Oh. It's not the acceleration. It's the kinetic shield misfiring. Come on LexCorp people, you're getting a free shot-.
And there, they're taking it, but from the determined look on Kal-El's face it's not going to do me any good-.
They're just
not a big enough threat to pull his attention of OL...
No, he's distracted, and the hydra heads are still worrying him.
Feel their desires and
Greediporting away? But in short range, since he doesn't have long enough to really ping anyone further.
I'm out move more! Throw kinetic barrier generators around him! And open communications with the LexCorp power armour people!
Compliance.
Great, that'll buy you a couple of seconds.
Then what?
Despite having a body fully enveloped in a zone where kinetic energy itself is messed up, he's still slowly turning to face me. And based on recent performance, I imagine that he'll find a way to bypass it very shortly.
"Lantern?"
Much like
that moment in Justice League. I don't even need to link it, you know the one...
And my own armour pierced my intestines, liver, stomach and lungs. Remove it, restore it… And restore me…
"Indeed."
Hope you've got plenty of spare materials, OL, this could be an
expensive fight.
"Did you get him?"
I turn to the central suit of power armour, which is apparently being piloted by Mr. Beatty. "Oh heck no. I don't know how long we've got."
He's got
guts, if not smarts. Coming out in something that probably won't stand up to Superman for long even if he
weren't supercharged.
"What happened with him?"
"Got part of his brain overwritten by an ancient kryptonian A.I.. Is there actually a kryptonian ship down there?"
Something which is
hopefully only temporary.
"That's proprietary-."
"Not the time!"
"Just a-. Yeah. The science team weren't completely sure it was kryptonian, but I guess now they are. How come the kryptonite isn't working?"
It's big and made of crystals. Pretty safe bet, yeah?
"You guys know he's been studying kryptonian martial arts?" The armour nods. "If he focuses really hard, he can alter how different wavelengths affect him."
"So he's immune to it?"
Which means even red sunlight beams may not weaken him...
"So he can feed on it."
"You taught him that?"
Sadly, despite the similarities, it's not related to the Orange Light.
"I helped him find a trainer-."
"So what can we do?"
Are you flexible enough to bend over and kiss your ass goodbye?
"If I knew that, I'd be-." The effect of the overloaded kinetic barrier fades, and Superman turns to the remaining barriers around him. "I'd be doing it."
"Fuck."
Yeah, that about sums it up.
Rather than do the stupid thing and try punching his way out, Kal-El just burns the generators out with flickers of heat vision. How-?
"I'll try eating his soul, you shoot him. Hopefully he can only handle one exotic-."
Hell of a thing to say, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
I put effort in this time, a vague blur of half-familiar drives swimming in my mind's eye. And other things, drives that I know full well aren't him and pull-
Warning! Energy drain detected!
-as hard as I can because-.
Trying to rip the Eradicator infusion out of his psyche? Risky, because doing so opens you up to his counterattack...
"Eh." Superman grunts as the plasma hits him, and-.
Ouwgh!
One punch, I bet.
Agh! Ah-! Duh-!
Okay, ow.
Yep. He's gonna feel
that in the morning, no matter how much he heals himself.
I pick myself out of the trench I just gouged in the ground, armour… Scuffed but basically whole. I suppose he's not the only one whose concentration can be disrupted. The hydra heads are still attacking him, but they're doing basically nothing. In the distance I see Superman beating Mr. Beatty's suit around the helmet and chest plate. The personal shield is holding for the moment, but I need to get back there.
Huh, it's actually effective, at least for a few moments. I shudder for whatever splinter of reality is catching those hands, though.
Right.
Pull.
And railgun… Crumbler rounds and f-.
With any luck he might dislodge something, enough to let
Clark fight his way back to control.
Huh-?
I spin in the air, armour fracturing and upper left torso pulver-move!
Casual backhand, huh?
Ah…
Ah..?
Superman rips off the front of my armour, left hand squeezing through my construct defences.
Oh, he's not going for the heart, then... He's spotted something more
useful.
Warning! Energy drain detected!
Despite his burns, he doesn't seem… Angry. Just… Focused.
Given a bit of sunlight, it'll heal right up, after all.
Ugh. Fine. Singularity-.
Warning! Low power!
Oh fuck.
Quite possibly the last words you
want to hear in a fight with a Kryptonian. And probably the last words you'd hear
period.
"U-k-!"
And… That's my body. And-. Agh! Pff-! Ground-. Calltheringcallthering!
Oh, Supes went for the decapitation. Effective against
most Lanterns, sure...
Right up the… Windpipe. Okay, I'm on low power so there's not much I can do regarding the fight, but if I-. Right. Deploy personal lantern-.
"Thank you."
And he caught both the Ring and the Lantern, didn't he?
Superman picks up my severed head in his left hand, his right wrapped around the handle of my personal lantern. My other ring is.. on the ground a little way away.
There's still… Not much going on with his facial expression.
It'd be funny if he couldn't work up the desire to activate it, but that's pretty unlikely. Probably keeping tight control to prevent overload.
"This will make restoring krypton much easier. Now I.. can…"
He winces, doubling over and dropping me to the floor. Ah, right… Second ring, move and.. touch it to the lantern.
Psychic attack while he was gloating? Well done, that telepath!
Recharge!
A flash of glorious orange, and call it back to my.. mouth, fine, and float up…
So it's serving as a tongue ring of sorts for now.
Grab my body while he's doing… I'm guessing that a telepath is taking a crack at him, good for them. Reattach, gold kryptonite and punch!
He falls to the ground, weakly shielding his face. "Wha-? What's-?"
Ah, good, Gold K can't be affected by his bullshit kung-fu. At least, not while he's distracted.
Check his desires…
Back to.. normal? No idea how that happened, but I'm not going to complain.
Okay, looks like between the Desire manipulation, the psychic feedback and the blatant defiance of his very nature, he's freed himself.
Hopefully?
I watch as the battered power armour suits approach. I could probably transition away, but those are light speed weapons. One twitch and things could go very wrong.
I'm going to try and work out how to persuade Lex not to shoot Superman while he's down.
Especially after he put in such a devastating show of what someone with those powers and
without scruples can do...
