Lois was there when the plane landed. He wished he could say he was surprised. He really was surprised that she hadn't gone with him. He guessed she thought the accompaniment of twelve armed soldiers enough.
"Well?" she asked impatiently when he only smiled at her.
He held up the boxed rifle. "Kryptonian technology that will bring them to their knees."
"You better hope so," General Lane retorted.
"I know so. I'm going after them right now."
"Not without me, you're not," Sam said. "I learned my lesson once on that."
"I'm coming too," Lois said.
She and her father argued about it, but in the end, he was accompanied by two Lanes.
The Kryptonians had wasted no time. In the short time he'd been gone, two days, they'd already enacted a curfew that said you had to be indoors when the sun went down. He didn't know the point of it really. The clones were not inhibited by darkness, and there was nothing humans could do in the dark against them. The only reason he could come up with is that it got people used to being controlled, to following orders and accepting their new lot in life, slaves of the alien invaders.
"Eerie, isn't it?" Lois remarked as they walked down a city street that always had heavy traffic. Now there wasn't a single pedestrian, minus them, or vehicle to be seen.
"Sshh," he whispered. "They have superhearing, remember?"
"Don't we want the devils to find us?" she whispered back.
"It'd be better if we found them. Catch them unaware."
In the end, there was no such luck, but he'd really had no hope for that anyway with the curfew. They were going to be heard, going to be spotted. Only one of them came, and it wasn't even their leader. They thought they were just pesky humans to be disposed of. Maybe he could get her to take him to the others.
"You are not following curfew," the clone said.
"I don't have to, and these two are with me. It's Kal-El, remember? I am one of you."
"You mean nothing to us. You're as weak as the rest of them. Even if you still had your powers, this would be true because of the red sun."
They were as traitorous as he'd hoped to be. Why hadn't he struck when they were still weak? Before they had converted the sun? He knew why because he wanted his power back, physically and figuratively. Now he would be lucky to escape with his life.
He had to play it cool. "You think my usefulness is over? I am a bridge. I understand how the minds of the humans work, and I understand the superiority of Krypton. I can make this transition easier."
She laughed. "You had your chance to rule the world, but you set your sights on the corporate world instead, so sight-shorted. You're right. You do understand how their minds work because you strived to be one of them. Now enjoy being a part of the pathetic human race."
His temper boiled with every word she spoke. He saw her eyes start to turn red as she turned her gaze toward Lois. "Try this on for pathetic," he said, diverting her attention away from Lois and blasting her before she blasted them.
It worked better than he imagined. It even left him without a messy body to clean up afterwards.
"Wow, it really worked," Lois said.
Sam wasn't as amazed as he was wary. "Maybe I should hold onto that."
"General, if I wanted you out of the picture, you would be. Like it or not, we're allies. Reluctant allies perhaps but allies. We have to move fast to the tower before it becomes even more heavily guarded when they realized one of them was missing.
They went on. Fortunately, the tower jutted out above the buildings like the North Star, and they wouldn't have to hunt its location. That was the benefit of having enemies who thought they had nothing to fear.
It turned out that they weren't the only one breaking curfew. A little boy huddled in the shadows of the corner of an apartment building. "Get back inside," he said harshly.
"Ar-are you one of them?" he stuttered.
"Lois, get this kid out of here."
"No, he's one of the good guys," Lois said soothingly, making her father snort. "He's right, you know. You should be inside. Is this where you live?"
He nodded and pulled a teddy bear he was holding tighter to his chest. "My mommy never came home."
"She probably had to take cover because of curfew. We'll find her, but you need to get back inside."
"Promise?" he asked in a thin, some would say cute, voice. He really didn't understand why people felt the need to procreate. He found them irritating. He should have been back inside already.
"Promise," Lois affirmed.
The child took her hand, and they started toward the door but not before another clone intent on frying curfew breakers came into sight. Clark had to run and push them out of harm's way before firing back, eliminating another one.
"Now do you see why you need to be inside?" he asked. He blasted the lock since they didn't have the key card to get in the building. "Stay," he commanded the boy as if he were a dog, ignoring the child's beaming face, who was grateful to him for the rescue.
"I'll see that he gets to someone who can take care of him," the general said. "Come on, son, show me where you live."
Clark was annoyed at this delay, but he supposed it was for the best to keep there from being a repeat.
"You enjoyed that," Lois said with a smirk when they were alone in the lobby.
"I really don't know what you're talking about," he lied.
"You know I really thought you were past all hope, that you couldn't erase the effects of a rotten childhood and the chilling deeds that blackened your heart, but there's just a small, minuscule really, part of it that still feels basic human compassion."
"You better watch yourself, Lane. That almost came off as a compliment. Maybe there's a small, minuscule part of you that wants it to be true because you're lusting after me."
She moved toward him, and he flinched, expecting to be rewarded for his cocky comment with a stinging slap to his receptive-to-pain cheek.
Instead, she used her hands to pull him down and kiss him. And yeah, it might have been part of the adrenaline from what had just happened and a touch of gratefulness, but that didn't take away from the fact that she had kissed him for once.
She pushed against him. She always seemed to be pushing him, pressing him toward something better than he thought he could have, better than he thought he could be. And while he wasn't ready to admit that with words, perhaps he admitted it in the way that he yielded under the pull of her lips, letting her guide and control under her sweet, passion-filled kiss.