A Little Research

Lois pulled up to the locked gates of Lex's mansion and groaned. "Great." She then pulled back and hid her car in a group of trees near the wall surrounding Lex's mansion. She then crawled up on top of her car and on to the wall. She jumped down and looked around. "No one around. That's good." She then took off towards Lex's mansion and ducked into some bushes near a back door as a guard went by. She picked herself up and went to the door. She jiggled the handle. "Locked!" She then reached into her pocket a pulled out a piece of wire from her car that she had been meaning to get replaced. "Oh, it's a piece of junk anyway. I've been needing a new car." With that she stuck the wire in the door and after a few minutes had it unlocked. She opened the door and snuck inside.

A ripping sound followed by a huge "Crash!" signified the reappearance of Hazard, who had ripped a huge hole in the side of the space-jet. With a quiet "hum" the shields of the space-jet quickly covered the hole. "Get rid of me, will you! Don't even think about it! And don't touch Lex!" Hazard shouted, lunging at Clark. All other people on the space-jet were forgotten as Hazard rammed into Clark. He gave no thought to them or anything else. Only Clark. Killing Clark was all that mattered to him.

Bruce and the others sighed as they grabbed Hazard off of Clark and locked him inside a cage that could hold any enemy. Bruce watched the mindless being that was in front of him and turned to Clark. "So this is Hazard…Seth…whatever his name is?"

Clark nodded. "Yeah." He sighed. He brushed himself off and looked at Hazard. "We're going to get rid of Lex…and you if you don't stop acting like an idiot." He snapped.

Bruce smirked. "Nice way to win him over."

"You could try!" Hazard shouted, leaping at the side of the cage. The only thought he had was to kill Clark. It was his goal. His purpose. Nothing else mattered. Blood ran down his arm and the side of his head, but he paid it no heed as he banged against the bars of the cage again and again as he tried to get to Clark.

Lois crept down the halls of Lex's mansion, looking down each hall and taking several turns. She knew the layout of Lex's mansion very well from here repeated visits long ago. But, there had been several renovations, changes, and add-ons since her last visit, so she was quickly lost. She jumped into a room as a security guard passed by and sighed. "Finding Lex is going to be harder than I thought."

"Not necessarily, Mrs. Lane." Said a familiar voice from behind Lois.

She turned slowly only to see that she had jumped into Lex's office. Lex sat behind his desk, a computer in front of him, and a smug look on his face.

The JLA had dropped Clark off at the Hospital. Hazard was still locked in the cage. Bruce was watching him, along with the other JLA members. Clark walked down the hallways of the hospital as quickly as he could. He turned the corner and found his parents sitting in the waiting room. "Mom, dad?" He said, walking over to them.

Martha hugged her son and sighed heavily. "Oh Clark…I thought…" She trailed off.

"I'm fine mom." Clark replied. He then looked over at his dad. "How's Jimmy?"

Jonathan shrugged. "He's been in the operation room all this time."

"Operation room?"

"Seems as if Hazard did some internal damage to Jimmy…it doesn't look good."

Clark swallowed hard. Jimmy was just a kid. Only 20…21. How could he be in this situation? Clark sighed. It was because of him. Him and Hazard. "When he gets out of surgery, contact me."

"Where are you going?" Martha asked.

"To see Lois."

"She's at Lex's house."

Clark nodded and took off.

Hazard banged against the cell bars again and again and the moment Clark left he freaked out even more. He started slamming into the sides of the cell so hard and so often that some of them actually dented and Hazard was covered in blood and bruises, but he didn't care. He continued to mutter "Clark!" as he slammed against the bars. "Let me out! Let me out or you'll pay!" Hazard yelled at the members of the JLA, his eyes wild.

"Lex."

"In the flesh."

"I want some information!"

"Anything for a former friend. What do you want to know?" Lex asked, leaning back in his chair with his usual cunning grin.

"I-well, uh, I don't really know."

"Hmph, well, how can I answer you're questions if you don't even know what they are?"

"I-um...hmm." Lois stared at Lex, realizing for the first time that Mrs. Kent hadn't told her what to find out about Lex.

At that moment Clark came into the room. He looked over at Lex, glaring at him. "Why are you trying to kill Superman?" He asked. "Your man, Hazard, just injured Jimmy…he's dying." Clark's glare almost brought out his fire beams. He shook with rage, but tried to remain calm. "I want the truth Lex."

"So, Superman took down Hazard, did he? Well, that's not really a very big surprise. He's an amateur on our field. Heh, but of course, Clark." Lex replied, his cunning eyes locked on Clark. "But, I am afraid you are going to have to be more specific, old friend. What exactly to you want from me?"

"I want to know why you've brainwashed Hazard. I want to know what you've done to him. And I want you to be held accountable for Jimmy's injuries." Clark hissed.

"Brainwashed Hazard? I don't know what you're talking about, Clark." Lex replied, his cunningly evil grin seeming to taunt Clark. "Hazard injured Mr. Olsen, Clark. I had nothing to do with it. I'm a legitimate business man now. I'm no longer a criminal."

"Well, Mr. Business man…Hazard is locked up with the JLA. I'm going to search your building and I'm going to find out what you've done." Clark replied. He hated Lex now. He turned to Lois. "Call my parents, see how Jimmy is, then come and find me…I'm going to look around."

"Look around if you want, Clark. I guarantee you won't find anything." Lex replied, flashing Clark another cunning smile before standing up. He shut down his computer and made his way past Clark and to the door. At the door he stopped and looked back. "Don't mess with anything, Clark. You can look, but don't snoop. It's not that you will find anything. It's just that I have some...rather fatal security devices and I don't want you to get hurt." With that Lex walked out of the room and down the hall where he disappeared rather quickly.

"Okay, Clark." Lois replied and pulled out her cellphone. She typed in the numbers and waited for the Kents to pick up.

Mrs. Kent answered her cell phone. "Hello? Hey Lois…no…no Jimmy is still in bad condition. The doctors say to give it time. How's Clark? Really? Okay, keep an eye on him for me? Great. Thank you, Lois. Bye." Martha looked over at Jonathan and gave a loud sigh and then told him what Lois had said.

Clark glared as Lex left and then walked over to the computer. He did his x-ray vision and he saw that Lex had a wiring system that went from the computer to an injection needle in the back of the chair. There was also an alarm that would go off. Clark's eyes scanned the room. There were hidden cameras, guns, darts, and other contraptions he could easily get rid of. He turned to Lois, nervously running his fingers through his hair. "Hey Lois, can you check that corner of there? I think I see something…don't touch anything though, okay? Not at least until I tell you to."

"Who died and made you king?" Lois muttered, walking over to the corner of the room with a bookcase and scanning it for anything suspicious. "Oh, and Jimmy is still in bad condition, Clark, but they've got high hopes. Just a little time that's all." Lois said, trying to comfort Clark.

As Lois turned her back Clark quickly got rid of everything. He high-tailed the cameras out of the house, laser beamed the guns, melting them down, and crushed the needle injectors and got rid of the other stuff. He stopped, smiling to himself. "Did you find anything Lois?" He asked. He opened Lex's computer and began typing away.

"No. Lex has made sure to hide any information that could give him away."
Lois walked over to Clark and leaned over his shoulder, watching the computer screen. A message block came up as Clark was typing which read; "Need Password" and had a line below it. "Hmm, what could the password be, Clark? Being Lex, he'd make it something hard. Something no one would think of. Hmm..." Lois muttered, thinking hard, trying to figure out what the password was.

Clark, while Lois wasn't looking, began typing away at the speed of light and, after several wrong words, he had typed in the right password. He smiled to himself and chuckled.

"Alexander the Great…I should have known…Same old Lex." There was a file reading: Master Mind :Clark clicked it open and he grinned. He had found it. "I got it." He said to Lois.

"Master Mind? What do you think that is? And that?" Lois pointed to the image at the bottom of the screen of a needle filled with a glowing bright green liquid. Under the image was the word "Mindose." "Master Mind? Mindose? What to you think all of this means, Clark. You don't think Lex would go that far, do you. I mean, I know he's bad, but mind control? Besides, how could he do something like that? Even he can't be that smart?

"You'd be surprised." Clark replied, and began reading the file. He had one on Hazard and on some other villains that Clark, himself, had fought in the past. "Lex has a million pages on his work. Look here . . ." Clark clicked on a link and looked over at Lois. "I told you he had it out for Superman." he replied. The master plan was to get rid of Superman and his team.

"So, he's been befriending Super-humans, getting them to trust him, and then injecting them with that Mindose stuff. It must take awhile to work completely, that's why Hazard got worse and worse slowly instead of right at first. He's planned this out perfectly. Look at all the lives he's ruined...and now he's working on Hazard. We have to stop him, Clark. We have to help Hazard and all the other people he did this to. We can't let him keep doing this. But, how can we stop him? He's got this whole place rigged with stuff I've never even heard of."

Clark x-rayed the floors and such, going beyond the wirings and floors and finally found what he was looking for. It was below the basement in a secret room. A place where Lex took his victims and injected them. "Come on." Clark replied, taking Lois's hand and starting down the hall.

"Hey, where are we going?" Lois asked as she was dragged down the hall.