Conduit sneaks into a closed down auditorium hall and plants a time bomb. A security guard finds him, but Conduit kills him with his electro-tentacles.

Meanwhile, Lois is helping Clark move back into his old apartment. She comes upon a box of keepsakes, one of which is a photograph of Clark, Lana, and a boy named Kenny Braverman. Clark tells her that in high school, Clark and Kenny rivaled at just about everything. But while Clark was always good-natured about their competition, Kenny always despised being second best. When it came time for the senior prom, Kenny asked Lana Lang to be his date, but Lana turned him down in the hopes that Clark might ask her instead. This rivalry has fueled a lifelong hatred for Clark Kent in Kenny's mind.

After unpacking, Clark and Lois attend the Lexcorp Zenith Awards for Journalism banquet. Clark Kent is given the highly coveted "Baldy" award and begins to make a speech onstage.

Just then, Conduit's bomb explodes and the stage erupts with flames. Clark quickly changes to Superman and then struggles to keep people away from the fire. Conduit's mercenaries storm the assembly hall and try to take Superman out. Superman stops them, but before he can interrogate them, Conduit activates a remote signal that causes his men to suffer a neural-meltdown. Superman tries to rush them to the hospital, but he is too late to save them.

Returning to his apartment that evening, Clark finds an old photograph of himself pinned to his front door with a knife sticking out of it.

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