When Gods Fight, Mortals Suffer

"Who are you?"

Clark looked around at the familiar yet unfamiliar world. After a moment of confusion, his sharp gaze ultimately fell on Beckett.

Having just been resurrected, his mind had yet to fully clear, but he sensed a threat from the tailed man before him.

An intense sense of danger.

A threat even greater than the one Kryptonian General Zod had once posed.

"Who are you?"

Beckett flexed his fingers and narrowed his eyes as he returned the question.

He, too, sensed a threat from this man.

"Clark Kent, hero codename Superman, true identity: Kryptonian. Possesses Heat Vision…"

As Beckett’s combat-support Artificial Intelligence lifeform, Woz provided Clark’s detailed information immediately after completing its scan.

Woz even pulled up a file Bruce Wayne had sealed away long ago and presented it before Beckett—the "Superman Countermeasure Plan."

"Was it you who woke me?"

Having lain in a coffin for so long, Clark’s mind was clearly not working very well. The fury of having his coffin lid pried open filled him with immense hostility.

His tone was aggressive.

He remembered clearly that he was supposed to be dead.

The coffin had been shut, the grave had been filled in, and yet now his tomb had been dug up, his headstone destroyed, and even the buried coffin lid had been pushed aside.

Couldn’t he even rest in peace after dying?

Did they have to make him do sit-ups in his coffin?

"I hate it when people look at me like that."

Beckett slowly raised his right hand, palm open, and aimed it at Clark’s hostility-filled eyes.

Whoosh!

A silver beam of energy shot straight toward Clark’s forehead. Clark tilted his head slightly at incredible speed, narrowly brushing past death.

"What? Who’s that?"

Victor Stone, the cyborg who had rushed over, looked doubtfully at the figure confronting Superman Clark. He could not find any information on that person at all.

"I think I know him. Bruce said he’s a descendant of a Titan God. His name is Beckett."

"Don’t worry, I know him. He’s a good—"

Barry Allen, who had also arrived at Superman’s location, was explaining when the relaxed smile on his face froze the very next second.

"Barry Allen, are you sure?"

BOOM!!!!

A piercing sonic boom instantly erupted across the empty plaza!

Superman Clark, freshly resurrected and still unable to think straight, charged into battle with Beckett, who had attacked him, full of rage and groggy irritation…

"Uh… I’m not so sure now." Barry Allen shrugged, looking a little embarrassed at having been proven wrong.

"His Highness Beckett, the energy within the target is rapidly rising. You will need kryptonite to—"

"No, I don’t need that."

Beckett, whom Clark had hurled to the ground and smashed into a massive crater, rose to his feet. His jet-black hair suddenly turned golden!

"Ha!"

In his golden-haired, blue-eyed state, Beckett’s strength surged instantly.

"Get down!"

Moving at a speed nearly equivalent to teleportation, Beckett appeared above Clark’s head.

He interlocked his fingers and brought both fists down hard on Clark’s head, smashing the just-turned Clark into the plaza and carving out a gigantic human-shaped crater as dust and rubble exploded outward!

Sizzle!

Two energy beams capable of piercing through Beckett’s chest tore through the dust in an instant, stabbing straight at his chest like twin blades!

A silver energy wave erupted from Beckett’s hand, overwhelming the Kryptonian Heat Vision in an instant!

BOOM!!!!

The surging energies collided, and the resulting shockwave tore the empty plaza apart!

Broken stones flew everywhere, and yellow dust filled the air!

Barry Allen and Victor Stone, mere spectators, exchanged looks in stunned silence.

A battle of this level was completely beyond their ability to interfere with.

"Hey! You aren’t enemies! There’s no need to—"

BOOM!

Barry Allen, who had planned to talk since he could not fight, vanished instantly!

The incoming Heat Vision and energy wave blasted a bottomless crater into the spot where he had just stood!

"This is insane, insane, insane!"

"Where’s Bruce?! Tell Bruce, now! Get him to think of something!"

"If this keeps up, they won’t just tear apart this plaza—they might tear apart the entire city!"

Victor Stone, who had been conducting an energy-spectrum assessment, looked utterly grim.

Whether it was Clark or Beckett, the various readings they unleashed changed every second. Their seemingly endless escalation completely overturned every concept Victor Stone had ever held about energy.

"Got it! I’ll bring him here right now!"

Barry Allen, escaping with the Speed Force, vanished in an instant. The next second, Bruce Wayne, driving the Batmobile, appeared at the edge of the battlefield.

"What happened?"

"It’s the last thing Diana wanted to see. Superman doesn’t seem to be the Superman we knew anymore."

Barry Allen answered honestly, pointing toward the two figures constantly colliding in the sky.

The crisscrossing Heat Vision and energy blasts had left the vast plaza in utter ruin.

BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!!!!!!

The bone-rattling exchange of blows gradually set Beckett’s blood boiling.

"Hey, is that all you’ve got?"

After another evenly matched brawl, Beckett, breathing heavily, curled a finger at Clark, whom he had sent flying into the distance with a punch.

His black Battle Suit was already damaged, and sweat had appeared on his forehead for the first time in a long while. Yet the provocative curve at the corner of Beckett’s mouth only grew more brazen.

Boom!

Another piercing sonic boom rang out as the two figures collided once more at a speed no ordinary eye could possibly follow!

BOOM!!!

Crimson Heat Vision and silver-white energy waves intertwined, their shockwaves shaking the entire city and stunning the whole world!

"Roar!!!"

It was impossible to tell whose roar it was.

At speeds no one could comprehend, Metropolis—the city Superman had once protected—fell into ruin in an instant.

Sirens wailed as people fled in panic.

Stampedes, crushing crowds, anguished cries.

Collapsing skyscrapers and shattered asphalt tolled the death knell for Metropolis’s ordinary citizens on their way to heaven.

Bruce Wayne, clad in Batman gear, stood atop the ruins, staring blankly at the two figures still fighting fiercely in the sky.

Echoing in his ears were the sobs and screams of Metropolis’s citizens.

"Dad! Dad! Someone save my dad! Please!!" A sixteen- or seventeen-year-old boy struggled to push away the enormous boulder pinning down his father, roaring as he made one final desperate effort;

"Mom! Mom! Mom, where are you?! Mom!" A little girl of six or seven wept uncontrollably, clutching a pristine Barbie doll as she wailed in grief, her tiny body carried by the crowd toward a place called heaven…

Bruce Wayne’s eyes were bloodshot, and it was impossible to tell whether it was anger or sorrow.

Cruel reality became overwhelming guilt that relentlessly gnawed at the heart of Gotham’s guardian. The helplessness he had once felt when witnessing Superman Clark battle his fellow Kryptonian, Kryptonian General Zod, surged through him once again.

The battle in the sky continued…