Capítulo 3: chapter 3: First Meeting
Clark Kent, journalist of the Daily Planet and real identity of Superman, had been enjoying his day off by patrolling the city he loved when his enhanced hearing allowed him to hear the last thing he wanted to hear in that situation: the screaming of people and the discharges of firearms (and fortunately only firearms, instead of Intergang's Apokolips-supplied weapons), both coming from one of the banks in the city. Naturally Clark sped up towards the location, assuming whoever was attacking to be just a bunch of well-armed heisters that had been caught.
Only to receive a sedan to the face when he got close enough. Thrown at him by a literal shark man.
"Superman!" King Shark bellowed with a nasty grin on his face as he walked down the stairs of the building. "Come down here so I can show you my teeth up close while the others work!"
King Shark, real name Nanaue, was the half-human offspring of the hawaiian shark god Kamohoali'i, and his divine parentage granted the hybrid superhuman strength and endurance plus amphibious physiology, in the sense he could operate both over and underwater. That was the extent of Clark's knowledge, what with him coming to the spotlight literally two months prior, during which he didn't do much aside from disrupting the peace in Honolulu. Why did he cross the waters betwee Hawaii and the mainland and then several states just to steal a bank on the other side of the country, he didn't know, and frankly, he didn't care.
Clark glared at him, then looked around the bank. The situation was dire: the police was being forced to take cover behind their wrecked vehicles to avoid being shredded by the fire of at least twenty masked robbers, all of them equipped with automatic weapons and, to his horror, a grenade launcher. Sure, it was harmless against him, or at least if it shot normal grenades, but not against the others. Fortunately no one had died yet, but that could change, and nevertheless he could see several officers already wounded... and three dead, shrapnel wounds all over their bodies.
He promptly got rid of the heavy weapon by incinerating it with his heat vision, prompting its bewildered owner to drop the remains, and allowing the police to finally pin the group down, forcing them back inside the building. That only left King Shark as the main threat.
The Man of Steel assessed the situation: unlike most of the enemies he had faced before, King Shark was powerful enough to pose a threat to him, and not just with his muscles but also with his teeth: being part of a semi-divine being, they would be more than capable of piercing his skin.
Clark shook his head: it wasn't time to fear being bitten by a shark the size of a bear. With a yell, he flew down to King Shark and tackled, both of them flying inside the building, where they began to actually fight, exchanging punches and kicks. This caused the firefight to stop as both criminals and cops watched on in trepidation, awe, fear and many more feelings.
"What are you doing here Shark?!" The kryptonian screamed as he pounded the living daylights out of King Shark.
King Shark laughed, hurt by the attack but nonetheless still capable of fighting. "Even demigods have to pay their bills, you know! I'll get paid a fortune if I help these gentlemen carry their bounty!" He then caught Clark's fist and, with a roar, slammed him against the ground one, two, three times, the floor of the bank cracking under the onslaught. Clark himself, however, was more or less unscathed by this, and quickly recovered by grabbing King Shark by the arm and flinging upwards, and then punching him back outside when he fell.
'I can finish the fight quickly' Thought Clark as he sped after King Shark, who had ended on a nearby building's first floor. 'He may match me in brawn and brain, but not speed or skill. All I need to do is-' His line of thought was interrupted by a green beam that appeared out of nowhere and blasted him back inside the bank yet again. A green beam made of radiation that not only made him scream in pain, but also made him feel weak.
Or rather, as he struggled to stand up and failing to do so, actually made him weak.
"Mph, for a brute whose father's a shark god, he's a rather crappy fighter." A british voice spoke near him, one with a metallic flange. "Oh well, don't send a shark to do an englishman's job."
John Corben, more commonly known as Metallo. Previously a mere british mercenary, a fatal disease forced him to take a life-saving operation that uploaded his conscience into an incredibly powerful, kryptonite-powered chassis. Unfortunately, it also lacked the capacity to feel contact, smell or taste, and Corben was a known hedonist. Saying that he felt bitter by being essentially trapped in a sensory-deprived prison would have been an understatement.
And of course, like many others before and after him, he blamed Superman for his new condition.
Which he made clear when he grabbed Clark by the back of his head and glared at him. Part of his head still had the fake head covering it, but otherwise he looked exactly like a certain time-travelling killing machine, with the addition of an core in his chest that glowed like an emerald.
"Metallo..." Clark managed to mutter, before said cyborg punched him in the gut.
"That's right, alien boy, it's your old friend John Corben!" Metallo said in a faux affable tone before punching Clark once more when he fruitlessly tried to reach for the kryptonite shard. "And just like King Shark said, some people need to pay their bills. Now, if only he stopped acting like a hooligan..."
"Hey! I can hear you!, you metal jerk!"
Metallo merely chuckled, before turning his attention back to Clark ."Shark, be a good lad and help the boys with the door; your stunts wrecked the thermal lance. As for you..." The compartment on his chest opened, exposing Clark to a chunk of kryptonite the size of his clenched fist, and causing him indescribable pain. "Now, this might or might not kill you, but I'm not leaving until I hear you scream."
Ironically, Clark felt so weak as the kryptonite's effect took hold of him he couldn't even yell.
And then, just as Clark was starting to lose consciousness, a deep, baritone voice spoke from behind Metallo.
"Let him go!"
The order was accompanied by Metallo being hit by two energy beam cannons, causing him to scream and release Clark from his hold.
Clark, still weak, managed to smile as he saw the source of the rays: a tall metal suit with a large 'S' engraved on its chest, and a red cape on its shoulders, and who was holding a sledgehammer.
John Henry Irons, or as he was known when he wore the suit, Steel. A former worker of LexCorp who resigned in disgust when Luthor gave the green light to a prototype battlesuit, and then used the blueprints of said battlesuit to create his own armor to fight crime.
"You!" Metallo screamed as he closed his core, knowing that unlike Superman, Steel would be completely unaffected by the space rock. That, and he remembered the last time he foolishly let it out in the open with the suit-wearing man around.
"What, nothing about poor me?" Another voice, this time feminine, as a blonde girl came inside, wearing a blue skirt and a t-shirt with an emblazoned 'S' on it. This was his adopted cousin, Kara In-Ze, Kara Kent, or rather Supergirl as it was, a survivor from Krypton's sister planet Argon, which was too afflicted by the catastrophe that destroyed Krypton.
She promptly flied down at Metallo and dive-kicked him, throwing into a pillar. Then, as Steel attacked Metallo, both exchanging blows with metallic fists and hammeer, she ran towards a still weakened Clark and helped him up, worry clear on her face.
"Superman, are you alright?"
"Yeah, I just need some time to clear the kryptonite." Clark replied... before a large body came out of nowhere and tackled both, sending Kara flying.
"Supergirl!" Clark managed to scream before a huge fist uppercutted him.
It was King Shark, who understandably didn't seem to be amused "Did you idiots forget about me?!" He screamed as he punched Clark. "I'll rip your spines out and flosh my teeth with them!"
"Get away from him!" Kara cried a, but King Shark, in a twist of irony, used Clark as a living club to batter her away.
"Shut up, blondie, the adults are talking!" King Shark said before charging at Steel, who because of him hammering Metallo didn't see him coming, and doing the same to him.
Metallo dusted himself and stood up. "Thanks for the assist, Nanaue." He then opened his container, bathing Clark in green poisonous light once more, unconcerned at the possibility off doing damage to Shark. "Let's finish the job, shall we?"
Whatever King Shark was going to say in reply was interrupted by a stream of blue bolts flying in the air and then pelting King Shark's back. While it didn't seem like the attacks actually wounded him, but was obvious by his scream of pain that they still hurt, to the point he dropped Clark and backhanded Metallo away.
"What in my father's name was that?!" The shark man screamed, rage clear on his eyes as he turned around to look at the direction the shots came from. Now facing his back, Clark saw that the shots did wound him, exposing cartilage and muscle to the air, but they were small, and even then the damage was being quickly healed.
It didn't change the fact someone was in possession of a weapon that could hurt a demigod. Maybe even killing him.
"Who the Hell are you?!" King Shark bellowed.
Clark, still weak from both the kryptonite and the beatdown, looked from between King Shark's legs to where and who was he screaming at.
There, in the demolished entrance of the bank, stood a tall, armored figure, looking at them silently.
The first thing that came to Clark's mind when he saw the newcomer was 'green', what with the unknown's armor being mostly colored several shades of said color, aside from a few gray areas here and there. Even the helmet's faceplate was green, though that was a minor point compared: for some unknown he could not see through the armor plating and discern the man's identity (because it was obvious it was a man).
The second thing was 'military'. He wasn't completely sure about that, but something told him that the suit the unknown wore was neither of police nor civilian making, and not just for the way it looked: he could see a long, serrated blade attached on his left gauntlet.
Then there was the fact he was clutching what was unmistakably a weapon, a bulky, rectangle-shaped energy cannon that looked big even in his hands, clearly the weapon from where the energy projectiles that struck Shark came from. However, it didn't seem to be a 'prototype' from LexCorp or the many other companies specialized in weaponry, nor reverse-engineered from an Apolokiptian weapon like many others had done before.
The last thing was 'big'. Even from his laying position and at that distance, Clark could see that the stranger was at least a few inches taller than King Shark, who was himself a bit over seven feet tall, and just as wide as him. And somehow, Clark doubted it was some kind of suit that merely made him look larger. Well, and the fact that he had no armor covering his elbows: those biceps had to be at least twice as big as his, possibly more.
Clark didn't know what to make of this man, unable as he was to see his real self. King Shark, on the other hand, did.
"Who are you?!" King Shark asked the man, who merely glanced at him. Getting no response, King Shark growled and stomped over to him. The man still did nothing as five hundred pounds of demigod made its way towards the stranger. Before Clark or the others could recover, King Shark was already throwing a punch that would have splattered the man.
Or would had, had he not caught it with his free hand.
King Shark, surprised by this, tried to free himself from the soldier's hold, but no matter how hard he pulled, the man would not release his fist.
And then the man squeezed. Clark did not know what was worse, the sound of bones (or rather, cartilage) being grinded to dust, or the scream of sheer agony that King Shark gave with the aforementioned action.
The soldier was not done. Repeating what King Shark had done before, he slammed the demigod against the ground, again with enough force to make him bleed. Then, he slammed the weapon's barrel into Shark's gut with just as much force, maybe more given he sent him flying across the bank. Shark then crashed right into the vault's door hard enough to leave an imprint shaped like his silhouette.
This stranger just made beating the hell out of a shark demigod that matched Superman look easy, trivial even. That did not sit well with Clark.
After a few seconds of complete silence, every robber began firing at him, but they may as well have used bad words because the giant didn't even react to the bullets pinging off his armor. Whatever the suit was made of, it had to be at least as good as Steel's if it could withstand that kind of damage.
And then, the man looked at Clark, his eyes visible through the translucent faceplate, giving him a neutral expression.
Clark, transfixed by the stare of the soldier, didn't see Metallo rise behind him until the glow of his eyes intensified. Kara did notice, but it was too late for her to do anything.
"Watch out!" Kara warned before Metallo attacked the man with a beam. However, despite engulfing the man and utterly destroying everything around, it had as much effect on him as the bullets did: none whatsoever.
The soldier slowly turned, and despite his neutral stance and the kryptonian's inability to see his face, something told the Man of Steel and his adopted cousin that the soldier was not amused by Metallo's action.
"You think you can even dent me? I'm literally indestructible!" Metallo boasted as he took a fighting stance. Despite the boast, even those without superhearing could hear a tinge of fear in his voice. "I can tangle with Superman!"
The man merely stared at him for a few seconds before punching Metallo in the face and launching him across the bank. The man then placed his weapon on the ground and, with incredible speed for someone of his size, ran at Metallo, who began firing blasts of radiation as fast as he could, only managing in slowing the charging giant a little. Just as he was about to collide with Metallo, however, the soldier stopped cold.
"Superman?" Clark head John ask. He had already recovered from King Shark's attack, but just like Clark he was transfixed in what was going on. "Should we intervene?"
"I want to see how this ends." Clark replied
"What's the matter big guy? Chicken?" Metallo sneered before shooting another blast of kryptonite towards the stranger, again doing nothing aside from making the man flinch.
'How much does the man weigh to not be pushed back?' Thought Clark as Metallo fired again, and again, doing nothing. 'Heck, just what is that suit made of? I'd be dead after the third strike!' That kind of power would be more than enough to vaporize (and irradiate) a bunker, yet it did nothing to the soldier!
The stranger, rather than responding to Metallo's attacks, extended his left arm and advanced towards Metallo. Given the open palm it was clear what he had planned to do, the intention so obvious that Corben, realizing what was about to happen, closed his core and tried to keep the man away from him, but he had wasted too much energy in his fruitless attempts to kill him, and even then the soldier was simply much stronger than he was. So much that he outright stabbed his hand through Metallo's chest and pulled the kryptonite shard powering him without any problem. This caused Metallo's rictus of terror to become frozen on his face, and the green glow of his eyes to go out.
Then, as he threw the chassis of the cyborg away and inspected the kryptonite, the soldier did something that astonished Clark.
He made the space rock disappear. Just like that. He did not throw it away, nor crushed it on his hand. It simply... ceased to exist, for lack of a better word. Was he in possesion of a miniature universe, like the Phantom Zone?
'That's impossible, there would have been a portal if he did' Clark thought, since such technology was only available to him, and him alone. That said, the possibility of someone on Earth developing a similar device to the Phantom Zone wasn't entirely impossible, just very unlikely.
And then, as he walked up to Clark and stood up in front of him, the soldier spoke.
"Are you alright, Superman?" He heard the man said.
Dear God, that voice. Bruce too used a deep, baritone voice that he deepened when he was Batman, both to conceal his identity and to intimidate criminals but this man's? His was like, for lack of a better description, the rumbling of a tank's threads as it moved, very gravelly and deep, and seemingly barely used. He would know, he was a journalist, and part of the job involved hearing hundreds of people.
Seeing that this man was courteous enough to offer him a hand, Clark accepted it. "Yeah, just a bit winded, that's all. It's been some time since I fought Corben." Now that he was so close, Clark noted that the soldier was, indded, much taller than him: the top of his head barely reached his shoulder. And he was a bit over six feet.
Kara walked up to her cousin, never looking away from the soldier. "Superman, any idea of who he might be?" She asked as the unknown checked up on the wounded and helped Steel stand up. The robbers were no longer a problem: they had wasted all their ammunition firing at him and the police quickly took advantage of that.
"None, but he seems to be friendly." Clark said before he heard a sound that made him and Kara grunt in pain: the screech of metal being torn apart. It was King Shark, now fully recovered from the previous beatdown and furious, with the ripped door of the vault standing next to him.
"Hey, you Iron Man wannabe!" King Shark screamed before sending the door rolling towards the soldier and Steel. As it advanced, people ran away from the door as it crushed the floor under it.
Clark tried to fly, but he was still under the effects of the kryptonite and so fell to the ground, and so did Kara. Looking in trepidation as the makeshift wheel rolled towards the soldier, he expected him to dodge the rolling door, to jump out of the way.
He definitely didn't expect him to merely raise a hand... and stop the thirty-ton improvised wheel cold, with barely a flinch. The truth was that a part of him did expect the stranger to do so; after all, mere minutes ago he manhandled the superhumanly strong King Shark, and later did the same with the equally strong Metallo.
Still, didn't stop him from being a bit amazed.
The stranger then lifted the metal circle as high as he could, and threw back at King Shark faster than the mutant had made it roll. Clark managed to hear a panicked 'what the Hell' before the demigod was utterly crushed under the weight of thirty tons of metal flying at high speed, hundreds of teeth and even blood flying as it did so. The throw probably also ruined hundreds of thousands worth in gold since Shark was right in front of the vault, but at that moment he didn't really care about that, and apparently neither did the soldier, who after making sure King Shark wasn't moving (he was still alive, but it would take some time for him), grabbed his weapon and turned to leave... through a blue portal that opened right in the entrance of the building.
"Wait!" Clark managed to say before the soldier stepped into the portal as it closed.
Silence reigned in the building, until Steel voiced what everyone thought at the moment with a short, single sentence.
"Who the Hell was that?"
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