Monolith

Chapter 2: Jason

Clark

Clark had woken up that morning to the perfect Metropolis day. At the risk of sounding like a cliché (and here is where Barry would argue that Clark's whole life was a cliché - his costume looked like an American flag and he smiled like a toothpaste advert), there was not a cloud in the sky, all of them burned away by the sun. There were no major incidents to attend to and work was calm, for once.

At about 11am, Clark was starting to feel a little suspicious. It turned out that his suspicion was not unwarranted, because exactly nine minutes later, one of the high rises a few blocks away from the Daily Planet exploded in a brutally beautiful billow of flames and uncountable shards of sparkling glass.

The sound was deafening, as was the screaming that erupted around the office, his shocked coworkers pelting towards the door to escape the office.

He saw Lois eyeing him from across the room. He nodded at her, then changed into his suit, escaping in the confusion. He had people to save.

Several hours later, he called the JLA for backup. What had started out a picture perfect day had devolved into a complete nightmare. Enormous alien machines, half sleek metal, half pulsing, oozing red flesh, trundled through Metropolis almost leisurely, smashing everything in their paths.

They also had lasers.

Clark hated his life.

Tokyo and Paris were likewise suffering from unwelcome guests. The league decided to split, some of their less active members leaving for Tokyo, while Arthur, Hal, Shayera and Ollie left for Paris.

Clark, Diana, J'onn, Barry and Batman were left to deal with Metropolis, where most of the aliens had landed (it was always Metropolis), but were making slow progress.

There had to have been thirty or forty rumbling through the streets, each of their six legs cracking tarmac and crushing cars, sending civilians screaming for cover inside nearby buildings, only to come screaming out again when they collapsed under the force of the robots' lasers.

It had taken Clark and Diana working together a full ten minutes to bring one down. That was too long. Far too long.

The only way seemed to be destroying the laser guns, then taking out the legs. This had proved to be the hardest part. Each one was thick as a cathedral pillar, and caved only to their joint brute strength.

J'onn, Barry and Batman were having much the same luck. J'onn was visible only in darts and flashes as he worked on destroying the laser gun, phasing through the beams, drawing fire away from civilians.

Batman and Barry were busy taking out the legs, though without brute strength, they'd had to resort to... more interesting measures. From somewhere (Clark really did not want to know where, ever - he didn't think the answer would be very conducive to sleeping at night), Batman had managed to produce what looked like several dozen metres of steel cable. He hefted it across the ground with startling ease, for someone who was entirely human (and Clark was not willing to admit that he was very surprised to learn that Batman wasn't a meta).

Barry, impatient, sped around the legs of the robot, jittery with adrenaline as Batman uncoiled one end of the cable. Motioning to Barry, he passed it to him.

In less than a second, Barry had woven it around the trunk-like legs, leaving the whole thing to groan and whine, animalistic and grating as it fell to the ground. There was an enormous boom as it made impact, followed by a rush of air that whipped Clark's hair around his head.

J'onn and Batman looked grim, already running towards the next problem, even as Barry celebrated their small triumph with whoops and shouts.

Clark put his head in his hands. In his peripheral vision, he could see Diana smiling as they headed off to help.