"Where is Lois?" Bruce asked in a terse voice.
"Where are the weapons that General Lane and yourself are using against Kryptonians?" Kal-El asked instead.
"I know about the mark on her thigh. I know what it means and I know what you've probably already done to her to remove it from her body. So your little game is over. Return her and leave the planet with your people." Bruce said coldly.
Kal-El did not answer Bruce because he suddenly became distracted. He was hearing screams from down below. And as he turned to hurry out of Perry White's office, Bruce now heard them! As Kal-El reached for the door, it went flying into him, knocking him across the room and through the wall of the office! The impact caused Bruce to go flying out of the building as well, via the window!
Why Kal-El did what he did, he would never understand, except that the absurd thought ran through his head, that Lois was not be very happy if he did not try and save Bruce. That and despite Wayne's talents as a nighttime avenger, they were borne from gadgetry. And he did not appear to have anything on his person, that would keep him from splattering on the pavement below.
So Kal-El caught Bruce and lowered him to the ground, then pushed him out of the way as a large piece of the building, threatened to crush them both! Kal-El caught it and set it on the ground.
Bruce gaped for only a second at what Kal-El could do. He always knew the Kryptonians were stronger than humanly imaginable. But seeing it in play was totally different. And he did not have much time to ponder it as he saw a dirt streaked Cat Grant come stumbling over to him!
"Cat! My God! Are you alright?" Bruce asked. Cat coughed and began to cry!
"Mr. Wayne...Davis is still in there! He was in the supply room with that monster!" she wailed. Bruce looked from Cat to Kal-El, who heard Davis's name and walked over to them.
"Davis was in the room when the creature appeared?" Bruce asked. He now looked from Kal-El to take in his surroundings. Where WAS that creature anyway?
Loud screams from inside of the Daily Planet answered that question! And Kal-El remembered that Chloe was inside! He hurried into the building, just as the creature's swishing, rock like tail, smashed an exit for himself through another wall and flew into the air! Kal-El stared after the thing, before taking in the destruction that was around him. People looked hurt and dead. Kal-El saw rubble in the spot where Lois and Chloe's desks were and he gently lifted it only to find Chloe lying on top of her smashed desk!
"Chloe!" Kal-El yelled, picking her up. He could hear sirens but knew that Chloe could not wait that long for help. He zipped out of the rubble to take Chloe to the hospital.
The attack on the Daily Planet, at first, was deemed a terrorist attack. That is until witnesses that saw the creature, began talking. Many people began to accuse the Kryptonians of bringing the creature to this planet! One news outlet said that the creature was a known 'Kryptonian Pet' that had gotten loose!
Bruce was forced to get control of the situation, as the dead employees were soon identified. He knew that Davis Bloom would not be among them. And he also now knew with unvarnished certainty, that Davis Bloom WAS that creature.
He was at the Metropolis Emergency Center, waiting for word about the Daily Planet employees that did survive. General Lane and many of his men were present in the city and at one point, he had stopped by to find out word about Chloe. There was none as of yet. But her condition brought something else to mind: Lois would want to be here.
"That sonofabitch has my daughter stashed someplace when her family needs her." General Lane said in a grim tone, as he watched Kal-El stand outside of the ER room Chloe was being worked on in.
"Take care of the city, General Lane. I will take care of Lois. I will find her." Bruce said firmly. He then looked around General Lane. Jor-El, Ella and Alfred were walking towards them!
"Sam," Ella said when they approached, "how is Chloe? I called Gabe and he's out of town on business. He's headed back. What happened? Was it a terrorist attack?"
"Hello, Ella. As I understand it, Chloe is fighting for her life. And no, it wasn't a terrorist attack. Mr. Wayne, I need to speak to you in private. Ask Kal-El and his father to join us." General Lane said and walked off towards a private room. Ella stared after him for a moment, then looked at Jor-El.
"Jor-El? What's going on?" she asked. Alfred looked at Bruce before touching Ella's shoulder.
"Why don't we see what the doctors can tell us about your niece, alright, Madam?" Alfred asked gently. Ella glanced up at Alfred before looking at Jor-El again.
"Jor-El? Are you going to tell me why my ex-husband wants to only meet with Kal-El, yourself and Mr. Wayne here? What is going on?"
"Ella, darling, please go with Alfred. I'll tell you everything once you've seen to Chloe." Jor-El said.
But Ella could tell he was lying! She looked at all three men, then down the hallway at Kal-El who was now walking towards them. Ella then looked at Bruce.
"Is Lois here? I know she wasn't at the Daily Planet because Chloe called me looking for her before the attack."
Bruce did not visibly react. But that reveal told him that on some level, Chloe knew something was not right about Lois's absence from work today. He glanced over at Kal-El, who had now joined him.
"Hello, Ella. The doctors are working on Chloe now and..." he began but Ella stared him down.
"Is Lois here with you all? Has anyone called her? She had to have heard about this by now! Why isn't she here?"
General Lane stuck his head out of the private room!
"Mr. Wayne, will the Kryptonians and yourself join me anytime in THE NEXT CENTURY!"
People stared over at General Lane but he ignored them as Bruce and Kal-El walked towards the doorway General Lane was standing in, moved past him and into the room. Jor-El touched his wife's face.
"Just see to Chloe. I will find Lois, alright?" Jor-El said, kissing his wife softly. General Lane looked away. The idea of Ella's allowing that alien to touch her made him sick! There was no way there could ever be anything between them again. And there was no way he was allowing either of his daughters to end up like their mother.
Of course, General Lane didn't know that it was already too late to prevent that.
General Lane spoke first as soon as Jor-El entered and closed the door behind him.
"I have been in contact with President Luthor about the situation here. I have let him know that we believe the creature is a Kryptonian that for whatever reason, turns into this thing. Was I incorrect in telling the President that? Jor-El? Kal-El? One of you speak!" General Lane snapped.
Jor-El answered.
"No. You were not. And there could be others." he lied. Kal-El refrained from smirking. He instantly knew where his father was going with this. They knew next to nothing as to why the Kryptonian judas, Lor-Zod, was the way he was. And Jor-El planned to take advantage of that fact.
"What do you mean there could be others?" Bruce asked, trying to hide his skepticism. If there had been others like Davis Bloom, why had they not appeared before now?
"I mean, that the man you know as Davis Bloom did not come out of his mother's womb. He was created. And Vice President Zod and his wife had many...MANY failures before they made the son they always wanted. Other Kryptonians with the means Zod had, tried similar methods to get the perfect child. My point being, that those 'failures' were not discarded. Many of them were cast aside, left to make their own way on Krypton. And many of them came here." Jor-El continued to lie.
"Some were even put into prisons and we can gladly let them out so they can procreate with some of the women on this planet." Kal-El said knowingly. General Lane looked as if he wanted to strike Kal-El, but Bruce stopped him! He then looked over at Jor-El and Kal-El.
"Leave us." Bruce said coolly. Jor-El nodded and he and Kal-El left the room. Bruce was sure one of them was probably listening in, but they didn't have time to worry about it now.
"Why did you stop me?" General Lane groused.
"Because it would have been pointless. I don't believe either of them. Jor-El told me that he had 'just realized' after talking to Davis Bloom, that Zod's experiments on him had gone wrong. Well which is it? Did he just realize Davis turned into some abomination or has there always been a 'community' of them?"
"Fine. They're bluffing. Here is the problem: I want to trap the creature and throw everything at it that we can. That way we don't have to give in to the Kryptonians demands that we turn over our weapons against them. The President doesn't want a lot of loss of life, and thinks that if we let the Kryptonians take care of this thing, we'd all be better off."
Bruce raised a brow.
"Is that Luthor talking or Zod?"
"Who knows? I want to present a third plan to him. One in which we capture Davis Bloom and contain him somewhere. Study him. Maybe we can clone some of these creatures to use against the Kryptonians." General Lane said.
"And what do you think Zod would say?" Bruce asked skeptically.
"I think people underestimate how crafty Lex Luthor really is. I think he is very aware of what Zod is and made him Vice-President to keep an eye on him. Besides, Luthor was always into cloning and experimenting on people before he got into the White House. He'll like the plan. But that brings me to someone else... Mr. Bloom's wife."
"What about her?" Bruce asked, confused.
"I know she is pregnant. We need to contain her as well." General Lane said solemnly.
"No." Bruce said curtly.
"Mr. Wayne..." General Lane began but Bruce raised his voice!
"NO! You are not going to imprison a pregnant woman so that you can experiment on her unborn child! Look, I have the means to look into whether her baby could end up being a danger like her husband. But I would prefer to do this my way." Bruce said firmly.
"Alright, Mr. Wayne. But if your way becomes a problem, then it's my way, do you understand?"
"Yes." Bruce said.
"Good. Now find my daughter." General Lane said, before leaving the room. Perry White came in a few seconds later!
"We need to have a press conference to explain what happened, what we know about it and what's being done. Maybe General Lane could say a few words. The families of the dead are starting to arrive..." Perry trailed off, stricken. Many of the people lost at the Daily Planet had not just been employees. They had been like family.
"Alright," Bruce said, turning to look into a mirror to straighten his tie, "I'll be along in a minute. I just need to see what Chloe Sullivan's condition is."
"Yes...God...and where is Lois? I'm surprised she hasn't arrived here yet." Perry noted absently.
"She'll be here. I plan to go and get her myself." Bruce said, smoothing his tie into place.
Meanwhile, Chloe woke up and instantly began screaming!
"I CAN'T SEE! I CAN'T SEE! KAL-EL! KAL-EL! HELP ME!" she cried, her arms clawing out. A nurse tried to settle her down, but Kal-El hurried in and took over. Chloe's head was bandaged and she sounded like she was about to hyperventilate!
"Chloe, calm down! I am here! You are fine. Just hold on to me, alright?" he said in a calm, reassuring voice. Chloe held onto him for dear life, as Ella and Alfred watched from the room window. Jor-El joined them and Ella turned to him.
"Chloe has been blinded! I need to let Gabe know so that he can deal with this when he gets here. Tell me someone has found Lois?" Ella asked, now feeling agitated. She was getting a vibe here about Lois. There was no way her oldest daughter would NOT be here if there was any possible way she could. Lois had not slept in her bed last night. Chloe had not see her. Alfred was suddenly 'on loan' to them. What the hell was really going on here?
Ella decided that she was going to ask Sam for answers. He had always been straight with her. It was more than she had been with him. Especially when she was sneaking around with Jor-El.
Meanwhile, there was something about the creature that was not well known. Strong emotion caused his 'flare-ups'. And many times before, when he felt like he was on the verge of changing, he would touch the crystal that he had stolen from Krypton, and it would keep him calm.
Well he was nowhere near the crystal now. But something was calling out to him. Something being the Kawatche Caves! Davis dragged himself inside of them, now half human. All that remained of his monstrous form was a swishing, rock hard, lumpy tail. Davis found the rock console and leaned on it.
Leaning on it, was all he needed to do, as he was suddenly transported to the Fortress.
Meanwhile, Lois was trying on some of the clothes Kal-El had left for her to try on. He had provided nothing in the way of undergarments, and had remarked to her that he didn't 'especially like them' himself. Lois wasn't about to argue with him about why underwear needed to be worn and why bras were necessary.
At one point, she tossed aside the clothing and picked up the Black Canary costume, with the mask included. Smiling, Lois decided to try it on and walked off towards the room that served as bathroom in this place, so she could inspect herself in the mirror. Just as she entered and closed the ice door shut, Davis wandered into the front room where all of the clothing was, looking confused. What was this place? Why did it look like Krypton and where did the furniture and clothing come from?
Davis instinctively made his way over to the console and picked up a purple crystal. Immediately, his tail disappeared and he was left naked but human looking again.
That was when Lois reappeared and saw a naked guy, that was not Kal-El, standing by the console! Someone had broken in here! And this guy had to have stolen that disc thing that Kal-El had!
Lois looked around wildly, until she saw the bow and arrow set that went along with Green Arrow's costume. Then, while masked and dressed as Black Canary, Lois eased over to them, picked up the bow and proceeded to fire an arrow at the guy! She had had an archery class when she was in middle school and had always been pretty good at it. Lois drew back the bow and fired the arrow-right into Davis's naked ass!
Davis growled in pain and spun around to glare at Lois! His eyes turned a fierce color of red as he began to change again...
