CHAPTER TWO: DEATH CRY

"So what's that thing doing in Gotham?"

Alex asked of Batman as they entered the dark and extremely dirty sewer. Her body was covered in a soft golden glow, just like Lantern's was covered in green light as they walked down the tunnel.

"Witnesses spotted this thing trying to plant some kind of bomb downtown," Batman told them, his voice gruff. "When the cops confronted it, it spewed fire from its mouth."

"Yeah, I noticed," Lantern said, hands on his hips. His voice held a certain degree of arrogance to it. "Fire's no problem for me. As I was saying, Green Lantern can do anything."

"Except shut up apparently," Batman muttered.

Alex snickered loudly. Patting Lantern's muscular arm in a very mocking way, she said, "You just got owned by Batman. How does that feel?"

Lantern just glared at her, before he turned back to Batman. "Wow, someone forgot to take their true blood tonight."

"I'm not a vampire."

"Seriously? I thought with the darkness and the vanishing and...then what? Super strength?"

"No," Batman stated bluntly.

"Can you fly?" Lantern asked, as they turned a corner. All the while, Alex chuckled to herself. She, of course, knew Batman didn't have any powers. She'd read up on him online and the one thing she had picked up about him was that he had insane skills, not just as a fighter. But also as a detective. One gossip blog (and yes, she read those) even called him the 'World's Greatest Detective'. Interesting name, she had thought at the time.

"In a plane."

"Wait," Lantern paused and hovered a few steps above the ground. "You're not just some guy in a bat costume, are you?"

Batman continued walking for a moment before he stopped and turned around, a small smirk on his face.

"Are you freaking kidding me?!" Lantern floated down and landed right in front of Batman, his tone holding his surprise and anger. "What? Nobody asked you to prom so now you dress as a bat and prowl around your parent's basement?"

Alex caught a brief flash of movement as Batman quickly removed Lantern's ring. And judging by the way Lantern was looking, he definitely hadn't noticed his ring had been taken from him. 'Ooh, Batman's good.'

"What's this do?" Batman held up the ring, examining it.

Lantern looked down at his hands, suddenly realising the ring wasn't there. His concentration broke and his uniform faded away leaving him dressed in a flight suit. Alex took a quick look at him, taking in his messy brown hair, his dark brown eyes and strong jaw. All in all, he was a pretty good looking guy. His eyes were narrowed, probably in anger and his jaw was clenched. A quick look at the name tag attached to his suit revealed his name too.

'Hal Jordan,' Alex thought to herself. 'Nice name and looks pretty cute too...wait, no! You will not go there, Alexandra Smith. You will not go there at all.'

Batman continued walking down the tunnel, examining the ring as he did so. "No buttons...I assume it works off concentration."

"How'd did you do that?" Hal asked, his voice holding both anger and shock.

Batman paused and turned around, once again with a smirk on his face. "You weren't concentrating."

Hal just glared at him intensely as he raised his hand out. The ring flew back onto his fingers and his uniform returned, covering him again. His body was once more covered in a green glow. "You won't do that again."

"Unless I want to."

Alex laughed, a little more freely this time. "You just keep on getting burned by Batman and I'm just having a lot of fun with it, Hal. By the way, nice name. Always nice to see the face behind the mask, you know"

"Zip it," Hal fumed, glaring in her direction. "You talk too much, whoever you are."

"Her name's Alexandra Smith and she's a CSI at NYPD," Batman suddenly said as they continued walking down the tunnel.

"Wait, how'd you even know that?" Alex questioned out of surprise, her hood falling off and her blond hair falling over her ears. "No, wait. Scratch that. I don't wanna know."

Meanwhile, Hal had an amused look on his face. "You're a cop, huh? Not too bad, not too bad."

"A CSI...I'm a CSI," Alex said in a proud but annoyed tone, crossing her arms. "There's a big difference between the two."

"Where does it say that I care, Alex?"

"If you're trying to make fun of my name, then do it better."

"Show me your face, sweetheart. Then I'll do that."

"Oh no, no. I'd very much like to keep my secret identity, unlike someone who literally wears his name underneath his stupid costume."

"It's my uniform."

"Where does it say that I care, Hal?"

"You're annoying and -"

All of a sudden, Batman pushed the two of them against the hard wall, his cowl crinkling above his eye mask. He placed a gloved finger on his lips, motioning for them to be quiet. Then he let go of them and turned around, silently pointing at the end of the tunnel where they could see the creature from before.

The monster pulled something out of his chest, like a metallic box and placed it against the wall, attaching it to the concrete. It pressed a button and the box lit up with a red light that seemed to be increasing every passing second.

"Hold fast, we need information," Batman gripped Hal's shoulder, stopping him from taking another step.

"Bullshit! That's a bomb and he just armed it!" Hal stated, pulling out of the Bat vigilante's grip as he flew towards the creature and the box, his arm raised to strike.

"Lantern, wait!" Batman yelled out as Alex mentally facepalmed, wanting to cry at Hal's stupidity. "Listen to Batman, you idiot!"

Before any of them could react any further, the creature turned in their direction and hissed, "For Darkseid." And then, the box (or bomb) exploded, shrouding the small tunnel with bright orange light and acrid smelling smoke.

Alex raised her hands in front of her face, ready to push away any debris that was falling around the three of them but Hal was already prepared. Using his ring, he created one of his constructs around them in the shape of a massive bank vault that protected them from the falling debris and the smoke.

Once the smoke cleared from the tunnel, Hal's construct faded into the air. He looked around for the monster, but it was gone now. "Darkseid? What's that? A band?"

"Sounded like a death cry," Alex stated, pulling up her hood. 'I have a really bad feeling about this.'

"It wanted to take us with it," Batman said, as they walked towards the strange box. "All to protect this."

"I'm on it. Ring," Hal said, his voice suddenly very deep. "Scan and identify."

Green light built up around the box as a female, computerized voice reverberated through the tunnel. "Processing...unable to identify."

"That's impossible!" Hal looked extremely surprised. "The ring knows what the Guardians know and the Guardians know everything!"

"Maybe not everything," Alex muttered under her breath as she watched Batman stepped forward, scanning the box with the small tablet he had pulled out from his utility belt.

"It doesn't scan like a bomb," Batman told them. "More like an alien computer."

"Alien?" Hal asked. "Like the guy in Metropolis?"

"Superman," Alex and Batman stated at the same time.

"You two have met him?"

"No," Alex shook her head. "I've looked him up though."

"So have I. I've researched him," Batman added. "His power levels are..."

"Not gonna be a problem for me," Hal interrupted, that annoying smirk back on his face. Alex rolled her eyes beneath her cowl, hovering a few feet above the ground, her arms crossed.

"We'll see," Batman simply said. "In the meantime, we need to learn more about this thing." He grabbed the box out of the wall with a harsh tug. Alex stared at the box with narrowed eyes, trying to understand the strange markings that covered it. She knew some languages, so to speak, but alien? This was complicated to a level she had not seen before.

"Well, gentleman," She finally said. "Instead of just standing around waiting for something to happen, why don't we make a move to find Superman?"

"Demanding much?" Hal said, one corner of his mouth quirked upwards. "Are you obsessed with taking the lead or something?"

Momentarily forgetting that Batman was also with them, Alex offered her best glare at him, even though he probably couldn't see it because of the hood that covered her face. "I don't see you doing anything, Mr. I-have-my-head-stuck-up-my-"

"Enough," Batman interrupted, his voice rough. "We have a more pressing situation at hand, so stop arguing like children and focus."

"Sorry," Alex meekly said, suddenly feeling guilty even if it wasn't her fault. It was totally Lantern's fault. Stupid Hal.

"But Supernova is right," Batman added. "We can't stay here. We need to go to Metropolis now."

Hal suddenly looked like he was contemplating something. "Well, I have an idea for that...."

This is turning into a reluctant partners/rivals to lovers fic and I'm here for that. Even though this was just a filler chapter, I really loved writing the banter between Alex and Hal. Both of them are going to be supremely annoying around each other and will really just get on poor Bruce's nerves.

I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!