Chapter 48: Bugged Out - One More Companion Added

The explosion's searing heat waves lashed across Superman, sweeping over him repeatedly. It had an almost sterilizing effect.

The bats in the sky dropped like rain, but the real danger was now on the ground—a swarm of mutated rats.

Superman took flight, unleashing his freeze breath upon the incoming rat horde.

A cold wind swept through, freezing scores of rats into solid blocks of ice. Even in death, they remained in mid-run poses, like grotesque statues.

Flying low, Superman exhaled continuous icy gusts, turning every area he passed into a frozen wasteland of rat-shaped sculptures.

He'd already discovered heat vision was ineffective—even slicing a rat in two just resulted in two living halves. So, he concluded that freezing them was the best solution. It could suppress their cell activity and prevent replication.

Freezing didn’t kill them, but it slowed them down and limited their numbers.

But these weren’t ordinary rats. After seeing so many of their kind die, their claws began to evolve—shining with a metallic sheen as they ferociously dug into the earth. In minutes, they'd carved tunnels large enough to slip into.

Using X-ray vision, Superman spotted an increasing number of rats burrowing underground. His freeze breath couldn’t penetrate the soil, though his vision could.

Switching tactics, he fired concentrated heat beams into the ground. But injured rats just split and multiplied. There were simply too many.

Worse, the rats worked together—five or six would dig a tunnel together, faster than any machine.

"This is bad," Superman muttered.

He couldn’t possibly flip over the entire LexCorp building to dig them all out.

From above, he spotted Lex Luthor engaged in a conversation with a penguin—one he recognized from a prior chase.

Superman shot toward them.

Just as he tried to grab the penguin, it dodged with a blur.

"That trick again? How do you keep doing that?" Superman asked.

The fake penguin replied smugly, "Simple. You emit a biofield constantly. If I convert myself into an electromagnet, I can repel your attacks using the same field."

"Alright, Kowalski, you really are a genius. So, is your little prank over? You've already beaten up Luthor."

The rat swarm outside, unconscious soldiers, and a battered Lex Luthor—yet not a single casualty. Superman was pretty sure this had been just an intimidation play.

"I'm done here," said the penguin. "That arrogant idiot Lex has been properly humiliated. But you forgot someone else."

"You mean that guy who turns into a crow? What's his deal?"

"He's my distraction... and also, he just likes to play."

"Play!?" Lex cried. "All those missiles, and I couldn’t kill him?!"

"Of course not. If an apex predator could be killed that easily, it wouldn’t be apex. Unless you launch him into space and let him rot in the vacuum, you won’t kill him here on Earth."

Superman frowned. Why did this penguin sound like it was teaching them how to kill the guy?

"Aren’t you on the same team?"

"Being on the same team doesn’t mean we get along. If someone on your team wants to eat you every day, wouldn’t you want them gone too?"

Superman gave it a thought. "I guess... maybe. I think such beings belong in containment. You too. How about you come to the Fortress of Solitude with me? I’ll take care of you."

The penguin balked. "You labeling me a dangerous creature and offering to raise me? What, are you losing your mind?"

It tried flexing its flipper into a fist—nope, still just a flipper.

"Fine, I won’t mess with you—you’re Superman after all. But stop talking about taking me away. It’s annoying.

By the way, his real body’s among the rats—the one with the glowing green mark. If you want to catch him, go ahead."

With that, the penguin used a flash of light from the Dragonfang Key and vanished.

Superman paused. Did that just count as permission?

"Huh... didn't expect you to save me, Superman."

Lex Luthor got up, brushing glass off his suit. The penguin had disappeared using some unknown tech—possibly spatial.

But more importantly, his words lingered.

"An apex predator atop the food chain!"

Not even Superman had ever been called something so terrifying.

"You alright?" Superman asked.

"Just roughed up. I’ll return the favor next time. And my gun—he stole it! I won’t forget this."

Luthor was already mentally drafting revenge plans.

Superman nodded. "Take care of the soldiers and generals on the first floor. I’ll deal with the 'apex predator'."

"Wait, Superman. Can you bring me some of its tissue samples?"

Superman stared him down. "No. He’s dangerous. His cells can consume human cells. Even a fragment might devour your entire body. I’m not giving you something that dangerous."

He meant well.

But to Luthor, it translated as: Like I’d let you have something that could be used against me.

"Fine, fine," Lex replied with a look of disappointment. "I just hope you don’t get eaten."

Superman sighed and shot out the window with a boom, sending glass flying.

Luthor casually dusted himself off and made his way to the elevator.

Down on B2, he arrived at his secret armory.

A true supervillain always had backup plans. This armory was one of many.

He unlocked it with passwords, iris scans, and voice recognition.

Inside was a treasure trove: kryptonite guns, freeze cannons, and more. But today he chose a shock net and a lead-lined sample container.

These were originally prepped for Superman, but hey, good tools shouldn’t go to waste.

Outside, Superman was purging rats with methodical precision.

Alternating freeze breath and heat vision, he forced the mutated cells to adapt too quickly—eventually causing their systems to fail. The extreme swings killed them.

Within minutes, the surface rats were gone.

But underground was another story.

Would he have to dig?

"Don’t worry about LexCorp," Luthor suddenly shouted from behind. "I can rebuild!"

Taking that as permission, Superman spun in place and became a human drill, boring into the ground at ridiculous speed.

With Superman underground, Luthor got to work above.

He scooped up rat limbs and tails, the ones that hadn’t fully disintegrated.

"See? Brains over brawn! This stuff is the real treasure."

On the rooftop, Max posed dramatically.

He had decided it was time for the curtain to fall.

Using mental control, he triggered a mutation in the largest subterranean rat. It sprouted a round, glowing green organ from its back—a bioluminescent gland made from firefly DNA.

Superman found it.

Recognizing its threat level, he bombarded it with alternating ice and heat blasts. The violent thermal expansion caused a cave-in.

Mission complete, he drilled back to the surface.

Max watched this and used the Dragonfang Key to teleport back to his "Crypt of the Undead," issuing a final command to his remaining creatures: "Die."

Superman didn’t look up. He spotted Lex again—still with that container.

"Luthor, I told you not to keep any of those."

"Relax! It’s just a rat paw."

"These things are dangerous. Every piece must be destroyed."

Luthor, cornered, tried to stall. He opened the container, revealing advanced instruments. He quickly extracted a tissue sample and began genetic analysis.

As Superman eliminated the remaining bits, Lex finished the last scan.

"Stop! Superman, look! This is just a normal rat leg!"

The genetic readout matched an ordinary lab mouse perfectly.

Superman frowned. Could it be that when the main body dies, the rest revert to ordinary matter?

"You should still burn it."

Luthor tucked the sample behind his back. "Come on, Superman. You think a rat paw’s gonna hurt me? After what you did to my building, I deserve a little interest."

Superman hesitated. Earth tech couldn’t clone creatures yet, nor reverse-engineer exotic DNA. But still—

Scanning the area, Superman found one last partial corpse.

He grabbed a metal sheet, folded it into a makeshift box, and sealed it.

Luthor watched jealously.

"You can do your research," Superman said. "But hear me, Luthor: no human testing. If you cross that line, I will lock you up myself."

Luthor raised a hand to his heart. "Scout's honor, Superman. I’d never break the law."