Steel-Lord McCloud vs Superman Copycats

Chapter 3: Steel-Lord McCloud vs BrightBurn

Steel-Lord McCloud thundered out of the sky, and touched down in the green field, spraying a shower of mud in all directions. All around him, the forest roared in its fire. He made a sour face, and turned towards the nearby lake. It was just what he needed.

He flew over to the lake, and splash-landed into it. He surfaced, and disgustedly spat out a mouthful of the greenish water. Then, he began to spin. He spun faster and faster, until he became an indistinct blur. He shifted his arms, and water began to spray in every direction.

As he spun faster, the water flew farther and farther. Finally, the blur of Steel-Lord spun on the bottom of an empty lake.

He stopped spinning, and grabbed his head with both hands, as if it would still keep spinning if he didn't. Then, he looked around. The soaked forest stood glistening in the afternoon sunshine, with steam rising from the burned parts of it.

He nodded his head, which caused him to reel dizzily to the side.

* * *

Steel-Lord did a ground level tour of the town of Brightburn, Kansas, inspecting the damage that was laid out across the little city. There were various small pieces of damage, but the collapsed office building attracted his attention the most.

Nearby, a line of barricades held back the various gawkers and sightseers, but one in particular caught his attention. Among the people talking and looking, there was a young boy staring directly at him. His gaze never wavered.

Hadn't he seen this boy before?

* * *

Steel-Lord flew out to the site where the passenger jet had crashed. The devastation looked to be total.

Walking up to view the wreckage, he studied the strange symbol that someone had drawn there. It didn't look like a mark that was supposed to be there, so presumably it was done after the crash. Some sort of graffito.

He looked around the field, and amongst the workers he spotted a young boy. Was it the boy that he had spotted in the city? That wasn't possible.

He leaped into the air, and landed not far from the child, taking a couple of steps to come to a halt.

The boy was staring at him. He wasn't glaring angrily, or gazing in admiration. As a matter of fact, the boy's face seemed to register no emption whatsoever.

"This is some pretty messed up sh...stuff. Are you from around here?" he asked somewhat nervously. Communicating with children had never been one of his strong suits.

Suddenly, someone called him from the side.

"Hey, Steel-Lord! Glad to see you!" the voice said.

Steel-Lord turned, and waved back at a man that was waving at him. When he turned back, he was surprised to see that the young boy was gone. He looked to the left, and to the right, and then all around, but the boy was nowhere to be seen.

This was getting weirder and weirder.

* * *

Steel-Lord flew back to the Brightburn city hall, and landed as gracefully as he could, before the front stairs.

He brushed at his chest, and then looked at his shoulder to see if he had picked up any other bits of stuff during his flight. He brushed his shoulder, and suddenly found that he was staring right at the strange boy again.

'There is no way that this is a coincidence,' he thought to himself.

Steel-Lord straightened up, and walked over to the child.

He looked down at the boy with his eyes narrowed, and said, "You know, if I didn't know any better, I would swear that you were following me."

The young boy looked up at him with the same bored look on his face. But, Steel-Lord could see something in his eyes. Indeed, he could almost hear the gears turning in the boy's head.