The air was a nauseating mix of salt, mud, and smoke. Utopian flew low over the raging waters, his hands acting like grappling hooks to tear an entire family from the wreckage of a swept-away house. Every rescue was a race against time, an exhausting struggle against the raw power of the ocean.
Suddenly, a new shockwave, different from the others, coursed through his superhuman senses. It wasn't the earth's low rumble or the water's roar. It was a high-pitched vibration, almost silent, a sinister crackle that unpleasantly tickled the back of his skull. Simultaneously, a new, metallic taste mixed with the air—acrid, chemical.
His communicator crackled, Batman's voice, tenser than ever, piercing through.
"Utopian, new threat. The Fukushima Daiichi plant has sustained critical damage. The cooling systems have failed. There is a risk of explosion and core meltdown. Radiation is beginning to leak."
Utopian hastily deposited the survivors on a stable roof and turned his gaze toward the power plant area. Even without his enhanced senses, he could see it. Thick smoke was pouring from one of the buildings.
"On-site teams are overwhelmed and evacuating. The containment vessel is compromised. If the core melts down completely, the contamination will render part of the country uninhabitable for centuries."
Utopian's heart froze. This was a catastrophe within a catastrophe.
"What needs to be done?" he asked, his voice hoarse from seawater and exertion.
"The ideal would be to restore cooling or seal the breach," Batman replied, the cold realism of his voice barely masking the urgency. "But radiation levels are already lethal. Even for..."
He didn't finish the sentence. Even for a Kryptonian, massive radiation was a danger. For a human, even an enhanced one, it was a death sentence.
Utopian looked at the terrified faces of the survivors around him. He felt the weight of the shield on his chest, the golden eagle that represented an ideal. An ideal did not flee.
"I'm going," he said simply.
There was no protest from the other end. Only a heavy silence, then a, "Be careful. Superman is en route, but he's held up by a dam collapse. You are the closest."
Utopian shot forward. He flew through a sky turned toxic, ignoring the tingling sensation beginning to invade his skin. As he neared the plant, the crackle in his head became a deafening buzz. His eyes perceived the radioactive leaks as a spectral, deadly halo around the damaged buildings.
He landed heavily within the compound, the ground cracked and littered with debris. The heat was intense, abnormal. He quickly located the source of the main leak: a gaping breach in the reactor building, from which a plume of deadly steam was escaping.
Seal the breach.
Without hesitation, he rushed toward the epicenter of the radiation. The heat was blistering, even for him. The air burned his lungs with every breath. A sharp pain, like thousands of needles, pierced him through and through. It was the irradiation, violent and massive, attacking every cell in his body.
He gritted his teeth, a groan of pain escaping him. His vision blurred for a moment. But he kept going. He tore a huge sheet of twisted metal from the ground and, using his heat vision at its extreme, welded it over the breach, containing the deadly flow as best he could.
The task was Herculean. Every second on site was a radiation overdose. He felt his body fighting, his own cells battling and recombining at a frantic pace to resist the damage. The pain was excruciating, a fire burning from the inside out. This wasn't a clean injury; it was a corruption of his very being.
As he finished sealing a second leak, his knees buckled. He fell to his knees, vomiting violently. His pristine suit was now stained with radioactive mud and his own blood.
"Utopian! Report!" Batman's voice was urgent.
"I... I'm holding," he gasped, getting up with fierce determination. "The main breach is... contained."
At that moment, a blue and red figure shot through the sky like a meteor and landed beside him in a gust of power.
Superman looked at him, and even he, the Man of Steel, had an expression of horrified shock. He could see beyond the appearance. He could see Utopian's body burning and regenerating in a fierce struggle against the invisible poison consuming him.
"My god, Marcus," Superman murmured. "Get back. I'll take over."
Utopian nodded weakly, unable to form words. As Superman took over securing the area with far greater strength and resistance, Utopian finally collapsed, exhausted and irradiated, but alive. His body, forged by the terrible Compound V, had held fast where any other being would have succumbed. He had faced nuclear hell and emerged from it scarred, but standing. The hero had just earned his true stripes, at a cost few could even imagine.