Bang!
The door to the room in Luthor Manor burst open.
Lex Luthor, limping slightly, dragged two intruders into the cluttered space — a bald man and a tall woman in strange uniforms of unfamiliar design.
"Clark is in there!" Lex called out, pointing to the secret chamber filled with glowing green Kryptonite, the same room where Lionel once pushed Adrian earlier.
The two figures in black stepped forward without hesitation, entering the room.
The instant they crossed the threshold, the air seemed to thicken.
From the scattered chunks of green meteor rock, an eerie emerald glow pulsed, filling the space with a sickly light.
The bald man stiffened, his body shaking as weakness overwhelmed him. A painful groan escaped his lips before he collapsed to the floor, unable to remain standing.
The woman, however, managed to stay upright. She leaned heavily against the wall, breath shallow, legs trembling as the poisonous radiation sapped her strength.
"It's a trap," she gasped, struggling to remain conscious. "Get out of here quickly!"
But the green Kryptonite's radiation was too strong — her body weakened further, forcing her to slide down the wall.
Lex, seeing an opportunity, charged forward with a baseball bat he had grabbed on the way in.
With a loud bang, he struck the bald man forcefully on the back of the head. The impact sent the intruder sprawling onto the cold floor.
Lana, her instincts kicking in despite her injuries, rushed forward and managed to shove the Kryptonian woman down.
She hadn't fully believed Lex's intuition about Kryptonite's effects, but seeing how both of them staggered and weakened confirmed her guess — these figures shared some similarity with Clark and Adrian, including vulnerability to green Kryptonite.
But the woman was far more formidable in combat than Lana. As they tumbled to the ground, the Kryptonian woman countered instantly with a sharp elbow strike.
Lana doubled over in agony, clutching her chest, breath escaping her in painful gasps.
With her increased strength gone, Lana was outmatched in every physical way.
The Kryptonian woman then reached up and removed a silver‑white bracelet from her forearm, hurling it out into the center of the room.
The bracelet spiraled through the air and activated.
Suddenly the room was filled with a pulsing, circular energy field.
The air inside began to twist violently, forming a swirling vortex of compressed wind and space itself.
From Lana's perspective, the swirling portal opened into what looked like a compressed cityscape, steel towers towering and rotating like a distorted urban echo.
The tremendous suction force—the kind that could pull even a car apart—began dragging Lana toward the strange dimensional rift.
"No!" she cried, desperately grabbing at anything within reach.
But the force was too strong.
She was pulled into the spinning space.
Lex, standing nearby, was caught off guard. Before he could react, he too was drawn in, forced forward by the irresistible pull.
Behind the Closed Door
"The door! Push it shut!" the Kryptonian woman said to the bald man once Lana and Lex had vanished inside the strange portal.
Already weak but still dangerous, he shrieked and rose to his feet. With all the strength he could muster, he grabbed the heavy metal door to the secret chamber — its surface taller than a person.
Boom!
He slammed it shut with a ferocious roar.
Inside, the woman panted, catching her breath as she retracted the floating silver bracelet into her hand.
"Humans are always good at lying," she muttered, eyes flashing with contempt. "But their lies don't usually end well. Continue searching for Mrs. Kent and Mr. Kent. Even if no one else knows, we will find Kal‑El's location eventually."
She turned and walked out of the hidden room, the emerald glow fading behind her.
At Blue Valley Hospital
Jonathan Kent paced nervously outside the delivery room, his heart pounding like a piston.
The doctor had told him Martha's labor had begun prematurely. It was earlier than expected — much earlier than the due date they had been counting down for weeks.
Jonathan felt unprepared. His mind rushed with fear, excitement, confusion, and love in equal measure as he stepped back and forth.
"Everything will be fine," Barbara said quietly beside him, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. "We got her to the hospital fast. There haven't been any major complications yet."
Jonathan offered her a haunted smile.
"Thank you," he said warmly.
"Actually…" Jonathan tried to ease his frazzled nerves, "this is my first time experiencing something like this."
Barbara blinked in surprise. "But Clark and Adrian are your children."
Jonathan shook his head gently. "Clark and Adrian were adopted by Martha and me," he explained. "I guess this is my first birth."
"Oh," Barbara said, a bit embarrassed. "Well every family is different. Pat and I blended ours too. I brought Courtney, and he brought Mike. After not‑so‑great first marriages, we made a new one together here in Blue Valley."
Just then, her phone buzzed.
"Excuse me," Barbara said, smiling apologetically as she stepped aside to answer it.
"Courtney, I'm at the hospital," she said into the phone. "If you're calling to complain about Pat's pancakes again, my patience right now is pretty limited."
"No, it's not about pancakes! We're in big trouble!" Courtney's voice was urgent.
"What did you say, Courtney? Pat is hurt?"
"Yes," Courtney said. "He got injured, and the robot won't start. If Jenna hadn't helped us, I probably would've been hurt too. Jenna used her Green Lantern Ring to get us to safety. But that's not the point. Those two guys, they said their target was Mr. Kent and Mrs. Kent."
"You need to leave," Barbara said sharply. "They'll figure out you're here."
"We will!" Courtney insisted. "But… Mom, it's the hospital. And Martha is having a baby."
Jonathan and Barbara both fell silent.
"Then I and the others will rush over right now!" Courtney finished, urgency in her voice as she hung up.
Courtney hung up, looking at Mike, Jenna, and Pat who was nursing a swollen cheek.
"It looks like we have to take another risk," she said, determined.
"I'll call Bart," Jenna said immediately. "He's probably in Metropolis still."
Before she could speak another word, a whoosh sounded, and Bart appeared out of thin air right in front of them, sunglasses on, straw hat cocked to the side.
"Actually," he said casually, "I just got back from Miami Beach."
Courtney blinked, stunned into momentary silence.
"I'll call Tyler and Beth," she said, regaining focus.
Meanwhile, at the hospital, Barbara turned off her phone, anxiety etched into her expression.
What could they do?
Transferring hospitals wasn't an option now — Martha was in labor, and no one was about to interrupt that.
Jonathan approached her, curiosity and concern in his eyes.
After explaining Courtney's warning, Barbara paused, thinking.
"Maybe we should contact the police," she suggested.
Jonathan shook his head. "The police probably can't deal with them," he said grimly.
Before he could explain further, a massive explosion shook the parking lot outside.
Both he and Barbara turned toward the blast.
"You stay here," Jonathan said to Barbara, then hurried toward the noise.
Battle in the Parking Lot
Outside, chaos had erupted.
The two unidentified super‑powered intruders stood before members of the Justice Society of America — Hourman and Wildcat among them.
Hourman, wielding enhanced strength, hefted a nearby car and hurled it at the bald intruder.
But the alien dodged easily. The car slammed down with a monstrous crunch, metal screaming against pavement.
Hourman roared, closing in with fists clenched. A high kick lashed out, but the enemy merely extended a hand and blocked it effortlessly.
Then heat‑vision flared from his eyes, lancing toward Hourman.
Just as the blast formed, Bart Allen, moving with super speed, collided with the bald assailant, sending him crashing into the ground and shattering the asphalt.
Hourman wasted no time and charged again, fists ready, but the alien blocked his assault with controlled precision.
Boom!
Hourman was thrown backward, blood spattering from his mouth as he skidded across the beaten ground.
Bart prepared to react, but before he could, the bald alien lunged with speed that rivalled his own.
On the other side of the lot, Wildcat and Jenna Scott faced the Kryptonian woman.
Jenna, relying on her Green Lantern Ring, projected shockwaves in an attempt to stop her.
But the woman simply raised her arms and absorbed the attack.
"Ah!"
Jenna screamed, her ring's green beam surging and intensifying.
Boom!
A red laser, hotter than fire, erupted from the Kryptonian woman's eyes, dispersing Jenna's attack and blasting her backward.
Wildcat leapt onto her back, claws extended, trying to restrain her. But even her talons couldn't pierce the strange armor the woman wore. The enemy shook violently, launching Wildcat across the lot like a thrown boulder.
She crashed into a parked car, denting metal and glass with bone‑jarring force.
Meanwhile, Midnight Doctor and Courtney could only watch helplessly from the sidelines.
"Yolanda!" Courtney cried, rushing to Wildcat's side.
The Kryptonian woman, braided hair dancing in the wind, stood over them with a merciless gaze.
"If all you have is this kind of power," she said, eyes glowing crimson, "then you cannot stop me. Warm‑ups are over, and your lives end here!"
She raised her arms, preparing to unleash another devastating attack.
But before she could finish drawing back her arm, a beam of heat‑vision suddenly shot down from the sky — invisible to the naked eye — and struck her in mid‑strike.
Boom!
The strike sent her flying into a car, the impact twisting metal and shattering glass in a deafening crash.
===
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