Chapter 1: Late to Work

"Oh man, oh man, oh man! Look at the time! I have to hurry or I'll be fired on my first day! Hope she doesn't find out or I'll be dead meat!" shouted the young blonde male as he ran out of his home.

He ran and ran and ran until he had to catch his breath. The entire time he ran, he clutched onto a very expensive looking camera. He looked around and realized that he ran past his workplace. He groaned and ran back until he stood in front of his new job.

"I can't believe I just ran past this place! It's huge and it's the only building in the city with a giant planet thing-y on its roof!" he shouted as he reached the floor he was looking for and looked around.

"Excuse me, you wouldn't happen to be the new photographer, would you?" asked a relatively round man who seemed to be expecting him.

"Uh... yeah, I am! I'm sorry that I'm late but I kinda-" said the blonde male before he was interrupted.

"Hey, don't sweat it, son! Our reporters always late to work. It is your first day today. As long as I get my pictures on time, I could care less when you get here. Speaking of late reporters... Hey, Kent! Come here!"

"Yes sir! I'm sorry for being late. I-it won't happen again!" exclaimed Kent nervously.

"Kent, you and I both know it'll happen again next week. I've already told you I don't care as long as I've got my story. That's not why I called ya here," said their boss.

"It's not?"

"Nope, I just wanted you to meet your own personal photographer. Now you and Lane won't fight over who gets Jimmy. He'll follow you around for every story you have. Kid, introduce yourself."

"Oh... right... hi, I'm Alfred F. Jones! Nice to meet you, Mr. Kent!" said Alfred loudly.

"Um... pleasure to meet you, too. Please call me Clark. Come on there's a story I'm covering up at the new Cadmus building that Luthor had built up north. We need to get there before Lois beats me there again. I hate having to fight over a story but it happens," he said as he quickly gathered his things.

"Sure thing, Clark."

"By the way, what does the 'f' in your name stand for?" asked Clark as they headed to the elevators.

"It stands for freedom!" shouted Alfred.

Clark have him a sideways glance and saw that Alfred was smiling. He didn't know why but he felt unnerved by that. He frowned at the blonde who seemed not to notice the frown.

"No seriously, Jones. What's it stands for?" asked Clark.

"... it stands for freedom!" whined Alfred who sighed when he saw the look on Clark's face. "... fine, it's Foster... Alfred Foster Jones- there, happy?"

The two of them got into the elevator as it arrived on their floor. The two ride down the elevator in silence. Neither one was sure what to say anyways. However, Alfred spoke up as the doors opened as they finally got to the bottom.

"You can call me Alfred," he responded as he looked slightly up at Clark who laughed at him.

"Yeah, that's not going to happen. When I call for you it'll be Foster or Jones, okay?" Clark answered as he got into the car parked right in front of the building.

Alfred stared at the car for a moment. It wasn't extremely shiny like a new car but it did look clean. It was blue like the suit that Clark was wearing. He smiled at the fact that the car was a lot like Clark.

He stopped staring at it and ran to the passenger seat. He quickly got in and waited for Clark to drive off. At first, he drove slowly but Clark seemed to see something. That's when Clark suddenly accelerated and nearly crashed into another car. He swerved around the cars and they finally made it to the Cadmus building.

"Come on!" snapped Clark as he rushed Alfred out of the car.

"Not so fast, Smallville!" shrieked a woman as she came towards them.

"I got here first, Lois!" argued Clark as he went to stand in front of the woman.

"How can you cover this story? You don't even have a photographer," pointed out Lois with a smirk.

"Actually, he does," protested Alfred as he got out holding his camera as he put the strap around his neck.

"Who's the kid?" scoffed Lois as she took in Alfred's appearance.

"I'm Alfred F. Jones! Just started today and I'm glad to meet you!" bellowed the blonde. "Are we going to do something today our what?"

"Yes, we are going inside for the interview that I already scheduled. This is my story, Lois. Go look somewhere else," huffed Clark.

Clark grabbed Alfred by the brown jacket that he was wearing and pulled him in the direction of the building. All the while, Lois was stuttering and shouting at Clark and a red haired teen tried to calm her down.

They went inside and Clark talked to the reception lady who told them to take the elevator to the next floor. Alfred quickly followed after Clark as he walked over to the elevator at the end of the hall. They slipped into the elevator to get to the second floor.

As the door opened to the second floor, a fire exploded in the far left corner of the building that knocked everyone to the ground. Clark just so happened to land practically on top of Alfred who seemed extremely uncomfortable with their position. He quickly got up and helped Alfred up in time to see the staff and civilians as well as patients being rushed out in their direction.

Alfred grabbed Clark's hand and quickly pulled him into a janitor's closet. They waited until the noise of people being rushed out died down before looking out into the hallway. Everyone seemed to be out of there so they ventured out. Alfred quickly got to work by taking pictures of the hallway that was up in flames.

"Alfred, we need to get out of here!" shouted Clark as he tried to pull him towards the stairs.

"Help us! Please, someone help us! We can't breathe!" shouted a boy he banged on a wall somewhere in the fire.

"I'll save you!" shouted Alfred as he ran towards the flaming hallway.

"Alfred, you can't! You have to wait for someone to come help!" shouted Clark as he tried to coax him to file him outside.

"Oh, don't worry about me! I'm the hero!" declared Alfred as he ran into the inferno.

Clark ran back to the janitor's closet and quickly got changed into his Superman costume. He rushed out and looked around for any signs of life. He was getting worried when he couldn't see any signs of anyone.

"Hey, you mind helping me out?" asked a voice they came out of the fire.

Superman was surprised to see Alfred walk out holding two people in his arms. One was a blonde haired boy who was dressed as a sailor and the other was a girl that looked to be in her teens with long strawberry blonde hair. She seemed to be doing a lot worse than the boy.

Superman stopped staring and gestured for them to stand behind them. As soon as they were, he quickly launched himself into the inferno and in a matter of seconds, the fire was contained. The fire disappeared as the sprinklers finally turned on. Unbeknownst to Superman, Alfred was taking pictures of all of it and wasn't too worried about Clark.

When Superman made sure that the fire was out, he flew all them out of the building. He quickly got back into his suit and hurried back outside to find Alfred who didn't seem to realize he was missing. He actually seemed to be talking intently with the two they saved.

"What are you doing here, Peter? I don't want to die at the hands of your older sister! You should've called or something to tell me you were in Metropolis," whispered Alfred as he looked down at the boy.

"Sorry, but kids my age don't have enough money to make lots of calls on a payphone. I don't even have your number! How was I supposed to call or contact you?" asked the boy.

"Guess you're right... so, who's your friend?"

"I don't know her name but she's lived all her life at sea like me! She told me that she works for some guy named Arthur and that he's got a hook for a hand."

Before Alfred could respond, Clark approached them cautiously. Alfred stood up and smiled at him which once again unnerved him. He was just in a fire and was now smiling like nothing had happened.

"Yo, Clark. I was wondering where you went. This little guy's Peter and he's my girlfriend's younger brother. I have no idea who this girl is but she's got to be a friend since Peter knows her. You mind watching them while I call my friend, France," said Alfred as he walked over to the side with a flip phone.

"France?" asked the now very confused Clark.

"Short for Francis. Alfred only calls him when he's too afraid to call my sister. She doesn't really like it when I get in trouble since I remind her of Alfred but with an accent. When she finds out I came to America to see Alfred, she'll be absolutely furious. I don't see the problem. All of our friends are coming to see Alfred in a week or two," muttered Peter as he stood with them.

Peter grabbed a water bottle and walked over to the dead silent girl. He opened it and poured it all on her head. Clark expected her to be angry but she just shook her head as the water came down. She smiled up at the boy as the bottle became empty.

They sat together and seemed to be speaking in a different language that even Clark didn't know and that's when Alfred came back. Clark became more and more suspicious of them with every passing second. Eventually, he had had enough and walked away to make a call.

"What do you want, Kent?" asked the man on the other line.

"I need you to call everyone up to the Watch Tower for a meeting. This is something I need to discuss before it drives me insane and I need all the help I can get to figure out what is going on," said Clark.

"Fine, but this better be important as you say it is or I'll make your life unbearable, Kent."

Before he could respond, the man hung up and left him to listen to the tone. He sighed and closed his phone. He stared at it for a minute before a loud growl shook him of his stupor.

"Heh heh, oops... guess I'm really hungry. Clark, ya mind if we can go to McDonald's or someplace with lots of food. You guys hungry?" asked Alfred.

The two nodded eagerly at the prospect of food. The two looked absolutely innocent and for a moment, he really felt for them. Out in a foreign place without knowing a single soul in the crowd. He gave up and told them his decision.

"Well there's this really nice diner that I go to that serves just about everything. It's even open all day and night so it won't matter if you just want to take your time with your orders and with the food," said Clark as he lead them to his car.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" rejoiced Alfred and Peter as they ran to the car with the girl in tow.

At the diner, Alfred offered to pay for his own meal since he had a tendency to eat a lot which turned out not to be a lie. Clark paid for the simple meals of the girl and Peter. He tried not to look up as Alfred ate because he was a very sloppy eater. Afterwards, Alfred insisted that he'd walk home with the kids and that left Clark with more questions than answers which fustrated him for once.