Chapter Thirteen Part III- "Race against Time"

Something or someone was tapping on the warehouse door repeatedly each time the sound became louder.

Lois lifted her head at the growing sounds and began looking around for Joel and Billy before crying out, "Hello!" there was no response only the sound of tapping, "Someone!" she yells out despite the straining of her voice, "HELP!"

Meanwhile at the same time…

Clark and Richard separated after a failed attempt at opening the main door, they walked around the abandoned warehouse looking for possible entrances when a noise reached the kryptonian's ears and sounded almost like someone was calling for help inside the building, "Lois" he whispers her name before speeding back to the door where he knocked the doorknob off and pushed the door open forcefully, "Richard!" he calls out to the reporter rather reluctantly.

When Richard appeared he looked at the door confused, "I used one of the bricks to smash in the door." Clark explains quickly before changing the subject, "I think I heard something." He rushes inside afterwards with Richard following suit close behind, "Lois!" he calls out only to hear nothing in return, "LOIS!"

A hand on his arm stops his cries as he turns to face Richard, "Do you have a death wish? What if the guys who took Lois heard you? They could be armed."

"If they were armed then why haven't they shot at us?"

Clark turns around to continue his search for Lois while the irritation of working with a man he despised began eating away at Richard, "Who died and put you in charge?"

"Excuse me?" the farm boy asks with a confused look on his face, "You wanna run that by me again?"

"You're not the only one that wants to find Lois"

"No but I'm the only one doing something about it." Clark retorts back without a second thought despite his confusion afterwards.

The animosity and frustration snapped inside Richard as he pushed Clark with a great amount of force which surprised both of them, "She maybe blinded by love but I know what you are." Clark's eyes widen in fear that his secret had been exposed, "You cheat on her then tell her some sob story of how you were drugged and weren't thinking straight but it's all a lie. She covers for you and gets put repeated in danger because of whatever secret you're hiding and now she's been kidnapped."

"You think you know everything just because you spend a few days of the week with her." Clark just scoffs at the idea, "She is the one person that is always there for me even when I try pushing her away or tell her not to get involved but she does it anyway because that's who she is and that's who she always will be." He rises back to his feet, "You can't change her even if you wanted to." He brushes past the reporter to continue the rest of the search alone.

Both were unaware that the argument between them had been influenced by one of Lois's kidnappers and that he was watching their every move from the shadows in hopes of throwing them off their trail.

Lois held her breath when the door slid open but soon sat back defeated when she was Billy walking in with a bag of food, "They were all out of Sesame Chicken so I got you some Kung Pao instead." He walks towards her and unties one of her arms to place the container in her bound hand along with a fork, "Eat up before Joel comes back."

She gripped the fork tightly in her hand and took in a deep breath before dropping the carton all over the cold cement floor, "I'm so sorry" she exclaims to the young man while lying in wait for the right time to make her escape.

When Billy got close and squatted down to clean up the mess was when Lois jabbed the stainless steel utensil into his shoulder followed by a quick punch to the face as she ripped off the bindings on her legs and remaining arm while Billy cried out in pain unable to get the fork out of his back.

She gave him a brief sympathetic look before rushing out towards where she assumed the exit was.

The idea of being nearly within touching distance of freedom caused a large amount of joy to spread through her body only to come crashing to halt when she opened the door to find Joel standing on the other side, "Going somewhere?" he backhands her back into the warehouse and begins to slip off the black gloves, "Normally I wouldn't do this but your really getting on my nerves." His hand begins to glow red hot almost to the point where you could see through it.

A searing pain shot through her body that was soon replaced by an unexpected rage that caused her heart to race faster than before, "You feel that? Its every single piece of rage I've taken from people including those idiots searching for you."

"W-What did you do?"

He released his hold on her causing his hand to cool off as he quickly slipped the glove back on, "I merely distracted them so I could make a getaway. Normally I have to touch people to put them in a rage but lately I've been able to project it from farther lengths."

A memory crosses through her mind when the rage slowly begins to subside, "I remember you now. You're the guy that showed up at the Torch three years ago when my cousin went missing and right after you left we…" she trails off with her inner self mentally berating her for not connecting the dots sooner.

"Very good Ms. Lane, I was beginning to wonder if we took the wrong reporter." He grabs her roughly by the arm and practically drags her back towards her chair, "Get up!" he exclaims kicking his injured brother to side, "Help me find something else to tie her down with."

Billy gestures to the fork still in pain which caused Joel to let out a frustrated sigh as he roughly pulled the silverware from his baby brother's shoulder and threw it to the side, "Maybe this will teach you not to untie our hostage."

Minutes later they had replaced the duct tape for bits of rope and a stretch of chain to ensure less momentum, "Now let's pick up where we left off shall we."

Another dead end the lead to more time being wasted at Lois's expense, Richard ran his hands through his hair in frustration while Clark went over the borrowed files again hoping they overlooked something, "How do we even know that this guy is responsible for Lois's disappearance? Lex could be doing all this just to give us the run around."

"Lex's very resourceful and wouldn't be this sloppy." Clark replies still shifting through the papers until something caught his attention, "But I might have an idea of who might know where this guy is." He hands the folder over to Richard and grabs his coat, "Keep searching for something…anything that could give us an idea as to who else might know more about this Kane guy."

"What are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna see an old friend of mine." He walks out without a word and looks around before speeding off towards the last place he ever wanted to be again…Atlantis.

The place had closed down a couple months ago by the IRS after it was discovered that someone was altering the books and siphoning the funds off to numerous bank locations around the world.

It wasn't until recently that a generous benefactor offered to pay off the debt and the club was allowed to reopen but you couldn't tell at all when you re-entered it to see people partying the night away to the loud techno music blasting through the speakers.

"Hey Kal, haven't seen you in here for quite sometime." The bartender greeted him with a shot glass of the usual to which Clark declined.

"I need to speak to Moxie, you've seen him anywhere?"

The bartender didn't answer but he did manage to point Clark in the right direction with a quick gesture of the eyes, "Thanks." The farmboy responds pulling out a twenty dollar bill and placing it on the bar before turning around to walk off in the direction.

A large bouncer blocked the entrance pushing Clark away, "No one's allowed to see Boss Moxie without a personal invitation."

Clark just smiled and pretended to walk off when he turned around to slam his fist into the bouncer's abnormally large jaw sending the giant to the floor in a pain, "Tell your boss that Kal's here to see him." He states channeling his inner bad boy hoping the ruse would pay off, "Don't make me wait."

When the doors finally open Clark stood face to face with a middle aged man dressed in a gray business suit smoking a cigar with several other urban dressed younger gentlemen sitting around him with guns clearly seen holstered at their side of underneath their jackets, "Ah here is the man of the hour himself!" Boss Moxie exclaimed excusing himself from the young gangsters and rose to his feet with the help of a man who bore some resemblance to the old king of the underworld, "I'm fine Bruno." He exclaims to the man grabbing the cane and limping towards the farmboy, "My son thinks I'm getting old for this type of business." He lets out a scoff, "Back in my day I could run circles around them."

"I'm here about a guy named Joel Kane. He has something of mine and I want it back."

Boss Moxie just smirked, "I'm honored that you chose to come to me for help but I can't help you. That guy is bad for business and if Intergang found out that I was supplying information to you then they'd come gunning for me and my business."

"I just need to know where he lives. This wont come back to you I promise."

He takes sometime to think it over before snapping his fingers causing Bruno to rush to his father's side, "Give Kal the info on Kane and be discreet about it."

A huge wave of relief washed over as Clark thought to himself, 'Hang on Lois.'

TBC

FUN FACT: Boss Moxie is Moxie Mannheim, Bruno Mannheim's father.

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