Ursa

Superman saved Astronaut Andy in space once before, but will he be able to save him from a sadistic female super-villain from his home planet Krypton?

It was a proud moment for Astronaut Andy, as he peacefully explored the lunar surface in his gleaming-white spacesuit.  Ever since childhood, he had dreamed of becoming an astronaut and now he was walking on the moon!  Lunar gravity was only one-sixth of what it is on Earth, causing him to float in between steps as he set out to collect geologic samples.  Consisting of twenty-one layers of nylon fabric, Andy’s bulky spacesuit was incredibly restrictive, making his movements to be rather sloth-like in the low-gravity.  Fortunately, it was quite comfy, like a sleeping bag, which made up for the restrictiveness. 

From a distance, Andy looked like a little white bunny as he moon-hopped over to a formation of jagged boulders to begin collecting samples.  Little did he know that his clumsy movements caught the attention of a ruthless female super-villain, who was lurking in the shadows cast by the boulders.  Her name was Ursa, and her Kryptonian superpowers made her impervious to the oxygen-less vacuum of space.  She was clad from head to toe in a jet-black form-fitting leather outfit, which blended in perfectly with the dark lunar shadows.  Andy’s bright-white suit stood out vibrantly against the dark-gray terrain as Ursa surreptitiously stalked him from the darkness.

Ursa and Superman were both from the planet Krypton, but unlike Superman, Ursa was banished from the planet after her trial.  She was a skilled warrior in the Kryptonian army, but committed a series of sadistic atrocities and war crimes.  Ursa enjoyed torturing her enemies after she captured them and she impaled many of them on pikes.  She was subsequently captured herself, though not without a brutal fight, and was sentenced to exile into deep space.  Ursa was thrown into a space capsule and launched into space, but was set free when it accidentally crashed on Earth’s moon.  Unfortunately, her lucky crash on the moon occurred just hours before Andy’s arrival.

“Houston, come in Houston” Andy said over the radio, in between heavy breaths.  Even the short moon-walk from the lunar lander to the boulders was made laborious by his cumbersome suit, causing him to become winded and a bead of sweat ran down his clean-shaven face.  Andy heard nothing but static and indiscernible voices from mission control in response.  The boulders were interfering with the signal going to and from the communications radio inside of his bubble-shaped space helmet.  Andy rotated the small radio dial on his suit, feeling the little increment clicks through his puffy white space-glove as he adjusted the frequency.  Ordinarily the radio worked great and it sounded like mission control was right there inside of his helmet.  The static was interrupted by Andy’s concerned voice once more, “Houston, come in Houston, do you read?”  The isolated astronaut only received more static in response.  “Houston, if you can hear me, I’ve arrived at the site and I’m collecting samples, over.”

Although Andy was completely oblivious to the danger he was now in, something about being alone in the jagged moon boulders gave him the creeps.  Was it the eerie shadows?  Was it the radio malfunctions and the feeling of being alone, thousands of miles from Earth?  Or was it the fact that the razor sharp edges on some of the boulders and rocks could slice right through his delicate fabric suit?  After all, one little puncture or tear in his spacesuit would mean certain death in the merciless vacuum.  Whatever it was, the feeling of vulnerability and doom began to plague him.  

Andy used extreme caution as he began to collect moon rocks with this titanium rock-grabber, slowly placing each of them in a bag.  The nylon fabric made subtle swishing sounds, like jogging pants, as he moved around in the suit.  His space helmet greatly restricted his peripheral vision and he didn’t see Ursa who was now casually walking up to him, completely unaffected by the low-gravity because of her powers.  Ursa circled Andy once and stopped, standing a few feet away from him, who was still oblivious to her presence.  “YOU!” she demanded, a little aggravated that the man in the strange white uniform didn’t even notice her standing there; her narcissism was as vast as the universe.

The powerful female voice resonated inside his space helmet and struck him with a shockwave of intense fear, causing him to drop the titanium grabber.  Andy knew instantly that it wasn’t a voice from Houston, nor was it the voice of his fellow astronaut in the command module who was circling the moon in low-lunar orbit.  This voice commanded attention.  Andy gasped in astonishment as he looked up to see the woman in black standing before him. The shock instantly overpowered him and his befuddled astronaut brain immediately questioned the reality of what he was experiencing.  There, standing before him on the moon, was a woman with no spacesuit and no oxygen who was somehow able to talk through the vacuum of space.  He knew that Superman could fly through space without a suit or spacecraft…was this woman somehow related to him?  More importantly, was she good like him?

Ursa stepped closer to Andy.  Her black boots were now toe to toe with his white spaceboots as he trembled in fear.  She briefly paused and scanned his spacesuit up and down with her eyes, as if to torture him with anticipation.  Ursa noticed the American flag sewn neatly into the left sleeve of his suit, along with the circular blue NASA patch on his chest.  Her sadistic brain quickly observed all of his suit’s many vulnerabilities, including the exposed oxygen hoses that teased her desire to grab them.  Likewise, Andy took notice of the formidable woman’s jet-black attire and her muscular physique.  The black form-fitting leather contrasted sharply with his gleaming-white suit and he noticed that it was armored on the shoulders and wrists.  She wore a black helmet on her head with long carbide horns, further adding to her wicked appearance.  His heart was beating so fast that it felt like it was going to explode as the feeling of impending doom overwhelmed him.  

“Who the f**k are you?” Ursa asked, finished with her rapid assessment of his suit.  “J…j…ju..just an an astro..naut” Andy studdered, so terrified that he could barely formulate words.  “An astronaut?” Ursa playfully inquired.  She never heard of an astronaut before and the word was fun for her to say.  Ursa thought he was cute and his fear was intoxicating to her.  “Ye..yes…I come…I come..in peace” Andy slowly advised, trying to concentrate on formulating words while he held up his hands to show he was unarmed, as if that somehow mattered.  Ursa already knew he was completely defenseless.  The palms of his white space gloves reminded her of a white surrender flag.  A flag and a color that, to her, was symbolic of cowardice.  And if there was one thing Ursa despised it was a coward.  “PEACE?” she snapped, feeling the rage build up inside of her, as revealed by the expression on her previously stoic face.  There was no longer any doubt of what Ursa’s intentions were.  

In that moment Andy’s fear bypassed his brain and mobilized his body.  He attempted to turn around to run away, but Ursa was much faster than him.  So fast that his brain couldn’t process what was happening.  Within the blink of an eye, she snatched him up like a praying mantis snatching up a beautiful butterfly.  He screamed and squirmed, desperately trying to free himself, but his suit provided her with an excellent grip.  The soft white fabric wrinkled around her muscular hands as she effortlessly lifted him off the ground.  Andy helplessly kicked his feet as he screamed.  All he could do was scream.

“HOUSTON MAYDAY HOUSTON.  SOMEBODY HELP ME!”  “SUPERMAN HELP, PLEASE HELP ME SUPERMAN!” Andy screamed.  He was so terrified he didn’t even know what he was saying.  The only thing that he could think of was that Superman would save him, just like he did a year ago during the Skylab incident. Surely superman would hear his screams and would rescue him again.  All he had to do was scream for him and his hero would arrive.  “SUPERMAN!!”

A year prior, Andy had been repairing an exterior panel on the Skylab Space Station when an oxygen tank underneath the panel became over-pressurized.  The oxygen tank exploded, blasting the panel off of the space station and violently thrust Andy off into deep space.  Andy was tethered to the space station but the force was so powerful that it ripped the tether off of his spacesuit.  Andy watched in horror as the space station got smaller and smaller and smaller as he rapidly floated away from it in the immense void of space.   Skylab quickly became a miniscule little dot in space as Andy’s oxygen supply dwindled down.  Moments before suffocation, Superman miraculously appeared and rescued the stranded spaceman from his peril.

Superman flew Andy back to the Skylab Space Station before his oxygen ran out, thus saving his life.  Although he was terrified, Andy secretly enjoyed being rescued by the muscular superhero.  As Superman was flying him back to the space station, Andy couldn’t help but notice the hero’s bulging biceps and powerful leg muscles through his tight-blue spandex uniform.  Despite the fact that Andy was straight, something about being rescued by Superman in space was hot.  His lust for the strong superhero in blue surprised him, but he secretly fantasized about being rescued by him again.  Andy enjoyed seeing his super physique, and he wondered about what other super things he could do.

In one swift-seamless motion, Ursa lifted Andy above her head and violently slammed him down onto the hard lunar ground.  He landed on his back and the harsh impact knocked the wind out of him mid-scream.  Ursa stood over her squirming astronaut prey as she watched him writhe in pain at her feet with a sadistic grin on her face.  “Oh you think Superman is going to save you, pretty boy?”  Ursa laughed boisterously at Andy’s desperate screams for Superman, but was slightly amused that the astronaut knew him.  “So I guess that means he must be close?” she inquired rhetorically as her victim continued to gasp her air and writhe in pain.  

“Let’s see if he saves you from this” she said as she lifted up her foot and ruthlessly stomped him in the stomach with the hard sole of her boot.  His soft spacesuit made it feel like she merely stomped a pillow, but the blow was absolutely devastating for Andy and he immediately tasted blood in his mouth.  The pain was excruciating and blood spewed out past his lips and splattered all over the inside of his clear helmet visor.  “Try screaming for Superman now!  So pathetic.  Superman isn’t coming for you.”

Ursa was right; Andy’s hero wasn’t coming to save him.  Superman was too busy pretending to be Clark Kent back on Earth, trying to woo Lois Lane.  He had no idea that an Apollo astronaut was getting destroyed by Ursa on the moon, thousands of miles away.  There wouldn’t be a sudden flash of blue followed by a quick rescue.  Only death at the hands of a cold-hearted killer in black.

The air hoses on Andy’s suit were still teasing Ursa and her desire to rip them off his suit was too tempting.  Ursa knelt down and grabbed onto the white air hoses, sealing them off as she clenched them shut inside of her fists.  She then ripped him off of his suit as she stood up, standing over her squirming victim with the disconnected air hoses in her hands.  Oxygen hissed out of his suit as he began to suffocate.  Ursa enjoyed watching him die and she experienced a sadistic high from the experience.  But as if that wasn’t enough, she delivered one final blow to the dying astronaut.  Ursa kicked Andy as hard as she could, sending him sailing off into deep space like a soccer ball.  With the air hoses still tightly clutched in her hands, Ursa watched Andy disappear into the vast darkness.  Superman once saved him from a horrific death in space, but not this time.