Chapter 5

***Clark pov***

soon after the Mayor and his soon had woken up, I contact Bruce and told him that I need his skills in creating new identities for them for the time being.

Since he is also new to this world, it Is quite hard since he doesn't have his usual contacts to help him. But then again, he is Batman, so he does find a way, even though it will take him longer than usual to do so.

When Frenchie and M.M found out I was actually an alien, both of them had questions, Frenchie more than M.M, especially regarding the weapons krypton had, I tried to give him as many answers as I could while also not revealing too much and let him try to develop his own versions of those Kryptonian weapons.

Soon enough, we had left the safe house when Bruce had sent Alfred there to tend to our witness, I also informed Butcher and his Boys that the new supe Aquaman was actually someone we can work with.

Billy had returned a day after he left, a big smile on his face, I'm guessing seeing his wife for the first time after 8 years did a good thing for him, and her. Of course, he wasn't really happy with Ryan, but he kept reminding himself that it wasn't his or his mother's fault that he was born.

When he came there, I already started to devise a plan to get them out of Vought's custody and put them in my fortress, I already remembered that the boy had powers and wasn't like his father, so I had a plan for him.

And Bruce was not being idle as well, I already saw several articles on him, the surprising genius that had developed an exoskeleton, sold it to the police and also the military, helping to push back the bill for supes in the military Vought had tried to pass.

And of course, there were my actions of saving the plane, Vought had tried to claim that their supes had saved the day, but then the objectors had said that I was a freelancer supe that had actually saved the plane, while Vought's supes just watched as I did all the heavy lifting.

So now Vought's stock had started plummeting, while Wayne industries began rising. A fortunate coincidence, if you ask me.

Of course, I took advantage and bought a small share of the stocks, I needed money after all, not too much, but enough, I still hadn't had any luck getting a real job as a journalist, but then again, I was kind of preoccupied.

Doesn't matter, now my fortress was finishing assembling the first pair of the power dampening cuffs, all the calculations seem to suggest it's working, but I didn't have someone to try it on, so I didn't submit it to Bruce yet.

Then I remembered something, there was one member of the seven I can try it on, but taking him might be a risk.

I have Kelex call Butcher, and when he answers I say, "Butcher, I have something that might help us, but I am going to need your help."

"What is it?" he asks, and I smile while saying, "don't worry, if it works, you're going to love this." I then hang up the phone and start forming a plan.

It is the next day when I go to the hideout of the Boys, I show them the prototype of the power dampening cuffs I developed. Frenchie looks at it with curiosity written all over his face, and after I finish explaining he asks, "and you sure this is going to work?"

I shrug my shoulders and say, "not really, it hasn't been tested yet, and since my powers work differently than those supes, I can't really test this on myself."

This gets all of their attention and M.M asks me, "and why is that?"

"well, unlike my powers, theirs are artificially given to them, while mine is a natural byproduct of my spices' evolution." At their confused expressions, I start to explain everything I know about Compound V, and its effects.

Everyone, except butcher, is shocked at what I had just to tell them right now, now Frenchie's eyes are wider than before when he looks at the cuffs, and he asks, "so if you have all this evidence against them, why not publish this to the media? You are a journalist after all, no?"

"Well, I would, but there is this supe that has the idea to blow up people's heads, I am not going to make a play until I know I can neutralize them before I publish this."

Now Frenchie nods his head in understanding, and he says, "Oui Mon Amie, it is not recommended to do that."

Then M.M steps in and says, "well, if that is the cays, who did you have in mind?" I smirk and say, "Translucent."

They all look at me like I had lost my mind, and Butcher gives a hardy laugh and says, "mate, I knew you were something else, but this is on a whole other level."

"well, does that mean you are in?" I ask with a grin.

"abso-fucking-lutly mate!" M.M and Frenchie however, seemed terrified from the thought itself.

We were about to formulate a plan, when all of a sudden, my super-hearing picked up the sounds from the computer on the other side of the room.

I turn my head towards it, and when everybody looks at me questionably about that, I tell them, "my super-hearing had picked up something from the computer."

Frenchie and Billy look at each other for a moment before realization dawned on them, and they both exclaimed, "the bug!" and ran to the computer to check it out.

We Frenchie had increased the volume in order to hear better, we heard someone walk in the room, and then the voice of the deep went through our computer.

Everybody was silent when we listened intently, all of us wishing we could watch it in real-time, and then as if reading my mind, one of the screens lit up with the image of Homelander, the deep and Madlyn Stilwell all together."

"what the hell?" asked Butcher, and then Kelex answered, "I took the liberty of accessing to Vought's security feed sir, though it might help you."

"thank you kelex, it does."

Butcher just gives me a look that says 'you will explain this to me later.' And we resume watching the video.

Then we get to the part of them injecting the deep with something, and immediately know what it is. A modified version of compound V, specifically made to add and increase certain abilities. Though I had only read of this online in my previous world, and I knew, I messed up.

Then the deep started to scream, we saw him doubling over, and since he now was closer to the bug, we heard him throwing up, and then we saw the nurse rune up to him while seemed he was passed out.

We're all looking at the video feed in shock and then Butcher asks me, "care to explain what the fuck did we just watched?!"

I'm shaken out of my stopper, and I say, "if I had to guess, they injected him with a modified version of compound V."

"why modified?" Frenchie asked.

"well, if it is not modified to a specific purpose, it acts more like a special supe steroid, but if you modify it, it can give you additional powers, on top of increasing the one you already had."

"Fucking diabolical." Butcher muttered under his breath, and then I said, "I need to warn Aquaman about this."

"Where is he right now?" asked M.M.

"Probably in the Bermuda triangle, trying to build his city in that area."

They looked at me with dumbfounded expressions on their face, so then I turned around and said, "Kelex?"

"Yes sir?"

"Contact Aquaman and inform him of what we just saw, if there is possible trouble coming his way, he should be aware of it."

"Yes sir, contacting him as we speak."

I let Kelex do its thing, while in the meanwhile, I turn towards Butcher and say, "by the way, that was Kelex, it's my own personal operating system I use in my fortress."

"Then what does it do here?"

"Well… it kind of has a mind of its own at times."

"Well… thank fuck for that, now, I think with everything that has been going on, it is best to accelerate our plan of getting my wife to a safer place. Don't you?"

I nod my head and say to him, "how about tonight?"

"Perfect."

"Good, you and the Boys get the things ready, I need to do this one thing and I'll join you as soon as you'll ready."

"Understood."

I then left the hideout and went to my apartment, changed to my civilian attire, and went to work, right now, there was a press conference by Vought, so that did not require Kal-El the Superman, it needed something a little more covert, it needed Clark Kent the reporter.

This was different from the original timeline, but then again, anything at this point had become different from the original timeline, so all I could do was wait and count on my meta-knowledge, but I also needed to play my part.

I had my press pass and went through security and was with the rest of the press while on the podium stood, Homelander, translucent, Maeve, Starlight mow in her more revealing outfit, A-train, Black noir, and Madelyn Stilwell.

The Deep of course was not there, probably in one of Vought's hospitals after the ordeal we witnessed on the video.

Just then, Homelander stepped up, approached the microphone, and said, "ladies and gentlemen of the press, due to the threat of this new supe villain calling himself The King of the seas, the Aquaman, the deep had now embarked on an underwater journey to retrieve an item that will help us fight him better, until then all contact with him had been cut off for the time being."

At this point, every journalist began swarming them with questions, of course, this was answered by practiced ease by whatever Bullshit their P.R department had set up in advance for them to spout off.

But I was not going to let them just get away with it, so It was time for me to act. I raised my hand and got picked, so then I said in my practiced Clark Kent voice, "Clark Kent, new York Times, do you have any comment on the theory that is running around that Aquaman's trident, is actually an old relic called the trident of Poseidon, and said to be able to even pierce through your skin Homelander."

I see him looking at me, but glad I did not wear my suit under my clothes, so he looked at me, but I had my posture changed beforehand, and I kept acting like my glasses were constantly falling off.

Before Homelander Could answer, however, Madelyn Stilwell had stepped forward and said, "I believe we had answered enough questions for today, Vought appreciate you all coming here today, thank you!" and they started walking off to the audible dismay of the press.

While they walked off, I couldn't help but smirk on the inside, knowing I had gotten under Vought's skin with that question.

I started making my way back when I saw starlight making her way back, so I approached and asked, "Annie?"

She looked at me and asked, "Clark? From the park the other day?"

"Yes, how did I not see you are starlight?"

She smiles and says, "honestly, I am glad you didn't." she said in a sadder voice than she intended. She then looks at me and asks, "so, you're a reporter."

"Ah, yes, New York times actually." She nods her head and says, "well Clark, it has been good seeing you, but I have to go."

I see my chance and before she goes I say, "wait!" she turns towards me with a questioning look and I say, "well if you're not too busy, how about we have some drinks? And maybe something to it?"

She looks at me with a look and I quickly add, "not as a reporter or anything, just as friends."

I see a smirk creeping his way onto her face and she says, "well… since you asked so nicely… how can I say no to that?"

"Great, so how about tomorrow? At 19:30 P.M?"

"Sounds good, meet me here?"

"sure thing," I say as I raise a thumb up. She gives me one last smile and walks off.

I am now making my way back to my apartment, I actually have to start writing this piece for The New York Times, that was actually not a lie, I had gotten there on a trial period.

***Homelander pov***

I had walked in the seven's room and turned towards Madelyn and asked through clenched teeth, "how the hell did that roomer start of about that Aquaman's Trident?"

Madelyn looked at me, and she started to say, "don't worry about that, we will make sure that roomer is quickly snuffed out."

"Umm… about that… it's going to be a challenge." Ashly said as she walked in the room, looking at her phone, an expression of doom plastered on her face.

"What do you mean?" Stilwell asked and I could feel my blood starting to boil at this.

"It's trending everywhere, on every social media platform, they say that our refusal to answer just proves it to be true, others like modern-day Greco Roman worshipers claim him to actually be Poseidon reborn, and some even say that the deep is an escaped criminal from Atlantis that now the king had come to hunt down and bring back to Atlantis."

'Fuck! How did things get so out of hand? If we don't take care of it soon, we'll lose the public's love… I'll lose the public's love.' I turn to Stilwell, "how are you going to take care of this?"

She answers, "As soon as The Deep wakes up, and if what we gave him will improve his abilities, I will have P.R take care of this for us." I just nod my head at that, then I think about the man who started it all, Clark Kent, at first, he reminded me of that Bastard Superman, but not only was he not him, but he also held himself differently, no way a man as powerful as Superman would hold himself like that.

And then Stilwell said, "not only that, but thanks to Superman, and that upstart Wayne industries, we can now kiss that contract with the ministry of defense goodbye, what did you tell him?" she directed that last question towards me, I tried to shrug it off by simply saying, "it was nothing!" so then she turned towards Ashley and said, "leave us." And she quickly did.

Now she turned towards me and said, "Homelander…." I give in and say, "ok fine… after we had safely put the plane back on the ground, I just told him to remember who the big shot is around. here I didn't want him getting confused."

She has a deadpan look on her face, "oh no… you didn't…"

"What? How could I have known it would and in this way?"

"You should have thought of that! Now I have to go and explain it to MR. Edgar that we had lost out on a 100 million dollars' worth of contract thanks to your reminder to Superman."

I had paled at this, nobody was messing with MR. Edgar, not if they wanted to keep doing hero work, and keep reaping the benefits.

'And all of that Is Superman's fault.'

***Clark pov***

it was nighttime, and butcher and the boys had stood outside of the facility that Vought was using to hold Becca and her son as captives.

I was making my way down there slowly, and when I did, I noticed the drapes of the front window closing, and slowly after that, the front door opened slowly revealing Becca picking her head outside of it.

As soon as she saw me, she visibly relaxed, Butcher had told her about me and the plan we had made, I came towards her and as low a voice as I could I said, "Mrs. Butcher, It's time, do you have your bags ready to go?"

She nodded her head and said, "yes, but Ryan has no idea what is going on, I haven't had the chance to tell him yet…"

"well, I'm afraid we are out of time, it is now or never."

She nodded her head and said, "Alright, just give five minutes to make him up and get ready."

I nod my head and she quickly goes inside the house, and not too long, she comes out, holding her bags, her son, Ryan, still shaking the sleep off of his eyes, looks at me and stops in his place.

Rebecca notices this, turns towards her son, and says, "it's ok Baby, he's here to help. Come on let's go." she says as she reaches her hand for him to take, and he does. Soon enough, she comes up to me and asks, "what did you do about the guards?"

"don't worry, we had this taken care of, now hold on," I say as I grab hold of both her and Ryan and I start flying us off of the area and towards where Billy and the boys are waiting for us.

As soon as we land, Becca takes a minute to steady herself, while Ryan just looks at me with awe written all over his face.

Soon enough, car lights are turned on, and I can see Becca tense up for a moment, before Butcher's face is revealed, and he runes towards her, and gives her a big hug. Almost as if he's afraid that if he'll let go, she won't be there.

He then turns towards Ryan, at first, he waited, then he crouched down Infront of him, gave him a big smile, and said, "Hello there Ryan, I'm Billy, it's nice to finally meet you." He says that when he extends his hand for Ryan to take.

He hesitates for a minute but then takes his hand and shakes it, then Billy stands up and says to her, "get in the car."

"Where are we going, Billy? You still haven't told me that."

"All I can say for now is that it's somewhere safe, I don't know where it is exactly."

"So, who does?" she asks as they get in the car.

"I do," I say as I start to slowly crouch down under the vehicle and levitate it away, which results at first some few scared yelps.

It takes us a while to get to the fortress, on the count that I had to slow down significantly. After we enter, butcher slowly gets out of the car, Becca and Ryan are exiting as well, and all of them look on in awe.

I clear my throat and say, "Everyone… welcome, to my fortress of solitude."

***The Deep pov***

I slowly open my eyes, and the first thing I find is that I am still in a hospital bed. The second is that my head is pounding like someone had hit repeatedly using a sledgehammer. My throat is sore and the gills on my torso are flittering, signaling that I am dehydrated.

"nurse.. water.." I say with a horse voice. No reply.

I notice the water pitcher next to me, I try and reach it, and fail, so I try again.

"Nurse! Water!" still no reply.

I try to reach my hand to the water, my mouth is opened, and then I feel a little pull and suddenly, the water, snakes up in my mouth, it takes me a minute to understand what was going on and then the DR. walks in with a nurse, and he says, "MR. Deep, it seems like the procedure you went through was a success."

A.N hi there everyone, I am back with a new chapter!

Now, some of you had asked, why I didn't use the new wishes to bring all the justice league members to the Boys' earth, well, if I did that, it would become a Justice league story, and not a Superman story, but don't worry, some of them may come in the future, no promises.

So tell me what you think of this Chapter in the comments, constructive criticism only, and remember, you guys are awesome!

Bookwormjohnny2 out!