บท 6: Business magnates and a trail to the demon’s head
In Gothic Metropolis' Luthor Manor, a party was set for the heiress known as Lena Luthor to dazzle and overwhelm the guests attending her birthday party.
For Lionel, her father, would be soon when he would appear and do what he does best, make his powerful speeches and socialize with the richest of the richest.
But for now, he could be found at his office room, along with another, a small girl of thirteen years old, wearing a long-sleeved black dress shirt and a white and elegant blouse along with cat eye glasses that happened to match her emerald green eyes and her long blond hair.
Though the party was in her homage, she wasn't laughing giddily as a regular girl her age would.
She stayed still while her father was finishing one of his urgent business activities at his desk.
Such a sight made the young girl narrow her eyes and glare at him, as she awaited him to finish.
She was prepared for the oncoming show, clad in her expensive clothing, with the minimal make-up to make her appear elegant and had also been done, all that was missing was her father.
But she didn't dare to speak to him without permission.
Her father was someone who was better than her. This, she could say without feeling inferior.
In fact, she was proud of this fact, knowing how she would one day surpass her own sire, her own father, was something that she would always be striving for.
After all, it was just appropriate for a child to become more than what their parents were.
Her mother was already entertaining the guests, while she awaited to appear to everyone as her father's real successor.
The sound of the room door being knocked three times made Lionel and his daughter turn towards the door.
"What is it Alfred?" He asked.
"Master Luthor, Thomas and Martha Wayne have arrived."
His eyes lit up, remembering his partner friend Thomas whom he had invited personally.
"Ah! I will be there in a moment." He said to his butler behind the door. "Are you ready my dear?"
"Yes I am father... Is that the illustrious family you said before dad? The one with the genius son?" Lena asked Lionel.
He smiled widely and said with a nod. "Yes, that's them."
—————————————————
With Martha wearing a black coat dress and Thomas wearing a long-sleeved black dress shirt with white stripes, which was not tucked into his pair of black dress pants.
Patrick was wearing a formal black coat and pants with a slim white shirt.
They had just entered the Luthor manor and Kal-el noticed that everyone was observing them.
The Waynes greeted everyone as they passed by the crowd.
With that, the guests almost forgot to begin applauding their host's arrival.
The Waynes noticed Ms.Luthor joining a man and a girl, both dressed quite formally.
"Thank you everyone for attending our daughter's birthday celebration." Said the man with a warm smile.
"My love." Lionel said as he extended his hand, which Lillian Luthor graciously accepted.
"Thank you for coming. It is an honor to have you here." She continued before turning to their daughter.
"Happy birthday..." She started and the crowd took the cue to begin singing happy birthday to Lutessa Luthor.
Lena to those closer to her.
Everyone cheered and applauded the birthday person.
After the song ended, Lena thanked everyone for their presence and humbly accepted their gifts.
After shaking some hands and sharing some words with most of the guests, the hosting trio finally met the Waynes.
After some brief greetings between both adults, Lionel extended his hand to Patrick, which he accepted as well.
"You've really grown. How old are you now? Fifteen?"
"Twelve, actually." Patrick politely corrected.
"Ah, my mistake. You could actually be mistaken for older than fifteen, Patrick, you... grew quite fast."
"Many people have said that actually. Maybe it's my daily diet, it helps me work out harder." The young Wayne remarked with a rather confident-looking smile.
After a small laugh from Lionel and Lillian, the latter noticed her daughter's silence.
"Ah, Thomas, as you already know that's my daughter."
Thomas looked at the girl for a moment before he turned back to his family and said. "Oh yes! Martha, Patrick, this is lady... Lutessa." He introduced her to us.
"Lena dear, this is Thomas and Martha Wayne. And this strong young man is their son Patrick."
The little girl nodded before she went to the couple and shook their hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you." She said with a smile that they reciprocated.
"It's a pleasure to meet you too." They replied.
Then Lena moved on to Patrick and shook his hand. "Nice to meet you. My dad told me that you've already finished high school and will be going abroad for college, is it true?"
"Yes it is. I've been accepted in some colleges in Europe." He answered, noticing that he was suddenly put on the spot by the thirteen-years old girl.
"But you're just twelve." she pointed out the obvious, and rather remarkable tidbit of the young Wayne, twelve and already finished with high school. "So you are really the boy genius I've been hearing about?"
At this Martha giggled while Thomas merely crossed his arms as he smiled and watched, leaving their son as the only one to answer her question. "I don't consider myself as such. But I'm thankful for being that well regarded."
"And quite modest. You must be one to be going to college so early... wait, did you mention colleges?" The young Luthor remarked.
The adults smiled at her antics, but she simply ignored them and continued.
"I am on my way to finish my studies here as well, and like you, soon I will go with my parents to continue my studies outside the country. Hope we can talk for a while."
It was obvious that Lionel had been telling her about his reputation, and clearly, she was more than just quite impressed by what Patrick had achieved.
Even though she didn't try to hide, the way she looked at him with such adoration and unbridled curiosity was enough of an indication in her eyes.
"Say." Lionel suddenly said, mercifully giving Patrick some reprieve from the slightly awkward conversation.
"Why don't I give you guys a tour through the property? We still have some time until the meals are served."
"That would be lovely." Martha said before she turned to her son. "Wouldn't it my dear?"
He politely nodded. "Sure."
"Please, follow me." Lionel replied before he ushered them all through the salon.
They went with him and his wife on the front while Patt and Lena were on the back.
As the older Luthor showed them around, his daughter whispered to Patrick. "So... are you single?"
Clearly, she was blunt.
Possibly because of her age, or even her high IQ.
"Apologies, but it's a secret." He charmingly replied back.
"Oh I like secrets... and mysteries." She whispered. "It's fun to try and deduce them, let's see let's see... Hm... do you have an Oedipal complex?"
He ignored her statement for a while.
"No." He answered while snickering at her weird conclusion.
"Okay okay, hm... do you have a preference for dumb girls?"
Obviously she was making fun of him, but he decided to play along.
"No. But I don't have a problem either." He said with a provocative smile.
"Hm... have you come to ask my father for my hand?" She gestured to show herself dramatically.
But before she could follow with a snarky remark, he got to it first. "I'm afraid that isn't the case. I've come to ask your mother to go on a date with me, perhaps you can aid me in this endeavor...what are her tastes?" He said and acted as if he was being serious.
At this, Lena chuckled and said. "Okay, I'll stop messing around."
"So... what are your goals? Your ambitions? What drives you heir Wayne"
Now that she seemed to be finally speaking seriously he decided to answer it somewhat truthfully.
"I want to go out into the world... To learn more, to see things, to carve my place in history. I want to become someone that is more than just a person who simply has a lot of money in his pocket." he answered.
"I see." She said, looking rather pleased, if her wide smile was any indication.
"You know... I want to rule the world." He added with a determined expression.
Lena looked at the smiling face of one young Patrick Wayne.
It was at that moment she decided to be more acquainted with him.
"Are you being taught by your dad?" He switched subjects.
"Ah yes." After organizing her thoughts properly she answered. "He taught me a lot since I was five. One day I will lead his company... and believe me, I have big plans for the future."
'Maybe.' He thought to himself. Still... There was something about this Luthor that made him curious.
The practice of teaching one's child the family business was not that uncommon, but considering Lionel's profession, and the fact that there was no "lex" in this reality was all really curious.
Perhaps, he should give her the chance.
After all, if he wanted to make friends, this would be one of the people he definitely needed to.
Especially considering that there is the slightest possibility of LuthorCorp somehow finding or acquiring kryptonite.
Patrick let the young girl feel like she was the one making the question, but with some suggestions and some sharp observations on her body language.
Lutessa Luthor was one fascinating girl indeed, with insatiable curiosity, with unorthodox reasoning, and seemingly eager to show off her intelligence to fulfill her ambitions.
But still so naive.
Like Oswald and Thomas, these versions of well known characters were still so easy to manipulate.
And, considering that she was quite impressed by him, he supposed that he had become one of her idol figures.
Perhaps if he was just an ordinary boy, she would treat him differently, which was what he assumed to be thanks to her father's orientation.
Despite her shrewdness, she was still quite affable, and it did feel honest and not faked.
Just as they were about to reach Luthor's gardens, Kal-el smelled something in the air.
Time slowed down, and his mind told him immediately what the smell was.
The smell was distinctive, with a familiar trace of iron in it.
It was blood that he smelled, the scent of a human blood permeating the air.
It made him stop, and with that, he pulled Lena to him due to the inertia as she was the one dragging him.
She nearly crashed to his chest, but he managed to stop her with his free hand.
"Oof! Hey, what's the big idea?" She said with annoyance apparent in her voice.
But then she looked at his face and when she saw him so serious and looking somewhere with narrowed eyes made her stop.
"What's wrong?" she asked him.
He didn't respond instantly as he kept on looking around, trying to locate the source of the scent of blood through many other scents within the vicinity while inspecting the area with his super vision.
Then, he found it.
After releasing his wrist from Lena, he began to walk towards the source.
"Patrick? Where are you going?" Wondered Lena. "Patt?"
"Sorry, I need to go to the bathroom. Could you please tell me where I can find one?"
After she pointed out the way, he left.
He walked to a well fortified room, where the stench of blood seemed more concentrated to Kal-el.
He tried to open it, but the door was locked as he was unable to turn the doorknob the first time he tried it.
With his enhanced vision he already seen the sight of a man lying on the ground in the pool of his own blood that poured out of his stomach.
Since coming here, the change in his demeanor was noticeable.
He had already fried all the cameras' mechanisms from the areas with his invisible ray, and casted some illusions as a contingency plan.
Patrick then looked for the hinges of the door, and he found that there were two, one was located on the upper left side of the door, and one was located on the lower left.
The upper and lower left hinge were dealt with a quick succession of heat vision and freezing vision that made the metal fall apart into dust.
He then easily pulled the door made out of steel out with just one hand, creating a makeshift archway and then he placed the door aside.
Patrick remained still when he saw the corpse of the man inside the room.
The man looked young, and he was wearing a set of tuxedo that was tainted red by his own freshly spilled blood.
Patrick kept himself calm and began assessing the surroundings.
Using his enhanced senses, he examined the crime scene, his eyes focusing on the wound that caused the man's death along to deduce the murder weapon.
It was a long blade, some sort of blade probably, judging from the shape of his wound, five inches wide, penetrated through the man's abdomen and back, rupturing his stomach and caused massive internal bleeding which did not kill him immediately, perhaps it took him nine or fifteen seconds before he died.
The murder weapon was not there, meaning that the murderer did not want it to be found.
Perhaps he or she was not wearing a glove, which would mean that they left their fingerprints.
Or it was his or her personal property.
Using his nose, he found the trace of blood in the air still, and judging by how the blood was still warm, it would mean that the man's death was very recent.
'The murderer is still here somewhere.' He concluded.
With that, he got a couple of things that he needed to do.
First, find the nearest heartbeat of a person, an adult preferably, and in a matter of a second, he found one, coming his way even.
Having already disguised himself as a regular adult with his face hidden behind a mask, he ran to the person's location, grabbed his arm and pulled him along despite his protest to the crime scene.
Though he protested, once he saw the body, he was immediately silenced, "Oh my... god... what the hell?Did you do this? Are you..."
Patrick checked the man's reaction, looking for any signs of deception.
Finding none, he then said to him. "Sir, you have to call the police, tell them that there's been a murder."
The older man immediately complied as he took out his cell phone and dialed 911.
Before the man could look back, Patrick had already left. But before doing so, he had already altered the man's memory and magically repaired the metal door.
He followed the trail of freshly spilled blood exuded by the murder weapon along with focusing his ears to find a person whose heart beat in a rather erratic fashion as they tried to escape the premises.
His search, as inconclusive as it was, brought him to the main hall of the theater, where quite a large number of people were gathered, making it a little difficult for him to find the murderer.
This time without hiding his disguised face, he began searching the crowd.
'Focus!' He mentally stated to himself as he concentrated to find the murderer based on the smell of blood and the erratic rhythm of his or her heartbeat.
In his eyes, the motions of every person around him slowed down, and the noises outside of their heartbeats were silenced by his mind.
He looked around, finding people with dozens of different heartbeats walking around him, which did not divert his focus.
There was that smell of blood, but... it was coming from someone with a rather calm pace of heart beat.
Then, he saw her, the murderer.
Long hair, beautiful makeup, and not to mention, wearing a large dress so to hide her original disguise and the murder weapon.
As the murderer was walking towards the main entrance, Patrick swiftly followed, passing through the crowd of people while keeping his eyes focused on the woman whose murder weapon was kept on the inside of her coat.
He had to stop her.
He must learn who would dare to assassinate someone inside Luthor's property.
That person can't possibly be someone with a simple background!
The assassin exited the main hall and went outside towards the front gate.
Before she could leave the property however, she felt as if being blown away by an unnatural strong gust of wind which carried her to the trees in the garden.
She fell as the back of her right knee was kicked by an unknown assailant.
It all happened too fast.
Not even her years of training and field experience made her prepared to resist this attack.
When her knees met the ground, she tried to struggle free as the assaulter grabbed her right arm and roughly twisted it on her back.
"Aah!"
His assaulter then broke her right arm by pushing it on a wrong angle, prompting another contained scream from the woman's mouth.
Before she could attempt an escaping move, the right side of her neck was precisely poked by her assaulter and that made her pass out due to the sheer physical force that her attacker dished out in that casual strike.
The little Wayne stood triumphant as he watched the murderer laid down to his feet with her face embedded to the ground.
'Knocking out is unnecessarily more complicated than simply killing.' Kal-el mentally remarked.
He then scanned the assassin using his enhanced vision to reconfirm what he had seen in the main hall, and he found that he was right.
The murder weapon hidden under her clothing, already cleaned from the blood of the man that she just killed... but not enough to fool his eyes... or his nose.
———————————————————
Patrick remained quiet as he and his parents were driving to the Wayne Manor.
When the news of the murder spread across the Luthor mansion, everyone was worried.
The police came to the scene ten minutes after they were informed, and they were treated by the sight of the murdered man when they went to the crime scene.
All of the police efforts were in vain as they didn't find a single suspect besides the man that reported the murder.
Lionel Luthor wasn't happy.
Not one bit.
But fortunately, the man's personal quest of uncovering the murderer that happened in his property would prevent a certain someone from wasting his time on investigating the victim.
Now, this certain someone had all the time in the world to interrogate the murder himself.
"My dear, what kind of beverage would you like to have when we arrive?" Martha asked as she looked at the young boy.
"I'd like some tea mother. Iced sweet tea please." He replied rather politely.
The woman nodded. "Very well, we shall all eat something." She said before remembering why they haven't eaten yet.
During the rest of the way, the three Waynes remained silent.
When they arrived at the manor, Patrick got out of the car and turned to his parents and said. "Mother, father, I will soon join you. I just need to check something in my room."
His parents simply nodded and said. "Very well."
The regular room of Patrick Wayne is located on the second floor of the manor, with a window that would give him a great view of the manor's wide backyard.
Though a preteen, the room was not filled with things that one would usually see in a preteen boy's room, such as the posters of his favorite band or something that was related to his hobbies, a personal computer, a video-game console, such things that a teenager usually possessed in an attempt to give themselves an identity.
He did have a computer and a laptop located on his desk though, but there was nothing else that one would usually find in a boy's room.
One had to admit that it was quite luxurious and big in itself, befitting the architectural theme of the whole manor.
But this wasn't the room that he made his way to.
As Patrick entered his own pocket dimension, he went through his white marble hall and entered the area that he labeled as his dungeon.
In one of his completely dark cells, he found an ex-elite assassin trapped in magical chains.
Not even the woman's training aided her in escaping these types of cuffs.
As Kal-el entered with his demonic figure, he gestured with his hand and the magical binds forced her to face him. "So... I'm sure you want some explanation. But I do as well."
Wordlessly, the assassin moved her head and attempted to spit on him, but something stopped her from doing so.
Instead, her accumulated saliva made her drool.
"Please, refraining from shaming yourself henceforth... Now, I know this is a boring cliche... but will we do this the easy or the hard away? I have to warn you though, I'm on a tight schedule.'
There was silence for a couple of seconds before he was the one who spoke again.
"How disappointing... the hard way it is." He said with his ghostly voice.
Patrick then extended his hand a bit towards her and turned it up so that his palm was directed at her face.
Then, he smiled...
And in that instance he grabbed her face with such force that her skull instantly cracked.
The woman was trained to resist intense pain, so she endured the abuse without screaming.
But when her disfigured face instantly healed back to normal, she felt more sensitive and vulnerable than she had ever been before.
It was actually a neat trick Patrick thought out after some brief conversation with Thomas Eliot.
After that, the woman began screaming like a baby that had just been born.
And before his tea, Kal-el learned a lot of curious details.
But the best part was the name the assassin gave him.
Ra's Al Ghul
———————————————————
(03/09/2020)
*Hope this chapter is of your liking. Anything you wish to ask, feel free to do so.
I'm almost finished writing an update chapter. In that auxiliary chapter, I plan to address some of my plans for the future of this story.
Thanks as always for your attention and please be safe.
Any problems with my writing, just point them out and I will correct them as soon as possible.
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