Chapter 21: Reconsideration

If he studied this planet's geography correctly, he was now flying over Italy. This was Zod's fourth 'country' that he was about to make his presence felt. He had gone from one country to the next demonstrating his power to the people. If he was to lead a united planet, they had to realize that they had no choice to submit to him. Destroying popular landmarks, killing a number of innocent civilians, and causing catastrophic damage would all get the attentions of the leaders of this planet. In the end, Superman joining his cause would finalize all of his hard work.

His first stop was in very populated, but militarily strong, country the people of Earth called China. The military was quick to reply when he attacked one of their mega-cities. He found them to be an arrogant group of people who, until his appearance, thought they were the superior people. They did come at him with promising aggression and impressive weapons, but they were still useless against a god-like figure as himself. To finish his message to the people of China, he attacked the long wall which they appeared to cherish. When Zod was done with it, half of it was in utter ruins.

From there, he flew a long distance to a much smaller country called Egypt. Their weapons were embarrassingly useless for the most part; they did conger up a few fighter jets. The death toll was very minimal in comparison to China. There were fewer people around the countries famous landmarks like the dirt pyramids and a strange dirt statue of a hybrid, which had the body of some type of crouching animal and the face of a human, missing his nose. Now, it was missing much more than just a nose.

His reign of terror went north-bound to a country called France. Here, the casualty rate increased once more. They put up a little more resistance than Egypt, but they failed utterly, none-the-less. Causing massive damage to their cities and a huge steel monument, they were no match again him.

That brought him to where he was now: a small country by the name of Italy. He could see that the news of his actions in the other countries had already preceded him there. Upon seeing him flying overhead, the people of Italy were running to take shelter. His job was nearing completion; when he finished here, he could return to Metropolis and give Kal-El a chance to join him.

Zod hovered down to the ground, landing in the heart of a round stone building that looked ancient. A portion of it was already in ruin; from what, Zod could only guess. It looked like it used to be some sort of sporting arena, based on the seating layout. Whatever it used to be, it did not matter to him; what did matter was all the visitors here that were about to be in harm's way.

Since going on this journey, he had practiced his god-like abilities, and in the process, he had gotten stronger. The destruction he was capable of doing was growing rapidly. It was time, yet again, to exercise those abilities. He unleashed his full force behind his heat vision, which he aimed towards the sides of the ancient arena. The wall exploded, throwing large fragments of the ancient building in all directions.

The people ran, for their lives, away from the explosion and the pursuing carnage. For an unfortunate few, any attempt to escape was more than futile. As Zod continued to destroy this ancient building, the more frantic to escape they became.

The building proved to be sturdier than it appeared; he needed a better way to bring it down. He hovered upward a few feet as he crossed his arms in front of him. This move he discovered in China while exploring all of his capabilities. This trick he learned turned out to be perfect for causing massive damage in a short time. The weather was a factor on how deadly this maneuver was, and the current weather condition of Italy was ripe enough to make it utterly destructive.

He spun himself around rapidly, like a tornado. In seconds, a wind funnel formed around him, which slowly increased in size, and started to stretch up towards the clouds. It took little effort to get the clouds to start spinning. Once they started rotating, the funnel became self-sustaining. Zod stopped spinning and flew a safe distance away from the newly formed tornado as it strengthened.

The twister continued to gain in strength as it began to rip the coliseum to shreds. Guiding it with a strong blow from his lips, he pushed it from the center of the arena and towards the far wall. The Brick, marble, and stone mixed wall collapsed even before the funnel reached it, clearing a path for it to reach the streets of Italy.

Chaos immediately swept over the streets. Cars were crashing everywhere as the panicked crowed ran into the streets to avoid the giant twister. Blinded by their fear, several people were hit by cars that could not stop in time to avoid them.

As the twister reached outside the ruined coliseum, it began to weaken and quickly disintegrated. The damage it caused in its wake was underwhelming to what Zod had wanted and expected. Clearly, there was more to creating weather phenomena on this planet than he had realized.

As disappointing as it was, he realized that he had still done more than enough damage to get his point across. He has exercised his powers as much as he could; now, it was time to return to the United States and confront Kal-El. The son of Jor-El will either join him, or he will watch as Zod destroyed his precious city. Zod had no doubt that his strength was still not up to par in comparison to Kal-el's, so beating him physically was not going to be the answer. In the mind was where Zod had the advantage, and where he would win the battle.

The world will unite under him, one way or another. He will turn the armies of this world into a terrifying force that even Darkseid would fear. Under his leadership, Zod would become the greatest leader in all of galaxy. Krypton maybe gone forever, but this was now his home. General Zod was back in charge once again.

Lana sat at her desk, contemplating what had recently transpired. She had no explanation why she felt so bad about Clark ending things between them. She had been bitter towards Clark for how he disappeared on her years ago; she never thought she would find herself emotionally involved with him again. Over the past few days, her feelings of bitterness had somehow changed; there was something about his characteristic that made it impossible for her to stay angry at him. Without realizing it, she had been starting to fall for him again.

She now found herself heartbroken for a second time. Their lives had taken separate paths, that were too different for them to continue where they left off. Clark's heart now belonged to Lois Lane, something she could not comprehend.

Lois and Clark had clashing personalities. They were polar opposites; there was no way a relationship between them would work out. What was going on in Clark's head to make him think that Lois would ever be interesting in him? Lois was too self-absorbed and self-promoting to even notice someone as mild-mannered as him. Why was Clark willing to chase after her, even though she would likely only use him to better her career and then squash him like a bug? It just did not compute.

"Ms. Lang," General Lane announced his presence when Lana's secretary opened the office door.

Lana had almost forgotten about her secretary's page, announcing the General's desire to see her. This visit could not have come at a worse time; she had not had enough time to research Clark's claim about the Kryptonite dust being harmful to humans. She had no doubt that the General was here to announce that Operation Dustcloud was ready; she could not suggest putting the operation on hold due to unconfirmed facts, even if they did come from Clark.

"What can I do for you, General?"

"I have direct orders from the Department of Homeland Security and the Secretary General, that Operation Dustcloud is a go."

"I think we should hold off on exploding the stockpiles until more research is done. It has come to my attention that the kryptonite dust may be hazardous to humans."

"Please, I'm in no mood for jokes. We have another alien flying across the globe, causing catastrophic damage and piling up many casualties. We need to act now before he makes his way back to the United States."

"I'm not joking, General. If there is even a remote chance that the Kryptonite dust can prove fatal to even one person, then we need to find another way to stop him. Let Superman—"

"No," the general snapped. "It's not his job to assure the security of our country; he's nothing more than a vigilante. I will not be outdone by an alien freak."

"And with all due respect, General, I will not allow this operation to go through unless I am certain that it is safe."

General Lane looked down at her scornfully. She no longer had the authority to stop this operation; however, he was willing to play along for a minute or two. "How did you come across this information?"

"Clark Kent of the Daily Planet informed me that someone from S.T.A.R Labs had made this discovery."

"And how did they come to the knowledge about this operation?"

"I believe Lois told them," she replied.

"My daughter? Lois has been corrupted by the liberal media; she's been so infatuated with him, that she'll make up lies just to protect him. Never trust a news anchor or a newspaper reporter to tell you the truth."

"Perhaps, but if there's any chance that this may be true, we need to know for sure," Lana stood her ground. She was not going to be intimidated by the general.

"Your concerns are noted; however, we don't have the time to waist. We're now facing a menace that is a huge threat to our national security. The stockpiles will be detonated the moment they are ready; We'll hope for the best."