You know of Superman as a hero.

In Greek Mythology, there are heroes like this. They usually have greater strength or cunning than normal people, and this often comes from their partly devine heritage. More often than not, Zeus, King of the Gods, would be their father.

They move past the normal, everyday, mundane world; they go places and see things that others wouldn't. They'll even brave the depths of hell itself to help someone, to save the day. Although they don't directly fit into it, they can perceive and have an understanding of the world of their fathers, the Gods.

For a modern setting, Superman would seem to fit into this category, wouldn't he?

That's not a bad perception, and that's how you know of him. This story, however, will perhaps give you the glimpse of something else entirely. Something yet to come, perhaps.

This chapter of the story begins in outer space. A state-of-the-art, multi-billion-dollar craft moved through the darkness faster than anything built by Humans had ever done before. Only five hours had passed, and already the ship had not only left Earth's orbit, but was now leaving the orbit of Mars, and heading through the Asteroid Belt on a course for Jupiter.

The craft was remarkable not only in its incredible, advanced technology but also in that it had civilians and news media on board. This prototype was taking passengers on the first actual tour of the solar system.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, This is your captain speaking. We will now be leaving Mars orbit, and within minutes it won't be visible through your windows, so take your last looks; Right now we're passing over Olympus Mons, so if you want a picture of the tallest volcano in our solar system, now's your chance! In another hour or so, we should begin passing through the Asteroid Belt. You'll be able to see a dwarf planet called Ceres, so I'll inform you when that's visible."

The ship slowly moved away from Mars, angling the windows away from the planet's surface and into open space. Lois Lane, stationed here with her two partners Jimmy Olsen and Clark Kent (Because of course, Perry wanted his top newshounds covering an event like this), slumped back into her chair.

"Are you bored of this already, Miss Lane?" asked Jimmy, their photographer.

She yawned. "It's been five hours, Jimmy. I'm only human. It's gorgeous, yes, it's incredible, yes, but there's nothing for me to do here. And sitting in one place for five hours--"

"R-really?" asked Clark, a bit awkwardly. "You aren't having fun, Lois?"

"Don't tell me you're not getting cramped, too, Smallville. Not even a little?" Was her tired response.

"Oh, I think this is just great! I'm loving every minute of this! It's just-- It's swell." Clark Kent liked times when he could say things or express emotions or reactions which were his true thoughts on the subject. A rarity, yes, but something he tried not to dwell on.

"Gosh, Mr. Kent, you must be really into this stuff! I mean, I like it too, but I can't compare to you!" said Jimmy, enthusiastically.

Before Clark could open his mouth (or so was the perception), Lois cut him off: "Jimmy, if I have to endure another eight hours of Kent-worship, so help me I will--"

And thus was the conversation in the cabin, as the ship approached the field of Asteroids (And whatever else was hidden between them). They were a trio, and despite their bickering, and their lack of hanging out outside of work, Clark felt very close to them.

And the hour passed quicker than they expected.

"This is your captain speaking, we are now entering the Asteroid Field, and in just a few minutes, we'll be passing close by some smaller material; Within the next half-hour or so, we should be able to see Ceres, so get those cameras ready! Just be careful to save enough film, Jupiter's coming up soon. Douglas out."

Lois snickered. "That captain's a total Astronomy nerd. He'd probly get along well with Clark. We should introduce them!"

Clark slumped a bit at that, but Jimmy seemed to miss the sarcasm entirely. "Oh gee, that's not a bad idea, miss Lane! I'd love to hear these two talk, that'd be great!"

Clark noticed it first, of course. It was hidden behind one of the smaller asteroids which they would soon pass by. A huge, metallic, black mass-- were those tentacles? Yes, tentacles, definitely. That was no naturally ocurring asteroid.

"Well, I'm SORRY, Kent, but you know you're more into this stuff than we are. We're bound to pick on you for it, and you know we don't mean anything by it. You don't have to go giving me the silent treatment."

"Oh-- it's... it's fine, Lois, don't worry about it..." said Clark, staring off into space as usual, thought Lois. She sighed with frustration. He was very cute, in fact; She'd always known this, and might have even done something about it on her own; The only trouble was, she could never get past the fact that he wouldn't stand up for himself. The fact that he was a bit less assertive than her was okay, in fact; She just wanted him to be able to take care of himself.

Because, okay, yes, she did care about him, a little. Lois didn't deny things to herself; Being a reporter, she made sure to always know the facts. Of course, it was now too late for her to be dating, anyway.

Now that she was in a relationship with Superman.

Superman was everything she'd ever dreamed of, although he was always distant. Clark never had a chance. Although, she did kind of feel bad for him...

His frequent bouts of staring off into space lessened that, however.

"I'd better make a trip to the bathroom, before they make us fasten seatbelts again", said Clark dejectedly, getting out of his seat and floating-- Rather gracefully, considering how clumsy he was on his feet-- towards the bathroom.

Lois frowned. "Oh, now I've gone and depressed him. Don't be like that, Smallville, come back here-- Oh, well. If he wants to be blue all day, it's no skin off my neck."

Jimmy looked back at her. "I think you might've really hurt his feelings, miss Lane. Did you see the look on his face?"

Lois, suddenly feeling bad, (More so than her aloofness allowed), got indignant. "Well, I don't know why you idolize such a sensitive guy like that, Jimmy. You push him and he'll fall over."

And Jimmy for once wasn't enthusiastic or at all kid-like; and he said "Miss Lane, I understand why you would think that; but there's a whole side to Clark that you can't see, and maybe I can't either. I just know there's something about him that's different from everybody else." Suddenly returning to his enthusiasm, he added "Can't you see it, too, miss Lane?"

And Lois was uncharacteristically silent.

And Superman thought it would be most convenient to not be seen by the cabin of the ship, so he flew above it, out of the sight of its windows. His movement was silent, of course, but much faster than the spaceship's.

As soon as he passed over the ship, he made a mad dash for the asteroid, flying as fast as he could, hoping he wouldn't be seen. He landed on it, noting at how ordinary it seemed, even this close up. He just had to look a bit closer to see the danger behind it.

He dug through the surface, rocks and grit flying in his face but not bothering him any more than snowflakes; he smashed through, into a hollow space, and straight ahead of him was black metal; maybe five feet away. It filled his field of vision. He was mostly certain who was within the ship, but just in case he was wrong he decided to look inside.

As he was doing so, he was caught in a force field. He wrestled to escape, but found it useless. Then he tried melting the wall with a blast of heat vision; but the heat scattered, and most of it hit him in the face.

"It's no use, you're stuck", boomed a voice in his ear, despite the lack of atmosphere to convey sound. "This field works pretty well, don't you think? It suspends any electromagnetic radiation passing through it. That is, it deflects it, and bounces it around in one area. That includes that teriffic solar energy stored in your body, Kryptonian. That includes your brain waves."

Superman, now getting worried, struggled again aganst the field, then fell back, defeated. "You see, I know how strong you are. I took that into account. I realized that there wasn't a force field I could built that you couldn't breach. You see, you're well strong enough to breach this field easily. The only problem is, the moment you move, the electrical impulses in your body become scattered, and you stop moving all on your own. Simple as that."

'Clever', Superman wanted to say. He knew he had to get out of this, somehow. He knew he would, but he didn't immediately see how.

"And now, my Kryptonian friend. Before I destroy you, I wish to add the Human vehicle behind you to my collection. But I won't shrink it yet; Instead, I'll take it elsewhere. You'll see. It might come to be nice having you around, Superman. I might just keep you. I would enjoy narrating my activities to you, the best possible captive audience."

Supeman thought and thought and thought. He tried not to think of anger or frustration or fear but on anything he could use to escape.

The metallic thing slid out from behind its asteroid, taking Superman with it. It edged foward, ever-so-slowly. As it moved to intercept the Multi-Billion-Dollar spacecraft, the captain of that ship took notice.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain speaking. We may be forced to change course as what appears to be an extraterrestrial spacecraft has moved into our flight path. We appologise for any inconvenience. As we pass by, I'll try to get you a good view of it. Douglas out."

Lois and Jimmy exchanged looks. "Miss Lane, what do you think he means?" asked Jimmy, slightly worried.

"I think it means he's screwing with us, Jimmy. You don't believe that nonsense do you?"

Jimmy nodded. "Yeah, what a jerk! We're not falling for this! Why's Clark taking so long in the bathroom?"

Lois, now a bit worried herself, absently said "Oh, I don't know. Maybe space doesn't do good things for his stomach problems."

And outside the ship, Superman was feeling hopeless. The more he moved, the weaker he felt. He could barely move an eyeball. The worst part was, his powers were all there and fully charged up. He just couldn't use them.

The space shuttle maneuvered around the malevolent ship, giving its passengers a nice view of the dark form that could be their doom. And as it did, the dark ship sent something out into space in front of the shuttle.

"Jimmy, what's that? Get pictures!" Jimmy fished in his bag, quickly pulled out a camera, and snapped a shot of what looked like a little spark flying through space.

This time the captain didn't notice it, since it was so black and blended in with the rest of space. But definitely, a darkness; some sort of opening, had formed. The shuttle silently moved towards it, unaware.

And in Superman's desperation, it came to him. In a sudden burst, he exhaled a huge amount of air; This acted like a rocket and shot him backwards, away from the ship; It broke him out of the force field. Now he was mad.

But the shuttle came first, since he did see the dark opening, and didn't know what it was.

He saw the part of the dark, tentacled ship which was projecting the "blackness" into space, and he fired an intense blast of heat vision at it. It did make that part shudder, and the "hole" seemed to change somehow; but it was still there.

The shuttle was about to touch the "Hole", whatever it was, and there was no more time. Superman flew as fast as he could towards the ship, a streak of red and blue following him. As he grabbed onto the ship, he felt himself being pulled towards the opening; It pulled him off course, and he slammed into the ship, right near Lois and Jimmy's window. They both recoiled.

And now Superman realized he had another problem to deal with; He was nearly out of breath. He couldn't hold it for more than, maybe two minutes; He'd blasted nearly all of it to get free.

And he grasped the ship, and tried to pull it free of the opening; But it was too late, and the pull of the opening was strong, and... he had less air than he thought he did. His head hurt, and he couldn't think, and he pulled; But then he lost the last of his air, and he couldn't pull anything anymore.

And both Superman and the ship were sucked through the strange blackness in space.

TO BE CONTINUED!!!!!!!!!