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superman86to99 · 1 month

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Superman: The Man of Steel #35 (July 1994)

"WORLDS COLLIDE," Part 1! And "THE FALL OF METROPOLIS," Part 2! And a Wonder Woman crossover! And a long-time character dies, as spoiled by the cover! This issue might be peak '90s. This is the most '90s you can cram into 22 pages without the comic exploding.

Things are a bit rough in Metropolis after Lex Luthor's main lackey launched some missiles that destroyed almost every building in the city (Action #700). Keith the Unlucky Orphan and his friends are trying to gather food from what's left of their orphanage, when a bunch of gangsters with machine guns show up to steal everything, reminding us why we call him Keith the Unlucky Orphan. Luckily, though, the kids are protected not just by Keith's pal Superman but by Myra, the Orphanage Lady, who decides to keep a couple of those machine guns in case the ruffians return.

Combined with the scars she got on her face after saving Keith from an hypnotic lizard lady last issue, Myra is only some shoulder pads away from looking like a badass '90s anti-hero.

While Superman tries to help people around the ruins of Metropolis, a Giant Robot That Shoots Death Lasers From Its Chest (GRTSDLFIC) emerges from the ground and starts creating more ruins. The monster runs into Keith and the other orphans, so Myra bravely stands in front of it with her new toys and tries to distract it.

And she does! For about a second.

As he holds Myra's body, Keith yells out for Superman, who arrives right in time to save him from getting death lasered too. The Special Crimes Unit also stops by to help, and the GRTSDLFIC turns out to be smart enough to target Maggie Sawyer out of all of the officers because it can tell she's the top dog (or maybe it's just homophobic, dunno). Superman saves her, because one strong female supporting character death is enough for this issue.

Superman realizes the GRTSDLFIC is alive and needs to breathe, so he flies it up into orbit to take out its air and leaves it suspended there while he goes deal with other problems. (Presumably by also throwing them into orbit, like usual.) Meanwhile, Keith begs Maggie and SCU to take Myra to the hospital, but it's too late for her. The kid has an understandably tough time accepting that another mother figure has left him.

RIP, Myra the no-nonsense orphanage lady. When we met her back in Man of Steel #1 (1991), I don't think anyone guessed that she'd die wielding dual machine guns while facing a Giant Robot That Shoots Death Lasers From Its Chest. But we should have, dammit. We should have.

Plotline-Watch:

So, wait, why is this part of a crossover called "Worlds Collide"? Because a whole 5 pages are devoted to Lois Lane's mailman, Fred Bentson, who is still having weird nightmares where he finds himself in another universe. Professor Hamilton meets Bentson at a Red Cross shelter and takes him to a clinic to treat his sleep disorder, which involves becoming immaterial while he sleeps and being haunted by an inter-dimensional monster. At the clinic, some rather shady psychologists hook Bentson up to a machine that can project his dreams, and they all see him naked as he's chased by the nightmare monster and tries to get help from... STATIC?!

By the way, the shady sleep clinic happens to be located right under the bridge that was half-destroyed during Superboy's fight with that Spider-Man wannabe called Stinger almost a year ago, which is still half-destroyed. At least it doesn't stand out from the rest of the city anymore (thanks, Dr. Happersen!). The half-bridge will be a relevant plot point during this storyline.

And why is this a Wonder Woman crossover? Because she appears for a single panel while Superman is fighting the Giant Robot and wishes she'd picked another issue to come ask for his advice. The comic tells us to buy Wonder Woman #88 (which briefly shows WW helping Superman against the robot) for the rest of the story.

On that subject, Don Sparrow says: "Superman doesn’t appear very prominently in the connected issue of Wonder Woman #88. All that happens is Wonder Woman requests that Superman stop her if she ever loses control of herself. It’s not a great issue, largely because Christopher Priest writes both Diana and Superman fairly out of character throughout, and the art in the issue manages to depict Wonder Woman as both matronly and pervy. (The issue also features the choice line of dialogue “female be trippin’”, so if you don’t rush out and find the issue, you’re not missing much, apart from another great Bolland cover featuring Superman)."

Yes, the Keith stuff is pretty depressing, and could be seen as another example of Superman comics going all "Dark Age," but at least it'll lead to positive things for the character in the near future. Now, those other orphans who lost Myra, not so sure...

Patreon-Watch:

The results of the Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey bonus artwork poll are in, and after tallying up the votes here and at Patreon, the character who will get drawn by the great Don Sparrow is... Maxima, in her post-Doomsday purple suit! Who won by a whole vote! (For those keeping count: 5 votes for Red Cyborg, 10 for Pouch Superman, and 11 for Purple Maxima.)

Don's work will be posted for all to see, but the original artwork will be given away to one of our patrons, Aaron, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, Bol, Gaetano Barreca, and Dave Shevlin. If you'd like to decrease their chances, join them at https://www.patreon.com/superman86to99!

And speaking of Don, stick around for his section, after the jump...

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):

It’s an interesting cover, with the protagonist and even the title trade dress obscured by shadow. It’s not really an action-type pose, but Superman’s angry expression indicates that action will follow. We also get a hint at the tragedy within, with an injured Myra Allen below Superman.

Inside the book, we get our first glimpses of post-cataclysm Metropolis, seen through the eyes of hard-luck Keith. The double page spread on pages 2 and 3 is a great drawing of Superman, exuding power even in a static pose.

The cybernetic monster, who in this issue gets neither a name, nor an origin (unless the story’s title, Afterburn, is maybe the robot’s name?) but it’s an appropriately Fleischer studios-like design for Bogdanove to draw.

Normally I quite dislike photo-stat backgrounds, but the panel with Superman carrying survivors gets a pass from me, because I love images of Superman saving kids—especially the way Bogdanove draws it.

Myra Allen’s last stand against the robot is stirringly drawn, and to me visually recalls Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons’ “Martha Washington Goes to War” which was hitting newsstands around this time. It’s interesting to see Bogdanove’s version of the famed Brian Bolland pose from Wonder Woman #72, even if she’s facing away.

Keith’s grief at Myra’s passing is as powerful and sad an image as we’ve ever seen in these books, and my heart breaks for the poor little guy (look at his little hand clutching the cape! What an astonishing detail!). Though he’s fictional, it’s hard not to feel for him, when he’s endured so much tragedy in his young life. I appreciate the restraint here, from a story standpoint—Superman offers no words of comfort, or guidance at what comes next, because they would only be trite and empty in a moment such as this. All Superman can do, he does—which is to hold Keith, and let him weep.

Our final cameo of the book is Milestone’s Static, another character Bogdanove seems born to draw. The introduction to him, as the milquetoast Bentson jumps to the Milestone world is fittingly energetic.

SPEEDING BULLETS:

I appreciate the detail early on that Superman has put “a lot of time into locating” gas leaks and shutting them down. It’s nice that the writer considered something like that.

We’ve known for a while that the DCU version of Coca-Cola is Soder, but nice to be informed that Sprite is called “Spritz” here.

Professor Hamilton is perhaps a bit casual about the fact that Bentson was briefly immaterial! [Max: Maybe he's like "Have I been immaterial before? Maybe during the Husque storyline? Don't remember..."]

The great Jose-Luis Garcia Lopez gets a sort of shout out on page 7, as a fresh fruit stand bears his name.

At the time of this issue’s release I remember being very curious about the Milestone characters, and excited about them crossing over with my favourite character, but I still question the choice of having an uninteresting character like Bentson be the initial conduit between the worlds. Maybe if the previous issues had established him as a recognizable Metropolis fixture (as well as Dakota City) like Whit or Allie or someone, it would have a little more impact (though they do try to build up his importance here, as the mailman who delivered the damaging evidence about Lex Jr.). But I find it hard to really care about the Egon-looking guy, particularly when he’s running around naked.

#superman #louise simonson #jon bogdanove #dennis janke #worlds collide #keith #myra #fred bentson #emil hamilton #maggie sawyer #special crimes unit #wonder woman #static #static shock #milestone media #fall of metropolis #giant robot that shoots death lasers from its chest #superman throwing his problems into orbit #wonder woman be trippin'

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heliads · 3 years

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Dating Jordan Parrish and Being Lois Lane’s Twin Sister Would Include...

Based on this request: “Teen Wolf and Superman crossover. Y/N Lane was born 10 minutes after her twin sister, Lois Lane. Y/N became a forensic scientist and moved to Beacon Hills. Y/N has been dating Jordan Parrish for a year.”

masterlist

You’re fairly used to the unnatural side of life

After living and working near Metropolis for quite some time, especially after discovering that your twin sister’s boyfriend is secretly Superman, you tend to have an open mind about those sorts of things

You first moved from Metropolis to Beacon Hills for your job as a forensic scientist, although you quickly discovered that things weren’t what they appeared to be

For one, you met Jordan Parrish and the rest of his friends in the McCall pack

As a forensic scientist, you worked closely with the Beacon Hills Sheriff’s Station, which meant that you kept stumbling upon irregularities and oddities in your line of work

Eventually, you started asking a few too many questions, and a few enemy werewolves tried to get you to stop looking into things

Jordan saved your life but revealed that he was a hellhound

He was terrified that you would hate him for it, but you just shrugged and kept loving him anyway

If you can meet up with Superman for brunch back in Metropolis, you can handle a few supernaturals

Although you’re fine with the supernatural, you don’t really get involved in the pack

Between your job and helping plan Lois’ wedding to Clark, there’s just too much to do

This isn’t to say that you offer advice when necessary, or that you have your soon to be brother in law step in

Clark found out about the supernaturals in Beacon Hills by accident, when he discovered that a lot of the supernatural enemies coming to Metropolis seemed to come from Beacon Hills

He asked you if you’d seen anything usual, and you told him everything

Curious, he came over to check it out, which is when Jordan and the McCall pack learned that Superman was a good friend of yours

Jordan wouldn’t let you forget it for months

“How could you not tell me that Lois was dating Superman?” “You never asked.” “I didn’t think I would have to ask something like that!”

He, however, understands the importance of keeping secrets, especially about the supernatural, so you don’t have to worry about that for long

In the end, it works out really well- when Clark needs allies, he can call on Jordan and the pack, and when Beacon Hills is in need of help, it’s pretty handy to have Superman drop in

Case in point: when Theo Raeken and his pack arrived in Beacon Hills, eventually kidnapping Lydia and trying to raise the Ghost Riders, Clark is able to use his super hearing abilities to realize that you and Jordan need help

Clark and your friends in Beacon Hills end up becoming really close, and when Lois and Clark eventually get married, the pack is there at the wedding (with you and Jordan attending together, of course :))

requested by @thornyrose463

teen wolf tag list: even if i had superman i would only have eyes for you @rogueanschel

#jordan parrish #jordan parrish imagines #jordan parrish x reader #jordan parrish oneshot #jordan parrish headcanons #teen wolf #teen wolf imagines #teen wolf x reader #teen wolf oneshot #teen wolf crossover #parrish #parrish imagines #parrish x reader #parrish oneshot #parrish headcanons #teen wolf parrish #teen wolf parrish imagines #teen wolf parrish x reader #teen wolf parrish oneshot

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gaitwae · 3 years

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The Dark Angel [|] Batman x OC

read on AO3!

Warnings: Possibility of being bad, it’s a sequel.

Length: 8k

Summary: Bruce Wayne and Charlene fluff, i don’t really know XD

Ring, ring, ring.

The sun hadn’t even peeked over the horizon when the telephone rang, violently and loudly. Internally, Bruce knew it wasn’t an emergency — it was someone trying to reach him before the day started. If it was an emergency, the caller wouldn’t have dialed the Blackberry. It wasn’t the red phone; the small cell was for business, not pleasure, so it wasn’t that either; he had a small rotary for the boys in case they were sick or held up at the university or high school (or in Damian’s case, soccer practice). The ringing phone was the Blackberry.

His thoughts were all over the place. In the beginning, his first thought was that he really needed to change the ringtone. It sounded like Christmas bells on Kryptonian steroids. The darn thing was just outside of Bruce Wayne’s reach for the first time in years; that thought alone was infuriating to him. The more he dwelled on someone calling the Blackberry…

Ring, ring, ring.

“Not today,” he swore, heaving a sigh and hoisting himself off of the bed. His Blackberry kept buzzing and playing its tone on the nightstand like an angry massage tool from Tartarus. He wiped his face, and just before the contraption could finish its next Ring, ring, ring, he answered the call. “Bruce Wayne.” His tone was gruff; he wanted to make sure the caller knew that the excuse better be good. The billionaire wasn’t in the mood to play games with the idiot on the other line.

“It’s Clark,” the voice on the opposite end answered. Bruce tensed. Clark had no reason to call him this early — had something happened with Charlene? Did their trip to Smallville get tracked?

“Clark —”

“Don’t worry; this isn’t life-threatening. You left something in that suit jacket you lent me,” his friend explained. “We should talk… Soon.”

The tension that built in Bruce left instantaneously. He had almost forgotten: Weeks ago, an envelope had been slipped into the inside pocket for Clark to find. He couldn’t risk saying something around Charlene, or anyone else who could have found her, when the risk was so high. He didn’t expect Kent to find it immediately, but he didn’t think it would take weeks to discover the note.

“I placed it in the jacket intentionally,” Bruce replied. He laid back down, closing his eyes. He would have to go downstairs soon. The boys would need to be woken up. Alfred would reprimand him about his sleep, telling him that a ‘sound body and mind cannot operate under such conditions,’ when he came downstairs. He could already see where the day was taking him. “I was banking on you finding it much earlier. Why did it take you so long?”

A pause.

“I don’t think she’s going to like this, Bruce.” He could hear shuffling over the mic, the crinkling of paper. “She really won’t like this. She just bought a house; this is quite a big commitment.”

“I’m not proposing, Clark; calm down.” Bruce rubbed a finger under his eye once or twice. He didn’t have the patience so soon in the day. He reached over to his bedside table and switched on the lamp. “She would despise that, not to mention how we haven’t talked about it, yet.”

“I didn’t even know you two were really together.” Clark’s tone reflected an edge — either protective, disgusted, or judgemental — that told Bruce exactly how much trust he had when it came to Charlene Park. “The last I heard about the two of you was your most recent trip to Metropolis.”

“When I met with Luthor,” Bruce guessed. He chewed his cheek; he didn’t mind talking about Char, but when it came to his relationship with her, he preferred not to be bothered — his affections didn’t need to be questioned left and right. Char was a grown woman. She chose Bruce; that should have been the end of it. “We’ve seen each other in Gotham since then. I’m surprised she hasn’t told you.”

“Yeah, with Luthor. Char said you had coffee and she babysat Damian,” he said. His voice was rising. For having impermeable skin, Bruce was having surprising luck getting underneath it. “And what do you mean ‘surprised she hasn’t told you’? What are you implying? That you’re sleeping together?”

“We’re taking it slow,” Bruce answered. “If we were sleeping together, I’d be the one to tell you. You’ll be glad to hear that we aren’t.” Clark scoffed over the phone; clearly, he didn’t believe that. “I just thought you’d like to know what I’m planning; Diana will need to be informed as well. This is important. Char’ll need all the help she can get.”

“You know, I never did take you for the type of guy to be with Charlene,” the other man continued. “You’re brooding and dark; she’s not like that at all. You’ve got some nerve—”

“Is this all you needed, Clark?” the billionaire deadpanned, cutting the Kryptonian off. He looked over at the bedside clock. It read 4:22 AM . Superman was far more worried than he was letting on if he was calling at the witching hour.

He didn’t need to be. Bruce would make sure that the woman was safe above anything else — he loved her too much to just put her in harm’s way.

“You know she’ll be fine,” Wayne reassured.

“Do you think this is safe for Charlene? This lifestyle?” the journalist whispered into the phone. “Lois couldn’t handle it; who knows if Char can?”

“She’s more involved than we ever anticipated,” Bruce said. He wet his lips. Lois left Clark? Unsurprising. “She’ll be excited to join. She has the potential; why waste it?”

“What will the boys think? They’ll think they’re getting a mom.”

He huffed a half-humored laugh. The boys didn’t know yet — no one knew. Clark was the first to be told. “They love Char. It shouldn’t be an issue to let them think that. Damian already told her she would be the only acceptable candidate for a stepmother. In the next decade, they might have one.”

“You can’t be serious. You’d marry Char? She’s going to join the League?”

“I’m plenty serious. She’s going to be part of the Justice League’s inside informants if she wants to. Whether you approve or not.” He didn’t answer the marriage question. Marrying Charlene would require more time. He wasn’t ready; she hadn’t hinted at anything more. She had only stayed at the manor twice — he felt that was enough of a leap for now.

He didn’t need to marry her out of the blue, did he?

“I don’t approve. She’s delicate. What if she thinks that your attempt at being personal is —?”

“Goodbye, Kal-El.” Without another word, Bruce hung up the phone. Clark had too many worries; too many things on his mind. He was so preoccupied with Charlene’s life that he had to ask about her relationship instead of the plan to incorporate her into the League. He needed to let go and learn to trust others’ judgement… But then again, some could say the same thing about the Batman.

Bruce sat up in bed. He would be lying if he said he didn’t miss Charlene or said he never thought about fully committing. It had been three years since the gala; things were going well between them. If he was just a billionaire, he might have tried harder, pressed for marriage instead of bringing it up every now and then.

But he wasn’t just a billionaire.

Bruce wiped his face again and looked out his bay window. He could see the area of town where he first saw her… where the Batman thought Charlene Park would jump to her death. He hadn’t expected to even meet her after that. He hadn’t expected a wonderful woman who understood him. Meeting her seemed so long ago now. It seemed against reality to think he hadn’t known her at one point in time.

He could make a few calls before seeing his family, maybe create a funding account for Char when she was ready to join the League; he knew she wouldn’t say no if he explained himself the right way. She was warming up to the idea of helping him with all aspects of life — he was warming up to the idea of domesticity. At the same time, making the calls would be presumptuous. Who knew if Charlene wanted that, yet? He didn’t want to do anything without talking to her.

Char may have understood the Batman, but he certainly couldn’t predict her. The identity guessing and the kiss and the entire history of their relationship proved that fact over and over and over like a natural law. Everyone thought they were gravity: dangerous; inevitable; fitted perfectly to the human body like Earth’s atmosphere.

He thought they were just a coincidence that turned into a gift. Charlene was an angel; he was her knight in shining armor.

“Time to start the day,” Bruce mumbled. He got up from his bed. He looked out the bay window once again. He sighed deeply.

Gotham City.

Would this place really be safe as Charlene’s future home?

He looked away, resting his head against his pillow and trying to sleep again. The attempt wasn’t very fruitful — eventually, he got up and dressed for the day. He tinkered with the gadgets he had created for Char, tweaking it and wondering whether or not to pick up the phone and call her. Every day was another failed attempt to be the hero she needed.

“Ah! Good morning, Master Bruce,” Alfred Pennyworth greeted the dark knight as he descended from the stairway. The old man handed him a glass of water and the stack of letters that had been delivered overnight. “I take it you had a restful night?”

“Barely,” he sighed, squeezing his old friend’s shoulder in appreciation. Bruce drank from the glass, feeling the coolness spread downward. It was calming, but not the calm he needed. “I got a call from Clark Kent at about four in the morning. How are the boys? Are they all up? I had something I wanted to talk to them about.”

“Damian is awake; Dick has left for school; Tim is still sleeping; Jason never slept, I’m afraid.” Alfred cocked his head, eyebrows lifting as he studied his former ward. He stuck his hands in his pockets and took a careful breath, asking in a wary voice, “Is everything alright, Master Bruce? Was Mr. Kent’s call that important, sir?”

“Yes and no,” Bruce answered. He didn’t clarify; he couldn’t think of an answer for each question. He scratched his neck, taking Alfred with him as he walked down the hall. Each picture on the walls was of the Wayne family, and as he got closer to the end of the hall, each of the boys. Dick with his acceptance letter to Rutgers University; Damian’s birthday; Jason against a tree; Tim playing guitar. Countless family pictures. There was a spot on the wall waiting for Char, he realized. “We’ll just have to talk about it when Dick comes home. I’ll sit the other boys down and tell them not to leave.”

“Sir?” Alfred asked, now flabbergasted. “Are we in trouble?”

“No,” he said. He tried for a smile. Alfred didn’t relax, so Bruce stopped. “It’s just about Charlene.”

The butler nodded deeply. He leaned in and looked about the room to make sure no one was spying on them. The corridor was empty. He held his breath to listen, but the only sounds were their shoes clicking on the tile. “Sir, is Charlene… leaving us?” Alfred whispered. “I thought you and she were getting along rather nicely.”

Bruce didn’t react. “I’ll talk about it later tonight, Alfred. I’ll need to see Char when she comes back from Kansas — if she’s leaving, we’ll find out after I visit her.” He clapped Alfred’s shoulder. “But if she isn’t, we might have to reclean the guest room.”

“The guest room, sir?” Pennyworth grinned.

Bruce found himself surprised at that. Another joke, obviously, but he just hadn’t thought about that sort of arrangement with any seriousness. “Yes — she’s not going to be in my room, Alfred.”

“A woman who’s not so worldly, eh?” the butler chuckled.

Bruce smirked. “No, it would seem not.”

°°°

Charlene would have to say that her morning wasn’t going perfectly. Going down to see Johnathan and Martha was one of the best parts of the year. It was the best part of the upcoming summer season! But this morning, this last week, she had noticed that Clark was acting insane. Her instincts told her to ask, to say something, but she got swept away with her pseudo-parents fluttering about her and asking how life was in the big city.

“You look so grown up, now!” Martha cooed. She set her hands on Char’s shoulders and turned her about, checking her face over. Charlene had stayed with Martha and Johnathan for two years when she was a teenager. They were the closest she had to family. Every summer, she returned to stay with them for two weeks — whether or not Clark was there. Martha, now satisfied with how Charlene’s physique and health was, found her gaze set on the newscaster’s newest gift from Bruce: A small locket pendant graced with a rose-shaped diamond, tied around her neck by a silver chain. “I love this new piece of jewellery you’re wearing, sweetheart. What is it?”

“Has Clark finally made a move?” Johnathan asked. He took a sip from his coffee cup, craning his neck to see the necklace. He turned his head sideways at it, then hummed. “It’s gorgeous, honey. Whose gift was that? Was that from my boy?” He laughed, looking over at Kal-El. “Did you buy that for Char, son?”

“Er, no.” Char laughed nervously, holding the locket in her hand to hide it. “He isn’t going to make a move. He didn’t buy it. I’m seeing someone else; it’s going pretty well. He’s a businessman, single father.”

“Who are you seeing?” Martha gasped. She pushed a mug of coffee into Charlene’s hands, shuffling about the kitchen to try and find some food for everyone. This conversation was just before breakfast. “It’s such a nice necklace! When can we meet him?”

“He doesn’t want to push things too fast,” Char explained. She smiled brighter than she wanted to; she was nothing but happy when she talked about Bruce. She hadn’t seen him in almost three weeks due to work and flight preparations, his business meetings, and whatever secret project he was working on. “He’s got three sons and a ward who’s planning on surprising him with adult adoption papers for next Father’s Day.”

“That sounds just…,” Martha trailed off, pressing her lips together as she thought of the words. Charlene knew she was a little wary, almost disappointed. Seeing a man with multiple children either meant he was one of the sweetest men in the world or one of the more careless. How he raised his children was a completely different story. Not wanting to spread Bruce’s life story around to everyone, she just figured it was better to keep quiet about it. “How old is this man?”

“He’s thirty-seven,” she continued. “He, uh, adopted two of the three sons. The youngest was a different situation. Clark’s met him already.”

Johnathan nodded. He stuck his hands in his pockets and looked to Clark, who was still acting off. “So he’s a good man, then?”

“One of the best men,” Charlene swore. She opened the locket, looking at the picture of Bruce holding a rose to the camera on the inside with an inscription on the opposite side: “More than you know. - B.W.”

She showed Martha and Johnathan. Martha set a hand on her heart and Johnathan’s shoulder, smiling at the picture and carved words. “We’re taking it slow and old-fashioned; eventually, I’ll bring him down here for you to meet. Or he’ll invite you to his home — whichever comes first.” She grinned, closing the locket. Martha smiled at her.

“How long have you two been seeing each other? It seems like this man loves you,” Martha said. “Does he know your history? When did he give that pretty thing to you?”

“Yes, he knows my history. He gave me the locket about two months ago. I took him to my favorite spot in Metropolis and gave him a few written letters about my feelings.” She scratched her scalp. “The next time he saw me, he said he couldn’t just let me be the only one who ‘let their affections come to light.’” She laughed at her imitation of Bruce. Martha gasped and grinned.

“So you’re taking it so slow you haven’t told him you love him, yet?” Clark scoffed behind her. “You wrote a letter? After two years?” Charlene rolled her eyes, turning to see her best friend of nearly twenty years. The Kents’ faces drew up in surprise, but Char just frowned. He had barely said anything last night and this morning. Why did the first thing have to be about his distaste for Bruce?

“He knows I do; you know he isn’t big on words. We’ve found other ways of telling each other.” She crossed her arms. Clark mirrored her movement, rolling his eyes. He took his glasses off and set them on the table, pinching his lids closed. “How many times are we going to have to talk about this? I know you don’t like the idea of me dating anybody, but it’s going to happen. I might even get married; are you going to make nasty comments about that, too?”

“I might if it’s him. He’s going to get you killed, Charlene. Do you have any idea what he’s got planned for you?” He raised his hands and then dropped them.

“No, not really. Gosh, Clark, you realize it doesn’t matter. You’re Superman. He’s not any different from you. Let it go.” She waved her hand in dismissal. She tried to turn back to Martha and Johnathan. She didn’t want to get into the I’m-dating-Batman explanation today.

Kal-El screamed in frustration, hovering off the floor by a few centimeters. He combed his hair with his fingers — with both hands — giving away how anxious he was. Charlene knew there was more than he was telling her. “No, I won’t, Char. You need to be careful! He left a note in the suit jacket he left me, I called him—”

“Wait. Stop,” Char said, cutting him off and trying not to sigh in exasperation. She was getting tired of being constantly questioned over her boyfriend. He wasn’t dangerous, he wasn’t rude, he wasn’t going to kill her. Bats tried to actively keep her out of the dangerous details of his life; eventually, that would change… but wasn’t going to change yet. “This is about you two not communicating, again. Isn’t it?”

“I—,” he started. Charlene pointed her finger at him, hushing the alien. He shut up quickly at her silent threat. They both knew she couldn’t hurt him. Sometimes just the idea of her trying worked, though. He set his feet on the floor again. Char set her hands on her hips, taking a step back.

“Deal with that on your own. Please. I don’t want to break up with him because you’re acting like a kid, Clark.” She wiped her face. She knew that Ma and Pa were watching them argue and she didn’t like it. She hated being the center of attention (one of the Wayne boys would say that was ridiculous, considering she was a newscaster). “I appreciate you worrying, but I know what I’m getting into.”

Clark sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “And what if you find out years along the way that you don’t want to be Bruce’s wife?”

“That’s why we’re taking it slow, Clark. I’m not going to abandon you like Lois did; I’m not going to do the same thing to him, either.” She looked at the clock. “It’s six in the morning. Let’s help with chores, yeah?”

“You’ve gotten quite commanding since I’ve last seen you,” Martha chuckled. “Does all this change come from that Bruce?” She used the name in a teasing manner, which made the younger woman laugh. The old mother set plates out for breakfast.

“Yes, it is,” Char said. “He and Clark work together. He’s not too thrilled with me being a hero’s partner, yet.” She shrugged, sitting down at the table. Johnathan clapped her shoulder lovingly. Clark sat down next to Pa.

“They’re a good brand. If Clark trusts him enough to work with him, I don’t see why you can’t go with him.” Johnathan snickered. “Speaking of going with people. Son, have you heard back from that lovely Amazonian woman? You know, since you’re not with that reporter lady and, apparently, you gave us the wrong idea about Charlene. Honestly, I’m not too surprised about the Charlene bit; you two could never figure out if you were friends, siblings, or edging something more for as long as I can remember.”

“Pa, come on,” Clark whined. He crossed his arms, his cheeks colored with a red flush. Char didn’t know the Man of Steel would get embarrassed over Wonder Woman. She suppressed a giggle. And then he started stuttering. “Diana isn’t interested in me — Be-Besides, it doesn’t even matter. She’s a — She’s a very nice woman and I’m her colleague. That’s all. I’m going to steer clear of dating for a while. Sorry we didn’t tell you Char was seeing someone.”

“You should be sorry!” the old man said sternly. His smile never wavered. “What if I’m a grandpa and I don’t know about it? I understand Charlene not telling me, but you? Oh, Clark, come on!”

“Pa, it was her place to tell you.” Clark sat forward, leaning his elbows on the table’s edge. “I’ve been busy, too.”

“You never know if a relationship is working until you start talking about marriage, boy.” He held Char’s hand and Clark’s. Martha placed the last of the foodstuffs before the family. She sat down next to her son. “You two need to figure things out. You’re stuck with each other for life — you know you are. You’re going to have to trust each other. Now hush: let’s say grace.”

They all did as they were told. Johnathan prayed over their food, they ate, breakfast went by quickly. When they were cleaning up, Char’s phone went off.

“What’s that, sweetheart?” Ma asked.

Charlene read her screen. Her eyebrows drew together. “I’ll have to leave a day earlier than expected; there’s a change in my work schedule.” She frowned a little bit. “I’ll have to make a call.”

“Oh. That’s too bad. Don’t worry about it,” Martha said. She patted her back. “Do what you need to.”

“Oh, I will,” she smiled, but in reality, she wanted to scold someone. She knew exactly what happened.

Bruce changed her scheduling around without telling her.

°°°

After staying as long as she could — about a week — Char had to board a plane and find her way out of Smallville. Somehow, getting on the plane and sitting on it for five hours wasn’t the issue. She could afford to be patient when she knew she had a plane to catch. She had just enough experience to practically ignore the takeoff, the flight attendants, and the goodbyes.

That all went smoothly. It always did.

And then there was the airport after the flight.

Being at the airport was one of the worst experiences Charlene ever had. She hated air travel with every bone in her body, but there was no other way to get back to Metropolis: the trains didn’t go that far, the buses would have taken too long, and Charlene didn’t have enough money to rent a car. She felt safe flying when she had another person to count on; this time, she was alone. Standing in the middle of the bustling, glassy terminal made her heart pound. Was she supposed to call for a taxi? Walk home? She had driven to the airport with Clark. She had no ride.

Walking through gates and managing to find her luggage without difficulty, she passed every single crying child, scolding mother, complaining grandfather, and fussy TSA member. She had jet lag. She had a headache. She missed Bruce. She was a little bit irritated with him, too, but she could talk about it — calmly — at a later time.

Her eyes were clouding up with sleep. Her mind was wandering. She didn’t even know what time it was. She was trying her best to walk out of the terminal.

“Charlene,” a familiar voice called. She picked her head up, her heart swelling with gratitude. Dressed from head to toe in black, Bruce stood with his hands stuffed in his pockets. His feet were spread apart. He had that look about his face — the one he wore when he was amused but didn’t want you to know it. She all but sobbed as she ran to him.

“Oh, my goodness!” she cried, wrapping her arms around him. Bruce’s arms encompassed her. “You’re here! How?” She buried her face in his shoulder and let the hero keep her steady.

“Clark said you were leaving early,” Wayne laughed. He took her suitcase out of her hand, absentmindedly rubbing her back. Charlene thought she must have been dreaming. She nearly forgot about trying to ask if he rearranged her work plans, again. She opened her mouth, but Bruce was faster. “Before you ask, I didn’t mess with your schedule this time. I was working on a —”

“— project, yeah, yeah. It doesn’t mean I’m not going to ask the producer what happened,” Char sighed, taking in Bruce’s metallic scent. His shirt was scratchy, but soft from wear. She dug her fingers into it, closing her eyes and soaking in the warmth from her boyfriend. “You have no idea how much I love you.”

“I love you, too,” he murmured. He broke the hug. “Let’s get in the car. The boys are going to be worried sick. I can call the studio, tell them you’re under the weather if you don’t want to go to work.”

“Are you okay, Bruno?” Char asked, yawning. She covered her mouth, minding to use the other nickname rather than just calling him “Bats” in public. “You’re edging a ramble; that’s unlike you.”

“I’m fine. There’s just some things we need to talk about; Clark doesn’t like it, despite how it could benefit our life.”

“‘ Our life’?” she asked, voice slurring with the need for slumber. She took his hand. He held it back, but gently. He was being somber. Solemn. Serious. That usually only happened at home, behind closed doors. And behind another set of doors, he let himself truly smile. “I wasn’t aware you were thinking about a future so soon.”

“I am,” he said. His fingers tightened their grip on hers as they swung through the air. “I want to help you into all sides of my life, even for just a little bit. I heard perspective can help a marriage last longer.”

“Marriage?” Charlene laughed. She swung their hands. The corner of Bruce’s mouth twitched, again. She started grinning like a madman — no, like the Joker. “You intend to make me an honest woman?”

“In the end? Definitely.” Bruce walked her outside. It was raining. He opened an umbrella and handed it to her. Charlene took it in her hand and tried to hold it above Bruce’s head, but it didn’t work — he was too tall. He just shrugged at it, smiling at her softly. “Depending on when you’re ready, darling, I’ll propose.”

“‘Darling,’ now? My, my, my, aren’t we affectionate today, Mr. Wayne.” Charlene giggled and poked his arm. “Are you sure you’re okay? It’s not every day you’re calling me pet names and talking like that. In fact, I think the last time you said the words ‘I love you’ was April Thirtieth.”

“The thirtieth wasn’t that long ago,” he frowned. He walked her to one of his antique cars, opening the trunk and putting her suitcase in the back. She took down the umbrella and set it back there, too. “It’s only mid-June. It’s not like I never tell you.”

“Bruce, other couples say it daily,” Charlene smiled. The rain started pouring down harder. It was mussing Bruce’s neatly-combed hair and dripping down his nose. She could feel it soaking her back and coiling her locks. She was sure she looked just as messy as Bruce looked adorable. “I know you don’t need to say it for me to hear it, but it’s still nice.” She paused for a moment, playing with the locket. She knew that just this gift alone was worth a thousand “I love you”s. Then she added, “And rare. Clark thinks we haven’t said it at all.”

“Rare,” he repeated. He opened the car door for her. She slipped into the passenger’s side. “Nice to know. It’s not Clark’s business whether or not I tell you I love you.”

“So what if it’s rare?” she asked with a permanent smile. “It just makes it even better to hear.”

“Are you going to cry when I deliver my wedding vows?” he asked in deadpan. He buckled in, turning the engine. “I have about seven years to prepare them; I’ll make sure to make them as sensitive as possible. The boys can say a line each toward the end of the ceremony.”

“Are we going to have a Jewish wedding?” she asked. “I’ve never been to one.”

“No,” he answered. “Not entirely. My parents were Jewish, but I… I don’t know. I haven’t done anything in regards to faith in years. I think we should just have a small ceremony for the boys and Clark and his parents. The only people who matter. We can blend in some Jewish tradition.”

“I can understand that,” she said quietly. She set her hands in her lap. She could already imagine a ring around her finger. Would it be an older design? Would it be intimate? With meaning behind it? Would it be big? Simple? “I don’t want anything huge, but I don’t want to rush into this. We have forever and a half, Bats.”

“We have longer than that, angel.” He looked behind him and pulled out of the parking lot. “I brought the boys from Gotham. I hope that’s not a big deal.”

“Did you get a hotel room?” Char looked out the window, then watched the wiper blades scrape water off the windshield. They made their way onto the highway in no time at all. “Or are they hanging out in the apartment?”

“A hotel room. I didn’t want to go into the apartment without asking.” He flexed his fingers on the wheel. “Was that an invitation, Miss Park?”

“Mr. Wayne, I am a woman of class,” she teased. She sat up a little. “Of course, you and the boys can stay. We can all sleep in the living room. You, the big, bad billionaire, can lay on the carpet floor next to the common damsel.”

Bruce scoffed. “As if there’s anything common about the woman I’m going to marry. Not everyone can be trusted. Not everyone can handle this life.”

Char shrugged. “We didn’t meet like common people meet.”

“We certainly don’t love like normal people. Kent can’t seem to stop reminding either of us of that fact.” He sighed, cracking his neck. Char wondered how that phone call Clark had talked about a week ago went. “Is he in love with you? Is he worried? Whatever his issue is, I can’t figure it out. It won’t change the fact that you and I are romantically involved.”

“You have a taste for danger,” Charlene answered. She vaguely recalled hearing from Dick that Bruce used to have a relationship with Catwoman. Damian was the product of an affair with an evil mastermind’s daughter. Batman, for the majority of his life, had been married to the cowl. “That’s his issue. You have mass intellect and he has superpowers. He could catch me from the sky, but you can’t. I’m a casualty waiting to happen.” She laughed sadly. “In his mind, I’m not safe with the Batman.” Bruce exhaled slowly to show exactly how much he agreed with that idea.

She could tell it was more than he wanted to admit.

“That’s why I can’t propose yet.” Bruce kept his attention on the road. “I need to make sure that you know how to defend yourself. If something ever happened, you’d at least be able to throw a punch or two. When the need arose, we would be prepared to keep the family safe. Right now, you need constant surveillance; I know what that does to you.”

“Constant surveillance?” she questioned. “Why?” Her heart dropped several levels. Had she been right all along? Was she being duped or manipulated into giving Wayne easier access of keeping an eye on her?

Bruce took a while to answer, creating more and more fear in Char’s mind. Finally, he opened his mouth. “I want you to gather intelligence for the Justice League. Whenever you’re ready, you’ll train with the boys at Wayne Manor. Just say the word, baby.”

“Is… Is this the perspective?” she asked, wary and unsure. She felt her eyes burn and her throat tighten. She didn’t want to ask this, again, but she felt she didn’t have a choice. The last time she asked the question, Bruce had kissed her for the first time. It ended up just being a publicity stunt. “Are you sure you actually want to marry me? That this isn’t just to make sure I don’t accidentally tell the world Bruce Wayne is the Batman?”

Bruce’s knuckles turned white on the steering wheel. “Charlene, how many times do I have to explain myself? If I wanted to keep an eye on you, I wouldn’t be talking about making you my wife. I wouldn’t let you interact with my boys. I wouldn’t be setting up a whole room for you at Wayne Manor. I love you. I have no reason to be picking you up from the airport other than my own desire to make you happy.”

“I know,” she sniffed. “I’m sorry. You were just acting funny. I didn’t know that you actually wanted to stay with me for… for as long as we live.” Charlene took a deep breath to calm herself. Man, did she feel like an idiot. “Bruce, you said you didn’t want to be part of that kind of domesticity two years ago. When did you decide you wanted to marry me?”

“Char, I didn’t need to decide. I still don’t want the picket fence type of life.” Bruce turned to exit the highway. “Our relationship has changed over the last two years. I would be lying saying I didn’t rely on you whatsoever.”

She swallowed. “You need me?”

He didn’t say anything. Yes. His cheeks colored. She let out a breathy, disbelieving laugh.

“I need time to think this all over, Bruce!” she exclaimed, slapping her palm to her forehead. Her pulse accelerated. Her legs felt tingly. “Marry you someday…”

“You don’t feel the same?”

She watched as the city blended into the street instead of Bruce’s unchanging expressions. If she wasn’t careful, he would turn investigator on her. “I had no idea you were so sure about us. It isn’t that I don’t feel the same, baby, I just need time to process this.”

“I understand.” He hummed. “Don’t tell the boys, yet. They might get excited.”

Charlene dropped her hands in her lap. She would be getting stepsons. She would have a husband. She would be a freelance spy. “I’m getting excited. I’m nervous, scared, sad, happy. I don’t know what I’m feeling.”

Bruce pulled into a parking garage. He got out of the car and took her luggage out of the back. “Say you’re going to be sure before you tell me you’re ready to start training.”

Charlene got out of the car, too, taking Bruce by the hand once more. “I will.” She cupped his face. “I will, Bats. Now kiss me.”

°°°

Walking to the hotel room, using his stealthy steps across the hideous patterned carpet, Bruce found himself holding his breath. Dick, Jason, Tim, and Damian were going to blow this out of proportion, make Charlene uncomfortable. He knew he was letting his emotions get the better of him — but then again, how could they not? This was his whole family’s future at stake. This was an opening to expand the family. “Char.”

“Yeah?” she asked. She twisted her head to see him. “You okay?”

“Only tell them about the Justice League. Let’s ease into this.” He was practically pleading. He didn’t answer her question, but she nodded in understanding. Charlene took his hand and kissed the back of it, then dropped it.

“Yes, sir.” She gave him a winning smile. He managed not to sigh out the flood of fuzz that rushed in his soul. He was the Batman. He should be braver than to push Char away.

“Ready?” he asked, smiling gently.

“Ready.”

Wayne took her hand this time. He watched her, studied her. She had a lingering smile she was trying to wipe. She didn’t need to. Charlene was happy. When Char was happy, he was happy. Her hand shook in his; he was nervous, too. Committing to this would change so much. There would be no backing out. Even asking her to be on the same page could have scared her away.

He was quickly realizing he needed to trust Charlene. Whose life was going to be altered after all this? Whose life would never be the same once this process was over or ended? Not his. Not to the extent Charlene’s would be. She would be the first-time parent, not him. She would be the one who knew nothing about business or vigilante work, not him. She would be the one most affected.

She deserved so much from him. He thought he was asking for greater than she could handle; Char was there to prove him wrong again. Again, again, and again.

Bruce put on a big smile, opening the hotel room door. The boys all stood up to greet him, and all spoke over each other at the sight of Charlene: “You’re here!”; “How was the flight?”; “How long are you staying? Alfred’s—”; “We missed you!” They brought the woman into the residence with glee.

He couldn’t be more grateful to the boys. They always did their best to welcome Char and put a smile on her face. They loved her too much for their own good. She loved them, too. Bruce brought her into the room, setting her bags on the queen bed where Damian had left his shoes. The boys were swarming her, hugging her and asking question after question.

“Hey,” Bruce said. “Give her space; we have to talk about something important.”

“What is it, Bruce?” Dick asked.

“Is something wrong, Father?”

Bruce beckoned the kids to the floor where they could all sit. He took Charlene, pulling her next to him. He held her hand. “We’re thinking about making Char part of the Justice League’s informant group. That way, she can see the world from our perspective. We’re hoping…” He trailed off, uncertain of how to finish.

“We’re hoping this can further our relationship and give me a chance to spend more time with you,” Charlene filled in. She smiled, moving under Bruce’s arm. He held her tightly. “We’re not getting married, yet; just thinking about how to make it work.”

Jason was the first to speak up. “So… after Selina and Thalia — sorry, Damian — you’re finally going to settle down?” He grinned. “You’re going to marry Charlene?”

“When it’s the right time,” he said. “Don’t tell Superman.” He chuckled a little at his own joke. At least the boys approved. They deserved to know what was happening. Damian scooted over to sit closer to Charlene, who ruffled his hair.

“Are you going to stay at Wayne Manor?” Dick asked. He folded his hands in his lap. Out of all four of the boys, he copied his mannerisms the most. Secretive, stoic, at times, and would sometimes hum more than speak. The only difference between his mannerisms and the Batman’s was the smile that he allowed to grace his features.

Charlene shook her head. “No; not until we have everything sorted out. It’s probably unusually old school, but it’s what we want.” She smiled up at the Batman. He smiled down. Tim, quietly, went “Oooooh,” but that didn’t stop the small moment of perfection. As suspicious as it seemed, everything was perfect for a little while. A small pocket of happiness he had allowed himself.

Bruce Wayne wasn’t going to be so hard to relate to, anymore.

Damian took his chance to ask a question, practically jumping up and down with excitement. Tim pulled him down on his bottom, which made Dick and Jason laugh. He usually wasn’t so excited. Actually, none of the boys were. “Did you pick out a codename for her, Father?” Damian looked at Charlene. “What will we call her?”

“Nothing.” Bruce shook his head, feeling a bit dissatisfied with himself. This whole situation was unorthodox for him, but that was something he could live with. It wasn’t unlike him to embrace change, but it wasn’t like him either. He had no idea what nonsense the boys would bombard him with once Charlene was gone for the night. He could guess… and his guess told him it wasn’t anything he’d enjoy. “She doesn’t have a codename, yet. As soon as she’s comfortable, I want you boys to start training her to fight.”

“And then what?” Jason asked. He crossed his arms. He leaned forward, looking between the two of them. It was as if he was trying to figure out how soon the relationship would end. After all, the Batman was alone. Selina didn’t work out, Thalia didn’t work out, countless others didn’t even get a chance. Charlene’s odds were stacked against her.

Yet he loved her more than either of those women.

Bruce laced his fingers with Char’s habitually. The domestic affection had only happened behind closed doors, and any kisses or lingering hugs happened within closed doors behind closed doors. She looked up at him with slight surprise when their fingers slid together. “And then we’ll figure things out as we go along.”

Everyone made noises of excitement at that. The night went on in the hotel room, with giggling and laughter and games. Questions were passed back and forth. Food was ordered. Near midnight, Charlene had to go home. She had work the next day, and Wayne’s surprise had been laid in her home. Asking her to join the League hadn’t been the whole package; he and Clark both knew what was waiting for her there. He knew it was a rushed decision — one of his stupidest ideas by far.

Legally, as a billionaire, he could practically do anything for Char. As Batman, he would kill anyone for her — her and the family. She was family, now. He wasn’t going to push her away.

Taking Char home was one of the first times Bruce had felt this nervous in years. There weren’t enough roses or lockets or even words to express how much he cared about her other than that paperwork he had hidden away.

It wasn’t a proposal. She would only have to sign it if she was ready. The rest of the work to make it real would come in time.

“Are you okay?” Char asked as he drove. “Your fingers are turning white on the wheel, Bats.”

“Fine,” he answered with a clipped voice. “Just tired.”

“You never get tired,” she reminded him gently. He could feel her eyes on him but he stared only at the road. Metropolis was easier to drive through, but it only made the impending doom feel even worse. There was no possibility to stall. Not when he was certain.

“I’m fine, angel,” he insisted. They were quiet the rest of the ride, minus the exchange of a kiss and goodbyes when he dropped her off.

Now all he had to do was wait.

After all, he didn’t switch around her schedule for nothing.

°°°

After that worrying ride through the city, Charlene trudged through her door. She looked about the living room, noticing how something was different about her apartment. A few of the pillows had been moved — it was as if they’d been sat on. There was a letter and a gift bag on the table. She set her bag down on the floor. “What on Earth?” she muttered to herself.

Bruce’s metallic scent lingered in the air, but it could have just been from when she sat in his car. She walked past her old dog, rubbing his head and checking his bowl. The pet sitter had fed him, then… and he had been given a new collar. Hmm. That definitely wasn’t the pet sitter. She beckoned him over as she checked out the present on the table.

The letter was the first thing she opened. As Char sank into the couch, she folded it open and quickly read the words. It was a brief description from a lawyer about what… what…

“Legal marriage to Bruce Wayne would entail”?

Her heart stopped. She fished through the gift bag and found a marriage license in a different envelope. A pink glass rose. A small set of glass earrings and an article clipping of the night of the gala. If anyone ever accused Bats of being unromantic, they were seriously, seriously wrong. This wasn’t a proposal — she could see that. He wasn’t asking for this. He wasn’t telling her to try and find out. There was no trying! And along with all that silly stuff, there was a mask and a tag in his script that said, “Dark Angel – Can be changed”.

He just laid it all out for her, knowing this was their future.

With clammy hands and a voice that was barely working, she dialed Bats’ number. It chimed for a few rings, but he eventually picked up. The familiar “Hello?” followed by, “Char?” was so sweet to hear, to let her know it was real…

“I’m signing,” she said. “And I’m keeping the codename.”

#Batman x OC #Batman x reader #Bruce Wayne x OC #Bruce Wayne x reader #gaitwae writes

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Superman & Lois Reveals the Truth About Morgan Edge’s Krypton Plan

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This article contains Superman & Lois episode 10 spoilers.

Superman & Lois Episode 10

Superman & Lois episode 10, “O Mother, Where Art Thou” picks up literally at the moment where we left the show last week, with Morgan Edge revealing to Superman that he’s not only a Kryptonian, but that he may very well be his brother. There was just enough ambiguity in that reveal to leave us wondering if Edge meant it metaphorically or literally, but as this episode explains, he really did mean it. If nothing else, he is biologically the half-brother of Kal-El.

But that’s somehow not even close to the biggest thing that went down in this episode of Superman & Lois, so let’s get down to it…

Tal-Ro and Zeta-Ro

Just to get this out of the way up front, as far as I can tell, neither Tal-Ro (Morgan Edge’s Kryptonian name) or Zeta-Ro (his father) are names from the pages of DC Comics. In fact, the concept of Superman having a literal biological half-brother like this, one that doesn’t involve any kind of fakeout (or a dream/hoax/imaginary story) is completely new.

Lara Lor-Van

But, it’s important to note that the show points out one key difference between Lara’s previous family and the one she started with Jor-El later on. Lara (while in the body of Lana Lang) explains that she had been “genetically matched” with Zeta-Ro, and Tal-Ro was their offspring. She makes it a point to mention that she fell in love with Jor-El and “gave birth” to Kal-El. Why is this significant?

When John Byrne rebooted the Superman comics in 1986 (before “reboot” was a word we all threw around a lot), one of the key changes he made to the mythology was making Krypton a society seemingly devoid of love, and one that had possibly even moved beyond the pursuit of sex as the primary means of reproduction (let alone recreation). Partners were matched based on their genetic compatibility to produce the most suitable offspring, and children were conceived and carried to term in a kind of high tech birthing matrix. Jor-El and Lara were unique in that they actually fell in love, and their love influenced their decision to send baby Kal-El away.

Sound familiar? There were elements of this in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel movie. But that film took it a step further, where Jor-El and Lara conceived Kal the old-fashioned (and more fun) way, and Lara gave birth to him in the traditional manner, as well. So just the shift in those couple of words in Lana/Lara’s exposition points out the fact that while yes, Edge may technically be Superman’s half-brother, it doesn’t quite carry the same weight.

Nature vs. Nurture

Ah, the tale as old as time in Superman stories. Is a potentially all-powerful Kryptonian inherently good, or only as good as the environment in which they are raised?

But this episode takes it a step further. It isn’t that Tal-Ro was raised by an evil version of the Kents, it’s simply that he ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time, and only saw humanity’s less noble characteristics. Again, it’s subtle, but it’s a hint that in Superman’s world, nobody is truly beyond redemption…although Edge sure is making a solid case for himself in that regard. Jerk.

The Eradicator

So, it turns out that the secret ingredient to Edge’s infusing of Kryptonian souls/consciousness into human bodies was something called the Eradicator. What is the Eradicator? Folks, I sure am glad you asked!

The Eradicator was arguably the single most important macguffin in Superman comics (if not all of DC Comics) from the late ‘80s through at least the mid-90s. It’s a millennia old device that was created to preserve Kryptonian culture, albeit with the “eradication” of others. Uh-oh.

The Eradicator survived the destruction of Krypton and eventually came into Superman’s possession, and the device decided it should protect Krypton’s last survivor…sometimes by trying to turn Earth into New Krypton (whoops) and other times by altering Superman’s mind to make it more Kryptonian (double whoops), and ultimately by evolving into a humanoid form that looked like Superman after the Man of Steel perished at the hands of Doomsday (ok, that part’s understandable).

It’s serving a pretty similar purpose here, this time with the added bonus of having been corrupted by Zeta-Ro. Between that and the fact that Edge is basically carrying on the Eradicator’s comics mission for it, I have to wonder if we’re headed for a scenario where Edge merges with the device and basically becomes the Arrowverse equivalent of the humanoid Eradicator/Krypton Man/what have you down the road.

Although it’s pretty cool that this thing is going to be housed in the Fortress for a while, and that opens up other story possibilities.

The Solar Flare

Admittedly, the how and why Superman’s solar flare is able to help “fix” all the Smallville residents who were housing Kryptonian souls is a little fuzzy. But it IS the first time we’ve seen this particular power used in any media outside the comics.

Superman is often described as a living solar battery. All of his powers are a result of his cells absorbing solar radiation like they’re batteries, and as long as he’s in proximity to a yellow sun, it’s basically an inexhaustible power supply. Almost all of his powers are manifestations of that solar power in some way, with perhaps heat vision being the most tangible representation of it.

But in recent Superman comics, it was revealed that when necessary, Clark can release all that excess solar energy stored in his body in one massive blast. When he does, he’s out of gas for days or weeks, but it can be done where necessary. I have to appreciate how it wasn’t used as a video game special attack for a boss fight here, and was instead used in a healing capacity. Good lord, this show gets it.

The Fortress of Solitude…and Another One?

This is why at the end of the episode we see Superman crawling to the Fortress, clutching the Eradicator like a football. He used the last of his power to get there, and he’s so weak he can barely walk. Cut to Morgan Edge and Leslie Larr…

…who appear to have a Fortress of Solitude of their own, this one in the desert. It’s kind of cool that these Kryptonian fortresses always seem to have an elemental quality to them. How much do you wanna bet that Edge’s fortress is powered by the stolen Kryptonian sunstone crystal that houses Lara’s knowledge and memories?

Metropolis Mailbag

And none of the above even gets into all the other great bits in the episode!

Another standout episode for the Kent sons, particularly Jonathan, who once again shows that he doesn’t need powers to be an awful lot like his Dad.

Or what about that genuinely chilling performance from Erik Valdez?

Or the introduction of Dabney Donovan to the Arrowverse! Another Jack Kirby creation joins Morgan Edge…this guy is one to watch if you know the comics.

Tyler Hoechlin spent more time in costume in this episode than several other episodes combined, and I can now safely say that nobody has embodied the character this perfectly since Christopher Reeve. It was all about the quieter moments, particularly his chat with Lana.

Speaking of quieter moments (and Lana), Elizabeth Tulloch and Emmanuelle Chriqui’s heartbreaking scene when Lana volunteers for the Eradicator process sure was something, wasn’t it?

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Got any questions about this momentous episode of Superman & Lois? Spot some deep Superman lore that we missed? Let us know in the comments!

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cdelphiki · 5 years

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Bruce could tell instantly that Damian’s night had been a rough one.

Aside from the obvious bruising on his arms, an unusual occurrence, despite what one might expect considering his nighttime hobby, his son looked worn down. And the way he just kind of, plopped down on the couch next to Bruce was the real indicator of how rough his night really was.

Because Damian just looked…. defeated. In a way he hadn’t looked in, well, perhaps years.

The worrisome thing, however, was tonight was one of his ‘adventuring’ nights, as Clark called it. His little playdate with the Kent boy, as they tromped around Metropolis and Gotham and found cases to solve.

It was cute, Bruce hated to admit, how Damian and Jon ran around. They were doing good work, solid cases and everything. But something about the two of them, together, while working the cases just brought a smile to Bruce’s face.

His kid was being a kid, he had finally realized, maybe five playdates into his and Clark’s grand scheme to make the boys friends.

And it had worked. Damian and Jon were the best of friends now. At times, they were inseparable. Bruce had even sprung to send Damian to school in another city, just to foster that connection he finally had to another child.

But Damian was supposed to come home from his adventure nights happy. Not defeated.

“What did you do tonight?” Bruce asked, his voice a low rumble, just audible above the crackle coming from the fireplace. The cold night wind howling against the window. He pretended to continue reading his book, while he waited for Damian to answer.

He’d been waiting up for Damian, as he always did when the boy stayed out late, but would never admit that were the case. Damian would likely throw a tantrum about trust and not being a child.

Never was it acceptable to say, ‘but you are a child,’ to him. No matter how Bruce phrased that, Damian never appreciated it. But Bruce was glad Damian was a child, because he’d already missed so much of Damian’s life. He wasn’t about to wish away a single second more of his childhood.

Damian shifted, tilted his head just slightly, before he finally said, “We saved Ms. Lane from a sniper.”

Bruce couldn’t help it. His eyebrows shot right up. He trusted the boys, he did, but that sounded like something they probably should have brought him and Clark in on. Since it involved his wife and all.

“Wow,” he said, after pausing a moment to make sure no anger would come out in his voice, “Who was the sniper? What was the motivation?”

The response Damian gave was not at all what he was expecting. Some gang, maybe. Or a hitman hired by a politician Lois had written a hit piece on. Or, hell, some random villain wanting to hurt Superman.

But no. Because Damian took a deep, shuttering breath, before simply saying, “Mother.”

And Bruce couldn’t help the sharp breath he took at the mention of the woman.

“She was just trying to get my attention,” Damian said, before Bruce could ask. He pulled his feet up onto the couch and sat there, criss cross, right next to Bruce. Staring off into the fire.

Bruce… didn’t really know what to do. What to say. Damian’s relationship with Talia was… complicated. He knew she had been a loving mother to him, at one point. That Damian had adored and loved her, even after he’d come to live with Bruce. But in recent years, really ever since Talia disowned him, he’d become more jaded in his view of his mother.

It was a shame. No boy deserved to have such a difficult relationship with a parent. Especially not his mother.

“She-” Damian started, then paused to clear his throat. His hand twitched, from its spot on his knee. Like he wanted to rub at his face, but stopped himself. Bruce wished Damian felt safer breaking down in front of people.

“She’s still the same. Exactly the same.”

He nodded, to Damian’s confession. Unsure really what to even say. Bruce pulled his leg up on the couch, however, so he could turn towards Damian better. He let his hand brush across Damian’s neck as he placed his arm behind his son’s back, and just sat there. Hoping to covey that he was there for Damian without invading his space too badly. Damian wasn’t always receptive to physical affection, but sometimes, if offered without being blatant about it, Damian would accept.

“I’m just a weapon to her,” Damian whispered bitterly, finally reaching up to wipe at his cheek. Even though Bruce hasn’t seen a single tear escape his eye. “An object,” he added, with a touch more anger, scowling at the fire now.

But Bruce could see it, in the way he pursed his lips. In the slight twitch of his eye, the quiver of his hand. He was grasping onto the anger to stave off the tears.

“Damian,” Bruce started, but then paused. Because he really wasn’t sure what to say. How to fix this, and make Damian not want to cry. ‘You are not a weapon to me,’ he could say, but Damian already knew that. ‘I’m sorry about your mother’ felt insincere. As did any false promises that ‘it will be okay’ or ‘she’ll come around.’ He couldn’t even say ‘She loves you,’ because Bruce wasn’t even sure that was true.

And, God. How could anyone not love this child?

It hurt, sometimes, how much he felt for Damian. Just seeing his son could elicit a jab right in his chest. Because he was just so damn glad to have the privilege of being Damian Wayne’s father.

He wished Talia had felt the same. If only for Damian’s sake.

“Get your coat,” he settled on, startling Damian. Pulling him right out of his war between emotions.

He blinked over at Bruce and asked, “What, Father?”

“Your coat,” Bruce repeated, standing as he placed a bookmark in his book and tossed it at the coffee table, “and meet me at the Tesla.”

“What about shoes,” Damian said dryly, wiggling his socked feet in Bruce’s direction.

Bruce just smiled and turned from his retreat out of the room to say, “Won’t need them.”

“What?” Damian said again, this time even more confused, but Bruce didn’t give him an opportunity to continue his questions. Instead, he went to grab his own coat and start up the Tesla, so it would be nice and warm by the time Damian made his way out.

It would be a little chilly, after all, in just the thin cotton pajamas Damian was wearing. It wasn’t quite winter, but it had started dipping into the upper 30s at night. Far too cold for Bruce’s liking.

They didn’t talk much, once in the car. Damian asked only once, “Where are we going?” but Bruce had refused to answer.

“Trust me,” he had said, so Damian did. At least, he didn’t question Bruce again. Instead, he started fiddling with the radio, flipping through all 19 stations twice until he finally settled on an easy listening channel.

Not what Bruce would have expected from his 13-year-old, but he wasn’t complaining, either. He was pretty sure rap or… or dubstep would have really affected the more somber atmosphere in the car. Was dubstep still a thing? He was pretty sure that’s what Tim was into at 13. Or maybe that was Jason…

When Bruce pulled into the Sonic parking lot, Damian turned and raised an eyebrow at him. “What are we doing?” he asked, as Bruce parked next to one of the order boards.

“Strawberry cheesecake?” Bruce asked instead, smiling a little at the way Damian perked up, just slightly at the mention of his favorite milkshake flavor. He still didn’t look happy, but at least he wasn’t down enough to refuse a treat when offered.

“Yes,” he said, unbuckling his seatbelt and scooting his chair back as far as it would go. Not that he needed the extra space to sit criss cross.

Bruce ordered them both the strawberry shakes, along side a large order of tatertots and mozzarella sticks. Neither of those for any particular reason, just because he enjoyed both fried monstrosities, and if he were going to cheat on his diet he might as well go all the way.

It was for Damian, after all. That’s what he would tell himself.

“There used to be this drive-in,” Bruce said, after he’d finished ordering and swiped his credit card as payment. He’d shut the window back and flicked on his seat warmer, too, just to help warm the car a little more. Make it more comfortable.

Bruce had picked a spot where they could watch the traffic pass by on the road in front of them, and Damian seemed to be appreciating it, because he didn’t take his eyes off the cars to listen to Bruce.

“It was a little closer to the house,” he continued, “Dad would take me there, sometimes. He was a doctor, you know, and worked weird hours. Sometimes, after a particularly rough day, he’d come home and find me still awake, so we’d go to the drive-in in our pajamas and order milkshakes.”

“Hm,” Damian said, looking down at his own pajamas and then back out at the cars ahead.

“It wasn’t usually for me,” Bruce said, following Damian’s gaze out toward the cars, “It was to help reorient himself and refocus on the good in his life. I knew that, even at 6. Just maybe not in those words.”

“And you brought me here because…” Damian said, frowning. Shaking his head, a little.

“Because we’ve both had rough days.”

Damian stiffened and asked, “What happened on patrol tonight, Father? Did I miss something?” And Bruce hated how Damian got anxious, at the drop of the hat.

“Oh, nothing,” he said easily, waving a hand at Damian, as if to dismiss all his concerns, brush away the unnecessary anxiety, “Patrol was fine. A little dull, if anything.

“Tt. Did something happen at work?” he asked, scrunching his eyebrows at Bruce, now, clearly absolutely baffled as to how Bruce could have had a bad day.

“No,” he said patiently, trying to smile reassuringly, “My son came home banged up and upset.”

“I- oh.” Damian blinked. Once. Twice. Then looked down at his lap, as if studying his hands were much more interesting than talking to Bruce. Or, perhaps, less scary.

“I hate seeing you like that,” he offered. Meaning both upset and banged up, and anxious and uncomfortable talking to his own father.

In a too-small voice for the boisterous 13-year-old Bruce knew and loved, Damian said, “I-I didn’t mean to bother you, Father.”

“Damian,” Bruce said, pinching his nose. Because that was absolutely not what he had been thinking.

He was so terrible at this. He always came across as an asshole, to all his children. Some were more prone to point it out than others, but Bruce could see it. And perhaps he was an asshole. If Damian’s first response was to blame himself and apologize for coming to Bruce when he was upset.

God.

“That was not what I meant. I meant-” Bruce sighed, so Damian turned to him and just sat there. Kind of staring. No real emotion registering on his face, but his eyes were so big and bright with the street lights and dash reflecting in them. The brilliant green of his iris flecked with the blue and yellow. Blinking at him, just waiting for whatever he had to say.

“I just meant,” he continued, unable to look away from his son’s eyes, “I hate seeing you hurt. Not because it’s an inconvenience, but because you’re my son…”

Damian broke eye contact first, looking down as his face pinched, ever so slightly. His cheek twitched and his nose wrinkled. Bruce would have recognized what he was trying to prevent, even if he hadn’t looked away to hide the sheen of tears.

“…and I love you,” he finished, his own voice a little wet.

At that, Damian’s face crumpled completely, and he brought a hand up to rest against one side of his face.

His crying was silent, as it always was. Barely there, hardly noticeable unless one was looking directly at his face. Bruce would never know, passing by Damian’s room, if he were crying alone.

It was just another one of the many quirks that made up Damian Wayne. He wished Damian had never learned this skill, never needed to learn it, but he wouldn’t change his son for the world.

Well, actually. If given the opportunity to trade the world for a happy, safe childhood for Damian, he might have a difficult time saying no.

“Your mot-” he started, but then stopped as someone knocked on his window. Bruce scowled for Damian to see, not that he was even looking, then turned around with one of his aloof smiles plastered on his face.

“Thank you,” he said, when the girl handed him a bag, two milkshakes, and his receipt. He placed the milkshakes in the cupholders, and the bag in Damian’s lap. Even though the boy was looking away now, trying to regain his composure, no doubt, before Bruce refocused his attention back on him.

“My pleasure,” the far-too-chipper girl said for 4 in the morning, “Can I get you anything else?”

After answering in the negative and bidding her a good night, Bruce rolled the window back up and turned to face his son.

Damian had smoothed out his expressions again, and was now staring down into the open bag, just looking down at the food inside.

“Where was I?” Bruce mused, reaching over to pull the straws out of the bag and open them both, for the milkshakes, “Oh, yes. Your mother is a bitch.”

That got a startled laugh out of Damian, who quickly clamped his hands over his mouth while he cut his eyes over at Bruce. He lowered his hands, but it seemed he couldn’t keep the tiny little smile off his face, even after Bruce had let the comment settle.

“Look,” he said, sticking a straw in one of the milkshakes, then handing it to Damian, “I don’t know what happened to tonight, or what she said to you, but Damian… you are so much more than her son. You are not a weapon, for starters.”

“I know,” Damian said, nodding as he used his straw to mix the milkshake a little.

“She may have had a hand in creating you, but so did I.”

When all Damian did was frown down at his milkshake, now resting in his lap, Bruce set his own down and turned in his seat so he was fully facing his son. He gently turned Damian’s head so he was looking at Bruce, then placed a hand on either side of his face.

“And, Damian, you are so much more than just something we created,” he said, patting a little, begging his words to penetrate. To bounce around and stick in there. Record themselves and replay, whenever necessary.

“You are so much more than us,” he continued, “You are Damian Wayne, and I cannot put into words how much I admire you or how much I adore you.”

It was no surprise when he felt hot tears on his thumbs, from where Damian failed to keep them in. Because his own eyes were playing the same game, just perhaps not as quickly as Damian’s.

Bruce pulled Damian’s head a little closer as he leaned down, so he could plant a kiss right on his forehead, all while wiping the tears away with his thumbs, “So don’t let whatever it is she said bring you down. You are perfect exactly as you are, I wouldn’t change a thing.”

“Dad-” Damian choked out, fully devolving into sobs. Actual, noisy ones… or noisy for Damian, at least. Bruce let go long enough to take his milkshake and set it back in the cupholder, so Damian could throw his arms around Bruce.

All Bruce did was hug back. Hold his son for as long as he needed. Replay that one little word over and over in his head.

Because Damian was finally letting his hurt out, and there was no way he would cut it short. No matter how cold the mozzarella sticks got or how melted the milkshakes became.

When Damian finally sat up, he scrubbed lazily at his face and smiled, a little lopsided, when Bruce offered a napkin.

“So this is what your dad used to do with you?” he asked, after he’d blown his nose and picked up his milkshake.

“Sure is.” Bruce grabbed the discarded bag and pulled out the box of mozzarella sticks. “Here, try one of these.”

Damian did, but made a face at it when the cheese just broke apart. Not even a hint of stretchy, melty goodness.

“They’re better warm. We’ll heat them up at home, and I’ll show you.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Damian said, dropping his half eaten cheese stick in the box with the others, “The milkshake is good, though.”

“Isn’t it? You have a good taste in favorites.”

And with that, Damian smiled fully, and took another long slurp of his milkshake, his smile not fading for the rest of their visit.

The conversation shifted from topic to topic from there, straying between other ice cream flavors to school to upcoming plans. They didn’t talk about Damian’s night again, and Damian didn’t seem to even be thinking about it, anymore.

As they drove home, and Damian dozed off in the seat next to him, he started thinking that maybe they’d have to start a new tradition. Clearly his dad was on to something, with the midnight drives to get milkshakes.

It was, indeed, the perfect cure for a rough night.

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saultnpeppah · 5 years

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Day 3: Maybe you’re right

Here’s Day 3 of the #WonderBatKeyPhrases

@fyeahwonderbat

I walk out of the bank, still fuming from the fight moments before. My shoulder aches and my jaw hurts from clenching in pain. Tonight Diana acted on impulse, as she tends to do. She has ruined a mission that could have ended a case I have been working on for months. Bane has been running rampant in Gotham, stealing countless artifacts, infecting dozens of people with venom. He is creating an army, and I want to stop it before he releases it on the unsuspecting people of not only Gotham, but the world. Who knows what will happen if he gets the next few items off his list.

The blue and red flashing lights scorch my eyes as I step out onto the steps of the bank. One of the officers orders me to freeze, but when he notices who I am, when he sees the cape and the cowl, he begins to shake. "Batman," he whispers as he lowers his gun. His partner beside him lowers her gun, as well as the other four officers who remain hidden behind their patrol cars. "Where's Superman?" he asks.

I let out a small scoff. People in Metropolis are so quick to forget there are others who are willing to put their lives on the line for them. One of which I can hear coming out of the bank. "There was another emergency," I respond. My voice is deep and gruff, and the officer takes a step back, startled. "The Argentinian Ruby was stolen," I explain. It is a priceless artifact that I have been keeping tabs on ever since its arrival in the United States four months ago. I knew someone would try to take it, and when it had been auctioned off last month, I knew it was only a matter of time before an attempt was made.

The officer's eyes widen in shock. "That jewel is worth thousands," he states.

"Millions," I correct. He nods before he holsters his gun and runs inside. His partner runs in behind him, stopping only once to nod at Diana as she stops near my side. The rest of the officers exit their cars and rush into the bank, leaving me and the Amazon, who is fuming by my side. "J'onn," I say, pressing my comlink to establish the connection with the Watchtower.

"Go ahead, Batman," J'onn says after a few moments.

"Transport Diana and I to the cave." I don't have to look at Diana to know the Batcave is the last place she wants to be at, but we need to talk, and it's the most privacy I can offer.

"Copy," is all J'onn says, before we are enveloped in the bright light and transported into the dark cave I consider my sanctuary.

I pull off my cowl and let it hang around my neck as I walk towards the computer, hoping my eyes will adjust to the darkness the cave provides before I run into something along the way. When I reach the computer, I press a few keys, awaking the large device, before I turn to Diana. She stands there, leaning against a wall, her hands crossed over her chest. "You could've gotten yourself killed," I say, as I grab a few items off the desk to my right. Alfred has made it a habit to leave medical supplies down in the cave, knowing it is a hassle to keep transporting them back upstairs nightly. Diana only scoffs and shakes her head.

"You would have," she retorts.

I ignore her cold stare as I make my way towards her, medical supplies in hand. "You shouldn't be worried about me during missions," I state. "If we can't stay focused on the task at hand without worrying about the other's well being, we can't be together." My words are blunt and I can see how much they affect Diana when her lips part and she lets out an inaudible gasp.

She is silent as I bend down to glance at her leg. The muscle is sliced pretty deep and I wonder how she hasn't fainted from blood loss, but then I remember who she is. She is Wonder Woman: Amazon/demi-goddess. There is a lot she does that doesn't seem like it should be possible.

I gently grab her leg, stilling my hand when her calf twitching under my touch. I can hear her hiss in pain and my heart hurts when I realize I am the source of her discomfort. "I'll see if Alfred can stitch this up," I say, knowing her accelerated healing has already begun to fix the damage the thief has caused. "You will need to stay off of it for a while," I say, as I begin to clean the wound. "I'm putting you on light duty for a week." She says nothing as I stand and I wonder if she's heard me. I was sure she would argue with me at the mention of not being able to go out on missions.

"Maybe you're right," she says after a few moments, her voice barely a whisper.

I turn her way and watch as she takes a deep breath. Her eyes stay locked on the ground as she lets out a shaky sigh. "About?" I ask. Is she agreeing that she needs to be put on light duty? That was easier than I thought.

She glances up and my eyes meet hers. Those bright blue eyes that I have fallen in love with are glossed over, trying to conceal the pain that I no doubt have caused. I knew I would ruin this perfect woman if given the chance. "Maybe becoming more than teammates, more than friends, was a mistake."

I stare at the woman, trying my hardest not to let my shock show on my face. I tried so hard not to be pulled in. I tried to keep my distance from her, but she fought. I told her being with me was going to be a mistake, that I would only hurt her; never did I think she would agree with me. "I know," I say without thinking. I silently curse myself when she only furrows her brows.

"Bruce," she begins. She limps over to the desk near my computer, using the piece of furniture to lean on. "I can't keep doing this," she confesses. "I can't be the only one invested. I can't keep knocking down that wall only to have you build it back up."

"That's not fair," I find myself saying. Diana only shakes her head.

"What's not fair is how hard you are on yourself, Bruce. You claim you're unlovable, like you're some sort of curse that isn't good enough for me." I dismiss her claim with a shake of my head as I head back to the computer. It is a defense tactic, but I can see she has misread my intentions completely, and I already regret it. Diana lets out a sigh as she drags her hand over her tired face. "Do you love me, Bruce?" she asks.

I freeze at the question. My shoulders tense as I slowly turn to face the woman awaiting my answer. I have yet to confess how I truly feel for Diana, fearing it would all be shattered; it appears my fear is now a reality. She continues to stare at me, her nostrils flaring as she watches me struggle with the question. I know there is no way I am going to get out of this unscathed.

I walk into the room Clark and I have been in all morning, a small smirk on my face as I notice Clark is still in the same chair, hunched over, reading the paper in his hands. He is reciting his vows, trying to memorize the words he has written to verbalize his love for his fiance. It makes me happy and nauseous all at once. While I am happy for Clark, I can't help but wonder what it would be like to feel this nervous, feel this excited, knowing at the end of the day the woman I love more than anything would be my wife. It must be an amazing feeling.

"How's Lois?" he asks not bothering to tear his eyes from the paper in his hands.

"Beautiful," is all I can say. "You really are one lucky son of a bitch," I say with a smirk.

Clark glances up and chuckles. "I know," he says. "Too bad you missed your chance."

I raise an eyebrow at his statement, trying to figure out what he means. Does he know about Diana and I? Did she tell him something? "Yes," is all I say, knowing he'll reveal all he knows soon enough.

It doesn't take long for Clark to respond as expected. "I guess it's a good thing Lois dumped you though," he says with a chuckle. He is trying to ruin my ego. It's okay, I'll let him. It is his wedding after all. "You wouldn't be with Diana if she hadn't."

I didn't realize my ego could take such a hit, but the mention of Diana's name creates a small crack in my heart. "Yes," I repeat. I watch as Clark turns to face me, his eyebrow raising as he attempts to bring himself to ask the question on his lips, but when he shakes his head I know he has thought better of it. Good, I won't have to lie to him on his wedding day.

I steal a glance at my watch and let out a small sigh. It is time for the ceremony to begin. "Time to go, Kent," I say, watching as the man stands from his seat and places the paper back into his jacket pocket. "You sure you want to do this?" I ask, the hint of a chuckle behind my words.

Clark nods. "More than anything," he says, opening the door to the room before we step into the hallway.

I follow him out and the two of us walk until we are behind the doors that'll lead us to the main room, where everyone has quietly made their way, patiently waiting for the ceremony to start. We can hear the band as they play soft music, creating a background to the quiet side conversations everyone inside is having. Clark lets out a shaky breath, trying to calm his nerves, and turns to me. I shake my head as I notice how crooked his tie is. For a man who wears one nearly every day, he sure does struggle with the accessory. "Can I ask you something," I say, my voice low as I reach over to fix the groom's tie. He nods, standing still as I fix the red tie around his neck, wondering how on earth we have gotten to this point. We used to hate each other, each set on saving the world by different means. But the more I think about it, the more I realize Clark is probably my closest friend. He knows both sides of my life. He knows the things I try to keep hidden. He has been there for nearly everything, and I owe my life to him for more than one occasion.

"Does Lois ever worry about you?" I ask. "You know, when we're out," I say, trying to get the point across without revealing the fact that the two of us are founding members of the League.

Clark nods. "Of course," he responds. "Just like I worry about her when she gets too involved in one of her stories." We both let out a chuckle, remembering the faint memory of Lois creeping into an abandoned laboratory of Lexcorp, before she was nearly killed by Shade and Killer Frost; we would not be here today if the League hadn't been tracking down the Injustice League, knowing where they had been hiding.

"But I would rather the two of us go our whole lives worried about each other and together, than not worried and without her."

I nod as he opens the door to the foyer. I take a look around, stopping when my eyes catch the most beautiful person here today. She turns the corner, her hands in her hair as she is attempts to keep her raven curls up and out of her face. From the angle she is standing in I can see the healed scar on her calf and my mind is instantly brought back to that night. "You know, Kent," I begin, watching as she finally glances up to see me staring. I offer her a small smile before I turn to Clark, pushing him through the door, knowing Lois isn't far behind Diana. Clark may be an alien from another planet, but the man is superstitious and I know I will never hear the end of it if I let him see Lois before the ceremony begins. "Maybe you're right," is all I say as I close the door behind us.

#wonderbat #batman #wonder woman #WonderBatKeyPhrases #Fanfiction

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gretchensinister · 6 years

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Operation Welcome Mat (preview)

I usually like to post a fic for my birthday, and well, this is a few days belated, but sometimes that’s how it goes. This is a preview of something I’m working on, now, and it’s a branching out of my usual fandom territory! I hope you’re curious, and I hope you enjoy!

It all stems from the question: Why does so much stuff that only Superman can deal with happen on the planet that Superman is on? That’s not the question that Lois Lane asks, but it’s the one she’s going to find an answer for.

Lois Lane always checks her spam folder. In fact, she always opens each individual message in there. Ninety-nine point nine nine nine percent of the time, what’s in there is garbage, but garbage is not synonymous with useless. Consider the journalists in Portland who went through the District Attorney’s garbage to make a point about privacy. Her daily ritual isn’t on that level of significance, but she feels the point still stands.

Today, she opens an email that isn’t promising free trials of herbal supplements, contact info for hot singles in her area, or insurance policies that will cover damages caused by any and all anomalous events for as little as $10 a month. (These last annoyed her enough to ask Louise in Business to do a small expose on such companies—turns out, the fine print stated that given the regularity of attacks on Metropolis by aliens, robots, metahumans, etc., etc., these events could not be considered anomalous. Fucking scammers. She’s pretty sure they’re involved in a class-action lawsuit right now.)

Instead, it reads thus:

I am sending this to you because I think you are the only person in the world who might have adequate protection after I tell you this. It is for my safety and yours that I have not used your name or described what that protection might be.

I ask you to use any and all resources you have at your disposal to investigate Operation Welcome Mat. I cannot tell you much more without compromising the slight chance this communication has of reaching you. However, I do not exaggerate when I say that the revealing—anything more I dare not hope for—of this operation will affect every human life on Earth.

Sincerely,

One who works in the organization that knows you always check your spam folder

The remaining message is a long and rambling series of testimonials for anti-aging and potency supplements, but Lois sees no reason to consider these as marks against the authenticity of the original message. Camouflage is important. As is covering one’s tracks. She opens her desk drawer and retrieves a high-quality digital camera that’s nevertheless old enough that it needs an actual physical cord to transfer the pictures on it to any computer. Lois has kept it in excellent condition, save for, oh, the pesky matter of the fact that the delete function doesn’t work on the camera itself, and that she just can never find the right kind of removable memory cards. Darn, what a problem! Fortunately the camera contains a 5000-image capacity non-removable internal memory. She takes a picture of the relevant portion of the email—well, ten pictures—and then sets about blocking every IP address that’s sent her something that ended up in her spam folder today and deleting every email indiscriminately. She’d like to perform a more thorough delete, but she never does that with any of her spam, and she’s got a feeling that now would not be a good day to start.

Amateurs might worry about how she deleted the original email, but Lois knows that if she finds anything, she won’t need that email, and for another thing, the writer of that email most certainly doesn’t want anyone to be able to analyze their word choices and phrasing.

She rests her arms on her desk and starts letting her mind work through everything the email told her. So, she’s the only person who “might have adequate protection” after learning about Operation Welcome Mat? The only unique protection she’s had under any circumstances is Superman. In a few well-known incidents, he’d appeared to give preference to getting her to safety before others. Lois isn’t one hundred percent sure that’s true, as she knows very well that she might’ve been the person in the greatest danger during each incident. Over her career, she’s tended to disregard danger for the sake of the story. And she can argue persuasively that in order to be a successful female journalist, she has to be prepared to face a certain amount of danger; she can argue that her years of experience have given her the ability to accurately evaluate the potential danger of a situation. These arguments have been, and are, vital to her public persona.

But under a few layers of “I have to do this” is the chewy center of “I want to do this.” It’s true! Believe it or not, Lois Lane, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, is a bit of a thrill-seeker!

Good thing that might be exactly what her email contact needs.

So. Back to the email. Back to Superman. She knows well enough that she doesn’t have a raven-haired alien angel at her beck and call, but, based on what the public has seen, is it more likely that she does than any other investigative journalist? Yes. So, if only Superman can offer her adequate protection, then—

“Hi Lois,” Clark says, setting a paper cup on her desk. “Two sugars, no milk—” He breaks off into an almost cartoonishly exaggerated yawn that Lois nevertheless is familiar enough with to know is genuine.

“You ought to buy some coffee for yourself,” Lois says, digging a few dollars out of her wallet and tossing them at him, which he barely catches. “I mean, if you’re going to volunteer to walk down to Reeve’s every day, anyway. And didn’t you grow up waking up at 4am to milk cows or whatever?”

Clark smiles shyly. Like he always does. It’s a good smile, and on a kid who’s six foot three and probably better built than any of the barns he ever helped raise, it could very well explain why he always seems so exhausted in the morning. Though if Lois’ theory is true, she hasn’t seen or heard any other evidence of it. A gentleman never tells, Lois thinks idly.

“I can and have milked cows in my sleep,” he says. “I can’t do anything in my sleep, here.” He looks down. “Uh, the truth is that I haven’t been sleeping well since the—what did they call it? The Chirauga Incident?”

Lois grimaces. Yeah, Clark and half of Metropolis. Including her. When an army of aliens that big showed up all at once, there was no way to avoid some level of freaking out, special protection from Superman or not. “Yeah, the Chirauga Incident. Ugly sons of bitches, in my opinion. I killed one personally, you know.”

Clark’s eyes widen in shock, and Lois grins. “What? I verified they weren’t bulletproof before going out to start, you know, researching my story.” But, because she is committed to the truth, even though Clark seems like he’ll believe anything she says, she has to add, “Well, okay. I’m pretty sure I mortally wounded it. Superman took care of it before I could find out for sure.” It had been clean. Heat vision through the Chirauga equivalent of the spinal cord. And Superman had turned to her with that red glow still shimmering in the back of his eyes. “Are you all right?” he’d asked, hovering a foot above the ground like it was nothing, looking at her like she was something. And she’d looked into the terrible weapon of his gaze and been stunned by the perfect surety that he’d never use it on a human being.

And for all that, she’d never seen him look so alien.

“Weren’t you watching? I had this one handled,” she’d said, with a rasp in her voice she hoped he’d attribute to the heavy dust and smoke in the air.

“Well, in that case, I guess all I can do now is tell you to be careful out there,” he’d said.

It would be nice if there was a discreet little jump cut in her memory right after that, but, unfortunately, Lois remembers with perfect clarity that she’d responded, “Sure thing, spaceboy,” like a complete and utter dumbass. But then Superman hadn’t laughed at her, no, he’d given her the smile and wink of an old-fashioned movie star before flying away to continue saving the world. She, on the other hand, had staggered off, feeling as emotionally churned-up as a teenager.

The worst part about it, in her opinion, is that she knows very well that Superman has this effect on almost everyone who encounters him.

“Ah, Superman,” Clark says, drawing her back to the present. His shocked expression has been replaced by the little smile she’s often seen him wear when talk of Superman comes up. She’s always thought there was something secretive about that smile, something notably different from the rest of his farm-boy guilelessness. (Though, she doesn’t quite believe he’s as transparent as he otherwise appears. And she doesn’t think that’s just her natural suspicion kicking in. For one thing, the Daily Planet is big, but not big enough that someone who was hired as a journalist could fall through the cracks and become nothing but a friendly coffee boy. She’s read some of his articles, the neighborhood news stuff he generally covers, and the writing is as solid as he is, with words chosen with care and sensitivity. There’s more to him than meets the eye, and if he ever decides to get ambitious, Lifestyle is in for a big surprise. For another thing, he’d moved to Metropolis during a metahuman surge, and that, frankly, was not what normies did, no matter how clueless they were.)

The running undercurrent of what she knows about Clark and the smile that’s the one noticeable discordant note in the melody of the person she works with suddenly gel into a possible conclusion, one that Lois could’ve kicked herself for not even considering earlier.

Talented kid moves from small-town Kansas, where he could’ve been a big fish in a tiny pond. And he doesn’t even move to a city in the same state or region, where he could have been a big fish in a medium-sized pond. Instead, he moves to Metropolis, where he won’t be a big fish at all, but where it’ll be a big project for anyone who knew him in Smallville to ever visit, or know anything about him he doesn’t want them to know. Metropolis, which, despite its dangers, still lives in the cultural mind as a place where the good kind of anything can happen. (Where Superman is often seen.) And when he’s here, he never, ever says anything about even going on a date with anyone, and mentions of Superman bring out that secretive smile. And he started off writing his articles with a clear awareness of issues that Lois has seen other straight white male coworkers fail to grok even after clear, baby-step-style explanations. And he’s never, ever tried to turn getting her coffee into something uncomfortable.

So, possible conclusion: Clark is some flavor of queer, and still closeted/uncomfortable about it. But he can’t completely hide his crush on Superman because, well. Superman. And the kid has an honest face.

Just goes to show, she thinks, how slow and unreliable gaydar can be, even if you are bi.

But this does give her an idea on where to send him as she starts her initial investigation of this Project Welcome Mat. If it is big, bad business like it seems, Clark doesn’t need to get mixed up in it, even to the point of overhearing a phone call. And besides, it might help him accept himself, if he needs that.

“You know what, Clark?” Lois says. “You need something to take your mind off shit like alien invasions.”

Clark grimaces. “I don’t know if anything can.”

“Yeah, it’s a toughie, but you’re a Metropolitan now,” Lois says, with more bravado than she feels. Some things you don’t get used to. But some of those things you have to at least pretend to get used to. “Get outside. Write your cat-up-a-tree article tomorrow. Do something completely out of the ordinary.” And then, as if she’s just thought of it, “Powtown Pride is going on today. Powtown’s a neighborhood. Pride’s something to write about. You could go there and see what you can see.”

“Powtown?” Clark says, raising his eyebrows. “That’s the metahuman neighborhood. That’s…a bit more interesting than where Rowlands usually sends me.”

Lois waves her hand. “Rita is seventy-eight and still thinks anything involving a metahuman is a front-pager. Perry can tell her otherwise when you bring back something nice.”

“Well,” Clark says, warming to the idea, “there are a lot of misconceptions about Powtown that ought to be worn away by a reliable source like the Planet. I mean—there probably are. I don’t know, personally. But if everything written about Powtown was true, no one could live there. It’d be a smoking crater in the ground.”

“So you see? Needs you,” Lois says. She smirks. “Be careful, though. They’ve got twinks down there that could rip you in half.”

“Says someone who just told me about personally shooting a Chirauga,” Clark says. “No, no, I know—you had it handled. Anyway. Yeah, I will go.” He looks towards the windows and sighs. “After all, it’s a beautiful day to be outside.”

Lois waves at him as he leaves, then glances towards the windows herself. It really is a beautiful June day, not too hot, vivid blue sky, puffy clouds slowly drifting by. Does Superman prefer days like this for flying? She wonders. Or would it not affect him at all? What would it be like to fly with Superman on a day like today—Lois sticks her tongue out in an exaggerated expression of disgust. She’s better than that! She has to be!

Anyway, she’s got something new to investigate. Before Clark interrupted, she was thinking of what things out in the world only Superman could be adequate protection from. Well, aside from horrible things from space, that leaves a very short list that prominently features a house of a certain color and a building of a certain shape. And the name—Operation Welcome Mat—it has a very particular ring to it.

But she’s still going to look into the rest of that short list. A direct assault isn’t the correct approach here, and besides, there might be connections, even if the person she’s going to call is officially blacklisted from government contracts.

She scrolls to the contact in her phone for “Louis L’Amour,” and reaches out to someone who definitely isn’t a dead writer of Westerns.

Notes: I’ve decided to have Superman’s code against killing be specifically about humans/earthlings because for one thing, I don’t have to answer to Standards and Practices, and for another, I don’t feel like having every alien army be robots (which with sufficiently advanced AI doesn’t help anyway), and what do you want me to do, have Superman knock all the aliens out? If they’re going down long enough to be essentially counted out of the fight, they’re getting life-threatening brain injuries anyway.

#superman #lois lane #fic #operation welcome mat #my knowledge of superman comes from the DCAU but this is kind of my own 'verse

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pottsdupont12-blog · 5 years

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nightfoliage · 6 years

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Fic - The More Things Change (Superbat)

Prompt: Bruce and Clark have loved one another for years. They’re both aware of these feelings, though it’s never discussed between them and they refuse to act on them – Bruce because there are a thousand reasons it’s a bad idea, and Clark because he knows it’s not something Bruce would ever allow himself. Everyone from the Justice League to the batfam tries to intervene.

Additional Summary: A Holiday Exchange in the Watchtower.

For: @timmyjdrake

Pairing: Bruce Wayne_Batman/Clark Kent_Superman

Tags and Warning: 2017 Superbat Secret Santa @superbatsecretsanta, General Rating, mostly pre52 universe, holiday exchange, batfam, Ma Kent, other heroes, some pining, denial of feelings, and fluff.

Author’s Note: It’s a bit rough, so I might go over this later, but it’s done! I think I filled the prompt, but mixed in how I feel like things could end with these two.

Word Count: ~7400

Date Published: 12/25/2017 (Edited 1/4/2018)

Read below or on ao3:

-000-

He stays silent even as Diana shakes the hat in front of him.

“Don’t be a party pooper Bats, just take one,” Hal teases. He’s grinning at him along with a few other Leaguers.

Batman does not curl up on himself, nor does he slap the hat out of Diana’s hands. He doesn't go and punch the smug grin off of Jordan’s face and he certainly does not run towards the teleporters.

Instead, he grabs a piece of paper out of the hat. He resists the urge to look at the name and instead folds his arms, tucking the piece of paper into his cape. Some of the other leaguers look at the him, but Batman stays absolutely still. Diana gives him a smile, and moves on to the next person. The others move their attention elsewhere.

Batman silently observes the next people take a name. Some people reveal who’ve they've gotten from their reactions, but none of them get his name.

The papers are dwindling when a voice fills the room.

“Sorry, guys, I had to take care of something first,” Superman says, walking briskly towards the group. His eyes are bright and he looks a bit winded. However, his curl isn’t out of place, so it must not have been anything too important. He joins the circle.

“Don’t worry, Superman,” Wonder Woman says. “You didn’t miss the Holiday Exchange. And there’s a name for you inside the hat.”

Flash speeds over and leans against the hero. “What kept you?”

“Cat stuck in a tree?” Lantern asks with a snigger.

“Actually, it was a ball python.” Superman says, dryly. “I think the fire department was happy to let me handle that one.”

Some of the other heroes chuckle, while some shudder.

Batman does neither. He tracks Wonder Woman with his eyes and watches as she brings the hat over to Superman.

“No peeking.”

Superman rolls his eyes and looks away with his eyes closed and picks a name out of the hat.

After he’s picked his name, Wonder Woman finishes distributing the other names. Batman watches as Superman reads his paper, and discreetly puts it away. He does not give away who he has gotten.

Interesting.

He goes back to looking at Wonder Woman when she begins to address everybody. “This is our holiday exchange (not Secret Santa). Normally, there’s a twenty dollar limit, but we’ve scrapped that rule in case people have sentimental priceless gifts. Try to make the gift yourself if you can. Feel free to exchange them at any time, or during the winter party we’re throwing. If you’re unable to do the holiday exchange, then please tell me.”

Everybody quickly agrees and splits off into groups, while Batman slips into a corner unnoticed.

Someone joins him.

“Forgive me, Bruce.” Diana says softly, with a smile. She’s not sorry at all.

He narrows his eyes but no one's listening. At least, no one who doesn’t already know who he is.

“This is not an emergency meeting, Princess,” he murmurs back. “I’m not even a part of the Justice League.”

“Would you have come otherwise?”

He doesn’t answer.

“So can I count on you for the other gifts in case someone isn’t able to get one?”

He nods and her face turns softer, warmer. “Do you need me to help pick things out?”

Batman shakes his head. “I’ll be able to figure it out.”

She laughs, and for a brief moment everybody glances at her. One person’s gaze lingers for a little longer than usual. He hopes they find a proper gift for Wonder Woman. It would be unfortunate if she as the organizer didn’t receive something special.

“Thank you, Batman.” And with that she makes her way to the others. She draws their gaze away from him and he creeps closer to the zeta tubes. When he’s sure he doesn't have the attention of anyone else and his back is turned towards the rest of the group, he unfolds his piece of paper and reads it.

A moment later he’s teleporting back to earth. If he stayed, he would have stared at Superman the whole night, wondering what to get him.

-000-

“I don’t know what to get him, Ma,” Clark stabs into his pie a little bit harder than usual and winces. Luckily there’s no damage to the plate, or the fork, or the pie.

Blueberry pie.

“You’ve been friends for quite a while, Clark. Surely there’s something you can get him,” his Ma says, puttering around the kitchen. Clark has already been scolded for trying to help. Instead he’s been set to work trying some new pie flavors. There’s a slice of lemon and a slice of rhubarb-strawberry waiting for him.

Clark takes a bite of pie to delay his answer.

How could he explain how important this was to him. That Batman was one of his oldest friends and confidants, someone he trusted with his life. That he needed the perfect gift to show how much the man meant to him.

Thankfully, his mother seems to know anyway and takes pity on him.

“How is the pie, dear?” Martha asks.

Clark gives her a grateful smile. “It’s really good, Ma. A new recipe right? I’m sure the book club will enjoy it.”

But instead of taking the compliment and pinching his cheek like she normally does, Martha sneaks a bite for herself. She frowns and looks at the pie like it’s a puzzle. Clark shovels another bite in his mouth.

She sighs, “Yes. I suppose it’s good enough for book club. Now try the other ones.”

Clark polishes off the first slice and drinks a glass of milk. Then he starts on the next flavor.

“Why don’t you ask all those kids of his what to get him?” Martha suggests.

Clark protests, “Ma, I can’t do that.” But only because he’s considered it already. Maybe he could ask Dick, and maybe Cass in a pinch, but he knows that telling any of the kids is a sure fire way to get Alfred involved. And he’s not sure if he wants Bruce’s father-figure to find out that he’s trying to find the perfect gift for Bruce.

He’s not ready for that.

If he’s really in a pickle, maybe he’ll ask Alfred.

Martha lets her son stew for a bit, before tutting at him.

“Just make sure to get him something nice and make sure to come back during the holidays so I can give you the pies you wanted.”

Clark nods, grateful. “I’ll make sure to give his family one and the League loves your pies.”

Martha glances at the pies. “Well, I hope they like flavors other than apple.”

Clark wonders what his mom has against apple pie all of a sudden (his favorite), but knows he has other things to worry about.

-000-

It’s only a few days since the exchange and it’s a complete coincidence when Bruce needs to head to Metropolis for business. Bruce makes sure to pack for business of both varieties, and does not allow himself to smirk when he surprises Clark (and the rest of the Daily Planet) with his presence.

He makes sure to flirt with Cat and Lois gratuitously, makes sure to slap Jimmy on the back, and skillfully negotiates Perry into making Clark get an impromptu quote about anything new at Wayne Enterprises.

Clark still looks a bit gobsmacked when Bruce Wayne mentions that they can talk over lunch.

Clark stutters out, “Uh, well, Mr.Wayne, I don’t know anything good that’s open at 3pm, but-”

Bruce Wayne cuts the reporter off. “How many times do I have to tell you, it’s Brucie! And sure people are always offering things to me like lobster thermidor with kelp foam, but I’m feeling like something I can really bite into. Know any good places like that, Kent?”

For the first time since he’s stepped into the room, Clark smiles. “I know a good place, er, Bruce.”

-000-

“Finest pizza in Metropolis,” Clark says.

Bruce grunts in response and begins to scarf down his pizza. Clark glances back at the owners, but they’re purposely not paying attention to them and there’s no one else around (luckily).

Then he turns back to Bruce. Clark’s glad that he’s ordered extra because it looks like Bruce hasn’t had a hot meal in a few days. He knows that there’s a particularly troubling case in Gotham involving children so he’s not surprised. He’s just glad he can get him something to eat.

Instead of saying any of that aloud, Clark says: “You could have warned me that you were coming.”

Bruce is in the middle of decimating a bite. He wipes his mouth delicately with a handkerchief (the faker), before saying, “You’re reactions are always best when they’re honest.”

Clark snorts. “You just like getting the drop on people even when you’re not dressed up like a bat.”

Bruce smirks and takes another bite of pizza.

He takes a little bit of pride in making Bruce drop his Brucie Wayne mask, even if it’s at his expense. Once the glow stops he asks, “So why are you here?”

Bruce pauses. Clark can practically see Bruce sorting through all the information in his brain, deciding what not to tell him. It’s okay. He’s a reporter, he’ll figure it out eventually.

“Toyman,” Bruce finally admits.

“Really.” Because Clark hasn’t heard of anything that could hint at Toyman.

“Toy-person. Uses toys to,” and Bruce lips curl enough that it prevents him from eating and Clark’s stomach drops because there aren’t many things that will make Bruce this emotive, “uses toys to make children do their bidding.”

He’s almost afraid to ask, but he has to: “What does he have them do?”

“Anything. Everything. Sometimes it doesn’t even seem like the child is brainwashed, they just do things out of the ordinary. One of them learned how to play a piano concerto overnight, another could suddenly do backflips, and there was a one who scored a perfect SAT.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Clark says, though he’s sure it’s only going to get worse.

“We were sorting through which ones were abnormalities as opposed to those who were naturally talented, when we caught a group that had successfully burgled a bank. Clark, they were all below the age of ten and had skills they had no business of having.”

“Bruce, your kids-”

“My kids grew up that way,” Bruce snaps. “They had been trained from birth to be the way they are. These kids are outliers. Either from families who can’t afford it or the rich and pampered.”

Despite the graveness of the situation, or maybe because of it, Clark lets out a wry chuckle. “Jealous that the young ones don’t have to work to become like Batman, Bruce?”

Bruce stares at him and Clark just manages not to laugh, though he know he’s grinning like the dim hayseed he’s often accused of.

“Maybe, a little,” Bruce says with an eye roll. Then starts to eat his pizza again.

“So, about the kids, are the connections toys?”

Bruce nods.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

Surprisingly, or maybe because Bruce is that tired, Bruce doesn’t growl at him to stay out of the case. Instead, he continues to eat his pizza and doesn't answer. That’s as good as a blessing as he’s going to get out of Bruce.

-000-

They're walking back to the Daily Planet, when Clark sees something that catches his eye. They’re passing an antique shop and Bruce immediately memorizes the storefront and the angle Clark glanced at the window.

A day later he drops the Brucie Wayne persona to go back to the shop.

Disappointingly, there’s nothing of note inside. There are a few baseball card he thinks Clark might have been looking at, but no perfect Christmas gift.

There are a few antique puzzle boxes he picks up and the owner looks considerably more welcoming after he flashes the cash. He’s even brought to a private room (he almost chuckles at how shrewd and secretive the owner was, he would have been a great Gothamite) where some of the more expensive prizes are.

He doesn’t spot anything of interest. Mostly it’s old artifacts he might buy later to donate to a museum and a lot of gilded oddities.

Nothing catches his eyes until he spots a golden elephant. Bruce lets himself get drawn into it’s figure. It’s a circus elephant, rearing back on its hind legs.

“Ah! You have a good eye,” the owner says. “It’s also a music box.”

And he turns a hidden piece of the contraption (cleverly placed, he’ll have to keep that in mind), and the whole thing starts to move. The delicate elephant rears back, it’s tusk moves, and it spins on the base. The music tinkles cheerfully, a generic rendition of circus music.

But Bruce is suddenly taken back to an unforgettable night. He remembers Dick, sobbing while holding onto an elephant. Around them the is circus wishing him goodbye and a goodlife as the two of them have solved the murder of the Flying Graysons.

He remembers how happy that elephant made him.

-000-

The case with the toys still hasn’t produced any leads. Following up with Schott and Okamura hasn’t gotten anything and Batman wonders if there is a new player in town. Maybe Mad Hatter? It’s not his MO, but giving children skills is such an usual thing…

He takes apart some of the toys and finds, something. They’re certainly not normal manufactured toys. They’ve been crafted with care and made to look like the other toy.

He’s taking some time to mull over the new information when he thinks about the golden elephant.

With some of the tools he already has out, he starts to take the music box apart.

-000-

He catches Dick after the boy has had a long patrol and a midnight snack. Dick is aware of him before he makes his presence known and Bruce presents him with the gift.

“Hey Bruce! What’s that in your hand…” Dick immediately reaches out and cradles the music box. He instinctive pets the elephant on your head.

Bruce stays silent.

Not a moment later, Dick finds the key to start the music. It’s the beginning of how Haley’s Circus used to open.

Dick can barely take his eyes off the dancing elephant. “Bruce…?”

Bruce doesn’t have an answer for him.

“We should go to the circus,” Bruce says instead.

“Uh, of course.”

Bruce nods and starts to walk away.

A moment later Dick calls after him, “Thank you, Bruce, I love it!”

-000-

Although Clark said he would help, the case comes to an end when the toy person tries to work their abilities on one, Damian Wayne.

Clark finds out via the Gotham Gazette, but doesn't blame Bruce when he sees the article must have been written hours before release.

He stares at the picture on the front cover. Damian Wayne looks triumphant with the criminal in police custody. Bruce Wayne is on one knee, facing away from the camera, a hand on his son's shoulders.

The criminal doesn’t look too out of sorts, so it looks like they’ve resolved the issue quietly.

Even so, Clark decides that Superman could make a quick stop in Gotham tonight.

He’s just crossed over the border when the familiar sound of a grappling hook catches his attention. Only because of his vision, and the fact that he’s been friends with Batman for years, can he spot the familiar silhouette in the shadows.

He lands silently and steps into the shadow so a random passerby won’t spot him. Batman doesn’t acknowledge him.

“How is he?” Superman asks.

For a moment, Batman doesn’t answer. Then he does something Super doesn’t expect, he sighs.

“Tired. It’s covered up by the adrenaline and the fact that he solved the case, but whatever happened made him tired.”

Clark would normally say, ‘at least he’s doing well,’ but he’s not Clark right now. Instead, he doesn’t say anything. Batman broods, but better he brood in company than alone right now.

They stand together in silence. Clark would have been content to stay by Bruce’s side, but Superman has to continue to watch the world around him. He takes a quick scan of the neighborhood, his vision failing miserably to look through Gotham’s walls. Darn lead is everywhere in this city. He extends his hearing, but he mostly gets the sound of the wind howling through the night and the creaking of old metal.

Sometimes, Superman thinks that the city is out to get him. However, it makes him more comfortable knowing he’s doing something.

Then there is a ‘thwip’ and Superman finds that his companion is leaving him behind. He follows slowly and as discreetly as possible, watching Batman move smoothly through Gotham. He’s admiring the sight of him when a sound catches his ear.

Someone’s crying.

Thankfully, Batman’s presence alone is enough to scare the group away, but whoever is crying continues to sob. Batman is silent and stays still, a protector for however long they want to cry.

Superman hesitates, but starts to fly away.

Bruce will feel better protecting someone than having someone try to comfort him.

-000-

Batman does not watch as Superman flies back into the sky. Instead his attention is focused on the young woman in front of him. She continues to cry and so he looks out in case anyone decides to take advantage of her emotional state.

He glances back at her. She’s dressed for a Gotham winter, but her clothes are new, bright, and eye catching. Her purse is name-brand and she has on jewelry. A tourist.

He almost sighs aloud when he spots the Wonder Woman jewelry and Superman patch on her jacket. He’s almost afraid to see if she has a Batman logo or any other hero symbols on her person.

After a moment, her sobs start to peter off into soft sniffling.

“I got lost,” she says, her voice still thick from tears.

Batman does not sigh even though he wants to.

Thankfully she doesn’t try to explain any further. She wipes her tears away and stands up shakily.

He doesn’t reply, instead moving forward through the alleys. The woman doesn’t need any prompting. She follows him silently and keeps pace. He leads her back onto the bigger streets. Batman molds himself into the shadows and calls a reputable taxi service to come in this direction.

It doesn’t take long before one starts coming down the street. Batman recognizes the license plate and the driver. He’s about to go away, when the woman calls back to. “Thanks for saving me.”

He doesn’t reply.

“Maybe I’ll get a Batman patch to match my other heroes,” she says, finally smiling for the first time he’s been with her.

He simply shoots his grapple gun and watches as the woman gets into the taxi.

-000-

The next evening he finds Wonder Woman waiting with a mug of coffee at the watchtower.

“That was a nice thing for you to do, Bruce.”

Batman does not look around this time, because he knows that no one is in the room with them.

“I don't know what you’re talking about,” he says. Then sits in the chair for monitoring duty. Wonder Woman places the mug in front of his hand and he grunts a thanks before taking a sip. She made it exactly how he likes it.

“Of course you don’t know anything about the Wayne Foundation making a sizable donation to my favorite women's charity” she says.

He takes another sip of coffee and switches through the channels, making sure to do his job instead of gossiping.

“And of course, you have nothing to do with the good media that comes with it. Of course that has nothing to do with Bruce Wayne making an announcement about backing the charity and wanting to open a branch in Gotham,” she says. Her voice is warm and she’s probably smiling and her eyes are most likely sparkling like their prone to do when she’s laughing on the inside, but Batman doesn’t turn to look at her to confirm this.

When Batman doesn’t reply, she places a soft kiss on the exposed skin of his cheek. However, after the kiss she doesn’t pull away. Instead she wraps her arms around him and presses her cheek against his and starts to laugh at him.

Batman does not grumble, nor does he pout. Instead he continues to do his job.

She laughs and laughs, but eventually does stop laughing to say: “Thank you for the wonderful present, Bruce.”

When she pulls away, he replies. “You’re welcome, Diana.”

-000-

There’s only a few days left until the Holiday Party at the Watchtower and Bruce does not have a gift for Clark yet. He's trawled over dozens of stores in dozens of cities, gone through hundreds of websites, and even looked through Clark’s apartment to look for a clue of what might be a good gift for him.

He’s thinking that he should just give him cash, but he hasn’t used up all his resources yet. He didn’t want to use this one, but he’s running out of options.

“Is there a reason that you’re ruining some of my dishes, Master Bruce?” Alfred asks.

Bruce does not roll his eyes, but that’s only because he’s staring intently at the water on the stove top. He’s waiting for the water to become a certain temperature, but he can’t let the water boil.

“Actually, I was waiting for you, Alfred,” he says.

Alfred, who was about to start tidying up the mess Bruce had made, stops.

“Why don’t you take a seat,” Bruce suggests.

He can feel Alfred’s gaze on him, but thankfully Alfred goes along with it. He’s probably curious enough to not let his instincts get the best of him. Just like Bruce planned, Alfred picks a stool at the island with the least amount of clutter in front of him.

Thankfully the water is done and Bruce turns the stove off. He takes the kettle off, pours the suggested amount of water into the teapot, then adds the tea leaves.

Bruce can tell that Alfred is itching to do it himself, so he finally tells him his problem:

“I don’t know what to get Clark for the Holiday Exchange.”

That gets Alfred’s attention. He’s finally staring at him and not paying attention to what’s in Bruce’s hands. Once he’s prepared the teapot, he marks the time.

“I’m assuming you’re trying to get a gift that will, ahem, show the extent of your friendship?”

“Yes,” Bruce says. He gets two sets of tea cups, with their saucers and spoons.

Alfred doesn’t answer, but Bruce can see the considering look he’s giving him. He makes sure that he has everything else prepared, the strainer, the sugarcubes, and the lemon slices.

“Why don’t you invite him over for Christmas?” Alfred says.

It’s not what he would have expected Alfred to suggest. Perhaps a physical object, or maybe even dinner, but inviting him over, that’s not something he would of have thought of.

“Alfred, all we do is sit in front of the television and take turns going on patrol. I don’t think that’s how Clark wants to enjoy his holiday. I know for a fact that’s he’s going back to Kansas to visit his mother,” Bruce replies.

“I know you and the kids sit in front of the telly for days. But perhaps that’s something Mister Kent could enjoy. He doesn’t have to worry about his secret identity, but he has plenty of people to keep him company, and if he leaves he doesn’t need to make any excuses to us,” Alfred explains patiently.

Bruce thinks it over and tries to find a way to refute the suggestion. There isn’t any exceptional reason not to invite Clark, especially if it’s after Christmas. And he agrees with all of Alfred’s points and the kids (as well as himself) would enjoy his company.

But is it an appropriate gift for the Holiday Exchange?

He mulls over this question as he pours the tea through the strainer into the tea cups.

“Sugar?” He asks Alfred.

“Ah, perhaps one.”

Bruce places one cube into the teacup, then stirs without allowing the spoon to hit the sides of the cup. Then he places the lemon slice on top. He puts the spoon back on the saucer in the position that he’s seen Alfred place it before. He places the tea in front of Alfred, then starts putting everything else away. He pours then drains his own cup quickly and excuses himself from the kitchen.

“Thanks, Alfred,” he says, but he’s already miles away, trying to think of how to invite Clark over and if the invitation is good enough as a gift.

-000-

Bruce doesn’t even notice the gaggle of people that are in his living room when he stalks past. He’s too deep in thought.

They stare as he goes away, presumably to the cave in order to stew in his thoughts.

As soon as he’s out of earshot, Damian hisses, “What’s wrong with him?”

Cassandra shakes her head while Dick sighs.

“He has been giving out a lot of gifts and none of them have been for Superman,” Tim adds.

“We know for sure that he got Superman in the Holiday Exchange, right?” Stephanie looks at everyone.

Dick steps up with an answer. “Yeah, I had both Diana and Zatanna on it to make sure they got each other’s names.”

“And they’ve received presents! From Bruce! Really spectacular presents that they both love!”

“It’s a coincidence,” Jason says.

“It’s a coincidence that he’s sending wonderful presents to all of his exes?” Damian hisses.

Stephanie is about to say something, but Cassandra stops her with a hand on her shoulder. Instead, she mumbles, “Geez, he’s been with those beauties.”

“Puh-lease, they deserve to get stuff for dealing with Bruce,” Jason says. Most of them agree, while Dick tries to elbow him. “The biggest problem is he’s giving gifts to the other capes, in full view of Supes.”

Dick sighs again, “Yeah, I heard from Diana that Clark’s getting a bit nervous because Bruce is giving people the ‘perfect gift.’”

“Has he found anything for Clark, yet?”

The kids share a glance, and in one look they know that he hasn’t.

“He’s been going to every store in Gotham,” Dick says.

“Not to mention, he looks online for hours for the perfect gift,” Tim adds.

“Which means what?” Damian looks around. “That while he’s looking for the perfect gift for Superman, he finds the perfect gift for everyone else?”

Everyone nods.

“I mean, even I got a gift,” Steph says, surprise coloring her voice. “He left it where I usually sneak into the manor.”

Damian snorts, “It’s not like it was a secret where you were sneaking in.”

They tussle briefly, but thankfully there's no blood.

Dick turns to Jason, “Did you get anything?”

Jason makes a face, “Yeah, he left it at one of my regular safehouses.”

“Everyone got something, even Titus and Ace!” Damian points to the dogs and their new beds. Somehow, Bruce had figured out two beds in which the dogs would not fight over.

“Not everyone has gotten a gift,” Tim says tentatively.

“Everyone’s gotten a gift, Hal, Barry, Vince, Billy, Kendra, Roy, hell, even Guy got a gift. So yeah, everyone’s gotten a gift.”

“Well-”

But before that sentence can be finished, Alfred walks into the living room. He has the most perplexed expression. He’s carry a tea cup on a saucer. The kids hold their breath, waiting for him to speak.

“Master Bruce, just made me the perfect cup of tea,” he says in way of explanation.

All the kids groan.

“Everybody’s gotten a gift,” Cassandra says solemnly, and everyone agrees.

“Everyone, but Clark.”

“I believe that Master Bruce will be inviting Mister Kent over for the holidays,” Alfred offers.

“Really?” Tim says skeptically. “All we do is eat food and watch reruns of Christmas movies so we don’t miss anything when we have to go on patrol or have to save Gotham.”

“Wait. That’s actually a good idea,” Dick says. “Clark is a hero like us and Alfred makes the best snacks.”

“And he’d probably like Bruce’s old fashioned choice in movies,” Jason adds.

“But that’s still not a gift,” Stephanie points out.

And it’s true, while Clark will appreciate the offer, it’s not exactly the romantic declaration they had hoped for.

“Maybe we’re going around this the wrong way. Maybe, instead of Bruce giving the perfect gift, we should have Clark get him the perfect gift,” Dick says.

“That could work. A good gift from Clark and forcing them in the same room with each other might be the key,” Jason agrees. Dick tries to ruffle his hair, happy that he agreed, and Jason fends it off.

“What’s a good gift for Bruce, that’s not something we’ve already got for him?”

“Wait, let’s go the other way around. What’s the one thing we all do for Bruce?”

They look at each other and say at the same time: “The Mark of Zorro.”

“It’s perfect. We have Clark buy tickets to that stupid movie we always watch with him.”

“Okay, then how do we go about this without arousing suspicion?” Damian asks.

Everyone slowly looks towards him.

-000-

Superman flies through the skies of Metropolis. He’s found that his presence can be a deterrent especially during the holidays when people may consider turning to crime. Then the hair behind his neck starts to rise. He’s being watched.

He looks down and sees some familiar figures waving at him. It’s Nightwing and Robin.

He flies to their roof. “Hey guys.”

“Hey, Big Blue,” Nightwing says. Robin nods his head at him.

Superman smiles. “Not that I’m not glad to see you, but what’s up?”

“Tch,” Robin pouts and crosses his hands, but doesn’t add anything else.

“Robin here has been getting a little too much attention from Batman,” Nightwing explains. Robin goes over to the ledge and does a very good impression of Batman looking over the city.

“Ah,” Superman says, totally understanding. “So you’re patrolling Metropolis?”

Nightwing nods. “I hope you don’t mind.”

“Of course not,” he says. Robin seems to hunker down, completing his Batman impression. It doesn’t look like he’s going to move from that spot anytime soon.

“Don’t worry, we’ll go back soon. We have to fulfill the annual Christmas tradition with B,” Nightwing mentions.

“Christmas tradition?” Superman asks, trying not to let the interest bleed through. He still hasn’t picked up anything for Bruce. Maybe his kids will be the key to getting him a present.

Nightwing shrugs, “Yeeeah. Every year we get together and go watch a movie at the small theater that he likes. Gets real grumpy when we don’t go. I asked a few of the Titans and some of the Teen Titans are going to help patrol Gotham while we all go. We’re thinking since it’s not Christmas, a baddie won’t interrupt us.”

Superman laughs, know how that goes. “Well, I hope it goes well.”

“Thanks,” Nightwing says with a grin.

Superman hears a scuff of a boot and sees Robin stalking back to them.

“There’s a robbery in process over there,” he points and it looks like he’s about to take a running start before Nightwing snags him.

“And that’s our cue to leave. We’ll leave this one to Superman,” Nightwing says as he pulls Robin into a headlock.

Superman smiles fondly and takes off to go stop the robbery.

Afterwards he can go buy the tickets.

-000-

Tickets bought, he feels infinitely better when he goes to visit Ma to get the pies for the party at the Watchtower.

When he gets inside he breathes in the scent of sugar and fruit.

He tries not to frown when he sees the flavors. Key lime, blueberry, strawberry rhubarb, but still no apple. Weird.

“Hi, sweetie,” Martha says. He bends down so she can give him a kiss. “Did you want a slice before you go?”

“Sure, Ma,” and goes to grab the utensils and glasses for the both of them.

Martha sets out two slices of- boston cream pie?

She catches him staring at the pie like it’s from Mxyzptlk.

“Oh, Clark. I’m just trying out some new recipes, you know that,” she says, before taking a bite.

Clark slowly takes his own bite. It’s not a bad pie, but it’s not a flavor that he’s known his mother to bake. Same with the lemon and the lime and the banana. She’s always been a fan of pies that have local ingredients.

“So, did you find a gift to give to your friend?” She asks.

“Yeah, I did actually. I got us tickets to a movie theater he likes to go to,” he replies, happy to finally be able to tell her.

“You’re finally asking him on a date? Oh Clark, I’m so happy for you.”

Clark startles.

“Ma! It’s not- it’s not a date. I just wanted to get him a good gift, that’s all.”

She wrinkles her nose at him. “Seems like an awful lot of trouble, for just a friend.”

His heart sinks and he sets his fork down. “It’s complicated. I can’t even remember when we decided it, but it’s not something that can happen.”

It’s a familiar conversation and he’s glad when she doesn’t continue it. However, he has to look away when she gives him a look of sympathy. “Oh, Clark.” She pats his hand before putting the pie away. “You can finish this tomorrow. Just have fun at your superhero party.”

“I will, Ma.”

-000-

Batman is digging into a slice of blueberry pie and trying to decide how to talk to Superman. He’s avoiding the rest of the League, no matter how many of them want to wish him a happy holiday, when he takes his first bite.

He takes a second bite.

He’s scowling at the pie when Superman approaches him.

“Hey, Batman, what did that pie ever do to you?” He asks, jokingly.

“This is your mother’s blueberry pie,” Batman states.

Superman is thrown for a moment. “Yes, it is. The other flavors are new ones, but this is one of her classics.”

“This is the same blueberry pie that you had bought last year,” Batman says.

“Oh, yeah. I did bring a blueberry pie last year, didn’t I?” Superman agrees.

But this year, Martha Kent didn’t pack any apple pie, her son’s favorite.

Interesting.

Batman takes out a evidence bag, bags the pie, and tosses his plate and fork out. Superman watches, bewildered.

“Happy Holidays, Superman,” Batman says. Then he stalks over to the zeta tubes and leaves.

-000-

On Christmas day, there are quite a few villains out and about. While Superman’s not happy to be working on a holiday, he’s glad to have something to distract him after yesterday’s party.

Clark ponders on Bruce’s behavior, but tries not to let it get him down. He didn’t even get the chance to give him the tickets, let alone talk to him. And what was wrong with his mom’s pie? Sure, it’s not apple, but her blueberry pies are just as delicious.

He’s looking forward to having Christmas dinner with his Ma, if only to be able to sort out his thoughts and plan out his next actions.

When he gets a break from crime, he flies to Kansas. He goes into the house and changes quickly into a Christmas sweater and some comfortable pants.

The smell of dinner is wafting through the house. Then he spots the spread. He’s glad that he’s brought a wine that Lois recommended, but he should been here to help. He places the wine down and goes over and kisses his mom on the cheek.

“Sorry I couldn’t help you cook, Ma.” His mother hands him the masher and goes about mashing the potatoes, the very last of the dishes.

“Oh, it was alright, Clark. I saw the news and today I had help. I’ll go change while you finish those potatoes and then we can start.”

Clark continues to mash the potatoes, almost forgetting to add the milk since he’s looking at his mom. Then he finishes them and places them in on of their nice serving dishes.

He stares at the spread again. Now that he’s taking another look there are differences that are standing out to him: the dishes are plated more neatly, the scalloped potatoes are exceptionally fine, and all the extra supplies and dishes have been put away. Even the kitchen looks cleaner than before. Now who would have been here to help?

His mother doesn’t mention it and he doesn’t ask. Instead Clark eats as much as he wants and makes sure to serve his mother. They chat about his job and about her book club. Clark makes sure to share the gossip and good deeds of his friends, both caped and not, and Martha makes sure that Clark is up to date on the farm and their neighbors.

Hours later, Clark is putting aside the dishes so that they can make way for desert. He'll put away and do the dishes later. When the table is clear, his mother pulls out a pie from the oven. Clark smiles. He’ll never get tired of his Ma’s pie.

Then Martha cuts into it and places a perfect slice in front of him.

It’s apple.

“Ma…” And he trails off, because she hasn’t been making apple pie for weeks.

“Ta-da!” She says with a bright smile on her face, and goes to serve herself a piece. Clark gets out the forks and the glasses of milk as is normal.

When his mom is seated and is digging into the pie in front of her, he finally takes a bite. It’s a perfect apple pie and he grins and slowly chews to savor the taste.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen that face,” she says. “I should have asked for your help before, but well, it’s fixed now.”

“Was something broken, Ma?” Clark asks.

“A while back I couldn’t figure out why my pies weren’t coming out right. They were a little different. I tried to fix the ingredients, the oven, but I couldn’t figure it out. I just didn’t know what to do. I knew some people wouldn’t be able to tell, but I could. I didn’t want anyone to notice ‘till I fixed it.”

“So, you made different flavored pies,” Clark fills in.

“That’s right. But this afternoon? A bus broke down near the house and suddenly there were a handful of kids and a handsome man with a wonderful accent come to my door to help with dinner. And when they all left? I found a note saying that the KitchenAid was fixed and that I could finally make apple pies,” Martha finishes, her eyes sparkling.

Then she stands up. “But I’m sure this note is for you, Clark.”

Clark takes the paper. It’s unremarkable and small and has his name written on it. He flips it to the other side.

Happy Holiday Exchange

Is all that’s written, but Clark can recognize that handwriting anywhere. He didn’t even try to disguise his handwriting. Hell, the ink is smudged and there’s part of a fingerprint on the note. He brushes his fingers against that print.

His mother huffs and he looks up at her. “Just a friend,” she says, shaking her head.

Clark can feel his cheeks getting warm.

“Ma? Do you mind if I-”

“Go to him, Clark. And bring the rest of this pie over, will you?” She pushes the boxed pie for him to carry. She must have wrapped it when he was looking over the note.

“Thanks, Ma,” and he leaves in a gust of wind, but not before cleaning everything and giving his mother another kiss.

-000-

He makes it to Gotham in record time and starts to listen for Bruce. Not surprisingly, he’s brooding. His whole body is still and his breast silent, but Clark can still hear the sound of his heartbeat. Luckily it’s coming from the manor.

A moment later he spots Bruce on the balcony, staring out into the forest behind Wayne Manor. He’s in a short sleeved shirt which shows off his scars, but the cold doesn’t seem to bother him, even though he must be cold when it’s snowing.

Not a second later, Bruce looks up and sees him.

“Clark,” Bruce whispers, but Clark can hear him loud and clear.

Clark lands gently next to him. Bruce watches him curiously, but still silent, even as Clark places the pie on the handrail.

“I got your gift,” Clark says with a grin.

Bruce looks at the pie. “Apple, your favorite.”

“My favorite,” Clark nods. “How did you figure it out?”

“The blueberry pie from the party. I had a slice last year, but the two were different even though you said the recipe hadn’t changed.”

“And the kids? And the- handsome man with the accent?” Clark says with a face, finally registering his mom’s words.

Bruce smirks. “The kids found out and wanted in on the plan. They called some others to help patrol Gotham while we were away. Then Alfred took them in to distract your mother while I fixed what was wrong with the Kitchenaid.”

Clark shakes his head. “You’ve certainly earned the title of World’s Greatest Detective.”

“Maybe,” Bruce agrees. Then he falls silent and looks away.

Clark stares at him, unabashed. He gently brushes the snow away that’s accumulated in his hair and on his shoulders and takes a step closer.

Bruce turns back to look at him. “Clark?”

It’s not like him to take such liberties.

Clark takes a shaky breath before speaking. “I had bought us tickets to go see The Mark of Zorro. I was expecting us to go as friends, like always, but now I’m wondering why I can’t ask you on a date.”

Bruce's eyes widen, before narrowing. “There are thousands of reasons why we shouldn’t go out,” he says, gruffly.

“Tell me them,” Clark says in reply.

“What about Lois?”

“What about Diana? We never know until we try, Bruce.”

“We’ll have to keep it a secret.”

“All secrets get out eventually; among the League, among our friends and family. Tell me this is something you think you can hide from Alfred.”

“You don’t want to attach yourself to the members of this family, Clark. I don’t even know how many kids live in this house anymore.”

“This isn’t a house, it’s a mansion, Bruce. And it fits however many kids that you want. And you know I love some of those kids and I would love to get to know all of them. Try again, Bruce.”

Bruce closes his eyes. “I’ll be your weakness, Clark. I’ll be Superman’s weakness.”

Ah. Finally, a reason for why Bruce has been distant all of these years.

“You've always been my weakness, Bruce.” Clark admits. Bruce’s eyes fly open. “For as long as I've loved you, you’ve been my weakness, my strength, my heart, my everything.”

Bruce snorts. “You sap. Just because it’s Christmas doesn’t mean you get to say something like that.”

“Maybe I said it so you’d laugh,” Clark says with a smile.

He takes another step closer.

“Tell me another reason why we shouldn’t be together, Bruce,” Clark whispers.

There are more. Hundreds of reasons why they shouldn’t be together, but most of them are too personal to admit.

But before Bruce is forced to either lie or choke out another reason, Clark grabs his hand.

“It’s okay. We have time.”

He hesitates. Bruce doesn’t know what to do now that he finally has something he wants, literally in his grasp. He nods.

Clark smiles again and Bruce almost looks away.

Clark laces their fingers together and picks up the pie with his other hand.

“Now come on, I want to enjoy this pie with everyone.”

They’re about to leave the balcony, when Bruce says, “Tomorrow.”

Clark pauses.

“Tomorrow, let’s fly your mother here,” Bruce decides.

“That’s a great idea, Bruce,” Clark agrees.

Tomorrow can be a new start for everyone.

#superbatsecretsanta2017 #timmyjdrake #nightfoliage #superbat #nightfoliagefic #edited #now with ao3 link

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klbwriting · 6 years

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Intrepid - Chapter One

A Crappy First Day

Fandom: DCEU

Pairing: None yet

Warnings: none yet

Summary: Lois has her first day as a senior reporter and meets her partner, another young star named Zoe

Taglist: @downsideright

(Zoe FC - Zoe Kravitz)

Zoe Anderson had been a senior reporter for nearly three years and in that time she had never met anyone who had a worst first day than Lois Lane. She wasn't sure what happened but the woman came rolling into the morning staff meeting ten minutes late and soaking wet from head to toe. And in that exact moment Zoe fell in love with her. "Lois Lane! Glad you could make it now sit down," Perry said, voice dripping with sarcastic annoyance. Lois blushed and tried to fix the mop of wet red hair on her head as she backed towards the empty chair next to Zoe. "Sorry, I got stuck on the subway, and then when I left the station a truck splashed a puddle..." she stammered before running into the chair and falling to the floor. Perry sighed and shook his head. "Lois Lane, our newest senior report everyone," Perry said. The rest of the group was snickering behind their hands, already planning on what insulting nickname they would call Lois behind her back over coffee. Zoe knew that feeling, she had what most called a 'nice' nickname of Chocolate Wonder but somehow no one seemed to realize how really insulting it was to her. She stood and helped Lois to stand and into the seat. "Thank you," she said, smiling at her. Zoe nodded and sat down in her seat again. "Alright, now that that's over we can continue," Perry said, voice dry and bored. "Anderson show Lane the ropes, I gave her the priest case to investigate so get her settled and then continue with the animal testing rally." Zoe nodded and jotted down a couple notes on where to start the new girl while Lois wrote down her assignment. As the meeting adjourned Lois collected her bag and looked to her new partner. She looked excited but was trying to contain it with a calm facade, but Zoe could see through that easily. She nodded her head and Lois followed her to a set of desks that were back to back. One was piled with folders and binders and knick-knacks and the other was completely blank. "That is yours, get settled and the computer running and we will start," Zoe instructed, sitting down at her computer. Lois set down her bag and jacket and sat in the chair, giving herself a moment to take in her new surroundings. The desk was large and clean, very different from the tiny hole that she had had with the rest of the gophers. It was busy in this area of the paper, people on phones and typing away at stories, a few TVs spread around to hear breaking news from 24-hour networks. It was invigorating to Lois and she could just feel herself writing out an award winning story already. After this brief pause in her day the new reporter got to work. "Ok, so ready to start?" Zoe asked when she noticed that the other woman had logged into their system. Lois nodded. "Nervous?" "Yes, is it obvious?" she asked. Zoe chuckled and nodded. "This is what I've wanted for a long time, and I've already messed up this morning so I have some ground to make up." "Then let's start making it up," her partner said, bringing up the assignments board. After about an hour of walking her through their systems Zoe left Lois to her own devices and continued to work on her story. Lois started by checking what facts were already gathered about the missing priest, finding the police report and reading it along with a background check file on him. Father Thomas Lowe, 43, secondary priest at Nativity Catholic Church in downtown Metropolis, 6'0, blond hair, blue eyes, he looked younger than 43 and she could see why people assumed he had run away with someone. He was handsome and it seemed like the woman who had reported him missing, the parish secretary, was infatuated with him. She had mentioned several times in her statement that he had 'fine features, like a movie star'. Lois was so engrossed in the information that she barely noticed the time passing, and she nearly fell out of her chair when Zoe tapped her shoulder. "Sorry," the woman said, noticing that she had startled the younger woman. Lois smiled, relieved, and shook her head. "No worries, just was into what I was reading, did you need something?" Lois asked, turning to face her completely. She took a moment to finally look over her desk partner, noticing that she was beautiful and Lois felt a tingle in her chest. She was going to have to work on not crushing on her desk partners, she had learned that in college during a freshmen science class, dating people you shared a work space with never ended well. "I was wanting to know if you wanted to get lunch? Its almost 1 o' clock," Zoe said, grabbing her wallet from her bag. Lois checked the time and nodded, getting up and taking her bag. They went to a small cafe and got sandwiches, sitting by the window and watching the rain pour outside. It was quiet at the beginning, them just eating in comfortable silence, trying to figure out where to start the conversation. Zoe finally broke the silence. "How old are you anyway?" she asked, setting down her food and sitting back in her seat. "27" she answered, sitting back herself. "What about you? Perry said you were a young one, that's why he put us together." "I'm 31," Zoe said. She grabbed her drink and took a sip and then chuckled. "You know, when you walked in this morning I thought you were an intern who got lost, you still look like a college kid." "For a minute I thought Perry was going to fire me on the spot," she said, looking less enthused. "I'm glad he didn't, I'm also glad he paired us together, its nice to work with someone who writes amazing articles like you do." "You've read my stuff?" Zoe asked, looking surprised. She didn't know why, she had taken a look at the few things Lois had gotten her hands on in the last 5 years there when she found out about their partnership. That was common, checking on your deskmates past stories and complimenting them, but Lois seemed genuine, like she really liked Zoe's stuff. "Ya, of course and that writeup you did on the mayoral campaign last year, getting the scoop on the embezzling the manager was doing? Awesome," she raved. Zoe blushed some, turning to look out the window. She checked her watch and stood, prompting the other woman to do the same. "This afternoon, if you need help with anything let me know, I have a contact at the diocese if you want to call them and get a comment about their missing padre," Zoe said. "I have to run to a meeting with an informant so I can't walk you back, but here is my number, call me, anytime." She handed Lois a card with her number on it and winked at the woman. Lois blushed a little but smiled, taking the card and nodding, watching as Zoe left. This day had started terrible but was starting to get better. Back at her desk Lois got back to work digging into Father Thomas. She researched if he had any known involvement with nefarious activities or had any previous affairs with parishioners. Nothing was on public file about him except for him graduating from seminary school in the 1980s and then coming to Nativity where he had been for almost all his years except for some missionary work in Africa. The guy was spotless, completely clean, too clean. Lois frowned. Something was off about this guy and she knew it. She wrote up a brief email to Perry, explaining her findings from that day and how long her article needed to be, suggesting maybe this be an ongoing investigative piece. She had to wait only two minutes before getting back a reply that she was to write up a short piece and be done with it. It was not worth digging into if the guy was clean. 'I will have another story for you tomorrow - Perry' the email finished. She had never been one to break the rules before so Lois did as he asked, writing up a short piece on the disappearance before she clocked out and headed home, missing her train and having to walk the nearly 50 blocks in the pouring rain. She got to her apartment and tossed her stuff down, thinking that this had to have been the worst first day ever until she pulled Zoe's card out of her pocket and remembered that she got to share a desk with her now. Maybe the day hadn't been completely terrible after all.

#dceu #lois lane #loislane #lois lane series #loislaneseries #intrepid #intrepidseries

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althor42 · 7 years

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Fixing the DCEU

So, I’ve been putting a lot of thought into how I’d fix the DCEU. Well, not fix it, so much as go back in time and stop the madness. A lot’s been said about what’s gone wrong, but I wanted to put my mark on how they could have done things correctly. My beta hpwot added some commentary as well.

I’ve fit this within certain constraints based on what DC has given us so far:

Man of Steel still kicks things off.

Jason Todd dies.

Wonder Woman is almost entirely unchanged.

There is a climactic fight between Batman and Superman.

Superman seems to die.

Eventually: Justice League

Man of Steel isn’t a terrible way to kick thing’s off, but there’s some things to fix about it.

Don’t have Clark watch Johnathan Kent die for no reason, for one. By all means, give him a struggle to maintain anonymity as his parents have asked of him, but letting your father die is pretty unsympathetic for a movie hero, especially Superman. Have Superman accept at least some of the weight of responsibility for the many deaths from the invasion. Yes, he was a newb to that kind of action, but he acted rashly, and his actions led to collateral damage; this is a man who values human life, and he should hate that he wasn’t better. Also like, let Superman smile every now and then. The point of this movie is to answer the question of why does Clark Kent become Superman, and it does, barely.

Alternatively, hpwot has posited the following for a revised Man of Steel:

___

How to do Man of Steel?

Give a very brief prologue on Krypton: They have chosen not to use Zod’s doomsday machine at the sacrifice of their own people. Zod is imprisoned; Clark is sent off into space.

Man of steel shouldn’t just be setting up the moral backbone for Superman’s character arc, it should be setting a moral backbone for the entire DCEU so we can play the other characters off of that theme. Start with a bullied super kid. The movie did this bit right. Superman knows what it is like to be weak, even if it’s only because he must hide that he is strong. Give a bit right after the bully is gone when we see some feat of strength that tells us that the only reason he is bullyable is because he allows it. One of the most important things to do in the first act is to show where he gets his first sense of right versus wrong. He gets it from his parents. I want to open with a very young Superkid getting bullied before we jump to a Superteen who is struggling so hard not to lash out. He’s still bullied, but he’s not the only one and he struggles with whether that’s his problem or not.

The thing is we only have one movie, and we don’t want it to be a mess, so we need to introduce the villains early on. Zod and co. reach Earth in the cut between super kid and superteen. They have the same general goals as in the original, but they don’t have everything that they’re going to need. It’s going to have to take time with this primitive human technology. They realize they’re going to have their work cut out for them, but Zod was a general, and he’s a planner, and he can make things work. They just need to stay in the shadows until the right time.

Cut back to superteen who’s just starting to lash out. It sets the stage for his moral arc.

Cut back to Zod and Co. They have an underground lair and they have a host of henchmen who think that the Kryptonians are gods. But they aren’t just any old henchmen, we discover that at least one of them is the CEO of ACME or whatever major corporation. This also serves as foreshadowing for Clark being a god among men. We need something to tie in these two story lines, so give them a broad over-reaching plot and some small part of it creeps into Smallville. Something that seems mundane, but it starts a moral problem that the Kent’s are faced with.

Start a mini one-act story line that focuses on Super teen learning by his parents actions and guidance what it means to be a good person and what it truly means to be strong. I’m seeing something involving someone else who needs protecting, a stirring moral speech from Pa Kent and Ma Kent standing up for what’s right at a key moment showing both strength of character and humility. Super teen goes back to school and he’s realized that there’s something he can do. Superteen becomes a defender of the week in his school, but he doesn’t do it with super strength or laser vision, he does it with kindness and occasionally by becoming a punching bag. Afterall, he can’t be hurt, even if his ego can be bruised. But something more, he has the hope that the people doing wrong can change and become better. All of this will have to be done with a minimalist touch. Every single part of Act one is going to need to be done with as little dialogue and whatnot as you can manage, because you’ve got a lot to fit in. Say a lot with a little. The only point where you can slow down a bit is the moral backbone scene.

Okay, that was a lot. Let’s pick up the pace a bit. Superman is moving out of Smallville for Metropolis. Hugs and kisses. An admonishment not to let the big city erase his roots. You get a scene of getting introduced to the bullpen at Daily Planet. “Why did you decide to become a reporter?” “The press is the guardian of freedom.” (This will be important contrast for later) This is not the bumbling Clark Kent of the comics who’s Human Suit showed what he thought of the everyman, this is the man of quiet moral strength and humility that he learned to be from his parents in Act one. Clark sets out for the first time as a visibly superhuman wearing the Superman getup his mother made him. Classic “Look, up in the sky,” but with a twist. Is it a drone? Some sort of marketing stunt?

Cut to Zod, where plans are almost complete. Everything else is almost complete and then they’ll just need one more thing before they can turn on their doomsday machine. But that one last thing can’t be gotten from the shadows. As soon as everything else is in place they will show the people’s of the world their god… cue breaking news in the background about Superman.

Cut to Louis showing Clark the ropes. First item on the agenda, find out everything they can about Superman while simultaneously trying to work on Louis’s other project, investigating the strange things ACME Co’s been up to. (Lois is skeptical that Superman is as good as he seems, so that she can be won over later). Get a bit of chemistry going with a contrast of Louis’ fast paced chaotic work method to Clark’s slower more methodical work process.

Cut to a montage of Superman, learning the ropes of being a superhero. Contrast the fast paced nature of being a superhero who can hear crime happening everywhere to Louis from the previous scene. Introduce Superman’s thou shalt not kill. Bullet ricochet’s off his chest (Holes in his costume) and hits the gunman. Superman get’s very flustered and rushes him to the hospital. We want to show that Superman believes the villains can become something better. He has a faith in humanity and therefore any death is a tragedy.

Cut back to Louis and Clark. Louis uses Clark as a sounding board as she’s working on the Superman case. “What if there are more of him?” “What if he’s the only one?” A bit of sadness in his voice. Phone call: Louis’ source from the ACME case calls, says there’s a warehouse with something she needs to see. That sounds dangerous. Shouldn’t Clark come too? Nope, only she can know who the source is. Clark considers following at a distance, but then, breaking news: a break in at a military base by superpower wielding villains who are stealing the McGuffin.

Superman sets off, and manages to trace them down to a warehouse… Inside is the spaceship Zod landed in in the beginning, only it’s been heavily modded. Superman confronts them. Zod tells Superman that they’re of the same people. And reveals his plan, asks Superman to join them. That’s when Louis gets dragged in by henchpersons, she’s been caught snooping. “Louis?” Superman says in a moment of carelessness. Tensions mount, a fight ensues, Superman get’s his ass handed to him. Kicking and screaming, Louis gets loaded into the spaceship which takes off to a spot high above metropolis where it will start doing it’s thing. It doesn’t affect the entire world at once. But we see an energy field that probably goes out across several states. There is a resonance building in the ground, and we don’t want to find out what happens when it covers the entire world. Superman gets back on his feet.

Final act, Superman must choose between saving Louis or the world, does both, and then comes the whole climactic fight where he has to kill Zod in order to stop him from killing civilians thing, which we have now earned, and his anguish afterwards feels like it came from somewhere.

Closing? Superman’s helping a little old lady cross the street. He’s a bit sombre after recent events but he’s happy to help. He goes home to his tiny apartment, dressed as Clark once more. He is surprised to see Louis sitting in his only chair, a pad and pencil in hand. “I have some questions for you Clark.”

___

So that’s a copule ways to do Superman. We’re going to need another movie to show us how Superman’s super heroic aspirations match up with the real world. But first, Batman.

A big problem with Batman V. Superman was that it showed us this maniac as Batman, and expected us to root for him, giving him the ridiculous ‘Martha’ redemption at the end. But why should we care about this creep’s redemption? Just because you say he’s Batman? No, first you need us to love Batman, which isn’t hard. He’s the goddamn Batman.

We start with a post-Dick Grayson’s Robin Batman.There is no origin story here. Nightwing is off doing his own thing in Gotham, and we see a Batman that people are starting to get worried about. He’s getting tougher and tougher on crime, and he’s starting to cross boundaries. He’s not happy as Batman. He’s not happy as Bruce Wayne. The only time we see him crack a smile is when Alfred is in the room, or when he’s meeting up with Nightwing. Adopting Dick as Bruce Wayne, and mentoring him as Batman were the best things he’s ever done, but that chapter’s closed. Gotham may be better off than when he started, but the fight is never over, and Batman is throwing himself harder and harder at the city’s problems trying to put them to rest once and for all. It gets to a point where Nightwing announces that he’s leaving Gotham city ___(Maybe he’s going away to college, he’s decided on a school that’s far away. I like the idea of showing that unlike Bruce, he has more in his life than just being a superhero).___ He says that other city’s need protectors of their own, but they both know that he just doesn’t want to watch Batman destroy himself.

Somewhere in the background, some of the early events in Man of Steel are making the news.

Cut to: Some big villain caused disaster. Lives are lost, Batman can’t always save the day. But just because he couldn’t save them, doesn’t mean he won’t bring the responsible parties to justice. He throws himself into it, glad to have a problem he can bring his whole self to bear on. At the end of the day, a greater disaster is averted, the perpetrators are brought to justice, but he knows that there was someone pulling their strings. Someone who he has fought before. Someone he has captured, only to be let loose again: the Joker. Too bad the Joker is nowhere to be found. ___(Either Harley Quinn is in this one and is captured, or she is in the second one and gets captured, seting up her character for Suicide Squad.)___

The movie ends with Bruce driving out into the countryside. He’s on the phone with Dick, who’s still worried. But Bruce isn’t; he’s got a mission. On the seat next to him is a profile on an orphan who’s parents were lost in the earlier disaster, sent to a group home after all the fights he’s been in. We close on Bruce Wayne meeting Jason Todd.

Next up is Wonder Woman. That movie was pretty close to perfect. I’m sure there’s things to nit-pick about it, but it’s a strong addition to the DCEU, and is good as is. The only thing is, for reasons that will be clear later on, we make one addition to Thymescira: at least one Amazonian has the gift of foresight.

Next is another Batman movie, and we’re in the wake of the devastation of the fight between Titan’s that was the climax of Man of Steel. A lot of Bruce’s focus is on his company for a change, but there’s plenty to do as Batman with all the chaos that the destruction has brought. Meanwhile, he’s got a rookie Robin to train up. Here we see Batman being downright paternal and maybe even downright happy, through that gruff and guarded exterior. It’s clear that being a role model, trying to show Jason how to do things right, brings out the best in him.

Batman doesn’t like the destruction wrought in the fight between Superman and Zod. He knows that the bulk of the blame falls on Zod and his compatriots, but he can’t help but think ill of Superman, who couldn’t pull the fight out of the city fast enough ___(He spent all that time trying to save Louis, because he had the hubris to think he could save everyone)___ He is still haunted by the collapse of Wayne Tower. Jason though, is excited about Superman, seeing him as a force of good in the world. Again, news of Superman’s deeds are sprinkled in the background of the movie, but this isn’t a movie about Superman, this is a movie about Batman and the new Robin. Mysteries abound, crimes need to be solved, and Batman is taking things slow with training his new apprentice. Robin’s safety is his highest priority.

But eventually, all signs point to the Joker, not just that he’s back in town, but that he’s at the center of all of the recent troubles. Batman is adamant, Robin stays in the bat cave for this one. But Robin knows exactly who it was behind the disaster that killed his parents, and he’s not content to stay at home. They fight over it, but no way in hell is Batman going to let Robin indulge himself in a quest for vengeance.

Eventually, Batman catches the Joker. I’ll leave the details up to an actual script writer. But he finds the Joker covered in blood, and there’s something in his possession that sends a chill through Batman: the ‘R' of Robin’s costume. The Joker is gleeful in giving him the gory details of Jason Todd’s death, and Batman beats him savagely, to within an inch of his life. It is only that same ‘R’, and the man he wanted to be for Jason, that keep him from crossing that line.

___(For this, look into the 5 Act Tragedy as an appropriate structure.)____

((There are those that defend the BvS movie’s odd pacing, saying that it follows the five act structure, and audiences just aren’t used to it. Moviebob has a video on youtube, Really That Bad, wherein he takes a few minutes to explain why that doesn’t add up because a. it just doesn’t, and b. that movie’s just a mess.))

Next we have Superman again; a Superman who is trying to define who he is as a hero, and how he can be most effective for the world. He flies around, saving people. He stops bank robberies, he puts out house fires, he responds to natural disasters. But there’s always so much he can’t do, and it weighs on him. Meanwhile, the world is trying to make sense of what it means to have a Superman in the world. Honestly, a lot of this can be done in montage.

At the same time, we see him as Clark Kent. The goofy but earnest reporter, who’s still trying to make a difference by putting pen to paper. But even in his civilian life, that’s not enough for Clark, and he volunteers as a Big Brother. Enter down-on-his-luck kid from a broken home: Jimmy Olsen. Because even as he explores what it means to be a god-amongst-men, he also wants to explore what it means to be a good man. (Yes, from a utilitarian standpoint, any volunteer hours Clark Kent puts in should just be as Superman, but Clark having a rich personal life has always been a gimme from the the beginning of Superman).

He’s finding himself, becoming the Boy Scout we all know and love, dedicated to truth and justice, but what does that mean for a 21st century Superman? Does justice refer to stopping crime, or to a broader social justice, and what does truth mean to a man who has to lie every day? But meanwhile there are things in this world that feel bigger than Superman. There’s a war on, and he goes to protect the civilians. And when he can’t save them all, he goes on a rampage, destroying nearby military hardware.

Now there is real lash-back. It is one thing for Superman to save people, it is another for him to take military action. The UN is resolute. Superman can be an actor in our world, but he cannot act in matters between nations. Superman accepts this decree; he is reluctant, but he is not here to be a tyrant. And yet, with Superman on a leash, travesty happens in the midst of war, and countless lives are loss. Superman knows he could have prevented it, but he didn’t, and that makes him responsible.

Over the course of less than one day, he destroys the responsible nation’s capacity to wage war, going after all of their hardware. Not a drop of blood is spilled, but a definite message is sent, and he backs it up by flying himself back to the UN to give a decree of his own. War is over on the planet Earth. Nations can stockpile whatever weapons and soldiers they want, but they will regret it if they ever use them.

___(I think this would also have to be a five act tragedy. The announcement at the end is the Transformation.)____

Next is another Wonder Woman movie, the events that made her start losing her faith in humanity. We see her facing much the same dilemma as Superman: how do you save humanity from itself. Wonder Woman is powerful, but she can’t quite destroy an army in a day. So she goes where she can, does what she can. Saves as many innocent, and plenty of not-so-innocent, lives as she can.

At some point, her mother shows up, hoping to bring her daughter home. She brings some warriors with her, so we get a nice Amazonian fight scene in whatever war zone. But Hippolyta entreats her daughter: Ares is dead, and still mankind wars with itself. But no, says Diana, there is still so much good in them that can be saved. She encourages her mother to see more of mankind, to look for the good. Meanwhile, Diana has a war to fight.

She wins, time and again, but it’s never enough, and every day saps at her belief that there is anything worth saving. Vietnam and Korea are decent wars for her to throw herself into, but there’s plenty for the movie to choose from. Eventually, she saves the day in a big way. Everything seems to be going well, maybe it even looks like peace is on the horizon, but mankind falls down on the job again, tragedy ensues, and she can’t for the life of her see what she’s actually accomplished. She doesn’t put down her sword at the end of the movie, but you can see that she is on that path.

___(This wonder woman movie would be another 5 Act Tragedy)___

((A running theme for these second instalments))

Now the stage is set for Batman V Superman. We have a Batman who’s been brought to the brink of despair and is still teetering. We have a Superman who tried to be a Boy Scout, wanted to be a Boy Scout, but is leaning on the edge of tyranny. We have a Wonder Woman who’s giving up. We have world governments who have good reason to be terrified of Superman, and would be willing to do any crazy thing to find a way to neutralize him as needed. Enter Lex Luther. He doesn’t give a damn about about what it means to have gods amongst men. Neither is he insane, but sure, Silicon Valley Tech Billionaire is a good modern take. He’s charismatic on the outside, but he is cold and calculating in truth, and he wants one thing: money. The traditional weapon’s industry has tanked in the wake of Superman’s ultimatum, even as all the money is going into finding ways to stop Superman…just in case. Lex has bought up all available cheap stocks in the Military Industrial Complex, and all he needs to make it worth a fortune is the death of Superman.

So begins Lex Luther’s plans within plans to bring about his demise. One of which, yes, is to create a goliath creature of some sort, (just not Doomsday because there’s already a lot packed in, and the fans are going to want him to get a proper showing later down the line). Another is to pit Batman Vs Superman. He’s even got people watching Barry Allen, just in case. He doesn’t need to blow up congress, (and let’s face it, would Superman even answer to a summons at this point?), he just needs a good pitch for why Lexcorp is the best company to find an anti-Superman contingency.

Meanwhile, Diana is not interfering in the world of man. She has lost her hope for us. She is cutting her ties, and plans to return to Thymescira. But instead her mother comes to her again, this time with a message. Something terrible is coming to our world; prophecy says so. The world needs it’s gods again, and it’s Diana’s job to assemble a new Pantheon. Diana is reluctant. She has seen too much of man’s cruelty. She thought she could save us, but she doesn’t think it will ever get better, her mother had been right in the first place. They do not deserve saving. But no, says her mother, Diana, you were right. Your only fault lay in trying to save humanity on your own. (And yes, a part of Diana still knew the good of man. Why else would she work to curate a museum, preserving the beautiful and amazing work’s we’ve created over time?)

Eventually, Batman and Superman have their big throw down. Batman has been aimed at Superman by Lex, true, but his paranoia of Superman turning on humanity is not entirely artificial. Superman’s own actions have fed this drive. Meanwhile, Lex has found a way to manipulate Superman. Not Martha, but Jimmy. And in the end, when Batman has him at his mercy, he begs, “Save Jimmy. He’s just a kid, and Luther is going to kill him.”

Here is where Batman sees the humanity in Superman. Not because their mother’s have the same name, but because they have both sought to nurture and guide a child. And where Batman failed with Jason, it is not too late for them to save Jimmy.

Jimmy is saved, but not!Doomsday attacks, and Diana watches on TV as a god fights back, a god with an ally. She feels the call to battle.

Once again, Superman flies not!Doomsday into space, and is hit with a nuke, but his destroyed body remains in orbit, while not!Doomsday returns to Earth, and so we have the seeming death of Superman. Meanwhile, Wonder Woman takes up the kryptonite spear and, while Bruce distracts the beast, she slays it.

A conflicted world mourns the death of their protector. Diana approaches Bruce; trouble is coming, and she wants to gather others to help face it. The world prepares for war now that the Superman Deterrent is gone.

Next up is Suicide Squad. It may have been a garbage fire of a movie, but it had a pretty good concept. First of all, you need Amanda Waller to make some goddamn sense. She’s not building a team to fight Superman. That’s not the point of a suicide squad. The point is to send them places where you need deniability, places where no one would volunteer to go, and yes, into situations where you need some incredible people. The Enchantress and her brother get their hearts destroyed before the movie starts, because there’s no good sense in keeping those around.

Next, you have to justify why Harley Quinn was put on the team. Her character was the one good thing about the movie, but her being there didn’t make much sense when her skills were basically just being reasonably good at violence. The movie didn’t capitalize on the fact that she is a disciple of the Joker; she’s a brilliant manipulator, tactician, and technical expert in all things mayhem. It’s still a stretch, but at least now we’re justifying our suspension of disbelief.

Now give them an enemy. Remember that your main characters are bad guys, so you have to put them against some really heinous people. Give them hostages; plenty of important people to get the powerful forces at play, but also squishy civilians to tear at our heartstrings. Make sure we know that the villains will kill the women and children first, to keep their most valuable hostages for last.

Then set the Suicide Squad loose. Fun ensues.

Next up is a Cyborg movie. The Flash already has a series on the CW. We don’t need another origin for him. We all even know what Aquaman’s all about. Ezra Miller and Jason Momoa are great choices for casting, and I’m excited to see them, but it’s someone else turn. It’s time to make the world fall in love with a little known hero, because if DC can’t do that, then what are they even playing at?

I’ll be honest, I know next to nothing about Cyborg. The point of this movie is the man though, not the machine. Show us who he is, why he is, and why we should love him for doing what he does. Just remember that this is about a fledgling hero, who’s trying to find himself in a post-Superman world. The movie ends with a knock on the door. A tired but triumphant Cyborg goes to answer it. Cut to black as the Wonder Woman theme plays.

Now you can pull out the Justice League story. Open the movie with some kind of renewed focus on a what it means to live post-Superman. Where Cyborg focused on a micro-level, show us the global scale of the problem. But, the audience already knows that Superman’s coming back, no need to be coy about it, so make him the first hero we see, as his body reenter’s atmosphere and crash lands in a field somewhere.

Batman goes off to have his dick-measuring contest with Aquaman, and Diana goes to recruit the Flash. She’s starting to see the pantheon that her mother spoke of her building. Superman is once again faced with the decision of whether or not to be Superman, because yeah, things got pretty messed up the last time he tried.

Eventually though, the big bad comes. Give us a memorable villain, big enough to justify the existence of the Justice League, but not so big that they won’t have worse to face later on.

And then you’re off! Throw in Flash and Aquaman movies at some point. Explore the complex world that’s been built. Have fun.

#DCEU #batman #superman #the flash #aquaman #cyborg #wonder woman

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davidmann95 · 7 years

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So, operating under the assumption that a DCEU Superman sequel can A. Be Good and B. "save" Superman the way "Ragnarok" seems to be doing for Thor... how would it go? Who would you have write/direct/whatever? Who would the villain be? What would the general plot be?

Staying within the bounds of pragmatism, I’ve gone into this before: a Metallo/Glorious Godfrey movie, with the trilogy capper starring Brainiac and a heavily reconceptualized Luthor (whether that means giving Eisenberg better material - I think he was fine for the first 2/3rds or so of BvS as a new take, and I imagine he could do far better given the opportunity - or having Lex Luthor Sr. turn out to be alive and also Bryan Cranston or something, and he becomes real Lex). Matthew Vaughn directing the way we’ve heard he might would be a-okay by me.

But if we were going way further into total pie-in-the-sky territory with no restrictions, as calibrated specifically for this version of Superman rather than my general ideal Superman flick - another thing unto itself - I’d actually go for something much different.

Remember this scene in BvS?

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My dream DCEU Superman movie would basically be two hours of that.

See, much as I dislike the execution, the Superman of this world has some really interesting ideas behind him, and I’d hate to pass up the opportunity to get a more hard sci-fi, socially relevant take on him just because the first two attempts fumbled at the goal line and blew outright, respectively. And I really don’t think the best way of exploring them is through him fighting Bizarro or whatever.

Here’s the pitch: most of, if not the entire movie takes place in Lois and Clark’s apartment, where they’re holding a viewing party with their coworkers for the new TV Superman documentary, since a bunch of them were interviewed for it (as Lois is known as having been the first to discover him, and being involved with saving Earth from Zod, so the Daily Planet’s relation to his arrival is considered a note worth exploring by the filmmakers). You get Steve Lombard, you get Ron Troupe, you get Cat Grant, Jenny or a new version of Jimmy Olsen or both show up, Perry White unexpectedly sticks his head in about halfway through, and you get all the Daily Planet banter there isn’t time for when Doomsday’s wrecking Gotham. The movie cuts back and forth between the documentary, and conversations between everyone during the commercial breaks over snacks (they may overlap, such as someone commenting on the show, or hearing a commercial in the background during conversations that could slot in some Easter eggs without having to pull away from the story).

So while half the movie is the lot of them bantering back and forth - compounded by Clark having to awkwardly hide how personally invested he really is, leading to a few moments where he and Lois sneak away for a private conversation about the subject matter of the film - the other half is all documentary shit. Scientists talking about how his powers must work and don’t seem to abide by physics, researchers with grants to explore the ruins of the Black Zero discussing what they’ve pieced together of Kryptonian history and customs, sociologists and census-takers and political analysts discussing the global social impact of his presence, all the heavy-duty “realistic superhero” material you can only go so far into in a regular flick, all centered around the idea that we are small and irrelevant in the face of this. Maybe even some interviews with Lex Luthor, with his first appearance in it having a little note saying these were conducted prior to his arrest, so you can fit him in too.

Not that this would be an action-free movie, mind you. There’d be plenty of Superman footage spliced throughout the documentary, but while it’d be easy to do something like zoom into the TV and then join the fight or rescue in a more traditional cinematic style before cutting back to the regular format, I’d prefer to keep the setup consistent, i.e. we only see him through news crew footage, camera phones, Youtube videos and so forth. A Cloverfield/Chronicle approach to Superman, or perhaps more relevantly in the vein of BvS’s take on Man of Steel’s climatic brawl with Zod, where Superman himself is a barely-perceptible distant figure who the world shatters around and people are miraculously whisked away to safety in the vicinity of, who we never get a close look at until near the end.

The climax would actually be seeded in two ways:

1. Clark has to keep cutting out throughout the show to deal with emergencies. This would mostly be played for comedy, since brief news bulletins mentioning what Superman’s done always pre-empt Lombard’s interview segments.

2. Throughout the documentary we get periodic interviews with an amoral science bastard of some type aside from Luthor - Rudy Jones, Hank Henshaw, Emmett Vale (paired with John Corben showing up as an amoral military bastard in the latter case), etc.

Culminating in a major battle with Metallo/Cyborg Superman/Parasite/whoever that’s covered to the attention of the entire group, with Lois having to conceal that she’s on pins and needles as her fiancé gets the shit kicked out of him by a freak of science on live television. In the end he wins - and a reporter gets close enough to get the only good look at Superman in the movie, and his only couple of lines to them - and flies away, as the next second Clark walks out of the bathroom and asks the couch if he missed anything.

As the documentary and the movie itself wrap up, we cut to the final interview segment, with a Mr. Clark Kent. His hometown of Smallville was the first site of the Kryptonian invasion, and then he moved to the city of its conclusion while it was still under reconstruction: why pick up sticks and head there of all places, just as everyone else was leaving? Well, he has to say, he’d head out to Metropolis to help out with the cleanup, when he saw reporters - including one who’d been in his town, the one who helped Superman - helping dig people out of the rubble and taking care of them. He said that for all Superman does - and he likes to think Superman’s a good thing - that the reason Clark Kent came here and stays here is because of them, and what they show him people can do. They inspire him him to do his best, and from how he’s kept on putting his life on the line for them no matter what he faces or what they think of him or how dark the world gets, he thinks that goes for Superman too.

So that’s my movie. Not sure who I’d have direct it; when a writer comes to mind, it’s Warren Ellis given he has some experience writing for animation, and I think his strengths would suit this well. It’d be a financial disaster and probably most people would hate it since overwhelming chunks of it would be info-dumps, but I’d like it.

#Superman #DCEU #fanfic

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dagenspear · 7 years

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Batman v Superman Rewrite

Open the movie with the end of MOS, show Bruce arriving, running into the rubble, seeing Superman, glaring, basically the same thing. OPENING TITLE. The same terrorist situation where Lois is captured. She sees some of the terrorist figures faces. Superman, without hurting people, saves Lois, but a bomb goes off in the terrorist bunker, burning everyone completely, killing everyone inside. Then cut to a senate hearing discussing Superman and how he still hasn't been held accountable for the destruction in Metropolis. And with the most recent unauthorized destruction of the terrorist group by Superman, as far as they think, which resulted in the deaths of 2 civilian hostages, they state that it's time they discuss what Superman should do and not what he can do. Show Clark watching the senator talking about how they're now officially calling Superman out to answer for what he's done, for Metropolis and the deaths of those civilian hostages. He's forlorn. Lois enters their apartment, seeing him watching the senator. She tries to reassure him, telling him that he's not responsible for what happened, he just has to tell the truth. Clark says that he is. He should have seen the bomb, but he wasn't focused enough. It's his fault, it all is.

Batman is a reckless, vicious vigilante. He pummels criminals like rapists and murderers into near comas. Alfred is deeply concerned about Bruce's growing viciousness, fearful that he'll cross the line. Have the scene where Alfred says that everything's changed also have him glance at Jason's costume just as he says it. Jason's death caused him to shut down as a superhero, but after the events of MOS, he's retaken his mission harder than ever. He has nightmares about his parents deaths and Jason's death intermingling into the same event.

Superman is very much playing with kid gloves. After the events of MOS, he's afraid of his powers, the destructive force he has. He doesn't break bones, he tries to avoid destroying property. He doesn't want anyone else to get hurt. He has ptsd-esque flashbacks about the events of MOS. He still works, he's begun a relationship with Lois, which is struggling because of his disconnected attitude. Clark is obsessed with keeping himself from being something that frightens people, so much so that he's formed a partnership with Metropolis' hometown billionaire to help the city...

Lex is paranoid, rich, ruthless and fearful. He's grown and constructed his entire life around being powerful, great and untouchable. And then comes Superman, a powerful creature that is better than, more special than and more powerful than him, something that he can't control, that he can't protect himself from and he can't stand it. He's basically Batman on steroids. The Bruce Wayne worst case scenario. Only in a more self-involved way. He views Superman as a threat in waiting to him personally, not just really the world. Keep Jesse Eisenberg if you must. But make him more physically fit, not overly muscular though.

Lex's birth father abandoned him to be adopted by a broke family in the slums. He was raised by unfit parents, an alcoholic mom and a controlling dad. When they died, he worked his way through college using the insurance money from their deaths and used it to buy stock in his real father's company. When he was discovered by his dad, Lex discovered that his dad had abandoned him to see how he could thrive on his own, to see if he would ever be worthy enough for his company, then telling him that he's seen that's the case and that he's left Lcorp to him in his will. Enraged at him, his entire life being a pawn under the thumb of his real father, Lex killed him. He then used all the knowledge he'd gained to completely change the face of Lcorp, even giving his name to it, along with doing away with the oil business and making Lexcorp a science and military contract based company, creating new medicines, cutting edge research in fringe sciences, along with DNA studies, and weapons. Not to mention all of the jobs Lex created for the city after one of Metropolis' worst financial fallouts, due to the Gotham earthquake that caused significant damage to a part of Metropolis, essentially pulling the city out a kind of depression situation. Lex helped the reconstruction of the city after the battle of Metropolis as well.

Batman, after finding satellite footage from the world engine event of Superman being weakened, goes there to see if he can gather whatever weakened him, where he finds just particles, green dust left from crystalized rocks from the attempted terraforming effect of the world engine. But that's it. He investigates the area more and discovers that Lexcorp was there and took all the crystalized rocks.

Superman goes to the senate hearing where he's asked about his perception, his powers, what he plans to do about them and why he's doing what he's doing. Superman tells them that he just wants to help, that it's all he ever wanted. He's asked if he thinks the help that destroyed Metropolis by a mother of someone who was killed. Superman is visibly broken up and tries to explain that he made a mistake, he thought he could handle Zod, he didn't know it would cause as much destruction as it had.

The senators tell him that his powers aren't something that anyone can afford for him to make mistakes with. They ask him what gives him the right to do what he does when he can cause so much harm, when his mistakes do what they. Someone tries to say that if Superman had done nothing, the world would be destroyed. Someone then yells that it's because of him that they came in the first place. The other person then yells that they don't know that for sure. A fight breaks out and Superman, worriedly starts to try and stop it, but is told by the senators that they have officials who deal with that and the fight is broken up by the guards. Superman says that his powers give him the responsibility to try to something about what's happening in the world. They respond that responsibility doesn't give all say over the ways of the world. Superman's then asked that what makes him think that they need his help, that he has the power to fix all the problems of the world. Superman says, "Nothing. I just don't want anyone to be afraid of me anymore, when I'll I've ever wanted to do was keep as many people safe I could." They then say that he can't ever do enough. The hearing ends, them telling him that despite the good he's done, it doesn't matter what he can do, that doesn't give him the right to act on behalf of humanity, especially if the cost of that can be the lives of innocents, and finally that they'll reconvene the next day for a complete decision. Superman leaves. Lex uses the kryptonian ship, which was given to him as apart of his military contracts and a sample of Superman's DNA to create a clone, a mentally deficient clone, even a decaying one, something that he can control. He uses it to frame Superman for attacks. The first one being the senators from the hearing.

This shakes Superman. He sees the public and understands that no matter what he does, he won't be trusted by them, that he feels he shouldn't be, with everything he can do, everything he's done. He nearly quits because of this. It's really all about Superman's sense of inferiority. He's afraid that he can't help people now that they know he's out there. He's afraid that even though he knows the attacks happening aren't his fault he still fears that it's something he could be capable of. He doesn't see himself as helpful to the world, but as a negative force in it.

There's a running theme of a feeling of inferiority in this story. Lex feels inferior, because Superman's existence makes him feel powerless and inadequate. Batman feels helpless as ever to do good, to help people, because of such a destructive creature like Superman being around. This feeds into his already intense powerlessness at the loss of Jason Todd at the hands of the Joker due to his, as far as Batman's concerned, inaction.

Batman and Superman cross paths twice before the fight. Once during a bank robbery and another during an altercation where Superman does x-ray through Batman's cowl and tells him to stop his vigilantism. Batman rejects this and begins building his suit to combat Superman after he sees the stories about Superman's attacks, that are really Bizarro. Superman does some digging on Bruce Wayne, finding out about his parents deaths and the death of his ward, Jason Todd. He sees an escalation in Batman's viciousness ever since Jason Todd's death. When Alfred discovers that Batman's making preparations to kill Superman, he tries to stop him, to convince him not to, that there must be an explanation for what's happening.

Meanwhile Lex has been keeping tabs on Superman, tracking an energy signature that he gives off using his satelites and an understanding of kryptonian DNA that he got from Zod's body, leading him to discover his identity. He then kidnaps his mom, framing Batman for it, placing a batarang at the scene.

Lois investigates Superman attacks. She tracks them to Lexcorp and recognizes Lex's goons leaving the building from the opening terrorist confrontation, following them. Superman is basically winning the fight, until he stops himself and begins to realize that he and Batman have been manipulated by Lex. Batman capitalizes on Superman's stopping and uses his kryptonite weapons. And Batman begins beating Superman brutally, mercilessly, and we see flashes before Batman's eyes of Jason Todd being beaten half to death by the Joker with the crowbar. During the fight Alfred would try to convince Batman over the comm to stop, but Batman turns them off, saying that he has to. He would then tell Superman that he's let too much death happen because he wouldn't do what was necessary and that he won't let that happen again. But Superman would convince Batman that he doesn't have to do this, to cross this line, that he understands how he feels. That powerlessness can make you lose sight of what's right, it can make you make mistakes, big ones that you'll regret for the rest of your life. That you can feel like you can't save anyone. That doing this will make him lose what's good in him and he might never get it back and then, confirming that he knows who he is, says, "Bruce, this isn't who you are. You can be better than this. You have to make a choice about the kinda man you wanna be. Do you want to be this?" Batman flashes back to his father telling him that in life you have to make a choice about the kinda man you wanna be. And Bruce realizes what he was about to do, what he was about to become and crumbles to the ground under the weight of that realization. Lois tracks the goons to a building, sneaking in, where she finds Martha and unties her. She then calls Clark and tells him this and hearing the name Martha, Bruce is snapped out of his guilt stupor and realizes that he can still be a hero. Lois' then caught by Lex's men. Batman then hears from Alfred that Superman's attacking the city, or rather Bizarro is and tells Superman. Superman isn't sure what to do and Batman says that he'll go after his mom, that Martha won't die tonight, no one will.

Superman confronts Lex and tries to make Lex stop Bizarro. Lex tells him about Bizarro with, "Aliens, metahumans, magic, it's truly bizarre times we live in. Only fair that we make something just as bizarre to combat it." He says he thought Lex was his partner, a friend. Lex tells him, "With you? After demolishing a chunk of the city, you expect any human to be a friend to those terrifying hands. The hands that'll now be responsible for the city's destruction again."

Superman, angry now, asks Lex, "Why? I only wanted to help."

"Why? Good question... Ya know, I was the hero of the city before you got here, grew up in the slums with 2 poor thugs, abandoned by my real father, and when he died I saw my opportunity to take what was rightfully mine, I pulled the city out of mediocrity and made my company and it a shining beacon for the world, then your alien invasion obliterated everything I worked for. And I put it back together again and you know who everyone cheered for? Superman. You stole everything that I earned. It's what you're here to do, take away the power human's have, decide our fate for us. To stand above us all and lord your power so we all bow down and worship you. You don't get to do that. You hold humanity's destiny in your hands and I'm taking it back. The world will look at your corpse and see you for the monster here to take our fates out of our hands that you really are. And I'll be their hero. I guess I should thank you though. You helped me see that this world was larger than I thought." Lex then snaps his fingers and Superman's tackled by Bizarro. The fight leads through the city, Bizarro trying to endanger people, Superman working extra hard to save them.

Batman hears about the fight from Alfred about and goes to help. Him and Superman together fight Bizarro. Batman using his kryptonite weapons, as Superman helps people. Batman and Superman work together to defeat Bizarro. After Bizarro is subdued, Batman's about to use his kryptonite weapon to against him, considering killing him. But Superman stops him, saying that he promised that no one would die tonight, saying that there has to be another way, that he's learned that it will only cause more pain, that this creature is just something else Lex has manipulated. Superman and Batman go to arrest Lex. Superman tells Lex he's going to make him answer for everything he's done. Lex stabs Superman in the arm and sets off a kryptonite bomb to explode and kill them, then jumping for the elevator, but Batman saves Superman, protecting him with his lead suit and the aftershock of the firey kryptonite residue hits Lex.

Aferwards Superman and Batman talk, Batman deeply apologizing for what he nearly did and Superman responding that what he nearly isn't what's important now, but we did do and what he will do. He did what was right. And that's why he knows that he can trust him. Superman decides to trust Batman with the kryptonite, saying that if anything were to happen, he now trusts him to stop him. He says that he's tried to be perfect, to be above people, but he's not and that's why he's been tormented, he's held himself to an impossible standard. He's NOT God. Not a Savior. And he has no right to allow people to think that he is. He's only human. And it's time that he accept that and start accepting help, saying that he has Batman to thank for helping him see that. Batman says that it's time he does the same. Montage this with Lex in the hospital, the kryptonite having poisoined his DNA, making him lose his hair, it being publicly stated that there was no evidence to say he was behind Bizarro, due to the creature decaying, as all those associated with the ship defense projects are dead, and Superman confronting him, telling him that he'll put him away. Then Batman coming back to the batcave to see Alfred waiting for him. And he helps Bruce clean Joker's message off of Jason's costume, making it no longer a reminder of Batman's failure, but a memorial in Jason's memory. He then contacts Oracle, telling her to tell Dick that he's back. Alred, for the first time in the movie, smiles. And Clark proposes to Lois, saying that he's ready to let her in now. Please review and tell me what you think! Have a very great day!

God bless you all!

#anti dceu #anti batman v superman #anti bvs #superman #clois

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