Chapter 8
Lois and Vicki crept towards the window of the cookie shop and peaked through the window. Lois had been right. There was a man inside. He must have suspected that the police might be watching his shop because he didn’t bother to turn on the lights. Instead, he bumbled around in a cabinet until he found a candle, and then he reached into his jacket, pulled out a match, and used it to light the candle. Afterwards, he pulled out a box of cookies from the same cabinet and began to eat them.
“So, we’ve found the guy who stole the spaceship,” said Vicki. “What should we do? Call the police?”
“No,” said Lois. “If he’s really from Krypton and has all of Superman’s powers, they won’t be able to hold him anyways. Besides, I’m more interested in getting the scoop on the first known Kryptonian besides Superman to be discovered than in getting this guy arrested. Get your camera, and be ready to take pictures. I’m going to trick him into using his powers so that we can prove just what he is.”
Vicki looked unsure. “But, what if he’s not as friendly as Superman. You aren’t afraid he might use his heat vision to burn us alive if we expose his secret to the world?”
“That’s just the sort of risk a good reporter has to take sometimes in the name of news,” Lois replied rather nonchalantly.
“Right,” said Vicki, though her tone indicated she still wasn’t as confident in this plan as Lois seemed to be. She then ran back to the limousine, grabbed her camera, and ran back to the window where Lois was sitting.
“It’s pretty hard to catch super speed in a picture, so we’ll have to catch him in the act of something else,” said Lois. “Superman has the ability of invulnerability. If I hit him with a golf club and he’s Kryptonian, the golf club should bend or something.”
“And if he’s not Kryptonian?” Vicki asked.
“It’ll hurt,” said Lois. “A lot probably.”
Vicki gave Lois a disapproving look.
“Don’t back out on me now. We know for sure that this guy has super speed. I’m almost completely certain it won’t hurt,” said Lois.
“And if it does?” Vicki asked.
“Then I’ll pay his hospital bill for him,” said Lois. “Now, quit whining and get your camera ready to take the picture, for goodness sakes!”
Vicki felt somewhat better about the thought of Lois hitting the man, though not much better. “Where do you plan on getting a golf club, anyways?” she asked.
“Questions, questions, questions,” Lois replied as she shook her head disapprovingly. “If you had been paying attention instead of questioning my every idea, you’d have noticed that there is one in the corner of the room there.”
“Oh,” said Vicki.
“But you’ll have to go through me in order to get to it,” a voice said from behind the two of them. They both looked up and noticed that the man in the shop was gone and then whipped their heads back only to see that the man who had just been in the shop only a few seconds earlier had managed to sneak up behind the two of them while they were arguing. Both women screamed and ran off into different directions.
The man sighed and waited a moment before taking off after them. When he was ready to chase them, he managed to catch them both within about a second or two, first grabbing Lois by the collar and then grabbing Vicki by the ankle. He then held Lois up in the air and Vicki upside down as he looked at each of them in triumph.
“I’m warning you, don’t mess with us,” said Lois, as she bounced around in the air, trying to get loose. “Touch one hair on my head, and Superman will be all over you. We’re friends.”
“That’s right,” said Vicki. “And Batman will be all over you, too, because he’s my friend.”
“I don’t plan on hurting you,” the man replied. “Although, a word of advice, if I were some sort of villain, I might have used your closeness to Batman and Superman to set some sort of trap. You might want to think about that before you blurt out how close you are to them he next time you find yourselves in a situation like this.”
“What are you?” Lois asked, not even missing a beat. “Kryptonian like Superman?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” he replied.
“But you have a spaceship,” said Vicki. “That means you have to be some type of alien.”
“To be exact, I’m a Martian,” he replied as he set each of the women back down to the ground. “The last of my kind, just like Superman is the last of his kind.”
“You have the ability of super speed just like Superman,” said Lois. “Do you share all of his abilities?”
“I have many of Superman’s powers, such as flight, super strength, super hearing, and invulnerability,” he said. “But I also possess many abilities that he does not possess. Shapeshifting, invisibility, hypnosis, and telepathy.”
“Wow, you’re even cooler than Superman,” Vicki said, a touch of awe in her voice.
“Nobody is cooler than Superman,” Lois said, sounding offended that Vicki would even suggest something so ridiculous.
“Why is it that Lex Luthor had your spaceship?” asked Vicki.
“He stole it from me and then used it to blackmail me into doing terrible things.”
“I don’t believe it,” replied Lois. “Why would Lex force you to do anything terrible? He’s one of the biggest philanthropists in the world. I’m sure this has to be some kind of misunderstanding.”
“It’s not a misunderstanding!” the Martian replied angrily. “The man is a criminal.”
Suddenly, the Martian started looking from side to side as if something was wrong. He focused his hearing and realized the sound he heard was the sound of sirens.
“I have to go,” he said as he began to float in the air. “There’s trouble. At Arkham Asylum. I have to go help.”
“Take us with you!” Lois called out, hoping to turn her Martian discovery story into an even bigger Martian saves Gotham story.
“No. Too dangerous,” he replied as he began to fly away, morphing into a green-skinned Martian as he flew.
*****
Meanwhile, Clark awoke to the same sounds of sirens blaring. He then spun into his Superman costume and took a look through his window to see what was happening. Police cars sped right past the hotel. He focused his super hearing and discovered that there was a breakout in progress at Arkham Asylum.
“Again?” he asked himself as he flew out of the window and towards Arkham Asylum.
When he arrived moments later, he saw that Batman was already hard at work fighting off the dozens of criminals who were trying to escape. Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Flash were nowhere in sight.
“Do breakouts always happen this frequently at Arkham Asylum?” Superman asked Batman as he joined him in tying up several criminals Batman had just defeated. “This is the third time in a few days!”
“Gotham may have the highest crime rate in the country, but I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Batman replied. “This isn’t just some random event. Someone’s either using this as a diversion, or they’re trying to break somebody out.”
“And where exactly are our super friends when we need them?” asked Superman.
“There are other breakouts currently in progress all across the nation. Our pals are busy spreading out and doing what they can to help out,” said Batman. “That’s another reason why I said that this is no coincidence.”
“Do you need me here, or should I go help out somewhere else?” asked Superman.
Just then, Bane, the Gotham villain who used a steroid called Venom to gain superhuman strength, appeared before the two of them. For a moment, he just stood there as if wanting to intimidate the two heroes, but then he began running as fast as he could towards them.
“Not him again,” said Superman, as he grabbed Batman and floated into the air.
Bane tried jumping at Superman, but he was too high up. Bane’s hands just almost touched the sole of Superman’s boots.
“You may be strong, but that doesn’t matter if you can’t reach us,” said Superman.
Bane continued to jump and jump, but he wasn’t getting anywhere. Then, Superman used his heat vision, aiming it at the tube in the back of Bane’s head. The tube burst, and with that, Bane’s superhuman strength was gone.
“Now, you should be putty in my hands,” Superman said, sounding happy with himself for using his own powers to defeat Bane more easily than he had the last time the two of them had fought.
He then floated back down to the ground and sat Batman down. He was just about ready to put Bane back behind bars, but suddenly, a cage appeared around him. A yellow cage. Superman, confident that he could just break through it, grabbed onto two bars and pulled. To his surprise, the bars didn’t budge. He pulled again, but still, nothing happened.
“What is this?!” Superman yelled.
He looked up to the sky and saw a purple alien laughing at him. He was wearing a costume similar to that of Green Lantern, and he even had a ring on his finger that was similar to that of Green Lantern. However, the main difference was that both his costume and his ring were yellow instead of green.
“Who are you?!” Superman shouted as he pounded against the cage.
“My name is Sinestro,” the alien said. “And I have a power ring that makes me as powerful as Green Lantern, and more powerful than you, it seems.”
Then, suddenly, Sinestro found himself wrapped in a green chain. Floating in the air right behind him was Green Lantern. Green Lantern then put his fist out, and a green key seemed to come straight from his ring. The key floated down to Superman, landing right in his hand, and Superman swiftly used the key to unlock his cage.
The chain wrapped around Sinestro didn’t keep him down for long, though. Sinestro used his power ring to create a giant chain saw, which he then used to cut through the large chain wrapped around him.
“You’re no match for me, Green Lantern,” said Sinestro. “I’m far more experienced at using the power of the ring than you are.”
He then used his ring to wrap a rope around Bane. Once Bane was secure, he flew high into the air, carrying Bane along with him. Both Superman and Green Lantern flew into the sky, chasing Sinestro and Bane. For a while, they kept up with the two supervillains just fine. Then, Sinestro cleverly used his yellow power ring to create a giant weight, which he promptly dropped on top of Superman.
With all his strength, even Superman wasn’t enough to hold off the weight created by the yellow power ring. In appearance, it didn’t seem all that large. In fact, it looked about the size of a small meteor. Superman had routinely carried things much bigger than this weight in the past. However, it felt much heavier than a small meteor, and Superman found himself falling towards the ground because of the weight.
Green Lantern looked at Sinestro and then at Superman. He wasn’t sure which one he should go after, his friend or the two supervillains. Finally, he decided that he had to go after Superman. He was almost certain that Superman wouldn’t be harmed by the giant weight even if he couldn’t lift it, but he thought that the giant weight might harm innocent people down on earth if it fell to the ground. Green Lantern flew down below the weight and used his green power ring to create a slingshot-like device. As the weight fell into the device, Green Lantern used it to hurtle the weight into space.
“Thanks,” said Superman, sounding strained from the struggle he’d just endured trying to stop the weight.
“No problem,” replied Green Lantern.
However, the chaos wasn’t over quite yet. Suddenly, Superman felt his body being engulfed in ice. He twisted his head to see what was happening and saw a man using a freeze gun on him. He then easily broke free of the ice and flew down towards the man, lifting him in the air.
“Mr. Freeze,” said Superman. “But why are you dressed differently than the last time our paths crossed?”
“Because he’s not Mr. Freeze,” said the real Mr. Freeze, now aiming his own freeze gun at Superman.
Superman looked at Mr. Freeze and then back at the man he was holding in the air. “Then who are you?”
“Captain Cold,” the villain replied.
With that, Mr. Freeze shot his freeze gun at Superman. This time, the ice engulfed him completely from head to toe, making it impossible for him to get out. Captain Cold jumped out of Superman’s now frozen hand and aimed his own freeze gun at the rest of the superheroes. Flash, using his super speed, was able to outrun the ice, and Batman was able to do a back flip and land behind a dumpster, which served to protect him. However, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern were now completely frozen, just like Superman.
Flash ran and took cover behind the dumpster alongside Batman.
“Looks like it’s just me and you,” Flash said. “Please tell me you have some sort of plan to keep us from being frozen alive.”
Batman reached into his utility belt and pulled out several bat-shaped devices. He then placed several of them into Flash’s hand.
“Attach one of these to each of our friends,” said Batman. “The heat that they generate will be enough to unthaw them.”
As Flash and Batman went to work trying to melt the ice that covered their friends, Captain Cold motioned to Mr. Freeze and said, “Come on. Let us escape while their busy trying to save their friends. It’s time for us to meet our new boss.”
Mr. Freeze nodded and said, “sure thing” as he followed Captain Cold.
It didn’t take too long for the devices supplied by Batman to work. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern were free of the ice within a few minutes. While being covered in ice didn’t seem to have much of an effect on Superman, who easily seemed to bounce back to his old self once the ice was gone, it did leave Wonder Woman and Green Lantern shivering.
“Is everyone OK?” asked Batman.
“I think so, but I may have a cold now,” said Wonder Woman, who ended the sentence with a sneeze.
“Amazon women can get colds?” Flash asked, a sense of astonishment in his voice.
Wonder Woman frowned, looking somewhat embarrassed that she’d shown a vulnerability to her fellow superheroes. “Yes,” she replied, “But don’t you think for a second that that means I can’t still fight just as hard as the rest of you.”
Before anybody could reply, they all felt a rumbling on the ground that knocked them all off balance, indicating that the beatdown all of the superheroes had been experiencing wasn’t over quite yet. Then, a giant woman as high up as the highest building in the city appeared.
“Oh no!” shouted Green Lantern. “Who is that!”
“Giganta,” replied Wonder Woman. “One of my enemies.”
“Any ideas how to handle this one?” asked Flash. “Anyone?”
With that, Giganta struck her balled up fist down at the superheroes, causing them to disperse. She then picked up Superman and held him close to her face.
“The most powerful man in the universe, and he’s as small as a mosquito compared to me,” Giganta said as she laughed.
She then tossed Superman back to the ground and used her foot to stomp on him. Fortunately for Superman, this didn’t seem to faze him too badly. He flew back up into the air, and using all his strength, flew directly into her gut and knocked her to the ground.
She immediately bounced back to her feet and kicked Superman into a nearby building. Next she grabbed a telephone pole from the ground and started using it to swat at the various other superheroes. Before long, she’d managed to knock every single one of them out of her way. She then reached down and picked up one of Arkham Asylum’s most dangerous villains, the Scarecrow, and left with him.
The heroes were left completely disoriented. Nobody even attempted to stop her.
“That just might be a group of supervillains even our combined forces won’t be able to handle,” Batman said as he sat up, not trying to let on to the fact that he was pretty certain he’d just broken a few ribs.
“A guy as strong as Superman, an alien with a ring as powerful as Green Lantern’s, two men with freeze guns, a giant, and a nut who uses a drug that can cause people to hallucinate that their worst fears are happening. And I used to complain about facing just one guy with a freeze gun,” Flash moaned.
“One-on-one, we’ve always been able to stop them. But all of them together? We’re toast,” said Green Lantern.
“Don’t talk like that,” Superman replied, trying to inspire the heroes not to give up. “If each of us individually has managed to beat them before, surely, a group of us fighting together can beat them.”
“But we’re all battered and bruised,” said Flash. “And Wonder Woman doesn’t even have her golden lasso.”
“We’ve been battered and bruised before, and that never stopped us in the past,” Superman, still trying to encourage the team. “And Wonder Woman is more than just her golden lasso. She still has her super strength, and she’s still one of the most experienced crime fighters in the world.”
“Superman’s right,” said Batman. “We can’t give up now, and I think the first thing we need to do is to finish cleaning up the mess caused by the breakout here at Arkham.”
“No need for that,” Commissioner Gordon said as he approached the superheroes. “The breakout is officially over. While all of you had your hands full fighting those strange villains not from around here, your friend made sure all of Arkham Asylums’ convicts were returned to their cells. Well, except for Bane and the Scarecrow. As I’m sure you know, those two managed to escape. Overall, though, you all should be proud of yourselves. We couldn’t have contained the problem without you.”
“Wait just a minute. Our friend?” asked Superman. “What friend?”
“The guy with green skin,” said Commissioner Gordon. “I don’t know his name. I don’t really keep up with the superheroes that don’t live in Gotham.”
“Commissioner, we don’t have a friend with green skin,” said Batman. “Exactly where is this man you’re speaking of?”
“He took off after the job was done,” said Commissioner Gordon. “I didn’t really see anything strange about it since you guys routinely disappear once you’ve saved the day. I just figured he was part of your team.
“He wasn’t,” replied Superman.
“But he might be a lot of help to us if we can track him down and recruit him,” added Batman. “After all, with a group of supervillains like we’re up against, we’ll need all of the help we can get.”
The other superheroes just nodded their heads in agreement.
To be continued...
