A/N: This is a rewrite of my other crossover story, 'Percy Jackson: The Battle of the Five Armies.'. Frankly, I lost interest in that plotline, and I felt I need to rewrite it. This time, I'll be taking things a little slower, introducing the characters better. It was too rushed in the other story. Also, I am stopping that story henceforth. This is the one I'll be working on.

The first few chapters will be somewhat similar to the other story, but after two or three chapters there will be a major deviation.

ENJOY! FAV, FOLLOW AND REVIEW!

ALSO, IMPORTANT! AGES ARE DIFFERENT NOW!

PERCY JACKSON - 21 YEARS OLD
BRUCE WAYNE - 23 YEARS OLD
CLARK KENT - 25 YEARS OLD
DIANA - PARTIALLY IMMORTAL (LOOKS LIKE MID-TWENTIES)

JULY 25 - 2010: GAEA IS DESTROYED

Percy ducked and held fast onto Blackjack as they soared over the battlefield, picking off monsters left and right. He decided to stay off the ground and fight the flying monsters which had started to become hazardous to the demigods.

What happened to them was unexpected. Without any warning, monsters had started to pour out of the doors of death, making it impossible to fight them and the giants at the same time.

'BOSS! They'll die!' Blackjack yelled in his mind. The Son of Poseidon looked down to see the seven minus Jason and Frank, surrounded completely by monsters. They seemed to be exhausted. And why not! It had been a week of non-stop fighting. No breaks. Monsters continuously poured out from the doors twenty four seven. They didn't stop to eat, drink, piss, sleep, nothing.

Percy focused and did something he swore to Annabeth he wouldn't do. Focusing his energy, he located the water inside the monsters. He knew he shouldn't waste his energy like that, but he had to. He willed the water to explode outwards, and sure enough, all the monsters that had exited the doors were currently golden dust.

Blackjack swooped down and kicked an unsuspecting dracaena in the head with his hooves, sending the unsuspecting monster crumpling towards the ground, only to be finished with a bronze sword before it could fall.

"Percy!" Annabeth exclaimed. She ran to him and gave him a meaningful kiss, but he knew she was tired. They all were. The gods were locked in a power battle with a fully awakened Gaea who was adjusting to her humanoid form and by now, Percy was pretty sure the mortal world found something weird with all the explosions and the storms. Definitely the mist can't cover THAT. But then again, it covered up even Typhon, so this should be okay?

A loud hiss was heard, and the group turned around, only to groan. A large snake uncoiled from underneath the rubble. It's fangs gleamed in the sun, giving it an evil touch, and it's eyes held untold amounts of intelligence.

"Demigodsss..." The monster hissed.

Annabeth covered her mouth to stifle a gasp. "T-That's ... T-That's Python."

Percy snorted "Sure does look like one. We're not blind Annabeth."

The blonde demigoddess glared at him. "That's THE Python. The one Apollo killed!"

Now it was Percy's turn to gulp. Python was a monster that even a titaness had to run away from. A pregnant titaness, but a titaness nonetheless.

The seven demigods scattered when the snake plunged it's head into the middle of their circle. Using the momentum of his sidestep, Percy swung Riptide and gave the monster a long cut on it's side. Python hissed in pain and turned towards Percy, who had to roll sideways when a stream of poison landed near him.

"I THOUGHT PYTHONS WEREN'T POISONOUS!" Percy yelled.

Even in the midst of battle, Annabeth had to face-palm. "THIS IS THE ORIGINAL ONE!" She yelled back.

They fought the monster for what seemed like hours, when finally Annabeth was able to successfully sever one fang from the monster, earning a good face bashing. The unsuspecting demigoddess was flung aside like a rag doll and smashed through a rock. Her bones were broken due to the sheer force of the attack and she felt her life flashing before her eyes. She wouldn't last much longer. Hell, it was a feat in itself that she was able to fight for so long.

Her head was bleeding from a large haemorrhage in the back of her head, and more than a few organs were ruptured. Say what you will, but normal demigods simply aren't as durable as children of the big three, who can go toe to toe with most gods.

Through all that pain, Annabeth was confused and angry. How? She'd survived worse. Much worse. How?

She briefly heard Percy yelling something, but with the blood loss affecting her, she couldn't make out clearly.

Percy yelled at her desperately. He force fed her ambrosia and poured nectar on her wounds. The wounds didn't close. They started to burn even more. That's when Percy suddenly realised why she was in such a condition, and he felt fury beyond all bounds. Athena. She did this. She did it to her own daughter. She had disowned Annabeth, thus removing her powers and strength and reflexes. When they fell into Tartarus, she remained a demigod, since time passes slower in the Pit, but once they exited Tartarus, Annabeth must have slowly been losing her godly side, until she finally became mortal. He grabbed her drakon bone dagger.

He felt rage cloud his mind, clouding his ability to think. With a yell, he charged Python, completely dodging the venom spits and the occasional jabs from the head. Within a second, he had reached the monster. Within the next quarter of a second, Riptide was plunged into the monster's left eye and Annabeth's bone dagger in the right.

He used the blades as supports and vaulted himself and landed on top of the monster's head, narrowly missing the stream of acid which came out from the snake's eyes.

Leaving Riptide in the monster's eye, he pulled out the bone dagger and with a yell, plunged it into Python's head. The snake hissed and screeched in pain, but Percy didn't let go. Finally, the monster gave one last screech before falling to the ground with a large audible thump, cracking the ground slightly.

Hazel, Piper and Leo looked at him in awe. He had almost single-handedly defeated the ancient monster. Granted that he was in full rage mode, but still.

The battle with Gaea seemed to be finished since the gods descended down upon them slowly. Most of the gods weren't even able to stand properly and were using the other Olympians as support. Hecate was one of the few who was still able to stand upright.

Even Percy's father, Poseidon looked weary. His beard was longer and white. A sure sign that he had exerted himself to the maximum. Even Zeus didn't look so good. Normally, Olympians had a very large amount of stamina, but that was for combat. Continuously releasing extremely powerful blasts at a primordial goddess for a week can do that.

Athena appeared in a flash of light suddenly and stepped towards her daughter, only to find herself held at sword-point, Riptide digging under her chin.

The gods raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything as they looked at the broken form of Annabeth, the ambrosia and nectar burning her from the inside. Doing the demigoddess a favour, Zeus blasted her with his bolt to relieve her of her pain.

Under normal conditions, Percy would have gotten angry at the king of the gods, but somehow, he knew why Zeus did it.

Jason arrived at the site, supporting a nearly unconscious, but very much alive Frank. The both of them were instrumental in closing the doors of death for a second time and for destroying the remaining monsters while their friends dealt with the deadly Python.

Meanwhile, the wisdom goddess stood there defiantly, glaring at the Son of Poseidon, who glared right back at her, making her feel something she hadn't felt in a long time. Fear. It would be long and hard, but eventually, in a fight, Percy could defeat her. And when he was this angry? He'd wipe the floor with her.

"Why?". Such a simple question. It was also the only one she couldn't answer. She knew what he was asking about, and even now, felt that her deserved what she had gotten. Right? Athena had warned Annabeth to go and destroy Rome, but she didn't listen. She had to go and help her friends. How pathetic! ... At least that's what Athena thought. Not that she'd say it out loud.

When Percy got no answer, he merely lowered his sword and dropped to his knees in front of Annabeth's corpse. Somehow, her body was healed. But she was still dead. She suspected that was Zeus's doing. The god must have blasted her to preserve her body. At least until her funeral.

Now that the fight was over, and the adrenaline rush was gone, the reality of the situation hit Percy like a ton of bricks. Annabeth was dead.

He couldn't believe it. His wise girl. Annabeth was dead. The sentence repeated in his head and his heart continuously, like a chant.

Annabeth died. He buried his face into her chest, sobbing uncontrollably. Tears streamed out like a waterfall. The pure craziness of the fact was something he couldn't accept.

The demigods stood around Percy and Annabeth in a protective circle, with each demigod glaring at the wisdom goddess.

Percy bawled his eyes out, and for once, the gods felt a twinge of sympathy.

METROPOLIS, 2013
MANKIND IS INTRODUCED TO THE SUPERMAN

A sleek black helicopter bearing the symbol of Wayne Enterprises descended on the helicopter pad just next to the docks of Metropolis. A well-built young man of around twenty, wearing nothing but a suit without the coat, revealing his grey shirt and half-coat underneath, opened the door and stuck his legs out, preparing to get off the helicopter even before it landed.

As soon as the helicopter touched the ground, the man got out and ran towards the car waiting for him. Just before he got into the SUV, he glanced at the destruction taking place in the city.

A large spaceship, which really resembled a huge tripod had a giant blue beam that shot straight downwards. The beam was continuous and it seemed to pick all surrounding objects from the ground, raise it to almost the ship level, and suddenly, a pulse, like a wave, travelled down the beam, smashing the objects back to the floor.

The panicked man hurriedly got into his car and drove into the city as fast as he could. When he was in the middle of the city, something big smashed into the side of a building, engulfing the whole street in a bright explosion, forcing him to quickly turn the car to the left, going for the long way to his destination.

He drove on forward and turned to the immediate right as a series of explosions rocked his way.

Inside the car, he grabbed his phone and dialled a number.

On the other end of the call, an old, nearly bald man in a black suit picked up the phone. He was in an office building and by the looks of it, on the top floor.

"Jack, listen to me! I want you to get everyone out of the building! Right now! You understand?!"

The old man looked outside the giant windows of the building of Wayne Enterprises, and he knew he had to go. The alien tripod stand was slowly increasing it's radius of destruction and soon, even Wayne Enterprises would be demolished.

Jack shouted at the employees. "Let's go!"

He looked at a few people who were gathering up their belongings. "Come on, start moving now, people. Let's go. The boss wants us out of the building. So, let's make it happen."

Meanwhile, the man inside the car, couldn't hear his employee's voice anymore and got slightly panicked. "Jack? Jack!" He said, a little louder. He slammed the phone down in frustration and focused on the road. And good thing too. A car that was driving beside him, crashed another car that was perpendicular to his street. Both cars, skidded a good ninety degrees, blocking the road.

The man frustratedly swerved to the side and got into the other street, to avoid smashing the two cars. The car slowed for a moment, but then he revved the engine, spurring it into action as he raced down the road.

Somehow, a missile found it's way into a bunch of cars directly in front of him and he had to suddenly yank the wheel a full left to narrowly avoid getting hit by flaming debris. Luckily, he was right in front of an alleyway and despite the flames licking at the car, he drove through it and turned right, skidding the car and banging slightly against a garbage box.

Without wasting time, he drove forward, emerging into a small parking lot. Disregarding the cars, he drove in between them, even breaking the door of one car. He drove straight ahead and out of the parking lot, turning suddenly before going straight again to avoid hitting a car.

In front of him, a firetruck and a police car were poised like road-blockades, making him turn right and straight into hell. Right above him, a large spaceship that resembled a blunt arrow tip was going the same way, but was smashing into buildings as it travelled.

The ship cut through the buildings like butter, the pure concrete offering almost zero resistance to it.

Down below, the man drove the car and occasionally had to swerve to the sides to avoid getting smashed flat by large pieces of the falling buildings. It didn't help that abandoned cars were left haphazardly in the middle of the road.

When he emerged at a gridlock cross, he turned right and narrowly missed the pieces of stone that fell and cracked the road just beside his car on both sides. As he drove forward, the pieces fell behind him, until he finally had to stop the car when there was a crowd in front of him, staring at the alien tripod in the sky. It was then that he noticed something. There was no beam coming from the ship. The explosions had stopped.

He got out of the car and stared at the ship along with the rest of the people, trying to guess why the heck it stopped. Just then, a small object flew straight into the ship, and there was electricity emanating from it that directly attacked the ship as it got close.

When the object impacted into the tripod ship, a shockwave was sent from it, destroying the windows of the man's car. He ducked slightly and covered his face.

When he looked at the ship again, the ship seemed to be collapsing on itself, even pulling some of the debris from the streets towards it. With a jolt, the man realised what was going to happen. He ran and turned left, going through cars and other running people.

Meanwhile, up in Wayne Enterprises, Jack looked out of the window one last time. He had already gotten most of the people out of the building and he was just about to leave too.

He saw a distant building crumple down and a blue and red blur smashed in one of the bottom floors of Wayne Enterprises. The building shook and the lights flickered a little.

Jack's eyes widened.

Down on the ground, the man had reached his destination, Wayne Enterprises. He grabbed his phone from his coat pocket and tried another call. But it didn't work. 'We're sorry. All services are busy now. Will you please try you call again later.'

The man put his phone back in his pocket frustratedly. Just then, from one of the lower floors of his building, a yellow laser like beam shot out of it, incinerating the concrete. The beam travelled back and forth, destabilising the building.

Up in Wayne Enterprises, Jack prayed. "Holy god. Creator of heaven and earth. Have mercy on my soul."

The beam cut through the top floor like butter.

Down on the street, a half-suited man stared in disbelief as he watched the top three-fourths of his building lost it's balance and tipped over the streets threateningly, falling.

"JACK!" He screamed.

Despite the fact that the building fell to the ground and people were running away from it, the man ran right towards it. Dust from the debris enveloped the whole street, completely obscuring his vision. He still ran.

When the fog cleared, the street was nearly empty of people. A saddled horse without a rider trotted past him. An aimless middle aged man wandered and stumbled past him.

Just then, "Mr. Wayne! Mr. Wayne!"

Bruce Wayne ran towards the man trapped under the debris. The man's legs were crushed underneath it from the knee down. Bruce's heart filled with sympathy.

"I can't feel my legs." He said. "I can't feel my legs."

The man was in obvious pain, that much he could tell. He looked and found a few healthy enough people. "We need help over here!" He shouted.

The man's face was scrunched in pain as he reached out to grab Bruce's shoulder. "Help me. I can't feel my legs."

"You're going to be okay, you hear me?" Bruce assured the man. He looked at the name badge the man was wearing. "Wallace. What do they call you, Wally, Huh?"

The man looked at Bruce in admiration. "You're the boss, Boss."

Despite the situation, Bruce Wayne had to roll his eyes. Just then, two employees of his appeared, holding Wally's shoulders on either side, ready to pull him out.

"Easy, easy." The first one said.

Bruce reached down and put all his effort in lifting the debris slightly. Enough to just pull Wallace out. When they laid the man back down, his voice turned into a hopeless chant. "Oh my god. I can't feel my legs. I can't ... I can't feel my legs."

When Bruce put the metal back on the ground and raised his head, he saw a small girl about to be crushed by a giant piece of the building which was just leaning beside her. In a few moments, it would fall on top of her. His eyes widened and without hesitation, he ran.

Just as he grabbed her and pulled her out of the way, the debris fell behind them. Sighing in relief, he set the girl down. The girl seemed to be crying, and he assumed she couldn't find her mother.

He re-assured her. "It's okay. You're going to be okay."

Her face didn't change. "You're okay, alright."

"Huh. Okay, you know what? We're going to find your mom. Where is she?"

With a trembling finger, the girl pointed upwards to the half destroyed tower of Wayne Enterprises. Bruce's heart tied itself into a knot. He knew exactly how the girl felt and he closed his eyes and brought her closer, mentally slapping himself for reminding her about her now dead mother.

He looked in the sky, where meteors glided across, crashing into the buildings. In the middle, he could make out a figure in blue with a red cape on top of a grey suited figure. The red-caped figure held the grey suited one underneath him, to give him the brunt of the fall.

Bruce's face darkened. Superman.

19 MONTHS LATER, METROPOLIS

Percy held his cup of blue coke. He smirked a little when he remembered the look on the waiter's face when he specifically mentioned blue. Hell, he'd even paid them a little extra for that.

In his other hand he held his phone.

Yeah. Demigod with a phone. But that's the reason he and his mother moved to Metropolis. There were almost zero monsters in the place.

One reason. Superman.

Monsters seemed to steer clear of him actually. And though Percy hated to admit it, Superman was more powerful than him. Percy doubted he'd be able to sustain hits like that. Maybe for a while, but eventually he would get injured too. Plus, he couldn't fly. Not properly anyway.

While Percy was walking, he rather clumsily bumped into a person, causing them both to fall down, making his blue coke spill out everywhere on the pavement, turning the sidewalk blue.

The both of them got up quickly, but that's not what Percy was confused about. Normally, anyone he would bump into, couldn't even make him budge. Let alone fall. The other person had to be at least as strong as him to do that. Even WWE wrestlers shouldn't be able to knock him down like that.

The other man was dressed in a casual-ish black pants and a black shirt, with a black blazer on top. The man was built. Percy could tell that much. Unlike himself, the other guy wasn't lean by a long shot. His chest was easily broader than his and he was around Percy's height. His eyes were a brilliant blue, though covered with black horn-rimmed glasses. Percy felt a little out of place with his jeans and blue t-shirt and a pair of sneakers.

The other guy looked sheepish as he apologised. "Sorry for the coke. I uh ..."

"It's fine, I was almost done anyway." Percy said. He felt rather sorry for the guy. After all, it was Percy who wasn't paying attention.

Percy frowned as he watched the man walk past him. He wasn't normal. Most people who bumped into Percy fell flat on their ass, but this guy managed to knock him on his ass.

After pondering for a few moments, 'Meh.', Percy thought. 'Who cares? Probably some demigod or some meta-human.'

Percy went to the Metropolis University, where he currently was doing the final year of the undergraduate degree in Marine Biology. Yeah, it's cheating because if his heritage, but hey, it's the only thing he could do without getting screwed over by dyslexia and ADHD.

The university was huge. Actually, huge was an understatement. Metropolis University was one of the most prestigious in the entire world. Percy had no clue as to how they even considered his application, but he suspected his father might have had a hand in that. After all, his track record at school was something truly impressive. He remembered the day he got his admission. The dean had called him to his office, curious as to how on Earth he managed to get kicked out of so many schools.

He climbed the stairs to his dorm and honestly wished he hadn't entered his room that day. A little scuffling later, he heard a come in and he entered to be greeted by a very red faced roommate with an equally red faced blonde girl. Adjusting her blouse, the girl ran out of the room, probably to go off to her own room.

Percy smirked at his roommate. "Really Jake? Couldn't find any other place eh?"

Jake's face was turning redder and redder in embarrassment, though Percy didn't understand how it could get any redder.

"Shut up." The other guy half heartedly mumbled.

Percy twirled Riptide in his hand, in pen form of course. "Sooo...what about the classwork? Can I see your notes?"

Jake rolled his eyes. "Dude, you really need to come to classes. Ms. May is seriously considering reporting you to the dean."

Percy smirk dropped a little, before remembering Hermes had taken care of all his attendance issues. "Ah. Don't worry man. She wouldn't dare. Have fun explaining 'that' to Melinda anyway."

The demigod walked out of the room, before going down the stairs, passing by Melinda, Jake's actual girlfriend. Up inside Percy's room, Jake cursed as he straightened out everything, trying to make it look like two people didn't have sex there. The demigod grinned. Oh that guy was so going to get it.

Percy walked out of the hostel. Nothing for him there at the moment. He decided to take a stroll outside the campus grounds. While walking, he came across various different hostels and some academic buildings as well. The university was a very new one. The oldest building must have been just over two decades back, which was pretty recent considering Harvard was built in the seventeenth century, nearly half a millennium old.

But, that meant futurism. The entire campus looked like it came out of a science fiction novel. Hell, they even had their own particle accelerator, a bit like the one in Central City. S.T.A.R Labs was the one who made it.

The demigod whistled a merry tune as he exited the gate, walking along the sidewalk. He silently cursed as he remembered that he had left his earphones in his dorm room. Well, there goes the distraction he needed.

'Well, whatever', Percy thought. He twirled Riptide in his fingers, his index finger kept reaching for the cap, threatening to pop off. Ever since the Giant War, he couldn't deny that he had become a little jumpy.

So when a group of teenagers approached him, waving their knives at him, the demigod's thumb flicked off the cap, and the Bronze blade extended to a metre length of deadly metal. Well, deadly to monsters anyway. Percy didn't know what the teenagers saw, but they looked scared and ran off.

Percy smirked. "Yeah. You better run."

Of course, he should have known that the mist would have hidden Riptide and the mortals wouldn't have seen anything. If it was Annabeth, she would've wondered why they suddenly ran off. Percy wasn't one to boast a big ego, but it was there, no matter how small.

He shrank Riptide and turned around, suddenly releasing the most girlish yelp as he saw blue and red. When he composed himself, he realized who was in front of him. An eyebrow raised, he stared at the Man of Steel.

"Uh, Hi. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be shifting another island or something?"

The Kryptonian had a small smile playing on his lips. "Most people aren't so composed when they meet me."

The demigod laughed a little nervously, wondering if Superman saw him shrinking Riptide. Or if he saw Riptide at all. "Well, you've met the wrong people then. I'm pretty used to seeing you fly around here. So you won't get any autograph hounding from me."

The Kryptonian chuckled. "Well, thanks. What's your name, kid?"

Usually Percy would be alarmed if someone asked his name, especially a stranger. But this guy wasn't like that. Hell, Percy had personally seen Superman put his life on the line so many times just to save innocent people. He was a good guy. A hero. More than he himself ever was. "Percy.", he said slowly. "My name's Percy."

Superman smiled before floating higher slowly. "Nice to meet you, Percy. See you around.", he said, before floating higher and suddenly blasting off into the sky.

"Damn.", Percy muttered. "I've got to learn how to do that."

Meanwhile, Clark had risen above the clouds. He stared at the young teenager he had met. He was certain it was the same young man who had bumped into him earlier. Now, obviously Clark hadn't tracked him down because of that, but because of the fact that he had actually been shoved backwards. That was normally impossible for a human to do involuntarily since they simply lacked the strength. Clark was curious to find out whether the young man could be a threat or not.

So far, what he learnt was scary but promising. This Percy Jackson had been kicked out of at least nine different schools, and each time he got kicked out, it always was because of some sort of violent incident. In one case, he had fired a cannon at his own school bus. In another report, he had apparently dumped his classmates into a tank full of live sharks. However, the rest of them indicated that he had been expelled purely due to not meeting required criteria for his grades. But in the recent years, he didn't have any such incidents, so Clark hoped that maybe the boy had reformed. He didn't want another Grodd.

He had learnt to be wary of such individuals. One could never tell when they might do something. Clark learnt that the hard way when a creature from Central City had gone on a rampage in Metropolis. It was definitely on the top ten weirdest things Clark had ever faced. A telepathic gorilla. Not joking. It was at least three times as big as a normal gorilla and a hundred times stronger and smarter.

Luckily at the time, he had help from another superhero like himself. Barry Allen of Central City. The Flash. Clark smirked as he remembered the priceless expression on the young man's face when he used his X-Ray vision to see his real face. He was a decent fellow. The head of the C.S.I unit in the Central City Police Department, and he lived up to the job, such as immediately recognizing Clark as Superman.

The Kryptonian frowned at the memory. He really needed to do something about that though. Simple glasses weren't going to cut it. He needed to do something else. He decided to visit Allen. Anyway, it had been some time since he had seen the fellow.

He sighed and looked towards the direction where the sun was setting. That was where Central City lied. The Man of Steel made sure to fly high above the clouds before going supersonic. At first, he hadn't known that such destructive effects would have occurred, but after seeing that windows shattered whenever he flew by, he decided to make sure he flew slowly when he was within city limits. The world was already divisive about him, he didn't to give people more reason to hate him.

Along the way to Central City, Clark had stopped at least eight attempted muggings, and prevented three vehicle accidents, one of which involved the brakes being tampered with. But Superman saved lives. He wasn't an investigator. So he didn't try to find out who tampered with the brakes. That was the job of the police, he decided.

The woman who might have died due to the car accident was currently in his arms as he flew her over to her apartment. Clark sighed as he placed her onto the ground. She was being awfully clingy, and he wanted to get away from her as soon as possible. With a shudder, he thanked god that Lois wasn't there to see that.

Soon, he reached Central City. He floated above the city, looking for the speedster's home. He soon found it. A two-story house located in a suburban area. He could see the speedster in his lawn, mowing it.

Before anyone noticed, he quickly changed into his civilian attire. Now, you must be wondering where on earth the attire came from. Well, it was actually Barry's idea. The speedster made the suit foldable into the size of a coin. But when the suit was in use, there was a coin sized pouch at his back, which could somehow fit all his clothes in. Yeah, don't ask. Even Clark had trouble understanding it at first. Barry mentioned it had to do with quantum tunnelling.

He walked along the footpath, stopping at the fence.

Barry Allen noticed him before he could say anything. The man was twenty one, blonde, and had an athletic build that would give Usain Bolt a run for his money. "Clark!", he exclaimed. A grin lit up his face. "It's been a while!"

Clark smiled. "Yeah. The last time we met was because of Grodd."

The speedster shuddered at the name. "Yeah, I'm not ever going to forget that one."

Clark looked at the porch. A beautiful woman sat there. Brown haired and light skinned. She held a phone to her ear, talking animatedly. "Who's that?"

Barry blushed. "Uh, well. That's Iris. She just moved in recently."

Clark smirked as he heard Barry's heartbeat. It was much faster than usual. Almost seven thousand beats per minute. Usually it was just over a thousand. Yeah, it shocked him at first. In fact, that's how he met the speedster. Flying over the city, he heard a heartbeat that was too fast for an ordinary person. The confusion cleared up when he learnt that Barry was a speedster.

"So, what brings a Kryptonian to my humble abode?", Barry joked.

Clark's smirk disappeared. "Oh, right. I need some help. I didn't really think about how I'm going to live when I'm not Superman. So far, no one has recognized me."

Barry raised an eyebrow.

"No one, except you.", Clark grumbled. "But I need another way."

Barry shrugged. "Wear a mask."

Clark shook his head. "Anything but that."

Barry sighed. "Look, you need to. Glasses won't be enough. Hell, I recognized you. Someone smart is easily gonna know. Why not a mask?"

Clark sighed. "I … I'm not a vigilante, Barry. No offence."

Barry simply smirked. "None taken. Well, I'll see what I can do. I'll talk to Silas. Maybe we can do something with your glasses."

Clark nodded and changed into his outfit, taking off. As he flew, he thought about his decision. Why he didn't wear a mask when being Superman. It's about trust. Superman needed humans to trust him. He looked just like them, but he was in fact an alien with incredible and frightening powers, but all he wanted to do was help. He shows his face to show that he has nothing to hide, and that he wants people to know that they can trust him. He wants to inspire hope, not fear. He wanted people to know that he's open, and that they can take what he says at face value. When he saves a civilian from a burning building, or even a mugging, his face needed to be seen, so that they would be reassured that he was there only to help.