Superman: The Ark of Krypton
Chapter 136
By
Jason Richard
From Earth, Edward Lytener and the Danvers watched through one of Brainiac's probes as the battle progressed. They saw the duo of time fields that the Colu ship was using and had no idea what to do about it.
"Can we increase the amount of technology we attack with at once?" asked Lytener.
"They'll predict that," said Eliza. "The Colu's ability to reconfigure their systems are bound to be ahead of us."
"What choice do we have?" asked Jeremiah. "We have to do something."
"Well we...wait," said Lytener, looking up at the screen above his hospital bed. "We have a problem. Someone's hacking our system."
…
Luthor sat in his office, watching the data stream from Star Labs into his own systems as he listened in on Lytener's conversation. He said to himself, "You really should have noticed sooner." and he grinned in pleasure.
…
As Kara and Superman talked, they didn't notice Luthor's robot slowly drifting towards them.
"What if we hit them from as many angles as possible," said Superman. "With as many different types of attacks as possible. That time field can only delay them after all."
"Worth a shot," said Kara, pressing a few buttons on her gloves. "One of us should also hit it with as much heat vision as possible, give them sheer power to deal with on top of everything."
"I'll do that," said Superman. "But once I'm finished I'll need you to fly me to a star to replenish my energy. If I use too much I could die out here in space."
Two energy pistols appeared in Kara's hands and she said, "Understood. Let's do this."
Kara flew around, shooting a pair of differently colored blasts then summoned another pair to shoot some more. Superman, meanwhile, focused his heat vision on one part of the time field. Dozens of bolts flew through space and slowed as they hit the outer time field, and a large, blindingly bright point of heat vision collected where Superman pointed his fiery gaze. For a minute they threw everything they had at the time field.
And then Superman passed out...right as Luthor's robot grabbed him around the waist.
"No!" Kara shouted, flying in. She stopped, however, when a panel on the robot opened, showing something dangerous hidden within.
It was John Corbyn, sitting in a pilot's seat, unaffected by the vacuum of space as he grinned with sadistic satisfaction. Within his chest his Kryptonite core lay beneath his chest, blocked by a crystal panel that trapped the radiation.
If that panel slid open this close to Superman...
"What are you doing!?" she demanded, a fearful look on her face. "He's low on energy. He could die!"
"And what a tragedy that would be," came Luthor's smooth, devious voice over a speaker. "And as much as I'd love to let that happen, the Colu are still a bigger problem. I will be the one who takes them down, however, myself and Mr. Corbyn that is. Hand him those gloves of yours then tell Brainiac to build the weapon I specify."
Corbyn held his hand up expectantly and grinned even wider.
Kara had only heard about Luthor secondhand, but this encounter confirmed everything Kal-El had said about him. It was obvious to her what he was doing. While she was getting Superman to a star, he would get footage of his robot destroying the Colu ship, and then the people of Earth would turn a blind eye to his crimes so that he would be their protector. He'd probably hacked Star Lab's systems to get the Kryptonian technology they'd paired to disrupt Colu systems and had figured out a combination that would destroy the ship entirely. He'd take sole credit for the victory.
"You won't get away with this," said Kara. "I'll tell the people of Earth what you've done."
"It will be my word against yours," said Luthor. "You say I'm holding him, hostage, I'll just say I was concerned for his safety and prepared to pull him away from the battle. Speaking of his safety, I'd hurry up and hand over the gloves if I were you. Superman doesn't look like he has much time left."
"That ship will break out of the time field at any moment," said Kara angrily.
"I'm willing to risk that," said Luthor. "Are you?"
Kara gritted her teeth and weighed her options. With Superman unconscious, the Kryptonite would kill him instantly if she made a move. If she let this Luthor have his way he'd get the credit for taking down the Colu ship, and that disturbed her. Still, if she gave him the gloves, the Colu ship would hopefully get destroyed either way, which they wanted. Besides, there was a change that the attack she and Superman would destroy the ship anyway, making this a moot point. The only question was whether or not she was confident enough in her speed to get Superman out of there before the Kryptonite chamber open.
She wasn't.
Grimacing, Kara pulled the gloves off.
"Very good," said Luthor.
"Hand them here," said Corbyn.
She passed them over and said, "Brainiac's monitoring all transmissions through the gloves. He'll know what to do."
"Excellent," said Luthor. "Corbyn..."
"Way ahead of you boss," said Corbyn, using the controls to release Superman. Kara immediately grabbed Superman around the waist and flew towards the nearest yellow sun. Superman, meanwhile, transmitted a signal with designs for a weapon. Sure enough, the gloves, now around Corbyn's hands, showed a weapon in the shape of a bazooka with seven rotating barrels. Luthor's design had something that would cause the Colu's defenses completely tear themselves apart.
So Corbyn waited, watching the ship carefully.
Finally, within the twin time fields, lots of different colored lights appeared on the ship, each one where the blasts from Kara's weapons, and one large one at Superman's heat vision. The Colu's countermeasures were raring to go.
Finally, the time fields came down. Kara's blasts were intercepting by blasts from the Colu ship, exploding harmlessly upon collision a few feet away from the ship. The heat vision, however, did more damage, the Colu's shields unable to support enough power. In fact, it tore through the Colu ship, blasting half of the ship to molten slag. Seemed this plan was on point, and they'd finally hit the Colu with more than they could handle.
Luthor, watching from Earth, couldn't help but be a little disappointed that he couldn't take all the credit. Still, the remaining half of the ship was repairing itself as he sat there. They couldn't take all the credit, and so Luthor would take what he could get.
"Corbyn," said Luthor. "You know what to do."
"Indeed," said Corbyn, holding the rifle up and pulling the trigger. The barrels spun and then shot different colored blasts at incredible speed. The blasts connected with the ship and several sections of the ship lit up. The lights traveled down the ship to where the blasts were hitting and when they did the entire ship began to shake, electricity running across it.
And the entire thing went up in a fiery explosion, debris scattering everywhere. Corbyn looked very pleased with his shot, as did Luthor back on Earth. Kara, holding Superman above a yellow sun, looked on with her telescopic vision in concern. They'd won, but at what cost?
None of them, unfortunately, noticed a tiny sphere the size of a baseball hidden within the debris that continued its way towards Earth.