Scrap Yard

After a thoroughly unpleasant space voyage, Jay and Kara both landed in a place resembling some kind of garbage recycling station. Looking around, they found themselves surrounded on all sides by towering heaps of trash that seemed to stretch endlessly. Jay wondered whether they were even still on Earth. Everything beneath his feet and before his eyes was scrap, and even the air around his nose carried the strange stench of garbage. Perhaps they had arrived on some planet in the universe called "Trash Planet"—if such a planet really existed.

"This feels awful." Kara disgustedly flicked a clump of sticky goo from her blonde hair. "I feel like I'm about to turn into a piece of garbage myself."

"It's not too late to go back now." Jay raised his head and pointed at the purple vortex floating eight or nine meters above them. "If we go in there, we should be able to return the way we came."

Kara stubbornly shook her head. "I said I was going with you. I'm not changing my mind. Besides, I'm your senior. I have to look after you."

"Then I'll be counting on you, senior."

It was a little selfish of him to think so, but if Kara had really just said, "All right, be careful," then coolly shaken out her cape and flown back, he would not have been happy about it.

Jay adjusted his super vision to a microscopic level and scanned the air around them. "We can now roughly conclude that we're no longer on Earth. The atmosphere here is very different from Earth's, and there are components I've never even seen before. Brief exposure probably won't affect ordinary humans, but it's hard to say what prolonged exposure would do to them."

Blue laser beams suddenly shot at them from behind. The instant they turned around, two light nets made of lasers burst open in midair with two sharp cracks, wrapping each of them inside. They dropped to one knee and looked back to see a group of bizarre creatures slowly approaching with rifle-like weapons in hand. They had humanoid limbs, pale bodies marked with blue stripes, and two ugly antennae growing from their heads. Jay could not claim to know every animal species on Earth, but he was certain these strange things did not come from Earth.

The unidentified aliens surrounded the two prey caught in the nets with their guns raised, apparently having let down their guard. Normally, prey trapped in laser nets posed no threat anyway.

Unfortunately for them, today's prey fell outside the bounds of normal.

Kara exchanged a glance with Jay. "I think they've already decided we're fish caught in a net."

"So it looks like we need to introduce ourselves again?"

"Looks that way."

The arguing aliens never imagined that these two trapped Earthlings—at least, that was what they believed—would suddenly spring up at the same time. With their bare hands, they tore the supposedly indestructible light nets in half, then sent the two aliens at the front flying with a punch each before they could react.

The remaining alien creatures stood stunned for a while before they processed this development that defied common sense. Then they cried out in alarm and hastily opened fire. Pale blue alien laser beams crisscrossed the air, leaving deep blue afterimages on their retinas. The two dodged separately, and the missed beams struck the garbage piles, blasting unidentifiable waste in every direction.

Jay snatched an alien's gun with a hand clamp, crushed the barrel, then casually swept the stunned creature away with the gunstock and into a nearby hill of trash. But at the same time, another laser beam struck him squarely in the back. It actually made his back burn and his chest tighten, forcing him to stagger a step forward.

Before the alien who had ambushed him from behind could fire another shot, Jay flashed in front of it and pinned it to the ground. At the same time, he warned Kara, "Be careful. Their weapons seem pretty powerful. I felt that."

Jay simply tore off his damaged outer clothes. The "S" emblem he had been wearing on his chest activated at the same time, and a dark blue Superman suit instantly covered his whole body. The two quickly took down the remaining aliens. After snapping the last alien laser rifle in half, Jay shook out his hand. "What kind of aliens are these? They can really take a hit. My fists are getting numb."

Kara swept her gaze around the area and frowned. "My super vision... It feels like the air here is blocking it. I can't see through things, and my range of vision is very limited."

Jay tried it as well after hearing that, and it was indeed just as she said. More than that, the sounds pouring into his ears were growing increasingly muddy and indistinct. Normally, he could hear air currents miles away, but now even sounds from somewhat farther off were gradually becoming blurred and nearly inaudible.

"No." His expression turned grave. "It's not that something is blocking our vision. It's this planet. I think we're on a planet illuminated by a red star. The radiation is weakening our abilities."

"That's awful." Kara said, "That means once the solar energy stored in our cells runs out, we'll turn back into ordinary people."

"Maybe now is the time for you to seriously consider my suggestion to fly back from here." Jay pointed at the vortex above them again. "While you can still fly."

"So you'll go back?"

"Of course not. I have to find my dad." Jay shook his head. "But you don't need to stay here. You can take this information back and tell everyone that Kairi Technology Creative Company is trafficking people to an unknown planet."

"Don't even think about it. If you're not going back, neither am I." Kara said firmly. "We'll rescue the people who were captured together, and then we'll leave together."

After a pause, she asked awkwardly, "But... which way should we go?"

That truly was a new problem. With their super senses weakened, the two of them had effectively lost their radar, making things much more troublesome.

Jay headed back in the direction those aliens had come from. After pushing aside a heap of miscellaneous junk, he discovered a circular pipe entrance, two people tall, hidden behind the pile.

Kara raised an eyebrow. "You're sure we should go this way?"

"No." Jay said as he bent down and crawled into the passage. "But do you have another way out of this stinking place?"

Kara neither agreed nor disagreed. She bent down and followed him into the passage, reminding him, "Remember the way back. We might have to go home through that hole up there later."