"Young Justice New World Chronicles"
"The Lost Son"
By Heliosion
Chapter 1: A Hard First Day On The Job
Disclaimer: I obviously don't own the DC universe or its affiliates for if I did I wouldn't have grown men flying around with their underwear on the outside of their spandex pants. Or make a superhero whose special power is driving a taxi.
Oh yeah this is based in an original multiverse world. In this case Earth X for this is a fanfiction and I haven't had the opportunity to read every single comic produced by DC hence continuity will suffer so I will create my own in the spirit of Young Justice.
On a side note I would like to thank Jessesgirl1549 for the existence of her fics for sparking my imagination. Thank you and please check her out. She is a wonderful writer.
Constructive reviews only people
XreviewX
"In other news, Congress passed an economic bill promoting foreign trade with the previously restricted nation of Kaznia after its twelve years civil war ended last year. Delegates from both sides came to an agreement over energy, reconstruction and the distribution of humanitarian aid. On the scene is…"
"Hey kid," growled his supervisor, "You got customers."
He took his eyes from the pretty blonde newscaster on the television and put on his business smile for the bald rotund man wearing a tailored suit that was first in line. He automatically turned on the coffee machine and greeted the new customer, who had a line of thirsty, caffeine deprived people looking equally irritated waiting close behind.
"Hello, how might I help you today, sir?" he drawled from behind the counter. God, this job had been boring; not unlike the other equally mind numbing jobs Lex assigned to him to pay his way. But this had to be the worst one so far. It was like the CEO of Luthor Corp was taking great pleasure in torturing him in the hope his little journey would be completed all the faster and the working teen would desire to return home. It was spiritually breaking work, demanding much with little bounty for his efforts. Learning how to operate this coffee machine had taken longer than expected requiring more use from his eidetic memory than normal. Besides, learning how to pacify caffeine addicts needing a fix had been something to test the patience of a god.
It was just as well he had learned to temper his urge to punch his fist through the coffee machine. He was convinced the inanimate object was somehow mocking him.
"I would like an espresso and one of your muffins please," the man asked, sweat dripping from his fattened brow. This had to be one of the higher ups on level seven. It was like a badge of superiority; the higher you went the fatter and unfit you became until, at the very top, you magically became toned and healthy like Lex was. Well, at least for a human.
The coffee shop that straddled the nearby Luthor Corp building was also one of the businesses owned by Luthor Enterprises as a whole. It never stopped seeing action; being manned twenty four hours a day, mostly for the sake of the company's night staff. Still, there was a steady stream of outsiders that fuelled up here regularly both day and night.
"What kind of muffin?" he asked. The teenager was amazed at how well he was barely hiding his boredom by looking through the lens of his fake glasses like he was paying full attention to him. If nothing else, this job was teaching him acting skills.
Spending so much time among the humans was teaching him many things about their way of life. He had travelled through many cities and traversed the farmlands of this fine nation. He had taken the time to see all walks of life, observing both common folk and meta-humans alike. The hypocritical standards some held to in their daily lives and the true joys they held onto every day…
His only conclusion so far was that some of humanity was approvable, while others was more grey than black. Like this man here, someone who had probably worked hard from college to climbing up the company ladder to the executive position he held now. But the man no doubt hoarded his gold once he was secure in his cave of power and had lost at least some of the goodness he depended on to get there.
"In other news, the worst case of flooding in twenty years in Nigeria was resolved thanks to the efforts of the Justice League. Superman, the chairman of this illustrious group had this to say earlier today."
The teenager tuned out after hearing the newscaster speak. She was his favourite news anchor and he had actually met the woman in question the day she was hired. The statement from the styled 'man of steel' on the other hand would only create conflicting feelings that he had no intention of dealing with in the near future. He now turned his interest back to his customer with pudgy cheeks that were flush from being ignored.
"I said I would like a banana muffin," he grunted, barely hiding his contempt at having to talk so much to the little person serving him his lunch. The teen immediately pigeonholed this man in the category of greedy man who had been blinded by his power in the world. It was kind of funny though. For all that power, if only he knew that with one call Lex would probably reassign him to the Alaska oil drilling station. This thought brought a sense of pleasure that he knew at a basic human level was supposed to be wrong to appreciate.
It begged the question why humanity suppressed what it liked so much. What was there to be afraid of? Did society cook up this belief system? And just how demented were they? Or were they trying to for some reason put themselves apart from the rest of creation that lived and breathed on this planet? Again, the question begged the worker. Why did humanity uphold this flawed system?
"Banana muffin and one espresso," the teenager repeated to make sure nothing had been left out or misheard. His supervisor, the handlebar moustache sporting Mr Pillar wearing his Luthor Coffee supervisor jacket with his name tag proudly exclaiming his ten years of service on it was glaring at him. By now the teen had hoped to have been fired from this job but his surname was protecting him. Well at least for now. "That will be $6.95 please sir."
The man handed over ten dollars and wavered accepting the change, causing the worker to raise an eyebrow as this kind of people was usually a greedy bunch. With well-practised ease earned over the course of three months he made the espresso and used his tongs to extract the last of the banana muffins onto a plate. While the man was just like any other suit, his eidetic memory remembered them all as individuals and knew their preferences. It had gotten to the stage that he never bothered to ask if they were sitting in or taking away.
"What is your name?" demanded the served customer leering behind his spectacles at the nametag on his black company uniform. As usual, like the other ten people who asked this week the man paled and nearly lost his footing. "I'm sorry Mr Luthor sir," the man quailed unnecessarily before he fled to one of the couches next to the newspaper stand.
"That never changes," the teen known as Luthor by surname thought. "They love being an ass to the small people, but once they take a good look at who I am they change. Humanity is stupid, and I have no idea why they act like this to each other."
"Hey Conner," his supervisor drawled, "You scare another one away with your daddy's name?"
This man Conner Luthor could respect. He never bowed down to anyone and despite embodying obnoxiousness and revelling in being a bastard to everyone that was within shouting distance, the man never showed any sign of being intimidated by his foster father; you know, the man who paid his salary. Once this job was completed, Conner intended to tell Lex to promote him for the size of his balls in ignoring Conner's station in life. He was still intimidated by the potential power a name provided a human being, and the short cut, raven haired teen's mind boggled at the class system modern people insisted didn't exist anymore.
So much hypocrisy ignored, yet it was nice for one human at the very minimum to be straight to him like his foster father. The father figure claimed 'honesty was the currency of those secure in their power'. Lex always seemed to be trying to teach him something when he said that, but Conner felt this was a life lesson yet to be understood. The Genomorphs had only instilled intelligence not wisdom.
"As usual," Conner tried to joke but humour was a cultural affair. One man's laughter was another man's disgust. They had humour about everything; jokes about race, religion, culture and current events between nations and all mixed in what was deemed acceptable and what constituted something that gave reasons to wage war. Some jokes could mean something only in one place while others could be appreciated worldwide. His so far was practised from two years of living life and most called it dry.
Conner figured it was better than having no sense of humour at all. That was what his supervisor was supposed to be lacking, according to his colleagues banished to the kitchen behind him washing dishes after trying to be humorous with the boss.
"Maybe we should put it in big letters on your shirt and we can stop them complaining about the slow service, huh?" the supervisor drawled, pointing to the line of customers still waiting. "Mind you, not all of our customers have daddy paying their golf club membership, so get back to work."
Conner had learned with consequences the one time he challenged that statement. Even with super abilities worthy of a god, fighting a war of wits with an old veteran, such as Mr Pillar, was suicidal. Even with super powers, Conner quailed at the power of his tongue.
"Yes Mr Pillar," Conner submitted, turning with the biggest falsehood that one would call a smile to a harried young blonde with two cell phones, one in each ear, while tapping something into a Blackberry. The woman tried to signal she was almost finished with her calls, not that this pacified the impatient customers waiting behind her.
Conner was curious about her supposed important phone calls, which were holding up the taped off line that ran from the glassed door to the busy city outside right through to the counter. It passed through four open planned areas filled with colourful seating, computers and customers watching the television or chatting with friends. Indulging this curiosity, he listened in with his super hearing.
Only to be assaulted from all corners with background noise. This was how Conner spent his spare time sometimes. He learned so much from eavesdropping on people and at the same time fine-tuned his more delicate abilities. In his wanderings, he had heard the best of people and the worst. From wife beating husbands, who were telling their wives or kids how worthless they were, to angry businessmen cheating on their wives in hotel rooms to brighter pictures of life like priests giving sermons or babies being born in maternity hospitals to happy families. Humanity was a curse filled with complexities beyond even its own understanding.
But while it had taken him minutes to rein in its full potency (he was hearing people in the suburbs complain about the hose pipe ban), rather than seconds as was in his brain's manual about the theory behind his superpowers supplied by Cadmus, his control was improving. In sparsely populated areas, it was as easy as turning on the coffee machine since he was able to forego the wince that came with accepting a million decibels of gobbledegook that bred like locusts in developed zones.
"Those reports for the McMillan contract had better be completed by seven, Amanda," drawled one severe woman on one cell phone. "Or the boss will have both of our hides."
"I want blue cheese in my bagel, Amanda," barked another equally demanding albeit squeaky woman on the other cell phone, "And don't forget my dry cleaning again."
It was typical human stuff when addressing their servants. Lex was just as needy towards his own, despite his capabilities only; he worded it in such a way the woman named Mercy hadn't quit from her first job for ten years. The bald intellectual could order her, scold her, hell, he threatened her that one time with firing her for losing documents that gotten into the hands of the State department about some sensitive project, but the charismatic captain of enterprise made you feel all fuzzy when he spoke to anyone.
But his thoughts of sociology were interrupted by the woman finishing her business on both phones and storing them into her pockets, with the blackberry operated with one hand while the other was extracting her wallet. She looked at him, harangued, but still pleasant enough with her lopsided glasses pausing to correct them with her pinkie finger. Her cheap, polyester suit symbolised her stature at the bottom of the pecking order but that humanity she wielded, like a cloak from her true feelings, was courteous enough to not have been as downtrodden as the owner.
In his experience and understanding of the world, those sweet, naive types usually lost their sparkle after a few years of being treated like dirt, while dastardly, more opportunistic colleagues zoomed past them for promotion and respect. Conner thought that part of the human condition sucked, but enjoyed the woman's outlook before real life wormed its way in.
"Could I have a blue cheese bagel and two cups of coffee?" she asked kindly, "Black," she added, "I'm sorry for slowing you down."
It was people like this that made Conner work as fast as his legs could move. His coffees were on at super speed (for a human being, of course) and a loud declaration to the kitchen had the minions scuttling to work. Meanwhile, his supervisor had taken over another till and started taking orders. Why he hadn't ever done this before, the disgruntled queue was large enough to spill out into the busy urban street, the teen would never figure out.
While Amanda waited for her order, she scuttled to the side to avoid collision with the meaty road worker who had been working on the road works outside in all his fluorescent, orange glory. He had tucked his hardhat with ear protectors attached under his arm and his boots were dirtying what had been a clean, white tiled floor in some combination of sand and wet bitumen.
"Sixteen coffees," he asked, well, more like ordered. Here was an example of humanity that defied the rules on upper classes looking down on the lower orders of life. It almost brought a smile to Conner's face, to the different sorts of power men wielded over each other. Be it this muscled mass glaring behind his unshaven face or the businessman giving him darted looks behind the shelter of his broadsheet that was upside down.
"Is that just sixteen coffees?" Conner asked calmly, using what he had learned about dealing with rough types by crossing his arms to let his deceptive muscles bulge on his forearms. The man seemed nonplussed and stood up to his full height that was nearly two inches more than the teen.
"Yeah," the man gruffly confirmed, "Sixteen coffees."
Conner swiftly produced the wanted beverages, but with service that your average slug would offer. His supervisor had taken six customers before the bagel requested by the woman earlier was given; her order completed, the frightened woman fled without saying her goodbyes and punched the order for the coffees into the till.
"That will be $22 with our special offer with two for the price of one," Conner stated. The man produced the full amount in dirty bedraggled dollar bills; Conner could feel the chill of his supervisor's ire at having to handle that when it was time to cash up. The road worker accepted his lunch order and left, sending people scurrying away like every step he made caused tremors in the ground instead of muddy floors that Conner would probably have to clean later when the rush tapered off.
"Hey, rich boy," Mr Pillar prompted, "Go clean up the tables. I can have Chen man your till."
"Yes, Mr Pillar," Conner said, cleaning his hands on his green apron. He strolled round the corner and opened up the divider with one hand while claiming a fresh tray with the other. Bypassing the crowd that was sandwiched between him and his goal, Conner picked up some unsavoury comments made under a customer's breath and reached his destination.
The table was occupied by teenage girls, around his physical age and they had their own style of making Conner feel small. They rattled away about the life he should know of. Favourite movie stars, music and culture that was still very alien to him. He was not a fan of modern music, his ears preferred hearing words that belonged to the English dictionary and slow enough to comprehend without super hearing. The violent movies they watched reminded him of the moulding Cadmus tried to implant into him, furthering his discomfort from old issues that he hated to think on. But like any super person, Conner persevered and approached their table to take their empty cups.
"No, Kid Flash is kind of cute," a red head with a dimpled chin and wearing more skin than clothes argued. Her two friends were made to stare at her cell phone.
"Well, if you like boys, I suppose," the second, with obvious dyed red hair, said condescendingly, trying to sound like an elder with wisdom before her time, "But for me, the Flash is a man. Just like the other men of the Justice League."
"Yes, like Superman," a third, someone Conner found attractive (he was still a growing, hormonal man) with black hair and sparkly, blue eyes. He took more notice of her genuine and shy body language (again thank Cadmus and the Genomorphs) that the teenager found he could understand and relate to compared to her fast living, irresponsible friends. It was just a shame that the smile belonged to his father, his genetic donor and not him. It did make him wonder, for a brief heartbeat, if her knowing that would let her look at him like she did right now.
"This just in," the newscaster said loudly as the volume had been put up so everyone could hear, "The JLA has encountered and been decimated by an unknown enemy just outside of Metropolis after engaging it in many encounters between there and Ohio, where it first appeared. So far, reports state that it has brazenly smashed its way through everything, destroying towns and farmland that has come in its path and put most, if not nearly all, of the Justice League out of commission. Superman is continuing to engage and battle the creature, while the department for meta-human affairs has issued a statement giving the public their assurances that they are doing all they can."
The vibration in Conner's pants made the teen jump in surprise. Nobody but Lex had that number, and he never called him. The man, with his busy schedule, only found the time to e-mail him before the industrialist went to bed. This phone only rang when Lex was going to call in the favour.
Conner instantly dropped his tray with a clatter, startling everyone in the shop in the process and extracted the state of the art Android phone and answered it.
"We have a situation Conner," Lex's voice said calmly, "I need you put in the headset Mr Pillar will give you at the end of this conversation into your phone. Put it in and listen to the instructions the satellite navigation system gives you. It will lead you to a place to acquire the proper equipment."
"Is this about the incident on the news?" Conner asked.
There was silence for a moment. The longevity of it caused a shiver down the super powered human's spine as the man who possessed a will unbendable than the strongest steel and a heart more stout than the power of Superman seemed worried about something.
Did this threat actually endanger Metropolis itself? The majestic city of the East that rivalled New York in splendour and Gotham in beauty was Lex's home; damn the gods to hell if anything would destroy anything that belonged to Lex Luthor. No wonder Lex, who kept favours like party favours, was cashing this one in.
And, like any grateful man who was rescued, treated and cured for his genetic problems that came about escaping from Cadmus and the power that bought him his freedom from that cell, Conner Luthor would answer the call. Lex often called him his son and, like any good child, the Kryptonian hybrid owed Lex Luthor his life and loyalty.
That was just how the cookie crumbled. What the conclusion to everything was to him. Loyalty begot loyalty that was respected and executed to its inevitable conclusion.
"You will find out when you arrive at your destination," Lex said, "Fly safe Conner; don't bother to hide your abilities. Get here as fast as you can fly and I will arrange the media blackout. It will be easy with what is going on right now." Conner waited for more, but the dial tone soon beeped ominously and Conner went into action.
While not practised very much at using super speed, he was able to take off his apron, throw it into the air and stop next to the supervisor, waiting with an earpiece on like Conner hadn't moved at all. The minor delay had been from a millisecond miscalculation where he bumped one of the workers off her feet with the airstream his fast movements created and caught her, leaving burn marks on the floor that were still smoking.
Despite the super speed and the smoke that threatened to set off the fire alarm directly overheard, plus the flustered soccer mum, his supervisor didn't show any sign of surprise.
"The boss wants you somewhere and I have to be the one that gives you my damn company phone hands free kit." The supervisor slapped an earpiece into his hand, blinking red as it was already switched on and searching for devices. Once it stopped, Conner checked his phone and found it was connected. After slipping in his ear, he turned on a widget and a crisp male started issuing instructions to him.
"Um, boss, this probably means I won't be doing the nightshift tomorrow," Conner said almost sheepishly. "And excuse me," he said, inhaling and exhaling creating a gust of air that put out the smoke on the floor.
Again, the older man showed absolutely no alarm from his actions. "You were the worst employee I ever had, kid, so just go." The man actually had a dirty smirk on his chapped lips and nodded to the kitchen door. "Go before I take your last paycheque off you."
Conner was speechless. The man was joking with him! Conner Luthor, daddy's rich boy, the slacker, the waste of human flesh that was his useless worker was being offered respect? Had the older man just been playing one large joke on him? Once again, the concept of humour had kicked him down and was mocking him for his inability to understand it. But, instead of feeling negative about it, the former weapon was filled with a sense of accomplishment, as if the man had been testing Conner. The teenager felt he had passed it as well.
"I will do better in my next job, Mr Pillar," Conner said, shyly offering a slight smile. Mr Pillar just stared at him with those angry eyes he loved to use so much, cold like knives that soon became mirthful as the man bellowed with laughter into the silent café. He held onto his sides enjoying his private joke that not even Conner, the instigator, could figure out. Instead, the man grabbed him by the shoulder jarring the invulnerable teen forward like the supervisor was composed of kryptonite.
"Get going before the boss docks your pay for being late, Superboy," drawled his former boss, his face twitching from amusement. "And if you come back, be sure to actually work properly. I know what you can do now."
"Yes, sir," Conner said, sounding reluctant, before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. The humour he was planning to implement was untested and made the hybrid panic the second it left his lips. "But with all respects, sir, I would rather gouge out my eyes with a corkscrew than do this again."
The man laid stunned at the coarse humour and, for the first time, Conner was laughing first at the bewildered expression, with the lined brow nearly bringing his eyebrows up to his hair, or what was left of it. Then there was a titter, then another, before the entire silent café with just the news report before to provide some noise began to laugh, as his audience appreciated the effort. Conner relaxed, taking off his fake glasses and handing them to his boss.
"What is this?" he asked curtly with a raised eyebrow.
"A souvenir," Conner said, straight faced feeling bolder by the lack of curses, "Goodbye, sir." Conner then ran at super speed, whipping up a wind that sent girls wearing skirts screaming and sent discarded food wrappers flapping like a ticker tape parade to celebrate his escape from this job. He zoomed past the mass of bodies on the main streets of Star City, erratically zipping through them all, almost passing it at first before double backing and shrouding himself in the shadows of a residential block's red bricked alley.
There, the super person psyched himself up for flying. He had rarely taken to the sky, feeling naked against the barrage of superheroes that would find him. He still had crippling memories of escaping Cadmus and the aftermath of his destructive rampage upon awakening his meta-human genes that made the panicked and disorientated weapon use all his abilities to destroy the place that had trapped him. While slipping away the day before Lex appeared and offered his hand to the fledgling in rags, the JLA had appeared on the scene just prior to his escape and the power they wielded was frightening. Seeing his genetic donor scared him and the Batman and Wonder Woman…
But, it was a past he hated to remember. The times were deliberately put to the back of his mind, as they had been less than pleasant. Well, that was until Lex Luthor offered his hand and gave the teen the will to continue on and to forget what had occurred. It was the sheer trust provided without any attempt to command Conner, despite Lex's reputation; that made the teen use the powers he barely understood apart from inserted information and the physics behind the theory of flight.
Sure, he had flown a few times in night and out of the sight of men in dense woodland or behind mountains. But Conner Luthor had never flown in high altitudes before and the voice in the earpiece was telling him to ascend two kilometres into the air. He was filled with ambivalence towards it. His loyalty to Lex Luthor and the inevitable end to his carefree days as a free man were warring with each other. On one hand, Lex Luthor was his father, the man who brought him into the world, yet he had no real ties to him. Conner could be selfish and vanish into the ether. One swift flight as far away from America to Asia and disappear.
But that brought a horrible taste to his mouth, more foully than the rancid trashcans in the alley. Cadmus had instilled an urge to be loyal and trustworthy to the ones seen as his commanding officer. The general of his unit was Lex Luthor; no self-interest could win in a battle of his conscience.
It was to Metropolis then. Conner braced his knees and bounded into the air, allowing his flying powers and super speed to do the rest. Like a missile, he easily reached the skyline of Star city, using light fluffy clouds as concealment from any onlookers and extended his telescopic sight gaining a bird eye's view of the industrious city that was under the protection by the Green Arrow, one of the few members of the JLA without a super power and was the only reason he had arrived here. Normally, he avoided JLA members and their home turfs, but at the time, he felt smug after using the old 'hide a tree put it in a forest' trick to hide and stupidly tempted fate to bite him in the ass.
"It's for Lex," Conner chanted, starting a mantra. He reached deep into himself and soared into the air while following the instructions of satellite navigation. "It's for Lex," he continued thinking about it. He reached out with his telescopic vision and looked down onto the city below.
As he expected the fears from before had him up in arms and his powers operating at full pelt. His phobia of encountering high profile superheroes made him search for foes and his target alike, clumsily combing the city limits and beyond with his inexperienced power to act as a warning. He was waiting for the satellite navigation to send him to his next set of directions and that was the case until a cursory use of his super hearing heard something moving very fast and coming in his direction.
With his eyes watching the speed of the supersonic jet like it was merely moving swiftly instead of shattering the sound barrier many times over, a jet model Lex Luthor had personally designed for the US air force shot past him, shattering the sound barrier. Using alien appropriated technology with a Luthor Corp spin, the jet stopped just as easily as it had been moving and hovered in mid-air, implementing an anti-gravity well that made the Javelin aircraft the JLA use seem like toys if it weren't for their adaptability and that handy ability to travel large distances via wormholes. It was a large aircraft, about the size of a cold war cargo plane and streamlined to the teeth with a shiny metallic substance that repelled radar and other tracking systems. The two engines were blasting blue energy dead centre to maintain balance and offer sustenance to the energy field keeping the crew from turning into paste. On the top, a pair of red lights was lit on an unsealed hatch and Conner saw that as his welcome wagon.
Conner checked the interior with his x-ray vision and was unsurprised when he was repelled. Some kind of immersion dampener was causing reflections that diffused his x-ray enough to make him feel nauseous. While Superman could probably get around it with his experience it was like motion sickness to the teen and made him nauseous. It made the teen that used it the last time to find his neighbour's kitten when he stayed in Seattle wince from a headache.
He saw enough though to recognise certain uniforms moving on the plane to know this was his vehicle to the job at hand and while outpacing the jet the Superman entity shot into the hatch, opened it with a hand print scan and was inside within ten seconds. Okay, he banged his head off the door, leaving a sizeable dent, but in his defence, it was the nerves of dealing with this mystery problem and the unexplained shaking coming from the plane in uneven intervals like a restless big cat tied up in a sack, trying to escape.
Inside, after listening to the hatch automatically close it was a well-organised pandemonium of people, equipment and headless chickens posing as scientists. The large cargo bay was designed along the lines of functionality with nets destined to hold cargo, a conveyer belt for the small VTOL, a sleek silver triangle shaped objects packed one on top of the other. Team Luthor soldiers wearing similar armour to the titular Science Police, albeit more sophisticated and specialised, were in a line while another man ran them over with Geiger counter like devices that were actually looking for faults in their equipment. They were currently without their aerial assault gear, as they hung on the ceiling and held in place by the deviant gravity bubble found on the ceiling.
"Mr Luthor, sir," bellowed the Team Luthor commander, pushing aside a scientist that was monitoring something on a powerful computer. A glance had his telescopic sight spot a real time observation of a war going on; only the warriors were Superman and this grey monster just outside of Metropolis. "I am Commander Johnson, head of Team Luthor squad two. Please follow me. Mr Luthor provided you with some items; they will contain the mission parameters."
"What has happened so far?" he couldn't help but ask. The black haired teen was under no delusions, but as Lex once said, it was better to know all the facts before panicking. At least then you would have a legitimate reason to have that nervous breakdown.
"Well, sirs, hell shitted up something big, Mr Luthor," Johnson spoke frankly, "The worst breach, no, it would be better to call it the biggest disaster of national security since Pearl Harbour. We have the entire Justice League incapacitated, four of their apprentices in the hospital and we might just have to tell the President that we have to evacuate Metropolis since not even Superman can stop the monster the press is calling Doomsday."
The man left that for the scion of Superman to chew on while they marched. This was about the thing on the news. And it had defeated the Justice League? It was giving Superman a class in how to get his ass kicked as well? No wonder he was sent in. But where was Supergirl? Or where was the Martian Manhunter with powers rivalling the great man of steel, or the Green Lantern, with his intergalactic police force as well as his power ring to aid him, hell, even Wonder Woman? Was Johnson being literal when the complete Justice League had been dispatched by one being? After destroying armies of white Martians, rogue states and everything else thrown at them, just one soul had conquered them all at once? It almost seemed like he was having a nightmare and Conner was waiting to wake up.
The butterflies fluttered in his stomach uncontrollably. This had quickly become so much more than a mere outing working for Lex Luthor. This was worth millions of lives now, not just one man and his assets. Lex wanted him to protect what was his, or rather, what would be one day. An entire city and the big man wanted someone who used his heat vision enough times to count on one hand to go straight to the heavyweight division, sorry, the Superman division.
"What are you thinking, Lex?" Conner muttered, following the leader of the armoured patrol team. His bulky humanoid armour, green in colour (but had the ability to change colour), was deceptively light built like a turtle shell to manage the wings they used to fly on for later. His face was hidden by a visor; designed like night goggles that also searched in the infrared and acted as a Geiger counter. They stopped in an executive room, threadbare of luxury items with clothes hanging on a couch and a television screen.
"You can change in here while I debrief my men, Mr Luthor," the commander said with a salute, "I can now finally see what the big secret is." He left the room, closing the door behind him and leaving the teen to his own devices.
"What have you gotten me into?" Conner asked the empty grey wall. He unhooked his new clothing and unzipped the dust protector to reveal something that made the teen drop it. "You couldn't have replicated it?" Conner whispered, picking up and cradling the white body suit reminding him so much of the uniform he had been found in only minus a symbol, the shield of Superman that both he and Supergirl adorned their clothing. "And the need to replicate my solar suit too." His x-ray vision revealed wires riddled through it and a watch like device that he couldn't recognise. Sighing with reprehensible feelings, the escapee from Cadmus stripped, removing his silent earpiece and put the one piece uniform on. As it was fully slipped on it became snug to his body, emphasising his muscles. On his wrist, a red button on a touch screen glowed and he took the moment to press it.
The television screen came on and sitting behind a chair was Lex Luthor.
Lex Luthor was his usual businessman self. He may have a head smoother than a cue ball, he no less commanded absolute respect with his tailored suit and his executive high backed chair, deep enough to dig a den in. He was sitting behind a desk and was staring right at his foster son, with a cigar half finished in a glass ashtray and a glass of whisky in his hand.
"I set it so the monitoring system would alert me when you put your uniform on," Lex said, "I had no desire to see you naked," he japed deadpan that Conner offered a slight smile to despite the circumstances, "And I wanted you to get your orders from me personally."
"Is this?" Conner asked, leaving the question hanging but making it obvious with his eyes it was about the suit.
"Yes, it is based on the solar suit we found you in," Lex confirmed, "Though, we did add in a few improvements. We implemented a life support system and a two way communications device you will find in the dust jacket. You might have missed it."
Conner searched the discarded bag and found a tiny state of the art earpiece that he clipped to his ear. When it came into his ear, a metal plate popped out from its middle and enveloped the entire perimeter of his sensory organ.
"Is it working?" Conner asked.
"Sending test signal," Lex replied, making a piece of classical music play.
"Receiving," Conner confirmed.
"Good, also remember that watch transmits your status to us, as well. The electrodes can penetrate your flesh so if you are in danger my troop can help you."
"So, my mission is to help Superman?" The boy of steel hoped the incredulity of his words didn't reach his mentor's ears. It was a hopeless effort for the man never missed a trick, but Superman honestly worried him just as much as the being dubbed Doomsday.
Lex crossed his hands and leaned on his head with his hands. "That is exactly what I need you to do. This Doomsday, as the press have named it, has come out of literally nowhere, destroyed ten towns, killed nearly eight hundred people, while injuring three thousand more and caused four billion dollars of damage. Six hundred million of which was my property or what I had a stake in. It has defeated the entire Justice League in one attack, including the Flash, Martian Manhunter and even left Superman fighting a nonstop battle across state lines from Ohio to here, just outside of the city lines of Metropolis." Lex's stare became serious, furious yet pensive. "Nothing has even slowed it down and soon it will hit Metropolis. That cannot happen ever, Conner. Not only would it bankrupt the state of New York, there are eleven million people living here, and the haste of Doomsday has rendered evacuation plans too dangerous; everybody has been sent to the old nuclear bomb shelters, but they will not hold out either if both Superman and Doomsday battle it out in the city limits. So far, shockwaves from twenty miles away have been reported emanating from their blows that brought down concrete buildings and reduced fertile land to craters."
"And so, you need me to help Superman fight Doomsday or we risk losing all of Metropolis," Conner summarised nervously, "So, this is big enough that I need to be exposed?"
"Don't worry about that, Conner," Lex said reassuringly, taking a swig from his drink and puffing on his cigar "The American government declared me your guardian and I have friends in the Senate who will fight my corner when they discover what you are Conner Luthor and whose name you hold, my son."
Conner rarely heard the man use that term of endearment. It was like an occasional treat, a carrot on a stick that the man knew reading the guarded body of Lex Luthor as something he couldn't help do. It was part of his character as a man to hold rewards and had the tendency to do it to all his staff like training dogs to be loyal. But nonetheless, Conner felt a spark of pride, renewed strength from hearing the man say it. He knew he was being played like a fiddle and if this had been their first meeting the hybrid Kryptonian would have run for the hills.
It was just the way the man worked in his daily life. His silver tongue that made his words more powerful than the greatest songstress or temptress magic was why his company was such a highly driven, well-disciplined and most of all loyal employees that had a reputation to attract the best without poaching.
"Thank you," Conner said, "I can do it now, sir."
"Good," the CEO of Luthor Corp said eagerly, "You will be moving supersonic until you reach the site of the battle. From there, I have you lying in wait while we scramble all transmissions with the use of the Echo satellite we are moving into position right now. Then, you will be dropped into the battle zone, which we predict will be on the outskirts of Metropolis. Sensor scans from spy drones indicate that the proverbial last straw had been reached with Superman with his friends hurt and the city in chaos. The army has been unable to keep up with the battle and with a call they will withdraw. Your primary objective is to defeat Doomsday and secondary if possible keep the damage to the city at a minimum and hopefully out of the city entirely, Conner. At all costs, we must stop its rampage before it destroys the S.T.A.R. lab directly in its path and the chemical decommissioning plant owned by me there. If it should leak, the gas cloud would have horrific long term effects."
"Move in and stop Doomsday at all costs, Lex," Conner said eagerly. The mission pep talk was already helping him move along. The bald man had done the same for the time they had lived together. "I won't let you or Team Luthor down Lex, I promise."
Lex grinned happily and leant back into his chair, almost ecstatic looking. "When this is all done, I will treat you to the best, damn steak in Metropolis. I had better get back to coordinating the shutdown of the plant here. You better be careful now, and make sure you contact the pilot to access our records on Doomsday. Use the bottom left button on this monitor to be patched through. I will be watching you, so make me proud."
The screen went black and the watch on his wrist started to show a miniature representation of his body, a bar indicating signal strength and the efficiency of something called the molecular adaption system. The radio signal on his communications link changed also to receive chatter from the troops inside the plane warning them to hold onto something. Then, Conner felt a jerk probably from the sudden shift to supersonic speeds.
Soon, the world of Conner Luthor was on the fringes of changing forever. This day Superman and the Justice League of America would be aware of his existence. To the power of the manmade weapon born from the blood of the world's greatest hero, who possessed the meta-human genes of their finest home grown heroes and the mystery female DNA that not even Lex Luthor could figure out where it had come from. What they thought was the genetic material given to him by his unsuspecting mother, or at least Conner hoped for in his heart of hearts that she didn't know about him.
He didn't think he could handle that, to be honest. But no matter his fostered family, Lex Luthor was there for him. His bastion Conner used against the darkness and the man who started him on his path. Conner, despite all his reservations, would rise to the challenge. Doomsday was as good as dead. So what if Superman was being beaten bloody by this anonymous foe? The greatest titan ever, seen by man being trounced would be short lived once his heir flew in to help.
That was what he kept telling himself to psych up his sudden, trembling hand again. His fear was natural. Conner Luthor was untested in battle, unsure of his powers other than how to turn them on and off. If this foe should defeat Superman, maybe even Metropolis would be in danger. But would the rampage finish there? Conner had a gut feeling Doomsday would never stop. But what lay next on its course was more unthinkable to contemplate. The country's capital could be next on the hit list.
"I'm on my way, Lex," Conner said again to himself, falling back on the bed provided to stare at the bland ceiling, "Time to face my destiny." The teenager floated out of his bed and over to the monitor and pressed a button. A pilot wearing a mask stared back at him grimly. "Give me all the latest up to date information on what I am dealing with here. I want to see all of the archive footage."
"Yes, Mr Luthor," the pilot agreed, "Should I playback from the first recorded moment we can find about Doomsday? It was logged on the US army database around nine am this morning just outside of Lima on highway 45."
"Yes," Mr Luthor Junior said, still floating aimlessly in the air, "Tell me as much as you can before we arrive at the coordinates. Do the other men know their orders?"
"Yes they do, sir," the pilot agreed, his gloved fingers tapping the screen and the first footage of the alien menace, a mountain dressed in a full body green strait jacket with red goggles and lugging around a line of metal ropes that might have once been restraints. "Here is the earliest footage, just before the Flash engaged it for the first time."
"Play it from that point, pilot," Conner said, "I need all the help I can get."
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A/N Oh and if anyone wants to complain about me misnaming Lex Corp it's because it's a tribute to Smallville, a magnificent show that really did well in replicating the awesome DC world for the non-comic book fan as I hope to do in my own world thank you. Also yeah for any big fans they will see my integration of DC comics powers included too but with good reason that you will see later on.
