Chapter 6 Absorb

In the sky.

"Holy cow pit, did Superman have a showdown with someone down there? The whole block's a mess". An astounded, short, lean, nerdy looking Jimmy Olsen exclaimed in surprise as he looked at the ravaged streets.

The confrontation between Superman and Lobo was very short. Well, the duration of the fight when they landed in Metropolis was short.

The real battle started somewhere in space, and only God knows how long that took. Still, in the less than a minute short clash in metropolis, a full block was wrecked, casualties were constantly rising and now according to the trending videos he had searched online, there was now a massive hole on Maplewood Street.

More importantly, Superman was seen being beaten by a new enemy never seen before.

This was mainly captured through shaky camera lenses from people who were strangely still brave enough to stand and shoot videos when they should be running for their lives. So the credibility wasn't even at face value.

Still

The thought of someone being able to beat up the Man of steel sent shivers down his spine.

And now, he was on a chopper flying right to the heart of that battle with his very squishy self.

It's times like this that our young Jimmy Olsen wondered whether signing up for photography in Metropolis was a good idea.

The answer to that question was unknown, but Jimmy was 124.44444% sure he didn't sign up for this.

Ever since lane appeared at the Planet, and Superman in Metropolis, things like this had, weirdly enough, become his new normal.

"It can't be!" Jimmy turned his head to Lois Lane, who had just exclaimed in slight shock. Jimmy lowered his head to catch a glimpse of what was there, and he froze when he saw a live video of a battered Superman who looked as if he were about to meet his doom.

The video was shaky, and the heavy pants from the audio pointed out that the person recording this live was probably a mere civilian who had a death penchant or a sucker for endangering himself in life-threatening situations.

I mean seriously, who risks their lives for a video feed? Still, one had to admit that the risk was directly proportional to the reward, as the video that was barely a minute long was accumulating views at a rapid pace.

Now, the numbers were in the hundreds of thousands and showed no signs of slowing down.

Unfortunately, the feed was interrupted as a loud bang attracted their attention, followed by the phone tumbling before falling on the floor to show a hand sticking right outside a fallen stone ledge.

It looks like the owner of the phone was squashed by a falling, heavy object. Lois turned off the video with a glum expression.

Her mind racing as she thought of the brief second she saw Superman. The sight of him didn't look good at all.

Boom!

"What the hell is happening over there?" Jimmy Olsen said with a look of shock, drawing Lois's attention. They looked as the helicopter moved towards the sound of the large boom.

Less than thirty seconds later, a giant crater appeared in their view with two figures near the ruins.

The helicopter slowly hovered above the impact point as they both got ready to do their jobs.

"Ok Lois, we are live in three, two, one, go". Jimmy Olsen said as he pointed his camera towards Lois, who now had a microphone in hand and a headset over her head.

Lois, whose face was initially a bit worried, immediately turned calm and dignified, showing the expression of an ace reporter well capable in her field of work.

"This is Lois Lane from the daily planet reporting to you live from a helicopter in the sky of downtown Metropolis where a superpowered collision between two separate parties, causing damage, is taking place. Right in our vision now folks is what I can only assume to be a standoff between a super powered individual and another creature I can safely assume is not human to begin with".

Olsen pointed the camera downwards to face the scene of a forty - meter in length hole etched in what used to be the Maplewood Street, Downtown Metropolis. Standing at the edge of the crater was a figure with swirling dark red energy around his figure but surprisingly did little to his facial features from the camera.

The face looked young, like that of a male in his early twenties, curly black hair and glowing purple eyes. The camera zoomed in to get a good look at the facial features, and what came to view caused Olsen to fall into a slight daze.

"Man, who is this guy?... whoever he is, is Goddamn good-looking". Olsen said inwardly, his tone a little sour as he zoomed the camera.

Lois, who couldn't see down that far, didn't have the same thoughts as Jimmy. Her eyes scanning left and right searching for the familiar figure, who just wasn't on the scene at the moment.

"But I thought.....? Where is he?" She wondered inwardly as she diverted her thoughts back to the two individuals down below, who looked like they were having a conversation.

"Isn't Superman here?"

Olsen thought as well as he snapped out of his momentary daze and turned the camera to face the other direction in which a seven-foot tall male with long, shaggy black hair, eyes red as blood and skin whiter than a newly bought white T-shirt stood from the floor.

This one, however, had a hand missing and a hole in his chest area and didn't look to be in good condition. The clothes he wore were ripped in so may different places.

Compared to the male opposite, he looked like a mess.

Jimmy looked at the white creature with a bit of disbelief on his face. After all, with those kinds of injuries, it could be considered a miracle he was still standing as if nothing were wrong.

At that moment, both individuals seemed to be alerted to their presence, as they raised their heads to look up. Lobo in particular let out a feral grin straight at the camera, scaring Olsen a bit in the process.

"Several streets have been destroyed in the clash of both sides, with the question of who they are and what are their intentions remaining unknown. Although reports do say that the Man Of Steel was present in the collision, his presence cannot be found on the scene, leaving everyone to wonder, where is Superman?"

Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

As soon as Lois finished her words, a hand burst out from the rubble, stretching upwards. Lois and Jimmy let out a small gasp as rocks parted to make way for the figure appearing out of the ruins.

"Is that..... Superman?!!" Lois exclaimed in shock and horror as the battered figure appeared under the eyes of the camera. His ripped suit, his torn cape, his bruised skin, all of it left her reeling back in shock.

"Damn! Superman's not looking good?" Even Olsen couldn't help but exclaim as he refused to believe his eyes. The same view appeared on the television screens of everyone in Metropolis.

Superman, sporting a miserable figure.

.....

POV Change.

Superman, Sporting A Miserable Figure!

The headline sounded pretty appealing to him as the thought crossed his mind, seeing Superman appear.

He was right, thankfully.

Superman wouldn't die that easily. Even at times in the DC universe where he really did die, he wouldn't stay that way for long.

That level of tenacity was, although quite far from catching up with the unkillable cockroach otherwise known as Lobo, was still pretty impressive.

Nevertheless, the guy didn't look so good.

Probably still reeling in from the effects of the kryptonite.

He could heal him. All he had to do was expend a little energy. But now he was running low, and would rather not spend any more of his precious resources than he already had. He still had plans after all.

"Hey! Superman, are you ok?"

That was a stupid question. He was definitely, certainly, most visible, literally not ok.

"..... Ugh… Cough... Pui..." Superman groaned, coughed and spat out a mouthful of blood without answering.

".... Do you need help?" He asked again another obvious question".

"... Sun..... sunlight". Oh, he responded.

"So you need to take a trip to space, then". He raised an eyebrow as his words fell into his ears. Superman's connection to the sum was something even an ignorant DC fan would know about. He had seen many versions of how this battle played out by reading the future with energy.

According to the different possibilities, the one with the highest likelihood was him finding an opportunity to free himself from Lobo's grasp and fly into the atmosphere, where he would receive a healing check and a decent power boost in space from the sun. Where he would then re-enter the Earth's atmosphere in a blazing comet form before giving lobo a pounding.

Less than five of them ended with Lobo actually being able to kill Superman.

Although he didn't have any thoughts of interacting with the Justice league, giving Superman a little help wasn't against his ideals.

"Ok then, have a nice sunbath". The Mangekyo Sharingan in his eyes spun rapidly, the space around Superman swirled before the man disappeared.

Somewhere above Earth's atmosphere, a man in a ripped suit appeared out of the void.

Meanwhile, back on Earth.

Lois Lane looked at the vanishing Superman and her eyes widened. The place where Superman once stood was no empty, causing her to worry. Nevertheless, that didn't stop her from continuing her commentary.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Superman is ... Gone. This seems to be the doing of the Super powered individual, and as for his intentions, we remain in the dark of whether this new arrival is a friend or foe for Metropolis. Superman's fate is currently unknown".

........

POV Change.

"You whelp! Where in Thoraxes name did you send my bounty?" Looking at the empty spot of Kal-el's last position, Lobo's eyes went wide, and he snarled with anger and menace hidden underneath his voice.

"Bounty?" He replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Another thing that should be your main worry right now. I still haven't decided how I'm going to dispose of you yet". He said with a smirk.

The way Lobo saw it, that smirk looked extremely annoying currently, and it fueled his rage to no end.

"So you're gonna tussle it out with me because of the kryptonian? What's he to you, anyway?"

"Oh him? I couldn't care less about Superman. Currently, he is of no relevance to me, so his life and death is just a matter of if I want it or not". He said with a tone that turned from cocky to nonchalant when mentioning Superman's fate, before turning into one of intrigue as he looked at Lobo.

"You, however, are of significant relevance to me at the moment, lobo. Relevance being in the fact that you'll help me prove a point to someone I'll deal with right after this little event we're having right now". He said with a bemused tone.

Lobo's head went blank for a second before almost exploding in rage. He ground his teeth in furious anger, glaring at the fledgling opposite him for a few seconds before he started chuckling.

The chuckling continued before turning into full-blown manic laughter with no other sound besides the spinning blades of a hovering helicopter above their heads.

Lobo slowly stopped.

"Ha. I originally wanted it to be a two on two situation to make the fight fairer. But since you want it that way, then I don't mind obliging". He said with his signature loud voice that sounded like grinding chainsaws before he put his fingers on his lips and whistled.

Then..... Nothing happened. He wasn't entirely sure at first, but he had a good idea of what lobo planned to do.

A few seconds later, the whistling continued. And there and then, he heard it, right before he sees it, descending from the clouds with a thrumming roar of alien power and a tinkling chime of advanced alien machinery only someone like him could ever hope to hear.

And then it appears from above the clouds, showing what could be considered one of DC'S most badass artifacts in the universe.

Lobo's flying bike.

"Is that what I think it is?" Olsen said with his mouth wide open while his camera dutifully filmed the whole thing. Lois Lane wasn't any better either as they watched the Flying Motorbike descend from the heavens.

Seriously?

In its entirety, it's a little over twice the length of an ordinary motorbike, with a clear single-person seating control at its middle and stuck with a block-like structure for an engine, the majority of which glows with a baleful blue radiance. Its front is triangular, and twin blades emerge from either side of it, large and sharp enough to spear through an elephant.

In short, it looks every bit as demented as its rider. However, the thing didn't even finish its descent when it started firing laser cannons at its target.

Him precisely.

He raised an eyebrow. Could Lobo's bike even do that?

Still, he stood unfazed as the shots just passed through him, blasting the ground beneath him into greater rubble.

Damn! The powers of Uchiha Obito were just too goddamn convenient.

That guy's abilities were a bug in literally every universe.

"Ok, let's get this over with. I certainly hope he is watching. It'll make things a lot easier". He said before disappearing, causing lobo to widen his eyes in vigilance.

And there he was, appearing right behind his back. Yet did it matter that he noticed?

Certainly not.

It did nothing to prevent the fist from slamming into the back of his head with outstanding power, despite Lobo trying to tilt his head to dodge.

Again, Lobo was manhandled and sent flying into the air, blood welling up I'm his mouth. Unfortunately, his opponent wasn't taking things easy this time.

Wanna know what's so great about Kamui? It's that you can actually attack your opponent at insane speeds before they can even get their shit together.

He appeared right beside Lobo who was still in the air, causing him to crash back to mother Earth's embrace with another power infused punch.

Lobo smashed into the asphalt and his body bounced upwards involuntarily. His mouth let out a groan as pain assaulted his body. Despite that, he was attacked yet again as his opponent appeared at his blind spot, this time lifting him away with a well-timed kick to the back.

And so the same scene repeated itself around a Metropolis city block, where a flashing figure appeared all over the place, leaving behind a heavy boom with each appearance.

Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen watching in the chopper were shocked beyond words. Although they couldn't see what was happening due to the high-speed motion, they could easily deduce how one-sided the situation was.

This was the result when you combined high-speed movement achievable through teleportation, and the reaction ability of a Viltrumite insanely boosted several times by the insight granted by a Mangekyo Sharingan.

With his reaction ability at this point, while beating lobo, he wondered if his reaction was already able to see into Flash time.

Lobo couldn't even react as he was beaten all over the place. Each attack connecting seamlessly with the next, causing him to crash from one building, straight through another. Even his blind punches were either evaded or hit nothing, leaving him with yet another blow to add to his agony.

By the time thirty seconds had passed, Lobo's body was messy. It almost looked like that scene in the flash series where Savitar beat Barry all over the place without letting him touch the ground.

A last kick landed on Lobo's torso, sending him crashing through another building like a rocket, slamming right through it and straight into the asphalt. Lobo coughed blood.

Almost every single bone in his body had been destroyed, leaving him only able to let out pained grunts. This was minus the fact that his opponent didn't use a shred of the red energy within his attacks.

No sire. It was a hundred percent pure thrashing.

Space warped beside him as a male figure appeared. His clothes neat and clean, not a speck of dust accumulated since the beginning of their confrontation.

"Well Lobo, it looks like it's....." His words were interrupted as several energy blasts went through his body again.

"I almost forgot about the bike". He said in a tone devoid of emotion. Lobo looked at him, seeing his expression indifferent and nonchalant, a wave of fury was set off in his heart.

"You know, you're quite something whelp". He said with a painful wince and continued with a smile, "You definitely got me. I'll give you that. But just because I can't do anything to you, it don't mean I can't damage anything else".

He said with his smile going full on grin.

The flying Motorbike suddenly turned around and pointed towards the flying news chopper.

Lois, who saw this scene, had alarm bells going off in her head as she yelled at the pilot.

"Get out of the way, Move, move, it's gonna shoot".

"Kamui". A sound escaped his lips as his eyes swirled, followed by the devilish looking motorcycle disappearing into the Kamui space but not before managing to fire two pulsed of energy from its cannons.

The pilot, who was well-experienced in such life-threatening situations, quickly pushed forward like there was no tomorrow. The chopper moved out of the way, unfortunately, the beams still hit the back rotor, causing the helicopter to spin out of control.

Just as he was contemplating whether he should stop the chopper or not (that contemplation would have carried on until the chopper crashed, by the way)

A red and blue blur sped through the clouds, racing rapidly towards the helicopter to prevent its residents from crashing.

Looks like Superman is back.

He turned his mind away and looked back at lobo who was now too battered to move.

"What the hell did you do to my bike!" Lobo managed to let out an angry roar as his eyes scanned far and wide for his beloved motorcycle, but alas, it was nowhere to be found.

"Once again, Lobo, another thing that should be the least of your worries presently". He had a smile on his face, this time with a peculiar light in his eyes that Lobo had never seen before.

To be honest, it kinda freaked him out a bit, alongside his words that sounded oh so ominous.

Before he could make a snazzy remark that would make him a typical Lobo, he continued his words.

"Even though you're broken in almost every possible way, your races healing factor makes it possible that you don't die from anything like bleed loss or ruptured organs. How this is technically only considered a minor injury for you amazes me more than I have been since my time on this planet". Which is technically only a day but still.

Lobo shuddered slightly. That gaze, it had intensified much more to become almost wolfish.

His thoughts were shut off as he was picked up by the neck, his body carried to align his face with the one I'm his view.

"It makes me wonder.....". His words trailed off as the grip around Lobo's neck intensified before he spoke in a devilish voice.

"How much energy would I get if I take away that perverted healing factor".

His eyes were already fiery at this point. Showing what he himself knew to be his genuine interest in the only thing that could possibly excite him.

Gaining energy.

Lobo was stunned at his words, but his eyes widened before he could say anything as he felt something.

Something terrible.

A gush of blue aura emerged from his body, flowing towards his neck before escaping into the arms of his captor. The latter's eyes had widened, displaying genuine excitement.

[Gained energy +50]

[Gained energy +80]

[Gained energy +135]