The death.. and the beginning.. of Superman

The rain splashed onto the casket with the S burned into the front. The lightning struck through the air. Lois Lane screamed as this sad day had become one day in history. "CLAARK! CLAARK!" What was going on? What was happening? The hero of America had died, blood all over his face and beaten to death by a monster, his eyes finally closed and he smiled up at his beloved wife Lois, and closed his eyes and simply died.

The citizens of Metropolis, and even the President and the First Lady, Barack and Michelle Obama, cried in the white house and actually joined the funeral. The casket lay in a crater in Metropolis, where Superman had landed from being struck straight in the chest by the monster, where Lois cried once more, by and after his death, tears rolled down her cheeks.

The heroes of the Justice League and other teams gathered around the casket and prayed. The Flash put his head down. Wonder Woman fell to her knees as did Lois.

And Batman stood upon a building looking down, reminding himself of the death of his parents, swearing vengeance upon Doomsday.. but he knew he couldn't fight him like Clark did. He knew with all of the toys and armors.. all of the brains he had.. Clark was always better than him.. Always.

Though in Smallvile, only one person who knew Clark indeed was very sad. The old man sat in the chair, he leaned his head back and tears streamed down his cheeks as his nose became stopped up. The grey hair of the man moved backward, short little hairs they were.

This old man, Jonathan Kent slammed his arms onto the table and cried up to the heavens, and cried for a savior. Anyone.. ANYTHING! That could save his son Clark. Clark always was there for him and Martha.

Martha had died and Clark had always visited his father Jonathan and brung him food and helped him with his medicine. Again he cried out and screamed at the same time Lois did. "CLAARK!"

He coughed and cried up to the sky, his hand slowly went to his fast beating heart, and he moved to the right and slowly fell of the chair, as he fell the chair slammed onto his legs.

Jonathan rolled over onto his back and looked up at the cieling of the old house. Tears continued to stream down his cheeks like a meteor shower. His right arm began to hurt and his heart began to beat faster and faster.

He reached for his container of medicine, but he knocked it down with his digits that couldn't stand still. The pills scattered against the floor.

He reached for a pill, but then slowly moved his hand back and said it was pointless. He didn't want to live.. and those pills wouldn't work. Some say that your life flash before your eyes before you die. But Jonathan's didn't. Clark flashed before his eyes, all of the memories of him in seconds. Clark.. was his life. Jonathan spoke with his dry lips, closing his eyes as the tears hit the ground, drowning the pills.

"I'll.. see you.. soon.. Clark. I'm coming.. I'm.. coming." He smiled slightly, then his lips parted and he breathed his last breath, and his soul floated from his body as the large exhalation came out.

Cadmus stood upon a building and looked down at the casket, slowly looking at the S he carved into his chest, even a tear from him hit the ground.

Zander, like many others, had been present at the funeral of Superman. He hadn't ever met the man but some part of him told him they were related in some way.... He came to this conclusion when he first met Cadmus, a clone of Superman and Superboy, who looked dead on him. During the funeral people gave him odd looks, assuming he was a younger Superman or maybe Clarke's kid brother, but in reality he was just a stranger.

He turned away from the large gathering, his tie blowing in the chilled wind, his hands jammed deep in the pockets of his black dress pants, and he walked. he walked away form the large procession of people that only grew by the moment, hoping to God what everyone else was hoping.... That Doomsday never appeared again because there would be no way to stop him, many heroes of the world were angered at the loss of such a great man and would happily fight the beats upon it's return but that would only mean more deaths, the creature being immortal in every way.

He stopped a little over a block from the large gathering and pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket along with a cheap lighter. His right hand holding the pack as he popped them against his left palm until the tan butt of one popped up for his lips to snag before lighting. He took a quick drag and exhaled, looking up toward the sun only to see one person standing alone on a roof top...


Cadmus, at first Zander was pissed, why the fuck would that bastard come here and try and attempt something with anyone on the day of the death of an idol. But then he saw a glimmer in the sun light and watched a a sole tear trickled from the clone's face to the roof top below him. Zander merely walked toward the building and climbed up the fire escape, dirtying his suit just a bit from the metal ladder's rust as he went. Once to the top he cleared his throat.

"Good to see you again." he said, keeping the edge out of his voice as he slowly evaluated the man before him, wondering if he had some sick plan or if he really was just mourning the man he was cloned from.

Cadmus looked down at his hands and made fists, and he twitched his ears when he heard someone moving up the fire escape. But he didn't even turn his head. His fists turned into quivering hands as Lois Lane, the now dead inside, former fiance of Superman walked away with Lex Luthor.. even this man.. who had tried to killed Superman for years.. was sad.

He heard Zander say "Good to see you again." A small spark of anger came from his stomach a bit but he relaxed, and he didn't even look at Zander, just down at the men, Flash, Green Lantern, Steel, and Wonder-Woman take Superman's death bed somewhere else. Would Superman come back.. Or would he have to take the responsibility he was supposed to. . . Replace him?

"Zander. . ." Cadmus put his head down and sat down upon the building, he hoped the man didn't see him cry, and whipped the tear from his right cheek quickly. "Never knew you would be here.. Didn't know you would not kick my ass.. Or are you tricking me right now?" Cadmus turned his head and stared at Zander, sitting on the building. Cadmus was sad, but was ready for any sneak attack.

He smiled when Cadmus turned around and spoke of Zander attacking, he merely shrugged and walked over to the man. His left hand flicking down the remainder of the cigarette and his right foot stamping out the cherry of burning tobacco. He propped himself up against the lip of the building and sat, his arms resting on his legs, "Back in Alaska I didn't want to fight, I told you that many times. I was just there to save the kids before they ended up like you and I. If I recall you even stopped our fight for whatever reason which allowed me to save those kids. The question now though is why aren't you attacking?" He said, tacking the question on at the end.

He looked out over the crowd, spotting late comers like Hawk girl and Hawk man, Manhunter, Red Tornado, and so forth. His eyes always straying back to the casket o the dead hero, "I'm still not sure what my past is or why I look like him and like you but one day I will find out." he said more to himself than to Cadmus, his left hand flicking the lighter absently, making it spark a flame before going out, repeating the process endlessly.

Cadmus turned his head and closed his eyes a bit, sighing just a bit. "Originally.. I was created to move into replacing Superman or Superboy.. Then I had been programmed by one of the rogue geno-morphs into killing him.. which caused me to be.. like this." Cadmus turned his head about and sighed. "I've been thinking lately.. maybe its.. maybe its time to move into being a new Superman. No more Cadmus. Superman.. the second?"

Cadmus watched all of the heroes walk away, some flew, some used their super speed and some simply dissapeared. Mister Mxyzptlk himself rolled over to Cadmus grinning. "Hey, lets play a ga--"

"AWAY!" Cadmus slammed the head of this short comic book character deity through the air. The man waved his finger, then dissapeared.

He thought on what Cadmus had said, "Sure you could be the new Superman but that doesn't mean you need to stop being Cadmus; you're you for a reason. Just remember that." he said, exhaling the last pent up cloud of smoke from his lungs. He watched as a few heroes walked away from the funeral, their shoulders slumped and their heads bowed down as i gravity was increased around them.

"Back in Alaska we wasted too much time fighting when we could have been working together. But now though since we seem to be on the same page we could team up, save more people together than apart. So there's that offer, you can do what you want, say yes or no." he said, gripping the cigarette package in his left hand and crushing it, not really wanting them anymore because of the horrid after taste and disgusting smoker's breath.

His right hand dug in his pocket for a stick of gum only to find that he had run out. He looked out over the city to watch the sun creeping over the sky line signaling the end of the day, this sad destructive day.

Cadmus removed a stick of gum from his own pocket and tossed the strawberry flavored, chewy object into the mans hands. Cadmus turned his head and stared at Zander and thought about it. Slowly he looked down and moved his hand down onto the side of the building.

He thought about it. Being the new Superman.. having a partner. He looked at Zander and smiled, the right side of his mouth inched almost even to his ear. "Lets save people.. bring back hope to Metropolis.." Cadmus closed his eyes and moved his teeth together, lips moving together and pursing. After a minute of struggling, he opened his eyes.

No longer black with gray circular pupils, they were normal human eyes, blue ones, just like the Kryptonian Super-hero, Superman. "You need a new name.."

Zander caught the stick of gum in his left hand before unwrapping it and popping it in his mouth and chewing it, he listened as the new superman spoke. He agreed to be partner's but said Zander needed a new hero name, he merely smiled and turned to look at the boy, his skin turning to metal, the setting sun reflecting off of the metal and blinding the boy for a split second, Zander laughing before speaking.

"I guess you're right, from here out I'll be Titanium." he said, liking the sound of the name. His metallic hands gripped the side of the building, steadying himself as he watched the last heroes leave the funeral below, Flash holding the weeping Ms. Lane in his arms and guiding her away. A shadow moved forward from the darkness, Batman. He watched as the Dark Knight walked toward the coffin and fell to his knees when he thought no one was around, and he roared in anger and in pain. He wept for his fallen friend and pounded the ground,

Zander turned his head, pained to see That Man cry, the man that had no weakness, no pain, was here weak and pained. He shivered at the sobs of the Batman, when he last looked back the sound had stopped and only a Bat-A-Rang was left on the coffin where the Batman had been huddled.

He sighed deeply, "Today's been a horrible day" he said before handing a small black card to Cadmus, "It's my number, call me when you're ready to team up but for now I'm going to go home and weep like the rest of the world." he said before leaping over the side of the building and jogging down the pavement off into the shadows.

Cadmus bowed his head and closed his eyes as Zander turned his head at the screaming Batman. He made a fist and then turned to smile at the man, and now his new partner was named Titanium! This new.. Superman slowly got to his feet and took the black card and put it in a fold by his neck on his white suit.
"Today was a bad day.. yeah. But Tomorrow.. Metropolis will be delivered angels.." Cadmus slightly smiled but then his face turned blank again. The Kryptonian turned around and leaped through the air, he looked down as his hands moved to his side, and he moved to the ground once more.

He rolled onto the ground and slid next to a building, turning around he walked to the front of a building and squinted. He looked up and it said: "Perseus" in big, blue bold letters. Under it, it said "Suits and dresses from the Style Doctor, Perseus!" Cadmus looked down and walked into the store, he turned and saw a fat, bald man in a stylish black and grsay business suit staring at him with wide eyes.

"S-suit please?" Cadmus stared at the man, and patted his own body. "I.. have no money." The man grabbed a rolled up newspaper and screamed, hitting at Cadmus. "Out then, you freak! Out!" Cadmus backed away, then slammed his hand onto a red hoodie, cap and pants. Cadmus ran off, then leaped off through the sky, night was falling