---

The planet exploded in a cascading eruption of debris that shot off in all directions. It was gone...

The surface had been bright, closer to the central star than Earth, so he knew that it wasn’t home. Most things were silhouettes, vague shapes as the intensity of the amber light was far too glaring to make out much. But the smells! The air was thicker; it filled his lungs almost like water. He could taste everything, smell everything, and he was a part of it all. The scents of those around him were a part of him, the experience and those aromas carried all the depth of age. It wasn’t sight but he could tell the pot he held had been worked on by his neighbor for hours, specially crafted, and then plastered with thick-scented pastes to conjure up distant memories of far-away parts of this world. He could smell the hands of the woman who had held it before handing the pot to him, how her texture on his tongue carried the full body of all her journeys before this. It was foreign, so alien, and yet completely different than the previous ones...but just like them, it too was suddenly gone.

There had been a dark shape, darker than the others. A familiar dark ‘moon’ that consumed the horizon, and then burning white light.

And then guilt.

Oppressive, all-consuming guilt. Remorse so deep that it swallowed him.

But that wasn’t the terrifying thing. The sensation of movement, of moving on to the next world, the next target, that was what was scary, what had him –

Clark Kent shot up in bed, drenched in sweat and his hands clenched the sheets. Panic gripped him as he had the sudden fear of being unable to stop himself, to prevent this destruction that he saw so vividly. It was when his wife’s hand touched his shoulder that he realized it wasn’t real…and that he had been screaming.

Lois Lane sat up, startled, but kept the contact on her husband’s arm. He was thankful for that, the grounding it gave him, and he panted deep to try to regain his breathing. He was in his pajama pants, she the button-down top to them, and the concern on her face let him know it was as frightful as it had seemed.

“Sorry,” he began.

“Again, with the same one? Well, same kind. A different planet this time too?” When Clark nodded, Lois went on. “Were you able to see anything else this time? Something new?” She wanted to solve this nightmare issue as much as her husband.

She was always full of questions and Clark was thankful for that. He was glad to have her help him to focus, rather than to remember. “It was the same as before,” he frowned, “from what I remembered. I was there, just before it happened and then after, the overwhelming sense of sorrow. It was hauntingly familiar, like I should know who or what, but...”

“It was too vivid to ‘see’,” she nodded and finally removed her hand. “Sometimes those super senses of yours are a real pain, Superman,” she noted. Lois had already determined for him after planet number three that his inability to sort through it was due to his heightened awareness of whatever he was being exposed to. With a little stretch she slid from the bed. “I’ll put on some coffee, and we can try and figure this out.”

“You should sleep,” he frowned and hastened to give chase. He caught her about the shoulders and meant to direct her back to bed, but somehow standing there staring at her like a doof felt so much better.

“So should you,” she said, and she sounded groggy doing it. “World won’t save itself tomorrow, you know. You take a nap, and Gorilla Grodd crushes Hub City or something. Can’t have you flying into buildings, or showing up to the office with your tights showing.”

“Like you’d let me,” he smirked.

“I’m serious, Smallville, I don’t like this. It’s more than just some bad dream. This is number twenty four, and yes, I’ve been keeping count. It’s been happening for four months now. It’s not going to go away on its own.”

She was right. Clark did turn her around and she reluctantly went. “I’ll be better off knowing that you get your rest. I might fly into walls, but you’re apt to bite poor Jimmy’s head off.”

“You might have a point,” Lois mumbled into her pillow as she flopped back onto the bed.

He knelt and kissed the back of her head, but she rolled over to claim a proper one. “I’ll go to the Fortress, right now. Kelex will help. If he can’t, I’ll use the stasis chamber there to induce a deep slumber. I’ll be back in time for breakfast,” he promised.

“...bagels...,” she said into her pillow.

A dash to the closet and Superman was up, up and away to the Fortress of Solitude.

[I have been remote monitoring your vitals.] Kelex greeted him at the door. Without the companionship of Natasha Irons over the past year, the robot had returned to a more ‘traditional’ pattern of speech and behavior. It was something that Clark was grateful for even if a small weird part of him almost missed the colorful slang. [There are irregularities that should be investigated, diagnosed. I do not mean to alarm you, Kal-El but there is something happening to you. Cerebral scans would indicate mind control, yet the scattered nature of these visions suggest more of a pattern of –]

“Communication!” Superman snapped his fingers as he strode into the Fortress. Already, it was starting to make more sense. “Kelex, clear the meditation chamber. I think I know what will help get to the bottom of this now.” He stopped in his hastened pace. “Thank you.”

[Of course, Kal-El.]

Two minutes later, the chamber was prepared. Superman had changed into more fitting attire for what he was about to do, and the traditional Kryptonian garb helped to comfort him. The black bodysuit with silver down his arms and legs, and the bright ‘S’-shield on his chest eased his mind, already setting him at a state for Torquaism-Vao. It was an ancient Kryptonian mental art, one meant for preparing and mending the mind, as well as to manifest one’s self psionically. Clark was certain that the messages, as he now knew them to be, were meant for him.

He knelt and prepared his mind, and soon he was able to detach himself from his physical sensations and allow the scientific, analytical core of his Kryptonian self take hold, and guide his senses. He ventured back into his memory, collected every detail from each of the twenty-four messages that had been sent to him and placed them together for the first time. Overlapped, there were a jumble of emotions, and had Clark not been at the state he was in the sheer depth of the guilt they carried would have consumed him. As it was, the dark lashes of those burdensome emotions tore at him, but he ignored them as he was able to. He held out his hands and grasped the mental conglomeration, even as it seemed to twist and recoil. There was a need there, but also revulsion, a worry and a fear at being found out.

Clark tore at it and peeled away layers from the squirming shape. Soon, a figure began to emerge from within, just beneath the layers. It was a familiar face, one with a voice that spoke of destruction and harm. He stripped off the last of the regrets and looked into the face of the Eradicator.

No doubt it had been through Torquaism-Vao that the ancient Kryptonian program had contacted him, projecting it’s sensations across time and space in the hopes he would ‘hear’ it. Just over a year ago now, it had banished itself to space on a self-searching quest for redemption and of dealing with loss. Clearly, now, it was in trouble.

Superman returned his mind to his body and stood. He exited the medication chamber, and found Kelex waiting outside. “I need you to prepare me a suit, a flight harness, something for some deep space exploration.”

[Sir?]

“It’s the Eradicator, Kelex. He’s out there and he needs my help.”

[One moment,] the robot requested and connected itself to the central crystalline computer mainframe of the Fortress. [Kal-El, the Eradicator Program is close, closer than you might expect. It is within the Sol System. Computing...it is in orbit about Jupiter, sir.]

“The harness, Kelex. I’ll still need something robust,” he feared. “How long will it take?”

[Twelve hours, give or take. Not long.]

But long enough, he thought.

---

The Daily Planet
Metropolis, Delaware

“You think he’s going to be in there all morning?”

“I doubt it,” Clark said as he balled up another piece of paper and answered Jimmy. He took aim for the waste basket at Lois’ desk, and lobbed his shot. Jimmy, who sat at Lois’ desk, swatted it from the air before it reached the target, just as he had done to a little over half the offerings lobbed his way thus far.

“He has to come out some time to bark orders at us,” Lois said as she eyed Perry White’s closed door. She leaned against Clark’s desk, content to be out of the way of the boys’ game. She didn’t like that her chief was preoccupied with something that she didn’t know what it was.

Ever since the Vice President thing, Perry had been-- brisk. Far more than usual, even. Lois was sure she was the only one that had noticed too, and so far she’d kept things to herself. All the late nights he’d pulled lately, the afternoon meetings that had ended with him in silence, the way he’d paced during lunch hour. And now his office door had remained closed all morning. Several glances to her husband had revealed that he didn’t hear anything troubling, so she kept quiet.

There was hint of movement to the door behind that tinted glass and Lois was on her feet in a flash. “Here we go,” she warned Jimmy and Clark. They scrambled to their feet just in time as the Editor-in-Chief’s door swung open.

“Lane! Kent! OLS-... oh,” Perry stopped as he saw them all standing there. “Get in here.” He left it at that, turned and sat at his desk as the three of them quickly filed in.

“Perry, whatever is –”

That’s as far as she got before Perry held up his hand for her to stop. “Not yet.” That caused Clark and Jimmy to both realize there was something more going on, but Lois avoided their looks as she studied her boss. Perry went on. “Soon, okay? But today, we got other things to focus on.”

“Ah, of course, Chief,” Jimmy gave first.

“Something is up with NASA, something big. They’ve gone tight-lipped, which is not their M.O.. How many press releases do they have a week? Besides, I got a buddy there that says even they’ve got no idea what’s going on. Whatever it is, it’s come from the top. I think we all know who that means. So, Lane, I want you to –”

“Actually,” she jumped in, “Clark’s got a better head for science, and he loves space.” She turned to him to share a private look. There was the excuse that he had been going to fumble for, and it was far more convenient than the story he would have made up to make up to cover his costumed trip to Jupiter.

“Yeah,” Clark jumped in, “I’m pretty sure I still know that guy from the Hubble story I did. Keith? Ken? Ker–...”

“Fine, fine,” Perry’d had enough. “That works,” he conceded, though clearly didn’t like having his plans changed for him. Yet, it was hard to argue solid reasoning. “That means you get the local, Lane.” Which is what she wanted and she knew he knew she knew. It’d keep her closer to keep an eye on him. “Take Olsen. I want you two to look into this.” Perry opened a drawer, drew out a folder and slapped it down on his desk.

Lois stepped forward and opened it, to reveal shoddy pictures taken of some tough-looking kids who had been roughed up pretty badly. The last was of a shadowy figure that could barely be seen as it ran off down an alley. “Ick, cell phone photos,” Jimmy had to say. “Sure, everyone loves them, because they’re so easy,” and he now grabbed for all of the pictures to examine them more closely, “but they’re never steady enough. Or barely detailed.” He frowned, lost in the last one.

“Some kind of new crime fighter?” Lois looked from Perry to Clark, who shrugged, and back to her editor.

“With how roughed up the kids are that are left for the cops? I’d put the emphasis on ‘fighter’. Actually, you know what’s better?” Perry pointed to the door. “There’s a reason I still pay each of you... go! Get out there and find out for me!”

The trio snapped to and did as instructed, and Lois made sure she was the last to leave. She turned back to Perry. He beat her to the punch though and repeated, “Not yet.” She frowned, but he wasn’t about to be swayed. “Close the door on the way out.” Reluctantly, she did.

---

Space
In the expanse between Earth and Mars

“I probably shouldn’t be bootlegging a Justice League system to make a long distance call to my wife.”

“They left you the communicator,” she reminded him.

“I think that was more for the case of emergencies.”

“Well, I appreciate that you ‘called’. Where are you now?”

“Approaching Mars,” Superman answered honestly. He had made good time since leaving Earth, on course towards Jupiter. It was the place he knew he needed to be, even if it wasn’t necessarily where he wanted to be. “Which means the range on the comm signal will cut out not long after I pass it.” This meant that their call would have to be a short one.

“How’s the gizmo your robot has you up there in holding out?”

“Kelex,” he reminded her, but went on, “Great,” he answered with confidence. The harness that Kelex had made for him was sturdy, even if it didn’t necessarily look the part. “He seamlessly bonded the crystalline navigator with the respiratory recycler. He improved upon the model I developed when I took that extended trip into deep space. It’s remarkably functional and not cumbersome. Really, he outdid himself. There are even utility compartments in the belt for–”

“I hear that it’s very warm there this time of year,” Lois cut in, as means to steer the conversation back.

“I could take you some time if you wanted.”

“No thanks,” Lois answered honestly. Some things she was okay with never knowing like he did, Clark knew. “Maybe Venus for our honeymoon…” She went quiet and Superman thought hard of what to say. He stole a sidelong glance to Mars, but before he could speak, Lois went again. “Be safe up there.”

He did think to correct her, that it was more of an ‘out’ there as the distance to Earth was more of a...and almost before it was too late, he got in a reply. “I will.” That promise slipped out just before the link was lost and she was gone.

With his head down and his hands out in front of him, Superman surged forward. The sooner he was there, rescued the Eradicator, then the sooner he could return.

The Eradicator was not someone, or something, that Clark could easily turn his back on. It was connected to him, bound in a way, as it was a relic from his birth planet, Krypton, that had found its way into his life on Earth. Once originally altered by Superman’s ancient ancestor, Kem-L, the sentient program had sought to protect Krypton, which ultimately helped to destroy it. Yet, when Superman first encountered in during his self-imposed exile into space, it had healed him, in heart and body and mind. It followed Superman to Earth, tried to corrupt him several times, but it had also saved him. It had harmed Jimmy, nearly murdered his parents, and yet helped to save him, loved ones and even strangers, like when it merged with the dying S.T.A.R. Labs doctor, David Connor. The Eradicator had requested to be placed in stasis several times and then, not long ago, went into its own self-imposed exile to space. To say that things concerning Eradicator were complicated was an understa–...!

Superman’s thoughts were silenced when someone spoke to him.

“Kal-El, we should talk.”

Superman came to a halt, at the edge of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. There, from the mass of rock and ice that circled the belly of Sol, emerged a familiar figure, one to go with the familiar voice that had stopped him. The crimson armor showed a flawless polish in the crisp darkness of space. With hands behind his back, General Zod appeared before a surprised Superman.

“While meant for you, no doubt, your mind is not the only Kryptonian one on Earth, nor the only receptive one. With Torquaism-Vao training and daily exercises, it should be no surprise that what was meant for you has also found its way to me.”

Superman held up his hands, spoke, but the silence of space carried his words.

General Zod remained silent for a lingered moment, then in a disgusted or bored move took the left circular disk from his helmet and applied it to Superman’s shelled covering. Superman watched as the crimson device bore into the workings of the harness Kelex had made and merged with it. “... -at are you doi-... oh.”

“Yes, now we can speak, you and I. You did not come prepared for company.” The General chuckled there, short and rude, but hardly caring should it offend. ‘Go it alone’, the masked stare of Zod seemed to say. Yet, he spoke. “Your unsupervised ‘toy’ has become rather bothersome in the repeated messages, and insistent. The Eradicator is to be sent to Earth next, which is why the messages have been so...potent. To get your attention. So kind of you to finally get the hint,” Zod spat and ground his teeth, annoyed. “There is much I have created on Earth that I am prepared to safeguard.”

“I take it that means you want to ‘help’.” Superman shook his head. If General Zod had a better understanding of what Eradicator had been sending, however, this was hardly the time to dismiss the assistance. “Perhaps that is why I only had snippets of the message to begin with, as you were intercepting parts of it. I should assume you’ve been up here, investigating on your own?” The General didn’t have a Fortress of Solitude like he did, Superman reminded himself. “Which would also explain why the recent ones have been more vivid?”

“And I have been cursed with less of them,” Zod conceded.

“The frequency of the messages has been more intense lately, which fits in with your theory that Eradicator is to be sent against the Earth.” Superman touched the ‘chin’ of his helmet, in thought. “But the question is who is doing the sending? And why?”

“It matters not,” growled Zod. “I will not allow that thing to jeopardize Earth.”

Then we’re in agreement on that, at least, thought Superman. “Despite whatever history about the Eradicator you have uncovered, all that he has done to jeopardize life on Earth, I cannot believe that this is something he is undertaking on his own. Why else send the messages, as warnings? No, whatever has happened to him, this is something he’s being forced to do.” The emotions conveyed in the dream-messages convinced Superman of that. “However, unless it comes to that, I will do everything I can to save him. I owe him that,” he said defiantly.

Zod snorted and gestured into the asteroid belt. “Lead the way.”

In silence, the pair left their meeting spot for the further reaches of space. Once out of the belt, they rushed toward Jupiter. The largest planet in the Sol system loomed before them soon enough, and before the planet was a slew of moons, sixty-seven in all, yet only four of them were bigger than ten kilometers in diameter. First before them was Callisto; it was a dark moon, almost black most times, with starry pockets of craters to mar the surface. Debris drifted away from Callisto, or rather, a dark spherical shape that circled it – one that was immediately familiar to Superman, both from recent dreams and older nightmares.

“That’s no moon, that’s ...”

“What we’re looking for,” cut in Zod with a snarl before he took off, into the lead and headed straight for Warworld.

---

“We’re never going to make any headway like this.”

“Tell me something I am not already aware of, Kal-El. Our progress would also be greatly improved if you wouldn’t insist on holding back!” General Zod was mad, which was understandable considering the motivations that he had for being here. What further agitated him was the battle that had been sprung upon him during his closing on Warworld, and then the fact that this was a fight that was being lost. Thanks to Superman.

“Until we know where Eradicator is or what’s been done to him, I’d rather be certain.”

“Roa’s Ghost, they are machines! Mindless machines,” Zod seethed. He punched through the head of one, spun and fired a twin beam from his eyes into the heart of another. They were surrounded, by a swarm of the things, and their numbers only seemed to grow with each moment. “Fight, Kal-El, fight!”

Superman clenched his jaw, then his fist, as he knew that the General was right. They had neared Warworld, with Callisto behind them, when they had found a sea of debris about the dark planetoid. The pair pushed on, but once inside the mess, they had been ambushed. Zod had taken the brunt of the surprise attack, having been in the lead, though he was also armored and thus virtually unscathed from the assault. Superman had been grabbed by a couple of robots, and when Zod doubled back and smashed them together he had declared open war and engaged before he could be stopped. Thus, here they were, caught between Warworld and Callisto, in a field of drifting metallic scrap, as they fought a host of dangerous, powerful robots.

“Do you see, Kal-El?” Zod spared no time before taking his next target. He clobbered one drone to pieces as another attacked him from behind. It pounded on his helmet, but Zod merely turned and twin beams of energy burst from his eyes to slice the robot in half.

“They’re of Kryptonian design? At least in part,” Superman answered. He had drifted back, intent on making use of his X-ray vision to get a better look, but a drone interrupted that plan as it tackled his legs. Superman smashed a fist down on its back and then dug in his fingers, to pry and then rip the machine to pieces. That allowed him a better look. “Only in part,” he corrected himself. “There’s more to these things. Some things seem familiar to the dreams I had, the broadcasts from the Eradicator, from the planets that were destroyed.”

“As well as others,” Zod pointed. He then rocketed forward to grab the robot he had just noticed. “This is Fgurian, and is just as flimsy now,” Zod snarled as he drove his gauntlet through the ‘head’ of the thing, “as when they were encountered by Kryptonian researchers. Before our home world was destroyed.”

Superman didn’t have long to look as a small swarm of drones moved in on him. They dove with their collective arms extended and sharp blades brandished on each one. The Man of Steel held his ‘ground’, waited and merely took in a deep breath. Once they were close, he pursed his lips and lifted the shielded plating to his mask. With a puff and a turn, he created a ring of ice around him that captured all of his would-be attackers.

“All this technology from destroyed worlds…what does that tell you?” Superman asked as he returned his visor and took stock of their situation. For every robot that they demolished, several more came forward to take their place. With Warworld as a factory for these things, there was no telling of many could be thrown at them. “We need to get to the surface and find a way to stop this.”

“It tells me that once I finish with these annoyances, there will be nothing left of those worlds,” Zod replied. Already he ‘stood’ in a field of battered and broken machines, and was fully prepared to face more. A particularly large robot rushed forward as Zod dove towards Warworld once more, its weapons at the ready. It fired, but Zod ignored it as energy beams were deflected from his armor. He slammed into the giant thing and it quickly seized him.

Superman swatted a drone away and sped forward, where he grabbed the hand on the powerful machine that held Zod. He strained as he pulled, as he sought to pry the hand open to free his ally. Yet, as he groaned with effort to do so, he felt the hand give way due to a surge of power from within and, when the metallic hand sprang open, Zod streaked out and Superman rushed to join him. Together, they punched the machine in head and it rolled backwards. It corrected itself, but Superman and Zod were already on the move, as each man flew wide and drove in at the machine’s side. Together, they drove through the machine and when they met, Zod turned up to lead the way upwards as he punched his way into the chest cavity. There, Superman was witness to his crimson-armored companion rip the internal components apart, lost in a fit of rage.

“General!” When that didn’t stop him, Superman grabbed his ally and pulled. “Zod!” Superman was able to drive through the chest of the machine, with Zod in tow, seconds before it exploded. “What was that about?”

Before Zod could answer, however, a sphere took him from Superman’s hand, a porous sphere filled with a blue substance that suspended the General inertly. The figure that had launched it at the pair was different than all the others. Tall and lean, it was a construct with a far more humanoid form than all of the machines before it, and the white metallic shell was dressed only with a long jade-green cape from the shoulders. The face was also a jade-green that glowed softly, emotionless and unmoving, with thin white eyes.

It gestured and another sphere was tossed from the other hand, and this blue-filled ball moved far faster than Superman anticipated. It enveloped him and, though he attempted to move, he found himself to be held. It was porous, so should he not have been in space, Superman would have been able to breathe through it, though still unable to move as it was completely frictionless. Some kind of gelatin crust held the mixture together.

“Brainiac.”

[No, Superman. Not Brainiac.]

“What then,” snarled Zod.

[A portion of his programming that he removed – protocol – one that he was unable to destroy and thus sent away. Broken, incomplete, the craft I was confined to crashed here, where by chance the damaged Eradicator had come to be as well. The Eradicator discovered me and spared me destruction and in fact granted my salvation. He repaired me, restored me, supplementing my incomplete programming with copies of his own.]

“That’s when you captured him.”

[Yes, Superman. It was necessary to complete my function. I am the part of Brainiac that could not let go, the part of him that required preservation, study and collection. The Eradicator not only helped grant me sentience, but will allow me to fulfill my purpose. With him, I can destroy what has been encountered and catalogued.]

“As it is no longer necessary once you have a record of it?”

[Precisely, General.] With that, the robotic being turned its back to the two imprisoned men to recede into the depths of Warworld. [Come with me, gentlemen,] the machine intoned as a pair of sentries came forward. Their arms were presented, then transformed into clamps, which sealed around the circumference of gelatin-crusted sphere that each Kryptonian was in, and thus were able to carry the prisoners in succession after their master. [You will be analyzed and then... Before then, allow me to show you what I have done.]

Superman and Zod fell to silence as they were lead into the battle-planet. Deeper and deeper they traveled, and while the exterior of Warworld seemed demolished or dormant, within there was an endless array of displays of activity. Drones constructed other drones, and not just of Kryptonian design but of those that both men recognized from the nightmare messages that had been sent to them. What had become an empty machine of planetary war now teamed on the inside with new energy, new life as whole subsections were being restored and repaired. Earth might be next, but it was not the last stop for this Protocol, only the next one.

[Here,] the machine that lead them said as it came to a stop. Before them was a ... room? It was one that the drones that carried them into set them down in, soundlessly turned and left them there. From the doorway, Protocol spoke to them. [You will agree that my study of the Eradicator’s knowledge is almost complete. Like you, once all information has been gathered, you will no longer be necessary.]

The door closed, encasing both men in darkness. Light came to them in a creep, provided first in a dim flicker then grew to a full afternoon glare – in red. Red sunlight, like that of...

“Krypton,” they said together as that was exactly where they appeared to be.

---

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To Be Continued...

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