2013.05.06 - Toe Tac Tic

Gotham by night is not the most beautiful sight to behold. With the crumbling infrastructure, the gothic architecture, and crime on every street corner, visitors must be wary.

Well, most visitors anyways.

When Superman flies high above the city he doesn't seem at all concerned with the rumors that this part of the tri-state area is the gateway to Hell itself. Instead, he seems more intent on finding whatever it is that caused the ruckus in one of the neighborhoods and spilled down into the sewers.

The initial report was that Superman had come to assist in during a superpowered scuffle that ended in some property damage, but somewhere the information got crossed. In actuality, when the Police arrived on the scene, it wasn't Superman at all but someone dressed to look like him. The physique looked similar, but the tattered costume and dead look in the pale being's face was the first sign that it was not the Man of Steel.

The destruction of a library was the second.

The villain, whoever he is, escaped down into the sewers and easily lost the police trackers. Now the search is on to find out who or what this thing is.

Superman in Gotham does tend to attract attention... particularly Oracle's. In general, she tracks most metahuman/superhero action all over the globe -- but particularly in her own back yard. Thus, as she gets close ups on the bizarre Superman-lookalike, she frowns. And that he destroyed a library? The bastard! That, obviously, must be attended.

So, as far as she's concerned, it's fortunate the real Superman has made his presence known (albeit via satellite). She starts a recognition scan, using all the various surveillance technology available to her in a 2 mile radius around the library, using it to reconstruct the event and figure out just where the lookalike went. Overlay that with maps of the various sewer, abandoned sewer, subways, and abandon subway lines and she starts to get a good possibility.

Ultimately, she breaks into the JLA comlink once more. "Good afternoon, Superman," the Oracle's androgynous digital voice says pleasantly over com. "I see you've come to Gotham. From your flight pattern, I'm guessing you're scanning for the unusual visitor we had at the Leeds St. Library, today. If I may, I suggest you start scanning the area immediately to the south west. There are several old tunnels there that dump out into Market Street. I think your doppleganger has gone underground. Quite literally."

Superman's eyes flicker as the voice comes over the channel. That same unauthorized, but welcome voice he's come to hear quite often lately. He relaxes after just a moment. "The Oracle again, I presume? Thank you for the heads up, unfortunately with all of the densely packed material down underneath the Earth, it's more difficult for me to use my vision than normal. That might be the reason why I'm having trouble following him."

Big Blue does as instructed, scanning the area to the south west. He peers, grits his teeth, and bursts out of the air downwards without so much as a notification to Oracle. He figures 'it' can find him easily enough.

Within a split second he's bursting down beneath the ground, making a small hole on one of the side streets off Market. After a few loud 'BANG's, a much larger hole erupts and spills too similarly clad heroes. The Man of Steel, dressed in a futuristic red, yellow, and blue is very distinct from the other who almost looks like he was made of a mixture of hair and quartz rock. This other -villain, surely-is wearing an outfit similar to Superman's but it is made from tattered cloth of purple and off-red.

The pair roll around along the street as cars swerve away, some safely and some not so much.

Yes. Oracle can follow Supes well enough. And as he starts with the unauthorized roadworks, she starts linking in to the traffic light system, redirecting traffic by throwing up a huge wall of red lights around the affected intersection. She also keys into the police band and issues an anonymous tip that they'd be wise to help redirect traffic, if they can.

"I see you found him," she comments lightly to the Man of Steel as he explodes back up into the sky from underground, his doppleganger in hand. She starts doing a database scan to see if she can identify said dopple as anyone the Kryptonian might have faced before... and thus someone she might have information on.

Not that she holds much hope. She's beginning to sense a theme in Supes' enemies: Cosmic thugs with a hard on for lots and lots of face pounding.

"I have," Superman says as he gets on top of the monster long enough to deliver a punch to its face. "I'm not sure I've ever seen this one before. He looks vaguely like I do, by the dress and by the general build and look, but something seems to have gone very, very wrong. His skin is--*SMACK!*

The blow to the face interrupts Superman's conversation (how rude) and sends the Man of Tomorrow soaring into the air and through the third story windows of a condemned office building.

If the building wasn't condemned before, it will no doubt be before the fight is over. "Superman!" As he slams through the building walls, Oracle focuses her satellite feed over the area to get a better look at what's happening.

Meanwhile, police cruisers have started arriving at the accident scenes around the area. Oracle monitors the chatter, unwilling to interfere on those frequencies unless she has to. The Cheonhado affair only reinforced, for her, the reality that most authorities are unlikely to take the word of a disembodied computer voice.

She also starts running recordings of the earlier fight through an analysis program to see if there are any tells or weaknesses the doppleganger has that might be exploited.

Superman seems a bit woozy for a few seconds as he gathers himself. He pulls away from the wall that broke his momentum, the bricks leave a rough shadow of where Superman made an indent. "I'm here. I'm okay. It seems he has my strength, as well as my speed."

Superman zips back out the way he came and flies downward in order to meet this bizarre creature. The beast is thinking the same thing and is bolting upwards. The two mammoths are coming at each other with impossible force, and when they meet, the shockwave knocks out nearly window for a square block.

Superman is launched in a wide arc, set to land quite a distance away, while his adversary is buried down into the ground. Both seem worse for wear after the shot they each take.

Meanwhile, from the data that Oracle can see, the pair are remarkably similar in their power set, their look, and the like, without the clear differences in appearance. The enemy shows no apparent weaknesses, other than the same brute force that has been knocking Superman back.

"Any idea who he is?" Oracle asks the Man of Steel. Her eyes scan the information coming back at her from the various government databases -- including some interesting information on the existence of kryptonite, the government's contingency plan to use it in case the Man of Steel goes rogue, and his vulnerability to telepathy (which is a far less reliable method of takedown, according to the government report she scans. Huhn. She'll file that away under an ultra top secret seal, yes, she will.

"He's matching you blow for blow," she tells him needlessly. "I don't have anything that will help, here."

Superman comes to somewhere over near the center of a park. Well, whatever passes for a park in Gotham anyhow. "Oracle," comes his pained voice, "I need you to send a message to the BSH, for me. Please." His voice sounds pained as that last punch seems to have staggered him. "I'm not sure if I can do this by myself. Contact them and let them know we have an emergency situation. They will ask you for a passcode. Give them 29k39931FqRDCY234. Please hurry."

Oracle starts calling up the frequencies for BSH, "Copy that," she tells Superman. Connecting then, she starts relaying his message, giving them the passcode as they demand it of her. "Here's the deal, boys," she tells them as they verify, "Superman is getting trounced out here. He needs help and the best I can do is relay his message."

Again, she wishes she had her legs... and again, she realizes it wouldn't make much difference. Batarangs would only help if she had kryptonite to go with it... and a way to warn the real Man of Steel out of the way in time.

By now the two are back at it again. They've met up in the middle of the street and are exchanging thunderous blows, one after another. While usually these sorts of things would not even phase Superman, the massive force behind them has him staggering as if he was taking shots in a bar brawl. Valiantly he fights back, however. He knows if this Bizarro were to get loose on the populace, not much could stand in his way.

"Who is this? What's your identif-" The man on the other end stops mid sentence as Oracle details the passcode. "Roger that, we'll send in reinforcements right away." Oracle's sensors will detect heavy movement across the river at a depot owned by the government. Help is on the way, but will it be enough.

"I don't know who you are, but whatever you do, try and buy Superman as much time as you can. Help is on the way."

Buy Superman as much time as she can? With what? Short of scrambling weapons that could cause a whole lot more collateral damage than the two titans fighting in the street, Oracle's abilities here are a little limited. "Superman, help is on the way. They're about five minutes out. Hang in there, big guy."

She scans over the tactical situation. "Can you lead him on a chase? Get him out over the water? Away from civilians? Buy the good guys time to get there."

Superman nods, only assuming that the Oracle is watching from somewhere. He's breathing hard and laboring, but thinks that her idea is the best one in front of them. He starts backwards, just a few steps at a time, careful to cover himself from attacks. People stand around surprised as it almost looks like the Man of Tomorrow is retreating.

"I don't know who you are, but if you want me you're going to have to catch me," Superman says, struggling to find the words to say to this monster.

"Me am not Bizarro! Me want you to have a nice day!" the muffled tones come out of the monster's mouth as if he's confused by the very thought of language. Dutifully, he follows along, but not while jabbing at Superman every so often. Gradually the two make their way closer to the water. "Me am true Superman, me am even worse than the fake Superman!"

The real Superman shakes his head, trying to figure out what Bizarro is talking about, but can't seem to make sense of it. He takes to the air to go a little bit quicker, and just as he does, Bizarro does the same.

It likely dawns on Babs that the major weakness of this being is his stupidity.

Oracle doesn't much understand what the antiSupes is talking about either. But the stunted intelligence is now very, very clear. "Superman... Stupidman following you isn't the brightest bulb on the tree. You may not be able to match his strength, but you should be able to out-think him, if you can keep ahead of him."

Her brows crease. She starts playing back footage, trying to see where he came from, originally. Another interdimensional interloper? She's really gotta talk to Stark.

Superman nods, "Roger, Oracle. I'll try and think up something really quick." He grits his teeth and tries to think. The idea that comes into his head is, granted, one of the most stupid ones he's thought of but he can't help it.

"Let's settle this fair and square. I challenge you to a game of wits," Superman says to Bizarro, his voice almost faltering at the ridiculousness of it.

But, and odd things happens. Bizarro stops. He shakes his head no and declares, "Bizarro am not interested!" His face, however, seems to show that he is indeed very interested.

Using his heat vision, Superman burns a large grid in the asphalt before looking back to Bizarro. "It's one of the most strategic games this planet has to offer. I challenge you to a game of Tic Tac Toe!"

Bizarro looks exasperated, "Bizarro am hate Toe Tac Tic! Bizarro stays last!"

Superman nods slowly, while Bizarro positions himself in front of the grid and burns a giant Y into the pavement in the top left portion of the grid.

"The loser gets arrested!" Superman says, to which Bizarro shakes his head again, "That's a terrible idea!"

Superman looks off into the distance as if to wonder if this is actually happening. Finally the sirens can be heard down the block as the military is on its way.

Off-com, Oracle's brows rise. "Tic-tac-toe?" But, it seems to work. Go figure?

On-com: "Nice going," she tells Maetropolis' greatest hero. "Hope he's as bad at tic-tac-toe as he is at basic grammar. Help is 2 minutes out."

She finally isolates a signature in the background noise from one of the earlier scans. "You really do seem to attract the alternate-reality types, don't you?" she observes dryly.

"You think he's alternate reality?" Superman asks. "I took a look at his innards; his DNA looks a lot like mine. I'm thinking he's a genetic experiment gone wrong. Either way, he's a bit more peacable this way."

Superman follows suit and fills an 'O' in the middle square. Almost immediately, Bizarro marks a Y in a position that gives him absolutely no chance to win.

Superman fills in the O that blocks Bizarro, while also giving him an easy chance at a win.

"Whichever he is," Oracle says, "he's a mirror image of you -- or maybe a negative is a better way to look at it."

The sirens approaching are louder now and, as Superman positions himself for the win, soldiers are leaping out of their vehicles and positioning themselves for a takedown of cosmic proportions -- or so it certainly appears.

As the soldiers make up their lines, they look to be carrying weaponry that Oracle may not be particularly familiar with. They're rifles, or futuristic looking rifles, but in the middle of the gun, just out and above the trigger, they each glow green.

Superman waves a dismissive hand as if to tell the men to hold. He then delivers the coup de grace, beating Bizarro easily.

"A deal is a deal," Superman says as he motions to an awaiting military vehicle. Bizarro, to his credit, is only mildly petulant as he slams a fist into the ground in anger. "Bizarro am not sad! Superman played fair!"

Nevertheless, the behemoth sulks his way over with slumped shoulders and sits in the paddy wagon-come-military assault vehicle and sits without even putting up a fuss.

"Oracle, did you catch all that? Weird."

Within a few moments, the terrible scene that transpired all sort of ends without a big commotion. Bizarro is whisked away to the BSH labs. People come out of their hiding places and discuss the fight together in confusion. Superman meanwhile, lifts up into the air in order to have a better, more private conversation with Oracle. "Listen, I know you've been helping out a great number of heroes like me since you came on the scene. I'm wondering if you've ever thought about being part of a team. More specifically, I'm meaning the Justice League of America. We could really use someone with your resourcefulness and your ability to be almost everywhere at once."

Oracle blinks at what she sees on her screen... and realizes just what those weapons actually must be. See, she'd hoped to avoid breaking out the big guns. But, it's not a bad precaution in the end. "Unbelievable," she says in reply to the Man of Steel. "Yeah. I caught it. I don't get it. But I did see it."

At his suggestion about joining the JLA, however, she blinks. "The Justice League," she says, a brow arching. Her lips purse some. "Hadn't thought of it," she admits. "But, I will. Think about it, I mean."

Superman nods as his cape billows in the wind high above Gotham, "I understand that someone in your position would desire as much discretion and secrecy as possible. That being said, with your abilities-well, we could sure use someone with your expertise. The decision is yours, of course, just please let me know what you decide when you've reached it."

"Will do," Oracle says. "As long as you don't expect me to give you my civilian identity, I expect we may be able to work something out." But no promises.

In her wheelchair, Barbara Gordon leans back, fingertips drumming on the console top. Well. That was somewhat unexpected. And something certainly worth considering.