My DC Academia

Secrets

The smoke faded and a small figure stood where Superman once was. He had a similar face to him but a surprisingly frail body. Superman's suit was on him but it was saggy on the man's body. He was holding a camera and had glasses on, with an ID that read, Clark Kent. Barry was shocked, where did Superman go? he thought. He didn't realize that the man standing in front of him, was in-fact, Superman. Clark panicked, he forgot his time for the day was already over. He was pushing his limit and screwed up, his secret identity was revealed to the child. He was planning on helping him train, but, he was still a kid after all, he might've slipped up if Clark told him his secret. Barry then realized what was going on, this was Superman's true form, or at least his undercover form.

"Well then, I assume you know who I am." Clark said. "Yeah, Superman." Barry said. "No need to call me that, just Clark is fine." Clark said. "Okay. Mr. Clark" said Barry. "I think we should establish some ground rules" Clark started, "First, don't tell anyone about this, not even your parents. Second, call me Superman around others. Third, Don't use your quirk too much. Got that?" "Yes, sir" Barry said. "Everything except the parent part." He also whispered. "Oh, sorry, I didn't know." Clark said. Barry was shocked, he whispered that so he couldn't hear him, was his quirk just physical enhancements, super hearing? Flight? Super-Speed? It was impossible for him to know at the time. "It's fine, I would've told you eventually, it's my whole reason for wanting to become a hero." Barry said.

"How so is this your reason?" Clark asked. "When I was 4, my mom was murdered, everyone thinks it was my dad, but I know it wasn't. It was a man in a yellow suit, I didn't know back then, but with the experience of super-speed in my memory, I think that guy had it too." Barry said. "I'm sorry for your loss, I'm afraid I haven't encountered any villain that has Super-Speed." Clark replied. "I didn't expect you to, but, now that I have a quirk, I can find him and avenge my mom." Barry said. "Yes, you will, but first you must overcome many, many trials." Clark said. "I'm ready, I'm ready to become a hero." Barry replied. "I'm afraid you're a long way from becoming a hero, kid." Clark said.

"I'm assuming you're going to try and get into DA. That's no easy task, and you don't have a handle on your quirk yet, and there's also the added fact that Super-Speed has a drastic effect on your body." Clark said. "There's the problem of your fast metabolism, you'll need to eat a lot. Your quirk also has the drawback of being deadly if you travel too fast, go to fast and you might accidentally erase someone completely. It's also deadly to you as well, you'll catch on fire if you go too fast, which might actually be helpful sometimes, but it's better to avoid the possibility at all, and request a fire proof suit when the time of picking a hero costume comes." Barry was tired just by hearing all this, could being fast really be that bad? It was going to be a long few months for him, he thought. Clark was still thinking about the drawbacks of Super-Speed, but then he heard a loud crash halfway across the city. He grabbed Barry and said, "Hold on." He transformed into Superman and flew towards the crash, but sadly, his time in this form was almost over.

When Superman and Barry arrived at the scene, there was a fire and a few Pro Heroes on site. Superman suddenly coughed up a lot of blood and turned back into Clark. Crap, Clark thought, he pushed the limit this morning, he went for 2 hours and 59 minutes earlier, and it took him about 30 seconds to get here, he only had about 30 seconds left in his hero form. If he pushed it, he maybe had 2, or 3 minutes at the limit. He could resolve the fire and make an excuse that he had to go save someone else, then fly away to a nearby building and go on from there. He looked over at Barry to tell him his plan, but his eyes were met with the face of someone in fear. "T-That's the sludge monster that attacked me the day I was struck by lightning." Barry said. Clark hadn't realized it, but it was in-fact the monster that got away that day. He managed to get away from Clark in his Superman form so he had to be sneaky, 2 or 3 minutes wouldn't be enough time to beat him and get away in time before his Superman form ran out. He looked over at Barry again, and once again his eyes were met with not just fear, but terror. "H-he has Billy, a kid from my school, if he managed to capture him, no way you could beat him in less than 5 minutes." Barry told Clark. He had already figured Superman had reached some sort of limit, and taking that into account and how worried Clark was, he determined at his max he could go 5 or less minutes in his hero form. "I doubt a kid has the same amount of ability I possess in this very moment." Clark said. "He does, he might even have a quirk that makes him as strong if not stronger than you." Barry said.

Earlier, Billy was walking down to a store using an alleyway. He was concerned about Barry but wouldn't let himself accept that. After what happened on that day, there was no way they could ever be friends or whatever that was these days. All he needed was to get into DA and prove he was the strongest meta-human to ever exist. With his quirk, he believed he would be stronger than Superman himself, and he wasn't entirely foolish in believing that.

Billy's quirk was named Shazam, after the name he had to say to activate his quirk. After saying Shazam, a lightning bolt would crash down to wherever he was, if it managed to hit him, he would gain the power of the six legendary figures. It basically gave him 6 quirks, which was more than enough for Billy to believe he was stronger than Superman.

While he was walking down the alleyway, the sludge villain that had escaped Superman crept up behind him, attacking from behind and managing to start taking over his body. "SHAZAM!" Billy screamed. He waited a few seconds and nothing happened, suddenly the buildings around him caught fire. He realized what happened, the slime that was suffocating him deflected the lightning and it bounced towards the neighboring buildings. After only a few seconds, firefighters and heroes started showing up, resulting in the situation Superman and Barry were in at that very moment.

Clark was out of ideas, he believed that all he could do was watch this kid be strangled and hope another pro was able to stop him. He looked over towards Barry, expecting to see a face worse than terror once again, but all he saw was lightning crackling from where Barry was standing.

Barry didn't know how to use his new quirk, whether it was a part of some speed force or just plain old super speed, but he knew what he had to do. It was almost as if his legs moved by themselves, he didn't realize what he was doing until he was doing it. He needed to save Billy, to save a once dear friend, before what happened on that day. Barry felt electricity surging throughout him as he ran, everything slowed around him, and he had one clear path towards Billy. He ran towards there, but suddenly something didn't feel right in his leg, it was almost as if his bone was out of place, he started to trip and rolled on the ground. Barry couldn't let this stop him, even with the misplaced bone, he still had to save Billy. As he ran, more and more bones in his leg came out of place, and it became more and more difficult for Barry to run, but he still had to run, he had to save Billy. Barry finally reached the slime villain, and with one quick pull, Barry managed to pull Billy out of the slime villain, and he fell to the ground, unable to move with his misplaced bones.

The slime villain was furious, he wasn't even able to see the boy coming, and even worse, this was the same kid he tried to take over before Superman had taken him out. The villain raised his arm and was about to hit Barry and the passed out Billy. Suddenly, an arm stopped the slime just before it hit the two boys, Barry looked up and saw the symbol of peace standing right above him. He blinked and was back where he was when he started running. There was only one explanation for this, in the timespan of Barry's blink, Superman managed to move them from the middle of the crime scene to the outskirts of it.

The slime villain was discouraged by the appearance of Superman, but still attacked. Superman caught his arm midair and started to speak, "This must be your un-lucky day, I don't think I would be fighting you right now if not for the act of bravery that young man showed when he saved the other child from you. It was foolish of me to restrain myself, so you'll get to see my power, without restraints." The slime villain was terrified, he didn't wish to become like the shark Superman demolished during his debut. He struggled attempting to hit him as hard as possible, but Superman stood tall. "I think you've heard these words before, but i'll show you what they really mean." Superman says. He winds up a punch, "Go Beyond."
He swings at the slime monster knocking him into a million pieces, "PLUS ULTRA!!"

After the rescue team saved everyone from the fire and the slime villain was cleaned up. Superman had managed to escape to a building where no one would see him, it was a close call since the interviewers were particularly intense. Barry had went to the police station for punishment, although they wouldn't be too harsh on him because his actions ended up saving the life of Billy, the young man trapped by the slime villain. Clark planned to catch up with him later, but not at this very moment, his foster parents would have the wonderful news their adopted son was directly involved in a villain attack. Clark saw potential in the young man, he knew training him would be hard and fixing that speed handicap would be tough as well, but he needed to do it. He needed to do it so the world could have a hero to look up to, when his time was finished.