All the lights in Lex Tower went out.
The lobby fell silent for a second.
Then screams erupted.
Someone knocked over the reception desk, while others rushed toward the revolving doors in high heels. Security guards raised their flashlights, only to stagger backward as the scattering crowd slammed into them.
Clark did not leave with them.
He turned and headed toward the underground entrance.
Krypto barked frantically at his feet, his claws scraping several white streaks across the marble floor.
"Don't be afraid."
Clark crouched and held his head still.
A muffled thud came from underground.
Thump!
Like a massive heart beating deep beneath the city.
The lobby floor cracked.
Before the second heartbeat came, the entire expanse of marble suddenly heaved upward.
Boom!
A gray-white hand emerged from beneath the ground.
Five finger bones pierced the floor, gripped the edges, and tore them apart.
Dust surged into the air.
The crowd's screams became terrified sobs and cries.
An enormous figure rose from the opening.
Its shoulders nearly reached the ceiling of the double-height lobby, and gray-white armor plates covered its chest and spine. Bone spikes jutted from its elbows like unpolished blades.
Doomsday raised its head.
It did not attack immediately.
The lobby was full of running people.
Someone fell in front of the revolving doors, glass slicing their palm. A mother held a little girl in her arms, her cries as thin as a cat's.
Doomsday slowly inhaled.
Air swirled into its split nasal cavity.
Blood.
Metal.
Fear.
And another scent.
Deeper, more ancient.
Doomsday's head snapped toward the crowd.
Clark stood in front of the fire escape, still holding Krypto's leash.
Their eyes met through the dust.
Krypto's barking stopped abruptly.
The black cavity in Doomsday's chest suddenly contracted.
Clark heard his own heartbeat.
Thump.
The heartbeat