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seriousficTitle: Duality
Fandom: Nolanverse Batman, Superman Returns
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2,374
Characters/Pairings: Superman, Barbara Gordon, Lois Lane, Richard White, John Corben
Previous Part: 28
Next Part: 30
Summary: Barbara’s parents find out about her secret life, Lois finds out who her son is, and Lex Luthor makes his move.
Thankfully, Barbara’s parents were fast asleep when she got home. She was able to sneak in, hide her costume, shower, and meditate to bat-sleep in peace. The problem came the next morning, when Harvey wrapped up his breakfast with the Gordons by clapping her dad on the shoulder and wishing him good luck. Then he drove James Jr. to school. Her parents both sat down with her at the breakfast nook.
“So… tomorrow’s a big day. Gonna stop the Joker from killing Bruce Wayne. Yay justice!” Barbara cheered weakly.
“Babs, first things first,” her father said. “We both love you and that’s not gonna change, no matter what choices you make…”
“But,” Sarah verbally nudged.
The commissioner folded his hands. “But you’ve been keeping a secret. A big one. Going out at night, after school… we trust you, Barbara, you’re the best kid a father could ask for. We just don’t want you to abuse our trust.”
“You think I’m doing something illegal?” Barbara cried. “I have been perfect.”
“We know, honey, we know. But we are both detectives. Did you really think you could hide this right under our noses?”
Barbara shrunk inward. “I thought you’d be proud.”
“We’ve always been proud of you.”
“And Dinah’s a fine girl,” Jim added. “You could do a lot worse.”
“Jim!” Sarah said, aghast.
“Well, she could. Remember that gang of lesbian bikers in ’88?”
“Hold up, hold up, hold up.” Barbara braced her head. “You think I’m some kind of homosexual?”
“Bisexual, pansexual. We don’t like labels if you don’t like labels.”
“But… but…”
“To be honest, Babs, we don’t know why we didn’t see it sooner. You’ve never been much interested in boys, you spend all your free time at Dinah’s house…” Barbara knew she had used that excuse too much. “And you’ve always loved women’s soccer.”
“They’re amazing athletes! And I never had time for boys because I was studying!”
“Which is why we’re so glad you’ve found Dinah.”
“I can’t be gay! I have a boyfriend!”
“WHAT!?” Jim hit the roof. Not literally; he was a few inches too short to touch it when he sprung from his chair. “How long has this been going on!”
“A few… months.”
“A few months! That’s at least three dates! Sarah, you know what happens on third dates!”
“Really?” Barbara pursed her lips a little. “I thought he was just making that up.”
“Barbara, I forbid you to see this boy!”
“You were just fine with me dating a girl!”
“Boys aren’t like girls! I should know, I was one. Boys are nasty and filthy and trust me, they won’t respect you in the morning.”
Sarah shot Jim a glance.
“Look, I know I should’ve told you sooner, but I was so afraid of… this! If you could just meet Dick—“
“Oh, I’d love to meet him,” Jim said, and Barbara gave serious consideration to digging a hole in the earth, jumping in, and pulling the dirt in after her.
***
Lois couldn’t get to sleep. And somehow her tenseness was keeping Richard from going to sleep. She laid on her side, staring past the red-blaring alarm clock to the window. She didn’t know what she expected to see.
“Do you remember when I found out I was pregnant?”
Richard was on his back, his voice clogged with drowsiness. “Happiest day of my life.”
“We’d been dating for a while, but I was never… hell, you remember how our first date ended. We never took a paternity test because you said it didn’t matter.”
“It still doesn’t,” Richard assured her, putting his hand under his head. “Jason’s a good kid.”
“But that wasn’t true. You were the only one I’d been… irresponsible with, so refusing the test was like saying you trusted me. But I think there was someone else.”
The mattress hissed as Richard rolled onto his side, facing her. “You think?”
“I’ve been having these dreams… but they’re not like dreams, they’re like memories.”
“Like suppressed memories? Like a trauma?” he asked, concerned, the hand reaching for her suddenly shying away.
“No. These are good memories.”
Richard dropped back down onto the bed, anger crackling in the air. “You have a few wet dreams and my son isn’t my son?”
“We always knew this was a possibility.”
“Superman’s bastard son was a possibility?”
There was a knock so booming that they heard it easily from the bedroom. Lois took advantage of the opportunity to go for a drink, digging into the liquor cabinet opposite the closet Richard fished his robe out of.
“Oh, that’ll help,” Richard said as he went to answer the door.
***
The man who’d been knocking was dressed in dark clothes. His black overcoat hung off his frame like a spider’s web around a fly. “Is this the White residence?” His voice was rough, deep.
“Yes.”
“Home of Lois Lane, Superman’s girlfriend?”
That did nothing to help Richard’s mood. “No. She’s my fiancée.”
“Oh, a love triangle.” His voice hissed like a bad drive-thru speaker. “I know just how to resolve it.”
***
Richard was manhandled back inside the house, fingers curled around his throat like a vice. It garbled his words like a mouthful of mud. “—get Jason, Lois, run!”
Corben applied ten more psi of pressure to Richard’s throat, amusing himself by seeing how much it would take to finally shut him up. “Lois Lane, I got a scoop for ya! Nosy reporter killed by technological breakthrough! Survived by—“ he added another ten psi. “No one.”
Three gunshots ricocheted painlessly off his skull. Its only accomplishment was tarnishing his false skin. Corben mockingly adopted a Superman pose, hands on waist, chest outthrust.
“Nice to meet you too.”
***
Lex watched the action from Metallo’s control room, smiling slightly when Lois Lane was trussed up. “You know,” he mused to Zod, “when Gobbels committed suicide, he killed his children first, rather than see them grow up in a world that was repulsive to him.”
Zod stroked his beard. “Wouldn’t it be nice to have that level of conviction?”
Lex keyed the radio link to Metallo. “Find the boy.”
***
The death’s head of Corben’s metal skull grinned out from beneath his skin as he zip-tied the Whites’ hands behind their back. He left them on the couch while he tooled around the house. In front of them, the TV played a Lex News ‘expose’ on Superman at a volume high enough to drown out any screams.
There were red marks, like brands, circling Richard’s neck.
“Are you alright?” Lois asked.
He rasped when he spoke. “Dandy.”
“I’m sorry I got us into this.”
Richard shook his head. “What do you think he wants?”
“Revenge. I know the type, I can see it in his eyes. Eye,” she amended.
“Nice shooting, by the way.”
“For all the good it did. If we live through this, remind me to buy a bigger gun.”
Corben returned, scratching at the border between his real and false faces. With each itch, more of his skin peeled away. He turned self-consciously so Jason couldn’t stare at his metal half. In profile, Lois could recognize him.
“I know you. John Corben, Lexcorp’s head of security.”
“Corben’s dead. He died with his flesh and bones. All that’s left… is Metallo.”
Richard tried the cruel word. “Metallo… what happened to you?”
“Superman. You know, ever since your boyfriend—“ Lois’s eyes darted to Richard. “No, the other one,” Metallo said, forcing her to look at him again, his face suspended halfway between life and metal death. “Ever since Supes put me in this tin can, I haven’t been able to feel a thing. Why let a weapon feel pain? Very frustrating with the ladies. But then I remembered someone telling me that rape wasn’t about pleasure, rape was about power. That’s why so many criminals turn fag in prison.”
“Don’t use that kind of language in front of my son!” Lois spat.
“How’d your son like to see Mommy’s pelvis broken by my metal cock?” Metallo put his hand on her thigh, the cold metal burning her skin. “Say it.”
”Superman,” she said softly, then again, and again, turning it into a defiant chant.
“Louder!” Metallo screamed, grabbing Jason.
Lois’s voice shook. “Superman, Superman, Superman…”
Richard growled “If you hurt him, I swear to God I’ll--“
“What? Write a mean op-ed about me? You’re a reporter. What can some mild-mannered reporter do to—“ Metallo froze into unbreathing stillness as a whistling sound, like a bomb falling, filled the room. He looked up. “That’s no bird…”
Superman smashed through the roof, third floor, second floor, and touched down. His red boots stepped out of the foundation. At the speed of thought, he surveyed the room, expecting everyone without superspeed to stay still. Instead, Metallo grabbed Richard’s neck at lightning speed. Superman was so shocked he slowed to real-time.
“This is funny,” the metal man was saying, his electronic voice grating on Superman’s ears. “I came here to take the reporter hostage, but this is so much better. Do what I want or I’ll kill your old girlfriend’s new man.”
“What do you want?”
“Just for you to hold still. I want to remember you just as you are.” Metallo moved Richard out of the way of his poison heart. “Well, were.”
Superman’s instinctual urge to flee nearly overwhelmed him. He backed toward the door.
“Uh-uh-uh! You stay right there or the kid gets to see daddy die!”
His body rebelled with a grand mal seizure, but he held his ground with teeth gritted. He looked at Lois, not at all finding it a problem to let his eyes reassure her. His head felt fuzzy. “Lois…”
He saw her mouth open, thought he saw her form the word ‘go’, but he didn’t hear anything. He fell to his knees.
Metallo casually tossed Richard aside to stalk closer to Superman. “Nice metaphor, huh?” He slapped the Plexiglass casing over the Kryptonite. “You alien freaks destroyed everything of me but my hate. And that’s all that’s left. Hate and metal. Feel my hate. Feel it choking the life out of--” He cocked his head, auditory hardware picking up a whistling sound that soon everyone could hear. Followed by a sonic boom. “Please, someone tell me that was your stomach.”
Kara exploded through the wall, fist cocked, and hit Metallo like a freight train—throwing a punch. Metallo took all of Kara’s momentum off her hands, flying through the opposite wall and out to sea.
Kara looked at her fist, examining the vulnerability even short contact with Kryptonite could bring. “I broke a nail!”
Superman wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Kara, what’re you doing here?”
“Saving you,” she answered matter-of-factly. She glanced down at Jason, who was fiercely hugging her leg, and her rebellious voice softened. “Their young look just like ours…”
Superman looked at Lois tending to Richard and deliberately looked at Kara. “Nice right hook.”
“You think so!”
Timber snapped outside. Superman unthinkingly tried to X-ray the wall Metallo had made a hole in before seeing the yacht pier cracking like a one-man tsunami was hitting it. Corben.
“Mr. White, get Lois out of here.”
“I can help!” he said, picking up the shotgun.
“Yeah, right,” Kara said.
“Richard,” Superman looked at him. “Get your family to safety.”
Richard scooped up his son. “Kick his ass, Supes.”
“That’s the plan.”
Metallo ran aground, butting the seaplane and sending it cartwheeling into the guest house. Richard ran to start the car. Kara took flight. Lois stood there, staring at Superman. He nodded to the car and turned to Metallo.
“Clark.”
Superman turned around.
There was suddenly no longer enough air for Lois to breathe.
“Don’t faint again,” he said gently.
“I’ve always known. I just… couldn’t let myself know. There’s so much I have to tell you.”
“I’ll be around,” Superman promised. “Always.”
Richard backed the car up to Kara’s hole in the wall. “Lois, time to go!”
“Your family needs you,” Superman said.
“And the world needs you.”
Superman nodded sadly and took flight.
Lois got into the car.
“Drive. Drive fast.”
***
“I worry about the influence that one has on you,” Kara said when Superman finally joined her.
“Worry about the bad guy.”
“Superman! Ready to die?”
“No he’s not, but you’d better be!” Kara streaked forward.
“Kara, wait!”
Metallo’s chest compartment opened and Kara faltered like a plane running out of fuel. Metallo caught her, crushed her against his chest. “Let’s get in touch.”
Superman circled around and unleashed a nuke’s worth of heatvision between Metallo’s shoulder blades. All it accomplished was tinting Metallo red and heating his false skin to a boil. “Nice try.” He slammed Kara to the ground and reversed, limbs and head turning as his chest compartment spun around. ”My turn.”
A bolt of green lightning instantaneously connected them. Superman fell and sunk below the waves.
Kara was getting up. Metallo rammed her against the brick chimney of the rapidly deteriorating White household. He pushed her skirt up. “You owe me a body.”
She kneed him in the crotch. There was only a metallic ping.
“No wonder you’re pissed.”
His chest compartment spread open. “We’ll get creative.”
The shore parted like the Red Sea to reveal Superman with his hands clapped together. The tidal wave crashed down on Metallo, where it was frozen by Arctic Breath. Kara flew out the top of the chimney. She looked down at Metallo, an oversized fly in the ice cube.
“Humans.”
“He’s going to escape,” Superman said. “That’s Kryptonian technology. Come with me. We’ll go to the Fortress, find a way to shut it down without harming him.”
Kara sighed. “Okay, you’re the boss.”
***
“Targets have fled,” Metallo reported as soon as his internal heat generator melted the ice. “Orders?”
“Go to Metropolis. Kill everything,” Zod said.
Lex shut off the radio link. “I own Metropolis.”
Zod looked at him, as if probing for weakness.
Lex turned the radio link back on. “Start with the Daily Planet.” He dug out his cell-phone. “Tess, get me Lloyd’s of London, I have some new insurance to take out.”
Fandom: Nolanverse Batman, Superman Returns
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2,374
Characters/Pairings: Superman, Barbara Gordon, Lois Lane, Richard White, John Corben
Previous Part: 28
Next Part: 30
Summary: Barbara’s parents find out about her secret life, Lois finds out who her son is, and Lex Luthor makes his move.
Thankfully, Barbara’s parents were fast asleep when she got home. She was able to sneak in, hide her costume, shower, and meditate to bat-sleep in peace. The problem came the next morning, when Harvey wrapped up his breakfast with the Gordons by clapping her dad on the shoulder and wishing him good luck. Then he drove James Jr. to school. Her parents both sat down with her at the breakfast nook.
“So… tomorrow’s a big day. Gonna stop the Joker from killing Bruce Wayne. Yay justice!” Barbara cheered weakly.
“Babs, first things first,” her father said. “We both love you and that’s not gonna change, no matter what choices you make…”
“But,” Sarah verbally nudged.
The commissioner folded his hands. “But you’ve been keeping a secret. A big one. Going out at night, after school… we trust you, Barbara, you’re the best kid a father could ask for. We just don’t want you to abuse our trust.”
“You think I’m doing something illegal?” Barbara cried. “I have been perfect.”
“We know, honey, we know. But we are both detectives. Did you really think you could hide this right under our noses?”
Barbara shrunk inward. “I thought you’d be proud.”
“We’ve always been proud of you.”
“And Dinah’s a fine girl,” Jim added. “You could do a lot worse.”
“Jim!” Sarah said, aghast.
“Well, she could. Remember that gang of lesbian bikers in ’88?”
“Hold up, hold up, hold up.” Barbara braced her head. “You think I’m some kind of homosexual?”
“Bisexual, pansexual. We don’t like labels if you don’t like labels.”
“But… but…”
“To be honest, Babs, we don’t know why we didn’t see it sooner. You’ve never been much interested in boys, you spend all your free time at Dinah’s house…” Barbara knew she had used that excuse too much. “And you’ve always loved women’s soccer.”
“They’re amazing athletes! And I never had time for boys because I was studying!”
“Which is why we’re so glad you’ve found Dinah.”
“I can’t be gay! I have a boyfriend!”
“WHAT!?” Jim hit the roof. Not literally; he was a few inches too short to touch it when he sprung from his chair. “How long has this been going on!”
“A few… months.”
“A few months! That’s at least three dates! Sarah, you know what happens on third dates!”
“Really?” Barbara pursed her lips a little. “I thought he was just making that up.”
“Barbara, I forbid you to see this boy!”
“You were just fine with me dating a girl!”
“Boys aren’t like girls! I should know, I was one. Boys are nasty and filthy and trust me, they won’t respect you in the morning.”
Sarah shot Jim a glance.
“Look, I know I should’ve told you sooner, but I was so afraid of… this! If you could just meet Dick—“
“Oh, I’d love to meet him,” Jim said, and Barbara gave serious consideration to digging a hole in the earth, jumping in, and pulling the dirt in after her.
***
Lois couldn’t get to sleep. And somehow her tenseness was keeping Richard from going to sleep. She laid on her side, staring past the red-blaring alarm clock to the window. She didn’t know what she expected to see.
“Do you remember when I found out I was pregnant?”
Richard was on his back, his voice clogged with drowsiness. “Happiest day of my life.”
“We’d been dating for a while, but I was never… hell, you remember how our first date ended. We never took a paternity test because you said it didn’t matter.”
“It still doesn’t,” Richard assured her, putting his hand under his head. “Jason’s a good kid.”
“But that wasn’t true. You were the only one I’d been… irresponsible with, so refusing the test was like saying you trusted me. But I think there was someone else.”
The mattress hissed as Richard rolled onto his side, facing her. “You think?”
“I’ve been having these dreams… but they’re not like dreams, they’re like memories.”
“Like suppressed memories? Like a trauma?” he asked, concerned, the hand reaching for her suddenly shying away.
“No. These are good memories.”
Richard dropped back down onto the bed, anger crackling in the air. “You have a few wet dreams and my son isn’t my son?”
“We always knew this was a possibility.”
“Superman’s bastard son was a possibility?”
There was a knock so booming that they heard it easily from the bedroom. Lois took advantage of the opportunity to go for a drink, digging into the liquor cabinet opposite the closet Richard fished his robe out of.
“Oh, that’ll help,” Richard said as he went to answer the door.
***
The man who’d been knocking was dressed in dark clothes. His black overcoat hung off his frame like a spider’s web around a fly. “Is this the White residence?” His voice was rough, deep.
“Yes.”
“Home of Lois Lane, Superman’s girlfriend?”
That did nothing to help Richard’s mood. “No. She’s my fiancée.”
“Oh, a love triangle.” His voice hissed like a bad drive-thru speaker. “I know just how to resolve it.”
***
Richard was manhandled back inside the house, fingers curled around his throat like a vice. It garbled his words like a mouthful of mud. “—get Jason, Lois, run!”
Corben applied ten more psi of pressure to Richard’s throat, amusing himself by seeing how much it would take to finally shut him up. “Lois Lane, I got a scoop for ya! Nosy reporter killed by technological breakthrough! Survived by—“ he added another ten psi. “No one.”
Three gunshots ricocheted painlessly off his skull. Its only accomplishment was tarnishing his false skin. Corben mockingly adopted a Superman pose, hands on waist, chest outthrust.
“Nice to meet you too.”
***
Lex watched the action from Metallo’s control room, smiling slightly when Lois Lane was trussed up. “You know,” he mused to Zod, “when Gobbels committed suicide, he killed his children first, rather than see them grow up in a world that was repulsive to him.”
Zod stroked his beard. “Wouldn’t it be nice to have that level of conviction?”
Lex keyed the radio link to Metallo. “Find the boy.”
***
The death’s head of Corben’s metal skull grinned out from beneath his skin as he zip-tied the Whites’ hands behind their back. He left them on the couch while he tooled around the house. In front of them, the TV played a Lex News ‘expose’ on Superman at a volume high enough to drown out any screams.
There were red marks, like brands, circling Richard’s neck.
“Are you alright?” Lois asked.
He rasped when he spoke. “Dandy.”
“I’m sorry I got us into this.”
Richard shook his head. “What do you think he wants?”
“Revenge. I know the type, I can see it in his eyes. Eye,” she amended.
“Nice shooting, by the way.”
“For all the good it did. If we live through this, remind me to buy a bigger gun.”
Corben returned, scratching at the border between his real and false faces. With each itch, more of his skin peeled away. He turned self-consciously so Jason couldn’t stare at his metal half. In profile, Lois could recognize him.
“I know you. John Corben, Lexcorp’s head of security.”
“Corben’s dead. He died with his flesh and bones. All that’s left… is Metallo.”
Richard tried the cruel word. “Metallo… what happened to you?”
“Superman. You know, ever since your boyfriend—“ Lois’s eyes darted to Richard. “No, the other one,” Metallo said, forcing her to look at him again, his face suspended halfway between life and metal death. “Ever since Supes put me in this tin can, I haven’t been able to feel a thing. Why let a weapon feel pain? Very frustrating with the ladies. But then I remembered someone telling me that rape wasn’t about pleasure, rape was about power. That’s why so many criminals turn fag in prison.”
“Don’t use that kind of language in front of my son!” Lois spat.
“How’d your son like to see Mommy’s pelvis broken by my metal cock?” Metallo put his hand on her thigh, the cold metal burning her skin. “Say it.”
”Superman,” she said softly, then again, and again, turning it into a defiant chant.
“Louder!” Metallo screamed, grabbing Jason.
Lois’s voice shook. “Superman, Superman, Superman…”
Richard growled “If you hurt him, I swear to God I’ll--“
“What? Write a mean op-ed about me? You’re a reporter. What can some mild-mannered reporter do to—“ Metallo froze into unbreathing stillness as a whistling sound, like a bomb falling, filled the room. He looked up. “That’s no bird…”
Superman smashed through the roof, third floor, second floor, and touched down. His red boots stepped out of the foundation. At the speed of thought, he surveyed the room, expecting everyone without superspeed to stay still. Instead, Metallo grabbed Richard’s neck at lightning speed. Superman was so shocked he slowed to real-time.
“This is funny,” the metal man was saying, his electronic voice grating on Superman’s ears. “I came here to take the reporter hostage, but this is so much better. Do what I want or I’ll kill your old girlfriend’s new man.”
“What do you want?”
“Just for you to hold still. I want to remember you just as you are.” Metallo moved Richard out of the way of his poison heart. “Well, were.”
Superman’s instinctual urge to flee nearly overwhelmed him. He backed toward the door.
“Uh-uh-uh! You stay right there or the kid gets to see daddy die!”
His body rebelled with a grand mal seizure, but he held his ground with teeth gritted. He looked at Lois, not at all finding it a problem to let his eyes reassure her. His head felt fuzzy. “Lois…”
He saw her mouth open, thought he saw her form the word ‘go’, but he didn’t hear anything. He fell to his knees.
Metallo casually tossed Richard aside to stalk closer to Superman. “Nice metaphor, huh?” He slapped the Plexiglass casing over the Kryptonite. “You alien freaks destroyed everything of me but my hate. And that’s all that’s left. Hate and metal. Feel my hate. Feel it choking the life out of--” He cocked his head, auditory hardware picking up a whistling sound that soon everyone could hear. Followed by a sonic boom. “Please, someone tell me that was your stomach.”
Kara exploded through the wall, fist cocked, and hit Metallo like a freight train—throwing a punch. Metallo took all of Kara’s momentum off her hands, flying through the opposite wall and out to sea.
Kara looked at her fist, examining the vulnerability even short contact with Kryptonite could bring. “I broke a nail!”
Superman wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Kara, what’re you doing here?”
“Saving you,” she answered matter-of-factly. She glanced down at Jason, who was fiercely hugging her leg, and her rebellious voice softened. “Their young look just like ours…”
Superman looked at Lois tending to Richard and deliberately looked at Kara. “Nice right hook.”
“You think so!”
Timber snapped outside. Superman unthinkingly tried to X-ray the wall Metallo had made a hole in before seeing the yacht pier cracking like a one-man tsunami was hitting it. Corben.
“Mr. White, get Lois out of here.”
“I can help!” he said, picking up the shotgun.
“Yeah, right,” Kara said.
“Richard,” Superman looked at him. “Get your family to safety.”
Richard scooped up his son. “Kick his ass, Supes.”
“That’s the plan.”
Metallo ran aground, butting the seaplane and sending it cartwheeling into the guest house. Richard ran to start the car. Kara took flight. Lois stood there, staring at Superman. He nodded to the car and turned to Metallo.
“Clark.”
Superman turned around.
There was suddenly no longer enough air for Lois to breathe.
“Don’t faint again,” he said gently.
“I’ve always known. I just… couldn’t let myself know. There’s so much I have to tell you.”
“I’ll be around,” Superman promised. “Always.”
Richard backed the car up to Kara’s hole in the wall. “Lois, time to go!”
“Your family needs you,” Superman said.
“And the world needs you.”
Superman nodded sadly and took flight.
Lois got into the car.
“Drive. Drive fast.”
***
“I worry about the influence that one has on you,” Kara said when Superman finally joined her.
“Worry about the bad guy.”
“Superman! Ready to die?”
“No he’s not, but you’d better be!” Kara streaked forward.
“Kara, wait!”
Metallo’s chest compartment opened and Kara faltered like a plane running out of fuel. Metallo caught her, crushed her against his chest. “Let’s get in touch.”
Superman circled around and unleashed a nuke’s worth of heatvision between Metallo’s shoulder blades. All it accomplished was tinting Metallo red and heating his false skin to a boil. “Nice try.” He slammed Kara to the ground and reversed, limbs and head turning as his chest compartment spun around. ”My turn.”
A bolt of green lightning instantaneously connected them. Superman fell and sunk below the waves.
Kara was getting up. Metallo rammed her against the brick chimney of the rapidly deteriorating White household. He pushed her skirt up. “You owe me a body.”
She kneed him in the crotch. There was only a metallic ping.
“No wonder you’re pissed.”
His chest compartment spread open. “We’ll get creative.”
The shore parted like the Red Sea to reveal Superman with his hands clapped together. The tidal wave crashed down on Metallo, where it was frozen by Arctic Breath. Kara flew out the top of the chimney. She looked down at Metallo, an oversized fly in the ice cube.
“Humans.”
“He’s going to escape,” Superman said. “That’s Kryptonian technology. Come with me. We’ll go to the Fortress, find a way to shut it down without harming him.”
Kara sighed. “Okay, you’re the boss.”
***
“Targets have fled,” Metallo reported as soon as his internal heat generator melted the ice. “Orders?”
“Go to Metropolis. Kill everything,” Zod said.
Lex shut off the radio link. “I own Metropolis.”
Zod looked at him, as if probing for weakness.
Lex turned the radio link back on. “Start with the Daily Planet.” He dug out his cell-phone. “Tess, get me Lloyd’s of London, I have some new insurance to take out.”
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Date: 2009-04-07 12:28 am (UTC)