A wall of water more than a kilometer high obscures the sky on the western side of Indonesia. Although miles away from the oncoming wall, fishermen signal each other in terror. Many of them have lived through earthquakes and have seen and experienced tsunamis and massive waves, but this is something that is wholly beyond them.
The still dark sky lightens with flashes and bursts of red piercing the wall of water at hundreds of points in seconds. There is the sound of a boom as something high in the sky and unseen passes the fishermen. It's almost as if the sky and the water are battling each other.
'I can do this,' says Clark to himself through grit teeth. He banks to the right and pushes himself to move faster. He approaches the wall of water, rapid bursts of heat vision striking it, and then he turns to fly alongside it, the air 'rippling' in his wake and knocking back parts of the wall. He then takes a deep breath and dives into the ocean, repeating the process against the even denser wall of water down below.
From Indonesia and round towards the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and up to Sri Lanka and India proper, he flies and dives back and forth, forcing the wall of water to slowly, bit by bit, collapse in on itself. Every so often his eyes flit towards the distant Black Zero but it remains in orbit, silent.
As Zod approaches the door to the scout ship he speaks into his communications relay: 'Nam-Ek, you and the others are to attend to the World Engine. Do whatever you must.'
On the Black Zero, Nam-Ek and the Kryptonian volunteers step away and leave the command centre. Moments later, three small ships fly out of the launch bay and head to Earth.
Zod looks towards the sun, squinting as he challenges its bright light. He closes his eyes and smiles at the red light he can now see. He turns to the door, reaches out a hand, and pushes. There is a slight hiss as the door opens and he frowns in disgust as his visor shows him that the air inside the ship is not of a Kryptonian environment.
As he steps in, a robot hovers up and approaches him. He turns to it and says, 'I am General Dru-Zod of the House of Zod. I claim this ship for the sake of Krypton. You will lead me to the Genesis Chamber.'
The robot is silent.
Zod holds out his Command Key, brandishing it. 'Take me to the Genesis Chamber.'
The robot rises a little more and then opens. Zod's eyes light up with some sort of delight.
'Ha!' He lunges at the robot and ploughs his armoured fist into it. Tentacles spring out and lash at him, clanging against his armour. He shields his head with his free hand and kicks at the robot, freeing his other hand. It falls back and careens into the wall. Multi-coloured sparks spritz away in the hole Zod has made in the robot but they begin to fade and then stop. The robot rises back up, the cavity quickly being repaired. Zod looks to either side of him and sees more robots approaching. He shifts his stance, raises both his arms above this head, almost crossing them at his wrists, and then pulls them down and wide to his side, two blades unsheathing as he does so.
Finally, after almost an hour of flying back and forth across thousands of miles, the wall of water is considered 'manageable'. Clark hovers in the air, his cape drenched and hanging heavy behind him, and looks out over the part he hasn't yet tackled – the part that will, in a few hours' time, reach Mauritius, Reunion, and the east coast of Madagascar. His intervention around Indonesia has safeguarded the north-west and western part of Australia, as well as Kerguelen and Heard Island, and the Seychelles and Somalia, but Madagascar and parts of Eastern Africa are still vulnerable.
He turns his gaze to the epicenter of all the chaos and the origin of the would-be wall of destruction, and zooms in on the quiet World Engine. Two small Kryptonian ships circle it, but his eye catches Nam-Ek sitting on the machine, waiting.
He looks up and soars into the air, his arms wide, soaking in the sun, and then he adjusts his flight and heads towards the remaining 'wall of water'. In the quieter waters behind him, warships and aircraft carriers are gathering and the armed forces from different nations are joining forces. Their target: the World Engine.
'The General is not the man he once was. Our roles as protectors and defenders of Krypton are no longer what they were. General Zod is no longer fit for duty and I stand against him in defence of this world.'
'My dear Faora,' says Jax-Ur, a broad smile on his face. 'Such treasonous talk from such a loyal soldier.' He turns to the other Kryptonians, 'My brothers and sisters, it seems the one who is not who they once were is Commander Ul. Perhaps one cannot fault her, after all these years of wandering the stars, but as the General has said, we now have this planet and we can now have Krypton again.'
Faora unsheaths her short sword and adjusts into a fighting stance.
'General?' calls out Jax-Ur. There is no reply. Jax-Ur repeats the call and, again, there is silence. 'It seems we have lost communication with our leader. With his second in command now actively betraying him I put myself forward and relieve her of her duties. Arrest her.'
Two soldiers step forward, watching her nervously. They reach for their bladed weapons, too – the command centre being one part of the ship where energy-based weapons are neutralised. 'Commander, please come willingly.'
Five others step forward and turn to face the other two. Car-Vex, the woman who had been rendered unconscious by the Jor-conscience, says, 'If the destroyer of Wegthor thinks to lead the Sword of Rao then he should think again.'
'We do not wish to fight you,' adds Nadira, 'but you have seen what we have seen. The General is no longer himself, and it falls to us, as the Sword of Rao, to stand against him.'
'Traitors,' snarls Lor-Em. 'ALL OF YOU!'
'Command Key accepted. Genesis Chamber coming online.' The huge chamber begins to light up at various points. The liquid contained within it is clear, and dozens of small pods can be seen. Etched above each one is a sigil. Zod squints a little as he looks into the chamber, his eyes looking over everything held within it. They stop at a sigil that matches his and, involuntarily, his hand touches the glass.
'Stop this, Zod, while there's still time.'
Zod pulls his hand away quickly. 'Haven't given up on lecturing me, have you? Even in death.'
'I will not let you use the codex like this.'
Zod turns to face the Jor-conscience, his head tilted slightly, taken aback a little at the hologram's words. 'You don't have the power to stop me. The command key I've entered is revoking your authority. This ship is now under my control.'
In Northcomm command centre, as well as in other locations across the world, analysts are rushing around in response to the latest activity in orbit. More than half a dozen new ships have left the Black Zero, and this time they're headed to the military base near Metropolis.
In dozens of languages the same sort of phrase, when translated, is being used: an attack on multiple fronts.
'Our people can co-exist,' pleads the hologram.
'We were masters of all we surveyed-' argues Zod.
'We were deluded.'
'You became deluded, El. Misguided. Your solution only serves to continue the stagnation of our people.'
'And yours will result in its destruction.'
'No, El, in rebirth.' He turns away from the hologram. 'Ship, have you managed to quarantine this invasive intelligence?'
'I have.'
'Then prepare to terminate it; I'm tired of this debate.'
'Silencing me won't change anything. My son is twice the man you were, and he will finish what we started. I can promise you that.'
Zod turns to face the hologram again. 'Tell me, you have Jor-El's memories, his conscience. Can you experience his pain? I will harvest the Codex from your son's corpse. And I will rebuild Krypton on top of his bones.' He turns away, a flicker of grief on his face, and punches the Command Key to fully insert it into the console and the Jor-conscience disappears, smiling.
On the Black Zero, Jax-Ur rages. There are only a couple of other Kryptonians with him, and they are keeping their distance as the scientist curses the technology around him. They gasp as -
'Ah, Jax-Ur. You never seemed to be able to grasp the basic Kryptonian natures of discovery and helping-'
'I'm a scientist like you were, you spectre. My team and I discovered things you never even dreamed about. Things you never even attempted.'
'Because they were wrong. They were…evil, as humans would say.'
'You are the reason everything has been going wrong on this wretched planet. On this ship. You think I didn't know? This ship has been mine for decades. You revealed yourself too soon, you arrogant fool.' He raises a clenched fist and twists his hand. A strange energy surrounds the hologram. 'You think I didn't study your work? That I didn't better it?'
The hologram is silent, frozen in place.
'I watched Krypton die and I smiled. You can watch this...'Metropolis' fall and do nothing.'
He presses a part of the display screen in front of him and the Black Zero's engines ignite.
'Superman, come back to base. They're here.'
Clark looks back towards the World Engine and then up at the even more distant Black Zero. He frowns as he sees the ship move.
'I'm on my way.' He fires a few more bursts of heat vision, staggers a few more sonic booms, and then rises up, up, and away.
Zod is on the bridge of the scout ship, looking out over ice and snow. He instructs the ship to access available data feeds and show him what is happening both at the landing site of the world engine and in Metropolis. He snarls with anger when he sees the world engine sitting silent, and more so when he Metropolis is still standing.
'Commander Ul, report.' He says sharply.
'Commander Ul has abandoned her post, General,' says Jax-Ur.
Zod leans forward over a control panel, his eyes closed for a moment. 'Where has she gone?'
'She is joining the boy.'
He looks up, anguished, and takes a breath. 'Have you overcome the problem you were facing?'
'I have. We are now making our way to Metropolis as you ordered, General. The World Engine will be activated soon.'
'Do not wait for me to arrive. Begin as soon as possible.'
'Understood, sir.'
Zod steps back and walks to the empty captain's seat. 'Ship, prepare engines for take off.'
'Acknowledged.'
Surrounding the small group of unarmed but armoured Kryptonians, the human soldiers stand nervously, their weapons raised. They all know it's pointless, they've either been in Smallville earlier or have seen the footage, but they go on with training and with protocol and they wait. When they hear the boom overhead, some of the soldiers visibly relax.
Faora steps forward as Clark lands and says, 'Kal-El of the House of El, son of Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van, and the last of us to be born on Krypton, we, the Sword of Rao, commit ourselves to you.' She kneels and the other Kryptonians kneel, too.
'I don't understand.'
She looks up at him, her face and eyes telling of remorse and pride. 'Your actions have shown us how wrong we have been; how misguided we have been. You were right: what we set out to do is not the Kryptonian way. It's not why we became the Sword of Rao, and it is not why we went up against the Council.'
'Then...you'll help me?'
Faora nods and rises, she speaks anxiously and hurriedly. 'Jax-Ur has control of the Black Zero and the General will soon arrive in the city called Metropolis.'
'Why there?'
'It is where you chose to surrender to the humans.'
Clark turns to Swanson. 'What are the reports from the world engine?'
'It's still quiet, but we're ready.'
'Kal-El, I promise you that we will do everything we can to protect the city.'
''Kal-El'? You're not calling me 'Little El' anymore?'
'You've proven yourself to be an El, and it's been an honour to rediscover myself through you.'
'Come on,' he grins, 'when this is over you've got a lot of stories to tell me.'
'And so we will, but you have your duty to do elsewhere.' She begins to take off her armour. 'Mine,' she says, and then gestures at her colleagues, 'and ours is to protect that city for as long we can. We will help evacuate it and and we will guard it and buy you time, but if Jax-Ur is able to activate and slave the Black Zero to the World Engine...'
'I understand.' There's a boom as Clark lifts off into the sky. Faora, the Kryptonians, Lois, and the various armed forces look up for a few seconds and then lose sight of him.
Faora turns to Hardy and holds out her hand, 'Let us put behind us what happened before, Colonel. We're here to help.'
