7 months ago, there was a case where Batman had to crawl around in the sewers. Literally crawl. Shit and piss and mud slung to Bruce’s wings, and who knows what other toxic waste, Alfred had to hose him down, take a bath in tomatoes, and hose him down again. Preen thoroughly, then hose down again. The suit protected him from any illness lingering in the waste, but if his wings weren’t cleaned thoroughly, then that would be for naught. 

Owls don’t produce oils to protect their wings from water, Bruce wishes his did. Owls don’t have senses of smell, Bruce wishes he didn’t.

Even then, with such thorough washing of muck clinging to his wings, his wings didn’t feel as heavy then as they do now.

That might be the adrenaline wearing off though. Batman can’t stop, not when this mess links in every way to his mistakes, and he needs to be better then the batman of before, and this is how.

But he knows he can’t use more adrenaline, or he’ll risk a heart attack.

So instead, when he hears a woman crying under a collapsed roof- it’s tilted slightly, one of her limbs is probably pinned by the roof or her exits are blocked- it’s with the weight of the water on his wings, heavy as stones as his wings absorb the muck of gotham, it’s with heavy legs as he pushes through several feet of water to move forward a few inches, and he hazily lifts stone, shaking as he does so, his arms twinging in a dulled pain of ache, lifts it a few inches, and the woman inside cries out, sobbing really. “Wait!” He pauses, straining. “It’s pinning me down! Shifting it on that side will bring it down further on my leg!” He lowers it, gently. Then patrols the sides of the collapsed building. The doors are smashed rubble and splinters now, but he might be able to clear it into an entrance. Pinned and locked in.

“Are you near the door?”

“Former door.” She choked out, wheezing, “But no.”

Wings braced above his head to balance himself- it’s so heavy- he shifts the splintered wood. Looks for weaknesses. Grabs and yanks a plank that braces a few of the rocks, but it only shifted them further into place. He examines the wall again. Then grabs another plank, this one bracing a few smaller ones that he places his hand against- yanks and pushes. He can see inside. Inside is a woman- upper middle class- her hair look like it would probably be auburn curls if it weren’t for how she was lowered into the mud right now. She looks up with big bright blue eyes, pleading. Hummingbird wings. Her jaw drops in shock as she sees his face. He doesn’t know if that’s a good thing. “Oh god.”

With more leverage he yanks a bigger boulder back, bracing his wings for some sort of extra muscle, extra weight, and somehow the strain is worth it as it tumbles away. He tucks his wings back as small as possible, crawls in, wincing as rocks graze against lacerations and bruises. If he’s broken something he can’t feel it at this point. He curls around the woman, with no other place to put his wings as she gaped at him. He messed with the brace of his suit, yanking out the controls so his cowl will switch to specs for night vision. While light pours in from the hole he made, it’s not enough for him to be able to see what he needs to do. 

He sees what she meant now. The roof is bracing its weight on her leg. He reached down into his belt, grabbed his cape, sliced a piece off, and tied her leg in a tourniquet. The lady’s crying quieted down to occasional sobs.

“What are you doing?” He didn’t know the exacts, but to his understanding from the rescue teams searching the city- crush victims at this point have been crushed too long to safely remove the crushed pieces without a tourniquet. But he also can’t wait for more emergency teams to find her or this would get worse. Tightening it as much as he could without limb damage, he started to stand, bracing his body against the roof. Hazily testing it’s weight. Too much. He crouched down again, examining the area around her limb. It’s the lower part of the roof, braced on both sides- he reaches into his belt and pulls out a blow torch, carving around the stone- slowly, listening to the roof and eyeing the cracks, hand braced, pushing against it.

Until it rolls away.

Immediately the woman starts yanking herself forward, flapping, crawling to freedom, but she can’t walk like this, so he grabbed her by her shoulders and lifted her as best he could into the light.

“Can you fly?”

She gave him a dazed look before testing her wings. “I think so.”

He lifted her until she got the point and her wings buzzed into a hover. He pointed to where emergency services were. “Fly that way.” 

She started. “You’re not going to take me there? I’m injured, flying could make it worse.”

He lifted his wings, heavy, weighted, the dye on the inside of them mostly bled away hours ago. “You will be faster.” She stared at his wings as he lifted his brace again, switching the settings to daylight and opening the comms he connected to the rescue teams. “Have a woman with a crush injury. Might be in shock. Can still fly, headed your way from South Abbey Way, try to intercept.” He disconnected before they could respond. He looked up to her pained and uncertain face. She looked like she wanted to grab him. Remembering that girl, he reached out first, awkwardly patting her arm. “It’s okay, they will get to you.” He couldn’t promise that she would heal fine, he’s certain there will be endless amputees from this, but “You can still fly.” He reminded her. Something in her gaze steeled, it’s something in the waters of gotham he thinks, and she flies off.

n52 Fic- Currently unnamed- one thing I LOVE LOVE LOVE to do is take my reading of a story that I KNOW IS NOT WHAT THE AUTHOR ENVISIONED- and take it seriously and bounce off from there. That being said, n52 SuperWonder reads less like an actual romance and more like a fascinating pair of immortals who have recently had to cope with the fact the people they love are mortal- got very very scared by this fact- and so ran into the only other immortal they were vaguely friends with and hooked up- they make each other miserable because of how much their relationship is defined by their immortality and power and not by who they are- maybe they could have made the relationship work if only they didn't start a relationship out of fear

End relationships are probably going to be Cloisbat and Stevewonder- or a more intricate poly mix of them

Everyone Knows An Alien Invasion Is A Love Story- Kal-el is on a mission and he and other delegates of Krypton are seeking to help Earth, and the Justice League grapple with the dangers of how they plan to meet with World Leaders to discuss this aid, as it can lead to Kal-el and the delegates being used by World Leaders for personal agendas then the aid that Kal-El and the delegates sincerely wish to give to Earth.

It's a story about trust and distrust, the push and pull you might have with a stranger, and know not if they will do you harm. But also this whole thing is misleading because this is a story about people. Common people, like you or me. And it's about how we all have more in common then we think. Probably going to get a bit existential with it too.

It's a very big very grand story, and I think it's one that will take me a long time to craft so that's why I haven't posted anything on it, I'm tackling the stories I feel like I have the skills to handle atm and leaving everything else I post just be vibes and inspiration stored in my "everyone knows an alien invasion is a love story" tag

Who Wins- It's posted with 2 chapters so far so I'll leave that summary as is and take what inspired me to write it: How many people really seem to think things would be better if joker died and stayed dead. Who think if Bruce murdered the joker everything would be all hunky dory and Gotham would be perfect. Unfortunately, I don't think that's the case. If Joker never existed though then yes everything WOULD be hunky dory but then you wouldn't have a lot of stories lol

The daemon element is an extra device to explore aspects of this, and because I had a really cool idea for it that you will eventually see oooohhh probably around the climax. Though you will get hints before then and hell have even already gotten some