Lionel Luthor walked through the corridors of Luthorcorp Labs with a bemused expression on his face. Lex followed after his father quickly, always a few steps behind him. That his place was seemingly always a few steps behind him might have struck him as funny at any other time. Today, he was rather preoccupied, as they all were. Everyone who was permitted in this heavily guarded section of the labs seemed overly anxious. When they saw his father coming, they scattered, ducking down opposite corridors and into rooms. Even the Luthor Corps stationed as guards here, his father’s own personal army, seemed on edge. The only person who didn’t seem perturbed, Lex marveled, was his father, the one who stood the most to lose.

“How are you dealing with the inquiry, Lex?” His father’s question startled him more by the sheer offhandedness of it than anything else. He recovered quickly and gave him a little sneer, trying to feel more comfortable than he was.

“Officially, the Attorney General’s still breathing down our necks for human rights violations-“

“Alleged,” his father chided him. “Always alleged. Even in private.”

“Alleged violations,” he corrected himself. “Unofficially, he’s all but eating out of my hand. You should see how well I’ve got him trained.”

“Ahh,” his father laughed, “I imagine. What was his offer at first?”

“First, he wanted a generous kickback for himself and twenty percent of the stock in key Luthorcorp subsidiaries. He told me in return, he would make the charges disappear. I let him think he had played me, then I handed him the agreement papers with some educational materials included inside.”

“Ahh… What sort?”

“Written agreements between him and other Senate officials, transcripts of meetings... That sort of thing.”

“That’s seems rather unnecessary. A man as crooked as that and you couldn’t produce a few photographs?”

“Photographs would have embarrassed him, at the most forced him to resign. Those papers would have destroyed him. His own government would be forced to remove him permanently. I wanted him to know how much you don’t like being threatened.”

“Such a dutiful son,” his father praised him. Lex sneered and looked away. “You always have my best interests in mind, don’t you?” Lionel went on, the force of his gaze making Lex look back at his father. His father held his eyes for a moment, then smiled and went on.

“What was the final agreement then?” his father asked him idly.

“Full support of the Attorney General’s office, government contracts that we could have gotten without him, and, though he doesn’t know it yet, he’s going to accept full responsibility for a leak in his office that will so damage the case filled against us that they’ll have no choice but to throw it out. He’ll resign in disgrace, and then I’ll just replace him with someone who doesn’t irritate me so much.”

His father laughed fondly. “Never share power, Lex. Take a partner as a figurehead, yes, to use as a scapegoat, most definitely, but never share power fully. When you know that you can crush anyone you work with, that is contentment.” Lex smiled and nodded, wondering how much of that had been a warning aimed at him.

Officially, Lex wielded almost as much power as Lionel did, acting as his executive assistant and heading up a number of projects for his father. In reality, though, he sometimes wondered how far he was allowed to go. He had never challenged his father on a major decision, not yet at least. What would happen if he did? How far would his father go in response? As far as it took, he smiled to himself. He knew his father well, very well indeed.

The two of them were quite the pair, Lex practically the spitting image of his sire. His face was softer and not as craggy, that he had inherited from his mother along with her red hair, but he had the same lean build and characteristic intensity in his eyes. Both father and son had the ability to hold someone spellbound with a look, and possessed an almost raw magnetism. People gravitated to the Luthors, like planets orbiting a pair of stars. Was it all genetic, he wondered, gazing at his father. How much of him dictates who I am?

“I hear the Shark’s are having a good year,” his father remarked, smiling softly to himself. “What kind of bonus do you think we should give them?”

“I think there are more important things to worry about than that,” Lex snapped, no longer able to bear his father’s careless attitude.

“There are millions of football fans that would disagree with you,” his father responded mockingly.

“You left a retreat in Japan and flew halfway around the world to be here, father. Don’t tell me you aren’t worried about this.” They were at the end of the hallway, in front of the doors to the main labs. From here on, only a handful of people were ever admitted. Lex knew what was inside, but he had never been granted access before.

Lionel stared at him and smiled. Reaching out, he placed his hand on a sensor and waited. The blue pad flashed red and then turned green. With a pneumatic sigh, the heavy doors unsealed and opened. Lex tore his gaze away from his father to look inside. The doors opened up into a narrow hallway, with another security panel at the other end. Lionel stepped inside and Lex hurried after him. He noted in passing, that the doors were six inches thick.

His father walked to the security panel and punched in a code. Lex waited, glancing at the wall in front of them. If there was a seam in it, he couldn’t detect it. “Where are the doors?” he asked, trying to sound bored.

In response, the panel beeped once and then started to rise up the wall. Lex looked at it sharply and then saw that the panel wasn’t moving, the entire wall was rising up. “Do you know that every time we raise this, it costs us close to ten thousand dollars?” his father asked speculatively. “Someone worked it out; averaged in the cost of fuel for the machinery above us, the cost of the wall, machinery; times it was operated per day… Incredible amount, don’t you think? And all worth it.” He shook his head and stepped inside. Lex followed after him, stepping over the small trench in the floor that the wall had risen from. The wall began to ponderously lower as soon as they stepped through. Unconsciously, he glanced up, but he couldn’t see the machinery that controlled it. He also noted that the wall was more than a foot thick and seemingly one solid slab of metal.

“Thank God,” a nervous voice said at the other end of the lab. A tall, lanky black man hurried across the floor, moving around rows of monitors and computers. “I had you tracked down the minute this came through. It’s incredible. A second contact. It’s just…”

“Yes, incredible, I know,” Lionel told him. He took the doctor’s hand, steadying him. Lex glanced around the room curiously, keeping one eye on his father. The lab was set up like a lecture hall, sloping down in rows towards a huge set of clear plastic windows. Computers and monitoring equipment filled each of the rows, it was easy to imagine close to a hundred scientists working here simultaneously, though Lex knew for a fact that only five people had access to this room; his father, Dr. Hamilton, his two assistants, and the head of security for Luthorcorp.

Dr. Hamilton glanced at Lex and then looked at Lionel quickly. “It’s alright,” his father told him. “Lex has been briefed about this before, but hasn’t had the full tour yet.”

“What about the general? Are we bringing him on this too?”

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“I think General Lane can sit this one out for now,” Lionel said quietly. “He’s a small minded man. Too much information might unsettle him.”

“I take it I’m ready for the big picture then?” Lex asked quietly, glancing around.

“You’ve been ready for some time now,” his father corrected him. “Doctor, why don’t you bring my son up to date on what’s happened?”

“I’ve read the files, father,” Lex protested, eager to get on with the meeting. “That’s not necessary.”

“It’s alright,” Hamilton said, barely containing his glee. “I think we’re all starting from scratch today. God, this is like fourteen years ago. So much to learn.”

“Not quite like fourteen years ago,” a voice said dryly from the bottom of the lab. A young girl stepped forwards, dressed in the black and gray Lex Corps fatigues, though they were heavily stained. Her face was smudged and a little bruised, but it couldn’t disguise her natural beauty. Only her eyes looked out of place, dead, cold things that didn’t seem to belong to one so young. She was only eighteen.

“Right as always, Lana,” Lionel told the young girl. She nodded stiffly at him, not bothering to acknowledge anyone else. Lex was almost surprised that her heels didn’t come clicking together in salute.

He hadn’t agreed with his father on appointing this girl as the head of his security force, but he hadn’t opposed it. Her age was certainly a factor in his disapproval, since she was barely eighteen and commanding men twice her age. She was skilled yes, almost a prodigy when it came to strategy and combat. Of course, that came as no surprise when Lionel himself has sponsored her training for the last ten years. Lex suspected that was why he had placed her here, as a personal assurance against espionage. The girl was practically a zealot where his father’s interests were concerned. His father trusted her implicitly, much more than his own flesh and blood, Lex noted sardonically. Jealousy might have also been a factor in his disapproval, he admitted, but it was also something more.

Sometimes he feared that Lana’s personal feelings would get in the way of her charge. She was committed to Lionel and Luthorcorp, he knew that, but he also knew what kind of hate and will it takes to drive someone like that. He knew that very well. Sometimes, he wondered if she’d planned on all this, just so she could get close to what had hurt her so badly in the past.

“I’m sorry sir,” she said stiffly. “We made contact with the second creature, but we couldn’t contain it.”

“It’s all right,” he waved her apology away. “You managed to control the situation well. You pursued the creature and we’ve gotten a good estimate on his abilities. All in all, I think that’s a good day’s work,” he remarked.

“She opened fire in a public street, compromised the secrecy of our meteor based weaponry, damaged city property, and managed to kill no less than ten people while doing so,” Lex said. “Tell me father, what qualifies that as a ‘good day’?”

Lana shot him a look that he would have liked to frame, but his father brushed the question off. “Dr. Hamilton? What have we learned about the second creature so far?”

“Not much, sir,” he said, heading over to a pair of monitors. His father followed him over as Lana turned back to the glass. Lex strolled over to stand beside her. He noted with a bit of disgust, that she hadn’t gotten to change her uniform yet. He forgot the smell though as he glanced down through the glass.

The lab glass formed part of a steepled roof to a large room below. The walls were pristine white, the kind that you only found in hospitals and psychiatric wards. At the bottom of the floor was a kind of rough habitat. There was a torn and faded blanket in the corner and a low slung toilet at the far wall. Built into the paneling of another wall was a black computer screen, which occasionally flashed with pictures of landscapes and famous paintings. Lex had read the files on how it was also a crude, touch-based computer system for the subject, which could respond with simple games and passages from selected novels. All of this was for the pleasure of their “guest”, who had literally dropped out of the sky over a decade ago.

The alien was currently lying prone on the floor, his face turned away from them. He was dressed in a white smock and pants, his arms and legs encircled by the manacles that his father’s scientists had worked so hard on designing. In an emergency, the room’s floor would effectively become a giant magnet, with the manacles designed to emit the opposite, attracting polarity. They had rated one of the manacles sufficient to hold several hundred tons of pressure. Based on the data from today, Lex wondered if it was enough.

“I read your report,” he said quietly to Lana. She ignored him and continued to study the creature. “Not a bad piece of work for a grunt. I’m sure you had a lot of chances to study him while he was eluding your team.”

“I would’ve liked to see you do any better,” she hissed at him.

“Anyone could’ve done better. You get an alert that someone’s walking around town who just happens to bear a close resemblance to our subject and you rush into a crowded street, guns blazing. What if it’d been a coincidence? You could have ruined us all.” She didn’t respond to that. He leaned in close to her ear.

“It must eat you alive that there’s another one walking free. Especially when he looks so much like our’s does. When you think about it, it’s almost like he’s actually free,” Lex nodded down towards the glass. “I guess I can see why you’d go after him. For as much good as it did.”

Finally, she turned towards him, her hand slipping down to the gun holstered at her side. “Are you questioning my abilities?”

“Just your methods,” he told her.

“Well the next time you do, I want you to remember something, Lex,” she said, her hand resting on the butt of the gun. “For as much good as it did, he ran from me.” He held her stare for a moment, and then sneered and looked away.

“Oh, children?” Lionel called to them. “If you could turn your attention to the good doctor for a moment, he’ll kindly tell us what we’ve determined so far.” Lex and Lana glanced at each other and then turned back to the doctor.

“Yes, well, as I said,” Hamilton started, “it’s not much. We have the visual data collected during the skirmish, but not a lot of DNA samples to take back. There was a skin scraping on some of the concrete, but we believe that’s human in origin.”

“The girl,” Lex supplied. “I’ll have her identity in a few hours. We’re still analyzing the tapes.”

“Good. Well, aside from that,” Hamilton went on, “there isn’t much to go off of. We know it’s similar in appearance to the first subject. Height, facial features are almost a complete match.”

“What do you think of that, doctor?” Lionel asked. “Coincidence?”

“Maybe; maybe not. Their species could just all physically look alike and rely on other means of distinguishing the other,” he shrugged. “Or, pride in the human race aside, we might not even be advanced enough to determine their differences. It could be like an ant saying that all humans look alike.”

“Perhaps,” his father said. He didn’t sound very certain however.

“How about our other guest?” Lex asked quietly. “Did she have any response to this?” He noted that Lana’s head suddenly jerked up and Hamilton’s expression grew guarded. His father hardly blinked, simply stood there, thinking.

“I haven’t put the question to her yet,” Lionel said finally.

“There was some unusual activity…” Hamilton started to say when Lionel overrode him.

“What else do we know?” he demanded firmly.

“Uh… the subject, the new one,” Hamilton corrected himself, “is a great deal stronger than the first. Whether that’s based on a longer exposure to the sun or some other reason, we can’t determine yet.”

“The sun?” Lex asked.

“They apparently absorb energy from the sun, soak it up like a solar battery. That’s how they can do everything they can. We try and limit his exposure to the sun now,” he admitted quietly, looking a little pale. Lex looked down at the alien again, not a little impressed.

“The guns barely affected him,” Lana added. “And it shook off a burst grenade in a few seconds. A charge that size would have put the other one out for hours.”

“We’ll have to boost the charges on the guns then,” he said. “Double the output radiation.”

“Why stop at doubling it?” Lex asked snidely. “I mean, it’s already powerful enough to burn through a human being, why stop there? Why don’t we turn all our soldiers into a walking reactor? How does that strike everyone?”

“And what would you suggest we do, Lex?” his father asked him. “Containing this creature is our first priority now.”

“Yes, it is,” he agreed. He cast a sidelong glance at Lana. “At least now it is.”

“Care to explain that,” she asked him, acidly.

“The first creature’s arrival was a fluke. Probably an accident at that. After all, if an alien species wants to make contact with us, why send a lone child to do it?” he asked them. “Most likely, this second creature was sent to retrieve the other, as part of some larger delegation.”

“Are you saying there could be more of them here?” Hamilton asked, worried.

“If there’s one, there’s probably another,” Lex remarked. “We’ve learned that today at least. And if there’s two… who knows how many are out there? With an unknown number of them, this isn’t the time to make any more mistakes.”

“Mistakes!?” Lana practically spit out. She stopped and tried to get herself under control.

“Yes, mistakes. Yours,” he said, keeping her off balance. He needed her angry for this to work. If she was angry, she’d get careless and make a mistake. He glanced at his father quickly, but he was impossible to gauge.

“These creatures could’ve come here peacefully,” he went on. “They might not have even known that the first alien was here at all. We should have approached them cautiously and determined their intentions, not opened fire immediately.” Lana glowered at him.

“It’s a little late for that kind of talk,” she snapped at him.

“Of course it is,” he went on smoothly. “Now we have to respond with full force. You showed the second one we’re hostile and then you let him get away. If he’s in contact with any others, they’ll know as well. It’s not going to take them very long to realize that if we found them so quickly we must have already known they were out there”

“So what are you suggesting we do about it?”

Got you, Lex thought triumphantly. “First, we have to contain the second creature. We have to capture it now, or kill it.”

“Kill… but a specimen like that…” Hamilton protested. Lionel raised his hand, cutting him off.

“You already have one doctor, don’t be greedy. Lex, go on,” he said.

“Secondly, we have to strengthen security around the first,” he said, nodding back towards the glass wall. “If we lose him, we lose everything this company is built on. The technology, the science, everything. We can’t let that happen. And just to be certain that no more mistakes are made, I’d like to take charge of all this.”

“What? You?!” Lana almost exploded. He ignored her and focused on his father. Lionel stood there, his arms folded, a small smile playing about his face.

“Out of the two of us, I seem to be the only one with a clear grasp of the situation,” Lex told Lana without taking his eyes off his father. “You’ve already put us at risk once with your personal feelings. I wouldn’t want them to impair your judgment again,” he told her coolly.

“Sir,” she pleaded with Lionel. “You can’t let him do this. I can recapture him. I can!”

“I know you can, dear,” he told her genially. He hesitated and then went on, “But in this case, I think Lex may be right. Perhaps a more level head is required for this.”

“But sir,” she said, utterly devastated. It was so easy to manipulate her, Lex thought. She really was just a child after all.

“Now, Lana,” Lionel told her gently. He touched her chin and lifted her head up. “I still have an important job for you here. After all, there are things more important than our visitor that need protecting.” She stared at him for a moment and then nodded fiercely.

“I won’t let you down, sir,” she swore. He smiled and touched her cheek fondly.

“I don’t doubt it.” He looked over at Lex and smiled. “I have the utmost faith in both of you. You are my partners in this. Always remember that.” Lana gazed at him in adoration, but Lex could only smile back uneasily. How much does he really trust me, he wondered again. How much, and how far?