"So we need a way of brining your dad out of hiding, so that we can stop him from destroying the world and ruling over it. Any ideas?"
Jason sat at a table in another room of Mt Justice with Wally on his right and Alex on the left. They faced a screen on the wall where Ben once again joined them via Skype. They each pondered for a while on what could be done. Suddenly, Alex's face beamed with a smile, as though he was about to jump out of his chair with joy.
"I think I have something," he said, the glee filling his voice.
"Go on then, don't leave us in suspense," Jason said.
"Well you know how dad said that the watch needs confirmation that Superman is dead, well to draw him out, we need to 'kill' Superman," he said, using his fingers to mime quotation marks on the word kill.
"After all we have just been through, you are still wanting to kill my dad," Jason said.
"Did you not see the quotation marks I made? We don't kill him, we make it look like we have for the benefit of the watch and dad."
"But how would we do that?" Wally asked.
"We fake the fight?" suggested Ben.
"Yeah, we could do that. I can fix up some gadgets to help. If we can get your dad onboard, then we really will be able to fake it good and proper."
"But wouldn't we risk civilian lives?" asked Jason.
"If we plan it carefully, we make make it look real to anyone who isn't in the know and do it with minimal impact in those around us."
"So we need to attack dad and make it look real, but without harming him and anyone else around us?" Jason clarified.
"Exactly."
"And what do you propose we use to help create that particular illusion?" asked Wally, arms folded on his chest as he sat back in his chair looking at Alex.
"Well I can cobble some things together and see if I can build a projection unit that will allow us to show images of Superman being defeated and the city around us being destroyed."
"What would we have to do?" Ben asked.
"Well you could either pretend to try and stop me, or you could come under my 'wing' as it where and help me."
"What do we tell the league? Will they go with our plan?" Jason inquired.
Before anyone could answer, there was a knock at the door. It opened slowly and the form of Robin walked in.
"Batman has asked for your presence in the board room immediately," he said looking at the three teenagers in the room.
With that he left them to find their own way there.
"I suppose we had better be going then," Wally said as he stood first and moved towards the door. "We'll see you later then Ben, keep getting better."
Wally pressed a button by the door and Ben disappeared from the screen.
Up in the boardroom however, Ben remained on the screens in front of the Justice League.
"The question is Ben, can we trust him?" Superman asked.
"Yes, my Spider sense is not warning me of any danger coming from him, I definitely think we should give him a chance."
"But "killing" Superman, isn't that what he wanted?" Aquaman asked.
"I see only truth coming from the boy, he wants to redeem himself and we should let him," Martian Manhunter said.
"We could always use the lasso of truth," Wonder Woman added.
"No," Batman stated categorically. "We go with the plan that they have come up with. We will be there to insure it all happens as it should. We need to draw out the Tinkerer before he can do anymore harm. What is one of our lives for the many billions on the planet."
The League and Ben listened to Batman's words and took them in, nodding in agreement. A proximity alert sounded, breaking the silence.
"Ben, thank you, we will be in touch soon," Superman said. He ended the call, just as the three teenagers entered the boardroom.
"It looks like you were expecting us," Jason said, noticing the speed at which his dad took something off the screen.
"That is what the proximity alert is for," Green Lantern commented under his breath.
"What was that Lantern?" growled Batman.
"Nothing," came the sullen reply.
"So, have you come up with your plan?" Superman asked the boys, who of course were oblivious to the League's knowledge about their idea.
They took it in turns to go through the idea, with periodic questions from each member of the League, allowing them to tweak the plan and perfect it. After about an hour running through what they were going to do, the boys were dismissed and sent down to the Leagues laboratories, to get to work on building the necessary gadgets they would need.
"So now what do you think?" Superman asked the heroes in front of him.
"They have better ideas than we have," Wonder Woman said.
"They definitely know what they are doing," Flash added.
"Perfect, we go with them then," Batman concluded. "League dismissed."
They all rose from their chairs and filed out of the room except for Superman and the Martian Manhunter.
"You read my thoughts then?" asked Superman.
"Indeed. I shall follow them as you request, but I will not intervene, I leave that to you."
"Just make sure they can't see or detect you. I just want them to be safe."
"It is understandable, their first mission and as a father, you want the best for your son."
"You are right as ever," Superman replied with a sigh. "We had better be going, Batman will be wondering why we are not on patrol.
The two heroes turned and left the room.
Down in the laboratories, Jason and Wally sat watching Alex, with confused looks, as he Stripped apart a holographic projection unit, parts strewn over the work bench.
"So what does this bit do," Wally asked holding up a circuit board.
"Careful!" Alex cried, as he leant over, snatching the board from Wally. "That is the control board. Damage that and the whole plan could collapse apart."
"Ok, ok keep your hair on."
"Is there anything we can do?" Jason asked.
"Yes there is. I need you to get me one of Superman's suits, so I can adapt it and get it ready for the plan."
"What are you going to do to it?" questioned Wally.
Alex put down the tools he was working with and turned to face the lads.
"I need to insert a couple of fake blood packs and a special device which will mimic someone who doesn't have a pulse, therefore convincing anyone who isn't in the know, that he is dead. I also want to add a shield pice to cover his vital organs, so that in case dad shows, he can't do what I was going to and push a rod of Kryptonite into him. Is that ok?"
"Absolutely, I will go and get one now," Jason said quickly, moving himself off of the worktop and and out into the corridor.
"What can I do?" Wally asked, suddenly feeling left out.
"I need you to take these," Alex held up a box of flat disks, "and place them on all the buildings surrounding Times Square, making sure that at least two of them are pointing at each other every time. You need to be fast at doing it though."
"I think I can be fast," Wally joked.
He took the box from Alex and sped from the room, papers flying everywhere as he did so. Alex moved around and picked the papers up, tutting as he did so.
"Finally, some peace," he thought aloud.
Out in the corridors of Mt Justice, Jason used his x-Ray vision to scan around for his dad. Spotting him in the Leagues kitchen, he sped off to go and meet him.
"Hey dad," Jason said as he walked into the kitchen.
"Oh hi Jason, how's everything going? You got all you need sorted?"
"Well there is one thing that Alex has asked me to go and get."
"Well you better be going and finding it then."
"But that's the thing, the item he wants is one of your costumes."
"Ok, what does he want that for?"
Jason tried his best to explain to Clark what Alex was going to do with the suit.
"Ok then, if that is why it is needed, you know where they are kept at home, go and get him one."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive. Now hurry, we need to get this plan on the road."
Jason hurried off to the Zeta tubes. He walked through with the mechanical female voice saying, "Recognised, Superboy B Zero Three."
He appeared moments later in a red phone box on the corner of his road. Before anyone around could see he was there in his costume, he shot out and flew at great speed to his house. He dashed through the back door, unlocking it at a speedy pace. Once inside, he didn't need to move quickly, so he slowed down to a more normal pace. He jogged upstairs to his parent's bedroom and over to the wardrobe where Clark kept his costumes. The last time he went into this wardrobe, his life changed forever. (Author's Note: Refer to Chapter 1 of Becoming Superboy) He reached forward and grasped the handle with his right hand. A green light appeared, moving up and down the handle as it read his hand. The light disappeared and the door clicked open at the confirmation of who he was.
He pulled the door open and there the inside of the wardrobe was turning round to hide Clark's civilian clothes and show a rack full of his suits and a shelf of boots below. Jason reached inside and took one of the suits off of it's hanger and then picked a pair of the boots up. He clicked the door shut and left the room. He grabbed a bag from the kitchen and folded the suit up inside. He placed it on the kitchen counter, before morphing his own suit into a set of everyday clothes.
Making sure he had the bag, Jason left the house and headed back to the phone box. Getting in, he turned to the phone's keypad and typed in a seven digit code.
"Recognised, Superboy B Zero Three."
The automated voice sounded as he returned to Mt Justice. He ran at super speed back to the lab, where he found Alex, still pouring over the same device he had left him with. He placed the bag on the table and gave a small cough. Alex looked up from what he was doing.
"Ah, you got it. Fantastic. That will be of great use."
"He has plenty of them so he shouldn't miss this one after we are done with it."
"Fine, can you just put it over there, I will deal with it when I have put this back together," Alex said, pointing over to another bench.
"Where's Wally?" Jason asked.
"In a book wearing a red and white stripy jumper," replied Alex sarcastically.
"Oh I get you," Jason said with realisation after a moment. (Author's Note: To my American readers, Alex here is referring to Where's Waldo, whom we call Wally in the UK) "no but seriously, where is Wally?"
"I sent him out to put some devices around Times Square, which will allow us to put a shield up, stoping the surrounding area and people from being hurt."
"Remind me, why are we using Times Square and not somewhere in London?"
"Well Times Square is much more open and it will maximise the news coverage we get. There are several TV stations nearby there, so it makes sense. That and I am not risking damaging the beautiful old buildings in London."
"Ok, just wanted to clarify that. How are you doing?"
"Just about to add the final piece in and then we should be good to go," Alex said as he used a pair of tongs to insert the final chip into the newly built holographic projection unit that now sat on the bench again. He closed the machine up and then span it around to face into the rest of the lab. Alex then flicked a switch and a full size, realistic looking image of Superman appeared to be standing opposite the both of them.
"Now that is cool," Jason said in amazement. He walked over to the projection and all around it. "It's even in 3D! So if you can create a perfect hologram of dad, why are we still putting him into the "fight".
"Because this projector isn't going to be projecting your dad, it will be showing my "creation" that he will be fighting. I have designed a pretty spectacular unit, but it is too big and expensive to actually build. That and I also want to reduce any damage caused."
"So how have you adapted this from what it could do originally?"
"Before, the projections were 3D, but you could pass through them. What I have done is create a solid based hologram, meaning you can interact with it as though it really was the real deal. Try to shake his hand."
Jason reached his hand out to the image of Superman and Alex typed a few commands into a keyboard attached to the projector. The image raised it's hand and the two touched.
"Wow, that is weird," Jason said.
"That is perfect," Alex commented in glee.
"Do you really think that this will be enough to fool people, especially your dad?"
"Well you can see how real it looks when showing your dad."
At that moment, Wally burst through the door and threw the box that Alex had given him, now empty, on to a worktop.
"Wow, it is freezing out there. Someone really needs to invent an outdoor thermostat. The whole northern hemisphere must be an ice block. Oh hi Superman I didn't notice you there. Are you ok, you don't look quite right?"
"I think that confirms it," Alex said. "We will be ok with this."
"Agreed," replied Jason as he and A,ex tried to hide their laughter at Wally's dazed and confused look.
"Sorry, what is going on, why is your dad just standing there?" Wally asked, getting even more confused by the second.
"It isn't dad," Jason said. "This is a hologram that Alex had loaded onto the machine he was working on."
"Wow, that is brilliant." Wally jogged round the bench to take a closer look. "You have even got the textures of the clothes loaded."
"It needs to be as perfect as possible if it is going to fool anyone."
"Right, what else needs doing?" Jason asked.
"Well..." began Alex as he launched into a list of things to collect and get ready.