Chapter Twenty-Five: The Benefactor.

Helena perched herself up at the top window of a warehouse. She used a glass cutting to cut a hole through the glass and she pushed herself down the hole. She dangled down the hole and dropped down. She landed on a platform.

Lynns was rather terrified regarding this man and that made Helena extremely intrigued. He was the same man who was working with Luthor regarding whatever his plan was. Helena was pretty much sure of it. This was the same placed where Lynns swore up and down that he met with his benefactor and she believed it.

She made her way behind a pillar and slumped through the shadows. She kept walking forward.

There was a red dot at the side of her head. A loud bang echoed and Helena crouched her head down and ducked it. The bullet hit the side of the pillar when she did a forward roll. She crouched against the barrier, her heart beating even quicker when she moved.

Okay, someone was trying to kill her. That was seldom a good time. She looked over her shoulder and frowned. She wondered if there was anyone out there. She lifted her hand in the air and threw a pellet into the shadows.

The bang resounded and created a cloud of smoke. There was no one there. Helena wondered if someone set a trap for her.

"So, any luck?" Barbara asked.

"No," Helena said. She could feel her heart racing extremely fast. She turned around and looked above her.

He dropped down from the ceiling right in front of her. That caused Helena to stagger back half of a step and her mouth to hang open when she was greeted by this figure. He was dressed in black armor, with a symbol on his chest. It resembled a demented looking owl with glowing eyes. He had a stoic look on his face that remind him of someone.

"So, you've taken after your father, have you?" the man asked. He rushed towards Helena and knocked her back.

He jumped up, but Helena dodged it. He expertly landed on the ground and shot an iron cable at her. She dodged it and it was put through a crate. He retracted it back in response and chuckled.

"You know, you're pretty smart, but if you were a bit smarter, you would stay out of this," he said. He hurled a grenade at her. Helena jumped onto the rafters and flipped into the air. He caught her foot, turned it and slammed her down to the ground. She hit the ground with a solid oof, knocking the wind out of her. "And not bad, not bad at all, but I'm better."

He jumped up and drove his fist down onto the back of her head. Her limbs twitched in every single direction.

"You are nothing, but a distraction until I take control of this world," the man said.

Helena adjusted a dial and a sonic pulse resounded. It summoned several bats through an open window at him and caused him to stagger back.

"Clever," he said.

"Yeah, wish I could say the same about you," Helena said. She tried to pull herself to her feet, but she remembered her ankle was snapped.

She was kicked hard in the face, which left a bruise.

"I wouldn't be the one that would speak arrogantly with how injured you are," he said. He rushed forward and kicked her hard.

She activated the gauntlet in her glove and nailed him with a swift pulse of electricity which doubled him over. Helena blitzed him with a couple of stinging punches, but he went behind her and nailed her again.

"Just who are you?" she spat.

"Call me Owlman, he said. He nailed her hard again, but she tried to get back to her feet. "I feel that it's worthwhile that you learn the name of the person that's going to destroy her."

Helena felt like she had been battered and bruised several times over. Her blurred over vision spotted Owlman when he looked at her and she took a swing of him. He stepped back and allowed her to punch at the air, which honestly didn't do anything.

"Spirit, I like that," Owlman said. He kicked her and stood on her chest, pinning her down to the ground. "Maybe, I have some uses for you anyway."

There was a thump and Black Canary turned up. Owlman's gaze turned towards her and a frown appeared over his face. "Well, this is an interesting development, isn't it?"

Black Canary decided to use her Canary Cry to back off Owlman. He ducked his head and jumped up behind her.

"Things are getting a bit crowded in here," Owlman said. He activated a device on his watch and something flew in with a blur.

Owlman was flown off as quick as could be and Black Canary and Huntress were left down. Dinah extended her hand forward and helped Helena up to her feet. Her ankle looked to be slightly damaged, but she held her up.

"I'll be fine, just got to get me patched up," Helena said.

"So, I'm not the only one who saw that right," Dinah said. Helena frowned when he spoke to her. "We better tell Clark about this."

"My thoughts exactly," Helena said. She tried to put weight on her ankle, but she needed Helena to hold her up so she didn't fall.

Clark thought that he was going to leave Gotham pretty soon, but he couldn't leave just yet. He was invited by Helena to a huge press conference featuring Lex Luthor and her father. He looked towards Helena, who was walking with a bit of a limp. The good thing was that she was doing an excellent job in disguising the pain that she was in. She closed her eyes when she turned towards Clark.

"For the record, I'm fine, just a bit sore," Helena said.

Clark already knew what Helena ran into last night and didn't need to press her on the finer details of that.

"So, there's another one out there like me," Clark commented.

"Yes," Helena confirmed. She was trying to shut out the pain that she was feeling. She felt a little better now that she treated her foot, but steps were her enemy. "I'm fine."

"If you insist," Clark said. He thought that the Waynes had one thing in common and that was how stubborn they were during certain circumstances.

Helena made her way towards the plaza where the press conference was. She could see that the press was here in full view of them all, and obviously the elite of Gotham City would be out in full force this evening.

Clark was interested in this. He got a chance to meet the gentleman who seemed to have so much interest in him and he wasn't sure that the interest was healthy.

He could see Helena tense up and sure enough, her father would be here. He noticed Clark and Helena and made his way over to greet both of them.

"Mr. Kent, it's an honor to see you again," Bruce said in his low voice. He crouched down when he spoke to him. "I heard that you've made some headlines at the Kane night club opening the other night."

"Doing what you would have done," Clark answered. "But not exactly."

"Helena's told you, hasn't she?" Bruce asked. Helena raised her eyebrow at him and she could see an argument about ready to happen between the two of them. "It's just as well, because….well going back out onto the field right now is a fool's errand. Even if the mission isn't over."

Helena's eyebrow twitched a little bit. He always talked about his mission. The mission would never be over if he had anything to say about it. Regardless, she gave her father an extremely polite smile and a nod to go with it. She leaned back against the wall and sighed.

"So, Luthor is going to be here today," Clark said.

Bruce looked at him, almost as if he was trying to figure out how much he should say to Clark about this. He frowned extremely deeply and nodded. "Yes, he's been wanting to move into Gotham. And he wants to partner with Wayne."

"But, you have misgivings, don't you?" Clark asked.

"It's a publically run company, it's not my vote that's the final one," Bruce said.

Clark shivered at how cold his tone was. It was extremely obvious that he had misgivings about this, Clark didn't need any kind of super powered senses to read between the lines.

Bruce wasn't done with Clark just yet. "You and I, we need to talk, privately."

Clark raised his eyebrow, but he nodded. Bruce lead him off into a nearby office and made sure to shut the door behind him.

Helena frowned. She really hoped that Clark would leave that room. It wasn't doing her mind that good to see her boyfriend being left alone with her father.

"Not even my daughter will be able to listen in now," Bruce said.

"If she's anything like you, I'm sure that she'll try, sir," Clark answered.

"There was another one, just like you and the Danvers girl," Bruce said. "Or is she Kent by now?"

"Yes, Kent," Clark answered. "There is….."

"But I'm sure that you knew about that, Huntress and Black Canary ran into her last night, when she got….Owlman out of there," Bruce answered. That caused Clark to raise his eyebrow. "Just because I'm not able to fight on the field, does not mean that I'm not able to be a detective."

"I never said anything along those lines, sir," Clark answered in a respective manner. "So, what did you find out?"

"Owlman….we've encountered with each other, he runs the Crime Syndicate, a league of super powered criminals with the intention of taking over the world," Bruce said. "And Owlman is the most feared of them all, despite having no powers. He's a ruthless criminal mastermind."

"And he's working with Luthor," Clark murmured.

"A huge mistake for Luthor," Bruce replied. "Luthor thinks of himself as a genius, but….he's out of his league against Owlman. Owlman wants something that LuthorCorp is developing, a gateway to cross through other worlds."

"So, why can't we just go shut down this gateway and stop him from using it?" Clark asked.

"Because, I haven't been able to locate it," Bruce said.

"So, that's why you're not fighting the deal with Luthor, you want access to his records and his company," Clark said.

Bruce nodded. "Very good, you're learning."

The two men stood in silence. Bruce decided to bring up another point. "So, what are you intentions regarding my daughter?"

There was a part of Lois who thought that she should honestly know better before now. She frowned deeply when she made her way the hotel/office that Luthor was using to conduct his business out of in Metropolis.

She made her way over. There was still a large hole in the wall from the other night.

She frowned, she forgot about Clark's near fatal encounter with a rocket launcher. Well, it wouldn't be near fatal because of his super powers. But that would be splitting some unfortunate hairs as far as Lois was concerned.

She spotted a filing cabinet at the end of a hallway. Lois stepped forward and wondered. Dare she hope that they left any important details here for her to take a look at, at her own convenience? She hoped that there might be something for her to uncover. Right now, she couldn't be for certain though.

She arrived at the edge of the filing cabinet, and her frown deepened. She thought that it had been recently opened.

"You're going to need a key to open that, not that you'd find anything in there."

Lois turned around and spotted a red haired woman standing there. She was looking at Lois with her green eyes, which were narrowed.

"Tess, I presume," Lois commented. Her tone was cool and cordial, but it was obvious that she was looking towards the woman with a critical eye. "Did you decide to come back to the scene of the crime, or something?"

"Amusing," Tess commented. "Given that I was nearly blown to pieces here as well."

"Perhaps, Lex was having a bad hair day," Lois replied.

Tess didn't respond with her. "He's….he sent you here, didn't you? Some snoopy high school student, that's who he sent here, isn't it?"

"And what makes you think that I'm not perfectly capable of getting into trouble on my own," Lois said. "And….I would be a Freshman in college, if I didn't get expelled in my senior year in high school if some idiot wasn't asking for it."

"Oh, I see," Tess answered. Her lips curled into a soft smile. "My mistake, then."

"You made a lot of mistakes, it seems lately," Lois answered. "What is Lex up to?"

"He hasn't really told me, he's keeping a lot of cards close to his chest," Tess said. She looked at Lois. "And if I knew what he was up to, I wouldn't tell you."

"Guess, I'm going to have to find out myself," Lois said. She realized something instantly and looked Tess straight in the eye. "So, if there's nothing here, then why did you come back to the scene of the crime?"

Tess looked at Lois. It was almost like she was trying to debate whether or not to shove her through the busted hole in the wall and make it look like an accident. She decided it wouldn't be worth the trouble. Mostly because she figured that there would be someone buzzing around to catch her and Tess didn't think that she could handle the heat.

"I didn't return to the scene of the crime, I was hoping….well I was hoping if I could find some answers on my own," Tess answered.

Lois smiled. "Were you hoping to find answers of your own, or were you hoping to….run into someone here?"

Tess didn't respond, but that was perfectly fine with Lois. She pretty much got all of the things.

"Lex isn't the future of the world, I can see what the future is," Tess said.

"Did you come to that conclusion before or after he nearly atomized you with a rocket launcher?" Lois asked. Tess looked towards her with a frown on her face.

"I really don't expect you to believe me, but do know this, things are going to change," Tess said. She handed Lois something. "I don't think that I have to tell you that this is only for his eyes and no one else's."

"Sure, I'll pass it on," Lois answered. "But, you owe me."

"Trust me, if the world is going to be saved, you're the one that's going to owe me," Tess said. "I don't expect you to agree with me though, but tell him that it's urgent that we meet up, whenever you can pass it onto him."

Tess left instantly and left Lois standing there in the hotel room. She pondered the woman's words and how legit they were.

Lois found herself in two minds. The first mind was there was a pretty good chance this woman was on the level, but then again, she had her own agenda. It wasn't against Clark, at least she thought, but she wouldn't mind using him as a means to oust Lex and raise herself up another level.

At least that's how Lois figured. Corporate politics were something that she seldom had any time to figure out. Her frown deepened when she waited for her pickup to come.

"I can't leave you alone for five minutes, without you getting in trouble," Kara said. She flew over and Lois frowned. "So, did you find out anything?"

"Not entirely," Lois admitted in a begrudging voice. Kara extended her arm and wrapped her around her. "Tess Mercer gave me a note to hand off to Smallville though….I'm not completely sure that she's in the market for a super powered booty call though."

Kara knew that Lois would tell her all about it, when she flew out of there.

Lex Luthor passed his security voice and made his way across the stage. He saw the surly old man that was Bruce Wayne waiting for him. His hand wrapped around the handle of the cane that he was holding.

"Mr. Wayne, it's good to see you up and on your feet," Lex said.

"Mr. Luthor," Bruce said.

"That was my father, call me Lex," Lex answered. He gave him what he perceived to be a charming smile, but the smile looked like of creepy and unsettling to say the least.

"Very, well, Lex, I've looked over your business proposal and I must say, I'm intrigued," Bruce said.

"I should hope so, with the press conference looming in about ten minutes," Lex said. "I have to ask, what changed your mind. I'm grateful, but you've been working hard to keep LuthorCorp out of Gotham."

"I thought about it, and think that working together is best for business and best for the world," Bruce answered.

"Sentiments that I can't argue with," Lex said. He looked over and saw that there was a packed house for the press conference. "It's time for us to perform our civic duty, and talk to the press."

"After you," Bruce answered. He waved his hand and Lex stepped forward onto the stage.

He made his way to the microphone stand and made sure that the microphone worked properly. He cleared his throat a couple of times.

Bruce was offered a chair by one of the aides, but he declined it. Despite his hip and his knee killed him because of Gotham's notorious weather. He leaned back and waited for Lex to have his say.

"Gotham City is like a rough piece of coal," Lex commented. "On the edges, it seems unrefined, but it's a source of great power if you have the ability to use it right. And it can be refined into a diamond with the simplest expert touch."

There was a sound of a bugle horn playing and Lex's gaze looked forward. He could see a large Jack in the Box being wheeled out, being marched side by side with men who was dressed like toy soldiers.

"Security!" Lex ordered. He didn't know what nonsense this was, but this was Gotham City, therefore the freaks were out in abundance.

Bruce frowned, he speculated that there was someone who was going to cause trouble, but who, that was the question. He stepped forward on his cane, but one of the security guards stepped in his way.

"Stand back, Mr. Wayne."

That was the problem with security. They were necessary to protect the people, but they were a hindrance to people trying to lend a helping hand.

The toy soldiers stepped back and the press had to be held back. Lex made his way down the set of steps towards the jack in the box.

"Stand by," Lex said. He wanted some room.

The crank on the jack in the box started to grind on its own accord and there was a soothing melody that played.

He stepped forward and made his way towards the box. The box cracked open to reveal a rather creepy looking head. It looked like the idealized version of some child, but it was entering extremely unsettling territory.

A blast of purple gas caught Lex in the face. The bald man coughed when he was doubled over. The gas didn't kill him, but it knocked him out.

"He isn't dead, don't worry," a man said when he walked forward. He approached the down man. "He'll be lucky not to be dead though when I'm through with him."

Security made their way over, but the henchmen shot them with the guns. They dropped down to the ground.

Another round of toy soldiers burst through the doors, although these appeared to be robots of some sort. At least, that's what anyone who was watching could figure because the General controlled them with a remote control device.

They marched in two by two and placed their weapons on the members of the press. The General lifted up Lex by the jaw.

"So, you're paralyzed, you can't move," the man said. "Now, you know how my father felt, when yours took everything from him. But, your Father's dead, so the sins on the father will have to be paid by the son."

Lex looked at the man and he didn't recognize him. He could only speak due to his voluntary muscles not working.

"Look, if you want money…."

"Money won't solve what I want, money doesn't buy me my playtime," the man said. "The Toyman is not amused by you trying to end the game before it really starts. You're going to suffer, and you're going to pay for your war crimes."

Clark watched from the crowd. He was going to have to pick his spots carefully. He saw Helena meet his eyes and mutter. "Follow my lead."

To Be Continued.