SLASH FIC: World Boom 1/? [Powerpuff Girls/Superman/JL]

[feygan]

Title: World Boom
Author: Feygan
Fandom: Powerpuff Girls/Superman
Rated: PG-13
Pairing: Boomer/Clark
Disclaimer: I do not own the Powerpuff Girls or Superman.
LiveJournal: http://feygan.livejournal.com
Home: http://www.darkgesture.com/fanfiction.htm
Author's Note: This is the sequel to "Metropolis Boom."  I was sitting at my computer today, then thought, "What the hell," and decided to post this in tandem with Met Boom.  Like Lord of the Rings and The Matrix, everything's being written at one time.
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Summary: Superman goes missing and Boomer gets... upset.

CHAPTER ONE

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The rain fell on another perfect day in Metropolis. The sidewalks were filled with people carrying umbrellas and every foot fell with a splish-splashing sound.

Yes, the day was more than perfect as Boomer Rowdy ran down the street toward the subway station entrance. He could have just taken a cab, but he enjoyed the true city experience of riding in the crushing embrace of thousands of pounds worth of metal with the warmth of hundreds of humans to keep him company.

Standing with one hand holding the pole as though he really needed help to keep his balance, he stared off into the middle-distance and tried to keep a goofy grin off his face.

Back in the days before before he'd left Townsville, he had never imagined a life that he would actually be happy in, but here he was. Sure, the sun didn't shine as brightly and the streets weren't clean enough to eat off of, but he couldn't help liking Metropolis more than Townsville. Because Metropolis had something Townsville lacked... Superman.

Townsville had its own superheroes in the form of the Powerpuff Women, but there really was no comparison between them and Superman. Because he loved Superman and the Powerpuff Women were just an annoyance he had forced himself to put up with until he could leave his old world behind.

The cellphone in his pocket rang and he pulled it out, snapping it open with a flick of his wrist. "Hello?"

"When was the last time you spoke to Kal-El?"

"Last night before he left for the League meeting," Boomer said.

"Dammit." There was a moment of thinking silence, then, "Last night there was an emergency call for Superman and he answered it. No one has heard from him since."

"Why didn't you call me last night, or even this morning?" Boomer asked, and was proud about how calm he managed to sound. "I thought Kal was with you guys all night."

"It was my decision not to call you. I didn't want to worry you if he was missing and I hoped that he had gone home to you and would call me today. You know how Cl... Kal-El can be."

"You...you dumbass!" Boomer heard the sound of metal crunching in his fist and the standing pole bent and broke in two. He dropped it on the floor with an uncaring CLANG. "He has so many enemies, most of them insane, and you don't even tell me until seven fucking o'clock at night the next day that he's missing? You better hope that he's all right, Batman, or there's not going to be anything left of whoever hurt him. I will go on a rampage the likes of which this pathetic world has never known."

"This is why I didn't call you earlier," Batman said. "You are a rival for Superman in power, yet you have none of the controls placed on you." The weaknesses he meant, vulnerabilities to be exploited.

"Find him," Boomer ordered. "No one hurts the ones I love, not without wishing they had never been born."

"Listen Boo..."

Boomer closed his phone with a snap, hanging up on whatever Batman was about to say. He just didn't want to hear it.

He ignored the shocked looks of the people around him. He really didn't care what they thought of him. The only person that mattered in his life was currently missing in action.

The world better hope that Kal-El was found soon, otherwise they would meet the dark side of Boomer Rowdy.

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If there was one thing he had learned after years of living with Kal-El, it was that Superman could take care of himself. But even a superhero had weaknesses and Superman had more than enough enemies to exploit his.

Being physically invulnerable himself, Boomer knew how much of a liability that could be in a situation where someone had taken his abilities into account before facing him. He well remembered the time Professor Utonium had kept him immobilized by some kind of laser beam for an entire day. If Bubbles hadn't been so careless with her super-loogey, he and his brothers would probably still be locked away.

So with the sick feeling churning in his belly, and his knowledge of Superman's weaknesses, he could well believe that Kal-El was in a situation he would need help to escape from. And if he thought about it, Boomer could easily imagine all of the horrible things being done to him.

I'm not going to overreact, he thought. I am going to maintain control until I know one way or another how things are going to be. But if Kal-El doesn't make an appearance soon... He carefully left that thought unfinished.

His days of being a supervillain were behind him, but he knew that if someone messed with a person he cared for... his bad days weren't that far behind him. It would just be so easy for him to slip back into the kind of mindset where he would do anything to get what he wanted.

He had always known that he wasn't as by-the-book as some people might have liked, but he had managed a close approximation of abiding by the laws. Now the control he had exerted over himself was slipping dangerously and he knew it was only a matter of time before he threw over the rules completely and did whatever the hell he wanted. As long as Kal-El was missing, his hold on himself was tenuous at best.

The citizens of Townsville had known who he was and had been. They knew the kind of person he had once been and could be again so easily. They had understood that there were some things no one should do when it came to him because the consequences would be violent and messy, maybe even fatal for whoever raised his ire.

But to the people of Metropolis, he was just the life-partner of Kal-El, who had been known for so long as Superman. Most didn't even realize he had superpowers of his own and wouldn't even recognize him on the street if Kal-El wasn't beside him.

Standing aboard the subway train amidst the human passengers, he felt completely disconnected from this world. It was like a pane of dark glass had fallen between him and everything but the desire to get Kal-El back.

Looking at the other passengers of the train, for the first time in a long time he saw humans as being less than insects. Crawling in the dirt, begging for a savior, helpless in the face of things to come. They truly were pathetic.

It's that kind of thinking that gets you in trouble, he thought. You better maintain control until you find out whether Kal-El is really in danger or not. He'll be pissed when he comes back if you go off and he's just running late.

Drawing in a deep breath, Boomer tried to push his homicidal urges to the back burner. He just needed to maintain perspective for a little longer, at least until he knew for sure that there even was a problem.

And if there was a problem... there would be hell to pay.

* * *

He would have liked to have said that he wasn't intimidated, but he kind of was.

The man that had faced bullets while naked had actually hesitated to call Boomer Rowdy. He had known what kind of overreaction his news would bring and couldn't help wondering what Boomer would do. The guy was just too unpredictable for any kind of comfort.

Going through the piles of information Oracle had already dug up, he raced to find some trace of Superman in anything.

It was strange. A routine call for Superman should not have added up to the disappearance of the world's greatest superhero, but that's what it looked like it was going to add up to be.

Batman could practically smell the reek of foul play. Now the only question was whether there was kryptonite involved or if there would be time to thoroughly search for Superman.

"Dammit." Batman stared at the screen in front of him, knowing that Boomer was going to go ballistic.

Someone had broken into Starlabs and stolen a pinkie-sized bit of kryptonite. Enough to create a handful of kryptonite-tipped bullets. And kill Superman once and for all.

Batman knew half a dozen ways to subdue whatever threat Superman might ever pose. But he knew of nothing that could stop or even slow down Boomer Rowdy.

The world was about to feel the backlash of the strongest metahuman's grief, and it would be titanic.

* * *

"Well, well, well," the lilting voice said. "It looks like the fun is about to start. Hm. My boy is going to make this world BLEED."

Kal-El flinched at the harshness of that last word. There was an unpleasant grate to it and the background impression of pigs squealing, children dying, and the end of all happiness.

He didn't know how he had ended up here. One minute he had been flying back home to Metropolis, then there was just this blank spot in his memory before he woke up here, wherever here was.

Trapped in a cage with bars created from kryptonite lasers, there was no way he could escape. Whoever had him had even gone so far as to surround the bottom of the cage with kryptonite. Which meant he had to hold himself up off the floor even as the close proximity of the kryptonite was spping his strength.

He knew he only had a day or two before he collapsed. And once that happened, he would fall against the kryptonite laced floor and that would be the end.

"Who are you?" he demanded, his mind racing as he tried to think up ways to escape.

"Now, now, that's information you don't need to know." Giggle. "You're just the bait. And once I get what I want, I won't need you anymore. So why should I tell you ANYTHING?"

High-heeled red boot heels clicked against the floor as his captor left the room.

Kal-El's shoulders sunk a little in the sense of defeat he had refused to show in front of an audience.

He didn't know what he was supposed to do, but he knew he had to get out of here soon. Before it was too late.

TBC...