Superman: The Ark of Krypton

Chapter 116

by

Jason Richard

From the pod, Kara saw the newcomer helping Kal-El with the three enemy Kryptonians in charge. That was good. If they could keep those three busy then she could close the portal. The problem was that she needed a way to get the Kryptonian army back through that portal.

"Any ideas?" she asked the AI known as Brainiac.

"Perhaps," said Brainiac. "I've been scanning the battlefield, and the holographic technology carried by that one helping Kal-El would be best suited for pushing the army back through the portal. He could make a force field large enough to do the job."

"But he's distracted," said Kara, thinking deeply. "I've got a full reserve of solar energy. Could I hold those three back?"

"Calculating," said Brainiac. "Zod, Ursa, and Non still have the advantage of numbers and experience. One of them could slip through if you try to restrain them physically."

"What if I used my lungs?" said Kara. "Blow them back with a gale force? Come to think of it, I could send the army through and let Kal-El and the other man hold back the other three."

Brainiac took a moment to run some calculations.

"You'd need to breath in a lot of air to do that all at once," said Brainiac. "You should be able to compress that air so it will fit in your stomach, but it will take five minutes to breathe the necessary amount in. The army is not entirely out of energy, despite the human's red sun tanks."

"Then I'd better get started," said Kara.

The hatch above her opened and Kara took the deepest breath she'd ever taken in her life.

…

Right before Zod, Ursa and Non got up, Lytener flew over to Superman.

"Here," he said, raising his hand. "I added another function to the suit for this."

A yellow light came from Lytener's palm and within it Superman felt energized. All the power he had lost came back faster than he thought possible, and the bruises on his body disappeared into his skin.

"Thank you," said Superman.

"Don't mention it," said Lytener, feeling less afraid that before. Lytener then flew back a bit and activated a spherical force field around himself.

Just in time too. The three Kryptonians flew at lightning speed around the force field hammering it with punches. A moment later and those punches would have hit Lytener directly.

Superman flew in and started counterattacking. In a moment Lytener was surrounded by a blur of people flying around and hitting each other with thunderous impacts. He had the vague sense of a flying three on one fist fight, but he couldn't tell one blur from another. He could let out a blast of red sun energy in all directions, but he didn't want to hit Superman.

Fortunately, General Lane had given Lytener a piece of Luthor tech. A holographic display appeared in front of his face and he aimed a red sun blast at various crosshairs. By matching the frequency of the blast to the force field around him he could shoot through it, and once the crosshair blinked he'd fire. The computers would do the aiming, and sure enough, Lytener fired a blast and send Non flying.

With Lytener distracting the three from the safety of his force field Superman's recharged speed and strength meant that they had the upper hand, and it was the three soldier's turn to get knocked around. They could do it. They might have a chance.

Now they just needed a way to deal with that army.

…

After a few minutes of the wind itself pouring into her lungs, Kara closed her mouth. She could feel the intense pressure of an insane amount of compressed air stretching the inside of her lungs. It was amazing that her chest didn't burst from within.

"Well done miss," said Brainiac. "My pods will try to watch your back, but Kal-El and Edward Lytener cannot hold Zod and his lieutenants back you'll be left vulnerable while you do this."

Grasping the dimensional modulator, the rifle-like device in her arms, Kara steeled herself. It was a risk she'd just have to take.

…

Superman kept battling the Kryptonians head-on in a flurry of punches and kicks faster than the eye could track. Lytener, from his force field, kept shooting at the targets his suit's computer call out, all from the safety of a red force shield. In this way, Superman and Lytener were able to hold their own in a fairly even battle.

A few punches hit Lytener's force field, and the integrity of that field began going down, and wouldn't hold up against repeated blows. Superman was also getting just as tired as the three Kryptonian soldiers. For his part, Superman had never taken this much of a beating before, not even from Lobo. By this point, it all depended on who ran out of energy first, and it wasn't clear who that would be.

Kara flew above the battlefield, still holding an impossible breath in her lungs. She hovered on the end of the portal farthest away from Superman's battle and got ready. Despite the overwhelming power she felt coursing through her, she felt a little nervous.

But that didn't stop her from doing what needed to be done.

She flew down, opened her mouth, and unleashed the pressure from her lungs. A massive blast of wind hit the sand and send Kryptonians flying backward as Kara passed over them. A cloud of dust exploded over the desert as Kara, in mere moments, flew past the massive portal and blew the Kryptonian criminals back from whence they came.

And the moment she was done she aimed the dimensional modulator and shot a long beam at it, make it close rapidly. The army of tanks, meanwhile, got the opportunity to put the red sun wall right next to the portal as the Kryptonian invaders lay on the ground, dazed.

Zod, in his zeal to defeat Superman and Lytener, didn't realize what had happened until it was too late. Once he did he cried, "With me!" and flew after Kara.

Superman, Lytener, Ursa and Non saw what had happened and flew after them. Kara, meanwhile, knew she couldn't move, otherwise, she'd disrupt the beam and the portal would begin growing again. She was forced to remain still as three murderous Kryptonians flew right towards her.

She only hoped Superman could slow them down.