Fall of Justice

Doomsday

Clark flew like a silent meteor over the sea. His heart burned with anger at what Luthor had done. A powerful man, hidden in shadow, using others to do his dirty work. Clark wanted nothing more than to confront the man responsible for his cousin's pain. Yet, he knew Bruce had been right when he told him he was a weapon. The world was watching and what he decided to show them would either reveal a hero or a monster.

Clark had no desire to hurt anyone, but he feared what would happen in that room, when he was alone with the man who had for so long tried to take all that Clark had built.

Clark feared he wouldn't be able to control the anger that had always been with him, and that for his entire life, he could never place. It lived as a small, ineffective tremor somewhere in his chest. For the most part it never came out at all, but it only truly faded when he was around Lois and his friends. Now that he was going to be a father, he realized the source of it. It came from the fact that he had never been given a chance to know his own father and mother, the ones who gave their lives for his. He had saved so many, countless lives would grow from his good deeds and yet his parents would never be saved, they were gone and he was left behind to be a hero to a world where he never belonged. Even as he was admired by millions, he was never one of them.

But now he would choose to be a hero to his son, he would be what his father couldn't. He would be present. Clark let the anger dissipate. He stopped thinking of the tragedies of the past, the ill that had befallen him and Kara and thought ahead, to beach days and park walks with the family he was building for himself. The shore came into view over the horizon. It was time to end the chapter of animosity between Lex Luthor and Superman.

As Clark approached the Mayor's mansion, he hovered in the air and looked down, using his X-ray vision to make sure it was safe. He feared very little when it came to his own safety, but Luthor was smart and cunning and was known to have more Kryptonite than anyone else in the world. As he continued to search the house from above, snow began to fall.

Clark could see that the guards were stationed outside and the home was empty save for three. In the master bedroom, two people lay in bed, one asleep, the other sitting up, and another person stood beside the bed, doing something he couldn't distinguish from here. Clark could see no weapons, though the bed-frame was made from lead, something he wasn't surprised to find in the home of Lex Luthor. Once he had discovered that Superman couldn't see through it, Luthor added it to everything he owned, eventually making it a vital part of his fashion choices, he was even known by the media as the Lead Mayor, not only for the actual use of lead but because the reasons for his policies were anything but transparent.

Clark eased down to the balcony and looked inside. Luthor sat awake in bed, a small thin tube running from a machine beside the bed to his arm. He looked pale, weak. A nurse stood beside him and a woman, mostly covered by blankets and pillows lay on the bed beside him.

Luthor's eyes were on the television across the room. Superman entered from the open sliding glass door. The nurse froze. "Go on," Luthor told her. She stopped her work and moved to the door. He turned to her again, "Don't call anyone, this is between us," he said, she walked out. Luthor stood with some struggle, turning the television off as he did.

"You're sick?" Superman asked.

"A lifetime of working with Kryptonite... I have weeks. Maybe less."

Superman pointed to the sleeping woman on the bed. Luthor waved it off. "Sleeping pills, she's out like a light. So. Superman, you've come. Finally."

"Why?" Superman asked. He couldn't help himself, and was surprised at the twinge of sadness that came with the question. They had been friends once.

Luthor cast his eyes to the floor as he spoke, Superman wondered if it mean he was ashamed. The frail man held in a sudden cough. Weak but not wanting to lie down, be moved to a chair near the door and sat. Superman crossed the room toward him.

"In seventh grade my science project was a well. Self filtering, and at its base a perpetually turning wheel that also create free energy. It looked simple was in fact, incredibly complicated. Took me the entire school year to make it. The volcano won first place. I didn't even get a consolation prize. I'd let myself fantasize about the possibilities. Getting interviewed on The Line, maybe a movie about the wundekind who saved nations with a school project."

"Attention," Superman said, looking down to Luthor. "That's what this is about."

"Humanity," Lex spit back. "I've saved more people in April than you have in the years since you first flew across the sky. Do you know why they love you?" he asked, Superman said nothing. Because you're good TV. Like a volcano in a seventh grade science fair."

"Why can't there be both? I can't do what you do, and you can't do what I do."

"Innovation. Evolution. Progress. That's what you and you'r costumed friends have taken from the rest of us. MIT applicant rates have dropped steadily since you appeared. Cancer research..." Luthor took a moment, "Cancer research lost half its workforce. The most promising student on earth, a young girl from India whose was it was to slow the rate in which our climate is changing with an invention I could barely understand, is now designing lightweight bulletproof suits and helmets for people without powers to use so they can run around beating up bad guys." Luthor coughed into his hands, his body pulsing. He showed Superman the blood on his palms. "When I got sick, I knew I wasn't going to have time to stop what you began. So, when a man with a strange smile approached me and said, 'I can help you kill Superman if you help me destroy the bat...' I made a deal with the devil because God wasn't listening."

The Joker, Superman thought, working with Lex, and Waller too. It all began to fall to palace. "You won't kill me," Luthor began, "...and I won't stop until I kill you." His eyes moved from Superman to something just behind him. He nodded.

"Finally!" A shrill voice called just behind Superman. Before Superman could even turn, a pain like cutting fire ripped dug through Clark's back. He tumbled to the floor as the bang of the shot filled the room. On the floor, he turned his head. The woman in bed was sitting up. A gun in her hand. She reached up and pulled at her hair. Her wig. The Joker laughed hysterically.

He crawled on the mattress, looking down to Clark like a child looks to a broken toy. Clark couldn't focus. The pain was unbearable. His legs wouldn't move. His spine was shattered. He eyed the gun, it too was lead, tucked into the bed frame he thought, feeling powerless and humiliated. Then, another feeling gripped him like a vice, wrapping his heart like cold fingers. Terror. Superman was afraid.

Luthor turned the television on again, it showed a set of surveillance images from the abandoned hospital where they had just been. Luthor had known he was coming.

"Waller..." Clark said...

"She understands the threat you all pose," Luthor said.

"Well," Joker began. "Time to make the donuts!" Joker laughed again, handing the gun to Luthor. "Don't forget your part of the deal Mr. Mayor!" Joker sang out as he left the room.

"Lois..." Clark said, his body was beginning to go cold. Blood poured freely from his back, a red blossom across the hardwood. All his thoughts quieted, even the fear. Only one remained. "Lois..." he said again.

Luthor watched Superman squirm in pain. Clark turned his eyes to the window, toward the falling snow. She loved the snow.