Conspiracy Theory by La Chatte Noire

Note: I probably should apologize; I was in one of my “humanity sucks” moods when I wrote this. This answers challenges 1, 5, and 6.

Challenge 1: Future CLex. Set the story in the future. Clark is Superman and protector of Metropolis and Lex is the evil Supervillain... or what? (Kira)

Challenge 5: Songfic Write a songfic, inspired by a song, without using a single line from the song in the story, unless it's actually incorporated in narration! (Kira, who hates songfics)

Challenge 6: Holiday challenge/Anti holiday challenge... Write a story that centers around one of the holidays that take place during the challenge period (May - July) like Independence Day, Labour Day or some such. Y'all know better than I do what the American holidays are...
Or write a story about a day which is so not a holiday in your mind, like the First Day of School... (Dayspring, Liz and the anti holiday thingy was suggested by Gary at the ClarkLex list)

I don’t really have anyone to thank: no one offered advice, I didn’t ask for a whole lot of advice, and my former beta-reader is no longer available so I did my own beta.

Feed me. Flames will be cursed, then piled together and thrown in the trash can.

CONSPIRACY THEORY

Superman followed the tortured screams of pain to the roof of LexCorp Tower. He landed softly and started searching for the source. Behind a vent he saw what looked like three figures staking a vampire to something. One left in the middle of the procedure and reached for a crossbow, arming it with a stake. Superman looked closer. He knew that vampire…

“Lex!” he shouted as he took off for the group to stop them from killing his enemy.

Superman fell out of the sky with a scream of pain as the kryptonite stake embedded itself in his shoulder. He landed on the rooftop with a thud and reached up to pull the stake from his flesh.

The archer notched another kryptonite stake in his crossbow and fired, hitting Superman in the thigh. He reloaded again and moved to stand over the fallen hero. “You should not have come here,” he said as he raised his crossbow.

Superman woke up to a blinding pain throughout his body. “Lex?” he asked groggily.

“So the great Superman finally calls me by my preferred name. And all it took was a crucifixion.” The answering voice was strained, clouded by pain.

Superman tried to move but found himself restrained. He turned his head to see his right arm nailed down with a kryptonite stake. The other arm looked the same. He looked over at Lex and saw the bald man similarly nailed down with iron spikes. “My god, Lex, who did you piss off this time?”

“I’m serious, Luthor, if someone out there hates you enough to crucify you I need to know about it.” He tried to move and groaned at the pain.

“Speak for yourself, Superman. I’m not the only one they must hate.” He paused. “Kryptonite spikes. Why didn’t I think of that?”

Superman instinctively lunged then fell back onto his cross with a little shriek. “How the fuck can you joke at a time like this?”

“Oh, like I shouldn’t be used to shit like this considering what you do to me. Like you don’t know how fast I heal. If we hang here much longer I’m gonna end up with my wrists and feet pierced.”

Superman groaned as the weight of his body tore his arms a little bit as he slid down his cross. “Does anyone ever come up here?”

Lex gave Superman an incredulous look. “I didn’t think you really knew how to swear.”

“I am being serious, you big dumb alien. Did you really think if someone were thorough enough to do all this that they’d leave you out in the sun so you could ruin it all?”

An uncomfortable silence fell. Before it got too stifling, Superman spoke. “Do you really think that?”

“Do you really think that about me?” Clark peeked out from under the mental cloak of Superman.

“Yes, I do. I know how you hide in lain sight. I know how you use human blindness against them, against us. What you don’t realize is that you’re as blind as the humans. You only see what you what you want to see, or what you’ve been trained to see. I know who you are, Clark.” Clark gasped as Lex continued. “I’ve known since Smallville, yet I haven’t done anything to expose you nor to attack your human disguise. I don’t hate you, but you’re too blind to see that.”

“You never meant for me to know?! Know what? That you’re you? Or perhaps that someone kept destroying my projects? God, not only are you selfish you’re as naive as you were in Smallville.”

“Look, I’m sorry, ok? I had not idea you knew and I’ve been trying to protect the world. Ion cannons, cross-species synthesis, killer robots, what the hell was I supposed to think?!”

Lex sighed. “Perhaps if you had done actual research you would have realized what they were for.”

“Those were all government contracts, Clark. They think you’re the first of an armada to conquer Earth. Do you have any idea what damage you’ve done to yourself? The moment your popularity drops they’re gonna start hiring hits on you. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was their first hit and they only used me as bait.”

Superman looked down and Clark took over. “They’re partially right, you know. There was an armada sent to conquer Earth. I am the armada in its entirety.”

Clark looked up. “I never wanted you to know. I thought you’d get scared.”

“I scared myself, Lex. I didn’t want to think or even know about it, so I did the superhero thing. I guess it got a little out of hand.”

“Both, Clark, or neither or whatever you wanted. You knew the destiny I had laid out in front of me in Smallville. You knew what it did to me. We had the same destiny. Do you have any idea how we could have helped each other? We’ve both had to take the weight of the world on our shoulders; we could have shared that burden. I loved you. That’s what screwed up all my marriages. I loved you and I couldn’t let you go.” He paused. “Goddammit, Clark, say something.”

“I was afraid, Clark. I was afraid something would go wrong and we’d end up enemies, the way we are now.”

Clark nodded but remained silent. He watched as Lex waited expectantly then turned away and tried to get comfortable. After a time he spoke. “I loved you too, you know. I guess that’s why I’m so hard on you; because I know you can be doing so much better and I care enough to try and make it so. I guess I wasn’t doing that great of a job, was I?”

Another silence fell, this one much easier to bear. Clark found he couldn’t move at all without the spikes tearing a little more. Lex felt that his wrists were disturbingly painless. He broke the silence. “What now?”

“Well, first we need to get down. Then I really need to pee. Then we can worry about it.” Clark paused. “How do you suppose we get down?”

“Either we wait another few hours for my wrist piercings to heal and I can slip off this thing, or we wait to be found by some human.”

“They do for me. Wait, are you admitting that the humans aren’t going to find us?”

“Ok, fine, humans as a group are idiots. The IQ of the species is constant yet the population keeps growing. When faced with something new and different humans tend to shoot first and ask questions later. I was sent to keep you all from destroying yourselves and taking this useful planet with you. Happy?”

Lex visibly considered it. “I don’t know. Should I show loyalty to the idiots I’m forced to call my species or should I admit that they’re idiots and use my potentially endless resources and help you become alien overlord?”

“Although, if I help you conquer the world, will you let me be President first?”

Lex struggled with the stakes through his wrists and felt them slip painlessly. He tried his legs and felt his feet move with very little pain. “Clark, I’m healed. I’ll have you down in a few minutes.” Lex stopped moving and listened. “Clark?”

There was no answer. In the moonlight Lex could barely make out Clark’s form. “Clark!” There was still no answer. “CLARK!”

Lex’s eyes widened. “Clark, no matter how you feel, no matter what you want, I need you to stay awake. Can you do that for me?”

“Ok then, I’m going to get down from this thing. I want you to keep talking to me, Clark.”

“What--” Clark paused as a shudder tore through him. “What do you want me to say?”

“Anything, Clark. Talk to me about anything, the weather, what it’s like to fly, how you landed in Smallville, why your parents named you ‘Clark,’ anything.”

Lex stopped struggling again. “Why, what is it?” The sound of helicopter blades approached.

The emergency helicopter swooped up behind Clark and hovered east of them, spotlight pointed straight at them.

Lex paced the hospital room as the nurse begged him to get back to bed. “Mr. Luthor, you’ve just been through a terrible ordeal. You need your rest. You need to let your body heal.”

Lex gave her a look and extended a wrist. “I’ve already healed enough, thank you.” He continued his pacing.

Lex stopped and glared at her. “If you insist on standing there badgering me, at least make yourself useful. I need two lengths of 22 gauge stainless steel wire about 6 inches each in length and information.”

The nurse nodded. “Please go back to bed, sir,” she pleaded before disappearing.

Lex sighed and turned the small hospital-room television on. The screen was predictably fuzzy and the sound painfully tinny, but it was on. The newscaster spoke of an incident involving LexCorp that Superman was unable to stop. The news revealed no useful information other than a cover-up was already taking place and that Superman was unavailable for questioning.

The nurse knocked on the door and entered at Lex’s command. She carried two 6-inch lengths of steel wire and kept her nervous posture. She saw him standing under the TV set manipulating volume and channels with an upstretched arm. “I have the wire, Mr. Luthor. Please go back to bed.”

Lex sighed again and strode over to the hard, cold hospital bed. He threw back the covers and got in. He gestured to himself tucked in the bed like a good little boy. “Now then, the wire and the information.”

The nurse handed him the wire and tried not to cringe as he threaded the wire through the holes in his wrists. “What do you want to know, sir?”

Lex looked up and fixed her with a commanding glare. “Where did they take Superman?”

Lex silenced her with a glance. “There are flakes of kryptonite on your uniform. The splash of blood on your right sleeve is not iron-based. I repeat, where is Superman?”

The nurse shook her head. “I-I can’t…” Lex’s stare bored into her. She knew what he could do to her, to her family. She buckled under the strain. “If I tell you I’ll lose my job.” She sobbed quietly.

Lex got up and pressed her to the closed door. “And yet you have no idea what I would do to you if you refuse, nor do you know what I can do for you if you comply.” He pressed the palm of his right hand into the door on level with her face.

She glanced over at the wire sticking through his hand and shivered in open fear and disgust. “You’re a monster.” She spoke the words without thought, the sheer terror taking over her features proof of this.

Lex gave a half-smile. “I am, aren’t I?” He played idly with the wire through his right wrist, making her cringe. “I’m the monster who will save you if you tell me. They’re going to fire you anyway. They’re listening in on our little conversation and they will make sure you never find a job in this profession again. I can help you.”

The nurse looked around frantically and saw the markings for a hidden camera, trained on them. “Oh no!” She sobbed and sank down to the floor, hiding her head in her hands. “I’m ruined.”

Lex knelt down and placed a hand on her shoulder in a parody of a comforting gesture. “There, there. I can make it all better. You won’t need them; they won’t be able to hurt you if you just tell me where they’re holding Superman. Just whisper it into my ear.”

Through tears and humiliation, the nurse leaned forward and whispered into Lex’s ear. “There’s a high security room in the basement where the hospital keeps radioactive supplies for the scanning machines. There isn’t much radiation, but the room is encased in lead, just in case. They’re holding him there. He’s unconscious, there’s still kryptonite in his wounds, he isn’t healing, and my superiors say we need to keep him like that until someone ‘more equipped’ can handle him. I think they’re going to hand him over to some lab. They spoke about royalties on research.”

Lex pulled back, a grave look on his face. “Thank you,” he said in a strangely kind voice before running out the door.

The nurse sat on the floor, shoulders hunched. She sighed as loud footsteps were heard approaching. She looked up at the people too methodical, too powerful to be hospital security. She refused to answer when they demanded to know what she told Luthor. She closed her eyes and refused to flinch when the silenced bullet to her head ended her life.

Lex discharged himself from the hospital and quickly ran down the steps. He pulled the cell phone out of his bloodied suit pocket and called for reinforcements. Maybe it was the blood, or maybe it was the wires sticking through his wrists, but nobody even approached him until a black limo pulled up and Hope and Mercy ran up to hide him away in the car.

Once inside, Lex called for the driver to stay put. “We can’t leave, not yet.” He turned to Hope and Mercy. “Superman’s being held in the basement in a room encased in lead. They’re going to be getting ready to move him to a safer locale. He’s unconscious and riddled with kryptonite. I suspect the government is going to move him directly to a laboratory for further study. We can’t let that happen. Go.”

Hope and Mercy nodded and exited the limo. Lex watched as they strode up the steps to the hospital, motioning for a dozen guards, their own personal army, to follow them. Lex glanced at his watch nervously. He addressed the limo driver. “Be prepared to leave quickly at my signal.”

Lex sat back and absently fiddled with the wire through his right wrist. He glanced at it and had to marvel at his new nervous habit. He stared back at the hospital doors, hoping this worked.

Hope and Mercy found Superman in the corridor, being wheeled on a stretcher to parts unknown. He was flanked by 20 armed guards. Their reinforcements of 12 were around the bend behind them, waiting for a signal. Mercy’s first kill was their signal.

The firefight in the hall was surprisingly quick and unsurprisingly bloody. They lost 7 guards and Hope had been grazed in the leg. Regardless, they wheeled the supine superhero through the corridors; looking far too official for anyone they passed to question them.

At least, until they reached the doors. The emergency helicopter stood outside, waiting for its cargo of government agents and armed guards. When Hope and Mercy instead moved toward the black limo parked on the street, the two guards inside opened fire. Mercy picked up Superman and ran with him, Hope limping quickly behind as their little army scattered into hidden cars, firing at the guards when they could get a clear shot.

The agent in the helicopter swore when the limo drove off with Superman inside. He ordered the helicopter to follow.

Lex directed the limo into the old LuthorCorp Tower, knowing at least one of his cars was following. They stopped near a collection of cars of all makes and models. Both cars emptied. Lex pulled Mercy aside. “Take him to the lab on the 31st floor and clean his wounds. Tell him I’ll be there shortly.”

Mercy nodded and carried Superman into a blue sedan. Lex got into a silver Mustang. All those present took separate cars of different makes and models, including a red Porsche, and lined up near the exit. They all tore out of the parking garage and headed in different directions. The helicopter hovered for a moment; unsure as to whom they should follow. The Porsche caught the agent’s eye and he ordered the helicopter to follow it as it headed to an abandoned warehouse.

Meanwhile, the Mustang circled the block once and tore off toward LexCorp Tower after the blue sedan.

Clark opened his eyes slowly and looked around the room. People in white lab coats swarmed around him, taking his vital signs and cleaning his wounds. The table he was splayed over felt like the cold metal of a standard dissection table. The room itself was white walls covered with complex machinery not found in the average hospital room. Clark stiffened when realization hit: he was in a laboratory.

He sat up and shrieked even as several lab technicians tried to calm him down, first with words, then by trying to force him back down onto the table. One moved to a corner to grab a set of restraints previously rubbed with kryptonite dust.

Mercy burst in. “Goddammit Superman, Lex’ll be here in a few minutes. Calm down.”

Clark stopped moving and stared at her. “Lex is coming? Where am I? What’s going on?”

She sighed and then motioned for the lab tech in the corner to put the restraints away. She glared at him and he moved to the other side of the room to monitor the data collected. “You’re in LexCorp Tower. We had to steal you away from the hospital before the government took you off to one of their laboratories. Lex is on his way here, provided he’s sure he’s not being followed by the feds. Now calm down, Superman, and let us get you cleaned up.”

Clark looked down at his wrist and watched with a perverse interest as a lab tech picked kryptonite flakes out of the gaping hole in his wrist. He squeezed his hand once to see the exposed tendons stretch and twitch. “Alright, do what you need. Just don’t dissect me.”

A scientist holding a clipboard stepped forward. “Very well, Superman. I’d like to ask you a few questions.”

The scientist nodded and readied his clipboard. “First of all, how do you feel?”

Clark chuckled darkly. “Like shit. I’m tired and weak and I’m sorry, but I feel like bitching right now.”

“Thank you. I’m on my nightly patrol and some governmental maniacs are on the roof of the LexCorp Tower staking Lex to a cross and, guess what? They’re only doing it to get to me. They stake me with kryptonite and leave us up there to die like road kill or something. Then they take us down after a day and try to haul me off to some lab so they can dissect me. Never mind all the times I’ve saved their asses, never mind the fact that I’m completely denying my instinct for conquest to let them run rampant all over me, never mind I was a fucking child when I came here, unable to steer my ship to any other suitable planet.” Clark dropped his head in his newly-bandaged right hand. “They don’t give a flying fuck about their people or me or their planet or anything that really matters. They just want the information and they don’t care what they do to get it.”

The scientist looked up from two new pages of frantically scribbled notes. “Feel better?”

Lex chose that moment to make an entrance. He ran into the room, stopping himself at the doorway by grabbing the doorjamb and snapping back into place. “Cla-- Superman? Is he awake?”

“Oh, thank god. I thought maybe you’d be too far gone…” He paused. “Never mind that. You’re alive and we managed to keep the feds from you, for the time being.”

“Don’t thank me yet. They’re gonna be pissed about losing you and they’re smart enough to figure out where you are. They won’t stop until they have you, alive or dead.”

Clark sighed. The scientists had finished cleaning and bandaging his wounds and were now testing his reflexes. One of the scientists tried to take a feather to his ribs but backed away when Clark glared at him. “What do we do?”

Clark spent three days in the lab as he healed, answering questions and avoiding all the tests he could. When the bandages were removed and he was finally given a clean bill of health, he felt ready to throttle someone. Wearing a spare lab coat over his clean yet torn uniform, Clark marched to the top of the Tower, seeking Lex.

Hope and Mercy leapt out of the way as Clark marched into Lex’s office, calling Lex’s name.

“Got tired of the lab?” Lex asked, nonchalant, as he stood at the window overlooking nighttime Metropolis.

Clark slammed the door, nearly throwing it off its hinges. “Ugh! I can’t stand scientists! They’re always trying to poke me or something. I feel like an alien abductee.” A flash of white light shone through the window for a few seconds. “What the--”

Lex smiled wryly at Clark’s reflection in the glass. “Don’t tell me you forgot.”

A red flash streaked across the sky. Lex sighed. “Today’s the fourth. Of July, Clark. It’s July. Metropolis University is doing a fireworks display this year.”

They stood side by side in a comfortable silence as the display reached a crescendo, one of many. As the fireworks glowed and popped, they hardly noticed the door opening behind them until a voice called out over the booming fireworks. “Turn around and put your hands on your head!”

Clark and Lex turned around to face the 20-odd army men in Lex’s office. Lex spoke up. “Gentlemen, are you aware you are trespassing?”

The one who had spoken, the leader, answered back. “Alexander Luthor, I am authorized to place you under arrest for the theft of government property, the body of the alien Superman. Superman, I am authorized to lead you to a holding cell where you will be euthanized for the sake of science and the common good.”

Clark glared at him. “Idiot. Are you really willing to destroy me? Your savior? All for a little bit of scientific curiosity? What do you plan to do, then, when the armada comes? You don’t really think I’d be sent here without backup, do you?”

The leader glanced at Clark, then back at Lex. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face. “I repeat, I have been ordered to bring you both in. I am authorized to use force, even to the extent of killing you both.”

Lex looked away from the leader and looked at Clark. “Are they carrying kryptonite of any kind?”

Clark x-rayed the group and saw nothing obvious, only a lead box carried by the leader. “Don’t worry about me, Lex.” He faded from view as he ran around the room once, ending in the spot he started before the humans could even realize he had moved.

The leader trained his gun on Lex. “You wouldn’t do that again, Superman, if you knew what was good for your boyfriend here.”

“I wouldn’t have to. Do you see the fireworks display down there? Pretty, isn’t it? One of our men is lighting them off. He has one that’ll take out half of the Met U campus and we have a group of terrorists lined up to take the fall. If you fly down to stop him, we’ll shoot Mr. Luthor. If either of you two resist, we give the order to blow it up.”

Lex and Clark looked at each other. Clark moved to the window and looked down. The leader moved closer to Lex, gun pointed at the other man’s head. Clark glanced back to make sure Lex was still unharmed before looking down, concentrating on the Met U football field. One of the fireworks was indeed armed with a rudimentary nuclear device. It was extremely low yield but enough to destroy half of the campus as had been described. Clark mentally pulled back and bowed his head, placing his forehead against the glass and closing his eyes. “You chicken shit, moronic governmental bastards. How could you do this?”

The army guys smirked. Lex moved away from the leader and stood next to Clark. “Surely you can stop this, Superman. You’ve been stopping me all these years; this shouldn’t be much of a problem.”

Clark shook his head. “No, Lex. Unlike these idiots, you were never dumb enough to actually put yourself in danger. I depended on that fact. There’s nothing I can do.”

Clark turned toward the army guys. His eyes were fully blank as he betrayed himself to science. “We have no choice.” He walked to them, army guys flanking him like a twisted honor guard as he left the office, head hanging in defeat.

Lex watched Clark walk out of the room, defeated. He glared at the remaining three men. “You’ll pay for this, you and your government.”

One of them walked forward and produced a pair of handcuffs. He turned Lex around and slapped them on Lex’s wrists. “As a prisoner of war to be convicted of treason, you have no rights. Move.” He prodded Lex in the back with the muzzle of his gun. Lex glared back at them and strode out with as much dignity as his ancestry would allow.

Clark strode down the hall of the Tower, the army guys continuing to flank him. He led the way to the elevator and got in, waiting as they all followed him in. They stood around him, crowded in the small space. They quickly lost their menace as they felt the massive movements of the alien’s heaving breast as he breathed.

Somewhere between the top floor and the garage, Clark muttered once more. “Idiots.”

Lex and his flank stepped into the elevator after it came back up. It showed no sign of a struggle as they descended. The elevator stopped at the 52^nd floor. The door didn’t open, it merely stopped.

The army guys looked around. “What the hell? What kind of elevators do you run, Luthor?”

Lex looked around as well. “Usually ones that work.” He kicked the seam between the doors. The bell dinged and the doors opened.

Lex and his escorts looked out at the sight. The army men were strewn around the corridor like rag dolls. The leader moved to one and checked for a pulse. “He’s alive.”

“They’re all alive,” came a voice from down the corridor. “They won’t wake. Not for a long time.”

The leader looked at Clark in fear and grabbed the radio strapped to his chest. “Johnson, the mission has gone wrong. Light the candle.”

Clark bit his lip and nodded, then flew out the window, spraying glass over the street.

The second guard spoke up. “Did you see what he did to Ryan and Mike and Larry and all them? You know how he stood up to those spikes. I don’t give a flying fuck what you’re packing, sir. I’m not dumb enough to shoot.”

Clark bolted through the closed window, paying no attention to the broken glass as it fell. He flew to the park to find the fireworks platform set for the grand finale, a large bomb with a timer as the centerpiece.

A comment from the crowd caught Clark’s ear. “This should be good, look at the size of that one. It looks almost like a warhead. I can’t wait to see it.”

Clark scanned the centerpiece quickly and found the interior almost entirely encased in lead, save a timer with 10 seconds left. He swooped down and picked up the bomb, flying high into the atmosphere. The bomb exploded as he carried it, throwing Clark back down to Earth, he shockwave nearly knocking him out.

The sound of a gunshot pierced the haze surrounding Clark’s mind. He shook his head to clear it. Reality hit. “Lex!!” he screamed as he took off for LexCorp Tower at a speed he had never reached before.

Lex propped himself up against the wall, gasping at the pain from the bullet in his lung. He looked up to see the leader standing over him and the guards looking almost apologetic. “He’s going to destroy you,” Lex ground out.

The leader smirked. “Not when I’ve got this.” He pulled a lead box out of a pocket and opened it to show a good-sized piece of kryptonite.

“You bastard!” Lex lunged for the leader and was rewarded with a shot in the leg. He fell to the floor again, gasping in pain.

Clark flew through the shattered window and grabbed one of the guards. He pulled him quickly to the end of the corridor and kissed him, sucking away all memory of the mission and of the government’s suspicions.

“Will, I need your help. There’s a pair of renegade agents near the elevator. They’re holding Lex Luthor hostage. This corridor loops around. Follow it and you’ll end up at the elevator behind the renegades and Mr. Luthor.”

“Ah, Superman, how nice of you to join us,” the leader said in a mocking voice. “I know you’d come back for your little friend.”

Clark turned to face the voice. He hid his fear and concern when he saw Lex on the floor, bleeding. “And what makes you think you’re any match for me?”

“Superman, look out! He’s got kryptonite!” The leader knocked Lex on the head with the butt of his gun for his warning.

Clark ran forward, but was stopped by the leader removing the kryptonite from its box. He backed away from the green stone. “Lex, I’m sorry.”

The leader advanced, kryptonite clasped firmly in his hand. “This mission will not fail, Superman. You will come with us. You will be taken to the labs at Area 51. You will be dissected and a large-scale weakness will be found so that when your armada comes for us, we’ll be ready.”

“You moron, don’t you get it by now? There is no armada. I don’t need the aid of an armada.” Clark paused. “You’ve failed.”

Will opened fire from behind, killing the leader quickly. He turned to fire upon the second guard when Clark stopped him.

“Don’t worry about that one,” Clark said. “I’ll take care of it.” He tapped Will on the head. Will fell to the floor, out cold.

Clark smiled. “Good. What I want you to do is get a head start on all of your friends here. Get back to your superiors and tell them what happened here. Tell them how your battalion failed miserably and that every one of your comrades had his memories altered. If they’ve any sense at all, they’ll never bother us again. But if they do consider it, tell them that next time I’ll do more than alter memories. Got it?”

Clark kneeled down next to Lex. He stroked the unconscious man’s cheek and picked him up, heading for the lab.

Lex opened his eyes and squinted at the glare of the sterile white room. People in lab coats were moving all around him and the room, taking readings and tweaking instruments. He closed his eyes and opened them again. The scenery hadn’t changed. He closed his eyes and moaned.

He tried again. Lex opened his eyes and squinted at the glare of Superman’s brightly colored costume against the backdrop of the laboratory. “Did we do it? Are they gone?”

Clark smiled. “If you mean the army guys, yes, they’re gone. They’ll be back, but at least they’re gone for now. How are you feeling? You took quite a beating.”

Hope came over to their side. “You are awake. Good. Doctor.” Hope looked behind her and motioned for one of the scientists to come over.

The scientist looked down at Lex. “It lives!” Lex gave him a look before moaning like Frankenstein’s Monster. The scientist burst out laughing. He soon grew serious. “Don’t try to move too much, you could start to bleed again. Even with your healing powers, this’ll take time and rest to get through.” He walked back to his machines.

Clark looked down at him. “They’re going to try again, Lex. And again. This time, we can be ready. Truce?”