Sorry the wait was a bit longer than normal, everyone. I've had some trouble finding time to work on this chapter, but it's finally done and I hope you enjoy! For some reason this chapter feels too rushed to me though, so please give me your input and review!
Chapter Fourteen: Drastic Measures
Lex Luthor looked out upon the city from his office window, smiling. Phases two and three were about to be put into action, and soon he would have everything he ever wanted… everything. Dr. Hamilton was in the room two, beginning to question his employer's sanity. Luthor had gazed out the window for nearly twenty four hours, a near psychotic grin on his face.
"Mr. Luthor… is everything all right?" Hamilton asked.
"Yes. Yes of course yes! Everything is perfect!" Luthor turned and stared at Hamilton. "And through you I made all of this possible."
"It was my pleasure sir. Cadmus is planning an ambush, you know. They'll no doubt have Deadshot on standby, and there are rumors floating around that Metallo is playing the role of Waller's new bodyguard."
"Yes, yes, but it's not a problem. They won't succeed, we have certain factors in our advantage that guarantee us that."
"Mr. Luthor…?"
"What is it, Dr. Hamilton?"
"The Superdrones, and the war suit… they aren't really going to be used how you say they will, are they?" Dr. Hamilton asked, realizing that Luthor's motives may be more malevolent than he thought.
"What? You don't think I'm really going to use the Superdrones as the Superhuman Police Force? You don't really think I'm going to put all of your hard work into keeping the world safe?" Luthor smiled, opening up a desk drawer.
"Well Mr. Luthor, I-"
"Well Dr. Hamilton, just a few days ago, I would have assured you that you were wrong. I would have promised that my intentions were pure, that I would keep the world safe from anything who may threaten it…" He looked up, smiling wickedly. "But unfortunately for you Dr. Hamilton, that time has passed. Your job is done, and I no longer need you." He pulled a pistol out of the drawer, and pointed it toward the doctor. "So I must say, you are right. I am the villain of this story." Luthor then pulled the trigger. The bullet sailed, and sank into the doctor's chest. Luthor emptied a few more rounds into him, just to make sure he was dead.
Once the blood had spilled, Luthor put the gun away, and clapped his hands. Two guards walked into the room, startled by the sight of the dead body on the floor. "Gentlemen, dispose of this body, please." Luthor said. The men nodded uncomfortably, cleaned up the blood, and removed the corpse.
Luthor then turned back to the window. "I will have to dispose of Batman, however. This is the perfect opportunity to put the Superdrones to the test."
Meanwhile, in Central Metropolis…
Superman and Supergirl soared through the air, Supergirl being very uncertain about her cousin's intentions. Then Superman stopped momentarily. Below, a mugger was violently assaulting an elderly woman, trying to take her purse. Superman was going to do nothing, but he knew that he had to keep Supergirl's trust for now, so he reluctantly decided to play the hero. He flew downward, with her following close behind. In a blur, he appeared right next to the startled mugger, grabbed his wrist, and snapped it. The mugger's pistol clattered down on the cement. The screaming criminal fell to the ground, and Superman held him down onto the concrete, wanting to hurt him. Superman was about to give into his murderous temptation, when he heard a click behind him. He looked over his shoulder to see that the elderly woman had removed her wig, revealing that she was really in her twenties. And she was holding a Cadmus issue gun toward Superman!
Immediately, nearly a thousand soldiers burst out of stores crowding the streets, all of them heavily armored and heavily armed. Forty helicopters began circling the area, shining spotlights on their Kryptonian target.
"Damn it…" Superman muttered.
"Clark, what's going on?" Supergirl called, immediately on the defensive. A series of large, armored, tank like vehicles pulled up and surrounded the area. Then finally, Superman looked down at the mugger he had taken down, and now realized that it was no criminal. Oil leaked out from it's broken wrist. It looked up, and it's faceplate fell off, revealing a metallic face with a red countdown clock! The clock his zero, and there was a powerful explosion that blasted the man of steel into the concrete. When the smoke began to clear, his costume was burned, tattered, torn to ribbons. But there was barely a scratch on his body.
"Take him down!" A booming voice called, and immediately the thousands of soldiers opened fire. The tank like vehicles also launched a series of rockets that rained down on the target like a nuclear meteor shower. Superman zoomed off at superhuman speed, barely evading the explosions, bullets bouncing off of his flesh. But then he realized something strange… he was in pain. A lot of pain. These bullets were kind of like the neutron arrows Green Arrow had been equipped with, they could damage Superman. He had to take cover. He released a powerful wave of heat vision, destroying several jeeps and taking down around two hundred soldiers. He soared up higher, but was struck by another rocket, blasting him through the window of a nearby building. He tumbled across the floor and then ducked behind a wall, taking cover. But his peace did not last long, because Cadmus had rigged by the building with explosives.
His motion triggered them, and he was blasted out into the hail of bullets. "Where's Kara?" He grunted, deciding he needed help. He focused in with his super hearing and located her high above, scouting out the battlefield. She seemed confused, as to be expected. He had been keeping her in the dark about everything the last few days. He would not be able to hold her trust much longer, he knew. But right now, there were more important things to worry about. He released a powerful burst of super-breath that struck the ground, creating a tuft of smoke. Superman zoomed down and began striking down soldiers with punches and kicks, sending them all flying. After taking down about a hundred of them, he spotted Amanda Waller looking down form a large helicopter. Superman didn't know why she would think it was a good idea to appear in person, but it didn't matter. He would take her out here and now.
Amanda Waller looked down from the helicopter and saw Superman beginning to fly toward her. Her blonde bodyguard began to step forward, but she stopped him. "Not yet." She said. Then she looked to a group of gunners on the helicopter, manning massive steel weapons.
"What exactly are those supposed to do, anyway?" The bodyguard asked.
"Ever heard of a Railgun?" She asked.
"Yeah, its and electromagnetic weapon mainly used in naval warfare, they fire a projectile at seven times the speed of sound." The bodyguard nodded.
"Well these are Cadmus Railguns. They fire a half-ton projectile at seven hundred times the speed of sound!" She said proudly. He gave the gunners the signal to fire. "This'll kill the poor bastard." She smiled.
There was a loud charging up sound, and then the Railguns fired. But before their ears had even registered that a sound had been made, Superman had been blasted sixty feet into the ground by the blast! After several minutes of waiting, he began to crawl out of the rubble, barely alive from the impact.
"Hit him again." Waller ordered, knowing that he would not get back up the next time. But as the guns were charging up for another shot, the entire helicopter tipped back violently, and the Railgun projectiles flew into the air and demolished the top of a skyscraper nearby. Waller looked back to see Supergirl flipping the helicopter upwards, making them miss. Then Superman fired a beam of heat vision into the gas tank on the now upturned bottom of the helicopter. There was an explosion, and the burning helicopter fell down to the ground, taking out a large number of soldiers.
Supergirl crawled out of the rubble, injured. "Clark?" She asked, shocked.
"Sorry. I saw my shot, and I took it." He said darkly. He scanned the rubble with his x-ray vision, but was shocked to see a heartbeat. Amanda Waller was alive, in fact, she was uninjured! Her mysterious blonde bodyguard had shielded her from the blast. Superman also noticed that he had no heartbeat at all, and yet he was still moving. Superman grunted and flew toward the burning debris.
But then, with his superhuman hearing, he heard a loud click far behind him. He turned a bit too late, and saw a flash of green. The kryptonite bullet struck him in the collar bone! Just below where Deadshot had been aiming. Cadmus had had Deadshot on standby, with Kryptonite bullets. Superman fell to the ground, instantly weakened. He began crawling, and was then met with a hail of bullet fire from the soldiers. Some of the bullets began to break his weakened skin. Supergirl went in and started taking down the blasting soldiers. Superman had another objective. He slowly levitated up, fighting the kryptonite, but before he could move toward where Deadshot had fired from, a cold, metallic arm wrapped around his throat.
The blonde had grabbed Superman. The helicopter explosion had burned away most of the fake skin covering his body, revealing a menacing mechanical one. Metallo!
"Metallo… Waller's bodyguard, huh? Pathetic." Superman choked out.
"Well Cadmus came to me and offered me a chance to kill you, and I just couldn't resist." Metallo said joyfully, choking the man of steel harder. He then opened up his chest plate, revealing his kryptonite power core. It immediately began killing the killer in his arms, along with the bullet in his collar bone. Plus, now that Superman was still, Deadshot prepared to take another shot. The man of steel was going to die.
Meanwhile, in a field outside Gotham…
Dick stood in the wind, standing in a field of tall grass, blowing above his waist. He gazed up at the moon, entranced by thoughts of recent events. And even more so, thoughts of Galatea. But those sweet, pleasant thoughts were interrupted by the dark, hateful thoughts of Batman. There had always been a lot of unspoken aggression between the two of them. Their relationship had always been pretty rocky, and it had never improved, not really. They just hid it as best they could, but Dick was tired of hiding now. He had gotten to a point where he hated his foster father, hated every fiber of his very being. "I am so done with this…" He sighed, kicking the ground.
Then, in the waning moonlight, a shadow flashed across him, just briefly. "What the…?" Dick looked up; trying to find whatever object had just made the shadow. But he was suddenly greeted by a powerful metallic kick. Dick flew across the field, tumbling hard. He caught the ground and slid through the weeds, disoriented. Once he refocused, he saw what appeared to be Superman standing several feet away from him. But after several moments of staring, he realized that this was not Superman. It looked like him, except it was… shiny. This was a robot of some sort. Dick threw out a series of birderangs, but the robot Superman blasted a beam of heat vision that incinerated them all. Dick ducked to the side and ran around back, drawing his escrima sticks.
The robot quickly reacted and struck Dick down. But why was it after him…?
Meanwhile, back at JLA Headquarters…
Wally West was bored out of his mind when he heard a loud crash from the infirmary. He zoomed over and in half a second, he was in the room. J'onn had woken up again, and was now crawling out of his bed. Wally quickly went to work pinching out the candles, realizing J'onn might actually be awake for more than a few minutes this time.
Soon Shayera had entered into the room, her mace at her side. "What's going on?" She asked, heaving heard the crash.
"J'onn's up." Wally said excitedly. J'onn wasn't exactly the life of any party, but it was easily the most exciting event that had happened at headquarters for several days.
"Are you okay?" Shayera asked, helping J'onn to his feet.
"Where is Batman?" He demanded.
"Well we-"
"Where! I must find him!" J'onn shouted.
"Whoa, calm down alright? You must have been dreaming or something." Wally suggested.
"No. You sent him the Phantom Zone Portal Generator, did you not?" J'onn questioned.
"Um, yeah, but how did you know that?"
"My body was inactive. My mind was not. I am well aware of everything that has transpired." J'onn explained. "Now we must find Batman. He plans to do something drastic."
"How do you know?" Shayera asked.
"Trust me! We must stop him now, before he worsens the situation."
"Ok, well how are we supposed to find him?"
"His suit. He installed a tracker in it so that Diana could find him he ever went missing. She was the only one who he ever trusted with that knowledge."
"Wait, if Diana was the only one he told about this tracker, then how do you know about it?" Shayera asked, confused.
"I sometimes accidentally read minds in my sleep." J'onn responded.
"Ok, we'll have to discuss that one later… but for now, how do we track him?" Wally asked, doing his best to stay on topic.
"Diana has a device in her room, one capable of locating him at any time. We will use it. Hurry."
A few minutes later, back in the field outside Gotham…
Dick evaded a series of heat vision blasts, and did his best to keep his distance, though long range combat didn't seem to be doing him much good either. This Superman robot seemed invincible. Just as Dick was about to be taken out, he was swept up in a blur of orange. Suddenly Dick was on the other side of the field, with the Flash at his side!
"Wally? What are you doing here?" Dick asked.
"Dude, I have no idea." Flash said, sounding totally confused.
The Superman robot began to move in, but was then struck by an invisible punch from J'onn. The robot tumbled across the dirt for a few feet, standing up quickly. J'onn came back into focus, and struck the robot again. Then Hawkgirl came in from behind and began beating the robot with her mace. It was soon overpowered by the two of them and their constant onslaught, and the robot was pummeled into scrap metal. J'onn and Hawkgirl approached the dumbfounded Flash and Dick.
"Um, what is going on?" Dick demanded.
"You tell us. Why the hell did Batman's tracker lead us to you?" Hawkgirl demanded.
"What? Tracker? What are you talking about?"
J'onn reached over and plucked a microscopic device off of the corner of Dick's mask, a place where he never would have found it.
"It would seem Bruce anticipated this. He planted the tracer on Dick so that we would not be able to find him." J'onn said, crushing the device between his fingers.
"Wait, so bats planted that thing on me… when the hell did he… wait a minute! When he backhanded me!" Dick shouted, angry. "Figures. Even when he hits me, there's some sort of hidden purpose behind it!" He punched a tree at the edge of the field.
"Calm down kid. Do you know where Bruce went?" Hawkgirl asked.
"No, but I know he had a whole posse gathered in the batcave. I could take you guys there, but he's probably gone by now. I don't know." Dick sighed.
"So what about the crazy superman-robot thing? Where did that come from?" Wally chimed in.
"Well I was smashing it, I saw a LexCorp insignia on the inside." Hawkgirl noted.
"Batman poses a threat to Luthor. Perhaps Luthor somehow managed to tap into the frequency of Batman's tracker, and then sent this robot after him. Unfortunately, the tracker happened to be on Dick at the time." J'onn suggested.
"Um… guys, look!" Wally pointed. The robot was beginning to rise, and something very strange was happening. It seemed to be recovering! The metal was literally re-growing, replacing the damaged bits.
"I'm pretty sure robots aren't supposed to heal!" Flash yelled, backing up.
"What is that thing?" Hawkgirl gasped, equally shocked.
"What the… Oh my God… it's like some kind of organic steel!" Dick noticed.
"Is that even possible?" Hawkgirl screamed.
"Ever heard of the Metal Men?" Dick asked, raising an eyebrow. "It's definitely possible."
The now recovered Superman drone attacked. J'onn moved in, but was quickly blasted into the ground. The robot's strength was suddenly far superior.
"Wait a minute, J'onn just pounded that thing a second ago!" Flash pointed out.
"Incredible… it's not only recovering, it's evolving! That robot, it's constantly upgrading itself based on the data it collects from its battles!" Dick said in disbelief.
"So basically the harder we hit this thing, the stronger its gonna get?" Hawkgirl asked, readying her mace.
"Pretty much." Dick nodded.
"Wonderful."
"So, what do you suggest we do?" Flash asked frantically, as the drone stood seeming to choose its next target.
"I suggest you fight it." Dick said.
"Wait, me? What for!" Flash screamed.
"I fought this thing for like twenty minutes before you guys showed up, and J'onn and Shayera fought it for a while too. It already knows all we've got up our sleeves. You're the only one here who can surprise." Dick explained.
"But-" Flash began to protest, but Hawkgirl pushed him forward.
"Dick and I will take the left and right flanks to distract it, while you come in and take it down. But do it fast, before it can adapt." She instructed.
"But I can't do this! I mean, all I do is run fast!" He argued.
"Wally, have some self confidence for once, will you?" She said, looking him in the eyes. "We kind of need it right now."
"Ok…" Flash sighed. Dick and Hawkgirl charged out. The drone quickly blocked both their attacks, but in an instant Flash zoomed forward, vibrating as fast as he could. He vibrated his very molecules through the drone's metallic body, and the speed of the vibration created an incredible amount of friction, which melted the drone from the inside out.
Flash phased into focus behind the drone, and fell to his knees, dizzy. The robot melted into a pile of molten steel.
"See, was that so hard?" Hawkgirl asked. Flash responded by vomiting from dizziness.
"It might not have been too hard for you… you didn't just put yourself through an organic-steel paint shaker!" Flash snapped. J'onn began to get to his feet. Everyone regrouped. Dick took a chunk of steel that was still somewhat solid.
"I want to learn more about this." He said, sliding the steel into a compartment on his belt. There was a strange shifting in the puddle of melted metal, as if the machine were already trying to recover. "We'd better go. I'll take you guys to the cave."
Meanwhile, back at Central Metropolis…
Supergirl pried Metallo off of her cousin, but Metallo quickly overpowered her, and began killing her with the kryptonite radiation. Superman, now beaten within an inch of life and getting worse by the second, moved in for vengeance. He flew toward Deadshot, who was on a tower about a mile away. Superman crashed through the wall of the tower and attacked the sniper. Deadshot began to open fire, but was not quick enough. Superman grabbed the sniper and slammed him against a wall.
"If you're gonna kill me, please get creative with it. I'd prefer to die in a spectacular fashion." Deadshot smiled. Superman smiled back.
"How about something like this…" Superman then flew off, still carrying the villain. He then threw Deadshot from a great distance. Metallo turned and was suddenly greeted by Deadshot's head burrowing into his chest, crushing the kryptonite core. Metallo slid across the ground, and there was a massive green flash. Deadshot rolled over, covered in blood and burned from the wave of radiation.
"Yeah… kinda like that." He chuckled painfully, coughing up blood. Then he went completely silent. Metallo rose uneasily, most of his kryptonite core now destroyed. He would not be as powerful with less to power him. He still have a great advantage over the weakened Superman, he knew, but the combination of a wounded Superman and a healthy Supergirl might be a problem. Then Superman collapsed, quaking from the bullet lodged in his collar bone. That restored Metallo's confidence quite a bit.
Supergirl looked around, stunned at the carnage around her. Everything was beginning to make sense, and she couldn't believe she had been so blind…
A storm began to roll in, a heavy storm. Thunder was already blasting, and rain pouring down like bullets. Metallo kicked the dying Superman in the face, flipping him over onto his back. Metallo beat the former hero with a series of brutal punches. "This feels so damned good!" Metallo laughed, lifting the man of steel by the throat. But then Superman began to levitate in the air, taking Metallo with him. He was completely drained of all power now, and was operating off of pure willpower.
"Give up! Don't you get it? I win!" Metallo screamed, punching Superman in the face. But painfully, forcefully, Superman still pulled them higher. Soon they were above all the surrounding buildings. Superman then rolled over, making it so that Metallo was facing upward. "What are you doing, freak? That kryptonite getting to your head?" Metallo taunted.
But then Superman's idea began to come into play. A bolt of lightning flashed down. Metallo, being high in the air and made of metal, was struck. Destroying the rest of his exposed kryptonite core! As soon as the flash faded, Superman and Metallo both fell lifelessly down to the Earth below, striking with powerful force. Both forced themselves to stand, shaking violently. Metallo was only operating off of reserve power, but that would not last forever. He moved in slowly on the dying Superman.
"You… I – am sick – of you!" Metallo screamed, getting ready to attack. Then there was a very familiar sound to the left. The sound of a Cadmus Railgun charging. On top of a pile of rubble stood Supergirl, holding a Railgun and pointing it down at Metallo.
"Good job Kara… good, good job… now finish it!" Superman called. She was stone silent, frozen. "Kara, do it!" He called again after several minutes. More frozenness, more silence. "Kara!" He screamed violently now.
"I'm sorry Clark." Kara sighed, closing her eyes. Then she pointed the gun toward Superman, ready to fire.
Realizing what was happening now, Superman dug in painfully and pulled a chunk of kryptonite bullet out of his collar bone. He threw it forcefully at his cousin, and struck her in the thigh. Kara toppled over, affected by the radiation. The fall made her miss, and the Railgun fired and hit Metallo, blowing him to pieces.
Superman began stumbling forward, ready to kill his cousin. He was laughing hysterically. But then there was a shuffling sound above. Superman looked up to a pile of rubble behind him and saw a dark black figure blending against the night sky. The familiar figure of Batman. And in his hand was the portal opener to the Phantom Zone.
"Bruce! Your last beating wasn't enough to put you away?" Superman said in a somewhat annoyed tone, turning to stare down Batman.
"Shut up Clark." He pointed the device toward him. "This is over. For you."