Rating: T
Where else can I find this story? All five parts are on the first page of Part 5 of the original Young Justice Anon Meme on LiveJournal.
Hero
Masks, Part V
Chapter 12: Gifts
Clark's just gotten in the shower when the door rings. Conner looks at his watch—Robin's not due for another half hour. An x-ray glance through the door confirms it: it isn't Robin on the other side. But it's a young redheaded man with bad acne, and he doesn't seem to be holding any weapons, bombs, or lead boxes just a box with an iPad. And he has internal organs in all the right places, so he's probably not an alien or a robot. So Conner opens the door.
"Superboy?" the redhead asks.
Conner rolls his eyes and points to the El crest on his chest.
"Yeah. Right, um, delivery for you."
Conner sighs. He can think of only one person in the world who would send him a package at the hotel without telling him, and that means that the package can't possibly be good news.
The note attached confirms his suspicions. Sorry I'm a couple of months late. Happy belated birthday. Love, Lex.
There's a moment of confusion, because Independence Day is still a few weeks away, but then Conner realizes that Luthor isn't talking about the day he left Cadmus.
He should chuck the package out the window, or return to sender.
But curiosity killed the cat.
He signs the delivery boy's clipboard SB and shuts the door in his face.
Conner looks over to the bathroom. Clark likes to take long showers, he's learned by now. So, against his better judgment, he opens the box, takes the iPad out, and turns it on.
There's an assortment of the normal icons. Apparently, Luthor even bothered to have Angry Birds and Cut the Rope downloaded to the thing. It'd be really funny if he just kept the iPad and used it to watch TV and play Angry Birds. It'd be $400 of Luthor's money down the drain and a cool toy for himself.
Or, he could hand the thing over to Robin, who could look through all its data.
Instead, he taps the white icon with the El crest.
The words "Project Kr" flash on, and then, there's a menu hierarchy.
• Origin of Project Kr: Extraction of Source DNA
• Attempts 1 through 84
• Bizarro
• Superboy
He turns the volume off, and then he clicks on the Bizarro tag and finds the video coverage of Bizarro's final hours. He's so engrossed in the horror of watching Bizarro, his predecessor, fall to bits as he unwittingly destroys buildings in Metropolis that he misses the knock at the door, and doesn't even notice when the door opens.
"What are you watching?" Lois's voice catches him off guard and makes him jump three feet in the air. "Sheesh kid. What's wrong?"
"N…nothing," Conner stammers and puts the iPad face down on the bed. Lois reaches for the thing. His cry of "Stop!" only encourages her.
The color drains from her face. "Holy shit kid, what the hell is this?"
"Belated birthday present from Luthor," he says, trying to come across as nonchalant, and failing miserably. He's sure he's being very, very chalant.
"And you thought watching that would be a good idea, because…?"
"I wanted to see how Superman dealt with the last one."
He wouldn't have thought it was possible, but Lois's face becomes even paler.
"You think… Superman would… to you?"
Conner shrugs and grabs the iPad out. He brings up the video of Superman nearly killing him. Somehow, he knew Luthor would put it in. He shows it to Lois. "Sure. Why not? It's not like he wouldn't like to."
"Superboy," Lois sighs. "Superman was under the influence of red kryptonite. He doesn't want to hurt you."
"I know what red kryptonite feels like. Remember, the reason he was exposed to it was because it was in me. It didn't make him feel anything. It didn't make him want anything. It just got rid of his inhibitions. And I mean, look, I get it. He hates me. I make his skin crawl. Can't really say I blame him."
"Look, Superboy," she sits next to him and puts an arm around his shoulders. "I know Superman. I think I know him better than anybody. He's the best person I've ever known. I think it freaked him out when you showed up. I mean, you weren't there when Bizarro… that was the hardest thing he'd ever had to do. And if he got to know you, I promise you, he'd think you were a fantastic kid. But even if you were a snot nosed brat—he wouldn't hate you. I don't think he hates anyone. Except maybe Darkseid, Luthor and Brainiac… But you've never tried to destroy a planet, so, yeah. I promise you, Superman doesn't hate you, and he doesn't want to hurt you."
He meets her violet eyes.
"You know Superman better than anyone, right?"
"I mean… maybe not better than Batman, but—
"So, what's his secret identity?"
Lois looks taken aback.
"You didn't know, right? But yeah, he has a secret identity. Batman said."
"But… he doesn't wear a mask…"
"I don't wear a mask. None of my classmates know I'm Superboy."
Lois is quiet. Finally, she just yanks the iPad out of Conner's hands and before he can stop her, she throws it to the floor and sinks her heel through the screen.
"Luther sent that to mess with your head. You should hand it over to Batman and have him look through it. There may be useful information. But I'm not going to let you play right into Luthor's hands. You know how I know Superman doesn't hate you? Because Luthor wants you to hate Superman. Luthor wants you to be afraid of Superman. And if Luthor wants those things, then Luthor knows that you hating Superman and being afraid of him will hurt Superman. And Luthor doesn't know Superman. Luthor couldn't possibly begin to want to pray to hope to have half a chance of comprehending Superman, because everything that Superman is, Luthor can't even begin to imagine.
"But there's one thing Luthor knows about Superman, better than you, me, Batman, or even Superman himself, and that's how to hurt Superman."
When Clark steps out of the shower, fully dressed, he finds Conner and Lois sitting silently on the bed with glum looks on their faces.
"Gee, guys, why the long faces? Did I miss something?"
Lois leans over and picks the broken iPad off the floor and tosses it to Clark. "Gift from Luthor. Superidiot here was watching video coverage of Bizarro's final hours."
Clark steps back. Then falls down on the bed next to Conner.
"I'm sorry," Clark says.
"Yeah. It's ok. Luthor's a bastard."
"You know," Lois says, "Clark interviewed Superman after, well, you know. It was a beautiful piece. Superman and Clark both poured their souls into it. It should have gotten a Pulitzer."
"That was the first time I ever really hated Luthor. I mean, really hated him. He laughed, you know, when… when Superman confronted him about Bizarro—the unrepentant monster laughed. And then he went on the evening news and explained it was an unfortunate accident and threw a couple hundred million around, and no one cared." Clark leans his head back. "I just don't get it. I don't get Luthor."
Lois lets out a snort. "I don't know if there's anything to get. He's an evil little worm."
Clark shakes his head, still looking up at the ceiling. "No. I still don't get it. I mean… I get Brainiac. Brainiac's a soulless machine whose only regard is the preservation of data. He's nothing more than data. His body can be blown to smithereens, and he survives. So, I can understand why he let Krypton explode, how he could prevent… prevent Jor-El from saving it. And Darkseid—there's nothing but death on Apokolypse. I understand Darkseid. I understand Mogul and Kanjar Ro and Synestro, and I can understand that Ra's al Ghul and Vandal Savage have been around for so long they've lost their humanity. Hell—I understand Joker, of all people—he's completely insane.
"But Luthor? He had a totally normal childhood with nice parents and a lovely sister. He's not crazy. He's got everything—and I mean, if it was just the white collar stuff—but it's not." He holds the iPad out. "I mean-this? There's no profit to be made here. I mean… I really… I just don't understand. What the hell did Superman ever do to him to make him hate him so much?"
"Be better than him," Lois says. "It's not about Superman being a danger to humanity, or about humanity needing to be self-reliant. It's not about the fact that Superman has super powers that he didn't work for them. It's not even that Superman keeps interfering with his schemes. It's the fact that Superman has super powers—he's the mightiest creature in the universe. Everyone knows that if Superman wanted to enslave the planet or destroy it, there's not much anyone, not even the Justice League could do. But that's just it. Superman could do all of those things. He could be a conqueror or destroyer. But he isn't. Instead, he helps people, and Luthor hates that, because that's what he could do too. And listen, I'm not saying he's a meta, but Luthor's got a superpower too—or else, what the hell is that 12th level intellect he keeps bragging about? Luthor knows that if he had Superman's power, he would be a conqueror and destroyer, because he's already doing that with the power he does have, so the fact that Superman doesn't do that drives him up the wall. Because the shining light of Superman's virtue just casts a light on how incredibly ugly and petty his own dingy soul is."
She puts her hand on Conner's shoulder. "And you know what kid? That's why he's spent so much time trying to drive an even bigger wedge between you and Superman. Because he wants Superman to have at least one big moral failing so he can look a little less ugly by comparison."
Conner chuckles darkly. "Oh, is that what he's trying to do? I should tell him he's wasting his time. I'm not really sure you can drive a wedge into the Grand Canyon."
And finally, there's that knock he's been waiting for, and Robin is at the door.
Conner zips up to open the door.
"Why's everyone looking so grim?" Robin asks. "Please tell me no one's died." From the way Robin says it, Conner knows it's not a joke.
He shakes his head. "No. No one's died."
"Present from Lex Luthor," Clark says, as he walks up by Conner's side. He hands the broken iPad to Robin. "Luthor sent it to Superboy. Delivery boy dropped it off when I was in the shower."
"What happened to the screen?" Robin asks.
"I stepped on it," Lois tells him.
"Do you think you can get anything useful off of it?" Clark asks.
"I'll see. If there's anything useful on it, I'll find it. I'll have to take it apart though."
"Awesome," Conner says unenthusiastically. Let me know what you find. I'll be back in a few hours."
"Yeah, well, it's going to take a little bit more than a few hours. But, um, you should totally take your time. All the time you need." And then, like that Conner's on his way to the elevator, on his way to see M'gann and Batman.
Part of Conner wants to run as fast as he can to M'gann and Batman.
But… another part of Conner wants to be alone, for just a little while. So he buys a jacket and a baseball cap and shoves his hands into his pockets and walks to the hospital.
He's tempted to buy flowers for M'gann, but he knows in Gotham it's a bad idea. So instead he steps into a toy store and buys her a big pink plush poodle in a poodle skirt. On his way out, however, he spots the most ridiculous thing ever: it's a grey plush grey great dane—wearing, of all the ridiculous things—a bat cowl and cape, and its collar is a utility belt with actual pockets. Conner can't pass it up—so he grabs the Bat-hound and heads back to the queue.
Then he has them wrap both plush dogs up, and he'd back on his way to the hospital. This time, it's the fat police man again, which is encouraging, in a way, even if Bullock's gruff frown isn't.
He finds M'gann in human form, sitting by Batman's bedside. She's slouched over, resting her head in her arms on Batman's bed. Her hairs's a mess and there's a trail of dried slobber running down her cheek. She looks absolutely exhausted, but also, amazingly adorable.
He's not exactly a light guy, but he tries to be as quiet as possible as he heads towards her. And then he leans in and in one swift motion, he hooks his arms around her and picks her up.
She wakes up with a little scream, and then she laughs.
"Conner… you… you…"
"Wonderful boyfriend?" he asks.
"I was gonna say jerk," she says, patting at his chest.
"Oh yeah? Well, then maybe I'm not going to give you what I was going to give you then."
"Were you going to give me a kiss?"
"Among other things," he tells her. "Do you want a kiss?"
"Hmmm… I'm not sure."
He presses his lips to her temple. "How's that?"
"Not sure." There are bags under her eyes, but that doesn't keep them from twinkling.
"How about this?" he plants a kiss in the middle of her forehead.
"What else you got?"
He kisses the tip of her nose.
"I think I need something to compare that to."
So, finally, he kisses her on the lips. She wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him back. Apparently, they've woken Batman up, because he clears his throat. But it's still a couple of seconds more before Conner and M'gann pull away from each other.
"Yeah, I think that was what I wanted," M'gann says smugly.
"Me too," Conner answers. Then he turns his head at Batman. "Hey, how are you feeling?"
"Lovely," Batman answers with a frown on his face. "Being a complete invalid is so much fun. I don't know why people don't do it more often."
M'gann recoils into Conner. [He's been like this for a while now,] she tells him.
[Can't exactly blame him,] Conner thinks back at her. [I mean… Batman's trained all his life to be at the peak of human performance, and now he's completely dependent on others. It's got to be frustrating.]
Conner sets M'gann down and then picks up the bag with the Bat-hound. He pulls the little plush dog out, and shows it to Batman. "I know it's cheesy and not your style, but I couldn't resist." He takes the dog and sets it on Batman's chest.
"Cute," Batman answers noncommittally. But Conner can tell he's just being stubborn.
"Ruff, ruff," Conner says as he leans the dog into Batman and presses the dog's snout to Batman's nose ever so lightly.
"You know, I used to have a dog," Batman says. "He was a German Shepherd named Ace. Alfred got him for me when, well, after… He thought Ace would help."
"And did he?" M'gann asks.
"Not as much as Alfred would have liked," Batman answers, "But yes."
"Ruff, ren I'm Ace, the Rat-Round, rere to relp!" Conner exclaims in a passable imitation of Scooby Doo. Then he lodges the dog under Batman's arm. If Batman minds, he doesn't say so.
"I brought one for you too," Conner explains, and he picks up the pink poodle in a poodle skirt.
"Awww," is M'gann's much more enthusiastic reply. "She's adorable. I'll name her Mindy." She pecks at Conner's cheek and wraps her arms around his.
"See, I told you I was a wonderful boyfriend."
"Get a room you two," Batman interjects, but he looks a little less upset than before.
"Robin said you were in a grouchy mood."
"That's one word for it," Batman answers dryly. Then, "Speaking of little birds, another one told me you you single handedly subdued both Joker and Harley Quinn, even though they had Joker Venom and kryptonite."
M'gann suddenly tightens her hold around his arm.
Conner shrugs. "I guess I was in the right place at the right time."
"Superman was very impressed."
Conner just sort of snorts.
"Don't snort. It's very impressive. It's not easy to take Joker down." Then, he adds darkly, "I should know."
[He's been playing that scene over in his mind non-stop, trying to figure out what he could have done differently,] M,gann tells him.
"I guess you would know," Conner answers. "I mean, you've brought him back to Arkham, what, a hundred times? I just got lucky.
"Using ice breath to knock kryptonite away from you as Harley's trying to feed it to you isn't really getting lucky."
"Well, I mean, it wasn't Harley's best idea ever."
Batman rolls his eyes. "Stop being modest. You did a great job."
"Thanks."
"What was less great was your decision to run off to talk to Lex Luthor of all people. What ever possessed you to run to Metropolis in the middle of the night to chat with that man?"
"I… I had a revelation."
"Next time you have a revelation like that… let it simmer 'til morning."
Conner looks down. "Yeah. I know. It's just… I suddenly realized… if Luthor was the only person to make Superman bleed, then that must have been a backer of Cadmus. And he confirmed it. He said he had Desmond make me as a weapon to use against Superman. He… he said a bunch of other things. That I'd degenerate, because I was a clone, like… like Bizarro.
"This morning he sent me an iPad with files. Lois broke it, but Robin's going to look through it to see if there's anything useful on it. Though I doubt there'd be anything useful there."
Batman sighs. "M'gann, can I ask you to prop me up? Just a little? I want to sit up."
M'gann nodds, and then she presses a button on Batman's bed, making the back fold up. Ace falls out of Batman's arms, and Conner bends over to pick it up. He puts it on the nightstand.
Then Batman takes a deep breath. "Conner… Whatever role Lex Luthor had in making you, you need to know, it doesn't matter. Whatever purpose, whatever role he might have envisioned for you, none of that matters. We are who we chose to be; Luthor has chosen to be an almost impossibly cruel man, and you… I don't think I can put into words how proud I am of the man you're becoming—
"Batman—
"No. Let me finish, because this is really important, and I'm very tired. It's ridiculous. I can't even wiggle my toes and just the effort of staying awake is exhausting. I can't recall having ever been more tired. But this is important Conner. I know I'm not the most expressive person, but I need to tell you, I feel so incredibly lucky to have been able to see you grow up, because you're such an extraordinary person, my boy.
"You're kind and clever and brave, loyal and strong, and all of that is you and who you chose to be. And Cadmus, Superman, Luthor… none of that matters."
"Batman," Conner can't even begin to answer. He wants to hug Batman, but he knows Batman still has trouble breathing, so instead he just gives Batman's hand a slight squeeze. "Thank you."
"I mean it. And what Luthor said about clone degeneration… I don't think you need to worry about that. I've looked into the process Desmond used to make you. Desmond was light-years ahead of the LexCorp geneticists who made Bizarro. They were just trying to make a carbon copy of Superman and did a miserable job of accounting for Superman's alien DNA. They tried cloning Superman the way they cloned Dolly. Dolly herself had problems, but add to that the fact that they were using a host cell that was incompatible with Superman's DNA and that the sample was obtained using kryptonite, which meant that the DNA was already damaged—the whole thing was a recipe for disaster. If Luthor hadn't been so singularly obsessed with the idea, he would have paid more attention and realized why he could never get it to work. Lucky for us, he found Desmond, and Desmond had enough experience in gene manipulation to realize what was wrong with Luthor's approach.
"I've looked at Desmond's work. It's top notch, so don't worry about that. Frankly, I don't know if Luthor even understands what Desmond did—it'd be uncharacteristically sloppy of him not to, but then again, Luthor tends to get sloppy when Superman's involved."
"And Superman gets sloppy when Luthor's involved, right?"
"Basically."
"But I wanted to speak with you about something else."
"Lois, right?"
"Yeah."
"I like Lois, but she's bad news. How bad is it?"
"She's almost on to you. She knows the Justice League is watching over you, and she thinks J'onn was the one to get you out."
"So she's wondering why I'm so important to the Justice League that I'm worth all this effort? I trust you already pointed out that the Justice League takes an interest in civilians all the time."
"Of course. But she just pointed out that the League doesn't normally assign three heavy hitters to someone—and she's right on the money that J'onn was called in specifically. It didn't really work as a deterrence tactic."
"Good old Lois."
"You used to go out with her…"
"That was a very long time ago."
"I like her. Why did you stop dating her?"
"Because I liked her. And so did my best friend."
"You said Ms. Lane was mostly honorable. Is she trustworthy?"
"Superman would trust her with his life, but not his secret identity."
"So he does have a secret identity?"
"I wouldn't trust him if he didn't."
"But that doesn't answer my question, because I don't trust Superman's judgment. I'm asking you. Is she trustworthy?"
"Yes. And no. She can be trusted to do the right thing, but not necessarily the smart thing. I'd trust her with my life if I had to, but I'd never trust her with hers. What are you thinking?"
"I… I don't know… it's probably crazy."
"You want to tell her."
"I… Like I said, I don't know. I like her. I think she could be made to reason. If she knew how dangerous the information was..."
"What's the worst case scenario?"
"She publishes the information and ruins you."
"No. That's not the worst case scenario. That's a walk in the park. Not that I can walk. But whatever. What's the worst case scenario?"
"She publishes the information, and ruins you, and then every crook in Arkham comes after you and Robin while the U. S. Government freezes your assets and there's a run on your company's stock."
"That's pretty bad. How can it get worse?"
Conner's wracking his brain now, trying to think of how it can get worse. "Well, I mean, if there's a run on your stock and they freeze your assets, then a huge chunk of the Justice League's operating budget disappears overnight, and the Justice League loses its ability to operate. They also have to spend ridiculous resources protecting you—the Justice League ceases to exist."
"How can it get worse?"
"I don't know. Lex Luthor breaks out of prison, nukes Gotham, kills the Justice League, and takes over the world?"
"Dramatic. But what about tragedy? Of all the people in the world, who would be most upset to learn that I was Batman?"
"You mean, after Ms. Lane, because it meant she was dating Batman and didn't know it?"
"Yes."
Conner thinks for a long time. "The Joker. Because it would mean he hurt you without meaning to, without enjoying it, and the Big Bad Bat would be robbed of his mystique. He'd feel robbed of his arch-nemesis."
"So who does he take it out on?"
"Well, you, obviously, and everything you hold dear. But… Ms. Lane, because she's the one who took away his toy. So, Joker goes after Ms. Lane while the Justice League has no resources and is distracted taking care of you and Robin and Alfred… and he succeeds… and because he's the Joker, he does it in a graphic, violent and overly dramatic way, and he probably takes out a couple of hundred other people while he's at it… and then Superman goes mad with grief. He kills Joker, and then I have to kill him, except, I can't, and he kills me instead, and then, there's a grief-crazed Superman, and the League doesn't have the resources to stop him. They have to pick between protecting you and taking Superman down. They choose Superman, and eventually, someone, either a crazy from Arkham or a low life trying to get street cred finally kills you, which leaves the League broken, devoid of resources, deprived of their leader and their most powerful fighter, fighting the most powerful creature in the solar system. It's full out war, and whoever wins, everyone loses. Thousands of people probably die, and afterwards someone, maybe Superman, maybe whatever's left of the League, maybe a supervillain like Luthor sets up a fascist dictatorship over the planet. Or maybe Darkseid uses the chaos to justify invading Earth."
"That, Conner, is what I call a worst-case scenario. But, Conner, I'm very, very tired. I don't know if I've ever been more tired in my life. I know you'll figure it out."
And Conner want to protest, but Batman's already asleep.
Conner just sits with M'gann while Batman's asleep.
[He's really upset.]
[Yeah. I know.]
[He keeps thinking of all the people who might die if he doesn't save them.]
[It's not his fault. He can't do everything.]
[You know, he can barely feel his toes. He can't even move. Dr. Thompkins told him in the best case scenario, he's looking at a year of physical therapy before he can walk without assistance, and that's just the best case scenario and it doesn't even account for when he can put the suit on again.
[I'm worried about him Conner. I… I don't want to, you know, listen to the thoughts he doesn't want me to listen to, but he's, sort of giving off this dangerous vibe.]
[Of course he's giving off a dangerous vibe,] he tells her. [He's friggin' Batman.]
[I don't know. He's thinking something. The obsessing about the other night… he's obsessing about it so much it's not that I'm trying to hear it, it's that he's just broadcasting it. This other thing… he's being more careful about it. He's thinking something… and I don't know what it is, but I know I don't like it. I think he thinks it's dangerous.]
[Look, everything Batman does is dangerous. That's why he's Batman,] Conner reassures her. [You're just worried because you're tired. Why don't you take a nap? I'll beam good thoughts at you.] And he thinks about getting ice cream with Clark and Lois the night before. And then he thinks about the pink poodle he bought M'gann, and about M'gann, and about all the other things in the world he knows that are good and sweet, and soon M'gann's dozing off, her head resting gently on her shoulder. And he stays like that, just feeling listening to the breathing and heartbeats of the two people he loves most in the world, until the sun sets outside, and then a little past that, until M'gann wakes up with a smile on her face, looking refreshed.
He kisses her once more, and then, goes out to rendez-vous with Clark and Robin.
To be continued...