Chapter 27: Superman saves the day

[Superman's Point of View]

People think that being Superman is great and would not even think for a second that I would wish to be human, to be normal for even a day. Sure, under a yellow sun, I have Super Speed, Super Strength, Super Senses, Invulnerability, a multitude of supervision, two varieties of Super Breath, Flight, and other things I have yet to discover.

Even outside of the hero life, that does not mean that having all those powers makes my life the dream life. For example, Super Speed, It does not matter how fast you press buttons, electronics will not acknowledge super speed unless they are built for it.

For Super Strength, well the correct analogy would be akin to living in a world made of Graphite. If not controlled properly, a single touch could result in breaking someone's hand upon shaking them or even sending them up into space while you still have their ripped hand in yours.

As for Super Sense, super hearing is a pain on its own, especially when you wake up. Not getting it? Well Here is what I hear most of the time when I wake up and forget to fine-tune my hearing.

---

"Roger, you were the best friend a guy like me could ever ask. I know our time was short but I will treasure those memories. I will dearly miss you, my friend... Anyway, Happy Wedding, and Janice, you are the luckiest woman in this room. May you let Roger go out with his boys here and there."

---

"I'm sorry, I cheated on you with your sister but I thought she was you, being twins and all."

"Greg, she is my fraternal twin!"

"Your point?"

"It means we don't look alike."

"Now that's cap... cuz her thick ass was just as fat as yours!"

"... You think this is funny."

"No baby and I am truly sorry. I hope that one day you can find it in your heart to forgive me..."

"... Greg..."

"... And also have a threesome between you two and me."

"..."

"..."

"... Sure."

"Wait really!?"

"Yeah, I'm fine with a threesome so long as you are fine with my sister-"

"Oh, I am more than fin-"

"-being transgender."

"-e... what?"

"Yeah, my sister used to be a dude. If you are fine with that then we can have that threesome you wanted."

"..."

---

"To live is to risk it all; otherwise you're just an inert chunk of randomly assembled molecules drifting wherever the universe blows you."

"Maybe, you shouldn't be the one driving us this time, Brett. I know the divorce has been hard on you and we are here for you."

---

"Listen, Wendy, weddings are basically funerals with a cake. I'm about to marry your sister so we can't sleep around anymore but I'm willing to get a blowjob as my cake for this funeral."

---

"I'll tell you how I feel about school, Officer: It's a waste of time. Bunch of people runnin' around bumpin' into each other got a guy up front says, 'Two plus two,' and the people in the back say, 'Four.'

Then the bell rings and they give you a carton of milk and a piece of paper that says you can go take a dump or somethin'. I mean, it's not a place for smart people, Officer. I know that's not a popular opinion, but that's my two cents on the issue."

"Sir, I asked you if you were high at the school that you are teaching at not how you feel about it."

---

"Mister Johnson, this is a science exhibition, why did you bring a stolen painting here?"

"Sometimes science is more art than science."

---

"If I let you make me nervous, then we can't get schwifty."

"... This is the worse excuse I have ever heard for not giving a handjob."

---

"Don't move! Gonorrhea can't see us if we don't move. Wait! I was wrong! I was thinking of a T-Rex." 

"Seems like the mushrooms already kicked in for you."

---

"Listen, new employees of Lexcorp, I'm not the nicest guy in the universe, because I'm the smartest, and being nice is something stupid people do to hedge their bets. When I bet on you guys, it either ends with me winning something or you losing something."

---

"I know that new situations can be intimidating. You're lookin' around and it's all scary and different, but y'know, meeting them head-on, charging into 'em like a bull- that's how we grow as people." 

"Sir, you tried to rob a kindergarten with nothing but a ski mask and your birthday suit while being drunk."

---

"We are going to make big with this one! Her husband is going to have to pay a fortune if he wants to see her alive. Did you send the ransom note yet?" 

"Yeah, I did and I even signed it with all of our names!"

"You what now?!"

"I signed all of our names on the ransom note."

"Why?!"

"How else is he supposed to know that we send a ransom note and kidnapped his bitch if there is no signature?"

"... That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard!"

---

"So you just walked away?"

"He hurt my feelings, father!"

"Scuse me your what?"

"Feelings, father. He hurt them."

"... I have dreaded this day coming for your entire existence."

"What day father?"

"Now would we have to refer to you as... a bitch ass."

"What?"

"No son of mine of mine..."

"Father, what are you saying?"

"I am saying the way of-... Shit what was the line again?"

"CUT!"

---

"Explain the details again?"

"I was assaulted by someone's breath!"

"So you were assaulted by someone named Beth?"

"No, someone's breath assaulted me!"

"... Are you high?"

"No, I am American."

[AN: I wonder who got the reference for these last three.]

---

"Eh, 'need' is a strong word. We need door stops, but a brick would work too." 

"... That's seriously your wedding vows Jason?"

"Yes, so let's kiss and get to the wedding cake cuz I am hungry."

---

"Honey, stop raising your father's cholesterol so you can take a hot funeral selfie."

---

"Excuse me. Coming through. What are you here for? Just kidding, I don't care."

----

"Your parents are a bag of dicks."

"I'm sorry, but your opinion means very little to me."

---

"You're the little brother. You're not the cause of your parents' misery, you're just a symptom of it."

"No, I am pretty sure I am the cause of their misery since I have been drugging them."

"What?"

"Nothing."

---

"Having a family doesn't mean that you stop being an individual. You know the best thing you can do for the people that depend on you? Be honest with them, even if it means setting them free." 

"That's your excuse for cheating on me on our wedding night, twenty years ago?! We're getting a divorce!"

---

"Well then get your shit together, get it all together, and put it in a backpack, all your shit, so it's together. And if you gotta take it somewhere, take it somewhere, you know. Take it to the shit store and sell it, or put it in the shit museum. I don't care what you do, you just gotta get it together. Get your shit together."

"Coach... this is the worst pet talk I have ever heard."

---

"Life is effort and I'll stop when I die!"

"That's what you have to say for your motive of sexually assaulting a high school mascot?!"

---

"Dude, we just saw our homeroom teacher getting pegged in the butt by Ms. Thunders!"

"There's a mystery here, and I'm not going to be the one to figure it out." 

---

"Hold on I just got out of the shower, there's some juice on the table."

"Mhmm, take your time"

"You want to explain to me what you're doing here?"

"I came looking for booty."

"You came looking for sex, with an underage boy?"

"Oh naw, I ain't come looking for no little boys, I ain't got no milk, no cookies, nothing. I came looking for man's butt"

"A man's butt? Excuse me?"

"Oh I know who you are, Chris Hanson, but see I-I calls you Chris Handsome. I watch your TV show all the time. So, you can go ahead and bring them cameras and polices waiting outside. It don't make me no difference. Now, I tell you what…I like ya and I want ya. Now we can do this the easy way, or we can do it the hard way the choice is yours."

"Well I don't think you and I will be doing anything, any kind of way."

"Ok, I-I see you choosin' the hard way."

"Okay, cut this isn't working, someone get this guy-"

"Don't make me ruin the butt, Chris!

I'm a warrior!"

"Turn the damn TV volume down! I got an exam next week to study for!"

---

It's not a fun alarm to wake up to and the more language I learn the more I understand what they are saying. I know I do not need to sleep, drink, or eat for that matter but I do it anyway because that is what keeps me grounded, those little things in life and the people that I care about. It is what makes Superman into Clark Kent. Some might think I got it backwards but my friend Bruce said it best.

'His whole planet was destroyed. He's the last of a holocaust. He grew up in the dirt. Finding out slowly how different he was. A stranger discovering every day how strange he was. He has the power to tear the world apart. And he could. With a pinkie.

It's not his world. We're not his people. We should be ants to him. Imagine that. Always being on the outside. The pain that would come from always being on the outside. And yet, he took that pain and became the symbol of hope.'

I heard him say that once about me and I am sure that he knew that I knew that he knew that I knew that he knew... that I heard it. Although I object to growing up in the dirt, I was fortunate to have been raised on a farm. Still, being invulnerable is great but I always felt alienated from others because I could not be like them and they could not be like me.

If it were not for my Ma and Pa raised me right, I might not have become the man that I am today. The man who brings hope to others and tries to fix the world one problem at a time. Still, for all my powers, I try not to get ahead of myself.

And the loneliness that I always felt diminished when I found and met my remaining blood relative. I was so happy that I felt for the first time invincible. It is weird to explain but I did not mean physically invincible but emotionally invincible, like there was nothing that could bring my mood down.

I jinxed it. I got careless afterward and a villain took notice of that. He used a variation of Kryptonite never seen before and poisoned my mind. I can still remember it, it was a terrifying feeling. It was like having your personality switched.

To be more clear with a simple example, it would be like if one moment you like Ice Cream then the next you prefer Ice Cream with salt instead of sugar. You would not even realize what just happened or even question it. It would be as if you have always been like that.

It was only after I regained my full wits that I noticed the damage I had caused. I did not want Kara to make the same mistake I did so I went a little overprotective on her. I thought that if I was near her I could stop her if she ever came in contact with Red Kryptonite and if she was with Acnologia then he could stop her without hurting anyone.

Speaking of, he is not a bad kid just a little... he is not a bad kid. Kara seems to have developed sort of a crush on him or as Hal would say, she views him as her knight in shining armor. Now I would be acting overprotective if I did not know Acnologia as well as I do...

Okay, I might have spied on them when I learned that she had a crush on him... And it might have taken Orin and Diana reassuring me that Acnologia was mostly focused on training himself for any type of romance to give them some space and not eavesdrop on them with my Super hearing.

Barry was right, Acnologia kind of acts like Bruce. It is to the point that there was a secret wager around the League about whether or not Acnologia is Bruce's secret Atlantean long-lost son. Although Orin confirmed that was not the case, the bet always comes back every three months or so.

Now some may wonder why I am blabbling about stuff like this. Long story short, I am bored. I went through thirteen books and I still do not know how to disarm this new bomb Toyman placed in Metropolis' National Park.

He set the bomb to explode ten seconds after being found, luckily I was the one that found it but due to the motion sensors on it, it would probably cause it to explode if it is moved too fast. I did not have time to alert the league so I had to do this on my own.

How much time is left? Well I would say a tenth of a second has yet to pass so I have time but from my perspective, it has been roughly a day. Another downside of Super speed, it only looks cool on the outside, reading a thousand-page book in one second is still reading a thousand-page book.

[AN: Before people say I am making overpower, remember the feats of his comic book counterpart.]

Still, thanks to this, I can save people that need help. I even took some time, no pun intended, to roam around the city while I was reading a book, I went to see the usual spot Intergang occupies since they have been getting some dangerous weapons lately, dangerous enough to hurt even me. I still do not know who their mystery supplier is.

Whether I want to admit it or not, Toyman outdid himself this time. It took me three days from my perspective to learn how to disarm the bomb. It would have been easier if he had not liaised the cables with Lead, the one element I can not see through... well the one non-magical element that I can not see through.

To everyone else, it looked like I found the Bomb, looked at it, and disarmed it in under ten seconds then I took it out of where it was placed and handed it to the authorities. While everyone was cheering for me I focused on one peculiar voice... Toyman's voice.

While he was screaming profanities at having failed again, I located his whereabouts and flew to apprehend him. I caught him by surprise and after breaking a few of his toys, I delivered him to the authorities before another round of cheers came my way, and this time, I could appreciate it.

Those cheers are some of the reminders of why I became Superman. To help others and a simple thank you is more than enough for me. After I flew away to help the next person who needed my help, I heard someone shouting my name. It was a woman and she was begging for help. 

Something did not feel right about the tone of her voice but I was not going to let my doubt be the reason someone got hurt. I flew toward the location of her voice and found an enigmatic red-robbed woman with scars on her face.

She said that her name was Pandora and that she needed my help to free humanity from the evils of the seven deadly sins. I am Superman but that was way above my pay grade. I informed the league and to my surprise, she was fine with coming along with us.

Normally, a crazy person would have refused. Thankfully, Zatara was able to assure us that she was not an enemy. She was indeed Pandora from the myths and she was a well-known powerhouse in the mystical community from what Zatara said.

Diana was wary of her at first but Bruce managed to get things on track though he seemed different than usual, almost out of it compared to his usual self. We first discussed what J'onn learned from Dr. Psycho which was nothing related to the unknown group of villains then we went to talk to Pandora about the discussion that we had made while Diana went to see how Acnologia was doing after the mission with Dr. Psycho.

What she wanted me to do was hold the golden skull with three eyes to free mankind from the evils of the seven deadly sins. Captain Marvel confirmed their existence stating that they were sealed in a magical rock where the wizard gave him super powers but the way he said it made it seem like he was joking.

Although I enjoy his childlike sense of wonder and his optimism, sometimes I would like it if he acted like someone of his age. Anyway, we decided that we would need to do some tests before I even touched that golden skull, and as we guessed Pandora did not like that.

What we did not predict was her teleporting the golden three-eyed skull right into my palm. The next thing I knew, I was in a dark space hearing the same voice in repeat and multipled. In front of me was a giant blob and it was shaking.

"... me..."

"Help me."

"Help me."

"I'm scared."

*BLOOP*

*BLOOP*

"Help me."

"Something bad is trapping me."

"I'm scared."

"I'm scared."

"I'm scared."

"Take me out of it."

"I'm scared."

"HELP ME."

"I'M SCARED."

"HELP ME."

"I'M SCARED."

"TAKE ME OUT OF IT."

"I'M SCARED."

"TAKE ME OUT OF IT."

"I'M SCARED."

"I HATE IT."

"I'M SCARED."

"HELP ME."

"FREE ME!"

The blob deformed itself as I heard those amalgamations of voices and pain like never before surged through my body.

[Third Person's Point of View]

When Dream was freed from his prison, he returned to his realm only to find it devastated by his absence. To bring his realm back to its former glory, Dream needed to regain the three artifacts that were stolen from him during his imprisonment.

This would have taken some time due to having been weakened during his imprisonment had he not met a certain Atlantean who gave him enough power to locate and retrieve his artifacts which are the Pouch of Dream Sand, Dream's Helm, and the Dreamstone.

The Pouch of Dream Sand is a brown purse that looks like a regular bag, filled to the brink with sand. However, the sand inside is never depleted, giving its wearer an infinite supply of Dream Sand. With this sand, Dream can force any living being into a slumber and transport them to the Dreaming, where they meet Dreams and Nightmares.

The Dream Sand can also be used to curse mortals with eternal nightmares, making the pouch a dangerous tool. It was the first artifact that he went to retrieve.

The Dream's Helm is Morpheus' highest symbol of authority. Made of pure dream matter and sculpted from the bones of a dead god Morpheus has trapped forever inside the Dreaming, the helm is the perfect reminder of how powerful the Endless genuinely are. Learning that it was in hell, Dream had decided to head there immediately. After an intense game, he managed to regain his possession.

Morpheus's most powerful tool ever created was the Dreamstone, a glowing ruby that holds the ability to build dreams, bring them into reality, and even control other people by altering their hopes and imagination. 

Upon arriving at its location, Morpheus found that someone had altered his artifact. Had he not received Arcane Magical Energy from the young Atlantean, he would have been powerless to change it.

Now Dream had regained enough power to revert the Dreamstone to its former state since he was the one that had created it and thus knew how it functioned. The fact that most of his powers were sealed inside it also helped but Dream chose another option.

After being imprisoned for so long, after being powerless for so many years, he had enough time to contemplate how he could have avoided this whole mess. Someone changing the Dreamstone was the final sign that pushed him to do what he needed to do.

He returned to his realm, the Dreaming, before he broke the Dreamstone and absorbed all of its powers, all the powers that he had put inside it effectively sealing it and leaving it at the whims of whoever held it.

Now due to him breaking the Dreamstone inside the Dreaming, reality was slightly distorted. Nothing major changed or even happened... inside the Dreaming but as Dream was regaining his sealed power, a piece of the shattered Dreamstone was flung outside of the Dreaming and landed on Earth.

Dream did not notice this due to him being focused on regaining his lost power. The rest of the pieces of the Dreamstone evaporated. Now the piece of the Dreamstone that landed on Earth no longer possessed even an ounce of Dream's power so it would have been worthless ruby to the common folks.

Sadly, it did not land in the modern Earth but in the past, this was due to the Dreaming being connected to almost every sentient being as well as being an upper realm.

Roughly five centuries ago the man who eventually would become Doctor Destiny was described as a man of science who wanted to unlock the secrets of the world. One day he became embittered and decided to study magic and create an artifact of great mystical power with a fragment of his own soul using the piece of the shattered Dreamstone that had landed on Earth as a catalyst which grew in size after being made into a new artifact.

He would name it the Dreamstone. During that time, Dream became aware of this but chose to stay out of it since this had not been the first time a mortal had tried to recreate his or his siblings' powers. He knew how it always ended which was with the demise of the mortal in question and whatever way said mortal used to mimic said power lost to time. Destiny's visit further reinforced his action or lack of it.

Upon realizing this had granted him amazing powers and immortality the man took upon the name Doctor Destiny. Becoming mad with power, Doctor Destiny came to the conclusion he was a god and wanted to subject the world to his rule by forcing others to see their worst nightmares often leading to them going insane until all bowed before him.

Leading an army of Demons from village to village, Destiny would come into battle with Jason Blood, Merlin, and an army of knights which ended with Doctor Destiny's body destroyed with his soul trapped then in the Dreamstone.

Merlin bonded Jason with the Etrigan the Demon to save his life. Afraid of the Dreamstone's power all but a small fragment was sealed away. Doctor Destiny's soul survived and plotted to revive himself over the centuries in the small fragment.

It was later found by Vandal Savage who persuaded Klarion into binding Doctor Destiny to him via the latter's soul. The way it works is that once, Doctor Destiny is revived, he would be unable to refuse Vandal's order.

This method was only possible due to Doctor Destiny's soul being weakened over the centuries without a body as well as Klarion being a Lord of Chaos meant that he possessed a tremendous amount of power.

Persuading such being would seem difficult but Vandal had known Klarion enough to know what he liked and disliked. Vandal had once crossed paths with Doctor Destiny so he knew how powerful he was and how beneficial to his goal such a pawn would be.

The simple mention of the potential chaos that would be brought to this world at the revival of Doctor Destiny was enough to have Klarion sold on the plan to place the small fragment in the hands of someone that was desperate and knew about the occult.

[AN: Want more? Like Thanos, I want those STONES!!!]