I. Red Bull Gives You...
It started as something small.
That's probably how it snuck up on Clark eventually. Compared to his other abilities, this one didn't come on with an explosion and arson charges or a growth spurt that sent him running to the middle fo Gotham and lost at five years old. In fact, it was something he'd barely even noticed. After all, compared to a week of craziness, culminating with having to save Pete and Chloe both from cliff diving in Pete's car, a couple of itchy bumps behind his shoulders hadn't registered.
His mistake.
Of course, even if he'd noticed them right away, there wasn't a doctor he could go to. Hell, he didn't even have a name for what he was. So should he be crazy or desperate enough to try a physician, it wasn't as if they'd had a clue anyway.
Still, Clark felt dumb. He should have noticed, paid attention, told his parents or maybe gone back to the caves and the Kawatchee...anything really. He couldn't help but feel that if he'd noticed sooner, maybe done something early that it wouldn't have spread the way it had. Damn, he often wonders if the caves did it. It was hard to tell with him; who knew how whatever the fuck he was grew anyway. Still, his...flight...so to speak had been limited to annoying floating after dreams he'd die before sharing with his parents. It hadn't involved what it did now.
No, none of this had started before the parasites and the spores and whatever else his ancestors had left hundreds of years before for the Kawatchee. Maybe he wasn't mean to mess with any of it. Considering that just four days ago, his ship's intervention had been the only thing to save his life and his mom's, Clark was beginnging to believe that digging through anything from his homeworld would make him worse.
It didn't make a guy feel that great when even the worms and bacteria from his planet were fatal. What the Hell did that say about him?
Sighing, he sat down on the edge of his sofa and slipped off his sweatshirt and then his baggiest t-shirt. The latest round of chaos had kept his parents from noticing what he'd been doing and, for what it was worth, the Kansas winter was an easy reason and cover for wearing his thickest, roomiest clothes. He didn't need them, but it was normal and he'd always been taught to fit in. Even if he could (and had) spent deep blizzard days in a t-shirt outside with no ill effects, the other kids didn't.
Clark was good at camaflouge. He had to be. It was how he'd survived, except now, that wasn't going to be an option much longer.
Reaching up and behind his back, he unhooked the leather straps he'd worked into place to hold and fold the growths down. It felt good to let them out, to let them stretch to the full span they already covered. They were easily six feet across, the wings, and covered in soft, snow white down. He'd read up on them. Like most of his abilities, even if this had been a more gradual change, he'd done his best to ignore and deny it was happening. As the itching bumps swelled and split open, he worked hard to pretend they'd heal up and be a smooth expanse again as much as possible. Once the down started to grow in, even Clark hadn't been able to deny what was happening.
He just was left struggling trying to contain it. With pain and planning, he could still make it work. His wings were far from full grown. The books said Golden and Bald Eagles had six to seven feet spans. For someone as large as he, well, Clark expected it to be twice that. It was already late February, he could only get away with sweats until late April, and only if he were lucky and it was a late-coming summer. Of course, whether coats and sweaters were appropriate in May and June was irrelevant. In three weeks, his wings had gone from itchy bumps no bigger than a quarter to six foot wing span so far. By the end of March, there wouldn't be any way to fold them to hide them then. At the rate they grew, in a week or less, he'd have to tell his parents.
Tentatively, as he did every night when he unbound them, Clark started running his fingers over the feathers there. They weren't innervated, couldn't feel anything any more than a bird's could have, but they moved. A mix of instinct and reflex caused them to shudder at his own touch. The feathers were soft, reminded him of ducklings on the farm the first time he'd ever held them at seven. It was another reason he knew his wings weren't even close to grown. These feathers would soon be replaced by the real artifact.
How keen.
Of all his differences, Clark was most torn about this one. If he couldn't keep binding them, then he'd be too obviously different to leave his house. Not even the farm, he couldn't risk the Hubbards or the family who'd bought Nell's property spot him. It occurred to him that once he finally broke down and told his family, that if at their full span they couldn't be contained, they might have to try cutting them off with sharpened meteor rocks. Clark shivered and his wings, almost on their own accord, folded around him.
That would hurt.
It seemed a pity, too, and that confused me more than anything. That despite how much this new oddity had the potential to take from him, that if anyone ever suspected he'd have nothing like a normal life, it seemed filthy to even think about cutting them. Fuck, maybe all this alien insanity had finally broken him. A more cynical guy would think he'd broken long, long ago and was a gibbering idiot in some asylum, deluded about his alien powers from X-ray vision to honest-to-God wings. Still, he found them beautiful and was almost as curious as he was afraid for when they'd come in.
Groaning to himself, Clark slipped his arms away from his folded wings and set his head on his hands. He was going insane, that was all.
Who could blame him.
He'd survived a car accident-come-fiery explosion in front of his parents, told his dad he could float and shoved his arm in a thresher and lived to tell the tale. Still, he'd never seen them more wide-eyed or confused than now, as he stood with them in the floor of the barn, with his rapidly growing wings extended all the way, all nine feet across.
They were coming in exponentially faster than he'd thought.
Instead of waiting a week, he'd had to come clean three days sooner, when he could no longer have any hope of folding them back down.
His dad circled him and gaped, his mouth hanging open so wide as if his jaw would fall off. Pete was sitting on a bale not far off, his expression about as confused. His mom was crying a little but had come forward enough to run her hand over his right wing. Clark shuddered a bit at the touch. Again, the feathers couldn't feel for themselves, but just her touch over the wing, well, it felt deeply comforting.
"Holy shit," Pete finally managed to croak out.
Clark nodded. "Yeah, uh, that's about how I've been feeling."
His father stopped and crossed his arms over his chest. "This isn't just a last night thing."
"No, I started noticing it in early February, after the parasite. I thought it was a bite or something; they started as bumps but it got worse," he felt embarrassed then, his cheeks flaring red. "I tried binding them as long as I could and hoped it would stop. I couldn't."
His mom was still tearing up but stopped stroking his wing then and hugged him instead. "You should have said something."
"I was hoping I could figure something out or, I dunno, maybe I was scared if I talked about it, then it would make it real."
"Oh it's definitely real," Pete said, and Clark could hear his friend's heart racing. "I...what are we supposed to do? Are you sure we can't fold them down anymore."
His mom shook her head and stepped back, although she kept his hand clamped in hers. "They're not full grown."
His dad gaped even harder. "They're not? Are you serious, they're already huge!"
"No, they're half down still. I can feel it."
Clark nodded and worked very hard to focus on the ground. The scrutiny of everyone else's stares was too much. "I don't think so either, no. I could barely fold them at eight feet and even if you all helped me every day ever, well, I don't think we'd have a hope of dealing with twelve or fifteen feet of them."
"Clark, man, you don't think..." Pete said, trailing off.
"I think yeah, that they'll be pretty damn big."
His father frowned, finally shutting his mouth, and shook his head. "We'll try seeing what we can do and, well, I assume you've thought as far as amputation."
"I couldn't do it on myself, no, but if you and Pete, maybe some sharp meteor rocks?" He said, wincing and again his wings folded around him, keeping him safe and coccooned.
Beside him, his mother shuddered and looked like she was going to be sick. "That...it'd be horrendously painful."
"I don't have a lot of other choices," he replied. "I...let's just see if we can tie them down."
By April, he'd had to drop out of school.
As excruciating as it had been, Clark had let Pete and his dad cut through wing and bone, hoping that they'd stay gone. The wound had been open and weeping for a week before the bumps returned and the feathers started sprouting again. The damn things grew back twice as fast.
And now at almost fifteen feet across and fully grown in, they'd do anything but stay hidden.
Clark had left school two weeks ago and hadn't bothered to leave the loft since except for food or showers. His bedroom didn't have the space he needed, not now, and it was hard to stay in the house anyway, to feel his parents scrutiny, to see his mother's anguish and his father's pity. It was easier out here where he at least had space to stretch his wings and could feel the cool breeze whip across the loft.
Pete stopped calling or texting this week, and Clark wasn't really surprised.
His parents had tried talking to him this morning about maybe finishing high school and even doing college online. It was possible these days. Clark had stormed out on all of it, pointing out there was no reason to try and nothing to try for. Didn't make sense to have an education when there were only two buildings you could be in.
And that made him feel worse for fighting, when all they'd been trying to do was help. They didn't have any better ideas than he did.
Clark closed his eyes and layed on his couch, stomach down of course, and let his wings spread all they could. They beat lightly, kicking up even more of a breeze, and it was getting hard by the day to stifle the urge to use them. As big a fucking pain in the ass as they were, every instinct he had was telling him to go out one night to Chandler's Windmill and try his luck.
He didn't know how long he could resist, even if getting caught were suicidal.
"Oh my God."
Clark sat up fast then, the familiar voice startling him out of his thoughts. In his haste, he got off balance and fell hard to the floor, a tangle of limbs and of wings. The last thing he expected was for gentle and familiar hands to be helping him up.
"Chloe, I can explain!" he stammered, trying to think of any lie good enough to save him. The last thing he needed was to be on that stupid wall of hers or, worse, her ticket to a full time column at The Planet.
She smiled at him and reached out toward his left wing. "May I?"
"It's not...I don't know what to say. No one is that good a liar," he mumbled, stretching out his wing and nodding his assent. "No point in stopping you now, but please don't put me on the Wall of Weird."
She frowned back at him but stroked his new, cumbersome appendage. "Clark, I lied to you first."
"I don't understand?"
Her fingers were so gentle over his wing and he shivered then, realizing they were far more sensitive than he thought and when a girl he liked touched them just so, well, he was thinking of boring baseball stats pretty hard to keep his eyes from burning.
Literally.
God he was such a freak.
"You're beautiful," she murmured, and then blushed, once she realized she'd said that outloud. "God, sorry, that was stupid. Blame too much catechism."
He blushed but was secretly glad she'd not stopped stroking him. He'd enjoyed making out with her at The Talon and in Pete's car an awful lot, and he was sorry he hadn't been able to explain any of that to her afterwards, especially with her missing memories. In fact, as this latest oddity had overtaken his life, it was spending time with Chloe he'd missed far more than his glimpses of Lana.
"It's fine. I...this is a shock, I know. I think mom and dad still haven't gotten used to it."
She floored him again but simply asking, "Is this how all the people on your planet develop?"
His wings folded instantly then and he blurred back to the loft window. "The Hell?"
Chloe's smile dimmed but she kept her voice low and calm. "I remember everything that happened on the parasite. I lied before. I knew you'd be uncomfortable knowing I knew about you, about everything, but then you started getting sick and dropped out of school and Pete wouldn't talk about it. I thought maybe your fever relapsed."
"No just another freak surprise," he bit back bitterly. "I don't know anything about where I'm from. I'm the only person from there who came in the shower as far as I know and mom and dad don't know anything about it. All the writing that came with me isn't readable, at least I don't know the language, and I don't even have a name for it."
"If I were being cheekier," she said, her tone still quiet as if she were talking to one of the new foals on the farm. "I'd say 'seraphim.'"
He snorted. "Yeah, way too much catechism. I don't think even my whatevers do this normally. I think it's some bizarre reaction to the parasite. We tried to bind them and that didn't work so then we tried cutting them off."
Chloe rushed across the expanse and started reaching for his back. "You didn't!"
He turned and spread his wings again, the scars from where the original set had been carved off were deep and red, still angry. They'd probably never heal cleanly, having been made by meteor rocks, and they were an excellent example of why he could never try again.
"It didn't take."
"Jesus."
"Nope," he drolled. "I just...you can see why I can't go to school or leave the house or see people."
"I'm people."
"I wasn't supposed to be seeing you either."
Chloe nodded and patted his back. "Can't stop it now. I know, Mr. Kent, and the last thing you need is to be here alone or just with you and your parents. I...this sounds stupid."
"Trust me, nothing sounds stupid anymore."
"Have you flown yet?" she asked, her voice as eager as a kid standing before an overstuffed Christmas tree.
"What? Chloe! I can't. If someone saw me..."
"You can see well at night, right? I figure you have a lot better senses than the rest of us. You never seemed to have trouble staying straight in the caves, no matter how dark they got."
He was the one gaping this time, trying to remember how to work his jaw. "Chlo, I can't."
"I'll be your look out. Tonight, we sneak out to Chandler's and you practice. I...they're beautiful, Clark. Everything else aside, you have to want to use them."
"I can't."
"I'll make sure no one catches you at it. Besides," she said, standing up on tip-toes to kiss his cheek. "Even Warrior Angel had to start somewhere."
**
II. Deus
Clark eyed Chloe coolly. She hadn't aged anything in the two decades since he'd last seen her. Considering a should have been dead Lex Luthor was standing next to her, he wasn't surprised. Someone was definitely a mutant again. Actually, considering how neither she nor Lex had aged, both were a Kryptonite-laced and good at healing as ever.
Interesting.
He'd have to put that to the test when he tortured them.
Lois sat behind him at her throne, eying everything with frantic eyes. He wasn't sure where her loyalty would lie with her newly found cousin or with him. After twenty years of marriage and forging a brave new world together, Clark fervently hoped it was with him. If not, well, he could always get a bit of Gem Stone K and persuade her. It wouldn't be the same, but he'd find a way to keep Lois yet.
"Chloe, I thought you were dead," he eyed Lex. "I definitely knew you were."
"Did it yourself," Lex spat. "I'm not sorry to disappoint."
"What, Chlo," he said, circling her and pointedly ignoring Luthor. This was between him and her. It always had been, hadn't it, even from their first day together in the loft with a kiss that had eventually led to more, far too much, really. "So you resurrect one billionaire but not the one you want."
Lex stilled just millimeters. Interesting, so he wasn't secure about his place in Chloe's life even after all this time. That could be exploited, assuming Clark let them live that long.
"The Batman couldn't be saved," she said, her tone strong and unwavering. "Lex could...his gift and my own worked well enough."
Idly, Clark wondered if Lex had known she'd tried to save Bruce too. Luthor's mask was back on and his heart was steady; the other man had been a master at being closed off. Still, Clark would bet all of Europe that she'd never told that much to Lex.
"But he could. The two of you, for decades in the Andes. What were you hiding, Chloe? Why did you ever bother to come back to Metropolis. The League is dead and the few who didn't side with me or couldn't be killed, well, they're very well secured."
"Diana and J'onn would never allow any of this."
"Well, J'onn wasn't fire proof, was he?" Clark purred, enjoying the way Chloe flinched. "Diana is not a problem, not currently. If you thought you had a chance to spring her or Cassie Sandsmark, then you were fools."
Chloe quirked her head at him and laughed. It was relaxed and dismissive. It reminded him of the year she'd been Big Sister and all her orders. He didn't like it. "You have no idea what I can do."
His hand was around her throat then and all he had to do was squeeze. Any other human, they would have started begging for their life. Chloe just laughed harder. "Enough."
"You can't kill me. Trust me, you're not the first to try since my powers came back."
Clark activated his heat vision and glared at Lex. "Could I kill him?"
"I don't know," Lex replied. "You could try, but we don't really matter."
"If you don't matter, then why come here to my city at all? Why try to break in here? You didn't have enough Kryptonite on either of you to fully kill me. I expected you better prepared." His grip tightened and Chloe took in a ragged breath.
Lois stood and looked between both of them, her gaze finally settling on him. "Kal-El, please, if you let her go, you can just throw her in prison. There's no point in snapping her neck if she can't even die."
"I'm your family, Lois," he reminded, amused by the blue cast now seeping across Chloe's cheeks. "But," he said, setting Chloe back on her feet and releasing her. "I'm curious to see what she has to say. What do you know that I don't?"
Chloe eyed Lex who checked his phone and then nodded.
The Hell?
Clark suddenly got the intense displeasure of feeling like he'd been played. "Tell me now or I fry you both!"
She grinned and a huge boom sounded around all of them as the walls to his penthouse were ripped apart. Clark looked around him and found Diana, Cassie Sandsmark and Shayera the Hawkgirl all glaring back at him. They'd been in prison. He'd seen to it. No human could have busted them out, and the rest of the Amazons had been slaughtered by Mordred. He couldn't have done the same to the two part goddesses, but no one could have sprung them.
"This is impossible."
There was a tap on his shoulder and Clark spun around to face a man as tall as he was with the same dark hair and complexion but with Chloe's nose and piercing eyes. It all clicked then. Why she'd left so suddenly after their one night together after one of his down turns with Lois their second year of engagement. Why Lex and Chloe had been checking their watches. Why they'd hidden so thoroughly for so long.
"Not possible," he said, more a mantra than truth.
The punch to his jaw was tremendous and sent him hurtling across the room.
He stood and readied himself for the next onslaught from his son.
The other man was on him, a sardonic grin playing on his lips that was pure Sullivan. "Hey dad, I'm Gabriel and the party's over."
III. Insignificant
"I'm sorry."
The words rang hollow between them. What was there to say? How could "I'm sorry" even begin to cover the pain he'd caused. His father had spent days in agonizing pain while the virus that Fine had given him ate through him. It was only because of a last minute battle at the fortress that Gabe Sullivan was alive at all. First Jor-El gave his dad heart problems, then the second shower and the other Kryptonians from the Black Ship, now that monster Fine, whatever it was.
God, his family never should have taken him in. He brought interplanetary bullshit and pain wherever he went.
They should have always turned him over to their mom's brother, Sam Lane. He'd have known what to do. Sure, Caleb would have been sliced and diced in Area 51 a dozen times over by now, but maybe that would have been better than dragging a hundred different woes through Smallville. He was a magnet for everything bad and extraterrestrial you could think of, and it was only getting worse, not better.
That scared him even more.
His father smiled warmly up at him from his seat on the old Sullivan family sofa. "Caleb, you saved my life. Why are you apologizing?"
"Because that machine or alien or whatever Fine really is...he was only hurting you to get to me. That thing he serves, that Zod stuff he was talking about at the fortress? What if that guy comes next. The people from the Black Ship were talking about him too."
"Then you and Chloe will deal with it then. It's what you all do."
"I can't stop any of this. I got incredibly lucky and only because Fine didn't think Chloe would be a problem. If she hadn't snuck there to get the Kryptonite off of me, both of us would be dead."
His dad beamed. "That's my girl. The point is that she was there and you two are a team. You've tackled the harmful meteor infected for years, Luthors, and the people from the Black Ship as well as this Fine thing. You've stopped every single obstacle. I don't know why you'd think you couldn't stop this Zod-guy if it ever got that far."
"He had me, dad," Caleb said, pacing. "He had me trapped and next time if he can come back, if he does? Then he'll know to incapacitate Chloe too. Maybe it's best if I just left."
His dad tried to stand then but was too woozy and fell back to the sofa. Caleb zipped over to steady him in an instant. Laying his dad back against the sofa's cushions, he handed him a fresh cup of tea. "You're still sick. You need to rest a bit longer."
"I'm not resting any if you're going to run while I do it. We went through this twice before, Cally."
He blushed and shook his head. "Dad, Chloe hasn't even called me that since we were ten."
"You're still my kid."
"But I'm not, not really. This just reminds me of that. I'm Kal-El of Krypton first, no matter who else I wish I were."
"And the Sullivan Family isn't complete without you, Caleb. You're one of us too."
"But I don't have to be," he said, pacing a bit and starting to wear a hole into the wood floor. "Dad, it's too dangerous. I brought the shower with me and Chloe got altered into something none of us can even really understand."
"Not the worst thing. I think she likes never getting sick."
"I doubt she likes hiding what she can do or dying to raise the dead. I mean, it's great she saved cousin Lois during the meteor shower, but she was in a morgue drawer for three hours before she woke up. It's not fair to her. I've ruined you. We know how sick you are, and you never would have been if you hadn't made a deal with Jor-El."
"I made the deal. That was my choice, and I'd do it a hundred times over for you. I've never loved anyone more, except your sister. It was mine to make."
"Then I get to make one. The dangers from Krypton and who knows where else are clearly going to keep looking for me. They'll keep using you and Chloe against me, you know they will."
"Then talk with your sister, but you hear my vote. I'm want you to stay. Besides, you wouldn't get very far without us. We help you, keep you as safe as you do us."
"Chloe is nuts. She's the one who started us patrolling. Hell, she designed her own outfit."
"Which she doesn't wear cause my good girl isn't made for spandex," his dad corrected, winking. "Caleb, just talk to Chloe. She's the one who faced Fine, right? If she wants out of this magical mystery tour, you should at least ask her."
"I'll talk to her, but I still think I need to go. Maybe just to the Arctic and live at the fortress or on the lam. If Fine comes back, he can't have you two, okay?"
"Talk to her, and then if you still want to leave, well, I know where to find Kryptonite."
Caleb gulped; he wasn't sure his dad was kidding.
It shocked him that when he came to his sister's door that she was crying. He could hear her sniffling from behind the door. Knocking first, giving her time to give her permission and probably wipe her face, Caleb waited and then entered the room. Sighing, he sat at the foot of her bed, shaking his head at the constellation comforter she owned, and waited for her to speak first.
"Hey."
"Hey," he parrotted back. "Do I pretend I don't have better hearing than a bloodhound or do I not?"
She nodded and wiped at her eyes again. Even if he couldn't hear everythign in three counties, he'd have noticed her bloodshot eyes. A human could have.
"You and dad were fighting."
"No, we were discussing things. You know I have to leave, don't you?"
She shook her head and took his hand in hers. Biting her lower lip, his sister concentrated until that same rosey glow spread through her palm and into him. It was a shorthand, at least for her. Chloe's power came from a deep empathy, and she could harness it by now in such a way so that the people she touched could feel the depth of her feelings toward them. It was undistilled love and affection times a thousand and only he and his dad had ever felt it.
"I can't hide how I feel. You know I can't fake this with you any more than I can with dad. I love you, Caleb. You're my brother. I don't give a shit if we're not actually twins, and we found you the day of the shower. You're my tin as far as I'm concerned and you're my best friend on top of that. You can't leave us."
He pulled his hand away angrily, and she glared back at him as if she had heat vision. "If I stay, you'll die. Eventually something big and bad, maybe Fine or Zod or who knows, will kill you both to get to me. I can't live like that."
"And I can't live with another day like today. Dad was dying and you were laid out for the count with Green K eating into your heart. I saved you both."
"Yeah, but next time what if you can't? What if the next alien or psycho or whatever kills you first? I can't live with that on my conscience. I'm the one with the target on his back from Jor-El's bullshit. If I leave, you all get to have a life."
Chloe sat up straighter and this time forced her entire body to glow with such an intensity that even Caleb had to slam his eyes shut. Once it had ebbed, he dared to open them again just as her color was returning to normal. "I'm never going to have a normal, boring life and you know that."
"But if I leave, you get a life, period. Next thing comes and it kills you? I'll never forgive myself."
She laughed a harsh, braying laugh, and suddenly Caleb wondered if all of this was even about the latest alien intrigue. Something else felt deeper, had since about a month ago when she'd been working on a special research project about Fairview Hospital in Granville.
Despite the distance he was struggling for, Caleb took her hand in his. "Chlo? What's wrong?"
"I probably can't even die, so don't flatter yourself. You can't leave me, not now. You're the only reason I'm probably still sane."
"You realize you're saying that to an alien?"
"But we know you are one so I'm not just hallucinating or delusional," she said, offering a wry smile. "Please, don't leave me. You won't make it without a side-kick."
"A partner," he replied, reaching out to push the hair back behind her ear. "You know Fine said that humans were 'insignificant' and 'couldn't be trusted.'"
"Do you believe him?"
"Some days, I almost think that. I know I could think that with my abilities and things like Fine and the fortress after me. You and dad, you keep me human, but it's not worth your lives."
She snorted, "Come on, Professor R2-D2 knows nothing about humans. We're a lot tougher than he wants us to be, and you are so much cooler having lived with us."
"Okay, I'll stay at least for a while. If anything happens to dad..."
"I'll kick your ass myself," she replied.
"But, the condition for staying is you have to tell me what's up with you."
"There's nothing up with me," she said, pulling back and bringing her knees up to her chest.
"There is. You've been weird for like a month, since all that sorority mess stuff. What's going on."
"Caleb," she said, her voice thick and eyes wide. "I found mom and she's in Fairview."
"Mom left us, and good riddance. She couldn't handle us and that sucks but she's just gone, not crazy."
Chloe couldn't help herself then; she flung herself into his chest and cried, as if a dam had broken. "She's a mutant, like me, and she got meteor-rock psychosis. I...God, stay with me. Stay with dad. If I'm ever nuts like her, you're all he'll have."
Caleb didn't know what to say to her, how to comfort her, so he just rocked her as she cried and knew he could never leave Smallville or his family.
IV. The Manchurian Candidate
"Martha's the only one you've talked to so far," a familiar voice called out to him as she entered into his quarters.
Clark sighed and looked up from his bed. He'd been away from VRA clutches for three days. It was beyond a shock to be in Gotham at Wayne Manor of all places. It made sense that The Batman was that wealthy. After all, Oliver had only been able to be the Green Arrow by bankrolling it himself. Well, had been, the VRA had thoroughly dismantled the first incarnation of the Justice League. Even if Chloe had been able to get all of them out but Clark, well, some had been far too damaged by the government's experiments. Bart, Courtney, Dinah, and J'onn had recovered but Victor'd been permanently short-circuited to barely functional and Oliver had never recovered his balance or aim.
At least they'd been free.
That was something.
Clark had spent the last ten years as a VRA puppet. Even Kara hadn't been able to stop him or save him. Lord knows she'd tried to capture him back. It wasn't until Chloe's latest raid with Batman, J'onn, Kara, and some new heroine calling herself Wonder Woman that he'd been brought to his knees and incapicitated long enough to fry the chip making him a government toy.
He'd been back at Wayne Manor recuperating since and wishing he didn't have an eidetic memory. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw everything, could recall the feel of bone crunching in his grasp, the smell of flesh searing under heat vision, the looks of terror on people frozen solid in a flash.
The United States had used him as a weapon for war and he'd been awake for all of it, just been unable to stop himself. He'd never had an ounce of control over what he could do or could stop. God, if he had, he wouldn't have snapped Conner's neck when his clone had come for him.
Of all the deaths staining his hands, that one grieved Clark the most.
How could Chloe look at him? He felt shitty enough around his mother. She'd told him over and over it wasn't his fault, and intellectually he knew that, but he still had killed hundreds of people, some friends, and he had to live with that. It was enough to make him want to go to the fortress as soon as he could and beg Jor-El to strip his powers. Kara had done admirably in his place as Supergirl. The last thing Clark deserved was his abilities. If Jor-El wouldn't take them, then he'd find Blue K, maybe there was some still left where Dax-Ur had once lived after all.
It was better that way.
He was too dangerous to let be as he was. Clark had always felt that, deep down in the back of his mind, but now he knew it, knew he could be compromised. He'd have to fix it.
"What's there to say. You know what I did. I killed so many people, Conner...Oliver."
"Conner was trying to bring his brother home," she offered. "It was his choice to make and Ollie should have stopped trying when he lost his coordination. I...they were Leaguers no matter what, and they did what they could to save others."
"And I snapped their necks. Chloe, you loved Oliver. How can you even look at me?" he asked, staring down at his hands in shame and revulsion. "It's a miracle Kara's even still alive after how many close calls we had over the years."
She nodded and set a lead box in front of him. "I brought you something."
"Green K, great. Was this The Batman's idea?"
"Bruce doesn't know I have this. Martha doesn't either. It was among Lana's things at The Talon. I collected them after she left post-Brainiac."
He looked up at her and frowned. "You mean before she came back a ninja?"
"Exactly."
His breath caught in his throat as he opened the box, not at all shocked to see a large man's ring set with a Blue K stone. "I don't understand."
"The sample was hers. The ring I've had for a long time. J'onn had it with him for the last eight years. If he was ever able to detain you long enough, he was to slip it on to render you harmless."
"But that's not how it happened."
"Well, you proved trickier than we thought. If we hadn't found the Amazons of Themyscira, if Diana hadn't finally stopped you, I don't know what we would have done."
"You and mom knew. Kara too. Hell, even Tess isn't an idiot. She'd have known how to kill me."
"None of the four of us wanted to do that. We all love you in our own ways. Most as family."
He sighed. "Tess...I didn't realize she was crushing that hard."
"You make an indelible impression," she said, and he noticed her heart quickening. After all this time, he didn't think Tess was the only one who loved him, not really, not if Chloe had kept the League from taking him out for a decade, despite the costs. "I know you, Clark. You're going to self-flagellate for the next thousand years."
"I killed people. I ruined nations. You can't even begin to understand what that feels like."
She nodded while reaching out to stroke his shoulder. Despite himself, he allowed it. "None of us can, no. Brainiac used me once but you stopped me from hurting people, from finishing that virus. I failed you when it mattered. If I was a better friend, I'd have been able to do the sam with the government."
"You tried. I'm the one who didn't take your hand in the virtual world. If I'd trusted you..."
She squeezed his shoulder. "You want to be sure you'll never hurt anyone again. I've given you a way to do that, but I hope you won't take it."
"I'm a weapon, Chloe. The weapon. If someone ever caught me again...it was just immense luck and years of dedication you ever stopped me the first time. As much good as The Blur did, I can't ever be a hero again."
Swallowing heavily, she sat down on the bed beside him and took the box back, slamming the lid shut. "I believe you can. I don't think the Fate helmet was wrong. I don't know how everything got so off that timeline, I don't, but I saw you as the world's hero."
"'In red and blue,'" he said wryly. "I remember."
"Then indulge me. Give me a year. If you don't think you can do real good with us, with the League, then I'll put this on you myself and you can go anywhere you want."
"Chlo, half the League only knows me from fighting me and the other half, even if they remember, they know what I've cost them."
"Then screw them. Bruce and Diana don't know you like I do, but they know how great you could be, even better than Kara. Kara and Martha and Watchtower..."
"You are Watchtower."
She laughed. "Not since I got back from abroad. Tess has that title and your mom and I are still Red and White Queen, as far as code names go, but all of us, we want you."
He nodded but kept focusing on the box, on what could make him safe for everyone. "They used me and they made me a monster."
"Then don't let them win. I...you never gave up on me. I've talked with Garth since. The Legionairres needed our help once. I know they wanted you to kill me, and you didn't. You had faith in me."
"And you built up the League and save as many of us as you could from Slade. I was right."
She nodded and stroked his cheek softly until he looked at her. "Then trust me now when you didn't before. You're a hero. You were before, and you can learn to be one again. Give me a year to prove it." V. Quiver
**
"Wow, she hates you," William said, rereading the article one more time before tossing his copy of The Daily Planet to his brother. There were some advantages to superspeed and a photographic memory after all. "Chloe Sullivan? She thinks 'The Green Arrow' is nothing more than a thug."
"I'm not. The stuff I pawn pays for the Justice stuff with Bart, Victor and A.C. It's how we keep both fighting Luthor's labs and getting donations to charity. We could do a lot more if someone would join up."
William just glared Oliver and let his heat vision simmer. His brother rolled his eyes and continued slipping on his asinine outfit. The cod piece really was compensating, and how any of that was low profile, William would never know. "I don't want to join your band of Merry Men."
"You're never going to stop with the Robin Hood jokes, are you?"
"You look like it," he pointed out. "Besides, you get Robin Hood slurs; it's better than being named for a stupid overture."
"Archer. You're phenomenal. Better than I could ever hope to be."
"And I promised mom and dad to stop after the Olympic committee was eying me at fifteen. Of course I'm terrific at archery and everything else. I'm Kal-El of Krypton and The Traveler Veritas wanted so badly. How keen for me."
"Yeah, because it's been such a hardship being raised by us," Oliver huffed, slipping his hood over his head. "Every whim you ever wanted, mom and dad legitimately like you, and I didn't even know till I was twenty and you got the floating thing."
"Yes, I'm glad that you like to annoy me all out of filial assholeness and not cause I'm the alien," William drolled.
Oliver offered him a lop-sided smirk. "Will, you're weird but you're my brother, and that's how I feel about it. I'm glad mom and dad didn't tell us for a long time. I knew you were adopted but I had no idea how long distance. I don't think of you as anything different than if I'd had a bio-one."
William blushed despite himself. He was prone to doing that and how odd that an alien like himself would have such a human characteristic. It helped for blending in at least. "I know and it does mean a lot. I could have ended up with the government or some hapless farmer in Kansas or even the Luthors."
"Or the Teagues. They were as nuts too."
"Exactly. I love you, but it doesn't mean I'm getting an outfit and a codename."
"The others have abilities. I mean Bart and Victor started out as human, sure, but A.C. is-"
"A fishboy," William joked. "Yeah, but at the end of the day with a speed demon, a can-opener, and an Atlantean on the team, I'm by far the biggest freak out there."
"And mom says you have your powers for a reason."
William rolled his eyes. "And dad says it's all science and because I had no other place to be sent and it's all yellow solar radiation. I'm not here to be a messiah or even like an X-Men."
"We technically call ourselves 'Justice.'"
"Same difference. I've done best listening to dad and staying hidden. Even if I had a hoodie, you think I'd do well for long out there doing inhuman shit? I wouldn't, end of story."
Oliver sighed, tired of the same old fight, his brother was sure. Switching on his voice box, the other man just shrugged. "I'd never let anyone touch you and neither would the team. Seriously, Will, there's more to life than hiding what you are. You can do more than the other four of us put together and all you do is help dad run the company and hope no one ever finds you. Dude, it's a waste."
"It's safe."
"And that's your problem," his brother replied before rushing out of the clocktower.
"Mr. Queen, a word?" the blonde in front of him asked.
William worked hard to stay calm, taking deep breaths and forcing his eyes to chill back down. Of all his abilities, except floating which he'd never been able to upgrade to controlled flight, his heat vision mystified him the most. The late Dr. Swann's records and translations were clear that Kryptonians on Krypton had never had these powers, it was all a random reaction to the yellow sun of Earth.
Okay, great.
But why the Hell did that make heat vision hormone-activated?
It had been such a bitch when he'd realized what was happening to him back in high school, and his parents had had to pay millions to the girl whose hair he'd singed (thank God nothing worse) when his heat vision had come to the fore during a date. At least they'd been making out at a bluff and no one else had seen him.
Since that, well, William was pathetic. He had to be the only twenty-five year old he knew who hadn't kissed a girl since eleventh grade and hadn't ever done more. Oliver could keep his sanctimonious bullshit about "gifts" and what-not. William would trade every freak thing he could do for one day of normalcy and a real relationship with a girl.
Still, he was working over time to keep himself from having his powers flare up in front of the spitfire before him. She was cute but short, only about five-four and nowhere near the long-legged dynamos his brother tended to favor. She had the most piercing, shrewed jade eyes though and a megawatt smile.
God, she had to do this interview fast or they wouldn't have an office left.
Why had dad let him take the press tour this time? He was the last person on Earth (or Krypton for that matter) who should have reporter speaking with him. Of course, dad was also not well and moving quickly from stage three to four. He didn't trust Oliver with Queen Industries when his brother's passion was crime fighting. So William was apparently thrown into sinking or swimming with the press.
Couldn't he start with like Larry King first?
No chance ever of arousal there.
"Ah, Miss Sullivan, is it?"
She nodded. "Yes, I wanted to speak with you. You father's secretary cleared it."
"Oh, I know, believe me," he said, reaching across his desk and sliding a bottle of water toward her. "Miss Sullivan, look, my dad's condition is worsening and all of Star City and Metropolis knows it. I can offer a few quick words and sound bytes on his status and our plans for Queen Industries continuing and really entrenching here in town as well, but let's keep it brief."
Chloe shook her head. "Then I have to confess right now that I lied about the interview."
"Excuse me?" And now William had to force the heat vision aside for a completely different reason. He didn't appreciate being played.
"Look, how stupid do you think I am?"
"I've read your work, Miss Sullivan. It's thorough and excellent and, for what it's worth, I think you're right about The Green Arrow. Too many of his methods verge on terrorism and even if he robs from the rich to give to the poor, well, it's still theft."
"Not a lot of people see the GA that way. I'm surprised. Unless you're one of the rich and robbed, you sing his praises."
"I haven't been robbed."
She narrowed her eyes at him and then eyed the family crest hanging behind him. "No, how curious the Queen family with all its impressive holdings hasn't been hit. More interesting still that the Luthors and Teagues have had the most green-clad misfortune."
"Yes, quite providential. Now get to it. I have a busy schedule."
"I don't care what Oliver does in his spare time. I mean, I do because I think it's actually making Metropolis far more lawless than it was before so he could take his William Tell act back to Star City and leave my home alone."
William stilled, his mind fighting back sheer panic. "What?"
"Don't play dumb, Mr. Queen. Your whole family has to know exactly what Oliver's up to. The GA shows up a month after your brother gets to town for an extended stay while fomenting the empire here. The toys are beyond expensive and everyone knows the Queens and Luthors hate each other. I'm just the first, but I won't be the last to figure that much out. I don't want to publish because, even if he fucks things up, some good comes of it. I just hope he goes back to Star City soon. Let him know that."
"Oliver isn't a superhero."
She snorted. "On that, we both agree. He's a vigilante who does some good and a ton of bad, but I don't want to ruin him."
"I...Oliver isn't The Green Arrow."
"Look, he's been in town a year. I've been saved by him at least five times. I've gotten a good luck and that chin dimple is distinctive. Your brother isn't the brains in the family, is he?"
William sighed and leaned back in his chair. "No, he's not. Thank you for not turning him in. Considering how much you rail on him in your editorials, I figured you'd have called Detective Sawyer the second you knew."
"Oliver could go either way, is all. I think he could do better and if he learns to be less violent and grey...well, he deserves a chance to refine his work." Chloe blushed and William noticed how fast her heart was beating.
Of course, she had a crush on Oliver.
Didn't they always? The normal one, the sports hero, the playboy. The brother everyone could love and, frankly, bed, while William was the recluse in the shadows. He swallowed and forced nonsensical jealousy away; even if his brother never existed, William could never date Chloe. Besides being a human, she was a reporter, and that would be fatal to him if she ever knew.
"Alright, I'll talk to him and his associates. Is that all you wanted to do? Deliver a message?"
"No, I said I didn't care about Oliver."
Lie.
"Alright, then I am confused. My father's health and my brother's night activities are the only stories here."
Chloe eyed him with such scrutiny, and, in spite of his powers, William shivered, suddenly afraid of her. "You interest me, William. Top of your class at Harvard, brilliance to your brother's lackluster."
"Uh, thanks."
"Your quiet nature, such a wallflower as if you try not to exist."
"I'm not the flash like Ollie. I'm okay with that."
"You're unusual adoption."
William stood up then. "We're done. I said I'd talk to Ollie. I can give you any quote you want on our plans for Queen Industies' future. I never talk about my past, ever."
"It's just, no one even knew the Queens were going to adopt, and then you show up three years old as one of the poor meteor shower orphans. I found a couple of others like you, Cyrus out in Fairview. He was meteor-infected and eventually ended up catatonic."
"I'm sorry for that," William replied and he meant it. It ate at him what his planet had done to so many.
"And there was another one. A Davis Bloome who was in and out of the foster system and then went on the lam after they discovered his victims."
"Excuse me?"
There couldn't be others. Swann's records were explicit. There had only been on signal.
"Davis Bloome, the Cornfield Killer? I mean he went on the lam about two years ago and no one's seen him since. It was huge news in Lowel County when they found a field of his slaughtered victims, close to two hundred people in shreds. The condition they were in...the particulate matter they found under his nails...well, I have a friend in the M.E.'s office at Smallville."
"So?"
"The DNA they recovered-if you want to call it that-wasn't close to human, compounds no one could identify. I mean, Bloome isn't even a 'Smallville Special' and Cyrus, even if he was a mutant, thought he was something else."
"I'm done, Chloe," William said, walking to the door and opening it. "See yourself out."
"Mr. Queen, where do you really come from?"
"This is your fault," William hissed as he paced a hole literally in the clocktower's floor. "Do you hear me? You started being flashy in Metropolis too. You got a reporter interested in you and one unlike that stupid Lois Lane in Star City who could do the math. She started digging into 'Oliver Queen' and it led her to me and what I am!" He shouted so loudly then that the gust of air he let out rattled the windows.
Startled, Ollie flinched. He didn't blame his brother, sometimes William could be scary, he got that. Usually, Oliver was better at keeping a level head but he had to be scared too about how much Chloe Sullivan knew.
"Will, let me talk to her, okay? I...maybe we can have Victor and Bart on this. If Bart steal her comps, then Vic can ruin them. It'll help us get rid of her evidence."
"She's not dumb enough not to have multiple copies of everything, some hard print-outs. Cyborg and Impulse couldn't get it all."
"Then, I'll talk to her. I'll go back to just Star City like she wants. Don't tell mom and dad yet. Dad has treatment all week at Hopkins anyway. This will make him weaker."
"They'd want to know. If she needs to be taken care of..."
"I'm not a kid, Will. I can handle her."
He shook his head and squeezed his hands into fists. As worked up as William was, he didn't trust himself to touch anything anymore. "You better. You should have been smarter. It wasn't just your life at stake if people figured out about the Green Arrow or even our family's business and reputation. You had a job to protect me. I didn't tell mom and dad what you were up to. Hell! I covered for you! Now, I wish I hadn't."
"Will-"
He sped out before he could hear more.
A familiar figure slid into the booth in front of him. He glared back at her and reminded himself that flash-frying a DP reporter wouldn't make his problem go away at all.
"Rich people don't usually eat at the crappy diner across the street from newspapers."
"It's the paper of records for kings and prime ministers," he quipped. "At least it's not The Inquisitor."
"What are you doing here? Jimmy Olsen saw you at his coffee break and wouldn't shut up about it back in the office. I told you rich people don't do burnt coffee and salmonella burgers."
Will shrugged and sipped his Coke. He couldn't get food poisoning at least. "Oliver talk to you yet? He promised he would."
She frowned. "Today? No. I haven't seen him or the GA." She whispered that last part, and he appreciated that.
"No, he Ieft our place over three hours ago, and he promised to find you." Worried, William pulled out his cell and dialed Ollie's phone, the one he had on him always for just JLA work. It rang through six times before going to voice mail.
Will couldn't breathe. That phone was never off.
"Mr. Queen?"
"Ollie's in deep trouble."
"Maybe he's busy?"
"Not that kind of phone. If he could answer it, he would have. Let me put it this way, only four other people have that number."
"You and his band of Merry Men."
"That's what I call it!" he said, sobering again and pulling out a few bills from his wallet. "I was cooling off here, thinking about what to do with you, but I...Ollie could be really hurt."
"How can I help?"
He rolled his eyes. "You can stop harassing my family. Besides, if something got to Oliver and his friends, there's nothing you can do to handle that." William couldn't speed in a diner, but he resented the reporter trailing him as he hurried speed out of the building and to the back alley. "I said back off!"
Chloe gaped at him and stepped back, her heart hammering. "Holy shit!"
William took a deep breath and calmed himself, forcing the slight red film he'd been seeing through away. The last person he'd wanted to have notice his heat vision was fucking Chloe Sullivan.
"Are you happy now? Look, give me a minute, and I can find Ollie's heartbeat."
"Bullshit."
"Just be quiet. I need to focus," he said, closing his eyes and perking up his ears. He had long since memorized all three of his family's heartbeats. At first, it was to help him with a focal point when his hearing started driving him crazy in sophomore year. However, it seemed useful to know after a ransom attempt on his mom five years ago and his honing in on her being the difference between Justice recovering her and it not. Despite his efforts, William couldn't find it. "What?"
"I told you you couldn't."
"No, I can. I caught mom's and dad's in Baltimore same as always. I can't hear his. Something terrible happened."
"Like what?"
William wanted to answer but fell to his knees in pain so intense that he hadn't felt it since a trip he'd taken once to Smallville in middle school. He'd gone because his parents said it was a cultural outing to see the Kawatchee reservation. They'd been looking for more materials from the crash after realizing finally his ship was missing a piece. They'd stopped in town at a local tourist trap and being near the meteor rock magnets had caused him to vomit uncontrollably until they'd taken him out.
It was how he'd learned that Kryptonite was possibly his only weakness.
How the Hell did anyone else know that?
"Chloe? What did you do?" he said, looking up while struggling to fight back the nausea.
"She didn't do anything," Lex Luthor said, gesturing toward the Kryptonite ring on his left hand. "Your brother's been sloppy and his records too easy to hack."
"Ollie would never-"
Lex shrugged and walked closer to William. His veins burned and he screamed. "Oh he didn't expect anyone to find them. I think he added the, ahem, 'Boy Scout' file to his Justice database without asking you. I guess someone was hoping their pet alien would join the club."
Chloe's eyes widened to comical proportions. How could she be so surprised? She'd been hinting at it just yesterday. Maybe it was something else to have all your suspicions confirmed. Hell, maybe it was a mindfuck to know for certain that first contact was right next to you.
"Will?"
"Yeah, good job on deductive reasoning," he snapped.
Lex was now standing over him and William vomited to his side. The other man grimaced and nodded to the guards with him. Each had a green K pendant around their necks, William tried to stay awake but that much pain forced him down into the darkness.
He woke up strapped to a metal table.
Blinking, William tried to sit up and cursed when he felt the straps holding him there. Looking down, he noted the green cast to his skin and the black veins rising beneath the surface. The pain was washing over him again, full force, leaving it hard to do more than breathe and stay awake.
"Ollie! Cyborg! Aquaman! Impulse!" he shouted, but his screams were weak and tinny even to his ears. God, he didn't even know how much Kryptonite he could take.
Lex entered shortly after, several men in white lab coats following behind him. William shuddered. He'd heard from Victor and Bart both what Lex had done with them. He couldn't imagine what the bastard who ran 33.1 would do with a full-fledged alien.
"William Queen. I should have known. After my father's death..."
He snorted. "You mean that suspicious 'defenestration?'"
"His loss," Lex corrected icily. "After that, I inherited his Veritas records. It occurred to me then that one of the other families had found The Traveler first. Considering Patricia's phenomenal brilliance and astronomy aptitude, she'd actually been my top consideration."
"Oh."
"Imagine how happy I was to find such thorough records after finally hacking into The Green Arrow, sorry, your brother's
clocktower."
"I...will you let Justice and Chloe go? She didn't know anything. The others, they don't deserve this."
"Your brotehr and his friends have cost me hundreds of millions of dollars and messed with my research for years. I'm not inclined to forgive and forget. I'm also interested in those three, not as much as you, of course."
William wheezed and forced the air through his throat. "Of course. Please don't hurt them."
"You're not in a position to beg," he said, nodding to his team, which started to wash their hands and put on gloves. "It's funny, isn't it?"
"Not really."
"You've worked your whole life to stay as low profile as you could, and your brother's own idiocy has landed you in a lab. I assume that's why you never joined Justice earlier. A creature of your talents...well, you can do so much more than the other four combined ever dreamed of."
"I just want to be left alone."
"Not in the cards," Lex replied, nodding toward the greying man standing over William's chest with a scalpel raised high. "Do it."
He closed his eyes, trying to brace for the pain but was confused when, instead of the sharp bite of an incision, he felt his power flowing back through him, the nausea and aches all forgotten. Opening his eyes, William breathed a sigh of relief when he realized the rest of Justice was in the room, Chloe along with them, and Bart was holding the Kryptonite in his hand.
It took seconds for him to tear free and only a few minutes more to use his heat vision to start burning the lab to nothing. Lex and his team were already retreating, and William glanced only a moment at his brother before blurring off to Maryland. He had nothing left to say to him.
"I'm sorry."
William turned and glared at his brother, activitating his heat vision just enough to singe Ollie's stupid frosted tips. "Lex knows. What the Hell am I supposed to do? If he ever went public..."
"Lex won't. He likes having that power over you. What happens in Veritas stays with our families."
"You kept records on me, Oliver. Why the Hell would you do that?"
"Justice has records on all our health needs, including yours. I knew you'd join us eventually or, well, I hoped I could convince you. I thought it was good to have the information already prepped in case you got hurt on a mission. Will, please."
"It's William," he corrected. "I hate nicknames. Besides, it wasn't your information to have."
"I thought it was safe."
"It wasn't. Now Chloe's had a floor show, Lex Luthor wants my ass back on an operating table, and mom's in the bedroom crying because I had to tell her and dad everything. You're an irresponsible piece of shit."
"William, then, I didn't mean it."
He shook his head and stood up from the sofa in their penthouse's salon. "No, you did mean it. You wanted to be the GA and start Justice and bring the war to Lex even if it was more terrorism and bombings than being honorable. You might have some good goals, but you're the same bully you always were at Excelsior and we both know it."
"I never meant for you to get exposed."
"Well, I am now. I can't possibly stay in Metropolis. I'm thinking of going to New York for a while to stay with Patricia and Penny. Patricia knows more than anyone alive about how Dr. Swann thought. If there are other things in his records I still need to know, she could help me. If I need protection, I think she could give it. I certainly can't stay in Lex's city, can I?"
"William, just think."
"No, I can't. I can't take the company. You have to. Lex would ruin me and play hostile takeover. I...take care of mom and dad."
Oliver reached out and grabbed his shoulder. "Will, I love you. You're my brother."
"I know and I love you too, but I don't like you right now."
With that, he was gone to New York.
It took Chloe Sullivan three days to knock on his bedroom door at Patricia's upstate manor home. When he opened it, he found Chloe staring at her heels like they were the most interesting things ever made and Penny grinning at him like the silly high school student she still was. Of course the sophomore would be foolish enough to play some weird love connection.
Like those existed between reporters and aliens.
"Kal-El, play nice," she sing-songed, heading back down the hall before he could kill her.
Bitch.
"Kal-El?" Chloe asked before ushering herself in and sitting at his desk chair. "Is that your real name?"
"William Errol Queen is my real name," he huffed, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "Kal-El was the name I was born with. So, yeah, the alien one."
"They know?"
He nodded. "I needed a place to lie low. I...my parents sent out a signal when they sent me here and four very rich families found it together."
She nodded. "The Queens, Teagues, Luthors, and the Swanns. Everyone knows they had all those summer retreats back in like the 70s and into the 80s before the Swann's had a helicopter crash. Everyone thought maybe like an Illuminati thing."
"I guess I'm close enough. The four families were preparing in case I was actually the vanguard of an invasion-the Queens robotics, Swann's satellites, Luthors for genetic engineering. Patricia...she's helping me figure out what else the Teagues were supposed to do. She has her dad's records and he was the signal reader. She might know more about the Kryptonians than my parents do."
"It's pretty."
He frowned and quirked his head at her. "What is?"
"The name for your species."
He flinched. Chloe probably hadn't meant to come off so detached; after all, species was the correct term. Still, it hurt. "I feel human. I care like you do. I'm not that inhuman." His voice was so quiet then, and he barely had the effort to fight anything, not anymore.
"I'm sorry. Look, William, I was an asshole. I shouldn't have hotboxed you like that."
"No, you shouldn't have but you were a reporter on a lead. You were never going to be the only one to find out."
"Like Lex?"
"Yeah, I'm safe here, I think. This is Patricia's territory. Lex wants me for himself, when he can make it a clean grab. This is all between the Veritas families."
"No government cause I'd think all that Roswell..."
"Not my kind," he replied sadly. If it were, then at least he'd know of others around as pathetic as that was. "Chloe, I understand. You're only human and you're curious."
"You never asked how Justice got to you."
"I didn't care much. I can't even look at Ollie anymore. He's sent dozens of emails but I just delete them. Maybe he'll learn not to be a selfish dick, maybe not. But I'm the one paying for his flashy bullshit."
"I picked the locks."
He blinked. "Huh?"
She shrugged and pulled the bun out of her hair. He had only seen it up before and didn't realize how long her golden curls actually reached. "It's not for fashion, it's for practicality. My cousin's in the army and she learned lock picking from the best. Everyone assumes that these are just decorative pins for my bun."
He frowned and took the metal rods she'd offered him. "They're picks."
"Hell yes they are. Lex took my taser and this knife I keep in a thigh holster."
William blinked and then cursed when he set the lamp beside her on fire. God, he was beyond pathetic. Forget King of the Freaks, he was Emperor of Hard Up Losers. He blurred over and put it out with his hands, grateful that Chloe was looking at him with curiosity and not terror.
The last girl so hadn't reacted that way.
"Another ability?"
"Uh, heat vision, nevermind. I've been, um, stressed lately."
"Oh sure, no worries. Anyway, he took the weapons but with the picks I could get us all out. Oliver was impressed enough to offer me a job."
"You're not a superhero."
"Neither is Oliver; we established this," she said, leaning back in the chair. "He called me yesterday, said he knew he'd run Justice wrong and needed outside consultation. Doesn't hurt I can pick locks and hack security systems with the best of them."
William frowned. Victor could do things with a computer no human could hope to and Bart could be anywhere in a flash. If Ollie wanted her, it was for more than an honor system or a consultation. Perfect. Soon Chloe and The Green Arrow would be an item.
William scowled back at her. "So you're here to recruit, Sunshine?"
"My codename is actually 'Watchtower,'" she replied. "No, Oliver doesn't know I'm here. As I was leaving the penthouse, Bart actually slipped me the address."
In spite of his bad mood, William smiled. Bart was the member of Justice that he actually considered a friend, sometimes even like the little brother he never had.
"Why?"
"So I could apologize. I am sorry about ambusing you, and I am worried about your life in free fall."
"It's not. We found some things, Patricia and I, in Dr. Swann's records. Frankly, a lot of Kryptonians have been here before. They left something for me at least in Paris that I need to see. We're heading there in a few weeks."
"Oh, wow, Paris cool."
"Jealous?" he asked, and where had that come from?
"No, I...if you and Patricia are going to the City of Lights, that's good."
"You could come. I mean, not Justice, but if you wanted to come."
"Maybe Oliver could too."
He stepped back from the desk and shook his head. "I don't want to talk to Ollie, ever."
"You'll have to grow out of that eventually. You're brothers."
"No, we're not, not really. I'm as related to a platypus as I am Oliver. Besides, he has what I want."
She smiled sadly and squeezed his hand. "I'm sorry you can't take the company, that the normal business stuff isn't something you can do now that Lex knows. I'm sure he doesn't really even want it."
William sighed and it ruffled her hair. Something heartened him in the way she smiled as if what he could do was amazing and not straight out of The Twilight Zone. Maybe she wouldn't fear him, maybe she could...no she was clearly going to be Oliver's.
It was only a matter of time, like always.
No matter that, for once, just once, William was tired of deferring and of hiding. Leaning down, he kissed her cheek. "Watchtower, I wasn't talking about the company at all."
Huh, maybe he could make her heart race too.
Ollie, eat your heart out…