"You think you're the first to lose everything?" Bruce kept his voice steady despite the warnings. "The first to feel helpless?"
Metallo's targeting systems locked on with that terrible mechanical precision. "Don't pretend to understand, Bat."
"Eight years old. Watching my parents die. Helpless. Broken." Each word carried the weight of memory. "But I didn't let it transform me into something they'd be ashamed of."
Behind Metallo, Bruce caught Lois slowly shifting Amy toward the exit. The girl's face was streaked with tears, but she moved silently, instinctively understanding the need for stealth.
A violent tremor ran through Metallo's frame, one of his shoulder weapons misfiring into the ceiling. The instability Bruce had observed was growing worse.
"They found me in that VA hospital," Metallo's voice fluctuated between rage and anguish, static crackling between words. "Couldn't even hold my little girl. Couldn't stop my hands from shaking."
"And now?" Bruce's gesture took in Sarah's broken body, the devastation around them. "Is this what healing looks like?"
Lightning flashed outside, casting harsh shadows across chrome plating. Whatever humanity might have surfaced drowned beneath the sickly glow of those three cores.
"Evolution demands sacrifice," Metallo's words came out pure machine. "Starting with those who built this mockery of life."
He turned toward Lionel's office with terrible purpose. Bruce seized the opening, launching a specialized EMP batarang at the damaged shoulder joint. The localized pulse disrupted Metallo's balance just long enough for Bruce to close the distance.
Pain lanced through his arm as he drove an electrified gauntlet into the core housing. Warning alerts cascaded across his vision - exposure critical, neural response failing, heartrate dangerously elevated. But the attack landed true. Metallo staggered, systems temporarily overwhelmed.
"Evacuate now!" Bruce shouted to Lois. She'd reached the relative cover of an overturned conference table, Amy clutched protectively against her.
Chrome fingers closed around Bruce's throat before he could say more. The radiation at this proximity made his vision swim, nausea rising as his suit's integrity failed.
"Impressive, for a human." Metallo lifted him off the ground. "Your armor almost matches LuthorCorp's military prototypes. Almost."
The suit's defensive discharge barely made Metallo's grip loosen. Bruce drove a specialized batarang into the exposed wrist joint, delivering its payload of nanites designed to degrade cybernetic systems.
Metallo's fingers spasmed as the nanites spread through his circuits. Bruce broke free, landing in a controlled roll despite the vertigo threatening to overwhelm him.
"What have you done?" Metallo examined his malfunctioning hand with growing fury.
"Reminded you that you're still partly human." Bruce activated the building's sprinkler systems, creating new pathways for the nanites while disrupting targeting.
Lois had reached the maintenance access with Amy. Their eyes met across the chaos - understanding passing between them without words. Bruce would hold Metallo's attention while they escaped.
The cores in Metallo's chest spun faster, temperature readings spiking beyond Bruce's sensors' ability to measure. The failsafes built into the cyborg's systems were disengaging as radiation rewrote his operational parameters.
"Machines can be hacked, reprogrammed, controlled," Metallo's voice carried new harmonics that set Bruce's teeth on edge. "I am beyond such limitations."
Energy arced between the three cores, creating patterns that defied conventional physics. Bruce's HUD tried to analyze the reaction before overloading completely.
"Sir, you need to withdraw," Alfred's voice carried barely controlled fear. "The energy signature is becoming exponentially unstable."
"Not until the civilians are clear." Bruce forced the words out past the radiation sickness taking hold.
Metallo gathered himself, systems stabilizing as he focused on his true target. "Enough games. Lionel Luthor dies tonight."
His backhand caught Bruce mid-leap, sending him crashing through the remains of the conference table. Pain exploded across his ribs. But he'd accomplished what mattered most - through the access shaft, he saw Lois and Amy disappearing to safety.
"Noble," Metallo observed, genuine appreciation bleeding through the vocoder distortion. "Sacrificing yourself for strangers."
"Like a good man," Bruce corrected, forcing himself upright. "Something you used to be."
Metallo turned away dismissively, marching toward Lionel's office with implacable purpose despite the nanites degrading his systems. Bruce activated his comms again.
"Alfred, track Lane and the girl. Extraction point gamma."
"Already done, sir. But your vitals-"
"Monitor the radiation signature," Bruce cut him off. "If those cores go critical, the whole building becomes a hot zone."
He followed Metallo's path, each step requiring more focus as radiation sickness advanced. Ahead, Lionel Luthor stood framed in his office doorway, tumbler of scotch held with casual indifference. His composed demeanor seemed absurd against the chaos around them.
"John." Lionel's voice carried the same quiet command Bruce remembered from charity galas. "You've made quite a mess of my boardroom."
"You're not running." Metallo stopped, head tilting as he studied his creator.
"Would it make a difference?" Lionel took a measured sip. "My son has been quite thorough in ensuring there's nowhere to go. He learned that from me - cutting off all escape routes before striking."
"Your son." Something new entered Metallo's mechanical tone. "The one who supplied the variants to enhance my cores. Who suggested increasing radiation exposure to 'stabilize' my neural patterns."
Surprise flickered across Lionel's features before his mask resettled. "Alexander was always ambitious. Though perhaps I underestimated how far he'd go."
Through shattered windows, Bruce glimpsed the Batwing hovering beyond sensor range, ready for extraction. His focus returned to the confrontation, tactical assessment running despite his deteriorating condition.
"You created me," Metallo's accusation carried equal parts rage and anguish. "Took a broken soldier and turned him into this... abomination."
"I gave you a second chance," Lionel countered smoothly. "When the military abandoned you, LuthorCorp technology gave you a new life."
"Life?" The laugh that emerged sounded like metal being torn apart. "Is that what you call this half-existence? This constant burning as your radiation rewrites what little of me is left?"
Bruce edged closer, gathering intel even as radiation exposure climbed toward lethal levels.
"The program had unforeseen complications," Lionel spoke with clinical detachment. "Your psychological profile suggested you'd adapt. Instead, the mental degradation accelerated beyond our models."
"Mental degradation?" Metallo's voice dropped dangerously. "You make it sound like a footnote in a quarterly report. Do you know what it feels like? Watching your humanity strip away piece by piece, remaining conscious enough to experience every moment?"
Lionel's mask slipped, revealing the ruthlessness beneath. "You were a soldier. You understood sacrifice. The program's successes would have helped thousands of veterans."
"Like the others whose bodies rejected your implants? Whose minds shattered under the pain?" Metallo's chest split wider, cores pulsing erratically.
"Necessary pioneers for progress." Lionel showed no remorse. "Scientific advancement has always required sacrifice for the greater good."
Bruce detected movement from another corridor - security personnel taking position. Their weapons would be useless against Metallo's enhanced frame, but their presence suggested someone was marshaling a response. The encryption pattern was unmistakable - SHIELD frequencies.
Lionel noticed them too. His posture shifted slightly, confidence returning as he calculated new odds. "You've made your point, John. Demonstrated the program's flaws quite thoroughly." He set his drink down, assuming the stance that had cowed boardrooms for decades. "But this ends now."
The laugh that emerged from Metallo sounded like grinding metal meets madness. "This isn't about revenge, Luthor. This is evolution." Energy cascaded between his cores in impossible patterns. "I am what comes next. What humanity becomes when it transcends weakness."
Bruce caught another movement - Lex Luthor emerging from shadow, expression unreadable as he watched the confrontation. The younger Luthor made no move to help his father, maintaining calculated distance from what was about to unfold.
"You're malfunctioning," Lionel stated flatly. "The radiation is corrupting your neural pathways. This delusion of evolution-"
"Delusion?" The word emerged through electronic distortion that made Bruce's radiation-sensitive ears ring. "I've evolved beyond pain. Beyond fear. Beyond human limitation!"
To demonstrate, Metallo drove chrome fingers into his own chest, tearing through plating with terrible strength. Sparks cascaded from ruptured circuits as he grasped the red core, partially extracting it from its housing.
"Stop!" Lionel's composure finally cracked. "The containment fields are interconnected-"
"Now you show fear?" Metallo's mechanical features twisted into something like a smile. "Now you understand consequences."
Bruce launched his final specialized batarang, designed for energy disruption. It struck Metallo's exposed wrist, creating a momentary opening.
"John!" Bruce put every ounce of authority into his voice. "Look at the monitors!"
Security feeds showed Amy being led to safety by Lois, SHIELD agents establishing a protective corridor around them.
"Your daughter made it out," Bruce continued despite the radiation burning through him. "She's safe. Don't make her witness what comes next."
Something human flickered across chrome features - a father's love briefly surfacing through machine programming. Metallo's fingers released the partially extracted core.
"My little girl." The words cut through vocoder distortion. "I didn't mean to..."
The moment shattered as competing directives fought for control. Sparks erupted across his frame as the father's heart warred with machine logic, all of it corrupted by radiation that rewrote his fundamental nature.
"No!" The electronic shriek made windows vibrate. "This weakness is what they exploited! Used to control us!" His gaze fixed on Lionel with pure hatred. "He knew which buttons to push. Used Amy against me from the start."
Lionel reached beneath his desk, withdrawing a small device. "You've served your purpose, John." His voice carried cold finality. "Program terminated."
He entered a command sequence. Metallo screamed - a sound no human throat could produce, pure agony filtered through machine vocalization. His frame went rigid as override protocols fought corrupted programming.
"Failsafe protocol," Lionel explained with clinical detachment. "Designed to neutralize enhancements if subjects demonstrated psychological instability."
Bruce's tactical assessment revised instantly. The failsafe wasn't just disrupting motor functions - it was attempting to shut down core containment. If successful, it would transform Metallo from weapon to bomb.
"Stop!" Bruce moved toward Lionel despite his body's protests. "You'll trigger a cascade reaction!"
But Lionel showed no comprehension of the danger, convinced he was neutralizing a threat rather than creating catastrophe.
Metallo fought the override, chrome fingers digging into his chest in desperate attempt to stabilize the cores. Energy arced chaotically between the crystals as containment began to fail.
"You arrogant fool," he managed through static interference. "Think you can just... switch me off? I've evolved beyond your controls!"
He launched himself at Lionel with terrible purpose. The older Luthor barely registered surprise before metal fingers closed around his throat, lifting him off the ground. The failsafe device clattered uselessly to the floor.
"I was going to make it quick," Metallo's voice carried unnatural calm despite energy cascading across his frame. "A soldier's death. Clean. Efficient." His grip tightened, leaving bruises on pale skin. "But now you'll feel everything. Every second of pain as your creation becomes your destruction."
Bruce forced himself forward through waves of radiation sickness. "John, don't do this. Your daughter-"
"Will understand someday." Metallo remained focused on Lionel's struggles. "That monsters must be destroyed."
Lex watched impassively from the corridor, making no move to intervene as years of abuse and planning had reached their culmination.
Lionel's struggles weakened, but defiance still burned in eyes that had broken countless rivals. With remaining strength, he spat out words that carried surprising pride:
"Well played... my son."
Understanding dawned across Metallo's mechanical features as he processed the implication.
"The son uses the father's weapon to orchestrate his downfall." His laugh sounded like grinding metal. "Beautiful symmetry."
Lionel's gaze found Lex one final time, a lifetime of cruelty and ambition reflected in that last look. Whatever he might have said was lost forever as chrome fingers closed with terrible finality. The crack of vertebrae echoed through the executive office - a sound Bruce had heard too many times in Gotham's shadows.
Lionel Luthor hung limp in metal hands, his empire's fall made manifest in broken flesh. The moment stretched with terrible significance - not just death, but the transfer of power it represented.
Metallo discarded the body casually, letting it crumple against imported marble. His attention shifted fully to Lex, who hadn't moved during the execution.
"And now the son," he said, systems recalibrating. "Who made my evolution possible. Who supplied the variants that enhanced my cores."
Lex showed no fear as death approached, his composure perfect even as lethal radiation washed over him.
"I gave you what you wanted, John," he replied smoothly. "Power beyond limitation. Freedom from pain. The ability to show the world what they did to you."
"What you did to me," Metallo corrected. "Your father started the process, but you accelerated it. Knowing exactly what would happen when the cores interacted."
A slight smile touched Lex's lips. "A necessary catalyst. The board would never have accepted my leadership without proof of my father's illegal programs." He gestured at security feeds showing evacuation efforts. "Now the world sees exactly what he created. What LuthorCorp became under his guidance."
"And you emerge as savior," Metallo observed. "The son who exposed corruption. Who helped stop the monster his father built."
"A reasonable interpretation." Lex's gaze dropped to his father's body without emotion. "Though your role wasn't meant to include quite so much collateral damage."
The laugh that emerged carried pure machine madness. "You miscalculated. Thought you could control the evolution you helped create." Targeting systems locked onto Lex. "But I've moved beyond your programming too."
The world suddenly tilted as Bruce's radiation sickness reached critical levels. He stumbled, catching himself against a wall as nausea threatened to overwhelm him. Through darkening vision, he saw Metallo advancing on Lex with terrible purpose.
Then the executive floor exploded inward.
Glass and steel erupted as something tore through the building's exterior at impossible speed. The sonic boom shattered remaining windows for three floors. When the blur resolved into recognizable form, Bruce felt something close to relief.
Superman hovered at the destruction's center, golden armor glinting in the storm light. The suit was unlike anything from their previous encounters - perfect fusion of Kryptonian technology and focused purpose. The House of El symbol pulsed with power at its heart.
But it was Clark's eyes that commanded attention - blazing crimson with barely contained fury as they fixed on Metallo. Whatever recovery had kept him away until now had changed something fundamental in the Man of Steel.
"John." Superman's voice carried quiet authority despite the raging storm. "This ends now."
Metallo turned toward Superman with predatory grace, previous targets forgotten. "The alien returns!" His mechanical features twisted into something like anticipation. "I was starting to think you'd died in the Arctic ice."
Bruce saw genuine fear crack Lex's careful composure for the first time that night. Superman's arrival hadn't been part of his calculations. The younger Luthor began a calculated retreat toward the nearest exit, abandoning any pretense of control.
Clark's gaze swept the room, taking in Lionel's broken body, Bruce's radiation-ravaged form, the devastation wrought by unchecked power. When he spoke again, his voice carried steel beneath the surface.
"The civilians are safe. No one else needs to die tonight."
"Death is evolution's mechanism!" Metallo's frame buzzed with barely contained energy, the cores in his chest spinning faster. "Look what death made me. No more fragile flesh. No more human weakness."
"You haven't evolved," Clark's armor hummed in resonance with his emotions. "You've surrendered to pain and rage until there's nothing left of John Corbin."
"John Corbin died in the sand while you played hero!" Energy cascaded across chrome plating as Metallo's systems reconfigured. "I am the next step. Metal instead of meat. Certainty instead of doubt."
Bruce forced himself to stay conscious, analyzing the confrontation through years of tactical training. The armor Clark wore wasn't just defensive - it actively processed the radiation, channeling it in ways that defied conventional physics.
"Sir," Alfred's voice carried urgent concern. "The Batwing is in final position. Extraction window closing as structural integrity continues to fail."
Bruce watched Superman hover above the wreckage of LuthorCorp's executive floor, golden armor catching the storm's lightning in ways that defied physics. The suit had adapted since their Arctic confrontation, its matrices now processing radiation that would have crippled Clark before. But even with the enhancement, Bruce could see the toll the exposure was taking.
Thunder shook the building as Superman and Metallo circled each other in the rain-charged air. Each movement carried enough kinetic energy to level city blocks, their dance becoming more lethal with every exchange. The cyborg's chrome frame sparked and sputtered, internal systems struggling to contain power that threatened to tear him apart from within.
"The suit's giving you strength," Metallo observed, voice carrying new harmonics as his vocal processors degraded. "Channeling the suns's power into something you can use." His chest plate split wider, cores spinning faster. "But can it handle everything?"
The blast that followed lit up half of downtown Metropolis. Clark crossed his arms, armor reconfiguring to maximum absorption as tri-colored radiation struck. The impact drove him back fifty feet before the suit stabilized, golden plating glowing white-hot as it processed impossible energy.
"You're not the only one who can adapt," Superman replied, crimson light building behind his eyes. The heat vision that erupted wasn't his normal focused beam - the armor amplified it into something that rivaled small suns.
Their attacks met midair with a sound like reality tearing. Windows shattered for blocks as crimson energy battled sickly green, neither giving ground. Bruce's sensors tried to analyze the confrontation before overloading completely - the power levels involved exceeded anything they could measure.
Metallo laughed through the deadlock, the sound carrying both machine distortion and human madness. "Yes! Show me what you can really do!" Steam vented from his joints as internal temperature climbed. "No more holding back! No more pretending to be human!"
Clark poured more power into his heat vision, armor channeling solar energy through specialized matrices. The golden suit began to actually hum, House of El symbol pulsing with gathered strength. But Metallo matched him surge for surge, the radiation from his cores taking on properties that shouldn't exist.
They shot skyward together, still locked in their energy struggle. Each second of sustained output threatened to overwhelm them both - Clark's armor straining to process the radiation while Metallo's systems began to literally melt from the heat they were generating.
"Sir," Alfred reported through Bruce's comms. "Their energy signature just exceeded our ability to track. If they maintain this level of output-"
A massive thunderclap cut him off as the deadlock finally broke. The backlash sent both combatants spiraling through the storm clouds, trailing fire and lightning. Superman recovered first, armor automatically compensating for the tumble. But Metallo's movements had become increasingly erratic, his frame struggling to contain the power building inside him.
Clark shot forward, taking advantage of the opening. His fist connected with Metallo's chest plate hard enough to create a sonic boom, the impact sending the cyborg crashing back through LuthorCorp's upper floors. But proximity to the unstable cores took its toll - even through the armor's protection, Clark felt his cells burning from exposure.
"The radiation's changing," Bruce observed, watching new energy patterns cascade across his failing sensors. "Whatever they did to those mineral variants, the interaction is creating something worse."
Metallo erupted from the wreckage, chrome frame actually glowing from internal heat. Parts of his synthetic skin had burned away completely, revealing circuitry that pulsed with unholy light. The perfect machine precision of earlier was gone, replaced by movements that seemed almost spastic.
"Can you feel it?" Static crackled through Metallo's voice as another piece of his chrome plating fell away. "The power... it burns so bright!"
—
Sam Lane lowered his binoculars, jaw tight as he watched his city's sky turned into a battlefield. Twenty-seven years in the military hadn't prepared him for this - his daughter trapped in that building while beings with godlike power tore through steel and concrete like paper.
"Sir." His XO's voice carried carefully controlled panic. "The National Guard units are in position, but these energy readings..."
The rest vanished in thunder as Superman and Metallo collided again. The blast that followed lit up storm clouds like a second dawn. Through tactical scopes, Sam watched Superman roll under the beam, that strange golden armor leaving trails of light as he closed in. They hit a water tower together, the explosion of steam adding to the growing chaos.
"Dad!"
His heart stopped at Lois's voice. She emerged from the LuthorCorp lobby with a group of survivors, clutching Amy Corbin's hand like a lifeline. The girl's face was streaked with tears, but she moved with quiet determination that made Sam's chest ache.
"Keep moving!" Hawkeye shepherded them forward, bow ready as debris rained from above. "Follow the evac route exactly!"
Sam reached for military discipline that suddenly felt paper-thin. "Lois-"
She fell into his arms before he could finish, still keeping hold of Amy's hand. "I'm okay. But John... what they did to him..."
Another impact shook the ground as the battle spiraled higher. Through the rain, Sam watched Superman and Metallo trade blows that could reshape mountains. Clark fought with the control that defined him - each movement measured, precise. But Metallo had abandoned restraint, pouring everything into raw destruction.
"You still don't understand!" The cyborg's scream carried new harmonics that set teeth on edge. "This isn't about control anymore!"
Near a side entrance, Lex Luthor emerged with Mercy close behind. He paused to watch the aerial combat, rain streaming down features that might have been carved from stone.
"Your father's death will be attributed to the rampage," Mercy said quietly. "All evidence has been handled."
"My father." Something flickered across Lex's face as Superman dodged another radiation blast. "Who thought power gave him the right to play god." His hands clenched. "Like that alien, descending from the heavens to show us poor humans a better way."
"Sir?"
"Look at him, Mercy. So perfect. So noble." Bitterness crept into his voice. "While men like my father corrupt through ambition, he corrupts through false hope. Making humanity dependent on his protection instead of advancing on our own."
The conversation died as Bruce's warning cut through emergency channels: "The cores are destabilizing. Energy signature shifting."
Sam's training took over. "Fall back to secondary perimeter! All units maintain radiation protocols!" He turned to Lois, trying to find words for the fear squeezing his chest. "You need to get clear. Take the girl and-"
"Dad." Just one word, but he knew that tone. Ellen had used it too, all those years ago when he'd tried to talk her out of dangerous assignments.
Above them, Clark made one last attempt to reach what remained of John Corbin.
"Amy still needs her father. Not this twisted version. She needs the man who taught her to ride bikes. Who spent three days building her dollhouse."
The girl's grip tightened painfully on Lois's hand. Through the rain, Sam saw something flicker across Metallo's mechanical features - a father's love fighting through corrupted programming.
Then the cores flared brighter, drowning that humanity in waves of sickly light. "She'll understand sacrifice," Metallo's voice went pure machine. "Progress demands destroying what came before."
He launched himself at Superman with devastating force. Their impact created shockwaves that forced even hardened SHIELD agents to take cover. Sam watched helplessly as the battle intensified, knowing the evacuation zone might not be enough if those cores went critical.
"Last civilian group is clear," Hawkeye reported, appearing beside Maria Hill. "Except..." He glanced toward where Lois stood watching the battle, Amy still clinging to her hand.
Sam recognized that look on his daughter's face - the same stubborn determination that had made her chase truth into war zones. "Keep the evacuation moving. But maintain medical teams on standby."
Near the perimeter, Lex's cold assessment continued. "My father was a monster. But at least he was human." His eyes tracked Superman's movements with growing hatred. "That thing up there? Playing at being our protector? He's something far more dangerous - a god who thinks he knows what's best for us."
Another thunderous exchange lit up the sky. Superman took a hit that would have leveled buildings, his armor absorbing most of the impact. But Bruce saw the toll each exposure was taking, even through the suit's protection.
"The radiation hurt you," Metallo's voice carried new distortion as another piece of his frame melted away. "Rewrote your perfect biology. Made you vulnerable."
Thunder drowned out Superman's response as their battle lit up the storm clouds. Through the rain, Sam Lane watched energy readings climb toward levels that shouldn't exist. His hand tightened on his radio as he weighed options that grew worse by the second.
—
Two thousand miles away at Edwards Air Force Base, Technical Sergeant Mike Chen's coffee nearly hit the floor as his radar screen lit up with familiar signatures.
"Sir!" His voice cracked slightly. "That bogey from Gulmira - it's back. Same energy pattern, showing up over Malibu."
Major Allen was already moving toward the screen. "Get me confirmation. And somebody scramble-"
"Stand down." Rhodes' calm voice cut through the growing tension. "Just a training exercise. Nothing to worry about."
Chen wasn't so sure - those energy readings matched what they'd seen overseas exactly. But you didn't argue with a full bird colonel, even one who seemed distracted by his phone.
The radar operator had just started to relax when his secure line lit up. The voice on the other end made his blood run cold:
"This is General Lane, authorization Sierra-Seven-Delta. I need birds in the air five minutes ago."