The Buildsite of Luthor Tower;
16th February, 2025: 11:26 P.M

It was cold, the walls weren't insulated yet, the roof was nothing but pieces of rebar what in six months would become the highest building in the Emerald City skyline was now nothing more than a skeleton. The tools used by the workers were still there, the jackhammers, the burners and the concrete blenders. Piles of materials stacked several meters high. The wind was howling through the unfinished building. The early spring weather on the west coast made the wind mild, but still unpleasant.

And there they were, twelve men armed in paramilitary gear, wielding assault rifles, combat knives and shotguns, each armed with a handgun strapped to their thighs. In the middle of the room, glowsticks laid next to a metal chair, in the chair a ginger-haired young man sat, his left arm handcuffed to the metallic right prosthetic arm attached to his shoulder, and then each arm was cuffed to the chair which had been nailed down. On the right arm a circular disk was attached that made beeping noises from time to time.

One of the paramilitary guys, wearing a face mask walked over to the kidnapped man, slapping him in the face hard enough to wake him up from his unconscious slumber. "Wake up golden boy!" he shouted, the slap not doing the trick, thus following it up with a swift punch to the cuffed man's gut. His body convulting forward as the air escaped his lungs. Coughing, the man grabbed the kidnappee's hair, pulling his face up to look into his eyes. "Not so fucking high and mighty now without your bodyguards and bulletproof glass, are you now, Luthor?!" The thug shouted, the man getting manhandled shrugged. "Who are you and what do you want with me?" he asked.

"Always a business man Julian, just like your Papa." The thug said with a smirk, Julian Luthor continued to cough from his previous hit. "You want to deal yourself out of this, huh? Tough shit. That won't happen till your board of directors signs over their contracts to our benefactor." He spoke, and Julian nodded. "So, you're worked for Shin-Lou, then?" he asked and the thug was stunned for a second. "How did y- whatever, it doesn't matter." ending his statement with another hit to Julian's mug, drawing blood from his lip.

"You see, we've already made the demands. We've deactivated your arm with a sophisticated nano-EMP. No one's coming here to save you, Luthor." The man threatened as Julian shrugged. "Honestly, I'm not worried about me." Julian said, seeing catching something in the corner of his eye. "Oh?" The thug asked as Julian smirked. "I'm more worried about someone coming to save you lot." The leader of the thugs began laughing and so did the rest.

"And what would we need saving from? You gonna use that brain of yours to think your way out of the chair and to take us on?!"

"No, I'm not the one you should be worried about."

"My friend with the S is the one you should be scared off."

Emerald City University Library;
16th February, 2025: 10:24 P.M

Having a dual identity wasn't easy. Especially when you're the newest member of the Super Family Dynasty and the best friend of the heir to the Luthor Dynasty. Add college onto that and it was pretty easy to see that there'd be some problems and complications. Tonight just happened to be a pretty good example of that. Kieran was on the fourth floor of the library in a study room with three of his friends. They were studying for an upcoming test that they weren't nearly prepared for. It was for history which happened to be his worst subject. Learning the history of a planet wasn't easy. Especially when you only arrived on the planet six years before. If he had actually put his mind to it he'd have all of it locked down already. The problem was that it was so boring and in almost every chapter there was some group or country being a piece of shit to another group or country. He didn't know or remember much about his own world history, but that wasn't his fault either. Kryptonian amnesia seemed to be irreversible. Six years and nothing from his memories before entering the zone. He just hoped that none of his nightmares had anything to do with his or his home planet's history.

"... to Kieran Kent."

"Huh?"

"I said Earth to Kieran Kent. You're spacing out again. This stuff isn't that boring."

"It's not that exciting either, Rory. It's ridiculous. We have to remember all of these names and dates for guys and events that marked horrible times in our country." He was talking to Aurora, but everyone called her Rory. She was a redhead who was smart, beautiful, and had dreams. He thought that she'd be his Lois, but---.

"Yeah, it's called US History. It's not going to be pretty. Plus with your photographic memory I don't get why you're complaining." Said Mike who happened to interject Kieran's thoughts. Mike was a good friend but he was also the guy who was dating Rory. He was a basketball player. A good one too. A smart one as well who tried pretty hard to throw out the dumb jock stereotype in both High School and University. He spent a lot of time tutoring and helping out his classmates.

"Still doesn't negate the fact that it's boring." Kieran responded with a sigh. "Back me up here, Sophia."

"Yeah, it's boring. But we still have to learn it." Sophia was Mexican. You can tell that she worked harder than all of them combined. She did it so that she could take care of her family one day and get them out of rough areas. She got her work ethic from her dad who worked hard every day to provide for them. Kieran never felt bad for her though. It'd be unfair to do so. She didn't want anyone's sympathy so she rarely ever talked about her family. Even with her work ethic she still found the time to party and have fun as well.

"You're right... Let's get back to reading thi--." He winced a bit hearing the frequency in his ear. Julian must have been in trouble. "I just remembered. I have to do this thing somewhere. Like, right now. I'll see you guys in class."

Kieran then quickly grabbed his book and notes and started heading out of the study room. When he left the room Rory asked the others, "Where do you think he always runs off to?"

The other two just shrugged and went back to studying.

Kieran had to drop his things off at home and quickly get his suit. He definitely needed something that could hold his suit. Kind of like the Flash ring. He just hated having it under his clothes. It could cause a lot of problems. But now wasn't the time to think about how inconvenienced he'd be with or without his suit on him. Now he had to worry about saving Julian.

After retrieving his suit from home he suited up and sped throughout the city. He passed by a group of armed thugs trying to rob a jewelry store and skid to a stop. He turned back around. Yes, Julian was important but so was stopping these guys. Julian could take care of himself for a little while longer, right?

The Buildsite of Luthor Tower;
16th February, 2025: 11:26 P.M

A little while longer took much longer than Kieran had expected. These lowly thugs just happened to be suped up ex-mercenaries. They weren't all that strong, but their enhanced strength with combat training was definitely something that made them more dangerous and more than just a nuisance. After finally knocking them out he had to make a call into Belle Reve and then to his adoptive cousin for a criminal pickup. He of course left before Kon-El got there. He didn't want or need the "You need actual training" talk. As much as he'd love to spend time with a bunch of powered teen heroes in training it wasn't really his thing. He wanted to be able to make it on his own. Work his way through it like they did before they had Corrigan. That and he and Julian had this pretty nice set up. Even if the latter was captured right now.

After leaving the crime scene he started running and said, "Okay. Flying there will be faster. I can do this." Kieran had a problem with flying. Hovering and actually flying wasn't a problem for him. Taking off and landing was what he still had problems with. He jumped into the air and fell back down. He kept with his running start and jumped again and almost hit a building in the process. But this time he stayed in the air. He hovered in the air a bit and listened out in the city trying to figure out where they'd take him. He'd try to hone in on Julian's voice.

Got it. They weren't that smart in picking the place on holding him hostage. He sped through the air towards the site for the new Luthor Tower. He made his presence known after Julian gave his introduction.

Kieran hovered above the group with his arms crossed. He wasn't wearing a cape, but he still wore that S proudly. His eyes were shining red in the darkness to show them that he was about to use his heat vision. "You made the mistake of coming after my friend, here. A mistake that has made me very angry." He then immediately started to slice through whatever gun they decided to hold whether it was their assault rifle or shotgun. He meant business and he was going to make sure that they knew that.

"You made the mistake of coming after my friend, here. A mistake that has made me very angry.

"And you won't like him when he's angry." Julian said with a chuckle as the thug turned to Julian to hit him in the face again, only for a blast of energy erupted from the jammer on the billionaire's arm and in the next minute Julian's arm blocked the fist, the robotic strength far superior to the thug's own. Crushing the man's fist in his own, Julian grinned as the other thugs pulled up their arms against him, about to fire, spinning his would be torturer around, to block the shots, the man was hit by several bullets before they stopped firing. Julian didn't approve of people dying on his watch, but he did know that it could not be helped, after all.

Kieran swooped in to assist him, allowing him enough room to bust out of the chair he was tied to, his arm tearing through the metal with ease. As the thug hit the floor, Julian's arm let him know that the man was still alive, forcing Julian to crouch down next to him, bullets sizzling past him. "All right, lucky for you, this came out of our RnD development last month.." A syringe coming from under a panel in his arm, jamming the syringe into the man's chest, the ensyme within would speed up the man's healing factor by 10,000 percent, effectively healing him fully in a few minutes, afterwards the drug would wear out. Julian grinned as he saw the drug working, the wounds closing, forcing the bullets out as they did, the Thug coming back to conciousness, as Julian shook his head "Not getting off that easy" he spoke, his fist colliding with the man's skull, knocking him out cold.

Julian stood up, jerking his arm forward, the circular forcefield creating a shield for his torso, allowing him to withstand the gunfire while Kieran would battle the rest of the thugs. "Hey, Spectacular man!" Julian shouted, mocking the fact that the Kryptonian still did not have an alias. "You wanna hurry up? I'm running low on juice!" Jullian shouted, lobbing a glas shard around the corner, the shard bounced, breaking off a piece that change it's direction, the shard rolled on the wall in the curve and eventually found it's way to the target hitting a thug directly in the shoulder, forcing him to drop his gun, just like how Julian had calculated the throw.

"You wanna hurry up? I'm running low on juice!"

"Sometimes I really think that you think of me as the muscle." Kieran responded with a smile. He looked down at the remaining thugs and thought about how he was going to handle it. A second passed before he decided on what to do. "I should warn you guys. I'm great when it comes to flying, but my landings could be a little rough." As he said that he dropped to the floor causing a minor shockwave that knocked the first two thugs on their asses and the rest stumbling trying to keep their balance. "But I think I'm getting better. What do you think, Julian?"

Without waiting for a response he rushed forward and flicked the floored gunmen in their respective foreheads knocking them unconscious. The others took this as their moment to aim their guns on Kieran. He stood up to face them and shook his head. "You see the S, right?" They saw the S. They just didn't care about what it meant. They started firing at him and he let the bullets hit against his costume and face. He didn't fully understand why they still tried to shoot at heroes that they knew were bulletproof. Maybe they thought one day they'd get lucky or there was only so much damage they could take just like the vests. Maybe it was out of fear of their employer. They had to at least try, right? He admired the tenacity either way.

When each clip was empty he stepped over the shells at his feet and used his superspeed to get to his attackers. They fumbled trying to reload and he wasn't planning on giving them the chance to. He palmed the face of the first one and slammed him to the floor before knocking the others out with a series of jabs, hooks, and launching across the room.

When the area was clear of any conscious hostiles he walked over to Julian saying, "When I said it'd be fun to rescue a damsel in distress you weren't really the one I had in mind."