Captain Atom flew toward the next target, noting the energy charge building up inside it, as the mirrors pivoted on tiny magnetically suspended gears, measuring their angles in fractions of nanometres, yet swift – focusing the lens on him.
He was certain they could not identify what he was, but he believed they could see that he was. And their defensive systems were already triggering.
However, he was not what they were expecting him to be. The first attack was red solar radiation. As suspected, it was a weapon lethal to Superman, that instantly would have robbed him of his abilities, and sent him falling from orbit, if not incinerated.
But for Captain Atom, he didn't even avoid the blast – it was a simple matter for him to simple absorb the energy, changing his own molecular structure as the energy attempted to saturate his body, and changing it into something he could use.
At the speed of light, he gave his answer, satisfied as the satellite detonated with all its secondary warheads and weapons, transforming matter into photons and other massless particles. He didn't want any piece of it to survive to be a threat.
Although the energy that erupted in the space of about two miles exceeded that of several nuclear bombs, he just let it wash over him. He was at his limit as it was. One day he might be free of the suit that contained him, but not until the scientists found a way he could survive without it.
Then he noticed something had escaped the debris before the destruction. He had felt something was off in the quantum interference field he was generating. He confirmed it easily, spotting the shapes drifting, heatless, falling almost "noiselessly" into the gravity well, their engines hadn't been fired. Subtle. Y'know, for nuclear missiles.
"Nuclear missiles," he repeated to himself. "Trust Luthor to have something like that up his sleeve."
If he could sweat, beads would be standing on his skin right now.
"But nuclear energy is one of my tricks, too." He knew there was little time to lose, because there was one notion on his mind that was troubling him.
Casting an energy-kinetic web, he exerted a beam of force on the two missiles simultaneously. Overcoming the inertia of 120 ton rockets firing directly down a gravity well wasn't easy, but he gradually drained off the momentum enough to start altering its direction. He couldn't chase and do what he needed to do at the same time.
Their course now altered, he followed their course into the upper atmosphere. Ideally he'd let them explode in space, but from the way they were overheating, they were timed to destruct over the surface. Time was running out.
About half a mile from the edge of what he might consider space, they exploded. For a moment, a light blinded the skies, visible even to those below who noticed the flickering out the corner of their eyes.
He couldn't absorb any more into his suit, so he didn't. But he redirected the explosion. Using a charge of protons, anti-protons and an electro-magnetic discharge, he drew the nuclear particles in and then blasted it towards outer space, clear of any mass.
Then, altering his structure once more – he teleported. Not much time to confirm his fears.
It didn't take long. He inspected another one of the satellites from a distance, not difficult to pick up an object even as relatively small as a satellite, disturbing the gravity signature of the planet in orbit.
It seems Luthor, crafty as he was, was sending a message. They were a warning. Back off or else. If he triggered another satellite, that might trigger all of them. Nuclear missiles descending on the planet, from all over the world. Even he didn't think he could stop them all.
(*)