Disclaimer: I do not own the characters created by DC comics or the canon on which they are based.

Chapter 1: Hostages

Lois tapped her pen against the desk. Her unfocused gaze drifted from the Word document open on her computer to the papers and junk littered around it. Her eyes fell on the pirate eraser Clark gave her. She never used it, but it was a cute decoration. She'd been sitting there for several minutes, grappling with a story draft. She sighed and swiveled in her chair. She spotted Lombard several feet away, leaning against a cubicle wall and watching something with an amused expression. She peeked over the cubicle walls and followed his line of sight. Over by the printer, Clark was irritably pressing buttons. He stopped and stared at the machine with his hands on his hips. Lois sat back down.

"Lombard!" she called.

He looked at her, and she pointed in Clark's direction.

He snorted and grinned.

"He's your husband!"

"I'm working, unlike you!"

He laughed, but he did as she said.

"Hey," he said, walking up to Clark, "Need some help with that?"

"Uh, yeah," he said, "I can't get it to work. See, the paper light's flashing –"

He pointed.

" – so I put more in, but it still wouldn't print. I changed the ink, too, but still nothing."

Lombard opened the first paper tray and looked inside. It was full. He went to Settings in the controls, pressed a couple buttons, then looked at Clark and pointed to the little screen.

"It's set to take paper from Tray 2," he said rather smugly.

"Oh! Thanks."

Lombard jerked his head nonchalantly.

"Hey, no problem."

As Lombard walked back to his desk, he caught the eyes of a few people. They exchanged smiles and grins. Clark's naivete and innocent nature had become the office meme. Clark refilled the printer and returned to his desk with the papers. He stapled them, set them aside, and turned back to his computer. He was researching the T.M. Morrow company since the Washington Post uncovered that some of their offshore factories were actually sweatshops. Of course, the CEO and all the higher-ups denied any knowledge of their existence. He had managed to secure an interview with one of their spokespeople, and they had arranged to meet sometime this week.

He opened another tab to do a search, but stopped when he saw the red banner stretched across the webpage: "Breaking News: Several armed robbers holding hostages in an Albany payday loan center."

He picked up his messenger bag, put the papers in it, grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair, and strode off towards Perry's office. Lois looked up at him as he passed. He knocked on the door before opening it and sticking his head inside. Perry looked up.

"Hey, Perry, is it ok if I go interview that spokesman from T.M. Morrow?"

"Yeah, yeah, go ahead," Perry said, waving him off.

He passed Lois again on his way out.

"Good luck," she mouthed.

He nodded. He rode the elevator down to the first floor and quickly exited the building. He turned into an alley nearby, stood behind the dumpster, and changed into his suit faster than the human eye could see. He stuffed his regular clothes in the messenger bag, which he shoved in a plastic bag, and hid underneath the dumpster. Then, he took off into the sky, breaking the sound barrier above the city.

He listened intently as he streaked toward New York, trying to sift through all the noise. He heard a panicked shriek and immediately zoned in on the source. He adjusted his course and peeled the approaching city looking for the building. He could hear what was happening inside.

"Tanan, what are you doing?" a man said, "Let her go, you're gonna get us caught!"

"No, I'm not!" the man named Tanan grunted, "The cops won't chase us if we take one with us!"

"We didn't agree to that!"

"Goddamn it, let's just go!" a woman said.

Finally, he spotted the payday loan center. The police had surrounded it. There was a hostage negotiator speaking through a megaphone. There were five robbers inside. They all wore black and grey clothes with ski masks and carried guns. Two of them were sitting in a van parked behind the building. Three more of them were still in the building, arguing. A man and a woman were standing by the doorway which lead to the back room, and Tanan was standing in front of the hostages. A woman in a purple suit was standing in front of him, and he was pointing his gun at her back. The rest of the hostages were huddled together on the floor, against the counter. There were nine of them, including the woman in the suit.

"Tanan, please!" the other man said, "At least, stop pointing the gun at her."

Tanan ignored him and pushed the woman toward the escape door. Clark dove at super-speed and burst through the wall, grabbing the woman and setting her down gently next to the opposite wall. He snatched the rifle out of Tanan's hands and broke it over his knee, then ran to the other two and crushed their guns in his palms. Then, he ran outside and came back with the two men from the van. They grunted when he dropped them on the floor, but they didn't try to get up.

Everyone gawked at him. The woman in the purple suit started shaking and slumped to the ground. The robbers didn't move an inch, but shared panicked looks with each other.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck…," the woman whispered.

"Surrender quietly. You know there's no use resisting," Clark said.

"Come on. We're finished," the man said.

"You can use the front door," Clark instructed.

The two on the floor slowly lifted themselves up, and the other three moved slowly toward the front door. Meanwhile, Clark went to help the hostages.

"You're safe now. It's alright," he said softly.

He extended his hand to the woman in the suit, who was still on the ground. He smiled encouragingly, and she took his hand.

"Thank you," she said as he helped her stand up.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes. Thank you."

A few of the hostages got to their feet on their own and helped others get up.

Across the room, the robbers opened the door and slowly exited the building to the clamorous sounds of the police yelling, along with the spectators and reporters. Once the robbers had been taken into custody, Clark held the door open for the hostages, and there was another swell of excitement. Some of the hostages thanked him before running out. Others simply locked eyes with him in a wordless exchange. A few latched onto his arm or his cape for a moment. As soon as they were all out, he took off, despite the outcries from the reporters below.

''''''''''''''''

When Clark walked back into The Daily Planet offices, Jenny rushed past him on her way to the elevators. He garnered from the conversations going around that she was heading to Albany to cover the story. Perry strode past him with a coffee mug in hand.

"Old-fashioned armed robbery, complete with hostages, in Albany, of all places," he said cheerfully.

"Glad you're not deciding the fate of the universe, Perry," Lois called from her desk.

"Talk to that spokesman, Kent?"

"Right here," he said, holding up his interview notes.

"Wednesday," he said, referring to the deadline.

"I know."