Batman vs Martian Manhunter

No more explanations, no more numbers, just stories.
Oh, and I still plan on finishing Chief vs Samus.

I didn't say no more music...

The Batman took in everything at the site of Cyborg’s death. Green Lantern beat the Hell out of him, and in fact not much of him remained. All that was left was a mangled pile of black, blood-soaked electronics with some vaguely human looking parts attached to them. Standing next to the Bat was his good friend, the Martian Manhunter, who had been called here because his own impressive investigative abilities were enhanced by his natural telepathic abilities. The Manhunter’s impressive telepathic abilities came in handy already as he was able to read the Green Lantern’s mind to see and experience exactly what had happened to cause this series of events, and they were currently being used to keep the citizens from interfering with their work. In fact, they didn’t even know that the heroes were there, nor did they remember anything about the fight that had happened hours ago. Manhunter was very thorough in his work.

Batman scanned over the body, paying particular attention to the head of Cyborg. The normally bright blue electronic half of his skull was a darker black than he had ever seen- it made his suit look downright cheery in comparison. He reached into the broken cybernetic armor and picked up a small microchip. Using his wrist-mounted computer he determined that that particular chip was responsible for linking Cyborg’s human and artificial brains together and maintaining stability between the two. The chip was fried; something that cannot be done with any normal electric current.

Batman turned to his Martian friend and asked, “Didn’t you say that Green Lantern witnessed a bolt of electricity coming from a downed power line hit Cyborg’s head right before he turned black and started trying to kill him?”

“Indeed, in fact it was a black bolt of lightning. Very strange indeed.”

“Could you take me to the downed power line that shot the bolt?”

“Indeed I could my friend.” Manhunter continued to stand there, staring at Batman as if he were waiting for him to say something. Batman didn’t know what he was doing, so he asked, “Um, will you take me there?”

“Indeed I will my friend.” Manhunter stood there just as before, staring at Batman with his glowing red eyes. Batman was getting frustrated now, “When are you planning on taking me there exactly?”

“Whenever you need me too my friend.”

“Alright, can that be right now?”

“Indeed!” Manhunter immediately grabbed Batman by the foot and flew off with him towards the site of the downed power line, not paying any attention to Batman’s screams along the way.

When the duo got to the power line they were surprised to see an army of civilians carrying torches and yelling at them. Martian Manhunter was the first to comment; “Did you do something to piss these people off Batman?”

“ARRRGH! I HATE YOU!!”

“Oh sorry my friend! I forget that you humans experience a rush of blood when held upside down for too long.” He flipped Batman over and allowed him to redistribute his bodily fluids accordingly so he could properly answer. “What the Hell is wrong with you!? Didn’t you hear me screaming for you to stop!?”

“Indeed I did my friend, but I thought that you were just afraid of heights. We had to get here quickly so I wouldn’t be bothered by petty human experiences such as fear.”

“Right, because you don’t experience fear. Hey I’m actually a bit thirsty, wanna fly down through that angry mob of fire and grab me a drink from that general store down there? Oh wait, I forgot about the angry mob. What are they doing here anyways?”

“I don’t know, I asked you the same question a few lines ago.”

“They appear to have anticipated our arrival.”

Very strange inde…”

“If you say indeed one more time I’m going to throw a napalm capsule at your face. You know how Earth works, stop pretending like you don’t.”

Manhunter smiled at this, seeing that the joke had run its course. “Fine then, but you don’t have napalm capsules… do you?” Batman said nothing, just raised a single eyebrow as if to say, “Do you really want to take that chance?” After a few seconds of awkward silence, they realized that the crowd was awfully silent for an angry mob. Batman asked, “Do you think mind control is a possibility here?” Manhunter looked down at the people, who were all staring into the sky at the heroes. No movement, no yelling. Just staring. “Yeah Batman, I’ll check these guys out real quick.”

Manhunter telepathically searched the minds of the people in front of them, and immediately found that the culprit was none other than Darkseid. Manhunter linked himself to Darkseid through the people in front of him and began a telepathic conversation. “Hey Darkseid!”

“What the… who is this? How did you get this number? I swear to God if this is another refrigerator salesman I’ll…”

“No, this is Martian Manhunter of the Justice League. I am currently in front of a large mob of people under your control. I just wanted to know why you were doing that.”

“Martian Manhunter? I didn’t know you had telepathy!”

“Well duh! How could you not know that? That’s like one of my main powers.”

“Well maybe if you didn’t have so many damn powers I wouldn’t forget about some of them!”

“Yeah, people seem to do that a lot. So are you the one who brainwashed Superman and Cyborg?”

“What? How did you know about…”

“You know what might be easier, to just- oh, yeah, there he is.”

“There who is?”

“I found Superman’s mind within your subconscious… that is surprisingly small.” Darkseid chuckled at this, “I know right? I never tried taking over his mind before because I just kind of assumed that it wouldn’t work, but it was surprisingly easy!”

“You’re not angry that I just discovered your plan?”

“Not really, I mean I already have Superman at my disposal, and I still reserve the right to go to earth myself with Superman by my side and take it over that way so… wait, that’s a great idea! Much better than the whole mind control thing anyways. Not even that grey skinned asshole can stop me and Superman on the same side. See you in a few days!”

“… Fuck.”

Martian Manhunter looked down at Batman, who had adjusted himself to lay across Manhunter’s arms like a bride being held by a groom while he had his telepathic conversation. He then asked, “Hey Batman, what would happen if Darkseid and Superman were to team up and come to Earth to destroy all life?” Batman looked up at Manhunter and saw that he wasn’t joking. “Seriously? Is that a possibility?”

“No, it’s a guarantee. They’ll be here in a few days.” Batman thought long and hard about what they should do to prevent this. He usually paces when he does this, but he was being held like a woman, so he contented himself to a hand on the chin. After a couple of minutes, during which Manhunter used his super breath to blow out all of the torches and fix everyone’s minds, Batman spoke. “We’re going to need help from an outside source.”

Manhunter flew over to a roof and set Batman down as he responded, “You don’t think the Justice League is enough?”

“Not in the weakened state it’s currently in. In fact, it’s only going to get worse from here on.” Batman adjusted his cape and utility belt as Manhunter asked, “How do you know that?”

“Because there’s something bigger than Darkseid happening right now.” He cracked his neck before he continued. “Despite the fact that neither you nor I can be controlled by any known telepath, we both feel the unnerving the desire to kill each other, right here, right now.”

“How did you…”

“I can see it in your eyes. Right when you finished talking with Darkseid something happened to change the universe, almost as if we cannot co-exist in the same plane of existence anymore. Have you ever seen Highlander?”

“Yes friend, I know exactly what you mean. I have no change in feeling towards you, and I still consider you a friend. However, something is telling me over and over again to kill you where you stand. The urge is almost irresistible.” Batman took out a smoke capsule and said, “I know, and it’s time to end this. Sorry friend.”

Batman threw down the capsule and disappeared behind it, jumping off the building they were on and using his grappling gun to get across the street and into the shadows of a nearby alley. Manhunter saw this happen and was about to fly over to the alley, when suddenly the explosive Batman threw at his feet seconds ago went off, burning his legs but doing no real damage. The burns scared Manhunter though, as Batman knew of his weakness to fire and would exploit it endlessly. He then remembered that he had Martian vision, so he could see exactly where the Batman was hiding at all times. He peered through buildings into the alley Batman went into and saw him waiting in the corner of two buildings with two capsules in his hands, waiting for him to fly into the alley. Manhunter chuckled, “Clearly Batman is relying on me making this a fair fight. I may be honorable, but I’m not stupid old friend.”

Manhunter stretched his arm along the tops of the buildings to keep out of Batman’s sight. When his hand was positioned directly above his adversary, he grabbed him by the cape and threw him into the air far above any buildings he would be able to use to hide. Batman’s gadgets were useless up there alone, and all he could do was right himself and try to glide down with his cape- something he knew Manhunter would never willingly allow. He kept the two capsules in his hand and curled into a ball as his ascent was finally being slowed by the time he was at the clouds. Manhunter retracted his arm and flew up to meet Batman before he burnt his cape off and watched him fall, when Batman unfurled from his ball and threw the two capsules at him. Manhunter had anticipated this and was beginning to use his vortex breath to blow them far away, but Batman had seen this as well, and threw a batarang from his other hand at the capsules. Manhunter tried to blow them away quickly, but the capsules detonated as the batarang hit them, unleashing a load of napalm at Manhunter.

Manhunter panicked for a moment before he realized who he was, so he simply distorted his body to have the napalm pass right through him, falling to the cement below as he remained untouched. Batman was about to grab something else from his belt, but Manhunter quickly flew over and stopped him, grabbing him by his hands and breaking them. Batman screamed in agony, but the unknown force driving the two of them had taken a strong hold on Manhunter at this point, so he felt little remorse as he tightened his grip and spoke, “You never really believed you had a chance, did you?” Manhunter tore off his cape with one swift motion and let Batman fall to the ground below, ironically landing in the puddle of napalm that he had thrown seconds ago.

Manhunter saw this as overkill and immediately flew down and blew out the flames. He got down over the broken body of his friend and… his hand moved.

Thud!

The thud was Manhunter punching Batman’s face into itself, finishing him off for good. Now that he was dead in his arms, he felt nothing but deep sorrow- not for having killed him, but for the way he had to go. Batman was an extremely noble man, and easily the best human he had ever known. Yet even with his unbelievable strength of mind, he went out trying to kill one of his closest friends. Manhunter looked angrily up at the sky above him, as if to curse whatever entity had done this to them. The clouds began to weep at this sight, so Manhunter took the body of his friend away from the wet ground to bury him, hoping that this would help him lay his mind to rest once the shock of what had just transpired wore off.

Another being watches from a new universe

“He could be the one…”