Titans

Chapter 1: Man of Steel

It was a normal morning in Metropolis, the city buzzing with its usual hustle and bustle. Dogs were barking, frustrated parents rushed their children to school, car horns blared and people cursed at each other while stuck in grid lock bumper to bumper traffic. On a platform of Metropolis train station a desperate crowd packed themselves in an almost full train like sardines. After the last passenger pushed themselves through, the door closes and the train takes off leaving behind poor souls who were just a second too late and had to watch their only means to work leave without them.

In the first car of the train stood a young conductor who was fresh on the job and excited he was finally getting his first route underway. He looked out the window at the passing city and beamed fully realizing that his dreams had finally become a reality. The train was now approaching its first destination so the conductor gripped the brake lever smiling, "Here we go!" he thinks to himself and pulls the brake lever down.......but it doesn't move. The train flies by the first stop and our conductor begins to panic pulling with all his might "Come on!" he exclaims as his efforts fall in vain. Meanwhile the passengers began angrily protesting, one man squeezed his way through the angry packed crowd and walked up to the cabinet door letting himself in. "Hey what's going on up here?!" the suited man angrily asked, our conductor looked back mortified "I......I can't stop the train!".

One, two, three more stops go by and now the passengers are becoming terrified; screaming in fear and pounding on the windows begging for help from the outside world. The man that had come up to yell at the conductor was now trying to help and was lending his strength in an attempt to move the uncooperative brake lever but to no avail. Our young conductor was beside himself, it was his first day on the job and he was going to be responsible for the death of an entire train full of innocent people! The train passes through a tunnel and comes out the other end onto a bridge track that was high above the city streets. The passengers continued screaming for help and were clamoring enough that citizens below that were on foot noticed and were horrified to see such panic fly by at that high a speed.

Meanwhile, in the conductor cabinet the two men continued to struggle with the brake lever, the man in the suit had finally had enough and angrily punched the console snapping the lever in half; both men stare in utter shock "Oh sh...", at that moment the train jerks violently with its brakes having been put into overdrive now; the wheels grind against the tracks letting off sparks! The citizens below and in the train go into an utter frenzy. The train than toppled over to the left and begins plummeting to the ground, the passengers all become victims to gravity and are slammed into the walls of the cars they are in, their stomachs dropping at the sensation. The fall provided both a dreadful yet strangely exciting adrenaline rush. Just as everyone in the train was about to accept their fates the falling  abruptly stopped and the screaming outside turned to uproarious cheering. Outside holding the train by the bottom of one of the cars was a man with quaffed black hair, a blue suit with a red cape, and a familiar "S" insignia on his chest. "SUPERMAN!!!" exclaims a citizen. The hero smiles warmly at his public and then lifts the train back onto the tracks. The uproarious cheering continues and Supes flies off as fire trucks and police cars advance on the scene. Supes needed to hurry because just like the people on that train......he was late for work!

Times had been rather peaceful for Superman a.k.a Clark Kent. Other then the occasional city disaster like the train he just saved there really hadn't been a need for him for at least a few years, even his arch nemesis Lex Luthor had been keeping rather quiet. Clark knew that this was probably just the calm before the storm but there was no time to worry about that now. He flies down onto the roof of an abandoned warehouse where he is keeping his suit on a lone hanger with his work bag right beside it. Clark quickly put on his suit, tied his laces tight, combed his hair over, and then put on his glasses which he had neatly tucked in his shirt pocket. He was ready. At that moment, his phone goes off in his pocket as soon as his glasses touched his face; it was as if he were being watched. He pulled out his phone and turned on the screen to see he had received a text from Lois Lane that simply read "You're late!". He chuckled and decided to not reply because it would only make her angrier, he was already not going to hear the end of it as it was. Clark tucked his phone back in his pocket, grabbed his bag, and gently floated down to the ground landing perfectly on his bike and takes off.

At the Daily Planet Lois Lane was hard at work on a news article but was having trouble focusing being anxious about Clark being late, this was his third time this week and their editor in chief Edgar White was probably losing his patience. "Hey Edgar, turn that up will ya?!" yelled a man in the office to the boss. Edgar, who had a desk at the far end of the office, did as he was asked as a news piece about the man of steel's daring rescue began to play. The office all huddled under the tv looking up at it excitedly because it wasn't often the blue boy scout made an appearance these days. As the footage played, an anchor woman reported over it ".... shocking footage by a witness shows the man of steel in a daring rescue as he catches the Metropolis metro link just moments after derailing, miraculously no one was injured and..." the rest of the report is drowned out by the office erupting in celebration. Lois's ears are pierced by a couple of people high pitched whistling; her mood was causing her to be annoyed by it all.

Edgar than lowered the volume to the tv and the crowd dispersed getting back to work. Edgar approached Lois with tv remote in hand looking at her from over her cubicle wall "So, where is he?" Edgar asked, Lois sighed not looking up from her computer screen "I don't know" she lied knowing full well what was making Clark late "but he should be here any sec....." she stopped her sentence hearing the office door open and getting up to see who came in and it was in fact the man of the hour.

Clark immediately caught Lois's evil eye from across the office as well as Edgar staring him down. Even though he knew it was a bad idea he decided to approach Edgar and Lois. "Hey guys" he said knowing he was in trouble on two different levels "You're late Kent" Edgar said dryly "Yeah I know, it was a mad house out there" "Yeah I see that" Edgar said looking at the tv, the footage from the accident had continued playing now showing fire trucks and police cars on the scene, he then looks back at Clark and lightly slaps his shoulder "We'll let it slide this time" "Thanks, Edgar" Clark said. Edgar gives a single nod with a smirk and walks away. Lois then gets up putting her hands on his shoulders and his on her waist "Faster than a speeding bullet but somehow always late to work" Lois joked but spoke only loud enough for the two of them to hear, she could never stay mad at him long. Clark grinned at her comment and then the two kiss. With super villainy at an all time low, Clark and Lois were finally able to have a successful romantic relationship. Cat calls and whistles from their fellow workers follow their kiss and the couple smiles in embarrassment touching foreheads as if to hide each other, "Alright break it up you two" Edgar said playfully from his desk. The couple did as they were told and Lois went back to her computer.

It was a rather smooth day of work, a story came in for Clark and it turned out to be a short article about the train accident; this wasn't the first time he had to write about his own rescues and it never ceased to amuse him. Clark finished writing the last of his article and placed it in the sender's box to be sent to the presses. He then decided to walk over to Lois, he leaned on her cubicle and began to clean his glasses "So did you want to do something after work?" he asked "I can't, I just got this story in about Lexcorp." Lois answered, "Lex? What's he up to?" Clark asked in a slightly concerned tone. Lex Luthor had been keeping quiet lately and it was never wise to put something by him. Lois answered "Oh you know him, he'll sleep when he's dead. Apparently Lexcorp has something big coming and it'll be revealed at the Lexcorp expo, SO....." Clark finished her sentence having been in the industry awhile ".... You have to set up an interview to have for the piece" "Bingo" she says with a stressed sigh, she always got the big stories last minute. "Well ok I'll just see ya at home then", he steps into her cubicle to give her a quick kiss and then turns around heading for the door. "Story's in the box!" Clark yelled back at Edgar as he exited the office. He walks outside and mounts his bike but before he could take off; a boy wearing what looked like a black hood runs up with a camera "Heya mister!" the boy shouts as he takes Clark's picture complete with a flash "Thanks mister!" the boy runs off and Clark chuckled at the strange boy as he rode away.

Meanwhile, the boy from before had stopped running, he let down his hood revealing short brown hair and a very refined young face; pointed nose, smooth cheeks and round chin. He looked down at the camera he had and though it looked like a normal camera from the front, on the back it looked space aged with a screen that seemed to be scanning Clark's face with green lines going up and down and forward and backward. They stop and form a box around Clark's head and a reading appears that says: "Clark Kent. True identity: Kal-El a.k.a. 'Superman'". "It's you" he said dryly "I knew it was you".