Saturday, July 16, 2011

Redefining Superman Part Fifteen

Redefining Superman

Chapter 15

Solar Eclipse held a disc in his hands. He ran a hand across the slightly curved surface of it, feeling how smooth it was, making sure there were no imperfections that could spoil the plan he'd made. He had made this one perfectly smooth and round, just like all the others. He set the disc on top of the stack he'd amassed of the small, round objects he'd made while he prepared himself for breaking out of this cell and ruining the day for those in the outer room who had been his jailers. It hadn't been easy carving all these discs out of the material these walls were made of. Except for that one single hole he'd made while trying to break free from the stasis field that held him immobile the walls couldn't be pierced by his vision. Not straight on, at least. The only reason he'd been able to make that one hole was because he'd focused on it for such a long time. But punching a pinpoint hole into the material wasn't going to do him any good. It would've taken far too long to bust his way out. It was too resilient to his strength.
Through trial and error he had found that by angling his vision just the right way he was able to slice through a quarter-inch depth at a time. He hadn't thought that was going to do any good, either, until he realized that he could make small discs, no more than eight inches across for his purposes, carve them right out of the walls. It was then he'd smiled, knowing that the way out of this cell was also the way to get through his jailers, too.
Once he'd amassed a sufficient amount of discs he used his fingernails and beveled around the rim of each one until it was sharper than the sharpest surgeon's scalpel. Fortunately he was able to move at an increased speed faster than any other being on this or any other planet ever even thought of moving. Otherwise he'd still be working on the first few of these razor-sharp Frisbees.
By carving the discs from the wall a quarter-inch at a time he'd also carved away the wall disc-by-disc. Now all that remained of the wall before him was a layer of material less than a sixteenth of an inch, with a lot of round depressions all across its surface. He determined he could punch through that readily enough. Or at least kick through it. When he was done with all this he wanted to come back and take samples - analyze this material and use it to redesign his house so it was the most impenetrable fortress in the universe. Maybe even readjust the molecules slightly so he could make it pliable and reconstruct his action outfit from that material.
He held his arm up and inspected the material. It was suitable for his purposes for now, but had he not implemented within the design of the suit the energy used to generate the force field created by the CereB.O.R.G. He'd fought a few years back his suit would burn to a crisp as soon as he moved at hyper-speed. No, it was barely more than ordinary material and would never have withstood that first explosion he'd been hit by earlier, let alone the second one. Fortunately he'd designed the technology within his suit so that the energy signature recognized when ignition of any material about was readying to explode. The force field generated instantly from that moment of detection, surrounding him completely. He didn't need the extra protection, but without it he would've been the first completely nude Super strolling around on the streets in full view of the Normals.
He smiled. That would've been one heck of a sight for the vast majority of spectators. Some might even have enjoyed the sight. Sure, there were certain Supers, mostly women, but a couple of men as well, who wore extremely brief outfits, but none who followed the nudist philosophy or social customs. He'd never seen anything wrong with nudism. Maybe he should give it a try and set a new example for the others to follow. Oh yeah, wouldn't Meri love that idea?
He chuckled silently to himself as he picked up a handful of the discs, the remainder stacked neatly so he could make quick use of them. He inhaled deeply, lifted his right leg with his knee almost to his chest and then pushed it forward like a piston, his foot slamming against the weakened layer of wall. The material shattered the way he expected it to, sending jagged shards flying outward, much of which caught those on the other side of it unaware, the edges slicing through flesh and bone alike. There was a lot of shouting and screaming even before he began hurling his discs like the Frisbees they resembled. One after another of the discs sliced through the air before striking the targets he'd thrown them at. Then they sliced through flesh and bone as well. Even more screaming ensued as he continued hurling his discs, severing arms and legs and watching as pale blue fluid spurted and oozed from the wounds he'd inflicted.
Oh yeah - had he not seen through the pinpoint hole he'd made that there were extra-terrestrial aliens on the other side he never would have devised this plan. Even with his newly formed ideals on how to treat criminals he'd never have been this brutal with human beings. They were too fragile. These aliens now, they were an entirely different matter. Although they weren't of a size much different than his own, their hides were a lot thicker, and more resilient to even the hyper-strength punches he was able to throw. That was why he'd decided against trying to fight his way through them once he'd seen what he was up against. Hmmm, he rubbed the chin of his helmet as he considered that last observation. Perhaps the wall material had been modeled after the hide of these aliens. That would explain a lot about its structure.
Wouldn't that be something, he almost chortled his thoughts out loud, fashioning his suit out of their hides? Naw, wrong color. He didn't want anything that was as sickly mottled greenish-grey as these things were.
He'd recognized them as being of the servant-class to the ones that had attacked Earth and forced him to relinquish his decades-old persona. He'd come to appreciate that persona. It was more him than anyone else he could ever be and those ETs had made him give it up in favor of saving his adopted planet.
These others he had found to be equally as perverse and detestable as the ones they served. In his mind that was why they served the ones they called their masters, not because they'd been bested in war and placed in servitude, but because they enjoyed the fact that their masters allowed if not encouraged them to be ruthless and brutal when dealing with races on the planets they conquered. He'd seen these creatures fight before, on another planet he'd visited not that long ago. He knew too well what these were capable of and that they liked what they did, how they inflicted pain on others, even up to killing their victims excruciatingly slowly.
It was for that reason alone that he'd devised the use of these discs in order to slice them up and let them bleed out slowly instead of dying outright. They didn't deserve a quick death. It was too good for them.
Moments later the screaming stopped as the last of the aliens bled out, their lungs, or whatever they had that passed for lungs, finally gave out as their primary circulatory organ pumped its last. They slumped against the floor and walls and some small pieces of alien furniture and ceased moving.
He stood but a moment and took in the carnage he alone was responsible for. Killing others no matter what species they were wasn't enjoyable for him, but these had needed to be killed. They never would have allowed him to pass by them and escape alive, that was a given. The only out of this prison was through their dead bodies.
Eclipse moved about the room on his way to the other side where he determined the exit to be. At least the corridor which led ultimately to the exit. He'd have to figure out exactly where he was and locate the proper direction to travel. Sure, he could fly straight up, punching through solid rock and whatever else was between him and the surface of the planet, but that could undermine the foundation of the city of whatever buildings or roads were above him and cause them to cave in. Locating the proper route out of here was the better way to travel, even if it was also the longer way.

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