Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to this show or the characters in it.
Blood is thinker than water.
Chapter one:
"Why did you do that? Now we will never get him back!" Lex Luthor screamed at Ra's who just stood there calmly staring at him. Talia, who had been standing behind her father, stepped forward and frowned at him. It had been a few hours since Ra's had interfered with their plan to coax Superboy back to them and Lex was furious with him. Talia took a defensive stance in between Lex and her father.
"How dare you speak to my Father in that tone! If it hadn't been for him you wouldn't be here now." She said sternly, glaring at him with fierce eyes.
"I am aware of that miss Ghul and I do not mean any disrespect." He said taking a deep breath, "I am just concerned about our current progress. We only have a few months until..."
"Don't worry I have everything all under control. You just concentrate on the other projects for now and I'll deal with the retrieval of your...son" Ra's replied empathising the word Son, interrupting Lex.
"Make sure that you do! This plan means nothing without him, and I do not want to have to postpone it again to clone another one." Lex said, Ra's just gave him a blank stare. "I will go down to Cadmus today and check on how our new project has developed." Lex sighed, he shook Ra's hand and showed them out off the door. He asked his assistant if she could bring him up a drink and waited for a moment to make sure that they had gone before letting out the rage that he was feeling.
"What is that old fool thinking? We're already weeks behind on our progress and he doesn't seem to be doing anything to help with our situation!" He seethed snatching his drink out of Marie's hand and downing it in one. Marie stood there calmly and listened to her boss' ranting.
"Are they still unaware of the stringency plan you set up after Superboy's escape?" Marie asked.
"No. It appears that they aren't aware of that. But even if I do have to fall back onto that I still want Superboy back where he belongs."
"But how Sir? Without that chip you haven't got any leverage."
"That is true. It seems that those kids are more trouble than their adult counterparts."
"It's a shame that we can't just disposes of them and be done with it," Marie spoke aloud. Lex frown changed into a grin at the words his assistant had just said.
"Marie, I think you may have given me an idea. Call Stanton and tell him to prepare operation underdog." Lex ordered. Marie smiled and left his office to go and make the call.
One week later in Smallville
"Conner wake up! You promised that you would help your uncle on the farm today." Martha Kent shouted up the stairs causing Conner to shoot up holding his ears. It had been two weeks since the incident with the league of shadows and Conner had asked Clark if it was alright if he could visit his adoptive aunt and uncle again during the holidays. He had never had a family before and had wanted to 'bond' with them and find out more about the family that had allowed him to stay with them. Conner sat up on his bed and smiled as he heard his aunt Martha walking around the kitchen preparing his breakfast. He stood up and changed into his clean clothes that Martha had prepared for him yesterday before going down stairs to join his family.
"Good morning Conner. I hope that I didn't hurt your ears this morning." Martha said placing Conner's breakfast on the table for him. Conner sat down and rubbed at his ears, which were still ringing from his wake up call.
"A little. But it's ok, I know that you didn't mean too. Where's uncle Jonathan?"
"He's in the barn feeding the pigs." Martha replied looking over to the barn that was opposite the house. "It's a shame that Clark couldn't join us today, I know that he was looking forward to training you again."
"Yeah I know, I suppose that's what happens when you have a dual identity. I don't know how everyone does it?" Conner said with a mouth full of bacon and egg.
"Don't talk with your mouth full. Now once your finished Jonathan would like you to meet him outside the barn, we have a lot of chores to do today." Martha reminded him. He quickly finished of his breakfast and dashed out of the house to start his work on the family farm, giving Martha a quick kiss on her cheek. He meet up with his uncle Jonathan and started his morning chores.
At mount Justice Aqualad and the others were returning from a mission that Batman had sent them on. It had been a long and tiring mission, that required the team to visit Alaska to rescue a team of exhibitioners who were lost in a terrible storm. Kid Flash, who was still recovering from his injuries after the shadows had broken into the cave a few weeks ago, flopped onto the couch with a tired sigh.
"So glad to be home." He said in relief, stretching his aching muscles.
"Well you could have stayed home if you wanted, because of you it took us an extra forty eight hours to complete the missions objective." Aqualad said in annoyance, "We had better go and wait for Batman to arrive."
"I'm already here. I must say that I am extremely disappointed with the way you all executed this mission. I had expected better from you. Especially you Robin." Batman said frowning disappointingly. Robin bowed his head and apologised, he knew that he could have done better but was too concerned about his best friend to concentrate on the mission.
"Hey Wally was the one that messed up the mission! He was told to stay here but no he just had to tag along." Artemis said scowling at her boy friend.
"Do you have any idea how boring it is to be stuck here alone with nothing to do?"
"So you decided to go with the team and endanger the mission? You were lucky that the team of exhibitioners found a cave and hid there until you found them. Though it might be awhile till they are able to leave the hospital." Batman replied evenly. "Kid Flash, until your injuries have healed I am ordering you to stay of team missions!"
"What? But I..."
"And if you disobey that order I will have you and the rest of the team doing training exercises until you learn how to work as a team. Got it?" Wally looked over to Robin who frowned at him in return. The team wasn't happy with the outcome of their recent mission and didn't want to upset Batman any more than what he already was.
"Ok I promise." Wally said quietly, slouching further into the couch cushions.
"Ok now that that is settled I wanted to talk to you all about Superboy."
"Why is something wrong?" Megan asked panicking.
"He's fine, I just wanted to inform you on the information that I have found out during my research." Batman explained, Robin pulled up the caves computer and started typing in the codes to give him access to the Bat cave's computer. Batman's frown deepened.
"Don't worry I'm just pulling up the files so that it will be easier for us to understand." Robin explained pulling up the files. Batman sighed and continued with what he was saying.
"As you are all aware Superboy's DNA was constructed using the stolen DNA of superman and borrowed DNA of Lex Luthor, currently Superboy is unaware of this and the league and I would like it if it stayed that way." Batman explained, Aqualad, Wally and Megan frowned whilst Robin and Artemis gave him an even look.
"I don't know if any of you have noticed but there are a few problems concerning Conner's development. Now though Superman thinks that this could be due to the lack of guidance he's had, I believe that the reason is due to his...unusual 'birth'. Now I have run some more tests on the blood that we extracted during the operation to remove the chip that was in his head and have hypothesis that the mixed DNA of Luthor and Superman may have altered his molecular structure." Batman explained, "Now though I know that you see this team as a family, I would like it if no one tells him anything about what I have learnt."
"Why not? Don't you think that he has the right to know?" Megan asked unable to keep her anger hidden from him. She was feeling uncomfortable about having to keep a secret from her boy friend and felt that Batman was being unfair by keeping this from him. "Don't you think that this team has had enough secrets kept from us without us having to keep another one?" She shouted angrily.
"How do you think Superboy would feel if he were to find out?" Batman replied making Megan feel angrier. How would they know how he would feel if they wouldn't talk to him about it? But despite her anger she held her tongue. She could tell that Robin was feeling uncomfortable with the situation and didn't want to cause an argument between the team. But Robin wasn't uncomfortable because of that. He glared up at his mentor in anger and disappointment.
"I agree with Megan. I know that you and the league are only trying to look out for Conner's best interest, but I don't think that keeping this from him is a good idea." Robin said remembering how it felt to have a secret kept from him, especially for four years. Batman thought about what Robin and Megan had said, he could understand their concerns but he still believed that it wouldn't be in Conner's best interest if he knew.
"Listen, I understand your concerns but don't you think that knowing he was created as a weapon to kill Superman is enough for him to acknowledge without learning that he's half human? Maybe one day he might find out but..."
"All the more reason to tell him. It will be harder for him if he finds out himself only to discover that we already knew. How would you feel if you found out that the league was keeping something from you?" Wally said interrupting Batman's sentence, Batman sighed and sat down.
"I would feel betrayed." He replied softly. "If I find out something that Superboy will need to know then I will make sure that he is informed. But in the mean time I want you all to promise me that you won't say anything to him." The team all looked at each other and Megan linked them all to her mind link.
'What do you think? Do you think that's he's telling the truth?' She asked concerned, remembering the lies the league had told them and secrets they had kept since the team was formed.
'He seems to be sincere about it. And after what happened a few weeks ago with the Zucco incident I don't think he would lie, not unless he had an extremely good explanation for it.' Robin replied given Batman a quick glance.
"I don't trust him! I say we investigate ourselves. That way we..."
"I presume that you're all having a physic conversation." Batman said interrupting Artemis' train of thought.
"Sorry." Kaldur said quickly, "we will keep the secret. But with your permission I would like Richard, with the help of Wally, to research a sample of the blood. I promise you that anything that they find will be reported to you and the league immediately." Kaldur said politely. Batman thought for a moment.
"Alright agreed. I will send Robin over with it tomorrow after our patrol." Batman replied shaking Kaldur's hand. Robin gave him a questioning look surprised at how quickly he had agreed to the request.
"Kal you don't have to call me Richard, everyone else just calls me Dick." 'Well everyone except Alfred that is.' Dick thought to himself.
"Sorry, I will try to remember." Kaldur replied. Batman sat there and smiled, he was glad that Dick was happy and was more comfortable now with the rest of the team.
"I'm going now. I will meet you in Gotham later Robin." Batman said standing up and walking over to the zeta beams. Wally waited till he had gone before asking Dick the question that had been bothering him all day.
"Dick why does Bruce insist on calling you Robin still even though we all know your identity now?" He asked curiously.
"It's because of the mask." Dick replied simply. "The way he sees it when we wear the masks we are Batman and Robin. In civilian clothes we are Bruce and Dick. I suppose you could say that it's a physiological thing." Dick explained.
"Oh I suppose that makes sense. I'm surprised that he has allowed us to do research on Conner's blood."
"Well I think that you're lucky to still be sitting there. You know how Bruce gets when a mission doesn't go right." Dick said crossing his arms disappointingly.
"Yeah I know, but I just so badly wanted in on the action." Wally argued back.
"But at what cost? What do you think would have happened if we hadn't arrived on time?" Kaldur said sternly.
"Not to mention what the league would have done, the Russians and the Americans aren't exactly allies at the moment and if anything had of happened to them it could have caused an national incident." Dick added, "You need to be more careful and start looking at the bigger picture, otherwise you could find yourself in serious trouble."
"Hey are you calling me irresponsible?"
"I'm just saying that you need to understand that there is more to life than adventure and girls." Dick replied, "Anyway don't you all think it's strange that Batman and the league want to keep Conner's true origin of birth a secret?" Dick said changing the subject.
"I can partly see why they would. If Conner was to find out then everything that he has done to prove that he's a hero would have been for nothing." Kaldur replied.
"All because he has the blood of a criminal doesn't make him one. I've proven that." Artemis said said firmly.
"But if Lex was to discover that Conner knows he could try and convince him of that." Dick said thinking aloud. 'I wonder if that's what the league's afraid off?'
"Well if Luthor does try we will be there to stop him! Isn't that right Dick?"
"Yeah we'll make sure that Lex leaves Conner alone. Though I would have thought that if he was going to try he would have done it by now." Wally said grinning. "So Dick got any plans for the holidays?"
"No, why?" Dick asked already knowing what the answer was going to be.
"I was just wondering when you was going to invite use to your place? I'm curious of how the other half live." Wally replied.
"Other half? What exactly do you mean by that?"
"Well I mean you do live with one of the riches men in the world and I just wanted to experience what it is like to live like that."
"It's nothing special really, I live just like you guys do. Just in a bigger house." Dick replied whispering the last part. Dick was starting to become annoyed with Wally's attitude towards him. Ever since he and the team learnt who he really was he's been pestering him about what it's like to live in a mansion or to have a butler. It was as if Wally was seeing him as a completely different person now and that worried him.
"Ah, come on you can't tell me that it isn't fun to have someone clean up for you or chauffeur you around, not that I need that if you catch my drift." Wally said teasingly, Dick sighed in exasperation and walked over to the kitchen to get himself a soda.
"Wally what is your obsession with this? All because Dick lives in a big house doesn't make him any different than you or me. It's what you do as a person that matters, not the amount of money you have in you bank account." Artemis said sitting down next to him.
"Come on Arty you can't tell me that you aren't curious." Artemis shook her head, Wally gave her a suspicious look. "Not even a little?"
"Wally to tell you the truth it isn't everything that it's cracked up to be. Yeah I can have anything that I ask for, within reason, and I can go to the top schools and have the best doctors that money could ask for, but that isn't what I want or need. As long as I've got a roof over my head, clothes on my back, food in my stomach and a family to share it with then I'm happy." Dick said becoming more and more agitated as the conversation continued. Megan sensed his annoyance and decided to try and change the subject again.
"Speaking of family I wonder how Conner is coping with his new adopted family." Megan said thinking about her boyfriend and how much she was missing him.
"I'm sure that he's fine, he's probably trying to find out everything he can about Superman so that he can use it against him if he needs to." Artemis said jokingly.
"Yeah Maybe he will find a school photo of him and keep it to show during a family occasion..."
"Batman to Robin." Batman said interrupting Wally.
"Yes Batman."
"I need you in Gotham. Meet me at police Headquarters." Batman ordered signing off. Dick finished off his drink and threw the empty can into the bin before heading to the zeta beams.
"I think that you have upset him Wally." Megan said, Wally just huffed. "I was only joking." He grumbled. He sat there in front of the T.V flicking through the channels whilst Artemis and Megan went into the kitchen to make something to eat. Aqualad, who had been sitting quietly listening to the conversations, left the room and headed to the training room, leaving the rest off the team to enjoy the rest off their evening.
Smallville
Conner loaded the last of the barrels of hay onto the truck whilst his Uncle Jonathan leaned against the fence to catch his breath. Conner turned and gave him a worrying look. He could hear Jonathan's Heart beating hard and it concerned him that he was still doing this kind off work at his age. He walked over to him and rested his arm on the fence beside him.
"Why don't you head back home, I'll finish stacking the hay." Conner said Jonathan smiled wryly, he slowly straighten himself, holding onto the fence for support.
"I'm alright son, besides you can't exactly drive the truck can you."
"No I suppose your right." Conner replied quietly, Jonathan walked over to the truck and pulled himself into the drivers seat. His heart was still beating quit fast and Conner considered telling him to leave the truck and carry it back for him himself, but he decided that that probably wouldn't be the wises thing to do. So he followed his uncle to the truck and hopped into the passenger seat. He glanced over to Jonathan who was now breathing hard but waited patiently for him to steady himself.
'I think I'll tell Aunt Martha later, she might know what to do.' He thought to himself as his uncle turned the key in the ignition and drove back to the house. Aunt Martha was waiting for them with Clark.
"Hey Clarks here." Jonathan said smiling. Clark saw the truck approach and frowned, he had told Jonathan to leave the harvest until he'd arrived.
"I know I know but it couldn't wait. Mr Jones is coming to pick it up later and I wanted to get it ready for when he arrived." Jonathan explained, he stepped out of the truck and stumbled to the floor causing Clark to dash over to catch him.
"Let's get you into the house and up to bed. Ma could you go and make some tea?" Clark asked as he helped his dad into the house. Martha said that she would and hurried into the house to go and make it. Conner followed her anxious to try and help.
"Aunt Martha?" Conner asked quietly behind her, she put some water in the kettle and placed it onto the stove to boil.
"Yes dear? What's troubling you?" She asked sweetly, pointing for him to sit down.
"I'm worried about Uncle Jonathan, when we were loading the hay I noticed that his heart was beating irregularly and his breathing was heavy." Conner explained.
"I know. Clark could hear it from here. Don't worry I;m going to call Doctor Hills and have him give Jonathan a check up." Martha reassured, Conner sighedd and tried to block out the sound of the heart that was beating upstairs.
"Don't worry once he's settled it should calm down." Clark said noticing Conner's discomfort.
"I told him to go home. But he wouldn't listen to me." Conner said, Clark smiled.
"I know, I;m sure he'll be alright. Why don't we go and finish the chores for the day and leave Ma to attend to dad." Clark said heading towards the door, Conner gave his Aunt a worried glance before standing up and following his cousin.
Back in Gotham Batman stood waiting for Robin with Commissioner Gordon, who seemed to be more anixious than usual. They were discussing the case that he wanted them to look at for him when Batman heard the familliar sound of Robin climbing the side of the building.
"Who's escaped this time?" Robin asked leaping onto the roof of police headquarters causing the Commissioner jump in surprise.
"Mister Freeze. We had a call reporting that he and his men are demanding blood and is threatening to freeze anyone who doesn't obey." Gordon replied quickly composing himself.
"Then we haven't got much time. Come on Robin." Batman said turning away from the Commissioner and pulling out his grapple gun. Robin waved to the Commissioner who smiled wryly back, he still wasn't completely comfortable with Robin's involvement in Batman's crusade and worried every time he saw him at Batman's side.
"I was speaking to the others before you called. I hope you know what you are doing." Robin said jumping into the bat mobile that was parked in the alley beside police HQ.
"I take it that you're referring to the conversation I had with the team earlier?" Batman asked, his voice even and gravelly.
"What is it that has got you and the league so concerned? Surely if Luthor was going to do anything he would have by now." Robin questioned, they hurried over to the hospital Batman concentrating on the road and ignoring Robin's question. Robin frowned but remained silent. It took them ten minutes to arrive at the hospital and Batman jumped out of the car, quickly racing into the building.
"This isn't the right blood! I need AB negative." Freeze shouted pointing his freezing gun at the doctor who had given him the blood. The doctor paled at the sight and fell to his knees.
"I'm sorry but we haven't got any. That blood type is the rarest and it's extremely hard to get matching donor's." The doctor explained, Batman and Robin snuck around the corner and watched.
"We need to be careful, we don't want any casualties." Batman whispered. "Robin you go into those vents there and wait for my signal." He said sneaking up behind the thugs that were surronding the terrified doctors and nurses, hidding behind a laundry trolly. Robin quietly crawled into the vent and pulled out a small device. He waited for Batman's signal before he quietly opened the vent and throw the device at Freezes gun. Freeze didn't notice, he was too busy shouting at the doctor who had told him that they didn't have what he wanted.
"There must be someone in this hospital that has that blood type!" He shouted angrily pointing the gun at the doctors face. "Maybe so b...but with the amount your asking for your'd need more than one person. it would kill them otherwise." Just then Batman jumped out from his hiding place, startling the already frightened hostages. Freeze snickered at him, he pulled the trigger on his gun but found that it wouldn't work.
"What!" He exclaimed angrily as he tried to get his freeze gun to work. Robin jumped down and laughed.
"As whelmed as always I see." Robin giggled, "I'd give up if I were you, that gun isn't going to work." He boasted, freeze angrily throw the gun at the boy wonder who jumped and dodged it.
"Robin stop messing around and get the staff out of here!" Batman demanded sternly, Robin stopped what he was doing and nodded. He turned to the doctors and nurses and untied the bounds before guiding them away.
"Men get them!" Freeze ordered shouting at his men, Batman fought the men that attacked him and easily took them out one by one, this made Freeze angrier.
"Why can't any of you understand? I'm doing this for Nora."
"Do you honestly believe that Nora would condone this Victor? Why don't you just let us take her to a hospital were she can get the treatment she needs?" Batman said trying to reason with the grief stricken villain.
"No! She wouldn't survive if I were to do that. I need to do this myself. I'm the only one that can." Freeze replied.
"Then at least let us try and help you. Listen to me Victor you don't have to-"
"It's too late for me now." Freeze said interrupting.
"Then you leave me no choice." Batman said stepping forward, freeze stood his ground. He knew that with his strength that he could easily overpower Batman. But Batman wasn't alone and without warning Batgirl appeared from out of one of the rooms and threw a bat-a-rang at him. Freeze turned to deflect the flying object giving Batman the opportunity he had been waiting for. As soon as Freeze was facing him again Batman punched him, breaking through the glass helmet. Freeze fell to the floor gasping for breath.
"Good job." Batman said praising Batgirl who was knelling beside Mr Freeze.
"Will he be ok?" She asked in concern, Batman nodded. He knelled down beside her and placed a breathing apparatus over Freezes mouth. "This will help him to breath until he's taken back to his frozen cell." He explained, Robin came up behind them with a smile on his face.
"The doctors and nurses are safe. I called the commissioner and he's on the way to pick up Freeze." He said Batman Handcuffed Freeze then stood up to look at his young partner.
"What about the thugs that were helping him? Shouldn't we go after them?" Batgirl asked.
"No. Freeze was the cause off the danger, without them they are harmless." Batman replied confidently. The commissioner soon arrived with his men to pick up Freeze and Batman was on the roof of the hospital watching as Freeze was taken away.
"I had better be heading back home. Dad will most probably come home to check up on me and I wouldn't want him to find that I'm missing." Batgirl said, she gave Robin a hug before pulling out her grapple hook and swung to the next rooftop to head home. Robin sat there and watched her as she swung out of view before turning to Batman.
"You never did answer my question." He said, Batman gave a heavy sigh.
"I have reason to believe that Lex Luthor may try and make contact with Conner. From what I have deduced Conner is able to use only fifty percent of his Kryptonian powers and I believe that the cause is because Lex has somehow managed to suppress them." Batman explained.
"I get it. And your worried that Lex may use this information as leverage to try and get Conner to do what he wants."
"Lex Luthor is an extremely intelligent man, he has already managed to do the one thing that others have failed to do and I suspect that he's already found a way of suppressing Conner's human genes so that he will be able to use his full powers."
"What can I do to help? Is there anything in particular that Wally and I should be looking for?" Robin asked.
"Anything that could be useful. We're still unsure about what Lex is up to and any information that we can find will be helpful." Batman explained. They jumped down off the roof and into a alley were they had hidden the Bat-mobile and climbed in. Robin yawned.
"I think that it's about time we headed home. Everything seems to be quiet now and I have some more work I need to do." Batman said, Robin nodded and tried to surpress another yawn. "I think it's way past your bed time." Batman smiled, Robin smirked.
"I'm not that tired. Could I help you with your work?" Robin asked eagerly.
"No. Black Canary has informed me that she wishes to train with you all again tomorrow and I think it will be best if you got your sleep." Batman said, Robin pouted but didn't argue. He sat quietly in his seat watching the trees and buildings rush by thinking about the work that he and Wally had ahead of them. By the time they reached the cave Robin was sound asleep. Batman gently picked him up from out off the car and carried him up to his bed, removing the top part off his uniform so that he wouldn't get too hot.
"Night Dick." He whispered to the sleeping teen before closing the door behind him and going down to start with his work.
In Metropolis Lex Luthor sat at his desk watching his secret t.v with a huge grin on his face. "Ah I see that he managed to put the cameras in without being detected." Marie said walking into the office carrying some folders. She placed them on his desk and watched as Kid Flash worked on a motorbike.
"Yeah though there isn't much happening at the moment. I was hoping that Superboy would have returned by now but it appears that he hasn't." Lex said leaning into his chair. "How are things going at Cadmus?"
"Slowly. Apparently they have been having some trouble maintaining the Martian D.N.A apparently it isn't the same as Martian man hunter's." Marie explained. "I did remind them that we have a deadline to stick to and they have said that they will try to have them all ready on time."
"Good, we've been planning this for too long and I would hate to have to intervene again because they can't get it right." Lex replied. Marie asked him if there was anything else he needed before leaving him to his thoughts.
'Just a few more weeks and then everything will be complete.'
Thanks for reading. Next chapter will be up soon.