Although Irene had a long night that consisted of little sleep she had still managed to wake up early in the morning. She felt the excitement that came with going after a new story, and she knew that this was going to be another big story. Maybe it wasn't going to be Superman big, but it was going to be close.
Since her Superman exclusive a year ago she had struggled to be known for more than just the reporter that discovered Superman. Now she was going to write a story with Superman himself. Though that was something the rest of the world would never know.
"Good morning." Clark greeted with a bright smile. It really was a smile that could brighten any room, and she wondered why he didn't smile as much at work.
"You're punctual." Irene noted as she slipped into her coat. She oddly felt like she needed to have her guard up with Clark, even if last night had technically gone perfectly. Maybe it was her instinct to push people away when she felt that they might be a distraction. Because Clark Kent was a big distraction to her. She hadn't been able to think about anything else but him since last night, and she didn't want to have those thoughts about him.
Clark Kent clearly just wanted to be friends.
"To be honest I was afraid not to be." He replied with a small chuckle. Again Irene considered inviting him inside, but again she thought better of it. Instead she grabbed her bag and stepped out of her apartment earning a questioning look from Clark who looked behind her. "Jimmy not here yet?"
"No, he's going to meet us at Cadmus. He accidentally slept in." Irene replied dismissively, she had already expected Jimmy to be late. He always was. "Come on, let's go."
The abandoned Cadmus building was at the other side of the city only a block away from The Slums. It was actually the perfect place to do anything illegal considering that people didn't care about what happened in lower income neighborhoods like The Slums.
That was why Cadmus had gotten away with their work on radiation in the area. No one cared if minorities or those living paycheck to paycheck got exposed to harmful chemicals. Not only were the complaints of residents of The Slums ignored, but so was the word of Lois Lane when she wrote an exposé about it four years ago.
Now as Irene stood in an alley in front of a now abandoned Cadmus building she couldn't help but feel glad that the place was in its current state, though if her theory was correct maybe the building wasn't entirely abandoned.
"How exactly are we going to get inside?" Clark questioned as he studied the lock, pushing his glasses higher up the bridge of his nose.
Irene raised an eyebrow in disbelief at his question. Her reaction earned a chuckle from Clark who stepped forward crushing the lock in his fist. The steel practically turned to dust from his strength.
"Oh so you're funny now?" Irene replied as she moved past Clark pushing the steel door open, mostly wanting to move ahead of him so he wouldn't notice the small smile on her lips.
Turning on her flashlight she quickly took in her surroundings. The place was in fact abandoned; the spiderwebs and dust alone were an indication that no one had visited this place in at least a couple of months.
"So what are we looking for again?"
"I'm not sure, but we'll know it when we see it." Irene replied, unsure where to even begin. The building was three stories and although they came in through the back entrance the lobby was empty. Irene feared that maybe the entire place might be this way and that they might hit a dead end.
"We should start with the basement." Clark stated as he looked down at the floor beneath them. "It's the only place in the building that isn't empty."
"You just saved us a lot of time." Irene commented as they both took the stairs down to the basement. Sure enough there were multiple filing cabinets lined against the wall along with crates which unlike everything else in the building weren't covered with dust. Clearly they had just been placed here not too long ago. "I think we should start by looking for any files that talk about Krypton and..."
Before Irene could finish her thought Clark was already off at an incredible speed looking through all of the file cabinets. Not even a minute had gone by that he was standing in front of her again with a stack of files in his hand.
Clark smiled as he handed her the stack of files that she would have to look over as soon as she got home. "Like you said, saving us a lot of time. But it looks like you were right, they are repurposing the remains of the attack to manufacture weapons."
"Anything in here about where they might be manufacturing them?"
"No." Clark replied looking as disappointed as how she felt. Now that they confirmed that she was right they had to find whoever was manufacturing Kryptonian technology and turning it into weapons.
"Well I guess that means we still have a lot of work to do then."
Without another word they began looking through the crates, which unfortunately all contained lab equipment. Ready to simply call the day quits Irene opened one last crate, only unlike the others this one was filled with packaging material, a single iron box sitting in the center.
Opening the steel box Irene was practically blinded by the glowing green light that emitted from the box. It took her a moment to focus on the object which she realized was simply a green crystal-like rock that shined brightly. Irene had never seen anything like it.
"What's this?" Irene muttered mostly to herself as she picked up a discarded cloth nearby to get a hold of the rock. There was no knowing what it was or where it came from, but whatever it was had to be big. Turning towards Clark to get his opinion on the mysterious rock, to her surprise he was bent over in pain. "Clark?"
There was a look of pain on his face that he momentarily attempted to smile away. "I don't... I don't feel very well."
Irene took a step closer but he immediately flinched when she did. Looking down at the rock in her hand she placed it back inside the box, closing it. She couldn't fully understand why the rock was causing him to react this way, but that hardly mattered. She just needed to keep the rock away from him until they were able to get more answers.
"Are you okay?"
"Better." He replied as he straightened. His reaction to the rock seemed to surprise even him. As far as I knew Superman didn't have any weakness, and maybe Clark that was what Clark had previously believed. "I've never felt anything like it."
"What did you feel?"
He searched her eyes for a moment before looking away. "Weaker. Like I couldn't get air into my lungs."
Looking down at the metal box in her hand, it seemed that whatever the box was made of dampened the effects that the green rock had on Clark. "Well, I guess I should just keep this away from you then."
Irene was about to walk away when suddenly Clark got a hold of her wrist. Before she could question it Clark had picked her up in his arms in an instant and he flew up at an incredible speed. Instinctively Irene closed her eyes, and that was when she heard it a moment later.
An explosion.
It all happened within a matter of seconds as she felt the heat engulf them both. But the explosion wasn't large. At least it didn't feel that way as when Irene opened her eyes a second later she was still in Clark's arms as he kneeled on the floor.
They were in the lobby of the old Cadmus building. The explosion had been only contained in the basement.
"Are you okay?" Clark questioned and all Irene could do was nod numbly as he brushed strands of hair away from her face. She could still hear the ringing in her ears and her heart felt like it was going to burst in her chest. Irene finally brought herself to meet Clark's eyes only to find that he was looking at her with worry."Are you sure?"
He continued to look at her expectantly but all she could do was look back at him.
"I'm sorry I just..." Irene began feeling at a loss of words and unable to gather her thoughts. She was one of the few people to have witnessed Superman's powers first hand, yet she still couldn't help but be amazed by everything that he could do. "I never thought anyone like you could exist."
He searched her eyes for a moment before a small smile touched his lips. "That's funny."
"What?" Irene questioned, suddenly feeling silly. Maybe the fumes from the explosion were getting to her head and that was why she was beginning to ramble nonsense.
"I was going to tell you the same thing." Clark whispered, he almost sounded out of breath which was impossible for someone like him.
Suddenly Irene found herself wanting Clark to kiss her.
One of his hands was still placed on the side of her face, and he was looking at her with such an intensity that she was sure that her heart had stopped. She felt absolutely consumed by him and his presence, everything about him just made her feel entirely at his mercy. Like she could give him her heart being aware that he could easily crush it in his fists. And even with that unbearable pain she would beg for more simply because she couldn't get enough of him.
His thumb slowly brushed her cheek as he began to lean forward. She knew that once his lips touched hers there was no going back, but in the moment there was nothing more that she wanted than to completely lose herself to him.
"What the fuck?" A voice echoed through the building. Up until now Irene had completely forgotten about Jimmy. Luckily he wasn't there to witness what had just happened, though the scene in front of him wasn't going to be easy to explain away. "Are you guys okay? What happened? How did it happen? It was you Irene wasn't it? Why are you always getting me in trouble?"
Irene sighed, frustrated by his endless questions and that he had interrupted whatever was about to happen with her and Clark. Meeting Clark's eyes briefly she saw her frustration mirrored in his eyes, but it was brief as he instantly seemed to look away. "We're fine Jimmy."
Jimmy ran over to them taking pictures along the way. "It's a miracle that you two are okay. I heard the explosion outside."
"You're late. Like really late." Irene said instead as Clark helped her to her feet. She didn't want him to continue asking any questions, she still didn't have a good excuse for how they were able to survive an explosion. Quickly she began dusting herself off her pants and coat feeling like she needed to look slightly put together.
"Glad to know you can still act like yourself after yet another near death experience." Jimmy commented as he quickly took a picture of her. She didn't even have a chance to tell him to delete the picture before he was off taking more pictures of their surroundings.
The lab might have been destroyed but at least they had the files they had collected and the mysterious green rock that was currently safe in its steel box.
"Irene." Clark whispered, the worry in his voice instantly causing her to turn around. He was holding onto this side, lifting his hand for her to see the green pin-like shards of the mystery rock pierced on his side. She couldn't believe that they hadn't noticed it before. But now that they had he seemed moments away from collapsing, his skin incredibly pale. "We must have gotten out just in time."
He was right. Had he not heard the explosion he would surely have been pierced with so many more pins made out of that green rock.
"Jimmy call Clark and I a cab will you?" Irene called out as she shrugged off her coat and handed it to Clark. Jimmy couldn't see that he was hurt, but Irene didn't know what to do or where to take him.
Looking back at her, Jimmy couldn't hide his own confusion at her sudden desire to leave. Not when she normally would have searched every inch of the place for more answers."Why?"
"Now Jimmy!" Irene snapped. She flinched at her own tone, hating to speak down on Jimmy this way. He was her best friend and this wasn't the way she treated him. "Please."
Jimmy looked at her with concern but did as she ordered anyway. He knew better than to begin asking questions when she was like this, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't have questions later.
"I can't go to the hospital." Clark told her what she already knew. But the panic set in that she really didn't know what to do or who to turn to for help. Slowly she realized that they had no one to turn to because who could possibly know how to cure a Kryptonian from this rock. They were dealing with something that they couldn't even begin to understand. But those answers would come later, what mattered now was Clark.
Once they arrived at Irene's apartment they both rushed into her bathroom. Clark removed his hand from his abdomen and the amount of blood that now stained his hand and clothes was shocking. Irene had never been one to be disturbed by the sight of blood, but the panic that swelled inside of her was overwhelming. Clark was supposed to be indestructible. Seeing him hurt was incredibly unsettling.
As Irene frantically began looking through the bathroom for anything that she could use to help Clark. Pulling tweezers, towels and alcohol from cabinets she began setting them aside, mentally preparing herself for what she had to do.
She turned around to Clark who was sitting on the edge of the bathtub unbuttoning his flannel shirt revealing his perfect physique. Irene knew that she shouldn't have been surprised, of course he also resembled a Greek god under his oversized flannels.
Clark Kent really was perfect. There was something irritating that he seemed to have absolutely no flaws, only because there was no reason for her to tell herself not to think about Clark as anything other than a friend.
"I've never done anything like this before." Irene warned as she kneeled down in front of him. It was odd seeing someone who was supposed to be invulnerable bleed the saw he was, but they knew absolutely nothing about this rock. But one thing they did know was that it was poisoning Clark, his veins turning an unsettling green around the puncture wounds. It seemed to literally be poisoning him.
Surprisingly Clark didn't seem at all worried. In fact he almost seemed relaxed and ready to get this all over with. "It's okay I trust you."
"This is going to hurt." She warned once again surprised by the shakiness in her own voice, and she wanted to believe it was the fact that she was about to pull a scrap of the green rock out of Clark but she was only fooling herself.
Being around Clark made her nervous.
Slowly she began to use the tweezers to remove the small shards of the green rock from his abdomen. Clark went immediately still when her fingers grazed his skin, blood poured out of the open wounds for only a second before he instantly healed. Every tiny piece of the green rock was thrown to the other side of the bathroom in an attempt to keep it as far away from Clark as possible to allow him to heal properly.
When Irene was done her fingers were covered in Clark's blood, but there was so much was also staining his torso and clothing. He looked right out of a scene from a horror movie and although the danger was over Irene couldn't help but panic at the sight.
"Here." Irene muttered nervously as she picked up a new towel and began to wipe the blood off his skin. He had healed instantly the second that all remnants of the rock were out of his skin, but Irene found that even then her hands were shaking.
Suddenly Irene froze as she realized what she was doing. Taking her elbow Clark helped her back to her feet, continuing to hold onto her, unwilling to let her pull away like she always tended to do.
"Irene." Clark whispered as he took the towel from her hand. She looked up to meet his blue eyes waiting for whatever it was that he had to say, but it seemed that he had nothing to say as he just held her gaze.
Irene was once again overcome with the overwhelming desire to kiss him. It was a feeling that she had felt before, but it was different this time. Before it was something that she wanted and now it was something that she needed.
Maybe it was the fact that he was currently standing shirtless in front of her that increased that desire. But there was no ignoring that desire now.
She was suddenly aware of how rapidly her heart was beating in her chest. If she wasn't blushing before she certainly was now at the realization that Clark could hear her heartbeat. She couldn't help but feel embarrassed that he could probably see her so clearly.
Instinctively she took a step back needing to put some distance between them. Distance was the only thing that would allow her to not be entirely consumed by Clark Kent's presence.
"You should probably go." Irene stated firmly glad to hear that she no longer had that shakiness and uncertainty in her voice.
Looking around the bathroom floor she quickly began to pick up the shards of the mysterious green rock. She needed answers. The thought of there being more of this rock out there was terrifying. If it could hurt Clark this way they needed to make sure that it didn't get in the wrong hands.
"What are you going to do with that?" He questioned as he, to Irene's relief, began to button up his shirt again.
"I'm going to find out what it is."
Clark raised an eyebrow before shaking his head. "Someone tried to kill us today. They could try to do it again. You aren't investigating this on your own.
"They were expecting Superman, not me. Not Clark Kent." She argued knowing that the explosive was especially designed for Superman himself. Whoever set up the trap was expecting the Man of Steel, not two reporters from the Daily Planet. Maybe that was something that they could use to their advantage. "Anyways we already saw what this thing can do to you. I don't want it anywhere near you."
The one unsettling thought that crossed Irene's mind was that whoever did this knew the effects that this rock would have on Kryptonians. She saw the same realization and worry reflected in Clark's eyes. This story was much bigger than they had originally imagined.
A/N: Here we go, starting the big mystery of Book Two. I'm sure for those of you who know your comics you'll probably already know where this is headed, so maybe it's not much of a mystery after all. But one thing is for sure we are getting closer to Irene and Clark being an item. Although it might feel like I am dragging it out a bit I also don't want it to happen too quickly. They really do need to get to know each other first and I want it to feel like they happened naturally even though in my mind it was love at first sight for them.