Chapter 43

Outskirts of London, United Kingdom December 1943

Like Howard said, a week had passed since Clark had that meeting with Colonel Phillips about taking leave to learn to control his heat vision. Superman was off the battlefield temporarily to get a handle on his new ability. It actually came at a rather opportune time. With it being winter, the Allied offensive slowed down a bit to deal with the turn in weather which affected travel and mobility of units along with the allocation of resources. Allied leaders and strategists were planning the next offensives which they hoped to get the logistics dealt with prior to a spring offensive and the time would give wartime production time to catch up. Already, talks were being had of the invasion of France which would happen in the new year and a possible invasion into Central Europe via Yugoslavia. Ambitious and with the Germans dealing with the Russians combined with two offensives to choke their resources it could work. And it also helped that with the winter coming the Germans would be focused on their current fronts and making sure they had their supply lines secured which were already getting hit thanks to Allied bombing raids. All in all, a lot of future plans were made so in the short run Clark taking a week to control his new ability seemed acceptable. After all, a week of him training with his new ability he would have gotten control of it by now, right?

Eh. Sorta.

[Sizzling of high heat melting steel and loud thuds]

Two beams of red infra-red heat sliced through several shooting targets set up in a row and then several larger objects including decommissioned vehicles such as jeeps and transport trucks that couldn't be repaired for the war effort. Clark stood about a hundred yards away from the targets and his heat vision sliced through them but compared to a week ago the two beams weren't as unwieldy and chaotic. Clark had gotten used to the amount of force that his heat vision produced so he was better prepared and stood his ground better. It still took some getting used to but even then, he still didn't have control over his heat vision. He managed to figure out how to activate his heat vision, but he still wasn't able to adjust the intensity or even turn it off and the only reason he was able to figure out how to activate it was after an unfortunate incident that had him properly motivated.

Flashback…Five days ago…

Moans and groans of pleasure were all that could be heard as Clark and Peggy entered a hotel room. Wanting a night together and knowing that the barracks weren't exactly a secret place they returned to the hotel they frequented when they wanted some time alone. After finding out about Clark's previous relationships or absence of previous relationships and how Peggy was his special first, Howard had permanently bought out their hotel room so that the two always had someplace to go when they wanted privacy. Howard called it being helpful, but Peggy and Clark called it him being a pervert with him knowing where they were having sex. Still, they liked that they had their privacy, but Clark x-rayed the room and checked the surrounding buildings to make sure there were no cameras set up by Howard to try and record their time together. Thankfully, there wasn't and good thing too otherwise Peggy might've actually killed him.

Peggy moaned in delight as Clark peppered her neck with kisses while he undid the buttons on her jacket and then her blouse. She quickly let it drop to the ground and moaned as Clark pushed his head into her cleavage and crept his hands onto her rear before picking her up. She wrapped her legs around him and pulled his head up, giving him a forceful kiss before he lowered her onto the bed. She reached her hands down to his belt and quickly undid it as Clark reached his hands up behind her back to her bra when his eyes began to hurt.

"Damn…" Clark quickly separated from Peggy, and she was confused but then saw his eyes glowing red. He turned his head, and a quick burst of heat vision came out of his eyes before he forced them shut and covered them with his hands. "AAAAAHHHH!"

Peggy rarely if ever heard Clark shout, which was shocking as it was concerning. It was a shout of adrenaline mixed with pain as she could his hands glowing red as his heat vision must have seeped through his closed eyelids and into his hands. The faint red glow of his heat vision filtered through the spaces in between his fingers for several seconds until it stopped and the red glow around his eyes went away.

Peggy got off the bed and rushed over to Clark's side as he fell to his knees. "Clark are you all right?"

"Yeah, but that wasn't pleasant." Clark pulled his hands away from his eyes so they could see that he was burned. If Clark was human than his heat vision would have easily been burned through his hands until they were nothing but stumps but thanks to his Kryptonian dense skin, muscles, and his bio-electric aura he got away with some superficial burns which sealed up a few seconds later. Peggy sighed in relief and hugged Clark from the side, placing her head into the crook of his neck. Clark leaned his head on hers and was glad that he managed to catch his heat vision before something bad happened but then saw a burning hole made in the side of the room that gave it an accidental extra window. A quick burst of his heat vision managed to get through before Clark caught it and he was lucky that it just ruined a wall and Howard would need to pay to have it fixed. Peggy was in the room, and she could have been killed which he already was aware of with his heat vision but right now the thing that was worrying him was the moment it activated. When the two were in bed with one another. If it happened now, it could happen again the next time which meant he needed to get it under control if he didn't want another accident to happen.

"I really need to get a handle on this."

End flashback…

His lack of control over his new power now not only made him a liability in combat but even a danger when alone with Peggy. He removed himself from active duty and now he couldn't even enjoy alone time with the love of his life. Every time they attempted to get intimate his eyes would light up and threaten to harm her. Which is why he had to sadly tell her they should take a break from their sexual relationship until further notice. Its put something of a wedge in their relationship as while they could still spend time together talking and even kiss (so long as it didn't get too heated) they just couldn't be intimate anymore and it was bothering him. He knows that he shouldn't be feeling like this. His parents had taught him that there was more to a loving relationship than just sex after all. However, it hasn't helped that he's noticed Peggy showing small signs of longing as she clearly misses their enjoyable and passionate times together. Honestly, he couldn't see how he wouldn't miss it as well. It was just another reason he wanted to gain control over this. So that he can go back to the front lines without worrying about endangering his allies and his relationship with Peggy can go back to normal.

Clark's turned his head and line of sight with his heat vision slicing through all the targets and things he set up, but it was still going. He willed himself for it to stop or even dim but his heat vision kept coming out. It was like the floodgates to a dam were open and he couldn't shut them.

"Dammit. Come on, stop!" Clark shouted, putting every kind of eye control he had into his stopping his heat vision, but it kept going so to avoid any damage he focused on one spot on the ground. His heat vision was digging a hole about 20 feet in diameter, and it was becoming a molten volcano with his heat vision melting the ground. Clark had to force his eyes shut and cover them with his hands like usual. After about a minute or two longer, his heat vision barrage stopped, and he removed his hands. His burned hands healed up and a quick glance at the destroyed targets and giant hole in the ground filled with molten lava caused him to seethe in frustration. "Dammit."

"Captain Elbert?" Clark turned around to see the SSR engineers and aids who were helping him with his heat vision training. Some of them quickly went to put out any fires before they could spread while the rest were near a truck filled with more targets and such ready to set up. "Should we set up another set of targets?"

Clark checked his watch and saw it was 15:54 local time. He got there at 08:00 and other than the break for lunch at noon he's been training his heat vision non-stop. "No, no more targets. Let's call it a day." Clark told them and they nodded, getting things back into the trucks and jeeps to head back to base.

A week of training his heat vision and he had made some progress, at least being able to turn it on and be able to stand his ground and dictate where it goes, which was better than where he started where he had zero control over it. While any progress was good progress, he still wasn't able to stop his heat vision on command or adjust its intensity, so he had powerful beams of heat with temperatures close to the surface of the sun and had to force his eyes shut until it stopped.

His heat vision was really becoming a pain in the butt but thankfully he made the progress he did because he was going to be needed in the field sooner rather than later.

London, United Kingdom

In the secret SSR base underneath London, a female agent dressed in Army fatigues was walking through the base with a file under her left arm. There was nothing abnormal or special about her other than she was very beautiful, more so than Lorraine. A gorgeous 5ft6 blue eyed blonde woman and despite the military jacket and skirt she was wearing it showed off a defined musculature indicative of someone with combat training but what was most telling was her eyes. Her eyes told the tale of a woman who has been through a lot and has come out stronger for it. She was beautiful so she drew several glances and double-looks by the men working but she kept focused and walked through the base.

She reached up her hand to her left ear to scratch her earlobe but subtly pressed her finger into her eardrum where an advanced communications device was. "Can you guys hear me? I made it in." She muttered under her breath.

"We read you loud and clear, Ms. Lance. How's it look?" A British man's voice came through from the other side of her earcomm device. Distinctly an East London accent.

"Busy. I can't believe I'm actually here of all places." She replied.

"I can't either. I'm so jealous. You're in the actual SSR headquarters, the original headquarters. This is actually blowing my mind." Another man said.

"Focus, Raymond, we have a job to do and a temporal aberration to fix and set right. If not than the consequences could be dire. Already much has changed and even more so can if we don't set history back on track." A third man said with the tone and tenure of his voice indicating someone much older than the previous two men who have spoken.

"Right because the Reverse-Flash is a time paradox created from Crisis and he's trying to reshape our new reality by changing up our new history before it really sets by killing Superman before he really becomes the Superman, we know but then again, he's not really the Superman we know but he is, but things are different." The woman rubbed her forehead feeling a migraine coming. "I swear things are always confusing with time travel, but this takes it to a new level." Sara muttered as she continued walking through the base to her destination by following a map that she had memorized.

"I agree with you wholeheartedly, Ms. Lance. But despite the changes to the timeline and the time it took for us to get acquainted with all of them, including the return of many of us, this new timeline needs to be kept on its track or else bad things will happen. Thawne's changes to the timeline have already had dire consequences so we need to prevent any more or else we could be dealing with the collapse of time itself." The British man said.

"Yeah, dealing with the collapse of time once was bad enough so maybe we can prevent that from happening again, that'd be great." Another woman said.

"First step of that is getting the timeline back on track which means getting Superman to prevent Savage and Hydra from getting Vibranium from Wakanda and getting him to meet with some important people. Now Ms. Lance drop off the file to Agent Carter's office and then get out of there." The elderly man said to her.

"On it." She kept on moving to Agent Carter's office. She turned the corner and saw Agent Carter herself speaking with Howard Stark, she raised in eyebrow in appreciation. "Wow those black and white pictures of Peggy didn't do her justice, 1943 Peggy Carter was hot. Superman has excellent taste in women." She then cast a look at the other occupant in the room. "Howard's also quite a real looker, I think I'd even say he's better looking than Oliver." She said the last part playfully as she compared him to her former lover.

"Focus, Ms. Lance." The British man told her. "We don't need you having another one of your one night stands with someone in the past like you did before with… too many if you ask me."

"Right, sorry." She walked over to Agent Carter's office and placed a file down on her desk before heading to the exit. She walked down the hallway when she saw Clark Kent walking towards her wearing military fatigues. "Crap."

Sara ducked her head down and turned the corner into a dead-end hallway that was currently empty. A few seconds later there was a bright flash of white light. Clark saw the white light, so he walked over only to see nothing. Just a dead-end hallway with some file cabinets. "What the…"

"Kal?" Howard and Peggy walked over to him and saw him staring into a dead-end hallway. "You ok?"

"I just…I thought…I thought there was a flash…never mind."

"How'd it go today?" Peggy asked him as they walked into her office. That's when she saw the SSR file on her desk, so she went through it.

"Same as yesterday, unfortunately. Not good enough. It's been a week and I'm still having trouble with this." Clark answered, clearly frustrated with what was going on. How powerful and difficult his heat vision was getting to train and how long it was taking. He had been out of combat for a week and oddly enough he was going stir crazy. He needed to be back in the field with his team.

"Wow. Kalvin Elbert is frustrated. I never thought I'd see it. Easy going Kalvin Elbert is frustrated. Ha." Howard smirked and got looks of disapproval from Clark and Peggy. "Relax, Kal. A week ago, you couldn't even control this new ability. Now, you can at least turn it on, which is better than before. Just give it some time. You've literally got two flamethrowers in your eyes and controlling your sight isn't exactly something easy for us to do. You'll get it."

"Yeah." Clark sighed. "Where's Colonel Phillips?"

"Wartime strategy meeting. And got a communique from your team. They're working with Steve and the Howling Commandos in Paris." Howard told him.

"Good, good. Second, I get this new ability handled I'll join them." Clark stated.

"Actually, I would suggest holding off on heading to Paris, Kal." Peggy told him. "Remember when you were talking to Howard about Savage and Hydra's plans for Vibranium and about how they might send an expedition to look for more?"

Clark and Howard went wide-eyed. "No, don't tell me." Clark hoped.

"Yes." Peggy handed him the file. "Confirmed by British and French expeditionary forces in the area. Approximately two days ago, a Yugoslavian merchant vessel arrived on the shores of Eritrea on the east coast of Africa. It was there with the proper papers and documentation, but it just so happens to be the same vessel and company that dropped off the German assassins in Tehran. A group of Hydra soldiers and Savage's personal SS legion managed to slip out of the city unnoticed, but they encountered a British patrol shortly after. One man managed to survive though."

"I sometimes hate being right." Clark muttered as he read the file. "Seems like a small expeditionary force. From what the soldier was able to remember a fully company of SS soldiers from Savage and about 20 or so Hydra soldiers which means they have those energy weapons. How long would it take to get to Wakanda?"

"With all those men and gear? A couple of days if they don't stop to rest. There's a lot of rocky terrains and mountains if they're coming in from the east so that will slow them down but with Hydra in the mix than it means they could have those special trucks and vehicles you brought back from the facility in Austria so I can't say for certain. They could be closing in on it as we speak. We have to do something, right, so what's the plan? Bring Steve and everyone back and head to Africa?" Howard suggested.

"Pulling them all out of France would take too long and they could be working on something important." Peggy pointed out.

"So, we don't. I'll head down there myself." Clark stated.

"Are you nuts? Without backup or your team? Kal, you brought them together for this very reason, so you didn't do crazy stunts on your own. Hydra's energy weapons can hurt you and what if Savage sent one of those Blockbuster robots with his men?" Howard warned him. "Kal, you still haven't controlled your heat vision."

"I know but I can make it there faster on my own and we're out of options. We need to get there now before they get any Vibranium. If they do than things get worse." Clark answered. "I know the risk…and I'm willing to take it."

"Unbelievable." Howard scoffed in disbelief at what he thought could be a suicide mission. "Peggy, come on, say something. Go with him at least."

"I fear I'd just slow him down." Peggy admitted before walking over to Clark. "Are you sure about this?"

"I am." Clark answered, and she knew him well enough to know that when he was set on something then there was nothing, she or anyone could do to stop him. "I'll come back, I promise."

"I know you will." She kissed his hands.

"Still think this is insane but good luck, Kal." Howard said to him. "We'll get you on the first ship to Egypt tonight."

"Thanks, but I'll get there faster on my own." Clark replied before walking out of the office.

"What are you gonna do? Swim there?" Howard questioned and Clark looked back.

"Exactly."

The dumbfounded look Howard got was one that Peggy and Clark would never forget.

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