A/N: Sorry everybody for the long wait I'll try to do better with this next chapter. Special thanks to Calico for editing this chapter. Enjoy.

Chapter 7

Repercussions

As Superman, Clark mainly operated during the daytime when he saw trouble and could react to it. Rarely did he ever take such an active role in rooting out a crime as he had done in the previous evening. Being out nearly half the night, fighting mutant terrorists with Batman had made coming home and falling asleep easy, too bad the same couldn't be said about getting up. Clark yawned as he pulled himself out of bed, causing Lois to stir slightly. Even if he was Superman he still couldn't help but be groggy. As he made his way toward the kitchen, and more importantly the coffee machine, the superhero rubbed his eyes; not even super-vision was an antidote to the fogginess of morning eyesight.

Clark looked to the clock. It was almost 7:30 and both Lois and he needed to be at the Planet by 8:00 sharp. He would need to wake his wife so she could get ready, then he would fly them both there, a prospect that she probably wouldn't like as the high winds wouldn't help her hair in any way. He could already tell that they were going to have a bad day at the office. Without a doubt Perry was going to have one or both of them cover the previous nights proceedings and give them a deadline so they could make the afternoon paper.

His ears suddenly picked up Lois slowly getting out of her bed and heading to the shower on her own. Lois may have been a wife but that didn't stop her from leaving her apartment in the dead of night to get details on what was happening in the city the moment it began to burn. Had he not have been so occupied with the Brotherhood and the X-men, he might have even seen her. As it was she had been up almost as late as he had, trying to get details of what was going on. With a mixture of sigh and a yawn, Superman decided that he didn't like doing things Batman's way.

Batman's way.

Actually he hated it. He had told the X-men that he wasn't going to allow vigilantism in his city, yet during that entire night he had let the Dark Knight run through it doing whatever he pleased. Not only that but he had done things the way that Batman would have done them. What made this more bitter to him was that it had almost all been in vain. Apocalypse, the mastermind behind the Brotherhood was still at large.

He had arrived at the basement on 1st and Holmes well before Batman had. A quick scan with his x-ray vision had told the superhero that it was deserted, but he went down with the Dark Knight to investigate anyway. They found no traps and no terrorists, or "Mutants of Mass Destruction" as Robin had called them. Though they did find some blood on the ground, which Batman took to his "Batcave-M" to analyze, they still did not accomplish what they had set out to do. The goal that had made Clark do everything Batman's way. They did not wipe out the mutant terrorist threat to Metropolis in a single night as they had planned.

Instead they were only left with more questions and now not only Clark, but Lois was having to deal with the repercussions, which were beginning to include a headache. The superhero could only hope that the X-men and the Brotherhood had not been identified by the police who showed up to help with the fires, another reason he had gone along with Batman's plan. He still did not know on how he was going to report it in the newspaper.

Clark felt a twinge of guilt as he thought again of how admirably the X-men had worked to save his city. If only things could have been different. While he had managed to avoid having to take them in, the Man of Steel had to wonder about the cost. He might have deprived himself some very powerful allies in his quest to keep control of Metropolis.

Lois entered the room drying off her hair, but otherwise ready to go. After glancing at the clock she looked to her husband.

"We're going to have to fly to work today, aren't we?"

"We could take a cab and be late."

"You're impossible...let me get a bandana or something to cover my head so it doesn't look like complete crap when we get there. I'm going to have to look good, I have a feeling Bruce will be showing up to check on his newspaper."

"And when he does," Clark responded, "he and I are going to have a little chat."

The wind whipped past her body, hair slapping her across the face violently. She was moving so fast that it felt like the air itself was going to cut her. All that Jubilee could do was scream, what else could someone do when falling from the top of the Lexcorp towers? Desperately the teenaged mutant tried to think of what she could do to stop her decent, even shooting her paffs in every direction. All of her efforts amounted to nothing as the ground steadily zipped toward her until she knew she was about to hit it and her life would end.

Terrified the teen clenched her eyes shut just before impact. Only to feel strong arms wrap themselves around her and change her momentum from downward to upward again. Jubilee opened one eye then another to see a firm well-built and handsome face smiling confidently at her.

"Superman!" she exclaimed with relief and excitement. "I wasn't doing anything I swear!"

The superhero flew her to a nearby rooftop, before setting her down, and standing in front of her with his massive biceps bulging at his sides in his classic pose.

"If you wanted to get my attention Ms. Lee," he said, "there are better ways to do it than this."

"A gal's got to have some adventure in her life," Jubilee responded moving in closer.

"Adventure's one thing but..." Superman began but found the words being suffocated in his mouth as the young mutant suddenly tackled him and began to stop any more Boy Scout sayings from escaping his lips...with her own. When she pulled away to look at him the superhero smiled and said in a very low gruff voice...

"Are you going to sleep all day kid?"

Jubilee threw her eyes open in a snap, groggily seeing Wolverine standing over her with his arms folded, a large cigar protruding from his mouth. "It's nearly 1:00. The Professor wants all of us to report to him in ten minutes."

"Wolvie!" Jubilee growled while throwing a pillow at him, images of the dream already fading. "Where do you get off barging into my room and waking me up! Can't a girl get any privacy around here!"

"Fine," the other mutant shrugged, "I'll just leave you and Superman alone."

The younger mutant's eyes widened "How..."

"You talk in your sleep darlin."

Jubilee could only stare angrily as Wolverine left the room, swearing that she could hear him begin to laugh out loud as the door shut. The young mutant then threw herself out of bed, all the while cursing her luck and Wolverine, wondering why on earth she had to be mentored by him.

After showering and dressing Jubilee exited her room, taking special care to lock it and made her way toward Professor Xavier's room, which was near the top floor in a much larger room than anyone else's. She had no doubt that he would want to question all of them about the night before and more specifically their encounter with the Man of Steel. Which seemed pointless, as she really couldn't tell him more than the others would have already.

Even though Jubilee had found Superman's attitude to be "lame" she still had to admit that he had been breathtaking and had more than met expectations. He was every bit as built as she had imagined and seemed to have a command of the air that rivaled Storm herself. He even gave Cyclops a run for his money when it came to giving orders. The young mutant could think few people that she knew that had enough guts to stand right in front of Wolverine, let alone try to stare him down. She made a mental note to try to block such thoughts from her mind when she got to the Professor's room...for what good it would do.

Pressing the up button on the elevator, she began to go over in her mind what she would tell the X-men's leader about the previous night. In all honesty it hadn't been much. After Rogue and Gambit had alerted them of the situation, she had raced with the others to lend a hand. There was the brief confrontation with Superman, during which she was sure that she had mostly gawked at him stupidly. Then she went with Wolverine and the others to find Toad as the Professor ordered.

Thanks to Wolverine's tracking ability and hyper-keen senses it had not taken long. The terrorist looked like he was about to wet himself when he saw the X-men jump out at him...right through a wall thanks to Shadowcat.

The mutant looked to the elevator and wondered why it was taking so long.

After a short chase, and an even shorter battle Toad had been pinned to the ground... literally. With his neck in between two of Wolverine's claws and a third just waiting to pop out.

Again she peered at the elevator and punched the up button.

Jubilee swore that she saw the Toad cry before he finally spilled the beans, revealing to them that Apocalypse was leading them and where they were meeting. They had met Cyclops and his team sometime later at the location. Shadowcat went down to the basement first as she was the most stealthy and could give them an all clear.

The young girl began to tap her feet as the up light remained lit but the door remained closed

Almost as soon as Shadowcat had reached the basement she contacted them and said that Superman was in there already...with someone dressed like a bat and a teenager as well. The X-men hid and waited until the trio had left and then they entered to do their own investigation. After that they had returned to their hotel as discreetly as possible.

At long last there was a satisfying ding, the up light went off, and the door finally opened. Without even looking Jubilee charged in before the doors could have a chance to close. It was only in the last moment that she realized that she was running straight into another person, but not just any person.

"Jubilee?"

"Tim?"

The boy smiled widely as he skillfully dodged her and let her have her place in the elevator.

"Please tell me that you're going up?" he said while looking outside for anyone else who might want to enter. "I've been stopped on every floor since the first by people trying to go down."

"Ninth floor," she responded, leaning past him to press said button.

"Really?" Tim said, "I'm just one up."

"The tenth floor?" Jubilee asked, "You sure do have a lot of dough. I heard that the entire floor is owned by some billionaire twit."

"Bruce Wayne. He's my boss."

"Oh...what do you do for him?"

"Computer work. How 'bout you? What brings you to Metropolis?"

"School trip."

"Oh."

The two teenagers stood for a moment in an awkward silence. Each wondering what to say and hoping that the other would speak first. For a brief instant they found that they didn't need to as the elevator came to a stop and then opened to reveal an impatient looking woman with her arms folded.

"Going down?" she asked.

"Up," they both answered.

The woman sighed and let the door close.

"So is this your first time in Metropolis?" Tim asked

"Yeah," she replied. "How 'bout you?"

"No, I've been here a few times. I have a friend that used to live here, till he moved to Kansas."

"So do you know any cool places to hang out?"

"Actually now that you mention it...I know a few hang outs. But you probably wouldn't be into them."

"Try me."

"Well I know this wicked motor cross place, but you wouldn't like it unless you're really into bikes."

"Love 'em. I'm saving up to buy a Harley from a...friend of mine."

Tim's smile suddenly grew larger. After a quick glance at the floor they were on, he turned to her. "Well I was thinking of going out there. Do you want to come?"

"What...right now?" Jubilee asked

"Sure!" Tim beamed. "Do ya have anything better to do?"

Jubilee looked to see that they were almost to the ninth floor. "Actually..." she said after a two second debate. "I don't."

The door opened at the ninth floor and a well-dressed man looked at them.

"Going up?" he asked.

"Down," they replied.

"She should be up here any minute Chuck," Wolverine said, lighting up a cigar and taking a seat in a large chair. "Though I doubt she'll be good company."

"Perhaps the girl would be better mannered if you didn't give her such a poor example." Storm who was sitting next to him commented, causing the other mutant to cock an eyebrow, almost as if he had no idea what his teammate had meant.

"If it's all the same then," Xavier said, sitting at the head a large conference table surrounded by his X-men that had accompanied him to Metropolis, save of course Jubilee. "I think that we had better get started. I have Hank on the communication system so he can participate. Jubilee can add anything if she wishes once she arrives."

"Nice of da hotel to supply you wit a conference room as part of your suite," said Gambit, shuffling a deck of cards in between his fingers. "We don' usually get dat kind of treatment."

"Then you can thank Lex Luthor tonight when you meet him," Xavier replied. "He really did spare no expense in bringing us to Metropolis."

"All the reason that we should be more suspicious of him," Cyclops added from his place next to Xavier.

"Too true Scott," Xavier said. "I want everyone on guard tonight when we attend his charity banquet. We need to keep a sharp lookout for any deception on his part...among other things."

"We will all be ready, Charles," Storm nodded with earnestness.

"Very good," Xavier said, after looking at his watch for a moment then to Jubilee's empty seat next to Wolverine. "Scott has gone over with me last night's proceedings. I must first complement you all in the way you behaved yourselves. We may have very well opened up a new door in mutant/meta-human relations. Regardless of what happens, it was the X-men that offered the olive branch last night. Let us hope that any further contact with meta-humans will go over smoother."

"Which brings us to the first of last nights questions." With that Xavier clicked a button on his chair, which activated a computer screen that was in the front the conference room. A blurred image of a figure clad in black that resembled a bat appeared. "As you were able to surmise last night...Superman was not working alone. Somebody - this Batman - was in Metropolis. It is likely that it was he who Superman was talking with before he left during your first encounter with him."

"I seem to recall hearing something about a Batman in Gotham city," Jean mentioned gazing at the picture. "But from what I knew he was nothing but an urban myth."

"Well he may not be as mythological as previously thought," Xavier concluded. "We need to know more about this person. Any powers he might have and more importantly his connection to Superman and this appearance of the Brotherhood in Metropolis. We need to find out what Superman's goal is. Only then will we know if he can be trusted."

"I'd say that he showed his colors pretty well last night," Wolverine grunted.

"If you're referring to his deception," Jean said from Xavier's side. "I was monitoring his mind during the entire evening; he was in turmoil over the trickery even to the point of almost letting us in on whatever he was after. He only believed that he was doing what was best for his city and for us."

Wolverine and Cyclops both made a snorting sound as if they disagreed...an action that made the two mutants pause and look at each other in confusion of actually agreeing with one another for once. Without further ado Xavier continued.

"Now, thanks to your hard work we were able to find out that Apocalypse is behind this incarnation of the Brotherhood. A strange move for him as he has always remained aloof from the other mutant factions; for him to join ranks with them is an odd ploy indeed."

"What about the basement, Professor?" Rogue asked, causing the other mutants to look to her, having forgotten that she was there in the first place.

"I could find no information about it that seems relative to our situation. It is owned by a man by the name of Mr. Damon Head. I could find nothing else about it. However I did send Hank a sample of the blood that was recovered."

"Indeed." A voice came from several speakers located in the room. The computer image suddenly changed to show the smiling face of the blue mutant geneticist. "I was wondering when you would finally allocate a portion of this meeting to yours truly."

"Hank," Shadowcat said, "I'm sorry that you couldn't come with us. I know that you would have loved the genetic conference at S.T.A.R. labs."

"Alas," Beast replied, "Nothing would have pleased me more, however since my appearance makes me...let's say noticeable, I could only view the Professor's outstanding oration from the news. However, I am pleased that my meager skills have come into use despite my absence. Though I hope that this does not take long. Kurt and I have been in a smashing game of backgammon. Quite a tricky one, that elf."

"What can you tell us about the blood?" Cyclops voiced bringing the other mutant back to the task at a hand.

"Very well," Beast said, clearing his throat. "First of all, it was very fresh. I suspect that had you touched it, the liquid may very well have been warm. More importantly I found the 'X' gene in it, therefore I was able to conclude that its owner is one of our own kind. After I discovered this I ran a simple blood ID test to ascertain whether it was from someone we know of."

"And?"

"See for yourself," Beast said, as his image disappeared from the screen and showed an animation of a double helix. The image slide to the side as various images of possible matches flashed across, each revealing the face of a known mutant, terrorist or not, until it finally settled on...

"The Blob," Colossus said in surprise. "I was not aware that he could bleed."

"Do you think that it could have been Superman?" Xavier asked

"Doubtful," came the reply. "While I am certain that given the right circumstances, the Man of Steel could inflict enough damage upon Blob to cause him to bleed, it would not seem to be in his character to attempt such a thing. From everything that we've seen of him, through the news and what you yourselves have witnessed, Superman would have to be trying to kill Blob to make him bleed."

Xavier put his a hand to his chin in quiet thought, as he and the X-men assimilated the information. They all knew what this meant. There was someone else in Metropolis that they hadn't counted on. Someone powerful.

"It seems that the more we learn of what is going on the more questions it raises," the Professor observed. "Too many questions to move forward with any action for now. We need to learn what the Brotherhood was after. I'll arrange for a visit to S.T.A.R. labs where they are holding Toad and the others. Hopefully with the information that they will give me we can find our course. Until then I want everyone on their guard and accounted for at all times."

"How do you know that you can get the Brotherhood to talk?" Colossus asked.

"I think that they will find that I can be very persuasive," Xavier's voice came into all their minds.

Next time: Clark and Bruce have it out. Jubes and Tim, and everyone gets ready for the Long Awaited Party. Yeah I know it's not going to be as in your face as the last few chaps but trust me it the story will really pick up soon.

A/N: Thanks to daveykins, Lisa Citron, and Ayka for your reviews.

Louie Pastiche: Thanks I'm trying really hard to keep the players on target and acting like we know them. And as far as your APOKOLIPS idea goes...I actually thought of that. But I think that it's a little far fetched even for comic books.

Ghostninja85:I'm glad that you like that line and that you picked up on it. As far as Luthor goes I was somewhat disapointed that they got rid of him being the president and it seems like he might assume the "full time" villain gig. But as it's been pointed out by other reviewers. He has been able to return to playing both sides so I think that there's hope for him yet.

Blackheart Syaoran: I can understand where you're coming from on the Superman thing but remember just because he doesn't like it doesn't mean that he won't stoop down to deception. How long did he fool Lois? But as you probably see from this chapter it still not something that bodes well with him. Thanks for your review and honest criticism!

Calico: Well...what can I say? Thanks for reviewing and for your editing. The story is really going to improve because of it. Thanks a million.

xcoolcomic: I was wondering there for a second. I try to update once a week and not longer than two. I admit that this one took longer than usual so I hope I can do better. Thanks for reviewing.