Chapter Six
Chloe and Peter sat on the couch in the loft in the Kent barn.
"Okay, so what was that all about?" Chloe asked.
"I don't know, but it's definitely weird," Peter said. "I mean, Tony Stark and Steve Rogers don't just show up and your house like that. Those guys are like… I mean, they're superheroes!"
"So are you," Chloe pointed out.
"Oh, please. I'm not in the same league as those guys," Peter said. "They're like the poster guys for the whole superhero culture. They're THE guys. They're like The Rolling Stones, and I'm like the band that opens for them."
"Hey," Chloe said, putting her hand on Peter's. "Being a little hard on yourself, aren't you?"
Peter shrugged.
"You know I check The Daily Bugle's website every day to see what you're up to," Chloe said.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Peter said, "seeing as the Bugle usually claims that Spider-Man was caught jaywalking or stealing candy from babies."
"Okay, anything that J. Jonah Jameson writes about you I take with the proverbial grain of salt. But, there is a decent amount of fact mixed in with the fiction. Who was that guy you fought last week? The flying guy?"
"The Vulture," Peter said, trying not to laugh. "You know what was really weird? He was actually this really old guy. I'm serious, he was an old man! I mean, he even had that old man smell to him! It was just so bizarre, he was just this old man who invented a suit with wings, and decided to become a criminal. I don't know where these guys come from."
They both laughed. Then, Chloe held up her hand, turning her head to the side.
"Do you hear that?" she asked.
"Hear what?"
"That sounds like a helicopter," she said.
"So?"
"Well, you may get a lot of them in the big city, but not too many fly over Smallville Kans-"
Just then, there was a loud crash from outside like the sound of glass breaking, followed by a thud. Peter and Chloe sprang to their feet and ran to the window that overlooked the yard. There they saw Tony Stark, picking himself up off the ground, with shattered glass from the Kent living room window scattered everywhere.
"That can't be good," Peter said.
On the Kent lawn, Tony Stark scrambled to his feet and began shouting into a microphone concealed in his wristwatch. "Quartermain! Land the damn copter! Contingency plan alpha one bravo! Land, land, land!"
"Tony, what the hell happened?" Clay Quartermain's voice crackled in response over the watch radio.
"I think I pissed him off!" Tony yelled.
As Tony sprinted toward the helicopter that was landing in the field behind the house, Steve Rogers dashed out the door to check on his teammate. "Tony!" he yelled. "Are you all right?!"
The huge frame of the man known as Thor came flying through the door backwards, knocking Steve off his feet and sending him tumbling down the steps of the front porch. The two men landed in a heap on the front lawn. They looked up to see Clark Kent standing in the doorway, his eyes still burning red with anger.
"So you want to know what powers I have, huh?" Clark yelled. "You had to come all the way out here, knock on my door, come into my home, and invade my privacy. Well, if you want a show, I'll give you one!"
Thor had just gotten to his feet when Clark marched down the porch steps, grabbed him by his t-shirt and raised him up into the air. Steve stood up and clamped his hand down on Clark's shoulder.
"Think about what you're doing here, son," Steve said.
Clark swung Thor around like a battering ram, hammering him into Steve and sending him flying across the yard. Steve slammed into a tree with a loud crack, shards of bark flying off like shrapnel. Clark grabbed Thor by the arm and spun around like an Olympic thrower getting ready to hurl a discus, then flung him straight through the barn wall, sending him crashing out through the other side.
"That's pretty impressive," a voice behind Clark said. It sounded slightly garbled, almost electronic. Clark turned to see a man covered from head to toe in a red and gold suit of mechanical armor. "Now chew on this." He raised his hand and unleashed a repulsor blast that knocked Clark right off his feet.
"Let me guess," Clark spat dirt out of his mouth as he rolled onto his side. "Iron Man?"
"Right on, kid. And I come bearing gifts." He gestured toward two large shipping containers that were currently sitting on the ground behind him. He pressed a button on his armor and they popped open. Inside one was a large circular shield with the colors of the American flag on it. Inside the other was a giant medieval looking war hammer.
Clark got to his feet and brushed the dirt off himself. Steve and Thor slowly walked up behind him, circling around him. Steve grabbed the shield. Thor grabbed the hammer. They took their places standing on either side of Iron Man.
"So this is how it is," Clark said.
"We didn't come here looking for a fight," Steve said, raising the shield in front of him.
"You shouldn't have come here in the first place," Clark replied. "Now get the hell off my lawn."
Clark dashed at the three men wildly, fists first. Thor swung the hammer upward, a wild blue energy crackling from it. The hammer made contact with Clark's chin, snapping his head backward. As Clark was knocked off balance, Steve swept his leg out and around, knocking Clark's feet from under him. Clark hit the ground, and Thor swung the hammer down right toward Clark's chest.
In a blur of super speed, Clark caught the hammer in his bare hand just before it struck. The blue energy that coursed through it burned his hand. Only two things had ever hurt him like this before. Kryptonite, and magic. Clark screamed. With a surge of strength, he pushed the hammer away, sending Thor reeling backward.
Clark sprung back to his feet once again. Iron Man shot another repulsor beam from his hand, which Clark dodged at super speed. He sped around behind Iron Man and shoved his fists into the back of the suit, ripping out a handful of wires and circuitry, sparks showering down around his feet. Iron Man twisted away and turned around, slapping his hands to either side of Clark's face. He released a jolt of electricity which ran through Clark's entire body. Clark gritted his teeth and punched Iron Man in the stomach, knocking him away and breaking the circuit.
Steve ran up the porch steps and jumped, pressing his feet against the railing and pushing off, propelling himself toward Clark. He brought the shield down toward Clark's head. Clark caught the shield, and took several steps backward as Steve wrapped one arm around Clark's neck.
"Alloy of adamantium and vibranium," Steve said, shoving the edge of the shield against Clark's throat. "Unbreakable."
Clark smiled. "We'll see."
Clark grabbed the back of Steve's jacket and threw him high into the air, spinning head over feet. He plummeted back toward the ground, head-first. Steve quickly crossed his arms in front of his head and closed his eyes, bracing himself for the impact. At the last second, a huge web shot out underneath him, catching him and breaking his fall. He bounced several times in the cushion of the web net.
Everyone stopped fighting and looked up to see a young man wearing a paper bag over his head, clinging to the roof of the Kent house.
"Who the hell are you supposed to be?" Thor asked.
"I'm the, uh… Amazing Bag-Man," he replied. He shrugged. "Hey, I'm improvising here." He leapt down from the roof and landed in a crouch beside Clark. "These guys aren't giving you any trouble, are they, buddy?"
"No," Clark said. "No trouble at all." In the blink of an eye, Clark was next to Thor again. Clark grabbed for the hammer to try to wrestle it away, but Thor held firm. The two struggled for control of the weapon, and the blue light once again crackled from it.
"Suuure," Peter Parker said from beneath the paper bag. It had been a last-ditch effort to conceal his identity while he used his spider powers to help Clark. A bit ridiculous, he knew, but he figured he might as well give it a shot. Peter leapt forward and did a flip in the air, then snapped his leg outward to deliver a roundhouse kick to Thor's head. Thor batted Peter away with one hand, never taking the other off the handle of the hammer.
Iron Man shot forward and caught Peter in his arms. He ripped the paper bag off Peter's head, and a camera in his armor snapped a photo of Peter's face.
"So much for that plan," Peter deadpanned. He fired a stream of webbing into Iron Man's face, then wriggled free and sprinted back toward Clark and Thor. Iron Man struggled to pull the sticky residue from his facemask.
"SEARCHING… MATCH FOUND," the mechanized voice of the suit's automated computer system rang in Tony Stark' ears.
"Who is it?" Tony asked the suit.
"SUBJECT NAME: PETER PARKER. ALSO KNOWN AS SPIDER-MAN," the suit's computer replied.
"Great," Tony said, ripping most of the webbing off his mask. "This just keeps getting better." He fired the rocket thrusters in his boots and took off into the sky, flying over the field behind the house.
Peter shot a webline at Thor's feet and yanked, sending the large man face-first into the dirt. He lost his grip on the hammer to Clark, who hoisted the hammer high in the air victoriously.
Clark winced. He felt the hammer growing very heavy. Something didn't make sense… he had lifted cars above his head with almost no effort, but now, he found he could barely keep the hammer aloft. He strained his muscles as he tried to keep his grip, the hammer slipping lower and lower. Finally, despite all his effort, the hammer fell from his hand and hit the ground with a thud.
"Only the worthy can wield Mjolnir," Thor said with a smirk, wiping mud from his cheek. "And you're obviously not worthy."
Clark heard something whizzing toward the back of his head. He spun around to see Steve's red white and blue shield heading straight for him. He held out his fist and let the shield crash right into it, splitting the shield clean in half. The two halves of the shield veered off to either side of Clark, one embedding itself in the side of the house and the other sailing off into the field behind them.
Steve's jaw dropped. "That's not possible," he whispered. Clark smiled and winked at him.
Flying high above Smallville, Tony's Iron Man armor was running an analysis of the mineral content in the ground. "UNIDENTIFIED MINERAL DETECTED," the computer reported. "NOT OF EARTHLY ORIGIN."
"Color?" Tony asked the computer.
A moment. Then, the reply. "GREEN."
Tony rocketed back toward the earth.
Thor struck Clark across the face with the hammer again. There was a loud crack of energy like a bolt of lightning, and Clark's head snapped to the side. Peter leapt onto Thor's back, grabbing his arms and pinning them behind him.
"Why don't you pick on somebody your own size?" Peter asked.
Steve leapt up and grabbed onto the overhanging limb of a nearby tree, then swung over Clark's head, connecting his foot with Peter's temple. The force of the blow knocked Peter off Thor's back and left him unconscious on the ground. Clark didn't wait for Thor to take another swing with his hammer. A quick super-powered shove, and Thor was on the other side of the field.
"Hey, Thor!" Iron Man cried as he flew overhead. He lobbed a green, glowing chunk of meteor rock in Thor's direction. "Batter up!"
Thor reared back with the hammer, summoning all his strength. "ODIN!" he yelled, his booming voice shaking the ground like thunder as he hurled the hammer at the kryptonite. The hammer shot off blue sparks as it tore through the air. It struck the kryptonite with such force that it vaporized it, sending a cloud of green dust flying in its wake. The hammer hit Clark in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. As he gasped for breath, he inhaled a huge cloud of kryptonite dust. He fell to his knees, coughing and choking. His hand clutched at his throat, trying desperately to breathe in precious oxygen, even as he felt his windpipe closing up in response to the deadly vapor. After a moment of struggling for air, Clark slumped to the ground, unconscious.
Iron Man landed on the ground next to Clark's unconscious body. He knelt down and removed the red kryptonite ring from Clark's hand. "Well boys, that went over like a fart in church." He dropped the ring on the ground and stomped on it, crushing it. "Anyone else feel like a drink?"
Clay Quartermain slowly walked over to the group, having left the relative safety of the helicopter now that the fighting had finally stopped. He stared at the unconscious Clark Kent and Peter Parker. "Fury is going to kill you guys," Clay said.
. . . . . .
Peter Parker woke up to Chloe Sullivan shaking him violently.
"Peter, wake up! Please wake up!"
He blinked a few times and the world slowly came into focus. He was laying on the Kent lawn among broken glass, splinters of tree bark and other remains of the wild brawl that had broken out a few minutes earlier. He shook his head and sat up, rubbing his temple where he'd been kicked by Captain America.
"What happened, Chloe?" Peter asked. "Where's Clark?"
"Those men took him! They carried him into the helicopter!" She was hysterical, near tears. "What are they going to do to him?"
"I don't know," Peter said. "But they're not going to hurt him."
The helicopter had just lifted off from the field behind the house a moment ago and was passing by overhead.
"How do you know?" Chloe cried.
"Because," Peter replied. "I'm not going to let them." He fired off a webline which stuck to the tail boom of the helicopter as it whizzed by. Peter grabbed the web tightly, and, a second later, he was yanked from the ground as the copter flew higher into the sky.
"Peter!" Chloe yelled.
She reached out for him, but it was too late.
The helicopter flew farther and farther away, unaware of the extra passenger that was hitching a ride via webline.