Superman: The Ark of Krypton
By
Jason Richard
Stompa kicked over and over again, sending pain rippling through Kara's stomach. With the pain rippling through her body it was hard to think as she sunk further and further into the floor. Every time she tried to get the will to get up she got hit again. All the while, Stompa grinned gleefully, ready destroy this little girl with all her might.
And then Kara felt the floor about to give out and collapse beneath her. Suddenly, she had an idea. Before Stompa's next kick, Kara raised her fists and smashed down, letting the floor give out beneath them. Kara flew down, Letting Stompa's kick sail past her. As the large woman fell Kara, upside down, aimed a punch and hit the small of her back, smashing the device making her force field.
The device exploded, sending them both flying away. And smashing the room below, which turned out to be crew quarters. They each smashed through two different walls, landing in a heap and overturning futuristic furniture.
…
Still feeling massive amounts of electricity running through his body, Superman found he couldn't move much. The electricity must have been interfering with his nervous system. He couldn't fly or even take a breath to form ice.
And what little movements he could make were constricted by the whip wrapped around his arms and torso. His neck, however, has some movement.
It was all he needed.
He tilted his head to the right, crushing Mad Harriet's claws between his jaw and his shoulder.
"What?!" cried Mad Harriet in confusion.
Superman tilted his head the other way, crushing those claws, and with less electricity running through his body Superman could fly again, so he headbutted Harriet, sending her crashing to the floor. Then Superman spun around, picking up Lashina and spinning her around and around before smashing her into the wall.
With the two of them dazed on the floor, Superman took a deep breath.
"To be fair," said Superman. "I was the one who wanted to settle things peacefully."
"Kal-El!" Kara suddenly cried. "You can disable them if you…"
Then her voice cut out suddenly, and as the two of them advanced on him.
…
Kara peeled off a sheet of metal from within the wall of the ship and wrapped it around the now powerless Stompa, pinning her there. Kara kept shouting for Superman to let him know how to disable them, but the sound dampening they were undoubtedly using had come up again. Kara growled in frustration.
"Don't move," she said to Stompa.
"Cute," said Stompa angrily.
Kara went over to a console and began typing, figuring that Superman would have to take care of herself. What she saw wasn't good. With the time they lost the Colu system reset had advanced quite far. Brianiac wasn't even responding to her prompts at this point. It was looking like they'd have to take out the core and separate the Colu components, sorting everything out later.
She typed for five minutes, trying to undo the programming this reset program kept trying to install, but wasn't getting any traction. She gave it up as a loss and turned to get to the core.
But before she left she realized Stompa was gone, the metal peeled away from the wall. Kara grew tense, wondering how she got out without making a sound.
But then she realized that the sound dampening fields they were using had to be incredibly powerful. Stompa couldn't fight her now, but that left the question of what she was going to do now? Kara had a sneaking suspicion that she wasn't going to like the answer.
…
Superman dodged attacks from Mad Harriet and Lashina, flying back constantly to keep them from getting on either side of him. This wasn't difficult in the narrow corridors they flew through. Mad Harriet's claws had regrown instantly, returning to their original strength, but Superman wasn't willing to risk getting hit by more electricity. His movements now felt more sluggish since that dose of electricity he got earlier.
He waited patiently for an opening on either of them, dodging claws and the whip equally. The pair of villains started getting impatient.
"Will you just get slashed already!" cried Mad Harriet.
Superman knew he could wear them down if he fought long enough, but he didn't have time for it. Brainiac didn't have time for it. He needed to get rid of these two quickly so he could stop what was going on.
So he came up with a plan.
Superman planted himself next to a wall and dodged as Lashina slashed her whip. Superman flew over them and aimed heat vision, which they both dodged. The heat vision blasted a hole in the wall, and Superman took a deep breath and blew it at both of them, icing the floor and sending them both sliding backward…
Lashina tumbled out of the hole first, falling down into the snow about a hundred feet below. Mad Harriet put her claws into the floor, slicing it up until she turned off the electricity and got them stuck there.
She looked up, snarling, to find Superman's foot aimed at her face.
He knocked her down, smashing her into Lashina and making a giant crater of snow.
Superman immediately turned around. They might be dazed for a moment, and they didn't have the power to fly, but being able to match his speed meant that this wouldn't slow them down for long. Superman flew back to the core, hoping to be there when he was needed.
But when he got there, someone else was waiting for him. Stompa stood next to a wall, holding a device in her hand that she had wired into the wall. Though Superman didn't recognize it, it was the same device Kara had broken. Stompa had taken the parts that still worked and wired them into the ship, using it to power a force field that surrounded the room. Within that force field Stompa turned to Superman and smirked.
Superman punched the force field with all his might, but it held, powered by the entire ship. Superman realized that he was cut off from Brainiac's operating core and he gritted his teeth in frustration.