Chapter 8

The White House; Washington DC

Lex stood outside of the White House, the entire press had gathered for this demonstration. Feeling a light gust of wind, the President turned towards the sky and smiled as his guest landed next to him.

"Clark, I'm glad you arrived." Lex greeted his long time, but was met by an uncomfortable silence. "How did things go with the bat?"

"We came to an understanding." Superman responded.

"Oh, you actually persuaded him. Interesting." Lex reached into his pocket, ready to take out his ring.

"LUTHOR!" a voice caught their attention, both men turned and their eyes widened in shock. Standing before them was a mechanical exoskeleton wearing tattered clothes, covered in torn pieces of what appeared to be skin and baring a face that vaguely resembled that of John Corben.

"Mr. Corben" Luthor spoke into the microphone "Just in time. I see you're trying out a new look."

"Save it, you lying bastard." Corben shouted "You said you would help me, but instead you turned me into a freak!"

"How dare you!?" Luthor responded, an offended look on his face "This is your gratitude for saving your life?"

"I hardly call this life!" Corben declared, pointing at himself. Superman descended from the stage and turned to face the cyborg.

"John, please calm down" he urged him, raising his hand.

"John Corben is dead, I am Metallo!" the metallic man declared, his glowing bright green.

Superman took a few steps towards Metallo, only to stumble onto his knees.

"What's wrong, Smallville?" the cyborg asked "Feeling a little green at the gills?" Metallo's chest plate then opened, revealing a large chunk of Kryptonite.

Superman struggled to stand when Metallo delivered a series of punches to his face. He then lifted him by his head before slamming him on the floor. The Man of Steel responded by landing a punch to Metallo's face.

As the two continued fighting, Amanda Waller turned to face the President.

"Are you sure about this, sir?" She asked.

"Relax Amanda" he assured her "it takes a metal man to throw down with the Man of Steel."

The fight had reached the nearby parking lot, the press ran for cover, most getting into their cars and driving away.

Superman stumbled to a nearby car, yanking off the tier before tossing it at Metallo. The Man of Steel then lifted the car above his head before slamming it on top of the cyborg.

Exhausted, Superman took a few steps back before firing his heat vision at the car, causing it to explode.

Several of the remaining press members stuck their heads out of their cover, believing the fight to be over, several even celebrated. However, when the smoke cleared, Metallo walked out of the wreckage, the entirety of his clothes and what was left of his skin burned in the explosion, exposing the exoskeleton.

The cyborg rushed towards Superman, delivering a punch to his stomach followed by an uppercut.

The Man of Steel landed on his back before rising to his feet, only to receive two more punches to the face. Metallo then delivered another punch to his stomach and then another to the face.

Superman panted before countering with another punch to Metallo's face. The Man of Steel then fell to his knees yet again as Metallo prepared for another attack.

The cyborg swung his arms to deliver two more punches, Superman evaded the first one and blocked the second only to receive a knee to the chin.

Metallo then proceeded to pond Superman's head into the ground before grabbing him by the throat. The cyborg followed up by throwing several more punches with his free hand, knocking off several of Superman's teeth. Metallo then threw another punch only for Superman to catch it.

The Man of Steel's eyes then lit up red before he fired a beam of his heat vision, knocking Metallo back several feet. Superman then leapt forward, delivering another punch to Metallo's face. The amount of energy spent in the fight, left the Man of Steel exhausted, believing the fight was over he flew off to recover the remainder of the press following closely behind him.

Metallo rose to his feet and began scanning the area for Superman, only to see him flying away from the scene. Getting up he turned to see Lex Luthor standing in front of him.

"Go after him" he ordered "then I'll follow through on my promise."

Metallo looked at him, his blank face almost showing skepticism "You better" he warmed before chasing after the fleeing Kryptonian.

Lincoln Memorial; Washington DC

Superman attempted to fly as far away from the White House as he could but turned to see Metallo in hot pursue, he had barely reached the Lincoln Memorial when they reengaged.

Metallo leapt into the air, grabbing Superman by the leg and slamming him to the ground. The cyborg then proceeded to pin his opponent to the ground. People ran away from the monument as the fight ensued.

Metallo then picked up Superman before throwing him into a nearby column, causing part of the ceiling to collapse. The metal man then proceeded to dig throw the rubble where Superman lay on the floor.

"Nothing personal, Clark." Metallo stated "but you got in the way. I'm only doing this to get to the Batman."

"Then why don't you come and get me" they both heard a voice before Metallo was kicked away from Superman. The cyborg rose to his feet and his eyes glowed in anger.

"You!" he shouted.

"I came back to finish what I started." Batman declared, launching several batarangs at Metallo's chest, causing a large surge of electrical energy to flow uncontrollably. Batman then rushed to help Superman. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, thanks" Superman responded "Why did you come to help me?"

"Whenever I ask people why they look up to you, they say it's because you inspire them to be better. Well, you could say you inspired me."

The two smiled at each other before Metallo grabbed Batman by the throat and slamming him into one of the columns. Superman attempted to help him, only to stumble to the ground.

Metallo lifted Batman by the neck and tightened his grip. The Dark Knight started kicking while gasping for air.

Superman got on his knees and fired a blast from his heat vision aimed directly at Metallo's hand, severing it clean and him to drop Batman to the ground.

Metallo clutched at his wrist joint, Batman got on his knees, his eyes fixed on the Kryptonite core.

Metallo turned to face Superman. "You shouldn't have done that" he stated, walking up to him. He was so focused on Superman that he failed to notice the batbombs attached to his back before they exploded.

When the smoke cleared, Batman was helping Superman to his feet holding the Kryptonite rapped in a strange form of cloth. Metallo snarled at them before realizing something, looking down to his chest he saw that the Kryptonite was gone.

Superman turned to look at Batman who lifted the piece of cloth

"It's reinforced with led." He explained "blocks out the radiation."

"Clever" Superman smiled.

Metallo screamed and charged at them, Superman then proceeded to plant himself in front of the cyborg before lifting him up into the air and throwing him as far away as he could, causing him to sink into the Washington Channel.

The two panted after that, Superman turned to Batman.

"Thanks for the help" he smiled.

"You don't have to thank me" Batman replied "I figured you could use a hand." The two then noticed a large number of the press taking pictures of them. They looked at each other before smiling and shaking hands.

The White House; Washington DC

"World's Finest stop psychotic cyborg!" Lex Luthor shouted from his office "US President Luthor under investigation?" The President then threw the newspaper to the room.

"I'm certain we can come out of this, Mr. President." Amanda Waller said, walking up to the newspaper and picking it up.

"One of them was bad enough, Amanda, now I have to deal with both? This will ruin me!"

Amanda walked up to the desk "Don't think that way, Mr. President" she placed the newspaper on the desk "They can't prove that you were in any way involved in this. As for your little problem, I think you should consider fighting fire with fire."

Luthor turned to look at Amanda "What are you saying, Amanda?"

"It's simple, really. Do you know what the Romans called their unit formations? They called them legions. If you wish Batman and Superman, you need to raise your own legion."

Suddenly, a loud cackling sound echoed throughout the halls of the White House. The door then swung open as a lone figure clad in a purple suit with green hair, a white face and red lips walked into the office.

"Mr. President" Amanda announced "allow me to introduce you to the Joker. He is an escaped inmate from Arkham Asylum, he and the Batman have some history together."

"A pleasure to meet you, Mr. President." The Joker greeted before chuckling "Never thought I'd ever see this place, nor meet the man in charge."

"And you expect me to work with this Psychopath?" Luthor turned to face Amanda.

"Batman and Superman are not the only threats out there. You wanna take them down, you'll need all the help you can get."