Rating: T

Where else can I find this story? All five parts are on the first page of Part 5 of the original Young Justice Anon Meme on LiveJournal.

Summary: Superboy decides to prove himself to Superman by tackling Lex Luthor himself, and it all goes downhill from there. Or, the third and fourth times Superboy was caught wearing another mentor's costume. From the Anon Meme.

Author's Notes: This is the third part of a series of fills I put up on the Anon Meme, for a prompt requesting "5 times Superboy was caught wearing the other mentor's costumes, and one time he wasn't." Now that I've posted all of Part V: Hero on the Anon Meme, I'll be reposting the whole series here, although I will be doing tweaks and revisions. Please note that I started this fill in May of 2011, and as such, characterizations and plot events diverge very quickly from the show's continuity. Lex Luthor, in particular, is a very different character from the one we see on the show.

Red and Green
~Chapter One~

Masks, Part III

Superboy has super hearing, so he can hear them, even though they're whispering four rooms away. Still, their voices are low and muffled, and it takes him a few seconds to make out the words. He realizes they're arguing, and when he realizes who's arguing, his heart leaps into his throat. It's Superman and Batman.

Superman has never once visited Mount Justice since Conner moved in.

"The team runs black ops. I need them to infiltrate—

"No. The team is my black ops team. If I recall correctly, you've wanted nothing to do with them. Fine. Good. This mission is too dangerous. They're not trained yet. It's also too important. This calls for finesse and subterfuge—my strong points, not yours. If we send them gallivanting in, the whole thing is going to blow up in our faces. This isn't some fringe terrorist cult or rogue state; it's Luthor. If he catches a whiff of our involvement, he'll know we're onto him and all the work we've been doing for years will be ruined."

"I'm so sick of you treating me like an idiot. Get over yourself. Luthor is my enemy. He's from my city. I don't tell you how to deal with the Joker, and you don't tell me how to deal with Luthor."

"Fine. Go marching in yourself. Take any Leaguer you can find. Go. But the kids are my team. You don't take them anywhere."

The conversation goes silent. He doesn't know if they're still there. He doesn't dare check. But he wishes Batman would have let them go on a mission for Superman. Maybe if Superman saw him in action… then maybe… but he doesn't dare think it through, because every time he thinks about it, his stomach flutters and flies in his torso, and then it always plummets down. He turns on his side and tries to fall asleep. It's a long time before he finally dozes off.

The next day, he asks Robin who Luthor is. Robin, he thinks is the most likely to know. But apparently, they all know.

"Luthor's Superman's worst enemy. He's a corrupt business man, has his hand in all sorts of dirty business, selling weapons to rogue states, criminals, probably outright terrorists. Superman and the League have been aware of his activities for years now—Luthor's tried to assassinate Ms. Lane several times, he almost killed Superman once. He's the only person other than Darkseid who's ever made Superman bleed. Superman know's he's guilty, but Luthor's slippery, there's always a thousand middle men between him and the incriminating evidence, and he's never taken the fall. The League can't make anything stick, so Luthor stays out of jail and king of Metropolis."

"Wait," it's M'gann who asks the question, because Superboy's too startled to ask it, "Superman's invulnerable, how'd Luthor almost kill him?"

"Kryptonite," Kaldur explains. "A little green rock. We think it's from Krypton. The radiation is poisonous to Superman."

Superboy wonders when the G-Gnomes were going to teach him about that. He wonders if kryptonite could kill him too.

"Robin," Superboy says, "Batman and Superman were arguing yesterday about Luthor—they were debating sending the team in."

KF's eyes go wide open. "Seriously? They're thinking of sending us in after Luthor? Hey, maybe they do take us seriously after all."

"Wow," Robin says slowly. He's hacking into the League's files on Luthor. "This is big."

Wally's besides Robin in a second, staring at the screen. It's filled with names and numbers. "What's it mean?"

"It means… Luthor may have screwed up. Under fifty levels of dummy corporations, Luthor wrote a check to Talia." Robin says it like it's important, but for once, it's not just Conner who has no idea what he's talking about. Robin looks around in disbelief. "Talia al Ghul."

"Oooh."

"But that means, Luthor can be tied to the Shadows." Kaldur says.

"Yes. Probably."

"Probably? What probably?" Aretmis asks. "Talia al Ghul is Ra's al Ghul's daughter."

"Talia and Ra's had a break recently," Robin explains. "It may be nothing."

"What happened between Talia and Ra's?" Artemis asks.

"Talia shot at him."

"Why? I thought she loved her father," Artemis asks.

"Yeah, she does. But he was going to kill Batman."

"And?" Superboy doesn't understand.

"And, Talia likes Batman. Which, you know, is kinda creepy and weird and gross. But whatever, maybe Talia's reformed and he's just helping her get back on her feet, or more likely, Luthor can argue that he was trying to help her get away from her father. It might not be enough to incriminate him. I think the League would need to know more."

Superboy lights up. "That's why Superman needs us to go in! He wants us to get the information from Luthor."

Robin looks up. "Superman wants us to go in? That means Batman doesn't."

"Yeah," Wally answers, "But Batman didn't want us going in to Cadmus, and look how that turned out."

"No," Robin says. "Luthor's serious business. This isn't enough, and if we go in, he's going to notice. He'll know something's up. That's why Batman doesn't want us going in."

An argument breaks out. Superboy and Wally want to do it. Robin and Kaldur think they should wait. They take it to a vote, which means it's up to the girls. Artemis, after some persuasion votes nay. Then it's up to M'gann: she can tie them up if she votes yay.

Her eyes meet his. They're serious and sad.

"No."

He feels something in his gut, and he imagines that's what being punched feels like.

Angrily, he turns away and marches to his room. He slams the door shut and cracks the wall.

Hours later, a knock comes at his door. He doesn't answer.

"Superboy?" It's M'gann. "I know you're in there."

"Go away."

"Look, I… I know why you wanted to go investigate Luthor, but, it's not, I don't think it would do any good. He's either going to come around or he's not."

He doesn't answer, but he wishes he could punch a hole through the wall.

When he hears another knock, he goes up to open the door, ready to tell M'gann off, but it's Wally, suited up and ready to go. Wally rushes in and shuts the door behind him.

"So, I've been thinking. We voted on whether the team would go investigate."

"Don't remind me."

"But, we didn't vote on whether, we, as individual superheroes could go investigate."

Superboy sees where this is going. He smiles.

"See my friend, that's the beauty of loopholes."

"So, let's go."

"Not so fast—can't believe I just said that—but anyway, Batman doesn't want it to look like the League's involved. I get that. But, Luthor did some bad stuff in Central City a while ago—if the Flash and I are there, it'll look like we're there for payback, not necessarily on League business."

Wally hands him a red costume.

"Have you gotten your super speed yet?"

"I… yes, a little bit, I'm not nearly as fast as you or Flash, but, I'm getting pretty fast."

"How many miles can you run in a minute?"

"Twelve, at least for a little while."

"At your fastest?"

"Yes."

"That's so slow. But it'll do. The human eye probably won't be able to tell the difference, and it's not like Flash always runs at the speed of sound."

Superboy nods. He looks down at the red costume in his hands.

"Why do I always end up wearing other mentor's costumes?"

Wally shrugs. "Eh. Long ago I learned to stop questioning these things."

Coming alone, without telling anyone, was probably a bad idea, Superboy thinks. He and Wally are stuck, their legs mired in three feet of a substance which has been specifically designed to keep them from being able to run.

Luthor's come out, and Superboy is shocked to see a simple bald man in a business suit and tie. He doesn't look threatening at all.

"Flash and Flash Junior, eh? I had hoped the League would send Superman, or at the very least, Batman, but I did think it prudent to account for all eventualities."

"We're not here on League business. Since you came all the way to Central last year to give us a present, we thought we'd come and return the favor."

Luthor turns to KF and smiles. "Ah, and I'm supposed to take the word of a snot-nosed brat? I send the League a red herring connecting me to the Shadows, and you just happen to decide to bother me within the week?"

"You know Flash, I think I'll do you a favor. Mercy, shoot the brat."

Without a word the woman behind Luthor lifts a gun and points it at Wally's head. Using every bit of strength he has, he breaks free from the floor and bounds in front of Wally. The bullet bounces off his chest.

Luthor lights up. "Superman! You did come! But why dress up like that clown? Did you think you'd fool me? I'm hurt.

"Let me see your face. I've got a present for you and I want to see you when I give it to you."

The game's up. He removes the mask.

"Sorry Luthor, you're not worth Superman's time either."

Luthor frowns. "Superboy. Superman sends me Superboy?" But then he smiles. "What are you? His bastard? I've seen him, how he squirms around you—he can't stand you."

Superboy sees red, and he's ready to punch right through Luthor's skull, when suddenly, he feels weak; he feels pain. He's never felt anything like this. He can't stand. He thinks he's going to puke, but he hasn't got the energy.

"Did I hit a nerve, Superboy? Maybe I will give Superman a present after all. Mercy, there's been a change of plans. Knock out the Flash's brat. I want to run some tests on his anatomy later. As for Superboy, I think I'm going to give him all the attention Superman won't."

Superboy thinks he might hear Wally struggle, but he can't really hear anything. His vision is going in and out of focus.

Suddenly something hits him hard in the gut. Luthor's kicked him, hard. The guy's stronger than he looks. Again. And again.

Luthor stops. He kneels down beside him and grabs him by the hair. "I think I'd like it better if you were wearing that ridiculous S. No matter.

"You've only been around for a little while. Have you seen kryptonite?" Luthor brings the little glowing green rock to his face. It's just a tiny little sliver, faintly glowing, but the green light is blinding. "It's a little bit of home. You know, home is where the heart is. Where the S is supposed to be."

Luthor grabs him, he's barely conscious already, and begins to rip the costume open, exposing his chest.

"I've never actually seen what happens when he touches this stuff, you know," and he presses the little green rock to Superboy's chest, right over where his heart is. He screams. The shock almost startles him into awareness. He's never felt anything like this. It must be what it feels like to die. He hears sizzling. His heart is rushing. His heart is weak. His heart is failing.

"No, no, don't die too soon. I can see why Superman doesn't like you. You're weak. Probably a disappointment."

Luthor takes the kryptonite away. Puts it in a little black box. It's amazing, almost immediately he can breathe again. Within a few seconds his heart is beating as it should. Within five minutes, he can get up. He looks down at his chest, where the green rock was. There's an ugly angry scar there, his flesh has bubbled up.

"I'm going to kill you."

"Ah. So at least you have a backbone. I don't think Superman could ever do something like that."

Luthor claps twice. The lights change and suddenly the room is red. "Do you like it?"

Superboy doesn't know what Luthor's talking about. All he knows is that he's going to kill him. He runs to Luthor—slowly, the kryptonite hasn't worn off yet—and punches him in the face. Luther takes it. He doesn't even budge.

"Not very strong without yellow sunlight, are you? Weak and stupid. No wonder Superman doesn't like you."

Luthor punches him, right in the jaw, and he falls to the ground. Luthor is strong, and right now, he's weak. It's a good thing he's learned how to fight stronger opponents. He'll have to thank Black Canary later. But Luthor isn't one for losing. The minute it looks like he's not helpless, Luthor takes out the kryptonite again. And that's how it goes: for hours, it's pain and relief, pain and relief, pain and relief, until it's too much. Then it's just pain, and finally nothing.

To be continued...

Author's Notes: Few slight changes here. Got rid of references to "Young Justice" and replaced them with references to "the Team." Toned down the crazy on Lex, just a smidge.