(~˘▾˘)~~(˘▾˘~)
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"Sergeant Coburn, there might be some pain while connecting with the neural interface."
In a room flashing with alarm red lights, Owens' forehead was sweaty as he anxiously warned.
On the experiment table, John Coburn was helped into a powerful exosuit by laboratory personnel. The exosuit was silver-gray in color and covered in metal, with only his head exposed.
He exuded the aura of an elite soldier, but there was a hint of arrogance in his expression. He was handpicked by General Lane himself, with him being the elite of the elites among the special forces.
"Do you know how I've spent these five years, Doctor?"
A crazy grin spread across his face.
"Of course, I know," the doctor wiped the sweat from his forehead. He had been involved in designing the grueling training program that was practically hellish.
Apart from physical conditioning, the most crucial aspect was tempering the will. It made individuals resilient like steel, capable of handling the exosuit under various destructive training.
"Then come on, Doctor."
Neural devices were inserted into the back of John Coburn's head, and he grunted twice, and his face showed an eager ferociousness and excitement.
'I've been preparing for this moment for five years, and I can't wait to experience the power of the Mark Zero exosuit.'
'I heard that Lois is very interested in that Superman, always following his trail, and trying to interview him in Metropolis. After today, Superman will be nothing more than a passing meteor in the sky, and no one will remember him.'
John Coburn, who had been childhood friends with Lois Lane and had an unrequited love for her, revealed a hint of ferocity on his face.
"Now, initiate the power."
Almost the entire base's stored electrical power was infused into the exosuit. John Coburn seemed to be integrated with the exosuit, his eyes sparking with electricity. He looked as if tortured by electrical shocks, yelling out painful roars.
"Oh my God, his heart rate... 150, 200..."
Experiment personnel anxiously monitored the data on their tablets as his heart rate skyrocketed.
"His heart is about to explode!"
"Quick, we need to save him!" Several experiment personnel were about to rush to him.
"No need, I can feel it..."
However, John Coburn, with a touch of madness in his expression, stood up. He flexed his hands, which now seemed to possess boundless strength, as the exosuit became an extension of his body. He could feel this power.
"I've never felt this good!"
Now, he felt unimaginably powerful.
Prometheus? He remembered the internal codename of the project.
"If I were the Prometheus of myth, I wouldn't choose to steal; I would choose to kill Zeus and seize the divine fire for humanity."
"Hahaha!"
John Coburn laughed wildly, donning the helmet of the exosuit, and bursting through the thick concrete ceiling like cracking an eggshell. With the thrusters, he soared a hundred meters into the sky.
The wind whistled in his ears.
He looked at the holographic display inside the exosuit's helmet, locking onto a figure in the base, radiating a powerful purple light and seeming unstoppable. The thrusters at his feet shot out an energy flame like a missile, the metal muscles bulging as he raised his fist.
"I don't know what kind of monster you are. Still, you'll be the first alien trash to be defeated by the Mark Zero exosuit!"
"Be careful.
Something is approaching at high speed."
Clark, with his eyes closed, perked up his ears and urgently warned his brother, that something was moving faster than a Blackbird fighter jet.
"A high-tech combat armor that can be used in combat?"
To relieve the pain of some severely injured soldiers who had been hit by missiles, David raised his hand to release them from their suffering, sending them to another world, then looked toward the sky with narrowed eyes.
The armor was anything but bulky; it was agile and swift, with technology that seemed at least on par with Iron Man's Mark II.
Whoosh!
The powerful exosuit effortlessly broke the sound barrier and arrived with an unstoppable and powerful momentum.
In an instant, David's fist emitted a bright purple light as energy gathered into a spherical form. He stood tall and composed, effortlessly throwing a punch that collided fiercely with the metallic fist of the exosuit.
Boom!
Soldiers on the concrete ground were blown away like straw, and heavy armored vehicles were tossed like matchboxes by the overwhelming shockwave.
Under the unimaginable collision of terrifying power, the earth cracked open. Cement fragments were sent flying, and exposed soil formed waves that struck the surroundings. As if a meteorite had fallen, a deep crater, over ten meters in diameter, appeared suddenly.
The entire base trembled.
Ceiling debris fell, and Owens, looking at the gaping hole left by the Mark Zero exosuit's departure, held his head in his hands and felt a bad premonition.
It seemed that although John Coburn had successfully survived the neural interface, the five years of brutal training had left him mentally unstable.
Boom!
Clark grunted as he was blasted away by the shockwave, his ears ringing. He crashed into a forklift, looking disheveled.
David glanced at Clark and realized that there was no need to worry about him. No matter how weak he might appear, his physical strength remained unchanged. David withdrew his gaze and looked toward the armor before him.
Apart from the helmet, chest, hands, and feet armor, the rest of the exosuit was composed of bulging steel muscles with a shimmering metallic sheen. The silver-gray exosuit exuded an overwhelming sense of power, like an unmovable mountain.
'Upon closer inspection, it's entirely different from Mark II, and its power is on a completely different level.'
David looked at the iron fist that had collided with his own. Surprisingly, it didn't even break or have any dents?
He raised an eyebrow and kicked out a powerful and heavy kick at lightning speed.
The Mark Zero exosuit, almost two meters tall, was sent flying, and John Coburn's fingers clawed into the ground, creating deep furrows to halt his momentum.
John Coburn excitedly looked at the massive crater he had created and then looked at his hands, trembling with excitement.
He felt unbelievably powerful now.
'What kind of metal is this exosuit made of? Its hardness is almost comparable to Amazonian metal.'
David was astonished by the exosuit's durability.
Amazonian metal was the material used to forge divine artifacts by the Greek gods.
He knew about some of the incredibly strong metals in the DC Universe, like Nth Metal, used by the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th century, known for its near indestructibility. Even Kryptonians had difficulty breaking it, but it was too thick for them to penetrate.
Then there was Kryptonian metal, used in Kryptonian spacecraft and armors, and the incredibly tough Super-Metal, named because of the vein's incredible hardness that they can only be mined by Superman using his heat vision to soften them.
'But these shouldn't be accessible to the U.S. military.'
Furthermore, the energy he had released from his fist seemed to have been absorbed by this armor?
The ability to absorb energy reminded him of a powerful metal created accidentally by humans in the DC Universe, similar to Marvel's Adamantium – Promethium.
"Come on, let me see your strength, alien bastard."
John Coburn laughed manically and leaped into the air, swinging his fist that could even sink a warship to strike David.
"Idiot!"
Being thought to be an alien, David's face darkened. He met the attack head-on, each punch heavier than the last, with his flesh colliding with the steel exosuit. He was as powerful as a mountain and with each hit the Mark Zero armor retreated step by step.
Their battle felt like two mythical Titans fighting, with shockwaves erupting in white airwaves, devastating everything around them.
"Go catch him! Quick!"
Soldiers nearby, armed with rifles, stayed far away from the horrifying battlefield but moved like a pack of wolves toward Clark, who had just picked himself up from the ground.
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(~˘▾˘)~Don't forget to send your power-stones!~(˘▾˘~)