continued from here part 3

White House

Superman stands before a large screen where Martian Manhunter gave a report. Superman cut him off, "Wonder Woman is dealing with the Kahndaq situation, where do we stand on the other Marvel?"

The Martian sighed, "Still no sign, the T-spheres have been scanning Metropolis and Fawcett city non stop but since he's only metahuman part of the time he's somewhat more difficult to track and when he is out in plain sight he seems to have a method to jam them."

Superman glared, "We have other tracking options."

The Martian's eyes went wide, "Are you sure? They are a tad uncontrollable."

Superman nodded, "They also may be powerful enough to bring him in."

***

Chris floated above Metropolis during a dark night and watched for signs of trouble. He preferred the night sky to his new accommodations, there was only so much of Lex's machinations a boy could take. Though he had found his instruction and tools quite useful and he was still amused by Lex's idea of dropping Superman's giant ego stroke on his front lawn.

Suddenly he heard a scream that shook him out of his thoughts, "Time to go to work."

***

He found the source of the scream in an alley where a girl no more than 13 leaned over her dead brother as a hawkman stood over her about to strike with his mace in hand, "You shouldn't have run, maybe we could have tossed you in a lab with the other meta freaks."

As he lifted the mace she raised her arms as if to guard her head. He was stopped about a half centimeter from contact when Captain Marvel arrived with a punch to the face that sent the Hawkman flying into a wall a few hundred yards away. He then turned to help the girl to her feet, he wanted to say something comforting but a fumble of words started that was mercifully cut off by the hawkman coming back to fight.

He smashed Marvel in the back of the head with his mace which caused him to fall to a knee then the girl began to panic and the ground around her began to shake. The hawkman then turned his attention to her allowing Chris to regroup. He grabbed the hawkman by the wings and used them to sling him into a wall. He then used his speed to amplify a hard punch to the face that instantly took the hawkman out of the fight. He then grabbed the girl and flew off before more hawks came.

***

Fawcett city, former site of the Freeman home

As Hawkmen milled about three men descended from the sky. The Hawkmen new them as the Dax brothers, Daximite/human hybrids created by Cadmus shortly after Superman finished off the villains. They were malformed abominations with slate grey skin. They were weaker than a full Daximite but they more than made up for it when the three worked together.

The first that landed was called Axel who was possessed of phenominal senses even by Daximite standards, his vision based abilities rivaled even Superman's but this was mostly do to having three extra sets. Next was Angus the strongest of the three who had an extra set of arms. Finally there was Ajax, the most disfigured of them. He had long clawed fingers and a mouth full of jagged shark like teeth with leathery skin. He stood just under 5 feet tall but had a voice that seemed to emanate from the pit of hell that sent cold chills down the spines of even the bravest of men.

As the stepped past the Hawkmen they stepped back in bit of disgust but none had the nerve to insult them. Axel leaned down at the last place Captain Marvel had stood and sniffed the ground and then trailed off into the remains of the house and into what was left of Chris' room and found a dirty shirt laying on the floor by the remains of the bed. He sniffed it and beyond the smell of smoke and char he caught the same sent as Marvel. Angus stepped beside him, "Do you have him?"

Axel nodded, "I believe so."

With that the three took to the sky and followed Chris' initial flight path down into the subway but found nothing out of the ordinary. After quite some time they came upon a house that was empty save a few robotic gardening units and some cleaners inside. This was a dead end so they left for Metropolis.

***

Captain Marvel landed few miles away and asked the girl, "Is there a safe place I can take you?"

She nodded, "Yeah we got a place not far from here."

She then pointed toward an abandoned factory and Chris flew her over. As they landed he noticed about a dozen other kids ranging from 5 to 14. As he sat her down the others looked on suspiciously before she yelled out, "He's okay, he saved me from a hawk."

The oldest boy came over, "Where's Skids?"

She looked down toward her shoes, "He didn't make it."

Captain Marvel looked around the room as the kids looking depressed but he also heard several growling stomachs, the girl and her brother had ventured out to try to scrounge up some food so on top of losing a friend they all would go to bed hungry tonight. Chris sighed and looked up to the oldest boy, "I'll be right back."

He was gone in the blink of an eye and returned a few minutes later with several hefty boxes full of food, "Here this should tide you over for a while."

He then sat with them as they made dinner and ate. He learned that the girl he saved was named Rumble, these kids were all orphaned metahuman children. Most couldn't even remember their parents or birth names so they gave each other names. Rumble was given hers by her brother due to her ability to cause the ground to shake. None of them were really sure how their powers worked or even the full extent of their abilities.

For a moment it occurred to Chris that Lex may actually be able to help them but he put it out of his mind because of a gut feeling that Lex was no better than the people they were hiding from. After they finished eating Chris got up to leave but Rumble stopped him, "You can stick around if you'd like. Might make the others feel better to have a grown up around."

Chris couldn't help but chuckle. He then leaned over and told her, "I'm not really that much older than you, the power just makes me look this way."

He floated up in the air, "I'll come back as soon as I can, but I still have things I need to take care of."

***

Lex's Lab

Lex sits at a table tinkering with a device when his monitor comes on with an alert. He looks on Chris's old house as the Dax brothers search, then on to his own where they stopped, the computer then spoke, "Sensors indicate they now fly in the direction of Metropolis."

Lex sighs then activates a comm to Captain Marvel, "Get back home asap, we have a problem."

He then dropped what he was doing and went to check on something.

(To be continued)

@batkevin74 @blackreaper @wildvine @falconpuuunch @bronze_surfer @dngn4774 @4donkeyjohnson