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Terry rubbed his eyes and yawned.
ôLong night?ö Superman said, stirring his coffee on the other side of the screen. Terry looked at the screen with one eye, still rubbing the other with one hand, and nodded sleepily. ôWhat are you working on now?ö
ôHIV,ö He murmured sleepily. ôIÆm gonna make a cure for it using a combination of Crocodile Blood and Cobra Venom, but IÆm stuck on how IÆm going to convince my PR guys to let me make a commercial about a crocodile and a cobra riding to a hospital patients rescue in the Cobradile Mobile. I ran it past them a few days ago and they all looked at me like I was a crazy person.ö
ôI do that too, sometimes,ö Superman admitted, honest as ever.
Terry picked up his coffee mug and frowned at it.
ôEven so, IÆm their boss. They shouldnÆt look at me like that to my face; thatÆs what you do behind your bossÆs back. ItÆs unprofessional.ö
Superman chuckled at that, smiling easily.
ôSo,ö Terry said, taking a sip of his coffee. ôWhat happened that would make you call me from your satellite in space that IÆm not supposed to know about?ö
His friend managed to keep from rolling his eyes, but only barely. The holographic projection of the Fortress of Solitude behind him dropped away.
ôHow is it that you know about everything?ö
ôBy being awesome,ö He replied solemnly. Then smiled and shrugged. ôThough in this case I found out during the preparations for the satellites; I needed to make sure the trajectory wouldnÆt hit anything and had to run scans to see if anything would interfere with transmissions, and a bunch of other tests. One of my boys in the Science Department reported some oddities in what was supposed to be a normal asteroid, I checked it out; you get the picture. I figured you didnÆt want it known about, though, so I made sure it wouldnÆt appear on record and moved my satelliteÆs intended position just to be safe.ö
ôThanks for that,ö Superman nodded. ôItÆs not a complete secret, really; a number of government officials know about it, but we didnÆt want any of our enemies to attack out headquarters.ö
The æagainÆ went unsaid, so Terry ignored it.
ôI only brought it up because you must be really worried to have called about it from your secret base. WhatÆs wrong?ö
His friend frowned, and Terry heard a sound from off-screen that he assumed were SupermanÆs fingers drumming against something.
ôMaybe nothing,ö He said at last, though he seemed doubtful of the words nonetheless. ôThere was a record of some activity at the Prometheus Institute that I wanted to ask you aboutàö
Terry raised an eyebrow and brought his mug to his lips again, hiding them from sight.
ôIt was only for a little while and we donÆt technically have anything that points to them being suspicious, but Batman has several hunches that it may be loosely related to LexCorp, which makes me worry about what could be happening. Legally, thereÆs no reason to be suspicious, but if LexCorp is involved, people could be getting hurt. I wanted to ask if youÆd think I would be going too far if I tried to check the place out; I know I donÆt always act completely rationally when LuthorÆs involved.ö
Terry nodded.
ôI do know.ö He said, making a decision. ôDonÆt bother; I wouldnÆt put it past Luthor to have something in place to monitor you and we donÆt need him making accusations of you breaking the law. To the public, he is still an upstanding business man, after all.ö
Superman grimaced but nodded slowly, but Terry wasnÆt done.
ôI can tell you want happened anyway.ö He said, deciding to trust his friend. ôI was responsible for it, after all.ö
SupermanÆs eyebrows shot up at that.
ôTerryàö
ôWhat? You didnÆt think IÆd just stand around and do nothing after all the times you told me about Luthor, did you?ö Terry challenged. ôI couldnÆt just do nothing after all the times heÆs probably tried to kill both of us, so when I noted some weird things about Prometheus, I did a little digging. And then a lot of digging. And I did not like what I found. IÆll tell you if you promise not to do anything rash.ö
ôWhenever you make me promise that, you always follow it up with stuff that makes me want to punch someone in the face.ö
ôHence the ædonÆt do anything rashÆ part, yes.ö
Supes sighed.
ôI know. I promise.ö
ôThe Prometheus Institute was researching something they referred to as the æmetagene,Æ a natural part of human biology that allowed certain people to manifest extraordinary abilities under special circumstances. They sought to discover the secrets of this gene and figure out how to awaken it artificially, ostensibly to raise mankind as a species, though IÆm naturally dubious, given whoÆs involved. In order to aid these experiments, they kept a number of metahumans in the facility itself to test and experiment on. There were twenty cells in the Institute. All but five were empty.ö
SupermanÆs face twisted and Terry heard something crack off-screen. He continued anyway.
ôAfter I discovered this, I thought about contacting you or the League, even if, and I admit it, I didnÆt acquire all this evidence legally. After thinking about it, however, I was forced to consider the repercussions of involving you; that is, the possibility of a counter-strike directed towards you or the other League membersùor worse, your families.ö
Worry fought with anger in SupermanÆs eyes, and for a moment came out on top.
ôDo you think he might know our secret identities?ö
Terry paused, thinking about how to answer.
ôI donÆt know,ö He admitted at last. ôThereÆs no way of knowing except finding out the hard way. But he could. Superman, youÆre my best friend, and you deserve to keep your secrets. I apologize for the way I put things together in my head and if you want, IÆll just pretend to forget everything I know. But itÆs hard to keep a secret identity in this day and age, where a lock of hair, some drops of blood or saliva, or even just some shed sin are all enough to run a DNA test on. And Lex is smart, we have to admit. I hope heÆs too arrogant to see things the way they really are, but I canÆt rely on hopes. I cantÆs just assume heÆs never seen Green ArrowÆs breadùwhich went out of style before the bow and arrow, by the wayùhair color, skill with a bow, and didnÆt deduce anything from that. I canÆt assume heÆs never been able to acquire something after Batman was wounded, or managed to triangulate the movements of the Batmobile, or even just put together the likely cost of his many tools, Caucasian, height, likely body weight and age, and other factors and manage to come to the right conclusion. I canÆt assume he couldnÆt link that kryptonite filled meteor shower years ago with your age, or recognize you past your glasses. I hope he doesnÆt, but thereÆs an old married couple out in Kansas I canÆt risk on it, you know?ö
ôYeah,ö Superman said quietly. ôI know.ö
ôSelective amnesia time, then. What were we talking about?ö