Superman Chapter 10

-Note-

The following takes place after Mass Effect: The Bat's Legacy chapter 10

s/8514461/10/Mass-Effect-The-Bat-s-Legacy

Ever since he was little, it was difficult for Clark to make friends. He did not fully trust anyone to reveal his secret and so never had anyone to rely on, except his parents. He never believed himself to be invincible, he knew he had limits. And then he was drained of his solar energy and locked up, ready to be delivered to a madwoman as a prize. Basically, Clark never thought he would be the one who needed rescuing.

Superman took a breath in from his breather he had on and watched the sleek black fighter hover over him. The armored knight inside gave one last nod as it slipped into space going faster than light. Superman nodded as he watched the fighter disappear into the stars. Until this day, he honestly thought the 'Batman' was just a superstitious myth to scare criminals, but now he knew the truth.

He knew that Batman was busy dealing with a crime lord named Poison Ivy and so volunteered to track down her manufacturing base. Disabling the base would bring down a crippling blow to Ivy's empire, as Batman had discovered nearly all of her shipments and personnel go through the base.

Even though his methods are somewhat brutal, Superman could respect Batman and what he was doing. It was one of the reasons he volunteered to help him. The other reason was that Batman mentioned the mercenary stronghold was located in a system that sustained a young blue star.

Superman floated still recovering from the mercenary attack. He was breathing heavily as he looked to the system's star, which glowed with an orange hue. His biological father had taught him years ago that the source of his abilities was Earth's vibrant yellow sun, compared to Krypton's elder red star. The younger the star was, the more powerful the solar radiation it gave off. And Superman was curious what a newly formed blue star might do to him.

He programmed the route into his small crystalline omni-device and began to float towards the direction of the nearest mass relay. Superman started to pick up speed as got excited about going into an unknown. He thought about the Batman and figured a man like him must have every detail planned before doing anything. Clark had never been spontaneous, but did like some mystery; one of the reasons he got into journalism.

Blue energy danced over him as he accelerated towards his destination. Traveling from one relay to another without the use of a starship was a different sensation to Superman. The device on his wrist allowed him to navigate through the relays without any problems, but feeling everything rush past his open face faster than he could ever fly on his own was exciting to him.

Within minutes he decelerated and found himself in the Hydra(What kind of star?) system within the Argos Rho cluster. The yellow sun in the system could barely been seen from where the relay orbited, but Superman could still feel its warmth. Feeling more revitalized, he scanned for the direction of the Gorgon system and took off into the void between the stars. It was times like these he was fortunate to have the solar reserves in his suit. He flew through the darkness, just able to see the dwindling light of the Hydra star behind him. He soared through the cluster, and knew he was getting closer to the Gorgon star.

He could feel his skin start to tingle as he began to see the burning sapphire in the distance. As Superman made it to the outskirts of the Gorgon system, he could feel himself being overcharged with energy. He kept flying towards the blue sun, knowing that the planet Sharblu was the fourth planet away from it.

At first it hurt; every cell in his body was being over-saturated with solar energy. His body had never experienced such pure power before and did not know how to compensate. Superman began to slow down and cringe as every nerve in him seemed to magnify and come to life for the first time. His eyes radiated blue and burned as every wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum became illuminated at once. Superman arched in pain, reacting to his muscles tightening and expanding. He began to hear things from all corners of the cluster, not able to pinpoint where the sounds were coming from.

Superman strained to look at his arms which had blue sparks jumping down them to his hands. He carefully removed his breather and put it back onto his belt and curled his fists, trying to harness the incredible power inside him. He once again started to float towards the sun and could feel the solar energy getting stronger.

Focusing his vision, he was able to peer through space and see Sharblu. Looking closer, he saw the massive shipyard that housed all of Poison Ivy's criminal operations. Superman now hovered in the upper atmosphere of Sharblu. His senses were still erratic as he tried to concentrate. He looked down at his hands again and began to see tiny electric sparks jump over his fingertips. Scanning his skin at the molecular level, he could see sparks and micro flames emerging from his pores.

Through his training with Jor-El, he had discovered the extent of most of his abilities. He had learned that his body generates a bio-electrical field micro-meters from his body that contributes to his invulnerably to most attacks. He recently learned when facing Subject Zero that this field is weakened by certain biotic attacks, something Jor-El could not have foreseen. Now under the influence of the blue sun, this field was exerting even more power.

Normally excess solar energy was released when he emitted the heat from his eyes, but now he was absorbing so much power, it was being slowly released all over his body. Superman could feel the heat building inside of him as he realized that even though his body was trying to compensate the abundance of power, he could not stay in this state for long. He knew that the intense heat would build inside of him as he looked down upon the mercenary establishment. There were several tiny shuttles buzzing around the facility as well as a few large frigates being loaded with contraband.

Superman couldn't stand being still any longer as he plunged down to the planet leaving behind a red and blue streak behind him. He tore through the atmosphere turning into a flash as he collided into the shipyard, blasting rocks and dirt in all directions. Mercenaries were knocked down to the ground from the shockwave that Superman created. As the dust settled, the confused criminals started to gather their weapons and form an attack squad on the unknown assailant. They pointed their weapons and mounted chain guns at the point where the object struck the ground. The dust had fallen dispersed and the mercenaries saw nothing in the crater. Some began to shrug, thinking it was a meteor while others remained vigilant.

Suddenly the ground under them began to tremble. The mercenaries looked around trying to find the source of the quake and were thrown back when the ground erupted. Chunks of earth exploded around them as the mercenaries tried to regain their footing. Many stood in horror as they looked up and saw a figure hovering above the broken ground with searing blue eyes. Some of the human mercenaries recognized the \S/ on the man's chest, while the other species stood bewildered at the strangely dressed man.

Superman glanced around at the different races in front of him, staring down each turian, human, salarian and few krogan. He took a deep breath in through his nose, calming his overcharged nerves and then disappeared entirely from of the confused henchmen. Weapons began to be destroyed right in the hands of several mercenaries, being ripped in half and tossed away. Ivy's soldiers started to scatter realizing that the costumed hero was moving so fast that he was unseen as he disarmed them.

Everyone seemed to move in slow motion as Superman crunched different weapons with his hands, moving in between the mercenaries. He came to a stop as he focused his eyes and let loose a powerful beam of concentrated solar energy that ionized the air towards a mounted cannon. The weapon was instantly incinerated as the turian who was firing the weapon leaped off. Superman just watched in real time as all the mercenaries fired at him with a volley of different weapons.

Mounted chain gun fire was shot from across the yard as several other henchmen all fired upon Superman. The Man of Steel simply stood still, unflinching as he was riddled with gun fire from all directions. He assumed that the facility now knew what they were dealing with as he looked around and could see large mech units mobilizing towards him. Gun fire continued as well as grenades and heavy launchers striking him, causing huge explosions.

Fed up with the annoyance of the gun fire, Superman consciously extended out the bio-electrical field that covered his body outwards, resulting in a sphere of impenetrable energy. The surge of power blinded most of combatants, giving Superman time to fly to the mech units coming at him. Reaching the first one in a micro-second, he plunged his fist through the windshield, grabbing the pilot of the mech and ripping him out of the cockpit. Superman flung the armored trooper behind him and then effortlessly lifted the empty mech unit and threw it towards the other machines. The two ton mech suit streaked through the air and smashed into the other incoming Atlas units.

Superman thought about saying something to the mercenaries, something along the lines of 'Had enough?' or 'That all you got?', but was unsure what the massive intake of energy would do to his vocal muscles. He then looked at the large facility and took off into the sky, arching down and plummeting into the reinforced building. Inside, he did a quick scan of the area and could see several humans and salarians working furiously. They did not run after he crashed through the ceiling, they must have a plan.

A blue aura now sparked around Superman as he hovered in the large facility. He looked around at the scientists scurrying below him. He could hear the mercenary force outside the building start to rally together and form up on the facility. Superman shifted his gaze to the floor, where three large mech units rose from a level underneath the building.

These mechs were about four times larger than an Atlas unit, resembling old YMIR heavy mechs. Superman effortlessly peered through the mechanics and saw no pilots, but did notice the improvements over other mechs. In the corner of his eye, he saw the scientists start to scatter out of the area. They had done their job.

Superman slowly hovered down and landed smoothly onto the metallic floor, looking up at the oversized mechs. He could see the sparks ignite inside of them as they came to life and instantly attacked the calm Superman.

The large fist of the closest mech crunched the spot where Superman was had stood, but instantaneously vanished. Superman then reappeared behind the other two mechs, slightly off the ground with his hands raised to his side, readying to clap them together. The large mechs were faster than they appeared as they turned around to see their adversary hovering in the air, but it was too late.

Superman brought his hands together and in a thunderous boom, blew everything that was in front of him soaring in the other direction. The mechs were forced off the ground and collided with the wall on the far side, which was also torn from the foundation and sent in pieces to the desert floor behind it.

The mercenary forces that were outside watched as the large building was torn in half and tossed into the wind, as if a massive engine had been turned on inside of it. As the debris settled, the mercenaries noticed Superman standing out front of the demolished building with is arms crossed over his chest. Still afraid of what his hyper voice may do to organic ears, Superman tried to give a look that stated 'Give up now and you won't be hurt'.

Then as if reading his mind, the mercenaries turned and fled in all directions. Superman thought he was done and could go ahead and take apart the rest of the facility before leaving. Then his senses picked up the radio transmissions being sent to all the ground forces, telling them to fall back in preparation for 'Subjects Oleandrin and Neriine'. For miles he could feel the earth underneath give off vibrations that seemed to be getting stronger.

"I know you can hear me Superman, your senses must be bursting about now after this much exposure to the blue sun". The female voice screeched in Superman's ears as he could hear the comm channel's frequency constantly change. He recognized the voice immediately; he had heard it before when he was captured near Terra Nova, it was Poison Ivy.

"By now you have figured out who I am. I was heart-broken when I heard you weren't coming to see me…we could have been really good together. I had expected that the Bat would send you to my wayward planet, so I have a surprise for you."

Ivy let out a laugh as Superman hovered into the sky to get a better look at the surroundings; the entire area was rumbling. Whatever was below him, it was too deep even for him to see.

"I decided that if I couldn't have you….my pets could" as she finished the ground below where Superman erupted revealing a pair of enormous Thresher Maws with mouths fixed on Superman. The gigantic jaws of both creatures snapped at Superman, but he dove down between them and jettisoned himself parallel to the ground.

"It's amazing what you can do with some genetic testing and simple pheromones….isn't it?" laughed Ivy as her voice buzzed in Superman's head. He looked behind him and saw that the two maws had dove back into the ground to pursue him. He was flying relatively slow, wanting to see how fast they were and was surprised when they once again leaped from the soil directly in front of him.

He had a good look at them now as they seemed to soar through the air with mouths stretched open, ready to devour him. Everything slowed down as Superman looked them over, carefully studying them. The maws moved in slow motion as Superman noted their green and purplish hides. They did seem to have extensive genetic testing done to them, no doubt to make them much larger than the average thresher maw and totally obedient to Ivy.

Superman almost felt sorry for the creatures; being used as pawns for cruel master. He maneuvered himself above the maws and relaxed as everything began moving normal speed again. The maws spotted Superman above them and immediately changed their course.

The blue aura sparked around Superman as he continued to listen to Ivy prattle about how she had more tricks up her sleeve on the planet to tire him out as he succumbed to the extensive solar radiation.

"ENOUGH!" His voice boomed, sending shockwaves and ripples of energy through the air in all directions. The mutated maws were sent falling to the ground below, screeching in pain from the intense sound. All comm channels were disrupted from the powerful resonance as the planet shook and everything went deaf on the planet for a few seconds. The shockwaves covered the entire planet in a low level electromagnetic field, frying all computer systems and facilities.

Superman scanned over the planet, making sure all of Ivy's operations on the planet were shut down. It would take months to fix everything, and by then authorities would swarm the planet. Superman felt he was done; he took a deep breath as then noticed the hurt thresher maws console one another on the ground below.

He knew the attack would incapacitate them; he had no intention of killing them. They looked up at him and it seemed their aggression was gone. Superman figured Ivy's hold over them had been removed by his sonic attack. He looked down at the creatures with sympathy, when he had an idea that caused a smile streak across his face.

"Yes Mom, I'm fine. Most of the effects have worn off" Clark spoke into an ear piece to his worried mother. He was dressed in the civilian clothes he kept for himself in the Fortress, minus his glasses, as he paced back and forth through a crystalline hallway.

"Well I couldn't just leave them there, Ivy would have come back to enslave them again or just kill them" Clark had a smile on his face again as walked over to a crystalline edge that overlooked a large area filled with trees and soil. From the ground emerged the two thresher maws he had encountered at Ivy's armada planet, both moving freely amongst the flora.

Clark recalled how as Superman on the mercenary planet, he focused the tremendous power within him to extend his own bio-electrical aura to surround the two wayward maws. Inside the sphere of energy, he safely engulfed land and air as he traveled through space. Superman began to strain the farther he got from the blue sun, but never lost focus as he passed through numerous relays, eventually reaching the Fortress.

He had always felt the Fortress was big enough to serve any purpose and so thought it would be a perfect place where the maws could be safe and live free. Superman had retrofitted a lower part of the Fortress to suit any need the maws would need. It was big enough so they could roam and move however they wanted. Plants and trees covered the entire area, all lit up by artificial sunlight created from the ceiling of the Fortress. Clark smiled again as he began to float upwards, back to the upper levels of the Fortress while still on line with his mother.

"Yes, I will try to make it home for a dinner night soon, love you too" Clark tapped the earpiece and then softly landed on the main level of the massive crystal Fortress. He shook his head lightly, still recovering from effects of the blue sun. He took a deep breath to slow his heart-beat as he made his way towards the main door.

Clark figured he should check in with Lois and see what the latest headline was, though he had a good idea what it might read.