Exile

Disclaimer: Tollins Roberts, DC, and Warner Brother's own the characters played with in this story. Except for Lori-kAn. Why isn't there a black Kryptonian? Why the gotta all be white, yo?

Chapter 3
What comes up...must come down...

Lex Luthor was driving. A porsche. Very, Very fast. Now that he was done with the whooping and the yee-hawing, he took in the soft purr of the engine, and feel of the car as it hugged each turn like a lover.
He practiced the driving thing for months before getting out on the road. No one his age had ever driven a car before: there were no more automobiles and even if there had been any more cars, there was no gas. Along with network television, radio stations, and sugary cereal, the automobile was gone for good.
Unregulated travel between the towns was also gone, for the most part, though Lex traveled quite a bit in his teens for school. He'd been as far as Australia, living for a few months in a coastal city called Byron Bay to "study" genetic diversity at one of the ANTS Institute of Learning.
For most of the human population of the planet, studying was just that: Reading, writing, and taking tests. But he and a select few of his race were given the ANT treatment of total immersion: After every session his brain felt like an overworked muscle, and he never got around to talking to or even seeing anyone else in any of the towns.
It was a great honor, the HI always assured him. Apparently, most human beings couldn't withstand the torture.
And apparently, once it happened, he couldn't even talk about it with anyone else. His parents didn't know about the hours he spent strapped to a table swallowing the entire gene sequence of every living thing on the planet.
Or how sometimes he thought he could read their minds, like it was just on the edge of hearing and all he had to do was reach out somehow...
Was it any wonder he did everything possible to rebel against ANT authorities?
First they'd made him bald and killed his father. Then they'd turned him into a super-freak who dreamt in molecules and could see patterns in data like a fucking computer. And who knew he gave everyone in town the heebie jeebies.
Snorting a little and pressing down on the accelerator, Lex pondered one of his most favorite conundrums: No one had actually ever seen the Aliens.
From a distance they looked like giant Ants; pointy heads, and long sleek black bodies. They may or may not have multiple appendages. They may or may not crawl. It was an enigma.
But driving, well it was liberating. Exciting. Wonderful.
He found the porsche in the castle, and with the help of his adopted father Jonathan, he was able to drive it into the barn at home, where it promptly ran out of gas.
That was when he was 18 and completely done with school. Thank god.
It took 3 years of tinkering, and creation of an engine that ran on electricity and garbage, and here he was going 100 mph on a long dusty road.
"Fuck yeah!" One last whoop is appropriate he thought, checking out the smile on his face in the rear view mirror.
So he didn't see the barb wire across the road until he swerved to miss it, but he did see the kid he hit before he plunged into the icy water of the river.
"Maybe the ANTS were right...cars are evil." He thought before everything went black.
He awoke to soft lips pressed against his own, and then he heard:
"Are you okay?"
Lex blinked and there was the kid staring down at him, their faces only inches apart. Lex realized he was cold all over, but his lips were warm like he had just been kissed.
Or given CPR your pervert, he thought.
They stared into each other's eyes for what seemed to be eons, and Lex definitely didn't feel that cold anymore.

"Uh..." And Lex turned and coughed out what seemed to be a whole river of water.
"Gee Are you okay?" The kid asked again when Lex finished spewing.
"Sure. I'm perfectly fine now." He made it half-way up, before he almost collapsed but the boy held him before he could fall.
"We should go to the medical center in town. Just to make sure you're alright."
"Yeah...um...how did I get here? The last thing I remember is hitting the water."
"I jumped in and saved you." The boy replied.
"But I thought I hit you." Lex shook his head.
"If you had, I woul've been dead."
Couldn't argue with that kind of logic.
"I could carry you, or we could wait for a hovercraft to come by."
"We'll wait." Lex replied. He tried not to lean on the boy, too much, but he was too tired. Uh-oh, I'm going to faint again.