no ordinary world part 5

 5





*

Minutes ticked by before there was disturbance at the door.

First, the hollow footsteps of Dr. Hamilton, then  Lex heard  the soft tap of a mid heel.

A female.

They echoed through the steel and cold tile deck, a set up that looked more like an arcade than a conference room. There were buttons and cameras, monitors and screens. Everything constructed around a single man.

"Mr. Luthor, this is Ms.--"

"Come in." Lex said, not bothering to turn from his seat. "Please."

Pixelated light splashed Lex's face, images of flame and smoke, the chaos he had created. This was his playground, his godly pedestal in which he let others kneel to him. But this, her, he knew it would take more to make her fit the mold. She hadn't bent before, and that was exactly why his father had her removed from the project. But she would cooperate now, Lex smiled, peeking over his leather chair.

There was Hamilton. A man gagged by his unkempt oily hair and crooked glasses.

"You can leave us, Doctor."

Satisfied once he heard the whisper of the door close with Hamilton's departure, Lex turned.

And studied...

She wasn't  quite what he had been expecting. Hair riding down in long, brunette waves, thin glasses and pursed lips. She looked like one of his legal secretaries. 

Lex smirked before asking, "Chloe Sullivan?"

'No', is all the woman retorted in return, but Lex knew it was her.

"Right, right. My apologies." Lex waved his hand dismissively, standing from his chair. "I know that name was assigned to you on your first day working here, and it probably offends you that I refer to you by it." Lex extended his hand, surprised to find how petite the woman was in person. He had only known her through the cataloged tapes and stock footage. Never in person.

She took his hand reluctantly, and then firmly, eyes shone through tilted lenses. Even through the law school look, she was pretty.Not beautiful, but pretty enough.

Lex smiled, her hand in his. "But quite frankly, I don't care if you're offended by me or anything I have to say to you, Ms. Sullivan. Or should I just call you, Chloe?"

 He noted the disconcerted look and moved on:

"The hair, the glasses.You're playing a bigger part these days." Lex unabashedly smiled.  "Ivy League graduate and investigative reporter for the Daily Planet. Nice."

Lex finally let go of her hand. Or rather, she withdrew it.

"Thanks."

"Can't say I'm surprised." Lex shrugged, "It seemed natural after all of your schooling and role involvement in journalism while inside your time here. I'd say you took advantage of your fortune, and the severance check my father forfeited to you after your character was terminated."

"I never touched that money." She said, delivering her words with a sharp edge. "I never wanted any of it. I never wanted anything to do with this place."

"Then why did you come back?" Lex lured her in with a raised brow.

"I came here for an interview. My photographer is stuck at the security checkpoint. Your staff didn't permit him in."

"Just a  precaution." Lex stated and then reasserted his question. "You came here for an interview for your paper, yes. But I, like all good investigative minds, would like to know the ulterior motive?"

There was quiet.

The screens flashed, and he saw it. Her eyes moved to them, only for a second. She wanted it so desperately.


 Lex left the question in the air, her eyes following the many monitors one after the other. The room turned orange and then bright, all screens coinciding with one event.

A fire.




Inferno.




"What is that?" She asked, her hand clutching the shoulder strap of her briefcase.

"It's a live feed of Smallville's breaking news." Lex replied nonchalantly, walking around to join her for the view.

"Smallville?" She repeated disbelievingly. "But that's the high school isn't it?"

Lex nodded. It seemed she remembered very much and forgot very little since she'd been away.

She looked to him, "What happened?"

Lex turned to her, both of their silhouettes back lit from a wall drowned by bright, violent images. "Restless eyes and insatiable curiosity isn't good for a 'top secret' operation, Ms. Sullivan." Lex coyly quipped. "And I'm afraid  I don't share inter office correspondences with outsiders."

With a single finger, Lex clicked a button.


Black.


She turned to him, "We both know I'm not an outsider of this project--"

"Actually you've been banned from the premises, Ms. Sullivan. And it's only because of my security team's total failure of screening personnel that you're in this very spot, speaking to me. And it's been my decision entirely not to throw you out on your ass."

"What's stopping you?" She eyed back defiantly.


Lex curled his bottom lip underneath his teeth and smiled. "Aristotle said that there were seven causes of human action."  He circled around her and continued, "I have to admit, despite all my reasons, I'm impelled to let you stay. On one condition."

"Which is?"


Lex joined her at the end of his desk, and with one finger activated the monitors all over again. In the black frames were images of Clark and of the fire.

A division of a idyllic hero and total chaos.

In her eyes, Lex saw every cause.

In her ear, Lex leaned in and whispered.

"Tell me, Chloe." Lex nefariously breathed, "Why did you come back?"



*



Ashes.

It was all that was left of the school.

Clark Kent stood above the charred grounds, his once golden fire suit now gray and dull. His face was black from smoke, but his eyes were still blue.

Still bright.

"You did all you could, Kent."

He turned, seeing Sheriff Adams behind him. "We lost the school."

"Well, we'll build another one." She replied encouragingly, removing her hat to stand beside him. "The important thing is, no one was hurt. The fire was contained, didn't spread outside the perimeter."

"I wonder how the fire started at all." Clark said, leaning towards Adams. "I called the Fire Marshall's office--"

Sheriff Adams laughed, "I did too. Listen, The Fire Marshall's gonna be out  a little bit later and as acting authority of this town, I'm ordering all fire crew to return to their stations. This fire's tapped out as I can see."

"But Sheriff, if there was any arson or foul play--"

"Then the Marshall will notify me." Adams smiled, "Go on home Kent, and leave the investigating to me."

Clark shrugged, and stepped over fallen rubble towards the red engine and its tired crew on board.



*



"Clark Kent, local hero."

It was the morning headline.

One that Clark was fortunate enough to hear announced over his shoulder several times during the course of his work day. There were perfunctory handshakes, hugs and smiles by those who recognized him by picture and those who solely knew him by name, but Clark smiled passively through it all, even if it made him feel a tad sick to his stomach.

During his lunch hour, Lois finally made a reappearance at the edge of his desk, heels kicked off and her stockinged toe up against his calf. "Hey handsome."


"Hi, Lois."

She smiled and then kissed the edge of his jaw with her rose colored lips. "How's my own personal superhero doing? I have to admit," she picked up the front page, "your name does look better on a headline than a byline."


"I noticed you didn't mind your name creasing the byline."

Lois sat back, "Whoa, was that a zing coming from the Clark Kent? I'm impressed."

Clark swiveled in his chair, "Lois, half the things you wrote in that article aren't even true. I didn't pull anybody out of that fire, nor did I stop it single handedly. There were three other squads out there and hardly any of them are mentioned even once. Besides," Clark turned to his computer and started typing, "You said the cause of the fire was electrical and yet I'm not sure how you could have found that out when the fire marshall hasn't written his arson report yet."


Lois shrugged, "I have connections that you don't."

Clark stared at her, "Since when did we start using single sources as a reputable fact?"

Lois blinked.


Clark turned towards his screen again.


"What are you doing?" She leaned in.


"Researching."


Lois scooted towards him, and prodded his thigh with her bare toe. "Clark, what's wrong? You've already done your  civic duty for the day, let it rest."


"I'll tell you what's wrong." Clark stopped his typing, stood, and held the front page to her face,"This morning a three alarm fire destroyed one of the oldest institutions in this town and all people have to say is, 'Good job, Kent.'"


Lois frowned, "You're being too hard on yourself. That building was already engulfed by the time you got there."

"Exactly." Clark pointed out. "A flare up like that, a fire that spread evenly through the campus with no single origin? Lois, electrical fires don't work that way. Even I don't need a fire marshall to tell me that."

Clark scooted his chair and squeezed between the two desks.  He adjusted his tie, grabbed the navy blue suit jacket from the coat rack that stood by the door.

Lois hopped up from the desk corner and followed him through the bull pen. "Where are you going?"


 "I don't know." Clark said honestly, casting a plain look at his wife. "But I'll figure it out once I get there."

Lois watched as Clark caught the next elevator, "What about me? What am I supposed to do?"

Clark shrugged, the doors closing toward the middle. "Call your source back. Tell him to double check his facts."


*

Clark soon found himself at the scene of the fire from that morning. There was yellow and red tape outlining the heap of rubble and soot, but Clark ducked under all that, returning to the blackness that was once a school.

In one day, half of his life had turned to ash.


"Make way!" A guy with a orange hardhat yelled from behind. Behind him was a bulldozer and a crew of a dozen similarly uniformed workers.

Clark stepped aside, flashing his press pass. "Clark Kent, Daily Star. Listen guys, this site is still under investigation. You can't let that big rig pass through here until a thorough search--"

"Marshall's already cleared it." The hardhat guy said, shoving a clipboard with pink legal documents in Clark's face. "We start the biohazard cleanup ASAP. Now step aside."

Clark frowned, clearing the way as the behemoth sized  machine shoveled its path through.

And it was gone. Any clean trace, evidence, suspect or suspicious circumstance ruined by a set of two ton wheels and a bus sized shovel that would bury any truth that was left.

Clark sighed, and undid his tie as he walked back towards his car on the curb.

"Hey, you said your name was Kent, right?"

Clark looked over his shoulder.

The construction worker tipped his hardhat and smiled, "I read about you in the paper. That's crazy what you did. Running into a fire like that? Awesome!"

Clark smiled wryly and then shut his car door. "Don't believe everything you read."

*