Superman: Mythos II #1 "The Never-Ending Battle"
The sleek, silver frame of the Invisible Jet glided through space at light-speed. The white streaks of passing stars decorated the blackened void just outside the jet's windshield. Clark Kent, Superman, sat there beside the pilot in the cockpit, his firm gaze mesmerized by the passing wonders. He held his hand to his chin, hunched over with his elbow resting on his knee. The events that transpired mere weeks ago still played on repeat in his mind. Just as the stars continued to zoom past, again and again, so did his memories. Circe, Maxima, Lex… And everyone and everything in-between.
"Are you going to be alright with this, Kal?" Wonder Woman asked, diverting her eyes away from the void of space and towards Clark sitting beside her as she continued to pilot the craft. "I could just as easily handle this matter myself, or any number of the other Leaguers."
Diana's voice at last snapped Clark out of his wanton trance. He closed his eyes and shook his head, leaning back in his chair. "Please, Diana. There's no need, I'm perfectly fine. Besides, this is my mess to clean."
"It was hardly your fault, Kal," Diana said. "I'm just worried about you leaving Earth so shortly after your return…" she trailed off.
"If anything, my absence proved the people of Earth can get along fine without Superman, at least, for a little while," Clark said with a weak smile.
"If anything, it proved just the opposite," Diana rebutted. "Metropolis was in shambles before your return. Luthor-"
"Is in jail awaiting trial," Clark interrupted. "And Circe is on Sorca, in fact, she never left. And Maxima, well…" he paused, gesturing to the stars. "Point is, Earth will be safe. All with the League and Kara around…" He spoke his cousin's name through a coat of quiet melancholy.
"Kara is…" Diana began, but stopped herself, not wanting to pile on any more undue trauma. She sighed, "Listen, Kal. It's not the planet I'm worried about…" She reached over and placed her consoling hand on his shoulder. "It's you."
Clark looked down in the open palms of his hands and sighed himself before clenching his fists shut. A fake smile replaced his look of unease. He placed his own hand to his shoulder, atop Diana's. He nodded to her reasuridly. "Let's just get this done, okay?"
"Okay…" Diana whispered back, still looking into his pale blue eyes. Then, before them, the view outside the jet's windshield zoomed to a sudden stop. The streaming beams of light converged into speckled stars across the vast space and at the center of it all was a massive, ringed planet. And sitting upon the outskirts of the rings, in which they drew near to, was a speck of a moon, a red moon. As they approached, the Saturn-like planet, moving ever so slowly along its orbit, revealed behind it; the giant, blazing ball of red flame. The red sun in which it revolved around.
Clark winced when the red UV light poured into the cockpit. Diana looked to her friend with worry as she gently piloted the jet towards the red moon. Though his gaze, by contrast, was steadfast. He looked forward, sweat already dripping down his face, at the moon as it grew bigger and bigger until it eclipsed the entire viewing area outside the windshield. Soon they'd entered the sand-brushed atmosphere of the moon, the jet promptly getting pelted by the dozens of rocky debris that shot through the air. After flying through the giant sandstorm that wrapped around the moon like a forcefield, Diana set the jet down just beyond a large red canyon. And past the canyon, across a dry, crack-filled plain, was the old Almeracian military base which was built right into the side of a mountain.
Diana left her seat at the controls and moved to the back of the cockpit where her sword, shield, and lasso rested. The Amazonian princess prepared herself, sheathing her sword, attaching her shield to her backside, and strapping her lasso to her belt. She then adjusted her shimmering silver bracers and fixed her golden tiara between her locks of curly dark hair. As his companion got ready, Clark took his time getting up from his chair, quietly psyching himself up for what was to come.
Once prepared, Diana met Clark at the sealed exit of the jet. She nodded to him, he nodded back, before she punched a series of numbers into a control panel beside the lowering door. With a hiss, the door unsealed and began to lower down onto the rocky red terrain of the moon. A set of metallic stairs then shifted up from the inside of the door, allowing for them to step down from the jet. Diana led, vaulting down from the stairs with ease, while Clark, without his flight, carefully maneuvered down to the ground behind her. Together, the two made their way towards the looming base in the distance.
Diana kicked the thick rusted door clean off its hinges and entered into the old fortress. Inside, the sand-packed metal hallways were dark, power having long been absent from the bases' circuitry. Once far enough away from the red light of the sun, Clark turned on the lantern he'd brought along, knowing his advanced vision wouldn't do him much good on the planetoid. It also meant, without any x-ray vision, they'd have to search the old fashion way. Diana opened and quickly checked within the first of the many off-shoot rooms that lined the hallway. Clark did the same with the one on the opposite side. One-by-one, they made their way up the hall, making sure to check within each room they passed, whether it be a control room, armory, or janitor's closet.
Eventually, they came to a hall on one of the top floors that Clark found familiar. He stepped ahead of Diana and approached one room in particular. Without hesitation, he opened the door into a musk-filled, rust-lined bedroom with a window overlooking the red wasteland. Clark's stomach turned, his thoughts reminiscent of the time he'd spent there as a helpless prisoner. He slowly stepped forth towards the long horizontal window, stepping over a giant crest of El etched into the floor and over it was a massive X. Not yet noticing the eery symbol on the floor, he placed his trembling hands on the cold metal of the windowsill and looked out upon the dusty plains and sunken crags.
His gaze soon diverted from the red horizon and down to his feet in shame. To his shock, he saw not his feet, but instead, his own reflection staring back at him, found in the blade of a sword held fast to his neck. He gasped as if to shout, but he held still upon feeling the razor sharp silver graze his skin. Thick red blood began to trickle down his neck and up along the edge of the blade.
Clark felt a warm breath envelop his ear and he heard a panting breath, seemingly belonging to one on the verge of tears. "How could you…" a trembling voice then whispered. "How could you leave me!" The sudden shout stunned Clark, but he felt his assailant's grip weaken around her hilt, allowing him to thrust his head backwards without fear of the blade's deadly slice. The back of his head collided with the nose of his assailant, causing them to stumble back, directly into the clutches of Diana's brawny arms. Clark then turned to see none other than the disheveled Queen Maxima, her whole body having swiftly been wrapped up by the golden string of Diana's lasso. Maxima's rich red hair was a dirtied mess, her gold and emerald uniform having been torn, and her once flowing yellow cape was nothing but a tiny scrap of translucent fabric.
Without hesitation, Diana shoved the Almeracian queen to the ground. Falling to her knees, Diana straddled her muscular thighs around Maxima's waist, locking her in place. The alien screamed, foam brimming on her lips as she struggled to break free from the Amazon's iron grip. Diana then took her shield and lifted it high above her head before wailing it down upon Maxima's skull. The rim of the shield collided with Maxima's forehead with such force that it jolted her head back against the hard metal floor, knocking her out clean.
When Maxima regained her consciousness, she found herself bobbing, her tied up body slung over the shoulder of Wonder Woman. Below her, she saw the footprints of both the Amazon and the Kryptonian leading away from the military base now in the distance. She soon began to struggle against Diana's grasp once again.
"Unhand me, harlot!" Maxima demanded. "I have an empire to reclaim!"
"Would you rather we leave you here?" Diana said simply and without any further physical force needed, Maxima ceased her struggling. Instead, the alien queen pouted and slouched over the Amazon's shoulder. Clark paused once they'd reached the Invisible Jet, watching as Diana carried Maxima inside.
"At least tell me what you plan to do with me, Kryptonian?" she spoke to him as he followed them inside.
"Superman has convinced me to let you serve out a sentence befitting your crimes in America," Diana said, throwing Maxima down onto one of the cockpit's chairs. Then, with a press of the ship's controls, the chair strapped her in place with metal cuffs. "I would have had you brought back to Themyscira, where each of my sisters could take a turn telling you how much they appreciated you masquerading within our ranks… Though as Kal pointed out, such an occurrence would most likely fall within the bounds of cruel and unusual…" Maxima gritted her teeth at the Amazon. Diana merely smirked back before taking her seat in the pilot's chair in front of her.
Clark took his seat across from Maxima, rotating it towards her so that he may plainly speak with her. "You mentioned your empire…" he began.
"That's right Kal-El. I was betrayed, not only by you," she responded.
"But by Luthor too," Clark added. "He left Circe out to dry as well. I'm afraid he betrayed you all, using your powers for his own selfish gain."
Maxima laughed. "Luthor? You think I'm upset about him? Please, all three of us knew what we were getting into when we agreed to work together. Neither one of us had the other's 'best interests' in mind. No… I suffer a far greater woe…" Maxima paused, looking out the window as the jet began to rise back into the dusty atmosphere. "Suza…" she said with fiery anger in her breath. She looked back at Clark. "I've been betrayed by my own. A pretender sits upon my throne! Undoubtedly flinging the empire into undue chaos!"
"Perhaps you should have thought of such a possibility before abandoning your duties to chase after a mate," Diana sneered, while punching in a series of coordinates, setting them a course for Earth.
"Idiot!" Maxima snapped back. "I was doing my duty! The House of the Blood Royale tradition demands I find a proper mate! So that his seed may produce in me a being worthy of the throne of all Almerac!... Do not blame me, Princess, for your own pitiful lack of prestige in the art of courtship!"
"Ah, I see," Diana said, in a sarcastic tone as she reached for a lever on the control panel. "Maybe on my next date I should try kidnapping the man and strand us together on a desolate moon, like a sociopath."
"You-" Maxima bubbled with rage, so much so that she could not form words with which to speak her anger.
"Wait, Diana," Clark said, holding her wrist and keeping her hand away from the light-speed ignition. "With the inherent instability of Almerac, I predicted this might happen during Maxima's absence."
"And?" Diana questioned, seeing this as no business of theirs.
"The people of Almerac do not need to suffer as a result of a misguided ruler," Clark said.
"Well then, with Queen Maxima gone, I'm sure their suffering has diminished ten-fold," Diana said, reaching again for the light-speed.
Clark held her hand back once more. "She's misguided, yes. But not cruel."
Diana raised her brow. "And what she did to you wasn't cruel?" she questioned.
Clark sighed and took a moment to search for the proper words before speaking again, "she cares for her people. A quality which this usurper may not possess. Look, all I ask is that we check things out on Almerac. If things are stable, we can resume business as usual."
"Ha!" Maxima laughed with glee. "At last you come to your senses, Kal-El."
"Quiet, Maxima," he said sternly. "This doesn't mean I've forgiven what you've done. Your trial still awaits, whether on Earth or Almerac. I will see to it that justice is done."
Diana sighed, erasing the coordinates of Earth and punching in those of Almerac. She wrapped her hand around the lever and engaged the light-speed. "Oh, Cla-Kal…" she corrected. "You're too good for your own good…" Everytime she thought she'd seen the limits of that man's compassion, he still ceased to amaze her with the unending care within his heart. To those of every race, creed, and background, good or evil, Superman will stop at nothing to protect them.
The Invisible Jet soon fell out of light-speed and into the orbit of the Earth-like planet known as Almerac. Beside it, moving slowly in its orbit, was a large chalky white moon, and in the far distance was, thankfully, a yellow sun. The surface of the planet was half rocky, mountainous land, half raging sea, with swirling storm clouds above. It was a livable environment, but harsh. The type of planet that bred warriors, which it very much did. All the inhanbidents, while not as skilled as a trained royal like Maxima, had at least some level of superhuman strength.
"Not picking up anything out of the ordinary on radar," Diana informed as they hovered in mid-orbit. "Wait a second…"
It was then the three spotted the massive armada of warships peeking from out behind the otherside of the planet. The dozens of black-gray cruisers were crude in make, looking as if they were scraped together with spare parts and stolen technology. The fleet slowly began to come their way, likely continuing on their orbital patrol.
"What are those things?" Clark said, getting up from his seat and stepping up to the windshield to get a better look. Both he and Diana then looked to Maxima for answers.
"Hell if I know!" she snapped at them. "I've never seen such a ship in my life. They're disgusting if you ask me. Such filth doesn't belong in the skies of mighty Almerac! See, I told you, this must be the usurper's fleet. The situation is even more dire than I presumed."
"So you're telling us those ships aren't Almeracian?" Diana asked.
"Your dull wittedness never ceases to amaze me, Princess," Maxima chided. "Of course they're not my ships!"
"That means Almerac has been invaded by a foreign power. This is no mere internal coup d'etat," Clark reasoned, keeping an eye on the approaching fleet.
"But many have no doubt sided with the enemy," Maxima said. "One such traitor being my 'loyal' handmaiden Suza. She told me so herself before resolving to strand me on the red moon."
"Diana," Clark said with worry, "they're getting closer."
"At ease, Kal," Diana said, "they don't call this the Invisible Jet without reason." She said, before flicking a few more notches on the control panel, switching the jet into total stealth mode.
The ships drew nearer and nearer until they were only a few hundred yards away. It was then one of the vessels paused and drew away from the rest of the fleet as they continued their patrol. The lone ship looked as if it was heading directly for them. Clark, suspecting the worst, closed his eyes and tried to hear what was going on inside the ship. To his surprise, his senses were unable to penetrate the ship's hull. He wondered if something aboard was preventing his powers or if they'd yet to fully return to him after his red sun exposure back on the Pautovian moon.
Before he could rationalize further, a noise from the ship did enter his ear. It was a loud and mighty blast that shot forth from the ship's mega-canon. A bright pink lazer sliced through the space between the ship and the jet, colliding with the jet in a fiery explosion. Clark, using his super-speed, managed to grab both Diana and Maxima in time and shield them best he could within his grasp. Around them, the Invisible Jet was obliterated and from out of the ball of fire, Clark and the two women he held close emerged. Due to the absorption of the powerful blast, combined with his powers still not at full strength, Clark passed out as he plummeted into the planet's atmosphere. As they soared down through the clouds, he let go of both Diana and Maxima, who were unconscious themselves, and entered into a spiraling freefall.
Feeling the wind against her cheeks, Diana soon snapped awake. She gasped, but there was no air in the thin atmosphere to breathe. Nevertheless, she caught the air beneath her body and presumed a steady flight. She first bolted over as fast as she could to catch Clark. With the knocked-out Man of Steel under her arm, she flew towards Maxima and caught her as well. However, by the time she had both safely within her grasp, there were only a few hundred feet from the ground. Diana roared at the top of her lungs as she applied all her strength in order to slow their rapid descent. At the last moment, she threw her enchanted shield out under her and landed her feet down upon it. The shield hit the rocky ground and immediately, beneath her boots, formed a massive crater in the side of a hill. Diana cried in pain, feeling her right leg snap beneath the extreme force of the impact. Letting go of Clark and Maxima, she assumed a role and released the rest of her inertia by tumbling another thirty yards past the crash site. With her head half submerged in the dirt, she fell back into unconsciousness.
Clark, his back now strewn across a rock at the bottom of the newly formed crater, held his throbbing skull as he woke back up. Arching forward, he managed to regain his footing. With a shake of his head, he regained his proper vision and looked upon the not-so-happy-landing. Maxima was on the other side of the crater, reeling from her minor injuries, but beginning to stand back up as well. Then, he spotted Diana a few yards away, outside the crater. He rushed up to her and was stunned to see her mangled left leg. Both her ankle and knee were bent in the wrong directions. Clark fell to his knees and swiftly turned Diana on her back. The sudden shift and jolt of pain must have awakened her as she began to grunt. Soon her blue eyes met his and she gritted her teeth into an uneasy smile.
"How bad?" she asked.
"Um, I'm going to have to put a few things back where they belong," Clark said, hesitating to act.
"Do it!" she cried, using the last of her strength to heave her own mangled leg up onto Clark's lap. From there, Clark didn't waste any more time. With his heat vision, he split open her metal greaves in two and the armor slid off her broken leg. He then placed both hands onto her ankle and, while one hand holding it firm, he balled the other into a fist and gently tapped her sideways foot. His super-strength gave the precise tap enough force to pop her ankle back into place. Diana cried in pain in response, clawing against the dirt at her sides. Clark then moved up her leg to her knee. Using the same technique, he popped it back into place as well. Once the deed was done, Clark fell onto his back and laid across the dirt, exhausted. Diana similarly let her head fall back against the dirt, her incredible pain slowly drifting into numbness. Side-by-side, laying upon the ground, Clark and Diana shared a brief moment of reprieve.
"Invisible Jet… what a joke," Maxima's sneering tone tore down their swift reprieve and brought them right back down to dire reality. She limped over to them, being the least affected by the crash. "I've never been one to trust human technology. This just further proves my weariness."
"It shouldn't have been possible…" Diana said between coughs. "How did they see us?"
"The how or why doesn't matter right now," Clark said, bringing himself back up to his feet. "All that matters now is we find a way out of this and figure out who's taken Almerac." He looked up, and just beyond the clouds, he saw the fleet of warships trailing across the pale green sky. He then reached down to Diana and slung her arm over his shoulders. "Come on, let's get our bearings here," he said before hovering up to the top of the rocky hill they'd crashed into. He set down at its peak, with Maxima following behind, and soon the three of them looked out upon the horizon. There, within the valley of dueling mountain peaks and on the shore of a vast sea, was a grand capital city. Silver buildings shimmered in the light of the setting sun, their towering classical structures were imposing, even from a distance. Though, directly over the city, was one of the crude warships, this one bigger than the rest. The mother ship was oddly shaped, more rounded and spherical than its jagged and elongated counterparts on patrol.
"Almaaria…" Maxima whispered the name of her city, "what have they done to you?" She then glanced over to the horizon and gasped. "I don't believe it…"
"What?" Clark asked, following her gaze. There, on the far horizon, away from the setting sun, sat the peak of the rising moon. Though, unlike what it had been when they passed it in orbit, the moon was no longer chalky white in color. It was blood red. Clark's face grew stiff, nearly losing his grip on Diana. Though soon, he felt her weight bearing down on him more so than before. "H-how," he stuttered, knowing now, with the blood moon having fully risen, it was having the same effect on him as would a red sun.
"The Haraa'Meg-Ra," Maxima spoke. "An ancient Almeracian rite performed in times of war on the planet. Though, I've never once seen it before myself. No one has, for centuries. Not since the unification of all Almerac long ago. Using forgotten magics, the elders perform a blood sacrifice that stains the entire moon in the very blood they shed…"
"Kal, that doesn't mean…" Diana began.
"It does," he said solemnly. "They've somehow managed to distort their yellow sun's rays, making the moon reflect them as red… It's weaker though, I can feel it. Just like our own moon it only reflects a portion of the sun's light…" he trailed off.
"But, it's enough?" Diana asked, wearily, fretting the answer.
"Yes," Clark said. "Here on Almerac… I'm powerless at night."
Author's Note:
The Return! Welcome to Part 2 of "Superman: Mythos"! Strap in for a all new, fully fleshed-out adventure following the events of Part 1. I'm here to explore the aftermath of Part 1 as well as kick off brand new plotlines. If you're a pervious reader, welcome back! And if you're new, hey! Just continue reading! As per usual, reviews, comments, and suggestions are much appreciated!
Again, I'm open to any and all suggestions. One thing I've been toying with is a Clark/Diana romance. I'm not the biggest fan of this pairing, but the more I write them the more I see the appeal. Let me know if this is of interest to you guys or if you want me to stick firmly on the 'Lois path' I originally planned for. Or if you want a saucy love-triangle between them all instead, we can do that too! Please let me know on this or any other stuff you'd like to see from the Superman mythos make their way into, well, "Superman: Mythos".
Though there's a few rules I have that I'll let you guys in on. 1. NO BATMAN! - he's had enough scene time in all media as is. Mentions are, of course, allowed, as I've already made a few Bruce-references. 2. NO KRYPTONITE - this is more of a challenge to myself, to avoid the obvious and, quite frankly, lazy Superman weakness (though I did use Metallo in #12, but that was more for a fun gag and Supes wasn't even there). Don't expect to see these few things, but everything and anything else is fair game!
With that, I'll see ya around, True Believers! Shit - wrong company...
