"Oh shit!" John cried aloud as it came crashing through the wall. It was mostly just compacted rock and hardened ice, laced with whatever Kryptonian molecules the original lattice had created (John had studied it for months, happily mystified). Even so, to see something tear through it like tissue paper, in the safest place in the world, shocked him.
"Activate defense mode!" he shouted. The energy shield came up just in time. Good thing he was still hooked into the Fortress' systems. It'd take a nuclear bomb to get through that shield at max power.
The strange purple robot slammed one fist toward his "helmet", far above where his actual head was. He didn't even see it move. Yeah, just screw Newton then, am I right? But he was far from amused. Nice try, though. There was no way for it to know what it was dealing with. Right?
The next blow struck lower. Then he looked at the gauge and frowned. It read shield capacity at 70%.
The warning hadn't even sounded. The suit's pilot systems still weren't finished. But that shocked him. That was the equivalent of getting hit full power from Superman's heat vision.
"What are you, buddy?' he said quietly as he started rapidly activating the unfinished weapons' systems. "Looks like you're going for an early drive, suit. Let's open this tin can."
(*)
The Fortress rumbled. The battle wasn't going well. The massive purple and hulking machine had loomed over him at every turn, smashing through his defenses, turning the walls and the ground around him into rubble.
"Launch close-range missiles!"
Several apertures opened on the suit missile bay. The shield had been flickering on and off, trying to conserve and re-route power. Trying to keep him alive. It had been less than sixty seconds, and he had fought for every one.
Dozens of missiles, smaller than a thumb at first, and then expanding for aerodynamic propulsion, rocketed toward their target. The war robot, whatever it was, was hammered with explosions that could sink an Atlantean battleship.
It's not enough. He didn't need the suit sensors to tell him that. He felt a lurch, and knew the suit's auto-evade was functioning. Doing it well, too. Predicting another attack, Steel was thrown aside just in time as an energy blast occupied his previous space.
The robot was using a new weapon. And this time, when it came into view, he saw an electromagnetic field flickering around it with his optical enhancers. A power shield.
Dammit. Figures it would have one too. He was certain it was a Kryptonian weapon now. It certainly explained why it was so powerful. The thing hadn't even warmed up. It barely even looked scorched.
"What the hell are you, man? Where did you come from?"
He didn't know if it was an escapee, some alien artifact that Superman had, or what. But something about it did look familiar, besides being basically humanoid in appearance. Kryptonian. But he had never seen anything like it before. This thing was a killer. A destroyer. Not the sort of thing Superman kept around.
Had he somehow tripped a security system? Was it…? Damn. It could be. Building a weapon like his War Suit inside the Fortress – it might have triggered something.
"Fortress, can't you do something? Tell this thing I'm a good guy! Shut it down!"
The Fortress never responded to him verbally, but he knew Superman had some kind of artificial intelligence running the place, or whatever the Kryptonians used. For all he knew it was some kind of ghost, it sure felt like one sometimes.
"Suit, is anything happening?"
'There appears to be activity. Energy is changing patterns through the Fortress.'
He knew the Fortress had been doing its best. The scanners had showed as the walls were reinforced, molecular polymer armies trying to keep the fight contained, a fight that could easily destroy the entire arctic.
Suddenly the suit stopped. Something had happened.
Wait, is the Fortress actually shutting it do-
Steel's thought was interrupted as everything was blanketed in white.
(*)