Metropolis: Chloe screamed as she fell towards the swirling vortex below. But before she could be sucked into the black hole, an object zoomed across the sky and scooped her up before depositing her on a rooftop a few blocks away. Gasping for the breath that had been sucked out of her by the vortex, she slowly got her bearings and looked around for her mysterious savior.
"Clark?" she asked desperately. But as her vision cleared she saw the man who had been fighting Doomsday earlier.
"I am afraid not Ms. Sullivan," responded the Martian Manhunter, his arms crossed. Seeing him there, instead of her hero, was enough to finally break the reporter as she slumped to the ground defeated.
"Clark…," she said absently as her eyes threatened to well up with tears.
"Kal-El is dead," said J'onn harshly. "You must accept this fact and move on. If he were still alive, he would have returned by now. So go and find some place to hide so you do not get yourself into more danger. I will not be able to save you indefinitely."
"But Doomsday's dead," said Chloe bitterly to the Martian's demeanor. Before the Manhunter could respond to that, Doomsday came crashing down onto the rooftop.
"Son of a bitch!" shouted Chloe despite herself, she was never one to use swear words. "Just die you mother-."
"Get out of here!" shouted J'onn as he blocked a punch in pain and hit Doomsday square across the face to no avail as the creature punched right back flinging the Martian off into the distance. The creature then turned to face her and Chloe's blood froze as it reached up to the sky to impale her with the spike growing out of its elbow before J'onn crashed back into it causing the two to slam into the pavement below after a flurry of punches. The resulting crater caused the buildings around it to shake violently as Chloe turned and ran for the exit as fast as she could.
The Next Day: At the Kent Farm, Chloe sat at the Kent's dinner table eating some cereal as she watched the television display images of destruction all over Metropolis.
"This is Metropolis. Once a city of six million people. What has happened here was caused by a force which up until a few days ago was entirely beyond the scope of Man's imagination. Metropolis, a smoldering memorial to the unknown, an unknown which at this very moment still prevails and could at any time lash out with its terrible destruction anywhere else in the world. There were once many people here who could've told of what they saw... now there are only a few. My name is Cat Grant. I am an intern for WGBS. I was in Metropolis to try and earn a living; but it turned out to be a career in the living HELL of another world," said Cat Grant, her face a mess and shaking nervously as behind her, construction crews were already setting to work demolishing what they could while police and hospital workers cleared the dead from the streets.
"Doomsday is gone now," Cat continued. "Satellites detect him moving across Kansas farmlands again on an easterly course, to where and to what purpose we don't know. What we do know is that he is headed for some of the more populated cities in the country and already panic has begun to grip them as people do whatever they can to get out of the beast's path. Looting and rioting have occurred in most major cities and the president has declared martial law for nearly the entire eastern seaboard. Right now we have with us, General Lane of the US Army who will give us a brief rundown of the military's plans to further combat the beast. General?"
"Thank you Ms. Grant," said General Lane as he turned to the camera. "In short-"
Chloe flipped off the television at that and just sat there in silence as the sound of a car pulling up to the farm was heard. Chloe turned to see the screen door open and Lois step in.
"Oh Lois," said Chloe relieved as she ran to hug her cousin. "It's good to see a familiar face."
"Yeah you too," said Lois also glad to see her. "When I heard you were still stuck in Metropolis during Doomsday's rampage I nearly had a heart attack."
"I was lucky to get out of there with only a few cuts and scrapes," said Chloe very much underplaying the truth.
"You know I heard the Green Arrow showed up to battle that thing?" said Lois as she got some juice out of the fridge.
"Seriously?" said Chloe feigning shock. "Just by himself?"
"No," said Lois shaking her head in surprise. "Apparently he had a whole group of friends with him and I guess they put up quite a fight."
"So what happened?" asked Chloe curious if anyone knew Oliver's final fate.
"Don't know. Most of the team vanished, but the Green Arrow stayed behind to shoot off some high powered arrow that blew the crap out of Oliver's apartment, much less the whole building," Lois went on. "What happened to him after that no one knows, but they haven't found a corpse yet so he may still be loose somewhere."
"I see," said Chloe. "So are you planning on staying here then?"
"Hell no!" said Lois startling Chloe. "Doomsday's coming this way and I'm getting out of here! I just wanted to see if you wanted to come with."
"No offense Lois, but I think the possibility of Doomsday actually coming right here is rather slim," Chloe stated.
"Yeah well our family tends to be a magnet for trouble so I'm not taking any chances," said Lois drinking some juice. "Catch you later then and tell Clark I said hi."
"I will," said Chloe, her spirits dampened by the mentioning of Clark's name. "Be safe."
"You too," said Chloe as the two hugged once more and then Lois was gone leaving her once again alone. She was washing the dishes when the sound of a large engine caught her attention looking out the window, she saw the massive semi-truck from earlier come to a halt as LuthorCorp engineers swarmed all over the device on its trailer. Angrily stepping out of the house she walked over to Lionel Luthor who was supervising everything.
"Haven't you caused enough problems for one week Lionel?" she demanded of the man.
"Ah Ms. Sullivan," said Lionel with a smile. "It seems we must always cross paths at the worst of times."
"Most of them because of your actions," Chloe pointed out. Lionel nodded.
"True, but not this time," said the man. "I'm just an innocent player seeking to do some good in the world."
"Like you did near Ollie's place?" asked Chloe doubtful. "Your little black hole in a gun nearly killed me!"
"Yes, J'onn did tell me he rescued you before he passed out from his fight," Lionel recalled. "Funny how he told you to stay out of trouble and here you are back in it. What is it with you reporters anyway?"
"Get out of here! I won't have you destroy the Kent Farm, it's all I have left of Clark these days," said Chloe furious.
"Ms. Sullivan, if we do not stop Doomsday while he is out in the open we may never get another chance," said Lionel simply. "He managed to leap out of the way of the first black hole we launched before it ran out of juice and vanished. This time there will be nowhere for him to go and the property damage would be minimal at best accounting for potential multiple shots."
"Read my lips, go to-," began Chloe. Lionel held up his hand to stop her.
"It's all been approved by Ms. Kent, this is her farm," said Lionel. "Now either help us or please step aside."
Chloe just spun around and marched right back into the house or risk doing something she knew she'd regret later. Lionel watched her go before turning around and getting back to supervising the remaining work to be done.
Afternoon: The cannon sat calmly facing the cornfields beyond as blasts rocked the distance as the military was hammering Doomsday with everything they had from tanks to planes to anything that could fire a projectile. But still Doomsday advanced shrugging off the cannon fire like it was nothing and advanced onwards to the Kent Farm. Chloe sat in Clark's original Fortress of Solitude in the loft of the barn looking out at the explosions through the telescope mounted there. Pushing it away, she sat down at Clark's desk and found his notes from just a week earlier on Lex's experiments. She couldn't believe how much had changed in just such a short period of time. Picking up the notes, she briefly glanced through them before dumping them on the table again in disgust. Turning her attention to his desk, she looked at all the framed photos spread across the table. Picking up one in particular featuring her, Clark, and Pete, she sighed as she remembered the old days of the three of them and the Torch.
"Simpler times," she had thought sadly. But now Pete was gone and Clark in all likelihood was as well. And now she too felt what Clark must have been feeling and perhaps what Pete had felt at times too back in the old days. The desire to just leave and begin a new life free of their former selves was a temptation to nearly everyone at one point or another. To most people, they would shrug off this idea as just a flight of fancy, but if you were someone who had the weight of the world on your shoulders every day because you could do something very few people could do it, save it, then the decision became that much harder to make. And Clark had finally made his decision, a decision she knew no one else could have made, and lived with it. So all Chloe was left with was to wonder what it would be like to be that brave.
"Power it up boys," said Lionel outside, breaking her thoughts. The Dimension Tide began making noises as Chloe walked back to her vantage point. An explosion ripped a hole in the ground as smoke came pouring out of it and then from the smoke Doomsday emerged. It began its trek towards the farm, one step after the other, as it stared down at the massive cannon.
"Fire!" shouted Lionel. The cannon spewed out a miniature black hole that Doomsday easily avoided by taking to the air with a giant leap. The cannon then aimed upwards and fired again but it missed as Doomsday came down right in front of the cannon and flipped the entire bed over causing the whole building to rock and Clark's portable radio onto the floor.
"In other news today, scientists are baffled by the sudden eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan with no prior warnings to signal its coming eruption," the radio droned on. "Witnesses swear to a darkened object being flung out of the cone at the top and vanishing into the sky before lava began pouring over the rim. More on this story as it develops."
Doomsday was now chasing after the various workers below and either shredding them apart or launching them high into the air only to fall to their deaths screaming their lungs out. Inside Chloe, rage threatened to bubble over inside her body. It was when Doomsday picked up the Kent's truck and launched it into their farmhouse that something inside snapped for the intrepid reporter. Tyler Durden said it best: 'It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything' and that statement echoed through Chloe's head as pure rage took over her actions. Looking around she grabbed a nearby pitchfork and stalked down the steps and headed to the entrance to the barn as a worker's bloody body was tossed past it. She emerged into the daytime sky and hefted her pitchfork before a bloodied hand clasped it.
"Chloe," said Lionel beaten and battered. "Don't do this, get out of here and save yourself while you still can."
Chloe's anger filled eyes turned to face him. "Well, I'm still here. But I don't know for how long. That's as much certainty as anyone can give me. But I've got some good news: I no longer have any fear of death. But... I am in a pretty lonely place so I'm about to end that here and now."
She shoved the pitchfork away from his hands and walked out into the dirt driveway as Lionel tried to follow her but collapsed onto the ground from the wounds he had already received at the hands of Doomsday. The beast, as if sensing her presence, launched another worker into a haystack several yards away before turning to face her. The two stood there in silence as the wind blew the dust around them before even it too settled down.
"Alright you asshole you listen up and you listen good," said Chloe tightening her grip on the pitchfork. "I'm tired of running okay. I'm tired of you killing everything that ever mattered to me, of people and things that could actually do some good in this world. Well no more. Clark and Oliver sacrificed themselves in the hope that future generations would be spared from your wrath. I can't go on and living knowing about the untold sacrifices that they both made. So I'll probably die too doing this, but you know what I can live with that because…because…because I lo-"
She couldn't bring herself to finish that sentence so she launched the pitchfork at Doomsday and it hit his hardened skin and fell to the ground. The creature looked at the pitchfork and then at Chloe unimpressed before slowly walking towards her until it loomed directly over her tiny body. Chloe glared up to him with tear stained eyes but refused to back down in fear or terror. Oliver and Clark had faced death on their feet and so too would she. But as Doomsday's punch was just inches from her, two red beams arced through the air and slammed into the creature as it roared in pain while the beams pumped more and more energy into it until Doomsday was thrown far off of its feet and into the field beyond where it lay there smoking in the crater it made upon impact unmoving.
"You leave her alone!" shouted a voice as Chloe looked behind her to see striding through the smoke and flames, like the Phoenix risen from the ashes, a bloody and battered disheveled Clark Kent with glowing red eyes. His clothes were completely trashed, his jeans reduced to shorts, his red jacket a mere shadow of its former self, but on his blue shirt…on his blue shirt burned into it was a massive 'S' logo like the one on the crystal he always carried around. Doomsday got back up and looked at the Kryptonian with pure rage in its eyes as it rushed the two. It threw a punch that Clark easily avoided before giving it an uppercut that sent it once more flying off into the distance.
"Hello Chloe, how have you been?" asked Clark as if discussing the weather. Chloe looked at him both shocked and stunned at his sudden resurrection before hugging him tightly. Clark stood there accepting the hug before she finally let go.
"Where the hell have you been?" she demanded. "We thought you were dead!"
"I nearly was," answered Kal-El. "When that bomb went off, it drove Doomsday and me far underground. I don't remember much after that, just silence until your scream broke through the murkiness thanks to my super hearing. I awoke buried underneath half the planet but I broke free and traveled down the rivers of lava underneath the planet until I found a volcano to escape through and came here as fast as I could."
"Well it doesn't matter," Chloe decided. "You're still alive and that means that-."
Clark's look of sadness at her broke her sentence.
"What?" she demanded. Clark sighed.
"Chloe I'm sorry to say this, but I'm not going to be around for much longer," stated the Kryptonian. "Being alone with my thoughts led to me realizing that there is no possible way Doomsday can be defeated without sacrificing myself in the process. I am going to set the cannon upright and I will hold Doomsday just long enough for you to activate the device and send us both to whatever fate awaits us."
Chloe looked at him as her jaw dropped in disbelief. "No. I'm not going to loose you, not again!"
"Chloe," said Clark shaking his head in sympathy. "There's no other choice, it's what Jor-El has been trying to teach me all along. There are some things worth fighting and dying for."
"I know," said Chloe knowingly as she gave a half-hearted smile as her eyes fell on the massive S on his shirt. "Nice S."
"Thanks," said Clark with a grin. "When the bomb hit, it caused the image of the S Crystal to be burned onto my shirt. I kind of like it."
"I do too, it seems heroic somehow," said Chloe before Clark's image slightly blurred and the truck found itself upright and the activation device pressed firmly in her hands as he prepared to rush off to where Doomsday could be seen getting back up amongst the haystacks.
"Goodbye Chloe," said Clark not sure what else to say. Chloe looked away from him sadly.
"Don't make this goodbye," she once again pleaded. Clark could only slowly shake his head at that.
"I'm sorry to have to do this Chloe," said Clark as he put his hands on her shoulders. "I really am, please don't hate me for this, I just want you to be happy no matter what you do in life."
"But how can I be happy without-," began Chloe, the last part being unsaid. Clark gave her a reassuring smile.
"You are happy," he said. "You always have been. Between you and Jimmy and Lois, Lex'll never know what hit him. Just do that for me and I'll be happy too."
With that he began to move and Chloe blocked his path and Clark sighed.
"No," she said stubbornly.
"Goodbye Chloe," he said once more and kissed her lightly on the cheek. And then to Chloe's astonishment he hovered into the air above her head and shot off like a rocket and plowed right in Doomsday with both fists outstretched. It was at that moment that he did that, that Chloe knew once and for all that he was gone forever.
"In the hopes that you'll one day fly back to me," thought Chloe quoting her letter she had read to him. But Clark had done the opposite, he had flown away from her once again, that was how it had to be when you were a superhero. Doomsday and Clark were now fighting in the fields faster and more ferociously than before as if both sensed that this was their final bout. Their fists created huge shockwaves that flung haystacks apart and shattered all the glass in the Kent farm and the various vehicles around the farm. Both were refusing to give an inch and the fight only got faster and faster until the blows were moving faster than the eye could see. Chloe meanwhile set to her work and found the aiming device on the cannon and slowly began swiveling the Dimension Tide to aim at the two combatants. Doomsday saw the glint of the cannon out of the corner of its eye and it leapt over Clark headed right for it when Clark took to the sky and grabbed Doomsday's foot and slammed him to the ground right in front of it. Clark then picked up the creature and looked at Chloe.
"Do it now!" he shouted as Doomsday shoved him aside and moved towards Chloe once more. Chloe hit the switch and watched as Doomsday's fist hurtled right at her with all of his might. But Clark zoomed right in front it.
"For Chloe, for Jimmy, for Lois, for everyone, this ends now!" he shouted and threw a punch of his own that was the hardest he had ever given an opponent as the cannon fired.
The resulting blow would be even more powerful than the bomb dropped in New Mexico. Seismographs didn't just detect it the impact would shake the entire Earth and would be felt as far away the North and South Poles. Animals all over the world would howl at the sky when the shockwave hit and birds everywhere would take to the sky in one huge burst. For years people would talk about where they had been when they felt the tremor that nearly knocked the planet off of its' axis. But the actual cause of the quake would never be known. Everyone knew it had originated from the spot where Doomsday had once been, but no one knew what became of the beast. The official explanation was that it had mysteriously exploded leaving no corpse behind. The truth was that its dead corpse had been sucked into the black hole the Dimension Tide had created and would hopefully never be seen again, but the public would never know this. Just like they would never know that Clark Kent had been the one to put a stop to Doomsday's onslaught.
"Clark!" shouted Chloe as she rushed to his fallen form after the black hole vanished, taking Doomsday with it. She held up his head as behind her, his tattered red jacket lay flapping in the wind, attached to a pole that had found itself lodged itself into the ground.
"Doomsday," Clark coughed. "Is…is…he?"
"He's gone," Chloe assured him as tears fell. "You saved us all. Now just hold on until…"
But it was too late. For this was the day that a Superman died.
A/N: This really wasn't as epic as I'd hope for, but let's face it I'm no Dan Jurgens. Epilogue coming up. And don't take this ending as supporting the Chlois theory, I'm not passing judgment on that one way or another with this ending. It's just that my hands are tied as far as the canon of the show goes, which is what I'm trying to stick to right now.