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GOTHAM -
The hospital was quiet. Too quiet. Gotham's skyline loomed outside the window, pale moonlight spilling through the blinds. Inside a room, the steady beep of machines kept time with the labored breath of a man who should have been dead.
Roman Sionis, Black Mask lay in the bed like a shattered marionette. His body was a lattice of casts, splints, and steel rods. Tubes ran into his nose and chest, wires attached to machines that kept him alive and in one piece. Every inch of him screamed frailty, and yet, against all odds, his eyes were open. Awake. Trapped in his own wreck of a body.
The shadow came first. A ripple across the curtains as the window clicked open without a sound. The room cooled instantly, as if the very night had slipped inside. Then he was there Batman, emerging from the darkness like a phantom, cape folding around him, the cowl's white lenses glowing faintly in the sterile light.
Roman's eyes widened. Panic flared. His lips twitched against the mask of oxygen, but his body refused him, every bone too broken to respond. His voice came cracked.
"You… bastard.." His teeth clenched, pain flaring with every word. "Screw you, Batman. What the hell do you want?"
Batman's shadow loomed over the bed, calm, implacable.
"That's a sorry state you're in."
Roman gave a rasping laugh that turned into a cough, bitterness flooding his voice. "Enjoying the view, huh? I know you don't kill, but your shadow friend shows no mercy."
Batman didn't answer. Instead, he reached into his back for something wrapped in black cloth. He unrolled it slowly, deliberately. A weapon. The same one that one of Sionis's men used on Kara. He held it low, so Roman couldn't miss the sight of it gleaming in the light.
"Where did you get this?"
Roman's eyes narrowed. He forced a crooked grin despite the pain. "Go to hell. I'm not telling you shit."
The cowl tilted slightly. Silence. Then Batman's gauntleted hand clenched into a fist, the leather groaning under the strain. His voice dropped into something colder.
"Are you sure that's your answer?"
Roman spat weakly, the motion barely enough to shift the blood in his mouth. His voice dripped contempt. "You won't touch me. You don't kill. That's your whole schtick. And me?" He gave a wheezing chuckle. "I'm a hospital case. What're you gonna do? Threaten to pull the plug? Your threats are meaningless, Bat.."
The fist landed.
Roman's head snapped sideways, teeth rattling against the oxygen mask. Pain shot through his ruined body, a scream caught in his throat.
Batman loomed closer, voice low, dangerous. "I won't kill you." He raised his fist again, slow enough for Roman to see it. "But I can still extend your stay here, and by the looks of it I don't think you need an extra year."
Another strike crashed across his jaw. This time Roman groaned, choking back panic. His arrogance faltered. He saw it now, the eyes behind the cowl weren't bluffing.
"Okay, okay!" he gasped, blood flecking his lips. "No more! Just.. just don't hit me again!"
Batman's silence pressed on him heavier than the pain.
Roman swallowed hard, fear sweating out of him. His voice dropped to a rasp. "I got it from… from a supplier. Some freak. Never seen him before. He walked into my compound like it was nothing, armor, yeah, like… like a damn space suit. Didn't even ask for payment. Just gave me the weapon."
Batman's eyes narrowed, lenses glowing sharper. "…And?"
Roman coughed, his body trembling. "And he left. After killing half my men. Just dropped the thing in my lap and said...said…" He spat, anger flashing. "Said 'kill Superman.' Like it was that easy!" His voice broke into bitter laughter. "The idiot! I CAN'T EVEN GET RID OF YOU! And now…" His voice grew harsher, more desperate. "NOW THERE IS THAT SHADOW CUNT!"
The fist silenced him. One sharp blow.
Roman's head slumped against the pillow, consciousness fleeing. The machines kept beeping, the only sound in the room once more.
Batman straightened, sliding the weapon back into his back. He looked down at Roman's unconscious body, eyes narrowed in thought. No words. No parting threats. Just silence.
The window clicked open again. A rush of cold night air swept into the room. When the curtains stilled, the bed was once more alone Roman broken in his spiderweb of casts, and the shadows empty.
****
The Gotham night was the usual. Sirens howled in the distance, faint against the rhythmic slap of boots on concrete. Batman moved across the rooftops like a phantom, cape snapping behind him. Every leap was precise. But his mind, his mind was racing faster than his body could move.
"This is bad," he muttered under his breath, voice gravel carried away by the night. His eyes flicked to the weapon strapped to his utility belt, its alien edges glinting under the city lights. "This kind of tech… it's not human. It's clearly alien."
He vaulted over a water tower, landed silently on the edge of a crumbling rooftop, and kept moving, his voice low but sharp with thought. "What Roman Sionis said confirms it. Whoever's supplying these weapons isn't doing it for profit or a bounty. They're targeting Clark… and possibly Kara too."
The city rushed beneath him, neon and shadows. Batman's mind cut through the pieces of the puzzle. "No one gives out power like this for free unless it's personal. This isn't about control. And this isn't about money. So It's about them being Kryptonians."
He stopped suddenly, boots skidding to a halt on the wet stone edge of a rooftop. His eyes narrowed beneath the cowl, the thought hitting him like lightning.
"…Wait. Kryptonian.."
Slowly, he reached into his belt and pulled out the weapon again. He studied it under the pale glow of a rooftop floodlight, every curve and alloy foreign. His breath caught as the pieces aligned in his head.
"I get it now," he whispered.
The realization sat heavy in his chest, colder than the Gotham wind. He tapped the communicator at his cowl.
"Alfred."
The old butler's voice came instantly, calm, sophisticated as ever, though touched with concern. "Yes, Master Bruce?"
Batman's voice sharpened, urgency bleeding through. "Contact the League. Get Clark to the Watchtower. Now. This is important."
There was no hesitation from Alfred, though he had questions. "At once, sir. I presume this involves the… gift Mr. Sionis received?"
Batman's jaw tightened. He didn't answer the question directly. "Just move quickly, Alfred, I think there is more to this."
he vanished again, swallowed by Gotham's night.
Far away so far the Earth was nothing more than a blue glimmer behind him Superman floated in silence. Space stretched infinite, but here, in the warmth of the burning star before him, there was peace.
He hung there with his arms crossed, cape frozen in a drift like a scarlet banner in the solar gravity. His eyes were closed, his face calm, the sunlight pouring into him, feeding him, bathing him in power. It was like standing beneath a waterfall of energy.
Then, suddenly
His brow furrowed. His eyes snapped open, glowing faintly gold from the solar energy coursing through him. He tilted his head, as if listening to a voice no one else could hear.
"…A distress signal?" His voice was quiet, thoughtful. He turned, gazing back at the distant speck of Earth, the faint echo of the Watchtower's frequency tugging at the edge of his perception.
"From the Watchtower..." His expression hardened. "Something's wrong."
Without another word, he pivoted in the void. His body tensed, then launched forward, streaking past the light of the sun like a crimson comet. Space warped around him as he accelerated, faster, faster, the stars blurring in his wake. Back toward Earth. Back toward the call.
/-\
If you Like this story! Check out my other stories! Solo leveling in Westeros.
&
If you wish to read more or simply support me than check out my patreon at
"https://www.patreon.com/FrenzyAren"
You can Get Access to 3 More Chapters OR 7 More Chapters if you want