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[color=RoyalBlue]"Nnnghhh,"[/color] I grunt as my senses start to return to me, namely my sense of touch, as evidenced by the fact that everything hurts.

I'm vaguely aware that I'm on the ground, and that there's a crowd surrounding me.

Too many people...not safe....

[color=RoyalBlue]"S...s-stay back..."[/color] I say blearily, struggling to get to my feet. [color=RoyalBlue]"T-Tryon--"[/color]

[color=ForestGreen][i]"He's dead, Superman,"[/i][/color] I hear an irritatingly familiar voice above me.

My blurry vision clears up enough to see a man in a massive suit of advanced armor hovering in the air in front of me.

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Captain John Corben, a man with whom I've had a few run-ins lately, none of which have been very nice. While technically he's US Army rather than a member of the Agency, his methods and mission are similar enough: round up metahumans and bring them in for whatever purposes the government has in mind. His suit, the Metal Zero, is loaded up with advanced weaponry and equipment to take on "big game" metahumans. More to the point, nearly every piece of Metal Zero was created by LexCorp, and it's all fine-tuned specifically to fight me.

I stand up and ball my hands into fists as I stare Corben down. I try not to hold grudges. But when all you want to do is help people, and the government's response is to spend half the country's GDP for a suit made by a diseased maniac and built just to kill you...well, it's hard not to take that a little personally.

[color=ForestGreen][i]"Once you got him out of the city limits, Neutron...detonated,"[/i][/color] he says. [color=ForestGreen][i]"You two made one hell of a mess."[/i][/color]

[color=RoyalBlue]"Then let me help with the cleanup,"[/color] I say, taking a few steps forward.

Truth be told, I don't know how much I have left in me. I tapped into my reserves of stored power to overcome Neutron, and while it gave me what I needed to get him out of the city, it also burned energy fast. When Tryon self-destructed, I burned through most of it surviving the blast.

It's hard to even stay on my feet. I'm pretty sure a stiff breeze could knock me over right now, let alone Corben and the Metal Zero suit.

But there are people who are hurting, people who are in danger.

Which means my job isn't done.

[color=ForestGreen][i]"I think you've done enough for one day, Boy Scout,"[/i][/color] Corben says, managing to move his suit with a cowboy-like swagger. [color=ForestGreen][i]"Neutron wasn't the first one of these freak shows who's decided the best way to get your attention is a mass-casualty event."[/i][/color]

[color=Violet]"Oh, don't you dare start that crap again, Corben,"[/color] I hear Lois as she shoves her way through the crowd. [color=Violet]"Superman was first on the scene when Neutron attacked. I couldn't help but notice you and the Agency goons didn't get here until after the fighting was over."[/color]

[color=ForestGreen][i]"Oh, sure, he was Johnny-on-the-spot,"[/i][/color] Corben sneers underneath his faceplate. [color=ForestGreen][i]"After a couple dozen civilians got splashed, anyway."[/i][/color]

I lower my head, but Lois presses forward. [color=Violet]"Dozens, yes, but it would've been [i]thousands[/i] if he hadn't been here."[/color]

[color=ForestGreen][i]"And how do we know it wouldn't have been zero, huh?"[/i][/color] Corben glares down at her, somehow puffing out his chest under several inches of armor. [color=ForestGreen][i]"If your big blue boyfriend here had been cooperating with us from the start, maybe we wouldn't have psychos like Neutron calling him out."[/i][/color]

[color=Violet]"About that,"[/color] Lois responds, staring down the man in a battle-suit that could flatten half the city. [color=Violet]"None of Nathaniel Tryon's records show any kind of antisocial tendencies beyond petty thievery. Nothing in his files suggests any sort of mental instability, not until [i]after[/i] he was in the custody of the Agency."[/color]

[color=Orange]"Oh, and then there's the signals!"[/color] Jimmy Olsen pipes in, one of his camera drones buzzing around him. [color=Orange]"Miss Lane--sorry, uh, Mrs. Kent--had a hunch, and asked me if my cameras can pick up stuff beyond the visible light spectrum. I said of course they can, I spent a fortune on them, heh, and- anyway, she had me look at Neutron in the middle of the fight for any sort of signals being sent to him. And sure enough, there were free-space optical beams-- basically 'laser internet' signals-- being sent directly to Neutron's suit!"[/color]

Corben cocks his head. [color=ForestGreen][i]"And I'm supposed to believe a couple of civilians?"[/i][/color] he scoffs. [color=ForestGreen][i]"Civilians who, I might add, have been a persistent pain in the ass?"[/i][/color]

[color=Violet]"Believe what you want,"[/color] Lois said, [color=Violet]"But there's more to this Neutron thing than just a poor soul who was lashing out. And when I find out who's behind it..."[/color]

Corben again tries to big-boy up to Lois. [color=ForestGreen][i]"You'll what?"[/i][/color]

[color=RoyalBlue]"She'll do her job,"[/color] I step between them. [color=RoyalBlue]"Like you should be doing right now, helping with the recovery effort. Or at the very least, you should step aside and let me do it."[/color]

[color=ForestGreen][i]"Not so fast, Superman,"[/i][/color] he says as I try to walk past him. [color=ForestGreen][i]"Orders are to bring in any and all unregistered metahumans for threat assessment and processing."[/i][/color]

[color=RoyalBlue]"I'm not in the mood for this, Corben,"[/color] I say. And it's truer than he knows-- I'm absolutely in no shape to fight Metal Zero after Neutron detonated.

[color=ForestGreen][i]"Well, what are you in the mood for, hm?"[/i][/color]

I glare at him, and I can feel him smirking under his faceplate. If I were at full strength, I could fold him up like a cheap suit. After that explosion, though.....

[color=RoyalBlue]"Jimmy,"[/color] I call out. [color=RoyalBlue]"When Neutron...went up....what was the yield of the blast?"[/color]

Jimmy taps at his L-Phone, and comes up with the answer. [color=Orange]"Uhh, according to Brainiac, the estimated yield was about 10 kilotons. That's about two-thirds of the Hiroshima bomb."[/color]

Two thirds of....great Scott....I....I survived [i]that?[/i] How could I....

...I try to regain my composure, and I put on my best poker face as I turn back to Corben.

[color=RoyalBlue]"You heard the man,"[/color] I say. [color=RoyalBlue]"Ten kilotons...point blank....and I'm still standing. Got anything bigger in that suit of yours?"[/color]

There's a deathly hush in the crowd as Corben shifts back and forth, trying to decide if he's going to call my bluff.....

...and he folds.

[color=ForestGreen][i]"This isn't done, Superman,"[/i][/color] he says as he starts to turn away. [color=ForestGreen][i]"But first, I'm going to go clean up your mess."[/i][/color]

Corben activates the thrusters on his suit and flies away, and as the crowd cheers, I almost collapse into Lois's arms.

[color=Violet]"Oof!"[/color] she grunts as she and Jimmy struggle to hold me up and lead me away from the crowd. [color=Violet]"Easy there, big guy. Let's get you out of here."[/color]

[color=RoyalBlue]"There's still so many people--"[/color]

[color=Violet]"That a whole army of emergency workers and search-and-rescue teams are helping right now,"[/color] she reassures me. [color=Violet]"Besides, Corben might not have been able to catch you bluffing, but I did. You're spent. Going out there now would just get you hurt alongside everyone else."[/color]

[color=RoyalBlue]"Maybe,"[/color] I say ruefully, [color=RoyalBlue]"But there's gotta be something I can do."[/color]

[color=Orange]"Dude, Superman?"[/color] Jimmy says, [color=Orange]"You fought a nuclear-powered lunatic, tanked an atom-bomb to the face, saved half the city, and got John Corben to actually go help civilians for once. I'd say you did plenty."[/color]

[color=Violet]"And hey,"[/color] Lois continues, [color=Violet]"There's plenty of other ways you can help that don't involve bench-pressing a city block. Like helping us get to the bottom of how and why Nathaniel Tryon got loose. There's something wrong with this whole thing, especially how he died."[/color]

I nod my head, realizing that maybe Superman's had enough for one day, and that it's time for Clark Kent to step in.

[color=RoyalBlue]"Well, I can help out with one thing for starters,"[/color] I say as we duck away from the streets into a nearby alley where I can catch my breath without the crowd seeing how hurt I really am. [color=RoyalBlue]"When Corben told me that Nathaniel Tryon was dead..."[/color]

[color=Violet]"What about it?"[/color]

[color=RoyalBlue]"I was listening to his pulse,"[/color] I answer. [color=RoyalBlue]"Corben was lying."[/color]