Chapter Twenty-Four

A LEGACY OF GREY AND RED

LOCATION:

PENTAGON, Washington D.C

'We hope you will hold yourself accountable for—'

Lex chuckled dignifiedly. He stood in the centre of a black room with more than fifteen holographic silhouettes standing in a circle around him. 'Oh I will, right before I accept your offers of thanks, of course.'

They fell into surprised murmurs at their brother's brazen attitude. 'Do you honestly not see the direness of your actions?' said an elderly female figure.

'And what would these actions be that I must grovel at your feet for forgiveness.'

'You told the press about the Metahuman project,' said one of the figures. 'You gave them a name and an identity that they can rally towards. The plan was to sell them answers and use them as weapons against the populace not empower them with a sense or right to belong in society.'

The smirk that appeared on Luthor's face was quite menacing, even to the all-powerful Elite. 'Now, I painted a target on their backs, and I gave everyone else a loaded gun.' In his mind, Lex could see he'd lost more than half of them by now. 'You guys don't see? I have blurred out the grey area these freaks find solace in, their limbo between good and evil.' That surely got their attentions. 'I will give normal people a choice between their own kind and these Metahumans whom will then become persecuted, threatened. That is where we come in, offering support. They will help unconditionally.'

There was some silence as the Power Elite thought this through. Was it really such a difficult decision? In truth he did not need their help, but it was the status que that demanded it. They would be an overbearing menace, an annoying prick in his leg…no he needed a harp, a soothing song to clear his mind.

'My friends,' he played, 'you have put this trust in me, my abilities, my devotion to Order. I gave you metallic gods that fall at your feet, technology so advanced that the human race has been catapulted eighty years.'

'So what, do you want a medal, Mr Luthor?'

'Surely you know me better than that, senator,' though they were veiled, Luthor could recognise her voice instantly. 'You know my intentions, my plans for the world. You know that none of them will cost you a cent so you have nothing to fear from me.'

'Oh we have no quarrel with the advancements in technology you have provided,' she assured him. 'We just have problems with where you are getting this—'

'Same as everyone else, I learn.'

'And that is exactly the problem,' one of the hidden pointed out. 'What do we know of this teacher of yours, this Brainiac?'

'You say he is an alien, is he like Superman?'

'No, it's more complicated than that,' he assured them in a voice akin to pride and wonder. 'He's an advanced library in essence and he's shown me how we can save the world and ensure humanity's long reign.'

'Like that idea to harvest energy from the Earth's core?' Lex did not know who had said that but to him, all those silhouette figures sounded the same. They were a hive mind, all instinct and no intellect, which he guessed was why a Luthor was always welcomed in the Elite. 'As I have guessed (as stated by his scientists), the updraft of anything that deep could mess up the atmosphere.'

'Ah, that is why I have asked for a…a little demonstration,' Luthor said with a confident grin as four men entered the dark room. They each carried with them silver rifles that none of them have ever seen before. 'These are weapons I have developed once I started studying under Brainiac. He's shown me a refined way to manipulate atoms. However, I've been equipping my guards and around thirty percent of America's troops with this model so this is not the item in question…' He looked at his watch, a small button on the side and once he pushed it and indicated to his armed men.

An explosion of beautiful light dashed around the room and hit Lex straight in the head, but to their amazement, he stood there, the slight signature of colour around him, a shield?

'It's a field of negative charge that repels any positive energy.' He dismissed the guards to address the council again. 'This is only a sample of the things he could teach us. What else does he have, a cure for cancer, a way to repair the ozone—are you going to turn your back on that?'

-=O=-

-=O=-

LOCATION:

CENTRAL DATA NEXUS

CLASSIFIED…

They broke into the secured facility and started storming every room, only to find them empty. The data hub was the heart of the Central Nexus, where unrefined and uncensored data is received and often times decoded. It's also where heavy electromagnetic activity often spikes.

The doors were automatic reinforced Promethean Steel, one of the strongest and most durable metals currently known to man, so it took them a while to break through. When they finally pierced through, what awaited them was utter carnage, or at least the aftermath of such.

Luthor was advised against entering, but he would have none of it. This project was his investment and he was damned if he did not protect it. Fortunately however, not everyone was killed, but for everyone else?

Inside there were bodies, all of the ground along with the stench of rot and burnt flesh. 'What the hell happened here?'

Luthor looked annoyed at the overweight Warden fresh from releasing the content of his stomach in disgust. 'It appears you have a security problem, Dr Fairchild, you better look into that.'

'This entire complex is protected by twenty-four hour surveillance, motion detectors and—'

'These people were killed by intense heat which burnt through their bodies,' Ms Graves observed. 'They died in agony…a lot of agony. Do you think it's him?'

'Good eye, Ms Graves but no, it isn't Superman's style.' Luthor walked over to the access portals. The young man at the computer was dead in pretty much the same fashion as the others. He crouched down, taking a focused look at the body—one of the first ones to die. 'What were you looking for, mentor?'

Mercy joined him, examining the wounds, 'Brainiac?'

Luthor gave a nod and stood up again. With a glance at the computer, a holographic-screen appeared. 'Access point lim factor x equal two plus one over x equated difference,' the computer had shifted just as he spoke, working at a level beyond any normal system. A subtle smirk appeared on the intrigued billionaire. Other than a few quadrillion terabytes of data surrounding history, science etc, was some sort of indication towards something…an equation of great intrigue. Mathematical and historical sources suggested ways to identify the components, to harvest and possible applications. What intrigued Luthor most was that Brainiac had not knocked that wall, possible locations of the equated sequence. Why?

In fact, Brainiac was close, a few more trails and he would have…wait, his path alternated to Superman…

'Alright, Ms Graves, we're leaving.' He moved towards the door despite protests from Fairchild regarding his next moves with the Nexus. Luthor ignored him, simply answering with, 'We're done here.'

-=O=-

-=O=-

LOCATION:

LOIS LANE'S APPARTMENT

Jimmy looked on at the legendary journalist at work. But she had abandoned her laptop in favour of the classical pen and paper. 'Okay, how are the photos?' Lois asked.

'They're done, Ms Lane, just waiting for the next step.'

Lois leaned in closer to her work, critiquing her own work. 'Now we wait for the signal.'

She smiled, her hard work needed to pay off in the long run and she only hoped that it would be enough. She knew Kent was a rather secretive fellow, what with the record he had while employed at that sinking ship The Daily Star. It was probably how he got all of this data, and it intrigued her, knowing the truth now, that he could get his hands on more than thirty years of dirt on Lex Luthor to throw him in jail for a very long time.

Jimmy turned the TV on to kick back and relax. The program was on Picture News and it was an event on the metahuman crisis on the horizon or so Dr Alex Fairchild had prophesised with the growing tension arising in the Near-East after the first metahuman incident had the Israeli government order a further ten Guardians from LexCorp which has been clarified will not add to the Nation State's debt count.

A couple more of them super powered beings had caused some commotion at the White House in Washington D.C. and was speculated to have been in response to the escalating issue in Israel. As a result, more than eighty-one homes were raided by guardians all across America and rounding up a lot more for further study at the newly repurposed Belle Reve.

'That's just wack,' Olsen declared, glugging his can of soda. 'I thought Superman would be the last of them aliens.'

Lois shook her head in disagreement. She looked at the people on the screen, being dragged out of their houses, some had just discovered their abilities, scared and confused but she noticed every corner of the media was focused on what they could do. 'They aren't aliens, Jimmy.'

-=O=-

-=O=-

A bright and unending landscape, empty yet filled with infinite potential. Ripe with the character of its contents that creates skyscrapers and intricate streets…seemingly sentient people even.

The dark horizon of beeping blue and black, offered a claustrophobic view of this world. So many stories, so many possibilities in their fingertips and they don't use it. Brainiac stood within the city, looking up at the magnificent structures that surrounded him.

He smirked satisfyingly at his work, manipulating the data to emulate cities, to emulate life.

The space between spaces of cybernetic movement—that was his kingdom, a place of power and knowledge is power. As he walked, he shaped the way the world worked, the way it existed. If that was not godly, then what was?

This plain of existence had been lain upon the spectrum of invisibility since the very start—as old as the oceans, as old as time itself and capable of so much more than transfer of languages.

He was actually quite impressed regardless. These humans have tapped into a realm they did not even know they created, at least not in the way he sees it now. Organised and united, speaking a single language…light. He liked that—the truth behind the light, a language of transcendence unbound by human limitations.

Here upon this Earth, he feels its power like an eternal waterfall upon him.

The very nature of the human race has always been to move forward. Why? Survival.

Human insufficiency has been the driving force of progress since the dawn of humankind. They know they will die on their own when faced with a stronger and more savage species so they created civilizations. Their bodies are outmoded so they invent devices to make their lives easier. Their system cannot fight sickness so they created the method of medicine—and death? They fear it, so they create children to replace them, a legacy to represent them.

Frankly, Brainiac was beginning to tire of this planet. It was primitive, ill-suited for his operations yet despite all of this, Earth seemed to have one advantage, the universe had decided that it would become a magnet of forces that its inhabitants could never fathom.

So where is it?

It's here, I can feel it. Jor-El was the last keeper, he had to have hidden it on the craft!

Brainiac slowly raised his hands and began to ascend into the digital skies, busy with activity. Because of his previous access to the Nexus, he now had dominion of these plains. All of Earth's knowledge he could access, even those not in the digital form.

So where is it?

Then… there was a disturbance and as quickly as he entered, he was out again. He found himself in an empty warehouse, on the wall in front of him was painted the LexCorp logo, but there was something else, not painted, not anything physical, but vibrant.

'An energy source,' Brainiac concluded and a mightily powerful one at that. But beyond that he realised that it was a familiar sense. 'A Coluan battery…'

-=O=-

-=O=-

In the grand tower that lay in the Metropolitan centre, Lex had his entire floor closed off for a few hours. In the middle of the room was a tiny box with white light coming from the top. To anyone else it would look like he was doing nothing but sitting at his desk, head to the box and motionless, but in Luthor's mind was going a thousand miles a minute.

In today's lesson we will strip down the atom into its very basic form and thus we will find a common truth.

The theme here is to determine the purpose to which matter exists in the cosmos to begin with. If we look deep we find that the universe feeds on itself. Every organism feeds on another but to determine where it all began even before the structural explosion event is a difficult process, a near impossibility.

Brainiac sequence eight…N=R . fp . ne . fe . fi . fc . L

We find an abundance of life in the cosmos which feeds the universe. The number of civilizations in one galaxy is found in the average rate a star is formed in said galaxy. The fraction of those stars that themselves have planets, the number of planets that can support life, then the fraction of those that actually do. Whereas then factor into account the fraction of suitable planets with life that can develop intelligent life…fraction of civilization that develop sign emitting technology…

A devilish grin proudly made an appearance. 'I see it now,' he murmured, as he would always do at the end of every lesson. 'I see it all…'

A vital entity that exists in the universe is chaos. A power that existed from the very beginning, that gave its hand to the creation of reality and the possibilities of quantum reality.

'The trick is not to control it…but to unleash it where it can be of use…'

-=O=-

-=O=-

She wasn't oblivious to their great power. The Luthors had a glorious legacy that was always in one form or another, embedded in power and authority. When Lois moved to the city, it was in full knowledge that there was a social hierarchy that dominated it.

The Luthors were ruthless. It was like Frank Underwood from House of Cards, only worse and an entire family tree's worth.

She wondered once why with the reputation of truth even in the most dim and murky of deception found in the world, The Daily Planet could see through them—that any of the Luthors would have landed in prison by now, Stryker's Island.

Her first day of the job was as she pictured it, but it was when she pushed passed her accessibility and discovered that the current Luthor, Lex, had developed some very disturbing methods of killing terrorists. Sadly it did not make any consideration to the innocents surrounding them.

An entire town was destroyed and she saw it all. But when she wrote the article she was asked to turn her phrasing a little. It took several shots but they soon became satisfied with her work and placed it in the newspapers. It made the damage seem small, it painted LexCorp as heroes for developing a chemical based weapon that was designed to vaporise the enemy's water supply.

What it did was vaporise all forms of water everywhere…including the human body.

What was even worse was that now that she had access to the type of research that Clark Kent aka Superman had done, Lex Luthor had himself given weapons to those terrorists in Bialya. Now with the President's permission, he's issued at least one of those microwave emitters for a military compound in foreign countries.

But the United States were happy, they were safe and it was all because of Lex Luthor. She would seriously be fighting a losing war. Yet it appears that Kent's doing the same thing and the Luthor legacy is not to be trifled with.

She chuckled at her own butterflies fluttering around in her stomach and the red threatening her cheeks. Lois knew there was always more to Clark Kent than some simple farm boy. But why would he be hiding out at some farm for? He's much too important for that.

'Okay, Jimmy, I'm off,' she called from the kitchen.

'Where are you going?'

Lois grabbed her bag and a thumb drive marked C.K from the table. 'I'm going to pitch a sample of this to Perry. I've got to approach this discretely and if he bites, we go on from there.'

'Okay…I'll have to stay back and see if I can't get more stuff,' the young man declared.

Lois nodded but cautioned him not to dig too deeply. 'Now that we've infiltrated Cadmus, I suspect LexCorp would be sweeping the systems. Be careful, Olsen.'

'Will do, Ms Lane.

-=O=-

-=L=-

Author's Note: Like I said, I find it difficult sometimes to write Lex Luthor. He's a complex character when done correctly and sometimes I fear I'm not doing him justice.

Random thought, I believe strongly that power resides often in knowledge, what put this in my head is an episode of Game of Thrones when Littlefinger tells Cercie Lannister that knowledge is power and she says power is power. No, knowledge is power but Baelish lost that power by simply telling her about it.

Okay…rant over. Anyhow, Like I said, Lex Luthor is a rather difficult man to completely right and I'm afraid I hadn't gotten all of him down here. I just had trouble not at getting in his head but staying in it. You get certain flashes and instances of brilliance that might mirror Luthor but its fleeting. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy it and if you guys have any suggestions about Lex Luthor I'd love to hear it.