"…And then it scaled the edge of the building like it was born doing it – like it was nothing," he finished.
She had nodded a few times during his story. About half way through, she moved to sit on his desk to face him. She was just looking at him like she expected more. She didn't have any sign of emotion on her face. Finally she smiled, "And there's a six foot bat in Gotham City."
Lex sighed loudly and turned to face the window. He absently ran a hand over his head. "You don't believe me," he shook his head.
"You're serious?" like she was just now beginning to take it as something he was being sincere about.
"I know you probably…" he turned back to her. He realized that this did sound – senseless. It was probably a good thing that he didn't tell anyone else. If Rhone couldn't even…
She looked down, "You're talking about The Shamira."
Lex's eyes lit up, "You know about it?"
She closed her eyes tightly for a moment, "Are you sure that you weren't…? It's an urban legend. Something parents in the ghetto tell their kids to get them to come home before sunrise."
"Forget I mentioned it," he started to quickly stack up the files that were on the desk.
His jaw was set; he looked disconcerted. She put a hand on the small stack of files to stop him from his hasty clean up. "Did it say anything to you?" she didn't look at him.
His features softened and he looked down at the files, "No."
"I've heard stories about it, but I've always dismissed them," she said as she looked up to him again.
"Does that mean you're starting to believe me?" he put his hands on the back of his chair.
"I guess I don't have a choice, considering it is obviously becoming a new hobby of yours," she gave a quick glance to the files.
He remained expressionless until he saw her smile a reassuring smile. Was she humoring him?
"Well, what did you find?" she looked to the ceiling briefly and then to him again.
"As you know, they call it The Shamira. It means…" he started.
"Guardian – or protector," she finished.
He looked at her in surprise. She knew Hebrew? …Even he had to look it up.
She looked at him like "who doesn't know that?" Then she said innocently, "What?"
Lex started opening folders on his desk and spreading them out, there was only about five of them. He wasn't going to be so eager, but having someone to listen to it was kind of exciting. "The first person to report it was a Rabbi in the old historical district a little over a year ago. As a matter of fact, all of these reports are from that district," he said more to himself.
She picked up the relevant folder and read through it. "Obviously, he named it and it stuck – at least as a way to file reports on it," she was looking at the police report. She never altered the few police reports that came in regarding The Shamira. If she touched them, it might draw attention to it. No one took it seriously anyway.
"He said that she dropped from the sky – a silver guardian – with the wings of an angel and knocked out a mugger that held him at knife point," Lex summed up what was in the report.
"What was it doing by The Metropolis Plaza to save you if it is always hanging out in a dilapidated place like that? …And you said it was presumably male, didn't have wings," she started listing inconsistencies.
"I don't know why it was there," he admitted. "If you look at these reports, all of them describe something different," he addressed her comments about the differences in stories.
"I'm surprised there are even any police reports. The cops are too scared to go outside down in that precinct," Rhone said with disdain. Most things that happened there went unreported. There wasn't much left there anyway – mostly homeless people, the very poor, criminals, and people that had the misfortune of getting lost there.
"The people that filed reports actually had to go to a station to file," Lex confirmed. The reports had the location of the filing on them and who took down the statement.
She picked up another file and started reading it. Lex watched her silently. She held up the picture that one of the witnesses had drawn and chuckled.
"What?" he asked.
She handed the picture to him and tossed the folder down lightly on the desk.
He looked at the picture again. It's most distinctive feature was the very large shoulders – something it didn't have when he had seen it. It had almost a – science fiction feel too it, with the helmet. "Not everyone can draw like you, Rhone," he commented.
"No," she shook her head still smiling, "Where was this victim coming from, an arcade?"
Lex didn't understand. "What does that have to do with anything?" he picked up the folder and looked through it.
"You really don't know who this is?" she looked at him quizzically.
"Should I?" he looked at the picture again. It didn't ring a bell.
"Considering when you were born, yes," she smiled.
"Would you mind enlightening me?" he looked up from the picture.
She looked at him like she didn't believe he didn't know, "It's Samus."
Lex narrowed his brow in thought, it sounded like a mythical Greek hero or…
"Metroid?" she offered. Lex just looked at her, waiting for her to continue. "A video game heroine – for the original Nintendo," she informed him. Where did he grow up, some kind of corporate bubble? She shook her head, "How do we really even know that this is the same – creature?"
"There is no way that there are six of these things running around Metropolis," Lex said definitively, "The way that it could move and change its shape…"
She decided not to argue. "What did it look like for you?" she asked. He had described it briefly, but she wanted to hear if he would admit to what he had really seen.
"You may not believe this," he leaned and picked up a comic book from his desk. He handed it to her.
She looked at it and then looked at him. "This is what you saw?" she held up the issue of Silver Surfer.
"Exactly," he said, "Except it moved like…"
"Spider-Man," she finished. He had described its' locomotion exactly that way.
"I know it sounds…" he said as he turned to the window again.
"Do you want me to start having some of my guys go down there and checking it out? Red flag Shamira?" she offered as she got off of his desk and moved to stand beside him.
He tilted his head to the side and focused on the two of them in the reflection of one of the small panes of normally transparent glass – the darkness caused it to be semi-opaque. He couldn't help but smile a little. "No, your men would think that you are just as crazy as you think I am," he said.
"I don't think that you're crazy," she said honestly.
He turned to her with a disbelieving look.
"You have to admit that it does sound a little strange," she started, "But I said that I believe you, and I mean it."
He watched her as she moved to pick up another folder. She began reading the file, slowly returning to his side. He smiled again.
She knew that he was watching her. A smile slowly curled onto her lips as she read the statements. Then she started laughing softly.
"What?" he closed the gap between them.
She cleared her throat theatrically and held the folder out in front of her. She read what she had found amusing out loud, "I quote, 'It was like being saved by an epic level paladin with spiked full plate armor, but without the armor check penalty." She began to laugh again, but more loudly.
Lex was always glad to see her happy, but really didn't understand what was so amusing. When he read that file, he thought the witness was on drugs. And the officer on duty that took his statement agreed because they gave the guy a full tox screen. It was peculiar that it came up negative on everything. "He must be delusional," Lex still didn't see what was so funny, "No one could understand what he was talking about."
"Should I be offended?" she looked at him, still smiling.
"You understand this? Is it some type of code?" Lex took the folder and turned it toward him.
She started laughing again, harder than before. She grabbed her diaphragm, "Yeah, I understand it – the call of the nerd." When she looked up again, he was still looking at her with a look of confusion. She breathed in deeply to get out the last of her amusement. "The Shamira must have a thing for geeks," she tapped the folder in Lex's hands, "This guy plays D&D – a lot." She emphasized the words "a lot."
"Considering it saved me; is it my turn to be offended?" Lex smiled.
She smiled and rolled her eyes with a shrug. "If it knew that you had more invested in comic books than most people spend on a house?" she raised her brow, "I stand by my original assessment of its preferences."
She just called me a geek, he realized. He smiled faintly, not knowing what else to do. "I don't share that information with just anyone; it's classified," his smile widened and he crossed his arms over his chest.
"Well, then I guess I feel special," she said honestly.
"So…" he paused, "How long are you in Smallville?"
"I guess that depends on what time billionaires need to get their beauty sleep," she turned and started to clean up the folders on his desk.
Lex looked at his watch – 11 p.m. He realized that he wasn't wearing the watch that she had given him. Shit. She probably noticed and thought that he didn't like it or that he never wore it. …Would people look at him strangely if he wore two watches, one on each wrist? Yes. Damn it. "Usually I'm in bed by eight…" he continued to look at his watch. He smiled widely as he looked up.
If it actually is beauty sleep – it shows, she thought. "And I'm corrupting you," she playfully chided herself as she turned back to him.
A thought occurred to him. "I don't mind," he kept his broad smile as he gestured for her to follow him. He made his way around the desk.
"Where are we going?" she inquired, slowly moving to follow him.
He continued to swagger to the doors of his office, hands in his pockets. He couldn't remove the smile plastered to his face.