Chapter 166: New Template and Visitors from Smallville (4k3)
[Fourth template loading...]
[Loading 3%... 27%...]
"Mom!"
While the new template was loading, David brought Clark back home. Jonathan and Martha were startled by Clark's desiccated appearance on the TV news, pacing anxiously in the living room. Hearing the voices, they looked up to see their elder son standing perfectly fine at the doorway, tall and with his usual face. They were overjoyed.
"Clark, your body?
But we saw you on TV...?"
His father, Jonathan, was stunned, wondering if the news report on TV was false and exaggerated for attention.
"David just took me out to bask in the sun, and it was enough,"
Clark walked into the house, hugging each of his parents, and reassured them not to worry about him.
"Are you really okay? Son?"
Martha was still a bit worried. The photo of Clark on TV showed him so thin his head looked like a skull, even more frightening than someone gravely ill.
"I'm fine."
Clark smiled, flexing his arm to show his muscles, wanting to put their minds at ease.
"Kryptonians can absorb power from the sun to heal injuries, and can even come back from the dead."
David decided to give them a shot of confidence so they wouldn't worry so much about Clark in the future.
As for him, the couple had worried about him too, but he had successfully resolved every crisis, not even sustaining serious injuries. Now, they only worried when he was fighting enemies. Once the crisis was resolved and things settled, seeing him unharmed naturally eased their minds.
It was their elder son, Clark, who now caused them more concern.
"Really?"
Upon hearing this, Clark was the first to be taken aback among the three.
Kryptonians had such an ability? He didn't know that. He hadn't seen it in the data from the Fortress of Solitude either.
However, his younger brother always knew more about the universe and extraterrestrial matters than he did.
"Of course, but I'm definitely not saying this to encourage you to rush into danger without thinking."
Seeing Clark's thoughtful expression, David's face darkened, and he quickly added.
"The premise for resurrecting through the sun is that your body hasn't suffered excessive damage."
Given Clark's personality, if he truly believed he could resurrect through the sun at will, he would likely charge into any future confrontation with powerful threats without considering his own safety at all, not even hesitating.
David wasn't lying to his parents or Clark about Clark's ability to recover through sunbathing. This plot point had been seen many times and could be considered one of Superman's basic settings. However, other Kryptonians probably didn't have this ability.
His two sons had once again saved Metropolis.
And there wasn't much the couple could do, so they prepared a hearty meal to help the two replenish their energy.
While Martha, her worries eased, busied herself happily in the kitchen, David quietly went into the woods near the farm.
[Fourth template loaded.
Hyperion King template merging...]
The dense shade cast by the tall trees brought a refreshing coolness. He clenched his fist lightly, crushing the air. As the merging progress increased, David's physical strength surged wildly, his muscles and bones becoming denser, strong and hard like the white dwarf matter left behind by stellar combustion.
Shazam's power would mature his appearance, and his parents might not be accustomed to his older look. That's why David deactivated Shazam's power when he was at home. Anyway, unlike Captain Marvel, his main body was just a fragile mortal, and he wasn't afraid of any surprise attacks.
Beep beep!
As his physical body grew, his senses also amplified. David's vision pierced through the trees, allowing him to see the distant town, even passing through buildings of reinforced concrete, looking towards Metropolis.
He could hear the honking of cars and the low conversations of people in Metropolis, even the buzzing of bees in the flower bushes in the city center.
Before, David had to rely on gravity manipulation to perceive things far away beyond obstacles, but now he didn't need to. And it wasn't silent black and white images anymore.
Every rustle of leaves, every movement of things within a thousand miles around him, escaped his ears and eyes. He could grasp every situation like a god.
"Hyperion himself, I know, one of Marvel's Four Supermen, but Hyperion King?"
While delighted by the increase in his strength and the addition of new abilities, David looked at the template again with slight confusion.
"Hyperion, the last survivor of the Eternal race, is of the same species as Thanos. His background is very similar to Clark's. When Thanos massacred his home planet, he was sent to Earth by his parents in a spaceship and raised by kind adoptive parents. As an adult, he used his abilities to fight crime and do good deeds."
Not only was his background similar, but his abilities were also largely the same: super strength, super speed, super vision...
He recalled Hyperion's information in his mind.
The only difference was that Hyperion possessed an ageless and immortal body, which was consistent with Thanos, and he had a faster healing ability than Thanos.
After careful recollection, David's eyes lit up. He finally remembered.
In the Marvel multiverse, each superhero might have different identities, abilities, and experiences in different universes. For example, there was White Costume Iron Man, Captain Universe Spider-Man, Frog Thor, and so on. Among these, some were strong, some weak, some good, some bad.
"Hyperion King is essentially the King of Hyperion, the most powerful version of Hyperion in the multiverse."
He was far stronger than the average Hyperion. In his own universe, with his fearsome strength, he had defeated Hulk, Thor, and all other superheroes, almost achieving his ambition of ruling the world. However, he was eventually defeated and exiled by his parallel universe counterpart.
"The average version of Hyperion is weaker than Superman, while Hyperion King is on par with a fully grown Clark."
The most exciting part was that he remembered the Hyperion King's greatest strength compared to other Hyperions was his immortality; even if his body was smashed to pieces, it could heal and regenerate!
Superman, Wolverine-style?
This was an unprecedentedly powerful template he had obtained.
In the past, although the accumulated templates had long surpassed Clark in strength, this was the first time a single template could rival, or even gain an advantage over, a fully-grown Superman!
"Without a doubt, the fused templates are getting stronger."
David couldn't help but think that the next template should completely surpass a fully-grown Superman.
Of course, that was assuming he could fully fuse with this template first, which would likely take some time.
[Template Fusion: 30% Complete]
"About three to four months?"
He stroked his chin, estimating the time.
After becoming a Transcendent and joining the Justice League, helping Clark and Batman resolve multiple world-ending crises, his speed of acquiring emotional points had increased another level since locking up Zod's subordinates.
Judging by the strength of this template, it would take approximately that much time.
Standing on a high slope in the forest, David gazed at the moon.
During the daytime, the moon was usually invisible, but his acquired super-vision allowed him to see the small craters on the moon even while standing on Earth.
Looking at the moon, which had previously given him a sense of being watched, he narrowed his eyes and transformed into a streak of light, flying towards the moon at extreme speed.
There was still some time before dinner, enough for him to make a trip to the moon and see what was going on.
The reason he hadn't investigated immediately before was as a precaution; he wanted to fuse with the template and increase his strength before going. Now was the perfect time.
On the moon, atop a massive crater.
In the silent, lifeless expanse devoid of sound or life, a tall, muscular figure stood on the rock face. His skin was pale gray, his exposed upper body, as if cast from steel, was covered in scars. His thick, black hair cascaded down his back, and his eyes, lacking whites, along with his fingernails, were a strange black.
He exuded an inhuman coldness. Only below his waist did remnants of his predominantly red and blue battle suit remain, as if he had traversed the universe through unimaginable harsh environments to arrive here, a piece of the darkest, most profound meteorite.
Seeing David flying towards Earth, he frowned. The hem of his red battle suit fluttered as he turned and departed soundlessly.
...
After dealing with the Parasite Demon, David spent several days searching the moon.
If this were the Marvel Universe, feeling a sense of being watched from the direction of the moon, David could easily deduce who it was – the One-Above-All race of watchers who enjoyed peeping, frequently appearing in Marvel plots.
But in the DC world, he had no clue for the moment.
"Are the Guardians of the Universe still monitoring me because I forced them to compromise by snatching Lantern Rings from them, waiting to strike when I'm weak?"
But didn't they have Hal Jordan?
David had previously thought Hal Jordan might not have another chance to become a Green Lantern, but he didn't expect him to become a member of the Green Lantern Corps. After joining the League together and learning about Hal Jordan's experience becoming a Lantern, it wasn't difficult to find something fishy.
David knew Hal Jordan had likely returned to his original destiny because of him. The little blue people had deliberately planted an informant on Earth for him, but he didn't care about that.
"I've searched almost the entire moon and found no one. Are they hidden even deeper, or have they already left the moon?"
He didn't know and could only put it aside for now, secretly guarding against anything that might suddenly disrupt his peaceful life.
One morning, bright sunlight streamed into the living room through the windows.
After finishing breakfast, David and Clark were watching a funny and humorous TV program on the living room sofa.
"Superman, Transcendent, are you there?"
The Lantern Rings suddenly transmitted messages. Opening them, David heard Cyborg's voice.
David was a little surprised. He usually didn't participate in the League's regular activities like fighting crime, and Cyborg wouldn't normally contact him.
Clark's heart also tightened. They were being called simultaneously. Had a crisis the League couldn't handle occurred?
"The League's satellite monitoring systems in orbit have detected a sudden meteor shower heading towards Earth. It's expected to arrive in about ten minutes. According to calculations, the impact zone is within a fifty-mile radius, centered around latitude 37.15 North and longitude 88.73 West."
"This coordinate… it feels so familiar?"
Clark was puzzled. He felt like he had heard it somewhere before.
"It's Metropolis."
David's eyes moved. He sat up and pointed at the ground beneath them.
More accurately, the impact zone of the meteor shower covered the town of Smallville.
"Here? A meteor shower?"
Clark understood David's implied meaning. After a brief moment of stunned silence, his eyes widened as he realized something. It was as if a nerve had been struck.
He would never forget the meteor shower that occurred in the town nearly twenty years ago, because he had arrived on Earth with that meteor shower and was found and adopted by his parents.
And now, twenty years later, another meteor shower was heading towards the town?
David knew why Cyborg had sent him messages.
Besides world-ending crises, there was another situation where he would intervene and take action – threats related to Metropolis.
An extraterrestrial meteor shower that could cover the city. Besides Clark and himself, no one else in the League had the ability to deal with it. Calling him was just a precaution.
"I know, the Transcendent and I will handle it."
After replying to Cyborg with a message, Clark got up in disbelief and paced the living room.
"Is... is it a coincidence?" He looked at David somewhat dazedly. He believed David knew what he was talking about. The same situation gave him a sense of time travel.
"Could it be that besides me and Zod's subordinates, there are other Kryptonians who survived?"
"We'll know if we go and see."
David stood up and chuckled.
Though he said that, he didn't think it could be a coincidence.
Smallville, a town that was both special and extremely ordinary, would inexplicably be hit by another meteor shower?
"The last meteor brought Clark. If someone else arrives this time, who could it be?"
Several figures who arrived on Earth in the same way as Clark flashed through his mind.
Whoosh!
"They're here!"
In the sky over Metropolis, two figures hovered above the sea of clouds, looking up at the heavens.
Breaking through the exosphere, the high-speed falling meteors ignited fierce fires as they streaked towards the earth like steel-cored missiles.
Clark was a little nervous.
The meteors here varied in size and contained different amounts of power. Some had an impact force that could exceed ten thousand tons. He wasn't afraid of the power they contained, but he was afraid that if a spaceship was actually among the meteors, what if it was destroyed in the chaos?
He clenched his fists and quickly scanned and filtered them one by one with his super vision, not daring to miss any, striving to screen them all before the meteors got too close to the ground.
But at that moment, David glanced at him helplessly and raised his hand.
A powerful gravity field enveloped the entire meteor shower. The meteors, carrying terrifying inertia, suddenly slammed on the brakes and stopped abruptly in mid-air, with only flames burning on them.
"It's rare to see you like this, Clark. Did you forget about me in your nervousness?" David turned and spoke after stopping the meteor shower.
Clark slapped his forehead, looking embarrassed.
He was too focused on whether there was a spaceship among the meteors, and he forgot that David could manipulate gravity. He didn't need to shatter each meteor like he did. He could stop all of them with a wave of his hand.
"Come on, you have plenty of time to search."
Not surprised by Clark's mood, David waved his hand. Meteors of all sizes, from houses to fists, circled the two of them and landed on a hillside outside the town.
Boom! Boom!
The meteors, like red-hot irons emitting high temperatures, scorched the earth, leaving burnt marks everywhere.
Once placed on a flat surface, the meteors stopped moving, and the situation looked much simpler. Clark scanned them with a glance and immediately noticed something was wrong, his eyes instantly narrowing.
"That... that's... a spaceship!"
A strange and complex feeling, indescribable, arose in his heart.
"There's actually a spaceship."
Another meteor shower twenty years later brought extraterrestrial life. Clark felt as if he was watching another version of himself in the world.
"This spaceship is much larger than the one you rode to Earth."
With a single glance, David, who now had X-ray vision, also saw the spaceship encased in a meteor about half the size of a house and chuckled.
"It's unlikely to be a newborn baby inside."
As he spoke, he reached out and grabbed the meteor from a distance. The outer stone shell shattered, revealing the true appearance of the spaceship inside.
"S?"
Clark was shocked, and David raised an eyebrow.
Between the grass, a streamlined, blue and red spaceship was emblazoned with an "S"-like symbol, the same as the symbol on Clark's chest armor.
It was the crest of the House of El, familiar to Clark beyond familiarity.
David's gaze fixed on the interior of the spaceship.
A slender, exquisitely featured female figure lay quietly in a deep sleep. Suddenly, as if hearing something, the eyelashes of the extraterrestrial visitor who had traveled countless light-years to Earth fluttered.
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