I do not own any DC Characters used herein, and am only employing them in a story meant for entertainment purposes only.

Man Of Steel

Original Story By Twisted-Wun & LJ58

Edited and Reposted (With Permission) by LJ58

3

"I'm telling you, Emil," she told the older man over coffee in their usual diner the next day. "One minute I was sinking like a rock, and the next this….. Well, Goth Adonis just grabs my car in one hand, and tears the door off with the other like he was breaking a kiddy toy. Then, whoosh, we're fifty feet in the air just floating over the bay like it's nothing."

"Intriguing," Emil Hamilton agreed, stroking his trimmed, graying beard. "He definitely sounds like a very powerful individual. A meta?"

"That's just what I asked. He said he was from another planet, though."

"Really," the man murmured, stirring his own freshened coffee as he eyed her.

"By the way, Kal-El says hi."

"Kal…..El?"

"That's what he called himself. Kal-El. He seemed to know you. Said he met you at something called the…..X-1 Project."

Lois smiled as Emil suddenly choked, and sputtered, almost spitting out his coffee as he heard those words. "Gotcha," she thought as she leaned back, and smiled smugly at him.

"So, what's the story, Emil? An old military project, wasn't it," she probed. "What happened?"

"Lois, X-1 is dead. Old news. Leave it that way. Because even your own father would bury you over this one."

"Old news is still news, Emil. Besides, they tried to bury me last night, Emil. I still don't know why Lex is really targeting Star Labs lately. Not yet. Still, I get the feeling this gravity-defying alien is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg."

Emil sighed. "Trust me, Lois, if they knew he was still out there, they'd have the entire state cordoned off."

"Emil. This is me."

"I know, and that's what worries me, Lois. I cannot believe even you actually bearded Lex in his own private offices. Don't you realize how dangerous that could have been?"

"Please. We both know the man wouldn't get blood on his carpets. Or his hands. He'd wait until I left."

"Which he did," Emil hissed.

"That's right," she grumbled thoughtfully now. "And it makes Dr. Luthor look even less that reputable when two vehicles licensed to his lab suddenly chase me down on my way home, and run my car into the bay."

"How can you be sure….?"

"Emil, I've been doing this a while now. I got their tags, and ran them through the local precinct. They were his men, all right. I didn't get halfway back to the city before they were all over me, either."

"Well, whatever you do, you can't mention X-1, or Kal-El."

"But he's news, Emil," she scowled. "Big news! Another alien on Earth? A very powerful one, too!"

"You'll cause a panic," he warned her, sipping his coffee again.

"Right. Pull the other one."

He looked around, and then sighed. "Look. I can't explain here, but if you blow the lid off this one, your father is the least of those that will be coming after you. Trust me, Lois. Leave this one lay."

She snorted. "Since when have I ever left anything lay," she demanded.

The scientist shook his head. "True. You do have a lot of your father in you."

"You don't have to be insulting," she huffed indignantly as she signaled for a refill of her mug.

Emil smiled at that. "Just trust me on this one."

"We'll see," Lois told him. "Either way, I've got Lex dead-to-rights this time."

"Speaking of dead," a man drawled from behind Emil as he came up to stand behind the scientist just as the waitress left their table after refilling their cups. "Why don't you two just step outside with us," he said as four others in the same black suits, and mirrored shades appeared, and surrounded their table.

The speaker pulled back his jacket just far enough to show a pistol.

"Now," he said curtly as Emil looked up in alarm.

"Lex must be getting desperate," Lois smirked up at the man, holding her coffee between her mouth and the table.

Around them, three more men in black held the diner's other clientele at bay as they dared show in the daylight, in front of witnesses.

"Just a typical robbery, Lane," the spokesman drawled. "Now, you don't want any innocent bystanders getting hurt," he said. "So, let's go."

"You're kidding," she asked him, still holding her cup in her hand.

"Nice, and quiet," she was told as the man nodded to the side door of the small diner. Not the front.

"Me? Buddy, have you got the wrong woman," she smirked, and abruptly flung her entire cup of coffee into his face, even as an elbow found the unprotected groin of a man standing too close on her left. She used the now empty cup still clutched in her right hand to distract one of the three with their guns out, and he actually dropped his own gun to try to catch it when he threw it at his face.

By then she had shoved up from her chair, kicked another man squarely between his posturing legs, and jerked out his weapon from his waistband before pointing it right at the apparent leader who was by then recovering from her assault.

Emil, pale as slate, cowered in his chair as the men moved to surround Lois.

Her weapon never once wavered.

"Looks like we have a standoff," she smiled thinly as the man yet to even draw his weapon glared heatedly.

"You're crazy woman. You're outnumbered eight-to-one, and you can't possibly take all my men."

"No. But I can shoot you. Only you," she said, thumbing her hammer.

"Even if you kill me," he said coldly, now looking uncertain as to whether she was bluffing.

"Who said anything about killing you," she said, and lowered her aim blatantly to his groin.

The man's eyes rounded now.

"Still feeling…..cocky?"

"You…..bitch," he hissed, looking far less confident as he got the message.

"Yeah, I get that a lot. Now, tell your boys to put their guns down, or you're going to be left only wishing you were a big man."

The man stared hard at her.

"Back off," he told his men.

"But, sir….!"

"Back off," he hissed. "It's not like she's going anywhere."

Which was when a gust of wind blew through the diner, and all eight men suddenly found themselves unarmed. Only Lois still had a weapon. Not that it mattered. All eight men were also sprawled out on the floor, out cold. Their weapons were laying on the table in front of Emil, and there wasn't a clue as to how it had happened.

"Uh, Lois?"

"Emil, we really need to talk," she said, and lowered the hammer on the pistol before setting the weapon aside to yell at the stunned cashier, "Well, don't just stand there. Call the cops."

She had not missed the fact that every one of the pistols except hers had had their barrels crushed flat. and that it had all happened in an eye blink. Less than an eye blink. She had not even seen a thing. Even that Flash character reportedly left a streak behind him.

Emil, staring at the pile of weapons, said nothing.

MoS

Lex stared at Mercy with a look of bland indifference on his face as he eyed the woman. They both knew it was far from accurate.

"You're telling me she not only escaped a plunge into Hobbes' Bay, but has also managed to survive the robbery we arranged this morning to silence her?"

"She seems to have a new guardian angel. A powerful one," Mercy told him. "Witnesses all claim there was a rush of air, and then the men were simply out cold."

"That West Coast Flash character?"

"Hardly. He's too egotistical not to stay around for the press, and his accolades. Whoever or whatever it was, it was fast, and invisible."

"Just what we need in this city. Another do-gooding meta with delusions of grandeur."

"Apparently one that is following Lane," she remarked dourly.

Lex rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. "I've been wanting to get back into metagene research for a while. What better way that to obtain a living specimen right in my own back yard?"

"Sir?"

"Arrange another trap. But I want full containment, and real professionals this time. I want Lane, and this apparent meta, in my hands by midnight tonight."

"I know just the people, Lex," she told him with a faint smile.

"See that they are aware that I do not brook failure, Ms. Graves."

"Understood."

"First, however, arrange for them to visit Star Labs. I think it is well past time Emil had his own unfortunate accident."

The woman only nodded.

MoS

"…..That was the last time I saw the man they had called X-1," Emil told her, Lois sitting in his private office as she sulked over Perry's refusal to run her story on Lex in spite of her twin close calls. It didn't help that all eight men arrested had said nothing, demanded lawyers, and were promptly bailed out before noon, only to be found dead in the city dump not three hours later.

It had Luthor's prints all over it. She just couldn't prove it without a living witness. Emil didn't count. His 'testimony' was suspect since he had no real evidence either, and his lab at been at odds with Luthor-Corp for over six months while Lex tried to force a hostile take-over of his private research labs. With Emil being the majority stockholder, however, he could vote him down every time. And had.

It had to be making Lex crazy.

Crazier.

Still, Lois had yet to figure out why was he so anxious to shut him down? Emil wouldn't mind knowing himself, but didn't have a clue he could offer Lois just then.

"Emil, if we could just tell people…."

"Tell them what, Lois," he asked. "That the government used to have an alien that escaped. That he was held in a place that used to be an underground prison that no longer exists?"

"I see your point," she grumbled sourly

"Besides. After the black eye they took on that one, MRD doesn't even talk about X-1 any longer. Still, if it is him, you can bet they're going to be all over this area if word gets out."

"Yeah? Well, I'm not holding my breath. From what little I saw, they'd have a lot of trouble holding on to…."

They both looked up even as something crashed through the window, and a moment later they watched a tall man in black use his hands to literally muffle an explosion that send dust flying from between his joined fingers.

Then the big man turned and nodded at them with a faint smile.

"Dr. Hamilton. Ms. Lane. If you will excuse me?"

He was gone again just that fast.

Lois cleared her throat as Emil just stared at the locked file cabinet the man had torn open when he burst in before he had pulled out what was apparently a bomb to save them a very grizzly death. Emil rose to his feet, obviously stunned, and looked out the shattered window as a large sedan sped away without its lights on.

It didn't get fifty feet before it somehow rose into the air, and the mystery man shook the vehicle like a child's toy before spilling the men inside out to drop on the ground before he set the car aside. He then tore out a length of nearby fencing, and in a blur of motion, wound and bound the four men in dark fatigues inside the fencing before he turned to toss Lois and Emil a careless salute, and rose into the air fast enough that he seemed to all but vanish into the night sky.

"You tell me, Emil," Lois drawled wryly, suddenly very grateful for the small digital camera Jimmy had finally talked her into carrying. Most of the shots she previewed were blurs of motion, but one stood out. An image of the darkly clad man holding the car over his head as he prevented the would-be assassins' escape. "Was that him?"

"He's…..grown," the older man told her mildly, his eyes still betraying his genuinely stunned demeanor.

"Gee, no? You think?"

"Lois, just over two years ago he tore his way out of a hardened military research lab with relatively little effort. I almost shudder to think what he could do now."

"You said you pitied him," Lois remarked.

"I did. I do. But now….considering how we treated him, I admit I'm just a little bit afraid of him. Because whatever brought him here, and whatever keeps him here, he's more than capable of getting some of his own back."

"Yeah? So why's he keep hanging around saving my admittedly shapely backside, then? Because that doesn't strike me as the sort of thing a vindictive alien would be doing," she remarked as she turned back to scoop up her purse, hunting her cell. Perry had to publish this one. Especially after she showed him the pictures. Well, at least one.

"Maybe he just….likes you," he realized belatedly after a moment.

Lois smiled, and hummed thoughtfully.

It was an expression that Emil, as her godfather, had come to lament over the years.

MoS

"Did I, or did I not, ask for professionals," Lex asked quietly as Mercy walked into his office the following morning as he looked at his desk, rather than the panoramic view from his city tower that he usually favored.

"Lex. Mr. Luthor….."

"Yes, or no, Mercy?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then…..what is this," he thundered, and pounded a fist on the paper that lay on is desk.

The image was striking. A man with obvious muscle holding up a car as if he were he were holding up a Styrofoam prop in a movie. His face was partially hidden in shadow, but there was no doubt it was a man, and the silver glyph on his chest was more than intriguing, but still told him nothing.

The paper's headline trumpeted; "Mystery Superman Saves Local Scientist!"

Mercy grimaced as she looked helplessly at the paper she had already read. Twice. There was nothing beyond a stunning story of the mystery man diffusing a bomb in a unique manner before capturing the 'assassins' in the same inimitable fashion before he vanished.

"We didn't expect this, Lex. Strong, yes. Fast, obviously. But this man is also….."

"Did I ask for excuses, Mercy," Lex asked in a dangerous tone even as the phone rang. "Luthor," he barked, all but pounding the intercom since his secretary was not in yet. It was still too early for her.

"Hello, Dr. Luthor," a gruff voice drawled. "Tell me, why is it that X-1 on the front page of the Daily Planet, and yet I don't even get a call from you?"

"General Lane," he murmured, then looked at the paper again. "Are you telling me….?" "It should be obvious, Dr. Luthor," the brusque Marine general in charge of the Pentagon's top secret Military Research Department, AKA MRD drawled. "In case it wasn't, my daughter called me at 0300 this morning asking about Project X, and X-1. Tell me, Dr. Luthor. Are you selling our secrets again? Because if you are….."

"I'm not selling anything. I've been trying to shut your loud-mouthed spawn up for over a week now. Apparently, however, X-1 seems to have taken a liking to her. He keeps showing up every time we….."

"Target her?"

Lex said nothing.

"Don't forget. My daughter was one of the best Recon Marines that ever served in her time. Just my luck she decided to turn into a crusader after she caught wind of that human metagene testing project you ran for us back then. I hope that this time you're being more careful at Cadmus?"

"Cadmus is secure."

"Good. Good. Then listen very carefully, Lex," the general told him.

"Sir?"

"Leave my daughter alone. I'll handle her. You need to quit playing games with Star, and Emil, too. They are unimportant. Focus on X-1. Needless to say, now that we know he's still on the planet, and in the area, we'd like him back. In one piece. I do not care how you manage it, but I want him back in our custody. The sooner. the better."

"You can't expect me to just….."

"Lex. You will follow orders on this one, or the public scrutiny Lois might bring your less than legitimate side ventures won't amount to half the grief I drop on your bald head. Understand me, mister," the man spat before hanging up.

Lex growled himself as he hung up the phone after the general hung up on him.

"Get the car," he told her. "We're going to Cadmus. And clear my calendar for the week."

"Yes, sir," Mercy nodded obediently.

MoS

Lois stared at the phone on her desk that rang for the twenty-ninth time.

Nineteen were hacks looking for 'Superman's' number. Three were from sources asking if she'd like to go out again some time soon. Two were wrong numbers. The last five were all from her father. She had hung up every time he started his usual, and characteristic bellowing that she interpreted as commands.

"City desk, Lois Lane," she answered blandly, guessing who this call was from well enough since the caller ID was blank, but still priding herself as a professional.

"Lois, I am speaking to you as a concerned father….."

"Fine. Then act like it. I'm not in uniform any more, dad. So don't think you can just bark orders, or anything else. I'm an adult now, and don't you forget it."

Samuel Lane grumbled something under his breath, and Lois smirked knowingly. "So, General Lane," she went on, tapping a pencil against her desk as if her desktop and personal notebook weren't open right in front of her. "Do you have any comment on the alleged 'Superman' sighted in Metropolis recently?"

"Lois, I'm saying this as a concerned father, as much as a ranking general. Do not get involved in this one. It's bigger than you realize, and you could really get hurt. Please listen to me for once in your stubborn life."

"So, you're admitting the Pentagon, and MRD do have something to do with X-1?"

Sam was very quiet.

"Should I take that as a 'no comment,'" she asked.

"Lois….."

"So, he is one of yours? Meta-human, or alien, dad?"

"Lois," he growled, his infamous temper rising.

"Hmmmm. No comment again. Right?"

This time he hung up on her.

Nice to know things hadn't changed. Still, it was telling that he had felt compelled to call her. Lex and his goons had been trying to kill her for over a week, but he never said a word. Let word get out about one of his precious special projects showing up on her radar, though, and he was 'dad of the year.' Yep, you had to love Sam Lane.

She just didn't trust him.

Still, it did seem Kal-El, possibly AKA X-1, was shadowing her lately.

That was kind of creepy in a way, but unlike her usual stalkers, he seemed content to just sit back and wait for opportunities to jump in and save her life. Or fly in, or whatever. It made her wonder what the guy was doing the rest of the time he wasn't swooping down out of the sky to save her butt, because she didn't see him standing around downtown in that outfit that looked kind of unfriendly in her eyes even with the big silver 'S' that had inspired her colorful appellation that some of the media had taken and run with since her story broke.

No surprise the mercenaries he caught had been tight-lipped, and said nothing when they were dragged in by the cops. Someone did try to bail them out, but the judge wasn't having that this time. He kept them locked up, and was waiting for some hotshot federal prosecutor to come in and take over this investigation. Too many bodies lately even for Metropolis' corrupt officials. They had to at least pretend to look competent with an election year coming up.

Drumming her fingers on the desk, she considered all the pieces of a growing puzzle she was putting together.

She knew that her dad had been part of MRD almost from the start. From what she gathered, it began as in investigation into the growing mystery of the 'capes' that were starting to pop up everywhere. Even Russia and China had their own homegrown mystery men according to some of her international sources. Some claimed this crop of metas appearing was due in part to man's continuing evolution. Some claimed it was the result of alien experimentation.

The same ones that claimed there were aliens on the planet.

She might have been the first to scoff at that one once upon a time. If her unit had not been one of those that once had to face off against a nine foot yellow giant with tech right out of the movies back when she was a green rookie. Apparently, as tough as the four-armed bull from space was, a grenade shoved in the right place would bring anything down. That was about the time she started earning her rep as a ball-buster, and a dyke.

Well, that, and breaking the arm of a captain who thought he was an octopus.

The latter didn't help her career, but she didn't last long anyway when she realized her own government was using men who volunteered to defend their nation as guinea pigs. A fact overlooked by their own superiors. It went against everything she had been taught to believe in and respect. She blew the whistle without pausing to think of morals, or ethics. She acted because people were dying. Needlessly, in her eyes, and she didn't hesitate to blow that proverbial whistle long and loud.

Even if it turned out her father was connected to the project run by a brash young researcher with more concern over results than his test subjects. Lex had been a thorn in her side ever since. And, of course, vice versa.

Still, if Kal-El were one of her father's, how did he get him in the first place? He was simply too powerful for her to believe they had captured him through force. Emil still hadn't told her much beyond admitting MRD once held him, and that he one day got away. She wondered, too, if it might be part of the reason Lex was now targeting Emil again. There was still a lot unsaid. A lot that made her guess there was one heck of a story still waiting out there.

If she could dig it out.

"Lane! Why are still sitting around here," Perry demanded as he came out of his office with a lit cigar clamped in teeth, defying the 'No Smoking' signs all around them.

"I'm working, Chief," she told him blandly. "Can't you tell?"

Someone sniggered briefly until Perry's dark gaze turned toward them.

"Well since your fingers aren't on those keys, I'm guessing you're not. So get out of here and find that Superman, and get his story. Papers don't run on yesterday's news, you know?"

Lois wisely refrained from commenting on that one.

"I'm chasing leads now," she told him, tapping the phone with her pencil.

Perry White eyed her, and shook his head. "Fine. But when you decide to get off that butt of yours, take Olsen with you next time. You may be a decent reporter, but you can't take a picture to save your….."

"C'mon, Chief," Lois frowned. "I got a decent shot."

"Out of how many," he fumed.

"Fine. Fine. I'll take Olsen. After you get him paper-trained," she added.

The young redhead across the office paused to glare her way before dropping the mail in 'Cat's' box, and went on to deliver the rest of the morning mail. Even now, he had a camera dangling from his neck, carrying a fanny pack full of gear, and likely had his pockets stuffed with film and batteries. When Perry told the ambitious kid a good photographer slept with his camera, she had the feeling the kid took it literally.

She sighed, shook her head, and realized Perry was still eyeing her.

"Well?"

"Fine. Fine. I'm going. To lunch," she told him, knowing Perry was the kind of dinosaur that thought you had to be out on the streets 24/7 to get a real story, and God help you if you didn't have sources. Real ones, as he was the type to check himself.

Just ask Steve Lombardi, whose journalism career lasted exactly three days before he was kicked out on his fabricated résumé when one of the stories he passed off as legit turned out to be total fabrication. Fortunately, Perry had decided to check it out before it ran. Last she heard of that overly groomed poster boy, Steve was doing weather at the Lex Channel, as she called WLX. All propaganda, all the time.

"Let's go, Olsen. Keep up, or I'm dumping you," she added on the way to the elevators.

"Lane," Perry bellowed her way as she stepped into the lift.

"Yeah, yeah. I know."

Jimmy only smiled, and raced over to join her, holding his camera up like a sword as he exclaimed, "Don't worry, Miss Lane. We won't let you down."

"We," she drawled as she glanced at the kid that didn't look old enough to shave.

Jimmy only smiled as he held up his camera.

"Swell," she muttered, and stabbed the floor button she wanted.

Continued…