Chapter 5 Cataclysm

***One Minute before the crash***

"Lane!" Perry yelled in his usually loud voice from across the room. He wore black khaki trousers on his waist, a blue long sleeved shirt along with a green waistcoat jacket, rounded off by his slightly loosened tie.

His black eyes, which had the visual sharpness of a hawk, locked onto a black-haired woman sitting at a desk not far away from his office.

Lois Lane, who had been subjected to his loud voice long enough to get used to it, didn't even flinch as her head remained buried in her computer.

In fact, pretty much everyone in the Planet had long become accustomed to it.

"What is it, Perry?" She asked in reply and questioned at the same time.

"Where's that cover story on Luthors gala for my front page. I asked you for that yesterday. Our readers aren't gonna read the blank side of the paper now, you know".

"Writing a report takes time. You should know that, Perry. I'll have it on soon". Lois said as she typed rapidly on her keyboard. Lex Luthor held a fundraiser just the previous night in the name of 'charity' again.

Clark wasn't present, so she was assigned to the task. Better to say, she was covering for him.

"The things I do for you, Clark…" Lois thought inwardly, a slight grumbling in her tone.

Seriously, she missed an interview with that ex-senator for this.

If Superman were around, though, she probably wouldn't be stuck on this as she knew the city would prefer an interview from the Man of Metropolis on the front paper than a charity donation gig.

As for another one of the brave and bald…. Ahem..... Brave and bold Lex Luthors attempt to increase his reputation for the upcoming presidential elections... she honestly couldn't be bothered right now.

If anything, the possible shady secrets he had on the senator who recently dropped out of the presidential elections out of his own 'Free will' seemed like a much more enticing prospect to write about.

As for her thoughts on Lex's running for president.

Isn't the world bad enough as it is already?

"Well good". He said, his eyes darting from left to right before narrowing slightly. "And can anyone tell me why Kent is nowhere to be seen?"

"He said he got a lead on an Intergang weapons trade. It could be a juicy story, or at least that's what he told me". Someone else answered before Lois could get a word in.

A beauty with a name tag going by Cat Grant.

"Why wasn't I informed about this". Perry asked.

"95% chance he did, and you probably just forgot". Lois said with a smile that caused Perry's eyebrows to crease further.

"You know, insubordination to your boss can get you fired. You do know that, right miss Lane".

"Oh! Fire your best investigative reporter? I doubt you'd do something like that, would you, Perry?" Lois let out a cocky grin as she raised her head from her laptop.

"Why you..." Perry didn't have the time to finish his words.

Boom!

The sound of what seemed to be an explosion according to their sense of hearing startled everyone.

"Huh? What's that?" Everyone wondered inwardly as they looked outside the window, towards where the sound originated from.

Lois in particular finally stood up from her desk in an attempt to find out what was going on.

"Jimmy, what's happening?" She asked as she turned her head to look at a male of average stature, orange hair, wearing a sweater vest.

"Don't know, but from the looks of it, it's coming from downtown". Jimmy Olsen, the daily planet photographer, had barely finished speaking when another explosion sounded like a thunderclap.

"Could it be another Villain attack?"

"Something's definitely happening downtown. But what?"

"Don't know, jimmy, but we're gonna find out".

"Wait! We are?"

"Yep, to the News chopper, let's go". Lois said as she held Jimmy by the arm and dragged him towards the roof.

"Hey wait! You can't be serious. Chief hasn't even assigned us yet". Jimmy exclaimed in panic as he tried to resist Lois's pull.

Yet, the next words from his boss shattered his fragile hopes.

"Lane, Olsen, what are you two still doing with your asses in the building? Have the pilot fire up the chopper and get me firsthand info on what's happening out there. Everyone else, be ready for news coming our way. Move it people". Perry yelled at his employees, his hands pointing here and there with saliva flying out of his mouth.

Lois had a victorious smile on her face, pulling forward the listless, dead looking Jimmy Olsen who looked like his favorite Cat just died.

....

Lobo felt the world constantly spinning around him as his body went through one wall after another before his hard ass came down with a bang.

"Ugh!" A grunt of pain escaped from his lips as dust filled his eyes and rubble fell on his body. His eyes widened as he pushed the debris aside as he got up to his feet, only to wince in pain again.

"Ow! What the fuck...." Lobo exclaimed, his blood-red eyes looking down to the chest area where his body had received the punch.

Dark red. On his chalk white patch of skin where one of the deep wounds he sustained in his battle with Superman lay, all he could see was black.

No, it wasn't just black. It hurt like hell, too.

"That little shit!" A low growl escaped his mouth as his features grew hideous.

He dashed out of the building, eyes blazing with rage as he sought his opponent.

With an exaggerated leap, his figure takes high into the air, advancing dozens of meters in a single bound. And then, he sees the whelp standing there, a red blazing aura going around his entire being like a small cyclone.

Not far from him was the kryptonian who rested in the rubble. Down but certainly not dead, meaning his job was still incomplete.

And so, he fell from the air in rapid descent. A fist of his cocked backwards as he said with a roar.

"No one gets between me and my bounty whelp!" Then he swung for a vicious blow.

Boom! His fist hit..... The ground. The power within caused the ground to crack and explode. Dust and debris yet again formed everywhere as the ground caved in forty meters in all directions.

A crater formed directly under his feet, several meters deep, engulfing everything close to it. Be it cars, trucks, bikes, fire hydrants, mailboxes, it was all swallowed.

Yet another miss!

Lobo knew. He felt nothing but rock when he threw that punch, meaning the whelp had avoided his blow just like he did the energy beam.

Lobo frowned, a hint of annoyance appearing between his eyebrows. He raised his head up to see he had put himself in a ditch. Expanding his senses, his frown immediately turned into a smirk.

"Gotcha".

Meanwhile, a silhouette appeared seemingly out of nowhere at the edge of the hole where a God knows how deep ditch now laid within his vision.

His eyes were glowing eyes as he examined the hole made from Lobo's punch.

He had to admit, though, Lobo was strong. In terms of strength and stamina, his was within Superman's weight class. Worthy of an intergalactic bounty Hunter.

His thoughts were interrupted as the dust gave way to Lobo's figure appearing before him at an astonishingly fast speed.

"Gotcha punk". He yelled as he stretched his hand in a capture motion to hold him by the throat.

His body didn't even flinch, maintaining his neutral gaze as the giant hand reached for his throat as if he couldn't react fast enough, only to have it pass through him like a throwing star through air.

Lobo's eyes widened in incredulity, clearly shocked at yet another failed attempt to land an attack on his opponent.

The latter, however, didn't give him the benefit of organizing his thoughts.

Lobo had missed, but he certainly won't. Especially at such close range.

Ominous dark energy coated his fists as he punched at Lobo again with nothing but sheer force. Nevertheless, Lobo was no vegetarian.

His instincts as an experienced bounty hunter kicked in as he raised his left hand to block with full force.

The left hand caught the dark red fist. The following result, however, was something Lobo hadn't expected.

As soon as hand and fist collided, an unprecedented amount of pain flooded his senses originating from his defending arm. The pain spread from his palm to his fingers, to his wrists in a matter of seconds, hindering Lobo from being able to block the amount of force that followed the pain.

The strength within the blow pushed his arm back, hitting him in the chest again. Lobo flew out, from one end of the nearly forty meter long hole and almost reaching the other end.

He crashed straight into the crater again.

"Agghhhhh!" Lobo let out a scream. He looked at his left arm that was now glowing dark red, and it brought him unprecedented pain.

Watching Lobo wright in agony, he felt no joy or happiness. Maybe a slight satisfaction for his pending victory, but that was about it.

Lobo wasn't weak in any way. This was clear on how he was ale to go toe to toe with Superman. Along with his immortality, Lobo was a chracter that just wouldn't die no matter what you did to him.

This was a guy who needed every single cell thoroughly destroyed to actually be effectively killed. If not, his body would just regenerate right from scratch. Although it would take time to achieve complete regeneration, the fact that he was reborn couldn't be changed.

Coupled with the fact that his soul was banned from the entering the afterlife and his healing factor was immune to the anti-life, he was virtually unkillable.

Lobo was, in a sense, an Apex predator with few opponents. Opponents that could be counted on two hands and fewer who could treat him as prey.

However, his luck ran out when he met him, someone who had a full set of restraints for undying heavy hitters like Lobo.

Speaking of heavy hitters.

He turned his head towards the ditch and frowned in thought. Superman was close by when Lobo created the crater. Everything within forty meters had fallen into it, Superman included. Meaning Superman was there, somewhere under all that rubble.

But it shouldn't be a problem, right?

I mean, the big guy is kryptonian. Even if he was beaten to such a state by Lobo, as long as there was no more kryptonite, it was almost impossible to die by being buried alive under rubble.

That kind of death was way too humiliating for the Man Of Steel himself.

"So he's ok???

Yeah, probably fine. No need to worry about him". He thought, reassuring himself before turning his attention back to the Czarnian's situation.

The intrigue in his eyes made it look like he found Lobo's situation quite captivating.

Lobo had never felt this way before. It didn't feel like anything he had previously experienced.

I mean, sure, he had experienced pain before.

Like his body being pierced by sharp objects or blasted by energy beams. Even when his bones were smashed or twisted, like it were when he fought the blue kryptonian earlier.

That was the pain he was familiar with.

Pain he could shrug off with at most a wince or a groan, and throw himself back into the fight with a laugh on the side.

Not this time, though.

Hell no. This, was pain. Unimaginable pain.

It felt like the insides of his arm were squirming, being destroyed, unraveled.... Lobo wasn't an English man who was fluent with words from the dictionary. So he would fall short of the right words to describe his sensation.

Nevertheless, that didn't matter. What mattered was the fact that his hand turned dark red and was crumbling.

Yep, crumbling.

Now that's the word for it.

Lobo watched with horror growing in his heart as the black red energy engulfed his hand and, worst of all, started spreading.

The pain and horror of seeing his hand crumbling into Ash set off something in him.

Seeing the situation of his arm, Lobo didn't dare to waste time. He took out a gleaming black hook from his belt buckle with the previously mangled arm that now looked almost as good as new, and slashed towards his hand.

Squelch!!

The disgusting sight of Lobo severing his arm came to his vision. He, however, watched with interest and curiosity in his eyes.

The arm that was cut off seemed to have lost something important, as the dark red color that was originally advancing at a steady pace suddenly picked up speed as if it had just chugged down a can of Red Bull.

In two seconds, Lobo's severed arm was destroyed, crumbled and turned to ash.

Squelch!!

Still, the scene didn't end there, as lobo plunged the sharp hook into his chest. He let out a grunt of pain as he used the hook to excavate large pieces of his flesh that was now dyed with a spreading dark red aura.

Seeing this scene, He nodded inwardly.

"The effect of the new ability is quite satisfactory. However, it's quite difficult to control". He frowned as he thought about this.

Lobo looked at his arm that no longer existed and the deep piece of flesh missing from his chest with some lingering fear in his heart. If he hadn't been decisive enough, he might have suffered more than just losing an arm.

His eyebrows narrowed as he looked at the human in front of him, his voice solemn as he spoke.

"..... You... What the hell are you?"

"Me? Well, to be honest, I don't know what exactly to call myself right now. But seeing as we are on Earth, I guess you can consider me human". He replied with a smile, while Lobo frowned.

"Human?" He looked at him with a look that said, 'Do you take me for a fool?'

"Nah, you ain't human. If you're what passes around here for human, then the universe would be straight up fucked by now".

Lobo slowly got up from resting on his butt. He took out a cigar from his jacket with the only arm he could presently use.

"I've heard about the human species and compared to the other races, they don't got Jack shit going for them".

"Is that so?"

"Oh yeah. They're weak, squishy, hell they don't even live long. And you..... You…"

Lobo stood up from the floor. He had lit up his cigarette, and it was now between his teeth.

"What are you? Like twenty or twenty-five? You're not even moderately old enough to pass for a whelp on most planets. So Nah, you're definitely not human. I'd rather believe you're kryptonian or something else entirely. But kryptonians, they can't do what you just did either".

The seven-foot tall man said, his eyes staring intently at his opponent. Silence reigned for ten seconds before the latter laughed.

"Hahahaha! Well, what I am, or what I ain't should be the least of your worries". His smile turned into a full-blown grin.

"Plus, why do you think I should let you stall for more time to let your injuries heal?" He pointed out a simple fact.

Lobo's face sank. His healing factor was strong. He was sure he could regenerate even if only one drop of blood was left, but even with his level of healing, in addition to the missing flesh on his chest, regrowing limbs took time.

Time which, presently, he was sure this kid in his view wouldn't give him. He couldn't be killed, yes, but he could certainly be imprisoned. Spending eternity in a cell was a fate worse than Lobo's non-existent death.

No, it was a fate worse than life without booze and cigarettes.

A scowl flashed on his face as Lobo grew more dignified. Various thoughts moved in his head on how he could defeat this.... this..... Whatever the hell he was anyway.

He couldn't hurt who he was unable to hit, and this one didn't have any weakness to green rocks like the kryptonian. Still, it didn't matter.

He was Lobo, the Intergalactic Mercenary for hire.

A man who didn't fear death and had no loved ones he cared for.

"Alright, you little shit. You want a piece of the Main man? Then let's take it all out. Lobo style". A vicious grin was pasted on his face.

Looking at Lobo, his features had no expression, but his mind was full of thoughts. To him, defeating Lobo wasn't an issue.

The first one had significantly changed his physiology above superhuman levels. Super Strength, Super speed, reflexes, reaction time, body defenses, vitality, stamina, you name it all.

To wrap it in one sentence, he had given himself the physical capabilities of a full-fledged Viltrumite.

The war race that, according to legend, evolved from the kryptonians on planet Viltrum. The life levels of his body had skyrocketed in a matter of seconds, officially putting him in the weight class of heavy hitters like Superman.

Capable of taking down massive buildings with a single punch, while still holding back. He could even fly right now and has tactile telekinesis.

Presently, he felt all his cells within his body brimming with what seemed to be unending energy, his veins rolling with a powerful force making him want to vent it out immediately.

This was also the reason he had gotten himself a Mangekyo Sharingan instead of it's higher evolved form, Eternal Mangekyo.

With the strength of his physical body and overwhelming life force, did he still need to worry about going blind?

Still, if it were just that, then his chances of winning against Lobo were all but guaranteed.

He could tussle with Lobo, but defeating the immortal was highly improbable.

It was the second energy infused pill however that made defeating Lobo a guaranteed probability.

The power to collapse a target into dust, disassembling or destabilizing them on a microscopic level. Sub-power of Transmutation and Destructive version of Matter Manipulation.

Also known as Disintegration, Power of Reed Strucker from the Gifted series, or better yet, as he liked to call it, Cataclysm from TALES OF MIRACULOUS LADYBUG.

Or if you still can't recognize either of the two, then you should certainly know the famous scene of Thanos snapping his fingers to obliterate half the life in the universe.

Except this was on a way smaller scale.

Lobo could regenerate from almost anything given enough time. His unending stamina made sure he had enough energy to stall for a long enough duration in a fight to achieve it.

But could he defeat an opponent who would disintegrate every part of his body as long as he allowed physical contact? Or even stall for time in a fight if he didn't run away?

So defeating Lobo was not in his mind. Killing him however?

Now there's the problem, as Lobo couldn't really die. Even if he disintegrated his body, Lobo would still find a way to return. He was banned from the afterlife after all.

At that moment, a news chopper appeared from a distance, moving closer towards them before keeping a distance away.