Chapter 41: Chapter 41
Outskirts of London, United Kingdom Late November 1943
A large open flat plain on the outskirts of London was previously empty except for the occasional animal that would wonder into the area, but it had since been occupied by various trucks belonging to the Strategic Scientific Reserve. Generators were set up for what quickly became a makeshift field camp for scientific analysis. The outdoor field camp setup was odd as the SSR had everything they needed for scientific analysis in their base in the city, but this was a personal request by Captain Kalvin Elbert. He and his team had just returned from Tehran, Iran alongside President Roosevelt and Ambassador Churchill's security detail following the Allied Powers conference after a failed assassination attempt. News would soon spread but a group of Waffen-SS commandos had snuck into the city with weapons which also included one of Germany's many super weapons. Straight from Projekt Endstation in Poland under the command of Oberführer Wolfram Von List and the work Doctor Ulrich Vogel with help curtsey of the late Vandal Savage, Clark and his team faced a Maschinensoldaten.
A 12-feet tall monstrosity of steel, gears, and weapons that likely weighed a ton with Projekt Kassenschalger or Project Blockbuster serum enhanced soldier wearing it and powered by a small chunk of Kryptonite that also fueled a powerful energy weapon. One Maschinensoldaten was practically an unstoppable force of nature that they were lucky to stop. The armor and weapons combined with the Blockbuster serum's enhancements would make one man wreck through an army. If Clark and his team hadn't been there in Tehran than there was a good chance the war would be over, but they were, and it wasn't. Clark's superhuman senses combined with his strategic thinking allowed him and Taskforce Vanguard to find the German Waffen-SS team before they could move into position for their plan. They got plenty of prisoners who were being very tight-lipped regarding what was going on but hopefully some time and persuasion would loosen their lips. The efforts of Taskforce Vanguard allowed President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, and Premiere Stalin to get away while they dealt with the Maschinensoldaten. They managed to stop it with surprisingly no casualties but plenty of injured and destruction caused by the Maschinensoldaten although some of that destruction was caused by Clark. That destruction was the reason they set up the field camp because Clark unlocked a new ability. They were still finding a scientific name for emitting highly destructive and powerful beams of pure infrared heat from his eyes that apparently reached hot enough temperatures to melt through concrete and steel and turn it into molten slag within a matter of seconds. They'd seen tank shells break harmlessly against Clark's skin, see him run faster than a speeding bullet and jump hundreds of feet into the air without breaking a sweat but this new ability seemed to break all manner of scientific laws.
Howard Stark was leading the team of scientists responsible for investigating the sudden emergence and cause of this new ability for The Superman. Howard was a genius, but his expertise was mainly engineering and mechanics rather than biology. That being said he did work closely with Dr. Erskine in Project Rebirth, so he was the next best option, and it would take the US's best biologists and geneticists years to go over Dr. Erskine's research to try and get even close to replicating his work on Project Rebirth. Steve Roger's seemed more plausible as his enhancements still seemed fairly reasonable if just enhanced, but Kalvin Elbert's enhancements seemed to make him less human as time went on with this latest development being the thing that seemed to tip the scale from human to superhuman. Guess Howard Stark's choice of moniker for him was more on the nose than he realized. Still, everything going on was a first-time experience, so they had no scientific background or research to pull on. Strength and speed were one thing but unleashing beams of red energy from your eyes was something that seemed more like science fiction. Despite what happened in Tehran, the Allied conference ended on good terms between the three superpowers with Stalin and the USSR seeing just how dangerous Hitler and Germany still were. They doubled their efforts in combating the Germans on the Eastern Front while the US and UK forces focused on building up their forces and beginning operations into Axis territory. With Italy secured but the winter approaching, a full-scale invasion was ill-advised, but they could begin intelligence gathering reconnaissance and special operations in enemy territory. President Roosevelt made mention of US special operations group making missions into the Austria and Yugoslavia border to prep for a push north into Central Europe while the UK work with the French on France. Again, all of it was still in the planning phase but at the very least recon and sabotage missions behind enemy lines were being made or already underway. While Superman and Taskforce Vanguard were in Iran, Captain American and the Howling Commandos were working behind enemy lines in France to gather intel as well as take out Hydra facilities. Clark and his team should be helping them, but Clark felt he was more of a liability until he could control his new ability considering all the damage he had done. Colonel Phillips was concerned as well after reading the after-action reports, so he put Howard in charge of this scientific inquiry, and he wanted results fast. He didn't want to waste too much time.
Howard read over some reports the doctors and scientists handed to him after their first battery of tests and things looked fine. Granted, as fine as they could for Kal considering they were uncharted territory here, so he had no idea what was normal and what wasn't.
"How're you feeling, Kal?!" Howard shouted, flipping through the pages of analysis on his clipboard before looking up at him. The reason he had to shout was because of the current circumstances and why he had heavy duty earmuffs on.
Clark was sitting on a chair with all kinds of scientific and medical equipment hooked up to him. Monitoring heart rate, blood pressure, brain activity, and the basic stuff that the doctors were able to get without drawing blood because they couldn't. Howard had some cutting edge new Stark technology scanner system machines that could do a lot more than modern medical science could. Hopefully it could give him some more information but one down side was that getting all the necessary components to do such complicated and advanced science made the things massive. About the size of small cars. Another thing was that they needed to be hooked up to generators to work. And the final thing. They were loud.
All the scientists and doctors working with Howard were wearing similar heavy-duty earmuffs to drown out the sound of mechanical components moving and generators running. Clark was given an extra durable/powerful pair of earmuffs since his ears were more sensitive but judging by how he was pushing them against his ears they weren't enough.
"Kal! HOW ARE YOU FEELING?!" Howard shouted but couldn't hear Clark's response because of the earmuffs and how loud the science equipment and generators were. It was only due to Clark's super sensitive ears that he heard Howard. Seeing this, Clark took a clipboard from one of the scientists and wrote something down with a pencil before showing it to him.
Fine but this noise is killing me. Are we done yet?
Howard nodded and signaled all the scientists and doctors to wrap up what they were doing. They organized their data and two engineers quickly shut off the machines and the generators they were attached to, which finally stopped all the loud noise.
"Thank god." Clark removed his earmuffs, and a scientist took them along with some of the medical equipment he was hooked up to. "That was three hours of sheer torture."
"It wasn't that bad." Howard removed his earmuffs and jotting some things down when Peggy walked over and placed her earmuffs onto his clipboard.
"Yes, it was." Peggy told him as Howard handed the earmuffs off to an assistant while she looked over the giant medical science machines that Howard had built. She was smart but nowhere near the scientific and mechanical genius that Howard was. She had seen him make incredible pieces of machinery and engineering feats but all this looked like was a bunch of existing medical machines put together. Like he just cobbled them together like a Frankenstein like machine that was as big as his car. "Are you sure these things can do what you say they can?"
"Are you doubting the Stark Industries Atomic Subdermal Analysis and Scanner machine?" Howard pointed out. "Do you know what this does?"
"Do you know what this does?" Clark asked him. "I've been hooked up to this thing for the past three hours and in that time all I've seen it do is beep and maybe whistle every couple of minutes."
"Hey, I'm working miracles here, ok. A medical science breakthrough has been achieved and all I've been getting is complaining so how about a little appreciation. Thank you, Howard, for creating a device that can actually figure out what is going on with Kal." Howard remarked only to see the two stone-faced expressions he was getting from Clark and Peggy. "It works, ok. I don't exactly have a lot to go on and it's a miracle I've been able to get this thing working with what I have available. You're not exactly making my job any easier. Dr. Erskine just had to make you bulletproof."
"I'm sorry, Howard. Would you like it if Kal wasn't? Not as strong and durable as he is so he hasn't single-handedly been pushing the war in our favor for the past several months?" Peggy asked him with her British sarcasm in full force.
"The least he could have done was give us more info on his serum and research to make my job easier. It's great that your bulletproof and that tank shells and mortar rounds won't kill you but when it comes to making sure Superman is healthy and fine, I'm stuck dealing with the impossible. No needle can break your skin so drawing blood isn't an option and I'm fresh out of Kryptonite or Blockbuster enhanced super soldiers to draw blood the hard way." Howard remarked before taking a pair of scissors from a nearby table and going over to Clark to cut a piece of his hair. Under any normal circumstances it would work fine, and a lock of hair would be cut off, but the second Howard made the attempt the scissor blades cracked. "I can't even cut a lock of your hair. How is that possible?"
Howard looked at Clark's hair and the broken scissors in astonishment mixed with bewilderment. It shouldn't be physically possible yet he here he was. "All you had to do what ask." Clark reached up his right hand to his head, taking a small clutch of hair in his hands and yanking it out with little effort before placing it in Howard's hand. "Is that enough?"
"Gee. Thanks." Howard put it to the side. "Anyway, I think the machines worked because I believe I figured out exactly what's going on."
"How?" Clark asked him.
"Well, as much as I would love to take sole credit for the genius in coming up with these medical science machines, I did get some help. Mainly in the form of some correspondence started back when we went to DC a few years ago. I met up again with some very brilliant scientists while we were there for the dinner. This guy Enrico Fermi and David Hill, ho, he can drink. I've met them while I helped collaborate on a special project the US Army was working on back when the SSR was getting Project Rebirth up and running in New Jersey. Even reunited with the head of the project. Brilliant physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, a little anxious and kind of high-strung but nice and his wife is beautiful, I mean a real looker—" Howard stopped when he saw the glares he was getting from Clark and Peggy. "Got off topic there, sorry. [Clears throat] Anyway, while I helped collaborate on the project for a bit some of the scientists there were working on new kinds of scanning equipment that could pick up unique radioactive energy sources that current equipment can't detect. It occurred me to this could get me somewhere and looking further into nuclear energy and fission got me thinking that maybe that's why you're so strong."
"So, you think that Kal is radioactive?" Peggy asked him.
"No, he's not. Scans show zero radioactivity. He's clean but the kind of scanning technology might be able to help me get a better understanding of his powers and I think I got something." Howard motioned them over and unfurled a giant rolled-up green bar paper that had been marked via a stencil to indicate something it must have detected. In a way like lie detectors or seismographs marked up paper when they picked up certain readings, the giant roll of paper had sections that were heavily marked up while other sections had nothing indicating that the scanners definitely were picking up some kinds of readings sometimes. "Now, the machines are still prototypes, and I still don't know exactly what kind of energy this is, but they definitely detect that your body is emitting some kind of energy field. It could be what makes you do the things you can like your strength and being bulletproof."
"How are you so sure it's this energy field the machines are picking up if that's what's really causing my powers?" Clark asked him.
"You see these spots here?" Howard to the various small sections of the scanner paper that had no markings which meant no readings were picked up. "These were the moments the scanners scanned me, the scientists, and even Peggy. Nothing in all these times but the second they go back to scanning you they pick up this energy. I still have no idea what it is, but it shares some similarities to Vita-Ray radiation. Given that Erskine used Vita-Ray radiation to activate the properties in the serum that could be the key. For Rogers it worked with the serum he was injected with, but it could be the difference in the serum you were given that caused this. Perhaps your body absorbed the Vita-Ray radiation and turned it into a new kind of energy that your body produces. Could be what allows your body to be bullet proof and gives such the drastic increase in strength compared to Steve."
Clark kept a neutral face but couldn't help himself smirk at Howard's genius, especially for a human. Howard had inadvertently picked up and analyzed a Kryptonian's Bio-electric aura. Now all living beings had bio-electric fields, but Kryptonians under a yellow sun were unique because their field was incredibly strong given by their cells/DNA absorbing the radiation from a yellow sun. An ability unique to Kryptonians when placed under a yellow sun, their bodies were able to emit their own bio-electric aura which was an invisible field of condensed bio-electricity that comes from their body outward almost like a second skin. It's what made Clark extremely durable/invulnerable and aided in his super strength. The fact that Howard managed to create a machine to pick up his bio-electric aura showed just how smart he was. Granted, he still had no idea what it was, and his machine was very rudimentary, but it showed that Howard had incredible potential.
"Ok, so then does this explain why I was able to shoot fire from my eyes, destroyed several buildings in Tehran and nearly killed my team?" Clark asked him.
"Ah…no." Howard said, and they shook their heads in disbelief. "But that's the progress of science. Now that I figured out what's causing your abilities and how you can do what you can do, now we can move onto the next phase. More testing. I'll let you stretch your legs and get some food before we strap you back in."
Howard walked off to speak to some scientists and engineers about setting up the next batch of tests. Peggy looked sympathetically at Clark who just sighed in disbelief.
This was going to be a long day.
Several hours later....
The tests the SSR and Howard were doing on Clark really tested his patience and ability to keep control of his emotions, especially with regards to keeping his calm and not letting his frustration bubble to the surface. Howard and the scientists hooked him back up to the scanners and generators which meant he had to wear the earmuffs again. He even took it a step further by stuffing cotton swabs into his ears and taping them in to try and assist in muffling the loud noises. Clark had spent years on the farm back in Smallville to hone his super hearing along with his other powers like his vision and his strength but despite all his best work in training his senses, it didn't mean he had full mastery of them. The constant loud rumbling and noises from both the generators and the machines were loud to say the least and for regular humans they could be canceled out or muffled with the earmuffs but since Clark's ears were so sensitive and strong, he could pick up hundreds of sounds and he has trained himself to tune out or focus on certain ones, so he's not driven insane by too much noise. He's used it to great affect so far in the war, but it had its downsides like in this instance as the constant sound was just annoying. He was sure subjecting someone to his kind of annoying and relentless loud sound so close could be considered a form of torture. Even with the earmuffs and cotton swabs he put in his ear, it was like putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. It helped but wasn't going to fix it. So, Clark had to tough through it for hours while Stark and the others tested him.
While he was attached to the scanner, Stark and the scientists tested him and his abilities. Super strength was easy as they just had him lift incredibly heavy things or break said heavy things. Cars, trucks, and even the scanners he was hooked up to and the generators powering them. Breaking things was also easy and while he wasn't sure how much data Howard and the scientists could be getting, he humored him. His durability was harder to test as with all the expensive equipment around they couldn't risk a bullet ricocheting and damaging something, so they stuck with the basics. Knives, scalpels, and buzzsaws all broke against his skin. Some of the scientists even got acid and lit parts of him on fire but he was fine. After all that testing, they were finally getting to the part that Clark wanted to focus on which was his new eye beam ability that he was quick to dub heat vision.
Kelex was quick to inform him of his new ability which was tied to some of his other abilities. Kryptonians had the unique trait of absorbing and storing the energy from a yellow sun which is what gifted them their unique abilities and what made Clark so unique on Earth when back on Krypton under a red sun Kryptonians had no powers and were no different than humans minus the hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, living with higher gravity, and greater technology. Anyway, his heat vision was his body's ability to release massive amounts of stored solar energy within his body through the unique lenses in his eyes into focused beams of infra-red light AKA heat. Hence heat vision. It most likely arose as a result of the surge of emotions he was feeling when he fought the Maschinensoldaten and was almost killed. With those emotions along with his body's adrenaline and flight/flight reflex, he activated his heat vision as a self-defense mechanism which was likely the reason it hurt his eyes when he used it and why he couldn't control it and had to force his eyes shut until it went away. When Clark opened his eyes and saw the destruction from his heat vision, he was scared. Kelex warned him that his heat vision was incredibly powerful as it could reach temperatures of up to 5,000 Celsius which was the temperature of the surface of the sun. He had to get control over this ability or else he could cause more damage which is why he was bearing his teeth through the torture of this testing so he could train it. He needed to control it before it controlled him.
Howard and the SSR were able to get an M4 Sherman tank for the testing. Not a functional one but one that was badly damaged and no longer fit for service so it would have been demolished for parts only Colonel Phillips was able to get it for this testing. From what Clark and his team reported on what happened in Tehran his eye beams should be able to destroy the tank and with it already being set to be demolished than they could use it instead of requesting a bunch of steel plates that could be used for something else.
Clark focused his vision on the tank which was placed about a hundred yards away from him and behind it was a literal wall of sandbags with more set to the side in case a fire started. Given what happened in Tehran, Clark told them to have them ready, so he didn't accidentally set fire to the area. Howard and the other scientists watched Clark and the data they were getting from the scanners as he stared at the non-functioning tank like he was giving it a death glare. They had been watching for the past twenty minutes and nothing.
Clark took a moment to center himself and blink a few times when he felt something hit him from the side. It was a balled-up piece of paper, so he opened it to see what was written.
Problems?
He looked over at Howard who shrugged, and Clark just shrugged back. Howard then spoke to the scientists for a few seconds who nodded and powered down the scanners and proceeded to help Clark out of the things he was attached to.
"How about we take a break? Give you a few minutes to get away from all this. We can try again in a bit." Howard suggested.
"Thanks." Clark nodded and walked over to the side away from everyone for a moment of peace. Clearly his heat vision wasn't something he was going to get a handle on in a day. Even his x-ray and super vision took time, but he didn't have the time to waste. With the way the war was going and with Hydra and those special weapons projects Savage helped with than he needed to be fighting but he couldn't risk being out in the field and his heat vision acting up in the middle of a battle and him hurting his team. He needed to get a handle on it.
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