Chapter 12: Plans laid to rest.
There were no sounds that night. A pitch black sky covered a derelict set of buildings, where nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Unrecognizable in a black stealth suit, Wonder Woman surveyed the area. She pressed her throat-mike. "Lancers, this is Actual. Report."
"Lancer one in position and standing by." The airman's drawl.
"Lancer two in position and standing by." The quiet scientist voice.
"Lancer three in position." The surly, kingly voice.
"Actual to Lancers: t-minus 1 minute. Break."
Five weeks ago
The yellow bat logo faded out and the tablet's screen gave way to several icons, labelled Intelligence, Resources and Plans. Diana pressed on the first one and got into a subfolder. Several document files popped up. The first one she opened was a list of employees, with a few names bolded: Pratt- scientist, killed by intense heat. It had a hyperlink that led to Pratt's formally sealed autopsy report. No pictures, but the description of the wounds was tantalizingly close to what Kal's beams could do. A few notes were scrawled in the margins in Bruce's penmanship. She read: killed in escape attempt? Branded as a terrorist. Sealed Authopsy. Atherton Holden. Captain to General in record time. Project KREEP? Investigate.
More files with notes scrawled in them: Science criminals dropping from the face of the Earth. Where is Metallo? No Kryptonite-based villains/byproducts around. Shell companies own vast real estate in Central City, Coast City, Detroit, Keystone, Fawcett City, Star City…all connected to LexCorp…possible fronts for labs? Warehouses? Why is LexCorp trying so hard not to show they own these buildings?
There were pictures of Lex inaugurating buildings and a few more in press conferences talking about LexCorp's newest science breakthrough or their record earnings.
More files opened: projects are physically impossible. Golden Argosy SHOULDN'T work. Tank plating unattainable by current science. Catalyst? Polymer? K-DNA. Underlined and in red.
The next series of files had blueprints of buildings in Keystone, Detroit and Coast City. All of them had notes on the power they were using, which was more than 100 times what a regular office would use. She opened another folder and her pulse quickened when a blown-up, incredibly blurry photograph of what looked like a scarred torso appeared...a face with a spitcurl...Secret lab under facilities. Five locations. 1 location, heavily guarded. Diana's grip bent the tablet slightly. She made an effort to relax her hands. He was alive.
He goes there randomly, but never more than 90 days between visits. Trip disguised as national tour of LexCorp holdings. No meetings, just face time and photo-ops. There were a few stills from videos, showing Lex Luthor. Both had extensive notes with Luthor's height, shoulder size, arm length, hand size and even cut of suit and shoe wear-and-tear. The left one read False Luthor. One day missing. Every time. Why? Gloat? Psychotic exercise? Torture?
Several more pictures with False Luthor notes. Glimmer from neck to pate at 10,000 FPS. Digital mask? Nano-camouflage ? Where is the real Luthor?
Diana counted down to zero and went to work on her part of the plan. She kneeled down and dug her hands on the ground. She went through a foot of compacted earth and then she felt metal. Her fingers wormed through, found purchase and wrenched it out. No alarms meant Barry had taken care of them. She dropped down to a minuscule shaft, barely wider than her shoulders and slid down. She looked up to see a green glimmer cover the top of the shaft with topsoil. Oan energy now sealed the facility from the rest of the world. Nothing could get in or out, unless they went through Green Lantern.
Four weeks ago
Around the cracked table in the Hall of Justice were just four heroes.
"First of all, I'm sorry." The lasso in her hands, her sad-yet-angry face and her low-key voice set the tone of the meeting. "The trial and my behavior cost us dearly. I don't think we've had a harder time dealing with public opinion. Arthur, Hal, Barry…it's my mess and I will clean it up."
"Diana, why did you call us?" Gruff, with a bit of distrust.
"Because I found him."
Puzzled looks. "Who?"
"Superman."
"What, his body?"
Arthur groaned. "Not this again."
"Not his body." She showed them the tablet with the bloodied, scarred picture of the torso. "His location. This is the sum of Batman's knowledge Kal's whereabouts. I believe he died trying to rescue him himself."
They looked unsure, but the picture had given her at least a fighting chance to explain.
"After you left last time we were here, Batman's protocols engaged and I received this," she pointed at the tablet, "and I've been studying ever since. In fact, I only summoned you three to this meeting, because of the sensitive nature of the information."
There was a lot of material to cover and she went over every aspect of it: the files, the pictures, the notes and even the short, tense surveillance videos. By the end of the afternoon, it was clear they shared her suspicions. Their chests boiled in anger, their minds full of purpose.
"What do you propose?" Green Lantern said.
"A raid. Bruce narrowed it down to one facility that could hold him. The place is fifteen miles outside of Coast City. Owned by a shell of a shell of a shell, but it ultimately leads to LexCorp. It's a lightly crewed research center, one they never went back to hiring full-time staff on account of the local economy. The blueprints here…" a 3D display came up. "…show it's three stories deep, but Batman's files show hard structures over 100 meters below the surface. Observe how Bruce added quite a lot of info on the tunnels here, here and there."
"Massive power readings." Barry nodded. "Whatever they are keeping there is huge."
Diana swiped the screen and zoomed through the guts of the complex. Beyond rooms and among corridors with blast doors and shock-proof floors stood the most heavily reinforced room they had seen. Next to it was simply written "Kal".
I understand your concerns and frankly, I share them. We can't go blundering in. Not after my foul-up in court we can't. But Bruce made detailed notes about those places and had a way to deal with them. He didn't get around to search there because Luthor got him first."
"Knowing Luthor, the security was beefed up, even after dealing with Batman." Lantern nodded. "We're going to need to case it and find our way in."
"Batman's own checklist." Diana said. "Types of alarms we can expect, sensors and detectors and even suggestions on how to deal with reinforcements and block their transmissions. Roles tailor made for people with our powers."
"And there's even this…" She double-tapped the tablet and a panel slid up, revealing several metal cases with the bat logo. Green Lantern's power beam hauled them to the conference table and Diana opened them with the tablet.
"Stealth suits, completely undetectable to any type of sensor. Each keyed to our unique physical abilities and some with enhancements to our powers: the helmets are equipped with tactical heads-up display, which'll provide real-time information about our location and health status. Hal, yours has circuitry that can help you keep your willpower even under mental attack. Flash, yours can enhance your vibrations while you move through solid objects."
"Batman did all this?"
Diana nodded.
"Are we sure these aren't the anti-hero gear he ordered those guys from the trial?"
"I'm not wearing any of that." Arthur growled.
Hal turned to Barry. "Let's make sure they are not dangerous. Flash, can you look them over?"
"All right. Flash, I oughta second that." Diana nodded.
Barry agreed and in the blink of an eye, the helmets innards were strewn all over the table. The second blink showed him wearing the black stealth suit. One more and everything was in place.
"What a suit!" Barry beamed. "It takes me half as much effort to move through solid objects." "And the rest checks out. No nasty surprises anywhere."
Wonder Woman took the helmets and put it back with the rest of the stuff.
"The raid will be in three weeks' time. We'll be working in here because Batman made sure this place was safe. He also rigged the tablet so it won't work outside, so we'll have to conduct our strategy sessions here. Barry, get us something to eat before we start."
Diana ran through the corridor, clotheslining robotic sentries and dodging machine-guns firing kinetic rounds. The helmet's HUD showed the underground corridors in a wireframe-like display. Superimposed on them she could see Hal, Barry and Arthur making their way to the central room, fighting –and winning- over heavy resistance. She yanked the barrel of the heavy machine-gun, broke it in half and tossed it aside. She turned to the door and wrenched it off its hinges.
She had reached the containment room.
It was a big place, with high ceilings, bathed in red sun light. She could feel their heat under her stealth suit. Her eyes followed the wires and cables crisscrossing the floor, until they met at the base of a gurney, right in the middle of the room. Around it, dozens of high-powered computers hummed softly.
As she walked towards the gurney, the rest of the heroes made their way in. Hal's beam probed the room and Flash was suddenly standing by the computers.
"Don't worry, Kal, we'll have you out in a second. " A few moves and the red sun lamps flickered off and yellow light engulfed the room. The figure under the sheet stirred.
Diana grabbed a corner of the sheet and...
A monitor next to her arm flickered to life, almost startling her.
"Bra-vo." Luthor's face came into view. "Looks like you found him. Congratulations to the hero troupe who finally grew a pair."
"Luthor! You won't be so smug when we're through with you." Green Lantern pointed at the monitor. "We have you, dead to rights. The whole world will know you for the scumbag you are."
"Yeah, I'm not feeling it. I mean, Batman said it better." Luthor's hand came up, holding a device with several buttons. "Now, when he was here…well, not 'here-here', but you get the idea… he depended on Superman to get him out of the lab."
He clicked a button and several metallic panels dropped all around the laboratory's doors. "All of you have enough muscle to get him out of here without breaking a sweat, so allow me to change that."
Suddenly Hal noticed Diana wasn't moving. She was frozen in place, tugging at the blanket covering the body.
"Diana?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. Is your leader out of commission? That would be *my* doing." Lex pressed another button and Hal felt a buzzing in his head and suddenly was completely dizzy. He crumpled to the floor, where he saw Flash staggering, vibrating horribly and Arthur convulsing on the ground.
"I have bad news for all of you. First, no, he's not under that sheet. You're all going to your graves not knowing where I stowed him. And second, who do you think planted all the information you found? Who do you think made the suits you're wearing?"
"Now it's just a matter time before the gas does its work. My lab guys will harvest your DNA, we'll reverse-engineer your gear and I'll make a few billions more this year."
His eyes lingered on the image just before pressing the final button. It looked like Wonder Woman was moving.
It happened slowly, like a snake shedding its skin. Huge tears riddled the costume, the contrast between the black suit and her skin was riveting: Wonder Woman flexed her body completely and her monumental strength ripped the stealth suit to shreds. The remains of the garment slid to the floor, revealing her usual costume underneath.
"Really, Lex?" she tore the helmet off her head and threw it against one of the walls without looking. "You'd think we'd fall for the Trojan Horse?"
Lex looked visibly shaken. "Shit"
"You'd think we'd blindly believe a "secret message from Batman?"
"Confound you, heroes. You will…never…"
He looked down and they could hear him fiddling with buttons. "The counter vibrations designed to rip apart Flash on a molecular lever, the thermite-type compound to burn Aquaman to a crisp, the brain-frying headband? A compound designed to turn me back into clay? You never suspected we'd change our tactics? You never suspected neither Bruce nor Clark held *every* secret?"
Flash stopped by Diana. "This place is empty. The body is just a prop designed to lure us here." He opened his hand and lots of tiny things fell it to the floor. "Luckily, I disarmed every one of his death-traps."
Green Lantern concentrated and fired a room-covering beam to probe the walls around them.
Flash turned to the screen. "Really, Lex? We knew you might be watching, so we went to our individual emergency codes. When she said 'Ought to second' nothing rang in that shiny head of yours? What does that sound like? Attosecond? A speed which you have no camera fast enough to record it? And that it would take you eons to review? Well, at that speed I went over your tainted gear and discovered every dirty little secret. Then, at a speed you could follow, I pretended to inspect it."
Lex looked frantic in the monitor.
"I really thought Arthur's overreaction would have given us away." Green Lantern said. "His Highness can't act to save his life."
"I am a king. I have no time for theatrics."
Behind them, the green beam coalesced into a large wire-framed cone. A red beam snaked through the middle of it, pulling away. "We have you, Luthor! I'm locking into his signal"
"Location?"
"He's in Gotham!" Green Lantern beamed the coordinates to their stealth suits. "The Wayne Entertainment building."
Flash grinned. "I got it." The red aftereffect wasn't even visible before his last words came out of his mouth. He was gone.
"Dammit," Luthor shouted, "cut transmission! Cut transm-"
The screen went dark and Wonder Woman ran at full speed against the wall. The impact took down the metal doors and she punched through whatever defenses remained. In the cool outside air, several heroic figures rose out of the abandoned facility and headed towards Gotham.
The room was quiet, under eerie red and yellow lights.
There was a buzzing sound, low but constant. Suddenly, a faint impact echoed through.
A louder, harder hit made the keyboard rattle.
In the center of the cramped room there was a figure, sitting on a swivel chair facing a multitude of screens, where images of the superheroes moved past the cameras, red lights blinking.
The monitors showed a woman hitting the walls with her fists. The wall buckled and bent long enough for her hands to slip in and yank one panel out. She punched through.
Inside, the impacts made the figure's hands on the armrests shake. Gently.
Another blow made the arms fall to the sides.
Silence.
A green line appeared on the wall furthest from the chair. The line widened and split, revealing Green Lantern's fist controlling Oan energy that forced the thick bunker's walls open. Papers strewn on the floor, a few alarms were blaring and the constant buzz made the place seem foreboding.
"Hello, Lex."
"All the lawyers in the world won't help you now." Diana grabbed her lasso and took a step forward. A few meters away she saw a figure sitting in a chair.
Bra-vo. Looks like you found him…kkkzzzzzttttt...Bra-vo. Looks like you found him…kkkzzzzzttttt...
"No witty comeback, Luthor?" Green Lantern. "Well, you'll have time to work on them in jail…"
The beam turned into a green hand that flew to the chair and turned it towards them.
The man on the chair could have been Luthor's. The suit was impeccable, one often seen worn by him. The shoes were expensive and polished. The nails manicured, the monogramed diamond pin…but the head…or what was left of it… wasn't…couldn't have be.
Bra-vo. Looks like you found him…kkkzzzzzttttt...
The forehead had been crushed by a blunt object. The face had collapsed inwards, and nothing above the jawline was readily identifiable and tiny rivers of blood dripped onto the floor.
The screens kept showing a replay of Luthor revealing his plan and threatening the heroes. It went "Bra-vo. Looks like you found him." It was cut by a slight digital wipe that looped to the beginning.
Wonder Woman kept her attention on the body, almost not believing it.
"Is that Luthor?"
"We're not that lucky. That bald sonofabitch dead would be a balm to our wounds." Green Lantern looked around. "We need to know happened here."
Bra-vo. Looks like you found him…kkkzzzzzttttt...
Diana walked to the body and, carefully, tried to identify it. There was something odd about the wound…
Green Lantern's eyes went to the monitors. He noticed that they went to the beginning, sure, but there was something else…a flicker…he looked at the console, trying to figure it out. Aquaman just stood there, unsure of what to do.
"Where's Flash?"
Wonder Woman was too focused on the corpse to acknowledge the question. Finding out if this was Luthor –or not- was a priority…and the injury…there was something awfully familiar about it…
Bra-vo. Looks like you found him…kkkzzzzzttttt...
Green Lantern used his ring around the room, the green beam clashing with the yellow and red flashing lights.
"Flash, come in. We need your expertise, buddy."
There was no answer save a loud buzzing around the room.
Diana's mind kept switching between the wound and the face. Who was he? What killed him?
Aquaman shook his head and brought his hand up to rub his temples.
Hal kept hailing Flash. "He should be here by now."
Bra-vo. Looks like you found him…kkkzzzzzttttt...
"Diana, what are you doing?" Aquaman bellowed.
"I'm…" her hand had been hovering over the head, but now she pulled it back. "I have a very bad feeling…" The buzzing slowed down. "Lantern, can you show me what his face looked like before the injury?"
"I think we should…
"Just on the surface. Cursory beam, mapping out the surface. I'm sure it won't disturb the body."
Hal was uneasy, but he nodded. The beam scanned the body's head and a green layer of Oan energy coated its surface. Once it got the pattern, he moved his arm, phasing the beam through the cranium. Out came a perfect duplicate which, with a bit more concentration, seemed to inflate like a balloon. The green face popped back into place.
"Is that…?"
Bra-vo. Looks like you found him…kkkzzzzzttttt...
"Dick Grayson. Robin." Hal muttered.
"Nightwing." Diana corrected.
"The hell? What's he doing here? Didn't he disappear months ago? And what's with the videos? The loop is driving me crazy."
When Hal looked at the screens, Lex Luthor's face flickered out, revealing underneath Dick Grayson's. The goading words now came out of his mouth and could be heard with his voice.
"Great Hera." Diana went to Grayson's corpse and, before Hal could stop her, she thrust her hand at the bashed-in skull. Her stomach felt cold as ice as the contour of the injury matched perfectly with the bottom of her fist.
"Diana…get away from the body…"Aquaman blinked hard.
Green Lantern looked at them. "What did you do, Diana?"
Bra-vo. Looks like you found him…kkkzzzzzttttt...
"I… I did this."
"You what?"
"No, not this. But this is my hand. I did this!"
Aquaman shook his head, took a slight step back and half sat on the console. His skin began to blister.
"What the hell are you talking about, Diana? Why did you do that for? It's going to be hell to explain to the cops. Hell, we should've called the authorities long ago."
Bra-vo. Looks like you found him…kkkzzzzzttttt...
Hal shook his head. "We should…sh—should…" The buzzing slowed down further.
His ring started to sputter…the reconstruction of Grayson's head came apart. He looked at it, concentrated and tried to form it again, but his ring only squirted shapeless green energy to the ground.
In the back, Aquaman slid off the console and crumpled on the floor, his skin blistering and smoking.
The buzzing ended, there was a loud *CRACK* and out of nowhere, Flash's body was thrown against the console and collapsed into the floor.
"Flash! What happened to you?
Bra-vo. Looks like you found him…kkkzzzzzttttt...
His body was mangled and broken. There were parts under the uniform that looked eerily out of shape. His arms were match-thin and one his legs bent in an awkward angle. Diana knelt besides him. "Barry? What happened to you?" Under his mask, Flash looked haggard and spent.
"get-out…of….here…."
"…can'….c-can't c-c-concen-concen-tra-te-" Hal muttered to himself, his voice thick and groggy. "d-d—d-ia—na-na-na."
Bra-vo. Looks like you found him…kkkzzzzzttttt...
Diana made to grab Barry and carry him out. Hal couldn't even will himself to think. Aquaman's skin was burning.
There was a click.
There was an enveloping white.
There was loud, thundering noise.
Crumbling.
Then nothing.
"And that's how you do it." Lex said, sipping his coffee. Despite the strong smell of disinfectant, he enjoyed the cup.
"News of the explosion reached the news cycle a mere hour later, but by then, I had everything in place. By the time images from the explosion had hit every major news outlet, I had put together the surveillance footage that managed to survive the bomb, because the server that housed it was off-site." He grinned. Before him, the chest rose and fell in within the parameters he knew now by heart. He put his cup down and walked to the computers.
"Oh, the tape was brilliant: a silent, but chilling, black and white sequence that showed the heroes prying open the bunker, followed by Wonder Woman giving Grayson the killing blow. Thanks to the punch she gave to the conference table in the Hall of Justice, I had the perfect murder weapon. I bet she regretted doing that in the final seconds of her existence. And I did a great job using the gesture simulator, if I do say so myself."
He looked at the readouts, made a few notes for himself and sat on his swivel chair.
"The bomb was spectacular, but it hardly contained enough explosives to destroy the room, let alone the building. Sure, it looked loud enough and bright enough, but its purpose was never that one. Want to guess why?"
The face remained impassive. Was his skin waxier? Must run comparative tissue tests.
"No? Well, Grayson's body was not meant to be burnt to a crisp and the cone-shaped explosion destroying the head and all traces of the knife injury Slade gave him. Our cutting edge cryogenics department keep his body so fresh that the fire will cook his insides and get rid of the pesky "time of death" thing." He made a few more notes.
"Taking out Aquaman was the easiest step: he's strong and resilient, but really outside of the ocean he's quite useless. A dehydrating agent, coated in several of the nastiest poisons available and was a big lumbering pirate-hippie just waiting to fall down."
Lex looked satisfied regarding the state of his prisoner. He closed the folders and put them by the computers. He updated the log and sealed it, for his eyes only.
"There was no lost love between Batman and Green Lantern, so I wasn't surprised that he had catalogued literally hundreds of times the…heh…emerald gladiator had been knocked out of combat by yellow bricks or falling branches. That man was a walking brain concussion! Taking out his ability to concentrate would render him a blubbering idiot with fancy jewelry. We just tweaked my speech jamming gun to help destabilize the concentration areas of the brain, added 2000% more power and voilá! Dia—na—na-…dia-na—na-" He chuckled. "One extinguished lantern."
He turned to the gurney, where the figure rested. He was between skinning sessions, so he looked a little like he did in the good ol' days. "Now Streaky, he was interesting. Every conventional weapon –and most of the unconventional ones- were off the table. To take him down, we'd need something that would his speed against him. That's why the room was covered in nanobots. Harmless at regular speed, but once Flash barged in at super-speed, he crashed against them, his inertia turning the bots into a highly resistant, highly tensile surface that swatted him back and forth at super-speed… He was pounded inside the very solid nanobot soup for what must have seemed like days to him, until he eventually slowed down enough to escape its clutches. By then he was too hurt, too tired and spent. Batman put his recovery time for such injuries at two minutes, so I gave him less than one. I'm sorry to say that the fastest man alive just plumb ran out of time."
"And finally Wonder Woman. Oh, she was the cleverest of the lot. She knew it was a trap and prepared like a true strategist for it. Hat's off to the deity prodigy. I must say, I really tried to knock your people out in the first compound…at least hobble one of them, but she would have none of it. Her mistake was thinking they caught my location, instead of treating it like another trap. I knew she'd come after me, guns blazing."
"Storming a place they knew nothing about would make them go back to their usual roles: Flash would vibrate through and reconnoiter at super-speed, Wonder Woman would soften up the walls, work off a bit of steam and finally Green Lantern would take care of the rest. Finding 'my corpse' would knock them off their game and give time to the other traps to work. The pièce de résistance was the bomb that wasn't the bomb…merely the delivery agent for the compound that would revert her back to clay. Now, Wonder Woman is dust, spread all over Gotham. Now I just Wonder…where's that Woman?"
He wondered if any of his agents had collected her uniform. He'd have to check their reports in the morning. "It's actually funny, because one of my court strategies was to have all the 'prototypes' of Batman's anti-hero weapons displayed on the prosecution's table and have one go off if Wonder Woman touched it. The shock value of her disappearing in full view of the court would have been priceless…but her ripping out the witness stand was almost as good."
"That's what being Lex Luthor is all about." He said, putting his hands on the gurney and getting his face inches from the body's face. "I clawed my way out of the slums of Metropolis by being the smartest, most ruthless sonofabitch who ever brokered a deal. It's not enough to win…you have to make sure your enemies are completely destroyed. This path I started us when I took you down? I'm going to see them walk it to the bitter end."
He pulled back, adjusted his tie and cuffs.
"So, what remains after our little dust up? You're still under my thumb, harvested for science and profit…and that's not something that'll end anytime soon. Even when you die, you'll still be useful." There was a bit of emphasis on 'when'.
"Your organization? Your little boy scout's club of do-gooders? People spit on the name "justice league" now, because there's overwhelming evidence that this was a squabble between your maladjusted comrades and the pitiful way they tried to pin it on me. Really, the video I told you before? A masterpiece in smear tactics."
"And speaking of videos… later this week, when the hoopla starts to die down, the BatCloud will 'accidentally' leak all those surveillance tapes Brucie had of the entire Justice League *everywhere* in the Hall of Justice. Oh, what a glorious mess that's going to be. It'll break internet in half, for sure."
He checked his watch, stood up and gathered his belongings.
"I'm sure the least enlightened of your pals will keep trying to bring me down, and rest assured, I have set in motion plans against them. This doesn't end even if they decide not to go after me anymore."
"It ends when I damn well please."
Epilogue
So what do you do when you have destroyed the most powerful alien on Earth? When beneath your feet lie the bones of the most dangerous humans?
What else? You keep going.
The alien is no longer my concern, but I didn't resting on my laurels. I was free to pursue other interests and I conquered many frontiers.
In no particular order:
I utterly destroyed an Apokoliptan invasion (thinking about rerouting the Boom Tubes to the sun still makes me chuckle).
I synthesized a substance to produce truth-revealing weaponry.
I procured and hacked an Oan ring, which lead to the solution of our energy needs.
I experimented heavily with super-speed. Got many prototypes and several working models.
I set foot on an island where men were forbidden.
I had a son.
I created my own mother box.
I have a daughter.
I terraformed Mars.
I created invisible war vessels and scout ships.
I helped our race expand beyond the stars.
I synthesized Nth metal.
And yes, I kept him alive.
Oh, no, it wasn't like that. I made sure years ago that he'd never escape that prison. Sure, it was touch and go a couple of times, but I learned a lot from those mistakes.
Once I had enough superior technology, there was no need to keep the superfluous Kryptonians alive. Can you imagine the destruction if those alien sons of bitches fought at full power? I shudder to think the damage they'd cause to my Metropolis. No, they were brought out of the Zone, executed with hollow points and their bodies completely destroyed, under my watch.
Their prison dimension is now a haven for the terminally ill who do not want to die. I rent them the space by year, at prices according to their status.
Did I stop flaying him? Yes, once my technology surpassed what his natural gifts could give me. Besides, his body had started to fail. It was the stress, you see. Even alien physiology wears out, and having to reform your epidermis and major organs every few days for ten, fifteen years did take its toll. Last few natural vests did let bullets get through, even with a dedicated yellow sun charger. Those things were murderously expensive and criminally defective. Got rid of the lot.
I would have pulled the plug right there and moved to harvesting his corpse, but there was something that enticed me to keep him alive.
You see, the ghost of his consciousness remains in the net.
I noticed it first, while going over the spectacular returns in my insurance companies. Payouts were down to nothing, not because we were not paying them –that trick only works once-, but because people were not filling claims. Anything that was connected to the net simply would not fail anymore. Cars using GPS and LexNav systems didn't crash because the car computers could predict trajectories with immaculate precision. It almost worked as a self-driving car, which made my automotive division obliterate the competition. Airplanes would not work if there was a single malfunctioning system. Police patrols were unerringly rerouted to spots where they were desperately needed. Paired with face-recognition and mood detecting software in building entrances and stairwells, elevators and electrical doors would not work for suicides. Emergency calls were never dropped and most of the times, they connected to the nearest expert or specialist on the subject.
Whatever remained of the alien found a way to work in the system and made it better. Rest assured that there are no images of me swinging the tire iron or using the electric guns on him. I spent years making sure of that. There was no consciousness guiding it, just pure reflex. Like a prime, basic directive in his DNA that just wanted protect the tiny humans. I could have stopped it, but then decided to let him have that last, tiny victory. I'm happy to leave him running in the background, while I take care of the really important things.
Now, what else is left to do to a man such as I?
Am I content with what I've accomplished? Is this an acceptable amount of giants slain, worlds conquered, challenges obliterated?
Heh. Of course not. I'm not one to embrace the sedentary lifestyle.
Try as I might, I cannot help but be moved by how much I did with what I had…and how it helped bring a golden age where there was just darkness. As I work on my next challenge…and the one after that and the one after that, it still warms my insides when I think how I took him down and made him work for me. Made him the base for the great edifice that the next evolution of humanity was built on.
It ends the same way it started: with Lex Luthor.
Triumphant.