2014-04-04 - Irresistable Force and Immovable Object

Along East New Troy, of the city center of Metropolis, goes a man streaked in yellow so fast it's as if he's talking to himself. And that's almost what it seems to be in the literal sense; someone wearing a dark, almost macabre Yellow looking costume moving at superspeed and leaving afterimages, pausing every now and then to leave a double of himself which shoots out a few words, only to then have the yellow streaked man zip on ahead a moment to respond over to what seems himself then, calmly leaving streaks then upon the cityscape of an almost infernal nature.

Out on patrol and flying high above Metropolis is everyone's favorite Kryptonian...next to Supergirl anyway. Having recently returned to Earth, Kal is out doing his thing when he spots something that almost his vision couldn't catch. A yellow blur? It couldn't be Flash, he left red afterimages. Deciding to investigate, Superman angles his descent and increases his speed in an attempt to at least catch up to the blur.

The Yellow series of blurrs seem to give a happy smirk before finalizing themselves into one, who crosses his arms, "Why Superman. Aren't you supposed to be dead? I suppose like all your ilk you got better. Regardless, I thought I might use you to give our dear, departed Flash some company. Tell Barry I said hello!"

Superman floats with his arms crossed over his chest. His expression is serious as he comments, "The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated." He just watches the man for a moment. "Professor Zoom. I don't know what you're up to, but you're not going to get away with it. I offer you the chance to surrender peacefully."

Professor Zoom, the Reverse Flash, breaks out into a smile, "Well, I don't see any Meddling Kids over with you, Last Son of Krypton. So let's go ahead and make sure there's no more Sons of Krypton left!" He goes to charge, intent on pulverizing Kal-El with a thousand punches thrown at virtually the speed of light!

The moment Zoom moves, Superman fires his heat vision while flying backwards. He's fought with Flash long enough to know some of the tricks of the speedster trade. They weren't strong, but their speed gave their punches the ability to hit like a planet, and they could hit you thousands of times before you even registered it. So Kal was going to try to play this one safe. Staying airborne should help a little with that.

Superman's heat vision might burn as hot as the surface of the sun itself. PRofessor Zoom's fingers flashed, making a literal whirlwind. Eyes widening over as the heat vision shot through it, making a miasma from steam as he tried to supercool it, only dodging it by the last second as it took off some threads of hair, "They say you once outran Death itself! It looks more like you're standing still!" Racing up and into the air, going for a literal speeding jump start into it as if raging on air!

Kal had a plan. When Zoom leaves the ground to leap towards him, Superman figured that unlike himself, Zoom couldn't change directions in mid air, so using his own speed, he changed the trajectory from which he attacked. He came straight at him at first, and then zoomed to the left and then down to attack from underneath with a solid punch that should make the speedster gain some new respect for him.

Zoom is caught in midair, and thanks to his leaping he can't shift his molecules then as Superman's fist makes contactw ith him.

*WHOOMPH*

Recovering in midair, Zoom sneered, landing on the ground nad then starting to zoom around in a circle, going faster and faster as he went to try and make a huge whirlwind to try and strike at Superman with all the force of a Kansas Twister!

Kal has redirected a Kansas twister before. But he couldn't fight speed with speed. Not with this guy. So as Zoom runs to create the whirlwind. He takes a breath and blows towards the ground. Freezing the surface that the speedster was running on should make him loose some inertia. No friction, no running. Simple science.

But physics tend to fly out the window in a sense with the Speed Force. The whirldwind had been intended as a decoy as Superman went to disperse it, Zoom blasting up through the air to try and smash Kal-El over in a haymaker if he could, bursting up through the suddenly freezing tornado as it's wayward atoms were literally frozen in passing in an almost beautiful display for half a billionth of a second as the tornado took on the look of a skyscraper sized ice sculpture, right until Zoom burst through it and it was reduced to subatomic dust!

Superman's eyes widen a bit when Zoom doesn't fall for his tactic. The haymaker connects and sends the kryptonian flying backwards to impact a nearby building, collapsing it down on top of him. After a moment, he pushes the rubble off him and shakes his head. "Well, that was different." He floats off the ground again. "He's got to have a weakness. Just have to find it."

Zoom charged in over at the Man of Steel. Even in those picoseconds as Kal-El was rising up from the nearby building, Zoom was there. Hammering him. Hammering him as nearly hard as he could, "Yo uknow they say you're a God among Men. So let's bring you down to Earth." Intent on hitting him virtually as hard and as fast as he could.

Superman's body is rocked back and forth from the assault from Zoom. He grunts softly as the punches come in. The force of them drive him backwards slowly until his back hits a solid surface. Under the continuing onslaught, the surface he's against cracks and eventually breaks from the force Zoom hits him with. Falling into the hole, Zoom would hear a soft chuckle. "That all you got?" Is asked before Superman steps out of the hole. "Let me clue you in on a little something. I am not a god. I'm just a man who tries to do the right thing by the people of this planet." He half-smiles. "This is the part where I stop using the kid gloves and shatter everything you may have heard about me." He stomps his foot, creating a minor earthquake that rattles all of the nearby buildings in a four block radius. Utilizing his own speed, he attempts to grab Zoom by the feet and then fly high into the air with him. "I know a little something about you speedsters. You need friction in order to run. There isn't any up here." He lets go of Zoom and then from Zoom's perspective, he is attacked from all directions at once. Superman is still pulling his strength, but he's hitting him harder than Zoom was hitting him earlier.

<p class="MsoNormal">Professor Zoom hammres hard over at Superman. Whether he was hitting him a thousand, a million times was meaningless. All there was was raw power, "You're supposed to be the greatest hero this planet has! And instead I see a man who might as well be hammered over into a

<p class="MsoNormal">   paste. Give Barry my regards, and tell him I'll be sending everyone to meet him soon!"

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">And then Superman /rises/ under the assault. Zoom is caught by surprise - that attack could have literally shattered a mountain over to dust! The surprise that Kal-El is still /standing/ then allows Superman to grab him and yank him UP over inot the air as they bolted up.

<p class="MsoNormal">Hoisted by his feet if not his own petard, Superman HIT him.

<p class="MsoNormal">*WHAMWHAMWHAM*

<p class="MsoNormal">And then nothingness as Zoom vibrated his molecules to phase through a series of blows, battered and blugeoned but hitting the ground and impacting!

<p class="MsoNormal">Superman hits the ground right next to where Zoom did. He grabs him by the front of his costume and lifts him off the ground, where his feet can't touch. "Surrender, before you make me get serious and I put you in the hospital." Kal never raised his voice and he wasn'tnearly operating at his full strength, either. He reserved that kind of power for those times when he didn't have any choice. "You keep bragging about Barry. But Barry was a very good friend of mine. You have no idea the amount of self-restraint I'm showing right now by not pummeling you further."

<p class="MsoNormal">Zoom's eyes almost flashed. Probably the wrong thing to say. As he was held up, his hands went to vibrate, and then his entire body. MOving around from side to side at ridiculous speeds, tryng to launch Kal-El off fo him, and then hissing, "He died! I did not kill him!For that I should end existence itself for such spite!" Trying to toss Superman off him, and then charge as Superman was hpoefully thrown off to hit him along the entire drive!

<p class="MsoNormal">Zoom is successful in throwing Superman off him. Kal simply wasn't expecting it. He recovers quickly to hit the ground on his feet, but then Zoom is on him again. This time when he hits him, Superman doesn't move. Not even an inch. Instead he stands there with an almost scowl. "You dishonor his memory by how you behave." A simple sentence, stated in a soft voice. But it's clear that Kal is reaching the end of his patience.

<p class="MsoNormal">Professor Zoom just grins devilishy, "The thing I regret is that I cannot yank him out of whatever afterlife he is a part in and destroy the world and shwo him that he cannot stop it, Superman. So I send you there to pass along the message." Professor Zoom is literallyrunning. In a circle. Throughout the entire city of Metropolis now at hyperspeed. Building up momentum. Not quite gonig into the Speed Force itself for power, but building up raw force and energy, moving fast enough existence itself is bending around him.

<p class="MsoNormal">When Zoom starts running again, Superman still doesn't move to stop him. He simply stands there. After a moment, he closes his eyes as if concentrating. He couldn't trust his eyes, Zoom moved too fast. He couldn't trust his ears, either. But what he could trust was hissense of touch. Zoom's feet cause vibrations in the ground. That's how Kal was tracking him. He knew he was building up to something, and he was going to be ready for it.

<p class="MsoNormal">In a warped sense, what Zoom was building up to was physics. Energy equals mass times acceleration. Acceleration growing exponentially then, all of it focused along his fist. Building up energy around his body, force drawn from giong at speeds in ways that bent existence wtihin atmosphere, all that force building up in a stroke on the end of his fist, charging for the center of Superman's chest.

<p class="MsoNormal">Superman opened his eyes when he finally felt Zoom coming his way. When he comes in for the punch, he tenses his body and lifts his hand. The punch slams right into his palm. The resulting shockwave was devastating. It created a deep crater in the ground and leveled several nearby buildings. The only thing that stands firm is the Man of Steel himself. "Allow me to show you how that is actually done." Still holding Zoom's fist in his own hand, he draws back his fist and unloads a haymaker on the speedster. The punch was as fast as he could throw it, along with his considerable strength. "This is why they call me earth's greatest hero." He says calmly.

<p class="MsoNormal">All that force could have leveled a continent! Zoom's eyes have time to widen then right as the shockwave fueled by the Speed Force turns inward, all of the concentration of raw power along his fist and the current stopped cold. Kal-El is not budged by even a micrometer, and Kal-El can see the almost totally confused Zoom having the presenceof mind to open his mouth and say what is likely along the words of 'Impossible' if he had time to choke out the syllables before Kal-El's fist connected with his chin. Despite the raw power beingexchanged between the two beings, the force was just enough to incapacitate him. Not enough to cripple. Not enough to kill.

<p class="MsoNormal">*WHAM*

<p class="MsoNormal">Zoom flew several feet in the iar and then droppe ddown cold and unconscious, leaving a crater and silence that was then filled with the warbling decibels of emergency crews in the background.