*Author's Note: Sorry about the long delay between chapters. I recently got a new job and it has really taken up a lot of my time. I hope to soon finish up this series and continue working on other projects. Thank you for reading so far and I hope you continue to do so. Have a good one.*

Superman Chapter 6

"No, no not disagreeing with you, merely saying you should have implemented much sooner" quickly spoke the salarian pacing the small lab.

"Frankly Doctor, I'm not sure how you even heard about this; it's not even your department" stoically replied the other salarian who was buried behind three different monitors.

"Have my connections, curious though, when the system is ready how will it identify targets, an advanced friend/foe sensor?" The salarian stopped pacing and faced the other one through the holographic screens. Doctor Hamiltin, clearly annoyed by a geneticist and biology expert questioning his virtual intelligence systems, stood up and faced the other salarian.

"Doctor Solus," Hamiltin said as he walked from behind his desk, "when you came down here to this level, I suspected you had heard the committee approved my project. And the reason I had not brought it up since is because I needed something that was worth fighting. And I certainly think these 'Reapers' will suffice."

Doctor Mordin Solus was no stranger to extreme warfare tactics against enemies. He shrugged and knew that when he and the others of his STG unit came to the recollection of a weapon such as the Genophage, it could only be used if absolutely necessary.

"Mhhmm" Mordin slowly nodded his head in approval. He had not known Doctor Hamiltin long, but had respect for him. Where Mordin was talented in biology, Hamiltin proved to be adept in dealing with synthetic intelligences. Furthermore, after doing an extensive background check on someone he'd be working with, Mordin found he was somewhat of a weapons expert, having created and designed many of the salarian militaries most unique weapons. And although Hamiltin was only a few years younger, Mordin respected a person of science rather than emotion.

"Yes, Reapers, technological gods that appear every 50,000 years to eliminate all organic life. Have done some research of my own, but too busy with other projects. Hope your work goes well."

"Thank you Dr. Solus, and say hello to Maelon for me. "

"Of course, know you will do good work. Besides if you fail, everything will be okay, because now there is a 'Superman' among us" Mordin said somewhat humorously as he left the lab.

Hamiltin watched in the corner of his eye his mentor and teacher walk out. There was a time Hamiltin would have listened to anything Doctor Solus said, but now he knew it was his shot for greatness.

Amongst the STG, few if any missions are ever leaked to the public. So when a small group of scientists came up and created the Genophage, very few knew who those people actually were. It is only the people already in the STG who ever find out, if they know the right people. Hamiltin had risen through the covert institution, hoping to one day have his own christening moment when he could help the trillions of souls across the galaxy. And when he heard Commander Shepard speak of the Reapers, he knew that moment had come.

Hamiltin smiled to himself as he returned to his desk. He widened his eyes and continued to adjust the billions of lines of code that was required for his BrainIAC program. He knew the consequences if he failed and wasn't sure if even the Superman could stop it.

"I don't have time for this"

"Oh I know, you are just far too busy parading around the Citadel for the cheering masses right?" The modulated voice chimed throughout the medium sized freighter. Superman stood with his arms folded over the \S/ on his chest as he scanned through the ship. He soon found out he could see through some walls, but not all. It troubled him, because he could not definitively tell if there was anyone else on board.

"Right, so let's begin shall we?" as soon as the deepened voice ended, Superman could smell a different odor in the air.

"Trying to poison me?" nonchalantly asked the Man of Steel.

"Super senses and toxic immunity, check. Okay moving on."

Superman saw a door open in front of him. He was starting to get annoyed, but could not simply fly out of the ship or put a hole in it for there could be other people aboard. Reluctantly, he continued on with the maze he was being put through.

In the next room was a long corridor with a single path to the next door at the end. Knowing where this was heading, Superman started to briskly walk on the given path.

Out of the walls along the path, fire erupted in front of him, igniting the air around him. Having dealt with fires before, Superman didn't even flinch as he passed through the scorching inferno. On the other side of the flames, gunfire from numerous different types of weapons began to ring out. Bullets of all sizes fell and bounced to the ground after striking Superman's skin. Some of the smaller ammunition ricocheted off him and damaged the corridor walls.

Superman let out a sigh as he continued to walk down the hall. Beyond the gunfire, he saw four large launchers emerge from the wall and fire simultaneously. The rockets streaked through the corridor and impacted their target, rattling the whole ship.

When the smoke cleared, Superman continued his pace, nearing the next door. To his surprise, when he reached it, no gizmo popped out and shot acid on him or electrocuted him. Superman looked the door up and down and then noticed why; he focused his eye muscles to zoom in on the molecular structure of the door and saw that it was extremely dense, probably some experimental alloy.

Whoever was behind this was testing how strong he was. Superman placed his hand on the door and started to curl his hand into a fist, crunching and tearing the thick metal in the process. Seconds later he ripped it off the frame and tossed it aside causing the colossal piece of metal to collide on the floor.

"Are we done with this now?" asked Superman as he walked into the next room, which was small and circular. He noticed that the room had only a single monitor and nothing else.

There was a slight hesitation when the voice finally answered, "Well it seems I need to cut this short. While it has been fun Superman and I wish we could chat more, but I have another engagement I need to take care of" the voice started to trail off, as though the person speaking was doing something else while talking.

"I know we will speak again, so in the mean time I leave you with this." As soon as the voice cut off, the monitor in front of Superman flashed a giant red 'X' and then the entire room broke apart in a fiery explosion.

The whole freighter detonated, sending debris and metal into the vacuum of space. Superman was forced from what was left of the ship and sent spinning into space. Composing himself, he shook off the explosion and tried to make sense of what just happened. Whoever did this had to have known the explosion wouldn't hurt him, so why do it?

The debris floated in the space in between the pedals of the Citadel. Superman was getting ready to help with the clean-up, when his crystalline omni-tool started to chime. The sound was a hum inside his head and when he checked the crystal screen, his eyes went wide as he read that a diplomatic space station had just been attacked and was on a crash course to a local Hanar moon.

Having to leave the freighter debris for the authorities, Superman focused himself and rocketed towards the local Mass Relay; just hoping he could make it there in time.

Elsewhere

"It all started a few hours ago. There I was the most powerful bitch this side of the galaxy, and all alone again. I had just ditched my crew, who only used me for my abilities and they didn't take the news well. Of course none of them survived, but it doesn't mean they didn't get a few good hits in"

"I needed an infirmary or at least some whiskey to make the pain go away. I was the last one on board the ship, flew to the closest station I could find and kinda crashed into it. Not my best landing, but screw it, thought they could patch me up until I recovered. Didn't think they would recognize me though…all well."

"Breaches on levels 11, 12, 23 and 34. Evacuation is in progress, evacuation is in progress!" The message repeated itself over and over adding more levels that started burning. Drell scrambled around trying to help the Hanar into escape pods. The aquatic aliens moved slowly through the burning metal halls as they made their way into pods.

Hanar doctors attempted to heal the pilot of a small freighter that crashed into the station hours earlier. The pilot had numerous wounds from a previous engagement and had to be rushed into intensive care. She had remained unconscious throughout the surgery and was put into observation afterwards. It was there that someone had identified her as the wanted criminal known as Subject Zero.

Soon after the station was put into lockdown and the authorities were called to apprehend her. Subject Zero awoke during the commotion and broke free of her restraints. Following her escape from the med-bay, she tore and wreaked havoc all over the station. Eventually she made her way into engineering and blew up the entire room, causing station wide alerts that it was off course and heading for a local moon.

Blue biotic energy spewed from all over the station as Subject Zero ignored the warnings and continued her devastation. She seemed to be in a blind rage as she killed anyone who got in her way. The station grew closer and closer to colliding with the moon.

Subject Zero, who often called herself simply Jack, had biotic energy flowing all over her tattooed body as she came across a drell escorting two hanar. Anger filled her eyes as she readied her arms to unleash a shockwave of power. The hanar were defenseless as the drell stood wide-eyed at what was about to happen. Jack waved her hands forward as a flood of blue energy was unleashed down the hallway.

Seconds from being bombarded with biotic energy, the drell stood defiantly in front of the hanar ready for what was coming. But as the cerulean wave washed down upon the helpless aliens, a red and blue blur moved against the energy. The blur glided past the biotic power and in an instant the three aliens disappeared entirely.

Jack tilted her head in confusion, seeing nothing where only seconds ago stood the three aliens. The biotic shockwave continued to flow down the hall, hitting nothing but the metal walls. She slowly walked forward through the burning halls, hearing something 'swoosh' throughout the station. In the next instant the fires around her suddenly went extinguished.

"I'm guessing you're not a regular on this station"

Jack slowly turned to face the stern but kind voice, "So you're the Superman. You know, I've only seen you in holovids and I thought for sure you were a biotic too." She studied the man's reaction, as he remained steadfast with his arms folded over his chest. "But you're something else aren't you?"

"Miss, you're the last one on board and there is still one life pod left. I need to get off this station before it crashes into a moon" Superman replied as he uncrossed his arms and started to step towards the wanted convict.

"What do I care if it crashes into the moon, add it to my list of felonies" smiled Jack as she folded her arms across her tattooed chest. Superman continued to walk closer to where Subject Zero stood and got within an arm's length of her.

"Miss I need to get you off this station so I can stop it from crashing" The Man of Steel extended a hand towards Jack in hopes of her changing her mind.

"Do not touch me" Jack said unfolding her arms and staring defiantly at the costumed hero.

"Miss…" Superman calmly said as he put a hand on the criminal's bare shoulder, but before he could continue biotic energy surged over her skin and exploded outwards. Jack let loose a sphere of power all around her, sending Superman flying backwards through the metal wall behind him.

"I said don't touch me!" screamed Subject Zero as she floated in the air due to the force of her attack. She hovered back down to the metal grate flooring and peered into the hole Superman was flung through. A blue aura cascaded over here as her as she looked closer into the darkness only to see two red eyes flare open.

Subject Zero took several steps back as Superman floated out of the dark hole with his eyes searing red. He once again crossed his arms and no longer had a calm tone.

"I will not ask again"