Crash Landing

Charles Reynolds instinctively felt that something was very wrong.

For six whole years, Metropolis had seen almost no plane crashes, and it was difficult for him not to suspect that today's incident was related to his decision to investigate. Just a few minutes after the plane left the airport, before it had reached its highest point, a muffled explosion came from the wing. The entire fuselage lurched violently. Passengers by the windows gasped as they saw the turbine under the left wing spewing black smoke, a symbol of ill omen, through the windshield.

The burning turbine left a long, thick trail of black smoke in the sky. The white plane descended from a thousand meters above towards the buildings of Metropolis, like a roc with its wings spread. It could barely maintain its hover with its unbalanced power, but its altitude continued to drop. The control tower immediately plotted the nearest emergency landing location for the pilot – the outskirts of Metropolis. However, based on calculations of the current descent and forward speeds, this target seemed difficult to achieve.

As the plane fell below one thousand meters, new information came from the control tower: "Attention! Another flying object is rapidly approaching your direction at a very high speed."

"Another aircraft?" The pilot, already sweating profusely in the cockpit, glanced at the altitude reading, which had just passed seven hundred meters. The bustling Metropolis was clearly reflected on the windshield. "So low? Are you sure it's not an instrument malfunction?"

A red and blue blur tore through the black smoke laced with fire, catching up to the falling passenger jet like a bullet cutting through air. Jay flew to the side of the crippled left wing, took a deep breath, and gripped the wing tightly with both hands, attempting to use his arm strength to compensate for the failed turbine and stabilize the aircraft.

In reality, he had no idea what he was doing. He'd learned this move from Superman in the movies, as the hero seemed to do it often. Jay also wasn't sure if he could actually do it. He'd never tested the limits of his arm strength before. The heaviest thing he'd ever lifted was Mr. Reynolds' five-year-old car, and lifting it felt no different than picking up a chair.

The wind and the plane's engines roared in his ears simultaneously. It was initially distracting, but he quickly learned to ignore them. The airflow whipped at him like countless sharp lashes, but it didn't cause him any discomfort. He also hadn't figured out the purpose of the goggles Batman had given him. His cape billowed behind him like a battle flag in the wind.

It worked!

With the external force Jay applied, the unbalanced aircraft gradually stabilized. The massive white body slowly regained its equilibrium and began to descend slowly and steadily towards the designated location.

The pilot exclaimed in surprise, "Control tower, do you hear me? We seem to have… stabilized?"

"What's happening?"

"I don't know." The pilot shook his head blankly. "I didn't do anything. It's like… like we're getting some kind of external help?"

For a moment, he couldn't help but think of Superman. Back then, people in Metropolis never had to worry about flight accidents because he was always there on time.

But that was just a fleeting thought, and he quickly dismissed it. It had been six years. He was gone, and Metropolis had long since accepted that fact.

Jay pulled hard on the wing, ensuring the plane's descent speed didn't increase too rapidly. Jay estimated that at this rate, it should be fine. He guessed the plane would skim just above the roof of the tallest building below, but ultimately avoid all obstacles and successfully land in the unpopulated outskirts.

Jay felt a little more at ease. This was his first time handling such an accident, and he wasn't much calmer than the people on the plane. As long as he maintained this state, there shouldn't be any more surprises.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned, and he seemed to have overlooked a small detail. The connection point of the left wing he was holding was already precarious under the strain of his immense strength and air pressure. Now, it finally gave way with a shower of tiny sparks. Jay noticed it too late. The left wing let out a protesting groan and snapped off at the connection with a "bang." The plane lurched violently downward again, accelerating its fall. Jay, holding the broken wing, was thrown far behind, spinning.

The plane plunged again, and the passengers' terror reached its peak. It plummeted like a bird with a broken wing, quickly reaching a distance where it almost kissed the city below. Citizens had noticed the disaster falling from the sky and were pointing and shouting, but it was too late to escape. No one could get away from the impact of such a behemoth falling freely from the sky.

Jay had no time to think. He took a deep breath and accelerated, leaving a white vapor ring behind him with a "bang." He moved so fast he almost disappeared, chasing the plummeting plane along the long trail of black smoke. The turbine on the plane's right wing also succumbed to the intense air pressure and exploded with a loud "boom," detaching from the wing and heading directly towards Jay. Jay didn't dodge. He accelerated again, his body shooting through the burning turbine wreckage like a cannonball, and instantly caught up to the plane.

Alright, this time it would have to be done the harder way. He didn't know if his arm strength was enough, but he could only pray it was. He flew to the front of the plane, lowered his body beneath it, pressed his back against the fuselage, and then exerted force, attempting to lift the entire plane upwards with his body.

Doing so required him not only to bear the weight of the entire aircraft but also to counteract the kinetic energy the plane had accumulated from its high-altitude fall. But as he gritted his teeth and prepared to unleash his full strength, he faintly felt the outer shell of the plane behind him denting slightly. He suddenly realized that if he applied too much pressure to the plane's shell instantaneously, the pressure on the limited contact area might pierce the shell directly, causing more trouble than he needed right now.

Indeed, catching a falling aircraft wasn't as easy as it looked in the movies. Movies were, after all, works of art that prioritized visual effects, and many overlooked details could lead to failure.

If it could maintain this rate of descent, there shouldn't be any problem. Unfortunately, things seemed destined not to go smoothly. A towering skyscraper loomed into view. If the descent trajectory remained unchanged, the plane would undoubtedly crash straight through the middle of the building.

"Damn it," Jay muttered, gritting his teeth. He exerted force with both shoulders, wrenching the smoking behemoth sideways. The plane incredibly tilted, its thick black smoke tracing a long arc at low altitude, skimming past the side of the skyscraper. The heavy roar vibrated through every pane of glass in the building, making them scream sharply as if about to shatter.

"We're slowing down!" the pilot yelled incredulously. "We're going to land!"

Everyone on the plane braced for impact. The aircraft successfully skimmed over the city's buildings and flew into the empty outskirts. Countless trees were snapped in half as the fuselage hit the ground at over three hundred miles per hour. At that moment, everyone in the cabin felt as if their internal organs were about to be thrown out.

Jay, supporting the nose of the plane, landed on the ground. As his feet touched down, the soil erupted like a tsunami on either side of his red boots, and the flying dust almost engulfed him. He used his body as a brake to buffer the deceleration. His back severely deformed the plane's outer shell, and the impact rippled from the tail to the nose.

The plane skidded along the ground for about three to four hundred meters before it finally, barely, came to a stop. Soil was dramatically overturned along the sides of the fuselage, looking as if a plow had repeatedly churned through it.

Jay crawled out from under the plane and let out a long sigh of relief.

He had succeeded.