General Zod eyed the spluttering youth dispassionately from above, his less intelligent duplicates closing the circle around him in preparation of taking him away and destroying him.
He registered the faint yell of "BART!" that had come from the tall, red-haired one, who was hanging out the back of the vehicle in his silly play-armour, with his silly play-weapons, with no idea of what was going to happen next. Zod almost felt pity for them-- infants, and intellectual worms in comparison to his kind. But their sheer audacity had done away with any pity he might have felt. His upper lip twitched faintly with his disgust.
Uninterested, and fairly certain that he was not underestimating the enemy, Zod turned his attention back to his first, and most important captive.
Alex's feelings fell between angry and afraid. He held the gun between his thighs carefully, stroking the top of it like it was some kind of comforting item when in reality it was anything but. He didn't even know how to shoot a gun, but he wasn't sure what other kind of weapon he would be equipped to use. "I don't know what the hell you expect me to do here. I can't tell what's real and what isn't," he said agitatedly. He was the only one that was still in the cab, and he knew he looked like a huge pussy, but he didn't know what to do
( ... )
Clark turned to look at Lex, frowning just slightly. "Jimmy said this Zod knows my real name."
He bit his lower lip. "You were right, then. This thing's from Krypton. Jim, keep us updated on what's going on."
Before he stepped away from the mic, a voice came from the speakers.
"Kal-El, son of Jor-El," the voice drawled in Kryptonian. "I must say, I was prepared on being very disappointed by you... read all the bald human's obsessively compiled files, anyway, and I almost thought you were your father's son, through and through... but it seems you're not quite so dull after all. Ha, ha, quite the dark horse, aren't we? Sending three untrained, defenseless children into my territory? Now, that's the spirit. Good show, old boy. Us Kryptonians must stand together."
"See, Clark?" Lex muttered. "I knew I'd find a way to blame this all on you." The voice coming from the speakers was definitely speaking Kryptonian. He couldn't understand much, besides the extremely basic words, but the language was definitely familiar.
The lights in the lobby started flickering, flaring to life and going out just as quickly. Some of the security doors began sliding open, only to slam closed again. It was more than a little unnerving, but Lex wasn't about to let some technical poltergeist run him out of his own building a second time.
"So, you're a Kryptonian," Lex said into the mic, watching as lines of binary filled up the screen. Hopefully, the thing in the LexCorp system would understand English. "I was under the impression you were all dead, with one annoying, primary-colored exception. Who are you and what do you want? Answer quickly, since you're going to be killed soon if you don't."
Clark glanced at Lex, expression strangely closed as the sound of laughter filled the air. "Wait. Don't."
"You love him, don't you," the voice interrupted mildly, once the laughter trailed off. "For all your talk of killing him and liberating the Earth from alien influence, you actually love him."
Below, the conflict continued, muted by the sheet of glass. The red-haired one grabbed a hold of the coward and dragged him away just as a plasma bomb exploded, tearing imaginary limbs off of imaginary Zods.
"You just want to be saved, like everyone else, like the kitten in the tree, or that bawling infant from the fire. Doesn't that make you feel...ashamed? We both know you're worth so much more."
Zod moved away from the window, and sat back down in the middle of a tangle of wires and screens, idly fiddling with a lever here, a knob there.
"But you let him convince you otherwise, so disappointingly. What in the world happened to your principles, Lex Luthor?"
Lex's jaw dropped. He was actually lost for words. It had been bizarre enough when the voice coming from the speakers was Kryptonian, but hearing it taunting him in perfect English made Lex feel badly unsettled. He looked up at Clark, only to find the he looked as confused as Lex felt. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Tony edging away from the machinery.
"Who are you?" Lex asked again. "And how do you know any of that?"
Zod twiddled his thumbs idly over his stomach, stretching his legs out before him. "And you and I, Mr Luthor, are so very, very much alike. Aside, of course, from your deplorable weakness for bumbling do-gooders who don't actually do much good."
He almost sighed, contemplating that fool Jor-El, before remembering that it was not worth wasting the breath.
Lex had had just about enough of some overblown artificial intelligence insinuating things about him. Even if those things were true, it was still insulting. He hissed, then shouted into the mic, "Jimmy, Bart, Alex, one of you needs to kill this thing now!"
"That's easy for you to say, you stupid bastard," Alex yelled towards the simulated sky, thinking more of killing Lex than killing this... Zod. "You aren't the one here dealing with a million and one fake fucking clones!"
Alex had begun using his gun to bash in the heads of fake Zods when he decided that the bullets were not working quickly enough.
The way that the clones did not bleed was very unnerving. Alex had gotten into one or two knife fights in his time, back when he was... in his home, so he was particularly used to blood, but the way that the fake Zods simply fizzled and vanished into thin air, making way for more of them, was definitely not something he was used to.
Bart vibrated his way nonchalantly through the army of clones, simply fazing through any punch or strike or stray bullet that came his way. He was not taking any of this seriously, and was only half-listening to the conversation in reality.
Impulse zipped about, mostly just observing and trying to figure out just what they were doing. It didn't occur to him to ask or anything, though it seemed like the others were trying to get rid of the menacingly spittley Zodmen.
"Ohhhhhhh..." Bart's face lit up in sudden realization and added, "Well why didn't anybody say so?"
He suddenly held a remote with a large red button, which he saw clearly in his mind a nano-second ago. It had the word 'RESET' upon it in bold letters. He pressed it with his 'eager' face, though it looked more manic than anything else.
Zod felt the disappearance of his clones as keenly as if their absence had created a vacuum in his mind. He stood up, eyes narrowing-- then, the vacuum did as vacuums do and he found himself standing in the street, where the clones had been.
Looking mildly irritated, Zod crossed his arms over his chest, fingers tapping along a bicep, and stared at the three boys who had invaded his territory. "Didn't I tell you to run along and play, children?" he said in a mockingly paternal tone, not budging an inch.
The string of binary across the computer screens was suddenly interrupted, which was almost as startling as the binary had been. Lex listened to the boys talking and stared at the screens for a long moment, until the realization clicked.
"I don't know what just happened," Lex said into the mic, "but I'm assuming it had something to do with that Zod thing's clones. Listen, you need to attack the actual Zod. The clones are just decoys, and I don't think hurting them has any effect on him. You should have some control over your environment; trap the clones in quicksand, put them in cages, I don't care, just focus your attacks on Zod."
Alex was still standing half behind Jimmy, gun wavering in his hands. He dropped it and it fizzled out of existence as he stopped thinking of it. He had to prove himself to be less than just a coward -- they had sent him in there for a reason, and it probably wasn't just to babysit the two morons with him.
Oh, for fuck's sake, Alex thought, looking down at his hands. There was a small can in his hand that loudly proclaimed ZOD REPELLENT on the front in goofy, comical letters.
Zod was probably going to drop a goddamn acme anvil on them any second, so he imagined himself up a flamethrower instead, although he hesitated momentarily, not wanting to get scolded for blowing up Jimmy and Bart, too.
"Way ahead of you, Lex," said Jimmy testily, switching out his pistol for a chunk of Kryptonite. He tossed it lazily up and down in one hand, wondering if it would work. Ah, hell, it'd work if he imagined it would. With that, he lobbed it at Zod's head.
He registered the faint yell of "BART!" that had come from the tall, red-haired one, who was hanging out the back of the vehicle in his silly play-armour, with his silly play-weapons, with no idea of what was going to happen next. Zod almost felt pity for them-- infants, and intellectual worms in comparison to his kind. But their sheer audacity had done away with any pity he might have felt. His upper lip twitched faintly with his disgust.
Uninterested, and fairly certain that he was not underestimating the enemy, Zod turned his attention back to his first, and most important captive.
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He bit his lower lip. "You were right, then. This thing's from Krypton. Jim, keep us updated on what's going on."
Before he stepped away from the mic, a voice came from the speakers.
"Kal-El, son of Jor-El," the voice drawled in Kryptonian. "I must say, I was prepared on being very disappointed by you... read all the bald human's obsessively compiled files, anyway, and I almost thought you were your father's son, through and through... but it seems you're not quite so dull after all. Ha, ha, quite the dark horse, aren't we? Sending three untrained, defenseless children into my territory? Now, that's the spirit. Good show, old boy. Us Kryptonians must stand together."
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The lights in the lobby started flickering, flaring to life and going out just as quickly. Some of the security doors began sliding open, only to slam closed again. It was more than a little unnerving, but Lex wasn't about to let some technical poltergeist run him out of his own building a second time.
"So, you're a Kryptonian," Lex said into the mic, watching as lines of binary filled up the screen. Hopefully, the thing in the LexCorp system would understand English. "I was under the impression you were all dead, with one annoying, primary-colored exception. Who are you and what do you want? Answer quickly, since you're going to be killed soon if you don't."
Reply
"You love him, don't you," the voice interrupted mildly, once the laughter trailed off. "For all your talk of killing him and liberating the Earth from alien influence, you actually love him."
Below, the conflict continued, muted by the sheet of glass. The red-haired one grabbed a hold of the coward and dragged him away just as a plasma bomb exploded, tearing imaginary limbs off of imaginary Zods.
"You just want to be saved, like everyone else, like the kitten in the tree, or that bawling infant from the fire. Doesn't that make you feel...ashamed? We both know you're worth so much more."
Zod moved away from the window, and sat back down in the middle of a tangle of wires and screens, idly fiddling with a lever here, a knob there.
"But you let him convince you otherwise, so disappointingly. What in the world happened to your principles, Lex Luthor?"
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"Who are you?" Lex asked again. "And how do you know any of that?"
Reply
Zod twiddled his thumbs idly over his stomach, stretching his legs out before him. "And you and I, Mr Luthor, are so very, very much alike. Aside, of course, from your deplorable weakness for bumbling do-gooders who don't actually do much good."
He almost sighed, contemplating that fool Jor-El, before remembering that it was not worth wasting the breath.
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Alex had begun using his gun to bash in the heads of fake Zods when he decided that the bullets were not working quickly enough.
The way that the clones did not bleed was very unnerving. Alex had gotten into one or two knife fights in his time, back when he was... in his home, so he was particularly used to blood, but the way that the fake Zods simply fizzled and vanished into thin air, making way for more of them, was definitely not something he was used to.
Reply
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Impulse zipped about, mostly just observing and trying to figure out just what they were doing. It didn't occur to him to ask or anything, though it seemed like the others were trying to get rid of the menacingly spittley Zodmen.
"Ohhhhhhh..." Bart's face lit up in sudden realization and added, "Well why didn't anybody say so?"
He suddenly held a remote with a large red button, which he saw clearly in his mind a nano-second ago. It had the word 'RESET' upon it in bold letters. He pressed it with his 'eager' face, though it looked more manic than anything else.
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Looking mildly irritated, Zod crossed his arms over his chest, fingers tapping along a bicep, and stared at the three boys who had invaded his territory. "Didn't I tell you to run along and play, children?" he said in a mockingly paternal tone, not budging an inch.
Reply
"I don't know what just happened," Lex said into the mic, "but I'm assuming it had something to do with that Zod thing's clones. Listen, you need to attack the actual Zod. The clones are just decoys, and I don't think hurting them has any effect on him. You should have some control over your environment; trap the clones in quicksand, put them in cages, I don't care, just focus your attacks on Zod."
Reply
Oh, for fuck's sake, Alex thought, looking down at his hands. There was a small can in his hand that loudly proclaimed ZOD REPELLENT on the front in goofy, comical letters.
Zod was probably going to drop a goddamn acme anvil on them any second, so he imagined himself up a flamethrower instead, although he hesitated momentarily, not wanting to get scolded for blowing up Jimmy and Bart, too.
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