2019-01-23 - "Death" of Superman: Superman Returns

East New Troy - Metropolis

It’s a common sound in the home of the most famous alien East of Hollywood, a distant, rumbling boom. Less common, however, is the sound of screams. A cyclopean, three armed robot stomps through the streets of Metropolis, all sleek lines and smooth transitions. It towers over the cars fleeing its approach, standing just over two stories tall. One car is a little too slow in reversing course and is grabbed in one of the tridactyl hands, sharp, pointed fingers piercing the body of the car, and tossed to one side, where a part time worker in a stereo store screams as she realizes the sound wasn’t some weird fault in the subwoofer. The car flips through the air, coming to an abrupt and gentle stop just before crashing through the storefront. The young man dressed all in blue and red, matching jacket worn over the form fitting body suit in acknowledgement of the January chill. He sets the car down. “Are you okay?” A panicked nod. “Can you drive?” Another nod. “Then get somewhere safe. I’ve got this.” He turns then, looking to the teen standing, wide eyed, behind the counter, then looking past her. “There’s a fire exit out back. Might wanna use it,” he says, giving her a warm, comforting smile. The girl blinks, then nods, and rushes out the back, pausing for only a moment. From the speakers connected to the most powerful bluetooth system, the starting line “Bless My Soul, Herc was on a roll!” emerges alongside up tempo music.

Kon-El smiles. “Guess she’s a fan.” Right, Warbot! He pushes off the street, flying after the warbot, who turns, the voice that emerges briefly stalling Superman. “The Pretender. So it’s true, then? The Kryptonian is dead?” Kon, hears the screams, and hovers in the air, shoulders squared, fists clenched, battle ready and inspiring. “Metropolis still has a Superman.” The voice of the New God is dismissive when it responds. “We shall see.” The cyclopean eye of the robot glows, and a beam of energy lances out, just barely dodged by the young Superman. He flies in a spiral, just barely keeping ahead of the lancing energy, the musical accompaniment to the fight dying an explosive death when a stray blast catches the stereo store, destroying a few thousand dollars in sound equipment.

The Press Helicopters arrive, just in time to find the young Superman having made his way to the robot’s shoulder, a satisfied expression as he rests a hand on it. “Checkmate.” A beat. Nothing happens. A laugh emerges from the robot. “Molecular construction.” Kon-El’s eyes go wide with realization. One of those hands grabs him by the leg and, spinning with a fluid motion, as if the robot were all of one piece with no individual parts for his telekinesis to separate, it throws him, hard. Kon rebounds off the street, leaving a fresh new pothole with his shoulder as the asphalt (and hopefully just the asphalt) cracks with the impact. A pained voice emerges from the clone. “You did your research... I’m flattered.” He whistles, loud, sharp, and strong, disrupting the day of anyone in the immediate area, with enhanced hearing for a few miles or, if their hearing is Kryptonian level, half a world away.

The cyclopean eye glows again, another lance of energy launched towards the temporarily immobile hero, who, with a panicked throw, tosses a manhole cover between him and the blast. The manhole takes the blast and is reduced to warm air and rust particles. Shoulder of his jacket torn, Superman the Younger is soon back in the air, ready to resume the fight, flying low to the ground for the robot’s legs.

That whistle is heard while Kal just happens to be in Wakanda, getting a readout on how his new suit is meshing with his Kryptonian DNA. His head lifts slightly as he asides to Adelah. "You might want to grab your armor. Something is going down in Metroppolis. Might have to speed up the timetable on returning to active status." He waits for her to get ready before grasping her around the waist and flying off.

Two minutes later, he enters Metropolis' airspace, his eytes zeroing in on both Kon and the warbot. After putting Serqet on the ground, the kryptonian blurs in front of Kon and aims a heavy punch towards the bot. "Hey kiddo, I heard you needed a hand?" He rolls his shoulder a bit and flexes the hand he hit the warbot with. "Well...seventy percent will just have to do. I'm back in the game."

"This is how you return. You do not send word regarding your health or your circumstances. Suddenly, you show up and ask me for to grab my armor? I do not understand you powered invdividuals, at all." Adelah tsked in disappointment. She'll have to scold him later for now, her pending flight required the Serqet suit. Flying at such extreme speeds was bound to have an effect on her. Once suited up, they're both off and in Metropolis in no time. It feels great being able to fly that quickly without being jettisoned and pitched all over the place.

She engaged her stealth before dropping on the ground and looked around at the destruction. "It's unfortunate that such a wonderful city has to be destroyed by the likes of this...thing," she admitted. "But there's no time for these kinds of thoughts. We need to act and quickly, I imagine. First question, what is it?" She pointed out the warbot. "Second, how do we hurt it?"

Those two minutes have been... eventful. The scene when Superman arrives is one of devastation, several smoking craters, several new potholes, Superboy's (because, as of this moment, it's unlikely any in the press will be calling him Superman) jacket sacrificed to a distraction tactic to let him get close, much of his costume having torn away from his chest and arms, revealing fresh, still forming bruises. It's an uncomfortable parallel. The robot is looking a little worse for wear itself, though, having a manhole cover sticking out of one arm. Superman's punch forces the metal disc further into the bot, severing the arm, and sends it staggering back. "Huh... you beat Krypto here. Not bad. Dig the new look... not crazy about the headgear, though." He's still joking, he's in better shape than he looks. Other than the press helicopters, they have the entire block to themselves. He glances towards the sound of Adelah's voice. "Apokalipsian robot. Someone did their homework, my teke won't work on it. However, the sheer strength isn't super hot." Filling Superman's shoes has forced him to fight smart, and... well, Tim had been rubbing off on him for a while.

Kal asides to Adelah. "I told you. After we designed and built the suit, I spent a week and a half hanging out in the sun's corona. I got rid of most of the poison...when I was feeling better, I came back." He pats Kon on the shoulder. "Thanks, I try to keep fahsion forward. That and it's allowing me to absorb solar radiaton at an increased rate." A smile. "That's a sign that you're good at your job. They send things tailor made to hurt you." He then motions to the exposed parts due to the arm coming off. "Okay. Aim for the exposed parts. Kon and Serqet, heat vision and blasters on three." A pause. "Three." His eyes glow red before he releases a powerful laser from his eyes.

"I do not care about that. It is still no way to greet someone," Serqet huffed. "Although, I am glad the suit is working for you. That was an endeavor even I wasn't certain would work," she admitted honestly. Sometimes, there are just things that don't seem like they'd work out and no amount of confidence would cover that.

She proceeded to charge up her blasters to maximum capacity. No need to waste any time in holding back here. "Someone educate me on this Apokalips tech or what have you. I am not exactly well versed in things Kryptonians face," she remarked as she fired off a full powered shot towards the exposed portions along with the others' attacks.

The robot regains its feet, and a smug voice emerges. "Kryptonian. Welcome home." Sharp toes clamp down into the asphalt, rooting itself. "Oh, yeah," Kon agrees. "It's kinda flattering. Usually I just get stuff designed to beat you." Ice blue eyes turn red, his heat vision taking a bit more of a warmup to really get to robot destroying territory. On the signal, he fires. "Alien planet run by a mad scientist god determined to erase free will from the universe. Imagine Mordor, the planet. With hover cycles and wormhole technology." The warbot definitely isn't super happy, turning its body after the first hint of the blast, and then firing back one of its own, forcing the younger Kryptonian to move or get corpsed.

Kal steps into the blast, looking to take the brunt of it so Kon and Serqet have time to move. He crosses his arms in front of his face and hisses and groans while the blast envelops him. His entire front is smoking afterwards, but he's unharmed. "Man, that actually hurt. Still have a ways to heal, I guess. But I suppose I could look at this another way. It's a great test for me on my first day back on the job." He breathes out, sending artic level cold winds towards the bot. "I'll try to slow it down. You two go ahead and hit it hard. And Darkseid sucks. Likes to keep us on our toes, though."

"You two are both making references I can't begin to understand right now," Serqet remarked, taking advantage of the opening provided by Kal to clear the area of the return blast from the warbot. "So, this time, you both are telling me that this mad scientist came prepared to face you and designed something that could work against you. Hmm... Well, if this is a robot, that means it has a core and power supply."

She ran across the ground to try and get close to the robot to try and make some observations. Maybe there was someplace she could crawl into and begin tearing it apart from the inside out.

Kon moves in closer, and pauses briefly, glancing to the severed arm, ignoring the excited chatter of the news helicopters above as they start to realize just who the figure in black is. "Hey, Ambassador, remember what I said about the sheer strength?" he asks, and nods towards the detached arm, itself the size of a grown man, but with nasty, sharp looking claws. He flies up the back, gripping the mono-eyed head, attempting to simply rip it off, or, failing that, stop it from shooting at anything particularly important. It's an uphill battle.

The robot's internals seem rather full of robot. Not enough empty space left for a certain telekinetic to have distinguishable parts to play with.

Kal can hear the chatter from the choppers above him and had an idea of the media storm that would follow this battle. But they had to get -through- it first. "These kind of robots tend to be difficult to take down the conventonal way." He takes a moment to blur around, removing any innocents that were unfortunate enough to still be in the area. Back on the robot again, he aims a couple body shots in an attempt to keep it off balance. He didn't want to haymaker it with Kon still on top of it.

"So that means I have to go inside, correct? Good, I'll find an opening," Serqet replied as she began an ascent up one of the remaining arms of the warbot. If she could find even the barest minimum of an opening, she could reach in and use her claws to crush and tear into the sensitive parts. "I do admire sheer strength from time to time. That's what these claws are all about!" She drew her arm back and jam it into the joint of the leg. "It has its purposes, after all. If I must...I may even consider being thrown again to tear through this thing. Somehow, I feel I can trust the both of you more than I can say others."

There's no real 'joints' to take advantage of. The robot appears to have been printed with part differentiation at such a small scale that it might as well all be a single, fluidly moving piece. However, the claws do find purchase, Vibranium not disappointing. Up on the head, Superboy keeps tugging and pulling. "This would be so much easier if they hadn't discovered 3D printing." He punches at the 'neck' a few times, actually managing to make a lasting dent in it, Superman's fists doing the same, repeated blows actually starting to punch through the thick outer armor. It might have been custom designed to defeat--or at least test the capabilities of--Metropolis's new protector, but even Darkseid himself struggles against a full strength Kryptonian. Kon whistles again, this one a quick up and down, almost like bird song. He dismounts, going for the severed arm.

Kal punches hard after Kon dismounts, putting his fist through the chassis and tearing open a bigger hole before spinning and stickiung out his leg, attempting to sweep the bot off it's feet. "Their tech gets better with each encounter. They were able to brainwash me with solar lamps before. I'm sure Thasaad is constantly working to improve."

"Wait, that's what happened to you!?" Serqet responded with enough frustration to snap her claw shut onto a leg to rip it clear from the robot. "All of that time I spent trying to convince that girl not to go and singlehandedly find you and you were brainwashed by these people? And again, you showed up! Again! Without a greeting and no indiciation of your wellbeing!" Each time she considered the thought she continued to tear into the warbot with greater intensity.

"Not that I am upset, I am just confused about why you supers tend to do things like this. I, personally, am not thrilled with this. I am a person who deals in reports and information. Something that seems to be kept away from me for /whatever inconceivable reason!/"

The robot reels at the blow, taking a step back and then toes clamp down into the street. Though the leg buckles at the blow, rooted this way, there's no good way to truly knock it over without taking a bit of the road with it. The road construction alone to correct this is going to take all week! One of those hands go to scoop the lecturing Wakandan off it's leg, the other attempts to hold Superman still long enough to connect with one of those energy blasts.

"This was a while ago. The official story is... largely accurate... except for the 'dead' bit. We'll explain later," Superboy says, lifting the severed arm, taking a look at the still sharp claws. He lifts it up over his head, and rears back. Perhaps concussed, perhaps just relieved at no longer being THE Superman, he shouts, "In the words of my people! YEET!" He swings with the arm, all three claws connecting and driving into the back of the robot, opposite the damage already done by Superman.

Thanks to Kon and Adelah, while Kal was grabbed by the robot, the energy beam only grazes him. It leaves a porton of his body smoking, but his face is only smudged a little. He slams a fist into the clawed arm holding him, looking to dismember it. "It's a long story, Serqet. I'll tell it to you the next time we eat apple pie together." He then asks with a confused expression. "What's a YEET? That's not any kryptonian or any Earth language I've ever heard." He's really showing his age, here.

Serqet let go of the bot just in time to avoid the Yeet: The Reckoning. No need to be attached to that thing when it goes down. Helped her to avoid getting a claw to her armor as well. "Long story or none, all of you have this strange condition! Not explaining things!" She grumbles. "...A Yeet is surprisingly an earth based word. It simply means tossing or throwing something with some intensity," she states. "Generally. Definitions are subject to change from time to time," she calmly described. "But that is the general idea."

With one fully functional arm, one heavily damaged, and the third now sticking out of it's back, claws probably against something important, the robot emits that menacing voice again. "You win this time, Kryptonians." A boom tube opens up directly over the robot, which rises up into it and disappears. Superboy stumbles back a bit, making sure he doesn't go along for the ride. "Well. That was fun." He pauses for a moment... "Ow. I am going to be very upset when the adrenaline wears off, I think."

Kal takes a few steps back and as the robot disappears, he leans forwards and places his hands on his knees, breathing deeply. "Well. That really was kind of fun." He looks from Kon to Adelah. "You two okay?" He looks up at the helicopters. "Man...I'm going to have to explain a few things. But at least we know the suit is getting me better right?" He directs at the armor clad Wakandan with a thumbs up. "I've got some bruses too, I think. Still, it's nice to be back. That is, unless you want to keep being Superman? I can take more time off if you want."

"I am not accustomed to seeing a Kryptonian taking damage like this..." Serqet approached to look over Kon's wounds. "If this is what this warbot can do, then I will fear for the worst. I think this is something we should prepare for. Now, I can't find out anything if no one tells me nothing!" She began to shout, but quickly stopped and composed herself. "Okay... It is good that you are back. I am truly happy to see that, but now we have the both of you in a compromising position. Both of you are injured. I suggest we find a place to sit down outside of the media. Not that I have any issue with speaking to them, but...you two look as if you need a break. You especially," she nodded her head to Kon.

"Was hard enough getting them to accept me as The Superman when you were 'dead,'" Superboy says, breathing heavily, moving around a bit to try and ward off the chill. "If you're up for taking the name back, it's all yours." He smiles, which... looks slightly less reassuring because somewhere in there his lip split and way more of the smile than should be is red. "I don't need to be Superman to be me, but, if you ever need an understudy, I've got you." He straightens up a bit. "Half Kryptonian," he corrects. "Force fields are only so effective against energy attacks or if I'm totally taken by surprise. Fighting anything from Apokalips is a little outside my normal weight class." He does look himself over though, and then looks back to Kal. "I can send out a message to expect an official statement later," he offers, having embraced the technology of the information age rather heavily in his image of 'Superman.'"

Kal nods at Kon. "Alright then. Understudy it is. But you did very well, and I won't be forgetting it anytime soon. I'll give a statement later. Let them know that, then get yourself back to Titan Tower, they're better equipped to handle you. I'm taking the Ambassador to the Fortress. I'd ask you to come along, but I can see the level of cold here is bothering you. I won't expect you to come to the North Pole. I'll explain the new look to them later. Just let them know I'm back and will be explaining everything...eventually." He looks to Adelah. "If that's okay with you? It's closer than Wakanda right now, and I'm about wiped out."

"Half Kryptonian?" Serqet questioned. "That makes no sense to me, but whatever you say," she brushed off the idea presented by Kon. "You know yourself better than I would." She went silent and looked around at the landscape and the lack of a warbot. "...This is what people think when supers engage in battles. You all fight off the evil and then it disappears, leaving the both of you to deal with the aftermath and for it to visit me soon enough on my desk." She sighed. "I can go to the North Pole, but since I'm working with the both of you, I would prefer if I could keep in contact all the same. I don't tend to run into Superboy often, but when he donned the Superman mantle, he did a good job of maintaining it. I don't wish to let go of that potential so easily. I need connections in order to hold up my ability to support you all on a world scale."

"Say hi to the Suneater for me," Superboy says, and begins to take off. He takes a moment to move experimentally in several different ways. "Apartment first," he decides. He smiles at Adelah. "Anything I committed to as Superman I'm going to keep up as... Ugh, back to the name thing. Well, it was me that made those commitments, and even if I'm not using the name anymore, I'm still living to uphold the legacy... Just now I can focus more on college..." He pauses, and gives a one shouldered shrug. "And Cassie... maybe." He raises a hand. "Anyway, those of us who started this fight with an S on our chests should probably get going before those helicopters land and start asking questions we're not ready to answer.

Kal gathers Adelah in his arms. "Agreed. We'll talk later, son. And fill in Kara for me. I don't see her much these days." He floats off the ground. Apparently, the half kryptonian comes from him, given the 'son' title. "Say hi to Cassie for me." He waves while holding an armored Adelah in ine hand briefly before taking off, fast.

"I believe you," Serqet gave her approval to Kon. "We'll talk later. I can always arrange meetings." Unused to being scooped up, she readjusts to some degree, but relaxes so she doesn't become a problem to hold. "I really don't like leaving these places behind... It seems disingenious to leave behind that destruction with people having to clean up after it. These are the problems I have to address. There has to be a means to handle this somehow. The costs are difficult to handle for anyone."

Kon flies off as well. "Expect a statement," he calls out, and then zips away fast enough to lose any standard human pursuit on the way back to his apartment, a half-alien dose of pain killers, and a hot shower.

Kal looks down and replies to Adelah. "You have a fair point, but Metropolis knows that if we could have gotten that thing outside of the city, we would have. I will return to help them make repairs..after I recharge and probably talk to the press. I take care of my city, Amassador."

"I will take your word for it," Adelah tsked. "I only wish to see the people safe much the same as you all. I do not like destruction, I hate seeing it happen on both sides, however I know the difficulties. I am a person that prefers solutions to word problems. Many people talk, few actually do. If I felt my own business could support it, I would invest in trying to assist in repairs. I do not...trust people with our technology, that is the first hurdle for me. Wakandan mining is significantly different from others and I am always concerned someone will use it for the wrong means. Everyone has Klaw to thank for that. So, I produce exceptional vehicles utilizing resources that everyone else uses, but with better quality, of course."