Tournament - Superman and Lois Lane vs. Merlyn (DC)

[Twogunkid]

“But how…. I drained your powers…. How could you possibly?” A haymaker interrupted Lex Luthor’s disbelief as the Man of Steel showed that his brawn was not all from Kryptonian DNA. 

“Luthor, it’s not my powers but what I do that defines me. You’ve never understood that Luthor.” The bald scientist rubbed his jaw as he looked around his lab. Captain Cold, unconscious, his cold gun smashed, Mercy, tied up by the Kryptonian already, and himself, bleeding from his nose, his battlesuit, ineffectual trapping him on the floor and his invention to saturate Superman with so much red sun radiation to deny him his powers still humming along quite nicely. 

 

“I don’t believe that for a second you alien filth. You must realize I had some insurance just in case.” He pulled the eject from his power suit and staggered to his feet. “As we speak, I have hired some of the deadliest assassins money can buy to target people you seem to care about. Professor Hamilton, James Olson, Bibbo Bibbowski, Dan Turpin,... Lois Lane-” Luthor found himself grabbed by his lapel pins and brought level to Superman’s eyes.

 

“Who did you hire Luthor? Now!” Luthor smirked, he was getting to the Kryptonian.

 

“Well let’s see KGBeast should be dealing with Hamilton, Deathstroke should have Mr. Olson well in hand, Deadshot was supposed to take care of Bibbowski, Lady Shiva should have Turpin taken care of, and Merlyn should be meeting with Miss Lane any minute now-” Luthor’s smug grin was knocked off his face as Superman pinned him to the ground and quickly began binding Luthor with the cables around the lab while trying to use his Justice League communicator to summon aid. “It’s no good calling for help you overgrown boyscout” Luthor quipped as he felt the tight knots binding him, “this lab was flooded with enough radiation to fry any device you may have-” Luthor didn’t have a chance to finish his remark as the drastically depowered Superman, or maybe completely depowered crashed through the window to the outdoors and hailed a passing Metropolis Cab. 

 

“Superman sir it is an honor-”

 

“The Daily Planet, step on it please, and may I borrow your phone?” 

 

Using a special Justice League emergency number, Superman contacted his mighty teammates, but most were involved in other various disasters, those who could be spared were sent right away, Hawk and Dove would face down Deathstroke, Huntress would take on Lady Shiva with the help of the Metropolis Special Crimes Division, B’wana Beast would deal with KGBeast, Black Lightning would face Deadshot, which left him having to deal with Merlyn. He alone felt responsible for Lois. He couldn’t bare that he had put her in danger and now a deadly assassin was hunting her. He hadn’t had many interactions with Green Arrow’s foe, but if he was as good as Green Arrow, that made him dangerous. The whole ride, Superman had his hands and head out the window desperately trying to absorb any sunlight the cloudy day let through. The Cabby’s phone buzzed with notifications, the other assassins were being engaged by the Justice Leaguers. Lois hadn’t picked up her phone as usual, Jimmy was out on assignment, Perry was busy, Clark made a call he’d rather not have made, putting on his Superman voice on full.

“Is this Steve Lombard?”

 

“Lois, you are never going to believe who got the Superman scoop of a lifetime and it’s not going to be you or Kent this time. He called me, says he wants to talk his opinions on Sports, strong opinions on the Gotham Knights and the Metropolis Meteors, told me I could tell you before the interview even happened-”

 

“Yeah, yeah that’s great Steve I-” Lois realized something must be wrong. Why else would Clark call Steve Lombard? “Superman gave an interview to-” Lois saw the flicker of motion and tackled the burly Lombard to the ground as an arrow impacted her office window and exploded. A moment later, another arrow pitoned itself into the wall with a cable from a nearby rooftop attached. The purple clad archer descended his impromptu zipline into the terror of the now panicked Daily Planet newsroom.

 

“Now look here Purple Arrow. Nobody messes with the Lombard, especially when Lois Lane is finally putting the moves on him!” Steve Lombard heroically, but foolishly, charged Merlyn only to find, his feet swept from under him and his back on the ground a second time. 

 

“I believe the Miss Lane in question is who I am here to see” Merlyn said, knocking another arrow. During Steve’s distraction, Lois had exited her office to find the nearest fire extinguisher. 

 

The elevator was infuriatingly slow while going up the Daily Planet’s floor. The cabby had refused Superman’s money, and the other Justice League members would be on their way as soon as they could, but for now, it was Clark Kent and Lois Lane versus one of the deadliest assassins on the planet. The elevator door opened and he saw Merlyn, stalking the floor, the archer’s eyes went wide seeing the Man of Steel there and on pure instinct he turned and fired an arrow. Lacking the superspeed and durability he was used to, Clark tried to move out of the way only for the broadtipped arrow to pass and cut his left shoulder.

 

“Man of Steel is a rusting it seems.” Merlyn mused. Lois had been moving towards the stairs, when she saw Merlyn taking aim at Superman once more. The shot was sure to be a killing one if only for his aim to be thrown off with a spray of foam from a fire extinguisher. “One thing at a time it seems” the archer sputtered with a mouth full of foam.

 

“Merlyn, your fight is with me” Superman bellowed. “Lois, get out of-” Then everyone heard the ding as Steve Lombard pressed the door close button and the elevator began the lengthy trip down to the first floor.  Flipping a desk, Superman worked to close the gap to Merlyn as arrows thunked into it. 

 

“No Superman, you are the bonus. Miss Lane is my target. However, given this is a rare opportunity, I believe I will take the both of you as prizes today.” He fired another arrow in the direction of Lois Lane, punctured the fire extinguisher held in front of her chest, knocking her to the ground with the rapid depresurization of its contents while Merlyn was once again hindered by the spray. Hindered enough for an enraged  Superman to close the distance and  land a ferocious blow on the archer. Taking advantage of the dazed state of Merlyn, Superman sought to disarm the assassin and the two grappled over the bow. Even without his Kryptonian enhanced strength, a childhood filled with Kansas farm labor and an active lifestyle had made him unusually strong. 

 

No daughter of Sam Lane was sitting this fight out. Lois saw the opportunity and getting up, kicked off her heels and brushed the foam from her face. She ran at the archer and grabbing his quiver pulled his arrows from it and ran to her now open air office. 

 

“Oh no you don’t!” Merlyn shouted as he lifted a foot and delivered a firm kick to Superman’s abdomen, freeing his bow and his focus. Taking one of his myriad knives he carried,  he tossed it at Lois’s hand, wounding it and causing her to drop the arrows all over the floor. Lois clutched at her hand before pulling the thrown knife from it. 

 

“Lois get out of here!” Superman shouted again, but Lois could not. She hadn’t seen Clark bleed, not since Doomsday, and she would be damned if she was going to let that happen again. She moved to engage the assassin, knife to bow. Her father’s training was one thing, but Merlyn was in a league of his own. He parried the thin knife and seemed to take perverse joy in striking Lois using his bow as a club. Seeing Lois put herself in danger to save him gave Superman all the wind he needed to intervene again, throwing himself against Merlyn with reckless ferocity

[Callisto]

Learn More About
Superman
Read more about Superman at Wikipedia
Official Site: Detective Comics Links: Superman's Wiki Profile DC Database Project: Superman DC's Superman Site

Lois Lane
Read more about Lois Lane at Wikipedia
Official Site: DC Comics Links: Wikipedia Comic Vine Supermanica

Merlyn (DC)
Read more about Merlyn (DC) at Wikipedia
Official Site: D.C Comics Links: Wikipedia D.C Database Project SpiderBob.com

[JohnnyChany]

Good story. Not an easy task to come up with a story that both involves Lois participating physically in the fight and lowers Superman's strength enough to make it a more even fight. Still think they take out Merlin in the end, but it will be tough especially if Merlyn can use Lois as leverage.

[Callisto]

Match Final Results

No User Ratings on this match received!

MATCH SCORE
Lois Lane and Superman: 5
Merlyn (DC): 1

[Twogunkid]

No ratings oof

[JohnnyChany]

23 hours ago, Twogunkid said:

No ratings oof

That's disappointing, the story was well done. I always feel strange rating other stories I'm in direct competition with, but I would have rated it highly. 

[DSkillz]

Ugh. I've been so busy with RL stuffs I haven't been voting and rating nearly as much as before. I'd have given this a good rating and voted for Supes and Lois, especially since Superman's strength should steadily be returning during the fight. 

16 hours ago, JohnnyChany said:

That's disappointing, the story was well done. I always feel strange rating other stories I'm in direct competition with, but I would have rated it highly. 

I don't really think competitors can afford to not rate others' matches right now. Not many others are participating ATM. 

[Twogunkid]

I was mostly proud of my Steve Lombard inclusion