Superman Fucs Gotham

It's finally,

finally

time for this chapter. This is one of my favorite characters and I wanted to include her from the very beginning, but it seemed most appropriate to start with the core Batman villainesses and then I got absorbed in setting up everything. All that's done, though, and I get to do this.

And yeah, yeah, comic book logic and crazy sex fantasy rules are in effect. Let's go!

-

The moonlight fell softly over Gotham, yet reflected harshly from the two swords as they clashed. Once again, the violence transformed a thing of beauty into an ugly reality. If she had been a fraction of a second slower, her corpse would be lying on the rooftop and then the scene would have been peaceful again.

Cassandra Cain barely raised her sword in time to deflect the next blow, yet it still drove her backward. She skidded several paces across the roof and raised her blade back into position, even though the conflict had left no doubt as to the eventual victor. The most she could do was delay the inevitable.

Across the roof, Lady Shiva frowned scornfully. The other woman was incredibly beautiful despite her expression. She wore a stiff red and black uniform and hadn't even deigned to remove the outer jacket to fight seriously. When the blade in her hand began to shift, Cassandra couldn't quite follow the movements.

She felt tears in the corners of her eyes and was grateful that her mask covered her entire face. Everything in her life was broken. Just when she thought she'd gained enough speech to communicate with other human beings, she'd been robbed of her ability to read body language. How that worked didn't make sense to her, yet it made her unable to keep up with a grandmaster like Lady Shiva.

Without warning Shiva flowed across the roof, her blade flashing out from all directions. Cassandra managed to avoid injury on pure instinct, but the movements were beyond her. She could only survive by retreating with every blow. Turning to run would be instant death, yet standing her ground meant she would die by a thousand tiny cuts.

There was no one there to help her, either. Once, fleeing to Gotham would have meant she had allies. Yet now it was a lawless wasteland that held nothing for her, either to save her life or to repair her shattered being. Perhaps death was the easiest way out...

Pain shot through her shoulder and it was over.

Her uniform managed to turn the blade and prevent a serious injury, but her involuntary flinch was far more time than Shiva needed. In an instant her sword had opened superficial cuts on Cassandra's arms and legs. She dropped her sword and collapsed to her knees.

If Lady Shiva wanted to kill her, she could have done so. Keeping her alive meant...

"You're pathetic." Shiva returned her sword to its sheath. "You're not even worth killing as you are now."

Cassandra stared back at her flatly.

"Given time, however, you might be a worthy opponent. Return to me, daughter, and I will train you to be a true warrior. The assassin that you were born to be."

"Never."

"You say that now, but-" Shiva cut off irritably as a soft sound interrupted them. She placed a finger to her ear and listened for a moment, her scowl deepening. "I almost have her, Talia. Leaving now is-" Though Cassandra strained her ears, she couldn't hear the other end of the conversation. "Why should we trust the clown? Even if - no, I understand. As you command."

Shiva vanished from view and Cassandra threw herself aside desperately. The sword cut through one of the spines atop her mask, but she'd avoided a killing blow. Though Shiva came at her with utter seriousness, trying to kill with every strike, Cassandra could just keep ahead of her. She was burning through her reserves, but when pushed to the edge she couldn't let herself die.

Though she could avoid the deadly attacks, a master like Shiva used her entire body as a weapon. One foot hit Cassandra's chest, perfectly activating her pressure point. She hurled back across the rooftop, hitting the side and flipping over the edge. Though she desperately grabbed for a fire escape on her way down, the most she could do was slow her fall to avoid breaking her legs.

Struggling through the pain, she managed to stare upward toward her death. Yet though Shiva was standing on the edge of the roof, she was arguing with Talia instead of pursuing. Finally she cursed. "Send the helicopter, I'll escape on my own. That should distract him long enough for the girl to die."

Turning away, Shiva utterly erased her presence and vanished from the rooftop. But before she went, she tossed something over her shoulder. It fell slowly toward Cassandra and she recognized the bomb. She knew the make and model exactly, and there was nothing she could do. Even if she hadn't been stunned and injured, there wasn't time to escape its range. It wasn't humanly possible.

Then everything changed.

Though her body couldn't keep up with superman speeds, experience had trained her reflexes to react to speedsters. Yet even to her reflexes, Superman simply seemed to appear. He caught the bomb in his hands and though it exploded in response to the pressure, she barely saw the explosion between his fingers.

His next movements were just within her ability to perceive: Superman discarded the fragments of the bomb, looked at her in concern, then gently swept her up in his arms. A moment later they were floating over the rooftops.

"Don't worry, you're safe now." Held against his chest, she could feel his voice vibrating through her entire body. Though she wanted to relax and let herself give in to the weariness, she couldn't stop until it was over.

"Lady... Shiva..."

"Ah, the helicopter." She tried to tell him it was a diversion, but in the time it took her to open her lips he had already moved.

They were suddenly several blocks away and Superman was tearing the blades from a top of the helicopter. He did it so quickly she barely even felt his arm leave her legs. The members of the League of Assassins started to look up in surprise, but an instant later they were unconscious in a pile. Lady Shiva wasn't among them, of course.

"She..." Her voice was so dry she couldn't get out any other words, yet Superman nodded in understanding.

"She sacrificed them to make her escape, didn't she? I'm listening and looking for her, but she's hidden herself well. Most likely she's gone." He smiled warmly down at her. "But it's alright. You can rest now."

Cassandra let her head fall to rest against his broad chest, the last image in her fading vision the S emblem. It meant something to her, more than most other superheroes. Superman had absolute power to kill, yet he never did. He represented a perfect denial of the assertion of force that others believed should control her life.

Resting against his chest, Cassandra finally let exhaustion claim her.

X X X

Though Cassandra woke in a surprising degree of comfort, her training didn't allow her to relax. She kept her eyes closed and her heart rate and breathing even while she took stock. There was no immediate sense of danger and her injuries had been treated. She lay on a soft bed without covers and the air was just slightly cooler than the usual room temperature: familiar conditions for multiple underground bases.

Her personal inventory completed in a moment, Cassandra began to draw more information from her environment. That turned out not to require any special skills, because two female voices were currently engaged in conversation.

"And we don't know anything about why the League was in Gotham?" Barbara Gordon's voice, comfortingly familiar. That meant they were likely in the Batcave.

"Nothing, but hopefully she'll be able to tell us when she wakes up." It took Cassandra several words to recognize the voice as Poison Ivy simply because it made so little sense. Cassandra was exceedingly familiar with turns between good and evil, but it didn't seem likely that Oracle and Poison Ivy would just be casually chatting.

Barbara began typing rapidly. "Tell me, when Superman showed up with Cassandra, had he...? You know."

"Just rescued her like a gentleman, as far as I know. Why, are you jealous there's another Batgirl in the cave?" Cassandra felt her breathing nearly shift before controlling herself again. What were they talking about?

"She's going by Black Bat now," Barbara said, mildly distracted. "But no, I just wanted to know whether or not the scans I took of her were useful. I need to form a baseline for radiation levels, but all our numbers are far too high for obvious reasons."

"You couldn't get a baseline from the atmosphere or civilians in our territory?"

"I tried, but the results weren't very helpful. There's some radiation everywhere in the atmosphere, yet the average person on the street doesn't seem to retain any of it. None whatsoever, even though they're being irradiated every day."

"Is it related to the metagene, then?"

"I don't think so. I also scanned my father and he gave off high levels - higher than some of the criminals we have imprisoned."

"How is he, by the way?"

"What, you're concerned for his health now?"

Poison Ivy sighed, a shockingly human sound. "Babs, do you really think about me that way? I'll have you know I saved his life from the Joker venom, when things first went bad."

"Sorry, just... I'm a little sensitive about Dad, because our last conversation was so uncomfortable. I couldn't tell him the truth for reasons I think should be obvious."

That got nothing but a sultry laugh, which didn't exactly help Cassandra understand what they meant. She wanted to look at them and see what information she could get from their body language - even limited as she was, it might help her with some context. But they sounded relatively close to her and she didn't want to risk them realizing she was awake.

"In any case," Barbara said, "I'll assume these are Cassandra's normal numbers. It looks like she's been irradiated well above average. Unless she has someone like Superman, that's strange. We'll have to ask her if anything has been different in her life lately. Hmm, I'll have to check the files..."

They subsided into work and Cassandra realized she was being unnecessarily cautious. Whatever Poison Ivy was doing there, they were clearly on her side. If they'd wanted to hurt her they could have and she couldn't believe that Superman of all people would have ulterior motives.

Cassandra opened her eyes and sat up, discovering that she was lying on a medical bed in the Batcave. Her cape and several pieces of her uniform lay beside the bed, cleaned and repaired. Yes, she was still among family. Poison Ivy was tinkering with several vials, but Barbara looked back at her and smiled as soon as she sat up.

"Cassandra, I'm glad to see you up. Your wounds didn't look bad, but you were out for so long, I started to worry."

"Just tired..." Cassandra rubbed her eyes slowly. "What's happening?"

"We were hoping you could tell us that. There hasn't been any League of Assassins activity in Gotham for months and then Lady Shiva shows up trying to kill you? Superman captured several groups attempting to flee, but none of them have any information except that they were tracking you."

"They were." It took some effort to formulate the words she wanted - this was what she'd given up her fighting ability for? "What are you... doing back in Gotham?"

"Trying to make a difference." Barbara wheeled back so she could rest one arm on the computer console. "Now isn't the time to get into the details, but there's something amiss. Everything that's been going wrong in the world might be more tied together than we think. If you have other business you need to resolve, though, we'll support you on your way."

"Who is 'we'?"

Barbara smiled oddly. "That's actually a tricky question, since-"

Cassandra tensed her body instinctively as she sensed someone arriving at superhuman speed, but it was only Superman. In an instant he hovered in the center of the room, his arms folded over his powerful chest. She was immediately struck by how similar he looked to Superboy, especially those clear eyes that she could fall into. Except whenever she met Superboy's eyes she was reminded that he hadn't experienced nearly as much as she had, whereas Superman...

To distract herself, she made sure to note the others' responses as well. The most striking was that they didn't flinch at all, as most humans did when someone appeared out of nowhere. They just smiled at him familiarly. In fact, their body language was far more relaxed than she considered normal. Clearly they were comfortable working together, but that couldn't be the whole story.

"Cassandra." Superman nodded to her. "I'm glad to see you're well."

"You... know who I am?" Even though she'd worked with Batman, Cassandra felt like the whole JLA existed on another plane. They were figures she read about in newspapers, not people who used her name so easily.

"Of course. I always keep track of the strongest members of the Bat Family."

Part of her thrilled to hear him say that, but it was also an unpleasant reminder of what had happened to her. Cassandra looked down at her hands. "Not anymore. I'm... weak."

Poison Ivy scoffed. "Because you couldn't beat the greatest martial arts master in the world? Poor you."

"Ivy." Just by speaking her name, Superman wiped the scorn off her face. She shot an apologetic glance toward them, though more to Superman than to her. Cassandra realized that she'd been insensitive, but also that Superman understood part of how she felt: most likely every time in his life that he'd felt weak, he'd still been stronger than almost all human beings.

Barbara wheeled closer and put a hand on her knee. "If you need to talk, Cass..."

"I need time." Cassandra took a deep breath and looked between them. "Can I... stay here? For a while?"

That prompted a quick exchange of glances... except for Superman, who didn't look away even once. After a brief pause, he nodded. "We'll get you a room in Wayne Mansion. Stay as long as you like."

X X X

Over the next several days, Cassandra recovered from her injuries and did her best to get to the bottom of what was going on. No one was obviously keeping anything from her, but she didn't feel verbally confident enough to really interrogate any of them, either.

Many facts were no secret and surprised her slightly. Superman had taken over part of Gotham, but he ruled benevolently and seemed to be doing a better job keeping criminals imprisoned than Arkham or Blackgate ever had. Given that Gotham was a lawless zone, it wasn't even technically illegal, though that didn't particularly concern her.

That, however, was clearly not the whole story. Almost all of Superman's allies were female supervillains, apparently converted to the side of justice. After seeing them consistently work together Cassandra had to admit they seemed to be sincere, but it was still incredibly suspicious. And given how large the Batcave and connected tunnels were, she could never see more than a few of them at once.

They couldn't hide everything from her, however. Cassandra watched their body language closely, and while everyone displayed a normal range of emotions, there was one exception: when they were near Superman. Some inclined toward him, others changed their breathing, most exhibited eye dilation.

All of those would have been appropriate if they were simply attracted to Superman, but that wasn't all. The women also displayed subtle signs that she had previously only seen between lovers. Yet if she was correct that would mean... would mean...

Just as Cassandra was convincing herself that her body reading skills were simply misfiring, she spotted Superman walking with Catwoman and the Huntress. They were discussing enforcement inside their part of Gotham, yet there was something more. When Cassie started to follow them, they vanished along with Superman in a burst of superhuman speed.

That alone was nothing unusual, since Superman was the quickest method of transportation. But Cassandra refused to let herself be distracted and methodically combed the Batcave for the missing women. She found them half an hour later, walking down in the opposite direction down her corridor. They passed her with polite nods and moved on.

As soon as they were past, Cassandra froze in place. It didn't take any particular reading skill to notice their clothes in disarray, the involuntary muscle relaxation, and the way they favored their hips. All signs of women who had recently been having rather vigorous sex. And since they'd disappeared with Superman...

"Hiya!" Harley Quinn appeared from a nearby doorway and swung her hammer directly at Cassandra's face.

Instinct took over, flipping her backward and out of range of the hammer. Yet when she returned to her feet, Harley was already coming after her. Though she didn't know what the abrupt attack was about, Cassandra decided to end it quickly, grabbing the hammer and quickly disarming-

Her back hit the wall. She was stunned for a moment, and in that moment Harley attacked again. Cassandra retreated in confusion. Harley's erratic style wasn't to be underestimated, but normally she wasn't a real threat. Yet now she was legitimately pushing her back, and Cassandra realized she'd need to take the fight completely seriously to win.

Had she become so weak? As she ducked under the massive hammer, Cassandra realized that wasn't true. Somehow, Harley Quinn had become surprisingly strong. Wild as her style seemed, it was faster and more efficient than it had ever been before. That meant... what did it mean?

"That's better!" Harley flipped the hammer up to rest on her shoulder. "You were looking glum, I figured a good fight would perk ya right up!"

"...thank you?" Since Harley didn't give consistent body language cues, Cassandra was left with only social context to guess what exactly she meant. And that was not exactly helpful either.

"Heard ya got weaker after you learned to talk. That doesn't make a lotta sense, does it?"

It didn't, really, but Cassandra had long since come to terms with that. Yet Harley just kept grinning at her... was it some bizarre form of mockery? Before Cassandra could become too uncomfortable, Harley spoke up again.

"You've been making a lot of strange choices lately. Why?"

The question didn't seem to make sense, yet Cassandra couldn't dismiss it immediately. She had spent nights lying awake, wondering about the choices that she'd made. At times it almost seemed like she wasn't herself, and yet...

Cassandra shook her head. "I don't understand."

Harley frowned. "Ya mean ya didn't feel the difference when Supes took ya? At all?"

"W-what?" Cassandra couldn't hide the shock on her face. Superman had been nothing but kind to her since she'd arrived, and the suggestion that he'd forcibly... yet Harley didn't seem even vaguely concerned by that. Instead, she sighed in exasperation.

"He hasn't yet?" Harley ran her eyes up and down Cassandra's body. "What's wrong with him? I gotta go ask him..." She wandered off with as little explanation as when she'd arrived, leaving Cassandra standing in the corridor thoroughly befuddled.

She tried to convince herself that it was a massive misunderstanding, that she'd misconstrued the clues in the entirely wrong direction. As the day continued, however, the self-deception wore increasingly thin. Eventually she began to steel herself to the idea that Superman really was having sex with all these women like they were some kind of harem.

The problem was, they all seemed so happy. It didn't make any sense to her and it was easier not to think about it, yet her mind couldn't let the matter go. Cassandra stumbled her way to one of the Batcave's training rooms.