[Fic] Identities (2/?)
Title: Identities
Chapter: Chapter 2 | Chapter 1
Fandom: Superman movieverse, Batman movieverse, and a little alternate DC thrown in for good measure
Rating: PG (for now)
Word Count: 1800
Disclaimer: All these guys belong WB and/or DC, not me.
Spoilers: SR and DK spoilers, so consider yourself warned.
Summary: This is the stroke that hit me upon seeing Dark Knight. I give you my version of the beginnings of the Trinity as it would exist within the movieverses.
“If I may say so, sir, do you really think that you can manage a working relationship with someone like Superman? He doesn’t exactly -- do things the way you do them.” Alfred was always concerned about what Bruce could and couldn’t do. It was natural, of course; it was one of the many reasons his father had hired in him the first place. To tell Bruce what he could and couldn’t do. At least there were no ‘I told you so’s just yet.
Bruce lounged in the study, turning his nose up slightly. They’d been back in Wayne Manor for nearly eight months, and yet it still smelled like fresh paint. A step up from the former asbestos stench, he supposed. Alfred was sitting in his usual armchair across the room. When Bruce wasn’t around, he did tend to lounge in it, but with Bruce present, he sat up perfectly straight, back not touching the chair.
Bruce twirled the brandy in his glass, staring at the liquid for a brief moment. “I don’t have a choice, Alfred. The Amazons have made it perfectly clear that they’re going to attack Gotham. Gotham crimelords I can handle, the occasional psychopath is easy enough. An army of women who can fly with the strength of a hundred men? I don’t think so.” He downed the rest of his drink.
“Master Bruce, please, think reasonably. I’m not saying your way is better or his way is better, but your methods don’t mesh at all. What will happen the first time you run into a disagreement while fighting? There is a reason you choose to work by yourself.”
“A common goal, Alfred. A common goal is the best we’ve got.”
“It may not be enough. If you’re going with common goals, then you might as well fight with the Amazons. They’re attacking to keep their home safe. You’re defending to keep your home safe.”
Bruce glared. “They are not the same thing.”
Alfred did not look convinced, but was smart enough not to say so.
Bruce stood and sighed. “I’m going to bed.”
“At seven in the morning?”
“You act like it’s unusual.” Bruce smiled, waved a bit, and ascended the grand staircase to his bedroom. At least it didn’t still smell like paint.
He yawned upon entering his bedroom, and walked over to the drapes to pull them closed, flooding his room in glorious darkness. He turned to pull his shirt off, but thought better of the movement when he felt something cold and pointed against his neck.
He took a deep breath and remained calm. “And what have I done to offend you?”
“Nothing yet. But you plan to.” Her voice was melodic, mesmerizing. There was also a hint of danger, very much like the tone that Catwoman loved to speak in. However, Bruce had a feeling that this one was deadlier than his feline foe.
He tried to look back at her, but she tightened the knife against his throat. “Let me guess: am I speaking to the beautiful and deadly Diana of Themiscyra?”
“Don’t flatter me.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it. Can I turn to face you?”
She pushed her knife in further. “No.”
Bruce grimaced. “Silly me. Listen, Princess darling, I don’t know what your deal is, but I’m not going to attack you.”
Diana laughed hoarsely. “It’s too late for that. You see, if you weren’t Batman, like I know you are, you wouldn’t know who I am.”
“Ah, but obviously I wouldn’t try and lie out of the obvious. What I said was I’m not going to attack you.” Acting fast, Bruce twisted and ducked, kicked her feet out from underneath her, and grabbed her knife by the blade. He flipped it just high enough to grab the handle, stepped on her legs at her knees, and held her with the knife just below her neck. “But I will defend myself, and I will defend my city.”
It was too dark to see her face well enough, but Bruce could at least tell that she seemed stunned. Her eyes, however, were glared nearly to slits. “Protecting this city isn’t worth it. They loathe you, they hunt you, and yet you protect them when they aren’t looking. Such a stupid idiotic waste.”
“This city needs me, whether they appreciate it or not, and you have no right to attack us for being smart enough to find your protected island.” He pressed the blade against her throat. “Rather than staying cooped up all these years, maybe you should have been paying attention to what we’ve been doing.”
Diana growled, turned her body to the side, freeing her legs, and kicked Bruce in the legs. The movement made a slit against her throat, but she ignored it. Bruce grunted as he fell against his balcony door, and he put Diana’s knife up in front of him for defense. She stood over him, legs spreas, eyes burning. “We’ve been watching. The discovery of our island was purely a mistake.”
“A mistake? Is that what your mother told you? Diana, my dear, we’ve gotten smarter, face it.”
“Silence!” She kicked his hand, prying the knife out of his grasp, and picked it up off the floor. “I came here to warn you. Don’t fight us. If you do, you will die.”
Bruce shrugged. “I’m going to die anyway.”
“We shall speed up the process.”
“Suit yourself.” Bruce smiled at her. His stumble against to the balcony door had moved the curtains enough to let in a good slit of light, and he could now see his opponent well. She was gorgeous. Her hair fell around her face and shoulders in loose curls. Her skin was well-tanned, and immaculate. She wore what he could only guess was ceremonial armor: well-molded breastplate with intricate flowers and filigree, armored skirt with the same pattern to her mid thigh, a light silky skirt clinging to her skin underneath, and a regal maroon cape draped at her shoulders. Her feet were bare; they were so beautiful they didn’t need any embellishment. She was the image of a Greek god he had always fantasized.
Diana obviously knew what was going on in his head. “Don’t get any ideas. You’re never touching me.”
“That’s what you think.”
Diana glared again. “You have your warning. If you still choose to fight, your death will be on your own head.” With that, she lifted her feet off the ground and pushed the balcony doors open, whooshing out of sight.
Bruce stayed on the ground for a moment. “Damn.”
***
Lois sat staring at her computer, almost as if it was going to give her an answer at any moment. But what computer had the answer to, “Do I tell my son that his father’s Superman? How much longer can I delay it?”
Naturally the problem was simple: Jason’s smart. He wasn’t stupid, he knew that he’d done things that weren’t possible for any human being to do. How could he not know that? But how do you tell your son the man you’ve been living with as his father -- that you still haven’t been able to bring yourself to marry -- was only a man willing and in the right place at the right time? The question haunted her, and the so-called story she’d been staring at on her computer was a whole three lines long. At least Richard had enough sense to know that this time, he needed to leave Lois alone. This was her decision to make.
The elevator chimed, and Clark got out. That elevator had come from the roof; before she’d taken to staring at her screen, she’d been staring at the elevator. He’d been talking to Jason again, something he’d been doing more and more, especially the last couple of months. He smiled in his Clark way with a cheesy hand wave, and tripped over to his desk.
It wasn’t even five minutes later when she heard, “Lane! Kent!” She had the desire to tell her boss not today, but it didn’t work that way. When you got an assignment with Clark, you didn’t argue; you just did it. So rather than growling and refusing to go, she sighed and stood up. Naturally, Clark ran into her back.
“Oh! Oh my, Lois. Gee, I’m sorry.” He smiled and brushed her shoulder off a little bit, as if it was a strange form of peace offering.
“It’s all right, Clark. Don’t worry about it.” She smiled and then started walking to Perry’s office. She caught Richard’s gaze, but his expression was unreadable. She looked ahead again.
Clark cleared his throat and came up beside her. “Well, but see, I do worry about it. I seem to run you into more often than I don’t and well, that’s very clumsy of me and I should be able to pay more attention and -- well, heh, be able to keep myself from running into you. There really is no --“
Lois turned around and smiled at him, putting a firm grip on his arm. “Over-winded apology.”
Clark smiled awkwardly. “Right. Sorry.”
She smiled again and stepped into Perry’s office, trying to look calm and unbothered by Jason. Perry knew that Jason had been suspended for causing a fight, but no one had shared that his eight-year-old nephew had in fact not started a fight at all. Lois took a deep breath. “Yes, Perry?”
Perry’s gaze switched from Lois, to Clark, and back again. “I’m sending the two of you to Gotham on extended assignment.”
Lois frowned. “What? Why?”
“I don’t know, Lois, but there’re rumors, rumors that something big is coming to Gotham. I want you both there. I want you to get to the nitty gritty, I need Kent to be your conscience.”
“How long? Richard’s coming, right?”
“No, Lois. I need him here.”
“Perry!”
“You’ve got a cell phone, don’t you? And don’t worry, Kent will look after you,” Perry said. Lois took a quick glance at Clark, who grinned with a shrug. “I need him here, Lois, and I need you in Gotham.”
Lois put her hands on her hips. “You don’t even know why you’re sending us to Gotham. Clark can go, discover the Gotham night life, have a little fun for once, and when he catches wind of something call for me.”
“No,” Perry said emphatically. “You will dig something out of the darkest corner. Clark, no offense, would take over a week longer to find something than you would.”
Clark nodded. “More truth to that than I like.”
Lois sighed and shook her head. “Why now, Perry? I’ve got enough to deal with right now.”
Perry gave her a hard look back. “Take Jason with you if you have to, Lois. Get him out, maybe it’ll clear his head, but I need you in Gotham. Your current situation with Jason is not going to get you out of going.”
Lois nodded and nervously fiddled with her glasses hanging at her neck. “Got it.”
Chapter: Chapter 2 | Chapter 1
Fandom: Superman movieverse, Batman movieverse, and a little alternate DC thrown in for good measure
Rating: PG (for now)
Word Count: 1800
Disclaimer: All these guys belong WB and/or DC, not me.
Spoilers: SR and DK spoilers, so consider yourself warned.
Summary: This is the stroke that hit me upon seeing Dark Knight. I give you my version of the beginnings of the Trinity as it would exist within the movieverses.
“If I may say so, sir, do you really think that you can manage a working relationship with someone like Superman? He doesn’t exactly -- do things the way you do them.” Alfred was always concerned about what Bruce could and couldn’t do. It was natural, of course; it was one of the many reasons his father had hired in him the first place. To tell Bruce what he could and couldn’t do. At least there were no ‘I told you so’s just yet.
Bruce lounged in the study, turning his nose up slightly. They’d been back in Wayne Manor for nearly eight months, and yet it still smelled like fresh paint. A step up from the former asbestos stench, he supposed. Alfred was sitting in his usual armchair across the room. When Bruce wasn’t around, he did tend to lounge in it, but with Bruce present, he sat up perfectly straight, back not touching the chair.
Bruce twirled the brandy in his glass, staring at the liquid for a brief moment. “I don’t have a choice, Alfred. The Amazons have made it perfectly clear that they’re going to attack Gotham. Gotham crimelords I can handle, the occasional psychopath is easy enough. An army of women who can fly with the strength of a hundred men? I don’t think so.” He downed the rest of his drink.
“Master Bruce, please, think reasonably. I’m not saying your way is better or his way is better, but your methods don’t mesh at all. What will happen the first time you run into a disagreement while fighting? There is a reason you choose to work by yourself.”
“A common goal, Alfred. A common goal is the best we’ve got.”
“It may not be enough. If you’re going with common goals, then you might as well fight with the Amazons. They’re attacking to keep their home safe. You’re defending to keep your home safe.”
Bruce glared. “They are not the same thing.”
Alfred did not look convinced, but was smart enough not to say so.
Bruce stood and sighed. “I’m going to bed.”
“At seven in the morning?”
“You act like it’s unusual.” Bruce smiled, waved a bit, and ascended the grand staircase to his bedroom. At least it didn’t still smell like paint.
He yawned upon entering his bedroom, and walked over to the drapes to pull them closed, flooding his room in glorious darkness. He turned to pull his shirt off, but thought better of the movement when he felt something cold and pointed against his neck.
He took a deep breath and remained calm. “And what have I done to offend you?”
“Nothing yet. But you plan to.” Her voice was melodic, mesmerizing. There was also a hint of danger, very much like the tone that Catwoman loved to speak in. However, Bruce had a feeling that this one was deadlier than his feline foe.
He tried to look back at her, but she tightened the knife against his throat. “Let me guess: am I speaking to the beautiful and deadly Diana of Themiscyra?”
“Don’t flatter me.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it. Can I turn to face you?”
She pushed her knife in further. “No.”
Bruce grimaced. “Silly me. Listen, Princess darling, I don’t know what your deal is, but I’m not going to attack you.”
Diana laughed hoarsely. “It’s too late for that. You see, if you weren’t Batman, like I know you are, you wouldn’t know who I am.”
“Ah, but obviously I wouldn’t try and lie out of the obvious. What I said was I’m not going to attack you.” Acting fast, Bruce twisted and ducked, kicked her feet out from underneath her, and grabbed her knife by the blade. He flipped it just high enough to grab the handle, stepped on her legs at her knees, and held her with the knife just below her neck. “But I will defend myself, and I will defend my city.”
It was too dark to see her face well enough, but Bruce could at least tell that she seemed stunned. Her eyes, however, were glared nearly to slits. “Protecting this city isn’t worth it. They loathe you, they hunt you, and yet you protect them when they aren’t looking. Such a stupid idiotic waste.”
“This city needs me, whether they appreciate it or not, and you have no right to attack us for being smart enough to find your protected island.” He pressed the blade against her throat. “Rather than staying cooped up all these years, maybe you should have been paying attention to what we’ve been doing.”
Diana growled, turned her body to the side, freeing her legs, and kicked Bruce in the legs. The movement made a slit against her throat, but she ignored it. Bruce grunted as he fell against his balcony door, and he put Diana’s knife up in front of him for defense. She stood over him, legs spreas, eyes burning. “We’ve been watching. The discovery of our island was purely a mistake.”
“A mistake? Is that what your mother told you? Diana, my dear, we’ve gotten smarter, face it.”
“Silence!” She kicked his hand, prying the knife out of his grasp, and picked it up off the floor. “I came here to warn you. Don’t fight us. If you do, you will die.”
Bruce shrugged. “I’m going to die anyway.”
“We shall speed up the process.”
“Suit yourself.” Bruce smiled at her. His stumble against to the balcony door had moved the curtains enough to let in a good slit of light, and he could now see his opponent well. She was gorgeous. Her hair fell around her face and shoulders in loose curls. Her skin was well-tanned, and immaculate. She wore what he could only guess was ceremonial armor: well-molded breastplate with intricate flowers and filigree, armored skirt with the same pattern to her mid thigh, a light silky skirt clinging to her skin underneath, and a regal maroon cape draped at her shoulders. Her feet were bare; they were so beautiful they didn’t need any embellishment. She was the image of a Greek god he had always fantasized.
Diana obviously knew what was going on in his head. “Don’t get any ideas. You’re never touching me.”
“That’s what you think.”
Diana glared again. “You have your warning. If you still choose to fight, your death will be on your own head.” With that, she lifted her feet off the ground and pushed the balcony doors open, whooshing out of sight.
Bruce stayed on the ground for a moment. “Damn.”
***
Lois sat staring at her computer, almost as if it was going to give her an answer at any moment. But what computer had the answer to, “Do I tell my son that his father’s Superman? How much longer can I delay it?”
Naturally the problem was simple: Jason’s smart. He wasn’t stupid, he knew that he’d done things that weren’t possible for any human being to do. How could he not know that? But how do you tell your son the man you’ve been living with as his father -- that you still haven’t been able to bring yourself to marry -- was only a man willing and in the right place at the right time? The question haunted her, and the so-called story she’d been staring at on her computer was a whole three lines long. At least Richard had enough sense to know that this time, he needed to leave Lois alone. This was her decision to make.
The elevator chimed, and Clark got out. That elevator had come from the roof; before she’d taken to staring at her screen, she’d been staring at the elevator. He’d been talking to Jason again, something he’d been doing more and more, especially the last couple of months. He smiled in his Clark way with a cheesy hand wave, and tripped over to his desk.
It wasn’t even five minutes later when she heard, “Lane! Kent!” She had the desire to tell her boss not today, but it didn’t work that way. When you got an assignment with Clark, you didn’t argue; you just did it. So rather than growling and refusing to go, she sighed and stood up. Naturally, Clark ran into her back.
“Oh! Oh my, Lois. Gee, I’m sorry.” He smiled and brushed her shoulder off a little bit, as if it was a strange form of peace offering.
“It’s all right, Clark. Don’t worry about it.” She smiled and then started walking to Perry’s office. She caught Richard’s gaze, but his expression was unreadable. She looked ahead again.
Clark cleared his throat and came up beside her. “Well, but see, I do worry about it. I seem to run you into more often than I don’t and well, that’s very clumsy of me and I should be able to pay more attention and -- well, heh, be able to keep myself from running into you. There really is no --“
Lois turned around and smiled at him, putting a firm grip on his arm. “Over-winded apology.”
Clark smiled awkwardly. “Right. Sorry.”
She smiled again and stepped into Perry’s office, trying to look calm and unbothered by Jason. Perry knew that Jason had been suspended for causing a fight, but no one had shared that his eight-year-old nephew had in fact not started a fight at all. Lois took a deep breath. “Yes, Perry?”
Perry’s gaze switched from Lois, to Clark, and back again. “I’m sending the two of you to Gotham on extended assignment.”
Lois frowned. “What? Why?”
“I don’t know, Lois, but there’re rumors, rumors that something big is coming to Gotham. I want you both there. I want you to get to the nitty gritty, I need Kent to be your conscience.”
“How long? Richard’s coming, right?”
“No, Lois. I need him here.”
“Perry!”
“You’ve got a cell phone, don’t you? And don’t worry, Kent will look after you,” Perry said. Lois took a quick glance at Clark, who grinned with a shrug. “I need him here, Lois, and I need you in Gotham.”
Lois put her hands on her hips. “You don’t even know why you’re sending us to Gotham. Clark can go, discover the Gotham night life, have a little fun for once, and when he catches wind of something call for me.”
“No,” Perry said emphatically. “You will dig something out of the darkest corner. Clark, no offense, would take over a week longer to find something than you would.”
Clark nodded. “More truth to that than I like.”
Lois sighed and shook her head. “Why now, Perry? I’ve got enough to deal with right now.”
Perry gave her a hard look back. “Take Jason with you if you have to, Lois. Get him out, maybe it’ll clear his head, but I need you in Gotham. Your current situation with Jason is not going to get you out of going.”
Lois nodded and nervously fiddled with her glasses hanging at her neck. “Got it.”