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[b][color=0072bc][u]Prologue: From Russia Without Love[/u][/color]
Gotham City, United States
May 2nd, 2016[/b][/center][hr]
[INDENT]Clark Kent knew the consequences of the Kryptonian Invasion would be fierce, and truthfully he didn’t particularly blame the world for turning their backs on him. 

He had been so captivated by the prospect of knowing what he had never been able to that he allowed himself to not see the true intentions behind those who sought him out, and the consequences of such blindness had come at a cost that he could not forgive himself for— and how could he blame the world for losing their faith in him when he had lost faith in himself? 

Everything he had done since 2012 had felt pointless and absolute irrelevant in the shadow of what had transpired only just a month ago. For all the lives he protected and damages he protected others from could not have justified the harm that came from the Kryptonian mothership being allowed to approach Earth in the first place. In many ways, it was an eternal nightmare for him— the scenario dwelling in the back of his mind and he relived it time after time. The telltale signs were all there: Zod’s posture, the armaments on the ship’s hull, the militaristic subservience, and the mood as he walked in the corridors. 

There was absolutely no way he shouldn’t have deduced that the people of his homeworld were fashioning a conquest and not a meeting of denizens of peace. But the appeal of knowing where he came from, the knowledge from the archives about how the Kryptonians had turned towards peace in later centuries, and his own personal quest to know where he came from in full and to understand what he was had blinded him from all truth. He had been a selfish dupe and people died because of his ignorance. 

He wasn’t sure if the world would ever forgive him.

He wasn’t sure if he could ever forgive himself.

Forgiveness warranted action and action was exactly what Clark continued to do as Superman. Though, it wasn’t exactly any easier considering how several journalists criticized his lack of responsibility and the precedent that his activities brought to the planet. The public took to the press like flies and began to amount to anger, fear, and hatred of not only Superman but the other heroes of the world like him. If the mutant problem wasn’t bad enough there was now this. It probably was no surprised that his greatest enemy, Alexander Luthor, had also used the incident as a call to arms against metahumans. Clark knew it as soon as the invasion had been stopped that Lex Luthor had a massive grin on his face and had already begun planning more ways to discredit him and embarrass him. But he had no idea how big Luthor would be thinking until around two weeks ago when Luthor announced his intentions to help rebuild the damages. 

A brave new world and “saintly” Luthor was picking up all the pieces. 

It was no secret that Clark had strong feelings against LexCorp and Luthor himself. But after seeing how much harm had “coincidentally” surrounded LexCorp, it was a hard feeling to shake. How could a man who willingly and deceptively armed super-villains, assassins, terrorists, and corrupt governments be the face of a new frontier of society? How could a person like that be seen as good? How could a person like that [i]get away with it?[/i] The frustration was like a fire in Clark’s stomach and even help from the World’s Greatest Detective had ended to dead ends— though it wasn’t like Batman could inherently focus on the problem at hand given what he was dealing with constantly in Gotham City; Clark knew he had a lot on his plate. 

But eventually there would be no legal loophole or perfect way to weasel out of justice for Luthor and his day would come. But how? It had been almost four years since he talked with Luthor for the first time and Clark still hadn’t found enough viable evidence to justify his feelings. The possibility that Luthor had changed was something that seemed so unreal to the him. It was a thought that seemed impossible— especially after how many times Luthor looked at him with his smug grin knowing he had [i]nothing[/i] concrete on him and that he could do as he pleased as long as he had all of his pieces properly on the board. Clark was no moron, but Luthor knew he was smarter than him in every single way and there was no way he wasn’t going to flaunt that embittered arrogance.

There had to be a chink in his armor [i]somewhere.[/i]

[color=0072bc]“Let it go, Clark.”[/color] Clark muttered under his breath as he stood at the center of the Fortress of Solitude, trying to calm his nerves. 

Clark knew thinking about the same thing for four years expecting a different conclusion was the definition of insanity but he felt like distracting himself completely would make it easier for Luthor to do something he would’ve otherwise noticed. It was a conundrum in itself, for sure. It was times like this that he wondered what Captain America or The Justice Society of America would’ve done in the same situation. Maybe it was a romanticization, but being a hero seemed so much easier back in the Golden Age of Superheroes; villains were simpler. All you had to do was fly and punch.

[color=0072bc]“Kelex, I’m going back on patrol rounds. Update me if anything comes up.”[/color]

Leaving the Fortress of Solitude, Clark slammed all of his anxiety into a physical outlet as he zipped from his base of operations as he made for the stratosphere like he always did when preparing for his patrol. Once within the stratosphere the Kryptonian stopped on a dime as he looked down towards the surface with a wide smile as his cape flowed behind him. Despite all of the anxiety he had with Luthor every single time Clark pulled himself up here he felt a blissful energy overtake him. Who needed therapy when you could just experience this kind of euphoric peace? He remembered when Kara had started to get used to her powers and he took her up to the stratosphere for the first time as a sort of introduction to the Kryptonian abilities she was inheriting. 

[quote][color=0072bc][i]“Shut your eyes. Focus past the noise and listen closely. This may seem like a burden but it isn’t— this is the heartbeat of the planet.”[/i][/color][/quote]
Clark took a deep breath before a clear smile came on his face. Looking down towards the direction of the Eastern Seaboard of the United States his brows narrowed. He was overdue to talk to his friend in Gotham.
[/INDENT]