FIC: No One Noticed the Cat (5/7)
Title: No One Noticed the Cat
Pairing: Clex
Rating: PG13
Warning: Violence
Includes: temporary mpreg, temporary character deaths
Summary: Clark gets Lex a pet cat… that's not quite a cat.
Author’s Notes:
1. Continuity Post S3 finale.
2. This is a
help_haiti fic for
tallihensia, who has been awfully patient to get this.
3. The Bennu bird serves as the Egyptian correlation to the phoenix, and is pictured as a heron. This relates to reinforce the Greek --> Egyptian name shift.
Thanks to
cheerful_earl and
herohunter for the betas. :D
“Until one has loved an animal a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.”
Anatole France
Part Five
It was an earthquake.
No.
That wasn’t quite right.
It was like an earthquake, but as Lex made his way through the streets, his suit detected no shifting of the tectonic plates beneath the city. Logically, there was no reason for everything to shake. No reason for the wind to be gusting so hard that it could lift a full grown man from his feet and send him flying.
Lex took a few steps forward. The largest flaw with the MechaSuits was that they were hardly inconspicuous. It was, however, hard for the wind or the tremors to faze him while he was in it. Initially he’d gone out to take some readings, but people just didn’t have the sense to get inside, so he’d been slowed down somewhat by the need to grab people who had been caught by the wind, or before something fell on top of them, and walking them over to safety.
After dropping a woman off at the front of a building, into which she scurried quickly (and wisely, thank goodness), Lex stood still for a moment to look at the data his suit was gathering.
“This is not looking good,” he murmured to himself. He touched his comm. “Are you getting the readings, Mercy?”
“Yes, Lex. They’re getting through. Are you coming in?”
“Don’t worry about me. Just keep that location running. If we’re going to find a means of stopping this before our universe caves in on itself, I need more information about how it works.”
“I wouldn’t be much of a bodyguard if I didn’t worry about you.”
“You are so much more than a bodyguard.” Lex lifted his head as a strange sound rang over his head.
“What was that?”
“I’m... not sure. MechaSuit One out.”
“Sir-”
Lex cut the comm link and lifted the arm of the suit, which would detect whatever had made that sound before his eyes could see it. The noise came again, somewhere between a squawk and a roar. The trembling of the ground had ceased, and Lex stepped toward the sound. The view screen in his suit had detected an animal of some kind.
The next time the sound came, the buildings shuddered. Then the glass burst out of them. Out of the corner of Lex’s eye, he spotted a familiar building. A tall, aged building with a playground to the side and a black, iron fence surrounding the grounds.
“Where have I seen that...? Oh, shit.”
Lex took off running toward the Bleaker Street Children’s Home, his suit taking large chunks out of the pavement. He had no time to get buzzed in. He ripped the gate open and rushed to the front door. A small black-haired boy peeked out at him, then cried out in fright. Lex had forgotten that his face couldn’t be seen in this thing.
Kneeling in front of the child, Lex retracted the head shield. “Do you know who I am? We have to get you and the other children out of here-”
The roar came from behind them and Lex half-turned. The boy froze as a pterodactyl lunged for them.
Lex instinctively pulled the boy behind him just before the creature made a swipe at them with its massive talons. He fired at it repeatedly with the laser canon attached to his left arm. The beast squalled and shot up into the air.
Lifting the boy up, Lex ran deeper into the building. A middle aged woman with her hair drawn back came out in front of the children who were now scattering out into the hallway.
“You’re- Mr. Luthor? What are you doing... here?” She must be the Dahlia Delany who Sullivan had mentioned in her article.
He could tell that her mind was blown to see The Lex Luthor in their little abode, wearing something that looked like it had come out of an east Asian cartoon.
“Do you have a panic room here? A tornado shelter?”
“Y-yes, a shelter, of course. It’s why we bought this building.” Dahlia put her arms around two of the children. “I’m sorry, Mr. Luthor... You’re bleeding.”
Lex blinked and looked over himself. He made a grumbling noise when he noticed the wide gash over his shoulder. “It’s nothing. You need to get the kids-”
Another warning squawk shook the walls.
“Down to the shelter! Now!” Lex yelled with more urgency. The boy he was holding had begun to cry.
She looked around herself quickly, mouthing numbers as she counted the heads of the children. “Tommy! Go get Sarah and Davis, quickly!”
Lex let the boy in his arms go, and he motioned for them to go. “Go on. I’ll hold it off.”
“Thank you, Mr. Luthor!” Dahlia called over her shoulder.
With a touch of a button, Lex let the head shield snap back into place and turned to fire on the approaching beast once again.
***
“-so I pretty much have that Pulitzer in a lock,” Lois bragged, as she talked to another reporter flirtily and crossed her legs.
“Could you get off my desk?” Clark asked in a defeated tone.
“Superman and I are tight. I’ll have the exposé on all this stuff by the morning,” she continued, waving a hand in the air.
Clark sighed and turned away from his desk. Working was a lost cause at this point. He did a double-take as he saw someone waving from the window. They were on the fourteenth floor.
He jumped up and hurried over to the window. Diana grinned at him merrily. She pressed two fingers to her lips, then pressed them against the glass. Clark laughed and did the same. He pointed upward, and she nodded eagerly.
He hurried to the elevator to meet her on the roof.
“You are still working, Kal?” Diana said when he arrived. “I thought you would come with me to the Watchtower today, to investigate these strange events.”
“I’ve been trying to keep an eye on what’s happening with the people. It’s very dangerous for them right now.”
Diana gave a single, graceful nod. “There is a new threat. I do not know if it is related.” She stepped closer to him and touched his shoulder affectionately. “Men in robes with foreign runes tattooed on their skins. They run like cowards! But they attack the people with their strange magical weapons. Be careful, Kal. Magic can affect you as much as anyone else.”
“I remember.” Clark smiled softly. He wrapped his big arms around her narrow waist, earning himself an arched brow.
“Kal?”
“You be careful, too. You’re...” Clark closed his eyes. Something unpleasant was just outside of the reach of his memory. “You’re not invincible, you know.”
“Neither are you, despite common belief. We Amazons are warriors born, Kal. Do not fear for me. I can defend myself as well as any other mate you may have chosen,” Diana assured him. She leaned forward and kissed his lips possessively as she cupped the side of his face with her palm.
“Mmm.” Clark came away from the kiss with a happy smile.
“Now you have to release me. We both have much work to do,” Diana informed him.
Clark shook his head.
“I think you know better than to try to keep me in place...” she warned teasingly.
“Hm, I do remember that one time you thought I was a monster. That was not my most pleasant day.”
“I went easy on you.” She pinched Clark’s cheek.
“Ha! You put a dent in the ground, you were hitting me into it so hard!”
“What can I say?” she asked as she slipped away and hovered in the air. “I thought the monster had taken you. I wasn’t going to stop until it told me where you were.”
“Lucky me,” Clark said wryly. He looked up at her, smiling with the side of his mouth. “Why don’t we later-”
He was cut off abruptly by the urgent “twee twee twee!” of his communicator. “Yes?”
“We have another disturbance right in your backyard, Supes. It looks like a dragon or something,” Green Lantern told him. “We’re sending J’onn down there to give you a hand.”
“Wonder Woman is here now. We’ll take care of it,” Clark answered, unbuttoning his shirt and looking up at her.
“Hm. Those freaks in the robes are still out there, too. We didn’t capture all of them. We’ll have him watching the area. Lantern out.”
“These things all seem to be happening in Metropolis, Kal,” Diana pointed out. She waited as he changed in a blur.
“I know. I wish we could put what’s causing this together faster.” He lifted up and flew beside her, keeping an eye out for trouble. “Where would a dragon... be...” He trailed off slowly.
“Is that Luthor? In his mechanical suit?” Diana cocked her head to the side. Before Clark could answer, she dropped down into the scene and deflected a stray laser bolt from Lex’s suit. He was firing rapidly on the creature. “What are you doing here?” she demanded.
Luthor ignored her. As he might have, since he was busy with the dragon. Clark came behind the towering dragon with shimmering amethyst scales. Luthor’s suit had now locked arms with it, trying to keep it from going further into the street. Clark circled around the back and started shooting the dragon with his laser vision to attract its attention.
The dragon didn’t seem to notice, and breathed in deeply to unleash a torrent of fire upon Luthor. The flames licked over the mechanical suit, covering it so completely that only flickers of green and purple could be seen from the outside. Clark felt his heart jerk in alarm. He touched his communicator.
“He can’t take that for long! He’ll roast!”
“I know,” Diana replied shortly. She whipped out her lasso and threw the noose at the dragon. When she caught its foot, she pulled hard as she could, flying backwards.
The dragon kicked angrily at her attempt, but then toppled over. Clark moved in quickly to drag it away from Luthor and grabbed a large beam of metal that had been knocked loose from a nearby building. He quickly bent it into shape and used it to tie the dragon up like a dog. When it tried to breathe fire again, Clark blew some ice breath its way, which made it grumpy, but then it shook it off and sat down with its paws over its nose.
That taken care of temporarily, he flew back to Luthor, who was still in the suit on the ground. Clark’s eyes bulged when he realized that Diana was on top of Lex. Coming closer, he could see that the air vents had been melted shut. She wasn’t attacking him. She was trying to get him out.
Clark swooped down, then broke the top shield with his bare hands and dragged Luthor into the open air. There was a large red stained bandage taped over his shoulder. His skin was sweaty and almost purple, and for one terrible moment, he didn’t breathe. Soon after, Lex took in a breath, and Clark breathed again himself, laying Luthor on the ground.
“Was that his creation?” Diana wondered, looking back at it. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Of course, I can’t imagine he would come out here himself to fight it, if it were...”
“I don’t know. Luthor?” Clark bent over him and touched Lex Luthor’s chest. “Lex?”
“I can hear you,” he grumbled. “Fine. I’m fine.”
Clark wasn’t sure he believed that. But he chose to ignore it in favor of the question. “What is that? Where did it come from?”
“It’s obviously a dragon,” Lex retorted. “From another dimension.”
“Do you know the source of these dimensional disturbances?” Diana asked. She took a step toward the dragon, which was looking more restless.
“I didn’t start them, if that’s what you’re asking,” Lex replied defensively.
Diana looked at him briefly, then took to the air. “No, that is not what I was asking. But thank you for clarifying.” She flew toward the dragon and pet its face gently. “There, there, girl. We’ll get you home.”
“How do you know that it’s a- Well, of course she knows.” Clark rolled his eyes. When Lex tried to get up, Clark tried to stop him, only to receive the most hateful glare he’d ever gotten from Luthor, perhaps ever. Stung by the expression, Clark snapped, “What the hell were you doing out here anyway?”
“Not intending to fight a dragon, I can tell you that much.” Lex pulled away from him and struggled to his feet.
“My colleagues are hardly going to accept that as an answer. Why were you fighting it?”
“Why were you playing house when fucking dragons and pterodactyls are attacking the city near an orphanage and people’s homes?” Lex shot back, venom lacing his words.
Clark blinked. Not just from the answer, or from the unexpected f-bomb, but from the sheer bitterness of the tone. “Lex, are you alright?”
“That’s no longer any of your concern.” He gave the suit a kick and reached in to grab something. He pulled out a cell phone and opened it immediately, ignoring Clark soundly. “Mercy, MechaSuit One is down... A dragon... You heard me... No, I’m not drunk. I wish I were.”
“Lex? Lex, get back here!” That came out more like an order than he’d expected, and Lex only half-turned to give him a derisive look before heading down the street.
“What’s his problem?”
Clark turned around to see Diana riding the dragon, who now seemed rather calm. “...So have you named the dragon yet?”
“She has a name. It’s Ilsa. She’s not sure what she’s doing here. One moment she was home, and the next she was here with us.” Diana leaned forward. “What’s wrong with Luthor? He seems distressed. Beyond the obvious distress caused by fighting a creature one thought was mythological.”
Ilsa snorted in indignation, at the notion that she wasn’t real, and Diana petted over the scales of her face.
“I have no idea.” Clark rose into the air to meet Diana’s eye. “But I don’t exactly trust that he’d being forthright about what he knows.”
“Oh, I would trust him completely to lie to us if he did know anything,” Diana said easily. Her hand smoothed gently over the back of the dragon’s neck. “Still, the situation must be dire if Luthor’s out here himself helping us to quell the disturbances. We must be falling down on the job.”
***
The air of the LexCorp Jet was cool around him as Lex reclined in his seat, right hand over his left shoulder, where he’d gotten clipped by that damn pterodactyl a few hours before. That coupled with the burns he’d suffered inside MechaSuit One, and a host of bruises and shallow wounds from the Monks of Dio-wherever... He loathed to ask for help, particularly considering the source, but with all that Lex now knew, he could hardly afford to keep this to himself. He had to find an ally, someone with resources, someone with connections. Most of all, someone with a brain, who would be less likely to let their findings slip out of their damn head like everything else.
“We’re preparing to land, Mr. Luthor.”
“Thank you, Terra.”
“I hope the flight was smooth enough for you, sir.”
“Yes, you did a very good job.”
“I’ll do my best to make the landing as smooth as possible as well.”
“Thank you.” Lex closed his eyes and took in a deep breath as he imagined all the ways this could go wrong.
Moments later, he descended from the plane and eyed the black limo waiting for him. Alfred stood outside, looking on with sharp eyes.
“Good morning, Mr. Luthor,” he said in his precise, upper-crust British way. “Welcome to Gotham City.”
“A pleasure as always, Alfred.” Lex nodded to the man, who seemed to never fully relax. Before today, Lex had always thought of ways to steal the man from Bruce Wayne’s employ, but now he knew a bit too much. He figured that Bruce probably needed someone that capable on hand to keep his house in order while the bulk of his faculties were concerned with other matters.
“I apologize that Master Bruce is not with me, sir. He-”
“No excuses necessary, Alfred,” Lex assured him in an almost gentle voice as Alfred opened the door for him. “Bruce is who he is, and always has been. I understand that now more than ever.”
Alfred stilled at Lex’s words, and he feared that he’d tipped his hand. No matter. He had no current ill intentions against Bruce’s other persona, and Bruce himself would be curious enough why Lex would want to see him that he wouldn’t pass up the opportunity. Lex settled himself into the leather seat.
“I believe that Master Bruce is in a meeting, sir, and would like to meet you at Gregory’s. He’s taken the liberty of reserving a table-”
“I hate to be rude, Alfred, but I’m unlikely to be hungry for some time. I’d much rather speak with him in private, and I don’t mind doing that on his own turf. I can wait in a sitting room, if it’s necessary.”
“It might be some time before he can see you...” Alfred attempted again. Good man, keeping the enemy out of the house. “I could perhaps take you to your hotel?”
“I’ve reserved no hotel,” Lex sounded weary, and even he himself heard it. “The business I’ve come to discuss can’t wait for amenities or socialization. I suppose I’ll have to hope that Bruce isn’t too terribly involved in his ‘meeting.’”
Alfred’s head turned sharply. There was much being said that was not said, and the older man was swift enough to catch the bulk of it.
“If you wouldn’t mind my raising the window, Alfred, I think I’ll try to catch a bit of rest on the way in,” Lex added. There. Alfred could catch that as his opportunity to speak to Bruce on his cell phone without Lex hearing what was being said.
“Not at all, sir.” Alfred reached over to do just that, then paused. “You do look a bit spent, sir.”
“It’s been an exhausting couple of days,” Lex admitted. Though, he really had no way of knowing how long it had been.
***
“Hello, Luthor.” Bruce strolled into the sitting room where Alfred had left Lex Luthor waiting. Alfred had given Bruce quite the impression of Luthor’s state when he’d come up from the Batcave. Bruce had assumed him to be exaggerating, but as his eyes raked over the man, he saw that the older man had indeed not. His countenance was pale, his eyes shadowed, and Bruce could spot the telltale bulge of a wound dressing underneath his crisp suit.
Luthor had indeed been doing The Job. Just as Clark and Diana had intimated.
Bruce sat down on the sofa with him. Luthor hadn’t yet woken up, so Bruce put his hand on his shoulder. The man jumped, then winced, and then looked at Bruce with a mixture of crankiness and alarm.
“And I thought my hours were irregular,” Bruce said, pushing a bit of amusement into his tone.
“Your hours would make a owl yawn in sympathy.”
Bruce noted as Luthor, a left-handed man, reached up with his right to rub the back of his neck. His eyes caught how Luthor was holding his shoulders and back stiff, and the tightness of his lips.
“So I presume you have a business proposition for me. Proprietary technology that LexCorp is interested in?”
“You misunderstand. This is about what I can offer you. Not as a CEO.” Luthor reached his right hand into his left pocket and fished for a moment.
“Allow me,” Bruce said softly. Luthor looked up to meet Bruce’s eyes as the man slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out a flash drive. “Your romance novel?”
“Readings from in the eye of this storm,” Luthor replied dryly. “Let’s not play pretend anymore. I’m sure Alfred has told you that he suspects that I know.”
“I’m not sure I’m ready to come out of the closet, Lex.” Bruce twirled the flash drive between two of his fingers.
Luthor rolled his eyes. “I’m referring more to coming out of the Batcave.”
Before Bruce could reply, the sitting room seemed to unsettle around them and the expensive vase beside the door went tumbling to the ground.
“An earthquake?” Bruce said in disbelief. He was about to rush for the doorway, but then turned as he heard Luthor cry out in pain. Quickly, he moved to steady the man who had slipped to the floor and was now holding a growing wet stain on his shoulder.
“No. A reality quake,” Luthor managed through clenched teeth. “They’re happening more and more often in Metropolis... the data I just gave you was taken during one of these. If we don’t stop them-”
“I know. Just stay still. Stay still for a moment.”
Luthor closed his eyes until the shaking ended. Bruce let his big arms remain around Luthor’s narrow shoulders, and he frowned very deeply.
“Let me have Alfred stitch that shoulder up for you. He’s much better at it than I am,” Bruce suggested. “And then we can talk.”
***
“I am Diana, princess of the Amazons. I will not be denied.”
Clark laughed as his beautiful warrior mounted him and threw her hair back. Diana knew what she wanted. She took what she wanted, all with the full awareness of partner’s body and her own, both of which deserved the utmost pleasure that could be had.
Her hands clasped the sides of Clark’s face and kissed him assertively. They fell into a comfortable, spirited rhythm.
A few minutes later Diana rolled off of him and turned her head to flash him a smile. Clark smiled at her in return, his body humming with warmth. When he left the bed, she swatted his ass playfully. He looked back at her with an equally playful look, and then headed into the kitchen.
His little cat, Dite (from Aphrodite), mewed at him curiously and tried to twine around his legs. Clark leaned over to pet her head. A strange feeling had come upon him that was not pleasant in the slightest. It started in his belly and migrated upward, causing his chest to tighten almost painfully. It stopped him in the middle of the hall, and Clark touched the center of his chest.
It was guilt. He was feeling guilty, and while he didn’t entirely understand what he’d done wrong, he knew had just hurt someone, betrayed someone. But could you betray someone when you had not met them? Or maybe he had met this person and just couldn’t remember who they were.
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth.
comments posted there. Please comment there using OpenID or your DW account.
Pairing: Clex
Rating: PG13
Warning: Violence
Includes: temporary mpreg, temporary character deaths
Summary: Clark gets Lex a pet cat… that's not quite a cat.
Author’s Notes:
1. Continuity Post S3 finale.
2. This is a
help_haiti fic for
tallihensia, who has been awfully patient to get this.
3. The Bennu bird serves as the Egyptian correlation to the phoenix, and is pictured as a heron. This relates to reinforce the Greek --> Egyptian name shift.
Thanks to
cheerful_earl and
herohunter for the betas. :D
“Until one has loved an animal a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.”
Anatole France
Part Five
It was an earthquake.
No.
That wasn’t quite right.
It was like an earthquake, but as Lex made his way through the streets, his suit detected no shifting of the tectonic plates beneath the city. Logically, there was no reason for everything to shake. No reason for the wind to be gusting so hard that it could lift a full grown man from his feet and send him flying.
Lex took a few steps forward. The largest flaw with the MechaSuits was that they were hardly inconspicuous. It was, however, hard for the wind or the tremors to faze him while he was in it. Initially he’d gone out to take some readings, but people just didn’t have the sense to get inside, so he’d been slowed down somewhat by the need to grab people who had been caught by the wind, or before something fell on top of them, and walking them over to safety.
After dropping a woman off at the front of a building, into which she scurried quickly (and wisely, thank goodness), Lex stood still for a moment to look at the data his suit was gathering.
“This is not looking good,” he murmured to himself. He touched his comm. “Are you getting the readings, Mercy?”
“Yes, Lex. They’re getting through. Are you coming in?”
“Don’t worry about me. Just keep that location running. If we’re going to find a means of stopping this before our universe caves in on itself, I need more information about how it works.”
“I wouldn’t be much of a bodyguard if I didn’t worry about you.”
“You are so much more than a bodyguard.” Lex lifted his head as a strange sound rang over his head.
“What was that?”
“I’m... not sure. MechaSuit One out.”
“Sir-”
Lex cut the comm link and lifted the arm of the suit, which would detect whatever had made that sound before his eyes could see it. The noise came again, somewhere between a squawk and a roar. The trembling of the ground had ceased, and Lex stepped toward the sound. The view screen in his suit had detected an animal of some kind.
The next time the sound came, the buildings shuddered. Then the glass burst out of them. Out of the corner of Lex’s eye, he spotted a familiar building. A tall, aged building with a playground to the side and a black, iron fence surrounding the grounds.
“Where have I seen that...? Oh, shit.”
Lex took off running toward the Bleaker Street Children’s Home, his suit taking large chunks out of the pavement. He had no time to get buzzed in. He ripped the gate open and rushed to the front door. A small black-haired boy peeked out at him, then cried out in fright. Lex had forgotten that his face couldn’t be seen in this thing.
Kneeling in front of the child, Lex retracted the head shield. “Do you know who I am? We have to get you and the other children out of here-”
The roar came from behind them and Lex half-turned. The boy froze as a pterodactyl lunged for them.
Lex instinctively pulled the boy behind him just before the creature made a swipe at them with its massive talons. He fired at it repeatedly with the laser canon attached to his left arm. The beast squalled and shot up into the air.
Lifting the boy up, Lex ran deeper into the building. A middle aged woman with her hair drawn back came out in front of the children who were now scattering out into the hallway.
“You’re- Mr. Luthor? What are you doing... here?” She must be the Dahlia Delany who Sullivan had mentioned in her article.
He could tell that her mind was blown to see The Lex Luthor in their little abode, wearing something that looked like it had come out of an east Asian cartoon.
“Do you have a panic room here? A tornado shelter?”
“Y-yes, a shelter, of course. It’s why we bought this building.” Dahlia put her arms around two of the children. “I’m sorry, Mr. Luthor... You’re bleeding.”
Lex blinked and looked over himself. He made a grumbling noise when he noticed the wide gash over his shoulder. “It’s nothing. You need to get the kids-”
Another warning squawk shook the walls.
“Down to the shelter! Now!” Lex yelled with more urgency. The boy he was holding had begun to cry.
She looked around herself quickly, mouthing numbers as she counted the heads of the children. “Tommy! Go get Sarah and Davis, quickly!”
Lex let the boy in his arms go, and he motioned for them to go. “Go on. I’ll hold it off.”
“Thank you, Mr. Luthor!” Dahlia called over her shoulder.
With a touch of a button, Lex let the head shield snap back into place and turned to fire on the approaching beast once again.
***
“-so I pretty much have that Pulitzer in a lock,” Lois bragged, as she talked to another reporter flirtily and crossed her legs.
“Could you get off my desk?” Clark asked in a defeated tone.
“Superman and I are tight. I’ll have the exposé on all this stuff by the morning,” she continued, waving a hand in the air.
Clark sighed and turned away from his desk. Working was a lost cause at this point. He did a double-take as he saw someone waving from the window. They were on the fourteenth floor.
He jumped up and hurried over to the window. Diana grinned at him merrily. She pressed two fingers to her lips, then pressed them against the glass. Clark laughed and did the same. He pointed upward, and she nodded eagerly.
He hurried to the elevator to meet her on the roof.
“You are still working, Kal?” Diana said when he arrived. “I thought you would come with me to the Watchtower today, to investigate these strange events.”
“I’ve been trying to keep an eye on what’s happening with the people. It’s very dangerous for them right now.”
Diana gave a single, graceful nod. “There is a new threat. I do not know if it is related.” She stepped closer to him and touched his shoulder affectionately. “Men in robes with foreign runes tattooed on their skins. They run like cowards! But they attack the people with their strange magical weapons. Be careful, Kal. Magic can affect you as much as anyone else.”
“I remember.” Clark smiled softly. He wrapped his big arms around her narrow waist, earning himself an arched brow.
“Kal?”
“You be careful, too. You’re...” Clark closed his eyes. Something unpleasant was just outside of the reach of his memory. “You’re not invincible, you know.”
“Neither are you, despite common belief. We Amazons are warriors born, Kal. Do not fear for me. I can defend myself as well as any other mate you may have chosen,” Diana assured him. She leaned forward and kissed his lips possessively as she cupped the side of his face with her palm.
“Mmm.” Clark came away from the kiss with a happy smile.
“Now you have to release me. We both have much work to do,” Diana informed him.
Clark shook his head.
“I think you know better than to try to keep me in place...” she warned teasingly.
“Hm, I do remember that one time you thought I was a monster. That was not my most pleasant day.”
“I went easy on you.” She pinched Clark’s cheek.
“Ha! You put a dent in the ground, you were hitting me into it so hard!”
“What can I say?” she asked as she slipped away and hovered in the air. “I thought the monster had taken you. I wasn’t going to stop until it told me where you were.”
“Lucky me,” Clark said wryly. He looked up at her, smiling with the side of his mouth. “Why don’t we later-”
He was cut off abruptly by the urgent “twee twee twee!” of his communicator. “Yes?”
“We have another disturbance right in your backyard, Supes. It looks like a dragon or something,” Green Lantern told him. “We’re sending J’onn down there to give you a hand.”
“Wonder Woman is here now. We’ll take care of it,” Clark answered, unbuttoning his shirt and looking up at her.
“Hm. Those freaks in the robes are still out there, too. We didn’t capture all of them. We’ll have him watching the area. Lantern out.”
“These things all seem to be happening in Metropolis, Kal,” Diana pointed out. She waited as he changed in a blur.
“I know. I wish we could put what’s causing this together faster.” He lifted up and flew beside her, keeping an eye out for trouble. “Where would a dragon... be...” He trailed off slowly.
“Is that Luthor? In his mechanical suit?” Diana cocked her head to the side. Before Clark could answer, she dropped down into the scene and deflected a stray laser bolt from Lex’s suit. He was firing rapidly on the creature. “What are you doing here?” she demanded.
Luthor ignored her. As he might have, since he was busy with the dragon. Clark came behind the towering dragon with shimmering amethyst scales. Luthor’s suit had now locked arms with it, trying to keep it from going further into the street. Clark circled around the back and started shooting the dragon with his laser vision to attract its attention.
The dragon didn’t seem to notice, and breathed in deeply to unleash a torrent of fire upon Luthor. The flames licked over the mechanical suit, covering it so completely that only flickers of green and purple could be seen from the outside. Clark felt his heart jerk in alarm. He touched his communicator.
“He can’t take that for long! He’ll roast!”
“I know,” Diana replied shortly. She whipped out her lasso and threw the noose at the dragon. When she caught its foot, she pulled hard as she could, flying backwards.
The dragon kicked angrily at her attempt, but then toppled over. Clark moved in quickly to drag it away from Luthor and grabbed a large beam of metal that had been knocked loose from a nearby building. He quickly bent it into shape and used it to tie the dragon up like a dog. When it tried to breathe fire again, Clark blew some ice breath its way, which made it grumpy, but then it shook it off and sat down with its paws over its nose.
That taken care of temporarily, he flew back to Luthor, who was still in the suit on the ground. Clark’s eyes bulged when he realized that Diana was on top of Lex. Coming closer, he could see that the air vents had been melted shut. She wasn’t attacking him. She was trying to get him out.
Clark swooped down, then broke the top shield with his bare hands and dragged Luthor into the open air. There was a large red stained bandage taped over his shoulder. His skin was sweaty and almost purple, and for one terrible moment, he didn’t breathe. Soon after, Lex took in a breath, and Clark breathed again himself, laying Luthor on the ground.
“Was that his creation?” Diana wondered, looking back at it. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Of course, I can’t imagine he would come out here himself to fight it, if it were...”
“I don’t know. Luthor?” Clark bent over him and touched Lex Luthor’s chest. “Lex?”
“I can hear you,” he grumbled. “Fine. I’m fine.”
Clark wasn’t sure he believed that. But he chose to ignore it in favor of the question. “What is that? Where did it come from?”
“It’s obviously a dragon,” Lex retorted. “From another dimension.”
“Do you know the source of these dimensional disturbances?” Diana asked. She took a step toward the dragon, which was looking more restless.
“I didn’t start them, if that’s what you’re asking,” Lex replied defensively.
Diana looked at him briefly, then took to the air. “No, that is not what I was asking. But thank you for clarifying.” She flew toward the dragon and pet its face gently. “There, there, girl. We’ll get you home.”
“How do you know that it’s a- Well, of course she knows.” Clark rolled his eyes. When Lex tried to get up, Clark tried to stop him, only to receive the most hateful glare he’d ever gotten from Luthor, perhaps ever. Stung by the expression, Clark snapped, “What the hell were you doing out here anyway?”
“Not intending to fight a dragon, I can tell you that much.” Lex pulled away from him and struggled to his feet.
“My colleagues are hardly going to accept that as an answer. Why were you fighting it?”
“Why were you playing house when fucking dragons and pterodactyls are attacking the city near an orphanage and people’s homes?” Lex shot back, venom lacing his words.
Clark blinked. Not just from the answer, or from the unexpected f-bomb, but from the sheer bitterness of the tone. “Lex, are you alright?”
“That’s no longer any of your concern.” He gave the suit a kick and reached in to grab something. He pulled out a cell phone and opened it immediately, ignoring Clark soundly. “Mercy, MechaSuit One is down... A dragon... You heard me... No, I’m not drunk. I wish I were.”
“Lex? Lex, get back here!” That came out more like an order than he’d expected, and Lex only half-turned to give him a derisive look before heading down the street.
“What’s his problem?”
Clark turned around to see Diana riding the dragon, who now seemed rather calm. “...So have you named the dragon yet?”
“She has a name. It’s Ilsa. She’s not sure what she’s doing here. One moment she was home, and the next she was here with us.” Diana leaned forward. “What’s wrong with Luthor? He seems distressed. Beyond the obvious distress caused by fighting a creature one thought was mythological.”
Ilsa snorted in indignation, at the notion that she wasn’t real, and Diana petted over the scales of her face.
“I have no idea.” Clark rose into the air to meet Diana’s eye. “But I don’t exactly trust that he’d being forthright about what he knows.”
“Oh, I would trust him completely to lie to us if he did know anything,” Diana said easily. Her hand smoothed gently over the back of the dragon’s neck. “Still, the situation must be dire if Luthor’s out here himself helping us to quell the disturbances. We must be falling down on the job.”
***
The air of the LexCorp Jet was cool around him as Lex reclined in his seat, right hand over his left shoulder, where he’d gotten clipped by that damn pterodactyl a few hours before. That coupled with the burns he’d suffered inside MechaSuit One, and a host of bruises and shallow wounds from the Monks of Dio-wherever... He loathed to ask for help, particularly considering the source, but with all that Lex now knew, he could hardly afford to keep this to himself. He had to find an ally, someone with resources, someone with connections. Most of all, someone with a brain, who would be less likely to let their findings slip out of their damn head like everything else.
“We’re preparing to land, Mr. Luthor.”
“Thank you, Terra.”
“I hope the flight was smooth enough for you, sir.”
“Yes, you did a very good job.”
“I’ll do my best to make the landing as smooth as possible as well.”
“Thank you.” Lex closed his eyes and took in a deep breath as he imagined all the ways this could go wrong.
Moments later, he descended from the plane and eyed the black limo waiting for him. Alfred stood outside, looking on with sharp eyes.
“Good morning, Mr. Luthor,” he said in his precise, upper-crust British way. “Welcome to Gotham City.”
“A pleasure as always, Alfred.” Lex nodded to the man, who seemed to never fully relax. Before today, Lex had always thought of ways to steal the man from Bruce Wayne’s employ, but now he knew a bit too much. He figured that Bruce probably needed someone that capable on hand to keep his house in order while the bulk of his faculties were concerned with other matters.
“I apologize that Master Bruce is not with me, sir. He-”
“No excuses necessary, Alfred,” Lex assured him in an almost gentle voice as Alfred opened the door for him. “Bruce is who he is, and always has been. I understand that now more than ever.”
Alfred stilled at Lex’s words, and he feared that he’d tipped his hand. No matter. He had no current ill intentions against Bruce’s other persona, and Bruce himself would be curious enough why Lex would want to see him that he wouldn’t pass up the opportunity. Lex settled himself into the leather seat.
“I believe that Master Bruce is in a meeting, sir, and would like to meet you at Gregory’s. He’s taken the liberty of reserving a table-”
“I hate to be rude, Alfred, but I’m unlikely to be hungry for some time. I’d much rather speak with him in private, and I don’t mind doing that on his own turf. I can wait in a sitting room, if it’s necessary.”
“It might be some time before he can see you...” Alfred attempted again. Good man, keeping the enemy out of the house. “I could perhaps take you to your hotel?”
“I’ve reserved no hotel,” Lex sounded weary, and even he himself heard it. “The business I’ve come to discuss can’t wait for amenities or socialization. I suppose I’ll have to hope that Bruce isn’t too terribly involved in his ‘meeting.’”
Alfred’s head turned sharply. There was much being said that was not said, and the older man was swift enough to catch the bulk of it.
“If you wouldn’t mind my raising the window, Alfred, I think I’ll try to catch a bit of rest on the way in,” Lex added. There. Alfred could catch that as his opportunity to speak to Bruce on his cell phone without Lex hearing what was being said.
“Not at all, sir.” Alfred reached over to do just that, then paused. “You do look a bit spent, sir.”
“It’s been an exhausting couple of days,” Lex admitted. Though, he really had no way of knowing how long it had been.
***
“Hello, Luthor.” Bruce strolled into the sitting room where Alfred had left Lex Luthor waiting. Alfred had given Bruce quite the impression of Luthor’s state when he’d come up from the Batcave. Bruce had assumed him to be exaggerating, but as his eyes raked over the man, he saw that the older man had indeed not. His countenance was pale, his eyes shadowed, and Bruce could spot the telltale bulge of a wound dressing underneath his crisp suit.
Luthor had indeed been doing The Job. Just as Clark and Diana had intimated.
Bruce sat down on the sofa with him. Luthor hadn’t yet woken up, so Bruce put his hand on his shoulder. The man jumped, then winced, and then looked at Bruce with a mixture of crankiness and alarm.
“And I thought my hours were irregular,” Bruce said, pushing a bit of amusement into his tone.
“Your hours would make a owl yawn in sympathy.”
Bruce noted as Luthor, a left-handed man, reached up with his right to rub the back of his neck. His eyes caught how Luthor was holding his shoulders and back stiff, and the tightness of his lips.
“So I presume you have a business proposition for me. Proprietary technology that LexCorp is interested in?”
“You misunderstand. This is about what I can offer you. Not as a CEO.” Luthor reached his right hand into his left pocket and fished for a moment.
“Allow me,” Bruce said softly. Luthor looked up to meet Bruce’s eyes as the man slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out a flash drive. “Your romance novel?”
“Readings from in the eye of this storm,” Luthor replied dryly. “Let’s not play pretend anymore. I’m sure Alfred has told you that he suspects that I know.”
“I’m not sure I’m ready to come out of the closet, Lex.” Bruce twirled the flash drive between two of his fingers.
Luthor rolled his eyes. “I’m referring more to coming out of the Batcave.”
Before Bruce could reply, the sitting room seemed to unsettle around them and the expensive vase beside the door went tumbling to the ground.
“An earthquake?” Bruce said in disbelief. He was about to rush for the doorway, but then turned as he heard Luthor cry out in pain. Quickly, he moved to steady the man who had slipped to the floor and was now holding a growing wet stain on his shoulder.
“No. A reality quake,” Luthor managed through clenched teeth. “They’re happening more and more often in Metropolis... the data I just gave you was taken during one of these. If we don’t stop them-”
“I know. Just stay still. Stay still for a moment.”
Luthor closed his eyes until the shaking ended. Bruce let his big arms remain around Luthor’s narrow shoulders, and he frowned very deeply.
“Let me have Alfred stitch that shoulder up for you. He’s much better at it than I am,” Bruce suggested. “And then we can talk.”
***
“I am Diana, princess of the Amazons. I will not be denied.”
Clark laughed as his beautiful warrior mounted him and threw her hair back. Diana knew what she wanted. She took what she wanted, all with the full awareness of partner’s body and her own, both of which deserved the utmost pleasure that could be had.
Her hands clasped the sides of Clark’s face and kissed him assertively. They fell into a comfortable, spirited rhythm.
A few minutes later Diana rolled off of him and turned her head to flash him a smile. Clark smiled at her in return, his body humming with warmth. When he left the bed, she swatted his ass playfully. He looked back at her with an equally playful look, and then headed into the kitchen.
His little cat, Dite (from Aphrodite), mewed at him curiously and tried to twine around his legs. Clark leaned over to pet her head. A strange feeling had come upon him that was not pleasant in the slightest. It started in his belly and migrated upward, causing his chest to tighten almost painfully. It stopped him in the middle of the hall, and Clark touched the center of his chest.
It was guilt. He was feeling guilty, and while he didn’t entirely understand what he’d done wrong, he knew had just hurt someone, betrayed someone. But could you betray someone when you had not met them? Or maybe he had met this person and just couldn’t remember who they were.
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