Chapter 8: Black Site Kilo
Superman whisked back to the Kent Farm in the dead of night, arriving to find everyone still on site, Batman and Mister Terrific included. Kara scampered off the porch, pausing on the grass as her cousin descended with Theo under one arm. The two eased down into the well-worn grass, Kara slowing down to gauge Theo's emotional state. He seemed to be in better spirits, his expression no longer contorted with despair as he held his head a little higher. His eyes, somewhat dimmer than before, regarded her with familiar warmth. "Hey…" He greeted, almost sheepishly.
"Hey." She replied, an awkward smile tugging on the corners of her mouth. "How're you feeling?" She wondered, trying to avoid setting him off again. Theo shrugged.
"Not great… but a little better, I guess, thanks to Superman."
That was good enough for Kara. Breathing a sigh of relief, she strode closer to pat him on the shoulder. "I'm glad." Superman escorted them inside and then promptly returned to convene with Batman and Mister Terrific.
"We got Deadeye trussed up in the barn."
"I figure it will be safe to return him after we've cleared out Black Site Kilo." Batman grunted. "That way he won't have a need to return to anyone."
"You think it's a good idea to go knocking on their front door?" Superman asked, crossing his arms.
"Someone needs to call out Amanda Waller for messing with Doomsday DNA and shut down her little pet project before it goes too far. People do irrational things, but Amanda Waller has always been so hellbent on blazing her own path to so-called 'justice' she doesn't care who gets hurt in the process. A lot of innocent lives could be at stake." The Dark Knight answered him. "You won't be alone. I'm going with you."
"Do you know where we're going?" Batman nodded.
"Nemesis got back to me with coordinates. He informed Sarge Steel but he'll be on a waiting list to see the President. Unfortunately, there's no time, not if Waller is going to be this pushy."
"Then we'll start out first thing in the morning; I want to make sure Theodore is doing okay." Superman started hovering off the ground.
"Where are you headed?" Mister Terrific inquired.
"To charge up a little." Superman replied before the Kryptonian bolted off towards the other side of the planet where the sun was in full force…
The next morning…
The smell of breakfast was too good to ignore and Theo made his way downstairs where everyone was already at the dining table, seated before a spread of bacon, eggs, toast, fried ham, and homemade muffins. Greetings were made as he took a seat beside Kara. "Eat up, young man, there's plenty to go around." Pa Kent urged as Ma helped a generous heaping of scrambled eggs onto his plate.
"Sure, thank you so much." He answered, picking up his fork. He paused before diving in. "Oh, uh, s-sorry about the clothes from yesterday, Missus Kent."
"Oh think nothing of it, Theodore. They're just clothes, nothing a few patches and some sewing can't fix." Ma Kent waved him off. Kara took her time watching Theo dig into the eggs.
"Sleep well?" She asked.
"Well enough." He said between mouthfuls. "Just really hungry right now."
"That's good. If you weren't, I'd be worried."
Theo stopped, looked at Kara, and swallowed the eggs in his mouth. "You're… worried about me?"
"Well, yeah, Teddy. You're my friend. I worry about you because, well, because I care." Kara explained, reaching over to grab his hand. She didn't want to push the topic, fearing he might launch into another outburst yet, but the blonde did want to make sure she exercised the pointers Ma and Pa had given her last night. Theo blinked and looked down at her hand over his. Words escaped him and he simply nodded a few times in acceptance. "I just want you to know that, okay?" He nodded again and smiled faintly. It was warm, a little awkward, but entirely Theo. Kara returned it. Ma sat down across from them, exchanging glances with Pa before noting the way Kara was holding Theo's hand.
"You two wouldn't happen to be dating, would you?" She wondered.
The Kryptonian recoiled while the young man shied away. "Ma!" Kara exclaimed, her cheeks turning red. Theo wasn't sure he could blush but his face sure felt warm.
Meanwhile…
The diner was called Pete's Last Chance Food & Gas and claimed to be the 'home of the WORLD'S FINEST cuppa coffee!', sitting on the edge of an interstate as the last bastion of civilization before a long road to anywhere loomed before pressed travellers. The eponymous owner was enjoying the slow day by tending to various menial chores behind the counter. When he heard the tinkle of the bell over the front door sound, his instinct was to reach for the coffee pot. But he stopped quite suddenly upon seeing who his customers were.
"You must be Pete." Superman supposed.
"Mind if we ask you a few questions?" Batman pressed.
Pete's brown eyes went wide. "Good Lord and butter! Not at all! Can I get you boys a coffee? We make a pretty mean cup here. Best in Kansas." He offered, his voice carrying a thick midwestern accent.
"No, thank you." Superman politely declined. "Have you seen anything strange around here lately, Pete?"
"Well, now, that all depends on what you consider strange." Pete said slowly, rubbing his chin. "Me? Well… you might say I'm used to strange!" In a lightning-fast move, he threw away the coffee pot and whipped out a high-tech weapon, energy ports glowing grin. His expression had knit into a stern and almost-vengeful glare as he pointed the weapon at the pair. Superman and Batman exchanged looks.
"Looks like you were right. Again." The Man of Steel remarked, totally unfazed by the Kryptonite weapon in Pete's hands.
"There's no reward in being right all the time." The Dark Knight responded. Superman shrugged.
"After all…" They both looked back towards Pete and spoke in unison.
"This was supposed to be easy."
"Put the weapon down." Batman ordered.
"You two shouldn't be here." Pete snarled, charging the weapon with a loud chhk-chak. "don't make me-" In the blink of an eye, Superman had yanked the weapon right out of Pete's hands, the man blinking in surprise when he realized he had been disarmed. "Huh?"
"It's unlikely you'll make anyone do anything, Pete." Superman promised, eye-balling the weapon as Batman stepped forward. The Dark Knight handcuffed Pete with a set of bat-cuffs from his belt and forced him to his knees. "This gun has a kryptonite core. A radiation pulse from this could… pierce steel. Or kill me. Is that what you meant to do?" Superman asked the incarcerated shopkeep. "Where did you get it? Who do you work for, Pete?"
"I don't have to tell you nothin'!" Pete stubbornly cried. The color drained from his face as Batman knelt and forced his eyes towards his.
"No, Pete, you don't. But I promise you… given time… alone with me… you'll want to."
The threat lingered, Pete whimpering in terror while Superman swept over the establishment with his super-vision. He quickly picked out something in the floor. "Is there any particular reason your floor is made of heavy lead, Pete? Wouldn't happen to have something to do with keeping x-ray vision out." He wondered aloud, noting the heavy metal plate under the tiled floor his gaze could not penetrate. "Unless it was to…"
"To what?"
"Keep radiation in."
Without another thought, Superman uprooted the diner's counter and ripped out the flooring along with it to expose the great slab of cut lead metal lining the ground. A symbol, shaped like an odd radioactive warning, stared ominously up at the pair of heroes. Batman looked to Superman as he tore off the lead cover panel. "We don't know what we're up against. You should probably put on the K-Suit." The Dark Knight suggested. In the blink of an eye, Superman darted out the back door and returned with the same lightning speed. Over his blue skin suit he wore an armored replica of his costume made with special plating and a lead microfibre weave. Lead was the one element that could keep deadly Kryptonite radiation at bay and Superman had an entire suit made of the stuff to protect him against any amount of Kryptonite. Even his head was fully encased, with a simple special focusing mirror in place that would allow his heat vision to still function.
"I'm going to be so happy when this is over." Superman muttered, voice muffled behind the helmet. He spared a glance at Pete. "Leave the man. If there's anything here, we'll find it." The pair of heroes descended down the massive channel reaching deep underground, Superman floating down while Batman used his cape to glide the distance. "Something tells me Pete didn't build this all by himself." Superman remarked.
"Obviously the government spared no expense when it came to Black Site Kilo." Batman added as he touched down on the subterranean floor. He failed to notice the motion-sensors lining the ground and had seconds left when the automatic defence sentries came online.
"Batman! Behind me!" Superman exclaimed, bolting in front of his friend as the first of the Kryptonite bullets slammed into his armored form. The focusing mirror glowed brightly as Superman channeled his heat vision and melted both weapons right off their armatures. Batman emerged from behind the Man of Steel.
"Those were Kryptonite rounds. The government clearly built this with you in mind. Maybe I should survey this one alone." He suggested.
"I'll be fine." Superman replied, stepping ahead and tearing the next secure door right off its hinges, two great slabs of steel falling inwards. "How many Kryptonite weapons could they have?" He wondered while stepping through. The sight in front of him made him stop suddenly.
"No…" Superman gasped. Dozens of crates lined the floor of the room at the foot of a giant power conduit system channeling raw Kryptonite radiation. The crates, marked from K-1 all the way to K-40, carried everything from pistols to assault rifles to even Gatling guns all of which powered by shards of pure Kryptonite. "Dear God… why?" Superman asked, sounding pained.
Batman lifted one of the pistols from an open crate and passed it to Superman. "Judging from the size, they have a Kryptonite arsenal."
"But why? I'm on their side." Superman asked.
"Fear. Some part of them is always going to be afraid the one day you won't be." Batman stated simply. Superman studied the weapon in his hand, knowing full well that only this layer of lead was keeping him safe from the exposed Kryptonite power source.
"I don't understand it… This is the biggest cache of Kryptonite in the world and it's hidden in my own backyard. In Kansas. My home. And my own government is responsible." He looked to Batman who had nothing to say.
"Put the weapon down!"
The voice from a higher catwalk drew the pair to a collective of four people dressed in odd military-grade armored apparel, each of the sporting some piece of technology that glowed green. And each one of them sported the same oddly-shaped nuclear hazard logo… that only now, Superman realized, was shaped to resemble the crest on his chest.
Clad in an all-encompassing mech suit, Ray Gibson, AKA Bruiser, was a former US Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command combat engineer who was now an active member of Black Site Kilo's weapon testing.
Dressed in a layered metal-mesh suit sporting visible power cells along her forearms, Layla Adams, AKA Sekhmet, was a former USMC MSOB special weapons expert-turned-applicant for Black Site Kilo's testing program.
Clad in a green wingsuit equipped with dagger-like wings which glowed an eerie green, Jonathan Banks, AKA Hotshot, was a former US Navy Top Gun aerial combat specialist that had been handpicked to participate in Black Site Kilo's secret initiatives.
Dressed in an armored trench coat, his face concealed by a helmet sporting two glowing green eyes, William Brannon was a US Department of Defence and DARPA biotechnology expert who was turned on to Black Site Kilo's initiatives thanks to a singular underlying desire that Superman was about to learn...
"We are the Last Line, gentlemen, as in defence. You have breached a restricted government facility and destroyed federal property. You are both under arrest. I recommend you surrender." Brannon ordered them both.
"We're not surrendering to anyone." Batman growled.
"We'll leave," Superman promised, "but not before we clear out all the Kryptonite on the premises."
"I'm afraid not, Superman." Brannon retorted.
"Excuse me?"
"I'm giving you a fair warning. We have been trained and equipped specifically to stop you. With authorization to use deadly force." Brannon stated, as if he was so certain just the four of them would be enough to subdue the World's Finest. Superman took a single step forward, letting the foursome that was Last Line see the Kryptonite pistol in his hand.
"Whoever you are… I just learned that my own country has been secretly devising the means to kill me. The country I am sworn to protect. The country I love. You'll excuse me if I don't take the time to take you seriously. Now…" he promptly crushed the pistol in his hand to powder,
"stand aside."
In response, the eyes of Brannon's helmet grew blindingly bright. "I was hoping you'd say something like that." Erupting forth, vedant beams of Kryptonite-vision slammed into Superman and drove him to the floor. Brannon started barking orders. "Last Line! Take them down! Sekhmet, with me. Hotshot, sequence theta." The airborne man rocketed from the catwalk at blinding speed, faster than Batman could anticipate as he pulled a Batarang from his utility belt.
"Theta? I love theta! That's the one where I get to do-" Hotshot came screaming down like a dive bomber, fists extended. "THIS!" He crashed into Batman, driving the vigilante into the metal floor and knocking him out cold on impact. In a fluid movement, Hotshot hoisted his unconscious form up as his anti-gravity cells lifted him into the air as though Batman weighed nothing at all. "Sorry, Bats, you're coming with me. There's someone who wants a word with you." He told the unconscious hero as he departed the scene before Superman could give chase. The Man of Steel had problems of his own, in the forms of Bruiser and Sekhmet.
"Batman!" Superman tried to get up and chase after his friend.
"Oh no you don't…" Bruiser rumbled, driving a mechanical fist into Superman with enough force to bury him in the ground. "You stay!" Superman tanked the blow, withstanding the concussive force as he pulled himself out of the hole left behind. He knew there was just a simple layer of lead protecting him from the Kryptonite radiation coming from the members of Last Line. Sekhmet charged her gauntlets and delivered an uppercut that slammed into Superman's chin and catapualted him flat onto his stomach.
"That's right. Be a good boy scout and fall down." She sneered. Up above, Brannon crossed the catwalks to get closer to the beleaguered hero.
"You can't win this fight, Superman. The Last Line has been engineered to match and surpass your abilities in every way. Strength. Invulnerability. Flight. And all powered by Kryptonite." He smugly announced. "that's the thing about Kryptonite, Superman. It's more than just a poison to your cells. It's an unparalleled power source. Take that lead-lined suit of yours," a thin beam of Kryptonite lanced out from his helmet and sliced clean through the armor plating, "can't have that."
Superman cried out as he was exposed to the radiation filling the room, the sickening sensation of degrading cell tissue causing a flaring burn across his chest that channeled into a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. Before it could consume him totally, the massive hand of Bruiser curled tightly around his head, causing the suit's helmet to crack and fracture. "See, we been training for this for months. I'm sick of training!" The big lug sneered. Superman quickly worked up the strength to reach up and tear off two mechanical fingers before he grabbed the metal hand and threw Bruiser overhead, slamming his mech suit into the ground.
"You could have used more." His x-ray vision quickly swept across Bruiser, hoping to find out he was an android or a robot that would make it easy for him to destroy. Instead, Superman found the opposite. "Wait… You're a-?"
"Who are you to judge? At least I'm from this planet." The pilot within derisively snapped. Superman was promptly blindsided by Sekhmet.
"I got him, Bruiser!" She exclaimed, punching Superman hard in the face. "I didn't work this hard just to see Supes in a helmet. Let's get a good look at him… let in some light." She sneered, delivering left and right hooks with enough Kryptonite-powered force to shatter the suit's helmet and expose Superman's head. The radiation began to take it's toll, but not before Superman managed to fight past the sensation to put Sekhmet in her place.
"My pleasure." His eyes turned red and he blasted the woman with heat vision, blasting her right into and through a wall, burying her within. Superman took flight, hovering above the room to keep eyes on Bruiser and Brannon. "You work for the US Government. I fight beside you!"
Hotshot suddenly reappeared, his bladed Kryptonite wings slicing clean through the remnants of the lead-lined suit. Superman spun around, feeling the acute effects of Kryptonite radiation as the last of his protection was stripped from him. "Not anymore, Superman. Right now you're the assignment: protect the weapons from the guy they were built to take out." Hotshot forced Superman to the ground with another high-speed blow and the rest of Last Line converged on him…
Meanwhile…
Batman came to with a grunt, giving his head a shake as he realized his limbs were restrained by hands and feet. His vision was blurry, but he could make out a dark grotesque form in front of him. "Batman? Baaaaatman…" His vision cleared, the dark shape taking the appearance of a toad with a weight problem. "Come on now, genius. You're gonna miss the show."
Batman glowered, his tone low and dangerous. "Amanda Waller." He looked around, finding himself suspended in a glass tube by a series of four manacles with anti-gravity seals. He was utterly trapped. Biding his time, he forced himself to listen to Amanda.
"I knew it was only a matter of time before you or Superman sniffed us out. Lucky for me it was both. Gives me a chance to test-drive my new toys. What do you think of them?"
The Dark Knight looked around the room at the various banks of monitors surrounding him, each one showing off a different angel of Last Line beating on Superman. Batman longed to be back out there helping his friend. "I think you're using vast government funds and a hellish amount of taxpayer money to destroy that which protects you." He retorted stoically.
Amanda scoffed, her expression curling up into a devilish sneer. "Protects? I've watched vigilantes like you two smash up out country for years pretending you were saving it. Free from any oversight but your own ungovernable conscious."
"Ungovernable because you don't have one." Batman retorted. "People like you are always scared of what you can't control. You were just looking for an excuse."
Waller's grin grew so large the Cheshire Cat would've been jealous. "And now I have one. You boys justified the need for this facility the minute you broke into it. Trespassing on government property? That makes both of you enemies of the United States. Just like I always knew you were."
"Whereas you will become an enemy of the people once they find out you were planning on murdering their icon, their hero… and the depraved thing you've done to innocent people like Theodore Taylor." The name caused Amanda to stiffen ever so slightly, an action that did not go unnoticed by the Dark Knight. "What are you going to do? Throw us away in some metahuman prison?" Amanda strode right up to the glass separating them.
"Let me paint you a picture, genius: imagine a walking, talking nuclear weapon loose on the streets. One day, he decides he doesn't like the way the country's going. Decides to take matters into his own hands. Now multiply the power of that weapon by a factor of, oh, say, a billion. And hang a cape on it. When it comes down to it, we don't know the first thing about Superman. His biology. How his powers work. We don't even know his real name. But I'll keep him here as long as it takes to find out. I don't care how noble you think he is. I don't care how noble he thinks he is. One day, Superman is going to snap. We have to prepare for the worst. That's what governments do. That's what the Last Line was designed for."
"Governments do a lot of things. Lie to people. Abuse power. Think they are the undisputed measure of control. Ruin the lives of innocent civilians. If you think it's all being done in the name of some 'greater good', you're deluding yourself, Waller. You might as well throw on a ski-mask and hold up a bank." Batman growled. "You're no different from common criminal scum and that's exactly why we're taking you down. If not Superman and I, then the entire Justice League will."
"Listen to you. You're not the real heroes here. People like the engineers and scientists who toiled away on the projects. People who volunteered their minds and bodies, sacrificed for their country. They are real heroes." Amanda said, her gaze on the monitors as Superman was beaten into the floor.
Superman crawled out of the latest crater he had been pounded into. His cape was tattered, he was bleeding from one nostril, his hair was unkempt and ragged, and his suit was tarnished. He looked up at the four unfeeling, unforgiving eyes of Last Line standing over him and fought the urge to vomit from the Kryptonite radiation. "All my life… I fought to protect our country… why are you doing this to me?" He begged.
"Why?" Brannon growled, as if he found the question insulting. "Because you destroyed the only thing I ever cared about. You killed my wife, Superman." He snarled through clenched teeth. "You should remember the day. It was the day you died."
Images flashed through the Man of Steel's mind. Shattered buildings. Broken glass. Spilled blood. Punch after punch, blow after blow. Himself. Doomsday. Metropolis. Fighting for hours.
"I was going to meet Laura for lunch at Metropolis circle. It was a perfect day. Until you and your sparring partner brought her office building down on top of her. You came back to life. Laura didn't." Brannon kept on, giving Superman the chance to look around, spying a severed high-tension power cable sparking away… as well as a broken high-pressure water pipe. Its contents spilled across the floor, Last Line were all standing in it… "You want to know why this base exists, Superman? Why the government spends all this money to find ways to stop you? The real question is… why do you even have to ask?" Brannon drew a Kryptonite powered pistol from his belt holster and took aim at Superman's head. "You're weak now. Unprotected. It's over, Superman. Surrender, and I don't have to pull the trigger… as much as I want to."
Amanda Waller looked as smug as could be, the pudgy folds of her cheeks creased into a grotesque smile that could be construed as triumphant as she watched Superman kneel at the mercy of Last Line. "No more fancy suit. No more powers. One more move… and your friend is gone." She gloated to Batman. "After all you've done… to get you two on 'trespassing.' Sort of like when we got Capone for taxes."
She was shaken from her moment of self-absorbed victory when Batman chuckled faintly.
"You were right about one thing, Waller… You don't know anything about Superman. He's not strong because of his powers… it's his heart. He'll never snap… but, by God, he'll sure get mad."
Grasping the power cable with lightning fast moves, faster than Brannon could ever hope to anticipate, Superman jammed it into the water-soaked floor and hit Last Line with tens of thousands of volts all at once.
The explosive force knocked Brannon and Hotshot unconscious immediately and Superman had just enough wherewithal to lunge forward towards Sekhmet. With all of his strength, he crushed her Kryptonite gauntlets and threw her into the crates of Kilo's weapons, the woman buried beneath heaping stacks of metal and plastic. Superman turned on Bruiser next, ripping off his arms like a child pulling apart a toy, before he ripped Ray Gibson right out of the pilot's chair. The remains of the suit hit the floor in a tangled heap of twisted metal as Superman merely flicked Gibson in the forehead. Menial from a human, the concussive force from a Kryptonian inflicted enough blunt-force trauma to knock Ray Gibson out cold and Superman lowered him on top of his destroyed mech suit.
Superman surveyed the scene for a moment, feeling tired and weak and longing for this all to be over. Maybe they could call the League, get Captain Atom in here to help with cleanup. "I'm sorry… about your wife." He whispered to the unconscious Brannon. "I did the best I could that day."
The smirk on the Dark Knight was cemented. "So much for your 'Last Line'. Might wanna spend a few more million taxpayer dollars on R and D next time." Batman smugly remarked. Waller threw him a glare as he continued. "That's the thing, though. There won't be a next time. When we get out of here, and we will, everything you've done here will go public. And the people, the people who will find out their hard-earned money is being wasted on weapons to kill the one person who has saved them time and time again, well, do I need to dumb it down for you?"
"Condescending little prick." Amanda spat, her face contorting like putty into a look of venomous spite. "You think this is going to end in a witch hunt? Oh, this isn't over, genius. We've still got one more round in the chamber. And I still have you. I don't know your real name either." Her smile was twisted, sinister, insidious. It reminded Batman of the Joker. "Now what say we get that mask off you and then, once we get to know each other face to face, we can watch Superman die." She withdrew a radio from her jacket pocket. "Lab Nine, this is Waller. Send in the All-American Boy." The order given, she looked up to Batman, her expression back to smug self-confidence. "You see, genius, we didn't just experiment with weapons here. We've made all kinds of toys. Doom Kid was just a prototype. This… This is our magnum opus…"
A door at the end of the wrecked room slowly ground open and Superman steeled himself for whatever else Waller's sick and deranged mind could have conceived in this place. A shadow, twice his width and height, began to lumber forwards.
No amount of mental fortitude could've prepared him for the sight that stepped into the light.
His worst nightmares were made manifest. Every haunting memory of that awful day burning in his mind like a cattleman's brand. The past had come back to plague him once more. This wasn't a soldier. This was a monster. Suddenly Superman's concerns about Theo were but a fading haze… Theo and the entire 'Doom Kid' plan was just a stepping stone towards the true depths of malevolence Amanda Waller and Black Site Kilo sought… that malevolence, that unbridled malice towards him, was made clear in this snarling, growling thing.
It looked just like Doomsday… bristling with spikes of Kryptonite instead of bone.