Up in St. Michaels Cathedral, a silent prayer was whispered. Ending the prayer, Father Thomas looked up at the ceiling, closing his eyes, breathing slowly. He was trying to empty his mind, but it was no use. A blade was lying in front of him on the altar and he knew what he had to do. He comforted himself with reasons why he was going to go through with the horrible deed.
"For the greater good." "There is no other way." "One for the sake of many."
But none gave the elder priest's conscience any peace.
Behind the priest, on the first row of benches in front the altar, a young man was lying unconscious. "He couldn't be older then eighteen," the priest thought to himself, sighing.
It had been a month since his first vision of the impending doom. Recently, he started suffering from visions of the Adramelech, a daemonic race that was born within corrupted humans. They were the harbingers of Doomsday, who was the source of their power.
He had found the young boy in an alley lying next to a daemon's ashes. Surprisingly, the boy had been able to pierce the daemon's heart. Father Thomas had been tracking the demon for several days but without any success. He had brought the boy back here hoping he wouldn't be infected. To his disappointment, the flesh around the bite mark on the boy's lower neck was starting to turn black. This only left one option.
It would be the third time he hindered the seed of corruption from spreading. He took a deep breath then spoke loudly enough to wake the boy as he walked towards him carrying the dagger in his hand.
"If one gets bitten, it's only a matter before one becomes one! I do this to prevent a greater suffering, please understand! Your bones will painfully grow larger and sharper at such a rate that your skin will be pierced, you'll become a monster! Father forgive me!" he cried out
The boy yawned wide, still not fully awake. "What? Who's getting a piercing?" he asked, with a rasping voice.
Standing beside the boy he lifted the blade above his head and prepared to execute the blow.
Slowly opening his eyes, Bart caught a glimpse of a man. Recalling what happened before he lost consciousness, his eyes opened wide. It felt like time stood still when he looked up at the man who was about to stab him. Shutting his eyes, Bart awaited the blow tensing his entire body. But it never came. Carefully looking up to see a second man in a suit, he had blocked the priest's swing with one arm.
"Now now…that's not how you treat the sick and needy," the suit said smiling, as he oddly twisted his head towards Bart.
"You are not welco-"The priest was cut off with an iron grip around his throat. Clutching to the arm that slowly started lifting him up, he desperately tried to free himself but without any success.
The suit who was still looking at Bart cackled loudly; as he did his eyes colored dark red, like a pair of glowing rubies. With a forceful twist of his wrist he broke the priest's neck and let him drop to the floor.
He smiled as he saw Bart flinch when the body hit the floor "Bags of meat… that's what they all are. You'll come to realize this soon enough."
"Before or after you kill me?"
"Kill you? What's the fun in that? You'll be of some use to me soon" he stated, turning around and walking over to the altar, inhaling deeply with his nose and blowing the air out slowly through his mouth.
"Can't you feel him? I can almost smell him! He's almost here. Only a matter of hours before his arrival, and when he does the world will tremble and chaos will rein!"
Bart didn't need to move to know how badly he was hurt. Since he knew he wasn't capable of stopping the suit or escaping, he was left with one option, get as much information as he could. "Who?"
"Who?! Our father, the life-giver! Or whatever you'd like to call him. Meatbags refer to him as Doomsday. It's thanks to his power that one like me is born through the pure hearted. He also makes us capable of sharing our gifts with the lesser ones like you."
"How long?"
The Suit smiled as he knew what the meat bag was asking. "It varies, but usually no more than two weeks before you acquire your true form," he said walking towards the exit door. Before stepping outside, he turned back to face Bart and grinned widely. "I'll see you then, half-brother," he whispered and slammed the door leaving the young speedster.
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('C')
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Several hours later
Silently touching down on a field of grass, Clark began to look around the area, scanning for whatever he was searching for. A couple hours earlier Jor-El had summoned Clark to the Fortress and had given him a priority one assignment to find a Kryptonian artifact that had recently landed somewhere in the area.
Picking up the frequency of the piece, Clark began to walk in its direction. This wasn't the first time Clark was treasure hunting for Jor-El, as he liked to put it. Over the past year, he had been called out on several occasions to find certain objects. With the help of Kryptonian teaching, he had learned to pick up the slightest sounds Kryptonian objects made. But this mission was different; this wasn't just a regular training exercise; this was preparation for Doomsday. Jor-el had explained that he needed to gather two pieces of an artifact which is was called Sunbinder. The Artifact contained two crystals, one larger than the other,with different qualities. The larger one absorbed the sun's energy, while the smaller one acted as an amplifier. If one held the artifact after it had been exposed to the sun one would absorb the energy within the crystal. According to Jor-El it would mean certain death for Clark if he was to face Doomsday with his current strength, but by using the Sunbinder Clark would be strong enough to take him on, and avoid the devastation Doomsday would bring.
Walking up a hill, Clark discovered a large hole which led down to an underground cave. Judging from the sound the Kryptonian object made he knew he had found a crater. Crouching at the cave roof, he pulled out a flat, rectangular crystal from his jeans. As he swept his fingers across the surface, the crystal began to glow and a hologram with Kryptonian symbols appeared as he tapped the crystal. After having read the information sent by Jor-El through the crystal-device he pressed down on a few virtual buttons on the crystal-device, and it began to scan the crater for radiation.
The radiation check showed a negative result for kryptonite. Quick to his feet, he jumped down the crater and landed with a thud. Looking down at the center, he saw the crystal. It didn't look much different from the ones he had in the fortress. The only exception was that it had a Kryptonian inscription on the side that Clark read to say Sunbinder. Without hesitation Clark reached for the crystal. The moment the tip of his fingers brushed against the surface an agonizing pain bolted through his body.
While falling flat on the ground he realized what had gone wrong. He cursed himself for being so careless. According to Jor-El's notes, the crystal was able to absorb the sun's radiation. On its way to Earth, the crystal must have absorbed the radiation from the radioactive rocks from Krypton, explaining the reading of a lack of radiation from the rocks.
The young Kryptonian was in big trouble. If he came in contact with the crystal once more it would most likely be lethal. The fact that he wasn't able to stand up, being trapped in the center of a steep crater wasn't to his advantage.
Carefully sitting up, he leaned against the crater wall, and let out a deep sigh.
In a tall, stale apartment building, inside a cold and almost empty apartment, Bart stepped out of the shower and carefully examined himself in the mirror. Twisting to the right and leaning towards the mirror he cautiously touched the wound at the nape of his neck. The skin around it was colored black. It didn't even hurt; it was just cold and numb.
Just the sight of it reeked of death and despair. Strangely Bart felt calm…at least he thought he did…perhaps it was just the shock of it all. Going from chasing down the worlds tastiest burrito to battling with daemons and getting to know he was going to become one was quite a big step.
There was only one person Bart could count on at a time like this. Demons, Doomsday and a spreading infection? This was totally down Clark's alley or farm, either would do.
Something in Bart's backpack began beeping, Bart got dressed in a flash and then began to rifle through his backpack in search for the beeping gadget. Carefully picking up the small rectangular crystal that Clark had given him in case of an emergency. Bart began to examine it closely. He wasn't entirely sure how to use the device, every corner and edge were completely smooth with no buttons or switches.
After knocking on it a few times it illuminated, creating a hologram above. According to Clark the device was an artificial intelligence and it could be controlled trough voice. Seconds later the crystal-device became something that resembles a GPS, leading the way to Clark. Bart put on his backpack and sped off into the night.