deep underground cavern and crashed into the rocky ground, embedding itself in the cold, damp bedrock.
Bruce switched the monitors to display images from the network of security cameras installed around Wayne Manor, but saw nothing of interest there. He shut off all the screens and threw the remote on the nightstand, grumbling to himself.
"Just my luck," he complained out loud to absolutely no one. "Boulders fall down from the sky - where else are they going to land but directly on my head? Boy Scout, if there's any damage to my home, I'm holding you responsible!"
~.~.~
The search for Superman lasted five long days. But the Man of Steel was nowhere to be found.
On the evening of the fifth day, radars and satellites were returned to their normal uses. The desperate search for the man who had single-handedly saved the planet was abandoned. Government officials had him officially listed as missing in action. The people of the earth mourned the loss of their greatest hero.
As the sun rose the next morning, Bruce Wayne turned on the TV sets that sat on the desk at the foot of his bed. Now only a shadow of the man he had once been, there was no longer anything he could do to help his fellow Gothamites. Still, he kept informed of what was going on in his city, turning on the news each morning as he woke up, if only for the sake of staying sane.
But what he saw that morning made him wonder if he'd lost his mind.
Captured the night before by an amateur cameraman were images of a shady figure holding a silent vigil atop one of the tallest buildings of the city. It stood for some time, unmoving, before suddenly dropping off from the ledge of the structure in one swift move and disappearing into the night in a familiar rustling of fabric.
The Batman. ~.~.~
End – chapter 1.~.~.~.~.~
Bottom Dweller's Notes:
As you may have noticed, while this story first into my alphabetical series, it doesn't follow the same "ordering" that the other stories do. Instead, this story has five chapters and their names begin in H, I, J, K and L. I've just grouped them together... you know, like an arc. *lol*
In reference to the title - I've merged All Shook Up with a series from the Batman comics which happens to be called Knightfall and was printed in 1993/94 – the timeline is a little off, but not by much. I could not possibly have asked for a better mix of stories!
For any of you who have read the Knightfall/Knightquest/KnightsEnd stories – yes, I eliminated Jean-Paul Valley. Who needs him when I can have Clark Kent instead?
Batman's utility belt has actually been known to have a rebreather at one point. Why make it up when it's already perfect?
Oooh... and in case you missed it, the title of the first chapter "Holy Asteroid, Batman!" is a little homage to Robin's catch-phrase from the old Batman series starring Adam West and Burt Ward in which he repeatedly spoke lines beginning with the word "Holy" and ending with "Batman". I'm geeky that way...
~.~
There are a few people to thank, of course. <g>
- Woody, for some of the inspiration. When I mentioned I was running out of ideas for this series, he suggested a story where instead of other people thinking that Clark is Batman, Clark *himself* thinks he is.
- DJ and JoJo for beta-reading this crazy tale. I couldn't possibly thank you enough, girls!!
- Jessi and Cat, for their never-ending encouragement.
- and last, but not least, my friend 'Batman' from work who lent me the Knightfall novel to read and answered several of my silly Batman-related questions.
