Chapter One
The plane ride was uneventful, but the view was spectacular. Metropolis was indeed huge. The cityscape filled up the plane's window. Buildings of gleaming glass standing alongside decades-old brick landmarks reached skyward. Metropolis was the new center of the universe - a Mecca for those seeking self-fulfillment.
The plane touched down at the Luthor International Air Station and the passengers made their way to the baggage claim area before heading out into the city.
Clark Kent smiled nervously as he grabbed his bags from the spinning conveyor belt. This was his first time outside Kansas. Well, by himself, anyway. He wondered how he would adjust to City Life. Could he handle it? Would he be able to make friends? All the questions weighed heavily on Clark's mind as he made his way through the airport.
One thing was for sure. If the crowded airport was an omen of things to come, he was in for a big culture shock. Smallville had one high school, a small ancient post-office and maybe three stoplights. When news spread that a McDonald's was planned for construction next to the local Food Lion, the residents of the sleepy farm town thought they had made it into the big leagues. But Metropolis was completely different. The estimated population for last year was about 8.5 million people, beating out New York for the title of largest city in America. Yes, it was going to be differ-
BEEEP! BEEEP! BEEEP!
Clark jumped at the sound of his cell phone ringing. He moved over to a corner of the busy airport and started to rummage through the bags. Where did he put that stupid phone? Was it in the brown suitcase? No. The blue one? Clark unzipped the suitcase and clothes popped out like a jack-in-the-box, spewing themselves all over the floor. A woman walking by got her heel caught on a shirt. She shot Clark an annoyed look and shook off the shirt and then flipped him the bird.
I'm gonna love this town, Clark thought as finally located his cell phone and put it to his ear.
"Clark, why haven't you called me yet?" Martha Kent asked. "I was worried!"
Clark stuffed all of the clothes back into the suitcase and zipped it back up. "I just got off the plane, Ma!"
"How was the plane ride? What's Metropolis like? Did you get your bags yet?"
"The plane was fine, I haven't actually been out into the city yet, and yes, I have my bags with me safe and sound."
"Could've saved a lot of money if you would've flown yourself, if you know what I mean," Jonathan Kent's voice suggested from the other side of the cell.
"Jonathan!" Martha exclaimed. "You are such a cheapskate! I don't want Clark flying half way across the country! You know how cold it gets near those high altitudes."
Clark smiled. His mom didn't seem to grasp the fact that he had … special powers and that he was more than able to take care of himself. But that was her job: worrying about her child. Actually, those so-called "special powers' was one of the reasons he wanted to move to Metropolis. He wanted to help people. And he had the perfect idea for a job that would let him do that: A police officer. It was Clark's dream. Helping catch bad guys, solving seemingly unsolvable mysteries and helping kittens out of trees … or was that firemen? It didn't matter. Clark Kent was in Metropolis to make a difference. And those powers of hiswould help him stay one step ahead of the bad guys.
"So how's the weather up in Massachusetts?" Jonathan asked.
"It's fine now," Clark said absently as he made his way out of the airport and stepped out into his new world.
Metropolis was huge. Everywhere you looked there were skyscrapers. And rising above all of them were the world-famous Lex Towers. Clark had seen them on TV, but nothing could have prepared him for seeing them first hand. They were positioned at the south end of the city, two L-shaped glass behemoths dwarfing all the other buildings. The Lex Towers were the world's tallest buildings. Each tower measured in at an incredible 238 stories. The left tower was the LexCorp organization headquarters and the right tower was the personal home of the world's richest man, Lex Luthor.
"Well," Martha said, "We're glad you got there safe and sound. Love you."
Clark and his parents exchanged parting words, and left him all alone in the big city. He set his luggage on the curb in front of the airport's main entrance and watched people rush by him all in a hurry. The one thing he was worried about was if he would be able to make friends. Back in Smallville, he had his close group of friends. Back in Smallville, he was star of the high school football, track, wrestling and swimming teams. Everyone, especially the parents of his fellow teammates, knew his name. He should have been popular with the other kids as well, but he wasn't. Most of his teammates had been into staying out late, underage drinking, throwing wild parties and experimenting with drugs. Those things didn't interest Clark at all. His parents had raised him better than that. And he wasn't terribly popular with the popular girls either. The cheerleaders and the like were initially attracted to him because of his looks. He stood six foot four when 18 and weighed around 240 pounds, all of it pure muscle. (That was a little strange. Clark had been, and still was, extremely "buff" as some would say, but he never worked out. In fact, his diet consisted wholly on fast food and nacho chips.) But pretty soon those girls realized that Clark's idea of a good time was staying home and playing a spirited game of checkers with his parents.
Clark hailed a taxi and told the driver to head for the nearest hotel. Once there, he checked in and unpacked his bags. The hotel was nice, but getting an apartment in the city was going to be a top priority, right after getting that job as a cop. So, after spending a few minutes getting his things organized, Clark set out to wondering the streets of Metropolis – searching for a police station.
He found one a few blocks from the hotel. The station was sleek and modern with the words: "Metropolis Police Station 18th Precinct" written on the glass sliding doors in gold. The lobby was pretty nice as well, but it was also pretty empty. Clark stood silently like a moron in the empty room until finally, a female police officer walked by him.
"Excuse me, ma'am?"
The officer glanced at Clark. She had a tough, no-nonsense look about her. Her blonde hair was cut very short and her golden colored eyes seemed to be able to look right through the poor country boy that Clark was.
"Yeah?" She asked, crankily.
"Um, I was wondering how would I go about getting a job as a police officer?"
The woman said nothing,
Clark began to shuffle. "I took police training courses in college and I've helped the Force back home, and-"
"Look," the woman interrupted. "This isn't like a McDonald's or something where you can just waltz right in and you get a job. This is a police station. We don't accept crazies off the street."
"I'm not a-"
The woman broke Clark off again. "Ok. I can tell you're not from around here. I don't know where you came from, but this is Metropolis. We have 8 million people living here in this city, so things get a little weird from time to time. Why don't you just go back to your hotel or homeless shelter or wherever and let the big boys here handle the tough stuff, ok?"
Clark was about to explain that he was perfectly capable of handling the "weird stuff when someone out of sight shouted "Maggie" and the female officer with whom he was speaking to just walked off.
After that embarrassing job interview, Clark went back to the hotel to think. Maybe it was a mistake coming to Metropolis. Maybe he should just cut his losses and go back to Smallville. He could do good deeds there, too. And he would be with people who loved him. But…
Clark sighed and put his head in his hands. What was he going to do?
While Clark was examining his life priorities in a dusty old hotel, across the city - at S.T.A.R. Labs - a cloud of anticipation was in the air. David Conner, along with his research team, waited patiently in one of the several airtight biohazard labs contained in the basement levels. They didn't know what they were waiting for. They had only been told to assemble together and that "something incredible" was going to be delivered to them.
After an hour of waiting, the doors to the lab opened with a hiss of air and a team of scientist in bio-contamination suits entered, wheeling something in on a lumber cart. That "something" was about five feet tall, made of a glistening metallic substance with what looked to be metal wings spread open, revealing a sort of cracked-open orb of some kind floating in midair.
The scientist who had wheeled it in stood off to the side of the thing and did not say a word. A hush had fallen over the group.
It was David who spoke first. He walked carefully up to the strange object and ran his hand over the metal. "Fascinating," he said. "Simply incredible!" David turned to the scientists who had brought them the object. "What is this?"
"We don't know," one of them said.
"Well, where did it come from?"
"We don't know."
David was starting to get irritated. "Look, stop with the BS and-"
"No, we really don't know where it came from," one of the scientists said. "All we do know is that some governmental agency found it somewhere and gave it to us to study."
That made sense. After all, S.T.A.R. Labs was the forerunner of newly discovered and applied scientific technologies. David smiled. This was going to be the most important day in his life. And that thing, this object, was going to propel his life into an exciting new direction. He just knew it.
A day after his botched police job interview, Clark took a job as a pizza deliveryman. It wasn't the kind of glamorous work he had in mind when he came to the city, but it came with a paycheck. The cost of living in the big city of Metropolis was out of this world, and Clark knew he had to get a second job if he wanted to continue to exist.
The pizza job wasn't that bad. Actually, it was interesting to go all over the city delivering the pizzas. Clark could sightsee and do his job at the same time. And on his second day at the job, he was given three pepperoni pizzas and the instructions to deliver them to the Daily Planet building.
Clark was instantly interested. The Daily Planet was the nation's top newspaper. It was a source for bias-free reporting and several people in it's writing team had become celebrities in their own right. So needless to say, Clark was giddy as he hopped on his bike and peddled to the address. The Planet was a short distance from the pizza place and Clark got there quickly. It was an impressive sight. The building was 27 stories tall and done in the Art-Deco style. A wrought iron globe hung over the main entrance's revolving doors and high above, on top of the building, a giant blue, white, green and brown replica of the earth rotated with the words DAILY PLANET positioned on a ring around the planet.
A chill ran down Clark's spine as he entered the building. The lobby was just as awe-inspiring as the outside. The whole thing was done in marble and polished within an inch of existence. The people inside were rushing here and there, catching elevators and rushing outside – eager for a story.
The pizzas were supposed to go to the 15th floor, so Clark hopped on an elevator and headed up. When it reached 15, the doors parted and Clark stepped out into a whole new world. Everything was chaos. The sound of people clicking on their keyboards and the talking of news anchors on TV monitors positioned in the corners of the room drowned out everything else. Everyone in the room had a purpose. One person was talking on a phone, getting information form a high-up and someone else was watching the TV, eyes peeled for the news events of the day.
"Hey, are you the pizza guy?"
Clark was snapped out of his admiration. He turned toward a guy sitting at a computer. "You can just bring 'em here," the man told Clark.
The pizzas were given to the man and the man gave Clark a huge tip. And with that, the trip inside the secret world of The Daily Planet was over. That had been interesting. As Clark headed back to the pizza place, an idea began to form. He had minored in journalism back in college. And in between helping the Smallville police force, he had written some stories for the Smallvile Torch. Sure, it was crazy to compare the Torch to the Planet, but he wanted to quit the pizza delivery gig. And what would it hurt to have a job interview?
And that settled it. Tomorrow, Clark would apply for a job at the Daily Planet.
