Chapter 6
"I must admit, I never thought I'd find you of all people in this position," Kal-El said nothing keeping his eyes glued on the computer screen, while Lex watched smugly as his security team surronded him. "At least not so easily caught," Lex sighed happily "It truly is the most wonderful time of the year."
Kal-El slowy backed away from the computer, Lex's men quickly training their guns on him, glancing at Lex from the corner of his eye. "I understand you've been having some memory problems. Allow me to fill in some the blanks," he offered "We were close once, you and I. Friends. You once said, that I was like a brother to you."
"So why is it that now you look at me like you can't stand me?" Lex asked. Truth be told, he was as surprised to hear that he and the alien had once been close. He had always felt familiar, but he had never expected them to once have been friends. "What happened to us?"
"The one thing that always destroys even the strongest of friendships," Kal-El answered "A girl." Kal-El whipped his head around and let out a gust of air, his superbreath hurling Lex and his men into the air and slamming them into the wall.
Lex groaned as he rolled over to his side, his vision clearing to show Kal-El standing over him.
"You know the worst part of it all is Lex? You were like a brother to me too."
Kal-El reached into his coat and pulled out a small glass medallion in the form of the mark of the House of El. Lex paled as it began to give off a brilliant pearly light.
"I'm sorry old friend," Kal-El said in sincere, honest voice "but as you once said: It has to end this way."
As the light reached a dazzling peak, a single soared through the air and hit it out of Kal-El's hand, sending is skidding across the floor.
"Back away," the Green Arrow ordered "Now."
Kal-El chuckled. "Still trying to put the fear of God into your enemies I see. And you," Kal-El gestured toward Clark "I thought I told you to stay out of my way."
"And I thought you said you weren't here to cause trouble," Clark countered "So we're both wrong."
"Guess we're both just too stubborn for our good," Kal-El assumed "Tell me Superman, have you learned this trick yet?" Kal-El raised his hand and snapped his fingers, the tiny motion causing the entire room to tremble as it unleashed a sonic boom. The windows shattered, and the others were sent flying back..
Clark slowly rose to his feet and checked on the now unconscious Oliver, out cold, but fine, and turned a spiteful glare upon Kal-El.
"Now that show and tell's over, how about we take this outside?"
Kal-El took off, soaring into the sky and above the tallest buildings of Metropolis with Clark right behind him. Kal-El paused and faced Clark, daring the younger Man of Steel to face him.
Clark charged Kal-El at full speed, his fists clenched as he fired a powerful left hook right at the commander's face.
Kal-El barely dodged it, the blow just grazing the edge of his nose as Clark flew past him. "You're faster than I thought," he complimented. "But being able to outrun a speeding bullet won't get you out of this one."
"We'll see about that!" Clark charged him again, only to have his next blow blocked and countered with a ear-ringing punch to face. Followed by a deafening blow to his ribs that made Clark bend keel over and groan as the air was brutally forced out of his lungs.
"You just don't seem to get it do you?" Kal-El whispered darkly into Clark's ear "You can't win. You chances of beating me are as slim as you losing a fight to that clumsy, earthbound kid we were back in Smallville."
To prove a point, Kal-El grabbed Clark by the base of his cape, sending him to tailspin as he spun Clark and a launched him into the roof of a nearby parking garage, the impact from Clark's rapid descent leaving a massive crater and setting three level's worth of car alarms.
Clark groaned as he slowly rose to his feet and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth as Kal-El softly landed behind him "You should've let me take of Lex. I would've been doing you a favor."
"You were going to put him in the Phantom Zone."
"Do you honestly think that there isn't a prison on any Earth that a Lex Luthor can't lie, buy or threaten his way out of?" Kal-El asked angrily. "Putting him in the Phantom Zone is the only way to make sure that that madman doesn't kill anymore innocent people."
"So what? You just go around imprisoning anyone the police can't reach?" Clark argued "Playing judge, jury and executioner?"
"Don't you dare stand there and defend Lex like he's some common criminal!" Kal-El snapped. "You and I both know that he is anything but. The man that you saved on the bridge all those years ago is gone," Kal-El emphasized "he can't be saved. And if you don't accept that, soon you won't be able to hind who you really are behind tripping over your feet and a pair of glasses for much longer. No matter how many second chances you give him."
Clark's eye's narrowed. "What are you talking about?"
"Why do you think I stopped being Superman? Lex told my secret to the entire world!" Kal-El shouted "After everthing he put me through, I gave Lex another chance. And in return he nearly ruined my life."
"If that's true, then why did you even give him a second chance in the first place?" Clark asked.
"Tess thought she could save him. When Lex came back after the Fortress collapsed, she tried to do for him what the League did for her." Kal-El's became touched with grief "After she died, Lex fell back into his old habits," Kal-El swallowed a growing lump in his throat "The Lex I know would die a thousand times for his sister if given the chance. Yours stabbed her in the stomach and left her to die alone on the floor on her office," he reminded Clark sharply "Whatever good there is left in that man, Lionel buried it so deep, that no one can reach it."
"I don't believe that," Clark disputed.
"Which is exactly what makes you so naive," Kal-El scoffed. He turned his back on Clark and marched toward the edge of the roof. "I'm only going to say this one more time," Kal-El warned just before he disappeared into the winter sky "stay out of my way."