IRON LUTHOR

Chapter III: Companions

Bruce stood before before the grave, in his hand he grasped a clean shovel, he hadn't used it yet.

"Is there any way I could dissuade you from this Sir?" Alfred asked as he held an umbrella over his masters head to protect him from the rain. He didn't want to do this.

"No" Bruce answered curtly, he understood Alfred's feelings. What he was about to do… if he was wrong, he'd never forgive himself. He took a breath to calm himself and broke the ground for the first time.

It took almost an hour to dig, Alfred stood in silence at his master worked, the rain concealing the few tears he shed. Finally he reached the casket, throwing the shovel away he used his bare hands to sweep away the remaining loose dirt keeping him from his goal.

Once the polished oak was within reach Bruce placed his dirty palm gently on the wood.

"I'm sorry…" Bruch apologised solemnly before gritting his teeth and raising his other hand making a fist.

CRRACK!

Bruce's fist smashed through the wood drawing blood, his fists not protected by the gloves his Batsuit usually afforded him. He gripped the sides of the new opening and pulled, ripping it open further and revealing the inside.

Seeing the inside, his fears were confirmed. He turned and pulled himself up and out of the hole he'd dug, before he was able to climb to his feet however he was tackled hard, somebody's shoulder slamming into his gut, he and his assailant flew over the freshly dug grave and landed on the wet mud on the other side.

"WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE?!"

Bruce blinked away the rain from his eyes to see the furious face of Dick Grayson, he knelt over Bruce's form gripping his collar so tightly it tore.

"What are you doing here?" Bruce asked, this was the wrong this to say.

"Oracle called me when she couldn't get through to you," Dick spat out his eyes narrowing behind his mask. "Her Brother Eye programme alerted her to a grave robber, I didn't think it would be you! Now answer the damn question!"

Bruce cursed to himself, in his emotional state he'd forgotten Brother Eye. It was a program Barbara created to scan Gotham continuously for crime. It used CCTV, police radios and even WayneTech satellite footage. He hadn't wanted them to find out about the InJustice files yet, especially considering what he'd seen happen to Nightwing.

"Look inside," Bruce said simply.

Nightwing froze, his first instinct was to punch the older man in the face, but the look Bruce was showing him was unnerving. It last time he'd seen that look was when he'd told him Barb had been shot.

Nightwing stood up and moved to the open grave, he looked down dreading what he would see, but he never expected this.

The grave was empty.

"W-Where is he?" Dick asked brokenly as rain fell from from his mask.

"I'll explain everything I swear" Bruce promised as he placed a hand on Dick's shoulder. "Come on."

Bruce led his former ward away from the grave and headed towards the car parked nearby. Alfred followed close by trying futilely to keep both of his charges dry. He turned one last time to the grave just as a bolt of lightning streaked across the Gotham sky illuminating the headstone for just a moment.

In Loving Memory

Jason Todd


An hour later everyone met up in the clock-tower, Oracle's base of operations, she was understandably furious. Bruce held off on his explanation until Tim arrived, making use of Barb's shower to clean himself up first. When he re-entered the operations area everyone was there, Dick had changed into one of the spare sets of clothing Barbara kept for the Batfamily.

"Soo, anybody want to tell me what's going on?" Tim asked awkwardly. Since arriving he'd have to be blind not to notice something was incredibly wrong.

"As you know, a few days ago I took a trip to Metropolis…"

Bruce told them everything, his meeting, his infiltration, the files he'd found, the contents and the implications.

The thought of a rogue Superman terrified them.

"What does this have to do with digging up Jason's grave?" Barbara asked shakily, she still wanted to know why Bruce had dug up his grave and why it was empty.

"Wait, you did what now?" Tim asked with wide eyes.

"Much of the InJustice files can't be verified since none of the events have happened yet," Bruce said as he approached the computers. "But one file holds the key, if it's accurate then the rest of the files hold weight."

Oracle's system had access to the Batcomputer back in the cave. Bruce accessed the partition he had stored the files and brought the file up.

InJustice Files: Red Hood

Dick and Barbara stiffened, Red Hood had been Joker's earliest alias, before he'd taken a dip into the vat at Ace Chemicals. These fears were quickly dismissed when they saw an image. A man wearing a dark grey body suit, with a leather jacket over it. The Jacket hung open revealing a red bat symbol on his chest. His face covered by high tech red facemask which was in turn covered by a red hoodie he wore under his jacket. In his hands he held a pair of pistols.

The 'Red Hood' appears to be affiliated with neither the One Earth Regime or the Insurgency. He is a vigilante whom has no qualms with killing criminals but doesn't tolerate killing civilians.

The Regime leaves him alone despite him refusing their invitation to join their ranks, as he does their work for them. The Batman actively tries to confront and stop him. (See attached video)

I suspect subject may be previously affiliated with Batman due to presence of bat symbol on uniform.

After letting the group read, Bruce clicked on the attached video. It showed Batman trading blows with Red Hood before the vigilante tried to flee via grapnel.

"Pay attention to this next part," Bruce said as he slowed the video down.

Batman fired his own line which wrapped around Red Hoods feet tying them together. Fluidly, Red Hood curled forward and with a knife cut the line loose before flipping forward and landing with grace.

"No," Dick denied shaking his head, he recognised those moves, hell, he'd helped train those moves.

"What?" Tim asked. "What is it?"

"Jason," Barbara whispered.

"How?" Dick asked. "How is this possible? I saw his body, you held him in your arms, we buried him!" Dicks voice got louder and louder as he spoke.

"There's only one possibility," Bruce answered as he made his way towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Barbara asked as she wiped away his tears.

"Nanda Parbat," Bruce growled, slipping into the voice he used as Batman. "Ra's al Ghul has a lot to answer for."


Canon Lex Luthor owned apartments in almost all districts of the city, however since Alex took up residence in his body he'd only visited them a couple of times, he mostly slept in the bedroom adjacent to his main office. He was mostly regretting that right now.

Alex woke abruptly at a loud knocking at the door.

"I'm coming," Sitting up carefully to shift Mercy's body off him and slowly got out of bed and pulled on a dressing gown. The knocking was still going.

'Somebody better be dead!' Alex growled grumpily as he made his way to the door and pulled it open roughly.

"What!"

Standing before him were a pair of LexCorp security guards.

"Sir, there's been a death on the premises"

'… ok now, I feel like a dick.'

"Who?!" Mercy demanded, sitting up in the bed at attention, now in full professional mode. Thankfully she was wearing a vest and shorts to protect her modesty.

"One of the doctors down in r&d," the guard answered trying not to ogle his superior in her state of undress.

"Give us a minute," Alex closed and door and grabbed some casual clean clothes, Mercy grabbed her black uniform and straightened her hair before strapping on her gun holster.

They were escorted down to one of the research and development floors, one of the corner labs. Paramedics were already there to take the body away and a pair of recognisable police officers had arrived, head of the Special Crimes Unit, Maggie Sawyer and her deputy chief Dan Turpin, the same officer who tried to enforce the warrant for nuclear materials a few weeks ago.

"What happened?" Alex asked as he entered. Officer Sawyer approached him.

"Your night Janitor found him laying on his desk and thought he was asleep after having a night cap," Sawyer explained as Turpin shot him dirty looks over his partners shoulder. "He tried to wake him up, but he was gone."

"We found this on the desk," Sawyer passed Alex a letter in a torn envelope.

Alex took the letter, noting that the return address on the envelope was to a hospital and unfolded it.

It contained test results, terminal lung cancer. But what really stood out to Alex was the name of the addressee, Professor Ivo.

"Get away from there," Alex snapped when he looked up from the letter and saw Officer Turpin snooping through lab papers on Ivo's desk. "Everything in this lab is the intellectual property of LexCorp. We don't need to have another conversation about warrants do we?"

Turpin's face turned a shade red and approached Luthor only to be blocked by his partner.

"If I have reasonable cause to believe a crime took place then I don't need a stinkin' warrant" Turpin snarled.

"According to this letter Professor Ivo had end stage lung cancer. This is obviously a natural death, and unless you can prove otherwise you'll keep your greasy paws off my property"

"There'll be an autopsy to confirm, but it DOES look like natural causes." Sawyer said as she pocketed her notebook and shot Turpin a pointed look telling his to keep his mouth shut.

"We'll be in touch Luthor," Dan said in a low tone with a glare ignoring the warning glance his partner shot him. "I for one don't buy your little change of heart. You better watch your back."

Mercy stepped in-between the cop and Alex.

"Watching his back is my job," Mercy warned as she glared him down. "Now are you going to leave or do I need to throw you out myself?"

Sawyer pulled Turpin away reprimanding him, Mercy followed them with the rest of the security guards to make sure they made no detours between here and the exit. This left Alex alone in the lab which smelled faintly of cigarettes, probably what got the professor in the end.

Alex glanced back down at the letter, Professor Ivo. A character in the DC universe well known for one thing...

Searching through the papers Officer Turpin had been pawing he found exactly what he was afraid of.

The beginnings of hand drawn blueprints for the 'Anti-Metahuman Adaptive Zootomic Organism'

aka A.M.A.Z.O.

An android with the ability to scan and mimic meta-human abilities, it had the potential to become one of the most powerful beings in existence. Ivo had started the project back when Lex Luthor was putting all of his resources towards finding a way to beat superman but suspended it when Alex took over and changed the LexCorp's priority's.

Alex scanned the blueprints, most of the technology required to build the hardware didn't exist yet but this could still be dangerous. Alex memorised the blueprints before ripping them up and placing them in the metal trash can next to Ivo's desk. Looking in the bottom drawer of the desk Alex found what else he needed, an almost empty bottle of Vodka and a box of matches.

'Sorry Professor, but Amazo is way too dangerous,' Alex apologised as he lit a match and burned Ivo's work. 'Need to make sure there's no other copies'

Booting up the computer Alex moved to search for anything else pertaining to Amazo when he was interrupted by a black screen with a waveform.

"Is Father gone?" A voice echoed through the lab, the waveform fluctuating with each word.

Alex froze, the voice sounded synthesized but also sad.

'Shit, Ivo must have worked on the software before the body,' Alex figured.

"Who are you?" Alex asked testing the waters.

"I don't have a name, Father created me, is he gone?" the voice asked again.

"Yes, yes he is… do you understand what happened to him?" Alex asked, he really didn't want to explain death to an AI.

"I do, father explained that humans live for a limited time before expiring… dying. Father was sick, he has died."

"Yes, he has… I'm sorry for your loss," Alex consoled the newly orphaned intelligence.

"What will happen to me now? What is my purpose?" His voice was shaky, Alex could almost hear the anxiety.

"Did Professor Ivo tell you why he built you?" Alex asked. There was no answer.

'That's a no,' Alex figured.

"Would you like to come with me?" Alex asked, this was an opportunity he couldn't pass up.

"I won't be destroyed?" he asked, surprised.

"That would be a waste," Alex said aloud. "Your creation was part of a project to help me protect the earth. Even without a body I believe you can help me."

Suddenly the waveform was replaced with quickly shifting images of recent newspapers and TV. Alex held his breath as the AI searched the internet.

"You are Lex Luthor, Iron Man… I will help you, Sir,"

Alex smiled, the AI hadn't hesitated, he must have been desperate for a purpose. Well now Alex would give him one.

"Well then, you'll need a name," Alex said as he regained control of the computer and started to transfer the AI to a bigger far more secure server.

"What the hell is that?" Mercy asked as she re-entered the room with her pistol grasped in her hand, she'd overheard the last of their conversation and entered carefully. Her eyes were now locked on the screen.

"Oh, Just a rather very intelligent system." Alex answered with a knowing smirk.


"My god, why is my board of directors filled with nothing but whiny bitches?" Alex asked as he threw himself down into his chair and pulling off his tie. He'd just spent the last hour surrounded by a bunch of wrinkly old men demanding he cancel several of his projects.

"That bad huh?" Mercy asked as she took a seat opposite him and pouring two cups of coffee. "Which projects did they object to?"

"The feast centres and the expo," Alex revealed. "They're only interested in the status quo, they're comfortable as they are and don't want me to rock the boat. I even explained that Wayne is footing half the bill for both projects."

Alex was thankful he'd brought up the projects to Bruce during their meeting

"They're afraid of change, its a common fear," Mercy said with a shrug. "I take it you put them in their place?"

"Well first we took a vote on whether or not we should cancel the projects, then I reminded them that since I own the controlling interest in the company, mine was the only vote that counted." Alex answered with a smirk.

"Wow, that is good," Mercy licked her lips after tasting her coffee, it was a new brand Lex had bought recently.

"It should, it costs three-hundred and fifty dollars a pound," Alex revealed making Mercy's eyes widen "It's the second most expensive coffee in the world."

"I'm disappointed Lex, you couldn't spring for the most expensive. You usually don't settle for second best." Mercy asked playfully.

"Price has nothing to do with it. The most expensive costs a thousand dollars a pound but… uhh," Alex didn't know how to explain this.

"Black Ivory," a new voice filled the room. "Also known as elephant dung coffee. Originating from Northern Thailand it is digested and refined inside of Elephants and then harvested from their-"

"Thank you Jarvis," Alex interrupted before the AI went even further into detail. "I think she gets it!"

Mercy had choked on her coffee at the word 'dung'

"Jarvis, don't ruin coffee for me!" Mercy snapped as she cleaned herself up.

"My apologies madam,"

Alex smiled at the interaction, Mercy had been wary of Jarvis at first but quickly warmed up to him when he made many aspects of her job easier.

"Has this coffee been inside another animal?" Mercy asked Alex with a frown.

"No,"

"Good, ok, how do you want to announce the projects?" Mercy asked.

"Not another press conference, maybe an interview," Alex pondered.

"I know just who," Mercy smirked as she jotted something down.

"Cat Grant?" Alex asked with a smirk which Mercy returned. Cat Grant had started out her career as Perry White's assistant and gossip columnist for the Daily Planet. Now she was the CEO of CatCo World Wide Media and self proclaimed rival to Lois Lane. That last part was the only reason Mercy picked her, it would piss off Superman's cheerleader.

"Sir, an unidentified object is approaching the building at high speed,"

Before either of them could say anything in reply the building suddenly shook, Alex stood up only to fall right back down into the chair.

"What the hell?" Mercy asked as she gripped Lex's desk tightly to keep her balance.

Suddenly the floor beneath the desk erupted in an explosion of concrete, metal, wood and coffee throwing them both back. Something flew up through the breach and smashed through the ceiling disappearing into the sky.

Both Alex and Mercy stood stunned by what they'd just seen. A flying, rocket-propelled motorcycle, with Superman sitting on the back grappling with the driver.

"Ok… over the past few weeks my sanity might have been tested. Did I just see Superman riding bitch on a flying motorcycle with Gene Simmons?" Mercy asked, almost sounding worried about the answer.

"Yes," Alex assured her.

"Oh good," Mercy breathed in relief. "I thought I'd lost my mind for a moment there."

'Well, small point of clarification' Alex thought and he quickly made his way to the elevator. 'That wasn't Gene Simmons. That was fucking Lobo!'

"Jarvis, track them and prep the Mark Three!" Alex said as he hit B2.


Superman slammed into the side-walk hard enough to shatter the concrete.

"Struggle all you want blue boy, you'll never get away from the Main Man," Lobo chuckled as he climbed off his bike and retrieved a crowbar from the back.

"What do you want with me?" Superman demanded.

"It's nothing personal, somebody's paying me a fragload of loot to bring you in, think he wants you for his zoo or something… or to feed to his pets… Ok I'm gonna be honest, I stopped listening when I saw the loot. But the important part is, I deliver you and Lobo gets paid." the alien said with a grin as he slammed the reinforced crowbar into the man of steels face knocking him back.

As he took another swing something slammed into him, a pair some sort of energy blasts knocking Lobo backwards.

"Ok, who has the nuts?" Lobo demanded.

Flying down and landing between Superman and Lobo was Iron Man in the superhero landing. Standing up everybody could see his new suit, this was Iron Man's first appearance since his fight with Corben at the docks and his suit looked radically different.

His first suit was solid silver. This one was green with black at certain points. His eyes still had their green glow and the glowing green chest piece had black lines on it creating the double L sigil Lex's guards wore.

"Well would you look at that, nuts, bolts and everything in-between," Lobo chuckled shouldering his crowbar. You got a problem with me punk?"

"Yeah, three. One, the hole you just put in my building, Two the expensive ass coffee you made me spill and Three, your face, it's trademarked! Expect letters!"

"… what?" Lobo asked confused.

"Luthor, get out of here!" Superman demanded as he stood up. "I'm handling this."

Iron Man turned and saw Superman.

"Oh you… when did you get here?" Alex quipped "Yeah, it certainly looks like you're handling this. Tell me, just how much of the city will you be destroying before he finishes wrapping that crowbar around your skull?"

"Wait, so you don't have a problem with me coming after blue boy?" Lobo asked.

"Like I said, coffee, building, trademark, in that order!" Iron man shot forward and slammed his fist into Lobo's cheek knocking him backwards.

Lobo threw a retaliatory punch, Iron Man ducked under the blow before firing his flight jets and slamming his rising knee into Lobo's chin.

"Ow, I bid' 'by 'dong," Lobo grasped his mouth.

Alex continued his assault, on his fall back down after the blow to his opponents chin, Iron Man slammed his fist into the top of Lobo's head slamming him into the ground.

Lobo growled from his place on the ground and grabbed Iron Man by his leg, standing up he swung Iron Man through the air slamming him into a parked car damn near cutting it in half.

"Sir, I believe this individual may be of extraterrestrial origin, his strength far exceeds normal human standards." Jarvis' voice said in his ear.

"Gee, ya think?" Alex growled.

Pulling his from the wreckage Alex scanned the area and found Superman and Lobo half a block away trading punches.

"Ok, round two" Iron Man blasted off shooting towards the brawling pair.

Lobo saw him coming and backhanded Superman away before turning and catching Iron Man by his hands as he tried to tackle him.

Iron Man and Lobo were stuck in a stand off, grasping each-others hands and pushing as hard as they could, the ground under their feet cracking.

"Heh, all right bring it on. I can take both of you at the same time!" Lobo said with a grin.

Alex couldn't resist.

"That's what she said," Alex grunted as he struggled to push back.

Lobo snorted, his grip loosening for just a moment, but it was enough. Iron Man suddenly pulled instead of pushing. Iron Man slammed backwards into the ground and Lobo fell over him, when he was directly above him, Alex fired his Unibeam.

"Woooooah!" Lobo yelled as he was suddenly thrown up into the air.

Iron Man aimed right fist towards the sky, the top of his wrist opened and a small missile rose from inside and fired. The missile shrieked through the sky before slamming into Lobo's chest and exploding.

'That missile's designed to take out a tank, it had to do some damage' Alex hoped

as the smoke cleared Lobo was revealed on his bike.

"Hey, this was my favourite vest!" Lobo yelled wiping the soot off his chest revealing the hole Alex's missile had made. "… This was my only vest!"

Lobo reached into his bike's side compartment and pulled out a long chain with a hook on the end.

"Ok, you want to go, lets go tin man!" Lobo swung his chain above his head before throwing it at Iron Man.

Alex fired his thrusters to skid along the ground trying to get away from the chain, unfortunately the hook caught his leg and dug in almost deep enough to reach the flesh underneath.

"Crap!" Alex aimed his repulsor and fired but the chain held strong.

"Hah, lets go for a ride," Lobo held onto the chain in one hand and revved his bike with the other, taking off into the sky at an almost vertical angle he dragged Alex along with him.

"Luthor!" Superman yelled, Lobo was moving fast and approaching escape velocity.

He didn't like Luthor, but he wasn't about the let him die. He blasted off after them, his cape trailing behind him.

Lobo looked behind him and saw Superman catching up. "Now this is what I call fishing!"

Alex continued to struggle, the air was getting thinner and thinner and the sky darker and darker.

Finally they broke orbit. Alex's suit short circuited and shut down.

"Crap, come on start up," he wouldn't last long in orbit especially without life support. His air supply was running out fast, the hole Lobo's hook put in his leg was hissing air.

"Sir… losing… uploa…" Jarvis' voice sputtered as the suit tried to power up. Alex's vision darkened and he lost consciousness.

Lobo came to a stop and turned around seeing the tin man shut down, with a grin he pulled his crowbar from his back.

"Now, what say we pry that tin can open and find the gooey centre."

"Lobo stop!" Superman yelled as he approached the pair at high speed, he could hear Luthor's heartbeat slowing.

Before Superman could reach them they were all suddenly enveloped by a bright light holding them all in place.

"Like I said blue boy, Fishing," Lobo grinned as he looked up. "Using the little fish, to catch the big fish."

Above them space seemed to warp before a large spaceship appeared, the light emerging from it and pulling them in. After the three disappeared into the ship, it turned away from the earth and accelerated away from the blue planet.


Alex blinked as he came back to consciousness. The digital readout revealing how long he'd been out, almost an hour.

"Jarvis, you there?" Alex muttered.

"I'm here sir, before you left orbit I was able to upload a portion of myself into your suit"

"Left orbit?!" Alex yelled sitting up. He was in a cell made of a clear see-through material, in the same room was a selection of different creatures on display. Superman was behind a similar one with red light being shone down on him.

Standing in front of his cell was Lobo and another creature.

Short, it's torso and head seemed to be the same thing and it had stubby arms. It had no legs and floated. Alex recognised it, the Preserver.

"Jarvis, could you access any of the ship's systems?" Alex asked quietly.

"Possibly sir, but the material of this cell is blocking any transmissions"

"Why did you bring this creature, you were hired only for the Kryptonian," the Preserver asked.

"Well you like rare stuff right? I thought you might like this too, for a little extra." Lobo grinned greedily.

"No, despite the colourful suit, the being inside is a mere human, they have no value, billions of them inhabit the very planet we just left."

"Ah well," Lobo shrugged as he turned and picked up a chest so filled with gold and jewels they almost spilled out. "If ya ever need any more rare dorks snagged, you got my number."

"Actually," The Preserver spoke before Lobo got too far away. "There is one other being I need for my collection, the last Czarnian."

"Hah, that's rich, I'm the last Czarnian," Lobo said with a grin pointing his thumb at his own chest. "I fragged the rest of the planet for my high school science project, gave myself an 'A'" he said proudly.

Lobo didn't seem to understand what the Preserver was implying, he soon figured it out when a 'glass' tube identical to the one Alex was in lowered over him trapping him.

"Hey," Lobo yelled as gas started to fill the chamber. "You ugly -COUGH- two timin' fragger! You just -COUGH- carved your own headstone, nobody crosses the main man, -COUGH- nobody! –COUGH COUGH-" Lobo yelled weakly as he tried to break the glass.

"What the hell is this place?" Alex asked, knowing the answer but trying to lure the Preserver closer to the glass.

"I am the Preserver, I collect rare species on the brink of extinction in order to protect them. The Kryptonian is one such species… you however are not. Human's are plentiful, there are billions of you, therefore you shall be disposed of." The Preserver said dismissively as he turned from the glass, he sneered at Luthor as if his presence was an insult to him.

"You're wrong," Alex said simply.

"Oh?" The Preserver asked curiously as he approached the glass with a condescending look. "Is there not over 6 billion humans on your world?"

"There are," Alex confirmed. "But there's on one Lex Luthor!"

Before the Preserved could act, a high density beam fired from Alex's arc reactor, his unibeam at full power. The glass held only for a moment before it melted and gave way, the Preserver was struck in the chest and sent flying back with enough force to crack Lobo's glass cell.

The moment the Unibeam cut off Alex pointed his hand at the hole he'd just made and a small needle like device was launched from his wrist and struck a control panel on the opposite wall. A hacking device that should allow Jarvis access.

"S-Security!" the Preserver gasped as he floated from the ground and left the room quickly, holding his smoking chest. "Destroy that pest!"

Alex winced as he saw the power decrease to just 40 percent.

"That took a lot of power, Jarvis please tell me you have access!" Alex said in panic as he saw half a dozen floating robotic sentries entering the room and heading towards him.

"Accessing…"

"Jarvis open the cell!" Alex commanded as he prepared to fight. The bot's approached ans a single eyes on their faceplate glowed with yellow light. "Jarvis!"

"I have access" Jarvis announced, this time over the ships intercom instead of his suit. So everyone could hear.

The glass tube covering Alex shot up freeing him, Alex moved instantly, dodging out of the way of a half dozen simultaneous laser strikes.

Turning he scanned the attackers, his HUD locking onto each one as he did.

(Hostile, Hostile, Hostile, Hostile, Hostile, Hostile.)

After locking onto them a pair of launchers emerged from Alex's shoulders and fired, six micro-missiles, each one streaked through the air, smashed through the eyes of the bots and detonating destroying their heads. All bots collapsed to the ground.

"There'll be more Luthor, you can't escape without me" Superman said trying to convince his old enemy to let him out, a small hope in his chest that maybe, just maybe he had changed.

To be honest Alex had no intention of leaving Superman in his cell, he knew the man of steel would escape with or without his help so he might as well gain some goodwill. Maybe then Superman would back off him a little. Every time Superman tried to implicate him in something he turned it around on him, honestly embarrassing Superman was getting a little old… oh who was he kidding, it was still hilarious. Plus it lead to fun encounters with Mercy. Maybe he should set up a board in his office, the Superman Owned Count. In honour of a funny parody he used to watch in his own world.

"Jarvis, open Superman's cell," Alex commanded almost reluctantly. He immediate agreement surprising Superman.

"I'm afraid I can't sir, I've been locked out of the main cell controls" Jarvis said apologetically.

"They're learning," Alex cursed trying to come up with a solution. Looked up and saw the light above Superman bombarding him with Red Sun Radiation.

"The light's, can you turn them off?" Alex asked.

A moment later the light above Superman sputtered and died. The man of steel felt some measure of his strength return. He punched the glass hard enough to crack the glass, another punch and the cell shattered.

"Thank you," Superman said awkwardly, those words directed at Luthor felt wrong.

"Hey, let me outta here!" Lobo said weakly, gas still pumping into his cell.

"If there's one person that deserves to be locked up its you," Superman said sternly

"You punk, I'll get outta here, it might take me a week, it might take me a year, but I'll get out and when I do I'll kick your ass all over the galaxy, right after nuking the earth into slag!" Lobo threatened as Superman walked away, his threat seemed to get the him because he stopped and turned to glare at the bounty hunter with glowing eyes.

"I'll make you a deal," Alex took charge stepping forward. "I'll let you out, in return you never attack the Earth again. Deal?"

"Deal!" Lobo said with a grin seeing the chance to escape.

"And you'll keep your word?" Alex asked kneeling down allowing his glowing green eyes to seemingly glare at him.

"My word is my bond Man" Lobo swore.

Alex stood back and aimed his repulsors, firing them both at the crack that formed when the Preserver's body struck the cell. The glass shattered and the gas dispersed, heh, thanks," Lobo said before sucker punching Iron Man hard enough to knock him back.

"Seriously?!" Alex snarled.

"Didn't want you to think I'm going soft," Lobo said with a grin before walking towards the exit cracking his knuckles as he went. "I'm gonna find that little turd and feed him to his animals!"

"Whatever, Jarvis, where's the hanger?" Alex asked.

"Plotting route now Sir." Jarvis complied, sending Alex a digital map to his heads-up-display

"Who is that? Do you have somebody else here?" Superman asked looking up to where the voice came from.

"No, Jarvis is an AI in my suit, he's infiltrated the ship. I have the route to the hangar," Alex explained.

"We can't just leave these animals here?" Superman said looking around at the cages creatures the Preserver had collected.

"They aren't our concern," Alex said sternly, his suit was running low on power he couldn't afford a prolonged fight.

"They're caged and put of display!" Superman growled

"So are hundreds of animals down on Earth, do you plan of liberating every zoo?" Alex said in annoyance.

"You freed Lobo," Superman offered in example.

"That's different and you know it. You, me and him are intelligent beings who shouldn't be on display. The rest of these creatures are probably better off here."

"Actually Sir…" Jarvis said something in Alex's intercom that gave him pause. Information that made his eyes widen in surprise.

"If you want to continue fighting be my guest, my suit is low on power so I'm getting out of here." Alex said dismissively as he turned to the door. Offering one last piece of advice. "According to the files Jarvis found, there's an Earth based enclosure one deck down. It'll probably have a yellow sun replicator."

Alex left a fuming Superman alone and made his way through the ship, blasting several robo guards as he went.

"Are you sure about this Jarvis," Alex asked following the AI's directions.

"Yes sir, there is one other creature on this ship that has a high level intelligence. According to the database it was acquired several weeks ago and is documented as the last of it's kind…"

On Alex's HUD he saw a picture of the creature he was heading towards. It sat in a display that contained red coloured stone walls and a yellow light above it. The creature sat on a simple bed with it's legs pulled up against its chest hugging them.

Alex recognised the creature immediately, he just wasn't expecting to encounter one so soon.

Alex entered the display room and approached the enclosure. The creature hadn't noticed him yet. He raised his hand and knocked the glass. The creature looked up and scrambled back in fear as it took Alex's form in.

"W-Who are you?" it asked in a feminine tone surprising Alex.

Now that she wasn't in the fetal position Lex had a better look at her. Green skin and sharp features, long arms and legs with a curved pointed head. Her chest bulged in a way that showed her gender. She looked at Alex with red eyes filled with fear.

"My name is Lex, I'm getting you out of here!" Alex said as he reared his fist back and punched at the glass. He'd read the cell schematics, the glass was designed to stop her from escaping using her abilities but was far weaker than the glass containing Superman, Lobo and himself. After a few punches and kicks there was a sizeable hole in the cell.

"Why?" she asked warily.

"Because I was captured too, and you're from the same solar system as me. I'm not about to leave you here to live the rest of your life in a cage." Alex answered honestly.

"The same system?" she asked hopefully.

"Yes, I'm a human from Earth." Alex answered, lifting his face plate so she could see his face. "The third planet from the sun in your solar system. You're from the fourth planet aren't you?" Alex asked already knowing the answer. Hope blossomed in her eyes and tears fell.

"Come with me," Alex said as he offered her his hand.

Hesitantly, she reached out to him. Alex pulled the young Martian to her feet and they left the cell.

Alex made his way quickly to the hanger blasting bots as he went, they were quite insistent on retrieving his new companion. However they soon left him be and rushed off to another area of the ship.

'Superman and Lobo must be causing more trouble than me,' Alex thought as he entered the hanger, he spotted several ships including Lobo's bike.

He approached a large vessel that resembled a manta ray which had it's boarding ramp already lowered and climbed inside.

"Jarvis, take control of this thing and get us home," Alex commanded as he sat in the pilots seat.

"Understood sir, this ships systems are significantly less secure than the rest of the Menagerie ship" Jarvis informed him as the controls lit up and the docking ramp closed.


Alex watched as the Preserver's Menagerie ship grew smaller and smaller as they flew away at high speed. He knew what would happen next, Superman and Lobo would defeat the Preserver and then the man of steel would bring the imprisoned animals to his fortress of solitude where they could all live peacefully.

Well, not all of them.

Alex turned in his seat to see the Martian girl sitting against the wall at the back of the cockpit, her legs once again pulled up to her chest.

"What's you name?" Alex asked softly, she didn't answer.

Alex gave a command to his suit and his helmet gave a hiss of air startling her, the latches around his neck and chin opened allowing him to remove his helmet. He didn't want the glowing green eyes of his faceplate to scare her.

"Let's start over, my name is Alexander Luthor. My friends called me Lex, or Alex if you like," Alex said with a smile. She peeked over her knees to look at him for the first time without his helmet.

"M'gann… M'gann M'orzz"

To Be Continued...


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