Superman had indeed frozen.
There was no telling whether he would only listen to someone as powerful as himself, or whether he was privately calculating something else.
In any case, after a long silence, Superman stepped aside, seemingly willing to let Shane and the others leave.
"I don't care who you are."
Only when Shane led Battle Beast past him did Superman add what sounded like a threat.
"Don't ever appear before me again, and don't stand in my way."
Shane turned his head slightly to glance at Superman.
He felt as though the man still hadn't listened. He had simply chosen to step aside after witnessing Shane's strength.
But with a little thought, Shane could guess why Superman had done so.
The super brain that had been utterly useless when he was playing the saint had probably kicked in now.
The Superman Regime desperately needed him to reorganize and lead it. Getting into a fight to the death here with someone as powerful as Shane, who wanted nothing more than to take Battle Beast away, over a Battle Beast who had nothing to do with the shift in power on Earth, would only hurt his regime.
Injustice Superman's goal had never changed before the third year of the Superman Regime. The tyrant placed greater weight on his chosen ends and means. Their eyes met one last time at the extremely close distance of forty or fifty meters, then Shane flew away from the area with Battle Beast.
Superman silently watched Shane's retreating figure, his expression dark, his thoughts unreadable.
Only when the sun was about to set did Superman fly back to find Yellow Lantern Hal, whom he had berated earlier.
"I'm sorry, Hal."
Yellow Lantern Superman sincerely apologized to Hal Jordan for losing his reason earlier.
Hal looked