Markmark261: What would I do without you, I'll fix those errors when I get a chance. Thanks man.
Thanks to all who have read and reviewed, you guys are making this a lot of fun to write.
Chapter 4 – Allies: Part 1
Superman swooped down over a brightly costumed woman who was running across the moon lit rooftop. She had just tried to rob the Gotham Savings and Loan and hadn't even made it in the door before she had set the alarm off. Must be her first night on the job…
"You know we could do this all night miss." Superman said as he dropped to the roof and cut off her path.
"Rainbow Streak"
"Excuse me?"
She composed herself, "Rainbow Streak is the name…"
"You can't be serious, Rainbow Streak?" It was all Superman could do to keep a straight face, "I'm not even going to start on the name, but I would suggest if you ever decide to try to rob a bank at night again that you get a darker colored costume."
She tried to move around him, but found that he had almost magically moved right in her path, "Again we could do this all night, but you know that I'm faster than you are."
"True, but I have a trump card." She said with a note of uncertainty in her voice as she started to reach into her bag.
Superman crossed his arms, "Let me guess…you bought a chunk of green rock and now you are going to throw it at me?"
The woman paused, Superman could read her body language fairly well, that had been exactly what she had planned on doing. It was all he could do not to outright laugh at how scared she looked now.
"If it helps you are not the first person to try this tonight. Did you guys draw straws on who got to try it first?" Superman asked.
The woman finally recovered her shock and pulled the rock from her bag and tried to hold it menacingly. Superman simply walked over and grabbed the rock and crumpled it effortlessly in his hand.
"You know I think you should ask for your money back."
Superman cuffed the woman and flew her to the local police station. I got to hand it to whoever is making these things, they look almost real. You couldn't tell without x-ray vision... And that was the funny part, with his vision he could see the word "FAKE" inside the rock
Superman flew up to one of his favorite look out areas on the side of a tall high-rise and sat on a ledge for a moment.
"There is an old rumor that Superheroes never sat down…" A sexy sly voice came from the darkness.
"The woman who started it all, since you are sitting here next to me instead of running, I suppose that you haven't stolen anything tonight?"
"Nothing caught my interest…actually I came to see you." She sat down next to him out of arm's reach.
"Me?" Superman said shocked somewhat.
"I was curious if you liked my green rocks." She pulled one of the fake Kryptonite rocks from her pouch and tossed it to him.
He caught it, "I had been wondering who thought these up, made a few bucks have you?"
"I figured it was my fault that your little secret is out so I decided I would beat the real rocks to the market and redeem myself a little."
"Well it has made my night interesting. I had a hard time not laughing at some of the characters. I was also actually hoping to run into you too…"
"Sorry Junior, I'm a one-man-cat, although you are kind of cute…" She scooted closer to him.
Superman ignored her comment and slid off the ledge, floating into the air, "…I WANTED to know if you knew where the Cat came from."
"Oh, well, It was reportedly made in China hundreds of years ago. The legend says that a small village used it to ward off evil spirits or…Supermen." She purred.
"Ha, ha." Superman said sarcastically.
She smiled, "Anyway, it was stolen from a museum in Rome about 4 years ago and only resurfaced about 6 months ago. It was sent here were it would be better protected…supposedly." She stood and leaned closer over the empty space between them. "Why are you so interested in the Cat?"
He thought for a minute, "It might give me a clue in a dead case."
Her eyes sparkled, "In that case, check out the Himalayas."
She then dropped off the side of the building and lashed out with her whip catching a flag pole. She did a flip around the pole and flung herself out into the darkness.
Himalayas…wonder what could be there.
Several hours later he few back to the Cave and found Lois sleeping in the big console chair. He smiled, she looked so peaceful when she was sleeping...possibly the only time he had ever seen her stay still. He quietly changed into a t-shirt and shorts in the costume vault, laughing quietly when he saw the acid trails on the material. Someone actually thought they could hurt me with acid…don't they read the papers? He flew out of the vault and scooped Lois up out of the chair and flew her up into one of the guest rooms.
After tucking her in he made his way to the kitchen, Alfred was preparing a snack for the young hero.
"All is well in the world, young sir?" It was a joke that Alfred had started a few months ago, they both still chuckled.
"Yep, the bad guys are sleeping now anyway."
Clark took a bite of the sandwich, "I ran into Catwoman tonight, she was the one that had flooded the market with the fake Kryptonite that I called in about. I had a great time with all the poor saps trying to take down Superman. I got to hand it to her though; it will give the black market something to think about. Anyway, she clued me in to a little more info on the Cat and told me I should look into the Himalayas."
"Do you have a plan sir?"
"I think we should follow the lead to Rome and see where that goes. If you could start a search between Ra's and the Himalayas and see if there is any connection." Clark said as he quickly finished his sandwich.
"Very good sir. May I remind you that you have a 10 o'clock interview at the office this morning. I will arrange for us to leave tomorrow."
"Thanks Alfred. See you in the morning."
It was around 9:30 the next morning when Clark walked into his spacious office at Wayne Enterprises that overlooked downtown Gotham. The nice thing about being the boss, you can show up to work late… He thought as he sat down at his large desk and began to sort through the huge stack of memos and mail. It's only been a few days, he thought to himself as he signed off on a few documents. His secretary came in twenty minutes later and gave him his updated schedule for the day and then announced that his first appointment had arrived.
Clark stood and moved around his desk to meet his appointment; he opened his office door and was shocked to see an old friend waiting for him in the reception area.
"Pete?" Clark asked with his mouth hanging open.
"Hello." Pete shook his hand.
Clark quickly brought him into his office and gave him a huge hug. "It's been a long time man, what are you doing in Gotham?"
"Well I have a 10 o'clock with the President of Wayne Enterprises." Pete said as he sat down.
"You are here for my 10 o'clock interview?" Clark said in more shock as he poured them some coffee from the bar behind his desk.
"Yep."
"I'm sorry Pete, I'm running a little behind after this weekend and haven't caught up yet. Sorry I'm so surprised, I should have read up a little more on what's going on."
"Not a problem."
Clark took his resume and looked it over. Pete was a currently a VP over at Dell, and had worked previously for Compaq before their merger with HP. Wow time flies when you are busy saving a city.
"So Pete why are you leaving your job? Dell is a great place to work I hear."
"Two reasons, the first is…this is Wayne Enterprises. Anyone who is in their right mind wants to work here. And secondly because I think I can help you. I've kept your secret for years now and I believe it's time that you had someone help you keep things running so you can focus on keeping people safe."
Clark sat back in his chair and thought for a minute.
"You know, I would never admit this to anyone else, but this schedule is killing me. Has been since Lucius died, he was Bruce's and my right hand man. It's hard living two lives." Clark stood and walked around his desk, "Pete this is a huge task for you to take on, it would be an honor to have you come work for me."
Now it was Pete's turn to be shocked, he knew that interviewing with Clark would be short but it only had taken 5 minutes…
Clark hit the intercom on his phone, "Megan please start the paperwork to make Pete Ross our new VP of Operations."
"Right away sir." Came her tinny sounding voice over the intercom.
"Great" Clark click off the intercom, "Let me show you around, Mr. VP."
By quarter to noon Clark had finished showing Pete around and the two friends had made their way down the elevators to the building's front door.
"…I know this great French place we should go to…" Clark was saying as the doors opened.
"Actually Clark I have made arrangements for lunch for us."
"Really? Sounds great, let's go." Clark stepped into his waiting limo.
The Limo pulled up to an Italian restaurant, Clark had actually been to this place a couple of times for business meetings in the past. The head waiter greeted them and immediately seated them at his best table.
"If I remember right, the spaghetti is really good here, please don't tell my mom that I like it better than her's." Clark teased.
"Yeah I was told they had good food here." Pete glanced around nervously.
"Hey Pete, something wrong man? You look really nervous." Clark asked his old friend.
"Ah…well…" He started when he spotted two ladies walk in and waved too them.
"Lois, Chloe? What are you two doing here?" Clark asked them when they walked up to the guys table.
"Well, Smallville, we got an invite to a nice restaurant from two eligible bachelors, how could a girl refuse." Lois said as they sat down.
"Well…one eligible bachelor." Lois finished.
"Lois!" Chloe smacked her cousin.
"Last time I checked I was still an eligible bachelor, so that leaves you Pete" Clark said with a huge smile.
Pete blushed, "Clark, let me introduce you to my fiancé…" Pete took Chloe's hand.
AN: This will be a two part chapter; I wrote more than I planned so I decided to split it up.
AN2: I've been trying to bring Pete back since I started this story in Cape Beginnings and I finally managed it. I really liked his character on Smallville and was annoyed that they got rid of him. Since this is AU, I figured why not bring him back in style and make him the VP of Wayne Enterprises.