Minutes before the events with Captain Marvel and SHIELD around the moon, reporter Clark Kent works a story that turns into a job for his alter ego — Superman.

If you want to start at the beginning, CLICK HERE!

“Are stakeouts always this exciting?” Clark Kent asked Detective Maggie Sawyer.

Sawyer glanced at Kent. They sat in her squad car positioned across the street from the downtown office of one Almir Ribediro.

A few months ago, the real estate magnate had closed a deal giving him ownership of a good section of Metropolis’s Hobb’s End.

To make good on his investment, Ribediro intended to raze the area and build new high rise, luxury apartments.

That meant the existing tenants — people who couldn’t afford Ribediro’s new apartments — would be permanently displaced.

Not that the mogul cared; he’d pulled this scheme repeatedly here in Metropolis, Gotham, New York. He’d do it again, too.

Or maybe not.

Ribediro had two partners in the deal. One was an executive loan officer for Rogers and Jackson Bank. The other was a real estate developer.

Both men had turned up dead, both men beaten to death by their murderer’s bare hands.

There was also a great deal of destruction at the scene as if said murderer had beaten his way through walls and anything else in his way to kill his targets.

Kent was in the car as a thank you. His reporting on the threat of gentrification had linked the three men. When the first murder went down, Kent was ahead of Metropolis PD in thinking there’d be more.

Unfortunately, he was right.

Now Ribediro was the only link to a brutal killer.

“Are you screwing with me, Kent?” Sawyer asked.

Clark flashed his boyish grin, an immediately disarming gesture when combined with his square jaw, blue eyes behind black-rimmed glasses and curl of black hair hanging lazily over his forehead.

“Not at all, detective. I’ve been on my share of stakeouts waiting for a source, but there wasn’t the threat of violence.”

Sawyer looked back to Ribediro’s office building, one of the many glass and steel monstrosities in Metropolis’s New Troy central. “Which is why I probably shouldn’t have you here.”

“Better here where you can see me than me running around getting into trouble.”

The detective thought it over, then nodded. A lock of her short blonde hair fell across her forehead. She brushed it aside. “Least you’re smart enough to be cautious. Your gal pal Lane would throw herself into a fire to get the story.”

Clark smiled. Sawyer referred to his colleague at The Daily Planet, Lois Lane. She was the second person he met there when he started six years ago, behind photographer Jimmy Olsen. She was a top-shelf journalist, having nailed down two Pulitzers before she was even thirty.

Luckily, she hadn’t let her success dull her senses or turn her into an unbearable wretch.

There was nothing like a little professional rivalry.

“If this murderer shows up,” Clarks began, “I’ll catch my story from here in the car until you say otherwise.”

“Smart move,” Sawyer responded.

“How will you know if he’s coming?”

Sawyer looked to Clark with an expression of disbelief. “You saw the other two crime scenes first hand. That much destruction, you think he’s gonna sneak up on us?”

Clark grudgingly shook his head. Then he tilted his head as if listening for something.

“How far out do you have men stationed?” he asked.

Looking back to the building, Sawyer said, “There are officers both plain clothes and uniformed surrounding this place in one way or another for two blocks.”

Clark continued to listen to something Sawyer couldn’t yet hear.

It was a benefit of his Kryptonian heritage, something even Clark hadn’t known about until he was eight. His parents, Jonathon and Martha Kent, raised him as a human on their farm in Smallville, Kansas.

Clark was actually an alien from the now lost planet Krypton.

Thanks to that alien heritage and the radiation from Earth’s yellow sun, Clark had powers beyond those of a human; extended hearing was one of them.

“Maybe should have picked four blocks out,” he said.

Sawyer quickly looked at Clark. “You suddenly know how to do my job, Kent?”

Clark hit her with that grin again. “No, ma’am. Just being paranoid.”

He picked up a coffee cup from the holder next to him, finished it off. “I know you said to stay in the car…” Clark shook the empty cup.

The detective’s blue eyes held no sympathy. “Lucky thing men can aim.”

Clark blinked, not sure if Sawyer was kidding or not. Her stone-cold expression convinced him she wasn’t. Sawyer frowned, then turned away from Clark.

“Not like I’m gonna watch,” she said.

Holding the cup awkwardly, Clark said, “It’s not a matter of pride, but a matter of which end.”

A quick glance from Sawyer. After a moment of indecision, she said, “There’s a squad on the fourth in the Jurgens Building behind us. Door code is 1938. May wanna stay up there in case something does go down out here.”

“Thanks, detective,” Clark said. He started out of the car, grabbing his messenger bag to take along.

“Best stick to human interest, Kent,” Sawyer called after him. “You’re a little soft to make it on the crime beat.”

Clark laughed, then headed up to the building, a high rise not unlike what Ribediro wanted to put in Hobb’s End. He punched in the door code, then went inside.

Instead of heading up to the fourth floor, Clark Kent slipped through the service hallways and made his way out the back of the building where he’d go unseen by Sawyer and her team.

The detective was one of the best cops in Metropolis. She wasn’t afraid to stare down a group of bank robbers or the hi-tech criminals like Intergang. Her team was solid, the plan for protecting Ribediro good.

But from what he’d heard with his extended-hearing, Kent feared their skill may not be good enough.

This murderer was big, monstrous even. He was tearing his way through the sewers to get to his target. By the time he appeared, it’d be too late for Sawyer’s team to react to such a formidable threat.

It’s be way too much for mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent.

This looked like a job for Superman.

To be continued…

While writing this fanfiction, I used Green Ronin’s Mutants and Masterminds, 3rd Edition RPG, to leave some things to chance. Check it out!

Like this fanfiction? Check out Mark’s original “Shadowdance” saga books!

Author’s Note:

The characters Maria Hill, Captain Marvel/ Carol Danvers, SHIELD, Abigail Brand and Nick Fury are Copyright Marvel Comics

The characters Superman/ Clark Kent/ Kal-El, Supergirl/ Kara Zor-El, Darkseid, Maggie Sawyer, Solomon Grundy and Parademons are Copyright DC Comics

I don’t own any of the characters as this is fanfiction, done for fun and as a creative exercise