Metropolis S.C.U.

   As soon as Clark could get out of class, he rushed over to the Star office.  Lois and Diana were already there, watching the news on TV.
   "Clark! Excelsior's been—"
   "I heard, Lois," Clark interrupted.  "Are you okay?" he asked her.
   She gave him a quizzical look before finally getting it.  Why should I be not ok—Oh! Because my boyfriend's been taken hostage! Right.
   "I'm fine. They want Bruce for something, so I really don't think they'll hurt him."
   Diana didn't avert her eyes from the TV screen.  "Someone needs to stop them."
   "Who? You?" Lois asked. "You might be able to handle a few bullets, but can you seriously take on a whole building-full of them?"
   Clark took a deep breath. "I can stop them," he said firmly.
   Lois and Diana looked at him silently for a moment.  "Clark... are you sure?" Lois asked.  "Do you really think you can take them all down with your super-speed?"
   Clark gave a half-hearted smile.  "I... think so."
   Lois stood up from her seat, and started looking around for her purse.  "Alright then.  Let's go."
Clark immediately moved between her and the door.  "Lois, I think you should stay here," he said in his best "caring-yet-authoritative" voice.
   Lois gave him a flippant expression and put one hand on her hip as she spoke. "Smallville, it's not that I don't appreciate the attempt to keep me safe, but this is the number-one story of the year for Metropolis's youth, and there's no WAY that I'm letting some farmboy keep me away from it!"
   With that, she squeezed past Clark and walked out the door.  Diana gave Clark a smile and a shrug, as if to say "hey, that's Lois," and walked out after her.

   When the Star reporters got to the Excelsior Academy, they could barely see past all the crime scene tape, police cars, and heavily-armed officers from the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit.  Being right in the middle of the city, the Academy was surrounded by buildings filled with onlookers staring out through windows at the busy scene.
   Lois moved next to Clark and pointed towards a rugged-looking man in his early fifties and a slender blonde woman with a slight scowl.  "That's Dan Turpin and Maggie Sawyer; they're the top inspectors for the S.C.U.  See if you can hear anything from them about what's going on."
   Focusing his hearing as best he could through the noise, Clark managed to pick out their conversation.  Diana was listening in as well.  She didn't nearly have Clark's level of hearing, but Amazons were gifted with very sharp ears nonetheless.  The male inspector spoke with a rough Brooklyn accent, while the woman had a notably deep and commanding voice.
   "So what's it gonna be, Maggie?  We goin' in?"
   "No way, Dan.  They've got at least thirty-five gunmen at multiple points all throughout the building.  If we try to jump in there and don't manage to take all of them out at once, they start shooting hostages."
   A slender man wearing a business suit stepped underneath the yellow tape and walked over to the inspectors.  It was Lionel Luthor.
   Clark's eyes burned.  He didn't know why, but he often felt his eyes burning when he was angry.  Lois looked up at him and nearly gasped.  His eyes were glowing a deep, bright red.  "Clark! Your eyes!" she whispered.  Clark snapped out of his anger, and looked down at her.
   "What?"
   His eyes went back to their usual blue, and she decided to leave it alone for the moment.
   "...nevermind."
   Clark was confused, but he went back to his surveillance.
   Inspector Sawyer gave Lionel a slight grin as he walked up. "I'm pretty sure a crime scene is the last place you wanna be right now, Mister Luthor."
   "My son has been taken hostage, Miss Sawyer," Lionel firmly responded.
   Maggie regarded him for a moment, as if trying to judge his true motives.  "Fine," she said.  "So what do you want us to do, exactly?"
   "What do they want?" Lionel asked.
   "They want 50 million dollars each for your son, for Bruce Wayne, and for Oliver Queen."
   "Then they'll have it," Lionel said without hesitation.
   Turpin jumped in.  "You're just gonna let them have their money and get away?"
   "My son's life is of the utmost importance to me, Inspector."
   When Diana heard this, she was surprised: Lionel was—at least partially—being sincere.
   "Alright, well, we still need to get the money for Wayne and Queen," Maggie said.
   "I'll pay for them; just get those boys out of there," Lionel said.
   "Well that's very generous of you, Mister Luthor," Maggie said with an edge in her voice, "but they very specifically want fifty million from each of the boys' families, not just from one."
   Lionel frowned in frustration. "What? Why?"
   Maggie rolled her eyes.  "Hell if I know.  But those are their demands. We're talking with the Queens now; their money should be coming along soon. The Wayne boy's the difficult one, though.  His parents are dead, and he hasn't inherited their wealth yet, so—"
   Lionel interrupted.  "Lucius Fox, the current C.E.O. of Wayne Enterprises, was a close family friend of the Waynes, and he treats Bruce like a member of his own family.  He won't hesitate to hand over the money."
   Maggie nodded in acknowledgment.  "Lucius Fox. Alright; thanks."
   As she turned aside to try to contact Lucius Fox, Lionel turned around to walk back across the yellow tape.  He stopped, however, when he caught sight of the Star reporters.  Standing still and staring at them with contempt, he eventually broke his gaze and kept walking.

   The three teens looked at each other to break the tension, then quickly remembered their task.
   "Clark, do you still think you can stop them all in time?" Lois asked. "I mean, are you fast enough to take them all down before any of them gets a clue that they're being taken out?"
   Clark thought for a moment.  I don't know where they all are, and I don't think I can search the entire school before a single one of them pulls a trigger.
   "No... I'm not that fast."
   The three of them stood in silence for a few seconds.
   Clark looked up with a slight smile, however.  "...but I think I know someone who is."