Chapter 31: Final Punishment

As hard as Superman tried to keep the fight from reentering the city, General Zod proved even more determined otherwise. The last punch had sent flying, backwards, across the park and into the busy highway that paralleled it. A maxed out city bus just happened to be driving down the road at that very moment. Unfortunately, it took the brunt of the hit as Superman came crashing into the side of the bus. The bus teetered onto its right wheels for a few seconds, causing all the people on the left side of the bus to fall out of their seats and unto the people on the other side. The added weight tipped the scale causing the bus to collapse onto its side. The glass windows sat the side of the bus shattered, throwing sharp, jagged fragments into the faces of many of the riders. The bus diagonally slid towards a street light, knocking it over, which started a chain reaction of fender benders.

Cars were smoking, and panicked, bruised, and bloodied people ran for their lives as General Zod hovered over the chaotic scene. Superman had no time to take a breather after the last attack. He pushed himself up onto his feet, his determination still as strong as before. Not allowing Zod to have the chance of going on the offense again, he leapt into the sky and raced towards him like a rocket, with both of his fists in front of him.

General Zod skirted swiftly to the side, clasping his hands together as he did. As Superman began to overshoot his target, he brought his clasped hands down on the back of his head. The blow caused stars to dance in front of his eyes, disorienting him and making him susceptible to another attack. Continuing his assault, Zod grabbed him by the arm and spun around, until they appeared to be nothing but a strange blur. Satisfied that he had gained enough momentum to deliver more damage, he broke out of his spin abruptly, throwing him towards a penthouse.

Unable to correct himself, he spiraled towards the corner of the building. His head cracked up against the corner of the building, causing the brick to shatter in that spot. The impact causes him to spin wildly out of control towards a side street which still had flowing traffic. A station wagon was driving down the road; the driver had not known that traveling this road that day would be the right place but the wrong time. Superman hit the ground, landing just enough on top of the hood to send it flipping in the air like a coin.

The car flipped right towards the intersection in the road, and plowed through a hanging traffic like. The car ripped through the power lines, sending sparks flying in all directions. The traffic light, itself, dropped to the ground, sending small amounts of glass fragments scattering onto the street. The car ended up hitting the ground on its front bumper right in the middle of the intersection. Luckily, all the cars traveling on the other road had the red light. The drivers in their cars watched the tossed car bounce onto its rear bumper rolling onto its four wheels.

All the drivers jumped out of the cars as curiosity overtook them; they wanted to get a closer look at the unbelievable wreck that they had just witnessed. When General Zod came hovering high overhead, everyone put two-and-two together and ran the opposite direction. They knew what caused the wreck, and they had no desire to be caught up in the devastation that was taking over the streets of Metropolis.

As invincible as Superman was, he definitely felt those impacts. Pain or no-pain, it did not matter to him; he was not going to let General Zod destroy this city. He brushed himself off and stood up. Ready to try again, he took to the sky up towards General Zod.

Crossing his arms in front of him, Zod took a deep breath and circled his lips. He unleashed an icy-cold super breath with winds that could compare to a hurricane. Superman could not avoid the icy wind, and as he continued to ascend towards the general, his body instantly began to freeze. He only made it half way to his target when the icy wind became too much. Frozen in the center solid chuck of ice, Superman could no longer keep flight. The mass of ice fell back to the earth, landing on the hood of an abandoned car, crushing it beyond reparability. After the proverbial dust settled, the streets of Metropolis became eerily quiet.

Proud of his accomplishment, he took notice of the people on the streets. Most people were running from the danger zone, but he took notice of some television news reporter, and her cameraman risking their lives to film the battle. Mercy had told him about these 'camera' inventions, saying that the entire city, and perhaps the world, could be watching. It was only suitable that they see him destroy their savior.

He slowly hovered towards the ground; his eyes focused solely on them. The skittish reporter and cameraman slowly and cautiously step back, noticing his gaze in their direction. His feet tenderly touched the ground as he approached the news crew. "Are you showing this live?"

"Uh-huh," the female reporter grunted, too scared to speak.

"Excellent, I want the world to hear this."

The camera man focused in on his face until the picture was crisp and clear. Zod stared into the camera with firmness and authority. "People of this world, I am your new ruler. Those that serve me well will be able to enjoy their lives as normal; those that do not—well—will have very few days remaining in this world. To the leaders of this world, you will kneel before me, and surrender your authority, your military, and all of their weapons. The longer your delay your compliance, the more innocent lives will be lost. I am General Zod, and you will kneel before me!"

As he addressed the world, from the corner of his eye, he noticed a handful of police officers making their way from the park and through the chaotic scene on the streets. This was the perfect opportunity to show the world what would happen to those who opposed him. He turned to face the direction where the officers were assembling. Sensing trouble was about to start again, the cameraman and reporter started backing away.

Taking a deep breath, he unleashed another wind attack, this time making sure that the temperature of wind was moderate. He had no need to kill these people; all he wanted is to demonstrate how futile it was to oppose him. Pounding them with a heavy wind, it was almost comical to watch the police officers try to fight against it. A few ended up falling and blowing away with all the garbage that was flying in the air; a couple officers rolled over hoods of cars before being blown away. There were one or two officers who tried hide behind cars for shielding, but the wind quickly became too much for the wrecked cars as well. A car or two started to slide sideways before flipping into the park.

Seeing that all the officers were no longer a threat to him, he ceased his winded-breath attack. The demonstration was now over—now came the punishment for the act of defiance. He found a series of single story strip-mall-like stores to his right. Hovering off the ground and into the air, he positioned himself across the series of stores before unleashing his heat ray vision from his pupils.

A Jewelry store was the first victim as it erupted in a massive explosion. He fired his heat beams at another store, two doors down, and it, too, let out an ear-deafening explosion. By the third explosion, Zod had no choice but to admit that he rather enjoyed causing this kind of chaos. The terror, on the faces of the people, was quite amusing to him. In the end, it will all be worth it if he can produce the same look on Darkseid's face.

While Zod was distracting himself by causing mischief, Superman had been using his heat vision to warm the ice that encased him. It did not take long for the ice to become weak enough to start cracking. When that happened, his physical strength was able to do the rest. The chunk of ice split in half, releasing him from his icy prison.

Quickly back onto his feet, he looked up to see that Zod was still busy firing his heat ray vision at stores, unaware that he was free. He had been fighting for an opportunity to be able to lure the Kryptonian general into a trap; this appeared to be his best opportunity. He had already tried sending him to the Phantom Zone, and he saw that coming a mile away. This time, he was going to get creative. Zod's punishment was going to fit the crime.

Jumping in the air, he flew at Zod like a bat out of hell. The general ceased his attacking as if he sensed something happening behind him. He turned around to Superman coming at him, but it was too late to do anything about it. Superman tackled him in the sky, entrapping him in a bear hug.

Zod struggled to break free when he noticed a clear, Kryptonian crystal in his hand. Superman squeezed the crystal has hard as he could, causing it shatter into dust. The next then they knew, they were engulfed by a bright white light. The flash of light lasted for about two seconds, before it vanished; and with it, both Kryptonians disappeared as well.

Zod was mentally distraught when they reappeared inside Superman's Fortress of Solitude. At first, he had no idea where he was or how he got there. In his shoes, Superman imagined that he would have thought he was back on Krypton. It was the instant shock of his surroundings was what Superman had counted on. He took advantage of it by releasing his hold on the dazed Kryptonian general and delivering a powerful jab into his chest cavity.

The punch sent him flying backwards into a large, ice-crystal compartment. A crystal podium rose from the ground besides Superman. On the podium, were a series of sockets with various colors of crystal-rods sticking out. Before Zod could come to his senses, he pulled out a dark red crystal-rod from its socket, which caused a crystal door to slide down, entrapping Zod inside like a caged animal. Superman placed the red crystal-rod into a lonely slot at the very bottom of the podium.

This slot was similar to a computer's USB port. The Crystal-rod was like a flash drive; sticking the flash drive into a computer's USB port caused some sort of action to occur. This was the Kryptonian version of that technology. He slid the red crystal-rod into the slot. The lights inside the entire Fortress dimmed as a red light radiated inside the compartment which held General Zod.

"Wh—wh—what is this treachery? I command you to release me!" Zod screamed from inside the compartment. He jumped to his feet and began to pound on the ice-crystal walls. Within a minute, he began to grow weary and tired as if his metabolism had suddenly vanished. After another minute of soaking in this red light, it disappeared and the compartment released him back into the Fortress.

He was so exhausted that he had to eat his pride and crawl out on his hands and knees. "Wh—what have you done to me?"

"I saturated you in solar radiation from a red sun. In other words, I laid dormant your powers."

"No! NO!" Zod screamed in fury, as he lunged forward in a futile attempt to fly towards him. Falling flat on his face, the truth was finally dawning on him. "I AM ZOD! I cannot—WILL NOT—be denied what is rightfully mine!"

"Zod, there's only one thing that's rightfully yours, and I'm going to take you to it right now."