Inviolate
is a 2009-2011 Superman fanfiction written by Scriviner about Lex Luthor.
In the aftermath of the disastrous end to his presidency, Lex Luthor discovers that he has been manipulated in such a way that it calls into question every action he has ever taken. He is not pleased. At all.
Lex must use all of his intelligence, his scientific and business acumen and a couple of very useful allies in the form of Mercy Graves and Eve Teschmacher to uncover and take down a conspiracy whose roots go deeper than Lex can imagine.
A podfic of the story is also available here.
Examples:
- Abnormal Ammo: Lex's gun during the assault on Cadmus seems like it's just shooting ordinary bullets, until he admits that he specifically needed a large caliber weapon because the bullets have RFID chips in them that provide targeting for a disintegration weapon he had in his coat.
- Aborted Arc: Considering how often she showed up, it seemed likely that Batgirl was originally intended to play a larger role, but the author acknowledges that in an effort to keep the story on-track, he had to remove a few storylines focused on her and will end up having to use those ideas in a planned sequel.
- Adaptation Origin Connection: The Manhunters, and by extension the Guardians of Oa, have been involved in several key events of the DCU, including the following:
- Wiping out the Czarnians and manipulating Lobo into taking the blame.
- Seperating the Burning Ones into the White and Green Martians, and unleashing the telepathic plague that nearly wiped them both out.
- Kick starting the rampant revanchism and xenophobia that indirectly led to the near extinction of Kyptonians.
- Adaptational Villainy: The Guardians of Oa, who've been playing the entire universe for chumps since practically day one.
- Affably Evil: It's a Lex fic, of course this applies.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Horribly, horribly averted. The Manhunters never rebelled. This whole time they were under the orders of the Guardians.
- Aliens Are Bastards: Lex has been of this opinion from day one, and the fic pretty much validates it, once the big bads are revealed.
- Though it's only the Guardians of Oa that are the Bastards. Lex has gotten over his pathological hatred of Superman.
- And the Adventure Continues: Lex, Mercy, and Eve on the newly-upgraded Moonraker crossing parallel universes in the Journey back to their one.
- Badass Boast: Lex pulls a few of these and so do his antagonists. It's mostly of the jostling for dominance variety, as psychological warfare and an interrogation tactic.
- "It's not as important to me as you'd think. I've got bigger fish to fry. I can and will wreck this country if you push me. You know I could. You worked for me and you know what I'm capable of. I'll do it and make everyone believe it was your fault. With the push of a few buttons, I can break you. Do not test me, Waller."
- "Your men are dead. I killed them on my way here. Your cameras are under my control. This entire facility is set to self-destruct at my word. There will be no body for them to find, you have my word on that. There will be no investigation. No one will know what happened to you. My name will be clean, I will be praised to the high heavens. Your conspiracy will die in flames as I disassemble it. There is no carrot. There is only stick. Answer me or die in agony."
- This one was delivered by Paul Westfield to Luthor on behalf of the Manhunters: "Your race has been shaped entirely by us. What you are today was through our auspices. What you have achieved we have generously given you." Westfield's voice began to take on animation once more. "When Atlantis lay on the verge of taking to the stars. We were new to our task and overeager. We destroyed it entirely. We showed greater restraint when Rome reached the peak of its Empire building. We led the barbarians that sacked it. When the kingdom of Prester John stood poised to unite the African continent under a single rule and from there the world? We destroyed it so thoroughly it exists only in legend. We are why the Han conquered the Chinese. We are why the Crusades happened. We were in command of the Allied forces that toppled the Third Reich. Your entire race's history of trying to rise above it's station has ever been tempered by our hand striking you down."
- Lex kicked the Negotiator in the side, pushing him into the wall, where Lex pinned him by keeping his foot on the being's chest. "Were you not listening when I explained who we've fought and beaten? I'm going to be busy dealing with the Oans first, but if you give me reason, I promise you I will make war upon you so costly that your Empire's economy will spend generations trying to recover from what I will do to you. You, personally, I will hold responsible. Your people will hold you personally responsible for bringing my wrath down upon them. With this data in mind, do a cost benefit analysis, Negotiator. Ignore your hurt pride. Look into my eyes. What do the numbers tell you?"
- Badass Normal: Lex all the way. Mercy as well.
- Battle Butler: Mercy Graves.
- Big Damn Heroes: Cassandra as Batgirl saves Lex from the exploding Cadmus building.
- Bodyguard Crush: Implied that Mercy has one on Lex.
- Bottomless Magazines: Lex's gun during the assault on Cadmus appears to have one. He claims that it's manufacturing the bullets from thin air, but is actually teleporting them into the bottom of the magazine from a warehouse in New Jersey, so justified and partly deconstructed.
- The Cape: Lex slowly becomes this over the course of the story and clinches it in the Final. He could rule over a new universe as a God at the cost of his own universe. Instead he sacrifices his own life to save his universe.
- Continuity Nod: Bunches of them.
- Cute as a Bouncing Betty: The "Toastmaster" and "Party Crasher" are BFGs, a giant laser cannon and a Antimatter cannon respectively.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Lex himself does this for Bruce Wayne, giving him all the patents that could be moneymaking / lifesaving that he created over time, but he previously had no interest in, because it didn't help against Superman.
- Cynicism Catalyst: Lex's memory of Lena keeps coming back to him again and again, and is ultimately not only the clue that makes him realize his world is fakenote , but is also his ultimate motivation for his What You Are in the Dark.
- Deadpan Snarker: Mercy does this on occasion, but mostly when she's "off-duty".
- Lex do after he's gone through some Character Development.
- Deflector Shields: Both the personal kind and for use as fancy privacy curtains/room dividers. Lex loves the things.
- Despair Event Horizon: Lex goes through one of these once he finds out that his entire life he has been manipulated. This causes him to to get over his hatred of Superman and take all that hate and point it at the Conspiracy.
- Lex also weaponizes one by pumping Doctor Psycho full of Fear Toxin and putting him inside the Cadmus building.
- Earth Is the Center of the Universe: Played with and justified. We're effectively a Guardian weapons depot. That's why so many last of their kind aliens keep ending up on Earth and why so many alien species out there keep trying to invade it.
- Eventually becomes literal.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Lex's conclusions about Batman in Chapter 15.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Lex shows throughout the entire story. This line clinches it.Luthor: I got a little bored while Teddy was telling me everything he knew and built a holographic display projector.
- Heel–Face Turn: Technically this happens, but the reason behind it is pretty cynical.
- Heroic Sacrifice
- Hollywood Genetics: Throughly mocked with Lex telling Guy that Vuldarian DNA would not try to destroy Human DNA.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Eve Teschmacher, Luthor's secretary and then later Executive Assistant shows signs of this, mostly because Lex is so focused on his schemes that he doesn't have time to actually run his company.
- Large Ham: Lex all the way.Luthor: No one move. I have a bear.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Lex goes through sixteen subjective years of increasingly 'perfect' realities as his mind pushes itself to its limits trying to make him escape.
- Man Behind the Man: What gets revealed in chapter 13.
- Mistaken for Gay: Deadshot briefly misconstrues Lex's relationship with Metallo due to an overheard conversation. He's corrected rather quickly by Mercy.
- Mundane Utility: A good example shows up in the first chapter when Lex is talking about his sonic weapon: "I've never actually hit anyone with it at level ten, but I tried it on a steak once. Vibrated the thing so hard the meat not only cooked to medium rare, but I ended up with quite possibly the most tender cut of beef you could imagine as the connective tissues and bones were practically liquified." A gruesomely amused grin crossed the man's face. "I could cut it with a plastic fork. Can you imagine what it would do to a human body?"
- The device that actually kicked off the plot (the Slide) is a low-energy teleporter that also functions as a microscope, telescope, MRI, spy camera, and video telephone. Perhaps it could do more, but that's everything Lex uses it for.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After Luthor undoes the tampering the Manhunter's did to the Lazurus Pits that causes insanity with repeated use, this is Ra's Al-Ghul's reaction to all the evil's he's done, resulting in him comitting himself into a clinic in upstate New York; as Luthor puts it, "He's had a rough century". He then tricks the Joker into jumping in (he bet a Klondike Bar he wouldn't) for the purposes of a) further testing, and b) giving Batman less to distract him from the imminent assualt on Oa. When Mr. J crawls out, he's a bawling mess, begging to be locked up in Arkham.
- No Hero to His Valet: Mercy has pretty much seen Lex at his best and worst. Despite it all it is heavily hinted that she wants him.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Lex once he gets over his Despair Event Horizon starts acting really OOC. This cause both Superman and Batman to start wondering what the hell is going on.
- Oh, Crap!: Occurs multiple times as the situation conspires to really mess with Lex's plans, but most noteable in In Chapter 19: Lex could only scream in frustrated horror as his carefully laid plans to end the Guardians of Oa cleanly and quietly went up in flames and plasma bursts.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Deadshot and Metallo take the opportunity to rib Lex after hearing how he frenched Amanda Waller.
- President Evil: Lex's stint as President is referenced and events from it are put into use.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Lex delivers one each to Bruce Wayne and to Superman, but delivers it in a way where he is trying to encourage them to do better, albeit mockingly in Superman's case. It leaves the heroes rather bemused
- Reed Richards Is Useless: Deconstructed, justified then later averted (or trying to do so).
- Revenge: What drives the plot.
- The Schizophrenia Conspiracy: In this case it's played with a bit in that it's a conspiracy to cripple humanity by inducing Schizophrenia and other mental disease in humanity.
- Science Hero: Lex is most definitely one, with a side of Guile Hero to back it up. Even when he's Storming the Castle, he mostly relies on gadgets, and being prepared.
- Screw You, Elves!: That is, Screw You, Guardians.
- Sealed Evil in a Teddy Bear: Lex puts a defeated Manhunter's AI in a Teddy Ruxpin Expy.
- Which belongs to his secretary/manager/love interest. She doesn't take it too well that he ripped apart her childhood toy.
- Secret Identity: This is an essential part of Chapter 15.
- Shout-Out: Aside from the various references to DC comics, there's also a few other shout-outs here and there, most notably the heavily-40k and Dune-inspired fake reality.
- Threesome Subtext: Loads of this between Lex, Eve and Mercy.
- Unwitting Pawn: Most of the universe to the Guardians, but the Green Lantern Corps most especially.
- Villain Teleportation: Played with and played straight. Lex does have some access to teleportation and it's better than what the nominal good guys have, but it has its own limitations.
- Wham Line: When Lex is interrogating the Manhunter AI that is running the Conspiracy."The Manhunters serve the Guardians."
- What You Are in the Dark: Played very straight at the end. In Chapter 25, Lex is alone in a collapsing parasite universe. He has an opportunity to attain absolute God-like power, but it will result in the destruction of his home universe. He chooses to not only give up the power, but to sacrifice himself to save everyone else.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Lex is this all over, as unforeseen events keep wrecking his initial plans and he's forced to adapt to new circumstances (circumstances that have included nudity).
