Chapter 4

Metropolis

A bus filled to the rim with children leisurely made its way down the road and onto the upcoming bridge; each child was ecstatic for their first field-trip, screaming and laughing as the driver smiled. It wasn't the best job but, he enjoyed it regardless.

Suddenly, one of the support beams to the bridge bent and warped from decades of without care, the asphalt began to crumble without the support just before the bus passed over it. Two massive steel wires holding the bridge together snapped and fell the ground shattering the cars ahead of the bus.

The driver screeched to a halt as the bus went over the curb and hit the guard-rail, all seemed relatively safe until an incoming six-teen wheeler honked its intense bull-horn as it too attempted to break, however; with its size and speed it didn't make the stop in time knocking into the bus and pushing it over the guard-rail.

From above in the highest-pent house level of Wayne Enterprises stood Bruce Wayne, looking down on the incident he frowned. He removed the head to a bust sitting on his desk pressing the button beneath; a drawer popped open in front of him releasing his armor prepared to act until he heard the sound barrier brake.

Just as all hope was lost and people assumed they'd hear the mortality report on the news that evening; Superman came to their rescue, flying underneath the bridge and using his heat-vision to seal wounds in the structure.

Unbeknownst to either of them, Superboy came leaping from the city landing on the bridge with a loud-crash, his landing caused the entire bridge to shake further but, Superman below compensated for the extra force.

Superboy began pulling cars and trucks off the edge of death but, as he got to the bus, he gripped its bumper and pulled with all of his strength. He would have succeeded too if not for the bumper ripping off completely sending the bus off the bridge; he tossed the bumper aside, "No!" he shouted looking over the edge to find nothing in the water.

Superman came floating from below holding the bus above his head whilst glaring down at Superboy; placing the bus down safely, the two confronted one another.

"I almost had that!" he shouted angrily as Superman didn't let his scowl fade.

"Almost isn't good enough, your landing could have destabilized the bridge as it is," Superman replied folding his arms.

"It didn't."

"But, it could have. We don't know yet the limits of your powers."

Superboy looked away, rubbing the back of his neck, "Well, maybe you could help me with that some-"

In the middle of his sentence, Superman answered a com-link distress signal from Green Arrow, "Superman. Wait, Arrow, slow down what's attacking?"

He looked back over at Superboy and then back towards the ocean, "No, I'm definitely available, coordinates? Got it, on my way."

"Sorry, Superboy, duty calls," he turned and took off reaching safe distances before going super-sonic.

Superboy narrowed his eyes at the lack of interest Superman showed to him; the lack of caring at all about him or how he lives. He tightened his fist and turned to leap away.

Gateway City

Police sirens can be heard from a distance as Wonder Woman is currently battling Giganta. Not too far from Wonder Woman, Draken is seen facing Cheetah.

The Young Vampire is currently defending himself with his Scythe from various clash attacks from Cheetah. He had to admit that the woman was quite fast not to mention strong as well. Getting tired of the Boy's constant defense, Cheetah leaps backwards before charging at Draken with her leg extended. The Boy was able to block the attack but the force had knocked him into a nearby building.

Smiling wickedly, Cheetah goes into the building her opponent just crashed into. While inside she noticed that the building is darker than usual with no sign of her opponent. Walking slowly while searching for her prey, Cheetah fails to notice a Shadow forming behind her. Before she can react Draken stretches his hand placing it on Cheetah's head, before releasing bolts of purple lightning into Cheetah's head, causing her to scream before falling unconscious. With his foe defeated, he carries the woman outside to hand over to the police.

Wonder Woman who had just finished defeating Giganta notices the unconscious Cheetah in Draken's hand. This shocks her slightly as Cheetah is a foe that usually gives her trouble.

"Thank you Wonder Boy." The Policeman said as Draken drops Cheetah

"Wonder Boy?" Draken asked. "That's even worse than Trefor."

"That's not your name?" The Officer asked

"You need to get a name though." Wonder Woman said landing beside Draken, causing the boy to think for a while before answering

"Then call me, Dracula." Draken said

"Like in the movies?" The Officer asked

"I really need to see this movie you people keep talking about." Draken said

Mount Justice

M'gaan, Kaldur, and Wally were gathered in the training-area of the cave, not for mission briefing or combat training but, for casual socializing and generally killing time. Wally was currently playing Kaldur in a game of holographic table-hockey whilst the speedster ate a banana at the same time, M'gaan simply stood nearby and watched as the two were engaged in a heated match.

"You said you wouldn't use super-speed," Kaldur stated dryly, causing M'gann to chuckle as Wally tossed his banana peel behind his back with his eyes closed clearly not paying attention to where it landed.

"Hey, I woulda allowed you to summon an octopus to play for you but, you didn't ask!" He immediately turned around and stepped directly on the peel slipping with its lubricated juices over onto his back with a loud thud. M'gaan let out a giggle through her fingers and Kaldur simply smiled.

Recognize: B05 Superboy

Just as this happened, Superboy walked through the teleporter and into the room, he was absolutely fuming and walked directly through the holographic hockey-table causing it to disperse; he attempted to leave the room when a voice quickly caught the groups attention

"Stick around," called Black Canary. Superboy stopped and turned. "Class is in session." She walked to the center of the projection pad and it illuminated beneath her feet.

Recognize:03 Wonder Woman, B06 Draken

The machine noted as Wonder Woman and Draken stepped out.

"Draken, how was Gateway City?" M'gann asked with a smile

"It was fine." Draken said

"He defeated Cheetah." Wonder Woman said with a smile causing most of the team to gasp

"Seriously?" Wally asked looking at their leader

"Before I forget, Computer, Update Draken to B06 Dracula." Wonder Woman said as the machine blinked

"Dracula?" Robin asked raising a brow

"He chose the name. Hope we aren't late? Wonder Woman asked

"No. I consider it an honor to be your teacher," Canary said as she started to take off her jacket, "I'll throw a lot at you. Everything I've learned from my own mentors," she winced as she stretched a bandage that wrapped around her arm, "And my own bruises."

Intrigued, Draken walked over to the others, but Superboy stayed by the entrance to one of the hallways, watching Canary's presentation with a look of disinterest.

"What happened?" asked M'gann in concern.

"The job," Canary tossed away her jacket and the question, "Now, combat is about controlling conflict. Putting the battle on your terms. Always act, never react. I'll need a sparing partner."

"Ooh! Me!" called Wally, "After this, I'll show you my moves." He offered with a cheeky grin. Canary smirked and adapted a fighting stance that Wally mimicked. She swept his legs out from under him and he fell to the ground in seconds flat. "Oh," he groaned, "Hurts so good."

"Can anyone tell me what he did wrong?" Canary asked, ignoring Wally as he stood up.

"Oh! I know!" said Robin, "He hit on teacher and got schooled!"

"Dude!"

Canary rolled her eyes. "He allowed me to dictate the terms."

"Oh please," snorted Superboy, "With my powers, the battle's always on my terms. I'm a living weapon."

"Thinking like that will get you killed." Draken said flatly

Superboy sneered "This is a waste of my time."

Canary narrowed her eyes at the clone. "Prove it." She said as Superboy stepped into the ring

"This is going to end badly." Draken noted and true to his words, Superboy was tossed across the room with a grunt. Robin started to laugh as he saw Superboy's prostrate form, but Kaldur elbowed him in the ribs.

Superboy rolled to a crouch and growled at Canary. "You're angry," she observed, "Good, but don't react. Channel that anger to-" She was cut off by Superboy charging her with a roar. She flipped over him and knocked his feet out from under him.

"That's it!" he growled as he knocked away her helping hand and stood up on his own, "I'm done!"

"Training is mandatory," she said with a sigh. Superboy rounded on her and it looked like their fight would continue before Draken stepped in

"I would like to fight." He said facing Canary who just nodded

Facing his opponent, Draken watched as Canary rushed him aiming to sweep his leg but the result she met was rather shocking as Draken didn't budge from the attack. Changing her strategy she tried to grab him like she did Superboy but Draken was already in her face

"You should never get too close to a vampire." Draken said flashing his fangs which caused Canary to jump back. Canary was about to release a sonic scream but Draken became a Red blur that appeared close to her before tossing her to the ground.

"Black Canary Fail, Dracula Victory." The Mechanical voice in the ring said

"You're good." Canary said as she stood hoping to say something before a beeping interrupted them.

"Everyone gather around for mission briefing," Batman announced as they left the training ground and surrounded him along with Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, and Red Tornado by his side.

Batman pulled up a large holoscreen in front of them, "Six hours ago, a new menace attacked Green Arrow and Black Canary, the attacker was capable of studying then duplicating the powers and abilities of its opponents," He paused as the holoscreen displayed footage of a robot of some-kind decimating the League one by one, "Arrow called in reinforcements which nearly proved disastrous as our foe gained more and more power with each new combatant."

Kid Flash gawked, "Woah, one guy with the powers of the entire League?"

Bruce turned to the team, "In the end it took eight Leaguers four hours to defeat and dismantle the android."

"An android?" Robin spoke up, "Who built it, Tio-Morrow?"

Batman flashed a short but, brief smile, "Good guess, Robin, but Red Tornado doesn't think so."

Martian Manhunter spoke up, not taking his eyes off of the clip of the fight he'd just taken part in, "The technology bares the signature of Professor Ivo."

Aqualad narrowed his eyes, "Ivo? But, Ivo's dead."

"Or so we all hoped," Canary stated rubbing the wound on her shoulder which was obviously inflicted by the android.

"I thought we don't kill?" Draken asked pointing out the Hypocrisy of wishing an enemy dead when you can do the deed yourself

"We don't." Batman said firmly glaring at the Vampire who didn't even register Batman

"Whatever." Draken said

Batman spoke up again, "To ensure this threat is permanently neutralized we are sending two trucks containing the android's remains to two separate STAR labs facilities in Boston and New York for further evaluation."

They all watched as the map displayed on screen routes to Boston and New York with Gotham in the middle, "We are taking every precaution; we're sending four additional decoy trucks to create confusion in case Ivo or anyone tries to recover the parts."

"This team will split into two undercover squads to safe-guard the two real trucks," Batman finished as Kid pumped his fist into the air with a loud shout.

"Yes! Road trip!"

Tension suddenly filled the air as Superboy glared up at Batman, "So, now we take out your trash too?"

Batman raised his brow, not even giving the comment a second thought, "You had something better to do? Be my guest," he turned and walked away from the team and towards the Zeta-Tubes, "We deploy in one hour." He finished as he was whisked away at light speed.

"Don't poke the sleeping Bat or it'll bite you," Robin stated coyly jabbing Superboy's arm, "Just a word of advice," he smiled as Superboy grunted and turned away.

Litchfield County

Eight trucks had been lined up with the real parts to the android being undisclosed to anyone without League access; Draken, M'gaan, Robin, Superboy, Kid Flash, and Aqualad were all prepared on color-coded motorcycles hidden behind a layer of bushes and trees.

Superman took a quick glance at the team but, darted his eyes away when he made eye-contact with Superboy; the entire League was overseeing the shipment and discretion was of the upmost importance.

"STAR Boston is a go."

"STAR Manhattan is a go."

Green Arrow nodded towards Superman who floated up and gave the signal for all the trucks to begin their journey; Draken, Superboy, and Robin, followed one truck whilst M'gann, Aqualad, and Kid Flash tailed the other going in opposite directions.

The trip was long and boring as the team continued to tail their assigned truck and so they decided talking wouldn't hurt, "Do you think Superboy's okay?" M'gaan asked as Kid and Aqualad turned to respond to her; "I didn't read his mind I swear but, anger poured off of him in waves..." she turned her head back to the road as the communication link in her helmet spoke up clearly.

"He kinda has daddy issues and trust me you don't wanna touch that with a ten foot-" Kid was interrupted by Aqualad whom speed-matched them and looked over to her.

"What he means to say is that Superboy needs to work through his relationship with Superman on his own and helping him will only seem like an insult in his eyes;" His words caused M'gaan to smile as he had explained it perfectly.

Meanwhile

Superboy, Robin and Draken were in the midst of a very dull drive tailing their truck as Robin decided to make conversation to pass the time but, being a thirteen year old, it wasn't very intelligent or entertaining, "So if arm is the opposite of disarm… is 'aster' the opposite of disaster? You see instead of things going wrong, they go right!"

"Did you finally break?" Draken asked the young boy

Superboy simply grunted in response, being already furious with Superman did not help the stupidity of Robin's time-killing conversational piece. The teen-kryptonian revved his cycle and sped towards the truck, away from the conversation.

"Someone is not feeling the aster," Robin commented revealing a smirk

"Please stop." Draken begged as he floated above Robin

"I dunno, I feel like that's the rational response to you're only biological father not wanting you to exist." Robin said causing Draken to raise a brow

"Meaning?" Draken asked

Robin scoffed, "Superman's as morally right as they come; he just needs time to adjust to having a teenage son without ever conceiving, I mean, it's a big deal," Draken looked back at Superboy who was likely listening at this point.

"I sure hope so..." He said with a sign

Draken passed the miles and miles of corn fields, staring out at the repeated scenery. Suddenly he spotted rustling in the corn after nearly an hour of traveling in silence. Suddenly, dozens of simian-like robots sprung from the fields with green neon lights and a black exterior, they also released a loud cackling giggle which could have driven a normal insane given time. They flew towards the truck and latched themselves to it as Superboy immediately ditched his bike and flung himself onto the vehicle, swatting the drones off of it one by one and obviously taking out pent up rage on them.

"Robin to team, we're under attack!" Robin yelled into his communication device implanted into his helmet; however, he only received static and loud thrashing on the other end.

"Yea, we know!" Kid Flash responded as his truck was also under attack as the thrashing only got louder.

Robin pressed a button on the handle bar of his motorcycle causing the high-tech bike to transform and one of the wheels to become an independent helicopter-like drone shooting down monkeys. It was short lived as the annoying droids quickly overwhelmed and brought it to the ground in a fiery explosion with Robin only narrowing leaping to the truck and using tomahawks to cut down droids beside his enraged teammate.

Draken was already busy slicing and dicing any Drone in his path. Superboy crushed two of them with his bare hands by smashing their skulls together and tossing them aside, "There's too many!" he shouted as he stomped another and swatted two more out of the air. Robin shoved a bird-a-rang into one of their eyes but, it pulled away

"How are we doing?" Robin asked as he kicked another of the drone-monkies off the truck.

Superboy grabbed one of them and restrained it by its skull but, was attempting to use his x-rays to see inside of it when it fired an emerald beam directly into his iris causing him to crush it and scream in agony; he held his face as three drones worked in tandem to kick him off the truck and into the street. Seeing this, Draken decided to cast an AOE lightning attack that destroyed a good number of drones, but more kept appearing.

The overwhelming number of them allowed the drones to split into two teams; one to distract the heroes and the others that weren't fighting to extract the cargo. A small group of four monkeys used their lasers to cut a hole through the side of the truck where men with rifles waited to fire off their weapons; the bullets did little to nothing as the monkeys retrieved the case of android-parts before taking off out of the truck and into the distance above the cornfield. The truck slowly came to a stop on the side of the road where the heroes jumped off to reunite with the ditched Kryptonian.

Superboy stood rubbing his eyes furiously and growling as his vision adjusted; he stared into the distance blinking rapidly and shaking his head. He tightened his stance and jumped after them into the nearby corn fields.

"Superboy, radio your position, let us help you!" Robin said pressing his comm

"Don't need help!" He shouted back pulling the com-link from his ear, "Don't want any!"

"Superboy?" Robin asked getting static once again, "I think he ditched his comm."

"You think?" Draken deadpanned. "I'll go after him, you guys find a way to catch up with us!" He took off into the air before speeding towards Superboy's supposed location.

Robin stepped back and looked at the trail of destroyed drones littering the street for half-a-mile; he grabbed a bot and pried its skull open with a bird-a-rang.

"These drones obviously knew which trucks to attack, I mean we would have heard if the decoy trucks were attacked by now; obviously they have some sort of GPS on the Amazo parts," he quickly pulled a cord from his gauntlet and plugged it into the monkey's skull.

Robin spoke through the coms, "I'm tracking the monkeys now, it looks like they're converging on…" he paused for a moment, "Gotham City."

"Superboy and I are the closest; send Kid and M'gaan our way and the rest of you meet us there," Draken ordered as he narrowed in on Superboy's location, finally catching up to him.

"Roger that," The entire team said in unison over the com-link.

After almost thirty-minutes of consecutive flying/jumping, the two found themselves approaching a train which was turning a corner when Draken landed beside Superboy.

"I saw them fly into this one here less than 10 minutes ago," He announced having watched them with his enhanced sight; he shoved his hand through the roof and carved a hole into the titanium opening it up for them both to drop into.

The annoying cackle of the monkey-drones filled their ears as they turned to find over two dozen of the drones surrounding one slightly short ginger man whom sported a button up white shirt, red bow-tie, and suspenders from his long pants. As they entered, he turned around to face them, "Oh… hello," he said calmly.

Superboy scoffed, "You're Ivo? I'm officially whelmed."

"Not you too." Draken groaned

"You're one to talk; now since when does the big-blue boy scout have a brat?" The man asked as Superboy tightened his fist in anger responding coldly.

"He doesn't."

"If you say so," Ivo rolled his eyes, "And to you two new comers I ask, have you met my Mobile Optimal Neural Quotient Infiltrators?"

Superboy growled underneath his mask as each of the MONQI's sitting idly behind him suddenly leapt at the heroes as they reacted quicker than the doctor expected; Superboy bashed each and every one of them with his fists alone as Draken observed the new threat

"Ehh, and after all the effort I put into coming up with an acronym for monkey," Ivo turned around and pressed a few buttons on a console not far from him.

As Superboy finished destroying the annoying drones, he heard metallic clanking pressing against the floor, "Access: Captain Atom," from nowhere an energy blast of some kind struck Superboy in the chest sending him back first into the wall, causing Draken's eyes to narrow as he grabbed his Scythe.

"If Dr. Ivo's magnificent MONQI's don't float your boat, then perhaps my amazing AMAZO will better suit you," he paused as his android stepped into the light fully revealing itself in a humanoid shirtless form with green pants built on him; his thin head of orange hair and elf-like ears didn't take away from his menacing crimson stare of death, "Or better slay you..." the mad-man chuckled.

Superboy stood up, wiping is lip, "Give it your best shot," he stated confidently.

"Please," Ivo started, "My android has the strength of Superman, what chance do you have?"

Superboy snarled and rushed the android as Amazo effortlessly blocked, deflected, or countered every strike the boy of steel sent; He managed to land one shot to Amazo's face as it spun for a moment, Superboy felt this was his chance and moved for a second strike. Amazo's neck snapped back in to place and caught the fist in his palm without effort to Superboy's major surprise.

"Oh sorry, did that strike a nerve?" As Ivo spoke just before Draken bullrushed Amazon away from Superboy, crashing into multiple buildings.

As the Android stood up it then spoke "Access: Black Canary," the android's jaw unhinged losing a sonic discharge causing Draken to grab his ears in pain as his enhanced hearing made the scream more deadly. Draken's ear was beginning to bleed before he head the Android speak again.

"Access: Superman," a fist flew so fast through the air knocking the Vampire in the face sending him out the hole in the train through the ceiling of Gotham Academy.

Ivo smiled as Amazo looked to his owner for orders, shrugging without a second thought, "Finish them: priority alpha."

Meanwhile

Robin sped towards Gotham on his still functioning cycle as they just entered City Limits, he had changed from his cycling-suit into his uniform, tracking the GPS of the Amazo-parts still with the holoscreen projected from his cycle.

As he sped by, a blur slowed down next to them which turned out to be Kid Flash in his bright yellow and red friction-armor, "You changed too, huh?" Robin noted as the speedster smiled.

"You know it," he announced proudly, "I feel naked in my civvies; you still tracking the android parts?"

"Preach," Robin shouted as he stared at the GPS, "At first they were converging on the east-side but, now…" he paused for a moment as his eyes widened at the results, "Dude, they're at my school!"

Meanwhile

Draken flew through the air of the hallway slamming into a glass case of trophies as shards fell across his body and a picture of Dick holding a large

acrobatic-championship trophy fell into his lap as well, "Ugh," he tossed the picture aside and analyzed

Superboy dropped from above with a fist prepared to pummel the droid whom looked up immediately, "Martian Manhunter," becoming intangible the fist flew through him. He reformed his density and threw a round-house kick at the Kryptonian boys head slamming him through two class-room walls with strength equal to Superman's.

Ignoring the ringing in his ear, Draken sped towards Amazon with the hope of decapitating the android

"Access: Flash," Amazo sped towards him faster than he anticipated and uppercutted the Vampire into the wall before following up by using the momentum of his rush to slam his fist harder into his gut and continue with a rapid barrage of left and right hooks to the chest. As Amazon continued his assault on Draken, a blur of speed flew in through the double doors and sped beside his leader in a heartbeat, removing him from Amazo's range.

"So, introduce me to your new friend!" Kid joked as he folded his arms in confidence.

"You're looking at Amazo; he's pretty tough I'll tell you that much," Draken said standing up

"You don't look so good," Kid noted looking Draken up and down. "Why don't you step aside…What the hell!" Kid Flash yelled witnessing Draken's injuries close up right in front of him

"I heal fast." Draken said flexing his arm

Recovering from his shock, Wally lowered his goggles and sped through the court running literal circles around the android.

"Access: Superman," the android stuck its arm out grabbing Wally by the throat.

His grip tightened as Wally's neck began to close up and oxygen ceased its regular flow through his body, his vision began to blur as he was prepared to pass out. Suddenly, something caught on Amazo's radar causing him to turn his neck 90-degrees instantly, "Martian Manhunter," a green arrow flew directly through Amazo's density shifting head; this also allowed Wally whom was being held by the neck to speed away from the android. Before Amazo could chase after the speedster, he heard the cold voice of Draken mutter a word

"Hellfire!" Draken stretched forth his hand, unleashing a massive stream of flame that engulfed Amazo. Having switched to Manhunter, the Android was defenseless against the flames of Hell as it began to melt. Draken continued to increase his attack, unaware of a Martian's weakness.

Finally cutting off his attack, Draken fell on one knee as he carefully watched the remains of the android.

Arriving the scene Robin, Aqualad and M'gaan ran over to Draken's aid, "Are you okay?" She asked grabbing his arm

"I'm fine." He reassured her as he stood up

"What type of attack was that?" Robin asked having witnessed Draken incinerate Amazo

"Hellfire. It's heat are said to be hotter than the sun's, plus it also burns the victims soul." Draken said

"Damn, Batman isn't going to let you hear the end of this." Robin said causing Draken to raise a brow. "Look we trust you, but Batman…"

They took a step back and looked at the melted form of Amazo "At least now we can take him apart and send him to Star Labs where he belongs." Robin said

"There isn't much parts to send you know." Draken said

Mount Justice

Draken, Wally, Superboy, Dick, M'gaan, and Kaldur gathered in the center control room with holoscreen's surrounding them with the reports of the battle at the high school. Their superiors stood juxtaposed to them, Batman, Wonder Woman, Black Canary, Martian Manhunter, Red Tornado and Green Arrow all lined up listening to Draken's mission report.

"The Amazo android has been dealt with." Draken said. "But, Ivo escaped and since he originated the technology he's arguably more dangerous than the android ever will be."

"Capturing the professor will be a League priority," Canary spoke up, "But, we understand that your mission encountered other complications…"

They all gave each other similar looks of nervousness and some of confusion but, Superboy looked towards the ground. Batman stepped forwards slowly, "Complications come with the job, your ability to handle them has impressed the League."

Superboy spoke up, "The whole league?" He asked obviously referring to Superman.

"Given time, yes, Kryptonian's as you know have very hard heads," Batman shot Superboy a short smile before returning to his stoic look of seriousness but, Superboy's small grin didn't fade any time soon.

"However, I've been told that one of your team-mates had been hiding a strange power up from his superiors this entire time," Batman growled and narrowed his eyes at Draken as the others turned to face him.

"I never hid anything, you just never asked." Draken said matching Batman's glare

Batman glared at him intently before flashing a short smile. "I want a detailed report of all your available abilities and any other powers or weaknesses. Are we clear?"

"Whatever." Draken sighed

"Until then, I believe that you did good work today; defeating the android wasn't easy for us so I'm sure it couldn't have been easy for you. Of course there's no shame in asking for help, its why the League exists because there will always be problems that even we can't solve on our own," Batman turned to leave along with Black Canary, Green Arrow, and Red Tornado only when Canary felt a hand on her shoulder she turned to face Superboy standing with eyes averted to the ground.

"I'm ready..."

"Good, because I'm here for you."