A/N: Time to introduce new characters! :D Dinah will play a role in the plot (she later ties in a few characters). I never actually realized I forgot to say what Catwoman did to Superman until I finished writing this, but I'm sure you can use your imagination ;)

Hope you guys like this chapter! Thanks to everyone who reviewed! You're all making my day :)

Sorry for the late update! Christmas Break is coming up, so hopefully I can update again soon!

xxx,

Eve

Chapter 4

In which Clark receives startling news, and change is not approved

Oliver didn't show up for his morning classes Friday. That was the first thing Clark had noticed.

It wasn't like he was stalking the blonde (despite what Teddy accused). He just wanted to help Oliver, and he didn't know why, but he felt like the recent stress the teen had appeared to be taking on was somehow all his fault. So when Clark was taking a trip to the library to grab a book for his English group in the middle of fifth period, catching a glimpse of Ollie had made him more than a little happy.

"So you showed up today." The brunette grinned, stepping around the books to get to the person on the other side. He frowned when there was no reply. "Oliver?" Nothing. He carefully steadied a pile of teetering psychology books and rounded to the window that Oliver had become so fond of.

Oliver was asleep, a book in his lap. His skin was luminous as the sunlight bounced off of it, hitting Clark full on. He felt like he was staring at some sort of, well, angel. And that was saying something. Oliver's hair was mussed and silky, and his cheeks were ever-so-slightly flushed. His expression was peaceful, serene.

He didn't know what to do. The blond looked absolutely beautiful. There was a stir of possessiveness inside of him that he wasn't used to having, and wondered what it meant. Slowly, he stumbled closer to him. Something urged him to lean inward, break the very thin space bubble Oliver possessed. He smells like cherry blossoms... Clark blushed. What the heck was he thinking?! Oliver was just a friend. Just a friend.

Still, he found himself scooting closer, crouching to the slumbering boy's level, observing the way the light seemed to filter through Oliver's skin like his face was made of a beautiful luminescent glass before bounding onto another surface. Noting how, when asleep, Oliver's face remained smooth and perfect, free of blemishes despite the rest of his body, not crumpled by his usual expressions. Remembering how soft his skin looked, how unbelievably kissable his lips were, pursed slightly in his sleep-

Clark immediately flew backward. Oliver stirred momentarily, curling up farther against the window into the sunlight, before falling back into a steady breathing pattern once more. What's going on with me...? He gulped. Whatever it was, he needed time to think.

Silently, he turned away, quickly locating the book he needed in order to complete the english assignment and returning to class with more than one perturbing thought on his mind.

"Green Arrow."

Clark never failed in justice. It wasn't something he'd done, and it wasn't something he was ever going to do. He was going to find out more about GA, if he was a villain or a hero. He had a feeling the new figure wasn't all bad-he'd saved a guy right in front of Superman. With all of the new and confusing things he'd encountered with Oliver, he needed a win. Badly.

Speaking of which, he was now in costume: his mask stuck uncomfortably over the upper half of his face. There was no way he would do this as Clark.

GA turned, fist still closed around a collapsed thug's shirt, holding the battered face up and within hitting range. His fist was muddled with blood. He didn't say anything as the perpetrator struggled.

"Who are you?"

GA snorted, turned back to the thug and carefully fit his fingers into the man's mouth. A sickening noise was heard before the man screamed and GA let go, allowing the man to escape. Pinched between his fingers was a tooth. A tooth. Clark thought he was going to be sick.

"I'm Green Arrow." He replied monotonously, before studying the tooth. It was metal-coated.

"You just pulled out a man's tooth. You're an art thief." He stepped forward and gripped GA's wrist tightly, stopping the hero from leaping away into the darkness. There was something seriously wrong with that situation. People didn't dress up like superheroes, save someone, steal art, and then rip a man's tooth out. GA looked annoyed, almost. Like the conversation they were having was normal, or irking at best.

"I don't see you flying me up up and away to prison." Came the gruff reply. Clark didn't ease his grip, and the green-clad hero sighed. "It's a bomb. Do you want it to go off and kill both of us?"

The response was immediate. Clark shoved the hero away, and GA took the tooth and threw it into the air. It flew onto the roof of the building nearby, and a popping noise met their ears before an explosion followed. GA was thrown back by the wave of heat. Clark, thanks to his super strength, managed to steady his footing in time.

Clark smirked before holding out a hand. "Need some help up?"

"Not from you." GA replied, pushing himself to his feet and backing away from Clark, ready to move defensively depending on how the confrontation went. He stood there silently, waiting for Clark to tell him why they were having a conversation. Clark himself was wondering why GA would take the time to actually talk to him. It didn't make sense: if he was a bad guy, like the side of him that had stolen art, then he would have run. If he was a good guy, the one that Clark encountered stopping a mugging, then he'd act like he had then and dashed off without any large responses. Either he was too arrogant a thief to run, or there was something wrong.

"You..." Clark squinted, trying to figure out what was different. GA shuffled back a millimeter, warning Clark that the hero was wary and annoyed, and more than likely to scamper if he didn't talk soon. "I meant who are you. As...a person."

"I'm Green Arrow." GA replied again, looking slightly confused.

"Yeah, I get that." The Superman part of Clark was beginning to get annoyed, even if journalist-Clark was trying to tell him that there was something very familiar about the way this conversation was being held by only one party. "But why save that woman in the alley when you're just going to steal art from her museum anyway?"

If there was one thing Clark wasn't, it was stupid. He'd seen her face in the newspaper on the way to school once. She was the director of the museum GA had robbed with Catwoman.

"She stole it." GA replied, like he was discussing the weather. "I stole it back."

"So...it belonged to you originally?" Just who the heck was GA? "Are you rich or something?" Something about that statement seemed humorous to GA.

"I stole it back." He said again. "The original owners will have it soon enough."

"How do I know you're not lying?" Clark shot back.

"You don't" GA stated simply. "Whether or not you believe me doesn't matter to me." Well, if GA wanted to piss Clark off, he'd done it.

"I don't know who you think you are, but there are laws in this world for a reason. If you go off and break them, then I'm more than inclined to bring you in, no matter who you are." Screw being 'gentle, too-nice' Clark. He was tired, his mind was still focusing on Oliver, and he didn't feel like dancing around a subject matter because all he wanted to know was whether he could trust GA or not, and so far things weren't going too well.

"Who do you think you are?" GA snarled in reply, stepping forward and invading Clark's personal space bubble. "You don't know who I am, so explain to me who died and made you-" He never got to finish his sentence.

Two streets away, gunfire went off. "Damn it!" GA yelled, frustrated, before pushing Clark away and running towards the fight. Not one to be deterred, Clark flew up and over the buildings, landing between the guns with his renewed clarity.

Two men were pointing guns at each other. One of them, a tall man in a black suit with gaunt, gruesome features, had his arm wrapped around the waist of a struggling teenager, who appeared to either be wounded or drugged. The other was dressed in a lab coat, with clear, plastic glasses on and several chemical stains coating his skin. His hands were trembling as he held the gun, as though trying to decide whether to shoot the man or the boy.

Green Arrow rounded the corner, and the sound of a string being gripped and pulled back proved that he was getting ready to launch an arrow. Clark put himself between the two men, trying to gain control of the situation.

"Give it back!" The lab-coated man yelled. He sounded like a little kid whose favorite toy had been taken away. "You'll hurt it!"

"I'm not an it!" The teenager yelled back, trying to wrench the Suit's arm away from him. "Let me go!"

"It's mine." The Suit growled. "Just because you caught it doesn't make it yours!"

Clark frowned, and barely had time to move away before an arrow whizzed by his face at an impeccable speed and drove itself into the gun just between the Suit's finger and the trigger, pulling it out of his hand and into the pavement. The teenager saw his window of opportunity and knocked his head backwards against the Suit's chin, finally getting released from the tight hold, and literally blurred for a minute before reappearing next to the lab-coated man.

"I am not a thing." He said determinedly, before wrenching the gun out of his hand and dismantling it with astonishing speed, tossing the remnants to the ground. The coated man panicked for a second before running down the alley-only to halt, just in time to stop himself from pricking his nose on the arrow GA had strung and ready to be released. His eyes widened considerably in shock and agitation before he appeared overwhelmed, and fainted on the spot.

The teenager looked at the coated man uncertainly, before his eyes strayed to Clark. "Superman." He seemed a little wary now, ready to flee.

Clark honestly didn't care. His brain was still trying to clog along with the fact that the teen had blurred. Blurred. Blurred. How exactly had that happened? "What's your name?" He asked gently, ignoring GA, who was silent and ignored in the background.

"Uh..." The teen seemed to consider running before he answered, "Bart."

"Well, Bart," Clark said, trying to sound authoritative and friendly at the same time. "That's-"

"-quite an outfit you've got there." GA finished his sentence, stepping into the moonlight. Bart visibly jumped.

It was true, to GA's credit. Bart had on a bright red t-shirt with a yellow lightning bolt inside a circle in the middle of it. He had white jeans on, and red shoes with the same logo as his shirt. "Yeah." Bart didn't seem shy or worried at all now. He just seemed like a cheerful, if not slightly unguarded, kid. "They were custom made. Didn't cost me much, though." He smirked, like he knew something they didn't.

"How old are you? Where do you live?" Clark tired to keep them all on track. Bart turned back to him.

"None of your business." He said, crossing his arms and grinning even wider now.

"Big talk to two guys who could kick your ass." GA said, and Clark wondered between what times his personality had changed yet again. Maybe it wasn't a disorder-maybe it was just GA adapting to a certain situation? Whatever.

"Yeah, well, you don't worry about much when you have super speed." Bart replied, still with his easy-going demeanor, before his eyes widened and he frowned. "How did you do that? I haven't told anyone that before!"

GA shrugged, looking over to Clark as if waiting for his reaction. The uncalled-for sign of respect threw Clark slightly off guard.

"Uh," he tried to sound educated. "What?"

GA snorted. Clark blushed, thankful his mask would hide it at least a little bit.

"You tricked me." He began to take steps back. Clark reached out his hand to stop the kid when suddenly there was a blur and-Bart was gone.

"That went well." Clark grumbled, turning to speak to GA, only to find the hero's spot vacated: Arrow was gone.

Clark sighed. It really wasn't his week.