The morning sun shone on the yellow school bus.
"Honestly, I hate today's field trip, visiting the LexCorp Chemical Plant."
Chloe frowned, her face reflected in the glass, clearly unhappy.
Pete, sitting next to her, smirked. "It's because Chloe's dad works at the chemical plant, and he's a total show-off dad."
"Shut up, Pete!"
While the two bickered, Pete noticed Clark hadn't said a word. Clark just sat with his head down, staring at the metal floor of the bus, as if he was watching something.
Pete waved his hand in front of Clark's face. "Clark, what are you thinking about?"
"Huh?"
Clark snapped back to reality, licking his lips. "I wasn't thinking about anything."
And unseen by the others...
Underneath the school bus, black man Earl was hunched over, hiding with difficulty in the luggage compartment.
"Welcome, everyone, to the LexCorp Chemical Plant!"
The middle-aged man in a tie straightened his chest proudly, holding a file bag, and looked at the dozens of students visiting today.
Clark, Chloe, Pete, and Lana, along with her ex-boyfriend Whitney.
The middle-aged white man smiled and said, "I'm Gabe Sullivan, the plant manager, and also a proud father, right, Chloe?"
Chloe smiled awkwardly, feeling the gazes of the crowd on her. "That's right, Dad."
The manager wanted to say something more to the students, but at that moment, a group of people surrounded Lex as he headed for the elevator.
"Mr. Lex."
Gabe quickly abandoned his work of receiving the students.
"Oh? Is it a student visit day today?" Lex stopped, his gaze sweeping over Clark, a smile playing on his lips. "Gabe, let me take them on the tour."
He was very curious about Clark's current strength.
With the big boss speaking, Gabe nodded in agreement.
Lex turned to his assistant and instructed:
"Lena, go get them and bring them over. Have them take the elevator up."
"I'll be waiting for them on the fourth floor."
"Everyone." Lex's assistant was in a bad mood. The old woman's face was drooping as she said, "Put all your electronic devices into the storage boxes. No photography or wandering around is allowed in the factory."
"Uh, miss."
Clark seized the opportunity to ask, "I heard there used to be a third floor in the factory. Is that true?"
The assistant shook her head without hesitation, "No, that's just a rumor."
"Alright, everyone, follow me. We'll take the stairs."
The group followed the assistant and took the elevator.
Shortly after they left, Earl, a Black man, pushed open the metal door of the storage room and turned towards an emergency exit on the other side.
He walked through countless corridors filled with iron pipes, and up a staircase that smelled of rust.
Soon, the Black man reached the third-floor door.
"Hoo... hoo..."
He inhaled deeply, then twisted the doorknob.
"Click!"
As the metal door opened, what appeared before his eyes was a narrow storage locker.
"This… this can't be!"
Earl's emotions ignited instantly at the sight before him. He frantically burst into the storage room, searching everywhere.
But, aside from a blank wall and cold metal shelves, the room was empty.
"This can't be!"
His only hope dashed, Earl's eyes turned red as the black man hammered at the cold wall.
His future, his hope, it was all gone!
Twisted by his state of mind, Earl couldn't accept the reality.
The black man muttered to himself, "No, the third floor has to be there."
His hand reached into his suit pocket.
An American Iai Pistol, black and sleek, was in Earl's hand.
The black man's eyes were filled with a daze as he stroked the gun's surface with his thick palm.
"Click."
Earl's smile was breaking as he chambered a round. "No, there's definitely hope. They must be hiding it on the third floor."
Fourth floor.
The students, notebooks in hand, were gathered in the large office on the fourth floor of the factory.
The area was filled with precision equipment, and a group of scientists in white coats were monitoring various parameters on computers.
"Welcome to LexCorp, everyone," Lex said, his hands clasped behind his back as he led the tour. "This is the factory's command center."
"We process 100,000 tons of animal waste here every year," Lex said with a malicious grin, licking his teeth. "I hope you haven't brought any flammable materials, or we'll all be blown to kingdom come."
Laughter rippled through the crowd, but only Clark wore a troubled expression.
He was a little worried about whether Earl could successfully sneak in.
"Clang, clang, clang!"
The sound of clashing steel interrupted Lex's speech.
The bald, domineering CEO glanced at Gabe. "Manager, go see what's going on?"
Gabe walked toward the source of the sound, a locked iron gate.
"Crash!"
Before Gabe could get close, the iron gate was smashed open. A tall, burly black man with a ferocious expression reached out and grabbed Gabe's neck, then raised a black gun and pressed the muzzle against Gabe's temple.
The man hadn't even reacted before the black man had him by the neck and subdued.
The sudden turn of events left the students bewildered, except for Chloe, who let out a terrified scream, "Dad!"
In the next second, many realized they were being kidnapped, with some of the more timid girls bursting into tears.
Clark roared, "Earl, what do you think you're doing?"
Clark was filled with regret. He shouldn't have been so generous with his kindness and mercy.
Clark was determined to stop the tragedy he had inadvertently caused.
The boy swung his arms and kicked off, activating Super Speed in a split second. Everything around him seemed to freeze and slow down. Clark sprinted towards Earl, reaching out his right hand to grab Earl's gun-wielding arm.
"Pop!"
The moment their skin made contact, the Kryptonite coursing through Earl's body emitted a blinding green light.
"Argh!"
Clark cried out, then was easily pushed to the ground by Earl.
Thud! Clark fell to the floor in a sorry heap, but the crowd was in a panic, and no one noticed anything unusual about him.
People were screaming and crying.
"Shut up, all of you!" Earl roared at the crowd, quelling all the noise.
His voice was low and raspy. He barked at Gabe, "Gabe, you're the manager here, you should know where the third floor is. Take me there."
"Or I'll shoot you all!"
All he wanted now was to recover. He could easily sacrifice the lives of the others.
"Dad!"
Chloe clenched her fists in the crowd.
The girl instinctively wanted to rush forward to save her father, but Lex grabbed her wrist. He lowered his voice and said, "Go through the emergency exit in the back. The password is 1017. Go to the basement level one and find Gino, quickly!"
Chloe's eyes darted around, suppressing the fear in her heart. She nodded, carefully backing away.
"Hey, your name is Earl, right?" Lex stepped forward, attracting Earl's attention. The bald man was full of arrogance. "Since you want to kidnap someone to find the third level, why didn't you find a more important hostage?"
Earl was wary. "Who are you?"
Lex puffed out his chest. "I am Lex Luthor, the owner of this factory."
------------------------
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