Luthor's Cricket part 12
Previous. Masterpost
Lex finally had a peaceful moment to himself. Phantom had fallen asleep as soon as they got back. Lex was wondering if Phantom was downplaying the need for sleep, or if the summoning weakened the child. Either way, it had been an eventful day.
The trip to the theater turned into a trip to the observatory, which turned into a museum visit since they were hosting an exhibit on alien worlds and cultures. Lex didn't pay much attention to the places themselves, but he listened to the kid. The wealth of knowledge the young man had was astonishing. In the documentary, he would fill in the redacted knowledge (“Those ‘composite materials’ were made of a mix of-”). In the observatory, he would tell each story of the constellations, at least, his worlds versions. They were remarkably similar.
The museum, though. That is where Phantom's real knowledge was shown.
“My world didn't have Martians, or any known alien life, really. The closest thing were the Ghosts. Mom was the Biologist and chemist, Dad was the engineer….
Once we got the misunderstandings of ‘first contact’ over with, my older sister took up the psychology of ghosts, I took sociology and my younger sister took the linguistic side of things.”
“I thought you said you were classified as non-sentient?” Lex questioned.
“Classified by the government. My parents thought so too until we sat them down and showed them our own research. After that we tried to get ghosts reclassified, but….” Phantom sighed. “People tend to not think past their biases.”
Lex huffed.
“Anyway, I wonder how their culture was structured. Was it class based? A monarchy? These tablets don't go into too much detail. How were their family units formed? Did they have their their own version of-”
Lex could tell that Phantom loved to learn about people. Whether that was because of his world's classification of his species, or an innate hobby was still unclear. Lex took some time to order some additional material about Martians, Kryptonions, and threw in some about the Atlanteans as well when his phone rang.
“Yes, Mercy?”
“Could you tell me next time you go out in public, alone? That way, I have a heads up when gossip rag reporters show up asking why you were wandering around observatories and museums like a, and I quote, ‘love sick puppy’?”
Lex deeply sighed.
“I was investigating something on my own.”
“And that something apparently had you looking fondly at the backdrops of Mars?!” Mercy hissed. “I don't know what you were investigating, but our only saving grace is that all the pictures they tried to take were corrupted-”
“What?”
-and not only do I have the likes of Vicky Vale calling for an interview, Lois Lane seems to be back to finish up the one from yesterday, but also to ask about today if I am right about the manic gleam in her eyes.”
Lex swore. “If it was just the gossip rags, we could have claimed a doppelganger, or a malicious imposter. But both Lane and Vale won't take that excuse lying down.”
“Then what shall we tell them?”
Lex thought long and hard about the situation. Finally he spoke.
“We can ignore Vale. She primarily works out of Gotham, and no matter what we tell her, she will make up a version with the barest semblance of whatever we tell her. She knows we will sue for libel, and while she can get away with it with Wayne, she won't get off clean with me. Lane on the other hand, she knows how to state facts in a way that has the reader draw her own conclusions.”
“So what do we do with her?”
“Book the west side conference room for tomorrow. I think an evening time would be best. Sweet wine, and a smooth scotch.”
“Understood.”
Lex puts his phone down and sighs once again.
“You forgot to say thank you again.” Phantom mumbled, half awake.
“I will thank her when this current crisis is done with.” Lex groaned.
Phantom snorted at his exasperation. “Sure buddy.” and fell back into a doze, missing the exasperated, but a hint of fond, look Lex gave him.
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