The Arctic.
The cold wind was biting, and the place was covered in a vast expanse of white, a freezing corner of the world.
The harsh wind tousled H'el's black hair as he stood there. His deep pupils scanned the Arctic's icy wasteland, piercing through to find Superman's hidden base, the Fortress of Solitude.
In the midst of the immense ice-covered mountain range, there stood a fortress that was difficult for X-ray vision to penetrate. Its structure resembled an ancient Kryptonian spaceship, and it was known as the Fortress of Solitude.
This ancient Kryptonian colony ship had arrived on Earth during ancient times. It had remained intact, even as the era of ancient cosmic colonization on Krypton came to an end. Jo-El had discovered it and, in collaboration with the surrounding environment, had created his secret base near the spaceship, the Fortress of Solitude.
With Superman and The Flash in his grasp, H'el flew to the entrance of the Fortress of Solitude, surrounded by the icy mountains.
He casually threw Superman and The Flash down into the snow, half of their bodies sinking into the extreme cold.
H'el's eyes blazed with a fiery red as he used his heat vision to melt the several meters thick layer of ice in front of the Fortress of Solitude's entrance, revealing the massive keyhole.
He glanced back to a small hill a few miles away, where Superman had designed a massive metal arrow-shaped key. When viewed from above, it resembled a glowing arrowhead, guiding passing aircraft over the Arctic.
Holding the massive key, which weighed hundreds of tons, H'el flew back to the Fortress of Solitude and inserted it into the keyhole.
A thunderous rumbling sound echoed.
The Fortress of Solitude's doors opened slightly, revealing an iris verification screen.
"Please proceed with iris verification," a mechanical voice echoed from inside the door.
H'el glanced at the door, then at Superman, who, due to exposure to Kryptonite and red sun radiation, resembled a skeletal figure with ribs protruding through his skin. H'el picked him up and shoved him toward the iris verification point.
"Verification passed, please proceed with voice verification," the voice inside the door prompted once again.
Superman, beaten and battered, was in no condition to provide voice verification.
"This annoying little shit..." H'el muttered in annoyance.
H'el casually tossed Superman aside, clenched his fist, and struck the door with a thunderous crash, punching a large hole through it.
Originally, he had hoped to preserve the Fortress of Solitude intact.
H'el regretted that thought for a moment as he reached out and slowly pulled the massive door, weighing tens of thousands of tons, backward.
"Warning, please cease your destructive actions, intruder. Warning, warning."
"Warning, warning, please cease your destructive actions, or you will face retaliation."
"The door has been breached, intruder's threat level is critical. Warning, warning! Guardian robots activated."
Inside the Fortress of Solitude, the warning messages kept echoing.
H'el nonchalantly threw the removed door up into the sky, where it landed in the distant mountains, triggering a substantial avalanche as tens of thousands of tons of metal crashed onto the snowy peaks.
The Fortress of Solitude's door was torn open, revealing the dark interior, illuminated by numerous red lights. Detecting H'el's presence, it began firing red beams towards him.
H'el picked up one leg of both Superman and The Flash and dragged them as he entered the Fortress. He continued forward, taking the brunt of the red beams on his chest, which made the S emblem on his chest glow with heat, only for the scorching effect to quickly disappear.
H'el's eyes glowed red as he used his heat vision to scan the dark interior of the Fortress of Solitude. Floating auxiliary units that were attacking him exploded one by one.
"Warning, warning, intruder has entered the interior, activate maximum defense." The internal warnings in the Fortress of Solitude persisted.
After the explosion of the floating auxiliary units, from another corner, numerous mechanical and floating units with different functionalities appeared and began deploying multiple Bose-Einstein condensate force fields to contain him.
H'el used Superman as a weapon, smashing his adversaries one by one. The multiple force fields couldn't stop him.
"Jo-El, come out! I know you're here!" H'el's eyes flickered with red light as he stood amidst the explosions and sparks, scanning the area with his merciless gaze.
*Click, click, click*
The surrounding walls lit up, illuminating the area brightly.
Under the bright lights, not far away in the main hall, a massive statue came into view. The statue depicted Superman's parents, Jor-El and Lara, in a proud, muscular pose, gazing upward towards Krypton.
These two famous Kryptonians held a shattered Kryptonian statue.
Various corridors led to different rooms, each containing diverse items. There was a room dedicated to Superman's memorabilia, displaying various items he had kept as mementos.
The entertainment room featured Superman using his heat vision to create paintings and sculptures. There was also a giant chessboard where he played chess with a robotic servant, as only someone with super strength could move the pieces.
In the armory, an underground chamber, various ancient Kryptonian-era weapons and artifacts, as well as technology from various convergent universe races, were meticulously maintained.
The Life Creation Chamber, however, had been damaged beyond repair, now serving as a healing chamber for automatic body repair.
Seeing the traces of destruction that had occurred in just a few decades, H'el couldn't help but feel a rising anger.
But what he saw in the aircraft hangar next truly made H'el smirk with contempt.
Inside the hangar, Superman's Kryptonian escape ship, which he used to arrive on Earth, was stored. As H'el scanned the room, he finally understood how Jor-El had been able to send his son to Earth using just an escape ship.
Jor-El had long possessed the ancient Kryptonian anti-matter engine, which he used to retrofit the ship and send his son to Earth.
"How ridiculous. The anti-matter engine had the capacity to carry the entire population of Krypton away from the planet, yet it became nothing more than your son's ride."
H'el's heart burned with cold anger. His eyes glowed red as he gazed around the various rooms, finally settling on the statue of Jor-El and Lara in the main hall. His heat vision shot out, piercing the air and striking the statue.
*Boom*
The statue of Jor-El and Lara exploded into pieces, with shards of Kryptonite falling from their hands.
"Do you even deserve to reminisce about Krypton?"
H'el's lips curled into a cold smile as he scanned the surroundings, clutching Superman by the neck.
Outside, the howling Arctic winds continued to blow, lifting H'el's black cape into the air.
His cold and ruthless expression was colder than the icy Arctic tundra.
"Stop!"
Jor-El, with chiseled features, a righteous countenance, wearing the armor of the El family and a bright red cape symbolizing the blood of all Kryptonians, flew out from a hidden room. His eyes radiated a sense of justice as he confronted H'el.
°°°
AN: There's a new story coming in a few days, or maybe a week, since I've still got a lot to do as my semester's ending.
New Story's Title📌
DC: The Joker
Anyways, peace out.
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