“‘Deactivate’! ‘Disassemble’!” Metallo spat out Luthor’s words, his voice filled with rage. “You speak as though I am just a machine! A mechanism! A device! But I am still alive and aware! I am a human inside my brain and what remains of my face! Trapped forever in this robot body! Imprisoned! YOU DID THIS TO ME!”
He lifted Luthor higher, preparing to dash him to the ground.
“Me?” Luthor said innocently. “I didn’t do this to you. Superman did.”
Metallo hesitated. “What?”
“I didn’t imprison you,” Luthor insisted. “I saved you. Superman booby-trapped that weapon. He set the whole thing up. When it exploded, you were at the very edge of death. But I saved you. I instructed my scientists to keep as much of you alive as possible in this body.”
Metallo scowled. “An artificial body! A metal cage!”
Luthor cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. “A superior body. A body with strength and resilience beyond that of any human being. That we’re going to make even more powerful, so you can have your revenge on Superman.”
“Why would Superman try to blow me up?” Metallo asked. “I don’t know him. And he doesn’t know me.”
“Well, John, I don’t know how to put this delicately, so I’ll just say it: you’ve killed a lot of people,” Luthor said. Moore and Patel tried to look busy, pretending they weren’t hearing this conversation.
“So?”
“So someone connected to one of your victims hired Superman to kill you,” Luthor explained. “That’s my theory.”
“No one ever knew I was the killer,” Metallo claimed. “I made sure of that.”
“The people who hired you knew,” Luthor pointed out. “They’d never tell anyone connected to the victim. They knew I’d come for them.” He shrugged. “People talk, John. Secrets don’t stay secret. And the associates of murder victims—their family, their friends, even their colleagues—want revenge. Honestly, I don’t know who this Superman is, or where he came from. But I do know he tried to kill you—twice. And my sources tell me he’s vowed to finish the job.”
A flash of fear flickered across the human side of Metallo’s face. “He’s going to kill me?”
Luthor smiled. “Not if you kill him first.”
Metallo considered Luthor’s statements, trying to discern the truth.
“John, please put me down, and I’ll tell you what I’m going to do for you,” Luthor proposed. “How I’m going to help you kill Superman.”
Slowly, Metallo lowered Luthor to the floor. “How?”

Chapter 17