XLIV
"...Save Clark"
Trained as a warrior from birth, Barda had been raised a woman of action. When she saw Clark falling from the sky, she bounded across a startled crowd of onlookers to catch him. Barda Free had felt an immediate kinship with Clark as she learned of his past. While Scott and herself were aliens who masqueraded as humans, a young alien Clark had been claimed by the government, studied, and used solely as weapon. She knew that life all too well, having been raised by the maniacal Granny Goodness as a soldier for Darkseid. She would not let him die like this.
An unconscious Clark fell into her arms like a leaden sack. Unconscious… but still alive. She quickly laid him on the grass and immediately retrieved her mother box to analyze the strange green poison that slowly spread across his body. As she placed mother box on his chest to do its work on the Kryptonian, she heard the shot and knew she had failed. She wasn't here to save Clark.
Turning her head to the side, she saw President Lane flatten after being struck by the bullet. Time slowed as she watched Lois fall with Scott only one step behind her, his hand had only been inches away. She felt her stomach heave into her chest when she saw the wound.
Scott Free was a man of peace, but kept danger as a close companion. He knew as soon the bullet hit, this was trouble. His intuition had peaked just before Clark had taken to the skies. They wouldn't let him hold her back as she ran forward. Mother box confirmed what he expected, that she had been hit with nanotech... humans were quickly approaching Apokolips in their level of malice. Six agents snatched Lois from him to carry her to safety, but she only stared at Scott. And whispered…
"…Save Clark…"
With Lois being taken away, Scott watched as Barda tended to Clark and then looked up. This wasn't over. The assassin in the space suit was falling and his god-like intuition registered off-the-chart danger. Scott Free made a very difficult decision and reached out with indomitable will to Barda's mother box; 'Boom Tube Now!' He watched as his wife and the Kryptonian disappeared into the tube of light. Barda would never willingly leave a fight but he wasn't going to lose his wife.
The sense of impending doom became overwhelming. Scott lost the illusion of the black suit, freed his cape and donned his mask - becoming Mister Miracle once more. On aero disks, he took the skies and flew towards the vice president. Luther was in a crowd of fleeing people, half-way to the White House doors, running as fast as he could.
In flight, Mister Miracle plucked a running Lex Luthor from the ground and flew straight up as fast as his aero disks would carry them towards the open sky and concentrated on a boom tube. He was counting on not being shot if he were carrying the Vice President.
As an assassin of his word, David Cane had performed his last contract and fulfilled the deal. Now he performed his last duty as a member of the League of Assassins. He was the big bang of the creation for a new universe.
Milliseconds before impact, David Cain performed his final act. He flipped the switch and said farewell to his daughter.
The blinding white light was almost instantaneous. All matter in a 1.5 mile radius from David Cain became nonexistent.
By day's end, a one-and-a-half mile deep, perfectly smooth crater where once the White House had resided would fill up with the water from the Potomac River to become a lake.
In tune with his panic, Scott's cape automatically wrapped itself around the escape artist and the Vice President, a cocoon to protect them from the impending blast. Scott thanked the Highfather that Barda had escaped with Clark as he watched his own boom tube materialize before him. With the Vice President in hand, they entered one second before David Cane hit the ground. Upon exiting, Scott ducked to the side as the explosion traveled through the still-open boom tube, converting the atmosphere itself into raw energy beside them.
They had escaped.
Scott surveyed the landscape. He had tubed to the Antarctic where he had left Clark. The last coordinates were always the easiest.
Scott reached out to Barda's mother box as he felt Luthor begin to shiver. He locked in the coordinates and calculated she was at the park just outside their home in Connecticut. Making another boom tube jump would almost deplete his mother box of energy, but Luthor wouldn't last long in this environment. His mother box let him know it was not pleased.
The Free's reunited on a sunny, grassy knoll - world's away from the desolation that was only seconds behind them but painfully close to their old home. He was glad that Clark was with Barda, even if he looked… awful. She was still trying to stop the spread of infection, straining the limits of her own mother box.
"You know I hate to run from a battle!" his wife scolded him.
"There's nothing left. It's gone, Barda. He was carrying a bomb." Scott let go of Luthor to be with his wife.
"Are you finished?" inquired Luthor, straightening his tie. Scott turned to glare at him.
"Mr. Luthor, I'm Scott Free. This is my wife, Barda Free. We're not from your world. My wife is as strong as Big Blue and not even half as nice. We're going to use our mother boxes to try and heal him. In the meantime, we're going to ask you some very direct questions. If we don't like your answers, my wife will introduce you to pain thresholds you never knew existed."
Author's Note:
Way back in Chapter 8… when Raven sensed alien emotions in Connecticut, she wasn't sensing the emotions of Scott and Barda Free. She was sensing the emotions of their mother boxes… strange and powerful alien technology that forms emotional bonds with their owners.