Log for Sirenspull -- The Batcave

Clark had always been reasonably good at building things; at the very least putting them back together. Back in Smallville he'd been to dozens of barn-raisings, sure, but most of his experience came from a childhood, growing up destroying the things around him - by accident, mind - and rebuilding them. Barn doors, the barn roof, entire stairways, banisters, and at one point most of his home after a huge meteor ripped through it. Just three years ago now he'd spent night after night in Metropolis fixing things that needed fixing, steadying houses and bending tracks back into shape, healing a city that he blamed himself for destroying.

So it was, all in all, expertise that came in handy when he was buiding a Batcave. He had Bruce's plans burned out onto the cave floor, and most of the process was coming along just fine. Computer equiptment let go for free at an office sale a few weeks back was set up in a vast semi-circle, raised on a plateau away from the main floor of the cavern, and heavy cables scavenged from about the city lay down behind it, waiting for Clark to connect them to the main electricity line--an impossible job for anyone but the invulnerable and electricity-manipulators.

Nearby, underneath a spotlight which would only come on when the electricity was connected, was a three year old Yamaha motorbike; second-hand, and with scratches all the way down one side where it had been violently crashed by its previous owner, and then dragged along under a truck. Unsurprisingly, the rider had given up his hobby shortly after that, which meant Clark had been able to pay a really good price--ergo he could afford the yellow ribbon that he'd wrapped around the belly of the beast.

Billionaires didn't belong on the subway. It was a fact of life.

Now all he needed was Bruce to actually turn up, so that he could connect the lights and surprise him. He was usually on time... Right?

Log for Sirenspull -- Clark and Jason

Clark:

Clark wouldn't usually jump from a face full of splinters. Usually. But this face full of splinters more caught him by surprise than caused him any harm. He stared at what had been a door a moment before, just as Jason's feed came through it and struck him in the chest--and, well, he ended up having to physically step backwards just to give his attacker some natural progression to his attack.

Back out in the alleyway now, Clark sidestepped and swung around, squinting curiously at the outfit.

Felt like Jason, that attack. And after last time on the balcony, it could be. But if it was? If he was losing the precious moments he needed to prove that he needed to conquer his weakness rather than ignore it?

Deliberately, he swung at him and missed, fist whistling past Jason's ear.

Jason:

Jason thought he felt hesitation in his attacker for a moment before he fixed his stance. He knew that it wasn't a monster, from the feeling of a solid chest underneath his heels just a moment ago. It narrows the field somewhat, but there were likely thugs who wanted his head if they were part of Mask's entourage. So, he didn't waste the opportunity given by the sound of the fist passing just by his ear.

Immediately, on instinct, he reached underneath the arm, the heel of his hand aiming for Clark's ribs. As well, the vigilante's already planning the move after: a sharp twist and elbow to his assailant's spine. That is, if he lands the first blow.

The whole thing, though, honestly reminds him of training under Egon, how he learned to maim and kill with his own two hands and how that had seemingly turned his father against him. The only person who had ever lo---- focus Jason.

Log for Sirenspull | Bruce-Clark

Bruce

Bruce couldn't tell what he was thinking about, but there was no doubts that it had something to do with Luthor. And his own mind immediately went back to the differences between the Clark he knew and this one- that Clark knew Luthor for a year at most, and Luthor had been a scientist, a genius that the school had all rejected simply because of his caustic nature, his inability to work within his system, his lack of support leading to the complete lack of power behind any of his words and ideas.

He wondered what the Lex Luthor of Clark's world was like. Clark had changed, and if he followed again the rules of the narrative, then Luthor had to have changed as well. Was he still a scientist? Was he still too brilliant and without any sort of goodness or morality to use his wealth and intelligence for the good of the people around him? Would he still bankrupt his company by at least five billion per month in order to kill Superman?

Very much likely. Bruce frowned a little, and turned his thoughts back to Superboy when Clark asked about him.

Dd he believe in him? He couldn't say; not exactly. Bruce didn't know him enough, and the only people he believed in outside of his family could be counted on one hand - Clark, Diana, Kara, Jason Blood, Kyle. J'onn would be on the list, as would Barry- but they were dead, and Barry had been dead for a very long time.

But Conner proved himself when he died for the universe. Maxwell Lord, Superboy-Prime and Alexander Luthor Jr. The near-undoing of the universe, the creation of the Multiverse- which eventually led up to Clark's loss of powers (and Kal-El, who had once given up on the world, whose wife was dead, who was older and more tired and more alien than the Clark that Bruce knew and believed he would ever become) and Conner's death. The statue of Superboy in Metropolis.

Did Bruce believe in him? No. But Bruce's trust was hard to gain, even after the lesson he learnt after the Brother Eye. His opinion was based upon his own experience and thus unreliable. What would be best was to give Clark the facts.

"He died to save the universe."

It was an answer. Not a direct one, but an answer, nonetheless.

Clark

One day, Clark would actually wage war against the topic of his relationship with Lex to Bruce, starting from that first day - the day he'd discovered his invulnerability - all the way through to the day where he had gone to confront Lex after the bomb on top of the Daily Planet building, only for the truck he was in to be blown to kingdom come right in front of him. Oliver's work.

Of course, there were a thousand questions about Bruce's world, about Bruce's Lex, that had never even come up in conversation. The questions that only seemed important in the right moment, such as Conner Kent.

He died to save the universe.

Well, to be fair, that was one thing that he and Lex could agree on. Whatever their personal differences, their feuds, the good of the world and its safety came first. Well... In their own ways. Clark still believed that Lex was well intentioned, even if his methods were misguided. Even if there was evil in his heart. There was part of him that believed that in some small way, Lex was the balance, the reminder that he needed, that kept him stalwart and true on the path of heroism. And part of him believed still that somehow, some day, Lex could find redemption. That maybe Clark could save him.

Of course, nobody else had understood his need to save him. Oliver had thought he was doing Clark a favour killing him, accused him of being too weak to do it himself. And it had torn him apart. Others had accused him of the same thing, and once even he had looked at Lex's recovery only as a way of saving Kara, and not because he actually felt that Lex deserved to come out of his coma.

Yes, Clark's inaction had led to the deaths of people who wouldn't have died otherwise. Not stopping Luthor meant that the blood of those people was on his hands. But... The ends just didn't justify the means. If saving those lives meant taking another, it didn't make it his choice to make.

He noticed that Bruce's answer was evasive as ever, but he was grateful. Maybe it wasn't the answer to his question, but it was what he wanted - needed - to hear.

"Then he can't be all that bad, can he?"