I keep telling myself "I should be able to finish chapter 24 today" and then it keeps. not. happening. I'm getting there. Chapter 24 is coming along, just real slowly. I think it's going to end up being another "fuck it this looks good" type of chapter.
Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Superhero Effect
Half a mile out and two hundred feet below the water was the last place anyone would have anticipated finding a government research facility, even despite its disguise as a monitoring station for both pollution and rock sturgeon (To be thorough, the facility did provide feedback on both).
There were very few windows in the facility, making it easier for the occupants to ignore the fact they were underwater. One window was located in the lounge room, where General Lane stood. There wasn't much to see at this time of year. The fish had migrated to the deeper points to escape the pervasive cold. The rocky lake-bed didn't provide much distraction from Lois's voice in his ear.
"Think about that one." she was saying passionately."Half of Metropolis fleeing the city for Christmas and New Year's, most of them asymptomatic and contagious as fuck, the rest of them showing distinct signs of illness. They'll spread it through airplanes, buses, trains, diners, restaurants, the shopping malls! It'll move down every line of travel and commerce! By January, maybe February, we could be looking at a global pandemic!"
General Lane pressed his lips together to make sure he didn't betray anything because goddammit, Lois was right. They had asked for a virus, something contagious enough to spread with moderate swiftness and something tough enough that the average CDC grunt couldn't figure it out in a reasonable amount of time. They had needed something that would cause enough panic to make the global news, to make the situation desperate.
Desperate but containable.
He hadn't planned for it to be released just before the holiday travel season like this. Mid-January, early February, when there was less of a chance that it would spread along every form of commercial travel.
But what difference did that make now?
How was that any better?
"And when I'm the one dying of Blue Ring Fever, I'll look back and think 'Well fuck you too, Dad'." Lois finished in the most acidic tone of voice General Lane had heard from her yet.
That's why I wanted you in on the inside. So you'd be inoculated immediately. So you and Lucy wouldn't die in the outbreak. He thought.
But how did that make it any better?
He had still been plotting to help commit genocide. Sofia Gigante might have come up with the plan, but he had been assisting her.
He should have known better. He should have guessed the worst after watching the Gazzo family wither away into nothing while the Gigante family had regained the control they had lost with Rocco's death and pushed ever higher without being caught by anyone.
Even the Gigante family, with Carmine Falcone on their side, couldn't have moved in such large steps and grand gestures without someone catching on. Despite all apparent best efforts, Metropolis was still nothing like Gotham. The police could not be blinded by the gleam of a fifty dollar bill.
He should have suspected that someone was putting up smokescreens.
It had been a good plan, at least on paper. Metropolis had been looking a bit rough around the edges in recent years. Former Mayor Berkowitz had been a plague on the populace, wreaking havoc with his ridiculous policies that had nearly put the city in an early grave. The police had been under-staffed, schools under-funded, taxes had been inching higher but none of that money seemed to be going anywhere. Except perhaps to line the pockets of Berkowitz and his trusted underlings. They had been sinking back into the mire of economic depression, similar to what they had already suffered after the copper mine closure.
Metropolis had needed a face-lift and an enema like whoa.
Berkowitz hadn't so much as left office as much as he had been arrested for a laundry list of petty misdeeds that had added up over time. The actual court case had been catalyzed by his P.A. suing him for sexual harassment and everything had come pouring out of the cracks during the investigation period. Everything from the diverting of funds on projects like the Bronze Bridge to the quiet pardons to the on-the-sly shut-downs of soup kitchens and homeless shelters.
Unfortunately for Berkowitz, the court system hadn't fallen to internal corruption and Judge Santiago had presided over the case. Well known for his hard-line policies, Judge Santiago had watched with mild glee as their former mayor tried to plead not guilty only to be smacked with the fullest measure of the law and fifty years of jail time that he probably wouldn't live to the end of.
But the two incoming mayoral candidates had been far from ideal when it came to helping Metropolis out of its rut. Buck Sackett had spent the campaign period so low in the polls he'd nearly been achieving negative results. He had run directly on Berkowitz's platform, vowing to further what their then-mayor had begun and that was without touching on his wild ideas about female biology and the function of hormones.
By then, the people of Metropolis had been so sick of cronyism and brain-damaged idiots in their government that the metaphorical rock-throwing had begun five words into Sackett's very first speech.
The actual rock-throwing had started about a week later.
Lois's blog had begun then, her commentary just this side of inflammatory but so vividly colorful and memorable and well-worded that major news networks had lifted quotes from the posts to use in their remarks.
General Lane remembered reading the posts, almost smirking at his daughter's wit and word-use. Ella would have been swelling with pride to see her oldest developing the sharpness of a scalpel.
In contrast to Sackett, Joanne Kovac had looked like a rock-star. Clearly sane, delightfully level-headed, and able to speak to the average person without leaving them feeling disturbed, she had been the better candidate by a margin that was off the charts. She had run her platform on reversing Berkowitz's insane policies, an announcement that had instantly made her very popular. Though polling at ninety-eight percent by the night before election, enthusiasm had been tempered somewhat by her considerable inexperience.
It hadn't stopped the choice from being easy to make, but that still hadn't magically granted her the political experience to turn the city around all the way and get it moving in the right direction.
Metropolis was still a mess. It had taken Mayor Kovac more than a year and a half to tear the down the worst and most insidious aspects from Berkowitz's reign of stupidity. An unfortunate number of minions still remained in seats of power, determined to keep Mayor Kovac from accomplishing all she was trying to do.
It wasn't her fault, not exactly. The men in the cabinet were too used to being allowed to move unimpeded, but she had neither the gumption nor the respect to corral them again.
When it came to cleaning up messes, General Lane had learned to take the extreme. He wiped out the problem down to the root and started over from scratch. Sometimes, that was all that worked.
It wasn't good politics, but in his eyes, it had looked like the best way to fix the problems in Metropolis. And there had been a desperate need to rip out the corrupted elements from the city's infrastructure before they dug themselves in too deeply.
Before they turned into Gotham.
No one wanted to become Gotham.
When Sofia Gigante had approached him with just the plan he had been looking for - one that would clean slate Metropolis and allow them to start over from the ground up, he had barely thought twice about it.
He should have questioned it more thoroughly. He never should have trusted a Falcone as much as he had.
You're right. General Lane wanted to say in that brief moment of silence. You were right all along and I'm such a massively-sized idiot that your mother would slaughter me for my deliberate blindness. I fucked up so hard she might rise from the dead. She'd cut out my heart and show it to me before she rips off my head and shits down my throat.
The words didn't come.
"Dad." Lois's voice was calm and quiet in the same way the sky was quiet in the eye of a hurricane. "Where's Superman?"
"Lois, I don't know that." General Lane lied. Down two corridors, section C, room eighty-two.
"Yes, I think you do." his daughter argued back."You knew that Sofia used me to bait a trap to catch Superman. I know you've been working with her. She's done something with him and even if you don't know off the top of your head, it shouldn't be difficult to find out."
"Lois, I don't know." General Lane repeated, unable to think of anything else to say. She had him backed into a corner and she probably knew it. She would go in for the kill next.
"Then find out and do it quickly and then make sure he's let go. Metropolis does not need someone pretending to be a hero. The city doesn't need someone deliberately putting it in danger just so they can rescue it and call themselves the savior."
Ouch, there it was. Lois had gone for the jugular and may the window cave in on him if she wasn't on the nose. That was exactly what the plan had been about, in the end. To manufacture a disaster that would leave the city struggling and desperate and looking for anyone to save them. When they had come forward with the vaccine, they would have been hailed as heroes and no one would think twice about their probably shady plans to rebuild the city. After a swift end to an epidemic, anything would sound like a choir of angels.
They'd never see the new problems until it was already too late.
"It needs the real hero. It needs Superman." Lois tacked on, not done driving that one in. She sighed. "I just hope you can get that through your thick skull before it's too late."
The conversation ended there. General Lane sighed heavily as he took the phone from his ear and ended the call. There was no need to continue it; Lois had said her piece. She had made her opinion known, her position set. As per usual, it was the exact opposite of whatever he espoused. It had been like that between them for years. If General Lane said one thing, his daughter popped up with the opposite remarks. Half the time, it seemed that she argued the other side just to spite him.
But this time?
No, this time he couldn't blame her taking the opposite stance, because everything Sofia Gigante stood for was the exact opposite of what Lois Lane believed in. Lois Lane believed in freedom of speech and the power of the press and equality wherever it could be found. She believed in truth and justice and -- dare he be cliché enough to add -- the American way.
She didn't believe in lying or pulling the wool over a person's eyes. Lois preferred the truth above all things. It was why she worked for the Daily Planet.
And she believed in heroes.
Lois Lane believed in the power of superheroes and in all the good they could affect just by being visible figures. How they were so incredibly important as role models and the monumental damage that could be inflicted should people lose faith in them.
She believed in the Superhero Effect.
General Lane had always known this about his oldest daughter and he'd still been foolish enough to think that she could be swayed off her ethics and morals and ideals.
Hell, they hadn't even tried to put an incentive on the table.
Not that bribing would have worked.
General Lane wiped a hand down his face in exhaustion. The last fifteen minutes or so had been something like emotional whiplash. Double-crossed out of his own plan, made to believe that his oldest was dead, only she wasn't due to some miracle or another. Still alive to call him out and rub his nose in a mess of his own creation. Relief over Lois's survival and guilt over the plan warred in him, leaving him feeling off-kilter and a tad out of control. He didn't like either sensation. He had always been in control, keeping everything straight and on target and moving like it was expected to.
He wasn't used to his projects getting away from him.
He didn't like it when his plans were stolen.
It was poetic justice to the general that Sofia had been double-crossed as well, but it was much worse than another Benedict. Sofia had sought to move the plan forward and in all likelihood, this third party had talked her into it. Given the disaster that would ensue should the virus be unleashed now rather than two months from now, it was uncomfortably safe to assume that the third party didn't have a plan that even remotely hinted at altruism (not that his plan had been any more altruistic).
More like they were going to douse the city in lighter fluid and then sit back to watch it burn.
The world would burn too.
Shit... Well, Project 7734 is going to have to wait and Eiling can kiss my ass. What use is it to study meta-powers if there isn't anyone left to do so? General Lane rationalized. Metropolis doesn't need this.
He marched out of the lounge at a parade ground pace, his expression set in business mode so no one would feel inclined to stop him. Two corridors down and to room eighty-two. He punched in his security code and the door whooshed open. Superman was still strapped down to the slab table and his head jerked up when the door opened. He looked a bit sickly than when General Lane had left about half an hour earlier, like he was battling a gut-deep nausea, but he still mustered up a decent glare.
General Lane took the remote out of his pocket and Superman flinched automatically, expecting a shock, but he pressed the green button instead of the red. The shackles retracted and Superman almost threw himself off the table in his haste to get off of it. He staggered away until he bumped into the wall and leaned on it, breathing slowly and deeply, and clutching his stomach.
"Why?" he asked, his entire face crinkling in confusion.
"Because I've made a mistake and my daughters will never forgive me if I don't try correcting it." General Lane admitted, although primly. "I conspired in a plan to all but destroy Metropolis in what would appear to be a bio-terrorism attack. Sofia Gigante double-crossed me by conspiring with a third party. That third party, in turn, double-crossed her. Currently, there is a total of roughly sixteen to seventeen bombs scattered in strategic locations around the city. This number and these locations may have changed in the time it took for Sofia to secure the plan solely under her influence. These bombs are to be loaded with a highly contagious virus that was manufactured by Dr. Essex -- Nam-Ek, to use his real name. To the very best of my knowledge, he was the only one who had the formula for the vaccine."
Realization dawned on Superman's face. "That's why you were so interested in knowing where he was."
"Yes. As of this moment, the vaccine does exist but in a very limited supply. We would only be able to inoculate one hundred individuals." the general said. "Should the virus be released now, the incubation period will expire just in time for the holiday travel season. And then it will spread across the world in very short order."
"Why?" Superman asked again. "Why would you think about doing something like that?"
"I'm sure you've noticed the state that Metropolis is still in." General Lane said. "There are corrupted elements embedded deep in the government that refuse to be shaken out. Former Mayor Berkowitz is still having an effect on the city, one that needs to be taken out at the root."
"And unleashing an epidemic on the city was going to help with that?" Superman growled, starting to straighten up.
"Because I've dealt in nothing but extremes for most of my life. My knee-jerk choice is the orbital nuke option." General Lane said mildly. "My motive was altruistic. My method not so much."
"No kidding." Superman muttered. He straightened his shoulders now, making the long crimson cape ripple down his back. "Who's the third party?"
"I don't know. Mrs. Gigante is keeping that one to herself." General Lane replied. "But their demands are clear. Unless you are handed to them within the next half hour, they will detonate the bombs. The immediate blasts will destroy at least fourteen individual city blocks and three bridges and countless lives. It will also release a vaporized form of the virus into the air. An estimated two weeks incubation period and then it would be all over the nation before the end of the year. You might understand why it would be in the country's best interest to turn you over to this third party.
"However, turning you over to their custody is no guarantee that they will stop the countdown." the general went on, before Superman could say anything to protest. "What I've been told is that Metropolis needs a hero and my daughter Lois believes that's you."
"Lois believes?" Superman repeated incredulously, latching onto the use of present tense. It wasn't past tense 'Lois believed'; it wasn't speculative wording like 'Lois would believe'. No, no, the general was speaking like Lois had told him that very thing just a few minutes ago.
"Yes, it seemed pancaking her on the street was not part of the new plan." General Lane said, noting the faint wobble in the other man's legs. "She's still alive and I want to keep it that way."
Alive...
Lois is alive!
The thought swept over Superman in a rush and he felt himself reeling back. He put a hand on the wall to steady himself. He didn't even want to start speculating on the hows or the whys, but Lois had cheated Death for the billionth time.
She was alive.
There was still a chance.
"Here's the deal." General Lane began, all business now. "Save the city. Get rid of the bombs, get rid of the virus, nab that third party, and I will publicly stick my neck out for you. You won't have my full confidence or trust, but you've saved Lois no less than three times already so I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. But only once. Is that understood?"
"From you, I wouldn't expect anything less." Superman couldn't help the grin now. He could really see where Lois got it all from.
General Lane looked vaguely approving. "Save this city and I'll keep hell off your back. Deal?"
He put a hand out in a firm manner and Superman reached to take it when he heard the distant tear of steel and the crumble of concrete and the gush of water, followed immediately by a piercing alarm. The lights went red.
"Hull breach! We have a hull breach in section B!" yelled a frantic voice through the intercom.
General Lane dove for the intercom in the wall, slapping a hand on the button. "Seal the bulkheads! Evacuate the area!"
"Are we underwater?" Superman asked. He should have suspected it earlier, but the cuffs hadn't just sapped away his strength. They'd managed to dull his senses too.
"Two hundred feet under the surface of the lake." General Lane answered.
That was when the howling started. A long-winded, eerie hunting howl that rose and fell through three octaves in a span of two seconds, from a low growl to a high-pitched cry that could have been heard for miles. One that Superman had heard maybe twice, but he had never forgotten that sound.
It reminded him that Krypto was, in fact, a sub-species of wolf.
"What the hell?!" General Lane demanded, cringing at the sound. It must have been inciting some atavistic memory deep in his lizard brain, telling him to run from something that obviously a danger. His hand grabbed at the gun in the waist holster.
"No, I've got this!" Superman said quickly, before the general could consider trying something rash.
He rushed out of the room as soon as the door opened. Water trickled across the floor and he could hear the grind of the bulkhead doors rising quickly enough to stop the flood. The eerie howling persisted until Superman whistled sharply. Krypto's vocalizations immediately changed from piping howls to happy barks and the dog launched himself around the corner a moment later. He was soaked and dripping, his white fur plastered down, and he smelled strongly of the lake, but that didn't stop him from throwing all one hundred and twenty pounds bodily into Superman's chest.
He went "oof!" under the weight and staggered a little, still feeling a tad queasy and weak around the knees, but caught the dog nonetheless. Krypto all but climbed up his shoulders, letting out little yipping puppy-barks before he proceeded to slather Superman's face with dog drool.
"Not up my nose!" Superman tried to get his head out of range of the slobbery pink tongue, but there was no escaping a dog who could fly.
'Up your nose!' Krypto thought and aimed his next lick for the man's nostrils. That would teach him to make a dog worry. Stupid Alpha wasn't allowed to vanish off the face of the planet like that without warning.
"Gah!" Superman put his arm over his face. "No, stop-- Krypto, stop. Stop!"
'Never!'
"You really do have a dog."
General Lane had poked his head tentatively out the door while the lights resumed their normal color, watching the scene with raised eyebrows. Immediately, Krypto's tail went down and his ears went flat and he showed his teeth warningly.
Superman resisted the urge to say "told you" smugly. Instead, he said. "Don't get close. He's protective."
"I see." General Lane said. He didn't move forward, but he didn't back away either. He had reacted to the intimidation gesture by drawing his shoulders back and squaring them like he was going to fight.
"And he's still a puppy." Superman added, just to make sure the general knew that Krypto wasn't yet at his adult size. He was already oversized for the breed he appeared to be and it was hard to imagine that he was going to get bigger.
General Lane went "hmm" thoughtfully and if anything, he squared his shoulders even more.
"One chance, Superman." he repeated, back to business. If anything fazed him, then never for long. "One chance. If you blow it--"
"Then we're all dead anyways." Superman finished. He let Krypto out of his arms. "Show me the way out."
The hallways were interconnected enough that no part of the facility was isolated from another in the event they had to shut the bulkhead doors. It did mean taking a more of a round-about path in order to get to the main entrance and that meant they walked right by the office where Sofia had been locked in, albeit with a narrow window view to the corridor outside. She hissed when she saw General Lane leading Superman past and grabbed her phone out of her coat pocket (why they hadn't relieved her of it, she couldn't fathom).
"Mannheim." she growled.
"Ah, Sofia my darling. How are you?" asked the disguised but charming voice of her once-benefactor. "Am I to presume that you've become wise to my little scheme?"
"Currently, I am imagining the moment I will wring your neck." Sofia said. "But I believe that I still might be able to salvage something out of this mess you made--"
"Yes, yes, I was going to give Metropolis to you anyways." Mannheim said dismissively. "My plan only includes Metropolis in the short-term. After that, it's yours. I do keep my promises."
"Very well." Sofia said grudgingly, her teeth gritted. "You should know that the general is letting Superman go."
"Is he?"
"And I imagine it's so he can stop your plan."
"Dear, dear," Mannheim tutted silkily. "I'm afraid that just won't do. I do believe it's time to give Superman a proper work-out, don't you? Sit tight, Sofia dear. Ta-ta for now."
And she hung up before Sofia could voice any questions. The mafia queen growled, squeezing her phone so hard it creaked. She wasn't going to delude herself into believing for a second that Mannheim was really going to give her Metropolis when all was said and done.
Moreover, it was really a question of if there would be anything left of Metropolis to claim.
The airlock whooshed open, releasing the last cloud of air bubbles and ejecting Clark and Krypto into the cold depths of Lake Superior. Clark's eyes adjusted quickly to the relative dimness. There were the train tracks, just as General Lane had said; they led up to the beach to the launching station. Oriented now, he started to swim for the surface.
He was a strong swimmer; he sort of had to be. Of practically everyone in Smaville, Clark was the first person to sink in any substantial body of water, so he'd always had to fight harder to keep himself afloat. Knowing now that he had denser bones and muscles, it made perfect sense.
You know, the last time I was under water like this, I'd met Lois just three hours earlier. He remembered, almost fondly. It wasn't a distinctly pleasant memory, but there was something about it that would stick in his mind for a long time to come.
Like it had set the tone for their entire relationship.
He would look back on that one day and wonder how.
They burst out of the water and into the cold wintry air. Clark shivered briefly as he shook the water out of his air, his cape clinging to his back and legs. The sun wasn't exactly out, but it was wonderfully warm in contrast to the cold water. Clark breathed in deeply, taking a fresh breath of air. It helped chase away some of the lingering queasiness and his wrists and ankles tingled like they were getting circulation again.
Krypto shook himself out like a spin cycle, shedding water in a full three hundred and sixty degree circle.
"Hey! Knock it off!"
Dr. Sullivan's squawked and offended voice made Clark turn around, seeing the older man shielding himself from the spray. Krypto gave his tail a final flick, aiming the water drops right at the older Kryptonian's face.
"Hey, I stayed out of the water for a reason! Don't get me wet too!" Dr. Sullivan protested, wiping the water off. "Lousy mutt..."
"You didn't want to contribute to the rescue effort?" Clark asked, grinning all the same.
Dr. Sullivan looked down at the water ten feet below them and there was a brief spasm of fear on his face.
"I don't like swimming." he said calmly.
Which was likely code for 'I can't swim' or something similar. Maybe he had enjoyed swimming back on Krypton but his heavier bone density here on Earth made drowning a much more realistic possibility.
"Let's put some height between us and the water." Dr. Sullivan suggested, already rising.
"Do you know what's going on?" Clark asked urgently. "About the bombs and the virus?"
"Yes. Lois gave me a heads-up." Dr. Sullivan grinned. "She's alive."
"I know. General Lane already told me." Clark assured him. "That's why he let me go. He wants me to stop the bombs from going off. He made a mistake. He wants to make up for it."
"Good on him. I don't think he knew he what planning to unleash." Dr. Sullivan grumbled, scowling. "This virus, Blue Ring Fever? First thing, Nam-Ek created it, but not from scratch. There aren't too many undiscovered diseases on this planet; just variants of existing ones and WHO has figured out how to fight most all of them.
"But this one? Nam-Ek created this monster. It's a derivative of the Contact Plague."
"What?! And he bellowed at me about being a diseased abomination?! He accused my parents of being careless and he was the one recreating a deadly plague that killed half of Krypton?!"
"I know, that hypocrite." Dr. Sullivan heaved a lofty, annoyed sigh.
Clark half wished he could reach into the Phantom Zone just so he could punch Nam-Ek one more time. Seriously, where did he get off lecturing Clark for the mild risk his parents had taken to attempt a natural birth, when Nam-Ek was the one reviving a deadly pox?
"Would we be immune to this strain?" Clark wondered, suddenly worried that they wouldn't be. "I mean, it must have been tweaked to infect humans and even though neither of us are human..."
"I don't want to take that chance." Dr. Sullivan said flatly. There was a good chance that the new strain might beat their immune systems, what with the existing mutation already a part of their genetic make-up. "Now the last I knew of the situation, Sofia Gigante was going to be the one to release it."
Clark shook his head. "Not the case anymore. General Lane was working with Sofia Gigante. They both planned the idea of releasing the virus, but then she double-crossed him. Apparently, she was working with a third party who double-crossed her like half an hour ago."
"Sounds like a regular old clusterfuck." Dr. Sullivan commented, frowning thoughtfully. "That explains it better. The third party wants the city to turn you over to their custody for some reason and they'll stop the detonation. For obvious reasons, I thought they already had you."
"General Lane doesn't think turning me over is any guarantee that they'll actually stop the countdown." Clark agreed. He glanced to his right, where the cityscape had risen. "We still have... what, half an hour?"
"Just about." Dr. Sullivan carded a hand through his graying hair. "All right, I suppose you're the one who's going to deal with the bombs."
"Why?"
"Because of the two of us, you're the only one dressed like a hero."
Clark looked down at himself and supposed that his grandfather was right.
"I," Dr. Sullivan gestured to himself. "Am going to clean out Nam-Ek's private lab before someone gets the bright idea to torch the place. They'll be covering their tracks if we all make it through this and I expect we'll need the evidence. Can you handle the city?"
"This isn't the time to find out, but I'll have to." Clark admitted, shrugging.
Dr. Sullivan clasped a comforting hand on the younger Kryptonian's shoulder. "You'll do fine." he reassured. Then he moved away. "Krypto, I'm going to need your nose. I know it's somewhere in the Slums, but I don't know where exactly."
Krypto woofed an affirmative.
"Good luck, Clark. I'll help you if I can."
"Take care, Gramps."
"Ooh, that's how it's gonna be?" Dr. Sullivan asked suspiciously.
"Oh, you bet that's how it's gonna be." Clark replied, grinning.
"Get going, you young whippersnapper!" Dr. Sullivan shouted, giving him a playful shove in the direction of Metropolis. "There's a city to save!"
They parted ways over Reeve's Harbor, with Dr. Sullivan and Krypto swinging over the Hamstead borough so the roboticist could grab a backpack or two from his house. Clark detoured a little more south, heading for New Troy. He didn't know where to start looking for anything like bombs, but they would be in important locations: government buildings, banks, maybe hospitals, and certainly some of the bridges.
The southern bridges, like the Queensland or the Ordway Memorial or the Mayfair. Any of them that connected to the lower half of the peninsula is fair game, but that's a total of nine bridges all the way up through the West River.
Was his x-ray vision powerful enough to sweep the entire city from this height? Would he even recognize the bombs if he saw them?
The city was more than on alert, though. Even from this high up, Clark could hear people shouting at each other and crying, sirens wailing through the streets, crunches of metal when cars collided. The south-bound bridges were jammed with people trying to escape and six of the nine bridges were blocked by overturned vehicles. People had abandoned their cars to try and make it on foot.
The entire city was a screaming cacophony of chaos and Clark didn't know where to start.
"I guess I'll have to improvise." he muttered.
All at once, he remembered something Lois had said to him not all that long ago: "Improvise?! What are you trying to be, crazy?! You can't go in there with a quarter-assed plan and expect to win! That's what gets wanna-be heroes like you killed!"
"Sorry, Lois." Clark said out loud. "But even a wanna-be hero has got to be crazy enough to expect to win-- And what was that down there?!"
'Down there' was somewhere in Midtown, right around where he suspected the police station was. 'That' was a visible pillar of gray smoke which had been preceded by a distant rumbling noise.
An explosion.
One of the bombs.
One of the bombs had just detonated.
"As good a place to start as any for some wanna-be hero."
Superman dove.
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