Chapter Text
Jordan heart leapt at feeling the walls shake and seeing dust fall from the ceiling. He winced when he looked at the screen in his cell and seeing Doomsday slam down on top of his father. He tried to listen for any signs of the fight, but the red sun lamps had drained a good portion of his powers, so his senses were just barely above that of a regular human. The Kryptonite cuffs also prevented him from using any of his remaining strength, shocking and burning him when he tried to do so.
This made Jordan even more miserable. If he had his powers, he’d be out of these cuffs in a second. He would be able to free his mother with no problems. But he couldn’t. Instead, he was weakened, trapped and completely at Luthor’s mercy. All the while his father and brother were out fighting the monstrous beast that Luthor created.
He wondered if this was how Jonathan felt when he’d watch him or Dad fight against various opponents these last few years. Helpless and unable to do anything to help. If it was, suffice to say he hated it.
“Do you think Dad can win, Mom?” Jordan asked Lois, fear in his voice.
“Your father has faced worse odds and still managed to overcome them” Lois assured her son, while also studying the cells that they were in. She turned to the Irons’s and asked, “Any chance that the suits can find us here?”.
Natalie shook her head. “No, Luthor’s goons were very thorough, they took all our comms devices, phones, watches; anything we could have used to communicate with the suits”.
“Dammit!” Lois cursed. “Dad, what about the DOD? Any way that you can alert the department to let them know you’re missing?”.
Sam sighed and told her “I’m afraid not, pumpkin; ever since Jonathan took down their main satellite, there has been a scramble to reinstall a new surveillance system; since I was under investigation with Hardcastle, I’ve been kept out of the loop, I doubt anyone would miss me”.
“Then what the hell good are they?” Lois bit out, frustration evident in the way that she paced.
“Hey, the Department is doing its best to rebuild after your son practically shanked the whole staff by making them take early retirement after what he put them through” Sam argued.
“Don’t you dare try to justify what the department did, I haven’t forgotten that it was your tracking machine that led to Jonathan’s arrest and torture”
“Well, if you or your husband had been on the ball, keeping an eye out for powers and raised your son properly, they wouldn’t have needed to take such drastic action to contain a very real threat which is exactly what both of your children are!”
“And what? Did Jonathan open up to you on your little ‘fishing trips’? Seems to me that he was unto you from day one General Lane, and I am so sorry that it took us this long to see that you will always put the Department first rather than your family!”.
“I DO CARE ABOUT MY FAMILY! BUT I AM NOT BLIND TO THE POTENTIAL DANGER OF HAVING THREE NEAR-GODLIKE BEINGS RUNNING AROUND UNCHECKED”.
“AND WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU NEED TO BE CHECKED? HUH? BEFORE OR AFTER YOUR SON-IN-LAW'S AND GRANDSON'S CORPSES LIE IN FRONT OF YOU!”
“YOU...!”
Jordan had enough.
“STOP IT! This isn’t going to help Dad or anyone else, GROW UP!” Jordan roared over the two adults. Even without super hearing, this was painful to listen to. It was strange to think that he was the more mature one in this situation.
“He’s right, we can hash this out after we get out of here!” John Henry told them firmly.
The were cut off from arguing when another tremor knocked them all off their feet, the walls began to crack and the television screens in their cells flickered. They all groggily got back up, dusting each other off.
“Guy’s look!” Natalie exclaimed, pointing at the screen.
The group turned to look at the screen in their cells. The saw a familiar electric blue, surge of energy, blast Doomsday out of the ground and up into the air. Spectre and Superman flew up after the monster, both of them delivering hits and blasts that forced Doomsday upwards.
“He’s back! He’s back!” Lois cried with joy, eyes shining with unshed tears at the sight of her runaway son.
Jordan felt a whole lot better, seeing his brother assist their father. It meant that his dad, now had back-up. Whatever the differences that Jonathan had with their father, he knew his brother would do the right thing. With a painful jolt, he remembered his own current situation and the feeling of hope was snuffed out by the feeling of uselessness.
Just as he was about to sink into another pit of melancholy, Jordan remembered when John Henry had their dad and him on the ropes the first time he met him. They both had been severely weakened by the red sunlight and John Henry would have had them dead to rights if they hadn’t recovered in time. It had been Jonathan who had driven the truck, guided by Jordan's directions. It had been him who lifted John Henry’s hammer and smashed the red solar lamps. It had been up to Jonathan to protect them long enough so they could be of use.
Jonathan hadn’t used powers then. He was still suffering from the broken arm that Jordan had given him when he stopped him from nearly killing that other player. His brother had shouldered on. He managed to be useful. He managed to do what one kryptonian and a hybrid could not. He saved them.
Jordan closed his eyes before let the feeling of determination surge through him. He opened his eyes and began studying the room thoroughly. He examined the cracks in the wall more closely, trying to find a weakness.
“Jordan, sweetie, what are you trying to do?” Lois asked, watching her son stride to each corner of the cell, feeling around at the walls with his cuffed hands.
“Trying to find a way out or the very least, try to get these cuffs off, I still have a bit of strength left but these cuffs are preventing me from accessing it”.
“I tried picking the locks of the bars with my hairpin before Luthor came in, but it was no use, their all electronically locked” Natalie told him “But maybe they might work on the lock of your cuffs”.
Jordan held up his hands and the rest of the group saw that they were magnetic handcuffs that had no keyholes and could only be opened by swipe card. “Yep, we can pretty much rule that option out” Jordan told her drily.
The screen sparked for a minute which caught Jordan’s attention. He looked behind the screen and saw that one of the wires feeding into it had been pulled partially loose and was emitting a spark or two, causing the screen to occasionally flicker. Jordan had an idea then.
“Nat...? If these cuffs got an electro magnetic shock, would that disrupt the power holding them together?” Jordan inquired. Natalie was silent as she pondered Jordan’s question.
“Theoretically yes, but we’ve no open wires here” Natalie replied.
“What about those ones!” Jordan pointed at the sparking wires.
“That might not work Jordan, you could end up hurting yourself especially since your powers are in such a weak state” John Henry answered.
“He’s right, Jordan, its too risky” Lois chimed in. At that moment they heard the sound of footsteps and arguing back and forth. Luthor must have sent guards to check on them.
“Sorry Mom, but this could be our only chance” Jordan stated firmly. He rushed to the screen, ignoring his mother and the Irons’s protests, and yanked the screen quickly, ignoring the sting of kryptonite. The television sparked in protest but that didn’t deter Jordan. Eventually he found the mess of sparking, damaged wires.
He took a deep breath, mentally and physically preparing himself before he thrust his wrists into the wiring. There was a huge bang and Jordan had a brief feeling of being burnt inside out for a second before he lost consciousness amidst the screams of his mother, grandfather and the Iron’s.
Jonathan was wracked with nerves as he watched his father taking a beating from Doomsday. Even with the advantage of being able to fully unleash his power, Clark was barely holding his own against the monster. He had tried getting a feel for the creature’s mind and physical being but the multiple different types of kryptonite that were embedded in every piece of his body made that impossible unless he got a whole lot closer.
Trying to find something useful to do he searched out to look for Jordan’s mind. He frowned when he couldn’t find anything. And it was the same when he tried to search for his mother’s, John Henry’s, Natalie’s and even General Lane’s. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Luthor was behind this. Jonathan grew panicked. While they were up here fighting Doomsday, there was no telling what Luthor was doing to their family and loved ones down there.
Just as his father unleased a breath of artic breath to freeze Doomsday, Jonathan spoke into his father’s mind.
“Dad, we’ve got a problem, I can’t find Mom’s mind, or anyone else’s, its like they’ve vanished, Luthor must have done something” Jonathan told him.
“What? are you sure?” Clark told him while repelling Doomsday with his artic breath.
“I double checked to make sure; what if Luthor has them? What if all this is a distraction?” Jonathan speculated.
“Then we have to...” Clark was cut off when Doomsday broke through the ice covering it and slammed into Clark. Before he could recover, Doomsday body slammed the kryptonian into the moon’s crust and pinned him there by his head.
Doomsday let out a roar of triumph. He pulled one of the kryptonite shards out of his body and raised over his head like a dagger. Before he could use it though, Jonathan teleported unto his shoulders and slammed two glowing hands on either side of his head, sending his power coursing through the creature’s skull.
Jonathan gasped as images upon images raced through his mind. All of them linked by one common denominator. Pain. He saw Doomsday’s many deaths. Luthor’s inhumane taunting while he could cut the then alternate Clark open. The horror, the multiple violations, the hatred, all of it made Jonathan cry as he experienced only flashes of it, while not being able to imagine what it must have been like for Bizarro Superman.
But throughout it all, buried under all that trauma were memories of alternate Clark’s family. Never having time for family. Jon-El’s defection to Ally. The breakdown of his marriage. Alternate Lois leaving him and taking Jordan-El with her. The kryptonite overdosing. Being betrayed by alternate Tal-Rho. What alternate Clark wanted was forgiveness and another chance.
Jonathan was yanked out of Doomsday’s mind when the monster reared back, grabbed his leg and threw him off his shoulders. Jonathan softened the impact with his powers and teleported away when the Doomsday tried to crush him with his feet.
He reappeared beside his father and both of them watched as the beast staggered around the place, clutching his head, roaring continuously. “It’s the kryptonite in his body, it is burning him alive, tearing his mind apart, he just wants the pain to stop, Luthor has made him believe that killing you is the only way to do that” Jonathan whispered.
Clark felt a deep sense of shame at Jonathan’s words. He had never bothered to investigate what had happened to his alternate self’s corpse. Never wondered what the DOD had done now that they had their hands on a near perfect Kryptonian specimen. He let things get in the way of noticing the finer details. He couldn’t imagine the torture that Doomsday had gone through to become what he was.
Jonathan looked up at his father and told him “I know what I need to do Dad, I just need you to keep him busy”. Jonathan turned around and shot off towards the sun in a burst of blue light. Clark’s eyes widened but before he could enquire as to what he had planned, he was beset by Doomsday who was still partially recovering from Jonathan’s mind blast.
Two guards rushed into the cell hallway with their guns raised. “Everyone, back against the walls, hands up, no funny business” One of them shouted, obviously the leader. The group complied, but Lois’s eyes remained firmly fixed on her unconscious son’s body which hadn’t so much as twitched since he electrocuted himself to try and short circuit his cuffs.
“Are you deaf or something? I said, get back against the wall” the other guard shouted at Jordan’s unconscious form, his gun waving threateningly.
“Please, help, the lights are killing him, so is the kryptonite” Lois pleaded with them, trying to make them see reason.
“Shut your mouth you alien loving whore! we know that you just want to help your half breed mongrel!” the first guard shouted, levelling his gun at her again.
“Lance, the kid ain’t moving, didn’t Mr Luthor say he had to be kept alive, what if he really is dying, besides we need to move him anyway” the second guard told him uneasily.
The first guard gritted his teeth before cursing. “Fine, you go and check him but any funny business and the kid gets it”. He indicated his weapon which had kryptonite cartridges.
The second guard opened the cell door with a key card and then stepped into the small space to check, Jordan’s pulse.
“He’s fine, Alright kid, time to get up” The guard said while grabbing Jordan’s shoulder and pulling him to his feet. There was a small clinking sound. When Jordan was pulled to his feet the Kryptonite cuffs were on the floor and his hands were free.
The first guard, noticing this, said, “Hey, what the hell? Why aren’t his hands in cuffs?”. The second guard saw the cuffs on the ground but before he could make the connection, Jordan hit him in the face with a strong punch and managed to wrangle his weapon away from him Not wasting his chance, his hand snapped out and he stole the swipe cards off the second guard. The first guard raised a gun towards Jordan. Jordan grabbed the stunned guard and used him like a shield to discourage the man’s comrade from firing.
Jordan used his waning strength to push the guard directly at the other. The resulting collision knocked the other guard back and against the other cells. Quick as lightning, John Henry darted forward and wrapped his arm around the first guard in a headlock. Meanwhile Lois reached through the bars and grabbed the key card that Jordan handed to her.
Jordan engaged with the second guard, but the man had learned his lesson and was now waving around a kryptonite pointed, electric cattle prod. Jordan tried to employ the training his grandfather and father had taught him. Remembering how both of them told him not to always rely on his powers.
In the meantime, Lois released herself, Natalie, John Henry and Sam from their cells, knocking out the first guard as they did so. Lois saw the second guard attacking her son with an electric prod, so she grabbed the one the first guard had. She then went up behind the man and jabbed the end of it into his neck. The guard screeched before he slumped to floor unconscious.
Jordan looked at his mother in awe and fear as she wielded the modified cattle prod like a sword with a fierce look of determination in her face. “Are you ok, sweetie?” she asked, her tone turning maternal once more. Jordan only nodded before allowing himself to be pulled to his feet by his grandfather. They moved them out to the cell hallway.
“Good, let’s go, everyone stick behind Sam and me, Jordan do you have your powers back?” John Henry asked. Jordan tried to summon a small little bit of heat vision, but he only managed a few flickers of red, glowing eyes before he sighed and gave up. “Nothing, I’m a little stronger and faster but it’ll take a whole day for my powers to come back, especially since it’s night”.
“Then stick behind us kiddo, don’t intervene unless absolutely necessary” Sam ordered as he disarmed the two guards and gave one of the guns to John Henry while Lois gave the other guard’s cattle prod to Natalie. The group moved out of the cell block.
Jonathan hovered before the sun, feeling equal parts dread and anticipation. He remembered the feeling from his memories. The absolute power. The lack of human emotions. He shakily raised his hands and prepared to channel the raw solar energy but stopped and drifted back a few feet, the fear permeating his mind.
He didn’t want to go back to that state. That state of utter lawlessness. That state where he committed terrible crimes without a single care. Where he attacked people that he loved and those that only tried to help him.
He was almost about to come up with another way when he sensed his father’s mind again. Doomsday had torn out one of its green kryptonite shards and had already slashed Clark twice with it, weakening the hero greatly. In his mind he felt his father getting pummelled within an inch of his life. His father was remembering all the times they shared together as a family. All the regret and love. The fights and feuds. But despite the good and bad he kept on fighting.
Jonathan knew that he couldn’t let his fear rule him. Not when his family was at stake. They were counting on him, and he wasn’t going to let them down. “I have to be strong; I can’t let fear control me, I can’t live in the past... my name is Jonathan Kent, and I am The Spectre” he roared before he started pulling the solar energy towards him and letting it flow through his body.
Clark put his arms up and bore the brunt of the creature’s tremendous strength against his wrists. Quick as lightning the creature pulled back and caught Clark’s side with a punch which winded the hero but didn’t stop him from catching the second strike. Clark then retaliated with an uppercut which launched the creature into space. Trying to press his advantage, Clark fired heat vision at Doomsday’s back.
Doomsday righted himself at the last second and met Clark’s heat vison with his enhanced one. His power quickly overpowered Clark’s who was forced to perform a complicated flying manoeuvre as the creature tried to hit him multiple times with its power.
Finally, Doomsday pulled another shard of kryptonite from his body and threw it at supersonic speed where Clark was flying in order to dodge Doomsday’s blast. Clark let out a gasp as the shard pierced his lower abdomen and the kryptonite began sapping away his strength. He hit the Moon’s surface with a tremendous thud.
Clark tried to pry the shard out, but Doomsday landed on top of him and prevented him from moving. Blearily, he turned around and looked the creature in the face who was almost leering down at him in victory as it kept its foot pinned on his lower back. Doomsday withdrew another shard from its body and raised it over its head before plunging it down towards Clark’s head.
Clark’s vision is filled with bright blue light. Energy so powerful that Doomsday was thrown away from Clark, a mile across the Moon’s surface. Clark looked up and saw that his son had assumed the energy form he had used when they were fighting each other. Only this time’s Jonathan’s form was emitting wisps of light blue energy instead of dark.
“Jonathan... how...?” Clark asked in wonderment. Jonathan didn’t answer. He simply raised a glowing translucent hand to Clark and healed him from the effects of kryptonite exposure. Doomsday charged back towards the father and son at breakneck speeds. As he neared them, he drew back his fist and tried to punch Jonathan while his back was turned.
Doomsday was forcibly stopped when, without looking, Jonathan raised his hand and caught Doomsday’s fist with an inch of his face. Jonathan faced Doomsday, his eyes burning like two suns and began walking, pushing Doomsday by his fist. Doomsday jerked out of Jonathan’s hold and blasted him directly with his enhanced heat vision. Jonathan merely splayed his arms out and took the blast directly in his chest.
Clark alarmed, rushed forward to help, but he quickly noticed that Jonathan didn’t falter. In fact, the beam of energy started to diminish in strength. It cleared enough for Clark to see that Jonathan was absorbing Doomsday’s blast without showing any signs of discomfort or injury.
The beam stopped and Doomsday shot forward to try and strike Jonathan again. Jonathan disappeared in a flash of blue and met Doomsday before he gained any distance. Jonathan raised a glowing fist and delivered an uppercut to Doomsday’s jaw sending the creature flying upwards. Jonathan teleported over him and met him in the air before delivering an earth-shattering punch to Doomsday’s chest, sending him hurtling back towards the ground in an explosion of light.
Doomsday righted himself at the last minute and looked wildly around for Jonathan. Jonathan was nowhere to be found. With a grunt of frustration, Doomsday turned to Clark and flew forward to resume fighting him. Jonathan chose that moment to strike. He reappeared in the air above Doomsday and hit with an energy blast before teleporting again. Doomsday was blasted off course. Jonathan reappeared behind him again and shot another blast at Doomsday before disappearing.
Doomsday roared as Jonathan began delivering multiple blasts from different locations. Always teleporting and blasting before teleporting away. The field became a haze of blue and orange light as the Spectre fought the beast. Him lighting up the air with blue energy while Doomsday tried to him with energy strikes.
At least that’s what Clark could see. What he didn’t see was Jonathan, sending telepathic taunts to Doomsday. Doomsday raged as simple annoyance for Jonathan turned to absolute uncontrollable hatred. This was not helped by the sound of his voice echoing in his head. “WEAK, FAILURE, DESPERATE, NO WONDER LOIS LEFT YOU, JON-EL WAS RIGHT TO GO TO ALLY, EVEN YOUR BROTHER ABANDONED YOU, COULDN’T SAVE YOUR WORLD, COULDN’T SAVE YOUR FAMILY, KRYPTONITE JUNKIE, THINK LUTHOR HAS MADE YOU STRONGER? HE’S JUST MADE YOU MORE PATHETIC!”.
The memories of his greatest failures were being dragged forcibly to the creature’s mind. Changing from Doomsday’s to Bizarro Superman’s. All the while, energy began building up within its body as his anger reached incredible heights. Clark wanted to intervene when Doomsday’s entire body started to glow, and energy began to charge through the air. But he was held back from doing so.
“Trust me” Jonathan whispered telepathically. Clark tried to calm himself and prayed that Jonathan knew what was doing. It was going against every instinct in his body that demanded he protect his son, but he did it anyway. He tried to remember that prior to Smallville, he would have trusted Jonathan with everything because his son always seemed to so mature and in control, always smiling and so he tried to muster up that feeling once more. A feeling that had been broken ever since the night he came home, and Lois told him that Jonathan had been using X-K and was covering up for the true perpetrator.
Doomsday’s form was now covered in radioactive energy. His body was simultaneously rejecting the kryptonite while absorbing it. Jonathan blasts were the equivalent of sending sparks at an open tank of gas. Through it all the voices in his heads reached a crescendo and finally Bizarro Clark, in a rare moment of consciousness shouted, “STOP IT!”.
“MAKE ME, KAL-EL!” Jonathan’s mental shouted back. Doomsday/Kal reared back, hands on his head, and energy exploded from his body. It didn’t get far though. A blue forcefield wrapped around Doomsday like a sphere, preventing the energy from exploding outwards. Jonathan pushed the sphere away from the moon, accompanying it into open space.
Once they were at a safe distance, Jonathan drifted forward towards the energy bubble which was struggling to contain Doomsday’s energy explosion. He paused before entering the bubble. Immediately, his form was bombarded with the creature’s destructive power. If he had been in normal form, even his advanced healing wouldn’t have stopped the skin and flesh from being ripped of his bones.
He simply kept pushing through, absorbing the energy as he went and converting it into his own. Finally, he reached Doomsday’s burning form. Slowly he pushed his hands forwards until they rested on Doomsday’s burning temples. Jonathan’s only thoughts were three words. “PURGE AND HEAL!”.
With that Jonathan began redirecting all of Doomsday’s energy and his own back into his body. He felt each shard of kryptonite embedded into Doomsday’s body trying to resist the rapid influx of solar radiation, only to become overwhelmed and reduced to fine, harmless, dust. He destroyed and remapped every cell, every organ, every nerve, every bone, every muscle, every drop of blood that had been corrupted by Luthor, the tracker, his multiple death’s, the kryptonite addiction, everything was purged and healed. His body began to shrink and reform in Jonathan’s hands.
Throughout it all, Jonathan held Kal-El's mind in his grasp, never letting it slip back into the dark recesses of his mind, never letting him feel the pain of his body being essentially burned, torn apart and being put back together, making sure that when his efforts were done, Kal would have something to come back to.
During this, Clark watched as the bubble of blue and orange light increased with intensity until it combined together to form a massive blinding white light so intense that Clark was forced to cover his eyes with his hand, his eyelids not being sufficient enough. Once again people on Earth were treated to another sight of what appeared to be another sun.
As he continued to pour more power into his healing, Jonathan prayed that it would be enough. But he felt his strength begin to wane and the process was only half done. Jonathan kept going praying that this would work.
Lois proceeded down the corridor with the group. Sam and John Henry walked ahead, their guns fully cocked and ready to fire. Natalie and Jordan walked behind her. Jordan occasionally used his dulled superhuman senses to anticipate any attacks.
So far, they had avoided any guard patrols, but they were no closer to funding their way out. Lois guessed that they were somewhere underground. Probably lead lined so that her husband couldn’t see them or hear them call out.
They eventually came across a large office with multiple screens on one wall. Each of them depicting the fight between Superman, Spectre and Doomsday. Lois spotted a phone and began dialling but she received no answer. John and Sam guarded the door. Natalie and Jordan tried to log on to the computer. Their efforts were in vain.
“Goddamit, we can’t call out for help, we can’t find a way out, we can’t even stop Luthor” Sam growled.
“That’s something we both agree on General Lane” Luthor’s voice echoed throughout the office. Smoke burst from every corner of the office and made the humans cough and their battle ready stances falter. Panels opened up along the walls and red solar light flooded the room. Jordan felt what little power he had managed to regain start slipping away. Armed guards in gas masks swarmed the room and quickly subjugated the group.
They were escorted to Luthor who didn’t seem surprised or particularly bothered by their escape. “Ah, Ms Lane, so kind of you to join us, Mr Kent, kudos to you for that risky manoeuvre, using the live cable to get rid of your cuffs, maybe you have learned something from being on the naughty step this past month”.
“You knew we’d try to escape” Lois spat bitterly.
“Of course I did, Ms Lane; to be honest, I’d be a bit disappointed if you didn’t, now I know that I didn’t underestimate your capacity for resourcefulness as well as to be a nuisance in my affairs” Luthor shrugged.
“What purpose will this serve, Luthor? Killing Superman and his family will only get you on every watch list and have you declared a terrorist” John Henry argued.
Luthor smirked. “Is that what you think? Superman is as much an enemy to the world as he is an ally, oh, they might make a big issue about it, a few closed trials here and there but I can personally assure you that there are many powerful figures would be delighted to see everyone’s pet alien, put down, General Lane knows what I’m talking about”.
Lois turned to her father who didn’t meet her eyes. “Dad, what is he talking about?”.
“Pumkin, he is just trying to distract us, he...”
“Don’t try and change the subject! Answer my question”.
Sam sighed and replied, “there are some organizations, outside the jurisdiction of the DOD who believe Superman to be a real threat, a ticking time bomb; it was never an issue before, but after the Eradicator, Ally Ashton, Spectre, Jordan’s reveal, they have been given more power and legitimacy to set up more countermeasures to eliminate any alien or superhuman threat, I have been privy to a few but they make sure not to tell me too much because of my connection to you and by extension Superman”.
“And you didn’t think that neither I nor Clarke deserved to know that there were organisations that were set on targeting Kryptonians, namely our sons?” Lois demanded.
Sam was silent and didn’t meet his daughters gaze once more and instead, preferring to look at the ground.
“It’s because he thinks exactly the same way, he thinks there should be weapons out there to deal with your children if they get out of line, your dear dad is a soldier true and true, Lois” Luthor taunted.
One of the guards spoke into an earpiece briefly before he said to Luthor, “Mr Luthor, Doomsday completed its mission, he is returning now with the corpse of Superman now”.
Lois and Jordan felt the breath leave their lungs. The rest of the group was numb and silent in shock.
“Excellent, have the buyers been contacted?” asked Luthor uncaring of Lois and Jordan’s turmoil.
“Yes, sir and our team of specialists are ready to strip down the corpse” the soldier replied.
“Strip down?” Natalie asked, having a feeling she was not going to like the answer.
Luthor turned to the group and with an evil smile said, ,”Yes, Ms Irons, strip down; Superman’s body is worth a billion dollars, I will of course be extracting DNA for my own personal use before handing the body over to the highest bidder, but Clark Kent’s generous donation will ensure that I will have the necessary means to take Intergang to new heights and create bio weapons of my own to ensure my organization’s wealth and prosperity, and I will of course, be taking possession of those marvellous suits that you and your father possess, I am sure the DOD will pay the city’s weight in gold to get their hands on them”.
The soldier spoke into his earpiece again. “Sir, Doomsday arrived but he didn’t just bring Superman, we have confirmation that the Spectre is dead too”.
“NOOOO!” Lois and Jordan screamed in denial and sorrow. Luthor turned to Lois and said “Far be it for me to deny a mother a chance to say goodbye to come of her sons especially when she’ll soon be saying goodbye to the other, Take them”. Luthor motioned with his hand and the guards dragged them up a few flights of stairs to an open area of what appeared to be an underground parking garage.
Luthor clicked on a remote in his hands. The roof opened up and Doomsday floated down onto the ground, both Clark’s and Jonathan’s mutilated bodies in his large hands, his entire form covered in blood.
He dropped the bodies at Luthor’s feet, growling as he did so. He then held out a closed fist to Luthor. He opened his hand and in his large palm was Clark’s heart.
Lois and Jordan broke down then. Crying out in pain and agony. Lois at the loss of her husband, soulmate and her sweet baby boy. Jordan at the loss of his seemingly invincible kind father and his best friend, confidant, his other half who had been with him from day one. Sam was trying to keep it together but he was trembling with rage and pain. John Henry looked like he wanted nothing more than to beat Luthor to death. Natalie looked at the ground, trying in vain to wipe away the tears that were falling.
Luthor picked up the heart and walked over to Lois who had sunk to her knees, holding Jordan who had joined her, both of them sobbing at the sight of their dead family. He held the heart in front of Lois and squeezed it, causing fresh blood to pump out. Lois simply looked at Luthor, her eyes hollow, her spirit broken.
“I’m going to kill you, I am going to hunt you down and put you in the ground like the mad dog you are”. Her voice was emotionless. It lacked mercy and was full of conviction. Luthor smirked and threw the heart away and it hit Natalie who caught it., but didn’t let go.
“As I’m sure you’d like to Ms Lane, and as much as I would love to stay and gloat, revelling in your misery, I sadly have to depart” Luthor told her.
He then turned to Doomsday and said “Kill her son right in front of her, make it last”.
Lois and Jordan cried as they were forcibly separated. Doomsday stomped over to Jordan and raised his hand to strike. It was then that they heard Natalie’s voice say “Hedy, activate autopilot, target all armed assailants”.
The group looked at Natalie who was still holding Superman’s ‘heart’ which appeared to be bleeping. The were further shocked when the corpse’s of Superman and Spectre rose into the air sharply and began attacking Luthor’s men.
“What’s going on?” Sam demanded.
Luthor, upon seeing his men attacked shouted into a com piece for assistance. “Team Delta, respond! We have a breach, proceed up to Level 3! Team Delta, respond!” he commanded.
“Team Delta is a little occupied at the moment Lexie, but don’t worry, I’ll be coming up to assist you soon” Jonathan’s voice rang out over the speakers.
Flashback.
Eventually, the light began to die down, retreating back to its source. Clark chanced opening his eyes and saw that the light had dissolved into two glowing figures, their features indistinguishable. The two flew back to the moon and touched down on its surface. Clark followed them.
Finally, the glow settled, and it showed a now, normal Jonathan cradling a naked, shivering, crying Kal-El, supporting him by his arms and encasing him with wisps of blue energy to protect him from the vacuum of space. Jonathan looked up at Clark and jerked his head towards Kal, indicating his lack of clothing. Clark immediately removed his cape and wrapped around his Bizarro doppelganger.
“First him, then Luthor” Jonathan told Clark, holding out a hand to his father. Clark nodded and took his son’s hand. The three of them vanished in a flash of blue light.
They reappeared in Jonathan’s new Fortress. With his other hand he created some clothes for alternate Clark to wear which he put on gratefully. Jonathan then led him to his bed and soon he was out like a light. Jonathan flicked his wrist and Jor-El’s sunstone was activated. “Jon-El, have you come to resume...?” Jor-El asked but was cut off by Clark’s loud exclamation of “Father?”.
Jor-El turned to Clark and replied “Kal, my son it is most wonderful to see you once more, I...” but Jonathan interrupted.
“We can save the family reunions for later, right now, we need to save our family and friends,” Jonathan told them, tapping in some commands on the control panel.
“Of course, what do you need?” Clark asked.
Jonathan held up a small device. Clark recognised it as a tracker. “I pulled this out of your alternate self; no doubt Luther is waiting to hear back soon, if he doesn’t, he’ll kill Mom, Jordan, Grandpa and the Iron’s”.
Jonathan attached the device to a strap, then beckoned Clark to over to him. “This will make Luthor think that you’re Doomsday, it’ll allow us to track him back to his base”.
Clark asked “What about my alternate self?”.
“Grandfather can you set up red solar panels in my room to help heal him, makes sure he sleeps until we’re back” Jonathan asked the hologram. “Of course, Jon-El” Jor-El replied.
“I assume that you’ve got a plan to fool Luthor?” Clark asked.
Jonathan held up a glowing hand. “Depends, how do you feel about a makeover?” he questioned his father.
Present:
At Jonathan’s announcement, the ‘heart’ in Natalie’s hand’s turned into a remote. She had caught it after being instructed by Jonathan telepathically. Once the remote had her bio scan, she was able to remote pilot the suits.
The bodies of Clark and Jonathan shimmered with blue light before turning into the Irons’s battle suits. Doomsday, who had been walking towards Jordan began to shrink and glow until the real Clark was revealed. He smiled at his son and wife reassuringly before lasering off their cuffs. He then turned to deal with the additional security that managed to avoid Jonathan.
While Jordan went to help his grandfather, Lois spotted Luthor sneaking away from the conflict, talking rapidly to someone on his phone. Lois spotted a pistol on one of the guards and picked it up before running after Luthor.
How had things gone so wrong? That was what Luthor had wondered. Logically he knew that the Spectre or Jonathan or whoever he was or wasn’t, didn’t play by the same rules as his moral loving father and self-righteous mother.
Still he never would have expected a trick like that. He had been foolish, he thought to himself as he got to his office and initiated an emergency plan on his computer. He then revealed a safe behind the wall and opened it revealing files, samples of kryptonite, cash and vials filled with Doomsday’s blood.
He gathered them all into a briefcase, all the while thinking. “I’ll have to go underground for a while, bide my time, contact a few associates, I’ll...”. Luthor’s train of thought was interrupted when he turned around and was struck in the face with a desk ornament. He staggered back and looked up when he heard the click of a gun.
“Going somewhere, Lex?” Lois asked calmly, gun pointed directly at Luthor, her face devoid of emotion.
Luthor smirked at Lois’s stance. “Put that thing down, Lane, before you hurt yourself”. He didn’t seem phased at all by the gun in her hand. Lois flicked off the safety, remembering her father teaching her and Lucy how to shoot when they were teens.
“Do you know what just happened a few minutes ago, Lex Luthor?” Lois asked, her voice still lacking any conveyance of her feelings.
“Your son played me, Lois, I’ll have to pay him back for that” Luthor answered.
“No, Luthor... for ten whole minutes, I was led to believe that the man I loved, my soulmate, my always, was dead”. Lois stepped closer, holding the gun steady.
“That the child I carried in my womb for eight months, three weeks and two days; who I held in my arms, who I loved at first sight, who I read bedtime stories to, who I taught how to ride a bike, that the child I failed and have spent months begging to God for a chance at reconciliation, was dead” Lois stopped, taking a deep breath.
“That was the single worst ten minutes of my life, Luthor, seeing my husband and son dead, believing that I would never hear their voices again, I will not allow that to happen ever again” Lois told him firmly.
“Well, now you know how much it hurt me when you separated me from my wife and daughter” Luthor told her, while subtly reaching for a small handgun he had stashed in his pocket.
Lois let a small smirk pull at the corner of her lips. “Your wife? She hated you, she wanted to get away from you but she knew that doing so would mean death for her and that with her gone, her daughter would fall into her hands”.
“Your LYING!” Luthor roared.
“Am I? Who do you think gave us the additional evidence we needed to put you in prison? Who had access to all your records? Face it, Luthor; your wife saw you for what you were and didn’t want her child to involved in any of that!”.
Luthor looked like he wanted to lunge at Lois. His fingers tightened around the gun. In the end he looked at Lois solemly and said “It doesn’t matter Ms Lane whether you or Superman get me here or elsewhere, I have secured more than enough evidence to ruin your family’s lives and keep myself out of prison, and when I’m released? I’m going to attend to my beloved wife and take our daughter back, willingly or unwillingly, I’m going to come for your entire family, your husband, your sons, your friends, and then you; I will haunt you until the end of your days, you will constantly live in fear... like I said, you should have listened to me... you should have known better than you mess with those more powerful than you... I nearly killed your husband and sons today... I wonder what I can do when I’m able to regroup? You will never be free of me, Lois Lane”.
Lois simply replied “I know!”. The gun in her hand lowered slightly, her hand trembling.
Luthor smiled then drew his gun and pointed it at Lois.
The few remaining guards tried to flee but were stopped when Jonathan teleported in front of them. They raised their weapons to fire but Jonathan disarmed them with a flick of his wrist. “Sleep” Jonathan commanded. The guard’s temples glowed blue momentarily before they collapsed to the ground unconscious.
Clark was checking the group for injuries when Jordan asked “Where’s Luthor? And where’s Mom?”. Everyone looked around in panic. Just then, a single gunshot rang out throughout the compound. “LOIS/MOM!” Clark, Jordan and Jonathan cried out.
Clark supersped to the sound while Jonathan teleported both himself and Jordan. They appeared in Luthor’s office to see Lois standing over Luthor’s dead body. His forehead bleeding from the gunshot it received, his eyes wide an unseeing. In his hand was a small handgun.
Lois stood firm and resolute. Her gun was still raised, her stance still unwavering. “Lois...” Clark whispered in wonder and slight disbelief.
Lois turned to her husband and family and simply said “It had to be done”. With that, she walked forward and the family was soon wrapped up in a group hug.
“I would just like to thank you all for being here today, I understand the time consuming nature of your jobs, so I’ll try to be get as much out of this session as possible” Dr Sturgis told the group.
Jonathan, Jordan, Clark and Lois all sat around in a semi circle in front of Dr Sturgis in the Forest Fortress. They decided that this was fairly neutral meeting ground for family therapy. Only Jordan had a problem with it. That was mainly because on first exiting the Fortress, Jordan had a rather unfortunate meeting with a group of the islands scaly, hissing residents. He had flown/supersped so fast back into he Fortress that he left a permanent dent in the wall when he hit it. Jonathan almost died laughing at seeing a virtually invincible teenager run away from three foot snake whose fangs couldn’t pierce his invulnerable skin.
“So, you have been through some harrowing events within the last two weeks, you had to come together to overcome these problems, how does that make you all feel? Clark how about we start with you?” Dr Sturgis inquired, notebook in hand.
Clark looked nervous but said “I’m not sure, on one hand, I am glad that we have come back together as a family, but things still are still not right, better but not right”.
It was true. After Luthor’s death, Clark had focused on comforting his wife. Jonathan and Jordan had surprisingly stepped up to sort out the mess that Luthor had left behind. Jonathan tracked down all the members of Luthor’s organization who had knowledge of who their family was and wiped their memories. John Henry and Natalie had combed through the databases to completely remove any trace of Superman or kryptonians in general. Jordan had suggested that they scope out the buyers that Luthor had lined up for the corpse of Superman, citing that they were ones that they needed to watch out for. Jonathan agreed and it warmed Clark’s heart to see his son’s united after so long apart.
“What about you, Jordan?” Dr Sturgis asked turning to the teen in question.
“I don’t really know, I have learnt so much in these last couple of weeks, I don’t know where to start” Jordan confessed.
It was true. His month without powers. The limited contact with his grandfather. His father’s distance over lack of bonding. Learning with his mother. The kidnapping. Working with his brother. It made him realize much about himself and discover that there was so much more to the world than he thought.
“And you, Jonathan?” Dr Sturgis turned to the other teen next.
“I... I think I trust people more... I’m not fully there... yet, but I can see a way out now, I didn’t believe that things could get better... like I have things to look forward to now” Jonathan admitted.
It was true. Before he had contacted Dr Sturgis, he figured that he would stay under the radar, trying to make up for the lives he took, learn to properly control his powers, isolate himself. These last few weeks, he began to imagine a different path for himself. A way to redemption. A way to have a relationship with his family again. A way to be true to himself and not what others thought he should be.
Finally, Dr Sturgis turned to Lois. “Lois, what have you been considering within these last few days?”.
Lois took a while to say anything. “Mostly, I have been just thinking about how happy I am that our family is back together, that Luthor has been taken care, how are family can move on from this dark chapter in our lives”.
This... was false. Yes, Lois had been happy to have her family back together but was equally terrified of it being divided again. She was fearful of the fact that she felt very little negative emotions for killing Luthor. Remorse yes, but that was followed by a sense of relief. The man who dared to threaten her family was gone and couldn’t harm them again. She often heard wild stories of mothers who went to the ends of the earth to protect their families but she never understood how string that drive could be until she was faced with that decision herself.
Finally she was unsure of the current dynamic in their family now. For most of her life, she had always been a planner, an organizer, a clear goal in mind, a set lf expectations. It had been that way since her mother had abandoned their family and Sam had delved into his work, leaving Lois and Lucy to fend for themselves. This last month had thrown her off completely and it made her question herself. How had she been so blind to Jonathan’s issues? How had she not seen Jordan’s worsening behaviour? How had she not seeing the growing divide between her and her husband? The insecurity? Their methods. She sighed, knowing that she couldn’t control the future.
Dr Sturgis didn’t believe her. “Lois, I don’t believe that was the truth... if you would like, we can arrange a separate session if you don’t feel comfortable sharing this topic”.
Lois briefly considered it before she sighed and said “No, that won’t be necessary, I suppose the trouble I’m having is that I am very unsure about the future, so many people know about our family secret, that there are more sinister organizations out there that want to hurt my family, that... that... That I don’t really know how to feel about Luthor’s death... there are so many unknown and I hate... I hate...”
“Not feeling in control, like everything is spiralling and you’re just trying to hold on to the pieces, always having to be strong?” Jonathan softly stated. Lois nodded.
“Lois, no one is perfect; I can only speculate that in a family like yours, the concept of order and balance are near impossible to achieve, hence the unpredictability, anyone would want to have the comfort of stability, a sense of control if not just for peace of mind” Dr Sturgis told her.
Dr Sturgis face the four of them. “Each of you all carry your own set of problems that define you as people, Jonathan; your fear about losing control, Jordan; your struggle to find out where your true strengths lie outisde of being half kryptonian, Clark; your inability to reconcile with the kryptonian heritage fully because you silently wish to be human, the struggle to truly bond with your son’s, Lois; your need to be in control and secure... Now do you all know what these things have in common?”.
The four of them considered it. Finally, Jordan said “These were the issues and dynamics that made up out family and what caused it to collapse io the first place”.
Dr Sturgis nodded encouragingly. “Exactly Jordan, each of you represents a broken piece that was your family unit prior to your arrival to Smallville; what we are aiming to do is take those pieces, recognize the errors and faults that caused the collapse in the first place, improve and redeem them of fault; only then can we begin to build them back into a more cohesive unit, one that is stronger than before now that the original issues have been dealt with and that happens through good communication, through that you will find that you are able to support and advise one another”.
Dr Sturgis wrote down something else on his notebook before concluding with a final speech. “I am pleased to say that each of you is taking the steps necessary for that improvement, you are reconciling the boundaries within your unit and learning to better not just as people
Jonathan nodded. He had been attending dinner at the family house for the last couple of days. It was stiff but cordial at first but eventually he had opened up to them about the projects he was working on. Finishing online school. Developing technology. Thoughts on resuming his training as a junior firefighter trainee. Finding a small part-time job.
His mother told him he was always welcome to come home. Jordan accompanied him to his Fortress. Clark helped him with establishing a connection from the ocean Fortress to the forest Fortress. It was through that collaborative effort that they managed to send Alternate Kal back to his home dimension with schematics on how to build a machine in his reality should Tal-Rho ever desire to return to their world. Throughout that time, they talked about small things to big things.
Jordan had impressed Jonathan with his drive to embrace both sides of his dual heritage. Instead of the arrogance and moodiness that had once been the defining features of Jordan’s characters, he was learning to appreciate everything in life. Acknowledging the true meaning of being a hero and becoming more self-aware of his personal faults.
Clark had been touch and go, to say the least. One minute, they could be working and chatting but the next they could be engaged in a verbal sparring match. Thankfully, this appeared to become less common as they learned to let cooler heads prevail. Despite this, Clark had come to accept his son’s advice and even started bonding evenings with each of his son’s, participating in the one-on-one time he hadn’t been doing when they moved to Smallville.
His relationship with his wife was another story. Without shadow of a doubt, Clark would move heaven and earth for her but ever since she killed Luthor, it had made him question his own position in the family. Was he a pushover? Was he insecure of his kryptonian identity? Was he lax to the point that Lois felt she had to take matters into her own hands? He knew that Lois had to be the primary parent when the boys were growing up. Maybe that was the issue. His wife had become so used to handling matters regarding their boys so much that he had become ignorant to his children’s individual needs and become complacent of Jonathan’s suffering and ignorant of Jordan’s arrogance.
Lois had a hard time letting go. She acknowledged that both of her sons were nearly adults and due to the nature of their parent’s professions, they needed to be kept up to date on any issues or problems that affected the family. It was hard though. Lately, it seemed to her that whenever she blinked, her boys were growing up and becoming more mature, faster than she could handle.
Talking with Clark, Jordan, Jonathan and Dr Sturgis had slowly made her come to terms with her control issues which had only been amplified by the unpredictability she had faced when she got her cancer diagnosis. That her need to focus on her job, reporting and solving other’s people’s issues was her avoidance technique and dealing with the insecurity she sometimes felt towards her husband. But it was becoming apparent that she to take a step back and let the boy’s fail and succeed bit by bit on their own. To become a firm guide and not an authoritarian figure.
“You are all in a tenuous point, but you are striving to overcome that, it’s a start and a very good one”.
They silently agreed with that and nodded. They weren’t in a comfortable place yet, but if they worked together, they could begin to heal.
In Washington DC a short, middle aged, slightly portly, African American woman sat behind her desk. To look at her initially, one wouldn’t think of her as a credible threat. This would be a huge mistake. The woman in question was proficient in multiple firearms and basic hand to hand combat. But that wasn’t what her so dangerous.
What made her so dangerous is that she had access to the most top secret and dangerous intel in the world. She held most if not all of the secrets, from the most miniscule to the most damning. Her secrets had secrets. From politician to basic soldier, she had some degree of influence on them all. She was the silent hand, the voice in ear, the hand of power, few things were done without her say so or support. She was the Director of ARGUS (Advanced Research Group United Support). An organization that didn’t officially exist on record that had ties to the most powerful organizations around the world. All dedicated to the preservation of the American way and society in general. If anyone went against that it wasn’t long before that person either was made to back down or was silenced. Permanently.
One of her underlings knocked three times on the door. Each underling had been trained to use specific knocks. One knock for basic matters and issues within the organization. Two knocks for sensitive or relevant information about their operations. Three knocks for vastly important developments, urgent matters and strict need to know matters.
“Come in” the woman ordered.
The underling walked in and stood before the Director.
“Director Waller, CADMUS has been in contact, they say that the subject is viable and will be ready to operate in under two years, we have also received word from our informant in Luthor’s organization, he has confirmed that Luthor is dead, we are now in the process of copying his servers before the Irons family has chance to clear them out”. The underling then handed Waller a thick file which read ‘CADMUS: Subject 1152-Superboy PRIME’.
“Keep an eye on the extraction process in Luthor’s organization, when the process is over, and we have everything we need, dispose of the informant, we can’t have anything be connected back to us, is that clear?”.
“Yes Director”
“Good, as for CADMUS, ensure that our R&D department is working in conjunction with theirs in case the Superboy-PRIME needs to be ‘contained’, we can’t risk that thing being under anyone’s control but ours, is that clear?”
“Yes, Director”. Director Waller nodded, and the underling took the dismissal for what it was and left the Director alone with her thoughts.
“Superman, Spectre, Superboy, Kryptonians, Superpowers, Metahumans” thought Waller. Up until twenty years ago, the biggest concern for the United States security was radical terrorist groups from the Middle East. 9-11 was once thought to be the singular event that changed the face of war.
But no, instead this man with incredible abilites appeared out of nowhere. A man who had the power to fly without any type of mechanical equipment. Who was faster than a speeding bullet. Who could shirk off a missile explosion with a shrug. Who could lift an entire city with his bare hands.
Many people saw him as a saviour, but Waller only saw him as severe liability and what followed in the wake of his reveal only confirmed her thought process. Suddenly, freaks of nature were emerging out of the woodworks. Weapons manufacturing had gone into rapid advancement. Millions of dollars in property damage. Conflict after conflict over the simple fact that there was proof of intelligent life in the universe.
Superman was a rogue element and Waller didn’t like those. She hated them in fact. Sure, she was capable of seeing the benefit of having a superhuman agent in the world. But one that didn’t advocate for a set of ideals, follow a military order, not loyal to any known country? Madness.
They had since created weapons that would combat the alien threat, but the last three years had shown them just how underprepared they really were. Morgan Edge’s Annihilator Experiment? Ally Ashton’s attempt to merge the two worlds? The Spectre? It was all the proof she needed to secure the resources to create an absolute sure-fire way to maintain the safety of the American society and the status quo that helped the world function as a whole.
She opened up the file and one of the pictures within it was of a foetus being rapidly grown in a large test tube. On its shoulder was a tiny tattoo of Superman’s crest. Waller nodded approvingly as she read through the notes on the latest attempt they had made, cloning Superman. So far, they had promising results, not like the other thousand failed experiments they produced which had set them back billions of dollars.
When they heard that Superman was going to be a father, they had scrambled to find a way to get his DNA through conventional means. But no matter how many undercover operatives they had sent to seduce the Man of Steel, it seemed that Kent (Honestly, who did the farm boy think he was fooling with those glasses?) was part of an exceedingly rare group of people who could keep it in their pants.
When the boys had been born, there had been a proposal to abduct them but Waller herself had shut that down immediately. Not because she was concerned about the welfare of the children but because, Lois was well connected and had been proven to be major headache to those she exposed with her writing. Not to mention that threatening Superman’s family was all but declaring war on the most powerful man on the planet. No doing that, would have gained them little and lost them so much more.
In any case, at the time the children had not shown any sign of inheriting their father’s abilities. Instead, they had gathered the little scraps of DNA that they could and tried to create the perfect weapon to use in case Superman ever turned rogue. The experiments had been failures until they heard about the bonfire explosion in Smallville that Superman’s two sons had been attending.
Since then, they monitored the boys more closely and had even gotten their hands on the other various types of kryptonite. X-K was a godsend as far as Waller was concerned. While it hadn’t propelled the clone research, it had helped them out in other various operations that required the impossible. When they determined that Jordan was the one with powers, they put Jonathan Kent on the back burner, dismissing him by thinking that he had simply gotten the human portion of his parent’s DNA.
But then came the Spectre. A new rogue element that made Superman look like cakewalk in comparison to violating national security. It drove the research even further until a miraculous event occurred. The dissection of Jonathan Kent. They had their operatives go undercover in Mannheim's organization to obtain samples of his DNA and it was like they had found the missing ingredient. They had the map they needed in genetic structure to create a viable clone. Waller had finally accomplished what she had set out to do ever since the man in blue and red had taken flight.
The scientists at CADMUS warned her that the subject’s abilities could be unpredictable due the combined DNA of Superman and the Spectre, but she wasn't worried. She was Amanda Waller, Director of ARGUS and getting people to act against their own self-interest for the good of the United States was what she did for a living.