Cyborg - Ghost In The Machine

by formlessgod

AU. The story of Victor Stone, an athletic sophomore at Newark High, who is trying to find his place in a world of superheroes, until, one day everything changed. Plagued by his own demons he tries to do right by those left behind. But Victor soon discovers to do so, not everything can be simply separated into black and white. Cover Image from darkmatteria on devianart

1. Chapter 1

Beep. beep, beep, beep...

In a seemingly empty bedroom in a small town in New Jersey, an alarm clock went off. Said room was in such a messy state that it could easily be mistaken for a crime scene photo of a burglary. Clothes were lying around everywhere, even on the few pieces of furniture. The only table in the room was crammed with unused computer parts and with books that seemed to come, judging by the gaps, from the only bookshelf of the room. The sheets on the single mattress bed spotted a human-sized bump right in the middle and it was obvious that someone was sleeping deeply in spite of the alarm and for a while, that individual seemed content with ignoring the acoustic onslaught. When the person finally moved, a long groan was heard in the otherwise quiet room. The voice undoubtedly belonged to a young man but besides some shuffling, no further movement could be seen. First, it seemed as if the young man had gone back to sleep but after continuously being exposed to a beeping sound the teen finally gave up and let out an defeated sigh. Then suddenly and in spite of all the laziness shown before, a hand emerged abruptly from under the sheets and slammed the beeping clock shut. But as quickly as the burst of energy appeared it went away again and it took the sleeping person another five full minutes until he finally moved and revealed himself from behind the sheets. Appearing to check the time only his face was visible in the dim light. The face had warm brown eyes, high cheekbones, a flat nose and short curly black hair and even though, you could only guess the general form of his body from under the sheets, it was clear, that he had an athletic build. This body undoubtedly has been gained after many hours of some kind of demanding training.

This young man was called Victor Stone or short Vic, he was a sophomore at Newark High and a starter for the local basketball team. Finally awake and realizing how long his struggle versus the alarm actually took, Victor jumped with an unexpected agility from his bed and turned the light on, hoping it would reveal that he had made a mistake reading the time. He didn't. Keeping his cool and with another sigh, he looked around his messy room and promised himself to clean up as soon as he came back from school. A promise he was not particularly intent on keeping but one he made regularly. When his sight landed on the table he remembered his project with the old computers from last night. He stayed up extra late building his own network made of single board computers, that could share computing processes. He was proud with his work, especially since got most of the old and clearly used parts cheaply from a garage sale earlier this week. The possible applications of this project had left him so excited that he worked a lot longer on it than originally planned undeterred by it being a school night. He was hoping that by next month he could finish some rather complex algorithms with more acceptable computing times. Maybe he can get started on his dream project and build a fully functioning AI. Victor noticed with yet another sigh that his curtains were shut which had fooled him earlier to believe that he could still get some more sleep. He usually didn't have his curtains shut or any problems getting up early but since he stayed up extra late he hadn't wanted to be disturbed by the sunrise. Even though Victor didn't mind missing classes since, at least in his opinion, he was not learning that much in school in the first place and most of the knowledge he gained nowadays was from studying ahead on his own which he preferred immensely. Most of his self-studying was spent on his favorite field of study, namely computer science and the college level books on his bookshelf would easily impress any year mate he invited over, but from time to time he made scientific excurses and got informed about whatever his current interest held. But since he recently rejoined the schools' basketball team and skipping classes could potentially lead him to be suspended from said team, he quickly made plans on countermeasures to the possible suspension. He was sure that there was still a decent chance depending on the traffic that he wouldn't be late. So he decisively hurried to get ready, skipped his breakfast and quickly headed to his car, a green VW Polo he got as a present for his 16th birthday from his parents. Since the car represented reliable and unlimited transportation he made sure that it was always in pristine condition and ready to take off. So with a habitual movement, he started the radio alongside the intended car engine to listen to his favorite show 'Good Morning Metropolis' and took off. As Newark was rather close to the 'City of Tomorrow' and with the help of a self-made receiver that could receive radio waves from a longer distance than the common model he could easily receive their radio stations.

And as soon the radio was on, Victor heard the rough voice of the shows host Jim Banner: "marks the 6 month anniversary of Superman beating back the alien invasion from our very own Metropolis, on this occasion, the city will throw a huge victory party in honor of our resident superhero and defender of freedom. The event will take place on Main Square Plaza and will reach its height in the evening with Mayor Hunt giving a speech and revealing the statue of our favorite superhero. You guessed it. Superman! Yes, the Man of steel will get his own statue and listen to this, the statue will be fully made out of steel! The forecast predicts a clear warm evening. So there is no reason for you to not show up!"

"Yeah, not me" answered Victor grumpily to no one. Clearly distracted by the news, he turned up the volume so he wouldn't miss any other information. Victor was not really a huge fan of Superman or any 'superhero' but he could easily admit that single-handedly repelling an alien invasion deserved a statue and a party. Hell, the man deserved a medal. While Vic was not really a fan of heroes, he still loved to get all the information available on them, things like their power or their hunting grounds. As far as he knew his own town, Newark, didn't have its own hero. Knowing what would come next on the show, Victor was not able to sit still and moved around his seat. The show usually invited experts to comment on previous topics and lately, Superman was the most common one, so he was eagerly waiting for the coming discussion over the alien. Victor was fascinated by how Superman changed the public perception of him from being a vigilante to the one of being a kind-hearted hero of the masses. It was not like Superman was giving a lot of interviews or had some PR firm behind him shaping the perceived picture. No, he did it with unwavering justice, a constant presence over Metropolis, as little violence as possible and small but kind gestures to the people. Superman eventually won over most of the citizens, but Victor remained a skeptic. With the increasing emergence of superheroes more and more whackos started to show up and most of these individuals had some kind of power themselves. Every fight would cause some collateral damage and he was sure it was only a matter of time until the first civilians would be caught in the crossfire. The increasing publicity of heroes correlated with more and more powerful villains and Victor worried where this would end. Worst case scenario some kind of apocalypse. In his opinion, only Batman was really needed and therefore had a raison d'etre since Gotham was a hotspot for criminals and corruption which crime rate dwarfed the ones from every other city and was a hazard for its citizens long before Batman showed up. The dark knight seemed to shun any kind of publicity and it was public knowledge that he didn't have some kind of superpower which seemed to really put a bumper on the mentioned correlation. Even if Batman's methods left a lot to be desired about he guessed that most criminals in Gotham deserved what they got. But with all the new heroes, cities like Starling City and Central City now hold their own dangers. Nowadays it was in the realm of the possible to get hit by a Freeze Beam just walking on the streets or something ridiculous like that.

The show continued: "It is not known if the man himself will show up but many local celebrities are expected. We have one on the phone right now. Alexander Luthor, CEO of Luthor Corp, billionaire, and certified genius, welcome to the show, Mr. Luthor. Please tell us what you think about Superman and if we can meet you tonight to celebrate on the streets of Metropolis."

With a clear energetic voice, Lex confidently followed this invitation and replied "Good morning Jim, thanks for having me. Like seemingly everyone else in Metropolis, I am not ashamed to admit that I developed a little obsession with the man of steel. I even bought some shirts with his logo and I wear them on many occasions. I mean who in our great country doesn't love freedom and justice. These are the values America was built on and big blue does a mighty job defending those. Still, the scientist I am, I am for some time now trying to understand how he does what he does. But as soon as I started gathering pieces of information to attempt theorizing, I realized, that not much about Superman is really known. What we know can quickly be summarized as in his skin is almost indestructible, he posses super strength, he has the ability to fly at high speed and most importantly he was not born on earth. And I tell you this, in all honesty, it worries me that we as educated people are putting our faith so easily in a man we don't really know anything about. Don't get me wrong Jim I am not saying he is an evil overlord trying to subjugate the human race or that some kind of masterplan is slowly unfolding. But! At the same time, I feel, that we need to approach this situation with more caution. Most of all we need oversight over the things he does in the name of justice. That is why I advised some friends in the government to create a committee with that specific goal in mind and I expect Superman to soon receive an open subpoena to Washington. If Superman wants to fight crime in Metropolis we should be able to hold him responsible and accountable in case something goes wrong like we do with other agencies. That is why it is he needs to appear before a Senate committee so the elected representatives of the people can get answers to some of the questions we surely all have and if you are listing Superman, I implore you to follow this invitation and in doing so to follow the laws of our great country. Furthermore, I want to invite you to let Luthor Corp doctors examine you. Only God knows what medical advances your DNA holds for mankind. One drop of your blood could potentially save millions of people. Many more than any of your heroic actions would ever do. And should you take me up on this I can assure you I the best doctors money can buy will research any possible cure and therapy which can be derived from the results. Fully funded by Luthor Corp."

After effectively taking over the show with this short well-spoken speech Jim Banner finally resumed his program: "Wow, you heard the breaking news here on Good Morning Metropolis first. Thank you, Mr. Luthor, for sharing this information with us. And Superman, if you are currently listening, I am sure you have a lot to think about now. That is it for today's show. I am Jim Banner and I'll be back tomorrow at 5:30 with news about.."

Victor stopped listening at that point instead he thought about what he just heard. What would oversight mean for Superman? Would other heroes get the same treatment or would they stay vigilantes and therefore technically fugitives of the law. Would Superman recognize his accountability towards the government? He congratulated Lex Luthor mentally for having the same worries about superheroes and the consequences of the unsupervised upholding of the law hold then he himself. His public statement would practically force both Superman and representatives of the government to meet and to show some kind of results. Victor knew it was too late to fully shut them down vigilantism since there were now too many criminals with powers only people like Superman could stop. He was hoping that accountability would legitimize any action superheroes would take fighting those. Maybe heroes could be forced to follow certain guidelines that would keep the general public safer. He wasn't sure what would happen in the future but he knew, he wouldn't miss any of it for anything in the world. He would follow every newspaper article and Victor even made plans to write a web scrapper script scanning the web for exactly those articles He even mentally started coding the first few lines in his head. But before he could finish, he arrived at school with unsurprisingly enough time to not be late. So he grabbed his bag and headed towards the entrance in a hurried but unhectic manner. Once he entered through the big double glass door though he unexpectedly met an old slightly overweight man with still full white hair and a big white mustache covering up his upper lip. That man was the Principal of Newark High Stephan Ward. It was rumored that the headmaster would retire in the next few years, so he mostly stayed in the backgrounds grooming his successor. Victor had no clue what the man was doing in the entrance hall but not wanting to be rude to his principal, he greeted the man with a simple "Good morning principal Ward." and started heading towards his class.

"Ah, good morning Mr. Stone. And what a nice sunny morning it is. Cutting it close as usual I see. I was actually waiting for you, hoping we could exchange some words. Could you spare me a minute?" principal Ward replied with a friendly smile on his face calmly.

Surprised by this tidbit Victor was not sure how to respond. Even though there was no reason to decline he was still almost late, so with no other option he responded politely: "I am sorry sir, but I am, as you said, cutting it close for my math class with Mrs. Key in 104. If it is something important I could come to your offices after school."

Hearing this Principal Ward gave a short chuckle and answered: "I am sure Mrs. Key will understand and I think this would be the perfect moment for the conversation I have in mind. But first of all, let me say that I know it has been a trying year for you, Mr. Stone, and I know it seems late but I wanted to express my condolences for losing your mother last year. Cancer is a terrible business, especially for a woman as young as your mother. You surely believe me, when I say this, at my age, I am no stranger to loss. Just a few years back I lost my wife and that is why, I know that after experiencing loss, people often reevaluate their place in life. I recently heard you were rejoining basketball practice and I am sure you will back be in top form in no time at all. Leading our team to victory maybe even to a state championship. I certainly hope so. But after reviewing your grades and as far as I understand, you have taken an IQ test in your younger years with an exceptional result, I believe you can do more to reach your full potential here at Newark High. A mind like yours needs the practice to stay sharpened. That is why I want to invite you to our debating club and if you're interested we have an open spot in our computer science club for the next statewide coding challenge as well."

Processing the information Victor wondered about the principals' intentions. While it was possible that the man just tried to help as many 'troubled' students as possible so close before his retirement, Victor believed that this invitation was initiated from another source, mainly his father. Since his mother died, he and his father grew more and more distant. His father quickly lost himself in his work at the Newark branch of Star Labs and barely made it home for a shared dinner. And when they actually ate together they spent most of their time arguing about the courses Victor took or how little time he spends working on his wit instead of his body. Yeah, the longer Victor thought about it, the more likely it seemed that this was his fathers meddling. It was absurd to what lengths his father would go to, to mold Victor after his own believes. Enraged about being manipulated Victor huffed and plainly addressed the issue: "Has my father put you up to this? I told him many times, that I am content with my personal studies and I don't want him to tell me how to live my life. To go behind my back and pulling you into this is a new low for him."

Unperturbed and clearly with the experience of a man dealing with emotional teenagers for his whole career, the headmaster explained: "Now, now, Mr. Stone. I can assure you that your father has no part in us leading this conversation. I merely see a gifted young man who recently received some personal setbacks. A young man who could benefit from a little push in the right direction. Throughout my career, I learned that even the smallest positives pushes can change whole lives for the better. And to be honest with you, I have rarely seen a mind as bright as I expect yours to be. I know for a fact, that you intend to attend college after your time with us and while I have faith that you could get into the college of your choice with an athletic scholarship, I know that you have no need for such a gamble. With the extracurricular activities I offered and your stellar grades I believe every college would choose you over any competitor. And while I won't attempt to interpret your father's actions, I find it more than likely that he came to the same conclusions as I have. So I advise you to calm down and think about the opportunities presented. You don't need to answer me now, but you would make this old man happy if you would let me know how you decided." Ending the conversation after saying his part the headmaster then dismissed Victor with: "I believe that is all. You can go to class now. If you need to be excused, you can send Mrs. Key my way. Have a nice day Mr. Stone".

Baffled by the talk down he just received, Victor started to feel bad for doubting Principal Ward. Hoping he could hold his temper in check in future conversations he apologized: "I am sorry, Principal Ward. I lost my head. I want to thank you for the offer and I promise you, I will think about it. Have a nice day as well principal."

Embarrassed and dismissed he quickly went to his classroom knocked on the door and entered. As soon as he was inside he was greeted by Mrs. Key:"Good day Mr. Stone, please find your seat quickly and don't hold up class any more than you already have." Doing as told, Victor took a quick glance over the room and with a short apology sat down at his seat.

- scene break -

A few hours later he and his friends went to the cafeteria to have lunch. The cafeteria was in a big hall with enough room to hold every student in the school and was filled with dozens of round tables. The food was distributed from a long counter by service staff on the left side. Victor never bothered to get to know any of the staff since they tended to change frequently. The oldest employee was hired just at the beginning of the school term a few months ago. The part-time workers wore coats and bandanas made out of plastic and since the food was only reheated, there was no real need to hire some qualified cooks, so the school offered this job on minimum wage for the people trying to get back on their feet. Sadly, this also meant that the food was, more often than not, barely eatable. None of this seemed to disturb Victor today. Since he had to skip his breakfast earlier today, he was literally starving and would gladly gulp down any kind of food no matter the quality. Fully focused on the acquirement of food, he only spared a glance to the room after he put a big portion of meatballs with noodles on his plate. Seeing that his friends reserved him a seat he headed into their direction. His waiting friends consisted some year mates of the schools' basketball team, Hakim and Jos and his most frequent seat neighbor Claire Higgins. Which initiated a conversation as soon as Viktor sat down by asking:"What happened today Victor, why were you late this time?"

Falling into their usual banter Victor easily replied with a smirk "You know me, I was dreaming of you the whole night and refusing to wake up in the morning."

Claire, a sophomore with a slender figure, a height about 5'3" and long blond shoulder-long hair and in Victor's opinion one of the most beautiful girls in school should be used to getting such compliments but her freckled cheeks still slightly blushed with a rosy color. Embarrassed she lightly hit him on his shoulder and said with a smile: "Come on Vic, don't say stuff like that. I was really worried about you but if you don't want to tell me...".

Victor let his shoulders drop and easily gave in. He quickly told her about his project from the night before and that he had simply overslept. After a quick narration about technicalities which he didn't know they understood, he changed the subject to a more recent development: "I met Principal Ward at the entrance this morning. He wants me to join the debating club and join in on the next school coding challenge." Claire excitedly squealed and nearly jumped from her seat. "That's wonderful Vic, you can join me in the debating club. We are gonna have so much fun. For once you will not be able to distract me with your flirting." she exclaimed loudly. Victor let out a groan and said "Easy there Clairbear. I haven't decided if I am going to join yet. But if the sheer possibility gets you this excited, I am not really sure if I should.." he teased further before starting to wolf down his meatballs.

"Oh come on, what is there to think about. You clearly will have fun, especially with me there and I could use the challenge. Not that you are gonna be much of a challenge but still." she replied continuing the back and forth.

Having fun, Victor mocked back happily: "Oh, do not get too full of yourself. I know all you tricks since you always keep complaining to me about the other members."

"You make me sound as if I am a little bitch going behind everyone's back. It's game on now Stone." which made Victor laugh.

"I don't think there is anybody in this world that could give you much of a challenge in arguing. You could probably talk Superman down." Victor said.

"Nice try, Vic. But now you have to come to at least one meeting with me. Maybe today after school?" but before Claire could continue the bell sounded and the group had to leave for their respective classes. "Saved by the bell again, Stone. I will see you later." she said with a wink before the group split up and she left for a different class.

- scene break -

On the schools' basketball court, Victor was standing at the 3 point line throwing three-pointers time after time with a teammate serving him the ball. It had been a demanding practice today, he was drenched in sweat and his arms felt like led but he had missed a lot of practice last year and intended to make up for it, even if only to justify his place on the starting line up to himself. He knew that the coaching staff showed him a lot of trust and he was keen on proving them right. So after every practice, he stayed at least 30 minutes longer than anybody else. It was this attitude that stopped the grumbling of the reserve players and made them respect him instead. After finishing this extra workout he high-fived Hakim who stayed behind with him today for work well-done and went to hit the much-needed showers. Afterward, in the parking lot, he found Claire waiting for him in front of his car.

"Hey, I saw your car and was hoping you could drive me home, Vic" she greeted him.

Happy to oblige, he smiled and just said: "Yeah, sure. It'll be my honor, my fair lady." He gave a mock bow before he continued:" I hope you didn't wait too long here. How was debating today?"

"Oh you know, it would be better with you there but we had a lot of fun today. We were arguing about moral issues of superheroes and the implications for society today. And how was practice?" she replied while taking her seat on the passenger side.

Since he collected all kinds of information on the superheroes he jumped straight on that topic. Taking off, he began: "Yeah, the practice was great, my scoring percentage is getting back up there again. But enough about that. I'd rather talk about heroes. What is your take on peoples with powers?"

Clearly happy to talk about this even though she just went over the topic with her club, as her eyes gained a spark that showed her genuine interest she answered: "Oh, I love them. Especially Superman. That man is so kind and strong."

Interrupting her, Victor said: "I see where this is going. He is going to hold you in his 'kind' and 'strong' arms and fly with you towards the sunset."

Not perturbed at all by the interruption she huffed and continued: "It's not like that. Not that I would mind terribly. I mean, have you seen the man? Besides, Superman is practically the personification of justice, I doubt he has much time for romance. Then again he hasn't met me yet. Being serious, he is saving people left and right on daily basis. The crime rate and mortality rate in Metropolis outright plummeted. Just last week he even stopped a fire in a skyscraper. And he does all of this without getting paid. That man should get something back from us, even if it is just our support and admiration."

"Obviously that sounds great. But what about the other cities. Since the arrival of Superman, every city around Metropolis had a slight rise in crime. Even here in Newark, there suddenly are more burglaries and it could be only a matter of time until some gang sets up shop here. The career criminals just have to skip town in Metropolis and can easily continue their lives elsewhere. Doing exactly the same things there. Secondly, where does he get the right to involve himself in crime fighting in the first place? He is not a trained police officer and nobody even made sure he knows the letter of the law. And don't even get me started on the powered people that suddenly show up. Remember Supermans' fight versus that one metal dude? They nearly destroyed a city block. It seems to me, that some of these 'villains' are a reaction of some sort. These people feel the need to fight Superman or really any of the heroes no matter the price. They see them as a challenge to prove themselves strongest. I know they probably would be doing something illegal anyway, but now, with the powers they acquired, the police cannot handle them anymore. Without heroes, such a situation would have never arisen."

"Are you sure about that? Image a world without Superman and these freaks showing up. We would be defenseless. Face it, Vic, this was always an inevitable future. Now that these powers exist, they are the next step in the evolution of society. We need to accept, that we are not alone in this universe. We need to accept, that there will be humans that can run faster than the speed of sound. And as a society, we need to adapt to this. Just as we adapted to electricity or how we accepted that democracy is the best political state form. We humans always survived, because we were the most adaptable race and we need to continue doing so." Claire argued.

Surprised by the, in Victors' opinion, valid argument, Victor took a second to gather his thoughts before he finally responded. "You call it an evolution of society. But it's also true that every evolution always has to prove itself against the ecosystem. If it cannot sustain itself or cannot survive in a fight versus the current system. I would not call it an evolution. We as 'normals' need to show, that we are willing to put up a fight and that they cannot do whatever they want. Even if it means to not allow them to fight crime. As long as they are vigilantes, they should be stopped and if they want to continue with what they are doing, I am sure they are welcome to join the police force. Maybe we could have a special department for people like them. You mentioned the Red Blur of Central City. Central City is actually the best example for the danger of people getting powers. Let's face it, for all the people that showed any unnatural powers since the particle accelerator explosion only one of them is even somewhat upholding the law. All the others used their new powers for their own benefit, taking from those who could not protect themselves. The government needs to find people with powers and put them under a watchlist"

"So your solution is it, that every person with power doesn't deserve privacy? Do human rights no longer apply? Your statistic is without basis. We don't even know how many people just continued their lives after the explosion no matter what kind of power they have. It is a bit premature to just condemn every powered person because of a few outliers. I understand that criminals with powers should be put in jail and watched after release. Maybe like sexual offenders with some kind of bracelet. But that is only after they committed a crime worthy of it. And think about what it means for the Superheroes to be in a government database. The Red Blurr was a normal human before the explosion. That means he had parents, a family, friends, maybe even kids. You accept that the police might not always be able to fight powered criminals and you want the heroes to officially join the police force. But you know as well as I do that their identity would no longer be a secret the moment it would be in the system and as soon as their real name is known there is a strong possibility that their families, their friends or even just acquaintances will be targeted. Anonymity is the shield for their loved ones. As long as the government doesn't have a solution for powered people on its own, we need those heroes to protect us and to be able to do this they need to stay anonym."

"I am sorry Claire, but I don't see it that way. If being in the police is a risk then that is the risk they have to take. There is no way, that we should allow people to fight crime without any oversight. It cannot not go wrong."

For a minute nobody said anything. Seeing that they couldn't persuade the other they seemed to lost their energy. Still, it was not an uncomfortable silence. Victor knew they both had their own opinion and every complex problem need to be analyzed from different angles.

"That is what I like about you, Vic. No matter what you say, you have the same love for arguing as me." Claire finally confessed.

With a slight blush, Victor stopped at a red light and turned to face Claire: "Listen Claire. I wanted to do this for a long time now. But then my mom died and I had to go through that first. I feel like I finally moved on. How do you feel about being my girl...". Before he could finish he saw a huge truck with a liquid tank on its back speeding over the crossroad right in front of them from the corner of his eyes.

So he instead continued with a:"What the ...?". But before he could finish that the truck tried to take a sharp left turn way too late and was now heading straight for them. Victor and Claire had no time to even react before the truck slammed right into their car. Which was then sent flying and spinning through the air. When they finally hit the ground, the applied force nearly completely crushed the car and added with the impact damage you could barely recognize it anymore. Victor was screaming in pain. The air was filled with his hoarse voice. To make a bad situation worse the truck lost all control and drifted slowly straight in the direction of the car. Victor could not feel his legs but looking at how the car had practically impaled him he hoped the damage was salvable. For now, he was stuck in his seat though and as his whole left side was in unimaginable pain. Never before had he experienced such mind-numbing torture. Taking a moment with tears and his nose running on his face he finally was able to think for a moment and began looking around. He had not given up yet. There had to be something he could do. When his sight fell on Claire, he noticed that she was not moving, even though she should cry in pain with all the injuries she had. Her arm seemed to have been crushed at the impact truck. She had a heavily bleeding head injury. Viktor hoped she would be ok and but first he had to look for a way to get them both out of this.

After struggling for several minutes he knew that there was no way out for him. He felt helpless when he realized he would not be able to move from his seat. So despite his pain, he managed to call her:"Claire? Claire, can you hear me? Please, Claire, answer me. You need to wake up and get out of here. Claire, please." But he did not receive an answer. Fully despaired he tried to pull himself out of his position once again. So with all the strength, he could still muster he tried pulling himself from his seat. But no matter how hard he tried or how much pain he bore he couldn't get out. He was not strong enough. He then knew that this is where Claire and he will die and his crying started anew. Till then he was barely staying awake by his power of will alone. But now, resigned to his fate he no longer had the strength. He finally let the bloodloss lull him into unconsciousness. "I am so sorry, Claire". He saw the truck's tank reach their car. Damaged from the impact some kind of liquid dripped from the tank onto the cars roofs. The liquid was some kind of acid since it burned through the car's roof and reached Victor. Some landed on his face and Victor jolted awake. "Ahhhh" he cried. Some of it landed on his eye and Victor wanted to pass out again. With the last of his will, he twisted his body so he wouldn't be hit anymore but not before he got some on his arm.

Then suddenly the roof of his car was ripped off and the last thing he saw was a man with a solemn expression on his face wearing blue tights, a big red cape and a big 'S' on his chest flying above them.