120 Clarke's Line: We are two lonely travelers in the universe
Burning, pain, and a feeling of weightlessness.
The sky burned in his bloodshot vision. Clark Kent stretched out his hand, trying to block the green sunlight pouring down on him. However, the stinging sensation did not disappear. It licked his fingertips, leaving traces of dehydration.
…
Move the hands and time goes back a quarter of an hour.
For Superman, it's just a routine mission - a research vessel encountered trouble in the Bellingshausen Sea and asked the Justice League for help.
Aquaman was quite dissatisfied with this - in fact, ever since the oil spill caused the death of a large number of marine life, he has had a lot of opinions about these "guys tinkering on the iron ship".
"Listen," Arthur crossed his arms, and the blond Lord of Atlantis' voice was full of warning: "If I see you leak a drop of oil into the sea again-"
A pair of red boots landed gently beside him, and his cape fell naturally. "--Just let me know as soon as possible, and we'll work out a solution together."
Superman's eyes gleamed slightly, and he turned to the obviously relieved researchers: "Don't worry, I just went to check ahead. We just need to break the ice and open up a channel."
He paused for a moment before saying, "Strange, some areas are impossible to see through... What kind of research project are you working on?"
——That’s when the change happened.
There was a dull explosion, and the elevating keel was impacted and squeezed straight out of the area previously covered by lead, like a broken rib.
The cold seawater rushed to seep into the hull. Superman and Aquaman looked at each other and made a decision in the first time - Kal-El went to the explosion site and used thermal vision to weld the damage, and Arthur Curry jumped into the water to rescue the researchers who fell into the water.
When Kal-El went deep into the bottom of the ship and saw the Luthor Group logo revealed behind the broken lead box, he had a bad premonition.
Like living things, the black points placed on the four walls reacted with each other, and in the next millisecond, a wormhole opened up, sucking Superman in!
…
The light that should have continued to provide him with strength has now become the culprit that harms himself.
This wasn't the solar system. Perhaps it was Luthor's temporary alliance with his outer space enemies—they had painstakingly found a cage in the universe that was deadly to Kryptonians, sending him to his doom.
"Now, maybe I should find myself a comfortable place to lie down."
Clark struggled to stand up and wanted to move to the shade to rest for a while - there was vegetation here, and maybe he could find a few larger leaves to temporarily shield him from some of the kryptonite radiation.
He firmly believed that the allies on Earth must be discussing rescue strategies, but all of this was based on the premise that—
He had to survive before then.
Clark Kent struggled to breathe, his internal organs burning. He felt the shining stars above him slowly peeling him apart, cutting away the hearing and strength that had long been bound to his flesh and blood.
Before the super hearing completely faded, a roar was heard from far away.
On a planet with harsh living conditions, competition between species will be more severe. In order to survive, these creatures will not miss any opportunity to consume a large amount of energy.
But Clark Kent didn't expect their sense of smell to be so sharp. They would spot him so quickly - a lone, suspected injured prey.
The hunters carefully assessed the situation, tightening their encirclement while also being wary of other opponents. The distance between them was shrinking little by little, so close that Clark could hear their breathing rise and fall, and their claws scraping against the ground.
—Until one of the most impatient ones pounced on him!
Clark pulled out the long wooden stick he had picked up, and when the time was right, he inserted it into the dinosaur's mouth.
The huge bite force shattered the stick in an instant, and it opened its mouth again and pounced on him.
Based on his previous experience in the Bizarro Universe, the Iron Man was the last ability to disappear. Perhaps he could rely on his own hardness to kill one first to deter the other dinosaurs...
Superman thought so and did so. The dinosaur that had been trying to bite off a piece of meat from him stopped in the next second.
The purple sword blade flew into its eyes. As if forced by some rules, the monster staggered to the side a few steps, and then fell down with a bang!
…
Clark knew the sword, even though he had only been separated from its owner for less than twenty-four hours.
He no longer had the strength to draw his sword and wipe it clean for her, but Superman could still greet her arrival with his eyes.
A familiar little black dot appeared in my sight, then grew bigger and bigger, gradually turning into a human shape.
——Li Bao was carrying Aria to break out of the encirclement.
Aria was dusty and disheveled, but the wind blew her short hair, and the glistening beads of sweat on her black horse reflected the brilliant light.
They ran wildly across this desolate alien planet until the fearless knight stopped in front of him.
Normally he should be more serious in this emergency, but Superman couldn't help but curl his lips - he even forced himself to raise his hand and let Li Bao smell it.
The dark-skinned girl smelled that he was injured, snorted twice through her nostrils, and rested her head on Superman's chest as if to comfort him.
Aria didn't say anything. She dismounted and silently pulled her sword back from the dinosaur corpse. When she walked in front of Clark, Superman felt that he could not allow such silence to continue.
"Good afternoon, Xiaoya." Clark said weakly but gently: "But... maybe it's morning for this planet now."
A drop of fishy-smelling liquid hit the back of his hand. It looked more like the farmer's tears than blood.
Superman was no longer as relaxed as before. He turned his palm over as if burned, and almost instinctively wiped her face: "Look at me, Xiaoya, look at me."
The farmer didn't cry, but her smile was uglier than crying: "Clark."
"I didn't know you were this allergic to Kryptonite."
She used his hand to wipe her face vigorously, wiping away all the blood stains. "I couldn't imagine what would happen to you after being teleported away, so when Batman built a temporary tunnel that could only send one person, I begged him to let me come."
In fact, the conversation at that time was far more than that. Batman placed a bunch of data in front of the farmer and warned her earnestly that the probability of this wormhole successfully delivering her was only more than 70%... Aria had forgotten the exact number.
"If you fail, you might be carried away by the turbulence," Batman said. "You're relying solely on the framework of rules given to you by the advanced civilization. As for whether these rules can support your return, it's still unknown."
The farmer submitted a series of time-travel experiences as if submitting a resume.
"Actually, when Red Robin was fixing the bug caused by Mr. Qi, I slowly remembered a lot of things..."
The farmer has completed the mission she was assigned to - but the energy she accumulated from past missions is not enough to support her return. In order to prevent the missioner from completely despairing, the system erased her memory, leaving her to wander from one universe to another like a piece of space waste with exhausted fuel, forever chasing her set goal.
"Actually, I prefer to call it an adventure," Aria quickly changed her words when she saw Batman's expression remained unchanged. "But I'm really skilled at this! Really!"
Batman finally gave in. He sighed inaudibly and stuffed a bunch of things Aria couldn't name, along with instructions, into her inventory. "If you don't understand, ask Superman. It's time for him to use his brain."
"And," Batman urged, "keep going."
Clark Kent, who has a super brain but often doesn't use it when teaming up because his teammates are too unreliable: "...cough cough cough."
He felt even more uncomfortable.
"Clark!" Superman rarely heard the farmer's tone so urgent, as if the person in front of him would disappear at any moment: "Are you okay?"
"It's okay, Aria, it's really okay." Even if there was something wrong, she couldn't see it: "I just need your help..."
"We can't stay here for long. The smell of blood will attract other carnivores."
Aria reached out and half leaned him against her: "Batman is already studying Luthor's time and space channel. Just hold on a little longer, and we can go back."
After being exposed to kryptonite, Superman is temporarily unable to make his body lighter by levitation, but this weight is completely within the farmer's easy range.
"Would you like something to eat?"
I'm afraid not. His condition is still deteriorating, but fortunately he can still use his mouth.
"Sorry, I don't think I have much appetite right now."
As they stumbled across the dry land, the farmer using the Galaxy Blade as a crutch, Clark said, "We're actually a lot like the movie, 'Before the Sun Breaks.'"
Superman laughed again, his laughter like a broken bellows enduring pain. "Have you seen it? Two people just walked aimlessly, talked all night, and then became soul mates."
"No." Aria put her face against Clark's forehead. After leaving the scorching wasteland, his body temperature quickly became cold again.
This was not a good sign, but the farmer was helpless in the situation and could only test the temperature again and again and talk to him to keep him awake.
"Hold on a little longer, Clark. To be honest, I've only been around a few movies..."
"But I thought we could watch it together later—if you don't mind watching it again."
Superman's consciousness began to blur, and he repeated the story he had told: "Two people just walked aimlessly..."
The farmer choked up a little. “Then they must be the two loneliest travelers in the universe.”
"No, Xiaoya, no."
"There's another story...didn't I tell you that?"
"The first pair of astronauts from Kryptonian civilization—in Kryptonian history… entered space amidst the cheers of the crowd… and began their decades of wandering."
Superman spoke haltingly: "...I met them later, and something happened in between...I had to break them down into their consciousness and preserve them."
“…the man then asked me, ‘Let me hold her hand so that my heart can belong.’”*
Clark leaned against her. He was cold, so cold that he could feel the waves of heat coming from Aria... and the uncontrollable trembling.
"Are you scared, Xiaoya?"
"……Um."
"Ahem, like them—my heart has found a place to rest."
"So, you can hold my hand, and you won't be scared."
…
The farmer trembled even more violently, so much so that Clark thought they had encountered the enemy again, but her voice was clearly full of joy.
"Clark, I saw the beach, I can make a rain totem!"
"The system said that marriage means deciding to stay and share the same fate with the other person."
"I'll give you the mermaid pendant. It will definitely serve as a protective amulet!"
…
When the Justice League members finally opened the transmission channel based on the location previously placed on the farmer, the most important part of this pre-proposal had been completed - starting with the Flash, no one questioned why a weathered old sailor was standing by the alien lake, or questioned why Superman had a smile that was between "I'm dying" and "I can stop a space shuttle single-handed again" and solemnly put the conch pendant with a faint blue glow around his neck.
Because the Son of Steel, who had just recovered from the deadly radiation, was ready to retell the details of the proposal eight hundred times at super speed—
"Give me a break." Green Lantern ruthlessly complained: "Next time you need this kind of work, don't call me."
————————
*The plot of All-Star Superman, if I remember correctly
Go to outer space and get married quickly
Luther:?
I have lost my ability to express myself due to work. I will revise it later. As usual, I will send some red envelopes to the little angels in the comment section.
Recommended song for this section: "North" by Sleeping at Last. The Superman ending is over, and the next one is Night Owl according to the result of the dice roll.
By the way, have you seen the Superman movie? () Who has seen it and not praised Ke Ke Ken Ninja?
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