Forty-Nine: Doomsday
Silvia sat on the ground by her motorcycle, tools strewn about her as she watched the credits roll on this weird Turtle Boy show on the tv mounted in the corner. Even though it was Superman making a rare appearance on national, maybe even worldwide, television, she couldn't help but want to watch it.
Clark thought that as the years passed by and more metahumans emerged, good and bad, he had to make an effort to connect more with the people. This was, once again, something that Silvia didn't quite understand since he was already the most outgoing and social Leaguer who wasn't completely unbearable. He said that this interview would be a good opportunity to see how to be a better Superman, whilst Silvia loathed the idea of interacting in any way with people.
Silvia tried to spend as much time as she could away from home, so she often came here to her little hideout. She couldn't bare seeing the place after what happened, especially since Clark was away for days now. She had her weapons, cycle and other equipment stored here, and it acted as a base of sorts. She was still trying to come up with a name for it.
As the commercial break came to an end, the logo for the Cat Grant Show flared up on the screen as some incredibly corny talk show piano music played. Silvia scoffed, looking back down to the work she was doing on her bike's engine. Cat Grant was like a dumber, less funny version of Oprah. And she also gave out significantly less free stuff. Meaning that she gave away no free stuff.
The camera faded in to show the viewers a shot of the blonde Cat Grant sitting sensibly behind a table with her show's logo slapped on the front. She smiled sweetly at the camera. "Many of you remember a day not too long ago that changed human history as we knew it. A day when we learned for certain...that we were not alone in this universe. For a lot of us, he seemed to be a God, untouchable and unreachable. But we've come to know and love him as a man; just a man trying to do the right thing with the gifts he's been given. He was the first in a long line of incredible men and women who dedicated their lives to protecting us day and night, for no pay, no glory, but because they feel it's right. Ladies and gentlemen, the one and only... Superman."
Silvia sighed and laid down the wrench that she was holding. It cut to a shot of a doorway on the side of the studio as more extremely corny music played and Superman appeared from behind it, confident yet humble as he always is. The audience's cheers were incredible. Clark walked sternly over to the chair opposite Cat's table, smiling and waving at both the cameras and the audience.
Silvia heard several whistles from excited housewives in the audience. She also felt a tinge of regret...
As Clark sunk into his seat, the cheering slowly died out, and Cat ogled the Man of Steel as he smiled expectantly at her.
"I'm speechless...having you here is the greatest thing that's ever happened on my show." Cat gushed.
The crowd roared in agreement, as Superman humbly grinned, shaking his head and chuckling. Silvia sighed, fighting the urge to let tears flow from her eyes.
"Thanks for having me, Ms. Grant." Superman replied sensibly and deeply, a smile still on his face.
"First off, on behalf of America and the world, thank you. For everything. And I mean that. In the audience today, we have several people who owe you their lives, as well as the lives of their family members. And of course, there are more out there watching right now, on tv or livestream."
The camera panned to the audience, where people of all walks of life are watching intently. A man in the second row is wiping tears from his eyes. "This is Mark...he's remembering the moment he fell from a construction site, expecting to never hold his newborn baby in his arms again...until he was plucked out of the air."
A woman and her young child are intently watching, as Cat continued "Sarah and Gabby are two of the many survivors of Flight 633; a plane that would've slammed into the side of a mountain if the Man of Steel hadn't caught the craft as it plummeted out of the sky." Silvia always knew what incredible things Clark had done...but seeing and hearing the stories of real people, it showed her how important he was to everybody.
Clark exhaled and inhaled, then looked at the audience. "None of you owe me anything. I'm just doing my part, but thank you for coming."
The audience clapped, and Silvia thinned her lips.
Cat shook her head "As modest as ever. Now, to a matter that's been rather...topical. You're currently the leader of Justice League America, one of the few branches of the once singular peacekeeping organisation. It's come to my attention that many scholars and personalities are criticising your approach to justice and painting others with a more 'aggressive' outlook, such as the Green Lantern Guy Gardner, as the ideal protectors of our safety. They say matters of global security, life and death affairs, should not be tended to with a big grin on your face. They say that criminals and would-be enemies of humanity should be dealt with more severely. What do you have to say about that?"
Silvia slumped her shoulders. That was talkshow host language for 'I agree with them, you're shit'. She wanted to run over there and kick her in the head.
Clark leaned casually on one arm rest of the chair, as he mulled the question over. After a second, he answered "...'Leader' is a bit of a strong word. We all have an equal say on the League. To the question though; as humans, we all make mistakes. I believe that people deserve second chances. A chance to think for themselves and decide whether or not they see what is right and wrong. Lantern Gardner and I don't always see eye to eye but he is a respected and decorated officer of interplanetary law. My way isn't going to be his way...and his way isn't going to be my way."
"I for one appreciate the example that you set. Those people glorify Gardner, a thug in a uniform. We have a court system for a reason. And plus, I'd rather my children look up to a sensible man like you."
Silvia almost glared a hole through her tv. One minute she's getting all in his face, then she's kissing his boots. Some more whistling and clapping happened after the odd compliments.
Clark cocked his head. "Well he definitely isn't the most refined member of the League, but he's the one you want by your side in a fight. He's a valued member of our team, despite what he has to say about me."
Cat laughed and looked at the camera. "Standing up for the guy who's putting you under scrutiny...you definitely are Superman."
The audience laughed, almost as if they were told to by a giant light up sign off-camera.
"Oh dear lord." Silvia muttered, eyes rolling.
"Now we have some members of the audience who would like to ask you some questions. First, we have Peter all the way from Keystone, here with his family."
The camera cut to a shot of a young boy in the crowd, sitting with his two parents. The boy had a pair of thick glasses, red hair and braces. He couldn't be any older than ten.
"Hey Peter, how are you?" Superman asked before Peter had a chance to say anything.
The boy stuttered "G-Good, Mr. Superman."
"I'm very glad to hear that. I hope your parents are doing okay too. What was your question?"
Clark was starting to sound like the host now, due to his innate hospitable personality.
Peter awkwardly swayed back and forth as he began "Um what kind of...um what...um...what kind of things do you um do when you're not b-being Superman?"
"That's a great question, Peter. A some of us from the Justice League are a lot like you or your parents; we could have other jobs, family to take care of, or even school for the youngest of us. There are others who don't have seperate lives; my friend Cyborg is always looking out for trouble, even when you and I are asleep."
Cat interjected "Hm...so you have a job?"
"I'm afraid that's classified." Clark joked. Silvia blinked rapidly at the screen. She was trying to figure out if that was flirting or not.
"Oh well, I tried. We'll be right back with the Man of Steel himself, right after this." Cat ended, cueing another barrage of music as a shot of Cat and Superman appeared, with them talking but not playing the audio.
Silvia huffed loudly. She didn't know what she was doing. Thinking about Clark was only going to make her feel worse... She glanced onto the table behind her as she picked up the wrench again. Her Reaper suit along with her weapons were messily thrown onto it. Also sitting on this steel table was Silvia's Justice League transponder.
After so many new recruits, the League became so large that it could spread equally around the world. As the two branches Justice League America and Justice League Europe were created only a few days ago, Clark was made the leader of the American crew. He became busier with that duty too; Hal Jordan, Power Girl and Wally West among others were shifted into the European team.
When this split happened, some previously full-time members like Wonder Woman and Batman stepped away from the now fully international League. The core JLA team was primarily made up of less likely heroes like Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, Fire, Ice, Guy Gardner, Steel and Silvia herself. Superman was blessed with the task of wrangling these volatile personalities and making them work as a team. He wasn't alone however, as Martian Manhunter was another founding member of the original JL, and joined him on this new team. Clark being the leader of this crew was bound to make things awkward.
Almost as if Silvia jinxed it by thinking about the abundance of JLs in the world, the transponder vibrated violently. "Goddammit. What now...?"
She furiously pushed to her feet and stumbled over to the desk. Once she grasped it firmly, Silvia tapped the transponder's answer button and raised it to her ear. "Reaper." She said.
Cyborg's coarse tone responded "We have a situation."
"Uh..."
"Doomsday's back. I just sent the alert to the rest of JLA, so they're heading to intercept. I need you on standby."
Silvia gulped. "Shit...fuck. Alright. Fire up a boom tube for me." She instantly stowed the transponder.
Doomsday, the unstoppable killing machine, was back? Silvia was told that it was some beast trapped inside the Phantom Zone, and managed to escape on one occasion several years before they met. Clark said that he phased in and out of the Zone, killing or destroying whatever it got close to. He only managed to stop the moster by stabilising the rift that caused it to appear in the first place. Then of course, he duked it out with the creature's counterpart from that alternate Earth...the first real fight he had with it.
It was short and sweet since Clark zapped it with the Phantom Zone projector, but it resulted in an insane level of destruction. Clark told her that it would've killed him faster than the twisted evil version of himself. Silvia knew that this couldn't wait.
In minutes, Silvia was suited up and ready to go before a glowing yellow portal popped into existence in the corner of her hideout. She jogged through it, catching the middle of a conversation.
"It seems that when this 'Doomsday' previously appeared, he was in some kind of larval state..." Doctor Emil Hamilton said to Superman and Cyborg via a video call. The two were on the Watchtower, getting a briefing from Dr. Hamilton's lab. A hologram of Doomsday's previous appearance flashed up, compared to recent images.
Silvia slowed to a halt next to the two Leaguers as the boom tube closed. She tried to avoid direct contact with Clark and it proved to be an easy task at the moment since some major stuff was going down. Also given what he was doing, Silvia was disappointed once again to see that Clark beat her to the Watchtower.
"There's been a startling amount of muscle, bone growth, and hide moulting...as if it's transitioning into maturity."
The creature was once a grey-skinned brute with rock-like bone protrusions on his shoulders, head, hands and knees. He had a vaguely humanoid face, with what seemed to be hair sprouting from the back of his head. Now though, it had a pair of demonic horns curling downward, and a face of razor sharp fangs, permanently bared. The skin was now missing, and instead the beast was covered in deathly grey sinew, as thick and banded as wire cables. Through these layers of hard muscle jutted the familiar bone spikes, larger and sharper than previously seen.
"God damn..." Cyborg cursed.
Superman added as he gazed angrily at the images. "Most dangerous animals hunt their prey for food, to survive but this thing...it's first instinct is to kill. Nothing more is going on in that brain."
Silvia started to feel worried.
Clark then stepped forward and continued. "I have to go. It's too dangerous. If it gave me a beating in two seperate universes before reaching this new form, there's no telling what the League is in for."
"Agreed. Opening a boom tube. I'll send a cydrone to keep tabs on the situation." Cyborg nodded to Clark as a small flying robot of some sort hovered down from the ceiling.
"Thank you for your time, Doctor." Clark said
"Good luck, Superman. Godspeed, for all our sakes." Hamilton disappeared from the holographic display, as Clark turned to a suddenly appearing yellow hole in space, that gradually grew into a throbbing portal.
"H-Hey." Silvia called as he stepped towards the portal, Cyborg's drone close behind. Clark turned his head.
"...Kick his ass for me." She said sombrely.
Clark simply nodded. "I will."
As Superman and the drone disappeared into the portal, it swirled and popped, vanishing entirely.
Silvia felt terrible, and Clark's uncharacteristically blank demeanour intensified the feeling. It had been years since he'd looked at her like that. Soon after, a video feed appeared from the drone's camera.
"Oh god..." Clark gasped, his voice tinny from the video stream.
What the drone captured was a small country town. Not a single building was left standing, as if Doomsday simply smashed anything that wasn't already flat. Silvia grimaced as she spotted at least thirty bodies torn apart and decimated. "T-Those people...we couldn't..." Superman stammered.
"Clark, focus, okay? Find him and stop him before anybody else gets hurt." Silvia said soothingly, leaning towards the main control console.
"R-Right...right." Clark steeled himself as he took a deep breath. He took off with incredible speed, scattering nearby debris and leaving the cydrone in the dust.
Cyborg waved his hands through several holograms as his recon drone surely rose into the air, presenting the two with an aerial view of the destruction. Everything. Every tree, telephone pole, car, structure, person and animal was eviscerated and mangled. "The other Doomsday wasn't even this crazy. Maybe because the Regime was controlling it with some weird collar thing... aiming it." Silvia surmised.
"Look." Cyborg said as the video feed zoomed in.
In what used to be the most dense part of this town, was the creature, roaring hysterically as it did battle with Justice League America. Cyborg then patched in the audio from Booster Gold's power armour. "Hit it again, goddammit!! Come on!" Booster yelled.
The area lit up with yellow flares as he bombarded Doomsday with lances of energy from his suit's gauntlets. Guy Gardner swept in as a gigantic hammer formed around his power ring and shattered itself across Doomday's bone-covered face. "Just die you son of a bitch!!" Guy growled. It huffed in amusement.
With one movement, as fast as Superman would've done it if he didn't mind making a mess, the beast snatched Gardner by the head and bludgeoned his face with the concrete of main street over and over.
Silvia swallowed. That was a Green Lantern, not just any GL either, it was Guy. Out of all the other Leaguers, she probably related to him the most, because the two of them were always too stubborn to lose. But now that didn't matter because this thing was as strong and fast as Superman himself.
"No!!!" Clark screamed with rage. Like a comet, he hurtled into Doomsday with an ear-piercing sonic boom. The two disappeared, their movement so fast that not even Cyborg could see where they went immediately.
Silvia saw Guy face first in the pavement...motionless. Booster Gold, Fire, Steel and Martian Manhunter pursued Doomsday, who was now confirmed to have been tackled into the ruins of a factory across the road.
Superman wrestled with the monster, trying to subdue it. "Hit it, Fire!"
Fire circled the two, uneasy. "But I'll hit you!"
As he wrangled the creature, Superman cried "Do it! I can't hold it!" With a hesitant growl, Fire bathed Doomsday in a spray of fierce heat, covering the entire block in pale green fire.
"Never imagined that doomsday would come twice!" Booster, the man who inadvertently named the monstrosity in the first place, quipped with frustration as he took a position in the air with a clear shot at the beast.
Manhunter quickly responded "It must be averted. Or we may not have an America left to defend."
Blue Beetle, piloting his bug-shaped ship, hovered above the factory, several energy cannons trained on the demolished structure.
As Fire's blasting halted, the smoke rose like a black pillar, blocking all sight. "Anybody got a visual?" Blue Beetle asked nervously.
"Give it a second..." Steel added, holding his hammer at the ready.
Suddenly with a crack of thunder, a projectile was fired out of the smoke and shot out into the forest. It blew every tree in its path into smithereens, not stopping until it crashed into a gas station, rupturing a fuel pump and igniting it.
An incredible ball of fire erupted into the sky about a mile away, as the smoke finally faded back at the town ruins. Doomsday stood alone, red eyes throbbing.
"Send me down there." Silvia commanded, now knowing that it was Clark that was thrown into the gas station.
Cyborg moved the drone onto a new flight path as data scrolled across the display. "We'd only be getting in the way, Silvia. It'll take more than gasoline to put Clark down. Besides, with him and J'onn together, Doomsday is toast."
Silvia was sure that if they couldn't, no one else could. Martian Manhunter was probably the only person apart from Wonder Woman who could give the Man of Steel a run for his money. The guy had a bigger list of abilities than Clark, and that was no small feat. "Let's hope you're right."
"Alright. Time for round two, pal!" Guy Gardner came flying back into action, an array of machine guns piecing themselves together around him as he joined Booster Gold in the air. Guy's face was a bruised mess, all from that one encounter.
"Let 'im have it!" Ice signalled as she emerged from the cover of a smashed bus.
Booster, Gardner, Fire and Ice unleashed their combined ranged attacks, sending energy, willpower, heat and cold directly at the creature. Steel and Manhunter charged together at Doomsday. At the last second, the team's long ranged attacks ceased, allowing Steel's hammer to impact dully against bone.
Manhunter focused his strength and belted Doomsday across the face with a devastating punch. J'onn's blow staggered it, then caused it to lash out with an incredible headbutt that sent rubble hurtling away from the sheer force.
Its skull slammed into Steel's armour, instantly piercing and grinding its plating into shrapnel. Steel screamed in pain as his limp body was thrown backwards, a gaping hole in his suit revealing a gruesome wound.
"N-No!" J'onn cried in horror.
"Holy s-shit! Manhunter, move it! I'll lay it on!" Blue Beetle warned, arming his ship's guns.
Manhunter had other ideas though. His fist grew to five times its regular size and thrusted itself into Doomday's gut but fruitlessly. Doomsday caught the attack mid-execution, and grinned a jagged-toothed smile as his mouth began to glow a sick yellow.
Its mouth snapped open, and spewed out a stream of infernal fire. J'onn was blanketed by the intense heat of this sudden attack.
"What!? What the hell was that?!" Silvia yelled, leaning on the console.
Cyborg gasped. "...I-It's adapting... Ice's attacks and J'onn's physiology must've caused it to evolve...in seconds."
The wash of flames continued, despite the blows being dealt by the rest of the JLA. Manhunter fell to the ground without a sound, completely engulfed in the element that was lethal to his kind. Doomsday finally relented and leapt into air. Ignoring Fire, Gardner and Booster, Doomsday's bound sent him directly towards Beetle's craft.
"Ted, watch out!!" Ice cried.
Beetle swerved, but it wasn't enough against Doomsday's sheer speed. His gargantuan body pushed through the aircraft like it was made out of melting butter and it managed to latch a claw around Blue Beetle, pulling him out of the wreck in mid-air.
Doomsday and the bug's now flaming hull plummeted to the ground. Fire was caught off guard by one of the pieces of debris, and was brought with it into the mess below. Silvia heard Ted's screaming as Doomsday's grip tightened. The beast landed, slammed Beetle into the ground once with a startling crack, and tossed him aside like a rag doll.
"Shit!! I got him!" Gardner made a mad dash for Ted Kord's bloodied body but was knocked out of the sky by a thrown truck.
Gardner, buried by the wreck of a semi-trailer, made a crater in the street, and a familiar red and blue blur streaked across the video feed. Silvia's breathing finally resumed, albeit preemptively.
With an unbelievable display of reflexes, Doomsday propelled himself into the sky once more, twirled so his claws slapped Booster viciously across the back and slammed head on into Superman, who was heading in to catch the falling Blue Beetle.
"No..." Cyborg hissed.
Kord's body impacted limply against the concrete road.
Ice's shrill cries of distress filled the air.
As Clark and Doomsday came crashing into the forest, Booster Gold recovered and realised what just happened to his friend. "Ted... Ted!! No, no, no!!"
He bolted down to Beetle's body, his power suit sparking and howling from Doomsday's mid-air strike. "N-No please, Ted stay...stay with me..." Booster muttered.
Silvia turned away. She couldn't watch any more of it. "Vic..."
Cyborg was stunned. He'd never seen anything go so wrong before. Silvia often forgot how much younger he was but it finally came through in that moment.
"Victor." She said calmly, laying a hand onto his cold metal shoulder. He turned to her, face gripped with fear for his friends. "We have to do something. Anything. Metropolis is gonna be minced meat if we don't."
She did what Clark would've done in her place. Unlike most other people, Silvia never had to worry about her partner's well-being. He was a god... But now, she was terrified. If he was a god, then that thing was the devil.