//------------------------------// // More Powerful Than a Locomotive // Story: Stallion of Tomorrow // by Jade Dawn //------------------------------// A “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” Fanfiction Written by Jade Dawn The lobby of the LexCore facility’s upper floors was large and spacious. The glass front wall and doors allowed streams of sunlight to pour inside, bathing the area in warm light and reflecting off of the tiled floor and reception desk in the center of the room. Tech Lexicon and Merciful Grace split away from the rest of their group and headed to one of the five elevators along the far side of the room. When they entered, Lex pushed a button for the sub-level laboratories, and the doors slid shut with a smooth electronic whirr. The elevator began to descend, a little chime going off as they passed each floor. Merciful dropped her usual stoic expression after the doors closed, replacing it with an almost sultry smile as she scooted a bit closer to Lex. “You were great out there,” she said to him. Lex smiled back at her. “Aren’t I always?” “Of course you are. Just paying you a compliment.” “Which I will forever appreciate,” Lex said as they both chuckled. Lex sighed contentedly. “I tell you, Mercy, I’ve got probably the greatest feeling I’ve had in a long time. All of this, this whole empire I’ve built up all these years, it's all coming together…I’m finally on the cusp of truly achieving my destiny, I can just feel it.” “Assuming that Planet reporter doesn’t spook everypony away,” Mercy noted. “She could stir up real trouble for us. I really don’t see why you keep playing with her. You know, I could have her taken care of, if you want…” “Oh, please,” Lex said with a dismissive wave of his hoof. “Lucky Lead may fancy herself as a crusader for truth and justice and all that, but really she’s just a mild nuisance at worst. She’s not worth my worry or your efforts. Really, she’s more amusing than she is a serious threat to business.” He shook his head with a mocking chuckle. “Besides…whatever credibility she may have had was thoroughly blasted when she started writing about Supermane.” “Speaking of Supermane,” Mercy said. “About the Elements of Harmony…do you buy their story about coming all this way to Manehattan to look for this guy?” “I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t. If I honestly thought somepony was trying to dig into LexCorp’s closets, then I’d have had you looking into it by now, don’t you think? “Fair enough. And Supermane himself? Lex raised an eyebrow. “What about him? He’s an urban legend, Mercy. A very charming and quaint little story, perhaps a bit empowering to the earth pony population if you want to get analytical, I suppose…but an urban myth all the same. Miss Lead and whomever else wants to believe in him can do so for all I care. But believe me, Mercy, Supermane is the least of my concerns right now.” The elevator chimed, and the doors slid open into a steel corridor stretching off into the distance. Metal pipes ran along where the walls met the ceiling, and every ten feet or so was a grille revealing wires and other electronics beneath. They were deep beneath the Plaza now, below even the riverbed that it was built on. It was in these lower levels that LexCorp had its most secretive laboratory complexes, out of sight of the public eye and secure from all but the most resourceful of intruders…and even they weren’t likely to get too terribly far should such a situation ever occur. Two guards, clad in similar armor to those at the gates above, stood on each side of the elevator, and they nodded to Lex and Mercy as they strode past into the corridor. As they walked, a green earth pony in a lab coat with a disheveled blonde mane and a microscope on his flanks came hurriedly down one of the adjacent corridors, holding a clipboard in one hoof. His ID denoted him as one Dr. Green Vale. “Oh, Mr. Lexicon, sir,” he called as he spotted the two and caught up with them. “I was actually just looking for you, I have a status update on the data transfer…” “In a moment, Dr. Vale,” Lex said, his voice now all business. “First I want to hear about your progress on replicating our K643 supply.” Dr. Vale’s face fell. “Uh, yes, about that…” Lex stopped in his tracks, and so did Mercy shortly after. As he turned his head to look at Dr. Vale, the poor scientist felt his eyes burning right through him. “What about ‘that’, Dr. Vale? Come on, spit it out.” Vale gulped. “W-well, you see…our replication trials have been, um…unsuccessful, sir…” “‘Unsuccessful’?” Lex echoed. “Unsuccessful how?” His voice had taken on a dangerous tone now, as if daring Dr. Vale to disappoint him. “Well, sir, y-you have to understand…the K643 we have on hoof comes from meteorites–“ “I know where it comes from, Vale, I was there when it came down. What I’m trying to get to is why the supposedly brilliant scientists I’ve hired are ‘unsuccessful’ at making more of a meteorite mineral.” “T-that’s just the problem, sir,” Vale stammered out. “I-it’s not really a mineral…it’s not like any single material we’ve ever encountered before, it’s…it’s almost like a conglomerate material of some kind. L-like a whole range of substances fused into one element, and…it’s like a little bit of everything. I-it’s just impossible for us to replicate with our current scientific understanding of it.” Lex shut his eyes and let out a deep, frustrated breath. “Hence your unsuccessful trials.” “Yes, e-exactly, sir. I mean, we could try recreating it magically, but without knowing everything that makes up its fused structure, we can’t–“ “Dr. Green Vale,” Lex said as he snapped his eyes open, resuming his stare through Vale’s soul. “Do you know why K643 is so vital to LexCorp?” Vale nodded shakily. “Y-yes, sir.” “Do you really? Would you mind being a bit more specific?” Vale was shaking like a leaf now. “It…it’s the fuel source for the LexCore reactor, sir…” “Exactly,” Lex said, taking a few steps closer to the trembling scientist. “The very pinnacle of our public research efforts. The very thing that I just announced to a good sized portion of this city’s population…are you starting to understand the problem you’re leaving me with here? Am I getting through to you, Dr. Vale?” Vale was almost too nervous to answer. For just a moment he found himself glancing away to Mercy, watching the whole thing with her usual stoic face, before looking away from her. He knew for a fact she wouldn’t save him. “Ponies want the LexCore,” Lex continued. He was right in front of Vale now, his voice turning into a snarl. “They’re asking for them in Baltimare and Fillydelphia, Canterlot, even as far out as Las Pegasus. Do you know that even the Griffons already want one?” “B-but sir–“ With another step Lex was right in his face, looming over him. “I’ve promised the world power, Dr. Green Vale. A power that I can put into their hooves that they or I can control as seen fit to do so. So do you really want to be the pony that forces me to go up in front of those teaming masses and tell them that I’m oh so sorry, but I can’t. Do it. Again?” Dr. Vale seemed to shrink as Lex towered over him, clutching his clipboard to his chest as if that would help still his racing heart. “W-we just need more time...” He straightened up a bit. “I-I think if we could have, um, maybe a year or so–“ “You and your teams have six months,” Lex replied. “Six months and then I want to see something on my office desk. Now then…” He turned away and he and Mercy resumed their walk down the hall. “I hope what you had to tell me is more positive in nature.” “Oh, oh yes,” Vale stuttered as he scrambled up off the floor and caught up with the two. “I-I was coming to tell you that, um, the transfer harness has been attached to the ship’s mainframe and our computers are ready to begin data mining.” Lex mulled this over. “Dr. Vale,” he said. “You may just redeem yourself yet.” They approached a sealed metal door at the far end of the corridor, flanked by another pair of armored guards. Lex waved them aside and stepped up to a hoof scanner beside the door, putting a foreleg onto the electronic pad until it beeped. The door opened with a hiss and a whirr, and Lex and Mercy stepped through into the room beyond, Dr. Vale following close behind. Beyond the door was a metallic balcony overlooking a spacious two-story laboratory room, its dull gray walls and floors lit by quartz light from above. Arranged in a half-circle around the room were various tables bearing keyboards and monitors, with a number of servers lining the walls on the far right side. The machines were manned by a number of ponies in lab coats going to and fro, checking the computers or going through notes. Directly across from the main entrance on the other side of the room were a pair of large, hangar sized doors that stretched from the floor to the ceiling; these led to a separate transit corridor that further stretched into the bowels of the facility. But it was the object in the center of the room that demanded the most immediate attention, and what all of the equipment in the room seemed to surround. It began as a rounded, smooth oval shape, about ten feet from end to end. Behind this first portion was a large manta-like body with two rounded wings, the far ends of which stretched into pronged tails that tapered away to points at the end of the object. Between these two prongs and just before the rest of the body was a kind of sphere lined with an array of spikes that grew bigger and longer as they neared the back center of the sphere, exposed between the two tail prongs. This spiked sphere was a kind of dull yellow color, while the rest of the object’s hull was a crystalline silver hue. End to end, the whole thing was about thirty to forty feet in length. It hung suspended above the laboratory’s floor by a crane, and a large clamp-like device had been attached to its underside just behind the oval portion, connected to the surrounding computers by a tangle of thick cables. Lex, Mercy, and Vale descended to the lower level by way of a metal staircase. Vale split away to confer with his fellow scientists, while Lex and Mercy approached the object itself. Lex smiled as he came up beneath it, reaching out with a foreleg and running his hoof along its smooth, glass-like surface as though he were caressing a loved one. “Twenty five years,” he whispered, a reminiscing note to his voice.. “Twenty five years and it still feels like just yesterday.” He still remembered the day the ship had come to him all those years ago, way back when he was still a colt trapped in some little town whose name he didn’t bother to remember, living under the roof of a drunkard of a stallion who couldn’t even begin to fathom what his own son could truly be. It had quite literally changed his life forever. The day it had come to him, and when he had begun trying to understand it, had been the day that he had finally realized his true potential. That he could be somepony in the world. Tech Lexicon had never believed in any sort of higher power. He’d barely even believed in Celestia–she’d never swooped in to save him from Daddy’s hoof. But that day, he’d almost believed something out there had seen his miserable existence and decided to give him a boon. He’d gone to great pains to hide it from the world, studying it in private, working out whatever he could with limited resources–all the while planning out his future. When he’d reached maturity and founded LexCorp, he’d finally begun to get the proper resources to examine the ship in earnest…and put its secrets to work for him. Those secrets had served him in good stead. For almost five years now, LexCorp had been incorporating little bits of reverse-engineered technology from the ship in just about all of their products; the sensor systems in their drones, the levitating engines of the new monorail, the crystalline circuitry in almost everything they made these days…a great deal of it had its origins within that ship. But just examining a hull could only get one so far. Lex wanted information; the data stored within the vessel’s computers that had the potential to give LexCorp whole worlds of new knowledge to put to their use. And it was this goal that today’s experiment hoped to reach. “You’ve given me so much already,” Lex whispered to the ship, smiling at his prize. ”Let’s see what else you have to offer...” “Mr. Lexicon?” Dr. Vale called from among the computer scientists. “Um, we’re almost ready to begin here.” “Ah, very good,” Lex replied, giving the hull one last stroke before heading over to the computers. He and Mercy stood behind the scientists, almost hovering over them as they worked. This certainly wasn’t lost on them, and more than one took nervous glances over their shoulders. “Data mining program is online,” one mare announced as she looked at the readout on a monitor. “Servers are ready to receive information…all systems are go.” “We’re ready when you are, sir,” Dr. Vale told Lex. Lex nodded. “Do it.” Dr. Vale took a deep breath, then tapped out a set of commands on his keyboard. The computers beeped and hummed, internal fans whirring as they went to work. On a large screen in the center of the arranged monitor tables, a window popped up: XENODATA TRANSFER IN PROGRESS. LexOS SYSTEMS RECEIVING DATA. DOWNLOADING… DOWNLOADING… DOWNLOADING… “We have connection!” Dr. Vale announced, his voice a mix of nervous relief and genuine joy. Around him, his fellow scientists cheered and patted each other’s backs, while a few–including Vale himself–wiped sweat from their brows as they watched the numbers increasing and speeding up as the computers soaked in more and more data from the ship. Lex, for his own part, was grinning from ear to ear as he watched. His mood was sufficiently cheery now that he felt like indulging Vale in a bit of complimenting. “Well done, Dr. Vale.” “Oh, um…thank you, Mr. Lexicon, sir…” But Lex had already moved on from him. Now his mind was spinning with the possibilities of what they might find buried in the ship’s computers. They’d already gleaned so much from the body alone, but he was almost frothing at the bit to know what else they could get. The possibilities were endless, and not even the sky was the limit anymore… The moment of rapture was suddenly cut off when an error message flooded the screens, and a repeated beeping rang out. With a jump the scientists rushed to their keyboards, hooves flying over controls and speaking worriedly with each other. Lex frowned. “What’s this? What’s happening?” “Some kind of firewall in the computer systems,” one of the technicians said from his seat. “Attempting to bypass now.” Lex rolled his eyes. Setbacks. Lovely. “It’s to be expected, sir,” Vale reminded him. “An advanced computer system like that, I imagine they’d have–“ “I’m aware of that, Vale,” Lex said in annoyance, and Vale promptly shut his mouth. Lex was beginning to feel that restlessness that he got in moments of sufficient annoyance, and he began to tap a hoof against the floor. Of course the ship’s computers would prove difficult to pierce. Nopony needed to tell him that. Any civilization advanced enough to send a ship like that through the stars would likely be smart enough to have some level of protection on their computer systems. That didn’t mean he had to like it, though. However briefly, this would delay the process. And it wasn’t like they could just tell the ship that its creators weren’t around and expect it to open up… “Alright, we’re through. Resuming sequence.” On the screen the error messages disappeared and the data size counter resumed its climb. Sighs of relief echoed throughout the lab as the computers went back to work… …for all of twenty seconds before the alarms sounded again as they hit another firewall, and the scientists scrambled back to their keyboards. “For goodness sakes…make it quick!” Lex barked. “I want to download as much information as we possibly can get.” “We’re working on it,” one of the scientists replied. “It keeps blocking us out at almost every turn.” “Mr. Lexicon, please,” Dr. Vale said. “This is an alien computer system that we only barely understand, they’re doing their best–” “They’re supposedly some of the best computer scientists LexCorp has on staff,” Lex hissed back, beginning to pace. “I expect them to be doing their best.” “Lex?” Mercy said, her voice oddly concerned. Lex stopped and looked up to see her staring at the ship and pointing at the ship, and followed the direction of her hoof towards it. He saw that there was now a red glow coming from deep within the center of the vessel’s crystalline hull, spreading through the silvery structure in line-like patterns that he saw slowly creeping from the center outward. The spiked amber ball towards the end was glowing a dark yellow, slowly beginning to rotate in place where it hovered. A strange noise had begun too; it began as a faint hum, but steadily grew into an ever-louder droning sound, like some kind of generator powering up. “Oh dear…” Vale whispered. “Mr. Lexicon!” Another scientist shouted from the far end of the row. “We’re reading some kind of energy build-up with in the ship; it’s spreading all throughout the hull!” “What kind of energy build-up?” Lex shouted back. “I don’t know sir…it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before!” “Some kind of defense mechanism?” Mercy whispered. “Just keep probing the thing!” Lex shouted at the scientists. He watched the scene before him unfold; the scientists were frantically working the computers and typing on keyboards, desperately evading firewalls, but the ship was throwing them up about as fast as they could work through them. Others yelled out warnings as the anomalous energy signature increased. The red glow within the crystalline hull had spread to all over the vessel, and the drone morphed into a sound like a roaring hurricane. It was like the ship was angry at them. “It’s still throwing up firewalls!” Somepony cried. “We’re barely able to keep up and hack past them!" “Energy signature continuing to rise! Hull temperature increasing…” “We have to abort!” Vale called out over the sound. “Shut down the program and–“ “DON’T YOU BUCKING DARE!” Lex roared, racing past Vale and shoving aside the scientists at one of the nearest terminals, beginning to work the program himself. He certainly knew how; he’d partially designed it himself. This close to the ship, though, he could feel the heat now radiating from it, and felt hair on the back of his neck tingle as he came close to whatever exotic energy field the ship was radiating. The glow was now as bright as a raging fire and felt like it, too. Lex paid it no mind. He threw his mind and self into the program, battling alien code and firewalls in a frantic struggle to keep the data stream flowing, honing all of his mental energies into pillaging the ship’s information. He’d waited years to be able to do this. He would not be denied now. His concentration was momentarily broken when he felt Mercy tugging at his shoulder with a hoof. “Sir, we need to go, right–“ “NO!” He shoved her away and without bothering to look to where she fell turned back to the screen, frantically trying to salvage the data stream. Off in a corner of the screen, a little pop-up window was rapidly flicking through images and lines of data drawn from the ship, most passing by too fast for him to properly glimpse; star charts, alphabets… But then, just for a fraction of a second, a brief burst of red on the window suddenly caught his eye. By the time he’d turned his gaze to look at it it was gone, but some part of his mind told him that he’d seen that particular image before. What was– He heard Mercy scream “LEX!”, and then in the span of an instant, the ship’s red light flashed into a brilliant white. A sudden, unseen force slammed into Lex, forcing air from his chest as it threw him backwards across the lab. He landed with a hard thud on his back, and as a result had a good view of the ceiling above as the overhead lights blinked out, plunging the room into total darkness. “…and with this impressive speed combined with its vertical takeoff and landing capacities,” the showmare said while the pony sized, quad-rotored drone hovered and whirred up in the air above the stand. “The PRS-110 Parasprite is capable of maneuvering with all the speed and efficiency of a normal pegasus, with none of the drawbacks or limitations. Questions? Yes, you there.” She pointed at Dawning Hope’s raised hoof. “Um, yeah,” Dawning began. “As, uh, as I understand it, these drones of yours are meant for long-distance aerial cargo hauling, right?” “That will be one of their functions, yes.” “Got it. So I take it LexCorp intends these to ultimately supersede pony mail carriers? Does LexCorp plan on its own mail delivery service?” There was no accusing tone in his voice–it was a genuine question–but it had just enough punch to get a few members of the crowd murmuring amongst themselves. The showmare cleared her throat. From the sound of her breath and the way her heart jolted just the least little bit, Dawning could tell that she didn’t like having to address that question. “W-well, we’re not fully certain how the introduction of our drone tech will impact the Equestrian Postal Service as of now, so, it’s really more of a ‘we’ll see’ matter. Uh, next question?” Quicksnap leaned close to Dawning. “Looks like you got her kinda flustered,” he whispered. “You been taking hints from Miss Lead?” Dawning chuckled. “Yeah, I guess I have been…” Then he heard the first whispers of consternation echoing from the deeper floors of the Plaza’s labs. They were distorted and muffled by whatever shielding was in place below the surface, but he’d heard enough by now to know that those were the sounds of mounting concern. He focused on his ears, mentally filtering out the sounds of the crowd and showcase attendants, trying to listen in on the voices. Concern became alarm, alarm became panic…and then suddenly a burst of surprise and fear. Almost instinctually he turned and tried once more to visually pierce through the shield. He’d just started filtering through into the electromagnetic spectrum when his vision was suddenly filled by a blinding wall of white coming straight up out of the ground. It was like staring right into the sun; a brief moment’s look at that wall of light blinded him and he shut his eyes tight and turned away. A strange shiver, like the feeling of something passing through him, went through his body, and then he began to hear the sounds of concerned murmuring from the surrounding ponies. Dawning opened his eyes. Around him, the crowd was looking between themselves worriedly. All of the LexCorp devices had stopped; moving machines had frozen in place, lights were dimmed, and their attendants were looking them over and talking to each other in confusion. He saw some of the guards trying their shoulder-mounted radios, to no effect. It was like every electronic in LexCorp Plaza had just gone dead. And then he remembered the drone. He looked up to see that it’s rotors had stopped and it was falling to the ground, the crowd near the stand fleeing as it came down…right towards Quicksnap. “Quicksnap, look out!” Dawning yelled, charging into the young hippogriff and plowing him out of the way just as the metal flier crashed to the pavement, shattering into pieces. The two rolled across the ground before coming to a stop, panting and staring at the wreck. Quicksnap’s eyes were wide. “Holy…dude, you just…” “Don’t mention it,” Dawning said as he helped him up. Still numb, Quicksnap raised his camera to get a shot of the wrecked drone, but then stopped with a frown. “Hey, what the heck? My camera’s not turning on!” “Isn’t that the new digital one?” Dawning asked. “Yeah, it is,” Quicksnap replied as he fiddled with the buttons. “But I made sure to charge the batteries before we left, it should be good for hours!” Rarity and Lucky Lead came running up through the uneasy crowd to them, looking about as worried as everypony else. “Did you see it?” Lucky asked as she skidded to a halt before them. “Everything just went out. The robots, the electrics, everything.” “We know. We almost got hit by a drone when it fell,” Quicksnap said as he gestured to the fallen machine. “Even my camera’s not working anymore…geez, I hope the pics don’t get lost…” “Oh dear,” Rarity murmured worriedly. “What in Equestria could be going on?” “I don’t know,” Dawning said as he looked around at the scene. “I really don’t know…” The blackout didn’t stop at LexCorp Plaza. It spread out at a rapid pace, sweeping through the city within seconds in a manner that suggested an unseen circular shockwave. Lights blinked out, appliances stopped working, whatever computers were being used shut down. The giant, colorfully lighted billboards of the Bridleway Theater District went dark. Police officers tried to call headquarters, only to find their radios completely silent without even any static. At Manehattan General Hospital, the staff tried to remain calm as they went to emergency generators, only beginning to openly panic when they discovered that these too refused to activate. In short, if it was electric, it went completely dead as the invisible wave spread across the city. Another such casualty was the LexCorp monorail. Rainbow Dash was napping and Fluttershy was watching the skyline go by when it hit. All at once there was a sudden jolt and a groaning of metal as the hover engines cut out. The tram lurched as it ground to a halt, throwing passengers from their seats, Dash and Fluttershy tumbling over each other with frightened yelps as they hit the floor. The interior lights flicked off, leaving only sunlight to illuminate the tram. Rainbow picked herself up off the floor. “Holy cow…what the…oh geez, Fluttershy!” She bent down to help Fluttershy to her hooves. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?” “I-I’m fine,” Fluttershy said as she shook herself out of a daze. “Just surprised…what happened?” “I dunno…it looks like we lost power.” “Oh dear…I hope that doesn’t mean we’re stuck here…” “Eh, I wouldn’t worry about it. Trust me, they’ll have it back in a couple minutes max. And if they don’t then they’ll send somepony to come get us.” She said it in an unworried tone of voice, but as she looked up and down the tram at the confused and murmuring passengers, she felt worried as well. From the way everypony was acting, it was obvious that this was about as much a surprise to them as it was to her and Fluttershy. “…just went completely dark…” “…never happened before…” “…Lex said this was guaranteed…” “…get it back on again, don’t worry…” Suddenly the lights flashed back on again, and everypony aboard blinked in the glare for a moment. The hover engines hummed as they came back online, and the tram began to move forward as it resumed its course on the track again. The passengers sighed in relief, some of them chuckling a little, as they took their seats again, while a few others still murmured in annoyance. “There, see? What’d I tell ya?” Rainbow said to Fluttershy as they sat back down. “Nothing to worry about.” “I’m just glad its over,” Fluttershy replied. “I mean…I know it was probably just a hiccup, but…” “Still a bit spooky, yeah. I get ya, Flutters. Anyway, now that that’s over…” Rainbow crossed her hind legs, leaned her head back on the seat, and shut her eyes again. Fluttershy, meanwhile, turned to look out the windows as the sights outside passed by again. The buildings of Manehattan’s skyline whizzed by in blurs, the blue sky and white clouds above repeatedly cut off from view as they went. The ponies on the streets below became colored bars streaking past, and she could only get fleeting momentary glimpses of things as the tram went on its speedy way. In fact, now that she thought about it… “Um, Rainbow? Rainbow…” Rainbow groaned as she opened her eyes. “Hmm, what? Sorry, was just drifting off, what is it?” “M-maybe it’s just me, but…are we going a bit faster than we were before?” “Wha?” Rainbow waved a hoof. “Nah. It’s just your imagination. C’mon, don’t let the blackout spook ya. We’re moving just as fast as we were before.” Then she frowned as she thought. “At least I think we are…actually…hey, you!” She pointed at the nearest passenger, an earth pony mare. “Is it just me or is this thing going faster than it should be?” A nervous look crossed the mare’s face. “I…I think so, actually…I’ve ridden this tram dozens of times by now, but it does feel like…” “Oh dear…” Fluttershy murmured. By now the other passengers were clearly beginning to notice, and the sounds of worried conversation began to fill the tram. Rainbow looked towards the front windows. “W-well, look. We’re just getting to the next station, so I’m pretty sure we’ll stop once we get there…” Fluttershy nodded, but she could tell from her voice that Rainbow was trying to reassure herself as much as she was everypony else. Everypony on the train watched with bated breath as they approached the station. It was only less than a minute away now, but it felt like an eternity. Some of the passengers sat down again, a few visibly clutching the edges nervously. The rest stood around, either silently watching or talking to each other, in equal measures of comfort and concern. Fluttershy, for her own part, scooted a bit closer to Rainbow Dash. They were thirty seconds away from the station now. The train kept up its speed. Twenty five seconds. Fifteen. Ten. Still no sign of stopping. By the time the monorail went whooshing on through and past the station, so fast that it was a half-second blur that came and went in an instant, everypony on the tram realized exactly what was happening. And with that realization, concern became outright fear. “We didn’t stop! Why didn’t we stop?!” “We’re going too fast!” “Somepony do something!” “Rainbow!” Fluttershy wailed, her heart pounding, her breath beginning to come out in ragged gasps. Rainbow was just about to say something when suddenly the track curved to the left. And with the tram going at the terrific speed it was, the sudden swerve caused everypony inside to be violently flung against the opposite walls of the train. Fluttershy cried out as she smacked into the glass windows, Rainbow landing on top of her, and the two slid down tangled together. Fluttershy was very close to hyperventilating now. As a pegasus she and Rainbow–mostly the latter–were used to high speeds. But now they were locked in a metal tube hurtling down a track at over a hundred miles an hour, and her terror was extreme. “I don’t want to die!” She cried to Rainbow. “I don’t want to die!” “We’re not gonna die!” Rainbow yelled, barely able to hide her own panic. “They’ll get it shut down, they’ve got to…I mean, the track loops back around to where it started, right?” She directed this last question to the other passengers nearby. The only responses she got were silent, wide-eyed stares. And then the screaming began in earnest. “…oh crap.” The control room for the LexCorp monorail system was a large, dark room akin to that of a space center’s mission control. Around a dozen ponies went to and fro between its desks, each lined with computers and monitors that tracked the system across the city, while a master screen against one wall provided a view of the whole line. Right now the controllers were in full panic mode. The blackout had already thrown things in disarray, but the situation they had now was nothing short of a nightmare come true. “What do you mean Tram 04 isn’t slowing down?” Rail Iron, the manager, barked to one of the technicians. The young stallion at the console was sweating, the droplets lit up by the glow of his screen. “W-when the power came back the onboard computers didn’t restart properly. The program is frozen!” Stupid automation, Rail Iron thought to himself. “Can’t you shut it down from here?” “I’m trying, but I can’t access the computer! The whole thing's frozen up!” “Well…where is it now?” Tram 04 showed up as a blinking red light on the map of Manehattan. “Right here, sir,” said a mare at the next desk over. “Just turned into Midtown East and heading into the Upper East…Side…” She looked at Rail Iron with a look of horror on her face. “…that segment of the line isn’t finished yet, sir.” “Mother of Celestia…somepony call the police! There’s going to be an accident!” Rarity looked around the LexCorp Plaza as she stood with Dawning, Lucky and Quicksnap. Everything was still offline, and LexCorp personnel were weaving in and out of the crowd as they apparently tried to figure out what was going on. “I do hope the girls are alright,” she muttered. “Do you think the monorail isn’t working either?” “It looks like the whole city’s out,” Lucky replied. “Then yeah, the monorail’s probably out too.” “Oh dear…to be stranded in the middle of the track like that…” “I-I’m sure they’re fine,” Dawning said. Around them, the display screens suddenly lit back up. There was a loud whirring of hydraulics as one of the quadrupedal mechs reactivated nearby and was righted by its pilot. From around the plaza came the sounds of relief as power was restored and all of LexCorp's displayed marvels came back to life. Rarity chuckled. “Oh, what a relief…for a minute there I was actually getting nervous–“ “IT LIVES!” Quicksnap cried, happily holding his digital camera. “Now I just hope that…nooo, no no no no…everything got erased!” “Oh geez…I’m sorry, Quicksnap,” Dawning said. “Hey, look on the bright side, kiddo,” Lucky told him. “At least the blackout story’s gonna be a more interesting scoop than the Lexpo. A lot less ego, too.” She chuckled a bit. “Oh geez, I can’t wait to hear Lex try to explain…hey, what’s going on over there?” They saw crowds of ponies hurrying out of the Plaza gates back to the monorail station, and the group followed them out. When they arrived there was a scene of commotion; ponies were crowding and shouting around the terminal, and they could see a LexCorp pony standing on one of the benches as she tried to calm everypony down, even though they could see that she was worried at whatever was happening herself. “What’s happening?” Lucky asked. “What’s going on?” “The monorail went crazy when the power came back!” Somepony shouted to her amidst the crowd. “It’s going too fast and they can’t shut it down!” “Oh Celestia, look at that…” Quicksnap muttered as he pointed to one of the display screens. The edges of the digital map were now illuminated with flashing red “TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES” messages, and they could see a single bright red dot speeding down the track lines throughout the city, ever closer to a point further down where the track apparently stopped. Rarity gasped in horror as it sank in. “Rainbow Dash…Fluttershy! Sweet Celestia, if they’re on that thing…” “Oh, horseapples…” Lucky muttered. Quicksnap turned to look at Dawning, only to find that he wasn’t at his side. “Hey…where’d Dawning go?” Lucky shook her head absentmindedly. “Must’ve gotten lost in the crowd…” Then she suddenly pushed her way forward, heading to the exit of the station that led back out to the city streets. “Come on, we’ve got to catch up with this thing!” Dawning hadn’t been fully thinking when he’d silently backed away from his friends and disappeared into the churning crowd of ponies. It had been more involuntary than anything else. An instinct. That instinct. Because even now over the roar of the mob, he could hear the panicked cries of the passengers onboard the runaway monorail. He could pick out every single voice inside of it. Every frightened scream, every little prayer for some form of rescue… …and he heard Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy among them loudest of all. Whether because they actually were the loudest or because he was honing in on them the most he didn’t know. But he did know what he was doing now. What he had to do. He didn’t even consciously think of it; that little instinct deep inside of him knew what he must do now. So he slipped between the ever moving crowd, ducking his head to keep a low profile, looking for a corner to slip into. Eventually he made his way past the largest concentration of bodies into a kind of alley between two of the LexCorp Plaza’s buildings. He went down to the far end and turned a corner, then kept going until he was certain he was alone, giving the area an x-ray sweep to make sure there were no guards or cameras within range. There were none, and so he stopped and set his saddlebags down on the pavement. The glasses came off first, exposing his bright, sapphire-like eyes to the world. Next came the shirt collar and the tie. He stuffed these three aside into one bag, and then opened the other, the one containing his costume, and reached in to pull it out with both hooves. In the light of day, the navy blue shirt and mahogany cloak and hood looked dull and drab; they were really better suited for his nighttime patrols. But the crimson “S” painted on the shirt stood out in a bright flare of color, almost radiant. And as he held his ensemble aloft and that bright red “S” caught the light of the sun, he suddenly stopped. The instinct was overridden by conscious thought. Thought and worry. Supermane was about to show up in broad daylight in full view of very likely the entire city. There was no way he would be able to hide himself now, no way he could generate enough mystique to have ponies still write him off as an urban legend. The hood wouldn’t even mask his face as well as it did in the dark of night. They’d all see him for sure. If he wasn’t careful they might even get a good look at his face. And then it’d all be over. They’d ID him, hunt him down, maybe capture him and cart him off to some research lab somewhere. They’d figure out exactly what he was, and his entire quest of two years would come to an end. And even if that worst case scenario didn’t happen, they’d still see him. You take this genie out of the bottle, Dawning, and he can never go back in. For a moment, Dawning Hope lingered as he stared back at the crimson symbol. He felt his forelegs begin to droop by just a little, subtly lowering the costume back into the bag. But then the sounds of fear and terror from the train came to his ears again. The sounds of Fluttershy and… …and it wasn’t a debate anymore. He pulled his clothing out of the bag entirely and got to putting it on, slipping the shirt over his torso and draping the cloak around himself, making sure the hood was up as far over his head as it could go without obscuring his vision. After that, he bunched up his saddlebags and made sure they were well-hidden below a grating in the pavement. Dawning Hope, now clothed in the garments of Supermane, stepped into the middle of the alleyway, and steeled himself for what he was about to do. One last time his anxieties reared their heads. They’ll see you. They’ll find out who you are. They’ll find out what you are and– –and if I don’t do something then ponies will die. Supermane took one last deep breath, crouched down…and then with a kick of his hind legs he leapt. Up, up, and away. Lucky, Rarity, and Quicksnap had left the LexCorp Plaza by now, and were running down the streets beneath the monorail line as fast as their hooves could take them. Quicksnap panted as he tried to keep up, gripping his camera bag tightly in his talons. Even with flying with his hippogriff’s wings he ended up lagging behind a bit. “Do we…even have any idea...what we can actually do?” He panted as he flew behind them. “And…and where’d Dawning go?” “He can catch up with us later!” Lucky shouted back. “We’ve got to catch up with it now!” “For the love of Celestia, we have to do something!” Rarity cried. There was a sudden gust of wind as something came whooshing over the three’s heads, blowing manes and feathers and bringing them to a skidding halt on the sidewalk. There were sudden yells of awe and wonder from the surrounding pedestrians, and the three looked up to see a fast moving, red and dark blue blur flying at breakneck speeds overhead. This blur happened to look very much like a pony. The trio’s mouths hung wide open as they watched the pony-shaped blur disappear around the side of a building. “Holy spit…” Quicksnap whispered. Rarity turned to Lucky. “Ms. Lead, do you think that could have been…” But Lucky Lead was silent. Slowly, very slowly, the edges of her mouth curved up into a grin. Fluttershy was in hell. She’d never actually say that word aloud, but it was the only way she could describe it if she could. It was an enclosed, cramped, tube-shaped hell that roared down a track at what felt like lightspeed. It rocked and rumbled in an unstable way, throwing her from her seat to the floor to the walls and back again as she screamed and cried. She wasn’t alone in this hell. Dozens of other ponies shared her same terror. Most were screaming with her, gripping tightly to their seats or overhead straps as they to keep themselves from being battered against the walls. A few others, Rainbow Dash included, were frantically pulling and clawing at the doors in a vain attempt to pry them open. She saw one terrified stallion slamming his hooves against the windows, trying desperately to break them to make an escape. But they couldn’t get out. They were traveling over a hundred miles an hour in a long metal coffin heading to an end in the track, and they couldn’t get out. The train jolted again and Fluttershy was hurled against one of the side windows. A stab of pain went through her muzzle as she smacked into it. She felt liquid beginning to run down from one nostril, and tasted blood against her lips shortly after. Outside, the city of Manehattan became a psychedelic blur of dull colored blocks flashing past her line of vision. Help. Somepony. Please. I don’t want to die. Not like this. Then through the blur of buildings she saw a point of red and dark blue streaking towards the train. Instinct told her that it was a bird. Half a second later she realized that it was a pony in a dark red cloak and dark blue shirt. A pegasus? No. Not a pegasus. This pony flew with no wings, no glow of a magical aura. And then as he came nearer to the runaway monorail she caught a glimpse of the vibrant red symbol on the chest of his shirt… …and she knew. “Oh my…” Wind slammed into Supermane’s hooded face as he flew alongside the track, and his red cloak flapped like mad behind him as he approached the speeding tram. Catching up with the monorail and keeping up with it was easy. The real problem on Dawning Hope’s mind was how to stop it. He remembered reading a superhero comic as a kid where the hero of the story had stopped a train by simply punching it. As a colt, especially when he’d started realizing how strong he was, he’d thought that was the coolest thing ever, and in a child-like way he’d always wanted to try that. But as he’d grown up and come to better understand his powers, he knew now that that was the worst possible thing to do in that situation. Comic books didn’t have to worry about things like physics or momentum. He did right now. If he just slammed into the train full force like that, he’d either go right through it or smash it to pieces entirely. Lifting it off the track wasn’t an option either; this was a four-car train, and they’d all just end up slamming together from the new center of gravity. Luckily, he did have something of an idea of how to go about this. At least a little bit of an idea. Keep pace with it, Dawning. Match its speed. He flew himself right up to the front of the train and slowly began to veer towards it. A second later he reached out with his front hooves and grabbed onto the sloping edge of the tram’s front end, pulling his whole body right on the very front of it, just beneath the forward window. Only when he was in actual contact with it did he begin to push it back. It was a lot heavier than he’d thought it would be. He’d lifted things that most ponies couldn’t lift, but he’d never done anything quite like this before. He continued to push against the tram’s front, feeling it begin to slow little by little…and not nearly fast enough for his liking. He reached down with his hind legs and let his hooves touch the track, feeling the intense heat of friction as they scraped into its surface. And still he pushed against the tram, beginning to feel strain. Then there was a crunching sound as the metal beneath his hooves began to dent inward. A crack began to form in the front window. When this happened he relaxed his push against it, but still clung on. This wasn’t working. They were still going too fast and he wasn’t slowing it down enough to make a noticeable difference. And they’d hit the end of the track very soon. Actually, how close are we to the end? Dawning wondered as he turned his head over his shoulder to check. …oh. Without even boosting his vision in any way, he could already see that they were rapidly approaching the end of the line. At the speed they were going they’d hit it in about two minutes, maybe less. Dawning looked back to the partially crumpled front end, frantically thinking. He needed to find some way to slow the tram down without risking wrecking it further. If he could somehow turn on the brakes or deactivate the engines or… Wait a minute… He pierced his gaze through the front of the tram, going right through it until he rested his eyes on the forward hover engine. It illuminated the track beneath a bright blue, and he could see the strange crystalline circuitry within that he knew LexCorp used in a lot of their newer products. That’s it. Please, let this work… He willed heat into his eyes, letting it stream in shafts of rippling air from his glowing pupils. The metal of the front of the tram turned red and began to melt. He pushed more heat into his vision, and the rippling air became tight beams of shimmering red light as his eyes grew as bright as miniature suns. The metal turned white hot and two holes opened as he pushed the beams through the front, through a small section of the tram’s floor, right down through the whole of the thing until they hit the circuits of the hover engine. His eyes burned, but still he fired his heat vision through the tram into the engine, watching through red-tinted sight as it began to glow and smoke. And then the engine suddenly exploded into a shower of sparks and soot that rained down into the street below and disappeared. With nothing to keep the front-most tram car up, it dipped down onto the track itself. Sparks flew and an ear-piercing shriek of metal on metal filled the air. The bottom of the tram was thick; it’d get scraped up by the time this was over, but it would hold. Dawning cut off the heat and began pushing on the tram again, pushing his back hooves into the track as well. But now with the added friction he could feel it slowing down a lot faster. He might just do it, maybe. But then he looked back at the end of the track again. They were only seconds away from it now, and the barricade on the track was looming ever closer. He threw all of his energy into his hooves and pushed as hard as he could. The tram slowed more but still kept going. They were twenty seconds from the edge now. Supermane kept pushing. He heard the terrified screams of the ponies inside. Ten seconds. Come on, Dawning, you can do this… Five seconds. Oh, Celestia, please! He felt the barricade smash into his back as tram and Supermane went crashing through it. Two seconds later he felt the track suddenly disappear from his hooves and he slipped, gripping on as tight as he could with his front hooves. The front car of the tram slid out over the end of the track and the street below as it finally slowed to a stop. Too far over. It began to tilt downward, beginning to slide forward. Still hanging from its front end, Dawning began to lift upward. He felt the weight of it crush against his front hooves as he pushed it back, the nose of it crumpling in further. The front window cracked to pieces entirely, and shards of black tinted glass rained down around him as screams echoed from the ponies inside. At this point he couldn’t lift it back up onto the track, but he could make sure it settled down gently. Still fighting the weight of the tram, Dawning held it up in his hooves as the two of them slowly lowered to the ground. At last he felt his hooves touch the pavement of the street, and standing on his hind legs he began to step back and lower the front of the tram down to the ground in his hooves. It felt like forever, but at last he set it gently down and stepped away, dropping back to all four hooves as it settled. The front car of the tram was now hanging slanted almost vertically from the track above, resting on the ground by its nose. But it stayed where it was and didn’t move. Dawning gave the tram an x-ray scan, taking a look at the ponies inside. Plenty were injured, bruised and a little bloodied in some instances. A good many would need medical attention from being thrown around inside. But they were all alive. He could see the lights of their body heat and magic shining bright, and heard the sound of their hearts pumping loud and clear, still beating in shock at what had just happened. Everyone would be alright, and Supermane sighed in relief. Around the end of the track was a variety of construction materials; metal beams and support columns, stacks of trackway, various construction implements. Dawning slowly walked to a pile of piping and leaned against it as he caught his breath. He felt tired, more from the stress of the situation than any sort of physical exertion. As he watched he saw that rescue crews were already arriving on the scene. Police ponies, firefighters, ambulances, the works. Civilians and reporters began to crowd around the base of the track as well, looking up at it in awe as pegasi flew over the scene up above. “Wait…is that Supermane?” Dawning didn’t know who had said that, but as soon as he heard it a jolt of terror went through his chest, and he staggered back up to his hooves. The crowd had begun to notice him now, and slowly the teaming mass began to turn their attention and discussions. Eyes went wide, jaws dropped, and hushed murmurings began drifting from the gathered throng. “Holy spit, he’s real?!” “…thought he was just a myth…” “…I told you, didn’t I??” “…stopped the whole train…” “Who is he?!” Dawning began backing away, nervously glancing at the approaching wall of ponies. Then from somewhere in the back he saw Quicksnap, Rarity, and Lucky pushing their way through the crowd. He felt a light breeze brush against his mane and the fur of his face, and he suddenly realized that his hood had been blown back during his struggle with the tram. Oh no… When the front end of the tram had gone down, Fluttershy had slid down to the front end with it, managing to save herself from going out the forward window when it shattered by clinging to one of the seats. Now that it had settled, she was sitting on what ordinarily would be a backrest as she stared out the gaping hole where the window used to be, feeling her heart gradually slow from its terrified pounding. In any other situation she might have been trying to find Rainbow Dash, or clambering out of the tram as fast as she could, or wiping the blood away from her muzzle.. But right now, she was frozen in place as she gazed through the broken window at the pony beyond, slowly letting the reality of it all sinking into her mind. Supermane was real. He had flown in from out of nowhere and stopped the tram. He’d saved their lives. He’d saved her life. He looked almost exactly the way the newspapers had described. A tall, well-built stallion of tan fur and black mane, clothed in a mahogany cloak with a hood and a dark blue shirt, on which was painted that vivid red “S” shield. His hood was down, and she saw him looking at the approaching crowd in fear, like he was afraid that they’d seen him in full. Then as he looked around his eyes met her, and for a moment her cyan gaze was locked with his sapphire blue eyes. They were unlike any other blue she’d ever seen in her life, deep and vibrant like some exotic crystal. She saw his ears flatten as she met his gaze. Fluttershy opened her mouth to call out to him; a “thank you”, a “hello”, just something. But before she could think of what to say, Supermane frantically reached up with his hooves to pull his hood back over his head, staggering away from the tram and the crowd in the process. Just then, Rainbow Dash slid down. “Fluttershy! Oh geez, your nose is bleeding, are you okay…what are you looking at?” She followed Fluttershy’s silent gaze and found herself watching Supermane, just in time to see him finally get his hood back over his head and turning away from the crowd. “Hey! You, wait! Hold it right there, buster!” She leapt out the broken window and flew straight at Supermane. Just before she reached him, he kicked himself up into the air and shot away like a rocket, arcing up over the nearby buildings. “Oh no you don’t!” Rainbow yelled as she banked up to follow him. The sounds of the astonished crowd were drowned out by the rush of wind in her ears as she pushed herself faster in pursuit of the flying earth pony. He was fast. Rainbow wasn’t sure what she had expected–definitely not for Supermane to be a real pony–but he was far faster than she had expected, easily keeping his distance and actually getting farther from her. He suddenly banked to the right around a building, obviously trying to shake her. Luckily for her she was able to match the turn and keep on his tail, and when he tried turning to the left she was able to follow him again. “I don’t care how fast you are!” She shouted. “I’m still the fastest flier in Equestria!” Then all of a sudden he stopped in mid-air, and Rainbow went whooshing past him before she realized what he’d done. When she did figure it out she quickly turned around… …only to find that he was gone. “…huh?! Where’d you go?!” She flew over the streets and buildings, looking this way and that for any sign of her elusive target. She found none, and it slowly sank in that she had lost him. She began to fly back to the crashed monorail, unable to believe what had just happened. Supermane was real. And he had outflown her. In little time she had returned to the scene of the accident. Rescue operations were in full force by now. Wounded ponies were being led away by medics, one or two on stretchers. Rarity, Lucky, and Quicksnap were with Fluttershy just next to the tram, the unicorn fashionista holding Fluttershy in a tight hug. Rainbow heard Lucky asking questions at a mile a minute as she landed nearby them. “…how fast was he flying?! Did you see how he blew the engine out?! It was the laser eyes, wasn’t it? It had to have been the laser eyes! Oh, oh, did you get to see his face?!” “Ms. Lead, if you don’t mind…” Rarity admonished. “I-I’m sorry, I’m just…still a little shaken up,” Fluttershy added. To her credit, Lucky seemed to back off a bit. “Sorry, sorry, this is just so big…hey, you! Rainbow!” Quick as a wink she was up in Rainbow Dash’s face, something very close to a smug grin on her face. “You saw him didn’t you?! Come on, you were the one who didn’t believe me, you were the one who thought I was crazy, didn’t you?! Come on, look me in the eye and tell me you saw him!” “I…y-yeah, I did, I–“ “YES!” Lucky yelled, throwing her hooves up in the air and almost dancing with pure joy. “YES, YES, YES YES YES! I knew it! And everypony was thinking I was crazy, but here we are! HAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!” Lucky’s triumphant laughter echoed down the street and up the walls of the surrounding buildings…including the one that Dawning Hope was hiding on top of. After he’d shaken Rainbow Dash he’d looped back around to see how they were handling the accident. He didn’t dare risk showing himself again, though. Instead of peeking over the edge he was simply x-raying through the building to get a view of the ground below, keeping one hoof reflexively gripping his hood as though it would blow away again. Supermane was an urban myth no longer. Now he was a very real pony that the citizens of Manehattan knew about…and one that they’d now be looking for. They’d all seen him fly after the train and save it from certain destruction. They’d all seen his face when it was over. Lucky Lead and Quicksnap had probably seen him too. Fluttershy had seen him for sure. And if they knew what he looked like without the glasses… This wasn’t just bad. This was a disaster. But…at least he’d prevented one. He’d saved the tram and everypony onboard. They were all alive, and they’d all be fine. And that was what mattered most. …right? Tech Lexicon returned to consciousness to the sight of the harsh lights of the lab, the feel of hooves frantically pushing against his side, Merciful Grace’s frantic voice in his ears, and a general aching feeling all over. “Lex? Lex, can you hear me? Are–“ “I’m fine, I’m fine!” Lex snapped as he batted her hooves away, then rolled off of his back to push himself back into a standing position. He groaned as he stood on his hooves, feeling sore all over. His reddish mane was disheveled, and his business suit was rumpled and dirty from being hurled across the floor. “Where…what happened to the…” Mercy silently pointed behind him, and Lex turned to look himself. The lab area was a mess. Tables and monitors were overturned, papers, notes, and pens scattered everywhere. The crane that had held up the ship was twisted and crumpled, and the data transfer harness that had been attached to the underbelly of the ship lay on the floor in a smoking, near-molten slag. The ship itself was now floating about ten feet off the floor. The red glow was gone, replaced with a faint blue color beneath the silvery crystal hull. The amber spiked ball in the tail was spinning now, glowing bright yellow-orange and letting out a pulsating hum as it spun around. The vessel slowly drifted away from the remains of its restraints. Around the room, scientists and guards, still dazed by what happened, scrambled away for cover, terrified of what it would do next. It rotated itself around, like a head looking around the room, and finally stopped facing in the direction of Lex, as though glaring at him. Lex, in return, stared back at the vessel, making no sound save for that of his breath. Then the craft rotated itself forward, dipping its nose and raising its pronged tails into the air until it was pointing vertically from the front up, its bow a paltry few feet above the floor. A white beam suddenly erupted from the rounded front end with a harsh crackling sound, creating a glowing snowflake-like pattern on the floor that expanded outward beyond the ship. White particles of light drifted upward from the pattern in a spiral direction, growing ever more numerous in their rotating paths and drawing closer, coalescing until they obscured the ship in a cone of bright white energy. Everypony in the lab either shut their eyes or squinted at the sight. There was a strange cracking noise, like the sound of ice rapidly freezing. Then the noise and the light died away, leaving a twisting crystalline cone behind. The structure towered up to almost the ceiling of the lab, glinting in the lights, and the faint glow of the ship could be made out deep within. “No…” Lex growled, shaking his head. “No, no, no no no no NO!” In a rage he charged at the gigantic crystal and hurled himself at it, frantically pounding on its hard, unyielding surface with a hoof as though he could smash through it and get to the ship within. This went on for almost a minute before he finally gave up, panting for breath as his bout of anger subsided a little. He turned to the surrounding scientists, ignoring the shocked and disturbed looks they were giving him. “Get another research team down here,” he said. “Tell them I want this thing drilled through as soon as possible. We’re going to get that ship back out.” Without waiting for a reply he marched back up to Dr. Green Vale. “Dr. Vale, would you mind explaining to me what in the hell just happened here?” Vale adjusted his lab coat’s collar a bit. “I-I’m not entirely certain but…I think it fired off an electromagnetic pulse of some kind…I mean, it shorted out our systems for a time…probably decided to go for that when it realized we weren’t going to pull back.” “No kidding,” Mercy muttered. “An EMP…” Lex echoed as he wiped his brow. “Dr. Vale, you’d better hope to Celestia that we still have the data that we did extract from the stupid thing.” Nervously muttering unintelligibly, Vale scurried over to one of the still-intact computer terminals. After a tense moment–for him–he sighed in relief. “Okay…it appears that we still have everything we pulled from the ship’s computers.” Lex sighed. “Well, at least we have that to show for…wait a minute…” He suddenly remembered the image he had seen earlier. The one that had caught his eye before the ship had fired off its EMP. “Let me see that,” Lex said as he began walking towards the terminal. Vale looked confused. “Uh, sir?” “I said let me see that!” Lex snarled as he pushed Vale aside, beginning to dig through the vast swaths of data that LexCorp’s computers had managed to extract. There was a lot to go through, much of it unsorted as of yet. But it didn’t take long for him to find what he was looking for and pull it up onto the screen. Everyone–Lex, Mercy, Dr. Vale, the few other scientists that had been brave enough to gather close–stared at the screen in utter disbelief of what they saw. It was an image of a red, vaguely diamond shaped outline. Within it was a curving symbol of the same color that looked very much like some kind of “S”. In fact, as the little group looked at it they realized that it bore an uncanny resemblance to… “…Supermane’s symbol?” Vale said aloud. “What in the world is the symbol of an urban myth doing in an alien compu…ter…” Before he’d even finished, he’d started to put two and two together. And as the implications began to sink in, Vale slowly turned to look at Lex…and found himself in equal awe at what he saw from him. Tech Lexicon’s green eyes were wide, his pupils shrunken. His mouth hung wide open, his jaws twitching ever so slightly. His breath was slow and quiet as he stared back at that strange red symbol on the screen. Dr. Vale had seen Lex in a variety of moods. Egotistical joy, snarling rage…but never in his life had he ever seen Lex’s face with the same look of pure horror that he saw on it now. “Lex?” Mercy whispered. Suddenly Lex turned tail and bolted, charging across the lab to one of the exits on the other end. He threw the door open wide, entering one of the adjacent maintenance corridors, then slammed it shut behind him and leaned against it, sliding to the floor as he began to breathe heavily. Tech Lexicon couldn’t remember the last time he had felt such terror as that he experienced now. Literally, he couldn’t. He’d grown so powerful and confident in himself that he’d almost forgotten what fear truly felt like. But he sure as anything felt it now. Because suddenly everything made sense in his mind. The secrecy…the powers…the timing…Supermane was no mere urban myth, no wild fantasy of an overeager reporter. He was all too real, and Lex knew exactly what he was. And what he had come to Manehattan for. “He can’t…” he whispered. “…he won’t!”