Lex stood watching the news coverage of the destruction in Washington with a placid smile on his face.
The plan was working perfectly.
Ryan Teague had told him it would be easy to instill fear, and then he would have absolute control.
The Russians hadn’t sent a missile. The missile had been launched off the coast by one of their own fleet. The nuclear bomb was being sent on Lex’s orders. All of it, down to the planted “Russian” spies had been part of the plan – to bring the world to its knees.
Whoever would be left would be subject to him, Lex Luthor, seeing what destruction and terror he could work over the world’s populace.
Lex closed his eyes, feeling… nothingness. But it was a nothingness he could embrace, one that only wanted for a fulfillment of power.
He wasn’t bothered by his loss of memories. Their absence simply cooled his emotions to focus on his goals.
He knew something significant had happened to him, when he had awoken in Cadmus labs, but he thought of it as a gift, a cleansing of whatever had held him back before.
Now, Lex was ready to embrace the world’s destruction – so he could build one anew, under his rule.
~\S/~
Clark and Kara arrived at the Luthor mansion in record time.
From the outside, it appeared deserted. But a quick x-ray scan of the building revealed a contingent of armed guards scattered inside the premises. Lex was definitely there.
Clark turned to Kara. “I’ll go in first. I don’t want him to know you are freed yet. We may need the element of surprise.”
He moved to go, but Kara put a hand on his shoulder. “Kal-El? I’m glad you’re back,” she said with a smile.
Clark’s answering smile was a bit drawn. “I wish I had been back sooner. Perhaps I could have stopped all this…”
“If we can stop Brainiac, perhaps that will be enough.”
He nodded. “Let’s hope so… Now, let’s go end this, shall we?”
She smiled. “I’ll be right behind you.”
Clark took off, leaving Kara outside the mansion. She moved to where she could watch the goings on in Lex’s study, hiding surreptitiously behind some shrubbery. Clark blew past the guards and entered Lex’s office.
“Lex, what do you think you’re doing? You’ll start World War Three!” Clark stated upon entering, without preamble.
Lex was pouring himself a drink, and turned, a look of bland surprise on his face. “Well, well. The prodigal son has returned, I see. But too late to stop the party.” He tilted his glass towards Clark in a mock toast and took a long sip.
As always, Clark remained determined to reason with Lex, hoping that there was still something of humanity left within him. “You have to call off this war you’re starting. Talk to the Russians, it’s not too late.”
“Oh, but it is, Clark… It’s too late for you… and for me… you see, the wheels are already in motion,” Lex said coolly. “A bomb is headed to these shores that will wipe out the lower eastern seaboard. And that will be just the beginning.”
Clark scrutinized Lex, horrified by what he was hearing, and the blasé tone of his voice. “Wait. You—you planned this, didn’t you?” Clark said, stunned by the realization. “You wanted this to happen!”
A lazy smile crossed Lex’s lips. “See. You know me too well… I’ve been told that once upon a time, we were good friends,” Lex took another sip of his brandy. “What a fool I must have once been.”
“What happened to your memory? Why don’t you remember?”
Lex’s smile broadened, though the light of that smile never reached his eyes. “You have your secrets, I have mine… Now, is there a reason you came barging in here?”
“You have to call off the bomb. Lex, do you really want to destroy the world?”
Lex paused a moment, looking into his glass before answering. “Great men instill fear in those they want to rule over, Clark. If there’s no one bringing harm, then there is no need for someone to rescue them, is there?”
“You’re demented,” Clark spat.
“Perhaps… or perhaps I’m just a product of all this,” he gestured around him. “Too much money and power to care about helping others. There seems no point, honestly.”
“You used to care. I believed for years that there was something worth saving in you. I want to believe that again.”
“Believing is for children, Clark. Surely we’ve put behind us our childish ways, hmm?”
“I will stop you,” Clark vowed, thinking furiously through how. Could he stop a nuclear bomb? How much time did he have before it made landfall?
Lex gazed out the window, staring at the colored crystal planes and watching how the light played off his glass of brandy. “It won’t matter, Clark. The damage is already done… Washington is practically destroyed, and that’s the heart of the country, isn’t it?”
“Where’s Ryan Teague?”
Lex turned. “Now, whatever would you want with my Secretary of Defense?”
Clark stepped forward. “Where is he?” he demanded.
Another smile, cold and calculated, crossed Lex’s lips. “Where he can do the most good in these—trying times.”
“Where is he??” Clark demanded, grabbing the lapels of Lex’s pristine white suit.
He suddenly heard guns behind him click into position, though Lex waved them down with his hand.
”Now, now. No need to get worked up. Teague is in Washington. Shoring up the courage of our men and women of Congress,” Lex said, seeming to enjoy watching the fear cross Clark’s features. “Now, Clark? Isn’t it true that your mother is a Senator?”
Clark let go of Lex’s suit and stepped away. “I will stop you,” he vowed, before turning to leave in a burst of speed.
~\S/~
Martha knew they were in trouble when Ryan Teague came to address them, assuring them that they would be safe under the Capitol Building, and that they would be needed for after the blast.
“We will need people to reassure the public. We will need people to help us rebuild. This will be a new and better day… a day when you will at last be subject to one superior to you. When you will at last be subject to me,” as he spoke, the crowd who thought they were going to be reassured, began to cry out in protest.
“You can’t do this!” cried one man, echoed by protests of a few of his colleagues.
An armed guard moved in, at least twenty men, all with guns to block the exits. The crowd hushed in fear as Ryan spoke again.
“If anyone disagrees with this proposal, you have an option – death. It’s time you learn who your superior is,” he said, looking disdainfully at the fearful crowd. “We have three hours until a nuclear bomb strikes the lower eastern seaboard. You have until then to make your choice.”
He left, while his armed guard moved in on the frightened Congress members, who were already cramped together in this underground bunker.
Martha, sitting on the floor with her colleagues, simply put her head between her knees and prayed. “Please… please let Clark find us a way out of this…”
~\S/~
-02 hours 59 minutes
Lois immediately found herself in a traffic jam, trying to get out of Metropolis. She had expected it, but she hadn’t really thought through the realities of it.
She only had a half a tank of gas, which on a normal day would be enough to get her to Smallville, but sitting in traffic wouldn’t guarantee it.
Still, she didn’t regret coming to the city. She had done what she needed to do, and that was all that mattered.
She tried not to think about the larger picture, of the people in Russia that would be killed, or how a nuclear bomb would eviscerate several states on the east coast in a matter of hours… Lex really had set them on a course of no return…
She felt a little tug of self-pity, thinking how unfair it all was. Clark was finally back, and now this. They were all doomed…
Lois sighed and turned on her radio to catch the news. Her Blackberry was getting spotty service, though when she got full bars of coverage, notices from the AP pinged into her inbox at an alarming speed. She could be back at the Plant, rehashing the AP stories, but this exodus out of the city would also be a great story – so long as they all somehow survived Luthor’s play with fire…
~\S/~
-2 hours 38 minutes
Martha looked around at her colleagues, huddled together like frightened children. Theoretically, some of the most astute minds in the country were down here, held captive by a mad man. Martha had tried to ask questions, like where the rest of Congress was being held who wasn’t here – but she was immediately shushed by a colleague. If any of Teague’s men heard someone speaking, they were immediately taken out of the room.
No one knew what they were doing to those people. Were they shot? Were they held somewhere else, secured by more armed guards?
Martha just concentrated on praying, and hoped that Clark could stop this before it was too late…
-2 hours 21 minutes
Oliver and the heroes made their way across the city, helping people where they could along the way.
As they neared the Capitol Building, they saw several people in business suits, milling about. They looked like they could be Congressmen, or at least worked in the area.
“Do you have any news about what’s going on?” Oliver asked two men who were helping a woman with an injured arm.
“Just that the Capitol Building is on lockdown. No one is getting in, and no one’s getting out,” said one man with sandy blond hair and wide, frightened eyes.
“Do you know why?” AC asked.
The man shook his head. “We saw the Secretary of Defense go in with some men, and since then, no one has been able to communicate with those left inside… in—including my wife,” he said, tears coming to his eyes. He looked at the heroes, a plea clear in his expression. “Please… I’ve heard of you. You’re from Metropolis, right? Can you help? Can you get inside?”
Oliver was afraid of making a promise he couldn’t keep, but he also didn’t want to leave the man without some hope. “We’ll do what we can. What’s your wife’s name?”
“Sarah… Sarah Jenison.”
“We’ll do our best,” Cyborg said, and the heroes all locked eyes, knowing that their greatest challenges lay ahead.
They started towards the building, uncertain how they would get in.
“Obviously we can’t just go in the front door. And the guy said the Secretary of Defense was in there – that’s Ryan Teague, AKA Brainiac. We need Kara and Clark…” Oliver admitted.
The team turned as they suddenly heard a whoosh of wind. “Well, good thing you’ve got them then,” Clark greeted with a smile.
“Did you find Lex?”
Clark nodded, his smile disappearing in an instant. “He’s definitely not himself any longer… There’s no reaching him. But we hurried back because Lex said that Ryan Teague is here.”
Oliver nodded. “Yeah, some guys we ran into just told us that, too. Clark, he’s in the Capitol Building.”
“I know… Lex seemed to enjoy rubbing it in, too. What do you think he plans to do to the Congress men and women in there?”
“I don’t know. But we better move fast, cause whatever it is, it can’t be good.”
-2 hours 05 minutes
Chloe was doing her level best to stay calm, but she hadn’t been able to reach Oliver in the last two hours. Phone service everywhere was spotty.
However, she was keeping up with the headlines, and she learned that Ryan Teague was holding members of Congress hostage.
President Luthor came on a short while later, stating how he didn’t understand why his top in command had gone rogue, but that the matter would be dealt with immediately. Chloe wondered if Lex himself was beginning to believe his own lies…
Chloe had been persistently trying to crack into security cameras all across Washington to learn of events firsthand, but with the news of Teague’s involvement, all of her energies concentrated on getting into the halls of Congress. They needed to stop Brainiac, but she also hoped they could rescue Mrs. Kent as well.
She had one feed up, though it was delayed by almost thirty minutes. She caught a glimpse of soldiers walking by, armed to the teeth, and she feared they weren’t there for anyone’s protection.
It made Chloe redouble her efforts to get a look inside the building. It seemed to be one of the few that had power in the area, though there was no visible connection to power on the grid. Street cameras were mostly all disconnected, and the Capitol seemed to be running on half power.
At last, she managed to hack into one of the lower levels. She got access to what seemed to be some sort of archive room, and she saw many men and women crammed together, an armed guard standing by them. Chloe scanned the hostages, and she felt a moment’s relief followed by fear when she spotted Clark’s mom. She was safe, but for how long?
Chloe picked up her phone again and tried Oliver. After a few attempts, she amazingly got through, though the connection was poor.
“Ollie? I found Mrs. Kent! She’s definitely under the Capitol Building,” she said, getting out the most important information first, in case they got disconnected.
“Great… “
“But she’s also held hostage by an armed guard.”
“Any way you can help get us inside?” Oliver asked, and she wasn’t sure he had heard her mention the armed guard.
“Just give me a sec…” Chloe did some quick typing, trying to figure out how much access her hacking had won her. “Actually, yeah. There’s a door on the left wing of the building. I can disarm the security system. But we’ll have to time it so it’s undetectable to whoever might be keeping watch.”
“Okay, sounds doable.”
“We’ve had spotty communication all day. Let’s synchronize our watches, and we can set up a rendezvous time for the security system, okay?”
“All right… I’ve got 1:20 PM.”
“And seconds?”
“1:20 and, no, uh, 1:21… and 3, 4, 5 seconds…”
“OK, that’s close enough. How far away are you from the building?”
“Another ten minute walk, and we’ll be at the front steps.”
“OK, so then at 1:40, I’ll stop the alarm for 30 seconds, got that?”
“Yeah…”
“Oliver? Everything all right?”
“Yeah… just, Chloe… be careful, all right? We’ll see you soon.”
“OK… bye.”
Chloe hung up, and for the first time, regretted not telling Oliver that she loved him.
~\S/~
“What did Chloe say?” Clark asked anxiously.
“The Capitol Building is on lockdown. But Chloe has hacked the system and will give us a 30 second window to get inside… Clark, they’ve got some Congress members held hostage down there…”
“My mom, is she all right?”
“Chloe said she saw her. And she’s fine… but we’ve got to play this one carefully.”
“Kara and I will go in at the 30 second window. Kara, will you give me the crystal? I will use it on Brainiac, if you can get to the control room to shut off the remaining power,” Clark said, easily slipping back into his delegating role.
Kara slipped off the necklace and handed it to him. “Be careful... but how will I find the control room?”
Oliver smiled as he waved his phone. “You wonder why I love her? Chloe just sent me architectural drawings of the Capitol. I don’t know how she does it…” he marveled, shaking his head.
Oliver handed his phone to Kara, though she was a little confounded by the technology. “I don’t know how to read this,” she said, handing it back to him.
Oliver pushed a few buttons and then clarified.
“The control room is just one floor above the side entrance. Just get up there and blast the control panel with your eye-thingy.”
“That could set off an alarm, causing us more trouble than we need,” Cyborg interjected.
“I don’t think it will matter,” Clark said, and everyone looked at him. He usually played things cautiously. “Brainiac may do something much worse if we don’t act. If the whole building is dark, I can get down there, use the crystal and swipe out the weapons before anyone knows what happened. You guys just be ready to get them out of the building.”
-1 hour and 54 minutes
Lois hated being stuck in traffic.
She was sitting on the highway, near an off-ramp, and her gas was nearing empty. She was barely out of the city, and couldn’t see how she’d make it to Smallville now… She should have stayed at the Planet, or at Watchtower…
Maybe it wasn’t too late to turn around… that is, if she could get back into the city…
Lois edged her car to the shoulder, knowing she could get a ticket for this kind of violation, but under the circumstances, she hoped that the law would look the other way.
She made it to the off-ramp without any trouble, and decided to try and find her way back into the city. She was almost to Edge City, which was just beyond Metropolis’ city limits. This end of town wasn’t the best, with ramshackle houses and desperation on every street corner.
Lois locked her doors, more nervous by the fact that she didn’t see anyone, than seeing anyone posing a threat. She didn’t know if the residents in the area had evacuated, or were just holed up in their shanty houses, hoping for the best. But she didn’t want to tempt them with her car either – she didn’t want to represent their only escape route.
Lois cruised along, at what she hoped was a non-threatening speed, when suddenly, a pick-up truck came out of nowhere at an intersection.
It all happened in the blink of an eye…
She saw it heading straight towards her.
Lois hit on the gas pedal, hoping to get across before the truck could hit her. She heard the squeal of her wheels, and then the impact of the truck, somewhere behind her.
Her car spun in a circle, slamming her head into the side window.
She heard wheels screech away, shortly before her world went dark…
-1 hour, 45 minutes
The team waited until the security light on the side door turned off, at exactly 1:40, before Clark and Kara rushed inside.
Clark took off towards where the members of Congress were being held, immediately scanning the building to help him find them.
He glanced upwards, and could see that Kara had made it to the control room.
Before he turned away, he saw Kara fall to her knees, and Clark looked closer, seeing that there was green meteor rock being streamed into the room. Was it being used as a power source? Was that the reason the Capitol was one of the only buildings in the area with power? Whatever the reason, he had to get Kara out of there, though he knew he couldn’t do it himself.
Clark rushed back to where the heroes were standing, all looking at him with perplexed expressions, as they had been anticipating seeing the hostages coming out by now.
“It’s green meteor rock. In the control room,” he announced, sounding a little defeated. “You have to go help Kara. I’ll go back in and try to stop Brainiac—“
“The alarm will go off. We’ll be toast in no time,” AC interjected.
Clark agreed with a nod. “I know it’s a risk, but we have to try.”
Oliver nodded, in accord with Clark for the first time since Clark had returned. “I have the plans of the building thanks to Chloe. AC, you try and enter through the sewers. I’ll take Cyborg with me and we’ll try to enter from the roof.”
"OK. I’ll wait until you give me the signal from above that you’re ready and we’ll enter the building together. That will give them less time to try and stop us.”
“All right. Let’s go.”
-1 hour, 39 minutes
Kara couldn’t believe she had walked into a kryptonite trap once again. She had gotten so used to the pain in the cell, that this time, she felt like she could fight through it a bit. She only had to reach the control panel, or at least stand long enough to try and use her heat vision.
The kryptonite felt like an oppressive lead shield weighing her down as she tried to get to her feet. Each movement was an excruciating attack on her muscles.
Brainiac obviously knew her and Kal-El’s weakness, having set up the control room for back-up power with kryptonite. But what she didn’t understand was why the room was empty. Shouldn’t there be someone here keeping watch?
She suddenly heard a clicking sound, somewhere in the vicinity of her head. “Don’t move if you want to live.”
She raised her arms in surrender, fighting the urge to fall to her knees.
“What are you doing here?” the man asked.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” she murmured under her breath. Her knees were shaking from the kryptonite. Though she felt she had just a little bit left in her, knowing that the kryptonite hadn’t killed her before. It was painful and toxic, but its deadly effects took a long time to destroy. Kara closed her eyes, summoning what strength was in her, and shut out the burn of the kryptonite, sending one roundhouse kick towards her attacker as she let out a pain-filled groan.
She managed to knock the gun out of his hand, yet she fell immediately to the ground, her remaining energy spent in that one move. The burn in her muscles elicited a sharp cry.
“What are you?” the man asked in horror, getting to his feet after she had knocked him down.
Oliver suddenly swung into the window, knocking the gunman back to the ground.
“She’s our friend. So that makes you – the enemy,” Oliver said, holding the man down to the ground as Cyborg climbed in.
“Get her out of here, will you?” Oliver said, pulling a rope from his belt to tie up the hapless man.
Cyborg helped Kara to the window, who as soon as she reached the sun, recharged and flew out to float just in front of it.
“Move Oliver. I can get the panel from here,” she ordered.
Oliver dragged his captive to the other side of the room so Kara could zap the control boards with her heat vision.
“Nice work,” Oliver whistled. Suddenly, alarms started going off in the building, either from Kara’s destruction of the control panel, or wherever Clark was at the moment. But it meant they had to hurry. Oliver laid his forearm on the back of the man’s neck he’d tied up and leaned close. “So, you want to tell us where Mr. Teague is hiding the Congress members?”
