Disclaimer: Characters are not mine. All is the property of DC Comics. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Artificial Scion

Chapter Five: Doing Something

Lois Lane was not one easily satisfied with sitting back and waiting for things to work out. Because, if left alone, things rarely if ever worked out well -or even at all. Prior to her marriage to a high-profile political figure and being surrounded by a small flotilla of over-powered alien body guards, she had been an investigative reporter. That meant it was her job to uncover truths, solve mysteries, and stay informed on what was really going on in the word -and off world.

So, when Cadmus had suddenly and mysteriously cut off communication with her and her husband not long after they offered up gene samples for their genetic research, her reporter's instincts were piqued and her suspicions were aroused. Lois was ready to march on over to the main Cadmus facility just outside of Metropolis and demand what was going on.

But Kal, bless his naive little heart, was the overly trusting and obnoxiously optimistic type.

He convinced his headstrong wife to wait a while before rushing off half-cocked and making a scene. He reminded her that she had -officially- retired from the Daily Planet (though, she still wrote articles for the paper under various pen-names), and was now living her life in the public spotlight as the wife of Krypton's ambassador to Earth. It would do no one any good if she made a public spectacle.

So, against her better judgment and years of prior habit, Lois did nothing. Lois waited. Lois Lane, now Lois Lane-El, sat on her hands and did nothing, waiting for something to happen, but seeing nothing change. Kal was a sweetheart. Really, he was. It was that same unwavering optimism and belief in the 'good' in all people that had first attracted the intrepid reporter to the foreign dignitary in the first place. But in this case, Kal was wrong and Lois was tired of waiting. It was long past time to do something.

So, Lois did something.

Falsifying IDs and procuring uniforms was not difficult for her. She was doing that for her stories long before she had access to her husband's resources. It was ditching the damn bodyguards that gave her real trouble. Any time she left the house or the consulate, they were there. She never had to put up with this kind of crap as a private citizen. But then, as a civilian she hadn't been as prime kidnap material as she was being the wife of a high-profile diplomat. Oh, the sacrifices we make for love.

But while they might have super-speed, could see through walls, and hear over great distances, Lois did have one advantage over her kryptonian escorts. She was an ordinary human, and therefore must be completely incapable of giving them trouble. In other words, they under-estimated her. Their overconfidence was their weakness. Plus, Lois didn't need to lose them indefinitely, just until she was aboard the next shuttle to Space Lab. Once the rocket was space-born, there really wasn't anything they could do, whether they knew where she was or not.

So, here she was, dressed in a Cadmus uniform watching the previous shift crew disembark, and waiting for her shift's turn to board. Lois inconspicuously checked her watched. By her estimation, she had about thirty more seconds before her escort realized she was not, in fact, powdering her nose in the women's restroom. After that, it was anywhere from three seconds to three minuets before she was tracked to her current position. Then her bodyguard would have to go to the space port's main office, find whoever was in charge of the Space Lab shuttle launch and get them to halt the boarding. As fast as kryptonians were, with all the shuffling the humans in the office would do, Lois would already be on the shuttle by the time her escort managed to put in the request.

Thank goodness for human sluggishness!

Lois smiled to herself as she watched the previous shift disembark. She checked her watch, trying not to look like she was in a hurry. Once the previous passengers were all off the shuttle crew would then have to do a quick clean-up of the isles and seats in the cabin -just like they did on airplanes-, make sure all loose objects were secured, and that all their equipment was still in tip-top shape. Then, the shuttle had to be fitted with new rockets and propellant tanks. Breaking free from Earth's gravity was no easy matter. All that would take time. Hm, perhaps this had not been the best thought out plan ever.

Darn human sluggishness!

But Lois was sick and tired of following Kal's plan to sit and hope for the best. She understood her husbands feelings. He didn't want to cause a scandal and stir up tensions between Earth and Krypton over their very personal family matter. Kal's father, Jor-El was a member of Krypton's ruling council. If he found out that his son and daughter-in-law contributed samples of their DNA to an Earth-based genetics project in the hopes of producing an offspring and then were double crossed, he would demand some form of reparation be payed by Cadmus.

The problem was, Cadmus was well funded and had a veritable fleet of lawyers and attorneys held at the ready to defend it to their last professional breaths. In addition to that, several Cadmus Projects were being carried out under the direct purview of the government. A foreign body accusing them misconduct could be interpreted as accusing the government of misconduct. That was a big loud diplomatic mess! And since Kal was the Kryptonian Ambassador, it would be his mess. So, yes, Lois more than understood her husband's reasons for sitting quietly on his anger.

But Lois Lane was not a diplomat. True, she had married one, but she did not work at the consulate and had nothing to do with politics -with the exception of the articles she occasionally still wrote under various pennames. Lois Lane was a reporter. While she had -officially- retired from that business and resigned herself to being the quiet and demure trophy-wife she told herself she'd never be, she would never give up her passion and thirst for the truth. Cadmus was hiding something up there on their orbital Space Lab and she intended to expose it. An article published by the Planet under one of her many pennames would do. Kal and the Kryptonian Consulate need not get involved. Then, responsibility would fall on the private investors and government divisions that funded the Cadmus Project to do a full inquiry.

And if that didn't work, well, there was always the follow-up article.

Lois was pulled from her thoughts by a light tap on the shoulder.

She turned, her eyes going wide when she saw that it was Kara Zor-El who looked back at her. "Hey, Lois!" She smiled innocently. "The boys are looking for you."

Damn it!

Kara was not one of Lois' body guards. Kara Zor-El was Kal's cousin, visiting from Earth over her season-recess from the Science Academy on Krypton. She had been on planet for only a few short weeks already and yet she seemed to have soaked up the local culture like a bouncy blond sponge. Gone were the solid-colored robes bearing the family crest, the heavy headdresses indicating her status, under-suits and gloves that made sure every inch of skin was covered from neck to toes. Instead, Kara now wore Daisy Duke style denim shorts, tight tees that were short enough to leave her midriff exposed, and bright red boots with large, heavy looking platforms that made it look like she had two bricks strapped to her feet.

She and Kal fought about her wardrobe almost constantly for the first week and half of her visit over her dramatic wardrobe change. Finally, they both agreed to disagree and stopped snarling at each other. He still gave her critical and disapproving glares and she still made rude gestures simply to bother him. But for the most part, they had reached a piece. Lois viewed Kara's behavior and dress as a sort of Kryptonian Rumspringa. She had temporarily left the rigid and confining society she was used to on Krypton and was experience life on another world for the first time. At the end of the season-recess she would go back home and behave like a good little kryptonian girl again.

"Kara!" Lois was ashamed to admit she jumped. It was alrigth though, her cover was already blown. It wasn't like she could do any more damage. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you, duh!" She huffed, placing her fists on her hips.

All around them people were beginning to stare. Yup. Her plan was well and good shot to heck now. There was no way Lois Lane, a jilted and angry contributor to a project, was getting on that shuttle. To much attention. Damn it, Kara!

"What's goin' on?" She asked. "Oh! Were you on a story? I'm so sorry!"

...

Tim yawned loudly as she handed his collection of jump-drives to Bruce. Each was meticulously labeled so that the original Batman would know in what order to begin decrypting them.

He was shuttle-lagged and tired and just wanted to go home to his own apartment, and sleep in his own bed, in normal gravity, with the street-noise of his home town to lull him to sleep. But Tim still had to give some sort of oral report before the Dark Knight would release him.

"I trust the mission went well."

It wasn't really a question coming from Bruce. Tim had returned safe and in one piece, he brought back with him the harddrives containing Space Lab's central database, no alarms had been set off, his cover was still in place in case a follow-up mission was needed. Yes. Everything went well. Tim nodded, suppressing another yawn.

"Did you discover what Cadmus did with Kal-El's DNA sample?"

Here, Tim paused, unsure how exactly to explain. "I, uh... I found an actual living person."

Bruce was silent for a moment as he just stared at the Red Robin. Space Lab was full of actual living people. Scientists, engineers, volunteer test-subjects, non-volunteer test subjects, technicians... But Bruce was pretty sure that wasn't what Tim meant by 'an actual living person'. Did that then imply that Cadmus had managed to produce a viable living hybrid of Kal and Lois' DNA? But how? There hadn't been enough time to bring a healthy fetus to term. -Unless they wanted it to be three months premature.

"Explain."

So, Tim told him. He explained about the secret lab in the station's core. How he at first thought it was unrelated to his main mission objectives, but decided to investigate anyway. Told him about Experiment 13 and how he couldn't be much older than a few months, yet physically resembled a young adult. About his strange ability to create a tactile telekinetic field, which wasn't a kryptonian power. And, finally, as an addendum, Tim added how sheltered and naive he appeared and commented that it might be difficult to acclimate him to the rest of the world and even his real parents.

"So, how would you like to proceed?" Tim finished by asking.

Bruce steepled his fingers in thought. "I'll need some time to go over the data that you brought me." He said. "Oracle might want to take a look at it too. See if she can create a tap of her own into their mainframe using their own encryption." A pause. "...And someone should inform the Ambassador that he has a son."

...

"Damn it, Lois! This isn't like the influence peddling scandals or weapons trafficking conspiracies you're used to going after!" Kal passed back and forth in front of the couch his wife was reclining on.

Their private home was modest for people of their economic status. Prior to ascension to the position of Kryptonian Ambassador to Earth, Kal-El had done a bit of sight-seeing around the globe and developed a certain fondness for the rustic homeyness of Kansas farmland. As such, most of their furniture was in shades of dark wood and wicker. The cushions, earth-tones of green, gold, and brown. Lois fluffed a plaid patterned pillow before placing it behind her back and refused to look guilty. Kal, as a general rule, was concerned whenever she was chasing a story. But this one was different. This time he was good and truly worried.

"This is personal!" He continued. "Its something that concerns us directly. Did you really think you could expose it under one of your pennames and not have our family get dragged into the conspiracy? What about when my father got wind of it and he convinced the rest of the council to demand some form of appeasement from Earth?"

She waited for him to pause for breath before saying, "At least its better than doing nothing!"

"What do you want me to do?" He asked, in all seriousness.

"Anything is better than sitting on your as and waiting for 'man's better nature' to win out." She stood up from the couch. Balancing on her tip toes to climb closer to his eye-level, Lois continued, "I look for the truth. That's what I do, Kal. That's why you married me. You kryptonians just love your Truth. You've got a whole holiday devoted to it. So now, you tell me, what's wrong with looking for the truth of what they did with out DNA samples when they promised us a baby and then just took off!?"

Kal sighed as the fight drained out of him. He was not, by nature, a very confrontational man. He detested fighting and always preferred peace and civility to violence and anger.

"Its not as simple as that." He reminded her, more of a muttered statement than an actual argument.

Already on her tip-toes, Lois wrapped her arms around him and pull herself up to give her husband an affectionate kiss on the lips. Their hight difference was really more annoying that his seemingly unwavering belief in the good of all people. "I know." She assured him. "Its a delicate situation and has to be handled with care. But you also know that I don't do well with sitting and waiting for problems to solve themselves. Because, sweetheart, problems don't solve themselves. Someone has got to do something."

"Alright, Lois." Kal finally ceded. "I understand. Maybe... maybe we can ask someone from the Justice League to quietly look into it. Or maybe Batman Inc., since they seem better suited to quiet, stealthy stuff. Bruce it my friend. I'll call him tomorrow and see if he can arrange a meeting between us and Batman or another member. Will that satisfy you?"

"Yes. That would satisfy me."

...

Tim would have been lying if he said it didn't feel good to be sitting behind his desk again. Working in his office at Wayne Tower as Timothy Drake-Wayne again. It was Drake-Wayne when he was at the company, or expecting special treatment at fancy restaurants when he was out on the town. Just plane Drake was a name only used when he looked in the mirror anymore. But 'Drake-Wayne' was a good name. Far more reputable than just 'Wayne' by itself -if it wasn't to bold to say.

While Bruce Wayne's public persona was that of a philandering, empty-headed fop, who couldn't button his own pants without help and spent his money frivolously, the public persona of Timothy Drake-Wayne was very different. As far as the public was concerned, Tim was a quiet and studious man and always had been. When he was a teenager, Tim frequent absences from the public eye were explained away as private apprenticeships or internships under very prestigious and completely fictitious tutors. His admission to the best collages in the country were assured even without Bruce's checkbook to seal the deal. After graduating collage with two business degrees, a certificate in marketing and a bachelor of the arts for photography (purely for the heck of it, he told reporters), Tim was the youngest person to be granted a spot on the Wayne Enterprise board of directors.

Of course, Bruce and Lucius both got a lot of flak for that and were accused of nepotism by several critics and reporters. But Tim hadn't steered the company wrong yet. And so the public was forced to concede that Timothy Drake-Wayne must be some kind of genius.

His public person was so well solidified that when Bruce finally went public with Batman Inc., no one thought to wonder if the boy that he had adopted and then given a position in his company could also be connected to the vigilantes under Wayne's employ. In fact, no one wondered if any of Wayne's lost boys could be any of the Batman's sidekicks. They all kept their public lives so well insulated from their secret lives.

So, it was a curious thing when, sitting in his office going of the financial reports for the last two weeks he'd missed that Red Robin, rather than Tim Drake, got a memo from Bruce Wayne, not Batman.

The message read: "Meeting at Ambassador's home in Metropolis. After dark. Bring all relevant materials."

Tim deleted the message the moment he finished reading it and erased it's cyber-trail from the rest of the company's mainframe. It was a matter of public record now that Bruce Wayne used his income from Wayne Enterprises to fund Batman and his associates. But it was only rumored that some of those associates, or even the Batman himself, actually worked for the company by day. An email-memo like that would be like a smoking gun to anyone who knew how to dig it out of the virtual trash.

Tim sighed. He spun his chair around and looked at the low afternoon sun. It was maybe about four hours until dark. How long would it take Red Robin to get from Gotham to Metropolis? Turning his chair back to face forward, Tim looked at the stack of papers still on his desk. Well, it looked like studious and scholarly, business genius Timothy Drake-Wayne was gonna stay behind in his work for a bit longer.

There was a different job he had to do.

...

Kal fidgeted uncomfortably as he watched Bruce swirl the glass of wine that had been offered him.

Bruce was a good friend. But he can be a tad difficult to have a serious conversation with. He enjoyed the luxury his wealth allowed him to live in and insulate himself from the seriousness of 'the read world'. Whenever anyone tried to discuss a 'sober topic' with him, the Gotham Prince would usually brush it off flippantly, calling whatever topic it was a frightful bore and suggesting they instead talk about something like the latest cruise or sky trip he was about to go on, or had just come back from, or the varying virtues of beautiful women from different countries. If this were the 17th Century, Bruce would be called a 'fop'. Instead, most people just called him an idiot.

But, every now and again, Kal could swear he saw a glimmer of shrew intelligence behind those midnight-blue eyes. It sometimes made him wonder if the billionaire's obnoxious behavior and frippery were nothing more than an act. When he went public that it was him that had been funding Batman all those years, Kal's theories were confirmed. But he still didn't give up his act. Bruce remained a shallow, thoughtless... fop.

"This is fantastic stuff, Kal!" He said, taking a generous sip of the kryptonian wine. "I wonder how much it would cost to import this commercially? You have to remind me to ask Lucius about it next time I go to the office. He'll run the numbers for me."

"Uh... you might wanna go a little easy on that." Kal warned. "Its a bit stronger than what you're used to."

"Right, right." Bruce waved off his warning, touching the lip of the glass to his lips a second time before setting it down. "Everything from Krypton is stronger here."

Kal once again fought the urge to fidget with discomfort. Yes, everything from Krypton was stronger on Earth thanks to the yellow light of their sun, Sol. It had interesting effects on kryptonian bio-chemistry. Even non-living organic mater like fabrics and wines became more durable or more potent under Sol's influence. "Anyway..." Kal began, trying to swing back to the original reason he asked his friend over. "Bruce, I didn't invite you over to get plastered off my wine. I have a favor to ask."

"Oh?" He blinked those midnight-blue eyes in innocent curiosity. But Kal got the eery feeling that it was a carefully measured curiosity, almost like he already knew what the kryptonian was about to ask but didn't want to let on that he knew more than an empty-headed fop should.

"Do you... do you remember at the gala a while back, I mentioned that Lois and I were having problems with Cadmus Labs?"

Bruce's whole demeanor changed. He cleared his throat and leaned forward slightly, almost as if they were conspirators laying plans and sharing secrets. His voice was uncharacteristically serious when he asked, "Have you heard anything from them?"

"No." Kal admitted. "Nothing's changed since we last spoke. But, Lois and I have been talking, and we decided... Since you fund Batman Incorporated, if you might be able to ask them to look into it? I would, of course, compensate them for their time and services."

Bruce smiled an ironic smile and Kal just could not guess why. "Batman Inc. is not for hire. None of its operatives can be bought. They do what they do because they feel its right, and no one else will. That's why I support their endeavors. They're not in it for profit and I'm not their commander and chief."

For some reason, that last statement sounded suspiciously like a lie to Kal, but he couldn't understand why. Bruce, or rather, the public face of Bruce Wayne that he was familiar with, would make a terrible commander and chief for a band of vigilante detectives like the men and women of Batman Inc. And yet... Kal had thought that Bruce might have some command over them. After all, he signed their paychecks.

"So then, you can't help me." The kryptonian hung his head low.

"I didn't say that." Bruce smiled, and this time, that ironic smile was bold and amused. "As it happens, I know exactly what Cadmus did with your DNA samples."

"You do!?" Kal shot to his feet, knocking over the heavy armchair he sat in. It clattered to the floor with a loud THUNK, a punctuation mark to his exclamation.

Bruce nodded, and that thoughtless, flippant attitude slipped back into his voice when he said, "Mozeltov! Its a boy!"

Kal-El just stared at him, not understanding. "You mean...?"

"I mean..." Bruce leaned farther forward, voice once again going low and sober, like a conspirator whispering his secrets. "...Cadmus succeeded in doing exactly what they told you they'd do. They made a human-kryptonian hybrid using your DNA. Kal, you have a son."

"I have a..." His legs went weak and the kryptonian barely register the short feeling of falling before his knees impacted the burgundy carpet. "I have a son. Lois and I have a son! But, wait... how do you know this?"

"From me." A dark figure tumbled in through the open window.

He climbed to his feet with far more grace than his entrance would have lead one to believe he possessed. But the reason for his sudden and graceless introduction appeared the moment he regained his footing. Nam-Ek and Aether-Ka, two members of the consulate's security staff appeared hovering just outside the window.

"Apologies for the interruption, Ambassador." Aether was quick to explain. "I don't know how this intruder managed to evade my men, but I'll remove him right away!"

"I have sensitive information for the Ambassador." Said the intruder quickly.

"Then you make an appointment like everyone else!" She snapped.

"Stand down, hot-stuff." Bruce waved her and Nam-Ek off. "He's with me."

Aether bristled disapprovingly.

Kal just stared at them all in confusion. Finally, after a prolonged pause in which he decided that he had no idea what had just happened but would have an easier time figuring it out without a window full of people bickering, Kal said, "Thank you for your diligence, Aether-Ka. You do your House honor. But if Bruce is willing to vouch for him, let the intruder stay."

Aether and Nam-Ek bowed reluctantly and flew away.

"You're late." Bruce scolded the man the moment they were gone.

Kal studied him, trying to decide which of the masked vigilantes that made up Batman Inc he was. Not particularly tall, but not short either. He was of average height for a human male. He wore a cowl like Batman's but without pointed ears, the crown of his head was smooth. In fact it almost reminded Kal-El of... well it looked like a condom. The cape was black like the cowl, and other than the fact that it gave him the appearance of melting into shadows, was completely unremarkable. The uniform he wore was a tight jumpsuit in red with black trip on the legs, sides and arms. There was, of course, the famous Utility Belt, that almost all of Batman's associates carried, but he also sported two extra belts crossed over his chest. And where those belts met, was the figure of a bird.

One of the Robins, maybe?

"Kal," Bruce began again, once again commanding the kryptonian's attention. "You asked me how I knew about your son, this is how. After we talked last time, I asked Red Robin here to look into it. I'm sorry I went behind you back, but I felt it was something that needed investigating. Not just for you."

Kal-El didn't really process all of that. His mind had jumped back to the revelation that he had a son. He and Lois had a son. They were parents! He imagined the baby in his mind. Cute and chubby, mostly bald as newborns tended to be, but with a tuft of dark hair. Of course he would have dark hair, Kal and Lois both had dark hair. With his eyebrows but Lois' eyes. Lois's cheekbones and his chin. His forehead and Lois' nose... He would be so adorable! Their precious child. They had a son!

Red Robin was talking.

"... was able to sneak aboard Space Lab during their bi-weekly shift change. While there, I discovered a suspicious looking project." Explained the masked vigilante. "At first I thought it was unrelated to your dilemma, but I investigated anyway. That was how I discovered him."

"You found my son." Kal climbed back to his feel just long enough to right his fallen chair before collapsing in it. "I have a son... Tell me about him! Is he healthy? Does he have someone with him? Someone holding him? What color are his eyes? Its only been six months! Was he premature? Is he undersized? How are they taking care of him? What went wrong? Was that why Cadmus never contacted us?"

"Ambassador, please!" Red Robin held up a hand, a silent plea for the kryptonian to stop talking. "There's something you need to know. I haven't finished processing all their files yet, so I don't know how they did it, but your son is not an infant. Its true, he's only a few months old, but physically he resembles someone in their late teens. Your son is almost an adult."

"What?" Kal blinked at him. Then, raising one critical eyebrow, he asked, "But how- Why!?"

"Red Robin's investigation is still on-going." Bruce cut in. "So, he can't share all the details with you right now, Kal. But I wanted you to know about your son, so I convinced him to come and tell you what he knew. He's going back to Space Lab at the next shift change to continue the investigation. Until then, he can't tell you anything more."

"Uh, of course." It was a true testament to his diplomacy that he was able to force out that cordial submission. Kal wanted to know more. He wanted to know everything. But he also knew the necessity of withholding details of an investigation while it was still on-going. It was a sign of just how much their friendship meant to Bruce that he managed to convince one of Batman Inc's masked vigilantes to share. Until Red Robin finished his investigation, Kal would try his best not to hinder it. "If there's anything I can do to help, please, just ask. I want to help."

"The best thing you can do, Kal, is just be with your wife and let-"

"Actually." Red Robin cut him off. "Ambassador, does your son have a name? I mean, did you and your wife agree on names for the child you thought you were gonna get?"

Bruce gave the masked man a disapproving look, which Red Robin pointedly ignored.

Kal-El paused a moment. He didn't know how it would help the investigation, but if he said it would help... "Lois and I agreed that she would get to choose an Earth-name if it was a girl, and I would choose a kryptonian for a boy. For my son, the name I decided on was 'Kon'. My son's name is Kon-El."

"Kon-El..." Red Robin repeated. "Thank you, Ambassador. That will help."

...