In the dimly lit laboratory, the Black man sitting at the lab bench pushed his glasses up, then looked at the other figure busy at the lab bench. The other man's face appeared young and his demeanor quite scholarly, but he was bald. There was a hint of fatigue on his face, but his hand movements did not slow at all.
"Doctor, could you please help me export the analysis report of Krypton's atmospheric composition again?" The bald young man said without looking up, "I need to do the final comparison. If everything goes as expected, the synthesis has succeeded."
The Black man stood up, walked to the printer beside him, printed out the report again, handed it to the young man, and then said, "You should take a break, Mr. Luthor."
"I'm fine, Dr. Stone. By the way, has Superman been in contact with you again? His desensitization training, isn't he continuing it?"
The Black man known as Dr. Stone shook his head and said, "No, he no longer needs desensitization."
Lex looked up at him.
"It became a part of him."
"I don't understand."
"He absorbed the Kryptonite." Dr. Stone spread his hands and said, "I know this sounds incredible, but he did it. This proves that this race is stronger than we imagined, truly possessing endless potential."
"Hmph." Lex snorted coldly and then said, "So strong, yet they still played themselves to extinction?"
"Human civilization is still very young." Dr. Stone's voice remained calm, he said, "Modern Homo sapiens appeared not long ago, now it seems there is no crisis of extinction because we are still infants learning to walk. And when civilization reaches middle or old age, that is the real test of physical fitness."
"I don't think we will reach middle or old age." Lex said coldly, "If the world is ruled by those damn politicians and officers, we will face extinction before we even learn how to walk."
After saying that, he paused, and then with some indignation he said, "I really can't understand why, as an expert in alien research, you have to take orders from them..."
"I'm not taking orders from them anymore." Dr. Stone said, "I have Superman and that Colonel Jones to thank. They helped me break free from the military's control, allowing me to research freely."
"I mean before." Lex took a deep breath.
Dr. Stone sat back in his seat, put his hands on the table, and then said, "You are a great millionaire, born with Luther Group, so you can let your wisdom and talent serve only yourself. But I can't, I'm just an ordinary person, my knowledge and skills will inevitably be used by others."
"But the military is the worst choice!" Lex was clearly shaken, he raised his voice and said, "They are evil and foolish to the point that I feel Superman is not as much of an eyesore!"
"I have no choice." Dr. Stone gently shook his head and said, "Who I work for depends on who first approaches me."
"But in my opinion, with your academic level, you don't need to rely on Superman's power to get rid of them, really." Lex nodded, he said, "I'm not good at flattering others, but in the field of alien and alien research, you can truly be called the light of human scientific community. Besides this damn country under our feet, there should be many people willing to take you in, and you can still shine there."
"Are you talking about the Soviet Union or China?" Stone lowered his eyes and then said, "Of course I considered it, but... some accidents happened."
"Accident?"
Dr. Stone nodded and said, "Yes, accident. That accident made me have to stay here, unable to leave."
"What accident?"
Dr. Stone shook his head, saying nothing more.
Suddenly, his phone rang. He picked up the phone, and on the other end came a cold voice: "Hello, Dr. Stone. You don't need to know who we are, nor how we contacted you. You only need to know one thing – the results of the ballot are very unfavorable to us, and we're striving for a re-vote. And a few days ago, a madman broke into the Capitol Building, he has a series of photos of horrific incidents occurring in the Blue State. We need them, and you have three days."
"Why do you think I would be threatened by you?" Dr. Stone frowned slightly.
"Because you still have a weakness. You have a son, right? I heard he had an accident before, the military saved you and your son. The military might be able to stop us from finding you, but they can't stop us from finding your son. You better think it over."
Dr. Stone hung up the phone. He let out a long sigh and rubbed his forehead tiredly.
"See, I told you, they're just so despicable and shameless, like a haunting ghost." Lex, though he didn't hear the specifics of the phone call, could guess, he said, "You take a step back, and they'll directly force you to the edge of a cliff, then kick you off."
Lex put down the work in his hand, walked to Dr. Stone, and then said, "Are they threatening you with someone important to you? Don't you know those superpower users? Why not seek their help to save the person?"
"It's not that simple." Dr. Stone said. He opened his mouth, seemingly hesitating to speak, hesitated for a while then shook his head, saying nothing. He picked up the phone and dialed a number.
"Hello? Victor? You... is that so? I still need some time here. I... I'm sorry, I can't promise, I might not be able to be there on your mom's memorial day... I really have my difficulties, I'm so sorry..."
In the living room of the house, various household items were piled up a bit messily, clothes were haphazardly draped over the back of chairs, and various energy drinks filled the coffee table. The always-on TV made the room temperature rise a few degrees. The hooded young man sitting on the sofa hung up the phone forcefully, threw the phone aside, and collapsed onto the sofa.
He covered his face but still couldn't adapt to the cold mechanical touch felt in his palm. He let his hand down, and when he sat up, his hood fell off. The face of a young Black man appeared, but only half of it was visible, the other half was metal with a red glow around his eye.
He stood up, and as he walked towards the door, he suddenly stopped, picked up a photo from the cabinet beside him: his dad in a checkered shirt smiling, excitedly hugging his mom, and himself, dressed in football gear, holding a trophy.
He pursed his lips forcefully, put the photo back in its place, pulled up the hood with his hands in the sweatshirt pockets and walked out the door.
He arrived on the street, head down as he walked forward, occasionally glancing sideways with his eyes, until he crossed this street, walked through two more blocks, and reached a dark alley. He crouched down beside a wall, and after a while, another Black man wearing a jacket walked up.
He stood up, took two bundles of US Dollars from his sweatshirt pocket, looked around, and just as he was about to hand the money over, two police officers suddenly rushed in from the alley entrance.
"Hands where we can see them! Take your hands out!"
The two immediately extended their hands. The police walked over with their guns drawn, shouting, "Get down on the ground! Hands where we can see them, then lie down!"
Both raised their hands and lay down. The two officers walked over and put handcuffs on them. One of the officers stepped forward and pat down the man with the jacket, then said, "We're legally searching you now, which pocket has the drugs?"
"No drugs," he said, "I'm not a dealer."
"We saw you making a deal." The other officer picked up the US Dollars and said, "This is dirty money, right? Names."
"Deri Frankfurt."
"Victor Stone."
The officer walked over and took off Victor's hood, but upon seeing his face, he stepped back in shock: "What the hell!"
Victor sighed and said, "We're not dealing drugs. I owe him money, and I'm here to pay him back."
"Shut up, you damned doper, do you think we'll believe the lies you've made up? Hand over the drugs immediately."
"Then go ahead and search," Deri said indifferently, "My dad will sue you to bankruptcy, he's a state prosecutor!"
The two officers paused momentarily. Victor leaned against the wall beside him and said, "My dad is the research director at STAR Laboratory, which is a U.S. Military lab, you better not do something stupid."
The two officers exchanged glances, waiting so long just to catch two big fish, they wouldn't let it go that easily, and so he said, "Come to the station and we'll discuss this there."
"We're not going with you," Victor said, "You have two choices now, either get lost and pretend this never happened, or I will defend myself with force."
"How dare you..."
With a buzzing sound, Victor's eyes shot a red beam onto the wall beside. The two policemen were scared and fled in panic. Victor broke the handcuffs and then released Deri's handcuffs as well.
"Those guys definitely had their eyes on us for a long time." Deri said.
"If you hadn't arranged to meet here, we wouldn't have been mistaken for dealers," Victor said with some annoyance, "I didn't even dare bring a bag, or they would have thought I was robbing a bank."
Deri picked up the bundle of US Dollars nearby, counted it and said: "This is about enough, since it's getting cold, we can give the kids a few more clothes."
"Don't worry about it being used up, I have more here. But we really do need to think of a better method, or even if I manage to extract more money from the banking system, I can't safely get it to you."
"That's impressive," Deri punched him, and then said, "Others with superpowers commit crimes, yet you get money from bankers' pockets to help the poor."
"Who says that? Just the other day Superman did a good deed," Victor quirked his lips, "That bunch on Capitol Hill almost froze to death on the streets of Metropolis."
"Hahahahaha! I was just going to talk to you about that! What he did was spectacular. You wouldn't believe, since the heating subsidy was canceled, there are about ten families who couldn't pay, if it weren't for you, they would probably freeze to death..."
"Alright, let's stop talking about that, let's go see. Is Madeline okay? She just had her baby, should eat more meat. And Finch, he should be in middle school soon, right?"
"They're all doing well, let's go, they want to see you too."
The two walked shoulder to shoulder through two more blocks to a street clearly somewhat in decay. The houses along the street are tall buildings, which look quite grand, but near twilight, only the lower levels have lights on. As they entered the lobby of the building, a layer of dust had already settled near the elevator. They didn't walk that way but directly took the stairs up.
Victor looked around at this building and sighed in his heart. The property management probably left 12 years ago, security vanished long ago, it's been called one of the worst neighborhoods in terms of safety, with mobs running rampant and dealers congregating. Yet over a decade ago, house prices here could even rival wealthy districts, once hailed as the "future downtown," now it's all in shambles.