Superman


ARGUS

The large, middle-aged woman approached the large doors in the underground installation. She placed her hand on the glowing, red pad by the door and the color changed to green. At eye-level, a small lens telescoped from a slot in the wall, scanning the director’s retina.

[ Access Granted – Amanda Waller; Director, ARGUS ]

The doors parted and Waller stepped through them, finding herself in a large laboratory. She passed through the mostly empty room, until she approached a large silver orb in the center, beneath a scanner suspended from the ceiling. The orb was completely smooth and aside from the three circular indentations arranged in a triangular pattern, completely devoid of any details.

“Burning the midnight oil, I see,” she said to the sole man seated at the terminals not far from the center of the room.

Professor Milton Fine looked up from the monitors. He was a tall man with short, dark hair. “Director Waller?” He glanced at his watch. “What are you doing here so late?”

“I could ask you the same question, Fine.” Waller never looked at her subordinate, just kept her gaze fixed on the orb.

Fine rose from his chair and circled around the terminal to come up by Amanda’s side. “I’ve been trying to get to the bottom of our mystery object here.”

“Any luck?”

He sighed. “Nothing. Damn thing crashes outside Metropolis a few weeks ago and we can’t make heads or tails of it.”

“What do we know?”

“Not much, but I’ll show you what we have.”

Fine returned to the terminal and Waller followed him. He sat at his chair and offered an empty one to the director, but she remained standing tall behind him.

“Our tests have confirmed that whatever this metal is, it’s definitely not from Earth,” he said.

“Extraterrestrial.”

Fine nodded. “Aside from that, we know nothing else. Whatever that metal is, nothing we have seems capable of penetrating it. Those three indentations on it seem to mean something, but what they mean, I haven’t the first idea. But there is one thing I found.”

He hit a few commands on the keyboard and pointed to one of the monitors. It displayed a line graph that had continuous dips and spikes.

“What is that?” asked Waller.

“That is the orb’s energy output.”

“Energy output?”

Fine nodded. “Whatever this thing is, it’s got a power source. Now it doesn’t seem to be doing anything with that energy at the moment. And the only thing we’ve been able to determine is that it doesn’t seem dangerous. It’s kind of like a TV that’s been left on.”

Waller placed her hands on her hips. She looked from the monitors to the orb and back again. “Whatever resources you need, Professor. Do you understand me? I want to know what this thing is, where it came from, and most importantly, what the hell it’s doing on my planet.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Fine.

She left the terminal and exited the lab. As soon as the doors closed, Fine noticed another spike.

“What the hell…?”

On the monitor, the power continued to spike. Fine checked the computer to make sure it wasn’t some kind of an error. But the diagnostic checks showed everything was working properly. He sighed and leaned back in the chair, looking over at the orb.

He noticed something odd about it. Fine rose from his chair and approached the orb. Each of the three indentations now had a red light glowing in the center. He knelt down in front of the orb and placed his hands on the surface.

When Fine removed his hands, he found there was some kind of resistance. Like his hand was stuck to it. Odd, he thought. There wasn’t any sign some kind of adhesive property coating it. Up until now, it had been smooth to the touch.

Fine placed his hand on it again. This time when he pulled, there was even more resistance. Something stuck to his palm. Fine looked closer and he could see some kind of substance connected his hand to the orb. It reminded him of chewed gum.

The substance broke and Fine took a few steps back.

“What are you?” he asked the orb.

The three lights dimmed and then flashed. So bright that Fine was momentarily blinded. He blinked several times to try and shake the spots from his eyes. As his vision cleared, he saw the orb appearing to melt into that strange, viscous substance. It grabbed onto his ankle and Fine screamed.

The silvery substance crawled up his leg, expanding and covering every inch of his body. Fine tried to pull away, but it kept moving. Any attempts to get it off only seemed to make it act faster. Within moments, Fine’s screams were silenced as the substance soon covered his mouth and then, his entire head.

Fine lay on the ground, motionless inside the liquid metal cocoon. After a few more moments, the substance seemed to seep into his skin, sinking into his body through his pores and orifices. Fine rose to his feet and looked down at his body.

His mannerisms were strange. His skin took on a greenish hue and his eyes began to glow red. When he spoke, it was apparently to no one in particular, and his voice had a strange monotone quality to it.

“Vril Dox Unit 242. Acquisition of Subject: Fine, Milton complete. Beginning upload of subject’s memory to core database. Commencing with Phase 2 of the plan.”


FIRE IN THE SKY

Part I

By Dino Pollard


Happy Harbor

“…And that’s all of it,” said Superman.

He sat at a round table with seven chairs arranged around it. Across from him sat a bald man with green skin and glowing red eyes. A blue cape was draped over the man’s shoulders and his elbows were perched on the table’s surface, his fingers steepled together.

“Interesting,” said the Martian Manhunter.

“You’ve been on this planet a long time, J’onn, longer than the rest of us have been alive,” said Superman. “Have you ever heard of this ARGUS?”

“No, I cannot say that I have. But if they have an interest in metahumans, that could pose trouble.”

“Waller said they’ve ‘tolerated’ us so far. What do you think she meant by that?”

The Martian Manhunter lowered his hands. “Until the formation of the Justice League, I chose to remain hidden on this planet. Whenever I used my abilities to aid others, I did so in secret. I witnessed how humans treated even those of their same species in discriminatory ways, all on the basis of what I believe to be meaningless differences. And so I suspected should mankind become aware of an alien presence on this planet, they would react with hostility. I believe Waller thinks of the Justice League—and all metahumans—as potential threats that must be contained.”

“Do you think she’ll pose a problem?” asked Superman.

“What would you do, Superman? Assemble the team and attack this ARGUS directly?”

Superman shook his head. “No, of course not. It’s just…” He sighed. “Now I know how my father felt.”

“I believe there is a larger issue to address, however,” said the Martian Manhunter. “This Kenny Braverman you battled. The effects of his powers on you, you said you’ve never experienced anything like that before?”

“No, never. Only with him.”

“Strange. A metahuman with the ability to weaken you to such an extent that your powers become useless. I wonder, would this ability work on every metahuman, or was it specific to you?”

“I wish I knew.”

The Martian Manhunter gave a long pause. He rubbed his chin while staring at his teammate. “I know the League has made the decision to respect each other’s privacy. But given the nature of this threat, I feel compelled to ask as to the origin of your powers.”

Superman snickered.

“Did I say something funny?” asked the Manhunter.

“Nothing like that. But the thing is…I don’t really know where my powers came from,” said Superman.

“Curious. When did they first appear?”

“I’ve had them in some form pretty much my entire life. I wasn’t always this powerful, they grew over time,” said Superman.

“Then perhaps our first course of action is to discover what exactly it is you are, Superman,” said the Manhunter. “Until we know the answer to that question, it may prove impossible to determine exactly why Braverman’s powers affected you in such a profound way.”

“I guess that’s the question, isn’t it?” asked Superman. “Just where are we supposed to start?”


ARGUS

Amanda Waller had barely started on her first cup of coffee when the phone on her desk rang. She picked it up with a groan. “Waller here.”

She listened, sipping the coffee. But what she heard made her spit it out. “What? Complete lockdown, now! I want a security team waiting for me outside that lab immediately!”

Waller opened her desk drawer and grabbed her 357 Magnum revolver, nearly jumping out of her chair and marching towards the elevator. Other ARGUS administrative staff backed out of her way when they saw the gun in her hand.

She climbed into the elevator and used her fingerprint to grant the elevator access to the sub-levels. The numbers on the display ticked down and the scowl never left Waller’s face. Who would be stupid enough to mess with ARGUS? To mess with her?

The doors opened and Waller marched out of the elevator and down the corridor. There was already a team assembled outside the lab, holding assault rifles at the ready.

“Director, how should we proceed?” asked one of the guards.

“Follow my lead.”

Waller went through the routine of using her handprint and retinal scan in order to open the lab doors. The security team rushed into the lab, quickly assuming positions and readying their weapons. Waller came in last, holding the gun at the ready.

Her eyes scanned over the mostly empty lab until she saw Fine standing at the terminals, his gaze fixed on the monitors.

“Professor, you want to tell me what the hell you think you’re doing?”

“Certainly,” said Fine, without looking up. “I am downloading all of ARGUS’ files and then uploading them to my own database.”

“You what?” Waller raised the gun, aiming it at him. “Who the hell hired you, Fine? The Russians? The Chinese? Kobra?”

“These names mean nothing to me, Director Waller,” said Fine. “I care not for the petty squabbles of humanity.”

“Well you’re gonna start carin’ once I put a bullet in your brain!”

“As you wish.”

Waller grunted and pulled the trigger. Fine’s head snapped back and silence filled the air. After a moment, he looked up at her, his eyes glowing red and his skin turning green. Three orbs appeared on his forehead and in the center was the spot where Waller’s bullet struck. The bullet was pushed away from the wound and fell to the floor, not a mark present.

“Did that satisfy you, Director?” asked Fine.

“Take him down!” shouted Waller.

The security team opened fire, their bullets destroying the terminals and generating a shower of sparks. Fine just stood there and took it, the bullets flattening against his body and falling harmlessly to the ground—the only thing they damaged were his clothes.

Fine looked at the destroyed terminals and turned his attention to the security team. “That was most unfortunate.”

His body transformed even further, hair vanishing from his expanding head and the trio of lights glowing on his head. Mechanical tendrils emerged from his back and chest, snaking out towards the guards. The ARGUS agents tried to fight them off, but it was mostly a futile effort. The coils wrapped around them, sending powerful, life-threatening volts of electricity through their bodies.

All Waller could do was watch as chaos erupted. She took out her cell phone to try and call for additional reinforcements, but the words NO SIGNAL flashed across the screen. Waller stood her ground and continued firing the Magnum until each pull of the trigger only elicited an impotent click.

One of the cables grabbed her and pulled her to the strange creature that was once Milton Fine. He wrapped his hand around her throat, using that to keep her aloft while the cables retreated into his body.

“That wasn’t pleasant, Director. I had no desire to kill your men.”

“Wh-what the hell are you, Fine?”

“Milton Fine is dead,” he said. “I am Vril Dox, a sentient construct from the planet Colu.”

“What do you want?” asked Waller.

“Knowledge, Director. All I require is knowledge.”

“Oh yeah? You some kinda brainiac or something?”

Vril Dox offered a smirk. “Brainiac? I quite like the sound of that. But now, I need something from you. Provide me with what I want to know, and I shall let you live.”

“You gonna leave me hangin’ or you gonna tell me?”

“I want to know everything ARGUS knows about the one you call Superman.”


To be continued…

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