Metropolis - The Daily Planet Rooftop
The City of Tomorrow was screaming.
Sonic booms shattered windows as a blur of red and blue ricocheted off skyscrapers. It wasn't a fight. It was a seizure.
Superman crashed onto the roof of the Daily Planet, smashing the giant golden globe from its axis.
"Clark!" Lois Lane ran out from the stairwell.
She reached for him, but the heat coming off his body was intense enough to blister paint.
Superman was on his hands and knees. He was screaming.
And he was... fading.
His skin was turning transparent. You could see the muscles, the veins pulsing with solar fire, the bones glowing white.
"Don't... touch me!" Superman gasped, his voice distorted. "Everything... is too loud! The sun... it's screaming!"
The Arrival
The Batwing screamed out of the clouds, hovering over the Planet.
"Status," Batman ordered, jumping from the cockpit.
I followed him, holding a heavy lead-lined case.
"Subject is suffering from solar overload," I reported, scanning Superman with my demon sight. "His bio-electric field has been inverted. Instead of processing sunlight, his cells are magnifying it. He is literally cooking from the inside out."
Batman landed on the roof. He looked at the agony of his best friend. He saw the transparent skin.
He knew exactly what was happening. Because he had designed it.
Contingency 1-A: Red Kryptonite Isotope 6.
"Clark," Batman shouted, stepping toward the radiating heat. "Focus on my voice!"
"Bruce?" Superman looked up. His eyes were wide, terror-filled white orbs. "It burns... why does it burn?"
"Sebastian," Batman barked. "I need darkness. Total darkness. Cut off the source."
"A difficult request at high noon, Sir," I said, removing my gloves. "But for you... I shall blot out the sun."
The Eclipse
I walked toward the Man of Steel. The radiation coming off him was painful, stinging my demonic skin like holy water.
I raised my hands.
" Tenebris Aeterna. "
My shadow detached from the roof. It expanded, rising like a tidal wave of black ink. It swirled around Superman, forming a cocoon of absolute darkness.
Inside the dome, the sunlight was cut off.
Superman gasped, the immediate agony lessening. "Dark... cold... thank god."
"Hold him," Batman ordered, entering the shadow dome with a syringe gun. "He's going to flail when I inject the counter-agent. It's liquid Kryptonite. It will hurt."
I grabbed Superman's arms.
"Forgive the intrusion, Mr. Kent," I whispered.
Superman panicked. "No! Get away!"
He thrashed. Even dying, he was strong enough to move a planet. He threw me back. I crashed through a ventilation unit.
"Sir!" I yelled, scrambling up. "He is delirious! I cannot restrain a god!"
"Do it again!" Batman shouted. "Pin him!"
I manifested extra limbs—shadow tendrils from my back. I wrapped them around Superman's limbs, anchoring myself to the building's steel frame.
"Now, Bruce!"
Batman jammed the needle into Superman's transparent chest, aiming directly for the heart.
HISSS.
The green liquid pumped in.
Superman screamed—a sound that shattered every window in a three-block radius.
Then, he went limp.
The transparency began to fade. His skin returned to its normal, healthy tan. The heat dissipated.
I retracted the shadows. The sun shone down again, harmless now.
The Revelation
Superman lay on the gravel, panting. Lois Lane ran to him, cradling his head.
"Clark? Clark, can you hear me?"
Superman opened his eyes. They were blue again.
"Lois," he whispered.
He looked at Batman. Batman was standing over him, holding the empty syringe gun.
"You're okay," Batman said, his voice flat, hiding the tremor in his hands. "The isotope will flush out of your system in twenty-four hours."
Superman sat up slowly. He looked at the syringe.
"Red Kryptonite," Superman whispered. "Synthesized. Weaponized."
He looked at Bruce. The realization hit him harder than the seizure.
"Ra's didn't make this," Superman said softly. "He doesn't have the technology to invert Kryptonian DNA. Only one person has that data."
Batman didn't deny it. He didn't look away.
"I wrote the protocols," Batman said. "In case you ever lost control."
Lois gasped. "You did this? You made a weapon to torture him?"
"To neutralize him," Batman corrected. "Ra's stole the plans."
Superman stood up. He was weak, wobbling, but his presence was immense. The friendship in his eyes was gone, replaced by a cold, alien distance.
"And the others?" Superman asked. "Diana? Wally?"
"Saved," I interjected, stepping forward to diffuse the tension. "We administered the antidotes to all members. They are gathering at the Watchtower now."
"Antidotes," Superman repeated. "So you made the poison and the cure."
"I had to be sure," Batman said.
Superman floated up, just a few inches.
"Get to the Watchtower, Bruce. We need to talk."
He flew off, creating a sonic boom that felt like a door slamming shut.
The Watchtower - The Trial
The round table was full.
Wonder Woman was rubbing her ear, still dizzy from the nanites. Flash was vibrating anxiously, recovering from his seizure. Green Lantern was sitting with his eyes closed, the blindness slowly fading. Aquaman was drinking water frantically. Martian Manhunter sat in silence, wrapped in a blanket.
And Batman stood at the foot of the table. Alone.
I stood behind him, silent as a grave.
"Ra's al Ghul has been tracked to a base in the Himalayas," Batman said, ignoring the glares. "He used the distraction to launch his satellite network. He plans to scramble the language centers of the human brain. The Tower of Babel."
"Stop," Wonder Woman slammed her hand on the table.
"We are not discussing Ra's," Diana said. "We are discussing you."
She held up a small microchip—the one Talia had stolen.
"We found this in Ra's's server," Diana said. "Detailed files. How to kill us. How to break us."
"Neutralize," Batman corrected.
"You made a bullet that vibrates at my speed!" Flash shouted. "I thought I was going to explode, Bruce! I thought I was dying!"
"And you made a fear toxin for Arthur," J'onn J'onzz added quietly. "Using my own psychology against me."
"I did what was necessary," Batman said, his jaw set. "You are the most powerful beings on Earth. If you turned... if you were mind-controlled... who stops you?"
"We are your friends," Kyle Rayner said.
"That makes you dangerous," Batman said. "I can't afford to have friends I can't stop."
The room was silent.
"He is right," I spoke up.
Every eye turned to me.
"You are gods," I said, walking around the table. "You walk among paper people. My master is a human. He has no heat vision. No speed force. He has only his mind. Is it a crime that he prepared for the day the gods decided to step on the ants?"
"You're a demon," Diana spat. "Of course you defend treachery."
"I defend logic," I countered.
Superman stood up.
"It's not about logic," Superman said, looking at Bruce. "It's about trust. And you broke it."
He looked around the table.
"We have to vote."
"Vote?" Batman narrowed his eyes.
"On whether you stay in the League," Superman said.
The Vote
"Flash?"
"I... I can't trust him right now," Wally looked down. "Yes. To expel."
"Green Lantern?"
"He saved us in the end. No."
"Martian Manhunter?"
"He exposed my weakness to fire. Yes."
"Aquaman?"
"Yes."
"Wonder Woman?"
Diana looked at Bruce. She respected him as a warrior. But the betrayal cut deep.
"Yes."
Superman looked at Bruce.
"Four votes to expel. One to stay. My vote... doesn't matter."
"It matters to me," Bruce said softly.
Superman closed his eyes.
"You almost killed me, Bruce. Not Ra's. You."
Superman opened his eyes.
"Yes. You're out."
Batman didn't flinch. He didn't argue. He turned around.
"Ra's is in the Himalayas," Batman said. "Coordinates are in the computer. Good luck."
He walked toward the transporter.
"Coming, Sebastian?"
"Right behind you, Sir."
I paused at the door. I looked at the Justice League.
"You have made a mistake," I told them. "You have exiled the brain. Do try not to get killed by the heart."
We stepped into the light.
_________________________________________________________________________
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