IRON LUTHOR
Chapter II: The InJustice Files
Alex's words were like a starting pistol, Corben's men opened fire at the newcomer, their bullets causing spark to fly as they impacted the armour. Alex responded, aiming his hands and firing repulsor blasts at each one knocking them away from him.
"Pictures Jimmy!" Lois whispered urgently to the young man who was still stunned by the newcomers arrival. He snapped out of it and quickly started to snap pictures.
A heavy bullet slammed into the side of Iron Man's head forcing him to flinch to the left. Alex turned to see one of the men high up on a crane that was used to load cargo, in his hands was a large calibre rifle with a smoking barrel.
A targeting recital appeared in Alex's vision and he fired with pinpoint accuracy, the weapon's scope shattered and the assailant was knocked off the crane, his fall was broken by a fragile wooden crate that shattered under his weight. Unfortunately this was the same crate that Lois and Jimmy were hiding behind.
"I should have known," Iron Man said as he spotted them. "If Superman's here, his bitch would be close by."
"Don't… speak to her… that way!" Superman spat through his teeth as he tried to get to his feet, but the Kryptonite was only a couple meters away, having been dropped by Corben when Iron Man blasted him.
"I wasn't talking about Lane."
It took a moment for everyone to realise what he meant by that, the sniper who's body had shattered their cover got it first and snorted. "Ow, shit, hurts to laugh"
"… HEY!" Jimmy shouted indignantly as it clicked.
But Iron Man wasn't listening, he'd already launched himself up onto the ship with his repulsor jets. Landing with a clang he started to scan the containers on deck. A few more men tried firing at him but he blasted them away dismissively as he continued scanning each container.
'This would be so much easier with an AI' Alex thought to himself, the Marvel media really underplayed how useful JARVIS was to the Iron Man suits operation. He was working on his own version but he had to be careful, AI in this universe usually ended badly, AKA Brainiac. The last thing he needed was to accidentally an Ultron on top of that.
His thoughts were interrupted when his scanner found what he was looking for, his weapons. Conveniently they were all packed into two crates. Taking aim and bracing himself he charged his unibeam and fired a continuous high intensity beam into the first crate, it burned through the wood and reduced the weapons to slag.
Now for the second-
CRACK!
Alex's proximity sensors turned red a moment too late as something slammed into him hard enough to send him crashing through the railing and off the ship, his impromptu flight ended when he collided with a parked forklift smashing it to pieces.
"Ouch" Alex moaned as he pulled himself from the wreckage. Once he extricated himself he found himself looking down the barrel of a shotgun.
"Freeze!" the owner of the gun was a cop. Looking to the aim he spotted half a dozen cop cars had arrived.
Behind the cop Alex spotted what had hit him. The Lexo-Skel Suit 5000 launched itself off he ship and landed nearby with a crunch. It then raised it's arm and a minigun mounted on it started to spin-up.
"DOWN!"
Acting quickly Alex knocked aside the Shotgun pointed at him, setting it off into the sky as he spun the cop around and shielded him. His back vibrated painfully as the bullets slammed into him.
Thankfully it didn't last long, after Alex had boarded the ship Lois saw her chance, she'd run to Superman and kicked the Kryptonite away from him and into the ocean next to the freighter.
It took a few minutes to regain a modicum of his strength, when he saw Iron Man shielding an officer he leapt into action, he landed next to the battle suit and grasped it's arm, forcing it to aim downwards and blowing the concrete into chunks.
Iron Man took the opportunity, he wrapped his arm around the cop and launched himself behind a nearby cop car where other officers were taking cover.
The battle-suit's other arm raised up and slammed into Superman's chin sending him flying away, he was still weak from exposure to the Kryptonite.
"I'll get to you flyboy, this prick just cost me a major payday!" Corben's voice came from the suit, he was the one piloting. He re-aimed his gun at Iron Man and fired.
Iron Man took off and streaked through the sky, circling the yard trying to stay out of Corben's line of fire
He aimed his right hand and fired occasional repulsor blasts but they didn't even make a dent.
"Ok, I'm starting to regret not taking the mark three," Alex muttered.
"Then come back," Mercy's concerned voice came through the intercom built into the suit. "The mark two doesn't have the weapons to beat that thing."
It was true, the was mostly a prototype to test flight potential, not meant for combat...
"That's it," Alex mutter as he came up with a solution. "Mercy look up the specs on the Battle-suit, is it airtight?"
He had a photographic memory but the battle-suit had been worked on by multiple hands after Lex drafted the original blueprints and changes had been made. Lex didn't know all of them.
It took a minute.
"No, its pressurised but air isn't recycled, its expelled and replaced by the life support systems just like… no don't you dare!" Mercy exclaimed worriedly.
"Just like the mark two." Alex finished Mercy's thought. There was a lull in Corben's attack, Alex turned to see Superman intervening again, slamming his fists into the battle-suit, each one causing a loud clang to echo through the yard and pushing him Corben back little by little.
"Just leave it to Superman, please!" Mercy pleaded, she had a good idea what Lex was going to do.
"I can't, the fault for this is going to fall on us if I'm not the one to stop it," Alex turned sharply and shot towards the battle.
Superman used all the strength he had, the Kryptonite had drained his power and it was night time so it was returning slowly. He threw another punch and his fist was caught in the grip of the three pincers acting as fingers on the battle suit.
"I love this suit! Screw the regent, with this thing I'll be unstoppable. And once I sell what's left of the weapons I'll have an in with the Gotham underground, a billion dollars will be chicken feed compared to the green I'll be making." Corben gloated as he squeezed Superman's fist making popping noises. He was interrupted when something blasted him in the back, it didn't phase him but it drew his attention to the newcomer who had landed behind him.
"That's not going to happen, the weapons and suit were originally mine so I think it's well within my rights to destroy them," Alex revealed.
His information stunned both Corben and Superman, so much so that he let Superman's fist out of his grip.
"Luthor?" Superman muttered in shock, he instinctively used his x-ray vision, sure enough it was Lex Luthor under that helmet.
Alex used that moment when their guard was down, he blasted forwards and wrapped his arms around the waist of the battle-suit and fired his thrusters full blast. It started slowly as first, the battle-suit lifted off the ground, then they built up momentum. Soon Iron Man and Corben were 500 feet in the air and climbing.
Corben struggled trying to reach down for the much smaller suit.
"What the hell are you doing?!" He demanded. "A fall won't scratch this armour Luthor, you outdid yourself!"
"Not quite, you see, your suit isn't airtight" Alex explained as they got higher and higher, still picking up speed. He watched as his power level fell but altitude rose. 5,000 feet.
"You idiot, you can't reach space in these things," Corben laughed. 10,000 feet
"I don't need too, see your suit has the same design flaw as mine" Alex replied. 20,000 feet.
"As warm air escapes your suit its replaced with fresh air my your life support system so you won't suffocate," 30,000.
"But that warm moist air escaping causes some serious problems above 40,000 feet," Alex said just as they hit that very altitude, Metropolis below them was a criss-cross of street lights and skyscrapers.
"What problems?" Corben asked a little concerned by Luthor's ominous tone, his answer came as his visor was covered by a layer of ice and his control lights sputtered and died. "NO!"
"That problem," Alex revealed as his armour started to ice up too, he quickly cut the power to his thrusters and they came to a stop before starting to fall. His suit hadn't fully frozen, there wasn't nearly as much air escaping his suit so it froze much slower.
However, he now had a new problem. The Battle-suit was now plummeting towards Metropolis and approaching terminal velocity, it could kill someone if it landed in the wrong place.
'Then I'll make sure it lands in the right place,' Alex thought as he fell below 40,000 feet and reignited his flight thrusters with his entire body pointed down. He quickly caught up to Corben and slammed into him wrapping his arms around him again this time heading down.
"Luthor, what the hell are you doing?!" Corben screamed in panic.
Alex aimed them perfectly, shifting their fall and speeding up so they went right back where they came from. The Kaznian freighter was directly below them, Alex adjusted their fall one last time before letting go and pulling up 90 degrees before shooting off to towards the south-west.
With an ear-splitting crash, the Battle-suit landed right on top of the second weapons crate, obliterating the remainder of the stolen goods before splitting the deck wide open like it was made of tinfoil, the momentum of the fall sent Corben through several decks of the ship before emerging from the hull and slamming finally into the seabed.
The end result, one wrecked battle-suit, a crate of smashed weapons, a sinking tanker and two dozen stunned onlookers including Superman who had almost completely recovered his strength.
He watched as Iron Man flew back towards Metropolis and he could still barely believe it.
"You ok?" Lois asked concerned for him.
"It was Luthor," Superman muttered much to Lois' shock.
Things passed in a blur from there. The police boarded the Kaznian freighter and arrested the rest of Corben's men as well as the crew for collaboration, they did this quickly as the ship was taking on water and sinking. Divers were sent underwater to retrieve Corben, or possibly his body, Superman volunteered to go until Lois reminded him that the Kryptonite was in the water. The divers only found the wrecked suit, empty.
As the thieves were being loaded into a police van Jimmy was ranting while taking the photos needed.
"I'm his pal, not his Bitch," Jimmy muttered grumpily.
"Calm down Jimmy." Superman said trying to calm him.
"Yes sir," Jimmy instinctively complied with a smile before realised what he must have just sounded like.
"Heh-heh, ow, still hurts to laugh," one goon chuckled as he was forced into the back of the van in cuffs.
To the south on St. Martin's Island a man struggled to pull himself out of the water, his left arm broken and his left eye bloody and damaged beyond repair. In his one working hand he clasped a glowing green stone so tightly it cut into his hand drawing more blood.
"Superman… Luthor… they'll both pay," he spat through his broken teeth.
The large windows of Alex's office opened electronically and Iron Man flew in, barely keeping his balance as he landed.
"Well that could have gone better," Alex took a deep breath of fresh air as his faceplate lifted exposing his sweaty face to the night air.
"Gee you think?" Mercy asked with her arms crossed. "What were you thinking? Not only did you almost get yourself killed you also revealed yourself to Superman"
Alex walked past her towards the elevator.
"It's never been my intention to keep my identity a secret, I already told you that," Alex hit B2.
"I know, but not this soon. You were supposed to build up a rep before being revealed."
"The police can't arrest me, Superman stops thieves and he's a hero, I do it and I'm a Vigilante. It'd be a double standard." Alex said with a smirk as the elevator doors opened and he made his way towards the assembler platform, ready to get out of this suit.
"Well if Superman knows then Lane'll know. Tomorrow's headline…"
"I know," Alex interrupted "When it does, announce another press conference."
"Another one? People haven' recovered from your last one," Mercy responded with a smirk.
"You weren't complaining the morning after," Alex replied, stepping out of the boots as the constructor arms removed them.
There was a slight blush on Mercy's face that she tried to keep from showing. To be honest, Lex humiliating Superman and his cheerleader Lane… well there's no delicate way to put this… it turned her on.
WHO IS IRON MAN?
This was the headline of the Daily Planet the following morning, accompanied by photos of the suit raising it's hand to fire a shot from it's repulsors, its eyes glowed green highlighting its blank face. The photo was taken just as Alex took out the sniper above Lane and Olson.
Following the photo was an article detailing last night's confrontation at the Oaktown Docks between Superman and John Corben which was interrupted my the arrival of the new vigilante. Followed by Superman's revelation of who was under the mask.
The article was very carefully edited though, at no point did itself claim Lex was Iron Man, only that Superman claimed it. This was followed by a much smaller photo of Lex, taken during the Arc Reactor press conference.
The Daily Planet had already suffered a lot of bad PR due to their speculations and Superman jumping to conclusions.
Sure enough that same morning Lexcorp was surrounded by the hoards of the media. A podium had been set up in front of Lexcorp and ropes sectioned off a large area with security guards keeping everyone back.
The crowd quieted down as Lex Luthor arrived, accompanied by his secretary. He slowly approached the podium, the press were on the tips of their toes. The last time Lex had held a press conference his revelation of the Arc Reactor had blown everyone's minds.
"He'll deny it," Lois murmured to Clark who stood next to her with his notebook in hand. "After the Arc Reactor everyone's doubting Superman"
Lois had spent hours ranting and raving when Perry had edited her article before it came out.
"He'll slip up eventually," Jimmy reassured her as he took photos of Luthor taking his place at the podium and bringing the mic closer to his mouth. "If Supes says it's Luthor, then it's Luthor. We just need to keep a close eye on him until we get the proof. He'll do something or say something incriminating eventually"
Clark smiled at Jimmy's loyalty, that smile promptly disappeared and was replaced with shock moments later.
"I am Iron Man."
The crowd was stunned, not a single word was spoken for almost ten seconds.
"I'd call that incriminating," Lois said to Jimmy, who was lucky his camera strap was around his neck as the expensive piece of equipment had slipped form his hands. He simply nodded mutely.
The crowd exploded with noise, the din was so loud Alex couldn't make our a single word spoken by anyone.
Mercy's eyes were locked on Lois Lane and smirked as the expression on her face.
'Hah, Bitch probably wasn't expecting that… Lois neither' she added at the end of her thought with a smirk when she remembered Lex's comment about Olson then she realised something and she frowned. 'Dammit, now I'm horny again.'
"Superman," Alex continued, pausing for a moment for the crowd to quite down. "Ever since Superman dropped out of the sky we have learned that not only are we not alone in the universe, we are hopelessly, hilariously outgunned… The Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Livewire, Killer Frost, Bane, Zoom... the list goes on and on. The world is filling up with beings who cannot be matched, who can't be controlled. I designed the Iron Man suit as a countermeasure to these forces."
He was silent for a moment to let the information sink in. Clark was now on guard, he wasn't happy to be on the same list as some of those people.
"Last night, a LexCorp warehouse was broken into and it contents stolen," Lex confirmed what many people already knew. "If I had stood by and done nothing then my company's prototypes would have flooded into the Gotham City underworld, causing untold damage..."
I AM IRON MAN
that was the headline of the Daily Planet the following day.
The conference had gone on for almost half an hour. Lex answered questions put to him to the best of his abilities. However it seems that wasn't enough, for days his phone had been ringing off the hook, people wanted to know more, reporters wanted quotes, companys wanted to buy his tech and the military to take his tech.
He avoided them all by secluding himself in the B2 level and working on his plans. The was built and ready to go at a moments notice fully armed. On the table was half the components of the already prepared. He also had basic sketches of other suits for different situations. But what he spent most of his time on was preparations for his next big plot.
'Plot, I'm supposed to be a hero but I still have plots' Alex thought as he finished encrypting his planted files. 'Some of the old Luthor is still in me. There has to be'
But whereas the old Luthor's plots were more aimed towards world domination, his own were more for self preservation. He was paranoid when it came to canon Lex's possible fates, just last night he'd had a nightmare of Injustice Luthor's end, Superman's hands wrapped around his throat slowly tightening like a mechanical vice, he couldn't breathe, then just as he heard a snap, he woke up and he could breath again.
His new 'plot' was all based on an upcoming meeting, he'd been contacted a week ago about a potential business deal, however, considering who he was meeting with, he could guarantee the person he was meeting with had ulterior motives. So over the last week he'd prepared, building a new piece of equipment he had tucked away in the corner of the room, he'd used it extensively over the past week.
"Mr Luthor, your three o'clock is here," Mercy's voice spoke over the intercom.
"Ok, here we go," Alex threw on his jacket and straightened his tie. Entering his elevator he hit the ground floor button, moments later the door opened revealing Mercy and his appointment.
"Mr Wayne, a pleasure to meet you," Alex said with a friendly smile as he extended his hand. Bruce entered the lift and took the offered hand.
"Likewise Mr Luthor," his fellow Billionaire CEO replied.
On the outside Alex kept a cool exterior as his free hand hit the button to take them up to his office, on the inside however...
'I'm shaking The Batman's hand… don't cry!' Alex thought happily. Iron Man may be his favourite Marvel superhero, but here in the DC Universe his hero was the Batman. 'He even has the iconic Kevin Conroy voice!'
This was a relief, he was dreading the possibility of hearing Christian Bale's Bat-lisp.
"Thank you for agreeing to see me on such short notice, I know you must be swamped right now with everything going on" Bruce said as the elevator opened and they made their way into Lex's office, Mercy took a seat at her desk outside as the doors closed behind them.
"Oh don't even get me started, watch this," Alex grimaced as he knelt down to pick up the loose phone line, before plugging it into the phone on his desk, almost immediately it started ringing. He yanked the line back out a moment later to stop the noise. "Its been like that for an entire week, you're lucky you got through to Mercy."
"People are interested, they want to know more about the new 'Hero'" Bruce said as he took a seat.
"Hero isn't the word most of them are using," Alex said with a smirk as he sat in his own chair. "Vigilante is their preferred term. The very thought of calling me a Hero probably makes Lois Lane's butt cheeks clench so tight she could swallow a chunk of coal and crap out a diamond"
"Well, that's not what I'm here to discuss," Bruch dismissed with a wave and smile. "Like I said over the phone, I'm very interested in your Arc reactor technology. I'd like to attain one for Wayne tower."
"You realise there's a lot of opposition to this tech, my mail box is filled with threatening letters from energy providers all over the world."
"I've already secured support from Mayor Hill," Bruce assured Lex. "I know we'll get a lot of pushback from the energy firms but it'll be worth it in the long run. Mayor Hill wants a Gotham company to be the first big supporter of your Arc Reactor technology,"
'Translation, elections are coming up and Hill wants to take advantage of LexCorp's good PR' Alex figured.
"Well there will be, conditions, first of all LexCorp will retain propitiatory rights to the technology. I'll build you one but I don't want it replicated just yet." Alex said firmly, the last thing he needed was hundreds of different versions of his Arc Reactor popping up all over the world.
"That's acceptable, while the energy company's are biting at our feet us we wouldn't be able to provide them widespread. Hopefully someday. This one will be for Wayne towers personal use."
'And the Batman's' Alex figured.
"One other thing you should know, the technology is in its infancy, it will continue to grow and as it does it can become expensive," Alex warned.
"I anticipated that, do you have any immediate plans for the tech I should know about?" Bruce asked digging for information.
"Well, I don't want this shared with the press yet, let them calm down a little first," Lex warned as he pulled open a drawer to his right and pulled something from it, a glowing blue device about the size of a paper weight. It took a moment for Bruce to realise what he was looking at.
"Is that, an Arc Reactor?" Bruce asked, genuinely stunned. It was so small compared to the large one he'd showcased.
"Indeed it is. A miniaturised Arc Reactor, this is what powers my Iron Man technology," Alex revealed. He knew this information could be used against him, but the Batman would have figured it out quickly anyway.
"How much power does it generate" Bruce asked as he leaned closer to get a better look.
"Approximately three gigajoules per second," Alex answered and enjoyed the look on Bruce's face.
"That could power a car for 15 years!" Bruce exclaimed.
"And produce zero emissions while doing so" Alex replied.
The meeting went on, Alex and Bruce ironed out some of the details for their joint ventures when they noticed the sun going down and finally called their meeting to an end. Alex saw him to the elevator with Bruce assuring him that his business manager would contact Lex to arrange the finer details of their agreement.
'And now we wait' Alex thought as Bruce Wayne disappeared behind the closing doors.
He had no doubt that Bruce Wayne had ulterior motives for coming here himself. If all he wanted was the Arc Reactor then Bruce would have sent his Business Manager, Lucius Fox, to negotiate.
The Batman had business with him.
That night a shadow glided quietly towards LexCorp. It approached a darkened floor near the middle of the building and latched to the concrete in-between floors. A small device shaped like a bat was placed above the window and with a spark and a pop the glass slid open. Batman stalked into the building and quickly made his way to the elevator.
"Alfred, I'm in," his deep voice spoke over his communicator.
"No alarms sounded Sir, they don't know you're there,"
Batman gripped the elevator door and pulled them open. The elevator was high above him, he pulled his grapnel and fired it up into a metal support before jumping, allowing the line to lower him down the shaft quickly but safely.
"Is this really necessary Sir?" Alfred asked over the comm. "You went there to investigate the reactor technology yourself to make sure it was safe, didn't you get enough readings from the miniature model?"
"I did, but it's too good to be true Alfred," Batman said as his decent slowed. "Luthor has been involved in shady dealing for years and now suddenly all he's interested in is altruism? I don't buy it, he's up to something."
"I've been meaning to ask, how did you convince the Mayor to sign off on the Arc Reactor?" Alfred asked.
"I mentioned that having a clean energy source in Gotham might dissuade Ivy's attacks." Batman revealed.
Batman's intention had been to infiltrate the B1 floor to inspect the large-scale reactor but when he met with Luthor he noticed a B2 button in the elevator. There was no B2 on any of the building schematics.
Batman came to a stop at B2 and placed his grapnel on the ground, he'd need it in place to get back up. Once again he gripped the doors and pulled them open, entering the area quietly in case anyone was there, his cowl's detective vision found nobody there and a well placed EMP Batarang deactivated the only camera.
He scanned the room, it seemed to be Luthor's private workshop. In a glass case on the wall his silver Iron Man suit was on display, the damage it had taken had been repaired. In a similar case next to it was another suit, this one much more elaborate and colourful. After scanning the new suit, Batman moved deeper into the room, he started heading towards the computers when he noticed something that gave him pause.
In the corner of the room was a device familiar to him, it had once put his identity as Batman in peril. What looked like a large, lit up computer server had a patients bed on top, completed with medical electrodes scattered around the head. Next to it was a monitor and recording devices.
"Alfred, he has a memory projector," Batman revealed as he approached the machine and resisted the urge to smash it.
This machine was invented by Hugo Strange, he'd used it to make recordings of people's most secret and sensitive memories and then blackmailed them with the information. Including Bruce Wayne himself.
In an attempt to help Judge Vargas, a close friend who was a victim of this plot. Bruce had attended Doctor Strange's 'relaxation' sessions to find our how he blackmailing people, only to fall victim himself.
Doctor Strange discovered his identity and then held an auction for 'The identity of the Batman' attended by Joker, Penguin, Two-Face. Thankfully had had managed to salvage the situation, switching out Strange's recording for another one and then making him believe Bruce Wayne and Batman had only worked together to bring him down. Compounded by an appearance by 'Batman' to confirm Bruce's statement. That Batman being Dick Grayson in disguise.
It was the closest he'd ever come to having his identity exposed to his enemies. And now a new, more sophisticated, version of the machine sat in-front of him.
On the desk next to the machine was a mini disk in a case, picking the case up Bruce's eyes widened at the words written on the disk in black marker.
'InJustice Files: Superman's First Blood'
"What is this?" Batman muttered as he placed the disk into the machine, the screen flickered to life, it was blurry at first but soon cleared up, there was no sound. Batman watched the recording in silence, first he felt confusion, then surprise, as he watched the recording he felt his heart speed up, his anxiety grew… than it happened, he stepped back with his face was stricken with horror.
"No…" Batman denied. "It can't..."
Batman turned from the machine and rushed to Luthor's computer, quickly hacking it and ran a search for the word InJustice. Decrypting the information he gained an understanding of what the 'InJustice Files' were, and the implications were earth shattering. Just from the file titles his horror grew and grew.
He linked his gauntlet to the computer and downloaded everything. Then he erased any sign of his presence on the computer. He ejected the disk and placed it back precisely where he found it.
"-uce... Master Bruce are you there?!" Alfred's voice called loudly down his ear startling him out of his actions. How long had Alfred been talking.
"I-I'm here Alfred, I'm fine," Batman assured as he retrieved his batarang and rushed back to the elevator shaft.
"You are most certainly not fine!" Alfred snapped. "Your suit's bio-readings are going berserk and you weren't answering me, if I didn't know better I'd say you were having an anxiety attack. The only other time I saw readings like this was the first time you were exposed to Scarecrow's fear toxin!"
"I… found something Alfred, it's bad," Batman's voice was shaky. He gripped his grapnel and hit the switch, he shot up the shaft at high speeds and a few moments later he leapt out of the still open window and glided away from LexCorp. After gaining some distance he called the Batwing.
High up in his office Alex shut down his laptop, he'd watched the Batman the entire time he'd been in his lab. Batman took out the camera but Alex was able to watch everything through the eyes of his Iron Man suit. Everything went precisely how he'd predicted.
Alfred watched as Batman climbed out of the vehicle and approached the Bat-Computer.
"I believe you owe me an explanation Master Bruce," Alfred spoke sternly. As he approached with a cup of coffee. Batman didn't respond, he sat at the computer and linked his gauntlet to it, after running a scan for any malware he uploaded the files.
SLAM!
Bruce jumped as Alfred slammed the coffee cup down next to him.
"Bruce," Alfred said soothingly as he placed a calming hand on his shoulder. "What did you find?"
Batman took a deep calming breath before reaching up and removing his cowl. Revealing the sweating man underneath.
"Luthor… he's been having precognitive dreams," Bruce started as he sorted through the files. "These files are extensive records of the dreams he's been having. He calls them the InJustice Files."
"Sir, I'd take whatever you saw with a pinch of salt, it is Luthor after all. Could they be fake?" Alfred asked.
"No, the images are too detailed, too vivid. They resemble memories more than dreams. And they date back over a year before Superman made his debut." Bruce held back a feeling of guilt when he spoke next "This isn't the first time we've encountered precognition either."
Alfred lowered his head as he remembered that. Bruce's long time friend Zatanna Zatara had once approached them with a warning, she'd had a dream of Barbara Gordon in a wheelchair. They told her they'd be careful, but in reality they'd dismissed her warnings as just a bad dream… one month later Joker shot Barbara in her apartment paralysing her. If only they'd heeded her warnings.
"Well what did he see?" Alfred asked, trying to shake the memories of young Miss Gordon fighting for her life in that hospital bed.
"This," Bruce pulled up a digital copy of the video file he's watched back in Luthor's lab and ran it again.
The image was blurry and unfocused, but it quickly cleared up. It was an interrogation room, there was no sound but sat at the table obviously laughing was the Joker. Batman stood before him slamming his hand down on the table questioning him.
Whatever Joker said next wasn't what Batman wanted to hear because he moved to grab the clown. The the wall behind Batman exploded. Alfred thought for a moment that somebody was attempting to break out Joker. But hovering in the cavity was the man of steel himself, fury the only emotion visible on his face.
Superman spoke, snarling as he did. Throwing the table aside he grasped Joker and slammed him into the wall hard enough to crack it. Superman and Joker exchanged words, Superman looked solemn for a moment before his fury returned and he pulled back his fist, Batman shouted something and Superman's fist cracked into the wall beside Jokers head.
Superman threw Joker across the room right on top of the table which buckled under his weight.
Despite being hurt, Joker stood up with a chuckle and picked up his fallen chair, he spoke with a smug look on his face as he sat down and crossed his legs before making a shooing motion to Superman, as if dismissing him.
Superman wasn't' done, he grabbed Joker by the throat and lifted him into the air. Batman said something and moved to stop Superman but the man of steel threw Batman away. Turning his attention back to Joker.
Joker struggled to say something, but he still maintained that damned smile on his face. Whatever he'd said was the last straw, Superman pulled his free hand back, his eyes glowing red with rage. Nothing Batman could say would stop him this time. He threw the punch.
"Good lord," Alfred's tray slipped from his hand and clattered to the ground.
Superman's fist ripped through Joker's body and emerged from his back, blood spraying across the room. The video ended freezing on Joker's face, who despite everything, was still laughing.
Shutting down the video Bruce moved onto the next files.
InJustice Files: One Earth Regime.
InJustice Files: Insurgency.
Batman opened both files and placed them side by side. There was a brief explanation of each group with a list of members Luthor had been able to identify, along with their status. Superman was listed as leader of the Regime while the Batman was apparently the leader of an insurgency.
Some members were unnamed, an example would be Superman's second in command. Luthor had a description along with a still image taken from the Memory Projector but no name, only labelling her.
Greek Warrior Woman (Active) (Amazon?)
He also noticed while Lex was part of the Regime he was labelled as a mole, funding and passing information onto the Insurgency. He was also labelled as deceased.
Bruce froze halfway through the list of insurgency members when he came to a name that turned his blood cold.
Nightwing (Deceased)
Bruce took a breath, and clicked the name.
Bruce worked all night, Alfred bringing him coffee whenever he needed it. Finally he closed the last file and spoke activating the Batcomputer's voice recognition.
"Batcomputer, security level omega, password Delta Charlie 2-7-5-1939, enable new protocol. Title, Agamemno Contingency. File code name: Last Son..."
To Be Continued...
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