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Today had been a good. It HAD been a good day, but now…
Clark felt his throat tightening and his face growing paler by the moment as he watched that cold, callous almost disinterested expression on Henshaw’s face as lasers ripped through the streets, through another building.
He was just about to rush off, already hearing Kara grabbing her shirt to rip it off to her Supergirl outfit underneath, when the TV flickered suddenly and Henshaw’s face appeared on a close up. Clark grit his teeth, vaguely aware of Jon’s footsteps walking inside then faltering at the TV as Henshaw’s voice rang out.
"Superman! See how they run from me?” The false hero, the one Clark had needed to stop from brutalizing other villains multiple times already while pretending to be a better Superman, asked in that low, dangerous, nerve-chilling voice. “They used to *love* me! They used to CHEER MY NAME! Now they shriek it!”
He could hear the subtlest growl in the back of Kara’s throat, could sense Lois’s heart beating faster as the creak of the floorboards beneath her pulled up as she began to become unstable on her feet seeing what was happening to her old family friend.
“You want to be this city's hero? Come and fight for it!" Henshaw declared and in a rushing Blur, Kara was gone immediately before even Clark could react, her warrior instincts sharp. Clark had no time to warn her to wait, to think.
But he did have time to follow her half-second later, from Lois’s perspective they probably looked like they left in the same moment, as they disappeared into the night towards the smoking city.
“WELL?!” Henshaw demanded as he raised his hand, another laser beam coming up. “ARE YOU NOT THEIR HERO AFTER ALL, ALIEN-“
He was cut off before his hand laser could fire by something snaking around it. Something deep, dark, black, heavy and yet intangible like energy, glowing light green at the edges as it completely covered his hand before the laser could fire.
There was a bright eruption of light and Henshaw let out a yelp as the laser fired off and was contained by the barrier making him scream out as he yanked his hand out fast from the winding tendrils, whipping around to see….
Something. Something that definitely wasn’t Superman standing there, one hand held out and slowly, those tendrils retracting back to a green haired young man with curly hair swaying slightly in the wind, a metal bracer over his mouth and a dark green outfit clinging right to his body, as green eyes met Hank dull blue ones.
“I don’t think.” The young man said quietly. “That someone like you has any right to decide what a hero is.”
“I don’t know who you are.” Hank growled as his eyes glowed red and he erupted forward at full speed. “BUT ITS NOT ANY OF YOUR BUSSI-“
And the Young Man wasn’t there anymore when he threw a punch, off to one side and grabbing his ankle with those black tendrils again. Then suddenly Hank felt a sudden violent pull slam him into the ground. “-NESSGAAARRGH!”
“Kal-El.” Supergirl breathed beside Clark as they stared, eyes wide. “Did you see that? Is that a kryptonian, there speed-“
“Not speed.” Clark said as he rushed in to intercept Hank before he could throw a close range punch at the mysterious stranger, catching it and punching Hank, knocking him to the side.
Clark’s eye’s briefly darted to the stranger. ‘He dodged before Hank moved. Like he could send it was coming. But-‘
“LOOK OUT!” The stranger yelled as Hank came rushing back in at full speed, screaming manically.
“SUPERMAN! YOU TOOK MY-“
The young man acted first, appearing in front of Clark as he was blocking and punching Hank in the face hard enough an eruption of air pressure rocked the Metropolis Skyline, sending Hank careening down into the pavement below, a massive crater appearing in the asphalt, both arms shearing clean off leaving wires exposed.
“What…” Hank breathed, looking up in confusion. “How…”
‘My face. He hit my face but I feel no pain, it barely phased me. But one moment, I was rushing at him, the next it was like all my speed inverted.’ Hank thought as he looked down at his arms. Had the sudden change in momentum sheared them off?
Hank’s eye twitched and he let out an infuriated scream, rocketing towards the sky suddenly, higher, higher, higher before turning and flying straight at Superman and this stranger.
“NO!” Kara shouted as she rushed towards Hank, fist pulled and slamming into his face, sending him careening in one direction. And the stranger acted.
Those tendrils erupted again and grabbed Hank on the way, positioning him to crash head first straight through the solid gold statue of Superman and Supergirl, crashing his skull first into the ground and scratching off the skin colored plating that had been hiding the cyborg beneath as he came to a crashing stop.
“How… He’s weaker. He couldn’t even punch me hard enough to hurt, how is he throwing me around?!” Hank asked as he turned just in time to see Superman and the green stranger moving like bolts of lightning towards him, Superman landing the first punch.
The force slammed Hank HARD into the ground before he hit the asphalt, then bounced high into the sky as the stranger followed up with a second hit, arms reeled back and-
“TOP GEAR 200% DETROIT SMASH!”
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Hank went flying. Not as far as a regular human would, but he was tumbling violently through the air, the plating of his body shattering off and exposing the kryptonite core beneath as he came to a stop several feet in the air, breathing heavily as he looked down to see the stranger there with a destroyed, purple limp arm, the entire skyline above cleared and rocks and rubble flying everywhere in the wind tunnels generated by the attack.
And in that moment of distraction-
A hand slammed through Henshaw’s chest, making him gasp as the core was grabbed and gripped tight by someone gasping in pain behind him. “C-COME ON! NOW AUNT KARA!”
Kara appeared in front of Henshaw, eyes blazing red and erupting towards the Cyborg before he could break free, hitting the crystal dead on.
CRACK! SHATTER!
“N-NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooo………..!”