Parasite roared once more and grabbed Superman by the leg, slamming him down onto the ground.

"We anticipated your arrival, Superman!" the pink creature said as he grabbed Superman by his hair and smashed his face into the ground one more time.

Superman gritted his teeth. He tried to devise a strategy. He couldn't just use his powers willy nilly, because of Parasite's own abilities. He had to try something else. Superman thought that perhaps his sheer super strength could take Parasite down. He didn't want to resort to brute force, but it was his best bet.

Crossbones and a legion of HYDRA soldiers circled around Superman and Parasite, with the soldiers all aiming their guns towards Superman.

"I know what's probably going on in your head, Superman. Why on Earth would we be aiming all our guns towards the Man of Steel," Crossbones chuckeld, "And I admit, that would be amazingly stupid under normal circumstances."

Superman tried to break free from Parasite's grip, only for Parasite to tighten his grip on him, shooting out heat vision towards his back. Superman yelled in pain. 'So this is what it feels like.' He thought to himself, now knowing how his heat vision could actually feel.

"But I can see it in your face. You know these aren't normal circumstances."

Crossbones then pulled out a green, illuminating shard. Superman recognized it right away. It was Kryptonite, a radioactive remnant of his planet that was deadly towards him.

Crossbones took the shard of kryptonite and stabbed Superman in the back with it, causing the Man of Steel to let out a horrible cry of agony.

Crossbones chuckled once more. "Shoot at him."

The HYDRA soldiers obeyed the command of their superior and began to open fire upon Superman. With shard of Kryptonite in his back, Superman's endurance and physiology had been weakened, and the bullets…he could feel them pierce his skin. For the first time in his life, he could actually feel the power of a bullet.

It hurt. It hurt real bad.

This was still not enough to kill him, but it was enough to weaken him greatly. He needed to contact the rest of the Vanguard, and fast, but it was hard to do that when Parasite used his freeze breath to freeze him in place.

Superman was still aware and conscious, but he couldn't so much as blink. He was only frozen for a brief moment, as Parasite quickly smashed the ice, freeing him. Parasite grabbed Superman's bleeding body and used his heatvision directly against Superman's face…and Superman had to count himself real lucky. He knew that if he was any weaker than he already was, that heat vision would've completely destroyed his face, with not even a single drop of blood left behind.

He had to contact the Vanguard. That was all he had to do. J'onn and Hulk at the least couldn't be far, as New York City wasn't that far away from Metropolis. He just needed an opportunity, but he was getting no such window.

Superman fell to the ground, and Crossbones smirked underneath his mask before grabbing Superman by his hair and aiming his revolver owards the Man of Steel's forehead.

"Look at me, killing a nigh-invulnerable alien. Never thought I'd do that growing up." Crossbones lamented to himself.

But Superman still had some of his super strength left in him. The Kryptonite was draining his powers and strength fast, but he could still break free. He still had a chance to headbutt Crossbones right in the face and then fly away. And that is exactly what he did.

He was flying at much slower speeds than he was used to traveling at, and he was truly pushing himself beyond what he should be doing, with his body in this kind of condition. But he would not let HYDRA win. HYDRA would never see any victory while Superman drew breath.

He pressed into his ear comm, trying desperately to avoid the gunfire of the soldiers, as well as Parasite, which became harder and harder to do while his super speed began to lessen.

"This is Superman contacting the Vanguard of Justice. I am directly below Fort Siegel, and have been badly injured by Hydra's forces. I repeat, I am directly below Fort Siegel and have been badly injured by Hydra's forces. I need the aid of any available Vanguardians! I repeat, I need the aid of any available Vanguardians!"

He heard Parasite roar behind him, and the monster was picking up speed fast. Faster than Superman could hope to outfly. Parasite eventually unleashed his heat-vision onto Superman, sending the Man of Tomorrow down to the ground. Superman yelled in pain, for this was an excruciating state. The heat-vision keep coming, and it was becoming more unbearable by the second.

"Don't kill him, Raymond!" Crossbones yelled to Parasite, who growled as he looked towards Crossbones. "I want to be the one to kill the great Superman!"

That did not stop Parasite from roughing up Superman further, punching him in the chest three times. Superman began to feel ungodly disoriented – he could no longer fly away; his lack of focus and direction would send him back down to the ground a millisecond later. He truly hoped the Flash, or Thor, or any Vanguardian with super speed would come as soon as possible, because he did not have much time left.

His vision was beginning to blur, but he could make out Crossbones standing before him; the revolver he had been carrying earlier was now in one of his pockets, and Crossbones had in his hands an assault rifle.

"Farewell, Superman. Your head will look fantastic on a plaque."

Superman didn't know what to do. He couldn't let Hydra win…but there was nothing he could do. He was far too weak to fight back, or even stand. The kryptonite had finally overwhelmed him. All he could was groan as Crossbones aimed his assault rifle towards him, ready to take out Superman – permanently.

But then ants began to crawl up on Crossbones. His excitement turned to confusion, and Crossbones began to yell as an army of ants swarmed up on him. Superman looked around, and saw millions of ants crawling up on the scene, all swarming up to the Hydra soldiers. They were even crawling up on Parasite, who looked merely annoyed by the sight of the insects. He swung a good chunk of them away with his arm, only for many more to crawl up on Parasite. He roared loudly, but that did not deter the ants in the slightest.

Superman knew this to be the work of Pym, but he couldn't see the Ant-Man anyway. Superman used what little energies he had left to use his X-ray vision and try to find Pym, but there was no sign of him.

Then there was a massive bursting sound, and Superman saw Thor smashing his way towards the scene, with Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman following behind. Hydra soldiers began to fire upon them, but their bullets did nothing to the three. Thor slammed his hammer towards three of the soldiers, who were all sent back against the wall, while Martian Manhunter used his tangibility abilities to allow the bullets to basically phase through him before attacking the soldiers as well. Wonder Woman deflected the bullets with her bracelets, then used her lasso to rope a group of five soldiers. She brought the rope closer to her, and bashed her head into those of the soldiers', knocking them all out.

Superman truly wished he could help, but there was nothing he could do. All he was able to do at the moment was breathe heavily as blood poured its way out of its body. He saw Parasite roaring before charging towards Thor, who shot lightning out of Mjlonir and towards Parasite, who was sent flying a few feet away. He and Martian Manhunter flew towards Parasite and began to try and pummel the creature while Wonder Woman focused her energies on dealing with the soldiers.

Everything began to turn black for Superman, but he could just barely make out Parasite grabbing Thor by the neck and throwing him towards the dirt walls before Martian Manhunter gave the creature an upper deck. Superman saw nothing else, for that was when everything finally went to black.

Superman had no idea how much time had passed when he finally began to awaken. He found himself in the Vanguard Tower's medical room, and in the exact spot where Cap woke up from those seven decades in the ice. While his vision was still a bit blurry, he could tell that Batman, Cap, Wonder Woman, Manhunter, Thor, and Ant-Man were all in the room, looking down at him while Superman leaned up, placing his hand on his forehead.

"He's back with us!" Hank yelled towards the others.

"You're very lucky to be alive, Clark." Batman added on, in that same tone he always used. "If you had shown up so much as seconds later, that kryptonite would've killed you."

Cap held his hands up. "So let me see if I got this straight, Clark. Bits of your home planet came down with you to Earth, and they're radioactive, and they're deadly to you."

Superman felt too weak to say anything, so he only nodded.

"They're deadly to you as well, Steve." Wonder Woman said. Cap felt weird having to slightly look up to make eye contact with her. "Researchers have found that longterm exposure to kryptonite can give humans cancer. But it's much deadlier to Superman."

"…Right." Was all Cap could reply with, as he looked at Superman's healing body. The Man of Steel still looked incredibly weak, and he groaned in pain, to which Cap sighed.

"Wha…what became of Parasite and Hydra's forces?" Superman asked, feeling bad that he wasn't able to help J'onn, Diana, and Thor.

"Rumlow, Jensen, and their little army have all been taken care of." Hank answered.

Superman furrowed his eyebrow. "Rumlow and Jensen?"

"Oh, right. That dude in the mask was Brock Rumlow, and the Parasite creature was Raymond Maxwell Jensen."

Thor laughed. "They were mighty warriors, but I'm mightier. As are Diana and J'onn."

"Hey now, Thor. My new invention helped. See, Superman, I've been working on a device that allows me to control ants from afar. Worked pretty well in saving you."

"…Right, right."

"How are you feeling, Clark?" Manhunter asked in a concerned tone.

"Better. I still feel a little crappy, but I'm doing better."

"That's good." Batman replied before Manhunter could. "And before you ask, Crossbones and Parasite are in S.H.I.E.L.D custody."

Superman chuckled. "I imagine Stark and Jordan aren't happy over that. They would sooner rot in hell than have anything to do with Fury."

Batman nodded. "Well, speaking of Stark, I must go to attend a party with him." And with that, the Dark Knight walked out of the room.

Superman still felt it – the overwhelming sense of shame in himself. He didn't know what to do. But then he looked at Cap.

Cap. Superman felt that he could confide his feelings towards Captain America. He figured that would be the easiest and most comfortable route to take.

"May…may you give me and Cap a moment?" Superman said to Wonder Woman, Thor, Manhunter, and Pym.

They all looked at each other and nodded before taking off, leaving only Superman and Cap in the room. Cap, for his part, found himself very confused. Why did Superman want just him in the room? It wasn't like they were the best of friends – they hadn't known each other that long.

"Erm…Clark?"

"I'm sorry."

Cap titled his head. This just got even more confusing. "…What?"

"I just…I feel bad about what happened."

Cap thought about it for a moment, but then he felt he finally figured it out. "You feel bad about losing most of your strength?"

"…Yeah. Yeah, I do. I just…Hydra almost won against me. And who knows what they would've achieved had I not managed to contact the rest of you. For all we know, the whole world could've suffered if they won. I feel I underestimated them."

Cap shook his head. "Look, Supes….how were you supposed to know about Parasite, or the kryptonite? The Bruces told me that kryptonite is rare, so the odds of them obtaining any were slim."

"I know. I get that. I guess….I just can't believe how close Hydra came to winning. I just can't."

"Well, what's important is that we got to them in time, Clark. Whatever Hydra was planning, we stopped them. Look, Clark, there's one thing, I learned in the war: Stuff can get messy. Things can go horribly wrong. There are some things you just can't anticipate."

Superman let out a small smile. "Thanks. I needed to hear that. But I still have that feeling inside me."

"Well, that's something I learned before the war. Emotions can be difficult. Really, really difficult."

"You can say that again."

Cap and Superman looked at each other, with a brief pause, before Cap spoke again. "Just remember my advice, Clark. It applies to everyone. Even Batman."

Cap had only been around a short while and he had already heard the stories about how Batman was apparently crazy prepared to deal with any situation, something he could personally not buy into.

"Let's just hope Batman remembers that." Superman replied.

They kept conversing, and Cap couldn't help but think about how much President Roosevelt would've loved having Superman around.