Time has quietly passed by since Superman's imprisonment and unorthodox release soon after. Despite the aftereffects on the world that still linger, he can be seen by the Moroccan residents of Chefchaouen, walking beside Supergirl at this very moment.
In contrast to Supergirl, who wore her hero costume, Superman wore grey and black clothing, which was overlaid with armbands and the Crest of the House of El, all infused with Red Sun radiation. The crest was held in place by X-shaped straps that went all the way around his back. And beyond the restraints were two armed guards who followed him around a distance apart at all times.
The slightly shorter one in grey spoke to the other guard, "I gotta say... guarding Superman is surprisingly a lot more boring than I thought it would be."
"Did you expect there to be something exciting out of supervising him in his second stage, Eric?"
Eric shrugged, "I don't know Brad... maybe there would be a villain, disaster relief, just something?? We've been around Morocco for a few days now and nothing has happened!"
Brad sighed and adjusted the collar of his black and white uniform, "Look where we are, nothing ever happens here. And you should be glad about that."
"But—"
"—There are no buts! Itachi killed most of them, and even if they were still around, what the hell would they come to Morocco for?"
Eric rolled his eyes and let his gun rest at his side, "Fair point... What if Superman tried to break out though?"
"Not possible. Those red-sun restraints make sure of that." Brad kept both arms on his firearm and didn't break focus.
"Yeah, but we're near the equator with the sun beaming down right on him. That doesn't like... contribute more sun charge than the red-sun stuff negates?"
Brad smiled and snickered. "What? I feel like that makes sense. If he got enough charge over time he could probably kill us at any time!"
"You really don't pay attention to the reports at all. Hell this isn't even classified info, the UN made this all public knowledge! The restraints don't only suppress his ability to absorb yellow-sun radiation, it negates it completely. Whatever charge he had before they were put on him is as strong as he's gonna get. Probably only enough to lift a truck or something."
Eric rubbed his neck, "Powered up enough that he could break those restraints?"
Brad looked up at the clear sky, "He could, but he would struggle enough to do it that we could put him down before he did."
The two guards stopped talking for a while and the four of them enjoyed the sights. The streets and walls were painted shades of blue that matched the colors of the Mediterranean sky and ocean against the Rif Mountains. Supergirl stopped at a vendor and bought msemen, honey, and juice from him. Sitting down with Clark on a blue bench while the guards sat a couple of dozen meters away under a tree.
They settled under a tree with their guns at their sides and Eric asked, "Hey Brad... do you think I have a chance of asking Supergirl out on a date?"
Brad slowly turned and looked at him like he asked if mayonnaise was an instrument, but Kara herself yelled over to them, "Just so you know we can hear everything you two are saying!"
Eric turned red and Kara turned back to Clark and broke bread with him. She occasionally frowned, glancing at some of the people who side-eyed them. She could hear every whisper no matter how subtle, "I hope that the remarks people make don't still bother you. It's been a year now and a lot of people still hate you..."
Clark savored the taste of the bread and honey, satiating the hunger he'd grown used to since being made human for the past year. "They don't bother me, but I don't ever want to tune them out or get used to them. It's an important reminder of my past mistakes."
Kara leaned back and coated her bread with honey, "I guess... but you've done so much since then. You'd figure people would... get over that eventually."
Superman turned to her, "Kara, they have every right to be mad after what I did. If Brainiac came to Earth today and said he wanted to be a hero, how would you feel a year from now even if he kept his word?"
Kara blinked and giggled, "That is a really extreme comparison... but ok I see your point."
Clark finished chewing and they shared the same smile and laugh, "Ok... I concede that that is a tad extreme."
After enjoying their food a while longer, Clark asked, "So how are the rest of the old Regime members?"
"It was global news recently, you didn't see?"
Clark finished his food and leaned forward, "They don't let me know anything about the old Regime members. Probably to make sure I don't come up with any plans to get the old gang back together or something like that."
She set down her last piece and cleared her throat, rubbing her chin. "Well, Billy and Raven are back to being normal heroes again."
He raised a brow, "I understand Billy, but Raven?"
She waved a hand, "It turns out that her father Trigon was controlling her the whole time in a plot to take over the world."
"Oh... that... makes sense." Clark looked away.
Kara snickered and continued, "Damian, Victor, and Barry are on different levels of parole and power restrictions."
Clark cut in, "The Guardians probably took Hal, right?"
She nodded, "Yeah, he's been off-world for a year. Kendra is off-world too with her husband. No one really knows what she's up to."
"What about Wonder Woman?"
"Oh right! She's still banished on her island for however long that lasts. Do you miss her?"
Clark cracked a low-effort smirk. "No." He sipped his juice and silence followed for the two until Clark asked another question, "How's Itachi been?"
Kara slowly ate her last piece of bread looking down, "... Complicated." Her earpiece chimed, she pressed it and stood up, A flood in the Sendai Region of Japan. They need disaster relief. Will you be okay?"
"I'll be fine, I have two heavily armed babysitters." Kara squeezed his shoulder and smiled.
"You're doing great work. I'll try to come back as soon as I'm done." She shot skyward, her departure marked by a gust that set the blue walls rippling with shadow.
With Supergirl gone, the guards shifted closer and Clark took in his surroundings. He memorized the pattern of the cobblestones before his feet and saw multiple people running past his line of sight to a radio.
He saw a small group of locals form around a radio at a vendor's shop and could make out some of the distressed Arabic words.
"—child fell into a well—"
"—almost thirty meters deep—"
"—been two days already—"
"—Ighran village—"
"—they'll never reach him in time—"
Clark stood up and felt his chest tighten. He approached the crowd and spoke in their tongue carefully, "Excuse me, what's happening?"
An elderly man turned to him and stared at him warily before answering, "Out East in the Tamorot Commune, a child fell deep into a well. They've been trying to dig a tunnel to reach him with construction machines but... It's not looking good. The ground keeps collapsing and adding time."
The man put his hands on his hips and Clark asked, "How long has he been there?"
"Two days already... and they don't think they'll reach him for another two days maybe... That poor boy's only five years old. He won't survive that."
Clark's expression hardened and he clenched his fists, "Not if I have anything to say about it."
He turned and ran, causing his guards to follow after. Brad yelled, "Hey! Where are you going?!"
"We have to take the helicopter east of here to a place called Ighran Village! There's a boy who'll die!"
"We're not supposed to leave the area like this!"
"File a report if you have to! That boy won't survive if we take too long!"
Eric pressed his earpiece, "Alex, get the chopper ready for takeoff."
Brad turned to him, "Hey, what are you doing?"
Eric replied, "The village is still in Morocco, it's not that bad if we go that way faster than we were supposed to."
Brad grunted, "Ugh, fine."
The flight to the village was painfully slow for Clark. He sat in the cockpit tapping his foot impatiently, having to bear the sound of the Helicopter blades twirling. His voice was irritated, "Is this as fast as this thing goes?"
"It is. Don't worry, we're basically there."
Clark held his red-sun restraints with a grimace. Despite it only being twenty minutes, it felt like an eternity. The Chopper landed and Clark stood at the cockpit as the door fell.
Once his eyes adjusted to the light, his heart sank seeing the controlled chaos of the area. There were a handful of excavators taking turns picking up dirt and moving it. There were dozens of mounds of dirt all around from top to bottom parallel to the well, and it still didn't look like they were anywhere close to getting him free.
Clark saw medics and what he assumed was a mother praying standing next to the top of the well. He ran over to the rescue coordinator who watched a monitor of the boy.
The man turned at the sound of footsteps and jumped when he saw him, "Superman!" His face cycled through different expressions before exhaling and speaking calmer, "Superman."
"I'm just Clark, but I want to help. Can you tell me what's going on?"
They both turned to the passage created by the Cat Vehicles and he informed them, "We were initially gonna try and dig straight toward Rayan, but the overhead of dirt would have crushed the workers and machines. It's making us have to dig out tons of dirt top and bottom to safely reach him as fast as possible... but God... It's gonna take us two more days at the minimum if we can keep this up but..." The man looked down and Clark asked.
"... But what?"
"Realistically... maybe in four days."
Clark used his X-ray vision. The dampeners weakened it, but not enough that he couldn't see the outline of a boy with a weak heartbeat curled up in darkness. Clark saw the whole narrow tunnel he fell down, one so narrow only a small child like him could fall through. Clark's heart dropped and Eric rubbed the back of his head watching the monitor, "Shit man..."
Clark's lips tensed and he spoke in English, "That poor boy's been fighting for his life for two days already. With all the Carbon Dioxide buildup along with his other injuries, he won't survive that long... I need to help."
The coordinator replied, "We are happy for you to help, but from what I know about your second stage, I'm not sure if you'll be much more helpful than any of the excavators we have here already."
Clark stepped forward, but halted, becoming a lot more conscious of the restraints that held him back. "He's right..." He muttered and his fist unclenched.
The sound of the construction machines at work faded into the background and Clark looked back. His two guards held their guns more firmly than usual, they were troubled, but didn't take their eyes off him for long. He then turned back toward the boy with a furrowed brow. A boy fighting to survive, clinging to a life that may be destined to end at this current pace. Lastly, he looked further up at the top of the site where both of the boys' parents stood now. They hugged each other, bearing pained expressions and gazing down at him with a stare not many people give him anymore.
Hope.
Clark clenched his teeth, "Not this time..." He grabbed one of his restraints. An advanced piece of machinery with a code to unlock it that only Batman, Itachi, Waller, and the UN members knew the code to. But he knew its vulnerabilities. He'd spent months mapping its circuits with his dulled senses and took advantage of its biggest weakness.
He pulled. Hard.
He grunted with clenched fist, but it slowly bent under pressure before snapping in half.
Eric and Brad pointed their rifles at him and Eric shouted, "Whoa, Superman! What do you think you're doing?!"
He replied, "I'm going to save that boy! I won't let him die!"
Eric's grip on his rifle faltered and his barrel slowly lowered while his eyes widened. Brad yelled firmly, "Superman! You know what we're ordered to do if you try to break out! Do not break any more restraints!"
Superman spoke calmly, "I know exactly what happens. If you two want to shoot me cause I tried to save a child's life... then so be it."
Eric blurted out, "Superman! Be reasonable, man. You'd really risk your freedom for"—
"—For a child who's scared and dying in the dark? Every single time."
The confidence in Clark's words struck Eric like a bullet and his gun became heavier and heavier. So much so that the barrel pointed at the ground while his jaw dropped.
Opposing him, Brad kept his gun trained on Clark as he broke off the other wrist restraint. Now grabbing onto the last restraint around his torso. "Superman! If you try to break that last restraint, I will shoot!"
Clark only paused for a moment, turning and making eye contact with him, "Do what you have to do, and I'll do what I have to do."
Clark began tearing his final restraint to shreds and the sound of a gunshot echoed through the clearing, making every excavator temporarily stop what they were doing.
The heads of the whole crew and family turned toward the source of the sound, but instead of Clark being on the ground, they saw Eric pushing Brad's rifle toward the sky. "Eric! Just what the fuck do you think you're doing?! Have you forgotten your job!? He could kill us all!"
Brad tried to wrestle it from Eric, but he held it firmly, "I haven't forgotten! But listen to him! Do you honestly think that's an act?!? Give him a chance!"
The final restraint was torn into scrap metal and the effect was instant. Power surged back into him. Similar to taking a full breath after nearly drowning, like warmth returning to frozen limbs. Superman took in the euphoric feeling of absorbing the sun's energy for the first time in over a year. He spread his arms and levitated above the ground with closed eyes.
Fear briefly crossed the eyes of the guards as they tensed up. Although Clark's stillness was short as his eyes focused back on Rayan.
He flew up to the top of the well and dove down, piercing through earth and stone for the boy. In less than a microsecond, he reached the small form curled at the bottom. His enhanced vision made the damage clear-heartbeat weak, breathing shallow, broken ribs, hypothermic despite the desert heat above. Although, still very much alive. He hovered above the boy, shielding him from the falling debris. With infinite care, he scooped up Rayan, "I've got you."
So Clark rose out of the well, unbothered by the unstable ground around him. For the first time in days, the boy was out under the evening sun. Dazed, unresponsive, and injured, but finally safe.
The rescue crew watched on silently until one of them who was recording on his phone yelled a cheer. One domino hit the other and soon enough the whole crew cheered for him. Clark descended to the boy's parents, handing him over to them.
They embraced their child dearly, but softly to not worsen his injuries. The mother choked out, "Thank you, Superman! Thank you! You really are back!"
The medics rushed over and Superman turned away with a content expression, "No need to thank me. Just doing what I'm supposed to do."
He flew down to the guards. Brad was speaking into a radio and Eric looked up at him in awe. The rescue coordinator turned off the monitor and put his helmet on his chest, "I don't know how we can thank you."
Clark landed on the ground and raised a hand, "No need." Brad lowered the radio with a mixed expression. His grip on his gun was hesitant. Clark stated, "I'm expecting some kind of punishment is in store for me. I won't resist. We can go."
He offered his hands to be cuffed and Eric stared back and forth between Brad and Clark before slowly stepping forward and putting a normal pair of handcuffs on him. "Um... I don't think they'll be happy about this... Was it worth it?"
Clark looked back up at the boy being rolled into an ambulance and smiled, "Given the chance. I'd do it all over again."
Bound by the equivalent of a pinky promise, Brad and Eric guided him back to the Helicopter. It was a slow, quiet stroll and Brad occasionally opened his mouth. Deeply exhaling before forcing himself to mutter, "I was just doing my job, so no hard feelings..."
"None taken."
There was a brief silence before Brad rubbed the back of his head, "For what it's worth, I think you'd be ready for the third stage of your program. You had an easy opportunity there and didn't take it. I misjudged you."
Clark smiled at him as they entered the cockpit, "Thank you."
The Chopper lifted off from the scene after they seated and Clark didn't look back, he didn't need to. No matter what happens, he'd do it again.