Chapter 4

Sitting at his desk, he had a perfect vantage point for viewing people, which meant that he sat right along the aisle from Perry's office. It was interesting to say the least. Often he saw people with a variety of emotions, but they all fell on a spectrum of elation and anger. If he thought a story was not worthy of print, Perry could be very blunt. Not that he wasn't right, but Perry wasn't one to sugarcoat his criticisms. Or to be delicate when firing employees.

Some of the terminated employees cried, a few were quite congenial. In fact there was one young man who worked for one month and was late every day. He was a good writer, but rarely punctual and generally disrespectful. However when Perry fired him, Clark heard him distinctly say: "I would've fired me sooner."

There existed however, more volatile displays from the recently unemployed reporters. Clark hadn't worked there long enough to witness these episodes of angry irrational behavior, but Lois told him stories. There was a young woman who decided to cuss Perry out and threaten him until security had to escort her out. Then there was the last stringer (whose job Clark had filled) who got so mad at Perry he threw a trash can through his window.

Those incidents were rare, though. Every long-term employee at the Daily Planet had earned their spot. So usually Clark witnessed only the disappointed or jubilant reporters walking out of Perry's office on almost a daily basis. There were very few temper tantrums. But they still happened.

One such instance was now, when he could hear a heated discussion behind the glass door and saw someone with a distinctly pink pencil skirt. Clark focused very hard on his story, but no matter what he tried, he couldn't stop hearing the conversation. It was about Superman and frankly, he didn't want to deal with that today. He decided to pour himself another cup of coffee only to excuse himself from an awkward situation with Cat.

In the middle of making his coffee he cursed his luck as he saw Cat stomping through the office in a huff, muttering to herself about "politics" and "censorship", right into the break room. If he stopped now, she would know that he heard her unpleasant conversation with Perry and she might confront him about it. Or complain about it. He continued filling his cup trying to avoid any eye contact with her. She sighed as she waited. Finally he finished and practically ran toward the door when he heard another overly dramatic sigh. He sighed inwardly. Sometimes Clark didn't like that he couldn't ignore people.

"What's wrong, Catherine?" Clark asked in a friendly tone.

She looked at him fiercely. "Perry just rejected another one of my stories."

"What was it about?" he asked already knowing the answer.

"Superman. I knew that this paper always leaned left, but I never thought it would stoop to stomping all over my First Amendment rights."

"I'm not sure your rights are being violated, Catherine," he said carefully. Clark was always careful to not involve himself in the office gossip or politicking. His job as this persona was to stay as much of a wallflower as possible, but sometimes he just couldn't handle people's apoplectic reactions to insignificant or non-existent wrongs. It was very common that those reactions came from Catherine Grant. He expected an onslaught, instead Catherine gave him a condescending look.

"Aw, Clark. It's so cute how naïve you are." Her stare turned a touch predatory as she came closer to him. She deftly touched his shoulder.

"I guess you can take the boy out of the country, but not the country out of the boy." Before he could respond, Catherine kissed his cheek.

"You're so adorable. I can almost forgive you for being a Superman apologist."

Clark stammered as she pulled away from him and prayed to whomever was listening that Lois had not seen that exchange.

"Kent! Lane! Get in here!" Perry shouted.

Clark exhaled a breath he hadn't realized he was holding and pried Catherine's hand off of his shoulder.

"Sorry Catherine, Perry needs me," he said as he practically super-sped to Perry's office. Lois wasn't too far behind.

Perry was standing looking outside his window when they arrived in his office. "I've got a new assignment for the three of you."

"Really? We're not finished with the story about Bruce Wayne's benefit for Metropolis families."

Clark wasn't completely paying attention. Perry had said the three of them. Who was the third?

"I know. I gave that story to new assignment is a little more dire. You know those Senators that have it in for Superman? What are their policies focused on?"

"Illegal immigration and national security," Clark answered immediately. Those senators' stances on those issues bothered Clark greatly.

"And who was their largest contributor to their campaigns?"

"Francis and Clay? It was Lex Luthor," Lois piped up.

"Then you should know why this is important," said another voice from behind them. All three of them looked to see it was Kassandra. "I'm sorry I'm late."

"Not at all, Kassandra. We've just started," Perry said congenially.

Clark's brows furrowed in confusion as he looked from Kassandra to Lois to Perry. "What's going on?"

"Kassandra will be collaborating on this project as a legal expert," Perry replied smoothly.

"That's nice, but we would like to know what this project will be," Lois said.

Kassandra sashayed over to Clark and Lois with a large manila envelope in her hand. "Sources connected to our legal team have informed us that Francis and Clay are drafting legislation to register super-powered humans. They are calling it the Meta-Human Registration Act. They are starting a campaign promoting the act," she explained as she passed two documents to both of them. They detailed information on both Senators as well as intel about what the legislation entailed.

"Let me guess. Lex Luthor is funding this." Lois said as she examined the first document.

"Exactly. I bet he'll use this as an example of his adherence to protecting this country from any possible 'threats'," Kassandra said with disdain.

"Why is Lex Luthor trying to gain such a standing?" Clark asked. He knew little about Lex Luthor other than he was an obscenely wealthy and shrewd business person.

"I have friends who are lobbyists and the word is that he is planning a run for the Senate."

Clark grimaced. Francis and Clay were problems from the beginning. They were two very loud opponents of his in the Senate. But Luthor was an unexpected and unknown challenge. He couldn't completely blame him as he was pretty sure he had destroyed or at least been complicit in the destroying some of his stuff. However, he had hoped that Luthor would respond like Bruce Wayne had over losing his satellite: apathetic silence. Truthfully, Bruce Wayne seemed like more of a playboy than Luthor was. It was possible that Wayne didn't care about his satellite because Wayne didn't care about his company. Regardless, he would have expected a bill, not legislative revenge. To top it all, this possible campaign for a senate seat was disturbing. He was beginning to feel secure that he was making traction with U.S. Government with the trust of General Swanwick and an increasing amount of public officials. Still he had powerful detractors and he didn't need another vocal politician against him.

"I want you three to learn all that you can about this new legislation and its backers. Kent, Lane I want you to learn the opinions of ordinary Americans about this legislation, information on Ferguson and Clay. Lee-Ahn, check into the constitutionality of this legislation. I want the will of the people and an analysis of what this legislation is. Get to work," Perry said.

They all nodded turned to leave when they heard Perry speak behind them. "Guys."

All three of them turned to see Perry look unusually grim. "I want to emphasize to you three how important this is. This has to be some of your best work. Because if this legislation passes, it will make history," he said grimly.

And not in a good way. Clark thought darkly. His coffee was now cold, but it didn't matter. They had work to do.