*Ring*
*Ring*
Clark's eyes opened at the sound of his phone ringing by the side of his bed, immediately making a grab for it.
"Clark here."
He spoke softly but winced at the excited chatter of 22 years old Jimmy Olsen.
"Clark buddy! Good to know you're still alive! Was worried for a minute there!"
The redhead joked but Clark heard the relief in his tone and he grinned.
"Right back at you Jimmy. Will you be heading to the office today?"
Jimmy sighed ruefully over the phone.
"Sadly yes. It's not even up to a day and Jameson's calling us into work. What if one of us had died?! I mean… can he really be that heartless?? And also—"
Clark tuned him out for a moment as he rolled off his bed, walking towards the ceiling to floor wide windows in his room and pushing the curtains away, enjoying the early morning's dark skies.
"—and then apparently I have to turn in some pictures of the 'Avengers' as well."
Clark frowned.
"Wait, Avengers? What's that?"
"Oh it's what they're calling the superheroes now. I can't believe I'm saying this, but can you believe it?? Superheroes!! I might die!!"
He bellowed out excitedly.
"Avengers… cool name."
Clark muttered to himself, heading towards his bathroom.
He couldn't say he was bothered by the name. Also, it wasn't like he was even part of the team anyways… but still, Tony had recognized him.
He sighed as he grabbed his toothbrush, rinsing it.
It was only a matter of time…
"I really need to know if that Captain America was the original one from back in the day too."
Jimmy mumbled and Clark cut in.
"He is."
"Really? How'd you know?"
Clark paused for a second as he brought his toothbrush towards his mouth.
"Um, someone I know encountered them. I already wrote a story on the battle. Eye witness accounts and all that."
He nodded to himself and began brushing while Jimmy whistled.
"Always the hard worker. At least that should have Jameson off your back and mine too. Anyways, talk to you later okay?"
Clark hummed and cut the call as he brushed, his eyes idly watching his reflection for a second before he closed his eyes, a small groan escaping his foamy mouth.
After years of hiding… hiding in plain sight… he revealed himself to the very people he had been trying to avoid all this while.
The government.
But, it wasn't like he could have ignored the invasion.
All those Innocents…
And even now, some were without homes…
As a child, it had been put in his head that if he ever got caught, the possibility of ending up some sort of lab rat was high, and because of that, he'd steered clear of anything that would set him apart and make him look different.
Even being related to the Stark name had been dangerous…
As Clark rinsed his mouth, he blurred into his kitchen, idly turning on his TV to a News Station while breaking and whisking some eggs for himself.
Clark Kent.
26 years old.
Adoptive younger brother to one of the most brilliant minds on earth.
Well… it wasn't like they were close, so to say…
Growing up around the time Tony himself had rarely been home, not to forget their age differences… and then the death of his adoptive parents when he was still a child.
Tony had never exactly acknowledged him as a brother, and Clark himself had sensed some sort of resentment from the older man even as a child which made him keep away from him even more.
Much of what Clark knew was that Tony could have taken him in after their parents died, but Tony had turned away from such a responsibility, leaving him with the aged Jarvis.
Thankfully, his parents had created a sort of, misleading storyline for him, being a child of one of the more rowdy cousins of Maria Stark who had a child out of wedlock with the name Kent.
The precautions they had taken mainly to stop the big guys from digging too further into his family name.
Big guys like the government, Shield or even the Pentagon.
And so, he had the choice of taking the Stark name or the Kent name.
Obviously he took the latter, seeing as the former would only cause him trouble.
Being the brother of Tony Stark, Playboy, billionaire, philanthropist, blah, blah, blah… that was just asking for a kidnapping or something worse to happen, and if he was being honest, he preferred his life just the way it was.
Not having to always look behind himself whenever he was on a busy street, not that he needed it what with his abilities.
Then again, now he sort of had to look behind himself.
He sighed as he walked out his apartment and headed for the elevator, his black rectangular glasses on and black messenger bag over a hand.
Most of the streets were in a disarray.
That was the first thing Clark noticed as he walked towards the Daily Bugle after getting off the subway.
Some buildings were still intact surprising enough, but most had some damage that would need to be fixed and some had completely collapsed in on itself.
A bunch of alien tech were scattered around Manhattan and Clark spotted government officials going through them as well as some volunteers cleaning up the street.
A sad look appeared on his face as he walked into the Bugle.
Many people had lost their homes, their way of living.
Some had lost loved ones too.
Who would have thought… an alien invasion on earth??
What had Earth done to receive such attention?
Besides Thor of course?
As he quickly rushed into the elevator, he knew without a doubt that Tony would seek him out before the week was over.
Why wouldn't he?
Seeing your adoptive brother flying around in a cape and doing rather extraordinary things could be alarming to others.
But Tony knew there was something different about Clark.
Had always known… but not the full extent that is.
Well…
Clark sighed.
It wouldn't stop the billionaire from wanting to know more now anyways.
The elevator door opened to the floor of his office and he walked through a glass door and into the large open office where about half the staff had surprisingly shown up to work.
Hopefully no one had died.
"Clark! You made it!"
Jimmy crowed put with relief in his eyes as he walked over to the older man and hugged him much to Clark's amusement.
"Oh you will not believe the amount of bellowing Jameson has let out in the last 20 minutes! He keeps threatening to fire us all! I have to pay my rent man!"
Jimmy whined and Clark rolled his head as he shrugged Jimmy off of him, a small smile on his face as he moved to settle in his own cubicle.
A few feet away, he noticed that some of the ceiling to floor length glass windows were still broken and quite a lot in fact.
Some cubicles had been destroyed, even his had some broken parts here and there.
"Don't worry Jimmy. I have quite the story for Mr. Jameson… all I just need are your nicer pictures along with them."
Jimmy's eyes brightened as Clark brought his laptop out of his messenger bag.
"Oh! You're a lifesaver! And boy do I have some great pictures! I got the hammer dude who people say might actually be Thor from the Nordic mythology, I got Iron man, I got that Hulk being from the Harlem disaster… thankfully from far away."
He shook his head and continued.
"I found a picture of the Archer guy on Twitter… and get this… a picture of Captain America with some redhead lady too! Can you believe it?? Captain America?? Is he even the original one? Can he even be the original one??"
He grabbed at his ginger hair in a slightly manic look on his face before he blinked.
"Oh and I got the flying dude too."
Clark raised an eyebrow.
"Flying dude?"
Jimmy shrugged.
"Well, yeah. No one knows his name. In fact, we don't know the names of most of these people… only that they're called The Avengers… Tony Stark tweeted. It's still trending."
Clark shook his head as he began moving towards Roberson's office, Jimmy jogging next to him with an envelope.
"People have also been trying to guess their names too. The Archer man's current lead name is Robin Hood."
Clark snorted with a grin.
"How original."
"Right?! And the Captain America lookalike for now is Captain Justice."
"What?"
"Then for the thunder guy, it's between Thor and Thunderman."
"Geez."
"And for the flying guy, people spotted an 'S' sign on his outfit and said he should be Superman then."
Clark paused, turning to Jimmy.
"Superman?"
Jimmy shrugged.
"I dunno, I kind of like it."
Clark wasn't so sure of the name though.
"…Sure…"
Thankfully he didn't have too harsh a day of work.
Jameson had be wrought with anger when everyone had left the building the previous day but thankfully Clark had made sure to stay out of his way, submitting his research to Roberson instead.
The office had been half empty which put quite some credence to the fact that some must have lost their houses or even a family member, and that was disturbing to Clark.
Even as he took a walk around some parts of Manhattan, seeing the destructions once more.
He felt the urge to help out here and there, lend some helping hand.
There was quite a lot of missing people reports, and although he was still wary of using his alter ego out and about, he could still use it undercover with his Clark Kent alter ego instead.
As he walked towards his building though, he couldn't help but feel disturbed at the feeling of someone watching him.
He'd known ever since he walked out of his workplace that evening.
A man in black suit and dark sunglasses over his eyes.
Easy to spot with his x-ray vision.
He stopped at the local deli place on his street and bought some food, the loyal customer that he was before heading into his building.
No use causing any drama at the moment.
They might be following him for his Clark Kent persona and not his other one.
Reaching his destination, he walked towards his door, unlocking and opening it, a sigh of relief stopping halfway when he heard the sound of an heartbeat in his home.
No one had his spare key.
And he rarely ever invited anyone to his home.
And so he locked the door behind him, slowly walking into his kitchen and stopping when he saw who it was.
Dressed in a grey striped suit, a hand in one pocket and the other holding a glass of bourbon.
"I'm not that much of a fan of bourbon. I'm more a whiskey man but, to each their own."
Tony Stark turned to Clark, taking another sip of the bourbon even as Clark stared blank faced at his brother.
"Tony."
A side smirk appeared on the billionaire's face as he walked slowly over to his brother who dwarves him in height. 5'9 to 6'4.
The billionaire gave a cocky smirk.
"Hello brother… nice drape, by the way."
So!
I updated, even if it's a slightly short chapter!
I really didn't expect to do so if I'm being honest, it just came about. And I also got messages from people telling me to do so.
It's actually a story I really want to write but seeing as I have other books too, it's a bit difficult to do so.
But if people are interested, then there's nothing wrong with updating, lol.
This chapter isn't filled with as much drama as the first one but that's because the invasion is over, obviously. And who first to demand answers from Clark than his brother Tony.
Yes. Tony will be that snarky, sassy and annoying brother we all know and love so I definitely won't be changing his character from how it usually is. It's one of the reasons we all loved him after all. RIP GOAT.
But the next chapter will have quite a lot of Tony in it, starting with where we left off in the first chapter. Get a little inside to Tony and why the brothers don't seem as close as they should.
People have been asking why his name is Clark Kent and why he's a reporter.
My first thought had been to make him a scientist but I decided against it. A little too boring for him. What if someone on the other side of the world needs his help and he has to watch an experiment that could blow up at any second? Lol.
But it would also put him on the radar of the government.
Clark is a brilliant man, I won't downgrade his abilities in my story, it's just that he didn't focus on THAT side of things.
He's an inquisitive person and he will stay that way.
As for why he has the name Kent, well I already explained it. I will explain more on the whole Stark family and the original Jarvis later on too. As well as where Clark has been all this while, pertaining to Tony also being kidnapped and stuff.
And yes. He does have his fortress of solitude, I will give you that.
Thanks for reading! And hope to hear feedbacks on if you like where this is going and if I should continue or not, especially for those people curious about why I kept him as a journalist.
