A raven-haired woman carefully stepped off the bus in front of a large building. Lifting her head, her eyes widened in amazement as she saw it appeared to reach the clouds.
This was building the headquarters of The Click, the most significant internet blogging and news reporting outlet in the world. It had the reputation of being the best of the best and only hiring the best of the best when it came to journalism. Everyone who worked for The Click had to have an extensive resume and the woman who stood before the building was set to become their newest hire.
She walked confidently into the front office, her amber eyes looked at the receptionist. It was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman who at first attempted to ignore her.
"Excuse me," the Woman said. "I have a meeting with Mr. Stefan Keller."
The Receptionist wrinkled her nose as if she had smelt something disgusting and arched an eyebrow. "And how do you know Mr. Keller?"
"He hired me," the Woman replied.
"I highly doubt that," the Receptionist replied, her tone from one who was dismissive. "I am personally informed whenever Mr. Keller hires someone new. I'm waiting for a highly qualified young woman by the name of Lybra Hammond. Now, if you're done wasting my time…"
The Woman's eyes narrowed and turned on her heel. Taking out her phone, she dialed a quick number and raised it to her ear.
"Yes, Mr. Keller? I'm here," she said. "Where? I'm in the reception hall, sir. Alright, I'll wait."
She hung up and turned to face the pale-faced Receptionist whose eyes had grown as big as dinner plates. "You were saying?"
"I…you… how…" the Receptionist stammered.
One of the back doors opened, and Italian man in a suit stepped forward. He smiled widely at Lybra and shook her hand vigorously.
"Ms. Hammond," he said. "So happy that you could finally make it. I hope that our Mary made you feel welcome?"
Lybra looked to the Receptionist who had grown white with fear, as she no doubts worried what she might tell her boss. One word from Lybra and the woman would be out of a job. But Lybra wasn't the type of petty revenge and instead smiled.
"She was quiet… warm in her greetings," she replied to Mr. Keller. "I felt as if I was welcome. Thank you, Mary."
"Y…You're welcome," Mary stammered.
Mr. Keller nodded. "Well then come with me, and let's get you up to your office."
Born and raised in the city of New Orleans, Lybra Hammond was a woman of Creole descent, meaning she had a mixture of African, Native American and European blood in her veins. Just by looking at her, Lybra looked racial ambiguous with her sepia skin, glossy black curls, full lips, and almond-shaped amber eyes. Although to be blunt her mother was a member of the Choctaw Nation, and her father pure Creole blooded.
Growing up without siblings made Lybra the focus of her parent's lives, and they poured all their love and attention into their only child. Bubbly, benevolent, though headstrong and a bit quick to temper; Lybra had always known that she wanted to go into journalism. Although her parents wanted her to be a brain surgeon, Lybra felt like journalism called to her at an early age.
Starting when she was ten, Lybra made her blog and would talk about everything from relationship advice to police brutality articles. She gave them unfiltered dialogue, and before she was even fifteen, her blog had almost a million clicks and subscribers. With careful work over the years and making the right partnerships with add companies, Lybra's subscribers grew to nearly ten million.
She quickly paid off her parent's mortgage, debts, paid for her college tuition to Loyola in cash and even made a $10,000 scholarship for the future generation at her alma mater. Lybra had always planned on staying in New Orleans, but that was before she got an email from Mr. Stefan Keller, Editor-and-Chief of The Click.
The email was short, simple, and to the point: Mr. Keller wanted to hire her as his Chief Editor for his new relationship and life-based column, and he would do anything to bring her to Metropolis.
At first, Lybra was unsure, as she heard that Metropolis had a… bit of a superhero/superhero problem in the city. She didn't want to be writing an article, and a giant robot or something comes crashing through her window and kill her. However, Mr. Keller didn't take no for an answer, as he offered to fly her out within the week and give her a cash advance to welcome her to the company.
After talking to her family, Lybra accepted, packed her bags and booked the first plane from New Orleans to Metropolis.
She followed Mr. Keller to an elevator which went to the second-to-last floor. When he stepped away, he was confused, but when the doors opened her eyes widened.
Before them was a large receptionist area, but unlike downstairs, this Receptionist smiled and waved to her as they exited the elevator. Behind the Receptionist was a pair of double, frosted-glass doors. Lybra could barely make out people behind it, and Mr. Keller nodded for her to go through it.
Reaching out with her hand she pushed them open and found a dozen men and women typing on high-class computers. They lifted their eyes from their monitors when Lybra and Mr. Keller stepped in, and Lybra felt the heat rush into her cheeks when they did so.
"Attention everyone!" Mr. Keller called out, his voice booming. "Can I have your attention please?"
Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to him.
"Allow me to introduce Ms. Lybra Hammond," Mr. Keller said gesturing to Lybra. "She's the new Chief Editor for the Life's Work's page and thus your new boss. I expect you to treat her with the same respect you give me. Let's give her a hand!"
Thunderous applause erupted from the crowd and Lybra nervously waved and nodded to them. Mr. Keller then leads her to what would be her office, and Lybra couldn't believe that she finally had her office. For years she had been writing articles in coffee shops or her bed. Now she had a cherry-wood desk, plump office chair and a double-monitor computer to do her work.
"I hope you like everything," Mr. Keller said. "Though we can always change the furniture if you want to. Now for a quick couple of notes: you don't officially start until next Monday, which gives you the weekend off and settled yourself in. On Monday I'm hosting a lunch for all my editors to meet and talk, so you can meet your other co-workers that day if you wish. Your advance will be in the account to requested by tomorrow morning."
"That's fine," Lybra said. "I'm going apartment hunting in the morning anyway. I have enough to stay in a hotel for the night."
"Perfect," Mr. Keller said nodding. "The advance should be enough for you to pay a couple of months in advance as well a car if you'd like. After that, you'll get the standard Chief Editor bi-monthly salary of $15,000 with yearly bonuses added over time. I hope that's enough."
"Y… Yes…" Lybra stammered. "Thank you, sir."
Mr. Keller chuckled. "Please, call me Stefan, and you're very welcome. I'm not the one who should be getting all the praise, as it was your arduous work that got you on my radar in the first place. I hope you see you at lunch."
"You will," Lybra said quickly. "I swear it that you will! Thank you again."
Mr. Keller shook her hand and watched as she quickly left, chuckling softly to himself before heading to his work.
Meanwhile outside. Lybra danced out of The Click's HQ building, giggling and laughing to herself as she searched through her purse to find her phone; she had to tell her family about this but couldn't seem to find the device. She was so busy looking through her purse that Lybra didn't see where she was going and bumped into someone.
"Hey!" Lybra yelped, falling to the ground. "Why don't you watch where the hell you're going?"
The man had to be a giant compared to her small frame, and she found herself gazing into the kindest and warmest blue eyes she had ever seen.
"Sorry," the Man said, holding out his hand. "The fault is mine."
"No, it's kinda mine," Lybra said, taking his hand and rising to herself. "I wasn't watching where I was going."
The Man smiled, a gentle smile that made Lybra feel both warm and protected at the same time; even though they were behind a pair of glasses. Though, Lybra believed he would look good without them. He was dressed in a suit, though he didn't seem to be headed anywhere important. He had to be no shorter than 6'6, making him a foot taller than Lybra herself. His hands, when he stretched them out to help her up, were soft yet firm, and he gripped her securely as if he wanted to make sure she would never fall again.
"Well then, Ma'am. I believe you owe me an apology," the Man replied.
His blue eyes twinkled, and his lips were curving into a playful smile, showing he no doubt was joking with her.
"Well then Sir, forgive me for bumping into you," Lybra said. "By the way, what is your name?"
"Clark," the man answered. "Clark Kent."
"Lybra Hammond," Lybra said, introducing herself. "It's very nice to meet you, Mr. Kent."
"Smallville!" a female voice said behind them. "Smallville what's taking you so long?"
Clark glanced at Lybra and sighed. "Forgive me, but I must be going. My friend is waiting for me, and we are in a bit of a rush."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Lybra said, apologizing again. "Maybe I'll see you around sometime?"
"Maybe so," Clark said.
He nodded and then hurried to follow his friend. Lybra saw him go to a raven-haired woman in a purple jacket and white skirt and wondered if they were together or something.
You just met the man Ly; She scolded herself. You don't even know him to even think of him that way. Still… he was kind of cute…
Finally finding her phone, Lybra dialed her mother's number before hurrying off in the opposite direction.
Later that evening Lybra sat on the bed in her hotel room, typing away on her computer for a new entry on her blog. She wanted all her fans to know that she had gotten the job, and less than five seconds after she pressed 'Submit,' her inbox was flooded with well-wishers.
Since she didn't have an apartment yet in the city, she was staying in a hotel, though it didn't exactly have a 5-star reputation. It was the only one in her budget at the time, though she planned on apartment searching in the morning.
Smiling to herself, she turned to the door when she heard a soft knock. She had ordered delivery and skipped to the door, but when her hands were just inches away from it… she stopped. Something didn't feel right, Lybra didn't know what or why but there was a sick feeling in the pit of her gut.
Carefully, she pressed her palm against the door and peeped through the see-through hole. Two masked men stood in front of her, no doubt planning to rob her the moment she opened the door. Why they would want to do this Lybra didn't know, but she tried to slowly back away.
The moment she did the door burst open as the first man rammed it with his shoulder, the second one charging in, his gun drawn and pointed at her.
"Don't move!" he bellowed. "Or I'll put a hole between your eyes!"
Lybra instantly snapped into place, her body frozen with fear as both men began to tear her hotel room apart. They were looking for valuables, but Lybra didn't have any, though she fears what they would do if they didn't find what they wanted. They most likely would turn to a significantly different type of robbery.
Her eyes darted to the open door, and she scrambled to her feet, taking off running as fast as she could.
"HEY!" One of the men yelled, followed by a gunshot. "Stupid bitch, get back here!"
Lybra didn't stop running, not even to look over her shoulder to see if they were following. She knew that they were, the bullets raining from behind told her so. They most likely were going to kill her, rather than let her get to the police and report them. She screamed and shouted for help, but no one came out of their rooms, as if they would much instead let her handle this type of thing on her own, rather than get involved.
The long hallway ended abruptly, and she looked wildly around for any way of escape. An unlocked door was her ticket to freedom, and she made it through just another bullet flew, this time just barely missing her head.
The door led to an alley, but she saw to her horror it too was a dead end. She turned around to go back, to find another way, but the two men emerged from the door, their eyes glittering evilly behind their masks.
"You know, we originally just planned to take you for what you've got and leave," one of the men said. "But seeing as you made us run all this way, you owe us some… fun."
Lybra backed away slowly until her back touched a wall, her eyes closing themselves tightly as she waited for one of them to grab her, to hold her down.
But it never came.
Instead, she felt a shadow over her, and when she opened one of her eyes to peek, she saw that a man was standing in front of her. It wasn't a typical man at all, though she recognized the blue and red of his suit.
"Superman…" she gasped.
"Are you two men bothering this young lady?" Superman asked the men.
The men instantly stopped their guns, their knees knocking in fear. "No… No…" they squeaked.
"Why don't you be good and run off?" Superman said to them.
He didn't have to tell them twice. The men disappeared as if in a puff of smoke, running as fast as their feet could carry them.
Superman turned around and looked at Lybra, his blue eyes soft and sincere. "Are you alright?"
"I… I'm fine…" Lybra replied, unable to pull away from his eyes.
Where have I seen those eyes before? She wondered to herself. They seem so… so familiar…
"I would suggest you leave here first thing in the morning," Superman said. "This isn't exactly the best part of town."
"I… I will…" Lybra stammered. "T… Thank you…"
He nodded and took off into the sky, disappearing into the night.
Lybra couldn't believe what had just happened. She had barely been in Metropolis for 24 hours and had already seen Superman. She had heard of him, everyone all over the planet heard of him, about 50% feared him and the other 50% worshiped him. Lybra though didn't know what to think of him, though she could see the arguments on both sides.
Those eyes… she thought to herself. I know I have seen those eyes before… but where?