Author's Note – I do not own any of the characters, Marvel and DC do.
This chapter overlaps with the previous one.

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Chapter Thirteen

Clash Of Ideologies

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"…Kill the mutants! Mutant scum! Kill the mutants! Mutant scum!"

Clark sighed as he flew over the chanting crowd. Several of the protesters were wearing outfits meant to look like the bio-Sentinels, a few of them had even applied white makeup. Clark quickly scanned them just to be certain that they were actual humans, then altered his course slightly to land on the balcony of the Daily Bugle. The man standing waiting for him scowled, but the scowl was aimed at the protesters below.

"Damned fools." He growled. "It's like Hitler all over again."

Clark glanced at the man's toothbrush mustache but refused to make the obvious comment. Instead, he decided to ask something that had been niggling at him for a while.

"I thought you weren't all that keen on mutants because of their link with Spider-man." He prompted, earning a glare.

"Yeah, well. That was before you went public and explained why masks are a thing." James Jonah Jameson half-growled. "I disliked Spider-man because he hid his face, but I thought it was so he could beat up people without needing to worry about the law. Then I met his aunt…"

"…at my wedding." Clark nodded. "May Parker is quite a formidable woman when she chooses to be."

JJJ nodded in unwilling agreement, then turned away from the chanting mob.

"The other people are here and we're going live in five." He grumbled. "Glad you could make it."

"We think we've countered most of the Sentinels." Clark said as he walked alongside the older man. "We've also worked out how the bio-Sentinels were created and we're working on preventing any new ones being made."

"Is it true that each one of those things is made by killing someone?" JJJ asked and Clark nodded.

"It is. A telepath was linked to one when he was transformed. She felt him die."

"Damn." JJJ snarled as he led the way into the studio where several people were clustered around one of the cameras. "What's going on here?!"

"Almost fixed!" One of the techs called. "Check it now!"

"Opening tab and… yep! Image is stable!" The teen behind the control panel called. "Parker couldn't have done this better!"

Clark smirked, making a mental note to pass the comment across to Peter later.

"Two minutes!"

Clark moved to one of the spare seats and, carefully adjusting his cape, sat down.

"Not very practical, is it?" One of the men on the other side of the stage sneered and Clark shrugged.

"It has its uses."

"Heh." The man snorted. "Can't think of any…"

"Blanket for use in first-aid, shelter against the rain for those trapped in bad weather, flag for attracting attention." Clark stated as he leaned back in his chair, causing the man's sneer to fall from his face. "That's three without even trying."

"And get ready!" The tech called as the final chair was filled. Clark glanced sideways at the man in military uniform, then turned his attention to JJJ who had taken his position in the middle of the stage, unlit cigar clenched between his teeth and shirt-sleeves rolled up.

"Three, two, one…"

"This is a Daily Bugle Live Discussion Special and I am James Jonah Jameson. Todays subject, the attacks on those with the X-gene. From my right are Reverend Simon Theophilus, representing the Church of Humanity, Senator Robert Kelly, Clark Kent, also known as Superman and Major Blackstone, also known as Sarge, of the First Metahuman Company. Gentlemen, welcome and thank you for coming."

Clark nodded with a slight smile as the others made noises of acknowledgement.

"So, who wants to go first?" JJJ asked, turning to face the quartet even as one of the dangling arm-mounted cameras moved round to get a better view of him without actually entering the visual ranges of the other cameras.

"I will." Senator Kelly stated. "As many of you know, my brother an I have come to disagree on certain issues, especially those in possession of the X-gene. While I do not condone the killing of those who have this particular genetic flaw, the actual physical threat that they pose to the innocents around them must be contained."

"You're talking about the so-called Mutant Registration Act, aren't you." Sarge growled, leaning forwards in his chair as his fists clenched. "You just can't drop it, can you?"

"The preservation of humanity is my over-riding concern." Kelly responded in a superior tone. "And America is the epitome of humanity. Our constitution says so, One nation under God."

"Yet America is less than three centuries old." Clark pointed out. "Krypton, my home-world, has a recorded history going back millenia."

"Since there are less than forty of you, it doesn't really count." Reverand Theophilus sneered, then he paused. "Okay, less than forty adults."

"Actually, at the last count, there are over twelve million adult Kryptonians." Clark countered, earning shocked looks.

"Mutie scum fleeing from Earth don't count!"

"I actually wasn't including them in the count." Clark countered. "Of course, they only raise the number by another couple of million."

Kelly stared at Clark, his eyes wide. "Twe… how?"

"Brainiac." Clark smirked. "In a manner similar to the ones behind the recent attacks, it perverted General Zod's plan to save the cities of Krypton from the planet's imminent destruction to shrink Kandor and place it in stasis, blaming its apparent destruction on Zod and his followers. When we took down Brainiac, when The Fourteen sacrificed themselves to ensure our victory, we found the city, undamaged, With the aid of Victor von Doom, Tony Stark and Reed Richards, we were able to return Kandor to its proper size and free its inhabitants."

"Richards and Doom working together?" Sarge chuckled. "I never thought that the day would come."

"Wait." Theophilus interrupted. "What did you mean by in a manner similar to the ones behind the recent attacks? You know how the Sentinels are made?"

"By murder." Clark stated in a flat voice. "Someone managed to insert programming into several of the med-pods, programming that led to the creation of tiny devices within the victims, devices that once activated, would kill them and turn their corpse into a biological cyborg programmed to kill anything with the X-gene."

"Huh, perhaps I should have let my son be treated." Steve muttered. "Little nancy boy might actually have amounted to being something useful."

Clark glared at him, but none of the others seemed to have heard his comment.

"We… and by which I mean the collected super-hero teams, the associated agencies and the law-enforcement organisations of the world, are still tracking down all those who might have been affected by the sabotage. In addition, all of the med-pods have been transferred to New Krypton for analysis and new med-pods, with upgraded security protocols to avoid anything like this happening again, are being shipped infrom New Krypton as fast as they can be constructed. We hope to have replaced all of the old pods by the end of the year, although medical cases that require the med-pods will have to be dealt with on a triage basis until then.

"As for whoever is behind this, they will be found and charged with hundreds of counts of murder."

"Killing mutie scum ain't murder!" Simon growled. "It's pest control!"

Senator Kelly slowly slid his chair further away from the Reverend.

"It isn't just the mutants, it's all the people who were harmed or killed by the bio-Sentinels as well."

"Then they shouldn't have been trying to protect the mutie scum!" Simon shot back, ignoring the looks of disgust that most of the people in the room were sending his way. "Humanity should be kept pure!"

"I believe a certain Austrian had similar ideas." Sarge interjected. "Perhaps you've heard of him. Adolf Hitler?"

"Wasn't he the king of Italy?"

JJJ face-palmed, as did Kelly and Sarge while Clark just shook his head.

"How can you be so ignorant of world history?" He sighed. "Hitler was a failed artist who entered politics and rose to power by blaming the Jews for everything that had gone wrong."

"And they're still fucking things up for us even though they've run away to another planet like the stinking cowards that they are!" Simon shouted, causing Kelly to slide his chair even further away. "Jews are almost as bad as muties!"

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"Wow, this guy is doing his cause so much damage." May Parker mused before she took a sip of her tea.

"I agree." Martha Kent said as she picked up a cookie to nibble on. "And he doesn't even realize he's doing it."

Both women exchanged smirks, then turned their attention back to the broadcast.

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"…and they've brought the world to the brink of destrAAAAAARGH!"

Simon Theophilus had risen to his feet during his impassioned diatribe and Clark started forwards to catch him as he convulsed. Even before Clark reached him, his skin had paled and armour plating was oozing out of his skin, shredding his clothes.

"Get everyone out of here!" Clark ordered, his eyes widening in horror was he watched the nanites perform their programmed tasks. "He's being converted into a bio-Sentinel!"

Screams from other floors and outside rose and Clark spun round.

"Something's happening!" He shouted. "Something's triggered everyone who is infected with the nanites!"

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Officer Karima Shapandar had no idea that she was a mutant. A young police officer who had immigrated from India to be closer to the superheroes she idolised, she possessed a variant of the X-gene that had indeed activated during puberty, but she hadn't noticed the effects. The X-gene had granted her perfect memory, but her recall had been extremely good beforehand, thus she simply didn't notice. It also made her immune to telepathy and most forms of mind control, but due to her position as a street-level rookie, she was never in a situation where she would have discovered her power.

She had also been in a med-pod after taking a dozen bullets while saving a pair of young children.

One of the sabotaged pods.

Assigned to help ride herd on the protest that had formed outside the Daily Bugle, Karima had just enough time to see almost half the protesters suddenly staggering and falling before a massive blast of pain lanced through her mind, knocking her out.

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"Control! What's going on?" Clark snapped as he punched through the head of another of the bio-Sentinels that had once been an innocent person. Although he felt guilty about ending a life, the knowledge that he was destroying technological zombies was enough to let him continue to function.

"We're getting reports in from across the planet, thousands of people are being turned into-"/"Clark, it's Fury. We've managed to locate the source of the bio-Sentinels. General Zod is personally leading the Companions of Rao and a team of his own people to take it down, but orbital imagery indicates there's already a super-team on site, engaging in combat. We don't know who. I've taken the liberty of deploying the Protectors to the places they can do the most good."

"Thanks, Nick!" Clark responded as he used his heat-vision to disintegrate a bio-Sentinel that had been reaching out to snap a young boy's neck. Two blurs, one blue-and-red, the other black-and-red, somersaulted down and began firing streams of webbing at the remaining bio-Sentinels, slowing them enough that the wave of heroes following them were able to start taking them down with relative ease.

"New York Guardians are on the scene." Clark reported. "Spider-man and Spider-boy are pinning down the bio-Sentinels for the others to take care of."

"Zod and his team are on their way to the target area." Fury replied from the bridge of the Helicarrier. "I am sending you the co-ordinates should you wish to join them."

Clark looked round, absently backhanding one of the bio-Sentinels through a nearby wall.

"Got it. I'm on my way."

"I'll inform Zod you're incoming."

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"Owwwww. That hurt." Karima groaned as she opened her eyes to find herself lying in a pile of rubble. Pulling herself to her feet, she glanced up and spotted a bio-Sentinel about to kill a teenage girl.

"Oh no you don't!" She shouted, lunging forwards and punching the Sentinel in the back of its head. The skull caved in under her blow and she paused, staring at her pale hand and the blue armor covering her arm.

"Oh shit!" She panicked. "What the hell happened to me?"

Karima looked up at the tall green-skinned woman who had paused mid-punch. "What happened to me?"

"Everyone… this is She-hulk. We seem to have a Sentinel… who's still… human?"

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Author's afternote. Yep, Karima exists in Marvel Canon.