April 20th 2016 Appalachian Mountains 6:00 PM EDT

I was beginning to get tired of this whole 'calm before the storm' powwow we had every time we were about to attack a fortified position. It felt so climactic, always made me worry one of us would get killed or something. I had wracked my brain on how to make sure the vibe was a bit more relaxed, and as I looked around at all my friends I nodded solemnly to myself and then pulled a big ass picnic basket from my ring. "Alright folks, we're doing sandwiches and chips before the battle. Everyone pick your favorite soda, I brought a selection."

We were seated on a hill about ten miles from Lex's secret appalachian base, and we'd stopped to get our bearings and prepare for battle. Apparently those two things were not compatible with eating delicious sandwiches, because everyone just kind of stared blankly at me. I flicked my hand, a blanket appearing from my ring that I laid smoothly down on some freshly pressed ground I'd smashed flat with a quick shadow construct. I was rocking fifty thousand points plus with the tantric boost I got every moment I was able, and a few spent on comfort wouldn't hurt.

I stared back challengingly at the flat looks. "What? I'm tired of these grim pre battle meetings. We're going to have a nice picnic lunch and casually discuss our impending sortie. Now, are you nerds going to tell me what soda you want? Because if not you can drink Pepsi. I brought every kind I could think of, including that weird Celery shit that Jim enjoys for gods only know what reason. I assume you're drinking that?" My ghostly mentor snorted and held out his hand while everyone else volunteered their preference.

I passed out each persons pick. "Root Beer for Morana, Black Cherry for Zee, Sprite for Blood, Madame Xanadu you wanted Bubblegum?" I passed a bottle of blue cane sugar soda to the ancient sorceress and finally turned to my girlfriend. Giving Dreamer a dashing grin. "And for my little goddess, THIS!" I whipped out a brown bottle with arabic lettering across the front. "Heart attack soda. It's banned in the US because it's technically just carbonated fudge. Luckily I can travel across the planet in a blink, so I picked up a case from Syria. Apparently they use it over there to induce labor in goats."

She squealed with glee as I passed out the sandwiches, and I had to ask. "How did you even come into contact with that stuff? Like mango boba I get it's everywhere, but I'd never even heard of heart attack soda. I'm from this planet and I didn't even know it existed until you told me about it." I didn't need to ask about sandwiches, pretty much everyone would eat either roast beef or turkey, except Zee who had some sort of weird ham fascination I'd never quite understood, and exclusively ate dill relish mixed with sour cream on her ham and cheese.

Dreamer took a long pull of her liquid candy and gave a refreshing sigh. "I heard about it in New York City. A nice young man in a hooded sweatshirt was gushing about to his friend, a strange, overly happy man who reminded me of the Earth legends regarding Leprechauns." She took a bit of her turkey and cheese sandwhich, enjoying the crunch of the pickles, lettuce, and tomato. "In any case, now that the mood has been set so to speak, is there any other part of this that will differ from past pre battle briefings?"

I rolled my eyes sulkily. "Sure, make fun of me for trying to improve team morale." I took a long pull of my own Black Cherry soda before continuing. "But no. I just felt like a more relaxed atmosphere would help us all go into this fresh and less tense. We are all total badasses, there's no real reason to worry, and as long as everyone knows that they'll be operating at their best. Besides, I get to go into battle without Nightwang looking over my shoulder, and that's a good reason to celebrate all on it's own. Jim, you want to do the honors? I can eat while you tell them the plan."

My mentor was polishing of his roast beef sandwich and washing it down with his vegetable flavored carbonated abomination water. "Well, as my protege said. We're going to be planning our assault on Lex Luthor's Appalachian base. We suspect they're stockpiling forces to oppose us, but luckily they shouldn't be aware of our cognizance of the location of the headquarter. We spent several days deciding the best attack patterns for this. First we have the peasant." He sneered at Blood so hard I could hear it in his voice. "Your demonic passenger will be responsible for laying low their robot army."

He gestured to Madame X. "Nimue, you'll be working with him. The demon isn't particularly skilled at crowd control, and it defeats the purpose if he goes on a rampage and lets half of them circle around to blow holes in the children. Morana, dear one, you and I will be dealing with the century of scarab warriors, and Zatanna and Dreamer will handle the alien bounty hunter while Morgan takes care of the man in charge in his special suit. Whoever finished first will support whichever team needs it at the moment. Any questions?"

Zee raised her hand, eyes narrowing at my mentor. "Yes, why is my fourteen year old daughter going to be fighting a hundred super advanced cyborg shapeshifters and Dreamer and I are only dealing with some washed up alien biker? Because I'll be honest, I'm not enthused about leaving her to clean up such a big mess, even with you to support. We've seen what those things can do and it isn't pretty." Her voice was concerned as she flicked her eyes nervously to Morana. I think she was worried our daughter would be offended, but she didn't seem bothered at all.

I cut in before it could go further. "You need to take Lobo seriously Zee. Dreamer's sources claim he's a scary guy. As for Morana, she'll have all the other soulless with her, not that she needs them, and I'll jump in once I finish curb stomping Lex. Until then she's as strong as I am going all out, and Jim is pretty fucking terrifying himself. They'll be fine until they get some backup, assuming they even end up needing it at all." I reached out and took her hand, Dreamer grabbing her other one. "I get it, we just got her, but she's pretty much the strongest person here, with the possible exception of Blood when he's going on a full demonic rampage."

She sighed loudly, turning to look at Morana, who, despite not showing any outward sign of annoyance at her prowess being questioned, was definitely avoiding eye contact. "I'm sorry Rana. Your dad is right. I'm projecting my own insecurities onto you. It's just...with everything that's happened to my family, I can't help but worry that now that I have you I'm going to lose you." Her purple elven eyes began to glisten as she teared up at the thought, and Morana melted, as either Dreamer or I would have, and hurled herself onto the three of us in a big family group hug."

I kept it off my face, but I was seething with rage. This whole fucking outburst was Dr. Fake's fault. Zee had come back from that fucking meeting inconsolable and refused to talk about anything that happened. It had taken Dreamer and I both talking her down before she had been coherent enough to reveal that the literal tin pot dictator now possessing her dad refused to give the old man up, and swore to fight us to the death if we tried to make him, Giovanni's death more specifically.

I was already making plans to handle the asshole myself, I just needed to pin him down, but I wasn't going to tell Zee about it until it was done. I was pretty damn positive I could free Giovanni with my keyblade, and when I was done I was going to chuck that fucking shitbox helmet into a trench in the arctic ocean. I'd heard he'd gotten all whiny about sitting on a shelf for fifty years, I was looking forward to his response to spending the next century in any icy submarine ditch because a teenager kicked his ass.

I shook off my plans to deal with the worlds least qualified doctor and focused on the others. "So, that's the plan. We'll be moving in together and break off to deal with our individual assignments. We unfortunately weren't able to get much in the way of recon done because The Reach has Lex's base outfitted with some kind of spatial detection device that my clones can't circumvent. We avoided getting noticed but only barely. Still we watched from a distance for the last few days and we have a basic idea of what their forces are like, so as long as we stick to the plan we should be fine. Zee, you and Dreamer are going to have it the hardest, if Etrigan and Madame X finish early and get to Morana before I do the two of you are up second on the backup list."

With that out of the way we all headed out. It was ten miles, but due to the aforementioned spatial array we decided to walk in. With Dreamer, Jim, Morana, Zee, Madame Xanadu, and I all weighing in on stealth magic we had an iron clad obfuscation setup that my clones couldn't have matched. I wasn't sure it would keep us below their radar for long but it was enough for us to get close. Once we got in a bit closer to the mountain lair I kicked on aura sight and pointed everyone who was fighting something like a scarab or an alien at their enemies. The robots weren't showing up to my aura sight, probably some kind of weird Reach shielding, but Madame X and Blood had their own ways of finding things.

I headed for the spot I'd noticed Lex Luthor's aura. Or at least the only human aura I could see here. I phased through the stone and dirt before emerging in a massive but luxuriously appointed cavern. I did my best to avoid any sort of notice as I touched down, using my long ingrained ninja skills to move in silence as I approached the spot where Lex was, without a doubt, waiting for me to arrive. He stood with his back to me, hands folded behind him as he stared down at a map of the planet, with multicolored blinking lights covering the three dimensional globe display holographically projected before him.

He waved a hand and turned around after a minute. Slowly moving to face me, and I couldn't help but be just a little impressed. It wasn't the power. His aura was nothing impressive, though the huge green and purple battle suit he had adorning his frame was clearly advanced, even if whatever shielding the reach had provided kept me from seeing exactly how powerful it was. I wondered for a moment why the scarabs weren't shielded, but the answer came to me easily. The scarabs were meant to intimidate. Even the scouts served that function. They didn't want to hide their power.

Lex Luthor looked my over calmly. His hawk like gaze taking in every inch of me, studying my every breath, my every twitch. I looked him in the eyes, bored with the games and rolled my own glowing green orbs. "I'm curious, are you going to go with 'I've been expecting you?' Or are you jumping right into 'we're not so different you and I?' I imagine you hear references to those movies pretty often, given your career and hairstyle. Or lack thereof." I saw a twitch of annoyance in his aura that never reached his face. Well, good to see I still had my mojo. I wanted to see just how annoyed I could make him before he attacked. This dick deserved to be messed with.

April 20th 2016 Appalachian Mountains 7:00 PM EDT

Luthor didn't seem amused by my commentary. In fact, Luthor didn't seem amused at all. He looked actively pissed off. That probably should have been scarier with him standing there in big strong armor, but honestly it mostly just made me want to laugh. He gritted his teeth. "Who are you?" I raised an eyebrow at that, because I'd expected better. This was Lex fucking Luthor, he should be able to tell me my shoe size and favorite flavor of chewing gum.

He seemed to sense my skepticism. "You misunderstand. I'm not asking for your name or place of birth. I know those things. I'm asking who you ARE. Why do you matter? In what possible way can a literal nobody like you have caused me such an ungodly amount of trouble in the short time you've been active. Even if we count your little jaunt off world, you still shouldn't be someone who can affect my plans, so explain to me, please, how a sixteen year old street rat spawned by a half baked Gotham mobster is someone who should present a problem for ME?"

He was glaring daggers at me, like he wanted nothing so bad as to stroll up and choke me to death with his bare hands. Which was probably on his mind, but honestly, I wasn't worried. In fact I had a question just as important for him. "Who are YOU? I mean really. You're what? Kind of smart. Balder than most people? Super rich? You're just a sad old has been tilting at windmills. You think you're Superman's arch enemy? You're not. You're the pebble in his shoe. The fly in his soup. You're a bad penny that just keeps turning up."

He looked ready to attack me, but honestly I needed to get this off my chest. "Because you get that right? Aside from your company name which, granted gets around, your entire identity is wrapped up in another man. You're the worlds saddest tsundere fanboy. And for what? Because he's better than you? Because he's stronger than you can ever hope to be? Imagine defining your whole life by sour grapes. Couldn't be me."

He fired a pulse of energy at me and I stepped through darkness, vanishing before he even finished raising his hand. He was seething. "How dare you! You're a child! You don't see him for what he is, for the danger he poses. You just see the big friendly alien who pulls cats from trees. You're all sheep. None of you understand what a threat he is to our way of life." He sneered. "But then who am I talking to. Do you even remember what it means to be human, boy? Look at what you've turned yourself into."

That cracked me up. "Jealous? Yeah, I got stronger. Cry me a river. As for the rest of it, I may be young, but I'm not stupid. That's never been what this is about. You think you have everyone fooled but we all see why you do the things you do. You're Lex Luthor. In a normal world, a human world, you would be a living legend. A man of tomorrow who would usher in a golden age with your immense brain and studly chin and blah blah blah. But you aren't any of that. You're nobody. Just a rich guy with a whole bag of chips on his shoulder because they took away the fame you should have had."

I grinned nastily at him. "Because in the end, that's what it's always been about. With people like them around, you aren't special. So you make categories, and keep score, and claim that they don't count or can't be trusted, because you need them to be liars or fakes. You need them to be flawed so you can matter. Because to someone with your ego, your absurdly overinflated sense of importance, getting in the way of your legacy is the worst sin of all." My grin turned into a snarl. "Even worse than selling your own planets children to aliens to be enslaved and experimented on."

He didn't flinch, but his aura fluctuated. Just a bit. Not guilt, I didn't think he was capable, but more like...regret. Like he'd made a bad call and was a bit chagrined it hadn't worked out. But he didn't take back his stance, just sneered at me even harder. "I don't need to hear lectures on humanity from an abomination like you. In the end it doesn't matter. You aren't leaving here alive. Or whatever facsimile of that state you can still claim. Because I've studied you, watched you, and I know exactly what I need to do to finish you off."

He timed that pretty well, because the massive metal limb backhanding me across the room made contact before I really processed what he was saying. I sailed across his little underground bunker and slammed facefirst into the wall. There was a crack, but it wasn't from me. My particular skillset made impacts like that less than effective, and my flexible body just gave under the force and then bounced back when I dropped from the crater I left. Granted, the whole process hurt like a bitch, but it didn't actually do me much harm.

I groaned, standing up and brushing myself off. Then I turned to the massive metal form with the glowing green rock in it's chest and grimaced. "Ah. Metallo. Heard of you. Guess you got some upgrades." I should have noticed him when I scanned the room with my aura sight, but I hadn't which meant the bastard was shielded like the rest of the robots here. I was pretty sure that was a recent thing, and it was far from the ONLY recent thing. Metallo, to my understanding, used to be an android. Mostly man shaped and normal sized. That...wasn't the case anymore.

He towered over me. Easily ten feet tall. The green glow of his limbs wasn't all funneled from his chest, it was obvious there were several generators in him using the kryptonite, one in the chest, one in each arm and each leg. One in the head. Every single one of them clad in reinforced metal that I could see at a glance wasn't steel. His tech was more advanced than I'd have expected to. I glanced drolly at Lex. "We've been reverse engineering some of The Reach's tech I see. Do they know you're copying their test answers?"

The absolute smugness radiating from his laughter was annoying. "Oh please. This was only ever a matter of convenience. They knew it just as we did. We have...another benefactor. A better one. The Reach were using us as we used them, and once we've finished evicting them from the planet we'll chase them out into the stars and use them as the trophy to prove our power. The human race will spread to the edges of the universe, and I'll be at it's head. Not Superman. Me. Because I am so much more than you could ever know. But while we're on the subject, I do appreciate the help with the scarabs. We knew the Green Lanterns would step in eventually when things turned hostile but you saved us some time."

Eyeing Metallo I could see some of where his confidence cam from, but not this much. "Yeah don't mention it. Though I have to ask, since the scarabs couldn't take me down what makes you think that this tin can will manage? He's like, barely Reach tech. What makes you so sure he can finish the job?" Because he sounded sure. Completely positive in fact, which I wasn't nervous about given my new upgrades but I was...reticent of. He had to have a reason for thinking he could take me. Lex Luthor was cocky and smug and many other things worthy of being mocked, but he wasn't stupid.

It was his turn to grin nastily. "I told you. I've studied you. Metallo isn't just science. I had my old friend Klarion make some improvements before you spirited him away. I've been working on countermeasures to you since that battle at The Reach base. Mapping your energy signatures, learning your abilities. The specter detectors? Mine. The aura shielding? Mine. Did you notice you couldn't phase through his hand? Or did you not even try? Because I assure you, it wouldn't have worked."

Ok, that was mildly concerning. "Well by all means, I know how much people like love to gloat, so please, fill me in on the details of your evil plan? I assume since you're telling me this that it's too late and I've already fallen into your trap or something cliche like that?" I mentally thanked past me for investing in that armor. It seemed like if I'd come in here without it I might have been screwed. I had to admit though, I was impressed. Lex managing to counter my abilities was interesting enough to warrant a modicum of actual respect. But just a bit.

Respect that pretty much evaporated when he laughed wickedly and actual decided to explain his plan like a cartoon bad guy. Like sure, it was tradition, but I'd expected better from someone of his supposed intellect. "Well I suppose I could indulge. You've been such a pest to me it's only fair you share in my frustration. Mr. Corbin over here has been augmented with science and magic both. Several spatial anchoring enchantments, gravity nullifiers, inertial dampeners, and several other features I'll leave as a surprise. But most importantly is his shell."

He walked over to run an armored hand over the perfectly still Metallo, who either couldn't feel it or didn't have a consciousness to care with, because it was a creepy thing to do and he had no reaction. Lex gave a soft knock on the metal. "A glorious material harvested from the alien world of Thanagar. Nth Metal, they call it. It has magic nullifying and force dampening properties, and combined with the enchantments makes Mr. Corbin the ideal opponent for you. You may be capable of teleporting but your tricks won't allow you to put a scratch on my masterpiece."

I assumed he had some trick to keep me from running too, or maybe he noted that I wouldn't leave my people behind, but either way he'd clearly tailored this little setup to me personally. Not just Metallo either, I was betting there was some of that Nth Metal in his own suit too. "What about you? You don't seem to have any kryptonite generators. You think your potmetal jogging suit is good enough to hang with someone like me? No wonder you think you're a match for Superman. Delusions of granduer table for one."

Lex made a gesture and the armor began to glow, humming to life as backup power systems kicked in. "Oh I assure you. My grandeur is quite real, and I'll be happy to demonstrate it. But funny you should mention Superman. Because I made this little outfit as a surprise for him. I suppose testing it on a little monster like you is fitting though. He gets so protective of children. Perhaps when I tell him your blood is all over it he'll even shed a tear. Regardless. I assure you you've never seen armor like this."

I cracked my neck as I got ready for the coming fight, but I couldn't resist shooting back a grin of my own. Lex seemed a unsettled by the expression. he'd been expecting fear, uncertainty, some pleading maybe. But confidence. I tried to keep the smugness out of my voice as I replied. "Oh Lex. Buddy. Pal. I'm going to give you a few minutes at the end of this fight for a pop quiz. After I finish caving in your shitty robot's shitty metal skill I'll ask you this again, so pay attention." I triggered my torc, letting the liquid black metal flow over my whole body. "Can you spot the irony in this situation?"

April 20th 2016 Appalachian Mountains 8:00 PM EDT

I hit Metallo first. Obviously. Lex's bullshit armor would be annoying, but whatever the fuck he did to the former cyborg was clearly the bigger threat. I felt the thrum of joy and violence pulsing through me as I pushed the armor forward. Magic, ghost powers, summoning, they were all fun and it was a blast to see them at work, but there was just no beating the raw physicality of direct and brutal confrontation. The armor put me on a playing field with real heavyweights and I loved every second of it.

I'd picked up some bare handed brawling in my Outer Body Trance. Not too much, but there was enough hand to hand from a few of my enemies to cobble together a style that wasn't full of holes. I felt the world blur as I appeared under Metallo and smashed a punch up from below right into the reactor in the middle of his torso. I really dug it out, putting my whole body into the blow and channeling all the force I could get up from the ground. The reinforced flooring was obviously meant for this situation exactly, because there were only some cracks and a pair of small craters from the force.

Metallo on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. The blow hammered him straight up, and I bent my knees and jumped, following his path to the ceiling and twisting in midair to point my legs at him. I lashed out with both feet in a stomping kick with all my jumping momentum behind it, and there was a rumbling boom as he cratered the ceiling so hard it shook the foundations of the whole fucking base. I bounced off my feet as I came down, throwing myself into a back handspring to get clear in case he attacked back.

Luthor looked furious. "What the hell is this!? Where did you get that armor? Why haven't you used it before?" His head snapped up to Metallo. "Corbin, enough playing around. All systems at maximum output." The green glow from Metallo intensified, the light leaking from between is various parts amplifying as he powered up. He tore himself free from the ceiling and dropped to the ground with a loud boom.

Unfortunately for me, my blows before hadn't done more than dent the guy a bit. There was a slight buckling at the torso from the punch and two indents on his chest from my feet, but he didn't seem to be much the worse for wear. Ok, so maybe attacking the heavy wasn't the right play here. Luthor seemed to be in charge of Metallo, so maybe if I dropped him I would be able to get the robot to stop. I launched myself forward at Luthor, but Metallo blurred into my path, lashing out with a fist that I was pretty sure would have splattered unarmored me across the wall.

There was a hollow boom as my torc tanked the hit, but I absorbed enough of the punch to reverse my momentum and send me hurtling back into the wall. I twisted midair, and called up my wings. My armor shifted on my back the liquid metal covering the appendages as the burst from my back. The effect clearly boosted their usability because I was able to slow myself considerably mid flight and land gracefully on the wall, flipping down to crouch on the ground without add a single crack to the wall or floor.

Luthor was grinning smugly at me, but honestly I only had one thing to say. "Who the fuck is your contractor? Seriously. I mean the force of our impacts alone should be shattering whatever the hell this place is made of. Then again I imagine you make sure all your buildings are rated for fighting Superman. Probably your version of carrying a condom in your wallet."

His expression turned sour. "Why won't you die? I admit that with your new armor you're an even bigger cockroach than before, but that's all you are. The Nth metal Corbin is made of is nigh indestructible. Even your most powerful blows were barely able to leave a dent. Surrender and I might consider letting the rest of your rabble live after I finish with you. Refuse, and I'll enter the fray myself." He said that last part like it was some kind of terrifying show of force, which just went to show how big his ego was. He was literally the least problematic part of this fight.

When I didn't respond he simply held out a hand and waited. There was a loud buzz and a huge spear came flashing out of the wall, whirling end over end to smack into Luthor's palm. He brandished at me as if showing off, and I had to admit the thing was pretty imposing. A seven foot length of silvery metal with a blazing golden blade on the end crackling with power. The shape reminded me of nothing so much as an exacto knife or box cutter, just scaled up substantially in terms of size.

Giant ass box knife or not though, when he threw himself at me I was hardly worried. I called Tartarus to my hand and leapt to meet him. Metallo grabbed for my foot midair, but luckily with my wings boosted changing directions was pretty easy. I avoided the grab and hit Luthor head on. To my surprise a yellow shield flickered into existence around him before my keyblade made contact. His spear skittered off my armor, raising a hail of sparks, but it left behind a line of glowing damage along my ribs that kind of smarted.

Luthor looked as shocked by that as I was, and began eyeing my armor greedily. I wasn't worried yet, I still had my demonic power augment to burn, I was just reserving it for when it would do the most good. For now, while I couldn't mess them up too bad, they also weren't able to do much damage.

Still, knowing his spear could hurt me even a bit encouraged me to fight a bit more defensively. I wasn't sure what the hell it was, but Tartarus was able to deflect it easily enough. Luthor flicked out a few probing strikes that I easily batted aside and then whirled the spear at my head in a feint before spinning and dropping to a knee to try to sweep my legs from the opposite side. I hopped over the strike and then intercepted the attack he launched at my chest while I was midair to try to take advantage of my unsteady footing.

Shockingly Luthor was actually pretty damn skilled in armed combat, his insane armor managing to make him an actual potential threat with that spear. Of course skill wise he wasn't close to my level, but being pinned between a talented spearman and a massive machine giant who was trying to crush me somewhat limited my options and Luthor definitely knew how to exploit opportunities. I was basically fighting one of them with each hand as I deflected the spear with Tartarus and deflected giant robot fists at the same time.

As bad as things looked for me from the outside though, I was only trying to find an opening. I'd been hacking at Metallo between blocks and I couldn't seem to make any headway penetrating his armor. My kayblade was clearly not suited to tearing through whatever Nth metal was. That said, I only needed a small gap, and whatever kind of obviously advanced alien tech that spear was made of provided me a possible solution to breaking this annoying stalemate. So I studied and internalized Luthors fighting style. I had serious practice learning from enemies in battle after all.

I parried and dodged seamlessly, reading Luthor's moves easily enough after a bit of time studying. That was one of the side effects of the Outer Body method. Enough time learning to study others let you get better at picking up those cues on the fly. It wasn't nearly as good, but Luthor was pretty basic compared to some of the things I trained against in my head. It only took me a minute and a half to find the opening I was looking for. Luthor got impatient and tried a lunge I'd been expecting. Instead of dodging I dipped into my bag of tricks and conjured a Hole.

I opened one about size of a dinner plate in front of my chest, and calculating the angle of attack Metallo was about to take I opened the other behind him at an angle, right in his blind spot. Metallo had just thrown a devastating haymaker when he saw me sit still and the spear slammed home at the thinnest point on his huge body. The articulation of his shoulder joint. It cleaved through the metal like a hot knife through butter. Nth metal was about as strong as my armor, and that shoulder joint was lightly covered to allow movement. The spear hit the kryptonite reactor and exploded, knocking Metallo and Luthor both back.

I poured points into my demonic magic, augmenting my strength exponentially and blurred into action, appearing behind the staggered Metallo. I yanked his damaged arm behind him by the wrist, then planted my feet on his back, putting the other hand under the elbow and used the full power of my legs and body to shove up. There was a screaming tear of ripping metal and the arm came loose from his body. I let Tartarus dissolve, grabbed the arm in both hands, and started smashing it into Metallo's upper body repeatedly with every bit of strength I had.

The limb was heavy and sturdy as hell. It made a fantastic bludgeon, and while my armor would have done the job with enough hits, the massive arm was heavier than my fists and, driven be the same amount of power, hit with much more force. There were repeated booms as the Nth metal extremity shattered the sound barrier, and it drowned out the sound of Luthor cursing and trying to stop me. He came after me with his now retrieved spear, but I smashed the arm into the haft of the weapon and it snapped. A second swing caught him across the shield and sent him flying across the room.

At the nearly kryptonian levels of power I had I was able to swing the arm dozens of times per second, and within a half minute I had Metallo beaten to basically scrap metal. I tossed the limb aside and turned to Luthor. With my still demonically augmented strength I crossed the room instantly, smashing him into the wall before I proceeded to rain blows on him until the shield sputtered out. The entire time he was howling in outrage. "How dare you! Stop this at once! I'll make you pay for this!"

With a final punch the shield dropped and his eyes widened in fear, but I didn't bother with actually hurting him. I reached out, grabbed two of the plates of the suit and hauled them apart. I tore him out of that thing like I was unwrapping a christmas present, before binding him in shadows and then shadow porting him directly into a cell. I used a corridor to transport Metallo, since he didn't seem to have an actual brain left. I dropped him somewhere remote on the island so I could salvage him for scrap.

I dropped the demonic empowerment but left the armor up before heading up the stairs to check in with the others. A quick glance outside showed me that Etrigan and Madame X had finished with the grunts and were helping Morana curb stomp the shit out of the scarabs, but my girls were doing less well against a giant chalk white version of Hulk Hogan with black hair and red eyes. I imagined this was the alien bounty hunter. I checked my points, and while I'd burned a solid amount of them in the fight I still had about twenty five thousand left. I cracked my neck with a grin. Guess it was time for round two.

April 20th 2016 Appalachian Mountains 9:00 PM EDT

The ridiculous mustachiod weirdo fighting my girls was...shockingly tough. I didn't jump right in, since I wanted to know what I was getting into and my girls could take care of themselves. Zee was going full battle goddess, hurling purple lightning and an endless string of spells from a distance while Dreamer got in close and was hammering away at the distracted biker guy. Despite all of this though, the huge red eyed, chalk skinned behemoth was cackling like he was at at a comedy show. "Keezy fems! The main man can't be taken down by party tricks or little girl punches! "

He reached up to his back and pulled off some sort of claw handled...thing. It was a sort of hooked bet. He swung it down at Dreamer like a falling star dropping from the sky, and I blurred across the open space, knocking my girlfriend aside as I called Tartarus back to my hand. The was a rumbling boom as the impact force rippled out around us and the ground beneath me cratered but stayed whole, probably thanks to the base below us.

The huge alien's red eyes narrowed at me. "The main man hasn't seen a keyblade in a long time metal man. You must be pretty strong to wield one of those. Strong or not though the main man isn't going to fail to uphold a contract. Nothing personal, just business." He stomp kicked me right in the chest and I felt my feet lift off the ground as I rocketed backwards. I stopped dead about five feet away, my augmented wings taking a bit to counter the force of my flight. I winced as I felt actual pain on my chest. This guy hit fucking hard.

It was pretty obvious Zee's intervention was the only thing that kept him from swatting Dreamer like a fly. I banished Tartarus, dropping to the ground. "You were just beating on my girls. That seems pretty fucking personal to me. But sure, I guess when I cave in your fucking skull it'll just be business. Maybe I can write it off on my taxes." I blurred forward and slammed my fist into his gut, doubling him over and setting up a brutal upper cut that slammed into his face and sprawled him over backwards.

He wasn't as durable as he was strong, but even as I watched his flesh knitted back together and he rocketed to his feet with a crazy grin. "The metal man can take a punch and dish one out! The main man is impressed. Let's see how many of those you have left in you." He roared and threw another punch at me, smashing a right cross into the side of my face and following it with a body blow.

I felt both punches. He hit WAY harder than Metallo, and while he wasn't nearly as durable, that insane regeneration implied stamina that was probably no joke. Fuck him though, no one could go forever, and all regeneration had limits. Besides I had just noticed I was lacking in hand to hand. What better time to get in some practice. I rocked him back with a pair of blows to the ribs and continued throwing body blows as a pair of haymakers rocked my head back. It rung my bell pretty good but I didn't let up, and neither did he.

Rinse and repeat. I had been hoping that this would be an opportunity to train up my bare knuckle brawling, but this fight wouldn't teach me anything. This wasn't martial arts, this was fucking brutality. We threw punches with no regard for defense or strategy, just force to flesh nonstop, first to stop would be the loser. The behemoth was grinning like a maniac and howling with laughter. "Now this is a fight! The main man hasn't met anyone who could fight like this in a long time! But it's no use little metal man! The main man can't be hurt for long and he never goes down!"

I'd noticed that actually. His blows were hurting even through the armor, but every single punch I landed healed in seconds. Seconds were an eternity in this fight though. I planted my feet, gritted my teeth and drove my fists even harder. I absolutely would not let this asshole get within punching distance of my girls after getting his blood up like this. He had been toying with them before, I was sure of it, but for some reason seeing my keyblade made him take this seriously, and in a serious fight this monster would pulp Dreamer or Zee. They were the exact worst match ups for someone like him.

So I stacked my blows, if one was healing I hit twice, if two were healing I'd punch a third time. I considered reaching for my gun but honestly I was afraid I'd be overwhelmed if I stopped punching long enough to grab the damn thing. I needed him to let up for a minute. So I did the weirdest dumbest thing I could possibly think of. I yelled. "Time out!" The chalk white fist stopped an inch from my face and the big alien scowled down at me, but he actually fucking stopped.

That brought me up short. The alien looked impatient. "What is it metal man? The main man is having fun, if you need to take a break maybe you aren't worth my time after all." I'd been planning to take out my holiday gun and see exactly how much he could regenerate, but his willingness to let me stop and take a break made me pause. I might have another option here.

I actually did need a second to catch my breath but I had the perfect question to stall. "You said you won't fail a contract. What exactly is does your contract say?" I was honestly starting to almost like the big lug. He didn't have an ounce of quit in him. Plus I kind of didn't want to expose my gun. I'd used it on Black Beetle, but we'd been in that super dimensional lockdown. There was a chance The Light didn't know about it, and if I could save that ace in the hole for the Apokaliptan contingent it would solve a lot of problems.

He rested a hand on his weird metal bat thing as he looked down at me suspiciously. "The main man was tasked with defending this base. The buggers didn't trust their toy soldiers to protect their interests here. The main man doesn't usually do bodyguard work, but the buggers are pretty rich. They paid more than the main man makes on ten normal jobs." Huh, I didn't imagine anyone this tough being cheap. I guessed the reach REALLY wanted to handle things here without alerting the green lanterns.

It did give me an idea though. "So...just the base? Like if everyone else leaves you won't chase them? Like if I stay hear and fight you until one of us loses anyone whose gone by the time that happens is officially beyond the scope of your contract?" I doubted someone like this guy was going to just let us leave peacefully, but it seemed likely he would treat anyone who fled as someone elses problem, and we'd already taken Metallo and Lex out of here, so we had no reason to stay.

I could stall him for another thirty or forty minutes before I started getting really tired, and then just take a corridor away once everyone else was gone. He looked skeptical for a bit before shrugging. "The main man was paid to defend the base. If they aren't attacking the base, he's got no reason to throw down. The main man don't fight for free." I grinned under my armor. I was betting The Reach assumed there was no viable way we could snatch Lex out from under the noses of a hundred scarabs, so they had just hired him to guard the base. At ten times what I imagined was already an exorbitant rate they probably wanted to make the job as straightforward as possible to save money.

I shouted back to my girls. "Go help Rana and the others take care of the scarabs and then get out of here. I'll catch up after my fight." I considered burning my points to boost myself up but this was a marathon not a sprint. I needed to last, and I could tank his hits, rough as they were. Plus I wasn't sure that I'd be able to actually do much good with harder punches given his absurd healing. My best bet here was to just keep going at the same speed and drag it out.

Zee looked unhappy, but she nodded, heading off to help our daughter. Dreamer came up to put a hand on my shoulder. "Be careful Morgan. Don't do anything too risky." She leaned up to kiss the cheek of my armor and then bolted for the battlefield where my daughter and mentors were wiping the floor with literally dozens of the universe's most perfect killing machines.

Lobo was looking impatient, clearly anxious to get back to fighting. I turned back to the huge alien. "Sorry about that, they worry, especially when I'm fighting such a worthy opponent." I figured a bit of flattery wouldn't hurt anything, and it wasn't a lie anyway. Lobo was tough as a well done steak. I assumed. I'd never eaten a steak well done because I didn't hate myself and everyone around me, but I'd heard dreadful things, so I felt safe making the comparison.

The big mustachiod bounty hunter gave me a solemn and almost sympathetic nod. "Fems." That hadn't been what I meant, but the moment camaraderie was nice enough that I choked down the laugh that almost escaped me. Regardless, the time for walk was over, and I'd been resting up for a few minutes now. The armor only drained my vitality when I did things, so standing around had let me recover a bit. I was starting to get sore and tired even in here, but it was only the faint beginnings of exhaustion. I could go for a while yet.

I blitzed back in at Lobo appearing in front of him in an instant and stomping down on his instep. His right knee buckled and planted my feet under him and dug out another brutal uppercut right into the bottom of his jaw. His head snapped back but he caught himself jerking it back up and then continuing the motion to slam it forehead first into my metal plated skull. I didn't know what the fuck his head was made of but whatever it was it was fucking sturdy because even through the armor I almost blacked out from that blow.

I started back in on his ribs and chest, working the body as he hammered blows down on me from above, and just like before neither of us paid any attention to defense. The world faded into a storm of strain and exertion and power and impact as fists flew in a constant staccato that blended together into the rumble of thunder as metal and flesh collided for what felt like hours.

In reality I think it was closer to forty minutes before the girls finished the scarabs and left and by the time they made it out of range of my aura sight I was caked in sweat under my armor and covered in bruises even through the metal. Finally I couldn't throw another punch and I held up both hands. "Yield." Lobo stopped. I was glad. I hadn't been sure he would and thought I might need to just bolt.

He grinned down at me. "You need more staying power metal man. The main man could do this for hours. Must have trouble keeping up with those fems if that's all you've got." I flipped him off, which apparently was a universal gesture because he let out a booming laugh. He turned his back on me and started walking away. "Still, you were a decent fight. If you want to go another few rounds feel free to give the main man a shout."

He gave me an easy wave as the corridor swallowed me. I came out back in my room on the island, and Zee and dreamer were already waiting for me. It was probably a good thing they were too, because if they hadn't caught me I'd have hit the ground as I blacked out from exhaustion. As soon as I dropped the armor all the pain and fatigue hit me at once. Honestly I was pretty happy when I faded from consciousness. I definitely didn't want to be awake through all of that shit. The job was done, I could get some fucking sleep.

April 21st 2016 Doomhollow Hall 3:00 PM EDT

I wasn't sore when I finally woke up. I'd slept the night, which was plenty of time to recover. When I finally got up though I was alone, so I went looking for the others. Zee and Dreamer were with Morana and Jim in the map room. They lit up when they saw me, Zee running to me and leaping into my arms with a laugh. "Well hey there sleepy head. We were beginning to think you were going to nap all day. How are you feeling." Her tone was bright and chipper but I could see the undercurrents of worry in her aura.

I put my arms around her and squeezed, kissing the top of her head. "I'm fine Zee. Just got in a good workout. That was a serious drain but not in a bad way. Everyone else is ok right? We all got out of there safe with no casualties? Did anyone fine Metallo's body? I dumped him on the island but didn't have time to mention it." Whatever Nth metal was, it seemed valuable given how strong it was and the whole anti magic thing.

I felt her relax slightly against me at the confirmation I was ok. She stepped back and Dreamer took her place, her hug seeming much less desperate, but her aura just as worried until I held her. My goddess liked to play it cool so she could take care of everyone else, but she'd been scared for me too. I held her close, reassuring her, and she laid her head against my chest to listen to my heartbeat as she spike. "I told her everything would be alright, but you know how she gets. I think she was really worried about you."

Neither of us mentioned the white knuckled grip she had on me, but I held her a little tighter. I let go after a minute and she stepped back, her expression calm like nothing had happened, but I saw the tension bleeding from her too. Jim cleared his throat. "We're all glad you're doing well, but yes we found the automaton. His form showed up on the map when he arrived and we went out and collected him a few hours after our return. Artemis dragged him off to her workshop once she heard. I checked in with Wally and he says she hasn't left the forge since she went in."

I shrugged. She had the experience and if any of us should have ended up with the metal it would be her. It would be interesting to see if we could make anything magical with the stuff despite it's inherent properties. I turned to Morana. "How about you, you do alright out there? Didn't have a chance to check in really, but you looked like you were handling yourself."

She snorted. "Please, between me and Uncle Jim they didn't stand a chance. You were the one fighting the alien berserker. Caught some of that. It was badass. Anyway, what's the plan for today? I figure we're going to take some time before we hit Savage, especially since we don't even know where he is. You want to go out and do something as a family?" She seemed wired, even after so many hours, and I had to smile at how similar she was.

Still, I did have plans, specifically I had something to do. "Yes and no. We're going on a little trip. I have someone I need to talk to, and I want you to come with me." I swallowed heavily. I think it's about time you meet your grandma." I turned to the girls. "Either of you feel like coming along?" They both looked away, mumbling something about about being busy and having things to do today.

I would have mocked them for it, but I didn't really want to do this either. Telling my mom she had a fourteen year old granddaughter now was going to be...interesting. Luckily I had Morana to take up some of her attention. I rolled my eyes. "Anyway I have to shower and get dressed and then we'll go." Morana looked nervous, and I didn't blame her. While I was worried about my mom freaking out, she was meeting one of her grandparents for the first time. It had to be a terrifying thing to think about.

I gave her a quick reassuring hug, then headed upstairs to get washed and dressed. As I did I considered the situation I was in. I should have done this a while ago. Probably the day it happened, but I chickened out and kept putting it off. In all honesty I probably would have put it off longer, but I needed to talk to Gojo. I'd been doing my own thing and training mu abilities myself, but Gojo was the person I knew with the power closest to my own. The conceptual natures of our powers were similar, and I was pretty sure he could teach me plenty about what I could do, not to mention being a genuine badass who I was sure knew more than a bit about fighting.

He just also happened to be married to my mother, someone I had been kind of avoiding since Morana was...born, for lack of a better term. I loved my mom more than anything, but she'd had such a hard time coming to terms with my relationship with Dreamer. This was going to be even rougher on her, and I didn't know how she was going to react. As embarrassing as it was to admit I was afraid. I wasn't sure of what, but I just knew that I didn't want her to deal with any more emotionally because of me. I'd put her through enough.

As I got out of the shower and got dressed I thought about all the things she'd had to deal with because of me. Danger, poverty, heartbreak. I wasn't exactly a careful person. I kind of just blundered through life doing my own thing, and my mother had dealt with more than her share of the fallout for my choices. I liked to think this would be a happy thing to find out, and maybe it would be. But after losing five years with me I was worried that not getting to be there for the first fourteen of Morana's life would hurt her even more.

Still, it wasn't like I could undo that. So I brought my daughter through a corridor that only we could walk through, and on the other side, I knocked on the door of the penthouse I'd gotten my mother a year ago for me, and five for her. I waited a minute or two before my mom finally opened the door with a smile. "Morgan!" She had Hana on one hip and pulled me in with her other arm. "There you are, I haven't seen you in a few days, nice of you to finally stop by." her tone was chiding, but mostly in a good natured way. Looking back it had only really been five days, despite how much had happened.

I hugged her, kissing her head and then Hana's. "Hey ma, hey little sister. Can we come in?" She seemed to notice something in my tone because she gave me a searching look, but of course nodded and gestured us inside. I waited until she closed the door and then decided to come out with it. "So...I haven't been by in a few days. I've had a lot going on. But I wanted to introduce you to someone." I gestured to my daughter. "Zee and Dreamer and I were doing a ritual a while ago, and it had some...unintended consequences. This is Morana. Your grandaughter."

Her jaw dropped. I tried to say something else but no sound would come out. She stared at me. Hard. She set Hana down to go play and then walked up to me, staring into my face intently. "You are absolutely terrified right now aren't you?" I just looked down at her, not sure what to say. She stared hard for a minute and then pulled me into a hug. "You're such an idiot sometimes." She pulled back, holding me at arms length. "Did you think I would be angry? I know I didn't deal with Drea's arrival well, but I didn't think it was that bad."

She shook her head sadly, kissing my cheek and then let me go to turn to Morana. "Well, let me look at you. Your father...wow that is actually really weird to say about my sixteen year old son...was able to deal with having a new sister, I think I can handle a grandaughter to spoil." She brushed Morana's hair out of the way. "You are beautiful. I can see a bit of Zee and Drea in you, but my boy is in there too." She pulled her into a hug. "Welcome to the family. I'm so happy to meet you."

She turned to me, giving me an arched eyebrow. "Of course, your father and I will be having a little talk about doing strange rituals without knowing the outcome or taking precautions, but now isn't the time for that discussion. For now, I have a granddaughter to get to know. Morgan, pick up your sister and watch her while Morana and I spend time together." I did, mostly because I was kind of in shock over how well this was going, and my mom took Morana's arm and led her into the living room.

I had to laugh as all my worry melted away. My mom had a way of doing that. Surprising me. I probably should have expected something like this. My guilt had convinced me I was going to break her heart with this, and while I knew from her aura she wasn't as unflapped as she might be pretending, I also knew she was going to be ok. She was focusing on Morana right now, which was pretty nice, but she would work through everything. I'd underestimated her again, and I'd never been so happy to be wrong.

I heard a chuckle over my shoulder and turned to see Gojo. "She was never going to get angry. Not at you. After feeling what it was like to lose you I don't know if she's even capable of doing something that might chase you off. Anything the world throws at her aside from losing her son just feels like a walk in the park now." I winced and he shook his head. "Not saying it to make you feel bad. It's just the truth. But in the end I think this will be good for her. She's going to spoil that girl rotten."

I smiled at the two of them, sitting on the couch as mom pulled out a photo album and started showing Morana pictures of me as a baby. I looked down at Hana, and thought about how much my family had grown after all of this. I think we came out ahead. My sister stared up at me happily through her adorable pink sunglasses and I grinned at her. "You excited to have a new niece?"

She gave an adorable nod. "There's a new girl in the house." It always threw me when she talked, her speech was a bit rambling and hard to follow but she was whip smart for her age. "She's too tall." I snickered at that but didn't bother to contradict her.

Gojo leaned in to take her from me. "That's true. My Hana is the perfect height." He kissed her on the forehead before putting her down. "Go see mommy, your brother and I need to talk for a minute." The three year old ran off to my mother, who turned to glare at me for pawning her off on her after telling me to watch her, but stopped short when she saw how serious I looked about my coming discussion with Gojo. My stepfather turned to look at me from behind his sunglasses. "So. Are you going to ask me to train you? Or just stand around like an idiot?"

As per usual, pat-reon has the advance chapters at that site/malcolmtent, chapters which are in the midst of the final battle of this arc. I'm pretty excited about both the ending of this one and the beginning of the next, and I think you guys are going to love what I have planned, it answers some questions people have been asking and introduces a pretty amazing setting, as well as bringing in some familiar and fairly infamous faces. I won't give it away so stay tuned.