In the distance, Barry had just finished pulling civilians out of the burning high-rise when he saw the enemy was already down. Captain Cold even waved at him. "Thanks for the help, Flash!" The Rogues used Mirror Master's power to teleport directly back to base and collect their fee.
Barry shook his head. He genuinely couldn't decide what to make of the Rogues. Calling them bad guys felt off—they really weren't terrible. Calling them good guys was a stretch too. He stopped wasting brain cells on it, locked in a heading, and sprinted off to back up Superman.
Superman had already destroyed the Fortress of Solitude. After a brief rest, he'd touched down in this Earth's Metropolis, where Owlman and Superwoman were currently having an affair behind Ultraman's back.
The Watchtower's alarm yanked Owlman out of bed. He and Superwoman dressed in a panic and made emergency contact with the rest of the Crime Syndicate.
Owlman had no superpowers, yet he'd survived—and thrived—surrounded by treacherous villains like Ultraman, Deathstorm, and Johnny Quick. He had his own particular edge.
While Superwoman was still at a loss, he'd already deduced exactly what was happening. Earth-1's butler had been compromised, that side had launched a counterattack, and decisive action was the only option. He bolted for the door.
His logic was simple: save himself first. After that, depending on the situation, he'd decide whether to flee or rescue his deeply paranoid colleagues. Right now everything was a fog. He needed intel—lots of it.
Sleeping with Ultraman's woman had pushed him to set up plenty of safehouses and assets in Metropolis. Today they'd come in handy.
Unfortunately, with about a hundred meters (around three hundred feet) left to his secret base, Superman dropped from the sky and cut him off.
Owlman had never been this cornered. But he didn't panic. He took in the familiar uniform and a faint smile curled his lips. "Kryptonian from another world?"
"Surrender. I'll make sure you face a fair trial." Superman spoke while keeping his guard up.
Owlman didn't answer. He just smiled, as if he hadn't heard. Beside him, Superwoman burst into mocking laughter. "Fair trial... trial, fair... I'm dying laughing!"
"Lois..." Seeing his wife's counterpart in front of him, Superman felt deeply unsettled. Same face, same height, same build. The only difference was the aura.
His Lois was just and good-hearted, with an unbreakable conviction to chase down the truth no matter the cost. Her resilience was as precious as a diamond in his eyes.
This Superwoman radiated something foul. Decadent, dissolute, every glance loaded with sensuality. Every angle of her screamed trouble.
A rare flicker of anger surfaced in Superman. He wasn't going to let anyone tarnish the image of his wife.
Still, by reflex, he scanned her with X-ray vision.
"Huh? You're carrying a child..." That threw his entire plan off. Was he really about to fight a pregnant woman?
The original idea was to put both of them down fast. The pregnancy gave him pause. Striking a pregnant woman crossed a hard moral line for him. That instant of hesitation was all the two veteran villains needed.
Not that they had any intention of teaming up to take him down. They were partners-in-bed at most—not even friends. They could fight together when they had the advantage. Right now, it was every villain for themselves.
"This should work on you!" Owlman tossed a smoke grenade. The dark gray cloud was laced with a thread of green.
"Kryptonite powder!" Superman's eyes widened. He held his breath and retreated fast.
"Down you go!" Superwoman whipped a thorned lasso around him and used the leverage to leap over him.
Owlman moved faster. This was his secret base, after all—he knew it inside out, far better than Superwoman did. He sprinted through a heavy door.
He glanced back casually. Not a word about saving his ally and bedmate. He just shut the door behind him and walked deeper into the building, cold-faced.
Superwoman wasn't surprised by his betrayal. In his shoes she'd have done the same. But facing Superman alone was a bad scene. Time to run, no questions asked.
She pulled in her lasso and started backing up the way she'd come. But she'd underestimated Superman's willpower. Measuring him by Ultraman was a serious miscalculation.
Superman exploded out of the kryptonite cloud. Particles of kryptonite dust still clung to his face and exposed skin, but he gritted through it and unleashed heat vision at Superwoman.
Recognizing the same ability Ultraman wielded, Superwoman didn't dare take it head-on. She dodged.
Toes barely brushing the ground, she launched herself like a great black bird. The heat vision carved two deep trenches into the pavement but missed her completely. Superwoman soared away with effortless grace.
This Superwoman was no slouch. Enemies who could fly under their own power were rarely weak. Superman remembered Thea telling him repeatedly that Lois had untapped potential. He finally believed her.
The kryptonite powder still affected Superman to a degree. His speed was throttled hard. He couldn't aim at Superwoman's belly or her head, leaving him only her arms and legs as targets for his heat vision.
Superwoman dodged left and right in midair. Superman pressed without pause, and the gap between them narrowed fast.
"You think I'm afraid of you?!" Superwoman wasn't slow, but she knew she was outclassed by Ultraman. Against a Kryptonian from another dimension, she was probably outclassed there too.
She'd already pushed her speed to the limit. No more headroom. And Superman behind her was shaking off the kryptonite dust, his speed climbing without an obvious ceiling. Superwoman had to turn and fight. She had to resolve this while the dust was still hampering him, or in another minute, she wouldn't stand a chance.
Superman's side viewed Superwoman as a counterpart of someone they knew, which gave them a psychological edge in combat.
The reverse was equally true. From Earth-3's perspective, Superman and his crew were Ultraman's counterparts. Nobody thinks of themselves as the false reflection. Everyone is the real version in their own head.
Both sides were underestimating their enemy. The only question was who would catch on first.
Superwoman's thorned lasso wrapped Superman's left arm—the spot most coated with kryptonite dust.
Superwoman loved seeing enemies writhe in agony at her feet. Her lasso was nothing like Diana's Lasso of Truth. It made the bound prey feel a hundred or a thousand times more pain.
Outside of Owlman, she'd never seen anyone resist that kind of agony. Today, she'd see a second one.
The intense pain partially overrode the kryptonite weakness. Superman's strength surged back to about half. He yanked Superwoman back toward him, and the moment she came close, drove a fist straight at her.
Superwoman was pregnant. Belly was off-limits. Her chest was a bad target too. Superman's swing was hesitant, layered on top of his old habit of pulling punches against opponents. The blow couldn't have carried more than thirty percent of his usual power.
Even so, it shattered Superwoman's shoulder blade. She screamed, "Get over here and help me!"
A furious roar answered: "Mazahs!" An instant later, a barrel-thick bolt of lightning came hammering down from the high atmosphere, aimed dead at Superman.