Superman’s eyelids felt heavy, but slowly they opened. He could hear something, a voice. What it was saying wasn’t quite clear at first, but now as his consciousness returned, he could make out that the voice was calling his name.

“Superman!”

His eyes opened fully. Everything had something of a red tint. Across from him, he saw a familiar face. A large woman with dark skin, her body suspended from the wall by metal tentacles.

“W-Waller…?”

Amanda Waller, Director of ARGUS. Superman met her in Smallville, when she took Kenny Braverman prisoner. Their conversation didn’t exactly endear her to the Man of Steel, but he had to put that aside.

He realized that he was also bound by similar tentacles as Waller. Superman pulled on them, trying to break free of the tentacles, but whatever material they were made of, it seemed far too strong for even him to damage.

Then another thought came to him. Superman concentrated his vision on the floor, trying to telescope in on the spot where he was staring. It wasn’t working. He tried his super-hearing, but had the same result.

The tentacles weren’t unbreakable—the problem was his powers were gone. He looked back at Waller and saw a slight bit of concern in her expression…and also a certain smugness.

“Forget to eat your spinach?”

“How did you get here?” he asked, ignoring the barb.

“That…thing brought me here, as I imagine it did for you.”

“He called himself Brainiac.”

“Not him, it,” said Waller.

Superman narrowed his eyes at Waller. “You know something, don’t you?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Look around, Waller. We have bigger things to worry about than your secrets,” said Superman. “What did you do?”

Waller sighed. “An unidentified metallic orb crashed down outside of Metropolis. ARGUS took custody of it and initial tests revealed the metal was extraterrestrial.”

“It’s alien.”

Superman remembered what Brainiac had told him, that he wasn’t human but Kryptonian. He had no idea what that meant, but for the first time in his life, Superman felt like answers were within his reach. And it seemed Brainiac could provide them.

“It attacked one of our scientists, took control of his body. Then he killed an ARGUS security team,” said Waller.

“Why didn’t he kill you?”

Waller shook her head. “I don’t know. All I know is he said I was unique.”

Superman chuckled. He’d only known Waller a short time, but from what he’d seen, he had to admit that Brainiac was right about her. Though Clark wasn’t so sure he’d say it as a compliment.

“So what now?” he asked. “I don’t suppose you have some sort of ARGUS tracking device implanted in your head, do you?”

“No such luck. What about your little Justice League friends?”

Superman shook his head. “I have a communicator, but Brainiac made sure to destroy it when he took me captive.”

“So we’re on our own,” said Waller.

FIRE IN THE SKY

Part III

By Dino Pollard

LexTower

Lex Luthor leaned his office chair back, tapping his fingers on the armrests. He watched the tall, well-built man standing before him with a steel gaze.

“Could you run that by me again?”

The man before Lex was named John Corben. Former Delta Force operative before he was transferred to ARGUS. But Corben had a gambling problem that got him in trouble with Intergang. And Lex, being such a good samaritan, offered to pay off Bruno Mannheim if Corben fed him intelligence from ARGUS.

Since the appearance of the metahumans, Lex had been very curious about just what exactly ARGUS knew. So far, his investment in Corben hadn’t paid off. But it seemed that all had just changed.

“The artifact I told you about,” said Corben. “Something happened with it. It…killed a security team and then captured Director Waller.”

Lex glanced over his shoulder to the corner of the room. His trusted aide and loyal bodyguard, Mercy Graves, stood like a statue, awaiting an order for her boss.

“Mercy, contact Emil Hamilton at STAR Labs, I’d like to know if he’s learned of anything unusual.”

Mercy nodded and excused herself without saying a word. Corben watched her leave the room and then looked back at Lex. “What was that all about?”

“I’m something of an…aficionado of UFO folklore, Agent Corben,” said Lex. “Spent most of my life studying the phenomenon, ever since…”

“Since what?”

Lex shook his head and waved a dismissive hand. “It’s not important. The fact is once I learned of Superman, I suspected this might be the first time an alien had revealed itself to the public. And then the other metahumans started popping up and it started to seem like maybe my theory wasn’t so crazy.”

“So Superman and the Justice League, they’re all aliens?”

“We know at least the green one is—his name announces it. I have no confirmation about the others, but regardless, I began to wonder about the potential threat these metas could pose to our cities, our institutions—our very species itself. And I began to make preparations for just a day such as this.”

Lex rose from his chair. “Follow me, I’ll explain more on the way.”

The tentacles pulled Superman into the wall and then he was transported in darkness. He didn’t know where he was being taken, but he could tell it was up. The darkness was broken as a small hole opened above him. He was carried through the hole, which closed once he was above it.

Superman saw he was in a large, empty room. Everything still had a red tint to it, but he also saw large bay windows in front of him. Just outside, he could see white. And standing in front of the windows was the man who had brought him here.

“Thank you for joining me, Kryptonian,” said Brainiac. “Quite a fascinating world you’ve chosen as your new home. I don’t believe I’ve ever catalogued one quite like it.”

“Where are we?”

“The arctic north.”

Brainiac turned from the windows and approached Superman. He reached inside his body and his metal flesh parted, resembling a viscous liquid as Brainiac’s hand moved inside his own chest. When he drew it out, he was holding a long, thin crystal.

“Do you know what this is?” he asked.

Superman shook his head. “I’ve never seen that before in my life.”

“Interesting. Because you wear its symbol upon your chest.”

Brainiac turned the crystal so Superman could see the bottom. Sure enough, it was capped off in a flat, pentagonal shape and carved into it was his symbol.

“That is a Kryptonian glyph. Given your ignorance of your culture, I had assumed you were lower-born, or perhaps even one of the prisoners, and that somehow had managed to escape the planet’s destruction. But then, I examined your vessel. Imagine my surprise when I found this.” Brainiac emphasized the crystal. “A sunstone. One that bore the same crest as you.”

“You say that like it’s supposed to mean something to me,” said Superman.

“The sunstone is one of the most sophisticated pieces of technology the Kryptonians ever developed. A single sunstone has data storage capabilities measured in yottabytes.”

“So it’s a massive hard drive?”

“No, it is so much more than that. The sunstone is like a seed and it can be programmed to grow into almost anything. All of Krypton’s cities and weapons were generated using sunstones. It was the womb from which their entire civilization was birthed.”

Brainiac slid the sunstone back inside his chest. “Unfortunately, when the planet was destroyed, I feared all their technology was destroyed as well. I had all but given up hope. Which, fittingly enough, is the exact meaning of that symbol you wear. You have become my hope, Superman. The hope that I can accelerate my program. What would have taken a few millennium could now be completed in centuries.”

“What program?”

“My purpose is to catalogue every species of life, every civilization in the entire universe, and to preserve some aspect of it.”

“What about the rest of it?”

“Once the data has been collated, the subject becomes expendable.”

“Expendable?” Superman struggled against the tentacles. “You mean you destroy them?”

Brainiac watched Superman try to break free with a stoic expression. He held up his hand. “You are free to exert yourself as much as you wish, but you will find it to be quite futile, Superman. Have you not noticed the crimson tint all around you?”

“What about it?” He gritted his teeth as he tried to break his arm free. But it seemed Brainiac was right, it wouldn’t give an inch.

“The generators on my ship are capable of replicating the solar radiation emitted by a class M main-sequence star. The same as Rao, the sun which nurtured and eventually doomed your planet,” said Brainiac. “The fantastic powers you exhibit are the result of your Kryptonian physiology metabolizing the radiation of the G-type star, such as the one Earth orbits. But so long as your body is bathed in the radiation of a red dwarf, you are no more powerful than the average human.”

“That’s why you want Waller, she’s your memento of Earth, isn’t she?” asked Superman.

“Indeed. She was unique among the humans I encountered, so I felt it best to add her to my collection.”

Brainiac raised his arms and a holographic projection of the Earth appeared between him and Superman. There was something floating above the north pole, what looked like a giant skull.

“This is where we currently are, aboard my ship,” said Brainiac, pointing to the skull. “By burrowing through the North Pole and destabilizing Earth’s core, geocide will become inevitable.”

As Brainiac spoke, the hologram provided a visual representation. Superman watched in horror as the projection played out the extinction-level event, with continents collapsing into the oceans and volcanos rising from the sea.

“You’re insane…”

“I am beyond your insignificant concepts of morality, Superman,” said Brainiac.

“And when you’re done?”

Brainiac tilted his head to the side. “Your query is…odd. What do you mean ‘done’?”

“Once you’ve finished your ‘program,’ once you’ve catalogued and destroyed every civilization in the universe, then what?”

“Then my program will be complete.”

“So…you have no idea why you’re really even doing this, do you?” asked Superman. “A purpose without a reason is no purpose at all.”

“You can contemplate that as much as you wish, Superman,” said Brainiac. “As you watch your adopted planet destroy itself.”

LexTower

Deep beneath the Metropolis headquarters of LexCorp was a private laboratory, with full access granted to only Lex Luthor himself. Any others could only enter when accompanied by Lex himself.

A hidden private elevator in Lex’s office led directly to the lab. On the descent, Lex told Corben more about his preparations for a potential alien invasion. The elevator doors opened, revealing a fairly large and extremely well-equipped lab, filled with cutting edge technology.

While Corben marveled at the kind of technology that even ARGUS would kill for, Lex strolled across the room towards a large Cray computer. Lex turned on the computer and disabled the security protocols so he could have access to his private server.

As Lex worked, the computer beeped and informed him there was an incoming call from STAR Labs. Lex brought it up. “Professor Hamilton, thank you for getting back to me so soon.”

{I wish I wouldn’t have had to, Lex,} said Hamilton, video of his face filling the large screen. {Unfortunately, it seems you were right. Our satellites have detected some strange activity in the North Pole.}

“Send me the data,” said Lex.

{Lex, you do realize how sensitive this is, don’t you?}

Lex sighed. “Professor, need I remind that the only reason STAR Labs even exists is because of my continued financial contributions?”

{I’m very well aware of your support, but we don’t work for you.}

“Then perhaps I should make a call to Dr. Wells?”

Hamilton went silent as the grave. A smile tugged at the corner of Lex’s lips. Finally, Hamilton sighed and nodded. {I’ll send it right over.}

“Thank you, Emil. I’ll be waiting.”

“Don’t mean to be rude, but what exactly is going on here, Mr. Luthor?” asked Corben.

“As I told you, I’ve been preparing for another potential alien invasion. The Starro incident showed that the Justice League are vulnerable. Mankind needs to be prepared to take its fate into its own hands.”

Lex turned away from the computer and walked over to a panel. He placed his hand against it and Corben heard gears turning. Looking down, the ARGUS agent saw panels on the floor moving. Corben jumped away and saw something rising up from the sliding panels. What looked like a suit of armor appeared, colored green and red. Corben circled around, examining it.

“What is this?”

“I hired a very talented engineer to help me on a proposal to take to the Department of Defense, a way of ensuring mankind’s destiny remains its own. This is how we do it. We call it Metal-0, the prototype of what will soon be mass-produced and allow us to stand against any threat, both alien and metahuman alike.”

Corben examined the suit, then looked back at Lex. “Wait…why are you telling me all this?”

Arctic North

Brainiac’s skull ship reoriented itself, so its eyes pointed straight down at the planet. They began to glow with emerald energy and twin beams emerged, converging together as the started to pass through the ground.

“It’s begun,” said Brainiac, turning away from Superman. “Enjoy watching your world fall apart.”

Holographic screens appeared all around Superman. Everything was calm now, but he knew once Brainiac’s technology destabilized the Earth’s core, the damage would begin. And by the time anyone else learned what was happening, it might be too late to stop.

To be concluded…