Ch03 To Test His Metal

Readers beware. Red X Japan contains violence, sexual content and other crap that some readers may find offensive. Discretion is advised.

Red X, Johnny Rancid and other characters are property of their respective creators and DC comics and have only been modified by Human X to fit the story. This is a work of fiction and any resemblance these characters or situations have to anyone in your own life are purely coincidental…maybe.

Hello again. Paul here. I'm still trapped under this fallen debris but to make matters worse my little mouse friend began using me as food. I only have my one arm free now after a second cave in brought more rocks down on me and now I'm licking the condensation on the walls just to get enough moisture to live on. I would have focused on escaping but I'm too busy trying to keep little mouse's friends from eating me. I feel so cold.

---

"Doctor! What do you mean his wounds are too fatal?" Alex slams his fist against the hospital wall.

Charlotte wipes the tears from her eyes. "They said there's nothing they can do. The damage was too sever. Johnny…Johnny is."

Alex holds onto Charlotte as she cries into his chest. "D*mn it! He was my best friend. Why!? Why did this have to happen!?"

"Can you guys please shut the f*ck up? You're disturbing the other patients." Johnny grumbles at the two hamming it up at the end of his hospital bed. "And stop pretending I'm dead."

"Like a few mortal wounds to some useless vital organs could kill you." Charlotte slaps Johnny on the back, much harder than she should.

Alex joins in and smacks him across the back too, right on his shoulder wound. "Besides, we'd have to kick the writers butt if he tried to kill you off."

"Are you sure you're doing okay?" Mary asks Johnny from her seat on the end of his bed. "You seemed like you where in pretty bad shape when Superman brought you in."

"Please." Alex crosses his arms and laugh like an old man from a kung fu movie. "My student is not so weak a mere super villain or two would be able to kill him! Hohohohoho!"

"You never taught me anything!" Johnny yells at him.

"You're so mean!" Alex cries into his sleeve. "It breaks my heart to hears those hurtful words from your lips." Alex grabs onto Johnny's collar and cries into his chest. "Is this really all I mean to you!? And after I gave you my heart and my body!"

"What the hell!? That never happened! Let go of me!" Johnny tries to rip him off of his chest. "This is gross!"

"Is that any way to treat your bestist friends in the whole world who come to visit you in the hospital and even bring you treats."

"Cold coffee and gummy worms aren't the best for people in emergency recovery." Johnny grumbles.

"But seriously, how are you feeling?" Charlotte asks, dropping the jokes. "I heard you had a hole in each shoulder and one in your chest."

"Actually, when I woke up this morning they where gone. I still have to stay in the hospital for a bit but I'm pretty much a hundred percent." Johnny shows them his chest which is clear of anything even resembling a bruise let alone a gapping hole. "It's like I rejaculated over night."

"You mean regenerated." Charlotte corrects him.

"Yeah." Johnny agrees. "I dunno for sure but I think I may be a little immortal."

"That's cool." Alex slaps him on the back. "That means you don't have to worry about dying. Let's have a little sparring match sometime."

"I can't die but I still feel pain. Besides, I don't know for sure if that's what it is."

"You're no fun." Alex mumbles just before Clark Kent and Lois Lane walk into the room.

---

"Hey Lois." Charlotte says as the reporter comes in, nearly dragging her larger companion behind her.

"We heard what happened." Lois says with a concern in her voice lasting only seconds before she whips out a recorder form her pocket. "Let's have a word from the second person Superman saved in Oscura. I heard you where pretty banged up when you got here. And thoughts on your quick recovery? Are you a user of any super drugs circling around the city?"

"I-I got stabbed." Johnny tries to keep up with her but I'm afraid his mind isn't used to such a rapid barrage of questions. "Superman fly and now hospital. Hi."

"He's doing a lot better now." Charlotte answers for him. "As for Superman he says he can't really remember anything."

"Really?" Lois gets suspicious.

"Yeah." Johnny laughs off Lois' menacing stare. "All I can remember is something attacking me and then I was in the hospital. I guess whatever it was knocked me out."

"Maybe it was the T's." Alex brings the possibility up.

"Who are the T's?" Lois asks.

"Just a little street gang who are trying to take over Oscura since the Depraved are no longer around." Alex tells her as if he'd heard it from someone else. "I heard they might have some super drugs which give people super powers."

Alex glances towards Charlotte for a moment, giving her the hint to leave.

"Don't you have to get back to work, Alex?" Charlotte tells him.

"Right." Alex grins stupidly. "Better get back before I'm fired."

"Can you give us a ride?" Mary asks.

"Sure." Alex waves to Lois and Clark as the group leaves. "See ya later. Feel better Johnny."

"I need to take off too." Lois says. "I need to check out this area of Dusk Street. Apparently it got pretty banged up while you where unconscious. Maybe I can find a scoop there."

"See ya." Johnny waves to her as she leaves but grapes Clark's arm before he can get too far away. "Hey. You know Superman, right?"

"Well, he shows up from time to time." Clark tells him. "Staying around Lois I can probably find him."

"Can you tell him to keep what happened last night a secret?" Johnny whispers so Lois can't hear. "I don't want the others to find out. Charlotte and Alex took me in when I was at a really low time in my life so I don't want to make them uncomfortable, you know?"

"I understand." Clark smiles kindly and leaves to catch up to Lois.

Johnny counts the time in his head and then grabs his phone. "I told him what you said I should. You shire it's a good idea to lie to Superman?"

"No. But I can guess at the range of his super hearing so you should be good as long as he doesn't try to listen in." Alex assures Johnny. "Still, be extra cautious. You're an ex-bounty hunter with a long line of dead bodies behind you and I don't exactly have nothing to lose since Red X became a well known face in the media a while back. If he caught on to our identities then we'd be in prison pretty quick."

"Alright." Johnny agrees. "I'll be grounded for a while since I'm being kept for observation so you'll have to keep tabs on the others for me. We may be in deep s*it with our records but the girls are clean as far as the police know. Keep them out of trouble."

"Sure." Alex hangs up.

---

Clark Kent talks into his phone as he searches through a stack of papers in the small apartment he's staying at. The newer ones are all focused on the Parasite.

"That's alright. I didn't expect anything to show up. Sorry for wasting your time." Clark picks up a particular sheet of paper which prints out of his computer. "No. This list will be a big help. Thanks Bruce."

Clark hangs up the phone and walks up to the balcony. He looks over the paper once more.

"Only one transfer going from Metropolis through Oscura." Clark takes off his glasses and leans onto the edge of the balcony. "Not much to go off of but it's a start."

A warm breeze blows through Clark's hair and he looks down at the city.

"Unusual weather we're having." Clark quickly shoves his glasses back onto his face and looks towards the direction of the voice. The white skull shines with the bright orange of the sunlight reflecting on its surface. The intensity of the light blurs the black of his cape and body armour together, creating the illusion of dark fire. His tattered cape spreads out against the sunset as Red X stands. "I've been waiting to see if you could figure it out on your own. Here's what you missed."

Clark catches a USB that Red X throws to him. "What's inside?"

"The missing piece of the puzzle." Red X gets ready to leave but Clark stops him by calling out.

"Stop." Clark resists the urge to reach out and prevent him from leaving by force. "Do you know what's happening?"

"Everything I know is on that." He points to the USB. "With your powers I'm sure you can handle the rest."

Clark becomes serious, peering at Red X and taking of his glasses. "But how do I know I can trust you. You're a criminal yourself aren't you. Or maybe the media has the wrong idea about you."

Red X looks towards Clark. "I'm the only lead you have right now."

"At least tell me why you're helping me. And why you're wearing a led lined mask."

"You peeked." Red X waves his finger. "That's against the rules, but I'll tell you why I'm helping you anyway, not that it's an important reason. I like this city so I don't want what he's planning to succeed. That's all I'm giving you."

After that Red X jumps off the balcony and swings away, leaving Clark to contemplate using the USB.

---

Clark mulls through file after file on his computer, glad that he had chosen to do so. His glasses flicker as the words fly across the screen.

"A file on a covert plan to move the Parasite from Metropolis Penitentiary to a newly built facility, a detailed list of crimes in oscura dating back one month ago, a file called Drop-off with a date and coordinates inside and a map of Oscura's sewer systems from the time of its rebuilding after the earthquake to a week before. Each of these items keep data from one month ago until now. This could have something to do with the earthquake." Clark looks over the items in the USB. "I guess I should go for the one that doesn't have anything to do with one month ago. It only has a date and coordinates which add up to tomorrow at three by the docks. I'm not sure, but I believe my new friend has given me an invitation. I'd hate to be rude and disappoint him."

---

The next day at Charlotte's house. Charlotte sighs and lays back into the couch. She's been laying around doing nothing but surfing through channels on TV.

"I'm so bored!" Charlotte yells and squirms around in her seat.

Mary smiles. "It's alright to have days like this, where there's nothing to do."

"But it's so boring and hot!" Charlotte hug the pillow in her arms and grumbles. "Why is it so hot when it's so dark out?"

"It's only nine."

"It sucks!" Charlotte realizes hugging the pillow is only trapping the warmth between them and kicks it off of herself. "Let's go get slushies."

"You already had one today." Mary tells her like she's her mother.

"But I want one." Charlotte snaps and stands up, swinging her shirt off and tossing it at the pillow. "That's a bit better."

"At least have some modesty." Mary sighs out of disappointment in Charlotte. "You realize that you're a lady right?"

"Who cares?" Charlotte tosses her socks off too. "Johnny isn't getting out of the hospital until tomorrow and Alex hasn't left his room in the past few days. I'm sure he's getting enough eye candy off his erog anyway."

"Did someone say my name?" Alex peeks his head out from his room. Charlotte's face goes beat red. Alex slams the door shut seconds before an onslaught of flying objects impact with the wood. He slowly opens the door again. "What the crap was that for?"

"You stupid pervert!" Charlotte yells at him. "As if you don't know."

"I am seriously at a loss." Alex tries to tell her. "I don't even know why you're angry. It's just YOUR bra. It seems like such a SMALL thing to complain about. Are you sure you're not overreacting a LITTLE."

"Stop putting so much emphasis on the "small" words!" Charlotte snarls at him as she uses her pillow from before to cover up. "You know I'm above average!"

"I understand. Can you do me a TINY favour and get me A CUP of juice? My MINI-fridge is all empty." Alex slams his door shut before Charlotte can nail him with a lamp. He starts making fun of her through the closed door. "I'm done anyway. This conversation's getting a little FLAT."

Charlotte stands steaming with anger and yells at the ceiling before stomping off to her room. She emerges a moment later dressed to go out.

"Are you okay?" Mary asks her.

"Fine." Charlotte stomps over to the door. "I'm just going to get some air."

Charlotte slams the door behind her.

---

The night brings no release from the heat of the day. Tonight is just as hot as day. The waves beat ferociously against the shore and even though the night breeze flows across the sky even it is warm. Superman floats down onto a warehouse rooftop and watches as several men run out from the door beneath him.

"Looks like that tip was right on the money." Superman thinks to himself as the men run up to a ship pulling in. "But what does this small group of criminals have to do with Parasite? And what about the other items? I might as well wait and see."

Superman's body tenses when he sees a familiar figure step off of the boat. His gleaming eyes peer deeply through the darkness of the night. He reaches out a metal hand and directs the men towards the warehouse. They step inside.

"Metallo." Superman tightens his fists. "First Parasite and now Metallo joint the party. This isn't looking good."

Superman places a hand on his stomach. "And then there's that. Maybe I shouldn't go this alone, but it would take too long to call for backup. Whatever Metallo is planning it can't be good."

Superman tries to look through the warehouse roof but it is lined with led on the inside. "Apparently you know I was in town. Guess we'll have to do this the old fashion way."

---

"Hurry up!" Metallo yells at some of the men working under him as they haul humungous creates into a transport truck inside the warehouse. "We need to get this to the headquarters before morning."

The henchmen back away as the doorway turns red and blows off of its hinges.

Superman floats into the room and clenches his fist, ready for a fight. "Sorry. I let myself in."

"Superman?" Metallo's silver coloured teeth gnash against each other. "I knew you would get in my way at some point."

"And exactly what is it I'm getting in the way of?" Superman floats upward to get a better look. "Seems to me like you've gotten into the smuggling business. Lex corp products?"

"Actually, no." Metallo rips his rib cage open, revealing his kryptonite core. "I don't know who the supplier is."

Superman dodges the beam of emerald light which threatens to tear the power from his body. Using his super speed he flies around and grabs Metallo from behind, forcing his rib cage shut. "You should know better than to take things from strangers. Are you sure you're telling me the truth?"

"I guess you'll never know." Metallo flips Superman over his shoulder and he goes flying across the room.

Superman stops his decent towards the ground and sends Metallo in the other direction with a heat blast. He has to dodge as a blue stream of light nearly singes his cape.

"Those are not the same weapons used against me during the museum situation." Superman studies the layout of the machines before lighting them up with his laser vision. "But they are familiar."

The hired help backs off but Metallo rushes in and attacks Superman head on. Superman dodges as Metallo strikes at his head, but his super speed keeps him out of the cyborgs reach. Superman breaths in and sends Metallo back with a blast of compressed breath.

Superman gets ready to take Metallo down when two hands reach out from behind him and grab his face.

"Metallo!" An angered voice pierces Superman's ears as he feels his power draining from every cell in his body.

"Parasite." Metallo gets back to his feet and greets him. "Where have you been? Thanks to you we're behind schedule."

"Maybe if your assassin didn't try to put me under ground I'd be in the mood to improve my work ethic." Parasite moves in and fires a blast of heat at Metallo.

"Are you seriously trying to betray me?" Metallo deflects the blast and rips a support beam out of the ground, tossing it at Parasite who catches it and bends the beam in half.

"Betrayal? You want to talk about betrayal?" Parasite moves in closer. "When you sprung me you said we where going to create a new crime syndicate together in this place where no super-heros live. You said it would be easy and we would run this place together without any interference from capes. But then you sent that mercenary assassin after me, making me think I was hunting him when the whole time you had him on the payroll to kill me. Trying to muscle me out of my cut?"

"What are you talking about?" Metallo is cut off by another heat beam blast. He shakes it off and pushes back towards Parasite. "I never sent any assassin. I've been working the docks while you where supposed to cause people to avoid the area."

"Your lies aren't going to save you." Parasite reaches for Metallo but only feel cold metal underneath his fingertips.

"You idiot." Metallo slaps him away. "My body is machine. Do you think you can absorb my power so easily?"

"No." Parasite jumps forwards and tackles Metallo to the ground. "But I have Superman's strength. And that should be enough to crush you."

"Think about this!" Metallo shouts into Parasite's face. "Why would I want to have you taken out at this point in the game?!"

"To take my cut." Parasite gets ready to crush him.

"Superman is in town you moron!" Metallo finally gets the Parasite's attention. "Why would I have you killed while he is still a threat!? Our biggest enemy has been lying on the ground over there the entire time you and I have been chatting and we're fighting each other instead of tearing him into a bloody rotting corpse!"

"That's right." Parasite lets go of Metallo and lets him get back to his feet again. "With him gone we could have Oscura and Metropolis."

"Forget cuts." Metallo pats Parasite on the back. "With Superman gone I can take Metropolis and you can have Oscura all to yourself."

"I like this plan." Parasite grins. The two villains move closer to Superman as he tries to make his weakened body move.

---

Metallo and Parasite close in on Superman as he lays, unable to get his body moving.

Just as the two approach him their cheeks are cut by two claw-like knives.

"Who's there!?" Metallo and Parasite whirl around to face their attacker.

The minions Metallo had acquired fall to the ground as the silhouette of a single figure stands in the moonlight.

"I stand for love! And I stand for justice too!" The figure waves her arms around in familiar poses. "I am Kitten! And in the name of the moon, I will right wrongs and triumph over evil! And that means you!"

"What was that?" Parasite watches from bellow.

"Good thing I got here when I did Superman." Charlotte puts on her best heroine voice. "Don't worry! I'll take care of these villains!"

Inside Charlotte's mind right now:

"Teehee. This is so cool! I thought I heard something going on around here but I didn't expect to find this. I'm totally gonna save Superman! Let's see Alex top this one."

Back to reality:

"Now evildoers!" Charlotte points down at Parasite and Metallo. "You shall feel the cold sting of justice!"

Charlotte jumps in between Metallo and Parasite and tries to slash Metallo with the claws on her gauntlets. Metallo's fake skin is sheered away, revealing the silvery gleam on his artificial bones. Charlotte pushes her arms out towards the two enemies and fires two powerful crimson blasts from the gauntlets. The blasts knock Parasite and Metallo away from Superman.

"Are you alright?" Charlotte helps Superman to his feet.

"I just had the wind knocked out of me." Superman tells her. "Does everyone in this city wear led under their masks?"

Charlotte touches the mask covering the area around her eyes and cheeks where the mask is covering. When she developed this suit after the fight with the Depraved she never used any lead.

"I appreciate the help, but these two are deadly criminals." Superman gets his balance and starts moving forwards. "It would be best if you got away from here."

"Parasite and Metallo." Charlotte taps on the edges of her mask, controlling the images reflected in the eye protectors and quickly reads over their data. "A power absorber, contact condition and a JLA level cyborg. They're both generally easy to understand."

Superman silently watches her continue to read.

"The cyborg has a Kryptonite power core but the other one has the contact condition so I could take them both on but since they're JLA it may be best to team up." Charlotte realizes that Superman is starring at her. "Oh, I'm sorry. I have a mini computer hooked up to my mask. It's my own design. I control it by pressing the mask on certain spots in different patterns. It can also be controlled verbally if I need to, but I find I can do things faster this way."

"Um. No, it's not that." Superman tells her. "You seem pretty confident despite the situation."

"That's just because I'm awesome." Charlotte brags. "I don't want to sound like I'm bragging but I've pretty much mastered a bunch of martial arts and some which are pretty high class, like assassination techniques and stuff…not that I'd ever assassinate anyone. But it's always good to be prepared right?"

"Yeah." Superman feels a wound from yesterday getting to him he grabs it and cringes at the pain.

"Did you get that from when you saved Joh-that guy I read about who was attacked?" Charlotte jumps when she gets an idea. "I'm guessing that wound hurts a lot. It might be hard to fight both of them at once. I'll take the cyborg then since I wanted to test my metal out in a real fight anyway."

Superman feels the pain in his side and sees the villains getting closer. "I may have to take you up on that."

Superman tackles the Parasite using his cape to shield himself from his enemies powers and drags him out of the warehouse.

"I need to finish this fast and get back there to help that girl." Superman looks back for a moment. "I hope she can hold out that long."

---

Charlotte's claws rip across Metallo's face. She ducks under a punch and spins on her heel, bringing the opposite heel up and kicking the outstretched arm, forcing it towards the ceiling. She tries to rip at his chest but she had knocked his body too far and misses so she spins and tries to cut his leg. He Jumps and flips around her attack. He plants one foot on the ground and kicks up with the other but misses her face by a centimetre. She uses the opportunity to go for his chest one more time and reaches her caws up, but he steps out of the way and punches her in the stomach.

The armour protected Charlotte from any danger but she could feel the punch connect. She runs in and tries to land a series of punches but is blocked at each strike. Metallo grabs her arm on the last attack and bends it behind her back.

"I should have been able to rip through this by now." Metallo pushes Charlotte's arm up her back. Her feet start to leave the floor. "That's some impressive costume. It looks like fabric but there's more too it than that isn't there?"

"HARDAC. Voice Controls activate." The eyes of Charlotte's mask light up with data as she executes her escape. "Xenothium Surge."

Red Xenothium energy bursts from her suit, forcing Metallo to let go and becomes lost in the crimson light.

"HARDAC Return to Manual Controls." Charlotte begins tapping the side of her mask while she looks at Metallo who is getting back up. His metallic body doesn't have even a scratch. "Come on, find a weakness."

As Charlotte's computer, HARDAC, scans Metallo's body for any sign of a weak point he runs in and tries to punch Charlotte. She spins and knocks the punch out of the way with her left hand while attacking using her right. Metallo blocks it but before he can do anything Charlotte spins in the opposite direction and elbows his face. Switching directions again Charlotte sends another attack to his chest, this time ripping at it. She tries to rip his chest open to get to his Kryptonite heart but it wont budge. Metallo seizes the moment and brings his elbow down on the arm, grasping his chest. Charlotte lets go and Metallo kicks her onto her back. She pushes her weight onto her shoulders and jumps right back up, brining her palm out and blasting Metallo with red energy. He walks through it unharmed and slaps Charlotte across the face so hard she falls to the ground.

Metallo goes in to attack her but Charlotte grabs his arm and uses his weight to pull him off balance. Her foot connects with his stomach and she flings him into a pile of boxes.

While he is unable to tell what is going on Charlotte jumps up to the second story railing and hides.

"What the hell is going on?" She looks at her suits damage. "He damaged the targeting computer in my left arm, but that's made out of my Metalla. It's supposed to be stronger than Metallo's body."

Metallo gets up from the boxes and grabs a nearby create.

"I know you're in here!" Metallo tosses the create at the railings, but Charlotte is not where it hits. "Come on down and play girl. I promise I'll make this as quick as possible."

"My Metalla was made using information about the Metallo this guy is made of, so how am I the one taking damage?" Charlotte wonders. She thinks back to when Alex decided not to wear Metalla in his suit as an armour. "Did he know about this? The armour is stronger than reinforced steel but did he find a fatal weakness he didn't think I'd end up against if I started using it? he told me he didn't want to wear it because it restricted his movements so that's why I found a way to condense the weight and size into this fabric but…"

This time Metallo hits his mark. Charlotte summersaults out of the way before the create destroys her hiding place. Metallo leaps up from the ground and climbs up the railing. He rips off a piece and throws it like a javelin which Charlotte jumps over. She returns the attack by firing a few blasts of Xenothium energy.

Charlotte uses the muscle enhancer to leap away before Metallo can reach her, and she lands on the floor.

The letters in the eye pieces whiz by at top speed. Charlotte checks every one before they disappear and finds nothing that should effect the integrity of her metal.

"Crap." Charlotte decides to try a test run and attack Metallo as he jumps down from the railing. She charges up her left gauntlet and punches Metallo in the face with an extra blast of xenothium energy exploding from her knuckles. It knocks Metallo back but doesn't hurt him or knock him off his feet. He runs back in as soon as the impact stops pushing him away.

Charlotte jumps in and flying kicks his face. As soon as her feet are planted back in the ground she spins and kicks his across the stomach. He goes to slap her across the faces again but this time she blocks with her gauntlets. The left one is hit by Metallo's hand and Charlotte is tossed cross the room.

Charlotte looks at her gauntlet. Terrified her eyes widen as they take in the sight of her Metalla gauntlet smashed into pieces. It barely holds on to her arm. Charlotte gets up nervously as Metallo comes closer. His eyes glowing in the darkened room. Charlotte keeps looking down at what is left of her destroyed gauntlet as he comes up to her. His hands close in on her neck. Without a sound she is lifted off the floor.

"Once I'm done with you I can catch up with Superman and Parasite. I need to pay him back for betraying me." Metallo glares at Charlotte as he holds her motionless body in the air.

Charlotte clenching her fists through the mangled gauntlet. She thinks about Alex. "He knew they weren't complete but he didn't say anything."

"Thinking about regrets?" Metallo asks her. "That's a waste of time when you're faced with death. You should be thinking about happy things since you'll never be experiencing any of them again."

"He was just humouring me since it was the only thing I could do." Charlotte thinks about her training this past while and bites her lip. "That's not it. He was just being considerate. He didn't want to tell me I'd failed. He couldn't tell me what I made was a pale imitation that would crumble when faced with the real thing."

Metallo's hands tighten, closing Charlotte's neck a little more. Her breaths grow more desperate as her mind swims with new thoughts.

"You b*stard, Alex." Charlotte bites down harder, until blood drips from her lip. "Why do you have to pick the most incentive times to be a nice guy!?"

Charlotte's leg bursts up and kicks her body away from Metallo. Charlotte lands on all fours but instantly lifts up her hands and blasts Metallo with a high power blaze of xenothium energy.

As Metallo tries to recover Charlotte boots up her computer again. "HARDAC, Damage Report."

"Left gauntlet 80% damage, right gauntlet 30% damage, neck bracers 30% damage, left leg 2% damage." Charlotte's earrings act as microphones and lists off the damage. "Warning. Left gauntlet unusable."

"I can work with this." Charlotte gets ready. Metallo comes running at her. Charlotte takes her stance. "Just breathe."

Charlotte breathes in slowly. Metallo is practically on top of her, ready to take her head off with a single punch. She exhales and disappears before the metallic hand can touch her.

"What?!" Metallo doesn't have time to gawk. Charlotte's legs wrap around his neck from behind and toss him backwards into the air. He tries to land on his feet but they are shot out from under him by Xenothium blasts.

"Stage one of Bangong Fang She." Charlotte stands over Metallo confidently glaring down as if looking at a piece of scrap metal. Blurs of red light stream across her eyes as her computers systems all push themselves to maximum power. "Yao Duo Shuang Tou She Qiangdao."

"Bang on what?" Metallo gets up and tries to grab charlotte by the hair but she spins around six time, each one connecting a kick to his stomach. The kicks pulse through his armoured body. He kicks her legs out form underneath him but she plants her hands on the floor and turns the force of his attack into her upside down kick. Before he can move she hops up, landing with a kick onto his face and jumping off using that force. Metallo gets up and uppercuts her in the stomach but once again Charlotte uses his own power to boost her own move and grabs his arm, flipping over him and launching a blast into his back.

The now red Metallo armour begins to bubble.

"How!?" Metallo cries as the so called invincible armour slowly melts.

Charlotte holds out her palm towards him, the area where her armour fires the blasts is melting into droplets. "I may not be able to handle full Bangong Fang she myself just yet, but by controlling HARDAC's systems manually I can push the correct sections of my muscle enhancers to the limit without reaching a breaking point and destroying the machines. Now, I wonder which one of our metals will last the longest against the heat of full power Xenothium Energy Blasts."

Metallo attacks but Charlotte vanishes once more. She fires off another blast from behind and then from the side when Metallo tries to turn around. She continues letting off blast after blast of attacks from her gauntlet.

Metallo can tell that his body is feeling the effect of the energy and tries a depurate attack. He watches Charlotte's pattern of attack and predicts when she will be closest to him. In that split second she is beside him he slams his arm against her throat and she crashes into the wall. it begins crumbling around the area she hit.

Charlotte Gets back to her feet but not before Metallo grabs her neck and slams the back of her head into the wall three times. She gasps, extremely happy that the armour keeping him from crushing her neck is holding on. She tries to blast him with her right gauntlet but Metallo crushes it.

"No more energy blasts." Metallo breathes hard into Charlotte's face. He's ready to rip her apart.

Charlotte just glares up at the menacing enemy holding her in place. "I don't like you."

"Does that really matter?" Metallo asks her.

"Not to you, but it does to me." Charlotte grabs his arm which is holding her still, as if her tiny hand could simply brush it away. "I had a lot of pride in this armour. I spent a long time trying to make it into the perfect shield for the day I got to meet him."

Metallo tries to break free but HARDAK's muscle enhancing system keeps him steady under Charlotte's small hand.

"At first I thought he was my hero. I even threw myself off a rooftop just to get him to take me seriously. But in reality he's a perverted, otaku, jacka*s without even a semblance of humanity. He's violent, rude, obnoxious, uncaring, self centred, obsessive jerk-wad!" Charlotte breaths in after yelling that last line so loud. "But you know what? He is always looking out for me. He's a mad genius who can find the weak points in anything. People, super powers and even my Metalla armour. That's why he taught me about xenothium and why he taught me martial arts. He saw the weak point in my armour. Not the one I built for him but the one I built around myself. He saw through my anger and confidence and saw that I was just being to small minded. He's constantly breaking down my armour and making me angry or sad, just to remind me how inferior I am to him."

"Seem like a nice guy." Metallo reaches back. "Too bad he had to be your last thought."

"He can see everything I can't. He's knows I'm just a regular girl despite all of my defences. That's why." Charlotte's eyes light up with a passion to fight as her eyes are completely overtaken by the glow in her eye pieces. "That's why he's always pushing me to surpass my limits! So I can become more than that!"

A blast of Xenothium explodes from Charlotte's mask, forcing Metallo off of her and freeing her form his grasp.

"Now do you get why he taught me the Snake Bandit and why he never told me about the weakness of my armour?" Charlotte grins sadistically as her armour lights up with Xenothium power. "He never told me because he wanted me to find out on my own and learn form my mistakes. And he taught me Snake Bandit so that I could do something about it when I found out."

Charlotte disappears into a blaze of red light and jabs her fist straight into Metallo's stomach. The HARDAC's performance enhancing tech drives the power of her fist deep into the enemies armour. After that it lets off a humungous stream of xenothium energy engulfing Metallo.

"I used to think of him as a hero." Charlotte brushes the hair from her face. "But he turned out to be just like an annoying big brother."

Charlotte goes to catch up with Superman but a skeletal metal hand reaches out and grabs her by the arm.

"I'll kill you!" Metallo screams as he goes to crush her but she fades away from sight. She reappears a few steps away and holds each of her palms to the opposite shoulder.

"It doesn't look like you've realized how powerful I am!" Energy bursts from Charlotte's suit, ripping the floor around her apart and forcing Metallo to a stand still.

Metallo pushes through the wall of force holding him away from her and attacks but his fist goes straight through her head. There is no contact and the image of Charlotte fades away. Charlotte's hands grab his head from behind and the glowing energy around Charlotte's suit focuses towards them.

"HARDAC! Full power Xenothium blast!" Charlotte's palms blaze with all of her suits energy. The power is so great it melts away the last of her arms Metalla. She breathes heavily and falls on her butt. "I didn't think manually guiding the flow of Xenothium energy throughout my suit would be that tiring. It had a really cool effect though. I've never been able to go that fast using Snake Bandit. I bet Alex didn't predict my new computer would have so much power. heh. heh."

---

Superman returns just after the battle ends, with an unconscious Parasite in a bag. When he returns Charlotte is gone and Metallo is laying in a wreck. He gives the two criminals over to the authorities but returns to the warehouse to check out what they where planning to smuggle into Oscura.

---

"I never should have sided with you." Parasite complains as he and Metallo are being transported out of the city. "This was all your idea."

"The plan was sound." Metallo corrects him. "It was going to work."

"You never told me the whole plan." Parasite grumbles. "What where we supposed to do with that stuff anyway?"

"I-I don't…" Metallo grabs his head as a shooting pain runs through his mind.

"Hey!" Parasite stands up. "What's going on!?"

The door to their quarters opens and a deep green glow fills the room.

"The plan will become clear soon." A calm voice calls from the door. Metallo's eyes dim and he gets to his feet as the man in the doorway enters.

"The plan is ready." Metallo reports. "Everything is in place for the final stage."

"Hey. I know you and I don't want any part of what you've got in mind." Parasite tries to step past the man but he grabs him by the hand and Parasite falls to the ground.

"Compliance is not a request." The man tells him. "The final stage must be completed."