DC Heroes

man_of_steel:


The blasted waste of the Arctic reflected the way he felt, as Superman arced toward the Fortess of Solitude. He landed amidst the alien architecture, his mind burdened with troubling thoughts. The League had returned, but Batman had gone...One could only hope Hal Jordan was in fact telling the truth. As he walked amidst the cold crystal spires, his eyes passing over the pictures of friends, and fallen comrades. He stood in front of of a row of crystals. Each was as tall and broad as a pillar, and within each one stood a perfect hologram of a Justice League member. He found himself looking at Batman. The hologram conveyed the Dark Knight's menacing form, but his virtual self had something akin to a smile on his grim features. Superman wondered if Batman had ever been this way, or if he had simply wanted to remember him like this. He closed his eyes as the memory of Batman's resignation surfaced.

" It's got to be so nice to be self-righteous. To never doubt yourself. To always know what you're going to do. To never have to decide anything. That's it, isn't it? For all your talk of logic and reason, you never apply any outside of a crime scene. You're like an animal. Instinct and Fear are all you have. " He looked at the hologram, rage boiling to the surface. He remembered the look in Batman's eyes. The subtle change in his breathing. He had been hurt. What gave him the right to be hurt, when he was the one slapping his friends in the face? Slapping Clark in the face?

BOOM!

Clark lashed out faster than than the human eye could see, striking the crystal where Batman's face was. A crack appeared in the once flawless pillar, but it held firm.

BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!

Clark struck it again. Then again. Then again. He let himself feel all of the anger and frustration that had been boiling up inside him over the years, all of the tension building as the League disbanded. The futility and sadness he had felt as he had floated amidst the broken bones of his homeworld.

CRASH! The pillar finally gave, exploding into a thousand shards of perfect crystal. Free from his glass prison, the holographic Batman flickered and then winked out of existence finally. Superman looked down at the remains of the display. "I thought you were my friend..." he said quietly "I thought you understood." But no-one understood. No-one. Not Lois, not Diana, not Jimmy or Perry or J'onn or Arthur. Not even his parents. Clark noticed stains of crimson dripping down his left hand. He looked at his right, and was surprised to see the same. The Kryptonian crystal had embedded itself in his knuckles, and he hadn't even noticed. Brushed the shards from his hands, Superman looked him and soared out of the Fortress, into the sky above. High amidst the clouds, he was struck by the sun's naked light. He bathed in the power, watching as his wounds closed over and healed. He looked out across the horizon. The world was stretched out beneath him. Opening his senses, he heard ten thousand voices cry out for help. He heard them, and he would answer...