Action Comics #13:"Convergence, Part One"

“But that’s off limits!” He shakes his head, the other man continuing what he was doing, eagerly experimenting with what is behind the lead shielding. “You can’t… Faraday himself gave the order! You can’t experiment with Isotope X!”

“Faraday isn’t here, is he? I had an epiphany during the night, I realised… We could harness so much energy from this stupid chunk of meteor! It’s… It’s basically super energised rock! We harness the movement of the atoms somehow, and we’d… We’d find a power source that wouldn’t need replacing for centuries!”

“Jerry, please, you don’t… The order was made, I’m going to have to shut down the project and report you. You’re going against so many rules and procedures, and they’re there for a reason!” He places his hand on the shoulder of his workmate, who shrugs him off as if he were a fly, an irritant. “Jerry…”

“Look, just leave Bob! I’ve nearly… I’ve…” The rock fractures slightly, light glowing outwards as something begins to happen. “I’ve… Done it!”

Martha Kent looks out over the fields, and remembers times past, when her husband tended the fields, when her life was complete, and she smiles. Long since had the time for mourning passed, and now she took the time to enjoy life, to make sure she savoured every moment of it. “Have fun?”

Clark Kent smiles as he pulls on his red t-shirt, stepping into the kitchen and smiling widely. His hair was longer than usual, uncut, and he had left his glasses upstairs. “Didn’t realise you heard me come in…”

She turns and puts her hand on his shoulder. “I heard you land upstairs. You’re lucky; I just took a fresh pie out of the oven… Would you like a slice?”

Clark smiles. “You have to ask? But please, let me…”

He goes to open the oven but Martha shakes her head, taking a spoon out of a draw and patting Clark’s hand hard. “No, no… I can handle a pie dish, thank you very much. You stick to your aliens and monsters!”

“Is that another one of Mrs Kent’s splendid Blueberry pies I smell?” Martha and Clark turn to the door and are met by the smiling face of Pete Ross.

“Pete!” Clark stands and puts his hand out to him, and the blonde haired man takes it and laughs. “What brings you down to the farm?”

“That delightful smell, got a whiff of it down in town! I swear, my taste buds are tap dancing on my tongue… Mrs Kent, one of these days you must share the recipe with me…”

Martha smiles. “I will when you call me Martha, Pete, I’ve told you before…”

Pete sighs and places his hand on his chest, shaking his head. “But Mrs Kent! After 30 years I don’t think I could change the way I address you… My apologies…”

“Then until you figure out how, this will have to keep you happy!” She smiles and she passes him a plate of the still warm pie, and then heads for the door. “I’ll leave you two boys to it, I’ve got some chores to run in town, I’ll be back in a few hours.”

“Yes, Ma.” Clark smiles and digs his fork into his pie, and then turns to Pete.

“See you later, Mrs Kent!” Pete waves and then takes a bite out of his.

“So then Pete, what brings you here?”

Pete places his fork down on the plate and his face grows more serious. “It’s Lana… She’s still so down about all this stuff with Conner I…” His voice trails off. “I want to cheer her up. The three of us, like we used to…” He smiles. “Night on the town, what do you say?”

Clark looks at his pie and moves a piece around with his fork, and then looks up, smiling. It was his fault that Lana was like this. His fault she was targeted. “You sure I… You sure I should show my face?” He laughs uncomfortably, and takes another bit of the pie. “I don’t know if I’m going to be her favourite person right now, you know?”

“Clark…” Pete shakes his head, and looks straight into Clark’s eyes. “You are one of her best friends, no matter what you went through, before or after, you know? You’re coming out with us. It’s decided.”

Clark smiles and slaps Pete on the back of the head jokingly. “Want to pass a ball around out back?”

“Tsh, Kent, you have to ask?”

“He thinks he can come into Suicide Slum, tell us what’s what, what’s going to happen and what he’s going to do?” The man shakes his head, taking a puff of the cigar between his lips. “We can’t have that, can we?”

“No Boss!” The men sitting around the dark table shout in unison, drawing a smile from the man’s lips, the scar that runs from his eye down to the edge of his mouth widening slightly as his muscles are used.

“No Boss is right, guys and gals. We need someone to take care of Lexy, we need an assassin who can get in and out without being caught, without being lead back to us…”

“Any ideas, Boss?”

“Boss Moxie? That name is synonymous with ideas. I have already contacted the man for the job.”

“Who Boss? Who?”

“Bloodsport.”

“Who?”

“One of the worlds greatest shots. Guy thinks that the worlds a battlefield, after a brush with the enemy in the Gulf…” One of the men around the table raises his hand, his well fitted italian suit moving with his arm as it nervously reaches up. “Speak.”

“Which Gulf?”

“The… Only Gulf?”

“Uh…” Before the man can question Boss Moxie anymore the gang leader pulls his gun and shoots him in the head, the man flying backwards headfirst at the sheer momentum of the alien weapon that had just been used. Boss Moxie smiles a wicked smile, his scar twisting across his face like a devil.

“Amateurs. The first Gulf War. Get with it. He went crazy. But we’ve helped shape this mans insanity… Into a fighting machine!”

“You the Boss, Boss!”

“Suck up.”

“I NEED COFFEE!” Perry White bursts out of his room. “YOU!” He points to an intern who spins around and nearly drops the papers in his hands. “COFFEE OR DEATH!” The intern nods vigourlessly and drops the papers on an empty desk, and then runs off in a hurry. “LANE! LOMBARD!” He points across the newsroom to two desks, those of Steve Lombard and Lois Lane, who look up at their names. “If you’re not here in twelve seconds you’ll be working in the copy room, HOP TO IT!”

“He’s taking the kid’s leaving pretty well…” Lombard smiles.

“Shut up, let’s go.” Lois leaps up and grabs her notebook, swiftly followed by Steve who is hot on her heels. “What’s up Chief?”

“DON’T CALL ME CHIEF!” Perry shakes his head. “Damn. Lane, where’s your piece on the Irons election platform?”

Lois beams. “In your inbox, Perry.”

“Amazing. Lombard, I see we’re still waiting for your piece on the Keystone Kats’/ Gotham Bears ice hockey game. You wanted it in there, so where is it?”

Lombard swallows hard. “I… I was just about to send it to you, Perry…”

“JUST ABOUT? Do I look as if I’m going to send something to print that’s just about sent to me? You’ve got five seconds before you work in Maintenance, GO!” Lombard leaps out of his chair and bursts out the room, nearly colliding with the intern holding two cups of coffee. “AND DON’T CALL ME PERRY!”

“Are you ok… Perry?” Lois smiles and takes the coffee from the intern and hands one to her editor. “You seem a bit on edge…”

“I am on edge, this whole election hoo-hah is making my migraines get head aches, and the worse thing is we lost one of our best photographers to the enemy…” He shakes his head. “I’m sick of Luthor and him having his fingers in every damn pie in the city…” He sighs, and sips his coffee. “Is it obvious?”

Lois smiles and drinks from the other cup. “No, we’d tell you if it was…”

“I wish Kent were here.” Perry places his coffee on his desk and starts typing on his keyboard.

Lois’ eyes widen. “Smallville?”

“Right about now he’d say something that would make me feel a damn sight better than I am. He had a knack for saying what needed to be said…”

“Or what didn’t…” Lois mutters to herself, shaking her hand and then taking another sip.

“What was that?”

“Nothing!” She smiles and stands. “I’m going to cover the debate at the Siegel Centre tonight, I’ll have it written up for you before the morning edition goes to press.”

“Take Troupe.”

“Troupe?” Her eyes widen. “You want me to drag around a novice? You know that’s not my style Perry…”

Perry looks up, a smile on his lips. “Look Lane, seven years ago I assigned you to Kent and he became one of the best reporters at this paper, and I want to see if any more of your talent really rubs off on people. Troupe is your partner for the foreseeable, at least till when Kent gets back…”

“Sure Chief…”

“And don’t call me--” Lane closes the door before Perry can say anything else. “Oh, what the hell…” He sips his coffee again and then looks at it. “This is… This is decaf… Oh, heads will roll…” He jerks out of his chair and heads for the newsroom once more.

“John Henry Irons. This is a £$%^&*£ joke! Some £$%%^& in a position of power? It’s £$^&^% ridiculous!” The man slams his fist into his hand, and then looks at the bigger man in front of him. “I want him dead. An example to all the others out there who think they have a shot. They ain’t nothing. Think they can take our jobs. Take our women. Enough is enough, time to make a stand.”

“Hey, if the man has it coming to him, I’ll make sure he’s dead. Done and dusted. Wanted to have a shot at a superhero for a long time, but I’ve been in the lower leagues for a while, honing my craft…”

“Yeah. Your craft. How is that coming for you?”

“I just think and weapons appear in my hand. The implants work a hell of a lot better than I thought they would.”

“Hey, we don’t invest in failures…”

2Don’t talk to me about investment. You hiy a government van, you stole some sensitive materials, you stuck them in me. That’s your goddamn investment.”

“Watch your mouth. We can just as well rip ‘em out your cold dead corpse…”

“You know what, Dan?”

“What’s that?”

“You’re dead.” He pauses, thinks, and the .9mm appears in his hand, and with a swift motion, shoots his boss in the head. “Say hey to Hitler for me.”

“What the hell man?” A man rushes into the room, alerted by the sound of gunshots.

“Dan’s been fired. I’m in charge.”

The newcomer looks around, at the smoking gun in the masked man’s hand, and to the corpse of his old employer. “… Uh, sure thing… Bloodsport.”

“You’re damn right, sure thing! Now when’s Irons appearing at the rally?”

“Mrs Kent…” Martha turns at the voice and her eyes widen.

“Lana!” She smiles and hugs the redhead, who smiles back to her. “Oh, how are you?”

“As well as I could be, I guess… What brings you to town?”

“Just grocery shopping. Need to pick some things up for dinner.”

Lana smiles. “That’s nice.”

“You should come up to the farm one evening, I’ll make dinner, it’ll be nice, I’m sure Clark will…” Martha pauses as she speaks.

“It’s ok, Mrs Kent. Really… It…” Lana struggles for words, her hand shaking. “Oh, Martha I miss him…” She falls into Martha’s arms, tears streaming down her face. “I… I know it was all a lie… But it doesn’t… Doesn’t make it any less real…”