Invincible // Superman

Chapter One: The Man Of Steel

The masked woman had a moment of curiosity, eyes shining brightly though they went unseen...then again, you could never be too sure with Superman. The knife in her hand was flicked quickly, and directly, at the superhero. It not only bounced off of his broad abdomen, but when it fell to the ground Silvia could see that the blade had bent completely on impact.

A sharp inhale could be heard whistling through her teeth. Nerves racked her body with far more intensity then it did when faced with any other superhero. The others she could, at the very least, attempt to escape from...but Superman? It seemed pointless to even try.

Silvia cleared her throat, taking the sawed off shotgun from her back again and pointing it toward him. "I suppose this won't do much damage either, right?"

The gigantic man dropped his arms and slowly paced towards her. "You think this is a game?"

Silvia hesitated.

"Lives wasted. And you joke."

"They weren't exactly innocent lives." The girl finally said, trying to conceal the anxiousness that slowly overtook her. "Together they've killed over one hundred people, and that one," she pointed to one of the bodies. "the one with half his head blown off, he killed a five year old boy just last week."

Superman suddenly snapped forward and grabbed Silvia by the shoulder and drove her into a nearby tree, glaring daggers into her eyes. "You don't get to decide who lives and who dies. You're just as bad as they are. And you know it."

For a moment Silvia felt herself tremble, but this fear was quickly discarded. "I don't get to decide, but they do? Where were you when they killed that boy? Saving a cat from a tree?" Sap dribbled onto her costume, sticky and sinking through to her skin. She could feel it glueing the suit to her, but with such a powerful being holding her down, it was the least of her worries. "We can't all be like the great Boy Scout Superman; forgiving murderers and locking them away knowing that they'll be released and start killing again. By sparing these vile criminals, you're deciding who lives and dies as much as I am. You're just deciding wrong-"

She was cut off when the larger man's hand wrapped around her neck. She gasped, but quickly found that she could still breathe. Though he was attempting to intimidate her, and was obviously enraged about the thugs that she had killed, he wasn't hurting her. "I'm not going to be lectured by a murderer. There's plenty of room in Stryker's for people like you. You're finished."

There was another loud bang but Superman didn't look the least bit surprised by it. He must have known she had the gun pointed at his stomach before she even had the chance to pull the trigger. When he didn't even stumble back she assumed the bullet had ricocheted off of him and gave a nervous chuckle. "I should've seen that coming."

Finally, Superman let go of her only to snatch the shotgun out of her hands. The girl hadn't completely registered that he had taken it before he crushed the weapon between his fingers, turning it to nothing but dust that sprinkled onto the floor.

"Reginald...!" Silvia gasped weakly, dropping to the ground. She desperately clawed at the metal dust and sawdust on the cobble pathway. "...W-Why...?" She muttered tenderly.

Superman scoffed. Silvia froze and looked up, seeing the hero tower over her with a look of sheer disgust on his face. "You're...insane. To do what you just did."

"He was my favourite!" Silvia retorted, cradling the dust and carefully sprinkling it into an empty vial. She tucked it into her pocket and reached out for her pistol. Her shoulders were obviously tense when she turned back around, pointing the gun to where she had left the last criminal but he was no longer there. "Shit! You let him get away...figures. The next person he kills is on you."

"His name is Michael Stanton. He earns fifty dollars a week and is the sole provider for a family of six."

Silvia realised that her pistol had seemingly disappeared the way her shotgun did. "Oh for fuck's sake."

Superman appeared before her, pistol crushed in one hand. "He has a criminal record, yes. He doesn't keep the greatest company, yes. But he's clean now. For his family. But you were about to throw that all away. Now his friends are dead... Regardless of what atrocities they may have committed, they were still human lives. And human lives deserve chances. That's the difference between me and you. I don't think the human race is beyond saving. I believe that everybody has the potential to say no. Society needs their system...and right now, it's not perfect and that will only be fixed in time. When one person puts themselves above all others in society and believes that they have a duty to kill undesirable people, it always ends poorly for them."

The girl sighed at her crushed weapon, crossing her arms in irritation. "These thugs were meeting here to steal shit, kill people. Your precious system doesn't work."

"They meet here every night to go bowling."

Silvia paused. "...Fucking whatever. You gonna lecture me all night, mister psychologist? I know what I think is right."

Superman grimaced and took a single step closer. "You'll have plenty of time to talk to a psychologist where I'm taking you."

"Look, we know how this is going to play out. You'll take me to jail, I'll break out, I'll clean up the streets for you so-called 'superheroes' then the cycle will repeat itself. I ain't dumb enough to fight you off so let's not drag this out." The girl held both wrists out as if expecting the powerful man to create a pair of handcuffs out of thin air. "Though, you'd better keep an eye on the fucker that escaped. Don't want another life on your conscience, I'm sure you've got enough as it is."

Without warning, there was a huge gust of wind. It was completely unexpected on such a dry, humid night. When it had ceased, Silvia's surroundings had changed. The beautifully gloomy park was now replaced with an open ocean, and in the distance was Stryker's Island Penitentiary.

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