Agent

Jay sorted through everything they had experienced in the brief time since rushing into that spacetime passage—filthy metal pipes, vicious and utterly unfriendly aliens, and a monster dozens of meters tall that looked like a cross between an octopus and a jellyfish. And on this unfamiliar planet, where he had no one to rely on, the only one who had gone through it all with him was a beautiful blonde Kryptonian girl.

Hmm. It didn't sound so bad after all.

After taking down that massive tentacled creature and walking another five or six minutes, the seemingly endless passage finally revealed an exit. Fan-shaped metal panels sealed off the corridor ahead, with leaflike slits between them. The light shining through those gaps told them they had reached the end.

"I thought we'd be walking in here forever," Kara said happily. She reached out, intending to pry open the metal barrier, but Jay stopped her.

"Wait," he said.

The two waited behind the metal panel for several seconds before a shadow slammed into the exit with a bang. Astonishingly, it looked like a person—a real human, and a Black man at that. He was dressed in rags, his wrinkled jeans full of holes. His haggard face was filled with panic as he futilely tried to force open the sturdy metal panel with both hands, constantly looking back over his shoulder. Jay figured something extremely vicious had to be chasing him. He seemed to be trying to escape into the passage where Jay and Kara were hiding, but the iron panel was far too sturdy for him.

A pale blue beam whistled through the air and struck the poor man squarely in the back. He let out a pained groan and collapsed to the ground. The laser had burned a blackened hole through the back of his shirt, and faint black smoke rose from his scorched skin.

Kara nearly cried out in that instant, as though the blow had hit her instead. Instinctively, she wanted to break through the iron panel and rush outside, but Jay held her back again.

The Black man lay on the ground, still struggling to crawl forward a few inches. Jay could see the overwhelming desire to live in his eyes, a look that burned itself into his mind and refused to fade. But the man finally seemed to have run out of strength. Even his last desperate struggles proved futile. Several white aliens surrounded him with guns in hand. They appeared to be of the same race as the aliens Jay and Kara had encountered at the junkyard earlier.

The aliens aimed their weapons at the Black man until one alien, whose presence seemed notably different from the others, stepped forward. The rest respectfully moved aside, and Jay guessed this guy might be a minor leader.

The alien who looked like a squad leader spoke in a low voice. "Your attempts are meaningless. You're only wasting your energy. If you have so much spare energy to waste, save it for the arena. It might help you live a little longer."

The Black man stubbornly raised his head and glared at the ugly creature with equally stubborn eyes, muttering a particularly vulgar insult. The alien snorted and turned to give his companions some instructions. One of the aliens then lifted the Black man with one hand, slung him over his shoulder, and seemed ready to take him away.

Jay thought this was a perfect opportunity. This Black man had most likely escaped from wherever the human hostages were being held, and these aliens would very likely take him back there. That meant if they followed them, these aliens could lead them to the other captured humans.

Maybe he could find his dad.

Unfortunately, his plan fell apart before it could even begin—Kara finally seemed unable to endure any more. She kicked the metal panel before her, sending it spinning through the air like a frisbee. It caught one of the aliens in the group by surprise and smashed him to the ground. At almost the same instant, she shot out in a blur, leaving a long afterimage as she pounced into the aliens' formation. Before the aliens could even react to what had happened, two more figures flew high into the air with screams and crashed violently to the ground.

Kara had rushed out before Jay could utter the first syllable of a warning. He could only sigh softly and jump out of the passage after her. He couldn't help recalling how comic fans always mocked Kryptonians for not liking to use their brains. It seemed that assessment was fairly accurate.

As he thought that irritably, he completely forgot that he himself was now one of those "Kryptonians."

The alien squad leader let out a loud, strange cry, perhaps ordering his teammates to focus their fire on these two intruders. Kara flashed before him like a ghost and drove a fist into his still O-shaped mouth, leaving him dizzy and reeling before he toppled backward. Another alien swiftly drew a blue laser blade, its edge trailing a long, searing arc as it chopped toward Kara's head. Kara twisted aside, then kicked backward without even looking, sending him flying into the distance.

Jay raised his arm to block an alien's descending laser blade, and searing pain shot clearly into his pain center. Gritting his teeth, Jay abruptly exerted force with his arm and swept the light blade aside. Before the alien could recover from his shock at seeing Jay block the blade barehanded, Jay grabbed his head and slammed it viciously into the protruding corner of a box-shaped object beside them. The blow sent stars spinning before the alien's eyes, knocking him unconscious. Jay tilted his head slightly and caught sight of two more aliens raising their guns at his back. He turned and fired two beams of Heat Vision across the weapons in their hands. The two laser guns instantly exploded with a roar, releasing two violent bursts of pale blue energy that violently flung both aliens to the ground.

Jay and Kara could now only wield less than half the power they had possessed on Earth, but that was still more than enough to deal with these alien grunts. They quickly took care of the aliens. By then, the Black man was sitting against a wall, gasping laboriously. He seemed to be hanging on by his last breath and could die at any moment.

Kara quickly crouched in front of him and asked gently, "Hey, can you hear me?"

The Black man heavily lifted his eyelids, and his gaze first fell on the "S" on her chest. "You... Supergirl?"

"Yes, it's me."

He laboriously shifted his gaze to Jay. The image on his retinas had already begun to blur. "Is that Superman?"

Jay froze, unsure how to answer for a moment.

"He is," Kara answered for him, leaving Jay somewhat at a loss. Even if it was only to comfort this poor man at death's door, the title felt suffocating when placed on his shoulders.

The Black man grinned, revealing white teeth and a bright smile that perhaps did not belong on the face of a dying man.

"I knew you'd come back," he said. "You would never abandon us."

Kara said softly, "It's okay. You're okay now. We're here to save you. I promise I'll take you back to Earth, all right?"

"Thank you." He smiled and shook his head. "But I... I don't think I can make it. I know it very well. You don't need to comfort me. But there are more people, more humans, being held by them. You have to save them."

As he said this, a resentful look appeared in his eyes. Gritting his teeth, he said, "They captured humans, modified our bodies, turned us into all kinds of monsters, then forced us to fight in the arena for the entertainment of this planet's audience. Do you remember the riot at the Underground Mall in Metropolis some time ago? It wasn't some accident like the authorities claimed. It was caused by a modified human escaping their control!"

A chill rose involuntarily in both of them at his words. Jay interrupted, "Wait, you're saying these aliens captured humans and modified them? Then why would a modified creature appear in Metropolis? Shouldn't he have been on this planet?"

The black man took two ragged breaths, seeming to use every last bit of strength in his body to force himself to continue speaking. "Humans... humans are working with these aliens, and their power is quite formidable. They provided these aliens with bases on Earth. I was an FBI investigator. I noticed things I shouldn't have noticed, investigated things I shouldn't have investigated, so I ended up here..."

Jay and Kara exchanged a look. "Kairi Technology Creative."

The Black man's eyes gradually lost focus, as though he finally could not hold on any longer. With his last strength, he tightly grasped Kara's cape. "Please, save the others. They're in..."

He failed to finish his last sentence, but his eyes conveyed the most crucial information. His pupils dilated, and he finally stopped breathing. Yet before he died, his gaze was fixed straight on the largest building in the distance—an enormous oval venue that looked like a stadium on Earth.

Kara gently laid his body flat on the ground and closed his eyes for him.

The two stood in silence for a long while, until Jay patted her shoulder and said, "Come on. There are still living people who need saving."