Lex Luthor Pt 30: Zero Hour Approaches

[WorkoutLA]

Batman may have felt that he could do more training Superman in preparation for his battle with Lex Luthor, but Superman had a final push on his own. In his Fortress of Solitude he entered the section devoted to the memory of his long-dead home planet Krypton. It was here that Superman kept the last living remnants of the lost civilization of his homeworld: the bottle city Of Kandor. It had once been the capital of his planet before it & all its citizens were miniaturized & stolen by the space pirate Brainiac several years before the planet exploded. Superman battled Brainiac and recovered the bottled city, putting it safely in his Fortress until he could find a way to enlarge it on a new homeworld for the people of Kandor. Using advanced Kryptonian science the Kandorians duplicated the conditions of Krypton inside their bottle prison & kept their civilization alive. Superman had often visited the bottle city thanks to a shrinking ray developed by the people which would allow the Man Of Steel temporary access. Today he used the ray once again for his final round of training.

Here in Kandor he was powerless and could train with some of the city's greatest athletes without harming any of them & hone his skills. Even some of those who he had visited before such as scientist Ken-Dal were surprised to see how Superman had changed. Physically the man was even more impressively muscled. However it was his personality that was more forceful & dynamic--and intimidating. Ken-Dal had known Superman's father Jor-El as a young man and saw much of the dead scientist's drive & determination now in his grown son. The athletes who had volunteered to spar & train with Superman were somewhat eager to see what the Man Of Steel was made of without the use of his powers. When they saw him in person, stripped down & wearing the ancient Kryptonian martial arts attire (nothing more than thong-like apparel) they were less eager. After Superman tossed around the first volunteer they were considerably even less eager. Sweating, his muscles pumped up & bulging, his hair tossled from the heavy-sparring Superman (or Kal-El as he was called in Kandor) looked unbelievable to the Kandorians who had gathered to watch the training. Soon even more progressively & powerfully built athletes volunteered and one-by-one Superman dispatched them with equal skill.

The last to try his hand was Kandor's top athlete Kar-Lor, a massively muscled star who excelled at virtually every sport. When he stepped forward and stripped down to the traditional combat garb Superman held back a genuine gasp. Kar-Lor was as huge as Lex Luthor and no matter how many gains he had made Superman still knew he was much smaller. The Kryptonian combat sport used a combination of wrestling, boxing, gymnastics & the ancient martial art of Klurkor and Kar-Lor was undefeated. It was truly muscle against muscle where Superman had to rely on all his inner strength & stamina to even manage to stay in the match. Kar-Lor's bulging muscles felt like steel against Superman & sweated & strained against his opponent. As the match wore on their sweat-soaked thongs left nothing to the imagination and several in the growing audience saw that Kar-Lor's prowess was not limited to his muscularity & athleticism. Nevetheless the match wore on through the allotted eight rounds and Kar-Lor felt that Superman was finally beginning to weaken. The idea that he was going to win again Superman man-to-man gave him an extra boost and he hoisted him in the air bringing him down with a loud thud. Kar-Lor & Kal-El continued to fight on the mat but the match ended. The computer referee scanned the digital footage and the winner's face. Kar-Lor raised his massive arms in the air when he saw his face appear & he roared a heart cheer. Superman congratulated him & the two figures embraced.

"Congratulations, Kar-Lor."

" I am honored to have won, Kal-El. You were by far my most worthy opponent. No one has ever gone all eight rounds with me before. I only hope I helped you in your upcoming battle. We all support you."

"Kar, you have helped more than you know. I know I have to try even harder with Luthor now. He won't be playing by any rules the way we did here. "

"You know if we could leave this place I and many of the other Kandorians would help you defeat this man"

"Even if you could I wouldn't accept your help. This is something I must do on my own."

Kar-Lor had always admired, respected, and been attracted to Kal-El and in spite of his physical prowess never had the nerve to tell him. At this moment when he saw the true measure of this man he understood why he was called a "super-hero". If Luthor did defeat & kill Superman Kar-Lor made a vow to himself that he would make sure Luthor paid dearly.

Once back in his Fortress Superman and exposed his body to the yellow sun again he was totally recharged as though he hadn't spent those grueling hours in combat. He wished it would be that easy a few days from now.

-------------------

The following day Edwards Air Force Base was the site of a media event: the landing of the BW-6 space plane. The experimental plane's launch a few days before was also well-covered but this historic landing had attracted more. In addition to the worldwide TV audience there were quite a few iinvited spectators, including a few luminaries. Although the new plane had the potential to be a commercial passenger craft with a capacity of over 100 people this maiden flight only had a crew of six on board.

The BW-6 was partially funded by Wayne Enterprises and thus the corporate president Bruce Wayne was one of the honored guests at the landing. Wayne invited several of his friends & business associates to join him on the special grandstand & observation platform---a selection that the head of Air Force security found interestingly diverse. They included former industrialist & philanthropist Oliver Queen, noted physicist Ray Palmer, police scientist Barry Allen, marine biologist Arthur Curry, museum curator Carter Hall, & detective John Jones. Southern Califiornia's Ferris Aircraft president Carol Ferris & test pilor Hal Jordan were also on hand. Washington, DC army brass were there as well including Lt Diana Prince.

Lois Lane was taking notes on may of these special guests while Jimmy Olsen took photos & Clark Kent was getting quotes from some of the other spectators who had won a lottery top be part of the audience. Lois & Jimmy were aware that much of the Justice League was here incognito--they just didn't know who they were. All they knew was that after the landing the JLA would be staying in the area and would meet Lois in a few days at the nearby "secret" location where Superman would battle Luthor. And they would stand by ready to strike if Luthor was in danger of winning.

As the space plane's imminent arrival was announced over the loudspeaker, all eyes, binoculars, zoom lenses, TV cameras, etc all turned to the deep blue desert sky. A huge stadium size screen provided the spectators with the same view seen on TV screens across the globe.

Meanwhile Lex Luthor set his master plan into action. Days before, he flew high above Earth & put his own satellite into orbit, programmed to jam & short circuit the BW-6 plane's circuitry just before it was to leave orbit & begin its descent. When that happened the space plane was headed for a unstoppable crash into the desert terrain. Luthor knew that once a certain do-gooder saw this on the news he wouldn't be able to resist coming to the rescue. Superman would be drawn to the scene & Luthor would make sure he failed--before a worldwide audience. And with that same audience watching Luthor would have his battle with Superman and do away with him forever!

[iluvbigmen]

Great writing Come on Lex, you deserve to be Superman and beat Clark in front of Lois ... she can't help but lust for superlex