The series of earthquakes was the result of Atlantean weapons fire under sea level; like someone tried to collapse the continents of the world into the ocean. After having a chat with Cyborg, Silvia found out that the culprit was Aquaman's brother, the Ocean Master. A guy who doesn't like the surface world that much, and wants the throne of Atlantis even more. Worst of all, he has a giant army hellbent on killing everyone on land...
After scrambling the mess that was the sudden overcrowding of Supermen in Metropolis, Silvia stayed at the Hall of Justice to keep tabs on the situation. Justice League America was sent down to Atlantis to deal with Ocean Master, and Silvia decided not to say anything to them about the new Superman. They needed to focus on the job at hand, not another fake.
Also, she wasn't just going to let those pretenders loose either, she made sure to get some eyes on them to make sure they weren't killing people or anything. Especially the new guy. The main action was over, so it was mainly just cleanup to be done.
Silvia didn't look away from her screen. She noticed that the new guy stuck around for cleanup for the longest. Cyborg Superman left first, obviously, then Eradicator. The Titans were kind enough to let Conner in and show him the ropes.As soon as the new Superman disappeared from his disaster zone, Silvia pushed to her feet with a sigh. She was paranoid. She didn't want any of these losers to tarnish Clark's memory...she hated the thought of that happening.
"Excuse me." Clark's voice called from behind her.
With a huff, Silvia responded before she turned around. "Get out of here, you're not a Leaguer."
"I just...wanted to ask you something." The new guy said, extremely politely. He flashed a charming smile, and his tone was almost childlike. "I'll leave as soon as you give me an answer."
Silvia gritted her teeth. "Ask someone else."
"I don't want to ask anyone else." was his quick reply. "I want to ask you."
"I couldn't care less what you want." Silvia hissed, leaping up from her seat and beginning to walk away as if completely dismissing him.
The man quickly followed, seemingly unfazed by her attitude. "If I'm going to help clean up Metropolis then I need to know the full story."
"No one asked for your help." Silvia retorted stubbornly.
"No, but they need it." The new guy grimaced. "If your insistent on avoiding me though, I guess I'll just have to keep bugging you until you answer my questions."
"Good luck with that." Silvia grumbled, but the idea made her inwardly scream.
"I won't need luck, you should know by now that I'm persistent. The last time I persevered with this I got a few interviews and a date out of it."
Silvia audibly growled and her legs automatically grinded to a halt. "Clark got a date. You didn't get anything, and you never will."
The man exhaled heavily but didn't make any effort to argue with her. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you.... but I still need to know what happened. Think of it as one colleague asking another, it doesn't have to be personal."
When the man spoke Silvia just stared at him as if he were a radio and not a person who was there to be interacted with. It was if the words were still circulating her mind and not yet allowed to flow outward into the world. It was apparent that he wasn't going to leave her alone until she helped him out, and she had very little desire to be stuck with him all day.
"Fine... just make it quick." She finally agreed, but with extreme hesitance.
"What happened after I-" He stopped himself, rewording the question in his head before trying again. "What happened after Superman died?"
"What do you think happened?" Silvia seethed. This was not what she was expecting to be asked, and it wasn't something she wished to discuss. "The world went to shit. You can just look all of this up if your curious."
"You were there first hand... I want to hear it from your point of view." The man sighed. "And we both know that the media tends to leave things out."
Usually Silvia would just swear at him and walk out, but she had a feeling that this man wasn't one to give up easily. "He died, they buried him. End of story."
"Where did they bury him?"
Silvia scoffed. "Shouldn't you know this if you're claiming to be 'Superman'?"
"It gets a little blurry after I died." He joked light-heartedly.
"What? No white light or Kryptonian heaven?" She replied sarcastically, but with significantly less amusement in her tone.
"Not that I can remember. Maybe they wipe your memory after you leave." He was obviously trying to make things a little less tense between the two of them. This use to work... but now it only appeared to annoy her even more. "So... do you know where they took his body?"
"They buried him in Metropolis, under a horrendous Superman statue." Silvia surprisingly answered. "It was honestly the ugliest thing I've ever seen."
The man looked slightly saddened by the news. "Oh... I thought he'd be taken to Smallville."
"He should've been." This time when she spoke it was more forceful and he could hear her voice waver. "Metropolis may have been his city, but Smallville was his home. I tried to protest against it but everyone I spoke to turned me away. Lex insisted on burying him here, and since he's one of the most powerful men in the area, my word seemed to mean absolutely nothing. He even had the nerve to show up at the funeral... but at least I got to punch that smug asshole right in his stupid face."
The new guy blinked at her in slight bewilderment. "You started a fight at his funeral?"
"It wasn't his funeral, not really. They were burying a symbol without ever considering that there was a man behind it, one with a family and a life outside of that costume. They mourned their own selfish desires to stay safe... not him. The people got to grieve for a hero that they never fully appreciated whilst Martha had to bury an empty casket. The whole ceremony was an insult."
Not for the first time, the man found himself staring at Silvia in surprise. She had never been reliant on formalities or wording, and though she had street smarts on her side, she wasn't the most intelligent creature either. There were times though, however rare, that she would say something that made complete sense. It made her seem almost wise in her own cynical nature. It was what initially piqued his interest about her, like finding a diamond beneath a hundred layers of thick tar - like, really thick tar. Almost unmovable and transitioning from liquid into a solid object. Of course, this wasn't exactly the nicest way to put it so he never actually voiced it to her.
"What did you do afterwards?" He finally found himself asking. "Did you stay in the city?"
"No, I stayed in Smallville for a while. You know, doing farm things like milking cows and shit."
"Milking cows?" The man said in tone seeping with the urge to burst into laughter. "You milked a cow?"
"Didn't say I was good at it..."
If there was one thing in this life that he regretted, it was not being there to witness her trying to live on a farm. Not only would it have been endlessly amusing, but the idea was somewhat cute to him. He'd always thought she'd look nice in a sundress with a cowgirl hat and wide open plains behind her.
"I'm sorry, I'll drop the subject... for now." He chuckled, brushing a few loose strands of black hair out of his eyes. "So, what about the other three? Who are they?"
"They're like you, trying desperately to convince people that their Superman. I'm sure you've seen it on the news."
"I've been... away... for a while." He answered vaguely and Silvia sighed.
"Fine. Cyborg Superman claims that Clark's corpse was recovered and rebuilt, and he was the result of that. He conveniently doesn't remember anything about his life before his supposed death, but one thing's for sure, he's no hero. He tries to be but he's violent and impatient. He'd sooner throw you into space than let you talk back to him."
"Sounds like you." The man quipped with a smirk.
"Yeah... me with Kryptonian level powers. There's a big difference." The woman huffed in annoyance. "The other one, Eradicator, claims that he was never really dead or at the very least that he came back. Kinda like the whole Jesus story, ya know? Rose from the grave and all that."
"You mean 'The bible'?"
"Yeah, that, whatever..." The girl said with a flush of embarrassment. "Either way, he seems to have all of Clark's memories but says that he's 'no longer Clark'. Like Superman came back but the other side didn't. It's all bullshit, but a ton of people apparently believe him. I guess it's because he's less threatening than the Terminator. I mean, he's a jerk with a bland personality but he doesn't go around threatening people."
"And the kid?"
"Conner... He's different." Silvia muttered. "Special."
"How so?"
"He never pretended to be anyone but himself, it was the media that assumed he was another 'Superman'. They saw that he was wearing the symbol and called him Superboy. This was the only identity he had ever known. They said that he was the reincarnation of Superman, and because we're not sure how Kryptonian bodies work, no one could argue with them."
"I can assure you that's not how Kryptonian bodies work." The man said with a smile that visibly displayed how entertaining that speculation was to him.
"Either way, he doesn't want to be Clark. He's actually made a large effort to avoid being compared to him. He just wants to help, and I think in the back of his mind, he wants to know where he came from too. He'd never admit that though... I think I raised him to be a little too much like myself."
The man froze for a moment. "Raised?"
"Yeah, he was about six when I found him but he aged at a rapid pace. Within only a month his body and mind have made it to fourteen. I took him under my wing and for me it wasn't a lot of time, but for him it was most of his life." Silvia folded her and over her chest and stopped as well. "He's a good kid, a little misunderstood, but still good. Probably better if it was someone else that raised him."
"Don't sell yourself short, you've done a great job with him." He said in a tone that sounded almost proud. "Thank you for everything that you've done... I know it mustn't have been easy."
Silvia raised a fair eyebrow at the man, suddenly realising that she had spoken to him for a lot longer than initially planned. It was as easy as talking to the real Clark... She averted her gaze, and prepared to build up her walls once more. "Your gratitude means nothing to me. I didn't do it for you, I did it for him."
The mans smile stayed on his face all the same, and the admiration in his eyes didn't diminish. "Of course, I'm sure he'd be grateful too."
"If he were alive, maybe, but he's not." Silvia spat out in irritation. "So stop talking about him, and stop acting like you know what he'd feel."
The girl turned to walk out again but he didn't follow this time. He couldn't imagine what she'd been through, and he didn't want to add to that pain by lingering. Instead, he watched her leave, regretting every minute that he hadn't been around.
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