The Kryptonite Collar
Author: Lcross.
(originally posted at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SuperheroesDefeated )
Part 1 “Cold Fusion”
The red and blue clad figure of Superboy flashes at tremendous speed out of the boundaries of Smallville and streaks north toward Metropolis University. The sun is just breaking the horizon on a beautiful spring day as he streaks through the brightening spring sky. It is Sunday morning and Superboy wants to snoop around MU’s Science Laboratory in Building 12 while his fellow student, Zach, sleeps unsuspectingly in his dorm room. I’ll search the lab and be back in Smallville before Zach suspects I’ve investigated his project thinks Superboy. He quickly reaches MU and sites Building 12 on the sprawling MU Campus.
Zach’s a genius…too smart for his own good…thinks Superboy. In disguise as Clark Kent, Superboy using his super hearing, recently overheard tantalizing tidbits of alarming conversations that took place between Professor Cho and Zach. Kent has learned by eavesdropping that the two have been secretly collaborating trying to develop the world’s first prototype cold fusion reactor. Zach has provided the brain power and Cho, as Science Chair at MU, provided the funds, facilities and materials to move the dangerous project forward. Superboy has learned they have constructed a small prototype reactor somewhere on the MU campus, most likely in the professor’s private lab: Building 12.
Superboy knows the technology is dangerous and one wrong move during any test drive of the prototype reactor would obliterate a good portion of the MU Campus!
Zach is certified genius; he’s only 18 and he’s already nearly completed his graduate work in physics thinks the Boy of Steel as he reaches his destination. Professor Cho however should know better…I’ll gather the evidence and expose them to the dean decides Superboy as touches down outside the lab’s rear entry door.
As the sky brightens Superboy proceeds to thoroughly scan the single story lab on the deserted campus as well as the rest of the building’s interior structure and sub-structure with his powerful X-ray vision for any sign of activity or unusual energy signatures; strangely he finds none. The lab however is completely deserted as Superboy had hoped it would be on a Sunday morning.
Superboy’s scan reveals only one anomaly; a large lead lined room or cubical beneath the lab in the basement. Zach and Professor’s Cho’s cold fusion project must be set up in the lead room. Lead…I was not anticipating lead thinks Superboy as his X-Ray vision fails again to scan beyond the lead walls of the large cubical. “What are those two up to?” asks Superboy aloud. Superman considers the matter deeply and after a moment he snaps back to the moment and decides he must search the lab and investigate the lead cubical.
Superboy, the Boy of Steel, is a stunning young man nearly 20 years old. He stands 6’ 4” and weighs 225 lbs. His chiseled good looks, black hair with a distinctive split curl, bright blue eyes and perfect skin give him a powerful presence; his broad shoulders, mighty arms and hard muscular, totally ripped body make him seem a Greek God. Superboy wears a royal blue bodysuit with red trucks, a yellow leather belt with a buckle with an “S”, red leather boots, and a crimson red leather cape. A red and yellow S-Shield is emblazoned on Superboy’s muscular chest and the back of his crimson cape.
Superboy slices the lab door’s deadbolt with surgical precision using his heat vision and enters the back of the lab with his cape billowing magnificently behind him. Superboy surveys the lab keenly as he strolls past the work benches filled with racks of glass test tubes and beakers containing liquids of all different colors. He notes numerous scientific journals and books stacked on counters and workbenches as he makes his way to the center of lab and stops. He quickly takes stock of his surroundings observing the shelves of scientific books and elemental graphs and charts neatly arranged on the numerous wall units lining an entire wall of the lab. A large Periodic Table of Elements mounted on one the lab’s walls catches Superboy’s attention. He walks over to the table and examines the giant wall chart. Odd thinks the Boy of Steel; there is an additional element penciled in on the periodic table of elements. Ununoctium with an atomic number of 118 is the last known element on Earth but someone has penciled in an additional element labeled “Kr” with an atomic number of 126! It’s annotated as “kryptonite” reads Superboy as he scratches his head and looks around the lab. “Kryptonite?” repeats Superboy out loud with a look of bewilderment. The professor has discovered a new element thinks the Boy of Steel….why has he not announced the discovery? He would be famous overnight.
He shrugs his muscular shoulders and a bewildered Superboy turns away from the wall chart. He spots a sign above a door on the far north wall of the lab that reads “BASEMENT.” Something strange is going on here thinks Superboy as he eyes the periodic table with the strange new element again and then decides to have a look at the lead room down below. “Is kryptonite the key to cold fusion wonders?” Superboy as he approaches the door leading to the basement?
Superboy opens the door to the basement. His crimson cape flows grandly behind Superboy as he rapidly descends the concrete stairs. He reaches the bottom of the landing and enters the basement. Superboy quickly crosses the floor and stops. He stands before a closed heavy lead lined door leading to the interior of the lead cubical. A sign next to the lead door reads “AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY!” There are banks of steel pipes and conduits connected to the lead cubical and there is a switch next to the lead door with two buttons; one is labeled “OPEN;” the other is labeled “CLOSE.” Superboy looks cautiously around the expansive basement. The entire basement is empty with exception on the large lead cubical that has been constructed in the center of the basement.
The prototype reactor must be within the lead cubical. I must have a look at the fusion reactor to make my case to the dean thinks Superboy. He looks around the empty basement cautiously one more time and sees no one. Superboy recklessly pushes the button labeled “OPEN.”
