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Batman stood next to Hawkgirl in the Watchtowers monitor womb, he was typing away and looking at various systems and scans of the planet below. It had been 5hrs since the League had discovered Metropolis missing and presumed destroyed. After all that time, he and the league were no closer to finding out what had happened.
After failing to find any information on what happened to the Metropolis planet side Batman returned to the Watchtower to assist Hawkgirl leaving the rest of the League on earth. He sent Flash to the surrounding towns of Metropolis to see if he could gather any more information; even though Batman himself doubted they would learn anything new. While Wonder Woman and J'onn kept looking for any clues as well as keeping an eye on a very distraught and guilt-ridden Superman.
Hoping that some other satellites saw what happened, Batman had attempted to access both the Wayne Tech Satellites and Luthor Corp satellites that were in the area, however, they didn't record anything, which was extremely odd and set Batman's paranoid detective mode off.
Batman double checked all other satellites on the Metropolis side of the plant and found that for at least an hour, they had all their recording systems disabled. Even the Watchtowers' monitoring and recording systems were affected. This along with the fact that Alucard was missing had Batman convinced that something had attacked earth while the League had been on Apokolips. But he couldn't figure out who.
Batman went through a mental list of possibilities.
Destroying cities was not the MO of any of the more aggressive lantern corps, but they tended to stay away from the more heavily Green Lantern protected plants, like earth. The red lanterns were conquered and an exception as they loved to devastate Green Lantern planets that was true, but they didn't vaporize cities. Destroy and leave planets in ruins yes, vaporize…no.
Darkside was out for obvious reasons as was Brainiac as both fought the league on Apokolips. The Man Hunters only killed people but left buildings alone, plus Green Lantern still had yet to return from redirecting the asteroid. So, it couldn't have been them either.
Luthor was a suspect as well, but as much as he hates Superman, he would never even consider destroying Metropolis to get to Superman, as there would be no point.
Batman had asked Hawkgirl if she knew any races who would attack a planet the way Metropolis had and she claimed she knew of 3, but they were all far away from earth. Two of those worlds were in the middle of an intergalactic war with each other and the third only ever attacked other races if provoked first. Since earth had never had contact with this third race there was no chance it was them either.
Batman tried once more to locate Alucard, even bosting the signal range, but like before he still could not locate the Leagues Vampiric ally.
"Batman, maybe we should take a break," Hawk Girl advised.
"We can't,"
"But we're not getting anything up here," She pointed out "Perhaps we missed something at the site, we should go down there and have another look,"
"The others are down there, if they learned something new, they would have reported it already," Batman snapped. He was getting irritated.
Hawk Girl let out a sigh "Well you don't have to be rude about it,"
Batman stopped what he was doing, he knew Hawk Girl was right. He opened his mouth and was about to say something else when the coms went off.
"Wonder Woman to the watchtower," Wonder woman voice came through the console.
"Diana, have you found anything new?" Batman asked hopefully.
"No, have you seen Superman?"
"Isn't he down there with you?" Hawk Girl asked.
"He was but he took off an hour ago and hasn't come back. I tried calling him but I think he turned off his com unit," Wonder Woman claimed "I'm worried about him, he was supposed to help me and J'onn with the influx of concerned people that have gathered,"
About an hour after the League discovered Metropolis missing, people from nearby smaller towns and commodities started to make their way to the site of where the grand city once stood and with the intention of helping in some way. While the gesture was nice and apricated, the League did not want to risk that there might be lingering dangers in the area that they had not detected. With the help of Flash and Superman, they were able to set up the eager volunteers a safe distance away.
after a few hours, the league had hundreds of people showing up and camping up at the designated safe area. At first wonder woman and Superman had been dealing with them and explaining the situation, but as more people arrived it had been getting harder and harder to keep the growing crowd under control.
"Which direction did he take off in?" Batman asked.
"East, why?"
Batman nodded, there was only one place south of Metropolis that Superman would go to and quite frankly, Batman did not blame him. If he had the option to go where Superman was headed, he likely would go himself.
"Don't worry, I know where he's gone," Batman said "we should leave him be for a while,"
"And just where has he gone?" Hawk Girl asked.
"Home," Batman answered. The tone of voice was very clear he was not going to elaborate on the subject. "Have J'onn help you instead,"
"Will do, any more news on your end?" Wonder Woman asked.
"We got a message from Green Lantern. He's on his way back and will be here in 2hrs," Hawk Girl answered "Other than that nothing,"
"I see…keep us updated," Wonder Woman finished and she cut the line. Hawk Girl glanced over at Batman, the dark knight was already back at work, she shook her head before running another scan on the affected site.
The clouds above Smallville
Superman floated in the clouds above a large country area used mainly for farming. He looked down at the small farmhouse below. Focusing his x-ray vision, he looked inside and saw an elderly couple rushing about gathering things. As if they were about to leave on a long trip and we're running late. Superman smiled, he locked his eyes and listened to the conversation that they were currently having.
"Martha, do you have the thirmist ready yet?" the man asked.
"Just coming now," the woman, responded "Did you get the camping gear yet,"
"It's in the truck, we ready to go?" the man asked.
"Almost, the Apple pie needs a few more minutes,"
"Do we have time for that? It's a six-hour drive to Metropolis, we need to get going,"
"Jonathan Kent, our son is most likely hurt. Both physical and emotional and there is nothing that makes him feel better than my homemade apple pie,"
"Our son is invulnerable remember, he can't be hurt,"
"Just because his body is invulnerable does not mean his heart is,"
"I know, I know. But it's a 6hr drive to a Metropolis, your pies will be stone cold by the time we reach arrive,"
"Clark has heat vision, the pie being cold is not a problem,"
"and the other thee you already made?"
"Well, his super friends might need cheering up too and Clark has said Flash has a big appetite," Martha claimed.
Superman chose then and there to stop listening in. He had a genuine fond smile on his face, he hovered in the air for a bit longer, making sure there was no one else around or coming down the road. Once he was sure it was safe, he floated down towards the farmhouse and landed on the porch. He reached out and knocked on the door.
Superman heard the sounds of preparation stop and footsteps approaching the door. A second later the door opened to reveal an elderly man with a fit frame and a bit of beer gut. He had grey hair combed back neatly and wore a pair of spectacles. He had a light brown shirt on and work pants.
The man stared at Superman in shock for a moment before pulling him into a hug.
"Hi Dad," Superman said and he returned the hug.
"Clark?" Martha asked in surprise as she came over. Jonathan pulled away to let the woman hug Superman. Like her husband, Mather had Gray hair and was wearing a purple top with a floral skirt "thank goodness you're alright,"
"I'm fine mum, can I stay here for a bit?" Superman asked.
"Of course, come in come in," Martha said and pulled her son into the house. Once he was inside Jonathan shut the door.
Superman was dragged over to the kitchen table and he sat down with his father while Martha insisted on making them all a cup of tea.
"What happened, son? Are you alright we saw the news and thought the worst," Jonathan claimed "we were just about to drive out to find you,"
"I know, I heard," Superman claimed, he then looked down in shame "Sorry I made you worry,"
"Don't be, we're just glad you're alright," Martha said from the kitchen.
"Is it true? Was all of Metropolis destroyed?" Jonathan asked in concern.
"I…don't know. There's nothing left of the city that's true," Superman agreed.
"I'm sorry son," Jonathan said and placed a comforting hand on Superman's shoulder "But there have to be some survivors, maybe they're trapped under the debris and rubble,"
"No, it's not like that, I mean there is nothing left. There's no bodies, no debris nothing. There's is also no evidence to support instant incineration or anything like that…the Metropolis is just gone," Superman explained "just scorched earth,"
"But that doesn't make sense," Martha said as she came over with the tea on a tray. She handed a cup to Superman who took it gratefully and then handed one to Johnathan before sitting down herself. "Why don't you tell us what happened, perhaps if we walk through it, we can figure it out,"
"I don't know what happened, I wasn't even they're at the time," Superman said "I wasn't even on the planet,"
"What do you mean?" Jonathan asked.
"We…as in the Justice League. We were off-world, we were fighting Brainiac on another planet at the time and when we got back, Metropolis was gone,"
"Oh honey," Martha sympathised.
"It's my fault mum, I shouldn't have left…I shouldn't have gone…if I hadn't, I could have stopped whatever did that to my city,"
"You couldn't have known this would happen and besides, that other planet needed you and you did the right thing by going to their aid," Jonathan tried.
"But I didn't want to go, I didn't want to fight Brainiac. I was perfectly happy and content to let him wipe the world he was invading out of the universe forever," Superman hissed "If fact I even said I would send Brainiac a thank you card for doing it,"
Jonathan and Martha stared at their son in shock, Clark was a lot of things but hateful and vindictive was not one of them.
"Clark, we raised you better than that, what world would you possibly let brainiac destroy and even be grateful if it was destroyed by Brainiac?" Jonathan scolded.
"Apokolips," Superman said "It was Darkside who asked for help,"
"Oh…Ah…well you still did the right thing by going to help him," Martha said. Both Superman parents knew what Darkside had done to their son and they now understood why Clark would want that planet destroyed. But they both knew deep down their son would not go through with it.
"Going back there nearly got me killed by both Brainiac and Darkside and put my friends in a lot of danger too," Superman said angrily "I should've just let those two kill each other,"
"Honey you can't think like that,"
"Why not? They deserve it, after everything both of those warlords have done, they deserve to die. Now because I was away helping someone who didn't deserve it Meterppois is gone," Superman snapped. The anger and rage could be seen all over his face.
"Son, listen to yourself. You angry and upset," Jonathan reasoned "You feel guilt for something beyond your control and you're blaming yourself,"
"He's right, you need to focus on the positives," Martha agreed.
"What positives?" Superman asked.
"You still with us," she responded "it is a tragedy what happened, but your father and I are grateful you are still with us and that gives everyone else hope,"
"She's right Clark. What about the rest of your caped friends? Are they hurt?"
"No, they're fine…they were off-world with me and Green Lantern who we left behind was dealing with a stray asteroid at the time," Superman answered.
"See positives, none of the league are missing and are all safe and accounted for," Jonathan claimed.
Superman looked down in sadness and stared at his cup of tea "Actually…that's not quite true…Alucard is missing," he said sadly.
"Alucard?" Martha asked in confusion. She looked at her husband but Jonathan shrugged. They had both heard Clarks talk about the Justice League and its members since its formation the elderly couple was relieved that Clark had friends who were like him. They already knew about Batman, and now he had others he could relate to. The elderly couple had started calling them the Super Friends and pestered Clark for information about them whenever he visited or called.
But both were Superman's parents were sure he had not mentioned some called Alucard before.
Superman nodded and chose his next words carefully, while he had no issues telling his parents about the rest of the League, he was hesitant to tell them about Alucard. They worried enough about him as it was and if he told them he was friends with a real live vampire it might make them worry even more.
"Alucard is…an ally of the Justice League. He has a vast array of powers like the rest of us," Superman explained "he's been working with the league on several cases for a while now,"
"Why haven't you mentioned him before?" Jonathan asked.
"That's…a little harder to explain. But he's very anti-social and doesn't want to be known. The league and I respect that and we don't mention him to the public," Superman explained "Alucard was in the city when whatever happened to it and we can't find him either as a result,"
"Clark, I know you don't like to think about it," Martha said gently "but have you considered the possibility that your friend died?"
"No, not possible," Superman answered seriously "He's definitely still alive,"
"How do you know?" Jonathan asked.
Superman opened his mouth to answer however the house phone chose that moment to ring. Everyone at the table turned to look at the phone on the wall in the kitchen. Jonathan sighed and got up muttering about how the phone always rang at the worst possible times. He picked it up to answer it.
"Hello," Jonathan answered. "Oh, hi Bruce…yes he's here, I'd ask how you knew, but that would pointless. Clark been telling us what happened, how are you holding up?"
Superman raised an eyebrow and wondered how and when Batman got his parent's phone number. Jonathan pulled the phone away from his face and covered the speaker with his hand. He turned and looked over to the table.
"Clark Bruce is on the phone, he says it's urgent," Jonathan announced.
Superman got up and walked over, he took the phone from his dad. "Do I even want to know how you know this number?" he asked.
"Get back to the tower, we've got something," Batman's voice came through and then he hung up.
Superman hung up the phone and walked back to the table. "I have to go, Batman found something," he said "Sorry,"
"It's alright, the pie will keep," Martha assured.
"I hope so, I could smell it a mile away," Superman smiled "I'd better go,"
"Here's hoping it's good news," Jonathan said as Superman walked out the front door. A second later there was a loud boom indicating Superman had flown off.
"Me too," Martha agreed.
Superman flew directly upwards into space; it did not take him long to reach the watchtower and once he arrived J'onn was outside the tower facing away from earth. Superman flew up to him.
"J'onn, what's going on, has Batman found something?" he asked hopefully.
"No, but something small is approaching earth at high speeds," J'onn answered
"Green Lantern?" Superman asked.
"It's too soon for Lantern to return," J'onn responded "we're on alert just encase,"
Superman nodded and looked in the direction that the Martian Manhunter was facing and waited with bated breath. Superman secretly hoped that whatever was headed their way was something he could punch. Because he and the league were not in a good mood right now.
A few moments later Hawk Girls' voice filled their coms. "Whatever it is, it's coming now," she warned.
A second later and a streak of red and white could be seen heading straight towards the earth. It was moving at such an incredible speed that it completely bypassed the watchtower and headed straight for earth before the heroes could stop it. However, instead of colliding with the planet, the streak broke of course, and headed back into space, heading towards the watchtower.
It suddenly collided with Superman, throwing the man of steel back into space. J'onn flew after him but saw there was a white dog with a cape liking Superman's face and the man of steel trying to push the animal off him.
"Krypto…what?" he asked in surprise "Stop that,"
J'onn raised an eyebrow and floated over to Superman and the dog.
"Superman do you know this dog?" J'onn asked.
"Yeah, he's mine," Superman answered "and he's supposed to be guarding my Fortress in the artic with Streaky,"
"Streaky?"
"My cousins' cat," Superman claimed and he finally got Krypto off him. "What are you doing out here?"
Krypto barked a few times and then bit down on the Superman's cape and pulled it towards the stars, away from earth. As if he was trying to get the man of steel to follow him.
"Hey stop that, I've told you not to bite my cape," Superman
Krypto let go and barked again before looking back out towards the stars. Superman got the feeling that whatever Krypto was trying to tell him was important and while he would normally follow the dog, he was hesitant to leave earth again. At least until he knew what happened to Metropolis.
"J'onn can you read his mind?" Superman asked the Martin next to him. Krypto looked at the Martin expectantly.
"I don't like to read the minds of animals, they are to instinctual and difficult to make sense of," J'onn stated. Krypto's eyes narrowed in response and he growled and the dog focused his thoughts. Suddenly J'onn was bombarded with telepathic images.
The first was of an image of Metropolis being attacked by robot drones, then a dark metallic corridor, and finally an image of Alucard looking into Krypto's' eyes.
"Find Superman, bring the League here…hurry" Alucard instructed.
J'onn moaned and shook his head. He hadn't been but the dogs' thought had been so strong he could not help pick them up. He noticed that Superman was giving him a worried look.
"Superman…your dog knows where Alucard and the city is," J'onn announced "I think they're under attack, we need to hurry,"
J'onn relayed the message the announcement to the rest of the league and in under a minute the Javelin launched and was out floating in space with the Lasso of Truth looped around the front end, the rest of the Justice league inside, ready to go. Krypto zoomed off into space once more. This time followed by Superman and J'onn flying close behind and the Javelin just being pulled along by Superman behind them.
'Please let me be in time,' Superman prayed. He would not fail the city a second time.
Deep Space
Green lantern was flying through space at top speed, he had only recently finished re-directing the comet filled with Manhunters away from the Milky Way Sol system. It had taken a lot of energy and Jhon would need to be careful with his remaining energy if he wished to get back to earth before his ring ran out. Luckily, it turned out another green lantern by the name of Arisia Rrab been looking for the same asteroid that John had been drifting away and she was happy to assist Jhon. Arisia had been with him when he received a call from the Watch Tower to return to earth immediately, he didn't know what was happing back on his home planet but it sounded urgent. Once the two lanterns had dealt with the Manhunters stary comet, Arisia let him use her power Battery for a quick charge so he could get back to earth faster.
So here he was, sorting through the galaxy at high speeds, thanks to recharge his ring had plenty of energy and he would be back on earth sooner than he originally anticipated. He was just coming up on Mars,
Jhon slowed down a bit as he flew over the Red Planet, ever since meeting J'onn J'onzz he would stop by mars if he passed by it. To offer a small prayer for the rest of J'onns race, he had often thought about scanning the planet for any kind of evidence or remains of J'onns society, but he wasn't sure what he would be looking for and he knew J'onn did not like to talk about his time on mars so Green Lantern had never broached the subject or done the scan.
Today he didn't have time to stop, however, as he was flying by the Red Planet, he spotted something approaching him at extreme speeds. John moved out of the way just in time to see Krypto zoom up to him.
"What the?" he asked a bit confused, as he watched the dog zoom by "was that dog wearing a cape?"
Now John had seen a lot of strange things being a Green Lantern and working with the Justice League, but a dog with a cape in space was definitely in the top 5. Suddenly both Superman and J'onn dashed past him as well, following the dog, they didn't bother stopping.
"Huh…Superman? What is he doing out here? Did I miss something?"
It was only a second after that John noticed that Superman was holding one end of the Lasso of Truth. Green Lantern didn't have time to ponder what the man of steel was doing with Wonder Woman's Lasso as the Javelin passed him by, being dragged by Superman.
Green Lantern blinked once more, just as confused, and stared
"Hey wait up," he called out before giving chase to his friends. It didn't take him long to catch up, and he looked in the Javelins cockpit as he passed it to see that the whole League was inside (Minus Alucard) He flew up next to J'onn and Superman.
"What's going on?" he asked, knowing there had to be a real emergency to leave earth undefended and for all of them to be out in space.
"Metropolis is gone, Alucard's missing, and Superman's dog knows where they are," J'onn summarised.
"Gone? What do you mean it's gone?" Green Lantern asked.
J'onn filled Green Lantern in on what they had discovered after returning from Apokalpse, the Martin provided by some telepathic images to help Green Lantern understand the severity of the situation.
The league followed Krypto deep into space until he stopped just above Jupiter's orbit. The rest of the league stopped and Batman began to put the Javelin in hover mode so it would not be pulled into the Gas Giants orbit. Superman looked around, he didn't see any ships or any sign that someone had been here.
"I don't get it, where's Alucard?" Superman asked.
Krypto barked and gestured towards the planet below. Superman's eyes widened and he immediately activated his Supervision. J'onns eyes glowed yellow as he scanned the area for any thought patterns.
"There in the gas, it's a ship," Superman announced "I see it,"
"Superman the Javelin can't go into Jupiter; the high density of the gas will crush us. You need to get it out first," Batmans' voice came over the coms.
J'onn, Lantern, Krypto let's get it out of there," Superman order. The four of them dove into the planet's atmosphere, it was toxic and smelt terrible, however, J'onns race had been spacefaring, the two Kryptonians could easily stand up to the pressure and Lanterns ring had protected him from any and all effects from Jupiter's Gases.
Thankfully the ship was not too far deep into the Gas Giant. However, the group stopped just above the ship and Superman stared at it in shock.
"hold on…that ship…it's Brainiacs," Supermans gasped.
"But wasn't he on Apokolips?" Green Lantern asked.
"He was," Superman growled.
"Everyone, I can sense Alucard on that ship," J'onn announced.
Supermans activated his x-ray vision, turning his eyes bright blue. "I see him, he's on the top deck in a control room of some kind," he claimed "and…there's someone else with him,"
"Brainiac?" J'onn asked.
"No, a human,"
"No one tell Flash that Alucard has been making friends without him," Green Lantern joked.
"There are also four drones surrounding him and the human," Superman claimed "Let's give them a hand,"
J'onn and Green Lantern nodded. Krypto, Superman, and J'onn got behind the ship and pushed while Green Lantern created a large energy field around the ship and began to tow it. Between the four of them, they were able to get the ship out of Jupiter and next to the Javelin.
Inside Brainiacs ship.
Michael and Alucard stood on what Michael had dubbed the Ships Bridge. It was a large room with a single chair in the middle and several holographic screens were illuminating the room. Michael sat in the chair and was fiddling with the screens. Four small metallic floating balls were hovering around and interacting with different projection screens via small electrical zaps. Meanwhile, Alucard was leaning against the wall watching the small metallic orbs drift by and work. He had no idea about earth's modern-day technology so he was content to let Michael take the lead and wait for the human to figure out how to get the ship up and running again.
Suddenly the whole ship jerked forward violently, causing Michael to nearly fall out of his chair and Alucard to lurch forward.
"What was that?" Michael asked urgently. The ship felt like it was moving up out of the atmosphere, Michael quickly checked his screens "This isn't me, I didn't do this,"
Suddenly the roof of the bridge tore open and Superman burst in, followed by Batman. Taking a quick look around Superman blasted two of the small circle drones with his heat vision and Batman took the other two with twin exploding Batarangs.
"My T-Spheres," Michael panicked and gripped his head with his hands "those were my mid-term Project," Michael protested.
"I believe we have been found," Alucard stated calmly as the League filed into the hole that Superman left minus Green lantern.
Alucard walked up to the group and the League relaxed at seeing him. Michael however remained where he was, he was unsure if he should approach the group of heroes or not.
"Al are you alright?" Flash asked, worry filling his voice, and hugged the vampire.
"I am as well as I can be…but I am unharmed if that is what you are asking," Alucard responded, however, he did not return the hug. Flash let go and Superman approached him.
"Hold on, you know the Justice League?" Michael exclaimed. Flash looked over at him and grinned his usual big smile.
"Yep, me and Al are besties, aren't we Al?" Flash declared and placed his arm over Alucard's shoulder bringing the vampire in close to him to prove it. Alucard merely tilted his head slightly.
"Bestie?" Alucard asked confused and uncertain at the term.
"That's right we're besties that are better than all the resties," Flash declared.
Alucard looked at the rest of the League for answers. Superman was shaking his head, Batman was giving Flash one of his famous Bat Glares, Wonder Woman let out a small chuckle and Hawk Girl pinched the bridge of her nose. J'onn was stoic and unreadable.
"Focus Flash," Batman snapped.
"Where's Brainiac?" Superman demanded.
"Dead…I think,"
"You think?" Batman asked.
Alucard nodded. "I have killed many versions of Brainiac today, it has been…an interesting day,"
"What happened exactly," Hawk Girl asked "When we got back Metrlpios was gone and we couldn't find you,"
Alucard explained what had happed, from Brainiacs initial attack on the city and how he and Krypto had done their best to defend it but still failed. Then he went into how the whole population of the city was unconscious for some time afterward, his discovery that Metropolis was inside a bottle, how Krypto and Alucard helped people who were trapped but couldn't save everyone, and finally how Michael came up with the idea of using Luthors satellite array on top of Lex Corp to call for help but was destroyed by brainiac.
"Hold on…you broke into Lex Corp?" Superman asked, "and destroyed the top half of the building?"
"Well, technically we were only on the roof, not inside the building itself," Michael supplied "so not breaking in,"
"But how did you survive brainiacs assault on the Lex Corp?" Wonder Woman asked.
"A wired black dome saved us," Michael answered "though it brought more problems than Brainiacs missiles did,"
"A wired black dome?" J'onn asked.
"Flash do you remember me telling you about a new power I discovered and how it was dangerous?" Alucard asked.
"Yeah, you said it was uncontrollable," Flash remembered, "had you freaked out for a while, why?"
"it…flared up when brainiac attacked…it was my power that created that dome and destroyed half of Lex Corp," Alucard said regretfully. "I am thankful no-one was hurt…except brainiac,"
"We will discuss this later," Batman said in a no-nonsense tone "For now where is Metropolis?"
"It is located further in the ship," Alucard answered.
"Krypto and Mister Hero flew out of the bottle and I came with them, good thing I did otherwise they would have been stuck," Michael smiled.
"What do you mean?" Wonder woman asked.
Michael and Alucard explained how they were small and everything that happened after escaping the bottle. Then they talked about finding a console and hacking it for information. Though the league was curious as to why Michael thought the earth had been destroyed.
"After I hacked the console we were discovered, Krypto and Mister Hero here fought them off and once they were dealt with, we sent Krypto to get help," Michael explained.
Krypto barked in confirmation.
"We then continued through the ship, with Mister Hero cutting down any of Braiancs forces and I mean that latterly. He used his sword to slice them all in half and into small pieces," Michael claimed "then they suddenly stopped,"
"Stopped?" Superman asked confused.
"Correct…they just stopped as did this ship," Alucard confirmed.
"Yeah, it was like they all just shut down at once," Michael agreed "Unfortunately so did the ship's functions, we came up here to get the engines and air going again,"
"Hold on, you not only hacked into Brainiac's network but you were able to get his ship up and running and take control of it by yourself?" Batman asked, he was impressed.
"Oh yeah, it wasn't that hard at all. I'm a genius when it comes to computers," Michael boasted "Advanced technology is my bread and butter. Anything that I can't crack on my own I have my T-Spheres for…at least I did until you lot destroyed them,"
"Sorry," Superman muttered "Alucard can you take me to where my city is?"
Alucard nodded and walked out of the bridge with Superman following. Once they were gone Michael looked at the rest of the Justice League.
"Um, so is the earth really okay and not destroyed?" he asked.
"it's fine, the only thing missing from it is Metropolis," Hawk Girl answered.
"That's a relief," Michael sighed.
"Why did you think it was destroyed, to begin with?" Wonder Woman asked.
"When I hacked into that console, I found brainiacs plans, he planned on working with someone called Darkside to lure Superman away from earth, and once he was gone Brainiac would steal his city before blowing up the planet with someone called Darkside after they had killed Superman," Michael explained.
"Well, that matches up with what happened on apocalypse," Flash stated.
"It does…roughly what time was it when Brainiac stopped working and the ship shut down?" Batman asked. A theory forming in his mind already.
"Um…it was about five or six hours ago, why?"
Batman looked at the league, that was around the time they had destroyed Brainiac on Apokolips and defeated Darkside. It matched to perfection.
"You don't think that when we beat Brainiac on Apokolips, it caused a mass shutdown here do you?" Hawk Girl asked.
"It's possible, Brainiac creates copies of and clones of himself to do more work, they're all connected to the original. Like a hive mind," Batman explained "We know that the original was on Apokolips so it's highly likely that destroying him shut down his clones and drones here,"
"oh, well thanks for that I guess," Michael said.
"By the way, who are you exactly?" Flash asked, "and how do you know Al?"
"Oh, I'm Michael Holt, I'm a student at Metropolis U" Michael introduced. "I met your buddy right before the attack and I've been hanging out with him ever since,"
Batman committed the name to memory, he would need
"So Alucard's the name of Mister Hero huh, wired name,"
"you mean he didn't tell you?" Flash asked.
"Nah, I've been calling him, dude, or man and Mister Hero since I met him," Michael claimed "Nice to have a name to put to the face,"
At that moment Superman and Alucard walked back into the control room. Superman was holding the bottle containing a miniature Metropolis.
"I found the city but Brainiac shrunk it," Superman said sadly.
"Can it be restored?" J'onn asked.
"I don't know," Superman answered.
"We'll deal with that later, lets get back to earth," Batman said "you can blow this ship up after we leave,"
"Hold on that's not a good idea," Michael said "I'm still going over this ships files but I think there may be a way to restore the city,"
"Really?"
"Yeah, looks like the process can be reversed, but we'll need the ship to do it,"
"I suppose I can blow it up later," Superman said.
With the combined might of the Justice League, it did not take long to get Brainiac's damaged ship back to earth. Green Lantern kept his energy bubble around it, preventing the ship from tearing itself apart from the inside out due to the differences in atmospheric pressure. Michael spent the entire trip back to earth going through Brainiacs files and trying to find the right commands to restore Metropolis, with Batman watching and observing him.
Once they got back to earth Green Lantern created an air tunnel so that Alucard, Batman and Michel could get onto the Watchtower safely, the rest of the league very carefully moved the other Bottled cities out of the ship and into the Watchtower for safe keeping. Michel was thrilled to be on the Justice Leagues space station and Superman told him he could stay until they had figured out how to restore the city.
It took another few days to get work out the process, during that time Green Lantern sent a message to the Guardians of Oa asking for help in locating new planets for the other shrunken cities. After a few days of running tests and simulations, the Justice League finally took Metropolis back down to earth and began the process of restoring Supermans city…or they should be, but Hawk Girl and Flash had encountered a problem.
"You know I think it needs to be more to the left," Flash said.
"It's fine how it is," Hawk Girl snapped back.
"Dose it matter if it's off by a centimeter or two?"
"It might, I don't know I've never regrown a city before," Flash argued.
Michael arrived with Green Lantern after the rest of the league had already gathered, he had some final adjustments to make on Brainiacs ship to reverse what the AI did to the city. When he arrived, he walked over to Alucard who was standing with Batman and Wonder Woman.
"All done?" Batman asked without looking at Michael.
"Yep, the ship is all set," Michael smiled "What are those two arguing about?"
"They are trying to get the city in the exact position as it was before," Alucard answered "however they can not agree on weather it is perfect where it is or if it needs to be moved to the left,"
"Dose something like this happen often?" Michael asked.
"More than you think," Batman huffed.
"Huh," Michel responded "You know for being ultra-powerful beings from beyond the stars, you guys are pretty human,"
"What does that mean?" Wonder Woman asked.
"Nothing, it's just nice," Michael claimed "Anyway, why don't they ask the guy with Supervision to settle this?"
They looked up to see Superman hovering above the city site watching the argument below.
"Hey Superman, is it good where it is?" Michael called out to the man of steel.
Both Hawk Girl and Flash stopped arguing and looked up Superman for his input.
"A little more to the left," Superman smiled.
Once the bottle had been moved and everyone had been evacuated to a safe area, Michael activated Brainiacs ship and the city immediately began to grow and grow until it was back to its original size. The whole process took less than a minute and when it was complete, Metropolis once again filled the horizon for all to see.