Greg Cox - Man of Steel

He staggered to his feet, reeling. He had been going nonstop for hours now, first against the World Machine, then the singularity, and now Zod. He needed a moment to recharge.

But Zod gave him no respite. He hoisted a stretch limousine above his head and heaved it at Superman, who dodged the car with only nanoseconds to spare. It smashed into the foundations of a looming multi-level carport, and exploded on impact.

A forty-ton propane truck was Zod’s next weapon of choice. He hurled the truck at Superman, but hit the carport instead. The fiery explosion undermined the parking garage, causing it to collapse, level by level. Dislodged vehicles tumbled from the crumbling decks like an automotive landslide. A falling SUV struck Superman in the back, jolting him face-forward onto the pavement.

Zod rushed forward to kick his foe while he was down, but the crazed general came too close to the disintegrating parking garage. The entire structure slid down on top of him, burying him beneath a mountain of concrete and crushed metal. A seismic rumble drowned out his cries.

A billowing cloud of dust obscured the entire scene.

Rising to his feet, Superman cautiously approached the hill-sized heap of rubble, wondering if the avalanche of steel and concrete had been enough to put Zod down for the count.

Not likely , he thought.

Sure enough, Zod burst from the rubble, delivering an ultra-powerful uppercut that sent Superman somersaulting into the sky, far out of reach. Rising higher, Superman took advantage of his ability to defy gravity by hovering in the air. He soaked in what strength he could from the setting sun, hoping that would be enough.

The golden rays fed him their energy, as they had back on the island.

“There’s only one way this ends, Kal!” his enemy shouted from the ground. “You die—or I do. And you don’t have the will to make that happen.”

Zod sprang to the side of a nearby skyscraper. Digging his fingers into the building’s stone cladding, he scaled the façade at super-speed and flung himself outward. They collided in mid-air and fell to Earth together, crashing down onto a construction site.

A partially built skyscraper, its gigantic steel skeleton exposed, shuddered as the dueling supermen cratered the site. Zod seized a heavy steel I-beam from a stack of construction materials and swung it like a club. Heat-vision shot from Superman’s eyes, melting the beam to slag in mid-swing. Molten steel sprayed across the site as the weapon dissolved in Zod’s grip.

Furious, he flung the dripping red object away, and advanced on Superman with murder in his eyes. His face was flushed with anger.

“I was bred to be a warrior, Kal,” he said. “Trained since the moment of my birth, to master my senses.” He sneered at his opponent, contempt dripping from his voice. “Where did you train, Kal? On a farm?”

He dropped into crouch, placing his hand against the ground, much as Superman had done back at the NORTHCOM airfield. Veins bulged on his neck and brow as he fought to bend Earth’s gravity to his will. His armored body trembled with exertion.

Gravity waves distorted the air around him. Concentrating intensely, he absorbed and shaped the waves through sheer force of will.

“Whatever advantage you gained by growing up on this world—”

The ground rumbled beneath him. Dirt and rock and pools of cooling slag lifted off from the Earth, floating around him. His voice rose to a crescendo of hate.

“—it can’t compare to my experience!”

A concussive burst of energy blew his Kryptonian battle armor away from him, leaving him clad only in a matte-black skinsuit. Screaming in fury, his face a mask of vengeance, he took flight for the first time.

This isn’t good, Superman realized. Zod just leveled the playing field.

Mocking Earth’s meager gravity, Zod soared above Metropolis. His flight wasn’t as smooth as Superman’s, but what it lacked in grace and finesse it made up for in speed and power. He looped around in a wide circle, heedless of any obstacles in his path. He smashed headfirst through the upper stories of several unlucky skyscrapers, raining steel and glass onto the streets below, where terrified men and women again ran for cover.

Penthouse apartments and sky-level restaurants were razed by the his aerial rampage. Roofs were torn from buildings. Water towers toppled from their elevated perches. Neon signs exploded in showers of sparks. Billboards plunged like guillotine blades.

Superman launched himself, knowing fully that he had just lost his greatest advantage. The sky now belonged to Zod, as well.

Then it’s time to take it away from him, Superman thought.

If I can.

They met head on—like opposing storms—in the dusky sky above Metropolis. The resulting thunderclap could be heard all the way across the city. The superhuman fracas literally rose to new heights as they traded blows in the heavens before tumbling to Earth like fallen angels.

Downtown streets cracked and cratered beneath the impact. Deserted cars and buses bounced into the air. A two-hundred-foot tall construction crane was uprooted by the tremors. Tons of metal groaned as the crane crashed down around them. A swinging boom came loose, smashing into the side of a luxury high-rise, before impaling a bus stop below. A wrecking ball bowled through the entrance of a popular nightclub.

Caught up in their never-ending battle, the combatants barely noticed.

Zod grabbed Superman’s cape and swung him around, flinging him into the air as though throwing a hammer. The Man of Steel barreled through the base of a landmark office building, bringing the entire structure down. The wanton destruction tore at his soul. At this rate, it would be a miracle if Metropolis had any skyline left when the fighting was over, one way or another.

This city doesn’t deserve this, he though angrily. Earth doesn’t deserve this.

Shaking off the blow, he zoomed back to the battle, determined to get them away from the city, if possible. A powerhouse punch sent Zod tumbling out over the river, where the Weisinger Bridge connected Metropolis to the mainland. He crashed beneath it, splashing into the river. Superman flew out over the bridge and scanned the turbulent water, peering beneath the surface.

He knew better than to think Zod might have drowned.

As if in response to his thoughts, Zod blasted up through the bridge’s multilane span and past its granite towers and steel suspension cables to ram his fists into Superman’s chest. They shot upward through the atmosphere into space, where they were both unaffected by the freezing vacuum. A communications satellite in a low Earth orbit came into view, and Superman flung Zod into the object, which didn’t survive the encounter.

Snarling, Zod hurled the sparking remains back at Superman, before flinging himself forward and dragging them both back down toward Earth.

A fiery glow enveloped both men as they reentered the atmosphere like falling stars.

Lois craned her neck back, searching the sky. Along with Perry and the others, she gazed upward in fear and awe as Superman and Zod waged war among the clouds.

Most of the city’s denizens had taken shelter in basements, bunkers, and subway tunnels, but Lois had never been one to run away from danger. If the final battle for humanity’s future was being fought, she damn well intended to provide an eyewitness report. And, to be honest, she was worried about Superman, too. She had to know what was happening to him, even if it meant putting herself at risk.