It was a new working week after Clark’s battle against the mechanical monstrosity, and he was once again making his usual commute by train deeper into the city on his way to work. Although, this time, it was a little different, because the person sat next to him was Lois Lane. Despite her initial refusal to socialise with him that much, after a day where there was no other seating options, it had just become a regular occurrence, and Clark had found they often had a surprising amount to talk about.
“So you really didn’t see the police statement?” Lois asked incredulously. Clark shook his head. “What police statement, and what’s so important about it?” Lois shook her head slowly in disappointment. “Jeez country-boy, you need to get more in the loop. The police finally released an official statement on that giant robot that fought Superman, after they and Lexcorp cleaned it up. Lexcorp probably kept all the tech stuff to themselves, but they couldn’t stop the police from saying the guy inside was John Corben.”
Clark already knew this, but from what Lois knew, he shouldn’t have any idea who that was, so despite an initial flash of recognition on his face, he simply blinked, keeping a calm expression on his face.
“Should that name ring a bell to me?”
Lois chuckled. “Not to you, but to basically every else at the Planet... see, long story short, he used to work here. Got fired around the same time you got here, in fact.”
Clark awkwardly cast his gaze away from her and out the window. He already knew that Corben had once filled the spot he was most likely replacing, and he couldn’t help but feel a little bit guilty. Like, just by being here and talking about this, he was intruding on a private conversation he shouldn’t be listening to, as well as lying to Lois. Although... wasn’t he doing that to everyone? Before he had time to keep talking, Lois had moved on in her usual uncaring manner, completely ignoring his expression.
“So, I did some digging into anything else I could find about him, and get this: the police say they’d found him just after he got fired, probably some robbery gone wrong, major injury to his arm. No idea how he ended up like that, or what happened. They couldn’t find any sort of witness or victim to come forward, so despite what he was wearing, where they found him, and the gun nearby, they couldn’t actually prove anything.”
Clark looked back to her, once again blinking in confusion, trying not to let the disappointment show on his face. He wasn’t exactly too familiar with the law itself, and it seemed like even though he had saved the woman, he’d just made a bigger mess on the legal end of things. Thoughts that maybe he wasn’t cut out for this, and that it just wasn’t his scene began to seep further into his mind.
“So, how in the hell did he upgrade from petty crime and major injury to an arm to a giant mech at your interview?”
Lois let out a little grin at the reminder that the whole thing had gone down at her interview: Even though she had all rights to be mad at the misfortunate catastrophe ruining it, she seemed to be much more interested by this turn of events. Good for her, Clark thought.
“Well, I don’t know that for sure. It’s just bizarre. But think about it... maybe with all that lack of evidence, it was Superman who did that to him, and he came back for revenge!” She seemed almost giddily excited as she proposed her story, like a child living out a fairytale, a small break in her usual cold exterior. Despite the topic of discussion, Clark couldn’t help but grin. Maybe... for now, he should stop worrying about and thinking like Superman, and just be Clark Kent.
Meanwhile, Lex Luthor sat at his desk in his office at the Lexcorp building, silently staring at his empty computer screen, boredom and impatience in his eyes. That was broken by the buzzing sound from his phone, buried underneath a pile of papers on his desktop, which he quickly rustled through, taking the ringing phone in his hand and holding it up to his ear as he answered, speaking before the person on the other end of the call had any time to do so.
“The prototype was not a success, as you must have noticed.”
The man’s voice on the other end answered.
“Of course, Mr Luthor. However, they say failure is a great teacher. Thanks to the recordings we managed to get of the combat, and recovering the remnants from the police of the suit, the right areas of improvement have been noted.”
Lex’s lips curled into a smug grin as he answered, the most prolific of the few expressions you would see on the CEO of Lexcorp’s face.
“Excellent work Dr. Vale, as always.
I’m sure you’ll be very busy again soon enough, so I’ll just leave you to your work.”
After those words, Lex ended the call. However, those words were not completely legitimate. He also had a different matter to attend to. Aside from Dr Vale’s lab, with funds procured from his ‘allies’ at ARGUS he had ordered the construction of a second off the books facility in the city, one that would quickly have his newest, most important project transferred to it. It was time to check up on that. He went to the contacts, now calling a different number.
“Mr Luthor.” A female voice stated in affirmation on the other side, and almost a trace of surprise.
“Has the location been found for the facility?”
The female voice went silent for a bit, before reading out the results, clearly not off the top of her head, noticeable from the monotonous tone of her voice.
“Yes, we found a cheap one by the docks, perfect positioning, recently up for sale. Was a workshop previously owned by...”
She stopped, Lex hearing the unmistakable sound of ruffling paper from the other side before she continued.
“Schott & Sons, Authentic Handmade Craft Toys. Yes, that’s the whole name.”
Lex smiled once again, an altogether unfamiliar sight to any human being who could have possibly been watching.
“Then say I’ve given the go ahead. Transfer of equipment should begin immediately. ... Strange, that name you mentioned gives me a sense of deja vu.”
“Understood, Mr Luthor.”
The woman went quiet for a bit, as if not sure whether continuing on with what she wanted to say would get her scolded for keeping him longer than necessary, but she did anyway.
“And in regards to that, i think the store was going for a while here. Only one of its kind. Thing completely went out of business not too long ago. Frankly, I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did. I mean, whose kids even play with toys anymore?”
The aging Winslow Schott stood on the path, the opposite side of it to the now empty warehouse that he had once dedicated so much time to sprucing up. Despite the colour having left the walls, just looking at the familiar shape reminded him of those days: Him and Maureen joyfully fixing the place up, as their two boys would run around playing beneath them, occasionally having to warn the twins to stay clear of the stepladders. Those were the days... now he had just finished calling one of those same twins, pleading them not to leave, but they did anyway. ‘It’s just not feasible, pops. Kids have the internet, phones and games, they don’t need to play with Toys anymore. The family store is just a relic of days gone by now. Let it go.’ Those words echoed through his head, bouncing around his senile mind. Having been forced to sell both the store and their workshop after Maureen’s passing, Winslow had wanted to keep the spirit alive somehow, but it seemed his sons had other ideas. They were moving on without him. It was true, they hadn’t sold much of... anything at all lately. B-but how was that... his fault? His mind was that of a genius carpenter and mechanic, and in that very same workshop he had been working on his life-size animatronic toys, which he was sure would be a hit... children were all about technology these days, apparently. Ungrateful little sods. But no, the twins hadn’t even let them see the light of day, dismissing all his hard work with some excuse about them being “too scary”. Children these days... so absorbed into their phones that any sort of real thing like that would scare them. T-that must have been it... there was nothing else that made sense in Winslow Schott’s mind. The twins would never understand, now Margaret, if SHE was here she would understand, she would tell them- Margaret... was it Margaret? M-Maureen, it was Maureen... Winslow had been forgetting things a lot lately. If he couldn’t see things he recognised, spend a lot of time around them, they began to fade from him... he could scarcely remember the twins little faces when they were children, unless he was standing in that same workshop. And now, he watched as the removal men marched past into what had once been that workshop, gloved hands carrying crates and boxes full of sensitive equipment. H-he couldn’t let them take the workshop from him too... who even was “them”? Winslow couldn’t understand... ANYTHING anymore!
The old man kept the turmoil in his brain, tipping his hat to one of the men as he made his way past him, methodically pronouncing his words as he spoke as best he could in the shivering cold and rain.
“E-excuse me my lad, but what’s... being moved in here?”
The gruff, bearded, hi-viz jacket wearing man turned to him, grunting out a response in a low voice.
“Can’t tell you that, I’m afraid.”
Winslow narrowed his eyes in confusion, the wind whipping at the striped scarf around his neck.
“W-why? Who bought it?”
The man looked back over his shoulder, as if checking nobody was too close to listen, before looking back to Winslow and grunting out his words again.
“Lexcorp. Apparently it’s orders from Luthor himself. No idea what he wants with a place like this, but none of the boys are gonna ask, and I’m sure as hell not sticking my neck out to do it. They’ve been up to some shady stuff recently, anyone who’s anybody knows that.”
With those words, the man let out a heaving sound as he lifted the box up higher in his arms, turning around and moving back off to the vans. Winslow simply stood in silence, not moving, before turning away as the dots tried and failed to connect as best they could in his brain, reaching the only conclusion he could make.
“The city... the twins... children... entire world’s turned against me these days. Things were better back then...”
It was those words that filled Winslow Schott’s mind as he left towards the train station on his way home, that being the only home left for him. He didn’t know what he was going to do, or how he was going to do it...
But what anyone could tell, was that sooner or later, something was going to snap.
-1 Week Later-
Lois entered the grand hall, letting out another groan of annoyance as she nearly tripped over her purple dress again. She wasn’t used to wearing stuff like this, and she had always found very long dresses just obnoxious and restricting to her movement. Ah well. It was the annual Metropolis City Hall Charity Gala, and now would be a better time than ever to drill some answers out of You-know-who. By now, she had personally dealt with Lex Luthor enough to be able to just approach him here, and in a public setting it would be much harder for him to weasel his way out of the conversation. And, best of all, she’d managed to get Perry to agree specifically NOT to assign Kent. It’s not that she didn’t like the newbie or anything, far from it, but through all the time they’d (begrudgingly, on her part) spent together, Lois had quickly figured out that Clark Kent was going to be getting in her way a lot from now on. A little competition was nice from time to time, and maybe what she had needed previously, but with all the stuff going on with Superman right now? Well, she didn’t want to have to waste time trying to one-up Kent while also searching for the truth at the same time. As she waded through the crowd, finally catching sight of what she thought was the figure of the Lexcorp CEO through the veil of attendees, she approached, preparing exactly thirty-one different comebacks for if he attempted to dodge her questions- That was when she almost stopped in her tracks as the person standing opposite Lex at the drinks table, chatting with him, came into view. Clark Kent. And she had to admit, he was actually almost pulling off the suit- Off topic. What was Kent doing here? She was going to need a serious word with Perry after this, because she was crystal clear about the fact that he WASN’T meant to be here. Either way, she was going to have to roll with it. Approaching the two, the expression on Luthor’s face showing his obvious disdain at the situation, Lex was quick to notice her, raising a hand upward in greeting, before beckoning her over.
“Ah, Miss Lane, what a pleasant surprise to see you! I was just chatting with this- colleague? Of yours. Mr Kent.” Her skeptical eyes quickly saw through Luthor’s amiable smile. He should have easily expected her to show up, so if he was bothering enough to lie, it had to be for some kind of reason. She could also tell he was definitely not as interested in this conversation as he was acting, and for that, she couldn’t blame the guy.
“Yeah, well I hope he didn’t run you out of breath, because I have a few questions for you, while we’re here.”
Lex chuckled in response, attempting to brush it off.
“Ah, inquisitive as always. You really should relax sometimes. But don’t worry, I’ve got lungs of iron, I assure you. From my mother’s side.”
Lois was almost surprised by how willing he seemed to get away from talking to Kent. It was only then that it clicked in her mind- That country-boy had most likely been asking some questions Lex didn’t want to answer. Now that she understood, she moved closer, Clark slowly backing up as she gave him a small side-glance and a raised palm, which said exactly what she meant- ‘Tag out. I’ve got this.’
Clark Kent slumped down into his favourite comfy chair, slipping off his jacket as he let out a sigh. He had only just got back from the Gala, and had apparently accomplished nothing. Getting himself in there was hard enough, but his questions hadn’t even seemed to truly put Lex Luthor on edge- he seemed to only think of him as a minor annoyance, even after the surprising amount of pressure he had put on him in their first interview. And then, Lois had pretty much swooped in and taken over his place, doubtlessly to better effect. Lois, another person who just really didn’t take him seriously. He had never thought of himself as a person who cared too much about his own self-worth and image, so why was this happening now? Maybe it was just a consequence of moving here from the country, a compound upon that feeling which still filled him, even as ‘Metropolis’ Hero’: The feeling that he was out of place, that he just didn’t belong. Either way, he figured that he now had two options- A: Go to bed early and hope he felt better on a new day, or B: Stay up late entertaining himself and hope he’d find some way out of his melancholy. Neither seemed exactly promising. After a while of pondering on it, he heard a knock at the door. That was something rather uncommon, so he managed to find the energy to rouse himself from the chair and open the door sooner rather than later. That was when he saw Lois, now standing in her usual business dress, a disappointed expression on her face as she snarked.
“Took you long enough.”
Clark stared at her, reaching a finger underneath his glasses to rub at his eyes, to check he was seeing correctly, struggling to form actual words.
“... You got changed FAST.”
Lois ignored him, stepping inside the apartment and looking around judgmentally.
“You really live like this? Jeez, this place is a pigsty.”
She was about to speak further, but stopped before she made any countryside jokes that could cross a line. She was an uninvited guest, after all. Clark turned around, looking at her in confusion, his head a mess of worries, the main one being that she would somehow find his Superman suit.
“Why are you here? Aren’t you supposed to be at the Gala- and wait, how did you find my apartment?”
Lois turned back around to him, completely ignoring his last question as she held out a palm, producing a USB, and what seemed to be some extremely small microphone-like device.
“Well, I could ask you why YOU were there, since you weren’t assigned to the Gala- But I won’t ask too many dumb questions we already know the answer to if you don’t. Me and you both know Luthor is suspicious as all hell right now, and although I’m beginning to get annoyed of you getting in the way of me and all the latest scoops, at least it means you’re good at what you do.”
Clark’s breath almost stopped, his mind nearly filtering out the rest of what Lois had said as it zoned in on the fact she had actually complimented him directly for once. She had said stuff like ‘Not bad’ about his work before, but never anything directly to his own skills. Before he had time to say what this meant to him at the time, the journalist continued speaking anyway.
“Luthor invited me to see inside Lexcorp’s new research lab. Apparently they’re working on ‘exciting new projects’. First up, he definitely planned that request ahead of time. Second, this ‘new Lab’ seems to be just as shady as it sounds. I’ve done some quick fact checking and no kind of publicity for such a thing. He’s sending someone to pick me up and take me there, and I don’t think he wants any recording equipment inside.”
She pointed a finger down to the equipment that lay in her other palm.
“That’s what these babies are for. A hidden recording device I’ll be wearing. All I need is someone else to install the program it operates with, and monitor it all from the other end.”
Clark stared down at the devices as she spoke, before looking up to her, his expression still cast in confusion, before a small grin broke out on his face.
“So… what you’re saying is, you want my help?”
Lois shrugged.
“To possibly expose a shady businessman, no biggie.”
Clark’s eyes trailed back down to the device, having already made up his mind.
“What do I need to do?”
Later that night, Clark now once again sat in that same favourite chair, now with a renewed vigour and purpose. In the darkness of his room, the bright light of the laptop screen that was before him was the only light in the room, his eyes glued to the screen and the program (which he admittedly, did not understand at all even after Lois explaining it three times, so he made sure to keep his fingers far away from the keyboard, to avoid any accidents). He had even taken the liberty of hanging his Superman suit over the open bathroom door, which he couldn’t really see in the dark, but it was there in spirit. As cheesy as it sounded, this was like some sort of special mission to him, and he just wanted the atmosphere of having it nearby.
Meanwhile, Lex walked Lois through the similarly dark hallways of the newly repurposed Lexcorp Laboratory in the Docks. Each time the reporter would turn her head, it was as if she was peeking through an entirely new glass window, to watch entirely new heavily equipped scientists test entirely new devices and chemicals that she couldn’t understand, nor hope to understand. She was barely even paying attention to the words of the bald-headed CEO leading her, although at least all that incoherent rambling of his wouldn’t go completely wasted. She was sure Kent would get a kick out of having to listen to it all from the other end. Or just get really irritated, either worked for her.
“Now, usually they say to leave the best to last, but I’m not exactly a man renowned for his patience. So, we’ll be moving right onto the main exhibit- the reason I brought you here, my vision I thought only someone such as yourself was worthy to see.” As he spoke, he finally came to a stop at the end of the hallway, pressing his hand to a scanner next to the heavily armoured door. It opened, the metallic plates sliding both up and down at the same time, retreating into the doorframe itself as he simply stepped through the now open frame, Lois following inattentively, still distracted. Lex strode into the center of the even darker room, and turned to face the wall of glass to their east, emanating a sickly green glow that illuminated the room, proudly holding his hands together behind his back, as Lois’ eyes finally drifted upward to the containment tank built into the wall, her eyes widening in a mixture of complete shock, fear and almost a tiny bit of amazement, her attention now completely grasped by what Lexcorp had created.
“W-what the-”
Lex span around to face her, a prideful smirk on his face as he began to explain.
“With our talents here at Lexcorp, even creating life is old news to us. However, when we just so happened to stumble upon the DNA of a certain extraterrestrial visitor, well- We couldn’t help but decide to give cloning a second chance. Say hello- to what will soon be… the world's first Man-Made Kryptonian.”
He spread his arms wide, as if awaiting her to marvel more at his work.
Lois simply stared up to the muscular form that floated in the bubbling vat of green liquid. It seemed to lack any sort of features, despite its humanoid appearance, the only truly noticeable thing about it being the glowing green orbs that rested in its face, which she had to assume would soon be eyes.
“K-Kryptonian?”
Lex’s arms fell back down to his side, where they rested as he began to explain, which was quite possibly his most favourite hobby.
“Yes, although you may be unfamiliar with the term, this creature will eventually grow to be like Superman himself, or the unforgettable Metropolis Invader. Imagine, an army… of Supermen! A private one, of course. But ponder, if you will, how much money could be saved, how many lives could be saved, if these were to grow, and learn to properly function. One alone could potentially do the job of a whole Fire department, a whole Police department, a whole Regiment of Soldiers!” As he ranted, his tone rose in energy as he clearly become more and more excited at the prospect.
Back at his apartment, Clark had had to put his coffee down. Although unable to see what was happening on the other end, he had almost done a complete spit-take on hearing the word “Kryptonian” and had been listening even more intently than before- not intending to miss another word. Was this Luthor’s true goal? Did this evidence confirm that he was behind the robot attack? How did he know so much about Superman- about Zod- D-did he possibly even… already know that- No, no. He shook his head, not noticing the small amount of sweat that had formed on his shaky hands. If he knew who Superman was, he would have taken him more seriously at the Gala.
Lois nearly shook, tensing her posture as she spoke, her voice beginning to tremble.
“B-but that’s- Haven’t you thought about the ethics of this? Restrictions are needed, have you ran this by the government even? E-even worse, they’re too dangerous! What if more than one of these went rogue, we can’t have multiple Metropolis incidents at once-”
It was then that Lex grinned, as if he had expected this, raising a finger, before beginning to stride over to the other side of the room.
“Shhhhhhh. I have considered all those things, and while most of it is… private information, I can at least put those most pressing fears to rest.” As he approached, the black, metallic like gate on the opposite wall to the clone rolled upwards, revealing another glass chamber built into the wall, Lex once again stopping and turning to face Lois as he narrated.
“We tested multiple different substances, chemicals and elements on Kryptonian DNA, to see how much it differed from human genes- part of the testing phase, to make sure what we used in the cloning process wouldn’t cause any accidents. And we discovered something… about a particularly rare, lesser known, and up until now near useless material- a special Alloy.”
Lois turned, her eyes following Lex as she took in the sight of the strange green, glinting, almost glowing crystalline substance that stood upon a pedestal inside the chamber.
“I could describe its varied element make-up all day-”
Lex spoke as he pressed a hand to his chin, a large, cocky smirk across his face-
“But to simplify… We have taken to calling it Kryptonite.”
“So you really didn’t see the police statement?” Lois asked incredulously. Clark shook his head. “What police statement, and what’s so important about it?” Lois shook her head slowly in disappointment. “Jeez country-boy, you need to get more in the loop. The police finally released an official statement on that giant robot that fought Superman, after they and Lexcorp cleaned it up. Lexcorp probably kept all the tech stuff to themselves, but they couldn’t stop the police from saying the guy inside was John Corben.”
Clark already knew this, but from what Lois knew, he shouldn’t have any idea who that was, so despite an initial flash of recognition on his face, he simply blinked, keeping a calm expression on his face.
“Should that name ring a bell to me?”
Lois chuckled. “Not to you, but to basically every else at the Planet... see, long story short, he used to work here. Got fired around the same time you got here, in fact.”
Clark awkwardly cast his gaze away from her and out the window. He already knew that Corben had once filled the spot he was most likely replacing, and he couldn’t help but feel a little bit guilty. Like, just by being here and talking about this, he was intruding on a private conversation he shouldn’t be listening to, as well as lying to Lois. Although... wasn’t he doing that to everyone? Before he had time to keep talking, Lois had moved on in her usual uncaring manner, completely ignoring his expression.
“So, I did some digging into anything else I could find about him, and get this: the police say they’d found him just after he got fired, probably some robbery gone wrong, major injury to his arm. No idea how he ended up like that, or what happened. They couldn’t find any sort of witness or victim to come forward, so despite what he was wearing, where they found him, and the gun nearby, they couldn’t actually prove anything.”
Clark looked back to her, once again blinking in confusion, trying not to let the disappointment show on his face. He wasn’t exactly too familiar with the law itself, and it seemed like even though he had saved the woman, he’d just made a bigger mess on the legal end of things. Thoughts that maybe he wasn’t cut out for this, and that it just wasn’t his scene began to seep further into his mind.
“So, how in the hell did he upgrade from petty crime and major injury to an arm to a giant mech at your interview?”
Lois let out a little grin at the reminder that the whole thing had gone down at her interview: Even though she had all rights to be mad at the misfortunate catastrophe ruining it, she seemed to be much more interested by this turn of events. Good for her, Clark thought.
“Well, I don’t know that for sure. It’s just bizarre. But think about it... maybe with all that lack of evidence, it was Superman who did that to him, and he came back for revenge!” She seemed almost giddily excited as she proposed her story, like a child living out a fairytale, a small break in her usual cold exterior. Despite the topic of discussion, Clark couldn’t help but grin. Maybe... for now, he should stop worrying about and thinking like Superman, and just be Clark Kent.
Meanwhile, Lex Luthor sat at his desk in his office at the Lexcorp building, silently staring at his empty computer screen, boredom and impatience in his eyes. That was broken by the buzzing sound from his phone, buried underneath a pile of papers on his desktop, which he quickly rustled through, taking the ringing phone in his hand and holding it up to his ear as he answered, speaking before the person on the other end of the call had any time to do so.
“The prototype was not a success, as you must have noticed.”
The man’s voice on the other end answered.
“Of course, Mr Luthor. However, they say failure is a great teacher. Thanks to the recordings we managed to get of the combat, and recovering the remnants from the police of the suit, the right areas of improvement have been noted.”
Lex’s lips curled into a smug grin as he answered, the most prolific of the few expressions you would see on the CEO of Lexcorp’s face.
“Excellent work Dr. Vale, as always.
I’m sure you’ll be very busy again soon enough, so I’ll just leave you to your work.”
After those words, Lex ended the call. However, those words were not completely legitimate. He also had a different matter to attend to. Aside from Dr Vale’s lab, with funds procured from his ‘allies’ at ARGUS he had ordered the construction of a second off the books facility in the city, one that would quickly have his newest, most important project transferred to it. It was time to check up on that. He went to the contacts, now calling a different number.
“Mr Luthor.” A female voice stated in affirmation on the other side, and almost a trace of surprise.
“Has the location been found for the facility?”
The female voice went silent for a bit, before reading out the results, clearly not off the top of her head, noticeable from the monotonous tone of her voice.
“Yes, we found a cheap one by the docks, perfect positioning, recently up for sale. Was a workshop previously owned by...”
She stopped, Lex hearing the unmistakable sound of ruffling paper from the other side before she continued.
“Schott & Sons, Authentic Handmade Craft Toys. Yes, that’s the whole name.”
Lex smiled once again, an altogether unfamiliar sight to any human being who could have possibly been watching.
“Then say I’ve given the go ahead. Transfer of equipment should begin immediately. ... Strange, that name you mentioned gives me a sense of deja vu.”
“Understood, Mr Luthor.”
The woman went quiet for a bit, as if not sure whether continuing on with what she wanted to say would get her scolded for keeping him longer than necessary, but she did anyway.
“And in regards to that, i think the store was going for a while here. Only one of its kind. Thing completely went out of business not too long ago. Frankly, I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did. I mean, whose kids even play with toys anymore?”
The aging Winslow Schott stood on the path, the opposite side of it to the now empty warehouse that he had once dedicated so much time to sprucing up. Despite the colour having left the walls, just looking at the familiar shape reminded him of those days: Him and Maureen joyfully fixing the place up, as their two boys would run around playing beneath them, occasionally having to warn the twins to stay clear of the stepladders. Those were the days... now he had just finished calling one of those same twins, pleading them not to leave, but they did anyway. ‘It’s just not feasible, pops. Kids have the internet, phones and games, they don’t need to play with Toys anymore. The family store is just a relic of days gone by now. Let it go.’ Those words echoed through his head, bouncing around his senile mind. Having been forced to sell both the store and their workshop after Maureen’s passing, Winslow had wanted to keep the spirit alive somehow, but it seemed his sons had other ideas. They were moving on without him. It was true, they hadn’t sold much of... anything at all lately. B-but how was that... his fault? His mind was that of a genius carpenter and mechanic, and in that very same workshop he had been working on his life-size animatronic toys, which he was sure would be a hit... children were all about technology these days, apparently. Ungrateful little sods. But no, the twins hadn’t even let them see the light of day, dismissing all his hard work with some excuse about them being “too scary”. Children these days... so absorbed into their phones that any sort of real thing like that would scare them. T-that must have been it... there was nothing else that made sense in Winslow Schott’s mind. The twins would never understand, now Margaret, if SHE was here she would understand, she would tell them- Margaret... was it Margaret? M-Maureen, it was Maureen... Winslow had been forgetting things a lot lately. If he couldn’t see things he recognised, spend a lot of time around them, they began to fade from him... he could scarcely remember the twins little faces when they were children, unless he was standing in that same workshop. And now, he watched as the removal men marched past into what had once been that workshop, gloved hands carrying crates and boxes full of sensitive equipment. H-he couldn’t let them take the workshop from him too... who even was “them”? Winslow couldn’t understand... ANYTHING anymore!
The old man kept the turmoil in his brain, tipping his hat to one of the men as he made his way past him, methodically pronouncing his words as he spoke as best he could in the shivering cold and rain.
“E-excuse me my lad, but what’s... being moved in here?”
The gruff, bearded, hi-viz jacket wearing man turned to him, grunting out a response in a low voice.
“Can’t tell you that, I’m afraid.”
Winslow narrowed his eyes in confusion, the wind whipping at the striped scarf around his neck.
“W-why? Who bought it?”
The man looked back over his shoulder, as if checking nobody was too close to listen, before looking back to Winslow and grunting out his words again.
“Lexcorp. Apparently it’s orders from Luthor himself. No idea what he wants with a place like this, but none of the boys are gonna ask, and I’m sure as hell not sticking my neck out to do it. They’ve been up to some shady stuff recently, anyone who’s anybody knows that.”
With those words, the man let out a heaving sound as he lifted the box up higher in his arms, turning around and moving back off to the vans. Winslow simply stood in silence, not moving, before turning away as the dots tried and failed to connect as best they could in his brain, reaching the only conclusion he could make.
“The city... the twins... children... entire world’s turned against me these days. Things were better back then...”
It was those words that filled Winslow Schott’s mind as he left towards the train station on his way home, that being the only home left for him. He didn’t know what he was going to do, or how he was going to do it...
But what anyone could tell, was that sooner or later, something was going to snap.
-1 Week Later-
Lois entered the grand hall, letting out another groan of annoyance as she nearly tripped over her purple dress again. She wasn’t used to wearing stuff like this, and she had always found very long dresses just obnoxious and restricting to her movement. Ah well. It was the annual Metropolis City Hall Charity Gala, and now would be a better time than ever to drill some answers out of You-know-who. By now, she had personally dealt with Lex Luthor enough to be able to just approach him here, and in a public setting it would be much harder for him to weasel his way out of the conversation. And, best of all, she’d managed to get Perry to agree specifically NOT to assign Kent. It’s not that she didn’t like the newbie or anything, far from it, but through all the time they’d (begrudgingly, on her part) spent together, Lois had quickly figured out that Clark Kent was going to be getting in her way a lot from now on. A little competition was nice from time to time, and maybe what she had needed previously, but with all the stuff going on with Superman right now? Well, she didn’t want to have to waste time trying to one-up Kent while also searching for the truth at the same time. As she waded through the crowd, finally catching sight of what she thought was the figure of the Lexcorp CEO through the veil of attendees, she approached, preparing exactly thirty-one different comebacks for if he attempted to dodge her questions- That was when she almost stopped in her tracks as the person standing opposite Lex at the drinks table, chatting with him, came into view. Clark Kent. And she had to admit, he was actually almost pulling off the suit- Off topic. What was Kent doing here? She was going to need a serious word with Perry after this, because she was crystal clear about the fact that he WASN’T meant to be here. Either way, she was going to have to roll with it. Approaching the two, the expression on Luthor’s face showing his obvious disdain at the situation, Lex was quick to notice her, raising a hand upward in greeting, before beckoning her over.
“Ah, Miss Lane, what a pleasant surprise to see you! I was just chatting with this- colleague? Of yours. Mr Kent.” Her skeptical eyes quickly saw through Luthor’s amiable smile. He should have easily expected her to show up, so if he was bothering enough to lie, it had to be for some kind of reason. She could also tell he was definitely not as interested in this conversation as he was acting, and for that, she couldn’t blame the guy.
“Yeah, well I hope he didn’t run you out of breath, because I have a few questions for you, while we’re here.”
Lex chuckled in response, attempting to brush it off.
“Ah, inquisitive as always. You really should relax sometimes. But don’t worry, I’ve got lungs of iron, I assure you. From my mother’s side.”
Lois was almost surprised by how willing he seemed to get away from talking to Kent. It was only then that it clicked in her mind- That country-boy had most likely been asking some questions Lex didn’t want to answer. Now that she understood, she moved closer, Clark slowly backing up as she gave him a small side-glance and a raised palm, which said exactly what she meant- ‘Tag out. I’ve got this.’
Clark Kent slumped down into his favourite comfy chair, slipping off his jacket as he let out a sigh. He had only just got back from the Gala, and had apparently accomplished nothing. Getting himself in there was hard enough, but his questions hadn’t even seemed to truly put Lex Luthor on edge- he seemed to only think of him as a minor annoyance, even after the surprising amount of pressure he had put on him in their first interview. And then, Lois had pretty much swooped in and taken over his place, doubtlessly to better effect. Lois, another person who just really didn’t take him seriously. He had never thought of himself as a person who cared too much about his own self-worth and image, so why was this happening now? Maybe it was just a consequence of moving here from the country, a compound upon that feeling which still filled him, even as ‘Metropolis’ Hero’: The feeling that he was out of place, that he just didn’t belong. Either way, he figured that he now had two options- A: Go to bed early and hope he felt better on a new day, or B: Stay up late entertaining himself and hope he’d find some way out of his melancholy. Neither seemed exactly promising. After a while of pondering on it, he heard a knock at the door. That was something rather uncommon, so he managed to find the energy to rouse himself from the chair and open the door sooner rather than later. That was when he saw Lois, now standing in her usual business dress, a disappointed expression on her face as she snarked.
“Took you long enough.”
Clark stared at her, reaching a finger underneath his glasses to rub at his eyes, to check he was seeing correctly, struggling to form actual words.
“... You got changed FAST.”
Lois ignored him, stepping inside the apartment and looking around judgmentally.
“You really live like this? Jeez, this place is a pigsty.”
She was about to speak further, but stopped before she made any countryside jokes that could cross a line. She was an uninvited guest, after all. Clark turned around, looking at her in confusion, his head a mess of worries, the main one being that she would somehow find his Superman suit.
“Why are you here? Aren’t you supposed to be at the Gala- and wait, how did you find my apartment?”
Lois turned back around to him, completely ignoring his last question as she held out a palm, producing a USB, and what seemed to be some extremely small microphone-like device.
“Well, I could ask you why YOU were there, since you weren’t assigned to the Gala- But I won’t ask too many dumb questions we already know the answer to if you don’t. Me and you both know Luthor is suspicious as all hell right now, and although I’m beginning to get annoyed of you getting in the way of me and all the latest scoops, at least it means you’re good at what you do.”
Clark’s breath almost stopped, his mind nearly filtering out the rest of what Lois had said as it zoned in on the fact she had actually complimented him directly for once. She had said stuff like ‘Not bad’ about his work before, but never anything directly to his own skills. Before he had time to say what this meant to him at the time, the journalist continued speaking anyway.
“Luthor invited me to see inside Lexcorp’s new research lab. Apparently they’re working on ‘exciting new projects’. First up, he definitely planned that request ahead of time. Second, this ‘new Lab’ seems to be just as shady as it sounds. I’ve done some quick fact checking and no kind of publicity for such a thing. He’s sending someone to pick me up and take me there, and I don’t think he wants any recording equipment inside.”
She pointed a finger down to the equipment that lay in her other palm.
“That’s what these babies are for. A hidden recording device I’ll be wearing. All I need is someone else to install the program it operates with, and monitor it all from the other end.”
Clark stared down at the devices as she spoke, before looking up to her, his expression still cast in confusion, before a small grin broke out on his face.
“So… what you’re saying is, you want my help?”
Lois shrugged.
“To possibly expose a shady businessman, no biggie.”
Clark’s eyes trailed back down to the device, having already made up his mind.
“What do I need to do?”
Later that night, Clark now once again sat in that same favourite chair, now with a renewed vigour and purpose. In the darkness of his room, the bright light of the laptop screen that was before him was the only light in the room, his eyes glued to the screen and the program (which he admittedly, did not understand at all even after Lois explaining it three times, so he made sure to keep his fingers far away from the keyboard, to avoid any accidents). He had even taken the liberty of hanging his Superman suit over the open bathroom door, which he couldn’t really see in the dark, but it was there in spirit. As cheesy as it sounded, this was like some sort of special mission to him, and he just wanted the atmosphere of having it nearby.
Meanwhile, Lex walked Lois through the similarly dark hallways of the newly repurposed Lexcorp Laboratory in the Docks. Each time the reporter would turn her head, it was as if she was peeking through an entirely new glass window, to watch entirely new heavily equipped scientists test entirely new devices and chemicals that she couldn’t understand, nor hope to understand. She was barely even paying attention to the words of the bald-headed CEO leading her, although at least all that incoherent rambling of his wouldn’t go completely wasted. She was sure Kent would get a kick out of having to listen to it all from the other end. Or just get really irritated, either worked for her.
“Now, usually they say to leave the best to last, but I’m not exactly a man renowned for his patience. So, we’ll be moving right onto the main exhibit- the reason I brought you here, my vision I thought only someone such as yourself was worthy to see.” As he spoke, he finally came to a stop at the end of the hallway, pressing his hand to a scanner next to the heavily armoured door. It opened, the metallic plates sliding both up and down at the same time, retreating into the doorframe itself as he simply stepped through the now open frame, Lois following inattentively, still distracted. Lex strode into the center of the even darker room, and turned to face the wall of glass to their east, emanating a sickly green glow that illuminated the room, proudly holding his hands together behind his back, as Lois’ eyes finally drifted upward to the containment tank built into the wall, her eyes widening in a mixture of complete shock, fear and almost a tiny bit of amazement, her attention now completely grasped by what Lexcorp had created.
“W-what the-”
Lex span around to face her, a prideful smirk on his face as he began to explain.
“With our talents here at Lexcorp, even creating life is old news to us. However, when we just so happened to stumble upon the DNA of a certain extraterrestrial visitor, well- We couldn’t help but decide to give cloning a second chance. Say hello- to what will soon be… the world's first Man-Made Kryptonian.”
He spread his arms wide, as if awaiting her to marvel more at his work.
Lois simply stared up to the muscular form that floated in the bubbling vat of green liquid. It seemed to lack any sort of features, despite its humanoid appearance, the only truly noticeable thing about it being the glowing green orbs that rested in its face, which she had to assume would soon be eyes.
“K-Kryptonian?”
Lex’s arms fell back down to his side, where they rested as he began to explain, which was quite possibly his most favourite hobby.
“Yes, although you may be unfamiliar with the term, this creature will eventually grow to be like Superman himself, or the unforgettable Metropolis Invader. Imagine, an army… of Supermen! A private one, of course. But ponder, if you will, how much money could be saved, how many lives could be saved, if these were to grow, and learn to properly function. One alone could potentially do the job of a whole Fire department, a whole Police department, a whole Regiment of Soldiers!” As he ranted, his tone rose in energy as he clearly become more and more excited at the prospect.
Back at his apartment, Clark had had to put his coffee down. Although unable to see what was happening on the other end, he had almost done a complete spit-take on hearing the word “Kryptonian” and had been listening even more intently than before- not intending to miss another word. Was this Luthor’s true goal? Did this evidence confirm that he was behind the robot attack? How did he know so much about Superman- about Zod- D-did he possibly even… already know that- No, no. He shook his head, not noticing the small amount of sweat that had formed on his shaky hands. If he knew who Superman was, he would have taken him more seriously at the Gala.
Lois nearly shook, tensing her posture as she spoke, her voice beginning to tremble.
“B-but that’s- Haven’t you thought about the ethics of this? Restrictions are needed, have you ran this by the government even? E-even worse, they’re too dangerous! What if more than one of these went rogue, we can’t have multiple Metropolis incidents at once-”
It was then that Lex grinned, as if he had expected this, raising a finger, before beginning to stride over to the other side of the room.
“Shhhhhhh. I have considered all those things, and while most of it is… private information, I can at least put those most pressing fears to rest.” As he approached, the black, metallic like gate on the opposite wall to the clone rolled upwards, revealing another glass chamber built into the wall, Lex once again stopping and turning to face Lois as he narrated.
“We tested multiple different substances, chemicals and elements on Kryptonian DNA, to see how much it differed from human genes- part of the testing phase, to make sure what we used in the cloning process wouldn’t cause any accidents. And we discovered something… about a particularly rare, lesser known, and up until now near useless material- a special Alloy.”
Lois turned, her eyes following Lex as she took in the sight of the strange green, glinting, almost glowing crystalline substance that stood upon a pedestal inside the chamber.
“I could describe its varied element make-up all day-”
Lex spoke as he pressed a hand to his chin, a large, cocky smirk across his face-
“But to simplify… We have taken to calling it Kryptonite.”