The massive door they entered through slammed shut with a thunderous clang, sealing them in as security protocols engaged.
Mercy sprinted toward the control center, her heels clicking frantically against the metal floor.
Alex looked at her.
“Hey…
What are you doing?
We have to leave NOW,” said Alex.
“No…
I have to activate the defense terminals.
I will not let them have Project KR,” said Mercy.
“Fine, do it your way.
But what about me?
I’m stuck here too, you know!
And I have a reputation to keep!
If the Justice League gets a look at me in your secret laboratory, it will be the end of our partnership!” spoke Alex.
“Then help me push the pod out.
The only way out of here is through the secret tunnel, locked by a gate that cannot be destroyed unless you are Superman.
And I have the password.
So either help me…
or stay here…
and let them catch you,” spoke Mercy, not caring for what Alex had to say.
She pressed a button, and the floor behind the pod split open, revealing a dark passage below.
“So?
Have you decided?” spoke Mercy.
Alex smiled.
“I have actually…” He turned to look at the pod.
“Do the honors, Medusa.”
Instantly, behind Mercy, Medusa materialized and struck her right in the back of the head.
Mercy crumpled to the floor, unconscious.
Medusa slowly walked toward Alex.
“What do we do with him, Master?”
“I am thinking about it…
Stealing him from Lex would be fun…
But let’s just let them have it…” said Alex.
He moved toward the secret exit, passing through all the security measures with ease.
He already knew the password thanks to Medusa.
The tunnel wound upward, eventually spilling out into a hidden alleyway on the outskirts of the city.
Alex stepped into the cool night air and looked up at the sky.
A slow grin spread across his face.
“Time to send a message to Luthor…”
…
The phone line crackled with barely contained fury.
“YOU IMBECILE!
You dare betray me!
I was offering you salvation!
A perfect plan for the future!
And you RUINED IT!” Lex Luthor’s voice thundered through the speaker, raw and venomous.
Alex leaned back in his chair, a cold smile playing on his lips.
“ME?
Oh…
I see how it is.
You’re blaming me for the Justice League taking down your goddamn lab?
I WAS IN THERE!
I could have been taken down too!
In fact…
your little bitch of an assistant tried to throw me under the bus!”
“Not only that…” Alex’s voice dropped, silk wrapped around steel.
“I knew what you planned, Lex.
You thought I would be foolish enough to get my face on all those cameras you set up inside.
On the corridor.
Next to Project KR.
Eh?
How did that turn out?”
The silence on the other end was deafening.
Alex could almost hear Luthor’s teeth grinding.
“I had planned to use such footage against you!
But do you think I’m foolish enough to leak information about MY work!
Huh!” Luthor’s voice rose to a near-scream.
“I know it was YOU!
Just how you exposed Wolfe…
you tried to do the same to me?
ME?
Lex Luthor?
You must be the most foolish person I’ve ever met…”
A pause.
Then the knife twisted.
“Say goodbye to your career, Mister Black.
Everyone will now know how Black started off as an illegal weapons dealer, selling weapons on the street for low-life criminals!”
Alex’s eyes narrowed to slits, his jaw tightening.
“Is that a threat, Luthor?”
“YES IT IS!
And when you are in jail…
remember who put you there…”
The words hung in the air, heavy with finality.
Alex’s voice turned glacial, each syllable precise and deadly.
“I see…
Then…
when you are in hell…
know who put you there.”
He hung up.
On the other end of the line, Luthor stared at the dead phone in his hand.
His face contorted with rage.
He hurled the device against the wall, where it shattered into a spray of plastic and circuitry.
“Hell…
Fool thinks he can kill me!
After he ruined my goddamn plans!
I’ll show him…
that bastard…”
He stormed toward the door, his fists clenched, his mind already spinning schemes of revenge.
Then the sky split open.
A sound like the universe tearing apart ripped through Metropolis.
The windows of his office trembled, cracked, and exploded inward as a shockwave of impossible magnitude rolled across the city.
Luthor was thrown from his feet, crashing against his desk as the world outside turned into a maelstrom of fire and chaos.
The worst attack in Metropolis history had begun.
And to this day, no one would ever know who was responsible.
….
Five minutes earlier.
….
High above the gleaming towers of Metropolis, a goddess floated in the celestial expanse, her body bathed in the warm embrace of the sun.
Ishtar lay lazily across her Maanna, the divine bow of heaven serving as her throne.
She turned a handful of precious gems over in her fingers, examining each one with the critical eye of a collector, ranking them from the best to the bestest, a soft hum of contentment escaping her lips.
Then her master’s voice echoed through her mind, smooth and commanding.
“Love…
You there?”
Ishtar’s eyes snapped open, a wicked grin spreading across her face.
“Yes I am…
Should I do it?”
“Yes…
I think it’s time for Lex Luthor to realize I am not some opponent who lets him do whatever…
Go for it, Love.
Let’s create a supervillain this world will never forget.”
Her grin widened into something predatory.
She rose to her feet, stretching her arms above her head with languid grace, her body silhouetted against the blazing sun.
She looked down at the massive LexCorp building, a monolith of arrogance and ambition.
Her Maanna adjusted beneath her, humming with divine power.
Her voice rang out across the heavens.
“Fly, Maanna!
Gate Open!”
The air behind her ruptured.
A portal of impossible scale tore open, a wound in reality itself, revealing the burning surface of Venus beyond.
The planet’s infernal light spilled through, casting everything in an apocalyptic glow.
“Hehe, you should be honored!
Behold my full strength!
Annihilate them!
An Gal Ta Ki Gal Šè!”
Ishtar’s laughter echoed across the sky as she hurled her dagger into the portal.
The energy of an entire planet condensed, focused, compressed into a single point of annihilation.
The portal swallowed the dagger, and from within it emerged an arrow of pure devastation—purple, spinning, two human lengths in size, trailing a wake of screaming energy.
She aimed her finger at the building below.
And released.
The arrow descended like the wrath of heaven itself.
It struck the base of LexCorp Tower with the force of a dying star.
The explosion bloomed outward, a mushroom cloud of fire and debris that consumed the surrounding blocks.
The building buckled, groaned, and collapsed in on itself, a cascade of steel and glass raining down upon the city.
When the dust settled, LexCorp was gone.
The annihilation was complete.
The world would never forget this day.
The attacker would never be found.
/*
If you Like this story!
Check out my other story !
Shadow Monarch in Danmachi!