Trading Blows with Superman

The muscles in Chu Men's arms bulged as he unleashed every ounce of his strength.

His fist pressed against the back of Clark's hand, driving him steadily backward.

Clark's feet left the ground. The brute force pushed him back more than a dozen meters, a string of muffled sonic booms bursting through the air beneath him.

"You're worried about too many things." Chu Men shook out his wrist and rolled his neck, drawing two sharp cracks.

Clark steadied himself. They couldn't fight on the ground. He had to get this madman away from here.

He became a blur and charged straight at Chu Men, arms spread to grab him around the waist and drive him into the sky.

Chu Men saw through his plan.

Just before Clark reached him, Chu Men turned slightly aside and avoided the head-on collision.

His right hand shot out like lightning, fingers clamping onto the bright red cape behind Clark.

"Want to go up?"

Chu Men put his arm into it, swung Clark halfway around like a wrecking ball, and slammed him down.

Boom!

Clark's back smashed into the dock.

The breakwater, dozens of meters thick, collapsed beneath him.

Spiderweb cracks raced out from the impact point, reaching all the way into the sea.

Huge chunks of stone heaved upward, and dust mixed with rain shot into the sky.

Clark lay at the bottom of the crater, his cape caked in mud. The impact had rattled his insides, and a trickle of bright red blood ran from the corner of his mouth.

He gritted his teeth, veins bulging around his eyes.

The anger he had kept buried finally broke through his restraint.

Scorching heat gathered in Clark's eyes. Twin beams of Heat Vision, each as thick as a barrel, were about to erupt and blast the arrogant figure above him away.

A black shoe descended from above and planted itself on the emblem on Clark's chest.

The force drew a dull crack from Clark's breastbone. The red light gathering in his eyes was forced back by that single stomp.

"Don't look at me like that." Chu Men stared down at Clark and ground his shoe into his chest. "I'm not gay."

Clark grabbed Chu Men's leg with both hands and tried to throw him off.

Chu Men gave him no chance. He bent down, seized Clark by the collar, and hauled him up.

Then Chu Men drove his right knee into Clark's abdomen with a shrill whistle.

Thud!

Clark doubled over.

His eyes flew wide as the blow drove every breath from his lungs.

Chu Men let go.

Clark flew backward like a cannonball.

He skimmed across the ground and smashed through three abandoned concrete warehouses on the dock.

Only after crashing into the third warehouse and shattering more than a dozen discarded heavy machine tools did Clark finally stop.

A trail of wreckage hundreds of meters long cut across East District Dock.

Dust filled the air.

Wayne Manor, in the underground Batcave.

Bruce Wayne stared at the energy readings on the holographic screen.

"Superman's energy output is higher than his. Why is he still being overpowered...?"

Alfred looked at Bruce in confusion.

Bruce didn't answer. He understood Clark: he was afraid innocent people would get caught in the fight.

But in a fight like this, even a moment's hesitation could be fatal.

The monster who had appeared out of nowhere didn't care at all. All he cared about was grinding his opponent beneath his heel.

"At this rate, Superman will lose," Bruce said hoarsely.

Iceberg Lounge, in a secret underground room.

The whiskey had spilled from Penguin's glass. He stared blankly at the trail of wreckage on the screen.

The savior he had counted on had been sent flying by Tyrant almost as soon as he arrived.

"That's impossible... That's Superman... Ah..." Penguin clutched at the hair he had left, unable to make sense of it.

All he wanted now was to buy a plane ticket out of Gotham and get as far from here as possible.

Back at the dock.

The rain fell harder.

Chu Men shook out his hands, tucked them into his pockets, and walked slowly along the path Clark had carved through the ruins.

"Oi, get up."

"Is this really the all-powerful Superman everyone talks about?"

Clark pushed the heavy machine tool off himself and staggered to his feet.

His suit was covered in dust, with a clear footprint stamped across his chest.

He wiped the blood from his mouth, breathing a little harder.

His Kryptonian body rapidly healed his bones and muscles, but he couldn't shake the humiliation of being overpowered.

"What do you want?" Clark asked, watching Chu Men draw closer.

Chu Men stopped ten paces away.

"Hey, hey, what do I want?" Chu Men cocked his head, mockery plain in his eyes. "I was standing here when you came over to lecture me and tell me you'd send me where I belong. Now you're asking what I want?"

Chu Men raised a hand, pointing first at the yacht in the distance, then toward the bridge.

"That punch of yours could've knocked me back. But those insects over there distracted you. You got scared. Scared your strength would crush them too." Chu Men took a step forward and glared at Clark. "You have the power to overturn this world, but you've locked yourself in a cage called 'morality.' What are you trying to do?"

Clark clenched his fists, veins jumping on the backs of his hands. "Power isn't an excuse to kill indiscriminately."

"No, no, no. You've got it wrong."

Chu Men cut him off.

"Power is the rule." Chu Men spread his hands, his voice dripping with contempt. "Look at you. You took a beating from me to protect people who don't even know you. Do you think they'll thank you?"

Chu Men pointed at the yacht out at sea.

"Right now, all those people want is to escape. They're even cursing you in their heads for bringing the fight near them."

Clark didn't look back. He didn't need to.

The people on the yacht really were cursing. They cursed Superman for sticking his nose in and cursed the fight for threatening to ruin their business.

Clark's heart sank.

"Your mercy will only get you beaten worse, so-called god among men!" Chu Men's smile vanished, and his gaze turned deadly. "Is that it? If that's all you've got, you're not going back to Metropolis today."

Chu Men stamped his right foot. The ground for more than a dozen meters around him shook like a magnitude-ten earthquake, sending huge slabs of concrete buckling upward.

Chu Men blurred and appeared directly in front of Clark.

Clark crossed his arms over his chest.

Chu Men's right fist struck his arms with an ear-splitting sonic boom.

Clark's feet gouged two deep furrows through the ground before he slammed into the wall at the edge of the warehouse.

The wall collapsed, burying Clark beneath brick and stone.

Chu Men stood where he was and rolled his neck.

"Too weak. Fighting trash like you, chained up by your own rules, is no fun at all." Chu Men stared at the rubble.

A few broken bricks tumbled from the pile.

Clark rose from the debris with his head lowered.

Rain washed the dirt from his face. When he looked up, restraint was slowly fading from his once-clear blue eyes.

He looked at the wrecked dock, at Deathstroke's corpse tossed by the waves, then at the unrestrained Tyrant before him.

Clark's breathing grew heavy.

The air around him began to heat. Rain evaporated into white mist the moment it touched his shoulders.

"You're right." Clark's voice dropped, trembling with something held back to its limit. "Here, I don't need to hold back."

Clark slowly rose into the air, his feet half a meter above the ground.

The red light in his eyes churned like molten rock. His Bio-electric Field expanded outward, lifting broken stones into the air before grinding them to powder.

Chu Men watched Clark change. Rather than retreat, he licked his lips in excitement.

"That's more like it." A blinding red light flared in Chu Men's eyes too. "Show me what you can really do."

Thunder rolled across the sky.