Part 6 - Truly a Superman

May's mother stood there, mouth slightly open at the fact that Superman was standing in her daughter's house.

Superman, a being who had only made his presence known a few months ago. Someone who was unbelievably powerful and yet had this distinctive quality that was beyond anything, beyond captivating.

She couldn't help but feel humbled.

Clark took in the woman's tender loving eyes, her wrinkled skin and her gray hair which displayed a lifetime of gathered knowledge and wisdom.

"Superman, meet my mom, Diane Keat; mom, meet Superman," May suddenly introduced, breaking the silence and somehow lessening the awkwardness which so easily appears in situations where people meet Superman for the first time.

"Mrs. Keat," Superman said, walking the few steps to her.

"S-Superman, nice to meet you," she replied, hands full of groceries and Chinese food.

"Here, let me," Superman said, graciously taking her burden.

Diane stared at him in surprise before leading him into the kitchen where he placed the bags on the counter.

"Thank you," Diane said, meeting his eyes.

She stood in awe. Within his eyes she saw an incalculable amount of kindness and an unending source of compassion that was deeper than the ocean, but she saw more than that, she saw a glimpse of his soul. Not invulnerable, not all knowing or all powerful, but a soul of a mortal, a man, a good, honest man.

"I don't know who raised you, but it's easy to see they did a good job."

May stared at her mom in shock, honestly a little embarrassed for Superman.

"Uh, thanks…"

Oh, what the heck, it's not they can figure anything out important from one simple statement, Clark thought.

"I'm thankful for everything they have taught me."

Diane couldn't help but smile as she saw him stiffen in pride.

They must be so proud, she thought.

May's eyes widened slightly at hearing Superman's statement, now standing behind him at the entrance to the kitchen.

Of course he has parents, she chastised herself, why wouldn't he?

"Well, May, Mrs. Keat… I should be going. I'll leave you to eat that Chinese," Superman said, for the first time realizing how late it was.

May and Diane escorted him to the door, but stopped as he turned to them.

"I do not claim to be an expert in such things, but, May, there is no doubt in my mind that you are meant to do something great. Remember that your son saw this first and that he is watching."

Diane was somewhat confused at Superman's words, but upon seeing her daughter's face, she knew there was more behind his words than what she heard.

"Do you know? Do you know what that great something is?" May suddenly asked, although she didn't sound ready for an answer.

Superman stood there for a moment, an invisible aura of unknown origin seeming to wrap around him.

He suddenly felt this intense duty to guard this knowledge that he knew, guard it with an amount of effort that might even rival the need to protect his own secret. But this sense of duty continued, not even slowing as he inwardly swore to himself that he would protect this woman, this doctor who would impact the world in a way he never could. This woman who had lost more than what anyone ever should, but who would find a cure that would save millions and prevent the suffering of so many others.

Why is life like this? he privately asked himself.

"Superman?" Diane questioned, wondering why he was just staring at her daughter as if he was seeing a miracle or something.

At her break in the silence she watched as the most powerful being on earth seemed to shake himself from his thoughts as he finally answered.

"Just whatever you've been doing, don't quit. I know he said that for a reason." He opened the door, the very air outside appearing to pause at his soon coming.

"Good night," he said, his gaze pausing for an instant on May as he then stepped out.

"Good night," May and her mother both replied as he disappeared, a sonic boom sounding soon after.

"He knows," Diane whispered to her daughter.

"Without a doubt," May agreed, shutting the door and knowing she had a lot to explain to her mother.

O o O

"Chief, isn't that a little-" Lois began, only to be cut off by her boss.

"It's news, and we still don't know much about him, so no, I don't think it's 'a little presumptuous', since I know that was what you were going to say.

"Don't mistake what I'm saying Lois. Your interview with him was nice, but it barely scratched the surface, and since it was the one and only one written, the public is crying to know more, especially after what those rumors are saying happened at that hospital a few days ago. And I have to admit, I'm mildly curious about why the police department felt they had to devote some of their officers there and why Superman seemed to have left so abruptly. So go out there, talk to him, get that interview!"

"Alright, Chief!" several of the reports around her shouted, while she mumbled it.

She looked over at Clark who looked exasperated as they exited Perry's office. Looking at him she suddenly wondered if Superman had spoken to Dr. Johnson, but Clark had not had the opportunity to talk to her, at least not alone, and she was not about to talk openly about Superman. Every person within ear shot would be hounding them, all hunting for that interview.

She suddenly felt it odd how she was not joining in that hunt, or more like leading it, but the past few days had been eye opening for her.

Superman had feelings.

Not that she thought him emotionless like a robot or something, but she had never thought about how rescues could affect him, could pain him….

But she now knew otherwise.

She would never forget the pained look in his eyes, the slump of his shoulders, or the raw sadness in his voice.

"Uh, Lois…." She looked up to see Jimmy standing before her, camera in hand. "Mr. White told me…uh, I need to get at least one good photo.…"

Jimmy looked expectantly at her, afraid that he might be annoying her, or worse, angering her.

"Sure Jimmy, if I go out, you can come too," she said, hiding a grin at the surprised and elated expression on his face. She looked beyond him, seeing the other surprised faces from her coworkers who had heard. "As long as you don't slow me down!" she added.

Jimmy nodded profusely, quickly becoming somber.

She wasn't about to lose her Mad-Dog-Lane reputation, that was for sure.

Glancing over in Clark's direction, she could have sworn he had been smiling at her, but she must have imagined it, for the next thing she knew his face was turned intently to his work.

Shaking her head, she went back to her own work, but she quickly found her thoughts wandering back to how Superman was really doing. Deciding she could no longer hold in her curiosity, as well as slight concern, she began to stand to go ask her partner, but she quickly found that he was gone.

"Where did Clark go?" she asked out loud.

"Oh, I don't know. He said he had to go somewhere," someone answered her while walking past.

Lois was about to ask if he said when he'd be back when one of the TVs in the room was suddenly turned up. Several gasps followed as the rest of the TVs around instantly followed the actions of the first.

She turned her attention to the closest screen, instinctively grabbing her purse.

'Police are not disclosing any further information, only saying that there are several armed and dangerous assailants holding an unknown number of hostages.…'

Lois stared at the screen for a moment, quickly finding that the building this was occurring at was the United National Bank downtown.

"Jimmy!" she shouted, glancing toward Clark's desk. It was still vacant.

She briefly paused before dashing out to a cab, Jimmy on her heels.

O o O

Superman landed in front of the bank, just within the police barricade. He went directly to the man in charge.

"Inspector Henderson," he greeted.

"Superman. Wish we could have met under better circumstances," he said, shaking the mighty man's hand before motioning to the man beside him.

"This is Officer Rob Mathews."

They quickly shook hands.

"What's the situation?" Superman asked, walking with them closer to a patrol car out of range from the press as he cast his eyes to the building to his right.

"Around three to five armed men have entered the bank. The silent alarm linked to the station went off about three minutes ago, and we are not sure how many hostages are inside," Mathews answered.

"Six, five of them with ski masks, and 23 hostages." Superman states, not really correcting, just saying.

"You…oh yeah, you can see through stuff. Handy."

"Can be."

"What else do you see?" Henderson asked, watching as Superman turned his eyes back to the building and suddenly looked as if he was deep in thought.

"Four have semi automatics, one has a knife, and the other has a pistol. The one with the knife doesn't have a mask and appears to be a bank employee. He's in the same type of clothes and has a name tag: B. Turner."

"Explains why only the silent alarm went off. He must have turned off all the other ones he could. So you said B. Turner?"

He nodded, still looking into the bank, watching the robbers pace as Henderson relayed the message to get a background check.

"The negotiator is on his way and should be here soon, as well as the SWAT team and bomb squad," another officer told them, tentatively going up. His awe at being in the presence of Superman was obvious.

"Bomb Squad?" Superman asked, clearly concerned.

"Yes, we got a text message from one of the people in there, a man named Eric Price…"

"Dr. Price?" Superman interrupted.

"Yes, have you met him?"

"Yes."

"Alright, well, he's in there and texted it to Mathews who he had the number to."

"What did the message say?"

" 'Bomb UNB'. That's all. I'm actually surprised he was able to type that much without being caught." Henderson stopped talking, seeing that Superman was again looking intently at the bank.

With a sigh, Superman nodded. "Yeah, I see the bomb. It's in a suitcase on the counter, and it's armed." Continuing to look into the bank, he focused on the man beside it, the one with the pistol. Looking at the man's other hand, he found what he was looking for and dreading to find. The trigger.

"And it looks like one of the men has the trigger for it," he told them, looking back to Henderson. "I'm sure I could get to the bomb before it went off, but I don't know if I could take care of the armed men before anyone would get hurt."

"Okay, then we will handle this our way for now, hopefully you will not be needed," Henderson replied.

"Alright."

"Can you tell us how many women and children are within?"

"Of the twenty three hostages, fourteen are women, and three are children," he answered, just as a man with a bullet proof vest came up.

"I'm the negotiator, Mike Zeal. Have they made any attempt to make contact?" he asked, barely taking a glance to anyone other than Henderson.

"No, not yet, but since you are here we can call them."

With a nod he took the phone and made the call.

O o O

Lois and Jimmy stood in the crowd which had been pushed back surprisingly far, further than what they normally did for these things. Lois knew there had to be something bigger going on than just a bank robbery. It must be one that has gone or could go very bad.

She quickly found Superman talking to who she believed was Henderson and two others she didn't recognize.

"What do you think they are saying?" Jimmy asked her as he clicked away, taking pictures.

"I don't know," she said, just as a black armored vehicle turned onto the street.

"Uh, Lois…is that… the bomb squad?" Jimmy asked, pointing, eyes wide.

"Well, at least that explains why the police perimeter is so big," she muttered.

O o O

"Now let's be calm, okay? Hello? Are you still with me?" Mike asked, speaking into the phone. "Alright, then let's just talk, okay?…No…no sir, I'm not trying to trick you…" he paused.

Superman and Henderson were both listening in, as was Mathews. Superman saw that the man talking on the phone in the bank was the one with the knife.

Continuing to listen, they were all suddenly taken aback by the shift in tone by the man, and was surprised to quickly discover he was no longer speaking English.

Mike was at a loss for words, not understanding a word the man was now yelling at him. At first all Superman could hear was gibberish, for that was what it sounded like, harsh gibberish, until he realized…they were speaking Russian…

Seeing that Mike was unable to say anything, let alone get through to the yelling man, Superman gently took the phone and spoke into it.

Henderson and those who could hear stood in disbelief as Superman spoke into the phone.

Fluent flowing Russian came pouring out of the Man of Steel, everyone quickly finding that the man on the other end was now listening.

Speaking in Russian, his voice loud and clear, interrupting the rambling man on the other end, Superman said this, 'Yelling is not going to help anyone, including you.'

What he got in return was stunned silence before he heard, 'You speak Russian?'

'Yes.'

'You aren't the negotiator,' he accused.

'No, I'm not.'

'Who are you?'

'Someone who thinks you should start thinking about how to make this easier on yourself and your friends instead of harder.'

'And how do you propose we do that?' he spats back, anger again taking over.

'Let the women and children go.'

'Wha- '

There was a slight shuffle with the phone as it was obvious someone else took over.

'What idiot is this? We are not going to do any trades, or any garbage like that! I want the negotiator!' the man demanded.

'Well then, you are going to have to speak English, or you are going to get me again.'

"Fine," he answered, now speaking English.

Superman handed the phone back to Mike.

"Hello?"

"Take me off speaker, I know I'm on it."

"Alright, done, you are now only speaking to me. I'm listening," Mike answered, flipping the switch and looking to Superman with a smirk, knowing he would hear anyway. Superman gave an understanding nod in return.

Superman looked into the bank again, now seeing that the angry one speaking was the one with the trigger, the heavy vault door wide open in the back. He focused back to the one with the phone and watched the man hang up.

"Well, they just hung up on me," Mike stated, exasperated, lowering the phone.

"Well, did they say anything before they did?" Henderson asked.

"Just that if we tried anything they'd kill a hostage and that they want a helicopter. The usual…." Mike continued talking, but Superman didn't hear, he was focused on hearing what the men within were now saying.

They were speaking Russian again while the frightened hostages remained hunkered down against the wall beyond them.

'The plan didn't work.'

'No duh.'

'It was supposed to be an easy job. In and out. Make some distance. Boom. Simple.'

'I thought you said you turned off all the alarms,' the one with the pistol said accusingly, shaking his gun at the one with the knife.

'There must have been a silent one I didn't know about.'

'Evidently.'

'Look at us! We have what we want, but we can't leave!' another shouted, swinging his automatic about.

'Do you think we will get that helicopter?' the one nearest the hostages asked.

'No, I just requested it because I knew that that was what they'd expect.'

'And how is that helping?!' Knife man shouted.

'Oh, and I suppose you think we should just surrender!?' the one with the trigger asked.

'Better than being taken out by a sniper!'

'Hey, let's just calm down now. And put that trigger away will ya? I don't know why you even got it out,' another said.

'Calm down!? How can we do that when there are a hundred cops out there and fly boy?'

'Well acting like a bunch of sissies ain't helpin'. '

Suddenly the one with the knife lunged at the trigger man. A struggle ensued.

'Give it to me!'

'Get off of me!' they shouted.

'Stop! Do you want to ki - '

And then Superman heard one of the most gut retching sounds he had ever heard.

Click…

O o O

Henderson was standing beside Superman, so close in fact that he could feel his abnormal body heat radiating from him, but as he turned to look at him to see if he had any thoughts, he found his blue suited friend's attention elsewhere.

His eyes were fixed on the solid brick wall of the bank, his face unreadable. He was about to ask what was wrong when suddenly he was simply no longer beside him.

He felt the air pull away from him, filling in the vacancy now before him as a loud rushing sound bombarded him.

Something had just happened, but before he could think what, he felt was the ground tremble and heard a muffled boom.

O o O

Nanoseconds Before

He dashed as quick as he dared into the bank, literally crashing the door open, the force of his entry shattering the glass.

For him it felt like an eternity. The man's thumb pressing hard still on the button…

Passing the armed men, he grabbed their weapons, giving whatever part of the gun he grasped a firm squeeze before tossing it aside, including the knife which he crumpled, as he approached his goal: the suitcase.

He thanked G-d for the second delay of the bomb as he snatched the case and shot to the only place he could think of that would help confine the blast that was about to come.

The Vault.

Entering it at a speed he didn't care to calculate, the door closing behind him. He braced himself against the corner of the safe, hugging the bomb against his chest with his arms criss crossed over it. He prayed the steel and concrete walls would take the remainder of the blast as he felt the case begin to expand.

Fire erupted, filling up the confined space and quickly absorbing the oxygen within as the monumental roar of it went forth, going through and beyond the walls, the very foundation and structure around him shuddering as the monster gained its freedom.

O o O

Dr. Eric Price quickly flung himself over the person beside him as he heard glass shatter, thinking bullets were being fired. But then he felt a rush of air, heard a quick succession of metal…smashing?…the slam of a very heavy door, and then BOOM!

The ground trembled and the wall he was against quivered as a shock wave rippled over his skin.

And then it passed.

He didn't dare lift himself from his current position, still shielding a young lady; however, he forced himself to peek his eyes open.

As he did so, he heard a sudden rush of movement, as if they were being charged. Looking up, he heaved a big sigh of relief as he saw the SWAT team and other officers entering, guns drawn.

- Same time -

Outside people fell for cover, at first believing that the building was going to cave, or worse. But as the ground calmed, Henderson and the SWAT charged in, not knowing what they would find, but praying Superman was at least able to do what he said he could.

Henderson entered, everyone within holding their breath.

Henderson took in the scene, immediately knowing the robbers were no longer a problem due to broken weapons strewn all over. But then his eyes followed the smoke to the source: the vault.

His heart sank, knowing Superman had taken the bomb in there, saving everyone here. He knew Superman could catch bullets with his bare hands, heck, he had seen that, as well as go into burning buildings, but just how invulnerable was he really?

Not that invulnerable, Henderson sadly reasoned, knowing that a blast like that was not a simple pipe bomb, it had been far more substantial.

The SWAT team quickly got the robbers confined as Henderson focused on a man who was protecting a woman beside him.

"Dr. Price?" he asked, putting his gun away to help him up, his officers already attending to the others and quickly guiding them out. The smell of smoke was growing heavy in the air.

"Yeah?" Price asked, thankful to be alive before turning to the back of the bank, suddenly wondering why the blast had come from there when he had known for a fact the bomb had been on the counter not even a hop skip and a jump away.

His eyes focused on the deformed metal door, smoke still pouring out of it as it hung precariously from its once solid hinges.

"How - ?" he questioned, but he stopped, now in disbelief as he watched the door shift before it then simply fell forward, landing with a very heavy BANG.

And there he saw it, something he knew could not be possible, and yet it was. A figure standing beyond the recently fallen door, a figure amidst all the thick heavy smoke and the not so long ago snuffed out fire.

But then it hit him, what, or rather who, he was seeing.

This was truly a Superman.

O o O