Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 421 PHANTOM

“It’s open!” Superman yelled triumphantly. He released the weird crystal shard alien keyboard and flew up and out of the barn. Powergirl did the same. Everything still black around us. I erased my presence with Zetsu and followed. 

Easily moving around everyone, I got outside to see the sun was blotted out. Overtop of us was a black flat plane that opened into another dimension. Normally that would have been a guess, but my Rift skill was responding to the opening. A part of my ability resonating with the hole in space. 

I could hardly fathom what was going on above me. I tried to put it all together as I watched from the roof of the barn. Superman found a Supergirl. Most likely the remains of his planet too. He came back and set about finding chunks of Krypton from his home world. The crystal doohikee he was playing with was a pretty common method of Krypton tech. But the gaping hole in the sky was new. Or was it? 

“Phantom Zone,” I said with a nod. 

The change in this body with the Rift skill was calling to the opening of the dark dimension. As if it was trying to match it. My Haki and everything tried to mesmerize what I could feel from the zone. I didn’t know exactly what my power was, but I almost felt like I could open a portal into the dimension above like for my subspace. 

I stared up at it. Waiting patiently as every little aspect of the gate pulsed with power. I began to sweat as military helicopters flew around the flat hole in space. But standing there wasn’t going to give me any answers. Instead of waiting I shot straight up toward the black expanse painted across the sky. 

The energy in the air almost felt wrong as I approached. Whatever this was, it was not something that should be done. The air reeked of sickness. As if simply touching this other dimension would corrupt our world. I hoped this wasn’t going to put a target on Earth’s back, but only time would tell. Speeding up, I flipped off a helicopter that got too close. 

“Here we go!” I yelled as I dove into the black expanse. Nothing happened. Well I moved to somewhere else, but it was like walking through a door. No change in pressure or air, the dark dimension felt like Earth. 

No sun above me I extended my Haki outward to find the immense Spiritual Energy of the Supers. Flying toward them they were frantically moving around, trying to find something. I heard them yell out to one another as I approached. 

“Anything!?” Superman yelled. 

“I’m telling you, no!” Powergirl yelled more frantically. 

“What’s going on?” I asked slowly, stopping in the air. I couldn’t see anything around us as if the new dimension was space itself. No floor, no sky, only darkness. Superman and Supergirl stopped as they heard my voice. Hope on their faces for a moment, then they frowned as they recognized me. 

“We are looking for our people,” Superman said. His voice as stoic as I remembered, just older. More experienced. “There is no time to talk. Everyone is dead.” 

As he spoke I drew closer. Slowly I was starting to see that there was something in this Phantom Zone, but it wasn’t what I expected. Instead of nothing, I noticed the mountain of bodies. All wore bright colors like the Super twins. Red, blue, white, yellow, orange, each set of clothes had a letter printed on it. Some looked like english letters, others not so much. 

The people were men, women, and children. Their skin was black, parts missing from them, it looked like they had been mangled in a trainwreck or something. But they were all piled up in a mountain below Superman and Powergirl.

“What the fuck,” I said as the Supers continued to lift bodies. Throwing them this way and that to dig through the leftover body parts. 

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“Is anyone alive?!” Superman roared. His voice made the air shake. Tremors from the power of his yellow echoed off the lifeless bodies below us. As the sound died down I felt something in the distance. It wasn’t part of the mountain of bodies, but a weak Spiritual Energy that pulsed from the noise. 

“Over there,” I said, pointing. Superman ignored me, but as I flew in the direction I felt, Powergirl followed. The buxom woman was covered in dried blood from digging through bodies. I didn’t feel like it was time to flirt with her though. We drew closer to the pulse I felt and she gasped. Moving forward she swooped down, picking up a man laying on the black floor of the Phantom Zone. 

He was older and wore a black skintight suit. Square jaw and clean shaven head, he looked a little younger than I expected. But a part of me said this was General Zod. He was synonymous with the Phantom Zone. Pretending that I didn’t know where this was going was useless. 

“Is he alive?” Powergirl mumbled to herself. 

“Feels like it…maybe you should-” 

“Kal-el!” She yelled out and flew toward Superman. I cursed, doubtful they would let me kill the guy there and then. As I was about to follow her, all light disappeared for a moment. The meager light we were getting from the portal to Earth flickered, and the portal showed up again. 

“Fuck!” I yelled. Not about to get stuck in the Phantom Zone, I flew back to the Portal. “Hurry the hell up! They’re probably trying to shut off your machine!” I didn’t look back to see if they heard me. Going my max speed I exited the portal. Sighing in relief that I was back in a normal dimension I felt my Rift power resonate with the portal again. Looking back, it flickered once more. 

“What the hell,” I said and dove down to the barn directly below. More helicopters in the air, I ignored them as I soared into the barn and descended down to the others. The area no longer pitch black the Squad was huddled around the crystal controls and kryptonite.  

“Just tear it up!” Boomerang said. “Smash harder.”

“I’m trying,” Deadshot said. “These are rocks, you dumbass. Not so easy to break.”

“That’s enough,” I said, dropping from the upper floor. They stopped immediately, staring at me wide-eyed as I pushed them away from the kryptonite. Some of the rocks were broken off, but the main cluster was still there. 

“Mate?” Boomerang asked in surprise.

“You should check what they did outside,” I said, looking up as the crystal and kryptonite still pulsed with power. “They opened a hole into the underworld, and I escaped.” More than a few believed me. 

Rolling my eyes, I locked gazes with them. Pointing at where my body had laid a moment ago. “My body’s freaking gone, you idiots. No I faked my-“

“Weston!” Waller yelled in my ear. “Why the fuck did you let this-“

“Shut up,” I said, taking out the earpiece. “I’m officially dead. That means my watch is up, bitch.” I threw the earpiece away, eyeing the others. “Superman isn’t freaking reviving his people. His people are dead. He is not making our world like his was. He is opening a portal to the one place a few of his people were probably hidden away. Superman isn’t the type to fuck up our world.” 

“Didn’t the guy throw you in prison for two decades?” Deadshot asked. 

“And I probably deserved it,” I said truthfully. “Look, people. Waller can go fuck herself. But she still has the keys to your hearts. So I understand if you need to keep at this. But Superman is innocent.”

There was a silent moment between the other members of the Squad. They looked between one another having a soundless conversation. “I mean, I doubt any of us believed he was doing something bad,” Boomerang said. 

“Yeah, this whole thing didn’t really sit right with me,” Deadshot said. 

“He ruined my cloak!” Vertigo yelled. 

“Sorry about your fashion accessory,” I said. As I did, the Kryptonite crystals pulsed with power one last time and died down. The black energy in the area began to subside, and I felt Superman draw closer. His Spiritual Energy like a blazing inferno in the darkness now, he landed above. 

“I plan to go find out what this is all about,” I told Flag. “I expect Waller wants the same.” Since the bomb had exploded, there was no real reason to hide my powers. Instead of walking, I lifted off and flew toward the exit of the barn. Anticipating what this whole thing could be about, I was glad that the air was starting to become normal again. Clouds lightening, the sun began to peek through the clouds. 

Superman and Powergirl stood outside the barn. In Superman’s arms was a very weak looking man. I wanted to end him since the longer he was in the sun’s rays the stronger he would get, but that wasn’t how the game was played. I had to get a quest before I would decide what to do. With that, my original quest completed. 

With that simple notification I actually felt my body bulk up. Over 13% into my Viltrumite form I was excited to see if there were any other powers that might have awoken with the massive increase, but I was reminded of the original goal of the quest. I was supposed to pick a role for the world. Whether that was hero, villain, or civilian. Since no other notifications popped up, I guessed it wasn’t time to choose yet or the System already chose and decided not to notify me. 

“Superman,” Rick Flag said as he walked up behind me. The stoic man looked up. Hands covered in dried blood, perfect black hair with a curl to it at the front, he was more like the Dean Cain look than the Henry Cavill version, which was a loss for everyone. “What is going on?” 

“My…people,” Superman said struggling to put it into words, his voice shaky as he lifted the still-asleep man in his arms. “Get him medical attention and I will tell you.” 

Flag spoke into his earpiece and it wasn’t long until one of the many helicopters were coming down. My eyes still drawn to the Powergirl. I knew where this crap was going, but they wouldn’t listen. She and Superman’s Haki was pure sorrow after learning that there was only one other survivor from their planet. Since the fight I knew this was leading to would come anyway, I figured I might as well make a good impression of the one blonde I wanted to get to know. 

“I can heal,” I said, raising my hand as I approached them. Superman looked up at me, hopeful for a moment, then frowning. 

“Do I know-” He was about to say, but the blonde cut him off. 

“Please,” she said, moving to help put the man on the ground. I nodded as I moved overtop the injured Kryptonian. He looked weak, and his Spiritual Energy was barely an ember. My Spark told me that his body was tired, not injured, as if he had given up. I sighed as I began to rub my hands together. 

Sparks of electricity shooting out of my hands. I looked up at the duo. They wanted this man alive. I didn’t know the full story, but I knew the ending. Canon was impossible to dodge, I could only help direct it. 

“It will be okay,” I said in my best hero voice and pushed my Spark into him. His body convulsed upward. Yelling out, he gasped as he fought the healing. Superman made a move for me, but the girl held him back. The Spark not enough, I recalled healing Gwen those months ago. 

Mixing in my Spiritual Energy with the Spark it began to make his grow. As it grew, so did his spirit. Fighting me less, he continued to shake but color returned to him. Skin going from gray to pink his eyes opened as he took a deep breath. Not wanting to give him too much, I ended the power. His body relaxing, I looked up into Superman’s eyes. 

In disbelief the big guy looked into the patient’s face. With legitimate tears in his eyes he actually said, “Thank you.” I nodded and took a step back to join the other squad members. 

“You’re so full of surprises,” June said as I stood next to her.

“You don’t know the half of it,” I said. 

“Oy, did you fake your death there?” Boomerang asked as a helicopter landed and the supers walked away. 

“Nope, really died,” I said. Opening my shirt, I showed him the scabbed area where the explosion had burst out of me. “Pretty sure that means I’m out of the team.”

“What the hell makes you think that?” Flag asked, his voice like granite as he stood behind me. 

“It means that if you try to keep me, I’ll just fly away and go tell a news outlet how the government tried to kill Superman,” I said with a smile. 

“We have no idea what he did here,” Flag said.

“I think it will prove to be much milder than what Waller was anticipating,” I said. “Besides, I’m pretty sure in our contracts it said if we died, all of our past sins would be forgiven. Since I died, I’m a free man.”

“It doesn’t work like that,” Flag said.

“I think it will,” I said. I wasn’t about to stick around with the squad forever. If Waller gave me any issue I would just escape and do what I promised. Despite what they pretended in the Suicide Squad comics, knocking off prison sentences for doing black ops work would be frowned upon. Besides, who would they send after me? The only person I would worry over was Superman, and I’d basically saved one of his people’s lives. I doubted he would care what I did. 

A smile on my face as I waited for my helicopter. Plenty of plans going through my mind, I had a lot of options to ensure my prison sentence was over. No matter what happened, it was going to be a win-win for Waller and I.