Chapter 12

The Watchtower...

"Where is he?" Diana demands to know, her voice full of barely contained rage.

"Where's who?" Zatanna, the magician, asks as she sits in the commissary having a coffee along with Vixen and Hawkgirl.

"Plastic Man!" Diana replies.

"Oh jeez. What did the moron do this time?" Zatanna asks with a resigned tone.

"Moron's kind of harsh," Vixen says in a partial defence of Plastic Man.

"It's not harsh enough," Hawkgirl expresses her opinion of the idiot.

"Wait. I thought you kicked him out of the League," Zatanna recalls.

"I did," Diana confirms sounding pleased about that. "But J'onn said I couldn't do that without a vote so I had to let him back in," she says sounding less pleased by that.

"Well that is kind of authoritarian Diana," Zatanna points out. "The League is not like your home. It's not a monarchy."

"Mores the pity," Diana grumbles in complaint because it would make it so much easier if decisions didn't have to be endlessly debated.

"So what did he do?" Vixen asks in relation to what it is Plastic Man to anger Diana so.

"He slide under my door into my room!" Diana shouts.

"Well...um...that's not the worse thing he has ever done," Vixen argues in a weak defence.

"While I was in the shower," Diana adds.

"Ah," Zatanna says now comprehending why Diana is so steamed. Course that also explains Diana's still slightly damp hair.

"Little twerp," Hawkgirl insults Plastic Man. "If you need help with disposing of the body give me a call," she offers.

"Don't tempt me," Diana says as her keen eyes scour the commissary for any sign of Plastic Man. Since he could twist himself into any shape he could hide himself away anywhere. Just then she receives a telepathic summons from J'onn. "I have to go but if you see Plastic Man please inform him I am looking for him," she tells him.

"More like looking for the place to stick a knife into him," Zatanna whispers to Vixen at the look in Diana's eye.

Diana steps next to Zatanna, leans down and whispers in her ear, "I have better hearing than a wolf and I heard that."

Zatanna gulps and fidgets in her seat uncomfortably as Diana glares at her for several moments before leaving.

"Wow you really have a way with people don't you Zee," Hawkgirl remarks.

"What do you mean?"

"As I recall didn't Dinah put you on her 'Shit List'." Essentially a list Dinah made up of people who have gotten on her bad side.

"Oh come on. It was a joke!" Zatanna defends herself.

"You made a joke about about a man cheating on a woman when Dinah was sitting at the table 3 days after she caught Ollie cheating," Vixen reminds Zatanna.

"She was at the table behind me! I didn't know she was there! I apologised!" Ok so Zatanna also just might admit the joke was in poor taste even if Dinah hadn't been there.

"When was the last time you actually talked to her?" Vixen asks Zee.

"Uh...err...awhile," Zatanna lamely comes up with.

"You are so still on the list," Hawkgirl believes.


It is down to the hangar Diana found herself summoned. As she arrives she finds a sleek alien craft parked up. As well as J'onn, Hal is there. "What is going on?" she asks her two male teammates.

"Trouble," Hal mutters, his face looking grimmer than Diana thinks she has ever seen it. She didn't even know Hal was back. He had been called away a couple of weeks ago by the Guardians who were trying to peacefully solve a territorial dispute between two space faring empires before it dissolved into war.

A hatch on the side of the craft opens up and a ramp descends. Then coming stepping out of the craft comes a woman with long thick red hair dressed in some kind of black and gold armour Diana would describe it as with a white cape pinned from the shoulders. A sword rest on her hip and a crown upon her head. She strides down and Diana can instantly see power, finesses, a regal upbringing.

The woman walks over right up to Diana and gives her a condescending once over. She looks at Hal. "This is your leader?" she inquires sounding not very impressed at what she sees.

Hal takes a breath. "Yes. This is Diana, Princess of Thermyscria, leader of the Justice League, better known by the people of Earth as Wonder Woman. Diana this is..."

The woman cuts him off. "Don't ordain yourself fit to introduce me peasant," she says with utter disdain.

Hal mumbles something inaudible in response.

The woman looks Diana in the eye and Diana can see utter contempt in that stare. "I am Maxima, Queen of Almerac," she says full of her own self-importance.

"Your Majesty," Diana replies politely. "What brings you to Earth?"

Maxima smiles coldly. "I am here to accept on behalf of the leaders of this world your immediate and unconditional surrender or I will have my armada burn this pathetic little backwater planet to ash."


Metropolis...

Clark chokes as his neck is caught in the vice grip of two legs who flip him through the air and he lands with a grunt on a does not soften the fall at all mat. His hands go up to his throat which he rubs. There had to be better ways than this to spend his day off.

There is a sound of annoyance and Clark looks up as Barbara stands over him, dressed in workout clothes, her hands on her hips, looking displeased.

"You're holding back," Barbara chastises him.

Two weeks since he agreed to let her train him. Two weeks since she decided they should only have a 'professional' relationship. Two weeks of hell. Not for what she is putting him through but the fact he is still attracted to her and has to look at her in skin-tight workout clothes. Give him a break. He's only...well not human but he is still a guy and Barbara is a very attractive woman.

Clark gets to his feet with a huff and half-curses the ring with the blue stone currently sitting on the third finger of his right hand. The blue stone that suppresses his powers. He knew he should never have mentioned it and then he wouldn't have to be suffering like this.

Barbara looks at Clark with a deep frown of irritation at him. She had gone through the effort of clearing a space in the building she keeps her stuff, oh just call it Batgirl's hideout, so she could train him and when imitating the moves he could do it no problem. In fact he learned at a prodigious pace so why the hell can she put him down so easily? The only reason Barbara can think of is that he is essentially letting her by holding himself back. "I thought we discussed this," she says. "I know you are uncomfortable with hitting me but you said you would try. In fact I got you to promise."

"You're asking me to ignore my natural instincts," Clark argues with her.

"You need to learn how to fight," she reiterates a point she has made before.

"I'm not disagreeing with you."

Barbara feels like screaming. For such a nice guy he could be incredibly frustrating. He is so closed off and restrained at times he could give Bruce a run for his money yet at the same time he can be utterly goofy and mischievous on occasion. God she would love to just...just...

'Throw him up against the wall and kiss him stupid,' a voice in her head says.

Yes.

No.

Well maybe.

Gah!

Barbara's mental scream of frustration was because despite her saying she wanted to keep it professional being around Clark is testing her resolve. He is so nice and lets face it gorgeous. He is like...she doesn't know...the perfect vision of what a man should look like. She steadies her defences both emotional and physical. "Again," she tells him as in lets start this again.

Clark takes his stance and Barbara can say at least that has improved significantly in the couple of weeks since she started training him. He could learn and he could do this. The problem was that he really didn't want to and only did so because he logically understood it was necessary.

Like Barbara said. He is just incredibly frustrating at times.

Ok so here they go. Barbara will go easy on him to start with and then increase the difficulty and see what he has learned. Her first and rather obvious attacks are blocked. Good. She expected him to manage that. He counters. She blocks his attacks which to be fair are a vast improvement on the first time they did this. His attacks then were clumsy and easy to read. Now at least they were more precise and she could still read them but really only because she is so experienced at doing so. The average thug wouldn't see them coming.

Barbara ups the tempo. A combination of punches and kicks during all of which he is missing the opportunity to try and use her momentum against her. She has a sudden thought and to test her theory leaves a deliberate opening. He doesn't take it. "Enough!" she yells raising her hand telling him to stop. She places her hands on her hips. "What did I say?" she asks him rhetorically. "I said not to hold back. I left a deliberate opening and you didn't see it."

"Oh I saw it. I just didn't take advantage of it."

"Which only reinforces my point."

"Babs why on earth would I want to hit you. I don't."

Barbara is this close to killing him. "Clark the bad guys if you want to call them that aren't as forgiving as you are. You have to take them down at the first opportunity because if you don't...well simply you're dead."

"I'm invulnerable," he argues.

"Not quite if you'll recall what Grundy did to you and also Clark you really have no idea of your limits. You admitted you've never tested them. You don't know what can and cannot hurt you in reality."

"Was that suppose to be a motivational speech because I wasn't getting that vibe."

"You want motivational talk to Black Canary. She is surprisingly good at them when she puts her mind to it. I'm laying out the harsh bare truth for you."

Clark looks at her curiously. Barbara could be warm and funny but right now all he is getting is this cold, unfeeling persona she imposes upon herself. Strictly professional. Well fine. If that is what she wants so be it. Without warning Clark attacks her and it is only years of trained, honed instincts that allow her to block.

The surprise quickly wears off and Barbara uses her superior agility to bend, weave and duck before she turns the fight to her advantage. If she wasn't so annoyed he did that she would actually commend him because this is what she has been wanting from him all along. She lands a kick to his mid-section and tries to follow that up with a kick to his head but he catches her leg at the ankle and twists hard.

Barbara uses the momentum to bring her other foot round and kick him in the head as she lands on the floor face first. She scrambles up and charges into his gut. He digs his feet in and stops the momentum before Clark grabs her by her waist and uses his still fairly impressive strength advantage to lift her up and simply throw her.

Barbara lands with a grunt on the mat. That hurt.

"So how was that?" he asks her sounding almost mocking.

Barbara gets back to her feet. "Not bad for someone who has taken 2 weeks to manage to get me down to the mat once," she says back in the same almost mocking tone.

"Oh you like being on the mat huh? Well I can help you with that." He charges into her like she did to him only it is obvious he is not using his whole strength. If he had he would have knocked the wind out of her although he almost has done that. She lifts her knees up into his solid muscular chest. That's going to leave a bruise on her but it knocked him back up. She throws a punch. He grabs it and they end up grappling. Barbara manages to get her feet into a position to trip him up only he doesn't let go and she goes down with him landing on top of him.

They end up rolling around wrestling on the mat until he manages to get a grip of both her hands and pin them above her head. She is essentially beaten at this point. Even with the ring he is wearing Clark is much stronger than she is. Barbara looks up and finds those cerulean blue eyes staring down at her with scary intensity. Barbara finds her breath catching at the depth of emotion she sees in there of feelings he is restraining.

The rational side of Clark knows this is stupid. They had only one official date and one kiss but he has been wanting to kiss her again and the sight of her below him is just...oh to hell with it. He's going to live just this once. He lowers his head and captures her lips with his.

Barbara's eyes widen for one moment before she takes her now free hands, wraps them around the back of his neck and kisses him back. His hands glide down her sides. God how much has she missed this. The gentle caress of male hands on her. Clark's kisses moves off her lips, onto her jaw and her neck. She closes her eyes and leans her head back to allow him better access to her neck. She moans at how good he is at this and how good this feels. "Oh...oh...oh Dick!"

Clark freezes.

Barbara freezes before whispering, "Shit."

In a moment Clark is off her and across the room. She stands up. "Clark," she begins to say.

Clark almost laughs. If he isn't embarrassed and humiliated enough she wants to say what? That she's sorry. No thanks. He won't stick around for that. He pulls the ring off his finger and before Barbara can blink he is gone.

Barbara looks to the heavens. She has just monumentally screwed up.


The Watchtower...

Now for Hal Jordan being in a room with a beautiful woman is usually just an opportunity for him. However when that person is a superstrong Amazon Princess whose expression is literally murderous it is a nightmare.

"A joke?" Diana says her voice showing how angry and unamused she is. She had left J'onn to keep Maxima company and pulled Hal into a conference room to get an explanation of just what in the name of Hades is going on. So far she wasn't liking what she was hearing.

"On Almerac that would have been considered funny," Hal tries to justify Maxima's comment about reducing Earth to ash.

"Since it is an absolute monarchy and from what you describe of Maxima's personality I have no doubt her subjects would been laughing heartedly. Most probably because she would put them to death if they didn't."

"More likely life-imprisonment," Hal moderates although not by much.

"What are you doing bringing her here?" Diana demands to know.

"I was on Almerac at the Guardians' request trying to set up a peace conference between Almerac and the Krenon Cyborgs." They were the two parties threatening to go to war that Hal had been called back to help deal with.

"Go on," Diana requests of him.

"When I was there Maxima demanded to know who I was, what species I was and where I came from. I thought it best to be diplomatic and tell her about Earth."

Diana can understand why Hal would do that but it doesn't explain why Maxima is here.

"For some reason I can't explain Maxima decided that Earth was the perfect neutral place to have her peace talks. She told the Guardians this and they accepted and told me to escort her here and they would arrive in a few days with the Krenon representative and here we are."

"Yes here you are," Diana says not sounding happy at all. "Hal we are not equipped to host a peace conference for intergalactic empires. Certainly not on a few days notice." Diana is all too happy to try and help avoid war but you can't just drop these things out of the blue and expect people to be able to set it up.

"Don't worry about that. The actual talks will be held in a construct the Guardians will create when they get here," Hal tells Diana meaning the Guardians will create a place in orbit just like Hal creates any of his constructs with his ring. "All we have to do is to keep Maxima happy until the Guardians arrive."

Of course what neither Hal nor Diana realise is that keeping Maxima happy is no easy task.


The Kent Farm, Smallville...

Clark sits on the couch in the loft of the barn with his head in his hands. He had returned home. He needed to be alone. If he went back to Lana's apartment she would know something had happened and he doesn't want to talk about it with her. He just wants to be on his own with his embarrassment and humiliation and he is trying really hard not to be angry but has a feeling that is a losing battle.

Jimmy was right about one thing though. It does hurt.

Jimmy was right when he warned Clark to be careful about dating someone who wasn't over their ex and Barbara is obviously not over hers otherwise she wouldn't haven ended up moaning his name. Clark knows who Dick is in the sense Barbara had mentioned the name of her ex-boyfriend. She had never mentioned why they broke up but whatever the reason she obviously was not ready to move on and Clark therefore just made a total ass of himself.

"Ma. Pa. I wish you were here now," he thinks to himself because he could really do with their advice.


Metropolis...

It was late and Lana was starting to get worried about Clark. So much so she has found herself pacing around her apartment. She hadn't seen him since this morning and he wasn't answering his phone.

Don't get Lana wrong she knows he can take care of himself but it just isn't like him not to at least leave a message of some sort.

Lana never imagined being in this situation so the stark truth is she never considered what to do. Maybe she is being silly. Maybe Clark is with Barbara. Clark hasn't been too forthcoming about that relationship lately. Lana guesses it wasn't going so well from his rather downbeat mood but maybe they sorted it out and they are out doing something together.

That would explain why Clark's phone is off. Yes that makes sense. She is probably worrying over nothing. Clark will show up by the morning, flash his goofy smile and apologise and that'll be that.

In that case Lana could just turn in early which is what she decides to do. If on the very slim possibility Clark doesn't appear by the morning she guesses she'll have to report him missing to the police but he'll show. Lana doesn't need to worry about that. Clark never lets you down.

Lana is about to stride toward her room when there is a knock on her door. She frowns wondering who this could be at this time of night. Lana walks over to the door and opens it to find a figure in a long brown trench coat whose face is hidden by a wide-brimmed hat. Before Lana can speak the person raises a hand and blows some kind of dust into her face.

Lana coughs and splutters and then her conscious self-aware mind knows no more.


The next day...

The pounding Barbara is hearing is either someone knocking at her door or her head. It takes her awhile but she finally figures out it is both. She rolls to her side and promptly falls off the couch upon which she had fallen asleep last night. She crawls towards the door. When she gets there she grabs the knob and pulls herself to her feet before she finally manages to open it.

"You look like crap," the person on the other side says.

"Not in the mood Dinah," Barbara whines as her hand goes to her pounding head.

Dinah wanders in and looks around to find beer bottles littering the place. "What did you do? Buy every beer in the city?" she inquiries.

"Yeah. Lets go with that," Barbara says morosely as she staggers over to the couch and collapses down. "Why are you here?"

Dinah pulls her phone out of her pocket. "You drunk dialled me last night," she reminds Barbara.

Barbara's brow furrows. "Did I?"

Dinah half-smiles. "Don't remember huh?"

Barbara shakes her head.

"Ok first off you need coffee and then you can explain to me why I got drunken messages about how you screwed up something and why you felt the need to drink yourself into this stupor." Dinah watches Barbara fall down on the couch and pull a cushion over her head. When Dinah got the drunken messages last night she got concerned because there was crying and through the slurred speech Barbara was obviously upset about something which is why Dinah is here this morning.

Dinah fires up the coffee maker and then gets to work trying to make a dent into picking up all the bottles and tidy up Barbara's apartment. Once the coffee is ready Dinah sits down next to her friend and gives Barbara plenty of time to start explaining.

"You can quit with the looks," Barbara says.

"Come on Barbs. Talk to me. What happened?"

Barbara takes a few more minutes as she continues to drink down her coffee before deciding what to do. "Ok but first off I need you to promise to keep this secret and I mean secret Dinah," she emphasises the need to keep it secret.

"I promise," Dinah says too lightly for Barbara's liking

"Dinah," Barbara says with a glare to rival Bruce's.

"I promise Barbara," Dinah repeats with absolutely seriousness and sincerity that she promises.

"It involves Clark."

"Not going so well I assume."

"It was going fine until I found out who he was."

"I'm lost."

"The Blur."

"What about him?"

"Clark is him."

"Huh?"

"Clark is the Blur."

Barbara watches varying emotions play across Dinah's face before she bends over and laughs long and hard.

"Dinah. It's not funny!" Barbara tells her laughing blond friend off.

"Oh it is. It really is," Dinah says between her guffaws because it was just hilarious that Barbs ended up dating the very guy she was looking for and didn't know it. "How did you find out?"

Barbara explains about the fight with Grundy and how Clark's shades were crushed and his hood fell off revealing his face.

Dinah reigns in her laughter until they are down to small giggles. "So what happened next?"

Barbara reveals how Clark had figured out her identity.

"He did it by your scent?" Dinah queries that a little put off.

Barbara nods.

"Ok that is either really impressive or a little creepy," Dinah says unable to decided which it is.

"It is what it is Dinah."

"I'm not sure how this leads into the two of you having problems. In fact I thought you would be delighted about the fact you could date someone honestly. It does make it easier."

"Because I thought it best if I was mentoring him that we should keep our relationship professional."

Dinah looks at Barbara utterly baffled by that. "Barbara don't take this the wrong way but for a clever person that was just stupid."

"Was it?"

"Yes."

"Really. Tell me Dinah how did that mentor/student thing work out for you and Ollie?"

Dinah's face darkens. "First off that's a low blow," she says very unhappy about Barbara using Dinah's emotional pain to make her point. "And second you can't compare the two situations. Ollie always had a wandering eye. I thought I could change him. Mores fool me on that front. Now I don't know Clark personally but from what you said about him I don't think he is anything like Ollie."

"No. He's not," Barbara says with a sad wistful sounding voice.

"So you decided to be dumb and somehow think you and Clark would end up like me and Ollie. That doesn't explain your messages last night," Dinah points out.

Barbara sighs. "Saying I wanted it to be professional didn't make the attraction go away."

"I hate to sound like Helena but no shit Sherlock. You should know you can't just command your emotions to stop."

"They didn't."

"So what happened?"

"Well as I mentioned in a roundabout way I've been starting to train Clark to fight."

Barbara had told Dinah she was training the Blur to fight. "Yeah you said he was really poor."

"He was. No-one had ever taught him anything. He's a lot better now. He learns at an incredible speed. You can teach him in hours something that should take days."

"You're procrastinating," Dinah points out at the fact Barbara still hasn't explained what happened.

"Ok so we sparring and he managed to pin me."

Dinah's eyebrows rise up. "Really? In two weeks he managed to do that. That is impressive," she has to concede because Barbara was extremely skilled. It isn't easy to take Barbs down.

Barbara shrugs. "Well anyway we were on the mat..."

"And you started making out," Dinah guesses from the picture in her head.

Barbara nods, her face glum.

"Ok. What did he do?"

"Clark didn't do anything."

"Ok then. What did you do?"

Barbara hesitates for a few moments. "...I may have moaned out Dick's name," she confesses.

"Sweet Jesus fucking Christ!" Dinah swears loudly.

"Dinah!" Barbara says shocked at the strong blasphemy.

"Well what do you expect me to say. That's like the worst thing you can ever do. If it had been the other way round with him moaning out another woman's name how would you feel?"

"Angry and humiliated. That's probably why when I tried to phone him I found Clark had turned his phone off."

Dinah is feeling a lot of disappointment and anger in her friend right now but Barbara is her friend which is why Dinah will be sticking with her despite this. "Ok look anyone in this situation needs a day or two by themselves. How about you tell me why you said Dick's name?"

Barbara rubs her head. "I'm hungover Dinah. I'm really not in the shape to think on this."

"The correct answer is you said it because you wanted it to be him."

"Maybe," Barbara might be willing to concede. "Like I said I'm in no shape to think on it."

"Obviously. So you screwed up and thought the solution was to get hammered?" Dinah assumes as to why Barbara is hungover.

"Dinah I felt bad. I feel bad. Don't think for a second I don't realise what I did to Clark so yes I got hammered."

"Barbs I'm your friend. I'll always support you but you have got to figure out what the hell it is you want. Do you want Dick or don't you?"

"I don't know," Barbara says in total frustration because from what she can remember from last night she did think about it as she was chugging down precocious amounts of alcohol. "I like Clark. I really do," she says almost pleading with Dinah to believe her.

"Yet it seems you still want Dick."

"I know," she confesses at a whisper. Tears start to well up in her eyes.

Dinah puts an arm around Barbara's shoulder. "You want to cry go ahead. I'm not leaving," she says in a soft sympathetic tone and Barbara does just that.


The Watchtower...

Diana is a princess and her mother is a Queen. Make no mistake Hippolyta loved her and Diana loves her mother but her mother could be difficult at times. However just one day spent in Maxima's company has made Diana appreciate that by comparison her mother is, to use a term of Man's world, a saint.

Never in Diana's life had she met a more demanding, unreasonable, pompous, arrogant, condescending, full of herself, full of her own self-importance...

"Whoa. Calm down there Diana. You look like you're going to burst a blood vessel."

Diana looks up to see Zatanna joining her at the table she currently occupies in the commissary.

"Let me guess. Maxima," Zee assumes to be the cause of the intense stormy look on Diana's face.

"If I have to listen to one more of her demeaning speeches I'm going to hit her," Diana vows.

"What did she say to you?"

"She offered me some advice on how to behave more like proper royalty," Diana says grinding her teeth just thinking back on it. "And don't get me started what she said when I pointed out that everything I know I learned from my mother."

"I'm going to guess it wasn't complimentary."

"Good guess."

"Trust me Diana I know how you feel. She wasn't exactly complimentary about me either."

Diana looks at Zatanna slightly puzzled. Zatanna was a good person and friend and a fine member of the Justice League. What could Maxima possibly say about her that wouldn't be complimentary? "What did she say?"

"I won't go into the whole thing but essentially my choice of clothing makes me akin to a cheap whore."

If Diana was drinking something she would spit it out. "She said that?" Diana exclaims.

Zatanna nods. "Yep."

"Even despite the fact the outfit she is wearing today shows more flesh that it covers?"

"Oh it's alright for her. She's the Queen," Zee gives Maxima's explanation.

The woman was unconscionable and it is a couple more days before the Guardians get here. Diana doesn't think even her patience stretches that far.

Hawkgirl now walks in her face sour before she sits down next to Zatanna.

"Let us guess," Zatanna says. "Maxima?"

Shayera brings her finger and thumb close together. "I was this close to hitting her with my mace."

"What did she say?" Diana asks.

"I introduced myself as Hawkgirl and she said 'Aren't you a little too old to try and pull off that girl thing'," Shayera informs them still furious about it.

"Well she does have a point," Zee says. "How old are you anyway?"

Shayera glares at Zatanna murderously. "Old enough to stick my mace up where the sun doesn't shine."

"What? I'm just asking a question? You said you were a detective back on Thanagar. That must make you in your twenties at least."

"No wonder you are on Dinah's 'Shit list'," Shayera remarks.

"Oh come on! It was a joke! How many times do I have to apologise for it?"

"As far as I recall you apologised once, Dinah took her leave of absence and you admitted you haven't seen her since."

"Well...um...I-I'm busy," Zee says lamely knowing that she really doesn't have an excuse for not trying to repair this rift with Dinah. She spots the looks she is getting. "You're not buying this are you?"

Shayera and Diana shake their heads.

"Ok so I have no excuse alright. I'm afraid I'll say something stupid and make it worse."

"The fact you are afraid of putting your foot in your mouth I believe," Shayera says. "After all you're almost as bad as Wally at doing that."

Zatanna gasps in shock at that suggestion. "I am not that bad!" she protests.

"That's true," Diana agrees. "At least she realises she has put her foot in her mouth. Wally doesn't."

Shayera has to concede that and speaking of Wally West aka the Flash he comes slowly walking in slouching. He wanders up to the table. Shayera looks at him. "Let us guess. Maxima?"

Wally slumps down into a chair. "She's hot and all but no woman is worth that much trouble."

"What did she say to you?" Zee inquires.

"I introduced myself as 'The Fastest Man in the World' and she replied with 'My Condolences to your spouse'."

Zatanna and Shayera burst out laughing and even Diana's lips curve up into an amused grin.

"It's not funny," Wally protests.

Zee tries to reign her laughter in. "No of course not," she says not sounding very convincing that she means that before she bursts out laughing again.

Just then the whole station seems to shake.

"What was that?" Wally asks.

Diana frowns and then receives a telepathic summons from J'onn. "Diana. We need you," J'onn says with some urgency. Diana had left Maxima to J'onn's infinite patience. She can guess the shaking was something to do with Almerac's shrew of a Queen as Maxima for all her flaws also was a being who possessed immense power.

"What's happening?" Diana mentally asks.

"Plastic Man tried to...entertain Maxima."

"I'm on my way," Diana mentally says as she gets to her feet. Plastic Man. Maxima. At the same time. Hera give her strength!


Smallville...

Clark had now spent a couple of days at the farm. If Lana was here he thinks she would accuse him of hiding and perhaps he is. He just needed a couple of days to himself to straighten out his thoughts. He had sent Lana a text telling her where he was and not to worry and that he'll return shortly.

So what has Clark decided in his couple of days here. Well first off that he really misses the peace and quiet of the farm. Metropolis is so noisy especially to him. He'll have to come home more often. Second off it is as plain as the sky is blue that Barbara is not over her ex therefore they cannot possibly have a relationship.

Clark likes Babs. He really does but until she decides what she wants there is no future for them. This had reminded him of the downside to relationships. How much it can hurt when they don't work out. He hadn't really forgotten that. It had hurt when Lori left. He had just chosen to focus on the good side of it. Mores fool him it seems.

How this affects the training Babs is giving him and the sort of partnership the Blur and Batgirl had Clark hadn't fully worked out yet. He thinks he'll have to see Babs, look her in the eye and decide whether that can still work now or if they'll have to call it quits on that as well.

Clark lets out a sigh and decides to get started on dinner. He gets up from his brooding spot on the couch in the barn and walks over into the house. He strides in the kitchen and blinks in surprise at who he finds there. "Lana?"

No reply. Clark looks at her closer and sees she is wearing an odd blank expression. "Lana?" he queries her name again.

"Lana's not at home at the moment."

Clark spins on the spot and his eyes widen at the sight of a woman with scarlet red hair and green skin. A smirk comes to her rose coloured lips. "Hello my Pretty Boy," she greets him in a seductive tone. "Do me a favour and name your poison."

Clark breathes, "Ivy."


Author's Note: I really won't make a comment about Babs' slip. She is only human after all and that is all needs to be said. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Ivy has plans for Clark and red continues to be a theme especially certain red rocks and how they affect Clark.