... in Philadelphia

[jla_extras]

An army tears down Broad Street in Philadelphia, looking like something out of an apocalyptic movie. Some brave civilians run up the costumed characters. Some are familiar. Is that Dr Mid-Nite? Is that Flamebird? Where did they come from? Why are they doing this

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[brainiac_lives]

A Jason Todd replicant bursts into a homeless shelter with an armful of scrap metal, a sick grin on his face. "All die!" He throws the scrap like daggers at any human he sees.

[damage_granted]

Reports had been flying fast and furious over the Titans' communications band - something about clones running around causing mayhem. Grant Emerson, clad in his superheroing duds, lands with a loud THWAM! on the pavement outside the homeless shelter, the concrete buckling and cratering under the impact of his mile-long leap.

"The hell...?" Damage asks, hearing screams coming from the shelter.

Pushing aside the door as it dangles on its hinges, Damage squeezes his hand into a fist, a shimmering aura of bio-energy radiating around his closed fingers. "Hey, pal - try me!"

[brainiac_lives]

The replicant slowly turns, and grimaces at the sight of Damage. Quickly assessing the situation, it drops the assorted pieces of metal and instead goes for the grenade that Brainiac had equipped. "Fire in the hole." It just clutches the grenade and walks over to a group of the homeless.

[damage_granted]

"Aw, man!" Grant exclaims, racing forward, reaching for the replicant's hand, closing his fingers around it tightly - anything to keep that damn grenade from going off.

"How about we take this outside?" Damages asks rhetorically, grabbing the replicant by the back of its collar, lifting it fairly easily, and makes for the exit, hand firmly wrapped over the hand grenade.

[brainiac_lives]

"What? WHAT??" The replicant struggles in the superpowered grip, but is unable to break free. From prior dealings, the replicants have self-destructed when in untenable positions. For some reason this one cannot. "Release me!"

[damage_granted]

"I think you better give that thing up, pal," Grant growls, the hand on the back of the replicant's collar shifting, his forearm going up under the Jason clone's arm as he struggles to bring the grenade-carrying hand up behind the replicant's back in what - for a human, anyway - would be a rather painful torque hold.

"Keep squirming and your arm is gonna end up coming outta joint," Damage grunts.

[brainiac_lives]

"What the hell are you doing to Jason?" Flamebird arrives outside the homeless shelter, and adopts an acrobatic stance. "If you don't let him go I swear I will break you, Damage."

[damage_granted]

"Flamebird?" a confused Damage asks, applying a bit more pressure to the Todd replicant's wrist, trying to force him to drop the grenade. Can't let this thing go off out here...

"What are you doing here? You're... " The strained look on his face turns into a slight frown of consternation as she drops into a fighting stance. "... supposed to be in San Francisco."

[brainiac_lives]

The pressure on the replicant's wrist finally forces the fingers to unclasp, not because of any pain, but because Damage actually bends the wires in the joints. The grenade falls to the ground, and the replicant closes its eyes instinctively.

[brainiac_lives]

As the grenade comes loose, the Flamebird replicant dives at Damage with a flying dropkick to the face.

[metromarvel]

She feels a hand on that leg of hers, somehow possessing the strength to punch the laws of motion in the eye and stop her flying kick mid-air, but the gentleness to hold her firmly without so much as bruising the skin.

"That's enough." Eyes the color of blood gleam in the sky, as the wind snaps through the building, and Flamebird finds herself face to face with...a Superman! "Who is your commander, Flamebird." He shouldn't be like this. He shouldn't be this ANGRY. He shouldn't LOOK like an alien.

[brainiac_lives]

A replicant shouldn't look scared. An android shouldn't look scared. But this one does. Perhaps a sign of the parts of humanity that Brainiac has left? Or maybe the sheer awe and fear inspired by an angry Kryptonian.

The eyes on the replicant are black anyway, but they lose any semblance of light. According to Blue Beetle's report, they self-destruct at this point... This one doesn't. The light comes back on. There's something wrong with the replicants, and up in his ship, Brainiac hits a control panel.

"My commander is Parasite."

[metromarvel]

They have his WIFE.

Superman's Super Vision attacks the problem, searching for the bit of circuitry that would activate a self destruction protocol. "That's not who I am asking about." The Man of Tomorrow snaps, eyes narrowing, "Parasite doesn't have the mind to organize something like this. I will ask again. Who. Is. Behind. This."

[brainiac_lives]

Unfortunately for Superman, that answer will only come from one of the generals. Although with limited sentience, Flamebird has been programmed explicitly never to mention Brainiac's name.

The chip controlling combat and self-destruct mechanisms appears to be free of the host. Overcoming its inhibitions, the replicant screams and charges the Man of Steel.

[metromarvel]

Damage has Todd covered. Oka-

Wham! "Ack!" Superman is kicked in the back of the head. "I've had ENOUGH of this!" The Man of Steel snaps, a punch flying right at Flamebird's throat!

[brainiac_lives]

The Flamebird replicant doesn't breathe, but within its neck there are an awful lot of vital connections to its brain stem. The shatter beneath the power of Superman's blow. Coughing up a mixture of replicant preserve and blood, the replicant collapses to the ground. And then dies.