Imagine it. The world's strongest individual. A being so impossibly fantastic that it seems they could do seemingly anything and everything. How would you react to him? Would you feel scared? Small? Diminished? Weak?
All of which would be proper feelings to be felt in the presence of such a being who only knew to flaunt his power in order to intimidate and frighten. Thankfully, the world's strongest being was raised properly in Smallville, Kansas as Clark Kent. Who would only grow up to be the only and only Superman.
You can imagine it can't you? The hero that never was too busy to stop by and talk to you and I mean really talk to you. Not begrudgingly or in a matter that felt like he would rather be doing anything else. But genuinely.
You can picture him in your mind as well. The bright blue costume, the iconic symbol on his chest, his goofy yet unforgettable red trunks, and that bright, wide smile of his. A smile that you can't just help but to return.
With the way it's been, you thought the hero to be invincible! Playground arguments, work time conversations, and just general talking. "No one's beating Superman! Superman's got this in the bag! Superman Solos! It's always been this way!"
After all, he was seemingly getting stronger and stronger with each and every day! Which was a good thing, a strong Superman means problems will be solved easier! So no one could beat Superman! Well...that's what everyone thought until...it showed up.
Doomsday. A monstrous being of unknown origin that only left death and destruction in its way. Not only had it taken out the government's most powerful forces, it had even managed to take down multiple members of the Justice League itself. Now there was only one man standing in its way from destroying everything in its sight. Superman.
'Must...keep...going...'
Where the scrambled thoughts that were flying around through Superman's beaten and pounding head. The Man of Tomorrow was barely able to keep himself on his feet as he desperately tried to stop himself from passing out. His breathing was haggard, his body beaten and bloody, and his suit ripped and shredded.
He had been in constant combat with this monstrosity for who knows how long. Everything that he had thrown at him only seemed to make the monster more and more angry and ferocious. Superman would throw a punch and it would be returned with even more force and violence.
He slowly forced his eyes to open before immediately closing them once more in response to the giant fist slamming directly into his face. Superman soon hit the floor as the monstrosity continued to land multiple super powered blows to the Man of Steel's damaged body before he temporarily lost consciousness.
Doomsday soon saw the lack of moving and rebellion coming from the hero's body before letting out an angry snort. It's gigantic hands soon raised clamped together as they slowly rose up in the air prepared to land the final blow until...
"STOP!"
A rock soon lightly bounced off the rampaging monster's back causing it to pause and look back to see what was causing the distraction. A woman. Lois Lane with angry and sad tears in her eyes as she glared with hatred at the thing that was hurting Superman. Their hero. Their friend.
Her fear of dying in this moment didn't stop her from throwing another rock at Doomsday. A bit desperate, but she couldn't stand by and let this thing kill Superman. Not like this. He would do the same for any one of them, powers or not.
Anger rose in the beast's body as it turned away from the unconscious hero and slowly began making its way over towards her. Each of its steps created powerful booms that shook the very ground they stood on. As it began to get more and more angry, its claws on its arms began to grow in size as it stalked over to her.
Clark groaned and held his bloody head as his foggy vision looked over to see Lois standing defiantly against the vile creature. His eyes widened at the sight before she turned her gaze over to him and let out a small smile and whispering, her tears still streaming down her face.
"I love you."
His eyes widened even larger as everything else seemed to fade away in that moment. That was what the symbol on his chest meant. Truth. Justice. A Better Tomorrow. Hope. Compassion. Love. He knew what he had to do. He started huffing and puffing to get his adrenaline up as he soon flipped over onto his powerful feet, his muscular body stressing and tensing as he charged himself up for one final strike.
His eyes closed as he continued to build up adrenaline in his body. The ground seemed to crumple as the amount of raw energy around the hero grew and grew. Doomsday turned around to see what was the noise happening behind him before Clark's eyes opened with nothing but raw determination and fury blazing in them.
He soon rocketed off hurdling himself directly at Doomsday at astronomical speeds, causing a deafening sonic boom as he rushed over to his opponent. His arms were stretched out into fists in front of him as he soon let out a mighty roar as Doomsday was given no time to react with just how quickly Clark was heading towards him.
The distance between them continued to disappear in a matter of a second before Clark was directly at Doomsday's ugly, sinister face.
SNAP!
His doubled fisted pose of flight made contact with the ugly monstrosity, causing its neck to snap immediately backwards in a violent display. Clark was never one for unwarranted violence or killing, but it was clear he had no other option here.
The sonic boom and shock wave created by such an attack was spread wide across the city, blowing up gigantic amounts of wind. As the dust settled, the first thing he was greeted to was the stiff body of Doomsday.
His head turned at a 180 degree and in not a clean fashion if the wrangled and hyper extended neck were anything to go off of. Nonetheless, a small smile appeared on the battered and bruised Man of Tomorrow's face.
He was happy. He did it! The monster was defeated! He would've been a lot happier if it wasn't for the throbbing stabbing pain in his chest area. Clark coughed as he looked down to see one of Doomsday's jagged, long arm spikes was embedded deeply into his chest and was shooting straight through his back.
The lifeless corpse of Doomsday soon began to sway as it began to fall down to the ground, the arm spike leaving Superman's body only causing it to wince as it was removed, introducing the giant, gaping bloody wound to the cold air around them. As he made contact with the floor, Lois ran up in shock and fear to cradle him in her arms.
"No! No please! Just hang on! You're going to be ok! Please stay with me!"
Clark coughed as he felt her warm embrace before looking up at her with that same boyish grin that just managed to lift everyone's spirits.
"I-I did it?.."
"Yes. Yes you did...You saved us...You saved us all..."
"T-That's g-good. That's...all...I e-ever wanted to dooo...T-Thank you...I lo-ove you a-all of you...I-I l-love you..."
Those were the final words that managed to leave Clark's mouth before his speech came to a halt and his eyes fluttered close. Lois still shaken up tried shaking him away in pure and utter disbelief and denial. Her mascara continued to run down her face as she sobbed, holding the body of their hero.
People began to surround as they realized the trouble was soon over, heroes and civilians alike. Still unable to comprehend what just happened. He saved them, but not at a horrible price. The Man Of Tomorrow, Superman...was dead.
It's not like he was any expert on being dead or anything, but Clark was a hundred percent sure that when you died, it was usually all just silent. Nothing, but a peaceful nothing. But what he was hearing was anything but that.
It was as if an infinite of different voices and sounds were entering his brain at speeds that would drive a normal man mad. Thankfully, physically speaking anyway, he was anything but normal.
The noises simply continued to grow louder and louder until it felt like he couldn't take it anymore. And that was when his eyes snapped straight open.
Clark's vision was as clear as it should be. There was no fogginess in it, no struggle to keep his eyes open, and there was no blood falling down from his temple into his optics. The throbbing pain in his body and especially his chest was gone too. He looked down at his body and saw that even his costume was fully prepared.
But his well being and his costume feeling perfect was the least thing on his mind. He was standing in space! He thinks. Clark was originally laying on his back on...well nothing. Like he was on a table, but there was none there. He maneuvered himself to be on his feet and was shocked to find himself, standing like there was a floor directly beneath him.
Something strange was going on here. His bright blue eyes looked around the cosmos before hearing someone clear their throat behind him. He turned around quickly only for him to see a shorter man with a mustache wearing a gray suit and tie, a bowler hat, holding an umbrella in one hand, a big, glowing, white orb in his other hand.
Clark raised down his defensive fist before taking a second to truly look at the man. Here he was out in the vast cosmos, standing on a floor that wasn't there, with a man who looked like an old forties cartoon business holding a giant white orb. A smile came onto his face as he couldn't help but just laugh at the sheer absurdity of the situation.
As his cheerful laughter died down, Clark could see that a warm smile had spread across the shorter man's face as well. The man let go of his umbrella and orb before walking closer up to the Kryptonian. It was a few seconds before he reached out his hand and began to speak.
"It's an honor to meet you, my dear boy! I go by many names. The Presence, The One, The One Above All, but the one you may be most familiar with is this. God."
Clark froze at that revelation. This was God. The Almighty himself. Standing right in front of him was the creator of...well everything! He always told his folks everything that happened to him as Superman, but he had no idea if they would ever believe this. But even with the shock of this information in his mind, Clark raised up his hand and firmly shook in a strong handshake, a smile on his face.
"Clark Kent. Kal-El. Superman. Whichever you prefer to call me. It's an honor to meet you, sir!"
"As you, Superman! But with the pleasantries out of the way, I imagine that you have questions!"
"You're right about that. First, where am I? Am I dead? Is everyone on Earth ok?..Can I go back?"
"All important questions that get straight to the point! You are currently in the vast stretches of the Omniverse! Every single universe, timelines, multiverse, or world exists here! You are still currently dead, I'm afraid, but don't lost heart! You will be back! The story of Superman does not end at the hands of that mindless brute! Physically speaking, everyone is doing well on Earth...however they deeply miss you and are thankful for your sacrifice. As for can you go back? Yes, you may..."
Clark listened to every word that The Presence had to say with deep intent and felt several different emotions as he comprehended his words. Awe, relief, sadness, intrigue, and hope. Hope especially at the affirmation on whether he can go back to Earth, but The Presence did feel like he was waiting for something.
"I'm sense a but coming at the end of that."
"But...there is something I must ask of you first, Superman. There is a world that is in need of your help. It is a world of superheroes such as yours, but it's a bit different. The threat's are incredibly powerful and they might not survive it. Not to mention, their hero system is deeply flawed with ranking, anger, jealousy, hubris, etc. They need a change in their ways. A new hope. And what better hope is there than Superman?"
"You?"
"To some yes. To others, not so much. But will you help them?"
Superman stood there as he contemplated what was just asked of him. After all, he had literally just died not too long ago and he was sure that everyone was worried sick about him. His family, his friends, everyone! He was tempted to decline after all, he wanted to go back to his friends and hug them and promise them that it'll be alright. That voice wanted nothing more than to go home.
But...another voice was screaming at him a bit louder than that one. How could he not help? That was what being Superman was all about right? What you do? Being a friend? Pa and Ma had always told him that if you have a chance to help someone, you always jump at it.
He gave a little smile at the thought of his parents before he stood up more straight and placed his fists at his side. Standing in his signature pose as he placed a determined smile on his face.
"Of course I will."
"Excellent! But before you go, you'll be needing this."
Clark raised an eyebrow as he soon felt something in his hands and looked down to see an item from his world, his Fortress of Solitude to be more exact.
"The Phantom Zone Projector?"
"Yes, I figured you'd need this when going to this world. Their type of villains are less reoccurring and more monster of the week. Although, they still retain a conscious and a mind, they really have no issues with dealing with them permanently. Given your aversion to killing, I figured you'd need it."
Clark nodded as he soon kept the projector in one hand and held out his right hand once more to give a shake.
"I'll do my best to help this world."
The Presence smiled as he raised his hand and firmly grasped the man's in another tight and strong handshake.
"In the end, that's all you'll ever need."
A bright flashing light soon started to form until Clark soon opened his eyes to see a city in absolute ruin. His heart broke to see he couldn't have gotten here any sooner, before he started to pick something up with his hearing. A girl crying for mommy and daddy.
A towering purple monster slowly approached a sobbing young girl with a sinister smile on his face. He reached a clawed hand that only grew in size as it attempted to crush the girl in its grip, but was soon stopped as the girl was no longer there anymore. Confused it looked off to the side to see a man holding the girl, a bright red cape flying in the wind.
"You're a fast one. Who are you?"
Clark simply just turned around to face the creature with his arms crossed and a smile on his face.
"Just a friend here to help."
Awkward seconds passed as a pregnant pause of silence was brought between the two before the lilac monster let out an annoyed scoff.
"'Just a friend here to help?' What kind of goody too shoes bullshit backstory is that?! Mine is far superior! I was formed from the pollution man wrought upon the Earth! I AM VACCINE MAN!"
'Not the most clever name out there, but who am I to judge?'
"The Earth is a single living organism! You disgusting humans are nothing but a disease causing bacteria, eating away at her precious life force! I am here to eradicate all you humans to save the Earth! T-"
"Wait, wait, wait! Stop!"
Clark said in a stern voice as he held up his hand in order to get the man to stop monologuing. He hadn't heard a long, over the top, hammy villain speech since the early days of his career, but this was just getting more and more ridiculous.
"You say you're here to help the planet? This isn't the way to get it done! Don't get me wrong, we Earthlings haven't been taking the greatest care of our planet, but we have and are putting more effort to help before it's too late. But besides, your plan to eradicate every human probably will make things worse before you make things better. I mean, how much Earth did you destroy when you lay waste to this city? How much more will be destroyed when you choose to go all over the world? I mean, look at all the charred ground!"
Clark pointed out as he held up a hand to show all the damaged that was caused by Vaccine Man. The monster paused as there was a point to be made there, but this display only made him more and more angrier as he began to mutate and grow even larger in size. Clark simply staring at him unimpressed as he continuted to monologue.
"YOU DON'T KNOW ANY OF MY MISSION! IN ORDER TO WIPE OUT HUMANITY, THE EARTH AND HER INFINITE WISDOM GAVE BIRTH TO ME! AND YOU TRY TO STOP ME WITH THE EXCUSE OF 'YOU'RE A FRIEND HERE TO HELP?!' A FRIEND?! HOW DARE YOU CONFRONT MOTHER EARTH'S APOSTLE WITH SUCH A CHILDISH REASON?! YET WHAT COULD BE EXPECTED FROM A HUMA-URCK!"
Clark at this point simply had enough and took a deep breath in as the villain continued to talk and talk. He soon let out that powerful breath directly at the now colossal, furious Vaccine Man. As soon as the air made contact, he began to freeze all over as Clark continued to blow his freeze breath all over him until he was fully frozen solid.
The costumed man let out a sigh as he pulled out the Phantom Zone Projector and pointed it at the iscle of the once 'Apostle of Earth'.
"Your intentions were pure...ish. But genocide isn't the way to solve any problem. We'll work hard to save the Earth. After all, it's the only home we've got."
Clark soon pressed the button on the machine and a bright multicolored light soon started to light up before shooting a direct and powerful beam immediately at the frozen monster. The giant ray washed over the beast before it soon started to fade in and out of existence before disappearing completely. Leaving no trace that the creature had ever been there to begin with.
The man looked into the viewing space of the projector to see Vaccine Man floating in the endless reach of the Phantom Zone. Satisfied, he set the machine away and looked over to the young girl who was slowly waking up from unconsciousness.
Clark bent down to her level as she soon woke up only to be greeted by his friendly, smiling face. She sat up in a sudden manner and backed away slowly before speaking.
"W-Who are you?"
"...A friend. Here to help. What's your name, Miss?"
"M-Miko...C-Can you help me find my mommy and daddy?"
"Miko, it would be my honor to help you."
Clark said as he helped her up to her feet and soon held her in his strong arms. He smiled at her before speaking.
"You ever been flying before?"
"N-No? Why?"
"Let's just say you should hang on tight!"
Clark said with a wide smile as he slowly began to ascend from the ground much to the girl's shock and awe. Out of all the heroes she had ever seen, she had never seen anyone fly like this. Just levitate into the air without the use of wings, machines, or telekinesis. But here was this hero just doing it like it was nobody's business!
"Now, let's get to finding your folks, huh?"
He soon began to fly around as they began the search for her parents and there was a bit of smile on the young girl's face at the sheer whimsical nature of it all. Then a thought hit her. She knew practically every hero that was listed in the Hero Register and she had never seen him before in her entire life. She turned to him and asked a question.
"I've never seen you before. What's your name?"
Clark looked at her for a second before giving a hopeful smile as he soon heard a man and a woman calling out for their child Miko not too far from where they were.
"Well, Miko. Most people just call me...Superman."
(Hello everyone! I'm back with a new story! For those who are wondering where my Man of Iron story went. I just deleted it because after a certain while, I just realized that the whole OC angle just wasn't for me. I've never really been a big fan of it to begin with and I just didn't really see any real future with it continuing!
But I'm here with this now! I absolutely love Superman. I absolutely love One Punch Man. So I figured, why not have the two worlds collide? After all, the world of One Punch Man is very dark and a bit cynical so I feel like they need the Man of Tomorrow more than anyone else...Well save for The Boys Universe.
For this story, Saitama does not exist. Clark will be taking the position of OP hero that changes those around him in this story! I feel like this will be an interesting story to write because I won't have the fallback of Saitama was too lazy to show up on time or anything like that. Superman is always going to try and show up on time to save the day, so it'll be interesting to see what I come up with to have the plot continue!
I might do a romance for this story as well! In this version, Clark and Lois never got together so there's no conflicting emotions in this story here on that! There are really only two real options when it comes to shipping in OPM for the girls, so I'll let you guys choose which you'd rather see the Man Of Steel date. Tatsumaki or Fubuki? The choice is yours!
But that's all I have to say for now! Nothing really else to say here but I hope you guys enjoy this! I really enjoy your comments and favorites and follows! Tell me some things you'd like to see happen in this story! They just might happen! So send love, favorites, follows, comments, fanart if you're imposed, and keep being awesome! Till next time!)