Metropolis.
Pero's apartment.
Pero rose from the couch and drained the cold coffee in his cup.
"Time to get some real work done."
He raised his head, his gaze seeming to pierce through layer upon layer of reinforced concrete toward the anxious woman on the other side of the city-Lois Lane.
At that very moment, he was meeting with Mister Terrific, presumably discussing how to rescue Clark.
At the thought, Pero vanished in a flash, leaving behind only an open window and curtains fluttering in the breeze.
His figure became a streak of light, flying toward the Justice Gang's headquarters.
"I'm certain Lex Luthor did it, Michael," Lois told Mister Terrific solemnly. "He laid a perfect trap. From public opinion to the law, Clark had no room to fight back."
At that moment, she was filled with self-reproach, but even more with anger-anger at Lex Luthor's unscrupulous methods.
Across from her, Mister Terrific, Michael Holt, sat suspended in midair. On closer inspection, T-shaped flying spheres supported him at his joints, making it look as though he were sitting in a flying wheelchair.
The T-shaped mask on his face concealed his expression.
But the tightly furrowed brow exposed above it betrayed his mood.
According to his character background, he was a genius, a scientist of extraordinary intelligence with fourteen doctorates, more than a match even for Banner over in Marvel.
Yet even he felt helpless at that moment.
Their opponent was Lex Luthor, a madman who possessed equally formidable intelligence but had no moral limits whatsoever.
"Go straight to Lex Luthor himself? No, that would only play into his trap. We have to find solid evidence..."
He turned to Lois and asked, "Still no word from Jimmy?"
Just as they were discussing how to rescue Clark-
Bzzzz!
A sudden, high-frequency