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
16
"You don't want to do this," the voice said in an ominous tone as the man spun around to find himself staring into shadows.
"Damn it," he hissed, turning back to the safe he was trying to open. "Now I'm hearing things."
"No. You're not," the grim tone hissed in his ear as he was pulled around, and saw a gloved fist coming at his face just before he lost consciousness.
"I'm in," Batman growled as he walked past the unconscious man. "You might alert security that there's a safecracker on the fourth floor. Run-of-the-mill sort from the look of him."
"Nothing like that feline freak that's been mentioned lately," the voice in his ear asked curiously.
"Not even close…."
Batman spun around, hearing a faint rustle of movement where none should be.
"Hold that thought."
He clung to the shadows as he approached the main vault on the floor, and saw a woman not trying to crack that heavy door, but slicing a glass display case covering a golden statue of Bast.
"Don't worry, goddess," she was cooing to the figurine of a humanoid cat in Egyptian garb, and carrying what appeared to be a staff and a bow. "You'll soon be free."
"And you'll soon be in a prison," he told the woman in a very form-fitting, leather garment with a stylized tail attached. She even had cat ears atop the mask, and when she turned to eye him, one hand deftly lifting the statue from the case after the circular hole had been cut with apparently diamond-tipped claws, she only smiled.
"Batman," she all but purred. "I see the press hasn't been quite as accurate as it should be. You look….yummy," the woman smiled as she actually licked her lips, and dropped the statue into a leather pouch on her shoulder.
"That doesn't belong to you," he growled. "Put it back, and we can make arrangements….."
"No, no, no," she laughed, and stepped forward, no fear showing in those bright eyes fixed on him. "The goddess doesn't belong in a dusty museum. She's got to be free. To show the world her blessings. I insist."
"Sounds like just another excuse for robbery," he spat, raising curled fists.
The woman only chortled.
"Oh, Batman, you have no idea what I'm doing. But you will," she said, and before he realized it, she had seemed to tumble forward, only to somersault toward him so fast he barely blocked the simultaneous kicks from her surprisingly high boots as she turned, spun on one wrist, and tried to kick him in the face with a heel.
He blocked one kick, the second, and just barely dodged the last.
She was, he realized, very good.
The woman stood before him, head cocked to one side, and he had the inordinate feeling that she really was somehow channeling a cat's spirit as she stood there smirking at him with what seemed a playful grin.
"Surely we're not done already," she cooed.
"Not even close," he growled, and surged forward, anticipating the apparently modified savate moves, but not the backspin that put an elbow in his chest, and left him bent over, and prey to a simple judo throw in spite of his body armor.
The woman was not only fast, she was stronger than she looked.
He managed to avoid landing on his backside as he kept his fall going, spinning to land in a crouch, and rose to eye the woman who had simply stepped back to watch him again.
"Not bad, lover," she beamed. "What's your next move? I'm just dripping with anticipation."
"I am not your lover," he growled, switching off the transceiver considering where this woman was taking this conversation, and who was listening.
"Well, the night is young," she cooed, and broke and ran right at him.
He fended off her suddenly savage and blinding assault, conscious of those diamond-tipped nails that left scores on his body armor. By the time the exchange was complete, and he spun around to prepare for her next assualt, he was hearing the shattering of glass, and raced to a window to stare out over the city.
And couldn't see a single trace of the woman. It was as if she had literally vanished. To a man that specialized in coming and going unseen, it was an unnerving moment as he realized just how quickly she had managed to disappear right in front of him.
With her stolen goods.
"Catwoman," he growled, the faintest degree of admiration in his tone as he looked out over the dark city beyond the shattered window.
MoS
Close to the nineteen hour mark into the wormhole, Shayera had come back to watch the instruments as Kal-El continued to do various work about the ship that only he knew, or understood. Even she found it vaguely suspicious that he only did that work when alone.
Nor did he discuss it. He merely dismissed it as precautionary peripherals. Which, of course, meant nothing to any of them.
Being used to working under superiors that rarely shared their full plans, she said little to him. Until she sat down, and noted a light blinking, and stabbed an intercom.
"Kal-El, our course is deviating. Is something wrong with the autopilot?"
"How is it deviating," came his bland reply as if distracted by something.
"It's changing our course by more than fifteen degrees," she told him urgently. "We're completely off track from the New Genesis route."
"I'll be right there," he said, and with a rush of air, he was suddenly there, gesturing for to move aside as he took the pilot's chair.
He sat down, but didn't reset the navigational coordinates. Instead, he was checking one of the devices she realized he had been working on for the past nineteen hours since they first wet out.
"What is that," she asked as she realized it was no longer dark, but now blinking with several green lights that suggested it was an active device, and not merely an experiment.
"Long ranger scanner," he told her. "It's picking up a transmission. Faint, but is are there. It's a Kryptonian distress marker. That's why the autopilot set the course correction."
"Correction," she sputtered, wishing some of the others were up here with them. Maybe they would have gotten more out of him, because he wasn't making sense. "From where? There's nothing out there," she waved in the direction of space beyond the ship's nose.
"But there was," he told her. "We're in the vicinity of Krypton's outer moons."
"Krypton," she exploded. "Kal, even I know there's nothing left of….."
"No. There isn't. But part of the outermost moon is still intact. And it's there that the life signs were detected."
"You planned this from the start, didn't you," Shayera accused him.
Kal-El eyed her, then nodded.
"Of course, I did. Did you think I would come within a handful of parsecs from my world, and not try to investigate?"
"But the residual radiation? Even I know…."
He glanced around.
"I wear a specially designed uniform interwoven with lead fibers made especially to protect me from the more intense radiation of the fragmented minerals the press now calls Kryptonite," he told her. "In addition, I've been experimenting with a special serum that gives me some immunity to long term affects, so as long as I'm not in direct contact for a prolonged period, I should be fine. I also retrofitted this ship so that its more than aptly insulated from any harmful radiations out there."
"That signal still doesn't mean…."
"At this distance, at that level, it may be nothing," he admitted. "It may be everything. I have to check. I have to know," he told her.
"I agree," J'onn said as he rose up through the ship's plating to materialize before him.
"Were you eavesdropping," Shayera accused.
"No. You left the intercom switched on," Diana told her as she stepped onto the bridge with Flash and Captain Atom.
"You really think there are more of your people out there?"
"I honestly don't know," he told Flash. "It might be an old signal. Still, it's a promising sign if something still has enough power to broadcast a stable distress beacon after all this time."
"Well, since we're already here, I say, go for it. It's the right thing to do," Flash said with surprising sincerity.
"I agree," Diana nodded.
"This could be just a wild goose chase. Our priority is….."
All eyes went to Captain Atom.
"Dude, we wouldn't even be here if it weren't for Superman. If he wants to take a side trip to see if he has any….family left, I say we let him."
Captain Atom eyed the colorfully clad hero who looked positively grim, and remarked, "You're going even if I protest."
"Wouldn't you, Captain," Kal-El asked him bluntly. "If it were one of your own?"
"It's two-to-one, Cap….."
"Three," J'onn told Flash.
"Three-to-one. Since we're still technically a democracy here, I say Superman goes. It is the right thing to do."
"You're not going to say anything?"
Shayera eyed the obvious military man, and considered his manner somewhat peculiar. Even for a human that apparently changed as he had.
"It's not my place. I was just concerned the ship was malfunctioning. It's obviously not."
"You're still part of the team," Diana told her. "You have a say….."
"Then I would say Superman deserves to find out if there is anyone left out there. If they do need help, it wouldn't be humane to fly on without at least trying to assist them."
"This from an alien warrior who claimed to be badder than all of us?"
"Thanagarians revere life just as much as you humans, Captain," she snapped. "Our ideals and culture might be different, but in that, we are much alike. I think," she added pointedly as she eyed him coolly.
"Fine. Do as you wish," Captain Atom told them. "But the moment we determine what is, or isn't out there, we get back on course for New Genesis."
"Agreed," Kal-El nodded. "I'll go down to the surface myself. With my spacesuit, I should be able to manage the conditions long enough to investigate, and return. You'll all be safest staying aboard."
"I'll accompany you," Captain Atom told him. "Even you shouldn't go out alone. You're our best chance of completing this mission, and let's face it, there's nothing out there that can harm me."
Kal-El nodded.
"I'm bringing us to the stable side of Argos nearest the beacon," he said, turning back to the controls, and switching off the auto-pilot now as they dramatically slowed, and the starscape beyond began to take on normal appearance.
"My…..God," Diana rasped, seeing the shattered quarter moon as they neared it, and saw the devastation that had cracked the small sphere like an egg. "How could anyone have survived that?"
"That's why I am here," Kal-El told her quietly. "To find out if they could. Or did," he said, maneuvering near a plateau overlooking what had obviously once been a grand city of sparkling crystal.
Until it had been crushed, and tilted on edge like a child's toy in a massive hand.
"And….Krypton," Diana asked him as Kal-El studied the devices before him.
"Only rubble. Nothing of the planet itself remains. None of the other moons survived. Just this piece of Argos, the furthest, and biggest moon. It must have been out at the outer edge of its elliptical orbit for even this much to have even survived," he speculated.
"The sheer devastation," J'onn murmured. "Even Mars never faced this kind of cataclysm. Do you know….what happened?"
"I have a theory," Kal-El admitted as he landed the ship, and shut down the engines. "It is admittedly theory, though, based on my father's archives, and observations leading up to the end. Now is not the time for lectures, however. Even with our shielding, our time is limited. Rao is still dangerous if we remain in the vicinity too long."
"Rao," Flash frowned.
"The sun," Diana guessed, nothing the scanner displayed the location of the huge, red star that filled the screen like a bloated orb.
"Yes. If you are ready, Captain," Kal-El rose, and headed for the escape hatch without waiting.
"Right behind you," the man of energy murmured, and followed him.
MoS
"Batman? Batman, are you all right?"
"Of course, I am," came the low, curt growl over the transceiver when he activated it again.
"Did you find her? Was she the one you thought?"
"She was….something," Batman replied wryly to his new partner, even if just now he was confined to the cave. When he could manage it.
"When you say 'something,'" the young man's blatant amusement came in audibly in his tone.
"She's not an ordinary thief. In fact, she might well have an active metagene," he told him. "We definitely need to do more research on that end. There are more and more super-powered beings cropping up everywhere of late. Even in Gotham."
"I hear there's an expert in the field working at Star Labs over in Metropolis."
"Dr. Emil Hamilton. I've read his work."
"Of course, you've read everyone's work," came the droll reply.
"I hope you've read your own homework for the evening," Batman replied as he left the building, and headed for the camouflaged Batmobile as 'Robin' had called it five seconds after he saw the sleek, jet-powered car.
"Already done," came the smug reply. "So, give. Was she hot?"
"I think you're too young to even be thinking about that kind of thing."
"Jeez, Bats," the boy huffed. "I'm thirteen. Not three!"
"Robin, don't ever call me Bats again," came the chilling retort.
"Yes, sir," Robin audibly backpedaled at the rebuke.
Batman slid into the car, assessed the police broadcasts, and headed for a trouble spot. "I'm heading for the docks. Tie in any area street-cams, and show me what's happening down there."
"Right," Robin told him, sounding eager for any diversion just then.
Bruce Wayne, however, was still putting things together that stunned him.
It was subtle. Barely noticeable, but he had smelled that perfume before. Seen that uncanny grace in another body.
Catwoman, he realized, was the socialite Selina Kyle. An avid activist for certain causes that just happened to focus on animals. Especially cats.
So, he asked himself, what did he do with that knowledge?
MoS
"It looks like we came all this way for a well-preserved corpse," Captain Atom quipped grimly as he eyed the frosted tube that proved the source of the distress beacon.
There were several other tubes in the devastated ruin of the complex where it lay at a drunken angle, miraculously surviving whatever forces had shattered the others, leaving skeletal remains watching over the single survivor.
"No, she's alive," Kal-El told him, and began to disconnect wires and tubes to reset them to a portable battery pack that was part of his own life-support unit in his suit.
"Are you crazy, you can't….?"
"She's alive, in perfect stasis. Only she won't stay that way long," he cut Captain Atom off. "See those indicators? Power is almost gone, and the readouts suggests she is suffering from some residual radiation sickness. The tube's shielding wasn't good enough to completely protect her. Likely when this fragment orbited close enough to the remains of Krypton she was more directly exposed to the more lethal fragments there."
"And how are we supposed to…..?"
Kal-El lifted the tube, and cradled it gently over one shoulder.
"I'll improvise, Captain. She may well be the only other surviving Kryptonian in this universe. I will not write her off without trying to save her."
Captain Atom followed him, glaring at the hero's back, and knowing Ms. Waller, and especially General Eiling were not going to like this one bit. Another viable Kryptonian. A female? If they reproduced…..?
He said nothing as he followed the Kryptonian back up the sloping plateau to their ship.
Halfway up, they felt a huge rumbling, and the entire plateau shifted. Below them, what remained of that building collapse, and both of them stared back at it with grim expressions.
"Makes you almost believe in fate, doesn't it," Flash's voice cut in over the radio, proving they were still watching through their suit cameras. Not that Captain Atom needed one, but it helped him communicate since he needed the transceiver in the helmet.
"Kal-El," Shayera cut in now. "Your suit is showing critical levels of oxygen. You need to move."
"I'll hold my breath," he told her. "I need what's left for life support I shunted to the tube."
"Isn't she frozen," Captain Atom asked cynically.
"Of course not," Kal-El replied, then said no more as he took an audible gulp of air, and walked on up the slope with determined steps.
"So, how long can you hold your breath," Diana asked him curiously as he came out of the cargo hatch where he had hooked in the life-support tube to ensure it didn't fail.
"I don't know. I did spend a day under the sea investigating some very interesting volcanic rifts. I had little problem with that," he shrugged.
"A whole day," Flash exclaimed, glancing around him at the tube. "Wow. So, what now?"
"Now, we get out of here before the orbit carries us to close to the sun, or the fragments of Krypton," he told them. "Even I could tell the moon's orbit is obviously unstable considering the quakes we felt."
"Do you think she'll make it," Diana asked, looking back at the pale features of the female mostly masked by the frost inside that clear tube that was apparently stronger than it looked to have survived all this time.
"I'm going to try to give her every chance," he told her, and headed for the bridge after stripping away his suit, and leaving them behind.
No one saw the glare that Captain Atom gave the tube, or its occupant as he lingered in the hold as the rest of them headed for the bridge.
MoS
They were back on course, heading for New Genesis, when Kal-El noted the rising temperature in the cargo hold. Knowing that the girl was nowhere near ready to come out of the tube without serious medical attention waiting, he switched back to autopilot again, and headed for the hold.
Even he was surprised to find what he did.
"What are you doing," Kal-El demanded as he walked into the hold to find Captain Atom standing over the tube, his hands glowing brightly with golden energies he was feeding into the warming tube that was no longer quite as frosted.
"I'm giving her what she needs," he told her.
"What she….?"
"I may be a soldier, Superman," he told him. "But I'm not stupid. When I saw that red star back there, it took me about four seconds to realize our sun must be the source of a lot of your power and energy. It occurred to me that her chances might double if I gave her a concentrated does of that same solar energy you get from our sun."
"I'll admit, I didn't expect you to want to help. You seem to be….at odds with my presence, and…."
"I do have a lot of reservations with you," he admitted, his hands still radiating energies so intense that Kal-El could feel it himself, and felt a resurging of his own energy levels that had been flagging after that stop near Rao. And what had been Krypton. "Still, I appreciate you doing this. Even if I don't know why?"
"I think you know how I was….transformed."
"I've read the press releases," he nodded.
"They left a lot out," he said, his hands starting to fade now, and then flutter as he slowly ended the solar charge he had been giving the girl. "My wife was part of the experiment, which, I suspect you might realize the military buried. The research, and my wife. She was exposed to near lethal energies, but unlike me, she didn't transform. She just started dying."
"I'm sorry," Kal-El told him quietly.
"For twenty-five years, she's been in a life-support tube, barely alive, but then, not really alive. Just like this girl. When I saw her…."
"Twenty-five years," Kal-El frowned.
"There was a lot not in the press releases," he nodded at Kal-El's expression.
"So I gather. Of course, I see," he murmured after a moment as he walked over, checking the tube's readings now as he studied the results of the solar bath. Something he should have considered himself. "Your….backers use her continued survival to keep you following their orders, don't they."
"My….backers?"
"I haven't been with the League long, I know. But it takes little effort to realize you're more a spy than a colleague."
"Now, hold on….."
"As has been pointed out. I also have very good senses. I see and hear far more than most realize. Especially when I decide where and when to focus. So, yes, I know you are not truly committed to the League just now. Which is rather sad, considering your could be so much more," Kal-El went on.
Captain Atom simply stared at him.
"And have you told anyone of your….suspicions?"
"We all have secrets. I still have quite a few of my own. Which, I believe, is part of your superiors' problem with me."
Nathaniel glanced at the girl, then back at Kal-El.
"And now?"
"Let me give you part of my own perspective," Kal-El told him.
The Captain nodded.
"My powers aside, so far as I could tell, the only thing your superiors ever truly wanted from me was weaponry. The bigger, the better. At first, they felt I could somehow aid them in building better soldiers."
"Bio-genetic augmentation," he nodded, knowing that was the heart of the experiment that had essentially damned him. And his wife.
"Then, later, especially after they realized I knew, or had learned more than they anticipated, they hoped to exploit me for any technology that might put them ahead of your…..geopolitical rivals. Not merely in energy sources, social development, or the like. Again, their focus was on weapons."
"That is to be expected considering the power that we are now facing. Especially when the likes of Mongul comes calling," Captain Atom pointed out.
"Granted. However, think about it from my view, Captain. Would you hand a five year old the power you harness?"
"Of course not," he sputtered.
"Handing Kryptonian tech to your superiors would amount to the same thing. You would destroy yourselves inside a week with the technology I possess, or can build. Earth is just not ready for some of the things I can offer."
"Some of the things….?"
"What I can offer, I will. Medical advances. Environmental tech. Things that can help, and only help."
"My wife…. She's suffering Stage III radiation sickness. Would your….technology help her?"
Kal-El studied the man before he replied.
"We both know if she's been in stasis for so long, there are bound to be other….complications. However, you have my word, if I can help, I will. Once we return home. Is that sufficient to earn your trust?"
"So, this is a bribe," Captain Atom asked pointedly.
"No. I would aid anyone in need without resorting to bribes. I simply prefer not to have to keep looking over my shoulder for Cadmus' next distraction."
Nathaniel drew an instinctive breath, though he hardly needed to truly breathe, and nodded.
"All right. I'm in."
"Good," J'onn said without warning from behind him. "Perhaps you could start by telling us everything you know about Cadmus, and the Suicide Squad."
Captain Atom didn't even look surprised at the query.
"Eiling is not going to like this, but….I'll tell you all I can," he finally told the two who faced him over the body of still sleeping blonde.
Continued…