"Lex."
"What is it, Conner?"
"Why did you do that?"
"Do what?"
I appear in front of him instantly. Super-speed has its upsides. "You didn't have to break his leg."
"I did what I had to, Conner," Lex says casually. He slips his hands into his pockets and starts to walk past me. I shoot an arm out, and he stops before I clothes-line him.
"Tell me why you did it. Tell me there's a reason."
"I had to disconnect him from the equation, my boy. He would have compromised everything."
"Not good enough."
Lex's eyes narrow and he folds his arms over his chest. "You have a problem?"
"Yes," I say pressingly. "You think you can get away with anything—"
"Let's not forget who came to whom, Conner," he rebuffs. "You want solutions? You're going to have to work through problems."
I exhale slowly, and lower my arm. He can talk his way out of anything, can't he. Damn this. Damn him. But I did it to myself. For myself.
"Come, my boy," he says, in fake satisfaction. "I have something I want to show you."
I'm a prisoner.Ain't it always the way? You get to the bottom of something...you dig and scrape and work your ass off. It's only at the end that they break your legs and throw you in some dank cell.
Jerks.
The only question…why didn't Conner do anything? He could have. He should have. But he didn't.
He just sat there, and let Black Adam break my legs. For a second, I don't know who to blame: myself for being stupid enough to let Conner go, Adam for actually breaking my legs, or Conner for letting it all happen.
He turned his back on me. Jerk.
Luthor and his cronies (y'know, after they broke my legs) locked me in this dark cell like some animal.
What kind of jerk asks a guy "can you help us" and then throws him in some cell. Even for Luthor, this is wacky. Part of me wonders what he's got up his sleeve. The other part's itching liek wcked bad to get out of here.
They've got me tied down. Literally. Chains anchored the floor connect to each of my limbs—my legs at the ankles, and my arms at the wrists. I can't pull them apart—I'm not that strong.
However, I can speed myself up and vibrate through the metal. For the moment, I decide to play along with Luthor. Because you see, it's fun to think you have the upper hand. But it's even better to prove someone wrong.
So I have two options. Stay here, play my hand for a while and see what these yokels are up to. Or break out. Problem there is, I don't know what kind of defenses Luthor built into this place, or who might be out there ready to beat me up and throw me right the hell back in here.
It's interesting though. Most people underestimate the power of a speedster. Not only can we run fast, but some of us can actually get going fast enough to vibrate through solids. It's wacky…but I can already feel this metabolic inhibitor wearing off.
So I watch. I wait. For them to screw up. Villains, they may be. United? Sure seems like it.
But they'll slip up. Always do.
"Where are we going Lex?"
"I want to show you something."
"Don't worry, Conner," Lex says. "You're going to want to see this."
I shake my head wearily, privately cursing myself for going along with this.
I just sat there. Sat there like a wuss and let them beat up Bart. I could have done something. I should have done something. But I couldn't have taken them alone. Luthor, yes. Calculator, God yes. Not Black Adam though. He's got years on me. Not to mention the whole magic thing.
So I wait. I watch. I bide my time. And I hope that by now Clark's figured out none of the Titans are in 'Frisco.
Lex leads me down a long flight of stairs to a sprawling bunker. Our footsteps echo on the stone steps and reverberate back up the corridor. It's…quiet. Eerily so.
"What is this place?"
"Fallout shelter I had designed some years ago, in the wake of Superman's death—"
"—Before me?"
"Yes," he says flatly. "It was designed after Superman's death. A little insurance policy I devised."
"In case of what?"
"Oh...I have my reasons."
"Sheesh," I say quietly.
"What?"
"Even before you got elected, you were running around safe houses. You're gonna give the shadow government a bad name."
"Indeed."
We stop before what looks like elevator doors. Two bronze-colored sliding doors, each intricately carved with a scene of a sun rising. It's all very Art Deco, you ask me. Luthor's an art-snob, if nothing else.
He presses a thumb against a single red LED button. A few inches above, a piece of the wall slides out with a faint whoosh, and slides back, revealing a circular red lens. Lex leans in close to it, and opens an eye wide. A thin red beam streams from the lens, reading Lex's optic signature. A few seconds later, the elevator doors slide open.
And it's not an elevator at all.
It's a lab. Well...sort of.
Bookcases line one side of it, reaching from the ceiling to the floor. The other side displays something that looks slightly less technological than what Clark has in the Fortress. A giant computer terminal. One big plasma screen and a few others surrounding it. They all glow with information. Lex approaches the keyboard and punches in a series of numbers. The main plasma screen lights up, and displays a message:
System Access.
Lex taps the keyboard, and digitized characters fill in the white spaces. His username reads 'Snapdragon.'
Hmmm.
The main screen flickers to life and displays a message in green digitized characters:
Good Morning, Lex.
One of the monitor screens shows The Penguin sitting behind a desk, talking to Deadshot. Another's looking at some court case. I can't make out any of the faces. And another...shows Wayne Manor; the exterior anyway.
"What are all these, Lex?"
"Pet projects," he says, pressing a button.
"Like what?"
Before Lex has a chance to react, a red siren-light next to the keyboard starts flashing. A single digitized beep is coming from the computer.
Lex turns around, presses the enter key, and the image of Wayne Manor changes to an image of...the Calculator.
"What is it, Noah?" Lex asks impatiently.
"We have...a problem."
"Such as?"
"Someone's found us out. I...uh..."
"What, Noah. What is it!"
"It looks like Batman, sir."
Continued...