The Text chapter 6

                   Superman eyes quickly scanned his surroundings, gauging all of his options, he may be fast but there was no way he could save both Wally and Bruce before Two Face pulled the trigger, sending a bullet straight into Dick's head, he knew what Bruce would want him to do, he would want him to save Dick first, get him out of harm's way, Bruce would kill him if he even knew that the thought of saving his life over Robins had even crossed Superman's mind; but then there's Wally, a pool of blood rapidly growing beneath him, his face normally vibrant face deathly pale, his glazed over green eyes blinking tiredly up at Superman, and judging by the rapidly growing pool of blood, he had minutes before the blood loss became fatal.

"Well? What'll it be Supey? I won't wait all day you know? If you don't make a decision soon I'll just cap all three of them, problem solved."

Superman directed his gaze towards Two Face, wanting nothing more than to burn a hole through his sick twisted face, but instead looked past the psycho's shoulder and at the teen slowly creeping up on the oblivious villain, Superman briefly locked eyes with Superboy in hopes of sending him an non verbal message, Superboy gave an knowing nod in response, sending a signal towards his teammates before tackling and disarming the unsuspecting villain.

"Did you forget about us?" Connor sneered, brutally punching the man underneath him again and again and again, no one hurt his friends.

"That's enough." A stern voice said above him, reaching down to grab Superboy's fist before it could once again collide with Two Face's broken face.

Superboy angrily looked up to see Superman standing over him, Kid Flash cradled in his arms, The bodies of Two face's  army of thugs strewn all over the floor, "That's enough." He repeated his tone now calm and understanding.

Superboy wrenched his fist from Superman's grip " whatever." he growled, scowling at the red and blue clad hero before stalking over to his friends, joining them in their attempts to remove the bonds securing both Batman and Robin to the chairs.

Robin stared across at Batman, the voices of his teammates a distant chatter as he watched his unconscious mentors face, checking frantically for signs of life, chest movement, a twitch, hell he would take a glare at this point, but despite his pleas he saw nothing, nothing but the cold stillness of death.

"Is he alive?" Robin finally managed, chocking on the words, his voice barely audible over the frantic chatter of the young heroes.

All voices instantly silenced, all hands tugging at the binds stilling.

Aqualad who had been working on removing the large leather strap from Batman's chest reached up to check his pulse, faint but still there, then reaching his hand up to where Bruce's head was slumped forward, feeling the occasional burst of air release from his nose, he looked to the frightened boy desperately trying to hold back tears, "He's alive." he confirmed, "but-"

"We need to get him help, fast."  Superman interrupted, joining the crowd of teens, transferring the wounded Kid Flash over to Superboy, before bending down to easily snap the straps binding Robin to the chair, letting the boy slump tiredly against his chest before cautiously lifting him from the chair, careful not to irritate his injuries, fully prepared to hand him over to Aqualad and begin work on Batman when a dark chuckle across the room interrupted him.

"Ha ha! You didnt't think I'd have a plan B?" Two Face asked, picking himself off the floor and reaching inside his jacket to grab a small device, "see I wanted an escape route, you know just in case any of you morons decided to come in and crash the party." He took two staggering footsteps towards the exit, his left leg causing him to limp where Superboy had apparently injured him when he had tackled him to the ground.

Reacting first to the escaping criminal, Aqualad made a move to intercept him; Two Face just grinned and shook the small device over his head, his finger pressing down on a small red button, stilling the young atlantians movements. "Take one more step towards me and this whole place goes kablooey! I lined this whole building with explosives if you so much as move and I release this button its 'goodbye world, hello hell ' time." Two Face began to once again walk towards the exit, hand raised in the air, thumb pressing down on the trigger, keeping the bombs at bay. "And before you think you can whiz around and disable them all, think again, there is no way you'll get them all in time."

Two Face sent one last warning glare before boarding the elevator and making his way of the building, followed closely by a crowd of henchmen, anxious to get out of the building.
"Get everyone out of the building fast; he'll release the button as soon as he's out of harm's way." Superman ordered, bending down to release Batman with one hand still holding Robin with the other, but was once again interrupted as he felt the building shake, bombs going off on the lower level.

"Go! I'll take care of these two." Superman shouted, straining to be heard over the explosions rocking the building.

"Are you sure?" Aqualad asked.

"Go!" Superman repeated turning back towards his bound friend.

Connor glanced down at the rumbling floor beneath his feat then back to the roof, planting his feat as he prepared to jump "Guess we have to make our own exit." Superboy stated, shifting the wounded speedster in his arms to better protect him as he broke through the roof.

Following Connor's lead, Miss Martian grabbed both Artemis and Aqualad, flying through the hole Superboy just created.

Knowing that the kids had safely exited the warehouse Superman could now solely concentrate on getting both Batman and Robin out of the exploding building, with only seconds to spare, Superman could hear the ticking of the bombs as they prepared to go off, panic starting to rise in his chest.

"Clark."

Hearing his name he looked from his task of breaking the numerous straps littering Batman's body.

Bruce was now awake and staring straight at him," There's no time, take Dick and go."
Hearing Bruce's word Dick instantly started to struggle in Superman's arm. "No! Don't you dare listen to him!"  Robin warned, looking up at Superman realizing his struggles to fight against the much stronger hero with only one good arm was useless, tears of frustration pooling in his eyes.

"Now! Clark go!" Batman ordered.

Superman looked back at Bruce who was now silently pleading with his best friend to save his son "Please."

Making his decision Superman stood up and gripped Dick tighter who was now fighting tooth and nail to get away from the hero. "I'm sorry, Dick." he apologized, before taking off and flying through the hole in the ceiling feeling the heat of the bombs going off right behind him, leaving Batman to his impending death.

"NOOOO!!" Robin cried, clawing frantically at Superman's arms, ears ringing at the sound of bombs going off beneath him, one after the other, with new determination the teen practically leapt from the arms  still holding him firmly in place.

Not letting Robin's struggles sway him Superman clutched Dick to his chest, protecting him from the onslaught of fire, wood and lethal shards of glass causing it to it hit his back and scorch his cape.

After what felt like hour but was in fact minutes, the sound of bombs going off stopped leaving only the sound of Robin's hourse cries of despair, his one good fist still punching Superman weakly, tears falling unchecked down his face.

Superman landed gently beside the other teens a look of shock on all their faces as they witnessed the always 'calm and collected' Robin fall apart, angrily leaping from Superman arms and limping towards the large pile of rubble where the warehouse once stood, Robin began calling out for his father, his voice rough and hoarse, while he sifted through the rubble falling to his knees emotion and exhaustion taking over.

"Bruce." His voice breaking, throat sore and overused "Please don't leave me here alone."
In the back of his mind he could hear his friends and colleagues calling alongside him, but it didn't matter, it was over, Batman or not there's no way anyone could survive that.
The wood and metal beneath him hot, scorching his knees, looking up through tear filled eyes he caught sight of blood seeping out from beneath several  large pieces of wood, hope rising in his chest as he spotted a bloody hand peaking out from beneath the large pile of ply wood.

"Bruce." He murmured, dragging himself to where the hand was peeking out, the wood to heavy to remove by himself he cried out for help, Superman immediately responded, grabbing the rubble and throwing it across the dock, revealing the bloody and battered Batman, still attached to the chair, Superman snapped the remaining binds and gently lay the hero down on the ground.

Robin reached out to grab his father hand, holding it his chest, "Bruce?" he asked tentatively, tears falling silently, fear clutching his heart.

Aqualad ran over, joining the three heroes, standing behind Superman who looked up at him and gave a small shake of his head, tears gleaming in his eyes.

Seeing the exchange Robin instantly protested tightening his hold on Bruce's hand "No he's not dead! Do something, save him." He pleaded, looking at Superman expectantly, turning to the distraught teen Superman put his hand gingerly on his shoulder "I'm sorry, but it's too late."

"No." Robin snapped stubbornly, pushing Superman's hand off and looking to Aqualad instead "Kaldur please." He begged, eyes wide and pleading.

Aqualad was who giving chest compressions, looked to his friend normally so strong now broken and pleading, then back to the unconscious man.

With a new sense of purpose Aqualad doubled his efforts praying that they would pay off, praying for the man to breath.

Superboy now joining the scene grabbed Robin from behind getting him out of the way as both Aqualad and Superman attempted to save Batman, Robin fought against Superboy, anxious to stand by his father's side, losing the battle with the much stronger teen he finally gave in, going slack in Connor's arms as the exhaustion of the past few hours took hold and he lost consciousness.


                                                              To be continued…..