National City was no stranger to invasions or superhuman attacks by now, but it still took them by surprise when yet another hostile force came flying overhead. Hundreds of civilians across the streets looked up upon hearing the sound of rockets or jets, staring into the orange sky to see a cloud of dots zooming overhead let birds. Those who were experienced enough recognised trouble and immediately ran for shelter. Those who did not stopped and stared as Cyborg Superman led his army of metal men into the city, watching in bewilderment with their mobile phones recording as the large man came to a stop in the middle of it's airspace.
He looked down at the people pointing to him and heard the police sirens already in the distance. They looked small and fragile. He waited a moment before sending a signal to his drones. Through his implants he was able to see through their eyes, track their movements via remote control. He felt like a technological god and these machines were instruments of his will. He sent them scattering across the city, their rockets propelling them to all corners where they dived down and swung into the streets.
Immediately afterwards the explosions started as green laser beams fired from their chests and cut into the parked cars or buildings below them. Men, women and children screamed in terror as fire erupted around them sending them scattering like rats in a blind panic. Across the city drones either floated above them or landed on their feet to terrorise the civilians, flipping over vehicles or unleashing beams of energy to destroy store fronts or cause cars to explode.
Hank watched it all unfold from high in the sky, his cybernetic gaze witnessing the fear and terror in their faces as they ran away from his army. Each drone charted a specific course of his design as they ransacked the city, their wireless signals feeding directly into his brain. He saw all and it was glorious. But that didn't distract him from the sonic boom he heard over the screams of terror or the sirens of an overwhelmed police force. He smiled seeing the oncoming blur storming into the city streets below him. "Finally" he whispered.
Kara, who had been watching Alex's body camera from the DEO this whole time, didn't wait a moment longer when she witnessed Hank leap through the ceiling into the air. Lena barely had time to register what happened until she felt a gust of wind throw her hair across her face, turning around to find Supergirl gone and the balcony windows open.
Supergirl raced as fast as she could through the air over National City, but Hank's army was already there. She diverted her course towards the cyborg until she realised his metal army was in the streets wreaking havoc. For a split second she prioritised Hank, understanding stopping him would stop the Metallo robots. But then the screams reached her ears and she knew she couldn't ignore them. So she dived down and weaved between the buildings as fast as she could.
The destruction was widespread so she prioritised the most immediate dangers. Police were already evacuating people into shelters or builds while fire engines roared through the traffic logged streets to put out fires. Kara helped them along by darting between gridlocked cars, pushing them aside clearing a path for the emergency services in a blink of an eye. She left them to the fires that were manageable and used her frost breath to put out or contain those that were spreading to people's homes or businesses, anywhere they were putting people in danger. She then darted from street to street using her super speed to move people out of the path of destruction, bringing critically injured people to the nearest hospital or ambulance to be treated before darting back into the city. For a good few minutes all anyone saw of Supergirl was a red and blue blur zipping around the city doing what she can.
The first time she slowed down enough to be seen was when a mother and son was running from an explosion that kicked up a pickup truck. The boy tripped over his feet forcing the mother to stop and pick him up. But the vehicle came rolling through the air towards them so she covered her boy's face and closed her eyes, putting her back to the car as if to protect her child from danger. Kara caught the truck moments before it hit her, saving the mother and son and dropping the truck back on the road safely. The mother opened her eyes and found Supergirl standing over her, panting heavily momentarily winded. They met eyes as she wordlessly thanked her. Supergirl didn't say anything, but she smiled at the boy as she caught her breath.
She only stopped for a few seconds, but soon her breathing got difficult as a familiar crawling sensation crept up under her skin. She winced as her body started to ache, feeling like fire ants were burrowing under her skin. The boy pointed behind her shouting a warning while the mother pulled him away. Kara turned around and wasn't surprised to see a pair of green eyes peering through the dust cloud with its glowing chest cavity advancing towards her. She didn't hesitate, balling up her fists and throwing a powerful punch at the machine. But it caught her wrist and jabbed at her with its chrome palm sending her fumbling backwards. She fired a blast of heat vision at the robot but it barley recoiled before kicking her in the face. She quickly rolled onto her feet, fighting the discomfort of the kryptonite emitting from it, and swung a fallen street light at it. it ducked, sidestepped her strike and then karate chopped her wrist disarming her before latching it's left hand around her throat.
"I was wondering when you were going to show up" Metallo said, it's voice robotic and cold. Kara stared at it in surprise before it punched her with its right fist so hard she crashed into a nearby diner.
She coughed up brick picking herself up from the fallen tables, the brief distance from the machine giving her body room to fight the kryptonite poisoning. She looked up and found it advancing again. Climbing to her feet she considered her chances of fighting it. But then her hearing picked out the dozen other locations she was needed, reminding her there was more than one of these machines. So she dashed out the front door of the diner and leapt back into the air, retreating from the battle to save as many lives as she could.
She heard Captain Sawyer over the panicked screams coordinating emergency services as the National Guard arrived to assist. Some of the armed forces attempted to engage the robots, which served enough to distract them from the civilians. But their tanks and machine guns were outgunned by the firepower of the drones, forcing them back while they covered the evacuation. Supergirl flew around the buildings scanning the streets trying to find where she was needed most. She directed her flight path towards a blockade where one of the drones was approaching a police checkpoint, dozens of civilians being funnelled behind the officers as they fired upon the machine. It stared at them coldly ready to fire a beam from its chest until Supergirl barged into it from the side knocking it into a broken tank. It crumpled to the ground on impact.
"Get everyone to safety" she called to the officer, pointing to one of the side streets. "I saw more trapped in one of the apartment buildings."
"We'll get them out Supergirl" one of the fire fighters called back, ordering his men to check it out. He then turned back and said "Thanks."
"Don't thank her yet" a robotic voice said, drawing Kara back to see Metallo rising back up from when she kicked him.
She backed away instinctively as his chest glowed, diving to the side narrowly missing the beam of green energy from cutting her in half. She jumped back into the air to get away from the aura of kryptonite affecting her, floating just out of range so she could unleash her heat vision from her eyes and pin it to the ground. But then another drone cracked her across the face with its fist sending her catapulting to the ground landing in a hole of crumpled tarmac. She gasped in surprise, too slow to get back up when she was hit by another beam of green energy, the blast forcing her onto her back in agony. The beam relented and gave her a moment to breathe while the drone hovered over her expressionless. "Why are you doing this?" she asked weakly, her skin turning pale and sickly.
"I thought that would be obvious" the robot said. Kara finally realised it wasn't Metallo speaking. It was Hank speaking through the robots. "What better way to draw out the Supergirl than by destroying the city she loves to protect." He gloated. "Don't worry. First I'll kill you. Then I'll kill Superm…"
The machine was interrupted when a powerful green hand punched through its chest, half phasing through its chest shorting out the circuits. The drone wailed as the Martian Manhunter ripped its heart out of its back, the green glow vanishing as it fell lifelessly out of the sky. Jon didn't take any chances as it grew another arm and used two of them to rip the drone's body in half. The third clung to the kryptonite chunk before throwing it harmlessly away from Supergirl.
Jon helped her to her feet asking if she was alright. With the kryptonite gone she felt much better, inhaling a deep breath regaining her strength. "I'm better now you're here" she said gratefully clasping his arm. "There's too many of them. I can't keep up."
"Don't worry, the others are on the way" Jon assured her. He looked around at the destruction wrecked upon the city with sadness. "We need to get to Henshaw" he told her. "He's controlling them all remotely, that much I could tell from his mind. If we can neutralise him, Metallo will shut down."
"A smart plan Martian" Hank complimented, his voice emanating from three different still functioning Metallo drones as they surrounded the pair of heroes. "But it won't be that easy" he warned as they stood back to back ready to fight them.
"You won't walk away from this one Hank" Jon told him, glaring through the eyes of the machines knowing the cyborg could see him. "We will stop you."
"You're welcome to try" Hank smirked, signalling his robots to attack.
They rushed them at once, but Kara and Jon rocketed into the air to evade them. They gave chase and the two split up to draw them away. Jon made them focus on him so Kara could fly above the city and find Hank. It didn't take long, the man wasn't hiding as he floated in the centre of the airspace. He looked up and found her coming straight for him, smiling a cocky grin before giving her a small wave. Before she could grab him another group of Metallo drones flew up to intercept her, their beams of energy slicing through her path forcing her to dodge and turn away as they chased her between buildings. Hank watched as his robots followed her through streets and weaved between skyscrapers, their beams narrowly missing the kryptonian as she evaded and dodged frantically, staying on the move keeping them away from the civilians. Jon did the same as they circled around the city, crossing each other's path driving the drones into each other. Hank predicted the move and got them to avoid direct impacts. Some got clipped but it didn't knock anyone out of the air.
The frantic game of cat and mouse continued while Hanks continued to float unhindered, closing his eyes monitoring his army's progress as they the signals they sent him were fed into his brain.
The convoys of SUV's sprinted at top speed into the city, the tyres bouncing over speed bumps and pot holes jostling everyone inside violently. Alex clung to the handles inside her vehicle with her other hand gripping the mobile held to her ear, her body not strapped in resulting in her being tossed around the seat dangerously. "What's the situation in the city?" she shouted into the mouthpiece, keeping her eyes on the road while the driver swerved to avoid the carnage.
"Not good" Maggie Sawyer replied, shouting over the noise of pandemonium where she was posted. Alex called her the first chance she could to warn her about Cyborg Superman's attack. The police Captain was fast to mobilise all her resources to control the situation but she made it clear she needed DEO back-up. "It's pandemonium in the streets and those robot things from Axis are everywhere. I think Supergirl is out there fighting them but the rest of us are pretty outgunned. Any sign of Dreamer or Guardian?"
Alex looked over her shoulder to the two vigilantes strapped into the SUV with her, pinned to their seats by seatbelts. Nia looked the most nervous as the vehicle rocked her in her chair. Olsen portrayed stoic calmness. "They'll be out there doing what they can" she promised. "Hang tight, we're almost there."
"Do we have any idea what this maniac wants?" Maggie asked.
"We're working on it" Alex told her, looking into her rear-view mirror at Brainy working feverously at his laptop. "I have to go, good luck captain" she said, hanging up the phone. She then radioed Jon asking "How are you guys holding up?"
"These drones are relentless but we've kept them away from the civilians" Jon reported.
"I don't how much long we can keep them running around like this" Kara added finally cued into their radios.
She turned back to the others asking "Tell me we have a plan?"
"Cyborg Superman is operating his drone army remotely" Brainy reported analysing the computer feed linked directly to the DEO. "He's using a wireless interface to issue commands to his robots on a private network. I've identified the bandwidth he's using but isolating and disconnecting it is proving challenging."
"You can't shut them down?" Olsen queried.
Lena's voice chimed in from the speakerphone linked to the car. "It's not your standard Wi-Fi transmitter he's using. I've been analysing the network he's utilising and it doesn't match anything from Cadmus Labs. I don't think Hank had this built into his cybernetics from them?"
"Meaning this is a custom network installed into his system more recently" Brainy conferred. "Whoever programed it built in substantial firewalls to keep other networks from intercepting?"
"Are you saying you can't hack into it and turn off his army?" Alex asked. That was the initial idea when they recovered from the warehouse and raced after Hank and his drones. If they could cut him off from the machines they could switch them off remotely.
Brainy gave her a look of determination. "Hacking the network has become difficult, but not impossible" he assured her.
"I don't get it" Nia said staring out the window. "Was this his big plan? Steal an army of robots and just attack the city?"
"He said something about going after superman" Jimmy noted curiously. "I know he hates all aliens, especially kryptonians, but I thought Kal El was off world."
"He is" Alex confirmed, mulling over the motives herself. "This can't be Henshaw's plan. There's something else going on. Could he be drawing out Supergirl?" she wondered.
"She bolted the moment he made for the city" Lena said. "If that's the plan, it worked. She's definitely out there and engaging the machines."
Lena was the only one in the DEO HQ monitoring the situation from the satellite feeds. She had a map of the city on the massive screens charting real-time locations of every kryptonite signature pinpointing a Metallo drone and a large red blip showing her where Hank Henshaw was. She also watched two small blue blips race around the city being chased by the green blips, Jon and Kara sending the drones on a chase around the sky. She watched the green blips and noticed something odd about their formations, how some pulled away and hovered in place in certain areas. She checked the readings of the signals they'd intercepted. "Guys, I think the drones are transmitting their own wireless network" she said, analysing the wavelengths intently. She saw a pattern. "They're charting a map of the city like a search grid, scanning the ambient levels across the whole area."
Brainy switched his screens to confirm the readings. "She's right. This is a search pattern for an energy pattern. She's not attacking the city arbitrarily, he's using the drones as amplifiers and radar dishes."
"What's he looking for?" Alex queried.
Lena and Brainy analysed the patterns the drones appeared to be honing in on and recognised it immediately. "I recognise this signature" Lena gasped. "It's the same readings I get when experimenting with my teleportation watches" she commented.
"That technology is based on the research made into the transmat portal" Brainy nodded. "The same one linked to the platform at Argo City" he added.
Olsen looked at him in shock and concern. "Isn't that the portal Superman used to visit his people?"
"The same" he nodded.
Nia's eyes suddenly went wide as she blurted out "that's what I saw!" when everyone looked at her she explained "In my dream! It wasn't krypton, it must've Argo City!"
"She's right" Jon agreed, listening in. "if Henshaw finds that transmat portal he can invade what's left of krypton and kill everyone there, including superman. Without the yellow sun they'll be powerless."
Lena and Brainy's chests tightened as the signals transmitted from the drones suddenly zeroed in on a secret DEO facility here in the city, the energy signature of the Transmat portal finally located. "You'd better hurry then" Lena warned them. "Because he just found it."