Superman: The Ark of Krypton
Chapter 74
by
Jason Richard
When Lobo reached Earth the second time he steered his ship right towards the dark side of the planet, landing somewhere in india. His ship crash landed in the woods with a fiery explosion, just as he liked it. He stepped out as the doors opened and saw a city in the distance. It was quite a site off in the distance, filled with glittering lights under a starry sky.
Lobo thought it would look better on fire. That would draw Superman's attention, he figured as he sauntered towards the unsuspecting city.
…
Clark had never felt so much energy within him before. This time he was at home, standing on the balcony and watching the setting sun, letting that warmth flow into him. He couldn't help it. In the blink of an eye he changed into Superman and flew out. He wanted to see just how fast and strong he was. Fortunately Metropolis had been free of trouble for a while, so he figured a few minutes testing his powers out wouldn't hurt.
He flew high up into the air and broke the sound barrier in less than a second. Within minutes he was over the ocean, over Europe where day began to turn to night, and then over the Middle East...loving every exhilarating moment the flight provided.
Then he heard it. Someone was shooting a laser pistol somewhere in India...a laser pistol that sounded very familiar.
He flew towards the sound, but even leagues away he saw the cause of the trouble, even in the dead of night. Lobo was back, shooting randomly at buildings as the poor Indian people fled in terror. Superman clenched his fists and flew in, ready to deal with this madness.
He didn't even wait for Lobo to notice him as he flew in, and with a single punch sent Lobo flying on a trajectory out of the city. He took a moment to fly around and pull people out of the way of flying debris and use his ice breath to put out some fires, then he flew to where he knew Lobo was going to land.
When he reached the outside of the city he found he had to wait a second before Lobo landed. He really was getting faster.
With a thump Lobo made a small crater in the ground. As the gigantic alien biker stood up, he laughed.
"Shoulda known you'd come out of nowhere," said Lobo, shaking his head.
"You should also know this will go the same way it did last time," said Superman.
"Sure," said Lobo, putting his hands up as if to surrender. "Sure...Or not." and he snapped his fingers.
Superman was prepared for the hover bike to try and ram him out of nowhere. He quickly shot it with his heat vision as it approached.
The resulting explosion took him off guard. Not only was it blinding, but there must have been some sort of sonic bomb in it, as the resulting sound effectively made him deaf for a few seconds.
It was enough for Lobo, wearing dark goggles to see through the blinding light, to run up, punch him to the ground, and attach something to Superman's waist while the hero was stunned. Superman then found Lobo's arm around his neck as the alien bounty hunter dragged him away. Superman had forgotten how strong Lobo was. Even without Superman's other powers, and even with all the energy Superman had absorbed recently, Lobo was still strong enough to keep up with him.
Superman elbowed Lobo in the abs, and even as the alien grunted from the blows Superman felt something was wrong. His body felt heavier than it should have, and thus he couldn't hit as hard or move as fast as before. He was able to shrug off lobo, who staggered back and hugged his stomach, but Superman found himself staggering a little as he just noticed that Lobo had attached some sort of silver mechanical belt to Superman's waist.
"Confused," said Lobo, laughing as he continued to hold his stomach. "That's a gravity belt. I use it when I'm fixing the outside of my ship. Don't want to hurtle through space. That one I had jerry-rigged to max power, so it weighs about as much as a small moon. Let's see you move around in a blur with that weighing you down."
Superman realized that Lobo was right. With this thing on him his speed was pretty much gone. He was still strong enough to fight Lobo, but he now lacked his biggest advantage.
Furthermore the effort to stand with this much power weighing him down was quickly draining his solar energy. Since the sun was on the other side of the Earth he couldn't replenish it. He was in trouble if he couldn't remove it. He reached down to do so, but…
"Wouldn't do that if I were you," said Lobo, grinning. "That thing's got a micro-nuke in it.
You rip it off and BOOM! We may be outside that city over there, but we're not that far away."
Superman knew he wasn't bluffing. He tried to fly away, but the weight meant he couldn't fly fast, and all Lobo had to do to keep him there was throw out his chain. The metal object wrapped around Superman's torso and Lobo yanked him back before punching him in the stomach and sending him crashing into the ground, leaving a line in the ground as he kicked up dirt.
When Superman finally stopped he stood up shakily as Lobo charged him. Clearly he'd underestimated this Lobo, and now he was in trouble. With his energy draining, he needed to end this...and fast.