The large rotary barrel of a minigun glinted a bit under the spotlights as it pointed out into the crowd.

The announcer grabbed one of the handles and began to rev the weapon up. “It’s the first item because all of you will soon be dead. The Falcone Family wishes you a good night as they take back their spot in this city.”

“Oh fuck.” Ghost Spider exploded out of her hiding place, one webline latched onto the ceiling and the other snagged the barrel of the minigun. The webbing tore a bit as it got wrapped up on the spinning metal and from the first few bullets, but she was able to redirect it so the majority of the stream of lead wound up in the upper walls or ceiling. Once Ghost Spider was in a more stable position, she was able to send another stream of webbing onto the gun itself, jamming the mechanics and ruining the gun.

The announcer clearly wasn’t expecting anything like that to happen so he was actually thrown to the ground when Ghost Spider yanked the now worthless hunk of metal away from him, but he recovered quickly enough.

“Don’t just stand around you idiots! Kill them! Kill her!”

More men armed with machine guns burst through doorways surrounding the auction and took aim at the crowd; a few even aimed at Ghost Spider, while the auctioneers finally managed to throw off their shock and began panicking. Some rushed for the exits and only the combined efforts of Ghost Spider and Supergirl, who crashed through the ceiling at the first hint of trouble, managed to stop them from being gunned down. Supergirl focused on either tanking the bullets or throwing people out of the way while Ghost Spider worked on disarming the gunmen with the use of her webs.

The rest of the Auctioneers did their best to take cover in the various corners of the room, something that many only survived thanks to a red and blue blur that appeared in front of a random shot or to crush a gun followed up by a swift punch to the jaw that knocked out the shooter.

Ghost Spider did contribute a fair bit, but she had to admit Supergirl was the one protecting most of the ones that decided to hide.

Between the two supers, the gangsters didn’t stand a chance. In short order all of the gunmen had been disarmed and knocked out and only a few injured people remained in the auction hall while most of the auctioneers fled, and even the injured were quickly trying to slip away; they were criminals afterall.

Pretty much the only other person in good condition was the announcer, who had gotten back on his feet and was just standing on the stage with a scowl.

Ghost Spider dropped from the wall she ended up on and joined Supergirl in the middle of the floor. With everyone else down, it seemed the Kryptonian wanted to do a little grandstanding before taking out the last gangster.

“Looks like that’s the end of your little plan, doesn’t it?” Supergirl declared. “If you wanna give up, now's the time.”

“I knew this plan was stupid.” the announcer grumbled mostly to himself. “If it was up to me I’d just call the whole thing off, but if it got around that I just quit my reputation would be ruined.”

“Yeah, cause Tony over there is in any condition to judge you.” Ghost Spider quipped, pointing at one of the unconscious henchmen.

The announcer shrugged. “Professional hazard I suppose.” He started to reach into his jacket for something and Supergirl blurred forward, intending to restrain him quickly so they could move on.

That plan failed immediately as the announcer’s hand snapped up and caught Supergirl by the wrist.

“Wha-” Supergirl’s surprise was cut off by a flash of green and a thunderclap. The blonde kryptonian flew backwards, past Ghost Spider, and kept going until the sound of her going through several walls echoed throughout the auction hall.

Ghost Spider didn’t waste time checking on her. Either she was okay for now or the man in front of her had some way to hurt even a kryptonian and she couldn’t afford to take her eyes off him. She dashed forward and ducked under a retaliatory punch, rising up to deliver a devastating uppercut to the man’s jaw only to have her heart drop from the result.

Not only had she barely moved him, the man didn’t seem hurt at all and considering Ghost Spider felt like she was punching a block of metal, she kinda doubted he was faking that.

“Ooh, that hurt.”

Ignoring the bald-face lie Ghost Spider wove between his punches, determined to not get hit and returning the favor when she could. No matter where she hit him or how hard, he acted like nothing happened. She needed to switch strategies.

Shifting around another punch, instead of counter attacking or evading Ghost Spider grabbed the limb and used every bit of her strength to throw the man over her shoulder and into one of the sturdier walls. Then she did her best to glue him in place with a hopefully redundant amount of webbing. Although considering Supergirl still hadn't come back after that hit meant his abilities weren't as straightforward as superstrength so there was no way to tell.

“My group is down and all wrapped up, what’s the word at the auction?” Batgirl’s voice filtered through the communicator, breaking the sudden silence that had settled on the hall.

”Well, we managed to stop the massacre…” Ghost Spider reported, feeling uneasy as she realised even under all the webbing the announcer was still moving slightly and there were some cracking noises as the webbing pulled on the surroundings. ”...but then Supergirl was put through a few walls. I tied him up for now but...” the small cracking sounds turned into a cacophony of noise. Not because the webbing failed, no, that would have been too easy. The webbing held firm but the anchors were torn out of the wall and floor so there was an odd silhouette of broken wood and stone held in place by the rest of the webbing.

Then the man reached up and tore the webs free from whatever they were clinging to. Including his skin!

”...oh, fuck me.” Ghost Spider recognised him now.

John Corben was one of the horror stories that was commonly thrown about by experts about the dangers of cybernetics and AI and a reason to not release advanced prosthetics until further testing and advancement.

The official story was that Corben was either the result of an experiment to upload a human mind or an AI that mirrored human thought that had gone insane because despite his mind being human, his body lacked any true feedback to external stimuli. In reality, or at least according to her new memories, John Corben had been recruited by Lex Luthor in another bid to kill Superman after he had been diagnosed with a fatal virus. With the use of a kryptonite heart and his new cyborg body he actually came close too. Then he discovered Luthor was the reason he was infected with the virus and swore revenge before ultimately failing and being defeated by the Man of Steel. At some point Corben abandoned his name and humanity, taking up the moniker Metallo and working as a mercenary.

‘I guess I found out who wanted the Kryptonite the Falcone had.’ Ghost Spider thought sardonically. And it looked like her plan for him to walk away after stealing it failed too, because there was no way the mafia family managed to get another chunk of it on such short notice.

“Tempting offer, but I don’t get much from that anymore.” The ghoulish figure replied. The lower half of Metallo’s face had been ripped off to reveal the grinning form of his metallic skull. The rest of his skin hung in tatters across his body in fleshy ribbons. “Of course now I’m going to have to kill you slowly. Not only did you run off with my payment, you did this to me,” he gestured at his ruined face and clothes. “Do you have any idea how expensive this much synth-flesh costs?” the cyborg complained.

“Don’t do merc work then?” Ghost Spider offered. “Seems like a bad occupation if you worry about skin care.”

That was when Supergirl announced her return to the fight by smashing Metallo through the already damaged wall with an I-beam.

“That was for the cheap shot earlier.” She said with satisfaction

Ghost Spider gave her a sideways glance, eyeing the improvised weapon. “You know those are supposed to be holding the building up.”

“Yeah, but I found a better use for this one.”

“Just don’t bring the roof down on- Look out!” Both girls dodged out of the way of a green energy blast that splashed harmlessly in the background. Metallo calmly made his way back through the hole he had made, a green crystal glowing in his chest and the last remnants of his human disguise torn away leaving his metal body out in the open.

“Back again, brat? I brought Superman to his knees with a rock about this big, do you really think you stand a chance with some insect on your side?”

“Still lost didn’t you, you tin can.” Supergirl shot back.

“I’m an arachnid by the way.” Ghost Spider felt it needed to be said, though she was ignored by the other two.

Metallo shot another blast of energy at Supergirl and dodged to the left to avoid the webline aimed at his kryptonite core. Ghost Spider just used the miss to pull herself through the air and land a punch on the cyborg.

All it did was push him back and set the tone for the rest of the fight. Ghost Spider could get in close and avoid any attacks through her own agility or by retreating a bit, but she couldn’t do any meaningful damage and Metallo was sure to keep an eye on her so she couldn’t swipe the kryptonite powering him. Supergirl was forced to play support from a distance. Metallo’s blasts were potent enough that they were an issue for Superman let alone her, the passive drain when she got close would also be a problem so she was forced to use her improvised bat instead. Problem was, she wasn’t used to not being on the frontline and nearly hit Ghost Spider several times by mistake.

“This isn’t working…” Ghost Spider commented after a solid hit from Supergirl threw Metallo across the room. She hadn’t taken a direct hit yet, but her arms and legs were starting to hurt from repeatedly pounding into solid metal.

“You have a better idea?” Supergirl huffed in response. She hadn’t taken more than a few glancing attacks either but the kryptonite was starting to get to her.

“Not really. He’s not letting us get a shot at his core and both of us aren’t doing any damage. Don’t suppose we ignore him for now and grab the others?” Retreating and preparing for an enemy had worked for others, no reason not to use it herself.

Supergirl shook her head though. “Too many people nearby. I have no idea what he’ll do if we lose him.”

“We need to do something soon then. I’m barely putting a dent in him and you're going to get hit by one of those beams eventually.”

“Okay, I think I have an idea. It’s risky but you think you can hold one of his arms down for a few seconds?”

“Going for the core? We’ll be in a tough spot if you miss.” Ghost Spider pointed out.

“Guess I just won’t miss then.” Supergirl said confidently.

“What’s the matter girls? Running out of steam?” Metallo called out. “Give up and tell me what you did with my prize and I’ll at least kill you quickly.”

He got hit in the face with a very bent and abused I-beam for that.

Ghost Spider wasn’t far behind the mass of metal, leaping closer and doing her best to glue Metallo to the floor by webbing up his feet. The small distraction was enough that he didn’t notice the action until he was covered in enough that a casual effort could rip himself free. Once she was close enough, she grabbed his left arm by the wrist and elbow and did her best to force the limb straight and as far out of the way as possible.

“Hah, not going to be that easy.”

Metallo must’ve realised what they were after and the armoured plate that normally covered the kryptonite began to close. In a burst of speed Ghost Spider managed to release her hold on Metallo’s elbow and jam her hand into his chest and hold it back. Unfortunately, that meant Metallo was very close to simply overpowering her and she couldn't reach the core herself.

“Supergirl, now!”

The superheroine didn’t move in a straight line, but circled around to the left so she could avoid an energy blast. She knocked away Metallo’s other arm and went for the core. Just before her fingers touched the crystal though, the cyborg’s chest released a much more widely diffused pulse of energy that sapped most of Supergirl’s strength instantly.

What’s worse, Metallo revealed he was only pretending to be inconvenienced by the webs. He freed the arm held by Supergirl, punched her into the ground, and then pinned her in place by literally stepping on her, tearing the webs on his leg in the process.

Just to top off the unpleasant surprises, the tips of Metallo’s clawed hands peeled back to reveal sharpened tips of even more kryptonite. He readied his free hand to stab at the pinned heroine and Ghost Spider was forced to release her hold on his chest plate and do her best to hold off both arms so they wouldn’t stab into the vulnerable kryptonian. It was easier said than done and she had to use all her strength to barely hold him back.

“What’s the matter, girls, feeling a bit green?” the cyborg taunted.

“Graaah!” Ghost Spider could only groan as Metallo pushed down with even more power and forced her to one knee.

“Considering you went through all that effort to steal my payment I thought you might as well get a little bit more! Personally, I can’t get enough of the stuff!” Ghost Spider was steadily driven down as the pressure increased. Her muscles were straining under the load and despite her best efforts, Supergirl was too weak to throw Metallo off her.

“You have a backup plan?!” Ghost Spider hissed at Supergirl. The strain was only getting worse since Metallo didn’t tire at all.

“Working on it.” Supergirl gasped back.

Ten crystalline spears slowly made their way towards Ghost Spider’s face and in just a few seconds she would either need to move out of the way or just accept that Metallo was going to pierce through her on the way to Supergirl. His fingertips were less than an inch away from her flesh when there was a sudden sound of compressed gas releasing and a black shape blurred past Ghost Spider’s cheek.

A grapple hook ancored itself around the kryptonite core Metallo had left revealed once Ghost Spider was forced to use both hands to stop him from stabbing Supergirl and ripped it out of his chest. Metallo gave a cry of surprise and desperately leaped after it, trying to recover it before he lost power. He moved so fast that he actually managed to rip himself free from Ghost Spider’s grasp but he barely made it three steps before he slouched over on the floor.

Supergirl pulled herself off the ground and looked up at where the shot had come from. “Great timing. The rest of the goons taken care of then?”

Batgirl dropped to the ground floor, kryptonite safely wrapped in her cape. “Yeah, Nightwing was able to tag Mario and Robin picked up a few Underbosses. I headed back when we couldn’t get you on comms. I think we actually managed to stop the Falcone’s plans before they could do too much damage.”

“Good. I was worried they had another surprise than tin man over there. Guess I was worried over nothing.”

“So what next?” Ghost Spider asked.

“Let’s get the GCPD in here to handle the injured and- Look out!”

Ghost Spider’s Spider Sense blared. Her head whipped around to see Metallo leaping at Supergirl, clawed fingertips brandished.

With no time to think, she stepped forward and shoved the other girl out of the way. Metallo slammed into her and knocked her to the floor so they were face-to-face with each other.

“Well, I wanted to get the Superbrat but getting the thief works too.” Metallo sneered as the light slowly faded from his mechanical eyes. “Nice job saving the day, bug girl. Hope it was worth it.”

Completely out of power now, the cyborg locked up. Ghost Spider wanted to push him off but every time she tried there was a searing pain in her chest and she couldn’t seem to get enough air.

“Ghost Spider, you okay?! I didn’t think- oh my god!”

“What? What happened? Oh, oh shit. Okay don’t move! We’ll figure something out.”

Ghost Spider was really confused about why they were suddenly freaking out and staring at her chest. She looked down at herself and quickly realised the problem.

“Oh...” She whispered.

Metallo’s last attack hit. All five fingers disappeared into the right side of the arachid themed girl’s chest and blood was welling from the edges of the holes. She started breathing faster and harder at the realisation that she had been stabbed and the edges of her vision started going grey.

The last thing she saw was the image of a metallic skull grinning down at her with empty eyes and the two heroines trying to reassure her in the background. Then everything went black.