Firebrand, Superman, Lois Lane, and the Avengers in... Unfortunately Lex Luthor Is An Asshole

[stands_for_hope]

That morning, there wasn't a paper that didn't have a variation of one headline:

Captain America Comes Out in Support of Superman

The quotes were all different, though: 'He's here to help, same as me.' 'I've never met a kinder, more civic-minded man.' 'I've fought beside him and I'd do it again; there's very few people I'd trust to have my back like Superman.'

The Planet was the only one who had a full interview to go along with the statement that had been distributed to the various publications, an exclusive as written by Lois Lane who was starting to get known as the woman to go to if you needed to talk to a harder-to-find superhero. Lois didn't mind that one bit, honestly, though Cat Graham had started to ask her if she knew any of their numbers to get herself a date.

Later, on another day, Clark might wonder if that had been as much of a catalyst as anything. Because that was the day that Lex Luthor decided to make his play.

The massive spider mecha seemed to appear out of nowhere, towering over parts of the downtown area that had only just begun to be rebuilt. The streets were suddenly filled with rolling war machines, filled to the brim with alien soldiers speaking a language that was unfamiliar and strange to anyone who might hear it. Strange flying ships made their way from the outskirts of the city inward, terrifying the people as they scattered them from the streets. And all of them, each and every one of them, wore red, blue, and gold... and sported the s-like curve as an emblem.

The invasion had begun.

Comments

[stands_for_hope]

Lois, looking very much the worse for wear, blood dripping down her forehead and from the corner of her lips, shook herself off and pointed down.

"I'm fine! But the soldiers, the real ones! They've all got a sliver of kryptonite and they're rigged to explode!"

Which was when a red and blue blur started going through the city, picking up every one of the soldiers he could find to toss them into the air.

[kolodnoykovki]

"Shove 'em into the APCs!" Clint yelled into the comms. "Contain the ones we can't get to!"

"On it." And that was what Jim started to do, flinging all of them toward the APCs they'd come out of and only needing one arm to do it. While he did, he yelled to any nearby civilians -- "Get out of the area! They're rigged to explode!"

[stands_for_hope]

Once they were spread, Clark zipped between each one, pulling out the burning green kryptonite from their chestpieces, tossing it as far as he could before collecting them and heading for the ground. He landed about a block away from Jim, the soldiers tumbling away from him with less grace than he would have liked, but alive.

[kolodnoykovki]

"Lois is safe, I'm going to see how many more of these I can get," Iron Man said over the comms, Lois placed near Clint.

"At least get people away from them," Clint agreed. "You, too, Thor, Sam - You're our fliers, make it quick!"

Jim kept an eye on Clark - even jogged over as he asked, "How long do we have?"

[stands_for_hope]

Thor followed Clark's example while Falcon just worked on civilians, unwilling to take an explosion to the face since he was quite human other than the wings on his back.

But even as Jim asked, the shards that Clark had thrown up exploded. Clark, looking very much as if he'd had an awful, terrible, no good, and very bad day, climbed to his feet and tried to shake himself off.

"I've got to-- Luthor--"

He gave Jim a wobbly smile for just a second before shooting back off into the sky.

[kolodnoykovki]

"Chyort voz'mi," he muttered, even as he lifted his arm to protect him from what of the blast he couldn't really avoid. But the soldiers, it seemed, were mostly taken care of - except for those whose bombs hadn't exploded.

But it made him wonder if they'd even known. "I'm going to Lexcorp," he said over the comms. If Clark was there, who knew what Luthor would do to him.

[stands_for_hope]

The battle was pretty much over, so while there was some damage, it was easy enough to get through the streets and get to the building. Almost everyone was gone, which meant that there was no one there to block Jim's entrance.

When he got to the top, to Luthor's lab, it was to find Clark huddled on the ground near the entrance, as far from the glowing green apparatus that Luthor had used... and Luthor was out cold on the floor, blood drooling from his mouth but still clearly alive. Clark looked a little worse for wear as well, a couple of cuts on his cheek and jaw, but he was breathing. Alive. And despite a couple of tears, he looked strangely satisfied.

"He's... out. And I can hear the police on the way."

[kolodnoykovki]

He was armed to the teeth and I could have easily walked across and shot him. Put a bullet so simply into his brain and left him there. But he was vindictive enough to want Luthor to see him there and ready to kill him. What he did instead was go to him, pull a set of zip ties from one of his pockets, and bind Luthor hand and foot. Then he walked to where Clark was huddled and reached out to him. "Let's go," he spoke softly. "If the police are coming, we should let them do their jobs."

[stands_for_hope]

Clark nodded, obviously relieved, and he stood up, less shaky now than he'd been despite the presence of kryptonite in the room. He pointed across to it.

"We might want to grab that. There's a container..." he pointed beside it where the container actually sat.

Then he put his hand on Jim's shoulder.

"Lois?"

[kolodnoykovki]

"Iron Man caught her. Put her with Clint. He'll take care of her from there." But he went over to do what Clark motioned done - kryptonite into a container and secured. As soon as the container was closed, he looked over to see if Clark looked better. "Is this all?"

[stands_for_hope]

The look of relief on his face when he heard she was with Clint was almost painful. He'd heard her be thrown, had heard her be caught, but then there'd been the explosions...

He spread his hands.

"That I know of. That he had anyway."

He offered an arm in a familiar gesture.

"I am so ready go to home."

[kolodnoykovki]

"We have friends in town," Jim said, but he headed over anyway, looking Clark over as he neared. "We might want to get some beds ready."

[stands_for_hope]

"I noticed the friends. Thank God for the friends."

And the thanks were very much in earnest.

"We've got blankets and things at the apartment, and I've still got a bedroll or two. So does Lois. And I'd really like to see Lois."

It was one of the very few, rare times where Clark actually sounded just a little grumpy. His head rested against Jim's shoulder.

[kolodnoykovki]

"She might be in the hospital getting checked up," Jim warned. "But we'll find out when we get out of here."

He did cast one last withering glance at Luthor's unconscious form. He'd promised to kill him. The time would soon come.

[stands_for_hope]

His eyes went wide.

"The hospital? How badly was she hurt?"

He shook off his worry then and pulled Jim closer to fly as quickly as he could towards the apartment. He'd see if she was there and then, if not, drop off Jim to go find her.

[kolodnoykovki]

"Not sure, but she was thrown out a window, can't be good--" But then he went silent as he was carried back, listening to the rifle clank against his arm.

[stands_for_hope]

When they got there, it was to a full assortment of Avengers in their living room and Lois being dabbed at in between hisses by Clint.

Thor was staring around the domicile thoughtfully, taking in the features and Sam was kind of glancing around with a half-smile on his face. Steve was up and about even as they came in the window, distributing glasses of water and generally looking after the troops. He turned when there was movement at the window, though, and looked significantly relieved to see both Clark and Jim in one piece.

That was nothing on Lois, who barreled past Clint straight at Clark, hugging his side tightly before slinging out an arm to catch Jim as well.

"Fuck!" was never said with so much relief and affection.

[kolodnoykovki]

Jim pulled off his mask and hugged Lois in one movement, careful of her, though - for her sake.

Clint chuckled softly. "Yep, that makes... most of us."

"All of us," Tony protested, coming out of the bathroom, out of his suit. "Sorry 'bout that, had to borrow your shower, I'll pay the water bill -- I'm going to need to keep it running for a little while. The suit's in there."

[stands_for_hope]

Clark took a moment to look down at Lois, peer at her bones and organs, make sure everything was all right, before he leaned down and kissed her forehead in relief. Then he was looking up at the assembled superheroes in his living room and he couldn't help a small blush.

"Don't worry about the water," he said firmly, "I-- I can't thank you, any of you, enough. If it wasn't for you, I'm not sure how many people might have lost their lives today."

Thor laughed and gave Clark a bright smile. "We all fought well today, Superman. And it was a mighty battle indeed, though confusing. I did not know your world had the same magics as my brother."

"A little different, I think," Steve pointed out. Then he walked over with a glass of water for Clark, the same for Jim, and a small smile for both of them.

"You and Lois did most of the heavy lifting. We just kept them busy," and Steve tipped his head down to Lois, "She's the one who pulled out the power supply."

Lois gave them both a weak smile.

"He was looking for superheroes. He never saw me coming."

[kolodnoykovki]

"I still owe him," Jim muttered, taking the glass with a nod of thanks in Steve's direction. "I warned him. Apparently he doesn't listen very well."

With one hand, he loosened the jacket of his tac suit. He really was coming to hate the thing. But mid-movement, he found himself staring at Tony Stark, who had come very close to him and was peering at his left arm. "This," the man said, "is very interesting. And we're going to talk about it later -- right now, we're going to talk about a possible Stark Industries acquisition of Lexcorp. ...Maybe I'll give it to Pepper. She didn't want Stark. Giving her a little startup of her own wouldn't be bad, would it?"

[stands_for_hope]

"As long as you avoid energy research based on that thing, I think it sounds like a fine idea."

And Clark pointed at the contained hunk of kryptonite that Jim had tucked away against him. Lois's eyes went a little wide.

"You grabbed it?" and then she was pulling him down for a kiss, damn her split lip.

Thor walked around the couch to look at it, peering thoughtfully at the material.

"Is this the source of all of our troubles, then? Truly, it does not resemble any substance I have seen."

Clark looked at the kryptonite and then at the rest of them. This was the now or never, in a way.

"It's a piece of the world I came from, all that's left of it, irradiated by the explosion that destroyed it. I'm assuming that's why it can... weaken me."

Falcon nodded towards the still-healing cuts and bruises on his face.

"I was wonderin' how you got scuffed up. I saw you take down two giant metal HYDRA weapons without a scratch."

Clark nodded, then took the glass Steve had offered and drank the whole thing in one gulp. Once he had, he looked down at Lois who sighed tiredly and walked back over to Clint to get the rest of her wounds handled.

[kolodnoykovki]

Clint looked away from Clark when Lois came closer, picking up his gauze again. "Ready for some more bandaids?" he asked - then looked up at Clark. "I'd kind of wondered - it would take a lot to scrape you up like that." But when Lois sat, Clint tended her as gently as he could. He didn't enjoy hurting allies, after all.

Those words made Jim glance to Sam before he looked back toward Clint - but then he lifted a shoulder in a shrug. "I'm gonna go change. I hate this suit."

"Need a new one?" Tony offered. "I won't give you one that flies, but a little body armour's easy."

[stands_for_hope]

Steve shifted aside to let him through and put the glass of water down before taking a seat on the couch. Clark settled down on the opposite side, near the chair Lois was sitting in; he put his hand on her leg and she put her hand on top of his. Sam actually smiled a little.

Thor continued to wander.

"This is a truly small space for a man your size, Superman."

"Clark, please," he said quietly, unable to help the little smile the Asgardian seemed to bring out in him.

"Clark, then. And you share this space with your lady and the one now called Firebrand?"

Clark nodded and gave Lois's leg a little pat as his eyes wandered back down the hallway.

"It's got everything I need."

Thor looked nonplussed for a moment before a softer smile graced his features.

"Understood, Clark. A home is made through those who live in it, not the rooms within."

[kolodnoykovki]

"We'll talk about it," Jim nodded to Tony, but then he excused himself back to his bedroom. It was one thing to strip off halfway in front of Lois or Clark, but the rest of them... It was one thing for them to know about his arm, but another for them to see where it joined.

Clint kept carefully tending - "You're lucky none of this needs a stitch as much as it just needs ointment and time," he said almost absently. "We've got tanks and DPS, but no healers."

Tony had taken a seat in the floor, legs crossed, fingers flying across a tablet -- he was researching.

[stands_for_hope]

Clark sighed deeply, looked over to Lois, and stood up again.

"I'll be right back."

Clark also went down the hall, though he was back out almost immediately in his normal apartment clothes, a t-shirt and tattered jeans. He slipped into the kitchen and opened the fridge, pulling out the half a pie he still had from last night.

"There's pie if anyone's hungry."

Thor immediately turned.

"Indeed?"

"Banana cream. Fresh made last night too."