Superman: The Ark of Krypton
Chapter 69
by
Jason Richard
Superman flew up to the first flaming meteor, pressing his fingers into the red hot stone. With his considerable might he swung the boulder around and threw it away, right back out into space from whence it came.
Superman flew to the next meteor and did the same, throwing as many meteors into space as he could. From the ground below the people of Metropolis could scarcely believe their eyes as they watched Superman, a far away and distance figure, fly around and throw the meteors upwards. More than one person muttered a simple, "Whoa," under their breath.
Superman himself could hardly believe it either. He was getting better at storing solar energy, and thus getting even stronger than before. Being able to throw something this large that far was both an exhilarating and frightening feeling.
Little did he know that while his attention was focused on these meteors, someone else needed his help.
…
From the rooftop of a building across from Edward Lytener's apartment, Lois realized that whatever else was going on Lytener was in trouble. With Superman busy she need to warn him that this probe, whatever it was, was coming for him, so she did the only thing she could think to do. She brought out the advanced taser her military father had given her and fired.
…
Edward Lytener was scared out of his mind, and had been for a while now, but this hadn't stopped him from thinking about what he would do if Lex Luthor or one of his henchmen caught him. He had built from scratch a laser pistol, one of the many laser related projects he had been working on at Lexcorp. If anyone caught him, he'd have a superior weapon, hidden in his jacket, though he hoped he wouldn't have to use it.
And then something struck the floor and started sparking, making him jump! He only had time to see the electric bolt in the floor for a moment, however, as his eyes were immediately drawn to the metal sphere floating just a foot away from his face.
"Ah!" he cried, pulling out his laser pistol and blasting it. The sphere flew back a few feet, but it was otherwise unharmed, and it immediately flew back towards lytener extending some sharp looking mechanical arms.
Lytener shot it again to send it back, and fled, asking himself, "Why me?"
…
As Lytener fled from the probe and Lois Lane ran to the elevator of that building to try and get over there, Superman continued to grab and throw the meteors upwards. Even with his speed he always seemed to catch each meteor too close to a building than he would have liked. As he kept throwing, he knew something was wrong.
There was no way something like this was a coincidence, no way Earth's scientists missed all these objects hurtling towards Earth. Something else had to be happening right at that moment, something he couldn't deal with for fear of these meteors hitting the city. He had no time to figure out what was really going on or do anything about it, and that made him feel just a little bit helpless.
…
Lyetener ran out of the Apartment into the hallway, shooting backwards at the probe pursuing him. People poked their heads out of their own apartments to see what was going on, but they closed the door pretty quickly, including the mother of one boy who saw a man with a laser pistol shooting an alien probe and said, "Cool!"
The probe dodged the laser blasts and came on, with Lytener only occasionally hitting a bullseye. Eventually the terrified scientist burst through the door to the stairs and started going down, shooting upwards at the probe. He knew he had to get away, but he didn't know where to go. He just ran as fast as he could.
Finally he made it into the building's lobby, people screaming and ducking as he shot at the probe behind him. Then he burst out the front door, right as he managed to hit the probe with a laser blast and sending it flying backwards.
"Edward!" a familiar voice called out. "Get in!"
He looked down and saw Lois Lane with a car. He didn't know what she was doing here, but at the moment he didn't care. He quickly got in and let Lois drive him off. That didn't stop the probe, which burst out of the apartment complex's front doors and flew down the road. As high in the sky Superman still flew around and threw meteors away, Lois and Edward fled from the dangerous alien probe.