Chapter 3
The next day, Lois and Clark waited outside the Gotham Gazette for Vicki to get out of work so that they could follow her. Once she left the building, Vicki went home briefly to change out of her work clothes and into something more elegant. After about an hour in her apartment, she reemerged wearing a low-cut black dress, black stockings, and black high heels. She waited for a couple of minutes until a limousine pulled up in front of her, and she got inside it.
Lois and Clark couldn’t make out who her date was, but he was obviously very rich. That made sense to both of them. After all, it seemed like only a very wealthy person could afford to finance Batman’s activities.
For the first ten minutes, the limousine just sat parked in front of the apartment building. Lois and Clark were starting to worry that Vicki and Batman had spotted her when the limousine suddenly started moving. To Lois and Clark’s surprise, Vicki and her date ended up back at the Gotham Gazette. The limousine stopped, and the two of them hopped out of the car and rushed into the building.
“Vicki must have forgotten something inside,” Clark suggested.
“Well, I for one am tired of following Vicki all around Gotham,” Lois replied impatiently. “I’m following them inside so I can get a look at who she’s with. You take the picture.”
Lois shoved a camera in Clark’s face as she got out of the car. Clark followed behind Lois trying to keep up with her, but she was moving too fast.
Thanks to his super hearing, it was then that Clark heard voices inside the building. ”Are they coming?”
“Yep.”
“This is going to be good.”
Clark tried to grab Lois’ arm, but she pushed his hand away. “Lois, don’t!” Clark yelled, but she opened the door anyway and stepped into the building.
As soon as she stepped foot into the building, a sticky substance was dumped over her head. For a moment, Lois stood there in shock, not quite sure what it was. Then, she licked her lips and discovered somebody had dumped a big bucket of honey over her head.
The room was crowded. It looked like half of the staff of the Gotham Gazette was still there, and now, they were all laughing at Lois. She’d walked right into a trap set by Vicki!
That wasn’t the worst part, though. Soon, another bucket was dumped over Lois’ head. This time the bucket was full of feathers. As soon as the feathers hit Lois, she began waving her arms around trying to get them off, but it was useless. Essentially, she’d just been tarred and feathered by the staff of a rival newspaper.
The next thing Lois noticed was a flashing light in her face. It was Vicki, and she was taking pictures of her! Lois tried to cover her face, but despite her attempts to conceal her identity, Vicki kept taking pictures.
As if that wasn’t enough, Vicki’s coworkers began throwing water balloons at Lois. Lois hopped around the room trying to avoid getting hit, but most of the balloons hit their target. All the while, Vicki continued snapping pictures of her, and Vicki’s coworkers continued to laugh at the spectacle they were making of Lois.
“The Daily Planet’s finest,” one person mocked her.
“That’s what she gets for coming to our city and gunning for Batman,” commented another.
“Yeah, we never stepped foot in Metropolis and tried to expose Superman’s secret identity.”
It was clear to Lois that she’d angered the wrong newspaper staff, and she was paying for it. She couldn’t completely blame them. Being from Metropolis, they must have seen her as an outsider coming into Gotham to make problems. It probably didn’t help matters that she’d known Vicki personally and had given her more than enough reason to want to see her suffer. Still, that didn’t make Lois any less outraged.
After they stopped throwing balloons, Lois stood still for a moment trying to regain her composure. She stared at Vicki as she breathed heavily. Vicki stared back at her, an amused smirk across her face. Lois used all her strength not to grab Vicki by the throat and strangle her right then and there.
“What was that?” she barked out.
“Don’t be mad, dear,” replied Vicki sweetly. “It was all in the spirit of competition. I didn’t want you to scoop me on any Batman stories.”
“The spirit of competition?” asked Lois.
“Right,” Vicki reaffirmed. “Oh, it probably had just a little bit with getting revenge on you for some of the things you pulled at the Planet, too. And maybe something to do with warning you to stay away from Batman.”
“Your diary,” said Lois. “It was a fake?”
“Of course it was,” replied Vicki. “A little something to lure you into this ambush.”
“You…” Lois said threateningly.
“Just a minute, honey,” Vicki interrupted her, using one finger to make sure Lois kept her distance. “You do anything to me to get back at me for this, and I’ll make sure the pictures I just took get back to everyone I know in Metropolis. You’ll be the laughing stock of the Daily Planet.”
“You wouldn’t,” replied Lois.
“I would,” said Vicki. “And I’ll do the same thing if you don’t call off your hunt for Batman.”
Lois just stood in silence processing the gravity of her situation.
“”You may be top dog in the newspaper business in Metropolis, but you’re in Gotham, now,” Vicki said as she moved her face closer to Lois. “This is my territory. I’m top dog around here, and don’t you ever forget it.”
For the first time since she’d met Vicki, Lois actually felt a little intimidated by her. Vicki had her right where she wanted her, for now at least. Lois saw no reason to try to fight with Vicki right now, so she did the only thing she could do.
“I understand,” she replied. She then turned around, looked in Clark’s direction, and added, “Come on. Let’s get going.”
“You’re really giving up just like that?” Clark asked, following behind Lois.
“Of course not,” she replied. “I just want Vicki to think I’ve given up. I’m not leaving a story behind without a fight.”
At that, several police cars sped past the two of them. Clark used his super hearing to learn that there had been an explosion at Arkham Asylum, and now, some of the most dangerous inmates were escaping!
“That’s the Lois Lane I know,” Clark replied cheerfully. “Now, why don’t you go clean up, and then, we can talk about the next step.”
Lois agreed and got inside a cab to head back to the hotel they were staying at. Once she was out of sight, Clark ran into an alley and spun into his Superman costume. The Gotham Police Department and Batman were going to need all the help they could get!
*****
Arkham Asylum was a complete wreck! Inmates were running around in different directions, making it difficult for the police to contain them. To make matters worse, a fire raged through the building, and firefighters attempted to put it out amid all the chaos.
“What the hell happened?” Commissioner Gordon asked as he arrived on the scene.
“The Joker,” a police officer replied. “He smuggled explosives into Arkham Asylum after he was captured.
As if on cue, the sinister clown ran past the police grinning and laughing wildly. He picked up a piece of metal that was lying on the ground and began smashing a police car.
“When’s Batman going to show up?” he asked as he continued to laugh in amusement at the destruction he was causing.
“Right here,” Batman said as he leapt from the sky and kicked the Joker to the ground.
The two of them began wrestling around. At first, Batman seemed to have the upper hand, but the Joker put a mask over his face and released some sort of poisonous gas. Just when it seemed like the Joker had won, though, the poisonous gas seemed to disappear. Joker turned around, looking somewhat confused, and Superman was standing behind him. He’d just sucked up all the poisonous gas the Joker had released.
“You again!” the Joker yelled in disappointment. “When are you going to learn? Gotham has its own superhero. Now, go back to Metropolis where you belong and stop trying to wreck my fun!”
Superman then blew the fire out with his super breath, turned to Batman, and asked, “You can take care of him, right?”
“Of course,” replied Batman.
Superman then set out to round up some of the other inmates. Mr. Freeze tried to use his freeze gun, which was equipped with ice rather than bullets, to try to stop Superman, but it posed little more of a threat to him than a regular gun. He simply broke free of the ice and used his heat vision to destroy Mr. Freeze’s gun.
Another inmate, Firefly, tried using a flame throwing gun, and it ended up being just as useless. Superman used his freezing breath to put out the fire caused by the gun and then promptly used his heat vision to destroy the gun.
The Penguin held out a much less impressive weapon than the other two inmates, an umbrella. The umbrella was equipped with regular bullets, which would have been more dangerous against a regular person but posed no threat to Superman. He simply rolled his eyes at the pathetic attempt to fight him and for the third time, used his heat vision to destroy the weapon.
He then used pushed the three of them into a nearby cell, and locked it. So far, things had been simple enough, but when Superman turned around, he saw a slightly more menacing villain. He was about twice the size of Superman, and he seemed to have muscles on top of muscles.
“Bane,” said Superman. “I heard that you used to be on some sort of steroid that gave you superhuman levels of strength.”
“As strong as you, Superman,” Bane replied with a smile.
“We can test that out,” replied Superman.
Before Superman knew what hit him, Bane ran at him and knocked him to the ground. He began hitting him over and over again. Superman struggled to get back to his feet, but Bane was too strong. He had Superman pinned to the ground, and he wasn’t going to let up.
From behind Bane, Superman could see Batman. He would have felt better about this if it wasn’t for Bane’s immense strength. If he was able to pummel Superman like this, after all, what could an ordinary human like Batman do?
Batman swiftly pulled a tube out of the back of Bane’s head and then jumped back. Bane continued striking Superman a few more times, and then, he suddenly stopped and held his hand up in pain. Superman knocked him off of him and carried Bane back to his cell.
Superman was thankful that Batman had just saved him from Bane, making him torn about his quest to expose Batman’s secret identity. Other than the fact that Batman was carrying Kryptonite, he really hadn’t done anything wrong. However, Superman still felt the need to figure out who it was exactly that was carrying Kryptonite, so seeing the opportunity, he used his x-ray vision to look through Batman’s mask. To his surprise, the man behind the mask was billionaire Bruce Wayne, the wealthiest man in Gotham!
*****
Clark arrived back at the hotel and knocked on Lois’s door. As he waited for her to open it, he debated whether or not he wanted to tell her who Batman was. Up until now, he’d been so sure he was fine with outing any masked man who was carrying something that could kill him. However, after seeing him in action today, he wasn’t so sure he wanted to do that anymore.
Gotham needed Batman. It was doubtful that the police could handle the types of criminals Clark had seen today on their own. That alone made him feel bad about outing Batman. Even worse, though, was the thought of exposing Bruce Wayne to the threat of all the criminals he’d put away. He’d hate to think about someone as powerful as Bane, for example, knowing how to get to Batman.
Finally, Lois answered the door, and Clark made up his mind. He couldn’t tell Lois that Batman was Bruce Wayne. If he did, she’d want to print it, and he couldn’t have that. However, he felt the need to pay Bruce Wayne a visit and confront him about the Kryptonite himself.
“I’m not feeling too good,” said Clark, holding his hand to his head and faking illness. “I think our little bat hunt is going to have to wait until tomorrow.”
“That’s fine,” Lois replied.
Clark was surprised. He would have thought that Lois would want to keep going after the story as soon as possible. He had to wonder if maybe Vicki’s stunt had had an effect on Lois.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Of course,” Lois replied. “I have something else I wanted to take care of tonight, anyways. Take all the time you need to feel better.”
She closed the door, walked over to the phone, and dialed it. “Jimmy? Did you get it?”
“I have it right in my hands right now,” he replied on the other end of the phone. “I’m not sure why you’d ever want to see this thing again, though.”
“Just listen,” replied Lois. “This is important. I want you to send it to Vicki Vale by express mail.”
“OK,” replied Jimmy.
*****
Clark, wearing his Superman, hovered over Wayne Manor that night. He kept going over what he wanted to say to Bruce. Finally, when he was satisfied with how he was going to tell Bruce he knew his secret, he flew down and entered through an open window.
Bruce was sitting at his desk when Superman entered the room, and he stood up in shock. He opened his desk and put his hand over a lead box containing Kryptonite as a precaution.
“Superman?” he asked. “What brings you to Gotham?”
“The fact that you’re carrying Kryptonite, Batman,” Superman replied. “Why is it you have it, and where did you find it?”
“Well, Clark…” Bruce replied, causing Superman to frown and shift uncomfortably at his mention of his true identity. “Believe it or not, when I read about Kryptonite, I made it my mission to find as much of it as I could in order to protect you from it falling into the wrong hands.”
“How do I know you are telling the truth?” asked Clark.
“Because I have this box of Kryptonite right here,” Bruce gestured towards the box in his desk. “And I’m not using it on you right now. Believe it or not, we’re on the same side. Although, the way you and Lois Lane are trying to hunt me down, I’m starting to wonder if you’re as good as I thought you were.”
“I only started hunting you down after you used Kryptonite on me,” replied Clark. “I want you to turn over all the Kryptonite in your possession.”
“I’ll tell you what. As a peace offering, I’ll turn over everything except for one chuck of Kryptonite,” Bruce replied. “I believe you are one of the good guys, but just in case I ever run into a bad Kryptonian, I want to be prepared.”
“I guess that’s fair,” said Clark.
“Now that we got the Kryptonite issue out of the way, let’s talk about what happened today,” said Bruce. “The Joker claims he was paid by the Penguin’s sister to get himself captured and then set off an explosive in Arkham Asylum to help him escape.”
“I suppose you need help tracking down the sister and putting her behind bars?” asked Clark.
“No,” said Bruce. “The Penguin doesn’t have a sister. There was another reason someone wanted to cause a disturbance.”
Bruce opened his desk drawer and threw a file at Clark. Clark opened it and saw his picture on the first page along with a rundown of his occupation, powers, and weaknesses.
“What is this?” he asked.
“That’s my record of all the superheroes I’ve been able to identify. Turn the page.”
Clark turned the page. The next page was about a man named Hal Jordan. It was similar to the first page, naming his occupation, powers, weaknesses, and other facts.
“On the day we met, Catwoman robbed this man and stole his ring,” Bruce explained. “That ring is the single most powerful weapon in the entire world. It can do just about anything the person wearing it wants. Turn the page.”
Clark turned the page. This page featured Barry Allen, the Flash, well known for being the fastest man alive. Some even speculated he was faster than Superman.
“During the breakout at Arkham Asylum, somebody kidnapped his girlfriend,” said Bruce. “I think the breakout was timed to occupy us while the kidnapper took her. Whoever did it probably thought the Flash would come and help us, but he ended up being busy with a natural disaster instead.”
“What are you saying?” asked Clark. “That someone is targeting superheroes?”
“Precisely,” replied Bruce.
To be continued...
