Xcalibur Xc
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[Shazam] Ch: 13 [Downtown Smackdown]
🕑 Added 2025-06-20 13:02:10 +0000 UTCSuperman's body twitched as he climbed out of the fresh crater, smoke curling from his cape. His boots dragged through broken concrete as he stood upright, fists clenched, face tense. He barely had a second to breathe.
Then the scream hit.
A shrieking wall of sound roared across the plaza, shattering every window within three blocks. Superman's eyes squeezed shut. His knees buckled. His hands went to his ears, but it didn’t help. The sonic assault came from above.
Silver Banshee, floating in midair like a banshee goddess of death, unleashed another hellwave straight at him. Her white hair lashed around her head like snakes in a storm. Her eyes glowed with cursed energy. Her mouth stayed wide open as the scream only intensified.
Superman tried to rise again, muscles straining. His body trembled from the resonance in the air, his eardrums bleeding slightly. Then came the next blow.
A crackling zap lit up the sky.
Livewire dropped in like a lightning bolt, arms raised. Her body pulsed with pure electricity, skin glowing blue with raw current. “Ohhh, look what we have here,” she laughed, voice sharp as static. “The Big Blue Battery’s lookin’ a little drained.”
Superman barely turned in time.
Livewire launched a concentrated lightning beam straight into his chest. The impact lit up the entire street like a nuclear flash. Superman flew backward, smashed into a delivery truck, and dropped to one knee, smoke rising from his chest. His suit sizzled.
Metallo landed with a THOOM, cracking the pavement. His green Kryptonite core pulsed rhythmically in the center of his chest. He took slow, heavy steps toward Superman.
"You always get back up," Metallo growled, his mechanical jaw clicking with each word. "But this time, there's nowhere to run. No League. No Bat. Just you... and us."
He raised one glowing arm and fired a Kryptonite energy blast.
It slammed into Superman’s side, sending him skidding across the asphalt, carving a trench through the road. He gasped as his body bounced, then came to a stop against a pile of rubble. Green veins spread briefly across his skin before fading.
"Arggg!"
Superman grunted, eyes burning red for a moment. He fired heat vision toward Banshee.
She shrieked again. The sonic burst collided with the laser in midair and shattered it like glass. The backlash knocked Superman’s head sideways.
Livewire surged forward, leaping into the air and slamming both fists into his chest. Electricity coursed through him again. Superman arched his back, teeth gritted against the pain.
[TWO BLOCKS AWAY – BEHIND A CORNER]
Harley and John ducked behind an old taco joint, watching the chaos from behind a broken billboard that read “Try Our New Spicy Quesarito!” now partially on fire.
Harley peeked out from behind the building, eyes wide.
"Whoa. Okay. That’s... that’s a whole villain buffet menu, right there," she whispered. "We got Screaming Dead Elsa, the Sparkle Bitch, and Robo-Kryptonite over there doing the 'Terminator walks into a nightclub' routine."
John didn’t say anything. He was already calculating angles, scanning the scene.
Harley kept whisper-commentating.
“Supes looks like he just walked outta an oven and fell down the stairs. That scream girl? Banshee? I had brunch with her once. She cried when the waffles were cold.”
She turned to John. “I’m just saying... this is not looking good for ol’ Clarkie.”
"You know his real name?" John asked.
"Yep! Mr. J found out last month," Harley replied.
Back in the street, Superman forced himself upright. Blood leaked from one ear. Multiple scratch and burn marks on his face. His chest was burned and cracked. But his eyes still glowed faintly red.
"You're not winning this," he growled.
Metallo lunged. Superman sidestepped at the last second and uppercutted him in the jaw. The metal head twisted with a sickening clang. Superman followed with a heat vision to Livewire, forcing her to retreat mid-air. But she easily countered it with her electricity.
Boom! The clash of their power caused a mini explosion in the mid air.
Superman was weak, so it was pretty much easy for her to counter it.
But it cost him.
Banshee dropped like a missile, landed behind him, and drove her elbow into his spine.
Superman roared in pain and collapsed again.
Metallo grabbed his cape and flung him through a building. Brick and steel exploded outward as Superman’s body flew through walls and debris.
Livewire hovered above the rubble, cackling.
"Hey Metallo, you think if we break all his bones, we get a bonus?"
"Focus," Metallo replied, stomping after Superman through the debris. His core pulsed with growing light.
Superman pushed himself up inside the wrecked building. Glass in his arm. Smoke in his lungs. Every inch of his body screamed in protest. But he stood anyway.
Well, he staggered forward, his knees barely holding. Metallo was almost on him, the green glow from his chest flooding the rubble-filled room. Livewire hovered outside, electricity crackling in her palms. Silver Banshee floated overhead, building her next scream.
Then, a gust of wind howled through the city.
A swirling cyclone ripped through the avenue, twisting debris and trash into a spiraling tunnel of force. Livewire’s sparks flickered as the wind disrupted her charge.
"What the..." she shouted, caught mid-hover.
From the heart of the storm, a figure descended.
Red streaked hair. Green suit. Arms spread like a conductor in a symphony of destruction.
Maxine Hunkel. Cyclone.
"Sorry, I'm late," she called out. "Traffic blew."
With a wave of her arm, she launched the tornado at Livewire.
The wind caught her mid-flight, slamming her sideways into a parked bus. The vehicle flipped from the force, sending Livewire tumbling across the street, sparking wildly.
“You little weather witch!” Livewire screamed, barely catching herself mid-air.
"That's Doctor Weather Witch to you," Cyclone quipped, already summoning another blast.
Meanwhile, the building behind Metallo exploded.
Wonder Woman burst through the back wall in a blur of red, blue, and silver. She lunged forward with her shield, slamming it into Metallo’s back.
The metal man crashed forward, his legs dragging sparks along the pavement as he tried to catch himself.
Superman looked up, dazed. His eyes locked with hers.
"Diana."
"Get clear," she said without hesitation. "You’re hurt. We’ll handle this."
"Be careful," He mumbled with great difficulty.
She didn’t wait. She was already moving.
Metallo twisted around, his chest cannon charging.
Wonder Woman leapt over the beam and brought her sword down on his shoulder. Sparks flew. The blade didn’t cut through, but it left a gouge deep in his plating. Metallo roared, swinging at her with a crushing fist.
She ducked, pivoted, and slammed her shield into his jaw. Metal bent. Wires sparked.
Behind her, a scream rose.
Silver Banshee descended, hair whipping, eyes glowing.
Wonder Woman turned just as the sonic wave hit her. The shield came up in time. The scream smashed against it, shattering everything for blocks. The building crumbled. Cars exploded.
Diana gritted her teeth, holding firm.
"You think I haven't fought banshees before?" she growled.
She hurled her shield like a discus. It flew straight into Banshee’s chest, knocking her backward through a crumbling wall and into the side of a burning truck.
Diana caught the shield on the rebound, turned, and met Metallo’s charge.
He fired his chest beam.
She rushed forward with her enhanced speed and punched him hard enough to send him sprawling across the pavement.
At the same time, Cyclone clashed mid-air with Livewire. The sky above them flashed blue and green, streaks of lightning tangled with ribbons of wind.
"You're gonna short out your own brain!" Cyclone shouted as she twisted a cyclone around Livewire’s legs.
"I am electricity, idiot!" Livewire screamed, lashing out with a bolt that ripped a hole in a nearby billboard.
"You’re unstable electricity!" Maxine snapped back, spinning faster.
The whirlwind pulled Livewire upward, spinning her like a ragdoll before launching her into a water tower. The entire top half of the structure burst open. Water poured over Livewire, dousing her completely.
She dropped like a stone, smoke rising from her clothes. Sparks flickered and died.
On the ground, Superman leaned against a cracked metal pole that somehow survived despite all the destruction, trying to catch his breath.
Wonder Woman stood tall, shield raised again as Metallo and Banshee regrouped.
"You can not win," she said, voice cold. "Stop this meaningless destruction and surrender peacefully."
Banshee hissed. Metallo’s core pulsed brighter.
Behind the chaos, Cyclone floated gently to the ground beside Superman, offering him a steadying hand.
"How bad?" she asked softly.
"Bad," he admitted. "A couple of broken bones. Ruptured left eardrum and cracked arm."
Sparks were shooting from the gash in Metallo's shoulder. His mechanical arm twitched violently, servo-motors whining. His jaw hung slightly off-center, clicking as he tried to reset it.
"You think... this is over?" he growled, voice distorted and glitching. One of his eyes flickered red. His core pulsed erratically now, surging with unstable Kryptonite energy. A few sparks shot from his back vents, and the sound of strained hydraulics groaned with every movement.
He took one slow step forward, dragging a foot through broken asphalt.
"This... was just the pre-show," Metallo said, spitting static. "The fun has only just begun."
Behind him, the ground shook.
Once.
Twice.
Then came a deafening boom as a massive hand slammed down onto the street behind Banshee.
A second hand followed.
Then, rising like a building being born from the Earth, came Giganta.
She was fifty feet tall, wearing torn combat leggings and a tank top barely clinging to her giant boobs. Her muscles bulged with every step, tattoos stretched across her biceps. Her boots cracked the pavement as she stepped over a wrecked bus.
She cracked her neck and looked down at the battlefield like it was a game board.
"Aw. You didn’t wait for me?" she said with a half-smile. Her voice rumbled like distant thunder.
Wonder Woman turned, eyes narrowing.
"Of course," Diana muttered.
Giganta grinned. "I've been itchin' for a good throwdown. And it looks like you’re just my size."
She stepped forward, raising a fist the size of a car.
...
Behind a half-collapsed building two blocks away, Harley peeked again, now with a crumbled Slushie cup she’d somehow scavenged from a broken vending machine, straw still in her mouth. John crouched beside her, silent and unmoved, eyes tracking every threat.
Harley looked from Giganta to Superman slumped against a pole, then to Metallo twitching like a broken vacuum cleaner, then back up at Cyclone spinning a wind tunnel to keep the collapsing buildings from taking out more civilians.
She slowly backed away from the edge.
“So... this is a superhero war,” she said flatly.
John didn’t answer. He was already watching Giganta size up Wonder Woman like a kid scoping out a piñata.
Harley pointed with the straw.
“Y’see that? That’s a fifty-foot walking trauma response who just turned downtown into a Godzilla sequel. Banshee’s screaming like her Spotify playlist failed. Robo-Sparky over there is two sparks away from meltdown. And Sparkles just fried herself in a water tower like overcooked shrimp.”
She turned to John with wide eyes.
“Babe. We need to go.”
Still no answer.
“I’m serious. I’ve seen some insane things. I've seen Mr. J once getting shot in the knee by a midget dressed as Cupid. I’ve danced with a bazooka at a Christmas rave. But this?” She pointed again. “This is above my pay grade. I don’t even have health insurance.”
She grabbed his arm, shaking it. “We need to exit. Evacuate. Vanish. Call it what you want, but unless I’m turning into She-Harley and slapping skyscrapers for fun, I don’t belong here.”
John exhaled once through his nose. “You're not wrong.”
“You think?” she barked. “You think I wanna get body-slammed by a size-22 boot while she's yelling about estrogen and rage therapy?!”
She gestured wildly at the chaos. "This is what I get for eating everything. I should’ve known. We went out for eggs and now the sky is on fire!"
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AN: I might release 1 more chapter today if I get time after writing Ironman's next ch.
Comments
Calvin Ellis
❤️TFTC❤️
Ethan Freeman
Thank you for the chapter
Xcalibur Xc
👍
Kal Odinson
I hope he transforms next chapter
