The next day, Chloe finds Clark in the Torch staring at one of the computer screens. She glances over to see what he's reading.
"Chloe!" Clark jumps a little, shocked that he didn't hear her coming. "What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same thing. Didn't you just graduate?"
"Yeah…"
"I came by to start cleaning my stuff out…Interested in Ninjas?" Chloe asks as she peaks at his screen.
"After last night I was curious who they are. Aside from the silly fan websites I haven't found any real information on them."
Chloe leans over his shoulder. "Well they are said to be a secretive bunch, at least according to the movies."
"Ninjas huh?" Lois joins the conversation.
Both Chloe and Clark turn, "Hey Lois, get kicked out of school again?"
Chloe hits Clark for his comment.
"No, I just finished dropping of the pies Clark's mom made to the Talon, a job I think you were going to take care of Clark. Being near by, I figured you were down here and thought I would see what was going on after what I heard what happened last night" Lois sits down next to Clark and looks at his research.
"I've heard about these guys when I took Jujitsu at MetU, mostly rumors. It's said that they are highly trained individuals who can sneak into anywhere, kill with a single stroke and leave just as silently."
"Really" Chloe's eyes light up. Lois can see that she's ready to dive into an all night research session.
"But if Chloe is going to go into research mode, I think we should head to the Talon for coffee, could be a long night."
The trio exits the school and pile into Lois' SUV and head for their favorite java spot.
Pulling up they see Lex's BMW M5 out front, Chloe grabs her notepad for a possible interview. After ordering their drinks they move over to the table that Lex and another man were sharing.
Lex looks up when he notices them approaching, "Hey guys, I'd like you to meet a friend of mine from college, Bruce Wayne"
Chloe's eyes nearly popped out of her head and totally forgot about any possible interview with Lex, "THE BRUCE WAYNE?"
Everyone started laughing at her shocked face. "You never told us you went to school with Bruce Wayne." Clark said as he shook Bruce's hand.
"Well we only really went to a few classes together. And most of the time he wasn't there, how he ever got good grades I'll never know." Lex replied.
"I bribed them." Bruce said and waiting a few beats. "I'm kidding you guys, I'm pretty good with numbers and I have a sense for business so I made it through ok."
"A good business sense? Your company is as bigger than mine, you have a gift, not a sense" Lex smirked.
Bruce just laughed and turned to Clark.
"So Clark, Lex has told me a lot about you. Some of the stories are unbelievable, you seem to always be in the right place at the right time."
"Just lucky I guess, Mr. Wayne." Clark said blushing a little.
"Please, any friend of Lex should call me Bruce. And speaking of luck, I'm glad you showed up, I happened to have an internship open up that I think you would be a good fit for. It would be assisting our research department head, mainly doing a lot of…well, research."
"Wow! That would be amazing. Thanks Mr., um , Bruce"
"Good we can finish the details later, here is my card and this is my secretary's number. She is much better with details than I am. If you need anything she'll help you out."
"Well its getting late and I think we are finished here, Lex and I have been talking over a joint business deal all day, I think we will call it a night." The two said their goodbyes and headed for the door.
As Clark watched them make their way out the front door, movement across the street catches his eye. Using his X-Ray vision he sees, in the growing dusk, a hand holding what might be a detonator. Quickly getting up and excusing himself to the bathroom, he ducks out the back door and shifts to super-speed. The rest of the world slows to a crawl as he runs towards the men exiting the building and pulling them backwards out of danger just as Lex's M5 blows into small little pieces. As time speeds back up Clark checks the two men who appear to be fine aside from a few slight glass cuts, he moves back over to Chloe and Lois and thankfully they had only been blown backwards and were only stunned.
Since everyone seemed ok, Clark ran back towards the alley that he had seen the man with the detonator move towards. Frustratingly since people were watching he couldn't use his external powers. But he did switch on his X-Ray vision again to see a man on the roof of the building next to him. Clark ran up the fire escape and jumped up on the roof. There was the ninja that attacked Lex the previous night.
"Having a bad stroke of luck?" Clark teased the man.
"Yes and it seems to be because of you, I will remedy that quickly" The low voice said.
The ninja pulled 3 metalic stars that glinted in the moonlight and would have most certainly found themselves embedded in Clark had he not been who he was. Instead they were now embedded in the wall of a neighboring building.
"You are fast, boy" Pulling a new katana from behind his back and quickly moved towards Clark. Clark used his heat vision on some of the pipes that were under the ninja's feet and steam erupted into the man's face. The ninja screams and Clark reaches for the man and throws him across the roof.
Clark walks over to make sure the ninja is out.
"Nice moves" Clark spins to see a man dressed in black with a long cape that covered all his body and a cowl covering his head. The man looked almost evil in the night.
"Who are you?" Clark wanted to add 'and how in the world did you sneak up on me'
The man ignored his question and moved to tie up the ninja. "This is Juntas; he is a member of the League of Assassins. Not an easy man to take down. I've been following his movements for sometime now. I caught word on the streets of a hit on the Luthors so I've been keeping an eye on Lex"
Draging the man to the edge of the building he tied a rope to his legs and then to the building and threw the man off the side. Leaving him for the cops to pick up. Clark finally saw the yellow utility belt and a black bat on the man's chest.
"BATMAN" Clark realizes. The man turns back to him, his presence is overwhelming "Yes and I have a few questions for you, Kent. You are not what you appear, moving faster than I can see and I see a lot. Things just seem to happen around you like those pipes bursting. Care to explain?"
Clark fumbles and can't come up with a decent lie.
"Obviously you are more than just lucky. Come." It wasn't a request.