The morning sun beat down on Gulmira like an angry god. Tony watched through his HUD as missiles - his missiles - streaked across the sky, each impact throwing up clouds of dust and debris that turned the air into a hellish fog. The sound was worse than the sight - screaming mothers, crying children, the sharp crack of gunfire that sent civilians scrambling for cover that didn't exist.
He'd seen this before, in grainy footage Rhodey had shown him years ago. "This is what we're fighting," his friend had said, trying to justify another weapons contract. Now Tony was seeing it in person, and all he could think was: I built this. I made this possible.
Below him, the village was chaos. People ran through narrow streets that had probably been peaceful yesterday, trying to escape men wielding Stark Industries weapons. The irony wasn't lost on Tony - his creations causing the very destruction they were supposed to prevent.
"Sir," JARVIS spoke up, "I'm detecting multiple civilian casualties."
"Yeah." Tony's voice was tight. "I see them."
Abu's voice carried clearly through the suit's audio system, barking orders in Arabic. Tony recognized him instantly - one of his captors, the one who'd enjoyed making the demonstrations particularly painful. The translation scrolled across Tony's HUD: "Stack the weapons! Clear the houses! No one escapes!"
Each word made Tony's chest tight around the arc reactor. He remembered Abu's voice from the cave, giving similar orders. Remembered lying there, chest full of shrapnel, listening to them making an inventory with his weapons like they were shopping at Walmart.
A family caught his attention - father, mother, two kids. They were being dragged from their home, the father trying to shield his family with his body. It was such a human gesture, so futile against men with guns, that it made Tony's throat close up. The terrorists tore them apart with casual brutality, shoving the mother and children one way, the father another.
Their son, couldn't have been more than eight, broke free and ran for his father. Tony watched Abu grab the kid and throw him aside like he was nothing, just garbage in the way. The boy hit the ground hard, and something in Tony snapped.
The father took a rifle butt to the chest, going down on his knees. Abu was shouting again, calling his men incompetent, ordering them to make an example. A gun pressed against the father's head as his son screamed.
Tony didn't remember deciding to move. One moment he was watching, the next he was diving from the sky like a missile, his own weapon of mass destruction wrapped around his body like armor. All he could see was that kid's face - terrified, desperate, so much like the photos he'd seen of other children his weapons had orphaned.
He hit the ground in a three-point landing that cracked the earth, rising slowly to face the man about to execute a father in front of his son. The terrorists opened fire immediately, bullets pinging off his armor like angry raindrops. Inside the suit, each impact felt like someone tapping him with a finger.
"Damage assessment minimal," JARVIS reported, calm as ever. "Though perhaps we should have tested the armor more thoroughly before-"
Tony cut him off with a repulsor blast that sent the would-be executioner flying. Two more quick shots dropped the terrorists flanking him, their stolen Stark weapons clattering to the ground. He turned to face the trucks where they were holding more hostages, women and children staring at him with that particular mix of fear and hope he was starting to recognize.
The terrorists had guns to their heads, trying to use human shields. Tony lowered his arms slowly, powering down the repulsors. He watched their grips loosen slightly, that moment of relief that comes when you think you've won. Amateur mistake.
"Target lock confirmed," JARVIS said as shoulder-mounted mini-missiles deployed. "Multiple hostiles identified."
"Execute." Tony's voice was quiet, final and decisive.
The missiles found their marks with surgical precision. Bodies fell as hostages scrambled free, running for whatever safety they could find. The boy reached his father, their desperate embrace making Tony's chest ache with something that had nothing to do with the arc reactor.
His footsteps echoed through suddenly quiet streets as he moved past them. The HUD highlighted more hostiles taking cover, but what caught his attention was Abu's heat signature behind a crumbling wall. The terrorist was frantically dialing his phone, probably calling for backup. Tony felt his lips curl in a smile that had nothing to do with humor.
The wall exploded inward as his armored fist punched through. He yanked Abu into the open, throwing him down in front of the villagers he'd terrorized. Their faces changed as they looked at their fallen tormentor - fear giving way to something harder, something earned through suffering. Pure, unadulterated hatred.
"He's all yours," Tony said, engaging his thrusters to rise above the scene. As he gained altitude, his targeting system highlighted more weapon caches scattered through the village. The Jericho missiles were easy to spot - his pride and joy, now turned against exactly the people they were supposed to protect.
The tank shot caught him completely off guard. The blast hit Tony like a heavyweight's punch, sending him tumbling through the air as warning lights flashed across his HUD. His gyroscopes struggled to compensate as he carved a deep trench through packed earth that was probably older than his company. Dust and debris clouded his vision, the suit's filters working overtime to give him a clear view of the battlefield.
"Multiple system failures detected," JARVIS reported with clinical efficiency. "Primary power at 78%. Hull integrity compromised in sectors 3 and 7."
"Yeah, got that memo," Tony grunted, pushing himself up on one knee. His left arm servos whined in protest – something had been knocked loose in the impact. "Damage report?"
"The tank round impacted with approximately 27% more force than our simulations predicted. I suggest—"
The second shot screamed across the village square before JARVIS could finish. Tony tried to dodge, but his systems were still recalibrating from the first hit. The stabilizers in his boots sparked and sputtered, refusing to respond. Time seemed to slow as he watched the shell approach, knowing this one was going to hurt.
Then something impossible happened. The shell exploded in mid-air, the blast wave kicking up a massive cloud of dust and debris that blinded even his suit's enhanced vision. Warning indicators flashed across his HUD as his sensors tried to make sense of what had just happened. The energy readings were off the charts – like something had intercepted the shell at speeds his systems couldn't even track.
"Unknown contact," JARVIS reported, a note of genuine confusion in his artificial voice. "Unable to track movement patterns. Speed exceeds system parameters. Attempting to recalibrate..."
As the dust began to settle, Tony caught his first glimpse of what had saved him. A figure stood between him and the tank, cape billowing in the hot wind like a flag of defiance. The morning sun caught the iconic 'S' shield as Superman turned slightly, his presence radiating a calm authority that made even Tony's sarcastic wit falter for a moment. There wasn't a mark on him, not even a scuff on his costume, despite having just casually intercepted a tank round with his chest.
"That's not going to work," Superman called out to the tank crew, his voice carrying that particular mix of confidence and compassion that had made him Metropolis's champion. The dust settled around his boots, but he remained unmoved, like a mountain facing a storm.
Before either hero could say more, a dark shape swept overhead – some kind of stealth aircraft that Tony's systems hadn't even detected approaching. The Batwing banked sharply, running a sweep over the village while staying just on the edge of visual range. Its design was unlike anything Tony had ever seen, combining elements of bleeding-edge tech with what looked like deliberate theatricality. The bat motif wasn't subtle, but there was serious engineering behind the aesthetics.
Batman's gravelly voice cut through their comms on an encrypted frequency that Tony's systems shouldn't have been able to access: "Two unidentified metahumans engaged in Gulmira. One matches Superman's profile. The other..." There was a pause as systems analyzed Tony's suit, and he could practically feel the suspicion in that silence. "Advanced armor, weapons grade. Possible hostile."
"Wait a minute," Tony started, repulsors humming defensively as his targeting systems automatically highlighted weak points in the Batwing's stealth plating. "Who exactly are you calling hostile—"
"The armor," Batman cut him off with the kind of authority that expected instant obedience. "Shut it down. Now."
Superman turned to face Tony fully, and there was something unsettling about how those enhanced senses seemed to be looking straight through his armor. "He's right. That power source... it's similar to what they used in Metropolis. The radiation—"
"Yeah, not happening." Tony's faceplate snapped shut with an emphatic clang as his targeting system expanded to include multiple points where the Batwing's stealth systems were weakest. "The suit stays on. Kind of attached to it. Literally."
The tension ratcheted up as Batman dropped from his aircraft, cape spreading like dark wings to slow his descent. He landed in a crouch between them, rising to his full height with the kind of practiced intimidation that probably worked wonders on Gotham's criminals. Everything about his posture screamed barely contained violence.
"Last warning," Batman growled, hands moving to his utility belt where Tony's sensors detected multiple high-tech devices humming with potential energy. "Power down or—"
More explosions from the village cut him off as terrorists began pouring from side streets, weapons blazing. They'd apparently decided their strange visitors needed to die regardless of who they were. The air filled with the smell of cordite and the sharp crack of automatic weapons fire.
"Fight about this later?" Tony suggested as his HUD lit up with hostile indicators, marking targets and calculating trajectories faster than human thought. "We've got company."
Superman nodded grudgingly, turning to face the new threat with the kind of fluid grace that made Tony's suit look clunky by comparison. But Batman wasn't so easily convinced. "The armor stays in my sight. One wrong move..."
"Yeah, yeah. You'll break out the bat-handcuffs. Very scary." Tony fired his repulsors, taking out two technicals before they could bring their heavy weapons to bear. The precise shots disabled the vehicles without risking the drivers – he'd had enough of collateral damage. "But maybe we focus on the actual bad guys first?"
The fight that followed was chaos – but a strangely coordinated chaos. Despite their mutual suspicion, each hero found themselves naturally covering the others' backs. Superman handled the heavy weapons, simply picking up tanks and depositing them outside the village like they were children's toys. His movements were precise, careful – Tony's targeting system noted how he always positioned himself between civilians and danger.
Batman moved through the shadows like a vengeful spirit, his black cape making him nearly invisible in the village's narrow alleys. He systematically dismantled terrorist cells with brutal efficiency, each strike calculated to disable without killing. Tony's sensors caught glimpses of advanced tech in the Dark Knight's arsenal – smoke pellets that confused infrared, grappling systems that defied physics, and what looked like some kind of sonic weapon that could disrupt enemy communications.
Tony provided air support, his targeting systems allowing him to take precise shots that the others couldn't. The suit's enhanced processing let him track multiple threats simultaneously, predicting paths and intercepting reinforcements before they could flank his temporary allies. JARVIS kept up a steady stream of tactical data, helping him coordinate with the others without needing direct communication.
"Multiple civilians in the mosque," Batman reported as he disabled another group, his voice carrying the kind of tactical precision that spoke of military training. "Being used as shields."
"I see them," Superman replied, x-ray vision scanning the building's ancient stone walls. "Twelve hostiles, thirty civilians. We need—"
"A distraction," Tony finished, already moving as his suit calculated the optimal approach vector. "Lucky for you, I'm really good at being distracting."
He fired his bootjets, soaring over the mosque's courtyard while launching flares that painted the morning sky in streaks of red and gold. The terrorists' attention snapped to him exactly as planned, giving Batman the opening he needed to slip inside through an upper window. Superman moved faster than Tony's systems could track, appearing at another entrance in a blur of red and blue.
The fight inside was quick and brutal. Batman emerged with zip-tied terrorists while Superman helped civilians to safety, his presence somehow both commanding and gentle as he guided them through the chaos. Tony kept watch overhead, making sure no reinforcements could approach. His repulsors hummed with barely contained power, ready to intercept any threat to the evacuation.
"Not bad for a possible hostile," he called down to Batman, unable to resist needling the Dark Knight even in the middle of combat. "Though your definition of excessive force needs work."
"And your targeting could use improvement," Batman replied without humor, though Tony's sensors detected the slightest uptick in his heart rate – adrenaline from the fight, or maybe something approaching respect. "You nearly hit three civilians with that last blast."
"Actually, my targeting is perfect." Tony's voice carried the kind of confidence that came from knowing exactly what his tech could do. "Unlike some people, I calculate every shot." He paused for effect before adding, "But hey, not everyone can be a tech genius."
The banter was cut short as new energy readings spiked across Tony's HUD. Something was approaching from the north – something that made his suit's radiation sensors scream warnings. Superman stumbled slightly, his face showing the first signs of strain they'd seen.
"The kryptonite," Batman growled, already moving to a more defensible position. "They're using it as a weapon."
"Yeah, about that." Tony's repulsors whined as power built, responding to the growing threat. "Remember when I said this suit was literally attached to me? Let's just say I learned a few things about their power source during my... extended stay here."
Before anyone could respond, the ground shook with approaching footsteps. Heavy footsteps, metallic and wrong, like something out of a nightmare. Through the dust and smoke, Tony caught glimpses of green light pulsing in geometric patterns. His HUD filled with warnings as radiation levels spiked beyond safe parameters.
"We need to move these people," Superman said through gritted teeth, clearly fighting the kryptonite's effects. "The radiation—"
"Already on it." Batman's hands flew across controls on his gauntlet, and the Batwing swept low overhead, deploying what looked like some kind of energy shield. "This will contain the worst of it, but not for long."
Tony's mind raced as his suit analyzed the approaching threat. The radiation signature matched what he'd encountered in the cave, but refined, weaponized. They'd taken his desperate survival innovation and turned it into something terrible. But maybe...
"Hey, Boy Scout," he called to Superman, who was helping evacuate the last civilians. "Remember how I said this suit was powered by something similar? I might have figured out a way to shield against it. If you trust me."
Superman met his gaze through the helmet, and for a moment Tony saw the weight of that decision in his eyes. Here was someone who'd just met him, who had every reason to be suspicious, being asked to trust him against a threat specifically designed to hurt him.
"We don't have much choice," Batman cut in, his cape swirling as he readied what looked like high-tech grenades. "Whatever you're planning, Stark, do it fast. We've got company."
The dust parted like a curtain, revealing their opponent in all its terrible glory. The drone that emerged was a nightmare fusion of Stark Industries precision and LuthorCorp ambition - a ten-foot-tall combat unit that moved with unnatural fluidity for something its size. Built on a standard military bipedal frame, every inch of it had been enhanced and upgraded, its dark armor gleaming with an almost organic quality where the morning light caught it.
The drone's primary weapons were conventional but devastating - a massive missile rack mounted on its left shoulder housing what looked like advanced ordinance, while its right arm ended in a heavy rotary cannon that could tear through tank armor. Its chest plate had been modified to house additional ammunition feeds, and Tony could see the telltale signs of reinforced joints and enhanced targeting systems. But what made it truly terrifying was the command module that served as its head - a reinforced housing where sickly green light pulsed behind armored viewports, the kryptonite core casting its lethal radiation across the battlefield.
"Well," Tony said, already calculating angles and power requirements, "this should be interesting." His voice carried forced lightness, but inside he felt sick. He recognized too much of his own work in the machine's design - the basic frame was clearly based on designs that had been stolen from his company, though they'd modified it extensively. But they'd corrupted it, turned standard military tech into something that shouldn't exist.
His HUD flashed warnings as the drone's systems came fully online. The targeting systems were military-grade but supercharged, enhanced by the alien mineral's energy to track and respond faster than should have been possible. Its movements were too smooth, too precise - the kryptonite core wasn't just powering it, it was somehow optimizing every system it touched.
"JARVIS, full scan," he ordered as the drone's head tracked their movements with mechanical precision. "Show me what we're dealing with."
"The drone appears to be a hybrid of multiple technological sources," JARVIS reported, data streaming across Tony's display. "The base unit is a standard Stark Industries MI-84 combat frame, but heavily modified. I'm detecting LuthorCorp power systems integrated throughout, and the mineral appears to be enhancing all baseline capabilities by approximately 300%. The radiation signature is... concerning."
The drone shifted its weight, servos whining as weapon systems charged. Its missile rack rotated with practiced efficiency while the rotary cannon spun up, each movement accompanied by that sickly green pulse from its core. The kryptonite's energy seemed to flow through its systems like blood through veins, turning already lethal military hardware into something exponentially more dangerous.
"The kryptonite's been refined," Batman added, his cowl's sensors clearly picking up similar readings. "They've somehow amplified its effects. The radiation pattern is unlike anything we've encountered."
Superman grimaced, clearly feeling those effects firsthand. The closer the drone moved, the more the kryptonite's power seemed to build, its green glow reflecting off armor plates like poison light. "Whatever you're going to do, do it fast. I can't—" He stumbled slightly, the radiation already taking its toll. Even from his position several meters back, the refined mineral's effects were devastating to his enhanced biology.
The drone chose that moment to attack. Its arm transformed with deliberate, almost ponderous movement, revealing a weapon that looked suspiciously like one of Tony's old designs. The transformation took several seconds - a clear indicator of its limited mobility - but the blast of concentrated kryptonite energy that followed nearly took Superman's head off. Only his superhuman reflexes saved him at the last second, though Tony noticed how the dodge seemed to cost him more effort than it should have.
"Spread out!" Batman ordered, already moving to flank the machine. "Don't let it focus on any one target!" His tactical analysis was spot-on - the drone's massive frame had to rotate its entire upper body to track new threats, its targeting systems clearly struggling to maintain locks on multiple moving opponents.
Tony took to the air, repulsors charging as he looked for weak points. The drone's head unit tracked him with mechanical precision, but he noticed how it seemed to lose focus on Batman whenever it tried to target him instead. "JARVIS, analyze structural integrity. There has to be a—" He had to break off as the drone's targeting systems proved faster than expected, energy beams slicing through where he'd been hovering.
"The outer armor appears to be a self-repairing alloy," JARVIS reported. "Similar to your Mark III prototype, but significantly enhanced by the mineral radiation. However, the drone's mobility servos show significant strain when executing rapid directional changes. Its mass makes quick movements extremely difficult."
"Of course it is," Tony muttered, firing a repulsor blast that the drone simply absorbed. "Because why make this easy?" He banked hard around its right side, noting how long it took the massive machine to turn and track him. Its weapon systems might be enhanced, but its basic frame was still limited by physics and engineering constraints.
Batman's grenades detonated against the drone's legs, releasing some kind of quick-hardening foam that briefly immobilized it. The restraints wouldn't last long, but they provided valuable insight - the machine's movements became even more labored as it fought the hardening compound. Its enhanced strength simply shattered the restraints eventually, pieces of foam flying everywhere as it turned its attention to the Dark Knight, but the motion was noticeably slower than before.
"Keep moving!" Batman called out as he grappled to a new position. "Force it to divide its attention!" He'd clearly noticed the same weakness Tony had - the drone's targeting systems couldn't maintain consistent locks on multiple fast-moving targets. Each time it tried to track Batman's grapple swings, it momentarily lost sight of Tony's aerial maneuvers.
Superman attempted to use his speed to his advantage, but the kryptonite's effects made his usually fluid movements increasingly erratic. He managed to circle behind the drone while it focused on Tony, but getting close enough to land an effective hit meant exposing himself to lethal levels of radiation.
"The core," Superman called out, fighting through obvious pain to analyze the threat. His x-ray vision provided crucial insight despite the kryptonite's interference. "It's not just powering it - it's evolving the systems somehow. Adapting to our attacks."
Tony watched as the drone tried to track all three of them simultaneously, its head unit jerking between targets with increasing lag time. The kryptonite core might be enhancing its systems, but it couldn't overcome the fundamental limitations of its design. Each missed shot, each failed target lock, seemed to force its processors to work harder.
"Its predictive targeting is degrading," Batman observed, timing his movements to stay just ahead of the drone's increasingly delayed reactions. "The enhanced systems are overwhelming its base programming."
This gave Tony an idea. "JARVIS, analyze its tracking patterns. How many simultaneous targets can it effectively engage?"
"The drone appears capable of maintaining two active target locks," JARVIS reported. "Attempting to track a third target causes significant drops in targeting efficiency and reaction time. The effect becomes more pronounced with increased target movement speed."
They began testing this weakness systematically. Batman's grapple lines took him in complex arcs around the drone's left side while Tony executed aerial maneuvers on its right. Each time Superman drew its attention, even briefly, the machine's performance deteriorated further. Its massive frame simply couldn't keep up with the need to constantly reorient itself.
"The targeting lag is increasing," Batman noted as he narrowly avoided another blast. "But so is its power output. The core's trying to compensate for the strain."
He was right - each missed shot carried more destructive potential than the last. The kryptonite's energy was being channeled into raw power to make up for the drone's inability to track them effectively. Buildings exploded into rubble as stray shots went wide, while near-misses left glowing craters in the ground.
"We need to end this before it levels the whole village," Tony called out, diving under another enhanced blast. "These systems weren't designed to handle this kind of power throughput. It's going to tear itself apart."
Superman attempted another attack run, pushing through the radiation's effects by sheer willpower. But the drone's enhanced sensors detected him coming, forcing him back with a concentrated burst of kryptonite energy that left him gasping. "We can't... can't let that happen," he managed. "The core explosion would irradiate everything for miles."
Tony's mind raced as he watched the drone's armor reconfigure itself, becoming stronger with each hit but also slower, more ponderous in its movements. This was his tech, his innovation, turned into something terrible. But if they'd based it on his work...
"Batman!" he called out, dodging another energy blast that took significantly longer to track his movement than the drone's initial attacks had. "Those grenades - got any with electromagnetic pulses?"
"Two." Batman rolled under a swipe from the drone's massive arm, coming up in a fighting stance. The machine's attack had been powerful but predictable, its limited mobility making its combat patterns easy to read once you understood its limitations. "But the radiation will interfere with the pulse radius."
"Not if we focus it!" Tony's targeting computer was already calculating angles, factoring in the drone's increasingly delayed response times. "Superman - think you can get close enough to make it focus its shields forward?"
Superman nodded grimly, understanding the plan. Despite the kryptonite's effects, he shot forward like a bullet, forcing the drone to concentrate its defenses in a single direction. The machine's shields hummed with visible power as they tried to repel the Man of Steel, leaving its sides and rear temporarily vulnerable as its overwhelmed targeting systems focused on the most immediate threat.
Batman didn't need to be told his part. Two grenades arced through the air, perfectly timed to exploit the drone's limited ability to track multiple threats. Tony's repulsors fired at exactly the right moment, the electromagnetic pulse combining with his energy blast in a way that should have overloaded any normal system.
The drone staggered, its shields flickering as its targeting systems tried desperately to reacquire locks on all three attackers simultaneously. But it wasn't enough. The kryptonite core pulsed brighter, feeding more power into its recovery systems even as the strain of tracking multiple targets continued to degrade its performance.
"The kryptonite," Batman growled, already reaching for more weapons as he noticed how the drone's movements had become even more labored after the combined attack. "It's protecting the circuits somehow."
"Then we need to hit it harder!" Superman pushed himself closer despite the radiation, his face showing the strain. The drone's attention snapped to him instantly, its programming prioritizing the most significant threat even as its targeting systems struggled to maintain locks on Batman and Tony. "All at once!"
Tony's mind flashed back to the cave, to the moment he'd first discovered how to use the mineral as a power source. Every calculation, every desperate innovation that had kept him alive now twisted into this monstrosity. "Wait - the core's not just powering it, it's stabilizing the whole system. If we overload it..."
"The radiation will increase," Batman warned, but Tony could see him already calculating angles, likely noting how the drone's reaction times had degraded significantly since the battle began. His hand moved to his utility belt, fingers dancing across compartments with practiced efficiency.
"Not if we contain it!" Tony's HUD filled with calculations as JARVIS ran simulation after simulation. "My suit can generate a localized containment field. Something I've been working on since Metropolis. But I need thirty seconds of clear access to the core."
Superman straightened despite his obvious pain. "You'll have it."