(THE “S” STANDS FOR HOPE) INTERLUDE

It took longer than Clark had thought reasonable. Earth Bet had changed considerably since his arrival, and while he liked to think that some of those changes had been for the better, the people living on the planet had spent too long being betrayed, manipulated, and hurt to accept something as extraordinary as a cure for Case 53s without a healthy amount of suspicion, so the first few weeks were slow.

Then word began to spread.

The PRT’s announcement had certainly helped, but most of the Case 53s who eventually came to Brockton Bay had heard about the machine from someone they knew, and those people had heard about it from someone else. Every successful treatment made the next one easier to believe, and before long, Case 53s from across the country were making their way to the city.

Eventually, they started arriving from further away.

Some came alone, while others brought friends who waited anxiously outside the treatment room. A few spent days asking questions and examining every piece of information they could find before deciding whether they were willing to take the risk.

Clark made himself available for as long as he felt necessary, answering questions when he could and allowing the PRT to handle the rest. Once enough treatments had been completed without incident, however, he became confident that the heroes could manage things without him overseeing every patient.

That was when he left Brockton Bay.

He returned to the section of Cauldron’s base that Doctor Mother had given him permission to use however he saw fit, where the equipment he’d accumulated over the past several months remained exactly where he’d left it.

There was still one problem he needed to solve.

The Travelers already had a way home. Earth Bet maintained a working portal to Aleph, which meant Francis, Noelle, and the others could return to their world without Clark having to construct another portal himself. After everything they had endured, he was glad that getting them home would be relatively simple.

His own plans were more complicated.

If he wanted to bring his friends to Earth Bet, he needed a portal of his own. After all, they weren’t from this universe.

Clark moved toward the main workstation and looked over the calculations he’d been working on before the Case 53 project had consumed most of his attention. He had put the problem aside for long enough, and with the immediate situation in Brockton Bay under control, there was little reason to keep postponing it.

There was another reason he needed to solve it now.

For months, he’d known that eventually he would have to deal with Scion. That time had finally come.

Clark had no doubts about the outcome if the fight came down to him and Scion alone. He was confident in his ability to defeat the Entity, but winning was only part of the problem.

The battle itself was another matter entirely.

Scion could cross continents in moments and wielded enough power to devastate everything around him, while the Simurgh presented a different kind of threat that made simply overpowering her a poor solution. If Clark fought either of them at full strength, there was no guarantee that the surrounding cities, or the people living in them, would survive the consequences.

He could protect himself.

He couldn’t protect an entire planet by himself while fighting an opponent capable of matching him.

That was why he needed the Justice League.

He also needed Earth Bet’s heroes.

And if some of its villains decided that stopping Scion was worth putting aside their differences for, Clark wasn’t going to turn them away either.

He had spent his time on Earth Bet building connections, earning trust, and getting people accustomed to the idea that they didn’t have to fully depend on him to face every threat alone. The Case 53 cure had been another example of that, with the PRT taking over once he had given them the means to continue the work themselves.

Now he needed to do the same thing with the fight ahead.

Clark looked over the calculations on the screen before allowing himself a small smile.

He had spent enough time preparing.

It was time to bring the Justice League here.