IRON LUTHOR

Chapter I : I am Lex Luthor?!

Alexander Luthor

Chief Executive Officer

No matter how many times he read the nameplate in his hand he couldn't quite fathom it yet.

'Lex Luthor… I'm Lex Luthor…'

His name was Alexander Stark, a 21 year old nerd with no muscle tone and an obsession with video games, anime and all things Marvel or DC. Last night he'd fallen asleep while binging Batman the animated series. Then he woke up sitting uncomfortably in a leather chair at the desk belonging to the CEO of LexCorp.

He'd panicked for a few minutes, moving around the large office trying to find out where he was and who the hell had kidnapped him only to dress him in an expensive looking suit and SHAVE HIS HEAD!

Then he spotted the nameplate on the desk.

The first thought was that he was dreaming… but it wasn't possible to read in dreams, ironically he learned that from an episode of Batman. He dropped the nameplate back onto the desk and moved towards the window at the back of the office, it took up the entire back wall and allowed him to look out over the city. Metropolis. It was easy to recognise thanks to the iconic Daily Planet building. He also saw his own reflection, that definitely wasn't him.

"What the hell is happening?!" Alex exclaimed as he stumbled back away from the window.

"That's what I'd like to know" a new voice chuckled behind him, Alex spun around to see a tiny man wearing a Purple suit with a green bow-tie and a purple bowler hat. He was sitting with his legs crossed, in one of the chairs in front of the desk like he'd just arrived for an appointment.

Alex recognised him immediately, Mxyzptlk. A being from the fifth dimension who liked to mess with Superman and could only be defeated by tricking him into saying or spelling his own name backwards. He was also exceptionally powerful, able to use magic to manipulate reality itself.

'Did he do this to me?' Alex wondered

"Imagine my surprise, I arrive to visit my old friend Superman when I feel dimensional energy coming from across town… I thought maybe my wife had followed me, but instead I find you, a being not from this dimension inhabiting the body of Lex Luthor. How intriguing." Mxyzptlk said with a grin as he raised a hand to point at Alex in an accusing way "Are you here to challenge Superman too? Because if so you should know I called dibs!"

'So much for that idea' Alex groaned, Mxyzptlk wasn't responsible.

"Well? Are you capable of speaking or is that mouth just for decoration, because I can remove it if so." Mxyzptlk asked getting annoyed.

"N-No, I don't know how I got here?" Alex stuttered, these were the first words he'd uttered in this body, hearing Lex's voice coming from him was disturbing. "I fell asleep in my world then I was just here… and bald."

Mxyzptlk snorted at the last comment but then looked disappointed. "Really? No plan? No scheme? No plot? That's… boring!" his disappointment changed to rage.

"I hate being bored! Its the entire reason I left the fifth dimension! Maybe I should just let Superman know a certain someone has been body jacked." Mxyzptlk teased with a grin. "They'll lock you up in some deep dark government hole where you won't infect people with your boringness."

"No wait!" Alex stuttered loudly. If Superman or Batman or anybody from the Justice League found out about him, god knows what would happen. Best case scenario, they think he's insane and lock him up in Arkham. Or if the wrong elements of the government like Amanda Waller find out… Alex shuddered. There had to be a way out of this… DING! An idea popped into his head, one that just might work.

"Maybe we can work something out mister, umm…" Alex pretended not to know his name.

"Mxyzptlk, at ya service!" Mxyzptlk floated up and gave a bow.

"Mitzlepittlick?!" Alex butchered his name.

"Mxyzptlk! Miks-yes-pittle-ik!" the being from the fifth dimension spat in annoyance.

"How the hell do you even spell that?" Alex asked, flummoxed by the name. He walked to his desk and sat at his computer and started typing at him computer, a minute later he spun the monitor around to face the visitor. "Any of these?"

On the screen Alex had opened a word processor and typed up a dozen misspellings of his name.

"No no no! Like this!" Mxyzptlk stretched his arms out like they were made of rubber and typed the name himself.

Alex smirked and waited for him to notice…

"… AHHHHH!" Mxyzptlk screamed in horror loud enough to rattle the windows, there, on the screen was not his name, but another word.

Kltpzyxm

"H-How! HOW! I used magic to make sure I hit the right keys!" Mxyzptlk fumed.

"I reprogrammed the keyboard, rearranging the letters," Alex revealed with a grin as he crossed his arms and leaned back in the chair. "Still think I'm boring?"

"… ha… haha… HAHAHAHAHA!" Mxyzptlk started to laugh hard even as his body started to crumble away like sand. "Ohh you got me. Not even Superman has gotten me this fast… but I wonder, how did you know? You're supposedly new to this universe, so how did you know about tricking me into spelling my name backwards?"

Alex didn't answer, he simply kept his smirk in place and put his feet up onto his desk and rested his hands behind his head.

"Heh, I'll find out… see you in 90 days…" Mxyzptlk said with a smirk as he completely crumbled away, the last part of him to disappear was his grinning mouth, like a parody of the Cheshire cat.

"… Shit." Alex muttered, he'd forgotten Mxyzptlk would only be banished for three months.

This time he'd gotten lucky by reprogramming Lex's computer to…

"… HOW DID I DO THAT!" Alex exclaimed. He'd reprogrammed the computed in seconds, he was decent with a computer but to that degree, he also knew Lex's password.

Granted 'SupermanSUXXX' wasn't exactly a hard password to guess, but still.

Now that he thought about it, his head was full of information, numbers and equations, blueprints and formulas, extensive knowledge of mechanical engineering, biochemistry, robotics and dozens of other subjects.

It was at this moment Alex remembered something, despite all the times Lex Luthor has been defeated throughout the DC media. He was still the most intelligent human in this Universe.

'Ok, if I'm stuck here long term, some changes need to be made, first of all I'm not sticking to being a villain! I'll have to come up with an excuse for Lex's criminal actions up until now. It won't be easy but being a villain is unacceptable, it doesn't lead anywhere good' Alex thought about canon Lex's future, taken over by Brainiac, disappearing with Darkseid, Kryptonite cancer, one version lobotomised by Justice Lord Superman… 'THAT'S IT! I'll blame Superman, it's totally a Lex Luthor thing to do.'

In all of the different versions of the DC Universe there is one that really sticks out as anti-Superman. The Injustice universe. The world where Superman snapped and loses him moral compass after being tricked by the Joker into killing Lois Lane and destroying Metropolis. Superman went on to become a tyrannical dictator who called himself the High Councillor, enforcing peace through fear while Batman lead an Insurgency against Superman and his Regime.

"What was it Batman said in the Vs movie?" Alex mumbled as he scratched his chin "He has the power to wipe out the entire human race, and if we believe that there is even a one percent chance he is our enemy, we have to take it as an absolute certainty" Alex quoted.

Let's say hypothetically, 'Lex Luthor' caught a peek into the Injustice universe, like some modern day version of Cassandra of Troy. The prophet who foresaw the fall of ancient city.

Alex chuckled as he recalled the name of Metropolis' main borough. New Troy.

That could justify his actions against Superman up until now, after all if there's even a one percent chance it could become a reality, its too big a risk to accept. Just like Cassandra of Troy, People won't believe him at first, but eventually the Justice Lords will show up and verify his 'fears'.

Alex felt a little guilty for laying the blame at Superman's feet but for some reason he was able to shrug it off. "Might be a little of the old Lex left over" Alex muttered.

So with the 'Blame Superman' part of the plan set in stone. Time to move onto the next part, becoming a hero, and he knew just how to do it. With a wide grin Alex grabbed a spare piece of paper and started sketching a blueprint. Lex had built hundreds of weapons over the years including his Warsuits, with all that knowledge at his disposal Alex was able to quickly draw up a blueprint for a suit he could use to become a hero, his favourite hero from the Marvel universe. His real name was Stark after all so his choice of persona shouldn't be that much of a surprise. Plus there was already precedence for something like this, the Lex Luthor of the Arrowverse was an evil rip-off of Iron Man already.

Within an hour his desk was covered in sketches of the full size Arc reactor, the miniaturised reactor as well as the MK.I and Iron Man suits, complete with technical specifications. The science of these suits was far beyond the real world, but with Luthor's intelligence it was so easy it felt like he was finger painting.

These suits would be just what he needed, not only to be a hero but also to take on Superman if need be, Kryptonite was hard to come by and he couldn't rely on it. Speaking of which… Alex checked his pockets and sure enough he found a small black case, he lifter the lid open for just a moment before slamming it closed again as a green light shone through the crack.

Alex held the case away from his between two finger as if he was afraid he would catch something from it. Canon Lex had this with him 24/7 for years never thinking it was hurting him. Alex would rather not have cancer if he has a choice about it thanks. He'd need to find a safe place to store this preferably a warehouse on the other side of town.

Alex flinched and almost dropped the box when the door to his office suddenly burst open in a shower of wooden splinters, half a dozen men dressed in security uniforms falling over each other as they fell through.

"Lex, is everything ok?" a woman asked urgently as she leapt over the fallen guards and aimed a Tommy gun around the room looking for threats. A dozen other security guards followed behind her aiming their own pistols.

"I'm fine Mercy," Alex answered shakily as he gather his papers together. He easily recognised the woman, Mercy Graves. Lex Luthor's bodyguard, secretary, chauffeur, ext. She'd once been the leader of a gang of thieves until she's stolen a briefcase belonging to Luthor. Rather than take revenge however, Luthor had been impressed by her ruthlessness and hired her on the spot.

"Fine?" Mercy asked, annoyed by his calmness. "The entire building heard the scream but we couldn't get into the room, we've been trying to bust down the door for an hour!"

Alex looked at the remains of the door and spotted dents, cracks and even bullet holes on the outer side. He hadn't heard anything. Mxyzptlk must have done something to prevent them from being disturbed.

"I didn't hear anything, I had an unexpected visitor, he must have sealed the room." Lex stood up and walked around the desk to show Mercy he was ok before facing the other guards. "Everybody out!"

Knowing better than to question Luthor's orders, the other guards holstered their weapons and quickly left the room leaving him and Mercy alone.

"What. Happened!" Mercy demanded, leaving no room misinterpretation.

"Mxyzptlk" Alex answered simply, as if It explained everything.

"Gesundheit?" Mercy replied before scrunching her brow. "Wait, isn't that the little imp thing that bugs Superman?"

"Yes, it seems this time he decided to bother me instead, I dealt with the issue but he must have used his powers to seal the room."

"Well, that's just great, how am I supposed to protect you from this magic crap… what's this?" Mercy changed subjects as she picked up his sketch of the Iron Man suit.

"Well," Lex thought quickly. "It occurred to me that other super powered individuals may try to move against me, this is a countermeasure."

"A robot?" Mercy asked in exasperation.

Alex saw her point, looking at the sketch it looked like a more sophisticated Metallo, the Arc reactor even resembled his Kryptonite heart.

"Its not a robot Mercy, it's a suit," Alex explains passing her a sketch of the suit opened and one of the arc reactor. "Running on a new reactor I've been designing"

"Kryptonite?" Mercy asked with an accusing eye.

"No, an arc fusion reactor that uses Palladium, if I can get it working it could theoretically be a perpetual clean energy source."

"So… you invent a source of perpetual clean energy, and the first thing you use it for is as Duracell battery for a robot toy"

"Suit" Alex corrected. But she had a point, need to correct that. "And the first one will be a full sized one to power this building, as proof of concept."

"Ok, what's going on Lex?" Mercy asked as she threw down the plans. "Last night you were ranting about new plans to erase Superman from existence and now you're building clean energy reactors."

'Shit, shit, shit, shitshitshit!' Alex cursed in his head. Five minutes of conversation and somebody already suspected him. Looks like he'll have to use that cover story already.

"Have I ever told you Mercy, why I hate Superman?" Alex asked solemnly as he sat back down at his desk.

Mercy was startled, she'd never seen Lex like this. Maybe he was more shaken by the Imp than she thought.

"No, you haven't," Mercy answered honestly. His hatred had never been explicitly explained.

"Imagine for a moment," Alex began. "you could see into the future, and you saw a threat. A threat that could destroy civilization as we know it. If you could eliminate before it happens. Would you?"

"Shit Lex," Mercy cussed as she sat in one of the chairs opposite Luthor. This reminded Mercy of the old 'what if' scenario regarding Hitler. If you could go back in time and kill him before he started world war 2, would you? Would it be ethical to kill a man before he had done anything wrong? "Is that what it's all been about, Superman's going to do something that you're trying to stop?"

Alex took a deep breath before speaking, explaining to Mercy the basics of what he'd 'seen' of the Injustice universe, careful to not give away too much. He told her of the destruction of Metropolis, the murder of the Joker, the subjugation of humanity under the high councillor and his allies.

Batman leading an Insurgency, his own alternate self funding said organization while undercover as Superman's advisor. All culminating in his own demise when Superman uncovers his betrayal and strangles him to death in front of the hall of justice.

By the end of his story Mercy looked ill, her face pale. Alex waited for her reaction.

"I've tried to get rid of Superman before this all happens, but all I've achieved is painting myself as the villain. I have to try something else, I need to win the public's trust. To do that we need to clean up our image, no more shady dealings, no more working in the shadows. If I want to save to world from Superman when he goes bad, I need the world to let me. I need to become a hero."

Mercy took a deep breath and shakily stood up, she moved to a cabinet to his right and opened it revealing a diverse selection of alcohol. She picked up a decanter of whiskey and after uncorking it poured herself a double. After draining it and slamming the glass down she turned back to Alex.

"How far in advance can I book vacation days?"


Things progressed quickly after that. Alex ordered the materials he needed for his ventures, working in the basement of LexCorp with only a dozen workers, the only people allowed down there were those who signed a non-disclosure agreement and Mercy.

Rumours circulated LexCorp as to what he was up to, they stretched from him building a weapon to use against Superman building doomsday bunker. And eventually the rumours leaked to the outside world and this drew the attention of the Daily Planet, two reporters in particular.

That night Superman approached LexCorp and scanned the basement with his X-ray vision, what he saw disturbed him. Being built under the tower was what looked like a fusion reactor. In the middle of the city!

"Luthor," Superman growled as his eyes glowed red.

The next morning a dozen fully armed police officers stormed LexCorp with a warrant to search the premises for nuclear materials. They were followed by a curious Lois Lane who was looking for a scoop.

She followed the investigators quietly into the basement and was shocked by what she saw. In the centre of the room was a large machine almost two stories tall that looked like a glass doughnut laying on its side, blue energy resonated from inside the clear material used as a casing.

But that wasn't the most surprising thing

Luthor stood before it looking pissed and arguing with an officer. HE HAD HAIR!

Seems Lex stopped shaving his head and he now had a thin layer of dark brown hair covering his scalp.

"I want everything Luthor, the plans for this machine and any nuclear material!" the cop roared while waving the warrant in Luthor's face.

"You'll get my blueprints over my rotting corpse you flat-footed idiot, this warrant is for nuclear materials of which there are none!" Luthor argued back as he swiped the papers out of his face.

"We'll see about that, boys, what've ya found?" the officer shouted to a pair of men in yellow radiation suits holding scanners up to the machine.

"Good news," one man said as he lifted his visor. "No sign of heightened radiation. It's all clear."

"What! That's impossible!" this started an arguing match between the lead investigator and the radiation specialists. While they were busy arguing, Lois took a few pictures carefully before sneaking away, a new story already writing itself in her head. Outside the building she watched as eventually, the police left empty handed with their tails between their legs. The machine was on and functioning but it let off minimal radiation, you'd see more radiation from a damn microwave.

"Oh and one last thing officers," Luthor spoke up with a sneer as he accompanied them out. "Don't think I don't know who tipped you off to my project. Tell your 'source', if he doesn't quit spying on my company, I'll press charges for corporate espionage."

Alex re-entered his hidden workspace in the sub-basement, where parts of his first Iron Man suit lay strewn about the place as he worked on them.

"Are you sure about this? Lane got plenty of pictures," Mercy said as she followed behind him. "She could stir up trouble."

"Let her," as he attached a silver gauntlet to his right arm and adjusted the power coming from a much smaller Arc reactor to get it just right. "She'll get the public in a frenzy over the reactor and then she and Superman will have egg on their face when it goes public. The dangerous, secret, nuclear reactor the dastardly Lex Luthor built turns out to be a revolutionary new source of clean energy."

"I get it," Mercy said with a smirk. "They end up looking like fear mongers while you come out smelling of roses."

"Superman's credibility will also take a hit, doubt will also be cast on my previous actions against him. But that's not all, now I have a legitimate excuse to use lead to line the building."

"Yeah, corporate espionage," Mercy chuckled.

Lex was worried his suits could be found too easily found by certain people with X-ray vision, the obvious solution was to line important workspaces with lead. But doing this spontaneously would be too suspicious, it would look like he's trying to hide something. So he manufactured en excuse. He let rumours about a secret project slip out knowing it would draw attention from Superman which lead to a police raid.

"I have to protect my company's interests after all," Alex said with mock concern.


As planned, Lois had pictures and published a story about the mystery machine. Even revealing that the source the police received the tip from was Superman himself. Soon enough the public were up in arms, picketing outside of Lexcorp holding signs showing biohazard symbols, skull and crossbones and much to Alex's amusement, the three eyed fish from the Simpsons.

After allowing the public a few days to get riled up, Alex arranged a press conference. An hour after the sun had set the main lobby of LexCorp was filled with reporters from all major news outlets, not just from Metropolis but all over America.

As Lex Luthor emerged from his private elevator he was met by dozens of flashes coming from cameras and he was swarmed with reporters asking mostly antagonistic questions. Mercy forced her way in front of him to cut a path through the crowd, tonight she wasn't his secretary, she was bodyguard and enforcer, instead of a suit she was dressed in her black LexCorp uniform with her hair done up in a bun and held in place with a black cap. On her right chest and cap were Lex's own symbol. A dark green hexagon with two sharp stylised L's within it, a parody of Superman's own symbol.

Ignoring the questions and with the help of Mercy clearing a path he quickly made his way to the raised podium he'd arranged.

Looking out over the crowd Alex didn't recognise many people, but he quickly spotted Lois Lane, Jimmy Olson and Clark Kent.

Seeing the secret identity of Superman in person was jarring. Alex always wondered how Superman was never discovered when all he did to hide was wear a pair of glasses. But now he could understand. He looks so nondescript. Glasses, a slick hairdo, slouching. If Alex passed him in the street he'd never think he was Superman.

Lex turned to Mercy and gave her a sharp nod. Mercy saw his signal and raised a small radio to her mouth.

"Ok, we're in position. Do it," Mercy commanded quietly.

With his enhanced hearing only Clark was able to hear this. He looked down worriedly scanning the floor but saw nothing. Since his last visit Lex had made some modifications.

"Lead, what is he up to?" Clark muttered worriedly. He slowly reached up and grasped his tie, starting to loosen it as he looked around for a place to change.

"You ok Smallville?" Lois asked as he spotted him fidgeting.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine Lois, just worried about what's below our feet," Clark chuckled while readjusting his tie so she wouldn't spot what he was wearing underneath.

Before Lex started speaking the lights in the room suddenly flickered for a moment. Clark clenched his fist worriedly. Everybody looked around for a moment before refocusing on Luthor.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Alex started, seemingly ignoring the light malfunction. "this conference has come much sooner than I had hoped, but certain events have forced my hand. As you are all no doubt aware, my company has been working on a new project for the past few weeks, fears have risen that this machine is a nuclear reactor built at the very heart of our city."

"Mister Luthor," one woman spoke loudly while holding up a recorder. "Vickie Vale, Gotham Gazette. The pictures provided by the Daily Planet seem to speak a thousand words. Are you saying its not a reactor?"

"Well, as you said miss Vale, a picture is worth a thousand words. It is indeed a reactor." Alex was interrupted as all the audience started to surge forwards to ask questions and fling accusations. Alex raised his hands for silence. "But it is not nuclear!"

The din quieted down at that statement.

"The pictures taken by the Planet, illegally I might add, did not provided any context, and that Ladies and Gentlemen is what I am here to provide. Context." Alex turned and gestured to three large screen that had been set up behind him. The screens turned on showing a live feed of the reactor as well as some design specs. Not descriptive enough to replicate.

"What you see is the LexCorp Arc Reactor…"

From there Alex went on to explain exactly what the Arc Reactor was and what I was capable of. The reporters were stunned in silence.

"M-Mister Luthor," one reporter found her voice first. "Iris West CCPN, you're saying this reactor gives of no threatening radiation?" she asked disbelievingly.

"No more than a cell phone, microwave, power lines or any other number of household objects we use everyday, as can be confirmed by the police who checked for radiation when they invaded my company workspace. It runs off palladium and is completely self sufficient." Alec repeated. "A clean and perpetual power source that I believe has the potential to one day replace both fossil fuels and nuclear energy."

"And do you have proof it works?" Iris continued sceptically.

"Indeed I do," Alex said with a smirk. "As you all noticed, at the beginning on the conference there was a slight malfunction with the buildings lights."

The reported all looked around at the lights Lex had gestured too.

"That was not a malfunction, that was the building being cut off from the Metropolis power grid and beginning to rely solely on the arc reactor," Alex revealed with a smirk, stunning the crowd. "As of fifteen minutes ago, LexCorp tower has become a beacon of self-sustaining clean energy!"


It took another half hour to escape the vultures who all waited a piece of him. He made his way back to his office with Mercy peeling off away from him after getting out of he elevator.

His phone was already ringing off the hook when he reached his office, he answered for a moment, just long enough to confirm it was another reporter that had somehow gotten his private number. He hung up and in less than a second it was ringing again. With a roll of his eyes he disconnected his phone to shut it up.

"That's going to go on for a while," Mercy's voice came from behind him as he poured himself a whiskey, he never really had a taste for alcohol but since squatting in Luthor's body it wasn't as bad. "I know, but we accomplished what we set out to do."

"Yep, LexCorps image gaining one hell of a boost. And bonus, egg on Superman's face, his cheerleader's too. We should celebrate."

"What did you have in mind?" Alex asked as he turned to face her, his eyes widened.

Mercy was leaning against the doorway with a grin on her face. Her pants had been removed and her top hung open revealing her grey lingerie. Panties, bra, stockings and garter-belt. She still wore her cap with her hair up.

"I have a few ideas," Mercy answered with a seductive smirk as she entered the room and kicked the door shut behind her.


The fallout of Lex's press conference was mostly predictable. The reporters had confirmed with the power companies that LexCorp tower's power draw from the Metropolis power grid was now nil.

Paper headlines all over the world the following morning talked about LexCorps revolutionary new power source. Newscasts sung his praises. They also showed some doubt towards Superman, thanks to his 'tip' to the police and media everybody in the city thought there was a nuclear threat.

It also made some people nervous though. Alex's mail tray the next morning had no less than a dozen cease-and-desist warnings from various energy providers all over America. Threatening legal action and attempting injunctions against him, his company and his reactor. Lex Luthor was threatening their bottom line. This wasn't a problem for him yet though. If anything, they helped. Alex had no plans as of yet to make the Arc reactor available to the general public, and when asked why not he could now just blame the greedy fat-cats in the energy industry.

Meanwhile Alex worked on other projects. The Arc reactor was fantastic PR but it cost a lot of money, this was making his stock holders nervous. As Obadiah Stain said in the first Iron Man movie. "We built that thing to shut the hippies up, the Arc reactor was never cost effective, we knew that when we built it."

So he needed to make the company money, a lot of money. At that's where his knowledge came into play, not his knowledge of Lex Luthor, but of Alex Stark. The world he came from was over twenty years ahead of this one. Here it was the year 1997.

His first innovation would be in phones, here the most advanced phone was a clamshell style one.

Alex smirked as her drew up the specs for a far more advanced phone, a smartphone with a touchscreen and minimal buttons. In his world the first phone like that didn't come out until 2007, another ten years. The L-Phone would be his first cash cow to finance his future endeavours.

"Lex we have a problem," Mercy said as she rushed into the room. "One of our warehouses has been robbed."

"What was taken?" Alex asked worriedly.

"Remember, before we went straight we were in talks to arrange an... exchange, with Kaznia," Mercy said awkwardly.

Lex knew what she was talking about, the regent of Kaznia wanted weapons to fight his political enemies, in particular the Lexo-Skel Suit 5000, one of canon Lex's early inventions, an armoured battle suit, nothing compared to the Iron Man. However, Kaznia was under a trade embargo, selling the suit would have been illegal.

Canon Lex would arrange a 'sale' by staging a theft while he was paid under the table in the sum of one billion dollars.

One of the first thing Alex had done after arriving in this world was to axe all shady dealing, Which included this deal. It seems the regent doesn't take no for an answer.

"They cleared out the warehouse, took the suit and anything else that wasn't nailed down."

That really wasn't good, along with the suit he had stored dozens of canon Lex's prototype weaponry. Plus a little something else he'd only recently put into storage.

"Security footage?" Alex asked.

"A dozen men, only one had his head uncovered," Mercy answered passing him a photo.

John Corben, a top-tier mercenary and the future super villain Metallo.

Alex stood and made his way out of the office and into the elevator being quickly followed by Mercy. He hit the B2 button. If anybody else pressed this button nothing would happen. But the biometric scanners in the elevator detected Alex and Mercy and quickly started to descend.

"So this is it huh?" Mercy asked. "Your debut?"

"If Corben gets away with those weapons our reputation goes in the toilet and we're right back where we started."

DING

Lex stepped into the main lab and immediately sat at his computer.

"We had tracking chips installed in a lot of our equipment so," after working for a few minutes a map of Metropolis was displayed with a line zigzagging through the lines of the city.

"This is the route the stolen tech went before we lost the signal, Corben must have found the trackers… Shit," Alex stood up fast knocking his chair over and rushed towards his armour assembler, prepping the silver armour.

"Hey, hey hey hold on!" Mercy exclaimed. "You can't take the mark two! Finish the mark three!" she shouted worriedly.

"It'll take too long, look at the route they took, it cuts off on St. Martin's Island heading north. If you wanted to smuggle something out of the city how would heading there help?"

"… of course, the Oaktown docks." Mercy grimaced.

"If they're at the docks then the weapons must be on the Kaznian freighter. By the time I finish the Mark three they'll be long gone."

"Then chase them afterwards!" Mercy exclaimed, the mark two had only had two weapons, the repulsers and unibeam. But what really worried her was the results of the flight simulations. "Worst case scenario you catch up to them at sea, what's he difference!"

"Them heading out to sea is the best case scenario," Alex corrected her. "The suit'll no doubt go to Kaznia but the rest of the prototype weapons would probably be sold by Corben across the bay!" Alex snapped, trying to get his point across.

Mercy paled, across the bay… Gotham.

"My weapons flood into Gotham and it'll paint a bat shaped target on my back! That is the worst case scenario."


"This can't be happening," Lois whispered to Jimmy as they hid behind a nearby car watching what was happening. She'd followed a lead on the LexCorp robbery. While everybody else was tripping over themselves praising Luthor lately, Lois had remained sceptical. She was certain that Luthor was behind this, selling weapons to criminals. She found the thieves at the docks, loading their ill gotten goods onto a large freighter bearing the Kaznian flag.

After spotting John Corben, a well known mercenary, directing the thieves, Jimmy hit a hidden switch in his watch, it let off a sound that was above the range of human hearing, but to Superman it was like nails on a chalkboard.

A couple minutes later he arrived, the concrete cracked under his feet from the impact of his landing. All of Corben's men dropped what hey were doing and aimed their guns at Superman.

"Corben! Give yourself up," Superman demanded. "Agree to testify against Luthor and you might get a deal."

"Luthor? Somebody's got his facts mixed up," Corben stood confidently with his hands in the pockets of his jacket.

"Don't play dumb, I know Luthor sold the weapons!"

"Hah!" Corben barked out a laugh. "Guess its true what the tabloids are saying."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Superman asked.

"That's you're getting paranoid, first you fly around screaming there's a nuke in Luthor's basement now your saying he's selling weapons on the black market. Newsflash blue boy, Luthor isn't the source of all evil. The world doesn't revolve around him." Corben mocked him. "Don't get me wrong, the regent of Kaznia was willing to pay a pretty penny for some of these toys but Luthor turned him down. So I figured I'd cash in. That one Bill' is all mine when I deliver that battlesuit. And the rest of the toys are a nice bonus"

"You won't deliver it!" Superman said as he stepped forward and grasped Corben by his jacket. "I'm bringing you in."

"Speaking of toys," Corben sent a strong punch into Superman's gut. Normally he would barely feel it, this time however it doubled him over and forced all the air out of his lungs much to his and Lois' shock. "You won't believe what else I found in that warehouse."

Corben took his left hand out of his pocket revealing a small green stone in his grasp.

"No," Lois gasped in shock. Kryptonite.

"When I saw a container saying 'Dangerous Radioactive Material' I thought you might be right, that Luthor was hiding a nuke, but this is so much better!" Corben delivered a hard kick into Superman's side while he was down., followed by another and another.

"Well, as much as I'd like to keep this up, I've got an appointment to keep with Mister Cobblepot. He's always in the market for new guns." Corben retrieved a pistol from within his jacket and aimed it at the head of a still writhing Man of Steel.

Lois was about to shout for him to stop when a loud boom shook the area, their eyesight was drawn upwards as a fiery streak shot through the sky towards them.

"Is that a god-damn missile?!" Corben shouted as he took a scared step backwards with his eyes wide.

It wasn't though, when it got close enough it seemed to level out and slow down before slamming into the ground hard enough to kick up a smokescreen.

The men aimed their weapons into the dust cloud cautiously. It didn't take long to settle. Between Superman and Corben there was now a silvery metal man down on one knee with it's fist planted in the ground. It slowly stood up and they could make out its features more easily. Its eyes glowed a sinister green along with what seemed to be a circular power source on its chest.

'Deadpool was right' Alex thought with a wince as his legs clicked. 'Superhero landings are a bitch on the knees'

"And what the hell are you supposed to be?" Corben asked, aiming his gun between the robot's eyes. "Superman's sidekick, Steelboy?"

With a snarl Alex raised his hand the fired a repulser blast, it slammed into Corben's chest and sent him flying backwards into a pair of his flunkies.

With a heavily modulated voice Alex answered Corben's question.

"I AM IRON MAN"

To Be Continued...


In memoriam

Gilbert Gottfried

The voice of Mxyzptlk

Born. 28/2/1955

Died. 12/4/2022


AN: Okay it been seven years since i last wrote anything and i can't help but feel i owe an explanation.

Back then i discovered one of my stories had been plagiarised. My story, Harry Potter & the Olympians: Tides of War.

Without my permission the story was copy, pasted and republished by another author under another name.

Harry Potter and Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Adama's Shadow

He mentions in the summary that the story is based off mine but it's not, it's a blatant copy / paste. He used find/replace to switch a few names and wrote his own ending but 80% of the story is my own hard work stolen.

Seeing this was heart-breaking and i simply lost all motivation to write. I've tried having it taken down but no luck.

Anyway, i've been trying to get back into writing lately and hopefully my muse won't be murdered this time. Please enjoy my new story and please review.

-VinCredable