THE HEADY KNIGHT

Chapter 2

Superman, having foiled evil folly that seemed to rise so consistently within Metropolis' limits, whether secretly presided over by the likes of Lex Luthor or not, swooped his way back to his downtown apartment. Once there, he swiftly, at super-speed, retrieved super-strength folded clothing from his red cape's secret inner lining and, in the space of a single Human heartbeat, donned it all in order to transform himself into Clark Kent.

Complete with meekly combed hair, loser glasses, and neatly knotted tie.

Reaching his smallish living room, Clark noticed his answering machine's tirelessly blinking light with the number "1" burning in the little square screen signifying a single message.

His expression screwed itself into earnest puzzlement as his forefinger gently stabbed the button in order to replay said message…

"Clark, where the hell do you go after work?" said the voice that was undeniably Lois Lane's, bringing a swift smile to the mild-mannered countenance of Superman's newspaper reporter persona. "Well, I hope you hear this way before nine o'clock. In case you've forgotten, we're supposed to go out to dinner tonight."

Knitting his brow behind the glasses, Clark quietly queried, "Dinner? Tonight?" then continued to listen to the rest.

"I did tell you about going out to dinner tonight before you left the Daily Planet today didn't I?"

Clark quietly shook his head as Lois' voice finished, "Well, it doesn't matter. Just be over here to pick me up at my apartment by no later than eight fifteen."

Glancing at his wristwatch, Clark Kent noted that the time already digitally read: 8:10.

"Don't stand me up, Clark, or I swear…"

Swwwwwwwwoooooooosssssssssshhhhhhh!

A split-second later, at the apartment of the lovely Lois Lane…

"…I'll kick you square in the…"

Bing-bong-ding-dong!

Looking in the direction of the doorbell, Lois slowly set her cordless phone back on its base and strode toward the triple-locked entrance into her larger, better furnished apartment several city blocks from Clark Kent's.

"Clark?" Lois said as she such was verified via the peephole, then proceeded to throw open three burglarproof locks in order to open up. "Well, don't you look nice."

Clark Kent had not only swiftly streaked there as Superman, but also obtained and donned a dandy new suit designed especially for dinner engagements. Seemingly matching, as if by magic, Lois Lane's delicious designer frock, form fitting and beautiful, as only someone with super-vision could.

"You did say eight-fifteen," Clark said with a sly smile as Lois closed her door, locking it thrice from the outside.

After arriving via Metropolis taxi, gentlemanly taken care of by Clark, he and Lois promptly made their way into one of the city's best restaurants which, because of Lois Lane's award-winning notoriety, more so than Clark Kent's, meant neither had to wait for a table.

Unlike the line of fine-eating customers awaiting their previously reserved seating, dressed in expensive suits and dinner dresses, left to grimace and grumble…

"Who died in made them important?"

"We've been waiting here half-an-hour!"

"Wait, isn't that Lois Lane?"

"Who cares? We were here first!"

"She's not so pretty…is she, George? George. George!"

"Oh, uh, y-yes, dear."

No sooner seated than the real reason for Lois Lane making this last-minute dinner date with Clark Kent walked in amidst the expected paparazzi snapping pictures and the "ooo's" and "ahhh's" of the waiting customers.

"Oh, look," said Lois in feigned innocence as Clark looked in the direction of the flesh-and-blood object of dinnertime adulation, "Bruce Wayne's here…with a date. What a coincidence."

It quickly became clear that no coincidence was responsible. Clearly Lois Lane had learned, from one of her many secret sources, that Bruce Wayne was, for some as yet undisclosed reason, visiting Metropolis, in general, and this swank restaurant, in particular.

Clark looked at Lois and shook his head, a half-grin gracing his geeky, when not the Man of Steel, bespectacled countenance, "You know, Lois, you could have told me the truth. I would've still come."

"Yeah, well," Lois said as she quickly checked her hair and makeup in the compact that appeared so easily in one well-manicured hand, "guess I'm just too used to being sneaky when I'm on the trail of a hot story. Such as: 'What brings Bruce Wayne all the way from Gotham City?' or 'Mr. Wayne, is there any truth to the rumor that you're in Metropolis to close a sizeable land deal that could rival LexCorp holdings?'…that kind of thing."

"Well, Lois," said Clark, while clearing his throat and tugging at his tie, "since I'm here, too, I think we should share this byline. Don't you?"

Lois hesitated for an instant, as if to argue, then begrudgingly agreed, "Oh, all right, Clark, come on. But I get to ask all the questions."

"So what else is new?" quipped Clark as the two walked toward the special table-for-two, complete with a magnum of Dom Perignon and their very own bevy of servers.

"Excuse me, Mr. Wayne," she said in a tone that was the epitome of professionalism, "Lois Lane…Daily Planet…"

"And, uh," Clark quietly interjected, even as he and Bruce shared an instant of bemused hero-to-hero recognition, "Clark Kent, uh, Mr. Wayne."

"I thought you were going to let me ask the questions, Clark?" she said in a hushed aside suffused with sexual tension, causing the disguised Superman to stifle an even greater grin. Then, she said, "Uh, my apologies, Mr. Wayne, now, as I was saying, reliable rumor has it…"

Facial shrugs expressed the closeness as well as amusement of two diametrically different citizens, although, underneath, both were costumed crimefighters of singular statures.

But neither could comprehend the cosmic threat proceeding straight for Earth at near-light velocities after having traversed space-and-time via temporary tunnels of hyperspace from where a world and race had recently been obliterated…

…only to have given birth to Brainiac.

Though still basically a bald, green-skinned Coluan, the addition of mind-altering/amplifying red diodes embodied the remnants of vile, unfeeling, super-computerized existence, once supreme, but now infused within this space-spanning person occupying a quickly created single-entity starship.

"Distance from planetary objective," demanded Brainiac, in a mechanically cold cadence, of his flawlessly designed starship's nanocompters meant especially for details too minute to concern such as he.

"ETA to Earth at current sublight speed: 35.19 minutes."

"Lock onto the Kryptonian," coldly ordered Brainiac without a hint of former emotionality. "I do not wish to waste anymore time on him…than on any of the other so-called 'superheroes' encountered in the previous six star systems."

"Kryptonian's body-signature locked," passionlessly proclaimed the nanocompters. "ETA to Earth at current sublight speed: 34.52 minutes."

"Soon," said Brainiac with a slight snarl being all that's left of a once truly living being, even as his holographic display screens of Superman were replayed from prior long-range hyperspace scans. "Soon…the Kryptonian will be annihilated. And, after him…the entire planet Earth."

END OF CHAPTER 2