Superman (Marvel+DC)

Ukraine

About a mile east from the capital city of Kiev in the Ukraine, scout forces for the Red Army's 138th Rifle Division were performing some reconnaissance on German Wehrmacht movements and positions. Winter in the Ukraine province was known to be bad with temperatures easily going below freezing along with heavy snowfall. Luckily the Russians and Ukrainians had generations of experience with the weather over the Germans. The scout team were in camouflage gear to better blend in with the snow of their surroundings as they observed enemy positions, troop movements, patrol patterns along with any and all traps that were being placed. They had found a land mine field about 200 yards northeast of their position near the main road and large stone obstacles were being placed there as well to hinder tanks.

Another German patrol passed by the area so the scout team packed it up to return and report their findings. They kept quiet, moved in a single file line with the man in the rear covering up the tracks they left to reduce the risk of their movements being found and reported back. Minimize the risk of them being found meant the greater success they had in their mission.

[Thunder crack]

The lead scout in the front of the line looked up at the sky, seeing a few scattered clouds but no large grouping that would warrant rain or a thunderstorm so he was confused as to why he just heard a thunder crack. And he knew it was a thunder crack as it didn't sound like artillery and wasn't accompanied by the looming sound of a heavy round cutting through the air.

"Thunder but no lightning…"

[Boom]

The ground next to the scout team seemed to explode as something crashed down next to them, sending snow and dirt up into the air and the shockwave knocked the soldiers to the ground and jostled snow from nearby trees. The blanket of snow falling down from the trees was like smoke which combined with the kicked-up smoke and dirt from the impact slightly obscured exactly what happened. The soldiers on the ground were momentarily concussed and disoriented from the sudden impact but began to gather their senses just as the falling snow dissipated. There they got a look at what landed and it wasn't an artillery shell or even a fighter plane but a crouched man who soon stood up straight. He was a tall man, likely 6ft3 with brown eyes, dark brown hair that was combed back and had an impressive physique of large muscles primarily in his arms, chest, and his legs but the thing of note was his manner of dress. He had black boots and dark red pants that led to a gold-plated purple belt around his waist with the Nazi symbol on the buckle. To match the purple belt, he had purple gloves and a purple cape draped on his shoulders tied around his neck with a gold eagle clasp that blended nicely with the red uniform top he had on. Proudly displayed on the chest was a golden eagle which was the same iconography for the Nazi Party Logo.

The soldiers looked at him in confusion as at first they thought it could be the Superman and while the man's attire was inspired by it, he was not the Man of Steel. The man's eyes began to flicker blue and glow before he held out his right hand and unleashed bolts of blue lightning from his fingertips. The team leader rolled to the side to safety thanks to his quick reflexes but the rest of his team weren't so lucky. The bolts of blue lightning struck the soldiers all over and they screamed in pain. The leader aimed his PPS-42 submachine gun at the man and pulled the cocking hammer back before unloading the magazine. The bullets hit his body and punctured various parts of his suit but they broke against his skin and dropped harmlessly down into the snow below where their residual heat let them slowly melt through. The leader kept firing until his magazine ran dry and all he got were empty clicks which is when he saw the mystery man turned his head at him and give him a devious smirk of delight. In all that time he kept up the lightning which turned the Russian soldiers into burning husks and with a simple flick of his hand his lightning sent their bodies flying off to the side like they were nothing.

"You fucking monster!" The Russian Leader quickly tried to reload his PPS-42, scrambling for a new magazine from his pouch. The mystery man marched over and tried to grab him. The Russian soldier jumped back, looping his arm out of the sling of his submachine gun which the lightning man grabbed and pulled out his Tokarev TT-33 pistol. He shot all eight bullets at the man's chest with a few hitting him in the head but like with his submachine the bullets broke against his skin. The lightning man closed the distance in a blur of super speed and had the Russian soldier by the neck. With one hand he lifted the soldier up in the air so his boots were dangling off the ground.

The Lightning man looked on in perverse glee as his fingers slowly tightened around the Russian's neck making the muscles constrict and his skin bleed. In a last-ditch effort, the Russian managed to unlatch his bayonet and quickly stabbed it into the lightning man's gut only for the blade to snap in half. Panic and fear spread on the soldier's face as he struggled for air in a last-ditch effort only to get his neck snapped like the bones were made of sticks with a matching sickening crunch. The Lightning man tossed the soldier's body aside with a look of disgust and wiped his hand on some snow. "Disgusting." He felt that the life he took was no better than garbage or an animal and the blood that stained his hand marred his perfection.

As he was cleaning his hand, one lone Russian soldier had stayed hidden behind a snow-covered tree with his camouflage allowing him to blend in perfectly with the surrounding environment. He had witnessed everything and despite the horrifying scene he kept perfectly still. He had a rifle with him but seeing as how bullets seemed to do nothing as did a bayonet the soldier came up with the next best option and slowly unhooked an F-1 grenade from his belt. Slowly and carefully, he got up to his knees and stayed behind the tree while the lightning man was preoccupied with cleaning his hands and after a moment to steel his nerves he pulled the pin and drew his arm back to throw. His arm came forward but before he could release, bolts of purple lightning struck him and caused the grenade to go off, killing the Russian soldier. It didn't come from the Lightning man as his bolts of lightning were blue.

More purple lightning flickered about as another figure descended from the sky, using said lightning to hover to the ground. This figure was like the man in that they had similar electro-kinetic powers but was a woman. She was shorter around 5ft6 with brown eyes and dark brown hair that was cut short to her shoulders. She was garbed similarly to her male counterpart but her colors were more purple and instead of gold coloring she had silver. She had a silver belt around her waist and she didn't have the Nazi Party symbol eagle on her chest but it was carved onto two silver bands she had around her biceps.

"What are you doing here?" The Lightning man asked her.

"Saving you, it would seem."

"Oh, please like that grenade could have done anything serious. Besides, I knew he was there."

"Right." The woman rolled her eyes in disbelief.

"What are you doing here, Klara? Shouldn't you be with your husband safeguarding the camp?"

"Von List and Vogel sent another Maschinensoldaten to Dachau so we now have two of their little metal men watching over the camp. I'm not needed and Frederick busies himself with his research. I grew bored and heard you were busy here so I came to join you. It seems like I came at a good time, Klaus. I've been dying to stretch my legs and finally get to use my new gifts." She replied.

"Yes. Our gifts…" Klaus looked down at his hands and tightened them into fists before sparing a glance over at the burnt bodies of the Russian soldiers he killed with ease. "…our gifts your husbands genius has blessed us with and here we are in the freezing cold wilderness of this stupid Soviet state."

"Here we go." Klara shook her head in disbelief as she knew Klaus was about to go on another tirade.

"Don't tell me you're ok with this. Frederick reported the success of his serum to High command and yet they dither about in planning when we should be pushing the offensive. We should be heading east to Stalingrad and retake the city or better yet, head west and burn London or Washington DC to the ground. End this farce once and for all." Klaus told her. He was eager as he was impatient and hotheaded compared to the composed and controlled Klara.

"And you think that the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe will be able to keep up with us when we suddenly cross the Atlantic in a few hours? Or do you think that the Allies won't retaliate and have Captain America and Superman head straight to Berlin while we are absent? What then?" Klara countered before she shook her head in disbelief. "This is why mother and father always said I was the smart one. You are too eager and don't think things through. First, we get rid of Captain America and Superman, then we head west."

Klaus just shivered in delight as his mind went through how he imagined that fight to go. Him against the Allies super soldier, their ultimate weapon, the Superman. Long had the Germans heard how godly this man was but now he was a god and would soon have the false Übermensch broken, beaten and his spine snapping underneath his boot.

"Nothing would fill me with more joy then to end him." Klaus spoke when he heard the distant crack of a rifle and his head jerked to the side a bit. A sniper bullet hit him on the side of the head but like the other bullets it broke against his skin and fell down into the snow. Soon more bullets came from the surrounding woods as other Russian scout soldiers had arrived and opened fire with some moving to flanks. All the bullets hit Klara and Klaus but the bullets broke against their skin and fell down with neither of them injured or seemingly troubled. Klaus and Klara's hands began to spark with electricity when they saw a distant red blur of lightning zip around the forest. It was moving too fast for either of them to get a clear look but it took out the Russian soldiers one by one with slashes to their necks. They dropped one by one in a manner of seconds with only one survivor who had no idea what was going on but had enough semblance of self to not stick around and ran. He turned around and took one step forward only for the red blur to appear right behind him and snap his neck with ease. The body fell to the ground and the red lightning blur stopped moving revealing it was a man wearing a yellow and black suit made of material that definitely didn't belong in 1944. The thing of note for the suit was the red lightning bolt motif placed on the belts, the ears on the cowl and on the chest which was the most unique. On the suits chest was a red circle filled with black and a red lightning bolt emblem.

Klara and Klaus were stunned by the arrival of the mystery man in yellow and were ready to fight until the man pulled his cowl down revealing combed back blonde hair and blue eyes. They recognized his face and lowered their guard.

"Apologies for the sudden arrival but I needed to relieve some stress. It took a moment to find the both of you." Thawne told them.

"Mr. Thawne? What are you doing here? Better question, how did you get here and what are you wearing?" Klaus asked him.

"We haven't seen you since you and Herr Savage visited my husband and aided him in his research. No one has seen you since then so we thought you were dead." Klara added.

"Apologies for my absence but some matters required my presence to be elsewhere. Those matters along with my return pertain to a common problem that I believe we should discuss. Superman." Thawne said and he knew then and there that he had their interest. "As for my current garb and unique abilities…let's just say that like yourselves I too put myself through an experiment. However, I'm afraid to say that despite your new abilities, neither of you are a match for Superman."

"And what makes you sure about that?" Klaus questioned, insulted by what he thought as condescension from Thawne but was actually a well-founded and accurate statement given their current power levels.

Thawne then vanished in the blink of an eye and reappeared behind them faster then either of them could perceive. "Because I've faced the Superman and while he is not as fast as I am, neither of you are as fast as him nor are you stronger. Dr. Vought is an incredible geneticist and ahead of the current scope of medical science but I'm afraid that if you believed that alone would be enough to kill Superman than you're mistaken. If either of you faced him now then the fight would surely end in his favor."

Hearing all of that stung Klaus and Klara's egos with the former feeling small like he was a child being told he wasn't good enough especially after the pain from the serum injection while the latter was equally as upset but tempered that with some healthy reticence and skepticism on her part. Knowing Klaus's ego was hurt, she reached her hand out and grabbed his arm, preventing him from attacking Thawne and turning him from ally into enemy. She deduced that he had shown up and revealed all this new information including his abilities for a reason.

"If what you say is true and you are faster than both of us and Superman, why is he not dead by your own hands if you hold him in such discontent?" Klara wondered.

"Superman is among many I hold in discontent and my history with him is far more deeply layered than you could possibly understand. He is not someone who is easily taken down and his most annoying quality is his persistent in not staying dead. However, the Man of Steel isn't without chinks in his armor, one of which you may recognize…" Thawne reached into his belt and pulled out a knife that had a dark metal covering instead of a typical leather or cloth sheath. He slowly unsheathed part of it so the blade could be seen and instead of a typical steel blade it was green and glowed. The green glow shined on both Klara and Klaus's face who were memorized but quickly recognized the same eerie glow. "However, it alone is not a guarantee and unfortunately this Superman has gotten wise to what weakens him so he will not be easy to kill. To do so will require subterfuge, an intricate plan, and a part-time collaboration between us and others for the same goal."

"Part-time?" Klaus asked.

"I care little for the affairs of this war. I just want Superman." Thawne answered. Klara and Klaus looked at one another, gauging what the other was thinking and thankfully both had the same train of thought. They were more than ok with that.

Klara gave her brother a nod before looking at Thawne. "Do you happen to have an intricate plan?"

"The makings of one have already started. Soon enough they will fall into place." Thawne smiled. This alliance, while temporary, could be the thing he needed. Klaus Risinger and his twin sister Klara Risinger now Klara Vought were changes to the timeline much like Superman's history and the whole new reality of this new universe but could prove to be useful tools in dealing with Superman.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Please give your review and comments.

Also read 'Marvel : Superman' on my profile and give it your review and ratings.