In Wayne Manor, Clark arrived wearing his glasses and normal clothes and pressed the doorbell.
He hadn't called Bruce, mostly because he didn't even have his number, so he was confused when Alfred opened the door almost immediately.
"Mr. Clark, Master Bruce is expecting you."
"He already expects me?" Clark asked, genuinely confused.
"Yes. Please follow me."
Alfred led him through the manor and down into the underground Batcave, where Bruce was already seated in front of the main computer.
"I expected you to come," Bruce said.
"Why?"
Bruce brought up footage of the attack in Metropolis. "Two things. Five hours ago, a machine appeared in Metropolis and nearly killed you. It also had something inside it that could weaken you."
He pointed toward the green stone embedded in the robot. "I don't know what that material is, but whoever built that machine clearly knew it could affect you."
"Yeah..."
"And if someone knows about a weakness you have, then someone discovered it." Bruce looked directly at him.
"You don't have many friends you can trust with information like that and ask for help. One of the few reliable people you could've gone to, Daniel, is currently out of the picture."
Bruce had seen what happened in Central City. Daniel had stopped the incident, but afterward his behavior had turned strange, and he was now dealing with something else.
"So that leaves a few people you know," Bruce continued. "Diana's out of the question because you don't know her that well. The Flash is the same." He paused.
"Cyborg's currently unavailable." He looked at Clark. "So that leaves me."
Clark was a little surprised at the deduction. He'd always known Bruce was intelligent, but until now he'd mostly thought of him as someone who relied on strength and technology.
Apparently there was more to Bruce than that.
"So I assume you know what this green crystal is and that it can weaken you?" Bruce asked, genuine curiosity in his voice — as far as he knew, Superman didn't have any obvious weakness, and he wanted to understand exactly what had been used against him.
"It's called kryptonite," Clark explained. "And as you can see, it can weaken me badly enough to bring me down to the level of a normal person."
Bruce stayed quiet a moment, studying the image of the robot on screen — the design, the kryptonite embedded in its chest, the way it had been built specifically to fight Superman.
Then something clicked.
He pulled up information on LexCorp and started comparing the technology.
Lex Luthor.
Clark noticed the shift in his expression. "Luthor? Really?" He hadn't expected his own suspicion to line up with Bruce's so fast. "But why?"
"I don't know. But right now, LexCorp is one of the few companies in Metropolis with the technology and resources to build something like that. Luthor also has a motive." Bruce pulled up several clips from Luthor's recent public appearances.
"He's openly criticized you several times. Made it clear he doesn't think Superman should be operating above human institutions."
Clark looked at the screen. "So you're saying he hates me enough to try to kill me?"
"After what we saw today, that's a possibility."
Clark frowned. "Why? I haven't done anything to him. All I've ever done is help people."
Bruce looked at him a moment before answering.
"Not everyone sees you the way the people you've saved do. Luthor's been making that argument for a while now. He believes humanity shouldn't depend on an alien to solve its problems."
"But I'm not asking anyone to depend on me."
"I know. That doesn't matter to someone who already believes you're a threat." He brought up one of Luthor's recent speeches.
"Luthor thinks your existence makes humanity weaker, because people will always look to you the second something goes wrong."
"In his mind, every crisis should push humans to develop their own technology and defenses."
Clark watched the footage in silence. "So he thinks I'm holding humanity back."
"That's what it sounds like. And if he's convinced of that, building a machine capable of taking you down probably isn't a big step for him. He might even see it as giving humanity a way to defend itself."
Clark shook his head. "That's a pretty extreme way of proving a point."
Bruce glanced at the image of the robot. "Extreme doesn't mean impossible." He closed the video.
"If Luthor really built that machine, the next question isn't whether he dislikes you. It's what he's planning to build next."
"Even if we believe Luthor did it, we don't have proof," Bruce added. "The robot's gone, and unless we find something connecting it to LexCorp, there's nothing we can use against him."
Clark nodded slowly. "And without evidence, we can't just accuse him."
"Exactly. Luthor's still an influential businessman with a lot of connections. If we move against him without proof, he'll spin it into a story about Superman attacking a human who disagrees with him."
Clark sighed. "And I assume you don't want to do anything against the law."
"No," Bruce said. "Not unless there's no other choice."
Clark gave him a small smile. "That's probably for the best."
Bruce turned back to the computer. "For now, we investigate. If Luthor's behind the robot, he'll eventually leave something behind."
"Then we find it."
*****
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