"Remind me again why you are going?"

"Because, Alfred, Lex Luthor is up to something. What, I don't know, but I intend to find out. He could be honestly interested in these meteor rocks or this could be an elaborate ploy by Luthorcorp to try and take over Wayne Industries."

"I doubt they would be quite so bold, Master Bruce. Besides, they've already tried. Lionel Luthor made an attempt shortly after the death of your parents. Fortunately, your father had the foresight to leave the company in Mr. Fox's hands. Luthor didn't get very far with Mr. Fox and he hasn't tried since."

"I still worry, Alfred. I refuse to go down in history as the man who lost Wayne Industries."

Alfred Pennyworth sighed. He was fighting a losing battle and he knew it. He would never win this argument. Bruce would not be moved from his opinion. He had committed himself to honoring the memory of his parents. If going to the middle of nowhere did that for him, if it held his inner demons at bay, then so be it. Let him go.

"Will you be taking the jet, Master Bruce?"

"Alfred, you know I hate heights. I'll take the Jag."

Bruce climbed into his favorite car, put the top down and the pedal to the floor. As he drove, his mind kept going back to the meeting with Dr. Hamilton. Were Hamilton's results accurate? His theories were certainly "out there", but the evidence seemed to be in his favor. And why was Lex so interested in this stuff? Did he already have Hamilton's results? Was this all a setup? Lionel Luthor had built a sketchy reputation after some particularly nasty hostile takeovers, but Lex was an unknown. As the miles ticked away on the Jag's odometer and Smallville drew nearer, Bruce continued to mull it over, but couldn't find any plausible explanation for Lex's motivation. Bruce arrived well past midnight and, after deciding against a surprise visit to the Luthorcorp plant, checked in to his hotel-the only hotel in town. Now he knew why the town was called Smallville. No sooner had he closed the door to his room, his phone rang.

"Whoever you are, I just drove a thousand miles and I'm tired. This had better be good."

"Bruce, it's Lucius. Listen, Dr. Hamilton called after you left and mentioned one other thing about these meteor rocks. Apparently some of them have contained chunks of titanium."

"Okay.... Hamilton said some of the rocks were similar to Earth's crust, and how do we know the meteors didn't pick the titanium up on impact? I mean, Lucius, there's titanium everywhere."

"Not like this, Bruce. This titanium was milled. It also shows signs of being exposed to the same cosmic radiation as all the other samples."

Silence.

"This just keeps getting better and better. Lucius, get Hamilton on the first plane back to Gotham. At this point I don't care what Luthor suspects. We cannot let him get this information."

"Alright. If I hear anything more, I'll let you know. And, Bruce..."

"Yeah, Lucius?"

"Watch your back."

Bruce hung up the phone and lay down on the bed. Sleep would not come easy, but for Bruce Wayne it never did. It was the same every night. He prayed every day for a restful night's sleep. Countless doctors, psychiatrists, counselors, and even a shaman had tried to cure him of his nightmares. Nothing they did had any effect. It wasn't multiple nightmares that kept him awake each night. Just one. Each time he could smell the gunpowder. His ears would ring. His hands were covered in something warm and sticky. And red. There was red everywhere.

He woke the following day shortly after noon. Still not wanting to directly confront Luthor, Bruce drove to the outskirts of town. The irony that he had traveled the world but had never seen the heartland of his own country was not lost on him. Fields of wheat and corn taller than him stretched out in every direction as far as the eye could see. Bruce remembered a comment from Hamilton's report about the bumper crops that Lowell County had experienced for the last decade. Could that be another effect of Hamilton's "kryptonite"? It was a possibility. It could also explain why Lex was so interested in the meteor rocks.

Bruce drove back into town and stopped at a coffeehouse he had passed earlier. The Beanery. Whoever had named this town had really crippled it. They couldn't even get a Starbucks. Bruce ordered a black coffee and took a seat at the back of the store.

Just as he picked up a copy of the Planet, he noticed a couple directly across from him. A blonde and an all-American farm boy. He watched Blondie slip out of the booth just to sit back down again on Farm Boy's side. They seemed to be on the verge of serious PDA until another guy came to the booth. Blondie and Farm Boy both beat a hasty exit. Both looked flushed from embarrassment. The new guy was left to sit by himself; his only company a shredded napkin and a mangled spoon that he examined and put in his pocket.

"Buddy, you have got some God-awful timing."

"Not really. It was better off this way. I think.... Hey aren't you..."

"Bruce Wayne. And you are...?"

"Pete Ross. So, tell me. Why has the boy-billionaire population of Smallville suddenly doubled?"

"Uh, well... WayneTech is very interested in the crops here in Lowell County. We'd like to find out why things around here seem to grow so well."

"Uh-huh. If I ask you again, will you feed me the same line or will you actually tell me the truth this time?"

"No and no. You know I was watching your friends. Does that guy have a thing against spoons?"

"Not that I know of. Although he has been acting really different lately."

"Can I take a look at it?"

Bruce took the spoon from Pete and looked at it. It had been twisted into a corkscrew, but only after it had been folded in half...lengthwise.