The battle had been raging on for almost four hours. All across Baltimore, computers had suddenly began sending streams of instructions and computations out. And then, in a secure lab a mile from the city, something had been activated.

"What is this again?" Flash asked over the comlink.

"An experimental robot built using Amazo technology," Batman said, as he armed the batplane and prepared to fly it at the nearly two-story tall machine. "Artificial Intelligence, regenerative technology, the whole package."

"Great," Superman said, appearing outside the cockpit window. "Don't these scientists realize using a villain's technology might be bad?"

Bruce shrugged and pressed the joystick control forward. The supersonic engine overrode the jet one and the plane flew forward in a sudden burst of speed, passing Superman for a minute.

**********

The missile slammed into the robot's chest. It reared its silver head and keened a high octave cry that shattered every window within a half-mile radius.

"What does it want?" Green Lantern said to himself, trying to contain it with a web of emerald light.

"Judging by the fact that it is trying quite hard to remove the wall from that bank, money I presume," Batman pushed his plane into a nosedive and pulled up at the last minute, taking a plate off the robot's scalp.

"Yes, I know," Green Lantern sighed. "But it's a robot; it can't exactly walk into Wal-Mart and pick up a gallon of Cookies n' Crème. What does it need cash for?"

Batman was hovering above a cloud bank now, looking down on the wrecked Baltimore skyline. "Not it, it's master. I'm triangulating the source now."

"Hurry up," Diana said. She tore an arm off the machine and watched it regrow in two seconds flat. "It's taking this city apart."

Batman traced the radio signals in the area. "This should show me…damn!"

"What?" Shayera threw her mace through the thing's left eye.

"The person controlling the robot has sent a program into every computer in the Baltimore area. He or she is using the combined computing power of all those machines to write bits of the programs then knit them together."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning it's almost impossible to trace the origin signal."

"Cadmus?" Superman asked, an image of Amanda Waller appearing in his mind.

"No. That's got a very different signature, and they're defunct anyway." Batman typed a few commands into the onboard computer. "There. The mother signal is originating from an address on Fourth Street. I'll go there, you guys keep that thing busy."

"Aye, aye, Captain," Flash muttered as the black jet streaked away, headed downtown.

*******************

The address led him to a salty warehouse district on the bay. Mold crept over the streets, and rusted metal lay in dangerously-stacked piles. The only living things he could see were the rats.

It was so classic villain that it was almost cliché.

Batman kept his scanner out in front of him and followed the trail of radio signatures to an especially decrepit warehouse that smelled like bad fish.

He pulled himself through a window and edged along an I-beam in the ceiling. Down below a man in a black ski mask was instructing another three thugs. The masked on held a laptop that had been pried open. Numerous wires criss-crossed the surface and laced with extra memory cartridges and such.

Definitely the ringleader.

The four thugs walked out of the main room and down a hallway. Batman followed in the shadows and took them out silently.

"Gotham's famous Dark Knight," said a voice from behind him. He turned and threw a batarang in a single fluid motion.

The masked figure twisted away and let the weapon hit the wall barely an inch from his face.

Batman tossed two more, inches apart. The man had nowhere to go. The batarang on his left side caught the fabric of his mask and ripped it away, exposing the face underneath.

Hard blue eyes and a wicked grin. Batman paused for just a moment.

Something hard and metal hit him in the back of the head. He blacked out just before the warehouse exploded.