Chapter 30: Final Fury

His explosion of rage finally came to its end, but the anger of what Brainiac had done continued to fester inside of him. Laying Lana's head softly onto the ground, he looked down the street at the flames that were burning out of control since the tanker exploded. A shadow appeared from within those flames. More fuel was thrown onto the fire when he saw Brainiac prance out of the flames. Besides being slightly covered in soot, the android was relatively unharmed from the explosion.

A new determination swelled up inside of him as he stood up. Tainted with a taste of darkness brought upon by the senseless killing of an innocent bystander, his purpose was to end this android at all cost. No more collateral damage; he was not going to accept any more fatalities on his behalf. No more lives were going to be lost in his name. That was not just a goal; that was a promise.

Fueled by this renewed determination to win, he charged at the android, starting at the normal human pace and quickly building up to the speed faster than a bullet train. He collided with android with such speed and strength, that he was able to catch him off guard and brought him for the ride. With Brainiac in his grasp, he knew that he had very little time before he tried to break free. He pushed himself as fast as he could before that could happen.

He zip zagged through the streets of Metropolis, taking the quickest route to the Metropolis National Park. If this battle was going to be fought, he was going to take it somewhere where people would be out of danger. The 'devil-on-his-shoulder' tried to whisper to him from the back of his head that it was also the perfect place to hide what he was about to do that android for what he did to Lana.

Reaching the park, he abruptly came to a stop, which threw Brainiac several yards. His metal body scraped up the ground as he landed, digging up the dirt in the process. The impact didn't do much to slow him down; he was back on his feet instantly. "This fight has gone on long enough, son of Jor-El."

Superman stared at him from underneath his brows, giving his eyes a dark, menacing look. "With that, we are in complete agreement."

"You fail to realize that you have already lost." His eyes began glowing, but no attack ever came forth. That didn't stop Superman from heightening his senses and look around for anything that was out of the norm. "I now have access every nuclear missile on this side of the planet. Surrender now or I shall rain a nuclear holocaust down on this planet. No one will survive."

His anger vanished instantly. Was this a bluff or was he serious? There was no telling with this android. One thing was for certain, he had underestimated Brainiac at every turn. With such a different outlook towards this planet, he wondered how Zod ever got along with him.

As if sensing his hesitation in taking him at his word, Brainiac took a step forwards towards him. "Don't believe me? Use your heightened hearing."

The android looked up to the sky, as a sign for him to do the same. He followed his line of sight up to a military chopper that was flying overhead, watching their every move. He knew right away that it was General Lane up in the helicopter, which was concerning enough. The General was planning something.

Putting that issue aside though, Brainiac had come to the same conclusion on General Lane's intentions. For some reason, he had decided not to dispose of the General, and this had to be the reason why. He focused his hearing in that direction. He could hear the general speaking to a frantic voice over the military radio.

"General, we've got a BIG problem!"

"I don't want to hear it!" General Lane shouted over the roars of the propellers over his head. "I just want those damn jets on my mark, NOW!"

"Sir, we just got word that someone has activated every single nuclear missile in this country. They are all on a five minute countdown!"

Superman had heard enough to know that Brainiac was telling the truth. He also heard about jets that were on their way there. At first, he could not figure out what the General was about to do, but then it suddenly hit him like a brick. He knew enough about the type of weapons at the military's disposal, and if he was correct, this could well turn the tide back into his favor. The timers were set for five minutes, but he could hear the roars of the Jets on approach. They were less than a minute away. General Lane might have just saved his life, and the lives of the entire planet.

"What will it be, Kal-El? Will you sacrifice your life or the lives of the people you protect?"

The sounds of the air tearing became evident to Brainiac now, he looked up into the sky, but the jet had already flow by and dropped something over head. Sensing Brainiac's intentions, Superman tackled him to prevent him from destroying the bomb before it could detonate. He bombarded him with as many jabs across the face as he could.

Whether Superman knew what kind of bomb he dropped, General Lane couldn't say for certain. It was more likely that he was thinking that he was sacrificing his life to assure the bomb destroyed the alien android, or robot—whatever it was. As much as he wished that Superman would be sacrificed, these soft bombs would only be a danger to the robot. The e-bomb was designed to destroy any technology beyond that of a steam engine. It didn't just render electronic devices useless, it pretty much friend them permanently. To Superman and organic matter, it was completely harmless, but to a highly sophisticated electronic device like the android, it was deadly... or so he hoped.

Superman was doing his part to make sure the bomb detonated. If this bomb did its job, then he assumed the issue with the nuclear missiles would correct itself. He knew that the android was the one who had activated the nukes. Now, he knew why he attacked the Pentagon in the first place. With the android gone, then they would regain control of the missiles and be able to deactivate them before they launched. Just to be safe, however, he had ordered more bombs to be dropped. It was better safe than sorry; you can never underestimate aliens and alien technology.

The bomb hit ground just a few meters from Superman and the android. There was a very small explosion, but from the explosion, he could see a barely visible ripple that spread out like a small shockwave. Superman stepped back from the android as the ripple hit. The ripple hit the android causing a minor convulsion, but nothing more.

"Damn!" He shouted. It appeared that it was going to take more than just one e-bomb to take out this alien android. "I want more bombs now! Drop everything you have!"

Superman went back to battling with the android, but as the jets approached for another drop, he could instantly see a difference in the way the android fight. The single e-bomb seemed to rattle it. Perhaps several more would do the trick.

"General Lane," that annoying, boyish-like, squeaky voice called from other end of the radio. He was the same boy that contacted him about the situation with the nukes.

"You better have some good news for me, right now!" He glowered.

"We don't know what happened, but we've reacquired access to our missiles. They've all been deactivated."

That confirmed it! That one bomb had done more damage to that blasted robot than it had appeared. A handful more would almost surely do the job, and if not, then Superman had his work cut out for him. Three jets were approaching at mach-three, each carrying two more e-bombs. Safely out of the reach of danger, he watched in anticipation of his victory over the first menace.

After the first bomb, Superman immediately noticed Brainiac's glowing eyes dimmed. He knew right then that the he had just lost control of all the missiles. Though the android was still standing, he could also see a big difference in his demeanor. His comments confirmed all of his suspicions. "Error... Error! Memory loss... Error!"

With his sensitive hearing, Superman could hear three more military jets coming in for another pass. He had no idea if Brainiac was capable of defending himself from another attack, but he was not going to risk it. He leaped at the Kryptonian android and starting throwing his fists in series of jabs. There was no mistaken the damage that had been done; Brainiac's reactions had slowed down noticeably. He was unable to match the speed he was throwing his punches.

The military Jets flew by, and about five seconds later, he again stepped away as six consecutive electromagnetic bombs erupted. With each invisible shockwave, Brainiac convulsed violently. By the third explosion, sparks were starting to fly. With the explosion of the fourth bomb, his right eye exploded, sending out a misty black smoke into the air. The fifth explosion caused a steady stream of sparks flying from the creases of his neck. He was beginning to appear to be on the verge of disintegrating. With the final explosion, only his determination kept him on his feet. Most of his joints and circuitry were fried beyond repair. He could not move or his whole body could very well come apart.

The battle was over; it was only a matter of finishing the job. Stepping towards him, Superman grabbed hold of the android's head with both hand. With a sudden pull upward, the head was severed, and his robotic adversary was gone. The headless body collapsed to the ground. Disgusted by the cold, stone-like face on Brainiac's face, he dropped the head on top of the heap of smoldering metal.

He had only begun to relax after his victory when an eerie laugh reminded him that the war was still not over. General Zod hovered vertically down to the ground, holding Mercy Graved into his body until their feet had touched ground. "Very well done, Kal-El. I ALMOST rejoined the fight until he began to threaten to kill off the people of this planet. I could not have him do that; I need my army to command."

"Zod, this has to stop. There's been enough death and destruction; this is exactly what Darkseid wants!"

Zod shook his head as he let out a chuckle. "You know, you and I are very alike, more so than you would be willing to admit. You have your human woman by your side, and I have mine." He looked into Mercy eyes and smoothly caressed the side of her face. She smiled in return, reciprocating the passion that she felt for him. "There is only one difference between us."

His hand softly slid down to her neck, and in instant flash of violence, he tightened his grip around her throat. With a sudden twist of the wrist, he snapped her neck and dropped her limp body to the ground. "I don't allow these insignificant insects to become a weakness. Each and every one of them are disposable for the cause."

He could feel his anger returning; these unnecessary deaths were getting on his last nerve. No one deserved to be treated like this, including Mercy Graves. It was sad that she had the perfect opportunity to turn herself around, but instead, she allowed hatred to corrode her to the very end of her early retired life. He was going to make sure that she was the last casualty in this war. "This ends now!"