Metropolis
A giant robot spider, having climbed the side of the tallest building of Metropolis, quickly chewed through the sides of the wall where the manager's office was. A short stoutly man sat in his chair, fearing for his life from the giant robotic insect.
"You think you can steal my ideas then just fire me without a second thought?" The man in the driver's seat of the spider asked. "This company is nothing without me!"
"That's the design for the military weapon we've been working on, how did you get that?" the man asked.
"I'm the one who designed it, remember?" the man inside laughed. "I just altered it to be a bit more... vengeful. Now, prepare to feel the wrath of the mecha-spider!"
Before the lasers mounted on the body could fire, the spider was pulled out of the building by Superman and Power Boy.
"Wow, look at the spider! It's a marvel!" Superboy shouted.
"Eh, 'marvel' isn't really a thing to be excited about in this town." Power Boy reminded him.
"Superman!" the man in the robot shouted. "Don't worry, I've come prepared for the likes of you!"
A mounted laser shot past Superman, causing him to nearly drop his end.
"Red solar energy!" Superman said.
"Do you think I'd come unprepared for this city's defender?" the spider laughed as Superboy flew toward the laser to stop it, but a smaller cannon fired a net made of webbing at him, pinning him to a building.
"I can't move!" Superboy shouted as Superman flew toward him, but a blast of red solar energy hit him, causing Superman to start falling out of the sky.
"NO!" Power Boy shouted as he flew after him, letting the spider go in the process. It landed on the roof of a nearby building. Power Boy caught Superman just in time for the spider to aim its laser at him. That's when the lasers and cannons were ripped off in rapid succession.
"Weapons are offline?" the man asked. "But how?"
The spider was then lifted off of the ground as the bottom was ripped open like tinfoil. A hand grabbed the man by the leg and tossed him to the ground as blonde-haired female wearing the 's' shield stood over him.
"That's my family you're trying to kill," the female told him. "I don't take very kindly to that."
"Who are you?"
"I'm Supergirl."
A giant robot spider, having climbed the side of the tallest building of Metropolis, quickly chewed through the sides of the wall where the manager's office was. A short stoutly man sat in his chair, fearing for his life from the giant robotic insect.
"You think you can steal my ideas then just fire me without a second thought?" The man in the driver's seat of the spider asked. "This company is nothing without me!"
"That's the design for the military weapon we've been working on, how did you get that?" the man asked.
"I'm the one who designed it, remember?" the man inside laughed. "I just altered it to be a bit more... vengeful. Now, prepare to feel the wrath of the mecha-spider!"
Before the lasers mounted on the body could fire, the spider was pulled out of the building by Superman and Power Boy.
"Wow, look at the spider! It's a marvel!" Superboy shouted.
"Eh, 'marvel' isn't really a thing to be excited about in this town." Power Boy reminded him.
"Superman!" the man in the robot shouted. "Don't worry, I've come prepared for the likes of you!"
A mounted laser shot past Superman, causing him to nearly drop his end.
"Red solar energy!" Superman said.
"Do you think I'd come unprepared for this city's defender?" the spider laughed as Superboy flew toward the laser to stop it, but a smaller cannon fired a net made of webbing at him, pinning him to a building.
"I can't move!" Superboy shouted as Superman flew toward him, but a blast of red solar energy hit him, causing Superman to start falling out of the sky.
"NO!" Power Boy shouted as he flew after him, letting the spider go in the process. It landed on the roof of a nearby building. Power Boy caught Superman just in time for the spider to aim its laser at him. That's when the lasers and cannons were ripped off in rapid succession.
"Weapons are offline?" the man asked. "But how?"
The spider was then lifted off of the ground as the bottom was ripped open like tinfoil. A hand grabbed the man by the leg and tossed him to the ground as blonde-haired female wearing the 's' shield stood over him.
"That's my family you're trying to kill," the female told him. "I don't take very kindly to that."
"Who are you?"
"I'm Supergirl."
ISSUE #18 (October 2018)
Written by Tobias Christopher Featuring: Superman
Superboy
Power Boy
Conner Kent
Lois Lane
Supergirl
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[This issue takes place after Girl of Steel #7]
One Week Earlier The sun started to rise on the Kent farm as the rays of light slowly crept into the bedroom of Kara Zor-El, who was sleeping in the former bedroom of Jon Kent, the youngest son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane-Kent. Jon was now happily sleeping in the top of the bunk beds he was sharing in older brother Connor's room down the hall. As Kara opened her eyes, the young Kryptonian yawned and stretched as she sat up. Stumbling to the window, she saw the adopted son of the Kents, Chris, out in the yard doing his chores, chopping wood. Not too far away, Jon was feeding the chickens while Connor milked the cows. The three Kent sons were working as a team, having gotten used to Connor being powerless thanks to Brainiac. Downstairs, Lois was making coffee while simultaneously talking on her phone to the Daily Planet while also writing on her laptop. Kara, wearing a robe and slippers, carefully entered the kitchen. "Is there something I can do to help?" Kara asked hesitantly, still not sure how she'd ever fit into this family dynamic, even after having been staying with the family for the better part of a week. "Would you mind setting the table, dear?" Lois asked as she continued to juggle all of her activities. "Then tell the boys breakfast is almost ready and to wash up. You'll have to check Jon's hands, he tends to *forget* when there's bacon being served." "Come on, Connor, it's going to be fun," Jon pleaded as he finished feeding the animals. "You have to meet my new friend Ricky." "I'd like to, kid, but things with Alice are starting to get pretty serious," Connor told him."I think I'm falling in love." "Connor Kent in love?" Chris teased. "I never thought I'd see the day. Does that mean that your, um, secret magazine stash has competition?" "Secret stash? I thought he just had the ones with the naked ladies under his mattress." Jon said as Connor's eyes got wider. "You know about those?" "I have x-ray vision, sometimes I can't control it," Jon said. "That's why I don't pass by that nursing home anymore. One time my x-ray vision went off during bath time. I still have nightmares. I have a hard time controlling all my powers sometimes." "You're eleven, your body's getting used to them," Chris assured him. "I went through the same thing when I was your age. Superpowers and hormones aren't a good combination." "He's right, especially when you start noticing girls," Connor said. "That's when the real trouble's going to start, right Chris?" "Right," Chris said uncomfortably, staring down at the ground. "Not many girls in the Phantom Zone, though." "Breakfast is almost ready." Kara said as she approached them. It was when all three boys stared at her that she started feeling a bit uneasy before Jon sniffed the air. "BACON!" Jon shouted as he flew toward the house as Chris caught him by the shirt collar. "Wash your hands." Chris said sternly, just as he found himself holding an empty shirt, with Jon already having ditched it for the delicious bacon at the breakfast table. "Yeah, let's go get ready to eat." Connor said uneasily as he scratched the back of his neck. "I'd better go make sure Jon's getting cleaned up and putting on a shirt." Chris said as the two young men headed toward the house, leaving Kara alone by the pig pen. She just stared down at the pigs who were eating their own breakfast. "Yeah, that wasn't awkward at all." Kara sighed. Jon was sitting shirtless at the breakfast table with everyone else as they ate. Clark was out on a Justice League mission, and had been gone for the better part of a day. "Jon, would you please put on a shirt?" Lois asked while talking on the phone to Perry, who himself was trying to find Jimmy Olsen, who had been mysteriously disappearing for long periods over the last few weeks. "Aquaman doesn't wear a shirt." Superboy told her. "Aquaman is a king, and an A-list JLA member," Connor said. "Besides, how would anyone know you were Superboy?" "You could get a giant 's' tattooed on your chest." Chris suggested as Jon's eyes got wide. "NO!" Lois said. "No tattoos and no putting ideas into Jon's head. Everyone in this family wears a shirt outside, understand? And from now on, at the table, no exceptions." ' "Why would you want to ruin your body anyway?" Kara asked him. "You're going to be as strong as your dad one day, and when you get married, don't you want the person you spend the rest of your life with to see those muscles?" "I guess so," Jon blushed. "Can I get a tattoo where no one can see?" "Get one like mine," Connor told him. "I can't show you where, but--" "Clark, thank God," Lois said as her husband walked through the door, looking beyond tired. "Are you okay?" "After some rest," Clark said as he hugged her softly. "It's been a long ordeal. I guess I should tell everyone right now, this was my last mission with the Justice League. I'm turning in my resignation at the next meeting after I've helped say goodbye to some friends who were lost*." (* See the Legion of Doom mini-series -TC) "Do you want to talk about it?" Lois asked as she gently stroked his back. "Maybe after the kids leave for the day," Clark whispered. "This isn't an adventure Jon needs to know about." As Clark headed for the living room, he passed by Jon, mussing his hair. "Put on a shirt, son." "So, you're General Zod's son," Kara said as Chris had his back to her while changing shirts. "Is it weird being on different sides?" "I'm not going to sugarcoat it, my dad's a dick," Chris said as he turned around while shirtless, holding a blue button up dress shirt in his hand. "I'd rather not grow up to be anything like him. I'd rather get respect through kindness than fear. Clark taught me that." "Clark's a pretty great guy for adopting you and Connor." Kara said. "Yeah, he is, I'm lucky I wound up with the Kents instead of someone less loving," Chris said as he started putting his shirt on. "I was kind of thinking of adding the 'S' shield to my costume. What do you think?" Metropolis Connor was walking down the street, holding the hand of an older woman named Alice, whom he'd recently started casually dating. "So Bart and I are talking about going into business together," Connor told her. "We just need to find a way to get in contact with our old friend Tim." "I'm glad you're reconnecting with your old friend," Alice told him. "The way you talk about this Bart character, I thought you two were... together." "What!? No!" Connor told her. "Sorry, I'm only into women. One in particular, which is what I wanted to talk to you about. We've been going out for a few weeks now and... I think it's time to make it official. I want us to be a real couple. Would you be my girlfriend?" "Connor Kent, are you seriously asking for a serious commitment?" Alice asked. "In fact, I'd like for you meet my family," Connor said. "They're going to some stupid county fair tonight, it's going to be really lame, but it'd be less lame if you were there." "It's a date," Alice said as they kissed. "I can't wait until tonight. It's going to be a night neither of us will ever forget." Jon was videochatting with Ricky in the living room, who was all the way in Smallville. "So you're coming back out to stay for a few weeks?" Jon asked. "Yeah, I guess me getting kidnapped helped my Dad and Grandpa reconnect," Ricky told him. "They hadn't talked since before I was born. Grandpa Perry wanted Dad to take over running the Daily Planet someday, but Dad wanted to run a paper that he built up himself. So in a few weeks, I get to come out and stay with him for a while. Did they ever find a way to rescue Tommy?" "Not yet," Jon said sadly. "But I'm never giving up until he's out of that book, no matter how long it takes. Derek feels really guilty about it, I think he might need a friend right now, too." "Maybe we can invite him to go on a campout when I get out there," Ricky said. "We're still on for that, right?" "A whole weekend just camping, swimming and peeing in the woods? Totally," Jon said. "My big brother Chris said he'd go to keep an eye on us if that's cool." "Yeah, I liked your brothers," Ricky said. "Anyway, I gotta go, Dad's taking me out to dinner. I'll call again in a few days. Later." "Was that your little friend?" Kara asked as she stood at the staircase. "Yeah, that was Ricky, he's my new friend in Smallville," Jon told her. "He's coming out here in a few weeks so we can go camping." "Camping?" Kara asked. "Yeah, we get to spend the whole weekend in the woods," Jon told her. "I've been camping with Dad since I was little, said him and friends used to do it all the time when he was living in Smallville." "Do you think I'd like it?" Kara asked. "I don't know who wouldn't like camping," Jon told her. "Except for Damian, but Connor says that's because he's got a stick up his butt. I wonder how it got up there, no one ever sneaks up on Damian without him knowing. Maybe you go can with me and Dad sometime when you're ready." "Sounds like fun," Kara said as she mussed his hair. "Can I ask you something?" "Sure." "Do you and your brothers not like having a girl around?" "It's... not exactly that," Jon told her. "I mean, I'm used to having Mom here, but she's not like a real girl, she's my mom. But you? It's weird having a real life girl living just down the hall. Now I have to knock before opening the bathroom door and I have to wear pants on weekend mornings and I can't have burping contests with Connor." "So you don't like having me here?" "It's not that, I really like having a new family member," Jon told her. "I just don't want to be sad when you leave to have your own life, like Connor and Chris when they move out someday." "Just because I go off to live a life somewhere else doesn't mean I'm going to forget about you," Kara said as she hugged him. "You're still the first real friend I've made here and I will never forget that. And who says you can't have burping contests with me? Of course, you'll have to show me how it goes." "There's a 2 liter of soda in the kitchen." "Then I think we have just enough time before the carnival for you to show me a new trick," Kara said as she watched Jon race to the door. "Jon? Thanks for being so cool." "Thank you being such a cool cousin." "Are you sure you're up for going to the carnival?" Lois asked as Clark was putting on a shirt. "You've been through hell the last twenty-four hours. You should rest." "i have all the time in the world to rest now," Clark said as he kissed her. "Now I can focus on helping the little guy more, and I can spend more time with my family. Jon's at the age where he's going to grow up way too fast before we even know what's happening. Soon he'll be dating and wanting to spend time hanging out with his own friends away from us." "He's always going to be our little boy," Lois reminded him. "I'm just thankful he's not twins. Just one of Jon is a handful. It is nice that the whole family is going to be there tonight." "And it's Kara's first carnival," Clark told her. "I want this night to be special for her, to help her see that she has family that really does care for her. Just a nice, normal night for the Kents without anything bizarre happening." Apokalips "This is it, Jimmy," Jimmy Olsen said to himself. He was in a small cage in the torture room of Granny Goodness, a cage that was small and cramped. He was naked and shivering, knowing that the twelve hours were almost up. It happened every day at the same time. He'd switch places with Darkseid's agent, who would be sent to Earth for some reason, then twelve hours later he'd be returned home with zero memory of what had happened. But this time he would remember. Having found a small piece of metal, Jimmy had etched a message in his arm "Call Superman for help!". "This time, I'll remember." Jimmy said to himself. "I'm afraid not, insect," Darkseid told him. "This time you won't be returning home. For tonight my plans to purify the universe unfold. And for that, my agent on Earth needs to maintain her cover until it is time to return with my prize. Granny Goodness, I leave this pathetic creature to your disposal. Do with him what you will, he has outlived his usefulness to me." "Oh, good, an Earthling to try out my new toys on," Granny Goodness smirked as she looked inside the cage. "You and I are going to have a hell of a time." TO BE CONTINUED... |
Special Back-Up Feature, Starring Sideways!
Sideways
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Metropolis
The sun started to rise in the city as the alarm clock of Derek James started to go off. "Just five more minutes," the young man as he reached around for the snooze button with his eyes closed. Not being able to find it, he held out his hand, opening a portal under the alarm clock and sending it the bottom of the laundry hamper to drown out the alarm. "That's better." Derek James had the power to create portals to anywhere he desired, from going to the next room to all the way across town to halfway around the world. He was getting good at it, only messing up when he got distracted. The more he practiced, the further he realized he could go. He even had a costume he was going to wear whenever he made his debut as a superhero. He just needed a big crime to stop first, though. "Derek Appolonia James! Get your ass up and get to school!" a voice shouted from down the hall. "You're going to get detention again!" "Fine." Derek said as he yawned and stretched before standing up. After retrieving his alarm clock from the hamper, Derek hit play on his Upod, listening to Phil Collins & Genesis as he started the shower. After showering, brushing and getting dressed, Derek only had to collect his backpack from the living room and his shoes by the door. Grabbing his phone, Derek got ready to open a portal as he let out a sneeze. "Hope I'm not coming down with anything." As Derek stepped through the portal, he realized the sneeze had made him lose focus with where he was going. "This doesn't look like my living room," Derek said as he found himself standing on an asteroid that was floating through an endless void. "Where the hell am I?" "You're nowhere," a voice said as Derek turned around. It was a teenager in a futuristic version of the Robin costume with black hair. "A nexus point between time and space. I believe it's called the Bleed." "You're Robin," Derek said. "But which one? There are like, twenty of you guys. Hard to tell you apart." "You must be from the early twentieth century." Robin told him. "2018 to be precise," Derek told him. "Look, I'd love to stay, but I can just portal back to my bedroom." "Yeah, I'm about 50 years past you, and no, you can't," Robin told him."If your portals are like what I've seen here, they're just going to toss you into a different timeline or reality. Believe me, I've already tried. Without a proper way to utilize these portals that keep popping up, we're both screwed." "I just wanted to grab my shoes and backpack so I could be on time for school," Derek said as he sat down. "So we're both stuck in this place?" "Unless we can navigate a way home," Robin told him as he looked out around the Bleed. "I've lost track of how long I've been here, but I haven't gotten dehydrated or gotten hungry. I'm pretty sure I haven't aged, either. I think we're stuck in time here." "I don't even know how I ended up here," Derek said. "I was just trying to open a portal into my living room when I got distracted and-- Crap, that's how I ended up here. I lost focus when I was making the portal. I can't just sit here, I have someone at home waiting for me. A big brother." "Really? Me, too," Robin told him. "He's basically all I have since both of my parents died." "Sucks to lose everyone you love, huh?" Derek said. "I'm going to try my luck with a portal home. Worst case scenario I end up back here to try again, right? Maybe I can get you home while I'm at it." "You got balls, kid," Robin said as he held out his hand to help Derek up. "You got a name?" "Derek," the young man told him. "But I'm also thinking of going by Sideways as my hero name when I start going out to fight crime." "Sideways? THE Sideways?" Robin asked in awe. "No way! You're like, one of the biggest heroes of your day! You led the Teen Titans, you helped save the Justice League! This is incredible! I am such a huge fan!" "Dude, you're probably thinking of a different guy, I'm not even a crimefighter yet," Derek told him. "And the only superhero I've met so far is Superman, and I don't think I made that big of an impression on him." "You're one of my idols," Robin told him. "And if you're willing to risk bouncing around reality to get home, then I guess so am I." "Okay, let's get you home then," Derek said as he looked down at his stocking feet. "And maybe get me a pair of shoes along the way. You ready?" Robin shook his head as Derek held out his hand to create a portal. "Okay, here we go. Let's hope this is... what, 2068?" "Gotham if you can help it, but as long as we land in the right year." Robin said as they jumped through. The duo landed in the middle of an empty street where every building around them had been destroyed. "It looks like we fell into the aftermath of a war," Derek said as he stood up. "Anything look familiar?" "It looks like Metropolis, but the city I know is in perfect condition," Robin told him. "I think we missed the mark." "Then we go back to the Bleed and we try again," Derek told him a rumbling nearly knocked both young men to the ground. "What was that?" Brainiac's giant tentacled ship burst through the ground, focusing its search lights on them. "I have just completed my catalogue of every last known bit of information on this planet," Braniac's voice boomed. "But it looks like I'm not completely done. Before I destroy this lifeless husk of a world, I will deteriorate your brains for their knowledge. You have the privilege of being the last living humans, but I will soon rectify that." TO BE CONTINUED... |