[video]

[he_is_wild]

[Joker is sitting in the beanbag chair, as always, but looking a bit worse than usual. One hand is wrapped with a wrist splint and the top few buttons of his shirt are open, showing a bruised neck and collar bone. There is a bandage over the bridge of his nose and one eye is slightly blackened. It looks like was rammed face-first into concrete.

Comments

THREADJACK FOR GREAT JUSTICE psi i'm taking over your post and i'm sorry

[kingofrooks]

[ Jesus fucking Christ, Clark Kent. Obey instructions!

Yes, this is unhackable, voice, and he sounds angry. ]

Don't talk to him. Don't tell him anything about yourself.

And the monsters aren't sentient. [ AS. FAR AS HE KNOWS. And frankly living people > souls of the dead to him so. ]

[isitablurred]

Just ending a conversation would look more suspicious, wouldn't it? Besides, something tells me this is an answer neither of us have, even with the network at our fingertips. We've been killing these things, but did either of us even stop to wonder whether we should?

[kingofrooks]

There are other, more reliable sources than the Joker. [ Frustrated sigh. ]

If we don't kill them, they would most likely have continued to attack the living. Eighty-eight percent.

Have you considered the possibility that killing the monster might be what brings the people back to life, or to send them off to their rest?

[isitablurred]

Saving the people would be enough, most of the time, and of course I conidered it. It's just... I'd like to be more sure. I don't kill people, not unless I absolutely have to.

[You can tell he's going to worry about this until he knows the truth.]

It seems the Joker knows me pretty well, but you knew that already. It's fluke that he didn't recognise my voice the other day, which meant it was only a matter of time, whether I talked to him or not. What I really want to know, though, is which one of us you're protecting.

[kingofrooks]

[ You've defeated him before, when he had enough power to destroy worlds. But that's you in the far future and now you're still young, still inexperienced, and damnit, have you always been this ridiculously cocky? ]

Neither. [ A cold snap. ] I told you before. Don't interfere with the matters of Gothamites.

Ask the doctors. The scientists. The police officers and the lawyers. Anyone is better than a madman who will now have his eye on you and everyone you befriend here.

Like Robin, for example.

[isitablurred]

[Oh no you don't, Bats. That isn't fair.]

And now you're going to blame me for putting her at risk? You did that already, just by challenging them so boldly on the network when you arrived.

I'll help you protect her, but you can't keep an invisible wall between them and the rest of the city, because as you so rightly just said, this doesn't just involve you, and it probably never did.

[kingofrooks]

[ He doesn't play fair. ]

When I told you to interfere, I also mean matters involving Robin and myself.

Don't be so sure that I can't. I work alone, Clark. The more you cut in, the more you worsen the situation.

[ He's an idiot who is throwing off his own CR. ]

[isitablurred]

You work alone. That's the same kind of thinking that's almost killed nearly every hero I've met. It's the same kind of thinking that's almost killed me time and time again.

Do you really want to leave me in the dark on this?

[Also because if you push him away he'll be there in your shadow dogging your footsteps forever.]

[kingofrooks]

I'm not like you. I've been doing this for longer than you know.

[ And that human part of him, that part that is screaming quietly for some sort of positive contact because it's been months and months- that part of him that says that Clark has always been one of those people he never has his guard up around simply because this is Clark- it's telling him that he's being stupid. That of all people, Clark is invulnerable. He won't get hurt. He can help.

But then Bruce remembers the kryptonite in his belt and he shuts that voice up. ]

About the Joker? Or about the Darkness monsters?

/action

[isitablurred]

[Recognise that disturbance in the air, Bruce? That's the disturbance that comes with a superspeedy arrival. The voice from the darkness shouldn't be so much of a surprise, then.]

About everything. The Joker, you, my future. I'm going to hear it all anyway, whether you want me to or not.

[A pause, and Clark steps forward, letting a slant of light catch him; it's practice now, being part of the darkness, knowing just how much light is too much.]

And while we're on the subject, I don't think you have the right to lecture me on experience. I've been fighting since I was fourteen, and I've saved people - saved the world, even - more times than I can count.

action

[kingofrooks]

[ It's almost a sonic boom- or at least, it's as loud as one to him, who is used to it and who expects it. He whirls around immediately, a batarang in his hand, readied to throw- and he doesn't lower his arm even when he sees who it is (who else could it have been?) and listens as Clark speaks.

Fourteen. As Superboy, then? With the Legion? No- when he was that young, he was just coming into his powers, wasn't he? Wasn't he at Smallville? He narrows his eyes. ]

Fourteen. I didn't realize there were so many chances to save the world in a small town.

[ It's a test. Was it in Smallville? And-

Is this the Clark he knows, or one from another universe? ]

action

[isitablurred]

[Clark knew not to approach. A flick of Bruce's thumb and he would be powerless; the batarang would cut through his skin as with anyone else's. He held his ground.]

Trouble came to me. It didn't matter where I was; it could have been Smallville, or it could have been the North Pole. But why should I tell you anything about what happened when you won't speak to me?

[It was petty, and since he intended to prove a point - the point being: information is a good thing, and Batman is being a child - he decided to explain anyway. With a sigh.]

Have you ever heard of the Brain Interactive Construct? Brainiac?

action

[kingofrooks]

[ Braniac. Of all things, Brainiac. Why can't it be one of the people they know to be allies? Though- if he has met Brainiac, has he... ]

Yes. [ A grim smirk. ] Metallo. Zod. Bizarro. Doomsday. [ He cocks his head. His smile is grim. ]

Lex Luthor.

Who have you not met yet?

action

[isitablurred]

[Clark thinks briefly of Chloe's Watchtower database, the names filed away, and nods.]

Sound familiar.

[Funny how the name Lex still stings; how he still feels responsible.]

It's hard to read your expression through that mask of yours, but I'm guessing that's not what you expected to hear.

action

[kingofrooks]

No. [ He cocks his head tp the side. ]

You're not the Clark that I know. He only met those when he reached adulthood.

[ He cocks his head to the side. Maybe he has been underestimating him all along.

Fourteen, huh? ]

action

[isitablurred]

I thought we'd established that much already. [He wasn't going to relax, just in case any moment now Batman announced him as a doppelganger and tried to kill him.] Do you want to hear the rest of my world-ending scenario, or shall we leave it for now?