Chapter 6: Chapter 6: Villain

Arcana POV:

Over the next month I kept patrolling with Superman regularly. Mostly, we dealt with mundane problems. Lost children in the park, more cats in trees, some more thugs that got the ‘Sleep’ treatment, a couple of fender benders. There was even a bank robbery! Why anyone would try something like that in Metropolis with Superman around was beyond me. I put all five of them to sleep without issue.

The most exciting thing that happened was when a metahuman with super strength went on a rampage downtown. He resisted my ‘Sleep’ spell and was strong enough to give Superman a busted lip. While they wrestled, I pulled out the Maginomicon and tried to use ‘Suggestion’ on him, telling him to “surrender”. Despite my lack of practice with the spell, it worked. And he surrendered himself to the police without any fuss.

I had a certain distaste for anything that could be considered mind control, but it was just too useful to ignore. Superman said he trusted me to use my discretion responsibly, so I decided to prioritize practicing ‘Suggestion’ and other similar spells.

When I wasn't patrolling, I was training. Either magic with Zatanna, or close quarters with Dinah.

While my physiology wasn’t inherently any stronger or tougher than a normal human (except for my fire resistance), I did have several spells that could help my physique. ‘Mage Armor’ could easily be kept up at all times, and ‘Enhance Ability’ could enhance my strength, speed or toughness as needed. ‘Haste’ was my best choice for speed, but since it was really uncomfortable to use I chose to focus on other concentration spells. I also had several spells that enhanced weapons or weapon attacks, so melee combat was actually quite viable for me.

Dinah proved to be both a cruel and kind taskmaster. She would push me to my limit every time we sparred, have me use ‘Cure Wounds’ to heal, then start over. Whenever I made a mistake like overextending or getting sloppy with my footwork, she would punish me by knocking me flat on my ass. Violently. After each session she would give me ‘homework’, which consisted of running, pushups, weightlifting, and other kinds of exercise. And the amount increased each time.

On the other hand, it was obvious that she cared. Her motto was: ‘the more you suffer in the gym, the less you suffer in the field’. Something she had picked up from her own mentor, Wildcat. She wanted me to be strong enough to survive anything I might get thrown at me, and I was progressing leaps and bounds under her guidance. At this point, I even had defined abs!

My spellwork improved significantly as well. I was still a ways off from being able to cast 4th-level spells. Rituals might have been doable, but there weren’t any 4th-level ones in the Maginomicon.

The most interesting discovery we made was that I no longer needed to concentrate on ‘Fly’. Since I used it almost constantly when out on patrol, it was by far my most used spell. We theorized that being familiar enough with a spell made the casting instinctive, and that for concentration spells, that meant I didn’t have to concentrate on them anymore. I had been trying to have ‘Enhance Ability’ active as much as possible since.

I had been hesitant in practicing mind control spells, but surprisingly both Superman and Dinah were willing participants. Dinah even dragged Green Arrow along sometimes. Mind control was usually far more intrusive than my spells, and they all appreciated the opportunity to train their resistance without feeling violated. I could cast both ‘Suggestion’ and ‘Command’ easily now. ‘Charm Person’ wasn’t at the same level yet, but I was getting there.

As far as actual combat spells went, nothing could beat ‘Magic Missile’. I could cast it once per second at this point, with five missiles per barrage. The mana usage was negligible to the point where it regenerated faster than I could spend it, and the force damage was non-lethal so it was ideal for my purposes. I did practice some other combat spells though, just to have the coverage in case I needed it.

Like now.

Our patrol had been interrupted by a disturbance from the corporate district. Since that part of the city was usually pretty calm, the panicked screams of civilians drew our attention immediately.

When we arrived, we found a man tearing through cars and hotdog stands while people screamed and scrambled to get out of the way. The man was obviously a cyborg, with metal parts showing all over his body and a sickly green glow coming from his chest. Metallo.

“Superman!” He shouted in a metallic but clearly enraged voice. “Where is Superman! Come out and face me!” Superman was about to rush in, but I managed to stop him.

“Hold on! Here.” I pulled out the Maginomicon and cast ‘Protection from Poison’ and ‘Protection from Energy’ on him. “That should give you some protection against the Kryptonite. I’m not sure how well it will work though, so be careful!”

He raised an eyebrow and gave me a nod, but didn’t waste any more time before blasting forward. In the blink of an eye and with a loud bang, he had Metallo pinned in a crater in the ground.

“Corben!” He shouted. “Stand down! We don’t have to fight!”

I could see he was still sweating bullets, but he was holding up much better than he usually would this close to a source of intense kryptonite radiation. Turns out my theory was correct. Kryptonite is poisonous to Kryptonian, so ‘Protection from Poison’ should apply. Kryptonite radiation is basically energy, so ‘Protection from Energy’ should work. The coverage wasn’t 100%, but it was working!

He was still weakened though, and Metallo wasn’t a pushover.

“Superman!” He yelled, pure rage dripping from his voice. “Time to die!”

His legs twisted in an inhuman way to place themselves on Superman’s abdomen and push off with incredible force. Rather than send him flying though, he held on to his wrists and flipped him back into the ground; making the crater even bigger. With a speed I was barely able to follow his body twisted again to place him on top of Superman before pummeling his face with earth-shattering punches.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“You will not escape this time, alien! Time to meet your maker— GAH!”

I started firing off a barrage of ‘Magic Missiles’, desperate to give Superman a chance to breathe. Keeping with superhero tradition, I also fired off a snarky comment.

“What makes you think he’s alone, scrap-brain!”

His head turned and he narrowed his eyes at me. “Begone, demon-gnat!” The piece of debris he launched at me must have broken the sound barrier! If it weren’t for the instinctive ‘Shield’ I conjured, my head would have gone splat! My distraction served its purpose though, as Superman managed to retake the initiative.

With a loud “Clang!”, his fist met Metallo’s armored jaw and threw him to the side. I paused my barrage to send a ‘Healing Word’ his way. My spell wasn’t nearly enough to get him to full health, but it managed to close any bleeding wounds and give him a second wind.

No sooner had my spell hit him than he was blasting off towards again. Metallo had barely gotten back on his feet before Superman slammed into him and sent him flying into a wall.

“Clear!” I shouted, seeing an opportunity and acting on it. A ‘Lighting Bolt’ exploded from my hands and immediately impacted the now battered cyborg. A moment later Superman rushed forward again and aimed a fist straight at his Kryptonite heart.

I had read up on the villains of this world, and this version of Metallo needed the Kryptonite core to stay alive. Destroying or removing it would kill him!

“Stop!” I yelled, instinctively injecting a ‘Command’ into my voice. Superman stopped in his tracks, giving me the opportunity to cast ‘Sleep’ on the defeated cyborg. Underneath all the metal parts, Metallo still had a human brain. His constitution was far too tough for me to put him asleep at his peak, but the fight had tired him out enough that it managed to take hold.

Superman kept standing still where I stopped him, staring at his own hands.

“Are you okay…?” I asked carefully as I approached him. Metallo was down so I focused on what was important. Superman did not go for the kill when he had any other choice.

“...Thank you,” He said softly after a long pause. “You kept me from making a big mistake.”

I put my hand on his arm and used the opportunity to cast ‘Cure Wounds’. The spell had seen plenty of use in my spars with Dinah, so it had a much greater effect than my earlier ‘Healing Word’.

*sigh* “It's… been a stressful couple of days. I’ll tell you about it later. But for now—” He gave me a big, genuine smile. “-you did great!” The momentary weakness in his posture was gone, and he was back to being Superman.

“I hadn’t expected you to face your first supervillain this soon, but you performed beyond all expectations! The Kryptonite barely affected me under your protection, and you used your attack spells at opportune moments to turn the fight in our favor. We’ll do a full debrief when you hand in your report, but I am impressed!”

I froze.

“...Report?”

His grin grew wider.

----------------------------------------

“You remember what you mentioned at the meeting with the League?” Superman asked.

We were currently sitting in a small meeting room on the Watchtower after my debrief. Writing my report wasn’t as bad as I had expected. I had feared it would be like writing book reports in school, but the League cared more about precision than word count. It basically went like: I did this, this and this. And that was that.

The following debrief was to make sure I reflected on what went well, what went wrong, and what I could have done better. In this case Superman claimed he couldn’t think of anything I could have done better, but I disagreed. I could have tried to use ‘Blindness’ to take his vision, I could have tried ‘Command’ or ‘Suggestion’ to make him surrender, or I could have used ‘Web’ or ‘Entangle’ to restrict his movements. And those were only the spells I had practiced enough to use without referencing the Maginomicon. Superman was once again impressed with my versatility.

After the debrief, we talked about how he was acting uncharacteristically. Which led us to the current topic.

“About how Luthor might be trying to clone me?” He continued with a grimace. “Well, we just found out that he succeeded.”

I blinked, a little stunned by the revelation.

The most likely clone of Superman would be Superboy. I was pretty sure some versions of Bizarro were his clones as well, but I imagined he would be absolutely livid if Lex had created a Bizarro. This version of the DC Universe wasn’t exactly like any I knew about so it could be someone else, but Superboy seemed the most likely.

“Have you met him yet?” I asked after a long pause.

“What?” The question seemed to take Superman by surprise. “No. He— I never wanted—” He took a deep breath before continuing. “He may have my DNA, but I have no actual connection to him. There is no reason for us to meet.”

I gave him a cautious look. From what I knew, the relationship between Superman and Superboy always started rocky. I would probably work itself out over time, but I felt like I needed to help out. If only by telling Superman what he already knew.

“You realize he got screwed over even worse than you did, right?”

Again, my question seemed to catch him off guard. “What do you mean?”

“Well,” I started to explain. “He didn’t ask to be created, right? He just woke up one day and was told ‘hey, you’re like that guy, but worse’. No family. No friends. No childhood. Just ‘pop!’, ‘this is what you are!’ Can you imagine what that must feel like? I sure can’t.” I glanced at him cautiously before adding, “And then the guy your whole existence was supposed to revolve around doesn’t want anything to do with you.”

He winced. “I… haven’t thought about it like that.”

“I know,” I reached out and put a comforting hand on his arm. “You got screwed over. Badly. And no one should blame you for being pissed. But I think I know you well enough to know that you don’t want someone to be hurting when you can do something about it. And if the stories I know have any truth to them, then he is hurting right now.”

He didn’t speak for a while. We just sat in silence, staring out the window into deep space. I didn’t speak, choosing to let him take his time sorting out his feelings. Eventually, he let out a big sigh.

*Sigh!* “The others said I should take him in. Claimed he was my responsibility.”

“That’s bullshit,” I said immediately. “He’s not your responsibility.” But then I added, “You should take him in, though.”

He raised an eyebrow at me. “Why?”

I just shrugged. “Because you’re you.”