Chapter 76: Battle of the Planets (Lost in Space – Part 3)

Disclaimer: All things Supergirl/Superman and Omega Men belong to DC. No infringement is intended.


"Run that by me again." Clark said.

The huge sentient standing before him, looking more like a giant tiger walking upright than a man, sighed.

"As I said before," the tiger man said, his Interlac flawless, "your ship ran afoul of a Spider Guild brain mine. The telepathic pulse put you all to sleep and..."

"No, I got that part," Clark interrupted him. "I mean the part where you just told us to give up on ever seeing our mother again!"

Clark and Kona were currently on a planet called Slagg, a desolate world on the outermost rim of the star system called Vega. Clark knew that this was the place where their latest jaunt through hyperspace was headed. One last stop before they were back home. Vega was only 25 light years away from Earth, give or take. A distance barely worth mentioning in astronomical terms .They were almost home. Naturally, that was when it all went wrong.

Clark and Kona had woken up here on this desolate outpost, which served as the base of a group that called itself the Omega Men, apparently led by the tiger man who called himself Tigorr (no kidding). Not that Clark really cared all that much what they called themselves. His primary concern was that Kona and he were alone. Neither their mom nor Sandy were here with them.

"I told you, kid," Tigorr continued. "By the time we came by, the Spider Guild had already ransacked your ship and taken one of your crew on board their main cruiser. We were lucky to catch them off guard and rescue the two of you. The Spiders have taken your third. And no one taken by the Spiders ever comes back."

Clark shared a look with Kona, trying to impart that they should not mention that they were missing a fourth, too. Kona simply nodded, looking unusually subdued. She had been all but plastered to his side since the moment they woke up. Sometimes Clark tended to forget that Kona, for all her matureness and positive nature, was still a child. Smart as a whip and powerful as all get-out, but a child nevertheless, barely three years old. One who had just been told that her mother was gone for good.

"Then she will be the first," Clark told Tigorr, his voice resolute. "Where have they taken her?"

The tiger man sighed again. "Kid, I don't have time for this. Maybe you didn't notice, we're in the middle of a revolution here. Now you can either help out or sit quietly in the corner until we've won, your choice."

He started to turn away, but Clark had had just about enough. His hand flashed forward, fingers like steel clamps digging into Tigorr's shoulder. The tiger man grunted, clearly susprised, as Clark easily drew him back and turned him around once more.

"No, you didn't understand me, Tony," Clark growled. "YOUR choice is: you can tell us where these Spiders have taken our mom, or I will start pulling out clumps of your fur one by one until you do. Got me?"

Tigorr merely growled back in reply and lashed out with the razor sharp claws that adorned both his hands. His swift strike would have gutted just about anyone else, but today it proved quite ineffective. The claws broke against Clark's invulnerable skin. A moment later Tigorr found himself hoisted high into the air by a humanoid half his size, who was now hovering half a foot above the floor. A humanoid half his size whose eyes were now glowing an angry red.

"Do I need to repeat myself?" Clark asked.

"Hey, hands off Tigorr!" someone among the gathered Omega Men shouted. Several of them came rushing forward, looking ready to fight. In a blur of motion, Kona was between them and Clark, her palm laid on the floor. With an enormous boom, the ground erupted in a nearly perfect circle around the three of them, taking the approaching attackers off their feet and throwing them back. Clark knew that they needed to preserve their power, for Vega was a red star, so going for shock and awe right from the get-go seemed the best method to prevent any prolonged fighting.

From the corner of his eye, Clark saw two more shapes walk into the room. One was a near-human looking man with long red hair, wearing black and silver armor. The other was a stunningly beautiful woman in a skin-tight suit of similar color. The woman, whose eyes were completely white, started to raise her hands and Clark expected an attack. The man beside her stepped forward, though, raising his hands in the universal gesture for peace.

"I think we should all calm down for a moment here," he announced.

"I'm perfectly calm," Clark told him. "Believe me, you'll notice once I get angry."

"Allow me to introduce myself," the man said, stopping a good distance away from Clark. "My name is Primus; I am the leader of the Omega Men. And I believe we can be of aid to each other."

Clark looked at the other man for a good long while, then finally opened his hand and dropped Tigorr to the ground.

"Talk fast," he told Primus, his feet back on the ground.


Kara tried to remember another time in her life she had felt so helpless. Well, the day Krypton had died came to mind. Possibly the first time she had faced Mongul, when he had so easily overpowered her. Maybe when Lex Luthor had been poised to murder her daughter with a Kryptonite knife. Okay, so there had been a few times. It did not make her feel any better.

"Clearly the Great Web of Fate has been kind to us this day," the giant spider standing before her said. "The Guild has heard rumors about a surviving Kryptonian, but we were never quite sure we believed them. And then you just stumble into our midst. Clearly the Great Weaver's work."

Kara had learned about the Spider Guild in school. They had been around a long time. There had been clashes between them and Kryptonian forces back in her people's empire days. They had certainly never been friends. Actually, she doubted anyone considered the Spider Guild friends. They had the occasional ally, maybe, but no friends. Their tendency to eat nearly every other life form they came into contact with made that a bit difficult.

"You are certainly a fascinating specimen," the spider said. "Impervious to harm, at least on the outside. Normally we subdue our prey by injecting neuro toxin, but of course, that did not work on you. Thankfully your kind seems susceptible to toxins in gaseous form, did you know that? Ridiculously high concentrations are needed, mind you, but whatever works."

The paralysis of her body spared Kara from having to come up with some kind of witty retort here. The spider did seem fond of hearing its own voice, so she hoped he (she? It?) would eventually get around to telling Kara what she really wanted to know.

"The Guild Fathers look forward to feasting on the flesh of a species believed extinct," the spider hummed. "Scanners show that the energy field protecting you is already beginning to weaken as our webbing drains you. It will take time, but that does not matter." The spider leaned forward, eight eyes studying her face from up close. "We can be patient."

Had she been able to move, Kara was sure she would have shivered in revulsion, especially when the spider brushed a pincer across her face. Finally, it seemed to be satisfied that everything was in order for now and turned around, heading towards the room's exit.

When the door snapped shut, Kara gathered her thoughts. Okay, she was a prisoner here, paralyzed by a neurotoxin they had apparently forced into her lungs. Probably far more effective than the Joker's Smilex gas. Her powers were beginning to weaken, the webbing surrounding her draining her energy. She had no idea where they were, but if they were still in the Vega system, their original destination, its red sun would make recharging very difficult. The spider had not mentioned Clark or Kona, so they either were imprisoned separately or had escaped.

Either way, the first order of business was to escape. Which, given that she was completely unable to move, might be a tad difficult.

"Finally," a voice said beside her. "I thought he would never leave."

Unable to do more than move her head the tiniest bit, Kara had to wait until the speaker stepped into her field of vision. Or rather, assembled in her field of vision, a body forming from grains of sand.

"I did not dare show myself until you were awake," Sandy said, now appearing as a fully adult doppelganger of her. "Now let's see about getting you out of here!"


As he looked at the map in front of him, Clark could not help but feel that there was something deeply unnatural about this star system. He knew that there were millions of stars in the Milky Way, nearly half of them with planets. Many of them had one or two planets capable of sustaining life. A fair number had three or four. A scattered few even had five or six.

The Vega system had TWENTY-FIVE planets, every single one of them with intelligent life, some of them with several different intelligent species. There was no way that this was a natural occurrence.

He pushed the thought aside. This was something he was sure his mom and Kona would have fun researching later on, but right now there were far more important things to deal with.

"We are here," Primus pointed at the small orb representing the planet Slagg, the 17th habitable planet of Vega, going outward from the sun.

"The Spider Guild have built their nest here," his finger moved inward, much closer to the sun. "It's in a relatively close orbit to Vega. If your mother yet lives, that's where they will have taken her."

"Then that's where Kona and I will go," Clark told him.

"There is one problem with your plan, young one," Primus told him. "Well, multiple problems, actually, but let's focus on the main one first."

His finger moved from the spider's nest to the closest planet, the innermost of all of Vega's larger bodies.

"The nest of the Spider Guild is close to the Citadel Homeworld. The Citadel rules 22 of the 25 planets of the Vega system and they have some kind of treaty with the Spider Guild. We do not know all the details, but the Citadel does not attack the spiders, nor vice versa, despite both of them being aggressive, expansionist species."

Clark looked at him. "You think those Citadel guys will come running when someone attacks the Spider Guild?"

Primus nodded. "I doubt there is much love lost between them, but given their close proximity and the current balance of power in this system, I would consider it likely."

"We are wasting time," Tigorr growled, standing beside them. While he no longer dismissed Clark as a stupid kid, his attitude had not really improved much. "Let us attack the Citadel as planned! Then the spiders are on their own!"

Primus turned to face him. "I have told you before, Tigorr! We cannot risk a full frontal assault on the Citadel homeworld. The fortress ring around the planet is far too powerful to be breached, even if we managed to convince every planet in the system to rise up alongside us."

"Half the system is already in open rebellion," Tigorr argued back. "The Citadel forces are scattered all over Vega to try and quell the uprisings. If we take out their command, they will fall apart!"

"That's a very big 'If', Tigorr! The Citadel fortress ring will tear our forces to shreds."

Clark watched the two arguing leaders. From what he had gathered Primus was nominally in charge of the Omega Men, but nearly half their number would rather look to Tigorr for leadership, as he was far more straight-forward and pro-active. Personally, Clark cared for neither of them. He did not even know if they were really the good guys in this war they had stumbled into or not. Right now, though, it was not like Kona and he had much of a choice when it came to allies. As much as he would like to believe that they could do this on their own without help, he was not willing to risk the lives of Kona or their mom if he could help it.

"Can you show us that fortress ring?" Clark said, interrupting the argument.

Primus adjusted the display and a moment later, an image of the Citadel home world was shown. The planet was surrounded by a literal ring, huge chunks of rock and stone, adored with massive weapon arrays and connected by thousands of miles of steel cable.

"Legend says that the Citadel home world once had a moon," Primus said. "It was torn apart by the rage of the goddess X'Hal and the first Citadellian used the remnants to build his fortress."

Clark studied the vast array of weapons. Primus was probably right; any conventional attack on this thing was doomed to failure. Thankfully, there were unconventional ways, too.

"I've got a proposition for you," he told Primus and Tigorr.


"I thought this would be easier," Sandy said.

Kara would have answered her, but she was incapable of speaking. Sandy had managed to free her from the webbing, but Kara was still entirely paralyzed. So while Sandy had aged herself into full adulthood and now possessed the full strength of an adult Kryptonian, her inability to hold a solar charge meant that she was only a little bit stronger than your average human was.

With some effort, Sandy had managed to drape Kara across her shoulders in a fireman's carry, and was now slowly making her way outside. Thankfully, the door had not been locked. With their prisoners being webbed-up and paralyzed, the Spider Guild probably saw little need for locks. Kara cursed her current state as a helpless sack of meat, but there was nothing she could do.

"There was a telepathic pulse that knocked us all out," Sandy explained to her as she slowly made her way down a long corridor, more spider webbing all around them. "I briefly lost control of my form. So when the spiders entered our ship, they only saw the three of you and paid little attention to some scattered sand. There was little I could do, given my limited strength and their numbers, so I remained as I was and hitched a ride in a spider's pocket."

Kara desperately wanted to ask about Clark and Kona, but her lips refused to move.

"I don't think they have Clark and Kona," Sandy finally said, probably guessing her thoughts. Small wonder, given that her own thought patterns were copied from Kara. "There was some kind of commotion after they brought you on board their ship and they left without anyone else coming on board, as far as I could see."

Well, that was a bit of a relief, at least. She still worried, naturally, given that she had no idea where her children were. But at least they were not the prisoners of a species that was looking forward to eating them.

"To answer your next question," Sandy said, still trooping on, "I do not have much of a plan right now. We are in some kind of space station, so I am hoping to find a hangar where we might commandeer a ship. I am also hoping that the toxin they dosed you with will wear off sooner rather than later. That's pretty much the extent of it for the moment. I would be happy to hear your input on this, too."

Was Sandy picking up snarkiness from her? This was turning into a really weird trip.


They had relocated to a planet called Ogyptu, the 21st planet of the Vega system. While farther out, it had been selected as the gathering point of the Omega Men's fleet as they amassed for their attack on the Citadel Homeworld. With a vast asteroid field between Ogyptu and the Citadel, they could be reasonably certain that no long-range scanners would pick them up until they were ready.

It was also a place where they could gather some Intel about the Spider Guild. A deserted base stood at the foot of what Clark had initially assumed to be giant statues.

"They're alive?" Kona asked, amazed.

Two towering beings sat on huge stone obelisks. They had to be at least half a mile tall, maybe more, and were roughly humanoid, though with blue skin. They were also utterly still and unresponsive.

"The Ogyptuans are living beings," Primus explained to them as they walked towards the deserted base. "Though admittedly it took us generations to realize this. They exist on a different time scale than we do. It takes them months to blink, years to utter a single word."

Kona looked up at the huge giants, fascinated. "Can they see us?"

Primus shook his head. "No, we are moving much too fast from their perspective. You would have to stand still in their field of vision for a year for them to notice you."

Clark studied the deserted base instead, located near the foot of one of the giants. "This was built by the Spider Guild?" he asked.

"Indeed. When the spiders first invaded Vega, Ogyptu was one of the planets they sought to conquer. They faced no resistance, of course, as the natives never even noticed they were there. Incapable of making them aware that they had been conquered, the spiders eventually abandoned this place again."

Clark nodded, figuring that it would be quite frustrating to face such an opponent. He was far more interested in the remnants of the base, though. Unsurprisingly it resembled the spider nests he sometimes found on the Kent farm, just much, much larger. While the spiders did use metal for their buildings, much of the base's interior was composed of what looked like decayed webbing.

"I can see nothing like internal sensors or such," Kona said, studying the building, too. "The computers look fairly advanced, though. Do they have biological components?"

Primus nodded. "Yes, the spiders have based much of their technology on their own biology. Security systems consist of nearly unperceivable strands of webbing. You or I might not even notice breaking them, but the spiders will sense it. They use their own toxins as weapons, too, artificially refined so it will eat through armored hull plates just as well as flesh."

"Good to know," Clark muttered, looking around. If their mom was stuck in a place like this, they needed to find her and fast.

"Primus, you there?" Tigorr's voice crackled over the com. "The fleet is assembled. Come on up or we'll start without you!"

"Have you seen what you needed to see?" Primus asked Clark.

Clark nodded. He had wanted to get a feel for what the spiders' nest might look like before they stormed it. Kona and he were still fully charged up, but once they started using their super powers on a large scale, that would change quickly, given the red sun above their heads.

"Okay, we are agreed on the plan then?" Clark looked at Primus.

"I hope you know what you are doing, young one," Primus replied. "But yes, if you can do your part, we will take care of the rest. And hopefully, X'Hal willing, we will all find the victory we seek once this day ends."

They shook hands and Primus headed towards his shuttle. Looking up, Clark's enhanced vision showed him the large fleet of ships assembled above the planet. It was a very weird assembly. Ships from dozens of worlds floated up there with at least as many different designs and aesthetics. The revolutionary movement against the rule of the Citadel had grown over generations, he had been told, and now they were ready for a big push.

Some part of Clark wished them the best of luck, but this was not really their fight. Just an alliance of convenience, nothing more. Maybe once they had their mom back they could take a good look at the situation and figure out whether they really should aid the Omega Men or not. Not now, though.

"What about our backup plan?" Clark asked Kona, whispering despite there no longer being anyone present to hear them except the towering giants.

"I managed to find an FTL transmitter in the Omega Men's base," Kona whispered back. "I sent the signal on the frequency mom had us memorize. No idea if anyone picked it up."

Clark nodded. It was a longshot, but mom always said to never put all your eggs in one basket. Of course, that idiom sounded more like something Uncle Jonathan would say, but that hardly mattered right now.

"All right then, sis," he said. "Ready to make some noise?"

She clasped his outstretched hand, squeezing tightly. "Up, up, and away, brother mine!"


"Lilit, did you see that?"

The giant called Lilit looked at his friend. "See what?"

"For the briefest of moments I thought I saw some… tiny things moving around near our feet. Now they're gone again."

Lilit shrugged. "Well, don't let it bother you, Pesmaf. Life's too short."

Pesmaf leaned back again, pondering the wisdom of this, while Vega strobed through the sky above them, rising and setting a thousand times a second.


Alarms were blaring through the base and the skittering of spider legs echoed through the corridors. Sandy had managed to wrestle Kara's still unresponsive body into an alcove, which gave them some cover for now. She had no idea whether they had tripped some sort of alarm or the spiders had merely noticed her absence, but Kara feared it was merely a matter of time now before they were found.

"Okay, this is not working out as I planned," Sandy said, sounding the tiniest bit frustrated. What a time for her to develop a broader emotional range.

Squatting down to look at Kara where she had positioned her leaning against a wall, Sandy looked her in the eyes. "I fear reaching a hangar and taking a ship is not going to work for us, Kara, not with the entire base up in arms. We could simply let them capture you again, but now that they know there is someone here helping you, I do not know if I would be able to free you again."

Kara would have nodded if not for the paralysis. She imagined there was the slightest bit of tingling in her hands, but maybe that was merely wishful thinking.

"I have one more idea," Sandy finally said, looking almost nervous. "I have no idea whether it will work or what the consequences will be if it does."

Sandy told her what her idea was. Kara's body remained unresponsive, but her mind was whirling. This was a mad idea, utterly mad.

"I won't do this without your consent," Sandy said. "Can you... you can move your eyes, right? Look to the right three times if you agree."

Kara considered the idea. Rao knew it was insane and she would be lying if she said that she was not afraid. What choice was there, though? She needed to get out of here. She needed to find Clark and Kona, see if they were all right. Sighing internally, hoping she was not making a huge mistake, she sharply looked to the right three times.

"Okay then," Sandy said, sitting back on her heels. "Here goes nothing then."

Sandy's body crumbled into sand.


Elsewhere

The Humbled One walked the corridors of the great fortress unseen, ignored by all present, lest his shame would somehow taint them as well. His dark master had decreed him invisible, a pariah, until the day he would manage to redeem himself and make good his failure.

For years and years he had tried to do just that, but with no success. How could he possibly redeem himself if the one who had shamed him was nowhere to be found? It seemed his bane, his nemesis, had simply vanished from the face of the cosmos. So his shame continued to this day.

By sheer chance, though, he walked the right corridor at the right time and heard a report given by the Furies. He heard them speak of how they followed the cry of a Mother Box. How they emerged on a distant planet and faced powerful opposition. In between the screams of pain, as they were punished for their failure by the firm hand of their loving Granny, they uttered the words that would finally change the Humbled One's destiny.

The Fury commander, Barda, described the leader of their opposition as a woman with golden hair, the fire of the sun in her eyes, and with strength befitting a god. They also described the diamond-shaped symbol on the godling's chest. A symbol he was more than familiar with. A symbol he would never, ever forget.

"Finally," he growled, unheard by anyone save himself. "Finally, you have returned."

The Humbled One, once known as the great Warlord Steppenwolf, threw back his head and laughed.


End Chapter 76

Author's Note: We last saw Steppenwolf in chapter 29. Looks like the poor guy has not had an easy time of it ever since. The Vega system is a hotbed of alien activity in the DC universe, containing no less than 25 habitable planets and such diverse alien races as the Psions, the Tamaranians, the Citadel, and others. It also contains a major hub of the Spider Guild (as described above), was the refuge of Larfleeze aka Orange Lantern, and the home of the Omega Men and Starfire. All in all, a good place to visit if you crave outer space war, massive battles between diverse aliens, and regular visits by the New Teen Titans. A map of the system can be found in Omega Men (1983) #33.

Continuity buffs will notice that the Super Family has arrived right in the middle of the Citadel War, as chronicled in Omega Men (1983) #1 through 8 (though the Spider Guild wasn't involved in canon until later on). Also, Vega is actually a blue sun in real life, but the comics explicitly name it a red sun (probably to explain why Superman never came by to help out) and it does add some drama to the fight, so I'm going with the comic book version here.

Up next: all-out war and reinforcements from Earth.