Chapter 11: Not Invulnerable

*****Gotham*****

Clark couldn't believe that Wolfram & Hart managed to trap him. He tried everything to get out of the box they'd put him in. His heat vision didn't burn through it, nor could he push his way out. Never had he felt so powerless, and he realized that they must be using magic. His encounter in high school with some witches didn't go so well, but he didn't realize that magic users could actually trap him. He reached inside his pants and took out his cell phone. Luckily, he still had a signal.

"Buffy," he said.

"Clark, is everything okay?" she asked.

"Not exactly. Gotham's branch of Wolfram & Hart managed to trap me in some box," he said.

"But they didn't take away your cell phone?" Buffy asked in amusement.

"Nope," he said, grinning. He waved at the witches who were eying him.

They must've done something, though, because his phone went dead. Shrugging, he put it away. That was fine since he managed to get his call out.

Faith was having lunch with Bruce, something she did nearly every day since she'd been to town. She and Bruce didn't have anymore dinner dates because neither was sure they wanted to take things further. Both was feeling out the other. Bruce helped her find a nice house—one of his properties. He insisted on not charging her rent since she was helping keep the city safe. After talking it over with Xander, she agreed.

Xander was sending her a team to help patrol the city, but they hadn't arrived yet. Kennedy was giving him trouble with the selection. Faith wanted to fly to Cleveland and beat the girl's ass, but Xander wouldn't let her. Things between Willow and Kennedy were rocky, and Willow had left Cleveland to get some perspective.

Faith just finished telling Bruce about the demon nest she'd uncovered the night before.

"Why didn't you call me?" he asked, annoyed. She didn't seem inclined to welcome him very far into her world, and it was beginning to frustrate him.

"Because you're just a normal guy," she said with a shrug. "A very fine looking, rich one, but a normal guy, nonetheless. What could you do?"

Her prejudice against him for not having superpowers was starting to piss him off. "I'm not just some guy, Faith. You know that!" he said.

Faith just grinned, flashing her too-sexy dimple at him. "Yea, I know you're not, and I'm not about to let you go getting hurt fighting demons that are way stronger than vampires," she said. "Alfred would get really pissy with me if I let you get hurt."

Bruce gritted his teeth. "I can more than take care of myself—as you well know," he said in a near growl.

"You can against criminals and thugs," she said. "A newbie vamp, sure. But, no, Bruce, you can't handle demons."

"You allow your Watchers into the field, right?" Bruce asked. He'd spent the past several days learning everything he could about her world. What she didn't tell him, he researched or had Alfred tell him.

"True, but bad things happen to them," Faith said. "Giles has been knocked unconscious more times than I can count. Willow was hospitalized once. Xander had an arm broke and an eye gauged out—an eye, Bruce."

"Surely, you know that wouldn't be me," Bruce said. "I know very well that your friend Xander was never trained. You guys let him into the field without any real training while I was trained by experts for years. Not to mention, I wear protective armor."

"Fine," Faith conceded. "I'll let you come next time."

Her placating tone irritated the hell out of him, and her smirk let him know that she was very aware of how irritated he was. Luckily for her, a ring from her phone interrupted them.

"What's up, B?" she asked. When she stood, Bruce waved at the server. "Damn. Okay, we'll head there."

"What's wrong?" Bruce said, telling the server they needed to go.

"Superman's in trouble over there at Wolfram & Hart," she said. "We gotta go."

They raced out of the restaurant, heading to their vehicles. Bruce jumped into his car, heading to his bat cave to change.

Faith, though, jumped on her motorcycle and drove to the law office. When she got there, she saw Superman dressed in black in the front of the building. A shimmer was all around him, and there was about a dozen people all surrounding him.

She parked her bike and got off it. There were people on the street looking at the spectacle. Clearly, they were using magic to contain Superman. Who knew he was vulnerable to the magics? She was, too, so she had to think. What to do? If she attacked, they'd just put the magic mojo on her, too. This one would require more finesse.

She casually walked up to the growing crowd. "Oh my God! They're doing something to hurt Superman!" she yelled. She goes up to the closest one, who she sensed was a magic wielder. "Hey, stop messing with Superman!" Then she slugged the guy in the face.

"Yea, stop hurting Superman!" a guy cried.

"Wolfram & Hart employees are trying to hurt Superman!" Faith yelled, trying to pump up the crowd. More people stopped and joined in, yelling at the lawyers, their security and their witches.

When Batman arrived on the scene, he saw a mob of people surrounding the front of the building. He pushed his way through, taking in the few men and women clearly chanting. Faith had knocked one to the ground and was working to rile up the others. Surprisingly, he was impressed with her ingenuity. The lawyers would have her thrown in jail for assault if she was too direct. She was screaming in the face of the Wolfram & Hart employees, but she wasn't outright attacking.

"It's Batman!" someone shouted. People moved out of his way, so he got up to where Faith was standing.

"Nice of you to join the party," Faith said, smirking.

"Thanks for the invite," he said.

Then Bruce shot the rappel line out of his right hand, wrapping it around the legs of the closest Wolfram & Hart employees. Then he did the same thing with his left hand.

"Is that all of them?" he asked Faith.

"I think that's the mojo peeps, but the lawyers are still standing," she said, glaring at them.

"We have the right to protect ourselves," one of the lawyers said.

"Superman doesn't hurt humans," Faith said.

"Release him," Batman said to the lawyers.

The lawyer spoke into his phone, and the shimmer around Superman dissolved.

"Thanks, Batman," Superman said. He smiled at Faith before turning and heading back to the front entrance.

"Stop!" one of the lawyers shouted.

Without hesitating, Superman went through the building, destroying all the vampires he encountered.

When he came back down, the news crews had made it there. Reporters were shouting questions.

The senior lawyer approached Superman, a reporter and a video camera in his wake.

"You are trespassing, sir. You have no right to be here!" the man ordered. "All our offices have filed suit against you. The restraining order we filed forbids you from coming within one hundred feet of our facilities."

"You think you can hide behind the law?" Superman said grimly. "I don't care what junctions you file. You keep harboring vampires, and I will keep destroying them."

A reporter gasped. "Sir, are you saying that vampires are real?" the reporter asked.

Clark considered his response and then nodded. "Yes, vampires are real. There is an entire realm of supernatural creatures living on this planet," he said. "Wolfram & Hart harbors evil creatures and works to promote the most evil and vile activities while protecting the worst of humanity."

"All creatures deserve the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," the attorney quoted.

Clark ignored the lawyer and looked directly into the camera pointed at him. "Vampires look like humans, but they are demons, who have stolen the bodies of humans. The humans are dead, and they are hijackers. Killing vampires releases the body and sends the demons to the afterlife," he explained, careful not to use the word hell. Vampires were enough for them to handle.

"You can't expect us to believe this?" another reporter asked.

"I don't really care what you believe," Clark said. "I have never lied to you. There are plenty of people in the world who know vampires are real. There are women and some men who train to kill them and protect humanity. They're like a plague on this world, and I didn't know they existed until very recently."

"So your mission has changed?" another asked.

Clark nodded. "Yes. No longer will I focus all my energy chasing after humans who hurt other humans. There are other heroes and law enforcement who can handle them," he said. "Now I will be working with the supernatural crime fighters to help them push back the hold vampires and other demons have on this world."

More questions were thrown at him, but he figured he did enough damage. He jumped up and away.

He could hear a voice on the air. Clark, it's time to come home. Clark, can you hear me? Your sister is here. Come meet her.

Clark smiled and flew toward Kansas.

Down below, Faith was still reeling. She walked toward her bike with Bruce in step. "I can't believe he just did that," she said.

"Yes, he's kicked over a hornet's nest now," Bruce said grimly.

"They're going to pick a part everything he said," Faith said. "He's put all of us at risk."

"Not necessarily," Bruce said.

"He said women first, Bruce. Women and some men," she quoted. "There's already entire websites devoted to the rumors about us."

"I wouldn't worry about what he does," Bruce advised. "Let's just focus on this city, and let Superman fight wherever he wants to. Hopefully, he'll stay the hell away from Gotham."

"He better because I don't need no paparazzi following me around," Faith said as she threw her leg over her motorcycle.

She couldn't see all of his face behind his mask, but she could tell he was smiling.

"No, we wouldn't want that would we," he said. "I'll see you soon." Now it was time for him to begin studying all the media clips he was sure were currently playing and help Faith prepare for the fall out of Superman's announcement.

There would be consequences to what Superman put out in the world, and Bruce would have to do his part to contain the damage. Like Superman, he couldn't go back to pretending the supernatural world didn't exist. It was a threat as real as the alien threat—possibly a greater danger to the planet.

He got in his car. "Alfred, did you see that?" he asked.

"I did, sir," Alfred said. "That was a bold move."

"Bold or foolish?" Bruce wondered.

Time would tell.

******New York******

"Buffy, are you watching the news?" Dawn said, running into the kitchen.

"No, I'm eating a sandwich," Buffy said. "I'm waiting for Faith or Clark to call. He's ran into a bit of trouble in Gotham."

"I know. He's on the news right now," Dawn said. "He just told the world that Wolfram & Hart was harboring vampires."

"What?" Buffy asked, standing up and running to turn on the nearest TV. They were playing the clip of Clark sharing Buffy's truth with the world. "He didn't!"

"He did," Dawn said. "I'm not sure whether to cheer or yell. What does this mean?"

"He might as well have said vampire slayers are real, too!" Buffy said in annoyance. "I'll call Giles."

She called Giles, waking him up. When Giles heard the news, he said, "Bloody hell!"

"My feelings exactly. What do we do, Giles?" she asked worriedly.

"We have to wait and see what happens. If the American government supports what he says or condemns him," Giles said.

"Clark's so hell bent that he could offer up proof if they try to condemn him," Buffy said.

"We'll have to see how this plays out," Giles said. "I wish he'd remained silent, but he has to follow his own path."

"I'm going to contact the Xander. I'll keep you posted," she said.

"What did he say?" Dawn asked.

"He was shocked," Buffy said. "He says we have to wait and see what happens. The government might not back what Superman said."

"I can't believe they'd condemn him," Dawn said.

"I'm not sure about anything anymore," Buffy said. "We know parts of the government are in the know, but we don't know if it goes to the top." She pulled out her phone. "I'm going to call him."

Clark was almost home when his phone rang. He paused in mid-air to pull out his phone. When he saw that it was Buffy, he answered it. "Hello," he said.

"Clark, how could you do that? You had no right to do that!" she yelled.

"I'm no good at deception, Buffy," he said. "I'm not going to lie and hide in the dark."

"But you might as well have said vampire slayers are real, too, why you're at it, Clark. This is my life you're messing with," Buffy fumed. "You could've at least talked to me before you went blabbing to the world!"

"I didn't exactly plan it, but I did mention to you that this would be a possibility," he pointed out.

"Where are you now?" Buffy asked. "We need to talk."

"I'm heading home to Smallville," he said. "I have to meet someone that's there." He considered that Buffy knew his new sister much longer, and she should know what was happening with Cordelia. "Why don't you come to Smallville? We can talk, and you can meet someone."

Buffy was surprised by the invitation but agreed. "Okay. Send me your address, and I'll see what I can do," she said.

Clark said goodbye and dropped down on his family farm. When he opened the kitchen door, his mother was there. However, she wasn't alone. "Clark!" his mom said, moving to embrace him.

Cora El, formerly known as Cordelia Chase, stood up, flashing her toothy smile. "Hi," she said.

Clark hugged his mom and then turned to the woman, who was looking much different than the last time he'd seen her. "You look so much better, Cordelia," he said.

"I feel better," she said.

"Clark, she picked a Kryptonian name," Martha said.

"Cora," she said. "Cora El. Jor El said that technically, we're related."

Clark grinned at her and held open his arms. "Welcome to the family, little sister," he said.

Cora grinned and stepped into his arms.

*****Chapter End*****

As it's been a while since an update, I decided to end this one here. More to come. Review if you have the time or inclination. Thanks!