Chapter Fifty: The Last Stand Part Two.
The toy soldiers continued to march forth step by step, and attacked the four individuals in the plaza, with the helicopters and miniature tanks rolling in. With a wave of his hand, Harry blew up several of the miniature tanks, having to use his magic to contain the explosions. If he had not shielded the attacks, then half of the Plaza would have blown up with them inside.
Kara and Karen blasted several beams of heat vision and took out the gigantic toy soldiers with ballistic fury, the soldiers crumbled to nothingness, and Toyman's little army was being knocked down bit by bit. All of them crumbled underneath the attacks that had given against them. The two blonde Kryptonians flew forward and knocked the soldiers down with high impact punches. Both of them seemed to be in a competition to take out the most enemies, but whatever got the job.
Oliver meanwhile laid on the ground, drugged and half out of it, not really moving in any way whatsoever. Tess stepped on top of his body, not caring if he had got hurt, and swung the battle axe hard into the crotch of one of the toy soldiers. It doubled over to allow Harry to send a blast of high intensity light directly at the enemy and blew it into dust particles.
"Looks like Queen is down for the count," Harry responded with several of the miniature helicopters blowing up in mid-air, with each passing moment Harry was getting closer and closer to tracking down his enemy. It was just a matter of pinpointing the right signal and zeroing in on where it came from.
Tess just had a smile cross her face, smashing two more of the soldiers with the fire ax that she acquired. Each swing decapitated more of the enemies, even though Supergirl and whatever the other one was calling herself disabled more of the never ending barrage of toy soldiers.
"Oliver laying down while all of the action is going on, why am I not surprised?" Tess mused to herself underneath her breath, and Harry raised an eyebrow, but said nothing as they took out most of the enemies with swift of attacks.
Queen was on the ground and Harry knew that there were more enemies that were coming, so decisive action was the word of the day. Harry picked up a broken box lid, programming it into a Portkey, and shoved said item into Oliver's hand. It would transport him out to the Metropolis hospital where they could deal with them and he would not be a liability that they would worry about.
"Any luck on finding on him?" Karen grunted, smashing the enemies with more of a ballistic fury than ever before. They smashed the soldiers to bits with each passing swing and the busty blonde felt like she was working out a lot of stress on these things. Still she wanted to find the mastermind behind all of them.
Harry held up a hand and saw the miniature tanks on the ground, a few of them had not been disabled yet. Some of them were giving off a signal that would help Harry isolate what needed to be done to find his target. Waving his hand, Harry locked onto the signal, trying to trace it back to the source and it was matching up to the other source. Schott did an acceptable job trying to mask the signal, but at the same time, he was being too careless.
Once Harry gave her the go ahead, Kara proceeded to fly forward, hitting the ceiling and smashed into the miniature tanks. Under the impact of her fists, they crumbled from the shots. A few more shots took out the remaining tanks, blowing them to smithereens. While Kara was never cruel enough to break someone else's toys, she would make an exception in this case, especially given what this man threatened to do to the city.
When the smoke cleared, Harry, Tess, Karen, and Kara stood in shadows, looking at the broken bits of toys strewn around them. Tess did not offer them any questions, now was not the time, this was something that she would figure out on her own accord. These three had great power though and that much was something that she could respect, but it would be better served for something else other than breaking the little gadgets of some creepy little psychopath.
Tess did have one pressing question that she did not hesitate to ask of the Potters. The redhead temporary owner of Luthorcorp brushed a hand through her hair and took a long, deep breath before turning to them.
"So, how do you think he did something like this?"
Arcane's eyes snapped towards Tess's, and while she could not make out what his eyes looked like, she could feel the pure power radiating from them. Even for someone like her, it was a commanding presence and truly he seemed to be mulling something over in his mind. There was seconds of time with a pause before Arcane elected to answer, and as Tess predicted, she was not too thrilled with the answer that she received.
"I believe it was Lex Luthor who enabled this, and you have a good idea what he was up to."
Tess just looked at Arcane with a bit of a smile crossing over her lips before she spoke to him.
"Nothing you can prove," Tess answered in a light voice, going under the assumption that they had nothing on her.
"Someone had to pick up Luthor from his icy tome in Siberia," Karen replied, her eyes snapped towards Tess and her expression was icy cold, to the point where she sent shivers down the spine of Tess. "And that someone was you, he was an inch from death, and now he's back on his feet, with some kind of super suit."
"That super suit was supposed for be for cancer research," Tess answered, but then she grimaced, unable to believe that she had been so naïve.
She would find out where the leaks were that allowed Lex to pull the wool over her eyes and accomplish this task. Then those leaks would be...dealt with.
Harry, Karen, and Kara exchanged the grimmest expressions imaginable, that suit was for cancer research alright, but it was not to cure a cancer. Rather, it was to enable one in Lex Luthor and now he could be hunting for revenge at this given moment. Lana and Clark, along with anyone else who Luthor might have felt wronged him could be in danger, especially with the few specifications that the three had picked up about this suit.
"Enabling one, maybe," Harry replied breaking the silence as Tess just retained her strong resolve, but secretly she was kind of agitated that Lex had withheld information. Then again, what else should she have suspected? "And once your usefulness has passed, Lex was going to take care of you."
Tess understood exactly what this young man was trying to tell her, there was no need for him to go into any further elaboration. Lex set up the entire thing for months, making sure Schott attacked at the right time. Schott was nothing more than another means to Lex's ends, a cruel end at that, and Tess was the one who was caught in the crossfire. The fact Oliver was there was just a means to entice Toyman, but given their past, Lex would also like to gain a bit of vengeance on him as well.
"And I found our Toyman," Harry answered, and he pointed down. "He's in the sewers, in a secret lab."
"Ideal location for a vermin like him," Tess answered underneath her breath, but there was no time to waste, it was off to finish Schott once and for all.
Dust filled the air from the explosion that Lex had triggered in some insane attempt to kill all of them in one fell swoop. It was clear to all of them that bonding with the suit coupled with Lex's own twisted mind had driven him just a slight bit around the bend. There was a point where everyone was shaking off the cobwebs from the explosion as they tried to regain the bearings. It was then where one question triggered through the minds of everyone.
Were they dead?
Lana and Clark were on their hands and knees, looking over their shoulders, daring to see if there was a flash of light. They did not dare to look whether or not the pair of them had been blown straight to Oz and back because of what had occurred. Lex knew what he was doing the moment that he led Clark here, he knew Lana would follow, and he knew that they would not resist the chance to play into their hands.
It came to their minds, that they were not dead, in fact they were far from being dead. It was thanks to the timely intervention of someone that their deaths did not come at that point, and sure enough the heavy breathing behind that signaled the fact that Clark and Lana were still among the living. Something that the pair of them let out a nice long breath for, becoming suddenly thankful that they were alive.
Chloe's knees buckled, but at the same time, she was holding up the ceiling before it could cave in, the blast had just barely been contained by her powers. It was not easy; she was straining to hold this heavy explosion back. Harry did not exactly explain to her how to sustain a blast like this as many conversations that they had, so the tiny blonde was going on pure instincts at this point. Her eyes snapped up towards Clark and Lana, completely bloodshot, before she inclined her head to the entrance.
The three of them did not see Lex, and Chloe's knees buckled, but Clark and Lana made their way towards the exit. Clark was about to pull open the door, but Lana had beat him to the punch, pulling it open with an immense strength.
"Got it," Lana grunted, pulling the door off of the hinges, and she slipped through the tunnel, scooping up Clark, flying both of them away from the scene of the crime. This tunnel should have led to the basement of the Shining Light Foundation.
They continued to fly as fast as they could, and heard the explosion give way, with Chloe right behind them. Her clothes were slightly tattered, ripped and torn, but she was in rather good spirits all things considered, given what had happened was something that frustrated the lot of them.
"Lex, where is he?" Clark managed, wondering, because the fact that Lex disappeared after the explosions had gone off was really eating away at him. There was something about this that was not right at all and a thumping sound echoed that Lana heard.
"Clark calm down, let's get out of here and regroup first, " Lana said in a pacifying voice, but the truth was she was no less freaking out than Clark. Lex had jumped in and tried to take them out.
A loud thump hit them from behind at these thoughts. The impact sent Lana, Clark, and Chloe crashing directly through the wall on the other send, flying head over heels, with the trio of them landing down on the ground hard. They were surely in the basement of the Shining Light Foundation that much they knew for when their heads rattled. Unfortunately, the way they got here was most unconventional.
Lana tried to use her telekinesis powers to bring something down on Lex's head but something was wrong. It was almost like there was something radiating from that suit that prevented her from using her powers directly on Lex. She wanted to scream in frustration.
Clark was about ready to ask for the number of the train that hit him, but Lex was standing above him, smug and self-assured as ever. It was hard to believe that this monster was the same person who Clark counted as a friend for so many years. Then again, he thought that he could have misjudged Lex at this point at least that was the thoughts that echoed through his psyche as the bald young man stood over him.
"Clark, I offered you the hand of friendship, but you spurned me," Lex answered, giving Clark a good hard kick to the ribs, one he felt when Lex buried the toes of his hard boot into his gut. "Do you think…do you honestly think that you could have ever defeated me?"
Clark was about to answer that question, blood dripping down his mouth, but before he could, Lana rushed in, with a crowbar in hand. She slammed the crowbar down on the back of Lex's head with the full strength that she could. For the briefest second, Lana looked like she thought that worked, but that moment was fleeting.
Lex spun around and went to punch Lana in the face, but Lana dodged the attack at that moment, holding nothing other than a bent crowbar in her hand. Lana's eyes narrowed when she stared at Lex about sick of him and all that he's done.
"You won't hurt Clark or anyone else again," Lana managed in a firm voice, right before she got back handed hard, and knocked down.
"Really, and I doubt that you are going to stop me, this suit was designed to handle people like Clark and apparently you," Lex replied, taking a few steps forward, and then it was Chloe who tried, but a field appeared around Lex, blocking her assaults. "You know, I did wonder what it would be like to see my enemies beneath my feet like the helpless cockroaches that I always suspected they were. But to think it would be a former friend."
"You're mad," Clark voiced at that point, unable to think of anything else to say.
Lex offered a smile and a shrug, before walking over, and punting Clark hard in the ribs once again. Clark winced from the impact of the foot of Lex striking him, and he again and again, Clark was pounded. Each punch ricocheted off of him, each kick connected with fury, and once again Lana tried to get her hands on him, but was outgunned by Lex, being knocked back with a back fist punch.
Lana and Chloe both were on the crowd, and exchanged nods, hoping that a combined attack by the both of them would be enough to take down Lex. That suit had to have a weakness of some sort, there was no way it was foolproof.
The two women gained enough super speed to try and nail Lex at an immense voice, but one of the powers fused into Lex's optic nerves was the ability to see things much quicker than others. He could anticipate punches that had been thrown before they had even been thrown, and sure enough, Lana and Chloe were stopped cold.
"I can't move," Chloe managed, wincing at how lame of a statement that sounded, as her legs twitched and moved.
"Me neither," Lana answered, trying to wave her arms back and forth, but failing at that point, her stomach turning at the look of pure sadism on the face of Lex Luthor. It was a look that made her sick to her stomach. The suit had given Lex the powers of telekinesis, much stronger than hers were.
"So, how about it, Kal-El?" Lex asked, stating that last name in a taunting manner, looking down at Clark. "Should I kill your girlfriend first, or should I go with the brains behind your brawn? Decisions, decisions, why don't you choose?"
Clark felt a swell of anger, and he jumped at Lex with full force. That distraction caused Chloe and Lana to escape Lex's grasp before he could harm them. The two women watched Clark slam full force into Lex nearly at speed of light, smashing into the bald young man, and both of them cracked against the wall.
"There's no way you can get out of this basement, Lex," Clark told him, and a brief smile just crossed Lex's face in response to this declaration.
"Fitting that it will be your tomb then," Lex answered, straight before he sunk a punch deep into the abdomen of Clark, hunching him over in pain. Another punch rattled the ribcage of Clark, more followed that up as Lex hammered away at the Kryptonian before him, dropping Clark to his knees.
Clark tried to keep together determine a way to get it together and find a way to defeat Lex in this suit. Lex now had strength to match his cunning, something that he relished in having, and Clark was trying to analyze every single angle of this situation, there had to be some kind of weakness within this suit.
The problem as finding that weakness before Lex finished all three of them off and Harry and Kara were not showing up to save the day this time. Clark was all on his own, but he refused to be bailed out of every situation. This battle was his to win, it would be Clark against Lex to the end, the bitter end in fact.
Winslow Schott kept himself calm all things considered; it would be unwise to lose sight of the plan. The plan had all went according to everything that he planned on accomplishing. Queen had snubbed his genius that was not something that he would ever forgive at all. Schott had been mocked as an eccentric, a nutjob, an utter loon, and many people had doubted his sanity, but he was not someone that should be taken lightly. He was not a joke, not in the slightest, the man would prove that when half of the city blew up in the next twenty minutes.
One of his bombs had been disabled inside the Plaza, causing Schott's eyes to widen in abject horror. He had no idea how that could be, but never the less that mattered little, all this man had to do was stick to the plan. Schott was going to fire one more warning shot to make sure those in Metropolis understood that he was a man who played for keeps.
The wall began to crack around him, and either Schott had very heavy termites, or someone had decided to intrude upon his well laid out plans. He would not abide by something like that, and his hand was on the remote where he could remotely trigger the bombs, but when he pressed the button, it was not responding.
"No," Schott answered at that moment, when suddenly a loud bang echoed out, at the same moment where an invisible force snapped his head back. The bullet pierced Schott's heart the same moment where his neck snapped back from the impact.
Schott slumped to the ground, blood splashing from his mouth, rolling his eyes into the back of his head, breathing nice and heavily. There was no question about it, Winslow Schott was dead, having ceased to exist. His plan would have gone off without a hitch, but alas it was really not to be. What was worse was that he did not have any way to figure out who had locked out his remote to the bombs.
The door opened, with Harry and Tess exchanging a confused expression. Harry saw that Tess took a shot at Schott to stop him in the most fatal way, while he knocked Schott out with a spell, snapping his neck back. There was only one thing clear to him, the fact that Schott was in fact dead, having been sent to the great beyond.
"Well that was easy," Tess remarked, but before she could say much more, the blonde bolted over to the computer at that point, and began to activate it.
Kara bit her lip, trying to hack into the signal that the bomb had given off, the frequency was far different than anything else that she had ever experienced. Whoever developed these bombs intended to take a lot of people down with them, in fact half of the city. One wrong move, one hitch in the code, and the bombs would explode, taking countless lives in Metropolis, along with all of the surrounding counties with them.
The Heralds of Death would in fact survive, but the others would not be so lucky, everyone in the blast radius would be killed. Not just from one single bomb, but rather from the cumulative effect of all of the bombs going off at once. That much worried Kara, causing the blonde to bite down hard on her tongue and lips, eyes narrowed.
"I'm not sure if I can deactivate them, either," Tess answered at that point, breaking the silence, and the three turned towards her. She peered over Supergirl's shoulder, peering at the codes, and looking at them. A brief look indicated just the full scope of this situation. "Lex made the frequency as such where if anyone tried to deactivate them without the wrong codes; it would set them all off simultaneously. It would be best if we all get outside of the blast radius and hope that Lex does not set off any more of the bombs."
"We don't abandon people," Harry answered in a firm voice, and Tess shrugged her shoulders, to be honest, she knew that Lex was going to sacrifice everyone in the city, including her. "He's got to have hinted something to you."
"Lex spent most of the past four months feigning being brain dead, mumbling about Kal-El, Krypton, the Traveler, and Death," Tess answered at that point, she should have doubled the security, but wondered if that would have done any good. Despite her hard work over the past four months, Luthorcorp personnel still found themselves rather loyal to Lex Luthor.
"Why don't you try this?" Karen asked, and Kara looked a bit skeptical that something like that would work.
"Are you sure?" Kara asked, not wanting to be the one to cause the entire city to go up in flames.
"Positive that I'm sure," Karen answered, a smile crossing over her face, and Kara just shrugged, as Karen mentally fed the commands to her.
The code was one hundred million lines long, and it became clear to Kara at this point that Lex had way too much free time on his hands to input something like this long and drawn out. With her fast typing speed, she was able to get the code down in little time flat, but it had to be done carefully, not to reduce the keyboard to dust by typing too fast.
There was a moment in time where they all seemed to hold their breaths as Kara typed in each and every individual line of code.
Then the breaths were let out when the code phrase of bombs deactivated were heard and all let out a collective sigh of relief. Kara especially, knowing that one error in the code was going to cause everything to be lost. It was so close to all being lost, she could hardly believe how close it had gone. Harry wrapped his arms around Kara, pulling her into a deep hug, and spinning her around in the chair, into a kiss.
"You did it, honey, you really did it, you saved the entire city," Harry answered, and Kara just smiled, melting into Harry's tender embrace, resting her head on his shoulders, with Harry deepening another kiss, like Tess and Karen were not even there.
Kara broke the kiss, and was about ready to thank Karen, but she was gone immediately. Tess lingered awkwardly, but then looked at the two of them, nodding towards them.
"There's an exit there, I'll find my own way out, thanks," Tess answered, she needed to get back to Luthorcorp.
The two of them thought that it was only the end, but suddenly a garbled transmission came in from the Shining Light Foundation. They had been so distracted by dealing with Schott and the bomb threat that they had almost lost sight of Luthor.
One question went through their mind, were they too late? That was not something they could think about, rather they prepared to head off to the Shining Light Foundation, when suddenly they hit a wall.
Someone had blocked them out from simply teleporting inside, that did not make any sense at all, and Kara and Harry felt the despair, knowing that they would have to fly the long way in.
Was it a glitch thanks to the automated security system, or was it something else entirely, perhaps someone keeping them out? That was the question, as worry flooded them, the fact Luthor was in the Shining Light Foundation was more than a cause for great concern and distress. The two Heralds of Death picked up their flight, going faster than a speeding bullet.
Magic, much like technology, could conspire to screw someone over at the worst possible times.
Years of frustration bubbled to the surface in the mind of Lex, everything that he had in his life, every setback, every agonizing moment, all of them fluttered deep within his mind. Ever action his father had done that had belittled him and undercut him, sometimes in favor of Clark reflected through Lex's mind as he pounded Clark until his face was swollen, bruised, battered. Lana and Chloe had also been knocked out on the floor.
"Just admit it Clark," Lex said, practically foaming from the mouth as he looked down at Clark's battered body.
"Admit that you're insane?" Clark slurred through the attacks, before pushing himself up. "Because I've already done that a long time again, you've lost it Lex, you need help."
Lex offered a chuckle before he leaned down and peered into Clark's eyes, sadistic intentions danced within them.
"No, my mind's clearer than it's ever been," Lex responded, heavily breathing when he bent down to look Clark directly in his eyes. Clark could barely see Lex, but it appeared that Lex wanted him away long enough. "Seven years, Clark, I said this in the Artic, but it bears repeating. Seven years you soundly mocked me, offering the utter sham of friendship. Spit on the ground is worth more to me than our friendship, and it obviously doesn't seem to be worth much to you."
Clark tried to get back to his feet, tried to size up Lex, using his X-Ray vision, but the skin was giving off a glow that was rattling Clark's mind. He did feel like there was some subtle levels of radiation coming off of it as well, and wondered if that was driving Lex to his current state of mania. Clark was on his hands and knees, at the feet of Lex, who reveled in this moment.
"Feel this moment for the rest of your life, Kal-El," Lex answered, and he looked over his shoulder at Lana and Chloe, both who had been knocked around pretty hard. "Unlike you, I'm not a heartless monster who gets off on people's suffering. I will do you the favor of killing you first, before taking out the rest of the city. Then over the ashes, I will rebuild a brand new shining empire."
"Countless will die," Clark breathed, trying to pull himself up to face Lex in the eye. If he would die, it would be done so proudly and without regrets. He would not die slumped on the ground, at the feet of the Luthor, but rather he would go out swinging. Each and every punch would count for sure.
Lex's grin crossed over his face, once again Clark refused to admit what was true in the world, that he could not save everyone. It did pain Lex that his former friend had treated their friendship in such a callous way, but he felt that relying on some visitor from the stars to save humanity would be even worse. Lex was going to be the one to save humanity and he was going to do so by eliminating its gravest threat.
"Believe me, I've counted, counted each and every one of them, and I'll continue to count their corpses after the trigger has been pulled," Lex answered, holding up the remote. Clark tried to slam into the field that prevented him from physically attacking Lex. All he managed to get was a huge headache that rebounded him off of the field.
Clark tried to give Lex a pleading expression, to tell him not to do this, but Lex was far beyond any logic, reason, or understanding. He had gone simply around the bend, gone completely and utterly mad. Lex raised a hand and pressed a button, with both Clark and Lex preparing themselves for the end, but for drastically different reasons.
Nothing happened at all. There was not even a blink of light, a flare of an attack, and Lex once again pressed the button, still nothing. Another press of the button and still nothing, with his attention turned away from Clark at that moment.
Clark felt himself strengthen just a little bit but not because of any powers that he had, that was far from the kind of strength Clark had thought of. It was the inner strength Clark drew upon, that would win this day, along with every other day. He would not let Lex get him down, he would win, there was no question about that.
With fury, Clark sped forward, catching Lex off guard when he was playing with the remote control. The field burned Clark's hands as he pushed through, but there was no denying the determination of the Kryptonian. Clark summoned the full force of his powers, shredding his shirt from the super speed, but he could always get a new shirt. There was one thing on his mind right now.
Get Lex Luthor and put him down into the ground at that point, before he could cause any damage. Clark knew enough about Luthors that they would have some kind of contingency plan in play, multiple contingency plans in fact if they could manage it. There was no question about it, Clark was not going to back down, and he slammed his former best friend down onto the ground hard.
Lex's eyes snapped up, impressed in spite of the situation, he had no idea that Clark would fight this hard to take him down. That would make his inevitable triumph over the friend who stabbed him in the back much more great at this point, as he summoned more power into the suit, his eyes going bloodshot and his heart speeding up to an insane rate, but Lex ignored these signs.
Obsession drove many great men and that was what drove Lex Luthor at this point as he pushed Clark back. The two struggled titanic with their power, going back and forth, back and forth, neither given the other any quarter, before Lex gained the advantage.
Clark had tapped into all of the strength that he had been allowed and had come to the realization, with the strength he had, Lex had somehow made this suit far stronger. Not to mention that Lex had no inhibitions about holding back and that was what doomed Clark in the end, causing the Kryptonian to drop down to his knees, slumped on the ground, breathing heavily in pain.
The battle was hard, but Lex held many of the cards deep within his hands, playing dirty while he did. He took a step forward to savor the moment, and knew that it would only be a matter of time before Death had visited him again. Lex had no problems with dying, as long as he took Clark down with him, and he leaned down, wrapping his hands around the throat of Clark, causing his breath to draw out of him.
Lana flickered an eye open, seeing Lex at that moment straggling Clark and she saw red. With all the strength Lana Lang could summon, she got to her feet, but Lex offered a hand around her throat as well. Lana gripped onto the hand, trying to dislodge it from her throat, but she hand no better luck than Clark did.
"Lex, listen, it's killing you," Clark gasped, struggling to breath, but Lex was beyond reason.
"Clark, you've got it backwards, I'm killing you, both of you!" Lex responded, a grin crossing his face, as Lana and Clark both blacked out and now Lex would either kill them, or render them permanently brain dead. Either way was an acceptable outcome for Lex, all it mattered was his victory.
Before Lex could complete the deed, he felt like several white hot knives slammed against the inside of his brain, shredding it pieces, and he dropped to the ground, unresponsive. Clark and Lana had been dropped to the ground, completely rendered unconscious from what Luthor had done to them. Both were alive, barely, but unconscious.
Lex was not so lucky as a fatal brain aneurysm had befallen him as it took him out of the equation completely.
It was over, Lex Luthor was dead.
"Clark, wake up, Clark snap out of it!"
Clark was being shaken away by Kara at that point, and he felt the injuries that he suffered in the battle of Lex get healed slowly, but surely. Lana was already awaken, and relieved to see that Clark was up and about. As was Chloe, but right now, she was hanging onto Harry, trying to shake off the cobwebs after all that happened.
Chloe really did not recall much of anything, other than the super powered form of Lex Luthor knocked out on the floor, not offering one bit of movement, or resistance. A frown spread across her face, there was something about this entire situation that made her curiosity swell up a lot, with Harry holding an arm around her, to steady her up to her feet.
It was Lana who had beaten Chloe to the punch, asking what seemed to be the obvious and most pressing question.
"What happened?"
Suddenly Megan popped up at that point, to answer the question. "I heard the screams coming down from the basement and got concerned that something was happening. I tried to override the failsafe, but couldn't, but it turned out that I didn't need to. By the time I got down here, Lex had dropped to his knees. He suffered a brain aneurysm I think, it killed him."
Chloe looked at Megan at that moment, suspicion appearing in her eyes, not that she was mourning the death of Lex Luthor. It still struck her odd that Lex, after all that happened, had dropped down at that point. It just seemed like a little, well Chloe just expected it to end with more flare than just a random dropping to his knees.
'Then again, I'm sure it was more spectacular in Lex's mind,' Chloe thought suddenly to herself, realizing what was going on at that point, and drawing a deep breath into herself. The blonde felt Harry wrap his arm around her, holding her tightly.
Lana could not believe it, nudging Lex with her toe to make sure that he was dead. Sure enough, Lex had finally bitten the big one, after his brain seemed to have given up on itself. She felt a rush of freedom, and did the only thing that made sense, hugging Clark. Clark returned the hug at that moment.
"He's gone, after all of that, he's gone," Lana answered at this point.
"But, is he gone for good?" Harry asked at this point, looking at the downed form of Lex Luthor.
"I don't know, Harry, looks pretty dead to me," Chloe answered, waving her hand over Lex and blasting him with a jolt of energy from her hand. Lex's body did not give any signs of life, so it was verified that he had bitten the big one.
Lana was now able to use her telekinesis and hoist Lex up before dropping him down. She did this once, twice, and three times.
"You enjoyed that a bit too much," Harry offered Lana who shrugged.
Kara decided to jump in at that point. "Yeah, but the only thing was for sure, is nothing is for sure. What if this isn't the real Lex, just some duplicate that he sent out, while the real one is laughing at us somewhere?"
"Kara, don't you think you're being a tad bit paranoid," Clark offered his cousin, and Kara's eyes spun towards Clark's as she peered into them a long time, before responding.
"No, I'm being what's being called a realist, you should try it sometime," Kara answered in a soft voice, but whatever the case was, this person was in fact dead. She could verify that much and the strange readings that were coming from the suit fused into his body would not have helped his case much at all.
Harry took a moment to scan the downed body of Lex, getting all of the readings that he could off of him. It would be a chore to get the suit off of him once it had been grafted to the body, but it was not like that they could bury Lex in the suit. That was just offering an open invited to any number of mad scientists and crazed nutcases to pry the suit off of him.
"We're going to need to keep Lex's body until we can get the suit off of him, and we'll arrange for him to be found by the right people afterward," Harry told the entire group, who all nodded slowly. "I trust every one of you can keep this a secret, for however long it takes."
"How long do you think it's going to take?" Clark asked, curious about the process and unable to believe that Lex was dead. It was fortunate that there was some kind of divine intervention that had been brought in, because Clark had no idea what was going to happen.
Harry pondered on the matter long and hard, realizing that was a good question that he did not have a clear answer to whatsoever. The suit was a combination of many different sciences and highly resistant to magic. How Lex managed that feat, Harry would never know, although him and Kara would have to figure out that face as long as they pulled the suit to pieces. Time would not be on their side, but they would be able to get the suit out.
Chloe stood, knowing why Kara and Harry had to do what they needed to do, but regardless there was still a few questions rattling around on the inside of her mind. One could blame that on the inquisitive mind that Chloe had, but still she was seeing more than a few holes regarding the death of Lex Luthor, how everything seemed to end in a nice and even manner.
To be honest, Chloe had her doubts about how Lex really died, but that was not her place to say. She was not about to rain on Clark and Lana's parade, rather she just stood back, supportive as Harry and Kara moved Lex's body. Over the next few days and weeks, they would be picking it apart, until they found to get that suit off of Lex.
Was the Luthor menace completely gone?
The only thing for sure was that nothing was for sure, but for right now, he was most certainly out of their hair. Only time would tell if he was truly done and gone forever.
Chloe sat back at the Shining Light Foundation, mulling over everything that had transpired over the past day. It was once again hard to believe that Lex was gone, but there was something rather bothering her. She half looked up to see Kara and Harry walk inside, heads hunched over in deep conversation. There was no time to waste; Chloe had to tell them what was on her mind.
"Guys, I really don't know how to say this," Chloe remarked and Harry and Kara had their full attention on their mate, taking a few steps forward, and facing her.
Harry was the one that broke the silence at this point.
"If you don't know how to say something, then just say it, and it will all be done and over with."
Chloe figured as much, offering a long and labored sigh to the pair of them, before she decided to cut to the chase at that point.
"I think when Megan arrived…I think she might have done something to Lex," Chloe answered at that point, and it was at this point where Harry and Kara lock eyes at this point, before the pair of them sighed.
Chloe waited and watched, both of them looked to be mulling over something in their mind, exactly what it was, she had no idea whatsoever. The blonde tapped her foot on the floor and folded her arms as she looked right at Harry at that moment. Chloe did not have to wait for too long, before Harry was the one who opened his mouth to respond to her.
"I had an idea, but I wasn't sure. Are you positive?"
"It was something that I saw in her eyes," Chloe answered at that moment, before she side stepped over herself. "And it's not like I'm really blaming her, with what she's done to Lex, but this is something that she's capable, so…"
"We know," Kara replied putting a hand up to stop her cold, and Chloe nodded at that point. "She was doing her job to protect everyone in this place where we were gone. Lex was a threat, and she…took care of him. She took the shot that no one else was willing to make."
Harry offered a nod, before he turned around, walking to the outside, where Megan was sitting in the room, waiting for him. Her eyes snapped up, and she started in before Harry could even say two words edgewise.
"Harry, I know that…I know that you're upset with what I did, and likely I don't blame you if you want me to leave forever. But that's not the point, the point is that Luthor was a mad dog and someone had to put him down long and hard. And I was the only person who was willing to do it, and guess what, I'd do it again if I'd have the chance. I don't know about you but…"
"Megan, please calm down," Harry interrupted her, and Megan realized that she was floating above the ground, in her rant. She had to get control of her powers, because if she could not stand on the ground, there were other powers, other problems. "I don't blame you for what happened to Lex. If it wasn't you, it would have been me or Kara…"
"Actually, if you showed up when you did, Clark and Lana would both be dead," Megan answered briskly, biting her lip at this point at the thought.
Harry knew what happened immediately, the young white Martian had seen what happened, and froze, doing what she thought was the best possible thing. The mind was the only vulnerable spot in the suit, Harry knew that much immediately when thinking about it. There happened to be no easy solutions for this answer.
"Just remember that what you did might not be the easy solution every time," Harry told Megan and Megan inclined her head with a nod, before she turned around, walked off. "And I'm not blaming you for what happened with Luthor."
"I know, and thanks," Megan replied with a smile crossing her face.
Megan walked out at that point, when the door opened and Harry turned around to see Kara waiting on the other side of the room. The blonde looked at him with an inquisitive look, wondering what was going to happen now. At this point, Harry did not seem to have answers, Kara didn't either, and Chloe did not really either. Kara broke the silence after an extremely long pause.
"She has the potential to be rather powerful," Kara responded to Harry as she placed a hand on his, standing right beside him. "Today was proof of that."
"I know, why do you think I'm keeping an eye on her?" Harry asked, and Kara's jaw was set as she nodded.
Harry trusted Megan but she did have the potential to run away with her powers.
Raya waited out in the Artic with the windows blowing in her face. While she did not mind waiting out there, she had a feeling that the daughter of Zor-El did so for the sake of making her life that much more inconvenient. She was about to call her out on that fact, when Karen showed up at that point.
"I was unable to intervene today with Kal-El, and I want to know if you have had anything to do with this," Raya said without preamble. "Why did you block me?"
"I didn't block you, Raya," Karen answered when she stood in the Artic and stared her dead in the eye without blinking and Raya seemed skeptical. "I was blocked as well from intervening as were the other two."
Raya's disbelief filled her eyes but Karen knew that despite her best attempts to get through, she could not get through.
"If you didn't block me, then who did?" Raya asked.
"A good question, I'll let you know if I ever find out the answer," Karen answered when she held the crystal in her hand.
It was something her father gave her, it was a part of her, and there were almost times where her father gave her guidance about what to do with Kal-El and his destiny from beyond through the crystal.
She needed to find out who blocked her from saving her cousin's life. For it were not for the divine intervention of the White Martian, Clark, Lana, and Chloe would all be dead.
Who would want to see those three dead?
To Be Continued in "Dynamic."