Superman: The Ark of Krypton

Chapter 94

by

Jason Richard

Superman used his heat vision to cut a pathway out of the building, through some hallways with no people in them. A few more strategic blasts caused roofs to collapse, cutting off other hallways so the security in that building couldn't cut off their escape.

"Get out of here! Go!" cried Superman as the poor, deformed mutants scrambled, eager to be done with the cruel experiments that were done on them. As they fled the robot paid them no mind. All of its systems programmed it to focus on the individual with alien DNA.

Superman turned to face the robot and was immediately met with a bright red light being emitted from nodes on the robot's body. The red sun energy began draining him immediately.

So the first thing Superman did use heat vision on the roof above him, blasting a hole to let the sun in. As sunlight streamed in, replacing what the red light took away, Superman stood his ground as the robot advanced.

Superman had to play things safe until the victims were out of the room as he didn't want his actions to accidentally get them hurt, so for a few moments, Superman stayed rooted to that spot.

First, the robot started shooting twin gatling guns at him. Superman's arms moved in a blur as grabbed the bullets and dropped them. Hundreds of bullets showered on him, and he kept his arms moving. He couldn't risk much more as a single ricocheted bullet could harm one of the escaping prisoners.

He looked over, seeing that they were getting away. It wouldn't be long before he could go all out to take this thing down, but the sunlight above him was only slowing the power drain. He couldn't drag this out forever.

Then the robot fired a pair of missiles and Superman grabbed them, throwing them away from the prisoners as they went off in a fiery blaze.

The robot switched weapons yet again to a pair of railguns, each firing a large slug that traveled at the speed of light. Superman hit them away, their impacts leaving small craters in the ground, but with each bullet Superman felt himself back away, getting closer and closer to the edge of the sunlight he was standing in.

A glance to the escapees. If they could just get a little bit further…

The robot was well designed. It noticed a glance and fired a smaller weapon. If Superman had noticed it he could have knocked it away no problem, but at the glance, it targeted where Superman wasn't' looking, and the bullet was silenced with advanced Lexcorp technology. Not knowing it was there Superman flew backward. He didn't go far, but he was just outside the sunlight.

Without that to help him recharge, and with Superman still off his guard from the surprise attack, the vulcan cannons wailed on him, the spray of bullets sending him backward and away from the sunlight. The robot continued to shine its red lights as it fired relentlessly.

Superman's power was draining. He couldn't afford to stall any longer. He looked over at the prisoners to see how far away they were. To his relief, they were far enough.

Superman flew up, bursting through the roof as sunlight poured into him. For a few seconds, he let that radiant energy flow into his body and revitalize him. Then he dove back down, crashing through the roof again and punching the robot into the ground, a crater forming below it as the shockwave shattered every single piece of equipment into the room into smithereens and put cracks in the walls.

Good thing he waited for the prisoners to leave. If they had been close to this their bones would have shattered from the shockwave.

The robot was down for the count instantly, sparking and twitching as its systems died, a punch shaped dent in the hull.

That was very different from the last robot Superman had fought. That had felt at least a threatening to him, but he had stopped this one with a single punch. He was getting more used to his powers and was better able to store solar energy and release it at will. Compared to an alien like Lobo or even Lytener's unique technology, this was nothing.

Superman looked over and saw that the poor mutated people were fully out of the facility, but Lexcorp security was about to chase after them. Superman flew over, landing in a field between the mutants and the security, all of whom were armed with tasers and night sticks.

The security guards stopped immediately.

"These people are under my protection," said Superman. "I suggest you let them go. It would be pointless to try and fight me now."

They didn't argue, but left, turning back to the partially destroyed facility. The mutants, meanwhile just stared stoically. Superman didn't blame them. Who knew how long some of them had been kept in there. He followed them as they made their way towards Metropolis.

Tomorrow's paper was going to have quite the story indeed.

…

Superman Frees Lexcorp Prisoners

That was the headline to Clark Kent's article. The prisoners Lexcorp had experimented on and deformed made it to Metropolis, causing quite a scene. Due to the sheer volume of them, there wasn't enough room at the police station to give them all protective custody, but since many of them had trouble moving they were admitted to Metropolis General Hospital, with as many officers as could be spared to protect them and ask them questions.

Many said the same thing, that they had been imprisoned and experimented on. Some were homeless, taken off the streets where they wouldn't be missed. A handful of them were indeed in missing person reports, usually Lexcorp employees that vanished. All of those men said exactly the same thing, that they found out about Lexcorp criminal operations and were put away before they could leak the information. Some of them even reported that Lex Luthor himself threatened them.

Lex Luthor himself, meanwhile, was not pleased with this turn of events.

…

Lex Luthor tapped his fingers on his desk, most displeased as he waited. He put all his other work and all other appointments aside for this. Someone had failed him, and he was going to do something about it.

Eventually, a man in a lab coat entered, shaking nervously.

"Sir?" he said, his voice shaking. "You wanted…"

"What did you do?" said Luthor. "When I said I wanted you to collect riff raff for experiments, I specifically said I wanted people no one would miss. What in the world made you think that men I wanted to disappear, men who could upset the balance I've worked so hard to achieve for my company, were worth keeping alive for this? These men have seen my face. There's enough testimony in those mutated people to bury me. What were you thinking?"

"We were running out of subjects," said the scientist desperately. "Finding people who won't be missed by anyone isn't easy you know. Plus we couldn't take them off the street too fast. Even the homeless will be noticed if there's no one left at the shelters. I had to improvise to meet your quotas."

Lex Luthor seethed, "Oh I see, my quotas. So it's my fault is it?"

The scientist was horrified at his mistake, but couldn't find the right words to correct himself.

"Tell me," said Luthor. "Just how did you get ahold of these dissidents anyway? Wait, don't' tell me, I can guess. When I want someone to disappear, someone who knows something about Lexcorp that he shouldn't or will leak information to the press that he shouldn't' leak, I give him over to Mannheim's Intergang and they deal with it the way only a criminal gang could. So...you bribed him?"

The scientist nodded.

"Well," said Luthor. "I think we both know what happens next. Unless you want Intergang to make someone in your life disappear, say...you're wife perhaps? What will you do?"

The horrified scientist swallowed nervously and said, "Um...go to the police and confess? And take full responsibility for what was done to those people?"

"Very good," said Luthor, nodding.

The silence that followed was almost as terrifying as the conversation.

"Well?" said Luthor as the scientist waited. "Either you know where the Metropolis Police Station is or you have the means to find it. What are you still doing here?"

"Of course sir!" said the scientist, leaving immediately.

Luthor, meanwhile, rubbed his temples. That wasn't going to solve the problem completely. Too many people saw the condition of those victims. This would be a black mark on Lexcorp as a whole, even if he could avoid legal ramifications personally.

And of course, he was going to have to have a conversation with Mannheim as well.