He bit back a sigh. This was his least favorite part about being Clark Kent. Fortunately, it didn't come up all that often since newspaper reporters generally aren't the sort of people that people beat the crap out of, contrary to what many shows and movies would have you think. There had been a moment when the man had paused the kicking for a little bit, panting as he attempted to catch his breath, where he'd been sorely tempted to give a sarcastic "Finished?". That wouldn't have gone over well with the gawkers who'd crowded around making sympathetic noises, said things like "Someone should do something", and looked half-expectantly towards the sky however.

Finally, as the man gained his second wind and started on round two of the rib and stomach kicking, a pair of police officers arrived. Soon the struggling man was led to the back of a squad car and most of the crowd dispersed, leaving behind a few hard-core onlookers who were waiting for the ambulance to arrive. As he lay there pretending to be in pain when all he wanted to do was walk off and forget what happened, one of the original pair of officers to arrive at the scene came up to him, presumably to get his statement.

"Thanks for er, keeping him occupied until we arrived Superman." the police officer said as he reached out to offer him a hand up, which was something you did not do with someone who might've had broken ribs or internal injuries. "If I hadn't known any better, I would've sworn that you really were having the crap kicked out of you."

He gave the officer his best "What makes you think I'm Superman?" look and asked "What makes you think I wasn't?" as he pretended to nurse a set of ribs that were bruised at the very least.

"He kicked you in the balls and you didn't even flinch." the officer replied.