Legends of Superman #13

[spiritofvengeance]

Legends of Superman #13
"Questions"

Editor's Note: This issue takes place after Constantine: Legend in Progress #3

Written By: Evan Dingess
Edited By: Mike Bowen


The air runs cold as a young woman walks down the grim and trash-filled streets of Metropolis's ghetto area. To be walking in this area at night is not a good thing to do. Especially if you are a beautiful young woman like this.
As she walks past a dark alleyway she sees a man propped up on a trash can. His eyes are blood shot and his skin is red. He raises a hand to the young woman but she keeps walking. A little further down the road sat two men on a stoop. As the woman approached
they yelled and screamed for her to come over there. She paid no attention and kept walking. They got off of the stoop and followed her.
The woman looked back and saw that the two men were following her so she started to run and so did the two men. She got to an alley when the two caught up to her and threw her into it.She landed with a hard fall in some trash cans. The two men were laughing when the one on the left spoke.

"O, Nasty fall you had there honey. I'm sure you got a boo-boo. Why don't you come over here and let daddy kiss it."

She started to get up when the man on the right came over to her and grabbed her by the armpits and folded her arms behind her back so she couldn't move them. She tried to struggle but he was to strong. The man that spoke now whipped out a switchblade knife from his coat pocket. The blade swung out and he came face to face with the girl. He dug the blade into her sweater and brought it up so that all you could hear was the strong man's breathing, the ripping of fabric and the sobbing of the woman. Once he reached the neck he ripped the sweater off to reveal the pink-laced bra that was under it. The strong man giggled in glee like a small child. The man put this knife away and took control of holding the woman. He
pinned her up agianst the cold, alley wall.

"Now...This isn't going to hurt as long as you follow everything I say. If you can do that then I will let you go with only a few bruises. Do you understand?"

She said nothing, only sobbed. He took that as a yes and started to have his way. He was getting ready to slash her bra when the strong man, who was still laughing, hit the ground with blood rushing from his mouth and nose. The man in charge dropped the woman and put his knife in front of himself as if he was a Spartan warrior trying to ward off a Persian with his spear. The woman looked up to see the knife taken right from the man's hand and the man dropped within seconds. She heard a voice come from the darkness.

The womans mind wondered. Was it HIM? The one the papers always talk about? Was it Superman? All these questions flooded to her mind when she looked up and saw, not Superman, but a man with no face. Suddenly all the other questions were gone and new ones were there. He wore a large brimed hat and a matching colored trench coat. He dropped his hand to the woman but she couldn't take it. She was filled with fear. She got up and started to run away, screaming. He could still hear her as she ran down the road.

"HE HAS NO FACE!!!"

Now, alone except for the two thugs that lay knocked out on the ally floor, the one that calls himself The Question questions himself about what to do next.

****

[spiritofvengeance]

Clark kent walked into the Daily Planet to find Pery White in one of his moods.

"We got a guy with no face running around and no one has anything on him. KENT!! KENT GET IN HERE!!"

Clark walked towards Perry's office and saw that Lois and Jimmy were already in there. Jimmy looked excited with the news that a man with no face was running around and Lois looked like Lois. Eager to get to the bottom of this mystery. Clark opened the office door and Perry's voice filled his ears.

"O, Great!!! Kent's FINALLY here. We can FINALLY get down to business."

He walked over to his desk and wheeled his chair under it and picked up a sheet of paper. He started to read from the sheet.

"Two members of the 5th Street Gang were delivered to the Metropolis Police Department at 2:52 a.m. on the date of March 23rd. The guys names were Rick Harding and William Jenkinds. Rick was suffereing a broken nose and was missing six teeth while William was struck over the head with a hard object and is suffereing a concusion. The two men were found with a sheet of paper in thier pockets that contained a question mark. A woman was found running down 36th street wearing nothing but a skirt and her bra screaming about a man with no face. The description from her matched the one from the thugs."

Clark looked out the window. The intrigue of the man and the question mark was now flooding his mind. He sat in this gaze until he heard the voice of Lois speak up from the corner of the office.

"A question mark? Wasn't there a guy in Gotham that was all about the question mark?"

Jimmy answered her question. His high voice was filled with excitment.

"That was a different guy. He was a robber or a murderer or something like that. I don't know the whole story with that guy but I know it's not the same man."

Perry looked at Jimmy and then at Lois and then his eyes fell on Clark who was still looking out the window. Clark noticed Perry was looking at him and he put his attention back into the task at hand. After a moment of silence, Perry spoke.

"Well what are you waiting for? Get out there and find this guy."

With that the three of them rushed out of the office and into the main room. Lois grabbed her purse and told Jimmy to follow her for she would need a amazing picture to go with her amazing writing. They said there goodbyes and Clark was left in the news room.There was only one way to find this guy and Clark knew exactly how.

****

[spiritofvengeance]

The nights air whipped Superman in the face as he soared over the great city of Metropolis. The night's crime was slow. The news of what this mystery man did to two of the members of one of the toughtest gang around was scaring the other ones. Someone once told him criminals are a cowardly and superstitious bunch.
Out of the corner of his eye, Superman saw a man on top of a bank building. He stopped in mid air and used his super-hearing to hear if the man was saying something. He heard a camera flashing. At first he thought it may be Jimmy but as he got closer he saw that it was someone he had never seen before.

The man was wearing a black shirt and black pants. He had a skull cap on that covered his long hair that popped out of the back and a large backpack rested on his back. His camera was a very expensive one. The type that photographers used to get pictures of celebrities.
It's a type of camera that Jimmy could only dream of affording. As Superman watched the man take his picture another man busted out of the door that led to the roof. This man had a long, tan trench coat on and a matching hat. His biggest feature was that he had no face.
When the man that was taking the pictures saw the faceless man and started to run. The faceless man took off after him.
As the two men ran across the building roof, Superman flew towards them. The man that had been taking the photos had reached the edge of the building and jumped off. As the man descended towards the ground he pulled something on his chest. Immediatly a parachute deployed from the large bag on his back and he started to float down towards the ground. Superman paid no attention to the man taking the pictures because over the past year he had grown used to constant photo taking. He didn't understand the drastic measures though.
Superman now looked back to the faceless man. He was running at what looked to be as fast as he could. He reached the edge of the building and jumped as well. The only difference was that the faceless man had no parachute. Superman flew as fast as he could towards the man and caught him well before impact. Superman took the man onto the rooftop again and sat him down. The man walked around, straighting his coat. He wasn't much shorter than Superman and had a nicely built frame. He indeed had no face. The man was outraged for some reason and he started to yell.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!!! YOU'RE LETTING HIM GET AWAY!!!"

Superman put his hand up as if to say 'stop'. The man calmed himself and stood there. His eyeless gaze connecting to Superman's big blue eyes. After a moment Superman spoke.

"Who did I let get away? The newspaper photographer?"

"That wasn't a newspaper photographer. He was a spy. Hired by an enemy of yours. I picked up the tip that he was following you from one of my connection in the underground."

"What enemy of mine has a spy following me?"

The man swayed his featureless face around as if to look and see if someone was watching.

"I'm not sure yet, but if we had him we would of known. Now I have to find him agian."

The man started to walk away towards the stairs when Superman spoke again.

"You're just going to leave? I don't know you. Where are you going? Who are you?"

The man turned around. As he walked backwards towards the door he said.

"The nights just filled with questions, isn't it?"

When he finished his sentence, smoke started to rise from his belt and he was gone.
Only a smoke trail that formed a question mark remained. Superman looked everywere but could not locate the man. At the bottom of the bank building wasthe parachute the spy used. The man was no where to be found.
The night was just one big question...

****

[spiritofvengeance]

"I'll have all the evidence you need to nail Superman with tomorrow, Mister Luthor. Good Bye."

The man set his phone down and turned back to the developing pictures. He has been in his dark room developing pictures for the past two hours. He just got a call from the one and only Lex Luthor to catch up on his progress. The Question has been watching him and taking notes. He has realized that Lex Luthor has hired this man to find out who Superman is and by the way the man talked, he knows everything.
The Question gets tired of waiting and drops into the apartment from the skylight. The drop is nearly silent. The man dosen't even realize he's there. The Question tip toes over to the door of the dark room and busts the door open. The man inside jumps with
fright and then goes into killer mode again. He grabs a gun he has hidden under the desk and raises it at the Question. The Question ducks and sends a kick at the man's knee.
The man goes down, hitting his head on the table and the gun goes flying. The Question picks up the gun and takes the magazine out, putting it in the trash can to his left. He looks back at the man and he isn't moving. The Question goes over to him and feels his pulse. He was dead.
The Question figured he must of hit his head on the table and broke his neck. He moved from the man to the table, were all the pictures and notes were. Question picked up a notebook labeled "Superman Evidence" and opened the front cover. After a moment of reading he closed it and gathered everything that could be used against Superman. With the evidence in hand, he left.

****

[spiritofvengeance]

Superman stood on the rooftop of the Daily Planet, listening for anything that might be wrong. He heard a footstep and spoke out.

"How did you know to find me hear?"

A moment later a man's voice echoes through Superman head.

"It's not hard to find Superman. Either at the Daily Planet or flying around the city."

Superman turned around to see The Question standing there. I large folder in his hands. He starts to walk towards him and The Question holds out the folder. Superman takes it and opens it up. Inside is pictures Superman the words "CLARK KENT" litter the pages.
Superman closed the folder and held it up in the air. His eyes lit up and heat vision shot out and the folder caught fire. After a minute or so the folder was completly burnt and The Question spoke.

"You have to be more careful, Clark."

Superman looked up in shock.

"You...you read the files?"

"No. I figured that out on my own. The day after that all happened a story was ran in the Daily Planet about me. Superman was the only person I talked to that night and Clark Kent wrote the story. You have to be so much more careful Clark. You have so many enemies and they would all love for that little piece of information. You have parents to think about."

He finished his speech and lit up a cigarette. He puffed away on it for a minute or so and then Superman spoke.

"You know...for someone who likes to know alot, you'd think you would know how bad those are for you."

The Question gave a laugh.

"Supes, I am 25 years old. I'm gonna live forever."

"You may live forever but your victim did not. I read about the man's death in the paper. I know you have something to do with it."

"He was going to kill me. I was defending myself. It dosen't matter. The world is better off without these types of people."

Superman stared at him for a minute or so and then asked yet another question.

"You never aswered my question. Who are you?"

"I'm a man looking for answers to the world's questions. Thats all this world is Superman...it's all a bunch of Questions. I'm here to figure it all out. The real question is, what do you want to know the answers to?"

With that, The Question faded into the night and left only a smoke trail forming a question mark. Superman stayed there, thinking.

What did he want to know the anwser to? What questions did he want to solve?

Superman was getting kind of sick of questions.

The End?