Superman cocked an eyebrow at the metahuman who stood before him. The man appeared completely normal, save for his head, which looked like a skull. A skull surrounded by purple flames. He’d just referred to himself as the Atomic Skull, and that much, Superman could understand. But what surprised him was what he called the Man of Steel.

“Dr. Electron?” asked Superman.

Energy blasts flew from the Atomic Skull’s hands. Superman stood firm to absorb them, but he found these attacks struck slightly harder than the first. The Atomic Skull continued the assault, and now Superman felt his invulnerability begin to wane. Whatever energy the Atomic Skull was using, it was strong enough to cause Superman pain.

Superman made the decision to take the fight to the villain. He sprung, flying with as much speed as he could muster to cross the short divide between them. Superman drove his fists into the Atomic Skull’s head, trying to restrain his punches so his strength wouldn’t decapitate the man.

Rather than knock him out as Superman had hoped, the blows apparently did nothing to the Atomic Skull. He stared at Superman with eyes burning in the skull’s sockets and then purple energy matching the aura around his head and the signature of his blasts shot from his eyes, engulfing Superman’s head.

The Man of Steel recoiled in pain, taken aback by the power behind the assault. The Atomic Skull lunged at him, wrapping his hands around Superman’s throat and releasing another optic blast point-blank.

“You’ve imprisoned me for too long, you fiend!” screamed the Atomic Skull. “Now I’ll have my vengeance on you for your treatment!”

The police had formed a perimeter around the battle, trying to keep back any rubbernecking civilians. Two plainclothes police officers entered the scene, leading the rest of the police back-up towards the front of the perimeter. Inspectors Maggie Sawyer and Dan Turpin of the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit.

“What the hell is that?” asked Turpin, his eyes widening at the sight. “Maggie?”

Sawyer was speechless herself. Of course, there had been stories of Superman facing powerful metahumans as a member of the Justice League. But to see it first-hand, and watch the Man of Steel struggle in the fight, was something no one in Metropolis expected to see. The Atomic Skull grappled with Superman, striking him with another blast before raising him over his head and throwing him into one of the parked cars.

“Do something!” said Lois, trying to push past the police officers cordoning off the scene.

“Get back, lady!”

Turpin drew his gun from the shoulder holster under his trench coat. He opened fire on the Atomic Skull, but the bullets seemed to do little more than annoy the metahuman. The Atomic Skull turned, allowing Superman to fall from his grip, motionless on the ground.

“Dr. Electron’s Rocketmen, of course you would stand against me!” he screamed.

Turpin cast an angry glare at Lois. “Any other bright ideas, Lane?”

“Take him down!” shouted Sawyer, firing with her own weapon. The other officers followed her lead and Turpin soon joined in as well.

The bullets caused the Atomic Skull to stagger, but it didn’t seem to do more than Turpin’s solo effort had. Within a few moments, the triggers clicked, their magazines emptied. And the Atomic Skull still stood.

“Stop!” shouted Lois, pushing past the officers, putting herself between them and the Atomic Skull.

“Zelda, my love,” said the Atomic Skull, his face softening at her presence.

“Right, that’s me!” said Lois. “Let Su—err, Dr. Electron go free. He can’t hurt us anymore. Now show him you’re the better man.”

The Atomic Skull stopped and turned his head to look down at Superman. His eyes burned brightly, but he turned to Lois once more. “As you wish, my love. I’ll spare his life. But only this once!”

The Atomic Skull wrapped his arms around Lois and picked her up off her feet.

“H-hey, wait a minute—!”

“We must leave, Zelda! It won’t be long before Electron’s Rocketmen seek vengeance!”

“No, stop!” Lois’ protests had no effect on the Atomic Skull. Holding her in his arms, he crouched and leapt high, landing on the rooftop of a nearby building. He leapt again, carrying her further and further into the distance with each leap.

CURSE OF THE ATOMIC SKULL

Part II

By Dino Pollard

Jimmy Olsen ran Jimmy Olsen ran to Superman’s side, trying to help the Man of Steel to his feet from the wreckage of the car. Superman staggered, still weakened from the Atomic Skull’s attack. Turpin and Sawyer approached as well, looking on as Superman leaned on Jimmy for support.

“Easy, Supes, I gotcha,” said Jimmy.

“Thanks, Jimmy. Think I’m okay now.”

“Huh? How’d you know my name?”

Superman mentally scolded himself for that slip-up. As Clark Kent, he’d gotten to know Jimmy Olsen very well, But as Superman, he’d never met the young photographer. He quickly found a legitimate explanation, though.

“I liked your photo of me,” said Superman.

“Really?” Jimmy had to stop himself from blushing.

“The hell happened?” asked Turpin, pointing a pudgy finger at the caped metahuman. “Ain’t you supposed to be invulnerable or somethin’? How’d that guy get the drop on you?”

“From his name, I’m guessing he’s powered by some form of radiation,” said Superman. “I can take a lot of punishment, but even I have my limits.”

“And now he’s got Lois Lane,” said Sawyer. “Any idea where he’s gone off to?”

Superman shook his head. “I’ve never seen him before. For some reason, he kept calling me Dr. Electron and Lois Zelda Wentworth.”

“Y’mean from those old pulp books?” asked Turpin.

“What books?” asked Superman.

“Some pulp series called Curse of the Atomic Skull. Some hero who was changed by a villain named Dr. Electron and his girl was Zelda Wentworth.” Turpin’s explanation earned him a confused look from his partner and Turpin gave a shrug. “What? I can read, y’know.”

“Then how come I’m always writing our reports?” asked Sawyer.

“With age comes privilege,” said Turpin.

“So what do we do now?” asked Jimmy.

“They can’t have gotten far. I’ll do a sweep of the city, maybe I can get a lead on them.”

Before Jimmy could say another word, Superman was gone in a blur with a breeze in his wake. Sawyer approached the photographer. “Okay, Olsen—let’s get your statement and then you can go home.”

“Yeah, sure thing.” Jimmy noticed someone in the crowd, a man with short, brown hair and glasses who was here when the Atomic Skull first attacked. While Jimmy spoke to the officer who took down his statement, he kept a firm eye on that man.

Once the man left the scene, Jimmy followed, staying a good distance away from him. He raised his camera and snapped a few quick shots of the man, getting a pretty decent look at his face.

Clark returned to his apartment after an uneventful attempt at searching Metropolis. Whoever the Atomic Skull was, he was either fast enough to avoid Superman or good enough at hiding. He thought about maybe contacting someone from the Justice League, see if they could provide him with some assistance on figuring out just what the Atomic Skull was. But before he could even put a plan into motion, his doorbell rang.

“CK, you in there?”

It was Jimmy’s voice. “Just a minute!” Clark used his super-speed to quickly pull a pair of sweat pants and a hooded sweatshirt over his costume. After running his hands quickly through his hair to sweep it back, Clark put his glasses on and slouched over a bit as he unlocked the front door.

“What the hell happened to you, man?” asked Jimmy, stepping inside the apartment. “You just disappeared when the Atomic Skull showed up.”

“I…went to call the police,” said Clark.

“Went where? Don’t you have a cell phone?”

“The…the battery was dead,” said Clark. “Guess I was playing too much Candy Crush on my lunch break. After finding a phone, by the time I got back there, the cops wouldn’t let me get close.”

“Yeah well, you missed a helluva show,” said Jimmy. “Superman showed up and the two of them got into it. Guy was strong enough to knock even Big Blue around. Then, he grabbed Lois and took off with her.”

“He has Lois?” asked Clark, feigning surprise.

Jimmy nodded. “But there was somethin’ weird about this one guy. He was there when the cops turned up and hung around long after the danger passed. I dunno, I just got a funny feeling about him, so I followed him.”

“Jimmy…”

“Hold on, listen to what I found out,” said Jimmy. “Guy works for STAR Labs. I took his picture before I followed him and ran it against STAR Labs’ employee database.”

“Who is he?” asked Clark.

“Albert Michaels, seems he was doing some work with radiation treatments for nervous disorders.”

“And you think this has something to do with the Atomic Skull?” asked Clark.

Jimmy shrugged. “Why else would he have been down there?”

“Good work, Jim.”

“Thanks. So what are we gonna do about it?”

“Do?” asked Clark. “What do you mean? We’re going to tell the police about it.”

“We are?” Jimmy scoffed. “Dude, Lois is in danger. She needs our help.”

“All the more reason to tell the authorities. I know you want to help, Jim, but we can’t take on someone like this on our own,” said Clark. “The Atomic Skull is serious business.”

Jimmy gave a sigh. “Yeah, okay. Guess you’re right.”

Clark put his hand on Jimmy’s shoulder and led him to the door. “I’ll call the Metropolis SCU. Why don’t you go back to the Planet? I’m sure you got some pictures of this guy that Perry would love to see.”

Jimmy nodded and walked out the door. As soon as he was gone, Clark pulled off his sweatshirt, revealing the red and yellow shield emblazoned on the front of his costume.

STAR Labs

Professor Emil Hamilton removed his glasses as he watched the replay of the footage from Superman’s battle with the Atomic Skull. He turned in his chair, staring at Dr. Albert Michaels, who stood behind him with his face sunk.

“Tell me again why you thought it would be a good idea to implant a radium-powered device in a living man,” said Hamilton, rising from his chair and pulling his glasses back on.

“But, the success with animal trials…Martin was a perfect candidate—”

Hamilton grabbed Michaels by the lapels of his lab coat and pulled him closer. “Are you out of your mind? Do you have any idea what sort of trouble you could have caused this organization?”

“Pr-Professor, please—!”

“With the advent of these metahumans, STAR Labs is now more important than ever! Not only in dealing with potential threats but also helping people who don’t understand these abilities. And what do you do? You created a damn supervillain!”

Hamilton shoved Michaels away and the scientist stumbled, tripping and falling to the ground. The head scientist clenched his fists and took a deep breath, trying to maintain his composure. And that was when the phone in the laboratory started ringing. Hamilton went to it and picked it up.

“Yes?”

“Professor, this is Rudy Jones at the front gate. And…umm…he’s here.”

“‘He’?” asked Hamilton.

Hamilton ran out the front entrance of STAR Labs’ New Troy Island headquarters. The gate was closed and the security in front all held their guns pointed towards the sky. The man they were aimed at hovered calmly above their heads, arms crossed over his chest, the wind catching his red cape.

“Dr. Hamilton, I presume?” he asked, looking down at the head scientist.

“Open the gate. And lower your weapons, you know they won’t do you any good,” said Hamilton to the guards. He looked at the visitor. “We have a lot to discuss, Superman.”

Superman gave a nod and lowered himself to the ground. Once his feet touched the pavement, he broke into a walk, moving beside Hamilton and the two men entered the facility together.

“I was hoping we’d have a chance to meet at some point, but I wish it were under better circumstances,” said Hamilton. “I have several doctorates, but I don’t need any of them to guess why you’re here.”

“The Atomic Skull,” said Superman as they entered an elevator and the doors closed. “One of your scientists was at the scene of his attack. Given the kind of work STAR Labs does, I thought it made sense to come to you and figure out what you know about this.”

“The man you’re talking about is Albert Michaels, one of our researchers. He violated protocol by implanting a radium device in the head of a patient by the name of Joseph Martin,” said Hamilton. “The result transformed Martin into that creature you fought earlier.”

The doors opened and they both stepped out. Hamilton gestured to Michaels. “I believe he can tell you more.”

Michaels almost prepared to run when he saw the Man of Steel, but quickly realized he had nowhere to run to. Superman raised his palm in a calming gesture. “It’s okay, Doctor. I’m not going to hurt anyone. I just need to know what happened to Martin.”

“The procedure should have been a success, but something went wrong,” said Michaels.

“What about this Atomic Skull business? Why does Martin think he’s a fictional character?”

“Martin suffered from a rare nervous system disorder. It was my belief that this radium device could do him some good, as I’d had success with animal tests. But instead, I fear it may have exacerbated the problem, made him delusional.”

“And also granted him superhuman powers,” said Superman. “There has to be a way to stop him, Doctor.”

“The radium device in his head, it’s the source of his powers,” said Michaels. “If the energy is drained from it, it may give us the opportunity we need to sedate him and then prep him for surgery.”

“How do I drain it?” asked Superman.

“Our atomic generators are equipped with boron control rods, designed to absorb radiation,” said Hamilton. “If you can get it around the source of the power, it just might work.”

“We also have to find him,” said Superman.

Hamilton shook his head. “Something tells me that won’t be a problem. The amount of power Martin is giving off should make him easy to detect. But the problem is getting close enough to him.”

“And also keeping Lois Lane safe…” said Superman.

The Atomic Skull finally took refuge on one of the towers of the Hobsneck Bridge connecting the borough of Hob’s Bay to New Troy. He laid Lois carefully down on the surface and looked down into her face. Not long after he began his jumps, she fell into an unconscious state and he couldn’t figure out why.

“ARGH!” Martin screamed and fell to his knees. “D-Dr. Electron…what have you done to me?”

Martin keeled over, pounding his fists into the bridge tower. He felt a rush of images competing for his mind’s attention. Saw his life as the Atomic Skull, meeting Zelda Wentworth, foiling the plots of Dr. Electron and his Rocketme—

No, that wasn’t right. He saw himself lying in a hospital bed. Reading an old, worn paperback called Curse of the Atomic Skull. But he’s the Atomic Skull. Who is this weakened shell of a man in the bed?

“Why can’t I remember…?” he asked himself.

He turned at a sound from behind him and saw his beloved Zelda beginning to rise. As soon as she glanced over the edge and realized where she was, an audible gasp escaped her lips. The Atomic Skull took a few cautious steps towards her.

“It’s okay, my love,” he said. “You’re safe now. We’ve managed to elude Dr. Electron for the time being.”

“Dr. Electron…?” asked Lois, rubbing her head. She still felt groggy and had difficulty focusing on the situation. But she remembered the Atomic Skull fighting Superman. Remembered him taking her. “Oh god, you’re insane!”

“No!” he shouted. “It’s Dr. Electron! He’s manipulated you somehow! Believe me, Zelda, I would never do anything to hurt you!”

Lois looked past the Atomic Skull, to the blue and red blur that streaked towards them. The Atomic Skull noticed her line of sight and turned as well. Atomic energy fired from his eye sockets and engulfed the Man of Steel before he could come within arm’s reach.

Superman managed to maintain a hover, holding the boron control rod in his hands. “Joe, listen to me! This isn’t you!”

“More of your tricks!”

Superman held the control rod between both hands, using it to absorb the energy from the Atomic Skull’s blasts. “Stop and listen! There was an experiment to treat your illness. It went wrong and transformed you into this!”

“Liar!”

The Atomic Skull directed his energy into his hands and fired blasts at the tower, shooting him into the air and towards Superman. He grappled with the Man of Steel, but Superman’s attention was elsewhere. Watching in horror as the bridge struggled under the onslaught of the Skull’s attack.

The bridge swayed and he watched as Lois slipped from the top of the tower. She grabbed onto the edge, but now hung precipitously over the cars that swerved on the bridge’s road below. One of her hands slipped, leaving her hanging on by only one and she struggled to try and pull herself to safety.

The control rod served as a barrier of sorts between Superman and the Atomic Skull, each of them holding tightly to it. But when Superman saw Lois in danger, he knew he had to prioritize. He unleashed his heat vision, striking the Atomic Skull square in the face and stunning him just long enough.

Superman flew from the Skull, who plummeted to the water below. Just as Lois’ fingers slipped from the edge, he flew beneath her, catching her gently in his arms. He carried her across to the New Troy shore and set her down carefully.

“The Skull!” Superman flew back into the air over the area where the Skull fell into the bay. He scanned with his superhuman vision. He could see different spectrums of the electromagnetic spectrum and he used that ability to track the Atomic Skull here. Now he used it to find some trace of him.

When he spotted it, Superman dove beneath the waves. But all he found on the sand far beneath the surface was the boron control rod, the source of the energy he’d seen. Superman did another scan of the underwater area, then returned to the air. He scanned the entire area one final time before he landed on the ground beside Lois.

“What happened?” she asked.

Superman shook his head, staring at the control rod in frustration. “Maybe the rod drained him of his powers and he drifted away. Or maybe he dropped it once he hit the water and escaped. Unfortunately, I can’t say for sure. I’ll keep searching, try and see where he may have ended up. But for now at least, I think it’s over.”

Lois sighed, staring down at the sand of the New Troy beach. “Listen. I just wanted to say thanks. For saving me back there.”

Superman smiled at her. “That’s why I’m here, Miss Lane.”

Lois stared at the Hobsneck Bridge, the place where she almost died. Before this mysterious superhero rescued her. “So, any chance you’d consider an intervi—?”

She felt a gust of wind and turned. He was gone. Lois scoffed.

“Figures.”

NEXT: Smallville