To my new readers: Hello all! I'm Hammershlag, a small-time writer from the Fire Emblem fandom. I'm trying to expand my horizons for a multitude of reasons I don't think I need to get into. I hope you enjoy this piece, and if you like my writing style, feel free to check out my other works!

To my existing readers: Don't worry gang, I'll still write the pieces you've come to expect from me (and hopefully better), but I've always wanted to dabble in DC; now that I actually have an idea, I'm going to exploit it.

So with out further ado, I present to you a slightly different take on Lex Luthor, one that begs the question, what if he were the hero?

Alexander Luthor was born in the poorest part of the city. His father was an abusive alcoholic and his mother had no ability to stand up for herself, even were she not afraid of her husband. He was an only child, frequently harassed in school. The bullies said it was because of his small size, but Lex new better. They beat him because he was so much smarter than all of them combined. So much better. One day, he and his best friend, the only person in the school whose intellect compared to his, Clancy, were going to move to Gotham and work for Wayne Enterprises. Only there could their intellect be fully utilized.

But when Lex turned 17, his parents died tragically in a car accident. They were, ironically, hit by a drunk driver. The one smart move his father made was to take out a life insurance policy early in his life. This gave Lex enough to pay his way through college and invest some in the stock market, where he and Clancy both made a great deal of money. As it happened, they were noticed by Thomas Wayne, president of Wayne Enterprises, who decided to mentor them. Wayne guided the two through their college years and even agreed to give the commencement address their graduating year, despite never doing anything of the sort in the past. Before he could officially hire them, however, Wayne and his wife were murdered in front of their son, Bruce, in an alleyway behind a theatre. Lex and Clancy both went to their funeral and promised their Bruce that they would always be there for him should he need help. Lex then took the money he made, as well as what was left of his father's life insurance money, and started his own company, Lexcorp, with him and Clancy as co-presidents.

Thanks to their ingenuity, Lex and Clancy led Lexcorp to become the largest business in the country after only ten years, next to Wayne Enterprises, at that point officially headed by Bruce. Lex built up Metropolis' infrastructure, reconstructing almost every building and road in the city. He was loved by the citizenry, and he loved them back. His charity fund was renown for its massive donations to schools all over the country. Through his successes, Lex came to believe that the evolution of humankind was based on self-reliance and self-improvement. Men were capable of achieving great heights if only they strived for them.

One day, an alien with incredible physical abilities named Zod came with the intention of ruling the human race. Lex and Clancy did their best to come up with countermeasures, but they knew so little about Zod and his minions that they could not think of anything effective. That was when he came. The Superman, a being from Zod's planet capable of defeating him. The two fought on the streets of Metropolis causing all too much collateral damage. Lex watched as all he built crumbled before the might of the two aliens. As they watched the fight, Lex and Clancy noticed a boy frozen in the middle of the road, crying; it would not be long before he was caught in the crossfire, so Clancy ran out and grabbed him. Superman and Zod then came upon them, the former shooting a beam from his eyes at the latter. Zod dodged the attack, however, and the laser blasted through Clancy and the boy, killing them both. Neither fighter stopped to consider the damage they caused. It was at this point that Lex knew his enemy.

Years pass, and Lex's hard work rebuilding Metropolis caused all his hair to fall out. He never forgot about the so-called Superman, an alien whose 'heroism' made the police complacent and all of humanity to consider him a saint watching over them. He was the sheer antithesis of Lex's world view, and needed to be stopped. Naturally, the businessman had a plan.

In the city of Gotham, a madman called the Joker had recently been captured and imprisoned in Arkham Asylum, a facility with security systems designed in a joint effort by Lexcorp and Wayne Enterprises. Lex travelled to Arkham under the guise of a security inspection and spoke privately with the Joker, discretely disabling the building security while he did. He and the madman made an agreement - if Lex provided Joker with the means to escape, the latter would go to Metropolis and kill Superman. Lex imbedded in Joker's arm a device that would enable him to open any gate and disable every camera in his area without anyone knowing it, then left without a word.

A few days later, word reached Metropolis that the Joker had escaped Arkham and disappeared. A mere day after that, a Metropolis was robbed and incinerated, much to Lex's horror. The night of the bank attack, Lex was paid a visit in his sleep by a Gotham vigilante called Batman, who somehow knew everything. What happened to Clancy, how Lex got Joker out of prison and exactly how Joker destroyed the bank. Lex feigned ignorance, so Batman pinned him up against a wall and struck him with a military interrogation device developed by Lexcorp – it stimulates all the pain receptors in the body without leaving a mark. Knowing the full abilities of the device and the potential side effects of prolonged use, Lex confessed to everything and provided Batman with the means to track Joker.

Joker, meanwhile, had kidnapped a reporter, Lois Lane, in order to to draw in Superman so he could hit him with a new stone he acquired made of something called Kryptonite, which a trusted source of Joker's said would drain the alien of all his powers and render him mortal. The plan worked until Batman arrived, defeated Joker and destroyed the stone, freeing Superman, who flew Joker right back to Arkham. Batman did not make Superman or anyone else aware of Lex's involvement as a favor to the businessman, which he later explained to him.

At a press conference the following day, Lex and Superman met, the former congratulating the latter on successfully defeating the Joker. But that would not be the end.

If this is well-received, I might do an expanded version of this later on. With dialogue and all those things. I have my share of other ideas as well, I just don't know whether or not they are worth exploring.

Writing tune: Mozart's Fantasia in D Minor and Brahms' Requiem, AKA the secular-ish requiem.