Chapter 45: The Death of Lex Luthor

“Why are you doing this, Lex?”

“...Do what?”

Lucas frowned as he glared at the man in front of him, Lex Luthor.

At the moment, Lucas had just barged in his office and confronted Lex.

Lex calmly placed down the documents he’s holding and looked at Lucas.

“Just drop the mind games. Why are you working with the Injustice League!?”

“...I’m not sure what you mean.”

Lex paused before denying it.

Lucas charged forward and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.

Suddenly, a turret gun revealed from the ceiling and pointed at Lucas.

Lucas scoffed at that and no longer minded it.

“Do you think those toys can stop me? Even if you loaded those with kryptonite bullets, it’s still not going to work!”

“...”

Lex grimaced. He placed his hand in his pocket and pulled out a small remote.

Clicking on it, the turret guns disappeared again in the ceiling.

“What are you doing here, Lucas?”

“I came for answers. Tell me, was it you who told the Injustice League I was in Themyscira so they can send Ares to block me?”

“...Yes. Is that what you wanted to know? That’s right! I was the one who told the Injustice League!”

Seeing Lex answer honestly, Lucas frowned.

After a while, he threw Lex to the wall and sighed.

“Why? Lex, I thought you were a good guy…”

“A good guy? Hmph!”

Lex snorted and fixed his collar while standing up.

“While you were gone in space for 5 years, it was ME who, along with the Justice League, made sure that Earth is safe! I was the one who stopped the bad guys! I’m the hero here! And you? Hmph! After you came back, the first thing you did was what? Hide!? You spend your days sleeping with multiple women every day when you had the power to be a God! Actually, you are already a God, aren’t you!? Yet what have you been doing!? Nothing!”

Lex lashed out and shouted at Lucas.

Hearing what he said, Lucas fell silent.

“I thought you were alright with me staying in the background? I recall you were supportive of the idea back then?”

“Of course I would agree! None of us had the guts to disagree with you! Don’t tell me you don’t remember? Even the whole League can’t even defeat you!”

Lucas sighed.

“So you what? Joined the Injustice League? You’re turning into a bad guy just because of that? You could’ve talked to me, no matter what, you didn’t have to do this to yourself!”

Lex paused, then shook his head in annoyance.

“So what now!? You found out about my connection with the Injustice League, are you going to throw me in that prison of yours in Mount Justice!?”

“...No.”

Lucas shook his head.

He walked over to Lex and looked at him.

He raised his hand and started to vibrate at high speed.

Then...he shoved his hand right through Lex’s heart!

Lex’s eyes widened in surprise, shock, and disbelief.

“W-what are you…!?”

“...Sleep, Lex. Just sleep…”

Lex’s eyes started to dim as he closed his eyes and fell in Lucas’ arms.

Lucas pulled out his hand and stopped vibrating it.

The next moment, Lucas ran out with Lex’s body in a flash of lightning and disappeared in the office.

Lucas arrived at a room and laid Lex’s body on the floor.

Seeing Lex like this, Lucas sighed.

“Why...why did it have to be like this, Lex…”

...

Let’s go back to a few days earlier.

After the incident with Ares, things had been calm for a while.

Bruce came back from the Underworld with his eyes still red from crying.

Lucas saw it but didn’t make fun of him as he simply patted his back.

Afterward, the two of them spent the day chatting. Well, it was mostly Bruce telling stories of their parents and what they talked about in the Underworld.

Bruce had also chosen a power to be gained.

Darkness Manipulation.

It was an ability that Ares and Raven had. Lucas never really got to use it since, like all his powers, it had changed to light or white when he uses it...so technically, Lucas’ power is called Light Manipulation.

Still, it seems to revert to the original power when he bestows it to someone else. Lucas was really confused about it.

Lucas watched Bruce play with the darkness and getting the hang of it.

Bruce asked to fight with Lucas to test out his new ability.

Right at the start, he threw multiple batarangs towards Lucas. Lucas didn’t care about those and casually dodged and deflected them.

Bruce knew that those stuff won’t work but he still kept throwing batarangs one after another while advancing forward.

When he was close enough, Bruce sent a kick at Lucas which Lucas dodged.

However, Bruce’s shadow suddenly rose and a dark spear emerged, surprising Lucas a bit.

Lucas smiled bitterly.

This ability is really hard to defend against.

But it seems that Bruce can’t really control all darkness. Just the ones that are connected to his own shadow.

Thinking about this, Lucas shivered at the thought.

Damn! Imagine Batman, lurking in the darkness. His entire shadow is connected to the darkness of the night...how scary is that!?

The two of them fought for a while before Bruce nodded in satisfaction.

It was a useful ability and also complimented his stealth skills. He can also control it to form a makeshift shield or barrier if he needs to protect himself.

Also, he can just go back to Lucas if he wants to change his ability.

If Lucas fought alongside him, Lucas can even change Bruce’s ability mid-fight if necessary.

It might be possible in the future that Lucas would be able to grant multiple powers to his apostles.

Lucas had talked with Hades regarding this one time over dinner in the Underworld.

It seems the reason why Lucas was only able to grant one power to his apostles was that he was lacking the power of faith.

Lucas is technically a new God and there isn’t anyone worshiping him or anything so obviously, he doesn’t have much faith in him.

Lucas sighed at how troublesome it was. Could it be that he had to go and make a cult?

Lucas decided to deal with that problem some other time.

Other than that, Lucas found the other members of the league and also gave them powers if they want.

Their choices was certainly interesting to see.

Lucas also gave this chance to the rest of the Young Justice members.

Aqualad and the rest also got back from their mission and reported in.

When they got back, they also brought back with them a souvenir...a blue beetle scarab…

Seeing that scarab, Lucas was surprised.

How come they have it? If they have it...then what about the Blue Beetle!

...Should I go and drop this in front of Jaime Reyes so I can include him in on the team?

...Forget it, let’s leave it up to fate…

However, even though Aqualad and the others held the scarab, the scarab didn’t go and bond with any of them. It seems that it was quite picky on who to choose as its host...

Seeing that it was probably safe, Lucas held the scarab as well out of curiosity.

Suddenly, the scarab came to life and jumped at his back!

Lucas was surprised and created a white hard light shield behind him out of reflex.

The scarab bounced off and tried to jump back again.

Lucas sealed it inside a hard light container and looked at it curiously.

Though having its powers is cool and all...but Lucas didn’t want to have a scarab embedded on his back.

But thinking about it, he already had a gem on his forehead, maybe a scarab on his back is fine?

...Forget it. Lucas decided to think about it some other time.

For now, Lucas sealed it with magic and carried it with him. Who knows, maybe he can find a suitable host for it and he didn’t need to attach it to himself.

Also, the existence of this scarab had reminded Lucas of another thing. The Reach.

Thinking about this alien species, Lucas sighed.

It was another troublesome race…

Speaking of troublesome race...Lucas remembered the alien woman he met back then.

Blackfire...I wonder how she is now?

…

In a certain area in the Galaxy, two spaceships were speeding along with one chasing on the other.

Inside the spaceship in front, there was a woman with bright red hair and tan skin. Her eyes were also glowing with a green light.

She looked back at the spaceship chasing her ship and gritted her teeth, pushing the throttle a bit more to speed up.

Inside the spaceship chasing her, there was a large man with grey shin and long black hair. He also had red eyes and there was a black mark around his eyes, making it look as if he’s wearing a mask.

“You cannot escape the Main Man, Tamaranean woman!”

The Tamaranean woman gritted her teeth and sped forward. Her only hope is the man who her sister told him about. The powerful man capable of destroying an entire warship...Lucas!

…

Back on Earth, a peaceful week has passed, but at the same time, it seems to be the calm before the storm.

With nothing much to do, Lucas decided to visit Clark to ask him about something and clarify some suspicions he had.

When Kara and Karen heard he was visiting their cousin, the two of them asked to come along as well.

Lucas didn’t really have a reason to refuse so he agreed.

The three of them walked to the front of the famous Daily Planet as Lucas looked at the rotating globe on the roof.

“Ah, it’s been a while since I came to Metropolis. The air here is different from Gotham.”

“Really? It doesn’t seem to be that different.”

Kara looked at Lucas doubtedly.

Lucas chuckled.

“It’s the feeling. Anyway, let’s go find Clark and ask him to give us a tour.”

“We can just fly if you want to tour.”

Karen tilted her head and looked at Lucas in confusion.

Lucas sighed.

“I don’t wanna fly!”

“...”

Then, just as they were about to enter the Daily Planet, they heard a loud crash above.

Looking up, they saw Superman was fighting against...Superman?

But after looking closely, the other Superman was wearing tattered clothes and had a greyish skin.

This should be...Bizzaro?

Lucas sighed again.

“Fine, let’s fly…”

In a sense, Bizzaro is a copy of Superman, so if they leave them alone fighting against each other, it will take a long time for it to end and who knows how much damage they will make by then.

Right after Lucas spoke, Kara and Karen had already flown off and their regular clothes dropped on Lucas’ face.

“...”

Where am I supposed to place this!?

Lucas looked at their clothes and could faintly smell their sweet scents from it. He quickly shook his head and looked up to see three Supers going against Bizzaro.

“...Well, they should be more than enough, no need for me to join…”

Sure enough, Lucas soon saw Bizzaro blown away by the three of them.

He looked at where Bizzaro was blown to and caught up to him at super speed.

*Boom*

Bizzaro landed on an empty land a bit away from Metropolis.

Lucas looked at him and held him down with telekinesis when he saw that Bizzaro was about to stand up again.

He didn’t bother questioning him at all as Lucas doubted that he could get any answer that way.

Lucas held Bizzaro’s head and directly read his mind instead.

It was then that Lucas saw Bizzaro’s memory inside a pod.

Outside the pod, Bizzaro was looking at the person who created him.

Lucas recognized this person as none other than...Lex Luthor!

In the memory, Lex looked at Bizzaro and shook his head.

“This is a failed subject. Immediately dispose of it.”

“Yes sir!”

A personnel beside Lex nodded and was about to shut down the life support system in the pod. However, Bizzaro had heard them.

Hearing that he was about to get killed, he started to rampage and actually managed to break out of the pod.

Lex panicked.

“Dammit! Quickly contain the subject! Don’t let it leave this place!”

“Ahhhh!”

“No! Don’t! Ahhhh!”

Lex tried to order everyone to stop Bizzaro but saw that they were all helpless against Bizzaro’s power.

Then, Lex probably decided that he can’t do anything about Bizzaro anymore and fled.

Meanwhile, Bizzaro had successfully broken out. That was when Superman intercepted him and they fought above Metropolis.

Lucas removed his hand from Bizzaro’s head and sighed.

Lex...what have you done…?