AN: From the One shots, this is an expanded opening chapter for Stepping Out, now called Unseen Man. This takes the basic premise, that Clark Kent and Lex Luthor met as teenagers and changes all of DC.

Chapter One – From Shadows

Doomsday looked like a piece of granite had mated with a silverback gorilla. It easily stood seven feet tall with gray bones jutting out of its back and forearms. The beast had broken through the Army and now the League lay scattered across the plaza. The monster loomed. It panted its rank breath into her face as it lifted her by the neck and slammed her into the ground once more. It held her neck tight, heaving her outward from it, presenting her to Zod.

"Enough, Doomsday," the cold aristocracy of Zod's voice cut through the destruction. "We need one of the League alive to gain access their Watch Tower. Once we're done removing their defenses you can kill her."

The beast growled something that was probably a curse, then dropped her into the crater that it had made with her body. Kara struggled to try and get up, but she felt a foot placed over her chest.

"Do stay down, Kara," Zod pushed her back into the ground roughly. "Be good and you will get to live a little longer, continue to push and I will see if another member of the League who can behave."

Kara groaned as he forced her down into the concrete. Manhunter lay in the rubble of what had once been a ten story building. The monster had decided that the easiest way to remove his threat was to bury him until later. Wonder Woman was not far away, wrapped in something that Zod had created especially for her. The blood that covered the left side of her face was not a good sign.

"it's a beautiful sight, Kara," Zod said with a smile. "The world at the feet of a Kryptonian, as it always should be! As it would have been had your stupid uncle not tried to stand in my way."

Kara groaned. This is why she hated Zod, she remembered him from when she was a kid, and the bastard was still a braggart.

"Oh dear, Kara. You know I killed your father not long after he launched your ship into space?" Zod whispered. His creation, his wonderful son would end the last of the House of El and he would reign supreme. "He thought he had won when he was at least able to save you. The only thing that would have been sweeter was if I could have killed Kal-El."

She hissed. Zod was always an expert at hitting where it hurt the most. She could remember the bright eyed boy as she made funny faces at him. She could remember the smile as she picked him up. She could also remember Zod having his father framed, branded a traitor. She remembered Zod's glee at destroying his ship publicly, while privately preparing his own escape. The bastard revealed in the death of an innocent child.

She slammed her fist against his arm, but his hold only tightened. He lifted her completely off the ground.

"This is why the House of El is so foolish," Zod shook his head. "You thought this paltry League would be enough to stop me? I crushed your uncle, and he was beyond any of you as an enemy."

"I hope you die," Kara growled. Zod simply threw her into the ground. Rubble piled up around her as she skidded across the center.

Zod's march was slow, predatory, and flanked by Doomsday unstoppable. He stopped just before her prone form. Zod looked down at her. The distaste in his eyes was clear. He reared back with his boot and slammed it into her temple.

"Stupid little girl," he hissed, turning back to Doomsday. "Break her!"

Doomsday slammed his massive foot into the ground as it stepped towards her. He roared in happiness, until now his orders had been not to kill the League.

Kara cringed as the massive hand wrapped around her leg, lifted her up, and began to slam her body into the ground. She couldn't fight it. It slammed her into the ground as if she were a rag doll. Each hit driving her farther into the ground.

"You see, Kara," Zod said in distaste. "The House of El was always so foolish, always believing in the good of the people."

He stepped towards her and waved for Doomsday to step back.

"Now, Kara," Zod said as the beast lifted her up and left her dangling. "You will tell us how to access Watch Tower, or the pain you feel now will be the least of your worries."

"Fuck, you," she spat blood into his face.

"You know, Kara," Zod said darkly. "This could have been avoided, had you surrendered."

Doomsday threw her into a building, sending her through three walls before she came to a stop against a steel door.

Zod appeared in the hole that had been created. "So much life lost because you had to hold onto your old beliefs of right and wrong, of power and what it should be used for. You're far to much like your uncle for your own good."

Zod walked to her slowly. His eyes full of mirth at her pain.

"There is no champion to save this day, there is no hope for the people of this world," Zod whispered, he knelt down next to her and gently caressed her chin. "You would have been better off dead, on Krypton, with the rest of the House of El."

Kara snarled, kicking out at him, only for her foot to be caught by Doomsday. She cried out as the beast crushed her ankle, and swung her through a cement pillar. Her body fell limply to the ground.

"And so ends the House of El."

He motioned to Doomsday. The monster stepped forward, but was stopped as a piece of a tank it destroyed earlier slammed into its chest.

Both Doomsday and Zod spun in the direction that the debris had come from.

"You know, Jackass, I hate to break up your party, but the lady isn't going to die today," a cold voice snapped him out of his gloating.

Zod could only stare in disbelief. There was no way that this should have been possible. A ghost, it had to be. There was no way that he could be here.

"Jor-El."

"Don't know who this Jor-El is, Jackass, but I hope he put you in your place," the man responded. "How many people died today because of you? Four thousand? Five Thousand?"

"Why should I care about human life," Zod spat.

"Wrong answer," the man blurred, slamming his fist into his gut. Zod gasped in pain, Doomsday roared only for Zod to slam into its chest.

"Who are you?" Zod asked between breaths. Only Kara should have been this strong, humans were meaningless.

"Me?" The man shrugged. "My name is Clark Kent, not that it will matter in the end."

"Arrogant brat," Zod roared. "After I kill you, I will hunt down your family."

Clark had the gall to laugh. "Please, you're not leaving here in one piece. You and the dumb brick are going to be put down like the beasts that you are."

"My, you're a blood thirsty one," Zod laughed. "What makes your ignorant human such as yourself can stop me?"

Clark raised an eyebrow. "I don't think I can stop you, I know I can, jackass. So what's the creature called?"

"Oh, you will know soon enough fool," Zod gestured to Doomsday. "Take him down!"

Doomsday charged he raised his hulking fist, brought it down, and felt the earth shudder. He looked towards the man in disbelief, as the strength that he had demolished the Kryptonian with could not bring this human down. How?

"Is this the best you've got," Clark grinned. "I have had more of a challenge from Isane and you have eight hundred pounds on her."

With casual ease he hefted the beast into the air. He twisted, slamming his fist into its nose. Doomsday staggered, Clark grabbed it by the ankle and pulled. The beast fell flat and was slowly pulled from the ground. Clark pivoted to gain speed and began to twirl the beast.

With a release the beast flew back through the air, right into Zod. The duo collapsed into the ground from the force of the throw.

"How," Zod roared, nearly throwing the hulking beast off of him. "How the hell are you this strong?"

Clark shrugged. "I have always been strong."

Clark stamped the ground, sending out a crack towards Zod and the beast. "Care to try again?"

Zod blurred, his body moving at speeds that would make the Flash envious, and slammed into the brick wall that was this stranger. He caught both fists with an apathetic look in his eyes. "You know, the same thing applies to you. I get more of a workout from Isane and she is smaller than you!"

"I will kill you," Zod roared. He broke the hold, "I will make you pay for this insult!"

"Keep trying, Jackass," Clark looked at Kara. He completely ignored the look of rage in Zod's eyes. "Damn, you did a number on Supergirl huh?"

He gently knelt next to her and lifted her up. He heard a groan of pain from her and looked down to see blood covered eyes slowly open.

"Jor-…"

"Nope," Clark shook his head. "Zod said the same thing, I am not Jor-El."

"How," she whispered weakly.

"Don't know," he shrugged. "Sorry, I couldn't get here sooner. I was tied up breaking up a slave ring in the Congo."

She stared in disbelief. There was just know way.

"I don't know how you can stand it sometimes," Clark looked down at her. He had heard on the TV that Supergirl answered the calls for the world because she could heard everything. "How can you survive with all of those voices? It's like I can hear the world at times, it's how I know where I am needed. Funny that it's the same for us. ."

She nodded, unable to believe it. He had to be Kal-El. There was no other explanation for it. But her father had said that Jor-El's ship had been destroyed by the government before the destruction. There was no way that he should be here, but he was.

"It seems Jackass and the rock want a fight, will you be okay," he asked setting her down gently.

She nodded, pain in her neck, across her body, but it didn't matter. She had to watch this.

He turned slowly, cracking his knuckles. He was perfectly fine in the shadows. He helped more people that way, because no one looked to stop him. Slave rings, child prostitution, you name it he saw it, but he kept going forward. The people needed a champion, they needed someone to fight in the places where the League couldn't see.

"You had to go and make me come out of the shadows," Clark stepped into a fighting stance. "You had to make people suffer, and you expect me to step aside and let that happen?"

He shook his head. "My father raised me better than that, my mother taught me better than that, and I will make sure you understand that. Evil happens when good men look away. Evil happens because good men refuse to do anything."

He suddenly slammed into the ground. A crack formed ten meters behind them. The ground seemed to collapse around them.

"Supergirl and the League did their part," Clark stood slowly. "Now, I am going to do mine. Bring it on, Jackass. I will take it all and give it right back to you!"

Alexander Luthor had never been a religious man. He didn't consider himself a good person, his own path to redemption taking so many twists and turns he wondered if he would ever reach that goal. He was not a good person growing up, he was on the path to turn into his father by the time he was sixteen. And by a stroke of sheer chance he met a man that would become his brother, a family that would become his own, and he would be put on that path to being a better person.

"You're my brother," Clark told him the first time he took a bullet that had been meant for him. "What type of brother would I be if I didn't try and save you?"

The moment shattered his world. Gone was Alexander Luthor in his mind and in his place was Alexander Kent.

Clark lived his life with no regrets, he protected all that he could, not because he expected something in return, but because he had the power, because he could, and because he could give them a new chapter to their story. It was something that Lex would hold close, because in all his life he had never met such a person.

"Our father left a great legacy in this world," Clark told him, grasping his shoulder after they had laid their father to rest. "He helped make you a better person, he wouldn't want to be remembered for anything else."

Clark was right, to Jonathan Kent nothing mattered but Martha and his boys and making sure they had the best life possible.

His heart stopped. He had to remember to keep breathing. The image of Jonathan Kent's lifeless eyes meeting his own. Smallville had changed him so much.

He could remember laughing at the thought of the place, it was his father's "humbling". He could remember wondering if the people would even speak proper English, when he lost control of the wheel. He had been driving sports cars since he was thirteen and tried to regain control of the car, but it didn't help. He hit a pot hole, he remembered watching the world flip. He remembered the crash and smell of gas leaking from the recently filled tank.

Flashback, Smallville, 15 years ago

…"Hey, anyone in there?" a loud voice asked.

He slowly opened his eyes. He could feel a cut on his head. How the hell had he been cut? His windshield was gone. The flipping had crumpled the roof a bit, and crushed the glass pane.

"Help…" he whispered.

"Hold on," the voice boomed. "I hope you don't mind what I am about to do to your car."

He heard the crinkle, like someone had taken tin foil and just crumbled it. The next thing he heard was the strain of metal and then a rush of air and light. He looked to the side to see the door gone. He felt someone loosen his belts. Thankfully he had been smart enough to wear one. He should have remembered that the roads here weren't as well maintained as the tracks he raced on.

"You alright buddy," the voice asked. He opened his eyes slowly.

"I think…I think I am okay. Thank you."

It felt odd to say those words. He didn't say that to anyone, not even the staff that served him.

"No problem, buddy," the now teenaged boy, probably a year or two younger than him, said with a crooked smile. "I was just glad I made it in time."

"How…"

"Run really fast," the boy shrugged. "The car doesn't look too good. It looks like the rim got damaged from hitting that pot hole."

"You got an eye for cars," he raised his eyebrows slightly.

"It's a hobby," the teenager shrugged. "What are you doing out here anyways? Metropolis is an hour back that way."

He gestured back to the direction he had been coming from. "Rich guys like you don't come to these parts. They usually just pass through."

He found himself liking this guy. The teenager, someone he had not allowed to be, just came across as open.

"How soon?"

"The Cops?" the teen raised an eyebrow. "Probably another twenty minutes."

"Guess I was lucky you were here," Lex said looking at his now ruined car. Looked like the frame was bent.

"Nah, I was about half a mile up the road when I heard the crash, ran here to get to you." The boy shrugged.

Lex stared at him for a moment. He had crashed less than five minutes ago, the kid had actually made the run and gotten him free in that time? "You're fast."

"Probably the fastest," the teen agreed. He held out his hand. "Clark Kent."

"Lex Luthor."

They shook hands….

Clark had saved his life. Jonathan saved his life. Now he had to redeem his worthless soul. He had to be better, because they gave so much for him. It was something that no one had really done before. He would not forget it.

"Sir," his aide said, entering the room slightly. "Doomsday has been joined by Zod. They have been seen attacking Supergirl. The League has not been able to stop them."

"Stay strong, Supergirl, he will be there soon," he said looking out the window towards the growing plume of smoke moving towards them. He had no doubts, he had never failed before and he wouldn't start now with so much on the line.

"You place a lot of faith in him, Alexander," the haughty voice of his father said as the aide slowly escaped the room. They had learned quiet quickly that no one wanted to be caught between Lex and his father when they spoke. They results were often explosive.

"He's never failed before," he looked back at his father, amazed at what the years had done to the once proud leader of Luthor Corp. His father looked frail, almost broken. Being pushed out the board of directors for a company that you built had a way of doing that to you. It was for the better though. The vast industrial network that his father had built to supply weapons to the underground had been turned into a machine that would change the world.

Crops engineered to grow in the worst conditions, water works, aiding refugees. The image of Luthor Corp was now almost as pristine as the prick Wayne's, all because of them. All because someone didn't demand excellence from him, but expected it, because he believed he was capable of it.

Flashback, Lex Corp Towers, Five Years After First Meeting

"You're absolutely insane, Clark," Lex gestured wildly with his hands. "Why the hell would you want to get involved in this mess? Leave the hero work to the League."

"This isn't hero work. It's far from clean, it's far from nice, not something that the League can do," Clark defended. "You get more information in a day than they do in a week. They can only react, they can't plan, they can't see where people need the help until it blows up in their face."

"Still, what you're suggesting…," Lex sat at his desk. After Jonathan's death and Martha's paralysis he had promised his family would not be put in danger again, and Clark was trying to change that. "Why would you want to do something like this?"

"Evil happens when good men do nothing, when they turn away," Clark said plainly. There it was, the honest part of Clark that had forced him to save Isane even though it put him at odds with the Yakuza. Even though it cost them their parents. "Mom can't walk because I didn't plan, dad is dead because I didn't plan. We can do this so that none of our family are harmed again."

"Why not join them if you want to be a hero?" Lex asked softly, throwing his hands up behind his head. "Do you still feel guilty because Mom was hurt and dad killed?"

"Because, Lex," Clark said softly. "Yes, I still feel guilty about mom and dad, but it's not that. There is so much going on in this world, so much I hear that I know the League doesn't get too and governments ignore. I am not looking to be a hero, I am looking to help. Between the two of us we can change the world, we've already done it
for so many."

Lex leaned forward, forming a steeple with his hand. He knew that there was no arguing with Clark when he was like this.

"What will you need?"

"I need my brother," Clark said with certainty. "The rest will take care of itself, as we change the world."

Lex shook his head and sighed. Sometimes he swore Clark was a complete alien…

"You place far to much faith in your, Unseen Man," his father admonished.

"He's never given me a reason not to place my faith in him," Lex snapped. "Every fight we have gotten in, we have never run from any of them and we have not been stopped. We've saved people."

"Saving people," his father sneered. "Why would you waste resources to save people?"

"Because in the end, good men do not turn away," Lex said softly. His eyes hardened as he met his father's. "What good is having things, when people suffer? What good is being remembered as only a monster who forced people to their will?

"Is this why you do this," his father growled. "To be remembered?"

Lex shook his head. It was the saddest thing about his own father, he never got it. "You don't get it, you never did."

"Enlighten me," he growled dangerously.

"I do this, because my brother expects better of me," Lex all but screamed. "I do this because a man who was not my father, sacrificed himself to save me. I do this because he wanted me to be a better man, and I will, by god, be that man. He expects me to give a damn, and I will not let his gift to go to waste. You would understand if you ever had something you cared about besides yourself, you pompous asshole."

His father looked taken aback.

"How…"

"I dare, because you have grown to believe that strength only comes through what you can force from people," he snapped. "You never understood strength. Strength comes when you're broken and afraid, and can still find the courage to go on. Strength isn't people remembering how you forced your will on them, it's how they remember you in their hearts. Maybe if you had the courage for anything after mom died you would realize that you asshole."

His father looked to respond when he felt a delicate hand on his shoulder. He looked back to see the mysterious guard that had taken to protecting Lex.

"Leave," she whispered. "You will not be warned again."

He turned, looking at his son in spite, and then stormed from the room.

"Why do you keep him around," the woman asked, looking at the retreating form of his father.

"Because in the end, he is my father," Lex turned back to the window. He could see explosions in the distance. "I don't have the heart to be the monster my father would be."

"Not anymore," she admitted, looking back at him. She suddenly closed her eyes. "It feels like he is here."

He still wondered about the connection between Isane and Clark. It was after a mission to Japan where he met her, she was just thirteen when they met. She had become a permanent fixture in their lives, even becoming his qusai-bodyguard, and yet he still didn't have the full story of what happened. Clark's only response was that it was her story to tell.

"Yes, it does," Lex turned from the window and sat at his desk. He could see a small dot falling from the sky, directly towards the fight between the League and Doomsday. "You know someday you're going to have to tell me how you know when he is around."

She smiled, eight years with them had done her good. She was so meek when she came to them, like the world had beaten her down. "You taking odds on how badly he beats Zod?"

"Early estimates are five thousand people have died," Lex shook his head. "I don't think there is a way for me to give you odds on what he will do, forcing him from the shadows is going to piss him off. The deaths will leave him murderous."

She smiled. "I understand, sir."

"Stop that," Lex snapped playfully. The girl was more a sister than an employee, he would never force her to call him that. "How many times have I have to tell you to call me Lex?"

"At least once more," she smiled cheekily. "He's going to be in for a hard fight."

Lex nodded. "All we can do is put faith in him."

"After all," she said looking at the screen as the newscrew that had been covering the destruction caught sight of him. Clark's forearm took a full shot from Doomsday, and then he punched the beast sending it into Zod. "The Unseen Man doesn't know when to quit."

"You really need to stop following the blog posts about him," Lex groaned.

Isane laughed.