Joseph didn't know what to feel. Confusion, anger, sorrow—they all tangled together—but despite the storm in his chest, he kept reading. Why had she run away? Why had his mother assumed a new identity?
She had written that she began to feel watched after growing closer to Luthor. Her instincts screamed that someone had noticed. At first, she believed the target was Luthor himself, but soon realized it was her.
That intuition proved true when she foiled an attempted assassination, by a gas leak in her home. It was only the first.
The threats against her life escalated when she discreetly bought a pregnancy test. Somehow, impossibly, they knew it was hers. Somehow, they had discovered the results.
With danger closing in from every direction, she decided it was too risky to remain by Luthor's side. Staying meant becoming a target—and putting her child at risk. She chose instead to disappear into a city where no one asked too many questions, a place where she could provide for her child in peace.
Returning home wasn't an option. If her child was a boy, he would face execution under tradition.
In time, she gave birth. It was indeed a boy. She named him Joseph—after his father, Alexander Joseph Luthor—and gave him the surname Bell, because he was a beautiful baby who felt like a clear, ringing note in her life.
Luthor had forged her a false identity, "Maya Andrews," but she dared not use it. Instead, she reached out to contacts who specialized in such things. They built her a new life under the name Mary Bell.
She wanted her son to grow up unburdened by her past, free of shadows. She could have used her skills to prey on the gangs that infested the city for money, but she knew that life would only invite danger. If the underworld ever caught up to her, Joseph would pay the price.
So she took ordinary jobs. Menial, underpaid, exhausting work. It wasn't much, but it was honest work, and no one would ever suspect that an ex-mercenary was quietly cleaning apartments or stocking shelves to keep her son safe.
The journal overflowed with details of Joseph's childhood. Memories she'd written down, little stories preserved in ink. They surfaced now in his mind like fragile shards of glass, cutting him with both love and grief. Tears fell as he realized just how deeply his mother had cherished him.
Then he reached the part about the nanites. His mother had poured out her worry when LexCorp injected him with their experimental technology. She was so terrified she nearly exposed his existence to Luthor, prepared to risk everything if Joseph showed signs of harm.
He read her anguish as she described watching him struggle with nightmares he tried so hard to hide. She had known, and it broke her that she could do nothing without endangering them further. She never knew if the assassins were still out there, hunting, waiting.
Yet page after page was filled with treasured moments, affirmations of her love. She wrote of her joy, her gratitude that he was growing strong despite everything. She didn't care that she worked herself raw, especially when she started trucking. Her happiness was his life, his growth.
And then… the writing stopped. Abruptly, without closure.
Joseph plucked the book from the air, clutching it to his chest as he fell to his knees. His sobs echoed in the stillness. His mother had hidden the truth from him, yes—but she had done so out of love. And he would love her always.
**
| Batcave - September 25
The Batcave was silent, broken only by the hum of the Batcomputer. Batman sat before it, eyes fixed on encrypted data streams, searching for any trace of the Light.
He had just returned from dismantling the Injustice League's control center in Bayou Bartholomew, where plant creatures enhanced with Kobra-Venom, Joker toxin, mysticism, and radioactive energy had been about to be unleashed. With the Light exposed, the Injustice League had served its purpose and disbanded.
But now Batman was at a dead end. After the Justice League's raids, the Light had burrowed deeper than ever. Leviathan and Intergang were crippled, but the League of Shadows still thrived with its vast, elusive network. Qurac held answers, yet sending the Team back was reckless, and the League couldn't risk an international incident.
Batman exhaled. Some battles had to wait.
His thoughts shifted to other matters. The vanished Injustice League. The escalating gang violence in Gotham. The elusive new player, Bullseye.
And then they settled on Nova.
Individually, Joseph's abilities weren't overwhelming. The Flash was faster. Martian Manhunter was the universe's most formidable telepath. Captain Atom's quantum energy dwarfed Joseph's absorption. Superman's strength rendered Nova's seem like an afterthought.
But combined? They became something far more dangerous. The parallel was obvious: Zoom, who could wield the Speed Force, Strength Force, and Sage Force simultaneously. That mix of powers could probably stalemate against the Justice League, if not win outright.
The most concerning ability was Joseph's Speed Force enhanced telepathy. The capacity to rip into someone's mind instantly, with surgical precision, was terrifying. J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter, needed minutes—sometimes hours—to probe minds carefully. Joseph needed seconds.
And he had already shown his conviction to kill when he believed it necessary. Batman frowned. Convictions shifted. Lines blurred. One day, "necessary" might mean something very different.
He thought of the scene earlier that day. Joseph storming into Lex Luthor's office in a rage, demanding answers about Savage. If not for the deterring presence of Superman, things might have spiralled into bloodshed.
But what if Superman hadn't arrived in time? What if Joseph had snapped Luthor's neck in anger?
Batman hoped the boy would remain on the side of good. But Gotham had taught him the folly of relying solely on hope.
He needed contingencies.
He began cataloging what he knew. Joseph Bell—sole survivor of the initial LexCorp nanite experiment that had killed 103 others. The project's goal had been regenerative acceleration and cognitive enhancement. Joseph had shown no obvious improvement in grades afterward. Intelligent, yes, but not exceptional.
Then his mother had died in the Intergang ambush of a STAR Labs truck. Alone, he had emancipated himself, working to survive while maintaining average grades. He later quit his job, launched a software company, and secretly operated as Flux, supporting himself through theft and his grades increased.
At some point, Joseph had gained access to the Speed Force—according to what Barry Allen said he'd heard from Wally. But his feats never matched the Flash's. Was it inexperience? A weaker connection?
He was later abducted while donating to orphanages, returning with Tamaranean and Changralynian DNA—explaining his strength and energy powers, though not his anti-gravity. On Thanagar, he absorbed psychic knowledge from Py'tar, acquired an Nth metal suit, and somehow regained his speed.
The missing link was the nanites. Batman suspected Joseph had learned to control them, their full potential still hidden.
So he began drafting a contingency. For Wonder Woman, he had designed a nanite virus that forced her to see every foe as an equal opponent—trapping her in endless combat until she collapsed. For Joseph, the virus would be rewritten to seize control of his body and shut it down.
"Master Bruce, it is time to eat," Alfred called gently from the stone steps.
Batman finished typing, jaw set. "I'm ready."