A/N: Hello! I am embracing the obsessive-side of my nature and going completely nuts here with Superman stories and ideas! So fanfic may have an onslaught of random new stories about Superman in the near future. Right now, I'm working on a hopefully longer story that should go up soon (hint: it's also about Superman. . . I seem to be stuck in a certain mode here, hoping I can actually get back to writing about my own characters at some point. . . but for now I shall content myself to using other people's characters. They're so much better written, after all.) Anyways, this is just a quick one-shot I had to get out of my system before I continued with anything else. . . homework included. Enjoy!
PS: I do not own anything having to do with Superman, Clark Kent, or the rest of the DC universe. . . the only thing in here that I can lay any claim to is the plotline, and even that's shaky. Not that I wouldn't mind owning Superman or Clark Kent. . . especially when he's being played by Brandon Routh! XD
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Lois Lane sat typing at her computer, whipping up some frivolous piece having nothing to do with Superman- which she thanked Perry profusely for. After finding out that he was her son's father, then finding out that he was really her best friend, and that they worked together, and he practically never spent a minute away from her now that she and Richard had broken up- she found it had become difficult to remain objective on the matter. So there she sat, enjoying talking about the sanitation issues they had been having in Metropolis's public parks while she knew he was out trying to reverse the effects of an earthquake in Indonesia. But he would be back at the Planet by later that evening, she knew. He always was.
She couldn't believe how dense she had been. He really was always around. What an idiot. She rolled her eyes and shook her head at herself. By the time she had finished the article she was typing and had printed it and given it to Perry, Clark was back, furiously typing at his keyboard as though it deserved to take such a beating from the man of steel. Lois rolled her eyes again and sighed, before returning to her desk. It was almost five o'clock, the time when most everybody began to pack up and leave, that it happened.
The elevator doors opened, and in walked Lex Luthor, followed by six henchmen with rather large guns and Kitty Kolawski. The men opened fire into the ceiling, causing everyone to scream in shock and terror at the recognition.
After the initial chaos and terror, Luthor finally spoke. "Nobody move- sit down," he gestured to Clark, who had been standing up with his hand at his neck, ready to remove the tie whenever necessary. "Nobody moves, and nobody dies. Not yet anyways."
Lois and Clark shared a meaningful glance. He couldn't change personnas, not here, not now. Not with his archnemesis watching and staring him down. He had two options, neither of which were good. He could not turn into Superman at all, and see what Luthor had in store for them. Or, he would have to reveal his secret to the potentially most dangerous man in the world. And perhaps to the rest of the world, considering he was in the bullpen of the Daily Planet, with everyone's eyes on the man he intended to take down.
Finally, Lois spoke. "Lex Luthor. What are you doing here?"
"Why, Miss Lane, I'm sure you'd recognize a party when you saw one." At the lack of response this caused, he continued. "You see, for some reason- God knows what- Superman favors the Daily Planet over all other news carriers. I know it has to be for something other than just you, Miss Lane- although tempting as that may be, he has to have another motive. I'm here to find out what that is. Why does he give you all the scoops? I would like a scoop of my own, with the Daily Planet's header over my name, displaying my picture proudly as the man who took down a god. I just need to figure out how to find him, on my own terms, on my own ground. I figure there's no chance he'll be expecting me here, so he wouldn't be here twenty-four seven. Besides, he does have that whole saving the world thing to do." He wrinkled up his nose at the phrase.
Perry White came forward slowly. "Mr. Luthor, you understand that we don't know Superman that well. He always finds us for the interviews, we've never had a way of contacting him."
"Well, that's too bad," Lex mused, as he motioned to one of his men to shoot him. Perry braced himself at the sound of the gun cocking.
"WAIT!" Clark shouted, eyes wide with fear.
Lex Luthor turned to survey the man who had dared speak so boldly out against him. "What?" he asked, irritated, as he sized him up. The man was tall, but goofy looking, his suit too big and limp and ugly, his oversized glasses and messily parted hair overtaking the majority of his face. Stupid man, he thought, at least he should be easy to kill. "What do you want?"
"I think I can get into contact with Superman," he spoke nervously, fidgetting with first his glasses and then his necktie.
Luthor snorted. "I appreciate the effort, my boy, but I can contact him just as easily with Ms. Lane, here. Just a twist of an arm, and you'll see. He'll come bursting through that window as if the world depended on it. But I'm not looking for Superman himself right now. I'm looking for a way to hurt him. I don't want him here, not while I'm planning things still."
"But don't you have kryptonite?" Lois blurted, hoping against hope that his answer woldn't be what she expected.
He turned back to her, and trained his own weapon on her forehead, even from that distance. "Don't speak Miss Lane, lest he should hear you. I don't need kryptonite unless he's going to find me. And so long as you're quiet, he won't. In fact," he murmured, a thoughtful look in his eye, "Perhaps it would be best to silence you for once and for all. After all, your grating voice has become a nuisance everytime I've had to kidnap you- and you always manage to get in the way of my plans. I think the whole world might be better off if there were no Lois Lane to run amuck in it. Not to mention it would be a death blow for Superman." He replaced his pistol in it's holster and took the machine gun from the man standing nearest to him. Holding it firmly in his arms, he cocked it and aimed once more at the reporter.
"Say goodbye to everyone, Miss Lane," he spoke with a grin.
Then the world seemed to stop spinning. Everything moved in slow motion. As Luthor's finger slowly pressed down and held on the trigger, Clark couldn't do it anymore. Secret identity be damned. He had to save Lois. He couldn't let her die, not with him, not with Superman standing right there.
"NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" he screamed as he ran to her side as fast as he could, which happened in about an instant. He covered her with his body, enveloping her with his strong arms, his backside presented as the target to Luthor. He knew what he was doing, and he had resigned himself to his fate. It didn't matter; nothing was worth Lois's life.
Luthor didn't realize what happened until it already had.
The bullets flew, one by one, yet in a stream, towards Lois, and then suddenly towards Clark's back. A foolish gesture, he would have thought.
That is until the bullets bounced off.
Even then it still didn't hit him until he had used about half of his bullets. He paused, confused, wondering why on earth the reporter would have some sort of bulletproof clotheing on underneath his suit. A deep red color could be seen through the back of his clothes, and for a moment, Luthor believed he had got him. A sickening grin spread across his face as he stared at the man. Slowly, Clark's hold relax on the woman in front of him, and he turned around to face her attacker with a firm look in his face. Much to Luthor's chagrin.
Luthor opened fire once again, this time on the man's front side, tearing his suit up as he stood there, taking every shot effortlessly, as though nothing were hitting him at all. One ricocheted, hitting his glasses, and breaking the glass in the left lens.
Then Lex ran out of bullets in the machine gun. When he had finally stopped, he noticed all of the holes in the man's suit. The man showed no effect whatsoever of even feeling the hundred rounds of bullets he had just poured into him. A look of utter confusion occupied Luthor's face. Then he saw something through the holes- something the color of blue, with a little bit of red and yellow peeking through in the shape of an "S".
His jaw dropped. Everyone else's already had, at seeing Clark Kent take that many- take any bullets, for that matter. It couldn't be. It wasn't possible. How had he miscalculated so poorly? No, he was wrong, there was another reason why this mild-mannered reporter was able to deflect bullets with his chest.
Clark lifted his hands to his face, removed the glasses, and frowned as he looked at them. "You broke my glasses, Luthor. That was a mistake. But it wasn't your first."
As Clark Kent let go of the glasses, letting them slip from his hands, he felt as though he was letting go of his life entirely.
Everybody watched in shock and silence as the now infamous frames fell to the ground, as if in slow motion once again. Lois felt pride, Lex felt horror, Perry White felt mild surprise, and Jimmy felt elated. Everyone else was shocked still.
The glasses hitting the ground could be heard across the entire bullpen. It was like hearing a pin drop, only this was a much bigger deal.
For a moment, no one wanted to remove their eyes from the glasses- except Clark, whose gaze had been trained on Luthor's expression the whole time.
Finally Luthor forced himself to look up, only to find the Man of Steel himself staring him down with a cocky half-smile spread across his face. The only thing that didn't scream Superman was the hairstyle and the fact that he still had his tatty office clothes on over his real suit. "No," he whispered hoarsely, mostly to himself.
Fortunately, Clark heard him. "Oh, yes. You don't realize how close you came, how many times you were on the verge of discovering it. Even Lois here found it out. It shouldn't have been that difficult, if you'd really put your mind to it. But you were always to obsessed with Superman, not Clark Kent. Clark Kent, the man, you could have brought to his knees much easier. But instead you went for the big fish. Stupid, really." He walked closer to his opponent, removing the gun from his hands, and then in a flash, rounding up all of the weapons from the others. Flabbergasted, they still didn't speak.
"All this time, all these interviews, and you never figured out that Superman had a secret identity, and that he worked here, at the Planet, in the form of Clark Kent."
He paused, for effect.
"And to think, it was only a stupid pair of glasses."
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A/N: Ta-da!
Sorry, couldn't resist. I felt the need to expose Clark Kent for who he was. Not sure if it ended up the way I wanted it, but oh well. These stories tend to have a mind of their own sometimes. This was definitely one of those times. Anyways, please review! I will love you forever, and I don't block anonymous reviews!
Much obliged!