[Caterpillar] Chapter 28 - Maxwell Lord (I) (Patreon)

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 up 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 alleviate some of his stress and anger. He needed a break from all this drama and back-and-forth with the mass media.

⁂

"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 they will 'agree' to hand it to you," Diana shot back.

He raised his hands in surrender.

"But that wasn't the focus of the movie."

She sniffed and said:

"Mhm. The focus was on the glorification of the Spartans against the invaders."

Naruto sighed. Over the past few weeks since they started living together, he naturally noticed how biased Wonder Woman was against men in general. A biting remark here, a condescending one there; it was not often and she never said bad things about good men. But she was full of spite against those like the rap singers and other similar people who disregarded women.

"Ok, ok, I get it. You still have to admit it: that "this is Sparta" moment was incredible. Phew, I get the chills just thinking about it!" Naruto said and he pulled up the sleeve of his top to show the goosebumps on his forearm.

"You're strong enough to destroy planets but something like that pumped you up?" she said. She could not help giggling.

"It's different!" he retorted. "He was just like the rest. An ordinary man, with no superpowers, no technology, nothing. The Persian Empire was a behemoth. Compared to them, he was an ant. To have the balls to do something like that...I don't know what I would've done in his place."

Though they had contrasting opinions about the movie, their discussion was engaging and they had fun as they tried to win the 'argument' on whether the movie had been good or bad. But they stopped their back-and-forth when they came out of the cinema's building and saw the street packed with people. Thousands were marching together with banners and yelling chants.

"We demand justice!"

"Down with the Justice League!"

Naruto and Diana looked at each other for a moment.

"The hell is going on?" he asked.

Obviously, he could see what was happening but he was asking what had sparked this protest.

"Two hours ago, before the movie started, there was no sign of protests or anything. No way this was spontaneous. Someone organised this, I'm sure of it!" Diana said.

Naruto took his newly purchased smartphone from his pocket and accessed the internet. Typing 'breaking news usa' in the search bar of the search engine, he found what was going on.

"Let's go somewhere else," he said and he put an arm around Wonder Woman's waist. Then, the two of them vanished, leaving only a few arcs of light behind.

A moment later, they appeared on top of one of the nearby skyscrapers. When they looked at the scenery below, they realized that the situation was much worse than they had initially thought. There was an ocean of people below, tens of thousands of them and more were gathering by the minute. It was 5 pm, the peak of the rush hours in New York City, but the entire traffic in the centre of the city was frozen.

"You have to see this," Naruto said and showed her his smartphone.

He tapped on the first result of the search engine and he was redirected to YouTube.

Batman throws a man off an 8-story building

It was a blurry video, apparently recorded by a security camera if the low quality was anything to go by.

"Tell me! Who do you work for?" Batman in the video screamed with his growl-like voice and shook a middle-aged man by his collar.

"I don't know! I swear!"

At his answer, Batman dragged the struggling man by his clothes to the edge of the building's roof and pushed him until he almost fell off. The man screamed in terror.

"Tell me!" Batman shouted and pushed him completely off the roof, now only holding the man by his clothes, suspended in the air.

"Please! I can't tell you! He'd kill my family if I said anything! Please!" the man screamed and he started to struggle desperately. But his wild struggle made the hem of his collar rip in Batman's hands and he fell.

The screen went black and then a few written lines appeared:

The man survived the fall but the doctors think he will be paralyzed for life. These are the 'heroes' that protect us.

It was a very short video with amateurish editing and the title was a massive clickbait because Batman had obviously not thrown the man, it had been an accident. But although it had been posted only 3 hours before, it already had over 20 million views and the number was increasing crazily with every passing second.

"This is bad," Diana said, a grave look on her face.

She often acted as the spokesperson of the Justice League, along with Martian Manhunter because they were the best people to interact with the mass media. Diana had been blessed with goddess Athena's wisdom and she was a stoic, no-nonsense type of woman when interacting with people outside of her very small social circle. As for Martian Manhunter, he was also over 1000 years old and he was a full-fledged alien at that. The reporters were having a hard time getting up and personal with the two of them and they had never managed to make them say stupid things on TV, to get a rise out of them, or to get them stuck with tricky questions.

However, in the current situation, even Wonder Woman did not know how was she going to justify Batman's behaviour in the eyes of the general population.

⁂

Two days later, Martian Manhunter and Superman were inside a spacious and luxurious office. In front of them, Maxwell Lord IV was sitting at his desk with his hands linked together under his chin.

"My parents taught me to lend a helping hand to those that need it. That's why I offered the Justice League my support in running their operations. But, throwing people off buildings? That's not what I signed for."

He stood up from his seat and put his hands behind his back as he looked through the wide windows at the city below.

"In the light of the current events, I decided to retract my sponsorship of the Justice League."

"If you watched the video, you would know it was an accident!" Superman started to say incensed but Martian Manhunter's voice rang in his mind at that moment.

'Superman, we've agreed that you'd let me do the talking.'

The Man of Steel took a deep breath and became silent.

"An accident it may have been but the reality is that a man was paralyzed because Batman decided it was a good idea to dangle him a hundred feet in the air from the hem of his clothes," the billionaire said.

"In the process of apprehending the criminals, mistakes do happen. I am not saying it is a good thing but it is a reality, regardless of whether one wants to accept it or not. The police has its fair share of cases of unwarranted brutality and use of lethal force but the government still finances it. Why? Because society needs the police to function. Cancelling our relationship because of one isolated incident is irrational. The world needs the Justice League."

At Martian Manhunter's words, Maxwell Lord IV became silent for a while.

"Your words are not wrong. Without the Justice League, the criminals would run amok as they pleased. However, I stand by my decision."

"WHY?" Superman shouted, unable to hold in his anger anymore.

Unfazed by the Kryptonian's outburst, Maxwell Lord replied:

"I may be a philanthropist but, first and foremost, I am a businessman. The general view of the Justice League is worse than ever. If I continued to support an organisation that throws people off the buildings my company's image would be dirtied too."

The door of the office was opened and a black-haired woman wearing a purple blazer and a white skirt entered the office.

"Lois, honey, what are you doing here?" Maxwell Lord asked.

"I had a feeling the Justice League would be here today so I kept an eye open for the opportunity."

"With all due respect, this is a private discussion. Mass media is not welcome," Martian Manhunter interrupted.

"Oh, don't worry. Lois is ok, she is my fiance," the billionaire said and the woman raised her hand to show them the gaudy diamond ring glittering on her finger.

In the end, Martian Manhunter could not change the billionaire's mind. Maxwell Lord IV stopped his sponsorship of the Justice League.

Through it all, despite his outburst at the beginning, after Lois Lane's appearance, Superman had been completely silent. Stone-faced, he had not made even a sound until they left.

⁂

After more than two weeks of just lazying around, Naruto was getting bored. Wonder Woman was often away, busy with Justice League work and fighting crime while he had nothing to do except stay at home, wasting his time on the internet.

"I wanna take a job tomorrow," Naruto said while he and Diana were having a walk through Central Park, in the evening.

Wonder Woman took her time to reply.

"I'm sorry things are the way they are. I hoped we could spend more time together but there are so many problems that I barely have any free time to be with you."

Naruto came in front of her and stopped, making her look at him.

"Why are you apologising? I love every single moment we spend together."

"But the atmosphere here ..." she trailed off and let out a sigh.

Just then, a big snowflake landed on Diana's nose and Naruto chuckled.

"I don't really care what's going on here. As long as I can see you smile every day, nothing else matters."

"That was so corny," Diana said but she took the initiative to embrace him and rest her chin on his shoulder.

When they parted, Naruto wrapped his scarf higher up his face, to cover the scars on his cheeks, leaving only his red eyes and strawberry-blonde hair visible.

"You're still so self-conscious about your scars? I told you I think they're really cute!" she said and brought a hand up to pinch his cheek.

"Pot calling the kettle back. You forgot how you cried yourself to sleep after you destroyed your kitchen?" he said and laughed.

"Shut up"

He took her hand in his and then they started walking again. It was late in the evening and it was snowing. There were almost no people at all in the park at that time. But for the two of them, it did not matter. They enjoyed the tranquillity, the beauty of the snowy paysage, and the warmth of each other's hand.

"It's going to be a short bounty. An information broker sent me a message that the Thanagarians are requesting my services. I accepted it because the reward is something that piqued my interest."

"Do you really have to go?" Diana asked with a pout. "You promised we'd spend Christmas and the New Year together, didn't you? What was it that you said? I never go back on my word."

"Christmas is on the 24th, isn't it? Today is the 18th. I have plenty of time to return. I will keep my promise to be with you here on Christmas and on the New Year too."

"Even sooo, I will be lonely," she said.

The way she was whining and pouting brought a big smile to his face.

"It won't be long, princess. I should be back in 2 or 3 days tops," he said and brought her hand up to kiss it. "You're going to love what I'll bring you when I come back."

"What is it?" she asked.

"Hmm, won't tell you now. Don't wanna spoil the surprise."

"Don't be like that! You can't just leave me hanging!" she said and pulled on his hand.

"But I can. Watch me!"

However, it was just a front. He knew he had no chance to resist her. He caved in at her pout in a matter of seconds.

"It's an Asbsorbacron. A Thanagarian device. As for what it does~ hehe, that's for me to know and for you to find out." and as he said that, he jumped back to dodge a poke at his ribs.

Joking around and teasing each other, eventually, they left Central Park and headed back to Wonder Woman's apartment.

The next day, in the early morning, fox and man left the Earth on their spaceship, not knowing what world-changing events would take place in their absence.