PROLUGUE

Bart Allen groaned as he crawled slowly out in to the street. Rain splattered against his torn, bloody red DENIM jacket. The only light that reached him was from this old, ugly warehouse. How he hated this place. He turned to look. Phillip was coming slowly towards him, still holding the huge axe. He concentrated on crawling faster. He knew he would die. He just had to try to move. Please, Please.

Phillip laughed, "It's over, Bart. Don't you realize? You're gone, and Clark's not here to save you." Phillip suddenly appeared in front of him. "Clark's dead." He said happily.

He raised the axe over his head. "See you in hell!" He said. He smiled evilly in to Bart's swollen, bloody face. Bart looked up, his face shining of dignity. Phillip brought the axe down with tremendous force and Bart faded in to darkness.

SOME TIME BEFORE

"Please, Please, Please let me be on time." Clark Kent prayed as he super sped his way to his parent's farm in Kansas. He was just coming back from a visit with his best friend Pete Ross who had just a year ago moved with his Mom to Wichita. Clark did this often and often has to worry about being caught by Ms. Ross. Hey, who would want to go to Wichita on an expensive plane trip when they could get there in like, twenty minutes?

Even with his super speed, Clark was afraid he wouldn't get home on time. It was his Mom and Dad's anniversary and they would be awake any minute. It was 9:00 in the morning. Normally Jonathon and Martha would be up at this time, but c'mon, it was their anniversary, so Clark had volunteered to do the chores. He had been done in a few minutes and had decided to go visit Pete. Thankfully, with his sharp senses, he would always know whenMs. Rosscame home. How could he explain to her how he had got there?

As Clark sped across the country, He looked at the beautiful scenery of the states. He marveled at how beautiful everything was. It wasn't as if he hadn't gone through before. He had recently seen Washington, Chicago, L.A, and a whole number of other states, but he never ceased to marvel. He looked around as things around him seemed not to be moving. People in mid-step, cars in mid-drive, Nothing. Everything was like at a virtual speed.

For not the first time, he marvelled at his speed. He was getting faster day by day. Soon, he might be able to take Bart Allen. Bart Allen was someone he had met recently. Though they had met in less than normal terms, Clark had learned that Bart had the power of speed. Speed even greater than his! Bart could run over water. Clark had recently been practicing this, though with little success.

Clark shrugged of the thoughts. Soon, he saw the familiar SMALLVILLE sign. He smiled happily. He was almost home. He zoomed down the street. He saw something that caught his eyesight. The Talon. Clark super sped in to an alley and turned back to normal speed. He slowed down. He could stop for a sip of coffee. But even he knew he wasn't stopping for coffee. He entered slowly, not at all tired.

Inside, was the familiar face of his crush, Lana Lang, a beautiful, raven haired girl with a graceful, slender figure and a smile that could light up the sky. She was already serving a customer. When she had given a small smile and finished, she turned to him. She smiled awkwardly.

"Hey, Clark." She said.

"Hi, Lana." He stuck his hands in his pockets. She studied him. Dressed in his usual flannel blue shirt and jeans. A red jacket was draped around his muscular shoulders and barely concealed his muscle bound, amazingly tall frame. He smiled that beautiful smile often referred to as the Kent charm around Smallville High's girls.

"The usual?" She asked. He wasn't paying attention. He was looking at the tall, blonde man coming down the stairs. He swallowed, but Lana already saw a tiny bit of embarrassment in those beautiful bluish, greenish eyes.

"Hey, Clark." Jason Teague said. He put his arm around Lana and kissed her on the cheek. "Hey, baby." He said to her. She smiled, a little flustered. Clark looked down at his worn, red sneakers.

"Hi, Jason." He muttered sullenly. He had been hoping his football coach would be somewhere else. Somewhere far away.

"Anything wrong, Clark?" Jason asked, pulling Lana closer to him. Of course something was wrong, he thought to himself. This little bastard was trying to steal his girlfriend. He sure as hell wasn't gonna let that happen.

Clark cleared his throat. "Uh, ummm, no. Nothing's wrong." He turned around. "I had better be going." He turned and sighed sadly. He walked out of the Talon, pausing one time to look back at the love of his life with another man. He walked slowly down the street, oblivious to the sounds going on around him.

Lana watched from inside, her arms crossed. What had Clark come to say to her? She looked back as Jason made his way upstairs and desperately missed him. She sighed, pondering the man she had loved for half of her teenage life. Why was he so reluctant to share anything with her? When he was out of sight, she sighed and made her way back inside the Talon.

Clark had been walking at a normal rate for 15 minutes, totally oblivious to the fact that it was his parent's anniversary. All he could think about was Lana. Suddenly, a van sped past him, almost hitting him in the process. He looked up surprised and saw a boy in the back. He looked familiar. The boy was desperately trying to shout something, but the glass looked soundproof. A man from the inside smacked the boy down. The van sped around the corner and away.

Clark saw the van go. He didn't want to do anything drastic, so he thought for a moment, then focused on his hearing.

Clark's Super Hearing was activated. His eardrum began to rattle rapidly. The frequency of the eardrum stretched throughout the area, allowing him to easily hear people breathing, whispers, extremely far away vehicles. He heard conversations from inside the Talon. He heard birds chirping. He heard the footsteps of people far beyond the area. He groaned, still having to get used to this. He managed to focus on the direction where he knew the van had gone.

It was at first a challenge.

It was a weary attempt because the van kept going in differnet directions and he heard other cars and conversations so it soon became very noisy.

The street around him was crowded with people and they pushed around him, sometimes breaking his concentration and causing him to feel great pain in his ears. But he managed to recognize the van's engine frequency and focus solely on it. It hummed slowly along in to his ear.

Clark closed his eyes. He then stood silently, just listening.

"You little punk!" The man shouted, hitting the boy. "Shut up or we'll kill you."

"C'mon, Archie," The driver said, "Let the boy have his last words."

The boy continued to shout."Help," the boy shouted, "Somebody help me!"

"Shut the fuck up," the man beside him shouted.

"Chill out, Archie." The driver said.

Clark heard all of this. He was awestruck, unsure of what to do. He listened carefully and heard sounds of struggling. He made his way in to the alley, making sure no one was looking. Then, he zipped towards the sounds. As he listened, he noticed the voice of the boy sounded familiar. Could it be? It was!

"I'm coming, Bart," He murmured to himself, gritting his teeth.

The van pulled in to the deserted alley. Atleast they hoped it was deserted. They had to do this work without any interference. The boss had warned them. And nobody messed around with the boss. They got out and pulled out the kid. Bart Allen.

They left the gun inside. They would have their fun. They turned back to the look out. He was sitting in the car, smoking a cigar. "Watch out," one of them mouthed.

He winked and puffed on his cigar. The man smiled and reared back, smashing his fist in to Bart's face. The torture had only begun.

Clark slowed at an old secluded alley. It was dark and quiet here. He knew the van had come in this direction. He had lost sight because he had stopped in a public area. Even though he knew people couldn't see him while he super sped, his dad had warned him repeatedly to never do it in public. He focused on the sound around him. After a few short seconds, he heard the boy whimpering. So they were somewhere around here.

Bart could barely stand.

"Stand up you little shit." The man screamed, smashing him in the face.

The other man hit him in the gut, sending him to the ground.

The driver kicked him in the gut, sending him rolling.

Clark looked around and squinted, focusing on his eyesight.

Clark's X-Ray vision allowed him to scan through the walls of the alley, revealing that two skeletons were beating up a smaller one. He looked around, still scanning, and saw that there were one car and a van. Clark scanned inside the vehincles. The van was empty but the car had a man inside, smoking a cigarette. Clark turned to the small figure being beaten up by the two men. Clark focused and the vision now centered in to the layers of the skin, revealing that the boy was none other than Bart.

Clark instantly snapped in to action. He zipped in to the section of the alley. Clark grabbed the back of the car with the man in it and tossed it high in to the air. Clark hoped no one was watching. He was more concerned with the younger boy's life, but still, it would be nice not to have an added worry.

Clark was going at super speed. Clark rushed up and punched the two men. One of the men that had been hit flew back, smashing in to a steel pipe and falling unconscious. The other man flew up high and smacked in to a balcony, falling back to the ground, also unconscious. The car with the man in it hit a nearby wall and fell upside down. The man fell out of it, injured seriously but not fatally. Clark quickly checked to make sure the car wouldn't explode and saw that Bart was almost unconscious. He dragged him out of the section of the alley and about two blocks away.

"I'll be right back," He murmured and ran back in to the alley.

Clark focused on the van. There was no one in it and he did not want the criminals to have any means of escape. He'd call authorities later.

Clark's Heat Vision now blasted through his eyes in two fiery blazing twin supernovic beams, shooting out in to the air and straight in to the huge van. The van first turned red with the immense heat of the beams, then erupted in flames. The car blasted in to the air in a massive fireball and landed on the ground, covered with fire and now turned in to black ash. It's parts had been blown all around the alley. Some of it had even disintegrated. The unconscious men were thrown back with the force of the huge explosion. Debris rained all over the alley. The ground shook rapidly and pieces of concrete were went flying in to the air, landing on the ground covered with fire. Some bricks had been blown out of nearby buildings and they were now on the ground, covered with ash. People dozens of blocks away felt the explosion. Buildings around the area shook with the force.

Clark hastily zipped out and grabbed Bart, and they were gone in less than a quarter of a second. In less than ten seconds, Clark had caused more destruction than an ordinary man would be able to do in one day.

But the man who watched from the shadows was no ordinary man.