chapter 21:

Lex walks into the dimly lit room, all around him are plywood structures that are set up to look like a mock city. Strapped with a plethora of knives and guns. He navigates down the makeshift streets, weaving between the building fronts.

Suddenly a 2 dimensional, vaguely human-like shape pops up in one of the door frames. It was an image of his archenemy Superman. For him, he threw a green-colored knife pretending it to be made from Kryptonite, for the real stuff was too valuable to waste on practice.

Not because he didn't have the money for it, but because the rarity of the material made it extremely hard to come by. The shape fell away and he went forward and in a window across the street and two buildings down popped up another form.

This time it was the man who stole his Lois from him. The other enemy named Clark Kent. He would only find out much later that they were one and the same.

"Show the new one," Lex yelled.

A few moments later in a doorway, three doors down on the corner popped the new target.

In his eyes, he had made a new enemy. One that prevented him from having his trophy wife. Not that she could replace Lois in his heart, no matter how dark that organ might be.

His new target was none other than the long-haired fiance of Miss Hart. Tommy Oliver.

He pulled a weapon and fired two shots, One bullet between the eyes and one straight through his heart before he re-holsters his weapon.

This was the last practice target for today, "Lights on, please." Lex orders. He rather shot them in real life, practice was becoming more of a frustration than a beneficial aid.

As the overhead lights clicked on, a buzzer sounded signaling an all-clear. It was the sign for Nigel that he could safely walk inside. That is until Lex, his boss, heard what he had to say. He wasn't going to be happy.

Lex asks him if Miss Hart has been made comfortable in her new accommodations?

With a sigh, Nigel says, "no sir, unfortunately, the extraction failed."

"What do you mean it failed?" Lex was calm but Nigel knew better. He expected the storm this news caused, would come later.

word has it that they put up quite a fight and were able to hold the team off until he got there to stop it.

"I asked you to put your best men on it. Why did you fail?" Lex asked again, dangerously calm.

"The best men were on it, but it appears they underestimated the target's skills," Nigel answered calmly.

"I suppose they are not in the hotel room anymore?" Lex asked. He was starting to get furious about all of this.

"That's correct, I have scout teams scouring the city to try to find her current location." Nigel was used to Lex's reaction.

"Make sure you find her, Nigel, or I will have your head. I will give you a week to find her and bring her to me." Lex looked at Nigel and the man knew he was serious. Time was ticking.

"Maybe a plan to draw her out sir? is it possible she might get married in the city?" Nigel was pulling straws here, "She didn't arrive at the ball alone, maybe find those that came with her, take them and get her to exchange herself?"

"How were you planning to achieve that?" Lex asked, "You can't deliver a message when you don't know where she is. If she is thinking of getting married in the city have someone go check out the reservations for all the churches in the city for the next month." before Lex added, "In fact have it be a pair man and woman it will look less suspicious that way and have a team on standby in case she turns up at one of them. Double the size of the team, to increase the odds of them not being able to fight them off this time."

"Maybe watch Lois and Clark, Sir?" Nigel asks

Lex turned to look at him, his gaze showing that he was still gauging whether the suggestion was good or bad, "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, it was Miss Lane that returned the jewelry to you, perhaps they are helping Miss Hart hide within the city. So if we watch them they might lead us to her." Nigel says, "Plus they are on such good terms with Superman. If he is helping them, it would be the best way to try to keep tabs wouldn't it?"

"Alright, I want you to keep an eye on them and keep me up-to-date." Lex said, "But do not get caught! if caught disavow any knowledge. Make sure to upgrade the security measures on Miss Hart's future accommodations. Once we have her, I don't want her finding a way out of them." says Lex.

"I will give the orders immediately, Sir. Is that all?" Nigel asks.

"If you have a chance to grab Mr. Oliver, do so, but bring him to the warehouse and throw him in the cage, so I can prove to him he threatened the wrong man. If it endangers the prime objective, leave him, we can take care of him later on." Lex says.

He was going to take his revenge on the man who dared challenge him. Only there were two things he didn't know about his new foe, That he was a legendary former ranger commander, or secondly was what darkness was hiding inside and its true depth.

"You are dismissed, Nigel but don't forget, don't fail me again," Lex said dangerously serious.

"Yes, Sir," Nigel swiftly leaves."

Once gone Lex walks over to the target made to look like Tommy.

"you are not the first person that tried to deny me what I wanted. but I didn't get where I am today by taking no for an answer. I always get what I want one way or another. Enjoy your beautiful fiance, while you can. Because she will soon be mine. While you will soon learn what I do to people who get in my way!" he starts to walk away but then quickly turns and throws two knives hitting the target in the area of the stomach, " I'm going to make you suffer in ways you can't imagine yet. You will beg me to kill you before I'm done." Lex smiles evilly.

*** STOLEN CRANE ***

About two hours after dinner, Kim and her friends insisted on cleaning up, despite the couples' protests. So While the others were busy Tommy says to Clark, " would now be a good time to make that call?"

"Yeah, sure. Let's make that call now. The globe is in the bedroom." Clark motioned Tommy to follow him.

Clark takes a little wooden chest out of his closet and brings it over to the bed and opens it.

In the chest was a small globe that looked like the planet earth until Clark took it in his hands. The globe changed from earth to one of the planet Krypton. It even changed color, from yellow to red. After a few seconds, a hologramme opened up showing a beautiful dark-haired woman with a black sleeveless cloak with red sides, "How nice to hear from you, Kal-El."

"Nice to see you as well, Zara. I contacted you because I have a question, have you ever heard of one called Zordon?" Clark asked.

"Zordon, yes my mom used to tell me stories about such a man, he is a legend but I never mentioned him when we were ruling together. How do you know about him?" Zara asked confused but friendly.

Tommy was confused, when they talked, why did she call him by another name?

Clark didn't notice the confused look on Tommy's face, "From those whom he chose to first champion this planet."

"So he wasn't just a legend?" Zara asked, "The only thing that still confuses me is the prophecy he said to your mother, Kal-El. One day a white falcon will come and ask for your help with his struggle to tame his Dragon before the dragon pulls him into eternal darkness. I still don't know what it means." Zara sighed. She had just told the story to the daughter she had with her partner Lt. Ching.

"Did he say how to help the white falcon?" Clark asked.

That's when Tommy's eyes grew wide, "Your Highness ma'am, I think I can answer your questions, and I hope you can answer ours." says Tommy surprising her.

Zara looked at the man standing beside her husband by birthright, "Who are you?" She asked in a friendly voice. Zara was a fair ruler and most Kryptonians loved her.

"My name is Tommy Oliver but for the context of this conversation I am both the falcon and the dragon." Tommy explained, "It's a very long story, but I was one of Zordon's chosen. We fought against Rita Repulsa, Lord Zedd, and even Ivan Ooze."

"How are you both? I was expecting them to be different," she asked in confusion.

"It's a long story but I will try to explain." Tommy understood her confusion all too well, "While Zordon was fighting against Rita she trapped him inside a time warp on earth. So from within that he and his robot choose 5 young humans to be his champions which were called Power Rangers. Bestowed on each one was one of Zordon's 5 power coins. They fought bravely against her monsters and attacks. But back when Rita trapped Zordon, she got away with the 6th power coin, the one that had the power of the dragon. She abducted a young human and placed him under a dark spell of control and warped the power of the coin to fight against the rangers. I was that person. Not in control of my actions I fought against the rangers and almost beat them, but they managed to break the spell and free me. I fought with them until Rita found a way to strip me of the powers but a small echo of it remains lodged in the dark side of my soul. When Ivan Ooze was freed, he attacked Zordon and our power base, it drained our powers. We were sent to Phados to meet with Dulcea to find the great power and train as ninjetti. The power of the ninjetti comes from the spirit animals within each person. Mine was revealed to be the falcon. The falcon has an eternal bond to fly with the crane, which is the woman I am engaged to. The team returned to earth and defeated Ivan once and for all before we restored Zordon and his timewarp. We fought for him for a few years until it was time to hand our powers on to the next set of rangers." Tommy sighed before he continued, Now I don't know what happened after I passed the power on, but I felt the wave that signaled his passing. "So the falcon and the dragon both live within me, warring for control whenever anyone threatens my family."

"I have seen the struggling, Zara, I have seen a spark of what damage the dragon can do when Tommy loses the battle with him. It's not a pretty sight." Clark added to the story, "Right now another human is threatening his lady and it's intensified the struggle."

"I trust you, Kal-El. I will bring the bracelet, that has been in our possession for a long time, to earth." They didn't know that Zara already knew more about Zordon's rangers from a certain talking sword that had landed on the planet New-Krypton.

"farewell Kal-El," says Zara as the globe goes dark.

"I hope I wasn't out of line speaking to her," Tommy asked a bit worried.

"No you weren't out of line, you are the friend of the supreme ruler. Zara is a fair and good ruler, but some things still have to go by me, even though I am on earth Clark smiles

"good." says Tommy, "I wouldn't want to get either of us in trouble. Why did she call you Kal-El and not Clark?"

"Clark is the name my parents on earth gave me. The one who adopted me. Kal-El is my birth name. Still, the more I tried to be Kal-El during my brief time on the ship, the more I knew I am Clark." The man explained.

"Okay, so I call you Clark then, or do I need to call you Kal-El? If they are coming should we tell Lois and Kim So they don't freak out? " Tommy had a lot of questions for Clark after their conversation.

"Please, just call me Clark," Clark said. He didn't like to be treated differently, "That may be a good idea, Lois knows about Zara and me being her Krypton husband but she knows my heart is with her and Zara's is with Ching. Don't call me Kal-El in public, the people in Metropolis know that is the name of Superman. My identity can be in trouble if you do."

"We can handle this, you're just going to have to trust me," says Clark.

"I trust you with my life so I will trust you when worse comes to worst," Tommy says.

"Good," Clark says, "now let's rejoin the others." Clark wasn't going to tell them the second part of the prophecy just yet not until he saw a need for it.

When they got back out to the others they saw that they had finished cleaning up from dinner, and were sitting in the living room talking.

"We had stopped off at a party store this morning on the way over and picked up these shirts for you." Aisha pulls out t-shirts that say, bride-to-be and groom-to-be.

"They were going to be for the bachelor & bachelorette parties but with what is going on maybe it's not the best of ideas.

" What if you do them together? Safety in numbers right?" Clark suggests

" Good point," says Jason.

"Sounds like fun, you'll come with us right?" Zack asks, they had grown fond of Lois and Clark. They could talk about everything with them.

"Yeah, you should." Kim smiles happily.

"Where would we go?" Tommy asks knowing one of them would know a safe place to go too.

"There is a karaoke bar called The Lodge. One of the few things Lex doesn't own in this city." Lois mentions. She knew that from the time she dated the villain.

"That could be good, we could go now for a few hours. I know it's not what the boys really had planned for you." Kim felt a bit guilty that she had ruined the boys' plan.

"Your safety is more important pinky," Rocky says to give Kim some comfort.

"We would love to come with you." Clark smiles. That way he could keep an eye out for trouble. He would have worried too much anyway if he hadn't.

Kim smiles, "Like we would have gone without either of you. Let me just get ready"

"We'll help you." the other girls say in unison.

Kim jumped at the chance to change into a shirt that had sleeves that were long enough to hide the darkening skin of the bruise blooming on her arm when she was grabbed the night before.

half an hour later the group was heading to the bar enjoying themselves.

The bar lived up to its name with the outside looking like a Woodline lodge. The inside was separated into two parts on the left was the karaoke area that was enclosed in clear soundproof glass, it had its own bar and tables around a stage, to the right down a few steps was a sunken area that was being used as a dance floor and on a stage looking over it was a DJ playing and bright multi-colored lights swirled over the crowd as the music thumped loudly.

They all decided to go dance first. A few hours go by as they all have a good time. they let go of all their worries and just enjoy the moment as the stress melts away.

They were having such a good time they dropped their guard a bit. So they never noticed the guy standing along the far wall, who had been watching her for about an hour, since he blended into the crush of bodies in the room. Not even when he took her picture with his phone, and sent it to someone.

The man he had sent it to was Nigel. So that he could give the orders to attack.

All he had to do now was wait for the signal.

About three hours later they all decided to take a break so they decided to head over to the karaoke side, and grab a table or two.

Kim grabs the song list as Jason and Rocky grab some drinks. They decided not to drink any alcohol so that if something would happen they wouldn't lose their edge.

She looks up and asks, "Anyone want to sing anything?"

The guys shook their heads at the same time, "No,"

Instantly causing her to giggle, "Well I'm going to." she gets up and puts in for 'Always be my baby' by Marah Carey.

Kim dedicates the song to her guy, which made many of the patrons on the karaoke side all let out hoots and cheers of AWW!

Since she is wearing her bride-to-be shirt.

The crowd is completely awed at just how good Kim is. Including Lois and Clark who didn't know that Kim had such talent.

Kim comes back to the table and smiles

"Always love to hear you sing, girl," Jason says.

"Thank you, Jase I love singing." Kim answers, "Maybe that will be a new adventure. In time, after getting married and having a family."

"I think we should focus on the wedding first," Zack suggests.

"Good point," Trini says at Zack's suggestion.

"So who's next?" Kim wanted to make sure that someone else would try to sing too, "You want to do one, Lois?"

Lois shook her head with a smile, "No, I'll stick to print if you don't mind."

All the girls minus Lois manage to get up to do, girls just want to have fun by Cindy Lauper. Tommy looks at Clark and asks him if he is enjoying himself.

"Yeah, a rare night without you knowing who is needed. I don't really get the chance to do this too often. it's hard to make plans when you could have to rush off at any moment."

"I understand that," Tommy says to Clark, "The guys are going to do a song in a bit do you want to join in?"

"Oh no, thank you but I think I agree with Lois and stick to print. I'm not one for attention." Clark answers and Tommy smirks and says, "Sure you aren't."

After the girls finish the guys minus Clark all get up to do Living on a Prayer by Bon Jovi, as all the girls cheer while laughing loudly.

The whole place cheers when they are done, even if most of them were a bit off-tune they were having a good time and were very energetic in their performance.

Kim had her phone out recording the show. It might not be a good quality recording but it is fun to remember.

As the guys came back to the table kim kissed Tommy and says, "That was priceless."

"Hey, not everyone is as talented as you," Jason answers Kim.

Kim blushes and says, "that's okay, he's talented in other things," as she winks at Tommy. The girls snicker at that, while the guys roll their eyes.

"Why don't you sing one with Kim?" Rocky teased Tommy.

Kim's eyes light up the idea, "who needs separate parties, this has been such fun. Come on, that's a good idea." she tugs lightly on his arm, "please?"

"I am going to kill you one day Rocko." Tommy groaned, but he couldn't refuse his fiance.

"Nah, you're ape over me." rocky replied. A big smirk on his face, as the others laughed.

Tommy gets up and lets Kim lead him to the stage, and pick the song.

They get to the stage and as the crowd sees their shirts there's another round of AW's from the crowd. Then they start to sing A whole new world. This was the song and the moment Kim enjoyed most of all because she was doing it with her falcon.

Once they finished the whole crowd cheered. Loving the sappy little performance. Kim kisses him before they leave the stage and the crowd cheers even louder!

The night was filled with laughter, and all their cares seemed a million miles away. until the waitress brought over a bucket of ice with a bottle of champagne inside. This sobered the mood of the group quite quickly.

"We didn't order this." Jason was the first one to react to the bottle of champagne.

"Who sent this?" Clark wanted to know.

"Let me check." The waitress says, she didn't see who ordered the bottle.

Tommy wraps an arm around Kim and holds her close. The others all start looking around.

"The bartender says it's his gift to you, he just celebrated his 30th anniversary and he's a bit of a softy when it comes to these things." The waitress says when she returned to the table. the others all visibly relax and kim says "tell him to thank you very much it was quite sweet of him," Kim smiles at the waitress.

The waitress nods before she walks off. The others relax but it's obvious that the damage had been done and the current party mood had been killed. They were again all on their highest alert.

"You know what let's not let the man's generosity go to waste. There's enough for each of us to get a mouth full at least." Kim responds.

"Your right," says Lois. So Adam pours a little bit in each glass among the 12 of them. Kim was right that there was just enough to go around if they each got a little bit.

Once they each had their glass Clark says, "A toast to Tommy and Kimberly, and to what will be a very long and happy marriage"

All the others say "Cheers," while Jason says "I'll drink to that." with that they all click glasses and drank the offered gift.

"Maybe it's best we head home now. We have to go check out the church tomorrow." Tommy responded.

"That's a good idea, Handsome." Kim says, "I am starting to get tired."

Jason goes to settle the tab for the night, and thank the bartender. They head out after that.

They all try to keep Kim in the middle of their tight group as they head toward the door but as the crowd becomes a bit more bottled necked it makes it harder to do so.

When the door was in sight Kim felt an arm wrap around her waist, thinking it was Tommy's she smiled. Kim turned her head only to see that Tommy was on her left. It was then she screamed out of fear, of not knowing who was currently holding her.

Tommy looked to his side and saw the man holding Kimberly, "Kimberly!"

His eyes started to flicker as he punched the man in the face with enough force to break his nose. The man fell back against the wall. He was knocked out in one hit. Maybe it helped that the flickering of Tommy's eyes had stunned the man so badly he didn't know what to do. Blood gushed from the man's face.

Kim ran into Tommy's arms and started to sob. This time she was definitely scared of what would happen next.

This sequence of events made the people in the room around them panic. With that, another man who was watching, waiting for the signal from his partner to step in and help, saw this as his opportunity to escape instead.

Before the other man could even begin to entertain thoughts of future revenge he was stopped by Rocky, Adam, and Zack who saw him making a break for it

They grabbed him just outside the building and were surprised that three other guys came to help the guy they just stopped. Jason soon came out to help them, evening up the score.

In the end, it were the ex-rangers that won the fight but this was a very close call.

Not long afterward did Superman arrive having stopped two more guys in a car and pulled them out and tied them up with the 5 other guys, using his super speed. Then using his x-ray vision to check for any weapons sees that between them they had rope, a chloroform-soaked rag, zip ties, duct tape, and several knives on them. In the van, some chains were bolted to the floor attached to cuffs among other things.

On the man, Tommy knocked out was a cell phone that had a picture of Kim on it from when they had been dancing earlier. The phone history shows it was sent to Lex's right-hand Nigel.

He was going to pay closer attention to Kim from now on until they would leave the city.

This was proof that no matter how big the crowd around her was, as long as she was in the city she was in danger.

TBC