Chapter Four - Thanks Krypton, But You Can Have Him Back Now

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"Are you ready, sir? I-"

"Just roll the cameras," answered a man walking into the room.

He was dressed nicely and was looking down upon everyone else in the room, as if he was more important than all of them combined. He was clean-cut and had the I-just-got-done-shaving look to him.

"We air in five minutes, sir, we can't just-"

"Let me make this very clear," the man interrupted again. "You are all here because of me. You all have jobs, because of me. You are all assistants to me. Everyone has there own role to play here and some of them are important, yes. But this is the difference between all of you, and me," the man fumed. "You can't do this without me. Without me, the show is ruined. The whole company, is ruined. You would be out on the streets, begging for the hard-earned money straight out of another man's pocket. Without you, I would shout at someone until they got me someone who had the same skills as you, which would be more annoying than hard. And if you take a minute to stand back and look at everything, none of you really matter, do you? So get behind the glass, or behind a camera, or wherever you belong, do what you are here to do, and roll... the... cameras!"

Everyone in the room started scrambling around, getting to their assigned positions before the man got on one of his firing sprees, which was rather often.

"Airing live in 3, 2..." a voice said from a distance.

"This is media's own Glen Glenmorgan, with yet another quick statement on this alien we have in our midst. Yes, you heard me correctly. An alien. On Earth. Those four words should ring a bell to all of you! There are many of these so-called superheros popping up in different cities. Some of them have helped the city, yes, but all of them have brought danger to their respective cities. Yet there is one difference between these heroes and Metropolis' new 'hero.' The heroes in all the other cities, under their masks, are humans. If need be, they could be stopped. We have the power to, if absolutely necessary, kill any human. Aliens, however, not so much. So as honorable as our new arrival's intentions might be, if he turns awry there is nothing that we can do to stop him, at this point. The military needs to be actively working on creating weapons that can harm aliens as it is very doubtful that a mere bullet could hurt such a being. Superman, he's calling himself. What a self-righteous name. No, don't let this fool you, Metropolis. He is no man. He is an alien. And if more like him come, there will be a war. And unless we do anything about it now, we will not win that war. We will be looking back, thinking 'Wow, we should have done something when we had the chance,' well, now is our chance, Metropolis. Now is our chance to stop Superman."

"Cut!" someone yelled, and it was followed by applause.

"Yeah, yeah," Glenmorgan waved it aside. "Someone keep that speech for me. I can't wait to tell the world I told you so."

"Neither can I," came a voice from behind Glen.

He whipped around and saw a bald man sitting, leg crossed, on a chair.

"How'd you get in here," demanded Glenmorgan.

"I'm Lex Luthor. I can get in anywhere."

"Right," said Glenmorgan. "Well what do you want?"

"Oh, just a simple task that I will be helping you with," replied Lex.

"Spit it out, you're wasting my time."

"I never imagined you being so angry, you put on such a pretty face in front of the public."

"From what I've heard, so do you," Glenmorgan stated. "And it's time for me to go home, so if I'm a little impatient, it will have to do. What do you want me to do for you?"

"Nothing more than you're already doing. Giving out the truth about Superman. My job will be a heck of a lot easier if the power of the media is on my side," Lex explained.

"So you came here to what exactly?" Glen inquired. "Inspire me?"

"I came here to tell you what will happen," corrected Lex. "I will give you the inside scoop on the latest and greatest Superman story, if you will side with me on my moves against Superman."

"Which are?"

"Getting him out of this city and off this planet. As soon as humanly possible."

"With what means?" asked Glen, now curious.

"With any means possible. I plan to do whatever it takes to free the planet of aliens. If I have to kill that alien myself, so be it," Luthor said.

Glen Glenmorgan studied Lex Luthor. Glen could tell that Lex was determined. And angry.

"What did Superman do to you?"

"It's what he's going to do," said Lex. "To Metropolis and the rest of the world."

"Right, and I am completely for freeing the world of aliens, but what did he do to you? You're angry. On a personal level. I can see that, I'm not blind," Glenmorgan said.

"You're good, Glenmorgan. I may have to employ you at LexCorp," Luthor said. "By just being a super-powered alien, Superman is taking away from me. All my personal achievements, in the science field, the industrial field. All my great achievements. I'm on the way to being the greatest person who ever lived. But Superman takes away from all of that. The world will see him as being greater. They may not like him, but he will be seen as better, as more powerful, than me. That cannot happen. I will stop it from happening, no matter what it takes."

"And what do I get, from all of this," asked Glenmorgan.

"You get an alien-free planet, my personal respect, and the privledge of saying to the world, 'I told you so.'

Glenmorgan nodded, "That sounds pretty good."

"So it's settled then," concluded Luthor. "Superman has to go."

Glenmorgan nodded again.

"Superman has to go."

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