JB: Chapter 19

As I janked to the side, avoiding the Atomic Skull's blast, I let off a Ki blast in reply, forcing the Atomic Skull to leap out of the way of the beam. That was what I'd been hoping for, and I rushed forward, angling my charge to slam a flying knee strike into the Atomic Skull's side. The blow was telling, staggering him and allowing me to smash an elbow strike into his temple, sending him flying sideways. A burst of flight had me following up on that, landing an axe kick to his reeling form that smashed him into the floor. Unfortunately, before I could land a fourth blow, the Atomic Skull recovered from my sudden blitz of attacks, firing a crackling blast of green energy from his eyes at me and forcing me to abort my next attack. I had to turn on a dime to avoid the irradiated eye beams, which still managed to cut across my side in a grazing burn.

Now it was the Atomic Skull's turn to go on the offensive, which he did from range, clearly seeing I was the superior combatant in hand-to-hand combat. Greenish-yellow beams of cracking energy flew toward me, crackling with radiation, forcing me to dodge. I fired a few Ki blasts back at the Atomic Skull, of course, but the Atomic Skull could apparently fire radiation out of any part of his body. Meanwhile, I hadn't trained to do that with Ki Blasts and was a lot more limited in my options. More exit points meant the Atomic Skull could fire more blasts of energy, and that meant that I was slowly but surely losing the Beam War. I switched to fighting entirely defensively halfway through, flinging Ki Blasts into opposing energy blasts to detonate them prematurely, dodging as best I could. It wasn't enough.

I janked to the side of an energy blast fired from the Atomic Skull's right hand, flying up and over a second blast flung from his foot, before flinging a Ki blast at one flung from his left hand, detonating it prematurely, and doing the same for one fired from his eyes. It wasn't enough, as the Atomic Skull opened his mouth and fired a fifth, crackling, greenish-yellow blast of irradiated energy at me, smashing into my right shoulder, even as I completed my spell work for the electric net spell, flinging a criss-crossing network of mystical lightning at him. Both attacks wound up hitting, but his was more telling, turning my shoulder into a mess of charred flesh and sending me careening off to the side through a wall into the generator room. I landed amidst a stack of empty gas cans, metal tearing with a shriek.

My chest, side, and shoulder hurt badly from taking powerful, successive blasts of irradiated energy, but I forced myself back to my feet. The Atomic Skull, meanwhile, was convulsing on the ground from my electric net. I frowned as I saw that, wincing at the scene. It was then that I remembered that the Atomic Skull's energy blast powers came largely from an experimental brain implant, even if his super strength and super endurance weren't from that. Had I just won? Conventional wisdom said that when two opponents with different power levels fought, a difference of a fifth again in terms of Arcosian Power Levels should prove insurmountable. The Atomic Skull had a fifth again my Power Level at the start of this, so that should apply, but since when did the Arcosians' conventional wisdom ever tell the full story?

It was as I was pondering this, however, that the Atomic Skull managed to push himself up to his feet, jerking and twitching in place as he did so. If I wanted to end this fight, I'd just let my internal monologue make me miss my opportunity to knock him out uncontested, it seemed. However, the twitching was new. As I recalled, the Atomic Skull had some sort of brain issue that had caused seizures, which was why he'd gotten the experimental brain implant in the first place. Was I about to fight someone who was undergoing a medical emergency? That didn't sit right with me. Best to check first before resuming. After all, what happens if I hit him again and his implant explodes? I wasn't trying to be a murderer today.

"You good to continue, or do you need a moment?" I questioned.

"W-Why do you care?" Queried the Atomic Skull, stuttering through spasms.

"I may come from a Warrior Race, but we have our Pride. There's no glory in defeating an opponent who can't even try to fight back." I answered.

"A c-code of honor?" Asked the Atomic Skull.

"Of a sort." I nodded.

"I-it will be the d-death of you! D-die!" Scowled the Atomic Skull, stammering.

As he did so, the Atomic Skull raised both arms, jerkily, and expelled an absolutely massive blast of greenish-yellow irradiated energy at me from along the entire front of his body. There was no real way for me to dodge an attack of this size. The Atomic Skull had me fenced in against the corner of the room. It was all I could do to cross my arms in front of me and tank the blast. The attack burned badly. My flesh sizzled, my hair burned to a crisp, and my remaining clothing practically disintegrated as I was turned into a burned mess. I was blasted into the corner, practically bringing the roof down on me since the corner of the room absolutely shattered under the force of the attack. I was still alive, thanks to my training, but only barely. As the light faded, I continued to draw in ragged, hacking breaths. Then, the Atomic Skull made a fatal mistake. He began to gloat.

"You should have finished me when you had the chance! My implant was suffering a critical energy build-up that I needed to expel. You proved to be the perfect target, foolish boy! I will be weak for some time now, but that's no matter, not with you in that state." Sneered the Atomic Skull.

I tried to push myself to my hands and knees, flopping around, but I only succeeded in leaving bloody handprints on the floor before collapsing. The Atomic Skull cackled on seeing that, apparently taking glee in my failure to get back up and continue the fight where I showed compassion. What a dick move, but then, the guy was a holdover from the Silver Age, when Supervillains tended to be literal Saturday Morning Cartoon Villains. I don't know why I was surprised about that.

"Look at you now! Weak as a newborn kitten! Take heart, you managed to thwart me for the time being, but I'll be back soon, ready to take another shot at the Neurotrol Formula. You, on the other hand, won't be. I'm afraid to say this is the end of the line for you! Weak as I am now, including the state you're in at the moment, even a weak energy blast from my depleted implant ought to finish you off!" Gloated the Atomic Skull.

He raised one hand as I stared at him weakly from the floor, palm beginning to glow with greenish-yellow irradiated energy. It was weaker than before, much weaker, but still enough to finish me off, burned as badly as I was. As he looked down at me, skull mask pulled into a rictus grin, the Atomic Skull let out a bark of laughter at the situation before pointing his glowing hand at my face.

"Any last words?" He questioned.

"Go fuck yourself." I spat, blood and a bit of charred lip fat spattering onto the concrete.

"Unoriginal, but I can hardly praise the intelligence of someone who wasted his golden opportunity to finish the fight with sentiment, now can I?" Queried the Atomic Skull, rhetorically.

I shut my eyes. It was painful, my eyelids had been charred to a consistency not unlike the skin of a rotisserie chicken, but I did so. I wonder if King Kai was a thing in this hybrid universe? Would I qualify to train under him? I didn't know, but I figured that I was about to find out. Fortunately, for me, I figured wrong. One moment, the Atomic Skull was grinning down at me, about to spatter my brains with a single shot. The next, the ceiling was caving in as a Blue and Red blur shot down into the basement to slam the Atomic Skull into the floor, knocking out the Villain in a single blow. Clark had arrived, and not a moment too soon, either. With the Atomic Skull unconscious on the floor, he turned to me with a frown.

"Rugulo, are you all right? I came back as fast as I could, but Crete's a ways away even for me. Do you need a hospital?" Questioned Clark.

"Ship. Get me to my ship." I croaked out.

"On it." Nodded Clark, scooping me up into a fireman's carry.

"Hang on!" He warned, then he blasted off.

If I thought my flight was fast using the Sawtooth Ascension Mandala Technique, Clark's flight was on a whole other level of speed. Kryptonian Physiology was some cracked-out bullshit, and what took me fifteen minutes to fly out to the farm where I had the Lucky Lady parked took Clark a mere fraction of that time, and not a very big one. After telling him the door code to get in without tripping security, Clark carried me inside, looking around at my home. Clark frowned before looking back down at me.

"Where to now?" He queried.

"Tank. Back room. Put me in. Hook me up. Press green button. Shut door." I gasped.

"Got it." Clark nodded.

What followed was an awkward procedure, as Clark did his best to get me situated inside the healing tank and get the tank operational. It took him a few minutes, but he managed it. Not bad for working with unfamiliar technology. Regardless, as the tank began to fill with Healing Fluid, Clark sat down on a nearby crate. Then, the anesthetic gas mixture pumped through the oxygen mask and swiftly put me out like a light as the tank and the fluid began to do their jobs. I'd been destroyed by the Atomic Skull today, and though I would clearly be getting a Zenkai out of the deal, I was definitely going to need to train more if I wanted to keep playing in the big leagues, it seemed. Fortunately, as I slept, Clark seemed to come to the same conclusion.

When I woke, I would find that Clark had left a note for me, detailing a time and place to meet up with him and a couple of friends he'd recently made for training. . .

XXXX

Lex Luthor had needed to move fast. He'd been tipped off by a source in the Special Crimes Division that the New Alien had fought the Atomic Skull and had left DNA behind at the site of their battle. Unfortunately, said site was structurally unsound and could collapse at any moment, even though there had apparently been an attempt to cut down on property damage by the New Alien. Of course, Lex wouldn't be going himself, but that was why he paid the people he did. He had sent one of Alan's teams, along with a researcher on his staff, Doctor Karl Hellfern, to collect samples of the New Alien's Genetic Material. He'd arranged for the crime scene to be open to his team for a set period, and they had already radioed back that they had collected the sample and were on their way out.

Lex could only grin at that. The First Alien had been cagey about leaving viable genetic material behind. His infuriatingly easy victories over many of the enemies that he'd fought over the past seven months had meant that there hadn't been much opportunity for that. Lex had hoped that Corbin would have been the exception, but the New Alien's arrival hadn't thwarted that. Fortunately, the New Alien wasn't as careful about leaving blood behind. Lex could use that. Cloning was a science that Lex had recently mastered, though he had dismissed it as impractical in most ways. After all, he hadn't had a subject worth cloning before, and the process was still too expensive to market. Now, though, he may very well be able to clone himself a new Alien Warrior. He would have to ensure the Clone was loyal, of course, but that was easily doable.

"Sir?" Asked Alan's voice from the doorway.

Lex looked up from the notepad he'd been jotting calculations on. He had been crunching the numbers to tweak the nutrient formula in the cloning tanks so his Alien Warrior would be stronger than its genetic donor, even if its mind would be more pliable. Lex nodded at Alan as the man entered his office. Alan Powers looked like he'd been dressed for combat operations, wearing his armored vest instead of the suit and jacket he normally wore around the office. Alan had been paranoid that something would happen to ruin the taking of the sample. It had been foolish of him to do so. Lex already had all the angles worked out, after all.

"Speak." Intoned Lex.

"Doctor Hellfern and my Team have returned from the New Hope Pharmaceutical Campus Ruins. They have samples, but only enough for one procedure. The others were too badly degraded." Informed Alan.

"I suppose it was too much to hope for when the Atomic Skull is involved." Mused Lex.

"Frankly, Sir, I'm amazed they got a useful sample at all. The whole team is having to go through Decon Procedures since the residual radiation in the area was high enough for it." Nodded Alan.

"I suppose we should be thanking heaven for small miracles, then. Does Doctor Hellfern have a time frame for when we can begin Project: Starborn?" Questioned Lex.

"He does, but. . ." Trailed off Alan.

"What is it now?" Queried Lex.

"It's just, Doctor Hellfern says the risks of working with an Alien DNA Sample without studying it first could compromise the Project. He's the expert, I believe him." Frowned Alan.

"Doctor Hellfern doesn't run this company. I do." Pointed out Lex.

"I know, sir, but is this really a good idea?" Asked Alan.

"You've been watching too many movies, Alan. The worst that will happen with a useful sample is a defective clone. The Project is happening and you can tell Doctor Hellfern that if he doesn't like it, he's free to tender his resignation." Scoffed Lex.

"All right, Sir." Shrugged Alan.

"Dismissed, Alan." Huffed Lex.

Then Alan nodded, before turning on his heel and heading out of Lex's office. Lex went back to his notepad, revising various calculations for the nutrient fluid. They would begin Project: Starborn as soon as they were ready. In a few months, they should have a fully mature, loyal clone of the New Alien. Between that, and Blackbriar Thorn's services, which should be fully paid for by the end of the Month, and Young Mercy, Lex would have a team he could feel confident in sending against both of the Aliens currently attempting to steal his city away from him. He'd give that team decent odds of victory against both the so-called Superman and Rugulo.

And once he had his victory there, no one would ever challenge Lex Luthor's grip on Metropolis again. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here's the next chapter. The Atomic Skull beats Rugulo, barely, thanks to Rugulo's own personal ethics making him miss his shot to take the Skull down. Fortunately, Clark returned from disaster relief in Crete just in the nick of time, and Rugulo survives and gets a Zenkai, plus he'll be getting extra training. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor had gotten a sample of Rugulo's DNA and is planning to use it to make an alternate version of Bizarro. I'm going to be doing a thing here going forward that I think some of you will be into.

At any rate, the next chapter will be Rugulo's meeting with some of Clark's new friends for training. That will kick off a training arc, as if Rugulo can't beat the Atomic Skull, he's not ready for the big leagues.

Stay tuned. . .