LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 21 – Superman’s Birth and Luthor’s Conviction
Inside Luthor’s private office in LexCorp Tower, Matthias is reading the logs on Luthor’s personal computer. He is tracing the logs with the mouse, clicking on logs after logs after logs.
“Hmmm, very curious...” Muttered Matthias.
Matthias kept on reading them, the research logs dating of a few years ago, detailing some research of an unknown alien object.
[Research Log: June 21st, 20**
Unknown ship-like object retrieval from the U.S. Military research base. Object was extracted from Smallville, somewhere around June 20th, 19**. General Lockheed cooperation necessary to extradite said object.]
[Research Log: June 24th, 20**
Beginning operation. Identification of object necessary. Object is planned to be reverse engineered.]
[Research Log: June 29th, 20**
Reverse engineering process failed. Object did not budge. Unknown metal components are to be researched.]
[Research Log: July 4th, 20**
Happy Independence day. Successfully reverse engineering the object, though only small part of the object can be opened. We believe we cracked open some sort of fuel tank, and inside were several unknown minerals, one of which are a lot larger than the other: the mineral is a green crystalline mineral, materials are alien, emits unknown radiation. Unable to determine hazard level. Proceed with caution.]
[Research Log: August 27th, 20**
Successfully extracted several data from the object. Data retrieval in unknown language, hard to decipher. One word remains constantly voiced during the extraction: “Krypton”. Petition to name the unknown green mineral as “Kryptonite”.]
[Research Log: September 14th, 20**
Ready test for the Kryptonite, storing mineral in safe area. Keep the security tight around the storage.]
Matthias has been reading all these research logs one by one while simultaneously backing them up to his drive. He needs to bring all these new information back to his safe house study all these research logs.
Matthias then skipped ahead and read the logs that were dated on this year...
[Research Log: March 3rd, 20**
Roswell called in, testing of the shuttle complete. Had to fire several incompetent engineers for the failed calculations, but the spacecraft is ready for launch. Expected to open the project in due months.]
[Research Log: March 16th, 20**
Schematics are safely stored. The data extracted from the alien object has been proven useful. Use of new technology to dominate Space is possible.]
...
“Are you kidding me, Luthor!” Yelled Matthias unconsciously.
Matthias is not actually surprised; in fact, he knows that Lex Luthor is always mostly depicted as a supervillain in most of the DC stories. He does not know much about his backstory, as well as how he was able to obtain the famous/infamous Kryptonite.
This is what kind of surprises him; was the fact that Luthor has actually obtained the Kryptonite, and then the fact that Luthor was planning for Space domination...
‘Hmmm, if I can steal most of Luthor’s plans and schematics, I can perhaps build a future space fortress, like the ‘Justice League Watchtower’.’
Matthias dreamed of building his own space fortress that may help act as Earth’s line of defense should there be any planetary threats approaching.
Matthias then completed his info extraction on Luthor’s office. But before he disappears...
“I wonder if he has some sort of secret compartments or secret rooms and the like in his office...” Thought Matthias as he proceeds to boost and enhance his intelligence stat, and then using his mask’s detective vision to thoroughly search around the room.
*Touch* *Touch* *Touch*
Matthias was making sure he’s not missing any spot... Until...
“Gotcha!” --- there was a secret vault behind one of Luthor’s bookshelves. It is a small vault with a simple round shaped time-lock mechanism. Matthias enhanced his focus and focused on his hearing senses.
Tick tick tick noises echoing in the silent room, and it took five minutes for Matthias to open the vault lock. Matthias then opened the vault, and he sees several pieces of gold, money stacks, and a transparent glass container with a small piece of green crystal within.
“Kryptonite!” Matthias exclaimed as he took the glass and carefully put it on his satchel on his utility belt. “Funny how he kept this Kryptonite in a totally breakable vault...”
Matthias closes the vault, cleaned the evidence of him, wiped out the schematics and research files and the like from inside Luthor’s hard drives and cloud drives, and then proceeded to go out. Matthias don’t want Luthor to use these alien data for himself.
“Mission accomplished. Time to head back and study my findings...”
~
Meet Jenny, a twenty six (26) years old young woman working as a personal assistant for Metropolis’ multi-billionaire conglomerate, Lex Luthor.
She’s currently confused with today’s state of affairs; from the space shuttle designed and made by Lex Luthor himself having a faulty and nearly crashed, the appearance of a man capable of flying and carrying the shuttle back to the ground safely, and LexCorp Tower suddenly having a break-in from, described by the guards of the Tower, a ghost... no, they said it was a Wraith.
The situation is weird today, but Jenny needs to report this news to her boss.
“Mr. Luthor, there has been a break-in in LexCorp Tower this afternoon.”
“What?! Just what the hell happened today...” Lex Luthor grabbed his head and lightly shook.
Luthor was thinking about how unlucky he is for today. The situation at NASA was dire, as he needs to explain what happened to the masses about why the shuttle failed to safely launch.
“It is them! Those damned engineers I fired a few months back!”
Luthor was mumbling all by himself, and Jenny can only watch as she wait for her boss to finish whatever he’s doing.
“And that flying man... who is he... a god?”
Luthor’s mind is all filled with questions regarding this man; a savior in red and blue spandex and red cape. Luthor kept remembering the cheers of some of the crowd when the man saved the shuttle.
“A man with super power!” one of them yelled, and the other follows, “It’s a super man!”, “A super heroic man!”, “the super hero!”, “A super man!”, ...
It kept on continuing until the crowd all collectively and unanimously cheered one name: “SUPERMAN!”
Luthor hated that name; a name that seemed to not fit the criteria of a human. A super man? A man with super abilities rivaling a god?
‘No,that was no god... there’s no god... only humanity. That power he has is a threat for humanity.’
Luthor then composes himself, and looks directly at his assistant.
“Jenny, tell me what happened at the Tower.”
“Yes, sir.” Jenny pulled out her notebook detailing the information she got after receiving the news about LexCorp Tower having a break-in. “Sir, I’ve compiled the detailed info about the reports. If I have to summarize; the one responsible for the break-in left no trace whatsoever in the building, capable of fighting multiple guards in mere seconds, and seems to be able to move like a ghost. One of the guard captain said that the intruder called himself as “Wraith”.
Luthor stayed silent for several seconds before humming in acknowledgement.
“Have you found out what’s missing, or what has been destroyed?”
“No sir, but they said the intruder did somehow entered your private office, but we have yet to know if there’s anything disturbed within the Tower.”
“I see...” Luthor gave the notebook back to his assistant, and then he fixed his suit and walked, “Let us go back.”
~
Matthias sat down in front of his computer, put his USB drive in, and started typing on the keyboard.
His monitors shows several logs, research files, and schematics taken from LexCorp Tower; schematics of the shuttle and the ship-like alien object, several future projects in forms of weapons and structures, and lastly the Kryptonite.
Matthias enhanced and boosted his intelligence, again, and started studying everything he has taken.
“Amazing... Luthor is indeed a true genius. To think that he’s able to reverse engineer this alien technology; and it was the Kryptonian technology at that.”
Matthias inwardly applaud of Luthor’s achievements. To be able to reverse engineer a new technology completely alien to the human race isn’t a task anyone can pull off. Moreover, he’s able to recreate the technology that can be utilized for human use.
Sadly, Luthor is an egomaniac, not someone who would use his skills and abilities for the good of mankind.
But Matthias knows that Luthor is not a totally villainous character.
“I read the ‘Injustice’ series... Luthor was a good guy in that version of the comic. I think, deep down, Luthor is actually a reasonable character. Now the question is: Can I make him an ally of Justice in this world?”
Matthias pondered as he kept studying the schematics. He then looked at the news broadcast of today about how a super man had saved the falling space shuttle from Lex Luthor’s commercial spaceflight project.
“The plan is going well, now I just need to monitor Superman, and then do something with these researches.”
Now, Matthias will need to increase his own personal resources, away from the Wayne’s financial bookkeeping. Matthias need his own shadow bank account, maybe?
“Well, I can think of that plan for later...”
New Mission: Study the research and schematics of Luthor’s research, create an anonymous bank account for personal funds, and increase power.
“It’s time to get more serious.”