[Third Person Pov]
Seeing Komi looking so despondent, Clark couldn't help but feel uncomfortable, like he had genuinely done something wrong and simply hadn't realized it until now. The way she avoided his gaze made it worse, leaving him with a quiet, nagging sense of guilt that settled deep in his chest. He didn't fully understand what had come over him, but the sight of her shrinking away from him made him act before he could properly think things through. Wanting to show her that he meant what he said, that he wasn't playing with her feelings or hiding behind empty words, he reached out and gently placed a finger beneath her chin, lifting her head so she would look at him.
Komi froze instantly, her entire body going rigid at the sudden closeness. Her mind blanked, thoughts scattering as if someone had flipped a switch and shut everything down at once. She wasn't prepared for something so direct, so intimate, and it left her completely overwhelmed.
"Although it hurts to know you seem to have some doubts about my honesty, I can understand where you're coming from. I haven't exactly given you many reasons to trust me," Clark said quietly, his voice steady but sincere. He didn't look away, holding her gaze in a way that made it difficult for her to escape, not out of force but out of the weight of his honesty. "I'll admit I haven't told you the entire truth, and I may have left certain things out. But as far as I can remember, I have never once explicitly lied to you."
Komi was pressed lightly against the subway door now, her eyes wide and unfocused as she struggled to process everything at once. The crowded train, the noise, the closeness, and Clark's unwavering attention all blended together into something she could barely handle. Her breathing hitched slightly as she swallowed, unsure how much more of the moment she could endure without completely shutting down.
"I have my reasons for not being entirely honest," Clark continued, lowering his voice so only she could hear him over the noise of the train. "And I don't like lying to you. That's why I've only told you the bare minimum. Not because I don't trust you, but because I don't want you getting dragged into things that could put you in danger. It's better for you this way. Safer… I know that might sound insincere, but I don't have a better way to explain it."
Overwhelmed, Komi shut her eyes tightly and reached out, placing a hand against Clark's chest. It wasn't forceful, more like a quiet attempt to create some space between them, to ground herself before everything became too much. Her fingers trembled slightly against him as she tried to steady her breathing.
Clark immediately lowered his hand, giving her that space without hesitation.
Komi shook her head faintly, still avoiding his eyes as she struggled to speak. "You don't have to apologize… like you said, you have your reasons… Thank you, for being honest."
Clark let out a small breath and shook his head, a faint, conflicted expression crossing his face. "But that's the thing… I haven't been entirely honest—"
He stopped mid-sentence.
At first, it was subtle. A distant sound, barely noticeable beneath the rumble of the train and the chatter of passengers. But to him, it might as well have been right next to his ear. A sharp metallic groan echoed through the distance, followed by a series of rapid, splintering cracks. His expression shifted instantly, all softness gone as his senses focused outward.
His head turned slightly, eyes narrowing as if he could see through the walls of the train itself.
Far ahead, beyond buildings and streets, the elevated tracks stretched across the city. And then he heard it clearly.
The structure gave way.
Not from wear. Not from stress. It sounded clean, unnatural, like something had sliced through it with precision. Steel supports separated in an instant, the massive overpass splitting into sections that began to tilt and slide. Concrete fractured, metal screamed, and entire segments of the track started collapsing downward, breaking apart as they fell.
Clark's eyes widened just slightly as the realization set in.
That was their route.
The train they were on continued forward at full speed, unaware. The conductor hadn't reacted. The passengers around them kept talking, shifting, living in the normalcy of a moment that was already about to end.
In less than a minute, they would reach that section.
And when they did, there would be nothing left beneath them.
Clark's body tensed, every instinct screaming at him as he calculated the distance, the speed, the time he had left. It wasn't much. Not nearly enough to handle this carefully.
His gaze flickered back to Komi for a fraction of a second, the weight of everything he had just said hanging between them, now overshadowed by something far more urgent.
There was no more time to keep things hidden.
"Of course it had to be now, it just had to," Clark muttered under his breath, his jaw tightening as his expression hardened.
"What's wrong?" Komi asked, immediately noticing the tension that had taken over his face, the shift so sudden it made her chest tighten.
"Something came up, something I can't ignore," Clark replied, his tone low and serious in a way she hadn't heard before.
He drew in a breath, then looked at her again, this time with a weight behind his eyes that hadn't been there moments ago. "You know how I said I haven't been entirely honest with you? I have this huge secret that I've been keeping…"
Komi blinked, confused at first, but then her attention was pulled to something strange. Fine red particles, almost like dust or sand, began slipping off Clark's shoulders and the edges of his glasses. At first it was subtle, barely noticeable, but within seconds it increased, flowing more steadily as if something was shedding from him.
Her breathing hitched.
She wasn't the only one who noticed.
People standing nearby began to shift uneasily, their conversations cutting off as their eyes were drawn to him. The red dust thickened, swirling faintly around his body, rising and falling like it had a will of its own.
Clark's entire figure became obscured, the particles gathering until his features were no longer visible. What stood in his place looked less like a person and more like a silhouette made of shifting red sand, his outline unstable, constantly moving. The only thing that remained clear were his eyes, glowing a faint, unnatural blue through the haze.
"The heck?!"
"What's going on?!"
"What is that?!"
Voices rose around them as panic began to spread, people pulling back as much as the packed train allowed. Komi's eyes widened further with every passing second, her mind struggling to keep up with what she was seeing.
Clark's body began to vibrate at an intense frequency, the sand around him reacting to it, trembling and shifting faster, like it was barely being held together.
Komi felt her phone buzz in her hand. She almost ignored it, her attention completely locked onto him, but something made her glance down.
A message from Clark.
[I'm sorry this was the way you had to find out, I'll explain everything later]
Her eyes snapped back up.
Before she could say anything, before she could even process it, Clark dropped straight through the floor of the train as if it wasn't there at all, phasing through solid metal and vanishing from sight.
A ripple of shock passed through the carriage.
Outside, just beneath the train, that same red mass reformed in midair, like smoke gathering itself. It surged upward alongside the moving train, keeping pace effortlessly, before the swirling particles pulled inward and reshaped.
The red dissipated in a controlled motion, revealing a clean, bright form beneath it.
His white suit came into full view, it seams glowing with a golden hue, the emblem on his chest catching the light as he accelerated, flying parallel to the train with one arm extended forward.
Inside, Komi stood frozen, staring out through the window of the door, her reflection faintly visible over the image of him flying just outside.
Clark turned his head slightly and met her gaze for the briefest moment.
Around her, the compartment erupted.
"Superman! That was Superman!"
"He was riding the subway with us?!"
"Did anyone see his face?!"
"Wait… are we in danger?"
"I doubt it. Even if we were, Superman is here to save us!"
Clark pushed ahead, accelerating past the train in an instant, a faint red trail lingering behind him as he shot toward the damaged overpass ahead.
The destruction came into view quickly. The elevated track had been cleanly severed, multiple sections misaligned and beginning to collapse under their own weight. Broken slabs of concrete and twisted steel hung at dangerous angles, some already falling away.
Inside the cab, the conductor finally saw it.
His eyes widened in immediate panic, hands tightening around the controls, his mind racing through options that didn't exist at this speed and distance. Then, just as quickly, he saw a streak of white approaching.
Clark arrived in a blur, stopping midair just above the broken span.
"Sol," Clark called out, his voice firm.
"At your service, Kal-El," Sol responded, the tone calm and precise.
The red sunstone dust that had trailed behind Clark surged forward from his cape, extending outward into multiple tendrils that spread across the collapsed structure. Each strand moved with purpose, wrapping around debris, slipping between fractured segments, anchoring itself to steel and concrete alike.
With a controlled motion, Clark raised his hand slightly.
The scattered pieces responded instantly.
Massive chunks of the overpass shifted, lifting and sliding back into place as if guided by an invisible force. Sections that had begun to fall were pulled back upward, rotating and aligning with the rest of the track. It resembled a puzzle being reconstructed in real time, each piece snapping back toward where it belonged.
Clark didn't pause.
He moved.
At super speed, he darted across the structure, his heat vision igniting in controlled bursts. Thin, precise beams of red energy traced along the fractures, melting and fusing metal supports back together. He adjusted constantly, reinforcing joints, sealing cracks, reconnecting the internal framework as fast as he could.
The sunstone tendrils held everything steady just long enough for him to work, shifting where needed, tightening their grip as more weight was redistributed.
"The integrity of the structure is unstable," Sol stated, projecting a rapid simulation directly into Clark's awareness. In it, the repaired track buckled under the incoming train, collapsing again under the load. "It will not withstand the weight of the train at its current speed."
Clark didn't slow down. "It might not have the strength," he said, finishing another weld in a flash, "but I do."
He dropped immediately beneath the track.
The moment he positioned himself under the reconstructed section, he braced.
Above him, the train approached fast.
The rails trembled as the first set of wheels hit the repaired segment.
Inside the cars, passengers felt it instantly. The smooth motion of the ride turned rough, the floor beneath their feet vibrating harder than before. The carriage shook, not violently, but enough to make people grab onto poles and straps, unease spreading through the crowd.
"What's happening now?!"
"Why is it shaking like this?!"
Komi held onto the door handle tightly, her eyes still fixed outside, her heart pounding.
Below, Clark planted himself firmly against the underside of the track, both hands pressed upward against the structure. His entire body tensed as the full weight of the train bore down on the weakened rails.
He grunted under the pressure.
The metal above him groaned, small fractures threatening to spread, but the upward force he applied kept everything in place. His arms held steady, muscles straining as he adjusted constantly, distributing the weight, compensating for every shift and imbalance as each car rolled over him.
The train clattered loudly as it passed, each set of wheels adding another surge of force. The vibration traveled through the rails and into his arms, but he didn't move, didn't give even an inch.
Car by car, it continued.
Inside, the shaking persisted, but gradually lessened as the train moved forward, clearing the most unstable section.
Then, finally, the last car passed over.
Clark held his position for a brief moment longer, ensuring the structure wouldn't give way the second the weight was gone. Once he was certain, he slowly eased off, releasing the upward pressure.
He rose back up above the tracks, hovering in place.
Ahead, the train continued on, putting distance between itself and the damaged section, the movement returning to normal as if nothing had happened.
Clark watched it go, his shoulders lowering slightly as the tension left his body.
He exhaled, the breath slow and controlled. "…That was too close."
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