Two weeks had gone by since Lex's takeover in Washington. Things were beginning to change and change quick. Lex's robot army's marched the streets of cities throughout the country. Lex had delegated control to different regions of the country to some of his partners. Bane controlled the northeast, Dr. Sivana and Captain Cold held domain over the central parts of the country. Deathstroke and Malcolm Merlyn took over the west coast. The threat of Red Daughter was constantly above anywhere in the sky.
The heroes were all but gone. There were some reports of sightings of Batman or possibly a Bat girl in Gotham, but even those were drying up. The Flash had seemingly vanished as well. The army was scrambling as Lex was able to shut down nearly all of their weaponry. One of the biggest movers of black-market weapons was Oswald Cobblepot, The Penguin, in Gotham. But Lex knew this and had him in his pocket, assuring he wouldn't sell to anyone out of Lex's circle. That didn't stop some weapons from getting through. Sam Lane was putting a team together. It was a skeleton crew of just a few U.S. soldier's: Cole Cash, John Diggle, his brother Andy, Lyla Michaels, and John Henry Irons. John was their heavy hitter, with his Steel suit. But they needed to play this right. Lex had proven to think through a failsafe against every other hero. Surly he had some way of combating Irons.
Secretly and unbeknownst to Sam, Amanda Waller was putting together a team of her own at her A.R.G.U.S facility. Her team was a bit cruder. She had taken former super criminals and attempted to make a team out of them. They included: Captain Boomerang, Bronze Tiger, Livewire, Plastique, and King Shark. In order to get them to cooperate, she used threats and intimidation. She had a nanite bomb implemented into each of them. If any of them went off mission, she would detonate it. She called her team Task Force X, they called themselves the suicide squad.
The suicide squad had gotten deep behind enemy lines. They were outside the White House ready to infiltrate.
"Now, go, go, go!" Bronze Tiger yells out.
The team smashes their way into the Oval Office. They surround Lex who is just sitting at his desk filling out paper work.
"Lex Luthor, stand down mate." Captain Boomerang says.
Lex sighs, then hits a button on his desk. In an instant Captain Boomerang, Bronze Tiger, Plastique, and King Shark's bombs detonate.
Livewire walks over to Lex and hands him a tablet. Amanda Waller is on the screen.
"Luthor." Waller reacts.
"Did you forget we worked on the Task Force X project together?" Lex asks.
Livewire waves.
"Plus it helps I was tipped off you were coming, after all who do you think was paying for Miss Willis's treatments these past few years. Amanda tries to detonate Livewire's bomb, but it's offline.
"You're not going to get away with this." Waller says.
"I already have." Lex says as he turns off the tablet.
Sam Lane continues to scrounge up any troops he can. He was able to get together about two hundred. Unknown to him, Lois was among those ranks. He didn't want her anywhere near this battle, but there was no way she was staying away. The team was poorly equipped but they weren't going to get any stronger. The plan was to have the majority of troops drive Lex's army away from the White House, while Sam and Steel infiltrated. They drove down the streets of Washington in whatever vehicles they had. With Martial Law in effect, civilians were allowed out to their jobs during the day, but the streets were to be cleared in the evenings. They had to do this attack in the day, mostly in civilian cars.
At about five 'o'clock, a massive traffic jam had occurred down town Washington. This was abnormal given how smoothly traffic had been running the past few weeks. A large portion of Lex's army was sent to investigate. As they converged, the soldiers got out of their vehicles and began their attack.
Lex looks on from his office.
"Want me to go down there and take care of them?" Livewire asks.
"No, I have other plans for you." Lex says.
"Like what?" Livewire asks.
"Come with me." Lex says.
Lex takes Livewire through the halls of the White House. She is unsure where they are heading. Lex opens the door to the lawn in the back. Outside there is some sort of pod.
"This will take you to your destination." Lex says.
Livewire looks at the pod, then at Lex, then back at the pod. She nods and gets in. The pod takes off.
Lex heads back to the Oval Office. As he gets inside and closes the door, he hears a gun cock.
"That's far enough Luthor." Sam Lane says.
Lex smirks.
"The gun isn't LexCorp or Stagg tech. Very good." Lex says smoothly.
"I can't believe I actually endorsed you." Sam says.
"Polling numbers are moot, don't you think?" Lex asks.
"No more time for talking." Sam says.
Sam aims the gun right at Lex's chest and pulls the trigger. The bullet fires out of the gun and right at Lex. But as it hits Lex's chest, it ricochets off.
Sam cocks an eyebrow, unsure of what just happened. Lex unbuttons his shirt revealing a green chest plate with and orange light in the center. Lex hits the center and the chest plate begins to expand outward into a full body green and purple war suit.
"Now then, where were we?" Lex asks.
"NOW NOW!" Sam shouts out.
Steel comes smashing through the wall. He tackles Lex and sends both of them through the wall, outside. Lex is able to push Steel off and begins firing green beams from his hands. The beams were focused Kryptonite. It's what powered the suit.
"I've spent years working on this to take down Superman with. What hope do you have?" Lex asks.
Steel grabs his hammer and swings at the beam. The beam bounces back and hits Lex, taking him down for a moment.
"Careful Uncle John." Natasha, John's niece, says as she watches on a vidcom.
The battle continues downtown Washington, but the soldiers are losing bad.
"What have to retreat!" John Diggle says.
"We can't." His brother Andy responds.
Just then, Andy is hit with a shot from one of Lex's bots.
"Andy!" John yells out.
John runs over and cradles Andy's body in his arms.
"Andy, come on, no, no." John says.
But it's too late, Andy is gone. Lyla begins pulling at John.
"John come on; we have to go." She says.
It takes a minute for John to pull away from his brother, but he knows Lyla is right. They are being overwhelmed.
"Cole, come on!" John yells out.
"Retreating ain't my style, you go." Cole says.
Cole continues to take aim. He has some sort of souped-up home-made gun. It's holding its own against Lex's bots.
Through all this chaos, Lois makes her way to the White House.
The battle between Steel and Lex takes to the sky. Both have formidable war suits.
"Truthfully I'm impressed, your steel suit has held up better than I've expected." Lex says.
"You'll find its full of surprises." Steel says, as he blasts off a wrist rocket at Lex.
Lex is able to dodge it however.
"I could use a man of your talents." Lex says.
"Not gonna happen." Steel says.
The two fly towards each other and lock hands. It's a test of strength now. Lex grits his teeth. Steel's suit is proving to be stronger. Lex activates the kryptonite beams in his hands, blasting Steel off.
"AH!" Steel yells as he is blasted back. Steel looks at his hands. Lex's blasts were beginning to burn through his suit.
"Be careful Uncle John, your vitals are beginning to raise." Natasha says, as she continues to monitor.
Steel flies forward towards Lex, but Lex is able to punch Steel back. Now Lex flies forward. Steel reaches down. His hammer comes flying to him. Just before Lex reaches him, Steel gets hold of his hammer and swings. He connects with a shot to Lex's gut.
"Uh!" Lex reacts as he floats back.
Sam Lane can do nothing but watch on from the ground.
"Freeze!" A voice says from behind.
Sam turns around and sees Lois, holding a gun pointed at him.
"Lois?!" Sam reacts with surprise.
"Daddy?!" Lois reacts, equally surprised.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Sam asks.
"I came to stop Luthor." Lois says.
"Lois, this is no place for you to be." Sam says.
The two look up and watch the battle between Lex and Steel continue.
Lex shoots out more beams. But Steel is able to block them with the head of his hammer. Then a shot gets through and hits Steel in the head. Everything begins to ring. The shot cracks his mask. His left arm goes limp and he drops his hammer. Then John Henry Irons falls to the ground.
"Uncle John, Uncle John!" Natasha reacts.
"Your vitals, they're off the charts." She says, as she gets up from her computer and runs off.
John was having a heart attack. Lex slowly flies down. He looks at John twitching on the ground. Lex leans over, and rips the Superman logo from the front of Steel's suit.
"I am so tired of seeing this image." Lex says as he crushes the logo in his hands.
Lois and Sam run towards Lex's position. Before they get there, another being in a robot suit flies down. This one was smaller and more feminine looking. It was Natasha.
She got down by her uncle's side as he struggled to breath.
"Please, just let me take him." She cries out.
Lex doesn't move. Natasha picks up her uncle and flies off.
"Luthor!" Sam calls out.
Lex turns around to see Lois and Sam running towards his.
"Miss Lane, I don't believe we have an interview scheduled." Lex says.
"Can it Lex." Lois barks out.
"Lex Luthor, you are a traitor to this country. It's time to end this." Sam says.
"You're so right." Lex says.
Lex walks up to Sam and lifts his arm. Out of his armor ejects a kryptonite blade, right through Sam's chest.
"DADDY!" Lois screams out.
Sam falls to the ground as Lois drops to her knees by his side.
"Daddy, please." Lois cries out, as blood pours out from his chest.
"Lo-is." Sam says weakly just before he dies.
"Daddy no." Lois says.
Lex cleans the blood off his blade.
"I was saving that for Superman, but it doesn't seem as if he's around to help you anymore." Lex says.
Lois just lays there, crying over her father's body. Lex comes over and grabs Lois by the hair.
"Look at me when I talk to you!" Lex says.
Lois can't fight back her tears.
"It's too bad, in another life, I could have seen you by my side." Lex says.
"I would never be with you, you bastard." Lois says.
Lex smirks, he grabs Lois's face and forces a kiss on her. Lois struggles to free herself. When Lex finally releases her, she immediately spits at him. Lex wipes the spit off the chest of his armor.
"The wasn't nice." Lex says as he reaches forward at her.
Clark wakes up. He had been sleeping and had just had a nightmare. His heart was beating fast. He had the feeling something terrible was happening on Earth. But it would still be six weeks before his ship arrived home.