"So ya' see Miss Lane, I was over there, on my knees with this over muscled goon pointing this gun in my face. I was so scared. My family needs me still, ya know. Mom's not doing good, it's her heart. Kids are in high school. And my wife, I knew this was what she was always afraid would happen. I've been in this business my whole life, ya know? This was my Father's store, and his Father's, just off the boat. We've sold jewelry here since before the skyscrapers took over the skyline, so I couldn't let my family down. But ... it all looks so different when you're staring down the barrel of that gun. All I wanted to do was ... I just wanted to go home to my family, ya know?"

Joe Katz seemed smaller than his six foot two frame would lead you to believe while telling his story to Lois Lane. Sitting behind his desk in the office of his family jewelry store "Katz & Sons" (which Joe had remarked to be the cause of his wife bearing all girls), he shoulders had slouched as he told of what he obviously felt was the lowest point of his manhood, being forced to his knees at gunpoint as men destroyed cases that his family had built up over a hundred years of being in business.

Lois nodded, waiting patiently for him to go on. While she had certainly earned her nickname "Bulldog Lane", she had also learned that sometimes you get more with a gentle touch. Her black hair framed her face as her green eyes softly looked at the jeweler. The mystery person who seemed to be everywhere and nowhere for the past two months was becoming increasingly hard to ignore, which is how she had come to be assigned to the story.

At first she had resisted, hard nosed at the idea of pursuing a urban legend. But Perry resisted, his old school reporting senses smelling a story in the rumors. He leaped buildings in a single jump, or fly - the stories were sometimes inconsistent. He was faster than the new bullet-train going north to Mega City, some saying he was almost a blur. No one knew what he actually looked like because he was always gone before anyone could come to their senses to take a picture, no matter how much Perry bullied poor Jamie Olsen to try.

Add to it the story she was now tracking down from a police contact of hers. Officer Johnson was a veritable goldmine of information, but that was mostly because he was a giant horn dog who thought he had a chance of a date, or probably more. Unfortunately for him, well for Lois anyways, he was pig - and Lois had standards. Her sister liked to say they were impossible for any man to meet, but then again, her sister was also in the middle of her second divorce, so Lois didn't let that bother her much.

Joe cleared his throat and looked up. "I'm sorry - where was I, Miss Lane?"

"Your knees. The gun. Is that when HE showed up?"

Joe nodded slowly. "Yeah, exactly. Mr. Muscle-bound was getting antsy when there was a new voice in the store who was just ... floating there, like on strings, ya know?" Lois shook her head. "And then he goes in this soft but firm voice... and I think I laughed, because it was just so ... weird. He goes.. 'I don't think that setting will match your outfit.' He's FLOATING IN THE AIR and he says that to them! Oh, I just laughed. I think it was all the adrenaline in my system."

"So then Muscles turns and fires at the guy as he's there in the air ... and the bullets just bounce off him. And you know what he does?! He just glances down at where they hit, and then his eyes come up to meet the dumb jock, and he grins, like he knows a secret. Next thing I know there's a blur, and the four thugs are tied up in the center of my store. And he .. ya know, lands, picks up the bag they were putting my jewels in, hands it me. And he smiles, tells me the police are thirty seconds away. He nods, and walks out the door. Just walks, ya know, like it's just another day for him. I've heard the story, Miss Lane, but until that moment he was floating in my shop, I didn't believe them. But he saved my life, I know it."

Joe's eye watered again, and he smiled. Picking up the picture on his desk of Joe, a proud smile in the picture, and his wife and daughters around him, he pointed to the family in the frame. "He saved them from something horrible. I can't thank him enough for that."

-2-

Perry read over the newest parts of the Urban Legend story. Lois' work was as always in-depth and thorough, but he knew that until last week her heart hadn't been in the article. At first she thought it beneath her, and then it was simply a stupid story. But after twenty interviews with first person accounts, she had become a believer. In what was the question she obviously had now. Who was this mystery man, and besides stopping flying cars, armed robberies, car jackings, and rescuing cats in trees, what did he want?

Where did he come from?

Why was he in Metropolis?

What's the story?

Handing back the pages to his rising star, he grinned as he sat down.

"It's good, Lois, very good. But you're not there yet. What's the story, besides that he's very civic minded?" Perry glanced at Clark, who was standing back, watching the discussion. "What's your take on him, Kemp?"

Perry had figured out from the first time that he had met him in person that there was more to Clark Kent that the quiet, shy man you saw in front of him. Just reading the solid prose and strong writing was enough to tell him that. He'd seen hundreds of young hotshots with ego's larger than Texas come and go who couldn't write to save their life. But Clark had a knack for finding the human element in his stories, even the mundane crap Perry was throwing at him. He needs to step up, and Perry will figure out how to make that happen, even if he has to call him the wrong name until he retires.

He can see he's right every time he calls him 'Kemp', because there's this moment of correction, before he catches himself. Perry knows the real Kent is not far below, and when he comes out, what a reporter he'll be.

Lois had, of course, fought this partnership, almost as much as she had the Mystery Man story. But it had been good for them both. He kept her on her toes, and she pushed him around more than he wanted to let her, but he kept rolling over. Once he breaks out of his shell, the two could be a news writing powerhouse.

If they didn't kill each other first, Perry thought.

"Kemp? What do you think?"

"Uhh.. well... It seems to me that he is just trying to do good. Maybe he is just trying to keep a low profile, not cause a scene. People are going to freak out when a guy is just ... " Kent shrugged and made his hand do a rough flying motion and making a soft 'whoosh' sound, before turning the hand up to push his oversized glasses up his nose.

Sighing, Perry looked at Lois before nodding them out of his office. He might crack before Kent does, Perry lamented.

Lois had barely gotten out of earshot of Perry's office when she wheeled her slender frame around and stuck a finger into Clark's chest. In her three inch heels, she was still several inches shorter than him, but the cold, hard glare she aimed at him more than made up for any height distance they might have had.

"Whoosh? Really, Smallville, you gotta do better than that with the Chief. He wants.. words! Not sound effects! I swear, you're going to be the death of my career, Smallville."

Lois turned on her heel and stormed off.

Jamie Olsen, whom had become something of a shadow to Clark since his first day, patted him on the back. "She'll come around, you know. She just doesn't like new people. Or partners."

"Or new people who are her partner?" Clark asked while watching Lois stalk back to her desk in the bullpen. He turned to look at Jamie, who just shrugged and walked off.

"You coming, Smallville? We got more people to interview! Perry says I can't keep ditching you. So let's go, one more and then I can try to put this thing to bed before my deadline."

-3-

Lois walked out of Joe's office and saw Clark interviewing Mrs. Katz, listening and nodding while writing in his notepad. For being such a cardboard personality, she did have to give Kent credit, he could write. His articles always seemed to get the emotion of the story, which Lois had never focused on because while she was not unsympathetic, when you grow up on the base being the General's Daughter, you learn to distance yourself from others, and you also learn how to bend the rules to get what you want. She knew she may not be the best human interest reporter, but she was the best investigative reporter because she was relentless.

Kent was obviously finishing up, he was thanking her and shaking her hand. As they walked out the store into the late afternoon sun, they walked back towards the Planet, it's golden orb shining in the distance.

Clark had noticed that Lois had been quiet since her interview with Mr. Katz. He also knew that whatever was going on her head wouldn't be easily pried from the steel trap that was Lois's private thoughts. He'd been with her for the whole week, and hadn't learned anything he hadn't found online. Hired by Perry before she had graduated. Almost died twice already in her 28 years, once while on a story. The famous father, and their estrangement that was only made worse when she had uncovered a history of cover ups at the Air Force base under his command. The two Pulitzers - both before she was 25.

But this was the first time he'd seen her seem truly withdrawn, as if thinking something over. She stopped, looking up to the sky. Clark stepped ahead a few steps then turned and waited for the thought that was bubbling up to the surface to express itself.

"Do you think he's out there right now? Saving someone else?"

It came out as a whisper, so soft he wasn't certain that if he didn't have super hearing he would have heard it.

Clark stood with her for another minute, then slowly turned allowing the sunlight to bathe his face in long shadows, waiting for her to catch up.

"You know Lois, I'm sure he's around. It sounds like you never know when, ah ... he will show up." Clark added the flying hand motion from earlier, which did the trick of breaking her out of her trance. Rolling her eyes, she increased her pace, leaving him behind.

"You're such a geek, Smallville."

Updated 11/24/16