A Full Belly and a Chilling Reminder

As my transformation underwent, the eerie glow of the moon dimmed until it returned to its normal state. As the fog of anger clouding my head dissipated, I clutched my head and groaned. What was I doing? This wasn't like me to get this angry. It must've been due to the system notifications.

I was about to check them until my stomach began to protest. Shit, I need food, right now. In a stroke of good luck, the savory smell of warm meat brushed past my nose, tantalizing me with the smell of hot dogs and burgers.

As drool leaked from my mouth, I stumbled towards the smell like a moth towards flame. Unbeknownst to me, my nose had transformed on its own to increase the amount of smells I could pick up. Practically operating on autopilot, I let my nose lead the way until I stumbled across an abandoned hot dog stand.

Ignoring the suspicious nature of a completely empty street and abandoned food lying out in the open, I dug in. Not even bothering to put the dogs in the buns, I resolved to just stuff handfuls of meat and bread into my mouth separately. Scarfing the food down like a starving dog, I felt my hunger slowly start to recede.

Taking that as a welcome sign, I crammed even more food down my gullet. As I prepared to down my tenth hot dog, a hand gripped my shoulder in a firm grip. Turning around, I came face-to-face with someone so memorable, that I doubt I could ever forget. Superman, AKA Clark Kent, AKA Kal-El, was standing before me with a bright smile on his face as he watched me continue to down hot dog after hot dog.

Now, I was no superman fanboy, but as a fan of comics in general, it was kind of hard to not know who he was. Synonymous with the ideals of truth and justice, the boy in blue was a hero adored by many and hated by more than a few. And right now, this very man was grabbing me by the shoulder while I stuffed my face with stolen food.

I realized that my safest bet was just to be quiet, saying anything right now might end poorly for me. Even if the Kryptonian was too gentle to really injure me, he might still turn me in to the police for theft. Considering that there were most likely no records of me anywhere on this planet, things might spiral out of control very quickly.

Most likely realizing that I had no plans on speaking, Superman gave me an awkward smile, "You shouldn't be out here, didn't you see the evacuation warning on the news? Head back home kid, it's not safe yet."

With cold sweat dripping down my back, I nodded and turned away from him. Walking away at a pace neither fast nor slow in an attempt to not draw any further attention from one of the most powerful beings on this planet. Although he was a hero, I still couldn't get the fear of what could happen out of my head. There were many instances in the comics where he was mind-controlled or just straight-up evil. If I got caught in the crossfire...

I'm not strong enough and I never will be until I no longer fear him or anyone else in this universe. Newfound motivation aside, where am I even going? I just started walking in one direction to get away from Superman. What city am I even in? It might be Metropolis considering that Superman is here. All it would take to confirm my guess would be another person, but it looks like what Superman was saying was right; the streets are empty, the windows are pulled shut and stores are locked up.

Strangely enough was the lack of noise around me. You'd think since the Justice League had made a public warning there'd be some sort of battle going on...

"BOOM"

A skyscraper in the distance shook violently as a small figure was propelled straight through the several hundred feet of steel and concrete. Watching the distant silhouette seemingly shake off the earth-shattering blow as if it was just a flick. Dumbstruck, I stared in awe at the battle of epic proportions occurring above the clouds of this city as the din of battle echoed through the empty city streets.

Fuck, I need to find some shelter; there's no way I won't be squashed by some missed attack or even beneath the boots of the very heroes attempting to protect this city as they're sent spiraling back down to earth. I looked around, scanning my surroundings as best I could for some sort of structure I could try to hide in. I might be able to survive the impact, but even if I did, I'd probably be bleeding out with ruptured organs and broken bones.

Bingo, across the street was a boarded up convenience store with a faded sign. It was most likely abandoned, so I doubt anyone would mind if I used it to hide until the battle ended.

"Someone, Help me!"

I froze. No, remember the last time you tried to help.

"Please, anyone!"

No.

"No, please!"

Ugh, fine. God, I hate being a good person.

Using my transformation ability, I enhanced my hearing and took off towards the source of the voice.

I rounded the corner of the alley way and saw a woman backed against the brick wall, cowering as several robotic monkeys cackled, slowly advancing towards her. A good time to test out my new abilities as ever, I utilized the transformation skill again, morphing the entirety of my right arm into a crude spike made of keratin which I further strengthened with void energy.

"Oi, get the fuck back you damn clankers," I growled at the robots, annoyed that I made myself come here in the first place.

They focused their attention on me and cackled louder, happy that a new victim had appeared.

"Well, come at me then," I beckoned with my one untransformed hand.

Understanding the provocation, they were more than happy to comply as they rushed me in perfect unison. Ducking beneath the first, I used my spear-hand to impale it through its midsection like a hot fork into butter before jumping forward to dodge the other two. One slammed into the wall and another went tumbling further down the alley.

The closer one rushed me again and I flung the first impaled monkey off of my spike and let the two collide with a metallic clang. Then whilst the monkey was on the ground, I impaled the both of them and held them aloft like a kebab. The third monkey seeing me make short work of its companions turned to run only for an orb of void energy to crash into it, corroding the metal and frying its circuits.

The woman watched me with baited eyes as I flung the two robots off my arm and released the transformation, causing the arm-spike to wriggle like gelatin as it slowly morphed back into my arm. I opened and closed my hand a few times, making sure that I still had full control of my movement before looking towards the woman.

"Go," was all I needed to tell her for her to bolt out of the alley, presumably towards her house.

So, I guess I don't get any rewards unless the enemies have souls. Taking a closer look at the robots, I knew which villain was giving the Justice League a run for their money. Thinking back on my arrival, I pressed my hand against my forehead and sighed. Why didn't I notice earlier? Of all the weird timelines, it was this one.

I'm not complaining though, this one was considerably safer than some of the other DC timelines. But still, edgy teens fighting bad guys is so common that it borders on cliché. But, I guess Young Justice isn't so bad. Still though, why didn't I recognize Robin when I saw him? Hmm, questions for another time. Right now I need to take cover.

~~~~~~~~~~

Phew, finally finished! I hit a creative roadblock and was lurking on the DC wiki for a while, but I have a good plan for future chapters now. I've also had a decent amount of spelling and grammatical errors in the earlier chapters pointed out to me by a friend, so let me know if you guys are fine with me going back to edit them. (know that this means that updates would be less frequent for a day or two).

One more little thing. Do you guys want me to create an update schedule? If so, I'll post it under the synopsis.