Making Plans

Conner practically bounced down the stairs next to his dad. He was so excited he barely remembered to put his feet on the steps. His dads were meeting with the Justice League. Just a few of them, true, but it was official and real and they were going to know that Dad Two wasn't the villain they thought he was.

"Conner," Clark warned with a long-suffering sigh contained in Kon's name.

With a guilty glance at his feet, Kon floated back to the ground. Then he left his father behind and ran down the rest of the stairs, leaping when he got to within five steps of each landing. He'd seen normal teenagers doing the same, and it was easier to stay grounded when he was moving fast. An odd combination, that. In normal Earth physics, the opposite was true. Kryptonian physics were definitely not Earth physics. Conner wondered if it was possible to figure out just what laws did govern Kryptonians on Earth.

The Fortress was no help – it knew Kryptonian physics all right... but only as far as they had existed on Krypton, which didn't turn out to be all that different to Earth. The effect of the yellow sun on former red sun inhabitants was something the Fortress had no clue about. Investigating the Kryptonian-Earthian physics was like going back to days of Sir Isaac and the apple. Trying to discover what the very basic building blocks were, not doing the more complex building upon blocks previously discovered.

Thinking about that kept Kon occupied long enough for his dad to make it a normal human's time down the stairs.

"Conner," Clark's voice this time was laced with disapproval.

"So I'm a teenager, sue me," Kon said defiantly. He'd kept to normal human speed and ability that time, really he had.

"This is serious," Clark said. "Not a game." He kept walking through the small lobby and out the door to the city.

Kon watched after his dad for a moment, then followed more soberly. He knew. He knew it was serious. Dad Two thought that his dad, Kon's grandfather, was the devil incarnate, and Conner knew it was true. His early life had been full of evil, as he and his brothers had been trained to kill, practicing against each other against their will. The revelation that it had been his grandfather that had been behind all that sent chills down his spine.

He wanted to destroy that evil, to make his own grandfather pay for the lives of his brothers. Truthfully, he wanted to kill his grandfather the way his grandfather had made him kill his brothers. He knew, though, that killing was wrong and he shouldn't want to. He'd killed enough, he didn't want to kill any more. As a hero-in-training, Kon fought with villains, and he intellectually realized that at some point he might have to kill one of them, but that would be in defense of others. Protecting people, innocent people who didn't know evil the way he'd known evil, was Conner's new life goal. He'd been created to destroy, but he would live to protect.

"I know, Dad," Kon said quietly as he caught up with Clark. "It's just... there's more."

As much as Conner wanted to take down his grandfather, Kon also wanted to see his Dad Two unvilified. He wanted his dads together, to be his parents and for him to live in a home with both of them, secure and loved forever. It was an impossible dream, yet Kon believed it could come true.

Already, his life had come so far, in ways that he and his brothers had never dreamed. He had a father who loved him. He had another one, too. People who loved him and cared for him and would protect him. People who mourned his brothers as much as he did, though they'd never met them. Conner didn't know by what miracle he had been the only clone to survive, and he felt guilty about it sometimes, but there was no point to dwelling upon it. There was only striving to make it all worth it.

Clark didn't verbally reply, but he put his arm around Kon's shoulders and they walked together for awhile like that; a father and son, together.

At the next block over, in an area where a sidewalk scaffolding from a construction zone blocked general sight and there were no people directly around them, Clark sped up to full zoom mode. He ran one quick circle around Conner so that Kon could see him and come up to a similar speed. It was a technique they'd perfected as they learned to work together over the last year. The first few times Clark had speeded up to full speed and taken off, Kon hadn't been able to tell where he'd gone. Kon was almost as fast as Clark, but Clark's reactions were incredible, honed by a lifetime of responding to emergencies. The circling gave Conner a chance to see and join Clark.

Together, they flew up the side of a building, along a path they knew were no security cameras, and they landed on a forgotten balcony to change into their uniforms.

When Conner had found out how many clothing caches Clark had hidden around the city, he realized there was another reason for Clark's standard garb of dorky suits – they all looked the same and nobody would notice when he was wearing something other than he'd had on earlier. Conner had pouted bitterly about having to restrict his variety of t-shirts and the cool jokes on most of them. When Kon had said that out loud, Clark just laughed – apparently for a teenager, appearing in different shirts throughout the same day wasn't all that surprising, for one reason or another. So Conner got to keep his daily wear different designs in the clothes catches and was much happier. His working uniform was the same as his dad's, the Kryptonian version of a policeman's outfit, with the symbol of the House of El. Now that he wasn't brainwashed and had a mind of his own, Kon privately thought it was a bit gaudy, but hey, whatever. He wasn't the one who had to look at it.

They were flying west when the sound of metal crunching and a cry caught their attention. A forklift had run into the load it was supposed to be lifting and had crumpled it, trapping two of the spotters. Superboy immediately dropped down to help, only noticing after he'd rescued the first man that his dad was a few seconds behind him.

After Superman got the second person to safety, he flew up in the sky without reassuring the people or waiting for any thanks. Kon blinked, then quickly made his own farewells and dashed to catch up.

"What's up, Dad?" Superboy asked as he pulled alongside.

"We have to get to the meeting." Superman grimaced as he saw a traffic accident. "Oh for heaven's sake, people, drive safer!" he muttered under his breath as he dove down to help.

A few more minutes of assistance, and they were on their way again.

"Dad, the meeting's not for another three hours! I thought we were going to patrol first."

Clark glanced wryly at him. "Kon, they're professional paranoids. I can almost guarantee that they're all going to be early. And I want to be there first."

"Three hours early?" Not that Conner didn't believe his dad, but...

"Lex probably had Mercy or Hope stationed out there as soon as Oracle sent us the coordinates yesterday."

Okay, Kon had to give his dad that one as a certainty. Dad Two totally would have. But the rest were heroes.

"I mostly want to be there before Hawkman shows up," Superman admitted. "If he and Lex are there on their own... there may not be any survivors if we get there afterwards."

Superboy sped up his flying and ignored a fire that the firemen were already taking care of.

They flew over roads leading east out of town. While they knew the universal coordinates, road directions were still easier to use when flying, going by the lines and patterns below. Clark sometimes would go into raptures over how the advent of readily available satellite images combined with road maps had been a big boon to him in figuring out where things were before flying out. Kon couldn't even imagine trying to find things without them. The slide rule of flying heroism.

When they came to the smaller roads that weren't as easily seen from above, Kon let his dad lead. He wasn't sure what Clark was using for guidance, but he seemed to know his way. Slide rules were apparently good for flying blind. They were roughly a couple hundred miles out from Metropolis at this point. That was... probably a few hours drive for normal people. Conner wasn't quite sure, not being all that familiar with car speeds and driving times.

"Have you been here before?" Kon asked, curious.

Clark shook his head. "Oracle picked the location. I checked, it's a private resort in the woods, doesn't seem to be connected to any of us. Haven't been there, though. I almost went by last night," he admitted wryly, "but I didn't want to interfere with whatever patrols Hope or Mercy were doing."

Conner closed his mouth on a remark about who was a professional paranoid. Though he supposed in Superman's line of work, it was to be expected. After all, Lex ambushed him on regular occasions, not to mention the other villains. Dad Two had even told Kon about some of his successes attacking Superman, barely containing his satisfaction and glee while Conner was hard put to keep his horror repressed. Kon had weird parents.

They landed by a nice lodge-type building. It was single story, with ramps leading to the doors; a rustic look combined with modern efficiency.

"Hi, Hope," Kon greeted the pretty blonde bodyguard. She probably wouldn't thank him for using those terms when thinking of her. Then again, she was the one who had said her breasts were a useful distraction to attackers.

"Superboy," she greeted him coolly in return, stepping from the side of the building where she'd been mostly hidden. She nodded at his dad. "Superman."

"Hope," Clark returned the coolness.

Conner rolled his eyes. Much more of this and the weather would be in the Arctic.

"Lex is on his way," Hope informed them. "Be warned, I will tolerate no tricks."

Conner's, "It's us, Hope," ran over Clark's serious agreement.

Hope shook her head in disapproval at Kon, then turned to continue her patrol around the building.

Clark went into the building without saying anything else. Kon stayed out for an extra minute, looking at the cedar and elm trees around them and admiring the setup. They weren't all that far out from a town, yet from here, one didn't know it. There were birds in the trees, a constant background sound that Conner heartily approved of. He liked this even more than the farm. No cows, for one thing.

Eventually, Conner went in, only to stop short with his feet barely over the threshold.

"Wonder Woman?" he asked incredulously, though she was very clearly standing there talking to Clark.

"Superboy." She greeted him with a genuine smile.

Kon had always liked her, from the moment he'd first been surrounded by super heroes all pissed off because he'd tried to kill his dad. Wonder Woman had been one of the few not judging him. His dad, of course, had been the main one, and Kon's focus had been on him, not the others, yet he'd never forgotten the others.

He'd liked her even better when he found out Wonder Woman liked Lex. That was a rarity among the heroes. Conner cleared his throat. "Hi. Um, aren't you a bit early?"

"I wanted to get here before Hawkman."

Kon stared at her in disbelief, then he turned to face his father. Superman spread out his hands in a "I didn't set this up" gesture.

"Also, I was putting up the defenses." Wonder Woman gestured around them where there was nothing.

Almost nothing. Conner blinked a few times, turned his head to one side, and finally saw a faint shimmering in the air. Great. Magic. He hated magic, it made no sense. "Is Lex going to be okay with that?"

Wonder Woman smiled. "I cleared it with Hope first."

"Luthor likes magic," Superman sighed, sitting down in one of the low leather chairs. "He was even going out with a sorceress for awhile. Personally, I would have thought it would make him even more paranoid, something he can't control or predict."

Kon had been wondering the same, yet hearing it spoken made it snap into place. "Another mystery to explore..."

Clark glanced up, eyes narrowing. "He does like his mysteries," he agreed, an old bitterness in the words.

His dads really had a lot of history to work through. Conner was frankly surprised they'd gotten as far as they had so quickly. Though he was happy they had. It had seemed like forever while it was happening. It still was, to a certain extent. They were together, but awkward moments made up more of the time than real connections. Conner could see every time Lex bit back sharp remarks and the way that Clark tiptoed around Lex just made Lex madder. There were the heated looks they didn't try and hide now, but there was also silence and recriminations. Still, it was more than they'd had before, and Kon was hopeful.

Wonder Woman broke the lengthening pause. "Technically, the protections are religious. So metaphysical, yes, but not magical."

Conner and Clark both stared at her, though Conner was the one to ask. "What's the difference?"

She laughed, a light chiming sound that was nothing like Cassie's hardy rich tones. She ran the fingers of her right hand over her left bracer, then dropped her hand down to her whip. "Magic generally is a type of science – if the properties are correct, and the conduits of the right material, you go through the steps and something occurs. In religion, though, I'm not the one performing the acts directly. Instead, I ask the Goddesses if something can be done, and if they agree, then it can happen. Sometimes, they ask first and I am the conduit. However, it's not always the same."

In other words, religion was gobbly gook. The first part, though... "Magic is science?" Conner hadn't ever thought about it that way. But if there were rules and properties... "Huh."

"Oh, now you've done it," Clark said with resignation, the words directed to Wonder Woman.

She merely looked serene. "Once things are not as mysterious, they are no longer as frightening. Of course, the channels that magic can take are different depending on what properties have come to Earth and who can interact with them. Now that science is well-established, both magic and the gods are starting to return."

Superman straightened up in the seat where he'd been lounging. "I don't like the sound of that."

Wonder Woman shrugged. "Haven't you wondered 'why now?' Why there are so many mutations, so many differences, so many things the world had never heard of before?" She casually leaned against an empty wall. "The world is returning to how it used to be, though things will not be the same as before. Humans have evolved and grown, and the response to such things will likewise not be the same." Her fingers went around her bracers again, slipping over the metal with a determined movement. "Don't worry, though, there will be time."

"Time for what?" Superman asked, his gaze intent.

"Time to adjust, time for them to slip in slowly, time for people to learn along the way." She gestured between herself and Superman. "We are the first generation." The motion of her hand then singled out Kon. "They are the next. There will be more following. Earth and the universe adjusts, and so do their children."

"You don't normally..." Superman hesitated over a word, finally choosing with a slight frown that suggested it wasn't ideal but would do. "... discuss things like this."

Diana pushed off the wall and paced around the room.

Conner noticed that there was a lot of space for her movement. From what he'd seen and the artificial memories he had, most sitting rooms were crowded with furniture, tastefully designed, but not sparse like this. Normal rooms gave options of places to sit, with tables and knickknacks everywhere. This room was simultaneously luxurious and bare. The leather seats were wide and comfortable, speaking of a richness Kon only saw in Dad Two's office, but there weren't that many of the chairs, and there were wide open spaces between. The walls had forest and animal paintings, but they were placed high up, leaving the walls where a person would stand free and clear. There wasn't even the all-important coffee table in the middle, just a few lamp tables near the chairs.

A place designed for fighting? There would certainly be the space for it. He narrowed his eyes, picturing a fight with Hawkman and Mercy within the room. Maneuvering space for both of them, yet they would probably contained enough for the others to intervene.

"Times change, people change." Diana's hands restlessly moved around her body, not settling. "In the Amazonian culture, I am no longer a maiden, and that means a shift in my learning and my duties. A warrior will not be all that I am."

Clark snorted softly. "It never was."

Diana stopped pacing and they shared a glance together; a look full of memories and experiences, past times that Kon knew nothing about. The basics might be in Legion histories, but what the two heroes had been through together would always be only theirs alone.

History and memory. Two things Conner didn't have a lot of on his own. He was trying, but he felt the weight of his youth and his inexperience. A couple of years out of the tubes, and barely a year in the real world wasn't a lot to draw upon. Every moment he was in now had to count for the fourteen he'd not really lived.

The moment passed and Diana settled into a recliner diagonal to the door that faced the outside windows. From that spot, she had a direct line to the door and could see the rest of the room easily. She tucked her feet under her and relaxed, looking very like Cassie as she did so.

"So," Conner perched on a chair arm on the opposite diagonal. He could see anybody coming in the door and Diana easily, but Clark was behind him and others could get so. He wasn't worried about his back with Dad behind him. "Gods. Is Zeus really Cassie's dad? What's he like? Outside the myths, that is?"

With a laugh, Diana answered, and the talk turned to myths and realities. Deep in the discussion, minutes ticked by, not unnoticed, but at least not painfully slow.

At one point, Conner caught a wistful look on Clark's face. While continuing to listen to Diana, Kon thought about it. It looked like Dad's Lex-thinking expression. But what did Dad Two have to do with Amazons?

At the next opportunity, he asked a little hesitantly, still not sure why it would matter. "Should we wait for DT to talk about this? I mean, it's not business, but..."

"DT?" Diana raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, Lex. Lex, I meant." Kon hadn't actually thought up a good secondary explanation for the DT yet. He hoped Wonder Woman wouldn't ask.

"Everybody needs a nickname," she remarked mildly. Then she grinned. "I assure you, Lex Luthor and I have already had this discussion and many, many more like it. Any time I'm near, he asks me about the mythologies. Unlike most scholars, he doesn't mind learning that most of what he knows is wrong."

At that, Clark snorted, almost but not quite muttering something under his breath. An aborted thought before it became actual words.

The wistful look had, though, gone away. At least Kon had done something right there.

The sound of steps on the wooden ramp and porch outside caught everybody's attention and they turned to look at the door. With all the wood construction on this place, it would be hard to sneak up without flying powers. Kon glanced at the clock on the wall. Still two hours early.

The door opened and in came Hope, with Lex behind her and Mercy bringing up the end of the train.

Looked like Dad had been right. Kon rolled his eyes. Two hours before the meeting... If they weren't there, what was Dad Two going to have done? Played poker with Hope and Mercy?

All three of the newcomers were scanning the room, ticking off the people inside and visually assessing the hazards. None of them, not even Lex, acknowledged Conner by so much as an extra nod or a pause when seeing him. Instead, Hope peeled off to an inside door, opening it and stepping inside the corridor that presumably lead to the rest of the lodge. She didn't go any further, though, just stood there assessing it as well, before turning back to the room, angling so she could also see down the hall.

Lex took a step forward and to one side, removing himself from the direct line of the door, while his attention flicked back over the room again and then settled on the people. There was the brief pause of eye contact that Kon had been missing, though Lex didn't maintain it long before he nodded to Wonder Woman then focused on Superman. His expression was still and careful, not showing a lot of anything.

After the scan through the room, Mercy also stepped to one side, on the opposite side of the door from Lex. After assessing Kon and Superman, her gaze went to Wonder Woman.

All is clear.

Greetings.

Conner blinked. He had caught the dialog but not in sound. In sound, Lex was saying "Superman," with dripping scorn. Conner almost turned around to see Dad's expression, but the more interesting expressions to watch right now were between Mercy and Wonder Woman.

How have you been? That from Wonder Woman.

Did you set protection? Mercy ignored Wonder Woman's question and responded with something else.

At least Kon thought it was something else. Wonder Woman's question could have been, 'How is the situation' but he was pretty sure it was personal. He wasn't quite so sure about Mercy's question about 'protection' either – it was strange, not something he and his brothers had discussed much. The scientists hadn't let them talk to each other, they'd been punished for speaking outside the trials, though they'd done so anyhow. Instead of speaking, they had relied more on expression, focus, a twitch of a hand, a slight turn of the body, a dip of an eyelid. They could 'talk' quite well to each other without speech. All of them did it, and they had done it every day.

Conner hadn't seen its like since the rest of the clones were killed. Not until today.

I did. X..y and X..y are both interested in this meeting. Are you well?

Kon blinked several times. He hadn't picked up the names at all. He was sure they were names, and names both were familiar with, but whatever they were, they were outside his frame of reference. He was concentrating so hard on trying to figure out what Diana and Mercy were saying that he completely ignored whatever Clark and Lex were talking about. Their exchanges were white noise to the focus Conner had on the silent conversation.

Mercy's lips twitched in what might have been a smile. A pre-smile. Or something. I survive. What about--- Somebody listens.

The conversation stopped abruptly and both women turned to face him, expressions now still and silent, not saying anything at all.

Conner kept blinking. He looked from Mercy to Wonder Woman to Mercy to... "Oh my God..." he breathed. "Mercy's an Amazon!"

There was a sudden collective silence within the room, a stillness that went deeper than people not talking and became that of the moment before a fight, where everything was readied and waiting for the next moment.

Lex moved so he was slightly in front of Mercy, as if he was protecting her. His eyes were molten lead, boiling with anger and all directed towards Kon.

Kon flinched.

Hope cleared her throat, "Just because somebody has black hair and blue eyes, doesn't automatically make them an Amazon."

With a slightly guilty relief, Kon stopped looking at the angry eyes of his father and took another look at Mercy and then at Diana. He hadn't even noticed it originally, but they did really look a lot alike. More than just the hair and eyes. There was the high cheek bones, a similar small nose, ear swirls, angles of the eye creases... Woah. Mercy had slightly darker skin, but other than the short hair cut on Mercy versus the long hair on Wonder Woman, there weren't a lot of difference. They could be sisters, though not clones. How had nobody noticed this before? Kon looked back to Lex, who hadn't relaxed an inch and his fury saturated the air.

"Um..." Conner faltered. Under Lex's intense disapproval, Kon desperately wanted to back down, to retreat and do something, anything to just make Dad Two less angry at him. Instead, he felt himself floating upwards, towards the ceiling before he caught himself. By the time he recovered, he was backed into the far wall, tucked into a corner of the ceiling. Below him, his first dad was folding his arms across his chest in classic Superman pose, but Conner couldn't tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Superman was either preparing a defense of Kon or he was another person against him. Kon gulped, pretty sure nobody was on his side. He'd really screwed up.

"Was." A cool, crisp, unemotional voice broke into the newly gathering silence. All eyes went to Mercy, who looked just as calm as her voice. She took a step forward so that Lex was no longer in front of her. "The appropriate verb in that sentence should have been, "was an Amazon"."

Hope turned to gape at her, quickly controlling the expression and smothering out her surprise, but her first reaction couldn't be undone. Likewise, Superman blinked and dropped his pose, his startled glance going to Wonder Woman.

Wonder Woman sighed.

Mercy shrugged. "One way or the other, this was the time. That one," she nodded up in Conner's direction, "reads our silent language, and speaks it too, though with a strange accent." She looked at him with calculation on her face. Then she seemed to figure it out. "Your brothers. In the laboratory. That's how you communicated."

Mercy was the first person other than his two dads who called his siblings his brothers. Most everybody else, if they referred to them at all, said, "the clones" or "the others". Conner made himself float back to the ground. Experimentally, he tried to talk to Mercy. You understand?

She nodded. Amazons are sisters too, and we were captives long ago.

Diana nodded right after Mercy, the two gestures almost equal and rather eerie. We do not forget. "But we should speak out loud."

"How does one get to be an ex-Amazon?" Conner wondered. He was very carefully not looking at either of his dads. Dad Two was still silently furious, only restrained by Mercy's touch to his arm. Dad One... Conner couldn't see him now without turning, and he didn't want to.

Mercy grinned without humor. "I was exiled when I was thirteen for killing my sisters."

Diana rolled her eyes. "You chose exile, and it was a training accident."

"Thirteen?" Clark asked with disbelief and disapproval laced through his voice.

Conner edged sideways so he could see Dad. This wasn't going to be everybody dog-piling on him, apparently. He breathed out a small sigh of relief. A sharp glare from Dad Two had him stiffening in apprehension again. There might be another conversation going on, but he'd not been forgotten.

"Romeo and Juliet were getting married and killed at thirteen," Diana replied impatiently.

Clark cleared his throat. "Actually, Romeo's age wasn't specified, and Juliet was sixteen in the original poem – Shakespeare lowered her age for the play. Probably so that young boys could play the role."

"Thank you, oh literary major," Diana said dryly. "The point I was making is that Amazons are a very old culture, and our people are trained much younger than yours. You people waste half your youth for nothing; it seems more of a way for so called "adults" to keep privileges to themselves more than protecting the young. I left the island when I was sixteen, and I was fully vested in all the Maiden's rites. The elders would not have ordered exile for her punishment, but neither would they deny it when it was chosen."

"You take all the fun out of a tragic tale," Mercy retorted. "I chose exile because I wasn't a Goody Two-Shoes, nor did I want to be. This world suits me better."

"So how many Amazonian exiles are there?" Superman asked warily.

"None that you know of," Diana archly replied.

"So if thirteen and sixteen are okay," Kon couldn't help interjecting, "Why am I still a kid at fourteen?"

"A year old. And still very, very much a child," Lex spoke for the first time, his anger not having diminished at all.

Maybe bringing their attention back to him wasn't such a hot idea.

"You are a destructive menace. Perhaps not to yourself, but definitely to all those around you. Do you even think before you speak?" Scorn dripped from the last sentence. Lex's voice didn't raise, and his volume didn't get louder. It just made his words all the more biting.

Kon cringed, feeling each word

"Mercy," Lex said coldly, "Deal with him."

Mercy's grin was scary. Dad Two's anger was scarier. Conner gulped.

"Do you, Superboy, know what you have done to me?" Mercy asked, a dark eyebrow raising up and taking aim at him.

Done to Mercy? Conner was confused.

"By revealing that which was held close, you've possibly lost me my best friend in this land," Mercy nodded towards an impassive Hope, "who now knows I've been lying to her for over a decade. You could have cost me my employment, and even my life, had not Lex already been aware of my origins."

He didn't lose his grip on gravity, but it was a near thing. "I'm sorry," Kon whispered.

Hope snorted. "That is what domestic abusers say, and honestly think they mean, right before they go back to beating those they love."

Mercy and Diana both nodded at Hope's remark and even Clark didn't look convinced at Conner's apology. But he'd meant it!

"You have apologized before for other slips. Yet you do not curb your tongue upon the next occasion." Mercy continued. "Beyond me, you have caused Superman to doubt his best ally, Wonder Woman, and to question all Amazons. If you had blurted out what you did when Oracle or Hawkman were here, the rift would be greater and the doubt for all we do would have been turned into a conspiracy. Lionel Luthor would no longer exist and they would think all that we were here to tell to be a deeper plot by Lex Luthor, that no Amazon could be trusted again, despite all that Wonder Woman has done. It would have driven a stronger wedge than any Lionel could have imagined between our groups."

Conner felt a little dazed. "But you said this was a good group to reveal it to!"

"You little twerp!" Mercy took a few rapid steps forward and grabbed his ear, twisting it.

"Ow! Owowowo..." Conner was abruptly grounded with the pain. He rose up on his toes to escape it but couldn't leave the ground.

"Listen! Do you want to get your friends killed?" Mercy hissed in his face, almost spitting. "You've got a scholarship meeting coming up... if you see somebody you know there, are you going to give them away? You won't say anything, but you'll smirk at each other and you'll go up and greet each other with laughs in your voices, and every. single. person. who sees you will know something is up. Every other kid, every parent, every reporter, every criminal."

Superman broke in, asking, "Criminal?"

Conner couldn't see anything but Mercy in his face, the twist on his ear keeping him in his place, but he heard Dad Two's voice, now slightly mocking. "You'll have to ask my counterpart in Gotham about that. Either his background checks aren't as good as mine, or he doesn't care that several of the Wayne Scholarship recipients have less than legal parents or guardians."

"Goddamn it..." Clark growled.

"Games," Diana sighed. "I hate games. At least those type."

"I can't say I'm too happy at this one myself either," Lex echoed Clark's growl. "I'll be watching."

Mercy paused while they were talking, then resumed, with an extra pinch bringing fresh pain that brought Kon's attention back to her. "If those who watched and saw don't do something right then, then the next day, or the day after. And perhaps not directly to your friend, but to their dad, their mom, their sibling... somebody without powers, without training. Somebody who knows nothing, but just is in the way or a way to somebody else."

The pain was adding another layer to Mercy's words, as minor as it was. Tim's parents were still alive, and it was a real concern. "Tim's careful!"

"And you are not!!" Mercy shoved Conner up against the wall, not losing her grip on his ear. "I didn't say his name!"

Conner cringed as much as he was able to while someone was holding him up against the wall with one hand on his ear. "I'm sorry!"

Mercy snorted in disbelief, reminding Conner just how many times he'd said that before.

"Permission to have this idiot for the upcoming week," she requested in a flat angry tone. Conner couldn't look away from the icy stare.

"Granted," Lex said in tones that matched Mercy's stare. "Hope, you will also work with them. I want him taught, and I want it done before that meeting."

"You have plans," Hope said, not protesting, but simply stating.

"I will change them," Lex said. "I will stay in Lex Corp tower and people will come to me, for as long as it takes the both of you to knock some sense into that one."

The non-use of Kon's name was perhaps the most hurtful thing about it; as if Conner wasn't really a person anymore. And that from his Dad Two. Kon couldn't help the sound of protest out of his throat, and he turned to look involuntarily at the one person left who still loved him.

Superman's arms were folded across his chest and there was a frown upon his face. Kon knew his dad wouldn't let anything happen to him and he started to relax.

"I agree," Clark said. His eyes were shaded green, not the blue of the superhero, but his voice was just as inflexible as Kon's other dad.

"When you're done with him," Wonder Woman said dryly, "Can you train the other Teen Titans?"

"When Mercy and Hope are done with him," Lex replied, "he will train the others. They look to him, and he will teach them. Either that, or he will kill them. There are no other paths."

KN-5's protest this time was silent but even more heartfelt. He'd killed his brothers before. He never would again.

Then learn. Mercy replied just as silently, yet inflexible and solid.

She let him go. Gravity held Kon for a moment, dropping him downwards before it released him completely and he floated instead. He caught himself before he went up too far and returned to the middle ground.

"Dad?" Conner said, not believing still.

Clark sighed. "Kon, we love you, but you still have a few miles to go in what's appropriate behavior and what's not. Sometimes, I think you think this is all a dream, a fantasy that you made up while captive and all this is not real and you can do what you want. It is real, and we love you and won't ever let you go. But part of life is discipline, and judgment, and learning. You love to learn... but you don't seem to want to apply the discipline or judgment."

There had been more than enough of discipline in the lab.

Discipline is neither good nor bad. It just is. Wonder Woman unsaid serenely.

"Very useful, Diana," Mercy snorted. "Look, twerp..." she paused and then she shook her head. "No. If you don't get it yet, talking at you won't change that. You need practical and you need example." She looked at him grimly. "You'll get both this week."

There was another collective silence, with all eyes on Kon and Kon afraid to say anything.

"Alright," Lex broke the silence. "Now that we have that taken care of... Mercy."

Mercy left Kon and turned to face Lex, her posture partially angled from Kon but he could still see her face. "Yes, sir?" She looked ready for action, for another assignment.

"Show me your hands."

Conner blinked. He blinked again when instead of a confused expression similar to his or Wonder Woman's, Mercy's face read in the silent language a clear and distinct, Oh shit.

She held her hands out, palms up.

"Other direction," Lex said dryly.

With a sigh, Mercy flipped her hands palms down. Everybody stared at her hands. Somewhat meaty, they were working hands, made for gripping and grappling and strength, not elegance alone. Mercy apparently didn't totally distain all the female trappings, though in her own gothy way with black fingernail polish and a single cool ring, silver-looking, mostly smooth around her left ring finger with a black stone set in a cross-hatch pattern.

Lex made a disgusted sound. "Do I even need to ask what's mixed inside that polish?"

Conner gave it another look. The black was glittering. Glittering faintly with... green? He finally connected all the dots and with an involuntary eeping sound, he darted backwards, as far from Mercy as he could get, coming up next to his dad.

Clark gave Kon a wry look but didn't say anything.

"Hope," Lex said grimly, "hold out your hands."

Her face perfectly expressionless, Hope held them out, showing that she had the same polish on.

"What the bloody hell were you two thinking?!" Lex exploded. It was a more volatile anger than his freezing distain at Kon. This was a volcano blowing up, heat and lava burning through, with sound and fury and a rage barely contained. "We're in a meeting with Superman and Superboy and you're wearing kryptonite polish? That they don't even notice until you twist his ear? What possible good did you think it might be?!"

"We could rake the nails over his eyes," Hope said matter of factly. "It would buy you some time."

Superman winced. So did Conner.

"With Wonder Woman and Hawkman here too?" Lex shook his head. "I let you have the bullets because they are shielded while inside the gun. I occasionally let you practice with other weapons because we have to be prepared in case of an emergency. This..." Lex seemed to struggle for words for a moment before finishing with, "this is beyond ridiculous. Have you forgotten what kryptonite is? It's dangerous!"

Mercy and Hope didn't shrug, but it was a near thing. Their body language read complete indifference to Lex's words, though they were focused on him.

"Damn you both," Lex said tightly. He pulled out his cell phone and turned it on.

Wonder Woman quickly made a gesture in the air and the faint sparkles around the room disappeared.

Lex shook his head and then punched a speed dial. "Justice. I want Mercy and Hope's access to kryptonite cut off. Both the raw materials and the working labs. Unless I am with them, they are no longer allowed in any Stage One areas."

Mercy and Hope made identical protesting sounds. It sounded very similar to Conner's earlier. Cautiously, Kon looked away from the scene for a moment to his Dad. Superman didn't notice, his attention focused on Lex with an expression very like hope on his face, his hands clenched and his feet hovering an inch above the ground.

"Also, they're both to have full cellular workups done tonight. Arrange for the technicians to stay late and make this their highest priority." Lex didn't look away from his bodyguards, splitting his attention equally between them despite their separate positions in the room. It was a neat trick and Conner wished he could do it.

Lex nodded to something Justice said, and Kon belatedly sharpened his hearing. "... Lab Seven in the Tower." Justice's deep voice chuckled over the phone connection, "I told them the bracelets were a bad idea."

"Bracelets?" Lex's anger seemed to have reached a plateau and his voice became a solid growl. "I want you to go through their workshops and their rooms and confiscate any and all items they might have made. You personally. I don't care what else you're doing. This is your highest priority for the day and tomorrow as well if needed. Take what resources you need to neutralize any traps they might have. If you need them present, you'll have them and me as well, but I want their rooms cleared tonight!"

Lex angrily punched off the call and he addressed his minions directly. "I would twist your ears if I thought it would help! Idiots! You two are supposed to be the brightest and the best! What were you thinking!?"

There was no answer, not that Conner thought any answer would be accepted anyhow. It was amazing how similar his own position earlier had been to theirs now.

"Kryptonite kills!" Lex shouted, his pale face reddening. "It mutates, it disrupts cells, it changes your life! What good do you think you'll do me dead?" He started to pace against the outer wall, his body still angled towards theirs. Like a swimming side stroke, only walking, and much more violently.

"I know you think you'll get a mutation that might help. Do I really have to quote you the odds? The statistics? How many people get cancer or an uncontrollable jitter? That even if it's something that you can control, how it destroys people? The cat's paw effect will never, ever, give you one thing alone, and it's the second part that rips people apart. How good of a bodyguard will you be if you can't be near me anymore? What if somebody targets me while you're adjusting? What if your mutation is not something that can be hidden? What do you think my dad will do if he finds out what you have done?"

Lex's pacing halted abruptly and his eyes narrowed, his gaze going to first one then the other. "Did somebody say something to you that pushed you into this casual attitude?"

For the first time, Mercy and Hope looked away from Lex, exchanging startled glances.

"Idiots," Lex said, but much softer. "And over what? Protecting me from Superman?" He snorted and then turned his back to the room, walking to one of the windows and staring outside. "When we get back, you'll both report to Justice. And then you'll each write me a twenty-page report on case studies of adverse kryptonite affects, enumerating in detail."

"Yes, sir." First Hope, then Mercy acknowledged their orders.

Lex waited a moment before accepting it. He looked at Conner, "This does not negate your own stupidity. You will still report next week for training, and you will learn the dangers. You are a hazard, and they are still the best, despite other mistakes. Theirs was from an excess of desire to protect. Yours is pure carelessness and a failure to acknowledge reality."

"I know reality!" Kon protested.

Lex shook his head. "You know evil, and horrors most people have never even dreamed of. This gives you a weight of experience, but it's not the same. I agree with Superman on that." He raised his right hand to waist level and sliced it through the air, palm down. "This discussion is done. Until you learn, you'll just keep repeating the same. We will talk about it tomorrow at your first session."

His gaze moved to the left of Conner. "Do you have anything to say?" The words and voice both were a challenge to Superman.

Clark moved from his position next to Kon, taking several rapid steps forward until he was directly in front of Lex, in his personal space. Lex didn't move his body, but he tilted his head up to keep meeting Superman's eyes.

"You are magnificent," Clark breathed, then leaned in and kissed Lex.

Lex stiffened, his whole body registering outrage and denial. Clark didn't push the kiss and lifted his head with the rejection, but he didn't move away. One of his hands cautiously touched the side of Lex's face with the gentlest of contacts.

"If you think I said that just for your approval..." Lex bit out furiously, his words tight and clipped. Yet he didn't move back and he didn't push Clark's hand away.

"No," Clark said, low and tender. "No, I don't think that." He kissed Lex again, moving slowly in and giving Lex opportunity to pull away if he wanted to.

Instead, Lex allowed it, his body relaxing in millimeters until he was returning the kiss.

The hand that Clark had on Lex's face caressed gently as he reached to hold Lex, big hand on the back of Lex's neck, fingers spanning upward to cradle Lex's head.

Mercy cleared her throat, "I'm going to go check the perimeter."

"I'll come with you," Diana stood up from the recliner quickly, without looking like she was hurrying. "I have to reset the protections."

"I'll check the interior," Hope said, edging back towards the door.

Kon didn't care; he was enjoying watching his parents together. Lex had finally reached a hand up to return the gesture, but he didn't wrap it all the way around, simply leaving his fingers resting on the edge of Superman's cape. Not even really touching Clark directly except through the kiss.

"Superboy." Hope's summons was low but definitive. When Kon looked over to her, she gestured for him to follow her.

He did so, with a final look back. When the door closed behind them, he demanded, "What?"

Hope looked at him in exasperation. "Privacy. We're giving them some privacy." She started off down the corridor, making sure he was following and checking each of the side doors as they walked.

Conner blinked. "Why?"

Hope opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, then shook her head. "Because that's polite. People do intimate things between each other without an audience."

"They started it," Conner pointed out.

"Superman started it," Hope replied. "And if we didn't leave, Lex would stop it. Because it's too revealing. Particularly with others watching."

"We all know they're together!"

They reached the end of the corridor and were at another exit to the outside. Hope opened it and went out. She observed with some acidity, "You know, most teenagers don't like watching their parents kiss."

Kon snorted as he followed. "I worked hard to get them together! Why would I be upset at them making out now? I think it's great and they need to do it more."

With a sigh, Hope threw her hands up.

Outside on the patio, twirling her lasso, Diana chuckled. "He has a point."

"He has his own point," Mercy said. "That's not the whole of everything." The ex-Amazon was sitting on the railing, with one leg drawn up and her hand resting lightly on her gun. The black fingernail polish glittered in the sunlight.

Conner frowned. "What? Is it too weird? Am I too different? Would that stand out as an odd thing for a human teenager?" He didn't worry about it too often, but sometimes it didn't seem like he fit in well enough.

The loop that Wonder Woman was creating on her lasso spiraled wider as she twirled the rope higher. "It's odd, but it's not too different. There is no 'normal'. People talk about it, but it doesn't really exist. There is a range of patterns and behaviors based on cultural training and upbringing, but it differs between individuals and their parents, their social situations, their natural inclinations, and experiences. Normal is a myth."

The rope was now impossibly long and the loop expanding to wider than the building. Kon stared at it. Cassie's lasso didn't do that. At least, he hadn't seen it do that.

"Your..." Wonder Woman paused briefly in a hunt for a word. "...indifference to social niceties can easily be interpreted by people as part of being a nerd."

"Hey!" It was true that Kon hadn't been out in the world for very long, but he knew that 'nerd' was an insult. Associated with thick glasses and wimpy kids with no sense of coolness or fun. Rather like his dad's normal persona, actually. And like some of the scholarship kids. Conner felt a little pang of guilt for applying the label himself to others.

"Smart, slightly removed from the world, concentrating too hard on other things like math or physics to notice that a social boundary has been overstepped." Wonder Woman continued to play out the line.

"Or was even there to start with." Mercy squinted up. "How high are you going to make that?"

"As high as they tell me to. We're containing more than just traditional surveillance but also the force of emotions and feelings that can be sensed. I was originally thinking of the fireworks when Hawkman and Luthor meet, but I think I'd better also adjust it for Superman and Luthor."

Hope chuckled. Mercy rolled her eyes.

"I was worse than you when I first came out from the island," Wonder Woman said, her words directed again to Conner. "Despite all my studies of the worlds outside, I was unprepared for the reality. I could fight, and I could work, but they all saw I was different. Steve protected me and explained what he could. Fitting in, though, was beyond both of us. The war distracted people from looking too close, but more even than that was that people are used to some oddities. If something's not right, there's an explanation – "that's just Diana" – it's not because of aliens or mythologies. It's something different, but not a thing to be concerned about."

"If," Mercy put in, "you're in a big city or a mixed population where people were all raised differently, others are used to there being some differences. The mixing bowl mixes all sorts and differences are normal. If you tried to insert yourself into a tight community where beliefs and patterns of behavior are rigidly conformed to, it would be more noticeable and feared."

Hope made an inquiring sound in her throat, soft enough to be ignored if nobody wanted to acknowledge it.

Mercy stared at Hope, a wistful expression flitting across her face. My sister... will you forgive?

Conner was suddenly overwhelmed in memories of the arena after one or the other of them would come out with blood on their hands and the knowledge of what they had done. The words were identical, the feelings unmistakable. They had betrayed a brother. Conditioning or no conditioning, it was still on their hands. Would they still be accepted by the others? Where did the lines get drawn? If ever. How far would siblings forgive and still love?

Hope didn't react to the words, and Conner realized that she couldn't hear them, didn't know what Mercy had said, didn't know how she felt. She wasn't an Amazon. Conner really had torn something apart with his careless words, and he didn't know if he could ever put it right.

"After the island," Mercy finally said out loud, "I went to Gotham. They didn't care about social differences there. They only cared about power and how well you could fight. When it got too hot for me there, I came to Metropolis. The Slums was the place that felt the most like home by then. Accepted for ability and not judged by an external standard. I could live there, accepted for what I could do, not defined by what I wasn't. Eventually, Lex brought me out, and he protects me, prevents any from seeing too close." She paused at the end, looking but not looking at Hope.

"I'm glad you made it," Hope spoke softly, the tone uncertain.

A word Wonder Woman spoke jerked all three of their attention to her and off anything else. The word was something that Conner couldn't wrap his mind around, and he didn't think he'd be able to duplicate the sound. It was definitely and recognizably a word, yes, but nothing he'd heard before.

Blue light ran up the lasso and jumped off the top of the spiral, flowing out and down, encasing them and the house in a fading dome of sparks.

A second word shot a ray of orange up the same path, the light interacting with the fading remnants of the other. A third ray was green, then something dark that somehow still glowed. The power dropped down like mist from a waterfall, their faces upturned to capture it.

Conner shivered, feeling the weight of something beyond him and an attention that was not precisely friendly. Tolerance but wariness. KN-5 was watched – not trusted, but not rejected. Yet. He gulped, shrinking to the side of the house, but that didn't help as it felt the same. Even the ground was absorbing the power, dirt and grass alike.

"That was showy," Mercy remarked calmly.

Wonder Woman shrugged, gathering her lasso back to herself. The lasso was a normal size and color now, though Conner eyed it mistrustfully. "The Goddesses wanted their concern to be noticed."

"Is it safe?" Kon blurted out.

"It is safe." Unexpectedly, it was Hope who answered, her face turned up to the sky and her features content. Mercy watched her with the same wistfulness as before, but this time also with a touch of hope.

Diana hooked the lasso back on her belt.

A sudden thought struck Conner. "Say, does that mean the model trains weren't real?" After he asked the question, Conner wished he hadn't. Or at least not right then. He really did have a tendency not to think first, didn't he? He could have saved that, not butted into whatever was going on now.

Mercy slanted a glance at him. The interruption is not unwelcome. Out loud, she answered, "For your identity? Real enough. You are not the first to have your identity made up out of others', and they just as real as another."

That meant... Conner thought about it for a moment. Mercy's past, her official one, was just like Conner Kent's – designed and planned and thought about, and somebody put themselves into her life, just as the others had put them into his. Lex's bear, Augustus, still sat by Kon's bed. It had become his, just as it had been Lex's before.

He had a desire to know what the previous part of Mercy's tale had been, and what the other significance of trains had been. Who the other person had been, and what they had given. This time, though, he kept his mouth shut. The parts beyond this were only his if they were shared.

This time the interruption was the sound of a car engine, and the rumble of tires over a paved road.

Mercy hopped off the railing, her gun clearing the holster while in mid-air. She touched ground and darted to one side where she was partially protected by the angle of the ramp, yet she had a clear view of everything and could get easily to the door where Lex was.

Hope went the other direction, to the entrance on the side of the house. Her view of the front would be obstructed from that angle, yet she had a clear view of the back of the place. She didn't have her gun out, but her hand was by her ear and Conner suspected some sort of electronics though he hadn't seen any before.

Electronics that worked through whatever Wonder Woman had done? Conner frowned, not understanding how magic, or mythology, worked.

"It's localized," Diana said. "Anything that operates within the confines of the protection is fine. Luthor's phone call was beyond the area. It wouldn't have gone through if I hadn't taken the first one down." She shrugged, "Unless, of course, the Goddesses decided to allow it."

Conner looked at her.

Diana smiled. You asked.

Silently. Kon suddenly realized that he'd been using the language all along, ever since he'd come to live with Clark. Even though there was nobody to respond anymore, he still used it. And that meant... he glared at Wonder Woman. You never said!

Her mouth moved up the tiniest of increments, but her eyes reflected more sadness. Nothing you said before was for me. She'd heard all he said, but had ignored it all, knowing he didn't do so intentionally.

Conner was angry for a moment more, then let it go. He blurted out stuff in his out loud voice all the time. There wasn't anything so different about the silent language. He didn't even think he could stop doing it, it was such a part of him – him and his brothers, though he had no brothers anymore. Diana wasn't quite a sister... but maybe an aunt?

It would be an honor. Diana looked as solemn as her words, giving a weight to his impulse that he hadn't thought of. She quirked a little grin and also conveyed that there didn't need to be any immediate decision. Then she looked away from Kon and watched instead the dark blue van that had pulled up and parked near them.

Kon wasn't quite sure what Pandora box he'd just opened. He thankfully turned as well to the van and gave himself up to the distraction. He'd think about the other later.

The driver's side of the van opened, and so did the left van panel door. All that could be seen of the driver at first was rich auburn hair, both long and curly, wavy without being disordered. The owner of the hair didn't get out, but swung around so they could see her sitting as she reached behind to trigger a system.

From the open van panel door, a series of pulleys and levers rotated a wheelchair out and down to the ground, close to the driver's door. Grabbing a bar above her, with an agile twist of her upper body, the driver swung out of the van and into the chair, barely rocking it as she did. Her elegant grey business suit over a ruffled white shirt settled perfectly, not even wrinkling after all the activity.

Once she was seated, the new lady pushed a button on the arm of the wheelchair and the van closed itself up. Then she turned towards them, spinning one of the wheels of the chair with her hand. Her long fingernails didn't interfere with the action.

"Welcome, Oracle," Wonder Woman said with the greeting clear in her voice as well as her words. She strode forward and reached to clasp hands with the lady.

Conner blinked. "That's cool." He floated over to the van, x-raying it and eyeing all the internal mechanisms in it. "It's automated, but you have the pulleys and levers also set so they can be used if the electricity isn't on." Tim would have loved it. It wasn't just the wheelchair, there were also gadgets aplenty within the van. He could see where there were rockets up front ready to deploy, a set of things that looked like they could convert the van to flight, at least for short distances, and an array of weapons. As well as a full computer setup in the back. Interesting... the computer compartment was separate from the area where the wheelchair came out, so that people watching the opening wouldn't be able to see the computers inside.

He turned his attention to her wheelchair, which was a slick little gadget on its own. It looked fairly solid but was obviously lighter weight than it appeared, considering how it had handled within the pullys. It had arm compartments and electronic controls by the hand rests, but, like the van, could also be maneuvered by arm strength alone.

"Um..." Kon paused in his x-raying. There was a pair of fighting sticks in one of the arms and a gun in the other and... "Is that from the Ylians?" It looked like an energy weapon, but not of Earth origins. He'd seen it somewhere recently, though, and he was pretty sure it was from the big battle.

"Sup-er-boy..." His name was growled out a syllable at a time with the full weight of an angry ex-Amazon behind it.

With a gulp, Kon flinched away from Mercy, despite her not having actually moved from her position, and he brought his vision back to normal and his feet to the ground. He nervously met the pale blue eyes of the lady in the chair. She was raising an elegant red eyebrow at him.

"I'm sorry!" Conner blurted out, realizing he'd done it yet again. None of the others would have seen the weapon but now they all knew it was there. He swore, he was going to keep his mouth shut and not open it at all again. Ever. Tim would ask him a question and he wouldn't answer, because every time he opened his mouth he got himself into trouble. At least he hadn't blurted out his thought about Tim loving the van. He nearly had. That would have been even worse.

Oracle turned to Wonder Woman. "I see what you mean."

Wonder Woman grimaced.

"I wouldn't do it if there were others around!" Conner felt the need to defend himself.

Oracle pointedly looked from him to Mercy to Hope to Wonder Woman.

"I meant other others. Not us."

With a shake of the pretty red hair, Oracle flipped a switch on her wheelchair and started it rolling forward. "You trust certain people so therefore they are to be trusted, with everything, even each other. There's only those who are good, of some definition of the word, and bad. Or there are only two colors, aqua and chartreuse. If people are aqua, they are all blue, regardless of their actual shading and grouping within the color scheme. Same with chartreuse. All is yellow, even if it's green." She maneuvered the chair up and over the ramp to the building. "It's an easy way to live, but it's not all there is."

"He did not grow up with any shades in colors. There were his brothers and the scientists. No others." Wonder Woman spoke up. It wasn't exactly in Kon's defense, but it had a similar effect.

"Did none of them ever treat you like a person?" Oracle asked, not turning the chair.

Conner hesitated, but he figured now was not the time to suddenly stop sharing information. "No, not really. Well, mostly not. There were... a few. Didn't see them much." They weren't the ones who stayed. None of the ones who stayed saw him or his brothers as anything other than an experiment.

He flew to the patio, figuring they were heading back inside now, since she showed no signs of stopping. He wondered if anybody should warn her about Clark and Lex, but he still didn't see what the fuss was. Unless they happened to walk in on them having sex. That would be more than he particularly cared to see. He didn't think they would; Lex, at the very least, wouldn't want that here.

Oracle nodded, accepting Conner's answer without any look of pity that he sometimes got from others. He had the impression of a very intelligent being behind those pale eyes, as if her work with computers was simply an extension of her abilities, and everything was a process.

She wheeled towards the door and Wonder Woman stepped up but the door opened before she got there. Nobody was holding it on the other side, though, and she looked a question at Oracle.

"Remote control," Oracle explained. "This lodge is used for gatherings of us disabled folk."

That explained all the space in the main room and the way the light switches were down lower. Conner suddenly re-envisioned the whole of the area with lots of people in wheelchairs and walkers instead of people like himself who could move around easily.

"They killed any of us that became less than physically perfect." Not all the duels ended in death, at least not initially. They always became so afterwards. Even if they didn't want to kill, if the conditioning somehow wasn’t strong enough to force a kill right away, which in the beginning of the conditioning stages it wasn't always, even then... they still killed. A broken leg was a death. A severed arm. Anything that wasn't worth fixing on the winner, and the loser always died.

Oracle nodded again, accepting that. "My severed spine was an example of a villain's power. Just a random demonstration, not even related to what I did or whom I knew. A casual act to one who didn't care but who knew that others did."

Before Conner could react to that, she wheeled through the door. "Hello, Superman. Lex Luthor. I am Oracle."

Kon put off thinking about what she had said and x-rayed through the walls so he could see his dads.

They were on the same side of the room, but not in each other's arms as Kon had half-hoped. Instead, Superman was seated on one of the couches and Lex was lounging on a wall nearby. They both were watching Oracle with eerily similar blank faces. Lex's blank face didn't mean anything other than it was his game face, but Superman... he was hiding something under his. Some other emotion or reaction that he didn't want seen.

"Oracle," Lex spoke first. "It is interesting to meet you."

The red-head gave a chuckle. "You would think so, wouldn't you?" She maneuvered inside and placed her chair near the front, running a hand over some of the controls on the wall near there. "I presume that's one of your minions roaming the inside of the house, who was also watching outside?"

Conner took a quick look, and Hope was coming back through the house. Mercy was taking up sentry on the outside again. Wonder Woman was... inside the room again and sitting down across from Lex and Clark. Kon should probably get in himself.

He'd missed some of Lex's response. "... knowledge."

Oracle inclined her head. "Ah, but knowing is not the same as introductions." She made an adjustment on the controls. "Wonder Woman, did you do something to my retreat?"

Instead of her regular serenity, the normally unflappable Amazon looked distinctly annoyed. "I told you what I'd planned, and you agreed."

"Previous plans aren't always adhered directly to. There was an outgoing call placed from here fifteen minutes ago."

"Yes." Wonder Woman's exasperation deepened but she replied calmly enough. "The protection was put up again after that."

"Do you have any acetone here? Somewhere on the premises?" Lex suddenly interjected.

Oracle's eyebrows rose up archly. Then she made a quick scan around the room, stopping at Hope who was once again now standing just inside the room, and upon whom there was a faint pink shade cast over her features. The corners of Oracle's mouth twitched and she pointed off to one side. "Check the vanity in the second left room down the hall. The lady who usually has that room has a bad habit of leaving her stuff between retreats."

Hope glanced at Lex, who returned her look steadily. Then she retreated in the direction Oracle had indicated.

"What's that for?" Kon asked. He knew that acetone was a building block in most organic chemistry, and you also used it to clean lab equipment, but he didn't think that's what Dad Two wanted it for.

"Fingernail polish remover," Oracle replied succinctly.

Conner tried hard not to laugh and ended up making a small choking sound that he tried to squash down. DT wasn't going to let that one go. And considering the general properties of kryptonite, perhaps best not to. He sobered up quickly.

"Oracle," Superman got up and moved to Kon's side. "This is my son, Kon-El. Also known as Superboy."

The thrill that went through him was something that Conner hoped he'd never lose. To be claimed, wanted, loved, by Superman, his dad. It was still a wonder to him.

"Nice to meet you." Oracle held out her hand.

Conner went forward to clasp hands and wasn't surprised at the strength in her grip. "It's an honor," he politely replied before moving back again.

"It is," Clark said more sincerely. "Thank you very much for agreeing to meet with us in person."

"It's dangerous," Lex said flatly.

They all looked at him.

"It is," he repeated. "One of the things that makes Oracle so effective is that none know who you are, and cannot identify you. By coming here to meet us, you have exposed seven more people to your face and your identity. Even if we don't know you now, your civilian persona will be easy enough to track down knowing as much as we do."

Oracle pushed her wire-rim glasses up with a finger. "True. But saving the world often means sacrifices. I was given to understand that the problem was both urgent and important."

"It is... but we should wait for Hawkman," Diana said.

"I wasn't saying we should start, I was just answering the Luthor's question." Oracle's words were somewhat acerbic and faintly mocking.

Superman pinched the bridge of his nose and then let go, looking worriedly between Lex and Wonder Woman.

Oracle laughed. "It's not that much of a problem, Luthor. You already know who I am – I've broken into your databases as often as you've broken into mine. Wonder Woman let me on her island when I was first wounded, in case her Goddesses wanted to exert themselves to do something for a mere mortal, and Superman and Hawkman can be trusted. A secret is only a secret as far as it is necessary. A plan is only a plan to the first encounter. When circumstances demand a change in tactics, it is a foolish person who does not adapt and change."

Kon couldn't help but notice that she hadn't listed him as one of the trustworthy people. He winced and resolved to actually learn something at the lessons next week. He also noticed that she hadn't actually said yet who she was in civilian life, just that they knew her.

Lex nodded in acknowledgement of her point. "It is rare for a Justice League member to admit such to their enemy."

"An enemy of my enemy is perhaps not my friend, but is somebody that we can work with. Do you know where the term 'vigilante' originated?"

"The literal word, mid-1850s, in America, though the concept has been around longer." Lex replied. "You're thinking of a particular incident?"

Conner rolled his eyes; of course DT would know everything.

"Montana, 1864," Oracle prompted, her lips curved up.

"Henry Plummer. A sheriff in a small town turned outlaw himself, harassing people, killing, extorting money and resources. So a group of locals got together and took him down. The Montana Vigilantes." Lex shrugged. "There's modern doubt, however, as to whether he was actually guilty."

"The story, however, remains and has been repeated throughout history," Oracle settled back in her chair, her eyes bright. "Action against the lawful law, when the law breaks down." She folded her hands, one over the other. "The law is not always what is right and true, and there are different opinions as to what that means between individuals. The Justice League is made up of people who want..." she paused for a word.

"Justice?" Lex put in, sarcastically.

"I was going to say, to help people. But now that you mention it... who did come up with that name for the group?" She turned to Superman. "Not you, I'm sure. You stand for truth and goodness, but not vigilantism in and of itself."

Superman blinked. "I don't remember---"

"Batman." Wonder Woman said. "It was Batman."

Oracle and Lex made almost identical noises of derision. "That figures" Oracle said in a tone somewhere between a sigh and a snort. She obviously didn't have a high opinion of Batman.

"Well, I suggested the Band of Light Against the Darkness, but nobody wanted that," Wonder Woman laughed.

Conner couldn't tell if she was serious about having proposed that or not.

"The Justice League had the advantage of being short, simple, and easy to identify with."

"And Batman and Aquaman were completely for it, I'm sure, and the rest of you didn't care." Oracle shrugged. "Of such are identities made. Think about this for a moment – the people who look to you and the new generation of heroes... they know you first by your name. Are you teaching them to be the judge and jury both? Justice is the punishment side of things, not the stopping of crime initially."

Mercy slipped into the room and took up a position near Lex almost unnoticeably, except that Kon saw how every eye in the room tracked her as she came in. Nobody remarked out loud on it, though, and they didn't mention the fingernails that had been returned to a normal translucency.

"It's one of the reasons the government is so leery of your group," Lex said. "Half of my contracts for developing new weaponry are from the government worried more about you folks than of those you fight."

"That, and also that most of the government is corrupt and owned by people who have had chunks of their illegal profiteering cut into by Justice League activity." Oracle wouldn't let Lex have that word alone, though she'd started the bit about justice.

"You're not exactly known for letting justice go by," Lex narrowed his eyes.

Oracle grinned without real humor. "Oh," she breathed lightly, "I very much approve of justice. In that, Batman and I are alike. So, too, are our cities, the areas that we come from. Lawmen there, just like that original Montanan sheriff, are not always lawful. Most follow their needs and not the needs of the people, so justice must be dealt by other means." She brought her voice into a normal range. "It is not, however, what the rest of them are like." With a strong hand, she gestured towards Superman. "However much the press likes to label him as 'truth and justice', Superman is really about the stopping of crimes and the protection of people, from whatever threatens them. He leaves the justice part to the police and the courts, going so far even to stand witness for them. Wonder Woman is much the same, though she distains the courthouse. Green Lantern is a policeman himself, albeit for a wider patrol. The name does not fit them all."

Lex leaned forward, shifting off the wall. "Are you implying criticism of your own group?"

"Any group that cannot stand some self-examination and critical evaluation is a group that is doomed to become mired in its own reflection. I was merely remarking that the brand does not match the reality."

Conner shifted where he stood and wondered if he could slip out the same way Mercy came in. This was going to end up like a JL meeting, wasn't it? Intellectual and debating about philosophical things that, yeah, maybe were important, but wasn't really exciting.

Just like in a JL meeting, Conner was surrounded by hyper-vigilant busybodies. All eyes were now on him and nobody actually said, Aw, we're boring the teenager, but it sure seemed like they all thought it. Complete with indulgent smiles. Kon scowled indiscriminately back at all of them.

"I'm going to patrol with Hope." Conner announced, and then escaped.

He found Hope out in the tree line.

"Is it very bad in there?" She asked.

"They were being philosophical!" Kon moaned.

Hope laughed and then started pointing out things about line of sight and what good places for ambushes would be, both for those defending and anybody coming in to attack. Giving equal consideration to things incoming from sky and ground. She also showed him how to tell the difference between an animal trail and humans taking advantage of an animal trail.

At that, Kon questioned the source.

"We go once a year for survival training in Montana. Lex has a ranch out there and we make sure it covers everything. Lex once had to eat grubs to survive in the middle of nowhere, and he doesn't forget how easily it can happen. One sabotaged plane, and you're somewhere unknown and may not be rescued for ages. Or you have to go to ground to hide from an enemy and the ground might well be the forest instead of the cities. Be prepared, and the less things will faze you."

"We were only ever taught to be better at fighting than the other. There was nothing for after we'd lost." Because after was only ever death.

"They were short-sighted. A battle is not the war," Hope said calmly. "And sometimes to win a war, one must retreat from a battle. The Justice League originally retreated from the Ylians, then came back to drive them permanently off Earth."

She glanced over to the house. "What are they doing in there?"

Conner looked inside it with his x-ray vision. "Dad's looking nervous. Wonder Woman's uncomfortable. Mercy is Mercy. And DT and Oracle look like they're having ginormous fun."

Hope laughed. "I bet. I think she's possibly one of the few people that's both his equal in intellect and in a position to give him a good match."

Kon frowned.

"Your father, while he might, in theory, be extremely smart, doesn't go for the intellect first and foremost. He hides most of what he is under disguises and when he goes after problems the smart solution isn't the one he uses first. He's not dumb, but he doesn't always apply what he has available, and right now he's still extremely cautious around Lex. It will be awhile before he relaxes enough to spar comfortably on their old levels. Yet their old ways will also not be good for either of them, so they will take a different route. What that will be is yet to be seen."

Conner was happy now that they didn't think his dad was dumb. "You and Mercy are smart." They were, too. In public, they didn't talk a lot, but when it was just them and DT, they opened up. They also had a practical smart that Kon could get along well with. It said something about his Dad Two that these were his closest minions. Justice too, but he was totally the lab scientist – he made Kon nervous, though his daughter was okay.

Hope shook her head with a grin. "Thank you, but we're not in anywhere even close to the league of your DT. Plus, we have the same problem as Superman – we learned in different schools. As you saw when you confronted him, Lex likes the intellectual and the sharp banter." She wrinkled her nose. "Not my style."

Kon could see that. And he honestly didn't ever see Dad enjoying that sort of thing. It made him worry about their future. On the other hand, Dad Two seemed to get his jollies just fine by honing himself against Oracle in there, or even when talking mythology with Diana, so maybe that part of it could be DT's entertainment while Conner and Dad went to catch a movie.

He glanced inside again, and watched as Oracle leaned forward in her chair to make a point. Her lower legs didn't move at all. They weren't tied in, but she adeptly shifted the rest of her weight to account for having no mobility at all from below her waist.

"I'm glad you don't kill your people," Kon said.

Hope slanted him a sideways glance.

"When they're not perfect, I mean."

"Ah." Hope half-shrugged. "Yes. The world generally lets people fend by the best they can, with or without powers. Except for those caught in the great cosmic joke."

Suicide Slums had a lot of people who had had bad things happen to them. Limbs lost, spines severed, minds twisted out of reason, drugged into oblivion. Not all of them had done as well as Oracle. Part of that was undoubtedly the sheer strength of will the woman seemed to have, but also, "Money helps." That cool van she had, the retreat here, the gadgets and even the simple access to computers where she could put her great mind to use.

"Money and friends or family," Hope agreed.

Kon thought of the briefcase of money that Dad Two had so casually left in Dad's family room that fateful night not all that long ago. To help him, because he was family. "I could help, but what reason would I have?" All his brothers, dead.

"Beyond a general goody-two-shoes charity?" Hope did another circuit of the parking lot before she continued the thought. "If you mean in your other identity, there are some general hospital stays in your history that aren't detailed on paper. We thought you might need some flexibility with them later on, so all they read is that you were admitted and discharged. For the areas you were in, the lack of details in the system won't raise any red flags. But you might be more effective as Superboy."

"Superboy is perfect," Kon said bitterly. He'd always been perfect. Even the rare times he'd been hurt, KN-5'd been valuable, so he'd been fixed.

"Have you been with your dad yet on a hospital visit or a children's charity visit? They don't care. They honestly don't. Maybe a few of them are resentful, but mostly it's just exciting and encouraging that somebody so famous and cool comes down to meet them and talk with them. They'll hold onto that bit of encouragement long after the money runs out. When the pain is too much to handle, sometimes they'll think, "but Superman talked to me" and it gives them that extra push to continue on. It's using what you have – the fame and the notoriety – for something more."

"And here I thought you weren't Superman's biggest fans." Conner grinned while he thought about it.

Hope laughed, then sobered. "The reaction is the same with anybody in the spotlight. Actors, singers, celebrities. Mostly. Lex does his own bit of PR work, but he's... ah..."

"He's not common." Lex's uniqueness was more than just his loss of hair. He'd been set apart so long ago that he truly believed he was alone, even with Hope and Mercy and Justice and all the others there with him. Conner was trying to coax him more out into the world, but he thought there would always be a part of his Dad Two that would never be comfortable with it.

"No, he's not."

From the tone of Hope's voice, that was a good thing. And Conner wouldn't disagree. He loved DT a lot, but his dad just wasn't a normal person. That was just fine. KN-5 wasn't very normal either, and he thought that DT was just fine the way he was. Well, the way he was, plus getting together more with Dad. Living together would be nice. Eventually.

"He cares, and people see that, and that's why people like him, but they still can't connect all that well."

There was a bit of silence as they moved in thoughts in their own heads.

Hope finally continued, "Plus, if you do charity events as Superboy, the rich people will come to donate money even if they don't give a damn. Then they'll have both encouragement and wheelchairs."

Point. Conner didn't have the money himself, not without going through DT, but he had no compunction about getting those who did to donate instead. He also took her earlier point about celebrities and how people looked up to them. He didn't really understand the phenomenon, but he could go with it.

The sound of flapping wings, larger than the local birds, drew his attention up.

"Everybody else is already here? Good." Hawkman settled to the ground, his large wings moving just like real ones, his right hand on his mace. "Superboy," he nodded at Conner. "Miss Hope."

"Mr. Hawk," Hope nodded back, with a mixture of politeness and sarcasm as she gave him the honorary.

Conner gaped at him. "But, but... it's still forty minutes before the meeting!" He x-rayed through the building to see the clock inside the room to verify, and yep, still a half hour to go.

Under the metal beak, Hawkman's human lips turned upwards in a smile. "I know. I waited until now because I didn't think they'd want me here early."

"It is early."

Hawkman snorted and headed for the door. The metal wings folded upon themselves, no longer resembling birds. They folded and folded and then disappeared into the metal plate on the harness across Hawkman's back. "I suppose you would have been on time."

"Well, yeah." Given his record with meetings, he probably would have been late, but he certainly wouldn't have tried to be there early.

"And that, Superboy, is why we like you. You and your dad don't think like that."

"Dad made us come early," Kon muttered, falling into step with Hawkman despite the longer strides. So what if he had to use a bit of flying to make up the difference. It wasn't like anybody could tell. He noticed that Hope accompanied them as well. She stayed a step behind them.

"Only out of necessity, not out of inclination, I'm sure," Hawkman replied.

Whatever Kon might have said – and he wasn't sure what it might have been – it was forestalled as Hawkman opened the door.

Five sets of eyes turned towards them.

Wonder Woman and Lex stood up. Mercy was standing already in the doorway by the corridor, and Superman started to stand but then settled back down after a quick glance in Oracle's direction. Oracle had been watching Hawkman like the others, but at that, she returned the glance with a raised eyebrow and a twist of a smile.

"Hawkman," Wonder Woman's melodious voice greeted him with all evidence of happiness.

Hawkman nodded back but didn't say anything. The silence in the room lingered as they evaluated each other.

Conner eased off to a side so he could see Hawkman as well as the others. It didn't help him much. With that stupid metal helmet, Kon couldn't figure a single thing out about what Hawkman was thinking. The lips and eyes by themselves really didn't give many clues. Conner was never going to use a helmet in his costume. Not unless he wanted to really freak people out.

With a snort, Lex sat down without greeting Hawkman. He didn't, however, sit where he'd been before.

Lex walked from his original chair to the couch where Clark was sitting, and then he sat down on Clark's lap, sideways, putting his arms around Clark's neck and looking back at Hawkman defiantly.

Superman turned as bright a red as his cape. Still, though, he put his own arm around Lex and also raised his chin, looking at Hawkman.

"Go, Dad!" Kon whispered. "Dads!" What a statement! Conner totally agreed with the concept and he was delighted to see them like that.

He glanced back at Hawkman to see his reaction... and let his breath out in frustration. Darn that mask.

The hawk's beak on the metal mask pointed in Clark and Lex's direction for as long as it took them to get settled, and then turned away. "You are Oracle, I presume?"

The red-head wrenched her attention off the pair on display, lowered her eyebrows that had been raised, and turned to Hawkman. She nodded in acknowledgement. "I am."

"What," he paused after the word for a moment before continuing, "have you done to the surveillance around here? I'm completely cut off, even from Hawkwoman, and that never happens with human technology. Yet, at the same time, I can scan everything inside this cabin."

Oracle rolled her eyes. "Don't talk to me." She pointed an elegant finger bright with a decorated long nail at Wonder Woman. "That's all hers."

The mask turned to the Amazon. "You have an array of powers given to you by your heritage and your religion. A communications barrier is not something you can do."

"It wasn't," Wonder Woman replied easily. "It is now, with the Goddess's blessing. This world needs more sophisticated techniques than it used to. I ask, and They provide."

Conner wasn't that used to subtleness, but even he could hear the capital letters in the pronoun.

"I'm not comfortable with that," Hawkman stated, his hand moving to his mace. It didn't look like a threatening move, just simply an automatic stance. It happened a lot with superheroes.

It wasn't that Diana had been slumping, but with Hawkman's words, she straightened out of her casual pose and her eyes widened. Her exclamation of What? didn't make it out of the silent language, and her face quickly smoothed, showing only general curiosity.

Hawkman nodded as if he'd seen all the rest. "Your Goddesses don't generally exert themselves that much for things outside the Amazon world. This, as I understood it, was a trouble of a Luthor making."

Lex stirred but Clark put a hand on his thigh and Lex settled, letting the interaction stay between the others.

Tiny lines gathered in the middle of Wonder Woman's forehead. "It is a dark evil that will encompass the whole of the world. It might be contained now, but it is reaching out and testing new waters. We cannot let Lionel Luthor continue on his path."

Hawkman shook his head. "I haven't heard the details yet, that is for this meeting, but I can tell you that's bull."

Conner felt his eyes widening and he bit his lip. Around him, he could see similar reactions.

Wonder Woman stood from her seat and let her hand move to her lasso, mimicking Hawkman's pose with the mace. Kon didn't think it was deliberate, or aggressive, it was just another standard hero pose.

"I am sorry you feel that way," she said calmly. "What is it that you would like to know?"

"There have been hundreds of incidents in the last several years that could be described with equal terms. Your deities haven't intervened once. Why now?"

"The Goddesses are on the side of good, and their help is welcome when they choose to give it. I do not understand your concern."

Hawkman took a sideways step so he was no longer in the doorway. He glanced at Superman, brown eyes visible through the mask before returning his gaze to Diana. "What was it that you said about Green Lantern not coming to this meeting? That he was trustworthy and good, but with him came all the other Lanterns? Well, this is the same with your Goddesses. They are not part of the Justice League, and I don't trust their motivations."

Conner hadn't heard that about Green Lantern before. He tried to see what Lex thought, but DT had his business mask on and nothing was getting through. Dad, though, looked distinctly uncomfortable. He almost looked like he wanted to jump up and rescue somebody. Either that, or to get out of there.

Hope and Mercy reflected their employer and were likewise expressionless. Oracle was leaning on one elbow, her head tilted to one side and a smile on her lips – enjoying the show.

Wonder Woman let out a small huff of exasperation. "If that's the way you feel, then why---" she cut herself off with a grimace and glance at Lex. It was obvious that even if Hawkman was willing to air their troubles in front of him, she wasn't.

Hawkman smiled, the sole expression that could be seen on his face. "Oh, I trust you just fine. You've more than earned it over the years. We all serve somebody, even if it's an ideal rather than a person or deity." The smile slipped away. "It's your Goddesses I don't trust. They're older than they have represented themselves and they serve their own interests, which are their people. This?" He waved a gloved hand around the room. "This has nothing to do with their people."

Kon drew on every ounce of self-control he had not to look at Mercy.

Oracle cleared her throat, "He has a point. They don't exactly get involved for just anything." She pushed her glasses up on her nose, obscuring her green eyes right at the moment when they would have shown what she felt.

Conner remembered what she'd said outside and guessed that her thoughts about the Goddesses weren't very complimentary ones.

Moving her hand from her lasso, Wonder Woman touched her bracelet on the opposite wrist, tracing it around the smooth metal. "Does it really matter? I asked, they answered. What we face is important enough that we should use the resources available to us."

"You said they liked Lex," Clark suddenly put in. "The Goddesses."

Losing her control for a moment, Diana shot Clark a very clear and obvious, You idiot. look. Conner wasn't even sure if that was the silent language, because he thought everybody present could read it.

Superman certainly had. He returned the look with a direct gaze of his own, not backing down. Apparently he thought Hawkman had a point. "The Goddesses didn't help with the alien invasion that killed thousands. Yet they let Lex onto their island? I agree with Hawkman, and you were the one to exclude the Lanterns. It makes sense that they wouldn't help in everything – that's not the way of things. If, though, they're helping Lex... that would be reasonable. With what we're facing, an explanation would be nice."

Almost everybody else furrowed their brows at Superman's definition of 'reasonable'. Conner thought that his dad was projecting a bit. Since he always helped Lex, even when he thought Lex was bad, he thought everybody should.

Lex moved off Clark's lap and settled on the couch next to him. "The Goddesses like me?" he purred, a grin playing at his lips.

Diana's mouth tightened in annoyance, then she sighed. "Athena says you remind her of Odysseus." She then grinned, her mood lightening. "If there were oceans to cross and monsters to slay in this day and age, in truth, you could be. You are very like, between the centuries."

"That sounded like experience," Oracle drawled, leaning to prop her chin on her hand, taking it all in.

Diana shrugged, "Penthesilea was there, and her warriors. Though she died in the war, their experiences are in the Amazonian memory. I have drawn upon their lives and seen through their eyes. And yes," she turned her smile, slightly mischievous, upon Lex, "there is a resemblance."

Conner straightened up from where he leaned against the wall, his whole body quivering. Did she just say memories? Like his? Implanted to learn from but not personal? Most people he knew thought it was weird. That somebody else knew what it was like... he wanted to pull her aside right then and there and ask.

The others, though, had their own interests to pursue.

"Ulysses, huh?" Lex teased her with the alternate name for the Greek hero. "Weren't they on opposite sides of the war?"

"It was a long war. There were opportunities."

Lex grinned, also full of mischief, "Have you also the memories of Thalestris?"

Diana laughed long and hard. "Don't push it, mortal."

She and Lex had either forgotten about their audience, which, knowing them, was highly unlikely, or they were playing it up for reasons of their own. If Hawkman was going to be suspicious, they'd give him something.

Conner thought that it was probably part and parcel of what regularly got his Dad Two tagged as a villain. DT was a villain and Diana was a hero, yet there was that connection and similar pattern between them. He doubted it had anything to do with Mercy working for Lex – that was just who they were. They liked to play, and they liked to push boundaries.

"Athena," Hawkman mused. "Wasn't she the patron Goddess of thieves?"

Kon blinked. Oh yeah, Hawkman's other identity was an archeologist, wasn't it?

"I thought that was Hermes," Oracle interjected.

And Oracle was an information nut, no matter what her alternative self might be. Conner eyed them both and waited for Lex's interjection because he was sure there was one. After a moment, it was clear Lex wasn't going to say anything. Well, Kon'd been wrong before.

Diana rolled her eyes. "Clever people. Athena likes people who use their quick thinking and wisdom, those who will use their intelligence instead of stuffing it in a closet. There is... some overlap. As there are on all people."

She sobered. "This has nothing to do with Lex. This has to do with how people grow and change, and things you thought you knew also change. I am older than when we first met, Hawkman, and I move through the mysteries of my people in our own way. After I complete the next stage, expect there to be more that the Goddesses will grant to me."

Conner tried really hard not to stare or draw anybody's attention away, but he couldn't help but notice how Mercy's eyes had grown wide and she'd stepped back in surprise. This was apparently a bigger deal than Diana was saying.

"There is, also...," Diana hesitated and looked out the window. "There is a woman. I do not know who, or anything about her. I just know that she has been greatly wronged. In all the ways a woman can be wronged and more so. There is a soul crying for the Goddesses, even if she does not know she is, and the Goddesses hear her. Lionel Luthor is evil, and we must oppose him. For Kon-el's sake, for his brothers, and for the child who cries between the worlds."

Hawkman nodded. "That, I can believe. Why didn't you just say so?"

Wonder Woman glared at him in annoyance. "I shouldn't have had to. This is Amazonian business, not yours."

"You are making it ours," Hawkman responded. "Luthor might be part of our world, but there is another angle to the story, and we need to know all of it if we are to plan accordingly. We need to know what the villain is doing, yes, and equally, we need to know our resources and our strengths and weaknesses. We need to use our strengths and cover our weaknesses, because you can be assured that the enemy will also know them, perhaps better than we."

There was a brief, almost silent, murmur as everybody in the room thought that over, then agreed. It did make sense, even if it had put Diana on the spot.

"Now," Hawkman strode to the least comfortable of the chairs and sat down, shifting his mace to one side as he did so. "Let's hear about the other half of it. What is Lionel Luthor, and what is he doing?"

Lex tilted his head to one side. "You believe he exists? With just what Wonder Woman has told you for the meeting?"

Conner knew that that had been very little indeed. They had all been worried about Lionel finding out if they talked too much about it. That was what this meeting was for.

Hawkman snorted, stretching out his legs and crossing one ankle over the other. "The enemy isn't invisible. I didn't have a name for him, but you can bet he's been noticed. Mostly little things, but patterns that don't fit. Kon-El's laboratory," Hawkman nodded at Conner, "was the largest step he's taken so far, but not the only one. I've been tracing it back."

"I thought Batman was working on that," Clark said, apparently startled.

"He is." The metal mask dipped in a nod, the beak catching a ray of light in the room. "Hawkwoman and I are as well. Batman just doesn't know we are." The mouth under the mask curved up before resuming its normal straight lines.

Professional paranoids indeed. Kon was glad his dad wasn't like them. Or at least one of his dads wasn't. He saw Lex's approval at Hawkman's answer.

With a small sigh, Conner went over and sat on the ground between his two dads, his back against the couch they were sitting on. Clark rested his hand on Kon's shoulder. Lex didn't, but after people's attention had shifted away, he moved his foot so it was almost touching Kon's leg.

Kon felt safe, bracketed between the two people who loved him most. Loved him for who he was, without regard as to who he might be.

"My father started experimenting with kryptonite after the first meteor fall," Lex began.

He told the tale cleanly, baldly. Stating fact and hypothesis and differing each with their proper label. There was little to none of the emotion that he'd shown when telling Conner about it, and, Kon suspected, to Clark. This was a different audience, with a different purpose, and Lex Luthor was not to be caught with such things as emotion and caring. Though he was a victim in the telling, one couldn't hear it through his voice, only by shifting through the details in the words.

It was also a bit of an edited tale, with nothing about Clark in the telling or even the direct name of the town of Smallville.

Conner wasn't sure how anybody would not be able to find Clark in the tale, with all the kryptonite in the town and the history of the meteor showers, but he supposed that between Bruce, Chloe, and Lex, that the relevant records had been pretty much purged. He knew for a fact that all the newspaper articles Chloe had done for the high school newspaper didn't exist anymore. Chloe had spoken of them wistfully, but had said it was necessary.

They would probably edit the story even more for others later. This was a select group and most of them knew it already. Diana knew everything, and Oracle almost certainly did, with her connections. Mercy and Hope were a given. Hawkman was the only unknown, but they had chosen him for this first meeting. Kon wouldn't have picked him, but he was honorable. Better than Ollie.

He wasn't surprised by anything in what Lex said until the very end, when they started discussing what to do.

"Our first priority has to be getting rid of Watchtower," Oracle said somberly. "She's got access to everything within the League, no exceptions anywhere. With her in place, Lionel can monitor anything we say or do."

"Watchtower?" Conner sat up with a start. "What?"

They all turned to look at him, and he could feel his dad's regard above him.

"Superman... didn't you tell him?" Diana questioned.

Conner scooted forward on the floor and then turned to look at his dads.

"Um," Clark looked at Lex. "I thought you had."

Lex grimaced. "That wasn't my place."

Not Chloe. Conner felt his heart sinking. She'd been a friend to him since Clark had taken him up. Accepting him for Clark's sake, and telling him tales of his dad that nobody else knew. She was like his dad's little sister, even if she wanted to be his dad's girlfriend. She couldn't be...

Clark sighed. "Watchtower's the traitor. She's been feeding Lionel Luthor information about Lex, and about what we do about Lex. And spreading tales about Lex so we wouldn't trust him." He looked off into a corner, apparently ashamed for believing the tales.

"She wouldn't hurt you," Conner said, numb. "Not ever." She loved Clark, insanely so, even if she was mostly resigned to not having him.

Lex quirked the edge of his mouth up. "I'm not C— Superman. She has no compunctions about me."

"But..." Well, yeah, but it was Dad and Dad Two. You couldn't separate the two, really. Even though they had been. Conner kept forgetting about the enemies thing.

"She would never betray Superman, you can count on that," Lex said again, reassuring Conner in a way that was really just not very reassuring. Because Conner couldn't wrap his head around it. "She only ever reported things about me, and I am the enemy."

"It is a betrayal of all of us, that she is spying for anybody for any reason," Hawkman rumbled. "While we all have our own gods, or higher order, or responsibilities, the point to the Justice League was that we come together to help all. The very position of Watchtower is the highest responsibility for the team that we have, for she coordinates all. She is not just Superman's friend, she is the Watchtower for all of the Justice League. To send information away from us, for whatever reason... it cannot be tolerated."

"Lex," Wonder Woman's eyes were sympathetic, but her gaze was stern. "You are being extremely naive if you think this has ever been just about you. The stakes have always been higher, and the goal further out."

Lex winced. "He'd not gone outside the parameters before. Not until Kon and his brothers. Chloe would have protested if he'd asked her anything more."

"She protested when we were younger," Clark said softly. "It doesn't seem to have done as much good as we thought back then." He put his arm around Lex. "I heard her talking on the phone to Lionel, I knew that they were collaborating." He sighed, "I got her father fired because of it."

Lex winced again, and looked uncomfortable next to Clark but didn't move away. "I still wish I hadn't brought that up. I didn't realize where it had come from."

"I hadn't told you," Clark said. "We were too young, both of us. All three of us, with Chloe. Your dad was something we'd never experienced."

"I'd grown up with him, I should have known, and I was older."

Clark snorted. "When I was a kid I thought you were older. Now, I know you were still a kid yourself."

Lex leaned into Clark, finally accepting the embrace. "I still should have known better."

Hawkman cleared his throat. "Whatever. We need to do something now."

Conner had almost forgotten about the others, watching the moment between his dads. He almost resented Hawkman's intrusion, yet at the same time, he appreciated it, because this was something that shouldn't be shared outside their family.

Without moving from Clark's arm, Lex somehow regained his dignity. It was a nice trick. "The point was that Chloe has been working with my dad for a very long time, since before the League was formed. He would have treated that resource carefully, and not done anything to endanger her. The League has been safe."

"Until now," Oracle said. "A sleeper agent is still an agent, and all the more dangerous for it. If Watchtower has been working for him for that long, then she will not know how to say 'no' when he finally decides to make his move inside our lines."

Wonder Woman nodded. "There are many ways a man can dominate a woman. Chloe is a strong person... but so were the original Amazons who were sold into slavery. They had to have help to get free, which is why we will never again allow a man's rule. One never forgets a betrayal. Chloe, however, has not ever been freed."

Lex's mouth tightened. "I promised her I would protect her. I don't remember the promise, but I'd made it, and I broke it within a month of saying it. Useless words. I don't blame her for hating me now."

"Your father drugged you and wiped your memories!" Clark burst out. "I don't see how she can hold that against you."

"If he did that to me," Lex said grimly, "then what did he do to Chloe?"

There was a little silence as they all contemplated that.

"I thought that she had turned against him, though," Clark said hesitantly. "You and she, working together to put him in jail."

"To put his dying clone in jail," Lex reminded him. "Apparently it was all a smokescreen and a cover while he made his move to go underground. Chloe did not die in that explosion. The only one of my father's pawns to ever live through their usefulness. Apparently, she was still useful." He barked a harsh laugh, "Hell, even you fell for my father's B.S., and your... others who should have known better. What chance did Chloe have if my dad was trying?"

"I really wish you'd stop calling him your dad." Clark side-stepped the rest of it, agreeing without saying.

"I really wish we'd get back on topic," Hawkman put in.

Oracle smothered a laugh. "History is relevant to the present, but our time here together is limited. I agree that Lionel is dangerous and going to become even more so. Other than Watchtower's involvement, however, I'm puzzled as to why you thought it needed a full League intervention."

Hawkman shook his head, disagreeing with Oracle. "The problem is that 'he' is not a single entity anymore, no matter how convenient it is to speak of him like that. He is an army, and they have expanded and infiltrated in many key locations. It is probably best to think of the Luthor as a gang or terrorist organization – one voice, but many people. Cut off any one head, and another will rise up, because their goal is the same, the individual voices don't matter.

"Before he knew if his plan with Kon-El had succeeded or not, he destroyed his cloning facility," Hawkman continued. "This speaks to vast resources and little need to conserve. He knew he could do without, and that was not an insignificant amount of money, time, and training invested in the people and facilities. Just because there has been no other move in the last year, other than taunting Lex and Kon, does not mean they have not been active elsewhere."

Conner stirred. He knew he was the junior member at this meeting, but he had to speak up on that point. "It wasn't the cloning facility."

They all looked at him. "What do you mean, Kon?" Wonder Woman asked.

"I mean, that's where we were raised, trained, conditioned, worked upon, killed, but it's not where we were cloned." He caught Lex's eye with the message there and then he rolled his own. "Gene-spliced. Made. Half-cloned? Whatever. We all came from somewhere else. Six of us delivered in bottles once a month, and the scientists would pop us out into the prepared tubes and then set up for the growth and memory injections. Little embryos, all in a row."

"That," Hawkman said grimly, "makes it even more dangerous. Lionel destroyed the least of his resources, not the greatest." He frowned and turned to Oracle. "Who was in charge of debriefing Kon-El after his... rescue?"

Conner appreciated the wording. Better than 'when he tried to kill Superman and failed.' He turned around and scooted against the couch again, leaning against his dads' legs. He couldn't see them like this, but he wanted the contact more.

"Watchtower." Oracle sighed, "In retrospect..."

Lex laughed harshly. "Hindsight is twenty-twenty. You people trust too much."

"Without trust, we will all fall," Wonder Woman replied serenely. "It does not do to start off with no trust, for then nothing can be built at all. One has to trust first." Her eyes hardened. "After trust has been broken... that is when one takes action. For while trust is the keystone, stupidity is not."

"Hawkman is right." The unexpected voice had them all looking around. Mercy stepped from her stance near the door and continued. "We cannot think of Lionel Luthor as human anymore. He doesn't think of himself, any of his selves, that way. All his parts are fearless in their supposed immortality. None of them care about pain or death. Each of them will die while laughing, staring you in the eyes, not caring that this mortal body and their own consciousness is going to be gone. They know there is another. No Lionel has cared about 'self' in years. A terrorist organization is a good comparison. Except normally an organization has a purpose. I do not know that the Lionel has any purpose but chaos. He enjoys disruption, and he likes to fuck with people's minds and plans. For years, he's focused on his son,
now his scope is broader, but what is he after? He's already had the money, the power, the social recognition. He gave that up. Gangs want territory, to show people they are boss. Terrorists want to force their religion or philosophy. Lionel? Wants nothing of that. We cannot ascribe normal motives to him."

They soberly took that in.

"We need to follow the money trails," Hawkman finally said. "He buys chemicals and equipment that probably come through regular manufacturing, even if he doesn't do it directly. He also gets kryptonite for his experiments. There aren't so many suppliers of that."

Lex agreed. "I have the standard list of his buys, and some of his favorite combinations. We have shut down several of his operations that way, yet we have never found his base. The kryptonite..." Lex shrugged. "He likely doesn't have to buy any at all. He was the first person to start experimenting with the meteorites, he developed an early form of cloning from them over fourteen years ago, and he had a whole secret level within a factory devoted to the refinement and experimentation. Before he went underground, he could have smuggled out hundreds of pounds of it, refined and unrefined."

"Hundreds?" Wonder Woman raised her eyebrows. "I thought kryptonite was rare."

Clark snorted. "Unfortunately, not. Where I grew up, there were whole fields of green rocks."

"Why on Earth did your parents stay there?" Diana asked, horrified.

It sounded like Clark shrugged. Conner didn't turn to look. "We didn't know. I was sick sometimes, but we never knew what caused it. Not until I was a teenager did we figure out it was the rocks."

"It's only rare now," Lex put in, "because a majority of it has already been found and stockpiled. I have warehouses full of it. You can believe that my father has more."

"Stop calling him that," Clark muttered again.

Conner could hear Lex's exasperated sigh. "He is my father. Like it or not. Stop trying to make him not." He returned to the subject. "We brought copies of all that we know about his standard purchases and operations."

Hope stepped from her position and handed small datachips to the heroes. "That has all our research, and no viruses."

Oracle laughed as she pulled out a handset. "You won't mind if I confirm that right quick."

"We wouldn't expect anything less," Hope grinned as she went back to her spot.

"I'll study it and will get back to you with some plans," Hawkman rumbled. "This is not the first alien criminal I have tracked, nor even the first set of terrorists. One thing we all have to be aware of, though, is that this will get much worse. The odds are not in our favor that we will be able to take all of him out at the same time, and the rest of him will retaliate. If we bring this into the open, he will move."

Hawkman paused to draw in a long breath. "This is not a reason for inaction. He will move, regardless of what we do. He has already killed Kon-El's brothers, and he has attacked Superman. I agree with Luthor... Lex, that he will do more, and soon. We have to act and we must be as prepared as we can get."

"We have to get rid of Watchtower," Oracle repeated her earlier statement. "With her in place, he could do much damage to the League, and hinder our ability to help others."

Wonder Woman stirred. "Can you get rid of all access levels she might have left in place for others to use?"

"All of them?" Oracle frowned. "I would need time to go through the systems, and I cannot do it with her around. She would notice if I went through it in that detail. We have never done a full scan without the other also being involved." She took off her glasses and polished the lenses. "Having said that, I do know the League system intimately, and she and I have worked together on many systems. I am in there as much as she is. I know where she can not have put backdoors or traps, and that reduces the areas where I will have to look."

"Hawkman," Wonder Woman turned to him, "How long would we have after Watchtower is removed before Lionel would react?"

He grimaced. "Not long. She is a major playing piece, and while he would sacrifice her without a thought, to have her removed by us before she can be used... he will be angry. They will retaliate. Deaths. Many deaths in many areas. He will strike out against Lex, against Superman, against the most prominent of the League. He will already have plans for such, though not have reason to use them yet. It will not take him long to implement, just to coordinate. A day, maybe two."

"I can give you a few more days than that," Wonder Woman said quietly. She paused in such a way that all eyes were drawn to her. "I can get Watchtower out of the tower, in such a way that they will think nothing of it, and sequestered without contact."

"Without harming her?" Superman's voice was sharp.

"She will come to no harm on Themyscira," Wonder Woman said solemnly.

They all paused. That would certainly work for removing Watchtower. Nobody came or left from Themyscira without the Amazons allowing it. There was a delay before somebody actually asked the other question.

"How are you getting her there without alerting her or him?" Oracle was the one who finally asked.

Diana smiled wistfully. "The timing is perfect. I was about to leave for the island soon anyway, and I have gotten permission from the elders to set up a communications station so I can stay in touch while I am gone."

"Gone?" There was more than one voice asking that question.

For some reason, Conner looked to Mercy. Mercy returned his gaze with a wry twist of her lips but no words. She did, however, look remarkably unsurprised. She was probably the only one in the room unsurprised as Diana replied.

"I am moving into the next phase of my Amazonian life, and I will be on the island for the next few years."

"Years?" Again, multiple voices.

Hawkman frowned. "Can you postpone it?"

With a smile, Wonder Woman stood up. "I already have postponed it, as long as I could; longer than I should have." She placed a hand on her abdomen. "I am moving from Maiden to Mother, and my child will be born on Themyscira. We cannot leave it until she or he is at least two years old."

They all looked at her flat stomach. Nobody actually said anything, though.

She grinned a little wider. "The child has been growing within me and within another area as well, so that I could continue to serve the people as long as possible. I am seven months along, and it is past time that the child return to all of me so that we can go through this together. Watchtower will come with me to Themyscira, and none will think anything of her staying several days with us. She will not, however, return. I guarantee that."

Conner still had half of his attention on Mercy. Very slightly, she nodded, still not surprised. Then she spoke out loud. "That will work. It is normal League business, and Lionel will not suspect anything else until she does not return."

Hawkman and Oracle also nodded.

"I can get through her systems, 94% certainty, with that scenario," Oracle stated.

"It will work, but I'm still not easy with you being gone at this time," Hawkman followed his nod with a frown.

"If not this time, then another." Wonder Woman shrugged. "I should have been gone much earlier, but we had the Ylians. Frankly, in our line of work, there will always be something."

Hawkman laughed. "That is true. And something I will bring up to Shayera as soon as I get home." His smile slipped. "You will be missed, Princess."

"The communications connection will be real," Diana said, "Though I don't know how often I will be able to talk. Cassie will be the Amazonian representative while I am gone."

Mercy's eyebrows rose dramatically. The child?

We're not children! Conner replied indigently.

That's not helping, Conner, Diana grinned. "She'll do well. We have talked. I will announce my departure to the League within a few days, after our plans are firmed."

"As many plans as we can make, they will be nothing until Lionel makes his move." Hawkman warned.

"Earthquakes happen when they will, but good construction and preparation will let most people get through with minimal damage. No planning and poor construction causes disaster and ruin." Superman spoke with his rescuing experience.

"Then we will prepare. And pray it will be enough." Hawkman reached for a bottle of water. "Let's begin."

For the first time since he was rescued, Conner felt there might be a chance against his maker. He leaned forward, eager to learn how.