A.n I own Nothing

This Chapter is dedicated to the men and women of the Australian Fire Fighter service, who have been out there fighting of raging bushfires for the last 2-3 months in the worst Bushfire season yet.

This chapter is very late, but my whole country has been on fire since November 2019 last year and I have had to be on constant ready to evacuate status since early December 2019. Thankfully my area has not been burnt down or needed to evacuate yet but the fires are getting closer.

The Australian Bushfires are burning out of control and the Bushfire season is not over yet and is one of the worst we've had in over a decade. If you want more information or would like to donate to the Australian bushfire relief appeal please visit the Red Cross website or just Google Australian Bushfires 2019-2020.

Metropolis Harbour

Green Lantern, J'onn and Wonder Woman flew over the vast city of Metropolis; Flash was zigzagging through the streets below at high speed and Batman was riding in a bubble created by Lantern ring. They had received a call for help from Superman not too long ago and were headed to his location. It had the League worried because they knew how powerful superman was and the fact that Hawk Girl had volunteered to help him patrol his city earlier.

Though it was more like she forced him to take her after he mentioned he was going to have a late-night interview with a certain female reporter from the daily planet. Hawk Girl decided she would come to tease and embarrass him as it was very well known that Superman liked Lois Lane. Despite Superman's instance, it was just a professional meeting.

"We got the message, what's the emergency?" Green Lantern asked, "Is Shayera hurt?"

"Luthor, he caused massive damage during our fight and nearly sank this ship," Superman said and gestured to the ship in the harbor. emergency services were assisting the passengers and helping a Bride who was being supported by her groom and bridesmaids.

"Yesh, talk about getting cold feet," Flash commented.

"All jokes aside, where's Luthor now?" Wonder woman asked.

"He escaped while we were helping these people," Hawk Girl claimed and folded her arms.

"So, we're starting a search then," J'onn stated.

"We need to find Luthor. Superman and I will follow up some leads at Lex Corp while the rest of you search the city for him," Batman ordered.

"Has anyone seen Alucard, he mentioned a tracking spell during our Movie day," Green Lantern asked, "Maybe it could find Luthor,"

"Haven't seen him since…well you know," Superman said delicately and glanced at Batman "Besides you know how conservative he with his magic,"

Batman grunted, he turned and launched off into the night with his grapple.

"Maybe someone should go down to his castle and check on him," Flash suggested once Batman was gone "let him know what's going on up here,"

"I tried that already, his castle is locked up and not opening," Superman sighed "Just like it was after the incident with Hades,"

"But Al said it only did that because he needed to recover from the battle and the castle was protecting him while he slept," Flash claimed.

"Alucard wasn't badly hurt or as exhausted this time," J'onn claimed "It's likely he is intentionally keeping us out,"

Flash frowned and then looked at Wonder woman.

"You were in his castle for over a month, didn't he tell you how it worked or something," Flash asked.

"No, we spoke very little during that time. He asked how I was now and then but otherwise, he was rather quiet," Wonder woman answered.

"Well Alucard isn't much of a conversationalist, to begin with," Hawk Girl pointed out.

"So, we have no way to contact him nor any way to see if he's okay…Great," Flash said sarcastically.

"That is not entirely true, we know he's in his castle," J'onn claimed "his tracking device hasn't changed location since the incident with Lyudmil,"

"Let's focus just focus on finding Luthor," Superman advised. He then turned to look at J'onn "Can you do a psychic sweep of the city, Luthor was injured so he's probably gone somewhere for help,"

"That…That would be unwise," J'onn advised "I've never done something like that,"

"Can you do it or not?"

"In theory, but it will put a considerable strain on my powers and mental state. I do not know if I will be able to close this door should I open it," J'onn warned.

"We have to try," Superman said

"Very well, I will perform the scan of the city," J'onn agreed.

"Thanks, J'onn," Superman said gratefully "I'm going to meet up with Batman, see what we can find. If anyone finds any clues, call it in,"

Superman then took and headed in the direction Batman had gone to catch up with the Dark Knight.

"Everyone tries not to think too hard. It will create unnecessary noise," J'onn warned before he took off into the sky.

"Not a problem," Flash said proudly.

"For you, that is," Hawkgirl joked and she flew off. Green lantern let out a chuckle and followed Hawk Girl into the air.

"Yeah yeah your hilarious," Flash muttered, and he sped off to search the city.

"Oh, and I'm fine by the way," Hawk girl said with a small smile to green Lantern once they were in the air "thanks for asking,"

Lex Corp, Metropolis

Batman and Superman headed towards Lex Corp; Batman landed on the balcony with a large open glass door leading into it. Superman descended from the skies a few seconds later and

"You know I always wondered why Luthor would always leave his balcony door open. Especially since it leads directly into his office," Batman stated.

"It was his way of mocking me, I know he's bad and always scheming but unless he broke the law, he knew I couldn't touch him," Superman explained "he always kept it open for me,"

"Also, he has Kryptonite in his pocket," Batman said.

"Yeah that too," Superman agreed.

The two heroes walked in, the office was extra-large, but also empty. There was a desk with a computer sitting on the corner of the desk, with a phone on the opposite side a chair and a few indoor plants in the corners. The floor was carpeted with a thin red velvet fug leading to the lift and only viable exit of the office. A single bookshelf filled with the law and other begins related books was off to the side and next to it was a small table with a coffee pot, an espresso machine, and a few mugs.

The whole place gave off the vibe that whoever owned was showing they had nothing to hide when both Batman and Superman knew better.

Sitting behind the desk looking over some paperwork was a woman who appeared to still be reality young. She had long brown hair and wore a very expensive but professional blue blazer with a matching skirt.

"You know just because Lex gave you and an open invitation to drop in anytime doesn't mean I did," the woman behind the desk said without looking up "In fact, I'm going to have that door locks changed,"

"Hi Mercy," Superman greeted with a friendly smile "It's been a while,"

"You think a locked door will stop Superman?" Batman asked.

"Not long enough," the woman named Mercy replied and looked up. She noticed Batman and raised an eyebrow "Oh look you brought your dark friend, what did he run out of clowns to fight in Gotham?"

"Clowns come in all different costumes, only some are as obvious as Joker," batman said while giving Mercy an accusing look.

"What do you two want?" Mercy sighed and she put down her papers to give the two heroes her undivided attention.

"We're looking for Luthor," Superman said.

"He's not here hasn't been since he got his sorry ass thrown into Strikers Island," Mercy claimed.

"well he's out again and on the run," Batman stated.

"And your surprised?" Mercy responded.

"He nearly sank a wedding Cruise ship earlier tonight. We need to find him before he hurts anyone else," Batman insisted.

"So, you came here," Mercy finished "well like I said you wasted your time,"

"So, you won't help us," Batman said.

"I didn't say that," Mercy smirked "Of course I'll help you bring Lex down, after what he did to me and all the times, he abandoned me to save his own skin. I think I owe him a little payback,"

"That and if he did come back you would no longer be CEO of one of the most powerful companies in the world," Batman added.

"So, I want to keep the top job, that's not illegal," Mercy huffed.

"Fair enough. We're looking for places Luthor would go to hide or repair his battle suit," Superman explained "I know he has several underground safe houses and labs around the city,"

"The ones you discovered or know about Lex was quick to get rid of and I either repurposed or sold the rest of," Mercy claimed.

"Why?" Batman asked.

"Those things were a waste of resources, money and some of them were downright creepy," Mercy claimed "I can give you a list of their locations, what there used for now and who I sold them too. But I doubt Lex would go to any of them,"

"Does he know you got rid of his safe houses?" Batman asked.

"I couldn't say, it's possible but I do know that he knows that Lex Corp and the safe houses would be the first place Superman would look for him," Mercy claimed, "which is why he wouldn't go there,"

"Makes sense, unless he was trying to throw us off the trail," Batman said.

"Again, they're all gone," Mercy repeated, "Was there anything else?"

"No, just contact us if he comes here or gets in touch with you," Batman said, and he pulled a communicator from his belt and gave held it out.

"Oh, don't worry, I will," Mercy assured. As she reached for its Batman pulled it away.

"He hasn't already been here or contacted you, has he?" Batman asked suspiciously.

"We just went thought that. Now, are you going to give me the damn thing or not?" Mercy demanded "Because I still have some work to do,"

Batman narrowed his eyes and put the communicator down on her desk, he turned and walked towards the window; jumping off the balcony and swinging away into the night.

"Charming friend you have," Mercy commented "Makes me wonder how you two get along so well,"

"Yeah but you know what they say, opposites attract. Mercy How's Lex's condition," Superman asked, "Have you heard anything new,"

"You mean cancer that green rock gave him. Don't know don't care, last I heard it was still terminal," she responded. Her face suddenly changed from a tough Business owner to a look of regret and concern.

"But he's not dead yet and you and I both know Lex won't give up so easily," said in a sincere soft voice. Superman knew Lex and Mercy had been close and that she respected him, it would only be natural for her to be affected by the news.

"Right, well thank you for your help," Superman and he flew out of the office.

Superman flew down towards the street and into an alleyway not far from Lex Corp building. Sitting in the alley was the Batmobile and Batman was standing next to it waiting for Superman.

"Charming woman, Luthor molded her well," batman said.

"I don't think even Lex could take credit for Mercy. She's always been a bit bitter, though I think it's worse now that she's CEO of Lex Corp," Superman claimed.

"Understandable. Being a female CEO for a company as big as Lex Corp would be a difficult job," Batman stated.

"Yeah, so that meeting went better than I hoped," Superman said.

"Indeed, she knows something," Batman agreed. Superman gave him a confused look.

"She was a bit to corruptive and eager to help," Batman clarified "no real business owner would offer to give away information of sold or repurposed property,"

"So, what now?"

"Now we wait for her to either lead us to wherever Luthor is hiding," Batman said.

Above Metropolis city center

J'onn flew above the city streets and looked down the bustling nightlife of Metropolis below. Metropolis is a very large and busy city that had lots of people out on the streets even late at night. Most were party-goers or those heading to clubs and bars, there were lots of couples and young people about but also some older more mature adults who were enjoying all Metropolis nightlife had to offer.

J'onn looked down at the humans below him and when he was above the city's more populated and active center, he closed his eyes and opened his mind to the city's populace. At first, it wasn't so bad, J'onn was only barely touching the surface of the minds of the city's populace as he knew doing such a large psychic sweep would require a lot of mental control and if he wasn't careful then he could lose his mind as well.

J'onn flew around and through the city looking for any information on Luthor however that wasn't an easy task as the mental strain of scanning every single mind was weighing on him.

As he flew around the strain very quickly became worse and J'onn found himself struggling to focus on Luthor. He could hear everything, from petty desires to innate jealousy and the voice of one woman had wanted to kill her friend simply because they believed they would look better at the top her friend was wearing.

Another man was so frustrated with his boss and job that he was considering stealing from the company just to get noticed. A young teenager thought it was okay to steal other people's baubles and nick-knacks simply because they would not be missed and that they looked nice.

A homeless man who was not actually homeless was thinking about using the money people donated to him and making them for their stupidity of giving their precious money away. An older looking man was thinking about an outbreak of some diseases in a poverty-driven country and wished the inhabitants would hurry up and die out.

The flood of greed, negativity, and selfishness was too much, J'onn could not handle or process the city's toxic thoughts or and he was overwhelmed.

'Too much…it's too much,' J'onn thought and he tried to close off his mind but by this point, it was too late.

He couldn't close his mind and now that J'onn had lost control the thoughts of everyone in the whole city and beyond flooded into his mind and hit him all at once. J'onn struggled to stay in the air, he found it hard to focus on anything other than the endless bombardment of thoughts that now attacked his mind.

"No…Stop…." J'onn moaned in pain. However, the voices did not stop, they only got louder "Need…Need to getaway…go somewhere…somewhere quiet,"

J'onn turned and immediately flew towards the city limits as fast as he could, hoping to outrun the voices or at least get far enough away so he could regain some control. Once he was outside Metropolis city limits, he landed and fell on his hands and knees and panted heavily, trying to take deep breaths to calm down.

While the noise in his head was still very loud and mind-breaking, being away from the city helped, now he was not constantly bombarded by the thoughts of tens of thousands of people.

"J'onn, the Bat computer shows you've left city limits, where are you going?" Superman's voice came through his communicator "did you find Luthor?"

"Shut up…just Shut up!" J'onn cried in pain.

"J'onn are you alright? What's wrong?" Superman's voice asked with great concern.

However, the Martin didn't respond, he merely pulled out his earpiece and crushed it in his hand before taking off again into the night.

Above the Streets of Metropolis

Hawkgirl was flying through the cityscape looking for Luthor or any clue that could lead her to him. She was supposed to be with Green Lantern but the two split up to search a wider area. There was not much activity apart from the usual nightlife and the odd bar fight which she would have loved to stay to help break up with a well-aimed punch to the fighter's face.

However, the situation called for her to be alert and she had no time to stop for a spot of fun. She had just spied an interesting looking restraint as she passed over China town her communicator went off. Hawkgirl hovered in the air and answered it.

"Hawk Girl here," she answered.

"Hawkgirl it's Superman, J'onn's gone," Superman's voice came through.

"What do you mean he's gone? Gone where?" Hawk Girl asked.

"He just left the city,"

"Did he find Luthor?"

"I don't think so, he told me to shut up when I asked him and he sounded like he was in great pain," Superman explained.

"is he hurt,"

"I don't know, I'd like to go after him, but we need to focus on Luthor for now and we're going to have to find him without psychic help," Superman explained, "Have you found anything?"

"Apart from a hole in the wall Chinese place, I'd like to try…nothing," Hawk Girl responded, "do we even know if Luthor is still in the city?"

"He has to be, he has the most resources and influence here. He's not likely to give that up unless he has no choice," Superman reasoned.

Hawkgirl was about to respond when suddenly a loud explosion was heard, she turned to the

"What was that noise…it sounded like an explosion,"

"That's exactly what it was, looks like it came from Metropolises Chemical Plant," Hawkgirl responded "I'll go check it out and see if they need help,"

Hawkgirl flew towards the Metropolis Chemical Plant and she hovered above the building to assess the damage. Thankfully it was not the main building that was on fire but a storage area off to the side, while that was not good, as it to housed chemicals it would be easier to manage as the risk of having the whole plant catch fire was far less. The stored chemicals would be in sealed canisters and if the fire was brought under control quickly enough then there would be no chance of it spreading to the main building.

"Wonder what started the fire," Hawkgirl said to herself. She knew all chemicals were stored in sealed containers, so the chance of a spill was virtually non-existent; especially in the storage area.

"Faulty wiring or a short circuit perhaps," she mulled over, but that still didn't add up. After all, even if there was a small spark without an actual chemical spill to catch alight then the chance of a fire was near non-existent.

Unless someone didn't store the chemicals properly and that was not out of the realm of possibility.

There wasn't much Hawkgirl could do to stop or put out the fire, her powers and abilities were not suited for fires or natural disasters other than evacuating people and since it was night time there wouldn't be more than two or three security staff on-site, and Hawkgirl could see them evacuating the main building.

She could also hear sirens coming down the street, so the authorities were already on their way. She hung around until the fire brigade arrived and watched as they set up, just encase the fire spread to quickly and she would need to call Superman to put it out. Once it was clear that she was not needed, and the authorities had everything under control Hawkgirl was about to leave and return to searching for Luthor.

However, a scream prevented her from leaving, Hawkgirl looked back to the burning building to see a tall silver man with yellow eyes and no mouth walk out of the fire holding one of the chemicals completely unharmed or affected by the flames.

A few policemen who were in the process of establishing a perimeter spied the figure and immediately opened fire on the silver man. However, the bullets just bounced off him like they were nothing. As the man approached the police completely ignoring the firefighters who were too busy hosing down the flames Hawkgirl swooped down and slammed her mace into him.

The silver man dropped the canister he was carrying and was blown back towards the chemical plant. Hawk girl bent down and picked up the canister and looked at its label. The canister held some synthesized fuel, it wasn't anything particularly special, but it was highly expensive to purchase.

"Now what would you want with this?" Hawk girl asked as the sliver man stood back up.

The man didn't answer, he tilted his head to eye the canister and then looked at Hawkgirl. His eyes glowed bright yellow for a second and once the light faded wings sprouted out of his back and his hand morphed into one holding a mace identical to the one Hawkgirl was holding.

"What?" Hawkgirl gasped. However, she didn't have time to ponder what had happened as the silver man rushed forward in a way that was Identical to Hawkgirl's and slammed his mace into her chest.

Hawkgirl flew back and crashed into a police car, a couple of cops rushed over to see if she was all right.

"Okay that, hurt," she commented irritably. As she punched herself out of the car and lunched herself at the slivered man who was picking up the newly dropped canister.

Hawkgirl charged in and the two exchanged blows, while at first, it appeared Hawkgirl's strikes were faster and stronger she very quickly became overwhelmed, it was like the sliver man was teaching her fighting style and prowess the longer they fought. After a few minutes, the silver man slammed his head into Hawkgirl's and while the Thanagarian was disoriented for a moment he flew off into the sky

Hawkgirl shook her head to and refocused and flew off after the sliver man however he already had a large lead and Hawkgirl couldn't catch up. She let out a sigh and watched the silver man disappear with the stolen chemical.

"Well this night just got a whole lot more interesting," Hawkgirl commented. She reached up and touched her earpiece "Attention all Justice League, I was just attacked by a…uh…a large silver man with wings and a mace-like mine. He caused the Chemical plant fire and stole some chemicals, he may or may not be connected to Luthor,"

Once she had put the word out and got confirmation from the other League members, Hawkgirl switched off her communicator so it would no longer transmit and looked in the direction the strange silver man had flown.

"What is that thing?" Hawk Girl asked, "And where did it learn how to fight like a Thanagarian elite warrior?"