"Seriously, Lois," Lucy said conspiratorially. "What have you been drinking, and why can't I have any?"

"No, really," Lois said, smiling widely, "I haven't had anything. I just the same wine that you had at dinner."

Lucy narrowed her eyes at her big sister, her expression full of skepticism. Not that Lois could blame her; she had spent the majority of the evening either lost in wondrous thoughts, grinning like an idiot at Clark, or trying desperately not expound girlish laughter. She was amazed that her mood didn't even bother her inside her own head. She was just too happy.

"Then what is it?" Lucy asked, casting a furtive look towards Clark as he bustled around the kitchen, mostly doing dishes from the look of it.

Lois chose her words carefully, knowing that Clark could be listening, "I trust Clark. Completely."

Lucy blinked, "I don't understand."

"I am not sure if I can explain it right, put it into words," Lois said, "but he told me that he chose not to tell me everything about himself."

"He said he was going to lie to you?" asked Lucy, looking abashed.

"Oh no," Lois said. "Technically, he already is. But he isn't lying; he's just not going to tell me everything about himself. But he has been honest with me about it in a way that I have never had anyone be honest with me before. He explained that he is making a choice, and he said that he was not going to explain. And, he said that if I wanted to leave him because of it, he would accept it."

"Then," Lucy said, bending forward to keep her voice as quiet as possible, "why aren't you?"

"Because I trust him," Lois said, her voice full of something like reverence. "Every experience I have had with every guy up until this point is telling me to run, to never look back, but I'm not. He isn't trying to control me or tell me what I should do. He trusts me to make whatever decision I think is best, and he is willing to let me make that choice, even if it means losing me. I can't really help but trust him. What he did was the truest and most just thing anyone has ever done for me. So, I choose Clark."

Lucy stared at he older sister with something akin to awe, "You love him."

Lois pressed her lips to try and hide her smile, and did so poorly, "I think I do. I'm not sure what I am feeling is love, but I have total faith in the fact that this is the closest I have ever come to it."

Clark chose that time to reappear, balancing three plates in his hands, each with a small triangle of caramel cream cheesecake.

"He does dishes and makes cake happen?" Lucy asked, her tone light. "Marry him, Lois. I'm serious. I can be a bridesmaid, like right now."

Clark turned incredibly sheepish, and Lois averted her smile. Suddenly, Clark's phone buzzed, and he took it out of his coat, "It's the Planet. I'll take it in the hall."

He stepped out, and Lucy turned to Lois, "Seriously, Lo? You love the guy?"

"I told you, yes," Lois said sounding a bit nervous.

"But he is just so..." Lucy trailed off.

"You don't see him the way I do," Lois said. "Even though I can't really see all of him, I think he is just afraid that if I really see him, then it will change how I feel about it. And that's okay; I can understand that if that is what is really going on. I'm not trying to guess or anything. I trust him. He's... Clark."

Clark stepped back in, "We are needed."

"What is it?" Lois asked, setting down her plate and standing up.

Clark was already in his coat, "Intergang is apparently trying to coordinate several armored car robberies. There are new laser etched printing plates that LexCorp designed that are on the route to the Federal Reserve. The police are doing their best, but the number of trucks being targeted is increasing, by a lot."

"Okay," Lois said. "I'll finish up with Luce. You go on ahead. We will gather information separately and meet up at the Planet later."

Clark looked momentarily unsure, but then said, "Please be careful," before giving her a chaste kiss and heading for the door.

"You too," she said, and he was gone.

Clark was glad that he didn't have to make any excuses, and was out of the apartment and heading quickly for the main attraction. The plates were in an unmarked van, relatively unprotected, except for the LX5 sitting with the case. The other two LX5s were with decoy trucks. So far, the tactics that Intergang were using were non-lethal and more for show, or else Clark would have interceded sooner. However, the van existence had not been secretive enough, and Clark was fairly sure that the three heavy assault squads with full body armor and armed with some kind of energy weapons were going to be far more dangerous. Each squad was in a four by four militaristic jeep, converging with surgical precision. Clark was going arrive just before they did.

Clark took out the tires of the first vehicle, slowing it by main strength enough that it didn't hurt anyone, inside or outside the vehicle. As it stopped, the windshield exploded outward in a wash of molten glass and Clark was hit with enough plasma to melt through an engine block, which one shot did. Clark grounded himself, dissipating as much of the energy as he could, which was so high it was starting to misfire his neurons and making it hard for him to sense the world around him or think. Once things were more clear, he prepared to go for the weapons, but only then noticed their self-destruct digital kill keys. If the weapon got too far away from the wielder, it would explode. There was a number of anti-tampering devices in the framework as well. Clark would have to find another way to slow them down, and carefully.

He reflected on what to do as he stopped the second vehicle, realizing that he wouldn't have time to stop the third before it arrived at the van. Making up his mind, Clark stopped the second car from the rear, hiding his presence as much as he could with the frame of the four by four. He cleared the vehicle as quickly as he could, telling pedestrians to get off the streets. As soon as the squad exits the four by four, Clark stepped up to the fire hydrant.

A careful blow broke open the hydrant, and using his cupped hands, Clark soaked each, in turn, shorting out the electrics in the weapons' firing mechanisms and making it impossible to fire without it backfiring, expending most of its energy through the firer. He repeated the maneuver with the first squad, keeping an eye on the LX5 as the final squad moved into place.

To Clark's surprise, as soon as it was clear that the van was going to be overtaken, the LX5 punched out the side door, took the plates and simply flew away, heading, at a greater speed than Clark had witnessed it fly before, in the most direct route to Reserve in DC. Before Clark had a chance to use water against them, the final squad had stopped their vehicle and took a hostage before everyone could realize what was happening.

Clark practically slammed to a halt in mid-air, drifting downward to land in the streets before the men, in plain view and with his hands raised.

"Stay back," yelled the leader, looking terrified, his weapon point at Clark as he used the hostage, a ten-year-old boy, as a body shield, his mother in hysterics behind a dumpster.

"Stay back, alien!" the leader reiterated.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Clark said, not moving forward. "No one needs to get hurt here. Please, let the boy go."

"You think I'm crazy?" the leader said, voice cracking. "I've seen what you can do, alien. This boy is the only thing between me and a body-bag or two!"

Clark could see and hear that the other members of the squad were not nearly so volatile, but they were well trained and followed the leaders lead obediently.

"Is there nothing I can do?" Clark asked. "You have all the power here. I am sure that we can come to some sort of agreement. Is there anything I can do? Any act I can do to show my good faith?"

The leader seemed to think about it for a long moment, then became eerily calm.

"No."

There was the press of a button, a white flash as the weapon in the leader's hands destructed, exploding so violently that it rocked the vehicle and gouged the street. Windows up and down the block exploded inward, then outward as the rush of air was pulled back to fill the vacuum the explosion left. Then, only the screaming could be heard.

"Tommy!" the boy's mother cried. "Where's Tommy?! Oh my god, Tommy! Tommy!?"

"Mommy!"

The smoke seemed to clear, revealing Clark. He held the boy to his chest, his back to where the explosion had been. He couldn't have gotten further from the blast without risking injury to the boy, but he was all but unhurt, except for a few blisters and some blacked edges to his clothing. Outside of a few minor trauma from the concussion wave, none of the bystanders were seriously injured. The squad, however, was badly hurt even with their armor, and the leader was, Clark could see, beyond medical help.

As soon as the boy was in his mother's arms and Clark was hugged by her and thanked profusely, Clark walked to the leader's side. A majority of his face was gone, and he practically didn't need to look through him to see his internal trauma, so numerous were his wounds. Clark knelt beside him, carefully taking his hand in his.

"That was a brave thing you did," he said. "Stupid, but brave."

He coughed, painfully, "Seemed like the thing to do."

Clark nodded, "I'm sorry, but there isn't going to be anything they can do. Even if you were in a hospital right now, in the Intensive Care Unit, there wouldn't be anything they could do for you. Do you know what that means?"

A tear rolled down his cheek from his remaining eye, "I'm going to die."

Clark nodded, "Yes, I'm afraid you are."

The leader looked around, as though searching for something, "Thinking about it, looking back now, I don't think I want to do that. I am not sure if I really wanted to at the time, but I don't want to now. Isn't that strange?"

"No," Clark said. "It isn't strange at all."

"You are staying with me," he said more than asked. "Even after everything I did."

Clark said nothing, and the leader said nothing. He passed, and Clark closed his eye, carefully and respectfully. But as Clark stood and looked around, he realized that it wasn't over.

Clark was halfway up the length of LexCorp Tower when one of the windows on the top floor office exploded outwards. There was a scream as the man fell from the window, unceremoniously flailing through the air as he pinwheeled towards the ground. Clark caught him carefully and continued upwards.

"No!" he yelled. "I mean, yes! Don't let go! I mean, no! Put me down! Yes, I mean no! Not back up there!"

Clark landed in the broken window, for it was closer and Clark wanted to make sure the rest of the men who were in Luthor's private office would remain alive.

The fourteen men lying around were not in good shape. They each had a more deadly looking version of the same energy weapons that the three squads had had, and all were still neatly intact and set in orderly rows upon the floor far from the men, each with its kill key set beside it. The men were broken, for lack of a better word. Though all were stable and were not currently dying with enough speed that they needed immediate medical attention, each had severe injuries which would leave them crippled and disfigured for life, perhaps beyond the means of even the most advanced reconstructive surgeries. Standing casually at his desk as he was the first time Clark had met him, was Luthor, his coat removed and set upon a modern and minimalistic rack that had projected from the floor. His hands were clasped behind his back, his face calm and relaxed, despite the moaning men and the chaos that had no doubt been rampant only moments ago. Standing between him, the injured men and Clark, in a state of readiness in a neat column, were seven robots. They were bulkier than their previous model, with the same proportions and build as Clark himself. They were no longer bearing the resonance armor that they had before, but some kind of thick dense molecular sheeting, almost like fabric, somewhat similar to the cloth that Clark himself wore. They had their sonic weapons modified and moved in between their optical sensors. Their internal servos and hydraulic structures had been updated and reinforced with a massive degree of redundancy, making them substantially more capable. Their power supply was some kind of cold fusion machine, utilizing ultrasonics to maintain the reaction. They looked for more formidable, more intimidating. Across each of their chests, with similar iconology and heraldry to that of Clark's shield, each of the seven was marked LX6.

"Ah, Mr. Mannheim," Luthor said. "Are you reconsidering my offer?"

"You can go to hell, Luthor!" the man said, on his knees beside Clark, barely able to stay upright.

"As colorful as ever," Luthor said, before turning to Clark. "You are trespassing, but seeing as the window was open, I will invite you to stay, with the understanding that this is classified as a secured location and that those who have had their access revoked will be met with lethal force if they do not agree to be escorted out."

Slowly, the two closest LX6s smoothly bent, as though preparing for action.

"I can agree to that, Mr. Luthor," Clark said evenly, ignoring the threat.

"Please," Luthor said jovially, "call me Lex."

He stepped forward between two LX6s and offered a hand to Clark. Mannheim stayed where he was as Clark and Lex stood before the fallen men.

"You rent them," Clark said. "They will never be the same because of what you did."

Lex smiled, and there was something almost leonine in the expression, "What has befallen them was nothing but a reaping. They came with the intent to commit murder, into a situation where I would have been within my rights to have them executed in self-defense. I graciously let them live. They will be living reminders, a mobile advertisement as to what happens to those who threaten me, and what my mercy costs."

Clark suddenly felt truly uneasy, though he was not entirely sure why.

"What about Mannheim?" Clark asked. "I can't exactly see how he was expected to survive."

"I gave him a choice," Lex said expansively. "He decided he would rather jump. I can hardly be blamed for the man's suicide."

Clark turned to Lex, making up his mind, "What is this about, Lex? I can tell that there was much more going on here than a simple theft."

"What makes you say that?" Lex asked good-naturedly.

"Intergang set up nearly a dozen decoys to stage an assault that was the real distraction," Clark said, "evidently for this assassination attempt. But if you wanted those plates transported safely, they would have been. That LX5 could have simply taken them at any time by flight, to say nothing of the fact that if that van was meant to remain undiscovered, I am willing to bet it would have been. This was a trap, for them, from the beginning. Why?"

Lex's smile shifted, subtly. Not many would have been about to see it, but Clark did. It was suddenly hinting of satisfaction, the sort of sated satisfaction only a predator wore.

"I wanted to send a message," Lex said. "I am a powerful man. I have methods and machinations that few can even conceive of. If I want something, nothing can get in my way. No power in this world or out of it will stop me."

The LX6s seemed to lean in, something about their posture becoming threatening, imposing, though Clark knew they had hardly moved. And he didn't back down.

"You are not above the law, Luthor," he said, just managing to keep his tone calm.

"No," Lex said, his smile never wavering, "But that doesn't mean it can stop me. I am sure you are familiar with the concept."

Clark swallowed the anger that he could feel starting to bubble up within him.

"After all," Lex said with a piercing confidence, "there doesn't seem to be a country that currently exists on this planet that you haven't enter illegally, including this one. I can't imagine what might happen if you were to suddenly be served with court papers from every legal institution that you have ever infringed upon. I'm quite sure that your current way of life would become quite impossible. And if you truly believe this so-called morality that you seem to aspire to, you would have to remain in whatever maximum security facility that you were locked into. But, if that isn't a good enough deterrent for you, just ask yourself..."

Luthor bent in, the smile so fierce on his face, "Just what would Lois think, Clark?"

Clark froze, the shock of it literally reverberating through the flooring around him. Before he could find himself again, he felt all seven LX6s hit him. Two of them were on each arm, one elbow and shoulder, the other with a double fist around his wrist. One had an arm around his neck from behind with it's other around his torso. Two more each had a hand holding a knee and an ankle.

"You stay away from her, Luthor!" Clark cried, more forcefully than he ever had. If the LX6 holding his neck had not pulled his head to one side, the blast it made would have beaten Lex down into the fallen men behind him. As it was, it simply took out another section of windows.

"I won't bother billing you for that," Lex said. "I understand that a reporter's salary can be quite... limiting."

"I will not be threatened by you!" Clark said, maintaining his voice this time. No matter what he tried, he couldn't seem to get free without using excessive force that might bring down the building.

Lex turned, "I am not threatening you. If I were, Lois would be here, and she would be dead. Along with your mother. And Lana. And Perry. Even Olsen. Everyone you know and love would be dead at my feet. You are no god. At best, you are an annoyance, an inconvenience to be dealt with, shelved and forgotten. You cannot be everywhere at once, and you won't stop me."

For the first time in his life, Clark contemplated murder. He wanted to burn the animal before him that he daren't call a man. He wanted not but vapor to remain. He was prepared to endure any cost to keep those he loved safe from harm from the likes of this creature. But then, the moment was over, and he remembered that he had a choice.

Lex grinned as the anger left Clark's face, "Yes, you understand, don't you? The reason I win is because I will do whatever it takes to crush my enemy and I will let nothing stop me. And you, without your limiting morals, stand impotently before the likes of me."

"What do you want, Lex?" asked Clark, sounding almost tired.

"Oh," Lex said, examining his nails, "I want so many things, most of which I do not think would be advantageous to divulge to you. But, to be sure, I will not abide you interfering in my affairs again."

The LX6 that had Clark by the neck and torso let him go. The two that had him by the upper arms each let go with one hand, leveling to lock on opposite sides of Clark's neck. The detached LX6 walk resolutely toward Mannheim, whose eyes suddenly became wide.

"No, Luthor! No!" he cried as the automaton's hand grasped his collar and began dragging him towards the window. Lex's eyes never left Clark's, never blinked.

"I'll do anything!" Mannheim screamed. "I'll take the job!"

"The position is no longer available, Mr. Mannheim," Lex said, unwaveringly.

"I'm begging you!" he said, his words almost incomprehensible. "NO!"

The fall was far. Clark felt as though he would explode, as though he would yell until the world split. And he stood, trying not to do anything while Lex's eyes were upon him, knowing that if he moved at all, he would have more deaths on his hands. He waited and waited, waiting until the screaming stopped.

"I believe we have come to an understanding," Lex said.

The LX6s released him, and Clark slumped to the floor.

"You can show yourself out."