CHAPTER 177

Batman was trapped in the Watchtower with Superman and couldn't contact the outside world as Superman had cut off communication outside. 

He quietly sneaked into their meeting hall where the League usually held their team meetings and Superman wasn't in there. 

He got to a computer and tapped away at the keyboard, pulling out live footages from each section of the tower in search of Superman. He couldn't find him anywhere, it was as if he was avoiding the cameras on purpose. 

He checked feeds from thirty minutes back and spotted Superman going into the control room. Switching to a feed from inside the control room, he squinted his eyes as he saw Superman place a black disc-like piece of tech on the control panel. 

Switching back to real time, he saw Superman back at the medbay and dressed in his hero costume, he looked right at the camera and gave a slow and yet creepy wave at the camera. 

Batman sprang into action and headed to his workshop. Superman was loose and dangerous with Batman trapped in there with him, and without a means of contacting the outside world. 

He raced for his workshop, there was an exoskeleton power suit he had built for fighting people who were excessively stronger than him. It was also a contingency plan he prepared just in case he ever had to fight against Superman since Lex Luthor had taken control over him. 

Batman got to his workshop and clicked on a button which unveiled his secret weapon, a Mech Batsuit which was a powered and advanced exoskeleton Batsuit. It was a heavily armored version of the Standard Batsuit. 

He equipped himself into the exoskeleton. The suit was not primarily designed to augment the strength and powers to fight Superman, but to provide an exoskeletal protection to help him survive sustained pummeling and pounding while the powering mechanism artificially enhanced Batman's strength and endurance, being designed to withstand a great deal of physical damage, providing Batman a great deal of protection against beings with strength superior to his own. It presumably uses Wayne tech military technology.

Although Batman's Mech Suit was a powered armor that augmented his strength multiple times over, he still wasn't as strong as Superman. 

The cowl of Batman's Mech Suit had a titanium helmet beneath it. The helmet was equipped with sensory and information processing gadgets which included retractable lenses with a luminescent glow. The lenses displayed relevant data about Batman's environment and projected the information Google Glass-like over natural visuals. The lenses operated in different modes, including combat and detective mode.

The cowl gadgetry also included a voice modifier that disguised his real voice so that it was unrecognizable.

Geared up, he left for the medbay to meet up with the brainwashed Superman who had drugged Martian Manhunter with enough sedatives to keep him out of action for a while. 

… 

Lex had Superman temporary lose his memories with him and only remember from around the night he captured him, hiding the device in his pants as it was undetectable my metal or radio scans. He had him fly to San Francisco and call his League friends, have them believe he's influence over Superman had a finite range. 

Then when the coast was clear enough, he'd regain his memory and carry on with the mission Lex had given to him. 

The device Lex Luthor had given Superman was to help bypass the Watchtower's security as The Calculator connected it to the United States satellite which was already connected to the mother box, and was nearest to the tower. 

Lex Luthor stood beside The Calculator as he watched him link the satellite up with the mother box. His psychic technology was connected to the mother box and it was activated along with the mother box. 

Everything was stable and nothing out of the ordinary as Lex wore on his head gear. "Yes, yes, I can feel it…!!!" He exclaimed. 

"This feeling, it's… It's euphoric!!" He exclaimed and followed it with a mad laughter. 

The Calculator activated the last of it all and told Lex Luthor that his work there was done. Lex gave a psychic command to the entire world, and both those who weren't wearing the psychic nullifier and those who wore duds bought from the black market, all received the command and paused whatever they were doing for exactly five seconds to obey his command. 

"All Hail Luthor!!!" They all said in unison, unaware of why they had just spouted those words. Putting the entire world on hold for five seconds was enough to cause a lot of casualty and end a lot of lives. 

Many were driving, many were crossing the road, many were having an emergency at the hospital, and a majority of the rest were doing one thing or another that could cost them their lives within those five seconds. 

The heroes who were with their families, immediately knew Lex had gotten his way with things. They suit up but were unable to transport themselves to the Watchtower because Superman had cut off tele-transportation and no one could access the tower. 

They tried connecting with Batman but couldn't. 

Raven dropped to her knee and held one hand to her head as it ached in pain, she had sensed the attempt of forced mental probing try getting to her, and the agony of hundreds of people around her who got hurt from it. Beast Boy who was in town for Christmas, rushed to her side. 

"Are you okay?" He asked as he gently placed her hand on her upper back and grabbed her hand. 

"Yes, am okay. It seems Lex Luthor has begun his attack. There are a lot of people in agonizing pain as we speak." Kori looked over at Dick and Superboy, Dick hastingly reached into his pocket in search of his phone. 

He hastily dialed Bruce's number but got no response. He called the mansion and Alfred confirmed Bruce wasn't in, and Barbara was with her dad for Christmas Eve so she would spend Christmas with him. 

"Suit up everyone. Bruce's intuition was spot on and Lex has launched his attack." He commanded as everyone quickly rushed for their hero gear. 

Grabbing Dick by the arm, Kori asked. "Any news from the League?" 

"Nothing, yet. There are so many injured and we are to help them in whatever way we can, the League would go after Lex and put an end to all this before he does something even worse." Dick replied to Kori. 

...

Meanwhile back at LexCorp, The Calculator just imitated the guards by the door as he heard the world wide chants. 

"I believe my work here is done, Mr Luthor." The Calculator said as he watched Lex revel in the feeling of the ultimate control he had been chasing for months. 

"Why in such a hurry?" Lex asked with a satisfied look on his face. "I think you should stick around a bit and watch me utilize my world scale psychic prowess over the masses and watch as I change the world as you know it." 

He looked behind him to see the armed guards by the door watching them. He couldn't refuse Lex Luthor because it might lead to his imminent death since he knew too much already, or his psychic nullifier might come to Lex's notice if he was hesitant to do as he commanded. 

A knock at the door caught Luthor's attention as Mercy walked into the room. A smirk appeared on her lips as she saw Lex had achieved his objective, their goal for the past few months. 

Looking on to The Calculator, Lex commanded. "I guess I don't have a need for you any longer, forget all that you've done here today and go about your Christmas as you had initially planned for it." 

"I'll be off now." He said as he walked out of the office, pretending to obey Luthor's command. 

Lex had his guards cautiously move the mother box out of his office and to the lower levels of LexCorp, where his lab was located. 

Just as they stepped out of the elevator… 

*UGH!!!*

He screamed and grunted in pain as he held on to his head, he grabbed his headpiece and threw it to the ground. It had white smoke and electrical sparks coming off it.

"Mr Luthor!" They exclaimed as Mercy reached for his arm to support him so he didn't drop to his knees. 

"Something is wrong." He said as he picked up the headpiece and wore it. "What is it?" Mercy asked as she noticed the expression he had on his face. 

"It's… It's not working!" He exclaimed as he held his hand over the headpiece on his head. "What do you mean it's not working?" She asked. 

"Earlier I could feel a connection with every mind across the globe, but right now I do not feel anything." He said as his eyes widened in surprise and fear of failure after he literally had his hands on the power he had worked to achieve. 

Locking on to one of the guards, he commanded. "Put your gun to your head and place your finger on the trigger." He said, testing to see if he was mistaken and everything was at least alright. 

The guard took a look at himself and wasn't moved or being tempted to do as Lex had commanded. 

"No… No!!!" Lex Luthor yelled in anger. "This can't be it, I didn't come this far to stop here." He said as he walked over to another elevator, Mercy followed while the guards stayed on that level. 

He got to a section where he had imprisoned Gorilla Grodd who he left in a comatose state. He went for a computer at an office separating itself from Grodd's cell and with reinforced glass. 

As he typed on the keyboard, he saw that his connection with Grodd's psychic prowess had been cut off. It was cut off due to an overload from the Mother Box and his headpiece was completely fried. 

Suddenly Mercy received a report regarding a huge disturbance that was out of the ordinary, right in the middle of town. 

Lex Luthor's attempt to gain overwhelming control over the world had brought in an evil he was warned about.

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