Ultraman was having coffee with Superman when he felt the sharp psychic scream in his mind. Superman, who was still in his costume, was munching on a danish. Ultraman leaned over in agony, clutching his head at the temples.

“Ultraman? What’s wrong?” Superman asked. Ultraman slowly took his hands away from his head, and managed to pull his head up, his nose had started bleeding slightly. Superman looked on in concern as his companion sat there breathing deeply, trying to regain his calm.

“Wow,” Ultraman finally managed to squeak out. “That was not good.” Superman only stared on. Ultraman, looking over and remember his manners, decided to explain himself. “Uh, you see, I’m telepathic and someone with psychic powers just cried for help. And I think it was from the island that what I left my team on. So, I gotta go.”

“But of course, do you need any help?” Superman asked.

“Of course. I’d love the chance to get to talk to you some more.” Ultraman smiled. He had found that he liked Superman as a person. He was fun to talk to, and he wasn’t the least bit stuck up.

Jeffrey Stevenson, code named Panther for his predator abilities, awoke to find himself on an island, laying alone amongst the wreckage of the Champions jet. Around him lay a thick forest, making it almost impossible to see more than three or five yards ahead of him He stood up and looked around him, seeing no one, he pulled out his communicator.

“Hello? Anyone there? This is Panther. Over.” His only reply was static. He tried again. “Hello, this is Panther, is anyone there? Over.” Again, only static. He threw the communicatior in a sudden fit of anger. He cursed himself under his breath for allowing his emotions to overtake him.

“Panther?” A feminie voice offered from the communicator.

A sudden hail of bullets made Panther drop to the ground. He rolled to a tree, where he begun his crawling forward. Even as the bullets were bouncing over his head, Panther was calculating where his attacker was. After a few moments, the bullets stopped flying and Panther heard that sound he had been waiting for, the sound of a machine gun when it runs out of ammunition.

“She dead?” He heard a someone shout.

“She oughta be, you see how many bullets, Jameson shot in there?” Another voice responded.

“Well, then Eriks, why don’t you go check on it.”

“Yes, Sarge,” the man feebly responded. Panther heard the man approcaching. As soon as the man called Eriks was standing next to him, Panther wrapped his hand around Eriks’ ankle and pulled him to the ground. He rolled behind Eriks, and picking Eriks up, jumped to his feet. Panther quickly wrapped one arm around his neck and then using his other arm he grabbed his first arm at the wrist.

“Say, everything’s fine. If you don’t I’ll snap your neck” Panther whispered into Eriks’ ear.

“Everything’s fine, Sarge!” Eriks shouted.

“Is she dead?” Sarge barked back. Panther squeezed a little, just to indicate to Eriks that he could still crush his larenzxe without much difficulty.

“You bet, Sarge.”

“Then come on out of there.”

“Tell him you’ll be a minute,” Panther whispered.

“Hold on a minute, Sarge.” There was a pause, and Panther wondered if he had goofed. When ‘Sarge’ finally shouted back, Panther breathed a sigh of relief.”

“Okay, but don’t take forever.”

“I’m gonna let you go, but before I do, I want you to know that I can kill a man eighteen ways with only one touch,” the Panther whispered. Then, Panther let the man go and turned him around.

“Why are you here?”

“We’re being paid to be here.”

“By whom?”

“I don’t know. I’m just a grunt.”

And Eriks did look the part. He was wearing a loose form of combat armor. He had on a helmet that protected his head and face, a thin almost plastic body armor, and thin guard for each leg. Underneath he wore camoflauge.

“What’s your name?” Panther asked.

“Lee Eriks.”

“About what size are you?”

“Why?”

Before Eriks knew what was happening, he was asleep. Then it was time for Panther to make a quick change of uniform.

Samantha was walking through the forests when a mosquito landed on her and attempted to bite her. Not succeeding in its task, the mosquito flew off angrily. Samantha was walking along looking around her when her communicator activated.

“Hello? Anyone there? This is Panther. Over.”

She stopped and looked around her. She suddenly looked down and saw that her communicator was on. She picked it up in time to hear. “Hello, this is Panther, is anyone there? Over.” She pushed one of the small buttons on her communicator.

“Hello, Panther? This is Vaughn. Over.” Nothing happened. She pushed one of the other buttons on the side of her communicator.

“Hello?” Nothing. Another button is chosen.

“Panther, you there?” Not a thing. Another button is pressed.

“Panther?” Static. She sighed, the static had signaled that at least she had sent the message correctly. After waiting a few more moments, she still heard only static. She worried for Panther. Because he, unlike her, wasn’t invincible or invulnerable, he was flesh and blood. To be human, with all those feelings. Flesh and blood.

“Like that made him so important,” Samantha thought. “Just because the guy can feel he doesn’t have to answer the communicator. Sure, I can respond to him, but not visa-versa?

Well, I’ll show him a thing or two. I just might have to knock some truth into him. Knock some hard sense into him. ‘Cause you always hurt those closest to you. Now, it’s time to make Panther bleed cause, now, it’s dying time!”

Samantha was now under the control of the island’s telepath.

Superman and Ultraman where once again flying over the Pacific Ocean when Ultraman signaled for them to stop. After they had both fully stopped, they both hovered there.

“I need to go into your mind,” Ultraman explained.

“Why?” Superman asked.

“You said, that you thought it was a telepath doing this, right?”

“Yes,” Superman said.

“Then, I need to put a sort of mental barricade up so that whoever did it last time won’t do it again,” Ultraman explained.

“Alright, I trust you.” Superman hovered still, closing his eyes and relaxing his mind. He had his mind read before, so he was used to the warm feeling he would get in his temples while it was happening. The feeling came and went, before Superman knew what was going on.

“All done.”

“That’s it?” Superman asked.

“Yeah, I just put up a little barricade, didn’t take long at all.” They both started flying again, when Ultraman looked over at Superman. “Hey, Superman, what does Kal-El mean? And why do you care so much about Lois Lane?” Superman motioned for them to stop, and again they both did.

“I thought all you did was place up a block?”

“Yeah, but while I was putting up the block I could hear your thoughts. I could only recognize three things.”

“Which were?”

“Kal-El and concern for Lois Lane.”

“That’s only two.”

“You were also worried that I was a villian.”

“I didn’t think that.”

“Oh, I know you didn’t consciously think about it. It was one of your most subconcious desires, need for safety. I understand, most people, except my close friends have that thought.”

“Oh. Well, since you know that much about me, I guess I can tell you a little more. But, I need your word that you will not tell a single living soul.”

“Okay,” Ultraman agreed.

“My name is Clark Kent, I’m a reporter for the Daily Globe. I live both a human and a super-human life.” Ultraman nodded in agreeance.

“Cool.” Superman looked a little embarresed. They both started flying, neither one of them saying a thing. Superman decided to try and get things rolling again.

“Well, how about you? You have a secret identity?” Ultraman shook his head.

“Not really. I mean, look at me,” Ultraman pointed at his clothes. He was dressed in a loose T-shirt, jeans, whtie socks, and Vans. “I don’t really hide myself that much.”

“Why?”

“I don’t care if people know who I am. I never do anything that I am embarressed or ashamed of. I will accept any responibilty for what I do and will reap any rewards I’m due.”

“Rewards?” Superman asked, arching an eyebrow.

“Yeah, like letters. I love getting letters. The other day, I got one from this little boy I had rescued. It just made my day.”

“Letters? I’m glad you can read yours.”

“You don’t read yours?”

“On Christmas.” He paused, thinking over all the letters he had read. “Every Christmas I open letters and try to help people. I can’t answer all my mail, I don’t think a dozen of me could. They all ask so much, and there are so many of them.”

“That’s okay. You do what you can. That’s all anybody expect from you. I mean, even you have limits.” Superman glanced over to Ultraman, tears brimming his eyes.

“You know how it feels?” Superman asked.

“Yeah. When I was a small kid, a large heavy object fell over and smashed into the ground. My father, who was the strongest man I knew at the time, couldn’t lift it up. Even my two brothers, helped him try and pick up. None of them could do it.

“When I was talking to my father, I asked why he couldn’t lift it. He told me that there are somethings that no one can do. Ever since then, I’ve noticed that everyone, all people, have at least some faults. That doesn’t mean you’re a bad person, it just means you have limitations.”

Superman smiled and a slight chuckled came from his throat. “Well, not many others see me like that. After all, I am the guy who came back from the dead.”

“Just do what you do. Don’t worry about what people think of you. Just do what you can do.”

”Thanks,” Superman offered. They flew on for a little bit more.

“He’s here,” Ultraman said, his voice serious and harsh.

“What?”

“He just probed me and tried to break past your barrier. I think now is the time to make hast.” They both flew faster towards the island. In a mere matter of moments they arrived at their destinations.

“Whoever this is knows their stuff. They are trying to takeover my mind, and I can barely keep them out. I can’t imagine what you must be going thro....”

That was when Ultraman was hit in the back of the head with a large rock.

Panther exited the woods in full guard uniform. As he exited, one of the guards stepped forward, unzipping his pants.

“Hey, Eriks? How was she?”

“Awright. But, you shouldn’t go in there,” Panther said, trying to imaitate Eriks’ drawl.

“Why not?”

“I got a little messy with her.”

“Jesus Christ, Eriks. Save some for the rest of us, next time.”

“Okay.” They picked up and moved on.

“We got a call,” the Sarge said. Everyone dropped down and closed their eyes. Panther followed suit. Panther was occasionaly opening one of his eyes to see what the rest of the troops were doing but they were only sitting there. Then a voice spoke in his mind. The voice was cold and distant, and seemed to fill his body with utter fear.

“I am being... delayed by a battle between two new visitors. Please, return to the compound to ensure that the prisoners I have already captured do not attempt an escape.”

The voice left, and everyone arose to their feet.

“Alright, you heard the boss, let’s get moving!” Everyone started marching and Panther followed suit. “Finally,” he thought, “I’m going to see some real action.”

Ultraman turned around to see who exactly had thrown the rock at him. Standing before him was Superman with the same sardonic grin. In his hand he held a large chunk of a rock, the chunk was a little larger than Ultraman’s head.

“Again?”

“And again and again, until I crush the life out of you.” Superman flew forward and rammed into Ultraman’s upper chest. Ultraman brought up his fists, pounding into Superman. With a shrug, Superman tossed Ultraman down to the ground. Ultraman hit the ground and realized that he had to kick out whoever else was in Superman’s head.

He closed his eyes and opened his mind. He entered Superman’s mind and made him halt his actions. That was when he felt something appear in Superman’s mind. The thing manifested itself. It appeared as a large fog, with large red eyes that seemed to scream doom and fury.

“Leave here now!” The voice shouted. It was cold and made Ultraman feel tiny and afraid. “If you leave now, I will only kill your teammates.”

“And if I don’t leave?”

“I will shred their psyche one layer at a time. And then when they are at their most primal stage, I will let them tear each other apart with their own hands.”

“What I defeat you?”

“You can’t defeat him,” a voice said from behind . Ultraman turned around to see Cassius, his own father.

“Father?” Ultraman whispered.

“Yes, son. It’s I, your father.” Tears formed in Ultraman’s eyes. “Don’t cry, you little whimp. By the Gods of Comax! You are such a mother’s boy. I don’t know why we tore you from your mother’s breast to send you out as a Knight. Oh wait, now I remember, it’s because you killed your brother and because you are my son. Not like the others, no, they deserve Knighthood. You? You’re a last minute replacement. You’re a nothing.”

“No!” Ultraman screamed and fired with a mental blast forward, disrupting the image of his father. After the blast, the image immeaditly disappeared.

“No more tricks! Face me now!” Ultraman screamed. A shadow of a man appeared before Ultraman. The man seemed to keep fading in and out, as if he was both in the real and psychic world.

“You are a gnat, boy,” the figure replied. “One who is not worthy of my time.”

“Then why don’t you face me?” Ultraman accused.

The figure solidified, in a way. He was tall, standing about seven or so feet. His body completly black, as if he were made of the shadows. His eyes burned a bright red.

“You think to challenge me? The Shadow King?” The figure shouted. “In his own realm?” Ultraman looked at the Shadow King up and down.

“Oh shit.”