Title: Justice
By Lois_Lane_Fan
Rated G
Lois and Clark meet some superheroes.
Disclaimer: Lois and Clark and all other characters in this story belong to DC Comics and Warner Brothers Studio. I am not making any money off of this story. It is intended for entertainment purposes only.
Chapter 1
A man stepped out of his house and locked his door. Unbeknownst to him, there was a mysterious stranger hiding in the bushes waiting for him to leave. The stranger watched the man get inside his car and drive away. She continued to wait for five more minutes. She wanted to be completely sure that the man didn’t come back.
Finally, when she was satisfied that the man wasn’t coming back, the stranger emerged from the bushes. She was dressed in a black leather jumpsuit. Over her face, she wore a mask, and she was carrying a black bag.
She decided to go over to the side of the house to the window. Once there, she took her hand and smashed through the window. She paused for a moment, waiting for an alarm. Then, when she was sure that there was no alarm, she crawled through the window.
What she didn’t see was that across the street, on top of a building, another figure in black was watching her. Once she was through the window, this shadowy figure leapt from the building and glided towards the ground.
Inside the house, the burglar looked for anything valuable. Money, jewelry, and anything small enough that she could carry by herself went into the black bag. Once she’d taken everything she thought she could carry, she walked towards a safe on the wall.
She put her ear close to the safe and began to crack the safe. She opened the safe, and the only thing inside the safe was a small box. Suddenly, just seconds after getting the safe open she heard a man’s voice.
“What do you think you are doing?” he asked.
Quickly, she jolted up and looked at the figure. It was the shadowy figure from across the street. Dressed completely in black, a long caped flowing from his neck, and a bat symbol on his chest, the man was very much intimidating.
“Batman, what are you doing in Coast City?” the woman asked as she stood up and traced her finger around his chest.
“Stopping you from committing a crime, Catwoman,” he replied.
Catwoman flung her bag at Batman, causing him to momentarily lose his balance. She used this to her advantage, grabbing the small box inside the safe and running away. Batman began to chase her as soon as he regained his balance, but Catwoman now had a good lead on him. He got outside of the house and twisted his head in every direction, but she was gone.
He was about to head back into the house to investigate, when unexpectedly, another caped hero flew down from the sky and practically landed on top of him.
“Exactly why did you just break into that house right there?” the superhero said, pointing his finger at the house Catwoman had just robbed.
“Superman?” asked Batman. “I didn’t break into the house.”
Superman rolled his eyes and folded his arms across his chest impatiently. “Really? That window over there is busted, you’re carrying a bag full of –“ Superman stopped speaking to x-ray the bag for a second “—jewelry and money, and you’re wearing a disguise. That doesn’t look like robbery at all, does it?”
“I’m wearing a disguise because I’m Batman!” he growled. “Catwoman’s the one who just robbed the place.”
“Nice try, buddy, but Batman’s from Gotham,” Superman said as he grabbed Batman by the arm.
Swiftly, Batman reached into his utility belt and pulled out a tiny lead capsule. He then opened the capsule to reveal a glowing green substance. Despite the fact that it was small in size, it still managed to cause a sharp pain to drive through Superman’s body, and he let go of Batman’s arm as he winced in pain.
He heard Batman’s voice say, “Sorry, Superman,” and the pain was suddenly gone. Unfortunately, so was Batman.
“Kryptonite,” he said underneath his breath.
*****
Back at the Daily Planet, Clark was still wondering if it was really possible that it had been Batman who he’d come across. He sat at his desk scanning through some old newspapers about Batman, trying to learn what he could about the caped crusader. Most of the papers he looked through were from Gotham because that’s where Batman had always been sighted in the past.
Clark had known a little bit about Batman before reading up on him, but he’d learned a lot from his recent research. Batman had shown up about a year ago in Gotham fighting crime as a vigilante. That sort of thing wouldn’t fly in any other city, but the Gotham Police Department had been so plagued with dirty cops that most citizens saw a figure who was tough on crime as a welcome change.
Clark didn’t completely agree with all of Batman’s methods, but he felt that he was more good than bad. Sure, sometimes Batman bent the law here and there, but he didn’t seem like a complete psychopath. He’s saved a lot of people and always made his best effort to put the criminals behind bars instead of killing them.
Based on what he’d read, Clark learned that Batman didn’t have any powers like Superman. He was just an ordinary guy. That meant he had to use a lot of high-tech gadgets in order to safely fight crime. Some newspapers even speculated that he wore some sort of bulletproof armor over his chest to avoid getting shot to death.
Click clicked to the next story and saw a picture of a black tank-like vehicle. The caption read, “The Batmobile. Photo by Vicki Vale.”
“What are you reading?” Lois asked in disgust as she looked over Clark’s shoulder.
“Nothing,” Clark replied as he put his hand over the screen.
It was too late, though. Lois had already seen what he was reading.
“The Gotham Gazette?” she said loathingly. “Why would you read that rag when we have plenty of back issues of the Planet on file?”
“I’m reading up on Batman, so I’m trying to focus on Gotham papers,” Clark replied.
“Batman?” Lois replied. “Why the sudden interest in Batman? He’s not half as amazing as Superman.”
“I agree,” Clark replied with a smile. “But, a friend of mine from Coast City told me he saw a guy dressed in a Batman costume break into a house.”
“Obviously, it was a thug in disguise,” Lois replied dismissively. “Batman may not be as great as Superman, but he isn’t a thief.”
“I was also talking to Superman, and he told me that he tried to stop the guy, and he got away.”
“How’d he get away from Superman?” Lois asked.
Clark suddenly lowered his voice to make sure that nobody overheard. “Superman told me he thinks that Batman was carrying Kryptonite.”
“Kryptonite!” Lois shouted, causing a few heads to turn.
“Shhhh!” Clark scolded her. “Do you want everyone to overhear us?”
“Of course not,” Lois whispered. “Sorry.”
“So, I guess you can see why Batman has suddenly become very intriguing to me,” Clark replied.
“Was Superman sure it was Kryptonite?” Lois asked. “I always assumed Trask was just delusional.”
“He was pretty sure,” Clark replied.
*****
“You want to write about Batman?” Perry asked in astonishment.
“That’s right, Chief,” Lois replied.
“Great shades of Elvis. And here I thought you had a thing for Superman.”
Lois blushed as she replied, “I still prefer Superman, but Clark has reason to think Batman is dangerous.”
“Dangerous?” Perry replied. “Kent, are you sure your source knows what he’s talking about?”
“Very sure,” Clark answered.
“All right,” Perry replied. “I trust the two of you more than any other reporters that work here. Pack your bags. You’re heading to Gotham.”
*****
As they sat next to each other on the plane in silence, Clark read the most recent edition of the Gotham Gazette, and Lois read the most recent edition of the Daily Planet. The silence was broken when Lois let out a groan.
“Why are you still reading that thing?” she asked.
“It’s better than reading a story written by yourself,” Clark teased.
Lois gritted her teeth. “I wasn’t reading my own story.” Then, changing the subject, she said, “So what’s our plan of action once we get to Gotham?”
“We set up a meeting with her.” Clark pointed at the picture on the cover of the Gotham Gazette.
“Catwoman?”
“No, not the person in the picture,” Clark replied. “The photographer that took the picture.”
“Vicki Vale?” Lois said in disgust.
“Yep,” Clark replied.
“Why her?”
“Because she takes a lot of pictures of Batman. I get the feeling she might know something about him.”
“So what?” Lois replied. “We write a lot of stories about Superman. Doesn’t mean we know any more about him than what we write.”
Clark shifted in his chair uncomfortably, and Lois began to stare at him suspiciously.
“Do we?”
“Of course not,” Clark lied.
Lois continued staring suspiciously.
Attempting to change the subject, Clark asked, “So what is it you have against Vicki Vale?”
“Nothing. I just don’t want her to weasel her way into our story.”
“Is that all?” Clark asked. “Somehow, I get the feeling it’s more personal.”
“I used to know her, OK?” Lois answered. “Back when she lived in Metropolis and worked at the Planet.”
“Vicki used to work at the Daily Planet?” Clark asked.
“Yes,” Lois answered.
“I take it the two of you weren’t friends?”
“She hated me for some reason. She even complained to Perry about me and tried to get me fired.”
“Why?” Clark asked in astonishment.
“She claimed I was a bully and sometimes mean to my coworkers or something like that,” Lois replied. “Can you believe it?”
“Nope,” Clark replied. The truth was that he himself knew Lois wasn’t always the easiest person to get along with, but there was no way he was going to say that right now.
“Then, one day, she decided to get even with me,” Lois added. “She put hot sauce in my coffee.”
“And what did you do back to her?” Clark asked, suddenly very interested in this story.
“Let’s just say that Vicki quit her job at the Daily Planet within a week,” Lois replied, a smile forming on her face
To be continued...
