Superman: The Ark of Krypton
Chapter 42
by
Jason Richard
"Do you really think you can do it?" asked Mercy skeptically. "Can you really clone Superman from information stolen off a computer?"
In Lex Luthor's personal lab he typed at a computer, controlling a large machine that shot energy at a vial of something red.
"Not just from that," said Luthor, his brow creasing in concentration. "I haven't developed the technology to create living cells from scratch...yet. No...in that vial is a sample of Rudy Jones's mutated blood, taken after you captured him."
"You think you can clone Superman's DNA?" she asked. "By changing Rudy Jones' more malleable DNA into it?"
"Very astute," said Luthor, impressed. "Yes. If I can just get a single cell to stabilize permanently...Just a little bit more and...there."
The machine finished, then injected a needle into the vial, taking a small sample.
"With that small sample of cells," said Luthor, grinning proudly. "We're well on our way to making Superman's powers our own."
"Sounds fun," said Mercy, cracking her knuckles. "I've always wanted to fly...and to throw that creep Mannheim through a wall for staring at me so much."
"After his recent failure," said Luthor irritably. "I wouldn't begrudge you that."
…
The first thing it remembered was feeling cold, the first thing it heard was thrumming, humming, and beeping, and the first thing it saw when it opened its eyes was it's own hands. They were pale white, small and rounded, and floating, like the rest of him, in a clear liquid.
As it looked around, it saw some sort of clear flat surface holding it and the liquid inside, while outside he saw metal and blinking lights, and two other creatures. One with long hair and a scary face, and the other with no hair and a pleased face...that was somehow skill scary.
"What a bizarre looking creature," said the long haired one in disgust.
"Now now," said the bald one, "Be nice." He walked up to the clear flat thing and tapped on it. It spoke, but the thing within the clear stuff didn't understand what he said.
"Hello little one," said Lex Luthor, "There's a lot I hope to learn from you." and he gave a deep chuckle.
…
"Let's see," said Lois, going over the charts. "No bank robberies, no shootouts with police, no mob mosses making trouble, crime's pretty much at an all time low. I know White's been on my case about this, I don't think I can work on the Superman story much longer."
"Really?" said Clark in his suit, typing at his computer. "I think Perry white is going to disagree. I mean just how quickly can alien landing on Earth to become its protector become passé?"
"Not that quickly yet," said Lois, shaking her head. "But he inevitably will if he doesn't stop something more exciting than a car crash."
"Stopping a tragedy doesn't have to be exciting," said Clark.
"I never said it did," said Lois. "Stopping tragedies is a good deed, no one's debating that, but good deeds don't sell newspapers. The Mannheim capture is going to be the last big superman related news we see for a while. Soon we'll be taking superman for granted just like all the charities in Metropolis."
"Miss Lane," said Clark. "I really hope I don't become as cynical as you."
"Then switch careers," said Lois. "If you can't handle talking about the darker side of Metropolis I'm sure our fair city could use more schoolteachers."
Clark couldn't help but smirk, "I don't know. I may have seen too much already."
Somehow Lois interpreted that to mean something else, and said, "You've got something on Lexcorp, don't you?"
"Maybe..." said Clark. In fact he did suspect that Lexcorp was experimenting with cloning, though he couldn't say why.
"Yeah..." said Lois with certainty. "You've got something. I can tell. You know...sometimes I wonder if somehow you're cheating to get your information."
Clark had, indeed, used his powers to get information for his articles, but ironically this time was different. He'd figured it out from classic investigative journalism. He'd staked out at Lexcorp seeing what trucks came in, examined a few public documents, and even managed to get his hands on some documents from the docks, finding what kind of equipment Lexcorp was shipping from overseas. He'd gotten all the confirmation he needed and no powers necessary.
Okay, maybe he had used his X-Ray vision to see inside the trucks, but that only confirmed what he already suspected.
"I wouldn't dream of cheating at anything," said Clark. "I wouldn't give you the satisfaction of the moral high ground. Besides, what would qualify as cheating on this job anyway?"
"I don't know," said Lois, frowning. "But there's gotta be some explanation for how you're doing so well this early in your career."
"Aside from me being just that good?" said Clark, smirking.
"Oh anything but that," said Lois, obviously teasing him.
Clark had to admit he was enjoying this rivalry the two of them were developing. It gave him a little extra incentive to perform well on the job. Of course if Lois ever did discover he was Superman and could use his super senses to, as she put it, cheat, he might never hear the end of it. For the sake of a fair competition, Clark figured that maybe he should stop using those powers to be good at his job, and only use them to listen for someone in trouble.
Wow, he thought, that's not going to be easy.