Chapter 40: Chapter 40
The guard saw Clark and part of his team going to the exit, so he handed them their sidearms back. Clark stood outside and focused his hearing again to narrow down a location. It took him a few seconds, but he managed to find it.
"Warehouse. Five blocks east past a gas station. Come from the alley. Get your gear but in full disguise. We don't need a panic." Clark told them before he super sped away in a blur. The nearby civilians were confused but Clark's team was used to it by now. They went over to one of their vehicles and pulled out their bags from the trunks holding their weapons but like Clark said they didn't pull them out and just walked in the direction Clark gave them.
Clark stopped behind a building near the warehouse. He peaked behind the corner and saw various trucks and workers going about their business loading and unloading goods. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but Clark could tell that some of the workers were only pretending to work so not to cause suspicion. He had been to Topeka and Kansas City plenty of times with his dad to drop off goods, so he was able to recognize real work from fake. His nose picked up the usual smells. Truck exhaust, dirt, motor oil but he also picked up the hint of gunpowder, fresh brass casings, and gun oil. Things not found in a typical warehouse, but he also picked up a hint of metal that smelled kind of like steel but different. A quick glance with his x-ray vision confirmed his suspicions as he saw many of the workers had hidden sidearms on their person either a Walther P38 or a Luger P-08. If they didn't have a sidearm hidden on their person they had MP 40 submachine guns, Kar98k rifles, and even an MG-42 hidden in crates. Somehow the Germans had snuck into country with weapons for an assassination attempt, but their focus seemed to be on keeping a watch over the perimeter. Clark x-rayed the warehouse and it seemed to be their staging area for something. He saw more Germans inside moving about near a large truck but said truck had lead shielding. Something was going on and it could involve Kryptonite which is why he's glad that Howard designed small plates of lead he could wear underneath his suit. At the very least it could provide some protection if Clark ever encountered Kryptonite, but this would be his first field test if it was here.
Logan, Daniel, Padmavati, and Diggle crept up besides Clark with their weapons ready. Clark then gave them hand signals on their immediate plan to deal with the undercover German assassins. They couldn't go in guns blazing as there were likely innocent civilians mixed up with the Germans that could get caught in the crossfire. They all gave him nods of acknowledgement to his plan before he cracked his neck and vanished at super speed. All that was heard were grunts of pain and Clark appeared by the trucks. The 12 armed German assassins were all knocked out, laying on the ground unconscious while everyone else looked on in confusion and fear.
"Go." Clark told them and the civilians/people not involved in the assassination attempt fled in fear. When they were all gone four men remained which meant they were part of the German team. They all had slight expressions of fear but those quickly vanished for stares of determination and suicidal devotion for their mission and their Fuhrer. They all snuck glances at the crates or nearby compartments that held weapons, inching slowly close to them as possible. "It's over. Stand down and no harm will come to you."
Despite Clark's offer, one German assassin reached into a crate and pulled out an MP-40. He slid the cocking hammer back and aimed only to be shot four times in the chest by Diggle with his M1 carbine. Another reached for a gun and got a shotgun blast to the chest by Padma and before the last two could reach for a gun they were both shot in the knees by Logan and Daniel. Logan raised his submachine gun to end them when Clark put his hand on the barrel before he could pull the trigger. "Let them live, Logan. We need the intel." Clark told him and Logan nodded but hit one across the jaw with the butt of his gun and punched the other across the face, knocking them both out.
Logan fixed his shoulder strap when he noticed Clark looking at him. "What?"
Clark and the others shook their heads, quickly pulling the bodies of the dead and not-dead Germans to the side. Clark tied up the two wounded Germans with some rope after Diggle patched up their legs, so they didn't bleed out. He dumped them into an empty crate and then his team stacked up at the doors to the warehouse and were about to breach. Clark could hear a lot of movement so the 10 Germans inside were getting ready for an ambush. The employees in the warehouse had run out the back exit when the shooting started. Best to take the fight to them before they had a chance to set up a better ambush and his x-ray vision from before didn't detect any Hydra weapons or Kryptonite.
"Get ready!" Clark decided to catch them off guard, so he took a few steps back before running at the door, smashing through it like a cannonball. Splinters of wood and the door shot out as the Germans inside ducked for cover. Clark landed on the ground and drew the attention of the Germans who immediately opened fire at him. The bullets broke and ricocheted against his skin as Logan and the others moved in, shooting the Germans with bullets. Five Germans were killed by their gunfire before they started to fall back. Logan reloaded his Thompson submachine gun and gunned down another German leaving just four who ran inside the warehouse for cover.
"Teams of two. Logan, Daniel." Clark pointed to the right. "Diggle, Padma." Clark pointed to the left. He'd take the middle.
The team nodded and moved in coordination. Logan took the lead with his submachine gun and Daniel was right behind him using his M1911 pistol as his M1 rifle was at a disadvantage in the close quarters of the warehouse. Diggle did the same, switching to his pistol while Padma took the lead with her shotgun.
"Kal, come in." Arthur radioed to him.
"Go ahead, Arthur." Clark replied.
"You've got some very concerned people here at the embassy. They noticed your departure so what's going on?"
"We've got about 32 Germans in a warehouse five blocks from the Embassy. They were armed and had smuggled German weapons in crates. A possible assassination attempt. We're tracking down the last men in that group. Tell the Secret Service and get the President to safety. I'll contact you when we're done." Clark radioed back as he knelt over some very large crates. They were the only ones in the warehouse that had been opened and empty. There were other open crates in the warehouse filled with goods or items, but the four Clark had found were completely empty. The Germans snuck something else into the country, so he kept moving to find the lead-lined truck they were building whatever it was they had. As he got closer, he heard movement inside, so he readied himself when a fist tore through the side of the truck and a beam of green electricity blasted him in the chest. He was knocked off his feet and crashed through several stacks of crates, groaning in pain. He wasn't sure what hit him, but it was green and considering crashing into the crates hurt he figured it must have been Kryptonite. While it hurt, it didn't hurt as much as when he was in Savage's lab.
"Thank you, Howard." Clark patted his chest, clanging against the lead-lined plate. It had taken the impact from the Kryptonite electricity saving him from serious harm leaving him with being slightly weakened which is why crashing into the crates hurt. He pulled himself out of the crate stacks but quickly braced himself as the truck was thrown at him. It smashed into him and then a beam of green electricity struck the truck, causing it to explode before something charged into the fire and a loud impact was heard.
Logan and Daniel rushed over to the epicenter and saw a burning wreck and two large holes in the roof. Diggle and Padma had the same idea and the four acknowledged one another when Diggle and Daniel raised their pistols firing two shots each. They ended up shooting two Germans behind the opposite pair, taking out the four Germans they were looking for. Logan and Padma made sure they were dead, and they breathed a sigh of relief that they got their targets but now they wondered what the hell happened to Clark and what he was fighting.
The rest of Taskforce Vanguard were doing what Clark told them to, getting the President to safety. Churchill and Stalin followed their lead, wondering what was going on when they all heard a loud crash several blocks away.
"Halima, Anna, Lucas, go find out what that was. Stay on the comms." Arthur told them and they nodded, rushing over to the car that had their weapons.
The loud crash was Clark who crashed down in the middle of the street. By a miracle he didn't land on anyone, but his impact made a crater. Horses and animals reared in panic and cars swerved to stops from the sudden events. The civilians in the area were confused as to what had just happened. Clark groaned out in pain as he patted down his body. He was still in one piece and the only pain he felt was from the impact that sent him flying from that warehouse. The truck explosion should have killed him or burnt him to a crisp if the Kryptonite was close enough but since it was just used to cause the explosion, he was fine. Whatever hit him out of the warehouse though was close enough to the Kryptonite, but he still hadn't laid eyes on what exactly. That's when he saw a black figure in the air coming down and landed in the street, creating a crater of its own. He heard loud exhaust and groaning of metal components moving as his opponent came into view to him and everyone else.
Standing at 12 feet tall and looking like a Frankenstein's monster combined with a tank, Clark looked up at the fully realized implementation of Oberführer Wolfram Von List and Doctor Ulrich Vogel's plan for a mechanized super soldier or the Maschinensoldaten. It had a face protection plate with a steel mark shaped liked a boldly styled art-deco human face from a Greek statue. A combat helmet on top of the head seemed to provide some additional protection. The armor itself was large and bulky, looking like it would provide incredible protection but also had to weigh a lot. Thick armor plates covered the feet, legs, chest, arms, shoulders, and even hands and fingers. While the armor was large and bulky, it also had some elements of ingenuity and thought to its design. The shoulder armor was curved and rounded, same with the armor around the legs to provide a greater level of coverage and helped in the ease of movement with visibly matching the body parts it covered. The curved and rounded shapes also were practical as they were more effective to deflect projectiles much like tanks. There was a small metal pack on the back of the armor which fed into a machine gun on the right arm. It was a variant of the model MG-42 fitted for the armor with two barrels, so it had twice the insane fire rate. The left arm seemed to be a similar kind of weapon but no belt of ammo. It looked less like a gun and more like a cannon, only more scientific like from a lab and similar in design to what Clark had seen in Hydra's lab. The tip of that gun was glowing green and the reason for that was because of what was on the chest. Right in the center of the chest was the personal seal of Projekt Endstation, what looked like a DNA strand but on top of it was the Nazi symbol. Right above that was a tempered plastic window to the power source of the armor. A small rock chunk of Kryptonite which allowed the suit's motors to move and powered the electricity laser weapon on the left arm.
Realizing that with the Kryptonite, the Maschinensoldaten could kill him if he's careless he needed to play it smart. He could easily match one of the Blockbuster monsters in strength but with the Kryptonite and those weapons its had on him one wrong and he could die. His training kicked in and he began thinking of ways to win the fight with the current situation and disadvantage he had. The Maschinensoldaten didn't let him contemplate his plan as he marched forward and raised its right arm, firing a long burst from the two MG-42 machine guns fitted to the armor. Clark super sped out of the way and the civilians screamed in terror. Getting low they took off in fright or ran for cover.
The Maschinensoldaten lost track of Clark but the local Iranian police and military opened fire on him, so he killed them with his MG-42 machine guns. Their pistols and rifle bullets just bounced off against his armor. Some bullets were heading towards civilians, so Clark raced over to block them, ripping up a chunk of the ground as cover. He saw one bullet graze his arm, but it ricocheted off. That moment told him a lot. Kryptonite could hurt and even kill him, but its radiation seemed to lose its strength the further away he was from it. When the Maschinensoldaten landed on the street he was about 25-yards away and he didn't feel anything. He managed to use his super speed, so the Kryptonite's radiation didn't affect him. Keeping that distance would likely keep the radiation from harming him and keep him from using his powers. It's probably why the armor had that electrical weapon on its left arm. It used the Kryptonite's energy and channeled it into an electricity beam as a deadly ranged weapon if the truck explosion was anything to go by. It was likely a way so the Maschinensoldaten could get in close. If he fought this thing in a regular fight than he'd likely lose but now that he learned some new things, he had an idea. The Maschinensoldaten armor and Blockbuster serum made the user super strong, likely rivaling Clark and it also made them a little faster but not as fast as him. He had the speed advantage, and it was time to use it.
Clark ran at super speed, getting the nearby civilians out of the immediate area before racing over and getting the surviving Iranian police and military out of the line of fire. The Maschinensoldaten saw a speeding blur whisk people away from his sight, so he took aim with his MG-42, but his continuous fire caused the barrels to overheat. With them useless he ripped them off and hurled them away when a chunk of gravel was thrown into his face. The impact knocked his mask loose and the man found it annoying, so he ripped it off revealing the dark red skin of his face and his red eyes of a user of the Blockbuster serum. Sent by Von List as part of Savage and Hitler's plan to eliminate the Allied leadership. Only now he was in a battle with the Superman.
"Hey, over here!" Clark shouted from down the road, taking out his pistol and firing the magazine.
The Maschinensoldaten didn't flinch as the bullets bounced against his armor and face. He took off running at Clark. He moved much faster than the previous Blockbuster Clark faced but not fast enough as Clark super sped away. The Maschinensoldaten slammed his fist into the road when a car was thrown at him from behind. He was knocked to the ground but quickly pushed the vehicle off and threw it at Clark only for him to super speed away.
"Stand and fight you coward!" the Maschinensoldaten shouted as he powered up the electrical cannon and fired quick beams of Kryptonite electricity in anger, hoping that one of his random shots would hit.
Unbeknownst to him, Clark took cover behind a building corner as Halima, Anna, and Lucas ran over. "Boss, what the hell is going on?" Lucas asked him.
"One of those Maschinensoldaten is here." Clark said as they could see the Maschinensoldaten causing mayhem and blasting buildings thinking he was nearby. "It's strong and sturdy but not fast. Keep it off balance and when I see an opening, I'll take it."
"Got it." Lucas said as he, Halima, and Anna spread out. "Hey, asshole!"
Lucas fired a burst from his Owen submachine gun before throwing a grenade at the Maschinensoldaten. It went off but the damage was minimal if there was any. Lucas ran as the Maschinensoldaten ran after him when Anna appeared on the other side of the road and shot at him.
"Over here!" Anna fired the rest of the clip in her MP-28 before running into an alley. It chased after her only for Halima to appear on a roof and fired down on it with her MP-40.
"Up here!" She ran away as the Maschinensoldaten fired a Kryptonite electricity beam up at the roof. This distraction allowed Clark to throw a truck at the Maschinensoldaten which squished it. Lucas tossed down a grenade and when it went off it took the truck with it. The Maschinensoldaten survived the truck explosion as he marched out of the fire only to get blindsided from behind by something fast and powerful. Clark shoulder shoved it from behind, sending it skidding down the road like a rock on a lake. He super down the street and ripped a light pole out of the street before using it as a bat. One hit sent the Maschinensoldaten flying away, and he crashed down in the distance.
Clark super jumped over to his location and saw the Maschinensoldaten had landed in a park. It's arrival attracted onlookers, but Clark ushered them away as he slowly walked towards it. Still being cautious, he used his x-ray vision to check if he was down, but he managed to get back to his feet. Several armor plates were bent or damaged and the wearer had some cuts on his face, but he was still in the fight. He turned and began firing his Kryptonite electricity beam all over the park in a fit of anger. Clark sped around to avoid being hit while also getting the civilians out of the way.
Seeing the blur wasting his time with the civilians, the Maschinensoldaten detected weakness and a potential trap. He fired his Kryptonite beam at a nearby bridge, taking out one of the supports with one blast and chipping away at another. The newly compromised structural integrity caused part of it to collapse quickly. Clark saw part of the bridge coming down and some debris was going to fall on some civilians. His heroic good nature couldn't help itself as he super sped forward and caught the falling debris over his head.
"GO!" He shouted and the civilians ran away as quickly as they could. Before Clark could super speed out of the way the Maschinensoldaten blasted him in the chest with his Kryptonite beam. Clark was blasted through a wall into a building and smashed through another wall into an adjacent room. Groans of pain were all he managed to mutter as he grabbed his side in pain. He managed to push himself up on all fours when the Maschinensoldaten smashed through the wall and kicked him in the stomach. Clark was knocked through the air and hit a wall before being blasted yet again, this time going through and two more walls before landing outside on an adjacent street.
Clark coughed up blood as he rolled onto his back and felt the horrendous pain of Kryptonite. The lead-lined metal plates he wore underneath his suit were broken and when Maschinensoldaten walked up and stomped on Clark's chest, they shattered. "ARGH!"
Clark cried out in pain as the heavy metal boot on his chest likely cracked or fractured his ribs, the lead-line plates being pushed into his skin and the Kryptonite was killing him.
"HEY!" Diggle, Lucas, Anna, and Halima opened fire with their guns trying to get the attention of the Maschinensoldaten away from Clark before he killed him. All their bullets did was annoy him and Lucas couldn't use a grenade while he was standing over Clark. The Maschinensoldaten aimed its Kryptonite beam, so the team scattered for cover when Logan jumped at it from behind only for the Maschinensoldaten backhanded him into the others.
"No…" Clark coughed up a lung as the Maschinensoldaten increased the pressure on his chest. All he could think about was his friends, his family, and Peggy. He wasn't dying today. Not today. NOT TODAY.
And like a supernova, something inside Clark erupted and he felt an immense surge of energy swell within his body. Much to the surprise of the Maschinensoldaten the veins near Clark's eyes protruded a little and produced a bright orange glow and then a shine of red light emerged from his eyes. If he knew what was going to happen, he would back away but he didn't and neither did Clark. All he knew was that all that energy he felt swell within his body pooled into his eyes and when the moment was right it erupted like a volcano.
"RAHHHH!"
Two bright red beams of energy erupted from Clark's eyes and enveloped the Maschinensoldaten. Clark's team had to shield themselves from the bright light as it was blinding. All anyone in the city saw was two bright red lights suddenly appeared, going up to the sky like nothing before. A bird had the unfortunate circumstance of being in their path and was incinerated. The beams pierced through the clouds and likely could have been seen for miles away. The immediate area around Clark reached similar temperatures to that of raging volcanoes. Part of the ground began to melt into magma, it got so intense. Clark managed to move up his knees as the red heat beams continued to come out of his eyes despite him not consciously wanting it. He didn't know what to do as the heat beams seemed to go where he looked so he forced his eyes shut and covered them with his hands and dared not risk opening them until it was over.
He stayed there on his knees with his hands covering his eyes. After about a minute his veins stopped glowing red, and things seemed to cool down.
"Kal!" He heard Arthur shout followed by sounds of boots rushing over to him. "Kal, you ok? What happened?"
"I don't know…I don't know…" Clark uttered as he didn't want to risk opening his eyes yet. "Arthur, get behind me."
"What?"
"Get behind me. Everyone get behind me. Make sure no one is in front of me." Clark told them and they did.
"Ok, you're good."
Clark slowly…very slowly opened his eyes and his vision had returned to normal. When the red heat beams were coming out everything was in a shade of red but now it was back to normal, which gave him his first look at what he had done. The Maschinensoldaten was dead and the reason he knew was because he had only half his body. The lower half of legs encased in armor as the top half was gone. It had been incinerated including the kryptonite power source. The metal, and likely everything else was molten slag pooling up on the ground. That's when he saw the burning heat trenches carved in the ground and in buildings. Wherever he looked is where the heat beams went, and he did a lot of damage.
"What happened here?" Arthur asked.
"I did this." Clark said as he stood up. He looked around and saw that his team was safe and sound. "The President?"
"Safe." Arthur assured him as he and the others looked around. They were glad to be alive but some of them were concerned and little scared. And so was he. "What happened?"
"Honestly? I have no idea." Clark admitted.
He had just unlocked a new power and like the others it would need to be learned but it did its job and protected him. It saved his life though it had proved to be incredibly dangerous. But at that moment they were alive, and the assassination attempt was foiled. There was reasonable panic, but they were able to inform the police and military that the situation had been resolved. The Three Allied leaders were grateful for Taskforce Vanguard for dealing with the situation and saving their lives. The talks would continue once things were secure and final terms were set and agreed to. Clark's team was able to interrogate the German prisoners and managed to learn how they got into the country.
The trouble was that the drop off in Iran was the first stop as the second stop was heading to Africa. Clark was right. Hydra and Savage's men were heading to Wakanda.
Africa
The squad of Hydra men and part of Savage's personal SS legion had made landfall in Africa on the North east part of the continent on the shores of Eritrea. There they would gather the supplies to make their trip to Wakanda's reported location going through Ethiopia and if they ran into trouble, they had Hydra's energy rifles to ensure that any resistance would be minor. Trouble was coming for Wakanda, and the question is whether they would be ready.
Thankfully, they wouldn't go at this alone as despite the warning and disagreeing with his superiors, Superman would go after them. Believing that denying Hydra and German even the possibility of Vibranium to be reason enough to go on his own. Despite the recent emergence of a new, destructive ability, time was of the essence so it couldn't wait. He would need to deal with it, and he would be faster going by himself, but he would not be alone. He would meet some new friends and allies along the way who had a part to play in his story. They were unusual to say the least, but nothing compared to the others he would meet in Africa.
Up in the night sky over the continent, bright flashes of light seemed to flicker before a singular bright one flashed and suddenly a plane appeared. Not a regular plane as this one was far too large, even larger than heavy duty bombers or cargo planes, but that was not the oddity. It's method of propulsion and overall design was odd, and it wasn't propeller based but energy. It looked more like a spaceship and as quickly as it appeared in the sky it soon vanished like it turned invisible.
The inhabitants of that ship would meet Clark and it would be one of the strangest meetings of his entire life. Well, at least up to that point.
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