Chapter 22
A Private Medical Facility, Gotham City...
Dinah supposes she is fortunate to know someone like Bruce Wayne who has the resources to provide private medical facilities where no-one will asks questions about how she got injured. She is lying in bed watching the tv mostly. Her throat still hurt like the dickens. She could talk but whether she would ever regain the use of her Canary Cry was still up for debate but then again it had only been a couple of days since her rescue. Hopefully once her throat had healed everything will return.
She had had her visitors. Barbara, Helena, Dick, even Zinda Blake(Lady Blackhawk) had popped in before she went off to try and seduce Barbara's father. Seriously Dinah didn't know why but Zinda had the hots for the Commish. Barbara's reaction to that had been funny though.
There is a knock on her door and she beckons whoever it is in and who comes in is Clark, glasses and all, with his partially reverted back to black hair as the blond dye washed out. "Going to miss being blond?" she asks him.
"Do you?" Clark asks back at Dinah's still black hair.
Dinah blows a few stray locks out of her face. The dye used on her had been semi-permanent so it would be weeks until her blond hair returned in full. "Kinda do actually," she admits.
Clark sits down in a chair next to the bed smiling slightly. He runs his hand through his short hair. "Honestly I just want it back to the way it was but that'll take awhile. My hair doesn't grow any faster than yours does," he explains. He looks Dinah over with gentle concern for her health after what she had to endure. Her bruised, slightly swollen, cheek has his guilt complex working overtime because he hadn't been fast enough in finding her. "So I think we have never been properly introduced," he says. Clark does know Barbara told Dinah who he was back when he was eavesdropping on Babs during his red kryptonite induced escapade so no point in pretending she doesn't know who he is. He removes his glasses and places them in his jacket pocket before he holds his hand out. "Clark Kent."
Dinah takes the hand. "Dinah Lance."
"Nice to meet you," Clark says since the two of them have never really talked at all. "How are you?" he asks.
"I could ask you the same," she replies, looking him over but not seeing any evidence of injury.
"I heal fast," is Clark's reply.
"So I see. Thanks by the way. For coming to my rescue."
Clark shrugs, trying to play it off that she needs to do that. "Least I can do. I sort of owed you for what I did last year when I was under the influence."
Dinah's lips curve up. "As I recall you complimented my legs and ass and then took the opportunity to cop a feel." Clark's cheeks flush a little with colour which makes Dinah laugh. Huntress had said he was easy to embarrass. Seems to be accurate. She then places a hand on top of one of his and says in a softer tone. "How are you doing really?"
Clark sighs. "You mean with Titan," he realises.
"It wasn't your fault," Dinah assures him again.
"Barbara said the same thing," Clark relays what she said when he was filling her in on everything. "I get it. He was not going to stop. I just wish there had been another way," he expresses his desire.
"We all wish that. We all wish the world was such we didn't need to dress up in costumes and risk our lives. We all wish for we could live normal lives but we just have to deal with the hand life gives us," Dinah imparts some knowledge gained from her experience.
Clark smiles slightly. "My father said something like that to me once."
"It's good advice."
"It is," Clark agrees. "How about you? How are you really doing?" he asks her back getting more onto her emotions as she asked with him.
"I'll live," Dinah says with a sigh. She rubs her sore cheek. "Sure the beatings weren't fun but it could have all been much worse. I'll give Roulette credit for not resorting to cruder methods."
Clark takes her hand and squeezes it slightly.
Dinah smiles in return. He was really a nice guy. "So anyway did we get Roulette?" Dinah wonders.
Clark shakes his head to indicate no. "By the time I got back she was gone," he reports what happened that night after he dropped Dinah off and put Titan's body in a safe place. He looked in every place he had been while fighting and she wasn't at any of them. She had vanished. "I'll find her though," he vows because she needs to be found and made to pay for her crimes and he has been turning over every place he has been to looking for clues as to where Roulette might have gone. He found a few leads he shared with Barbara and that he himself will follow up on. For the moment he's here because he wanted to see how Dinah was doing.
"That mean you're sticking around this time?" Dinah inquires.
"I got what I needed from my travels so yes."
"That's...you know what I'm glad."
"Really? Even after my antics of last year which I do, once again, apologise for profusely."
Dinah smiles at him once more. He looks...god he looks so adorably cute with his current guilty expression. "I don't really hold grudges. That's Huntress' thing," she says.
"Good. I'm glad. I hate to have pretty ladies mad at me."
"You think I'm pretty?"
Clark's cheeks colour slightly. Oh dear he just said that out-loud didn't he? He rubs the back of his neck nervously. "Sure. Of course. You're...um...you're beautiful."
"Aw. You sweet talker you," Dinah teases.
"Would you like to talk? You know over dinner or something some time?"
Dinah's eyebrows rise at his boldness. "You're asking me out?"
Clark shrugs slightly. "I guess so. I mean I know you just went through an ordeal so just hit me or say no if you want." He rubs the back of his neck in his nervous gesture, realising the hole he may have just dug for himself. "I'm kinda bad at this," he admits at the end sheepishly.
Dinah almost giggles at that and yes she did go through an ordeal but oddly she isn't upset at him. It's hard to be when he looks at you with those incredible eyes of his full of sorrow and worry if he offended her. She's not upset. She's intrigued if anything so she feels she needs to ask, "Why are you asking me out?"
"A guy needs a reason to ask a beautiful woman out?" Clark asks back.
"No but we hardly know each other," she points out.
"You went through an ordeal. I want to cheer you up. Sure it may bomb spectacularly and I'm kind of a cheap date but hey it's the thought that counts right?"
This time Dinah does indeed burst out into a fit of giggles at his honest 'aw shucks' expression. "You know telling a girl beforehand you're cheap isn't the best strategy."
"Oh darn it," he says with a snap of his fingers. "So that's where I keep going wrong," he jokes.
Dinah laughs more before asking him seriously, "Really why are you asking me? Because I know Huntress would jump at the chance to go out with you despite the fact you turned her down."
"I turned her down because I was in a bad place for a relationship. Arguably the same was true of Barbara along with the fact she was still in love with someone else."
"But you obviously believe you're not in that bad place now so again I ask why?"
"Do you always question men who want to date you this much?"
"Since the last one cheated on me yes."
Clark's expression is complete shock. "He cheated on you? Is he brain dead?"
Dinah chuckles sadly. "I've come to that conclusion yes."
Clark can see she is understandably cautious then about men. "Look I'm sure Huntress is a great person but I've been better within myself for months and never felt the urge to come back and look her up. I really hope this doesn't come out sounding bad, I know she's your friend, but I'm just not interested in her in that way. It's that simple."
"But you're interested in me?" she asks rather sceptical.
"I'm interested in trying to see if there could be anything. The tight red leather outfit you were wearing the other day might have had something to do with it," he says with a sly smile creeping onto his face.
Dinah just gives him a look.
"Look what do you want me to say. Haven't you just seen a guy and been interested in getting to know what he's like."
"Occasionally."
"Same reason why I'm asking you."
Dinah...is stupid. That is what she is. A gorgeous good guy is asking her out and she is coming up with excuses not to accept. Damn Ollie shredding her self-confidence. That's who she blames. Ok time for her to get back in the saddle. "I would love to go out with you Clark."
"Really?"
"Yes," she confirms. An enormous grin comes to his face and Dinah just has to say that that smile should be outlawed because to women it has to be a registered as a lethal weapon and don't get her started on how his eyes have lit up. Even back when she was fighting Titan she couldn't stop her brain making the mental comment of just how beautiful those eyes were when her gaze fell upon them. He was right. Clark is one of those guys she just has to try and get to know or regret not at least attempting to see if they could have anything together.
"Ok that's great. When do you want to go out?" Clark asks.
"Well I'm stuck in here for a couple of days yet at least if not longer so I'm told," she says, sounding as unhappy about that as she actually is.
"Well how about I bring you dinner here tomorrow night?" he suggests.
"You serious?"
"Sure. I mean I know how boring places like this can be. When my Ma was sick she complained about it all the time," he says with a touch of sadness remembering the period when his mother was approaching her end. "I'll come keep you company. I would do it tonight if I could but I have a couple of things I need to take care of," he explains.
"I understand. Busy, busy, being a hero. It eats into your personal time like you wouldn't believe just to warn you. Anyway dinner here tomorrow is fine."
Ok then. Clark guesses his business here is done. Just as he is about to leave his gaze drifts to the tv on the far wall reporting live on the assassination attempt on Queen Hippolyta.
Dinah shakes her head. "Poor Diana. She loves her mother. I feel sorry for whatever idiot tried to pull that one when she gets her hands on him," she says with real sympathy for Diana and only token sympathy for the assassin.
"How is Queen Hippolyta doing?" Clark asks not been keeping abreast of it as much as he could have.
"Stable in hospital. Luckily the assassin didn't get a clean hit. She'll live and make a complete recovery from what they're saying."
"I just hope Wonder Woman and the League don't go overboard in their reaction," Clark expresses his worry.
"Me too," Dinah agrees with him. She rubs her brow. "I don't know what's happened to them lately and I use to be a member," she points out expressing how much she really doesn't understand the authoritarian attitude the League has seemed to adopt. "They're not bad people. I think perhaps they've lost sight of what it was all suppose to be about," she says in defence of people she still considers friends.
Dinah might be right but honestly Clark, for the moment, is more concerned about discovering his own place in the world and not on trying to reform the Justice League or whatever it needs done to it. "I have to go," he says a little regretfully. "But I'll see you tomorrow and I'll bring the dinner," he promises her.
"See you then," Dinah says in reply and she is genuinely looking forward to it. Like she thought earlier it's way past time she put what happened with Ollie behind her and started getting back dating again. Clark's a good choice...she hopes.
Clark stands and makes his leave. His reasons for asking Dinah out were what he said. He just felt he should at least ask her out and see if anything could happen. That and...well...as seeing Jimmy made him miss home, seeing Jimmy and Lana together reminded him that is now over 6 years since his last serious relationship and he wants that type of companionship as much as the next person and Dinah...well he feels like he owes her something. Titan did come from his homeworld after all so this way he tackles two issues at the same time...and speaking of Titan it's about time he dealt with the one remaining thing he has to do as regards to that situation.
An undisclosed location...
"I can assure you, General Lane, Roulette will be dealt with for her failure," Amanda Waller tells her fellow member of Cadmus over the phone. As soon as Lane had gotten wind of what had transpired with the fight club Amanda had expected this rant and in a funny way, god bless him, he hadn't disappointed.
"You see that she is. What about our other project?" Lane asks.
"Our doctors obtained the tissue sample we required from Queen Hippolyta. It's early days but the initial tests indicate her DNA can make the Donated Nucleotide Assemblage viable."
"That's acceptable for now. I'll wait until our next full meeting for an update. Lane out." He then hangs up abruptly.
Waller hangs up the phone. That man needs to learn manners. She sits back in her chair in her office and contemplates events. Roulette had been forced to vanish for, as it turned out, the man who took down her precious Titan was one of her other fighters who, as it turned out, was this 'Superman' undercover. The producer he took for an airborne trip and revealed that to was actually Waller's spy on the inside of Roulette's organisation and he relayed everything that transpired to her.
Roulette vanished because Superman had seen too much and she would more than likely have to move cities and start over again...or that was Waller's working theory at the moment abut what Roulette had decided to do. Waller will find her though.
Waller sighs a little as a monumental knot forms between her eyebrows. If she didn't have enough problems to deal with with her Task Force X project. That group of villains had gotten nicknamed the Suicide Squad due to the nature of the missions they were sent on. Quite an accurate name actually.
There is a knock on her door and Dr Hamilton walks in. "I...uh...have the first results on the blood samples we obtained from the army barracks," he reports in relation to what they found when their agents raided it.
"Go on," Waller says, a little impatient for Hamilton to continue.
"Well it's just the very initial findings but from what we can see there is not a trace of human DNA present."
Waller frowns. "How can there be no DNA?"
"I didn't say there was no DNA. I said it's not human...nor meta-human...nor any species you would find on Earth."
Understanding dawns in Waller's mind. "You mean aliens."
Hamilton nods.
"But we know more than likely one of these blood samples comes from this Superman," Waller points out. It was an assumption that was made that Titan and Superman had beaten the living hell out of each other and therefore the fresh blood stains that were found came from them.
"He's either a very human looking humanoid or like the Martian he is capable of shape-shifting. The same can be said of this Titan character."
Waller's frown deepens. The need to find Roulette has just become more urgent so as to discover where she found Titan. More aliens! That is just not what Amanda needs right now. As if she doesn't have enough on her plate.
"Also...again this needs much more testing but there are just too many similarities between the two samples," Hamilton mentions.
"Which means?"
"This is up for change but my guess at the moment would be that while Superman and Titan are definitely not the same species I would theorise they share the same planet of origin...but like I said it's going to take a lot more testing before I can confirm that. The minimal amount of DNA we have been able to extract so far is immensely complex. It would take years, possibly decades, to decipher fully," Hamilton reports.
"Continue the testing Doctor," Waller instructs because whatever sample belongs to Superman this is a chance to see if they can figure out his abilities and what weaknesses there are should it ever come to it. For now, if he wants to go out and play hero as he has been, Waller will let him. In fact if his popularity continues as high as it currently is in the media he might be a useful recruit for that superhero team Lord wants to create. Amanda will have to make a mental note to suggest that to Maxwell.
Kent Farm, Smallville...
The sun is setting as Clark stands next to the grave where he buried Titan. He just stands there unsure whether he should say any words...what words can he say?
He just felt this was the best place for Titan to be laid to rest. This way Clark at least can make sure no-one disturbs the body and in some way the being who may possibly originate from Krypton is remembered by him at least.
This whole thing has Clark pissed and not just at himself for not finding another way to end it but at Roulette and people like her. She was using Titan...she used all of the other fighters he met. A better way needed to be found to help these people and to expose those who exploit them and Clark is going to find a way to do both.
Clark turns back towards the house and walks to the storm cellar hatch. He lifts it open and descends into the dusty cavity used for protection from tornadoes. He walks to the far end and lifts up a tarpaulin cleverly covered in dust to look like the ground. It covers up another cavity in which sits a silver arrow-shaped craft. The spaceship that brought Clark to Earth. He hasn't been down here and set his eyes upon this in years. It was a part of him he didn't care for. It was part of a dead world that meant nothing to him...or so he kept trying to tell himself.
Clark kneels down in the dirt, leans forward and places his hand on the symbol on the front of the ship that most resembles a strange S. The symbol lights up and projects a hologram of a man who looks like an older version of Clark. The man speaks. "Hello my son. You do not remember me. I am Jor-El. I am your father."
The image flicker and a woman with blond hair and eyes identical to Clark's own appears instead. "And I am Lara. I am your mother," she says with overwhelming sadness in her tone.
The image flickers back to Jor-El. "By the time you hear these words both of us will have been long dead. It was a necessary sacrifice to save you from sharing our fate and that of your world. Your first question at this moment no doubt is..."
"Who am I?" Clark says at the same time as Jor-El, repeating the words he spoke when his parents showed him this ship the first time when he was 14.
"You are Kal-El of Krypton," Jor-El in the message says. "As I record this message our world moves ever closer to its own destruction. Its core has become unstable and will soon undergo a chain reaction which will shatter the entire planet. By the time you are old enough to understand my words I deeply regret that you alone, my son, will be Krypton's only survivor but know this of us. You are the sole survivor of a great race whose time, as is the case for everything in existence, has come to its end. Let its legacy live through you and in some way we shall never be forgotten. Part of us will live on inside you. I know you will have many questions. The answers I have sent with you in the form of a data crystal. It is encoded to your unique genetic code and only you can access the information inside. Know this, my son, that while you may be alone on the planet we sent you to, in spirit your mother and I are always with you. Our strength...our love...use it and discover your destiny."
The image flicker to both his parents, his mother close to tears, before it stops.
Clark lets out a slightly shaky breath. It's been so long since he saw that and the emotions it draws...Clark shakes his head and focusses on why he is down here. He slides the hatch of the ship open and inside, in a hidden compartment(took him days to figure out how to open it originally), he pulls out a glittering blue diamond shaped crystal. As he holds it he feels the same pull he did the first time he held it. It is pulling him to take it somewhere...somewhere to the north but he resists the pull or urge of whatever it is.
"Not quite alone as you said father," Clark mutters, speaking to the crystal as if talking to his father. "Who was Titan? Did you do what he claimed? Did you send him to some sort of prison? Maybe you did but then again maybe he deserved it by breaking the law. I don't know...and I'm not certain I want to know. You're dead...you're all dead. Why won't you stop haunting me? I don't want this. Any of this. I understand I'll never be human. I accept that but whatever is on this crystal father I don't want it any more now than I did all those years ago when I made my choice to reject what this offered. You're dead...and I don't care about whatever legacy you thought I should embody. I will discover my own way in this world and I'll do it without the suffocating burden of a dead defunct race weighing upon me."
Decision made or more accurately the same decision he made when he was 14 repeated Clark replaces the crystal back in its place, seals the ship back up before covering it over once again. Titan...wherever he came from...however he reached Earth...it was probably a fluke. Not likely to be repeated. Titan's words about a 'him' were just the ramblings of a dying man...or at least that is what Clark will tell himself as an excuse not to ever use that crystal.
Krypton is dead. Let it stay that way and let him live his life.
The next day, Metropolis...
"You should try and get this printed."
Clark looks up at Jimmy with surprise and more than a healthy dose of scepticism. He was visiting Lana for some advice on what to wear for his date with Dinah tonight. Lana had smiled so wide when he told her he had a date he was momentarily worried her face would split in half. Lana is apparently back onto her quest to see that he gets a life. God help him.
Anyway while he was here he ended up showing Jimmy, Lana's live-in boyfriend, this little piece he had written about his experiences at the fight club. He had written it in such a way that didn't give away the fact he was Superman or that he was there at all but was relaying it from the point of a view of a fighter he befriended.
Clark felt he needed to allow the voices of the abused and used metahumans he met be heard in some way and to condemn people like Roulette. His problem was he didn't know how to get this heard by a wider audience. Jimmy's suggestion, in theory, is all fine and dandy but it is not that simple as he explains in reply. "Slight problem there Jimmy is that I never finished my degree in journalism and have zero experience. No reputable media in the world would print anything written by someone with that resume."
Jimmy can't argue with that because it's true. "Still it would be a waste if you couldn't find some way for the public to read it," Jimmy expresses his view because it was almost brilliant what Clark had written. There was sympathy for the metahumans but never justification or excuses for their crimes and those who used them got a healthy bashing including subtle stabs at the government for not doing more to help metahumans integrate into society. Arguably Clark was subversive, arguing against the status quo as not good enough, but he was witty, conversational and extremely cutting. It had definitely been a cruel twist of fate that had denied the world Clark Kent's writing skills for so long.
Lana comes up with a suggestion. "What about that on-line paper you said your ex-girlfriend runs?" she asks Jimmy.
"The Metropolitan?"
Lana nods.
"I guess it would fit in with her journalistic approach," Jimmy supposes, although he is reluctant to take that option because that means calling his ex-girlfriend. That means speaking to her, possible even having to go see her in person, which is never number one on Jimmy's list of things to do.
"Didn't you say she made it open for anyone to submit pieces regardless of qualifications or experience," Lana reminds her boyfriend.
"Well yeah but she is in charge. She has final say about what gets released and anyone who knows me is probably going to get a sceptical response. It didn't end well you know," he laments sadly the end of that relationship.
Lana's expression saddens and she takes Jimmy's hand and squeezes it slightly. Break-ups can be horrible she knows and she hates to see Jimmy upset. "Look Jimmy I won't force you to call her," she tells him.
"I know you wouldn't," he assures her. Jimmy then chews it over for a few seconds before making a decision. "Alright. I'll call her and get her to agree to meet Clark but after that I'm afraid Clark you're on your own."
Clark looks his work over again. He did it more to just get it off his chest than anything else but people needed to know what happened. That's how in part this fight club managed to exist because too many people either didn't know about it or turned a blind eye. That isn't right. "Alright. I'll meet her," he concedes. "What's her name?"
"Chloe. Chloe Sullivan," Jimmy answers.
'That's funny,' Clark thinks to himself. Chloe was the name of the girl he met when he was 8 who got him interested in becoming a journalist in the first place. Surely it is just a coincidence.
Private Medical Facility, Gotham...
When Clark showed up with dinner Dinah was relieved for the company. She is getting antsy just lying in this stupid bed. So what she has a few bruises. She's carried on with worse but someone is determined to drive her insane by keeping her here. Dinah blames Barbara.
Dinah really just wants to get out of here and to get onto Roulette's trail before it goes completely cold. It isn't like she doesn't trust her friends not to be able to do this because she does but Dinah endured a lot at Roulette's hands and she would like to make damn sure the woman gets what is coming to her.
Dinah opens one of the foiled trays Clark brought and inhales the scent. "Where did you get this from?"
"It's Thai," Clark tells her.
"From?"
"Thailand."
Dinah arches an eyebrow. "You brought me dinner all the way from Thailand?"
Clark shrugs. "I developed a liking for it when I visited the country and I thought you might like it. It's not really that far for me to fly there." Clark's lips curve up into a sly grin. "Plus at the current exchange rate this only cost me a few bucks."
"Ah. I see. Living up to that cheap date crack of yours," Dinah says with a smile.
"I am just a poor farm boy from Kansas ya know," he says with an exaggerated yokel accent.
Dinah sniggers at that. Clark definitely has a different sense of humour to...practically every other man she has ever dated which probably isn't a bad thing. She starts to tuck into her meal. Essentially it was take-away but Dinah isn't complaining. Better than hospital food and very different to the fancy restaurants Ollie would take her too but then again he could afford to. Hell as Dinah recalled Ollie owned half of the places he took her to. "So I see you're no longer blond," she comments between mouthfuls.
Clark briefly runs his hand through his short hair which had, by now, completely reverted to its natural black although it was still far too short for Clark's liking. "Yep," he confirms and then looks at Dinah's hair which was only now just starting to show signs of reverting to blond. "I'd say you have a couple of weeks to go for you."
Dinah makes a small face at the fact she has to wait that long. She misses her blond hair. "Unfortunately so," she remarks. "So I've been curious have you always been this forward about asking girls out?" she asks in reference to the way he asked her out.
Clark nearly spits up his food as he laughs at that. He grabs a bottle of water he brought and drinks some down. He shakes his head as he replies to Dinah. "No. Definitely not but this last year I've had a chance to appreciate the fragility of life alongside its wonders and learned that you need to seize opportunities before they are lost forever. Besides originally I was just looking to cheer you up. You're the one who brought up calling it a date. I just didn't disagree with you."
"That makes you the perfect man not disagreeing with a woman," Dinah jokes.
"I'm definitely not perfect. Ask Wonder Woman because we didn't agree at all back in Gotham on things."
"I remember some of that," Dinah says. "But that was a rather pressurised situation," she qualifies it. "Then again Diana does have a pretty strong set of opinions which isn't necessarily a bad thing."
"Unless you are so inflexible you are unable to adapt to a changing world," Clark argues.
"Not a fan of hers are you?"
"Quite the opposite actually. I am. I just think the way she and the League act lately needs some...improvement."
"Can't argue with you there but lets not talk about work. This is a date after all."
"Fine by me," Clark agrees.
Offices of the Metropolitan, Metropolis...
A smartly dressed woman in her mid-20s with blond hair and green eyes finds herself experiencing genuine surprise at who has showed up in her office. "Well as I live and breathe. James Olsen. What God did I anger to have you darken my door?" she wonders with, what is her trademark, snark.
"Nice to see you too Chloe," Jimmy replies, a little snidely. He had hoped to be able to sort this out for Clark with a phone call but he should have guessed that Chloe would never make it that easy. When he couldn't get an answer he had no choice but to come here and speak to her face to face.
"There's nothing nice about it. So have you grown up yet or are you still coasting through life riding on Lane's coattails?" Chloe asks.
Jimmy rolls his eyes. This is what broke them up. She accused him of going from someone interesting who use to challenge her to a lazy coaster who clung onto Lois too much to help his career. Jimmy inevitable told her she was dead wrong and where to shove her opinion in a not so polite manner. "Can we please not get into this again?" he asks, and practically begs, her. "I'm here on business."
Chloe arches a curious eyebrow. "And pray tell what business would this be?"
"I need a favour."
"Ok. You may officially colour me intrigued since your last words to me were that you would never need me for anything ever again."
"Well I'm keeping that promise because it's for a friend of mine."
"No."
"I haven't said anything!"
"You don't need to. You want me to give someone a job. Forget it. I don't do favours like that."
"Could you stop being so damn cynical for 1 minute Chloe!" Jimmy tells her off.
Chloe's neatly plucked blond eyebrows rise up in surprise. She can't remember Jimmy having this much backbone.
Jimmy counts back from 10 in his head and takes a breath. "It's not asking for a job per say. All I'm asking is that you meet my friend, read his work and assess it professionally. All I'm asking is that you give him a chance. Now is that really asking for so much?"
Chloe muses on it for several moments. "He doesn't get any special favours. He gets treated like everyone else who submits work to me," she lays out her conditions.
"That is all I am asking for," Jimmy repeats with almost complete exasperation.
"Have him here at 3 tomorrow. I have a space in my schedule," she tells Jimmy, having agreed to meet this friend.
"Thank you," Jimmy says, trying to be polite.
"He better be really good."
"He is. Trust me you'll love what he brings you. It's right up your street about seeing justice done."
"We'll see Jimmy. We'll see," she says in an even, non-committal, tone.
Private Medical Facility, Gotham...
Dinah had to admit to herself that she had enjoyed her night so far. Clark said he wanted to cheer her up and he had with a few funny stories of things that had happened to him as he was travelling the globe this last year. The interesting bit was that Clark wasn't afraid to tell stories that ended up poking fun at himself. She liked that. It was different from the rather intense, serious, or in Ollie's case arrogant, men she tends to date.
Clark was glad he decided to take this break from hunting Roulette and have this date. He had enjoyed himself a lot so far. Dinah was clever and witty. There was still a lot he didn't know about her but that's why people date in the first place. The beeping that indicates a text has arrived interrupts. Clark fumbles for it in his pocket while apologising. "Sorry. I swore I turned that off."
Dinah smiles and waves him off. "Who doesn't think that," she replies because she has done the same.
Clark reads the text. It's from Jimmy informing him of his meeting with Ms Chloe Sullivan at 3pm tomorrow.
"Important?" Dinah wonders.
"No...yes. What I mean is that it's about a job interview but that's tomorrow. I don't have to rush off anywhere," he assures her.
"Good. What kind of job?"
Clark tells her about his writing and how his friends suggested he try and get it printed. In response a, what Clark would call, nostalgic smile comes to Dinah's face. "What?" he asks.
"Oh. It is just righting the wrongs through the power of the media takes me back. When I first started out I did the same. I use to host this radio talk show called Tough Justice where I would rag on all the corrupt politicians and businessmen and so on. I was rather naïve," she criticises her then younger self.
"In what way?"
"I saw the world too black and white. Good and evil. No in-between but it doesn't work like that. The world is layers of grey. It doesn't mean there isn't a right or a wrong. It just means you can't rush to judgements on people."
"Vast wisdom and not a grey hair in sight," Clark says meaning it to be a compliment
Dinah cocks her head to the side and her blue eyes narrow slightly. "Did you just say I had a grey hair?"
"No."
"You know telling a woman she is starting to look old is not the way to win her over," she says sternly.
"I didn't say that!" Clark insists. "I said you had wisdom without the grey hair meaning you gained it early...and you're playing me aren't you?" he suddenly realises from the way Dinah is currently repressing a laugh.
Dinah lets that laugh out. "I'm sorry but that was too easy."
A crooked smile comes to Clark's lips as he takes her teasing with good spirit. "Do you always sucker in your dates in this fashion?"
"Only the ones I like."
Clark smiles at the fact she just said she liked him. "So I was meaning to ask the other day but it slipped my mind. This...you and I dating, this won't hurt your friendship with Huntress will it?"
Dinah smiles at his thoughtfulness. "I doubt it. Besides she really isn't in a position to preach," she says in relation to the fact Dinah has kept secret Helena's antics with Dick from Barbara. "It isn't like she has claim on you is it?"
"No. I have only seen her this last year when Barbara was asking for my help in finding you. I told her a year ago, as politely and well meaning as I could, that what happened between us happened because I was drugged."
"Yeah. She mentioned that."
"She did?"
"Huntress loves to gossip and she never holds back her opinion on something. I think she was genuinely touched you took the effort to go see her."
"It wasn't an effort. It was the least she deserved."
God what a nice guy he was. "Huntress has her own issues. Personally I think she is still pining for her ex," Dinah mentions meaning the Question. "Anyway look if I thought for one moment she was seriously interested in you I would have turned you down when you asked me out. Really I think she just wants you for your body." Not that she can blame Helena because it is a damn fine body from what she can see.
At that Clark goes several shades of red. "Thanks," he says in a squeaky voice. He coughs. "I think."
"You're welcome," Dinah laughs.
After that there is a little more small talk but both Clark and Dinah can sense the end of this date approaching more because her doctors will kick Clark out soon. Dinah, herself, could not wait until she allowed to get out of here. Clark cleans away all the foil wrappers he brought dinner in.
"Thank you for dinner," Dinah says. "I had a good time."
"So did I," he says with this soft, nervous look.
"We'll have to do it again when I'm not laid up in hospital."
"Oh I don't know. That hospital gown look is really you," Clark jokes.
Dinah fixes him a look, close to the one that has grown men tremble in fear of the Black Canary.
Clark's solution is to lean forward and plant a gentle kiss on the corner of her mouth in another forward move on his part to follow up asking Dinah for a date. "So we'll do this again?"
Dinah, caught a little off-guard by the kiss, takes a moment to reply. "Yeah."
Clark quickly scribbles down his phone number for her. "Call me when you decide when."
"Guys are suppose to call the girl," Dinah argues.
"Well I guess that makes me the girl of this relationship," he quips.
Dinah laughs and shakes her head at him because in no way ever could Clark be considered a girl.
"Goodnight Dinah."
"Goodnight Clark. Oh before you go one more thing."
"What?"
Dinah grabs his face, pulls him down and kisses him deeply. Her tongue slips between his lips and her hands end up running through his short hair. In return she can feel his hand slip behind her head and pull her close as he returns the kiss. Dinah can hear Clark make a little pleasured moan from the back of his throat and in response she makes a similar noise.
When it ends Clark pulls back a little, his cheeks coloured. "Whoa," he says in reaction to that quite spectacular kiss if he does say so himself.
Dinah chuckles lightly, her own cheeks coloured at what was a really good kiss Clark gave her. "I hope that's a good whoa," she teasingly warns.
"It's a...whoa, whoa, my brain needs a minute whoa." Clark blows a breath out and says the only thing he can think of right now. "Night."
"Night," Dinah smiles. After he leaves she remarks to herself,triumphantly, "Still got it!"
Metropolis...
Lex Luthor stands, in the study, in his mansion, carefully taking in his guest as he decides whether he can use her or not. If she is useful to him or not. She came to him needing his help...his protection. In exchange she offered valuable information about a secret government organisation that could both be a threat to Lex or, as Lex sees most things, an opportunity.
"So let me clarify this just so there are no misunderstandings," Lex wishes to summarise the situation. "Your, what you believed, possible future star turned out to be Superman. Is this so Roulette?"
Roulette hated this. Hated coming to him but she had no choice. Lex was the only one powerful enough to give her the protection she sought. Also anyone capable of defeating and killing Titan was well beyond her ability to control or get revenge upon without assistance...and she will make 'Kal' pay she swore. She was close to offering him an intimate place by her side and he turns out to be another little spy. Oh there will be glorious vengeance on him. "As I said," she confirms what she has already gone over with Lex. "He saw enough to make my life difficult perhaps impossible. He has already been hunting me...and I don't know how to stop him," she has to reluctantly admit that last part. That would be the fly in the ointment as far as her plans for revenge go.
"Yes he is powerful," Lex will concede, from what he has seen of Superman. "I suspect he is the Blur who graced this city a year ago. He almost put Grundy in traction then."
"And Gotham? With Poison Ivy? I read about that. That was him too?"
"Ah yes. That taught me a few things too about him but much more is needed," Lex proclaims.
"You'll help me?" Roulette asks him to confirm
"In exchange for the information you promised on this Cadmus," Lex lays down as a non-negotiable part of any deal.
Roulette pushes her dress aside and reveals not just a gun strapped to her thigh but a memory stick. She throws it to Lex.
"Clever. Keeping it on your person," he compliments her.
"There's a copy in a safe place along with information I have on you which will be released should I mysteriously disappear," she warns him in case he tries to get rid of her. "I'm not stupid Lex."
"Never thought it," he says truthfully. He doesn't think her stupid. Just not on his level.
"So how do we go about subduing Superman?" she asks him.
"By studying him. Every man has a weakness. Superman is no different. I never got an opportunity before to test him in controlled conditions but if he is hunting you then he is obviously staying in the Metropolis area allowing me the chance to do so. I'll find his weakness...but this is not about your revenge Roulette," he warns her off. "I can use him against the League, against Intergang and against this Cadmus as well if I have to. This is about learning how to gain control over him which I shall," he says with complete certainty in his own ability to do that.
And once Lex has control over Superman...well this war he is engaged in with both the League and Intergang he might finally have what he needs to tip the odds in his favour and complete his final victory.
Author's Note: Clark's refusal to embrace his heritage is going to bite him in the ass one day because as I think most of you guessed Titan won't be the only escapee from the Phantom Zone Clark will be running into. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Clark's attempts to get a job and keep it end up being interrupted as Lex's testing of Superman begins...and oh Lois returns to Metropolis determined to get that interview with Superman.
