CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
Metropolis. The Daily Planet.
Lois Lane stared at her computer screen. She was working on an article but hadn't typed a single word in almost ten minutes. Instead, she was lost in her own thoughts. It had been several days since the huge battle between the Justice League and the Iron Avengers on Liberty Island. Several days with absolutely no word from Clark and no sightings of Superman. Although the government made no official confirmation of any superheroes taken into custody as a result of the Liberty Island conflict, it was being widely reported that several had been. Lois's complete lack of contact with Clark had her convinced that he must be among the captured.
She was startled from her thoughts by the sound of a ringing phone. It was not hers, but rather the phone on the desk directly across from hers. Clark Kent's desk.
Lois sprang to her feet and raced around her desk to Clark's. She snatched the receiver from its cradle and held it to her ear.
"Clark Kent's desk, this is Lois Lane," she said.
There was a long pause.
"Miss Lane." The voice on the other end was electronically garbled. "I was hoping to speak with Mr. Kent."
"Take a number," Lois replied. "I haven't heard from him in days."
"I was afraid of that," the caller said. "Then we have to assume he's been captured."
Lois froze. She quickly composed herself. "I'm sorry, who is this? And what's with the scrambled voice?"
"Miss Lane, I need you to listen to me very carefully," the caller continued. "I know who Mr. Kent is. Who he really is. I need you to contact the Justice League for me. Do you have a way to get word to them?"
Lois laughed nervously. "Look, buddy, I really have no idea what you're talking about…"
"We don't have time for this, Miss Lane," the caller continued. "I need you to tell whoever is left of the Justice League to get to The Ferry right away."
"The Ferry?" Lois repeated.
"Yes, in New York," the caller replied. "It's the building where prisoners are teleported into the N-Zone Prison."
"I know what The Ferry is," Lois said. "What I don't know is why, assuming I did have a way to contact the Justice League, I would take the word of some anonymous caller with a voice changer and tell them to march into what could very well be a trap. The government is trying to lock them all away in that prison, and now you're telling me to send them straight to it?"
"I know how it sounds," the caller said. "There is a major problem with the prison. It's become highly unstable. If left unchecked it will trigger an anti-matter explosion that could wipe New York State off the map."
"Well that's just too bad," Lois replied. "Because unless you turn off the voice thingy and tell me your real name in the next five seconds, I'm hanging up and forgetting this call ever happened."
Another long pause.
On the other end of the line, the man holding the cell phone sighed. It didn't seem that he had much of a choice. He was currently standing in Level 33.1 within the Lex-Stark International building in New York City, a secret facility that he didn't even know existed before today. He was staring at a computer monitor displaying the current state of the stasis field that held the N-Zone Prison in a state of suspension between our universe and the Negative Zone. A stasis field that was rapidly breaking down as the prison was pulled further and further into the Negative Zone.
There was no time to waste. If giving Lois Lane his real name and voice would buy her trust and get her to alert the League, then it was time to step out of the shadows.
He switched off the voice scrambler on his cell phone.
"Lois, it's Tony," he said. "Tony Stark."
There was the metallic "clik-clak" of a handgun being cocked just inches behind Tony's head.
"Hang up the phone and turn around, Mr. Stark." The voice behind him was Lex Luthor's.
Tony clenched his teeth. He exhaled slowly through his nose. He held up his hands and dutifully pressed the "END" button on the phone, terminating the call with Lois. He turned around slowly, still keeping his hands and phone raised.
Lex shook his head, his gun pointed straight at Tony. "I'm disappointed," Lex said. "You were never supposed to see this."
"How long have you known about this, Lex?" Stark asked. "How long have you known that the N-Zone Prison was a ticking time bomb?"
"I'm holding the gun, Tony. I'll ask the questions," Lex said. "How did you find Level 33.1? It was left off of all the blueprints and it was constructed while you were in California."
"Can't figure out how I found you, Lex? Let me give you a hand. Oh wait… I already did!" Tony smirked. He nodded at Lex's hand, the one which held the gun. It was his right hand, the gloved one. "You didn't really think I made you that artificial hand just because we're BFFs, did you?"
Lex scowled. His eyes went wide with surprise, and then outrage.
"Awwww, you did!" Tony exclaimed. "That's cute, Lex. It is. But naïve."
He pressed a button on the side of his cell phone, and it displayed a GPS map with a flashing beacon.
"I can track your location to within plus or minus two feet thanks to a chip in your right hand," Tony continued.
"You son of a bitch…" Lex whispered.
"You see, I never trusted you," Tony said. "Not since the day we debuted the Iron Avengers together. The day a Latverian terrorist somehow bypassed all of our security measures and managed to infiltrate the group. And as that terrorist blew himself up and allowed a missile to strike an airplane full of people, you had a look on your face that I'll never forget, Lex. It was a look of pure calm. Of serenity. With everyone else running around in a state of panic, you had the cool, collected expression of someone who was watching everything go perfectly to plan. And I knew you were behind it somehow. I didn't know what your endgame was. I still don't. But how does the old saying go? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer? I vowed to pretend to be your friend long enough to find out what you were up to and shut you down."
"Well, you've failed, Tony," Lex replied, fuming with anger. "Because you've only found the very tip of the iceberg. And you're far too late to shut me down." He took a step forward and pointed the gun straight at Tony's face, fully prepared to shoot him point blank.
"Blatherin' blatherskite!" Tony yelled into his phone.
Lex cocked his head to one side, confused.
"What… What the hell did you just do, Stark?" Lex asked.
Tony grinned. "Wait for it," he said.
There was a low rumble. The floor beneath them shook. The lights flickered for a moment.
Then, like a bullet being shot from a gun, an iron gauntlet flew across the room and clamped itself firmly onto Tony's forearm. Then a boot blasted up through the floor and affixed itself to Tony's foot. Another gauntlet and a chestpiece crashed down through the ceiling and snapped right into place as well. One by one the components of Tony's armor were summoned directly to him from various locations within the Lex-Stark International building. Within a matter of seconds, his entre suit of armor assembled itself around him.
"You said Iron Man was retired!" Lex exclaimed.
"To quote Dr. Dre," Tony said as his helmet clacked into place. "You wanna run around talkin' about guns like I ain't got none." The faceplate slid down over his face, completing the transformation from Tony Stark into Iron Man. "What'd you think, I sold 'em all?"
Iron Man extended his arm and aimed the open palm of his hand at Lex. His armor gave off the familiar high-pitched whine of his repulsor rays preparing to fire. Lex took a few cautious steps backward. Iron Man released a powerful concussive blast of energy from his hand. Lex dove out of the way at the last second, stumbling as he did and falling to the ground. He scrambled to get up, dropping his gun.
Iron Man marched forward, his powerful armor making a menacing clang-clang sound with each step. He prepared his repulsor ray for another blast, but Lex had grabbed his gun and gotten to his feet. He darted off down the hallway, running as fast as he could away from Iron Man.
Lex ran down the hall and ducked around a corner, planting his back firmly against the wall. He gasped and wheezed and cursed his body. He had always tried to keep himself in the peak of health, and now here he was, winded after a short sprint. That would be changing soon, he told himself.
He ripped the black glove off of his right hand and threw it to the floor. Then he took the gun awkwardly in his left hand and pressed the barrel right up against the palm of his artificial right hand.
"Track this, asshole," he muttered.
He pulled the trigger and blew a huge hole right through the middle of his hand. It sparked and sizzled as the mechanics inside shorted out. His right hand would be completely useless to him now, but better that than having Tony Stark know his exact location at all times.
Lex dropped the gun, leaving it and his glove behind. Then he took off running again, down another hallway toward the one thing that would give him an edge against Iron Man.
Meanwhile, Iron Man continued to march down the hallway in pursuit of Lex.
"Lexy," he called. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!"
He turned the corner and found himself face to face with a team of ten Iron Avengers, all of them with laser rifles pointed straight at Iron Man.
"Stop right there, Mister Stark!" one of the Iron Avengers screamed.
"Oh, please," Iron Man said. He flipped open a panel on the side of one of his gauntlets and tapped a few buttons. "I designed your armor, boys. You didn't think I'd build in an override switch?"
Suddenly, all ten of the soldiers found that their armor was frozen. A moment later they all dropped to the floor, completely immobilized.
"Plus, I think I speak for everyone when I say we're all getting really, really tired of you guys," Iron Man added as he stepped carefully over each incapacitated Iron Avenger.
He turned another corner and came to a doorway that was ajar. He pushed it open and walked inside, finding himself in a room with blueprints and schematics hanging on every wall. In the center of the room was an 8-foot tall sold steel crate that was open and empty.
Lex stepped out from behind the crate. He was wearing a massive suit of green and purple battle armor. He smiled a smile of pure evil, his face illuminated by a faint green glow that seemed to emanate from beneath the armor's chest plate.
"Oh, come on, Lex. Seriously?" Iron Man said, gesturing to Lex's armor. "What did I tell you last time you tried this? You need to upgrade your technology, pal. You want to take me on, you can't be using designs from the 1980s."
A sort of green aura began to form around Lex's hands as he drew on energy from the suit's power source.
"Trust me, Mr. Stark," Lex said. "I've made a few improvements."
Lex reared back and then thrust his arms forward, a giant fireball of green energy shooting forth from his hands and blasting Iron Man clear out of the room.
Iron Man landed roughly in the hallway outside the room.
"JARVIS, what the hell was that?!" he asked his armor's internal computer.
"The energy signature matches radiation from the meteor rocks found in Smallville, Kansas," the English-accented computer generated voice within his armor replied. "The database refers to it as kryptonite, sir."
"I should've known," Iron Man muttered, picking himself up.
Lex came crashing through the door. "You really should've!" he replied. He punched Iron Man so hard he sent him straight through the wall.
Iron Man landed in another room on the other side of the wall. This room was huge, filled wall to wall and floor to ceiling with strange tanks containing a glowing blue liquid. Inside each tank was a person, apparently asleep in some kind of state of suspended animation.
"My God…" Iron Man gasped. "What is this?"
Lex burst through the wall after Iron Man. "Well, well, you're just stumbling onto all sorts of interesting things today, aren't you, Tony?"
Lex punched Iron Man in the face, sending him reeling. He nearly crashed into one of the tanks before he caught himself. Iron Man lunged at Lex, punching at the chest plate of his battlesuit over and over. Lex let the green radiation build up in his hands again. Then he dug his fingers into the back of Iron Man's suit and unleashed another blast of radiation. The blast brought Iron Man to his knees, screaming.
Lex kicked Iron Man and he crumpled to the ground. He struggled to get up as green steam rose from the back of his armor.
"Face it, Tony," Lex said, standing triumphantly over his foe. "I've beaten you at your own game. You're finished."
Iron Man flicked open the panel on his gauntlet again. "I'm not ready to admit defeat just yet," he said. He pressed another button on the gauntlet. "Voice command override. All units, attack Lex Luthor."
Lex grabbed Iron Man and hauled him to his feet.
"What did you just do?" Lex demanded.
His question was answered as the ten Iron Avengers stormed into the room, all with their laser rifles pointed at Lex.
Lex shoved Iron Man back to the ground. "All of you, stand down!" Lex screamed. "That is a direct presidential order!"
"We can't help it, sir!" one of the Iron Avengers cried out. "The suits are acting completely on their own!"
They all opened fire, shooting at Lex with the laser guns. Lex roared with frustration. He threw up his hands and the battlesuit generated a kind of kryptonite radiation shield in front of him which deflected most of the laser beams.
With Lex busy warding off the Iron Avengers, Iron Man was able to get back on his feet. He took a moment to look at the people floating in the tanks. Each tank was designated with a number. One of them in particular caught his eye. He took a step closer and stared at the individual floating in the blue liquid.
"Oh, my…" he whispered. "Is that…?"
He didn't get a chance to finish his thought. Lex dropped his kryptonite shield, threw his arm around Iron Man's neck, and activated the rocket thrusters in his armor's boots. With a WOOOSH, he took off flying down the hallway, dragging Iron Man with him.
Together the crashed through several walls as they blew through room after room. Finally, they crashed right out of the Lex-Stark International building and out into the open air of New York City.
Lex threw Iron Man away from him and he tumbled through the air for a moment before activating his own jet-boots, hovering in the air and using the repulsors in his hands to steady himself.
"What are you doing in there, Lex?" Iron Man demanded.
"I'm preparing for the coming apocalypse, Tony," Lex replied, ominously. "And it's so much closer than you think."
As if on cue, there was a rumbling in the distance. Then, a strange flash of white light on the horizon. Iron Man spun around in midair and stared off after it.
"Did that just come from the prison?" Iron Man asked.
"Yes sir," his armor replied, though Tony had not really been asking JARVIS. "There was just a minor explosion on Ryker's Island, current location of the N-Zone Prison. The breakdown of the stasis field has begun. We are only hours away from a total catastrophic event."
Iron Man turned back to Lex. "If that prison implodes, we could lose the entire state of New York."
"You're being optimistic," Lex replied. "We'll probably lose most of the eastern seaboard."
"And you honestly don't care?"
"That's nothing compared to what's coming, Tony," Lex said. "The people who die in that explosion should consider themselves lucky."
"You're insane."
"I've been called worse," Lex said with a shrug. "But if you really want to save the prison, you should get going. After all, there are only three people in the world with access to adjust the prison's stasis field." He pointed to Iron Man, then to himself. Then he paused and smiled sarcastically. "Ooops! Make that two people. I almost forgot, Reed Richards is dead!"
"I will get you for this, you bastard," Iron Man replied. "If it takes the rest of my life I will see that you pay for everything you've done."
"Get in line," Lex scoffed.
Without another word, Iron Man took off, flying full speed toward Ryker's Island and the N-Zone Prison.
Lex smiled to himself as he flew back toward the Lex-Stark International building.
"Spider-Man," he said into a com-link built into his armor. "Send Superman up to see me. I'm ready to settle things once and for all."
Meanwhile, on television, WGBS was breaking in with a special report. Tana Moon was giving an update as the red BREAKING NEWS graphic streamed across the bottom of the screen.
"We have just learned from our news partners at the Daily Planet that the N-Zone Prison in New York has become unstable," Tana declared. "If the prison should implode, it would trigger a massive anti-matter explosion that could vaporize all of New York. Authorities are urging citizens to remain calm, but we expect evacuation orders to come at any moment."
In Gotham City, Bruce Wayne watched the newsfeed from his living room in stately Wayne Manor.
"Alfred," he called out.
Wayne's faithful butler and friend entered the room. "Yes, Master Wayne?"
"We need to get back to New York," Bruce said, grimly. "As soon as possible."