Greg Cox - Man of Steel

Screeching emergency sirens competed with the wail of the cyclone.

Have to hold on, he thought. Just a few more seconds.

A metal plate slammed into place, cutting the compromised science ward off from the rest of the ship, while locking out the soldiers on the other side of the airtight barrier. With any luck, that would slow them down long enough for him to escape the Black Zero — and for Jor-El to provide some answers.

“We wanted you to learn what it meant to be human first,” the hologram said, “so that one day, when the time was right, you could build a bridge between the two races.”

That provided the reassurance Superman had needed. He’d known that Zod had to be wrong, that Jor-El had never intended for him to recreate Krypton on Earth, or to betray humanity. Moved by his birth father’s faith in him, he reached out without thinking, but his fingers passed through the holographic figure.

Jor-El wasn’t really there.

Only his ghost.

“From the moment I first laid eyes on you,” the image said, “I knew you were meant for greatness.”

And Jonathan Kent once told me I would change the world, Superman recalled. He vowed to live up to their expectations—both of them.

Then a motion distracted him, visible through the rent in the hull. He realized that it was an escape pod, falling toward Earth’s atmosphere, heating up as it entered the atmosphere. A fiery glow enveloped its outer plating— it was accelerating out of control, as though its braking systems were malfunctioning.

Even across the void of space, he could see who was inside the pod. She looked scared to death.

“Lois—”

“You can save her, Kal,” his father said. “You can save all of them.”

Superman prayed he was right. He took a deep breath of the escaping air, filling his lungs, and dived though the breach into space. Momentum carried him away from the Black Zero and he let Earth’s gravity pull him down toward the planet below. His telescopic vision locked onto the glowing escape pod as he pivoted and shifted direction, taking off in a controlled dive.

His fists thrust out before him, he plunged into the turbulent atmosphere.

Hold on, Lois, he thought. I’m coming!

The ride was bumpier than Lois had expected. Maybe too bumpy.

The escape pod shook violently, rattling her despite the straps that held her fast to her seat. She clenched her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering, and struggled to keep her lunch down. Vertigo assailed her as the pod spun like a carnival ride. It was all she could to do to keep from screaming.

It was getting hotter and hotter inside the confined space, and dangerously so. It felt like a sauna, heading toward a furnace. She was soaked with perspiration. Alarms squealed in her ears. Warning lights blinked frantically all over the control panels.

Car-Vex had fired a blast of plasma at the pod before it ejected. Had the deflected shot done some serious damage?

Something’s wrong, Lois realized. This thing should be slowing down by now…

The malfunctioning pod was heading in for a crash landing. Its heat shields were barely holding on—the outer plates were melting into slag and peeling away. Gravity tightened its grip, accelerating it to terminal velocity. Even if the heat shields held a few minutes longer, there was no way Lois could survive the impact if and when the pod hit the Earth. Her fragile human body would be crushed to a pulp.

That’s not going to happen, Superman resolved.

Racing against time and gravity, he dived after the falling object, increasing his speed, desperate to catch up with it before time ran out. The wind whipped against his face as he plummeted toward the Great Plains. The sun shone down, fueling his flight. His red cape streamed behind him like the tail of a meteor, and his blue-and-red uniform withstood the heat of reentry.

Gaining on the pod, he almost came within reach of it. His arm stretched and his fingers grazed its molten husk, only for it to spin out of his grasp, continuing its deadly freefall. Despite the roar of the wind, he could hear Lois gasping inside the pod. Her heart was pounding frantically. She had to know she was only moments away from crashing.

No! Superman thought. I can still save her. I can’t let her die!

The Earth seemed to rocket up to meet them. There would be just one more chance, so he dug deep to fly faster than he ever had before. With one last burst of speed, he managed to get a solid grip, sinking his bare fingers into the molten metal. The entry hatch was fused shut, but grunting with effort, he tore it off and hurled it away.

Lois tumbled out, and into his arms.

At first, she didn’t realize what was happening. Metal screamed as the door flew off into the clouds and she fell into empty air. A pair of strong arms caught her and a broad blue chest absorbed the impact, cushioning her against a bright red “S.” Glancing down, she saw the scorched remains of the pod slam into the ground like a bullet, exploding on impact.

Flames, smoke, and shrapnel rose into the sky, but Superman shielded her with his body, taking the brunt of the blast without even flinching. He held her high above the ground as clouds of thick white smoke billowed around them. He really was a Superman, she realized. A veritable Man of Steel.

And he had just saved her life… again.

Does this count as our second date? she wondered.

He carried her away from the smoking crater, cradling her in his arms, before descending to the Earth with amazing grace and precision. She barely felt a bump as he landed upon the well-tended lawn of the Smallville Cemetery. He gently put her down on a lonely knoll overlooking the town. A cool breeze provided relief after the overheated interior of the escape pod.

“You’ll be safe here,” he promised. “Are you all right?”

She nodded and looked to the horizon. Unlike the tranquil rural vista she remembered, smoke and flames rose up from acres of burning cornfields. She assumed that Zod was responsible—and felt a twinge of guilt.

“I didn’t want to tell them anything about you,” she said. “But they did something to me, looked inside my mind…”

That was why Zod had insisted on having her brought aboard his ship. He had monitored all those news reports linking her to Superman, and had wanted to find out everything she had learned about him.

Is this my fault? She contemplated the conflagration spreading rapidly below. Did I lead Zod to Smallville?

“Me, too,” Superman assured her. “It’s okay.”

His eyes narrowed as he looked out over burning fields. She guessed that he was seeing—and hearing—a whole lot more than she did. Judging from his grim expression, things were bad.

“I have to go,” he said.

She didn’t want him to, and it seemed as if he didn’t want to leave her, either. He was more than just a story to her now. She felt a connection between them—and an attraction—that was stronger than gravity. They gazed at each other for a long moment, neither saying what they were feeling.

Maybe it was just the adrenaline rush, but she had never wanted to kiss anyone more than she wanted to kiss Superman—no, Clark —right this very minute.

But the moment passed, washed away by the tide of events, and he took to the sky. She watched in wonder as he flew toward Smallville, faster than the eye could follow. Within seconds, he was out of sight.

She wondered if she would ever get used to that.

A siren wailed in the distance. Turning around, she spotted a sheriff’s vehicle, its gumball light spinning, speeding toward the crash site. She ran toward the road, waving her arms to flag the car down.