literature

Troubled Worlds Ch. 2

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Lois wringed out a cloth that she’d wet with water. She’d pulled Bruce’s cape off of him before dragging him to the couch and carefully trying to get him onto it. It had taken her a bit, but she’d finally gotten him up. She’d put a blanket on him stopping it at his chest . Lois shivered and went over to the sliding glass door and closed and locked it. She closed the curtains and went back to Bruce. She felt his forehead and didn’t feel anything above what would be normal temperature… She sighed and looked at his unshaven whiskery face.

“What am I to do with you Bruce?” She whispered quietly to herself, “You’re a mess…” Lois got up and went over to the kitchen, getting a teapot from under the sink and she filled it with filtered water, putting it on the stove where she started the fire under the pot. She went over to her closet in her bedroom and took a blanket from the bottom of a pile of them. It was nice and smooth, like silk. She breathed in deep in and nearly froze when she recognized Clark’s scent. She shook her head and took in a breath before going out into the main living room and sat down in her soft reclining arm chair. She unfolded the blanket and set it over her. She put her hand to her warm belly, where the baby kicked lightly, and waited quietly for the tea. Ten minutes passed in which Lois dozed on and off before the teapot started screaming in it’s steamy way. She walked over to the stove, adjusting the blanket, which when she picked it up felt like it would be thin, turned out to be quite warm. She picked up one of two tea bags, the one she picked up was green tea. She took a mug from her cabinet, two of them when she heard a bit of movement behind her and set them on the small table in the kitchen.

“It’s a bit chilly in here, Batman. Want some tea?” Lois asked, not daring to say his first name in case he got angry for some reason, but looking up to see him sitting up on the couch.

Bruce nodded and Lois filled both cups, putting her teabag in then the other which she got from the counter.
There was silence save from Lois moving around when Bruce finally spoke.

“You do realize that you have one of Clark’s capes over your shoulder…” Lois put the Sugar down and actually turned on a real light, the living room light. She took off the soft cloth and looked at it. Bruce had been right. She felt tears threaten to come free, but she managed to stop then, aware of Bruce watching. Bruce got up and walked over to the table and put a consolidating hand on her right shoulder, while getting his cup of tea with the other. She looked up at him and acknowledged his presence. Bruce sat down in the seat to the right of Lois and, cowl still on, started to drink his tea.

“You haven’t had much company, have you?” Bruce asked at last, breaking the silence that had fallen once more over the two, draining his cup of the warm liquid that was inside.
Lois shook her head.

“You’re the first person to come in that I haven’t kicked out.” She said, holding her warm cup in hand.

“You’re pregnant.”
It wasn’t a question.

“And you reek of sweat.” She said, eyeing him, “You need to take a shower.”
Bruce shifted, waiting.
Lois sighed, “It’s mine and Clark’s…” She said after a moment.

“Wait….but I thought-“ Bruce started to say, but  Lois held up her hand and silenced him with a look.

“You know what happened; the transfer made him a normal human being. Or so I think…”

“Oh…, right.” He set his cup down and got up. He stared out the window for a long moment before looking back to Lois, who was watching him.

“Can you get me some of the spare clothes I left here last time I came?” He asked.

“Sure,” Lois said, getting up and going into the guest bedroom. She comes out and hands Bruce the clothes. He nods to her and then goes into the bathroom, a few seconds later he opened the door and dropped the suit with cape onto the floor before closing the door again, and the shower started running. Lois went and picked up the suit and cape and put them in the washing machine, which was in yet another room of the five room apartment…
- - - - -
Meanwhile…
Static yawned and sat down on his electrically charged disk.

“You yawned it V….boring. No-one’s tried doing anything since Batman started taking over as the most important crime fighter the world ever saw…The Bangbabies and even common criminals are scared of him…So they aren’t picking fights even with us…” Gear said, yawning behind his helmet.

“They aren’t picking fights here because they know we know Bats. They don’t want to risk us contacting him…” Static said, cracking his knuckles before forming a ball of electricity in his hand and bouncing it up and down.

“You know what really sucks, he’s got everyone scared cause of his tactics…I heard he’s basically leaving people in a state of shock and beaten up quite badly if they were doing something against the law…” Static continued to mess around with the electricity he had made into a tennis sized ball for a while until…

Skreeeeeeeeeee! Skrrrrkk! Skreeeeeee! Skkkr skkreee!

“Arrgh!” The electric ball dissipated as Static lost his concentration and clapped his hands over his ears. “Turn it off!” He yelled as the sounds continued. Richie blinked, he looked at his friend in confusion right as his electronic equipment suddenly shut off and he ended up falling for the ground.

“STATIC!!” He yelled, hoping whatever was going on with his friend, he would still hear him.

Static heard Gear’s yell, and trying to ignore the electronic screeches, like feedback from a huge microphone, Static headed straight for the ground, pouring on the electricity, focusing it into his disk. He suddenly made it stop as he got right under Gear, and caught him.

“Hnn! Man Rich, you need to stop eating those Chili fries…” Static muttered, screwing up his eyes and face against the still sounding electronic feedback he was hearing.

Sssskkkkrrraaattic!

Static blinked and shook his head as he landed on the roof of a building, setting Richie down and picking up his disk, which he shook slightly, and it folded up on itself and became the small circle it normally was when it was not charged up.

Ssssskkkkraaattttic! Mettttrrrrrpppliiisss….Brrrrrzzzztmrrrraaan!

“Static? Can you hear me?” Gear asked, as he got to his feet and shook his friend.

“Make it…stop…” Static groaned as he fell to his knees on the roof.
Static. An electronic-like voice, finally legible said, Static able to hear it clearly…

Go to Metropolis, Static. The voice warped on and off, so it was difficult for Static to be able to tell who was managing to reach him like that…

“Metroplis? But why? What does this have to do…with..Batman?” Static asked.
But the sound and it’s feedback were gone.

“Static, can you hear me?” Gear asked.

“Y…yeah…”

“V…your ears…” Gear said, sounding shocked as Static took off one of his gloves and touched his right ear. He brought it back and was shocked to see the blood on them. He took out a cloth and carefully wiped up the blood from inside his ears.

“Dude, whatever you were hearing…it did a number on your eardrums.” Gear said after Static had finished and looked at all the blood on the white cloth.

“Yeah it did…sounded some weird garbled transmission except super super loud with my powers…though it did seem like it was nearby…What happened to your equipment?” He asked at last.

“I don’t know, one minute it was working, the next it was defaulting on me and I was falling. It’s like it was an electrical surge… Not from you though, you were… preoccupied.”

“I know…And Rich…I’m going to Metropolis…whoever…or whatever that was that was trying to contact me…wanted me to go to Metropolis…and well, I got nothing better to do, and well it’s summer break!” He charged up his disk and hopped on it.

“I’ll come with ya, V. Would be nice to see Metropolis!”
Static frowned for a long moment, thinking.

“Naw, don’t come, what if something goes wrong here?” Static asked him. Gear folded his arms.

“We’re talking a big if here, seeing how things have been lately.” Gear scowled under his helmet but relented.
It was already getting dark in Dakota by that time, but Static got on his way towards Metropolis, following roadways so he could see the signs in the dark…
- - -
Lois was fast asleep when Bruce finally came out of the shower, wearing black jeans and a black T-shirt to match it, he was barefoot, cleanly shaven and his hair all damp. He walked over to the washing machine and checked it. The suit was still in there. He took it out and put it in the dryer, checking what settings he should put it on and then started it. He sat on the couch and closed his eyes, listening to the sounds around him, Lois’ breathing, the sound of the dryer spinning…
Before he knew it, he’d actually started drifting off…

He suddenly found himself punching Clark right into a gas field, where Clark yelled for one of the workers to run…

“Is that what you are going to tell the rest of Humanity when the armada finally comes?  Run and Hide?”  Bruce heard himself say. He could practically feel the alien he had allowed to infect him moving his mouth and body…But there was nothing he could do about it.

“No.” Clark started to get up and suddenly flew right at him…

“I’ll protect them like I always have!”

Bruce stood there waiting and right as Clark would have hit him, He aimed and punched actually spilling blood from Clark…The force behind it…normally it would have shattered his bones but the alien parasite had made him stronger when it infected him…

“Then you’ll be protecting them from themselves! Look at you, Alien! Fighting for a world that is terrified of the power you wield!” He growled as he continued his beatdown of Superman…Everything became a blurry mess and the next thing he was able to see was Clark’s angry face, eyes glowing red with heat, arm out in front of him, choking Bruce, Bruce was weakly trying to get his hand away from him…

“In any other situation they’d be right, but I know YOU. And I know the Batman would prefer DEATH before losing his soul.” Clark said hand tightening even more…

“I’ll do whatever it takes to bring Bruce Wayne back OR to give him peace.”
It all faded then as the ‘dream’ or recollection ended. But Bruce wasn’t awake…why won’t he wake u—

“Something on your mind Bruce?”

Bruce looked around and saw Clark sitting at a table, writing something on a paper, coffee in front of him, in a plain dark blue coffee cup. That was it. Just Clark, though this time wearing a red shirt with blue jeans, the table, chair, paper, coffee and Bruce.

“What?” Bruce asked.

“I said…Something on your mind?” And he looked up, his face looked to be decomposing and rotting, pale and sunken. It was the third most horrifying thing he had ever seen.

“Why are you so surprised?” Clark said, standing up, holding the paper, “YOU DID THIS TO ME!”

Bruce Jumped back, “I didn’t do anything to you Clark! I didn’t cause the amulet to change you! You did it to yourself!”

“Just like your parents were at fault for their own deaths?” Clark spat back at him, the words were like hammer blows.

“Face it Bruce…Me, your parents, and even Alfred would be alive now!” These words were like Kryptonite to Bruce as he saw Clark’s face get even more distorted…

“It’s time you paid for your crimes!” And Clark’s eyes glowed red….


Bruce woke with a gasp, bolting upright into a sitting position…he panted hard for a while, getting that image of Clark out of his head as fast as he could when he noticed that Lois was awake and bleary eyed. He looked at the clock on the wall. Two AM…

“What are you doing awake?” He said, rubbing the back of his head, noticing the look of concern on Lois’ face.

“I wake on and off during the night…I woke up about ten minutes ago and heard you…whimpering in your sleep. Then about two minutes ago you started screaming.” She sat down on the couch next to him.

“Do you want to talk about it?” She asked him, Bruce shook his head.

“I’d rather not, Lois.” He said, running his hand through his clean, now dry black hair. Lois turned on the lights and looked at him.
She shook her head as she saw the dark bags under his eyes indicating the lack of sleep.  She didn’t comment on it though, because she noticed that whatever Bruce had been dreaming about had left him shaken. So instead she grabbed the TV remote and turned the TV on. She flipped through the channels slowly, taking time to see what each show was about before she came to the news station.

She watched it for a moment, something about no crime and Static leaving Dakota for who knows why reasons and reports of members of the Justice League spotted looking for someone all over the world. Lois glanced to Bruce at that and noticed him glance at the window as the dryer beeped loudly.
She got up and then went and got Bruce’s suit out of the dryer, nice and warm… She went to the living room/kitchen and the tossed it to him on the couch.

“Mind telling me why the League is after you?” She said as Bruce started to get up. He froze and looked to her.

“I’m not an idiot, I do watch the news every day. You’ve done something that’s got them mad…or at least so desperate to talk to you that they’re looking all over the place for you…Is that why you came here, mostly as a place to hide?” She asked, her voice starting to get loud and angry now.

“I’ve heard of how…beaten up so many of the people you’ve turned in have been! Why are you hurting people like that when you could simply just knock ‘em out then turn them in!”
Bruce stood up and looked down at Lois and opened his mouth…
- - - -

“Nnnh…I made it…” Static panted as he got into Metropolis, knees and hands shaking as he stood on the disk. He glanced at his watch. 2:15 AM…

“Damn…no wonder…” He fell to his knees on the disk, his power flickering on him as he started fading… He saw a kind of spire and then on an instinct headed towards it. When he landed there he saw that it was the Superman monument. Weirdly enough…Superman had died just days after Clark Kent did…Static had found it suspicious but his tired, clouded mind didn’t want to process it… He just wanted to sleep….

“You’re here... I wasn’t sure you would come...”  Static jumped, now completely awake as he heard the voice, a bit of an electronic twang to it now…though otherwise perfectly understandable.
Static looked around wildly and froze after a moment’s looking he yelped and stepped back…

“S…Superman?” He gasped, looking at the man of steel, in his uniform. What he didn’t realize was the faint purple glow in his own eyes, the color of the electricity he could produce at will.
Superman looked at Static and frowned, “You can see me?”
“Yeah…are you a ghost or something?”

“I suppose you can say that…and hm…” Superman approached and saw that faint glow in Static’s eyes.

“Now I see why you can see me…People have long theorized that ‘Ghosts’ are like an electronic Phenomena or at least give off electricity...And of course your powers picked up on that…even if I don’t want you to see me you still can…Incredible.”

“I…suppose…unh…excuse me…I’m going to pass out now. Go ahead and wait if…if you want…” Static collapsed in a heap on the ground at the base of the memorial.
Clark looked at the unconscious Static and looked right over at the general direction of the apartment, hearing the shouting match between two people he was trying to help.

Superman sighed, “Sorry about this Virgil…” And he put his hand to Static, disappearing…only for Static to stir and get up, curling his firsts up, electricity coming from them and picking up his disk, shaking his head.

“Why can’t those two play nice for several hours?” Static growled to himself, the color of his eyes going from brown to blue. He started to take a step but faltered, realizing just how drained he was. He looked around and spotted a fuse box nearby. He staggered over to it, and opened it, bringing his hand to the wires and starting to soak up as much electricity as he possibly could.

“Ahhh…now I see the difference it makes for him…” He then charged up his disk and sped toward the apartment …
- -

“I do that because I have to Lois! They don’t give me much of a choice!” Bruce yelled.

“Oh yeah, so they don’t give you much of a choice to give them heart attacks?!” Lois yelled, “Or is that just for kicks, some kind of sick twisted humor? You don’t have to scare everyone to death!”
Bruce got this dangerous look that made Lois gasp and start to back up.

“Bruce…I-I didn’t mean that! It just came out!” She stammered as she saw Bruce’s eyes start to glow red.

“It’s amazing how many people say that, but never really mean it.” Bruce growled.  He was just about to reach her when he let out a yell, surrounded by electricity. He turned around and saw…

“Static?” He said, actually surprised.

“You need to calm down, Bruce. I don’t want to have to fight you…again.” Electricity crackled around Static’s hands, illuminating his face. Bruce noticed a hint of exhaustion there, but he seemed alert and ready for a fight. But there was something odd about him.

“I’ve never fought you Static…” He said slowly, though backing away from Lois, eyes narrowing on Static still. “And I don’t recall your eyes ever being blue.”
Static sorta just floated there, watching Bruce.

“Where’s your oh so sparkling sense of humor gone Virgil? Or are you on one of your off days from lame jokes?”

“Hmph, I don’t do lame Jokes, that’s the Joker’s gig…Now…are you going to behave like a good little Bat or are we going to have to get you to get all that anger out doing something else?” Static half taunted.

“Are you daft, Static? You don’t want to mess with me right now.” Bruce growled. The electricity flared and grew wilder. Static grinned he’d been itching for a fight for a while.

“Come on Power leecher, come out and fight me!” Static saw Bruce’s face darken and left the apartment through the sliding glass door.
He brought his hand to his head for a brief moment, he knew he shouldn’t be taunting Bruce but he knew it was either that or let him hurt Lois…And he couldn’t allow Lois to be hurt. Though…he should have waited ‘til Static was fully rested…this fight is going to hurt… He headed over to the Park and hovered the on the disk, crouched on it as he waited for the tell tale sound of Bruce’s ca—

“Aaaargh!” He snarled as he was punched right off of his disk, landing hard onto the grass, tasting blood in his mouth.  He got up, spitting the blood out of his mouth.

“First one’s free, next one isn’t.”
The electricity crackled around Static’s entire body as he shot ball lightning at the dark figure of Batman. He kept throwing the lightning at Batman, though it didn’t seem to have any affect… It took the span of three minutes for Static to be on the ground, bleeding quite a bit, his outfit torn in many places.

“Khurrhg!” Static coughed out quite a bit of blood. Static watched Bruce get closer and start to get down to talk or whatever.

“Hraaa!” He let loose a huge blast of electricity, blinding Batman as he jumped onto his disk and sped away. He glanced back and saw Batman right on his trail. A freak gust of wind flapped his coat and hair around. Static saw where he was by and allowed himself to show his exhaustion for a moment. The wind got more intense and knocked him off of the disk onto the grass a few feet below, the impact jarring him and a line of pain going to his head. He was on his hands and knees panting hard.

He got up feet and hands shaking…
Batman landed on the grass lightly.

“You’re tougher than I thought, Virgil. Good, cause—“ He broke off in mid sentence watching as Static let out a low groan putting his hands to his head and collapsing in a heap. Though is electrical powers started going crazy, he was like an out of control live wire…

“Unh…”
Batman frowned and knelt down next to Static and pressed two fingers to his neck, noticing how weak his pulse was. It reminded him of his throw down with Nightwing…he’d almost killed Nightwing and now Static was injured because of him as well… Curiosity overwhelmed him as he opened one of Static’s eyes carefully. His eye color was brown…

“Possessed…Hrm…But by what…or who?” He picked Static up and looked at his surroundings and frowned as his eyes fell upon the memorial. He looked down to the beaten up and unconscious Static in his arms and to the memorial to Superman.  Then he remembered Lois in her apartment and sighed. He flew back there and set Static on the floor, propped up against the couch.

“Oh my gosh…what did you do to him?” Lois gasped, shocked at the state Static was in.

“He was possessed, Lois… By who…I’m not completely sure…But you were right earlier…I am out of line… Can you get me the medical kit? Gotta clean him up while he’s not running at the mouth.”

Lois shook her head and went into the bathroom, rummaging around in a cupboard and she came out with the medical kit. She sat down in her chair watching as Bruce spent the next hour cleaning up Static’s wounds and then stitching up the worst of them….
Seems a bit strained near the end, but I was getting tired :XD:
© 2009 - 2024 Gabriel-loki
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Zal-Ta-TalOs's avatar
Huh? *Blinks* So apparently the alien parasite that took over Bats body is what finished Supes off in the end? :/