The past few days have been a whirlwind of failures but nothing made him more frustrated than the idiots responsible for The Project.
This was the only thing that mattered to him of all his currents exploits case in point the unlimited resources made available to it from his billions of dollars to all his contacts in the various private and government facilities dealing with genetics.
The first chance of success presented itself during Darkseids invasion but the police and military were surprisingly efficient in cleaning up any and all evidences of it when the newly formed justice league defeated the dark lord.
He got his second chance when fate brought doomsday to earth but these idiots had to ruin it for him again further explaining why he was standing in a state of the art laboratory with scientists scrambling for their notepads each standing in their designated work stations ready to answer to him.
The laboratory was quite spacious for something located underground in a very crowded city in a country that had no treaties with the US government.
The facility Initially belonged to his father who used it to conduct experiments on enhanced individuals from smallville mainly those that got affected by kryptonite. He inturn allowed the experiments to continue after adding a couple of floors to its already impressive underground stracture repurposing it and hiring scientists specialized in genetics and cloning technology. He poached them from every known reseaerch facilities in the world; Star labs in star city, Queen Consolidate and Wayne Inc among them.
Amander wallers scientists were too afraid of her to be swayed by any amount he offered and yes, he had tried the blank cheque approach on them too.
"What do you need to rectify this problem?" The details in the files provided to him indicated the samples hadn't survived past the second phase in their pods. Getting to these samples after the fight was pure luck because no other leaguer was in sight and his people processed the scene discretely before the police had set up road blocks.
"We have everything we need but the samples got contaminated by the rain during their procurement." He explained with a worried look on his face. The scientist had heard of his reputation from his colleagues and knew they'd be lucky if they still had a job by the time his boss exits the facility. He also had a rule of never using his actual name when he was around.
"What about Dr. Christine's findings?"
"It had the same conclusion with ours." He passed a file handed to him by his assistant.
Dr. Christine was one of the consultants among the contacts made available to him by his boss. She was a well renown researcher cum scientist whose services was extremely difficult to acquire. One had to know a person who knew a person who knew a person who knew her at a professional level because according to his sources she was a loner who spent most of her time in the lab. His thought process was interrupted by his boss cursing.
"Damn it!" If Dr. Christine supports these results then there's no need to waste more time with these samples. "Who handled the samples upon arrival?"
The scientists In the room looked around at each other before all turned to look through the glass walls separating the two rooms which were sound proof so the scientist was still going about his business placing and replacing samples in their designated labeled test tubes.
"Would you be so kind to inform him I won't need his services anymore" his boss instructed before turning to walk out with the rest of the scientists looking at their oblivious colleague in pity.
This was the challenge experienced in their line of work, resigning or getting fired meant one no longer had the right to breathe because of all the intricate details they possessed in whatever project the were attached to. Those lucky enough to successfully negotiate for their freedom would agree to work for the organization any time they were called upon.
Sensing eyes on him, the elderly scientist looked up and across the wall at them then gave one nod of acknowledgement before proceeding with his work breaking the tension in the room and everyone getting back to work. It's a good thing they weren't fired.
Seems quality scientists were hard to come by in this time and generation becoming most of their thoughts. They couldn't complain about the work when they were earning more than most professional athletes in the world made in a year considering those athletes pulled together money from their sponsorships and advertisements when calculating their annual salary.
"I will acquire new samples for your team and I expect results. Failure will not be tolerated." He told his lead scientist.
According to his informant, the shapeshifter was on a space mission with green lantern meaning his sample would be acquired at a later date leaving him with the option of superman and the green guy he recently encountered. This would be a tall order he sighed.
"We will be ready." The scientist acknowledged caution creeping in at the direction his boss was heading to clearly indicating his intention.
A second chance at getting on his good side was a golden opportunity and they will all toil day and night till the expected results was achieved. I hope the one other project that developed complications the day before has been rectified he thought.
"You have a meeting with the board in one hour" his secretary reminded when she noticed he was heading to the other part where kryptonite experiments were being conducted.
"Move it to tomorrow." He dismissed her. It's been long since he visited this facility and he intended to know the status of each and every experiment being conducted. All the money he directed here should be accounted for in one way or another. This was his main facility with other smaller branches in various countries throughout the world.
"It's a meeting with the board members sir." She added hoping that he will reconsider since it was a vital meeting.
One board member showed up when the internal security sweep and audit was happening and managed to find discrepancies with the company's money and had called the meeting to discuss it. His failure to show up may Indicate negligence on his part and the board members might be inclined to vote him out of the company. Like he would agree to that she mentally retracted and chuckled.
"Fine. Replace it with my 8 o'clock meeting." He agreed and noticed her smile no doubt because of her victory. It was high time he dealt with this matter once and for all. He didn't want his board members to start looking into every aspect of the business. That would be a drag that frankly lead to the loss of many lives. Majority of them were powerful people like himself meant that he needed to avoid killing them at all costs.
"Already done sir." She stated and he nodded, proceeding to the other levels.
Ever since she was given a substantial pay rise she had devoted her life to serve him and was always anticipating his every other need leading to her becoming more of a personal assistant than secretary. Other than his personal residences, she accompanied him everywhere he went and scheduled everything down to his coffee time. This devotion lead to her witnessing gruesome scenes till she adapted to his brutality. It was a pity the other scientist was already on his way to be sorted out. He looked like a kind and intelligent old man.
She looked up from her tablet when the scientist put in his credentials and opened the door to another room before ushering them in and the door closing with a click.
It took all her self control not to gasp at what she was looking at.
A dozen prison cells with thick glasses for walls (which she figured would be bullet and sound proof) lined the room with six on each side.
Two scientists wearing a heavily modified white protection gear akin to the ones the CDC use were in one cell examining the person inside.
One carried a vile of green liquid, what she assumed to be kryptonite and was injecting it into the mans arm.
The mans body started glowing a faint green before he passed out and started floating on his bed. The two scientists were alternating between checking his vitals and scribbling on their notebooks. She turned to her boss and saw the smile on his face. Maybe they're supposed to react like that she thought. All the other cells housed men and women of varying ages, with the minimum approximation to be 24 years.
"As you can see we made some progress with the serum." The scientist spoke up after a few minutes of watching.
"Although most subjects can only manage four doses of it before experiencing total internal organs failure" he added and winced when his boss's expression turned from nodding in approval to neutral.
If only I were a telepath and know what he was thinking the idea of granting himself superpowers when these experiments prove successful was always in his mind. That way he can retire without having to look over his shoulder the rest of his life.
"Every success story experiences setbacks from time to time. Good work. I trust you to figure it out" Creating the serum took a lot of years and resources to let one minor setback hinder him from noticing the progress. He did right in appointing this particular scientist for the job.
I have impeccable tastes for new hires he thought glancing at his secretary.
"Thank you sir." The scientist was pleased to hear that. A win is a win he thought before proceeding to the other labs where he could showcase all the kryptonite powered weapons they've managed to build. This was another section his boss was interested in. At the back of their minds all the scientists knew their use but none have ever voiced it out.
Lex Luthor sat in his home office in one of his many mansions nursing a glass of bourbon in one hand reviewing all the footages he had pertaining to the new group of heroes including the attempted infiltration at their base.
He watched their failed attempt at the base.
I need to acquire their samples and possibly the host of the samples if only he could have his way.
This would prove dangerous if the said man turnrd into the green being mid capture and turn against them by going on a killing spree, after all it had the strength to back its actions.
He was also staring at the faces of the two late arrivals to their party. The woman was a strong telepath given by how easily she dismantled Grodds illusion and put up a challenge for Poison Ivys plants.
He had to get to her too with the thought of finally getting rid of Grodd appealing to him. He had to act fast because the said telepath had also taken an interest in her and has most likely started plotting against him.
Ungrateful idiots!
From the aerial footage captured by their jet that was hovering nearby when things started getting complicated, he could see bizarro trading blows with it and the longer the battle continued the stronger the green being got and eventually was at a stale mate with him before swampthing emerged.
According to Grodd he sensed no limit to its anger given the fact that it was steadily increasing throughout the fight. The earlier assumption that bizarro saved their lives was still alive in his thoughts. He could have made an exceptional lacky had he been a little bit smart.