HL: Interlude: Reactions to Bixi's Attack

Bruce Wayne frowned at the latest issue of the Gotham Gazette. Vicki Vale hadn't exactly been subtle when it came to her description of the fighting. The fact that Bixi had been here at all was bad enough, but this article? She compared Jackie to Superman, and that wasn't something that Bruce was willing to countenance. True, it wasn't exactly an unfair comparison, not after what Bruce had seen of the fight between Jackie and Bixi, but it also wasn't something that Bruce could countenance being made known to the general public.

"You've got that look on your face again, Bruce. The one that says someone's about to have a bad day." Spoke up Tim.

Tim and Barbara had been running through Wing Chun drills nearby as Bruce read the Paper in the Cave. It seemed they had paused their sparring and drills sometime in the middle of Bruce reading Vicki Vale's Article.

"Someone is about to have a bad day. Possibly all of Gotham." Intoned Bruce.

"How do you mean?" Questioned Barbara.

"See for yourself." Scowled Bruce, holding the paper out for her to take.

Barbara vaulted up onto the Platform where Bruce was seated, clambering out of the sparring pit in seconds to make her way over toward him. When she reached him, Barbara snatched the Paper out of Bruce's outstretched hand and began to read. As she did, her grin gradually left her face, replaced with a thoughtful expression, as if she was thinking through the various possibilities.

"This could be bad." Frowned Barbara.

"I know. It could have any number of Superpowered Psychopaths and Mercenaries coming out of the woodwork to visit Gotham." Agreed Bruce.

"Well, I don't know. Someone mind filling me in?" Queried Tim.

"Vicki Vale managed to not only get a few good photos of Jackie's fight with Bixi, but also wrote a whole article on it for the Gotham Gazette." Informed Barbara.

"She compared him to Superman." Growled Bruce, clearly frustrated.

"Oh. That's not good." Mused Tim.

"No, no, it is not." Agreed Babs.

"The last thing a City like Gotham needs is for an all-powerful madman to come here looking to earn a reputation by taking down the next Superman. The last time something similar happened, I had my spine broken and the City almost collapsed into complete chaos, and Bane was only capable of putting out ten tons of power behind his blows." Insisted Bruce.

"So what do we do about it?" Asked Tim.

"There's only one thing we can do." Sighed Bruce.

"Bruce, no. Don't tell me you're saying what I think you are." Began Barbara.

"If you think that I'm saying that Jackie Yuen needs to move out of the Gotham Area, then you're right on that front." Responded Bruce.

"Bruce! He's a friend!" Protested Barbara.

"Yeah, Bruce. Besides, that whole family is crazy strong. How do you plan on forcing them to move if they don't want to?" Questioned Tim.

"I don't know, but friend or not, we can't have Jackie in Gotham any longer. His residence here could be a threat to the whole city." Admitted Bruce.

He just hoped the Yuens would see it that way because Bruce wasn't entirely sure he could make Jackie leave if they decided to make an issue of it. Tim was right about that entire family being insanely powerful, after all. Bruce would just have to trust that Jackie would do what was right for Gotham. Maybe he could be convinced to move to New York City? Bruce knew that he had planned a new Brewery to be opened in Brooklyn. Maybe he should talk to Jackie and convince him that having eyes on the new brewery site would be good for business? Compared to Gotham's two and a half million and Metropolis' three million, New York City's ten-point-three million People made it far and away the largest of the so-called Three Sisters of the Mid-Atlantic. There was only one thing that Bruce was sure of.

And that was that Jackie Yuen had to leave Gotham before something catastrophic happened. . .

XXXX

Ra's Al-Ghul took his morning tea with any number of papers. The New York Times, the Times of London, Le Monde of France, the Daily Planet of Metropolis, the Chicago Tribune, the Asahi Shimbun of Japan, Sing Tao Daily of Hong Kong, the Los Angeles Times, and many, many more. Ra's liked to keep abreast of the news, and, as someone who had certain Old World Sensibilities, his favored manner in which to do so was by reading the Newspapers. Many of the ones now printed sensationalist tripe, but every now and again, there would be a nugget of golden information amidst all the offal. Besides, the financial news was generally reliable, if nothing else, and that allowed Ra's the ability to keep up with various market trends and allow his many and varied investments to multiply. Funding an organization the size of the League of Assassins was no small feat, after all.

He perused the papers as he sipped his morning Chai, taking in the news of the day. The Recent Tropical Storm Alberto had done more than a billion dollars in damages throughout the Gulf of Mexico in the Southeastern United States, Unrest continued to be quashed in Dhabar as Mullah Arghulian forced the Supporters of the exiled Rafi, Ali Ben Khadir, out of the valleys of the Hindu Kush and into the Deserts of the Dhabari Hinterlands. Bhutran and Tehrac were on the brink of War over an international incident caused by Prince Savitar of Bhutran, while President Kalyan Nong Hoi of Kota Zamfir had just announced the signing of a treaty of friendship with the CCP, which may or may not presage Mainland China beginning to advance its geopolitical interests further into Southeast Asia. In Bialya, a Palace Coup led by a Woman Calling herself Queen Bee had overthrown Colonel Hajarvti, and the military forces sent to enact a counter coup had defected to her side after a brief confrontation. Pokolistan was threatening to invade Neighboring Kravia over rights to Iron and Coal in the Borderlands.

It was all fairly standard news, nothing he hadn't expected. He would move to sell weaponry to both sides of the Pokolistan-Kravia and Bhutran-Tehrac Conflicts, invest in construction in the Southeast United States, and keep an eye on Bialya, Southeast Asia, and Dhabar for further developments. Of course, then his eyes alighted on a particular article from a particular newspaper. Vicki Vale of the Gotham Gazette normally wrote the most sensationalist trash imaginable, but here, Ra's could not gainsay her article in the least, not with such photographic evidence.

No, the Son of the Dragon King, Ao Guang, had arisen and moved to assail Gotham City. He had been stopped not by any stratagem of the Detective's but by the raw courage and power of the Yuen Boy. Indeed, the article wrote nothing but glowing praise for his work as Black Tiger, combatting Bixi in the middle of Delaware Bay. Even comparing him to the recently slain Superman. That was something that made Ra's take notice.

"I should have had him agree to be my heir when I had the chance, Killer instinct be damned. It would be worth it for that kind of power to be passed down to my descendants." Swore Ra's.

Indeed, when he had dismissed the Yuen Boy as a potential heir and switched his focus over to the Santa Priscan Revolutionary, he never could have imagined this outcome in a thousand years. While Bane had proven to be a disappointment, the Yuen Boy had only continued to thrive. To think that he would be powerful enough to deal with an opponent of that caliber in such a short period of time. There was only one way that could have happened. The Yuen Boy had become a Boddhisatva-level Cultivator.

In a way, Ra's was jealous of the Boy. With his own Cultivation stunted at the Level of a Disciple thanks to his repeated use of the Lazarus Pits, the Yuen Boy was now operating at a level of power that Ra's could never attain even if he had a thousand more years to work at it. On the other hand, there truly was no use dwelling on what might have been. It was enough that the Boy thought fondly of his Daughter and himself. It would ensure such formidable power was not pointed in their direction.

However, Ra's pitied the citizenry of Gotham City. Vicki Vale clearly had no clue as to what she had just unleashed. Bixi would be just the first. By stating in print for all to see that the Yuen Boy was the new Superman, Vicki Vale of the Gotham Gazette had just ensured that Gotham would see a cavalcade of new and potent combatants, eager to take a shot at the Yuen Boy. Ra's wished her and all the people of Gotham luck.

They would need it to survive the sort of Chaos that Boddhisatva-level challenges could bring, after all. . .

XXXX

Lex Luthor was not pleased. He had just about been able to turn the destruction of his City to his advantage. Between the death of Superman and the disappearance of his Clone during the Battle with the Monster Doomsday, Lex had been able to transfer his consciousness into the body of his Clone, avoiding the cancer that had been slowly killing him to emerge as a new man in a city bereft of Superman. Unfortunately, upon his return to the Public Stage, Lex would be in for a rude awakening. Now there was not just one Superman, but four!

True, one of those was confirmed later to be an escaped experiment from one of his labs that breached containment after damage to the lab during the Doomsday Fight had allowed him to escape. It was the hybrid Human-Kryptonian Clone he had engineered as a method of fixing the prior mistakes that had resulted in Bizarro's creation. Another was simply a man in a suit of power armor, of course, but the remaining two were clearly aliens, just like their Inspiration. Now, Lex woke to read the Papers and found, of all things, a Fifth New Superman over in Gotham.

It was unconscionable. He would have to do something. Fortunately, there were a number of specialists that Lex could hire for such a job. In fact, one such person currently owed Lex a great deal of money. Nathaniel Tryon, AKA Neutron, an energy being whose containment suit was ludicrously expensive to build and who would dissipate into nothingness should he be forced to live without said suit. He was one of the few superpowered mercenaries that Lex Luthor had access to who could actively hurt someone of Superman's level.

And he was currently in debt to Lex after Lexcorp had built him his latest containment suit. It was perfect, Lex could offer to wipe Neutron's debt to Lexcorp clean if Neutron agreed to hunt down and kill this Black Tiger out in Gotham. It would literally cost Lex nothing to send Neutron out to Gotham, but it might stop a problem before it could begin. And really, what else could Lex want from hired muscle? Lex decided there and then to make the call.

With any Luck, Neutron would take care of this Fifth So-called Superman before he could even think to go to Metropolis. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, I wanted to get this one out before leaving for my family's Mother's Day Thing. I don't know if I'll be able to get another post out today because of that, but at least you have this one.

So here we have the next Chapter. Already, we can see a few problems beginning to take shape from Jackie's new power being revealed. Not only is Bruce going to try kicking him out of Gotham before he can attract the sort of guys that can absolutely wreck up a city, like Doomsday, but Lex is in the process of sending one of those guys to Gotham to assassinate Jackie as we speak. Neutron is someone who isn't quite on Superman's Level, but who can do a decent bit of damage to the Man of Steel before inevitably being taken down. Against Jackie? I'd give him fifty-fifty odds of victory, though Gotham would absolutely be wrecked in the process.

At any rate, in the next chapter, we'll be back with Jackie as Bruce tries to convince him to leave Gotham for New York City.

Stay tuned. . .