Issue 5: "Men of Steel"

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Adventures of Superman
Issue 5: "Black Zero, Part 4: Men of Steel"
Written by Charles HoM
Cover by Roy Flinchum
Editor: David Charlton

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“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” - Mark Twain 1835 – 1910

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I’m not afraid of life, thinks Superman, as he sits in a small alley, thinking through his plans. His own enhanced hearing is dulled by the screams of terror of the citizens of Metropolis, and he sits, agitated at the fact he cannot act to save them, relying instead on the help of the Green Lantern known as Jar Kell, who refers to himself as ‘The Fist of the Guardians’, causing Superman to wonder who the hell they are! He clenches his fist, and looks above the city, watching as a massive black creature tries its very best to pound through the force field surrounding the city. Once again, Superman shakes his head, not knowing what he can do… And where’s Lois Lane? He can’t focus on her individual heartbeat, the fingerprint that divides all humans to the ears of Superman… Is she in trouble?

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Something has awakened in an innocuous looking abandoned Hobs Bay warehouse. Dozens of tubes full of protoplasm have shifted and morphed, the emergency generators going into over drive to fix a problem from weeks… Months ago. A genetic problem. A chamber opens and something steps out dressed in black and silver, grey dim skin covering exposed areas of flesh. At first, only one chamber is opened… But then more tubes light up, source material being extracted from nowhere and being used up and recycled again and again. Promethium doors are scattered throughout the compound below Metropolis, protecting the residents from outbreaks of genetic mistakes… But what happens when a legion of creatures bind together to fight their way out? Grey fists begin to pound against supposedly unbreakable doors, and they begin to shatter…

Trouble…

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Lois Lane and Perry White walk the empty streets, the dark sky only illuminated by the green and purple light streaming out of Lex Luthor’s home. There are constant moans of pain and terror that flood the streets, no one the same, people screaming as their fears manifest in their mind as terrifying hallucinations. Lois and Perry don’t know where they’re going, don’t know what they’re going to do, but they press on, and head for the centre of the city, and to Lex Luthor. And whatever troubles the city lies inside…

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Lex Luthor sits in his office, watching as the dark Superman leaves his presence. He bears scars from the encounter, not ones that he’ll share with the world, scars no one will ever see, scars beneath the surface. His armour is still operational, his gauntlets powered down and he just sits there, waiting. For what?

For the right moment.

Trouble looms.

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The massive creatures that stalk the perimeter of Metropolis behind the black monstrosity slowly creep away to the outer reaches of Superman’s vision. Each step takes them a mile away from the city, and their long laborious stride takes them further and further from the place Clark calls home…

Superman shakes his head, and looks over to his partner. “What now?”

“We find whoever is doing this to the city. We take them down by any means necessary.” Jar nods to himself as he speaks, then looks over to Superman.

“Any means? Jar… I don’t kill…”

“Kill? You do realise that this guy… This shade of you… He’s everything that is evil in this world. He’s fuelled by an alien mineral that causes fear and terror and more so, evil. If we don’t end this… End him… He’ll keep doing this, to cities all over your world. Planet to planet until…” Jar moves his hands outwards, demonstrating an explosion.

“This guy is part of me! We don’t know what’ll happen if he dies! I’m not afraid of dying but…”

“Trust me, Superman. If I don’t have to kill him, I won’t… But my duty isn’t to a world and its hero. It’s to an entire sector of space, and in the cosmic scheme of things… You’re a speck.” A long silence follows. “And I’m sorry if that hurts, but I’m a Green Lantern. I was trained to prioritise.”

Superman nods in surprise to his morbid words.

“Lantern. Can’t you do anything to calm the citizens of the city? My ears… They’re bleeding with the screams…” Superman points to inside his ear and a trickle of blood slowly rolling down his jaw. “My hearing… It’s been enhanced tremendously by my travel near the sun… Any ideas?”

Jar nods and Superman chuckles quietly.

“Because between you and me… It really hurts…”

“Right.” He points his ring up and covers the city in a green bubble, dousing the screams and cries of the citizens with green comfort. Superman nods as he feels a gentle haze of energy replace his fears and anxieties with peace and calm. The screams of terror fade and he looks at his comrade.

“Thank you.”

“Superman. Call me Jar. If into the belly if the beast we now go… Might as well go in on a first name basis.”

Superman nods again, acknowledging the point. “Mine’s Kal. That’s my true name.”

“Then let’s go.”

The two lift off into the air, and head for Lex Luthor’s home, where the only light in the city shines brightly.

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“Lois, do you feel that?” Perry looks up and watches as green rays slowly shimmer down onto the city below. “What the hell is it?” Perry covers his head with his coat and then looks over to Lois, who watches and listens as the screams fall silent.

“It’s… It’s calm. It’s green and its calm… LOOK!” She points up at the two men flying towards Lex Towers, and she screams the name she coined for the man of her dreams.

“LOOK! UP IN THE SKY! IT’S SUPERMAN!”

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Two Kryptonians turn at the words. Superman himself smiles at the words, sees the woman who has caused him so much trouble, and looks over to Jar, who nods and slowly begins to descend. The second stands atop The Daily Planet globe and a look of disgust spreads across his features. He feels it now. His other half is in his realm. He cracks his knuckles, feel the dark energy inside him glow, and speeds to downtown.

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“Lois! You’re ok!”

Superman hugs the young woman and then backs away, his hands shaking. “Great Rao… You have to run for cover, something bad is coming…”

Before he can elaborate Jar is flung through the bubble surrounding the city, and spat out into the wilderness of the Phantom Zone. Superman tries to see his friend but the darkness of the energy hides the truth from him, and before he can react, the shadow Superman is upon him, pounding him with a flurry of punches.

“I killed you once! I’ll kill you again!” He punches Superman so hard his nose shatters, but Kal just shakes it off and head butts him up, sending him sprawling to the edge of the street. The dark Superman shakes his head, trying to work out why this is happening. “I left you for dead! You were powerless! Done for!”

Superman flies into him, sending him high into the sky, away from Lois and Perry who begin to run for Lex Luthor’s citadel.

“You think that unimaginable odds will hold me back? You think a good childhood will stop me from breaking your bones?” Superman uppercuts the shade of himself into the dark shield and it pulsates with the impact. “You are nothing! You are a sick animal that needs help!”

The shade looks up in shock and then flies towards his brother, kicking him in the head as he approaches. “I’m the sick animal now? Oh how the tables turn! Even in your purest form, without my evil tendencies to haunt you you’re still a beast hiding behind the shield of heroics!” He rips the silver shield off his own chest, and then smacks his good self in the face, which sends him crashing down into the street below. “No one knows that I am you, but what would happen if they discovered? Discovered that the good old pet alien they have is not the pure human they view him to be? Shall I tell the residents of the city who I am?”

Superman spits blood then flings himself into his double, sending them both crashing into the harbour.

“You think I care? This city respects me, not my evil double… You’re going down, even if I have to kill… Even if I have to kill you!”

His double looks up as his good side as he hesitates, then smiles whilst shaking his head.

“You’ve snapped. There is no good side to Superman. Only how you’ve been raised. Nurture over nature! Do you see how every Kryptonian you’ve met is evil? How it dwells on your mind like a bad case of the flu? Your home world was a planet of religious zealots, locked in an ancient battle begun long before you were ever conceived! You’re genetically evil! You have nothing!”

Superman looks down at his second half and shakes his head.

“BURN!”

Heat vision is let loose on his double and the water boils and turns to steam instantly.

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Jar Kell looks up and shakes his head. He’s outside of a black blot on the barren landscape, and ethereal wraiths float above his head. This must be the ghost… the Phantom Zone that Superman spoke of. He shakes his head and places his ringed hand on the black wall, and feels nothing. He’s trapped on the outside with no idea on how to get back in! He’s about to run another scan with his green ring when a massive pincer… tentacle… growth… slams down on his location, sending him flying and causing dust and ash to spray everywhere. He looks up, and a look of shock spreads across him… What the hell is that?

{Black Zero. The before evil of Krypton.}

Oh so now his ring chimes in? He shakes his head and remembers what Ganthet told him. This massive beast was Krypton. Bonded on an atomic level to the planet, to the sector of space… So when Krypton was the location of a massive radioactive meltdown… This creature was bonded forever with the Phantom Zone… creating… this place… this purgatory of… Lost souls.

Another pincer slams down, but Jar raises a massive green shield that causes the limb to… dissolve? The massive growth vanishes as it goes into the green energy, then Jar feels a tingle behind him, only to be slammed into his own emerald shield! This creature can travel through his protective screens? He flies up into the air, high above the black clouds, higher and higher until… He sees the beast. It’s ugly, like a strange mix of every child’s fear and every evil in the universe… It glows with darkness, something that Jar thought he’d never see.

The creature whips another limb at him, and it sends him flying across the purple sky, and plummeting into the ash fields below.

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Lex Luthor watches as his monitors pick up two people running into the reception hall of his building. He’s tired of this. Tired of his ragged pursuit of subversive world domination…

He slowly removes the outer shell of his armour, then sits back and watches as his many cameras placed around the city pick up the raging battle between the man who he spoke to earlier and…

Is that… Superman? The true alien is alive? His nemesis lives? This other man… This fraudster lied? He dared to lie to Lex Luthor, son of Lionel Luthor, owner of 90% of Metropolis and 45% of all business in America? He dared to lie?

Lex slams his fist on his desk and a crack shoots across to his computer, and he smiles to himself. He has a world to save still! He places his armour back on, the panels lock to each other as he begins to power himself up. These Supermen will die tonight!

“Lex!” He spins around and watches as Lois Lane and Perry White burst through his office doors. “What the hell is happening? Why is this the only building with power?”

“Ms Lane!” he smiles and opens his arms up in welcome, the gyros of his armour whirring as he does so. He then looks over to the editor of the Daily Planet. “Perry.”

A slight smile moves across his face. “Loved the front page you presented last month. I was a hero, wasn’t I?”

Perry grumbles to himself and watches the battle unfold over Lex’s massive television screen.

“My home is powered by thirteen different power sources, only one being the city power grid. I thought it best to keep my building operational… Even though about ten of my other power sources went down when that dome appeared… Where’s Captain Marvel when you need him?”

Lois feels a snarl build up in her throat but keeps it down, suppressing her anger and rage directed at this man. “Lex, Superman is back. Superman will end this.”

“We can all hope. If not… I’ll have to step in, won’t I? Step in… again?”

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John Henry Irons lifts up his hammer and taps the end with metallic fingers. The prototype armour he kept still worked, and it has a few upgrades that Lex’s own didn’t have. Irons was a weapons designer once, and a damn good one, so when he left the military he had businesses fighting each other to get him exclusively, and Lex Luthor won over with a damn fine offer. All John had to do was create a type of armour that met all of Lex’s specifications. And it met then to a zenith degree. After that contract ended he retired once more, and bought a massive steel mill out on the edge of Suicide Slum, facing the bay. He had created the most efficient suit of armour ever made by man, stronger than any metal known, faster than a speeding bullet, able to leap, nay, fly over cities with a single bound. Lex was sure to thank him for the achievement when he sent three hit men to make sure the blueprints didn’t leak to Wayne Corp or Enigma Tech. John sent them packing with only a few broken bones and a promise to Lex Luthor. Try and hurt me I’ll hurt you in a way you couldn’t imagine. Now Luthor doesn’t like threats. But he respects a man who can stand up for himself. He respects the average man who can pull himself out of poverty and make something of himself. He respects people like himself, so he left Irons alone, and last week, his people stopped watching the Steel Mill.

John powers up his sleek silver armour and walks out of the mill, his servo enhanced limbs powering up and heading for Lex Towers.

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A flurry of fists part what little water is left in the harbour, the black dome surrounding the city trapping whatever water was in the bay at the time of the vanishing… Superman smashes two fists into his double’s face, black blood spilling across the water, then leaps out of the bay, getting the advantage of height. He looks down at the harbour below and feels his breath leave him, a view down there unlike anything he’d expect…

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Jar Kell rolls with the lightning fast attacks of the monstrous Black Zero, not daring to create a green barrier for it to travel into. This beast seems to have the ability to use emerald energy to transport itself through reality, not a hard thing to do whilst in a ghost zone mind, so Jar keeps ducking and diving, trying to avoid literally loosing his head. The beast has thousands of eyes that stare at the Lantern, its large prehensile tentacles seem to have gnashing mouths at the end of each limb, all trying to grab a chunk of flesh off the already weakened Green Lantern.

As another gnashing tentacle approaches he jams his ring forward, engulfing the limb in emerald light, sending shockwaves throughout the creature, and then with another flash, it explodes, a black fog left where it once stalked. Without a moment’s hesitation, Jar heads back to the black dome, unknowing at the growing threat behind him as the black fog bank grows larger and larger until… He’s thrown into the dome, his bones shattering as the collision vibrates the black energy.

The creature reforms and proceeds to lift Jar’s body up, its own tentacles splitting off and shooting up his arms like syringes. He stutters a cry as his ring ejaculates more power than ever, and then falls silent as his body is absorbed into the Black Zero monstrosity. The creature buzzes with more power than ever, and then continues its efforts to enter the city.

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Superman sets down at the edge of the bay, and watches as the assorted police officers prep their weapons. Maggie Sawyer is clad in the Major Crime Unit special operations uniform, a futuristic suit of body armour that can protect against the normal kind of cape affiliated criminal. Usually.

“A’ite you guys! Aim your weapons and keep the power on until the guy’s down for the count! GO!”

Purple energy erupts from five large artillery platforms arranged around the harbour edge, and they strike down on the small figure of the dark Superman. His cape dissolves in the light and Superman watches as his dark blue uniform begins to peel back with the sheer force of the rays. Kal looks up and watches as the dome flickers opaque and see through, the constant change of view like an old black and white film. A large tentacled creature slams down an almighty pincer, and then vanishes as the dome flickers back to darkness.

“What the hell is happening here?”

“I don’t know, big man… But I woke up in a cold sweat down at the precinct and I’m assuming this bastard has something to do with it, am I right?”

“You’re not wrong, Maggie. Keep up the pressure, I’ve got to think this through.” He shakes his head. “Anyone get a call through to STAR labs? This guy is a Kryptonian, like me… Maybe we can keep him locked up there like we have my… like Kru-El.”

“No one can get in contact with the folks over there, cowboy. We’ve lost all power apart from those running from our state of the art tech…”

“I’ll have to head over there and check up on them in person then. Please… Just shout if you need help… This guy has all my powers… None of my… Compassion…”

Maggie laughs. “Jeez, Supes. All these Kryptonian sons-of-their-mothers kind of ruin the nickname ‘Last Son of Krypton’, don’t they?” She looks over at Clark, who nods slightly.

“I know… I’ll be back.”

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Kitty Faulkner is having a bad day. Storage cells have ruptured throughout the labs, and only the main chambers have kept any semblance of power. The Kryptonian known as Kru-El is still having his gentle slumber uninterrupted, and the many lead lined compartments containing newly discovered radioactive isotopes are still sealed shut… But over experiments are ruined, labs exposed to strange gases and such… Luckily she was able to get the employees out and safe, but what’s more… She was exposed to something. She felt… Weird. Angry. She shook it off though, and made sure everyone was safe.

That’s when Superman arrives, looking like he’s been through seven kind of hells.

“Kitty…”

“Big Blue! What… Are you alright?”

He stumbles towards her, then holds himself up by placing his large hand on a desk.

“Weakened by my battle with… Another… One of me…”

Kitty gasps in surprise at his words. “Another Kryptonian!? How many of your people still live Superman? It makes your other nick name ‘Last Son of Krypton’ a bit redundant, yeah?”

“I get that, ok? It’s been said… Heh…” He smiles and clenches his fist, cracks running through the desk he holds. “The MCU have him contained down at Hobs, but we need a permanent solution… Have you got another chamber set up like we did with Kru-El?”

“I can get one up, but I don’t know if we have time! It’s all too short notice for us, especially under these circumstances!” Her hands begin to shake and Superman smiles.

“Don’t worry. I’ll stop him even if you don’t have the right equipment. Just try your best, because that’s all we can ever ask of you… Wait… I hear something at the harbour… Oh lord…”

Kitty nods slowly and pushes her glasses up her nose, then smiles.

“Get going, Supes. I’ll get the troops mobilising.” She pats him on the back and he speeds back over to the harbour, where smoke rises and rests against the black dome above the city… What had happened?

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The Major Crimes unit keep on the pressure, energy weapons and artillery pounding down onto the villain in the harbour. Maggie can’t see anything for the bright light and steam rising from the waters.

“Get your optics down there, I want to know what’s happening to that sonofabitch!”

Dan Turpin jumps to the side of the canons and activates his special goggles, then is thrown back into the cannon by a gust of wind, sending the weapon clattering backwards, its deadly rays meeting the canon beside it, causing an explosion that decimates the artillery platforms! The man they were attempting to contain slowly rises out of the empty harbour naked, his skin dull and lifeless, and with a flick of his hand he begins to whip up a vortex that blasts the police officers to the warehouses behind them.

“I’ve had enough of this!” He shouts so loud that men and women around the city have to cover their ears. “But you…” He steps onto the bay edge, and picks up an unconscious Maggie Sawyer by her hair, she squirms in pain but keeps a face of determination. “I’ve always had my eye on you…” She spits in his face and he laughs. “You’ve always been spunky.”

“GET OFF OF HER!” Superman slams into his enemy, and they collide with the black shield at the edge of the city, and a massive crack shoots up side of the dome. “HOW DARE YOU TOUCH HER! HOW DARE YOU!” Superman slams his fist against his doubles face and black blood sprays everywhere. “YOU’RE EVIL!”

“I-I’m you, brother… So shut the hell up and end it, so you become me in your soul… Stop denying the truth… And you best kill me now because if you don’t… You’re city will be trapped in this hell dimension forever…”

Superman raises his bloody fist and slams it down, an almighty crack piercing the silence that follows.

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Lois Lane watches as Lex Luthor adjusts the television screen. The trio including Lex, Perry and herself gasp in silent awe as Superman’s fist crashes down on- The screen goes black, and the generators that powered the last lit building in Metropolis go down.

“Oh… Did he… Did he just kill that guy?” Lois looks at the blank screen, shock floating across her face.

“Ha!” Lex shakes his head, laughing as he does so. “Ha ha… He just… Ha…”

Perry places his hands on Lois’ shoulders. “We should get out of here, Lane… I’ve got a bad feeling about this…”

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Superman looks down at his fist, blood dripping from his knuckles, his every finger broken and bruised. His dark reflection smiles at him, his eyes hazy, blood dripping from his nose.

“I-I knew you couldn’t kill me. I knew you’d hesitate… Because I know you… And I know me… So we’re now set for the end game”

“What do you mean?” Superman picks up the man by his neck, and looks him in the eye. “What did you do?”

“You did what I couldn’t… You broke the force field that protected your fair Metropolis from the Phantom Zone! You’ve brought death to your city and with this city’s dying breath, ancient Krypton will arrive on Earth! You’ve doomed your world, and unleashed Black Zero and his brethren onto Earth!”

Superman looks up and watches as black shards of dissipating energy dissolve as cracks of bright light shoot up the dome. He watches in horror as a massive limb shoots through the top of the shield, shattering what was left up there. He pushes his enemy aside for a moment, then shoots up, grabbing the tentacle before it impacts with the city below. Where was Jar? How is this creature so powerful? What the hell is a Black Zero? He struggles with these questions as his head is nearly decapitated by thousands of small teeth that clash and crash near his skull.

“Great Scott…” He punches the limb up, and it hesitates, allowing Superman to shoot up with as much power as he can, sending the massive being sprawling backwards away from the city.

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John Henry Irons arrives at Hobs Bay, and watches as Superman battles the massive monster film reject out of the city limits. Maggie Sawyer looks up at the armoured engineer and raises her pistol, surprise and confusion covering her face.

“Who the hell are you, punk?”

“I’m John Henry Irons, ma’am. I’m here to help.”

“Irons, huh? That some kind o’ joke? With the armour and whatever? Help with what? We’ve got this all… Under… Con… Trol…” She faints, her ordeal finally overcoming her, but before she hits the ground John whisks her up, preventing her from hitting the ground.

“Here to help you….”

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Hundreds of fist pound against one of the last blast doors in Project Cadmus. Hundreds of creatures with grey skin and steel like hides clatter through rubble and debris until a crack forms against the promethium barriers. They grunt and howl, like animals performing something ‘good’ deemed by a higher power, until a fist shatters the last door, and then they begin to tear back the layers of metal that contain them in their prison below Metropolis. They constantly duplicate, more and more of the creatures being released from the pods far below the city… They reach the final precaution, a small force field created by something alien, something not affected by phantom zone interference… And they stand silent, and wait…

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“Jar, your father told you to stay inside! The lightning storms are not a joke, go back inside now!”

His mother ushers him back in the shelter, the lightning crackling along the ground as they attempt to lock the bunker once more.

Mal Kell sits in his small gyro craft, and watches in terror as the bunker door seems to jam on them, and the lightning tracks speed up and get closer and closer to the small building. He activates the crystals in the vehicle and speeds towards his family, and as the lightning is about to strike his wife and child, his small vehicle takes the brunt of the electricity, causing him to explode in a cascade of light and beautiful radiance. His wife, Tinda Kell reaches out and the metallic jewellery on her hand catches the current of the lightning. She shivers and quakes, and then is yanked into the vortex of light that is blossoming out of the gyro craft, and Jar watches as her eyes never wander from his own gaze.

Gin Kell peaks out from behind the bunk beds and watches as her brother closes the shelter door, and smiles softly.

“Where’s mum and dad, Jar?”

“They’ve gone for a while, Gin-San. I’m here though, don’t worry.”

“I’m scared Jar, the lightning storms scare me…”

Jar strokes his sisters hair gently and smiles down at her. “Don’t worry, Gin-San. With me here, there is nothing to fear…”

Fear.

Fear.

Fear.

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Jar Kell opens his eyes with a scream, his own memories causing him to quake in terror, only to be met by a cascade of terrible emotions that are not his own. He tries to shrug off the pain and fear and then clenches his fist, his ring feeding the creature that contains him. His body is connected to the beast, and he feels his own limbs form connections with the massive creatures innards. He flexes his body, tries to get a grasp of where he is but he can’t see… he can only feel and sense… He shakes off the feelings once more and pushes himself up, trying to escape from his prison in the belly of the beast. He hears sounds… Terrible, crashing sounds but his ring just won’t react to his thoughts, his body becoming slow and sloth like as something is excreted onto his flesh… Some kind of mind dampener…

He lashes out, ripping out the links to the beast he was developing, his own flesh being torn out as he wrenches and tears for escape. He feels drowsy but fights on, trying harder and harder to escape when he hears a new noise, like explosions coming closer and closer, until he’s torn from his prison, and he can at last taste the musky air of the Phantom Zone. He looks up and sees the smiling face of a man he does not recognise, which’s green and purple armour denotes some kind of military unit he’s not familiar with… Dammit! Kilowog would be more use now, wouldn’t he?

Jar raises his head, a pained expression coming across his face.
“Who are you?”

The man laughs, like the Lantern had asked a very obvious question.

“Me, my alien friend? I’m Lex Luthor, and I’ve saved your life…”

Jar shakes his head, getting a really bad feeling about this human…

[Admin]

Superman feels his eyes light up and the air burn as he unleashes a barrage of heat vision that removes a massive limb of the creature. The beast topples backwards and seems to shrink immensely, and at last Superman can see his enemy’s true visage without having to lift himself up from the clouds. It was disgusting, something out of his nightmares. Truly… Out of his nightmares.

He closes his eyes, remember details of a dream he had once… When he was drifting along in the stars, a vivid memory flash, something that he had forgotten… Did he know this being? He knew its name, that was for sure. As the words leave his lips its like he can taste blood and bile leaving his throat. “Black Zero.” The first evil of his people.

There’s a buzz in the air, and Superman feels blood trickle down his nose as something, someone, speaks directly into his mind. “Kal – El, the last true Kryptonian.” Its voice was like fingernails against a blackboard, words etching themselves into his brain, blood pouring from his broken nose.

Superman shakes off the feeling, and stands his ground, neither man or beast moving.

“What the hell are you?” He clenches his fist. “What the hell is that, down there in my city?”

“My courier. The Kryptonian you believe yourself to be deep down.”

“What… I don’t understand…” Superman shakes his head, doubt racking his body, along with the pain of not feeling the rays of direct sunlight for hours.

The Black Zero seems to writhe in its own skin, words being gouged out of its body by its own mind. “With your exposure to the darkest of Krypton’s people, the man you call Zod, Kru-El and Faora… They left an imprint on you, didn’t they? Your self-doubt began then, more so than it ever did. You asked yourself the question ‘Am I like these people?’ … You never met your father, did you? He was dead and gone before your rebirth on that flaccid lump of dirt you call Earth… So the only exposure to the House of El was your brother, Kru. You feel disgusted at sharing his blood, but what you don’t realise… He was disgusted at sharing yours. Jor-El, the best that your planet had to offer…” The creature seems to breath, thousands of mouths exhaling at the same time, a dirty, dank smell filling the already stagnant airs of the Zone.

“How do you know anything about my family? You’ve been trapped in this place since…”

“Since Krypton died in green fire.” The words claw into his mind like meat hooks. “I was there, tied to the planet by the Guardians of the Universe. I was a God once, but now I’m reviled in Ancient Kryptonian history as the first demon. The first devil of the planet’s existence. A false moniker imposed by the fascist Oans. They sent their little robots after me, and when they discovered they could not kill a God… They bound me to the planet, and I became one with mother Krypton. I had a hand in everything ever since. My influence was eternal and whoever felt my touch bore my name. Black Zero. They had a cause and I gave them meaning, hidden behind the planet’s soil. And now… I’m going to bring death and damnation to Earth, with a soul sacrifice of your human pets!”

[Admin]

This story concludes in Action Comics #3!

[mockingbird]

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