Chapter 8

***Clark pov***

As soon as I had heard Butcher say those words, I flew at top speed out of the fortress, I was easily breaking the sound barrier, making a large sonic boom after me.

I was at the hideout at no time, then I was making my way inside of it, still in my super suit.

I was greeted by Frenchie, who was with an excited look on his face, so then I asked,

"What has gotten you so excited?"

"It works!" he declared as I was making my way to the makeshift holding cell Translucent was held in, all the while I heard his voice shouting, "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?! I can't use my powers!"

As soon as I entered the room, I saw translucent, buck naked, cut and bruised in several places, while a pair of glowing cuffs were resting on his wrists.

as he sees me, his face turns hopeful for a moment, but then I turn to butcher and say, "well how did you catch him?"

he gives me his wicked smile and spoke. "Oh, that? It was quite easy, turns out, his carbon meta-material skin is highly conductive, so we had snuck up on him when he was high at his usual hangout place where the supes go to fuck and get high, and using this little friend," he says as he shows me the cattle prod in his hand.

"Then when he was knocked out, it was only a matter of finding his unconscious body and cuffing him. As soon as we did, your little thingy started to hum before he turned visible."

Then I asked, "so why is he cut and bruised?"

"Well... we needed to check he was, In fact, depowered, so we nicked him to make sure, and then we had some questions he wouldn't answer so we had to… convince him." He said the last part grinning widely.

I looked at him, and even though I was somewhat against this method of interrogation, I reminded myself of all the things Translucent had done, compare to what he had received in the original timeline, this was nothing.

So, I turn to Billy and say, "good, just try not to kill him, ok?" and with a lower voice I say, "And remember, we want him in one piece when we are done."

Billy's face had soured at that, but he nodded in understanding, but then Translucent yelled, "wait a minute! You're behind this? MOTHERFUCKER! When Homelander finds out he'll-"

But he is cut off by me, finally having enough, showing my glowing red eyes, and the red veins as my heat vision was charging at him.

This of course was a bluff, but since he probably faced Homelander with that similar gaze, it achieved the desired effect, while I said, "Homelander is but a cheap imitation of a real hero, his power is but a fraction of my own, so I would suggest you would start cooperating or you'll soon find out what real pain is."

That had caused him to flip really fast and he started to scream in horror, "Alright! I'll talk I'll talk!" with that, my eyes returned to their regular color, and I turned around.

As I did, I noticed the guys, Butcher included flinching at my action, but I gestured for them to step out of the room, after they did, I assured them that it was all an act to get the guy to talk, and nothing more.

They weren't totally convinced, but they didn't protest, instead, Frenchie and M.M made their way back to the room and started to interrogate Translucent.

I was now looking at Billy, who was returning my gaze, and I said, "I was just bluffing you know…"

"About what? About torturing Translucent? Or about you are being able to take down Homelander if you wanted?"

"The former." I said, and then I looked at my hand and said, "as to why I didn't take him down as soon as I could, was because I am still gaining control over these powers, If a fight would break out, at this point, even though I am nearly at full control, I could easily hurt someone, so I need to be smart about this."

Billy didn't say a thing after this and just went inside of the room to hear what Translucent had to say as well.

***The Deep pov- the next day***

I was just finishing my training session for today, as it turns out, after the first day, It gradually became easier and easier to practice the moves, I was even able to keep the spin of my spear for a full minute before it collapsed.

As I was getting myself dried up, I heard the doors opening, and when I turned my head, I saw that it was Homelander, with Madelyn Stilwell and some guy from P.R carrying a long object wrapped in a black cloth.

Homelander had his usual smile plastered on his face as his hands were spread to the sides and he called out, "Deep! I am so glad to see that you are feeling much better." He finished as both of his hands had landed and grasped my shoulders.

I gulped and said, "T-thank you, Homelander, I-I appreciate that."

"Good, good." He said, clasping my shoulders, and then letting them go, and then he said, "that is so good to hear, cause we'll need you to use your new abilities sooner than expected." I was taken aback by this, and as Homelander had released his Iron grip on me, he had turned around, and then Madelyn had stepped forward and handed me a script, I took it, while the guy holding the covered object had gotten closer.

After I had read through the script, I raised a brow at that and said, "you're kidding right?"

Madelyn just said, "nope," and then the guy had removed the cloth, and revealed what was underneath.

It was a silvery trident, but it was different from Aquaman's Trident, it had more thick blades, and underneath the trident part, where for Aquaman it was a simple bar, for me, it was two spikes that had protruded from the handle.

I took it, taken a few steps, and then gave a few practice swings and spins, and when I am done, Homelander gives a few claps and says, "well done, now get ready, you are up in an hour."

"Wait what?" I ask confused and unprepared.

"oh, I'm sorry? Are you not up to the task we trained you to do?"

I was gulping once again, even though I have been trained for the last few days, it was not enough to combat Aquaman, but arguing about this with Homelander was futile, he would not listen, and either kick me off the seven. Or worse…

"N-no, I am up to the task."

"Good, now, P.R will work with you on the script." And then he proceeded to walk away.

All the while I was thinking to myself, 'you know what? Maybe I do have a chance at this?'

***Clark pov***

I was in my apartment, for once, after the high stress few days I was going through I decided to take a break, I was now wearing simple blue jeans and a black T-shirt the extenuate my biceps.

Kelex was now working on a very special project for me, one that would help me in my plans, and I already called ahead to inform Bruce that the cuffs were tested and were ready to be distributed.

So I was now on the couch, Infront of the TV, when I switched a channel and it landed on a special broadcast from Vought, the reporter then said, "this just came in, after his mysterious disappearance, The deep is now making his return, while the rest of the seven are here, minus Translucent who seems to be absent, The Deep is nowhere to be found at the moment." They seemed to be in a bay area, although it was definitely not in New York, behind the reporter was a Podium, which was right on the pier.

Then she stopped, listened to her headpiece and said, "Actually, I'm being informed at the moment that they are about to start, and That The Deep would soon make his appearance, let's hear what they have to say." And then the camera zoomed in on the podium.

Sure enough, the rest of the seven were there, and Homelander had approached the mic and said, "great people of America! After traveling to the depth of the oceans, and going through grueling trials, he proved himself to be worthy of wielding the power of the artifact Known as, the trident of Neptune!"

Just then Homelander and the rest of the seven had turned around and had given a wide birth, at first, the people seemed to be confused about this, but then a sound of splashing waters was heard as the Deep had lunched himself out of the waters and onto the pier.

He landed in a pose, his trident held by his right hand to his back, while his left was to his front, all in all, he was in the classic aquatic superhero pose.

But then he stood up, and while the crowd had cheered at the display, my eyes immediately fixed themselves on his Trident.

I was shocked because they looked exactly like how Orm's trident looked in the Aquaman movie, sure it was coincident, but what are the chances?

Then The Deep spoke, "I swear, I would go down to the depth of the ocean and hunt down the one calling himself Aquaman, the great people of this nation would know piece!" he finished the last part by lifting his trident up high and making a spectacle out of this.

I immediately turned off the TV and thought to myself that maybe just wishing for Arthur and Bruce was not the best idea, but then a light bulb lit up in my head, in a world like this, there were bound to be some people who received the short end of the superpower stick, so all I needed to do was contact them.

"Kelex!" I called out.

"Yes sir?" she answered.

"See if you can find any record of some powered people who had received the worst of it? Meaning their powers are not exactly very beneficial, hack Vought if you need to."

"Understood sir." She said as she started to work.

It was time for me to submit my work, so quickly change to my civilian attire, wearing a blue Battened shirt, black pants, a lite brown jacket, and of course, my black cosmetic glasses.

I was now making my way out of the apartment and towards downtown Manhattan, I took the elevator down to the parking lot.

As soon as I had reached my car, I heard someone trying to snick up behind me, I pretended not to notice all the while preparing myself to the strike that would come, in my old life, I was actually a black belt in krav maga and karate, and it seemed that my skills did transfer along with me.

As soon as I felt the cold barrel of the gun touch the back of my head, I lifted my hands up, acting the part of an unarmed human.

Then a voice asked, "Clark Kent?"

I played the part of the terrified reporter, "Y-yes? B-but I feel you already know that."

The voice said, "I did, but confirmations are always welcomed," then he said, "I am here on behalf of Mr. stan edger, he says that the story of that Aquaman and his ability to kill Homelander is nothing but a bluff, do you understand?"

He extenuates the last part by pushing the gun deeper into the back of my head, and that is when I have had enough, I turned around fast, and disarmed him of his weapon, and before he knew it, I gave him a love tap on the head, which proceeded to knock him right out.

"And tell Mr. Edgar that he would have to try and do better than that," I said to no one since he was knocked out, but it felt good.

I then entered my car, and left the parking lot, taking good care of not running the man over.

I exited the parking lot and went on the road, it took me a little while, but I finally had reached my intended destination, the New York Times.

I entered the building and soon made my way to the bullpen, there I saw her, of course, I would recognize her immediately, I grew up watching her, it was Lois Lane, more accurately, Erica Durance's version of her.

I approached her gently and said, "Hello, are you new here as well?"

She was startled a little, and then looked me up and down before smiling and saying, "yes, just got here today," she then extended her hand towards me and said, "Lois Lane."

I took her offered hand, and shook it smiling while saying, "Clark Kent, Welcome to the times."

Soon enough we heard the editor calls out, "Kent! Lane! In my office!"

We both said, "yes chief!" and looked at each other smirking at our timing.

The editor in chief was an African American man named Morgan Smith, he was of short stature, and was dressed in what one would usually imagine an editor in chief to be dressed as.

He sat down and said, "good, glad you two had equitant yourselves with each other, now, due to no one wanting to work with you two, I'm pairing the two of you together."

"But chief-" Lois started to protest, but was cut off by Morgan saying, "no buts, you two would work together until I see you bring in results, is that clear?"

Her shoulder sagged and she said, "yes chief."

At that point, I stepped in and said, "Chief, by the way, I have the article you asked for about the new aquatic supe, the one calling himself Aquaman."

His eyes lit up, and then he said, "great! Hand me the material, it would be front-page material for tomorrow's newspaper."

I then lean closer and say, "you should know chief, Vought really doesn't want this story to gain more traction than it already did."

He seemed to understand my hidden meaning and said, "Lane, can you please leave us?"

"huh sure chief," and she left the room. As soon as she did, Morgan had looked at me and asked, "did Vought threaten you?"

I nodded my head, and then said, "they had sent a guy to try and intimidate me this morning, but I managed to handle him."

He seemed to take a moment to contemplate it for a moment, and then said, "that is concerning, I would contact our legal department to try and see what we can do."

I try and protest by saying, "chief, it's fine, I am very capable of taking care of myself."

"well, that might be the case for most cases, this is Vought we're talking about, I would suggest that after this article is released you would try and keep your head low."

'well… with what I have in mind against them, that is not much of an option.' I thought to myself as I nodded my head and exited the editor in chief's office.

I met up with Lois, and we went to our first piece together, she was trying to have an article about Superman, but before we started, I offered we would go grab some coffee and get to know each other.

When we had coffee, I started to talk, "well, I'm Clark Kent, from Kansas City, not much to tell about me, to be honest, what about you?"

She seemed to shift a little in place and then said, "I'm Lois Lane, I'm not really from anywhere, as a kid I grew up in a lot of places… military brat… dad's an army general, stepmom was an army nurse as well."

That had caught me a little off guard as I asked, "stepmom?"

She nodded saying, "growing up, I never really knew my biological mother, only thing I know about her is that she is Greek, my stepmom was the one who raised me and took care of me as if I was her own, even after my half-sister was born, she didn't treat me any differently."

"That sounds nice," I said, and then she smiled at me and said, "it was…, and what about you? Are you still in touch with your parents?"

I shook my head somberly, and then said, "they… unfortunately died a few years ago car crash…" I said to her, and her expression had turned sorrowful, she then said, "oh, I'm sorry, I can actually relate, my mom, stepmom that is, had died two years ago… cancer."

"oh, I am so sorry," I said with genuine empathy.

Then we changed the conversation, it was now about how we would get to score that interview with Superman, all the while I was trying to make myself look as meek and clumsy as possible.

***Bruce pov***

I was in my office when I heard a knock on my door and I said, "Come in!"

Then the door opened and my secretary had entered and said, "Mr. Wayne? Your 1 o'clock is here."

I said, "thank you, Sharon, let her in."

Soon enough, I saw the form of congresswoman Viktoria Neuman entering my office.

Of course, as soon as I saw her enter, I smiled, rose up from my seat and extended my hand towards her, and said, "Congresswoman, it's an honor to meet you."

She took the offered hand, smiled, and said, "Mr. Wayne, the honor is all mine."

I then gesture for her to sit, and as she takes off her coat and we both sit, she starts the conversation, "well Mr. Wayne, my assistant had told me that you had quite the offer on the phone call, so much in fact, that I had to come here and hear it myself."

I smile at that, and then I say, "Congresswoman-" she raises her hand and said, "please, call me Viktoria."

I smile at her and then I say, "Viktoria, you know that the problem with supes is not going away, and so far, it seems that the only real way of stopping them for good is to kill them.

While I can't argue against the result, here in Wayne industries we came up with a different solution." I say as I open up my top drawer, and I notice that she doesn't let her gaze move from me, and I suppress the urge to gulp, I was, after all, trained under the head of the demon.

I pull out from the drawer a metal bracelet, and I give it to Viktoria, and I ask, "May I?"

She nods her head, and then I put it around her wrist, and it quickly starts to glow blue, and I say, "this, congresswoman, is a power dampening bracelet, it works much the same as our power dampening cuffs that we are working with our legal department to distribute to the police, that way, dealing with Supe criminals would not require immediate death."

I see her expression falters for a second, but then she says, "that… is amazing! How did you come up with that?"

"oh it was something that we had worked on for a while now," then I see her try to take it off, and that is when I flush out my ace and say, "I wouldn't bother, nothing short of my voice command can take this bracelet off, or someone as powerful as Homelander to break it, but I doubt he would help you, with how much you worked to make yourself look like the enemy of Vought."

Her eyes widened as understanding dawned on her, and she said, "how did you…?"

I smile, now it is a genuine smile and I say, "It was not easy, It took a lot of digging, paying off the right people, but eventually we had gathered the evidence to figure out who the one called the 'head popper' really is."

Her face was that of shock, of course, that was not 100% true, it was Clark who gave me all that information, but I did do my own research on the matter as well.

She then said, "what is it that you want exactly? Money?"

I shook my head and said, "all I really want is you out of the way, and by the way, if by some way I will be killed, I have backups that are set to be released to the public, and then we'll see how well Vought will treat you."

She was silent, her shoulders trembling, and then she asked, "can I go? You seemed to have said all you wanted."

"Not yet, tell Mr. Edgar this, I want him to stop harassing my employees, or else he would have to deal with more than Wayne industries out stocking Vought."

She nodded her head and then left my office.

As soon as she left, I had called my tech support and said "Lucious?"

His old voice then answered, "yes Mr. Wayne?"

"Have the tumbler ready for tonight, I think I am going to stretch my legs."

"yes sir." He answered with happiness in his voice.

***The Deep pov***

I was swimming at speeds I never thought were possible before, I was making my own current and swam to where I was told my target was waiting for me.

I was excited, this was my chance to prove that I was more than just, 'the fish guy' I would finally get the respect I deserved.

I had finally reached the area, I was now swimming there, I had heard that there were people much like Aquaman that had showed up after his appearance.

I was entering the area, but then I was greeted by the sight of many guns aimed at me, before I could move, I heard them starting to charge up, and then one of them said, "By order of the king, you are to be brought in! resist, and you're to be killed on sight!"

And at that point, I puffed my chest, straightened my posture, dropped my trident and went on my knees, and yelled, "please don't shoot!" and I whimpered a little.

As I was taken by one of the guards, I noticed that he was as strong as me right now, if not stronger, then I noticed something else, I could speak underwater! Like actually talk! Maybe it was a side effect of my new powers?

I was brought out of my thoughts as I felt myself being pushed by the soldiers to an area, there, on a makeshift throne, sat the Aquaman.

One of his soldiers came to him and said, "sir, he had this on him." As he showed him my trident, his eyes were wide as he took it and examined it, then he asked, "where did you get this?"

I started to answer, "V-Vought gave it to me."

He seemed to think about this for a moment, and then he said, "you know, a friend of yours had pleaded before me to be more lenient with you the next time I see you, as a favor to her I would give you this option, trial by combat, or castration, the choice is yours."

My face paled, and I asked, "C-castration? Jesus, why?"

"that is the expectable punishment for the crimes you are accused of committing, but if you will choose trial by combat, and lose, I will kill you at the end."

I thought about it for a moment before answering, "I choose trial by combat."

A.N hey, I'm back with another chapter!

So we finally see Lois Lane in this universe! And as to why I went with the Smallville version, honestly, it was tied between Erica Durance and Elizabeth Tulloch, but ultimately I went with Erica since I felt her version would better fit with the story I have in mind.

Unto reviews.

Noahrosasa289 and reddj3012: yeah, thank you for the idea, I will be addressing them as well, in fact, that might result in new members for this world's new justice league, but I will not spoil it to you.

Irishkatana: yes, he most likely will, but I will let the story itself decide with how natural it feels to me if it will happen at all.

Also, what do you guys think? Am I being too hard with The Deep? Or not hard enough?

Let me know what you think in the comments section, and as always, you guys are awesome!

Bookwormjohnny2 out!