Superman: The Ark of Krypton
Chapter 51
by
Jason Richard
"M...M...Mr. Luthor," Edward Lytener stammered.
"Mr. Lytener," said Mr. Luthor. "Meet me in my office immediately. I want to talk about an old project of yours."
"Of...of course sir," said Edward. "Right away."
As they hung up, Edward immediately ran as fast as he could back to Lexcorp. Fortunately his meeting place with Lois wasn't far, but he still hadn't counted on his boss calling him at that moment. He'd need to be fast.
…
"KENT!" cried Perry White. "Kent! Where in the blazes are you!"
As Perry white stormed to the main office of the Daily Planet, Clark, with his super powered ears, could hear Perry White from within the elevator. In truth Clark didn't want to leave the Clone alone for too long, but he needed to do something about Luthor, and he could do more to get evidence as Clark Kent than he could as Superman. Besides, the AI would take care of the Clone, so he was probably safe.
"Kent! I'f you're not in my office in five seconds..."
Finally Clark made it out of the elevator and got to the office. Just in time too. As he rushed inside (as fast as a normal human could any way) he pretended to be out of breath.
"Mr. White!" said Clark. "I got here just as that thing attacked Superman. I was just…"
"Covering it?" said White, calming down. "Fair enough, but Lane's on that beat. We just got word that Intergang leader Mannheim was released from prison. His lawyers got him off."
Clark grimaced at that.
"I want you to cover it," White continued. "And while you're at it investigate any connection to Lexcorp."
"Not that I'm complaining," said Clark. "But Miss Lane isn't going to be happy with this arrangement."
Perry White sighed and said, "Let clue you in on the Lois situation. She's obsessed with Lexcorp, has been for a while now. She's uncovered quite a few dirty businesses in Metropolis since she started working here, but Lexcorp is different. She's was working that beat for over a year before you showed up, and she's got nothing to show for it."
"What does this have to do with me?" asked Clark.
"Lane's instincts are sharp," said White. "If she think's Lexcorp is dirty, then I'll bet you anything it is. The trouble is she's gotten so determined with bringing it down her actual stories have...well...kind of suffered. Really, that first article on Superman was the best she's done in a while."
Clark figured he understood, "You want to keep working the Lexcorp beat, but with someone who'll put the story first."
"Right," said White. "Also, you didn't hear this from me. Technically this is all none of your business anyway, so I want you to shut up and get to work."
Clark could take a hint, "I'll get right on it sir."
"Glad to hear it," said white.
As Clark left White's office he started thinking. Lexcorp was dirty. He had proof with the clone. In this moment Clark realized that the clone really was the best evidence he had against Lex Luthor. If Luthor was developing that much power, and couldn't even control it, it would stain his reputation. Clark figured he should be cautious about how he revealed it, though, for the clone's sake.
At that moment Clark also couldn't help but wonder what Lex Luthor was doing about that particular situation.
…
Edward Lytener burst into Lex Luthor's office panting and out of breath. Luthor sat at his desk rapping his fingers on the hard wood, not terribly pleased.
"Mr. Lytener," he said, "I'm certain I said I wanted you here immediately. What, was there a traffic jam in the elevator?"
"Elevator was going down," said Lytener, panting as he took a seat. "I took the stairs."
Edward held his breath as Luthor looked at him suspiciously. After a few moments, though, Luthor shrugged and said, "Let's get down to business. I want to you tell me about your experiments with solar power."
Edward was surprised by this, and in truth Luthor didn't really know what he intended to find with this inquiry. He'd considered the possibility of Superman's power coming from solar radiation, but it seemed unlikely. Lex Luthor calculated that in order to do the kind of things Superman did the amount of radiation Superman would have to absorb from the sun would either leave a giant mass of darkness over the city of Metropolis or take decades to store up. Since either scenario was unlikely Luthor had to consider other possibilities.
"Well," said Edward, secretly glad this wasn't about the clone. "I did get some findings that showed promise, but it turned out to be a dead end."
"What do you mean?" asked Luthor.
"We found traces of a form of energy within solar radiation unlike anything we've ever seen before," said Edward. "Early testing showed great promise. If you could contain this then a single battery of it the size of a double A could power a locomotive for three years."
That had to be it, thought Luthor, the secret behind Superman's power.
"So what was the problem?" asked Luthor.
"No way to convert it," said Edward. "Aside from travelling in waves, just like regular light particles, it never changes form. In it's base form it doesn't really do anything except travel. In order to use it you'd either have to find a way to convert it to electricity, or use technology that ran on that energy exclusively. Both, I'm afraid, were total dead ends. Actually just detecting the energy was so difficult we had to shut down study of it once the costs when up."
"I see," sadi Luthor, rubbing his chin as he found all of this intriguing. "Anything else?"
"Yes," said Edward. "We did detect this energy in space, coming from other stars, though it seems the older the star is the less amount of this energy it gives off. A red star doesn't give it at all."
"Very good," said Luthor. "Thank you. That will be all for now."
Edward Lytener, glad to get away, left as quickly as possible. Luthor, meanwhile, felt he was onto something. Even if he couldn't figure out a way to harness this energy himself, he could at least figure out a way to block this energy from getting to Superman. Once he was able to study him then he could figure out how his powers worked.
The next step was to build a way to block this energy, then test it on the clone once it turned up again. Hopefully that clone would turn out to be useful for something.