Looking Ahead to Look Behind
By Moonraker One
Annabeth Ganworth, in one swing of a baseball bat, destroyed any need of her parents to ever watch professional baseball again. They took the news of her having superpowers rather well. It posed new problems and a lot of phone calls home from school officials, but they decided she was their daughter and they would support her no matter what. If ever a problem arose, they would deal with it when they came to it. What they didn't know was that their daughter did not have Martin Ganworth's DNA in her, but then again, they managed to ignore that issue. They provided their daughter with books on biofeedback and meditation techniques, so that she would be able to put her incredible strength and powers under her control, and bought sturdier house supplies, all in the name of support.
And, to their knowledge, it worked; by the time she was a year older, just past eleven, she had gone eight months without accidentally breaking something or blasting through a wall by losing control of super speed. She could put out a fire in the barn with her super breath, or tone it down enough to cool hot coffee just enough to be drinkable. She could melt iron to re-forge rusty tools, or calm her heat vision enough to brand a wood crate. Also, she could hear concerts in Kansas City, or focus in specifically on what her parents were saying, but she kept that one to herself. It took tremendous amounts of practice. Her friends sometimes wondered why she could only hang out for a few hours at a time on certain days, but it paid off. After awhile they stopped worrying. She had shown very mature responsibility in using her powers. She never lashed out against someone in anger, though God knows she wanted to on several occasions. If Superman himself had somehow been there to watch her progress, he'd be flabbergasted; what took him years of practice she got down in several months.
One particular Saturday afternoon, Martin's pickup truck was headed towards a family friend's house. The trio had a series of events in mind. They would catch up on friendly terms and have a day of recreation in Metropolis. Annabeth's parents had a movie in mind. Even though the girl took more after her mother than her father, she still had her old man's love for action films. After all the talking was behind them, they would spend quality time at the theater.
"Try to keep your powers in check, Annabeth," the mother warned. "Remember that Metropolis is a major city; you don't want to attract too much attention." She had concerns about how effective the training they put her through would be. In the safety of Smallville, where people were more spread out, it was easy. In a huge sprawling city, though, there were watchful eyes at every turn. She hadn't prepared for this.
"I got it," the girl replied. She fought off her mother's worrisome habits. She believed in herself. "Don't worry about me."
They weren't aware of it, but a Metropolis businessman kept his watchful eye on everything they were doing. For the previous several months, since discovering that Annabeth had, in fact, unlocked her powers, Lex Luthor had made absolutely sure to observe everything about her abilities. With the release of a movie about the origin of a fictional superhero, and the family's planned trip to Metropolis, he saw the perfect opportunity to enact his plan. Sitting across from his desk was a familiar face. The fair-haired gentleman sat down and sneered as he inspected a suitcase full of money.
"You'll be richly rewarded for your part in this, Metallo," Lex told him. "All you have to do is to follow the plan I've outlined. After the film, another of my operatives will be in place to pretend to tow the Ganworth's truck. At which point, he'll release this into the air," Lex produced a vial of a greenish liquid, "which will cause the family to hallucinate into thinking that they're being attacked. It also has aggression chemicals in it."
John Corben put it into his pocket. "What's the stuff made out of?"
Lex smiled. "It's a specific hallucinogen that is enhanced with liquid kryptonite. Not much," he explained, "just enough to be effective against human and non-human alike. It's also been tailored to react certain ways with certain individuals. If it does what I think it'll do, when Superman comes to save them, it'll make him act overly violently."
Corben raised an eyebrow. "How do you know Superman is going to save them?"
Lex chuckled and shook his head. "If someone starts a fight in Metropolis and starts screaming, Superman shows up. I'll be highly amazed if he doesn't." Lex leaned in, and finished his instructions. "And when he does, he'll be affected by the stuff, and that's where you come in. You make sure that, if the Boy Scout doesn't kill the girl's parents, you do, and pretend to be a superhero while you do it."
John Corben stood up. "This seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to just to get one little girl," he admitted.
"That's where you're wrong," Lex replied. "I'm not trying to 'get' her; I'm trying to corrupt her. If she thinks a superhero killed her parents, what's her natural response going to be, with her mind at her level of development?"
Corben grinned. "That's pretty devious, even for you, Lex," he revealed. "I like it."
In the subdivision just outside the main city of Metropolis, a pickup truck pulled into the driveway of a cookie cutter brick house. Its manicured lawn and newly-shingled roof told of success in the financial area. The Ganworths stepped out of the vehicle and warmly greeted their long time friends with smiles and hugs. Both sides heard and gave the typical small talk that flows between old friends. The couple welcomed the family into their house. After a few brief moments, they sat down to eat.
"So," Martin Ganworth asked. "When did you get the new addition to your house?" He had noticed they remodeled since the last time he was over.
"Oh, about a month ago, when I got a bonus check from work," his friend replied. "Really came in handy, because I needed to fix the crack in the piping, and managed to get a new section of the exterior along with it!"
"How's your daughter coming along?" his wife asked Olivia Ganworth. Olivia and her husband both tensed up a brief moment, hoping that the question hadn't been aimed at what they worried it was. Fortunately, the woman clarified, "in school; how's she adjusting to the new grade level?"
Martin let out a breath. "Ah, she's doing fine. It's not hard once she gets used to it."
They smiled. "It's good to hear," the wife replied.
Miles away, at the Daily Planet building, a fairly calm Clark Kent was finishing up his daily shift. There had been no major problems that day, and it allowed him to catch up on a deal of stories that he'd been working on. He powered down his computer and put his notebook in his briefcase. Calmly, he pushed the thoughts of news events out of his mind and thought about a relaxing evening with Lois and possibly, a night on the town. He didn't usually have the opportunity to take a break, due to major events, but this working day ended on a particularly good note. With a smile, he addressed the few coworkers that remained, and exited the building.
Lois, having finished her story of the day, followed her husband out the building and signaled for a cab. She knew that Superman had very little to do, as the Justice League took care of the hard cases recently, so she had more than a few evenings to spend with Clark. Most of the major villains that plagued the man of steel either sat in jail or the Phantom Zone, and ordinary crime could wait a bit; their marriage had drifted a bit, and they both wanted to get closer. Even though he wasn't terribly fond of the plays that she wanted to take him to, Superman dealt with it and got in the cab. He leaned over and hugged his wife, kissing her on the cheek. This evening, he wanted her to feel special.
The Ganworth's and their friends had finished their meal and were exiting into the movie theatre. Annbeth cheered for joy as she saw the poster on the wall for the film they would watch. She liked action films. This day, they believed, couldn't possibly get any better. Martin, being nice, paid for everyone's ticket. They didn't get away from the farm very often, much less for an evening in Metropolis; he could splurge this time. With popcorn and soda in hand, the group of five handed their tickets over and walked down to the third theater on the right, and sat down to watch a CGI war in outer space. Annabeth had to focus; she had to dampen her super hearing so crosstalk from other movies wouldn't distract her.
John Corben, the villain known as Metallo, got into position. He hid behind a pillar of the parking facility, and radioed to the LexCorp official in a falsely painted tow truck. The man started the vehicle and drove it into the parking garage where he presented false identification to Metropolis Police. They waved him on and he sat in a specific spot and listened to his music collection while his targets were watching a film. Corben calmly waited, taking a brief moment to think about the substance in his possession. Lex had gone to a lot of trouble to coordinate quite a bit of false data and a lot of hired help, and all for a girl who had half of Superman's DNA. Granted, a girl who had Superman's powers would be quite handy to have against the Justice League, but he wondered exactly how worth it the money was. Hastily, though, he waved the concerns aside. It was money, he figured; either way, a million large could go a long way, even now.
While all this was going down, Lois and Clark, free of the worries of the job, sat down in a moderately crowded amphitheatre to watch a Broadway production that the intrepid reporter had kept her eye on since reading about it in the paper months ago. Clark tugged at his glasses and pushed down his super hearing. Being a day off, he wanted to try and keep his wife at the front of his mind. Still, if someone truly needed Superman, they'd get Superman's help. Superheroes, he knew, were always on call. He settled in for the play to last approximately two hours.
After ninety minutes of sci-fi action, the Smallville couple exited the theatre, having enjoyed the best night out in quite a while. Their friends got in their car and left, after saying their goodbyes and the Ganworth's walked farther down the parking lot towards the familiar pickup truck. Martin, however, took exception to the fact that a tow operator was hooking the vehicle up to his truck. "Hey!" he yelled. "We paid for the hour and a half we parked there!"
The tow operator feigned confusion. "Oh, really? If you've got your parking voucher, we can straighten up this little mess." He looked up from his notepad to see if Metallo was walking towards the group. He was. "Just let me take a look at your voucher and we'll finish this up."
At that moment, Metallo approached. The Ganworth's turned to see who stood behind them, and before they could get a good look at who he was, they got a face full of a green mist that enveloped the local vicinity. For about twenty feet around them, the hallucinogen, laced with Kryptonite, would linger in the air. The tow operator covered his nose with a gas mask and quickly fled for the LexCorp limo parked just out of the sight of everyone exiting the theatre. Sure to the word of Lex, both Martin and Olivia began to see things that weren't there.
Annabeth rubbed her eyes and shook her head. When she looked up, she saw what looked like Superman-she couldn't tell easily through the blurriness of her vision-and her father was trying to physically attack him. Before she could rush in to help, a quick shove by Metallo almost injured the poor man when he slammed against the concrete wall of the parking facility. "No!" she screamed. "Somebody!" Her mother, under the influence of the chemical, attempted to wrap her arms around Metallo's neck in a chokehold, but he shoved her aside and knocked her out.
Miles away, Superman immediately snapped to attention. He clearly heard someone scream for help. "I'm sorry, Lois," he told her, "but I've got to go." He then excused himself from the auditorium and super-sped out into Metropolis, taking to the air and changing out of his casual clothes. Following the sound from its source, he got there in only twenty seconds. He gasped; it was Metallo, engaged in combat against a couple and their daughter. The husband repeatedly struck back, to no avail. Kal-El clenched his fists and swooped down, unaware of the airborne chemical.
He found out about it quickly. Blasting Corben away from the husband, his lungs quickly caught a whiff of the Kryptonite-laced hallucinogen. It was just thin enough that he didn't lose his powers, but potent still to effect his mind. He looked at Martin Ganworth and saw instead a malformed monster of various hideous types of flesh. His first instinct was to try and destroy it. He drew back his fist for a powerful punch.
Annabeth's jaw almost dropped. As time seemed to slow to a stop around her, she clenched her teeth in anger. Possibly the most powerful man in the world had her father in a chokehold. The previously thick blurriness around her eyes cleared almost immediately. She took footsteps in superspeed, the air bending around her to leave an outline behind. As the killing blow zoomed in on her father, she pressed her power as far as she could. Closing her eyes, she managed to feel her shoulder collide with his abdomen right as his punch would've decapitated Martin. With her feet leaving the ground at super-speed as she leapt into his side to tackle him, she accidentally tackled him several city blocks.
As they came to a stop, being outside the proximity of the hallucinogen seemed to wear the effects off. He looked at the girl with incredulity. It wasn't every day that he encountered someone who looked human who could knock him for a loop. "How did you…" he wondered out loud, but quickly remembered Metallo. "It'll have to wait!" He flew off at a tremendous velocity. He righted himself so that he would go fast enough to run into Corben and move him away from the couple without being affected by the chemical in the air.
The super-powered girl took off after Superman a second after he left. She didn't know what was going on, as she couldn't trust what she saw, but the last thing she wanted was to leave her father behind when he'd already been attacked once. She zoomed past the buildings with incredible speed, and when she arrived at the parking garage, she saw Superman having tied up Metallo with a steel pole. "Superman!" she cried. "What happened?"
He shook his head. "He was using some chemical laced with Kryptonite," he explained. "I know that feeling all too well." His confused look returned. "What I want to know, little girl, is how you got the powers you did." Using his microscopic vision, he clearly could tell that her DNA was half human and half Kryptonian, and that only meant a small list of things. He supported her parents as they awoke from the stupor they were in.
Olivia looked over. "S…Superman!" she stated, in shock. "What was all this? First there's a green mist, and then,"
Martin interrupted her. "We were attacked and I don't remember much of what happened."
"You two were assaulted by Metallo," Superman explained. "I took care of him. And I'm guessing Lex Luthor had something to do with that green mist." He quickly gave them a scan. "You've got a few minor injuries that should be looked at. Plus, there are other issues to worry about." He got on his communicator. "J'onn? Can you teleport some civilians and me up to the Watchtower?"
As they appeared, Batman and the Martian Manhunter approached. "You brought civilians to the Watchtower, Superman?...! Why would you do that?"
"Because they were attacked by Metallo, and I'm guessing the fact that the little girl has Kryptonian powers is part of it!"
They were sat down in a waiting area and interviewed before the full original Justice League. The mother shook her head in amazement. "We knew our daughter had powers, but we never really believed that she would be part Kryptonian!" She looked at her husband. "After all, I never met Superman before in my life!"
Green Lantern scanned the father. "The ring tells me that for some reason, his genetic reproductive material has been changed to someone else's." He thought about it. "That leaves only two major options."
"Cadmus," Batman shot back.
"Luthor," Superman instantly realized.
Martin Ganworth rubbed his aching back. This couldn't be happening, he thought. "So, even though I'm her father, Superman is her genetic biological father?"
As they were about to agree, John Stewart received a surprising message from his ring. "Actually, that's not the case at all."
The room fell silent as they looked at him. "Who could it possibly be otherwise?" Flash asked. "I mean, who else's DNA could mister Ganworth have gotten?"
"It's almost as if it was the DNA of a Kryptonian race from another universe," Green Lantern corrected.
Superman ruminated on it for a moment. "When have I fought a Kryptonian from another…" It hit him. A moment later, it hit everyone of the Justice League.
"A little over ten years ago," Martian Manhunter realized.
Batman, normally in control of his emotions, covered his mouth in shock of what the truth had to be.
"Superboy Prime."