Seeds of Smallville, Part One, Vantage Point A

November 08, 2014:

Stryker's Island is broken apart by an unseen foe hellbent on bringing trauma to America's favorite city. (This scene is the first vantage point from a two-room scene)

Metropolis

The City of Metropolis; one of the great cities in the world.

Characters

NPCs: Chloe Sullivan, Manchester Black, Parasite, Solomon Grundy, Bizarro, Livewire

Mentions:

Mood Music: Jetta - I'd Love To Change The World


Fade In…

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"He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore." - Sigmund Freud

SMALLVILLE, KANSAS

26 YEARS AGO

The light is piercing, even from the ground. A thousand flashes fall from the sky, heading toward the rural community of Smallville, Kansas. The largest, screams across the sky, just as a red, Ford pickup drives east toward the Kent Farm. Because Jonathan and Martha Kent are so intrigued by the lightshow, they don't even notice the white sedan parked on the side of the road, nor do they see the woman in dire need of help.

Inside the sedan, an expecting mother screams but no one can hear her. One leg is tucked behind the headrest of the passenger seat, while the other, bare, foot is pressed against the window. Her sundress is matted down first with sweat, and later with blood. The emergency situation turns even for the worse, however, when the back window explodes after being hit by a projectile at high speeds.

Outside the car, now, the farm land is being pelted with might seem like hail. Upon closer inspection, though, the chunks are too large to be ice and instead of white, they all seem to be a mixture of rocky black and crystalline green.

SMALLVILLE, KANSAS

PRESENT DAY

The morning light still hasn't peeked through yet, and Clark Kent is trying to sleep in his boyhood room. After going through the toss and turn routine for the better part of the night, he decides he cannot take it anymore and creeps down the wooden steps to see about some coffee.

When he sees his mother, he cannot decide if he's surprised or not.

"Can't sleep?" she asks, pouring another glass. "Sorry, mom," Clark replies as he takes a cup.

Martha chuckles softly to herself as she places the pot back upon its mooring. "I'm pretty sure the cows were able to hear you thrashing about, Clark. Is it the train station?"

Clark nods, "Every night since, I've had this recurring dream. I'm in the Fortress, and I'm hurt badly. I'm bleeding all over the floor and trying hard to get into the main chamber."

Martha looks as if she's about to respond with some sort of empathetic motherly advice, but she stops and looks horrified at the television, "Clark…"

METROPOLIS

PRESENT DAY

The sun was just starting to creep above the horizon when the powerful explosives shook the entirety of Stryker's Island. One of the highest security prison's in the United States, Stryker's had recently been updated to house some of the most hardened, high powered supervillains the world had to offer. Rising high above the cliffs of the island itself, the penitentiary sits with about 30 boats of various sizes, the only transportation out to the island.

But now, three of the four sides sit with cavernous holes. Captives flood out onto the island proper, some of which take to the air, many of which are making a break for the boats, a few of which are diving towards the water.

To make matters worse, out on the lawns, there are hundreds of guards who appear to be burning alive out on the sandy grass. They're wails can't quite be heard way off into Metropolis in the distance, but you'd be surprised how far the blood curdling, harrowing cries carry.

WASHINGTON DC

NOW

President Pershing is dressing down one of his cabinet members and it's not pretty. "/You/ told me that this prison would be safe. /You/ told me it was impenetrable." It looks as if the President is ready to strangle the man with the thick mustache, but cooler heads prevail. "I want Metropolis to be evacuated immediately. Call up the governor of Delawa-who the hell is it?" "Reese, sir." "Reese. Tell that chucklenuts he needs to get the National Guard up immediately, and that the military will be following right behind as soon as we can get them there. Get birds in the sky right away and see if we can start getting some cover."

"You're talking about invading our own city s-"

"I know what I'm saying. God dammit, I want the Justice League, the Sardines, and anyone else you think might help. Call everyone. If this goes south there could be thousands of people dead. We'd rather over-react than under react. Now go make it happen. Jesus H-"

As Rick Walters, head of the Bureau of Prisons gets up to leave, Pershing extends his finger. "Not you, Pershing. You stay here. I'm not done with you yet."

There's work, and then there are the things that have to be done. Carol keeps a police scanner running in her office at the Daily Planet. Her employees think it's so she can get a jump on the news, and that suits her fine. It means that when something like this happens, she can get out of the office quickly, and on her way. Before any fighters can actually be scrambled, Ms. Marvel is rocketing toward the prison, ready to help close the doors again.

Before dawn, Michael Jon Carter is already up and getting ready to head to work. The ability to fly makes his commute easy, so he is not in a rush. He is just pulling on a shirt when his robot assistant Skeets flies in and says, "Er… sir?"

Less than a minute after this, Michael is leaping out of his apartment window in Metropolis, still pulling on parts of his Booster Gold power suit. Once he has his cowl and goggles in place, his flight picks up speed and he arrows towards Stryker's Island.

"Columbia inbound. Request staging stat. Please advise."

In keeping with her training on radio discipline, she's keeping her words terse, to the point, even if she's talking on her phone. Too much has gone side-ways since the Innovation Bombing, with some false alarms doing nothing for anyone's nerves. Even today, she was attempting to get some rest and recovery in the aftermath of that incident. Still, when there is the choice of being the barrier that Metropolis needs or patching up potentially hundreds of thousands afterwards in her best guesstimate, the best bet is to be the barrier.

She doesn't have deafeningly fast flight, but approaching transsonic speeds is nothing to slouch at, especially when the distances involved are relatively short. She's never been called on to help deal with a prison break before. But wherever the directions lead her, that's where she'll go. There'll be plenty of work no matter what.

"Staging requested, please advise, over."

The statuesque orange-haired woman is wearing her most durable outfit, in this case, a trenchcoat over a green shirt, black slacks and black steel-toed workboots, with black fingerless gloves.

Ozymandias is talking on the phone to someone as he places his sickle sword into his sheath. "Yes, I just heard. No, I am not in Metropolis. I am afraid I had one too many drinks on the train, and missed my stop, in fact, I think my state room thermostat was on the fritz last night. I think I might have caught a cold. Could you reschedule my appointments for the next three days. Thank you.

Ozymandias looks in the mirror after he is fully dress and clenches his fists. Open the door to the hotel room, and puts the do not disturb sound on the door. He heads towards the window of his room, and begin to make his way towards the prison.

As the explosions rock Stryker Island, Oracles systems sound the alarm. Leaning forward in her chair, her green eyes narrowing, Oracle pulls the surveillance videos of the high security prison to the main screen and watches as the prisoners make their escape.

Tapping her comms unit, Oracle sends an all channel broadcast "This is Oracle. Stryker Island has been compromised. All available assets to proceed there as quickly as possible. Acknowldge receipt. Over." As this message is going out, Oracle is tapping into the police and military communications channels, window after window appearing on her monitors.

Almost immediately, Vorpal responds advising he is inbound to Stryker Island. Oracle waits for the rest of the team to respond, her face grim.

"Acknowledged," Nightwing's voice is heard over the comms as he answers Oracle's call. "Stryker's Island…not quite the next block over, but I'll see what I can manage." It's not like he can fly but at least he was already on the road. He swerves his bike off to take a different exit and amps up the speed to try and get there before the business is all over. "We really need to get a jet…" is said over the unit, mostly to himself and Oracle.

SMALLVILLE, KANSAS

18 YEARS AGO

The Kent family home is decorated for a party. There are streamers of red, blue, and yellow strung from one side of the interior of the country home to the other. On the table there are six placemats set out, all with a matching Power Rangers theme. Above the archway is a large banner that reads: "Happy Birthday Kenny and Clark!"

Martha Kent hangs up the phone and turns to her son with a pained look on her face. "Clark, that was Kenny's mom. Sweetie, they had to take Kenny back to the hospital again." She comes over to hold the young boy's hand. "They think the cancer could be back."

OVER THE EASTERN UNITED STATES

NOW

"Chloe, what have we got?" The sound dampening device STAR Labs made for him allows him to speak to his friend, even when flying at full speeds.

"Clark it looks like three blasts on the north, west, and south sides. It looks like there's a lot of activity out of the yard and a group of convicts are flying the coop. Those without the means are getting to get to landfall via boats. How far are you?"

"I'll be there in 30 seconds."

METROPOLIS

ON LAND

Convicts are just now getting to land and are looking to get somewhere safe…or trying to create as much mayhem as possible.

As Carol begins to fly out towards the island, she'll notice something coming at her. Something big, and purple, and nasty. BIZARRO comes at her, shrieking fiercely as he attempts to punch her square in the jaw with super-speedy flight at his back. "Mr. DC! ME AM SO GLAD TO SEE YOU!"

From his vantage point, Booster Gold will see Bizarro about to throw a massive punch toward Ms. Marvel. There's also the problem of a large zombie running down at the ground level. SOLOMON GRUNDY is moving quickly, looking for a place to hide. He's spying a sewer route and lifts the top off of a sewer grate and tries to SQUEEEEEEEE…nope, that didn't work. Instead he starts smashing the road, trying to get a path downward.

As Columbia flies past, she'll notice a crackle of electricity aimed her way. LIVEWIRE throws her head back in laughter, psychotic laughter, absolutely thrilled that she's free. As soon as Columbia looks in her direction, she disappears in a flash of lightning into a powerline, only to reappear on the opposite side, where she delivers another payload of electricity. As Oz approaches, he'll come into very close proximity to Livewire, who is paying more attention to Columbia.

As Oracle begins to scan the area, she'll notice something not quite adding up. On the island, there are eyewitness reports of burning guards, but her scanners show nothing of the sort.

That's odd.

Nightwing hangs the next left and there, in the middle of the road he witnesses a terrible sight. PARASITE, a gigantic blob of purple has a six pack of people in his arms. And one in his mouth. The poor fellow has the energy literally sucked out of his body. The carcass is thrown without care as the beast goes for another.

STRYKER'S ISLAND

There are still many convicts out on the lawn of Stryker's Island, looking to find their own route to escape.

Worse, there are hundreds of guards out there seemingly burning alive. They scream as the flesh burns away from their bodies, leaving them with half skeletal, half meaty soon-to-be carcasses.

This is the view for Vorpal as he arrives through a rabbit hole. Convicts are headed in every direction. Some in the air, some via boat. Lunair is still too far away to see, but she is able to find a boat that was stolen by some convicts who already made it to the land.

As the mammoth creature blots the sun out and puts a large shade over the island, several convicts stop to look up at whatever it is that causing the large shade. "RUN!" Several jump off the cliffs and into the water.

But Hawkgirl is able to get in with no such problems, given everyone is looking at Gar. On the ground she'll spy several villains she probably recognizes: Metallo, Barrage, the Trickster, and Silver Banshee.

Ms. Marvel was a fighter pilot. There are plenty of heroes who can fly, plenty of heroes who can throw a punch. But there are very few who can match her strategy and maneuverability in the air. As Bizarro flies toward her, she drops her altitude quickly, diving beneath the punch only to turn and deliver a powerful energy blast in return. "Yeah, that's not going to fly, buddy!" she calls back, giving up on the island for the moment to deal with the enemy at hand.

Booster Gold answers Oracle's call as well, saying, "This is Booster, I copy you, Oracle. I'm heading for Stryker's…" He stops talking as he sees what is happening below him. "Scratch that. Some heavy hitters are already here on the mainland. I see two." He starts sending Oracle a visual feed, although he quickly realizes this may become useless if he is going to thwart one of those bunker busters. As his robot pal catches up with him, Booster says, "Oracle, I'd like you to meet my friend Skeets. He can do aerial surveillance, among other things."

"Hello!" Skeets says cheerfully, through Booster's communication channel.

With that taken care of, Booster dives towards the street, with Solomon Grundy in his sights. He does not try for a punch, however; instead, he attempts to grab at the big, pallid man, wanting to tackle him so he can fly him up and away from ground level.

Columbia hits the 'Message Recieved' button on her phone and stows it firmly. She doesn't know WHERE to head yet, but that would hopefully come soon enough as she — gets hit by the charge of electricity. She flinches and screams a bit in flight from the charge and it takes her a few seconds of uncontrolled flight to realize that nope, she's NOT actually being electrocuted (much), though her pants — that used to hold her phone — are now on fire, and that was definitely a shock to the system. She shakes her head and attempts to regain her bearings and find the target that did that to her, even as her flight continues to alternate between fanning her own personal inferno and putting it out.

"Where'd you GO?"

This may be setting her up for another attack from the electrical elite.

Ozymandias doesn't jump into the battle just yet as quickly realizes that these are some heavy hitters. He looks around the area for some tactical advantage that might aid him.

As Oracle smiles faintly at Nightwings response regarding the Jet, the scans she's initiated on the island don't match the visual feeds. Tapping her comms unit "Vorpal, Oracle. I need confirmation on the guards, what can you tell me? Over." Eyes still narrowed, the light from her monitors reflecting off her glasses, Oracle waits for the response which comes fairly quickly "Oracle, they're burning up- flesh is melting away… oh god, I can't help them!" Vorpals voice actually breaks across the comms. Raising a hand to the back of her neck to rub it, Oracle tilts her head… why aren't they registering?

Boosters message is next and a quick tap on the comms "Booster/Skeets, Oracle. Acknowledge. Visual feeds incoming. Skeets, hello. Initiate aerial surveillance and feed to this location. Over." Boosters visuals appear on another window, Oracles main monitor is now showing locations in Metropolis and the Island.

"Nightwing, Oracle. Acknowledge, visuals initiated. Over" and entering a series of commands on her consoles, Nightwings visuals appear with Parasite looming large.

Nightwing turns on a camera in his mask on to send to Oracle, "Uhm. Is this what you were talking about? Because I have no clue how to fight a blob of grape Jello. I can try to clear the area, but there's been one casualty already and there are half a dozen hostages. I can try to tase it, but…Jello." Maybe it's not quite a blob of jello, but he's not too sure how else to describe it. Moving closer to the blob, he then pulls out a taser, having it the ready even as he does his best to get closer. If the thing has his hands(?) full, maybe he won't be able to try and get him as he shoots the thing with electricity. At the same time, he calls to any people around, "Get out of here! Run! Stay away!" Not that it'll help all that much, but he's trying to make sure there are no more casualties.

METROPOLIS

ON LAND

The nice move by Carol sends the dopey Bizarro flying right by. Likewise he takes an energy blast to the back and screams with agony as he buries into one of the skyscrapers. When he comes back out, he's looking mighty angry, "I AM SO HAPPY YOU ARE HERE! I HOPE YOU LIVE A LONG TIME!" A long line of freeze vision is sent towards the Maven of Might!

Booster's dive and pull maneuver almost works, if not for Grundy's sheer strength. He's able to hold his ground as Booster attempts to pull him away, and the smelly behemoth uses the leverage to put Booster into a throw. "Grundy MAD! YOU WANT TO HURT GRUNDY!"

But even as the last words leave the zombie's mouth, he's being tackled by a red and blue streak. The pair go skittering across the pavement as Superman slides to a stop. Getting up to his knees, he gives Booster a nod. Two on one. Time to act quick.

Oz had put himself in great position to attack Livewire, but didn't for some reason and allowed her to port away again. This time she's at his left, nine o'clock, and firing another shot at Columbia, smirking as she does so, and adding some extra gusto to this shot.

Oracle now has a new problem. Someone seems to be attempting to hack her communications. For a moment, some of her screens go a blank black with green writing.

who is this?

The message comes across Oracle's screen for a moment, but her powerful defenses are able to beat out and beat away the hacker. She soon gathers her full capabilities again.

Gar Logan does a flyby and gives Nightwing a hand. You see, Parasite takes on the vulnerabilities of those he takes energy from. In this case, people. So when he's doused with water from above, right before Nightwing hits him with electricity. And, better, his skin is not a conductor of electricity, so when he drops the people and falls on his knees in pain, no one else is injured.

STRYKER'S ISLAND

"Heh. Suckers." Manchester Black takes a pack of cigarettes out of the pocket of a downed guard. A real guard. You see those out on the field are just mental illusions. And the spell that Vorpal casts, well, he can't seem to place it onto Black, because in Vorpal's mind, Black doesn't exist. He exists to no one on the island, really. Not even when he puts the cigarette in his mouth, nor when he lights it. Nor when he sends the boat out towards the shore, /away/ from Metropolis, laughing all the way.

After a few minutes, the men on fire begin to dissipate right in front of Vorpal. The perpetrator is long gone, no longer willing or able to keep the illusion alive.

Well that sucks, because Metallo is aiming a strike right at Vorpal's face!!!

Likewise, the men in Wonder Woman's arms begin to dissipate even as Wonder Woman gets to the water. It seems like some sort of ruse. Some sort of trick to buy the evildoers more time. There are certainly guards inside; they must be somewhere. But these ones all seem to disappear at about the same time.

Lunair passes Manchester Black on the way out, but while he can see her, she can't see him wave. Or his purple hair. Or the boat at all as it passes by.

Hawkgirl begins smacking away villains left and right, slicing through meat and bone. Without realizing it, she'll single handedly curb recidivism far better than this entire building would by maiming some villains who will physically be unable to go out and create crimes again…at least not with any real effect. It's hard to run from the cops when you have a sliced Achilles. But just as she makes her first mow through, she's tackled by the side from Doctor Destiny! Somehow, he's gotten his technology back, even his mask that looks like a ripoff of Skeletor. Though his main power is to take control of your dreams, his repulsor boots give him the ability to fly.

SMALLVILLE

10 YEARS AGO

Clark Kent and Chloe Sullivan are talking in hushed tones about something probably dealing with the latter's "Wall of Weird," and trying to get to their next class on time. But as they turn the corner, their expressions both falter. There stands Clark's friend Kenny with a hand full of football players standing in a semi-circle around him and the tiled wall outside of the bathroom barring any hope of an exit.

Clark had caught wind earlier that Kenny had turned in one of the players after being told that the latter was on PEDs. It looks like Whitney Fordman and the crew are looking to settle the score.

"Hey," Clark says, letting his red backpack slide off his shoulder and he moves to put himself in the way of the half moon of football players. "Hey guys, leave him alone."

"This is none of your business, Clark," says Eric Stotz. "This is between us and CancerBoy, here. He aint survivin' this time around."

Whitney gets ready to aim a punch, but just as he's about ready to let it go, it's held midswing by Clark.

"Yeah?" Ms. Marvel calls back to Bizarro. "How about you come and say hi, then?" She doesn't wait for him to take the invitation, though, instead shooting forward toward mister opposite day. She's a heavy hitter, all right, and that's what she specializes in, aiming a fist at his jaw and a knee at…well, hopefully he's got some super-endurance in some usually tender parts, because otherwise that's just not going to end well for him.

"Absolutely," enthuses Skeets, through his channel to Oracle. "Do you have an available holoprojector?" The robot is happily sending a straight visual feed of Metropolis from his high viewpoint, although there are now some extra views coming in, some in color and some in black and white; apparently he is helping himself to what local security and traffic cameras are seeing. The dubious legality of this aside, it enables the little droid to process and send a three-dimensional view of the mainland battle area to Oracle, although if there is no holoprojector for output, it will display decently enough on a two dimensional screen.

When Booster's tackle of Grundy does not go through, the blond man ends up making a sort of 'hrnngh' noise which is quickly curtailed when Grundy just straight up flings him hard at the ground. The impact rips up a lot of blacktop and part of the sidewalk, and a street light topples over majestically. Shaking his head a bit to clear it as he gets to his feet, Booster watches as Superman and the huge zombie careen by. Scooping up the downed streetlight, Booster tells Grundy, "Well I wasn't trying to hurt you before, but I kind of am now." He whips the lamppost around and down at Grundy's legs, trying to keep him off balance and off his feet, for easier clobbering.

Cameron's comms (phone) are down (fried), so she is completely ignorant of any staging advice by this point as she starts trying to find her charged-up opponent, eventually giving the hunt a bit of a shrug as she stops, drops, and rolls to put out the spreaading flamess on her clothing. When she stands up, there are clearly burnt-through parts of her former 'costume' that are now exposing skin, even as the orange-haired woman flexes one hand then the other.

"That wasn't cool. Come out, come out, Sparky, wherever you are." She cracks her knuckles… and her left glove disintegrates between the combined pressures of flexing her hands and the damage the fire gave them. She scowls a bit and glares.around looking for the voltaic vixen… and then gets NAILED in the back by a much more powerful shot.

Cameron can't help it as she goes to her knees, upper body spasming as she pants, some of her clothing starting to smolder once more, even as her hair catches fire, then falls forward once more to drop and roll, rolling herself to some cover to break line - of -sight to the shocking powered person.

A plan begins to take shape in his mind. Ozymandias decides on a course of action that he hopes will be of some of assistance. He places a couple concussive bombs around a hydrant and positions himself in front of the hydrant. He drops several smoking bombs at his feet. As the smoke begins to rise, he fires at the direction of the last electrical blast that was aimed at Cameron.

His plan is hopefully the return blast will hit the fire hydrant causing a concussive powered water explosion toward Livewire.

Once hacked, Oracle scowls her green eyes flash. "Not my systems, you don't" she growls. Hands moving across her console, she initiates a backtrace to follow the hacker as far as she can. Not to be distracted from the activity at hand, anyone who gets that far into Oracles systems should be treated as serious and the temporary outage has taken it's toll… Oracle is now scrambling to pull together the inforamtion received.

Skeets images flow thick and fast into Oracles system. "Skeets,Oracle. No holoprojector, perhaps we should talk. Visuals being received." The enthuastic tone, Skeets uses has Oracle smiling. Whilst only 2 dimensional, Oracle can now see the others and who they are fighting.

Watching Nightwings feed, Oracle waits to get the next update. Nothing more annoying than that voice in your ear when you're actually doing the job, right?

Nightwing leaves the tasers in and gives a salute to Changeling as he helps out. There's a brief snippet of 'Ding dong, the witch is dead' hummed under his breath as Parasite goes to his knees. As the hostages are dropped, he quickly moves in to help guide, drag, or carry them out of Parasite's arm's reach. "Any backup available? I'm not sure that this guy will stay down. I can probably toss off another taser…"

METROPOLIS

Carol gives Bizarro about the mightiest shot to the gnads one could imagine. The shockwave emanates throughout Metropolis and would later be reported to have been heard in Baltimore. Though he's far stronger than most people Carol will come into contact, even Bizarro deflates in pain and begins to drop like a sack of potatoes toward the Earth. He says something unintelligible in response. It is very high pitched.

Booster takes Grundy's legs out as Superman takes his upper body. In football they call it the old 'high-low' and there hasn't been a football team on Earth or in Heaven that would quite have a pair of Defensive Ends like Booster Gold and Superman.

SMASH

Grundy is driven into the ground and worse for wear. But as Superman approaches, a few blasts erupt right by his feet and one next to his head. What the? He looks up to see the Royal Flush Gang. But how could that be? They weren't even incarcerated. "Finish up here, Booster. I've got the Flushers."

Superman takes off in pursuit, angling through the maze of skyscrapers as the four foes lead him on a wild goose chase.

Standing over Columbia is the recently appeared Livewire. Surely now she looks for the Coup de Grace. The final death blow. "I don't even know who you are, hero. A pity that you'll die before making a name of yourself."

But just before Livewire is ready to end Columbia for good, she's hit with a blast of water via Oz. She screams in terror and begins to cower, trying helplessly to get away. Her body seems to be malfunctioning as she shakes uncontrollably.

Oracle begins her trace of the hacker. First to Metropolis. Then to the downtown area. Then to an address. Then to the owner, a corporation. She burrows after the culprit and it takes some time to go through all of the red tape, but she gets root into the hackers system. Surprisingly, however, as she pings through and gets a view of the inferior hacker, it might not be what she expected. It's a young woman with short blonde hair, who seems to be watching Superman in action. But rather than cheering on the villains, there's something that's worrying her. You can tell because she's doing that lip bite thing she always does.

It doesn't seem that much in the way of backup /is/ available for Nightwing, but he's done quite the trick in getting someone this big down to the ground with the help of an old friend. All of the emergency services and other heroes are busy elsewhere, so his options seem limited.

STRYKER'S ISLAND

SNIP

Vorpal's rabbit hole move cleaves right through Metallo's arm and the villain screams more in terror than in pain. It's been a long time since he's felt pain in that arm. In response he sends a mighty energy blast of green Vorpal's way. That is, after he recuperates from being hit in the back of his head by his severed hand.

Lunair will see the signs of terrible battle as she approaches the island; heroes and villains are duking it out, the building is on fire, and the smoke billows up and out into the sky.

Hawkgirl can see Doctor Destiny hesitate. Does he really want to take this on? Well, Batman once called them a cowardly lot, and that's plainly evident now as Doctor Destiny turns tail and tries to make a break for it. He just flat out runs away.

"You scampy bitch!" screams Manchester Black. "Aren't you supposed to be hockin' it up on your island with all that lady trim? I figured you'd be muff deep with rugburns on your face!" He closes his eyes, and tries to focus on manipulating Diana's mind with all his might.

OUT OF THE WAY ROOFTOP

Superman sees the Royal Flush Gang go over and upon a rooftop. It looks like they're done with running, knowing that the Man of Steel was far too quick for them. He comes up over the lip and lands, each of the four are holding their hands up.

"We give up, Superman."

"Good. I didn't want this to tu-" Suddenly a blinding green flash hits Superman from behind. He can feel his veins burning, see them turning a dark green as he hits his knees, doubled over in pain.

"Very good," the man says from behind. His voice is obscured from a helmet so it sounds hollow and robotic. "Your money is already deposited. You may leave now."

The Royal Flush gang doesn't take long to get the hell out of Dodge. You mess with Superman it tends not to go well with you.

"Hello, Clark," the large man says as he approaches Superman, who is still kneeling on the ground in pain. The mask he wears over his head is almost completely black and shiny. Emotionless and dead aside from the sides that are emblazoned in gold with wires of green running here and there. The emerald wiring runs throughout the chest and out the arms, as well between plates of black armor over the shoulders and down the core and the legs. It's not clear if this is a robot, but it's clear he knows who Superman is.

He lifts Clark's head up and smashes it down into the ground, before giving him another rip from a gun that seems to be connected into his body.

"CLARK!" the scream comes from his earpiece where Chloe can see what's happening from a camera across the street. "Clark wake up!"

The Conduit reaches into Superman's ear and pulls the earpiece out. He puts it on the ground and smashes it.

Down isn't out, so Ms. Marvel dives after Bizarro when he starts to fall. Clearly, this guy isn't someone to take lightly, and with so much chaos and destruction, she doesn't want to take any chances. So rather than catch him? Ms. Marvel picks up speed, catching up with gravity and bearing Bizarro toward the ground. As she does, she pulls energy in around her, a white-hot glow starting to form around her hands where she grips the villain.

"Time to get down," she informs him with a wolfish grin, just before she slams him into the pavement of a parking lot, releasing the energy she's built up in the same action.

BOOM!

"I got him, chief," Booster assures Superman, dropping the mangled lamp post and giving him a thumbs-up. He does not want to be cruel about this, but Grundy is too powerful to be left conscious and unbound. Booster picks up the huge zombie man, hefting him overhead as he flies upwards, turning his head to locate the closest construction site. Diving downwards fast, he flings Grundy hard at the neat piles of unused girders, causing a horrendously loud cacophony of thuds and clanks. Booster then sees to bending a few of the now twisted girders around poor Grundy, to keep him in check, in case he wakes up anytime soon.

"Certainly, Oracle," Skeets replies, still flying overhead, sending her up to the second visual data. "I always enjoy discussing technology. At a more opportune time, of course!"

Columbia's really quick on the uptake, given that she was seeking cover for a chance to regain the initiative and bring the fight to her opponent somehow. She flies at the zapping xena and takes two sharp blows at the woman — the first to eliminate the person's ability to breathe momentarily, the second to restrain her and hold her under the influence of the water while her healing takes hold to prevent the death of the escaping prisoner..

"Give in."

If the woman doesn't give in, she'll attempt to deliver a knock-out punch of her own to Livewire, and if that is successful she'll give a glance over to her relatively unseen benefactor along with a nod. IF she doesn't give in, well, there will be another subdual punch, with enough push to bring the woman down without killing her.

The plan did not go exactly as plan, but the effects were still the same. Ozymandias quickly holsters his pistol. He is about to move on Livewire as well, but he realizes that Columbia has everything in hand. He returns the nod to Columbia, before starting to make his way from the scene.

Smiling again as Skeet's voice is received, Oracle makes no reply, but watches as Superman is downed on the rooftop. "Booster,Oracle. Superman is down. Skeets has the reference. Can you provide assistance? Over." her digitally altered voice should indicate a level of urgency. At the same time the results of that trace appear in a window, if it is at all possible, Oracles eyes narrow further. Now she has the access, she starts the hack on the younger womans system…. this will take a few minutes.

Whilst the hack is running, Oracle turns her Nightwing. "Nightwing, Oracle. Taze it again. All assets are engaged and no backup available. Over."

The hack completes, and Oracle installs a small piece of software on the blondes computer. She won't interfere now, but this woman and Oracle will speak and soon.

Nightwing makes sure that those who were hostages of Parasite are well out of the way and paramedics are on their way. He's always keeping an eye on the Jello blob to make sure he doesn't get up, but even as he gets out another taser he asks over the comm, "No backup? It's a good thing the Jello creature isn't immune to electricity. And they say Gotham is bad? What should I do with this thing? I don't think they can load him up and chuck him into Arkham…or whatever they have here in Metropolis."

"He's down?" Booster Gold sounds surprised at this message from Oracle. "I copy. Solomon Grundy is secured here, I'm on my way." He leaves the trussed up Grundy in a nest of girders, flying up into the air as he hunts for the rooftop.

OUT OF THE WAY ROOFTOP

"Sorry to cut your conversation short. I imagine it was with Chloe. How sweet that you two still fight so much injustice together." Conduit drags Superman across the cement ground towards the doorway that leads into the building. "Don't worry. I won't go after her," his voice singsongs metallically. "Nor will I go after that sweet mother of yours. Or even that reporter you seem so fond of. I'm just going to kill you, old friend."

He stops dragging the Man of Steel in a dark room with a small light hanging above. He's taken him here because he wants to take his time with this. It's been a long time coming, that's for sure. And Clark's lifelong betrayal will reap its vengeance here tonight.

Superman struggles to get his wits. He's battled against the Kryptonite Rock for many years now; Smallville was a treasure trove of the stuff. But a focused blast like this-he's never felt so much pain. It was hard enough to see, let alone stand, or fight. But he does his best to get to his feet, only to have Kenny Braverman pull the trigger again and put him back down.

Conduit laughs, the hollow echo emanating through the room. "Oh, Clark. Sorry, it's not going to be that easy. You've got a long way to go tonight friend. I'm just getting started."

METROPOLIS

Carol streaks downward through the air, picking up more and more speed as she takes Bizarro to the ground and smashes him straight through. By the time it's all said in done, the pair find themselves about four stories downward into the muck and mire of whatever lives underneath the street. That's after bursting through four levels of parking lot.

Bizarro hasn't found much that can hurt him aside from Superman. Well, that's until today. When the dust clears, he's knocked clean out.

Similarly, Grundy finds himself worse for wear and captive of a handful of girders. He's moaning, but doesn't look anywhere near making a fight of it. And even if he did, he's pretty much apprehended, and has Booster Gold watching over him.

"I give! I give!" screams Livewire, clearly beaten by Columbia and Oz. She holds her hands up, and though she cannot be trusted, it seems Columbia has her at a distinct disadvantage.

As Oracle continues to watch her, she'll notice that the blonde woman looks to be panicking. Some auxiliary programs will scan the areas around, looking at faces, billing records, and license plates of nearby vehicles. That's it. There's a 93 percent chance that the person she is looking at goes by the name of Chloe Sullivan as at least one of her alias'.

Even as the words leave Nightwing's mouth, one of the large tank-like vehicles that the SRD are known for arrive on the scene. The government's response team for supervillain attacks frankly could have arrived a little bit sooner. Nevertheless, they seem equipped to handle this sort of thing and have the technology to incarcerate Parasite.

Similarly, vehicles arrive shortly thereafter to pick up Lifewire, complete with hoses of water just in case; Bizarro, with sunshine guns, and Grundy? Well, for Grundy they just have really heavy duty weaponry.

STRYKER'S ISLAND

Metallo smolder's a little as Vorpal stands over him. High above, military helicopters-black and noiseless-begin to descend on the scene. They're emergency military crews arriving from DC. All those terrible things that could happen that keep the people at the DOD up late and preparing until all hours of the night? Well that's right now. As the first helicopter lands, soldiers leap out, a group of them headed for Vorpal and Metallo.

The second group all stop as a handful of convicts are standing and dancing like Miley Cyrus. One such criminal turns to the soldier, eyes watering, "Please help us…" The twerk gun takes no prisoners.

Hawkgirl and Gar tag team poor Doctor Destiny, and while scores of villains will get away today and menace the world for some time to come, it does not seem to be in his Destiny. Yes, I just did that. He screams in pain upon the ground and flips off his mask as he thrashes on the dirty ground.

As crabby as Manchester Black gets, and as nasty as his mouth gets, he's out of words. The drop from 100 feet kind of proved that Diana meant business. He'll mind his Ps and Qs until the next escape. No reason to end up on the dead side of the law tonight.

OUT OF THE WAY ROOFTOP

Conduit reaches up to undo the mask, wanting to look Clark in the eye before he kills him. "You pretended to be my friend for a long time, Clark. I want you to know, that no matter how super you thought you were, no matter how perfect-your past caught up to you on the day of your death. On the day of your death you got what you finally deserved. And all of the hard work you put in-all of those people you put in jail-well they're going to be out there and you won't be able to stop them."

"Kenny?" Clark says as he rolls over.

Kenny Braverman raises the gun and takes aim at his friend, readying to pull the trigger.

TO BE CONTINUED…

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