Vandal Savage's POV
The screens on the walls of my study flickered once before stabilizing.
I locked eyes with three faces, each with egos nearly as large as mine, their presence and confidence unaffected by distance. We were diminished, three members of the Light absent on the eve of what might be our greatest triumph.
"The mercenaries have been paid and told what to expect," I announced. "Artisan dies tonight."
I was greeted with fewer smiles than I would expect from a group so self-interested.
Ra'z al Ghul was the first to speak. "It still strikes me as a bit of an overreaction to hire an offworlder and incur a debt of favor from the Witch Boy to dispose of her."
The Lord of Chaos was notably absent from the meeting. He had preparations to make for his confrontation with the sorcerer.
"There were other avenues we could have explored," he continued.
"None that would not have opened us to scrutiny, one way or another," I countered. "Despite her relative youth, Artisan is not to be underestimated. We made that mistake once when we found her."
Ra'z hummed in agreement.
"Still, it would be a shame to lose a mind that bright." Brain's feed adjusted slightly, the faint hum of machinery bleeding through the audio. "She made leaps in advancement that would have taken us decades to cross."
Queen Bee exhaled sharply through her nose. "Forget the science. This will cost me the war. Do you have any idea how difficult it will be to remove everything she touched with her blasted vow and retrain new assets?"
"An inconvenience at best," I reassured her, "especially if Luthor's plan succeeds."
"You mean gamble," Ra'z pointed out.
"Luthor will not fail," I said. "He is far too proud."
Artisan's POV
I knew Luthor was going to betray me the moment I met him. I knew all the members of the Light would. It was a small miracle we had stayed together for as long as we had.
We had different perspectives on how the world should be, and our methods did not exactly align either.
They believed in subtle politicking and repositioning, reaping massive benefits after years of quietly laying the foundation.
Meanwhile, I was direct, agile, and ruthless, almost to a fault.
It was why I had agreed to meet Luthor in his Nevada Cadmus facility. Somewhere in the desert, far from civilization, where I could snuff him out without much of a fuss and vice versa.
I was sure he had some brilliant plan to double-cross me that involved multiple mercenaries and perhaps even other members of the Light, but it did not matter. Not after all of my breakthroughs and preparations.
Luthor would die tonight, and the rest of the Light would follow after.
I sliced through the air, propelled by newly acquired Kryptonian physiology. I entered and departed the city of Las Vegas in minutes and arrived at the designated entrance of the hidden Cadmus lab.
It was tucked inside a partially collapsed rock hollow, where a section of the wall slid inward.
I circled the entrance, banking softly, leveraging my precise body control to land softly. The hollow was just large enough for a human to squeeze through upright, which I supposed was the point.
I narrowed my eyes, activating my new X-ray vision over the underground structure, and smiled at an interesting discovery. The entire facility was lined with lead, reinforced with strange disruption devices that rendered it indistinguishable from the surrounding Nevada desert.
I would have liked to flatter myself and believe Luthor had installed that specifically for me, but I knew better.
This was a trap if I had ever seen one. I wondered how far into the base I would make it before the first Kryptonite trap triggered.
A hand pushed out of my stomach, holding a transfigured human no larger than my index finger. I pulled it free and began to flood it with Curse Energy.
It grew rapidly, expanding into a human roughly the size of Connor Kent, its face an uncanny blend of Julius and the original clone.
"As promised, Luthor," I said, addressing one of the micro-cameras watching me. "Your Kryptonite meta-human hybrid."
Luthor had another thing coming if he thought I would willingly walk into that death trap.
For nearly a second, there was silence.
Then a massive pentagram appeared overhead.
It burned blood red, bathing me in unnatural light that sank into my skin and reached for something deeper, intangible. I marshaled my considerable mystical might against it, but it slipped around my curse energy. The carmine light wrapped around my soul and disrupted my ironclad control over my Curse Energy.
This was Klarion's doing. The Witch Boy.
The Light was not taking any chances.
My ocean-sized reserves spilled out uncontrollably, visibly warping the air around me. No sooner had that happened than I sensed a fist hurtling toward my head.
I did not move. I let the clone handle it.
It shot upward and caught the descending strike. The impact triggered a thunderous shockwave, and it retaliated instantly, punting my attacker back the way he came.
Before they vanished from sight, I caught a glimpse of him.
They had recruited Black Adam.
A solid choice.
I opened and closed my hand, trying to fight off the carmine light and failing. I looked back up at the pentagram, the spell completely unfamiliar. It would not last forever, of that I was sure, but it would last long enough for Luthor to complete his ambush.
"I have to wonder, how did you get around the vow?" I called out. "You certainly did not break it. Do you have a proxy doing your backstabbing for you?"
All around me, previously hidden trapdoors slid open, and figures poured out.
Some were meta-clones that I had recommended the Light to clone, but many more were Blockbuster Venom-enhanced soldiers. There was even a scattering of lesser-known villains, like Parasyte and the Terror Twins. All of them were armed with Kryptonite weapons.
"So, it is a clone then?" I said. "But who?"
Then it clicked, and I laughed at the sheer audacity.
"You cloned the only person you could completely trust—yourself."
"Congratulations, Miss Sakura. You have impressed me," a mechanical voice echoed from the trapdoors. "Or should I call you… Tomura?"
My lips pressed into a thin line. It had been over a decade since anyone had called me that.
"You have done your research."
"It pays to know your enemy," the voice replied, modulating to resemble Luthor's more closely. Above me, I heard another thunderous clash as Black Adam and the clone collided again.
"Enemy?" I feigned surprise. "I thought we were allies."
"As you said yourself in our initial meeting, we were allies of convenience. Your actions now threaten everything we have worked toward. If you surrender yourself, Tomura, I may be able to convince the others to spare your life."
That made me laugh.
"So you can humiliate me and reap the benefits of my genius?" I said. "You would have made an excellent Jujutsu sorcerer, Lex Luthor."
I smiled.
"It is almost a shame to kill you."
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