Chapter 22: Moving to the Next Phase

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Hirst jerked slightly and glanced at me but said nothing. A second later, Mercy put her free hand to her ear, cupping the speaker there.

"Lex, there's been an unauthorized transmission from this room."

Lex turned sharply towards her. "Did it make it out?"

Mercy shook her head. "No, this complex is too well shielded. No one outside it could possibly have received the transmission."

Luthor relaxed and turned to me. "Nice try, Batman, but it didn't work."

Two hundred yards away, in another room of the underground complex, a young man looked up.

"Five minute warning," he told his companion. She merely nodded.

I smiled and gestured towards Luthor. "A miraculous recovery, Luthor. From fourth degree burns to completely healed in a little over twelve hours."

"Oh, I still have my burns," Luthor replied easily. He pulled apart the top of his bathrobe to show bandages on his left breast. "But Dr. Moon's experimental treatments did bring me back from the brink of death."

"That's impressive, considering that Moon's specialties are brain surgery and mind control. What do your regular doctors say?"

Luthor smiled. "Anything I want them to say."

"Did you use the Mad Hatter's mind-control gadgets on them, or did Moon and the Scarecrow work them over? I guess the first, since the latter would take too long. But you're overlooking the clone of you with the fourth degree burns. The one in your hospital bed that everyone thinks is you."

"A minor detail. It will be disposed of prior to my official reappearance."

"So you have everything covered," I said. Luthor just smiled. "Why, Luthor, why? You were President of the United States, as well as one of the wealthiest and most respected men in America. Wasn't that enough for you?"

Luthor's smiling affability disappeared and a mad hatred showed in his eyes. "With you lot lording it over us mere humans? I promised myself years ago that I would destroy you all: you, Superman, the JLA and all the other metas who think they are better than the rest of us. I tried, first with that bunch of failures, the Injustice Gang, and then allying myself with the Queen Bee, Prometheus and the General. But each time, you were one step ahead of me.

"Then I realized how easy it would be if I were President. With access to so many levers of power, I could set up a frame you couldn't wiggle out of and then I could turn the full force of the government against you, and make myself the legal dictator of this country in the process. It was foolproof and all I had to do was convince fifty million idiots to vote for me. I almost laughed myself sick when I realized how easy it would be. Why hadn't I thought of it before?"

He looked at Ross. "Pete, tell them to lay down their guns. Tell them I'm the true President."

I looked at Ross. His face was pale and strained and sweat stood out on his forehead. He opened his mouth, as if to obey Luthor's command, but then Mrs. Ross grabbed his arm.

"Don't, Pete, don't let him control you. He'll kill us all, if you do. He can't let us live to tell the truth about him."

"Not all of you, Mrs. Ross. I still need you and Pete. Of course, we'll have to do something about your memories. But perhaps that's painless." He turned an inquiring eye on Dr. Moon.

"Excruciatingly painful," Moon intoned.

Luthor smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "Ah, well. Maybe, if you're nice to me, we'll just slap one of the Mad Hatter's mind control devices on you."

"Be nice to you?" Mrs. Ross exploded. "After you had me kidnapped and tortured? Then brainwashed my husband? You expect me to be nice to you?"

Luthor's brows knitted. "Kidnapped? Tortured?"

"You don't remember?" Mrs. Ross looked incredulous.

Luthor shrugged, smiling. "Well, there have been so many."

Suddenly, Ross leaped out of his chair, straight across the desk, his arms out in front of him. I was barely able to grab his arm and pull him back. Hirst grabbed his other arm.

"You dirty son-of-a-bitch!" Ross raved. "I'll kill you with my bare hands!"

I had no doubt he would have done it, but I knew he would never reach Luthor. Not alive, at any rate.

"Tsk," Moon said, "I warned you, Lex, that his programming might not stand up to a major shock."

"Yes, yes, doctor," Luthor replied testily, "I remember. You'll just have to reprogram him. We still need Pete, for a little while longer."

Mercy put a hand to her ear. "Lex, FearSat2 just went off line. No explanation… wait… FearSat1 is gone as well. NORAD reports Whitehorse is firing without authorization. It must be taking out the FearSats. Now FearSat3 is gone."

"Impossible," sputtered Luthor, "those satellites were hidden from every form of detection known to science."

Zatanna and Oracle had come through. I laughed. "But not every form known to magic."

Everyone turned and stared at me. Everyone except the man in the trench coat and hat; he just stood, relaxed and confident.

"No more fear broadcasts, Luthor. People will stop being so afraid, and then they will wonder why they were so afraid. Congress won't be so easy to buffalo now. The wheels are starting to come off, Luthor. What are you going to do now?"

Luthor turned to me, his face purple, his eyes bulging. "You! You I don't need."

He waved his arm towards the man in the trench coat. Although the five minutes were not quite up yet, I decided it was time to move on to the next phase. I blew out my breath.

With a speed that put a striking cobra to shame, the man in the trench coat knocked Hope out of the way, reached out and clapped his hands in front of me. The Atom's minute, limp form floated to the ground. I looked up.

The man had lost his hat and I stared into the dead, soulless eyes of Captain Marvel.

With a tremendous crash of noise, the Secret Service agents opened fire on Captain Marvel. Everyone else dropped to the floor to avoid being hit by the fire ricocheting off Marvel, but I didn't have the time to worry about survival. I grabbed the ring box and tossed it towards the still open doorway and then flung Ross after it. The ring box disappeared in mid-air.

"Everybody out!" I shouted. "Gypsy's just outside, waiting to save you again. Move!"

I saw Lois yank Lana to a crouch; they both scuttled for the doorway. Already the fire was slackening and I could hear the screams of the Secret Service agents. I grabbed the fountain pen as I passed the desk, then pushed the congressmen towards the doorway. I could see Mercy coming up into a crouch and swinging her gun towards me. Then, with an "umph!" she went sprawling, her gun flying from her hand. Hope was also trying to get back up. I stepped hard on her gun hand as I went by. I heard bones break.

Luthor looked up from the floor. "Don't let Ross get away! Kill the others!"

Marvel caught Ross by the arm before he could disappear into Gypsy's illusion and yanked. Ross grunted with pain as his shoulder came out of his socket and collapsed into a corner of the room. Then the others vanished into Gypsy's illusion and Captain Marvel paused in confusion.

"Marvel!" I yelled and was already squirting ink from the fountain pen as he turned.

My aim was good and he got an eyeful. He roared with pain and swung at me, but I had already jumped out of the way. One of the Secret Service agents – Hirst, I thought, but it was hard to tell in his condition – might survive with prompt medical attention. The others were broken beyond any hope of repair.

Now that the danger of being shot was gone, Luthor was getting to his feet. "He's right in front of you, you idiot!" he bellowed.

I threw myself out of the way even as he was speaking, barely avoiding Marvel as he smashed headlong into a concrete wall. Splinters of concrete flew in all directions. One tore a gash in my side; another nicked my cheek. I picked up a small piece of concrete and bounced it off the opposite wall. Marvel immediately turned and swung a fist, smashing a hole through that wall, as well.

Luthor, with Hope, Mercy, Moon and Ross in tow, was standing in the doorway. As the door closed behind them, he shouted back, "Did you really think I didn't know about the fake ring?"

The door clicked shut as horror froze my insides. My plan had failed; had never had a chance of success. I had to warn the others; and to do that, I had to get past the World's Mightiest Mortal without the aid of body armor, weapons or utility belt.

I smiled grimly. It was a good thing I liked a challenge.