Lois watched the battle between Superman and not Superman. The fake one had been breaking down at an accelerated rate and now his skin turned chalk white, his eyes was twisted, and his movements jaunty and gazed. She could see that Cat Grant had been on the scene. Lois had felt a ping of envy.
"And now, we realize that one of the Supermen is nothing but a cheap imitation," Cat Grant said. "Police and army personel strongly recommend that they area is cleared before…."
An uppercut sent Superman flying over the head of Cat Grant. Superman hit the side of the van outside and came back. The two battled each other with Superman finally getting the upper hand and fighting back with a few well placed punches which rocked this person.
"You have to listen…."
"NO, YOU LISTEN!"
Cat bit down nervously upon her lip and it took a couple of seconds for her to regain her bearings.
"This imposter Superman, is quite bizarre," Cat murmured. "Bizarro. We have to really understand who unleashed Bizarro intot he world upon us. Superman continues to fight the good fight and I will stay on the air as long as I can…"
A wild pulse of magical energy shorted Cat out completely. Lois rose to her feet, and began to pack up her things. Naturally, she had to get a closer look at the carnage.
Cat dubbed the faux Superman Bizarro. Lois doubted she would have named him such a thing, but that was just how things worked, she supposed. Lois quickened the pace, while noticing all of the lights in the city flickering.
She recalled something Harry mentioned about how young children had uncontrolled bursts of magic when highly emotional. And it appeared the faux Superman had that controlled burst of magic because he was little more than a small child, at least in temperament.
And regressing fast, if the footage Lois saw was any indicator.
"Poor creature."
Pity, Lois had to have it. She entered the elevator and frowned. Nothing seemed to be working.
"Guess, I'm taking the stairs."
X-X-X
"No, I save!"
Bizarro looked down in confusion at all of the people running away from him in terror. A blur came into his direction.
Harry looked at this tragic figure with pity. He could not understand. Bizarro put his hands on his head and dropped down to the ground. More pulses of raw magical energy.
"Calm down," Harry said.
"I no understand!" Bizarro yelled. "Why they run?"
"Because, you can't control what you're doing," Harry said. "You can't stop yourself. It's not your fault. There are some bad people making you do bad things."
"Bad things?" Bizarro asked with a quivering lip. "Do bad? No, do good. Have to do good."
"Calm down," Harry said.
The rate Bizarro was degenerating, things were going to get worse, especially if he blew. The wild pulses of magic rippling through the area already threatened to cause complete and utter chaos in the area. Harry stepped closer to Bizarro and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Show me where you come from?"
"Come from?" Bizarro asked. "Can't...remember? Can't remember?"
Oh, he was not going to make it at this rate, and Harry dubbed Metropolis was going to make it. He put the necessary shields up, hoping to contain the blast.
"Krypton. Come from Krypton. Me am Krypton, but it blew up, and then there was a castle. Castle is gone."
"You have my memories," Harry said. "Where did you come from before you came here?"
"Your memories?" Bizarro asked.
"Yes," Harry said. "Where were you earlier today?"
Bizarro screwed up his face in intense concentration. Harry waited for the bomb to drop, in more ways than one.
"Show, other Superman?"
"Yes, show me."
Bizarro finally calmed down enough to fly in a jagged pattern. He might not make it much longer at this rate. Superman took to the sky and flew off ater Bizarro, going as fast as he could.
X-X-X
A facility, with a couple of prominent holes in the ceiling, had been their destination. Bizarro dropped down from the ceiling and then Superma followed her.
"Here, this is where..."
A blast from a cannon fired out. Bizarro flew in front of Superman and took the full blast. It turned the creature into ash.
"You!" Harry yelled.
Lillian Luthor appeared, dressed in a high tech battle suit. Smoke still came from it as she walked up to Harry, a small bit of a twisted smile etched on her face.
"I told my son this was a bad idea."
"You killed him?"
"Don't worry. You'll be next."
Lillian fired a blast at Harry. Harry avoided the blast and zipped behind Lillian. The blast of heat vision had been repelled by the shield of the suit. Harry fired two concussive blasts from his hands. Those had been absorbed and fired back for them.
Harry blocked the rubble which Lillian's blasts had caused and propelled them back towards the Luthor Martiach. It rained down onto the back of her head.
"Your son is dead," Harry said. "And I'm sorry, but he had made the necessary sacrifice to stop Zod. But, you have to understand about this Lex. This Lex is not the Lex you raised. He's a genocidal madman, who destroyed multiple Earths to get what he wanted."
"No!" Lillian yelled. "I can...it's you. He'll stop when you're gone."
"Will he?" Harry asked.
Harry deflected one of the mini missiles coming from the battle suit and sent it back into the ground. The ground crumbled with Lillian and Harry crashing down the level.
"All of the humans he killed."
"All your fault!" Lillian shouted.
"Is it?" Harry asked. "You know, after everything, Lionel is better. He sacrificed himself when it counted, for all of his obsessions. You on the other hand, you don't care about anything other thanyourself."
Harry dodged Lillian's last attack and put a hand through her suit. A pulse of well trained magical energy disrupted the suit and broke it apart.
Suddenly, the doors burst open and several armed men appeared. A laser dot pointed at the forehead of Lillian Luthor, who gazed up without blinking at it.
"Lillian Luthor, you are under arrest."
A blonde woman dressed in black walked into the room. Superman eyed her for a second.
"Cameron Chase, head of the Department of Extraordiniary Affairs," she told him. "And there was a tip that pointed us here, for the equipment that the Bizzare Superman stole."
"Lex, he told you!" Lillian yelled. "He used my resources! He played me."
"Yes, he did!"
Lillian made an attempt to get at Superman, practically frothing at the mouth like a mad woman. Cameron had her men subdue Lillian.
One Luthor down, there was still one out there in the wind, just ready to be snagged.
X-X-X
Lex returned to the vault. His little creation's temper tantrum disrupted a lot of electronics in the city, including the security leading down to the vault. Lex, now dressed in one of the Cadmus battle suits, stepped a little bit closer.
"I thought you might be here."
Lex chuckled when he came face to face with a figure in a green good.
"The Green Arrow? And I doubt that you have that stupid goatee either."
The Green Arrow fired one arrow towards Lex. Lex raised a single hand and blocked the attack, a grim smile crossing his face as he did so.
"Did you really think that I would come here unprepared?"
Lex fired the arrow back at Olivia. She dodged the attack, just as Lex twisted his hand. The ceiling began to cave in along with the walls and proceeded to bury Olivia Queen alive.
"She harvested several meteor freak powers," Lex said. "Looks like you learned that the hardway."
Lex stepped in to the vault. Most of the locks had been down, but there had been one final failsafe standing in Lex's way. Lex pressed a hand on the vault.
"Swann, Queen, Teague, and Luthor," Lex murmured. "Just a simple matter to replicate the DNA sequences. But, simple thanks to a mind such as myself."
The process of replicating the DNA sequences and shifting through the vault had begun. Lex clicked through every part of the vault, rapidly working his way inside until he got precisely what he wanted out of it.
X-X-X
Superman knew Lex would try again. First though he stopped down at the edge of the vault and saw a hand sticking out of the rubble. Superman shifted through it quickly and reached down to pull Olivia out of it. She stumbled when Superman held her up.
"Thanks," Olivia said. "But, he's in the vault now."
Lex stepped out of the vault with a small little black box in his hand. Harry turned to face the diseased counterpart of his once friend.
"It's not worth it," Harry said. "The Anti-Life Equation…."
"Oh, Power Girl told me I was after that, didn't she, or Queen thought she knew?" Lex asked. "What if I told you something shocking? What if I told you that Virgil Swann created a failsafe which could turn a human into a Superman. Because, even deep down, Virgil Swann could see it."
Lex stepped closer towards Harry, but a shield blocked the two of them. Harry could tear it down.
"Having an alien with that kind of power could threaten humanity. But, one who was born human, could change the world."
Lex injected himself with a syringe and his eyes bulged out. Harry broke through the barrier and grabbed Lex by the arm, only for Lex to turn him around and flip him down to the ground.
Harry caught a glimpse of Lex's DNA, and noticed that he was turned Kryptonian. Right before Lex nailed Harry with a blast of magically enhanced heat vision which burned to him.
"I can understand the rush! I can feel the power trip! I understand everything. I can see the power!"
Lex hurled the vault door at Superman who punched it back.
"Why send a Bizarro when a Luthor could have this power? Twenty-four hours is all I need. And I can make more. The world will thank me! Bow down before my savior!"
The air swirled with particles of metal ripped from the vault. Lex turned his hand in and fired them one at a time at his adversary.
X-X-X
The super powered, and quite deranged Lex Luthor turned quite crazed and chaotic. He smashed through the vault and sent Harry flying back a few steps.
Harry landed down onto the ground and caught Lex's arm. Lex had been pushed back and headbutted hard. Harry deflected a few lightning fast attacks. A battle of heat vision started, with Lex screwing up his eyes in concentration. Then the heat vision turned into something explosive, thanks to the meteor powers in the suit.
Power Girl dropped down from the sky and kicked Lex in the back. Superwoman appeared and caught Lex and flipped him down. Supergirl landed as well.
The four super powered Kryptonians stood next to each other and face off at Lex.
"Great," Power Girl said. "Drunk with power."
"You should have been on the winning team!" Lex shouted. "I will kill him, just like I killed the other one."
"Not happening!"
Superwoman punctuated those words with a fairly intense punch. Lex caught her in mid-move and slammed her down to the ground. Three beams of heat vision caught Lex until Lex burned it off and then threw his hand onto the ground which caused gravity to twist and sent the three Kryptonians flying into the air.
"Now, where is Superman?"
"Right behind you, Luthor!"
Harry shot through the air like a blur and slammed into Lex at warp speed. One huge punch caused Lex to ripple back and crack the battle suit. Waves of magical energy rippled through the air and caused Lex to scream at the friction burning through him.
Boom, boom, boom, more punches rocked through the area, until Lex had been left in nothing more than his underclothes, and breathing very heavily in the process.
"I don't need my super suit when I have these!"
A gust of super breath rocked Superman. Superman found himself down onto the ground. A dome appeared around Superman and Lex, with Lex rapidly blasting Superman with concussive blast after concussive blast. Superman was on his knees.
"It's survival of the fittest!" Lex yelled.
Harry flicked his finger for a second and caused the dome around Lex to burn brightly. Lex looked up and slammed his fist into Superman and pressed his hand down onto the symbol.
"I'm the strongest. Therefore, I will survive. And you will perish. It is now time for Superman to die.
Suddenly, Lex's breath started to get heavy. Fatigue set in and the dome around them faded completely.
"Twenty-four hours, it hasn't even been twenty-four minutes."
"You had twenty-four hours worth of powers," Harry said. "Not that they would last a full twenty-four hours."
"I can make…"
Superman flicked Lex down to the ground with a single finger. All of the pain he could not suffer caught up with Lex's body in a second. Agony racked through the crazed Earth-2 survivor when dropping down to the ground, with a solid crack.
"You won't. You're done."
X-X-X
Both Lex Luthor of Earth-2 and Lillian Luthor had been committed to a Supermax prison.
"They will have the strongest, most arround the clock security," Cameron assured Lena. "They won't bother you…"
"I'll make sure of it," Lena said. "I'll help fund your efforts to keep them locked away forever."
Maybe, just maybe, they would come to the realization of what they were doing, harmed humanity more than helped it. However, Lena doubted it.
"His Anti-Matter weapon was seized as well," Cameron said. "We'll...find a way to safely destroy it. Starrwave has agreed to help."
"As has Horizon," Lena said.
The two women parted ways. Lena turned her attention to Harry who walked over towards him. She put a hand on Harry's shoulder and stepped back.
"He wasn't all bad," Harry said. "Just misguided, and used as a tool."
"You're talking about the other Superman?"
Harry answered with a nod. Lena put her hands on Harry's shoulder and pulled him a little closer. She smiled when talking to him.
"He came from a good bloodline," Lena said. "Not that matters a lot of the time. But, I wonder if I could have turned like them."
"You...you wouldn't," Harry said. "But, there are problems. He's coming."
"I know," Lena said. "It was what Virgil Swann prepared for, twenty years ago. And with the help of the heirs of Veritas and their other allies, we can do it. We can take down the biggest threat Earth has ever known."
One way or another, Darkseid and Apokolips was coming. Harry could feel the chill of it looming. It would hit them fast, just like the preliminary invasion of Argo hit.
X-X-X
Lex Luthor did a three sixty from the crazed man he was earlier. Now he looked extremely calm and very serene and almost calm and collected. Cameron walked up to the cell and stared in on Luthor.
"Why are you so calm?"
"I'm merely just waiting," Lex said.
"You'll be waiting for a long time because you'll never see the light of day again. After all of the threats you caused. The funny thing is, you aren't from this Earth either. Therefore, that makes you an alien."
"I'll overlook your ignorance," Lex said. "To point out the fact that you need me. You will be begging for my help."
Cameron had no conceivable reason to believe they would ever beg someone like Lex Luthor for anything. She locked eyes with him.
"When Superman fails to defeat the forces of Apokolips, Darkseid is inevitable. Darkseid is the end of times for Earth. And where will you be without your so-called hero? Because, when Darkseid finds the final piece of the Anti-Life Equation, there isn't a single fore which can stop them. Other than the knowledge that I have."
"You don't have anything."
"Do I?" Lex asked. "Despair, when it happens, I'll see how much you'll beg for me, Ms. Chase."
Lex leaned back and hummed serenely. Cameron turned away. She had seen some arrogant people in her day, but Lex Luthor of Earth-Two topped them all.