Lois shivered in the cool night air. She checked her watch. It was 7:13 p.m. The man on the phone hadn't given a time to meet, but she had gotten the impression that the time was as soon as she got over there. Where was he? Who was he? What sort of news did he have?

She looked around. It wasn't the best part of the city, but it wasn't the worse. However, it was deserted at this hour. She was about to give up, thinking it must've been a hoax, when a long black limousine pulled up.

Before she had time to react, she was pulled in and it sped off.

It was too dark to see anything, but she could feel a gun on both sides, jamming into her ribs. The two men that she had been squeezed into the middle of looked huge from their outlines. She could probably take them, if it wasn't for the guns.

"Who are you?" she asked. "I thought you had some information for me?"

"Oh, but I do," said a chilling voice coming from the seat in front of her.

The light above the man's head switched on. It revealed what she had suspected from the voice. It belonged to a young Lex Luthor.

"How? You-you died after me. It wasn't a part of the prophecy for you to come back."

"I'm not going to beat around the bush, Miss Lane. Old Lex did indeed die but young Lex did not. He knew there was no way to alter what had come to pass. You know many people find this hard to believe but Lex Luthor believed in God. He identified with the passage that says, "Even the devil believes and shudders." Lex knew there was a God and that he couldn't beat Him in this destined event. He did the next best thing to being alive in this year. He made a copy of himself."

"You're a clone? You can't just masquerade as Lex Luthor. People know he's dead. God won't make you seem to stay young."

"I know. That's why I am set up to inherit his fortune and power as a relative. He altered my DNA just enough for the tests they may run. I am like him in every other way and when my time is almost expired, another 'Lex' will take my place. Each one is to be trained by the predecessor."

"Why would you tell me this?"

"Lex may have been a criminal, but he believed in leveling the playing field for a true challenge. I know your secrets from Superman's identity to this time prophecy and now you know most of mine. Superman, or Clark Kent I should say, and I will pick up where the original Lex left off in trying to destroy each other until the end of time. It is a task that will be much harder for Superman because my body has been greatly improved against attack and disease. I shouldn't really be concerned about being killed by the man of steel though; he's a humanitarian," he said with a laugh.

"So you're letting me go?"

"Yes. I am confident that if you tell the police what I have told you, they would think you weren't wound too tight. You have no crimes to pin on me other than this friendly conversation and maybe a minor robbery to reclaim what belongs to the Luthors. I believe I have sufficiently covered my tracks in all cases."

She was shoved out into a ditch just outside the city limits, but the limo didn't drive off immediately.

'Lex' poked his head out the window and said, "Before I drive off, I want to hear you call for Superman. It would make my day."

Lois glared and tightly shut her mouth.

"I must not have asked nicely enough," he said, pulling out a gun, "please?"

"Superman!"

sss

Clark was sipping on a glass of punch and wondering why Lois had never made it back. He wasn't too worried. The place was jam-packed and she would probably be running into all kinds of friends and family, who wanted to see and talk to her. At least, he wasn't worried until he heard, "Superman!"

He flew above the crowd and put a hole in the roof, as he shot out of the building in his Superman costume.

Everyone looked up, paused for a moment and then went back to whatever they were doing. It was nothing out of the ordinary.

sss

It didn't take him long to find her. He breathed a sigh of relief, when he saw her standing up and brushing the dirt off her clothes.

"Lois, what happened?" he asked.

"Let's fly back to the party and I'll tell you on the way."

Once they were in the air, she told him everything and finished with, "Do you believe it?"

"It is hard to believe, but I wouldn't put anything past Lex Luthor. The problem is going to be getting him behind bars and keeping him there. The American prisons will take you, clone or no clone, but you have to have evidence that major crimes were committed."

"And we'll get it sooner or later."

The corners of Clark's mouth began to lift upward until he was laughing.

"What's there to laugh about?" she demanded.

"I was just thinking of how long you've been back on Earth and how quickly you managed to get yourself into trouble."

She tried to look angry at the comment, but she ended up smiling a little.

Clark was happy. He didn't like Lois putting herself in danger, but you had to accept that it came with the territory. Things were back to normal (for a superhero anyway).

The End