Superman in Action FanFic #19

Out of the Past

Yet another six months have flown by so quickly. The anniversary of my being Superman is coming up! I can't believe it... nor can I believe the amount of villains that I've managed to gain. Parasite was only one problem, soon enough I got such interesting characters as Toyman, the Prankster, the Atomic Skull, and Riot. Each one has his own personality quirks, and causes a rather large headache when the pop up. Out of the group of them, I feel sorriest for the Atomic Skull. He's a superpowered individual that believes himself to be a hero of an old 1930s serial of the same name. How he got his powers is beyond me, but somehow the trauma of his receiving them has made him believe he's the title character and that Lois is his love interest; Zelda Wentworth. He packs a punch that almost rivals Bizarro. Though the punch is usually pouring with radiation which adds to the amount of hurt I receive. I'll never forget the first meeting he and I had.

"Keep your head down Zelda, your father's gained some extraordinary gifts! It looks as if he's managed to put himself on par with me, his own creation!" He said to Lois. She's draped over his shoulder looking back at him with a rather large amount of animosity towards her would-be hero.

"Yeah, because I know daddy is going to irradiate me! I mean, who else could do that?" As he dashed forward I had to slow my chase just a bit, my fear was even if I could've reached Lois, if I tried to snatch her away from him we'd have ripped her in two.

He turned to meet me face to face and sent a large blast of energy to impact me as I nearly caught up. The radiation burned my eyes something fierce, almost like I flew through burning sand. It slowed me down a bit while I tried to work it out of my eyes. He laughed at me and put Lois down. "I have him cornered, Zelda. You run and get the police. After I give him a sound beating, they should be ready to put handcuffs on him."

"Yeah, sure A.S., anything you say."

"Come now, Zelda. Call me Joe!" He turned to me and runs. I heard his footsteps and tried to recover to block or move, instead he landed the punch square in my chest sending flying towards the side of a building. Somebody's not going to be happy that their laundry room has been demolished. I hear him retort as I try to make my way out of the rubble, "but you Electron, you can call me Atomic Skull!" I can almost hear the fanfare being played the minute he says it. When I finally got my eyes to cooperate with me, he'd already jumped into the air; leaping towards me with vigor that only comes from watching these old serials. I managed to catch him and bash him in his face. His face is a skull covered in an unnatural black/purple flame. Flame... It's excess radiation pouring off of him. As he hurdled through the air toward an impact that will no doubt cause more damage to the city, I took off at dead run and caught him, putting him into a Half-Nelson. He bucked like a wild mustang trying to get free of my grip. As the flame burst around my face, I closed my eyes quickly and flew upwards. I took him to just where the earth starts to loose oxygen and he passed out. Bringing him back down, I was already for him to be picked up by the police and S.T.A.R. Labs. The fight didn't last very long, but then it didn't have to. It was enough to make me realize that he's a good enough threat and I got lucky. Since I first met Atomic Skull, he's managed to make his way out of custody more than once and generally ends up with him and I in a battle for Zelda. I can't help but laugh at that.

Since my meeting with Batman, it inspired me to leave Metropolis on occasion to meet with other heroes. All of a sudden, curiosity got the better of me. I think it came with the idea that perhaps I might have something in common with these people. It would be nice to relate to someone, or anyone in the idea that we share the gift of these abilities. My first stop was Central City, MO, just a short distance from where Keystone City, KS used to stand. I went to go visit Ma and Pa, so I figured since I was in the neighborhood; relatively speaking. There I met the Flash. This wasn't the one that Pa was such a huge fan of back from the World War II days. No, this one didn't have the silver helmet or the red shirt/blue pants motif. Instead he wore a spandex suit of red with yellow boots, lightning trim, wings placed on either side of his head over his ears and a small lightning bolt in a white circle dead center of his chest. He was a friendly man, much more open than Batman ever was. His speed was incredible! I'm fast, and yet I doubt I could hold a candle to him. In jest, he suggested a race to see. I laughed and told him: "Maybe if we have a charity benefit one of these days."

I also got to meet the new Green Lantern out in Coast City, CA. I went that direction to check up on Jordan Hill, Mayor Hamilton Hill's son. While I was out there I decided to make yet another detour. Honestly, I was going out of my way because I really wanted to meet him, much as I did the Flash. GL's a good man, if not a bit more confident and cocky about his abilities. The ring he possesses is so powerful, and yet I noticed something as we engaged some sort of creature bent on destroying him; his ring couldn't handle anything yellow. It took both of us to bring the molten creature to a complete stop. I asked GL why it was attacking him, he just replied: "There's no telling with these things. I inherited the benefits and the problems with the ring. Unfortunately, being a Lantern means that you upset a lot of people without ever having met them." I don't know that I fully understood that, but then I suppose that's what happens when you inherit a legacy. I'm curious about the former GL though, his uniform was a great deal different from the one that this man is wearing. We patrolled his city, talking the day away and I asked him how far his duties took him. He showed me an entire sector of space that was his to protect, which included Earth. I nodded, and he told me what the Green Lantern Corps was all about and why they did what they did. I was astounding how many different GL's were out there and how many went before. I was curious if , before the xenophobia came along, a Kryptonian had ever held rank as a Lantern? In any event, I told him that since he was in California, knowing full well that we'd just met, I needed to ask him a favor. He asked me to name it. I told him about Mayor Hill's son and gave the details his father gave me. He agreed to do whatever he could to make sure that the boy remained safe. I gave him my thanks and told him I was hoping that we could remain in contact, and he was happy enough about that. It's refreshing knowing how open to the idea that these others were in keeping in touch.

The last two I got to meet were in New York City. I heard over an emergency band that water was starting to flood the city and they needed all the help they could get to try and stem the tide. They also asked for the police to be on the look out for this villain who seemed to be at the forefront of this attack. The man wore a black and purple 'costume' with a gold and ruby mask. He held a trident in his hand and was using it to control all manner of unnatural creatures. He called himself the Ocean Master. A man in a scaled shirt of deep copper color and green tights with fins on the back of the legs fought this dark clad intruder back. This hero threw punch after punch at the villain. His gloves were the same verdant shade of green didn't soften the blows of this man. Ocean Master called the blonde haired, blue-eyed hero Orin. The long and short of it was that Orin seemed to have the situation well in hand. On the other hand, the beasts down below and the raging water didn't seem to be retreating. Down below fighting off these creatures in floating debris was another blonde with blue-eyes. This one wore a leather jacket and a black costume with fishnet stockings. The joke was too obvious to make. Between her and I we were able to defeat what Ocean Master called his Magma-Men. Then it came to trying to push the water back out of the city. I started blowing with all my might and it started to push back. She told me to cover my ears, I responded quickly with luck, because she let go a scream that could shatter glass. Amazingly she was able to focus the blast where she wished, I didn't know a person could do that! I figured sometime I might have to figure out to do that sometime! She and I diligently kept pushing it back. As we did Orin noticed our work and told his foe to end the madness. It seemed impossible to keep this up. My partner in this venture was unable to keep up the scream for too much longer before she needed to get air and rest her throat. I could keep going for another hour or so, but it was pushing things a bit far. Ocean Master refused until Orin gave him a sound beating, grabbing the trident. He looked at it and the connection was made. There was a strange recognition to it in his eyes. The winds picked up around the area and I could feel my power slightly wane. As the wind died down, Orin touched the trident to the water and it started to flood back to its rightful place. He rode the wave down to street level, holding on to Ocean Master, and I held Black Canary. Both were total strangers to one another, but we gather for a moment to talk.

"Thank you for your help in dealing with the Magma-Men. I do not think I could have done it alone." Orin said in a very strange accent.

"Your welcome, Orin. I hope you don't mind me using your name. I don't know what else to call you." I said to him and extended out my hand.

"Not at all... I am sorry, I didn't catch your name?" He took my hand and started to shake it. It was a very firm grip, it took me back slightly.

"Are you kidding me? That's Superman!" Our blonde siren retorted back.

I turned to Orin quickly and replied back to him, "...but you can call me Kal-El. And you, your costume looks familiar, but I can't completely put my finger on it. "

"I'm Black Canary!" She smiled. I extended the same courtesies. It dawned on me, the Black Canary I knew of was in the Justice Society when Wonder Woman left the team! Joined shortly after, because Wonder Woman inspired her to action, from what she told the press at that time. She was only on the team for a short time before McCarthyism destroyed the team.

"I know of you! I would've figured you'd be older by now!"

"You're talking about my mother! She was the original Black Canary from way back when. I just happened to inherit her gifts." She laughed. I started getting caught up in Justice Society conversation when I start to realize that Orin is still standing there, confused by all of this. I turned my full attention back to him.

"I'm sorry Orin, I got lost in a haze of yesterday."

"It is okay, I am not offended. In fact I find it fascinating."

"I'm glad you feel that way." I smiled reassured. "So where do you come from?"

"I was born in Atlantis, but I have been mostly a traveler of the oceans."

"Atlantis? As in the sunken city?"

"Yes." He looked at me with a matter of fact expression. He thought our talk was fascinating, and he's from Atlantis. I was beside myself. He told us all about how as a child he cast away on a shore where all blonde haired, blue-eyed children are left. Apparently that's look at as a bad omen in their society. From there he was found and raised by all manner of sea creature until a man that tended a lighthouse found him and tried to help raise him into a proper individual. The man named Orin, which at this time had no idea of his real name, Arthur Curry. When he was an early teen the sea called to him again, he went to talk to his adopted father only to find that he had disappeared. Orin waited for as long as he felt he could then left the lighthouse keeper a note before he went back to the waters to try and make sense of his life. When he came upon Atlantis a few years later, they invited him in and arrested him immediately for his being alive. It was there in the prisons that he met his mother, Queen Atlanna. She told him who he was and that she was sorry that everything was going to end like this. When she was killed, he fought hard and broke out of his prison and with a difficult struggle ahead managed to escape to the surface world. Apparently the suit he wears is a prison uniform. He told us that ever since that day a few short years ago he learned as much of Atlantis and its magics and sciences as he could. Often times only coming across snippets or finding exiled individuals. He's learned a great deal since then, but one thing he learned quickly about was Ocean Master.

Ocean Master is not an exiled individual from Atlantis, but an aid of the current King, which from the sounds of it is Arthur's rightful place. Ocean Master after learning of Orin and knowing his parentage came looking to kill him. Orin had no idea why, because he felt it pointless. It's not like he had political pull on the throne. However, under certain circumstances, I suppose the threat still exists. If political changes were made he may inherit the throne. Still, I don't know the full story, though I think he was willing to give it. He said that much of his time in between learning was trying to protect the oceans as best he could, trying to save the marine life from completely dying off and more over keeping what he refers to as the 'land-dwellers' aware that the ocean isn't their dumping ground. I left there well aware he could be a major force for good on this planet, and in future he may be the man to watch.

Soon we broke company, but I told them that if they ever felt like stopping by Metropolis, I would always be happy to see them. Orin seemed a little nervous, but Black Canary was only too glad to agree to it. I told them not to be strangers and we parted ways.

Back home in Metropolis, I've been seeing a lot of activity coming down through LexCorp. Following the Bizarro incident, Luthor left me well enough alone. I'm not sure why, but he didn't try inviting me to his balcony or even go into detail as to how much he couldn't trust me any longer. Matter of fact, the last word he said on the matter was that thanks to my presence it gave him more reason to explore the stars. So the LexCorp Space Jet was back in action and was being geared towards making its way to deep space to see what other sort of life forms existed. Luthor said that he'd been finding alternative sources of materials to help him to power the ship. It would help to send the astronauts deep into space with the promise of safe return. However, they made no bones about how they wanted to get this to work properly. First and foremost to save on jet fuel costs, the missions from NASA were tailored to deliver parts to the already spacebound ship so that they could effect repairs on it there and save on any relaunch problems. Luthor helped to foot the bill, which in turn was giving him hefty tax-breaks. It ran as a headline on all the newspapers about the rediscovery of the space frontier and how Luthor was going to lead us to that. The thought of him being connected to the wonders out there in space were beyond sickening. However, if someone could benefit from this research then I was at least someone comfortable. Still, what accidents might occur and how many lives at stake really sobered my thoughts.

During this time, Luthor had managed to push through construction of a rather large deep space satellite that he planned to see if he could get any contact with alien life forms. It became interesting to me that Luthor would bother contacting other aliens, when he wasn't crazy about me. Of course, he never talked about that in interviews. He just said that further study of aliens to Earth could only help us to be put on a much larger map. Which is technically true, but I'm wondering how ready this planet is for that. I mean I've been rather well accepted in comparison to how some people view race, religion, sexual-orientation, amongst other things. There's been a few hate groups out there that have been less than tolerant that an alien should be allowed to fly openly amongst the people, but they're usually addressed as crackpots. Still, Luthor wants to invite more. Mind you, it's obvious that extraterrestrials have visited here quite a bit more than most people are willing to accept.. Green Lantern and I especially prove that, but what other things might Luthor draw attention from? I need to be ready just in case, whether that be to offer a hand in friendship or to fight off an invasion fleet. Luthor's got a way about him that can make someone trust his motives, then inspire hatred when he betrays them. The mind boggles at the plethora of possibilities.

In the span of a few weeks since the deep space communications satellite went online, things at LexCorp have changed greatly. Since all the talk of space exploration started, there's been a hustle and bustle of activity going on. People in and out, news from all corners about Lex's rise to space dominance. Talk of how NASA's helped to usher in their replacement, of course Luthor denies that. He told the public at large that he believe whole heartedly that NASA was great because it was the everyman agency. His, while definitely trying to inspire people, was a business venture nonetheless that would hope to generate new jobs and business for future NASA work and other joint ventures. There's been a fury of work being done, and the city has been electrified with all of it. However, that electricity seems to have just stopped. The LexCorp building is completely on lockdown and no one is saying why. I've tried listening in on the conversation, but to no end, there's a huge white noise generator going on within LexCorp tower specifically designed to keep my ears from picking up any little tidbits. I'm more than curious to know if he's found something. There's a ton of news coverage going on outside of the building who too have noticed the lack of energy that has been the recent buzz of the city. Lois is down there talking with some of our other colleagues in the field. I take the opportunity to head out and get back into the suit and tie; this looks like a job for Clark Kent.

I slip my glasses on and slick my hair back. As I amble towards Lois, she spots me and wanders up. "Where have you been, Smallville? There's a story here and the second best reporter in the city hasn't!"

"Second best, Lois?"

"You trained under me, Kent. That makes you second banana."

I raise an eyebrow with a slight smile. "So any word on what's going on? Why the lockdown all of a sudden?"

"Zip. Lex is keeping a tight reign on his people, no leaks thus far."

"You think he contacted other alien life?"

"That's what a lot of people suspect the scoop is. Then again, there may have been a tragedy at the Space Jet dock. No one knows, and I'm very eager to find out. "

"You got an ideas how you're going to get past LexCorp security?"

"Come with me." She yanks me through the crowd and I follow her as if a lost puppy. I almost want to dig my heels into the ground and ask her what she has in mind. She drags me into an alley around the side of the building. She looks, and the guards still haven't moved a muscle. Then she turns her attentions back to me with a sly look and at the top of her lungs starts to scream. "LISTEN KENT, WE'RE NOT GOING TO SNEAK INTO THE BUILDING!" I look like a deer in headlights, and I can feel that very expression take over my face. I'm completely taken back. "THERE'S NO WAY YOU'LL BE ABLE TO RUSH THE GUARDS!"

As if on cue, here comes the two security guards around the corner and I look at them with a bit of surprise. "What's going on here, Ms. Lane?"

"My colleague thinks that he's just going to amble into LexCorp Tower right through those front doors!" She moves behind them as to put herself out of my reach. She looks at me with a certain devilish smile.

"Brave Mr. Kent, but that ain't gonna happen."

"I assure you Officer Brandon, I had no intention of doing that! I have no idea where she got the idea from that I was going to rush you."

"That's reassuring Mr. Kent, because believe me, you wouldn't like to get tased as you try."

"Your absolutely right!" I make my breath a bit more labored, make them believe that I'm actually concerned. He nods slowly.

"Do yourself a favor, catch your breath and then go wait with the rest of the reporters out front." He and his partner turn to go back to the front entrance.

I turn back to Lois, "What in the world were you trying to do?" She moves past the security camera in the back area and around another building that has no such security measures and pulls out an access card from her pocket.

"This is the reason I'm the number one reporter in Metropolis, Smallville. You're just not this good." I shake my head. That predator's instinct in her for a story is so ingrained into her system that she'll do anything to make sure she gets it. The problem with this plan is that the security camera won't allow us access right away. She stares at it for a few minutes, watching its sweeping movements. Every time she sees it swinging she moves out of the way. She counts down and the moves back towards the corner of the adjacent building and looks again. Sure enough the camera has panned back towards the front.

"You're very lucky that this building is here."

"Yeah, cause in a couple months it probably won't be anymore. Lex Park will be put in its place soon, the towers were just phase one of the Lex Towers project. They mayor didn't want to give Luthor the entire area for his, but Lex has been buying off the buildings and then systematically knocked them down. this is the one of the last few that haven't been bought and torn down. It will soon though, believe me."

"Knowing what you're attempting, I can see why you want to." She gives me a dirty look and waits for one more pass and then dashes towards the door. She swipes the card and I follow in directly behind her. Tenacious is hardly the right word for this woman. Still, I have to admire it. She's almost Batman with a sense of humor.

She starts sneaking around the building rather deftly, as if this isn't her first time. I look at her with some amount of surprise, though I'm not shocked. She's been invited here many of time, but that doesn't mean that's she's not made an attempt to find stuff out before. I look pull her towards me so I can whisper to her. "Where are we going?"

"We're going to find the mission control center!"

"Do we have any clue where that is? I mean there's two towers and no way to know if we're in the right one!"

"Believe me, if I know Lex, mission control is right here and it'll be right where he can run to it in the dead of night." What can I say? She's absolutely right. I'm sure one entire floor of this building is dedicated to the space program that Lex is running. I almost feel foolish not having come to that conclusion myself, but then I suppose that's part of Clark's charm. We move through the building and we try and find any elevator or stairwell. She says that they usually keep maps of the building in those areas due to how large it is here and the sheer amount of people who work in it. I'm all about getting out of the hallways. Without our press passes on, we at least don't look like reporters, but I'm sure security is well aware what we look like. Should the cameras spot us, Luthor definitely knows what we look like and will not be happy to have reporters here in his midst. Especially considering the black out, even from his own TV station.

We manage to find a stairwell and start looking over the map. It's an interactive touch screen, which makes it a lot easier. She types in 'mission control' and it gives us the floor right below Lex's penthouse. From the looks of the schematic, there's room enough for a private elevator directly into it, which wouldn't surprise me at all. She looks at the stairs and back towards me. "We'd take the elevator, but I don't think that's going to work so good. We better start walking." So floor after floor we climb towards our destination. I'm doing well, and she's not giving up. I can tell how tired she is, but not a bit of her attitude has let up. She's going to do this one way or the other. After an hours trudge, we finally get to our destination. I smile and so does she, she pulls out a small dental mirror from her purse and opens the door slowly. What she sees is several guards standing at the door waiting on it to be fully opened. She pulls the mirror back and looks towards me. "I hope you're ready to be manhandled, Smallville. This didn't go quite according to plan." A set of hands pull us into the hallway of the offices. The guards look mean enough, but soon we're met by a man with thick glasses, black hair and mustache. He looks us over intently and shoos the guards away.

"Ms. Lane and Mr. Kent, I presume?"

"Dr. Happerson?"

"Yes, Ms. Lane. Mr. Luthor has been expecting you both. Come this way, please." I look towards Lois whose look has turned very stern indeed. As we walk in through many sealed doors, I see Lex standing by a large monitor, at his side in her chauffeur's uniform is his personal bodyguard, Mercy Graves. Huge amounts of green scripting of some sort fall in sequences. I try to take my eyes off of it, but I'm fixated. It's moving so fast that I'll have to move my eyes as fast as it to keep up. Lex however breaks my daze.

"I see you're as fascinated by this as I am, Mr. Kent." He says almost jovially. I look towards him, "I should've guessed that you'd pull that little trick, Lois. I almost expect it."

"Well, you wouldn't begrudge a girl a story would you?" She puts on a smile. Mercy takes it personally, you can see it in her eyes until Luthor puts his hand on her shoulder.

"Perhaps, but you brought an escort along with you!" He puts on his charming little smile. The oil slick in his voice and that look could make me physically ill. Luckily I can hold my composure. However, Lois decides to play up this little moment. She's doing it because she knows she can get the story and it'll tick of Mercy something fierce. To be in a tiger's cage isn't something even Superman would relish doing.

"Smallville? He's hardly my escort, Lex. He was trying to talk me out of getting my story."

"Hardly journalistic of you, Mr. Kent. No adventure in your soul?"

"Breaking and entering, especially into LexCorp, didn't seem like a good idea at the time." I adjust my glasses and look as sheepish as possible. He laughs heartily while taking Lois by the hand and inviting me to join them down in the control pit. I turn my attention back to the screen. The data is moving so extraordinarily fast that I even I can't keep up with the full data stream. I keep trying to, but it's impossible to focus long enough on one character before it disappears from the screen. Lex looks back to me and notices that I'm again preoccupied. "Hard to look away isn't it?"

"I have to say! Have you been able to record any of these images?"

"We have, but even slowing them down they still move at incredible speeds."

"Really? Can I see the slower version? I'm interested in the patterns it falls in."

"Certainly Mr. Kent, we would be glad to." He calls up the data and has it put on the most extreme slow motion that the equipment allows. Doing so doesn't slow it down nearly fast enough for the human eye to comprehend, luckily I may not have that problem. I can now actually catch fragments of the data. I'm stunned! There's no words for what I'm seeing, the fragments are in Kryptonian! When I come back to myself for a moment I realize how I must look to them. I shake my head as to act like I'm coming out of a daze and I look towards Lois and Lex.

"Well, that's certainly an eyeful even at that speed." I rub my eyes pretending that there's been a bit of strain on them.

"Yes it is. I have programmers from around LexCorp Enterprises under the supervision of my science adviser, Dr. Happerson here, to help in creating a program to slow down the code enough so that we can translate it."

"I'm truly amazed, but where did it come from? And even with a crack team of workers, wouldn't it take years to design a program slow enough to get a good look at whatever this is? Which leads me to my final question, what is it? "

"All excellent questions, Mr. Kent. We've got our work cut out for us, but hopefully we'll look more towards weeks or months rather than years for a solution. My people tend to move faster than the average company thanks to all our vast resources, luckily we need not decipher them at the moment. Instead, to answer the rest of your questions, we have something a grand deal more spectacular to present to the world. Since Ms. Lane's hunger for such stories is beyond that of any reporter I've ever met, and the fact she is my favorite reporter in all of the world, I thought I might as well give you the exclusive. WLEX will break the television coverage, but the Daily Planet has been a milestone for Metropolis news for better than a century, it's only right that it should continue."

"I didn't know you were such a traditionalist, Lex." She quips back. He looks at her with eyebrows raised and a sly grin upon his face.

"Of course, I like tradition! Unless it's costing me too much money." Everyone chuckles at the comment, almost as if he had a sign above his head to give the signal. I join in, but it's a hollow laugh. "But enough of these frivolities, I want you to meet a new alien life form that has made itself known to me."

"Lex, are you actually saying you did it?!" Lois looks in slight amazement.

"Yes, I put my voice out to the world with a small vignette of what our world is like and we have had contact back from the stars. The good news is that its on its way here from space to meet me. It will be an historic meeting!"

"What do they call themselves?" I ask with an eager tone.

"There is but one, Mr. Kent. He says that he was programmed to be a single, hydrogenous entity, but he later gained a more male tone as he met with other cultures. He calls himself, Brainiac!"

My eyes widen and I feel my heart skip beats. Something other than I survived the destruction of Krypton! I have to go to the Fortress of Solitude and tell my father!