Chapter 2

DC

Marvel

The New Marvel

*** Boston, Massachusetts***

"Oh my god, Clark is that you?!" Jane Kent stared wide eye at her son. He was wearing a burgundy hoodie with casual jeans. However the frame that he had on him now was completely different from how she remembered from a year ago. He looked the picture of health!

"Hey mom," Clark rubbed the back of his head before giving his mother a hug.

Jane marveled at how solid and built her son felt through the clothes. Just what have he've been doing in New York?!

"Hey slugger, you're bac- CLARK?!" Marcus Kent was walking in from the dining room when he did a double take and looked at his son. While most would not really noticed with the clothes on him, Marcus who have always cared for his son attuned himself to his son in such a way that he'd notice if anything was off. To say Clark was different was an understatement.

"What have you been eating and where can I get some?!"

"Oh hush!" Jane got out from Clark hug and smacked her husband on her arm. She stepped back and took a look at her son once more gripping his harden shoulders.

"And the doctor said he never stood a chance," Marcus snorted derisively at the old diagnosis he had received for Clark when he was a baby. "If they could only see you now, they'll eat their words that's for sure."

Clark kind of shied away from the proud looked on his parents face but he had to admit, it was nice to see them happy and to not question his new physique too much. Still he had something he wanted to do first and looked at his dad.

"Hey Dad, mind if I take the car out to visit Steven?"

The two parents looked at each other but nodded to their son wishes.

"Help yourself son."

+++ Boston Memorial +++

Clark stood before grave of his best friend and laid down the flowers he had in his hand respectfully.

"Heya Steven, You'd never believe the crazy stuff that just happened to me, turns out, I'm Superman."

Naturally the headstone did not replied.

"I'm still trying to get a handle on things but remember how you said my brains could get me places? Well, I got a job at the Baxters Building, I had intended to use that as a stepping stone to build that power suit we have always talked about..."

The headstone once more did not replied. Clark gingerly touch the top of it as a gesture of respect before he continued.

"Anyway, I'm back to my dual identity now, oh by the way Hyperion is a rip off of me. I know you were a fan of his."

Clark quirked his lips at that, once everything got sorted out with the so called Squadron Supreme, the Avengers declared Hyperion an ally. Steven had been a huge fan from the outset while Joe was more interested in the female heroines. He could almost hear Steven voice defending his personal hero.

"Anyway, I stop by and visit you sometime, see you around buddy."

Clark lift his hand from the tomestone and turned to look at the sky. He had debated if he wanted to work at the Baxter Building still but decided he already did all of the interview and medical examination. It would be suspicious if he did NOT show up for work. Also he would be working in the engineering department, so he would be far away from the actual Fantastic Four.

*** A few Months Later, Free Four Plaza 49th Floor ***

"Hey Clark, wanna go grab a bite to eat?" Mary Ann, a pretty blonde with her hair done up in a tight bun and glasses asked her co-worker.

Clark looked over at said woman and nodded. The woman was ten years his senior and he wasn't too dense to see that she have taken quite an interest in him. Of course he wasn't oppose to her advances but at the moment he wanted to keep things low key.

"Sure, lemme finished this matter-energy convert diagram real quick."

Mary Ann simply head over Clark side, her bust very suggestively pressing into his back as she marvel at the way Clark was solving some of the most difficult math Dr. Richards have left to them. The 49th floor was sublet as an intern group to work on what Reed Richard simply does not have time for. To him, the staff was just there to crunch the hard numbers that he could do himself but even some of these math's boggle her minds. If these were what Dr. Richards view as non-essential, she shuddered to think of what could be in the labs above her.

Clark quickly worked through the equation that was given to them and completed yet another set of problems before he called it quits. He had to admit, Reed Richard brains reviles if not surpass some of the people he had known in his original universe. Nodding to Mary Ann that he was finished he took off his lab coat and put on his Blazer as he made his way to the elevators.

Mary watches smugly at the other girls in her office glared at her. It was not her fault that they were slow to try to get to Mr. Kent. Once more she turned her eye to the man walking in front of her and gave a very appreciative look to his sturdy frame and backside. It's was a shame that Clark still have not noticed her advance. She had tried liquoring him up but she was the one that ended up needing to be escorted back to her residence.

Still, she had time, she grinned as she brushed her backside up against Clark's front and shiver in delight at how solid he felt before pressing the button to go to the lobby only for the elevator to shake violently. Losing her balance she was caught by a pair of strong arms and looked up to see her savior.

"Is it an attack?" Clark asked looking down at her.

A moment later a loud blaring noise could be heard throughout the entire compound.

"Execute Emergency Protocols!" Mary pressed into the com and the elevator (which had been descending at a leisurely pace) did a dead drop and opened it's door a second later to allow Clark and her to leave.

The two got out right away and no sooner had they went out that another elevator descended and opened up to show more of their co-workers running out of the building.

"I wonder what's going on?" Mary turned around when she didn't hear Clark answer to her question only to see he was gone. Oddly she felt disappointed that they wouldn't be getting dinner after all.

+++

Clark had went outside and looked up at the building and did not see any direct attack on Freedom Four Plaza itself. That was when a bright streak of lighting struck something in the vicinity of the Raft and caused another shock wave to rumbled through the street of New York. Using his super sight he saw Electro attacking the prison, but already on his way was Spider-man.

Flying back to his apartment quickly, Clark donned his Cobalt persona armor and flew toward the Raft where the breakout was happening. It had been roughly three months since he began his superhero job once more, and in all that time, he had teamed up with Spider-Man, Daredevil and the New Warriors. It wasn't anything major, while they were battling their villains, Cobalt was busy moving the civilians out of harms way. The New Warriors in Clark eyes were a bit reckless and he wondered why the older superheroes didn't try to oversee them a bit. In his eyes filming your heroics act on for a reality T.V show was something real Super Heroes shouldn't do.

However, Spider-man was a pleasant surprise, he had been battling Hobgoblin over Downtown while Cobalt block several large debris before it could land on the innocent bystanders. Spider-Man had quiped that it was good to see an Iron Man on the street before he was able to put down the villain. The two shared a hot dog from Spider-man favorite vendor before they parted way. That team-up earned him street cred as he became known more of a small time superhero that just help your common every day man rather than battle world ending threat. At the very least the people liked him.

Eventually he made his way to the Raft and saw several more heroes have shown up. Immediately he smashed into the area of villains that had been threatening to overwhelm Spider-man and Captain America via sheer numbers.

"Ton- Who are you?" Captain America asked even as he he was doing a mid jump and tossed a shield into M.O.D.O.K. face sending the villain crashing the ground in pain.

"Cobalt, sir!" Clark swung his arms wide and clothesline Abomination among in his sweep sending the villain and others painfully to the ground. He gave Captain America a smart salute as he continue to battle through the sea of Supervillians grinning all the while.

"Good work son," Captain America acknowledged even as he took out three more villains gunning for him with Batman-like efficency.

"Heya Big Blue!" Spider-man greeted him with a jaunty wave as if battle super villains and criminal on this scale was an everyday occurrence. "Glad ya can make it to the party!"

Clark had to smile before he dived bomb right into the group of criminals just trying to bum rush the webslinger. The impact sent many of them flying while knocking out a good portion of the non-powered one.

"Whoa, that some thumpin!" Spider-man jovially cheered before he jumped into the fray and begin to web up the disoriented escapee.

No sooner had Clark given a thumb up to the web crawler when he was tackled by something large and heavy.

"Alright ya Iron Man wanna be, time to die!" Rhino in his battle suit roared as he brought both of his fist over his head and smashed it down.

Clark immediately raised his two hand up to catch the attack and felt the metal around his arms fray at the seams. The concrete on the floor around him also crack and formed a slight depression, a testament to the super villain raw strength.

"W-Wha?!" Rhino eyes widen in shock as he had used all of his strength to smashed open the blue armored man. His experience with Iron Man had let him know to always go full powered if he want to knock the power suits out of commission. However, the blue guy stopped his attack cold!

A member later a powerful blast smashed into Rhino sending him across the room and through the wall.

Clark looked up and saw Tony Stark aka the Iron Man floating above the fray.

"Nice suit, who are you suppose to be?" Iron Man slowly hovered down and began to fire replusor rays against the criminals knocking most out immediately before turning back to the stranger new superhero.

"That's big blue," Spider-Man rushed over and stuck to a broken part of the ceiling hanging backward to look at the new reinforcement. "But I suppose people called him Cobalt."

Iron Man helmet turned to look at the blue armor person giving him a once over. "If his name is Cobalt, why does he have a giant S on his chest?"

"I dunno know," Spider-Man shrugged before swung toward Taskmaster and other superpower villains that were regrouping.

"Tony!" Captain America yelled out before a villain was thrown toward Iron Man. With practice ease, the ex-Avenger fired a beam at the villain and knocked the perp out in mid air.

The two armor suited men look at each other before they rejoined the fray.

Clark saw a large black man enter the free for all melee moments later to help Spider-Man who costume was beginning to show signs of wear and tear. The man was none other than Luke Cage with that they began to turn tied in the heroes favor. Minutes after that another blonde man with cropped hair joined with a stunning looking woman in a business suit and skirt.

"Carnage is loose!" Spider-Man shouted even a red blob of tentacle things rush toward the heroes and knocked them all aside.

Clark raised his hand and fire off a heat vision beam from his wrist at the alien creature. He remembered the creature going on a killing spree of regular civilian a couple of years ago when he was just a freshman in college. One of the villain followers Shriek had nearly done him if had it not been for the timely arrival of the Super heroine known as Firestar.

"Argh! Who dares! DIE!" Carnage roared in pain as he was stuck with painful heat. Reacting on instinct two tentacles fired directly at the blue Iron Man, pierced his armor and sent him crashing through several walls. He was surprise when his tentacle did not completely skewered the super hero.

"Cobalt!" Captain America screamed in concern as he let loose his shield and saw it struck against the blood red villain head.

"You are all dead!" Carnage roared, really pissed off by constant attack. To his own surprise he was struck by the painful heat beam again and turned to see the blue armored man walking back in with is armed leveled at him. "Starting with you!"

Clark knew that he had lucked out, had he been a normal human, he would have definitely been dead or dying from the heart strike the symbiont had done. However thanks to his kryptonian physiology all he felt was pressure. Then the thing leaped at him. Cocking his fist back he was about to use some of his immense strength when the creature was tackled mid air by a man in yellow and blue and flew upward.

"Who?" Spider-man cocked his head to a side as he watched the yellow costume hero grabbed Carnage and fly him high into the sky.

"Never mind that for now, we need to put them down NOW!" Captain America ordered and as one the group minus Cobalt began their counter offensive. "That means you too solider!"

Clark snapped out of his vision at seeing the blonde man tearing the villain in half before he too nodded at the Captain.

After that it didn't take too long to bring the prison back under control, though there was at least thirty confirmed super villain escapee. The majority of the population was subdued.

Clark stood apart from the group who appeared to be in an intense discussion even as he look intensely at where the blonde man had flew off to, was the blonde a hero or a villain? The other heroes of this world seem to know him in passing judging by what he had picked up from Iron Man.

'Sentry...'

"Son," Captain America walked over to Cobalt and clapped a red gloved hand onto his shoulder. "From what Spider-Man told me, you mainly stuck to the street level battles and dealt mostly with petty crime."

"Yes sir," Clark electronic voice came out a bit garbled. The man fought in World War II and saved this world long before Clark regained his power. Of course he would show the man all of his due respect.

"Just doing what I can to help, Sir."

"Well you more than proved that you can go toe to toe with any of these villains here," Captain American gestured to the now locked down Raft as S.H.I.E.L.D against can be seen crawling around the place like ants. "I'll cut to the chase, We're reforming the Avengers son, and I think we can use you."

Clark eyes widen underneath the helmet as he glanced over at who was going to be in the Avengers. He saw Daredevil swinging away, while the man known as Clint, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Luke Cage and the pretty black haired woman standing in the circle talking to one another. A wave of nostalgia struck him then as he remembered his days with the Justice League.

"So what do you say Sir? Are you in?"

Glancing around once more he saw Spider-Man gives him a thumbs up, the only familiar face in the group.

"C-can I think about it?" Clark asked much to Captain America surprised. He was about to explain when an understanding look came over the man face.

"I understand son," Captain America nod softly."If you change your mind, we'll welcome you with open arms."

"Thank you, Sir," Clark said gratefully before he floated off the ground making sure to fire up his rocket to maintain the illusion and flew off toward his apartment.

+++ Raft+++

"Aww damn, Big Blue not gonna join?" Peter felt a bit sad at the fact. Cobalt was what he like to call a steady hero. With him on the streets, regular petty crimes really decline, and after today he more than prove that he could tussle with the big boys.

"Don't worry," Steve Rodgers aka Captain America assured his friend with a smile. "He'll be back, men like him tends to do the right thing."

"Yeah, Yeah, now that my rip off is gone, I got some information about the prison break ... who's up for a trip to the Savage Lands?"

Tony Stark with his faceplate up could only grin from ear to ear as he heard the pained groan all around him.

TBC...