"What's the status on the Eris?"
"It is having setbacks but I had a rather perverse inspiration."
"What would that be?"
"I'm testing using Kryptonite as a power source."
"Of course with him depowered it should not effect until his powers come back."
"In theory, but ti could also make him impervious to Kryptonite."
"Then what would his vulnerability be otherwise?"
" Anti-kryptonite."
"Why that?"
"It is like anti-matter, see ordinary Kryptonite in the right exposure levels would kill the League Superman, so just reverse it."
"Only we shall know this understood?"
"Crystal, well let's see what this modification does..."
***
Kal steps into the chamber as Vandal fires up the kryptonite powered Eris. At first he seems dizzy yet as Vandal compensates it seems as if his powers start to come back as he manages to leave burn marks at eye level on the far wall. He leaves Kal in the chamber for the rest of the evening. More field tests reveal his strength returning, seems that kryptonite power source did the trick, and once Vandal tells him what he did, the Kryptonian laughs almost sadistically at the fact that he is no longer vulnerable to Kryptonite. It had been his Achilles' heel forever at least in terms of superhuman abilities, but the other part always had things to do with what he saw as misguided idealism about being the hero that hid behind the disguise of Clark Kent. Kent became a useless extension of him as he grew increasingly ticked off by Luthor's ability to push the world into a global conflict between the governments and costumed heroes that opposed arms races among other things.
His heat vision instead turns into freeze vision where as exhaling cold becomes breathing fire. He designs an outfit to resemble the soldier outfit given to him by Darkseid during that little charade. As his flight starts to come back he decides its time for a real field test starting with the former Watchtower now being used as part of the new International Space Station. His first act is to smash into the lower section and makes a rather interesting discovery, a binary fusion gun, a new feature that was never there during the Lords control of the outpost, so either Wayne did it or the governments did it, either way both would pay through the nose for this piece of junk. As Cadmus guards try to stop him, they are only frozen on the spot then he blows fire at them, which melts the ice rapidly to the point they all get frostbite then heat burns. He decides to overload the generators, make it look 'accidental', and so as he flees, the evacuation alert starts blaring. He watches the pods descend to the planet below though of course he gives a few a kick to send them off course, but of course this is only the beginning, he feels a little sluggish so returns to Ra's retreat in the mountains to get more Eris dosing. He was not back to top notch, but it felt good to rampage again instead of just bouncing around his cell breaking stuff every day.
After awhile they quit replacing his furniture so he just sleeps on the busted mattress, which he does not mind much after sleeping on all sorts of ground over the years. Talia's pregnancy enters the final trimester recently, which means whatever plans Ra's has for the child are fast approaching, so he wonders would Bruce risk his neck for a child that might not be his. However just the same, would she risk fleeing to protect her baby, some part of him hopes she would, just so he could tail her all the way to Bruce, then kill them all. He wonders how he got to be so killer ready, but then he remembers how he had been before all this. He never saw himself as evil, but he did a ton of not nice stuff to everyone who crosses his path
***
Meanwhile security specialists directed by Eiling examine recovered footage from the space station's camera system. Someone with Superman like abilities just brought down the former Watchtower that also been doubling as the new International Space Station. Hamilton asks someone to go digging into old news footage from around eight to ten years ago. Eiling sees where the eccentric professor is going with the idea and as they align the two images side by side, it looks a lot like Superman in Apokolips styled battle armor. The abilities don't match exactly, but they seem remarkably similar. The helmet conceals the attacker's identity, but this pushes Cadmus onto to full alert. The damaged escape pods would not be had for several days given how off course some of them went. This mysterious enemy poses a problem, but they had someone to match with Galatea back in action, at least they hope so. Waller however had several other projects that show promise as they were building their own army of metas to counter whatever threat this new attacker poses to Earth.
***
"Little over the top up there, you almost drained yourself to boot."
"Just get me back to full and make sure it stays there Savage."
"As you command."
He soaks up the kryptonite enhanced blasts and his immunity to it multiplies as does his power. It would not be much longer, but Kal grows stronger, Ra's sees an opportunity to steal that body for himself if that's what it comes down to if he cannot get the detective or his grandchild to take over his place. Project Final Overture is in motion at last as Cadmus arms up, he leaks word of this to various agencies throughout the world to ensure they do the same if they wish to get involved on that scale and he also passes the word through a randoms series of accounts to the Outsiders. Luthor's plan was viable, but instead of turning the governments against the heroes, he would do something more subtle. He would simply turn everyone on everyone then trigger his plan in final overture, but not yet, first they all had to start going after each other, to keep them off balance that would have to happen before long.
"So how much longer can you hold Detective?" he whispers to himself.
Talia had been watching at a distance through the glass, she could lip read, she knew he spoke of her beloved, and soon she would have to make the final choice or else it really just might be the end of everything, what kind of world is that to bring a child into, on one hand its father's plan while on the other its bringing a child into a world brought about by mass murder. Her beloved abhorred killing even though he had been present on multiple occasions where people got killed, but still his opposition to many things like killing made him well know for his relentless determination as Batman. However it is still a world without a Justice inspired organization, just a giant backyard for independent agents. The baby kicks earlier than expected, but of course, the pregnancy was slightly accelerated thanks to her father's medical staff. She believes the child to be sired by her beloved, but of course he was disbelieving of it. She did however have to check for herself too so she runs a DNA test later. The child is hers and his, but there are signs that it was not a natural conception, it was not from that office sex moment several months ago. The dates almost matched, but somehow someone had artificially triggered this pregnancy.
She was suddenly very upset, it was theirs, but not by procreation. She would still carry to term, she loves this life inside her even if no one else would.
***
"What of Talia Al-Ghul's pregnancy?"
"She's expecting in less than three months."
"You think she knows who did it?"
"Maybe, sure the genetics match, but someone implanted it in her."
"The question is who."
"I would say Dad, but how could he get access to Wayne's genetics."
"Well someone did it, and if she finds out, she's going to flip out."
"Maybe she already has... well its a guess."
Waller rubs her forehead before looking up at Hamilton and Flagg again. Hamilton did this work to actualize his frustration with Superman breaking that saintly image he held of the alien for a few years whereas Flagg distrusts anyone in a costume. It made interesting combination in the bunkers. Warnings start circulating that other organizations know about a few of Cadmus deep cover projects, which forces her to relocate a lot of assets before getting the red phone call from the President. There is concern about what Cadmus is up to so she goes out on a limb to assuage her political superior. Someone cracked or someone leaked, either way, they had to get better at decentralizing and encrypting to stay ahead of whoever is keeping tabs on them.
A/N 1: Kal's powers are coming back except they are of course inverted and his new costume is similar to his Apokolips armor from the StAS episode Legacy. The powers are similar to Bizarro in one of the comics and as for his personality he is getting to be more like Ultraman from the Crime Syndicate who had issues with Owlman and Superwoman, of course in this story its Kal with issues towards Bruce and Diana.
A/N 2: Ra's plan is finally set in motion, Talia will have to a pick side given what she knows of the plan, and as for Savage, his trump card is Kal's new physical weakness.
A/N 3: Cadmus has also been busy, but Kal's destruction of their reconfigured Watchtower, the one that used to be his space base tips the scales. As for the Outsiders, they have some knowledge too, but of course nothing is what it seems at least at first glance.