Working On My Persona

2004 - Metropolis, Kansas - LexCorp

With Lionel Luthor in prison with a degenerative liver disease and the Luthors taking the heat for the crimes committed by LuthorCorp, Lex was forced to liquidate most of his investments in order to be able to afford his new company LexCorp.

Over the years, he has survived despite the odds. Because he was able to avoid staying in Smallville, he had significantly less interaction with meteor freaks and the typical Smallville danger. There was the odd kidnapping and assassination attempt here and there, but he is ultimately still alive.

Lex is accused of killing a woman, and without Clark helping him, he received severe burns and had to undergo reconstructive surgery and skin grafts to recover. The screams from his burning body are what caused the bodyguards to come running and using the curtains to smother the fire. This scandal harmed Lex's ongoing projects by further damaging his already awful reputation. His upward mobility in the business world was slowed by this scandal.

2004 - Smallville, Kansas - Kent Farm

I spent most of the weekend going closer than ever near the sun, meditating by sorting through my memory. I've finally figured out a mind palace technique and sorted all my memories of my past life, Smallville and DC canon, and sorted all the years I've spent here. The easiest information to sort was the downloads from the fortress as the information and training seemed to be compartmentalized or at least fragmented in a manner where it was easy to detect how it was sorted considering all of the data was accumulated at the same time (didn't have to worry about other memories getting mixed up with the downloads). At this point, my brain works like a far-in-the-future supercomputer, especially when factoring in the Speed Force.

I've spent the rest of the weekend practicing heat vision to the point where I'm able to perform targeted laser surgery on something if I want to. I can also flood the energy like when Clark did in canon when he evaporated the collapsed flood waters from a dam.

I've refused to get involved with Lana Lang beyond a solid friendship. Pete Ross didn't leave town on bad terms because he wasn't carrying the burden of my secret with him, but he still ended up in Wichita due to his mother getting a new job - which ended up being a good thing because he was the one who didn't seem to buy my new geeky Clark Kent civilian persona. Chloe Sullivan is also clueless and never learned my secret because Alicia wasn't there to expose me.

All of my yearbook pictures have all included horn-rimmed, dorky glasses, business casual attire similar to Brooks Brothers, and unkempt hair. In other words, they've matched what I wear all the time. It's better than wearing blue-and-red outfits 24/7. I don't know how the hell the whole world didn't figure out Clark was the Red-Blue Blur considering Clark wore nothing but red-and-blue and was suspiciously always at crime scenes or assisted people when they asked Clark for help.

I've been doing my saving only in costume to avoid any "Why is Clark Kent always at crime scenes?" trope. And when I'm with people and unable to get away without being weirdly suspicious, I do the save in super speed and come right back to where I was with no one the wiser.

For the past few years, our farm has eliminated our debt using my improved speed to utilize all of the land owned by the Kents (which includes the back 40 acres). With the increased income comes better farm equipment, an addition added on the home to accommodate all of the people that keep coming to the Kent farm, and any worries about paying for college is an afterthought (especially considering how much money I've saved writing as a contributor for the Daily Planet).

I'm not a full-time reporter, even though they've offered me a contract, because I prefer not to have regular hours while I'm finishing high school and all of my college classes.

I've had the Fortress construct special watches connected to the fortress to monitor them when I'm not around. I helped design them to be like a signal watch that Jimmy Olsen used in the comics. It sends out a signal only I can hear so I can get to their location. In addition, I've had a more advanced watch with an AI named Kelex that's connected to the fortress and collaborates to assist my work and help me multitask in my very busy life.

I've used Kelex to play the stock market and amassed a small fortune. I've been investing in companies like Amazon and Google before they blow up in value in the future. I've also bought stock in Queen Industries, Wayne Enterprises, Lexcorp (bought stock when they tanked after Lex's many troubles), Palmer Technologies, Ace Chemicals, Big Belly Burger, and a few other major companies to diversify my stock portfolio.

I purchased the old theater and surrounding shops and buildings and turned it into The Talon. The venue is much bigger and holds concerts, has a media bookstore (like Barnes & Noble), and is now the go-to place in Smallville. I bought out the competing coffee shop when they went out of business and turned it into a small diner that is affiliated with The Talon, I've named it The Talon's Catch. Martha Kent uses her business degree to manage these stores.

After Queen Industries cleaned up the meteor rocks, I chased down any storage facilities with kryptonite and absorbed the radioactive properties of the kryptonite, turning the green stones to clear stones (like when Clark's ship turned Lana's necklace clear). I've broken into LexCorp facilities to neutralize their storage of kryptonite as well. Even though kryptonite doesn't hurt me, it does have mutagenic properties that turn people into mutant freaks that rage throughout the town of Smallville.

Whenever I've had free time, I've combed through every inch of Smallville to double-check areas that have been cleaned up by Queen Industries to ensure all kryptonite has been removed from the earth. When cleaning up the kryptonite, I've vaporized parts of the surrounding dirt to ensure no contaminated dirt or spores or mutated nature escaped my notice. I paid close attention to any sources of water and cleared them of kryptonite as well.

Kryptonite is very rare at this point. Whenever it mysteriously appears in civilian's hands (e.g. through sale of snowglobes, etc.), in super speed, I absorb the radioactive energy to neutralize the kryptonite.