Lex's Gambit

"Thank you for coming, everybody," Alexander "Lex" Luthor, former CEO of LexCorp and recurring supervillain, greeted the room of gathered heroes. "I know we've all had our differences, but President Katzenburg has entrusted me to find a way to get rid of that bald villain who's making a mockery of this planet. And no, I'm not talking about myself."

Nobody laughed at the attempt at a joke, where the assembled remnants of the Justice League glared at a man who had at many times been their adversary.

"C'mon, lighten up. We need to learn how to work together," Lex continued as he activated a videoboard at the front of the conference room. "This is my planet too, so I don't like this menace any more than you do. He killed Superman, my longtime rival. Do you think I was happy about that? No! I'm still enraged that I might never get the chance to eliminate that Kryptonian myself because of him."

"Just get to the point, Lex," Oliver Queen, aka Green Arrow, interrupted.

"Fine, I'll make this quick," the supervillain continued, adjusting the maroon tie of his black suit as the screen lit up. "I'm proposing a multi-front attack on Dominica using several different teams. Strike Team Alpha will be made up of our conventional heroes, and they'll provide a second team, Strike Team Beta, with a distraction so that they can attack the bald clown from the rear."

"That sounds like the same plan that we tried to pull off a few weeks ago, and in case you forgot, we lost," Booster Gold added as he leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed.

"My plan is superior to that suicide mission that Batman sent you on," Lex replied with a grin. "Team Alpha might be normal heroes, but Team Beta will be comprised of exclusively magic users. Physical attacks seem to do nothing to the bald clown, and therefore, we shall attack him using elements that surpass those of the physical world. And that's not even it, I've got a third team, Strike Team Omega, who will annihilate the objective if all else fails. They will be recruited with this."

Holding up a smaller, burnt-up cube, Luthor presented the prototype of the artificial mother boxes that Starlabs had been building. Although Saitama had obliterated most of the remaining specimens, the imperfect first-edition of the dimensional-traversing tech still provided the same miraculous capabilities of the later models, albeit, with some bugs.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to use one of those? Don't forget, those mother boxes are the reason why that caped shithead is running around here to begin with," Mari McCabe, aka Vixen, added.

"Sometimes to figure out a solution, you must return to the root of the problem," Lex replied. "While not as accurate as the later mother boxes from Star, I'm confident that I'll be able to modify it with my own technology in order to pull some powerful allies for us from the multiverse. And in case any of you thought that this was going to be another suicide mission, then worry not. I'll eventually be joining the battle with Team Omega in my war suit."

The Justice League members look amongst each other, unsure if they should trust a man who routinely put others at risk for his own selfish desires. With many of their strongest heroes already killed by the bald clown, many of the valiant men and women also doubted their own abilities in being able to stop the villain.

"I'll go, I've been meaning to drag that prick to hell," Raven piped up, leaning against the wall of the conference room. "He killed all the titans that I used to be on a team with, those people were like siblings to me. I'll make sure that the chrome dome feels the worst kind of pain for what he did."

"That's the vengeful attitude that we'll need," the mad scientist stated as he directed his audience's attention to the screen. "For the good of this world, we'll need to all fight with our claws and teeth bared. Forget discourse, we'll have to come at this guy with ferocity. Now, I'll outline the teams for you all."

Strike Team Alpha was to consist of Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Vixen, Green Arrow, and Hawkman. Their mission was to occupy Saitama for as long as possible while Strike Team Beta moved in from the rear, and was to consist of Raven, Doctor Fate, and Zatanna. The trio of magic wielders would attempt to use their otherworldly power to incapacitate the bald clown in any way that they could, where whether or not they were successful in their outcome, Lex himself would then personally lead the third team, Strike Team Omega.

The wildcard of the operation, not even Luthor knew what his team was going to consist of. Depending on who he was able to pull from the multiverse, the strength of the unit was wholly dependent on luck, and their possibility of success hung on this luck factor. Like the sadistic mind of his opponent, Lex's bald head contained a dastardly plot that he hoped would be enough to overthrow the all-powerful one punch man.

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Three days later, with a mere three days left before Saitama followed through with his plan to take the world by force, a fleet of 5 supermassive "LexCarriers" was streaming towards the Dominican island. Each one being around double the size of anything in the American navy, the superheroes had gathered upon the deck of the flagship, where Teams Alpha and Beta stood at the ready.

Lex Luthor himself was nowhere to be seen, but in the three days since their meeting, he'd supposedly gathered himself a team of warriors from the multiverse. Packed within the carriers were also said to be a robot army that the scientist had designed himself, and further back, was another combined NATO fleet that this time brought 100,000 troops. Unlike last time, the soldiers wouldn't be hitting the beaches until after the superheroes had engaged Saitama either.

"Attention all units: we're presently 16 miles from Dominica, so be on red alert for orders for deployment," Lex Luthor called over the intercom from the bridge, before turning to a shadowy figure that was behind him. "You go in last, you'll have to be our trump card incase this plan goes to shit."

"Okay, but don't forget, you've got to promise not to be bad anymore when this is over," the figure replied flatly.