LUTHOR RETURNS
Clark, now wearing his street clothes, walked up the steps of Midvale Girls' School. With his x-ray vision and super hearing, he watched Linda enter the building from the schoolyard and run down one of the hallways, passing Fred.
"You're late," Fred called to Linda.
"Sorry," Linda stopped in her tracks, expecting a reprimand.
"Just go to class," Fred told her gently.
Linda started running again down one of the halls. "And no running in the halls…" Fred yelled after her.
Nasthalthia turned the corner from another hallway and walked slowly and boldly passed Fred. He glared at her.
Maybe he was on their side, Clark hoped. Maybe he would help.
The resource officer at the entrance asked Clark if he had an appointment. Clark flashed her his press credentials.
"Someone from your paper was here this morning," remarked the officer.
"Yeh, uh, we're working on the same story."
"Oh, OK," she shrugged and starting passing her security wand up and down close to his body. Clark wasn't actually made of steel, but his super dense molecular structure would have made the wand go haywire if he hadn't used one of his auxiliary powers to interfere with its proper functioning. She let him pass.
Fred spotted Clark and walked toward him, holding out his hand.
"Hi, Fred Danvers. I'm the principal here. Can I help you with something?"
They shook hands.
"He's from The Planet," offered the resource officer helpfully.
"Dr. Luthor left a couple of hours ago, I think."
"I was hoping maybe you could help me with something else."
"Yes?"
"Uh…." Clark hadn't really formulated a plan, so he tried to buy time. "Can we talk in your office?"
"Sure." Fred gestured toward his office and they started walking that way together.
KABOOM!
A loud explosion rocked the school. Clark and Fred turned to look in the direction it came from. Clark's super vision focused on a small, smoking crater in the front yard of the school, about 20 feet from the entrance.
"What the hell…!" Fred exclaimed as he walked to the entrance and through it to the outside. He, too, saw the crater.
KABOOM!
Another explosion went off, further away this time. A second bomb had just gone off under the sidewalk across the street. An elderly couple walking nearby were thrown to the ground by the force of the blast, and the man had been struck by a few bits of shrapnel.
"Wally!" The elderly lady cried out at the sight of his blood. She reached for her husband, but a stab of excruciating pain forced her to fall back. "Aaaahhh!"
Superman dropped to the ground near them. The man's injuries were not severe. His wife had a broken hip and they were both in shock. But they could wait for an ambulance. He had to sweep the area in case there were more bombs. He noted dozens of schoolgirls had rushed passed the helpless resource officer onto the broad steps of the school. Fred was trying to shoo them back inside.
"You have not been dismissed. Get back to class!"
"What's going on?"
"Were those bombs?"
"There's Superman!"
The girls ignored Fred and watched the scene unfold.
Superman spotted Linda among the other girls on the steps. A nagging thought started to crystalize in his mind when….
Click - KABOOM!
He had let the scene at the school distract him, and there was a price that was paid. The third bomb exploded in front of the coffee shop next to the school. There were several dead and injured. But Superman had no time to help them…
Click
His super hearing had already picked up a tell-tale click from the third bomb, and there it was again. Another click. In a split instant, Superman knew another bomb was about to explode. With super speed, he turned toward the sound of the click and spotted the bomb buried under the playground equipment in the park across the street. A playground! Sick! That reminded him of someone!
With lightening fast speed, he flew to the playground, being careful not to let his movement and the disturbances in space and gravity he was creating to harm the children and adults who were screaming and running around aimlessly in the park.
Superman dove into the ground and grabbed the exploding bomb and covered it completely to prevent any shrapnel from escaping.
KABOOM!
"Superman! Are you alright?"
"Oh my god, he's bleeding!"
"Help me pull him out of there."
"Is he still alive?"
Superman was vaguely aware he was being tugged and pushed. But he couldn't see. He couldn't breathe.
He had been aware, as the bomb was exploding, that the first bits of shrapnel were tearing through his flesh. The shock that had caused him, both psychological and physical, had rendered him unable to protect himself from the full force of the bomb. It had hit him full in the face, neck, and hands. His chest and arms seemed to have been protected by his supersuit.
His rescuers managed to pull him out of the hollow the bomb had made in the ground.
"Superman! Hey buddy! Answer me! Don't leave us!"
Click - KABOOM!
"Shit! What the fuck's going on!"
"Yeh, I feel like I'm back in 'Nam!'"
Superman felt a painful tugging at his neck. He tried to shoo it away and ended up throwing one of the people trying to help him 15 feet into the air and across the playground. Miraculously, the guy ended up in the sand pit and was only slightly injured, but the rest of the rescuers approached the powerful being more cautiously now.
"Superman, we're trying to help you, OK! Will you stay still? Stay still!"
He felt the tugging at his neck again. He tried to stay still other than reaching up with his hand to grab at his neck. But his hands were full of nails and ball bearings and other bits of metal. One of his helpers finally dislodged a huge piece of shrapnel from his windpipe. The flesh and other tissues instantly healed and he was able to breathe. He took a deep breath and reached up to his eyes, but couldn't get a hold of anything with all the shrapnel in his hands.
His rescuers got the message and pulled as much metal out of his hands as they could.
Click - KABOOM!
When he was finally able, Superman sat up and pulled out the remaining shrapnel from his hands, and then his eyes and the rest of all of it. He sat there, still in shock and feeling weak and impotent.
Click – KABOOM!
He could really use a serious sun bath right now, but there was no time. He tried his best to shake off the stupor. He stood up and looked around.
There was carnage everywhere. Smoke rose from the multiple pits in the ground. The smell of burnt flesh stung Superman's nose, although the pain was more psychological than physical. Cars and buildings were burning. People were screaming and running to and fro in confusion, not knowing where the next bomb would explode.
There were fewer schoolgirls on the steps. Linda was no longer there. Many of the girls had run back into the building. The ones remaining were frozen with fear, screaming and crying and hugging each other. Fred was trying unsuccessfully to get them, too, back into the building.
Superman tried to focus his super hearing so he could pick up the next 'click.' He looked around, trying to use his x-ray vision to scan the ground in the vicinity but he was still quite disoriented.
Click.
He turned toward the sound. It came from the direction of the girls' school. He spotted the bomb buried under the steps.
He pulled off his cape, gathered all the remaining power he could muster and barreled toward the steps. He caused his body to spin like a drill, with his cape held in his hands in front of him. He cut into the steps on one side of the building beneath the girls. When he reached the spot, he wrapped his cape around the rapidly expanding mass of metal and held it tight. It finished exploding within the confines of the cape.
Superman backed out of the hole he had made in the steps and surveyed the scene. The steps had collapsed. Fred and many of the girls had fallen, but none were hurt badly.
Superman focused his hearing again to listen for clicks. He wearily floated up to a better vantage point to sweep the area with his x-ray vision. It was midafternoon on a clear day, so the sun helped replenish a bit of his energy. The sweep revealed no more bombs, so he started a more methodical scan.
There didn't seem to be any more bombs. Normally, at this point he would have done what he could to help the first responders deal with the aftermath of a catastrophe like what had just occurred. But his thoughts returned to Linda. He had to get her away from here to safety. Those bombs had been placed there because of her presence at the school. That he knew for sure. But he was the target.
He descended to the top of the steps at the entrance of the school.
"Superman!" Fred tried to reach him, but stumbled on the broken steps. Superman helped him regain his footing. "What's going on?"
"There are no more bombs. You're safe now. But I need to get Linda away from here."
Superman walked inside, much to the amazement of the hapless resource officer. He scanned the building, searching for Linda. He didn't see her. Fred joined him.
"Linda Lee?"
"Yes, do you know where she might have gone? She's not here. Where's her dorm room?"
"The dormitory is a couple blocks away. She's for sure still here."
A sickening feeling started forming in the pit of Superman's stomach. "She's not. I scanned the building, and the yard."
"Then I don't know." Fred became concerned. "Why do you need her? Does this have something to do with Leonard Luthor?"
Superman didn't answer. He scanned the building again just to be sure. Then he walked outside again and floated upwards, continuing and broadening his scan.
No sign of Linda.
He floated upwards still, further widening the area he was scanning.
Nothing.
Linda was gone.
