Chapter 36: Humanity
"You'll have to find your way there yourself" Don spoke aloud to the other two, "if he would have waited for us instead of going for the dramatic entrance he would know we could use your teleportation" he half-joked as he turned to Zachary Zatara. Zach however was on one knee trying to catch his breath and Mar'i was trying to help him up, "Don, he did say this magic takes a lot out of him," she sighed to the speedster. "I know, but we don't have a moment to waste," Don replied.
Mar'i threw a glare in Don's direction, "Zach matters just like everyone else" she warned and when she opened her mouth to speak again the magician placed a hand on her arm and smiled through his exhaustion, "I'm fine Mar'i, honestly. We have to find Luthor."
Zachary stood up and a black walking stick materialized in one of his hands which he then used to support himself. "You good to go?" Don asked with some worry, Zach replied with a nod. The three heroes began to walk towards a building that only just hid underneath the height of the trees that surrounded it. Vines, moss, and weeds grew out of the stonework and some branches of trees had even pushed the windows in."He can't be here," Don spoke, "Can you really imagine Lex Luthor of all people living in such rundown building?"
"He's in hiding, right? Isn't that what Mr Bobo said?" Mar'i innocently asked.
"Apparently, he is, but he's Lex Luthor. The smartest man on the planet and the person with the biggest ego. I expected gleaming white walls and pristine cleanliness, and a big "fuck you Superman' sign at the front." The speedster replied.
Zach released a laugh as he trailed behind the other two.
The three had come up to the front door of the building, and they were confused as to how relatively simply and ordinarily looking it was. It was green, with two long blurred glass panels in the center of the two doors with two handles on each one. They were just simply doors. No keypad. No camera pointing towards them. It was so ordinary that it had to be a trap.
"Do we just… knock?" The magician questioned.
"What if this floor collapses beneath us and we land in some prison for intruders?" Mar'i replied.
"What if the building turns into a robot with Lex's face and goes on a rampage and the only way to stop it is to convince the robot it's a person that has its own thoughts and feelings and that that is more valuable than being Lex's puppet," Zachary replied forming another convoluted idea.
*knock knock*
Zatara and Nightstar turned to see the speedster smile a snarky smile underneath his cowl.
"3… 2… 1…" Don counted down, "the floor didn't collapse and there's no robot. We're good." He chuckled to himself as he casually opened the doors and walked into the building. "You've seriously spent way too much time with Robin," Nightstar sighed.
The three teens walked through the building towards the elevator that was at the end of the hallway. They were all relatively confused as to why it seemed to look like a normal office, as though people had worked here. There was paper spread across the floor, chairs knocked over, and even some mouldy food left on some desks that the people who left in a hurry forgot about.
"What do you think was done here?" Zatara asked.
"This has to all be staged," Nightstar spoke, "there's no way people were here." She continued as she trailed behind The Speedster who pressed the button for the elevator.
"Luthor probably thinks that whoever stumbled onto this building would think it's too creepy to enter," Zatara joked.
*Ding* The elevator sounded as the metal doors slid back and a hulking man stepped out wearing an imitation of Superman's colours, but they were much paler and the logo was the wrong way round. The speedster readied himself, his shredded and bloodied costume began to vibrate, and behind him Nightstar's hair ignited purple and energy glowed around her hands. Zachary simply pointed his walking cane towards the man. "I hope you guys remember I have no magical capabilities right now" the magician informed his friends.
"Me am Bizarro," the man spoke. "You come with."
"Not a chance," The Speedster frowned and bolted towards the pale man. He released a few hundred punches onto his opponent before being easily hit aside into a nearby wall.
"Come with Bizarro," the man spoke again, "me am not ask again."
Nightstar ran over to the speedster and placed a hand on his shoulder, "we should go with him, Lex probably sent him. And if he's the superman wannabe that he seems to be then we won't stand a chance," she reasoned to her friend. Meanwhile Zatara walked up to the man and smiled, "Hi there. Sorry about that, my friend isn't in a good place right now. If you'll give us a moment, we will happily come with you."
"Zatara what are you doing?" The speedster questioned.
"I'm being reasonable," Zatara replied, "one thing I got from my dad was that I know how to talk to people."
"You come with Bizarro?" The clone questioned in confusion. Zatara face-palmed. "Yes, we am come with Bizarro" he corrected himself. The clone excitedly nodded his head and walked back into the elevator and motioned the three to enter it as well. Mar'i released a giggle at Zachary while she helped Don up from the ground. The three entered the cramped elevator and the clone reached over their heads to push a button on the pad. The elevator suddenly dropped at a fast speed giving the three teens no idea as to how deep they were going underground.
"Bizzaro make friends," The hulking man grinned to himself.
Don gave a glance to Mar'i and whispered, "this guy is weird as hell."
The half-alien princess shrugged, "there's nothing else we can do."
Zachary poked his head in between his two friends, "You know, if this guy has superman powers then he can probably hear you two whispering."
"Me can," the pale monster spoke.
"See?" Zacahary added.
"Shit," said Don. "I didn't mean that buddy," he apologized, "in fact, I love your costume!"
The Superman imitator smiled to himself, as if he was proud to receive such a compliment. The Elevator began to slow down and eventually stopped. A few moments passed and the doors opened to reveal a long pristine white hallway, it looked immaculate. Don smugly smiled to his friends, "told you so. This is definitely the place."
Bizzaro suddenly barged in front of the heroes and nodded his head to signal them to follow him to the end of the hallways and once they all reached the door the pale-skinned man pressed his hands against the metal.
"What is he doing?" Don questioned aloud, "where's the security? Where's the keypad?"
"This really doesn't look good," Zach spoke.
In a moment Bizzaro moved his hands back and slammed them against the metal, the door moved a few feet and tipped over onto the floor. The heroes were met with a sight that they would never have imagined to see. Lex Luthor was in a tank of liquid with tubes attached to him that were pumping into him some kind of green liquid. He looked weak, as if he was dying, this is not the Lex Luthor that anybody had ever seen before.
"Follow," Bizzaro spoke as he led them to the computer console that was placed before the man in the tank.
Zachary looked towards Mar'I, he could see the frightened look on her face. He interlocked one of his hands with hers and smiled, "don't worry, me and Don are here," to which Mar'I nodded and smiled back.
Don walked beside Bizzaro who pushed a big red button on the console. The green liquid brightened and the computer console powered up and in a few moments Lex Luthor's eyes opened and a gasp of air could be hear through the speaker on the console.
"Lex Luthor?" Donald asked. There was no reply from the man who looked as though he was trying to get his bearings but within a few moments the man locked eyes with the purple speedster.
"Flash," the man spoke. "New colors?" he asked.
"I'm not the Flash," Donald replied, "I'm his son."
"Ah." Luthor replied, "That much time as passed?"
"Time?" Zachary spoke up, "What do you mean? Do you have any idea what's been going on in the outside world?"
"No."
Zachary and Don gave each other a puzzled look.
"Why are you in that thing?" Don asked, "What is all of this."
Luthor's eyes hadn't moved and inch from the boy asking him questioned, they were inhumanly fixated on him. "The real answer to such a question is beyond a boy of your mental fortitude. But to put it simply, I'm dying. It is Cancer. It is terminal. This liquid is Kryptonite, I tried to create a cure with its radiation, but I failed and now it's the only thing keeping me alive in this state." Luthor solemnly revealed.
The three teenagers paused for a few moments. "I'm sorry," Mar'i spoke.
"As am I child," Luthor responded, "But what is your reason to be here? Why have you hunted me down? I am causing no harm; I am simply existing which is the most amount of good that I have ever done for humanity."
"We need your help Luthor" Donald replied. "If you want to do good for Humanity in your final days we need you to look at this data, we need you and your knowledge of both the Meta-gene and of Kryptonite to help the world."
"Ah." Luthor spoke through the console. "So they succeeded?" he asked.
"They?" Mar'I questioned, "what do you mean by "they?"
"The Light," the man in the tank responded, "We created the Man of Light together and he decided that the Meta-gene had to be destroyed for the good of this world."
"You created him?!" Donald shouted, "Why?! Why would you create such a thing?!"
"The answer is simple; we never beat the Justice League. If we couldn't do it, then maybe we could create something that could, so we did, and now we have won." Luthor calmly responded.
Donald's body began to vibrate once more in anger. Mar'i stepped forward from Zach and placed one of her hands on Don's shoulder so that he knew to calm down.
"You created such a deadly weapon yet here you are, abandoned, with no help ever coming to you. Is this the end that you want? Is this how you expected to die?" Donald questioned through the grit of his teeth. His vibrating stopped and he covered his face with his hands, then wiping away the tears from his face. "He killed my sister," Donald mumbled, "He killed my sister, crippled my friend, and has most likely taken the lives of the rest of my family and friends. He needs to die.
"Don…" Mar'i whispered with worry.
"I will help you," Luthor said in a monotone voice.
"You will?" Zachary questioned as Mar'i embraced the upset Don, "Why?"
"Lena." Luthor replied, "They killed my sister too."
Zachary walked up to the console and held the data-chip that Bobo had given him up towards Lex Luthor, "This is all the information we have on the gold Kryptonite weapon. If you can figure out how to reverse it, we can help you in return. We can get you somewhere safer and give you the care that you need." The magician offered before he inserted the data into the console.
"I will help you child, but I do not need incentive. I am dying, there is no stopping that. This facility is my penance for the crimes I have committed and the suffering that I have caused. Just make sure that when you finally defeat The Light… you let them know that it was Lex Luthor who helped you." The man proudly spoke.
"We will," Zachary smiled to the man.
"One last thing," Luthor began again, "The Bat Cave. Your friends are there. A beacon has been turned on."
Mar'i let go of Don and turned to the tank with worry, "Wait… how do you know that?"
"We always knew the location of Batman's operations, we just knew not to go anywhere near it. What is Gotham to the world? It's nothing. We let him have Gotham as his playground so that he would never venture too far out. Your friends, they need to leave, and you need to tell them." Luthor revealed.
The three teenagers looked to each other wondering what they should do. "Luthor, I'm going to link you to my holo-phone, we can keep up to date there," Zachary told the man, "and if you so much as think of betraying us, I'll curse you to an eternity of damnation. I know the devil, he's my uncle."
"You have my word that I will help you, Magician." Luthor responded. "There is transport in one of the bunkers, Bizarro will take you there."
"Bizarro am will do," the hulking man spoke.
"Lex," Donald said to the man, "thank you for wanting to help."
A/N: So, long time no see, right? Life's hectic. I hope you liked this chapter!
And to the Guest who wrote the semi-recent review: I appreciate your words and I'm really happy that you're enjoying what I'm doing with The Flash Family! I'm a freaking gigantic fan of everything Flash so I've tried to stick with how I interpret their character relationships, and I've always imagined Barry either being a doting father or that he never has time for them. And, well, Bart would never really have had the chance to form a relationship with his father with all things considered which is really sad and something that really should be touched upon in the comics or Young Justice. Also with the ships, I'm trying not to force any down people's throats. They're teenagers so of course some romantic elements would be there in the background (let's ignore Damian's russian adventure because I wanted him to realize what a hero is and how much he values what he has back home) so with the ships, if it doesn't come naturally to me when I'm writing them then they just won't be there.
to BraziaRios and Dalilah77: It's been like another six months so I hope you're still interested lmao
