Wait, There’s Another Wayne?

Beeping noises and mechanical motions filled the Lab underground of the grand skyscraper of LexCorp Tower. Several light blinks from the numerous computer panels’ screens, as well as some LED lightings placed on several corners of the Lab made the place feels as if it was of great importance to anyone who works actively as a scientist and the like. And now… Matthias stood in there as the one person, world’s greatest genius who owns the place known as Lex Luthor, appeared wearing a suit of mech armor.

“Nice suit.” Said Matthias.

“Thank you. It’s still a prototype so it lacks paintjob.” Answered Luthor.

“Might want to color them green then.”

“I see you know how to initiate a conversation, Wraith.”

Luthor wore what seems to be a robotic suit of armor; its body and limbs are bulky, creating a large figure with the height of 2½-meters tall. The back part has some sort of backpack for battery, with the back shoulder carrying cannon weapons. The head part was missing, which means Luthor’s head is completely visible, and the pilot smiles as he spread his arms as if greeting an old friend.

“I knew you’d be here again after I deliberately made my movement conspicuous, and behold the infamous Wraith is here.”

Matthias was confused about Luthor’s statement of deliberately making himself looking conspicuous. He then used his disguised deep growly voice, and asked.
“What? You’re saying you intend to lure me here?”

“As you have guessed.”

“And how did you know I would come here?”

“Easy. I figured the one who planted several bugs in my office, and hacked the security station of my Tower would someday return here to find out more about their targets, and in your case, ME.”

Matthias frowned at the explanation. He was confused and quite in panic since he did not expect Luthor to suddenly appear like this; particularly, to appear wearing some kind of a war suit. He needed to make a plan; he silently boosted his dexterity and stealth and stealthily prepared his gears as he still stood beside the computer panel.

Luthor, not noticing that Matthias has been silently planning something, initiated a conversation to Matthias.

“You know, I really do admire you, Wraith. Your reputation surely precedes you, and I know you are somewhat intelligent considering how capable you are at escaping from that Superman.” Said Luthor, and the way he said ‘Superman’ sounds somewhat mocking.

“Your flattery means nothing to me.”

“Of course, I understand that. Truth be told, my intention to lure you here was not to make you an enemy, but rather to make a deal.”

“A deal?”

“Yes.”

Luthor extends his hand towards Matthias as a gesture of friendliness.
“Work with me Wraith, help me destroy Superman.”

Hearing this, confusion was all over Matthias’ face, which fortunately was covered under his mask. He ponders on why would Luthor want Matthias to work under Luthor, and most importantly, to ask him to destroy Superman at that.

“You want me to help you destroy Superman?” asked Matthias.

“Yes. I figured if I want to hire someone to face against Superman, I need someone with the experience at escaping his clutches.”

Luthor was talking about when Matthias had to escape from Superman back at the Slums.

“Your hostility towards Superman is amusing.” Matthias mocked.
In the DC Comics, its already a common knowledge that Lex Luthor in the arch enemy of Superman, but Matthias did not have the clear knowledge of the reason why he wants Superman gone. He knows Luthor hated Superman because of egotistical reasons. But here, in this world where he lived in the universe where DC superheroes exists, he wants to know the reason of his hostility towards the super boy scout.

Matthias continued,
“If you think I am an enemy of Superman, then you misunderstood. And truth be told, I wouldn’t want to ally myself with someone whose ego and pride can fill an entire dead sea like you, even if Superman is truly an arch enemy of mine.”

Luthor frowned; he did not receive Matthias’ mockery well enough. He knows his own egotistical nature, but to have some stranger call him out in his sore spot, especially someone like this Wraith, is not something he can tolerate.

“You know, I tried to be friendly with you because I need your help. You may not understand this, but I am doing this for the greater good.”

“Greater good? Was your black market auction made for greater good? Was your smuggling of the artifacts also for greater good?”

“What?! So you’re the one messing with my plans and stealing my artifacts?”

“They weren’t yours in the first place anyway. Whatever you’re planning here, Luthor, I’ll be stopping them all.” Said Matthias. With this declaration, Matthias unsheathed his blade.

Luthor can only sigh, knowing that he can’t recruit such a capable individual like the Wraith into his force. He then powers up his suit; the chest part with the “LL” symbol lit up red, and his armor’s gear made whirring noises at the parts moves. His shoulder cannons mounted up, primed and ready, aimed towards Matthias.

“Never mind. My initial plan has always been to test this war-suit anyway. I shall remind you of my excellent superiority as I destroy you first. Become my test-dummy!”

Luthor then shoots two blasts of cannon towards Matthias. Two plasma-based heat projectile are about to hit him… but Matthias quickly morphed himself into blackened mist, and the attack went past him, unable to harm anything but the wall behind.

*BOOOOOM!!!*
The explosion radios blew air in this closed area, and the noise of explosion echoed so very loudly. Matthias’ mist form got blown away by the hot gale, and got lightly pushed away. Matthias then cancelled his mist form and stood a foot away from his initial position.

Matthias retaliate; he threw several explosive knives towards Luthor. The blasts, though smaller than the cannon fire, should be enough to break or at least dent even a reinforced metal. Several smaller explosions echoed, and gunpowder dusts cloaks Luthor’s armored figure revealing only a silhouette within.

Then suddenly, the silhouette dashed forward; Luthor launched his armor to charge against Matthias. It was quick, but Matthias had already boosted his speed and agility while sacrificing his strength. Matthias moved sideways, avoiding Luthor’s grasp.

“Slippery aren’t you? I can see how Superman failed to catch you.”

“I’m a Wraith, Luthor, you’re not supposed to catch one!”

Matthias dashed forward, his blade pointing towards Luthor’s exposed head. It was fast, and Luthor did not have the time to react to the incoming attack. The blade was imminent…
*CWZZZZZZZ!!*
A certain crackle noises came from the areas around Luthor’s exposed head, as electricity surrounds Matthias’ blade.

“Argh!”
Matthias got thrown away as whatever forcefield that protects Luthor bursts an energy wave. Matthias agilely drops on his feet, and quickly threw more explosive knives towards the armor’s chassis.

The explosions all hit Luthor, and once again he was enshrouded in explosive smokes, but Matthias did not wait long to throw another batch of explosive knives again. As soon as the second batch of explosions happen, Matthias quickly dashed forward to try and hack the armor as a test.

Few clanks and twangs later, Luthor swung his hand trying to grab Matthias. Matthias dashed away to see the result of his attacks—which doesn’t seem to have no effect as no visible dents or scratches can be seen on the armor.

“Carbon composite titanium alloy; strong and resilient, could even block sabot rounds. I don’t think you’re able to damage my armors. But nice try on attacking my exposed head. If only I didn’t put a defensive force field on it, you might have skewered my head to pieces there.”
Luthor made a gesture of tapping his chest and shoulders as if cleaning of dusts.
“I doubt you can do anything against me in this armor.”

“Watch me.”

Matthias then took something from his belt; something new in his weapon roster. He prepared himself for another attack when Luthor pointed his arms towards him.

Luthor’s arm wrists opened up, revealing what seems to be small tubes filled with mini missiles inside. He launched the missiles towards Matthias, who had already transformed into smoke form as soon as he knows Luthor was about to attack.

The missiles passed Matthias’ body, but he was not the actual target as the rocket blew up surrounding Matthias. From above, from bellow, from his sides, front and back, the rockets blew up, coating the smoke formed Matthias in violent explosion.

“Aaargh!” Matthias grunted as he quickly cancelled the smoke form and dashed away. He may not be hurt by physical forces when in mist form, but his mist form can still be blown away, and hot gasses can still threaten him.

Matthias threw smoke pellets and several flashbang grenades to Luthor’s feet.
*PSSSH*
*FLASH!* *BANG!*
Under the blinding and loud explosion, Luthor covered his eyes. He opened his eyes to see that his surroundings are coated in smokes.

Then, he felt several successive attacks around him as the smokes that cloaked his surroundings started to turn black.

Several metal clangs were heard; Matthias struck Luthor by rapidly changing into smoke and then back again to solid form to attack.

“Annoying!” Luthor yelled.
Luthor’s suit generates some sort of blueish light as electricity, and then a shockwave blew, making all the smokes surrounding him to scatter away—including Matthias.

Matthias lightly grunts, letting his body get thrown away as he rolled to safety.

“A futile act, Wraith, is it all the tricks you have? Because if so… then I’m extremely disappointed.”

Matthias did not answer, but under his mask, he was smiling.
‘This is all thanks to you, brother!’
He then pressed the switch in his hand.

Then…
*BZZZZZZTT!!*

Noises of static electricity was heard behind Luthor.

“Argh! What?!”
Luthor’s suit shook and vibrates from the static shock, putting him down on his knee. Luthor tried to move, but the suit seemed to not want to listen, and instead just stayed stiff and heavy.

After several attempts of struggle later, Luthor let his armor slump down in a kneeling pose as he heard Matthias’ footsteps coming in closer.

“Heh…” Luthor chuckled, “I expected you to be smart, but not this smart… and resourceful too.”

“Shut up.”
Matthias bonked Luthor’s head with his sword’s hilt, and Luthor grunts as he felt the light concussion making his mind a bit hazy.
“Aha… so the force field that protects your stupid bald head is also gone, huh?”

Matthias then pushed the armor backwards until it falls on its back. He then drew his sword very closely towards Luthor’s exposed head.

“Now you will tell me everything I need to know.”

Matthias’ voice goes deeper and more vicious. He moved his head close to Luthor’s, and made the black mist to appear surrounding them, making it as if Matthias, or rather Wraith, is someone similar to that of a death incarnate.
But somehow, Luthor is not at all intimidated.

“Hahaha—you’re really as vicious as the rumor goes.”

“Enough stalling. Now tell me: What are you planning down here?”

“Aside from building this war-suit of mine? Nothing much.”

“Bullshit! I know you have been researching about Kryptonians from your logs when I first broke into your office. You have an unidentified wreckage that looked like a small space ship, and you’ve been trying to crack the codes embedded within the ship, trying to reverse engineer the technology. What I want to know is, what’s your end goal after that?”

Luthor’s face slightly frowns.
“You talk as if you know me.”

“Oh but I do. But we’re not here talking about you. Once again, Luthor: What are you fucking planning down here? Is it to kill Superman? To rule the world? To become a dictator? To spread your name to boost that oversized ego of yours?”

“… you really hate me, don’t you?”

“Oh, on the contrary, Luthor, I admire you. You’re someone with the determination. But I know this much; you are not a good person, and I might kill you right here right now if you don’t spill out everything I need to know.”

Luthor went silent. Stuck inside the unmoving suit, he heaved a long sigh, and then started talking.

“Fine… You want to know my plans? I’ll tell you about the findings of my research first. As you have already found out, there’s an extraterrestrial race called Kryptonians, as evidenced from the alien wreckage kept by the military government similar to that of Roswell incident, and as I’ve already told you, Superman is one of them.”

‘This is elementary knowledge for me, a comic book enthusiast, so these are all useless informations for me. Let’s see what else he can tell.’ Thought Matthias.
He feigned thinking hard before gesturing Luthor to continue.

“I took the wreckage from the military intelligence, made a deal with them to create a bleeding-edge technology for space explorations from my extensive research of Kryptonian tech. As you can see from the launch several months ago, it was a failure launch…”

“… no it wasn’t—the rocket was a success, but you got sabotaged during the launch, right?”

Luthor smiled bitterly from Matthias’ statement.
“Yes… it was a success… until I found out my own employees are sabotaging them. But it was not the reason I’m doing what I’m doing right now.”

Luthor’s body moved a bit, but its apparent that the armor is still unpowered, and it’s too heavy to move without power. Matthias gestured him to talk more.

Luthor continued,
“After that incident, I continued my research on the wreckage. I was trying to decode some parts of the technology while learning about their language. I know for a fact that these Kryptonians came from a system that is 28 lightyears away from earth, and that there was a great war happening as the alien ship was launched. It was after knowing that this ship contains a life did I know that the one surviving Kryptonian was here on earth, and I deduced that it was the one we all called as Superman, but…”

“Stop stalling and just out with it.” Matthias yelled. Luthor somehow just kept stopping at some parts; as if he was reluctant to actually tell the information.

“Wraith, are you willing to trust me?” Luthor asked as he stared at Matthias’ mask.

“The day I would trust you is the day the world would blow up.” Matthias mocked.

“Then that’s good, because the world is soon to be as good as being blown away.”

Confusion is drawn in Matthias’ face.
“Why is that?”

“Because there will be an army of them: The Kryptonians are coming to our earth.”

…

…

“What?!”