The Adventures of Superman
Chapter 1 - Arrival to Metropolis
"I'm late!", he exclaimed. He tried to rush into the building of the Daily Planet but with all the people going in and out of the building, this was a herculean task. 'If I could use my powers, I would have already reached his office', he thought and sighed as he made his way into the Daily Planet. He ran towards the elevator and pressed the button for it to come. He was breathing heavily and his fingers were being crushed in the rhythmic grip of his other hand. His mother and father had told him not to have stress when meeting Perry White, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Planet and, hopefully, his new boss. But he couldn't help it. On the other hand, he thought, not all was stressful or bad. Metropolis was a wonder to behold. Although he had seen big cities before on the internet, going there in person was an entirely different thing. He had been amazed by the tall skyscrapers and the crowds of people walking in the city. He had seen nothing like it back in Smallville.
A ringing sound notified him that the elevator had arrived. He walked in and pressed the button to get him to the sixth floor. When the elevator reached the sixth floor, he rushed to Perry's office and knocked the door.
"Who is it?!", he barked.
"It…Its me.", the young man said. "I mean, it's Clark Kent."
Perry opened the door and welcome Clark in. Clark was a young man in his late twenties, tall, thin and wearing thick black rimmed glasses and a black suit. Perry, on the other hand, was in his fifties, with grey hair and wearing a blue shirt and black trousers. The fact that he looked tough and strict made Clark even more stressful. Clark put up an awkward smile and said, "I…I am….here for…for…the interview. For the job."
"I see…", Perry said. "I've read the email you send me with the articles you had written for the Torch of Smallville. You have a good prose and it seems that you have great potential."
Hearing this, Clark allowed himself to relax a bit and smiled. "Does this mean I am hired?"
Perry sighed. "Sorry, kid. You do have potential, but not enough experience. This is the Daily Planet we are talking about, the greatest newspaper in the entire world. We sell more than all of Metropolis' newspapers combined and our website is visited by millions daily."
"But experience is not everything!", Clark protested. "Give me a chance to prove myself and I will."
Perry thought about it for a moment. "You do have passion. I like that in a reporter. Well… bring me a story and prove me wrong!"
"So… I am hired?", a smiling Clark asked.
"Yes. But if you do not bring me a good story really soon, you will leave as fast as you were hired."
"I understand.", Clark said. As he walked out of the office, he bumped into a young woman. "I am sorry.", he quickly apologized.
"Watch where you are going.", she said. "Are you blind?"
Clark was about to apologize again when he saw that woman. She had tall frame and slender body. Her hair was straight black, her eyes dark. Clark could find no words to describe her beauty.
"Are you deaf too?", she said.
"I…Sorry, I've…me…I…"
Before he could finish his sentence, Perry interrupted him. "He is Clark Kent, our newest reporter."
He then said to Clark, "And she is Lois Lane, the best reporter of the Daily Planet."
"Nice to meet you!", Clark said and offered to shake hands but Lois ignored him. Instead she handed some papers to Perry. "This is the story about the serial killer.", she said.
Perry read the first page and smiled. "Excellent work. Hey, Clark, you could learn a thing or two from Lois. If you read her stories, you will understand why she is the best reporter of our newspaper."
Clark's Apartment
Clark was back on his apartment and sitting on a couch. He had rented this apartment only yesterday. He was surfing on the net in his laptop, searching for an interesting subject to write about. 'That serial killer case sounded like a good story to write about', he thought. 'Too bad Lois got it first.'
Clark sighed, but not because Lois had gotten the story first. He sighed because he had made a fool of himself before her. "Why can't I be normal…", he said. "I have to be either the mild-mannered clumsy guy who gets ignored or laughed at or the extraterrestrial that has to hide his true identity from everyone."
He decided to scroll down the news page he was reading in order to forget about his embarrassment. He found an emergency story about an armed robbery and read it aloud. "Armed robbery in Metropolis Bank. Three armed men hold hostages inside the bank. Among them the famous Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane…"
Without second thought, he used his super speed to quickly dress up and rush to the bank. The whole building was surrounded by cops and police tracks. As Clark was thinking his next move, a young female police officer approached him. She was tall, with blonde hair and blue eyes.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?", she asked.
"I…I am Clark Kent, from the Daily Planet. I am a reporter."
"I advise you to leave.", the police officer warned. "Things may get messy and you certainly do not seem like a guy who can be in the midst of action."
"You will be surprised…", he murmured. He then used his x-ray vision to see what was going on inside the bank and identify the three thugs. One of them was pointing his gun at the hostages while the other two were having a verbal fight. Clark used his super hearing to hear what they were saying.
"I told you this was going to end badly!", one of the thugs said.
"Shut up!", the other retorted.
"Earth calls Clark!", the police offer said. "What are you doing?"
"I…"
Clark had no time to explain. If he was late, Lois could be in danger. So he used super speed to run faster than a speeding bullet and enter inside the bank. In the timeframe of only a few seconds he punched on the face the thug pointing his gun at the hostages, kicked on the chest the second thug and grabbed the third thug and threw him against a wall. He then made his way back as fast as possible.
"I just have a headache.", Clark replied to the police officer and smiled.
"Me too.", she replied. "By the way, I could swear that for a few seconds you had left this place. But it must be my headache. Anyway, hope this hostage crisis is over soon."
"Something tells me that it already is."
The police officer turned around and saw the hostages getting out of the building all safe and the policemen arresting the three thugs.
"How did you know that?", she asked.
"Reporter instinct.", Clark said and smiled.
"By the way, my name is Helen. Helen Smith. Maybe we should meet sometime. You seem to be more interesting that one would think from first glance."
Perry White's Office
Only a few hours later, Clark was delivering Perry his story about the bank robbery and the 'miraculous' rescue of the hostages.
"Excellent work.", Perry remarked. "It was a good decision that I hired you after all."
Clark just grinned.
Perry then showed him his new office. "This is your new office. Welcome officially to the Daily Planet!"
Clark was delighted to see that his desk was opposite to that of Lois.
"Don't let this go over your head, kid.", Perry said. "I want you to bring me more good stories. If possible, I want you to find out who or what saved the hostages from those thugs."
"I will work on it.", Clark replied.