HISD Chapter 37 Raising Superman
"Doomsday Superman"?
That name wasn't bad. As Doomsday, Yi Meng saw a future direction for himself in this dream world.
It didn't matter whether the half of the Kryptonian genetic codex stored in his body was actively reshaping his Doomsday genes or not.
Taking advantage of the brief suppression of his destructive urges, Yi Meng forced himself to think with the rational side of his humanity.
Right now, there were two things he could confirm.
First.
The sunlight of Earth did help suppress his urge to destroy. Combined with the Codex, it could even improve his defective genes. But to completely erase or avoid the destructive instincts of Doomsday this way? That might take ten years, a hundred years, maybe even longer.
Yi Meng also realized something else.
The lifespan of Doomsday far exceeded that of Kryptonians. Even after thousands of years, a Doomsday incarnation was still in its prime, showing no signs of aging.
From that perspective, Doomsday was another kind of perfect creation built on Kryptonian genes, an existence that had evolved to the extreme opposite of Superman.
For example, Doomsday never grew tired. His strength and energy were limitless. His vitality and terrifying adaptability allowed him to survive anywhere in the multiverse.
More importantly, Doomsday didn't need to eat like other living beings.
That's right.
When Doomsday seemed to "hunt" and kill Kryptonians or other life, destroying buildings and spacecraft along the way—it wasn't because he needed sustenance. It was an instinctive behavior, an expression of the other side of his powerful genetic makeup.
Destruction itself was his only sustenance and racial instinct, a way of burning off his overflowing power and energy.
Yi Meng had lived as Doomsday several times now, and this was the conclusion he had personally drawn.
Even now.
As the ancient Doomsday incarnation regained a brief rationality, every subconscious breath shook the air across the hills. One hot exhale turned the plateau scorching, the next inhale summoned a tornado.
Even while standing "quietly" on a hill without moving, his jagged, spiked body leaked streams of red energy that split the earth beneath his feet into deep fissures.
His existence was destruction.
That was why Yi Meng dismissed the idea of flying closer to the sun now, to absorb more solar radiation and forcibly reshape his genes.
Yes, it might make his Doomsday incarnation far stronger in the short term, but it would also make his destructive impulses even harder to control.
Unless one day, Yi Meng reached a point where he could fully suppress the destructive urges with pure rationality, mastering the Doomsday body.
Now, the second thing.
Yi Meng's blood-red eyes turned toward the small Kryptonian spacecraft nearby. Inside, the infant Kryptonian child was still asleep.
Perhaps because of the Kryptonian genes or the Codex inside him, since leaving Krypton this child had shared a faint bond with Yi Meng's Doomsday incarnation, one that constantly tugged awake faint traces of his humanity.
That was the main reason Yi Meng kept the spacecraft at his side.
The Kryptonian child was his tool to preserve what little rationality he still had.
At the same time, it was also—
An insurance policy.
"If one day in the future, I completely fail in this dream… if I can't become a rational Doomsday Superman, and instead fall into a true, mindless monster…"
The spiked creature stared at the Kryptonian child, red light flaring in his eyes as his lips twisted into a terrifying grin. "Then you'll be the one to end me."
If he died in the dream as Doomsday, at least he might avoid being permanently trapped in it.
What worried Yi Meng was—if he truly lost himself one day as Doomsday, and no one could kill him within the dream, then what?
But the Kryptonian child, destined to become Superman, a god among men in this dream universe—surely he could do it, right?
…
Crack—crack!
The buzzing of rotor blades suddenly echoed from the bright daytime sky.
A police helicopter approached over the plateau.
When the officers aboard saw the mountain range reduced to rubble, and on one hill a bone-spiked monster basking in the sunlight, their scalps tingled. "My God… what is that?"
"The monster… the one described by the locals last night! It's real!"
Just as they spotted the monster, it raised its head. Blood-red eyes burned with violence, and two beams of scarlet heat vision tore through the sky.
Szzzt!
The beams narrowly missed the helicopter, shooting off into the distance. But even without a direct hit, part of the fuselage melted, and the officers inside felt like they were burning alive.
And the aura—an overwhelming presence of destruction that chilled them to the core.
Clouds ripped apart. Air boiled.
The helicopter rocked violently. By the time the terrified officers regained their senses, the hill below had crumbled into pieces. The bone-spiked monster had leapt into the horizon, carrying the spacecraft with him.
Only after the being vanished from sight, leaving a gale that shook their helicopter back and forth, did one officer collapse to the floor and muster the strength to grab the radio.
"Headquarters, headquarters, this is Smallville, do you copy…!"
…
Washington D.C., The White House, the Oval Office.
"Come in!"
A uniformed officer with a colonel's insignia hurriedly knocked, then entered after hearing the calm male voice inside.
"I've cleared all my afternoon meetings. What's the situation?"
The suited middle-aged man at the desk spoke gravely.
He already knew a little from the earlier call from the military base.
Still, it felt unbelievable.
An alien visitor?
And one that looked like a bone-spiked monster?
The colonel gave his report quickly. "It was first spotted on a farm in Smallville. It seems to have arrived with an alien spacecraft. Now, it's already crossed state lines at incredible speed, entering Oklahoma."
"That fast? It can fly?" the man asked in shock.
"No, sir. It just leaps faster than flight," the colonel answered bitterly. He had never seen such a powerful creature before.
"You didn't deploy military forces to intercept it?"
"We did. A unit was sent to intercept. Currently… they've been completely wiped out."
"…" The office fell silent.
After a long pause, the man straightened, his voice firm. "Deploy all available military forces nearby. Capture it at all costs! We cannot allow it to endanger American lives and property."
He hesitated, then added, "And remember—the creature and the spacecraft are of immense research value. Make sure the craft isn't too badly damaged."
"Yes, sir!"
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