72

by Christopher Barr

He thought about how Islam grows weak under the influence of the west and that it must remain strong as the best system for living in the world.  Islamic principles must come before all as Muslims are guided back to the message of the Quran.  Just before the bomb detonated he thought of the words of the great Sayyid Qutb, ‘Islam possesses or is capable of solving our basic problems…without doubt it will be more capable than any other system we may seek to borrow or imitate, to work in our nation.’

The bomb explodes, his body and face evaporate into nothingness along with 88 unknowing victims living their lives.  Suddenly he enters an unearthly realm as his body materializes back to its original form just minutes ago.  He is shocked, he is sweating as he looks back and sees a vortex leading to the bomb site on earth where he sees many bodies shredding and burning to death.  The vortex closes as he looks around, adjusting his eyes to the darker ambiance.

Part of his human sin was his fragment of doubt, but being here, he is able to confirm what he was taught to always believe, if he becomes a soldier of Islam he will be rewarded and his family will live care-free lives while he celebrates in paradise.  After the vortex closed and his eyes started to adjust to the atmosphere, he could see velvet couches all over the room, separated by small pillars holding up large bowls of grapes and at the bottom, raisins.  Sitting on the couches are 72 beautiful virgin girls all wearing long thinly laced frocks.

He looked around in amazement at his promised sex organs, as he thought, all those during his life that dissented upon what he knew to be true and real in the world.  They have their Christian gods, Hindu gods, or no gods at all, and here he was, in his paradise, not there’s.  He sat upon a velvet chair with an overwhelming sense of gratification as he looked up at the best, and most important parts of the Quran, all beautifully printed in Arabic across the entire ceiling.

After he looks at all the women and feels a sense of relief, he starts to think about what he’s going to do with so many of them.  He knew he had to martyr himself but he wasn’t dumb, he had a degree in engineering and aviation.  He was well-read and he knew women had their complications.  He looks back at the sealed area where he came through the vortex.  He then ate a couple of raisins and walks up to a couple of the women.  In his native tongue, he asks about them and then told them to sit on his lap.  Like automatons, they complied.  He asks them to tell him about their training but they don’t respond, they just look at him confused, he then asks them to rub his leg and they all scramble to be the first to rub it.  He asks them to talk about the weather and they say nothing, then he asks for a kiss and they all kiss him, some hitting each other in the head to do so.

Somewhat disorientated, he lies on one of the couches and falls asleep.  When he wakes up there are over two dozen of the women huddled around him, staring.  He looks up at them and slowly sits up as they all adjust themselves for his next command.  He says, ‘I’m hungry’ and they quickly leave the room and start to come back with plates of rice, pots of vegetables, and bowls of beef and fish. 

He looks at them as he takes his first bite and a number of them hand him a napkin.  He puts his food down and walks over to a triple queen size bed.  He lies down as some women look at him around the bed.  He figures he’ll at least have sex with them but when he instigates it, they don’t respond.  They don’t know what to do because they are virgins, and they have been imprisoned in this realm for the sole purpose of servicing him when he martyred himself.

They peculiarly start to rub his body and chest to the point of smothering him.  He can’t even tell whose hands are whose at this point.  144 hands are all forcing their way in on him, astounded, he slips away and jumps into a closet.   He sits in there and then orders them all to stand down and leave him alone.  He opens the door and they all jump him.  They tell him that their lives have been devoted to the day their ‘god’ would appear, and when that day comes, it was up to them to spoil him with the most lascivious lustfulness that they have to offer.   They said they believed that one day he would show up and here he is.  

He starts to push them away from himself as he makes his way to where the vortex closed on his world.  He bangs on the wall, desperately trying to open it, but yet to no avail.  “These phantasms are here and now and they want to do something to me.  I just want them gone…….”

Batman: Beyond the Darkness

by Christopher Barr

He was walking down the street with the screaming sounds of the city night behind him.  Heavy rain crashed to the ground as he shook his long leather coat and adjusted his hood over his head.  He knew he had two men following him but he didn’t want any trouble to he ducked into an alleyway hoping they’d walk on by and forget about him.  He leaned by a dumpster and could see two shadows stopping and looking around.   ‘Keep walking.’ He thought.

But they didn’t keep walking and entered the alleyway where they saw him leaning against the wall.  They ordered him to give them all his money and any other valuables he had on him or they would shoot him dead right where he stood.  He walked out from the shadows and told them he didn’t have anything really.  He took out four dollars from his jeans front pocket and handed it to them.

One of the thugs snatched the money out of his hand and laughed at him.  “This isn't enough, not nearly enough”, so he aimed his handgun at the man’s chest and gave him one more warning.  The man had nothing more to give so the thug shot him twice in the chest and stomach.  He leaned over facing away from the thugs who started to walk out of the alley.  They looked back and could see the man leaning over but still standing.

One of the thugs walked over to him and pointed his gun at the man’s shaded face.  The man said, “you shouldn’t have done that,” as he looked down at his own closed fist.  Suddenly three-foot-long adamantium metal claws unsheathe from between each knuckle on his fist.  He spun around and pierced the thug's stomach, lifting him off the ground.  The rain spilled off the dying man as he stared into a very angry man’s eyes.

Wolverine tossed the thug against the wall and ran toward the other thug who was in shock.  He emptied his gun into Wolverine’s face just before Wolverine slammed both clawed fists into the chest of the screaming man.  The thug dropped to the ground when he retracted his claws, breathing heaving and then himself falling to the ground.

Wolverine’s eyeball and the side of his face are gone, blood pours out of him into a puddle and down a drain as he grinds his teeth, trying to focus the pain away.  The flesh around his right eyeball began to regenerate, rebuilding itself over his adamantium skull.  A bullet forced itself out of his cheek and dropped to the ground. The flesh around his eyeball socket formed along with a new eyeball as his eyelid and lashes shaped.  He sat up and looked over at the two dead men while shaking off a wicked headache.  Police sirens could be heard so he got up and disappeared into the darkness of the night as the rain washed away his blood.

Bruce Wayne sits on a couch looking at roaring flames in his fireplace while deep in thought.  Alfred walks in and sets down a tray with a shiny silver teapot, two cups and all the fixings for tea. 

“Sir is everything all right,” says a concerned Alfred.   

Bruce doesn’t answer him and then snaps out of his train of thought and dubiously responses to Alfred, “I’m fine, Alfred.”

“Sir, I just thought you might like some tea to help you weather such a rainy night.”

“Nope, Alfred, I think we might go the other way if you don’t mind.”

“Yes Master Wayne.”

Alfred picks up the tray and leaves the room.  “Wayne Enterprises is not flourishing as it once was, Alfred,” Bruce says raising his voice for Alfred to hear.

“What are you saying, Sir!!”

Alfred walks back in with a bottle of scotch and a glass.  He sets it down and pours one glass.

“Please Alfred, grab a glass and join me.”

Alfred takes another glass and pours himself a drink and sits down.

“What’s troubling you sir.”

“The world is changing and I’m not sure Wayne Enterprises will fit into this new world, this world of corruption.  We need to start considering dismantling the Batman project if such an event arises.”

“Sir, Batman has contributed more good for this city than I can recall in all my days, Wayne Enterprises is a multinational corporation that has many facets to its infrastructure.  What is bringing this on?”

“I don’t know, maybe I got tired of fighting the fight and waking up the next day only to have to fight some more.”

“Sir, is this really about the Joker and Arkham Asylum?  Sir, you couldn’t have known about that, nobody saw that coming.”

Bruce leans forward-looking Alfred in the eyes with such a heavyweight over him.  He’s looking tired and defeated as he forces a smirk on his face in order to not worry Alfred.  Bruce clinks his glass to Alfred’s as they both take a drink.

“He’s out there again, that madman is out there.”

“I know sir, I know.”

A lightning bolt hit’s the top of Arkham Asylum and lights the rainy sky.  The Joker is curled up into the corner of his cell shivering while wearing a straitjacket.  He giggles but then becomes serious, he then giggles again, rolling his eyes around as if following something in the room that only he can see, drooling on himself.  Two guards at the steel door open the hatch and look in at him.

“For days he’s been doing that, one minute he’s up and about, and the next minute the nut is singing to the pixies and the goblins in his nut-brain head,” utters one of the guards.

“He’s a piece of shit that should have got a bullet, not a cell.  Why we keep these pricks alive is beyond me.”

The Joker begins to choke and then falls to the floor.  A guard grabs his radio to call for medical assistance as he looks into the cell and sees the Joker foaming from the mouth.  The other guard grabs his hand stopping him from calling it in.  “Let him choke out, who gives a shit about him.”  The other guard snaps his hand away and calls for assistance.

In an armored ambulance the Joker is strapped to a table with an oxygen mask fastened to his face.  In his hand he holds a vile and breaks it, the medical officer along with two guards begin to cough and then spit up blood as they fall dead to the floor.  The Joker laughs in his oxygen mask as the two sealed off drivers call dispatch and report.

Two armored vehicles, one in front of the ambulance and one behind slow it down and stop it.  The driver of the ambulance hits a big red button on his dash that locks them all in like a bank vault.  The Joker cuts one arm free and then undoes the other straps, keeping the mask on as he presses his face against the sealed glass between him and the drivers and begins to laugh as his breath fogs up the inside of his mask.  

“Where is Batman!!?  Where is Batman!!?” he yells muffled through his mask and the glass dividing them.  “Where?!!!  Where, where where, where?!!”   Sparks start to explode behind the Joker filling the ambulance. 

The Joker stares at the drivers, “What are you going to do, what?!!  You can’t hold me, you can’t lock me up!!”  The Joker steps backward and drops down.  The drivers look into the back and see a hole where the Joker has escaped.

Bruce sits in a chair down in the Batcave looking at his Batsuit, while thinking.  He looks over at a TV screen and sees military soldiers shooting at screaming people.  On another screen he sees businessmen shaking hands as they look over oil fields.  He looks at another screen and sees footage of a bomb explosion in London.  He grabs his Batsuit and pulls it off its rack and throws it across the floor.  On another screen he sees footage of the ambulance the Joker escaped from, then a camera pans to the sky where the bat signal is being projected.  Bruce walks over and picks up his suit and looks at the chest bat symbol.

Logan walks into a diner, sits at the counter, and picks up a menu.  He looks through it as a waitress walks over to him and looks at him.  “Are you okay buddy?” looking at the blood on his shirt.  Logan looks at his shirt and tells her he’s fine.

“I’ll have the hot hamburger with mashed potatoes and corn niblets if you have it.  Coffee as well, please,” Logan says.

“Right away.”

Logan looks up at the TV and sees the news on the Joker.  The waitress walks over and pours Logan a coffee.

“Who is that guy?”

“You’re not from around here are you,” says the waitress.  “That’s the Joker.  They had him locked up in Arkham for a while thanks to Batman.”

“Who’s Batman?”

“Correction, you’re really not from around here?  What are you from Europe?”

“Canada.”

“Well I’m pretty sure Canadian’s have heard of Batman.”

Logan looks at the screen and watches Gotham City Police surround the ambulance.

Commissioner Gordon pulls up by the ambulance and gets out and walks up to the scene.  An officer walks over to him, “Sir, the Joker is gone.  He was being transported to Gotham General because of seizer or something and escaped mid-transport.”

“Okay, what do we know, how did he escape and where did he go,” asserts Gordon.

“At this point sir, we don’t know.”

“Did he arrive yet?”

The officer looks up at the bat signal, “No sir, there hasn’t been any sign of him.”
Gordon looks at the officer, displeased, and then looks in the back of the ambulance and sees the hole cut in the floor.

Bruce stands by the Batmobile wearing his suit but not the cowl.  The suit is dark gray with a black cape and a cowl that he holds in his hand, the suit is covered in Kevlar and armor plating with a specially made modumetal which is one of the lightest and strongest metals on the planet.  It has a black bat symbol stitched to the upper chest area of the suit.  He puts the cowl on and climbs into the Batmobile.

“Run diagnostics.”

“Yes sir, right away,” says the Batmobile’s female voice. “All systems are operational and fuel is full.  The weather is raining with the temperature of 78 ^°F” 

Batman turns on his lights, his weapons systems and then pushes a button on his steering wheel which opens the Batcave door.  He puts it in drive and peels out into a forest on a dirt road.  He drives into Gotham and opens the top-up pointing his grapple gun up at the buildings. “Auto-drive,” he orders the Batmobile, then fires the cable from his gun and jumps out and up to a building top.

He perches himself on top of a skyscraper looking down at the city.  He jumps from that building and heads toward the bat signal.  The Batmobile’s voice speaks to him.  “The site is still populated with the Gotham Police Force.  911 calls have dropped and are only reporting medical emergencies.”  Batman stands on a building and sees Gordon looking up at him.

The Joker stands upon a pile of crates and looks out at his forty thugs looking back at him.  “The world is at the brink, it’s at the ledge.  The mulish bat is nowhere to be found.  The wick is burning, the time is set, the end is now,” he giggles.  “Why keep this train going when we only wish to die, okay, okay.  That’s it, we kill the bat, we kill the city, and then we kill the world, once and fooooor aaallllllll.”  The Joker laughs as he grabs the neck of one of his thugs and tosses him.

Logan walks up the street by the ambulance where Gotham City police have it surrounded.  He stops himself, knowing that he wants to help but also desires to keep a low profile.  He turns around and walks up a side street where he sees four men planting a bomb by the police operations area.  He runs up to him to confront them, they stop what they are doing and walk up to Logan.

“You know you shouldn’t be here right?” says one of the thugs.

“You’re probably right about that,” says Logan.

Logan readies his fist to fight when Batman intervenes, kicking and punching out the four men.  He then faces Logan.  “Who are you?” says Batman.

“Where I’m standing pal, maybe I should be asking the questions.  Who are you?”

“I’m Batman.”

Batman walks toward Logan.  “Man, you want to step back?”

Batman looks at Logan, “You need to leave this area or you might get hurt.”

“I’m fine, I’m not going to get hurt, trust me,” angrily says, Logan.

“Are you with them, what is the Joker going to do next?!” Batman yells.

Logan gets into a defensive stance, “I’m not with them, I’m not even from around here, so cool it pal, whatever it is you are!”

Batman gets into a bladed stance.  Logan’s veins in his arms pulsate.  Batman looks him in the eyes and sees the rage; he advances toward him as Logan unsheathes his claws from his fists.  Batman steps back a bit shocked at seeing them push out of his fists like that when Logan slashes him across the chest and knocks him against a wall.  Batman gets up and looks at his chest armor split but not all the way through.

Logan runs up and grabs Batman and pulls him close to his face. “You remember who started this, not me pal!”  Logan throws Batman across the street and into the side of a dumpster.  Batman climbs to his feet and runs to Logan elbowing and kicking him to the ground, Keysi fighting style.  Logan gets up as Batman throws a metal ball he pulls off his utility belt at him that sticks to Logan’s chest, he looks down at it noticing it didn’t hurt at all until it opens on either side and releases 50,000 volts of electricity into Logan’s body.  Blue electricity spreads along his claws as he drops to the ground.


Batman walks up to him as sparks shoot from his claws.  Logan’s eyes open as he jumps to his feet; he rips the metal ball from his chest and throws it away.  He dives into Batman, screaming with rage, throwing him into a wall and punching him many times in the stomach until he unsheathes his right claws and drives them into Batman’s side.  Batman armor absorbed most of the impact but some adamantium claw gets through and slashes his side.  He electrically charges his suit and then pushes Logan off of him and fires his grapple gun, pulling himself up to the top of a third story building.  He stands and looks at his side and then injects a liquid into it to prevent it from infecting.

Logan jumps to the fire escape and climbs on the roof staring Batman down, taking off his leather jacket, who he sees removes his cape and toss it to the side.  Batman fires a bat-star at Logan’s face which he deflects with his clawed hand as they both storm toward each other, unleashing an arsenal of punches and kicks, then Batman stabs Logan with a device in his side and then jumps back.  A small thermite bomb explodes taking Logan’s left torso with it, on the ground, he holds his stomach from falling out, and then Batman watches Logan’s side regenerate, where his ribs are rebuilt and flesh is quilted over until the bleeding stops.  Batman is truly in shock when Logan, who is pissed off, gets up and grabs him and runs them both 30 feet before swan diving them both off the building through a first-floor window on the adjacent building and through that floor until they come crashing down in a basement.

Dust and debris fill the darkroom when Logan climbs up and leans on Batman with his right set of claws high in the air, ready to slam them into Batman. “I am not your enemy!”  Batman looks at his rage and the claws, “well then, who are you?”  Logan drops to the ground and catches his breath, “I’m no one, I’m a ghost.”

Batman leans over Logan with his hands up, “I just need to get something?”  Logan is cautious but allows him to get whatever he’s talking about.  Batman leans over and pulls a device off Logan’s belt buckle and deactivates it, then falls back and leans against the wall, catching his breath.

“What was that supposed to do?” Logan asks curiously.

“That has a special explosive in it that could effectively level a building, you know, just in case you followed through,” Batman says as he pulls a couple of three foot long pieces of wood out of Logan's back.

“Well its good we didn’t need to use that then isn’t it?” smirks Logan.

“I guess you’re right there” confirms Batman “So who are you really?”

“I’m a drifter; I was just cutting through here on my way to South America, to truly disappear.”

Batman sits up as piercing pain shoots through his side.

“Sorry about that, pal” says Logan.  

“What’s in South America?” probes Batman.

“I’m done with all of this to be honest with you.  I’ve fought battles that only led to more battles.  I’ve fought in many wars where men believed in their cause, only to find out it was a lie.”

“I actually know that all too well,” confesses Batman “But that man out there right now, is what we do this for.  He’s not a rich man’s war, he’s the madman that’s a true danger to us all, a man that must be stopped even if we think there isn’t anything worth fighting for.  This is.”

Three police officers alone with Gordon walk through the rumble and up to Batman and Logan.  Logan extends his claws and readies himself to fight, when Batman takes his wrist looking at him, “He’s with us.”

The Joker along with a delivery truck full of thugs pulls up in front of a government building.  Some of the men look at the 50 story building then back at the Joker.  “The world is built of chaos then only lies to itself into thinking that it’s order, we are going to tip the scales and let it see its full potential,” asserts the Joker.  “Batman needs to work a little harder if he wants to save these dreadful people from this Draconian empire, because I would sooner see it all fall back to the stone age, which is what we are about to do,” snickers the Joker as he spits on his hand and rubbed a speck of dirt off the face of the man seating next to him.

Batman, Logan and Gordon all stand in the alley, Gordon looks at Logan and then, “He’s broken into a communications technology and research facility and stolen a nano-tech device from their deep vault, for reasons our cyber-terrorism unit is currently still working on.”

“Cyber-terrorism usually isn’t his brand of violence,” says Batman.

“Maybe he’s changed; maybe he has something new…” Logan says before Gordon cuts him off.  “He’s going to blow something up, he’s going to kill a lot of people, now, tonight,” stresses Gordon.

“I don’t know what he’s going to do but we better be there to stop him before he does it,” affirms Batman.

“The eye you see isn’t an eye because you see it; it’s an eye because it sees you,” Logan says, “Meaning maybe your guy is on to what you think he’s up to and is changing it.  Magneto used to…”

“Who is this guy again?” Gordon asks Batman.

“Me and your friend just destroyed half a god damn neighborhood to get to this point, if you don’t want my help I’ll be on my merry, but I’m getting the impression that me staying might be better for everyone,” states Logan.

“Fine, but we need to know our next move,” says Gordon.

“We get ready for a battle as if we are going fight a war,” declares Batman.

The Batmobile pulls up in front of them.

Batman drives the Batmobile through Gotham as Logan sits in the passenger seat and looks around at the buttons and the screens.  “Where did you get this?” Logan says curiously.  “This all seems so elaborate.”

“Well as I seat here and think of you and what you are able to do, I’m sure both of us can agree on, that it would be a long story to tell,” says Batman.

The Batmobile speeds up a dirt road heading directly for a cliff face.  “Hey pal, you’re heading into a wall and I assure you that it’s going to hurt you a lot more than it’s going to hurt me.”

“Don’t worry about it, I got this,” confirms Batman.

The Batmobile jumps at the cliff wall and then disappears into darkness.  Landing in the Batcave and coming to a stop.  They both climb out and walk up to Batman’s communication center.  Logan looks around at the immensity of the cave along with all its security features.  “This is quite an operation here that I think Professor X would have been impressed with,” states Logan.

“Who’s Professor X?”

“He’s a man with a dream, a man that wants to stop all the violence and chaos in the world, a man that is a dreamer.”

“He sounds like a man that just wants what’s best for the good people of the world.”

“He has a school where he teaches others like me to use their abilities for good, while on the flip side, there are other mutants that use their abilities to save themselves.”

Batman takes his suit off and drops it to the floor, his body is bruised, and has stitched scares all over it, he walks up to Logan and shakes his hand, “I’m Bruce Wayne.”

“My name is Logan.”

Bruce walks to the back leaving Logan to look around.  Alfred comes out from another door and walks up to Logan with a tray with tea on it.  “Would you care for some tea, sir?”

Logan looks at Alfred, “No thank you, I don’t drink…tea.  But thanks for the offer.”

Logan looks up and sees a hundred bats hanging from the ceiling of the cave, “those bats?” he asks Alfred.  

“You are in Batcave, Master Logan.”  

As Alfred walks away, “How did you know my na…?”  Bruce walks in and hands Logan a uniform.  “It’s my armor prototype.”

“I’m not wearing any suit; everyone tries to get me to wear a suit.”

“For whatever reason your wounds are able to regenerate but that may take time that you don’t have.  The purpose of the suit is to eliminate that time; this will allow you to fight while you would normally be healing yourself.  Plus it will hurt a lot less.”

Logan looks at the suit, thinking, and then takes it.

“It’s made with modumetal which is considered to be one of the toughest metals on this planet.”

Logan looks at Bruce and unsheathes the claws from his right hand, “I beg to differ.”

“And right you are,” smiles Bruce.

The Joker and his men stand over a number of dead guards as they look at a massive computer.  “Where is love in all this talk of Panopticons and pyramids, smart dust and artificial intelligences’?!! shouts the Joker “Let’s give them all what they really want.”  The Joker inserts a jump-drive into the super-computer and then presses, ENTER.

All over the Gotham city people have their private files uploaded to their computers.  All the schemes the banks were playing on them they could see, all the spying the governments and the corporations were doing they could see.  At one point these agencies pulled this information from the privacy of the people, the Joker uploaded software that pushed all the creepy-crawly back to them.

People could see their Facebook accounts were information-gathering systems, along with Twitter, they could see the images that their devices were projecting, their TV’s, their smartphones, their washing machines, and alarm clocks were all sending images back to a source that the Joker’s software was allowing everyone to see.

The Joker stood in the command center and looked at all the surveillance cameras spying on everything in society.  He looked at riots break out as traffic lights were turned off.  People started to panic as he ordered a complete shutdown of the internet, then all the cell towers shut down, then the power to Gotham city.  The Joker looked at the monitors shut down knowing the enemy in modern society wasn’t him, the real enemy was darkness itself.

Batman and Wolverine landed the Batplane on the roof of the communications building, they exit and ran for the roof door.   The door was locked when Wolverine with his claws out, slashed the door handle and opened the door.  They ran down the stairs and entered the floor the signal was coming from; the signal Batman’s quantum computer detected was the source of the computer virus.

Once they opened the door the Joker’s thugs began to shoot at them.  Logan ran toward a group of them, deflecting as many bullets as he could with only a couple hitting his body before he unleashed his claws and stabbed and sliced them up.  Batman through a mini-bomb and blow up a group of thugs running to attack him, he kicked and elbowed a number of others that got to him.  The Joker kicks Batman, laughing at him. “It’s tooooo late, the virus is out, the chaos is….freeee!!”

Batman boots the Joker, knocking him against the wall.  He looks back and sees Logan tackling 12 thugs, the Joker runs to the door looking at him, luring him.  Batman hesitates but then dives into those 12 men and fights them alongside Wolverine as he steals a glimpse of the door seeing that Joker is gone.  Once all the thugs have been all beat down, Wolverine and Batman walk into the command center looking at what the Joker was up to.  They turn the power back on the city, they reactivate the traffic control system but then they look at the information upload that was feeding into the homes of the people that thought their privacy was private.  Batman looked at the kill switch and then at Wolverine, they both walk away and let the feed upload the stolen information to the people.

Back in Wayne Manor in Bruce’s gym, Logan and Bruce face each other.  “He’ll show up, we’ll get him,” Bruce says.

Logan tightens his fists, “I’m still leaving, I’m out of this.”

“I get the problem, I know why you’re going and I know you’re going, but don’t go because of bureaucratic bullshit, the fight is bigger than that, I realize that now.”

“You’re an idiot, you know that, but I will go back and fight, I kind of don’t want to, but I get your point.” Logan slides his blades out of his fists staring at Bruce.

“Don’t cheat” Bruce says as he pushes a button on his watch that pulls the floor under Logan disorientating him long enough for Bruce to boot him into the wall.