Barbarian [DC Comics] [complete]

Barbarian

I do not own Superman, Batman, Oracle or any other character; they belong to DC comics. Cover art by Jim Lee and Scott Williams. Chapter art by Britt Martin.

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 Batman tapped his communicator. "Scarecrow's on his way to Arkham, O. What have you got for me?"

"It's Superman." Oracle's voice was detached; Batman knew immediately that she had bad news. "He seems to have gone insane." She didn't add "again," but Batman heard it anyway.

"Dammit. What's his ETA?" Batman was already arranging his belt so the most extreme options were right at his fingertips. It would take more than a smoke bomb or a batarang to bring down the man of steel.

"He's not coming for you."

"He's . . . what?" Superman always came for Batman first. It was an unwritten rule: he'd only take over the world after he'd taken a couple of swings at Batman. After all, everyone knew that there was only one person on the planet who had more green Kryptonite stockpiled than Batman. "Did he go after Luthor?"

"No. He's spent the last half-an-hour entertaining crowds by wrestling animals at the Gotham Zoo."

There was a moment of stunned silence. "Publicity stunt for some charity?"

"Not unless he's trying to raise money for animal abusers. He's injured a polar bear, a water buffalo and an African elephant. The zookeepers are apoplectic." The noise of typing transmitted for half a minute, then Oracle was back with, "There's no one in the rogues gallery, or in any police or federal database, who has a history of mind-controlling people into abusing animals."

"And any intelligent mind-controller would have sent him after me, to take me out before I could figure out a way to stop Superman. We should assume, at this point, that he's acting on his own."

"Red K." Oracle suggested.

"Or actual insanity." He talked over Oracle's protest, "It's a contingency we need to prepare for." Batman reached his tumbler and quickly changed into his most protective non-mechanized suit. The ceramic plates could stop a bullet, spread out the force of a blunt impact, and resist heat transfer. It might be enough.

"Be careful, B. The league's stretched pretty thin trying to stop the tsunami in Indonesia, especially with Superman MIA. I can't promise you any backup."

"I'll be at the zoo in eleven minutes, forty-five seconds." Batman slipped into the driver's seat and floored the gas pedal.

---

Batman double-parked in the crowded parking lot. He vaulted a seven-foot wooden fence and came up behind Commissioner Gordon, who was trying with increasing desperation to evacuate the crowd. They were largely ignoring the police bullhorn, instead pushing and shoving to get closer to the enclosures with the big cats. Batman could blame Selina for his familiarity with this area of the zoo.

"Commissioner."

Gordon didn't startle the way he used to when Batman would come up behind him. "Thank God you're here. There is something seriously wrong with your friend in blue."

"What happened?"

"Witnesses report he showed up forty-five minutes ago. When a security guard asked him why he was there, he announced that, as Earth's mightiest hero, he had come to prove his mettle in battle."