Justice Retold

By J.C. Vascardi

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Disclaimer: All characters and places featured in this story that relate to the television show Smallville are the property of its creators. I am not profiting from this story and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. The only things about this story that I own are the storylines, places, and characters that are not featured on the show.

Author's Note: This version of the story has been edited for posting on this site. If you'd like to read the story in its entirety, including the steamier parts, it's posted on my eFiction archives, the links to which are in my profile.

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Chapter One

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Arriving at Chloe's apartment, Clark entered without knocking and said, "Hey Chloe."

Chloe smiled, but before she could say anything, Lois, who was busy packing a suitcase looked over at Clark with a disapproving look on her face and said, "God, Smallville. Learn how to knock. What if I'd been naked? Ew."

Noticing Clark's curious glance at Lois's suitcase, Chloe said, "Lois is jetting off to Monte Carlo with Oliver."

"Oliver?" Clark asked, surprised. He honestly didn't know why he was surprised – Lois was Oliver's girlfriend. It made sense that they'd go on vacation together. So, then why did it hurt so much?

"I'll send you a postcard if I'm not too busy," Lois said as she packed a few more items into her suitcase.

Clark wasn't sure what possessed him to say it, but before he could stop himself, he found himself saying, "No, Lois, you should, um..." Of course, Clark then stopped talking as he wasn't really sure what he was going to say.

A thought obviously coming to her, Lois smiled and finished Clark's sentence. "Get a few new bikinis. Good idea. Thanks, Smallville."

Before Clark can say anything else, Lois grabbed her purse and hurried out of the apartment. After she was gone, Clark looked over at Chloe and said, "Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to help Oliver keep his secret from her."

"What that he's the Green Arrow?" Chloe asked as she walked over to the small kitchenette with a mug in her hand and picked up a tea bag. "No offense, Clark, but you weren't exactly honest with Lana about your secret, either."

A sad look on his face, Clark said, "Look how that ended up. Maybe all keeping secrets does is force you to lie to the people you care about."

Looking at Clark, her gaze curious, Chloe asked, "Are we still talking about Oliver?" Truth be told, Chloe had this vague feeling ever since Thanksgiving that there was something off with Clark where Oliver was concerned. She couldn't put her finger on what it was though.

Not really sure why he didn't want to continue this line of conversation, Clark quickly said, "The guy who saved you at the Planet – he didn't exactly get away. It's Bart."

Clearly shocked, Chloe quickly came around the counter and asked, "What? Wait a minute. Bart can super speed, too?"

"He's actually a lot faster than I am," Clark admitted. "That's the truth. I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

Not wanting Clark to feel bad, Chloe was quick to say, "It's fine. You were protecting him. It's okay. I mean, if anyone gets it, it's me. But why are you outing him now?"

"I think he's headed for trouble and I need to find him," Clark revealed and then with a hopeful look, asked, "Can you GPS his cell phone?"

Heading over to her computer and sitting down, Chloe replied, "Yeah, I can try. Do you have his number?"

Pulling a slip of paper out of the pocket of his jeans, Clark handed it to Chloe, as he said, "He broke into a LuthorCorp plant down in Mexico. Now I think Lex is onto him. If he tries to break into another facility..."

Typing Bart's cell number into her computer and running a check, Chloe shook her head, and said, "No good. His phone must be off."

Thinking for a moment, Clark asked, "What about call history? Can you pull up a record?"

"Legally? Absolutely not," Chloe said. Of course, a little thing like it being illegal certainly wasn't going to stop her from helping her best friend. Smiling, Chloe tapped into the call history and found a Metropolis phone number that had been repeated several times.

Looking over Chloe's shoulder, Clark said, "There's over a dozen calls to that number in the last 24 hours."

"Let's see whose on the other end," Chloe said, as she proceeded to do a little more digging. It wasn't long before she found out that the phone number was for a business.

"Artemis Global Consortium?" Clark asked, as he thought for a minute. "Never heard of them."

Doing some more digging, Chloe found out more information about the company and told Clark, "It's a subsidiary of J.L. International, which is a satellite company currently orbiting..." Chloe got a surprised look on her face as she said, "...Queen Industries."

A sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, Clark said, "It's Oliver. He's using Bart to attack LuthorCorp."

-o-0-o-

Meanwhile, Bart sped into a LuthorCorp facility, easily avoiding the guards. Of course, considering that he could move so fast, it wasn't really surprising that they didn't even see him. Talking into his headset, the young man said, "I'm in."

Going over to the computer terminal, Bart plugs a high-tech device into the computer, ready to download all the information on the computer, but, of course, he wouldn't get the chance. For no sooner did he plug it in was he electrocuted and fell to the ground, unconscious, as several armed guards surrounded him.

"Not so fast now, are you," Lex Luthor said, as he followed the guards in and looked down at Bart.

-o-0-o-

Pushing aside the gate and entering Oliver's penthouse, Clark looked around and seeing the blond, he said, "Oliver."

Detecting that Clark seemed upset about something, Oliver said, "Look, Clark, whatever has your tighty whities in a bunch, now is not the time."

Ignoring the blond's comment, Clark asked, "Where's Bart?" This immediately caused Oliver to look up from the papers he was reading, and Clark could tell the blond was rather shocked that Clark knew about Bart. "I saw his phone records. I know he's working for you."

Coming down the steps and walking over to his desk, Oliver said, "Not for me. Working with me. There's a difference."

"It's not gonna matter much when he ends up in jail or worse."

"Yeah, you don't know what you're talking about," Oliver said, as he sat down behind his desk.

Coming closer and looking down at the blond, Clark said, "I know how much you hate Lex. Is that why you recruited Bart – to help with your little vendetta?"

Leaning forward, Oliver said, "No, to stop 33.1."

Shock clearly etched on Clark's face, he asked, "You know about 33.1?" Oliver nodded almost imperceptibly, causing Clark to ask, "Why didn't you tell me what you were up to?"

Looking like he couldn't believe what the brunet was asking him, which he really couldn't, he asked, "Clark, do you check in with me every time you run off to save the world?"

Ever since the very first time Oliver had met Clark, he knew that there was something very special about the younger man. In fact, Oliver would be lying to himself if he said that it wasn't love at first sight. That thought didn't scare the blond, as it would scare many others, as he'd long ago accepted the fact that he was bisexual. So, realizing that he was in love with Clark wasn't that shocking. But, despite his feelings for the brunet, Oliver simply could not understand him sometimes.

Standing up from his desk and walking away from the younger man, Oliver said, "Oh that's right. For a second there I forgot – you like to just wait for trouble to show up on your doorstep."

Clark couldn't help the anger that boiled up inside him at the blond's words and exclaimed, "That's not true!"

"Then why haven't you done anything to stop 33.1?"

"I was busy with another problem."

"What could possibly be more urgent than stopping 33.1, Clark?"

Angered by the blond's words, Clark was saying it before he even realized it, "Oh I don't know, Oliver. How about stopping a bunch of super-powered intergalactic criminals that are hell bent on killing me and anyone else who gets in their way?"

The moment the words were out of his mouth and Clark realized what it was he'd just said he regretted it. "Damn it, what have I done?" He thought. "Now I'm going to have to explain that."

Whatever Oliver expected Clark to say, it certainly wasn't what he just said. A look of utter confusion on his face, Oliver said, "Okay, Clark, you're going to have to explain that, please."

Sighing, Clark said, "Now is not really the best time for the full version."

"Then give me the short version."

"Okay, well, in a nutshell, I'm not from this planet," Clark said and the blond's eyes went wide. "When Lex was exhibiting super powers a few months back, it was because he was possessed by a person from my home planet – the person who brought about its total destruction. Because I couldn't bring myself to kill him, I ended up accidentally releasing several criminals that my biological father imprisoned before our planet was destroyed. They want revenge against him, but as he's dead, I'm the next best thing and they'll stop at nothing to get to me – including the slaughter of innocent people."

One of the keys to making Queen Industries the success that it was, had been for the blond to learn how to read people and he'd gotten very good at it. Closely watching Clark as he gave his explanation, Oliver couldn't detect even the slightest hint that the younger man was lying. As unbelievable as the story sounded, he simply did not believe that anyone could make something like that up and say it with a straight face.

After a few moments of silence, Oliver nodded and said, "Okay, Clark, I believe you. I'm sure you wouldn't lie to me about something that serious and stopping those criminals is definitely important. However, so is stopping Lex from building an army of super freaks – because that's what he's doing, Clark – he's starting a war."

Calming down, Clark asked, "What have you found out?"

"Not enough," Oliver said, clearly disappointed. "Last night Bart infiltrated a place that was supposed to house the mainframe for 33.1. That's the last time I heard from him. So I reconned the target this morning. The place had been stripped clean. Everything's gone. The whole thing was a setup."

"Lex has Bart. We have to find him."

"My team's already on it."

"Your team?"

Motioning towards the Green Arrow room, Clark turned to see the doors open and Victor Stone and Arthur Curry walking over.

"Not everyone flies solo, Kent," Victor said with a smile.

Looking at them for a moment, Clark couldn't help but ask, "How much did you two hear?"

Grinning, A.C. said, "Well, Kent, if you're referring to the fact that you're an alien from another planet – I think we heard enough."

"Well, actually, I think hearing more would be nice," Victor said. "But that can wait until after we save Bart from Lex."

"Agreed," Clark said. To be honest, Clark wasn't actually that upset that Oliver, Victor, and A.C. knew his secret, because they all had secrets of their own which he knew, so, Clark was confident he could trust the other men with his. So, with a grin, he added, "Just for the record though – I prefer intergalactic traveler, to alien from another planet."

"Okay, whatever you say, space cadet," Oliver said with a grin, causing Clark to groan and Victor and A.C. to laugh.

Victor then said, "Get used to it, Clark. Ollie loves making can-opener jokes at my expense."

"And fish jokes at mine," A.C. said. "So, you can't expect him not to jump on the alien thing."

All four of them laughed, before Oliver turned serious and said, "Okay, A.C. check the LuthorCorp manifests."

"Gotcha, boss," A.C. said with a nod.

After several minutes of silently doing their work, Oliver called for everyone's attention.

"I've compiled a list of all the LuthorCorp holdings within a 100-mile radius," Oliver told them as a video screen lowered from the ceiling to show a map. "Bart could be held in any of those facilities."

"That's a lot of real estate to cover," Victor commented and A.C. nodded.

A small smile coming to his face, Clark said, "I think I know someone who can help us narrow it down."

-o-0-o-

Half-an-hour later, Oliver turned on the video screen showing the inside of the elevator to his penthouse when he heard it moving.

"Mr. Queen, its Chloe Sullivan. Clark sent me."

Opening the entrance into the penthouse to allow Chloe in, Oliver asked, "Where's Clark?"

"He went to rescue Bart."

"He told you about Bart?" Oliver asked, obviously surprised at that revelation.

Chloe shrugged and said, "We trust each other. We tell each other everything – well, almost everything. I did have to figure out about your green-leather fetish on my lonesome." Noticing that Oliver looked concerned and was about to say something, she added, "Don't worry. I'm not going to tell anybody."

Walking over to Chloe, Oliver smiled and said, "Hey, let's just stick to the main plot there, sidekick. So, what do you got?"

"Hopefully a solid lead on Bart – where are Victor and A.C.?" Chloe asked as Oliver hung his head in disbelief and the other two came in from the next room.

"Guess we're not too great at the whole "secret" part of this yet," Victor commented.

"Yeah," Chloe agreed. "But, you're great at getting caught by the villain."

Both Victor and A.C. flinched at Chloe's statement, because while it was true that they'd both been caught by Lex at different times, it didn't stop the comment from stinging.

"Anyway, I think Bart is being held at a place called the Ridge Facility."

"That's down by the docks," A.C. commented.

"You're sure?" Oliver asked.

"Sure enough that Clark is already on his way," Chloe said. "While I had my feelers out gathering LuthorCorp intel on another matter, I shook loose some internal documents and in the last few days there's been a flurry of equipment transfers to the Ridge Facility."

"Doesn't LuthorCorp move equipment all the time?" Victor asked.

"This isn't a couple of forklifts, Victor," Chloe said, before elaborating, "Half a ton of lead shielding, electrical pressure plates, and more than $20 million worth of equipment to measure high-velocity particles."

"That definitely sounds like a good place to look for Bart," A.C. said. "You don't get much more high-velocity than him."

Oliver nodded and turned as he brought up a schematic of the Ridge Facility. "It is on our list of possible 33.1 targets. All right, boys. You know the drill. Let's gear up and head out."

Looking over the schematic, one particular feature caught Chloe's eye and she gasped and said, "Oh no."

A concerned look on his face, Oliver asked, "What now?"

"Lead shielding," Chloe said as she pointed to a room on the schematic that was labeled "M12 Refinement." "This isn't just for Bart – I think the Ridge Facility is being used to refine meteor rocks. Clark is in trouble."

Oliver scoffed and said, "How could Clark be in trouble? I've seen his abilities, he's practically invulnerable."

"Practically yes," Chloe agreed. "But that doesn't mean he doesn't have a weakness."

"Weakness?" A.C. asked.

"Yeah," Chloe confirmed. "Different colors of meteor rock affect him in different ways but the most common color, as near as we can tell, is unfortunately green."

"What does green do?" Victor asked.

All eyes were on Chloe and she was glad to see that all three of the guys in the room looked concerned. It was in that moment that she realized that they could be trusted with Clark's secret. She had certainly been a little shocked when he'd told her at the Daily Planet offices that he'd let it slip, but now she wasn't worried as much as she had been. "Green can hurt him – actually, it can kill him, if he's exposed to it for too long."

Oliver felt like someone had just punched him in the gut as the worry quickly filled every fiber of his being. He loved Clark, after all, and even though the brunet had no idea what the blond's true feelings were, that didn't stop Oliver from being sick about the thought of losing the brunet forever. Oliver had played the scenario in his head that he'd told Clark the truth about how he felt and the brunet was angry and cut him out of his life completely and while it hurt, Oliver could deal with it – but to lose him to death? No, that was not going to happen. At least not if Oliver had anything to say about it – and he was damn well going to make sure that Clark did not die, even if he had to give his own life to save the brunet's.

Finding his voice, a confidence and fearlessness in it that he did not feel, Oliver said, "Well, then there's no time to waste. Boys, it seems we've got two people to go rescue. Let's go."

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Meanwhile, at the Ridge Facility, Clark came across a door that said "Restricted" on it and naturally assumed that it must be where Bart was being held. Opening the door, Clark quickly entered and was immediately hit with intense pain. Looking around at all the vials and jars of refined kryptonite, Clark thought, "Oh damn," as he collapsed on the ground, writhing in pain.

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Awhile later, two LuthorCorp guards on patrol soon found themselves losing consciousness as an arrow embedded itself in a nearby wall and emitted a think cloud of green gas.

"Green Arrow to Watchtower," Oliver said over his comm. link. "We're in position."

Back at the penthouse, Chloe was studying the schematics of the facility and nodded as she said, "Okay, there should be a security access panel near the east door. According to this schematic you need to very carefully rewire the sys..."

"Or... I could just jack in and shut the whole perimeter down," Victor said, as he ripped the front panel off the security box.

Obviously surprised, Chloe asked, "You can do that?"

"Queen Industries upgrade," Victor replied. Looking to Oliver, who nodded, Victor grabbed one of the wires and plugged it into his forearm, as his eyes glowed red for a second and showed what looked like a computer display.

"Accessing perimeter security," Victor said. A minute later, he added, "Perimeter neutralized."

Speaking into his comm. link, Oliver said, "Aquaman, you're up."

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Swimming across the water near the docks at a speed that no human could ever even hope to match, A.C. was soon inside the facility. Climbing up a nearby ladder, he said, "Perimeter breached - proceeding to target."

-o-0-o-

After Victor kicked in a very large steel door, he and Oliver headed into the facility. Of course, Oliver couldn't resist commenting, "You'd make one hell of a can opener."

"You'd look good on a bag of green beans," Victor retorted.

Talking over the comm. link, Oliver asked, "All right, we're in - which way?"

"The refinement vault is about 100 meters southwest," Chloe answered over the comm. link and then worriedly added, "Still no word from Clark."

Starting to walk in the direction of the refinement vault, Victor said, "If he's in there, we'll get him out. Let's go."

Oliver grabbed Victor's arm to get his attention and said, "You've got a different mission."

Nodding, Victor said, "You're the boss, Robin Hood," before running off in another direction.

Not understanding what was going on, Chloe asked, "Wait, what mission? What are you doing?"

Oliver doesn't answer her, however, because at that moment he comes across two LuthorCorp security guards and after a brief fight, they're soon out cold on the ground. Having heard the fighting, a worried Chloe asked, "Watchtower to Green Arrow. What's your status?"

"Switching to silent running, stand by for instructions," Oliver said as he turned off the comm. link to the penthouse, leaving only the link to his team members in the facility open. "Aquaman, do your thing."

-o-0-o-

Entering the refinement vault, a LuthorCorp security guard is shocked to find someone in it and pointed his weapon at Clark, who looked up him helplessly. "Hey! You're not supposed to be in here!"

"Neither am I," a deep voice said from behind and Clark watched as the guard fell to the ground with an arrow in his back.

Quickly getting over to Clark, Oliver helped the younger man up and struggled to hold him up. Having been exposed to so much kryptonite, Clark was very weak and unsteady on his feet. As he stumbled out of the room with Oliver supporting him, Clark swayed on his feet causing Oliver's side to hit the vault's door frame hard, but he didn't care about that. All he cared about was getting the man he loved out of harm's way. Getting Clark out of the vault and closing the door, he asked, "Are you okay?"

Clark was doubled over slightly, with his hands on his knees as he took a moment to recover, but he nodded and said, "I'm all right."

"Are you sure?" Oliver asked and Clark nodded again. Reopening the comm. link to the penthouse, Oliver said, "Green Arrow to Watchtower. Boy Scout is out of the woods."

Hearing that, Chloe sighed a sigh of relief and sent a silent "thank you" up to whatever higher power might be listening.

Following Oliver down the corridor, Clark asked, "Boy Scout?"

"If you hadn't run off all half-cocked – you could have picked you own code name," Oliver said. "You don't want to play for the team, that's fine – just be smart about it."

"Point taken," Clark said. He said it a bit more forcefully than perhaps was necessary, but he really didn't want it to show in his voice that the blond's comments really got to him. Of course, that's because he didn't understand why they did. All he knew was that whenever the blond got angry with him, Clark really didn't like it and wanted nothing more than to make the older man happy and not angry with him. "Where's Bart?"

"Impulse," Oliver corrected, before he added, "He didn't get to pick his own code name either."

Turning around to face Clark, Oliver handed him a comm. link and said, "Watchtower will guide you to where he's probably being held."

As the blond started to run down the corridor, Clark shouted after him, "What are you gonna be doing?"

Switching on his voice distorter, Oliver smiled and said, "What I do best," before taking off down the corridor.

Putting the microphone in his ear, Clark heard Chloe say, "Watchtower to Boy Scout. Let's find Impulse."

-o-0-o-

Meanwhile, in another area of the facility, Victor asked over his comm. link, "Cyborg to Aquaman, where the hell are you, fish stick?"

Opening the door to a large control room, where all the guards have been knocked out, A.C. asked, "Dude, what took you so long?"

Looking around at all the unconscious guards, Victor said, "Nice." Of course, it was then that he looked at A.C. and added, "But, please, put a shirt on."

Grinning, A.C. said, "I swim faster when I'm naked."

Heading over to one of the control panels, Victor commented, "I'll bet you do."

The grin still plastered on his face, A.C. said, "You're just lucky I still have my pants on," before he started to put his shirt back on and Victor plugged himself into the mainframe and pulled up a schematic of the building.

-o-0-o-

Finally having found Bart, running around a large circular chamber, Clark observed him for a second to get a handle on the younger man's trajectory, before super speeding towards the chamber and crashing through it, landing on the other side with Bart in his arms. Behind them, the whole chamber exploded as Clark asked, "Bart, you okay?"

Bart smiled at Clark and said, "Muy bueno, amigo."

Heading out of the room towards the meeting point, Clark asked, "Can you super speed?"

Bart nodded and said, "Yeah, I just," panting for a second, "I need a minute to catch my breath."

At that moment, Oliver showed up and said, "You know what? You're gonna have to catch it later." And then speaking into his comm. link, he said, "Aquaman, Cyborg – rendezvous alpha confirmed."

"We're on the move," came Cyborg's voice over the link.

"Watchtower, have all of Luthor's people cleared the building," Oliver asked.

Looking at the schematic back at the penthouse, Chloe nodded and said, "The last heat signatures are moving away from the North."

A confused look on his face, Clark said, "Wait a second, what are you doing?"

"What do you think I'm doing?" Oliver asked. "Do you want more of your friends to end up in here?"

"Yeah, I'm voting no on that one," Bart said.

"Watchtower, are you sure everyone is out of the building?" Clark asked.

"100% positive," Chloe confirmed.

Looking at Oliver for a moment, carefully considering the blond, Clark made up his mind and said, "All right. Let's do it."

Oliver and Bart nodded and Clark followed them out of the building. Once they were clear, Oliver reached a hand into his pocket to grab the detonator which would trigger the explosive charges he'd set, but it didn't take long for him to realize that it was broken.

"Damn it," Oliver said.

"What's wrong?" Bart asked.

"The detonator is broken," Oliver said and then remembering what happened when he rescued Clark, he looked at the brunet and said, "When I collided with the door frame getting you out of the vault, it must have gotten crushed. It's not going to work."

"I can speed in and set them off," Bart volunteered.

Shaking his head, Clark immediately nixed that idea. "No, Impulse. You may be fast, but explosions are still going to hurt you if you get caught in them. I'll go."

"What?" Oliver asked. He didn't really like the idea of Clark going into that building to set off the charges manually.

"I'll be fine," Clark assured Oliver and Bart. "I'm fast and invulnerable – the explosions won't affect me - now both of you get clear."

Clark didn't give either of them a chance to argue, as he super sped back into the building. Oliver just stood there in shock. He couldn't believe that Clark had done that. Seeing that the older man wasn't moving and knowing they were still standing a little too close to a building that was about to explode, Bart grabbed him and dragged him away.

Meeting up with Victor and A.C. a safe distance away, Victor looked around and asked, "Where's Kent?"

"The detonator broke," Bart explained. "He went in to trigger the charges manually."

At that moment, a loud bang could be heard as the whole building exploded in an inferno of flames. The four costumed men just stood there looking at the burning building and hoping that their friend was okay. In the backs of their minds, they knew that he was invulnerable, but that still didn't stop the worry from creeping up as they watched the building burn.

"Where are you, Clark?" Oliver thought to himself. "Damn it, get out here – I can't lose you!"

A breeze soon blew past them all and Clark came to a stop behind them. "Don't look so worried, guys, I'm right here."

Oliver, Victor, Bart, and A.C. quickly turned around and saw that Clark was indeed standing right behind them. His clothes looked worse for the wear, as they were covered in black soot and there were several places where you could see his bare flesh as the flames had burnt through the material, but otherwise he looked perfectly fine.

"You okay, Kent?" Victor said.

Smiling, Clark nodded and said, "Yeah, I'm fine." Looking down at his clothes, he added, "My clothes have probably seen better days, but then they're flammable, unlike the rest of me."

"I can't believe you just went running into a building to manually set off the charges to blow it up," A.C. said. "I mean running through flames?"

Clark shrugged and said, "Ah that was nothing and at least I still have my clothes, as damaged as they are."

Cocking his head, Bart commented, "Something tells me there's a story there, amigo."

Clark smiled and said, "Suffice it to say that I once found myself getting thrown into an incinerator. I got out unharmed, but my clothes weren't so lucky – there was nothing left but ashes."

"So you were..." Victor started to say but decided not to finish the sentence.

"Completely naked?" Clark asked, as he blushed, and Victor nodded. "Yeah."

Oliver couldn't help but wish that he'd been there to see that. Clark naked? He'd gladly pay money to see that.

Nothing else was said as the five men walked away from the burning building, as the sirens of the approaching Metropolis Fire Department could be heard in the distance.

-o-0-o-

Meanwhile, inside the burning building, a figure stood and walked out of the flames. His clothes weren't as lucky and he was completely naked. However, that certainly didn't bother him. Green eyes glowing red for the slightest second, the young man, who was a dead ringer for Clark Kent, super sped off into the night and went to the nearest men's clothing store, which he quickly broke into and relieved them of some of their stock – without paying for it, of course.

-o-0-o-

To be continued.