Superman: The Ark of Krypton
Chapter 100
by
Jason Richard
Zod reached the prison quickly and used his X-Ray vision to scan for the scientist. He found him quickly, but there was someone else in there with him. He was armed with a primitive projectile weapon...as well as a few other things that this planet shouldn't have, all hidden on his person. Zod even recognized a few of them from skirmishes with enemy planets.
Where did this man get tech like that?
…
"You have alien technology?" asked Lytener in astonishment.
"We do," said General Lane, pulling out a small black box. "The Ark of Krypton isn't the only piece of alien technology that's fallen to Earth. There have been extraterrestrial crash landings on our planet as far back as the fifties. The CIA has been scavenging ships and technology from those landings for decades, and I happen to know a few CIA agents who owe me a couple of favors."
He put the box on the floor and suddenly the entire room filled with a strange energy. Within moments a translucent yellow dome of energy surrounded him and Lytener. General Lane also pulled out what looked like a gun, but when he undid the safety it made a whining noise, not unlike the lasers Lytener himself worked with.
"How effective will these things be against a Kryptonian?" asked Lytener, afraid of the answer.
"Honestly?" said the General. "I haven't the slightest idea. Don't worry though. I got here so fast because one piece of technology the CIA recovered is a teleporter. It will take about five minutes for them to get to us, but I think we can hold out until then."
Edward Lytener didn't like those odds.
…
Superman woke up in a daze. He'd never been hit that hard in his life. As he slowly stood up, trying to ignore the crowd of onlookers that was staring right at him, he figured he shouldn't be surprised that a Kryptonian could hit that hard. He also figured he shouldn't just be standing there.
He had to get to Lytener. Which direction was that prison in?
…
Zod crashed through the roof of the prison into the room with General Lane and Edward Lytener. He could see the yellow dome of energy that separated him from them, but that didn't worry him. He knew the limits of that technology, and that wouldn't be a problem for him.
Lytener, meanwhile, had been thinking of what he could do to survive, so he said, "Can you understand what we're saying?"
Zod said, in Kryptonian, that he hadn't been given a translator. Though Lytener didn't understand the words, he got the idea. For a second he wondered if Lobo had been given a translator or had just learned English at some point, but he quickly dismissed that curiosity. He had to find another way to communicate.
"Got any sort of holographic generator?" said Lytener. "I might be able to communicate with images. We know it's some other entity trying to release his people, and I think I can place some enmity between them."
Zod punched the shield, which shifted and shook the entire building but otherwise held.
"Divide and conquer?" said General Lane. "I'll try anything at this point."
As Zod punched again, and again, and again, General Lane tossed another device backward to the scientist, who started working on the strange device as fast as he could. He'd have to work quickly. Every time Zod punched the force field the light it produced got just a little bit dimmer.
Actually, Zod was surprised. Given his strength level he should have broken through that force field in one blow, and yet it was holding. Now that he thought about it, he might feel weaker than before. Being the first time he had used such strength it was hard to tell.
Little did he know that there was another probe in the room. Lex Luthor had predicted several locations an extraterrestrial enemy might appear, and Edward Lytener's cell was one of them. If it was a phantom zone escapee then it was undoubtedly a Kryptonian, so hidden in that room was a probe that could generate a red sun field. Luthor had even managed to learn more about the specific energy that fueled Kryptonians or took power away in the case of a red sun, and by cutting out other energy types he could generate a field that was invisible to the naked eye. It didn't even generate X-Rays, so not even Zod would see it.
And from his office, Lex Luthor watched the feed from his probe, pleased at the results.
Zod, meanwhile, assessed the situation as a soldier. They couldn't stay in there forever, but that type of shield could be bypassed by teleporter technology if one knew the shield's frequency. That had to be their plan. So Zod had to counter that.
To the surprise of the General and Edward Zod walked away, ripped off a piece of the wall, and then flew to other places in the room, ripping off various pieces of the wall. The only connected between these sections was that they had wires running through them. Then Zod starting reconnecting wires in each section, and within moments he was done. Zod was pleased with his work. It was a little trick he'd picked up for locking out teleporter tech. The room's electricity now flowed in a strategic manner that would prevent them from getting a lock.
While General Lane and Edward Lytener were confused, Lex Luthor realized what was going on and quickly typed at his computer, ordering the probe to attack. Within the prison cell, the probe whirred to life as a red sun laser powered on, but Zod heard the whirring and his soldier's instincts kicked in.
He sidestepped the laser and attacked with heat vision of his own, frying the probe as it sparked and fell to the ground. Luthor, from his office, banged on his desk in frustration.
Feeling the strength starting to return to him, Zod grinned and started punching the force field again, each blow shaking the entire room.
"If you've got a message for him," said General Lane. "I think we're going to need it. They should have teleported us away by now."
"Just a second…" began Lytener.
Suddenly the force field burst apart, leaving the two of them completely exposed.
"Lytener!" cried, General Lane.
And Lytener finally got the holographic box to work, and it held it up to display two images in the air. One was a faceless version of Superman standing tall and strong under a yellow sun. The other was a faceless version of Superman kneeling and weakened under a red sun. Lytener had basically told Zod how Kryptonian powers work.
General Lane couldn't believe he was seeing this. Had he just given vital information to the enemy? Just to save his own skin? That was how he intended to communicate?
That is exactly what Lytener had done, and the scientist breathed a sigh of relief as Zod stared at the images in wonder, then grinned, turned to the scientist, and bowed graciously. Lytener couldn't believe he'd made it through that alive.
"What have you done?" demanded someone.
Everyone looked over to see Superman in the room, hovering just below the hole in the roof Zod had made. There was a look of disbelief on his face.
"You told him how our powers work?" said Superman. "A criminal? Lytener, what have you done?!"