---

_{Location: New York City, New York -- A Rooftop}

---

New York City covered an area of about three hundred square miles and contained over eight million people. Enormous machines transported them across the city in underground tunnels- those that couldn't afford the smaller, personalized vehicles, at least. Structures towered above them all, the tallest of them stretched up to grasp the clouds, forming what the humans called a 'skyline.'

As obnoxious as Kelex's lessons were, Conner had to admit they were helpful.

Conner Kent sat on the edge of an apartment building's rooftop, his legs dangling precariously over the side. Dozens of humans passed by underneath him, rushing along the sidewalk in a terrible hurry to get somewhere else. There was one older man talking on the phone as he went, desperately trying to convince someone named 'Abby' not to get on the plane before he had a chance to say goodbye. Just in front of him a woman was dragging two crying kids along behind, both of them alternating between hitting her and then hitting each other. A yellow bus was being loaded with similarly sized children at the end of the street.

'Its all so...loud.' Honking cars, screaming people, radios being played too loud. He didn't know how anyone could live in a place like this without going crazy. It wasn't anything like the Fortress, or the farm. Conner could sit at the edge of a field at the farm and hear the grass blowing in the wind, the chirping of distant birds and the sound of a mole burrowing his way through the earth. He could tell the dripping water coming from the kitchen sink's facet from the pitcher pump in Martha's garden.

Here, though, there was just too much. There were a thousand disparate sounds going off at any given moment, all of them vying for his attention. It was giving him a headache; at one point it got so bad that Conner felt like his skull might explode from the pressure. It'd been even worse when he was on the ground earlier. He was just trying to walk around and check off all the places he'd visited in his booklet, but people kept yelling at him for bumping into them and crossing the street in front of their vehicles.

"Hmph," He grunted at the thought, pulling the crumpled booklet from his pocket to flip through it again. So far he'd marked off the statue, the park, the empire's building and the time square. It also recommended stopping for sustenance at noon, though Conner still wasn't sure if he actually needed to eat or not. Kal-El and the Kents had insisted he eat at consistent intervals, but if Conner really was a Kryptonian, wasn't that a waste of time?

His thoughts were interrupted by a terrible boom that shook the building underneath him and sent a stabbing pain through his ears.

"What was that?" Conner snarled, dragging himself to his feet as he tried to ignore the jackhammer in his skull. It sounded like thunder, but it was far more intense than any he'd heard before. And closer, too- like it'd come from the ground instead of the sky. He waited for the ringing in his ears to cease before stumbling in the direction of the sound, trying to focus on anything else coming from that way.

People were screaming, some in languages he'd never heard before. Cars were coming to a grinding halt and slamming down on their horns. He could hear concrete collapsing and glass shattering, too. Was a building coming down?

'Sounds like a job for Superman...Guess I'll have to do, though.'

---

_{Location: New York City, New York -- American Museum of Natural History}

---

“Cassie? What on Earth are you doing here?”

Cassandra Sandsmark tore her eyes away from the exhibit to watch as her mother marched across the foyer towards her, the sound of her heels slapping against the marbled floor echoing around them. She’d been conversing with a small group of fellow researchers and curators, who at the sign of commotion, seemed to shift awkwardly to get a good view of what was happening. Cassie found herself in the same boat. Her face flushed with red as she racked her brain to come up with a decent excuse, but when she opened her mouth to reply, nothing but silence emerged. Dr Helena Sandsmark’s eyes peered expectantly over the rim of her glasses, her tongue clicking in her mouth.

All Cassie had wanted was a break from School; morning lessons had been tough given her gaps in knowledge as a result of her homeschooling, and in order to escape the mockery she’d fled into the streets of Manhattan during her free period. Her mother would hear nothing about that of course. In her eyes, ever since Greece, it was always Cassie that was in the wrong.

A lot had changed since then. You could tell just by looking at her mother, who had now ditched the tanned shirts and cargo pants she’d been known for sporting during their expeditions, to now filling her wardrobe with the sleek whites and blacks of the business world. Despite how glamorous she now looked, Cassie would always miss the mess of dirty blonde hair her mother would tie up atop her head that just added to her natural beauty. Having the person you grew up with make such a sudden change was a struggle to get used to, but then, so was everything about moving to New York. So was everything that had happened with Ares.

“You can’t just keep running here everyday Cassie.” Dr Sandsmark went on to say, her tone filled with the same annoyance that she’d had last time Cassie had done this. “You need to be around people your own age. People like you.”

Oh, if only she knew the irony. Cassie let out a laugh, resulting in a glare flashed in her direction.

“I don’t like people my own age Mom.” Despite how childish she knew she must sound, Cassie continued on moaning. “People there just don’t get me. It’s been weeks and I still haven’t made any friends. Everyone just thinks I'm a freak who won’t shut up about history.”

The glare sunk from Dr Sandsmark’s face as Cassie spoke, turning into somewhat of a look of sympathy. She was listening. Which in truth just made this even more painful. Cassie wanted to go on. To keep talking and to tell her all about the stuff she’d been hiding since arriving in the city. About her chats with the Greek God of War. About the gifts he had given her. The bracers hidden under her leather jacket at this very moment. The shining lariat tucked away in her school bag. About the mugging she had stopped on her way home from school the day prior.

But instead, as her mother lay her hand reassuringly on her shoulder, she merely stayed quiet.

“Darling… I…” Her mother found herself at a loss for words for a moment. “Come here."

Moving forward she embraced her daughter in a warm hug, resting her chin atop her head. They stood there for several moments in silence, with Cassie feeling as if this one moment made up for all the missed out mother-daughter moments since the move. She edged closer into telling her and spilling it all in this moment. But then another shout from the lobby stopped her.

“Um, Doctor Sandsmark?” The two broke apart to see one of the curator’s whom her mother had been walking with stepping towards them. “I don’t mean to interrupt but -”

She silenced him with a nod.

“That’s fine, you all go ahead. Tell Ms Cale I’ll be along shortly.” Waving him away she turned back to her daughter and managed a smile. “I have to go, but we’ll discuss this properly tonight, Ok?”

“Promise?” Cassie asked feebly.

“Promise.”

She watched as her mother hurried away after her colleagues into a side room, a slight wave of relief washing over her. Things were going to be ok. Taking one last look at the ancient antiquities before her, she drummed happily onto the metal barrier before making her own way out of the room.

All hope she had though seemed to crumble as she stepped into the cold breeze, as the cityscape around her shook abruptly. Cries of panic rang out around her, as her eyes sought out the source of the commotion, finally landing on a thick line of smoke that was beginning to rise between some of the lower roof rooftops ahead of her.

Something was happening. Something bad.

Doubt flooded over her. Sure she’d been given abilities and power by Ares, but he never taught her how to use them. Stopping muggings was one thing, but this? She wasn’t ready for this. Her heart ached for her to turn and run. For her to head back to school and pretend she’d never left. The Justice League could handle this. One of them had to be around, right?

She turned her body away, wrapping her jacket around her. As she did so though, her hand ran across the golden embroidery she’d added to her jacket's sleeves. The insignia of her idol. She stopped in her tracks.

Wonder Woman wouldn’t run.

Turning on her heel, Cassie propelled herself into the air, launching herself towards whatever chaos awaited her.

---

_{Location: New York City, New York -- City Streets}

---

A tiny black dot appeared in the smoke-choked sky, beginning its rapid approach toward the embattled street. A high pitched whistling followed behind the missile as it began to grow and morph the closer it drew. What was once a dot became a basketball, then a beach ball, and continued to balloon until limbs were furling off of it and the whistle had become a deafening roar.

Not a moment later it slammed into the asphalt with an ear-splitting crack, sending debris spraying in all directions. Bits of concrete and dirt fell from the air like drops of rain. A figure rose out of the newly formed crater, steam obscuring much of his form. All that was really visible was the object fluttering behind him in the wind and the bright red S on his chest.

Kon-El tripped as he tried to climb out of his self-made hole, the tattered remains of his jacket clinging to his shoulders and back. 'Wind resistant, huh? Yeah right.' He let out an annoyed huff, tearing the material off of him and letting it fall into the dust as he clambered back to his feet. He took a moment to shake off the failed landing and surveyed the chaos before him, doing his best to ignore the overwhelming stimuli assaulting his senses.

A building was on fire, lit up by a dozen chemical accelerants, all of 'em with their own unique, terrible scent that he couldn't place. Cars, trucks and a passenger bus were scattered across the roadway, likely tossed by whatever explosion had destroyed that building and set its ruins ablaze. There were people, too. Some hurt, some dead, the rest in various stages of panic.

Then there were the aliens.

Reptilians of some kind. Giant, lipless lizards with bodies like gorillas and eyes burning with otherworldly hate. They towered over Kon and were covered in armored scales that could stop bullets like a brick wall stops a breeze. Those spears they carried- or staves, maybe- were firing beams of energy of some kind. Nasty things, whatever they were, and they looked like they were doing a number on the girl. The...orange-skinned girl.

"I'm gonna guess ya'll aren't from around here!" The Kryptonian boy boomed as he started toward the fight at a walk. "So consider this your one and only chance to get outta here before I-"

Something hit his chest. Hard.

He felt his feet leave the ground, then his back hit it once, twice, and again before he finally came to a skidding halt against an overturned semi-truck.

"Ouch." Kon-El muttered, rubbing the back of his head where it had dented the truck's undercarriage behind him. He noticed the reptile standing over him just long enough to flinch before it wrapped its gargantuan claws around his neck and lifted him into the air.

His feet were dangling underneath him. In the distance, just behind the monster's head, he could see the alien girl continuing her desperate fight against the mass of reptiles. There had to be eight of 'em, at least. A tiny sliver of blood traced its way down from Conner's nose, and, despite himself, he grinned. "Have it your way."

---

_{Location: New York City, New York -- City Streets}

---

Superboy had never been in a fight before.

He'd seen them before, of course, when Kara and Kal-El would spare in the Fortress of Solitude, or when Kelex would let Kon watch old news footage of Superman throwing down with his many enemies. He knew what a punch looked like, and he'd figured out how to make his hand into a fist. But he'd never thrown one before. Never been hit by one before, either. The concept of pain was itself alien to him until this lizard-breathed giant decided to introduce it to him.

'Gotta say, I don't much like it.' Kon grumbled to himself as he peeled his body out of the concrete wall he'd just been thrown into, the Kryptonian-shaped hole crumbling behind him as his boots hit the ground. Slicks of dried blood ran down his lip, and a thin layer of rock dust had infested his mess of black hair.

Conner Kent, as he'd been come to be known on the Kent farm, cut an impressive figure for his age. He stood just a hair short of six feet tall and was built like an ox, arms thick as tree trunks and shoulders that could carry a full-sized tractor on a bad day. Big as the boy was, he looked like an ant standing face-to-face with the invader. It was absolutely enormous, and the hail of punches it'd just thrown at Kon evidenced the fact that all that muscle wasn't just for show.

"That all ya got, pal?!" Kon shouted, a cocky grin dominating his face even as he launched himself at the creature for the second time. The ground shook with the force of his leap, and he flew with such speed that he was right on top of the monster before it had a chance to use that laser again. Kon narrowed his eyes and clenched his fist, picturing in his head every newsreel fight he'd ever watched just as he fired off a punch into the alien's jaw. Armored scales gave a sickening crunch, bending and snapping under the force of the blow. Sickly-colored blood stuck to Kon's knuckles like glue. There was a moment's elation as he thought he saw the alien fall.

It caught itself on its back foot, however, and turned toward the little humanoid with hate-engorged eyes. Clutching its warspear in hands the size of basketballs, it gave a mighty swing toward Kon's skull. The weapon sang as it cut through the air, moving with inhuman speed. Quick, anxious flew in front of his face to adsorb the blow, the blade just narrowly failing to pierce Kon's flesh.

Pulling back, the alien launched another two strikes at Kon, one aimed to pour his guts all over the concrete and the second to knock him to the floor. Kon managed to jump back and avoid the former, but the former caught the back of his leg and he found himself on his back before he realized what had happened.

The creature roared triumphantly in its mother tongue, lifting the spear high into the air, preparing to finish off its opponent so it could return to capturing the girl.

Superboy didn't give it the chance. With clumsy, violent speed he flung himself from his back at the alien, his head colliding with its armored chest with the force of a rolling freight train. The two of them entered the air, briefly, flying across the street until they'd landed in the parking lot on the opposite side. Kon skidded for a couple of yards on the asphalt while his much heavier enemy just sort of sunk into it, like a boulder falling into a pond. People in the nearby shopping center screamed bloody murder at the sight of them, apparently having hoped that the conflict wouldn't come toward them and that they'd be able to hide it out there. They scattered in every direction as the two super-powered beings dragged themselves to their feet.

"Damn...Now I know why nobody else does that." Conner groaned, a hand clutching his thumping skull. Hurt as he was, though, Superboy could tell he'd hurt the other guy more than himself. It was struggling to get back to its feet, even going so far as to use the end of its spear to help push its great mass off of the broken ground.

Seeing an opportunity to end this, Conner charged. "How 'bout you just stay down this time?!" He roared, punching the alien's cheek hard enough to send its head crashing through the roof of a car parked just beside it. Conner grabbed it by the arm and tore it from the vehicle's interior, tossing the lizard brain into the body of another, larger vehicle. Metal bent, tires popped and glass shattered under the impact. It didn't have the strength left to get back up.

There wasn't any time to waste celebrating his first won fight, much as he'd like to do so. That girl was still in trouble, n' all those innocent people could be caught in the crossfire- he shouldn't have let himself be carried away from the main fight by just one of these things. Conner dug his heels in and bent at the knees, jumping into the air with the force of a small explosion. Dust, debris and rock were scattered in all directions as he took to the sky. He wasn't up there for long, maybe a couple'a seconds in total, but it was long enough for him to spot out the rest of the lizardmen. The biggest one was in the process of getting itself blasted across the road by the alien girl, who looked much worse for wear than when Conner last saw her- he felt a pang of guilt for leavin' her alone out there, outnumbered n' surrounded.

Yet he could see she wasn't all that alone after all.

He landed, caught his breath for a second and then sent himself up again. This time he focused on the newest fighter, trying to get a read on him. He was more slender and agile than Kon, by the looks of him, but obviously still built, and he was a shade less pale than Conner and covered in strange, glowing tattoos. Whoever he was, he was clearly on the right side of things, seein' as how he much lizard ass he was managing to kick on his own. He wa skilled, obviously, n' he had some kinda power to control water. But he was also horribly outnumbered by a bunch'a the giants, and even just one of them had given Kon trouble. They had him pinned behind some concrete for a second, but he used his powers to knock a light pole down on top of 'em to send the pack scattering long enough to get into their midst.

Kon lost sight of them again, but he was just a single street over now. This last leap would take him soaring over a line of apartment buildings and into the midst of the fight. Taking to the air, Superboy could see now that their mysterious ally had managed to take down two of squad on his own, but the other half had caught him out with a laser blast. He'd been brought to his knees and they were just about to put an end to him.

'Not on my watch.'

He flew in like a missile, crashing directly into the back of one alien and sending his buddy reeling in surprise. Kon clumsily stumbled off the first, plucking a chunk of rebar and broken concrete off the street as he got to his feet. He reeled it back behind his head and chucked it like it a baseball, sending the object rocketing toward the second alien with the speed of a bullet. It exploded across the creature's face, knocking it onto its rear out of sheer dizziness.

Conner turned around and offered a hand to the other, intervening hero, conscious of the fact that some'a the guys they just knocked down were starting to get back up. "Thought you could use a hand." There were a lot of aliens, and they packed a hellofa punch, but maybe together the good guys stood a chance at winning this thing.

---

_{Location: New York City, New York -- City Streets}

---

Just as soon as Conner had arrived at waterboy's side, two others were quick to join them. The four- five, if one counted the semi-unconscious alien- of them were a bizarre sight for anyone still lingering at the edge of the scene, but for all their strangeness there was conviction to match. Waterboy seemed a natural leader with how quickly he took command of that misfit rabble, giving decisive and succinct orders to each of them: the monkey would watch over the alien, the birdboy he called 'Robin' would confuse and scatter the enemy while Conner and waterboy would run up the center and 'break their ranks.' Conner wasn't sure what that meant, but he knew how to break things well enough.

"Hmph." He grunted at being called Superboy, of all things, but he didn't offer up any alternatives. In fact, he didn't appear to have heard it, his eyes locked instead on the enemy he was so eager to grind into dirt. "I'm done talkin'."

He was fast, faster than anyone of his size had any right to be, and he wasn't exactly waiting for Robin or waterboy to catch up. The lizards' energy beams raced out to meet Conner. They struck with that same, intense cold that froze his sinew and made his bones feel brittle, but he didn't let it stop him. Superboy kept barreling along like a runaway freight train. One of reptilian giants dropped their spear as he grew closer and stepped into his path, feet planted in the asphalt and arms held out wide to meet him.

When they made contact it was the ground that gave out before either of them. Asphalt churned underneath their feet, shuddering and cracking when the two began to exchange blows. He had a score to settle with these things for knocking him around earlier, and he wasn't about to be the first one to back down.

"Come on!" He roared until his throat was raw, chasing down his foe even as they stumbled backward under the weight of his wild, untrained blows. Conner ended up knocking one of them into another of their allies, whose attention was focused on one of the other superpowered kids that had since joined the fray.

The newly pissed off alien came charging at the Superboy, knocking their own comrade out of the way to get to Conner. They had their staff held out in front of them, electromagnetic energy bursting from its 'barrel' and into Conner's chest. He let out a pained snarl but marched through it regardless, reaching through the beam to grasp staff and tear it from its owner's hands- instead, the owner refused to let go, and ended up dragged along with it. Superboy spun around, lifting the enormous weight of the alien giant at the end of the staff over his head and slamming them into the dirt.

He tore the weapon from the now dazed alien's hands, and used every ounce of his strength to impale it into the giant's torso. Conner wheeled back and brought a closed fist down on the end of the staff and struck it, like a hammer driving down a stubborn nail.

Bits of blood trailed down his arm as he stumbled away from his beaten and battered foe, a furiously giddy grin on Superboy's face as he searched for his next opponent.