Superman: The Ark of Krypton
Chapter 13
By
Jason Richard
Rudy Jones was a massive freeloader. After dropping out of high school his parents finally kicked him out at the age of fifteen for refusing to go back to school or get a job. For the next couple of years he lived with his so called "friends" until they got fed up with him eating their food and making huge messes that he refused to clean up. Once or twice he even ordered things online using their credit cards. Needless to say he ran out of friends fairly quickly, and at the age of twenty two was forced to finally get a job as a janitor, or have nowhere to live.
He hated it.
But it kept him at that house a little longer, now that he actually could pay some of the expenses. He still hated it, but it served him.
As he got older, however, it provided an opportunity. The job he had gotten was at STAR Labs, and occasionally he could get a hold of some document or something of value and sell it to the right person. It was work, so naturally he hated it, but he found that he loved the money so he put up with it. Being an illegal act, it naturally paid well.
With this Superman guy flying around, however, illegal activity was more dangerous than ever. Naturally he felt he should get greater compensation. Little did he know that this line of thinking is what ultimately sealed his fate.
On this particular day Rudy was sitting in the lazy chairr in his run down, shabby apartment, watching football and sipping bear from a can. He himself was only thirty one, but he looked forty five, and had a perpetually grumpy face on. His "bachelor pad" was messy, littered with junk food wrappers, and had one or two insects crawling around that Rudy paid no mind to. What he did pay at least a little mind to, albeit begrudgingly, was the knock on the door.
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! "Hey Jones!" shouted an angry man's voice. "Where's that rent you owe?! You're a week past due!"
"Payday's tomorrow!" Rudy shouted back. "I'll pay you then!"
"You'd better! And would you clean out that pig sty?! The smell is driving away new tenants! And some current ones! How's a guy suppose to make a living around here?!"
"Whatever," said Rudy, before shouting back. "You know you might want to stop nagging me. People will think you're my wife!"
"Don't you get clever with me you jerk." said the voice. "I'm this close to kicking you out."
Whatever, thought Rudy. He watched football for a few more moments before there was another knock on the door.
"I told you I'll pay you tomorrow!" shouted Rudy.
"You pay me?" came Bruno Manheims voice. "That'd be a change alright."
Rudy's eyes went wide as he rushed up to answer the door. As he opened the door his second, secret boss stood in front of him, twirling his mustache impatiently.
"I'm so sorry sir, come in!" he said.
Bruno stepped in and winced at the sound of his foot crinkling a used chip bag. He took a deep breath and let Rudy lead him to a chair in the living room, stepping over various forms of trash as he went. As they walked, Manheim resisted the urge to hold his nose and ignore the smell that, disturbingly, he couldn't identify.
They sat down, and Manheim immediately wanted to prevent more groveling.
"Let me cut to the chase," said Manheim. "You've been asking for more money, I'm here to give you a chance to earn it. There's a storage container that our mutual partner, Lexcorp, would like to obtain for itself. It has to be kept in a cold environment, however, so in order to transport it you will have to add a new component, which you can inject into a port on the contain itself."
He handed Rudy a folder and a zipper back with some sort of syringe in it. Rudy took it eagerly.
"Hey," he said eagerly. "Mr. Manheim, you got it. But what about…"
"Superman?" said Manheim. "I know the guy covers everything from car accidents and kittens in trees to bank robberies and pickpocketing…"
"He caught a pickpocketer?" said Rudy.
"Three," Manheim sighed. "But not to worry. He can't be in two places at once...so far as we know anyway. We have a little...distraction planned, but you don't need to worry about that. Everything you need to know is in the folder. The location of the container, the route you take, everything. Don't worry, the plan is synchronized with your work schedule. Are we good?"
"Absolutely Mr. Manheim." said Rudy, place the items down. "I won't let you down. No sir."
"Good," said Manheim, standing up to escape that place as fast as possible. "And Rudy, if I'm going to be giving you missions, I'd like to not be assaulted by...whatever smell this is."
"Oh sure," said Rudy, nodding enthusiastically. "I'll get this place cleaned up. Right away."
"Good," said Manheim, walking out of the apartment. "I'm counting on you."
"Like I said," said Rudy, following, "I won't let you down." he opened the door, let Manheim out, closed it, and immediately scowled, saying, "Man I hate sucking up to that guy."
"Excuse me?" said Manheim on the other side of the door.
"Nothing!" said Rudy quickly. "Nothing!" he laughed nervously, and then sighed in exasperation.
Manheim, meanwhile, was glad this guy would be Luthor's problem once this was over and Rudy Jones was just a guinea pig. He really hated phony respect.
…
Car and other accidents were always different for Superman than an armed robbery or a mugger. A guy with a gun was actually pretty easy to deal with. Bullets didn't hurt him after all, and no one could outrun him. Accidents, however, were a different story. When several cars went out of control Superman had the strength to move them around, but if he made one wrong move me might make things worse.
Once, before Superman had revealed himself, or called himself Superman for that Matter, Clark rushed into an accident, pushed the cars out of each other's way, only to realize one of the cars was now headed towards a group of people. He had of course ran over, reached under the car and pulled it to a stop, only to realize that the other car was about to hit a street light, that if knocked over could spell disaster. He pulled that one to a stop and then rushed out of there before anyone could spot him.
It was the first time since his powers kicked in that he truly felt overwhelmed. Not because he was afraid he'd get hurt, mind you, but because it was the first time he realized the potential harm his strength could cause, and that helped to give him...kid gloves when dealing with large accidents, so as not to wreak havoc and destruction by throwing his weight around.
Though until a particular day, such overwhelming situations had never deliberately caused by a human being.
On this day, Clark was minding his own business, trying to hail a taxi to get to a town hall meeting to report on it, and he was resisting the urge to just fly there. It was at this moment that he heard something he hadn't heard before. Something big was stopping through the city, right at the Metropolis City Bank.
Clark abandoned what he was doing and quick as a flash changed into his Superman costume in an alley and flew at blinding speed to the sight. When he got there, he hovered for a moment and took in what was going on.
What he saw was a giant robot, about ten feet tall, that marched towards the bank, leaving cracks in the ground with each thundering step and sent people fleeing with fear. It had a red line for vision, two railguns on it's arms, and a titanium shell. It also looked suspiciously like one of the robots from the Lexcorp Expo, but Clark didn't have time to worry about that. He had a job to do.
Meanwhile, in other parts of the city, Manheim, who was personally controlling the robot through virtual reality gear, told one of his men to page Rudy Jones. He had his distraction, so it was time for his mission.