Superman: The Ark of Krypton

Chapter 148

By

Jason Richard

On her spaceship out in space, Granny Goodness frowned as she sat down and looked at the console. Monitoring communications from this primitive planet known as Earth wasn't giving her any ideas on what to do next. Usually, all they had to do to convince a planet that they needed Apokolips's protection was to convince or trick some other alien force into invading so that she could come in and 'rescue' the population, saving them in the name of Darkseid.

This planet was different, though. It had reliable protectors already, protectors that were as powerful, or in the case of Lex Luthor as cunning, as any Apokolips agent. At this point, all she could think to do to defeat them was to go after them directly. They were certainly worthy.

But attacking Earth directly was an invitation for New Genesis to get involved, and they couldn't afford that.

The Colu had seemed her best bet. If the Colu had taken over Superman's ship, and that ship's AI had gone berserk, it would have driven a wedge between him and the Earthlings. But now…

Hold on.

Spying on Earth was more difficult than usual due to that AI's signal scrambles. All Granny Goodness had been able to get were their inane...what did they call them? TV shows? Mostly just the news available to the public. Classified information was harder to get to. It was incredibly annoying.

Hold on, what was this? For a moment, however, the signal seemed to flicker. Was the AI malfunctioning? She didn't know what that was about.

But maybe the AI would provide a path to their goals after all, she thought with a grin.

…

So Superman didn't have many ideas on what to do next. They'd finally located the people watching Earth, only for those people to escape immediately and almost compromise Brainiac. He couldn't help but wonder if him finding the Apokolips agents in the first place was intentional so that they could send the probe after the Arc of Krypton.

Whatever the truth, Superman talked with the scientists at Star Labs to see if they could set up Brainiac helping with their research. In the meantime, Superman had no plan for what to do next, so he did what he normally did. He did his job for the Daily Planet, reporting on various events, he had an interview as Superman with Lois Lane to explain his encounter with the Apokolips agents, and then he relaxed.

At the Ark of Krypton, he decided to do something he hadn't done in a while. He watched footage of his Kryptonian family. This time it was mostly family stuff, like the home videos an average person in America might save. Videos of their wedding ceremony trips around the world, and things like that.

One such image really stuck out to him.

On the screen, Jor-El and his wife Lara strolled down a Kryptonian beach as strange alien fish swam in the sea. The sun above was dark and red, a somber reminder of the destruction that would rain on Krypton in the near future. It wouldn't happen just yet, though. Kal-El hadn't been born yet, as evident by Lara's pronounced belly. As they walked, Jor-El put his hand on her belly affectionately, and she, in turn, grasped his hand lovingly.

Superman watched this, curious. He wondered what things would have been like if he had survived. What would his life have been like had he grown up with his biological parents? Would he have been happy? What kind of profession would he have taken? Would he have had as good a relationship with Jor-El and Lara as he did with his Earth parents? If felt strange to compare two sets of parents, unfair even, and yet he couldn't help but wonder.

But despite that confusion, sitting there and learning more about the family he might have had was preferable to yet another alien invasion.

…

Lex Luthor sat in his office, working at his desk when there was a knock on the door. He told the person to come in, and none other than Lois Lane walked through the door. Luthor looked up and took a deep breath. He wasn't looking forward to this conversation.

"Lex Luthor," said Lois. "You wanted to talk?"

"Yes," said Luthor. "I've called you in to do something I admit I don't normally do. And that is be honest."

Lois raised an eyebrow.

"Yes," said Luthor. "That's about the reaction I expected, but I'm telling the truth."

"Somehow I doubt that," said Lois, reaching into her bag and pulling out her recorder. She pushed a few buttons, but the device wasn't responding. "Why, may I ask, are you disabling electronics in the room if this is about being honest?"

Luthor realizes that if he tried to dodge this, it would just make things worse, so he cut straight to the point and said, "I want to call a truce with you and Superman."

Lois was caught completely off guard by this declaration.

"Come again?" said Lois.

"I want a truce," said Luthor. "I have reason to believe that this Apokolips is more dangerous than anything Earth has ever faced, so I don't believe we can afford to be fighting amongst ourselves. So I'm calling a truce. I won't try to one-up Superman or try to steal his powers while we're facing this threat."

"Wow," said Lois. "Never in a million years did I ever expect you to straight-up say you're trying to steal Superman's powers, even with my recorder disabled. I'm impressed...also worried. Why the change of heart now? It's not like you to be scared."

I'm not the scared one, thought Luthor, but he wasn't about to tell Lois about Mercy's feeling. In truth, Luther had never seen Mercy scared. She had always trusted him implicitly. For her to start acting like this now did...unsettle him a bit. But again, he would never admit this.

"I simply have to view the situation objectively," said Luthor. "We should be working together on this, not fighting each other."

"Okay," said Lois. "But why talk to me? Why didn't you go straight to Superman?"

"Because Superman is already focused on Apokolips," said Luthor. "It's you and the little alien girl who are investigating me."

Lois grimaced. She wasn't really surprised that he already knew, just frustrated.

"And like I said," said Luthor. "I want to make a truce. You can pass that message onto Superman."

Lois didn't answer at first but just stared at him suspiciously.

"You know I'm right," said Luthor. "Apokolips has been behind every alien invasion so far. Lobo, the Kryptonians, the Colu, everything. You know a conflict between us makes fighting them harder. Don't you?"

Lois stared suspiciously for a few more seconds before saying, "I'll tell Superman."

"Thank you," said Luthor.

…

Outside the building, as she walked away, Lois thought over what Luthor was saying. He was right, of course, but she had trouble believing he was really being honest. Surely he was still planning make sure he was on top when all of this was over. Surely his ambition was too large to let something like an alien incursion get to him. He was acting differently, however, like something had gotten under his skin. It could be an act, but if it wasn't, if he was really telling the truth, then they really couldn't afford to fight each other. A truce would be best for all, meaning that she'd have to refrain from bringing Lexcorp down until the common threat was gone.

And she was so close to doing it too.

Lois stopped, feeling frustration wash over her. She balled up her fists and then hit the wall next to her, frustration coursing through every inch of her.