Chapter 53: People who are Not Happy
Disclaimer: All things Supergirl/Superman and Batman belong to DC. No infringement is intended.
Kara was not happy.
Not only had she been forced to cut her road trip with her daughter short, something that would have sufficed to make her grumpy all by itself, no. She had also just been told something that was sure to ruin her good mood for a long time to come.
"Okay, explain this to me again, please," she began, rubbing her forehead in the vain hope to stave off the headache she felt approaching. Powered-up Kryptonians were not supposed to get headaches, she reminded herself, no matter how frustrating a situation they found themselves in. Someone had better tell her head, too.
"Lex Luthor is gone," Batman's deep voice boomed beside her.
"Thank you, world's greatest detective, I got that part," she snapped back in irritation. "No, explain to me the other part, please! The part where he actually vanished from this prison FOUR WEEKS AGO and no one noticed until earlier today!"
They were in the office of the warden of the prison where Lex Luthor had been incarcerated. The prison where he was supposed to stay in for another few decades, only he wasn't here. The warden and several police officers were present and all of them visible flinched when she raised her voice. Kara's eyes tended to flare red when she was angry. She was sure right now they were as crimson as hellfire.
"There... there was another man in his cell," the warden explained, clearly not caring that – technically – neither Superwoman nor Batman were authorized to be here, never mind receive information about an ongoing investigation. He gestured toward the monitor on the wall, which showed a man sitting in an interrogation room. A man who looked remarkably like Lex Luthor unless one looked very, very closely.
"His name is Hannibal Bates," Batman told her. "Former employee of Luthor. It seems he underwent some kind of procedure to look like this."
Kara had already used her X-Ray vision to look through the walls and into the man sitting in that room. She could clearly see the surgical implants that had changed the shape of his face.
"And how did they make the switch?" Kara asked. "I doubt he just walked in here, switched clothes with Luthor, and watched him walk out."
"We still don't know," the warden admitted nervously. "There is no trace of the cell having been tampered with during the night in question. It was only when we analyzed security footage from the last two months that we were even able to determine the time of the switch. During lights out in the evening it was Luthor, the morning after it was this man. No one entered or left the cell during the night, no doors were breached, no alarms tripped, nothing."
Kara turned to look at Batman, raising an eyebrow in question. "I looked over the cell myself," he told her. "No traces whatsoever. It seems Luthor was switched out without anyone ever opening the door. Nothing on the window or the walls, either."
"Teleportation?" she asked.
"Possible, but after four weeks there will be no traces of an energy pattern left to pick up."
Kara closed her eyes, doing her best to stay calm. While she would like nothing better than to ream out these people for letting Luthor escape after all the trouble she had gone through to get him in here, it wouldn't change a thing. "How did you notice the switch after all this time?"
The warden looked very chagrined. "We got lucky, I fear. The prisoners were up for flu shots and Mr. Bates had a highly allergic reaction. When he got checked over in the prison's medical ward, the doctor noticed the differences and alerted us immediately."
Kara groaned. "So the only reason we even know that Lex Luthor has escaped from a high-security prison is SHEER DUMB LUCK?" The room shook slightly from the force of her voice. A glass on the desk tipped over, spilling its contents across it.
"Thank you for your help, gentlemen," Batman told the others, steering Kara towards the door. For a moment it was like trying to move a mountain, but then she relented. "We'll keep in touch."
A minute later they were out on the roof of the prison and Kara had to resist the urge to stomp her foot in frustration. No reason to bring down the entire building, even though it would probably be a great stress-relief.
"I checked the visitor logs," Batman told her. "Paul Westfield visited Luthor multiple times during his stay here. The last time just a week or so before we shut down Cadmus."
"Of course he did," Kara growled. They had suspected that Luthor had had a hand in Cadmus, after all, but now they knew. "So not only are Clark and I in danger, but Kona, too." This was getting better and better.
Batman sighed, the stoic mask of the dark knight fading away to be replaced by the contrite look of her best male friend. "I know I promised you I'd keep an eye on Luthor, Kara. I am sorry, I got complacent once he was tried and indicted. It wont' happen again."
There was a dark, ugly part inside of her that wanted to blame Bruce for this, wanted to tear into him for letting her down. but she ruthlessly pushed it away. She needed her friends and allies by her side, now more than ever, and she knew that she herself had been just as complacent about Luthor. Just as he had underestimated her for being a woman, she had underestimated him for being locked up. She should have known that Luthor wouldn't let a small thing like a decades-long prison sentence stop him.
"We need to find him and quick," she said. "He's had four weeks of freedom. There is no telling what he might have come up with in that time."
Kara was most definitely not happy.
Lex Luthor was not happy.
Lying on the cot he had been sleeping on for four weeks now, he stared up at the crystal ceiling even as he pondered his situation. Oh, at first he had been ecstatic. One was not sprung from prison every day, after all. That alone had sufficed to put him in a fairly good mood. To find out that his liberator was an alien artificial intelligence with an apparent grudge against Superwoman just made the whole thing even sweeter.
He had been in awe at the technology on display, the crystal constructions, the alien weapons, the advanced robotics, everything. Luthor knew that he was one of the smartest people on Earth (hubris be damned) and even he had trouble figuring out some of the things that Brainiac had shown him already. He was like a kid in a candy store.
The joy did not last, though. The technological wonders on display could not distract him from the obvious discrepancies in the story Brainiac was attempting to feed him. Oh, he was rather certain that most of it was true. Brainiac was a Kryptonian construct, created on Superwoman's home world. Learning that the world these aliens had come from was gone for good, destroyed in a cataclysm of their own making, delighted him to no end. That Superwoman and Brainiac had come into conflict was great news, too.
The story began to fall apart, though, when it came to the reason behind this falling out. According to Brainiac, the reason was Superwoman's refusal to leave Earth behind. The AI, apparently intending to build a New Krypton somewhere, stated that it wanted the last daughter of Krypton away from Earth for that, so she could aid him in rebuilding their civilization. It was a nice story and neatly explained why Brainiac was seeking an alliance with Luthor, who wanted those aliens off his world, too.
Luthor was not an idiot, though. If all Brainiac wanted was for Superwoman to leave Earth behind, there were any number of ways it could have accomplished that, up to and including destroying the planet entirely. It certainly wouldn't need the aid of a human, even if said human was smarter than any other. No, something else was going on. He was not quite sure what the real story was yet, but he was certain that Brainiac was trying to con him.
Luthor also knew that he was still a prisoner. Oh, the prison looked different, of course, and had far more in the way of luxuries than his old cell, but a prison was still a prison. He was also certain that the miracles of technology that Brainiac was showing him were but the tip of the iceberg. The machine certainly was not stupid enough to show him everything. No, Brainiac was grooming Luthor for some kind of role, he was sure. Something to do with Superwoman, certainly, but what?
Well, for the time being there was little he could do except learn as much as possible and be ready for anything. Oh, he certainly wouldn't mind if this 'partnership' would end up giving him the means to rid Earth of those aliens for good, but he was not going to be anyone's puppet, no matter how impressive their technology.
"Good morning, Lex," the annoyingly lifeless voice of the AI greeted him. "Are you ready to view the improvements I have made to your powered armor design?"
Putting on a big smile and eager look, Luthor got up and walked towards the workshop Brainiac had set up for him.
"I can't wait, Brainiac," Luthor said, smiling, though the smile was one hundred percent false, as he was most definitely not happy at all.
Lois Lane was not happy.
There were actually numerous reasons for that. There was the general state of unhappiness that resulted from the huge falling out she had had with her father. General Sam Lane had very clear ideas about what his daughters should do with their lives and it definitely did not involve his eldest becoming a reporter. No, as far as General Sam Lane was concerned, the highest aspirations his daughters should have was to find a good husband, preferably a military officer in his own chain of command. They had fought about this for years, but when Lois had turned 18 last year, she'd finally been fed up.
Maybe moving out in the middle of the night hadn't been the best method of establishing her independence, but she had seen no other way. Her freelance writing, plus some waitressing here and there, gave her just enough money to pay for college and – hopefully – her degree in journalism. Her father certainly wouldn't support her financially or in any other way, but she would build her own life without him.
Anyway, the state of affairs between her dad and her was just the general foundation of her current unhappiness. She also felt lonely, cut off from her family, and had always had a hard time making friends. Her studies were going well, at least, and Perry White had already told her to send in her application the moment she was finished, but she knew that she would need some kind of big scoop to make her mark. Being known as 'Superwoman's Pal' had already given her a bit of exposure, but that was not enough to make it to the big time.
Looking at the papers on the desk in front of her, she was pretty sure that she had found her big scoop. And that was what made her so very unhappy.
It had been a coincidence, really. She hadn't actually meant to look into it, it had just been part of her research for her next 'Superwoman's Pal' column. A few things had just jumped out at her, things that – in hindsight – were terribly obvious, really, but hadn't even occurred to her before. It had been an elegant cover story, a marvel of misdirection, but it quickly fell apart upon closer inspection and before long Lois had it all spread out before her, clear as day.
The question how no one had ever made the connection before kept going through her mind over and over again. The simplest explanation was that no one had ever really bothered to look properly. Most people probably figured there was nothing to find in the first place. After all, who would ever suspect that someone who never wore a mask had a secret identity? Lois herself certainly hadn't even suspected and only stumbled upon it by accident.
Lois knew that, were she to publish this, it would make her a star reporter overnight. It was a great scoop, certainly front-page material. Yet she knew that she couldn't do it. Some part of her brain tried to argue against that, reminding her of the fame and money, but her common sense quickly overrode it.
Gathering the various papers together, she quickly tore them up into very small pieces. She deleted the file she had made on her computer, too, and made a mental note to approach one of the computer geeks tomorrow to ensure that it remained gone for good. Sighing deeply, she allowed herself to fall back unto her bed and closed her eyes.
"Lois Lane," she muttered to herself. "Superwoman's Pal. And too noble for her own damn good!"
Quite a few people would probably have been very happy after figuring out that Superwoman and Karen Kent, CEO of K-Solutions, were one and the same person. Lois was not one of them. And then her eyes snapped open again as another thought occurred to her.
"Oh damn, that means Bruce Wayne is the Batman!" she groaned.
She was SO not happy.
Lana Lang was not happy.
Ever since they had met on the first day of Kindergarten, she and her best friend Clark had been inseparable. Attached at the hip, one might say. Clark was her brother in all but blood and he had even shared the most monumental secret of them all with her, the fact that his mother was Superwoman. She knew they were aliens, she knew that Clark was Superboy, he had even told her that his mom had travelled through time (though she still found that a bit hard to believe, to be honest). In short, Clark told her everything, just as she told him everything, though admittedly her stories were far less spectacular in general.
Recently, though, things seemed to be changing. Clark and she didn't hang out as much as they used to do. She knew that he had made a friend with another superhero, the Flash of Keystone City, and she could hardly begrudge him looking for some male company. She had quite a few female friends, too, after all. Still, it rankled in some deeply unfair and illogical way.
Still more recently, though, things had gotten even stranger. Clark had spent even less time with her than before. When she had seen him, he had been somewhat evasive about what was going on, only saying something about having to deal with family matters. Which she translated as "super stuff" in her head. Still, he had always shared such things with her in the past. What had changed?
Things came to head, though, when she walked past the Kent farm (on an entirely unrelated matter that had nothing to do with Clark whatsoever, she was prepared to swear) and saw her best friend, her near-brother, hanging out and laughing with some other girl she had never seen before. A little bit later on Lana Lang would look back on this scene with a deep feeling of shame for the way she had overreacted, but in that particular moment she only saw red.
"Lana, hi," Clark said when he saw her approach. "This is..."
"I thought you were oh so busy with 'family matters', Clark Kent," she interrupted him heatedly. "I thought that was why you never seem to have time for your best friend anymore. But now I see you here hanging out with some… some... GIRL!"
Clark's eyes widened at her heated words, accompanied by wide, sweeping gestures. The girl, blonde and looking somewhat familiar to Lana, just took a step back, clearly not wanting to be drawn into the argument.
"Lana...," he began.
"I thought our friendship meant more than that," Lana continued. "Does she knew about, you know, the thing, too? Have you told her already in a bid to impress her?"
"Lana...," he tried again.
"And come on, she can't be older than 12! Where is she from anyway? Haven't seen her around here before, so what is she doing..."
"Hi," the girl was suddenly in front of her, having moved so fast it seemed she had teleported. A deceptively small hand had grabbed Lana's in a handshake like steel. "We haven't been introduced yet. I am Kona, Clark's sister."
Lana just stood there with her mouth wide open, her brain refusing to compute.
"Wha... what?" she finally managed.
"It's true," Clark said, finally getting a word in edge-wise. "A long, complicated kind of true, but true. She's my sister. She is the 'family matter' I was talking about, Lana."
"But... how…? I mean...," she gestured towards Clark and then upwards towards space.
Clark chuckled, running his fingers through his unruly hair. "Like I said, long story. The short version: some mad scientists tried to make their own Superwoman. They succeeded, kind of, but Kona here wasn't interested in being a science project. So now she's here with us."
"I like it much better here," Kona added, smiling cheekily. "Fewer cages, more open space, better food, nicer people… well, generally at least…"
Lana's brain finally started processing again and she blushed a deep red, wishing the earth would open up and swallow her whole.
"Oh god, I'm so sorry, I... you must think me the biggest bitch in the whole world…"
Kona raised an eyebrow, seeming to say 'you said it, not me', but Clark came toward her and hugged her.
"It's partially my fault, Lana. I should have told you sooner. It's just... the whole thing with Kona is complicated, like I said. We've only just established her legal identity."
Letting go of her, he stepped to the side. "Okay, to make this official: Lana, this is Kona, my sister, though officially she is my distant cousin Cornelia Jones, who recently lost her family and is now in the care of her closest living relative, my mom. Kona, this is Lana Lang, my best friend in the world since Kindergarten."
"Uh... hi," Lana said, holding out her hand. "Nice to meet you, Kona."
Kona hesitated a moment, clearly Lana hadn't made the best first impression, but finally took her hand. Much more gently this time, too.
"Hi, Lana. Nice to meet you, too."
Lana saw Clark's big smile when they shook hands and couldn't help but smile, too. While the whole thing would definitely take some getting used to, Lana felt like she had her best friend back. So all in all, she was feeling quite happy.
End Chapter 53
Author's Note: Hannibal Bates is a canon DC character better known as Everyman, a shapeshifter. I didn't go quite so far as him having shapeshifting powers, but thought it fitting to have him be the Luthor stand-in. And it was about time to bring the L-squad (Luthor, Lois, Lana) back into this story again, so here they are.
Up next: Slave Ship of Space!
