[Lex Luthor (Unknown Location) POV]
Luthor had been gone from the world picture since his last stunt with the nuke at Metropolis.
Human experimentation, first and second-degree murder, kidnapping, and trying to nuke a city—there was a very long list of crimes on his head for a while now. It started when Cadmus facilities' activities became known to the heroes, and things went downhill from there.
Not that Luthor cared; in fact, he was sure he would be able to clean his name if he focused all his efforts on it.
Sure, it would actually make his bank account wince slightly from the amount of money he would spend to bury everything, but so what? Since when did he ever lack money? Worst-case scenario, he will make all the money he would spend by the end of the year.
After all, he had not even asked for the help of the Light, nor was he intending to do so; it simply wasn't worth it. Lex Luthor wasn't a person the law could handle. Although, his plans for becoming president might require more effort.
But all in due time.
Luthor snapped from his thoughts as he finally reached the final level in the Cadmus facility. As he started walking, his leather boots making a loud noise against the metallic ground, he couldn't help but curve his lips upward.
The heroes thought they destroyed all of the Cadmus facilities worldwide and, in a way, they did. They destroyed about eighty percent of them, and in the eyes of everyone, it was a catastrophic loss. Even the Light believed Cadmus projects were a thing of the past now.
So, what about the last twenty percent? It was one of Luthor's trump cards.
The last twenty percent are facilities that were not connected with any other facility worldwide. In the past, when Cadmus functioned normally, they served as secondary storage for data that he kept hidden, but now, in less than half a year, they all started working at full capacity. And this time, even if a facility was found, it would not allow the rest of the facilities to be discovered.
So, in short, Luthor surely lost some money on the other facilities, but now that everyone—from the government to the Light—believes that Cadmus is gone, he became the sole owner of Cadmus' full database. Billions of dollars worth of research funded by the Light and the government became his, and only his.
And all of this happened thanks to the heroes. He didn't have to lift a finger... it was rather poetic in a way.
Luthor entered a huge room covered in metal with several figures floating in fluid-filled tanks, with countless scientists working around the room. Lex placed a charismatic smile on his face as he walked to the head of this new project.
"Well, well, Doctor, you said you have something to show me?"
(Few hours later.)
Lex was having a very interesting day...
Lex Luthor sat down back at his hidden villa... watching the video and countless files that a certain scientist from S.T.A.R. Labs decided to share... for the greater good of humanity.
'Admirable... This could prove useful.'
Lex Luthor's hand moved to his phone as he made a few calls... It took a while, but everything was arranged.
'The wood is all there... Now it's just time to add the fire.'
Lex smiled as he sat back comfortably. 'The government would probably try to hide this information... well, they won't be able to do that anymore. After all, chaos is gonna be helpful to keep the eyes off the doctor's work. After all, the project is nearly complete.'
"And it would be the end for that alien bug."
[Jack Johnson (Random Human) POV]
It was an ordinary day, a new day of hating every single moment in his life. Working some part-time job while looking for employment and failing miserably at it because, apparently, just because you have a degree isn't enough anymore. It's never enough unless you are connected in some way or have super luck.
They want experience, but how is he going to get the experience if they refuse to give him even a small job? Maybe it was just his luck. Another day, another week passing with him being a forgettable face among the crowd.
But he never brought those things with him when he went to visit his mother. Jack sighed heavily, forcing his shoulders to straighten as he placed a smile as bright as life on his face while the nurse guided him to his mother's room. Once he gave a quick thank you, he opened the door, seeing his mother sitting there with the oxygen mask that, no matter how many times he saw it, made him wince inside.
"Mom! I see you are looking younger today, eh? What is the secret?"
He always kept himself cheerful as he went and replaced the flowers beside her bed.
"I know I should have taken your side of the gene pool. Sigh. I am sorry, my wasted youth! For I have been played!"
He felt a smack in his stomach as he saw his mother's unamused eyes. Jack had to force himself not to make his smile falter. His mother's strike was so weak he didn't even feel it much, and no one knew how strong his mother was more than him, the trouble kid. Jack immediately let himself kneel beside the bed on the ground as he acted like a dying man, as if the smack was Superman-level strength.
He kept his dying act until his mother smacked his head again in embarrassment while laughing and calling him childish. Only then did Jack stop playing around as he sat beside her bed properly.
He and his father made shifts; each one of them would visit at different times to make sure she would not feel lonely at the hospital. They always forced cheerful attitudes—or mostly him—while his dad simply was himself.
But the truth was clear to them both. Jack kept talking nonstop like a child while acting like everything was the same—like his mother's skin wasn't paler by the day, like his mother didn't lose all her hair from therapy. He kept smiling like his mother wasn't dying, while he could do nothing but keep cheering her up like a fool.
He kept smiling not for himself, but for her.
(After a few hours)
Jack, finally receiving a message from his dad, hugged his mother as he promised to visit tomorrow. He left the room as he then felt the smile and his soul leave his body as he walked out of the hospital. The lump in his throat was a familiar feeling, but he didn't cry. He simply walked like a soulless man.
He didn't feel like going home to rest, nor did he feel like doing much. He walked for a long time until he sat on an empty bench as he pulled his phone out. He stared in slight confusion since, for some reason, the internet was exploding. Many of his friends had sent him a link saying that he had to see it.
With little reaction, he simply pressed on the screen, expecting some heroes beating another villain red and blue. But what he saw froze him entirely.
A middle-aged man stood on the screen as he started talking... The video was long and very detailed. About the latest project in S.T.A.R. Labs, about the pink tears. He knew of them obviously, but this was different as he saw countless news channels show the information, as he watched every single one.
He felt something different... He felt hope. Someone can save his mother.
His hands moved on their own as he searched for a video named "A Pink Fairytale." He pressed on one of the videos as he saw a video that he saw long ago. A very beautiful pink-skinned woman dressed in some childish pink dress while she did her best expression of a statue as she tried to not wake the children, since she sat in the middle of a group of sleeping children. She looked like she was right out of a fairy tale... something that his mother would read to him about the princess and the knight in shining armor...
'I just need one tear... Maybe even less.'
'If I can meet her somehow...'
He searched for a long time as he saw a title and a news article that appeared on his screen, and he wondered how he could have not seen it before: Pink Diamond causing havoc on the outskirts of Gotham City hunting the Joker, which leads to the Justice League placing her under temporary containment.
"Containment!!"
Those heroes imprisoned her for what? Because she was about to kill that clown freak? Let him die! In fact, I will burn him myself!
"For justice? Curse justice, curse all of them!"
'They are killing my mother with their nonsense!'
"Is that their justice?! Well, I don't care! They don't get to decide my mother's fate!"
Jack started messaging all his friends, asking them to protest with him at S.T.A.R. Labs—maybe even steal some of those tears if he could... although he kept the last part unsaid to anyone. But Jack knew for a fact that he was willing to place a bullet in even Batman's skull if he could save his mother.
Justice? Who cares about justice! He wasn't a child with ideals.
'She could do so much good, save so many! ...Her tears can save my family, and they talk about justice.'
'I will show them what I think of their justice.'
With Lex Luthor's hidden hands... worldwide, similar people had similar thoughts. While people of ambition were focusing on the age and immortality, others focused on the energy and the ways to solve world hunger.
Ambition, greed, hope, or for the greater good—no matter what the reason was, it didn't change what was happening. Many people had a fire bloom in their chests, and humans when cornered are no more than animals. And animals tear each other apart.
In a matter of hours, the gates of S.T.A.R. Labs were surrounded with protesters, each for their own reasons. Some for their families, some for their own reasons.
Jack, who was at the front of the protests, saw trucks arrive as crates started to be moved inside them. He wasn't an idiot; he knew exactly what those crates probably contained, and all he saw in that moment was red. At once, all of the people's desperation turned into rage as they rushed forward at once. Some even pulled out weapons and outright attacked the police in their way.
They didn't see order; they didn't see law. They saw the hope of their families being pulled right out of their hands. Some policemen were drowned as men literally stepped on them, and the trucks were swarmed. Jack opened the door of the truck and held the armored man inside and started punching at his face once his helmet was off.
His hands turned bloody, but he didn't stop. He didn't even feel the pain. He saw only his mother's dying face in his mind as the sadness and hopelessness turned to pure rage that drove him almost mad. One of the guards in panic started shooting, just to be shot down by a fat man that had tears streaming down his face while carrying a shotgun.
"Do you think only you have guns!"
The fat man then patted a pocket in his jacket as his sick daughter flashed in his mind while he muttered to himself.
"Don't worry, pumpkin, daddy will bring those tears for you... you will be alright soon!"
"I don't need any hero to save you, pumpkin! Daddy will take care of everything for you!"
"You will play again! You will go to school! You will go to college! You will graduate! You will fall in love! You will make a family! You will do everything, Pumpkin! Everything you want!" as the man rushed towards the crates, tears streaming down his face.
Madness was the one in control.
At the same time, different countries started eyeing S.T.A.R. Labs or, more accurately, the USA. The USA was supposed to share the results of the tests worldwide, and yet what was given from the supposed results obviously forgot to mention the possibility of eternal youth. Whatever the reason was, it didn't matter in the eyes of other world leaders. The USA was trying to keep the treasure all to itself.
They wanted to live forever while leaving everyone else to rot away... and if not for a scientist with suicidal thoughts, then they would have been fooled. Political pressure started mounting... but what is most important is that some world-class mercenaries, from the likes of Deadshot and Deathstroke, started having a much higher level of clients.
The USA may like to speak about high morals and how humanity is a force for good and all that, which is good on paper, but facing the temptation of immortality, the world leaders and the world started to boil. And the target was the USA and the heroes holding the golden duck.
[Lex Luthor POV]
Lex sat down watching the news with amusement.
'Just as expected... A few pushes here and there and suddenly the sheep start tearing each other apart thinking that they are making a choice for themselves... they never do.'
Lex smiled as he pulled the box placed beside him. He opened it, showing a dozen bottles of pink liquid placed in bottles titled "Tears of Life."
"But it is useful... After all, if I didn't make all that chaos, I couldn't have gotten my hands on these beauties."
"All the planet fighting for these cuties, and I got them all for free. Sometimes I surprise myself... Who am I lying to? Just as I expected from my genius. It wasn't even difficult!"
Lex started chuckling while watching the news until it became a full-out laughter. "HAHAHAHAHA!"
***************
(A/N):I hope I didn't make it too much here…..I am trying to show that the world is actually alive and characters aren't frozen just because Pink…Lex is playing a big game and his little project is about to be completed…I hope you like the chapter and if so then check on my other works!