Centennial Park, Metropolis
As Conner stood, surrounded by this strange group calling themselves “Jupiter's Children,” the world seemed to be closing in on him and getting darker. A moment ago, Superman had been alive—and while the Kryptonian's threats to come after him were a little unsettling, at lest Superman's return would have taken a little bit of the pressure off his shoulders.
So what now?
He only had a moment to contemplate the question before Superman—was it Superman? How could it be? -- smashed through the wall of the crypt.
Looking at the body in the coffin, he smiled. “Think you're smart, do you? We'll see who laughs last, Munro,” Kal-El said. He loosed his heat vision at Munro, but it was intercepted by Cody, who dove in front of the blast and burned a hole in his shirt and jacket.
“How's that for 'kiss and make up,' you old bastard?” Cody asked, smiled, and before Munro could answer, he dove and tackled Kal-El (the living one). Conner joined in, but while Cody was trying to pummel the Superman's face, Conner was wandering around the back of him, trying to get his genetic doppelganger into a full-nelson so he could stop him attacking and try to negotiate. Instead, Kal-El used the situation to duck, and Cody punched Conner in his unsuspecting head.
“Sorry!” Cody shouted as Conner stumbled back, but before Conner could respond, Kal-El had grabbed both of them by their hair and slammed their heads together.
“Remember the truth, boys!” Munro shouted, firing a hand-held photon pistol at Kal-El. Prysm and Argent's energy blasts cut into the Kryptonian's midsection while Chase kept her distance, working on a small, handheld machine. A barrage of sirens erupted in the distance, signaling the police were on the way.
Kal-El threw Conner and Cody at Argent and Prysm, knocking them to the ground. Joto compensated by blasting the Kryptonian with a shot of high-intensity flame, but all it did was char the edges of his cape a little before Kal-El retaliated with a burst of heat vision to the boy's face. Munro dove at him, catching Kal-El with a broad, roundhouse hook to the chin.
“Always wondered how I'd hold up against you, you sunnuva--”
Kal-El grabbed him by the throat and held him aloft. “Guess we'll find out, then, won't we, Arn?” Kal-El said with an awful smile on his face. “See how you do if I--”
Suddenly, Kal-El was knocked off his feet by a flash of green light and heat. Conner and the Jupiter's Children were surprised to look up and see a small, blue man with a red robe and a head of white hair standing before them, glowing with green light.
“Who the hell--?” Munro started.
“I am Ganthet, Guardian of the Universe,” the little blue man said. “I have come bearing the most powerful weapon in the universe, in the hope of making a gift of it to Kal-El of Krypton, to aid him in his never-ending battle.” The Guardian frowned, and his eyes glowed brilliant green. “It appears as though reports of his return were greatly exaggerated.”
Kal-El stood up and stood over Ganthet. “I am Kal-El of Krypton,” he said in a cold, angry voice. “Give me the ring of the Green Lantern, Guardian.”
“No,” Ganthet said, his voice full of anger. “You are not worthy of the ring.” He reached out to Kal-El and glowed a brighter green than before. “You create fear and disorder in the universe, and you will be defeated.” Kal-El seemed to phase out of material existence for a moment, and then the Guardian was gone. Kal-El fell to his knees, and looked up to see himself surrounded by Conner and the Jupiter's Children.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Munro grinned, and then grimaced against the heavy bruising on one side of his face. He lit up a cigar. “It’s time for this thing to end.”
There was a flurry of light, and the sound of a dozen police officers pouring out of SCU armored vans.
“This can't be good,” Cody muttered. Kal-El flew about six feet into the air to address the crowd.
“This new, self-proclaimed 'Superman' has brought his allies here to attack me,” Kal-El said to the police. “Please—follow me into battle. Fight for truth and justice.” His eyes glowed with a strange, colorless and unidentifiable light for a moment. “Get them!”
There was a sound of dozens of plasma cannons charging, and the unmistakable ch-chak of rifles being readied. Maggie Sawyer stepped in between the SCU and Jupiter's Children. “I need you people to stand down. Just what the hell do you think you're doing anyway?” She asked.
Munro stepped forward. “If you'll give me a second to go into my jacket, I can provide you with my identification. I'm part of an organization that—trust me—you people do not want to mess with.”
“Buddy, you'll have to do that once we get some power dampers on you and your friends here. I'll apologize if I'm wrong, but we're SCU. With all the speedsters we see, I don't give anyone a chance to 'go for their ID' before we have to open fire.”
“Well, that's a very reasonable position to take. Did you, by any chance, work for the NYPD back in the Guiliani days?”
“What?”
“Forty-one shots?” Munro smirked. “Anyone?”
“Don't get cute,” Sawyer said. “Hands behind your heads.”
“Sorry, no,” Munro said. “These kids here are pretty good, and they only listen to me. Which isn't a bad idea for your people.”
“What?” Sawyer said, leveling her gun at Munro. Chase pressed a button on her handheld and, in unison, all of the SCU cops winced at the audio feedback in their helmets and headsets.
“EES EHT HTURT,” Munro said, and they all heard him in their ears. It was only a second before one officer caught a look at Kal-El's body in the tomb, and the news made it through the crowd of police in a high-speed ripple. Joto, Argent and Prysm fired off energy blasts at Kal-El, who dodged them and unleashed his heat vision on a group of SCU officers, who scattered, all firing into the air.
Sawyer made her way over to stand next to Munro. “So if it's not Big Blue, who the hell is this guy?” She asked. Munro opened his mouth, stared into the air, and tackled Sawyer. In the spot where they had been a moment before, an SCU van crashed to the ground and rolled.
“Fight now, talk later,” Munro told her, drawing his pistol again. “Chase—progress?”
“I'm getting close, but nothing yet,” Chase said.
“Get it moving, get it moving,” Munro told her. “This is damned important. He relies on our perceptions of him—as soon as he's not Supes anymore, he shouldn't be able to use all those powers anymore.”
“I'm not stupid. I know what I'm doing. His tech is light-years ahead of us, is all, and it's going to take me a few more minutes to take him out of action.”
Conner flew into the air, grabbing the huge, stone arm off of the statue atop Superman's crypt and used it to smash Kal-El to the ground. “I'm Superman, buddy. And I really, really don't like...” Conner flew down to the spot on the ground where Kal-El had fallen. He grabbed at the man's shirt and pulled the insignia off of it, revealing a chest of green flesh underneath. “...having this symbol violated.” He pummeled Kal-El's face with a couple of quick punches, but was then brushed back with a burst of high-intensity breath from the Kryptonian, which knocked him off the top of Kal-El and onto his butt on the ground.
“Whelp,” Kal-el fumed, his heat vision glowing around his eyes. “This is over. It's time for you to--”
Before he could finish his thought, Chase pressed a button on her handheld and suddenly, Kal-El was gone.
***
