Alexander Luthor was absolutely seething.
Five years.
Five years ago, his parents had found Kal laying in a spaceship and taken him home, adopting him like a foundling puppy. That was when the trouble had begun. Immediately, the family had needed to construct lies about the child. They couldn’t admit that the baby had been found in the middle of a field in a tiny UFO. It would damage the family’s reputation, if people knew they harbored an alien in their home. So his mother had made up a story about having found the baby in a basket on their doorstep one evening – an abandoned little boy who needed a home. The public had eaten the story up and even Alex – or Lex, as he continuously reminded people to call him – had to admit it had been a brilliant move. The whole country knew the sad story of how the billionaire family had lost their infant daughter to a cruel twist of fate. Support had poured in for the grieving family and it seemed only too perfect that a family who lost a child should find a child who’d lost his family.
For five years, the family had lived their lie and passed the alien off as a regular human. For five years, they had treated the boy like one of their own, giving him every advantage over the poorer masses. Every advantage that Lex felt only he was entitled to. He was a Luthor by blood! Not some orphaned alien that had been plucked from certain death because two soft-hearted philanthropists just hadn’t been able to just keep driving and not stick their noses where they hadn’t belonged. For five excruciating years, Lex had been forced to pretend he didn’t loathe the “brother” he’d never asked for. A “brother” he tried – and failed - to kill numerous times, when his parents hadn’t been there to see. A “brother” who appeared to be invulnerable to whatever Lex threw his way.
Getting rid of his little sister had been far easier. Staging the little competition’s death had been a simple matter, unlike anything he’d faced with his new “brother.” With Lena, Lex had needed only to sneak into her nursery and place her elephant over her face and she’d passed on with barely a struggle. That had been that. A tragic accident. No one had ever questioned the Lena Luthor’s death and he – Alexander Luthor – had once again been the sole heir to his family’s fortune.
But Kal was different. For the first three years, Letitia had insisted he sleep in the master bedroom with them. It made her feel better, to have him close, as though the close proximity could ward off death from stealing another child from her. And perhaps it had. By the time she felt ready to let Kal have his own room, his alien origins had begun to make themselves known. Lex could no more strangle his younger sibling than he could slash his throat or push him off the roof. Kal seemed invincible.
And he’d tried.
Oh, how he’d tried!
For the last two years, he’d tried all sorts of ways to rid himself of his unwanted younger sibling, most carried out while Kal and the rest of the Luthor household had slept. Nothing had worked, leaving Lex ever more frustrated. Just tonight, he’d tried once again to end Kal’s miserable existence. Once again, the experiment had failed.
It was time to try a new tactic, Lex decided as he sat, fuming, in his bedroom, the first faint streaks of dawn creeping into the sky. If he couldn’t exterminate the pest, he could perhaps, learn to accept Kal’s uniqueness, and use it for his own benefit. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, as the old saying went. Yes, if he couldn’t kill Kal, he would find ways to break the boy’s mind and use his invulnerability to his own purpose.
He would start tonight, and he knew just how to begin warping the kid’s mind.
***
“Pssst! Kal! Are you asleep yet?” Lex whispered, sticking his head into Kal’s room later that night.
“No,” came his small voice in reply.
“Good,” Lex said, grinning to himself. He opened the door wider and slipped into the room.
“I miss Mom and Dad,” the boy replied sadly.
“I know. But they had the mayor’s gala to attend. They’ll be home before you wake up in the morning,” Lex assured him, sitting down on the edge of Kal’s bed.
“I know,” Kal sniffled.
“But, hey, good news. I’m here,” Lex said, biting back a smile. This was going to be almost too easy for him! “Besides, you shouldn’t really mourn over them not being home you know.”
“Why not?” Kal’s eyes were wide with curiosity.
“Well,” Lex hedged, making it appear that he was hesitant to divulge any further information.
“Please, Lex?”
“Fine. But you cannot tell Mom and Dad that I said anything, got it?”
“I promise,” the boy said solemnly, and Lex believed him. For a five-year-old, Kal was surprisingly good at keeping his word.
“Okay…the thing is…Mom and Dad…never really wanted you. They found you and took you in out of pity.”
“No…no…they love me,” Kal countered quickly, his lower lip trembling.
“They act like they do,” Lex said with practiced nonchalance. “It makes them look good to the public. The generous rich couple who took in a child no one else wanted. Such saints, to the eyes of the public. Meanwhile, they’ve never told you the truth. How your biological parents dumped you here on Earth because you were a burden to them.”
“H…how?” Tears glistened in Kal’s widened brown eyes. “It’s not true!” A silver tear escaped and rolled down his cheek.
Pouring on the faux sympathy, Lex put his hand on Kal’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, but it’s the truth. When they found you, there was an object – a globe – with you. They…we all…saw the messages from your birth parents. They sent you into space because they didn’t want you.”
“No!” Kal cried out, sobbing heavily now.
“Mom and Dad felt bad for you when they found out. They kept you out of pity. They didn’t want another child, not after Lena died.”
“But…they always say they love me,” Kal pointed out.
“If they loved you, they would have been honest with you,” Lex told him with a heavy sigh.
“But they hug me and kiss me and take care of me…”
“It wouldn’t do if the public found out you were a case of pity,” Lex said with a shrug. “Trust me, Kal. I’m being honest with you. I’m the only one who truly cares. Put your faith and trust in me. I’ll never lie to you,” he said with casual encouragement.
Kal didn’t answer except to bury his head in Lex’s chest as his entire tiny body heaved with sobs. Lex said nothing further. He would have to break Kal’s mind little by little. Subtle damage was the best kind of damage. He needed Kal to unquestioningly trust him. So he let the wretched little alien child’s tears soak his shirt and he stroked the back of Kal’s head in feigned care.
Tonight went better than I expected. It won’t be long before he’s totally under my control.
***
Sirens blared in the night, rending the quiet midnight hour apart. Lex Luthor stood in the dark, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders, watching the hungry orange and red flames devour his childhood home. To the policemen and firefighters who swirled around him in a constant flow of dizzying movement, the young man appeared to be in shock as he watched the blaze with a blank look. But he wasn’t in shock. His features had been purposefully set in a hardened mask of neutrality. He watched dispassionately as the flames leaped higher, graceful as ballerinas, hungry and growling like a pack of starved wolves. Inwardly though, he was pleased. Everything had gone according to plan.
He’d waited, oh so patiently, for his parents to fall asleep. Then he’d lit a few candles and double checked that all of the windows and doors were locked tightly. Satisfied, he’d woken Kal. He’d hadn’t had a difficult time at all in goading the eight-year-old into a game of catch, right in the living room. Right where the candles had burned merrily. Letitia had a fondness for candles, so it hadn’t been out of the ordinary for some to be lit, and Kal hadn’t even blinked that some should be burning, even though the elder Luthors were asleep. Kal was getting faster – inhumanly so – and that was just fine with Lex. He encouraged the boy to run faster and faster to catch the balls that he threw, distracting Kal. It hadn’t been a stretch to make Kal hit into a side table full of the lit candles. The candles had toppled, one igniting the carpeting, another landing on the floor length drapes, instantly setting it afire.
Kal hadn’t immediately noticed, being too engrossed in their game. But after a few moments, he stopped, sniffing the air, with a cry of “Smoke!”
Lex had fairly oozed with concern, ushering Kal out of the house, telling him to run as fast as he could to the small cave he’d told Lex about just a week before in excitement, dreams of making it in his own tiny clubhouse filling the boy’s head. Lex swore to save their parents, but, once Kal was safely out of sight, Lex didn’t move. With the smoke alarms disabled – a point Lex was proud to have remembered – the fire began to rage, unchecked. Smoke billowed up the stairs, and Lex knew that it wouldn’t take long for it to overcome his mother and father, putting them into a deadly sleep.
Lex waited for as long as he could stand it, making sure his parents didn’t awaken and giving himself a fine coating of smoke and ash to collaborate his story that he’d roused from his sleep to find the house on fire. Then, feigning panic, he called 911 and reported the fire before slipping out of the house to the safety of the cool, clean air outside.
Now he watched as the mansion collapsed under its own weight as the fire ate away at the structure. Perfect. The place was a total loss. He could file for the insurance money in a few days and his parents hadn’t yet filed their updated will which would have made Kal an official heir to their estate. Lex was now in sole control of the Luthor fortune, and one of the richest people in the world, head of one of the largest corporations on Earth.
Still, as added insurance, he’d asked his friend and co-conspirator, Nigel St. John, to find a boy Kal’s age and height. In the morning, the charred remains would be found along with Lionel and Letitia’s burned corpses. It would be assumed that the entire family, save for Lex, had tragically perished in the blaze. In the meanwhile, Lex would ensure that Kal stayed well hidden. As much as he’d once wished he could dispose of the alien foundling, as Kal grew older and gained abilities none of them had ever imagined he would have, he saw more and more potential in the boy. His powers would be useful if Lex played his cards right. As it stood, the years of breaking Kal to his will had been paying off so far, mostly in petty thefts to see if Kal would do as he was told.
“Mr. Luthor? The paramedics are ready to check you over,” a portly policeman said to him, pulling Lex out of his thoughts.
“Oh…yes,” he replied distractedly, finding it hard to drag his eyes from the inferno. But after a moment, he forced himself to be led away to one of the ambulances, where a team of paramedics were ready to examine him.
He submitted obediently to the examination, hardly even aware of what was happening. That seemed to concern the paramedics and Lex was forced to make small talk with them so they wouldn’t think he was going into shock and want to take him to the hospital. Eventually, they declared him to be well enough not to need further treatment, though they did keep him on a tank of oxygen for a short time, just to be on the safe side.
It took a few hours of tedium, but eventually, Lex was released from the scene. He’d given his story to the police of how he’d woken from his slumber only to realize the house was on fire. He talked about his panic and confusion, how he’d called 911 thinking that his poor parents and little brother had already escaped. He bit back tears as he recounted how he’d gotten outside, only to realize that they had never left the house. But by then, the flames were too intense, preventing him from going back inside to save them.
They bought his story hook, line, and sinker. He even saw one of the policemen tear up. He knew, right then, he would get away with what he’d done. For one searing second, he wondered about his lack of guilt. After all, his parents had always loved him and treated him well. But business was business, and Lex had to do something before his soft-hearted parents destroyed Luthor Industries, and there was no way that they would have simply handed over control to him.
“Mr. Luthor? You can go now if you wish,” one of the officers gently told him. “The firefighters say this might take them all night to get under control. And, uh, on a personal note, I’m sorry for your losses.”
“Thank you. I think…I think I will leave. It’s…too painful to stay,” Lex said smoothly, looking away from the fire as though it hurt him greatly.
“Do you need a lift anywhere?” the officer offered, nodding toward the massive garage, which was nothing more than a wall of flame now.
“No, thank you. I’ll call someone.”
The policeman nodded. “We will be in touch.”
Lex nodded solemnly. “Thank you, Officer. I appreciate all you’ve done tonight.”
He shook the policeman’s hand, then turned away from burning wreckage of his childhood home. Then he started down the block, to the home of some old family friends. By then, the entire neighborhood was aware of what was going on. Gawkers lined the primly manicured lawns and pristine sidewalks, watching the mansion disintegrate before their very eyes. As Lex had expected, the Waltons were awake. They embraced him as soon as they saw him and offered up their home to him if he needed a place to stay. Lex thanked them graciously but declined the invitation gently. He already had a plan in mind – to go to Metropolis, to his father’s former office. The building had a penthouse, fully furnished and stocked with everything he could possibly need. His family had often made trips into Metropolis and stayed for days or weeks as his parents conducted their business.
Nigel had been awaiting his call. It took him only ten minutes to pick up Lex from the Walton’s doorstep. They rode in relative silence to where Kal was waiting for them. The boy was curled into a ball, his knees to his chest, shaking like a leaf. He looked up with tearful eyes once he heard Lex approach.
“Lex!” he cried out with obvious relief as he stood. He peered around behind Lex, confused. “Where…?” He swallowed hard and didn’t finish his question.
“They…they didn’t make it, Kal,” Lex said, letting his eyes mist with faux tears.
“W-what?” Kal gulped, going pale, tears spilling freely.
“I tried. But the fire…everyone tried so hard, Kal.”
“No…no!” Kal wailed as he flung himself into his brother’s arms. “They can’t be dead!”
“That’s not all, Kal,” Lex cautioned. “The firefighters…they said…the fire looked…intentional.” The lie rolled so easily off his tongue.
“But, but…it was an accident,” Kal insisted. “Did you tell them that I never meant for any of this to happen?”
“I did my best to protect you,” Lex continued. “They think…that you were caught inside when the house went up in flames.”
“But…but…”
“Shush now,” Lex said with forced care, stroking Kal’s black tresses. “I let them believe that. It was the only way to protect you. If they knew you’re alive, they’d haul you off to jail for the rest of your life.”
Kal’s eyes widened in terror and Lex knew his lies were working even better than he’d anticipated they would be.
“But…if I’m supposed to be dead…” Kal stammered, taking a staggered step backwards, and Lex could see him working things out in his mind.
“You’ll have to lay low for a while. Perhaps take on a new identity. Just until you aren’t recognizable as Kal Luthor anymore.”
“But…but…where will I go? How will I…?”
“Ssh,” Lex said gently, his finger pressed to his lips. “We’ll figure something out. For now, let’s get out of town before anyone can figure out that you aren’t dead.”
***
A week passed, then another, without any suspicion that Kal had survived the fire that had claimed the lives of Lionel and Letitia Luthor and destroyed their home. Officially, the fire was deemed an accident; a freak event where Letitia had left some candles burning which had then toppled over. Lex was pleased. He’d purposefully used an unsteady candle holder that night, to ensure that it would go over at the slightest touch. He kept the news away from Kal, keeping the boy secured in the penthouse, away from prying eyes. He even went so far as to fire the staff his father had hired to maintain the place during the times when they were not living in the expansive space. He blamed the move on his grief, citing the need to be left completely alone to process the deaths of his entire family. He stopped appearing in public and refused to talk to the press, garnering much more sympathy for the lone, suffering survivor of such a devastating tragedy.
In the meantime, he continued to groom Kal subtly. Without Lionel and Letitia around, Kal was dependent on Lex, allowing Lex to brainwash the young boy. Lex knew it would be a long, slow process, but Kal already trusted him more than anyone else on Earth, even more than he’d trusted their parents once Lex had divulged the “truth” about his adoption. Lex grinned to himself as he sat at what was now his desk in his office. Yes, that little detail of Kal’s mistrust and disassociation from their parents had come in handy. It had been just enough to convince Kal that the police were sure he’d intentionally set the blaze.
But keeping Kal hidden wasn’t enough. Eventually, he’d likely have to rejoin society. He couldn’t remain a prisoner in a high tower forever…or could he? Lex would have to rebrand Kal with a new identity, a new backstory. The question was…who and what would Kal become?
Lex sighed and stood, pushing his chair back from the desk. Restlessly, he paced to the large windows and looked out, down at the city below him. From this high up, it was impossible not to feel like a god surveying his kingdom. From here, no one could look down on him. Everyone had to look up at the tallest building in Metropolis. It was only befitting on his station in life – sole heir to billions and head of the biggest company in the country. But even that would need work and rebranding. He needed to break away from the business model his parents had employed. He needed to be bolder, more ruthless, and get his hands into more areas – science, technology, medicine, anything where he could gain a foothold and profit. Of course, he needed to bide his time a bit. It would be suspicious if he changed the company from Luthor Industries to Lexcorp before the dirt on his parents’ graves had even sprouted grass.
“The focus has to be on Kal right now,” he whispered to himself through gritted teeth. “He needs to be trained to only respond to whatever new identity I give him.”
It would need to be something mundane and completely unremarkable. But it couldn’t be common either. John Smiths tended to stick out in people’s minds just because of how ridiculously common of a name they had, as though they were making it up. On the flip side, the name couldn’t be too uncommon either. Extraordinary names grabbed people’s attention even more than the bland ones did. What he needed was a perfectly mediocre name for a kid who would learn to become a perfectly mediocre man.
Lex frowned as he turned and paced to the other side of the room. There, a set of double doors led out to the balcony. He went to them and opened them up, stepping outside. It felt good to be out in the sun after being cooped up in his office all day. He stood for a moment, just soaking up the sun. He grinned a private grin to himself. All of this was now his. He was lord and master of all he could see. And one day, the world would be his. Not through force, but through the power of his company. Although he had to admit to himself, if an opportunity presented itself for him to broach the world of politics, he might just take it up.
He let his eyes wander over his domain, and they lit upon a magazine he’d been idly thumbing through the day before. He’d set it down to take a phone call from his lawyer and had promptly forgotten the publication. Now he picked it back up, intending to throw it away. But he stopped cold as he caught sight of the two open pages before him. Each had a full-page advertisement on it. The first was for Clark bars. And the second was for Kent brand cigarettes.
“Hmmm,” Lex pondered, rubbing his chin with his free hand. “Clark…Kent. A perfectly forgettable name. Yes…yes. I think we have Kal’s new identity.”
To Be Continued…
