A/N: My dear readers, a new action filled chapter!

Busard: Please let me know if the story goes the way you thought it would be :) By the way, did you get my PM?

Supesfan18: Some more cliffhangers are on the way... I made the decision to split chapter 8 into two...

Theroyalhighness supergirl: I love cyber cookies in the form of reviews, they are very yummy my lovely reviewer number 20 :) Aaaaannd one extra cyber gummy bear for your interesting theory ;)

Anon: There is a fine line between being a genius and being a manic. Lex Luthor basically crossed that line when he tried to kill Superman on New Krypton. In this universe Celeste is the only connection to Lex's own humanity left as she saved Superman's life. That's why Lex is displaying such a fondness towards her. What makes him even more dangerous is the fact that he is a very clever psycho and has only one purpose left in his life, to kill Superman and his son! However, there is a more complex and interesting villain on the way in the sequel to POL :)

As usual, a huge thanks to my betas Dragon166 and Astha22, as well as imnotjkr and annabelsmith! A special thanks goes to Supesfan18 for the creative input, especially in this chapter :)

8.

"Superman?"

Clark looked up. "Did you hear that?" he asked Lois and Richard.

Both looked at him, shaking their heads.

"That's right!" Lex Luthor continued. "The special frequency I specifically created for you and me! I bet you never thought I would use it ever again…If you want to see your son alive, I strongly recommend you to come to the basement under the West Side Power Station. Alone of course. You have exactly two minutes. Otherwise I will kill your little bastard!"he demanded.

Speeding out of the house, Clark grabbed his cell phone and called Oliver Queen. He knew he wouldn't be able to take on Lex Luthor on his own.

He was nearly at the appointed spot when he heard the screams of terror in the city. Frowning, he stopped midair and looked over Metropolis and there it was, the monster he had seen on the video at the Daily Planet, making its way through Metropolis, leaving total destruction behind it. His blood froze in his veins.

Tess Mercer turned around, pensive. She was on her way back from a very important meeting at Luthorcorp. She had had suspicions that somebody had been following her throughout the day and now she was absolutely certain. Asking her driver to turn right and then left, she watched the black SVU following her limo copy her turns, although leaving some distance between them. Biting her bottom lip, she shook her head. Could it be that Lex had found out her little secret? Grabbing her backpack with her casual clothes in it, she gave the driver the address of her favorite place. If the SVU followed her there then she was certain it meant that Lex had hired a killer to get her out of the way.

Mathieu Perontier stared deep into the glass in front of him, sitting at the bar of some washed-up Metropolis pub, trying to drown his sorrows in his whiskey.

He was very concerned about Celeste's safety even though he knew that Clark would do his best to make sure she was okay. Knowing Lex Luthor had Kryptonite meant that the situation was getting more dangerous than ever, for all of them. It also didn't help that Oliver had removed him from all involvement and responsibilities in everything related Superman. His boss had not told him why. However, Mathieu was fairly sure that the very close connection he had to Celeste and Clark may have played a role.

Running his hands through his dark brown hair, he came to the conclusion that his whole life had turned into a nightmare.

When somebody suddenly plopped on the bar stool next to him, ordering a Bloody Mary, he just smiled. "What makes you show up in this drinking hole?" he asked without looking up. He could sense that woman even without looking at her. "Don't you have a gala to attend?" he added derisively.

Stirring the ice-cubes in her drink, the bartender had just put in front of her, Tess put the glass on her lips and took a sip. "I missed you yesterday!" she admitted shamelessly.

Taking another big gulp from his glass, Mathieu turned his head and looked at her. She looked totally different in her dark blue tight Jeans and her white singlet, which showed an awful lot of her décolleté. Her hair was in a ponytail, and she didn't wear any makeup, what made him gulp. She looked incredibly beautiful, her natural beauty almost blinding him. A true goddess! He caught himself wondering how it would feel to kiss the pretty and full lips he was staring at.

"I wasn't invited," he said instead as he cleared his throat.

Tess glanced into his eyes. "That didn't hold you back at the Daily Planet fundraising gala," she retorted.

A smile escaped his lips. "I was invited to that one," he let her know. "And by the way, you already had an escort yesterday."

"Oliver," she exhaled as if the billionaire was some sort of a deadly disease.

Mathieu just nodded and delved back to his whiskey, realizing that the glass was already empty. Holding up his hand he ordered another shot. He needed it. Desperately.

"You still haven't answered my question," he asked Tess. "Why are you here?"

His beautiful Australian accent sent shivers down her spine. She put a hand on his arm, a gesture that sent millions of electric shocks through his body.

"I already told you Mathieu, I missed you!" Tess repeated frustrated.

Frowning, he took her hand and put it back next to her glass, but kept his hand on top of hers. "We don't even know each other," he told her bluntly.

She nodded and put her other hand on his chin to stroke with her thumb over his stubble. Gulping about how good he felt, she said, "We can change that."

Now Mathieu got really frustrated. Catching her hand, he looked her deep into her eyes. "Don't play with the fire Tess, you could get burned," he warned her, losing himself in the deepness of her beautiful green eyes. She was just pure magic for him.

"What if I want to get burned?" she whispered provocatively.

"You work for Lex Luthor," Mathieu tried to change the topic as he felt the heat crawl up and down his spine.

"And that's a problem why?" she asked bewildered.

Taking a big gulp from his newly poured whiskey, he waited until the strong burn had vanished in his throat. No, the whiskey wasn't nearly enough to calm him down. Because he wants to kill my best friend and her hero husband. Because me and a bunch of heroes are about to take him out. Because I hate that you work for him. "Because he is an asshole," he said straight into her face.

"Lex is a much respected man in our society," she defended her boss.

"Yeah, right," Mathieu answered depressively as sarcasm dripped from his lips. "A true Samaritan. The biggest in this world as a matter of fact."

Tess turned around and grabbed his arm to force him to look into her eyes. "Yes, he is! He has more charities than you have money in your bank account," she tried to explain the goodness of Lex Luthor.

"And more bodies on his conscience than a dime are a dozen," he contradicted.

"What are you talking about?" she asked puzzled.

"Don't pretend you don't know," he got angry, clenching his teeth by thinking of the danger Celeste was in at the moment because of the bald billionaire.

"And I started to like you," Tess yelled as she got up from her chair and stormed out of the bar. She needed to get out. She felt like a mouse trapped in a mousetrap.

Mathieu just watched her, totally puzzled about her strange behavior. Something was off. Swearing, he threw some money on the bar and got up to follow her.

Outside he found her crying. "Tess what is wrong with you?" he asked her as he got a tissue out of his jeans pocked and handed it to her.

She grabbed it and sniffed into it. "I'm sorry," she sobbed. "I really don't know what's wrong with me. I usually don't harass men in general."

Putting the tissue back into his pockets, he just gazed at her. "Maybe it's the power that comes with your position?" he realized with a big grin.

Tess nodded, but at the same moment, she noticed the black SVU from earlier just at the end of the street. She really liked Mathieu. Well, even more, but at the moment she had to finish her job.

Sniffing the last tears out of her eyes, she said. "I should go."

He just stared at her. "Yes you should," he agreed. But instead of letting her go, he lifted his hand and brushed a red strain of hair gently behind her ear.

That gesture sent shockwaves through Tess' body. It surprised her that much that she wasn't able to move at all. She knew that she, and as a matter of fact Mathieu, were in danger. But never ever had a man touched her that gently. He came closer and Tess realized that she had parted her lips before his lips had brushed over hers. Kissing him as if there was no tomorrow, she jumped up in his lap as he turned around and crushed with her into the wall behind them, intensifying the kiss even more. She turned her head, inviting him to kiss her throat.

Mathieu stopped, panting. "Tess," he whispered huskily. "You…," he tried to say it out loud, but she put her index finger on his lips and smiled.

"It's okay," she reassured him and continued to kiss his soft lips as she crossed her long legs behind his back, pulling him closer. All the hormones in her body were in turmoil. Even if she had wanted to, she just wasn't able to think straight anymore after his passionate kiss. She would so not stop to kiss that man even if this was the last thing she would ever do.

The moment she grabbed his head and pulled him closer to kiss him again, a light flashed and a gunshot cracked. When the bullet smashed into the wall just an inch next to them, they stopped, totally surprised.

Mathieu spun around, puzzled. What was that?

Tess opened her eyes and gasped. Lex's henchman stood in front of them, a weapon in his hand. He reloaded the gun straight away to fire it, but an unearthly sound made him stop instantly. Shaking he turned around to find out what had caused the strange sound.

Mathieu let Tess back on the floor to shield her body with his own. He didn't know how to protect her, but he would rather die in the attempt to make her life a little safer.

All of a sudden, a big horned monster showed up just behind the killer. Tess and Mathieu looked at each other in total disbelief. What was that thing and where did it come from? The monster looked at them and then at Luthor's henchman. Grabbing the now screaming like crazy criminal, the beast squeezed the man until his body was ripped into two parts. Discarding the body carelessly behind it, it then walked up to the two people staring at it.

Extending its hands, it grabbed Mathieu when a loud crack rocked the earth.

"Let them go!" Superman demanded behind the monster, nodding mutely at Mathieu. The pilot nodded back, signaling the hero that he and Tess were okay so far.

The monster turned around and let the captured man drop on the floor. Opening its mouth it supersped instantly to Superman and took him with it.

Mathieu und Tess could just watch them, gaping beyond belief for more than a minute. When Tess finally realized that the killer and the monster were gone, she pressed one more kiss on Mathieu's lips and pushed him with his face against the wall, grabbing his arm and trapping it against his back, holding the man, with one of her legs on his lower back, in place.

"Wow, wow, wow, easy luv. What's going on?" he asked, a bit scared about her reaction.

"Shut up!" she yelled.

"What?" he asked, still shaken up about the killer, the ugly monster, and most of all, the superhot make out session with her.

"NSA," Tess told him harshly and waved her badge over his shoulder. "You are arrested!"

Superman realized that the monster had to be from Krypton the moment they both crashed into a huge office building. Thanking all the spirits in the world that it was in the middle of the night, and that nobody was at work at this time of the day, Superman tried to get a grip of the monster. But the beast just lunged out and slapped the hero in the face with one of the sharp horns on the back of its hand. He instantly started to bleed out of the big nasty scar on his cheek. Brushing the blood away with the hem of his sleeve, he looked angrily at the monster. He had to stop it, but realized that it would be harder than he thought.

Looking around, he tried to find a way to lure that thing away from the very densely populated area in Metropolis. He didn't want to endanger more lives.

The monster looked at the hero. Was that a grin on its horn covered mouth?

Tucking its chin in it took speed again and swept Superman from his feet within a split-second, taking flight with him high above Metropolis. There they hovered, punching at each other with such a power, the earth underneath them started to vibrate.

Superman knew that he only had one chance. Lifting his fist, he stroked out and sent the monster at the other end of the town. The thing crashed into a house and Superman realized with horror, that it was occupied by people. Superspeeding into the house, he grabbed the mother and her little child and flew with them to a safe distance.

When Superman dropped them on the floor as far away from the monster as possible for him in the short amount of time, the woman brushed over his injury and looked concerned into his eyes. "Be careful!" she warned him. He nodded and took flight again.

The deadly creature was already on its way to hit him and smashed directly into him. As they were fighting midair, some of the other heroes showed up, watching them in total shock.

They were fighting for more than ten minutes, and then all of a sudden, the monster hit Superman that hard that he lost his balance midair and plummeted to the ground.

Green Arrow, who had been just a few feet away from where Superman had crashed, ran up to him.

The hero was dizzy from the impact and looked confused at his friend. Green Arrow helped him to get up, but realized with great concern, that Superman stumbled with every step.

"Are you okay?" he asked, holding his friend's arm to help him to keep his balance.

Superman shook his head. "I don't think I can defeat the monster," he said in a hoarse voice.

Green Arrow just nodded and talked into his intercom system. "We need to find a way to distract Fluffy," he informed to the other heroes.

Black Canary answered him straight away. "What about the Metropolis Thermal Plant?"

Oliver got interested. "What about it?" he asked.

"Do you think Superman can trap the monster somehow in there?"

The archer looked at his friend who had slightly recovered from his injuries. "Isn't the plant cut from the power net due to restructuring work?" Superman asked as he tried to stop the bleeding from a deep cut at his chest with his cape.

"The plan could work," Batman's rough voice whispered into the intercom. "You know what you have to do Boy Scout. Good luck!" Then he was gone.

"I let the thing come as close as I can," Superman explained to his friend. "And then I try to catch it and leap with it into the plant."

"Once Fluffy is out of the way, I will be your backup to save Jason, okay?" Green Arrow reassured his friend.

Superman just nodded. The feeling of nausea took over, and his fear about Jason and what had happened to Celeste paired with the strong pain of his injuries caused him almost to puke.

"The monster is from Krypton," he told Oliver as he felt the bile running up his throat.

"What?" the other man asked. But didn't get an answer as the merciless beast suddenly showed up and grabbed Superman, smashing him into a shop window a mile away from Green Arrow.

Closing his eyes and feeling a stinging pain on his side, Superman prayed that the plan would work. Focusing all of his strength, he grabbed the horned alien and shot forward in the direction of the thermal plant. There they both vanished within a split-second, followed by a huge explosion.

Then there was silence.