The battle was over. Hank Henshaw's body laid on the floor near the back of the ship Kal and Lois had used to get back to Earth from the Watchtower, which was now in orbit. The Justice League had returned and Kal was back. Everything seemed like it would be going back to normal. Like back before Kal had died, before Doomsday had arrived, before Lex created a clone. Wait.

Lois glanced around, quickly finding Lex Luthor in the debris. She didn't see the boy.

Luthor looked particularly unbothered, she might add.

Now that she thought about it, she didn't see the boy anywhere during the fight. The kid was usually dragged into these things by Luthor, so where is he?

The kid had a good heart from what she had seen, but to not show up to something like this was odd.

"Steel." He turned towards her voice, making his way over to where Lois and Superman stood.

"Lois, is something wrong?" He asked.

"Have you seen Superboy?" she said, keeping her tone level. Maybe he didn't know about the fight or was busy doing other things. There was no reason to get worried…. yet.

"Superboy?!" Kal's hearing decided to tune into the conversation. He stared at her, shocked.

"He's a clone of you. I'll explain later." She turned back to Steel.

"No. I'm afraid I haven't," he replied, shaking his head lightly.

"When was the last time you saw him?"

"About two weeks ago when the kid got his ass kicked against Eradicator," he said, a little confused about the sudden interest.

"Is something wrong?" He asked again. She sighed not knowing how to answer that question.

"I hope not, but don't you find it curious that he isn't here?"

"It is strange. Considering he's a marketing ploy by Luthor and this would've given them publicity,"

"A marketing ploy?" Superman asked, confused and a little angry. A clone of his was working with his enemy. What confused him is why the clone- Superboy would do that? Him being treated as a way to make money angered him.

"The publicity is all Luthor, but he's a good kid, a little rough around the edges. He would've come to help so that leaves the question, why didn't he?" Lois responded, ignoring her love. That seemed to be the question of the day.

"What is your gut telling you?"

"My gut is telling me that something isn't right. The reporter in me is saying there is a story. Both of those together, well, you know too well what that means," she said. "Luthor is most likely involved."

The three of them watched as Luthor jumped into his car, speeding away into the night.

"We can't jump to any conclusions without evidence to back them up," Steel said.

"What can we do?"

"Find evidence," Lois replied with a grin. Superman nodded recognizing that look. He raised an eyebrow at her, asking a silent question.

"There is a lab in the basement below LexCorp. That's where Superboy was born. Maybe he's down there," Lois said.

"It's worth a shot," Steel said, shrugging his shoulders.

"This isn't a league matter, yet. If we find something then I'll alert the League. In case you're right, they can help keep an eye out for him."

"We need to find him regardless. He doesn't need to stay with Luthor."

"I'm always right, Supey, but I sincerely hope that I'm not. For his sake at least," she whispered the last part under her breath to herself.

…

"Do you see him?" Steel asked. Superman shook his head, staring at LexCorp.

"The walls are lined with lead. No heat signature either. There's no one in the building except him." Everyone was at home asleep in their beds at what was about two in the morning as the trio scoped out the building from a nearby roof.

"There's a service entrance on the north side of the building. Once you get inside, there will be a panel to your left, open it and it will lead you to an elevator that goes directly to the lab."

"How do you know that?"

"Professor Donovan showed me the way," Lois said.

"Dabney Donovan?!"

"Yea…" Lois paused. "Dabney helped create Superboy. He even seemed kind of fond of the kid, he might know something."

Superman nodded.

Lois pulled Superman off to the side and whispered.

"Kal. If he isn't…."

"Lois," Superman said, pulling her into his chest, holding her close, giving her what confort he could. "We'll find him."

She waved at them as Superman and Steel took off into the sky towards Lex Corp.

Breaking into LexCorp was surprisingly easy. Lois' directions allowed them to reach the elevator with no trouble.

"Shouldn't there be some sort of security?" Steel asked. Superman nodded.

They stepped into the elevator, pressed the basement button and began to descend.

"Let's make this quick."

Splitting up, they each took a different section of the room. Steel moved towards the mechanical equipment and what seemed to be pods, and Superman went over to the computers and the cluttered workspace.

Using his super speed, he searched through the stacks and stacks of papers. He didn't understand a word that was written on them partially because whoever had written them had chicken scratch for handwriting. It made reading them very difficult.

He dropped the stack back onto the table finding nothing of interest.

"Superman. I found something," Steel said, "Over here."

Superman followed Steel's voice, walking over to where he kneeled by the stairs. Steel raised his head slightly in his direction.

"Look familiar?" Steel said, holding up part of the broken syringe. Superman went to shake his head, but swung his head back so fast he swore he heard it crack. A weight settled in his stomach making him feel weak and nauseated.

The needle's tip was glowing a faint green.

"Kryptonite." Steel nodded, placing the rest of the shards and placing them in a plastic bag.

As alarming as the Kryptonite was, it was how little of it there was that worried the kryptonian.

His eyes narrowed on the small drops of red contrasting to the eerie green pool on the floor. His gaze followed the dots, watching as they grew larger and larger until they streaked off.

"Steel. There's a blood trail," Superman followed the trail into the shadows. Steel stood walking alongside the streaks.

"Ugh. What is that smell?" Steel said, waving the smell away.

The duo had to take a step back away from the gruesome scene.

"Now we know what happened to him."

At the end of the trail was Dabney. His glasses askew, thrown from their place in front of unseeing eyes. One of his arms casted in a sling that was torn to shreds like the rest of Dr. Dabney Donovan. An expression of terror permanently stuck on his face.

Something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Kal crouched down to pick it up and had to catch himself. In his hand was a picture of Dabney and his clone.

He stared at the younger face in the photo as if he was trying to memorize his own features. The kid looked like him, that for sure. It was like he was staring at a picture of himself except he wasn't. There was something off about the kid. That's when he saw it.

His eyes. The kid's eyes were a cool shade of gray contrasting to Kal's own unnatural shade of blue.

The smile in his eyes with a little mischievous glint, full of wonder and curiosity. The sun shining on his tan face as he stared into the lens of the camera. An arm wrapped around his shoulder, pulling him into the picture.

Dabney gently held the boy in an loving embrace of sorts as they stood on what looked like a beach.

He really did care about the kid.

Steel stood, moving from where he was examining the body over to the monitors.

"I'll try hacking into the mainframe, with any luck we'll get a lead," Worry slipped into his voice as he spoke. Steel may not have liked the kid that much but It didn't mean the kid didn't concern him at times. On multiple occasions, Steel has intervened in a fight so the kid wouldn't get hurt. But the kid was stubborn, that's for sure like someone else he knew.

"That's strange," Steel said.

"What is?" Superman said, confused.

"Why would Luthor have a file on a storage facility for an emergency services organization based in Hawaii?"

"Luthor likes to keep up his image by donating to charities and funding business or non profits." Superman shrugged. It was a normal thing for Luthor to do to hide his criminal activities.

"Yea, but the building is on the far side of the island, miles away from the towns." Steel said, reading through the file, "Well, what do you know. The facility was built a couple of years ago and guess who funded the build and now owns the building."

"Luthor." Superman said, the growl in his voice almost escaping his mouth.

"Copy this and everything you can. We're leaving this place." Steel nodded, plugging in a hard drive from his suit and began downloading.

1%

Steel sighed. This is gonna take a while.

…

24%

Steel cursed, the download had been frozen for the past couple minutes.

A loud crash echoed through the room. The hairs stood on the back of their necks as they tensed.

"What was that? Do you see anything?" Steel asked

"No. But I'm willing to bet that's what killed Donovan," Superman said, keeping an eye and his ears on the shadows. Whatever it is could hide from his infrared vision…. Or was fast enough to avoid it.

"How much longer?" Superman asked.

"Too long. It's only at 39%," Steel said, typing on the keyboard. Nothing he did was making it move any faster.

Another crash from the other side of the lab. The sound of ghastly breathing. Claws against metal. Then silence.

Neither made a sound, listening for the creature. Superman turned towards Steel and shouted.

"Steel, Watch Out!"

…

Come on. Come on pick up. Lois begged silently as she dialed his number.

"Sean. Get out of there," Lois said, urgently.

Luthor had left his office in a hurry. His stride was sure and quick, wherever he was going he wasn't too happy about it.

The line finally connected.

"We're out. Waiting at the meet point," he replied, managing to keep his breathing under control.

She sighed in relief, climbing down the fire escape.

"What's our next move?" Steel asked, flying next to Superman. His polished finish was a little scuffed up.

Superman shook his head. They had barely made it out of there, away from the creature. They blocked all of the exits on their way out, preventing the creature from escaping. Whatever it was, it was Luthor's problem. That may be why there wasn't any security to protect them.

He tossed that thought out of his head. No, that wasn't Lex's style. He'd rather others risk their lives if it means to preserve his reputation.

"I'll check out the warehouse. Stay here. Luthor knows we know something. Now would be the time for him to try and move the kid."

"Someone should be here when he does. It will take too long for me to get there in time."

"You shouldn't go alone. Luthor…"

"We don't have time to argue about this. He doesn't have time." That shut Steel up and he nodded.

"Okay."

Superman hovered on the roof before flying away.

Lois paused out on the street, watching Superman fly away into the night.

"Go get 'em."

…

Twenty minutes later.

Superman hovered above the facility. Steel wasn't kidding about the building being out in the middle of nowhere.

He scanned the building using his x-ray vision only for the walls to obscure his vision. Lead.

It was both a good and bad sign.

He flew down, breaking the outside door off its hinges with little effort. The warehouse was filled to the brim with food and supplies.

Guess Luthor was serious about it. The outside walls were lined with lead but the inside ones weren't. It didn't take long to find a set of stairs that lead into the basement.

He was halfway down the stairs when he heard it, an ear piercing cry.

He could feel the flames heat his eyes, a growl echoed in the narrow space. Before he knew what was happening he was hovering in front of a large, heavy steel bolted-shut door.