Mini-Grand 5111 [Round 3: Menagerie]

Originally posted on MSPA by Pick Yer Poison.

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Batman and Kay found Rannus staring at the new and improved monstrosity lumbering slowly towards him, growling intermittently and leaving a trail of slobber on the ground below it. Batman muttered something unsavory, and Kay stared up at it blankly. "What the hell?" she asked of no one in particular.

Rannus was having trouble explaining himself. "I..I just...the plane...and then it exploded..." Unable to form the proper words quickly enough, he simply gestured at the cyclops, making himself more or less clear.

[color=#JUSTICE]The cyclops paused in its path to step on an old pickup truck in its way, and Batman finally spoke. "Is there anything you can do without messing it up, sorcerer?" [/color]

Rannus turned to him in astonishment. "Excuse me? I fail to see you performing higher magic perfectly!" He raised his arms, looking at the cyclops grimly. "Now if you're quite done insulting my work, I must go fix this before it destroys the city."

[color=#JUSTICE]Batman stepped forward and put a firm hand on his shoulder. "No. You had your chance. It's my turn now. Just distract it while I grab something so I can hit it with some force." [/color]

Rannus looked back at him incredulously. "You? What could possibly make you better suited to defeating this abomination than me?"

[color=#JUSTICE]Time slowed to a crawl for the hero. He was acutely aware, by way of some otherworldly sense, that if he fought the demon, he would die. Whether he would succeed was hidden to him. He could stand back and let Rannus die to save him. Or maybe Kay would jump in and sacrifice herself. It would be easy. He just had to take a single step back. It would be...it would be...

It wouldn't be what Batman would do. Batman wouldn't leave someone to die to save himself. Batman fought the bad to save the good in the world from dying out.

And Batman always won.

Time started again. He spun Rannus around to face him, pressing his fishbowl helmet as close as he could to the crystalline face. "Because I'm the goddamn Batman." Rannus, rendered speechless by the unexpected intensity of the moment, could only nod fervently. Batman let go of him and ran down a nearby alley, off to find something he'd found earlier. [/color]

Rannus turned towards the cyclops again. Batman had wanted him to distract it? Well, he could at least give it a shot. He raised his arm and a bolt of purple lightning briefly connected his hand and the cyclops' head. To his surprise, a matching purple jolt flashed down from the magic-filled clouds, causing the monster to roar and look upwards for its attacker, spinning uselessly as it scoured the skies for a foe that wasn't there. Rannus allowed himself a small smile. Distracting it seemed to be something he could do without incident.

[color=#JUSTICE]A few minutes later, the sound of a vehicle reached Rannus' ears. He and Kay tried to see where it was coming from, but found buildings blocked their line of sight. The cyclops, on the other hand, quickly found the source of the disturbance, and proceeded to roar at it in a way that provided absolutely no information about what it was.

The mystery was solved when an oil tanker drove out of a cross street, turned as if in a futile attempt to swerve, and hit one of the cyclops' legs with the broadside of the oil tank, crushing it badly and causing it to leak oil profusely. The monster picked up the oil tanker and lifted it above its head, not noticing the small figure that jumped out and landed on top of its forehead. After a moment of straining, its strong arms tore the oil tank in half. [/color]

Kay squinted at the figure on top of the cyclops. Her face showed no emotion - after having had it under a mask for so long, she'd forgotten how. "That has to be Batman. But what's he doing? Has he got something in his hand?"

[color=#JUSTICE]Batman, balanced on the creature's head, felt the torrent of oil spill over them both. He held out his gloved hand, the cigarette lighter he'd found in the glove box gripped tightly in it. He tried to convince himself that his suit would protect him from the heat, but he couldn't quite pull off the deception. He glanced back to where Kay and Rannus were standing. Fight the evil to protect the good. With a single decisive motion, he opened the lighter, holding it to his arm, and flicked it on.

Kay saw the spark and realized what it meant before Rannus did. She swore as Batman, then the cyclops' head, then its torso, and finally its arms and legs burst into flame. It roared out in pain, swatting ineffectively at the air as it burned. But the figure on top was not yet done - even burning alive, Batman would not let up the fight. He swung himself down, placed his boots in the monster's giant eye, then jumped, launching himself off the cyclops, and providing the small push needed to send the already overbalanced Eye of the Storm crashing to the ground in a giant flaming heap, where it crackled and burned but didn't get back up. Kay cried out as she saw Batman plummet to the ground, but she and Rannus both vanished the instant he landed. [/color]