Elseworlds: Book Two

Infinite Worlds

Note:

Okay, everyone, I'm back with the first chapter in the second story in my Elseworlds trilogy. I hope you guys have been anxiously awaiting it and I also hope that it lives up to your expectations. You can expect to see some of the characters from the mirror universe, as well as a couple of new characters from a couple of other universes. I can't promise you that I'll get this story updated as quickly as the last one. It's been pretty busy at my job lately and my home computer is still in the shop. So, I'll try to get it updated weekly at the least. Maybe twice a week. Anyway…on with the show!

Chapter One

Earth Ninety-Seven

12:58 A.M.

Professor Emil Hamilton leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. He had been staring at the computer monitor in front of him all evening. He got up and walked across the nearly empty laboratory to the small room that served as a kitchen to get a cup of coffee. He had only been in this new space for a couple of days, since Lionel Luthor had decided to move him out of his secret base in the cellar of his mansion and put him in a lab at LuthorCorp. Most of his equipment was still in Smallville.

He cursed silently under his breath as he realized that his assistant had not put on a new pot of coffee before she had left for the day. It was not really part of her duties to do so, but there had always been an unspoken rule that the rookies made the coffee for the real scientists. He shrugged and put a couple of scoops into a filter and filled the coffee maker with fresh water.

When he stepped back into the spacious white room he noticed that the numbers on the small screen above the elevator doors were changing. Slowly they climbed from one to twelve. It would only be a moment before they reached twenty-four, which was where he was now. Hamilton knew that his floor and all of the ones above it contained nothing but LuthorCorp's most secret experiments, which meant that anyone on the elevator had to have a key to bring it that high. He walked over to the elevator and patiently waited until the numbers halted and the doors spread apart.

"Good evening, Emil," Lionel Luthor said as he stepped out of the elevator. He was still limping and relying on a cane for support after his injury the week before. "Working hard?"

"Of course, Mr. Luthor," Hamilton replied. "I'm following your orders to the letter."

Luthor looked around at the mostly empty room as he took off his long black coat and hung it over the crook of his arm. He nodded.

"But you don't agree with them," he said. Hamilton made no comment to this remark. He glanced at the floor as Luthor continued to look around. "Show me what you've been doing."

Hamilton nodded and led his employer across the floor to the small computer work station that he had been sitting in front of for the past several hours. He sat down in front of the monitor as Luthor stood behind him, looking over his shoulder. Hamilton tapped the keyboard a few times and he brought up a picture of Luthor's son, Lucas. The skin on Lucas' face was stripped away and they found themselves looking at a cross section of the young man's brain.

"I've been working on all of them," Hamilton said. "But this is an image from Adam. He's the first one that we created when we started collecting samples of Lucas' DNA."

"My first failure as a father," Luthor replied. "Certainly not my last."

Hamilton made no response before he went on. "Adam's brain is completely intact and capable of sustaining his vital systems. If he were exposed to the atmosphere, he would be able to breathe and so forth. However, I have not opened up the conscious part of his mind. And, per your orders, I've been erasing the files on the memory and training programs that I had developed for download."

Luthor nodded. "I'm sorry that I had to ask you to do this, Emil. I know that the clones were your life's work. But you're only in your mid-thirties. You'll have more experiments with which to form your legacy." Hamilton took a breath as if he wanted to say something, but then he closed his mouth again. "I can see that you're wanting to express yourself. Go ahead."

"With all due respect, sir," Hamilton said. "It's not my legacy that I'm concerned over. These clones are not just mindless automatons. They're living creatures. You say that you've changed after the events of last week, but then you condone the murder of ten innocent young men."

"I never said that I wanted them killed, Emil," Luthor replied. "Bring them up."

Hamilton tapped a few keys on his computer and a large area of the floor in front of them slid away. Ten cylinders emerged from below. They were all about eight feet tall and were filled with a yellowish liquid. Suspended inside of each of them was a man that looked exactly like Lucas Luthor, all the way down to the small birthmark on his right shoulder. There was a name plate above each of them that bore the name that Hamilton had designated to them on the day that they had grown to maturity. Luthor stepped over and looked into the expressionless face of Adam. His brother, Brice, hung in suspended animation next to him. And then Caleb and on down the line.

"There's nothing here, Emil," he said. "They're just empty shells. And their very existence is a reminder of the wrongs that I committed during the last two decades."

"I could download a facsimile of Lucas' memories into one of them," Hamilton offered. "He would think that he was Lucas. You could have another chance."

"Lucas is dead," Luthor said. "I caused him to break and to kill. He redeemed himself in the end, giving his life to save the life of his double. I can be proud that in the end he became what I believe he was sent here to be…a hero."

"But you're denying these men the right to do the same," Hamilton said. "They have all of the powers that Lucas had. I've even opened up their genetic material a little more to allow them even more abilities. I'm pretty sure that they would be able to fly. And I'm taken away their vulnerability to meteor rocks of any color. That's something that I was never able to do with Lucas because I didn't have access to his cells as they were forming. They could be team of heroes, Mr. Luthor. And you're going to take all of that away from them."

"I've thought over all of that, Emil," Luthor said as he strode back over to the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee. He poured one for Hamilton as well and brought it over to him. "I dreamed of forming a kind of LuthorCorp security team that could travel the world and avert disasters. Before last week I had wanted to sell the technology to Quran for a generous price. Or even rent them out as mercenaries. The possibilities are endless. But, unfortunately, so are the risks. What if I allow them to keep their powers and they find out what they are? Who's to say that they won't experience the same mental snap that Lucas did and go on a rampage? Lucas nearly destroyed Smallville Medical Center. Not to mention the damage that he did to the mansion. Can you imagine the damage that ten enraged Kryptonian males could do to a city like Metropolis? Now, tell me where you are in the second part of your work."

Hamilton turned back to his computer and punched in a series of codes. The picture of the clone's brain disappeared and was replaced with the outline of a human body. Red lines moved throughout the body almost as if they were looking at the blood flow.

"I've created a modified x-ray machine that produces radiation that is equivalent to that given off by a red dwarf star," Hamilton said, gesturing to the images and schematics on the monitor. "It will fuse to their cells and cancel out the abilities that they possess due to exposure to our sun's rays."

"Why not just expose them to the green meteor rocks?" Luthor asked. "It stripped Clark of his powers when he came over."

"That could kill them," Hamilton said. "And even if it didn't, Clark was extremely weak until I gave him the serum that released the pent up solar energy in his cells. They can't go through life like that." He brought up another screen that showed another cross section of the brain. He knew what all of the codes that ran alongside it meant, and just assumed that Luthor did as well. Luthor seemed as though he understood and Hamilton did not dare to question otherwise. "After that's done, I'll download a memory program that is just advanced enough for them to function and to learn. They will not know anything other than their name."

"Good," Luthor replied. "I'm going to have each of them taken to a different location and placed there. They will be given money, and then they will be on their own." He smiled at Hamilton. "They will be fine, Emil. There was a time when I would simply have ordered their destruction. But I want them to live as much as you do. I may even want it more. These clones are all that is left of my son."

Hamilton nodded. "When do you want me to begin the introduction of red radiation?"

"When can you begin?" Luthor asked.

"It will take me about two hours to get them out of the cylinders and breathing on their own," he replied. "I suppose that I can begin after that."

"I'm afraid that I'm going to have to delay your plans."

Hamilton had thought that it was Luthor's voice that he had heard, but realized that the words had come from behind him. He turned around in his chair and saw a form standing in the shadows of the far side of the room. Hamilton had only bothered to turn on the lights in the section that he was going to be working. Now, a stranger stood in the darkness. As soon as both men had turned to him, he began to walk toward them. When he had stepped out into enough light to see his face, Hamilton could see that he was looking into another version of his own face. This Hamilton was sporting a full beard in opposition to his own clean shaven face. And he was not wearing glasses. He was looking at both men with a hint of evil gleaming in his eye, which went along well with the revolver that he had leveled at them.

"Emil?" Luthor asked. "You're Emil Hamilton from another world?"

"Yes," the other man said with a trace of boredom in his voice. "However, I stopped going by that name a couple of years ago. It gets a bit confusing when you crossover as much as I do. My name is Samson Wentworth."

"Samson Wentworth?" Hamilton asked. "That's my grandfather's name in reverse."

"On my mother's side," Wentworth said. "You're correct."

"How did you get here?" Luthor asked, stealing an occasional nervous glance at the gun in the man's hand. Wentworth motioned to a far corner where Hamilton had stored the projector that he had used to send Clark and Chloe home. At the moment it was in severe disrepair. The last use had taken a lot out of it and Hamilton had been so busy with his move and his work with the clones that he had not taken a second look at it.

"I've perfected the technology that piece of crap utilizes," Wentworth replied. "I don't shoot myself with a laser or anything. My way is much less painful. And a lot quieter I might add. And that's useful when you're trying to sneak up on someone with a gun." He smiled.

Hamilton could see that whatever world this man had come from had to have done something to him to make him so sinister. It had taken all the courage that he could muster to attack Clark with a meteor rock when he had thought him to be Lucas. He could never imagine holding an innocent person at gunpoint. And yet he was watching himself do just that.

"What do you want?" Luthor asked.

"First, I want you to shut up," Wentworth replied. "I can't even believe you're here. Are you as corrupt in this world as you are in most of the others that I've been to? Because, if you are, you may want to begin putting your affairs in order. Eighty-five percent of the Lionel Luthors in the multiverse have been murdered by someone that he double crossed. I just thought that you should know that."

"That's good to know," Luthor said. "Why don't you put down that gun and we can talk about the rest of your demands?"

"Why don't you shut up?" Wentworth said, aiming the gun directly at Luthor. "Or should I just go ahead and kill you? Because Hamilton and his clones are what I'm really after!"

Hamilton cocked his head. "What do you know about my clones?"

"We've been trying to perfect cloning technology for years," Wentworth said. "Different versions of you and I have successfully cloned different animals and plants. One cloned a woman, but she died. You are the only one that cloned a Kryptonian male that is immune to kryptonite."

"I'm probably the only one that had unlimited access to a subject," Hamilton said.

"Probably," Wentworth said. "I've been watching you work over the last few months, and I've figured out all of the things that you did right that the others did wrong. And the program that you wrote to download memories into their brains was genius. You won't have to train them. Just program ninjitsu into their brains and you've got a bunch of super powered ninjas."

Hamilton did not know what to say to all of these compliments coming from a man that was waving a gun in his face. He gulped. "Thank you?" He said it more as a question than a statement.

"You're welcome, Professor," Wentworth said, staring in admiration at the ten clones lined up before him. "I'm just sorry that I'm going to have to take them from you."

"You're what?" Hamilton asked.

"I'm taking your clones," Wentworth said. "As a matter of fact, I'm taking the whole lab." He picked up Luthor's coffee cup and took a sip. "This, too. Thanks."

"Professor Wentworth…" Luthor started.

"I'm not a professor," Wentworth said. "I actually have a PhD in twenty-three different fields. Nine of them are not even available in this dimension. So I'd appreciate it if you'd call me 'doctor'."

"Very well," Luthor corrected himself. "Doctor Wentworth, this building will be crawling with security in just a few hours. You won't be able to hold out very long against them. They are trained to take down an attacker, even if you succeed in killing Emil and I."

"I'm not going to kill you, Lionel," Wentworth said. "At least, I hope that I won't have to. I'm going to need Emil's help. And don't worry about the security. I said that I'm taking the lab…not the building. By the time your over glorified football team arrives the lab will not only no longer be a part of the building, it will no longer be a part of this Earth."

Hamilton sighed and shook his head. That did not sound good.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Samson Wentworth had Luthor and Hamilton sit down in the break area. He closed and locked the door, but only after being sure that he had collected both of their cell phones and any other items that could be used as either a weapon or a means of escape. It crossed Hamilton's mind that his counterpart had done this before, and had seemed to have gotten good at it.

Is this what I'm capable of? he thought. He had been a part of shady dealings in the past, especially during his tenure as Luthor's own private mad scientist. But he had never actively gone about pointing guns at people. In this world his careers focus had been on the creation of the Lucas clones. Evidently, if he had pursued his interdimensional travel theories, he could have turned out to be like Doctor Wentworth.

"What do you want with them?" he asked as Wentworth was closing the door.

"You'll find out in due time, Professor," his double replied. "Please, don't do anything foolish. I've had to kill you twice since I started doing this. Each time it really makes me feel awful." He looked at Lionel Luthor. "And if I killed you I'd only be fulfilling the multiverse legacy. Let's see how long one Lionel Luthor can survive. Shall we?" He closed the door and they heard the dull click as the locking mechanism fell into place.

"Why the hell would you put a lock on the break room?" Luthor asked.

"I didn't design this building," Hamilton replied. "This is LuthorCorp. Remember?"

"What do you suppose he's up to?" Luthor asked. "What could he want with the clones?"

"If he has plans of world domination then ten super powered young men would give him an advantage," Hamilton said.

Luthor nodded. "Especially since the meteor rocks have no effect on them. They have no weakness. There will be no way to stop them."

"None that I know of," Hamilton said. "I had a few fail-safes in the program that I was going to download into them, but I had just finished erasing all of that data when you came in."

"Why did we create those things?" Luthor asked himself out loud.

"Fame and fortune," Hamilton said with a hint of contempt in his voice. "Those are both things that you've never been able to refuse."

Luthor nodded. He sat back and closed his eyes. Every life that was taken after this moment would be on his hands.

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Samson Wentworth reached into his pocket and pulled out a small device that looked like a television remote. It was silver and had only a few buttons on it. He pointed one at the center of the large room, only a few yards from where the clones floated mindlessly in their cylinders. The air in that area began to wave and shimmer as if something were causing an intense heat. After a moment there was a flash of light and a loud crashing sound and then everything was quiet. In the space where there had been nothing before there was now a tower of wires and computer parts that reached from the floor all the way to the ceiling. Wentworth pressed another button on his controller and lights began to flash on and off all over the structure. A pulse of green light emitted from the bottom and flashed its way all the way to the top over and over again. And a gentle, constant hum filled room, giving testament to the amount of raw energy being produced by this device.

Wentworth smiled and chuckled softly to himself. He walked over to the object and chair materialized in front of him. It was attached to it and he sat down, facing one of the many computers housed in the tower's structure. He hurriedly tapped in a series of commands that he had evidently typed out so many times that it was second nature. After a few minutes there was a soft whirring sound as small compartments opened up in the top of the tower. Little silver rods emerged from inside and there was a crack and sizzle as energy leapt out of them and connected them together with thin fingers of blue electricity. He typed in the last command and got up to get a safe distance away.

He covered his head as a bright blue light filled the room and a burst of energy suddenly erupted from the rods. The electricity that had been crawling around the top of the tower now made its way outward, forming a shell around the lab. Wentworth watched in glee as the walls, ceiling, and floor of the room vanished before his eyes. He was now standing in an area that was nothing more than a bright blue light. He could still see the tower, the computer station, and the cylinders that held the clones. Everything was still exactly where it should have been in relation to one another in the laboratory. But now it all looked as if it were floating in a blue cloud.

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Hamilton and Luthor nearly jumped out of their skin at the thunderous sound coming from the other room. They shot up out of their chairs. Hamilton rushed forward to pound on the door just as that same door was vanishing. He stepped through the space where the wall had been and fell to the floor. Only then did he realize that the floor itself was gone. He turned back and looked at Lionel Luthor. The man looked as if he were standing on nothing. It almost looked as if he were flying over a dark blue cloud that was constantly rumbling with energy. The coffeepot and the microwave oven were still there, but they, too, seemed to be floating.

"What have you done?" Hamilton asked as he turned to Wentworth. The double was looking up at his tower in astonishment.

"Don't you like it?" Wentworth said. "You created it. Or at least the version of you on Earth Seventeen created it before I killed him and took it."

"What on earth is it?" Luthor asked.

"It's not on Earth, Mr. Luthor," Wentworth replied. "And, I might add, neither are you. We're in a sort of multiverse purgatory. We are currently not located on any world in the multiverse."

"That's not possible," Hamilton said. "If we were not in any world then we effectively would not exist."

"Effectively, we don't," Wentworth said. "If this shell that I've set up around us were to give away right now then we would all be gone forever. But from this place you can travel to any alternate dimension that you choose, or just observe what's happening in them. That's how I knew when to come to you. I knew when you were about to get rid of these boys."

"What are you going to do now?" Luthor asked.

"I'll tell you all about that in time," Wentworth said. "Right now I have to get the boys out of those stupid cylinders."

"No!" Hamilton yelled, running forward. Wentworth turned just as the professor reached him and he put the pistol barrel to his forehead. Hamilton had nearly forgotten about the gun.

"I will kill you, Emil," he said. "I don't want to. But my work is much more important to me than your life. So step back over there and be quiet until I need you."

Hamilton nodded. He went back to where Luthor was still standing. Wentworth sat down in the chair at the computer station. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small USB key and plugged it into the console. Instantly the data stored on the key downloaded into the computer and the clone that was nearest to him began to stir slowly. Wentworth tapped another few keys and then turned to Hamilton.

"I need you to drain the cylinder and let him out," he said.

"You don't realize what you're doing," Hamilton said.

"I know exactly what I'm doing," Wentworth replied. "Now let him out."

Hamilton slowly went over and sat down at the console. He punched in his authorization code and a few commands. The liquid in the cylinder drained out into a hole. They could see the liquid falling out into the void that surrounded them, but it vanished almost as quickly. Then the cylinder lifted up from around the clone. Hamilton turned and looked at Wentworth.

"Are you satisfied?" he asked.

"No," Wentworth replied. "Go and wake him."

Hamilton took another look at his creation. Luthor had ordered him to strip them of their powers and he had tried to come up with any way possible to stop that from happening. Now, he not only wished that they had done it the day before, but he wished that he had never created them in the first place.

He tapped in a final command into the console and walked over to where the boy was standing.

"Adam," he said. "Can you hear me? This is your father. Wake up, Son."

The clone opened its eyes and looked at him. He opened his mouth. His voice sounded eerily like Lucas' but with an almost robotic tone.

"Hello, Father," he said. Then he ripped his hand from the shackle that held it and grabbed Hamilton by the throat, lifting him into the air. "I'm awake!"

End of chapter one.