The Chronicles of The Trinity on Earth-10: Part One - Superman

Chapter Twenty-Three: Month Five, Part Two

Conference Room | The Watchtower, Earth's Orbit
Tuesday, February 19, 2019 | 19:34 EDT

DAY TWENTY-SEVEN

Bruce and Diana have convened an emergency meeting of the League's Senior Staff to brainstorm how we're going to apprehend Luthor, because they feel the need to be by my side at all times, for the moment.

And I don't really blame them, seeing as how when I called them, I told them that I was gearing up to make Lex's big, bald, round, shiny head turn all the way around while it was still sitting on his shoulders. And as soon as they got inside our house, they walked in on Lois sitting on the floor with me, in the living room, with her arms wrapped around me as tightly as they possibly could be, because everybody, including Lois, knows that I'm not going to endanger Lois and the twins by racing off to kill Luthor while she's still latched onto me, and she also knows that I'm not going to try to pry her off of me, either.

Why, you ask? Answer: Kara was visiting Ma and Pa with Uncle Zor and Aunt Allura, and Lex gift-wrapped a missile with shrapnel-sized Green Kryptonite shards in it, addressed it to Ma and Pa's house, and reduced it to a smoldering heap of rubble and debris. Everyone got out, but while Ma and Pa got out unscathed, thank God, the force of the explosion sent the Kryptonite shrapnel everywhere and it hit Kara, Uncle Zor, and Aunt Allura.

Ma and Pa pulled the one shard out of my cousin, and threw it far enough away that Kara could get her powers back, and Kara fought past the Kryptonite radiation and flew her parents to the Fortress, where they're being treated for third and fourth-degree burns and Green Kryptonite radiation poisoning as we speak. And Kara called me to tell me all this, the second she got to the Fortress.

So now, Lois is with me, in the conference room, and she is holding me, no matter where I go, because she knows that the second she lets go, I'm going after Luthor, and I'm not stopping until I've successfully put the biggest dent I possibly can in that chrome-dome of his.

"I mean, this is ridiculous," says Hal. "Luthor's done some crazy crapola, before, but he's crossed a line. This should be a League priority, Bruce, and you know it!"

"This is a League priority, Hal," Bruce snaps back. "But emotions are running high, right now, and instead of acting out on them and retaliating like how I know we all want to, we need to look at this from a logical perspective."

"And what would that be, Batman?" Hawkman speaks up. "Sit on our asses and wait for Luthor to try and attack someone else in Superman's family? On Thanagar, such a blatant affront would mean war."

"But does Luthor know who Superman is, Carter? That's the question I need answered before we do anything else," says Bruce.

At that moment, I hear a resounding, ringing sound, and it drives through my head which makes me cry out in pain, and put my hands over my ears. I look at Lois and Kara, and they're having a similar reaction as I am.

As the other senior staffers worriedly gather around the three of us, and I see them ask us what's wrong and if we're alright, I fight through the pain and try to get this frequency broadcast in this room, and just as I do, we all hear Luthor's voice, saying, "There are only a few people on this planet with less than four legs who are currently experiencing a splitting migraine from hearing this frequency, Superman, and that's you and your approximately six-months-pregnant wife, Ultrawoman. Though, I really should be addressing you by your real name. And I know you know that I don't mean your Kryptonian name, Kal-El. I mean the one that you were raised with, the one you've assumedly lived your whole life using in work and play, a human's name: Clark... Joseph... Kent. Which would make Lois, Ultrawoman, unless you're a two-timing, cheating bigamist, which I don't think you are.