Review Comments:

Jas- El - I thought about Grodd, honestly hadn't thought of Ultra-Humanite whom might have been better, but I always loved the Titano episode of the Animated Series and wish they'd done more with the character.

winthjo - We'll find out in the next chapter! Well, after the Secret Origin one, haha.

Guest #1 - We're flashing back to the past, dragging out the tension of not knowing what happened to Clark! haha. I know that it's evil, and people probably really wanna know what happened, but it's coming very soon!

blaker316 - Thanks!

LoisNClark4Ever - Writing is most definitely therapeutic, it just wasn't coming out Superman for a while, haha. I'm fine and things will be fine, and hopefully, the chapters will come along just fine, haha. The title could very well refer to Lex, haha. Glad you caught that one. And we'll see the King a bit more in the next chapter as we come to a conclusion on our little flashback to the past. It couldn't have worked out better as an even five chapter detour. Which as you just brought up, we probably should get around to getting some answers as to what happened before, haha.

Superfan2 - Thanks! I too love the Lex/Clark relationship, and it was fun to get to write them for a bit here. That's a very interesting idea. Don't take this the wrong way, as in me being ungrateful for the ideas, but have you ever thought about writing your own Superman story? I'd love to see several of your scenarios played out. That being said, I'm very anxious to see what you and everyone else thinks of my grand plan for what happens next.

Guest #2 - Thank you!

Author: CaptainTightPants12

Rating: K

Disclaimer: If I owned Superman, his story lines, or any related characters, you'd be seeing this story in the pages of the this month's issue of Superman and not for free on FanFiction. Ditto any DC Comics characters or storylines.

Summary: After Barry Allen changes history to save the world, Clark Kent faces an uncertain destiny in a new world.

Chapter: #54, Secret Origin: Colleagues

Author's Note: Time for another Secret Origin chapter! Enjoy!


He tapped his foot impatiently, looking at his watch.

'Is this what I'm like when I do this?' he considered to himself. 'Is it any wonder why Alfred gets so sassy? I don't know how people put up with this. I've been waiting for an hour. I'm going to rip out his bleach blonde hair.'

And with that, the door ripped open. A smiling face leaned into the doorway, "Brucie..."

Bruce stood up and nodded with a forced smile, "Oliver."

"Oh come on! Is that any way to great your old pal?" he grinned as he stepped into the room. "I'm sorry that I'm late, there was this hostess at the Star Cafe," he sucked in a breath and nodded, "You would not believe the legs on her..."

He turned to close the door, carefully glancing down to make sure the blood wasn't soaking through his shirt underneath his suit-jacket. 'Damn bank robbers and their stupid bullet firing guns,' he grimaced before putting back on his big smile and cocky attitude. Oliver spun a chair to sit backwards on it, leaning it against the desk and flipping open a file.

Bruce was not amused. "As you can see, we've gotten the permits we needed for the-"

"Permits," chuckled Ollie. "I mean, you see the irony, don't you? Permits. On paper. For the facility that we're going to run the Wayne-Queen Green Initiative out of. That's kind of funny."

"It's hilarious," Bruce rolled his eyes.

"Oh come on! Loosen up, Brucie!" Ollie laughed. "It's not like Lex is here!"

He shot him an unamused look, "I actually prefer his antics to yours, Oliver. At least he's blunt."

"Really? Every time Lex is around I just kind of... Clench." He grimaced for effect. Bruce didn't budge, so Ollie chose to take a different direction."Is this about Vicki Vale?" Bruce rolled his eyes. "Because I wasn't trying to sleep with her, Brucie. I really wasn't. But look at all of this charisma. You really can't hold that against me. Or her, now that I think about it."

Bruce gave him a small smile, "I'm glad to see you're adjusting well to being back on the main land."

Ollie nodded, "Yep, yep. It's good to be back. You know what the best part was? I didn't miss out on Twinkies being gone. Of course, I probably would have just bought them, kept them afloat. You're a selfish bastard, you know that?"

"Because I didn't save Twinkies?"

"What's the point of building all those children's hospitals if they're not gunna have Twinkies, Brucie?"

He closed his eyes and had to laugh, "I've missed your sense of humor, Oliver. Unfortunately, I'm not here for the comedy routine, I'm here on business, and we need to talk about the Wayne-Queen Green Initiative."

"Always business with you, isn't it?" Ollie shook his head. "Well, you'll be happy to know I got the botanist you wanted."

"Dr. Holland?"

Ollie nodded, "The one and only. Had to pull him out of some pit down in Louisiana. You should seen him down in the muck, all Owen Wilson looking, it was like the Frat Pack did Texas Chainsaw Massacre or something."

Bruce flipped through his paperwork, "And I signed Dr. Isley to her contract last week. We're going to be in business if we can bring in Holt Holdings, Oliver. They won't touch LexCorp's initiative, their CEO is all about fair play."

"Oh, the one that red headed fox sister of his is running?"

"I'm pretty sure that her name is Tess, Oliver."

He threw his hands up in the air, "Since when did you get so serious? Remember when we used to be in school? I think you had every cheer leader chasing after you. Until my folks kicked the bucket, of course. Then I played the sad sap card and racked them up." Bruce gave him a dirty look. "What? That was years ago. We all gotta move on, Brucie. I have."

Bruce didn't ease up his expression. Oliver took note.

"Oh... Right... My bad," he grimaced. "Sorry."

"It's ok. You're right. We all have to move on. It's just that your folks were good people."

Nodding, Oliver stood up. "And I'm sure they're doing all kinds of charity in heaven or something. Just because I can make a joke about it, doesn't mean that I don't care." And then Bruce noticed something different in Oliver's eyes. Something he honestly couldn't say that he had seen before. "I care a lot more than people think I do, Bruce."

They stood there for a moment. Bruce realized that this wasn't the same Oliver that had been shipwrecked on that island and he thought that it might have changed him for the better. He of all people knew how that went.

"I can see that."

And just like Bruce thought he might, Oliver quickly jumped back into the facade that he had brought with him when he came to this meeting. "Yeah, well, I'm still a VIP at Tassles, Tassles, Tassles, so. Yeah."

He extended his hand and Oliver shook it. "I'm glad that we did this."

"Heading back to Gotham already? Tell Vale 'Hi' for me," he smirked.

Bruce shook his head and afforded his friend a smile, "No, I'll be on the west coast for a little while longer. I think I'm going to head down and check out Coast City. I've got some feelers out down there."

"Well, if you swing by Ferris Air, definitely tell Carol I said Hi. And something clever. And mature."

"I don't know, she might not believe me if I tell her you said something mature."


Author's Note: Well, what did you think? Bruce has some feelers out in Coast City, wonder what that could mean? haha. I hope this was a nice turn from what we've been up to, and I can say that it will matter in the near future. I won't hold you up too much, but there were some easter eggs in this one. Interested to see who caught them!

Let me know what you thought with some reviews! Onto the next chapter!