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moral support when he filled Perry in on his fruitless trip to Arkham. “What was that all about?”
    “Oh, that,” Jimmy mumbled. He wasn’t sure what part of yesterday’s close call bothered him the most: the fact that Killer Croc had almost eaten him, or how he had stretched out of the way just in time. Probably that last part, he decided, reluctant to divulge all the weirdo details to either Lois or Perry. He didn’t want them to think that he had snapped under the pressure and hallucinated the whole thing. “Nothing ... nothing important.”
    “Can we stay on point here?” Perry said impatiently. “I’ve still got a paper to put out, and we need a new angle on—” A sudden boom from outside the building cut short his tirade. The deafening blast rattled the window behind him. “Great Caesar’s Ghost!” he exclaimed. The cigar tumbled from his lips. “Now what?”
    '' All three journalists raced to the window, which offered a spectacular view of downtown Metropolis. Only seconds ago it had been a clear fall day, but now ominous black clouds obscured the sun. Bright golden flashes lit up the roiling clouds from inside. For a moment, Jimmy thought that maybe it was just a freak thunderstorm, but then coruscating bolts of shimmering yellow energy blasted down from the sky, wreaking havoc on the city below. A destructive beam tore through an elevated billboard for Sundollar Coffee, setting it ablaze, while another ray blasted apart a rooftop water tower. Gallons of spilled water instantly evaporated into steam, adding to the turbulent atmosphere. More beams lanced through the air, barely missing vulnerable skyscrapers and clock towers. Thunderous booms accompanied the devastating fireworks.
    “Olsen!” Perry shouted. He stomped out the fallen stogie while still keeping his gaze glued to the fearsome spectacle outside. “Get down there with your camera!” Jimmy was already out the door. Eschewing the elevators, he raced down the stairs to the first floor, thirty-seven stories below, and dashed across the lobby to the sidewalk outside, where he encountered a scene of utter pandemo-eaiiMTiaw n
    nium. Frightened citizens ran for shelter, looking back over their shoulders at the lethal pyrotechnics overhead. Their panicked cries were all but drowned out by the cacophonous din. Drivers abandoned their vehicles midtraffic as they joined the stampede on the sidewalks. Jimmy backed up against the Daily Planet Building’s granite fagade in order to avoid being trampled. He was anxious to capture the chaos on film, but first he took a moment to activate his signal-watch. Superman probably already knows about this emergency, he figured, but it can’t hurt to alert him just in case.
    Raising his digital camera to his right eye, he snapped off some quick reaction shots. Most everyone around him seemed to be running for safety, but he was startled to see a shell-shocked family of three standing frozen in terror right in the middle of the sidewalk. Baseball caps, disposable cameras, and souvenir T-shirts marked them unmistakably as tourists, new to the Big Apricot. A white-faced mother clutched a pigtailed toddler to her chest, while her husband stared aghast at the tumult all around them. Unlike the seasoned natives of the city, who knew what to do when Metropolis was under attack, as happened twice a week or so, the clueless trio looked like they didn’t know which way to turn. They were practically asking to be collateral damage.
    “Hey!” Jimmy shouted at the family, concerned for their safety. “You can’t just stand there!”
    Sure enough, a sizzling bolt of energy slammed into the skyscraper behind them. The southwest comer of the roof exploded, blasting a heavy stone gargoyle into pieces. Shattered rubble rained down from the blasted cornice, plunging straight toward the defenseless family, who were only seconds away from being pulped. Letting go of his camera, Jimmy instinctively ran to their rescue even