Chapter 5

September 5, 2013

Paul stood in Lex Luthor's Laboratory all by himself with the orange and yellow suit of armor was mounted on the wall in front of him. Paul Luthor took a 45 automatic pistol and pointed at the suit firing 10 times emptying the clip. The bullets ricocheted onto the walls, floor and ceiling surrounding the suit of armor. Very good, Thought Paul. Then he took the M60 chain fed tripod mounted machine gun and fired a stream of bullets at the suit of armor. "Not bad, not bad at all," said Paul looking at the result. "Now let's try the servo-motors," said Paul to himself. Paul walked up to the Suit, opened up the latches, and climbed inside. Paul did an Iris scan to unlock the suit and he activated the command which caused the suit to automatically enclose around him. Paul detached himself from the wall mount and moved a leg and an arm began walking around the lab, turned on the synthetic vision. Very good. "now lets try some flying," Paul said to himself. He activated the jets in his boots and arms and flew through the open window. "Man oh man, this is something, what a view!" Paul said as he flew about the streets of Metropolis. Supergirl flew up to him.

"What are you doing?" She said. "Flying the same, as you." Paul replied. "So you're really going through with this?" Supergirl said. "Yes ma'am." Paul said. "Just so you know, I've defeated Lex Luthor in his super suits before," Supergirl said. "I'm sure you have, "Paul tuned in his police scanner," Let us see what crimes we have here today. "Wait on the internet, a hostage crises in Paris, on the Eiffel Tower, the terrorists claim to have a nuclear bomb, just great! I haven't tested my suit against nuclear bombs, Oh what the hell. Let's go!" Paul turned around and flew north east." "I'll just let the ole GPS plot the shortest distance route to Paris." Paul said. "Paul, you got to be crazy, that's an atomic bomb!" Supergirl nevertheless followed Paul. Supergirl and Paul broke the sound barrier and rose in altitude as the sky grew darker as they went into space.

Paul was surrounded with flame as he reentered the atmosphere. "Ah geez, I'm as blind as a bat," Paul said from within his suit. Fiery plasma glowed all around him as his suit took the punishment of atmospheric re-entry. Paul felt a pair of arms grab him, they were slender but unbelievably strong arms, Paul couldn't move his arms, they were pinned to his sides, the servo motors protested as he tried, so he stopped trying. As the plasma cleared, Paul saw supergirl looking right at him through his face plate. As the two slowed to a tolerable speed at low altitude, Paul flipped open his face plate. "You can let go of me now, I think I can fly on my own with this suit." Supergirl kissed him. "Just for good luck," she explained.

The two raced towards the Eiffel Tower. "Supergirl," Paul said, "There is an elevator with the cable cut plummeting to the ground. "I'm on it!" Supergirl said, and in an instant she was gone and Paul was left spinning in her wake. "Oh God!" Paul said as he used thrusters to stabilize his flight, he maximized his thrusters to arrive at the scene of the plummeting elevator. Supergirl was holding it up. "Paul," She said, "I need you to take miss Lois Lane to the ground." "Just a moment, I need to sweat off the heat of atmospheric re-entry. Paul sweated a big puff of steam as he flushed his water reserves onto the skin of his supersuit, when exterior thermometers registered an acceptable temperature that would not burn Lois Lane upon contact, he said, "Now I'm ready!" Paul held on to Lois Lane and flew her down to the ground, while supergirl pushed the elevator car up the shaft. "Supergirl!' Paul called, "the atomic bomb is on the Elevator!" "I know," she replied. Just then Supergirl and the elevator crashed through the roof of the shaft and ascended to the sky.

Paul flipped open his face plate. "Paul Luthor, is that you?" Lois exclaimed. "Please Miss Lane, can't you call me Iron Man?" Paul asked. "Sounds a bit confusing with 'Man of Steel' don't you think?" "Where is Superman by the way, isn't he usually around when you're in peril?" Paul asked. Just then Superman showed up, suddenly there was a second Sun in the sky. Paul's supersuit servo-motors suddenly ceased up and all the electronics in his faceplate and suit died.

Paul's super suit stiffened as he toppled over, hitting the ground stiff as a board. "Ow!" Paul cried from within his immobilized suit, "I forgot to harden this suit's electronics against electromagnetic pulse! Can somebody get me out of this thing?" Superman was busy catching airplanes that were falling out of the sky and putting them on the ground, various cars were heard crashing, traffic on the streets and highways came to a halt. Lois was busy looking for the manual release buttons to open the suit up so Paul could get out. "Some hero I turned out to be," Paul said dejectedly. "Well you saved my life," Lois Lane added sympathetically, "Superman didn't get here in time!"

Superman landed in front of Paul and Lois Lane. "Well that's because a certain roving reported didn't tell me she was going to cover this hostage crises up close, to get the scoop on Clark Kent." Superman said with just a little anger in his voice. "Well I thank you Paul, for saving Lois Lane's life," Superman added. "You're welcome Superman," Paul replied, "looks like I have to work out a few bugs in this suit before I return to superhero duties. I the background the terrorists were hauled away by French Police.

Paul looked up in the sky at that fading nuclear fireball. "Oh my God!" Paul cried with sudden realization, "Kara was up there!" "It's ok Paul," Kara said as she landed on the ground. "Oh Kara, I thought you were dead!" Paul said as he ran up and gave her a hug and a kiss. "It's ok Paul, I'm alright!" Kara said as she stroked his cheeks. "I'm afraid my super suit is dead due to the electromagnetic pulse of the nuclear explosion." Paul said.

It's ok Paul; I'll give you a lift back. "Thank You supergirl," Paul looked around saw the darkened buildings and immobilized traffic. "Looks like France is in a bit of trouble." Paul noticed. "We'll let NATO and the EU handle that," Supergirl said, "the area affected is about 50 miles around Paris, I'm sure the troops and the government can handle the aftermath, the important thing is we saved millions of lives from the nuclear explosion." "I guess you're right," Paul agreed, " think Charles De Gaulle Airport is out of commission right now, and I need to get back to my lab and build a new supersuit" "I'll take you to England, from there we can board a plane," Supergirl answered."I'll buy the tickets," Paul added. The two of them flew into the sky, this time a bit more slowly.