Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story idea, everything else is owned by WB.

Summary: This is a sequel to my story Cape Beginnings. I suggest that you read that one before reading this. Four years after Cape
Beginnings, Clark has taken over Wayne Enterprises and become Gotham's new protector. Please enjoy the story and review.

Chapter 1 – Dark Night

Darkness wrapped around him like a second cape and the cool breeze felt good on his face. He looked down on his city and almost smiled.

Almost.

It was peaceful up here, a time when he could just be with his thoughts.

Unfortunately tonight there was no time for reflections as his thoughts were cut short with the sound of squealing tires and sirens heading in his direction. He leapt from the top of the building and fell in a free fall towards the ground, his cape flapping behind him as the street came closer and closer. The car the police were chasing slid around the corner and was now almost under him. He quickly made some calculations and slowed his fall.

He landed on the front of the car with a loud THUMP, popping the tires and causing the frame the car to dig into the ground, quickly bringing the car to a halt. The car wasn't going fast enough to seriously hurt the men inside but they were most certainly dazed. The police moved in quickly with guns drawn.

"Thanks Superman!" The sergeant said as his men cuffed the criminals.

The man in the dark red and blue suit smiled, "No problem."

He jumped into the air and seeing a pair of young boys pointing up at him.

And that's why he asked me to continue…to keep them safe.

It had been four years since Batman disappeared from Gotham. He, Alfred and the whole Gotham PD had searched the city, from top to bottom, leaving no stone unturned. They had found nothing. No clues and no leads. He had just vanished with out a trace.

Has it really been four years? Clark thought as he flew over the east end of Gotham.

"HELP!" A woman screamed from below.

Superman swooped low and picked up two men who were in the process of dragging a woman into an alley.Takingsome rope from his belt and he hung the two men by their feet from a light post. The men were already swinging in the breeze by the time they realized what had happened.

"Miss, are you alright?" He asked the woman.

Clark looked her over quickly, she was dirty from being dragged into the alley and had a torn blouse and she had bruises on her arms. She seemed fine otherwise.

"Yes..I..ah, think so." She said, her voice clearly showing she was shaken up.

"Can I take you home or to a hospital?" Clark asked as he picked her purse up of the ground and gave it to her.

"I live just around the corner, I should be ok."

"Let me walk you home."

They walked slowly back to her apartment building. The girl was now clearly nervous walking with Superman and began to talk non-stop. Clark listened to her ramble and answered a couple of the questions when she took a breath.

When they arrived at her home she quickly walked up the steps and turned to Superman,
"Thank you for walking me home Superman and thanks for saving me."

"Your welcome miss, I would suggest that you pick up a pepper spray for your purse."

"OK, I'll do that."

Superman watched her go into the house. It felt nice to talk…well in his case just listen to someone talk. It had been a lonely four years; Alfred had stayed on with him, refusing to follow Bruce's instructions and retire to an island. He said it was his duty to complete Bruce's mission too and he wasn't going to let Clark do it alone. But Alfred wasn't much for shooting the breeze.

Clark had taken over Wayne Enterprises after Bruce's funeral as Bruce had asked him to do. Alfred and He had concocted a story that he had died in plane crash coming back from some exotic island. All of Gotham turned out for the funeral; it was even televised live on several channels.

In his spare time he was in his last semester at Gotham University finishing a bachelors degree in business. Thankfully they had an online program that he could do mostly from home or work. He had quickly decided that if he was going to run a company he had better know what's going on.

Between work, school and fighting crime he didn't have much time for sleep, friends or…Lois.

He and Lois had gone on several dates during that summer but she had gone to New York for college. He had kind of blocked her out when Bruce died and withdrawn into himself and into the Batcave. He assumed that she got tired of waiting and moved to get away and start over. He never really said goodbye…

His communicator beeped interrupting his sad thoughts.

"Yes?"

"Sir there is an alarm at the Gotham Museum, in the CAT exhibit."

"Heading there now." Clark closed the link.

Cat exhibit…who would…nah she's been gone for a long time.

Clark made a u-turn in the sky and cruised toward the museum. On approach he saw that there was indeed a hole in the skylight.

Why were there so many skylights in Gotham? Clark pondered, it seems like at least every other building has one. Bruce loved them, said they gave him the element of surprise when the glass shattered and startled the criminals below.

Mind on the current task Kent! He rebuked himself.

He flew through the hole and landed softly on the floor below behind her. She was putting a jeweled jade cat into her pouch and talking to her pet cat which immediately hissed at him.

"Well if it isn't the Bat's replacement. You've grown up Junior." She purred.

"Catwoman. I had figured that you had gotten too old to rob anymore. You haven't been in Gotham in years." Clark shot back.

She ignored his remark, "It just wasn't fun without being able to tauntBatman anymore. But when I saw this item in the papers, I couldn't pass it up." She said as she gestured to her pack.

"It's several hundred years old, and was worshiped by some tribes in Africa. They believed that it would bring them peace and protect them from the other tribes. And…it's a cat. It's so hard to pass those up."

"Well maybe this is a good time to start." Superman moved closer right as she leapt over him and used her whip to swing her self up towards the broken skylight.

"Untill next time, Superman."

Clark was impressed by the way she was able to swing herself up and out of the room in what seemed like one single movement. Wow that's quite the move...talk about graceful.

He quickly dropped his thoughts and followed after her. He flew up above the building and switched on his X-Ray vision. He spun around in a circle and finally spotted her running across a rooftop two buildings away from him.

He quickly caught up to her and blocked her path.

"You planning on keeping that? You know Batman always left you alone because you didn't steal in his city."

"We'll Bat's isn't around anymore is he flyboy?" She said with a note of sarcasm and…sadness in her voice.

She jumped from the building and lashed out with her whip to swing herself to another roof.

"You do realize that you can't outrun me don't you." Clark said as he almost materialized in front of her.

"The thought had occurred to me."

"Well why don't you return the item and…"

She dropped off the side of the building and lowered herself to the ground.

No wonder he never captured her, he enjoyed the chase…and the view isn't bad either.

By now the media and the police choppers had caught wind of the theft and had caught up with them. They had all sorts of spotlights on her as she ran down the street.

Looks like you aren't getting off easy this time Catwoman.

Switching to Super-speed he ran in front of her and she quickly stopped.

"Looks like I'm caught." She said as the police moved in with guns drawn. She took off the pouch containing the cat and threw it to Superman.

Everyone was surprised by how quickly she gave up that when she swung up and away everyone's reflexes were too slow to catch her.

"Son of a…" One of the cops started to swear, "…Hey what's wrong with Superman?"

Superman was on the ground curled up in pain; his skin was starting to turn a pale shade of green.

Several of the cops moved in too see if they could help.

"Give me room!" Gordon ordered as he pulled up on the scene. "Move the press back! And block their view."

The men formed a circle of sorts around the fallen hero and blocking the view from the two stations broadcasting and the three more setting up.

Superman weakly pulled a canister from his belt and began to coat the cat with liquid lead. It was a special formula and canister that Batman had designed for just this type of situation. As soon as the entire cat was covered in a thick layer of cooling lead Superman sat up and everyone could see he was feeling much better.

"What is that?"

"It's called kryptonite. I thought we had found all of it…" Superman pondered as he stood up on shaky legs.

"And it can hurt you?"

"Yes." Superman said as he burst angrily into the air.