Hello everybody and welcome to a little project of mine. Rather rough but I had the idea of Superman in Worm and when I started writing it evolved from there until I had inserted John here with Superman's powers. Not sure if I will just leave it as a one-shot or continue it yet, but I wanted to share with the Fanfiction community anyways. I've been reading on this site for ten years, about time I added something to it no matter how small yeah?
Awareness came back to John in a flash and he screamed in agony at the enormous sensory overload, it was as if the entire planet was speaking to him at the same time. With a breathless groan he flipped onto his side and curled up into the fetal position with his hands over his ears.
He shuddered in relief as the noise began to lower with a conscious effort from him to filter it out, much like how he'd learned early on in his military career to ignore the sound of a firefight to get even a few minutes of rest.
Even with this tried and true technique he spasmed in pain for what felt like hours before it reached a bearable level of what he dimly recognized as being only his general vicinity. How fucked up was his situation that he could hear the homeless man pissing what he instinctually knew was several blocks away?
In a slow creeping way his vision began to fill back in from the black it was previously, he hadn't even realized his eyes were open. John shifted his bleary blue eyes around the area he had inadvertently found himself in.
Even with his temporary handicap he could make out the form of a large crane stretching into an expanse of yawning dark water in front of him, warehouses flanking the suffering man on either side.
"Why the fuck am I at a dockyard in the middle of the night." John moaned pitifully and set his head back down with a disturbingly loud thunk. "I live almost a thousand miles from the coast."
The misplaced man had been drunk a fair number of times in his life, but never to such an extent as this. He had a megawatt migraine and of all the godforsaken things his teeth felt alien to him as he ran his tongue over his mouth.
It struck him like a lightning bolt why his teeth felt so strange, there were more of them. John's breath caught in his throat with a strangled noise as he counted them out with his tongue. He had to struggle not to panic as he counted out thirty two perfectly straight and present teeth.
John only had twenty seven after his wisdom teeth were removed and a truly unfortunate fistfight stole one of his molars. Which meant, what. That someone had knocked him out, shipped his happy ass a thousand miles and given him dental implants?
"This is just fucked beyond belief man." He murmured and sat up with a grunt. "Who the hell kidnaps a man for unsolicited dental surgery?"
His baby blue eyes trailed downwards to his legs and eventually his torso in disbelief at what he was seeing. "Addendum, why would these kidnappers then dress me up in the most expensive Superman costume I have ever seen?"
A muscle in his jaw twitched as John grit his newly perfect teeth in a baffled fury that led him to his feet, mercifully without tripping over his beautifully crafted red cape. The thing was gigantic, how did the actor's even move around with it?
A quick pat down informed the exceptionally confused and increasingly upset man that no, there were no zippers and that he was also naked under this very comfortable blue suit. Breath was exhaled in a deep sigh as he physically forced himself to release his clenched muscles.
He could at least content himself with the fact that his penis was still there and that he hadn't been murdered while unconsious. Temper sufficiently calmed John took stock of his situation and further determined that he was now poor, this costume didn't have any pockets.
"Well double fuck." He ran a hand through his hair with a deep frown. "And I still have no idea what's up with my hearing or this migraine."
With a complete lack of options John began the worst tourist journey of his life and began walking down the docks in the middle of the night. It was fortunate at least that he wasn't completely naked.
The hearing issue was something he began diagnosing immediately now that he'd shelved the subjects of how and why. His perpetual frown since he'd awoken faded into a look of concentration as he walked and adjusted his hearing in a way he didn't know was possible just yesterday.
He glanced down an alley as he passed and homed in on where the sound of snoring was coming from and spotted a group of homeless sleeping around a dumpster, this would have been completely normal if sad, provided John hadn't begun hearing it half an hour ago when he woke up.
His eyes trailed back the way he'd walked with a scowl, so he had super hearing now. Because if his eyes weren't deceiving him then he'd heard this group of homeless nearly a mile down the docks.
Frustration boiled up as John continued his walk of shame. The pounding headache just got progressively worse as each sneeze fart and moan within a ten mile radius stabbed at his brain. It was ridiculous, did these mongrel's not sleep?
A shrill scream interrupted his venomous and uncharitable thoughts before it cut out abruptly with the sound of skin slapping onto skin forcing it to become muffled to all but him, John froze and snapped his head in the direction of the commotion. Three streets down from him there were three men surrounding and forcefully holding down a woman in an alleyway.
His perception of time slowed as he watched one of the disgustingly unwashed men pull a knife from his belt at a snail's pace, John designated him as Stabby. Another, this one a truly obese man that was the size of Stabby twice over was coined Fatty. He was holding the woman down. The third and final denizen of the night was a twitchy man that looked nearly anorexic and was currently muffling her screams with one hand and copping a feel with another searching under her shirt. This one was deemed Rapey.
Save her.
John burst into motion and crossed the distance in what felt like an eternity but was in reality faster than the fastest Olympic sprinter. He smashed into Stabby like a freight train and the momentum carried the disheveled man into the brick wall with the cracking of breaking bones.
Time resumed its normal pace as Rapey and Fatty jumped back in stunned fright as the man in blue simply appeared in their eyes. Their victim collapsed to the ground like a marionette without strings when they released her.
"Holy fuck its a goddamn cape!" Rapey squealed and fumbled around his pocket for what John instantly recognized was a gun.
He burst into action again with his cape fluttering wildly as the thug made to raise the pistol with shaking arms. In one swift motion John folded his arm over the outstretched limb at the wrist and shoved it under his armpit, with his other hand he palmed his elbow and forced it upwards violently with a fleshy crack as his bone pierced the skin in a dirty break.
The dirty man shrieked in something other than terror this time as the sheer agony registered in his drugged out mind, this was swiftly remedied with a crushing palm strike that threw him back nearly twenty feet. A brutal crack resounded as the rapist's head impacted a dumpster silencing his screams.
That left only Fatty who shook like a leaf as John turned to him with a furious scowl. The fat man fell on his rear as he started backing away from the blue and red clad figure, in the darkness of the alley the shadows made him appear like a nightmare despite the warm colors.
John advanced on the blubbering man and grabbed him roughly by the collar and held him in the air with a snarl. Fatty may have been tall but even still he dangled above the ground in his opponent's steel grip.
"Please mister, let me go please!" Fatty blubbered in terror as he started sobbing like a man half his age. "I din't mean no harm, I was't going to do nothing!"
His captive's face grew even more terrified as red took over John's vision and the rage built higher. The desire to snap his neck or otherwise destroy Fatty grew larger at the blatant lies he tried to pedal.
"Mr. Hero it's alright now. I'm safe." The woman put a shaking hand on his shoulder and visibly shuddered when he snapped his seething gaze over to her brown eyes. "You already killed his friends, does killing him too change anything?"
John's eyes darted back to the other two men, Stabby was still impacting into the brick wall and he couldn't see or hear any breathing from him. His gaze drifted over to Rapey who lay in a slowly growing puddle of blood motionless.
With a sharp inhale he moved his vision back to Fatty as the red of rage faded from his eyes. He exhaled roughly and dropped the fat man back onto his rear suddenly and crouched down until they were nearly nose to nose.
"If you make me regret this I will find you." John glared the statement into the other man's very being. "I know your face."
The criminal nodded violently with tears falling from his terrified eyes. The blue clad man grunted and pointed down the street forcefully. Fatty, cowardly he may be, at least understood gestures and took off running without a single glance back.
John stood there for a few moments watching the fat man run until he turned a corner out of sight. He rubbed his face tiredly with a hand before turning to the only other living being in the alleyway.
Now that he had time to observe the victim he realized she was pretty in the girl next door sort of way, doe like brown eyes and shoulder length dirty blonde hair that framed a heart shaped face.
This did nothing to detract from the equal parts nervous and grateful look she was giving him. The pair took each other in for another long moment before the caped man broke the silence. "Are you alright ma'am?"
The pause hung in the air for a brief period before she gave him a stress filled smile. "I am now, thanks to you. If you'd been even a few minutes later though."
John shook his head. "You can't think like that. Move forward and take comfort that nothing worse happened."
"I don't believe this will be so easy to forget." She sent a quietly horrified look to the man in a puddle of blood. "That was a brutal takedown, it happened so fast that I thought you were Velocity for a moment with the red."
He followed her gaze and watched the slowly expanding puddle of red with an unrecognizable look on his face. "I'm sorry you had to see that."
The dirty blonde woman reached and and gently grabbed his hand with both of hers. She brought it up and held it in front of them, John was quietly startled at how small they were in comparison to his.
"Please understand that I am beyond grateful, I owe you my life at the very least." She stared into his eyes earnestly. "But you need to leave right now, the merchant will be back with more friends soon. Maybe even a cape."
John scowled at this. "Then they will die. I don't abide by fucking murderers or rapists."
"And when the PRT shows up and discovers that you have a bodycount in the dozens or hundreds?" Brown eyes implored him. "Will I have to watch on the news as my savior is sentenced to the Bird Cage for defending himself?"
"The Bir-?" He cut himself off. John could guess it was a prison with ease. "Alright, fine. Will you be safe going home or do you need an escort?"
She let go of his hands with a breath of relief and smiled at him again. "I'll be fine but I need you to do two things for me okay?"
John squinted at her skeptically but nodded his approval. "What do you need?"
The blonde woman put her hands on her hips and leaned in as if telling a secret. "First I need you to call me Ashley, none of this Ma'am shit. I'm only thirty for god's sake."
Now it was his turn to smile at her. "I can do that. And second?"
"Secondly I need you to tell me your Cape name, I can't exactly avoid calling the cops on this." Ashley gestured to the corpses. "I'm going to do my best to vouch for you but these men are dead."
John hummed in thought as he crossed his arms over his muscular chest. She was right of course, he'd known more than a few cops in his time and they would have eventually figured out he was responsible for this. All they'd need to do is run his fingerprints and match it to his military records.
But did he really want to take on a superhero name? Sure he had the strength and the speed. Something had been done to make him powerful enough to kill men in a single blow, a glance to his victims was all it took to confirm that.
He glanced down to his chest in thought and was reminded of who's costume he was wearing, John couldn't help but chuckle. The man may be famous for not killing but that didn't detract from his admiration of him as a child. When one took it all into account there was only one real option.
"You can call me Superman, Ashley." The man in blue smiled at the much smaller woman.
She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow at the symbol on his chest. "Is that what the big S is for then?"
"No it's not an S." John corrected her. "It's a symbol, it means hope for a better tomorrow."
Ashley blinked in confusion but accepted the response and rolled it around in her head for a minute. "Hope huh, well Brockton Bay can definitely use some of that these days Superman, thank you again for saving me."
"Anytime." They exchanged a smile and parted ways into the night.
Only two people would know that tonight was the beginning of a legend, the story of the Symbol of Peace and Justice had begun in the most unlikely of ways. Ashley Graham and Don Truax otherwise known as Fatty would share the story of the man that would one day change the world, few would believe it.