I do not own any DC Characters used herein, and am only employing them in a story meant for entertainment purposes only.

Man Of Steel

Original Story By Twisted-Wun & LJ58

Edited and Reposted (With Permission) by LJ58

11

Kal-El rose to his feet, pushing himself up out of a shallow crater of hardened steel as he realized men in white, naval uniforms were gaping at him. Quite a few with guns aimed at him.

"Hold it, alien," one of the officers leading the sailors demanded. "You're under….."

"Save it," he told one of the officers. "We've got bigger trouble coming," he told him, and flew back toward the island.

Even as the creature took its first step, half falling, half leaping off the active volcanic cone, he was already flying at near top speed as he slammed into the monster, lifted it high off the ground, and slammed it down into the sea. The splash raised a small wave that swept over many of the naval vessels, but just then, he had one hope, and one hope only if he was going to stop what he feared might well be unstoppable.

"Batman," he said, flying down to intercept the man who was still directing confusion and chaos, and trying to render order to the mad flight to the overcrowded docks. "Whoever else you have on call, you'd better call them. I need them to help stall that thing until I return."

"What is it," Diana asked as J'onn flew down to join them.

"Explain it," Kal-El told him, knowing the Martian just received his mental image of a creature right out of nightmare.

A Kryptonian nightmare.

"But….?"

"No time," he snapped at Diana, and flew off so fast many of those nearby were almost swept from their feet.

"J'onn," Batman turned a grim gaze toward him.

"Debriefings can wait. Needless to say, if we cannot stop that creature, every living thing on the planet is doomed. Literally doomed."

All eyes turned to the ocean that was already roiling just before something big leapt up out of the sea, to arch back toward the island, landing with enough force to create a small quake.

"Call everyone," Batman said somberly. "Flash," he called out to him. "Time to step things up. No time for niceties. Get these people off this island now!"

"On it," Flash shouted, and people began to shout anew, but by the time their cries sounded, they were already gone.

"J'onn, you and I had better see what we can do," Diana told the Martian. "It sounds like that thing is headed directly toward us," she added needlessly as the growls, and shattering trees reached their ears.

"I will try to establish a telepathic link, and see if I can slow it."

"If," Batman asked.

J'onn cringed even as the grim detective spoke.

"Nothing," he told them, recoiling in pain. "The creature's mind is virtually blank, save for an unyielding hate and rage toward all living things. It literally wants to destroy…..everything."

"Then best we stop it," Diana, princess of the Amazon, and a literal child of the gods declared, and leapt into the sky to fly toward the oncoming beast.

"Did you reach the others?"

"None that will reach us in time to do any good," J'onn told them. "And Captain Atom is still on that….covert mission you sent him on," he added.

"Recall him," Batman said. "This is obviously an emergency."

J'onn nodded, and turned and flew after Diana.

Neither pointed out that the Amazon, strong as she was, would likely be needing help.

MoS

Captain Nathaniel Adam walked into the office, and eyed his superior officer.

"General Eiling," he saluted, "I have some grim news from the League."

"Did they find out you're a double agent," the grizzled, older man scowled at the sandy-haired man before him in Air Force blues. Not that Nathaniel was human. Not any longer. He could just make it seem he still looked that way.

"No, sir," he scowled. "They still think I'm with their agenda all the way. Sir, we just had their cover blown, but good. There is media all over the Corta Merdonne site. Even that isn't as serious as what they found, sir. I think we just found out where Dr. Luthor sent the Doomsday prototype we…. That is, you were attempting to reprogram."

"Doomsday was on the island," the general swore.

"Under it," the former and still technically active air force officer told his superior as he switched on a television in the office, and wasn't too surprised to find it was already on a global news network. One that was filming the 'heroic' metas attempting to evacuate islanders from the double threat of a volcanic eruption, and a genuine monster.

Even as General Eiling stared at the screen, he saw the colorfully clad woman calling herself an Amazon princess slam through several trees before bouncing off a panel truck. Hard as she hit, she was back on her feet in seconds as she apparently faced something coming right at her.

"Impressive," the general smiled at the woman, but Nathaniel knew he wasn't talking about Diana's voluptuous figure.

"She's allegedly empowered by the Greek Gods. Real gods. Or so she claims."

"Yes," he said, watching the woman as the camera tracked her, and got a glimpse of the darkly clad figure that moved in the background, always managing to evade being seen clearly. "I read your reports. Any idea who is behind that gruesome cowl as yet?"

"He's….very secretive. Won't even tell his other companions who he is as yet. He's obviously connected to very wealthy backers, though. His…..equipment doesn't come cheap."

"That's Intel we are already exploring," he said, and then gave a faint, involuntary gasp as someone in the background screamed as something huge slammed into the ground after apparently landing just feet from where the recovering Amazon stood.

Wade Eiling couldn't help but gape as he watched the woman duck a massive, spiked fist, and then slam joined fists into the behemoth's bony jaw. To his astonishment, the blow actually made the creature backpedal three full steps.

Before he shook his head, shaggy, white hair flying about a face that looked as if it were carved from stone. Very craggy stone. Then the beast roared, and swung two wild fists at the Amazon who just managed to dodge them as she tried to lure the creature away from the nearby docks.

When it was obvious it wasn't following the bait, a powerfully muscled green figure flew headlong into the monster's chest, driving it back several feet before the humanoid figure flowed and wrapped itself around the beast as the apparent man grew and stretched into a huge, wiry dragon.

"When you said he was a shape-shifter, I didn't realize," Eiling began, watching the creature pound at the flying reptile actually lifting it from the ground, carrying it back toward the volcano.

Captain Adam said nothing as he eyed the communicator that began to buzz.

"They want me there," he said.

"No," Eiling snapped.

"What," Nathaniel frowned.

Wade Eiling smiled.

"Don't you get it? Either way, we win. Either way, they're now exposed. And if the Doomsday creature takes them out, we pick up the pieces. If not, we can demonstrate they are a credible threat, and finally sway that indecisive poser in the White House to back Cadmus as he should."

"And if they fall," the disguised force of nature asked quietly, for that was how he saw himself now. "Who stops that thing from reaching population?"

"It's a big ocean. Even the Doomsday creature….."

There was a shrill cry of pain as the Martian was literally torn in half in midair, and the falling creature flung the halves in different directions. Even as he fell, Diana was already flying toward the beast. She hit it before it could reach the ground, and sent him flying fifty feet back toward the volcanic cone.

"I have to…"

"He's back," a lean, wiry man in red appeared before the camera even as Diana landed just outside the clearing, knowing well what the thundering footsteps headed their way meant.

Only the Flash, as the scarlet extrovert called himself, wasn't pointing toward the jungle. He was looking up as a streak of color cut across the sky, and then Wade was gaping at the self-styled hero that had been sighted in Metropolis of late.

"X-1," he hissed, and stared at the creature he had argued in vain should have been put down when it was first found he was growing stronger by the day.

"Apparently, they managed to contact him," Nathaniel realized, mesmerized in spite of himself at the image of that powerful being hovering in the air before the other heroes. "What can even he….."

"Get back," the alien's voice shouted, carrying well over the transmission as he lifted a curious device he aimed in the direction of the near deafening roars.

The near-mindless beast roared all the louder when it spotted the alien, and turned toward him even as the blue and red clad hero aimed the machine he carried. An instant later, the creature simply vanished in a burst of golden light.

"What is that," Eiling swore as he watched the alien land to regard Diana with a somber sweep of his gaze. "What did he do?"

"I have no idea, sir," he told him.

Wade eyed him, and drawled, "Maybe you'd better return after all. Find out all you can. Most especially if that alien is joining that band of vigilantes."

Nathaniel's human guise faded in a blur of white energy, and left only a silvery figure standing before the general.

"I'll report when I can," he said somberly, eyeing the general he still didn't quite trust.

Still, he was an officer of the United States, and he had a duty to follow orders. For now.

He rose from the ground, and flew out General Eiling's window without looking back.

Or opening it.

He simply passed through the molecules without interacting with them, and kept going. He was, after all, Captain Atom. Master of all things subatomic. Maybe even more.

MoS

"What is that," Batman demanded as he limped over to join Diana and Kal-El even as Flash returned with a still weak, but recovering J'onn.

"A prison key," Kal-El told him. "Don't worry. He cannot break out, and he can not harm anyone where I sent him. That, however, isn't what worries me."

"You're still worried," Flash groaned. "Didn't you just zap the monster? What else is there? I mean, besides the still dangerously hot lava," he gestured helplessly as Batman and Diana both eyed him with somber looks.

"When I first saw the creature, I thought it was the Doomsday beast from my father's archives. I was wrong. It was just a copy. A far superior one than Cadmus could have created," he pointed out even as Batman just eyed him, and the Phantom Zone projector with a grave expression.

"Which suggests, then, that the original is still unaccounted for, as well as whoever sent that thing here," Diana realized.

"Indeed," Kal-El nodded. "You've a keen mind to ascertain the issues so readily."

"Wisdom of the gods," Wally winked.

Kal-El merely eyed the shapely Amazon, and shrugged. "If you say so. I trust you are all right, J'onn J'onzz?"

"I have been better," the Martian smiled wanly. "I should be fine once I rest enough to fully recover."

"Dr. Lex Luthor recently vanished after a raid on Cadmus," Batman cut in. "Were you behind that, too," he asked, nodding at his Phantom Zone projector.

"I have not seen Dr. Luthor recently," Kal-El drawled blandly. "I have been to Cadmus. A dangerous place where men are, once again, overreaching their grasp."

"That is hardly unusual in the Patriarch's world," Diana told him. "Still, if anything has undermined Luthor, or his mad dreams, I won't complain."

"We aren't judges or juries," Batman grit out. "We certainly aren't executioners."

"Uh, say, Bats? What about the lava? Remember the really hot stuff still coming out way?"

"Without the creature, the flow should rapidly diminish, and the residue should not be enough to endanger anyone once they off the island," Kal-El told them as he noted several reporters trying to edge closer with their cameras.

He also noted Batman was surreptitiously moving to keep his face ever away from those cameras.

Beyond the island, the last refugees were leaving in small canoes, and fishing boats, heading for the naval vessels that had arrived for humanitarian aid. He already noted several launches filled with armed men were headed for the docks, though. He had little doubt that they intended to intercept them.

"I suggest if you wish to retain whatever anonymity you desire keeping, you depart now," Kal-El told them. "The Navy seems to be sending armed squads our way, and I rather doubt it's to aid the journalists left behind."

"Hold on one minute, mister," Batman growled. "We still have a few things to discuss."

"Later," Kal-El told him, and leapt into the air, and kept going. He was gone faster than Wally could blink.

"Wow. And I thought I was fast," the Flash declared as he stared into the wide, blue sky. The very empty wide, blue sky.

"Time to go," J'onn agreed, glancing around himself. "I suggest you people also get off this island. It's still not safe here, and the cone is still unstable enough that it might yet erupt."

"Wait," a young woman with an all-business gleam in her eyes demanded. "Who are you people? Where did you come from? What are you…..?"

J'onn and Diana simply flew up into the air, even as Batman's right hand rose, and a long, fine cable exploded from a small device in his hand, the grapple catching a passing aircraft that was shaped like a huge bat. Even as grapple connected to craft, he vanished as he was pulled up and away. By the time the reporters looked back toward the speedster, he had literally run off, right across the ocean, splashing the oncoming navy personnel without slowing to greet them.

Just that swift, they were gone, and only the smoldering island rapidly growing hotter as the lava neared the beaches remained to mark the trouble spot.

"Let's get out of here," one cameraman suggested. "I'm not that fond of barbecue."

They all headed for their own launches, all while rapidly speculating live as their cameras broadcast the incredible images they had seen here today. Images that would be replayed all over the globe as everyone asked just who those powerful people were that come out of nowhere, and returned just as swiftly.

MoS

As fast as he was, Captain Atom knew he wasn't going to reach them before they left the island after he realized the news he was overhearing on the radio waves and electronic pulses flowing around him told him the heroes had indeed already left the island even as he headed for the one place he knew Batman would regroup to debrief the team after that virtual fiasco.

He wondered if the alien would be there, too.

The Kryptonian.

They called him Superman now. He had, of course, read Cadmus' file on X-1. A part of him sympathized with the being. A part of him understood how General Eiling, and quite a few others couldn't help but fear he might be part of something bigger than anyone knew. Either way, he knew an unguided force with that much raw power was too dangerous to ignore. Especially as he was an alien with no real ties to the country.

That was what really irritated Eiling.

He knew that, because Eiling hated the fact that he had power that the general had wanted for himself. Instead, an experiment gone wrong had technically killed him, only to bring him back as a near cosmic force of raw energy. Energy that had few concerns. He had a weakness, though. Without his special containment suit, his human manifestation took all his will to maintain, and he could easily fall apart. Literally. Breaking down into his component atoms and losing himself.

It had taken him years to pull himself together after that ill-fated experiment. It wasn't much of a surprise that Eiling was waiting to once more pull his strings when he reappeared. He had even had that containment suit waiting, a piece of another experiment that went awry. But one that allowed him to pass as a man once more.

Still, even he wondered why it was that he let Eiling continue to bark orders knowing it was his fault that Nathaniel Adam had become Atom, and little else.

Duty.

Damnable, unyielding duty.

Is that all he really had left?

Putting his thoughts aside, he turned his path upwards, heading toward Eiling's other peeve. He fumed over the fact he had yet to learn where the heroes resided on Earth. It grated all the more that he could not reach their 'Watchtower' that orbited the planet like some grand citadel. One with enough defenses that even his best spacecraft couldn't get near it unless the League allowed it. They did not, as a rule, invite outsiders.

He had to smirk at that, and added speed as he left the atmosphere, and flew on toward the League base. Hopefully, he would arrive in time for Batman's debriefing to get a better idea of what was going on with the erstwhile ward of Cadmus' Sam Lane.

Another officer with a grim view of the world around him so far as he could tell.

MoS

"Welcome back," Kal-El told him as J'onn materialized behind him in the communication room where he was monitoring the Phantom Zone.

He shut down the device, and turned to face the Martian who simply nodded at him.

"You don't need telepathy," he remarked, "Considering how sharp your senses are. Few would have detected me coming as I did. In fact, none do."

"My senses aside," he told the Martian, gesturing for him to follow him out of the chamber. "Nothing enters my Fortress that I don't know about. At least, not a second time," he smiled somberly as he eyed J'onn. "Refreshments," He asked, lading him to what appeared to be a very comfortable lounge in spite of the ice and crystal all around them.

"This is….genuinely astonishing architecture. Native Kryptonian?"

"As close as I could manage on this planet," he nodded.

"It's more than I ever expected to see. As I said, your people weren't noted for….exploring."

"They did. They simply left such exploration to drones, robots, or remote viewers."

"I see."

"So, J'onn," he said, sitting on a plush chair after adjusting his cape behind him. Next to him, a robotic drone appeared that brought a tray of refreshments to the table between their chairs.

The Martian merely sat, and smiled his appreciation as he took the cup.

"Good," he murmured.

"Oddly enough, I find I enjoy cocoa. It's…..soothing at times."

"I favor the cookies myself," J'onn admitted. "I got rather addicted to them since coming to Earth," he told him, picking up an Oreo.

"I noticed."

"You….noticed?"

"Your satellite isn't that far away for my eyes. I've watched you even before you approached me."

"I see. Yet you didn't approach us?"

"You were not my business. I'm still not sure you are. Frankly, Batman's attitude aside, I do not consider myself a very good fit for your…..league."

"I would think that after today, you would see how much we do need you. We have power, but none in your range. Even Diana and I aren't as strong as you. Even more important, you obviously use your mind as much as your muscles. We need that. Batman is a very good tactician, but he's more likely to go it alone than not. Wally rarely thinks before acting, and some of our other members can be just as bad."

"I am more than happy to help anyone that needs my help. Especially in regard to safeguarding the planet as a whole. I just don't think running about in the shadows is for me. Frankly, I don't think you have any choice now but to make some kind of statement after the media spotted you on that island."

"That was part of what we were….discussing yesterday after the mission. Batman still thinks we should just ignore the press, and continue as we have. Let them speculate all they wish, but leave nothing for them to find. Or quote."

"That's not very logical. At this point, the press can be an ally if you approach them. Just as the press can make the world see your goals as either honorable, or suspect."

"Very true. Diana and I made the same point. Batman, however, can be…."

"Stubborn," Kal-El asked.

"To say the least," J'onn agreed as he reached for the last cookie.

Kal-El only smiled, and allowed him the treat.

"So, what do I tell our more reasonable members about your….decision?"

"Tell them if they need help, I am always here. I still do have reservations about your group."

"Diana hopes you will join. She thinks you might….balance the sides. Your obvious power aside, your reason impressed her."

"My….reason?"

"Most of our more powerful members are the type to just keep throwing fists without thought. You managed to assess the situation on Corta Merdonne, and acted accordingly to end what could have become a fiasco without that failing, as she puts it."

Kal-El said nothing to that.

He paused, rubbing his forehead, then eyed J'onn.

"Trying to read my mind?"

"It's obviously not working," he said without denying it.

"All you have to do is ask. What few secrets I harbor, guard themselves."

"Obviously. Batman is still concerned over your….ray device."

"It's a Phantom Zone projector."

"Of course. The Thanagarians I encountered once used the same device for their own rogues and malcontents. They deemed it….."

"Humane," Kal-El suggested.

"Far from it. They felt an incorporeal existence in a dimension you cannot escape to be the ultimate in punishment for a warrior race."

Kal-El said nothing to that.

"So, your father sent one with you?"

"No. I built it after studying the blueprints from the archives sent with me."

"Obviously, you considered a use for it even before that faux Doomsday."

"Obviously. In fact, I was considering assessing the Kryptonians in the Zone that might be worthy of a second chance."

"That could be…. Extraordinarily risky. After all, they'd have the same powers and abilities that you do. Suppose they chose not to follow a lawful path?"

"You will note that none have been released," Kal-El all but snorted. "I'm not stupid. I will not be releasing anyone just because I'm the last known member of my race in this universe. I am, however, still sifting records and data, and using my own intelligence in observing those confined to the Phantom Zone."

"So, you managed a viewer, too?"

Kal-El's expression suggested J'onn might be a little slow after all.

"Sorry. I'm used to being around Wally," the Martian allowed the faintest of smiles.

"Indeed. He is quite the…..unique character. Isn't he?"

Before J'onn could reply, a faint klaxxon sounded, and Kal-El frowned as he jumped up, and raced back the way he had come.

"What is that?"

"That alert is for extra-dimensional incursions," he told him. "Something is coming through hyperspace. Something….big," he said, and didn't stop the Martian from following him back to the communications station, where he opened the panel, stepped inside, and stared.

"What is that," J'onn exclaimed, staring at the massive construct headed their way, for he could easily make out Jupiter in the background of the images being relayed by the Kryptonian's scanners.

"I don't know," Kal-El admitted, eyeing the massive, artificial satellite that was easily twice the size of the moon, and yet moving under it's own power. "But it's obviously coming right at Earth. I suggest you contact your own people. And the military."

"You think it's hostile?"

A blinding flash cut off the transmitted images, and Kal-El nodded.

"Definitely. Friendly visitors don't vaporize your reconnaissance drones without warning."

"Batman, Diana," J'onn called at once, putting one finger to his left ear. "We have a situation."

"We see it, J'onn. Unless you have another situation," a gruff voice Kal-El didn't recognize.

"Just a giant moon coming at us," he remarked. "Captain Atom, we made need to call everyone in on this. Send out a general alert. Even Kal-El thinks this is bad news."

"Anything in the Kryptonian annals you mentioned to forewarn us," Batman's distinctive voice came over the link.

"Nothing," J'onn admitted after Kal-El shook his head again. "I'm on my way back. I suggest we make a plan. Anything this large isn't going to be easy to face head-on."

"Obviously," another voice drawled.

"Flash," Kal-El heard Batman growl. "Alert all planetary authorities. We may have to consider this an invasion."

"No," another voice cut in on the League signal. "It's much worse."

"Who are you," Batman growled. "How did you…..?"

A burst of static cut into the channel, and all contact was lost.

"We're being jammed. By the planetoid," Kal-El told J'onn.

"Then it's definitely hostile."

"Definitely. I'll review my archives, just in case, and then contact you at the Watchtower later. Meanwhile, I suggest you go help your friends prepare. Whoever that was at the end sounded…."

"I didn't recognize him. Not that it matters. New metas are popping up every day."

Kal-El nodded, and J'onn vanished as he rose to phase through the Fortress before he transported to the Watchtower. He turned back to his communications panel, and opened up a private frequency.

"Jor-El," he called. "I require information."

Continued…