"Help, is anyone there? I need help, anyone." The voice which came from Batman's transponder.
"Is this some kind of trick?" Wonder Woman asked Batman. The cry for help was sent to the heroes' Watchtower and those who were active at the moment heard the cry for help.
"No way, is that…?" Green Lantern inquired but was unsure of who he thought it to be because it was almost impossible to get a call from and saying all that.
"I need help, I just woke up in some alleyway in San Francisco and without memories of how I got here. I don't know why my powers are not responding at the moment, I was able to get some coins and dial our emergency line on a payphone." The voice said as it sounded to be in a state of panic over the line.
"It's Clark." Batman said. "What was the last thing you remember?" He asked.
"Were about to make a burst on Lex at one of he's estates, when we got ambushed and I think I saw the president in that room. That is all, I had to steal some clothes to change from my hero's costume." Superman replied.
"Could it really be him? Or just another one of Lex's mind games?" Martian Manhunter asked.
"There's only one way to find out." Wonder Woman said as she folded her arms looking at Batman.
"Maybe whatever mind leech Lex had on him doesn't have a range as far as San Francisco." Green Lantern said, trying to make sense of the situation they've found themselves in. Doubting their own was far from their hero code.
"Well, there's only one way to find out." Martian Manhunter said. Wonder Woman and Green Lantern turned, headed to San Francisco to bring Superman.
"Wait, it might actually be a trap so be careful." Batman warned.
"And if it isn't a trap, this might be our one and only chance to get him back. Let's go!!!" Wonder Woman commanded as Green Lantern followed behind her to pick up their lost and stranded comrade.
…
[Tom Hendricks POV]
The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the air filled with the Christmas feel and aroma of delicious food seem to fill for odd reasons. Selina came over this morning carrying some groceries in hand and practically forced her way into the kitchen, saying she had the feeling we boys wouldn't have anything planned out for Christmas Eve.
"You don't seem like you cook." I said as she offloaded her groceries. On the kitchen counter.
"I do, when I want to. And right now I need something that would take my mind off a few things." She replied as she waved to Leo who replied with a confused look.
After contemplating a few things he mind, he finally spoke up. "You no what…? I don't even want to know." He said as he walked over to the living room.
Apparently, there was another party at some club in Gotham that night but I and the boys have had our fair share of parties and decided it was better we stayed in tonight.
The general public a.k.a the dumb and clueless, were in good spirits. The heroes on their toes, Lex Luthor must be drinking a glass of martini right about now, it was indeed a good day for an alien invasion.
"Is it the end of the world already? Something smells really good. Jason said as he walked down the stairs, only to see both Leo and I playing chess in the living room. Walking into the kitchen Jason spotted Selina cooking.
"I was wondering where you might have been." She said as she spotted him.
"Oh, it's you again. I forgot to ask Tom last time but I guess I'll just ask you instead. Are you Tom's girlfriend we've been hearing a lot about lately?" Jason opened his big mouth to ask.
"Tom has a girlfriend uhh, he didn't mention her. I guess I'd have to squeeze it out of him." She said, with a mischievously sexy look on her face as she liked her cherry red lips.
"So mind telling l me again why you are in our kitchen?" Jason inquired, it was definitely odd for Catwoman to spend her day in the kitchen of some dude when she had more important things she could be doing.
"Well, that's me to know and for you to dot, dot, dot." She quoted. Jason rolled his eyes and headed for the living room.
"Here I was thinking you two might have been kidnapped by aliens and they must have swapped your bodies." Jason said as he walked into tge living room.
"What? Why would you think that?" I asked him, raising an eyebrow in confusion, to that dumb statement.
"Because something smells awfully good in here, and we all know none of you could cook something that good." He said with a smug look on his face as he mocked us.
"You underestimate me Jase, I'm well vast in multiple culinary cultures and can match up to a standard chef if I put my mind to it." Which was quite true because being from a rich and strict household, my dad made me undergo private culinary training saying I need to be effortlessly better than the common folk.
Although I can't speak much for my current cooking skills, it's been a while since I cooked anything out of our mundane meals. Leo quietly laughed at us bicker as Jason said he had next on whoever won against the other in our game of chess.
Late on the night before, I had informed Deathstroke and Deadshot to stay clear of whatever war was going to break out today. I can't have them dying in a fight that doesn't benefit my cause.
Asked my immediate and profitable clients to take their families on a vacation out of the States for their own safety, they were skeptical at first but I told them they'll hear about it from the news later on.
Why leave the States? You might wonder. But in a lot of movies and cartoons whenever aliens were to attack or invade earth, they always seem to attack the United States for some reason.
All I can do right now is sit back and wait if Lex would come to his senses and abort his plan or let his ego get in the way of his judgment then proceed with his plans.
Fingers crossed, I hope for the latter.
…
Wonder Woman and Green Lantern had returned to the Watchtower with Superman who was looking and acting like he old self before he turned into Lex's puppet and started to act like a dictator.
They laid him on a bed in the med bay where Batman scanned and examined his brain for unusual activities. He found nothing and assured everyone that Superman was right to stop them from worrying so much, but deep down something didn't feel right and he still wasn't believing this sudden return.
There was no way Lex would make a mistake as to let his guard dog wander out of his reach. The remaining League members at the watchtower headed back to patrol in case Lex or some villain decided to ruin Christmas for everyone.
Batman headed back to his workshop as Martian Manhunter sat in a chair in the med-bay to ensure everything was right with Superman.
As he did a few check ups and was about to head out when something from the monitor screen caught his attention. He looked at Superman's brain wave frequency only to see an imprint of another brain wave frequency tangled up in his.
Earlier it wasn't visible and it looked like it was a result of what Lex did to Superman, the mind fucking and all.
Martian Manhunter continued to ponder on it. Just as it got to him that Superman might not completely be himself and may still be under Lex Luthor's control, he received a strike to the back of his head and was knocked out cold.
Batman didn't trust the scenario that was currently playing out, the only way Lex could manually get into the Watchtower was with Superman's help. It didn't make sense for him to make that mistake when he was so close to enacting his plan.
Batman tapped on his keyboard to review Superman's brain scans and the MRI that was done on him earlier, he noticed the current scans having a foreign imprint on his brain waves frequency chart.
"Oh, no!!!" He exclaimed as he rushed to the med-bay to confirm the results for himself because it wasn't there when he did the scans earlier.
He headed up there with hope of naturalizing Superman before things took a dramatic and unexpected turn, only to see Martian Manhunter laying on the floor and unconscious.
Batman looked around the room and couldn't find Superman anywhere around. He checked Martian Manhunter's pulse and saw he was just knocked out and would be okay after regaining consciousness.
Superman was up to something and he needed to stop him from achieving his purpose for acting his way into the Watchtower.
Batman was trapped in the Watchtower with Superman and couldn't contact the outside world as Superman had cut off communication outside.
He quietly sneaked into their meeting hall where the League usually held their team meetings and Superman wasn't in there.
He got to a computer and tapped away at the keyboard, pulling out live footages from each section of the tower in search of Superman. He couldn't find him anywhere, it was as if he was avoiding the cameras on purpose.
He checked feeds from thirty minutes back and spotted Superman going into the control room. Switching to a feed from inside the control room, he squinted his eyes as he saw Superman place a black disc-like piece of tech on the control panel.
Switching back to real time, he saw Superman back at the medbay and dressed in his hero costume, he looked right at the camera and gave a slow and yet creepy wave at the camera.
Batman sprang into action and headed to his workshop. Superman was loose and dangerous with Batman trapped in there with him, and without a means of contacting the outside world.
He raced for his workshop, there was an exoskeleton power suit he had built for fighting people who were excessively stronger than him. It was also a contingency plan he prepared just in case he ever had to fight against Superman since Lex Luthor had taken control over him.
Batman got to his workshop and clicked on a button which unveiled his secret weapon, a Mech Batsuit which was a powered and advanced exoskeleton Batsuit. It was a heavily armored version of the Standard Batsuit.
He equipped himself into the exoskeleton. The suit was not primarily designed to augment the strength and powers to fight Superman, but to provide an exoskeletal protection to help him survive sustained pummeling and pounding while the powering mechanism artificially enhanced Batman's strength and endurance, being designed to withstand a great deal of physical damage, providing Batman a great deal of protection against beings with strength superior to his own. It presumably uses Wayne tech military technology.
Although Batman's Mech Suit was a powered armor that augmented his strength multiple times over, he still wasn't as strong as Superman.
The cowl of Batman's Mech Suit had a titanium helmet beneath it. The helmet was equipped with sensory and information processing gadgets which included retractable lenses with a luminescent glow. The lenses displayed relevant data about Batman's environment and projected the information Google Glass-like over natural visuals. The lenses operated in different modes, including combat and detective mode.
The cowl gadgetry also included a voice modifier that disguised his real voice so that it was unrecognizable.
Geared up, he left for the medbay to meet up with the brainwashed Superman who had drugged Martian Manhunter with enough sedatives to keep him out of action for a while.
…
Lex had Superman temporary lose his memories with him and only remember from around the night he captured him, hiding the device in his pants as it was undetectable my metal or radio scans. He had him fly to San Francisco and call his League friends, have them believe he's influence over Superman had a finite range.
Then when the coast was clear enough, he'd regain his memory and carry on with the mission Lex had given to him.
The device Lex Luthor had given Superman was to help bypass the Watchtower's security as The Calculator connected it to the United States satellite which was already connected to the mother box, and was nearest to the tower.
Lex Luthor stood beside The Calculator as he watched him link the satellite up with the mother box. His psychic technology was connected to the mother box and it was activated along with the mother box.
Everything was stable and nothing out of the ordinary as Lex wore on his head gear. "Yes, yes, I can feel it…!!!" He exclaimed.
"This feeling, it's… It's euphoric!!" He exclaimed and followed it with a mad laughter.
The Calculator activated the last of it all and told Lex Luthor that his work there was done. Lex gave a psychic command to the entire world, and both those who weren't wearing the psychic nullifier and those who wore duds bought from the black market, all received the command and paused whatever they were doing for exactly five seconds to obey his command.
"All Hail Luthor!!!" They all said in unison, unaware of why they had just spouted those words. Putting the entire world on hold for five seconds was enough to cause a lot of casualty and end a lot of lives.
Many were driving, many were crossing the road, many were having an emergency at the hospital, and a majority of the rest were doing one thing or another that could cost them their lives within those five seconds.
The heroes who were with their families, immediately knew Lex had gotten his way with things. They suit up but were unable to transport themselves to the Watchtower because Superman had cut off tele-transportation and no one could access the tower.
They tried connecting with Batman but couldn't.
Raven dropped to her knee and held one hand to her head as it ached in pain, she had sensed the attempt of forced mental probing try getting to her, and the agony of hundreds of people around her who got hurt from it. Beast Boy who was in town for Christmas, rushed to her side.
"Are you okay?" He asked as he gently placed her hand on her upper back and grabbed her hand.
"Yes, am okay. It seems Lex Luthor has begun his attack. There are a lot of people in agonizing pain as we speak." Kori looked over at Dick and Superboy, Dick hastingly reached into his pocket in search of his phone.
He hastily dialed Bruce's number but got no response. He called the mansion and Alfred confirmed Bruce wasn't in, and Barbara was with her dad for Christmas Eve so she would spend Christmas with him.
"Suit up everyone. Bruce's intuition was spot on and Lex has launched his attack." He commanded as everyone quickly rushed for their hero gear.
Grabbing Dick by the arm, Kori asked. "Any news from the League?"
"Nothing, yet. There are so many injured and we are to help them in whatever way we can, the League would go after Lex and put an end to all this before he does something even worse." Dick replied to Kori.
...
Meanwhile back at LexCorp, The Calculator just imitated the guards by the door as he heard the world wide chants.
"I believe my work here is done, Mr Luthor." The Calculator said as he watched Lex revel in the feeling of the ultimate control he had been chasing for months.
"Why in such a hurry?" Lex asked with a satisfied look on his face. "I think you should stick around a bit and watch me utilize my world scale psychic prowess over the masses and watch as I change the world as you know it."
He looked behind him to see the armed guards by the door watching them. He couldn't refuse Lex Luthor because it might lead to his imminent death since he knew too much already, or his psychic nullifier might come to Lex's notice if he was hesitant to do as he commanded.
A knock at the door caught Luthor's attention as Mercy walked into the room. A smirk appeared on her lips as she saw Lex had achieved his objective, their goal for the past few months.
Looking on to The Calculator, Lex commanded. "I guess I don't have a need for you any longer, forget all that you've done here today and go about your Christmas as you had initially planned for it."
"I'll be off now." He said as he walked out of the office, pretending to obey Luthor's command.
Lex had his guards cautiously move the mother box out of his office and to the lower levels of LexCorp, where his lab was located.
Just as they stepped out of the elevator…
UGH!!!*
He screamed and grunted in pain as he held on to his head, he grabbed his headpiece and threw it to the ground. It had white smoke and electrical sparks coming off it.
"Mr Luthor!" They exclaimed as Mercy reached for his arm to support him so he didn't drop to his knees.
"Something is wrong." He said as he picked up the headpiece and wore it. "What is it?" Mercy asked as she noticed the expression he had on his face.
"It's… It's not working!" He exclaimed as he held his hand over the headpiece on his head. "What do you mean it's not working?" She asked.
"Earlier I could feel a connection with every mind across the globe, but right now I do not feel anything." He said as his eyes widened in surprise and fear of failure after he literally had his hands on the power he had worked to achieve.
Locking on to one of the guards, he commanded. "Put your gun to your head and place your finger on the trigger." He said, testing to see if he was mistaken and everything was at least alright.
The guard took a look at himself and wasn't moved or being tempted to do as Lex had commanded.
"No… No!!!" Lex Luthor yelled in anger. "This can't be it, I didn't come this far to stop here." He said as he walked over to another elevator, Mercy followed while the guards stayed on that level.
He got to a section where he had imprisoned Gorilla Grodd who he left in a comatose state. He went for a computer at an office separating itself from Grodd's cell and with reinforced glass.
As he typed on the keyboard, he saw that his connection with Grodd's psychic prowess had been cut off. It was cut off due to an overload from the Mother Box and his headpiece was completely fried.
Suddenly Mercy received a report regarding a huge disturbance that was out of the ordinary, right in the middle of town.
Lex Luthor's attempt to gain overwhelming control over the world had brought in an evil he was warned about.
Want more chapters? Kindly visit my to read ahead./Maverick_DaSupreme