From the screens in her hideout, Silvia could see the entire fight. Eradicator was hitting Cyborg Superman on the side of his head without cybernetic plating with great, walloping, pile-driver blows. The two of them staggered together, like partners in a crazy dance. Structures collapsing all around them. Gray smoke from the fires lit in the background, and dust from the chipped brick-and-plaster walls that they tore down, swirled around them in a rainbow haze.
No one fights dirtier or more brutally than blood; only family knows it's own weaknesses, and they were closer than family... they were, apparently, the same person. That was actually what this whole fight was about. From what Silvia could gather, they were trying to prove which of them was truly Superman. By doing so they had destroyed a large portion of Metropolis... but thankfully Superboy had managed to prevent any deaths so far.
Eradicator's eyes started glowing bright red and he zapped heat in Cyborg Superman's direction. The 'laser' smoked against the other man's metal chest, melting a hole into it. He growled in response, and with one swoop, he hit Eradicator through a set of apartments.
Screams suddenly pierced Silvia's ears, and as soon as the two super humans had flown away from the site of destruction, she spotted Superboy dashing over to the building and holding it up for the families to escape.
After setting down the falling apartments, Conner raced towards the two fighting men. "Stop it! Both of you!" He yelled in fury.
"Don't get involved, Kid." Eradicator hissed. "This has nothing to do with you."
Cyborg Superman turned his head to Conner, one red eye glowing through the ash. "If he claims to be Superman as well, I will crush him just the same as you."
"I claim to be no one but myself!" Superboy growled through clenched teeth. "But if you continue endangering the people of Metropolis I will have no choice but to stop you... permanently."
"You will try." The Cyborg's voice buzzed through his torn chest. "And you will fail."
In less than a second Cyborg Superman's hand rolled into a fist, and slammed directly into Superboy's cheekbone. There was a crack, and he was sent whirling in the opposite direction. Conner's shows had barely scraped the concrete before he leapt up again, speeding back towards his attacker with a scream of pure anger.
Eradicator mimicked his actions, and as they both sped towards Cyborg Superman, he prepared for impact. He had it all planned out in his head. He would toss Eradicator so far into the ground that he would burrow his own grave, and Superboy would be tossed into orbit.
The idea pleased the robot, and as the two others sped towards him, he felt that satisfaction multiply. They never made it to him though... someone had blocked his view and stopped both fists with his own hands.
"You have destroyed my city, and yet you wear my symbol." A deep, enraged voice roared over the chaos. "Explain yourselves... now."
Back in the hideout Silvia felt her blood boil. The fourth man on her screen displayed the 's' symbol on his chest as well, but his costume was colourless. It was completely black and shrouded in shadows. He looked exactly like Clark, just like the other three, but his hair was so long that it reached passed his shoulders and his facial hair was unruly. Not another one...
She was already struggling with the other two claiming to be Superman, but now that there was a new addition to this madness any self-restraint she had completely shuddered.
Eradicator and Cyborg Superman looked ready to fight the person that had interrupted them, but somehow he had managed to convince them to talk it out somewhere more private. As the three disappeared from all her camera points, Superboy turned and flew straight back to Silvia. Once he entered the hideout he saw a woman full of uncontrollable wrath, and though she tried to conceal it from him, Conner could tell that she was just inches away from shooting someone.
He informed her that they were all heading towards the Hall of Justice, and Silvia had instantly grabbed her motorcycle. She told Conner to get on the back, and he complied but not without expressing his concern for her. Silvia had brushed off his worry just like he had done to her, and now he knew just how terrible it felt.
The Hall of Justice looked exactly like Silvia remembered it, but today it looked mostly empty. Silvia marched in, skin blotching red as the anger overheated her. Conner was following close behind but she could barely sense anything beyond her need to find the three imposters.
"You're all delusional." The familiar voice of Barry Allen echoed through the facility. "Superman's dead, and frankly I'm getting sick of you guys spitting on his name."
"And I'm growing tired of you're assumptions." Eradicator quickly followed. "I'm Superman, whether you believe it or not."
"There can be only one Superman." Cyborg Superman's tinny voice stabbed. "And I will rise victorious."
Just as Silvia finally reached the room the conversation seemed to be coming from, the new and clearer voice spoke up. "Superman is an idea... a symbol. Anyone can do the right thing, that's the entire point, but neither of you have done that name justice."
This only fed Silvia's outrage. Some stranger thought he had the right to talk about Superman?... The thought made her clench her knuckles so tightly that her nails pierced the skin of her palms. With one of these tensed hands, she aggressively pushed the door open. It bounced off the wall with its handle and immediately grabbed everyone's attention.
Seeing all three Clark look-a-likes in one place was almost too overwhelming for her, but she managed to keep her eyes sharp and expression full of hatred. They all had different reactions to seeing her there; Cyborg Superman looked mildly annoyed, Eradicator seemed completely indifferent, and Barry appeared almost saddened that she had to witness this.
The new guy, however, stared at her as if he was seeing a ghost. He fell silent, for several minutes they all did, and the quiet had an aura of pureness to it. His heart lifted and the dark look on his face instantly vanished. His blue eyes held adoration for her, memorising her every feature as if he was only now seeing her for the first time. She was still so beautiful...
"Sil..." His voice broke into a million pieces until it was nothing but a raspy, inaudible sound.
The man took one slow step forward, then all at once he hurried to her side. His arms wrapped around her and held so tightly that it was like he was afraid that she would fade away if he let go. He closed his eyes, thinking that there was nothing better than an embrace after an absence, nothing better than fitting his face into the curve of her neck and filling his lungs with her scent.
He was lost in the feeling of her for a while, and it took a little too long for him to notice that she was banging against his chest. When he untangled his arms from around her he was not greeted with the loving eyes he had expected, but with a glare so cold that it threatened to freeze him solid.
"Never touch me again." She said in a tone laced with poison. "I'll fucking kill you if you ever try it again, you piece of shit."
To say that the man was surprised would be an understatement. His brow furrowed and he staggered back slightly, unable to look away from the loathing covering her face.
Silvia stomped passed him until she was in the middle of the room. She looked from the new guy to the old ones with disdain. "Leave Metropolis right now."
Cyborg Superman growled back with equal hatred "You dare order me? I don't listen to weaklings."
"Metropolis is my city." Eradicator added with a hiss. "If you don't like my presence here then maybe you should be the one leaving."
"Maybe you misunderstood me." The woman's tone lowered even further. "That wasn't a request. It was an order. None of you are Superman and I won't be dealing with your fucking bullshit any longer!"
"It's not bullshit." Eradicator retorted, folding his arms across his chest.
"Oh really?" Silvia scoffed. "You say that you're not 'Clark' anymore but you're still Superman, but that only confirms that you were never him. Without his personality you have no reason to want to save the people of Metropolis, and ontop of that, Clark was what made Superman. You can't be one without the other. You're a fucking fake, and the worst part is that I don't think you even realise it."
Eradicator bore his teeth at the woman before turned her attention to Cyborg Superman. "And you claim to have been rebuilt but have no memory of your life as Clark. I saw his body. He died in my arms. It took two weeks for his body to grow cold and I visited the morgue everyday begging for him to come back. I saw his body again before he was buried... and he looked completely fine. That was the worst part about it. He didn't need to be rebuilt, he was completely intact. You're a fucking liar."
"And you." Silvia turned to the new one now, tears glistening in her eyes and jaw clenched tight. "I don't know you but I'm sure that you fucking suck."
The man looked from one person to the other, finally starting to piece everything together when his gaze fell on Silvia again. Her pain wretched in his chest and it took every ounce of strength that he had to not hug her again.
"I won't sit back and watch you destroy everything Clark worked so hard to build." Silvia's hand twitched near the gun at her side despite knowing that it would have no effect on any of them. "He may be gone but you cannot claim his title and wear his face and expect the world to accept it."
"You're the only one that isn't accepting it, the world seems overjoyed." Eradicator said rather smugly.
Now it felt like Silvia's blood was on fire, burning through appendages and creating hot lava in her gut. "And as far as I'm concerned, I'm the only one that matters. Everyone leave, right now, or I know where a large stash of Kryptonite is and I'd just love to shove it down your throats. Then we'll see who the real Superman is."
Cyborg Superman clunked forward, skull-like cybernetic face blank of any expression. "Or what if I kill you before you can find it?"
"Go ahead, prove me right." Silvia spat. She stepped closer to him as well, no sign of fear anywhere.
Before the monstrous husk could even consider his next actions, the new guy had appeared between them. He was facing the robot, jaw sharpening and eyes glaring at him. "You will not hurt her."
Something threatening flashed on his face, and for a moment it looked like the two of them were about to fight. Luckily, they were interrupted an earthquake. It rumbled through the ground, and though none of the supermen were effected by it, they could feel that it was intense. Silvia was knocked off her feet by the intensity. The new guy was just about to assist her but Conner got there before him.
"Are you alright?" Superboy asked in concern, forcing her arm around his shoulders.
"Don't worry about me, kid." Silvia reassured in a shaky voice. "I'm fine... Sorry you had to see that."
Just as the earth's shivering died down, Superboy replied lowly. "No, you were right. I know it might seem like I'm a little hostile towards this Clark guy, but I respect what you've told me about him. These guys are disgusting for claiming to be someone like him."
"Is everyone done showing off now?" Barry finally spoke for the first time in a while. "Because we've got trouble in different sections of the world, we could use your help."
Everyone's collective silence was taken as agreement, and Barry continued. "I need to go meet Hawkman, Silvia assign them to the trouble areas."
He pointed to a massive screen lined up behind him with blinking red lights on specific countries. Less than a second later Flash was gone, and Silvia was left with three people she wanted to kill in cold blood. Still, she managed to compose herself. This was a serious matter, and work always had to be seperate from personal vendettas.
The first thing she did was look for the smallest threat, which happened to be radiating from nearby.
"Conner, go check that out." She said and the boy nodded. Thankfully, he didn't seem to notice that she had purposefully given him the easiest job.
She then looked for places with other heroes nearby. Hopefully if she sent the most violent one there, he could be stopped if he went too far. "Terminator, go to the danger area in Finland."
Cyborg Superman didn't seem to understand that she was talking to him until she gave him a stern look. He growled. "I do not take orders from you."
"Okay, just let the people die then. There's no shame in admitting that you're not Superman."
The robot gave a stubborn grumble, and with an air of reluctance, he shot out of the building. Once he was gone half of the tension had disappeared from Silvia's shoulders.
She looked back at the screen. There were two more sectors in need of assistance. Silvia stared at both for a second, pondering who to send. She didn't know the new guy, but Eradicator wasn't as violent as Cyborg Superman. He was, however, an asshole.
She concluded that he was the least scary looking of the lot, and decided to send him to a place that was not use to supervillain threats. "I'm assigning you to Zimbabwe, Goggles."
Eradicator turned his nose up at the nickname, but he didn't protest at all to helping. He left willingly, dashing directly towards his set country and arriving there within no time at all.
When she turned back around she saw the last man standing there with a slight smile edging onto his lips. Her eyebrows knotted together at the sight. "That leaves you with Australia, Macgyver."
"Macgyver?" The man said in amusement.
"Yeah, you have a mullet." Silvia shrugged.
"You really haven't changed at all, have you?" The man grabbed a strand of his long hair between his thumb and index finger, looking at it and chuckling. "It's not a mullet, it's just long."
"If you tuck it behind your ears it's a mullet." Silvia huffed, crossing her arms and beginning to tap her foot against the floor. "Would you prefer to be called something else? Like Jesus or hobo?"
"On second thought, Macgyver isn't so bad." The man's laugh continued as he started walking towards the exit. "Definitely better than 'Dorothy' anyway."
Silvia's head snapped in his direction but he was already gone, eliminating the possibility of her yelling at him. Great, another one with Clark's memory... She thought to herself bitterly. It was at this time that she found herself hoping that these attacks were big enough kill some of those pretenders, then she wouldn't have to deal with this anymore.
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