CHAPTER FIVE
SMALLVILLE, KANSAS. OUTSIDE THE LUTHOR MANSION. DUSK.
Tony Stark's Audi pulled up in front of the Luthor mansion. Tony, Peter, and Kara exited the vehicle.
"Any luck getting ahold of Batman?" Peter asked.
"Nope," Tony said, putting his cell phone back in his inside jacket pocket. "And seeing as I don't have a spotlight with his logo on it to shine at the clouds, I guess we'll have to wait for him to contact us."
They had stopped to get Kara some more suitable clothing so that she could ditch the white robes she'd been wrapped in inside her ship. She now sported a blue halter top, jeans, and a pair of tennis sneakers.
"So why exactly are we at this old mansion?" Peter asked.
"Because," Kara replied, holding aloft a small crystalline shield in the shape of the "S" crest. It was glowing faintly. "This was given to me by my father, Zor-El. It can sense the presence of other Kryptonians. It's leading me here. This must be where my cousin, Kal-El, is."
"I don't know," Tony said skeptically. "From what I was able to learn from digital back-issues of the Smallville Ledger, this estate was brought over from Scotland brick by brick in the late 1980s. No one has ever actually occupied it." Although he didn't say it out loud, he couldn't help but make the mental connection back to one of the first clips they had accessed on the JLA armband. It involved Lex Luthor, who was dead in this new timeline. Now here they were at the Luthor mansion, looking for Kal-El. How were all these places, people, and events connected?
"Where's your briefcase armor?" Peter asked Tony as the trio approached the front door of the mansion.
"Drying out," Tony replied. "Turns out it wasn't as waterproof as I thought. The rocket thrusters in the boots are pretty much kaput now. I'll have to work on that for the next iteration."
They reached the door. Tony looked around, shrugged, and gave three firm knocks.
No one answered.
"Let me try," Kara said.
With one blow from her fist, the heavy wooden door broke off its hinges and crashed to the ground.
"Oh, you're going to be a lot of fun," Tony remarked. He straightened his tie, then casually stepped over the door and into the mansion. Peter, a bit intimidated by Kara, gestured for her to go ahead of him. She smiled cutely and followed Tony inside. Peter adjusted his glasses, then cautiously brought up the rear of the group.
The mansion was dark and full of stale, musty air. There was dust on the picture frames and tabletops along the walls of the foyer. The floors creaked and groaned with each step that the group took. The whole place had a depressing feel of neglect.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" Tony asked.
"I'm positive," Kara said, looking down at the glowing sigil in her hand. "I'm detecting a strong Kryptonian presence here. It has to be Kal-El."
"What is the significance of that emblem, anyway?" Peter asked, nodding toward the crystalline shield.
"It's the mark of the House of El," Kara replied. "It's a variation on the Kryptonian symbol for Air. It has also come to mean Hope. It has many meanings to our people. But to me, it will always mean family."
"That's very touching. Is there any chance your Kryptonian Geiger counter has a more specific setting? This place seems to be deserted," Tony said, running his finger across some dust on a medieval suit of armor that was on display in the hallway.
Kara scowled at him. "Is everyone on this planet so rude?"
"I've been told I have a unique charm," Tony replied, testing the tip of the axe that the suit of armor was holding with his fingertip.
Peter wandered down the hallway and around the corner. He poked his head into what seemed to be an office with large bookcases, a mahogany desk, stained glass windows, a grand piano, a big glass coffee table, and a fireplace. What a shame that a place this luxurious was abandoned. He couldn't help but think of his own small, cramped studio apartment with dismay.
As he was about to return to the hallway, he thought he saw something move in a shadowy corner of the office. It was fast. So fast he was not sure he'd seen anything. Too fast to be human.
"H-Hello?" he called out, freezing in place. He stared at the spot where he thought he'd seen… whatever he had seen. "Is anyone there?"
Nothing. It must have just been his imagination. His eyes were playing tricks on him in the dark.
He stepped back out into the hallway. He started walking away from the office when he heard something that stopped him in his tracks.
"Heh heh."
A chuckle. Quiet, but unmistakable. From the office behind him that he had just left.
Peter stood absolutely still.
"Tony?" he called out. "Kara?"
There was a soft "whoosh" sound from inside the office, like a gust of wind. Peter was positive there had not been any open windows in there.
Tony and Kara came around the corner.
"Did you find something, Peter?" Kara asked.
Peter did not answer. He just pointed toward the office, his hand shaking slightly.
Tony and Kara exchanged concerned glances. They cautiously entered the office, Tony leading the way. He looked around and admired the elaborate room. Tony paused for a moment next to the grand piano, fondly remembering listening to his mother play a similar one in his youth. He gave a little half smile to himself. He noticed a wet bar on the other side of the office which promptly took over his attention.
"I suppose they had this shipped over from Scotland too," Tony remarked, admiring the bottles of Macallan and Glenmorangie at the bar. He picked up an empty glass.
"Surely you're not going to have a drink at a time like this?" Kara asked incredulously.
"Why not? No sense in letting it go to waste here," Tony shrugged. "Look, there's even a bucket of…" He trailed off.
There was a bucket of ice cubes on the counter. They were solid and had not yet begun to melt.
Tony immediately set the glass down and took a few steps back, looking wildly around the room.
"We are not alone here," Tony said quietly.
"Heh heh," came another chuckle, this time from up above. There was a balcony-like loft that ran above one wall of the office that they had not noticed at first. There was another gust of wind that sent papers and other small objects fluttering.
Tony, Kara, and Peter quickly stood back to back to back, surveying the room defensively.
"You'll have to excuse me… I haven't had any visitors in so long…" a dark, sinister voice croaked from somewhere in the darkness. The acoustics of the large room made it difficult to pinpoint exactly where it was coming from. "I must admit I've let the place go to seed."
"Who are you?" Tony shouted. "Show yourself!"
"Pardon my lack of hospitality." Another woosh of air and fluttering papers. Before them appeared a tall man with a scraggly beard and a long mane of brown hair. "My name is Lionel Luthor."
"How do you have super speed?" Kara asked. "Are you from Krypton?"
"Am I from Krypton!" Lionel repeated with a boisterous laugh. "No, my dear lady, I am not. Although, you could say I have some Kryptonian blood in me." He crossed to the wet bar and picked up the bottle of Macallan. "I saw you admiring it," he said to Stark. "Would you care for some?"
"Sure…" Tony said with some hesitation.
As Lionel picked up a glass, his hand began to shake quite rapidly.
"Oh dear," he said. He dropped the glass and it shattered on the floor. He set down the bottle of Macallan and held his wrist with his other hand, trying to steady it. "Forgive me. The, ah, 'jitters' are an unfortunate side-effect. They're the main reason I so rarely leave the house these days." He gritted his teeth, trying to calm himself and stop the violent tremor.
"What do you mean by 'side effect'?" Peter Parker asked.
Lionel closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Eventually his jitters subsided. "I had a liver disease," he said at length, opening his eyes again. "Incurable. Untreatable. I had to resort to… unconventional means. A blood transfusion from The Traveler saved my life. It also gave me powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men."
Peter gasped at the mention of "The Traveler." He had heard that phrase somewhere before, very recently. He tried to remember where.
"Unfortunately, it also left me with these jitters," he said, opening and closing his hand a few times. "Norman created a stabilizing agent for me. Ironically though, the stabilizing agent left me a bit… unstable." A smile crept across his lips, and his eyes narrowed like a snake about to strike.
"Norman…" Peter repeated. He looked around the office. A stained glass window caught his eye. It contained a stylized letter "V" within its patterns. "Veritas!" Peter exclaimed, suddenly remembering what Harry Osborn had said about his father's disappearance.
Lionel looked at Peter in surprise. "Now how did you know about that?" he asked.
"Did you kill Norman Osborn?" Peter asked accusingly.
"Of course I did," Lionel said, sounding amused. "He wanted to take The Traveler away from me. They all did. Norman. Robert and Laura. Edward and Genevieve. Even Virgil. But I wouldn't let them. I'm the one who found the boy, not them. He's mine."
"This Traveler," Kara said, looking positively furious. "I'm pretty sure you're talking about my cousin, Kal-El. Where is he? If you've hurt him…"
"Your cousin?" Lionel said, raising an eyebrow. "I didn't know there was another. Perhaps once I've drained every last ounce of his blood… I can indulge in some of yours."
With a burst of speed Kara charged at Lionel, grabbing him around the throat and hoisting him high into the air.
"You couldn't handle it," she said through clenched teeth.
She hurled Lionel across the room, sending him crashing into one of the bookshelves and knocking it loose from the wall. Before he'd even had a chance to pick himself back up, she bolted back over to him again, grabbed him by his collar and hoisted him back to his feet.
"I'm going to ask you one more time," Kara said. "Where is Kal-El?"
Lionel was laughing even harder now. "This! This is what I've missed!" he exclaimed. "Staying cooped up in this old mansion for so long. I've missed getting my hands dirty!" He backhanded Kara across the face so hard that she flew straight through the grand piano with a melodic crash.
Tony charged at Lionel. Lionel simply stuck out his arm, giving Tony a super-shove that sent him flying out the office door and back into the hallway. He landed somewhere out of sight with a heavy thud.
Peter dove under the mahogany desk.
Kara was back on her feet. Before she could do anything Lionel sped at her and wrapped his hands tightly around her throat, choking her.
"Your cousin is mine, little girl," he sneered. "He's nothing more than an experiment. A means to an end. His blood keeps me strong, keeps me vital. I won't give that up for the sake of your stupid, naïve sentimentality!"
Kara unleashed a blast of heat vision right in Lionel's face. He roared and unhanded her, throwing his hands over his face with pain and rage. He staggered backward, then began lashing about wildly with one fist, trying in vain to strike Kara. She delivered a roundhouse kick to Lionel's solar plexus, sending him crashing back into the wet bar. It toppled over, sending glasses shattering on the floor left and right.
Lionel savagely shoved the wrecked wet bar aside and leapt back to his feet. With fire in his eyes and a renewed rage he lunged at Kara. He grabbed her roughly by the wrist, then flung her up to the balcony overhead. She landed on her back, knocking over another bookshelf up in the loft. Lionel grabbed the mahogany desk and lobbed it at Kara, smashing her with it.
Lionel noticed Peter curled up in a ball on the floor, his hiding place exposed now that the desk had been removed.
"And as for you…" Lionel grabbed Peter by the back of his neck and lifted him up off the ground.
KLANK. KLANK. KLANK. A series of loud metallic thuds echoed from the hallway.
Tony Stark appeared in the office doorway, wearing the medieval suit of armor and brandishing the axe.
"Are you serious right now?" Peter asked.
"I had to improvise," Tony responded. He charged at Lionel, swinging the axe. It made contact with Lionel's chest and shattered into a million tiny shards of metal.
Lionel dropped Peter Parker.
"Do you have any idea how much that cost?" Lionel snarled.
"Bill me, bitch," Tony replied, throwing a haymaker at Lionel's jaw.
Lionel caught the fist in his hand. He punched Tony in the stomach, sending him reeling backwards.
Kara jumped down from the balcony. She hovered in midair, then blasted Lionel with another torrent of heat vision. This time he thew his arm up over his face, blocking the bombardment with his forearm.
"You can't hope to beat me!" he bellowed. He dropped his arm and released his own barrage of heat vision to counter Kara's. Their eyebeams met in a blinding blast of energy in the middle of the room. The light grew brighter and brighter as the beams intensified. Slowly but surely Lionel's heat vision seemed to be overtaking Kara's as the epicenter of the conflicting beams crept closer and closer to Kara's corneas.
There was a cacophony of breaking glass as a dark figure crashed in through one of the windows. The fluttering cape of Batman swept through the room as the Dark Knight pounced on Lionel, who broke off his onslaught of heat vision in surprise. Batman punched Lionel in the face, breaking his nose and sending a spray of blood down the elder man's face.
"What?!" Lionel exclaimed. "How did you-?!"
Batman punched Lionel again, and again, decking him in the face repeatedly in an absolutely brutal beatdown. Lionel's eyes rolled back in his head and he staggered wearily. He began to shake again, the jitters overtaking him. His legs gave out from under him. He toppled backwards, shattering the glass coffee table as he fell. He shook violently for another moment or two, then finally lay still.
"Is he…?" Kara asked, descending to the floor.
"He's alive," Batman growled. "Just unconscious."
"How did you manage to hurt him?" Peter asked in astonishment.
Batman opened his fist, revealing a glowing green rock that had been concealed in his palm.
Kara backed away, suddenly feeling woozy. "Wh.. what is that?" she asked.
"It's kryptonite," Tony Stark answered, clanking back to his feet. "An irradiated fragment of your home planet, Kara."
"But how did you know Lionel had infused himself with Kryptonian blood?" Peter asked.
"He didn't," Tony said grimly. "But he did know we were coming to Smallville to find Kara."
Peter whirled on Batman. "You…? Did you get kryptonite to use against Kara…?!"
"It was a safety precaution," Batman said, slipping the kryptonite into a pocket on his utility belt.
"A safety precaution that you only knew about from the files on the JLA armband," Tony said. "You've got some serious trust issues, man!"
"Enough bickering," Kara commanded, feeling better now that Batman had stowed the glowing green rock. She grabbed the bookcase that had come loose from the wall. She cast it aside, revealing a secret door behind it. "We have to find Kal-El." She ripped down the door like it was made of cardboard. Beyond the door was a stairway leading down.
. . . . . . .
A SECRET LAB BENEATH THE LUTHOR MANSION.
Kara descended the steep staircase into the depths of the underground lab, holding aloft the glowing crystal "S" sigil. Peter Parker followed close behind her. Batman swept along quietly a few paces behind Peter. Tony Stark, still wearing the clunky medieval armor, clanked along awkwardly at the rear of the quartet.
They reached the bottom of the stairs to find an elaborate lab filled with scientific equipment. Though it was high-tech, it was in a state of disarray. Beakers and test tubes were tipped over. Bottles of chemicals with no labels, rusty tools, and pages of notes were strewn about. A dry erase board with illegible calculations was shoved up against a wall.
There was an eerie red glow from one corner of the lab.
"Oh Rao," Kara gasped.
In the corner, shackled to the floor under a red floodlight, was a gaunt and emaciated young man with dark hair. His eyes were glassy and he appeared delirious.
Kara ran to the young man and knelt beside him, dropping the crystal crest on the floor.
"Kal-El… Kal-El, is that you?" She placed a hand gingerly on his shoulder. "Oh what have they done to you?" She was on the verge of tears at the sight of the state that he was in. Kara grabbed the chains that were keeping Kal-El tethered to the ground. She pulled on them in an attempt to break them, but they did not break. "Wh… why won't they break?"
"You're under a red sun lamp," Batman grunted. "It mimics the rays of the sun of your home world, neutralizing your powers."
"Boy, you really did do the reading," Tony remarked, catching up to the group.
Batman pulled a batarang out of his belt and lobbed it at the spotlight. The lens shattered. Kara threw herself over Kal-El, shielding him from the falling glass with her body. Then she grabbed the chains and ripped them apart like wet noodles. She helped Kal-El to his feet.
"Are you okay? Can you talk?" she asked, putting his arm around her own shoulders to help steady him.
"Armor," he mumbled weakly. "Need. Armor."
Everyone looked at Tony, who looked down at the medieval armor he was wearing. "Hey, I realize this looks stylish, but I have to tell you, it chafes like hell."
"No," Kal-El said. He pointed to the other side of the room, mustering up a herculean effort just to raise his arm and point a finger. "That. Armor."
Everyone turned. In the far corner of the lab was a suit of armor that looked very much like the Iron Man suit. Instead of red and gold, it was red and blue. On the chest was the "S" shield.
"Okay, someone is getting sued for copyright infringement," Tony said.
"Sun. Lamps. Inside," Kal-El said. He was getting winded just trying to talk.
"More sun lamps?" Kara asked, confused.
"You designed that armor for Superman in the future, Tony," Batman explained. "It's lined with yellow sun lamps that can restore his strength." Then, under his breath, he added, "I didn't just read up on everyone's weaknesses."
Kal-El gave a slight nod, acknowledging that Batman had understood what he meant about the sun lamps in the armor. Then he closed his eyes and slumped forward.
"Quickly," Kara said, her arm around her cousin's waist as she steered him toward the armor. Peter hustled to their side and put Kal-El's other arm over his own shoulders, helping Kara walk Kal-El over to the suit.
Tony found a switch concealed on the side of the red and blue armor that prompted it to open up; servos cranked and whirred as the arms, legs, helmet, and chest cavity of the armor swung open to receive an occupant.
Kara and Peter delicately helped Kal-El into the suit of armor. Tony flipped the switch again and the arms, legs, chest, and helmet all slowly swung shut, concealing the young man inside as if entombing him in a sarcophagus.
"Yellow sun lamps, disabled," came a computerized voice from within the armor.
They all looked at each other.
Tony messed with some configurations on the armor.
"Yellow sun lamps, disabled," the voice said again. "Authorization required: Lionel Luthor."
"Oh my God," Tony muttered. "The bastard modified it so that only he can turn on the yellow sun lamps."
Without another word, Kara whooshed out of the room and back up the stairs. Before anyone could even react she zoomed back into the room, shoving Lionel roughly to his knees in front of the suit of red and blue armor. Lionel blinked in amazement, having apparently only just regained consciousness.
"Enable the yellow sun lamps!" Kara commanded. "Now!"
"No," Lionel said through gritted teeth.
"I said enable them!" she barked.
"No!" Lionel repeated. He spat blood on the floor.
"If he dies, I will kill you," Kara snarled.
"If you take The Traveler from me, I'll die anyway," Lionel said defiantly.
"His name," Kara said, absolutely enraged. "Is Kal-El!"
"Kara," Peter said, hesitantly.
"What?" she snapped, whirling on him. She softened a bit. She had not meant to yell at Peter. "What is it, Peter?" she asked, a bit quieter but still seething.
Peter Parker pointed at the crystal shield that Kara had left on the floor. "Your crystal. It… it stopped glowing."
Kara saw with horror that Peter was correct. The soft glow that the crystal had been emitting had ceased.
"No…" she whispered.
She did not wait for Tony Stark to re-open the red and blue armor. Kara sped over to it and ripped it open like a tin can. Then, in a sharp contrast to her act of strength, she removed Kal-El's body very gently and tenderly.
Kara cradled Kal-El's lifeless form, draping the slender young man across her arms. She pulled him close to her. She shook her head in disbelief as the horrifying reality sunk in. They had arrived just in time to be too late to save him.
"My cousin. I traveled the cosmos to protect you," she said, her lower lip trembling. A single tear streamed down her cheek. "I'm so sorry I failed."
She fell to her knees still holding him as she began to sob uncontrollably.
Peter, Tony, and Batman were all speechless. They exchanged glances with each other, none of them sure what to do. Then they all slowly turned their attention to Lionel. He was still sneering, his beard soaked with blood from his broken nose.
"Go ahead, kill me," Lionel scoffed. "If you don't, my own body will do it anyway. Without The Traveler's blood, my liver disease will start to—"
"Stop. Calling. Him. The. Traveler." Kara was livid. Her eyes glowed red with the embers of her heat vision just barely being contained by her irises. She gently set Kal-El's lifeless body down on the floor, then she rose to her feet. "His name was Kal-El. He was the last son of Krypton. He was my cousin. I was sent here to protect him. And you… you murdered him."
Tony Stark stepped in between Kara and Lionel.
"Kara. I want you to think about what you're doing here. I know this guy is a monster, but killing him is not going to—"
Kara shoved Tony so hard that he flew across the laboratory, crashing and clanking across the floor as pieces of the medieval armor broke off.
"I'm not going to kill him," Kara said. She scooped the crystal "S" sigil up off of the floor. "Death would be an act of mercy."
Batman, unsure of what was about to happen, placed one hand on his utility belt, ready to open the pouch that contained the kryptonite.
"Take that rock out again and it's going straight down your throat," Kara snapped at him.
She marched over to Lionel who looked up at her with a weary, tired disdain in his eyes.
"Lionel Luthor," Kara said, fighting back both tears and rage. "You have given yourself Kryptonian blood. You have taken a Kryptonian life. Therefore I sentence you to a Kryptonian punishment. You'll live out the rest of your miserable existence as a prisoner of the Phantom Zone."
She held the crystal towards Lionel and a beam of light shot out of it. Two spinning, swirling rings appeared around Lionel Luthor, containing him as if in a cage. He looked back and forth at the rings, confused. This lasted for only a few moments however, as the rings were quickly replaced with what appeared to be a two-dimensional pane of glass, suspended in midair. Lionel was somehow inside of the glass, his face pressed up against it as if he was being shoved up against a window. His eyes were full of confusion and fear. His terrified expression gave Kara a grim sense of mild satisfaction.
The two -dimensional pane hung in the air for a few moments, spun around several times, and then vanished.
Lionel Luthor was gone.