Superman: The Ark of Krypton

Chapter 6

By

Jason Richard

Lois may have been surrounded by an auditorium filled with scientists and reporters, but as she sat across from Lex Luthor, his bodyguards standing over him, they might has well have been alone together.

That is, apart from the rather striking blonde woman dressed as a chauffeur standing right beside him. Lois knew her by reputation as Luthor's assistant/bodyguard by the name of Mercy Graves. The woman regarded Lois with a cool, observant demeanor that Lois couldn't help but notice.

There was a story behind that one, Lois thought.

Still, at that moment she was there to find the story behind Luthor, so she began her interview, getting straight to the point.

"Mr. Luthor," she said, her pen and notepad at the ready. "A lot of us are very impressed with the technology you've showcased here...but some are concerned that a powerful multi-national corporation will naturally be inclined to corruption."

"Straight to the point I see," said Mr. Luthor, who brushed off her accusation with a grin. "I assume you have something specific that implicates such corruption."

"Indeed I do," said Lois, not discouraged by his cool attitude. "I have a few reliable sources that indicate you had a meeting with a...Mr. Bruno Manheim? At about 4:15 PM yesterday?"

For but a split second she thought she saw the vein on his bald head throb, but just for a second. It was understandable. After all, the last person a man like Lex Luthor would want to be seen with is the leader of the notorious Intergang. What was really impressive was that he still managed to keep his calm demeanor, the grin never leaving his face.

"Was that Bruno Manheim?" he asked calmly. "He gave me a different name just before I shot down his business proposal...though I'm certain his true identity would have been revealed by the background check I ordered on him."

Well played, thought Lois. She had interviewed plenty of people who squirmed and sweated under the threat of sensitive information about illegal activity leaking out, but not Lex. No one had ever pinned anything on him, and he always deflected her questions effortlessly. He had proven to be the biggest challenge of her career.

Truth be told she almost enjoyed trying to make him crack. Still, as much as she enjoyed a challenge, she knew he couldn't keep it up forever. She'd get the truth about his shady dealings sooner or later. She knew she'd absolutely hate it if someone beat her to it.

…

There were times for Clark when having super hearing felt like cheating and made him feel guilty. This was not one of those times.

He overheard the man hiding and the scientist talking, and watched through the wall as they believed they were hidden. Clark himself was hidden in a corner, but he figured no one else like him would be watching.

"What are you doing here?" the scientist demanded angrily. "Do you have any idea what would happen if you were seen here? And on a day like this no less!"

"It couldn't wait," said the man nervously. "STAR labs is moving fast on this. They think they've found it."

The scientist looked at the other man in astonishment, "It?" he asked. "You mean...the ship?"

The ship? Clark thought. Could it be...no...it couldn't. The odds were too far against it.

"Yes," said the man. "The ship that was spotted a little over twenty years ago. Earlier this morning a pulse was detected bearing the same energy signature that the ship gave off. STAR thinks it can track that pulse to it's origin."

The scientist eagerly grabbed the suitcase from the man and looked through the contents. Clark, as he watched, knew it was no mistake. A ship from twenty years ago, the same time Clark's pod landed, that sent out a pulse the same time Clarks' pod did something...AKA spit out the suit he was wearing? It was an amazing coincidence...but they were talking about the very thing Clark was looking for.

…

"Well miss Lane," said Luthor, "As much as I enjoy this verbal sparring, I must...rather embarrassingly...take a restroom break."

"Sure," said Lois. "I have a new recruit I can check up on anyway, but this interview isn't over." she added the last part sternly.

"I wouldn't dream of it," said Luthor with a sly grin.

They stood and went their separate ways, Luthor followed by his entourage. As Luthor walked away he lamented that his final words to Miss Lane would be a lie. He really did enjoy her constant attempts to catch him off guard. Kept him on his toes.

Still, he couldn't have a determined woman poking her nose into his business forever...especially now that she was looking at links between him and Manheim.

As he went past the men's restroom and out of the auditorium, he spoke back to his assistant Mercy and said, "It's time."

Immediately Mercy pulled a walkie talkie off her belt and said into it, "Mr. Luthor is clearing the building. Get the ball rolling."

…

"Wait a minute," said the scientist as the informant tried to get away. "You didn't answer my question earlier. Why did you show up here and now?" he grabbed the shoulder of the informant's suit, and the informant suddenly became very uncomfortable.

Clark, still watching from a distance, didn't like where this was going, especially as he saw the scientist press a button on a pager at his belt.

"I mean," the scientist continued. "Even with the urgency of this situation you could have contacted me elsewhere, but you chose the most public event possible to make this illegal transaction. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you wanted us to get caught. You wouldn't be having second thoughts about our little arrangement...or the operation going on today...would you?"

"Well," the informant began, but was cut off when two security guards walked up menacingly behind him, making him take on a very frightened look.

"I think we need to have a little chat," said the scientist, who then escorted the informant away with the security guards.

Clark didn't like this, but decided to wait until they were out of sight before intervening. They would want privacy for this anyway. Clark really didn't think he was ready to reveal his powers to the world just yet. He had toyed with the idea on occasion, but figured a decision like that was a little too important to throw away on a whim, so he followed these men...he followed them until they made it clean outside the building.

And that's when it happened. He heard the explosion.

…

Lois Lane was minding her own business, clearing up a smudge in her makeup using the reflection on the window, when suddenly she heard an explosion.

She whipped around looking for the source, but could not find it. Everyone else in the massive auditorium looked around in confusion, but couldn't see anything.

Then the door to the auditorium shut, and metal bars clanged into place over them, trapping everyone inside.

Immediately panic started to set in over the crowd, until a gentlemanly voice came over a set of speakers.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," said the voice. "Please remain calm. There has been an attack on the building, but rest assured this building has state of the art security. You will be perfectly safe. Please do step away from the groove that will open in the floor, as the five inch steel panic rooms will now rise up."

As advertised grooves in the floor opened up and metal walls began rising up. People stepped away and soon everyone was trapped in little cubicles of steel. Even the open air above them began blocked off by bars of metal that lifted from the top of the walls and bent back down again. On the one hand it looked like they could survive a couple of grenades in there, on the other hand they were immobile.

"Lex Luthor," muttered Lois with her back to the window as she saw the steel walls in front of her. "What on earth are you up to?"

And at that moment, she heard another explosion, one that shook the room...and then, as she braced herself against the window, the world started tilting.

…

Clark didn't notice the metal walls in the auditorium at first. Still in his business suit he, quick as a flash, got the informant away from the scientist and bodyguards, leaving him on a different sidewalk and very confused, and then went back to the building, paying close attention to the area where he had heard the explosion.

Trouble was, he didn't see any evidence of an explosion. No burns, no debris, nothing...just an ordinary office. With being able to hear and see so much at once, Clark focused so much on that room, determined to find out what had happened there, that he didn't notice the walls rising in the auditorium until everyone there was trapped.

Eventually he gave up on the room and saw the walls. That explained the machinery he saw before, but it didn't explain what was going on.

Then Clark heard the second explosion, but unlike before, this was real. A thin line of blasting flame cut through the bottom of the building, severing the base at an angle, and at that moment the building did something Clark had never seen a building do before.

It began to tilt, and fall as it did. If it continued to do this, it would fall on its side, right on the street between other buildings in the city, smashing any cards beneath it and crushing anyone inside.

In a desperate move, Clark thought at blinding speed, processing the situation before him in an instant. His first thought in that infinitesimally small amount of time was that he'd do what he always did, move in at high speed and get everyone out of there before they knew what had happened...but he realized he couldn't do that this time.

Not only did he have to worry about the people inside, but he had to worry about people on the street, or inside the surrounding buildings...even if none were in a direct path of the giant falling object. He wasn't certain he was fast enough for that, despite what he'd done before.

Finally, there was the problem of those iron walls. Clark had no doubt he could break them, but looking at them he realized that if he broke them at the necessary high speed he would inevitably cause pieces to crash against each other. If he ripped apart one wall, several more would be pulled with it. With every group he broke out of those steel walls, another group of people would be crushed.

He realized that he only had one option, and that it involved him slowing down to a gentler speed. That meant, however, that he would be seen. He would not longer be a mysterious force of legend, but something real and tangible of incredible power. For the first time in his life his power would be revealed to the world.

And little did he know that one Lex Luthor, sitting comfortably in a Limo not far from the scene, was counting on something of that magnitude being revealed, even if he didn't know what it was.

Clark wasn't certain he was ready for this, but he realized he had no choice. He took a deep breath that for most would have been a split second, but for him felt like a very long moment indeed.

With that he opened the jacket of his suit and with both hands pulled apart the nice shirt underneath, letting the buttons pull out of their cloth sockets one by one, only to reveal the red and yellow S symbol that was hidden there.

As he did, he thought it lucky that he had recently discovered one last ability that would be perfect for just this kind of situation.