Chapter Nineteen Part One
When Lois walked into the bullpen she immediately turned back around when she spotted Clark sitting at his desk, "Hey Ms. Lane." Jeff the intern greeted her and she immediately cursed at him in her head but she plastered on a fake smile and returned the greeting while she made the journey towards her desk.
Clark hid a smirk from behind the issue of Sports Illustrated while sneaking peeks at her with his x-ray vision and watched with great delight as she opened the small box of maple donuts he had picked up especially for her.
She calls him name and he lowers the magazine to see her silently gesturing towards one of the empty conference room then walks off in the direction which he soon follows minutes later to see her shutting the blinds so that they were not seen.
Once she was sure that they were alone she turned around only to be back up against the wall with Clark's lips pressing against hers rather passionately, "I've wanted to do that since you left last night." He states with a smirk when he pulled away leaving her breathless and wanting more.
"Clark" he smiles at the way his name falls off her tongue and almost dives back in when a hand on his chest stops him, "About last night." He recognizes the look on her face but that doesn't seem to affect him as it once would have, "What happened was a mistake."
"It didn't seem that way when you kissed me back." He steps closer despite her attempts at keeping him at a distance, "In fact I think you enjoyed it." His hand brushes against her cheek and he flashes her that charming Kent smile that she had fallen for when they first met.
"Who are you and what have you done with the real Clark Kent?" she asks almost immediately while still trying to prevent him from getting any closer, "You know the one that can barely form two sentences when he's around the opposite sex and likes to wear plaid on the weekends."
"It's so cute that you know that about me." He places his hands over hers and instead of pushing them away like she thought he squeezed them and placed a soft kiss on her knuckles, "Can't you just accept that I'm genuinely happy to see you?"
"No" she exclaims pulling her hands away and straight away realized that he had done that on purpose, "You don't do happy especially with me."
"Well like you said…people change." He tries to step closer but when she steps back he forgets his plans at showing her how he felt and instead took a step back giving her the space she do desperately craved, "Last night was a real eye opener for me. All my burdens and problems just disappeared in that moment. Flying usually helps clear my mind but when I was with you I…" he trails off into a pause trying to think of the right words to say, "I've never felt anything like that with anyone before."
The emotion reflected in his baby blues at the sudden confession caused her body to move on its own accord towards him where she grabbed him by the tie and smashed her lips to his.
The sound of sirens broke through the silence causing Clark to pull away, "Duty calls." He whispers with an apologetic look as he places a softer kiss on her lips and turns to walk out of the conference room leaving her standing there trying to catch what was left of her breath.
The roof of the armored car looked like someone had pried it apart with their bare hands and from what he could gather it appeared that the person responsible had been injured by on of the rounds from the guard's gun.
He checked on the injured guards when he notices a blood trail leading towards the center of the street where he saw that the manhole was out of place.
"H-He's not human" the guard stammered out of fear and reached out to grab him by the arm stopping him from going after the perpetrator, "There was this thing on his chest and it…it was beating."
Superman looked at the man as if there was a second head that suddenly sprouted, "Like a heartbeat?" the man nodded and from the look alone he could tell that whoever this person was it put the fear of god in this man.
His superhearing picked up the sounds of an ambulance nearby and made sure that the injured could make it without his assistance before disappearing down the same manhole oblivious to the green liquid the dripped down and mixed with the puddle.
The trail leads him all the way to the end of the tunnel to a section where the perpetrator could've gone left or right.
While he tried to get a lock on the sounds the guard reported hearing an unbearable pain shot through his body, one that he had felt many times before and each time it had the same affect on him.
The intensity of the exposure seemed to grow closer causing Superman to stumble back onto to have something or someone hit him back causing his body to fly across breaking through the brick layers of the tunnel.
He groaned in pain and tried to shake it off when he spotted a shadow standing at the entrance of the gap with the sound of machinery pumping almost like a heart and the familiar green glow of kryptonite to emit from the shadow's chest.
Whoever or whatever this thing was it stepped through breaking several stray pieces of brick to make the gap bigger, "You" a man's voice was all he heard through the pain from the exposure as he tried to move away only to have the man step closer to him.
The man grabbed him by the collar of his suit and sent him flying into a water main which ruptured and sent water flowing violently from the pipe which was soon sealed by his heat vision.
"I don't know who you are or what you want but this has to stop." He stated trying to reason with the man that seemed to hold a grudge, "I can help you"
A laugh is all he heard before the man stepped out to reveal a mechanical device was attached to the chest acting as a heart and another piece of robotics added to the arm with a tube of kryptonite protruding from the veins.
All in all the man looked like a prototype for a Cyborg version of Frankenstein's monster, "I'm beyond saving" the man said with evident cynicism as the kryptonite heart began beating fast almost as if the man was enjoying this.
"I know people that can fix whatever was done to you." He tries to reason with the man although it was clear that wasn't going to happen.
The man steps closer and smirks when Clark takes a step back, "What's the matter Superman? You look a little sick." He hauls the kryptonian into the air by the throat cutting off Clark's air supply, "To think that all it took was a little piece of rock to stop you."
"S-Stop me?"
Superman lets out a gasp of fresh air and falls to his knees once the man had released him, "You stand high up on your pedestal watching over us like some kind of guardian angel." He slides across the floor after receiving a super powered kick that would've seriously injured a normal person, "Someone needs to take a stand."
Something stops the mechanical man from going after the fallen hero and to Clark's horror he watched the man bend down to pick up the crinkled photograph of Maggie, "Well would you look at that." he tries to reach out and snatch the photo away only be kicked in the chin which caused his head to reel back and blood to spurt out of his mouth, "Superman has a family."
A blast of heat vision sent the man flying back through the gap that was now larger allowing Clark's strength to return as he stood back onto his feet and picked up the now soggy image of his daughter which he tucked safely back inside his suit.
"Is that the best you got?" the man gasps out still reeling from the intense blast and struggled to get back up when the mechanics in the arm gave out causing the man to fall back down, "Because I haven't even started yet."
Clark watched the man struggle and despite his better judgment went to help the man that was hell-bent on destroying him, "Get off me!" the man roared pushing him aside, "I don't want your help not that I would want it anyways." Then an unexpected laughter was all he heard from the man.
The confused look on the kryptonian's face caused the man to smirk, "I thought this rock would be my ticket to destroying you but I only just realized what would really bring a man like you to his knees." The kryptonite intensified causing Clark to step back, "Your daughter."
"You stay away from her!" he immediately responded, "This is between you and me."
"That's right. It is about you and me, but I want you to know how it feels to lose something that you love…like I did." The adrenaline from the kryptonite fuels the anger and soon Superman finds himself smacked into the nearest wall where electrical wires began to spark, "I'll be sure to give the little one your regards."
The image of a fist was the last thing Clark saw before everything went black.
Maggie looked back down at her watch to see that her father was running later than usual when she spotted Lois walking towards her, "Ms. Lane?" she looked at the woman confused as to why her father wasn't here to pick her up and immediately began to worry.
"You know you can call me Lois." She just nods hoping that her father would pop out from behind Lois and surprise her, "Your father got tied up in…" she saw Lois gesturing flight and immediately relaxed, "We're going to wait for him at home."
"Okay" Maggie immediately grabs Lois's hand surprising the seasoned reporter and tried to hide the smile, "Can we stop for pizza first?"
"Anything you want kiddo." Lois replies while holding the passenger side door open for the eager child and made sure she was strapped in before walking back to the driver side unaware that someone was watching them from the shadows.
TBC
After Toyman I wanted to introduce another villain because he's superman and I couldn't resist bringing in another bad guy to go up against Superman. Oh and that flashback with Emil and Clark talking about Maggie comes into play in the next chapter, the aftermath of Metallo's vendetta not only affects Clark but his life in Metropolis as well.
Also I just wanted to explain why Clark keeps a picture of Maggie with him when he's Superman when that could very well expose his identity. Parents often keep photos of their kids when they are at work and I figured that he would carry that image around so he could remind himself why he's doing all this.
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