CHAPTER 28
Rudy Jones lumbered through the streets of downtown Metropolis like some great behemoth.
He was now over ten stories tall, and growing, with bone spurs erupting out of his joints at bizarre angles, and each step he took cracked the concrete ground and flattened cars beneath his feet.
It was hard for him to remember how it had come to this.
He remembered the fight with Doomsday, and that for the first time in his miserable life, his powers had failed him.
Or so it had seemed.
He remembered being torn in half by the monster very clearly. After that, it was something of a blur.
The sensation of his body knitting itself back together….
The lights and sounds of a high-tech medical facility…
Doctors and scientists running tests, theorizing aloud new principles, on the fly, redefining the relationship between matter and energy as it related to his body…
Then the alarms and the cries of the men and women around him as whatever he had absorbed from Doomsday finally kicked in, and his body began to grow too large for the room, and then the building, and then finally, the city itself…
They all ran from him now, the little people at his feet. They had always been running from Rudy Jones, it felt like.
He genuinely felt sorry for causing them so much fear and pain. Truthfully, he always had. He didn't want to be some reject from a light-night Japanese monster movie, terrifying the citizens with his size and destructive potential. Just like he had never wanted to be the Parasite, a creature with an unending hunger, whose touch drained the life force of those around him. Just like he had never wanted to be an awkward loser with no friends, named Rudy Jones.
If only he could find the ocean, he thought. He'd take this ridiculous scene all the way to its natural conclusion and slip soundlessly into the water, and go to sleep at the bottom of the sea, away from everyone and everything.
At least the hunger was gone. Whatever else Doomsday had done to him, Rudy could be thankful for that gift.
Just then, a sharp pain began to register in his ears. Some shrill shrieking noise, ZEE ZEE ZEE, that took him a moment to recognize.
As he followed the trail of sound to its source, he remembered a time when he had taken the power and abilities of a god; strength, speed and of course, super-hearing. The sound was from Jimmy Olsen's Signal Watch, and he found the young man standing atop the Daily Planet Building, sending out a desperate S.O.S. for a hero they both knew would never come.
The memory made Rudy Jones angry. To have once been so perfect, so powerful, and to have it all stripped away after a fleeting moment of joy had been devastating. And now, to be this grotesque monstrosity…
Rudy Jones climbed to the top of the building, his fingers sinking deep into the sides of the structure for support, making his way to the summit. Once there, he raised his huge arm over the side, ready to take a swing at Jimmy Olsen and put an end to that judgmental sound.
"Oh, crap," Jimmy mumbled as an enormous shadow covered him and one corner of the Daily Planet rooftop, blotting out the sun.
"Kid, now would be the perfect time to show up and save the day," Jimmy whispered.
As if in answer to his prayer, there came a boom, as if something very small were moving very fast, faster than a speeding bullet, across the sky and towards trouble.
Both Jimmy and the Parasite turned their heads in unison at the noise. And Jimmy Olsen smiled as his new best friend rode to the rescue.
However, the familiar WHOOSHING sound that always accompanied his (His father's? They'd have to work that out) entrances and exits took on an unfamiliar edge, deepening into a brutal tenor at the approach.
Jimmy could actually see windows shattering at the force of the sonic booms being left behind by this Man of Steel as he ripped through the city, causing almost more damage than the Parasite himself had.
All this information, Jimmy Olsen's trained and experienced eye caught in less than a second. It wasn't difficult. He had spent most of his life observing Superman in action, and this new display of reckless power was just… wrong.
What was the kid thinking?
Suddenly, and terribly, the phrase "faster than a speeding bullet" took on a whole new meaning for Jimmy Olsen as the caped form collided with the Parasite, striking the mutated beast right between the eyes and erupting from the back of its misshapen head in a shower of bone and brains.
"NOOOOO!" Jimmy screamed at the horrible scene before him, as the dead beast hung in the air for a split second before collapsing, hitting the ground with all the force of a landslide unleashed in the middle of a major metropolitan city.
The Daily Planet Building rocked back and forth, its reinforced support structures worked to the max to absorb the impact of the fall and steady Jimmy Olsen.
It wasn't enough, and Jimmy tipped over the side of the roof and began plummeting to the ground below, to join the dead Parasite.
Just then, a warm hand reached out and grabbed him, halting his fall.
He looked up, expecting to catch the familiar scene of steady blue, with flourish of red in the air.
There was red alright, but it belonged to hair of the young girl who held him aloft and was slowly hovering their way back up to the roof of the Daily Planet.
"Tess Luthor?" Jimmy asked.
"Yeah," she growled, struggling to keep Jimmy Olsen from slipping through her fingers, as her specifically-built-for-one invisible suit of amour saved them both.
"Next time, Slick," Tess said through deep breaths once they'd landed. "You might consider putting some kind of hover device or maybe a teleporter in that fancy watch of yours. I drained my suit's batteries carrying you up here."
"Next time," Jimmy snapped back, "how about you just ease me down to the ground instead of carrying me all the way back up."
Tess cocked an eye at him as she thought it through.
"Shut up," she spat, realizing he was right.
The echoing rumble of the Parasite's fall was finally subsiding as Jimmy chanced a look over the edge of the roof, down at the monster which lay sprawled across the city streets.
"Whoever that was, that wasn't my Superman," Jimmy said.
"Oh, you have no idea," Tess said as she pointed up.
Jimmy gazed skyward and saw him.
It looked like Superman alright, fully grown and everything. But the suit was all wrong, blood red and black, with a cruel gaze upon his face.
He had just killed the Parasite, and heaven only knows how many other innocent citizens in his assault.
No, whoever this… this Superman-RED was, he was not Jimmy's best pal. Nor was he the young Superboy Jimmy and Chloe had liberated from CADMUS Labs.
This was something new. New and terrible.
As Superman Red turned and flew away from the scene, back to wherever it was he had come from, Jimmy looked to Tess.
"You've got to help me find Superboy, right now!"
Tess regarded Jimmy for a moment before replying.
"Um… what?"
88888888888888
S-SHIELD'S NOTES
Sorry for the long break. Wanted to go ahead and finish writing the story before I started posting again. Shouldn't be any more stopping and starting from now on.
Thanks for reading.
