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though he knew it was already too late to save them.
    Or was it?
    To his amazement, he put on a sudden burst of speed that instantly ate up the distance between him and the en- 29 unit! cox
    dangered tourists. He grabbed on to them with both arms and whisked them down the sidewalk only a second before the plummeting debris crashed into the pavement behind him. Shards of broken masonry exploded into the air, leaving deep fissures in the sidewalk, but Jimmy had already carried the potential fatalities safely clear of the flying shrapnel. Over half a block from the smoking wreckage, Jimmy slowed to a stop and let go of the unscathed tourists, who looked dazed and confused by both their brush with death and their unexpected rescue.
    “Mother of God,” the woman whispered in shock. She stared at the shattered stretch of sidewalk where she and her loved ones had been standing only moments before. It took her a minute to fully grasp what had just occurred. She hugged her daughter like she never wanted to let go while gazing thankfully at Jimmy. “You saved us!” "“Wow!” the husband exclaimed. He scratched his head in confusion as he contemplated the distance they had covered in a matter of seconds. He looked at Jimmy. “How’d you do it, buddy?”
    Jimmy had no idea. What’s happening to me? he wondered. Yesterday I was Plastic Man; today I’m the Flash? He was at a loss to explain it. “Uh ...”
    “It’s like those stories you hear,” the father theorized, “about old ladies gaining super-strength to lift a car off a baby!”
    “Yeah, that must be it,” Jimmy agreed hurriedly, even though he didn’t buy that explanation for a second. This was way too weird for that. But before he could give the unsettling mystery any more thought, a high-pitched keening, almost like a scream, drew all eyes upward. The scream grew louder by the second—and seemed to be heading right for them. “That sound! Something else is falling... !” He barely got the words out of his mouth. The shrill keening gave way to an earth-shattering explosion as something slammed into the middle of Shuster Avenue with the force of a meteor strike. The impact felt like an earthquake,
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    almost knocking Jimmy off his feet. Abandoned cars and trucks were tossed into the air like Tonka Toys, their windshields blown out by the shock wave. The uprooted vehicles crashed down onto the shattered asphalt and each other. Clouds of dust and pulverized concrete billowed up from the crash site.
    Holy cow! Jimmy thought, his head ringing. What was that?
    Thankfully, he didn’t think that the unidentified falling object had landed on top of anyone. Plus, also on the bright side, the tremendous crash had kept the puzzled family from asking any more questions about how exactly he had saved them. Checking on the tourists, he was relieved to see them scurrying toward the lobby of the Planet Building. They’d be safer there than on the streets, even though the worst of the crisis seemed to have passed. Glancing ’upward, Jimmy saw the stormy black clouds dispersing. Sunlight and blue skies poked through the smoke from countless small fires throughout the city. As the ringing in his ears faded away, he realized that the thunderous booms had ceased as well. No more energy bolts stabbed down from the heavens. The sirens of racing emergency vehicles blared in the background. Whatever had transpired overhead, it appeared to be over.
    Or so Jimmy hoped.
    Holding a handkerchief over his mouth and nostrils to keep out the airborne dust and grit, he crept cautiously toward the lip of the enormous crater carved out by the something’s crash landing. The dust clouds began to settle, offering a clearer view of the devastation. As Jimmy made his way over the rubble, he had no idea what he expected to find at the bottom of the pit. A giant glowing meteorite? A crashed alien spacecraft? Bizarro? Here in Metropolis, anything was possible. Camera in hand, he peered