What is freedom?
The feeling of freedom is most intuitive.
To fly.
Flying is freedom. Soaring through the sky with an unrestrained, exhilarating spirit. Every mont looking down at the Earth, feeling the powerful wind sweeping across your skin, hearing your clothes rustle as they cut through the air. Overlooking the land, lakes, oceans, mountains, and forests blanketed in green.
That is true freedom.
Free flight.
So then, at what altitude does one feel most free, where the view is best?
The stratosphere lies around 50 kiloters up. The atmosphere there is dominated by advective motion, ideal for high-altitude flight. Aircraft typically cruise at this level, and for people, it is the most comfortable altitude for flying, offering a clear view of Earth's scenery and the sensation of natural wind against the skin.
Furthermore, the ozone layer in the stratosphere absorbs ultraviolet radiation from the sun, protecting life on Earth. It is also the most suitable altitude for Kryptonians to fly.
In the sky, the sun blazed brightly. The air currents swept Bardi's dark hair back, his white windbreaker flapping noisily behind him. The chill was like cool well water on a sumr day, refreshing and pleasant.
Unlike Superman, Bardi did not fly with his fists raised. His hands remained relaxed by his sides as he glided forward. His speed wasn't particularly fast.
Around him was a layer of refractive distortion, caused by his body's magnetic field. As long as he stayed below the speed of sound, he would remain invisible to the naked eye. Standard weather radars would only detect strange distortions resembling thunderclouds, unable to register his humanoid outline.
He passed through several monitored zones.
Pong
Bardi suddenly accelerated in the stratosphere, emitting a sonic boom. White clouds clung tightly to his thighs as he pierced the sound barrier, forming what looked like a skirt of vapor trailing behind him.
He quickly reached his destination.
The border of Greenland and Ellesre.
This region still belonged to Canada, situated within the Arctic Circle. It was cold, located at a high latitude, with year-round snow, jagged icebergs, and frozen landscapes. The breathtaking aurora borealis here was one of Earth's most magnificent sights.
Long before confronting Trigon, Bardi had dispatched a team to locate Jor-El's Kryptonian scout ship, eventually narrowing it down to this location.
Coincidentally, Poison Ivy had also resurfaced. Bardi sent Raven to retrieve her, while he ca to the Arctic to transport the ship back to tropolis.
Krypton's reconnaissance ships were not just for surveillance. They also housed rooms for the Genesis Chamber, capable of encoding specific genes to create the bioengineered workers, warriors, and researchers Bardi needed.
In the future, Earth would require millions of administrators. They would be created here.
On the glacier's surface, dark green military tents and crates of supplies were firmly secured to the ice. These included the latest sonar detectors, scanning beneath the glacier to pinpoint the ship's location.
The team had not disappointed Bardi. They had scouted the area continuously, day and night, finally locking onto a precise location.
The polar night sky was astonishingly clear. The vast sky felt so close, pressing down, overwhelming in its grandeur.
Suddenly, within the camp, searchers in thick winter coats looked up.
"Look, what is that?"
"A bird?"
"A plane?"
"No, it's the Boss!"
Captain Bernie Jones, a Black man with thick lips, raised his binoculars and spotted Bardi. The white cloak, the silhouette—it was unmistakable. His heart pounded in awe. In the extre cold, his blood surged, boiling from sheer excitent.
He knew Bardi was strong, godlike even, but to witness him flying from the sky like this was beyond belief. A real, living god.
Snapping out of his awe, he quickly called his team to attention.
They stood in formation, staring upward. Against the clear night sky, a white figure descended, trailing a long sonic boom cloud.
Bardi hovered in the sky, gradually retracting his magnetic field so he could manipulate the internal magnetic response at will and unleash unmatched power at any mont.
He slowly descended. Ice and snow scattered beneath his feet. His windbreaker fluttered down to his ankles.
The subordinates bowed slightly, hearts burning with excitent as they welcod his arrival.
This divine presence descending from above brought an overwhelming pressure, nearly forcing them to kneel.
Even so, they trembled with excitent, bowing deeply as Bardi passed. Watching his white boots step onto the snow, their hearts pounded.
"Well done."
Bardi gave a quiet word of praise and looked toward the towering glacier.
The complint ward their hearts. Their eyes burned with emotion, and they couldn't help but shout in unison, "For Barmulodi!"
The cold particles in the air quivered from the sudden roar.
Bardi smiled faintly and raised his palm to signal silence and allow them to disperse.
In a glacier, such concentrated soundwaves were not a good idea.
"Boss, after several days of investigation, we've confird that sonar readings are bouncing off the ice shelf. There's a strong response," reported Captain Bernie Jones, enthusiastically pointing in the direction.
Bardi's eyes sharpened, and he activated his X-ray vision, penetrating layer after layer of ice. Deep below, he saw the 300-ter-long Kryptonian reconnaissance ship.
Seeing the familiar Kryptonian vessel again, his gaze narrowed.
"Wait here for ."
With that casual order, Bardi lifted off once more. The powerful pressure from his body made their hearts race. They stared in awe as he flew off like a god.
The ice-cold air in this region fell below minus 30 degrees Celsius. To Bardi, it rely felt like dipping into cool well water during sumr.
He flew to the side, toward an area where it would be easier to access the ship's entrance.
At once, red veins appeared around his eyes as he released his heat vision. A column of burning energy blasted into the glacier, sending up a cloud of steam. A tunnel ford, wide enough for two people to walk side by side.
Bardi maintained precise control over the heat vision, gradually reducing intensity as he neared the spacecraft, stopping it approximately two ters from the hull to avoid damaging it.
His eyes felt slightly warm, a normal aftereffect of using heat vision. As the vitreous humor dissipated the residual heat, the sensation faded.
He floated directly into the tunnel.
(To be continued.)
***
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