Clark looked up, startled by the sound of footsteps at his bedroom door. Catwoman was leaning in the doorway, licking her lips.

"I've been thinking, Clark...and talking things over..." Diana came to join her, standing behind Catwoman, wearing a black silk something. Clark wasn't sure what it was but he knew that he liked it.

"Since you're man for more than just one woman..."

Chloe Sullivan joined them, "And we're so fond of one another anyway." While she and Catwoman twined around one another, Diana continued, "We need you to-"

"Wake up, Clark." Chloe's voice just wasn't that deep. More reluctantly than he could recall doing anything, ever, Clark opened his eyes and saw Bruce Wayne's arm across his line of vision as the older man shook his shoulder again.

"Guh?"

"Things are going to pieces all over the city, Clark. Gangs are attacking not just the commercial districts but apartment buildings." Bruce had turned to leave the moment Clark was awake and as Clark followed him down to the cave, he added sentence fragments as crisply as if he were chopping them off with one stroke of a cleaver. "The rich buildings. Breaking in, grabbing valuables, shooting anybody who resists. Or looks like they might. At least twenty casualties so far." He turned to the computer. "Print map. These are the latest hotpoints and the ones where I think they're headed next, in green. I'll take the north side of town."

Clark was exhausted by the time he got back to the Manor. He remembered Lionel's stories about the Labors of Hercules and how one of the tasks was to kill the Hydra, a monster that grew two new heads each time the hero chopped one off. He'd been able to catch some of the criminals but at each scene, there were people who needed help. Unlike Hercules', Clark had to fight against fire, not with it, since the gangs had realized that throwing Molotov cocktails or other fire-starters occupied him while they made their getaway. Or if they shot to disable, instead of kill, it meant he had to take people to the hospital.

He wasn't tired from the inside out but from the outside in, as though the blood stains on his uniform were each draining a little bit of his energy. He passed the living room on his way to shower and paused as he heard a voice.

The television was on and he caught Georgia Lawnley, Gotham's most popular news commentator, closing, "Certainly Mr. Luthor's authority does not extend to running the police and emergency systems. However, since he has been so integral in rebuilding them, and has all but promised law and order in Gotham City, through promoting so many security contracts with LuthorCorp and assuring our citizens of their effectiveness, he has many questions to answer."

Lionel found it satisfying actually to need to throw items around in a tantrum, the way that Lex would have. He cut off the station manager's almost-tearful apologies. "I don't care how sorry you are, I care how that 'revised editorial' got past you."

"I assure you, Mr. Luthor, I did not authorize-"

"I know you didn't authorize it." You wouldn't have dared to. "But somebody wrote it and told her to read it." He cut across again. "I know that I have veto authority over all the editorials and that I had passed tonight's. Somebody intercepted it and I want to know who." He disconnected and considered his options.

AU: Well, that blasted Muse finally woke up and started poking at me again!