Pfft. Legion of Doom? Seriously? Is that the best they could come up with for a name? Come on, that's what you call yourself when you're pitting yourselves up against, oh, I don't know, people calling themselves the Superfriends!

However...the robot guy Supes called Metallo had the voice to pull it off. Give this guy an Oscar because he managed to make Legion of Doom sound menacing.

Of course, this is when the fighting happened to start. For being the fastest man on Earth, Flash was a second too slow to catch up with that fact. Hey, it happens to the best of them. Give him a break.

It was because Metallo there with his voice attracting all of his attention, that Alchemy got the jump on Big Blue. The floor surged forward and struck the big guy without any warning, and backwards he went, Alchemy on the chase with Metallo following.

The chick with the wild red hair went all flame on, practically surrounding herself with flames. Raising both of her arms up, hands engulfed in fire, she whipped her fiery limbs in the direction of GL and Hawkgirl, and that was a pretty big blast of fire that she...fired off. Man, he needed to come up with something better. Shade was heading in their direction, but keeping his distance from the flames like any smart guy would.

Vixen charged forth, heading for Faust. Smart girl there, but Girder was running in to block her. That left Fire at his side and he wanted to add she looked so much better than the other lady using fire here. Red fire was so cliche, but green? Now that was marketable. However, if Girder thought he was going to have an easy two-on-one, well, it seemed like Captain Atom was a good sport and willing to even the odds with a midflight tackle.

Then the blasts of magic headed his way and he knew he needed to move. Out of the way of magic, Flash ran right into the path of actual fire, then what might have been rocks were in his way, and then electricity courtesy of Hawkgirl danced around. Flash easily ran through it all, a walk on the beach really. Heck, errant blasts from GL and that one lady covered with violet energy were easy to dodge. Back and forth his eyes went, searching for where he might want to start helping out first.

He ended up right back at Fire's side in no time. "We might want to go help Big Blue. I don't know anything about Metallo, but Alchemy has all sorts of tricks he can do."

"Understood," Fire agreed, ready to jump into the fray.

Except a wall of ice cut the two of them off. Oh wow, that was cold. Wait, let him guess, was Cold here too? Was the Legion of Doom here some kind score he would want to get on?

"I think you two should chill." Oh. What's this? That was a chick! Really pale skin with short hair that almost seemed blue. Was there not a female supervillain with an ice gimmick? Not that there was anything wrong with that, but it was in the speedster's experience that guys went for the ice stuff first.

But first, with a quick, "Let me handle this," to Fire, Flash shot back, "Well I think we need to turn the heat up here." Yeah, that was a good one. One to add to the quip book.

A thin beam of violet light cut in, going through the floor between the Scarlet Speedster and his emerald flame lady. Okay, not a good description for someone as hot as Fire—oh hey, a pun! Nice. Anyway, coming down from above was that violet, or purple, or whatever color you wanted to call it, lady who was giving the both of them one of the snooty looks.

"Your quips need a lot of work, little boy," the violet lady stated.

Oh no she didn't!

"Okay, you just made this personal, whoever you are," he retorted with narrowed eyes

She was rolling her eyes, wasn't she? "I am the Star Sapphire. You are no one. Now be a good insect and die."

"Sorry," Ice Lady cut in, "but I'm the only one who gets to kill anyone here." One of her hands stretched out and it was weird to describe what it was. It wasn't quite an ice beam, a la Captain Cold, but it distorted the air and his hackles were telling him it was bad.

Fire immediately fired a blast of green flame, catching what might be an ice beam midway between them. What do you know, there was some heat—make that a lot of heat—to those green flames. Guess she wasn't putting it on the nose with her name. Taking a couple steps back, Flash flickered his gaze to the ice lady, already coming up with two dozen ideas how to knock her out, then started to run only because a purple beam of energy blasted where he had once stood.

"Missed me!" he called out to the floating Star Sapphire.

Narrowing her eyes, Star Sapphire fired off multiple short blasts of purple, all of them easily dodged because he really wasn't the fastest man around for nothing.

"Yo, can you turn up the heat up there? Because I'm getting bored down here!" he taunted, leaning against a wall and making an exaggerated yawn.

"You think you're cute, don't you?" Star Sapphire sniffed.

"That's what my grandma tells me," Flash shrugged back. "What? Did yours not tell you you were cute?"

Okay, that had been a much bigger blast, but seriously, GL was so much faster with his. This was a piece of cake! Fire was over there handling the ice lady, and he was keeping Sapphire up there busy.

But that couldn't last. He was going to have to bring her down somehow. But, aw man, the only things he could see that he could throw were all priceless historical stuff that Hawkgirl would kill him for if he broke any. What to do, what to do—

Ice Lady suddenly fired that weird ice beam of hers at the floor, covering it all in ice. Not normally a problem, except that part of the floor happened to be where he was running, and suddenly he lost friction. Yeah, he slipped, big deal, and so what if he went rolling head over heel next and only stopped because of the ice wall the ice lady had made earlier. It wasn't funny, so stop laughing.

It hurt, so that meant it wasn't funny. At all.

Above him, Sapphire descended, a large flare of purple light growing around her head. With a sneer, she fired.

The close quarters of the museum was making the current conflict quite chaotic. Fire was being thrown against green shields, fists were connecting with faces, and exhibits were being destroyed in the crossfire.

Faust found himself next to one such exhibit, keeping himself clear of the fighting. He had no such qualms with this as he knew he was not as durable as some of the others. Were he to take a punch to the face, he would be quite debilitated.

Unfortunately, he wouldn't be able to stay clear of the melee currently in progress. Case in point, a bluish-colored man hit the floor close to where the mage stood, having been tossed there by one of the Legionnaires. He didn't appear any worse for wear as he shrugged off the landing and picked himself up.

Faust glanced to the exhibit cases next to him. Perhaps there was something here of use that he could exploit. Oddly, he could feel an aura on a couple of the items. Feeling them out, he could sense enchantments, dormant to be sure, but present all the same.

This was something he could use.

"Revelare te," he chanted and an aura appeared around a helmet, one he identified as Egyptian in design. He could tell that much from one look, but the placard next to it also described it as such. The aura grew brighter before an orb of light formed within the innards of the helmet.

Then a blast of power was fired from it, obliterating the protective glass in front of it. The beam raced towards the blue hero and struck him in the back, causing him to cry out, being thrown forward as he crashed to the floor. Smoke wafted up from his back, a clear burned mark visible.

It took the man a few moments before he gingerly pushed himself back up, turning his head to look over his shoulder at him. Faust merely smirked at him before he pointed a finger at another artifact, this one a sword. The sword rattled in its case, the guard bouncing around in the mount that held it to the back of the case. Then it floated out of the mount and rotated until its point was aimed right for the hero.

The glass shattered the moment the sword fired forward, racing right for the blue man. Turning around to fully face it, the man held up a fist, one clothes in a red glove. A blast of energy fired from his fist, flying right for the incoming sword. The beam swallowed up the sword, causing it to vanish within it.

However, once the beam faded away, the sword remained present, hovering in midair. It had merely been stopped from the power blast, not looking any worse for wear. Suddenly, it lunged towards the hero, moving high up as its tip pointed to the ceiling. Then it swung itself downward, attempting to slash the man.

Eyes widening, the man jumped backwards to avoid the attack. The sword remained undeterred as it continued to cut and slash at him, causing him to back away to continue avoiding it.

In the meantime, Faust located another enchanted artifact, this one being a shield. Much like the sword, he just pointed at it as he summoned it with a silent spell. The shield reacted immediately, throwing itself out of its case and hurling towards the hero. Because he was so focused on the sword, he missed the shield closing on him until it rammed right into the side of his head, causing him to cry out as he stumbled back a step.

The sword took advantage of this as it swung down at him, attempting to strike his head. The man threw his hands up and caught the blade, his palms clamping down on either side of the blade and holding it off. The muscles in his arms bulged slightly as he held it off.

Now this was promising. Faust returned his attention to the shield, readying to use it to strike a blow that would weaken this hero's hold on the sword and leave him open for attack.

However, before he could do so, the sword began to glow before it was surrounded in an orb of what Faust could best describe as power. It glowed brighter and brighter before there was an intense burst of heat. In an instant, Faust felt the enchantment within the sword vanish, cutting himself off from it. Once the orb of light disappeared, the sword was no longer present, allowing the blue hero to straighten out his posture before looking back to him with a stoic look.

"Do you have any idea what you've done?!" Faust cried out, glaring heatedly at the man. "That was a priceless artifact that dated back thousands of years ago!"

"That didn't stop you from attacking me with it," the man pointed out. "I highly suggest that if you want to protect them, you will refrain from using them as tools to harm me."

"Levitate!" Faust commanded, the hero suddenly shooting up into the air until he slammed into the roof above. Raising a hand up, he then swung it down. "Cadere!" The man then came falling down, crashing onto the floor.

He wasn't done though, not by far. This man held no respect for the artifacts in this collection. Never mind his appropriation of it, it did not call for the utter destruction of it. Faust would be certain to carve that lesson in the man's body for all to see.

The wall crumbled behind his back, the Man of Steel able to weather through it. Alchemy was following after, several silver orbs hovering about him. The orbs abruptly grew spikes, long, razor thin, and all pointed right at him. With a flourish, the spiked orbs charged at the Kryptonian, who raised his arms up to shield his face, bearing the battering.

There was no real concern. The sharp tips of the spikes weren't cutting through his skin, though his uniform was bearing the brunt of the tears. With x-ray vision, he peered through his arms, saw the orbs regrow their spikes at the cost of shrinking their size. Not wanting to bear through another assault like that, his eyes brightened, then his arms lowered enough so that his heat rays could pass by.

The orbs melted instantly as his Heat Vision targeted as many as it could. Molten silver fell to the floor, unworkable until Alchemy gave them another purpose. In this case, it was to meld it all into a puddle that began to stretch and reach out for Superman as he hovered in the air. Taking in a deep breath, he blew an arctic gale at the silver, blowing harder until it began to form icicles around itself, coming to a stop. Raising a fist up, he slammed it into the now hardened silver, shattering it and sending shards all over.

Alchemy harrumphed, then accessed the Philosopher's Stone he held. As red light gleamed from the stone, below the Man of Steel, the earth itself tore through the floor, grabbing at him. Captured, he was dragged down beneath the floor into an earthly prison, and try as he might, he could not use his strength to force his way out. It was like...quicksand. It was so fluid and held onto him, attempting to force its way past lips and up nostrils to suffocate him.

But he was not out of options. Simply, he began to spin centrifugal forces forcing the liquid earth away from his body and giving him enough space to emerge back into the air as a small red-and-blue tornado.

Alchemy was glaring and crouching, a hand slammed onto the floor. Just as Superman stopped spinning, two rocky hands broke through the floor and slammed damn on either side of him. The hands exerted incredible pressure, but it was nothing that the Kryptonian could not handle. All it took was bending and pushing his arms out to break his way out of the earthen hold.

Flight took hold to pull him out of the rest of it, and the Man of Steel launched himself at Alchemy, whose eyes widened at the sight. Said eyes narrowed once more and the air in front of the man began to become misty, slowly solidifying into what looked like crystal. Only marginally slowing his speed, Superman pulled back a fist, readying it for a punch.

Just as he was about to swing, the crystal shattered in front of him, and a fist of metal decked him. His upper body reversed course, but his lower was still moving forward. His legs whipped about then followed with the rest of him as he was sent flying back. Regaining his senses, Superman slowed his flight and came to a stop, rubbing at his head, particularly the left side of his face.

Then he found what had caused the reversal.

"It has been too long since we last met, Superman," Metallo greeted, stepping through the large hole he had created through the wall of crystal.

"Not long enough," Superman grunted as he readied himself for a real fight.

"I would say that hurts, except I can't feel pain whatsoever," the former human-turned-android quipped.

"You're not blaming me for that too, are you?" It came out before Superman knew it, but what was done was done.

"What would be the point?" Metallo replied. "The only thing that gives me meaning now is killing you, and excepting that, causing you as much pain as I can possibly manage. Living vicariously through others, you see."

Would there ever come a day when he didn't have to deal with one of Luthor's side projects? He hoped to, one day, but he was already resigned to that not happening any time soon. Best to try and nip this quick. He did not need having Metallo team up with Alchemy. While he was handling the latter, the former changed everything on what could happen next.

This was going to have to be quick. While not as fast as Flash, he was certainly faster than Metallo. The world practically blurred around him as he rushed the android, racing around him. Capturing an arm as he did so, Superman put the former terrorist into an armlock, counting on the fact that much of Metallo's skeleton was based on a human one. Staying in front was never a good idea.

"Not bad." There wasn't even a grunt as Metallo struggled to escape the armlock. "Had this happened before, you might have had me, but…" Suddenly, Metallo's head spun around one hundred eighty degrees, "...surprise!"

The robotic eyes, both uncovered and covered glowed green and fired twin beams right into his face. Superman cried out, already feeling debilitated as he fell back, stumbling on his feet.

Grinning, a portion of his flesh covering burnt away around his left eye, Metallo turned his body around without moving his head once. A squared off area of the android's chest opened up and green radiation flooded out from the rock stored within.

This was Metallo's power source: kryptonite. It powered his body and the twin beams of energy that had recently fired at him had been laced with the kryptonian fragment's radiation. Already, Superman could feel himself weakening. The same ability that allowed him to soak in the rays of the sun were now turned against him as energetic poison entered his system.

"I can only live vicariously through others now, so do be helpful for me, Superman, and suffer," Metallo taunted as he stepped closer.

It was really getting hot in here. Shade had been more than willing to join forces with Volcana, but it soon became apparent how horrible of an idea that had become. Through his cane, he was able to control and manipulate any shadows he wanted, and his first act was to do so against the combined forces of the Green Lantern and Hawkgirl.

But fire was more than just heat. It was light was well. Perhaps closer to infrared than ultraviolet, but it was light all the same. The light from the flames weakened his shadows, allowing Hawkgirl to tear through his attacks with ease while the Lantern shielded the two of them from Volcana's onslaught.

Massive balls of flame formed within the fiery bombshell's hands and were thrown with all the ease of tossing aside litter. As soon as the flames touched the green shield the Lantern was using, the fire would expand and combust, vanishing quickly only to be replaced by the next ball.

Multiple times, Shade tried to summon the shadows to try and go in from behind, but with each flare they shied away, trying to escape the light. He had to stop and pull back because trying to do the same thing over and over was not working. Plus, all the fire was making the immediate area very hot.

"Is that all you have for me?" Volcana hollered as she threw yet another ball of flame. "Come on! I know you can do better!" Both of her hands raised up and over her head, forming a much large yet more spread out gathering of fire. As her hands were thrown forward, an unending stream of flame blasted forth like from a flamethrowing.

The Lantern's shield was holding, disappointingly. However, it was really getting hot over here, and Shade wondered if that shield was capable of resisting temperature. If it wasn't, there was a great chance it was getting hot on the Lantern's side of the barrier, which meant this could be a wait and see kind of deal.

Except, they didn't have that luxury. Flying from behind the shield and keeping a healthy distance away was Hawkgirl, her mace at the ready. She was swooping, turning to get Volcana right into her sights. It was obvious where this was heading, but her trajectory was taking her quite far.

Thrusting the head of his cane out, Shade summoned his shadows to try and grab the winged woman. If he could take her out, then it would just be a matter of waiting the Lantern out. Perfect.

Shadows gathered and swarmed across the museum floor, keeping a healthy distance from Volcana, then surged forward to try and catch his winged opponent. Hawkgirl was quick, spotting the maw of shadows attempting to snatch her and she adjusted her flight path to just avoid the dark mass. Only just, because she changed her grip on her mace and swung it into the shadows, visibly forcing them away.

Not once did she stop as she flapped her wings powerfully, racing towards Volcana and away from his shadows. Undeterred, Shade sent various tendrils after her, but his control over them weakened the closer they came to Volcana. Damn it, no, he couldn't let her—!

From the corner of her eye, Volcana spotted incoming and she snarled at him, "Do something already, you useless—!"

Quickly, Volcana broke off with her stream of fire and spun to face the incoming Hawkgirl. She didn't get the chance to attack, needing to dodge out of the way of that metal mace. That was done successfully, but Hawkgirl flight path had her ramming into the fiery villainess and knocking her to the floor. Judging how Hawkgirl kept herself up in the air instead of meeting the floor meant this had been done on purpose, the mace swing intentionally missing.

However, there were no more flames…

Shade acted, and his shadows descended on Hawkgirl. She would not escape this time—

—so naturally Volcana had to give an explosive flare of flame at that time and forced his shadows to pull back. Did that idiot not realize what she had done?!

Hawkgirl used a combination of her mace and wings to shield herself from the flare, but then her wings flapped outwards, creating a gust of wind that blew back any flames heading her way. Redirected, the flames returned to Volcana who quickly closed her eyes to shield them. She may have control over fire itself, but it seemed like her eyes were vulnerable nonetheless...unless it was just a reflex.

A reflex Hawkgirl was counting on as she pounced, ramming down both of her booted feet into Volcana's stomach. Because she was laying on the floor, Volcana didn't have anything to bleed off the force of the flow, so her upper body jerked up, her legs kicking out, and caused her body to have an awkward jackknifing.

Raising up one boot, Hawkgirl then kicked it out, striking Volcana under her chin and snapping her head back. As she crumpled, the winged hero of Midway kept an eye on her before redirecting her attention to Shade.

Shade, for his part, held his cane up warily. With a step, Hawkgirl stepped off of the fallen Volcana, stalking her way towards him. "Just you now," she stated, mace held at the ready.

He gave a smirk. "You have no idea how you've helped me. Without her, my shadows will have no trouble dealing with you. Should have kept her conscious."

"Except it's not just me," Hawkgirl reminded him. "There's two of us, one of you. Last chance, pal, while I'm in a good mood. Surrender."

That's right, it had been two on two. From above, Green Lantern descended, taking his place slightly behind Hawkgirl with her arm raised, his ring pointed right at him. It shouldn't be too much of a problem as his shadows had been able to deal with the light from that ring before. He just needed to get the jump on them first.

It felt like a standoff here. First one to make a move needed to do it quickly. The only question was, was he quick enough?

Then Green Lantern moved his hand to his right and fired a short burst of green energy right into the back of Hawkgirl's head. Her eyes bulged, her mouth opened with a strangled cry of pain, and down she went. She didn't collapse fully as the Lantern caught her before she could, cradling her to his body.

What the hell…?

"Get up. I have her," the Lantern spoke, and now Shade was even more confused. He had absolutely no idea what was happening and it was enough to paralyze him into inaction.

It became apparently the Lantern wasn't talking to him, but instead someone else. Groaning on the floor, Volcana slowly sat up, rubbing her chin. She was shooting daggers at the unconscious Hawkgirl, but said nothing.

"On your feet," Lantern continued. "We need to act fast. You said you had a way to help...my Hawkgirl. Now's the time."

Weakness, pain, that was what kryptonite brought to the table. That horrible radiation with the green light was always a dread, something that was subconscious in the Kryptonian.

"It never ceases to surprise me how green at the gills you can get," Metallo chuckled. Footsteps approached him as the android towered over the stricken man. "It seems to me you could use a little help."

One leg rose up, bending backwards at the knee, then swung forward and kicked Superman in his torso. The blow sent him flying back, crashing through a few displays before he ended up sliding across the floor.

With some distance, he was starting to feel a little better, but kryptonite poisoning was not quick to leave. It would take some time to recover his strength.

Metallo had never been one to give him that time. Sure enough, the light of kryptonite fell over him once more, and the poisoning continued. Pulling away, Superman tried to use an undamaged display to hide behind, attempting to buy himself a few seconds of time to recover and think.

The display was lifted up then and the radiation struck him once more. The display slammed into him from a side and he was sent skidding in a whole new direction across the museum. Blearily picking up his head, the not-quite-Man of Steel peered at the glowing green while trying to get his body to start moving again.

This place, in spite of all the displays, was too open. There was not enough cover to even try and gain some cover from the kryptonite, even if it only was by a small margin. And...over there was Alchemy, who was watching. but not acting. That could change at any second, though. He had to...no, needed to find a way to stop, or escape Metallo.

If he had enough strength, maybe he could…

Stumbling instead of darting, Superman reached for a display, one that was on a podium. Giving a small apology, he picked up the podium, not caring for the artifact that was placed on it, and threw the podium at Metallo, aiming for the opening in his chest where the kryptonite resided.

With a casual swipe of a metal arm, Metallo knocked the podium away and continued stalking his way towards him. "Not a lot of strength behind that one," the android remarked. "You're already on the ropes."

It was getting hard to walk now, the kryptonite continuing to affect him. How much longer could he last this way?

Then there was another source of green light, and the Kryptonian looked to find, much to his horror, Alchemy holding another piece of kryptonite, no doubt created with the Philosopher's Stone.

"To think something as simple as this could bring down someone so mighty," Alchemy remarked.

Two sources of kryptonite. Not good. Must...had...he needed to…

Down, down he went. His legs had given out and he was barely able to stay in a crouch. It was...it was too much. And...and where was everyone? Why was it he couldn't hear fighting from anywhere else?

Metallo suddenly closed up his chest, leaving only Alchemy's kryptonite in play. "Unfortunately, I'm not supposed to kill you today. There are bigger plans for you."

Now what was that supposed to mean?

As if sensing his confusion, Metallo gave a nod with his head, as if directing Superman to something behind him. Frowning, Superman followed in the gesture's direction and found a pair of thick, white, and hairy legs behind him. Slowly, he looked up and found the body of a large ape attached to those legs, a red harness with prominent yellow spikes decorating it.

It took a second, a second too long thanks to the kryptonite, but he knew this…

"Humanite?" he gasped out.

The ape features pulled back into a knowing smile. "It has been too long, Superman," the altered ape greeted before ramming a baton into his back. Electricity crackled about the weakened man, flooding through his nervous system, and forcing a scream of pain out of his mouth.

Finally, all the pain and trauma overwhelmed him, and Superman fell to the floor, vision blackening.

Despite that, he could still hear Ultra Humanite's parting words, "And this is good night."