Bruce reviewed their options. The clock was ticking – they only had a short while before the compound would evaporate within its container and become useless. However, now that Bruce had the container in his hand, he felt slightly more at ease. Victor wouldn't want them to use it without exhausting all other avenues, and they had a brief window in which to explore alternatives. Bruce spoke into his comm.

"Superman, can you hold him for another few minutes? I want to see if Luthor planned ahead for this."

"Go ahead."

"Flash, can you find out if Luthor is still in the building?"

"Sure."

THWUP

Bruce took out his phone – the cell reception was weak, but workable. Bruce didn't have Luthor's number, but his assistant had emailed Luthor's assistant about shareholder meetings, and Bruce had been cc'd. Bruce dialed the phone number in her email signature, and a female voice answered.

"Lex Luthor's office."

"Hi, this is Bruce Wayne, I'd like to speak to Lex."

"I'm afraid Mr. Luthor is unavailable. Can I take a message?"

"The thing is, Stephanie – it is Stephanie, right?" Bruce went into full arrogant playboy mode, "It's kind of important. I've heard some troubling rumors about LexCorp's financial results, and some of my own shareholders are hassling me, and, you know how it is."

"Did you say Bruce Wayne… uh… the CEO of Wayne Enterprises?"

"Yep, that's me. Rather than feed the rumor mill I thought I'd talk to Lex. Get the facts straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak."

"One moment please, I'll see if Mr. Luthor will take your call."

The on-hold music seemed offensively banal, juxtaposed with the damaged walls, scattered workbenches and his injured teammates. Bruce looked around the room, to see if there were any clues about Luthor's work, but could only see standard lab equipment. Then Stephanie's chirpy voice wrenched his attention back to his phone.

"Thank you for holding, I'll put you through now." There was a brief moment of silence, then Luthor's voice came through. He sounded amused.

"Mr. Wayne, a pleasure as always."

"Do you have any contingency plan for containing the clone?"

"Of course I do, I'm not some kind of irresponsible buffoon."

"How does it work? Can you activate it?"

"I'm afraid I'm on my way out, I'm sure you can understand why. Are you in a particular hurry, Mr. Wayne?"

"Quit stalling. Can we use it or not?"

"Haha, very well." Luthor's smirk was audible. "In the test chamber on the floor below you'll find a cage lined with nanobots reprogrammed as force field generators. In theory they should be able to hold Mr. Kent or his clone, but the truth is I never tested the full configuration, since imprisoning the clone might have led him to thinking unfavorably of me. I'm happy for you to play bad cop though."

"Stay on the line."

Bruce pressed the mute button on his phone, and switched to his comm.

"Flash, have you found anything that looks like a test chamber containing a person-sized cage?"

"Yeah, that sounds familiar. One sec… " There was the briefest of pauses. "Yep, I guess that's this thing."

THWUP. Barry appeared in a doorway next to Luthor's closed window.

"It's down here."

Bruce grabbed the metal container that contained the compound. "Take us there."

THWUP

Bruce found himself in a room slightly smaller than the previous one, it felt deeper underground, but not by much. There was a large wire mesh cage in one corner, connected by a mass of cables to a console in the opposite corner. The cage was big enough to fit several people comfortably, and included a chair, perhaps with the expectation that someone might spend an extended period of time inside it.

THWUP

Barry and Diana appeared next to him.

"Superman, can you bring the clone to us?" Bruce hoped that Clark would be able to use his x-ray vision to locate them easily.

THWUP

Clark and the clone appeared, facing away, just to be on the safe side. Bruce switched back to his phone, and put it on speaker so that the others could hear.

"We're next to the cage. What do we do now?"

"I'm not at your beck and call, Mr. Wayne, and I don't take kindly to being treated as your assistant."

Bruce had guessed that Luthor would want to see if his super-prison worked, and also potentially end up with the clone secured in his laboratory. So Bruce could probably have been a lot ruder and still kept Luthor in the conversation. However, it was probably best to soothe his ego a little, for the sake of keeping things moving.

"Sorry Lex, but we don't have much time. Could you please explain how to use this device that you've created?"

"Hmm… I can see that you're in the correct room, that's a good start."

Of course, Luthor had a security camera feed to wherever he currently was. It was what Bruce would have done too.

"The console to your left has the on-switch. It's a simple toggle. Just ask Mr. Kent to walk into the cage, then close the door and flick the switch."

"We don't want Superman trapped in there too."

"I'm afraid there's no other way. The generators take a while to spool up, and the door needs to be closed to complete all the circuits."

"It's fine." Clark carried the still struggling clone over to the cage and stepped inside. "It will be easier for him if I'm in here too, and you can always let me out later."

Bruce didn't like the idea of trapping Clark in Luthor's device, but decided that there was a low probability of it being permanent. Even if it was a trick of some kind, they could always turn the power off to get him out. And if they couldn't do that for some reason, there would be time to work out a solution.

He nodded at Diana, who was already standing by the cage door. She closed it, while Bruce located the switch on the console, and flipped it to on.

A low hum started, coming from somewhere else in the building, rising in pitch and intensity. Then patches of yellow light started to appear around the cage. A few seconds later the entire inner surface of the cage was glowing.

"Excellent." Luthor's voice came in over the phone. "I wonder, could you ask Mr. Kent to try tapping on the glass, so to speak."

Inside the cage, Clark let go of the clone, and started shaking his arms loosely by his side. "Oh boy." He sat down on the chair. "Gimme a sec, will you."

The clone spun round to face him. "You bad Steve!"

Clark held up both his hands. "I'm sorry, but you were very angry. I didn't want you to hurt any more of my friends."

"Me am still angry. Maybe me am hurt them now!"

Clark reached out and knocked on the force field that surrounded them. Each time he touched it the yellow glow momentarily increased intensity in response. "I don't think you'll be able to."

"What you mean?" The clone walked to the door and tried to push it open, but the force field responded to his touch too, and the door stayed put. The clone thumped his fists against the door, then strode over to one of the cage's walls and banged on that.

"This not possible," he muttered. He punched the wall as hard as he could, then bellowed in frustration. He turned his attention back to the door, and shoulder charged it, bouncing off with no effect. He repeated his assault a couple of times, then tried flying straight up in the air, smashing against the cage's ceiling, but no matter where he attacked, the surrounding force field momentarily flashed brighter, countering his impacts.

"Superb! If you'll pardon the pun." Luthor's voice was heard once more, but this time not over Bruce's phone. The occupants of the room turned and saw Luthor himself standing in the doorway. He was wearing what looked like a spandex bodysuit, covered in a grid of wires, including one around his forehead and another around his jaw, with a large square backpack feeding the wires.

"Apologies for the deception," Luthor continued, walking into the room. "I really was on my way out, but once I realized you might be inclined to test my super container for me, I doubled back."

"Luthor!" Diana strode over and reached out to lift him by the neck, but a yellow glow appeared where her hand made contact, and while she succeeded in lifting him up, he seemed not to be bothered by her firm grip.

"I'm afraid, my dear Wonder Woman, that any aggression towards me will be quite ineffective from here on out."

"Gah!" Diana threw Luthor towards a wall, and he crashed into it, leaving a man-sized dent, but he calmly stood back up.

"Fortunately, the inertia negators are working, otherwise you would be looking at a charge of aggravated assault. You are also currently trespassing so I will kindly request that you vacate these premises immediately."

"You can't keep Superman locked in a cage though," said Barry. "That's… uh… kidnapping."

"I think you mean false imprisonment. But in any case, that only applies to people. I am merely observing two 3D simulations in an experimental facility. There is nothing illegal about that. Now, as mentioned, I would like all of you to leave."

"Whatever," said Diana, "Superman is coming with us though. She motioned to Bruce and pointed at the control console. "Turn that thing off."

Bruce didn't move, he was racing through possibilities in his mind. Luthor had more or less played them a second time, although Clark had stepped willingly into the cage, and arguably having both Clark and the clone temporarily imprisoned was better than having the clone free to wreak havoc on the outside world. But was it only temporary?

"Ugh, I'll do it then." Diana started towards the console.

"Wait." Bruce held up a hand. "Do we really want to let the clone out?"

"Don't tell me you're on Luthor's side."

"We barely managed to stop the clone. Cyborg is down, you're injured, and Superman is tired. I don't think we can afford to let the clone out. At the very least we should ask Superman if he would prefer to be in the cage, or on 24-hour guard duty outside."

Bruce and Diana turned to Clark, who slowly shook his head. "He's right. It's safer for everyone if we stay put for now."

"No!" the clone yelled. "Me am not stay here!" He contorted his face in rage, and his eyes flashed red, as two beams of light shot out and hit the cage's door handle. A yellow glow sprang up to meet them. Bruce glanced at Luthor, who didn't appear concerned. No doubt he had tested the force fields with ordinary lasers, while designing the cage to hold Clark.

The clone started breathing heavily, as the effort of maintaining his eye beams took its toll. Outside the room, the hum of the generators could be heard increasing in pitch, more and more, until an alarm started blaring. The clone grinned widely. "Me am strongest!"

Then the lights in the room briefly dimmed, and the generator hum rapidly decreased until it was inaudible. The cage's force field was still active, but now the cage door had started to glow red hot. "Me am break free!" the clone shouted.

Clark hurriedly stood up, grabbing the clone around the waist, and tried to turn him away from the cage door, but had misjudged his hold and the clone's right arm was still free.

"No!" the clone yelled. He continued to stare intently at the door, his eye beams not letting up, as he swung his elbow backwards, hitting Clark in the head. Clark held on, but the clone hit him again, and the second time was enough for Clark to loosen his grip and for the clone to hit him one more time before pushing him away. Clark staggered backwards and fell against the rear wall of the cage, sliding down to the floor, while the clone ran forward, still staring at the lock, and pushed against the door. It slowly gave way, until the yellow force field sputtered out, and the clone burst through the cage triumphantly, panting, and blinking, his eye beams finally shut off.

"Me am… strongest…"

"Well done, Clark," said Luthor, failing to conceal the nervousness in his voice. "I … didn't think these bad people would be able to hold you."

The clone looked at Luthor, his eyes narrowed. "Me am not dumb. You build trap."

"Technically, yes." Luthor started slowly backing out of the room. "But it was for him, not you." He pointed at Clark, who was still sitting disorientated at the back of the cage.

A plan was forming in Bruce's mind. "Wonder Woman," he spoke quickly. "Stop Luthor from leaving. Flash, keep the clone occupied."

Diana ran to the doorway and stood in it with her arms folded. Bruce didn't know whether Luthor had super strength at this point, but even if he did, he wasn't a master of hand to hand combat and likely wouldn't be able to get past Diana for a while at least.

THWUP. Barry moved next to the clone. "Hey man, that was some cool stuff back there. You know, with the lasers… pew pew!"

Bruce was counting on Barry's own nanobots to keep him out of harm's way if the clone attacked. That would give him a moment to talk to Clark. Bruce still had the compound. Palmer said it would remain stable for about 30 minutes in the container, and it had only been 15 minutes since Barry brought it back. Even with a wide margin of error it should still be effective if they used it soon.

Just as Bruce was about to make his way over to Clark, the clone shouted something unintelligible, and swung at Barry. With a THWUP, Barry was out of range. The clone advanced for another attack, which Barry evaded with a second THWUP. The clone shouted again, and his eyes flashed red, there then followed a rapid sequence of THWUPs, as Barry's nanobots repositioned him to avoid the clone's eye beams, which were in turn retargeting Barry as fast as his eye saccades would allow.

Whether by luck, or Barry's own intervention, his nanobots moved him towards the far corner of the room, so that the clone's eye beams wouldn't strike anyone else. Each individual blast only lasted a few tenths of a second, but this was enough to leave a series of burn marks on the wall.

Bruce could see that Clark was finally getting to his feet. Bruce spoke into his comm. "Superman, we need you to restrain the clone again."

The clone's eye beams stopped, and he turned angrily towards Bruce.

THWUP

Barry appeared next to the clone and tapped him on the shoulder. "Hey, why'd you stop? I thought we were having fun."

"Annoying Flashy Barry man!" The clone swung once more at Barry, who of course evaded.

"Annoying like fly. Me am swat fly!" The clone took a deep breath, and blew.

Perhaps the nanobots didn't register a high velocity wind as a threat to the human body, or perhaps they assumed that whatever threat may arise could be dealt with later, but neither the nanobots nor Barry reacted in time to prevent him being lifted off his feet by the clone's super breath and propelled towards the wall. Once in the air, having no purchase on the floor to effect a change in direction, neither Barry nor the nanobots could do anything to alter his trajectory, and without the inertia negation of Luthor's bots, he impacted against the wall arm first, shoulder second, and head third, crumpling into an unconscious heap.

"Finally no more buzzy buzz." The clone jeered. "Now me am deal with you!" He turned towards Bruce, but Clark was already flying out of the cage, and grappled the clone to the ground. There was a brief tussle, before Clark emerged on top, pinning the clone in an arm bar hold.

"I finally remembered some of my high school wrestling," said Clark, as the clone alternately writhed around and shouted in pain.

Bruce exhaled. The clone was secure again, for now. In theory Clark could hold him like that for a long time, but the clock was ticking on their 30-minute deadline. Bruce briefly considered attending to Barry, but decided that, like Victor, he would have to wait.

"We have to use the compound now."

"I agree," said Clark.

Bruce opened the container. Wisps of water vapor poured out from the top, indicating the freezing temperatures within. A pair of tongs was attached to the lid, and Bruce used them to fish around inside, until they closed around something small and solid.

"I have it."

Clark looked over at Luthor, and Bruce followed his gaze. "Tell me, Lex," said Clark, still holding the clone securely on the floor, "Did you manage to get components out of the nanobots to make your protective suit, or are you using whole ones?"

Bruce watched Luthor as he furrowed his brow, most likely wondering what motivated this question. His eyes darted over to Bruce's container, then back to Clark.

"Oh!" Luthor exclaimed, as realization dawned. "You've manufactured one of those noble gas formulas. Extraordinary! Though I'm afraid you will find it ineffective here, since I disabled that particular feature some time ago."

Clark looked back at Bruce. "What do you think?"

Bruce paused as he weighed the evidence. During Luthor's visit to the manor he had said he wasn't able to dissect the nanobots because they were self-repairing. And just previously he had said that the cage was lined with reprogrammed nanobots. While Bruce couldn't trust anything Luthor said, it was consistent, and it chimed with Barbara's finding that the lower levels of the bot code were read-only. So Luthor's most likely course of action was editing the upper level, which he had already done once to create the clone. Perhaps if he deleted most of that code altogether and kept a defensive mapping section intact, he could create a personal force shield. Or a cage. This would mean he was using intact nanobots, which would respond to the compound.

On the other hand, Luthor claimed he had bypassed that feature. Was this true? Bruce had seen the briefest flicker of panic on Luthor's face – a micro-expression – just as he had realized what was in the container. Could this have been a bluff? Luthor was a brilliant businessman and engineer, and had manipulated them several times, but he didn't have superhuman control over his instincts. On balance Bruce decided that there was a 75% probability that he was correctly seeing through Luthor's charade this time.

Bruce spoke carefully. "He's lying. All the nanobots still have the same vulnerability."

"A bold assertion, Mr. Wayne," Luthor smiled broadly. "But would you stake Mr. Kent's life on it?" Bruce's assessment rose to 80% – Luthor was a decent actor, he got all the big gestures right, but the small touches weren't quite there.

"I'm not planning to do that." Bruce's plan had crystallized – Diana would bring Luthor over, Bruce would bring the compound to the clone himself, and just before he shattered the vial, Clark would use super-speed to back away to a safe distance. Bruce was about to give the orders when Clark spoke again.

"Are you sure he's lying?"

Bruce considered. Given their situation, 80% counted as being sure. And they didn't have much to lose by trying the compound anyway, as long as Clark moved out of the way quickly enough.

"Yes, I'm sure."

"There's something I didn't tell you." The timbre of Clark's voice had changed. He sounded wistful. "I learned about it from the spaceship in Antarctica. The krypton formula is a failsafe that triggers all the nanobots at once. It's a safety feature my people added, in case something ever went wrong. It never did though."

Bruce frowned. All the nanobots? That would include Clark's. "But… if you flew far enough away, into space maybe…"

"There's nowhere for me to go, and as soon as I came back, we'd have the same problem all over again."

"Then we can't use it."

"I've made up my mind. This is the only way to keep everyone safe. Say goodbye to the others for me." Clark looked at Diana. "It was great knowing you all." Then back at Bruce. "Don't blame yourself. There was no other way."

"Clark! Wait! What are you-"

THWUP

Bruce felt a rush of wind around him, as the positions of Clark and the clone changed slightly. Clark was still looking at him, only now with a strange forlorn smile. Then Clark turned his head away.

Bruce looked down at the container's tongs, but they weren't in his hand anymore. Bruce looked up at Clark once more. He and the clone were motionless, as if somebody had pressed a pause button on them both. Then there was a bright flash, and they vanished, their now-empty clothes blown outwards. The silence was broken only by a tinkling sound as fragments of an opaque glass vial fell to the ground.