Jon watched from afar as several henchmen landed the pod right in front of the hole while connecting several wires from the sides and top. Guess they needed power but this warehouse had been shut off for a while ever since Simon Stagg was arrested. No way could they get power to make —

"What the— you, kid!" Oh no. Jon flicked his sight towards his left and saw a goon with a gun, approaching him aggressively. Jon was certainly never going to fight again with Dick, and that was for certain. Instead of engaging (although his skin could probably take it, he really didn't want his costume to be full of holes), Jon grabbed onto the rails and jumped. Thinking about it halfway, that wasn't really smart.

Jon then landed right where everyone could see him, crashing into a crate full of riffles. Guess he knew the reason for having this warehouse as the hotspot. Make a clone, give him a gun and make him run riot when the sun rises. Pretty simple but very scary when thinking about it.

"Welly well well," began Riddler's slightly muffled voice from the inside of the pod. "If my eyes do not deceive me, I believe the Man of Steel is looking a little younger!"

He guffawed at Jon moving his cape off his face and carefully treading away from the riffles. Considering how many crates there were, Riddler could overrun Metropolis in hours with an army of himself. He looked around to see if he could catch Robin at all but to no avail. He was definitely not going crime fighting with Dick.

"Uh, h-hello," Jon smiled nervously. Riddler crossed his arms, unimpressed. "I'm gonna have to ask you to… not take over Metropolis…"

Riddler mockingly cupped his ear and mimicked Jon's timid voice, saying, "I'm sorry, I didn't hear that — what did the little runt say?"

"I… I said that you're not gonna take over Metropolis."

Chuckles came from all around while Riddler laughed the hardest. If Jon was going to make it then he really needed to work on his presence. "You, a child? Come up against me? Do not insult my genius, my intellect! Do you not know who I am?! Who I have come up against when…?"

Jon heard the skidding of fabric against metal before thuds and muffled screaming became apparent — to him. Nobody who were laughing at him currently seemed to notice but him.

"Stall for me…"

"… I won't allow a child to stand here, attempting to stand in my way," Riddler continued to rant. "Bring me Superman or nobody at all!"

"You, uh — you said that a kid trying to stop you is insulting but… I solved your little plan in your hobo shack down in your grandma's old home — I'm sorry, secret lair." Jon didn't know what he was doing but it worked when Riddler seemingly paused, pressing his lips together.

"What did you say to me?"

"I said that… I said that…"

"He said that you're a second rate nobody who's got found out by a bunch of kids." A voice from nowhere came before two goons had their skulls crash into each other by a figure flipping over their heads. They catapulted through the air next to Jon. "Sorry about that, Superboy. I tried to find the source of the power but it was too late to cut it off. We need to break that thing otherwise it'll be too late. Ready?"

"So you leave me alone to deal with — you know what, yeah, I'm ready," Jon huffed, frustrated from how haphazard this night was. Now he just wanted to go home.

"You!! He did it again! He sent you again to stop me instead of coming here himself," Riddler screamed, hitting against the pane of the pod. "Why must the Bat be so cowardly?! To send his offspring!! No more! We'll see how he likes it when I hang a skinned Robin from on top of the tallest building in Metropolis!!"

Jon, leaning in, whispered, "He really hates you, huh?"

"All part of the job. Go!!"

As the duo began to take on Riddler's henchmen, Jon could see the Riddler activate a switch which began to charge up the pod that he was in, filling it with bluish white energy that began to bathe the Riddler like he was being reborn. 'I've gotta block that hole! Wait…'

Jon diverted away from Robin who disappeared in a cloud of smoke and aimed towards the truck — he shield his face and charged through seven goons like a battering ram, causing Riddler to curse in a rage fit. Without a second's hesitation, Jon grabbed onto the back end of the truck and lifted it as much as he could, surprising himself that it was so easy — granted that he never tested his strength properly. He then jammed the whole at an awkward angle, making sure that it didn't slip through.

"Riddle me this, Superboy," Riddler snarled with contempt, "what's infantile, small and quite frankly impossible to—"

"No one cares!" shouted Jon at the top his lungs, lunging to the pod as he swung at it, just as it was almost done with its charging cycle. Jon didn't know that at all. A surge of energy blew Jon back as he crashed straight through the wall and rolled violent outside. 'Why did I do that? Just… why?'

He slowly got up to his feet and brushed himself off when he realised something horrible — from his left pectoral all the way down to his arm and his right leg and shoe was his costume scorched off. The 'S' was halfway off from falling and his cape was halfway torn. Also he did feel little tired, like his energy had been drained. Quickly realising that the energy surge could've hurt Robin, he rushed back inside.

"Please be okay, please be okay!" Robin, costume also torn was struggling to standing as he looked worse off than Jon. His left arm looked pretty stiff and well… it wasn't a pretty sight to see. "Robin! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to— Robin? Robin, talk to me! Dick!!"

Sounds of groaning came from behind him as he saw Riddler, his clothes completely burnt off, stumbling away from the pod. He didn't look hurt at all, oddly enough and what was odder was that the pod was still glowing brighter and brighter. Jon masked his eyes, having shut as hard as he could until it stopped. It was over. Riddler was down, Robin was hurt but looked okay, on the inside at least, when Jon x-rayed him. Not how he planned this night going—

A grotesque scream came from inside the pod that it shook Jon to the bone. He carefully laid Robin back down and slowly closed in to the smoke filled, seemingly damaged pod. Something wasn't right with this. A silhouette on the inside was twisting and turning, screaming like a newborn child as Jon insides felt like it was being clawed at. More writhing and screaming until it stopped…

Suddenly the pod exploded as whatever was inside forced its way out, crawling on the floor before standing up again like an animal on its rear legs. What Jon was starting at seemed to be an abomination. A complete abomination. It was like someone had taken the corpses of both his own and Riddler's and stitched them together in the most inhumanly manner possible. Skin had a horrible green tint and its yellow eyes were demented enough on its own to tell Jon that he had to be scared. Whatever he did made something that was like him and the Riddler. A creature of the night, and it was staring at Jon. Only at Jon…