Chapter 24: The Trap is Set
Lana was at a lost about what to do. General Lane had refused to even consider her request to put operation Dust Cloud on hold. How could a man of his authority take such a risk with the lives of innocent people all over the world? He utterly dismissed the possibility, that there could be a danger in unleashing the Kryptonite dust; he was more interested in being the one who saved the country instead of someone else like Superman.
She had tried to contact S.T.A.R Labs to try to find out the truth, but any attempt to get a hold of Professor Hamilton had failed. She had no idea where else to go to find the information; after all, this was not something you could just google.
Leaning back in her chair, her mind was reeling trying to figure out the puzzle that was presented to her. When she took this job, she never imagined it being this hard. It felt like some unknown force was setting its will against her. Perhaps she was being paranoid, but having worked under a man like Lex Luthor would have that affect on a person. Somehow, a part of him still felt alive; she could almost swear that she felt his presence in this building.
Stuck in her mental block, her thoughts were interrupted by a musical five-note chime from her computer. On the monitor, a red circle with the number '1' in the center appeared over the hyperlink to her email inbox. Grateful for the distraction, she clicked on her inbox and read the new email message.
It was from someone who went by the name 'M'-period-Graves. She had no idea who this person was, but the subject heading quickly grabbed her attention. It said:
IMPORTANT: Luthor's missing secret file!
She had viewed many secret files that Lex had hidden in various formats and locations. It was some of those 'secret' files that directed her to Operation Dust Cloud. Of course, there were some files that needed to be erased or shredded, which came to no surprise to her. She felt it was her responsibility to read these files to help pave a way for a more honest Lexcorp. She had no desire to be caught off guard by anything Lex might have done in the past to bring repercussions against the corporation today.
She had no idea if this source was trustworthy or not, but she was willing to risk it. She opened the email, which had no text to it at all. She clicked on the attachment which had a .PDF extension. She opened the document and to find scanned images of hand written notes written in Lex Luthor's handwriting.
It was a fascinating read, to say the least. It was a mixture of scientific notes and journal entries. She came upon a section solely focused on Clark. It quickly became apparent that since Clark came to Metropolis, Lex had become obsessed over him, and not in a flattering way, either. She thought he was best friends with Clark, but these types of journal entries showed that he wasn't reciprocating that friendship.
She read this portion of the notes with great care. Something inside of her told her that this was what she needed to read. She could feel it in her gut, that their complex relationship would answer a great number of questions. She came to a page with two head-shot photos. One was of Clark Kent wearing a tan fedora hat. There was no mistaking that the second head shot was a close-up of Superman.
She had never seen Superman this close up before, but the moment she saw the two pictures side-by-side, her heart nearly stopped. At first, she thought her mind was playing tricks on her, but photo's never lied. She knew Clark intimately enough to know, immediately, that he and Superman were the same person.
Lois sat her desk, unable to concentrate on her work; she could not get Clark out of her mind. She was afraid of this; she had fallen in love, and like a school girl, she couldn't concentrate on anything but. This was unprofessional, and for the first time... she didn't care.
She was staring at a piece of paper, in her electronic typewriter that had only three words typed on it. A word had not been typed on it for over an hour. Her brain refused to cooperate with her.
Lucy, forced to—once again—come to the Daily Planet, watched her big sister struggle for the past hour. She couldn't remember a time when she'd seen her sister this anxious. She always admired her older sister for her ability to always keep focus. In that way, Lois was much more like their father than she was.
"Okay, what's wrong? I'm tired of sitting here and watching you stare at that empty sheet paper."
"Who—wha—oh, nothing's the matter, just a little case of writers block."
"Oh, get over yourself, I know when someone's flustered, but I've just never seen it happen to you. You're in love!"
"Wha—don't be ridiculous!" Lois laughed, but there was not a person alive who would have been fooled by this forced laugh. This was her way of being defensive, a sure sign that she was right.
"You are! Oh my god, you're actually in love!" Lucy ran to grab the chair at Clark's desk and rolled it over to her sister's desk. She jumped into the seat like a young girl, ready to share secrets at a slumber party. "So, give me the details, starting with who this Fabio of yours is?"
Lois wanted to tell her to go away, but why would that work now when it never worked before? While her little sister may like 'girl talks', she hated it with a passion. She was not into girly things that most women enjoyed while growing up. As a girl, if anyone made the mistake of buying her a Barbie, the doll would not last two days before it ended up headless and limbless. That is, if her father had not gotten rid of them first. His gifts to her were almost anything military, including G.. When growing up, she refused to join the softball team, and continuously tried to join the men's baseball teams. Of course, that was before she finally found her calling as a journalist and joined the school's newspaper team.
Lois sighed and shook her head. "It's none of your concern."
Lucy was not going to take no for an answer. She was going to press this until her curiosity was quenched. "Is it someone here? Please don't tell me it's Clark Kent. The guy is nice and everything, but he kinda looks like Leonard from the Big Bang Theory, only taller."
"There's more to him than you would think."
The surprise on her face was unmistakable. "Clark Kent? You're the most opinionated, choosy woman I've ever known, and you fall in love with someone like Mr. Kent?"
Lois gave her sister a scowling look. "Like I said, there's more to him than you realize."
Lucy was going to pry for more information when the floor began to shake followed by loud crash. The sudden noise caused both women to jump out of the chair. A stream of panicked employees started to flow towards the elevators and emergency exits.
"What's going on?"
Jimmy fought his way through the crowd, pushing and shoving to try to get to Lois and Lucy. Having been curses with a scrawny body of high school nerd, the task proved daunting. Everyone noticeably towered over him, and none of them seemed to pay the kid any attention. However, his determination allowed him to prevail only after he climbed on top of a desk and climbed over the cubical wall.
Lucy placed her hands on top of him, inspecting him for injury. "Jimmy, what's going on?"
The boy was out of breath, having exerted a lot of his strength climbing over cubicles. "We're under attack!"
"Attack? By whom?"
A desk flipped up like a coin, hitting the ceiling tiles before crashing on top of another desk. All the remaining people on the floor changed directions to find another way out, as a freakishly tall, near middle aged man stormed towards the three of them. His black suit was almost straight out of a Star Wars movie; it was a mix between a cloak and a long sleeve V-neck shirt. His Belt was all black except the buckle, which was a symbol that reminded her very much of Superman's chest symbol.
Lois could feel his eyes directing themselves towards her; she had a very bad feeling that she was about to be made a pawn, once again, to lure Superman. Why couldn't these bad guys come up with anything original?
Lucy hid behind her sister, "He—he—he's coming this way!"
Perry White came out of his office, fuming over the chaos at his workplace. He had no idea what he was stepping into. "What the hell is going on around —"
The intruder shoved everyone and anything out of his way as he approached their little group. It was then they noticed that he was not alone; a familiar face from Lexcorp's past was behind him, and by the look on her face, she was not a prisoner. "Mercy Graves... why am I not surprised?"
"I take it that this is the woman you told me about."
Mercy grinned, standing by his side. "Yes, that's Lois Lane."
"Who the hell are you?" Perry demanded.
His lip curled, finding Perry's demands distasteful and disturbing. "I am General Zod, your new master. As leader of your planet, you shall show me the proper respect, from this point on."
"Wh—wha—what do yo you want?"
Mercy folded her arms in front of her. The General should have to address a pathetic little child; it was below his dignity. "Silly little girl, what do you think? Lois Lane's capture will assure the General an audience with the Man of Steel."
"Actually, my dear... " General Zod interrupted. "I want Superman to feel the urgency of my request for him to come before me, quickly. I'm not taking you hostage... I'm going to kill you."
Walking down the crowded streets of Metropolis, Clark's mind was still reeling from last night. He felt like a major hurdle, in his life, had been taken down; everything seemed to make sense again. The night he spent with Lois could not have felt more right. It was not the first time he took her on a flight, yet it proved to be the most magical experience.
When it was over, there was no more doubt; he was in love with Lois Lane. She was the one he was ready to spend the rest of his life with, but would she feel the same way when she learned the truth? He knew that the time was now here to tell her the truth. Ever since leaving his apartment, this morning, he had been practicing ways of telling her that he was Superman. He knew that she would not believe him at first, and that he would have to show him his suit underneath his clothes. Therefore, it would have to be somewhere where they could be alone. Perhaps he could convince her to come with him to somewhere more private during lunch hour.
He was just coming to the spinning doors when a rush of people ran out of the building in a panic. Sensing the fear, he focused his hearing on listening to some of the conversations. There was a lot of rumors and speculation among them. Fear had a tendency to distort and exaggerate the truth. With listening in on his fellow employee's rants not getting him anywhere, he focused on what was happening on the news floor. It took him no time at all to discover the situation. "Zod!"