Midnight Rain (Superman / Goddess of Victory: Nikke)

[Stimpak Medic]

Prologue: No Ordinary Boy

It was over in one brilliant flash. What was once a bustling planet was now but a bright light, then even that was gone, leaving small chunks of irradiated rock that shot across the galaxy, with the laughter of a dark God upon his throne in the fires of Apokolips as its only farewell.

One more world destroyed, one more people obliterated in the vast games of the Gods.

However, there were survivors from that planet; few though they were, they did still exist.

The first, a Kryptonian of stature and renown that had been sealed away in an internment ship with his trusted generals, who rose up in rebellion against the council, Dru-Zod.

The second, a young lady who had unfortunately gotten sent off course in her ship: Kara Zor-El. Destined to wander for a decade before she would find her way to Earth.

Finally, not least of the group, was the young boy Kal-El, sent blissfully unaware as to his cruel fate that he would face upon his arrival at his destination, Planet Earth.

---

The buzzing of the computers and the gurgling of a small boy's stomach were the only things one could hear in the small ship that rocketed through the cold darkness of space. Stars flashed by as if they were little more than background decorations, and the small boy, wrapped in a blanket and connected to a life support system, had no clue what was going to happen soon.

"Entering the Sol system," The machine explains, and the boy, barely older than four, gives no response, still sleeping deeply.

The ship speeds past the Sun and makes its way in a beeline to planet Earth.

"Entering Earth's atmosphere. Landing systems deployed." The ship buzzes, and the young boy still sleeps.

The thrusters fade out, and parachutes are deployed as the ship falls closer and closer to the surface, somewhere over Texas.

However, the ship's arrival is not without observers, and these observers have no love for Human or Kryptonian alike: The Raptures.

Several dozen laser beams tear through the parachutes, and others strike the ship, hissing as they strike its protected shell. With the parachutes disabled and shredded apart, the ship picks up speed and slams into the earth face-first like a torpedo, and in its landing, it explodes, sending the small boy flying high and far into the sky, burned and singed from the explosion.

In the young boy's first four years of life, he had never taken in the full, unfiltered rays of a yellow sun, and as he screams, crying through the sky, his cells begin to absorb the massive reserves of power that the sun can provide him.

His terrified cries can be heard as he shoots across the land, and they are only getting louder as he begins his descent.

The blanket, barely able to cover him now with all its tears and burns, unwraps and falls off of him, its brilliant red hue blowing in the summer wind as it flies away. He is left in his small blue cloth outfit that is reminiscent of full-body blue pyjamas.

However, what goes up must come down, and little Kal is no exception.

"EEeeeeeee!" He cried as he barreled down towards the concrete of a broken highway overpass.

Boom!

Crunch!

Instead of turning into a flesh colored stain on the road, the boy slams into the concrete of the overpass and blasts through the concrete and into the ground below, where he bounced and rolled for a good five dozen meters into a tall, wild grassy field. He screams in pain, and his small body is heavily bruised from where he landed. His cries continued for almost five minutes, but luckily for him, there were no raptures in the immediate vicinity.

The sunlight was warm, and the power of the sun accelerated his body's recovery, and his bruises and swelling began to recede as the sunlight washed over him. The stress and pain were too much for the young boy, and he drifted off into an unsettling sleep, and his dreams were full of bright flashes and the cries of his parents.

And so, he slept for many hours in the grass before, out of sheer luck, he was discovered by a team of Nikkes who were on a mission to recover information from a nearby facility.

---

Commander Slade Jameson was assigned a relatively easy mission. A data center in northern Texas, not too far away from an elevator entrance that had been previously thought defunct, had been giving strange distress signals, and he was sent to investigate before the Raptures did in the chance that there were survivors or important information.

He had with him ten mass-produced Nikkes, all useful as bait or a meat shield in the case he should escape.

They were making their way through the field when one of the Nikkes stepped on something soft that cried out as her foot landed on it. She raised her hand, motioning for the team to stop, and the visored Nikkes in full kit paused as the Nikke bent down and picked up a small boy who had just woken up from her stepping on him.

She looked to her commander for further orders, and he was very confused.

"What do we do, Commander?" The Nikke asked, her soft voice breaking the silence.

"Wait for a moment while I contact base. This is unprecedented." Slade said, his youthful twenty-year-old eyes scanning around them, seeing if this might be some strange trap.

He brushed his blonde hair out of his eye and opened his bag.

"Yes, Commander." She said, doing her best not to startle the boy any further.

Slade brought his satellite phone up and contacted base.

After securing a secure connection, he explained his situation, and his Captain had even more work to do now.

The mission had been temporarily postponed until he brought the boy back to the Ark.

And so, the team turned around and made their way back to the Ark, but not without a Rapture ambush of twelve Husk class Rapures that claimed four Nikkes and would have taken his life if not for the boy jumping out of the Nikke's arms and screaming loudly at a Rapture that was flanking them, sending the advancing Rapture flying twenty meters away with what could only be considered a sonic screech that had indented over half the Rapture, crushing the cannon and it's entire right side, where it sparked and hissed in the crater it formed in the side of a nearby hill.

When the Commander had recovered his hearing, he and the Nikkes looked at the boy with the strangest of looks.

It was clear that this young boy was not normal, and both the Nikkes and the Commander had immediately become wary of him, but instead of attacking them, he waddled back to the Nikke and jumped right up into her arms again, taking comfort in her presence.

The Nikke, unsure of what to do, just held the boy awkwardly in her arms while looking to the Commander for further orders.

After another call to the Captain, their return was expedited.

Three hours later, the boy was taken to a medical facility in the Ark, where he was examined.

That's where it all went to hell.

What the doctors found in their scanswere several extra organs in the boy's body that a human wouldnot have, and even as a four-year-old, attempting to draw his blood was nigh impossible, as the needle could not break his skin.

That was when he was taken in by the military branch of the Ark and subjected to many tests.

Deemed usable as a weapon, the decision to carefully groom him into yet another weapon was unanimous. And so, an education plan was drafted while the boy was confined to a lab facility with security, so that he would be turned into something better than just a powerful child.

---

Three years had passed, and the boy was deemed nothing but Subject Zero as he was carefully propagandized and taught English. His learning and absorbing of information worked at a frightening pace, and once he learned something, he didn't forget.

One thing they did notice was that in the third year after his arrival, his powers began to weaken slightly, as if his power source was draining ever so slowly over time. However, the change was thought to be part of his strange genetics and only temporary.

He was quite well behaved and gave no resistance to orders, even those that would kill a normal child.

There were tests that pushed his body to the limits. Some involved picking up heavy objects, even taking live fire, and others tested his mind, which was almost as impressive as his physical power.

In October of his sixth year in the Ark, he was finally given his first live mission.

To go to the surface for the first time since his adoption by the Ark and participate in live combat with the Raptures. He would have an escort of six mass-produced Nikkes that he could use for whatever he needed, be it a bullet shield, distractions, or bait.

And so, for the first time in four years, Subject Zero stepped out of the vaultlike doors that connected the elevators to the Ark. Raptures were plenty, and finding them would be no issue.

Following several soldiers through the base near the elevator, they were led to a large APC, where they boarded, and it drove them out into the wastelands of the surface and deposited them five miles away.

After the carrier drove away, the Nikkes, having not been fully briefed, were still slightly uncomfortable with escorting an Ten-Year-Old through the wasteland, tried their best to accommodate the young black body armored suited black-haired boy, but their worries were needless, and any objections would be ignored as well.

They stood on a long street surrounded by broken and blasted buildings. Craters pockmarked the ground, and not a single glass pane was left unshattered.

Craack!

With the crack and boom of thunder, the Nikkes looked around with surprise, only to see that there was no storm; instead, the boy had clapped his hands, sending a sonic ripple out for quite a distance.

"Get ready." The boy said, and the Nikkes formed a defensive circle around him, Guns primed, confused but doing their best.

Soon, flying across the air and crawling across the ground from all around were Husk-class Raptures, all ready to destroy them.

Crack!

Another sonic boom was heard, and the boy disappeared.

A cacophony of thunderclaps later, and showers of twisted metal and black flesh littered the ground.

"What the hell?" One of the Nikkes exclaimed, looking at her fellow Nikke next to her, who just shook her head.

"I'm just as confused as you."

Within the time it took to speak, the Raptures were utterly decimated, and the boy could be seen walking through the street they were standing on back to them.

"Is everyone here?" He asked as he walked up to the Nikkes, who were slightly spooked, and a few of them wondered what the point of them being there was.

The leader of the Nikke team did a headcount just in case, and everyone was there.

The vibration of a phone in the boy's pocket could be heard, and he took it out.

"Yes, I dispatched them as ordered." He responded to the person on the other end.

He stopped and listened, then looked himself over.

"I feel stronger. Stronger than I ever had been. It began as soon as I stepped out of the elevator." He said, and listened to a response.

"No, I'm not sure why," He finished, and the person on the other end spoke, then cut the connection.

"Alright, we're heading back. They're sending an APC to pick us up two miles away." He said, and the Nikkes, who really didn't have a choice in the matter, formed a circle around him as they walked back towards the rendezvous.

And so, without any issues on the way back, they made their way to the pickup point, and the boy was separated from the team and brought to a different area. He was walked through that same testing facility as before, before being brought to an office.

Sitting behind a black metal desk, which had a large monitor on the side, was a man who looked no more than his mid-thirties, having ever so slightly tanned skin, short, slicked brown hair, and a decorated brown military uniform. His face was rough, and even slightly sharp at the chin.

"Come, sit down." He said, and Subject Zero sat in the chair in front of the desk, a metal-backed office chair with small cushions.

"I've heard good things about you. All the researchers are singing your praises to the high heavens."

He paused for a moment before speaking again.

"Me, I'm not so convinced."

Then he brightened up slightly.

"Now, since this is the first time we're meeting, you may address me as Deputy Chief Andersen." He said, giving subject Zero an unenthused look.