Chapter 23

Washington DC...

Diana is briskly walking through the corridors of the hospital her mother had been taken to after the assassination attempt. She walks by the guards, her fellow Amazon sisters, who had been brought in to make sure her mother was safe. They salute Diana as she walks by. She gives them a nod in return to recognise their dedication to their duty. The entire corridor in which her mother's room is situated had been emptied so apart from the guards and the doctors and nurses who attend to her mother it is almost eerily silent.

Diana strides near the room and can hear a few muttered Greek phrases from within that indicate her mother is perhaps a little fed-up of being stuck in bed. Diana braces herself for a moment before she knocks on the door.

"Who dares disturb me?" a shout comes from within.

Diana cringes. Her mother is in that kind of mood. Amazons make the worst patients and their Queen is the worst of all. Well it's too late for Diana to leave now. She has already knocked. Diana utters a silent prayer to her Gods and enters the room.

Upon entering Diana finds her mother sitting up, her normal serene features twisted up in frustration and anger. If you were to compare the two women anyone could see enough resemblance that one might think they could be sisters. It's the price of immortality but Hippolyta is her mother...literally. When Diana was being forged from clay her mother used a lock of her own raven hair and added it to the mixture. The same hair that flows in elegant waves from Diana's head and across her shoulders and down her back.

Upon seeing her daughter Hippolyta's expression softens. "Diana," she speaks her daughter's name warmly.

"Mother," Diana says, her voice cracking a little with emotion at how close she came to losing her beloved mother. Diana bends down and mother and daughter share a hug. Diana then sits down next to the bed. "How are you feeling today?"

Hippolyta's face sours slightly. "They keep telling me I must rest."

"And so you should," Diana agrees with assessment.

"Diana I am over 3,000 years old. I have been hurt many times before," Hippolyta argues, tired of the incessant fussing over her. She isn't that badly hurt...in her opinion anyway.

Diana sighs and rubs her brow. She can quickly see this is heading for an argument which her mother, in her current state, does not need. "Well perhaps they will say you are well enough to return home soon," she offers.

"One can only pray to the Gods," Hippolyta says dryly.

Diana agrees with that sentiment.

"What about my attacker? Has he been caught?"

"Not yet but he will be. I promise," Diana swears.

"Do they know why I was targeted?" Hippolyta asks, since it is a question that has been crossing her mind often.

Diana weighs up for a moment whether she should tell her mother what she knows but then realises she is incapable of really lying...especially to her mother who can see through it. "From what intelligence we have so far he seemed to be some sort of religious extremist who saw you as the symbol of a Pagan religion that detracts worship from the one true God."

"I see," Hippolyta says in a flat tone, a frown touching her brow.

"It won't be like this forever mother," Diana says before she clarifies. "Man's World. The League and I...we are going to change it. Bring peace and discipline. I swear to the Gods we will do whatever is necessary to bring about a New Order."

Hippolyta takes one of Diana's hands into her own. "I have no doubt you will Diana. I have always had faith in you."

Diana's eyes mist over slightly. "Thank you mother."

"Now let us talk about something more pleasant. It seems an age since we talked. How are you?"

"I am in good health."

"How about...Tom is it?" Diana nods. Hippolyta notices an unhappy expression start to pull on her daughter's face. "Something wrong?" she asks Diana.

"Not wrong...exactly."

"But?" Hippolyta can hear coming.

"Things between us have been strained lately," Diana confesses. "We always seem to be busy and don't have time for each other...and I'm just not sure we are in the same place in terms of what we want."

Hippolyta looks at her daughter closely and tries to determine what it is Diana means by what she just said. "Diana. Has he been pressurising you into bedding him?" Hippolyta asks, with concern.

"Uh..." Diana hesitates.

Hippolyta's face darkens. "Do I need to have words with him?" she asks, sounding almost threatening.

An image flashes up in Diana's mind of her mother, sword in hand, confronting Tom, threatening to castrate him. "It's not like that...exactly."

"That is the second time you have used that word; 'exactly'. Diana it sounds like you are not exactly sure of what this relationship is to you any more."

"He has not been pressurising me," Diana rallies to Tom's defence. "It is just I think...understandably, he thinks that laying with each other is what inevitably happens."

"There is nothing inevitable about it Diana," Hippolyta offers her advice. "We are not animals incapable of controlling our base desires. You make a rational decision when you believe you are ready."

"I'm not," Diana says.

"Good. I'm glad you are being sensible," she praises her daughter. "I also hope he is aware of the risks he is taking when you do decide."

"Risks?" Diana asks, clearly confused by what her mother is referring to.

"Diana you are very strong. You must realise what harm you could inflict on many parts of him if you lost control."

Diana colours in reaction.

Hippolyta frowns. It seems her daughter has not considered this. Diana is a grown woman and a great warrior. She possesses wisdom beyond her years...but in the area of the heart Hippolyta has to say that her daughter has always been clueless. It didn't escape Hippolyta's notice that Diana didn't actually answer her question about what exactly the relationship means to her daughter. From what Diana has said Hippolyta can't see this lasting much longer before even Diana comes to the conclusion it is not working. In that case she gives this relationship another month...maybe two. Diana is very stubborn after all. Takes after her mother.


Metropolis...

Clark, dressed in his good suit...ok his only suit, checks his watch. He is currently standing at the subway station to get the train to his meeting at the Metropolitan. Sure he could have flown but in the middle of the day that tends to attract too much attention. This wasn't about Superman making some rescue or stopping some crime. This was Clark Kent on his way to a job interview. He adjusts the glasses perched on his nose slightly and waits patiently for his train.

As he waits his thoughts drift back to his date last night. He smiles as he remembers it. He had a good time and that kiss...whoa! Dinah sure could kiss. It was a little more forward than Clark is generally use to, episodes under red kryptonite aside naturally. Oh sure he had kissed on a first date before but not one with that much passion but maybe it just reflects Dinah's personality. He guesses it is something he will find out and it is something he wants to discover. He hopes it is something Dinah does too and that she'll call.

The sound of the train approaching grabs his attention. He should concentrate on his job interview right now and his love life later.

The train becomes visible and Clark instantly notices something is wrong. It's moving way too fast. It shoots by, not stopping, kicking up a wind as it goes.

Something is definitely wrong.

Clark closes his eyes and concentrates his hearing. Something this last half year he has spent some time working on to improve is his control over his powers. He hears the train driver talking on the radio.

"I can't stop it!" the driver yells in a panic.

"Neither can we," is the reply. "Something has completely overridden all our controls. We can't shut off the power!"

"I knew these computerised systems were a bad idea!" the driver yells at what he blames for this. "Oh god. My wife! My daughter!" he wails at the idea of never seeing them again.

Clark's eyes snap open. This looks likes a job for Superman...and oh dear god is that lame. Remind him never to say that out-loud.

Clark, as quickly as he can without drawing attention to himself, moves away from the crowded platform. Luckily he brought his costume with him in the rucksack he is carrying and he has gotten pretty good at quick changes. He just has to find a place where no-one is looking and there are none of those damn surveillance cameras about that seem to be everywhere these days.

Clark passes a maintenance closet. 'That'll do,' he thinks to himself as he forces the locked door. He closes it behind him and changes in what would appear a blurred whirlwind of motion to an outside observer. Clark switches into superspeed and is off in pursuit of the runaway train. All anyone he passes notices is a strange rush of wind.

Clark catches up with the train in seconds and overtakes it. He stops in front of it and lets it hit him and carry him. He wants to stop it slowly. Not bring it to an immediate screeching halt. This isn't the first time he has done this. The 1st time he did he made that very mistake and he was...lucky. Very, very lucky he didn't kill anyone when the train derailed. He won't repeat that mistake.

Clark pushes against the train whose electric motors strain against the force he is applying. Clark pushes harder, slowing the train down. The electric motors start to overload and burn out and Clark manages to bring the train to a gentle stop. He then tends to the driver and passengers to check if everyone is ok.


Meanwhile all of this is being watched from afar on screens from the cameras in the tunnels and on the train in the home of Lex Luthor.

"More powerful than a locomotive," Lex remarks at the result of his 1st test to his guest.

"You didn't need to go through that much effort. I could have told you that," Roulette says snidely.

"Yes but what new thing did we learn Roulette?" Lex asks his guest, whom he prefers to be kept close to him where he can keep an eye on her.

"That you can set up train accidents in less than 24 hours?"

"Now don't be deliberately obtuse," Lex tells her off. "Besides hacking into Metropolis' subway computer systems was child's play," Lex boasts.

"Because Lexcorp was the one who installed the computer systems in the first place and you left back doors into the system which you could exploit when necessary," Roulette shows off her impressive knowledge.

"Still have not answered my question Roulette. What did we learn?"

Roulette brow draws close together. She can't see what they know now about Superman that they didn't know before.

Lex sees she needs a clue. "How did he know? How did he know the train was in trouble? There hadn't been time to reach the news yet even in this digital age so I ask you to give me the answer how did he know?"

"He was on the train...or on one of the stations?" Roulette puts forward.

"Perhaps. Certainly possible," Lex is willing to concede. "However that would be a large coincidence and well you are good at calculating odds. How long a shot is that for a man who can fly anywhere he wants to?"

"Long," Roulette responds with and she means long, long odds at that.

"Even if he had been there by chance that doesn't explain every other rescue he has appeared at the last 6 months. For him to be there every time by luck is next to impossible so that leaves only one possible conclusion. He must have senses beyond anything you or I can imagine that allows him in some fashion to know trouble is afoot. Question is what are those senses and what are their limits."

"More tests," Roulette assumes.

"More tests," Lex confirms because in testing for those limits he is testing for weaknesses and when he finds them he will exploit them to the maximum.


'Crap, crap, crap, crap, crapity crap. I am so late!' Clark thinks to himself as he runs, as fast as he can get away with and not look like he is moving inhumanly so, up the stairs of the building the Metropolitan is housed in. By the time he had finished helping with the passengers and seeing they were safe and then gotten back to retrieve his clothes and get changed it was after 3 which meant he was so friggin late for his job interview he has most probably blown it.

He gets up to the right floor, takes one moment to straighten his clothes out so he looks half presentable at least before stepping into the offices and announcing himself to the receptionist.

"When I say 3 I don't mean...3.23."

Clark turns to find a short, compared to him she doesn't even reach his chin, blond woman directly behind him looking at her watch. Her green eyes shift up to look at him and an unimpressed expression is emblazoned across her face. "I can explain," he replies lamely.

The woman arches an eyebrow. "It would have to be pretty darn good explanation," she challenges him to provide.

Clark points at the tv screen above her head. "You see that," he says referring to the news coverage of Superman saving the train.

"Another costumed hero. Tickle me not so impressed," she says cynically. "What's your point?"

"My point is that was my train and therefore I had to walk here instead."

The woman's eyes narrow as she looks at him intently. "Fine. You get a reprieve," she says, sounding a little reluctant about giving it. She strides up to Clark and holds her hand out. "Chloe Sullivan."

Clark clumsily shifts his bag from one hand to the other and takes her hand. "Clark Kent. Thank you for giving me this chance Miss Sullivan."

"Well everyone deserves one chance. That's my philosophy on life. May not be much but it's the only one I have."

"It's a good one," Clark compliments her, with a goofy grin.

Chloe's lips curve up slightly in response before she catches herself. "Come on then. We'll go to my office and I'll read your work," she says.

Clark follows her, sits down in the chair she offers as she sits behind hers. He then hands over the piece he wrote and waits as he watches her eyes move back and forth as she reads.

"So," she says while she is still reading. "You ever worked for a newspaper before?" she asks.

"Not since university."

"Why not?"

"I was studying for a degree in journalism. I was in my final year in fact when my father died suddenly."

Chloe briefly pauses and looks up. "I'm sorry," she says with genuine sincerity and sympathy.

"Thanks."

"Please continue. Your father died and..."

"And I needed to go home and look after the family business. My father was a farmer you see. Then my mother got sick and I needed to look after her and by the time she passed away 5 years had somehow passed me by. It's only this last 12 months I have had the opportunity to try and pick up my life."

"You're extremely honest," Chloe has to remark at what he is willing to admit about his pain.

Clark almost laughs. If only she knew what secrets he kept. Instead what he says is, with genuine heartfelt emotion, "You can thank my parents. It was the way I was raised."

"They did a good job I'm sure...and my condolences about your mother," Chloe adds.

"Thanks but I've learned to accept it. It's part of life even if it hurts for awhile. Grief is the price we pay for love."

Chloe looks at him curiously about that last line.

"Queen Elizabeth II said that in her message to the victims of 9/11," Clark explains where he got that from. However it is very apt and applicable to himself.

Chloe is secretly impressed by his memory. That's handy for a good reporter. She returns to reading his work. When done she places it down on her desk and looks him straight in the eye. "Ok I'll be frank with you."

"Only if I can be Shirley," he quips.

"Funny," she remarks dryly.

"I try."

"I'll overlook it," she says accepting the humour because she isn't that tightly wound.

"You're so kind."

Chloe snorts with laughter, unable to stop herself. She takes a minute to regain her composure. "Serious now?"

Clark nods accepting from now on no more jokes.

"To be honest if you're a friend of Jimmy's then you know he and I use to date. Now despite this I promised I would look your work over seriously and I have. In my opinion your work isn't bad. It isn't great either. It's what I expect from someone with no experience. There are parts of it that are fantastic. You're a clever writer making accusations without quite saying them directly. Before I make a decision I have to ask and I want the full truth. Is what you wrote about true?"

Clark looks her dead in the eye. "Yes. Absolutely. The fight club existed. The fighter I befriended was a...honest man."

Chloe nods. "Actually I already knew about the club," she admits. "I just wanted to look into your face and see what your honest expression looked like. You're the first person I've met who has gotten anywhere this close to it and is still alive to talk about it. Now I'm willing to put this into my paper with the appropriate edits but question is are you willing you take the risk. Roulette doesn't leave loose ends."

"If you mean I am worried she will try and have me 'dealt' with I suppose I am but the truth needs to be heard," Clark says or he would say if he just a normal guy who had to worry about bullets and so on.

"That's what I believe too. A true journalist isn't one who is interested in scandal or making an easy hit by reporting on whatever some celebrity is up to. A true journalist stands for Truth and Justice and uses their words to help change the world for the better."

Clark's mouth drops and he looks at her, really, really closely until it finally hits him and an image flashes up in his mind, a memory of when he was 8 and in New York and he met a little blond girl who said that exact same thing. "It is you," he whispers in total disbelief.

Chloe looks at him oddly. "What?" she asks. "You know you look like you've just seen a ghost."

"I'm not sure I haven't."

"You're seriously not helping your job prospects Mr Cryptic Crazy Talk."

Clark snaps out of his shock. "I'll explain but humour me for one minute. Have you ever been to New York?"

Chloe blows out a breath. "Wow. Yeah. Once. Long time ago. I was about 8."

"Did you want to be a journalist then?"

"Yeah actually. I did," Chloe laughs a little at how silly it sounds that a 8 year old wanted to be some great journalist. "In fact now you mention it I remember telling this boy I met all about it."

"He didn't happened to have curly dark hair and blue eyes did he?"

"Yeah he did. How did you..." Chloe trails off and Clark tilts his head to the side and waits for the penny to drop. "No," Chloe says in a disbelieving whisper.

"Yes," Clark confirms before he frowns. "And my hair was not girly!" he tells her off for what she said about his hair.

Chloe laughs. "Oh my God!" she exclaims in disbelief. "That's...that's crazy...and it was girly. Girly and pretty," she reiterates her words from that day, not taking them back as to how the 8 year old her saw his quite long unruly curly hair. She then looks at his short cut hair. "What happened to it?"

Clark shrugs, lightly playing it off. "Felt like a change." He runs his hand over his head. "Not sure I'll keep it though. I'll probably just let it grow back."

Chloe cannot believe this. What were the odds that she would meet him again here and now? Had to be astronomical.

"I should thank you," Clark says.

"For?"

"Your words inspired me to want to become a journalist. If it hadn't been for the need to look after my mother I would have probably become one by now...or failed miserably in the attempt."

"You wouldn't have failed. Your writing, while not perfect, is too good," Chloe tells him, expressing her honest opinion.

"Thank you," he says warmly, feeling touched that she finds his writing good. "Does this mean I get a job?"

"Well we'll edit this first and see what response we get but yes for now Clark Kent you get a job," Chloe decides.


A young red-haired man snaps a picture of the runaway train. His brunette companion looks on with a none too happy expression. "Olsen will you stop," she practically begs, feeling almost embarrassed to be seen standing next to him.

"Need to get pictures Lois," Jimmy defends himself although why he has to he doesn't have a clue. He doubts any of them will get used because there is no Superman still here to be captured. Knowing his luck some kid with a camera phone probably got an award winning shot of Superman stopping the train.

"An empty train long after Superman has departed is not going to sell-out any printings," Lois complains.

"I guess he just didn't want to stick around. I'm sure he has plenty to do," Jimmy says knowing for a fact Clark had plenty to do. He wonders how Clark got on with his job interview.

Lois' expression remains sternly unhappy. Her first day back in Metropolis and her first opportunity to track down Superman and get his story has gone begging. She would have been back sooner if she could have but Perry insisted she finish her assignment shadowing the President. 'Thank you soooo much Mr White,' she thinks with complete sarcasm.

Well it seems it is like she thought in Japan. If she can't catch up to him she is just going to have to figure out how to get Superman to come to her.


The next day and around the base of one of Metropolis' many skyscrapers has gathered a crowd, police and news crews all there to bear witness as one of Metropolis' starring lights stands on the edge of the ledge at the top threatening to jump citing that she just can't live with the pressures of her fame any more. Police negotiators are currently trying to talk her down but they aren't succeeding. She inches closer to the edge and leaps off.

The crowd below gasp and scream until someone notices a red/blue streak in the sky and points at it. "Look! Up in the sky!

About halfway down the woman finds herself caught by two powerful arms as Superman swoops in to save the day. He gently floats down with the woman in his arms. He moves to place her down on her own feet when her eyes roll into the back of her head and she faints. He hands her over to the paramedics on scene.

"Superman!" the press junket yell at him.

Clark looks at them a little unsure what to do. All this publicity he seems to get is a little disconcerting. He is all about providing an example but talking to the press...what does he say? What does he want to say? Does he want to say anything? Clark hadn't figured that out yet.

Before he can make up his mind the decision is taken out of his hands when he hears a man scream. His eyes focus in immediately to another skyscraper in a clear line of sight to see a man plummeting down. In an instant he is flying up and catches him making a second save in a matter of moments. He delivers that man too to the paramedics before he departs into the sky deciding today isn't the day to talk to the press and this situation is certainly not the one he would find appropriate to give any statements about himself considering two people just tried to kill themselves.

"I'm surprised," Jimmy remarks to Lois as they stand with all the other press.

"About?"

"That you didn't try this first," he says jokily after Lois told him about her determination to get Superman's story.

Lois rolls her eyes. "Puh-lease. I'm not that stupid nor desperate to throw myself off a building Olsen," she dismisses Jimmy's implication out of hand...or at least not yet Lois isn't.


As before all this is being watched by the man who set it all up, Lex Luthor, who clicks a stopwatch to a halt as he timed Superman shifting from where he was standing until he caught the falling man. "Faster then a speeding bullet," Lex comments on the speed Superman moved at.

Roulette, still Lex's 'guest', rolls her eyes. "Yes. Yes. I'm sure he can leap tall buildings in a single bound as well," she says in a disrespectful tone. "What does this get us?"

"Sound. My man was falling for several seconds but it wasn't until he screamed that Superman raced to the rescue. This gets us the fact Superman must have enhanced hearing abilities...which may answer how he knew about our runaway train," Lex supposes.

"You're going to continue with this testing aren't you?" Roulette asks Lex, unhappy about what she sees as pointless beating around the bush instead of just getting to the heart of the issue in a more direct manner.

"Patience Roulette. You must learn patience," Lex tells her...again. "Just because you believe you've seen what he is capable of doesn't mean you have."

"What does that mean?"

"Did it ever occur to you that he saw what he wanted you to see and not what he is actually capable of hmm?"

Roulette's expression turns sour and Lex takes that to mean that, no, it had not occurred to her. Besides seeing Superman in action is not the same as studying him scientifically as Lex intends to do.

"How did you get that actress to jump by the way?" Roulette wonders.

"Oh a little hypnotic drug injected into her neck while she was asleep. She won't even remember this after it wears off. I'm sure her publicist will dismiss it as her working too hard and that she'll be taking time off to go to a 'retreat' to recover."

"Her publicist works for you right," Roulette assumes.

"Lexcorp does have an entertainment division, yes," Lex says in a roundabout way of confirmation of Roulette's assumption. In other words Lex is in complete control of this situation. Just the way he likes it. Well now that this day's testing is complete Lex has to make preparations for tomorrow.


The Daily Planet...

"Lane! Olsen!"

Lois and Jimmy had barely stepped back into the newsroom when the Editor-in-Chief's less than dulcet tones echo through the newsroom summoning them. The two knock then enter...well Jimmy knocks. Lois would have just barged in regardless. They stand across the desk from where a middle-aged man with thinning, greying hair, looks at them with an unhappy expression.

"You bellowed Chief," Lois says, sounding a tad disrespectful, but it is in jest. Deep down she truly admires and respects Perry White.

Perry frowns. "Don't call me Chief," he says first off. "And yes Lane I did but my question is more directed at your little sidekick."

"Hey!" Jimmy protests at the 'sidekick' crack.

Perry can remember when Olsen first started working here he was so nervous he would never say anything back at him. Secretly Perry is glad Olsen has more of a backbone now.

"Olsen?" Lois queries perplexed. "What's he done?"

"It's more what that ex-girlfriend of his has done."

"Which one?" Jimmy asks because...ok he's not exactly a playboy but he has had a few girlfriends in his life.

"The one that runs the Metropolitan."

"Sullivan?" Lois queries with notable surprise that it's her.

Perry nods and turns the computer monitor on his desk round for Lois and Jimmy to see. On the screen is the Metropolitan and it's current headline. 'Secret Metahuman Fight Club Revealed'. "It's currently trending number one and I want to know how Sullivan scooped us so please enlighten me Olsen," Perry asks, assuming that somehow Jimmy knows something about this.

Jimmy rocks from one foot to the other looking nervous. "It wasn't like I didn't try to persuade him to write for you but he didn't think you would take him because he has no qualifications...which by the way is true."

"Him who Jimmy?" Lois asks, with a stern expression, looking most decidedly displeased that Jimmy may have had a hand in her getting scooped.

"Clark Kent."

Lois frowns. "I know that name. How do I know that name?"

"You met him once or twice."

Lois looks at Jimmy more confused than ever.

"You stole his cab and we shared it," he reminds her.

Nothing. Not a twinkle of recognition from Lois.

"The bar across the street over a year ago. You and Cat kissed him when you were having one of your 'who can be a bigger bitch' contests."

Lois' eyebrows rise at Jimmy's course language. "Olsen...I'm impressed you can be that blunt. I knew I was a good influence on you," she says with a grin as she heaps praise on herself. "And as far as Cat is concerned I'm always the bigger bitch," Lois states proudly. Then to prove her point she punches Jimmy in the arm. "And just what the hell are you thinking sending someone to our competition?" she yells at him.

"Ow," Jimmy grimaces as he rubs his arm. That hurt. "I was being a friend," Jimmy defends himself. "Besides I wasn't wrong." Jimmy looks Perry square in the eye. "Tell me I wasn't wrong. You wouldn't have hired him. You wouldn't have gave his work any credence. We both know it."

"Days like this I wish I hadn't quit drinking," Perry mutters which goes to show Jimmy's right.


Offices of the Metropolitan...

The next day and Clark is interrupted from his new job by a high pitched sound that makes him wince in pain. That is when Clark hears it. A heavily distorted voice speaking at a frequency well above the human hearing range.

"If I'm right about your abilities Superman then you are the only being with less than 4 legs that can hear my voice. A bomb has been planted in the Metropolis Stock Exchange. I have already informed the police but unless you show up in the next 60 seconds I will detonate it long before they can evacuate the building. If I were you I wouldn't dally," the voice tells Clark in a deadly serious tone so it can't be ignored.

How this person managed this message Clark can try to figure out later. First and foremost he can't afford the risk of ignoring it if there is even the slightest chance innocent people are in danger. He rises to his feet and starts to head for the door as rapidly as he can get away with.

"Where are you going?" Chloe asks him as he passes her by.

"Uh...got a tip. Have to go," Clark says as he quickly walks out of the door.

Chloe looks to her receptionist with whom she was having a conversation when Clark blew past her. "Two days in the job and already he's flying the coop. I'm so proud," she says, as she pretends to be welling up with emotion.

"He's seeing someone you know," the receptionist points out.

"Ok how is that relevant to what I just said and how do you know that?"

"You need a man. It's been 2 years since Jimmy. It's getting sad and I know because Clark turned me down when I asked him out. He was really sweet and polite too. God it's a shame," the receptionist says, regretfully and lamenting that a really nice guy like Clark is taken.

I still don't see how this is relevant to me," Chloe says still not making the connection to that bit.

"I've seen you banter with him. If you were alone you would throw him down on a desk and take him."

"I most certainly would not," Chloe insists. "Stop transferring your fantasies onto me thank you very much Samantha and how do you know he's seeing someone? He might have just turned you down because he's gay."

"Trust me he's not," Sam insists.

"How do you know?"

"I know these things."

"That makes no sense."

"No. It's exactly that. It's a sense. Trust me I can smell a gay man a mile away and Clark Kent definitely does not swing that way. Nope he's got a girl somewhere. I doubt it's serious. If my woman's intuition is on the money I would say it's a relatively new thing so I'm crossing my fingers, being a little bit cruel and hoping it doesn't work out."

"Well at least you admitting you're being cruel," Chloe sort of compliments her. "But still I don't see how we started this conversation. I'm not interested in Clark Kent."

"Sure you're not," Sam says in such a tone that shows she doesn't believe that. "Neither am I nor every single woman here," she continues in the same tone.

"I'm not," Chloe insists.

"You keep telling yourself that Chlo."

"I will because it's true. I am not that desperate!"

"Of course not. You have Bob."

"Bob? Who is Bob?"

Sam's lips curve up into a knowing amused expression. "B.o.b. Bob. You're Battery operated boyfriend."

Chloe's eyes narrow. "Remind me why I haven't fired you yet?"

"Oh look! It's Superman!" someone else squeals, interrupting.

Chloe and Sam look up at the monitor as Superman is shown flying into the Stock Exchange as the breaking news coverage begins of the bomb threat since someone tipped the media off. That someone being Lex Luthor but of course no-one knows it was him.

"Now he is just too cute," Sam comments about Superman. "What I wouldn't give to take him for a ride. Rowr," she growls lustfully.

"Before or after you get Clark?" Chloe asks.

"Or both at the same time. I'm open to embracing new ideas!"

"Remind me why we're friends again?" Chloe asks Sam, since at the moment she hasn't a clue.

A few moments later there are gasps in the office as the television plays the live feed. The windows of the Stock Exchange blow out as a large explosion rocks the building. Smoke starts to pour out the shattered windows. All look on with baited breath and potential horror as time passes and as time stretches on interminably there is no sign of Superman.


Author's Note: Before someone complains I know Hippolyta has blond hair in the comics at the moment but in fact she has been both a brunette and a blond over the years and I just think it makes more sense that Diana inherits her black hair from her mother. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Clark seeks help as the testing of him continues.