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bagheera_sanFor ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
xparrot, with pics to illustrate characters and plot points (or just the fact that Catman is hot ;) )
I wrote this story on a complete whim, in just two sittings, after readingxparrot's meta about Lex's motivations. The idea of Lex basically doing all the evil stuff he does to defend Earth from a Kryptonian invasion is just irresistible, and it's canon supported, especially by the episode "Vessel."
She also remarked that Lex is very lonely and has no confidante, which for some reason made me think of how awesome it would be if Lex met the Martian Manhunter, who would of course see through Lex's evil act and realize it's all just a big misunderstanding between him and Clark caused by Clark's lies.
It's not the first time I had the idea of Lex meeting J'onn, I got into the fandom in S5, when J'onn hadn't yet appeared on SV and back then I started a fic where Lex finds J'onn locked in a government lab, but I abandoned that one. In a way, J'onn is the perfect Mary Sue ;)
I kinda wish I hadn't written this fic in such a rush and had taken more time to flesh it out. I didn't even make a list of characters to include, I just wrote it scene by scene without a plan (which, admittedly, is how I usually write my fic). I didn't even plan them to go on the quest, I just had J'onn and Lex in mind, but then Lex just wouldn't trust J'onn until J'onn suggested finding other meta-humans.
Still, it's one of my personal favourites, because it's just completely self-indulgent, and I love "gathering a rag-tag band of heroes and going on a quest" stories.
The title is the title of a comic book series, but it has very little to do with the fic. I just thought it sounded good.
*******************************************************************************
Seven Soldiers of Victory
There's a stranger in Lex's office.
A stranger in the study in the mansion – that wouldn't surprise Lex very much. But here at LuthorCorp these invasions of his privacy happen much less regularly.
The stranger is a black man dressed in a leather coat. I like the look of SV's Martian Manhunter. J'onn is a shape-shifter, he can take on pretty much any form he wants. (At least in the comics and the toons.) He's often seen as a detective in trenchcoat and fedora in the comics, but we've also seen him as a sexy Asian woman (he called himself Rei Hino – the civilian name of Sailor Mars – and Batman immediately revealed that he is a Sailor Moon fan by calling him on it. Very amusing scene.) or as a female version of his usual 'green guy with blue cape and briefs' look. In JLU, we also see him as an elderly Asian man. J'onn transcends gender and he isn't as centred on North America as most DC heroes – in the comics, he's very popular in South America and Asia, more than Superman. In one hand he holds a comic book – a Warrior Angel issue that must have been published since Lex stopped reading, which was quite some time ago, with the bald, purple-masked alien hero on the cover, fighting off monstrous alien invaders. Warrior Angel is a trope of SV fanfiction, like purple shirts and Tynant bottles. I'm always reluctant to use it in fic, but it's just perfect for this – Warrior Angel is Superman, but he's just as much J'onn. And J'onn is already subtly influencing Lex – reminding him of the positive image he had of aliens as a child. And of course Warrior Angel is fighting alien invaders, because that's what Lex does – and what Clark does.
Lex does not appreciate the irony.
On Lex's usually immaculate desk, there's a stack of oreo cookies and a lot of crumbs. J'onn loves Oreos ("Chocos" in the comics because of trademark issues), and I adore SV for remembering that. In "Static" (heh, now I kinda wish "Static" had been a "Static Shock" crossover ep, but I disgress) I didn't recognize J'onn until the cookie appeared and then I squeed for several minutes at my computer screen. There's a very cute Justice League International comic in which J'onn gets addicted to Oreos and goes on a rampage in search of more. Here is the cover of said story:
The man lowers the comic and glances calmly at Lex over the rim. Lex can't recall when a simple look has ever unnerved him this much.
He raises his chin in haughty defiance. Probably this is just some employee waiting to be fired. "Who are you?"
The man turns a page of the comic. The cover, under the gaudy red Warrior Angel logo, reads 'Stranger in a Strange World'. Lex never liked it when they gave the books pretentious titles like that. "Stranger in a Strange World" is a misquote of the title of Robert A. Heinlein's book "Stranger in a Strange Land". The protagonist of that book is a human boy raised by Martians on Mars, who is brought back to Earth by an expedition. The government holds him hostage until a nurse and a reporter free him. They're all taken in by the eccentric millionaire Jubal Harshaw. The Martian boy has psychic powers and later founds a New Age like church. Jubal Harshaw always reminded me a little of Lex.
"John Jones," the stranger answers and lowers the comic again.
A long pink tongue shoots out of his mouth, hits one of the cookies with the precision of a frog catching a fly, and pulls it into the stranger's mouth just as quickly. He chews with obvious relish, then swallows. This is how comics J'onn eats oreos – no idea if SV!J'onn can do this.
Perversely, this display of freakishness almost calms Lex down. It's a mutant.
"Actually, no," John Jones says in his quiet rumble. "Although I hope you will keep your calm set of mind when I tell you that I am what you would call a Martian."
"A Martian," Lex echoes. Something moves in him, uncomfortably, and he realizes it's the urge to laugh.
"Yes," John Jones merely says, and turns another page. It's the last one, when he's done reading, he closes the comic and puts it down, neatly smoothing it with a flat hand.
But there's nothing to laugh about. Lex believes in aliens, and there's nothing funny about them. They're deadly, and deceiving, and must be stopped.
"When you were a boy, Mr Luthor, you wanted to meet a being from another planet," John Jones says. Lex says this to Clark in "Visitor", I think. It's one of the more tragic moments in SV, imho, and Clark is really stupid not to get it.
Only then Lex understands that the man – the being behind his desk is reading his thoughts.
"You were born on Mars," he says, just for clarification. Aliens are deceiving liars, and they don't tell you this kind of thing. Probably Jones is just a very confused mutant. Still, with a mind-reader, Lex has to be careful.
A mind-reader could be best asset in this war that Lex has so far acquired. A mind-reader, if used judiciously, could tell him exactly what Clark is here for.
Lex should not be thinking this, but he can't stop. He's only keeping himself together by holding down his emotions with an iron grip, he has no hands free for his thoughts. The idea of a mind reader scares Lex to death. His mind has been repeatedly violated in the course of the series (I'm not sure how much of it Lex remembers or consciously knows about, but he must have developed an innate fear of anything that might influence his mind – except the alcohol.)
"I'm only just learning to close off my mind," Jones says, and this time he sounds a little strained, as if this saddens him. "It's a painful and unnatural process for my kind. But humans are used to screaming their thoughts at impenetrable walls, so I have the choice between being forced to listen and turning myself into a willing island." He focuses on Lex again and his voice becomes, if possible, even graver. "I was born on Mars, ten thousands of years ago. And no, I am not quite that old."
Lex's questions are being answered before he can put them to words. Either the answers are lies, or he is not expected to survive this encounter.
He tried. He tried, and that is all that he can think of now, all that he can allow himself to think. He murdered and tortured and betrayed everything he believed in, and all that he has to show for it is this – he tried. And of course he failed, because Lex always fails in the end.
They'll invade Earth and Earth's sole line of defence will not leave this office. Lex. So tragic, so terribly arrogant.
"I have no intentions to cause you harm." Only a second passes, not enough for Lex to feel more than scorn and disbelief, before Jones goes on, "I'm not a Kryptonian."
"A Kryptonian?"
"That is the name of the species you fear so much, Mr Luthor."
"With good reason," Lex replies.
"I understand you well, Lex Luthor. I would do almost anything to be given the chance to return to my family, even if just to die at their side, on Mars, in my home. But my home is lost and I have every intention of protecting this planet at all cost and saving it from the fate of Mars. And so do you."
Anything, yes, to stop the invasion that Lex has known is coming since he encountered the aliens during the second meteor shower. Hurt the Kents. Make LuthorCorp a defence contractor. Turn humans into weapons and test subjects. Marry a girl he doesn't love just to take her away from Clark so Lex may use her when the time comes – All meta belongs toxparrot.
"I'm here to help you save the world, Mr Luthor," Jones says. And here we go, the fic's catchphrase.
Lex has been looking for allies and weapons. The offer is very tempting indeed. But he has been burnt once already.
"How do I know you're not another Milton Fine?" J'onn could even *be* Milton Fine. I'm not sure if Lex knows that Fine is a shape-shifter, but he has seen him turn his arm into a blade. Also, Lex doesn't know where Fine is. He has no reason to believe that Fine is defeated. (And Clark is very, very stupid if he believes that. Fine is Brainiac. And Brainiac always comes back.)
Behind Lex's desk, Jones starts to grow, and twist, and change his form, the clothes melting into his body, until the man in the leather coat is replaced by a green thing with inhumanly long limbs and a dragon's head, and eyes burning orange like coals. It appears to be lizard and insect and man all at the same time. This is J'onn's natural, Martian form, the way he looks like in JLU.
Lex stares in the face of truth and it stares right back at him. It's an everlasting stare, because truth has no eyelids with which to blink.
Maybe Lex will die. But he has always wanted to meet a genuine alien.
An honest one.
"My name is J'onn J'onnz. And I will answer every question you may have."
*
They've been in the office for hours. Lex has cancelled all his appointments. So far, the Martian has answered Lex's every question without fail. He has demonstrated his powers: shape-shifting, mind-reading, the ability to phase through solid objects, beams of fire that he can shoot through his eyes and now flight. J'onn has almost as many ridiculous powers as Superman – and actually, I'd much rather have telepathy and shapeshifting than stupid stuff like freeze breath and super-weaving. At the question of whether he has a weakness, the Martian was quiet for a long time. Then he admitted to a paralyzing fear of fire.
"Humans have sent probes to Mars and yet we've never found any sign of life," Lex points out.
"That is because Mars is dead. I am its sole survivor."
"How did you survive?"
The Martian turns back into his human shape. Lex wonders if Clark is a shape-shifter, too. A valid concern. Why should aliens look human? Actually, I never quite understood by the Kents immediately assumed Clark was an alien – couldn't he have been a genetically engineered time-traveller from the future? (Okay, that is even more far-fetched than aliens.)
"On Mars, I was… what you would call an artist. I had a wife and children. I was happy." This is the first time that Lex believes the Martian's words, because before he spoke with quiet authority, but now there's stark grief. "I would never have left on my own. But one day I was plucked from my home and pulled through a rip in space and time to a world very unlike Mars. Until then I had never left my planet. We Martians were not a space-faring people, but we knew there were other civilized people in the galaxy. This was a planet of ice, and the sun in their sky was red. The scientist whose experiment had brought me there locked me in his laboratory and asked me a great many questions, but eventually, he let me go back to Mars. When I arrived there after a long journey, though, Mars was a desert. Only the ghosts of the past live there anymore." The "scientist" of course, is Jor-El, and the "planet of ice" is Krypton. J'onn's origin story is actually that he was pulled to Earth by the experiment of a human scientist. It might very well be his origin story in SV as well, but I had the feeling that J'onn has something to do with the Phantom Zone and that he knows a couple of things about "Kal-El".
"So you came to Earth?"
John Jones tilts his head, in a gesture that Lex has come to understand as a headshake. "No. I returned to the distant planet of the scientist to ask him to return me to my people, even if I would have to share their fate. But the scientist's world had been plunged into war. He was busy trying to find a way to save his own wife and child, and I understood. Instead, I took refuge in a place called the Phantom Zone. A few months ago, I was released on Earth. I know now that Mars is forever lost. I can only go forward and protect what is left."
"How did you find me?" The most likely explanation is that Clark pointed him towards Lex, although Lex believes that Clark is entirely unaware of the fact that Lex is trying to prevent the invasion and Lex doesn't understand what the aliens would have to gain from trying to trick him into working with them. He's pretty sure they already have Lionel working for them, which would explain the sudden change of heart in his father after he switched bodies with Clark. They don't need another Luthor. God knows how Lex explains Lionel's behaviour to himself. I mean, the whole raving about Zod and milky-eyes stuff and breaking out of Belle Reve – Lex must have been freaked out by that.
No, if Clark knew what Lex is trying to do, then Clark would kill him, just as he has killed other meteor mutants who stood in his way before.
So maybe it is true. Maybe Jones isn't working with Clark.
"I went looking for people willing and able to save themselves," Jones explains. "No man alone can protect his people. Luckily, you are not alone. There are others. We will find them all." And this is where J'onn really hooks Lex. Lex cannot resist the idea of finding other super-powered people. (Has anyone ever considered how much Lex's Level 33.1 is a parallel to Ollie's League? They're both concerned about Zod – in "Sneeze", Ollie has Lex kidnapped to find out if Lex has super-powers – and they're both gathering metahumans like woah. But I wonder what Ollie thinks Clark is. Does he suspect a connection to Zod/Lex at all?)
*
On the plane to Fawcett City, J'onn tries to teach Lex how to shield his mind. The DC universe has lots and lots of fictional cities. Fawcett City is named after Fawcett comics, I think, and it's the home of Captain Marvel.
Lex doesn't believe that it truly protects him from the alien's telepathy, but the exercises make him feel calm and focused like a long fencing match.
He's starting to feel tentatively optimistic about this. Lex needs therapy. J'onn's meditation exercises are the next best thing.
*
"This is where we'll find an ally?" Lex asks dubiously. They're in the most run-down part of the city, making their way through rubbish-littered back alleys. It's late in the afternoon, rush hour time, but this place is deserted. Lex shouldn't walk around here without a bodyguard, but he trusts his security even less than he trusts the Martian.
J'onn pushes open an unlocked door that looks as if it might fall off its hinges. The house itself is empty, probably because its going to be torn down very soon. It doesn't look safe to enter, but the Martian walks in confidently, and Lex is too curious not to follow.
The truth is, for all that he has tried to come up with a way to stop the aliens, Lex's hands are still empty. The closest he has come to finding a powerful enough weapon was when he captured the speedster. Lex's methods with Bart Allen were really impressive, although not in a nice way. Still, that cage for a speedster – that the villain I want Lex to be. So far, very few meteor mutants have agreed to work with Lex, and none of them are powerful enough to go against Clark, much less an army of Clark Kents. All the good ones are dead or unavailable. Wouldn't it be great if Lex had people like Alicia or Kyle Tippet to work for him? Kyle would never agree, of course.
The house has been inhabited by squatters. There are lumpy mattresses, a shopping cart full of rubbish and the remainders of a fire that J'onn skirts with great care. They mount the stairs. Graffiti is smeared on the crumbling walls and the stench of human excrements fills Lex's nose.
On the top of the stairs they turn right. A used syringe crunches under Lex's expensive soles. Jones walks softly, as if treading on air.
At the end of the corridor is another creaky door.
The room behind it is almost friendly compared to the rest of the house. A broken window lets in clear sunlight, and the peeling wallpapers once bore a cheery flower pattern.
On a pile of blankets sits a little dark-haired boy. He can be no older than eight. His face is thin and pale, but clean, and his eyes are coloured like the sky that is seen through the broken window. Next to him, ordered neatly on the dirty floor, is a stack of newspapers with a small, ancient looking radio on top. Billy Batson is an orphan, like so many comic book heroes. Before he meets the wizard Shazam who teaches him to become Captain Marvel, he makes a meagre living selling newspapers. Later he works as a reporter for the radio. Why social services never get involved is anyone's guess. He's reading a book that threatens to fall apart at the seams. When they enter, he lowers the book into his lap and glances up. This scene is taken from the Captain Marvel book "First Thunder". In the comic, it's Clark Kent who walks into the room and meets little Billy. He has met Captain Marvel before and recently found out that the mighty superhero is just a kid. Billy asks him if he's from social services, and Clark starts taking off his shirt and reveals the Superman uniform beneath.
He looks at them without fear.
J'onn crouches down in front of the mattress. "Hello, Billy. My name is John Jones."
Billy lets the blankets slide down from his shoulders. He's wearing the rattiest red sweater Lex has ever seen. A savage anger fills Lex at the thought of all the people who must have looked the other way for this child to end up here. Whatever the Martian wants here, Lex is going to take the boy and put him into foster care. While writing, this was the moment when I realized – hey, I'm writing good!Lex. He might believe in drastic measures, but he's still not a mean cold-hearted guy who'd just ignore Billy's misery.
"The wizard said you'd come," Billy says. His voice is clear as rain.
Jones glances over his shoulder up at Lex. Billy follows the gaze. The Martian looks back at him. "We are here to save the world."
Billy's gaze wavers between the two of them, and he wears a puzzled frown. Then the frown smoothes out into the childish, innocent confidence again. J'onn either impersonated the wizard, or else communicated with the wizard so the wizard would tell Billy this. Here he's telepathically communicating with Billy.
He rises, dropping the book and the blankets. J'onn rises as well and takes a step back. Lex raises his brows.
Billy takes a deep breath.
"SHAZAM!" he yells, and his voice is followed by a thunderclap.
*
Billy Batson is Captain Marvel, and he has been given his powers by a wizard who lives in the rock of eternity. When he says the word 'Shazam', lighting turns him into a man larger and broader than Clark, with powers that Lex isn't quite clear about yet, and a bright red uniform with a white golden-trimmed cape.
At least that's what Billy says. Lex has seen the evidence and he still doesn't quite believe it.
Right now, Billy Batson is sleeping curled into a seat in Lex's private jet, after he has eaten more than Lex has ever seen a child eat. He must have been starving. He wasn't afraid to go with two strangers and seemed only a bit intimidated by the luxury of the private jet.
"He has been chosen because he is pure of heart. He would not use his powers for personal gain," the Martian says quietly. J'onn says this because Lex is wondering why Billy is so poor if he's this powerful.
They are on the way to Edge City. Edge City isn't where Zatanna lives in the DCU, it's just another fictional DC city that has also been mentioned in SV.
*
It's a circus show.
Lex has never been in a real circus before. He's seen certain kinds of performers at parties, of course, but he's never been to a circus where tigers are displayed in reeking cages and spun sugar is sold to wailing brats, where the audience is squeezed into a tall, stuffy tent and the first row is populated entirely by children who giggle and laugh even at the silliest jokes of the clowns. I never liked clowns as a kid, I only liked the animals. When I was about four, I went to the circus with my grandma and was allowed to ride an elephant. That was great.
Lex has found out that there's no point in pressuring the Martian to reveal what they're looking for. Whenever Lex's voice becomes threatening, the Martian's replies become very mild and patient, and he points out with the infuriating serenity of an eastern Buddha that Lex will see it when they find it. So Lex is forced to follow him as they wander aimlessly between the circus tents and vendors and stare at depressing displays of animals in tiny cages. Bored and irritated, Lex distracts himself by buying Billy a soda and a caramel apple at one of the overpriced vendors.
Billy stares at the soda and the apple with big, disbelieving eyes. Lex fully expects him to refuse or take them without a proper thanks, just like Clark used to do, but then Billy smiles. "Thank you," he says politely and pops the soda can, pushing the straw in.
Lex notices the way the Martian is staring at the cookies, and buys a package of them as well.
It's been a long time since Lex has done something good that didn't come with a high price.
He doesn't buy anything for himself, but when he's sitting squeezed in between the Martian and Billy on a tiny hard chair without backrest, waiting for the show to start while the audience creates truly astounding levels of noise, Lex wishes he had a scotch.
There are acrobats, a whole family of them, flying through the air almost as gracefully as J'onn. This, of course, are the Flying Graysons, the acrobat family Dick Grayson, the first Robin, belongs to. Imagine, if you will, that the next stop of the circus is Gotham City, where the audience will contain not only Bruce Wayne, but also Tim Drake. Tragically, the Grayson family will be shot and Dick will become Robin. Some of the children are as young as Billy and yet they master the jumps perfectly. There's a lion tamer in a silly orange cat costume and a 'talking' tiger. The "lion tamer" is Catman, of Villains United fame. He was a ridiculous Silver Age Batman villain, but his modern version is hawt like hell. The "talking tiger" is Tawky Tawny, one of Captain Marvel's sidekicks. When the fire-breather enters the arena, J'onn shrinks in his seat, and Lex feels him quiver all through the performance.
Proof that Catman is hawt, from the pages of "Villains United":
And then there's the lady magician.
She wears a top hat on dark curls, a waist coat and fishnets together with a leotard. She's beautiful, too beautiful to appear in a cheap show like this, and her act is so good that it takes Lex a full ten minutes to grasp the fact that she's a real witch.
*
In the break, the Martian leads them to Zatanna Zatara's trailer. Above the doorway of the trailer that is shut with a velvet curtain, a sign proclaims 'Zatara' in colours that were once gaudy and now are fading and peeling. The date beneath the name is so old that she must have inherited a family business. She has inherited it from her father, Zachary Zatara, a human illusionist. Her mother is one of the homo magi, a fictional "hidden race of humans" of the DC universe – kinda like wizards in the Harry Potter universe.
She sits on the stairs and smokes and Lex realizes that despite her professional behaviour in the arena, she can be no older than eighteen. When she sees them approach, she mutters something and the cigarette disappears. She puts on a smile and her top hat, but Lex can see the lines of exhaustion on her young face. Post-modern grim and gritty anti-hero Zatanna. I have no idea why this happened.
She has a surprisingly low voice, scratchy from smoke. "What can I do for you? An autograph? Most people want the Flying Graysons, you know."
Lex knows, because they had to fight their way through the throng of people trying to get an autograph from the acrobats before they could get out here. The acrobat family must be very popular.
"I preferred your act," he tells her, and something about her black curls and huge dark eyes forces a smile from him. He wasn't even going to try and charm her, it just happens. "You almost fooled me."
"You're a real wizard," Billy says admiringly. "Just like Shazam!"
There's a thunderclap and lightning hits Billy. As the dust clears, Captain Marvel grins at them sheepishly. "Oops."
Zatanna stares at them, then gives a throaty laugh.
"My name is John Jones," J'onn says. "And this is Lex Luthor and Billy Batson. We are here to save the world."
*
So far, neither Billy nor Zatanna have asked for money or an explanation. J'onn's word and his charisma seem enough to make them leave everything behind. But then, neither Billy nor Zatanna are normal people, and they had little to loose. J'onn is Merlin the magician. No, really, he is. He's the guy who brings the knights of the round table together.
They spend the night in a hotel, and Lex has new clothes brought for Billy and Zatanna. If his army must consist of children and stage magicians, then at least they will not wear rags and fishnets to war.
Captain Marvel's costume is tacky enough as it is.
*
Their next stop is New York.
After wandering the streets for a while and a crowded ride in an elevator, they knock at an apartment door on the fifth floor of a house in Brooklyn.
For a long time there's silence, then it's broken by a muffled curse and what sounds like someone hopping on one leg. The door is ripped open by a young man in boxer shorts who is still struggling to put on a faded green T-shirt. A head of dark hair emerges and for second, Lex is hit by the resemblance to Clark. But then it's gone, because this guy, although he is handsome, is bleary-eyed and he has stubble and everything about him screams of urban twenty-something.
"I'm not buying – "
J'onn silences him by changing his shape to his natural green form.
"Oh," the guy says with a blink. "Come in." As a Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner is used to aliens. The Green Lantern Corps is something like an intergalactic space police, and has members from nearly every sentient race in the galaxy. They're chosen by the power ring, which, if it's old bearer dies, automatically searches a new bearer with the willpower and courage necessary to control it. (Lex would make a formidable, if terrifying Green Lantern.) Also an interesting fact: the original, Golden Age Green Lantern had an actual Lantern instead of a ring, and that Lantern was made from green meteors :D Kyle is still new at this, but he has met at least a few aliens.
Lex is last to enter the chaotic apartment, and when he closes the door softly, the young man turns around, still looking dazed. "Coffee? You're not space villains, right?"
"No, Mr Rayner," J'onn says. "We are here to ask for assistance from the Green Lantern Corps."
Rayner looks startled. "Whoa, I didn't know I was that popular already. I'm just a Lantern in training."
From a cluttered hallway, they have progressed into a large, brightly lit studio. There's a mattress with a sleeping bag in one corner, and a cabinet sits on the floor next to it, with a cheap coffee machine on top. Nearly every inch of the floor is taken in either by dirty clothes, books, or art supplies. A desk is covered by a pile of sketches and pencils, and the air smells of paint and ink.
A closer look tells Lex's that Rayner draws comics. Heh. I didn't write this, but in my head, J'onn telepathically manipulated Kyle to draw the Warrior Angel comic he reads in the first scene – custom-tailored for Lex's issues. Kyle is canonically a comic artist in the DC verse.
"The Lanterns are known everywhere in the galaxy as a great force of good," J'onn says, as he navigates his big frame elegantly through the messy room. By now Lex knows when J'onn is getting manipulative.
"Yeah, look," Rayner blushes, and fidgets a little. "I haven't really figured this whole power ring stuff out yet. Maybe we should give the corps a call –"
"Earth needs you. If a Lantern ring has chosen you, you have the courage and willpower to help."
"I have a job with a deadline!"
Finally, this is someone whom Lex will convince. He takes a step closer. "Mr Rayner. Aliens will invade earth. If you don't help us, there won't be any deadline. If you do help us, however, I will make sure personally that you will be published by any company you want. How does that sound?"
"Um. How are you going to do that?"
Lex appears to intimidate Rayner more than the big green Martian in the room, and Lex likes that. "I'll buy the company."
"And you're sure you're not villains?"
Only after he has bought Rayner, Lex remembers that he doesn't even know yet what the man's power is.
*
Lex owns a company, and he should use the flight time to do his job, but his travel companions are very distracting.
Zatanna and Kyle Rayner are showing off with Billy as a delighted audience. It's a friendly competition, not an actual fight, they're just trying to prove whose power is the more entertaining one. Zatanna can make just about anything happen by saying things backwards – which is an absolutely ridiculous power and for Lex's peace of mind, he has to remind himself that her job description is 'illusionist'. Kyle Rayner, on the other hand, possesses an alien artefact, a so-called Green Lantern power ring, that is able to create green light constructs formed by his will-power and imagination. Billy, Kyle and Zatanna are all incredibly powerful people. So is J'onn. Actually, in the DC comics, everyone is a minor god, but Superman pwns them all. (Yes, you are invited to debate that point with me!)
Kyle. The Lantern itself is the powersource of his green power ring.
Lex was angry at himself for trusting J'onn enough to hire Kyle without a second glance, but now that he has seen what the ring can do, his anger has cooled down. It's starting to look as if they have a chance against the invaders.
When Billy notices him watching, he asks, "What's your power, Mr Luthor?"
All of them turn towards him, but Kyle laughs and ruffles Billy's hair. "He's got money, kid. It's all the power you need."
*
Hub City makes the suicide slum in Metropolis look like suburbia. Hub City is another fictional city, the home of The Question. It's described as even dirtier and more dangerous than Gotham.
On the way from the airport to the hotel, they have to stop thrice because Billy jumps out of the car to foil some crime, until Zatanna, who's itchy for a cigarette break and not allowed to smoke in the same taxi as J'onn, snaps at him to stop it.
The hotel is a crass contrast to the poverty-ridden city, but Lex knows that wherever there's great poverty, there's someone getting very rich because of it. He's glad that so far he hasn't had to stoop so low as to exploit the masses; the people he has harmed in his quest to stop the invasion have always been individuals, few enough yet that he knows their faces, if not always their names.
He calls Lana from the hotel, but she sounds tense. Probably she's with someone. Chloe maybe, or Clark. The enemy. Lana thinks he's on a business trip. Lex doesn't love her, but he wishes he could trust her enough to tell her that he's saving the world. I like the idea of Lex calling Lana. He's very lonely, he wants a confidante, but he can't trust her, and still he calls her. I believe originally, Lex saw Lana as something of a little sister, then later, as his Clark replacement. He wants her to trust him and admire him, but instead she betrays him, like Clark.
When he hangs up, the others are ready to foray into the city in search of J'onn's next super-powered candidate.
"Who are we looking for?" Kyle asks.
"That is the question," J'onn evades. "He isn't sure yet who he is." 'That is the question' is The Question's catchphrase.
*
[...]
In that very moment, a figure like a scarecrow emerges from the shadows under the bridge. He's wearing a trench coat and a fedora, and under the fedora wild red hair sticks out in all directions. Despite the old-fashioned clothing, it's only a kid, younger than Clark, but he has the hollow face of a ghost and the feverish eyes of a nightmare. Boys and girls, meet the Question. In regular DC verse, he recently died of lung cancer : ( . I'm not a Question expert, I just know him from JLU and 52, but wikipedia said that he was originally a violent teenager who got his conspiracy theory ideas from a bad LSD trip. Or something. The Question has no superpowers, he's just really smart and intuitive, and a decent martial artist. He usually wears a featureless mask to cover his face. In JLU, the Question was not only made of awesome, he also tried to kill Luthor – because he believed that if he didn't do it, Superman would eventually kill Luthor and that would be Superman's downfall. It's a nice parallel to Lex committing crimes in order to save the world.
The Question, from a "52" cover:
"I've seen you coming. You're in my head," he yells. "You're looking for the spider… the spider…" Spider=Brainiac, but also an allusion to the experiments with LSD done on spiders, because Vic is trying to tell them that he's on LSD.
He sways and catches himself in the last moment, straightening up again. His knuckles are bloody, and half of his face is covered by swollen bruises.
"He's everywhere. In the air, he's talking to you. The spider crawls through the veins of the nation – nobody knows – " Veins of the nation=internet , but also Lex's veins. I messed up a little here, because this is a dangling plotline, but let's say it leaves room for a sequel.
A heavy hand settles on Lex's shoulder and squeezes. J'onn leans in close, he still looks shaken from the sight of the fire. "His name is Charles Victor Szasz, also known as Vic Sage. We need him."
Lex steps forward, past Zatanna. Szasz's raving doesn't intimdate him, he has seen worse in Belle Reve and Level 33.1 and probably even during his own misspent youth.
"Mr Szasz."
Szasz doesn't react. He raves on about vaccines and windmills and boy bands and queens and princesses. "vaccines"= the vaccine with which Brainiac infected Lex, "windmills"= he casts Lex as Don Quixote, and the alien invasion is Lex's windmill, "boy bands"= Ollie's League, "queens"= Ollie, "princesses" = Diana.
"Victor," Lex says more forcefully.
That makes Szasz stop dead in his litany. His head snaps up, and his eyes fix on Lex. He has an ugly, brutal face, but those eyes, even through the obvious drug haze, are burning with intelligence. "Yes," he gasps. "Vic. Victory. To the victor go the spoils. Spoiled Victor – vector. You're the vector, Mister Victory." Vector in the medical sense, Lex is carrying the Brainiac virus in him. Again, a dangling plot point.
And with that, he slumps straight into Lex's arms, out cold.
Lex lowers him onto the dirty ground. Zatanna and Kyle hurry closer, but Billy stays with J'onn. The boy looks scared.
"Shit," Kyle says. "What the hell's up with the guy?" Except for Billy, Lex's heroes aren't very PC.
"Psychotropic drugs," Lex guesses. "And an extremely high intelligence. Am I right?" he turns over his shoulder to J'onn. The Martian nods.
"Just what we needed," Zatanna sighs. "A genius junkie."
"Does he need a doctor?" Billy asks timidly.
"Probably." Lex pulls out his phone and calls a specialist. As he explains the case to Toby, Zatanna mutters something and Vic Sage, trench coat and fedora and all, turns into a little orange kitten that she picks up from the ground and carries in her arms. I want Toby to be working in Level 33.1 for Lex. That'd be the ultimate crack (heh).
Toby, once he's sobered up enough to get what Lex wants, tells him to fuck off and put Sage on cold turkey and see what happens. He won't get paid for that piece of shitty advice.
*
[...]
*
He's alone with Victor Sage for seven hours. At first Sage is still, then he starts pacing, raving at the walls, talking incessantly in English and other languages, only some of which Lex understands.
Once he's lucid for a few moment, and glances around curiously until he spots Lex. "You're Lex Luthor," he says, sounding surprised.
"Yes. I'm your new employer."
Sage laughs, then clutches his head. "I'm on LSD," he tells Lex. Then he screams.
Another time, he asks for a pen, and Lex, who is tired of trying to make sense of his talk, gives him a sharpie.
By the end of the seven hours, half of the wall is covered in writing. Sweeping arrows cross the whole picture, making connection where there are none, slowly closing in on the centre, like a spider's intricate web. This is an allusion to one scene in JLU, where we see the Question's version of the "wall of weird", full of conspiracy theories.
Victor Szasz is snoring on the couch and Lex is left staring at the wall.
The word in the centre says BRAINIAC.
*
The next morning, they all have breakfast together, and Sage, sober again, turns out to be a chipper eccentric. All of his tales involve either conspiracies or unnecessary violence, but mostly both. He doesn't eat anything that's red and refuses to part with his clothes, and when Lex tries to take a picture of the writings on the wall with his mobile, he freaks and raves on for a full five minutes about spy satellites and computer viruses, the gist of it being that mobile phones are the work of the devil.
"Do we really need him?" Lex asks J'onn acidly.
J'onn is looking thoughtfully at the wall. "Yes."
Sage hasn't got to be convinced to come with them.
"We're saving the world," he says, as if it's obvious to everyone.
*
They cross the Atlantic, but not in a jet plane. Lex and Vic Sage are the only ones who can't fly, so they're carried in a bubble of green light created by Kyle's ring.
Two hours later, Lex knows more about the dangers of barcodes, the relation of the Bush family and the British royals to reptilian aliens and the connection between the Mossad, Nikola Tesla and the crash of Korean Air Flight KAL-007 than he will ever be able to purge his mind of. All these conspiracy theories exist. I had fun researching them on wikipedia. The reptilian aliens made another appearance in my fic "A Little Dirt", because they fascinated me so. I've been on an Korean Air flight! (To Australia).
They land, cloaked by Zatanna's magic, on Crete. I've also been to Crete, when I was six. I remember beaches and calamares hung to dry on washing lines and donkeys and cactuses growing in the wild. Oh, and a day spent out on the sea in a small boat :D
A couple of hours later, they leave the harbour of Heraklion on a yacht, heading out into the Sea of Crete. It's a sunny summer afternoon and the sun sparkles on the waves and once they leave behind the fishy smell of the harbour, the air smells only of salt and freedom. J'onn turns himself into a seagull, flying above their vessel on graceful white wings, and Zatanna conjures a bikini for herself to sunbathe. She's joined by Kyle not much later, while Vic excuses himself with seasickness and vanishes under deck.
Lex, who is the only one who has ever even been on a yacht, is left to steer it, following J'onn's direction. Billy sits next to him, chattering about how he wants to be a reporter for the radio. Reporters abound in comics, I have no idea why. If I had gotten into comics earlier, my dream job would be reporter. There has to be at least a 50% chance to become either a superhero or the girlfriend of one.
It makes Lex think of Clark. Back when they were friends, Lex was only biding his time for Clark to grow up so Lex could take him to places like this.
Lex's mood has been good all day, and he tries to distract himself before he can slip back into depression.
"Where does the word Shazam come from?" he asks. Someone else saying it has no effect on Billy.
"It's the wizard's name," Billy says. "But actually it's a… uh, how do you call it when the first letters of words make up an abbreviation?"
"An acronym. Which words are they?"
"The names of the gods who grant me their powers. S is for the wisdom of Solomon. H is for the strength of Hercules. A is for the stamina of Atlas. Z is for the power of Zeus. A is for the courage of Achilles –"
Lex closes his eyes. He feels a headache coming. So did I when I first learned what Shazam means. Oh, comic book science! "Achilles was not a god. Hercules was only a demigod. And Solomon isn't even Greek!"
So he ends up explaining Greek mythology to a kid who believes that all these gods and heroes are perfectly real until the sun goes down. And still they head east.
*
By morning, J'onn lands on the railing of the yacht and turns back into his human form. "We have reached our destination. We may venture no further. They don't welcome men on their island."
"They?" Lex asks suspiciously.
Vic Sage emerges from the depths of the yacht, looking hung-over and sick. "Amazons," he groans.
*
They wait for almost twelve hours, from dawn to dusk. As the sunset shimmers on the small waves, first one, then another set of sails emerges from the golden light. The wooden ships are long and sleek, and a single row of oars hangs inactive over the water on each side. They are ancient Greek triremes as they have not sailed these seas for centuries, even millennia and they glide closer like phantoms of the past.
As they get closer, Lex is able to make out a figure in the bow of one of boats. It stands tall, and is surrounded by a fluttering white garment like a flag of peace.
After another few minutes, Lex sees that the figure is a woman with long dark hair, her breasts covered by gleaming metal armour. The people sitting at the oars are all women, all dressed in light but war-like garments.
The triremes align themselves with the yacht on each side, and as they glide past, the dark-haired woman jumps from the bow of her boat onto the bow of the yacht with the grace of a panther. She bears a spear and a shield and when she straightens, she hits the shield with her spear once.
"Envoys from the world of man! I am Princess Diana of Themiscyra," she calls loudly. "Our seers have predicted your arrival."
Meet Diana, Amazon princess, also known as Wonder Woman. She's made from clay and gets her powers from Greek gods. I have no idea whether Themiscyra, also known as Paradise Island, actually is located in the Sea of Crete, or whether the Amazons speak ancient Greek. (Golden Age Diana had learned to speak ever human language ever, but then, she also was able to communicate telepathically. Golden Age was wacky.) This Diana has had nearly no exposure to "the world of man" as the Amazons call modern Western civilization. Oh, and btw, the seers totally did receive their message from J'onn instead of the Gods.
It's the first time in his life that Lex hears actual spoken ancient Greek. He feels as if nothing can surprise him anymore.
None of his companions seem to understand her. They're merely staring at the Amazon with varying degrees of wariness. Lex tries his best to puzzle out an answer as the Amazon stares imperiously at them.
"We have come here to seek your assistance," is what Lex hopes he says.
Diana of Themiscyra blinks, then laughs at him with merry blue eyes.
She's taller than Lex is and her bare shoulders and calves are impressively muscled. He has no doubt that this woman could overwhelm him in under three seconds, and for some reason, that makes her powerfully attractive. "Our seers did not predict that. Have you come in search of your lost soldiers?"
Lex tries to appear unsurprised. "Did they enter your territory?"
J'onn said that the Amazons would not tolerate men on their island. Probably the 'lost soldiers' are fishermen or tourists who stumbled on the island accidentally, or else it's a translation error. Lex doesn't really care about their fate, but Diana called herself a princess, so it might be prudent to make himself appear as authoritative as possible.
"Yes. They violated the sanctity of Paradise Island. They were to be executed for their crime, but the gods sent a vision to our seers and told them to bring them out to sea, where a Prince from the world of man on a sacred mission would meet us. Are you Alexander, the protector of man?"
It's the meaning of Lex's name in Greek, but it has become far more than a matter of etymology. Lex has made himself the protector of man, at all costs. I discovered the etymology of Lex's name while writing this fic. It was perfect.
He nods. "I'm honoured to make your acquaintance." And strangely, he is. Since he has met Clark he hasn't encountered anyone with such an air of power and gravity about them. "My mission is to raise an army – not just to protect mankind, but all of humankind." He knows that he must be sounding stilted, but he only knows her language from the texts of poets and philosophers. There are still schools in Germany where you will learn Latin and Ancient Greek instead of modern foreign languages. I had Latin, English and French in school. I don't know how common classic languages are in the US, but there's no way Lex hasn't read stuff like Homer or Platon (the Politeia especially, I think Lex secretly imagines himself as the philosopher king described there) in the original.
She gives him an answering nod. "Then we will give you back your soldiers, Alexander."
She raises an arm, and the metal bracelet on her wrist blinks in the sunset. The famous bullet-deflecting bracelets! It is answered by a call from one of the ships, and then a smaller boat is let into the water. Two large women sit at the oars, and an even larger, grim looking one stands in the rear, her copper hair like fire in the evening light. Her name is Etta Candy. Sorry. Golden Age Wonder Woman in-joke. She carries a large sword and looms over the prisoners threateningly.
And then Lex laughs, a short, startled bark of laughter that he just can't hold back.
You see, originally, Lex's rag-tag band of heroes was going to pick up Diana as their sixth soldier (not counting Lex himself) and then J'onn would say, "For our last member we need to return to Kansas" and lead them straight to the Kent farm, where he'd reveal the truth about Clark. (I'm glad I didn't write it that way, I doubt Lex would have believed him). But then I suddenly had the mental image of Ollie and the Justice kids all tied up by Amazons. (No doubt thanks to the person who constantly posts Golden Age Wonder Woman scans over at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
scans_daily. In Golden Age, Wonder Woman solved every problem with bondage. No, seriously. Someone gets tied up in every single comic.
As a side thought, I kinda want to write the story about the League's bondage adventures on Paradise Island. Every guy wants to be tied up by Wonder Woman. Heck, I want to be tied up by Wonder Woman!
In front of the redheaded Amazon, bound in chains, sits Oliver Queen, wearing the unmistakable leather outfit of the Green Arrow. The next bench is shared by Victor Stone and Bart Allen, shackled to each other and also in chains. In front of them sits Arthur Curry and stares longingly at the sea.
And in the bow of the boat, bound by nothing but a thin golden rope, is Clark. Clark + Lasso of Truth + bondage = happy Lex. I only realized this once I had written it.
Lex steps closer to the railing, Diana at his side and waits as the boat crosses the space between the trireme and the yacht. As the Amazons stop rowing by the side of the yacht and Kyle throws down a rope for them, Clark glances up.
"Lex!" he shouts, utterly surprised. "What are you doing here?"
"How did you bind him?" Lex asks Diana.
"The Lasso of Truth is a gift of the gods," Diana replies. "It can bind any man and force them to submit to me. Whoever is bound by it may only speak the truth. Your young warrior struggled valiantly, though," she adds, as if she thinks Lex might be disappointed that Clark could be overwhelmed. "He is very powerful."
Lex allows himself a victorious grin. Clark is defeated, by a woman's golden rope. Not the woman Lex married for this purpose, but that doesn't matter now. He is forced to speak the truth, and Lex will make him reveal all of it. It is essential, here, that Lex believes what Diana says about the rope. If he didn't believe it, Clark's confession would have no effect on him. But Lex wants it to be true, and so far, all of J'onn's people have been trustworthy. So Lex believes it, because he thinks it's going to be his ultimate victory.
"I'm saving the world from your invasion!" Lex calls back in English, because finally he can say it out loud and doesn't have to be afraid of what Clark might do when he realizes that he has been found out and that Lex knows about the impending invasion.
Clark's mouth falls open. "You what?"
"I've known about you for years, Clark! I know that you're one of them. Are you a sleeper agent? A scout?"
"What the hell are you talking about, Luthor?" Oliver Queen demands angrily. Again, I think Ollie knows/suspects more about Zod than he has told Clark. But Lex's accusations are pretty ridiculous for someone who doesn't have exactly the kind of misinformation Lex has.
"Clark Kent is an alien," Lex reveals, because Queen might be an asshole, but he's still human. Eventually, they'll stand on the same side.
"Woah," Victor Stone says.
"That true, man?" Arthur Curry demands.
Clark looks increasingly panicked. "There's no invasion!"
"But there will be."
Clark closes his eyes. His face is glistening with sweat, and Lex can see him try to break free of the lasso. It doesn't work. Clark's dark head sags between his shoulders in surrender. When he opens his eyes again and looks up at Lex, he truly looks defeated.
Lex strains his ears to hear what he has to say, because finally it will be the truth.
He speaks softly, and only because everyone around them is silent Lex can hear him over the lapping of the waves. "I'm the last one, Lex. Krypton was destroyed. There aren't any survivors besides me."
Lex grips the railing. The gentle rocking of the yacht has suddenly become an earthquake to him.
He turns on J'onn. "You told me – "
The Martian steps towards Lex, his eyes gentle and compassionate. "I said I was here to help you save the world. I never said there would be an alien invasion." He glances down at Clark and speaks louder, so that they can all hear him. J'onn is a much, much better liar than Clark – he doesn't lie at all, just plays to Lex's expectations.
"The truth is, neither Mars nor Krypton were destroyed from the outside. The enemy lay within. They destroyed themselves. I will not let the same happen to Earth. Therefore I have gathered all those willing and able to defend this planet, so that they will fight side by side and not amongst each other."
"Lex is a criminal!" Clark protests as he struggles against his bonds once more. "He's experimenting on people!"
One by one, Lex's followers turn towards him with questioning looks. Diana stares at all of them with a puzzled frown. Those wacky men! Don't let them confuse you, Diana.
Lex raises his chin and stands straight.
"I did what I had to."
And he has nothing to be ashamed of.
And everything to regret.
"I don't understand," Billy says in a small voice.
Zatanna shrugs. "Seems like this was all just a wild goose chase."
From the other end of the yacht, Vic Sage clears his throat. "Um, actually, it wasn't."
He points up at the evening sky and the black spaceship floating in it.
*
"Hera!" Diana exclaims. "What is that?"
Kyle Rayner raises his power ring, startling the Amazon even more when he produces a shield of green light.
"It's Fine's ship!" Clark yells. "Please, cut me loose! I'm the only one strong enough to fight it!"
Diana's shout of, "Don't you dare touch the Lasso of Truth!" is the last that can be heard before everyone around them breaks into wild noise and panic. Diana jumps over the railing and down into the boat to struggle with Clark. J'onn, Zatanna and Kyle Rayner fly towards the spaceship to attack it. The Amazons start throwing spears and shooting arrows at the spaceship.
Down in the boat, Arthur curry throws himself into the water, chains and all, and goes under. Bart Allen starts to vibrate and blur until he slides out of the chains and Diana has pushed Clark onto his back, a foot planted on his chest. He stares up at her livid face and says something too soft for Lex to make out. It looks like a plea.
She hesitates only for a moment, long enough to see how the spaceship defends itself with some kind of laser weapon. Kyle is trying to shield Zatanna and J'onn with the light of his power ring.
Her face hardening, Diana takes the lasso and pulls, and it loosens and falls off Clark. As soon as she steps aside, he is on his feet.
"No!" Lex shouts, but his voice is drowned by the noise of battle. Only Clark's eyes find him. For a moment they're completely inscrutable as he stares at Lex, alien as they never have been before, and Lex breathes out slowly, sure that he will die by Clark's hand.
J'onn isn't just manipulating Lex here. This is just as much about getting Clark to realize that Lex is serious about saving the world, and that he truly believes Clark is evil. This is the moment where Clark does so. It must be quite a shock for him.
Instead Clark bends his knees and launches himself at the ship to attack it. Lex stares after him, feeling cold settle in his heart. Through Clark's lies and his own wild suspicions he has become a Don Quixote fighting windmills with deadly force, instead of the martyr he believed himself to be. In the sky, the battle is still going on, but Lex has already lost.
Billy stumbles into him. "What do I do?" the boy asks anxiously.
Lex shakes his head and turns away. He has no answers. Everything he has done was wrong.
Given no reply, Billy clenches his eyes shut and to Lex's horror shouts the name of the wizard.
A huge bolt of lightning hits the yacht and tears straight through it, ripping it apart in the middle.
The water is warm as Lex's body hits the waves, and it wraps around him welcomingly.
*
[...]
"Seems you already have a billionaire." I wish the show had given Lex an opportunity to express his feelings about Ollie and Clark. Whatever they are, they would have been slashy. Alternatively, Lionel could have made a biting remark.
Clark laughs uneasily. "Yeah, but he doesn't speak Ancient Greek. We could need a translator down there. J'onn can talk with them, but he won't go near the torches."
"They seem to be getting along fine."
Clark looks towards the celebration, then lowers his eyes. "Yeah."
They fall silent, and Lex is too tired to feel much discomfort. Eventually Clark will leave and then he'll be alone with the wine again.
"I'm glad you're not evil, Lex." This might be my favourite line, because it's true. Clark would be incredibly glad if he found out that Lex isn't evil.
Lex laughs mirthlessly. "Funny. I thought it just turned out that I am evil after all." He reaches for the amphora, but Clark takes it away.
"Getting drunk always makes you wallow in self-pity."
"Maybe that's what I want to do!"
Clark hurls the amphora into the sea. He always was a bad guest. Lex stares at him, his dark mood replaced by sudden anger. Of all the people on this ship Clark is the one person who can't forgive Lex because this is all just as much his fault and yet he's here, sanctimonious and belittling –
"You had enough," Clark says gently. The first time I wrote this scene, they just went on angsting and talking in circles. A physical confrontation is one of the cheap tricks a writer sometimes has to use. Also, Lex has a thing for physical violence.
Lex punches him in the face, hard enough that he'd break his knuckles on Clark's invulnerable chin if Clark didn't go with the punch. Lex swallows a yell of pain as they topple over onto the deck. He jumps on Clark chest and punches him with his other fist, and this time he does make a sound, something between a snarl and a sob, horribly humiliating. Clark seizes both of his wrists and holds him still. His eyes gleam in the dark and his chest heaves between Lex's thighs. That and the pain in his hands and the way Clark licks his lips nervously and the sweet spiced wine all work together to betray Lex's mind.
The things he wants to say all sound childish and petulant. Yes, he hates Clark and he loves him, but no way in hell is he going to say that now.
He wriggles his hips and slides down Clark's body, their clothes sticky and stiff between them from dried seawater. When Clark's crotch comes into contact with Lex's erection, he surges up against it and lets go of Lex's wrists in shock.
Lex bends down, supporting himself on his elbows, and tangles both hands in Clark's hair. They hurt and yet he pulls tightly, leaning close until he can see Clark's face even in the dark. Clark is breathing shallowly, and his eyes are wide, half in fright and half in wonder.
"I'm also glad you're not evil," Lex whispers and captures his lower lip, licking the salt and bitterness of the sea from it, mixing it with the sourness of the wine. Together they taste of tears. Clark gasps under him, and his large hands find Lex's sides, touching him awkwardly.
Lex's own hands are shaking in Clark's hair, and where his back is exposed to the night air, the cold and dread of the past months still linger, but his kisses are sure and slow, and met more eagerly each time.
The Clex is pastede on, but I felt Lex (and we) deserved some pay-off. Also: sex on an Amazon ship. You only get that chance once ;)
Scans taken from "Wonder Woman" and "Justice League International" covers, "Villains United", "52", "Green Lantern" and "Superman/Shazam: First Thunder".
xparrot, with pics to illustrate characters and plot points (or just the fact that Catman is hot ;) )I wrote this story on a complete whim, in just two sittings, after reading
xparrot's meta about Lex's motivations. The idea of Lex basically doing all the evil stuff he does to defend Earth from a Kryptonian invasion is just irresistible, and it's canon supported, especially by the episode "Vessel." She also remarked that Lex is very lonely and has no confidante, which for some reason made me think of how awesome it would be if Lex met the Martian Manhunter, who would of course see through Lex's evil act and realize it's all just a big misunderstanding between him and Clark caused by Clark's lies.
It's not the first time I had the idea of Lex meeting J'onn, I got into the fandom in S5, when J'onn hadn't yet appeared on SV and back then I started a fic where Lex finds J'onn locked in a government lab, but I abandoned that one. In a way, J'onn is the perfect Mary Sue ;)
I kinda wish I hadn't written this fic in such a rush and had taken more time to flesh it out. I didn't even make a list of characters to include, I just wrote it scene by scene without a plan (which, admittedly, is how I usually write my fic). I didn't even plan them to go on the quest, I just had J'onn and Lex in mind, but then Lex just wouldn't trust J'onn until J'onn suggested finding other meta-humans.
Still, it's one of my personal favourites, because it's just completely self-indulgent, and I love "gathering a rag-tag band of heroes and going on a quest" stories.
The title is the title of a comic book series, but it has very little to do with the fic. I just thought it sounded good.
*******************************************************************************
Seven Soldiers of Victory
There's a stranger in Lex's office.
A stranger in the study in the mansion – that wouldn't surprise Lex very much. But here at LuthorCorp these invasions of his privacy happen much less regularly.
The stranger is a black man dressed in a leather coat. I like the look of SV's Martian Manhunter. J'onn is a shape-shifter, he can take on pretty much any form he wants. (At least in the comics and the toons.) He's often seen as a detective in trenchcoat and fedora in the comics, but we've also seen him as a sexy Asian woman (he called himself Rei Hino – the civilian name of Sailor Mars – and Batman immediately revealed that he is a Sailor Moon fan by calling him on it. Very amusing scene.) or as a female version of his usual 'green guy with blue cape and briefs' look. In JLU, we also see him as an elderly Asian man. J'onn transcends gender and he isn't as centred on North America as most DC heroes – in the comics, he's very popular in South America and Asia, more than Superman. In one hand he holds a comic book – a Warrior Angel issue that must have been published since Lex stopped reading, which was quite some time ago, with the bald, purple-masked alien hero on the cover, fighting off monstrous alien invaders. Warrior Angel is a trope of SV fanfiction, like purple shirts and Tynant bottles. I'm always reluctant to use it in fic, but it's just perfect for this – Warrior Angel is Superman, but he's just as much J'onn. And J'onn is already subtly influencing Lex – reminding him of the positive image he had of aliens as a child. And of course Warrior Angel is fighting alien invaders, because that's what Lex does – and what Clark does.
Lex does not appreciate the irony.
On Lex's usually immaculate desk, there's a stack of oreo cookies and a lot of crumbs. J'onn loves Oreos ("Chocos" in the comics because of trademark issues), and I adore SV for remembering that. In "Static" (heh, now I kinda wish "Static" had been a "Static Shock" crossover ep, but I disgress) I didn't recognize J'onn until the cookie appeared and then I squeed for several minutes at my computer screen. There's a very cute Justice League International comic in which J'onn gets addicted to Oreos and goes on a rampage in search of more. Here is the cover of said story:
The man lowers the comic and glances calmly at Lex over the rim. Lex can't recall when a simple look has ever unnerved him this much.
He raises his chin in haughty defiance. Probably this is just some employee waiting to be fired. "Who are you?"
The man turns a page of the comic. The cover, under the gaudy red Warrior Angel logo, reads 'Stranger in a Strange World'. Lex never liked it when they gave the books pretentious titles like that. "Stranger in a Strange World" is a misquote of the title of Robert A. Heinlein's book "Stranger in a Strange Land". The protagonist of that book is a human boy raised by Martians on Mars, who is brought back to Earth by an expedition. The government holds him hostage until a nurse and a reporter free him. They're all taken in by the eccentric millionaire Jubal Harshaw. The Martian boy has psychic powers and later founds a New Age like church. Jubal Harshaw always reminded me a little of Lex.
"John Jones," the stranger answers and lowers the comic again.
A long pink tongue shoots out of his mouth, hits one of the cookies with the precision of a frog catching a fly, and pulls it into the stranger's mouth just as quickly. He chews with obvious relish, then swallows. This is how comics J'onn eats oreos – no idea if SV!J'onn can do this.
Perversely, this display of freakishness almost calms Lex down. It's a mutant.
"Actually, no," John Jones says in his quiet rumble. "Although I hope you will keep your calm set of mind when I tell you that I am what you would call a Martian."
"A Martian," Lex echoes. Something moves in him, uncomfortably, and he realizes it's the urge to laugh.
"Yes," John Jones merely says, and turns another page. It's the last one, when he's done reading, he closes the comic and puts it down, neatly smoothing it with a flat hand.
But there's nothing to laugh about. Lex believes in aliens, and there's nothing funny about them. They're deadly, and deceiving, and must be stopped.
"When you were a boy, Mr Luthor, you wanted to meet a being from another planet," John Jones says. Lex says this to Clark in "Visitor", I think. It's one of the more tragic moments in SV, imho, and Clark is really stupid not to get it.
Only then Lex understands that the man – the being behind his desk is reading his thoughts.
"You were born on Mars," he says, just for clarification. Aliens are deceiving liars, and they don't tell you this kind of thing. Probably Jones is just a very confused mutant. Still, with a mind-reader, Lex has to be careful.
A mind-reader could be best asset in this war that Lex has so far acquired. A mind-reader, if used judiciously, could tell him exactly what Clark is here for.
Lex should not be thinking this, but he can't stop. He's only keeping himself together by holding down his emotions with an iron grip, he has no hands free for his thoughts. The idea of a mind reader scares Lex to death. His mind has been repeatedly violated in the course of the series (I'm not sure how much of it Lex remembers or consciously knows about, but he must have developed an innate fear of anything that might influence his mind – except the alcohol.)
"I'm only just learning to close off my mind," Jones says, and this time he sounds a little strained, as if this saddens him. "It's a painful and unnatural process for my kind. But humans are used to screaming their thoughts at impenetrable walls, so I have the choice between being forced to listen and turning myself into a willing island." He focuses on Lex again and his voice becomes, if possible, even graver. "I was born on Mars, ten thousands of years ago. And no, I am not quite that old."
Lex's questions are being answered before he can put them to words. Either the answers are lies, or he is not expected to survive this encounter.
He tried. He tried, and that is all that he can think of now, all that he can allow himself to think. He murdered and tortured and betrayed everything he believed in, and all that he has to show for it is this – he tried. And of course he failed, because Lex always fails in the end.
They'll invade Earth and Earth's sole line of defence will not leave this office. Lex. So tragic, so terribly arrogant.
"I have no intentions to cause you harm." Only a second passes, not enough for Lex to feel more than scorn and disbelief, before Jones goes on, "I'm not a Kryptonian."
"A Kryptonian?"
"That is the name of the species you fear so much, Mr Luthor."
"With good reason," Lex replies.
"I understand you well, Lex Luthor. I would do almost anything to be given the chance to return to my family, even if just to die at their side, on Mars, in my home. But my home is lost and I have every intention of protecting this planet at all cost and saving it from the fate of Mars. And so do you."
Anything, yes, to stop the invasion that Lex has known is coming since he encountered the aliens during the second meteor shower. Hurt the Kents. Make LuthorCorp a defence contractor. Turn humans into weapons and test subjects. Marry a girl he doesn't love just to take her away from Clark so Lex may use her when the time comes – All meta belongs to
xparrot."I'm here to help you save the world, Mr Luthor," Jones says. And here we go, the fic's catchphrase.
Lex has been looking for allies and weapons. The offer is very tempting indeed. But he has been burnt once already.
"How do I know you're not another Milton Fine?" J'onn could even *be* Milton Fine. I'm not sure if Lex knows that Fine is a shape-shifter, but he has seen him turn his arm into a blade. Also, Lex doesn't know where Fine is. He has no reason to believe that Fine is defeated. (And Clark is very, very stupid if he believes that. Fine is Brainiac. And Brainiac always comes back.)
Behind Lex's desk, Jones starts to grow, and twist, and change his form, the clothes melting into his body, until the man in the leather coat is replaced by a green thing with inhumanly long limbs and a dragon's head, and eyes burning orange like coals. It appears to be lizard and insect and man all at the same time. This is J'onn's natural, Martian form, the way he looks like in JLU.
Lex stares in the face of truth and it stares right back at him. It's an everlasting stare, because truth has no eyelids with which to blink.
Maybe Lex will die. But he has always wanted to meet a genuine alien.
An honest one.
"My name is J'onn J'onnz. And I will answer every question you may have."
*
They've been in the office for hours. Lex has cancelled all his appointments. So far, the Martian has answered Lex's every question without fail. He has demonstrated his powers: shape-shifting, mind-reading, the ability to phase through solid objects, beams of fire that he can shoot through his eyes and now flight. J'onn has almost as many ridiculous powers as Superman – and actually, I'd much rather have telepathy and shapeshifting than stupid stuff like freeze breath and super-weaving. At the question of whether he has a weakness, the Martian was quiet for a long time. Then he admitted to a paralyzing fear of fire.
"Humans have sent probes to Mars and yet we've never found any sign of life," Lex points out.
"That is because Mars is dead. I am its sole survivor."
"How did you survive?"
The Martian turns back into his human shape. Lex wonders if Clark is a shape-shifter, too. A valid concern. Why should aliens look human? Actually, I never quite understood by the Kents immediately assumed Clark was an alien – couldn't he have been a genetically engineered time-traveller from the future? (Okay, that is even more far-fetched than aliens.)
"On Mars, I was… what you would call an artist. I had a wife and children. I was happy." This is the first time that Lex believes the Martian's words, because before he spoke with quiet authority, but now there's stark grief. "I would never have left on my own. But one day I was plucked from my home and pulled through a rip in space and time to a world very unlike Mars. Until then I had never left my planet. We Martians were not a space-faring people, but we knew there were other civilized people in the galaxy. This was a planet of ice, and the sun in their sky was red. The scientist whose experiment had brought me there locked me in his laboratory and asked me a great many questions, but eventually, he let me go back to Mars. When I arrived there after a long journey, though, Mars was a desert. Only the ghosts of the past live there anymore." The "scientist" of course, is Jor-El, and the "planet of ice" is Krypton. J'onn's origin story is actually that he was pulled to Earth by the experiment of a human scientist. It might very well be his origin story in SV as well, but I had the feeling that J'onn has something to do with the Phantom Zone and that he knows a couple of things about "Kal-El".
"So you came to Earth?"
John Jones tilts his head, in a gesture that Lex has come to understand as a headshake. "No. I returned to the distant planet of the scientist to ask him to return me to my people, even if I would have to share their fate. But the scientist's world had been plunged into war. He was busy trying to find a way to save his own wife and child, and I understood. Instead, I took refuge in a place called the Phantom Zone. A few months ago, I was released on Earth. I know now that Mars is forever lost. I can only go forward and protect what is left."
"How did you find me?" The most likely explanation is that Clark pointed him towards Lex, although Lex believes that Clark is entirely unaware of the fact that Lex is trying to prevent the invasion and Lex doesn't understand what the aliens would have to gain from trying to trick him into working with them. He's pretty sure they already have Lionel working for them, which would explain the sudden change of heart in his father after he switched bodies with Clark. They don't need another Luthor. God knows how Lex explains Lionel's behaviour to himself. I mean, the whole raving about Zod and milky-eyes stuff and breaking out of Belle Reve – Lex must have been freaked out by that.
No, if Clark knew what Lex is trying to do, then Clark would kill him, just as he has killed other meteor mutants who stood in his way before.
So maybe it is true. Maybe Jones isn't working with Clark.
"I went looking for people willing and able to save themselves," Jones explains. "No man alone can protect his people. Luckily, you are not alone. There are others. We will find them all." And this is where J'onn really hooks Lex. Lex cannot resist the idea of finding other super-powered people. (Has anyone ever considered how much Lex's Level 33.1 is a parallel to Ollie's League? They're both concerned about Zod – in "Sneeze", Ollie has Lex kidnapped to find out if Lex has super-powers – and they're both gathering metahumans like woah. But I wonder what Ollie thinks Clark is. Does he suspect a connection to Zod/Lex at all?)
*
On the plane to Fawcett City, J'onn tries to teach Lex how to shield his mind. The DC universe has lots and lots of fictional cities. Fawcett City is named after Fawcett comics, I think, and it's the home of Captain Marvel.
Lex doesn't believe that it truly protects him from the alien's telepathy, but the exercises make him feel calm and focused like a long fencing match.
He's starting to feel tentatively optimistic about this. Lex needs therapy. J'onn's meditation exercises are the next best thing.
*
"This is where we'll find an ally?" Lex asks dubiously. They're in the most run-down part of the city, making their way through rubbish-littered back alleys. It's late in the afternoon, rush hour time, but this place is deserted. Lex shouldn't walk around here without a bodyguard, but he trusts his security even less than he trusts the Martian.
J'onn pushes open an unlocked door that looks as if it might fall off its hinges. The house itself is empty, probably because its going to be torn down very soon. It doesn't look safe to enter, but the Martian walks in confidently, and Lex is too curious not to follow.
The truth is, for all that he has tried to come up with a way to stop the aliens, Lex's hands are still empty. The closest he has come to finding a powerful enough weapon was when he captured the speedster. Lex's methods with Bart Allen were really impressive, although not in a nice way. Still, that cage for a speedster – that the villain I want Lex to be. So far, very few meteor mutants have agreed to work with Lex, and none of them are powerful enough to go against Clark, much less an army of Clark Kents. All the good ones are dead or unavailable. Wouldn't it be great if Lex had people like Alicia or Kyle Tippet to work for him? Kyle would never agree, of course.
The house has been inhabited by squatters. There are lumpy mattresses, a shopping cart full of rubbish and the remainders of a fire that J'onn skirts with great care. They mount the stairs. Graffiti is smeared on the crumbling walls and the stench of human excrements fills Lex's nose.
On the top of the stairs they turn right. A used syringe crunches under Lex's expensive soles. Jones walks softly, as if treading on air.
At the end of the corridor is another creaky door.
The room behind it is almost friendly compared to the rest of the house. A broken window lets in clear sunlight, and the peeling wallpapers once bore a cheery flower pattern.
On a pile of blankets sits a little dark-haired boy. He can be no older than eight. His face is thin and pale, but clean, and his eyes are coloured like the sky that is seen through the broken window. Next to him, ordered neatly on the dirty floor, is a stack of newspapers with a small, ancient looking radio on top. Billy Batson is an orphan, like so many comic book heroes. Before he meets the wizard Shazam who teaches him to become Captain Marvel, he makes a meagre living selling newspapers. Later he works as a reporter for the radio. Why social services never get involved is anyone's guess. He's reading a book that threatens to fall apart at the seams. When they enter, he lowers the book into his lap and glances up. This scene is taken from the Captain Marvel book "First Thunder". In the comic, it's Clark Kent who walks into the room and meets little Billy. He has met Captain Marvel before and recently found out that the mighty superhero is just a kid. Billy asks him if he's from social services, and Clark starts taking off his shirt and reveals the Superman uniform beneath.
He looks at them without fear.
J'onn crouches down in front of the mattress. "Hello, Billy. My name is John Jones."
Billy lets the blankets slide down from his shoulders. He's wearing the rattiest red sweater Lex has ever seen. A savage anger fills Lex at the thought of all the people who must have looked the other way for this child to end up here. Whatever the Martian wants here, Lex is going to take the boy and put him into foster care. While writing, this was the moment when I realized – hey, I'm writing good!Lex. He might believe in drastic measures, but he's still not a mean cold-hearted guy who'd just ignore Billy's misery.
"The wizard said you'd come," Billy says. His voice is clear as rain.
Jones glances over his shoulder up at Lex. Billy follows the gaze. The Martian looks back at him. "We are here to save the world."
Billy's gaze wavers between the two of them, and he wears a puzzled frown. Then the frown smoothes out into the childish, innocent confidence again. J'onn either impersonated the wizard, or else communicated with the wizard so the wizard would tell Billy this. Here he's telepathically communicating with Billy.
He rises, dropping the book and the blankets. J'onn rises as well and takes a step back. Lex raises his brows.
Billy takes a deep breath.
"SHAZAM!" he yells, and his voice is followed by a thunderclap.
*
Billy Batson is Captain Marvel, and he has been given his powers by a wizard who lives in the rock of eternity. When he says the word 'Shazam', lighting turns him into a man larger and broader than Clark, with powers that Lex isn't quite clear about yet, and a bright red uniform with a white golden-trimmed cape.
At least that's what Billy says. Lex has seen the evidence and he still doesn't quite believe it.
Right now, Billy Batson is sleeping curled into a seat in Lex's private jet, after he has eaten more than Lex has ever seen a child eat. He must have been starving. He wasn't afraid to go with two strangers and seemed only a bit intimidated by the luxury of the private jet.
"He has been chosen because he is pure of heart. He would not use his powers for personal gain," the Martian says quietly. J'onn says this because Lex is wondering why Billy is so poor if he's this powerful.
They are on the way to Edge City. Edge City isn't where Zatanna lives in the DCU, it's just another fictional DC city that has also been mentioned in SV.
*
It's a circus show.
Lex has never been in a real circus before. He's seen certain kinds of performers at parties, of course, but he's never been to a circus where tigers are displayed in reeking cages and spun sugar is sold to wailing brats, where the audience is squeezed into a tall, stuffy tent and the first row is populated entirely by children who giggle and laugh even at the silliest jokes of the clowns. I never liked clowns as a kid, I only liked the animals. When I was about four, I went to the circus with my grandma and was allowed to ride an elephant. That was great.
Lex has found out that there's no point in pressuring the Martian to reveal what they're looking for. Whenever Lex's voice becomes threatening, the Martian's replies become very mild and patient, and he points out with the infuriating serenity of an eastern Buddha that Lex will see it when they find it. So Lex is forced to follow him as they wander aimlessly between the circus tents and vendors and stare at depressing displays of animals in tiny cages. Bored and irritated, Lex distracts himself by buying Billy a soda and a caramel apple at one of the overpriced vendors.
Billy stares at the soda and the apple with big, disbelieving eyes. Lex fully expects him to refuse or take them without a proper thanks, just like Clark used to do, but then Billy smiles. "Thank you," he says politely and pops the soda can, pushing the straw in.
Lex notices the way the Martian is staring at the cookies, and buys a package of them as well.
It's been a long time since Lex has done something good that didn't come with a high price.
He doesn't buy anything for himself, but when he's sitting squeezed in between the Martian and Billy on a tiny hard chair without backrest, waiting for the show to start while the audience creates truly astounding levels of noise, Lex wishes he had a scotch.
There are acrobats, a whole family of them, flying through the air almost as gracefully as J'onn. This, of course, are the Flying Graysons, the acrobat family Dick Grayson, the first Robin, belongs to. Imagine, if you will, that the next stop of the circus is Gotham City, where the audience will contain not only Bruce Wayne, but also Tim Drake. Tragically, the Grayson family will be shot and Dick will become Robin. Some of the children are as young as Billy and yet they master the jumps perfectly. There's a lion tamer in a silly orange cat costume and a 'talking' tiger. The "lion tamer" is Catman, of Villains United fame. He was a ridiculous Silver Age Batman villain, but his modern version is hawt like hell. The "talking tiger" is Tawky Tawny, one of Captain Marvel's sidekicks. When the fire-breather enters the arena, J'onn shrinks in his seat, and Lex feels him quiver all through the performance.
Proof that Catman is hawt, from the pages of "Villains United":
And then there's the lady magician.
She wears a top hat on dark curls, a waist coat and fishnets together with a leotard. She's beautiful, too beautiful to appear in a cheap show like this, and her act is so good that it takes Lex a full ten minutes to grasp the fact that she's a real witch.
*
In the break, the Martian leads them to Zatanna Zatara's trailer. Above the doorway of the trailer that is shut with a velvet curtain, a sign proclaims 'Zatara' in colours that were once gaudy and now are fading and peeling. The date beneath the name is so old that she must have inherited a family business. She has inherited it from her father, Zachary Zatara, a human illusionist. Her mother is one of the homo magi, a fictional "hidden race of humans" of the DC universe – kinda like wizards in the Harry Potter universe.
She sits on the stairs and smokes and Lex realizes that despite her professional behaviour in the arena, she can be no older than eighteen. When she sees them approach, she mutters something and the cigarette disappears. She puts on a smile and her top hat, but Lex can see the lines of exhaustion on her young face. Post-modern grim and gritty anti-hero Zatanna. I have no idea why this happened.
She has a surprisingly low voice, scratchy from smoke. "What can I do for you? An autograph? Most people want the Flying Graysons, you know."
Lex knows, because they had to fight their way through the throng of people trying to get an autograph from the acrobats before they could get out here. The acrobat family must be very popular.
"I preferred your act," he tells her, and something about her black curls and huge dark eyes forces a smile from him. He wasn't even going to try and charm her, it just happens. "You almost fooled me."
"You're a real wizard," Billy says admiringly. "Just like Shazam!"
There's a thunderclap and lightning hits Billy. As the dust clears, Captain Marvel grins at them sheepishly. "Oops."
Zatanna stares at them, then gives a throaty laugh.
"My name is John Jones," J'onn says. "And this is Lex Luthor and Billy Batson. We are here to save the world."
*
So far, neither Billy nor Zatanna have asked for money or an explanation. J'onn's word and his charisma seem enough to make them leave everything behind. But then, neither Billy nor Zatanna are normal people, and they had little to loose. J'onn is Merlin the magician. No, really, he is. He's the guy who brings the knights of the round table together.
They spend the night in a hotel, and Lex has new clothes brought for Billy and Zatanna. If his army must consist of children and stage magicians, then at least they will not wear rags and fishnets to war.
Captain Marvel's costume is tacky enough as it is.
*
Their next stop is New York.
After wandering the streets for a while and a crowded ride in an elevator, they knock at an apartment door on the fifth floor of a house in Brooklyn.
For a long time there's silence, then it's broken by a muffled curse and what sounds like someone hopping on one leg. The door is ripped open by a young man in boxer shorts who is still struggling to put on a faded green T-shirt. A head of dark hair emerges and for second, Lex is hit by the resemblance to Clark. But then it's gone, because this guy, although he is handsome, is bleary-eyed and he has stubble and everything about him screams of urban twenty-something.
"I'm not buying – "
J'onn silences him by changing his shape to his natural green form.
"Oh," the guy says with a blink. "Come in." As a Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner is used to aliens. The Green Lantern Corps is something like an intergalactic space police, and has members from nearly every sentient race in the galaxy. They're chosen by the power ring, which, if it's old bearer dies, automatically searches a new bearer with the willpower and courage necessary to control it. (Lex would make a formidable, if terrifying Green Lantern.) Also an interesting fact: the original, Golden Age Green Lantern had an actual Lantern instead of a ring, and that Lantern was made from green meteors :D Kyle is still new at this, but he has met at least a few aliens.
Lex is last to enter the chaotic apartment, and when he closes the door softly, the young man turns around, still looking dazed. "Coffee? You're not space villains, right?"
"No, Mr Rayner," J'onn says. "We are here to ask for assistance from the Green Lantern Corps."
Rayner looks startled. "Whoa, I didn't know I was that popular already. I'm just a Lantern in training."
From a cluttered hallway, they have progressed into a large, brightly lit studio. There's a mattress with a sleeping bag in one corner, and a cabinet sits on the floor next to it, with a cheap coffee machine on top. Nearly every inch of the floor is taken in either by dirty clothes, books, or art supplies. A desk is covered by a pile of sketches and pencils, and the air smells of paint and ink.
A closer look tells Lex's that Rayner draws comics. Heh. I didn't write this, but in my head, J'onn telepathically manipulated Kyle to draw the Warrior Angel comic he reads in the first scene – custom-tailored for Lex's issues. Kyle is canonically a comic artist in the DC verse.
"The Lanterns are known everywhere in the galaxy as a great force of good," J'onn says, as he navigates his big frame elegantly through the messy room. By now Lex knows when J'onn is getting manipulative.
"Yeah, look," Rayner blushes, and fidgets a little. "I haven't really figured this whole power ring stuff out yet. Maybe we should give the corps a call –"
"Earth needs you. If a Lantern ring has chosen you, you have the courage and willpower to help."
"I have a job with a deadline!"
Finally, this is someone whom Lex will convince. He takes a step closer. "Mr Rayner. Aliens will invade earth. If you don't help us, there won't be any deadline. If you do help us, however, I will make sure personally that you will be published by any company you want. How does that sound?"
"Um. How are you going to do that?"
Lex appears to intimidate Rayner more than the big green Martian in the room, and Lex likes that. "I'll buy the company."
"And you're sure you're not villains?"
Only after he has bought Rayner, Lex remembers that he doesn't even know yet what the man's power is.
*
Lex owns a company, and he should use the flight time to do his job, but his travel companions are very distracting.
Zatanna and Kyle Rayner are showing off with Billy as a delighted audience. It's a friendly competition, not an actual fight, they're just trying to prove whose power is the more entertaining one. Zatanna can make just about anything happen by saying things backwards – which is an absolutely ridiculous power and for Lex's peace of mind, he has to remind himself that her job description is 'illusionist'. Kyle Rayner, on the other hand, possesses an alien artefact, a so-called Green Lantern power ring, that is able to create green light constructs formed by his will-power and imagination. Billy, Kyle and Zatanna are all incredibly powerful people. So is J'onn. Actually, in the DC comics, everyone is a minor god, but Superman pwns them all. (Yes, you are invited to debate that point with me!)
Kyle. The Lantern itself is the powersource of his green power ring.
Lex was angry at himself for trusting J'onn enough to hire Kyle without a second glance, but now that he has seen what the ring can do, his anger has cooled down. It's starting to look as if they have a chance against the invaders.
When Billy notices him watching, he asks, "What's your power, Mr Luthor?"
All of them turn towards him, but Kyle laughs and ruffles Billy's hair. "He's got money, kid. It's all the power you need."
*
Hub City makes the suicide slum in Metropolis look like suburbia. Hub City is another fictional city, the home of The Question. It's described as even dirtier and more dangerous than Gotham.
On the way from the airport to the hotel, they have to stop thrice because Billy jumps out of the car to foil some crime, until Zatanna, who's itchy for a cigarette break and not allowed to smoke in the same taxi as J'onn, snaps at him to stop it.
The hotel is a crass contrast to the poverty-ridden city, but Lex knows that wherever there's great poverty, there's someone getting very rich because of it. He's glad that so far he hasn't had to stoop so low as to exploit the masses; the people he has harmed in his quest to stop the invasion have always been individuals, few enough yet that he knows their faces, if not always their names.
He calls Lana from the hotel, but she sounds tense. Probably she's with someone. Chloe maybe, or Clark. The enemy. Lana thinks he's on a business trip. Lex doesn't love her, but he wishes he could trust her enough to tell her that he's saving the world. I like the idea of Lex calling Lana. He's very lonely, he wants a confidante, but he can't trust her, and still he calls her. I believe originally, Lex saw Lana as something of a little sister, then later, as his Clark replacement. He wants her to trust him and admire him, but instead she betrays him, like Clark.
When he hangs up, the others are ready to foray into the city in search of J'onn's next super-powered candidate.
"Who are we looking for?" Kyle asks.
"That is the question," J'onn evades. "He isn't sure yet who he is." 'That is the question' is The Question's catchphrase.
*
[...]
In that very moment, a figure like a scarecrow emerges from the shadows under the bridge. He's wearing a trench coat and a fedora, and under the fedora wild red hair sticks out in all directions. Despite the old-fashioned clothing, it's only a kid, younger than Clark, but he has the hollow face of a ghost and the feverish eyes of a nightmare. Boys and girls, meet the Question. In regular DC verse, he recently died of lung cancer : ( . I'm not a Question expert, I just know him from JLU and 52, but wikipedia said that he was originally a violent teenager who got his conspiracy theory ideas from a bad LSD trip. Or something. The Question has no superpowers, he's just really smart and intuitive, and a decent martial artist. He usually wears a featureless mask to cover his face. In JLU, the Question was not only made of awesome, he also tried to kill Luthor – because he believed that if he didn't do it, Superman would eventually kill Luthor and that would be Superman's downfall. It's a nice parallel to Lex committing crimes in order to save the world.
The Question, from a "52" cover:
"I've seen you coming. You're in my head," he yells. "You're looking for the spider… the spider…" Spider=Brainiac, but also an allusion to the experiments with LSD done on spiders, because Vic is trying to tell them that he's on LSD.
He sways and catches himself in the last moment, straightening up again. His knuckles are bloody, and half of his face is covered by swollen bruises.
"He's everywhere. In the air, he's talking to you. The spider crawls through the veins of the nation – nobody knows – " Veins of the nation=internet , but also Lex's veins. I messed up a little here, because this is a dangling plotline, but let's say it leaves room for a sequel.
A heavy hand settles on Lex's shoulder and squeezes. J'onn leans in close, he still looks shaken from the sight of the fire. "His name is Charles Victor Szasz, also known as Vic Sage. We need him."
Lex steps forward, past Zatanna. Szasz's raving doesn't intimdate him, he has seen worse in Belle Reve and Level 33.1 and probably even during his own misspent youth.
"Mr Szasz."
Szasz doesn't react. He raves on about vaccines and windmills and boy bands and queens and princesses. "vaccines"= the vaccine with which Brainiac infected Lex, "windmills"= he casts Lex as Don Quixote, and the alien invasion is Lex's windmill, "boy bands"= Ollie's League, "queens"= Ollie, "princesses" = Diana.
"Victor," Lex says more forcefully.
That makes Szasz stop dead in his litany. His head snaps up, and his eyes fix on Lex. He has an ugly, brutal face, but those eyes, even through the obvious drug haze, are burning with intelligence. "Yes," he gasps. "Vic. Victory. To the victor go the spoils. Spoiled Victor – vector. You're the vector, Mister Victory." Vector in the medical sense, Lex is carrying the Brainiac virus in him. Again, a dangling plot point.
And with that, he slumps straight into Lex's arms, out cold.
Lex lowers him onto the dirty ground. Zatanna and Kyle hurry closer, but Billy stays with J'onn. The boy looks scared.
"Shit," Kyle says. "What the hell's up with the guy?" Except for Billy, Lex's heroes aren't very PC.
"Psychotropic drugs," Lex guesses. "And an extremely high intelligence. Am I right?" he turns over his shoulder to J'onn. The Martian nods.
"Just what we needed," Zatanna sighs. "A genius junkie."
"Does he need a doctor?" Billy asks timidly.
"Probably." Lex pulls out his phone and calls a specialist. As he explains the case to Toby, Zatanna mutters something and Vic Sage, trench coat and fedora and all, turns into a little orange kitten that she picks up from the ground and carries in her arms. I want Toby to be working in Level 33.1 for Lex. That'd be the ultimate crack (heh).
Toby, once he's sobered up enough to get what Lex wants, tells him to fuck off and put Sage on cold turkey and see what happens. He won't get paid for that piece of shitty advice.
*
[...]
*
He's alone with Victor Sage for seven hours. At first Sage is still, then he starts pacing, raving at the walls, talking incessantly in English and other languages, only some of which Lex understands.
Once he's lucid for a few moment, and glances around curiously until he spots Lex. "You're Lex Luthor," he says, sounding surprised.
"Yes. I'm your new employer."
Sage laughs, then clutches his head. "I'm on LSD," he tells Lex. Then he screams.
Another time, he asks for a pen, and Lex, who is tired of trying to make sense of his talk, gives him a sharpie.
By the end of the seven hours, half of the wall is covered in writing. Sweeping arrows cross the whole picture, making connection where there are none, slowly closing in on the centre, like a spider's intricate web. This is an allusion to one scene in JLU, where we see the Question's version of the "wall of weird", full of conspiracy theories.
Victor Szasz is snoring on the couch and Lex is left staring at the wall.
The word in the centre says BRAINIAC.
*
The next morning, they all have breakfast together, and Sage, sober again, turns out to be a chipper eccentric. All of his tales involve either conspiracies or unnecessary violence, but mostly both. He doesn't eat anything that's red and refuses to part with his clothes, and when Lex tries to take a picture of the writings on the wall with his mobile, he freaks and raves on for a full five minutes about spy satellites and computer viruses, the gist of it being that mobile phones are the work of the devil.
"Do we really need him?" Lex asks J'onn acidly.
J'onn is looking thoughtfully at the wall. "Yes."
Sage hasn't got to be convinced to come with them.
"We're saving the world," he says, as if it's obvious to everyone.
*
They cross the Atlantic, but not in a jet plane. Lex and Vic Sage are the only ones who can't fly, so they're carried in a bubble of green light created by Kyle's ring.
Two hours later, Lex knows more about the dangers of barcodes, the relation of the Bush family and the British royals to reptilian aliens and the connection between the Mossad, Nikola Tesla and the crash of Korean Air Flight KAL-007 than he will ever be able to purge his mind of. All these conspiracy theories exist. I had fun researching them on wikipedia. The reptilian aliens made another appearance in my fic "A Little Dirt", because they fascinated me so. I've been on an Korean Air flight! (To Australia).
They land, cloaked by Zatanna's magic, on Crete. I've also been to Crete, when I was six. I remember beaches and calamares hung to dry on washing lines and donkeys and cactuses growing in the wild. Oh, and a day spent out on the sea in a small boat :D
A couple of hours later, they leave the harbour of Heraklion on a yacht, heading out into the Sea of Crete. It's a sunny summer afternoon and the sun sparkles on the waves and once they leave behind the fishy smell of the harbour, the air smells only of salt and freedom. J'onn turns himself into a seagull, flying above their vessel on graceful white wings, and Zatanna conjures a bikini for herself to sunbathe. She's joined by Kyle not much later, while Vic excuses himself with seasickness and vanishes under deck.
Lex, who is the only one who has ever even been on a yacht, is left to steer it, following J'onn's direction. Billy sits next to him, chattering about how he wants to be a reporter for the radio. Reporters abound in comics, I have no idea why. If I had gotten into comics earlier, my dream job would be reporter. There has to be at least a 50% chance to become either a superhero or the girlfriend of one.
It makes Lex think of Clark. Back when they were friends, Lex was only biding his time for Clark to grow up so Lex could take him to places like this.
Lex's mood has been good all day, and he tries to distract himself before he can slip back into depression.
"Where does the word Shazam come from?" he asks. Someone else saying it has no effect on Billy.
"It's the wizard's name," Billy says. "But actually it's a… uh, how do you call it when the first letters of words make up an abbreviation?"
"An acronym. Which words are they?"
"The names of the gods who grant me their powers. S is for the wisdom of Solomon. H is for the strength of Hercules. A is for the stamina of Atlas. Z is for the power of Zeus. A is for the courage of Achilles –"
Lex closes his eyes. He feels a headache coming. So did I when I first learned what Shazam means. Oh, comic book science! "Achilles was not a god. Hercules was only a demigod. And Solomon isn't even Greek!"
So he ends up explaining Greek mythology to a kid who believes that all these gods and heroes are perfectly real until the sun goes down. And still they head east.
*
By morning, J'onn lands on the railing of the yacht and turns back into his human form. "We have reached our destination. We may venture no further. They don't welcome men on their island."
"They?" Lex asks suspiciously.
Vic Sage emerges from the depths of the yacht, looking hung-over and sick. "Amazons," he groans.
*
They wait for almost twelve hours, from dawn to dusk. As the sunset shimmers on the small waves, first one, then another set of sails emerges from the golden light. The wooden ships are long and sleek, and a single row of oars hangs inactive over the water on each side. They are ancient Greek triremes as they have not sailed these seas for centuries, even millennia and they glide closer like phantoms of the past.
As they get closer, Lex is able to make out a figure in the bow of one of boats. It stands tall, and is surrounded by a fluttering white garment like a flag of peace.
After another few minutes, Lex sees that the figure is a woman with long dark hair, her breasts covered by gleaming metal armour. The people sitting at the oars are all women, all dressed in light but war-like garments.
The triremes align themselves with the yacht on each side, and as they glide past, the dark-haired woman jumps from the bow of her boat onto the bow of the yacht with the grace of a panther. She bears a spear and a shield and when she straightens, she hits the shield with her spear once.
"Envoys from the world of man! I am Princess Diana of Themiscyra," she calls loudly. "Our seers have predicted your arrival."
Meet Diana, Amazon princess, also known as Wonder Woman. She's made from clay and gets her powers from Greek gods. I have no idea whether Themiscyra, also known as Paradise Island, actually is located in the Sea of Crete, or whether the Amazons speak ancient Greek. (Golden Age Diana had learned to speak ever human language ever, but then, she also was able to communicate telepathically. Golden Age was wacky.) This Diana has had nearly no exposure to "the world of man" as the Amazons call modern Western civilization. Oh, and btw, the seers totally did receive their message from J'onn instead of the Gods.
It's the first time in his life that Lex hears actual spoken ancient Greek. He feels as if nothing can surprise him anymore.
None of his companions seem to understand her. They're merely staring at the Amazon with varying degrees of wariness. Lex tries his best to puzzle out an answer as the Amazon stares imperiously at them.
"We have come here to seek your assistance," is what Lex hopes he says.
Diana of Themiscyra blinks, then laughs at him with merry blue eyes.
She's taller than Lex is and her bare shoulders and calves are impressively muscled. He has no doubt that this woman could overwhelm him in under three seconds, and for some reason, that makes her powerfully attractive. "Our seers did not predict that. Have you come in search of your lost soldiers?"
Lex tries to appear unsurprised. "Did they enter your territory?"
J'onn said that the Amazons would not tolerate men on their island. Probably the 'lost soldiers' are fishermen or tourists who stumbled on the island accidentally, or else it's a translation error. Lex doesn't really care about their fate, but Diana called herself a princess, so it might be prudent to make himself appear as authoritative as possible.
"Yes. They violated the sanctity of Paradise Island. They were to be executed for their crime, but the gods sent a vision to our seers and told them to bring them out to sea, where a Prince from the world of man on a sacred mission would meet us. Are you Alexander, the protector of man?"
It's the meaning of Lex's name in Greek, but it has become far more than a matter of etymology. Lex has made himself the protector of man, at all costs. I discovered the etymology of Lex's name while writing this fic. It was perfect.
He nods. "I'm honoured to make your acquaintance." And strangely, he is. Since he has met Clark he hasn't encountered anyone with such an air of power and gravity about them. "My mission is to raise an army – not just to protect mankind, but all of humankind." He knows that he must be sounding stilted, but he only knows her language from the texts of poets and philosophers. There are still schools in Germany where you will learn Latin and Ancient Greek instead of modern foreign languages. I had Latin, English and French in school. I don't know how common classic languages are in the US, but there's no way Lex hasn't read stuff like Homer or Platon (the Politeia especially, I think Lex secretly imagines himself as the philosopher king described there) in the original.
She gives him an answering nod. "Then we will give you back your soldiers, Alexander."
She raises an arm, and the metal bracelet on her wrist blinks in the sunset. The famous bullet-deflecting bracelets! It is answered by a call from one of the ships, and then a smaller boat is let into the water. Two large women sit at the oars, and an even larger, grim looking one stands in the rear, her copper hair like fire in the evening light. Her name is Etta Candy. Sorry. Golden Age Wonder Woman in-joke. She carries a large sword and looms over the prisoners threateningly.
And then Lex laughs, a short, startled bark of laughter that he just can't hold back.
You see, originally, Lex's rag-tag band of heroes was going to pick up Diana as their sixth soldier (not counting Lex himself) and then J'onn would say, "For our last member we need to return to Kansas" and lead them straight to the Kent farm, where he'd reveal the truth about Clark. (I'm glad I didn't write it that way, I doubt Lex would have believed him). But then I suddenly had the mental image of Ollie and the Justice kids all tied up by Amazons. (No doubt thanks to the person who constantly posts Golden Age Wonder Woman scans over at
scans_daily. In Golden Age, Wonder Woman solved every problem with bondage. No, seriously. Someone gets tied up in every single comic. As a side thought, I kinda want to write the story about the League's bondage adventures on Paradise Island. Every guy wants to be tied up by Wonder Woman. Heck, I want to be tied up by Wonder Woman!
In front of the redheaded Amazon, bound in chains, sits Oliver Queen, wearing the unmistakable leather outfit of the Green Arrow. The next bench is shared by Victor Stone and Bart Allen, shackled to each other and also in chains. In front of them sits Arthur Curry and stares longingly at the sea.
And in the bow of the boat, bound by nothing but a thin golden rope, is Clark. Clark + Lasso of Truth + bondage = happy Lex. I only realized this once I had written it.
Lex steps closer to the railing, Diana at his side and waits as the boat crosses the space between the trireme and the yacht. As the Amazons stop rowing by the side of the yacht and Kyle throws down a rope for them, Clark glances up.
"Lex!" he shouts, utterly surprised. "What are you doing here?"
"How did you bind him?" Lex asks Diana.
"The Lasso of Truth is a gift of the gods," Diana replies. "It can bind any man and force them to submit to me. Whoever is bound by it may only speak the truth. Your young warrior struggled valiantly, though," she adds, as if she thinks Lex might be disappointed that Clark could be overwhelmed. "He is very powerful."
Lex allows himself a victorious grin. Clark is defeated, by a woman's golden rope. Not the woman Lex married for this purpose, but that doesn't matter now. He is forced to speak the truth, and Lex will make him reveal all of it. It is essential, here, that Lex believes what Diana says about the rope. If he didn't believe it, Clark's confession would have no effect on him. But Lex wants it to be true, and so far, all of J'onn's people have been trustworthy. So Lex believes it, because he thinks it's going to be his ultimate victory.
"I'm saving the world from your invasion!" Lex calls back in English, because finally he can say it out loud and doesn't have to be afraid of what Clark might do when he realizes that he has been found out and that Lex knows about the impending invasion.
Clark's mouth falls open. "You what?"
"I've known about you for years, Clark! I know that you're one of them. Are you a sleeper agent? A scout?"
"What the hell are you talking about, Luthor?" Oliver Queen demands angrily. Again, I think Ollie knows/suspects more about Zod than he has told Clark. But Lex's accusations are pretty ridiculous for someone who doesn't have exactly the kind of misinformation Lex has.
"Clark Kent is an alien," Lex reveals, because Queen might be an asshole, but he's still human. Eventually, they'll stand on the same side.
"Woah," Victor Stone says.
"That true, man?" Arthur Curry demands.
Clark looks increasingly panicked. "There's no invasion!"
"But there will be."
Clark closes his eyes. His face is glistening with sweat, and Lex can see him try to break free of the lasso. It doesn't work. Clark's dark head sags between his shoulders in surrender. When he opens his eyes again and looks up at Lex, he truly looks defeated.
Lex strains his ears to hear what he has to say, because finally it will be the truth.
He speaks softly, and only because everyone around them is silent Lex can hear him over the lapping of the waves. "I'm the last one, Lex. Krypton was destroyed. There aren't any survivors besides me."
Lex grips the railing. The gentle rocking of the yacht has suddenly become an earthquake to him.
He turns on J'onn. "You told me – "
The Martian steps towards Lex, his eyes gentle and compassionate. "I said I was here to help you save the world. I never said there would be an alien invasion." He glances down at Clark and speaks louder, so that they can all hear him. J'onn is a much, much better liar than Clark – he doesn't lie at all, just plays to Lex's expectations.
"The truth is, neither Mars nor Krypton were destroyed from the outside. The enemy lay within. They destroyed themselves. I will not let the same happen to Earth. Therefore I have gathered all those willing and able to defend this planet, so that they will fight side by side and not amongst each other."
"Lex is a criminal!" Clark protests as he struggles against his bonds once more. "He's experimenting on people!"
One by one, Lex's followers turn towards him with questioning looks. Diana stares at all of them with a puzzled frown. Those wacky men! Don't let them confuse you, Diana.
Lex raises his chin and stands straight.
"I did what I had to."
And he has nothing to be ashamed of.
And everything to regret.
"I don't understand," Billy says in a small voice.
Zatanna shrugs. "Seems like this was all just a wild goose chase."
From the other end of the yacht, Vic Sage clears his throat. "Um, actually, it wasn't."
He points up at the evening sky and the black spaceship floating in it.
*
"Hera!" Diana exclaims. "What is that?"
Kyle Rayner raises his power ring, startling the Amazon even more when he produces a shield of green light.
"It's Fine's ship!" Clark yells. "Please, cut me loose! I'm the only one strong enough to fight it!"
Diana's shout of, "Don't you dare touch the Lasso of Truth!" is the last that can be heard before everyone around them breaks into wild noise and panic. Diana jumps over the railing and down into the boat to struggle with Clark. J'onn, Zatanna and Kyle Rayner fly towards the spaceship to attack it. The Amazons start throwing spears and shooting arrows at the spaceship.
Down in the boat, Arthur curry throws himself into the water, chains and all, and goes under. Bart Allen starts to vibrate and blur until he slides out of the chains and Diana has pushed Clark onto his back, a foot planted on his chest. He stares up at her livid face and says something too soft for Lex to make out. It looks like a plea.
She hesitates only for a moment, long enough to see how the spaceship defends itself with some kind of laser weapon. Kyle is trying to shield Zatanna and J'onn with the light of his power ring.
Her face hardening, Diana takes the lasso and pulls, and it loosens and falls off Clark. As soon as she steps aside, he is on his feet.
"No!" Lex shouts, but his voice is drowned by the noise of battle. Only Clark's eyes find him. For a moment they're completely inscrutable as he stares at Lex, alien as they never have been before, and Lex breathes out slowly, sure that he will die by Clark's hand.
J'onn isn't just manipulating Lex here. This is just as much about getting Clark to realize that Lex is serious about saving the world, and that he truly believes Clark is evil. This is the moment where Clark does so. It must be quite a shock for him.
Instead Clark bends his knees and launches himself at the ship to attack it. Lex stares after him, feeling cold settle in his heart. Through Clark's lies and his own wild suspicions he has become a Don Quixote fighting windmills with deadly force, instead of the martyr he believed himself to be. In the sky, the battle is still going on, but Lex has already lost.
Billy stumbles into him. "What do I do?" the boy asks anxiously.
Lex shakes his head and turns away. He has no answers. Everything he has done was wrong.
Given no reply, Billy clenches his eyes shut and to Lex's horror shouts the name of the wizard.
A huge bolt of lightning hits the yacht and tears straight through it, ripping it apart in the middle.
The water is warm as Lex's body hits the waves, and it wraps around him welcomingly.
*
[...]
"Seems you already have a billionaire." I wish the show had given Lex an opportunity to express his feelings about Ollie and Clark. Whatever they are, they would have been slashy. Alternatively, Lionel could have made a biting remark.
Clark laughs uneasily. "Yeah, but he doesn't speak Ancient Greek. We could need a translator down there. J'onn can talk with them, but he won't go near the torches."
"They seem to be getting along fine."
Clark looks towards the celebration, then lowers his eyes. "Yeah."
They fall silent, and Lex is too tired to feel much discomfort. Eventually Clark will leave and then he'll be alone with the wine again.
"I'm glad you're not evil, Lex." This might be my favourite line, because it's true. Clark would be incredibly glad if he found out that Lex isn't evil.
Lex laughs mirthlessly. "Funny. I thought it just turned out that I am evil after all." He reaches for the amphora, but Clark takes it away.
"Getting drunk always makes you wallow in self-pity."
"Maybe that's what I want to do!"
Clark hurls the amphora into the sea. He always was a bad guest. Lex stares at him, his dark mood replaced by sudden anger. Of all the people on this ship Clark is the one person who can't forgive Lex because this is all just as much his fault and yet he's here, sanctimonious and belittling –
"You had enough," Clark says gently. The first time I wrote this scene, they just went on angsting and talking in circles. A physical confrontation is one of the cheap tricks a writer sometimes has to use. Also, Lex has a thing for physical violence.
Lex punches him in the face, hard enough that he'd break his knuckles on Clark's invulnerable chin if Clark didn't go with the punch. Lex swallows a yell of pain as they topple over onto the deck. He jumps on Clark chest and punches him with his other fist, and this time he does make a sound, something between a snarl and a sob, horribly humiliating. Clark seizes both of his wrists and holds him still. His eyes gleam in the dark and his chest heaves between Lex's thighs. That and the pain in his hands and the way Clark licks his lips nervously and the sweet spiced wine all work together to betray Lex's mind.
The things he wants to say all sound childish and petulant. Yes, he hates Clark and he loves him, but no way in hell is he going to say that now.
He wriggles his hips and slides down Clark's body, their clothes sticky and stiff between them from dried seawater. When Clark's crotch comes into contact with Lex's erection, he surges up against it and lets go of Lex's wrists in shock.
Lex bends down, supporting himself on his elbows, and tangles both hands in Clark's hair. They hurt and yet he pulls tightly, leaning close until he can see Clark's face even in the dark. Clark is breathing shallowly, and his eyes are wide, half in fright and half in wonder.
"I'm also glad you're not evil," Lex whispers and captures his lower lip, licking the salt and bitterness of the sea from it, mixing it with the sourness of the wine. Together they taste of tears. Clark gasps under him, and his large hands find Lex's sides, touching him awkwardly.
Lex's own hands are shaking in Clark's hair, and where his back is exposed to the night air, the cold and dread of the past months still linger, but his kisses are sure and slow, and met more eagerly each time.
The Clex is pastede on, but I felt Lex (and we) deserved some pay-off. Also: sex on an Amazon ship. You only get that chance once ;)
Scans taken from "Wonder Woman" and "Justice League International" covers, "Villains United", "52", "Green Lantern" and "Superman/Shazam: First Thunder".
