"Which desk is Lanes"! Jack smacked Perry across the face.
Perry, tied to his office chair, teetered from the force of the blow. He spat blood onto Jacks shoes.
"Go to hell."
Jack turned to Jimmy Olsen tied in the chair next to Perry.
"Look kid, be smart. Tell me which computer Lane uses and we'll be gone, it's that easy."
Jack motioned to his partner Ace. He jerked the gag roughly down around Jimmy's chin.
“Piss off jerk-wad!”
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Jack said. “Oh, wait we are doing the hard way. Ace, show Mr. White the easy way."
Ace picked up Jimmy Olsen, chair and all, as easily as if it were a rolled up piece of paper and tossed it all through the window.
*****
Earlier: The sun had long since set behind the Metropolis skyline. Even at night the city glowed. Darkness had a hard time settling in metropolis.
“Olsen! What are you still doing here?” Perry White stood in the doorway of his office.
“Just cleaning up some pics for troupe,” Jimmy clicked the mouse cropping a picture of John Henry Irons. “Mayor Irons piece he’s working on. My computer at home is so slow it would take me all night to do it. Do you ever go home?”
“I’m the editor, Olsen, I don’t leave till every ‘I’ is dotted and every ‘T’ is crossed. Besides not really that much left to go home for these days. Not since Alice has been in the hospital.”
“How’s she doing chief?”
"Her bad days are beggining to outnumber her good, I'm afraid I'm going to have to do something about more permanent medical care." Perry wiped his tired eyes and for a second he looked ten years older than he was. "Go home James, get some rest, there'll be more pictures to take tomorrow." Perry turned and walked back toward his office. His shoulders slumped and his usual 'go get 'em' gate was slow and heavy.
Jimmy clicked off the computer, picking up the flash drive from the desk.
"If there's anything I can do to help out chief,"
Perry stopped at his office door. "Actually there is, don't say anything to anyone about Alice. I will in my own time. And one more thing," He said trying to muster a smile that didn't seem to work, "Don't call me chief."
Jimmy waited for the elevator, turning the flash drive over and over in his hand. "Aww crap, this isn't mine. This is a Kord Industry, mine is a cheaper Radio Hut brand."
The elevator doors opened and Jimmy was met by two guys. One about his size in sunglasses and the other looked to be nearly as big as Superman. The suit he wore was very nearly too small for him.
"Sorry guys, the paper is closed right now, how did you get up here any way?."
"Dammit, I thought this floor was supposed to be empty. Ace."
The big guys fist lashed out and Jimmy crashed to the floor.
Jimmy woke up on the floor. He could see the big guy the little one kept calling Ace, tying Mr. White to a chair. He slowly reached into his jacket pocket and fished out his cell phone. If they would just stay focused on Mr. White a little longer.
"Listen White, were not here to hurt anyone, we just need a piece of your office equipment. Turn it in as stolen on your insurance and get a new one."
"Jack." The big guy pointed at Jimmy.
They had seen him. He quickly pressed a speed dial button on his phone and slid it under the desk. Whoever he had called, he sure hoped they were at home.
*****
Smallville: "The pie is wonderful Ma, as usual." Clark pushed his plate back.
"I didn't make it Clark." Ma said. "Kara did."
Kara smiled a big broad smile.
"You made this pie? It was great! Maybe even a little better." Clark winked.
Martha stood up and took their plates. "Hey, lets not get carried away. I'll go get the scrabble board."
"Scrabble?" Kara asked.
"You haven't played ma in scrabble yet? Oh you're in for a treat."
"I need to check my messages before we get started, I'll be right back."
"Why don't you carry a cell phone? Isn't that what keelex is supposed to look like?"
"I've never really much needed one, I can't image some of phone calls Superman would get and it adds to Clark's weirdness that he can't operate one."
Kara shook her head. Of all the things she had seen on Earth so far, Kal-el, her own flesh and blood, puzzled her the most.
Clark dialed his number and entered the code for his machine.
Breep
"You have been selected for a 3 week vacation in . . . " Clark pressed skip
Breep
"Clark, it's Lois, Lissen, I'm on a story and I'll be out of town for a few days, cover for me."
Breep
Silence No wait. Someone was talking in the background Clark focused, blocking out the noise of the recorder, the faint static on the phone line, he zeroed in on the frequency of the voices, blocking out the surrounding ones.
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Oh, wait we are doing the hard way. Ace, show Mr. White the easy way."
Then the sound of breaking glass.
" . . . and then you make words using the letters on the board." Martha explained to Kara, "and if you use these, spots here you get extra points. Where is Clark?"
"He said he was checking his messages." Kara got up and stepped into the living room.
She came back to the table with a paper from the pad beside the phone. "He's gone, this was on the phone." She handed the paper to Martha.
Had to go, some things up. Scrabble next time. Love Clark.
Martha folded the paper into her apron pocket. "Oh well, that's part of being in this family dear." Martha patted Kara on the arm. "I'm sure soon you'll be leaving notes of your own, but for now let’s teach you how to be a gracious loser." Martha dropped the lettered tiles onto the board.
*****
Metropolis: Shards of glass tumbled out into the night exploding from the window.
Jimmy followed the shattered glass out the window, tumbling end over end, still tied to the chair. With any luck, he thought, maybe the chair would hit first and he would only break most of his bones.
From out of the corner of his eye he saw a shadow shoot toward him.
“Oh, thank God”, he thought. Superman was here.
Earlier that day:
Daltons trail had not been hard to track; from Star City all the way to the Metropolis coroner’s office.
"Are you a relative of the deceased? Mr . . ." The ME waited for Conner to fill in the blank. She had followed procedure and phoned the police the minute someone had asked about Mr. Dalton.
"No, no I'm not, just a friend." Conner turned to go and was blocked by a tall slender woman with short spikey blond hair. She flashed a badge at Connor. "Great", he thought, "I'm not here more than a hour and I've already attracted the police."
"I'm Captain Sawyer with MSCU, I need to ask you a few questions."
"I'm sorry, MSCU?" Conner asked.
"Metropolis Special Crimes Unit."
"Is Mr. Dalton a special crime?"
"Can I see some ID Mr . . ." again that pause that really wasn't a pause but more like a request.
"Hawke, Connor Hawke". The James bond theme played in his head. He fished his wallet out of his inside pants pocket.
Maggie glanced at the ID, "Why would you come all the way from Star City to find Mr. Dalton?"
"A friend asked me to come look for him, I'm kind of an amateur detective and I told them I'd check it out."
"You always start at the mourge?"
"No, first the hospital's, then the morgue. Standard procedure, I thought?"
Maggie handed Connor back his ID. "Don't leave town, Mr. Hawke, I may have more questions for you in a more... formal setting."
"Formal setting? Are you inviting me to dinner?" He asked innocently, and slightly confused.
"Are you kidding me?" She saw his puzzled face and realized he wasn't. "I'll be in touch."
Maggie turned and walked down the hall. "Was that a yes or a no?" he wondered.
*****
Connor found an internet cafe which wasn't hard to do; there was one on nearly every corner. This city was so jacked in that the traffic lights probably dispensed espresso for you while you waited. He found the Daily Planets website and the report on Mr. Dalton’s death. "Apparent gunshot wound" not Dart's style. Someone else had gotten to him first. Maybe someone linked directly to the Fero branch here in Metropolis. The reporter on the piece was Lois Lane, maybe she could tell him more.
Conner stood up and stretched his legs one at a time. He had been squat for hours on top of the building across from what once was the Lexcorp building, now Fero Corp. "Nothing happening here", he thought. There was still one lead that he hadn't been able to follow. One person who he believed could help him... Lois Lane.
He had tried several times to reach Miss Lane at the Daily Planet, but with no luck. Although he had been told each time that she had been away from her desk on business, he couldn't help but wonder if she was either not taking phone calls, or not in the office at all. After sitting and staring at the Fero building for another half hour, he decided it was a dead end; the only option he had left was to swing by The Daily Planet, hopefully he would get lucky and something would fall in his lap.
He wasn't too far off...
*****
Connor launched himself from the ledge of the building, catching Jimmy in mid-fall. Connors momentum carried them back toward the Planet building crashing them through a window into the office of the style section editor.
Jimmy rolled to a stop with the chair resting on top of him.
"That was different, why so rough Superman", Jimmy asked into the carpeted floor.
Connor sliced through the ropes with the head of an arrow.
"Sorry, to disappoint but, uh I'm not Superman. I'm Connor Hawke." Connor lifted the chair off Jimmy and helped him up. "I'm guessing you may be in some kind of trouble?"
"Good guess. Big goons came barreling in and attacked us. They're after something from a reporter friend of mine and Mr. White is still up there." Jimmy opened the office door and pushed the button for the elevator.
"Where are you going?"
"Back upstairs, he's going to need some help."
"So will you, I'll cover the rear." Conner said.
"The rear?" Jimmy turned back and Conner was gone. "Who was that masked man?"
The elevator doors opened.
"One more time White, if you don't tell us, I'm going to have my buddy Ace here start throwing everything on this floor out the window."
Jimmy stepped into the newsroom. "Hey! Butt-Wipe! Guess who's back! You throw like a girl"!
He had to distract them before they threw Perry out the window too. It worked. The skinny one lifted his glasses and a red beam shot out from his eye. Jimmy ducked behind a desk. The beam cut through the wall of the cubicle behind him.
"Look's like we're going to have to toss everything Ace, starting with these two."
Ace picked up the desk Jimmy was hiding behind, holding it over his head ready to smash it down on him. There was a whistle in the air and suddenly an arrow protruded out the front of Ace's shoulder. He seemed unfazed but it stalled him for a second and Jimmy rolled out from under the immediate danger.
Conner's planted his weight into a kick from behind that bent Aces knee at an akward angle.
"Funny, there was no snap." He thought.
Jack's eye laser lashed out again cutting a swath across the newsroom. Fire erupted behind it.
Connor shot an arrow into fire extinguishers on each side of the room. Fire retardant foam hissed from the tanks but it wasn't enough. The flames began to engulf the newsroom floor.
Ace picked up Jack in his arms and lept through the window.
The newsroom was already thick with smoke. "Chief", Jimmy called.
"Over here Olsen." Perry was on the floor, his eye was a bright purple and starting to swell. Connor dropped down to the two of them. "We've got to get out of here'" He coughed.
Suddenly the smoke was pulled from the window, the flames sucked toward the red and blue spinning form of Superman outside the window.
The vacuum he created pulled the smoke and flames and loose papers out the broken window sending it up into a plume over the Planet building.
Jimmy and Connor helped Perry to his feet.
"What happened here?" Superman floated into the destroyed newsroom.
"Hey, Superman, this is Connor Hawke, the guy who saved me after I was thrown out a window."
Connor held out his hand. "It's an honor to meet you Superman."
"The pleasures all mine, Mr. Hawke. Thank you for saving my friends."
"Connor helped the Chief and me when we were getting beat up by some thugs."
"I get it Jimmy; I can't be everywhere at once you know." Superman made his way over to Perry. "Mr. White, do you need medical attention?"
"No, I'll be ok. You and . . . what's your Hero name, son"? Perry asked Connor.
"Hero name?"
"Yeah, you know like Green Hornet or something, your alias, your code name."
Superman realized Perry was getting information for a story.
"I don't really have one sir. It's always just been Conner Hawke."
"Well Connor Hawke, those guys were Ace and Jack of Spades, members of a group called, The Royal Flush Gang. All of there members are based on playing cards. And you can bet if they are in Metropolis it's not good."
"How do you know that Chief?"
"I don't just run a newspaper Olsen, I occasionally read it. They were after something that Lois had."
"I accidentally picked this up from Lois' desk, maybe what they were after is on this?" Jimmy held out the flash drive he had stuck in his pocket earlier.
"The heat has damaged all the computers; we won't be able to use these." Connor said.
"Let me see that." Superman took the flash drive from Jimmy and stared at it intently for a few seconds.
"What's he doing", Connor asked Jimmy.
Jimmy shrugged his shoulders. "Dunno."
"There's something on here about Fero Corporation and some sort of weapons shipments."
"You can read that?" Connor asked.
"It's just binary code, ones and zeroes, but the way it's all folded into the flash drive it's difficult to make out with any clarity."
"Sounds like the Fero branch here is in with the wrong people. Superman, It would be an honor if you accompanied me on a little corporate espionage." Conner stood at the broken window.
"Not really my style, but considering what they may be involved in I'll make an exception." Superman handed the flash drive to Jimmy, "Keep this in a safe place; we may need it for later."
*****
Superman and Connor stood in Charles Furst’s office on the top floor of the Fero Corp building. The huge desk and the even larger fish tank in the wall were the only remains of Luthor. Everything else had been done over in a western motif.
“I can’t believe how easily you got us in here.” Connor sat down at the computer terminal.
“I’ve had lots of practice over the years. Now what exactly are we looking for?"
Connor began to click through directories. “I started out investigating a murder, but that just scratches the surface, look, at this.”
Superman looked at the screen, it looked like a map of metropolis with hundreds of thousands of little lexcorp icons spread over it. “What is this?”
“Do you happen to know what operating system the Daily Planet uses?”
Of course as Clark he did. “I believe it’s using Lexor 08, why?”
“I would recommend they go with another system. Each one of those is the Lexor program running on some ones computer. That’s why they were after Lane’s computer, she found out what was on that flash drive and they knew it.”
“Can you access that info?’
Conner clicked on an icon. “Yes, manifests for shipments of weapons and something called “K-25” routed through Queen Industries in Star City to Fero Corp In Vegas.”
“Queen Industries? Oliver Queen? Is he involved in this somehow?” Superman asked
“Fero took over Queen Industries several months ago. I can say one hundred percent that Ollie is not involved.”
“Ollie?”
The doors to the office splintered inward, Ace of Spades came barreling through followed closely behind by Jack of Spades.
Connor vaulted over the desk, nocking an arrow at the same time. “Yeah, he’s my Dad.”
"He's your what?!" Superman did a double take.
Ace stepped in front of the arrow as it sped for Jacks laser eye. It lodged with a thunk into his neck. Without so much as a whimper Ace grabbed the arrow and pulled it out.
Superman scanned Ace with his X-ray vision. “Connor! He’s not real, some sort of robot. I got him, you get Jack!”
Superman flew toward Ace as Connor flipped toward the automaton. Superman flew into Ace and grabbed him around the waist; he pushed Ace aside leaving Jack wide open for Connors roundhouse kick.
Ace brought his knee up into Superman’s solar plexus. The robot was strong and caught the man of steel off guard knocking the breath out of him.
Connor stood in a fighting stance over Jack of spades. “What’s going on here? What is Fero doing?”
“You think it’s that easy?” Connor back flipped away as the ruby beam of Jack’s laser shot out at him.
“I’m not going to cross the boss! I tried that once before and look where it got me!” The beam cut through the air again as Connor dove behind the desk.
Superman fell to the ground gasping. The robot Ace cocked his foot back and kicked Superman in the face as if he was kicking for a field goal. Superman went sprawling backward.
Connor stood up from behind the desk an arrow poised and ready. He let it fly at Jack who easily sidestepped it.
“Hah, you’re definitely not as good as your old man.” Jack taunted.
“Wanna bet?” Conner said.
The arrow wasn’t intended for Jack, but for the fish tank behind him. The arrow lodged into the thick glass of the tank and cracks spider webbed instantly out from around it as the tank exploded with the force of thousands of gallons of water.
Connor was in the air and his heel connected with Jacks jaw spinning Jack to the floor.
Superman was lying on the floor. The water washed over him snapping him out of his daze. He turned to see Ace barreling for him. Superman came up of the floor with an uppercut that lifted Ace off his feet and into the ceiling.
Connor came down with his knee on Jacks head. The water seeped into and around the delicate electronics of Jacks laser eye. It began to spark and smoke.
Ace pulled himself out of the ceiling and dropped towards Superman, both hands clasped together, ready to pound down on the man of steel. Superman inhaled sharply and blew out at Ace, his breath cooling the water clinging to Ace to sub-zero temperatures, trapping the automaton in a steel hard casing of ice.
“YYYYAAARRRGGGHHHHH” Jack screamed as electricity danced across nerves and wires. His brain sought oblivion and mercifully found it.
Connor looked back and watched as Superman snapped the head off the now ice-brittle Ace.
“Did you have to do that?”
“Just making sure he can’t do anything once he thaws out. How’s Jack?”
“I think I put his eye out. He’ll be unconscious for a while. He mentioned my ‘old man’ he knows about me, how much more do they know?”
Superman picked the phone up off the desk. “What are you doing”, Conner asked.
“I’m calling Captain Sawyer, to come pick these guys up.”
“Tall woman, short blond hair, about this tall”, Connor indicated with his hand.
“Yeah, why?”
“No reason, can we go now? Whatever Fero is doing seems to lead back to Las Vegas and I want to catch the first availble flight I can.”
“Leave the flying to me. I’m going with you.”
Superman flew toward Las Vegas with Conner cradled in his arms.
“Isn’t there a more manly way to do this.”
“I could throw you there. Stop squirming.”
"This just seems like a very undignified way to travel."
Superman couldn't help but grin, "You sound just like your father."
*****
Epilogue: The back draft of Superman's departure still hung in the room as the door opened and Charles Furst walked in to see the Ace and Jack of Spades lying in heaps. He shook his head as he pressed a button on is belt. His image shimmered and his true form became clear. The King of Diamonds checked the pulse of the Jack.
"The boss is not going to be happy about this," he said out loud. "The Deck is an organization that does not take failure lightly." He saw the man who was once known as Pleasure Ride stir, looking up at him with his one good eye. "We will either have that fixed by the Heart Branch, or the Club Branch will eliminate you; that is a decision for the boss, of course. In the mean time, I shall contact the Queen of Diamonds to let her know that Superman and Green Arrow's brat are on their way."
Jack of Spades moaned, his hand reaching out for help.
"Oh, now you ask for help. Had you waited, like the King of Hearts had ordered you too, you would have been given this to help you." He brought out a lead lined box, opening it to reveal the green crystal that lay inside. "Luthor has a nice little hidden room filled with this. However, you chose to be brash and do it your own way."
"Olsen... has the... information..." Jack croaked out, his head still pounding in pain.
"Oh don't worry, the boss is aware of that, and when the time is right, Jimmy Olsen will die, along with Oliver Queen."
*****
To Be Continued In Green Arrow #11If you wish to comment on this issue, please
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