A/N: I wrote this inbetween finals, so glad school is finally out.
Bernard Klein was in trouble. He was somewhat accustomed to being in dangerous surroundings-he did work with hazardous chemicals quite a lot after all, but this was a different sort of danger. Someone had kidnapped him—granted it was a fairly less violent kidnapping then most—he’d still been accosted from his office. Not to mention the shooting, who would want to kill him? He was seconds from contacting Superman and saving the world from nuclear holocaust—what fool would try to stop him?
What had he done that could possibly make someone mad enough to kill him. As far as he knew he was a likable guy, and aside from a few radical terrorist groups—who were more interested in using his scientific ability to build a bomb, then killing him--and maybe an ex-girlfriend from graduate school, he couldn’t begin to fathom who his kidnapper could be.
He tried not to think about it as he made his way through the dark tunnels, there had to be an exit around here somewhere. He scanned the room numbers he passed trying to find some kind of indication as to his location, but all the doors looked the same and the tunnel looked as if it continued for a good distance with no end in sight. Too bad he couldn’t just yell for Superman—not now anyway. As soon as he got the heck out of here he’d scream his head off, but he was certain his kidnappers would hear him if he tried it from inside their bunker.
A loud creak from up ahead caught his attention, someone was opening a door. He panicked, looking around frantically for a place to hide he spotted a small pillar with a fire extinguisher attached to it. He debated briefly as to whether this miniscule column could provide him with enough cover, should a person glance in his direction, but his inner dialogue was halted when one of his kidnappers emerged from the room and began walking toward him.
Dr. Klein flattened himself against the stone pillar as much as possible, hoping against hope that the dim lighting, and the apparent hast of his kidnapper, would keep him from discovery. The man came within ten feet of his hiding place when a shout from the opposite direction halted his advance.
“Mr. Luthour!” a deep, lightly accented, voice called.
At the name Bernard chanced a peek around the opposite side of his hiding place. Even in the limited illumination of the tunnel he couldn’t mistake the arrogant swagger of the billionaire philanthropist who’d left his office moments before his kidnapping.
Luthour had come to STAR labs to personally invite him into his underground city, an idea that Dr. Klein believed to be not only impossible, but possibly fabricated. He didn’t tell Luthour that of course, but he’d politely declined the offer, and instead told Lex that he had actually developed a plan that would make the underground shelters unnecessary. Luthour had flinched slightly, but recovered with one of his trademark smirks after a bit more small talk, Luthour excused himself. Less than thirty minutes later Bernard was knocked unconscious by an unknown intruder.
Luthour walked back toward the open door, and started to talk quietly with the other man. Something Luthour’s companion said clearly upset him, and he disappeared back through the door from which he came.
With an audible sigh of relief Dr. Klein quickly moved toward the door, and further down the hall. He stopped suddenly as he felt the temperature within the bunker changed. When he’d first made his escape the tunnel had been unbearably hot, but now there was a pleasant breeze coming from somewhere close to him, studying his surroundings he noticed a large vent on the ground. The grate that covered the hole was loose. He knelt down and discovered that only two of the screws remained intact. He removed a pen from his front pocket and began to jimmy the other two screws from their holes.
He removed the metal grate, and with a gasp of triumph crawled into the space. The hole was no more than three by four feet, but with some judicious arm work Bernard was able to maneuver himself at a fairly moderate speed toward the source of the incoming breeze.
“So this is what a T.V. dinner feels like” he said chucking “I’ve always wanted to say that.”
At last Klein spotted a ray of light at the end of the tunnel, doubling his efforts despite his sore forearms Klein reached another grate and on the opposite side he was elated to see a vast rain depository surrounded by a field of grass, and weeds. Utilizing the same ballpoint pen from his earlier excursions he managed to reach through the slats and remove the screws. Unfortunately in his haste to escape, he slipped on the muddy deposit at the end of the grate, and fell face forward into six feet of stagnant rain water.
Coughing and sputtering he dragged himself to the bank, pulled his soaked body onto the grass around him. Bernard squeezed the excess water from his shirt and slacks, he removed his tie and shoes placing them on the grass beside him. Cursing the extremely cold temperatures, he decided it was time to call Superman, before he froze to death.
“Help, Superman!!” he screamed. Silence. Stillness. After a few moments he tried again this time a little louder “Help, Superman!” still nothing. Growing a bit frustrated he tried again, his voice breaking for the first time since he was in high school.
“HELP, SUPERMAN!!!!” Again nothing, well this was just ridiculous how the heck was he supposed to get in contact with the superhero, if he didn’t even answer his calls.
“Well this is just fabulous!” he shouted “every time a kitten gets caught in a sewer you manage to fly in and save the day, but when a nuclear holocaust threatens to destroy mankind, where the heck is this guy? I mean what is more important than saving millions of people from being incinerated—are you rearranging a sock drawer or something?!”
“Actually I was saving a bus full of boy scouts from careening off a bridge.”
Klein yelped, his voice breaking for a second time that day. “Superman—god I didn’t see you standing there, I’m sorry I was just…well I didn’t hear you land”
“Obviously” Clark replied a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
“Sorry about the whole cat…thing…” Klein said sheepishly “But I have been under an unusual amount of stress in the last few hours”
Clark fidgeted, he really didn’t have time to be standing around “Sir, are you in some kind of immediate danger?”
“No—I mean yes we all are Superman. The bombs we’ve only got” Klein glanced at his watch “My goodness we have less than fifteen hours Superman! How long was I in that bunker?”
“Calm down sir” Bernard let out a deep breath, his shoulders visibly relaxing “good, now first of all what is your name?”
“I’m Doctor Bernard Klein, of STAR labs. I’m a scientist, and as soon as this whole bomb thing went public the mayor contacted me to see if there was any way to defuse the device without setting it off. “
“And?” Clark provided, hopefully.
“There isn’t—at least not by normal human means.”
“Doctor Klein, I’ve read the letter even I’m not fast enough to defuse those bombs in time”
“You’re wrong about that Superman. See by my calculations, you could fly fast enough to manipulate the flow of time…”
“Dr. Klein—“
“Just hear me out. How fast do you think you can fly around the world, just guess.”
“Well I’ve never actually timed myself…” Clark racked his brain; he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had to fly all the way around the world for anything. The one time that sprang to mind had been his trip to China, to get Lois some take out.
“Good we can do that right now.” Bernard began punching buttons on his digital watch “O.K, I’ve got the timer set. Fly as fast as you can.”
“This is ridiculous.” Sighing Clark turned and seconds later took to the sky.
“Wow!” focusing his attention on the face of his stop watch, Klein nearly jumped out of his skin when a loud thump resonated behind him.
“How long was that?” the superhero queried his arms folding across his chest.
“”Uh…”Klein hit the stop button on his watch “forty-five seconds—give or take a second or two.” Suddenly a look of excitement lit the scientist’s face. “I need to get back to my lab, and do some calculations.”
“Okay, well I guess I should take you there…um what exactly are you doing out here anyway?” Clark asked picking the scientist up.
As if a long forgotten light switch had just been flipped somewhere in his brain, Klein sat straight up “I almost forgot, Lex Luthour had me kidnapped!”
“What!”
“Well he came to see me when I was working on this theory of mine, and he didn’t seem too pleased that I had a way to save the citizens of Metropolis from certain doom.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Clark groused “tell me all about it when we get back to your lab.”
“Of course, but I really don’t have any solid evidence. I only saw him in some very dim light.”
“Don’t worry Dr. Klein, I believe you.”
“Oh you do!? That’s great Superman…oh fly carefully please I have a slight fear of heights, and a major fear of rapid speeds”
“Don’t worry, I haven’t dropped anyone yet.” Clark smiled, despite his strange demeanor and kooky habits; he was beginning to like this Dr. Klein.
****
