Superman Vanquished II
Part 1 Prologue
Author: Lcross
It is Thursday evening at 9PM. It has been four days since Eden lured an unsuspecting Superman down into Professor Larsen’s Radiation Well and tried to kill him by amplifying radiation emitted from a few tiny partials of kryptonite! To Eden’s dismay, he was not able to kill Superman with the tiny amount of kryptonite at his disposal. The massive and sustained amplified exposure to kryptonite in the energy well surprisingly only stunned Superman. But the exposure left Superman helpless and completely drained him of his mighty superpowers thereby allowing Eden to easily capture Superman and imprison him in a steel box that deprives him of the energy giving sunlight that will restore his powers. Eden is now impatiently waiting to complete the collection phase of his scheme to claim the crime boss’ super-bounty on Superman. Thus we reopen our story with Eden sitting on the edge of the bed of his black Dodge Ram parked in his aunt’s barn on a farm 30 minutes south of Metropolis. The barn is old and has not been used to house horses and livestock in many years. The surrounding farm land has long ago been sold off to speculators and all that is left of the farm is the house and barn. Eden’s elderly great aunt lives alone in the farm house and seldom if ever ventures out to the old barn. Thus the barn has provided a convenient place to hide Eden’s precious captive until the bounty on Superman can be collected.
The sun set an hour ago and Eden watches the screen intently as he keys commands into his laptop computer that sits atop a steel gang box covered by a heavy trap. He can periodically hear distracting and annoying muffled grunts and struggling movements contained within the steel box his laptop sits on. Eden is a handsome boy, some would say angelic in appearance. He is a young man 23 years of age with an athletic build; he has deep blue eyes and stands about 6 feet tall. Eden’s hair is blonde and clipped short and he is anything but angelic in nature. To that end Eden angrily kicks the side of the box hard with his shoe and yells, “Cut it out Kal El or I’ll rat your secret identity to Frost. He’ll make sure your pals at the Daily Planet suffer. Don’t forget the absent minded professor!” The muffled grunts and struggling cease immediately and Eden smiles wickedly. “That’s better Kal El. I can’t concentrate with you grunting and thrashing around in that box!” Eden redirects his attention back to his computer screen and several moments pass. He sighs loudly as he impatiently keys in more commands and hits the return key again. The screen remains vacant as it waits to receive the requested data from the bank’s website. “The wireless service sucks here!” remarks Eden impatiently and he kicks the box hard with his shoe. Eventually the screen refreshes showing a new deposit in his newly created offshore bank account in the amount of 20 million dollars. “SOLD!” screams Eden as he jumps to his feet and dances in the bed of his pick-up! “I just sold Superman for 20 million dollars! Awesome! I’m fucking rich…I’m on the gravy train…easy street…my fucking ship has come in!”
Eden kicks the box hard again several times and screams almost hysterically, “Did you hear that Kal EL…Superman…Clark…or whatever the fuck else you go by? I just sold your stinking ass to your nemesis Evan Frost. I’d hate to be in those fancy blue tights and red boots of yours after I turn your carcass over to Frost and his boys with NO SUPERPOWERS! You’re nothing now but a fucken drained battery…out of juice…dead in the water…up shit creek without a paddle….no sunlight for you Kal El…forever!” He kicks the box again and continues his rant, “How you doing in there Kal El? Is it a little uncomfortable and confining in there? How do the handcuffs and ball gag fit? Are the cuffs a little too tight around the wrists? Is that ball gag a little uncomfortable stuffed deep in your mouth? YES? GOOD! IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE BITCH! How does it feel to be helpless Kal El – just an ordinary man locked in a steel box with no superpowers! Hah! LOOSER!” Eden kicks the box again for good measure and then closes the laptop. He shakes himself and regains his composure and then pulls his cell phone from the clip on his belt and enters a phone number. He grabs the laptop off the gang box and jumps out of the pick-up truck bed down to the wide wooden plank floor of his aunt’s barn. His call connects and Eden speaks into the cell phone.
“Yes I did. Thank-you, I received the money sir…Evan. Where do I drop off your boy? Sure I know the place. What? OKAY…let me get this right….I meet a guy named Felix at the west parking lot of the Riverside Mall in an hour. He has a black 07 Mustang with a license plate that reads CROSS. Whatever! Hey, you own Superman now. Why not! I’ll drop the muscle boy off wherever this Felix character asks me to. It’s been a pleasure doing business with you sir…Evan. Later,” quips Eden as he closes the phone and reattaches it to his belt clip.
Eden sets his laptop down on the tailgate of his truck and rubs his chin with his fingers for a minute or two and then begins to smile. He suddenly stops and jumps back up into the bed of the pick-up truck. Eden walks to the steel box containing the powerless Man of Steel and pulls a lighter and a pack of cigarettes out of his top shirt pocket of his long sleeve polo shirt. He lights up a smoke and exhales deeply as he glares down at the tarp covering the steel gang box with a wicked smile of satisfaction and remarks out loud, “It’s been a quite a week! I’m fucking rich!” Eden kicks the box again and yells, “Hey Kal El. I’m rich now and you’re…well…pretty much fucked! I sure reversed you role in life Superman; yes me…a mere college kid transformed a virtual god into a powerless…well…slave! Oh, by the way, I believe from the sounds of things it is going to be even worse for you than I first anticipated after the exchange is complete. For some reason I have a feeling that Mr. Frost’s definition of revenge is much broader than just killing you! I think in time Superman you are going to wish that I had succeeded in killing you down in the professor’s energy well.” Eden takes another drag on his cigarette and smiles as an idea crosses his face. I might as well kick Superman in the balls while he’s down thinks Eden cruelly. It will probably be my last chance since technically I don’t own him anymore. “I think you should know that…well…I lied to you Superman. I told Frost yesterday that you and Clark Kent, reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, are one in the same. It also slipped out that you know where there is a lot more…kryptonite,” says Eden loudly! Eden takes another drag on his cigarette and smiles as he listens with a strange fascination to the renewed and more desperate muffled grunts and restrictive movements of the powerless superhero inside the steel gang box.
