CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CAIRO, EGYPT. PRESENT DAY.
The catacombs of Pharaoh Ramses Sobekhotep had been undergoing restoration, the subject of an archaeological grant to make the magnificent royal resting place of the great Pharaoh accessible to tourists. The majestic underground burial tomb was easily the size of a football field, maybe larger. Steel beams stood out jarringly against the ancient carvings and hieroglyphics, supporting the ceiling to ensure that it would not cave in.
One of these steel beams was currently pressing Doctor Curtis Knox forcefully against the wall, pinning him there and rendering immobile.
The beam was being suspended effortlessly, almost as an afterthought, by the master of magnetism, Erik Lensherr, the mutant extremist known as Magneto.
"This restoration project took quite an interesting turn recently," Erik mused. Whether he was speaking to Doctor Knox or talking to himself was unclear. "The team working on it was under very specific instructions not to disturb any of the sarcophagi. And yet, the closer they got to this particular one…" Erik confidently strode over to a particularly decorated sarcophagus, set back into a recess in the stone wall. "...something came over them. A feeling. An urge. A madness. An all-consuming desire to get at something inside."
The white-haired mutant raised a hand slightly. A duffel bag full of tools near his feet stirred a bit. Then, a metal hammer and chisel levitated right out of the bag. The tools seemed to float of their own accord over to the sarcophagus.
"The team quickly turned on each other," Erik continued. "Violently, I might add. Each of them wanted to be the one to open it, at any cost. Even at the cost of the lives of their colleagues. They ended up killing each other, in fits of demented rage. The restoration project was abruptly cancelled after that, understandably."
The chisel positioned itself at the side of the sarcophagus, and the hammer began pounding away at it.
"But you already knew all of that, didn't you, Doctor Knox?" Erik asked, turning for the first time toward the struggling man who was pinned down by the steel beam. "That's why you've come here, I assume."
"You don't… have to… call me Knox…" Curtis said, pushing back against the beam with all of his might. It still would not budge. "I have… no need… for that alias… any longer."
"Very well then," Erik said. "Vandal Savage." He rolled his eyes. "And they call me melodramatic with 'Magneto.'"
As the hammering continued, Erik had the sudden startling sensation that they were not alone.
He whirled around to see a massive figure lurking in the shadows.
"Who is there?" Erik demanded. "Show yourself at once."
"You know who I am, Erik," a familiar, hollow voice replied. "And you know exactly what is in that sarcophagus. The pyramids could not have been built were it not for the power that came from that stone." Out of the shadows stepped the imposing, unholy form of En Sabah Nur.
"You…" Erik breathed. "So it's true. You are involved in all of this."
"Of course I am," En Sabah Nur replied. "How could I not be? The salvation of our kind is finally at hand."
"How are you alive?" Erik asked. "I saw what Jean Grey did to you all those years ago. She incinerated you."
"You turned on me that day as well, Erik," En Sabah Nur reminded him, grimly. "But I carry no grudge against you. I have been resurrected just at the hour of greatest need. I know what you seek, and I know why you seek it. You, and the others… Ra's Al Ghul… Lex Luthor… this Vandal Savage…" he said, gesturing. "You seek to stop Darkseid. I tell you, Erik, your quest is a misguided one. Darkseid will rain destruction upon this world, yes. But in the ashes of that devastation, he will leave the Earth to the mutants. It will be ours to rebuild."
"Why would he do that…?" Erik asked, hesitantly.
"The truth is that Darkseid cares not about the fate of his world. It is beneath his interest. His grudge is with another world, called New Genesis. The razing of Earth is but a trial run. I have given him the anti-life equation, and in return he will allow mutants to reign supreme after his attack is complete."
There was a sharp and sudden CRACK as the hammer and chisel finally succeeded in breaking through the sealed sarcophagus. As it swung open, a mummified corpse greeted them with an unholy open-mouthed smile and unseeing eyes. Clutched in its decaying hands was a glowing purple gem.
"Take the Power Stone if you must," En Sabah Nur continued. "But do not use it in some foolish attempt to vanquish Darkseid. Stand with us instead. Help us purge the humans from the Earth. You have always known a war was coming. It is here. It is upon us. Use your power, but use it wisely."
Erik considered these words.
Resolutely, he gestured towards the duffel bag again. Something else rose out of it. It was a familiar helmet. It hovered in the air, then slowly floated toward his outstretched hand. He placed the helmet carefully on his head.
Erik approached the purple infinity stone. Though it was not made of metal, it too began to levitate toward Erik. It floated up as if drawn to him, and then, after hanging suspended in midair for a long moment, it finally affixed itself directly to the middle of Erik's helmet.
"You mutant scum!" Vandal Savage shouted, still pinned down against the wall. "We should have… wiped you out… when we had the chance!"
Erik turned sharply toward Savage. "What did you say?" he snapped.
"You don't remember me?" Savage scoffed, still struggling against the weight of the steel beam. "I was there… in Poland… in 1944. I was… working with… Sebastian Shaw. He called himself… Klaus Schmidt back then. I… saw you bend that metal gate. I… thought we should… kill you. Shaw had other plans. But I knew… I was right. We should have… wiped your kind… off the map… way back then…!"
Erik's eyes were wide with fury. Two more steel beams lifted up off the ground and flew through the air, stopping just inches from Savage's face.
"Hah! Go right ahead…" Savage sneered. "Impale me… Bash my head in... I'll be fine. I… can't be killed. I'm… immortal, you moron."
"That's good to know," Erik said, nodding.
The steel beams grabbed Savage as if they were forceps. They hurled him roughly into the sarcophagus, face to face with the ghoulish mummy. Then the beams slammed the sarcophagus shut again, and wrapped themselves tightly around it, sealing it closed.
"Wait!" Savage screamed from inside the sarcophagus. "No! Wait! Let me out! You can't do this to me!"
Erik turned to once again face En Sabah Nur, but the mutant had vanished.
The master of magnetism quietly climbed the steps up and out of the catacombs, then stepped out into the sweltering Egyptian sun. He squinted as a hot breeze blew grains of sand across his face. The sounds of Vandal Savage's screams echoed from somewhere down below.
The gem affixed to Erik's helmet began to glow. An ethereal purple energy traveled from his head all the way down his body, forming an aura around him.
Erik's left eye twitched.
Down inside the catacombs, every single steel support beam split in half right across the middle. The ceiling of the catacombs caved in, sending dust and debris everywhere as the ancient burial chamber completely collapsed, literally burying Vandal Savage alive beneath tons of rubble.
Erik walked silently across the arid desert, leaving an enormous cloud of gray dust and crackling purple energy trailing behind him.
.
DEEP SPACE.
Superman floated in the vast nothingness, not quite alive, not quite dead. All was quiet. All was still. He spent most of his time unconscious, in something resembling a state of dreamless sleep. Every once in a while though, he would come to a hazy sort of awareness. When this happened, he tried not to panic at the fact that he was surrounded by total darkness. The only light that was visible at all came from stars that were lightyears away. For someone who had spent his formative years looking at constellations through the telescope in his loft, the fact that these stars were in patterns and clusters that were completely unfamiliar to him was chilling.
He could not breathe, because there was no air in the vacuum of space. There was no yellow sun to fuel him. His heart would beat once every few hours. His body had somehow slowed to a state of near-hibernation, surviving only on the energy that had been stored up in his cells over the years. This would not last him forever.
He had no sense of how much time had passed. It came to feel like he had been in the darkness forever. That maybe there was nothing else, had never been anything else.
His thoughts, when he did have them, were almost always of Lois. The fact that he would never get to see her smile again. Never even get to tell her goodbye. She would never know what happened to him. She would only know that he just vanished one day. The unfairness of it. He would give anything to touch her one more time, to hold her in his arms, to kiss her. These thoughts would fill him with sadness and loss, and then he would gradually return to his empty and dreamless slumber.
It seemed almost incomprehensible, then, when something did finally start to come into view. Something that was not a star. Something that was moving toward him. The outline of it gradually started to make sense, and to seem familiar.
It was a Javelin.
Something was coming out of the ship now. Out of the cargo bay in the back of the Javelin, flew piece of body armor. Specifically, a chest-plate. And on the front of it was a very familiar logo… his "S" shield. And it was heading straight toward him.
The breastplate of the armor flew into place and affixed itself to Superman's chest. It was followed quickly by armor that clasped itself to his arms, and then to his legs. As each piece touched him, he started to feel an incredible sense of warmth. He was not aware enough yet to understand what was happening, but the interior of the armor was lined with yellow-sun lamps, which were kicking on as each piece of the suit attached itself to his body.
Last but not least, the helmet flew from the Javelin, soared across the open and empty darkness of space, and gently lowered itself over Superman's face.
The eyes of the faceplate lit up.