The Bat & The Witch {1}

<Chapter 1: Funnel-Ferry Butterbar>

(19 years later)

It was night in Gotham city, Bruce just came back from catching a criminal. He saw Alfred was still where he left him 2 hours ago.

"You still working?" Bruce asked, walking over to his computer. "You're getting slow in your old age, Alfred."

"Come to us all, Master Wayne." Alfred said. "Even you got too old to die young. And not for lack of trying." He put the voice changer up to his throat and spoke, causing his voice to come out deeper. "Funnel-ferry butterbar. Funnel-ferry butterbar. Funnel-ferry butterbar. Funnel-ferry." He put the voice changer down. "There's nothing wrong with the microphone. It's this new layer of armor. I'll just have to rewire." He grabbed a tray that had lemonade on it and walked over to Bruce, who was standing at his computer. "So, last night was productive?"

"No." Bruce said. "He's too low-level. He knew nothing. This is a man who knows things." He brought up a picture of a guy on one of his computer screens. "Anatoli Knyasev. He's Russian. Contracts all over the globe, but he's based out of the port of Gotham. Weapons and human trafficking."

"So, the White Portuguese is a Russian." Alfred said. "That's the theory?"

"No." Bruce said. "The theory is that the Russian will lead me to the man himself." He sat down in his chair.

"If he is, indeed, a "him", you don't even know if he exists." Alfred said. "He could be a phantasm."

"One that wants to bring a dirty bomb into Gotham?" Bruce asked.

"Ah, high-stakes round." Alfred said. He grabbed the newspaper and threw it down in front of Bruce. "New rules." Bruce picked it up.

"We're criminals, Alfred." Bruce said. "We've always been criminals. Nothing's changed." He set the newspaper back down on the desk.

"Oh, yes, it has, sir." Alfred said. "Everything's changed." He hit a button, showing a video of Superman on one of the computer screens. "Men fall from the sky. The gods hurl thunderbolts. Innocents die." Bruce's eyes wandered over to the picture of Laia he had in the left corner of his desk. "That's how it starts, sir. The fever. The rage. The feeling of powerlessness. It turns good men cruel." Alfred walked away.

???'s

I was in the lab, reading the statistics on our newest experiment. I heard the door open. I looked to see Lex come in with Mercy, Senator Finch and Senator Barrows.

"You know, dad was born in East Germany." Lex said. "He grew up eating, uh, stale crackers. And every other Saturday, he had to march in a parade and wave flowers at tyrants." He picked up a green apple. "So, I think it was providence that his son, me, would end up with this. One of my Rebuild Metropolis crews found it. Little souvenir from the Kryptonian World Engine." They walked over to the box that had an experiment in it.

"What does a rock have to do with homeland security?" Senator Finch asked.

"Homeland security?" Lex asked. "Hmm. No, no, no. Ma'am, planetary security."

"The fragment is a radioactive xenomineral." Emmet, one of our scientists, said. "We suspect it might have bio-interactions, so we took the sample to AMRIID," He pushed a button and the video of dead General Zod showed up ",where they keep the remains of the Kryptonain decedent. And, when we exposed General Zod to the mineral, this happened. Profound biodegradation. Decaying Kryptonian cells."

"We concluded the mineral could be weaponized if a large enough sample was found." Lex said. "And then, among the fishes, a whale." Emmet pulled up an image of the rock. "Ah! Lying at the bottom of the Indian Ocean. Emerald City. Beautiful. Now, Rocky is radioactive, but what he needs from you is an import license."

"And why would we want to weaponize this material?" Senator Finch asked.

"As a deterrent." Lex said. "A silver bullet to keep in reserve, to use against the Kryptonians, so the day does not come, madam, when your children are waving daisies at a reviewing stand."

"Last I looked, the only one of those flying around up here was Superman." Senator Barrows said.

"Ha-ha, yes." Lex said. "Superman. Yeah, but there are, uh, there are more of them."

"The metahuman thesis." Senator Finch said.

"Yes, the metahuman thesis." Lex said. "More likely than not these exceptional beings live among us." Lex glanced at me for 2 seconds. "The basis of our myths. Gods among men upon our little blue planet here. Now, you don't have to use a silver bullet. But if you forge one...Well, then we don't have to depend upon the kindness of monsters. For example, everyone here knows my dear sweet younger sister Laia." He walked over and stood next to me. "She is not only one of my best scientists, but also...one of my best test subjects." The senators looked confused. Lex looked at me as Mercy put an apple on top of the glass box holding the mineral. "Show them." I looked over at the apple and held my hand out in the direction of the apple. I concentrated and red energy surrounded my hand. Red energy surrounded the apple, and it was lifted into the air. The senator gasped. "Levitation. The ability to move an object through the air. The metahuman thesis does exist, because people like her do." The apple slowly went back down, and the red energy disappeared from the apple and my hand. I smiled.