Chapter 19: Concrete

He pulled the visor of his cap down over his eyes and sighed. One more failure, and he had only a few establishments left to visit in this small town. After that, he would go directly to interviewing people. Bruce swallowed his impatience and walked through the door of a small café. He greeted the man at the counter and moved to the back of the room, where he could cover all entrances and exits: an old reflex.

He took out a notebook and crossed off the list of the last establishments he had visited. All he wanted to do was get out of this lousy town called Concrete, Washington. He badly needed a break. He ordered a black coffee and retraced the last few points he'd been able to gather so far.

It had been months since Clark had disappeared. Or at least, he'd decided to play dead and hadn't given a single sign of life to anyone. He'd decided to let it happen. The first few days. Bruce had hated himself for breaking down so quickly, for worrying about what might happen to Clark. He'd put up with it for months. Until he'd stopped kidding himself. He wanted Clark back, and he could make all the excuses in the world, but the truth was that he cared. And that he wanted to see him again.

He took a sip of his coffee, realizing how obsessed he had become with this man. He wouldn't give up until he had Clark in front of him, until he talked to him.

He had literally gone around the world trying to find him. Bruce had quickly made the connection with strange events in other states and countries where Clark was present. His first clue was purely by chance.

Bruce spent a great deal of time researching what had happened to Cadmus Laboratories. After weeks of searching, he had finally discovered that Quintum Industries was just a front for Cadmus. This was confirmed when he discovered that one of their plants had exploded in Dallas less than a week before he made the connection. While investigating the explosion, he discovered that the company had tried to cover up an attack.

And from there, he just had to follow the thread. By tracking Quintum Ind, he could retrace Clark's steps. Clark, who remained who he was deep down, even when he was broken. This was a great relief to him. Often, not far from the factories that had a problem, something special happened; disasters and miracles whose intervention resembled Superman's first feats of arms.

Once, he had managed to understand one of these apparent catastrophes. In Bali, on the outskirts of the city, there had been several destroyed roads and houses that the city had justified as probably being due to "an earthquake." But on the spot, testimonies indicated a completely different version, where two individuals would have fought. He was now certain that the Man of Steel had fought against Bizarro.

After that, Bruce continued his travels to track down Clark. In Calbuco, Chile, he had managed to find the place where Clark had helped some people after an earthquake caused by the volcano. But he didn't seem to have stayed in the area. That was still a mystery to him. He was still missing many pieces of the puzzle.

In Tajikistan, he was sure he had missed Clark by only a few days. While talking to a few people in a corner of the city, he had come across a family who had taken in a person matching his description and who had only stayed with them for three weeks. Missing Clark by that much had given Bruce new motivation. Motivation and anxiety. Many times, when he was close to his goal, he wondered how things would go with Clark when he saw him. He was so anxious to see him again.

He had then tracked him to Russia, to a remote corner on the edge of Siberia. It was only by chance that on his first day of investigation he came across human traffickers. A nasty business and more than difficult to handle when the local authorities did not recognize him as an ally and fired on him. But it was too serious for him to close his eyes and turn back. This little trip to dismantle this branch of the traffic had taken him more than a month and a half. It was a long job, which had cost him quite a bit of money.

Bruce took a sip of coffee and unconsciously touched his thigh where a bullet had gone through his leg. He thought back to the state he had been in when he returned to his private jet. When he had arrived in Gotham, Alfred had let loose with the sarcasm and Dick had gotten angry. Jay and Tim were not at the Mansion at that time. During his trip to Russia, he hadn't even had time to investigate Clark.

He had then tracked him down in Bombay, when a man with incredible powers had saved the lives of twenty people who were trapped in a collapsed building. He had been delayed when he went there, after his recovery. But on the spot, while investigating, he had thought he saw him.

It was in the middle of a market, with a crowd of people all around, he thought he saw Clark. A tall bearded man with a cap and sunglasses, wearing a beige linen shirt. His face was hardly recognizable, but he had stared at him for several seconds before disappearing. Bruce had tried to find him among the people, without success. But he was sure he had seen him and that it was him.

After that, he was convinced that Clark had left India. So he had returned to Gotham. He had taken over the management of the city and had worked with Tim for a while, before he joined his team again. Bruce had seen that the young man had changed. Strangely, it seemed to him that Tim had matured and he hoped that was a positive sign, despite the events. Clark's disappearance had had a big impact on him, he knew. But he didn't know what to do to help him.

Bruce snapped out of his thoughts when, as he finished his cup of coffee, he felt a heavy gaze on him. He continued to drink as if he hadn't noticed, looking for who was watching him like that. At the counter, the two waitresses of the café were chatting quietly while looking at him, an amused smile on their faces. He relaxed slightly because it was an effect that he made to many people.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, he gathered his things and went towards them, the pretext of going to pay in mind. If they found him interesting, they might be more talkative. One was the perfect stereotype of the bimbo: large neckline, well made-up and the wink she threw him in addition to the silly look on her face annoyed him at once. The other, a brunette a little more in the background, had also a pretty face but was much more discreet. He didn't even have time to approach them when he arrived. The blonde bimbo took a falsely sorry air:

"Oh sorry sir, we didn't mean to stare at you like that. "

She leaned slightly over the counter and Bruce hated her fake high-pitched voice. It was so cliché.

"No, that's okay," Bruce replied in the softest tone he could muster at the moment. "You must not have many travelers around here. "

He gave a slight smile and in return the blonde continued the conversation.

"Actually, we do see a lot of them passing through here. You know, Concrete may be a very small town, but there is a lot of traffic and some tourists! Sometimes they come to climb Baker volcano, hike in Baker forest, see the Baker River or the famous lake-"

"Baker? "

The blonde gave him a big smile.

"Exactly! It's a cool season, but in a few weeks the scenery will be beautiful! "

Bruce was lost in thought. The passageway had to be the only thing holding this town together. Which also explained why no one remembered seeing Clark. He was pretty sure the Kryptonian had been in the city, because of several warehouses of a Quintum Ind subsidiary in the area, but also because of suspicious events. If only the city had had cameras, he could have tried to hack into the surveillance system. But with a population of about 800 people...

The two young women then began to laugh, drawing Bruce's attention back to them.

"Oh, excuse me, I'll pay. "

Bruce began to reach into his pockets. The brunette continued to laugh as she took it in and opened her mouth.

"Oh, don't worry, it's just that with Marcy, we think you look a lot like someone. "

He handed over the change when he saw the price displayed on the cash register.

"Someone who's been in town recently? "

The two women looked at each other, thinking.

"Not really," said the blonde, giving him another wink. "In fact, it was on a drawing. "

A small alarm sounded in Bruce's head and he gave them his full attention.

"A drawing? "

"Yes, we had a customer who came in every day for a while. He often drew on his napkins while he was having his coffee. An Englishman. But it couldn't have been you! "

He knew that Clark was very good at learning languages. Creating an accent was an easy thing for him to do.

"Did you keep the drawing?" Bruce asked hastily.

They were surprised by his reaction. He caught himself:

"I am rather curious", he added on a softer tone.

The brunette turned around and picked up something that looked like a paper napkin from the wall. Bruce looked at it carefully and couldn't hide his surprise. It was him. Totally him. Him, smiling. There was only his face, crudely drawn with a ballpoint pen, but looking just like him. And it was Clark's style. This time he was sure of it.

"It's impressive, isn't it?" the brunette added. "He drew a lot of other things. I wish I'd kept them all. "

"And this regular, did he come today? "

The blonde and the brunette shook their heads negatively. The bimbo answered:

"No, he didn't come yesterday or today. He came rather at the beginning of the afternoon. "

"Maybe he went hiking in the woods. He had a map of Mount Baker last time", the brunette added.

Bruce's heart quickened: maybe he was onto something.

"Do you know his name? I'd be curious to meet him. "

"Chris. Maybe he'll come back. "

Bruce hesitated before taking another napkin and writing his phone number on it.

"I'll be around for a few days. If you ever see him... I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know. I'd love to meet him. "

The blonde grabbed the napkin with his number much faster than her colleague.

"It will be a pleasure! "

Bruce greeted them with a smile and left the café. The hunt was on.

Leo Quintum was a brilliant person. He was a very bright man. As CEO of Quintum Industries, he had built up his own empire, and many of his works were aimed at advancing mankind. Innovative technology, new energies, construction of ecological habitats... This man was a true Saint. The only intriguing thing about him was his projects on genetics.

That was where Bruce made the connection. After spending many hours, a few months earlier, going through Quintum's entire life and every move he made. His work on genetics was more than daring and, even if ethically Bruce did not agree with him, he could not but admire his incredible work.

After leaving the cafe, Bruce asked about the land Quintum owned in Concrete. He owned several acres right in the middle of Baker Forest, towards Mount Baker. Bruce hoped they didn't have any ongoing projects related to a volcano, because that wasn't really the kind of thing he liked to work on.

So he waited until nightfall to get there. In his Batman outfit, he had gone into the forest with his Batwing and left it a few miles from the warehouses, in camouflage mode. The rest of the way, he had carefully walked. It had taken him a while to make his way through the forest, watching out for rocks and ditches on such uneven ground. One thing was certain: he was not a forest ranger.

Once he got to the top, he took some time to carefully observe the premises with his night vision binoculars and realized that the building was well guarded. Much too well guarded. Much more than the other sites he had already visited, and those of the Cadmus laboratories. There must have been three times the original staff.

Bruce hid behind his mound and thought. Either they had ended up protecting their buildings better because they knew they were being watched, or they were protecting something. Either way, he would have a hard time getting inside on his own without setting off an alarm. If he really wanted to get inside the building, he was going to have to take some risks.

He turned around again, picking up his binoculars to check the grounds. Barbed wire fences about 10 feet high surrounded the buildings and there were numerous guards around, the ones outside were even equipped with flashlights. The guards were armed with assault rifles, bulletproof vests and other accoutrements indicating that they were all professionals and not henchmen. Bruce relied on former military men. To risk facing them alone when they were all more or less in the sights of another guard was suicide. On top of that, there were numerous security cameras.

So Bruce didn't have many options: either he would call for backup and have to take it easy, or he would have to try another approach, or he would have to turn back. It was certain that he would try another approach. Taking his binoculars, he looked around the buildings to see if there were any air vents or other openings through which he could sneak. But his view was not good.

He then moved in the most unobtrusive way several hundred yards to his right. He found a perfect spot that offered a clear view without being in the open. Placing himself on the ground, he took out his binoculars again to observe the infrastructure.

His vantage point was much better than the first: from there he had a direct view of what he was looking for, a shadowy area that would hide him with an opening to a duct. There were even few guards. All Bruce had to do was climb down from his ledge, sneak through the bushes to the building, and then go to the right. Only he had to find a way to get over the fence.

Going over would be too difficult. There were no trees near the fence and if he used his grappling hook from too far away, he might be seen by the sentries. What he could do, however, was to get through the fence by cutting a hole in it. He had a laser adapted to the situation.

He put his binoculars away after scouting out the terrain he was going to use and prepared to leave. That's when something bothered him. Something was wrong. Batman stepped back from the ledge to examine it closely. The view wasn't normally so perfect. The branches of the bush had been broken off before, and it was fresh, the leaves hadn't even had time to get damaged. Someone else had been there. Was it Clark? He'd have his answer soon enough if he broke into the building himself.

Batman made a game of tracking, looking for any trace of someone else's passage. It was discreet. Very discreet indeed, but not so discreet that he couldn't track the person. In places, some branches were broken and if the footprints were erased, the crushed leaves did not deceive him.

In any case, the person was really an amateur. At least, from his point of view. He could clearly follow the trail, which led straight to his destination. Including the point where he wanted to enter the secure compound. Batman lost the trail a hundred yards before the fence, under the cover of the trees.

He stopped to watch the guards. The whole side of the building seemed unguarded, and the dark area made it impossible for the guards on high to see their colleagues' absence. Batman thought that large spotlights would have helped them, but it gave the enemy better visibility too. But he was used to working at night.

He approached the fence and used his gadgets to get through. He carefully entered through the conduit, which seemed to have already been unhooked: the big screws that fixed the grate to the wall had been ripped out cleanly from the wall. A superman had been there, no doubt.

With his heart pounding, Batman entered the duct. He had no idea what to expect inside, but he hoped to find some answers, and at best find Clark. He really wanted to find Clark.

It took him a while to find an ideal opening through which to exit. The shaft had led him under the building, into a huge basement where large machines seemed to be producing a phenomenal amount of energy. Bruce had not seen this kind of installation in the Cadmus laboratories. He didn't know what it was for, but it didn't look good.

As he examined the main reactor, he noticed that there were no technicians on site and he seemed to be the only one in the room. He then used his portable scanner to determine the exact nature of this reactor. Alien, no doubt about it. It was a type of technology that he had never seen before. He then took some pictures and looked if there was not a computer by which he could obtain data.

He had no time to worry about it. He heard a loud noise, then several, on the floors above. Batman reacted instinctively. He took out his batarangs and went down the fire escape to the top floor. Once up there, he didn't immediately realize how bad things were. While he was expecting a real panic, he discovered that there were not many people and that they were already evacuating the place with their equipment.

It was another noise that caught his attention, or rather a huge crash. A part of the wall of the building had just been completely destroyed. Shots rang out and the few scientists present escaped, trying to get out of a huge tank they were unplugging in a hurry.

Batman ran towards them, determined to find out what was in the tank. When the researchers saw him coming, they fled just as other guards entered to fire on him. Throwing his batarangs with agility, he quickly neutralized the five men who attacked him. At the time, he did not see that one of the bullets had hit the box behind him.

When he saw some kind of gas coming out of it, he covered his face with his cloak and went to the box to see what was inside. Putting his arm through the broken glass, Batman thought he was hallucinating. He didn't have time to be more surprised. The man inside the chamber opened his blue eyes and the next thing he knew, Batman was propelled with the chamber door into the air.

The impact stunned him momentarily, and it took him a few seconds to regain his senses and pull himself out of the large metal door. His eyes must have played a trick on him, it was not possible otherwise. He got to his feet, his brain working at full speed as the man in the chamber disappeared. He refused to believe in what he had seen, even though it was right under his nose.

He crouched down to observe the door and the sign on it. « Kr Project. » What did that mean? With what he had just seen, there was little room for doubt. Cadmus had succeeded in creating a clone? A Superman clone? If so, that meant a lot of things for the future.

Seeing that no one was left, Batman set off in pursuit of the cloned Superman. He activated the command to summon the Batwing and used his handheld scanner to analyze the radiation level to see if he could track the clone. As soon as he had recorded its signature, he exited the building and climbed into his vehicle, then drove through the forest.

In the darkness of the night, Batman could not see much. There were many clouds in the sky that hid the moon, and in his Batwing he had poor visibility. Unlike Gotham at night, the forest had no light at all. So he simply followed the clone's trail, which seemed to be heading toward a specific destination with some speed, so that after a few minutes, the Batwing was having trouble keeping up. A lot of trouble. He lost the clone on his radar screen, but he still had his signal. The distance was growing and Bruce thought that if he didn't catch up fast enough, they would eventually leave the state.

The vastness of the forest meant that the echo carried quite far. Even through the wall of the Batwing, he could hear a terrible battle raging outside: it was as if he were in a thunderstorm, yet there was no lightning. Just the noise. A crash that sent a chill down his spine.

It was the only noise, apart from the faint sound of the vehicle's engine, that he could hear. Everything was silent. Very quiet. The closer he got, the louder the sounds became. It was like blows, hit harder and harder. And each time, Bruce's heart leapt in his chest. If he got hit like that, it would probably kill him. The fight that was to take place was to be titanic.

In the darkness, he could see areas where trees had been uprooted, where rocks had been broken. Yet his visibility was poor. In better light, he was sure that the damage would be incredibly severe.

Then suddenly, there was light. In total silence, a powerful flash of light blinded Batman at once. Stunned, Bruce had just enough time to reflexively shield his eyes, hearing a thud before being caught in the blast of what seemed like an explosion. Immediately, he lost control of the Batwing. The vehicle's alarms went haywire, all warning lights came on, and as he pulled back as hard as he could, the Batman crashed to the ground.

Bruce grunted in pain as he tried to get out of the way. He stopped moving for a few seconds as his vision was blurred and his ears were ringing. He could feel the blood pulsing at his temples and pain coursing through his body. He tried to gather his thoughts, choosing to focus on what was most important, because there was nothing else he could do anyway.

Moving again, he realized that he had a few broken ribs and that he had dislocated his right shoulder. His leg also hurt but he seemed to be able to move it. He extricated himself from the cockpit and activated the Batwing door above him. The vehicle had tipped over on its side and Bruce climbed out with some difficulty. His first sensation outside was to breathe incredibly hot air and feel a strong heat. What he saw next was etched in his memory forever.

The picture before him was one of a nuclear bombing type disaster. In his memory, it was perhaps that, the light. But then he would be dead, or totally irradiated. Here, the landscape had been devastated by the blast. The trees had been uprooted and they were all lying on the ground, as far as Bruce could see. He had to find out what the cause was.

Observing the condition of the Batwing's exterior, he forced himself to go back inside to try to restart it. After several tries and some questionable repairs, the engines fired up. Batman spent many minutes trying to get the vehicle off the ground. Once the vehicle was hovering, the red lights assaulted the Bat's view, and he suspected he would not be able to fly very long, or very high. But he had to continue his investigation, before the army arrived, alerted by the « explosion ».

He flew for several hundred meters over the fallen trees before arriving at the real area of the explosion. Nothing. He tried to turn on the Batwing's lights to get a better look, but only one spotlight still worked, revealing a blank, burned-out floor. It was like flying over a No Man's Land.

The Batwing's radar was no longer functional at all. Bruce didn't know if the clone was still around, if it was the source of the explosion or if it had survived. He continued to fly over the now pristine area, hoping on the one hand that someone from the League would arrive. With an incident like this, it was certain that someone would come, unless there was something more serious going on elsewhere.

He drove quite a distance before finding a figure on the ground in the deserted area. Batman stopped his vehicle and cracked some glow sticks to get a better look. The ground beneath his feet was hot and still smoldering. He cautiously walked towards the figure, whose physique did not match either the clone or Superman, but he wasn't sure.

He winced in disgust when he recognized Bizarro on the ground, completely naked. In his life, he hoped he'd never see anything like that. It was...more than destabilizing. He approached the monster and bent down to see that it was not dead, but deeply unconscious.

Bizarro did not appear to be the source of the explosion. On the ground, Bruce could see thin layers of dust forming circles, probably from the blast. The epicenter was elsewhere. He walked on, holding his light sticks in front of him to get a better look, but already the night vision was better: the explosion had cleared the sky.

He then saw a white mass further to the side, standing out clearly from the ground. Was it the clone, or even Clark? He hurried toward the second figure, also completely naked. A few feet away, he knew it wasn't Clark. Too young, smaller and frailer than him, though strong.

The clone was also unconscious. He and Bizarro had survived a powerful explosion, but their outfits had suffered the damage. The clone did not appear to have any injuries. Bruce noticed that he looked a lot like Clark, but his face was different, his head was more oval than Clark's and there were some differences in his face. The clone was not a complete clone of Clark. That was obvious enough to him for having watched the Kryptonian carefully.

Making sure he wasn't in danger of waking up, Batman headed for the epicenter when a BOOM tunnel sounded and farther ahead, Cyborg emerged from the portal. Batman raised his left arm towards him, calling out:

"Cyborg! "

The latter turned to him, more than a little surprised:

"Batman? What happened? "

"An explosion, but I don't know what kind, there was no detonation. It went off over there. "

He pointed in the direction behind Cyborg. Cyborg waited for Batman to come up to his level before going back on the road with him.

"There are three other life forms in the area. Only three. Everything else is dead. Are your wounds all right? "

Batman nodded.

"I've got it. I found Bizarro over there, and on that side, I think he's a Superman clone. "

Cyborg turned his head towards him, frowning with his human eye:

"You'll have to tell me the whole story. "

Batman nodded again. Then they reached the epicenter. Batman rushed to the body on the ground when he realized the origin of the explosion was not due to any device, and that the man on the ground was Clark.

"Kal! "

Falling to his knees beside the naked man, he checked his pulse and sighed with relief: Clark was alive. Unconscious and unrecognizable, but alive.

"Damn it. We've got to get him to HQ. "

Batman nodded, unable to suppress a smile: he had finally found Clark.

"Yeah. I'll get the Batwing. "

Cyborg activated his bionic eye to look around them.

"I'll open a BOOM tunnel for you, you go with him, you're hurt. I'll get the Batwing before the army arrives. They're already here. "

Victor then activated a shield generator, just as a military drone flew overhead. That meant there was going to be a ground response soon.

"Wait, the clone, we should get him back. "

"I'll take care of it. "

Victor broke through the shield and opened a BOOM tunnel. Batman struggled to lift Clark, dead weight that he was, and dragged him into the wormhole.

"Are you ready? "

Bruce grunted and nodded. The crack that followed drew a cry of pain from him, which he stifled by clenching his jaw. He hated dislocating his shoulders, it always hurt like hell to put them back together. Diana handed him an ice pack which he placed on his shoulder.

"Thank you. How are Barry and J'onn doing? "

"They're still checking them out. I never thought they'd go so far as to create a clone of Kal. "

Bruce left the rest of his costume behind and got up to follow Diana. The two of them went to the infirmary area.

When he had arrived at Headquarters, it was Plastic Man who was there for his shift. He had helped him carry Kal to the infirmary and dressed him. Bruce had then asked him if he could detect anything with his telepathy, but Eel had told him that he could only really know when he woke up. Otherwise, in the first place, there was nothing dangerous.

Bruce had then contacted J'onn, who had called Barry, who had called Diana. No doubt the information would circulate very quickly. Oliver had already arrived by chance with Captain Marvel, who had been hysterical at the news. Only Clark remained unconscious.

Diana had offered to help him get better, and Bruce had agreed, while waiting for the tests. He still couldn't believe that Clark was here. That he had managed to find him and that he was there, lying on a table in front of him.

"It's strange to see him with a beard, but it suits him," Diana commented.

"You think so?" said Barry from the back of the room. "I think he looks like a barbarian gladiator. I'd be afraid he'd rip my head off. "

Bruce looked at the Kryptonian, who also had longer hair. His curls were longer and flowed down his neck and face, forming a little brown mane that he found quite charming. But as for the bushy beard, even though it suited Clark, he liked it much less, he found it too thick.

He sat down with difficulty on a chair beside Clark's bed, holding his right arm against him. The pain, relieved in part by the ice, told him that it would still take a while before he could move it properly. He'd already told Concrete what had happened and now all he wanted to do was settle down. But he wanted to wait for the test results and for Clark to wake up.

Diana sat down next to him and they waited a long time. A really long time. Bruce thought about the situation. What had just happened, that explosion he had witnessed, the clone, Clark. How would Clark react when he saw him? Would it be good? Bad? Would he ignore him, talk to him? The last time, Clark had left without so much as a glance at him. Was he going to do that again? Did Clark know the clone existed?

He had dozens more questions, all of them revolving around the Kryptonian. And again, he was tense and impatient. Clark didn't look like he was going to wake up anytime soon, and he didn't know what kind of physical condition he was in yet. Taking it in stride, Bruce began to think about the situation as objectively as he could.

He quickly came to a few conclusions: Clark knew about the clone, the clone was hostile and Clark was the source of the explosion. Since it had leveled everything in its path without forming a single crater, Bruce wondered if the origin was not solar. He wondered if the energy Clark had generated around his body in Metropolis was the cause of the explosion.

Could this source of power be due to his death? That he had acquired a new power by suffering a trauma like the one caused by Doomsday? God, he hated not having answers! And the only answers he might have wouldn't help matters.

He turned his attention back to Clark. How much did he hate him? How much did Clark suffer when he found out that Bruce had been keeping kryptonite for so long?

"Holy crap! "

"I didn't expect that. "

Surprised, Bruce and Diana looked back at J'onn and Barry. Diana put a hand on the Bat's shoulder in support before standing up and walking towards them. Bruce followed suit.

"What did you find ?" the Amazon asked.

Flash activated in the lab as J'onn read a series of data from other screens. It was him who answered the question:

"Barry has found something interesting about the clone. I think he's looking into it further, or checking it out. I have the results for Kal-El. "

J'onn paused, switching data before resuming:

"His cells are empty of energy, just like the last time with Doomsday, otherwise all is well. I need to talk to Caulder. "

It wasn't the first time Caulder had come back into a conversation about Clark's health. He turned his head to Diana, who was frowning.

"Is there anything we don't know? "

J'onn took his time answering.

"Caulder and I have been following Kara's health problems, and Kal's condition. I'd like his opinion. "

Bruce didn't really like that.

"Is something wrong?" Diana asked, concerned.

"No, not to worry. Maybe he'll tell us more when he wakes up. But it should take him a while to recover from the complete loss of energy. "

At least there was no danger to Clark's life. Bruce felt a huge weight lift from his shoulders.

"But what shocked you then ?" Diana insisted.

J'onn turned to the red lightning bolt behind him that was doing dozens of accelerations to make the tests go faster. Bruce thought to himself that it was a good thing their equipment was solid, even if this wasn't the first time Barry had fried the circuits of their computer equipment.

"There are three different genomes in the DNA of the... clone," J'onn explained.

Diana and Bruce looked at each other, both surprised. Three different ones? How was that possible? Bruce could see that besides the Kryptonian one, there could be human DNA, but the third one... Barry stopped, amazement visible on his face, staring at a screen.

"This guy... he has no limits... "

"Barry, what are you talking about? "

"Explain," Diana said.

Barry turned his head toward them and flipped his hair back. Batman saw that the scientist was thinking fast.

"Bruce, do you have Clark's things? "

Diana was about to ask him a question again when the Bat stopped him with a wave of his hand. He wanted to know Barry's thoughts.

"No, he had to travel light, but he was in Concrete. Very small town, 800 people. "

The other nodded.

"Okay, that'll be quick to check. We need to find his stuff as soon as possible, both to protect him and also to retrieve any information he may have. I don't plan to search his bag, but it would be nice to have everything on hand and not have anyone else find it. "

Barry was talking fast. Really fast.

"Barry, tell us what you know. "

He looked up at Diana, who had just put a hand on his shoulder. He took a deep breath.

"The clone has Kryptonian, human and... genomorphic DNA. The Kryptonian DNA is Clark's. The human part... "

The disgust on Barry's face worried Bruce.

"And the human part? "

The Flash's eyes reflected his anger.

"It's... it's Lex Luthor's DNA. "

Plastic Man/Eel : He is an FBI agent who appeared in DC comics around the 40s and 50s and was quite popular, but ultimately little known. His real name is Patrick O'Brian, Plastic Man "Eel" is immortal thanks to his ability to be elastic. He is also telepathic, elastic and can metamorphose. He is also known for his zany interventions in the more recent DC Comics.