Chapter 9

Half way across the US the early morning papers began their distribution. Lex Luthor’s eyes popped open after barely closing at the sound of a tentative knock on the bedroom door of his Senatorial home.

“This had better be good,” he growled.

His bedroom door smartly opened and his manservant/bodyguard Patrick entered the room. “I apologize for disturbing you, Senator Luthor, however, I thought that you would want to see this.”

Patrick handed over a nighttime edition of The Daily Planet to Lex’s waiting hands while turning on his master’s bedside table.

The 50 point front page headline read “Superman Saves Metropolis Schoolchildren from Certain Death” by Lois Lane. Next to it was another equally large article with the headline, “My Evening with Superman.”

Wide awake, Lex devoured the text. The name Superman triggered buried flashes of memories that had been buried in his sub-consicious for four years. His palms began to sweat as he flipped through the paper reading one miraculous story about the caped crusader after another.

“This is it, Patrick. This is what I’ve been waiting for,” Lex murmured.

“I thought it might be, Senator. When you are done with the paper the national news has picked up on the story. There’s fresh coffee waiting for you in your office.”

“Thank you.” With a wave of his hand, Lex dismissed his manservant, climbed out of bed and watched the sky as the sun began to creep over the horizon to signal a new day. He threw on his bathrobe; it looked like he wasn’t going to get any sleep after all.

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Clark carried a tray with 2 large coffees and a bag of danishes into The Daily Planet to share with his partner. From the moment he dropped into Metropolis he had been confident about everything but today he felt a sliver of fear ripple though his soul, things weren’t going as planned. There was a murderous Kryptonian creature on the loose on the planet and Lois Lane was proving to be just as elusive of prey to catch.

He burst into their office to find Lois gazing at her spectacular expose on Superman…or more accurately at the huge photo of Superman that accompanied the article. As quickly as the door opened she shoved the paper aside and nervously straightened her jacket.

“Hey Smallville,” Lois said, her eyes turned towards the window and began scanning the skyline.

Clark rolled his eyes and delivered her coffee and a pastry to his partner. “I doubt that he’s going to spend his days flying around for your entertainment.”

An offended look marred Lois’s dreamy expression. “I do NOT expect Superman to waste his day entertaining me. I know that he has plenty of work to do. Besides, he confided in me that he lives a normal life outside of his superhero duties.” A sly smile spread across her face. “So you DID read my interview? What did you think? Isn’t he amazing?”

Clark exhaled an irrational pang of irritation course through him and he arched a brow in her direction. Pursing his lips tightly together he did the only thing that he could do, he agreed. “Yep, Superman’s quite amazing.”

“Don’t you wish that you hadn’t decided to go home early? You missed out on all of the fun!” Lois’s eyes were clouded again in that dreamy haze that had covered her features the night before.

Clark flattened his tie and sat down at his desk. He grumbled, “I’ll take your word on it.” Quickly he logged into his computer and connected into The Daily Planet’s live news feed while he sorted through his email. He changed the subject, “So what’s your poison? There’s a city council meeting at eleven…”

Lois fiddled with her long ponytail that hung over her shoulder. Her lips drooped. “Boy that sounds dull doesn’t it?”

Before Clark could respond they both heard a bellowing voice outside of their office shout out, “LANE! KENT! GET IN HERE!”

Jumping to their feet, Lois and Clark raced towards Mr. White’s office.

“What’s up Chief?” Lois asked.

Their boss first picked up the front page and showed it to Lois, “Great job on the Superman exclusive – daily circulation on this is through the roof, we’re even having to do a reprint!” Before Lois could reply he continued, “Fifth and South Central there’s a hot story brewing that I want you two to get all over. There’s a new chemical plant that’s gone in half a block from Metropolis Elementary. Parents are lined up out on the street protesting and not allowing it’s employees to enter.”

“Who’s the plant owner?” Clark inquired.

“Unsure, building formerly was a part of Luthor Corp,” White responded.

“We’ll get right on it, Chief!” Clark declared with a grin.

Their boss studied his number one reporter as her eyes were glued onto the image of Superman on the front page that he was waving around. “Anything that I can do for you, Lois?”

Startled, she jumped and smiled sheepishly, “No Chief, we’re on it.”

Clark’s long legs strode back into their office with Lois hot on his heels. “So I think that you should cover the human interest angle and talk to the parents while I talk to the plant manger,” Lois declared.

With a loud snort, Clark replied, “No way am I letting you into that plant without me, Lois.” He spun around on his heel, causing Lois to abruptly stop just moments before crashing into him. “We’re partners, that means we work the story together – I hate to break it to you but you’re not ditching me like a bad date.”

“You know I have managed over the years to chase down stories by myself.” She stared indignantly at him. “Besides, I wasn’t planning on ditching you, it’s just that I’m sure that you’re better with the whole ‘human interest’ side of things is all.”

Clark sat down at his computer and quickly located the information of the building in question. He filled out an online request to City Hall asking for copies of the bill of sale for the plant. He then pulled on his jacket and watched while Lois stuffed a danish into her mouth, grabbed her keys, purse, and jacket and marched towards the door. On their way out, Lois shouted, “Olsen! Come on!”

From across the bullpen Jimmy jumped from his desk, camera at the ready.

As they marched along, Lois said, “Olsen, this is Clark Kent…Clark, Jimmy Olsen.”

“Yeah, Lois we know each other already,” Jimmy replied with a confused expression. “What’s up, CK? How was your trip?”

“Good, I got to see a lot of the world,” Clark replied.

“Man, did you miss major excitement last night!” Jimmy's bright blue eyes sparkled with joy. “I've never seen anything like it. Clark, Superman can FLY! FLY, I tell you!”

Clark shrugged his shoulders. “I've seen a lot of people do pretty remarkabl things Jimmy.”

“Bet you've never seen anyone fly before though!”

The trio stopped by the elevator and the doors hissed open in time to save Clark from having to spit out one of his daily lies. Taking advantage of the moment, Clark turned to Lois and his eyes immediately fell upon her white blouse's neckline that had shifted slightly and from his angle he could see deeper into her cleavage.

He squeaked, “Lo-is.” Quickly he coughed and she crossed her arms under her breasts which only succeeded in making her cleavage larger.

“Yes, Clark?”

Clark suddenly became aware of the light scent of lavender that wafted to his nose. Remembering that Lois said that she bathed in the stuff, a full blown vision of her nude popped into his head and all logical thoughts vanished as his palms began to sweat.

Swiftly, Jimmy took advantage of the hole in conversation. “How fast do you think that he can fly? I mean can he fly as fast as a plane? And if so what size of a plane?”

Lois shifted her weight and her blouse fell back into its normal position. A small smile spread on her lips and her eyes glazed over as she re-imagined herself in flight with Superman, clutched securely in his burly, protective arms. She softly sighed.

All sensual thought of Lois vanished from Clark's head as a wave of jealousy coursed through him. He barked,“How do you think that a chemical plant was granted city ordinances when it's so close to a school?”

The question had the hoped for effect, Lois snapped out of her own daydream. “Someone lied to someone.”

With a hiss the elevator doors opened and the trio briskly walked through the sparsely crowded Dail Planet Lobby.

Clark's brows knit together. He pushed his glasses up his nose and retorted, “Or got paid off.”

A chill ran through both Lois and Clark's bodies. They turned to each other and stated in unison, “Mayor Wilkins!”

Breath thick with excitement, Lois said, “Clark, that money! It wasn't Mayor Wilkins just skimming local money off for his mistress, he was hiding a bribe!”

“Trying to at least. No wonder that he went white. He probably was relieved that we thought that he was just hiding a mistress.”

Lois threw her hand up and whistled for a taxi as they hit the outside pavement. “Of course he was relieved. There aren't just local laws, but likely Federal laws that he'd be breaking if the truth came out that he willingly knew about this.”

Clark opened the door to a cab that stopped in front of them. Jimmy jumped in followed by Lois and then Clark. Clark handed the driver the address.

“You know, when I was looking up the address of the plant, I found something else. It's right by the waterfront. With the extreme efforts that our local Green Conservation Groups have been working with the local government to clean out the harbor, how do you think that they'll like learning that there might be a potentially hazardous chemical plant right on the water?”

An unwitting voice or reason came from Jimmy. “Before you guys start calling in the tree huggers, why don't we make sure that they ARE in fact making something toxic in that plant. For all that we know they might just be making soap or something.”

A large smile pressed across Clark's face at his friend. “You're right, Jimmy..innocent until proven guilty!”

The cab sped through Metropolis hitting very few red lights and before the reporters knew it they arrived at their destination. Lois paid the driver as Clark opened the door for his partner and Jimmy. A large crowd of angry citizens were crowded around the front of a warehouse called “McGovern Chemicals.”

Lois snorted. “I guess we can rule soap out.”

The optimistic smile on Jimmy's face fell. Clark chucked him on the shoulder. With a sigh, Jimmy said, “I'll go get some photos.”

Fully into reporter zone, Lois spied a wiry security guard standing outside the building, and staring nervously at the crowd. She bounded over in his direction.

Clark strode behind her in time to see her curl her fingers into the wire with one hand, and with the other she extracted her press pass out of her pocket and flashed it at the guard. “Lois Lane, The Daily Planet.” She cocked her head and flashed him a little lopsided smile. “Any chance that you can get me and my partner here in to see your boss?”

“I'm quite certain that he'd like to be able to tell his side of the story and spread some good press about this situation,” Clark offered.

The young man stared suspiciously at them. “But you're reporters, I'm sure that all that you want to do is write about how horrible McGovern Chemicals is.”

With complete sincerity plastered across her face, Lois's eyes fluttered to the kid's name badge and she reasoned, “Tim? We're with The Daily Planet, NOT The Inquisitor, we print the truth not sensationalized journalism.” She slipped a business card through the fence. “Could you please take that to your boss and see if he'll let us come talk to him?”

Tim nodded his head and ducked into a nearby doorway and vanished inside the building.

Clark chuckled. “Lois, I believe that you can convince a man in a desert that he needs to buy a boat.”

“Congratulate me when we're inside.” Lois planted her fists on her hips and she examined the crowd. “What if this place isn't toxic?”

“A chemical plant not toxic? How likely would that be, Lois?”

“I don't know. Sometimes I just think that people jump too easily to conclusions is all. I mean, if this place we really dangerous, don't you think that Superman would be here?”

Clark realized that her eyes were flickering around the entire area, including the bright blue sky scanning for his alter-ego. He rolled his eyes. “Exactly WHAT would Superman do about a chemical plant? Yank it off of it’s foundation and relocate it to Timbuktu?”

Lois glanced at her partner and felt the weight of his intensely incredulous stare. “Fine, you're right, there's nothing that he could do about it. Environmental crime isn't exactly his forte, he's more of a man of action.”

The protestors began shouting in earnest as a group of new security guards showed up and opened the gates a hair to let four frazzled employees inside the facility.


From the crowd Clark spied a young woman with black hair trying to press her way through the writhing angry mob towards the gate. A heavyset woman spied her and grabbed the woman’s arm and began screaming in her face. “How can you work there? They’re endangering the lives of our CHILDREN!”

Clark sensed the mood of the crowd turn, it went from being just angry disorganized mob to unified in wave of searing hatred as they all surrounded the factory worker. Quickly Clark picked up his cell phone and loudly pretended to take a call and stepped away from Lois. Her attention shifted entirely onto the mob giving Clark the split moment that he needed to dash away.

Seconds later a blue and red blur fell out of the sky and crashed into the middle of the mob. The victim was mid scream as the sound of fabric ripping filled the area as unknown assailants tore the woman’s factory uniform. She pleaded, “I need to feed my family! This is the only job that I could get!”

Superman wrapped his arms around the factory employee and jumped over the crowd of arms that stretched upwards trying to claim their prize.

Scowling he growled, “You all should be ashamed of yourselves! Is this what you call a peaceful protest? Who here is going to pay for this woman’s uniform?”

The woman wept in his arms as Superman floated over to the gate and safely deposited her on the company side of the gate. She tugged up her ripped sleeve and bolted into the factory's back door.

“We have a right to protest here! I have a petition for it! Don't try to shame us, Superman!” An angry man yelled from the crowd. In a flash, Clark towered over the bespeckled balding man.

He studied the paper that now shook in the man's hand. “That petition gives you the right to peacefully protest, not terrorize and attack factory employees. These people have families! They have children to feed...”

“What about our children??”

The crowd cheered in unison.

Superman spread his hands out. “Look, it's possible that you have a valid reason to protest this company being here, but until an investigation can be made on the place, you all might be getting yourselves upset over nothing. As citizens you have the right to speak your minds, but please, leave the employees alone. Do you all want to get slapped with assault charges? Because that woman has the right to file them against you all! How would you all like it if you were just trying to go to work and someone came along and ripped your clothes? You'd be humiliated, wouldn't you?”

The crowd went silent. From across the way, a large proud grin plastered itself over Lois’s face. A small voice spoke at Clark's side. “Superman?” He turned his head and saw an older gentleman, he was holding out a wad of bills. “I think that I accidentally ripped that woman's uniform. Here, this should cover it.”

Clark fanned out the money and suddenly found fistfuls of dollars pointed in his direction. He took a few bills from each person until he had gathered enough money that he believed would cover a new uniform for the woman. The crowd parted for him and he handed it to one of the guards who darted off inside to deliver it to the employee.

Faster than a blink of the eye, Clark sped off across the city and returned carrying a bunch of unused crowd barriers and dropped them forty feet away form the entrance. “Everyone, you need to follow the rules of the protest petition and you must be forty feet away from the building. Any of you who step beyond this barrier will be considered breaking the law.”

The crowd murmured and obediently moved behind the barriers. Superman handed the petition to the factory guards and said, “If anyone crosses these barriers and further breaks the rules of the petition, it is in your right to call the police. Something tells me though, that they'll behave themselves from now on.”

“Thank you, Superman,” the female guard replied as she watched him raise off of the ground and disappear into the sky.

Lois's heart pounded in her chest after watching the exchange. She knew that Superman would end up somehow saving the day. Even if the folks inside the company stonewalled she and Clark, at least wouldn't walk away from the day empty handed and without a story. Lois did feel disappointed that Superman didn't stop to say hello to her, but she supposed that he likely failed to see her.

From behind her she heard the snap of a cell phone being turned off. “Did I miss anything?”

Rolling her eyes, Lois sighed. “Only a Superman sighting! Clark you have the worst timing for making phone calls.” She turned around and arched a brow at her tall partner.

Jimmy raced over from the crowd with a large grin plastered all over his face. “CK I got the most amazing shots – look!”

Clark studied the thumbnails on Jimmy's camera of himself doing crowd control. He smiled. “Great job Jimmy. I feel bad that I missed it.”

“Oh I wouldn't worry too much, I'm sure that you'll get to see him soon!”

Tim the security guard arrived. “You two have clearance to come inside.” The man apologized, “Sorry, no cameras allowed.”

“It's OK. Lois, CK I'm going to head back to the Planet to process these.”

“See you back at the bullpen, Olsen,” Lois replied and walked towards the open gate. “Ladies first, Smallville. Try to keep up.” Clark watched her march inside and promptly enjoyed the view from behind.

“Absolutely, Lois.” With a lopsided grin, he straightened his tie and followed her inside.

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