Arctic North

A green and red streak raced across the frozen tundra, heading towards the North Pole. It was a suit of armor designed so humans could be on the same level as the metahumans who had begun appearing in rapidly increasing numbers. The pilot was John Corben, an ARGUS operative whose gambling problem is what enabled Lex Luthor to get his claws into him.

At first, Corben hated the idea of working for Luthor and risking his entire career. But when Luthor gave him the Metal-0 prototype, well…it changed the game for him. Now he was rocketing across the world towards the source of the strange activity picked up by STAR Labs and LexCorp satellites.

{Corben, do you read me?}

The voice was Luthor’s and it echoed inside Corben’s helmet. “Yeah, I hear you just fine, Mr. Luthor. What is this?”

{You didn’t think I’d just give you my new toy without supervision, did you?} asked Lex. {How is it handling?}

“Like a dream! Now I know what Superman feels like.”

{The GPS tracker in the armor shows you are approaching the anomaly, but the video feed isn’t showing anything. Look around, what do you see?}

Corben followed the indicator on his HUD. As he came over an ice ridge, he could see twin beams of energy firing from the sky. He followed the beams up and what he saw caused him to bring the suit to a complete stop and switch to hover mode.

“My god…are you seeing this, Mr. Luthor?”

There was no response.

“Mr. Luthor, can you read me?” asked Corben. “Maybe we got cut off…”

{No, Corben. I’m still here. Just…}

His speech trailed off and that made a lump rise in Corben’s throat. It wasn’t like Lex Luthor to be left speechless by anything. But what John Corben had stumbled upon seemed to do just that. Hovering high above, the source of the beams, was a giant ship in the shape of a skull.

“So…what now?” asked Corben.

{What do you think, soldier? You’ve got to save the damn day.}

“Sir…about that…” muttered Corben, struggling to find words. “You wouldn’t by any chance happen to have Wonder Woman’s phone number, would you? Or maybe Green Lantern…?”

FIRE IN THE SKY

Part IV

By Dino Pollard

Superman was kept immobilized. The restraints may have been strong enough to hold him even if he was at full strength. But Brainiac’s generators had replicated the solar radiation of his homeworld’s sun.

Homeworld…

That was a concept Clark was trying not to worry about at the moment. He’d obviously always been different. Never got sick, never experienced any of the scrapes and bruises most kids get, and then as he grew, he started exhibiting other powers. The ship the Kents found him in, they and him had always assumed he was the product of some kind of experiment, possibly by the Soviets.

But after he’d met the Justice League, he started having questions. Diana was an Amazon, Arthur an Atlantean, and J’onn an alien. He wondered if he actually had more in common with them than with the metahumans who were created by science gone wrong.

There’d be time for that later—assuming there even was a later. Right now, he had to do something to free himself. His strength obviously wasn’t enough to break the restraints, that was the first ability to go. But he had other abilities he could rely on. Superman tried to vibrate his hand as fast as possible. It was a technique he’d learned from the Flash—and Wally was actually surprised Clark hadn’t known how to do it. If he could vibrate his arms at the right frequency—and if he still had enough energy from the yellow sun stored in his cells—then he could phase right through the restraints.

He focused on the restraints and vibrated his arm as fast as he could. It didn’t seem like enough. Maybe Brainiac’s machines had sapped more of his power than he’d realized.

Can’t think like that, he told himself. He had to keep pushing himself. Assuming Brainiac was telling the truth about his origin, Clark had already lost one world. He’d die before he let something similar happen to this world.

“C’mon…c’mon…” he muttered as he pushed himself to his limit. And then it happened. He couldn’t feel the restraint anymore. His eyes bulged in shock as he saw his blurry hand start to move through the restraint. As soon as his arm was free, he stopped vibrating it and it dropped to his side. The red sun generators had sapped his power and it took a lot for him to phase through.

One arm was still trapped. Superman took a breath and focused again, trying to vibrate his arm. He stared hard at the restraint, almost as if staring alone would force it open. As he focused, he once more felt his arm starting to move through the restraint. It came free, passing through and he almost collapsed on the floor.

But at least he was free. Now he just had to rescue Waller and find a way to stop Brainiac’s ship.

Amanda Waller was watching the holographic monitors displaying Brainiac’s attempts to destroy her planet. She knew fighting against the restraints would just be a waste of energy, so she chose to conserve it and wait for the right moment.

“Soon, the process will be complete,” came the cold voice of Brainiac. Liquid metal flowed from the ceiling and started to take shape, forming into the humanoid shape she’d come to recognize the man as.

“Did you ever consider you’re going about this the wrong way?” asked Waller. “You’re interested in cataloguing information. That just happens to be my stock in trade.”

Brainiac approached her, the three orbs on his bald head pulsating as he studied her. “I’ve downloaded every file in ARGUS’ database, Director Waller, and that includes all personnel files. I know everything about you and I know how you operate. Your ability to intimidate and manipulate others has served you well and will make you an excellent addition to my collection. But those same attempts will not work on one such as me.”

Waller glared as Brainiac’s form reverted to liquid metal, slithering into the components of his ship. All that power, all that technology…she would find a way to possess it somehow for herself.

Before she could think of much else, there was a sound that drew her attention. A green laser burned through a portion of the wall, cutting around into a circle. The panel was kicked out and a figure in green and red armor came through. Waller studied the man, watching how he moved.

“You’re safe now, ma’am.” His voice was distorted by the suit, but not enough. That plus his body language gave him away.

“Agent Corben?” she asked.

He paused before saying, “I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else, ma—”

“Corben, if you call me ‘ma’am’ one more time, then once I get out of here, I’ll turn your skull into an ashtray.”

“Shit…” He reached his hands up for his head and removed the helmet.

“Interesting tech,” she said. “I see Luthor’s investment in you has finally paid off.”

Corben looked shocked. “What do you—”

“Don’t insult my intelligence. Of course I knew you were a mole for Luthor. It’s why I’ve been feeding you false intel for the past month. Now get me out of here so we can stop this psychotic alien.”

Corben put the helmet back on and approached Waller. He raised his arm and a green laser emitted from just above his wrist, cutting through her restraints. It took only moments for her to be released. Waller rubbed her wrists.

“Did you find Superman?” she asked.

“No, where is he?”

“Brainiac took him. We have to find him.”

“Thought you hated the metas.”

“I don’t trust them, but I see their value. Particularly in this situation,” said Waller.

“I found you mostly by dumb luck. This ship interferes with the suit’s scanners, so it’s hard to get a real good read on—”

Corben quickly silenced himself. Waller watched him in confusion.

“What is it?” she asked.

“I’m picking up a signal. Another life-form…”

“Life-form? Corben, wait—!”

Corben readied himself. And when the door opened, he reacted instantly, firing an energy blast from his palm.

“Stop that, you idiot!” shouted Waller.

Corben looked where he fired and he saw his target lying on the ground. It was Superman himself, cringing in pain as he pulled himself up and staggered to stand. Corben blinked several times beneath the helmet.

“Do you have any ounce of brainpower?” asked Waller. “You said ‘life-form.’ Brainiac is not a living organism, he’s AI.”

“How was I supposed to know?” asked Corben as he moved over to the Man of Steel. “Listen, Big Blue. I’m sorry about that, I just reacted.”

Superman groaned as he touched the spot on his chest where he’d been blasted. “It’s okay. No real harm done. I should be fine soon.”

“How did that affect you?” asked Waller. “I’ve seen you stand up to nuclear radiation. You should have shrugged off a blast like that.”

“Brainiac found a way to weaken my powers. I’ve taken care of it, but I guess I’m not quite up to full strength yet.”

“Suppose not…” muttered Waller, making it a point to find out just what sort of power source Luthor used in that armor Corben was piloting.

“If you’ve been weakened, are you going to be able to handle this?” asked Corben.

Superman nodded. “I’m already feeling my strength returning. Your sucker-punch was probably more surprise than anything else.”

“I said I was sorry…” muttered Corben.

“I could use your help, though,” said Superman. “Not sure where you got that suit from, but you came at the right time. I need you to get Waller to safety.”

“You’ll do no such thing, Corben,” said Waller.

Superman was left dumbstruck by her defiance. “Don’t you realize what’s happening here? Brainiac is going to use this ship to destroy Earth. I need you to get to safety and I can’t do two things at once.”

“You’re weakened and you don’t have the time or means to reach any of your Justice League pals,” said Waller. “You’re going to need back-up, and that’s where Corben comes in.”

Superman sighed. There wasn’t time to argue and he knew she wouldn’t bend. “Fine, stay here and stay safe. Corben, you’re with me.”

The two of them left Waller behind, with Superman leading them back through the door and into a hallway. Yet, everything had already changed all around.

“This isn’t right,” he said. “This corridor was a T-junction before. Now it just leads straight ahead.”

“How’s that possible?” asked Corben.

“Brainiac is changing the ship, trying to throw us up,” said Superman. “Unfortunately, he can’t stop me from seeing through the walls.”

Superman flew down the corridor, but he turned at about halfway to the end of the hall, and punched through the wall. He tore open a hole and they could both feel the cold arctic air. Superman dove through the hole, taking flight and circling around the skull ship. He glanced behind him and saw Corben following behind.

They both came to the underside of the ship and saw the twin beams burrowing down into the planet. Superman looked at the impact point, scanning deeper with his x-ray vision. The beams were still working their way through the layers of bedrock and had a ways to go.

“Good news is we have some time,” said Superman. “The bad news is I have no idea exactly how much time.”

“What do you need me to do?” asked Corben.

Superman was trying to think of what their next move should be, and then their attention was drawn by a fleet of small drones. There were dozens of them, triangular flyers with three pulsating lights on their surface.

“Take out those things,” said Superman.

Amanda Waller examined the contents of Brainiac’s ship, committing everything she saw to memory. There were no obvious controls on the ship, so she wouldn’t be able to turn anything off. However Brainiac controlled the ship, it was clearly not through simple manual controls. She suspected it had to be a symbiotic link of some kind.

All she needed was some tech to take back with her. Something ARGUS scientists could study and potentially reverse-engineer. But this room had nothing. So she left through the same door as Superman and Corben. Just past the door was a staircase leading down and spiraling towards the center. She followed it.

There were no divergent paths. Just the staircase leading down. Waller suspected she was being led where Brainiac wanted her to go. And she was curious to see where this path ended.

The drones piled on, coming in increasingly large numbers. Superman and Corben used all the capabilities at their disposal to lessen the drone population. Superman had used a combination of strength and heat vision, while Corben mostly relied on the green lasers generated by his armor.

“We have to get past these things and stop the ship!” said Superman.

Corben swatted away one of the drones and reduced another to slag with his energy beams. “I’m all for it. What do you have in mind?”

“I don’t know…” muttered Superman. “Every situation I can think of ends with destroying that ship.”

“So why don’t we do that?” asked Corben.

“Because Waller’s still onboard,” said Superman. But more than that, Brainiac had a lot of information about his Krypton. If Superman destroyed the ship, he might be destroying his last chance to learn about where he came from.

“You can find Waller, can’t you?”

Superman scanned the giant skull with his x-ray vision and he was able to see her within the bowels of the ship. “Yes, I have her.”

“Then I’ll handle the ship, you get to her.”

“Corben, no! You have no idea what that suit can hold up to!” shouted Superman.

“Not up for a debate, big guy.”

Corben activated his thrusters and made a bee-line for the ship’s underside. The drones gave chase to him, more concerned with the threat he posed than with Superman. That left Superman as the only one who could save Waller before the whole thing went up in flames.

The staircase came to an end. Waller was in a round room that was completely empty. Save for a pedestal in the center of the room with a green orb atop it, and three red lights humming in unison. She moved slowly towards the orb and reached her hands out.

“It’s a conundrum, is it not?”

She spun to see Brainiac’s liquid metal form dripping from the ceiling and then forming into the green-headed form he seemed to prefer. Lifeless eyes stared into hers, and a rare chill stabbed through her body.

“In that orb is the accumulated knowledge of hundreds of civilizations across the universe. Should Kal-El and his human conspirator succeed in their attempt to defeat me, all that knowledge would be lost,” said Brainiac. “You have a saying on Earth, one I’m quite fond of—knowledge is power. So this begs the question, Amanda Waller. Are you prepared to sacrifice all that knowledge—all that power—to put an end to me?”

Waller looked at the orb and then back at Brainiac. “If this orb survives, what does that mean for you?”

“That is the conundrum to which I referred,” said Brainiac. “I exist within every inch of this ship, including the orb. You cannot separate the data from my consciousness.”

“Why tell me?”

“Curiosity. I would like to see just how far you’re willing to go in pursuit of your goals.”

Her eyes drifted back to the orb and she tried to think about just how far she was willing to push the issue. She hated ultimatums—unless she was the one making them. There had to be a way to control this situation.

“Amanda.”

She sighed at the sound of Superman’s voice.

“I know what you’re thinking,” said Superman. “You’re trying to find a way to have it all. Stop Brainiac, but keep his spoils.”

“And you’re not?” asked Waller. “Brainiac made sure I heard his conversation with you. You want to know more about your homeworld. If Brainiac’s ship is destroyed, you lose that opportunity.”

“Maybe,” said Superman. “But Earth’s my home. And if I have to sacrifice knowledge of a dead planet in order to preserve this one, then that’s no decision at all. I choose Earth.”

“How noble, Kal-El.” Brainiac held up his hand and the sunstone rose up from his palm. “Are you certain about that? With your speed, you could take this from me. But you had it since you were a child and not once could you decipher what its purpose was. You need me to learn how to activate the sunstone and access its knowledge.”

“Mr. Luthor, are you there?” asked Corben as he flew under Brainiac’s ship. “I’m trying to see if there’s some way I can stop this thing before it destroys the planet.”

{I’m monitoring your systems from here at LexTower, Corben.} A video call from Luthor appeared on Corben’s HUD. {The scans from the suit show a dense molecular structure of the ship’s hull and the weapons aren’t advanced enough to counter firepower on that level.}

“You said the hull,” said Corben. “What if we could destroy the core?”

{You’d have to be able to find it, first.}

Corben hovered back and moved up, trying to see if he could find an entry point. The entire ship now seemed to be completely closed off. But there was one possibility, though it would be an incredible risk.

“How much can this armor stand up to, Mr. Luthor?“

{It was designed to battle Superman, so quite a bit.}

“Enough to handle a planet-destroying laser?”

{What are you saying, Corben?}

“Pretty simple, Mr. Luthor.” Corben dove and flew towards the laser. He kicked his thrusters into full-gear and rocketed towards the weapon. “Ever seen Independence Day?“

The entire ship began to quake. Superman flew across the room and slammed his body with all the force he could muster right into Brainiac. Whatever Corben was doing, it seemed to have an effect on Brainiac’s focus. And it gave Superman the opening he needed to fight back against the AI while he was in a solid form.

Tentacles emerged from Brainiac’s back and snaked towards the Man of Steel. Superman fought them off with a combination of his fists and heat vision, keeping them at bay while he tried to get closer to Brainiac. He glanced in Waller’s direction and made eye contact with her, then looked at the orb beside her.

Waller knew what Superman was telling her to do. While he had Brainiac distracted, all she had to do was destroy the orb and then Brainiac’s existence would be ended. But doing so also meant destroying the accumulated knowledge of all the worlds Brainiac had destroyed. Hundreds—potentially thousands of worlds, their civilizations now lost and Brainiac holding the only record. Could she really destroy all that knowledge?

There was no option.

Waller took the orb from the pedestal and coiled her arms. She watched as Superman and Brainiac struggled and once she saw her opening, she whispered his name. When he looked at her, she knew he’d heard and she threw the orb into the air.

Brainiac’s tentacles tried to keep Superman restrained, but he took a deep breath and blew. Arctic air breezed through his pursed lips and as the orb fell, it became weakened by the frigid effect of his breath. When it struck the ground, it shattered.

“No!” shouted Brainiac as he lost control over his tentacles. The orbs on his head flashed in random patterns.

Superman pulled the tentacles off and prepared to deliver a punch. But as his fist connected, it didn’t strike Brainiac’s head. Instead, he melted into his liquid form and sunk to the ground. The whole ship was now rumbling and tilting.

There wasn’t a lot of time left. Superman saw the sunstone crystal on the ground in the midst of Brainiac’s melted form. He took it in his hand and then collected Waller and the two of them flew from the skullship.

Superman landed a safe distance and set Waller down on the ground. He took off not a second later, a red and blue blur headed for the skullship. He wasn’t going to leave John Corben behind to die, he knew that much. Nobody died on his watch.

But before he could reach the ship, it exploded, flashing a blinding light across the arctic horizon. Superman was thrown back into the snow and looked up, terror in his eyes. He sat in the snow on his hands knees, his head hanging below his shoulders. When he opened his eyes, he threw his head back and unleashed his heat vision in impotent anger.

“Superman,” said Waller.

“He helped me…” muttered Superman. “Gave me the chance I needed to stop Brainiac. And this is how he’s repaid…”

“Corben was a soldier, he knew the risks of this life,” said Waller. “Not even you can save everyone.”

Superman sighed. And a thought nagged at the back of his head—maybe I should.

“The orb,” he said, wanting a change of subject. “You were willing to throw away all that knowledge?”

“Knowledge wouldn’t help ARGUS much if the Earth no longer exists,” she said. “Now if you don’t mind, I could use some help getting back to civilization.”

Superman rose from the snow. He looked down at his hand and saw the sunstone resting in his palm, with the familiar sigil on the end. Perhaps, it truly did symbolize hope…

NEXT: Last Son