Chapter Text
Naked and covered in clear, viscous fluid from the reproductive chamber, Ultraman knelt on the cold stainless-steel floor, head hanging low. He could hear the voices of two men, distant, muffled as his adjusted to air exposure after being immersed in liquid for 8 months.
Lex crouched opposite and tilted Ultraman’s jaw tilted up with his thumb and forefinger, eager to view his newest creation.
Ultraman’s pupils adjusted as Lex’s face came into focus. The clone’s lips parted slightly, and he gasped as his brain flooded with dopamine and oxytocin.
Lex’s blue eyes widened with curiosity as he gazed at his creation’s face. “Fascinating. I can almost see the workings of his mind as he imprints upon me, like a duckling to its mother. But that lazy eye sorely disappoints me.” Lex let go of Ultraman’s jaw. Ultraman continued gazing up at his creator, head shaking with the effort to fight gravity.
“My endless apologies for the imperfection. We should have anticipated your expectations and worked harder to have the clone ready ahead of schedule.” A nearby labcoat scraped. “Sir, if I may, we beamed the English language into his brain during development – he should understand it fluently – so you might want to be careful about what you say around him.”
Lex clicked his tongue and pulled out a handkerchief to wipe the fluid off his fingertips. “This bonding protocol will be a nuisance, but gaining his loyalty and obedience is crucial to the plan.” Lex frowned as Ultraman continued to kneel on the floor, unmoving. “Stand up” he commanded.
Ultraman placed his palms on the floor, arms shaking violently as he used them to push off the ground. As he rose, his grip on the floor loosened and he slipped, leg striking upwards in the air as he fell onto his back, eliciting a pained cry.
Lex seethed. He would ordinarily enjoy seeing the likeness of Superman experiencing pain, but Ultraman’s purpose was far more important than to flop around like a clown for his amusement. “I was promised perfect fitness.”
“We stimulated his muscles during development with electrodes, Sir, but there is still an adjustment period” the labcoat explained meekly.
Lex reluctantly held out a hand to Ultraman. “Get up” he demanded impatiently.
Ultraman gazed at Lex and sat up. He reached out, curled his fingers around Lex’s hand and pulled himself up, managing to stand tall, but with his legs and arm quivering violently.
“My name is Lex Luthor” he began, forcing himself to use a gentler, kinder tone. “I created you to take out an alien threat named Superman” he revealed, pressing his lips thin as the mere mention of the hero’s name disgusted him.
“The problem with Superman is that his strength vastly outweighs anything and anyone on this Earth. In order to defeat him, I realised that the best solution would be to create a match for him. The exact same but fighting for the right side. That creation is you.”
Ultraman understood the gravity of his assignment, and the mission made him feel important and wanted. A soft smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. The biological bond he had formed with Lex brought him pure joy at the sight of his face and the touch of his hand. He wanted to do everything he could to fulfil his purpose and make Lex happy. And he wanted to do everything he could to avoid disappointing him, because Ultraman knew he had already let Lex down by the way he spoke about his eye, and the knowledge made his chest feel like it was going to explode.
Lex let go of Ultraman’s hand, which wiped the smile from the clone’s face. Lex gloated at how pliable the clone was. It demonstrated how weak Superman could be. How even an alien like him, with the right conditions, was just as bound by biology as any other simple mammalian.
“Sir, should we give him a name, something to ground his sense of self?” the lab coat suggested.
“I was getting to that.” Lex snapped, turning to shoot a glare at the scientist. Lex turned back to Ultraman and gave him his name.
Ultraman’s smile re-emerged. He felt pure love for Lex and was so happy to be born, to be given purpose, and named.
“Now…do you want to make me happy?” Lex asked cautiously.
Ultraman frowned as he tried to figure out how to transmit the word from his mind to his mouth. He slowly sounded out an ‘e’ sound, followed by an ‘s’ sound, but it didn’t sound quite right.
“Don’t bother talking, I don’t need that from you.” Lex interjected before Ultraman could try again. “What I do need is for you to obey my commands. Every single one. No matter how painful it might be or how scared you might feel. That is your primary objective. Nod if you understand.”
Ultraman nodded. It made sense. But he wanted to talk. Even if he didn’t quite know how yet. He wanted to express himself with words, even if he wasn’t confident about which ones to use or how to arrange the sounds in the right way. So Lex’s expectation of silence was painful. But Ultraman would accept that pain, because that was what Lex wanted.
“Good” Lex beamed. “Now, I want you to go with this doctor. You have weeks of training ahead of you, and we need you ready for when the time comes.”
Ultraman glanced towards the scientist, who was beckoning him to follow through the doorway. He started slowly walking towards the fellow, managing to stay upright with a minor tremor in his legs. Ultraman cast one sad look in Lex’s direction before he headed through the door.
The next two hours were spent training Ultraman in the gym. Morning light poured through the windows while several labcoats stood around Ultraman, observing and taking notes on their touchscreens. First it was the treadmill – Ultraman was started on 1 mile per hour, which slowly grew faster and faster until he was sprinting at 30 miles per hour. When they told him to step off the treadmill, Ultraman felt a boost in confidence, not only being able to walk unafraid but now with a charged, confident stride.
Next, Ultraman started on the weight machines. At first glance, the machines looked like any standard equipment you would expect to see in a luxury gym, but the gravitational pull was modified so that each weight plate weighed 100 tonnes. A scientist guided Ultraman to lay on the bench press and wrap his fingers around the hand grips. Ultraman grunted and pushed upwards, exerting himself as hard as he could until his arms straightened and the bar raised above his head. The scientists guided him to cycle through all the machines until every major muscle group had been trialled.
By the time training was over, Ultraman’s bloodstream coursed with endorphins, and he had a new sense of confidence about himself, comfortable with gravity and in moving his body. He liked being alive.
Ultraman was taken to another room to be showered. The dim, warm light in the bathroom, with the warm water that fell from the showerhead and trickled down his body reminded him of the comfort inside the reproductive chamber. Four scientists were in the shower with him, rubbing soft, soap-soaked sponges starting outwards from his hands and feet and moving inwards to his to his trunk and groin. One of the scientists said something about wanting to “sample the company assets” and they all laughed. Ultraman didn’t know what that meant but he liked how they made him feel and he laughed along with them.
Sydney, the head of the cloning lab and architect of the bonding protocol, brought Ultraman out of the shower where Lex was waiting. “How was the training?” Lex asked tepidly.
“Oh, he passed with flying colours” the scientist announced proudly. “He’s already matched Superman’s calculated maximum sprint speed, and once we get the subject into more intensive training, he’ll be lifting buildings in no time.”
“Very good.” Lex murmured, relieved that the clone had surpassed his initial weakness. “Did you hear that? You’re doing very well.” Lex’s voice ached with faux admiration, but Ultraman beamed at the praise, not knowing any better.
“You can start the stress trials now. I have several new ideas we can test him on, so I’ll take him to the chambers and get started with those.” Lex said, his eyes darkening with anticipation.
“Lex, we’ll do as see you fit, but I need to point out that you shouldn’t be directly participating – it could cause irreparable damage to the psyche as well as incurable oppositional defiance.” Sydney replied.
Ultraman scrunched up his face as he tried to untangle the scientist’s sentence in his mind, but with no real-world experience to give him context, he was hopelessly lost.
Lex sighed. “I was hoping you wouldn’t say that. Very well then, you escort him.”
Ultraman blinked rapidly as he watched Lex leave again. He wanted to be around him all the time, and he felt anxious when they were apart. But he remembered what Lex told him – he had to follow his commands, no matter how painful.
Sydney led Ultraman into the bowels of the facility, refusing to look him in the eye.
-
The room Ultraman stood in was over 50 foot tall, each wall lined with black glass panels, the floor divided into 9 smooth grey tiles. His escort quickly slipped out of the room through one of the wall panels while Ultraman wasn’t looking, then shut it behind him. Ultraman turned around and caught a glimpse of someone in the glass, a large man with short, curly hair. He stepped forward, cocking his head to the left, and reached his arm to the glass, the person behind the glass doing the same.
Ultraman stepped closer and tried to peer into the dark reflection. A curl trailed into his eyes and he blew it off, his reflection doing the same with his own hair. Ultraman gasped and stepped back, realising that this stranger, was him!
“Behold, the missing link” Sydney said to the team as they watched Ultraman through the one-way viewing panel. Lex and the others laughed. “Alright, let’s start.” Lex said, lowering his gaze as he watched the clone. “This trial will show us if he’s truly viable.”
“Copy that” Sydney said, reaching out to gradually turn up a dial on the operating console.
Ultraman felt a pleasant warmth beginning to radiate from the floor and into the soles of his bare feet. He smiled and looked down, flexing his toes. But with each passing second, the floor became hotter and hotter, to the point where it started to sting. Ultraman grunted in annoyance and stamped on the ground reflexively. The grey tiles started glowing orange, and by then Ultraman started yelping in pain, the soles of his feet starting to sizzle. Ultraman ran to the wall and tried to climb up, hopelessly failing as he slid back down and scorched his skin again. Tears ran down his eyes and his heart began to pound with sheer terror. He wished Lex was here to help him, to tell him what to do. He turned upwards to face the ceiling, and without thinking, he jumped. He flew. All the way up.
Finally safe, Ultraman whimpered and curled into the fetal position as he hovered inches below the ceiling, willing the discomfort to go away. Gradually, the orange glow faded and the floors returned to a cool slate grey.
What followed in the next hour pushed Ultraman to his limits. A swarm of stinging nanowasps, which Ultraman eventually defeated by blowing them away and crushing them against the glass. A mecha robot designed to resist the force of Ultraman’s melee abilities, forcing him into a drawn-out battle to destroy him whilst being subjected to constant punches to the head. Ultraman yelled and screamed the entire time, wishing the horror would end.
Lex watched Ultraman's moves with intense focus. If he squinted, it looks like Superman was the one getting tortured, and the screaming and crying coming from that idiot alien clone was ambrosia for Lex’s sadistic appetite. Although the torture was a pleasant side effect, Lex forced himself to focus on the main purpose of the task – to see whether this trial by fire would compel Ultraman to demonstrate powers that would prove himself a worthy match for Superman.
After Ultraman finally managed to rip the robot apart, there was one trial left. A smooth, silver orb descended upon Ultraman from the ceiling. It kept its distance from him, hovering in the air with a dangerous electronic buzz. Ultraman eyed the orb suspiciously, certain that it would be just another source of pain.
A lightning bolt suddenly crackled from the orb and struck Ultraman in the chest. The clone screamed, pain burning deep in every nerve. Ultraman flew forward and attempted to grab the orb to crush it in his fist, but it kept a solid distance from him, always too far from Ultraman’s reach. It zapped him again, the unpleasant shockwave causing pain to throb in Ultraman’s bones. Ultraman chased it for 5 minutes without so much as brushing his fingertips against it. Blowing on it just caused it to bounce off the wall and float even further from Ultraman’s grasp. The longer it went on, the more rage bubbled up inside Ultraman. After what must have been the tenth shock, Ultraman couldn’t take it anymore – he screamed and his eyes grew red, lasers shooting through and blowing it to pieces.
Lex stood up from his chair.
“Superman has never shot lasers from his eyes, not a single time in the thousands of hours of video footage I have personally reviewed” he murmured. “…He must have deliberately chosen not to use that power. It makes him look far less like a wholesome hero and a whole lot more like the deadly weapon he really is.”
A loud tone sounded, marking the end of the test. Sydney handed Lex a black blanket. “He needs comforting. More importantly, this is a great opportunity for you to solidify his bond with you… permanently.”
Lex snatched the blanket from the scientist and walked to the hidden door. He resented the protocol, but he respected it and needed it to work. Ultraman was dangerous, after all, and Lex knew he had to ensure the danger was contained, controlled, and concentrated only on his enemies.
The most important aspect of the bonding protocol, of course, was the mixture of pleasure and pain. Lex had plenty of experience to know that the most entrenched and addicted followers were made from exposure to extreme highs and devastating lows. Fortunately for Ultraman, it was time for another high.
As the door swung open to reveal Lex standing there, Ultraman felt relief surge through his pain-stricken body. He descended from mid-air to the floor and Lex advanced forward and wrapped the blanket around Ultraman’s shoulders. Tears quivered at the edge Ultraman’s bottom eyelids as he gazed questioningly at Lex.
Lex calculated his next move, then stepped forward and hugged Ultraman. Ultraman captured his maker in his arms and whimpered. Lex’s body tensed. Contrary to his expectations, the warmth within the clone’s tight embrace felt comforting. The genius attempted to dispel the feeling by reminding himself that Ultraman was to bond to him, not the other way around.
“As soon as I heard what was happening, I rushed here instantly to put a stop to it” Lex lied. “However…” Lex shifted back and gently wiped his thumb under Ultraman’s eyes, capturing and melting his tears away. “You should be very proud. I heard how hard you fought and how you dug deep to discover your powers and defend yourself.”
Ultraman nodded and buried his face into Lex’s neck.
“It’s time you learned a hard truth about the world.” Lex continued, using all of his focus to ignore how it felt to have a clone of Superman’s face pressed into his skin.
“A hacker working on behalf of Superman was responsible for overriding our systems, locking you in, and subjecting you to those prototypes. He wanted to destroy you in order to sabotage my efforts to prevent him from world domination. It was Superman who wanted you suffer.” Lex revealed. It was an awful lie that even an idiot would find hard to swallow - designed to test Ultraman's loyalty and unwavering faith more than his intelligence.
Ultraman clenched his fists and his eyes snapped open. Rage coursed through his veins. He hated Superman with his entire heart. He wanted him dead for sabotaging Lex and putting Ultraman through all that suffering. He tightened his arms around Lex protectively, as though he feared that Superman would bust into the building at any minute and attack.
Lex could practically smell the bloodlust radiating from Ultraman, causing an involuntary shiver to run down his spine. His acolytes all professed to hate Superman just as much as he did, but never before had he experienced the intensity of his desire for annihilation mirrored in another. Lex inhaled and stepped back, his hands moving to Ultraman’s shoulders.
“That is why you can never trust anyone but me. No matter how much you think you might know someone, never discount betrayal as a possibility.” Lex warned. “Understanding this is crucial to protecting me.”
Ultraman’s eyebrows narrowed and relaxed as his brain attempted to process so many different feelings at once. Love. Hate. Pain. Fear. Rage. Together, they fuelled his devotion to The Mission. Protect Lex. Destroy Superman.
Lex gazed up triumphantly at Ultraman’s face, satisfied that he had now secured what he needed: Ultraman’s eternal devotion.