[Chapter 3: Fear]In the cool morning air, screams of alarm shifted to ones of terror as someone suddenly cried, "Gun!"
Frantic running immediately followed as everyone within hearing range did their best to take cover away from the armed man.
Superman landed on the street and quickly identified the reason for the state of chaos.
"Dogs! No!" a man cried as he randomly pointed his gun.
And then he pulled the trigger, again and again.
Superman instantly intercepted the bullets and snatched the weapon away, but before he could take hold of the man, the man cried out in pain. He clutched his chest before pulling at his dress shirt, revealing his thin, white t-shirt. He then collapsed onto the sidewalk.
Superman promptly knelt down beside him as something suddenly appeared beneath his shirt.
It was gold and in the shape of a snake, obscured by the fabric, but still visible. Alarmed, Superman abruptly tore the shirt to expose the man’s chest, hearing the man’s heart beating erratically as his eyes focused on his skin.
The thing that had appeared was a snake, and it was raised and undeniably present.
Lois was right. This was real.
And then it vanished, and the people around watching gasped in fright.
Knowing he was out of time, Superman looked around and spotted a lamp post close by. Without second guessing himself, he moved the man beside the post, broke open the side panel, reached his hand in and grabbed hold of the electrified wires as he brought his other hand down onto the man’s chest.
A flood of electricity surged across his form and jolted the man.
A normal heartbeat sounded in Superman's ears as he really looked at the very lucky man’s face.
Superman barely kept his reaction to himself.
He knew this man.
O o O o O
“Rod Clemens was a Vietnam veteran,” Jimmy stated, handing over Lois a folder. “He was a munitions expert and served under a Captain Ted Ellis.”
Lois opened the folder as Clark hurried to them from the elevator.
“Good of you to come to work,” Lois said, glancing up before noticing his expression. “What?”
“I’ll tell you in a bit. What have you found?” Clark asked, but Lois got the feeling that something was wrong.
Clark almost seemed twitchy.
“Info on Ron Clemens. Let’s take this to the conference room,” Lois said as she got up, keeping the folder. She smiled at Jimmy. “Thanks, Jimmy.”
“Yeah, no problem,” he said happily, heading off to complete a task Perry had given him earlier.
They entered the conference room and Lois sat down, quickly skimming the folder. “Well, this is interesting. After he left the Army, Clemens spent a year in the NIA.”
“The NIA?!” Clark asked, alarmed.
“Yeah, why?” Lois asked, looking up at him. “Okay, what’s going on? Why were you late?”
“On my way to work, a man named Matt Young thought he was getting attacked by dogs but nothing was there. He pulled a gun against the non-existent dogs and Superman arrived. Like Clemens, Matt had a heart attack soon after.”
Lois’ eyes widened.
“Lois, Superman saw a snake appear on Matt’s chest, just like how you described,” Clark slowly added.
“Are you serious?!” Lois gasped. “I’m sorry, of course you are. Is Young. . . .?” Lois asked, growing hesitant.
“He's alive, Superman was able to restart his heart in time,” Clark clarified.
“That's a relief, but what on earth is going on?” she asked.
“There’s something else. Matt works for the NIA,” Clark stated.
“What?! How do you know? Wait, do you know him?” Lois asked, baffled.
“I ran into him a few years back. We helped each other out in Jamaica," Clark explained before Jimmy knocked and stepped in.
"Call on line one for you, Lois; a doctor from a morgue?" Jimmy said, a little confused, before hurrying back out.
"Thanks, Jimmy!" Lois said before immediately picking up the phone. "Hello, Dr. Yelder. Thanks for returning my call." Lois nodded as she listened. "I see . . . Okay. I will. . . . Uh huh. . . . Thanks again. Goodbye."
Clark looked at her expectantly.
"That was the coroner calling about Clemens. The cause of death was ruled a severe heart attack, but get this, Yelder couldn't find anything that could have caused it. No clots, no heart structure defects, and no blood vessel break down. Also, there were no drugs in his bloodstream that would explain the panic attack either, and his brain was normal. The man was perfectly healthy. However, there was substantial tearing of the heart muscle, all recent damage, as if the heart had beat itself to death. Also, Yelder did a special blood test and found adrenaline was off the charts!"
Clark’s eyes widened. "So he was literally scared to death?"
"That's the only thing that makes sense," Lois said, her thoughts going back to Young. "Do you know how Young is doing now? If it caused this level of damage in Clemens. . . ."
"I don't know. Superman told me the doctors are hopeful, but beyond that, I don't know," Clark said regretfully.
"Well, I'm glad he has a chance at least," Lois said.
Clark nodded.
"So now we need to figure out what he has in common with Clemens and how they both upset a Voodoo practitioner," Lois said, returning to the file Jimmy had given her.
"A Boker. Right,” Clark said, recalling what she had briefly told him the day before after her strange meeting with the woman named ‘Star’.
“Yeah,” she said.
“We also have enough to update Perry," Clark commented. “I called in the story, but I kept what I knew about Matt out of it.”
"Okay, let’s go," she said, getting up and leading the way to Perry's office.
O o O o O
He allowed his magic to blanket the area before he stepped onto the sidewalk. Confident in his spell, he ignored the yellow cones cordoning off the area around the lamp post and knelt down with a small pair of wire cutters.
“No one will stop me from taking my revenge,” he whispered. “Not even you, Superman.”
With a sure hand, he cut a few wires free from the base of the lamp post the Man of Steel had mangled a few hours before to save Matt Young. With that, the Boker silently stood and walked away, placing the stray wires in the center of a black handkerchief tenderly held in his hand.
O o O o O
Clark woke up covered in sweat, his heart racing. The walls felt like they were too close, but as he forced himself to take slow, deep breaths, he managed to convince himself that he didn't need to fly out of the apartment and into the sky for air.
What was happening?
He had never been so affected by dreams before, and he still couldn’t remember what had scared him.
Could it be possible? Was he . . . being targeted by this . . . Boker? But why? And how?
He knew Matt Young, so, as hard as it was to admit, he did have a connection. But that connection was years old. Could it really involve what had happened in Jamaica? He frowned, thinking back. If he was being targeted and if it was because of what had happened there, who had they upset? And why target him? He hadn’t contributed anything to the NIA’s investigation, he had only helped Matt escape the fire.
Well, whether whatever was happening to him was connected or not, he wouldn’t be wearing his uniform under his clothing for the foreseeable future. Even after calming, the thought of anything so close against his skin made him feel anxious. If Superman was needed, he would just have to take an extra second to change and save whoever needed saving as quickly as possible.
He slowly exhaled and looked at the clock. He sighed.
It was almost time for work.
O o O o O
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