Superman: The Ark of Krypton

Chapter 46

by

Jason Richard

Lex Luthor fumed as he read the scans from his company's satellites. Within his office, typing furiously at his computer, he was trying to find the clone's location. He had the system for removing the clone's power ready to go, now he just needed to find it, but it had travelled too fast for anything earthly to track it.

He paused for a moment, taking a deep sigh. He hadn't made a mistake this big in a long time. He'd been too eager to try and discover the power he so coveted. Now he was working desperately to contain his mistake.

"Where are you?" Luthor asked himself.

…

"My old teddy bear!" said the Clone excitedly, picking up the little old teddy bear excitedly.

"Yes Clark," said Martha Kent. "This was your old room."

The clone looked around happily, starting to remember everything. Baseball and football posters, a shelf full of adventure books, a few toys he'd grown out of, and the rickety farmhouse surrounding surrounding these boyish accessories.

"Why not I remember this before?" asked the Clone, his eyes downcast.

"I'm sure everything will come back to you in time," said Martha kindly, though secretly she was worried. What if Clark didn't recover from...whatever this was? What if his work called asking for him? What if…

She shook her head, she couldn't be worried. For Clark's sake she had to be calm.

"Martha," said Jonathan, poking his head in the room. "Can we talk for a moment."

"Sure Jonathan," said Martha. "Clark, you go ahead and reacquaint yourself with your room and I'll be right back, okay?"

"Okay," said the Clone, grinning.

Jonathan led martha outside and grab two pens and some paper. Back when the real Clark as a kid they had to talk to each other like this when they realized their son could hear them from any room. Specifically when they were talking about things that Clark wasn't ready to hear yet. It had been quite a shock when they talked about Martha's inability to have children and Clark asked about it the next day...and asked where babies came from.

Not a conversation they were ready for. Then again, neither was this.

Slowly but surely, Jonathan wrote down what Clark had texted him.

Meanwhile, in the other room, memories flooded through the clone of a live it didn't realize was someone else's, as it looked around Clark's old room. Whether it was homework done, board games played, or books read, the clone felt that it had done all of this stuff. Then it saw a paper and some pencils abandoned inside a school desk and grinned.

Back outside the room Martha Kent was flustered at what Jonathan wrote down for her. A clone? Really? What was it doing there? Furthermore no one was certain what to do about it. Reluctantly, they, she agreed to help Jonathan keep an eye on it.

As they walked in, the Clone picked up a piece of paper and said, "Look Ma! And Pa! Look what I did!"

It was hand drawn picture of the farm, little more than a doodle with stick figures, and yet it was the exact recreation of a picture Clark had drawn for them when he was just in preschool.

Martha Kent took the picture and admittedly felt some warm memories from it. Jonathan still didn't like this, but Martha figured that maybe this person was just lost and confused, and it didn't know about the nefarious purpose behind it's creation. She was still a little scared of it, but not as much as before.

"That's very nice dear," she said, with just a hint of caution.

…

If I never see that clone again it will be too soon, thought Luthor as he paced back and forth in his office. Hours of coming through his satellite's data had uncovered nothing. If this clone was traced back to him it could spell disaster. What was he to do?

He stopped pacing. Someone was floating right outside the large office window.

Superman hovered there, his arms crossed and his face stern. Putting on the most smug smile he could, Lex Luthor casually stepped over and pressed a button to open the window. The window opened slowly, but soon there was little but open air between them.

Superman noted with a little satisfaction that Lex Luthor's heart was beating just a little faster than it had been a moment ago.

"Can I help you?" asked Luthor, his mannerisms betraying nothing of the pressure he was feeling.

"I know about the clone and I know you're behind it," said Superman.

"Clone?" asked Luthor, feigning innocent. "I don't know what…"

"That crash from Lexcorp tower wasn't a laser accident," said Superman. "It was a clone of me."

"That's quite an accusation," said Luthor. "If you have any proof…"

"Quite the act," said Superman. "I'm here to remind you that you are playing with forces clearly beyond your ability to control. First Rudy Jones and now this. You keep trying to play God, you're going to get people hurt."

Luthor frowned, "Unlike you?"

Superman had to chuckle a little, "I'm no God. Just a concerned citizen trying to do the right thing."

"Easy for you to say," said Luthor bitterly. "Then again you could say anything you wanted and no one could touch you. Or…" Luthor grinned slyly, "Could you? If that world conference concerning that ship of yours is any indication, you generally want people to like you. Isn't that right?"

Superman didn't reply, but clenched his fists harder, which Luthor felt told him everything he needed to know.

"As I said," continued Luthor. "This is quite an accusation, but if you had proof you would go to the authorities, not straight to me. You can't take the law into your own hands under these circumstances, or everyone will see you as just some monster, even if I'm the one you abuse this power with. So let me make myself clear…"

Luthor took two steps forward and said, "Do not make accusations you cannot prove."

Superman actually felt a little frustrated at the situation, for Luthor was right...to a point.

"My warning still stands," said Superman. "You may not admit it openly, but both you and I know you made that clone."

"There you go with that clone again," said Luthor smugly. "How would we even know it's a clone? I'm sure even your race has twins…"

"You can't control this," said Superman forcefully. "So stop messing with it. You'll get yourself in trouble and have no one to blame but yourself. Remember that."

And Superman flew off. Lex Luthor was left by himself, smiling smugly even as his heart was finally able to slow down a little.

…

Meanwhile, in an adjacent hotel with a view of Lexcorp tower, Lois Lane got the entire conversation on camera. Of course she didn't hear a word that was said. With Lexcorp's sound dampening fields any sort of listening device would have been useless. Still Lois figured Superman would show up sooner or later after the crash from that tower was reported, so she had staked herself out there. The best part was that even though she was getting something on Luthor, she was still technically following the Superman beat just like Perry white wanted.

As she pressed stop on her recording she said to herself with a satisfied grin, "Sweet."