Redemption

Disclaimer: I own very little.

Chapter 12: A Distinct Lack of Mayhem

A/N: Okay, nothing happens in this chapter. Seriously, nothing. It’s a filler chapter, horrible as that may be. You should just skip it and hope the next update is better.

It took Sasuke three hours to get back to Gotham. Two of them were spent on trains, and the other one waiting for trains, which he frequently switched to avoid being tracked.

Once he arrived in Gotham, Sasuke started walking until he reached a specific alleyway, where he entered a concealed doorway in the wall. Inside, there was a small room which looked completely bare, until Sasuke tapped a specific pattern of bricks on the wall. The wall split inward, revealing a hidden garage, complete with a Batmobile.

This was one of Batman’s many safehouses. He kept dozens throughout the city and the world, equipped with varying levels of technology and equipment. Currently, Sasuke had access to three, strategically placed throughout Gotham.

Driving a car, especially a car that would put both tanks and racing cars to shame, was incredibly illegal for a thirteen year old. This was wise, given the odd immaturity of young people here.

Sasuke, however, was mature due to intensive emotional suppression as a child. Technically, he had the control and maturity needed to drive a car, if not the height. Legally, though, could be tricky. It was fortunate that he didn’t legally exist, or he could be arrested.

It took him only a few minutes to get back to the Batcave, and fortunately Batman had not changed the security codes in the short time that he had been gone. In fact, he was sitting in front of the Batcomputer when Sasuke arrived.

“Report,” Batman commanded.

“All three of the individuals you assigned me to investigate are vulnerable to Kryptonite. The Cyborg, however, is still capable of using his metal limbs when exposed to the substance. Also, I obtained the blood sample you requested,” Sasuke reported, setting the vial of the Metropolis Kid’s blood down on a nearby table.

“Hn. Well done,” Batman noted. From him, it was high praise.

“Where’s Robin?”

“He’s out patrolling.”

“Has anything major happened?”

“No.”

“Well, then, I’m going to sleep,” Sasuke declared absently, before walking into the cave, finding the mattress that he slept on, and collapsing. He was asleep within seconds.

He was awakened the next day by the Batcomputer, which was making a fascinating variety of noises which sounded suitable for an orchestra, a rock concert, and a car crash rolled into one.

Sasuke drowsily dragged himself to the keyboard. Batman was conspicuously absent.

There were many flashing red lights on the screen. From his lessons in computers, Sasuke recalled that this was a bad sign. Several keystrokes pinpointed Batman’s current location, and another opened a communication line between them.

“Batman?”

“What?” The voice of the irritated dark knight came through the speakers.

“Batman, its Rook. There are about twenty red lights flashing on your computer.”

“Which ones?”

“Well, they’re mostly concentrated in the upper right corner of the screen, but there are two others, one in the center and the other on the keyboard.”

“Ah. That’s the Metropolis protocol. It means that something of severe importance has occurred in Metropolis. Activate the satellite cameras, and divert the main viewer to the Batmobile.”

Sasuke began furiously pressing keys. On the screen, a live view from Batman’s many orbital cameras flickered to life. Shortly afterwards, several other rectangles appeared, showing the same scene from different angles.

On the screen, the armored man known as the Man of Steel faced off against the Last Son of Krypton. Behind him the Man of Steel, a man with a severed hand clutched at his cauterized stump, as the Last Son of Krypton stared menacingly at him.

From a playback from the camera that has sent the alert with its limited artificial intelligence, Sasuke watched as the Last Son of Krypton brutally attacked a young purse snatcher, vaporizing his hand with heat vision before being attacked by the Man of Steel, who defended the thief.

Sasuke sent the footage to Batman.

“I estimate that he’ll last five minutes,” Sasuke commented.

“Send an alert to the Justice League. The green button in the lower left corner of the keyboard.”

Sasuke tapped the green button, opening a link, and sent the footage to the Justice League. There. Now someone else could be woken up by annoying alarms. He felt satisfied.

“Will you be joining them?”

“No. Two-Face broke out of Arkham three hours ago. I will be busy chasing him down.”

“Hm.” The call to the Justice League was acknowledged, and the green-colored form of the Martian Manhunter appeared on-screen.

“This is J’onn J’onzz. Speak.”

“Hello. The Batcomputer is showing that two of Superman’s replacements are trying to kill each other, and Batman is indisposed. Would you mind stopping them?”

“Aren’t you that sociopathic twelve-year-old from another dimension?”

“Yes.”

“What are you doing in the Batcave?”

“Batman gave me a job.”

“A…job.”

“Yes. I was surprised too.”

“Why did he give you a job? If memory serves, your only goal in life is to messily kill your only living relative.” This was true, except that he couldn’t kill Itachi when Itachi was in another dimension. The whole “restore his clan” thing had never really factored in to it.

“Yes. So?”

“Does not that run counter to Batman’s core philosophies?”

“Yes.”

The Martian Manhunter seemed perturbed for a moment. “I’ll have the League try to intervene.”

“Good.” Sasuke glanced back to the screen. “Wait a second…they aren’t hitting each other.”

“What?”

“They’re just…talking?”

“Odd,” the Martian Manhunter noted, absently removing a small black-and-white sugary treat from a bag filled with similar treats, and popping it into his mouth.

Indeed, on the screen the visor of the Last Son of Krypton had stopped glowing, and he had landed. The Man of Steel had abandoned his defensive stance. They appeared to be yelling at each other.

Suddenly, the Last Son of Krypton nodded to the Man of Steel and flew away, leaving the unfortunate young criminal relatively unharmed, but also likely to seek vengeance for the loss of his hand using sophisticated technology that he would create by himself in spite of being a grade school drop-out and lacking in any money.

Sasuke tapped several keys, attempting to realign the satellite cameras so that he could track the Last Son of Krypton.

“He’s leaving Metropolis…”

“Can you calculate his likely destinations?”

“Yes, give me a moment…” Sasuke muttered as he entered in the Last Son of Krypton’s trajectory.

“He’s heading for Coast City.” Coast City was Green Lantern’s hometown, but he was temporarily in space. If the Last Son of Krypton had gone insane or had been carrying out some long-term invasion plot, then it would be virtually defenseless.

“Hm…I don’t think that the League has anyone in the area. I’ll try to contact Flash, but I think he’s occupied.”

Sasuke attempted to keep the cameras on him, but it was remarkably difficult to track someone who moved so fast; Sasuke could not keep the cameras focused on him for longer than an instant.

“How can the Flash be busy? He’s the fastest man on the planet, can’t he spare a second?”

“There is some kind of team-up going on with his Rogue’s gallery. Something involving alternate dimensions and time-travel.”
“…I don’t understand this world. I miss the simplicity of my own. All we had was intrigue and multilayered plotting. Also superpowered assassins.”

“So, no time-travel?”

“No. The closest thing we had to what you have were the Bijuu, massive forces of destruction that walked the earth, killing everything in sight.”

“Fascinating.”

Sasuke finally located the Last Son of Krypton on the outskirts of Coast City.

“Found him.”

The Last Son of Krypton simply floated. The people in the streets looked up fearfully before going about their business.

Rook frowned, before zooming in with one of the cameras. Some particularly stupid man was attempting to steal a woman’s purse. In plain sight of the Last Son of Krypton.

“Moons of Mars, humans can be moronic,” the Martian Manhunter commented, clearly depressed, “This one will have to pay the price. Evolution at it’s finest.”

Sasuke watched as the Last Son of Krypton swooped down to grab the man, catching the purse and handing it back to the woman, who promptly fled.

Then the Last Son of Krypton did something so totally unexpected that Sasuke’s mind almost shut down.

He calmly handed the purse-snatcher over to a nearby policeman.

“Huh?” Sasuke inquired intelligibly.

“How odd. He’s has never allowed a criminal to live in the past without intervention.”

“Oh, no…” Sasuke groaned as he realized what had probably happened, “I thought that it wouldn’t happen here…”

“What?”

“In my universe, there was a boy who could convince psychopaths to change their ways from a life of murder, blood and death to his own personal philosophy. I have no idea how he did it. He beat them up while yelling at them, and they miraculously altered their entire way of living.”

“And you think that the conversation he had with the Man of Steel has had a similar effect?”

“Probably. I had hoped that it wasn’t a multiversal constant.”

“Well, I suppose that there probably is a precedent, somewhere, given that there are a few villains who decided to become heroes around.”

Sasuke sighed. “Oh, well. I’ll tell Batman it was a false alarm.”

Sasuke cut the connection.

He spent several moments staring at the uniformly blue screen, trying to place the nagging feeling that something important should have happened.

End of Chapter 12

A/N: Dear God, I hate myself for writing this. It’s the chapter in which absolutely nothing happens. I deeply apologize to whoever reads my story and is now tempted to stop. I agree, it’s horrible. It just…leapt at me, and in the state I’m in, I can’t afford to turn away ideas.