He rose from the wreckage, physically unharmed.
He searched his memory for his name. Clark ... Clark ...
It didn't matter. He knew his mission. He rose into the sky, heading towards the vast city of Metropolis, to fight for truth, justice, and the American way.
THE WORLD'S GREATEST ACTION COMICS MAGAZINE #1 "A Superman Walks Among Us"
(from a plot concept by Two-Faced Goblin with additional help from Crazy Ivan)
"Look, up in the sky!"
"It's a bird!"
"It's a plane!"
He smiled at the familiar words as he soared down to the central bank where his senses had alerted him that there was a holdup in progress. He landed easily, brushing his red cape aside as he passed through the door to the bank. The red 'S' on his chest, vibrant against the bright blue of his uniform, announced his identity to all those who saw him.
He scanned the proceedings. Three armed men concealing their identities behind stocking caps, hostages kneeling on the floor. He focussed his eyes on a different part of the spectrum, and noted that none of the hostages had been wounded. Good, he thought. He would rather go easy on them. "Cease and desist," he said, his voice confident.
"Get him!" shouted one of the thugs. He must be the leader, the man thought. They raised their guns, unleashing a barrage of bullets at him.
The man knew he was in no danger of being harmed, but that ricochets off his chest in such close quarters might hit some of the hostages. His hands moved faster than human eyes could see, and he caught each of the bullets in mid-flight.
He focussed again, and his eyes blazed red. The gunmen screamed as their guns became red-hot in their hands. They dropped their weapons.
The man moved again, and the gunmen were bound up securely with a rope. He smiled at the hostages. "You can get up now." He hoisted the gunmen over his shoulder with ease, and carried them single-handedly out the front door of the bank. "Here you go officers, consider it an early Christmas present."
A reporter was first from the crowd. She was beautiful and raven-haired. Behind her, a young man with red hair and freckles stood, aiming a television camera. "That was great work! Can you tell our viewers your name? Are you a new member of the Super Four?"
The man blinked, "Why I'm Super ... mnnnn ... don't you know me?" He thought: the Super Four? He smiled, concealing his confusion from the woman, "I will see you later."
He burst into the sky, angling his speed towards the mountains surrounding Metropolis. He found an isolated area and landed. "Flight," he thought to himself. "Speed."
He leaned down, easily lifting a boulder over his head. He threw it upwards, watching it enter the upper stratosphere. "Super strength. Telescopic vision," he thought.
As it plummeted back towards him, he scanned its atomic structure, and blasted off a chunk with heat from his eyes before the rest crashed into him, leaving him unharmed. "Microscopic vision. Heat vision. Invulnerability," he thought.
He sat down on the edge of the mountain. "Clark ... Clark Richards."
"We are Clark Richards. And Linda Storm. And Johnny Henry Storm. And David Grimm. Clark Richards was a scientist at Project: Cadmus. He was the leader of an excursion up into space to study the effects of a strange radioactive element he named Fantastinite. He and his fellow crewmembers: Linda Storm, her brother Johnny Henry and their friend David Grimm, were subjected to this radiation, which mutated their bodies and gave them superhuman powers. We banded together as the Super Four to fight for truth, justice and the American way. And then something ... something happened.
"What was it?" he wondered. "Some new weapon of Victor Von Luthor's? An attempt at conquest from the Psycho-Toy? Or just some game on the part of the Impossible Mxyzptlk?"
He looked towards the center of the city, the Fortress of Solitude located on the top floors of the Baxter Building. And then he spied them, working in Clark's lab: imposters, duplicates of the Super Four meant to further confuse them after they had been somehow amalgamated into one being. "They will find that the Super Four are not so easily fooled," he thought. "We have worked as a unit long enough, it will take more than this to defeat us."
And in a moment, he was up in the air, flying faster than a speeding bullet.
"He's coming, and he's fast," the woman said.
The slim man working at the scientific machinery nodded, "My instruments read that he's an alien, but the energy he's giving off makes it difficult to determine any specifics. I will continue to work. I think we should summon the others."
She nodded, "Let's go." At her words, the man's outline seemed to blur, and suddenly two of him appeared adjacent to each other in the room. One of them remained constant at his post, eyes scanning the instruments. The other walked over and joined the woman.
As they walked to the elevator, he asked, "What's his state of mind?"
She shook her head and pressed the button by the side of the doors. "I'm not sure. From what he said to that Daily Planet reporter, he seems confused. But he's pretty powerful ... it's as if he's an amalgamation of all four of us."
He stroked his chin thoughtfully as the doors opened. "That shouldn't pose too much of a problem, as we have teamwork on our side. But if he's mad, or if he has other abilities yet undemonstrated, he could be a danger. Continue observing him, I know we don't have much time."
As they entered the lounge, they stepped into a melee. "Come back here, you punk!" The massively built man lunged across the room. He chased after a teenage boy, who flew easily out of reach. "Come and get me!" the boy said. Beams of heat leaped from the latter's eyes, glancing off the other's shoulder. They were repelled straight towards the woman ... and passed through her harmlessly. She scowled.
"Oops, sorry," the boy said. "That intangibility of yours sure comes in handy, sis."
The other man looked apologetic. "What's with the long face, Stretch?" he said to the slim man. "Something up?"
The man nodded, "Yes ... it appears we have an unknown opponent. His powers appear -"
"He's here," the woman said, seconds before the wall burst in.
TO BE CONTINUED …
HERO AND VILLAIN PROFILES (originally written by Two-Faced Goblin and edited by me to fit my different views of the characters):
THE SUPER FOUR
MISTER SUPER
Real Name: Clark Richards
Powers and Abilities: super-intellect, limited shapechanging, super-hypnotism, splitting into two
Other Notes: The leader of the Super Four, Clark Richards was a scientist at Project: Cadmus. He was the leader of an excursion up into space to study the effects of a strange radioactive element he named Fantastinite (Fantastic Four elements and kryptonite). He and his fellow crewmembers; Linda Storm, her brother Johnny Henry and their friend David Grimm; were subjected to this radiation, which mutated their bodies and gave them superhuman powers.
SUPER GIRL
Real name: Linda Storm
Powers and Abilities: intangibility, x-ray vision, super hearing, telescopic vision, super-ventriloquism
Other Notes: The girlfriend of Clark Richards, Linda Storm volunteered for her paramour's mission to study Fantastinite radiation. Exposure to this radiation granted her the abilities listed above. Now as the Invisible Girl, Linda is one of the most stalwart members of the Super Four.
NOVA
Real name: Johnny Henry Storm
Powers and Abilities: flight, heat vision
Other Notes: A young man out for a bit of fun, Johnny Henry Storm followed his sister Linda onto her boyfriend Clark Richards' space mission. Little did he know that he would gain the ability to fly at incredible speeds and to generate intense heat from his eyes. Now as the hotheaded Nova, Johnny Henry fights alongside his sister in the Super Four.
GANGBUSTER
Real name: David Grimm
Powers and Abilities: strength, invulnerability, super-breath
Other Notes: A former test pilot and quarterback, David Grimm came to regret the day he agreed to fly the shuttle that allowed his best friend Clark Richards to study Fantastinite radiation. The radiation transformed David into a hideous creature who appeared to be formed out of blue rock. Despite his ugly appearance, under all the blue rock beats the heart of a true hero, and one in the Super Four, no less.
FOES
VICTOR VON LUTHOR (Doctor Doom and Lex Luthor)
Powers and Abilities: Suit of armour grants him superhuman strength and offensive weaponry, in addition to protection.
Other Notes: A ruthless businessman from the tiny European nation of Latveria, Victor Von Luthor travelled to America when he heard of the Super Four. During a battle, he discovered that Mister Super was, in actual fact, his college friend Clark Richards. For many years ago, Von Luthor had been involved in a dangerous experiment. Clark tried to stop him going through it, but to no avail. Von Luthor lost his hair, and his face was horribly scarred. Using the advanced technology available to him, Von Luthor constructed a suit of armour to hide himself from the world. Now, he lives to destroy the Super Four, and will not stop for anything.
THE ATOMIC SKRULL (Super-Skrull and Atomic Skull)
Real name: Kl'Rt
Powers and Abilities: All the abilities of the Super Four. Shapeshifting. Hypnosis.
Other Notes: A member of the shapeshifting race known as the Skrulls, Kl'Rt was chosen to be a special operative to travel to Earth, and defeat the Super Four. He was given all their powers, and a special ability: hypnosis. When he reached Earth, Kl'Rt's mind was damaged upon landing. This led him to believe he was the Super Four all amalgamated into one being, and so he set out to destroy them, believing them to be impostors.
THE IMPOSSIBLE MXYZPTLK (Impossible Man and Mr. Mxyzptlk)
Powers and Abilities: Shapeshifting. Teleportation. Can basically do anything he wants.
Other Notes: The alternate universe counterpart of the prime Amalgam reality's Impossible Mxyzptlk, this universe's Impy is basically the same.
PSYCHO-TOY (Psycho-Man and Toyman)
Real name: Unknown
Powers and Abilities: Genius. Has an army of emotion-manipulating toys to do his bidding.
Other Notes: The denizen of a microscopic universe, Psycho-Toy's genius allowed him to built emotion-manipulating toys to enslave the other inhabitants of this Microverse. These include anger-inducing wind-up monkeys; fear-inducing rubber spiders and hate-inducing mechanical rabbits.
GALACDOOM (Galactus and Doomsday)
Real name: Unknown
Powers and Abilities: Extremely strong, stronger than Gangbuster. Possesses bony spurs at nearly every joint. Wields the Power Cosmic. Invulnerable.
Other Notes: Galacdoom is the result of many years of genetic engineering by the inhabitants of an unknown planet. It was created as the ultimate warrior, a being who would bring destruction upon a planet, then suck its life force to feed itself. Galacdoom rebelled against its creators, and left to wander space for planets to feed itself with. It locates these planets with the aid of its herald, the Silver Streak. When the Silver Streak abandoned its owner in order to protect Earth, Galactdoom has enlisted the help of a series of other heralds over the years:
Silver Streak (Silver Surfer and Streaky)
Air Dale (Air Walker and Krypto)
Beppax (Terrax and Beppo )
CometLord (Firelord and Comet)
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