Without a word, he shot toward it like lightning.
...
Eight World Engines landed in different latitudes and longitudes across Earth.
Two landed at the poles, while the other six World Engines were spread across Oceania, Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America.
As the World Engines activated, they increased Earth's gravity and injected Kryptonian atmospheric particles, altering Earth's terrain and environment to transform it into a second Krypton.
Under Steve's command, S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel first went to the World Engine that had landed in Athens, which was the closest to them; Batman and Wonder Woman headed to New York to handle the World Engine there.
The World Engine caused a collapse within a radius of several kilometers due to its immense tectonic vibrations.
Buildings crumbled like sandcastles, as the seismic waves—both longitudinal and transverse—flattened everything in their path.
Countless people perished, entombed in the wreckage of collapsed buildings.
Many others ran, screamed, and begged for help on the streets, while a cloud of dust even obscured the sun in the sky.
—The entire Earth was facing its apocalypse.
New York.
The World Engine, spanning across the southwestern tip of Manhattan Island, was so large it nearly covered half of Manhattan.
Its disc-shaped shell had a central indentation where a heavy mechanical arm extended deep into the Earth's crust.
The entire East Coast of the continent was humming and vibrating.
Centered on the World Engine, the increasing gravity caused the crust to collapse toward the core.
The resulting rifts in the crust stretched from Manhattan Island southward to Pennsylvania, northward to Maine, and half of North America was engulfed in fearful anticipation, focusing all eyes on the massive World Engine above Manhattan.
The citizens of New York were still trying to comprehend what was happening when they were suddenly struck by the earthquake.
Manhattan, with its towering steel jungle of skyscrapers, was in imminent danger, teetering precariously as the World Engine activated.
—It wasn't just New York.
In Athens, Johannesburg, Melbourne, Tokyo, São Paulo... The locations of the World Engines were clearly pre-designed, attacking the heart of the Earth.
The seven layers of stainless steel on the top of the Chrysler Building began to warp under the increasing gravitational field.
Rivets deformed and fell off the arched dome, while the 77-story building swayed in the quake, seeming on the verge of collapse.
Below the Chrysler Building, people in the streets began to flee, but the crumbling pavement created treacherous terrain, with cracks opening almost every second.
A line of parked taxis, like marbles struck by a shot, rolled into the fissures.
A bus that was fully loaded with passengers, began to slide down the sloped road and into the chasm below.
In a desperate bid to save the situation, the driver pulled the handbrake with all his might and stomped on the brakes.
Sparks flew from the worn brake pads, and the tires desperately gripped the asphalt, but they couldn't stop the bus from tipping over—
The passengers inside were screaming in panic, watching in horror as they were about to fall into an endless abyss with no hope of escape!
Despair and fear overwhelmed everyone.
They clung to the windows like drowning victims trying to save themselves, attempting to jump out.
However, the gravitational forces pulling the bus downward made it impossible for them to control their bodies and climb out.
The scythe of death seemed poised above them, ready to fall at any moment.
The engine began to smoke.
The driver, hopelessly, turned his head, staring at the chasm behind them that seemed to open like a gaping maw, and finally, in resignation, trembled and let go of the brake...
But in the next second, the rear of the bus suddenly lifted, breaking free from the gravitational pull, and began to slowly rise.
—Beneath the bus, the familiar red cape of the new guardian of Earth billowed in the wind.
The young hero stretched out his arms, steadily lifting the bus's chassis, and pulled it up from the edge of the torn road.
The guardian of Earth, amidst the gaze of the world, returned to humanity.
He hoisted the bus, placing it and all its passengers onto a patch of road that hadn't yet caved in.
The red cape behind him fluttered in the dust, like a splash of fresh blood.
The rescued passengers crowded by the windows, pleading with their last hope.
"Superman! Are you Superman? Have you come to save us?"
"Please, save us, Superman. My child is still at school… Save her, save New York…"
"Superman..."
Clark's handsome face, reminiscent of a classical deity, still bore a half-dried streak of blood.
As he gently set the bus down, he hovered outside the vehicle and offered the passengers inside a reassuring smile. "I understand… Don't worry, I'll do everything I can—"
Before he could finish his sentence, a powerful punch came out of nowhere, brutally cutting him off!
Clark was sent flying, the immense force propelling him half a block away.
Two towering, muscular figures crashed through the goddess statue atop New York's Grand Central Terminal, hurtling into the vast hall of the station, and landing amidst a sea of rubble and debris.
Zod, who had arrived on Earth in an escape pod, wore a heavy suit of battle armor.
He pinned Clark firmly into a crater, his armored hand balled into a fist, striking Clark squarely in the face!
Zod's eyes were bloodshot with fury, "You are destroying Krypton's last hope! Kal-El, you are a traitor to your people!"
Clark unleashed a fierce punch, sending Zod flying and smashing through the zodiac mural on the train station's dome.
"Krypton is gone! You have no right to turn Earth into Krypton!"
Zod, like a golf ball hit with immense force, crashed into the dome but quickly regained his balance mid-air.
Amidst the falling dust and debris, he looked down at his feet—
He had gained the ability to fly.
The yellow sunlight of Earth was exponentially strengthening his body, enhancing his physiology.