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[knightbynight]

▶ WHO: Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent
▶ DATE: 7-28 (I think?)
▶ WARNINGS: Only if you need warned for excessive snark.
▶ SUMMARY: Superman meets Batman.



Bruce had done a remarkably thorough job of removing himself from either sense of identity he had, between the lack of money, lack of Gotham and having killed.

It was really the last that he couldn't reconcile. The fact that what he had killed was already dead and in defense of someone who was fully alive was... irrelevant to how he viewed the action. He had become the merciless thing that Ra's had tried to turn him into.

By and large he 'handled' that by not handling it at all. By working harder to be a useful presence here. To find supplies, to work on technology and development of what they needed and by making sure that if he left the compound he left alone.

He was just back from one of those excursions when he saw Superman. He was still wearing his body armor, gauntlets, boots even, but he wasn't bothering with the cowl. The cowl was Batman, and Batman didn't kill. He had, therefore -

Yeah, he was a little mentally fucked.

All his reasoning about identity still applied. Most of the people here who knew Batman didn't know him anyway.

He stopped, tilted his head and narrowed his eyes. "Can you be infected by what is happening here? Do you know?"

He was great at small talk. He also had an idea.

Comments

[knightbynight]

At least the guy was clearly demonstrating he had a sense of humor and wasn't just a ball of overpowered snark. Bruce appreciated that more than someone who was a ball of over-trained snark should.

He had to wriggle a bit, made Clark adjust his grip a little, and muttered, "You don't dance much, do you," in a grumpy voice. Then got to the belt, pulled out a little round explosive and flung it away from them and toward the ground.

Where it detonated with a loud bang and cloud of smoke.

[borntochoose]

"The girl I liked said no to going to prom dance, so not really."

The smoke didn't really bother him so he simply squinted to take a look at the creatures. They didn't seem to be breathing but the smoke bothered them anyway. "Nice trick though, very ninja. Do you have something... loud?"

[knightbynight]

It wasn't the smoke that was the point so much as the bang, which at least distracted them. Or so Bruce had hoped.

"Loud and sustained." He considered the question and then - "Maybe." He wasn't exactly prone to making loud noises and drawing attention to himself, but with a little bit of work he managed to come up with something.

Which amounted to the parts from a security alarm he hadn't done much with but had intended to. Fishing them out and getting them activated wasn't overly hard, but he stopped short of the throw. "You have better range. You toss it."

[borntochoose]

Clark nodded and simply grabbed the alarm. He looked slightly... disappointed but in his defense he'd been expecting some ninja device. He really didn't believe the ninja thing but he could tell the man would do anything in his possession to prove it.

"Well, there goes nothing." And off went the alarm, while shifting to hold Bruce with just an arm.

[knightbynight]

Bruce moved to effectively stand on Clark's feet, just because there was no way he was going to tolerate effectively dangling by one arm. It wasn't comfortable, and it wasn't controlled enough for his tastes. So he did something about it.

He watched the alarm fly off into the distance and waited until he saw the shuffling forms move after it, though his eyesight being human meant he didn't exactly have a clear view.

"Flash bang grenades."

Were what he needed to manufacture.

[borntochoose]

Clark was about to make a quip about stepping on his toes while dancing, but the affirmation made him stop and actually give it a thought.

"We could try that. But I think something that distracts them for longer would work better. Like an alarm clock we could throw the other direction."

[knightbynight]

"There are applications for that, but those applications are limited. An alarm will need an energy source, unless we can find a lot of mechanical alarm clocks, and then the duration will still be limited to roughly a minute. Also, the longer the noise continues the more zombies are attracted to the location. I'd use it if I wanted to set a trap, but I'm not sure how necessary it is for a distraction to allow escape."

He paused and frowned and kept thinking. "To allow me to escape. Something with greater duration might be useful for others. Still limited, though, I think. Long enough, but not so long that it's a power drain. Maybe something that would move away the entire time it's in use?"

Yeah, Clark was getting stream of consciousness. Sorry.

[borntochoose]

Clark didn't seem to mind at all. He was actually looking pretty excited at the prospect.

“Yeah! Like attaching an alarm to something, but I'm not sure what you could use to get something moving for long enough to make a difference. And you'd have to make sure it'd keep on moving for as long as the alarm worked or you'd just be setting up the trap somewhere else.

Can I put you down now?”

[knightbynight]

"Yes. You could have put me down five minutes ago." Which was an exaggeration. "I didn't realize you were waiting on permission." Or an order. Also, that was to cover him being embarrassed. Embarrassment made him snarky. ...Snarkier.

"Drone. Remote controlled toy, something that could be fired, even, would work well enough in creating distance, though it would be best if it could keep moving. Something light with wings, perhaps."

Yep, still going on.

[borntochoose]

"Well, I don't dance often. Might as well make it count."

He also dropped him from higher above than necessary, letting him fall after making sure he wouldn't hurt himself. Hah.

"Do you still want to go get that or go back to the compound and write this down before you forget?" He said 'you', because it seemed fairer than 'we'.

[knightbynight]

Bruce stuck the landing in spite of the state of his knees. He'd certainly managed from higher and breaking his ankles from that height wasn't likely, anyway.

"I don't forget things." Ever. Ever, ever ever. "We need to go get that freezer. We can work on the other project once we have our cooling unit."

[borntochoose]

"Sure."

So Clark was gone, and back again in a matter of seconds. "Found one. No idea if it's broken beyond repair. Want me to guide you there?"

[knightbynight]

He almost made a sarcastic remark, then remembered the handsprings. Then shrugged, and answered directly. "Yes. I'll take a look at it and decide if we have the means of fixing it. If we can, you can carry it back. If we don't, we can keep looking."

He paused. "Also, stop disappearing like that. It's disconcerting."

[borntochoose]

Clark rolled his eyes, didn't even bother trying to stop himself. He motioned for Bruce to follow him.

"So it's not just flying that makes you nervous, is it? It's my powers in general."

[knightbynight]

"I don't care that you can fly, I don't want to be hauled around like a sack of potatoes while you did it. The random disappearances without warning and taking over wholesale is just rude."

Yes. It all made him nervous. It all made him extremely nervous and as a result somewhat hostile - albeit inconsistently.

[borntochoose]

"Have you ever had to use an ATM machine before? And had someone old or simply bad with machines in front of you?"

[knightbynight]

"Yes, and somehow I manage not to shove them out of the way and take over and do it for them. Because that would be creepy, patronizing, threatening, and probably considered assault."

He was cranky. He wasn't even sure that was where Clark was going with it. Also: "I'm not bad with machine or incompetent. I'm human."

[borntochoose]

"I know, I know." He wasn't surprised he had gotten his meaning so fast, he was a smart man.

"I'm just saying that's how it feels for me every second of my life. So I get a little excited when it's something I can actually help with and do for people."

[knightbynight]

"You can help by hauling it back. Until then you can work on coming up with a less insulting and patronizing analogy." God damn affable man. "Maybe something that doesn't imply other people are incompetent or ignorant."

He wasn't really much insulted, but he was a little. Mostly he was - well, still defensive and on edge about the powers, but he was trying not to show that one. He was also heading more or less where he thought they should be going.

[borntochoose]

"Not incompetent or ignorant, no. You're smarter than I am." He really had no problems admitting that.

(Honestly, he did. A little bit. But he tried to be the better man.)

"But I am faster and stronger. What's wrong with admitting that?"

[knightbynight]

"I didn't say you weren't faster and stronger." Though that galled him to no end. "I said you were a patronizing dick and that disappearing without warning was rude."

That was better, right?

Sure. Right.

[borntochoose]

Clark pursed his lips. But it would be stupid to keep on pushing it: whatever Clark's feelings were on the matter the point was that Bruce considered it rude so he should stop doing it. Period.

"Fair enough." He took a couple of quick steps to end up in front of Bruce, guiding them. "But I still think my powers make you feel uneasy."

[knightbynight]

"Of course they make me feel uneasy," Bruce said, without a single hint of defensiveness or apology. "I don't know their limitations, if they have limitations, or enough about you to trust you with them. You could conceivably be able to kill every person here without a moment of hesitation or effort and nothing could stop you. For all practical intents and purposes you are a bigger threat than the zombies, because you can think, plan, interact and deceive."

That wasn't an accusation. It was a statement of fact.

[borntochoose]

"Ah."

It was like a very deep cut. He didn't even know the guy that well, even Clark wouldn't call him a 'friend'. But having someone put his deepest fears, his darkest thoughts and the one thing his father had always feared so plainly had sliced him like a knife. And yet it was completely his fault because he'd been the one pushing it.

He had been looking at Bruce, but now he was simply looking to the front, shoulders tense..

"We should get there in 10 minutes tops. We're going fast so probably earlier."

[knightbynight]

Bruce took in the set of Superman's shoulders, the lack of argument and protest and quickly came to the obvious conclusion. That had hurt, and the issue was something that mattered to the man. He wanted to be seen as he was and trusted, in spite of but not because of it.

Bruce wasn't all that trusting, but he both had a means of manipulation (for positive and negative) and more trust than he'd had.

"If it's repairable you can take it back to the compound and save us the slow trip back." Was that a concession? Kinda. "You've been... enormously helpful here." So far.