HISD Chapter 33: Doomsday, Superman
Kryptonian civilization.
The skies were dyed blood-red, the land swallowed by darkness.
It was the eve of Krypton's core collapse, brought about by centuries of over-exploitation of its inner energy.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
Countless screams and wails of Kryptonians echoed through the night as an unknown monster, like a living embodiment of fear, rampaged through the city. Towering skyscrapers, symbols of their advanced civilization, shattered at its touch. Even ships fleeing thousands of meters above the surface were not spared.
Boom!
With every leap, charge, and landing, the monster ravaged the ground, leaving it crying in agony.
It shot upwards like a meteor in reverse, smashing into another of Krypton's most advanced warships. The collision erupted into a dazzling yet terrifying firestorm in the sky, scattering blazing wreckage across the land.
The core hadn't even fully collapsed, yet the planet had already become a hellscape.
"Stop it!"
"Kill it!"
Elite Kryptonian soldiers and warships, engineered with battle-honed genes, rushed to intercept. But soon, despair consumed them just as it had the fleeing civilians. The monster didn't ignore their energy blasts and lasers—it grew furious from them.
"Roooar!"
Its soul-shaking howl erupted into a physical shockwave that rattled the land.
A moment later, the colossal beast burst from the flames with hurricane force.
Its massive, hulking body moved at lightning speed, gouging a trench hundreds of meters long through the battlefield. Soldiers and armor lay scattered in bloody ruin.
Once again, it leapt high, colliding into a warship mid-air and setting the heavens ablaze. Wherever it passed, there was only destruction.
The surviving Kryptonian soldiers, bred with courage and loyalty etched in their genes, could not stop themselves from collapsing to their knees. With eyes blurred by tears and dust, they gazed up at the descending figure, pupils quivering with primal terror.
The monster stood three meters tall, its muscles bulging like molten iron, wrapped in jagged gray-white exoskeletal plates. From fists to spine protruded cruel bone spurs, glowing with crackling red energy—fuel converted from the very weapons used against it.
Its eyes and gaping maw blazed crimson before unleashing a torrent of destructive heat vision that obliterated everything below.
…
In the central high tower of Kryptonian governance, elders watched the fires consuming their world.
"What is that thing?" one elder gasped.
The aged head elder closed his eyes wearily. "A century ago, a mad scientist spliced Kryptonian genes with alien ones, creating a forbidden being born only for slaughter. It was one of the greatest sins in our history."
"That is why our law forbids all cross-species gene fusion."
The other elder trembled uncontrollably. "A century ago, we sacrificed countless soldiers and civilians to capture it. And now it has returned! How do we stop it?"
"We cannot," the old one said, with a strange calm. "It brings only death and destruction. And it makes no difference… today is already fated to be Krypton's Doomsday."
"You're all mad… we were always mad!" the elder cried, stumbling back. But in his heart, he knew: if death was to come by this abomination that defied their very faith, perhaps it was destiny.
Suddenly, his body froze. He turned slowly toward the window, pupils dilating at the sight of the crimson monster leaping down from the blood-red sky.
Doomsday had arrived.
…
On the outskirts, inside a fortress, a Kryptonian couple clutched each other tightly. In their arms, their newborn child slept peacefully.
"He's beautiful, isn't he?" the mother whispered, smiling through tears. "But we'll never see him grow up."
The father's voice was steady. "Time is short. I've found a habitable world. He will thrive there, nourished by its sun. He will be the last son of Krypton—the child of hope."
The mother's sorrow deepened. "But he'll always be an outcast."
"He will be their god, their guiding light to a new age."
Resolute, the father turned. "Prepare the ship. We'll place the Codex within him, and then I'll launch him to safety!"
The mother nodded through her grief, setting the plan into motion.
The father laid the infant on a metallic cradle, placing a floating relic shaped like a skull above him. Mystical energy seeped into the child's body.
Alarms blared.
"Five warships approaching!"
The mother paled.
"They've discovered I stole the Codex."
The father donned his battle armor. "I'll hold them off. Once the Codex is absorbed, send him away!"
But then the mother froze, staring at the screen. "Four warships' signals… vanished. The fifth is retreating, fleeing from something…"
The fortress trembled violently. Like a titan wielding a hammer against the world.
The father's face went pale. "It destroyed them all in seconds… Hurry! Send him away, now!"
Boom!
The fortress walls shattered. The monster stormed in and crushed the armored father underfoot.
"Doomsday!" the mother screamed, lunging for the cradle. A bone spur impaled her mid-motion. Blood splattered across the infant's bed as she collapsed.
The beast turned its crimson gaze toward the child. Its bone spurs pierced the Codex relic, absorbing its energy. Then, a razor-sharp tip pressed into the infant's chest, drawing a bead of blood.
The baby awoke, crying out in pain and grief.
The sound froze the monster. Its glowing eyes dimmed, its face twitching with something human.
"Who am I? Why am I doing this? I'm not a monster… I'm Yi Meng. Just a human."
Its bloody spurs retracted. It clutched its head, trembling. "Did I do this? No! This must be a dream. I've become that monster again… hahahaha!"
Its laughter mixed with the baby's cries, echoing through the ruined fortress.
A ship's automated voice chimed: "Launch in thirty seconds. Boarding required."
The beast glanced at the cradle, realizing the pod could only hold a child.
It looked down at the crying infant.
…
Thirty seconds later, a small pod blasted from Krypton's surface into the void.
Inside, the baby had fallen asleep once more.
Clinging to the pod was the monstrous figure of Doomsday itself, bone spurs locked into the hull. Frost gathered on its body as it drifted through space, slumbering.
The pod carried them away from Krypton's ruins, toward a distant world called Earth.
…
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