God Of The Omniverse

Shortly after they spoke, Kara and Superman activated their x-ray vision to try and see through the wall they were currently staring at. Unfortunately, both soon realized they couldn't see through it, immediately recognizing it was lined with lead.

"What's wrong?" Batman asked, noting their frustration as he also looked in the direction they were examining. He tapped something on his gauntlet, causing his visor to glow slightly green. "There's something behind that wall," he stated.

Kara looked at him with surprise and asked, "You can see through lead?"

Batman didn't answer directly but walked over to the wall, feeling it out before giving it a hard bang. "It's too thick for explosives," he concluded, before turning his gaze toward Superman, implying the need for a more direct approach.

Superman hovered close to the lead wall, sized it up, and then, without hesitation, punched through it with ease. The wall reverberated, causing the building itself to shake. He then removed his fist, revealing he hadn't gotten all the way through. "Incredibly thick, but there's definitely something behind here," he noted. 

He punched in his fist yet again, this time grabbing onto the material as if it were cloth, and tore it in one direction, causing the wall to bend outwardly as he manipulated the metal. After repeating this a few more times, Superman finally broke through the wall with a hard punch.

After doing so, he gripped the metal and bent it aside to create a makeshift entrance before hovering through. Batman didn't immediately follow, looking at the holographic screen on his wrist, checking for any signs of radioactivity or other dangers. 

However, the moment Superman broke through, Batman began to walk closer, his screen showing numerous dots clustered in groups, all showcasing heartbeats.

He diverted his attention from the screen and rushed through the entrance, followed by Kara, who wasn't paying any attention to Arias at this time. Arias casually followed along and found that, upon entering, Batman quickly removed a spherical device from his utility belt, which he threw into the air. A few seconds after throwing it, the device exploded and shone a bright white light that illuminated the entire room, revealing it to be another hall filled with shipping containers stacked one upon another.

Kara's attention trailed off as, even without focusing her superhero senses, she could hear banging coming from the containers. Superman was quick to use his x-ray vision and immediately saw groups of people within the containers. "There's people in there," he quickly announced before flying over to one and ripping the doors open.

When he did so, he was met with the sight of panicked children and teens, the younger ones trembling behind in fear, with a few standing forward as if to protect the younger ones. Each one of them wore plain white clothes and had collars around their necks, which matched the design of the machinery they had found in the other room.

Seeing Superman visibly upset, Batman asked, "What do you see?"

"Kids," Superman replied. "There's kids in the containers... I think they're metahumans," he added, before trying to reach out to one of the collars. 

As the kids saw Superman, many of them recognized him and, though wary, did not resist when he reached for the collar.

However, when he tried to touch the collar, a shock emanated from it, producing a radiated electrical current that caused the young man wearing it to scream. Shortly after this, the young man's collar and several others began to glow red, then a chain reaction occurred as other collars did the same, and a beeping sound began to emanate from all of them. The sound was so clear and eerie that even Batman, who had no super hearing, could hear it quite clearly.

"Superman, what is that?" Batman asked urgently.

"The children, they have collars on... I think they are bombs activated on touch," Superman explained, his voice filled with urgency.

Hearing this, Superman immediately rushed to another container on the ground level and blew it open. However, unlike the earlier elated children, these ones were in immediate panic, frantically holding their collars and yelling for help.

Superman hesitated to reach out again, fearing he might trigger something even worse. He tried to calm the children down, "Stay still," he instructed, his voice directive, but the panic seemed to deafen them.

On the other side, Batman was observing all the children with his visor, trying to quickly process the technology they were wearing on their necks. "Alfred, how do we stop this?" he called into his comms.

"This is the first time I'm seeing anything like this. I don't think it's something you can stop with conventional means," Alfred advised, his tone grave. "I advise you to get away from there as quickly as you can."

"Alfred, I'm not leaving these children. There has to be a way," Batman insisted, his voice stern.

As he said this, he turned his head back and looked at Arias. "You know how to stop this, don't you?" he demanded.

Arias turned his gaze towards Batman and shook his head, feigning a mix of regret and resignation in his voice. "Unfortunately, I do not. As deeply as I've tried to understand, this Apokoliptian technology, as you say, it has proved to be a thorn in my side as well. The collar you're looking at is a big reason why I failed to save more than three different groups of kidnapped metahuman children at a time."

"My scientists assumed it was nothing more than sophisticated restraint technology, and so the children were taken to a makeshift camp to have them removed and be tested for any ailments. Unfortunately, roughly 5 minutes after the beeping with their collars began, they exploded, taking the scientists who were trying to save them with it."

"If you knew that, why the are you so calm?" Batman's voice rose with accusation.

Arias shrugged his shoulders. "What's the point in panicking? The yield of the explosion will likely cover three times the size of this island. I can't get away in that margin of time."

Hearing Arias's casual answer, Batman began to question whether he was lying or not, but he couldn't take the risk if he wasn't. "Superman, we need to get out of here, now," he said, urgency marking his voice.

Superman looked towards Batman, then back at the children. 

"There's nothing we can do without the tech. We're helpless to stop this," Batman further added. 

Superman had numerous thoughts churning through his mind before his eyes eventually settled on Arias.

"No, we won't be going anywhere. You know how to stop this. You have an idea how to stop this. Tell us how or we are going to be here when those collars go off," Superman declared, his voice filled with desperation and a hint of threat.

Arias could see that this was Superman's only recourse as he was desperate for a solution. He simply chuckled, minding the gravity of the situation. Just as Superman fueled by anger seemed ready to launch a punch, Arias's eyes lit up brightly, and he was suddenly flung Superman across the room before colliding with the wall with furious force.

Things were about to get out of control but Batman quickly turned toward Kara and said, "Get him out of here."

Kara, finding it hard to process all of this, listened to Batman and quickly grabbed onto Arias before flying out. Superman, after recovering from the shock, grabbed onto Batman and flew him out as well. As he was doing so, he asked, "Batman, can you make it out?"

"Just drop me off outside, but if you're thinking of going after Arias-."

"I'm going to try and stop this," Superman replied quickly as he dropped off Batman right outside the entrance of the building before immediately flying back in.

Batman turned his attention toward his holographic screen on the wristband and called his jet to fly above him. As it did so, he hooked onto it and watched as Superman's figure flew back inside the building, inwardly hoping that he could indeed manage to pull it off.