Chapter Forty Part One
A stack of papers appeared on his desk causing the reporter to spin his chair around to see Lois Lane standing there, "Guess who just got the story of the year" she bragged with a cocky smirk on her face as she walked around him towards his desk to pick up the pieces of paper, "My source just emailed me and guess what I found"
"Pluto's not a planet" he replied jokingly earning a small jab to the arm and a small laugh, "What could be so important that you would come to me?"
She leans in to whisper her reply, "Lex Luthor is experimenting on metahumans." She pulls out several photos, "He's been shipping the metahumans out of Belle Reeve and Level Three then houses them in unnamed subsidiaries around the world."
Clark looked closely at the pictures and just shook his head, "This is all circumstantial."
"Think about it for a second. Mixing kryptonite clearly isn't working for him so now he's going with plan b"
"Which is?"
"I don't know yet but something tells me that it's not good. We owe it to the public and the league to find out the truth"
"We?" he gives her a look and smirks, "If you missed being my partner Lo, all you had to do was say so."
She gave him a mocking laugh as they headed towards her office to figure out what Lex Luthor was really up to.
Lex stared at the liquefied vials of green and blue kryptonite with a small smirk, "We've melted down enough bars to power to suit but there was a complication with the formula. The radiation levels are off the charts, if a human operates the suit then there's a chance they could be endangering their health."
"Then coat it in lead" he responds with his gaze moving from the liquid forms of kryptonite back to their original rock formation, "Make it work." He shoves the silver rock into the doctor's chest and walks away, "Mr. Luthor!" a guard rushes up to the bald billionaire, "There's a reporter at the gate and he won't go away"
"Then call the police."
"He said his name is Clark Kent" Lex stopped almost immediately and soon followed the guard outside to deal with the situation unaware that Lois was standing right in front of him dressed in a lab coat and glasses.
She slipped through the doors and was surprised to see the rows of kryptonite but quickly put on the undercover routine whenever someone passed by, "This is bigger then we thought" she says to herself and adjusts her glasses taking snapshots with the tiny camera hidden in the frames courtesy of Wayne Enterprises.
There was the standard green kryptonite but the more she walked the more she discovered red, blue, gemstone, black and even silver kryptonite but what really caught her eye was the meteor rock with traces of gold peaking out of the rocky surface.
"Find anything interesting Ms. Lane" the familiar and sort of annoying cockiness in Tess Mercer's voice always made Lois want to punch the devilish red head in the face almost as if they shared a common hatred with each other.
Tess invaded her personal space almost immediately causing Lois to take a step back, "When I heard that Clark Kent was out front I had a feeling you were somewhere on the premises. You two are like two peas in a pod." Tess removes the glasses from Lois's face and examines them closely before snapping them like a twig, "I assume you know the way out" the red head stepped aside with a smirk.
Lois walked away only to be called back by Tess, "Tell Clark I said Hello" inside she imagined some sort of physical retaliation against her enemy but instead just walked away.
Meanwhile…at the same time…
Clark looked down at his watch counting down how much time Lois had left to gather evidence when he spotted Lex walking towards him with a displeased look, "I would think after our previous conversation that I made myself perfectly clear"
"I'm not here for personal reasons Lex." He flashed the ID pinned to his coat, "Official Daily Planet business"
Lex looked at him closely and could tell that he was up to something, "I have nothing to say and even if I did it would've already been printed in the paper that I own" Lex emphasizes the fact that he's the boss in that single sentence and suppresses the smug look that wanted to break through.
"Get your damn hands off me!" Lois exclaims while two rather large looking guards carry her towards the fence and dropped her on the other side as Clark rushed to help her, "You'll be hearing from my attorney" she kicks the fence as an act of intimidating but they just chuckle and walk away.
"I forgot to congratulate you both" Lex's voice caused them to turn their attention towards the other side of the fence, "Its not everyday Clark steps down from his pedestal to marry an ordinary woman such as yourself Ms. Lane."
"Go to hell" she growls out in anger and just watched the smirk appear on Lex's face as he nodded to Clark then walked away.
Once Lex was gone Clark turned back to her and asked, "Did you get it?"
Lois just shook her head negatively but then appeared to be smiling, "Rule thirty five" she reaches into her pocket to show him a small hidden camera, "Always bring a backup"
"I thought that was rule fifteen"
"Whatever" she responds walking towards the car, "Lex is doing more then kidnapping metahumans." She pauses and turns around, "He's stockpiling every variation of kryptonite there is and doing god knows what with it. This is bigger then a front page story, we have to tell the league about this"
"You mean I have to tell the league." He corrects while getting into the passenger side, "Bruce isn't keen on the idea of civilian associating with us"
The engine roared, "Tough" they backed away so fast Clark almost hit his head on the dashboard but quickly caught himself, "He's just gonna have to get use to me being apart of your superhero life."
Clark hid a smirk and a quick glance at his fiancée while they made their way back to the Daily Planet bullpen.
TBC