Caterpillar

Maxwell lord 1

Clark Kent took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly. Due to his Kryptonian physiology he hardly ever got tired but nowadays he felt drained. It was a tiredness of the mind.

"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, huh?" he muttered to himself.

He put the newspaper on the table and grabbed his mug of coffee to sip from it. Though he put the newspaper aside, his eyes were still drawn to the very eye-catching headline on the first page, written with big bold letters:

I won't kill you but your hospital bill will by Lois Lane.

It was an article on the most recent incident that Superman had been involved in. He had thwarted the attempts of some criminals at re-establishing the Intergang but, maybe because of his bitter past with the Intergang, or maybe because the past few weeks of stress were starting to get to him, he had been a bit careless with his strength and one of the criminals ended up with a broken leg.

Two weeks passed since Superman broke up with Lois Lane and the journalist had not missed even one chance to write some biting articles directed not just at him but at the entirety of the Justice League. Naturally, that also led to conflicts with his teammates.

"I told you to not do something stupid! I told you that you'd implicate everyone with you!"

Batman's shouts were still ringing in his ears.

'With every passing day, I start to understand more and more my other self from the alternate dimension. Can't the others see that we're doing all we can to help?!'

He had a belly full of anger. To distract himself from his anger-inducing thoughts, he put the mug back on the coffee table and picked the newspaper again. He flipped the pages until he reached the tabloid section, hoping to drown his thoughts with mindless gossip.

Maxwell Lord IV and Lois Lane, together?

Billionaires are flocking to the star journalist of Daily Planet like moths to a flame. Years ago, it was Lex Luthor; then, it was Bruce Wayne. Now, it looks like Maxwell Lord IV fell prey to Lois Lane's charms. We can't help but wonder - what is her secret to attracting wealthy and powerful men? [...]

The newspaper's page crumpled in Superman's grip and he threw it back on the coffee table. He felt like the anger and frustration that he had bottled up over the past few weeks were on the point of blowing up. He was almost hoping for some clueless alien to attempt to invade the Earth so he could have an excuse to let loose.

He went to the bathroom and splashed some cold water on his face.

'That's a dangerous way of thinking.' he chastised himself. 'I should take a few days off from work. I'll go home, back to Kansas.'

He was hoping that a few days spent together with his Ma and Pa would help in alleviating some of his stress and anger. He needed a break from all this drama and back-and-forth with the mass media.

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"This movie was AWESOME!"

"No, it was not! Horribly inaccurate and lots of unneeded violence. Especially the rape scene was completely unnecessary. I knew King Leonidas' wife personally. She would never have sex with someone else than her husband for any kind of favours!"

Naruto and Wonder Woman were on their way out of a movie theatre. They had just watched together one of the most popular movies that year - "the 300". But their opinions on it could not be any more different.

"It wasn't exactly rape. She agreed to it." Naruto said.

"It was coercion. You go to someone and put a knife at his neck and ask for their purse. Of course that they will 'agree' to hand it to you." Diana shot back.