Chapter 29
Look Like a Joke...
Polybius grumbled as he struggled to grab hold of the wire with the needle-nose pliers. Apparently, last night, somehow, someway unknown to the young man, a group of rats had made their way into Mount Justice decided to start eating the wire that made the computer work. He wondered how they got in, as, at least in his opinion, his best skill was pest extermination. Polybius had wiped out whole colonies of ants before in the span of about thirty seconds. And he was also very good at keeping them out, using a very specific chemical mixture that a vast majority of pests hated.
However, Polybius wasn't able to use that mixture ever since Superboy brought home Wolf. That specific mixture, while not affecting the health of the creature, did irritate it, and after prolonged espouse, even made Wolf sick. The young man was able to quietly connect the dots and stopped using that mixture and subdued with another, far weaker but still effective one. One that should have kept the rats out.
"Hey, Polybius?" The voice of Superboy suddenly spoke up behind him.
Polybius's entire head was in the hole, and his arm extended all the way out as he tried to reach the wires way in the back. So he didn't hear Superboy coming, but it didn't startle him. The only thing that alerted him was that the kid sounded nervous.
"Yeah?" Polybius asked, not emerging from the hole.
"Can I ask you something?" Superboy questioned, "In private."
Polybius pulled his head out of the panel. He was about to ask if it could wait until he saw the concern on Superboy's face. He could see that he had to work up the courage to ask Polybus to talk, and the young man didn't want to ruin it.
"Sure, sure." Polybius said, setting the pliers down on the floor, "Come on, let's go to my room."
The two made their way to Polybius's room in Mount Justice. Which at this point was more of a storage for Polybius as he was living with his mother to protect her from Montezuma. However, Polybius would slip away in here every now and then to hide and get away while he was at work.
"Alright." Polybius said, closing the door behind him, "What's wrong?"
"I've, uh, got a question." Superboy said, "About being a clone."
"Well, our cloning processes were different, but I'll try to answer it as best I can." Polybius said.
Superboy paused for a moment as he thought about what to say before saying, "Something happened the other day with Luthor."
"That petrified pig?" Polybius asked, "I ain't gonna lie, I roasted the hell outta him last time I saw him."
"I heard." Superboy said, "But that's not my point."
"Then what is it?" Polybius asked.
"After I went back to Cadmus and found out quite a bit." Superboy said.
"Like what?" Polybius asked.
"The first thing I found out is that I'm actually the second super clone created. Project Match was the first." Superboy said, "It was a failure. He couldn't be reasoned with."
"And you're surprised?" Polybius questioned, "I told you when I revealed myself to you that it was entirely possible that more of you were created. And that if they made you, they can make more."
"I know." Superboy said, "But that's not the thing that got me."
"Then what is it?" Polybius asked.
"Later on, I met up with Luthor after I left." Superboy explained, "He revealed to me why I was a success and 'Project Match' was a failure. About half of my DNA is human."
"And Luthor's the donor?" Polybius asked, quickly connecting the dots.
"Yeah." Superboy replied, "It's why I only have some of the powers and not all of them."
"Okay…" Polybius said, "Are you upset about the source material?"
"A little." Superboy admitted.
"Don't be." Polybius said, "Just like people can't choose their parents, we can choose our source materials or cloners."
"Thanks." Superboy said, "But that's not what's got me."
"Then what is it?" Polybius asked.
"I got… angry." Superboy said.
"Well, that's nothing new." Polybius replied.
"Yeah, well, I grabbed his tie and was getting more aggressive, and he said two words and shut me down." Superboy explained.
"Shut you down?" Polybius asked, confused, "Like what, you pass out or… what?"
"I froze." Superboy said, "And my mind if just- it shut off. And I didn't come out of it for six hours."
"Okay…" Polybius started.
"Just to make sure I'm not crazy, and something else didn't happen, is it possible for clones to have built-in things like that?" Superboy asked.
"Yes." Polybius quickly answered, "I can't relate to you on that level, though, as my cloners decided not to have those built in 'protocols' as it was deemed that if the enemy figured it out, then the results would be too disastrous on the entire resistance military."
"Resistance?" Superboy asked, "I thought you said you fought in a war?"
"A civil war." Polybius corrected, "But let's get back to the main focus here. What was the phrase? Say the last word first, so we don't accidentally trigger it."
"Sun Red." Superboy stated.
Polybius waited a moment to see if anything would happen.
"Are you still with me?" Polybius asked.
"I'm here." Superboy replied.
"Alright." Polybius said, "It's a good thing we've got this isolated. Now we can treat it."
"It's treatable?" Superboy asked.
"With the technology of my world, yes." Polybius started, "However, here, we've got people who can do that job."
"Woah, hold on." Superboy said, "I don't want to tell anybody about my relation to Luthor."
"And you don't." Polybius said, "But we need to get that corrected ASAP. Otherwise, you're now a liability to the entire Team and the Justice League. If you go down, then they have to drag you out of there or leave you for capture. And trust me, now that you know this, neither one is a good option for you."
"Alright." Superboy gave in, "Who are we gonna tell?"
"Miss Martian." Polybius answered, "Wait right here, I'll go get her."
"Now hold on!" Superboy spoke up as he started moving towards Polybius.
"Red Sun." Polybius spun around and said.
Sure enough, Superboy stopped dead in his tracks and froze. Polybius wasn't sure if it was actually going to work and wanted to test it. And it looked like it worked. Just to make sure, Polybius snapped his fingers in front of Superboy's face and got no response.
"Alright then." Polybius said, "You're gonna thank me later."
It didn't take long for Polybius to find Miss Martian. She had yet to speak with him since the incident where she was shapeshifting and pretending to be Donna and his adoptive mother. However, Polybius harbored no ill feelings towards her. In fact, he wished she would come talk to him so the two would get past this awkward spot, but he also knew it was something only she could initiate.
"Hey, M'gann." Polybius said as he walked up behind her.
"H- Hey Polybius." M'gann replied, clearly a little nervous.
"I need your help." Polybius said, "Come on, I'll explain when we get there."
She wordlessly complied and followed him back to his room. Once there, the young man stopped at his door and turned back to Miss Martian.
"Now… I may or may not have broke Superboy." Polybius started.
"Broke?" M'gann questioned as Polybius opened the door.
When they did, they were greeted by Superboy frozen in the same position that Polybius had left him.
"What did you do to him?" Miss Martian asked as the two walked in, and Polybius closed the door behind them.
Polybius then explained the situation about the phrase that shut down his mind. Polybius wanted to test it, and he said it, and now they were here. He left about the parts about Luthor and how Superboy figured this out for the sake of his privacy.
"What I need you to do, is to go into his mind and isolate that 'protocol' as we call it where I come from, and then destroy it." Polybius finished explaining.
"Polybius… I don't even know if I can do that!" Miss Martian said.
"Yes you can." Polybius assured her, "All you have to do is get in there and find and destroy it. It should be simple enough. I'll keep watch to make sure nothing bad happens to you on this side."
"A- Alright." Miss Martian said.
As Miss Martian began to work meanwhile, Claudia walked into Irene's and Chief Zs' office. In her hand, she held several documents that had many important details about them.
"Hello, hello!" Claudia said as she knocked on the open door.
"Claudia!" Irene greeted, "What are you doing here?"
"Mostly just to give you this." Claudia said, extending the documents.
Irene took them and quickly read them over. The documents detailed that they were given permission to resume their project under Claudia's guidance.
"YES!" Irene cheered in joy, "Yo, Chief Z! Let's get to work!"
Meanwhile, back in Mount Justice, Miss Martian finished up fixing Superboy, causing the clone to fall to his knees in a brief moment of weakness before anger swelled in him.
"Told you you could do it." Polybius said, looking down at Superboy.
Superboy let out a roar of anger as he suddenly shot up and grabbed Polybius by the collar of his shirt. This, in a rare instance, took Polybius off guard, as he was expecting Superboy to be angry. But wasn't expecting Superboy to get physical with him. However, Polybius quickly recovered from this and took up a defensive stance, ready to throw down if needed.
"You really did that to me!?" Superboy shouted as he raised a fist to hit Polybius with.
"Conner! Calm down!" M'gann quickly spoke up.
"Easy." Polybius tried to reason, "Don't do something you'll regret."
"You just did something you're going to regret!" Superboy threatened.
"Fighting me is a bad idea." Polybius told him, "I promise you, I'll kick your ass, as the saying here goes, 'six ways from Sunday.'"
"You shut me down!" Superboy spat back, "Give me one good reason I shouldn't knock you out!"
"Aside from the fact that it'll reveal the secret I have chosen to hide for?" Polybius asked, "How about the fact that I was putting the good of the Team first. In case you didn't hear me earlier, or don't remember, that weakness made you a liability! And in my experience, liabilities get people killed. And I'm not going to sit here and watch you, or someone else on this Team, die because YOU don't want to address something."
This seemed to get through to Superboy a little bit, but Polybius could still see the anger in his eyes. However, while Polybius gave him his explanation, M'gann had moved and grabbed the arm Superboy was thinking about using to hit Polybius with.
"You didn't have to do that!" Superboy spat back, "I was going to address it."
"When?" Polybius asked, "When it was too late? When poor M'gann over here gets killed, or worse!? Is that when? Cause if that's the case, then what I did, has saved lives. And you were about to start fighting me about having this problem dealt with. And I will NOT apologize for putting the good of the Team, ahead of everything else."
This got through to Superboy as he finally started to calm down. He let go of Polybius's collar and dropped his arm. This prompted Polybius to begin speaking in a calmer tone.
"Look, I understand what I did, was not the best way to deal with that situation, but it was the most efficient way." Polybius started.
"Then why'd you do it?" Superboy asked.
"Because I've seen things." Polybius coldly stated, "Thing's I'll take to my grave, and will never forget so long as I live… I have good reasons as to why I'm so pacifistic. Alright? And what I've seen goes far beyond the 'horrors of war.' I've seen things that, in the most blunt manner, would make the worst genocides this world has had, look like a fucking joke. And mind you, this was in a CIVIL WAR as well. People who were living under the same banner were doing the most horrific and unspeakable acts to each other. And it was all over which Impertar should rule the empire."
Polybius was going to continue on but paused at the end of the sentence as the word 'Impertar' bounced back off the wall and hit him. It was the first time in years he had used a word in his native language outside of meditating. And for the second time in the span of less than five minutes, he found himself caught off guard again as he realized he was starting to change languages.
However, neither Superboy nor Miss Martian filled the sudden void of silence as the shock value of Polybius's words hit them in full effect. They were both stunned by what Polybius had just said and didn't realize he had even begun speaking another language. Their minds were still on the part about the genocide.
This initial shock silence turned into an awkward silence as no one really knew what to say. However, after a dreadfully uncomfortable minute, Polybius finally decided to force the conversation forward.
"So I think you both understand now why I don't fight." Polybius somewhat awkwardly said.
"Wait." Superboy said, "That doesn't make sense. Why would you not fight? Don't you want to fight to stop that from happening here?"
"I'm not getting into that, as I've already revealed a lot more of myself than I had intended to." Polybius coldly replied, "But I will not deny that fighting is necessary, and I will fight if I need to and that I'm damn good at it."
"So then why not fight?" Superboy pressed.
"Did you not just hear me?" Polybius questioned, "I know you have Super hearing, so you have better have a good excuse as to why you're asking me this again."
"I- I'm sorry, Polybius." Miss Martian spoke up, "We're just… shocked that you've seen such horrible things."
"Yeah, I was." Polybius said, "And I'm not gonna see it again."
Later that day, after work, Polybius decided not to go directly home. Instead, he decided to hit the town of Happy Harbor. Since his arrival, he had yet to explore it since his arrival, and Donna said there were a few good places in town from her night out. And if she said they were good, then they had to be as she had never led him astray before.
Settling on Steak n Shake, Polybius decided to sit in and eat as his mind reflected on the events that had happened earlier that day. He did not like how much of himself he had revealed to the two young heroes and did it somewhat unintentionally. He had just told them things not he hadn't even told his mother or Donna. Which was the whole part about the genocide.
However, after they left, Polybius got hit with a nasty episode of flashbacks as his mind, and for the first time in over a year, went back to his first decade of life. His mind had done an excellent job of reminding him of many of the horrible things he had seen, as well as some of his biggest regrets.
Polybius thought about talking to Donna about it, as the two told each other everything. They had, for almost as long as they had known each other, confided things in each other they told no one else. And while neither one of them would really admit it, it was more of a one-sided thing as Donna confided a lot in Polybius, and Polybius not so much in return.
And Polybius began to think that maybe it was time to change that.
However, there was one thing that made this awkward, confiding this in Donna. And that it was the two had yet to go on their first 'official' date together. And while the two had been unofficially together for years, Polybius was worried that it might create an unnecessary strain on the relationship and that he should wait until after the first date to start talking about this kind of stuff.
The only other person Polybius could feel somewhat comfortable talking to would be his mother. Her experience would undoubtedly be a lot more valuable than what Donna could offer when considering her job. However, his mother worried about him a lot. And his problems with confiding things like this in her is that it would cause her to worry about him and create unnecessary stress on her. Which was the last thing Polybius wanted to do.
This left him with no other choice than to do what he had been doing for years and just continue to internalize it. He knew that as time went on, he would forget about it for a while until it randomly came up again like it had since he arrived in this world. And that next time, he would open up about it.
Meanwhile, Claudia, Irene, and Chief Z were all in the latter two's shared office. They had just received an application from somebody who wanted to join the project. Claudia was fully intent on leaving it up to the two of them whether or not they wanted to interview this person and see if they wanted to recruit him.
"He does have extensive military experience." Chief Z pointed out, "Says here he's got a little more than thirteen years in the Army. And he was discharged due to medical reasons."
"Most of them spent in a command position too." Irene added, "However, what's got me really interested is his experience in metalworking as well. He might know how we can make this thing a bit more compact. Especially since it's made out of Tungsten, and his experience is with that metal."
"So do you guys want me to go ahead and interview this guy?" Claudia asked.
"Yeah." Irene said, "His resume is impressive. I think he might be a valuable addition to the group."
"Alright." Claudia said, picking up her phone to call the man.
After the phone rang for a few seconds, the person on the other end picked up.
"Hello?" They questioned.
"Hello." Claudia greeted, "Am I speaking to a mister Flavius Courtannatius?"
"Please, call me Mr. Court." The man on the other end replied.
"Alright Mr. Court." Claudia said, "You put in a resume with us and looking it over, we've decided we want to move forward with an interview. When is a good time for you?"
"As soon as possible." Mr. Court replied, "Honestly, I'm out of a job right now, and I really need to get back to work."
"Alright then…" Claudia said, "Then let's do it next Tuesday at noon?"
"That'll do!" Mr. Court replied.
"Great." Claudia said, "We'll see you then."
Hanging up the phone, Mr. Court put it back down on his table and smiled. He then flipped on the news and turned on a segment that was talking about him.
"And the mysterious 'Montezuma' man is still at large." The news lady finished her story.
This caused Mr. Court/Montezuma to smile even broader. While Polybius had figured out that Montezuma could listen in on his conversations in the apartment below. This was part of Montezuma's plan, to force Polybius to get out more as now it was time for him to move on with the next step in his plan.
And that was getting this job.
That night, Superboy and Miss Martian had excused themselves from dinner early and retreated to Miss Martian's room to talk about what had just happened.
"Genocide." Was the first word out of Superboy's mouth.
"I know." Miss Martian said, understanding the weight that word carried on Earth.
"He told me he fought in a war, but he never mentioned anything beyond that." Superboy said, "But why would he not fight to stop that from happening here?"
"Everybody reacts to trauma differently." Miss Martian pointed out, "Maybe Polybius was so horrified by what he saw that he didn't want to risk seeing it again."
"But why not stop that from happening again?" Superboy asked, "If you ask me, it seems rather cowardly of him to refuse to fight because of that."
"Conner, we don't know precisely what he saw." Miss Martian said, "I mean, he only left it at genocide. He said nothing about the brutality of it or how people were executed. If he knew people being executed. He might be afraid that if he goes and fights, he'll get old wounds torn open again. I mean, he probably suffers from, at the very least, PTSD."
Superboy didn't even think about that and realized just how much sense that explanation made. However, this was quickly shoved out of his mind as a much darker theory suddenly popped up in his mind. One that admittedly spooked him a little and sent chills down his spine just thinking about it.
"You don't…" Superboy started nervously, "You don't think he… was a part of it?"
"As what?" Miss Martian asked, matching his nervousness, "An executor, or the executed?"
"I… I don't know." Superboy answered.
That question plagued the two for the rest of the night as their thoughts were with Polybius and all the horrors he had been through. Their minds produced images of things that may have happened to Polybius, and those mental images began to stick with him as they went to sleep that night.
Meanwhile, Donna's mind was running wild with the possibilities of what would happen the day after tomorrow. Both she and Polybius had agreed that in light of Montezuma's reasoning, they needed to push forward with their first date as soon as possible. And while Diana had been a bit of a roadblock into making this happen sooner rather than later, they two finally got a set in stone date.
It had been a long time since she had gotten this excited over anything. Her heart fluttered in her chest as she laid back in her bed to go to sleep for the night. However, she found herself incapable of going to sleep as he mind just kept running with the possibilities of the upcoming date.
Despite her being on such a high note, it took only one thought for her to come crashing down really fast as her brain, for some reason, decided to think about how her mother would react if she found out about Polybius.
The once great sense of joy was suddenly and swiftly purged from her and replaced by a sudden sense of fear and dread. She knew that sooner or later, her mother was going to find out. And Donna knew that on that day, all Hell was going to break loose as both she and all of her sisters back home we're going to go on a tirade against her even considering a relationship with a man.
Suddenly, the identity crisis that had been plaguing Donna for years caught up to her yet again as she thought about what it meant to be an Amazon. She wondered if she could even call herself one after everything that had happened to her in man's world. And especially after what Montezuma did to her.
She then began thinking about how everyone would react if she came out about what had happened to her. She could hear Diana's anger voice, berating her on both, allowing herself to be so weak and not telling her about it. Keeping a secret this big away from her for years and only trust Polybius with it.
She was more terrified of how Diana was going to react, as Diana could, at any time, say that she didn't want Donna in man's world anymore and send her home. And if she sent her home, then her living the life she had built and come to love here in man's world would become a lot harder.
Or, she would be forced to choose between Themyscira and her sisters or defying them, effectively exiling herself from her own home just to live here. To live with Polybius and somewhat continue her life, with or without Diana.
And she couldn't stand the thought of being forced to choose between her own people and the one she loved.
And there you have it, Chapter 29! A lot of exciting stuff happening, and I hope you enjoyed it. Don't be afraid to let me know what you think, and as always, have a good one!