Justice League Go!

Chapter 7: Interlude

There were many words that one could use to describe Lex Luthor. Rich. Ruthless. Brilliant. Deceptive. Loyal. Traitor. Hardworking. Friend…father. Granted he had never been married or had children the…conventional way. Mercy had pushed him out of the way of a car when she was thirteen and he had repaid the favor by sending her to school and when she had graduated she came to work for him. Kara…well he had never had much to do with her beyond the initial planning stages. But things had been different with Conner, mostly because he had had some of Luthor's own DNA inside of him. Luthor had never actually met Conner but he had kept a close eye on all of the clone's developmental stages and had actually cried when news of Conner's death reached him.

Not long afterwards he had been approached by Vandal Savage and Dr. Thaddeus Sivana to help them create a clone in order to take down the Justice League. Blaming Superman for the death of his son he had eagerly accepted. Finding a suitable test subject hadn't taken long and soon young Billy Batson was at Cadmus. Despite himself Luthor found himself taking a fatherly interest in the boy and spending time with him. It also didn't take long for Lex to realize that the so-called janitor was, in reality, a former con artist that had followed Billy all the way from Fawcett City. It had actually taken longer to convince Dudley H. Dudley to trust him than it had Billy which was kind of ironic. Soon Lex began going out of his way to stay immersed in all stages of the planning, even going so far as to add a few of his own personal touches. The only thing he hadn't had anything to do with was when they had tested the boy's powers by putting him in a stressful environment while Lex was at a business meeting. When Lex came back it was to find three dead men literally scattered across the room in pieces and one very upset Billy. Needless to say Lex had been furious when he found out, while his partners were ecstatic over the project's success. It was then that he had decided to free Billy, but only after making sure that it went along with his plans of course. Speaking of which…

"Mercy?" he called, looking up from the Cadmus files he had been pursuing.

A second later Mercy Williams poked her head through the doorway. "Yes, Mr. Luthor?"

He sent her a disapproving look. "Mercy, how many times do I have to tell you? Call me Lex," he scolded.

"Yes, sir…Lex," Mercy blushed as she fully stepped into the room. She wore a gray striped suit, the skirt stopping just above her knees so as to show off her tanned legs and sensible black pumps. Her green eyes focused on his face while she idly ran a manicured fingernail through her long brown hair.

"Has Captain Marvel been spotted recently?" he asked with a small frown.

"No, sir," Mercy shook her head. "No one's seen him since your…ah, little showdown with the Justice League."

Lex's frown deepened. "I didn't help him escape just so the Justice League could keep him locked up," he declared.

"Is there anything you want me to do?" Mercy wasted no time in asking as she yanked out a pad of paper, her pencil poised above it as she prepared to write.

Lex smiled in pride at the beautiful young woman. It was hard to believe that she had once been a tall, gangly, acne-ridden teenager but he had the pictures to prove it. "I want you to arrange a diversion. Preferably one that the League can't handle on their own," he ordered.

"Right away, sir," Mercy nodded as she turned and headed for the door.

"Oh and Mercy? Tell Pheromone I want to see her," Lex called.

Mercy looked surprised then nodded once more before leaving the room.

"Things are about to get very interesting," Lex mused as he leaned back in his chair. "Very interesting indeed."

No one was quite sure how it had happened. One minute Wally and Shayera were talking and the next she had her hands wrapped around his throat shouting, "Die!"

"Shayera, let go of him!" John yelled as he tried to pry her hands apart.

"What did you say to her?" Diana demanded.

"Can't breathe…" Wally gasped.

"Strangling a fellow League member is not going to accomplish anything," J'onn added.

"It's going to make me feel better," the Thanagerian growled.

"Aren't you going to intervene?" Bruce asked.

Clark shook his head. "I overheard what he said. Apparently there's a hole in the wall between their rooms and…"

"I can see where this is going," Bruce interrupted. "And I'm guessing she's none too happy."

"In his defense it was an accident. He thought the hole led to outside and he was just checking to make sure we weren't going to die of oxygen shortage and the next thing he knew…"Clark's voice trailed off and he shrugged his shoulders helplessly.

"Well I hope the view was worth it," Bruce commented. "Because I'm certainly not going to try and stop her."

Clark nodded in agreement.

Fortunately for Wally his life was saved by the sound of the alarms going off.

"What's going on?" Diana asked.

"Metropolis is under attack," Bruce said grimly, looking up from the monitors.

A/N: This chapter is really more of an interlude than anything else. It's setting the stage for something later on in the story. I don't know much about Mercy like her last name or eye color or anything like that. If you have any ideas about who or what could be attacking Metropolis be my guest and share your pearls of wisdom. Hope you guys liked. Please read and review and let me know what you think!