DISCLAIMER: Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Cyborg was created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez. I do not own any of the main characters involved in this story. This story exists in my own fan-made continuity and should not be considered to be part of any already defined by the comics, television series, or movies, though it takes cues from other established continuities created for Superman and Teen Titans. Also, elements of Cyborg's back-story in this fanfiction are borrowed by the character Steel, created by Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove.
"Miss Lane!" Jimmy Olsen cried from the seat next to Lois in the helicopter. "I don't suppose after this, we could land for a little bit?!"
Lois groaned, trying to keep the helicopter steady as people from the nearby burning building boarded. "Oh, would you quit being such a girl?!"
Of course, Lois Lane didn't REALLY feel like lashing out at him. It's just, here she was, away from the fight, trying her best to evacuate helpless civilians, and the best Jimmy could do to help was to scream in terror and occasionally throw up over the side of the chopper, which she was totally going to make him clean when this was over. Looking to the side, she saw a father and his daughter heading over, just as the flames were spreading closer.
"Hurry!" Lois yelled. "C'mon!"
The father quickly picked up his daughter and tossed her into the arms of the people in the helicopter. Before he could leap over, however, the floor beneath him started to give way. He jumped as best he could, but his legs were already buckling, causing him to come up very short of the chopper, falling to his death below...at least, he would have, if Jimmy hadn't managed to spot this and leaped out of his seat, jumping and grabbing the man's hand while the others in the helicopter got a death grip on him, pulling the two back into the chopper as Lois flew it away from the building.
"We're clear!" she shouted with a smile, proud of the young man she'd not a minute earlier called a girl. "That was awesome, Jimmy."
Jimmy nodded, looking paler and more ill than she'd ever seen him. "Thank you...I need to change my shorts now..."
"She was just for starters, Superman," Corben said with an evil sneer. "You're next, and I'm gonna enjoy every second of breaking you and leaving you buried in this park!"
Superman let out a low growl before rushing Corben's robot, slamming a fist in its head and causing it to cave in on itself. He was about to swing again when the machine's one remaining hand clapped down on the Man of Tomorrow, clenching him hard while letting loose liquid Kryptonite all over him. John Corben grinned evilly as he began to crush the Last Son of Krypton in his robot's fist.
"You wanna know something, Superman?!" Corben yelled, unable to control his glee. "There's not a day since I first met you, since you started busting up my operations, that I haven't dreamed of a day where you were lying stone dead in the ground! All of this, it's just for my own dream: A world without Superman!"
Corben laughed at the thought of his dream slowly becoming a reality, when suddenly, the robot began to detect intense heat coming from inside its hand, just as he heard a voice say "...Do you wanna know...what my dream is, John?"
John began to sweat as he put more power into the hand of the robot. However, it was too little, too late, as a pair of tiny holes began to appear in the back of its steel fist. Before long, the fingers began to be pushed apart, and he could see Superman dripping in liquid Kryptonite, and yet still fighting to free himself. Corben's jaw dropped, alerts going off as the joints in the robot's fingers began coming apart.
"A world that doesn't NEED Superman!" the Man of Tomorrow yelled as, with one massive show of force, he shoved his arms and legs out, the robot's fingers breaking clean off and falling to the ground as Superman hovered in mid-air.
"Th-This is impossible!" Corben shrieked, backing away. "You should be dead! The Kryptonite should've sapped your strength enough that I could crush you into a pebble!"
Superman just grinned. "You can thank Cyborg. That was no ordinary dagger he stabbed your robot with."
Corben's eyes widened in horror as it suddenly hit him what had happened. "...Blue Kryptonite...!"
"Right on the money, bro," Vic groaned as he pulled himself out of the ground. "The same stuff that hurts the Bizarro Superman that Luthor created. But Batman did some research on it after that, and found out that blue Kryptonite has a counter-active agent to green Kryptonite. Usually ain't enough to have any kind of effect at all..."
"...But since you broke down most of the radioactive isotopes found in the green Kryptonite when you liquefied it, all it took was introducing a small sample of blue Kryptonite to break down the rest," Superman finished, "to the point where I barely even feel it, even when it's all around me."
Corben's teeth grit down hard on themselves in his rage, all the while Superman just smiled back. "...Oh, one other thing? It actually started just a few seconds after Cyborg stabbed the blade into the tubes, so..."
Corben was about to ask "So, what?" when he got his answer in the form of a red, white, and blue blur that shot out from the nearby trees and flew straight through the remaining arm of his robot. Just as he was about to turn and blast Power Girl with the machine's leg-mounted lasers, though, Superman froze them over with his super-breath, causing them to blast themselves apart. As its legs caved in on themselves, Corben watches as Cyborg stood below him, holding his hammer in both hands and smiling deviously.
"...No...!" John whimpered, knowing what was next.
"BOOYAH!" the Man of Steel yelled, slamming the torso of the robot through the air. As Corben tried to activate the emergency jets to escape, his eyes widened at the sight of Power Girl hovering ahead of him, kicking him straight up into the sky as more pieces of debris came off the robot. Finally, he managed to get the jets on, but far too late as, from above, Superman spiked him back down, crashing into the park.
Corben groaned in pain as what was left of the robot came to a halt, the front of the cockpit having come completely off. The screens were all either blank or covered in static, and he was getting nothing from the controls. Looking straight up through the hole in the front of the cockpit, facing skyward, he just sighed as Superman, Power Girl, and Cyborg all stood atop it, arms folded and waiting to see what he'd do next.
"...I don't suppose you'd be willing to call it a draw?" John asked.
Nasty scowled at the screen before her, which was capturing footage of the battle. Sure enough, the three superheroes had completely dismantled the robot, and John Corben was left defenceless. Despite his promises to her before, she knew she couldn't risk letting him squeal. So, with a sigh, she pulled out a small remote from her pocket.
"...It's really a shame," Nasthalthia admitted to herself. "I really DID like the way he called me 'Mistress Luthor', and he was almost a half-decent stooge."
Nasty gave a small kiss to two fingers before tracing them across his cheek on the screen. "Goodbye, Johnny. Your side of the bed will miss you."
"I bet when you were getting up this morning, you weren't really thinking about spending lunch in a cell, were ya?" Cyborg joked as Corben lay helpless in his cockpit. "Well, what do ya say we get the man in the steel box a-"
Suddenly, Victor was cut off by Superman suddenly lunging forward. Before Cyborg could completely register what was going on, a huge explosion knocked him and Power Girl a few yards away, the wreckage of the robot going up in smoke and flame. Cyborg groaned as he get back to his feet and stared in horror of the ball of flames on the ground ahead.
"SUPERMAN!" he yelled desperately. "CORBEN!"
A few moments passed with no reply. Just as Cyborg and Power Girl ran forward, ready to deal with the flames, the Man of Tomorrow dove out, his cape surrounding himself. Kara sighed in relief, though she wasn't sure why. As if a mere man-made explosion could kill Superman. And yet, the randomness of it...and it was then that she realised what she should REALLY be afraid of.
"Corben!" she cried. "Is he...?"
Superman pulled his cape back, revealing John Corben's half-conscious form cradled in his arms. "He'll live. Lucky I saw the energy build-up in the back of his cockpit."
"The hell was that?" Cyborg demanded. "A bomb?"
Kal-El nodded, setting John on the ground. "I'm pretty sure it was remote-activated."
"Nasthalthia," Power Girl growled.
"Where is she, Corben?" Superman asked. "You don't owe her anything after this."
Corben looked away, his eyes reflecting the anger, confusion, and abandonment swirling in his heart. "...An abandoned Ferris Aircraft hangar, 8 miles north of Metropolis."
"Watch him," Clark said before taking off, flying at top speed for the hangar.
Corben just laid on the ground, eyes narrowed. "...I wish he'd just kill her. Her and her decrepit uncle...Why does he always save the bad guys? Why does he save me over and over?"
Cyborg shook his head, hearing the sounds of sirens in the distance getting closer. "I suppose you wouldn't get it. Sure, he knows you'll just find a way to break out and try to off him again, but killing you would go against everything he stands for, and his dream for the future."
Corben just looked even more confused, so Victor explained. "He meant what he said earlier. His dream is for a world that doesn't need Superman. A world without war, or poverty, or disease. A world where people have learned to work together for a better future. But most people ready for that yet. They need someone to show them the way, to be an example of what we could be. 'The Man of Tomorrow'."
Nasty growled as she waited for the elevator to take her to the basement. Luckily for her, Ferris Aircraft had equipped all their hangars with subterranean escape pods of sorts, in case of emergencies. She barely had time to grab what things she could and head straight down, and as it was, the elevator was taking far too long. Finally, after a few moments, the lift came to a halt, the doors opening to let Nasthalthia off...running smack-dab into the red S of Superman's chest, who stared down at the girl as she glanced up nervously at him.
"Eheh, any chance you feel like letting poor, defenceless, little-old-me go, Mister Superman?" Nasty asked, putting on her best pouty-yet-alluring face.
Superman smirked. "...Oh, don't worry, Miss Luthor. I think I know a good, safe place to drop you off at..."
Nasthalthia Luthor grumbled as she sat on the edge of her prison bed. She wanted to yell and scream, but she'd already done that all the way into Stryker's, and her throat still felt a little hoarse, even a day later. She just stared ahead, at the prison cell across the hall from her, at the bald man staring back at her with a cocky grin stretched across his face.
"...What..." she muttered, knowing full well her uncle Lex could hear her.
"Oh, nothing much," Luthor replied. "Just wondering what my former lawyers are planning to do, now that their golden child has been locked away in here with me."
Nasty huffed, looking away. "Yeah, keep joking, Unck. By the time either of us gets outta here, they'll probably be liquidizing the company and taking what they can for themselves..."
Lex just shrugged, laying back on his bed, staring up at the ceiling with the same smile. Nasthalthia growled, laying back on her own bed, silently contemplating how to get out of Stryker's and take her revenge on Superman, Power Girl, and Cyborg. Little did she know, in Lex's mind, he had very different thoughts going on...Thoughts that were being transmitted outside of the cell.
That was excellent work, boosting the signal to the bomb, Luthor said with his thoughts. It made the energy build-up impossible for Superman to miss.
So glad you approve, he heard back in his mind. Still, I am confused. Why save John Corben? Why help your enemy? OUR enemy?
To wipe the field of all other contenders, of course, Lex responded, crossing his arms behind his back. When we're ready to make our move, when there's no one that can get in our way, and when Superman least suspects it, he will die by my hands...as it was ALWAYS meant to be.
AUTHOR NOTES: DUN DUN DUUU-Oh wait, I did that once already this fic. lol Anyway, not much to say except to be sure you check in next time for the epilogue, as more fall-out is given that'll tie-in with other stories of mine. Ja né!