Boom!
Clark's fist slammed into the ground with terrifying force, cracking the earth wide open beneath him. The land trembled and shuddered as though struck by an earthquake, leaving a cavernous pit gouged into the hard soil.
Hovering above this monstrous scar, Clark's eyes burnt with hatred so deep it seemed to devour the last remnants of his sanity.
This world had taken everything from him — his family, his brother, and now his home too. There was no mercy left, no room for restraint. If existence itself wished to take from him, then existence would burn.
Clenching his jaw, Clark shot upward into the sky in a blast of motion that rocked the clouds. His speed cut through the air, surpassing the sound barrier so quickly that thunderous shockwaves followed like footsteps.
His destination was an abandoned amusement park in the next town — a place once full of memories, now to be consigned to flame.
As he tore through the air, Clark's heat vision ignited. Blazing crimson beams streamed from his eyes, striking the rusted Ferris wheel. The welds melted instantly beneath the solar intensity, and with a shriek of twisted metal, the old wheel collapsed in a cascade of sparks and ruin.
More bursts of heat vision cut through the amusement park, reducing rusted rides and fractured buildings to a blazing inferno. Clark hung above in silence, expressionless, watching flame swallow all that remained of a place that once meant something to him.
When the conflagration finally died, Clark vanished into the sky again, speed trailing behind like smoke.
His next target: Metropolis City Hall.
If magic had taken his family, then government and society would answer for it too. Clark despised institutions that claimed power yet left the helpless to suffer. Now that restraint was gone, his patience was gone, and only one thing drove him — vengeance.
Inside Metropolis City Hall, officials were deep in budget discussions when the glass doors suddenly shattered. Clark flew in, expressionless, shards fluttering around him like falling stars.
Unfazed, he strode forward and grabbed the mayor by the collar without a word. His eyes glowed red as heat vision cut through a metal display plate behind the mayor, melting it instantly. Paintings and plaques clattered to the floor.
"Now I announce that I am the Mayor of Metropolis," Clark said with cold finality, "and if you don't want to die right now, then work for me."
The officials stood frozen in fear, instantly compliant under threat of death. Clark's descent into anger had erased every remnant of restraint.
At that moment, the conference room door burst open. Security personnel rushed in, only to be struck down before they knew what hit them. Clark barely moved; his mere presence, his stance, sent them sprawling.
A voice echoed behind Clark.
"No matter how angry you are, someone will always stand against you!"
Before Clark could turn, a streak of green light smashed into him.
Bang!
Clark was hurled out of the building and into the sky. Green Lantern stood there, ring blazing with emerald energy. Using his power, he manifested a giant baseball bat and struck Clark with it.
"Direct hit! Now for bullet time!" Hal exclaimed with a grin.
His ring became an oversized Gatling cannon, green blasts ripping toward Clark.
Clark, staggered but still alive, spread his arms and took the barrage as if challenging it. Then Supergirl arrived, firing heat vision from above.
Struck unexpectedly from behind, Clark flipped forward in the air. Kara flew next to him, grabbing his outstretched arm.
"Kara" called to him, hoping to reach the Clark she knew, the Clark who protected rather than destroyed. She thought perhaps red kryptonite had warped his mind again, as it had once before.
But when she grabbed his wrist, Clark responded not with recognition but with a brutal punch that sent her flying. His anger, once vast and silent, now roared in action.
Glass shattered from surrounding skyscrapers as Kara struggled to stay aloft.
Green Lantern fired again, launching a green rocket that struck Clark mid‑air, blasting him high into the sky.
"It seems sometimes tools are better than fists," Hal said, satisfied.
"What tools are those, the rocket or that ring?" Kara shot back, grumpy from the impact.
"Both," Hal said with a shrug.
But Clark, still fuelled by unrelenting rage, fired heat vision at him. The beam shattered Lantern's energy shield almost instantly. Hal plummeted toward the ground.
At the last second, Kara swooped and caught him, holding him up by his arm.
"If you think these tools stop Clark like this," she panted, "you're wrong."
Hal conjured a rolling sphere of green energy to protect them both. Clark collided with it again and again, battering it until it cracked and sent Hal flying into a nearby building.
Chaos swept through the streets below as Clark's assault continued.
"Clark!" Kara shouted, her voice straining against the wind. "This isn't you! You're losing control!"
Clark hovered in mid‑air, his hair darkened with sweat and his gaze distant, as if seeing something unreachable.
"I always knew," he said, voice flat, "that I would have to feel this. Wearing that red kryptonite ring made me feel free, unconstrained. I chose this path because it felt right, even though it has only hurt those I loved."
With that, Clark accelerated toward Kara, fists colliding in a brutal clash.
"I lost everyone I loved! There is no reason for this world to exist if it only takes from me!"
Kara, breath heavy, fought to stay upright.
"What about Lois? What about our future? What about the lives we could still save?"
Clark blinked, confusion crossing his face.
"What?" he asked, taken aback.
Kara's words struck him in an unexpected way: she mentioned love and loss, named the people he cared about, urging him to see reason rather than fury.
"Lois will also be someone you love," Kara said, voice steady despite her injuries, "and Lana too! They're not gone — they've changed, but this isn't the end. You have to face that, not destroy everything."
Clark's expression softened only a fraction, but the storm in his eyes still raged unresolved. He turned away, breaking from her grasp.
Boom!
A rush of wind tore through the atmosphere.
Clark vanished into the sky again.