High above Metropolis the bomb detonated.
The explosion tore open the sky, fire spreading across the clouds bright enough to be seen from every borough, the shockwave rolling through the air and rattling windows twenty blocks below.
On the streets people stopped running and looked up.
Because Superman had still been up there.
Burning debris fell into the river. Smoke covered everything above the skyline. The streets went quiet in a way they hadn't been since the invasion started, the silence of people holding their breath without deciding to.
Then someone pointed.
A red cape came through the smoke.
Clark descended through the burning clouds, slightly scorched, completely intact, sunlight breaking through behind him as he came down.
The crowd stared for one full second.
Then the chanting started.
"Superman."
"Superman."
One voice, then ten, then the whole street, police officers and reporters and people still covered in dust all looking up and saying the same word.
Clark slowed in the air when he heard it.
He landed near the wreckage and the chanting was still going, spreading block to block, phones and cameras pointed at the sky.
Not long ago the city had feared what he was.
Standing there now, listening to his name echo across the damaged streets of Metropolis, he looked like something else entirely.
After the battle the police secured the area immediately, emergency teams pushing civilians behind barricades while investigators moved through the wreckage looking for answers.
Something that large and that advanced didn't appear in the middle of Metropolis without money behind it. Without infrastructure. Without someone who knew what they were building and had the resources to build it.
The investigation took less time than it should have to point toward LexCorp.
Publicly Lex offered cleanup assistance within the hour, presenting LexCorp as a responsible partner in the city's recovery. The government accepted without significant hesitation because the machine's engineering was beyond anything their own teams could analyze quickly.
Which was exactly what Lex wanted.
LexCorp personnel moved through the site as recovery specialists and collected everything that mattered while appearing to collect debris. Most of the machine was gone but the machine was never the point.
One technician found it near the primary impact zone.
A strand of hair.
Kryptonian.
In a secured LexCorp laboratory that night Lex stood in front of the scanning equipment while his researchers isolated the sample, Kryptonian genetic architecture filling the monitors in rotating sequences more complex than anything human biology produced.
He already had partial biological data from the Zod invasion. Fragments recovered from the wreckage, exoskeleton components, physiological records pulled from the scout ship's corrupted systems. Incomplete individually.
Combined with living DNA they became something else.
Lex stepped closer to the monitor.
"Every species has limits," he said quietly. "Now it's simply a matter of finding yours."
For the next several days, Lex Luthor barely left the laboratory.
Scientists continued running experiments nonstop while Kryptonian genetic structures filled every screen inside the hidden LexCorp facility.
The deeper Lex studied it, the more unsettling the results became.
Kryptonian cells were fundamentally different from human biology.
Under Earth's yellow sun, the cells absorbed solar radiation continuously and converted it into absurd amounts of energy. Every exposure strengthened the body further, increasing cellular activity to levels no human organism could survive.
The DNA itself practically evolved while under sunlight.
"Extraordinary..." one researcher whispered while looking at the readings.
Lex remained silent, eyes fixed on the holographic projections rotating before him.
Human cells degraded over time.
Kryptonian cells adapted.
Strength, durability, regeneration, sensory enhancement—everything increased under solar exposure. It was less like biology and more like a living engine constantly charging itself.
"So the sun gives power to Superman," Lex muttered quietly while studying the energy graphs.
That explained part of it.
But not enough.
Lex had already tested every Earth-based weakness he could theoretically expose the DNA to. Radiation, toxins, extreme temperatures, chemical agents, electromagnetic interference, biological destabilizers—none of them produced meaningful results.
The Kryptonian genetic structure simply adapted or ignored the damage entirely.
It was as if Earth itself lacked the materials necessary to properly harm Kryptonians.
Which left Lex increasingly frustrated.
"Impossible," one scientist muttered while reviewing another failed test result.
Lex slowly folded his arms behind his back.
"No," he corrected calmly. "Not impossible."
His gaze remained fixed on Superman's genetic code glowing across the screens.
"Everything alive has a weakness."
The question was whether humanity possessed it yet.
"Sir," one of the scientists said, pulling up the latest results with the careful tone of someone delivering bad news to a person known for not receiving it well.
"We have tested every known element available to us. Superman's biology shows no meaningful weakness to anything of Earth origin."
Lex looked at the screens for a long moment.
"Then find it," he said.
The sharpness in his voice stopped the room completely.
"I refuse to believe something with that much power has no limit," he said.
"If Earth materials aren't enough then go beyond Earth. The scout ship's radiation signatures. Mineral compounds from the wreckage."
"Anything recovered from Kryptonian technology that doesn't match any known element on this planet."
*****
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