Stranger in a Strange Land: Superman (7/8)
Title: Stranger in a Strange Land: Superman
Pairing/Characters: Clark/Bruce, the JLA, Brainiac, Lex Luthor
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None
Continuity: Justice League Unlimited
Summary: Brainiac has kidnapped Gotham and threatens Earth--time for Batman, Kal, and the Justice League to the rescue.
Word Count: 4400
Notes: For a prompt on the
worlds_finest birthday thread: "Krypton doesn't explode until Kal-El is an adult. He arrives on Earth still the last son, but having seen his planet die. To the JLA's surprise, Batman is the one to volunteer to help him." All chapters can be found here.
"Its name is Brainiac," Kal announced without preamble, striding into the Watchtower meeting room side by side with Batman. The rest of the League looked up as he planted his hands on the meeting table, leaning forward urgently. "It was a planet-wide AI." He pointed at the viewscreen showing the giant silver skull hanging in space, its eyes glowing a dull and malevolent red. "That thing is from Krypton."
"Why did it take Gotham?" asked Green Lantern after a shocked beat. "And why is it still just waiting there?"
"I have some idea," Kal said, his face grim. "Have you attempted to communicate with it?"
J'onn shook his head. "We hailed the ship, but there was no response."
"Can you open up a channel for me?"
J'onn nodded and pressed a button on the table. "Hailing frequencies open."
Kal straightened up and snapped something in Kryptonian. His eyes were filled with anger, his jaw set, his shoulders flung back in defiance. Watching him, part of Batman's mind was distantly pleased that when his temper was up, Kal fell naturally into heroic nonverbals.
A cool, calm voice responded in the same language, filling the meeting room with alien syllables. Batman could make out the word "Kal-El" in the middle.
Kal's hands clenched into fists at his sides. "Speak in English," he snarled.
There was a pause before the uninflected voice spoke again: "Very well, Kal-El. I was hoping we could discuss this like civilized sentient beings. But you seem quite agitated."
"You," Kal grated. "You falsified my father's work, denied his theories. You murdered an entire planet--"
"--Krypton was doomed," Brainiac interrupted. "If people had accepted Jor-El's theories they would have put me to work trying to find a solution to the inevitable, wasting valuable time I needed to download and process my records of Krypton's culture. I did not destroy Krypton, Kal-El. I saved it. All of it that matters is here in my memory banks, safe forever." A low metallic humming, like a satisfied purr. "And I am now free to roam the galaxy and preserve other cultures as well. I have spent the three years you have been in stasis productively. This latest city is particularly intricate. I shall learn much from it."
"But you didn't pick this world at random, did you." It was a statement, not a question.
Again the grating, purring chuckle. "No indeed, Last Son of Krypton. I lost your trail for a while, but I tracked you here at last. I need you, you see. The last biological organism from Krypton. Invaluable."
"If I give myself up, will you let Gotham go?"
A hiss of indrawn breaths around the table. Batman reached out and slapped the channel closed, and Kal glared at him. "Are you mad?" growled Batman.
"Robin," said Kal. "Batgirl. Nightwing."
"And you really think he'll let them go if he has you?"
"What else can I do?"
There was a crackling noise; Hawkgirl's mace tapped the edge of the table eagerly. "We can go over there and beat him up," she suggested.
"No," Kal said. "You'll endanger Gotham and all the other worlds he might have there. No frontal assault."
Hawkgirl looked like she might argue, but she fell silent before Kal's resolute gaze. Kal opened his mouth to say something else, but Martian Manhunter held up a hand. "We have a transmission from Earth," he said. "Broadcasting on all frequencies."
The viewscreen flickered and coalesced into an image of a bald man in a suit. "--too late for Gotham," he was saying, "But it should keep this alien from stealing any more of the great cities of Earth." He tugged at his lapels, smiling. "No need to thank me, I'm but a humble servant of Metropolis."
"Luthor," growled Green Lantern. "A prominent businessman from Metropolis," he explained at Kal's quizzical look.
"And crooked as they come," muttered Flash.
"We've never been able to prove it for sure," said Wonder Woman, her arms crossed as she watched the monitor with a frown.
"He is one of Earth's most brilliant minds. Perhaps now, when his planet is threatened, he will rise to the occasion," J'onn noted as Luthor explained how his invention would create a planet-wide shield.
Batman said nothing, his expressionless gaze on the screen as the camera panned from Luthor to a pylon about the height of a man, planted in the ground. Luthor gestured at it grandly: a delicate silver spike with strangely-angled spurs, topped with glittering green crystals. "And so, with a press of a button, I ensure the safety of our world where the so-called Justice League could not," Luthor said, holding up a remote.
"Those crystals--the configuration--it almost looks like Kryptonian work," said Kal, his voice bemused.
There was a horrified beat of silence, then Kal, Green Lantern, and Hawkgirl all yelled "No!" in unison as Luthor pressed the button in his hand.
The camera lurched and everyone in the crowd staggered sideways as the pylon started to emit a low hum that slowly climbed higher. Another tremor and the look of smug humility on Luthor's face slipped askew. "What is this?" he cried. "That's not how it was supposed to--"
"Thank you, human," said Brainiac's voice from the pylon, barely audible over the ascending whine. "A collector's item is only valuable if it is unique, after all."
"No!" Luthor yelled. "We had a deal! You take Gotham and leave me the world!" He lunged at the pylon, but a sharp ripple of electricity threw him backwards into a wall. The whine had become a shriek, tearing at the eardrums.
"It's a seismic disruptor! We used them to destroy incoming meteorites--Rao, it split them into fragments," Kal called over the painful squeal. "We've got to get down there and stop it!" He and the rest of the League were already out the door and running down the hallway.
Batman looked around the room. Then he pulled a small device out of his belt and made his way toward the teleporter bay. It was empty by the time he got there. J'onn, he projected toward the Martian. I've got to make sure he doesn't have any hostages he can use against Kal.
J'onn's thoughts came back, overlaid with affection as warm as a summer's day. Rescue your city and your children, Batman. We will take care of this.
There were three tiny specks of light on the device: blue for Nightwing, red for Batgirl, green for Robin. Batman hooked the device to the teleporter, made a few adjustments, and stepped onto the teleporter pad.
The Watchtower faded out around him and he was deep within Brainiac's ship.
: : :
He had expected sterile silence, was unprepared to hear Kal's voice like a clarion call: "Keep back!"
Batman dropped into a crouch without thinking before he realized that the voice was coming from a cluster of monitors lining one side of Brainiac's command center. A figure like a silver statue, his back to Batman, was watching them. On the screens, Kal stood before the skyline of Metropolis. People were screaming as the ground buckled once more. Kal grabbed the pylon--and energy arced through him, limning his skin in agony as his face stretched in a soundless scream, but the pylon didn't budge.
"No!" barked Kal at someone offscreen. "You have to--to find the other pylons!" There was a searing sound as Kal wrenched at the crystals, his muscles straining. "There'll be two more, at roughly the same latitude as this one. Go!" He bent back to his pylon, and a sound of anguish was ripped from him as energy crackled around him.
Batman tore his gaze away from the sight of Kal's body wreathed in blazing pain to look around the room. His heart sank as he realized the walls were lined with globes, each about the size of a basketball, each glowing with the lights of a lost world. But before he had a chance to lose hope, one globe caught his eye, and he felt a proud chuckle almost break from him. Of course. Good work.
On one globe, a golden oval of light was projected outward on the side, the dark bat at the center beckoning.
The shrieking of the pylon and the howling of the energy field were not enough to drown out Kal's voice, rising above the cacophony in righteous fury: "I will not...let you...destroy this world! Never!" With a final wrench he pulled the pylon from the ground, lightning sputtering around him in molten arcs. Putting his back into it, he hurled it like a shot put into the sky. Then he sank to the ground, smoke rising from his clothes and hair, his eyes dull with pain. One point of light on Brainiac's monitors winked out, followed shortly by five more.
The pylons have been neutralized, J'onn's voice said in his head.
Brainiac made a metallic sound of annoyance. "Very well, Kal-El," he announced, and Kal's face turned toward the sky with weary anger. "Your show of defiance has doomed an Earth city and everyone within it. Watch as I crush it in my hands." He turned from the monitors and advanced toward the place where Gotham was stored.
The globe was gone.
Brainiac exclaimed something in Kryptonian, staring at the empty place on the wall. With his back to the monitors, he didn't see the expression on Kal's face, didn't see the Kryptonian gather himself up and launch himself into the sky.
From his hiding place in the shadows, cloak wrapped around the softly glowing sphere that held Gotham, Batman did.
"Insolent fool!" Brainiac raged, his head swiveling, his eyes incandescent. "How dare you defy me--me, a twelfth-level intelligence!" He stalked the room, peering into the flickering shadows, but Batman kept moving, kept Gotham hidden from his gaze. "You do not even deserve to be destroyed by a being so much more advanced than you, Terran worm." Brainiac's flat voice held a distinct sneer. "Come out and--"
The ship lurched wildly. A calm voice announced something dire in Kryptonian as sirens started to go off. There was a sharp report; Batman's ears popped and he heard metal slamming shut to seal off some kind of hull breach. Brainiac whirled as the door to the main chamber was ripped off its hinges.
Kal entered the room, his eyes blazing with righteous fury, his shoulders knotted with rage. "Monster," he growled, advancing on Brainiac, "Murderer." Brainiac fell back before him, then feinted a blow at his head. Kal dodged and Brainiac's other fist thudded into his stomach, wrenching a cry from Kal.
"Do you feel that?" Brainiac said, holding his fist aloft as Kal crumpled to the floor. Around the fingers there was a faint green glow. "That burn in your organic tissues, the sapping of your strength? That is the remnants of your home, Kal-El, son of Jor-El. And it is killing you." Another blow, this one to Kal's jaw, and blood spattered the floor. "I shall put you in stasis forever and observe your frozen body and know that I, Brainiac, am--"
A singing shrill of metal, a dull thud, and Brainiac was staring stupidly at his own arm, severed and lying on the ground. A grapple seized the limb and dragged it away into the shadows. And then Batman was landing beside the huddled Kal-El, glaring up at Brainiac.
"I don't like bullies," he said. Keeping his eyes on the sputtering computer, he reached out to help Kal to his feet. "Gotham is safe, Kal. Are you all right?"
"Better than he's going to be," said Kal, stepping forward to seize Brainiac by his metallic neck and lift him off the ground. "Restore Gotham and swear to restore the other cities, or by Rao I shall make you wish you perished along with Krypton."
"I know your kind," said Brainiac. "You will not destroy a sentient being."
Kal's grin was not friendly. "You're nothing but lines of code to me." He shook Brainiac, forcing a shower of sparks from his severed arm. "I will happily rip out every bit of higher memory functions you possess and put you to work for the next millennium calculating the digits of pi--and writing them down longhand. With your remaining hand."
Brainiac looked at his scarlet eyes, looked at the Dark Knight looming nearby. After a moment, he nodded.
: : :
"If you double-cross me, Brainiac, you'll regret it." Kal's voice was raw with pain and anger as they watched Brainiac work the controls. The miniature Gotham floated in midair, the bat-signal still gleaming outward. Brainiac pressed the last button and it shimmered out of existence.
J'onn? Batman hoped his thought didn't sound as worried as he was feeling. Report?
There was a long enough pause that Kal began to advance on Brainiac again, and then J'onn's voice broke the chain of agonized thought in Batman's mind. Gotham has been restored. It is in its rightful place and appears unharmed.
For just an instant, both Kal and Batman sagged with relief. And in that instant, Brainiac swiveled the teleporter ray and pressed the button.
Kal was leaping forward with clenched fists as the ship dissolved around them and reformed into the cliffs of Bristol Bay.
"No," cried Kal, springing into the air. But his flight faltered, wavered, and Batman ran toward him as he crashed to the ground. In the sky above Gotham, Brainiac's ship shifted sideways and vanished.
Kal was still lying on the ground, glaring up at the sky when Batman got to him. His mouth was a bloody mess, his hands badly burned. "All those other cities," he muttered. "All of them gone." He closed his eyes. "All the information he stole from Krypton."
"Oh, about that," said Batman. "When I was dodging him back in his command center, I thought these looked potentially valuable." He reached into his utility belt and pulled out two silvery crystals.
Pale light washed from his hands across Kal's face as Kal reached up to touch them with a shaking hand. "Kryptonian data crystals," he whispered. He looked from the crystals to Bruce, his eyes shining from more than the reflected light.
"I don't know what they hold," Bruce said, feeling suddenly awkward and uncomfortable at the look in Kal's eyes. "I mean, I didn't have time to check. I just thought maybe--"
Kal reached up and pulled him close, burying his face in Bruce's shoulder. "Thank you," Bruce heard him murmur.
Bruce got down on his knees and gathered Kal's burned and battered body in his arms. He kissed his hair softly, tasting sweat and soot, and Kal sighed.
"I was so angry," he said, his voice a thin thread. "Angry that he betrayed my father and abandoned my world. Angry that he kidnapped Gotham and tried to destroy my new home. But his final crime..." His voice trailed off and Bruce could hear a shiver of laughter in it, "...he also interrupted our first kiss, and for that, I will never forgive him."
Bruce couldn't help chuckling, and Kal broke into a bubble of laughter that cut off into a wince. "There'll be others," said Bruce, feeling Kal's heart thudding against him.
"Oh, there most certainly will," murmured Kal. "I'm planning on one in the next few minutes."
"Minutes?" said Bruce. "Why wait so long?"
Kal's mouth was bruised and torn and tasted of blood. The kiss was gentle, tender, but passion and anticipation shuddered through it just beneath the surface. "I've waited long enough," Kal whispered against his mouth. "I've waited my whole life."
They were still resting together, their arms around each other, when Nightwing, Batgirl and Robin came running to find them and bring them home.
: : :
"Thank you for taking a moment from the clean-up to talk to us," said Lois Lane, smiling up at Kal. "And on behalf of the whole city, thank you for all of your heroic effort to save us today." A crowd had gathered in front of the Daily Planet building to watch the interview.
Kal smiled at Lois, resting his fists on his hips, his shoulders pushed back. "It's my pleasure, Miss Lane. The people of Metropolis have been so kind and welcoming. I'm bitterly regretful that you've all suffered because of a fellow being from Krypton." From his vantage point in the crowd--cleaning up after such a mess no one noticed that one of the dungaree-clad workers was a Gotham millionaire--Bruce Wayne noted that even with a battered, bruised face and a shredded cape, Kal looked every inch the hero.
Lois Lane noticed as well; she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, blushing a little. "After we all witnessed what you did to save us, how could we hold that against you, Kal-El?" She looked up through her lashes at Kal. "Really, though, you have to give the people something to call you. Using just your name is so odd. Don't you have something like Green Lantern, or Batman?"
Bruce wondered how anyone couldn't notice the way Kal's face lit up like a sunrise at the sound of Batman's name. Then he laughed, looking a little sheepish. "I keep saying I don't need a name like that. But if I had to choose...on Krypton we had a word for volunteers who worked for the common good, it meant something like 'humble servant of the people.' In Kryptonian we called them cirpirrmyn."
"Superman?" Lois looked delighted. "That's perfect!"
"What? No, no," said Kal, waving his hands in front of him in negation. "Cirpirrmyn, the first consonant is more sibilant and the accent is different--"
"Three cheers for Superman!" Lois cried to the crowd, "Superman, the savior of Metropolis!"
"Superman! Superman! Superman!" the crowd roared back, going wild with applause, drowning out Kal's protests.
Kal met Bruce's eyes in the crowd and saw him cheering as hard as anyone else. Bruce winked at his betrayed look, and the newly-christened Superman subsided, shaking his head.
The world had a new hero.
: : :
It was almost midnight before Kal would stop with the clean-up and go back to Wayne Manor for the night. Dick and Tim were home already after a long evening spent patrolling Gotham and making sure nothing was badly damaged during the city's kidnapping. Tim looked up from a hot bowl of mulligatawny stew as Bruce came into the kitchen, wearing his favorite post-patrol Gotham Knights sweatshirt. "Welcome home." He grinned like a Cheshire Cat through the fragrant steam rising from his bowl. "It's good to see you normal size, Bruce. The sight of a gigantic Batman looming above Gotham like some kind of crazy demon..." He shuddered elaborately. "Let's just say some crooks have new fodder for their nightmares from now on."
Dick whooped as the kitchen door opened again. "Superman! Superman!" he chanted, pumping his fist in the air, and Kal groaned as he sat down.
"How am I going to convince people to stop using that?" he complained, taking a bowl of stew from Alfred with murmured thanks. Someone had given him a Metropolis Sharks t-shirt during the clean-up, and the way it clung to his abdomen and biceps made Bruce not even regret that he was wearing a rival's logo.
"I'm afraid it's yours to live with," Bruce said. "The people liked it. They liked you."
Kal was blushing. "I'm glad, but it's still a ridiculous name."
"Are you in any pain, Master Kal?" Alfred asked.
Kal touched his torn lip a little gingerly. "Nothing major. J'onn says that sunlight should speed the healing dramatically, but I didn't feel like flying around the world just to get some sunlight. I would have missed your cooking if I had," he added with a smile. He brushed his fingers across the puffy bruise discoloring the skin around his eye. "It's...kind of weird to really feel pain for the first time since I landed here."
"We'll have to install some sun lamps in the cave," Bruce said. "To deal with future injuries."
Kal blinked at him, then broke into a dazzling grin, not even seeming to notice that it tore his split lip again. Alfred clucked and dabbed at it with a napkin. "Do be more careful, sir."
"So..." Dick started with a quick look at Tim. "I take it that means Kal will be staying with us for a while longer?"
"As long as he wants to," Bruce said.
Kal took a bite of stew, then inobtrusively shifted his chair to the left a few inches, just enough that his leg brushed Bruce's, and Tim and Dick shared another delighted glance before launching into some animated chatter about the day's events. Bruce listened, savoring the stew, the warmth of the kitchen, everyone home safe and sound again, until Kal polished off the last spoonful of stew and sighed. The sigh turned into a yawn and a stretch.
"I think I'm going to turn in," he said. He shot a glance out of the corner of his swollen eye at Bruce. "Are you heading to bed too?"
"Um." Bruce put down his glass of water so quickly that it made a loud thump. "Yes, I suppose I'm pretty tired as well."
As the kitchen door closed, Bruce could hear the sounds of a high-five from behind it.
: : :
"I don't want to hurt you," Bruce said. "Your mouth...your ribs..."
Kal just leaned into his touch, kissing his neck. "I don't care." He drew Bruce down onto his bed, hands slipping under the sweatshirt. "I just need to touch you. To know you're really here."
Bruce wrapped a leg around Kal and pulled him close. "I'm really here," he said. He could feel Kal shaking.
"Feels so good," Kal muttered against him. "I could never relax and enjoy it when my friends hugged me--"
"--They hugged on Krypton? But I thought..."
Kal's lips touched him behind the ear. "Why not? Sentient beings generally enjoy contact, and after kielnith is over there's nothing wrong with it." He shifted, bringing his hips up against Bruce's more firmly; Bruce could feel the bulky obstruction of their flies and zippers coming together, feel the heat and yielding firmness underneath it. "But I never dared. What if this--" A meaningful nudge of the hips, "--happened? It was too dangerous. So my friends decided I was just cold and stopped."
"Cold? You?"
"You didn't know me on Krypton." Kal's voice was matter-of-fact. "The risk was too great. I could not get close to people."
"But you wanted to."
"I wanted to." Kal's hands skated down Bruce's back to his hips, tugging him even closer. "But not ever as much as I wanted to with you." He chuckled softly. "When you took off your shirt in front of me--I thought I was going to die of fear and desire. I thought that you would see it and recognize me as a dangerous pervert, denounce me, perhaps have me imprisoned."
"I almost kissed you, that first night." Bruce demonstrated, making up for lost time, and felt Kal's breath becoming more erratic.
"I realized that, later. So much later." Kal groaned slightly, shifting his body against Bruce's. "At the time, I thought you were going to embrace me as a brother, and I wanted it so much that I was willing to risk exposure, just to touch you again. I never dreamed--never once dreamed that you might want this." He buried his face in Bruce's shoulder again, then suddenly yawned as if he couldn't help it. "Oh Rao," he mumbled, his voice mortified. "I'm sorry, I'm just--"
"--You're exhausted," said Bruce. "You've had a very long day, full of excitement and danger, and you're exhausted and injured. Get some sleep." He pushed Kal gently down onto the pillow.
"No," protested Kal. "No, I don't want to sleep." But his eyes were heavy with more than lust, his words starting to come slow. "I want to...to touch you everywhere. I want to shag with you. Get laid..." A long pause. His breaths were coming slow and even. His eyes fluttered and he made a small, abortive motion. "...Want to swyve..." he muttered, and his voice faded out.
"You really did memorize all the slang for sex there is," Bruce said softly. He kissed Kal lightly on the corner of his mouth, avoiding the ugly cut in his lip. "There'll be time for swyving later. Sleep."
He shifted his position and Kal startled awake. "I'm sorry!" Sleepy blue eyes blinked at him. "Please don't go."
"Of course not." Bruce repositioned himself, wrapping his arms carefully around bruised ribs. "See? I'm not going anywhere. I'll be here in the morning."
Kal curled up against him with a sigh, his limbs slowly relaxing again. He murmured something in Kryptonian, then said in English, "I love you, Bruce."
He didn't know how difficult a phrase that was to say for some people, didn't know how fraught it was in English, full of choked-back emotion and tangled tenderness. He had no idea.
And so it was possible for Bruce to freely answer, "I love you too."
-----
( Part 8)
Pairing/Characters: Clark/Bruce, the JLA, Brainiac, Lex Luthor
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None
Continuity: Justice League Unlimited
Summary: Brainiac has kidnapped Gotham and threatens Earth--time for Batman, Kal, and the Justice League to the rescue.
Word Count: 4400
Notes: For a prompt on the
worlds_finest birthday thread: "Krypton doesn't explode until Kal-El is an adult. He arrives on Earth still the last son, but having seen his planet die. To the JLA's surprise, Batman is the one to volunteer to help him." All chapters can be found here.
"Its name is Brainiac," Kal announced without preamble, striding into the Watchtower meeting room side by side with Batman. The rest of the League looked up as he planted his hands on the meeting table, leaning forward urgently. "It was a planet-wide AI." He pointed at the viewscreen showing the giant silver skull hanging in space, its eyes glowing a dull and malevolent red. "That thing is from Krypton."
"Why did it take Gotham?" asked Green Lantern after a shocked beat. "And why is it still just waiting there?"
"I have some idea," Kal said, his face grim. "Have you attempted to communicate with it?"
J'onn shook his head. "We hailed the ship, but there was no response."
"Can you open up a channel for me?"
J'onn nodded and pressed a button on the table. "Hailing frequencies open."
Kal straightened up and snapped something in Kryptonian. His eyes were filled with anger, his jaw set, his shoulders flung back in defiance. Watching him, part of Batman's mind was distantly pleased that when his temper was up, Kal fell naturally into heroic nonverbals.
A cool, calm voice responded in the same language, filling the meeting room with alien syllables. Batman could make out the word "Kal-El" in the middle.
Kal's hands clenched into fists at his sides. "Speak in English," he snarled.
There was a pause before the uninflected voice spoke again: "Very well, Kal-El. I was hoping we could discuss this like civilized sentient beings. But you seem quite agitated."
"You," Kal grated. "You falsified my father's work, denied his theories. You murdered an entire planet--"
"--Krypton was doomed," Brainiac interrupted. "If people had accepted Jor-El's theories they would have put me to work trying to find a solution to the inevitable, wasting valuable time I needed to download and process my records of Krypton's culture. I did not destroy Krypton, Kal-El. I saved it. All of it that matters is here in my memory banks, safe forever." A low metallic humming, like a satisfied purr. "And I am now free to roam the galaxy and preserve other cultures as well. I have spent the three years you have been in stasis productively. This latest city is particularly intricate. I shall learn much from it."
"But you didn't pick this world at random, did you." It was a statement, not a question.
Again the grating, purring chuckle. "No indeed, Last Son of Krypton. I lost your trail for a while, but I tracked you here at last. I need you, you see. The last biological organism from Krypton. Invaluable."
"If I give myself up, will you let Gotham go?"
A hiss of indrawn breaths around the table. Batman reached out and slapped the channel closed, and Kal glared at him. "Are you mad?" growled Batman.
"Robin," said Kal. "Batgirl. Nightwing."
"And you really think he'll let them go if he has you?"
"What else can I do?"
There was a crackling noise; Hawkgirl's mace tapped the edge of the table eagerly. "We can go over there and beat him up," she suggested.
"No," Kal said. "You'll endanger Gotham and all the other worlds he might have there. No frontal assault."
Hawkgirl looked like she might argue, but she fell silent before Kal's resolute gaze. Kal opened his mouth to say something else, but Martian Manhunter held up a hand. "We have a transmission from Earth," he said. "Broadcasting on all frequencies."
The viewscreen flickered and coalesced into an image of a bald man in a suit. "--too late for Gotham," he was saying, "But it should keep this alien from stealing any more of the great cities of Earth." He tugged at his lapels, smiling. "No need to thank me, I'm but a humble servant of Metropolis."
"Luthor," growled Green Lantern. "A prominent businessman from Metropolis," he explained at Kal's quizzical look.
"And crooked as they come," muttered Flash.
"We've never been able to prove it for sure," said Wonder Woman, her arms crossed as she watched the monitor with a frown.
"He is one of Earth's most brilliant minds. Perhaps now, when his planet is threatened, he will rise to the occasion," J'onn noted as Luthor explained how his invention would create a planet-wide shield.
Batman said nothing, his expressionless gaze on the screen as the camera panned from Luthor to a pylon about the height of a man, planted in the ground. Luthor gestured at it grandly: a delicate silver spike with strangely-angled spurs, topped with glittering green crystals. "And so, with a press of a button, I ensure the safety of our world where the so-called Justice League could not," Luthor said, holding up a remote.
"Those crystals--the configuration--it almost looks like Kryptonian work," said Kal, his voice bemused.
There was a horrified beat of silence, then Kal, Green Lantern, and Hawkgirl all yelled "No!" in unison as Luthor pressed the button in his hand.
The camera lurched and everyone in the crowd staggered sideways as the pylon started to emit a low hum that slowly climbed higher. Another tremor and the look of smug humility on Luthor's face slipped askew. "What is this?" he cried. "That's not how it was supposed to--"
"Thank you, human," said Brainiac's voice from the pylon, barely audible over the ascending whine. "A collector's item is only valuable if it is unique, after all."
"No!" Luthor yelled. "We had a deal! You take Gotham and leave me the world!" He lunged at the pylon, but a sharp ripple of electricity threw him backwards into a wall. The whine had become a shriek, tearing at the eardrums.
"It's a seismic disruptor! We used them to destroy incoming meteorites--Rao, it split them into fragments," Kal called over the painful squeal. "We've got to get down there and stop it!" He and the rest of the League were already out the door and running down the hallway.
Batman looked around the room. Then he pulled a small device out of his belt and made his way toward the teleporter bay. It was empty by the time he got there. J'onn, he projected toward the Martian. I've got to make sure he doesn't have any hostages he can use against Kal.
J'onn's thoughts came back, overlaid with affection as warm as a summer's day. Rescue your city and your children, Batman. We will take care of this.
There were three tiny specks of light on the device: blue for Nightwing, red for Batgirl, green for Robin. Batman hooked the device to the teleporter, made a few adjustments, and stepped onto the teleporter pad.
The Watchtower faded out around him and he was deep within Brainiac's ship.
: : :
He had expected sterile silence, was unprepared to hear Kal's voice like a clarion call: "Keep back!"
Batman dropped into a crouch without thinking before he realized that the voice was coming from a cluster of monitors lining one side of Brainiac's command center. A figure like a silver statue, his back to Batman, was watching them. On the screens, Kal stood before the skyline of Metropolis. People were screaming as the ground buckled once more. Kal grabbed the pylon--and energy arced through him, limning his skin in agony as his face stretched in a soundless scream, but the pylon didn't budge.
"No!" barked Kal at someone offscreen. "You have to--to find the other pylons!" There was a searing sound as Kal wrenched at the crystals, his muscles straining. "There'll be two more, at roughly the same latitude as this one. Go!" He bent back to his pylon, and a sound of anguish was ripped from him as energy crackled around him.
Batman tore his gaze away from the sight of Kal's body wreathed in blazing pain to look around the room. His heart sank as he realized the walls were lined with globes, each about the size of a basketball, each glowing with the lights of a lost world. But before he had a chance to lose hope, one globe caught his eye, and he felt a proud chuckle almost break from him. Of course. Good work.
On one globe, a golden oval of light was projected outward on the side, the dark bat at the center beckoning.
The shrieking of the pylon and the howling of the energy field were not enough to drown out Kal's voice, rising above the cacophony in righteous fury: "I will not...let you...destroy this world! Never!" With a final wrench he pulled the pylon from the ground, lightning sputtering around him in molten arcs. Putting his back into it, he hurled it like a shot put into the sky. Then he sank to the ground, smoke rising from his clothes and hair, his eyes dull with pain. One point of light on Brainiac's monitors winked out, followed shortly by five more.
The pylons have been neutralized, J'onn's voice said in his head.
Brainiac made a metallic sound of annoyance. "Very well, Kal-El," he announced, and Kal's face turned toward the sky with weary anger. "Your show of defiance has doomed an Earth city and everyone within it. Watch as I crush it in my hands." He turned from the monitors and advanced toward the place where Gotham was stored.
The globe was gone.
Brainiac exclaimed something in Kryptonian, staring at the empty place on the wall. With his back to the monitors, he didn't see the expression on Kal's face, didn't see the Kryptonian gather himself up and launch himself into the sky.
From his hiding place in the shadows, cloak wrapped around the softly glowing sphere that held Gotham, Batman did.
"Insolent fool!" Brainiac raged, his head swiveling, his eyes incandescent. "How dare you defy me--me, a twelfth-level intelligence!" He stalked the room, peering into the flickering shadows, but Batman kept moving, kept Gotham hidden from his gaze. "You do not even deserve to be destroyed by a being so much more advanced than you, Terran worm." Brainiac's flat voice held a distinct sneer. "Come out and--"
The ship lurched wildly. A calm voice announced something dire in Kryptonian as sirens started to go off. There was a sharp report; Batman's ears popped and he heard metal slamming shut to seal off some kind of hull breach. Brainiac whirled as the door to the main chamber was ripped off its hinges.
Kal entered the room, his eyes blazing with righteous fury, his shoulders knotted with rage. "Monster," he growled, advancing on Brainiac, "Murderer." Brainiac fell back before him, then feinted a blow at his head. Kal dodged and Brainiac's other fist thudded into his stomach, wrenching a cry from Kal.
"Do you feel that?" Brainiac said, holding his fist aloft as Kal crumpled to the floor. Around the fingers there was a faint green glow. "That burn in your organic tissues, the sapping of your strength? That is the remnants of your home, Kal-El, son of Jor-El. And it is killing you." Another blow, this one to Kal's jaw, and blood spattered the floor. "I shall put you in stasis forever and observe your frozen body and know that I, Brainiac, am--"
A singing shrill of metal, a dull thud, and Brainiac was staring stupidly at his own arm, severed and lying on the ground. A grapple seized the limb and dragged it away into the shadows. And then Batman was landing beside the huddled Kal-El, glaring up at Brainiac.
"I don't like bullies," he said. Keeping his eyes on the sputtering computer, he reached out to help Kal to his feet. "Gotham is safe, Kal. Are you all right?"
"Better than he's going to be," said Kal, stepping forward to seize Brainiac by his metallic neck and lift him off the ground. "Restore Gotham and swear to restore the other cities, or by Rao I shall make you wish you perished along with Krypton."
"I know your kind," said Brainiac. "You will not destroy a sentient being."
Kal's grin was not friendly. "You're nothing but lines of code to me." He shook Brainiac, forcing a shower of sparks from his severed arm. "I will happily rip out every bit of higher memory functions you possess and put you to work for the next millennium calculating the digits of pi--and writing them down longhand. With your remaining hand."
Brainiac looked at his scarlet eyes, looked at the Dark Knight looming nearby. After a moment, he nodded.
: : :
"If you double-cross me, Brainiac, you'll regret it." Kal's voice was raw with pain and anger as they watched Brainiac work the controls. The miniature Gotham floated in midair, the bat-signal still gleaming outward. Brainiac pressed the last button and it shimmered out of existence.
J'onn? Batman hoped his thought didn't sound as worried as he was feeling. Report?
There was a long enough pause that Kal began to advance on Brainiac again, and then J'onn's voice broke the chain of agonized thought in Batman's mind. Gotham has been restored. It is in its rightful place and appears unharmed.
For just an instant, both Kal and Batman sagged with relief. And in that instant, Brainiac swiveled the teleporter ray and pressed the button.
Kal was leaping forward with clenched fists as the ship dissolved around them and reformed into the cliffs of Bristol Bay.
"No," cried Kal, springing into the air. But his flight faltered, wavered, and Batman ran toward him as he crashed to the ground. In the sky above Gotham, Brainiac's ship shifted sideways and vanished.
Kal was still lying on the ground, glaring up at the sky when Batman got to him. His mouth was a bloody mess, his hands badly burned. "All those other cities," he muttered. "All of them gone." He closed his eyes. "All the information he stole from Krypton."
"Oh, about that," said Batman. "When I was dodging him back in his command center, I thought these looked potentially valuable." He reached into his utility belt and pulled out two silvery crystals.
Pale light washed from his hands across Kal's face as Kal reached up to touch them with a shaking hand. "Kryptonian data crystals," he whispered. He looked from the crystals to Bruce, his eyes shining from more than the reflected light.
"I don't know what they hold," Bruce said, feeling suddenly awkward and uncomfortable at the look in Kal's eyes. "I mean, I didn't have time to check. I just thought maybe--"
Kal reached up and pulled him close, burying his face in Bruce's shoulder. "Thank you," Bruce heard him murmur.
Bruce got down on his knees and gathered Kal's burned and battered body in his arms. He kissed his hair softly, tasting sweat and soot, and Kal sighed.
"I was so angry," he said, his voice a thin thread. "Angry that he betrayed my father and abandoned my world. Angry that he kidnapped Gotham and tried to destroy my new home. But his final crime..." His voice trailed off and Bruce could hear a shiver of laughter in it, "...he also interrupted our first kiss, and for that, I will never forgive him."
Bruce couldn't help chuckling, and Kal broke into a bubble of laughter that cut off into a wince. "There'll be others," said Bruce, feeling Kal's heart thudding against him.
"Oh, there most certainly will," murmured Kal. "I'm planning on one in the next few minutes."
"Minutes?" said Bruce. "Why wait so long?"
Kal's mouth was bruised and torn and tasted of blood. The kiss was gentle, tender, but passion and anticipation shuddered through it just beneath the surface. "I've waited long enough," Kal whispered against his mouth. "I've waited my whole life."
They were still resting together, their arms around each other, when Nightwing, Batgirl and Robin came running to find them and bring them home.
: : :
"Thank you for taking a moment from the clean-up to talk to us," said Lois Lane, smiling up at Kal. "And on behalf of the whole city, thank you for all of your heroic effort to save us today." A crowd had gathered in front of the Daily Planet building to watch the interview.
Kal smiled at Lois, resting his fists on his hips, his shoulders pushed back. "It's my pleasure, Miss Lane. The people of Metropolis have been so kind and welcoming. I'm bitterly regretful that you've all suffered because of a fellow being from Krypton." From his vantage point in the crowd--cleaning up after such a mess no one noticed that one of the dungaree-clad workers was a Gotham millionaire--Bruce Wayne noted that even with a battered, bruised face and a shredded cape, Kal looked every inch the hero.
Lois Lane noticed as well; she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, blushing a little. "After we all witnessed what you did to save us, how could we hold that against you, Kal-El?" She looked up through her lashes at Kal. "Really, though, you have to give the people something to call you. Using just your name is so odd. Don't you have something like Green Lantern, or Batman?"
Bruce wondered how anyone couldn't notice the way Kal's face lit up like a sunrise at the sound of Batman's name. Then he laughed, looking a little sheepish. "I keep saying I don't need a name like that. But if I had to choose...on Krypton we had a word for volunteers who worked for the common good, it meant something like 'humble servant of the people.' In Kryptonian we called them cirpirrmyn."
"Superman?" Lois looked delighted. "That's perfect!"
"What? No, no," said Kal, waving his hands in front of him in negation. "Cirpirrmyn, the first consonant is more sibilant and the accent is different--"
"Three cheers for Superman!" Lois cried to the crowd, "Superman, the savior of Metropolis!"
"Superman! Superman! Superman!" the crowd roared back, going wild with applause, drowning out Kal's protests.
Kal met Bruce's eyes in the crowd and saw him cheering as hard as anyone else. Bruce winked at his betrayed look, and the newly-christened Superman subsided, shaking his head.
The world had a new hero.
: : :
It was almost midnight before Kal would stop with the clean-up and go back to Wayne Manor for the night. Dick and Tim were home already after a long evening spent patrolling Gotham and making sure nothing was badly damaged during the city's kidnapping. Tim looked up from a hot bowl of mulligatawny stew as Bruce came into the kitchen, wearing his favorite post-patrol Gotham Knights sweatshirt. "Welcome home." He grinned like a Cheshire Cat through the fragrant steam rising from his bowl. "It's good to see you normal size, Bruce. The sight of a gigantic Batman looming above Gotham like some kind of crazy demon..." He shuddered elaborately. "Let's just say some crooks have new fodder for their nightmares from now on."
Dick whooped as the kitchen door opened again. "Superman! Superman!" he chanted, pumping his fist in the air, and Kal groaned as he sat down.
"How am I going to convince people to stop using that?" he complained, taking a bowl of stew from Alfred with murmured thanks. Someone had given him a Metropolis Sharks t-shirt during the clean-up, and the way it clung to his abdomen and biceps made Bruce not even regret that he was wearing a rival's logo.
"I'm afraid it's yours to live with," Bruce said. "The people liked it. They liked you."
Kal was blushing. "I'm glad, but it's still a ridiculous name."
"Are you in any pain, Master Kal?" Alfred asked.
Kal touched his torn lip a little gingerly. "Nothing major. J'onn says that sunlight should speed the healing dramatically, but I didn't feel like flying around the world just to get some sunlight. I would have missed your cooking if I had," he added with a smile. He brushed his fingers across the puffy bruise discoloring the skin around his eye. "It's...kind of weird to really feel pain for the first time since I landed here."
"We'll have to install some sun lamps in the cave," Bruce said. "To deal with future injuries."
Kal blinked at him, then broke into a dazzling grin, not even seeming to notice that it tore his split lip again. Alfred clucked and dabbed at it with a napkin. "Do be more careful, sir."
"So..." Dick started with a quick look at Tim. "I take it that means Kal will be staying with us for a while longer?"
"As long as he wants to," Bruce said.
Kal took a bite of stew, then inobtrusively shifted his chair to the left a few inches, just enough that his leg brushed Bruce's, and Tim and Dick shared another delighted glance before launching into some animated chatter about the day's events. Bruce listened, savoring the stew, the warmth of the kitchen, everyone home safe and sound again, until Kal polished off the last spoonful of stew and sighed. The sigh turned into a yawn and a stretch.
"I think I'm going to turn in," he said. He shot a glance out of the corner of his swollen eye at Bruce. "Are you heading to bed too?"
"Um." Bruce put down his glass of water so quickly that it made a loud thump. "Yes, I suppose I'm pretty tired as well."
As the kitchen door closed, Bruce could hear the sounds of a high-five from behind it.
: : :
"I don't want to hurt you," Bruce said. "Your mouth...your ribs..."
Kal just leaned into his touch, kissing his neck. "I don't care." He drew Bruce down onto his bed, hands slipping under the sweatshirt. "I just need to touch you. To know you're really here."
Bruce wrapped a leg around Kal and pulled him close. "I'm really here," he said. He could feel Kal shaking.
"Feels so good," Kal muttered against him. "I could never relax and enjoy it when my friends hugged me--"
"--They hugged on Krypton? But I thought..."
Kal's lips touched him behind the ear. "Why not? Sentient beings generally enjoy contact, and after kielnith is over there's nothing wrong with it." He shifted, bringing his hips up against Bruce's more firmly; Bruce could feel the bulky obstruction of their flies and zippers coming together, feel the heat and yielding firmness underneath it. "But I never dared. What if this--" A meaningful nudge of the hips, "--happened? It was too dangerous. So my friends decided I was just cold and stopped."
"Cold? You?"
"You didn't know me on Krypton." Kal's voice was matter-of-fact. "The risk was too great. I could not get close to people."
"But you wanted to."
"I wanted to." Kal's hands skated down Bruce's back to his hips, tugging him even closer. "But not ever as much as I wanted to with you." He chuckled softly. "When you took off your shirt in front of me--I thought I was going to die of fear and desire. I thought that you would see it and recognize me as a dangerous pervert, denounce me, perhaps have me imprisoned."
"I almost kissed you, that first night." Bruce demonstrated, making up for lost time, and felt Kal's breath becoming more erratic.
"I realized that, later. So much later." Kal groaned slightly, shifting his body against Bruce's. "At the time, I thought you were going to embrace me as a brother, and I wanted it so much that I was willing to risk exposure, just to touch you again. I never dreamed--never once dreamed that you might want this." He buried his face in Bruce's shoulder again, then suddenly yawned as if he couldn't help it. "Oh Rao," he mumbled, his voice mortified. "I'm sorry, I'm just--"
"--You're exhausted," said Bruce. "You've had a very long day, full of excitement and danger, and you're exhausted and injured. Get some sleep." He pushed Kal gently down onto the pillow.
"No," protested Kal. "No, I don't want to sleep." But his eyes were heavy with more than lust, his words starting to come slow. "I want to...to touch you everywhere. I want to shag with you. Get laid..." A long pause. His breaths were coming slow and even. His eyes fluttered and he made a small, abortive motion. "...Want to swyve..." he muttered, and his voice faded out.
"You really did memorize all the slang for sex there is," Bruce said softly. He kissed Kal lightly on the corner of his mouth, avoiding the ugly cut in his lip. "There'll be time for swyving later. Sleep."
He shifted his position and Kal startled awake. "I'm sorry!" Sleepy blue eyes blinked at him. "Please don't go."
"Of course not." Bruce repositioned himself, wrapping his arms carefully around bruised ribs. "See? I'm not going anywhere. I'll be here in the morning."
Kal curled up against him with a sigh, his limbs slowly relaxing again. He murmured something in Kryptonian, then said in English, "I love you, Bruce."
He didn't know how difficult a phrase that was to say for some people, didn't know how fraught it was in English, full of choked-back emotion and tangled tenderness. He had no idea.
And so it was possible for Bruce to freely answer, "I love you too."
-----
( Part 8)