NEW! DC Universe
Their screams fade into silence. Superman catches a cosmically hot pebble that has drifted into Mars' gravitational pull. It is all that remains of his second home. It is all that remains of Earth.
"No!" The Man of Steel thrusts with his fist, but doesn't have the heart to hurl the stone. He holds it tightly in his outstretched limb as he begins to sob.
"Oooohhhh," a feminine voice sings. "Don't be so hard on yourself, Supey."
Superman looks through his tears into the vastness of space, but the voice has no body.
"You know as well as I that the ungrateful little punks all had it coming." The abrupt change of the voice from whimsical to savage sends shivers down Superman's spine. But now he's sure of whose voice it is.
"It's you." The hero pockets the Earth rock and squints into the darkness.
"How very observant of you." Space becomes filled by a pair of hideous yellow eyes. "And just where have you been, hmmm?"
"Did you do this?"
A distant nebula frowns. "That doesn't answer my question."
"You answer mine."
"Fine. Yes. I did this." The eyes glint. "Didn't I do a good job?"
Superman's eyes glow a hot red. "No."
Two beams of blistering heat burn the galaxian corneas. The universe seems to scowl.
"How dare you."
Ruby red tentacles slither from Superman's pockets and wind around him like boas. The remains of his oxygen supply escape in grunts as his ribs snap and his heart races. Superman panics as, for one of the first times in his life, he tastes blood.
"You don't like magic, do you Superman?" The eyes glare, the tentacles tighten. The ends of the tentacles burst into lobster claws and bite Superman's throat. "Do you?"
"Maybe he don't, but I soitenly do."
"What?" The eyes whirl around. "How did you get out here?"
"While you was busy huffin' and puffin' on da Mayor's door, I was travelling kazillions of miles away in soich of somethin' that would shut you up for good."
Superman struggles to see the new party, but he's in too much pain to keep his eyes open.
"And I tink I found just the thing."
Superman catches a glimpse of the large ears for just a minute before all reality is filled with a brilliant white light. Waves of heat rush over him, and then everything disappears.
He wakes up in Metropolis atop the Daily Planet's trademark sphere. The tentacles are gone. The ears are gone. Space is above him, stars all intact, and Superman is left wondering just what happened to him.
