[Alongside this Golden age of superheroes, a new age of crime, villains, and disasters followed suit. Death tolls have skyrocketed several times in the past five years than it has in decades]

[.....where do we, the common people, fit into that equation? What category do we find ourselves in when these two forces do battle? What happens to the regular humans who weren't blessed with godlike gifts to stand up for ourselves in troubled times?]

[... The slaughtered]

Squash!

The cup of coffee in Clark's hand was squashed as his fists tightened.

"I knew Lex running for president would never be a good thing". Clark whispered solemnly as he stared at the screen on the wall intensely, his eyes almost as if they could burrow through it.

And they could.

Watching Luthor's speech, a complex mixture of sadness and anger brewed within him.

"Hey there, Smallville, you're murdering the coffee again".

"Oh, Lois!"

The soft, elegant voice coming from beside him woke Clark up from his stupor. He turned his head to see Lois Lane moving towards him, and a subconscious smile appeared on his face.

His relationship with Lois Lane could be considered superb. Although it irked him a bit whenever she called him Smallville, but that was just a small bit.

"Hi!" Lois smiled as well as she came beside him. Turning her head towards the screen, she saw the video of Lex's campaign.

"You're gonna clean that up?"

"Ah! This?…" Clark looked at the spilled coffee and showed a wry smile.

"I'll just have the janitor clean it up".

Lois shrugged as she turned to look at the screen.

"You really don't like Lex Luthor, do you?" She asked in wonder.

"Dislike is a simple way to put it". Clark pushed his glasses upward on his face habitually.

As he and Luther were archenemies, dislike truly was a small way of describing their situation.

Lois wasn't too surprised. The people who knew about Clark's dislike of Lex Luthor in the daily planet weren't few. After all, he usually refused to report on any stories that involved Lex and his company.

Lois had asked him why once, and was a little surprised to find out the Kent's and the Luthors had some small intersection back in Kansas.

So it was a family thing. Something that happened before Lex's father even died.

"What do you see wrong now?" Lois asked curiously.

"He's targeting the Justice league again". His response was candid.

"Oh? I don't seem to recall him explicitly blaming the League for anything".

"You should know better than me, Lois". Clark shook his head.

"He didn't say it, but his words are shifting public opinion. Influencing the masses into thinking that the casualties that occur when the league fights villains are the league's fault".

"Are they not?" Lois raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"No! They're not.... I mean... not all of it…" Clark said hesitantly, his emotions unstable.

A light chuckle sounded beside him.

"Well, you don't sound all that convinced yourself".

Clark was silent for a while. This was the reason he had complex emotions. On the one hand, Luther was trying to turn the world subtly against them. On the other hand, he felt Lex was right.

The battles of heroes and villains could lead to casualties when in populated areas. But those kinds of casualties rarely happened, as the enemies each hero fought individually could usually be stopped before causing widespread panic.

Unless, of course, they met someone who was their match in destructive capability. Like the Metropolis incident.

Clark turned his gaze to look through a wall. Outside the daily planet, he could see the ruined area in the distance, still under construction.

He felt a pang of pain in his heart when he thought of how many people died in that fight.

Lex's words replayed. How many people have to die each time a hero and a villain fight?

".... I believe the Justice league are doing their best. It would be unfair if the public turned against them for it". Clark said after a while.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Lois sighed, then she smiled.

"Chin up Smallville. I know you like the Justice league, but those big guys can take care of themselves. You need to worry less about them and more about when you're going to drop that Intergang report on Perry's table. He's going nuts".

Clark's eyes widened.

"You didn't forget, did you?"

"Of course not. I probably have it on my desk". Clark said in a low voice.

Lois resisted the urge to laugh.

Clark smiled warmly as well. At that moment, something wrong happened. The television suddenly let out a loud noise, followed by the darkening of the camera and lights of different colors appearing on the screen.

"Damn! What's going on?" Lois exclaimed.

Clark's eyes suddenly grew serious as his ears twitched slightly.

Lois looked at the blank screen and the gears of her brain went to work.

".... Did…. It looks like the live feed stopped transmitting for some reason. But at Lex's campaign? Strange, right Clark… Um, Clark?" Lois subconsciously turned around, only to discover that Clark was gone.

A disappearing act? Lois was stunned. She looked around to see if she could find Clark, but had no success.

She immediately moved towards Perry's office.

"Lois! Lois!"

"Jimmy? What's happening?" Looking at Jimmy, who had appeared opposite them, Lois couldn't help but ask.

"I'm not sure either, some of the screen just went blank. The crew's checking the sets right now".

"Jimmy, were all those screens playing the Luther campaign in Central City?"

"Um…. I'm not sure. I guess so. Why?"

Lois didn't say another word and immediately took out her tablet. Twenty seconds later.

"I think I know why".

.....

Central City.

The massive spaceship levitated in the air above hundreds of thousands of people.

The citizens were already panicking down below. While inside the spaceship.....

A figure stood in front of the monitor room with his hands behind his back. The holographic projection of Central city below was right in front of him.

His skin didn't have a set color and was darker in more places than others. The texture looked rough, like a piece of stone, and his whole figure looked like a living statue.

Three sharp spikes stuck out from his spinal area on his back, and his face was covered in a menacing helmet that looks like a gladiator's mask.

His burly stature, towering above three meters have off a sense of oppression and bloodlust.

"Sire…. the Czarnian has been pinpointed". A humanoid structure with horns on his head said with respect as he stood at a control panel on the side.

The room itself wasn't empty and had strange-looking figures Working at their control consoles.

"Have you checked this world's development level?" The hoarse voice of the alien asked. Although this civilization had given him a new understanding of the word primitive, he still asked unhurriedly.

The planet had no deep space sensors. No cosmic fleet, no planetary shields, no secondary defense systems. The practically just walked through an open door.

"Yes I have. It appears that we have grossly underestimated the backwardness of this sector. These... earthlings haven't even mastered the technology of space travel, my Lord. A single patrol fleet from our world would be more than enough to wipe them out of existence". The horned alien said.

The disbelief in his tone was very evident, as if he couldn't understand how they had severely overestimated this planet despite how low they evaluated it to be.

"If that be the case, why does the damned one have such low life signs?" The figure asked indifferently.

"That my Lord... while the inhabitants of this planet might be pitifully weak, their guardians are not".

The horned man said, and the screen split to show some relevant information.

The burly alien glanced at it for a while.

"The Justice league?"

"Yes my Lord. The kryptonian, a demigod from the lineage of the old gods, a Green Martian, two thanagarians, as well as two Lanterns from the Green Lantern Corp. The others according to this planets' database are compelling as well".

"Apparently, Earth's mightiest heroes. Composed of several powerful figures capable of posing a threat to even you, my Lord". The horned man said with trepidation.

Squelch!

Unfortunately, those were the last word he could say in this life as his head was cleanly severed from his body.

The corpse of the horned alien fell, and the head rolled on the floor.

A sharp metal plate stained with blood was floating in the air under the control of someone who slowly stepped out of the shadows.

The figure didn't stand, but floated in the air with long limbs, fingers and a narrow abdomen.

Half of the skin was black, while the other half was white. The teeth were exposed, and the eye color was red.

A White Martian. Or at least, it used to be.

Whatever it was now was currently unknown.

"It matters not what defenders this planet possesses. We have prepared for the kryptonian".

"Go down and retrieve the damned Czarnian Mericrozz". The burly figure said without turning around to the Martian.

The Martian stayed silent for a few seconds before its figure slowly moved downwards, phasing through the ship's floor.

"Do not order me, Arkin. I serve The Chamber, not you. Prepare yourself to capture the Kryptonian, because I won't be the one to explain if you fail". However, the voice of the Martian sounded in his mind through telepathy.

The Alien, Arkin didn't speak, but the gloominess exuding off him had more than doubled.

He didn't utter a sound apart from his heavy breathing. He turned around and walked towards a certain wall.

As he approached, the wall opened up to reveal a set of highly advanced combat armor.

"You want me to capture the kryptonian? I'll capture him, alright". The alien, Arkin said hoarsely.

A burst of killing intent was released from his body as he picked up a set of chains with sharp spikes all over it

It seemed to come to life as it both chains levitated from their resting positions and wrapped around Arkin's arms.

The Sharp spikes inserted all over the chains inserted itself into his arms as it wrapped around them, drawing out bouts of blood. The chains then shone with an ominous red glow, releasing an eerie momentum.

"Alracamun. Today, you get to taste the blood of Krypton".

...

The Martian phased through the ship and appeared outside. With both hands behind its back, it quickly floated downwards as it headed towards Star Labs, where Lobo's life signature was emitting from.

Arriving in the sky above star labs in less than a minute, it slowly floated downwards from the sky.

"Such a primitive planet is capable of severely injuring this immortal monster to the point of near death? Incredible".

Mericrozz exclaimed lightly. Her powerful telepathy had already discovered lobo the moment they neared Earth's atmosphere.

And now that she was much closer, she could accurately read Lobo's situation.

Who could do this? Was it the Kryptonian? Or the one from the old God's lineage? It certainly wasn't the lanterns, she was sure of that.

She had read the minds of many earthlings casually and had some understanding of the power of Earth's defenders.

According to what she found, the last son of Krypton wasn't responsible for this. Lobo had almost killed the Kryptonian.

What she found interesting was that... oh, here comes one of the guardians now.

Her thoughts were interrupted as a red lightning blur appeared on the roof of star labs.

....