Clark walked over to Lois' desk and saw that she was missing. He used his x-ray vision and saw that her keys were also missing from her desk. He walked over to his desk and grabbed his phone; dialing her number.
"Hey, Lois. I don't know where you went but I'm going out to scout LexCorp. I'll talk you later. Be safe" he said.
"Where you heading, Clark?" Jimmy asked, setting down three files on Lois' desk.
"Out for my lunch break, it's in five minutes but I decided to get a head start. Thanks for telling me about Perry by the way." Clark said quickly, mildly annoyed by Jimmy's fixation on him.
"Oh, okay. And you're welcome." he replied, giving a phew noise and taking a seat in Lois' chair.
"You wouldn't happen to know where she headed off to, would you?" Clark asked, briefly eyeing Lois' files.
"Yeah. She said that she was heading towards LexCorp. Unofficially. Yeah, she was real adamant on the "unofficial" part. You know what I mean, right?" Jimmy said with quotation marks.
"Okay, thanks." Clark laughed, giving a wave as he walked away from his cubicle.
Clark slithered his way out of the top floor and reached the elevator without anyone noticing. The Planet was an excellent place to work, especially someone like Clark. Working at a news outlet was perfect for a "Superman" to be up to date on world events and dangers all around. Despite the obvious suspicions that occurred between Lois and Superman after he stopped General Zod from invading Earth and the now-infamous picture of Lois kissing the world's new hero, Clark did his absolute best to hide his true persona. According to Lois and the bullying of his peers, the façade seemed to be successful. Clark could only hope that some idiot wouldn't get too smart and try to figure out the truth.
After taking the elevator all the way to the lobby, he nodded to Donny the bellhop, a young man who admired Clark as much as Jimmy.
"I'll see you in a bit, Don. If you see Lois, tell her to call me, will you?" Clark asked him.
You got it, Clark." Donny said, giving Clark a thumbs up.
Clark gave him a salute and swung by the revolving door as thunder boomed in the distance. Rain was slightly pouring and tapped softly on Clark's jacket. He looked up at the Daily Planet and admired the giant globe that proudly revolved over 80 stories up; a symbol of Metropolis' inability to stop moving. Clark quickly crossed the busy street after the cars briefly stopped in traffic and he headed over into a nearby alley, away from any Metropolians. He cracked his neck and quickly folded his clothes with super-fast efficiency and stretched himself as he prepared to take off. His was almost entirely blue, made from Kryptonian fabrics from Clark's home planet. It had the symbol of Clark's family crest in the middle, which stood for hope. Despite being widley recognized throughout the world now, the Superman suit, in all its glory was in fact a underlayer of the Kryptonian warriors' armor. The suit was worn underneath to provide comfort for the heavy technologically-advanced armor the army would wear in battle.
Clark found the suit in his ancestor's recon ship that was sent to Earth thousands of years before. The consciousness of his real father, Jor-El guided him as he became the savior of the world and stopped General Zod from terraforming the planet. Although forced to kill Zod, Clark swore to never kill again and honor both his real father and his adoptive father, Jonathan Kent. Clark had suffered greatly in accepting his role as Earth's greatest hero but now, all the pieces were finally coming together and people were beginning to accept Superman as a superhero.
Clark's abilities were still new to him and more would show up at random. He was slowly beginning to control his flying powers. He stood straight and held his arms straight above him, feeling the rain fall on his face. He felt the small specs of asphalt and garbage push away from him and with a deep breath, he shot up at 300 MPH, briefly shaking the ground as he shot to the clouds. The cold rain splashed in his face and his cape flapped in the wind proudly. He took another deep breath and hot up at the speed of sound, creating a small sonic boom. He flew through the clouds and through the storm, over five-thousand feet in the air and the yellow sun shining above. Clark closed his eyes and absorbed the energy, giving him strength and confidence unlike any sensation a human could understand. He hovered in he glow of the sun and concentrated on the voices of Metropolis. He could hear the sounds of children laughing, police sirens blazing, and people on the streets having unimportant conversations. He opened his eyes and turned himself upside-down, shooting down to the city and flying through it, eyeing the giant LexCorp sign that shined brightly through the stormy weather.
"Something to be proud of." Clark quipped.
He banked to the right and shot across the building, using his x-ray vision to look inside Lex Luthor's main office. Sure enough, Luthor was inside with three other men as he was showing them a model of some building. Luckily for Clark, the sky was darkening and it was harder to see him. He slowly hovered near the building and hid above his window, his red boots leaned against the wall. He listened in with his super-hearing and became concerned with the conversation once he listened to the sinister tone in Luthor's voice.
"In Star City, we can convince Queen to cut the bull with his weapons business after giving him an extremely convincing fee. After that, we set up...LexCorp Star. We can branch out the company greatly by connecting the dots." Lex said.
"Connecting what dots?" Suit #1 asked.
"It's as simple as a coloring book, Mel." Lex laughed.
"Star City, Gotham, Metropolis of course, and Coast City. All major cities that act as the financial center of the country as well as well as the most populated areas. If we can place LexCorp in these three cities, the company will act as an infection, taking over every major industry. LexCorp could be on every brand, every label, every major product in America, even the world." Lex continued.
"Do you really think you can buy Wayne or Oliver Queen. I've heard they're hardheaded. Especially Wayne, that man's a dick." Mel said.
"Every man has a price. But that price isn't always money, if you gentleman know what I mean." Lex replied.
"You mean a breaking point." Suit #2 said dryly.
"Excuse me, did you say something?" Lex said with attitude.
"Lex, we all appreciate how well you've taken care of our companies but honestly, most of our stock is in LexCorp. All that faith could be a dangerous path to absolute failure." Suit #3 added in.
"You think I'm a failure?" Lex asked, his voice growing very deep and dark.
"It's not that, Lex. Calm down." Suit #2 replied quickly.
"Have I ever once failed?" Lex laughed.
"I single-handedly rebuilt this city after the alien freak and his friends decided to obliterate it into nothingness!" Lex yelled, tossing a snow globe on his desk into the left wall, making Clark flinch at the loud noise.
"He caused twenty-two billion dollars in damages! Skyscrapers fell, two-thousand people were killed, tens of thousands injured! Who helped this city? Who spent three billion dollars of his own money to gain their trust! Me! And yet, they want to sympathize with the goddamn alien? What is wrong with the world?" Lex screamed.
The three men were speechless. Clark used his x-ray vision and looked into the office, shocked slightly by Luthor's actions. Lex was red-faced and his bald head was sweating. The men were as well and Clark could see that Mel's hands were shaking behind his back. Luthor was out of his mind. He wanted LexCorp to have complete control over the country. Lois' research was right. He was buying all the country's important stock to own most of the businesses. He was planning something dangerous and sinister for America.
"Sir, you have a visitor. A Lois Lane." a secretary buzzed through lex's office phone.
Clark's head turned to the window as he was about to leave the building.
"Thanks, tell her to wait down there for just a minute." Lex responded with a business attitude.
"I have to go, gentleman. I've wanted to get rid of this woman for months now. She knows about the plan somehow. I have to deal with her. You know how those snoopy reporters are when they get too brave." Lex said as he opened his elevator door and left the office.
You couldn't have picked a better time, could you, Lois?