Chapter 13

"I know what you're thinking," Ivy says pointing at Clark's shocked expression. "You're thinking 'Isn't she in jail?'. I was and I am." Ivy totters around the kitchen her curvy hips swaying as she walks. "It goes like this. The chemical agent Batman injected me with as it turns out only temporarily suppressed my herbaceous half. A fact I kept hidden from my jailers as I planned my escape." Ivy comes to a stop next to Lana and places her arm across Lana's shoulders all the time Clark never taking his eyes off of her. "I see we're going with the strong silent approach," Ivy remarks.

"What have you done to Lana?" Clark demands to know, restraining the impulse to simply grab Ivy round her dainty neck and force her to tell him.

Ivy smiles. "Aw how sweet. You care. I promise we'll get to that. Now where were we? Oh yes my escape that leaves me both here and in prison at the same time. People call me a terrorist, a lone psychopath but the truth is I have many followers who think like I do and they sneaked into my prison certain items from my lab that were exactly what I needed to escape yet made it look like I am still locked up."

"A plant replicant," Clark guesses from what he has read about Ivy.

"Ooh," Ivy says with a shiver. "I love intelligent men. Very good. Yes that is precisely what it was."

Plant replicants. One of Ivy's creations and one of her previous schemes to replace real people, specifically people in positions of power, with plants that can mimic and look like them precisely. Mimics under Ivy's absolute control. A failed scheme because Batman came up with a way to detect them due to the fact they couldn't replicate the exact same temperature as a human body and showed up on thermal imaging. Still they can have their uses for short-term misdirections like making everyone think she is still in her prison cell.

Clark shakes his head. "No. A plant replicant," he says pointing at Lana. It took him a few moments but this 'Lana' is wrong. Her scent is all wrong and she doesn't actually have a heartbeat.

Ivy's eyebrow's rise up surprised he figured that out so quickly. "Not bad."

"Where's Lana?" he demands to know.

Ivy smirks. "Oh I'll tell you once I have finished my little speech." Ivy's expression becomes more darkly serious and she warns him, "Try anything and I promise you'll never see Lana again."

Clark folds his arms across his chest, his own expression darkening, his eyes glowing dimly red. "One piece of advice. Never threaten people I care about," he warns her.

"That wasn't a threat Pretty Boy. It's a guarantee." Ivy snaps her fingers and 'Lana' turns into a green bush like figure which starts to turn brown and die. "Ok lets finish with the games shall we?"

"Yes. Lets."

"What brings me here? That's a question I'm sure you're thinking along with how I ended up here etc etc. Lets rewind to Metropolis." Ivy walks forward right up to Clark and wraps her hands around his neck. She brings her lips inches from his. "Seem familiar?" she asks him about this position. "I was about to kiss you. Now tell me what happened next?"

"Batman showed up."

"Ut uh," Ivy tells him off. "Before that. We both know what happened. My lips came closer and closer," she breathes moving her lips closer as she says it. "And then?"

Clark swallows at the feel of her next to him and as her intoxicating scent fills his nostrils. "They brushed against mine," he recalls. He had tried not to think on it too much or right now on the effect Ivy being this close is having on him. His blood feels like it is heating up already.

"Bingo! And even the briefest touch of my lips is fatal. That is when I knew you weren't what you appeared to be."

Clark takes his hands, places them on Ivy's waist, lifts her up and plants her sitting on the kitchen table while he puts a few steps of distance between them.

Ivy represses her smile knowing she is effecting him. She chooses to remain sitting on the table and crosses her legs giving Clark ample view of her shapely legs thanks to her short green outfit. "So there I was in my cell," she continues her story. "While I waited for my abilities to return I thought long and hard about that night and that is when I remembered the fact you were standing next to the prominent fashion designer Lana Lang when my vines picked you up."

"Doesn't mean anything. I was standing next to several people. You corralled us together."

"That's true and it did occur to me it could be a dead end but I thought it worth the risk which is why after I escaped I looked up Ms Lang. Wasn't hard to find out where someone as famous as her lives."

"If you have hurt her," Clark starts to warn her.

Ivy waves him off. "She's fine. A little under the influence of my Mind Spores but really apart from that she's as healthy as an ox. Is that the saying you use in this quaint little town? I was going for all country," she says with a teasing smile.

Clark stares at her hard.

"Back to strong and silent," she says with a sigh. She much prefers to have an intellectual debate with him. Oh well. In time. "Very well. On with the show. Lana has been keeping me company and she and I have spent the last couple of days indulging in some 'Girl Talk'. It was really most fascinating the things she told me about you Clark Kent...or do you prefer Kal-El of the planet Krypton?"

Clark's eyes narrow but he continues to restrain himself. Lana's safety is paramount. Ivy's knowledge of him is secondary at the moment. "And when I sent Lana a text you saw it and that is how you knew I was here right?"

Ivy smiles in delight at his quickness of thought. "Ooh I love smart men," she says with a little shiver. "Yes. That is precisely how I knew," she confirms it. "Of course finding out what you were explained everything. Your high resistance to my pheromones and your immunity to my poison. I must say you are a vast improvement on any other alien I have seen," she tells him looking him up and down in a very appreciative manner.

"Why are you here?" Clark asks wanting Ivy to get to it.

"Plans!"

"Plans?"

"I have them. Plans that will finally pull this world back from the brink. Plans that I require your strength and power to carry out," she explains why she is here. Essentially she wants him to team up with her.

"Ivy. I said it in Metropolis. I don't believe the way you do things is right. You can't expect me to have changed my view. You are a very intelligent woman who has an affinity with the natural world no-one else can possibly understand. You could teach people so much about how to live in harmony with the world. It doesn't have to be through violence. There is a better way."

"You know I can see how you would have women falling at your feet proclaiming their love for you. You do have a way with words. However you can't expect me to change either. Your view on humanity is still as flawed now as it was then."

"I won't help you hurt people so since you have said what you came here to say you can fulfil what you promised and tell me where is Lana is."

Ivy sighs disappointed. "Very well," she concedes. She holds her hand out. "Could you help a lady down?" she asks for his assistance in getting off the table.

Clark takes her hand but remains on guard as he helps her as she hops off the table. Ivy then dusts herself off a bit before she starts coughing as the dust hits the back of her throat. Her coughing worsens and Clark fetches her a glass of water. With his back turned at the sink a triumphant smile comes to Ivy's lips. Rookie mistake. She's got him now.

Clark turns round glass of water in hand to be greeted by Ivy blowing dust into his face. Clark drops the glass which shatters on the floor. He coughs and splutters hard, bending over.

"Oh don't worry. Those aren't my Mind Spores," Ivy reassures him. "You see Clark I don't want a mindless servant. I can have as many of those as I want. I want an equal. It probably sounds sad but I'm lonely you see and I know you understand what it means to be alone and different Last Son of Krypton," she says, the pain of her loneliness present in her voice.

Clark has stopped coughing and is just heaving in a few deep breaths.

Ivy continues almost pleading with him. "Together Clark neither of us has to be lonely and this world...with our combined powers we can reshape it into our own paradise. I can love you Clark and you can love me. In fact you will love me because that dust you just breathed in is a concentrated form of my pheromones coated with a substance I believe Lana said you named red kryptonite."

How did Ivy get the red pieces of Clark's home planet? Well Lana is the obvious answer in a way. Lana told her about it and Ivy has been in town all day tracking a piece down to grind up and mix into her pheromone dust.

"So Clark. What do you say?" Ivy asks him in relation to the proposal she put forward about a 'partnership'.

Clark straightens up and he turns to look at her and instantly Ivy can see his whole demeanour has changed. There is a darker, edgier feel to him. His eyes are glowing crimson red which slowly fades away and his eyes of beautiful cerulean blue...even they have seemed to darkened a couple of shades. "What do I say?" he asks her, his voice dangerously low. He takes a step towards Ivy and she finds herself taking a step back.

Clark keeps advancing and Ivy keep backing up until her back hits the wall. Clark places a hand on either side of her head trapping her. This wasn't going to plan...or at least not to Ivy's plan. He looks at her intensely. "What do I say?" he repeats. He lowers his head and brings his lips close to hers and Ivy can feel his warm breath, smell his intoxicating earthy scent. "What do I say?" he repeats once more in a husky whisper. "I say...call me Kal."

Then his lips take possession of Ivy's in a kiss full of passion, want, lust and desire. It is the kind of kiss Ivy has wanted to experience for ages instead of the lame kisses she receives from the mindless meat sacks she puts under her control. She finds his hands going under her buttocks and lifting her up. She responds by wrapping her legs around his waist and grinding into him as he grinds back into her and she can feel the burgeoning hardness.

Ivy pulls her lips from his. "Clark. Bed," she gasps out as to where she wants to go and what she wants to do.

Clark nuzzles into her neck, kissing and nipping at the green skin making her moan. He growls with barely restrained passion. "Kal," he reminds her what to call him. "Remember it because that is what I want to hear you scream."

"Kal," Ivy gasps out.

There is a deeper growl from him. "Yes. Like that. Just like that."

Next thing Ivy knows is being dropped down on a soft mattress with an extremely interested man kneeling over her. His hands reach down to the top of her outfit before he rips it in two leaving her in all her natural glory and Ivy liked to think that is a lot of glory. She looks up to the hunger in his eyes as he gazes over her form and knows she is in for a very good night...and an even better future with her new lover.


The next morning...

Clark first experienced the effects of what he dubbed red kryptonite when he was 16 and the school gave out these class rings. They were suppose to be made of rubies but the school tried to save a little money and made them out of red coloured meteor rocks. Clark put it on without knowing what it did. It made him feel very very good...and horny but hey he was a teenager and horny is almost the normal state for a teenage boy...even alien ones.

After his parents figured out what had happened to him and came up with a way to get the ring off Clark spent some time thinking about exactly what had happened to him. What the red stone had done to him. The best explanation he could come up with is that red kryptonite stripped away his inhibitions and his self-imposed restraints and allowed him to act on pure impulse in pursuit of his selfish desires. As for the calling himself Kal...he never could come up with an explanation for that. The best reason he could think of is that he thought it sounded cooler and edgier than lame old Clark.

Now you take the effect red kryptonite has on him and combine that with the fact Ivy also dosed him up on her pheromones at the same time and the result was kind of inevitable. His blood had felt like it was on fire and he so desperately needed a release and well it wasn't like she was saying no. Also it has been 5 years since he was with a woman you know. He had almost forgotten how good it could feel to experience it and it wasn't like he was going to get any from Barbara. She had made that abundantly clear with her utterance of her ex's name. Stupid woman. Doesn't deserve to know what the good stuff feels like after that and trust Clark when he says he knows how to deliver the good stuff. Just ask Ivy who just as he promised screamed his name long and loud.

Ivy who is right now asleep sprawled atop of Clark after he had worn her out last night. It was morning now and Clark is just enjoying the sensation of a warm womanly body next to his and boy does Ivy have a womanly body. Clark gently runs his hands down her back and to her hips upon which are many little bruises from Clark gripping too hard. It wasn't like Clark wasn't a little worried he would rip her apart or literally blow her mind it is just red kryptonite pushes those little concerns away and as it turns out he can control himself sufficiently to not kill someone without that little blue kryptonite ring so that's good to know for future reference.

Ivy starts to shift slightly and her eyes begin to flutter open. At seeing the broad expanse of muscled chest she is lying upon a satisfied smile comes to her lips and believe her after last night she is extremely satisfied. She had never experienced a man with such inexhaustible energy. He was also extremely gifted in knowing how to give a woman pleasure along with nature gifting him generously in a certain department. If last night is a typical example of what he can do then Ivy is certain she will be experiencing a very happy future where her needs are always met and then some.

Ivy strokes his broad chest and her fingers trail down to outline his abs. This was what perfection looked like she had come to conclude over the course of last night's activities. "Hmm," she purrs. "I'm almost sorry to leave."

Clark makes a pouty face. "And why would we have to leave? Do these plans of yours have a time limit or something?"

"Well...no," Ivy admits.

"And is Lana in any immediate danger?"

Ivy looks up at him with surprise that he is still thinking of her.

Clark grins smugly. "Just because you drug me doesn't mean my brains have gone out to lunch. Besides isn't this what you wanted? A partner by your side who could still think."

Well yes. That is what Ivy wanted but she thought he would utterly infatuated with only her but then again she was not entirely certain what this red kryptonite would do. Only what Lana said it did and that was strip him of his inhibitions and those pesky little human morals which Ivy finds so irrelevant.

"Lana?" Clark repeats his request for knowledge of her well-being.

"She's fine. I have my girls looking after her," Ivy says.

"Well then I guess we are not in any rush are we?" he asks in a low voice as his lips capture her deep red ones.

As Ivy finds herself rolled over under his large frame she has to agree that there is no rush at all.


A couple of days later...

The last couple of days had not been Barbara's best. She was feeling rotten about herself as she tried to figure out her feelings. Dinah had done her best to console Barbara but the reality is that through the misspoken utterance of Dick's name she had hurt Clark and nothing could undo the hurt. She could only hope Clark had it in him to forgive her. Still as Dinah pointed out being the honest friend Barbara needs she really needed to figure out who it was she wanted. Dick or Clark?

Before she can answer that her phone rings. She checks the ID. Withheld number. She frowns slightly in puzzlement but answers it anyway. "Hello?"

"Babs!" is the cheerful response.

"Clark?"

"Who were you expecting it to be? Dick?"

Barbara can hear the bitterness break through in his voice. "Clark. I'm sorry," she apologises.

"Oh yes you're sorry now," he says, venom clear in his tone.

"Clark look can we talk in person?" she requests while praying for him to say yes so she can apologise in person and have him see how truly remorseful she is.

"Perhaps. In that case I suggest you pack a bag and go visit your father."

"What?" Barbara asks completely lost.

"Visit your father," Clark repeats. "I mean you really should. He looks like he could do with a break. Man I never knew how much paperwork a Commissioner's desk can hold."

It finally starts to click in Barbara's mind what this means. "Are you in Gotham?"

"That's an affirmative good buddy," Clark jests. "And boy it is more of a cesspool than the papers say it is but that's going to change in the very near future."

"Clark what are you on about?"

"Come to Gotham and you'll see. I promise you the trip will be worth it because what is going to happen...it's going to be spectacular!" he proclaims before the click signals he hung up.

Barbara looks at the phone for several seconds. It was Clark's voice no doubt but it didn't sound like him. His mood shifted back and forth to extremes so quickly it was out of character. Something is wrong. Call it woman's intuition but Barbara can just tell something has happened to him in which case she most certainly will be going back to Gotham.


Gotham City...

On the rooftop of the building opposite the police headquarters a figure dressed black stands...only not the one you are probably thinking of. This one is dressed in black boots, black jeans, a black shirt over which he is wearing an ankle length black duster. Black shades upon his face hide his unique cerulean blue eyes. Also upon his face is a tiny little arrogant smirk as he crushes the phone to pieces in his hand.

He knows Babs enough to know she can trace the signal if she really wants to. Not that it matters because it is not his phone. He 'borrowed' it. Still he doesn't want her to find him...yet anyway.

Ivy is not the only one with plans and with her drugging him with red kryptonite freeing his mind up from its moral constraints he can do so many things he would never contemplate before. Clark lets out a chuckle. Oh he is going to have so much fun with Babs and anyone else he feels like having fun with and it's been far too long since he let himself have fun.

Clark just knows these next few days are going to be a hoot. With that thought pervading his mind he launches off and up into Gotham's night sky.


It could be said to be clichéd to say she stalks the night like a hunter but it is also very true. That's why Helena Bertinelli chose the name Huntress for herself. That's how she moved, how she thought, how she lived her life. She could put a façade on of being the good wholesome teacher but it was only a façade. Underneath beat always the heart of a hunter. Although weird as it might sound she does actually like kids.

Huntress crouches atop the roof of a warehouse down at the docks. Lately she and Dinah had been trying to bring down a gang of people smugglers. Dinah was this very night in another part of Gotham freeing the people from this gang from the virtual slavery into which they are pressed. Cheap labour, prostitution, the works. They were kept in one location, easier to guard them that way, and that was where Dinah was. She would take out the guards and the police, as corrupt and useless as they were in Gotham, could just about manage the rest.

Huntress was here at the docks as another ship with its hidden human cargo pulled in. Well the scum were not getting their filthy hands on these people. The Huntress would make sure of it.

The leaders of the gang all gathered together. A good half dozen that Huntress can see and their henchmen are probably waiting out of sight with the transport. Well Huntress has never been the patient type. She fires a line and slides down off the roof.

It begins on the way down with her firing her crossbow impaling two instantly and before they can work out what is happening she is upon them, two short metal fighting sticks in each hand as she begins to physically decimate them. One of the leaders lying prone on the ground starts swearing at her in Russian. Huntress will guess his native tongue. She kicks him in the head with a cold hard glare in her eyes. That's this lot taken care of. Now she just has to ambush the other men before they realise something is up.

"I regret truly I must do this to a beautiful woman such as yourself and such an exquisite fighter as well but I cannot allow your interference to continue."

Huntress spins on the spot at that voice and looks up...and up and up at the huge hulking figure, dressed in black pants, a black vest, a red and black wrestling mask out of the back of which is a tube that links all the way down to a device on the man's wrist. The man known as Bane.

"Señorita Huntress. It has been awhile has it not?" Bane asks her in his central American accent.

"Well you know how it goes. Time flies when you're having fun," Huntress quips while mentally preparing herself for this. Physically Bane outmatched her several times over, more if he activates that venom feed. Venom being a drug that makes Bane superstrong like being able to lift several tons in weight strong.

Bane looks down at the men Huntress defeated. "How does the saying go again? It is...difficult to find good help? That is it si?"

"They were working for you," Huntress gathers from his words. It then all formulates together in her head. "They're not in charge. You are."

"I was going for...how do you say it in this country...low profile? So I allowed my employees to take credit and make sure no link was made to myself. Anything else would have attracted the attentions of Señor Batman and I desire our next encounter to be on my terms."

"Let me guess. Still dreaming of breaking his back huh?"

"Indeed. It will give me great pleasure to feel his spine turn to dust under my fingers," Bane says with much anticipation of that day. For the moment he must deal with the one who has interfered in his operations. "Now I am afraid I must deal with you," he says with almost sadness as he activates the venom feed on his wrist and in response the muscles of his body bulk up.

"Fuck," the word escapes Huntress' lips. This is going to be a loonngg night.

Bane moves to punch her and Huntress flips backward out of the way. The ground actually cracks where his fist hits it. Bane may be stronger but with all those muscles she is definitely quicker and more agile.

The tube. Always remember the tube. That's the weak spot. She just needs one clear shot at it. Bane charges at her and she rolls out of the way, pulls out her crossbow and shoots. Bane raises his arm in time and the arrows break upon his skin and not the tube.

'Shit,' Helena thinks to herself as she takes her two short fighting sticks, clicks them together and forms one long staff. As Bane tries to attack she successfully manages to deflect the blows away. Not stop them. That would be foolish to even try. Just deflect them as Bane drives her back along the docks. A dock that is rapidly running out as is her means to keep space between herself and Bane.

Huntress reaches the edge just at the same moment Bane manages to grab hold of her staff. He wrenches it from her hand and bends it in half. Huntress looks down at the water behind her. Looks like she is going for a swim despite the fact she hates to run from a fight. It seems like her only option though as she has lost this fight and even Helena knows when it is time to back off and regroup. Live to fight another day. Her friend's influence on her as once upon a time she would have not thought twice about fighting to the death but they pulled her back from that.

Huntress makes a dive only for Bane to grab her cape and yank her back. He spins her above his head a few times before throwing her down hard. Huntress lets out a painful grunt. Great. It is just not her night.

Bane picks her up with both hands and raises her above his head in position to literally break her in half across his knee. He brings Huntress down only to find she mysteriously vanishes from his hands. "Lo que en nombre de dios?" he mutters in Spanish.

"Well my Spanish is rusty but if I'm hearing you right I'm kind of flattered by the comparison. I am most certainly a god in the bedroom. Just ask the ladies."

Bane turns round to find Huntress in the arms of a tall man dressed all in black, with black shades, with a cocky arrogant smirk on his face. "And who are you?" Bane demands to know.

Clark gently places Huntress down and moves her aside out of harm's way. He just happened to be flying overhead when he heard the commotion and decided to intervene. Clark thought it might provide a few minutes of amusement for him. He replies to Bane's question, the arrogant smug smile never leaving his face. "Me? I'm the one whose going to teach you a lesson about how you treat beautiful women," he says as he locks his fingers together and cracks them in anticipation of the fight that is about to occur.

With a cry Bane charges at the man with his right hand pulled back. He unleashes the punch and Huntress watches on as Bane's fist is caught with as much ease as she might stop a baby's.

"I really hope that is not the best you can do," Clark mocks with a mocking smile to go along with it as he draws his own right hand back and smacks Bane across the face sending the huge man tumbling across the docks.

Bane shakes his head stunned by the power of that single punch but his anger overrides his sense in realising how outmatched he is. He gets back to his feet.

"Oh please," Clark pours scorn upon the fact Bane is advancing on him. "Don't even bother trying to fight me. I put you down with one punch and I'm not even trying yet," he boasts.

Bane charges at him, throws a punch...and misses as Clark blurs 3 feet to the left. Bane tries again and Clark blurs 3 feet to the right back to where he started. He pretend yawns holding his hand over his mouth. "Are you done yet?" he asks, sounding immensely bored.

Bane is a man of great intelligence but he will not tolerate such disrespect from some gringo. It is stoking his temper. He increases the Venom feed and he bulks up more.

Clark arches an eyebrow. "Wow. You could make a killing on the teleshopping networks you know. You beat those 12 step plans...or is that to do with quitting drugs?" he ponders.

Bane once charges at him. This time Clark grabs hold of the arm and spins on the spot in a blur before throwing Bane far across the docks where the huge man crashes into a pile of of crates. Clark dusts his hands off. "There we go," he announces cheerfully before he turns his attentions back to Huntress and why wouldn't he because there was one hot looking woman and it had not escaped his attention that when they met before she flirted with him and hey who can blame her. After all have you seen him?

Huntress tenses as the man in black strides towards her in a way she can recognise. He looks like a man on a hunt. She points her crossbow at him. He smirks in response. "Who are you suppose to be? A Neo rip-off?"

"Ooh nice Matrix reference," Clark applauds her. "I guess I do make a passing resemblance and I did love the first movie. The two sequels not so much."

"Still not answering the fucking question," Huntress points out restraining the urge to shoot first ask questions later.

Clark waggles his finger at her. "Tsk. Tsk. Such dirty language from such a pretty mouth," he lightly chastises her. "I can think of...a few much better uses for a mouth as lovely as yours," he says suggestively.

"I'm not known for my patience," she points out wanting him to get to it.

"But you did say if I ever wanted to talk to you just to look you and up and we could...talk for as long as I wanted."

Huntress lowers her bow as his words strike a chord in her memory. "Blur?" she queries confused by how he can look, sound and act so differently.

Clark makes a face. "Ugh. Don't call me that. Call me Kal."

"What are you doing here?"

"Well it goes li..." Clark never finishes that sentence as he is hit by a forklift truck thrown by a recovered Bane who advances quickly.

"You know," Clark says from under the truck. "I tried to be nice. I really did." He then stands lifting the truck as he does so above his head. "But you," he speaks to Bane. "You are trying my fucking patience!"

"You dare disrespect me!" Bane roars.

Clark scoffs. "Disrespect. I haven't even begun to disrespect ya yet ya cheap mexican wrestling knock-off. Oh by the way. Catch!" he yells as he throws the forklift at Bane who manages to bat it away as Clark decided to go easy on the guy and not throw it very hard. "Last chance," Clark warns Bane. "I won't go easy on ya next time. My ex, who we won't talk about, did say that if I focus no pathetic steroid wannabe losers can lay a punch on me."

"We finish this!" Bane challenges him.

Clark sighs and looks to Huntress. "Will you please note I tried to be nice."

"Noted," she responds.

Clark shoots her a flirty smile. "Don't go anywhere. I do wish to talk and this will take 10 seconds. Time me if you want."

Huntress watches as he lives up to his name and blurs at Bane and then around Bane faster and faster creating a whirlwind through which she can see little. When it is over, precisely 10 seconds later, she witnesses a bruised and bleeding Bane stumble forward a few steps and then collapse.

"Alright!" Clark celebrates childishly. "1000 punches in 10 seconds. A new record!" he proclaims. "The crowd goes wild!" he says as he raises his hands and turns on the spot.

Huntress ignores him being silly, walks up to Bane and yanks the tube out the back of his mask. Bane shrivels down to normal size. "You know it would have been easier just to pull the tube out," she points out.

Clark pouts. "But not as much fun."

"True," Huntress agrees with him.

Clark saunters up to her and dares to run his fingers across her shoulder and down her arm. He leans down and whispers in her ear. "So how about that chat?"

The husky quality of his voice sends a really pleasant shiver through Helena but she hasn't forgotten why she is here. "I came here to do a job first."

"I can do any job with you you want."

Wow. He is competing with her for suggestive remarks. Certainly unlike the person he seemed to be the brief times they met before. Helena is more than a little tempted but she won't give in quite yet. She points at the large ship docked. "Bane was behind a people smuggling ring which was bringing more in tonight. They're probably in the hold."

Clark looks at the ship and then through the ship and spots the people inside. "Leave this to me. I've got this," he says if only to get to the part where he and Huntress can talk. Clark floats up, pulls his shades to the end of his nose and unleashes his heat vision as he cuts into the hull 3 sides of a square only missing the bottom. He then floats to the top edge, grabs the metal and bends it down until it forms a ramp for the people within to use to get out.

When the police sirens are heard Huntress says, "Time to go. The police and I really don't get along."

In a blur of motion Huntress finds herself picked up and flying through the air in powerful arms with a hand clearly on her ass. "Are you copping a feel?" she asks him.

"Is this a problem?" he asks back with a smug smile.

"No," Huntress finds herself saying. "I just like to be kept informed."

"Noted."

They land some distance away from the docks and Clark deposits Huntress down on a rooftop.

"So seriously what is up with the costume change?" she asks him looking his new appearance over more closely.

"Oh. This. That. Nothing specific really. Just felt like doing something different," he answers vaguely trying to dismiss it as not very much.

"Uh huh and just ask the ladies about being a god in bed?" she queries that.

Clark's smug smile becomes all the wider. "Well I don't like to toot my own horn...I leave tooting of my horn to the aforementioned ladies."

Huntress grins in return at that one. Now this is a game she knows how to play and she plays to win. "Well it has to be a pretty impressive horn before I start tooting."

"Oh it is impressive," he boasts. "And I promise you'll get to see it soon enough."

"Well aren't we making some big assumptions."

"Big as well as impressive and no assumptions are necessary. It's a fact."

Huntress walks away from him a few steps swaying her hips. She walks up next to a chimney and leans against it in a sultry manner. "So what was it you wanted to talk about?" she asks him.

In an instant Huntress finds herself pinned trapped against the wall, his arms on either side of her. "Depends. Do you want to keep up the dirty talk or just cut to it?"

"I've always preferred the direct approach myself."

Clark grins and his head lowers towards her and he claims her lips with his own. After long luxurious kisses her moves onto her neck and sucks on her ear lobe. Unfortunately, for as much as he is enjoying this, that tiny little bit of Clark's conscious that hasn't been fully suppressed starts nagging at him but he has an idea to soothe it. "My timing may suck but I have to ask you something," he whispers.

"Hmm...what?" Huntress asks, enjoying herself immensely as she wraps her left leg around his waist. His right hand grabs it and her pulls her into himself more. In return her hips grind into him and she can hear him groan lightly in response.

"You know Poison Ivy right?" Clark asks, his voice breathy sounding as he enjoys immensely the feel of Huntress' body against his. This is what he has missed out on for 5 long years. He's an idiot he decides for not taking what he could have but he can make up for lost time.

"We've met," Huntress says a little distastefully. "What about her?"

"She's escaped."

Huntress raises her hands to his chest and pushes him back, her gaze more serious and intense. "That would have been on the news," she argues with him.

"Planet replicant. She replaced herself in her own prison cell."

"How do you know?"

"She came to see me and tried to drug me with those little pheromones of hers. I let her think she succeeded."

"Why?"

"She has a friend of mine captive. I don't know where so I'm playing along."

"And you want me to find this friend of yours," Huntress assumes his question was going to be.

"Yep and then I'll kick Ivy's skanky ass all over this planet or I'll let you do it if you want."

Well she would very much like to do it Helena must admit. "I need something to go on," she points out as in she needs a place to start.

Clark reaches into his pocket and pulls out a mobile phone. "Every day Ivy uses this to call the people she has looking after my friend. I'm sure you have the means and associates to figure out where the call goes."

Huntress reaches up and takes the phone. "Won't Ivy miss this?" she queries.

Clark smiles lopsidedly. "Not really."

Flashback to earlier in the day...

After fulfilling his duty of keeping Ivy happy Clark swivels his legs round to get out of bed when there is a horrible crunching sound. He looks under his foot to reveal the crushed pieces of a mobile phone.

"What was that?" Ivy inquires from the other side of the bed.

Clark picks up the pieces and shows them to her. "I think it was your phone. Sorry," he apologises putting on sad puppy dog eyes.

Ivy looks a little annoyed and exasperated at him. "It's fine but be more careful."

"Anything for you honey," he promises her.

Back to the present...

"It was only a copy. Same model and colour. I swapped them round when she wasn't looking," Clark explains. Not hard to do when you can move as fast as he can and it leaves Ivy thinking he crushed it accidentally. Not that he deliberately set the whole thing up so he could use it to find Lana...or that was his original plan. Encountering Huntress had given him another better plan that leaves him free to keep Ivy 'occupied' while Huntress searches for Lana. From what Babs said about Huntress Clark thinks he can trust her enough to do this.

"I have to say not bad," Huntress tells him almost impressed by the switch and deception he pulled as she slips the phone in a pouch on her waist for later. "So what else is she up to?"

"She won't tell me. Guess she doesn't entirely trust she has me under her control permanently. Another reason I have to play along until I find out her plans. I might have to do some questionable things for her in the meantime but I don't intend to hurt anyone...seriously but the only person who matters to me is the friend she took. Once she is safe I'll happily put Ivy back in her cell or turn her into mulch. Depends how vindictive I'm feeling at the time."

"A female friend?" Huntress queries at she.

"Aw don't be jealous," Clark teases.

Huntress scoffs at such a ridiculous notion. "I don't do jealous and don't flatter yourself. You haven't even proved you are worthy to be jealous over yet."

"Well I shall remedy that shortly but will you help me?"

"I'm not really very conventional. You could have asked Batgirl."

"No," Clark says too harshly. He has plans for Babs. She can't be involved in this. "I don't need conventional. I need the unconventional. I need something Ivy will never see coming and that she can't find out about," he explains his reasoning. "If she thinks I'm not under her control..."

"Your friend gets it," Huntress finishes.

"You're a loose cannon I believe I read about you once. That's what I need because you can cover your tracks and it'll just look like your usual brand of extreme justice."

"Extreme Justice? That's not bad. You should have been a writer."

"Better lover than a writer," he tells her with smug confidence bordering on outright arrogance.

"Prove it," she dares him, raising her chin slightly.

"If you wish," he says and his lips takes hers again and Clark proves it several times over before he is done.


Author's Note: I'm using the Smallville version of red K which essentially makes Clark amoral, arrogant, smug, selfish, manipulative and so on because I didn't want him to be outright evil but able to act in a way his own morality would normally never allow. Clark really is just so much fun to write on red K when he is so ridiculously full of himself. As for his actions there is an underlying reason behind it all which I will get to in time. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Babs arrives back in Gotham on her hunt for Clark.