Metropolis the RPG

[LuckyVic]

OOC: I'm so anxious to start this that I've decided to go ahead and start posting. If anyone is interested please see the OOC list to submit a character.

Smallville was just the Beginning...

IN:

Who: Clark Kent
When: Starts Seven Years Ago ends in the Present
Where: Somewhere in the Arctic

Clark stood on the platform of ice he held out his hands and watched as the crystals began to rise out of the floor until they were nearly level with his hands. He removed one of the crystals and placed it into a receptacle. After a few moments the image of Jor-El, his biological father appeared before him. "I'm ready to complete my training now father."

The image of the long dead scientist smiled, and Clark Kent also known as Kal-El of Krypton was surrounded by a blue field of light. Kryptonian symbols swirled around him. "Come with me now my son as we break away from your Earthly confinement, traveling through time and space." At this moment a harmless energy wave washed over Clark. In his mind he was no longer in the Fortress, but literally traveling in space as he continued to hear Jor-El speaking to him.

"Your powers will far exceed those of mortal man... It is forbidden for you to interfere with human history, rather let your leadership stir others to action..."

"In this next year we will examine the human heart, it is more fragile then your own..."

"As we pass through the flaming turmoil of your own galaxy we pass into the realm of the red Krypton's sun. Source of your strength and nourishment, cause of our eventual destruction. The planet Krypton my son, your home as it was."

"This year we will examine the various concepts of immortality and their basis in actual fact."

"The total accumulation of all knowledge spanning the twenty-eight known galaxies is embedded in the crystals which I have sent along with you. Study them well my son, and learn from our mistakes."

"Live as one of them Kal-El, learn where your strength and power are needed. But always hold in your heart with pride your special heritage. They can be a great people Kal-El, they wish to be. They only need the light to guide the way. This above all else, their capacity for good, I have sent them you. My only son."

The field of light fades away and the young man standing there is a far cry from the unsure one that had entered the field so many years ago. Now he stood confident and strong. He wore a blue body suit, red boots, red shorts with a yellow belt, and a long flowing cape. The look on the man's face gives away no sign of what he was thinking or feeling. Then he stretches out his arms and the platform he was on seems to shake until finally he literally takes off and flies away and out of the Fortress.


3 Months Later; after leaving the Fortress

Clark sat at his desk typing away, trying to meet the deadline that Perry White had given him for the story on the closing of the old Jackson theatre. As only Clark could do, he added his own small town touch to the story. Instead of it being one about the financial loss, it was a story of personal loss. The loss of a sweet little old woman that had worked there so many years ago as an aspiring actress. As he finished typing it up he smiled as he proof read it one more time and then sent the story to Perry for his review. Just as he hit send his phone rang and he picked it up. "Clark Kent speaking... Oh hi mom, no everything is fine it's just been a busy week.... Yes ma'am I have a meeting with the landlord today and if everything goes well I'll be moving in immediately. Mom that's not necessary I have plenty of money saved up, and I have been getting paid since I started working at the Daily Planet you know. Yes ma'am... I love you too." With that he hung up the phone, adjusted the glasses on his face as a satisfied smile grew on his face.

 

[LuckyVic]

Clark Kent and Lois and Perry until someone takes them.

THE NIGHT BEFORE....

It was late.

The office was silent except for the distant drone of a vacuum cleaner on the other side of the floor. People called her diligent. She was a hard worker. She worked through lunch and sometimes past five. Eight weeks she had been in the job and everyone was questioning how they ever got along without Chloe Bly. As always in such situations, when colleagues discovered how helpful and astute one was, the habit to pass on more work was irresistible and when Chloe revealed she could deliver, the practice continued and even increased.

Soon she was handling important projects, given access to sensitive material. Two months after the temping agency had sent Chloe Bly to the offices of Stagg Industries, she had become indispensable. There was even talk of offering her a full time job. Chloe Bly did not allow the compliments to distract her focus and everyone admired the way she handled compliments. A true lady, they said within lunchrooms and closed offices.

Chloe Bly looked up from her desk, seeing no one else around. The report for James Tomlison was nearly done and she stood up to stretch her legs. Health and Safety protocols recommended a break every 50 minutes to combat arthritis and the lengthy disability litigation that came with it. She took a walk down the aisle, surveying the empty cubicles and noting the cleaning lady who was vacuuming the hall outside the main office area. Waving at Hannah, who spoke no English and with whom Chloe could communicate with awkward hand signals, Chloe made her way towards the ladies room, holding a small clutch purse under her arm as she walked.

The corridor that led to the ladies room also led to the executive offices, both out of Hannah’s line of sight. Almost to the ladies room door, Chloe changed her course at the last minute and ducked into the hallway that led to executive branch of the company. Proceeding quickly up the stairs, she knew that any security camera watching her would have no question about her appearance. Over the last two weeks, she was a familiar face they had seen working late and often going to the Ivory Tower (the management floor) to drop off documents and such.

They had grown complacent by now, she was convinced.

Simon Stagg was not in his office today. In fact, none of the management team was present. Stagg had arranged a cooperate retreat and they were up in Aspen, apparently working. Right, she snorted cynically as she saw the gold embossed plaque on a door at the far end of the floor.

SIMON STAGG
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

As always, he left the door open because too often his assistant, a dippy thing named Christine, required entry into the room to plan his day on his electronic diary or leave papers on his desk. Whatever. On this occasion, Christine had joined him at Aspen so Chloe was able to move about without scrutiny. Entering the office, she slid immediately into Stagg’s comfortable leather chair and nestled herself in front of his PC.

Waiting for a few minutes in case any security guard decided to happen along or had issue with her being on the floor, Chloe spent the time observing Mr. Stagg’s accomplishments, all displayed on the walls, commendations from the city, various charity organizations and a picture of Stagg with Lex Luthor. She glared at the picture momentarily. The man had powerful friends, Chloe thought, which is why she had started investigating him. There were rumors that he had dealings with Intergang. The source who had given her this information disappeared a week later, convincing her that the only way to get the story was to get deep inside. Like she had been for the last two months.

Confident that no one was coming, Chloe Bly went to work.
*************

Twenty minutes later, she walked out of the building to the rented Ford Festiva in the parking lot. Once inside the vehicle, she tossed the blond wig she had been wearing the past two months that itched like a son of a bitch and made her skin broil under the scalp. Discarded as well was the non-prescription glasses she wore to make up the dowdy persona of Chloe Bly. Running her fingers through brunette locks, Lois Lane drove out of the Stagg Industries carpark with her next front page story contained on a USB memory stick in her purse. As expected, there were payments from Stagg's personal accounts to one Abbey Industries.

Abbey Industries, Lois snorted. As if.

Abbey Industries was a dummy corporation for Bill Church, named from more than one source as one of the lieutenants in Intergang. Simon Stagg was paying Abbey Industries a lot of money. She wondered what for. It had been three years since Chloe Sullivan's death. At the time of her demise, she had been investigating a story regarding high-tech weapons components. Chloe had believed that someone was turning meteor freaks into weapons. She was convinced they were being farmed out as assassins, terrorists, super soldiers, to countries willing to pay the price. Unfortunately, Chloe never had the chance to break the story because she was murdered. The killer was never found and Lois spent the better part of the next three years trying to find her killer. To date, she had narrowed her suspects to Intergang, a shadow organization that dealt with high tech weapons and Luthercorp. Although unable to prove it, Lois had never been able to shake the feeling that Lex Luthor knew more than he was telling. Even when he had the gall to show up at her funeral.

Bastard.

Despite the setbacks, Lois was determined to find Chloe's killer and she'd never stop trying or being a thorn to those who had been responsible for it. Let them come for her if necessary, she'd be waiting.

**************

THIS MORNING

Entering the Daily Planet the next day, Lois was grateful to be back in the Planet's newsroom. Undercover work was exciting but she missed the energy of the place that had been home to her these last seven years. Since becoming a reporter, Lois had finally found her niche. This was what she was born to do. She wondered what the hell she had been thinking when she imagined anything else. Sweeping into the place like a tidal wave, Lois caught sight of Clark at his desk and felt her spirits dampened.

Clark Kent.

It was a good thing she had gone undercover shortly after he started at the Planet because she still didn't know how to regard. Seven years ago, he had just vanished from her life. No explanations. Even though there was nothing between them, it had left a void in her life she couldn't explain. Then again, that was the thing with Clark wasn't it? He never really fit anywhere in her life and yet when he disappeared, she realized how much she missed him. A vulnerable Lois was an unhappy Lois and she hated that she missed him. She hated it worse that she was happy that he was back. Of course, it wasn't in Lois' nature to show him that. So once again, she had no idea what to do with him.

"Hey Smallville," she greeted as she walked past his desk, trying to appear nonchalant instead of confused, which was what she was feeling lately whenever she saw him.

Clark looked up and smiled. He knew Lois didn't know how what to make of him anymore. After all he totally wasn't acting like the old Clark, the one that she knew. And she was probably still upset with him for leaving seven years ago. He adjusted his glasses "Morning Lois, did you have a late night?" he asked noticing that she didn't quite look as refreshed as she was carrying herself.

“Oh you know me Smallville, if I smell a story I never sleep.” She said with a slight smile.

Clark was about to reply when all of a sudden a door slammed shut. The slam was so loud that a person didn't need super hearing to hear it. "Great Shades of Elvis! What's everyone standing around for this is a newspaper not happy hour at Buckingham Palace!" Perry said as he walked over to where the small group of people had gathered. "Lane, Kent where are those stories that should have been on my desk first thing this morning."

Lois jumped a little at the sound of Perry's hollering even though it was all par the course with the way the man usually made an entrance. Perry White was not one for formalities or for that matter, tact. She adored working for him because they were very much alike in their work ethic and to some degree, personality.

Clark twisted in his chair and pulled the hard copy off from his printer and handed it to his Editor in Chief, Perry White. He was an older man, hard nosed, with a heart as good as his southern accent was strong. Clark knew that he had already sent the file to Perry's computer, but like most people from a by gone era Perry liked doing things the old fashioned way, in this case he liked to read the story on real paper instead of a computer screen.

Perry quickly looked it over and as he learned over the past few weeks, there was very little wrong with it. It was a joy to have a reporter that was a good speller, and as well as had a small town sensibility to how he told stories. It was that style that was garnering Clark a nice following, and the reason why Perry was going to start giving him larger stories. "Oh Kent starting today your also on the city beat with Lois here. In fact there's a press conference at City Hall about that new state of the art communications system that Luthercorp technologies division has proposed. They're supposed to have the hearing today."

Clark nodded as he quickly began to write down a list of things to research before the hearing and subsequent press conference. But even as he wrote he knew that this was something that Lois wouldn't like. She wasn't the type that liked it when something she viewed as hers was taken away, even in part.

"What was that?" She turned around and stared at Perry. "The City Beat? Chief, I work alone." Turning to Clark she added quickly, "no offense, Smallville," before facing Perry again. "I've always worked alone? Remember we agreed that partners only get upset with me, leading to ulcer medication for you and me at sensitivity awareness seminars. Granted Smallville here doesn't scare easily but ... its my beat!" She retorted, like a child ordered to share a favorite toy.

Perry was already walking back to his office, with Lois hot on his heals as she made her argument. "Look Lois the fact of the matter is that both you and Kent have two totally different personalities, as such our readers can get two different points of view. Besides did you forget that you have another assignment that involves an all expenses paid trip to Japan." he reminded her about the fact that she would be one of a few hand picked reporters that had been invited by Sir Richard Branson to travel on the maiden voyage of his new space plane. They would be launching it from a small airport just outside of Metropolis, the X-33 will go into orbit and then after a couple of hours return to Earth, landing in Japan in a third of the time it would normally take. It was thus far the story of the century.

She stared at him like the kid who just got back a favorite toy and a pony attached to it. The X-33 had been a hot ticket item for months and Lois was certain that anyone who got on the press junket would only be there for PR purpose, not to pose any serious questions about the viability for the plane. "Okay, maybe you're forgiven." She smirked. “For now, when I get back I’m taking back what’s mine.” She told Perry.

“We’ll see about that. Right now I can’t wait until I see the look on Lex Luthor’s face When the X-33 beats his Lexsoar into the skies by a full six weeks.” Perry said with a smile on his face. It wasn’t that he hated Lex, at least not completely. But unlike most people in the city of Metropolis he didn’t trust him. “Don’t forget the launch is at 10 pm, and you need to be there by 4 so you can take care of all the necessary prep.” He added.

Terrific," she beamed. "they'll have a press pass for me at the gate?" No way she wanted to show up there without one

Perry shook his head and slid a folder to her. "Everything you need is in there, including a map to where they want you to go."

"Gotcha," Lois replied, knowing how to keep silent when required. "What about Small...I mean Clark. You've partnered me up with him, can I just tell him I'm on special assignment tonight?" Although she had no problem telling Smallville to stay out of her business, the whole partner thing was new territory for her and the last thing she wanted was upset farm boy on her hands.

"Your not partners Lois, you never heard me say that. The two of you will be friendly rivals." he told her. Although Lois was smart enough to know that's exactly what he had done, under the cloak of friendly competition. "Kent's a fine reporter, and has natural instincts for this business, all but one. I need to see if you can bring it out of him or not." he told her.

"Even better," she smiled, feeling no need to hold back then. "Works for me. Although I don't know if farm boy can keep up with me. It might have been better pairing him up with someone a little less intimidating," she winked.

"Is there anything else?" Perry asked her.

"That's all," she retorted, taking the file and heading out the door, like the cat that ate the canary. "I'll let you know when I crack the story."

Perry didn't say anything as he watched her leave. Then he shook his head as he looked at Clark's article and began to read it more carefully. The young man definitely had talent, more then just being an investigative reporter. Of course Perry wasn't going to tell him that, only time would tell if his instincts about Clark would be correct.

 

[LuckyVic]

Lois Lane (NPC)

Lois Lane's day was busy after her meeting with Perry White.

While the rookie went off to do whatever it was he did at City Hall, Lois returned to her desk to learn everything she could about the new Branson X-33 craft for which she would be on present to witness its historic maiden voyage. With NASA's budgetary concerns these days, the use of commercial aircraft to give the next generation of space planes the boost needed to break atmosphere would not see the creation of airplanes that were able to travel through close to the upper atmosphere but also reduce the fuel payload of outbound space flights. In any case, it was a leap forward in the aeronautics and NASA stalled space program. Pouring over technical schematics and all the literature on the plane to date, it was almost 1:30 when she was done with her research and was able to jot down her first batch of questions. Some she would use during the press conference and a few she would throw in when they weren't expecting questions.

That's how Lois preferred to operate, with little warning so they'd never see her coming.

In journalism, Lois had found the perfect outlet for her exuberant and somewhat daredevil personality. All the qualities that had always been too in your face for others had made her the best investigative journalist in the field and Lois' only regret was Chloe hadn't been around to see it. Collecting her press pass before she left at 3 o'clock. Lois returned home, showered and wore her best suit, a black Chanel suit with an open neck, creme silk shirt. Wearing her favorite sling backs and styling her hair into a more fashionable rendition of a pony tail, Lois headed out for the evening, ready to make history in the air. Since she was running just a bit late, Lois didn't pay to much attention to the rules of thr road.

 

[LuckyVic]

Clark Kent

Clark went to cover the press conference at City Hall as he had been told to by Mr. White, and it had turned out to be a bit more then the public relations feast that Lex was normally known for. In fact if anything this could have been regarded as a public relations nightmare. The City Council had actually decided that the city's current communications system was more then adequate for their needs. Lex himself spoke at the hearing and called the council members short sighted, telling them that by rejecting this proposal they were cutting down the effectiveness of Law Enforcement and other emergency services which could keep them from doing their jobs to the best of their ability. There were times that Clark couldn't tell if Lex was making a business proposal or a political speech. In the end the Council stood firm, and Clark left before being seen by Lex.

The rest of his day went by fairly slow by his standards, but soon it was done and he made his way to his appointment. Mrs. Nelson showed him around the apartment, he was hoping to get into. The place was a mess, but that was to be expected judging from how frail Mrs. Nelson seemed to be. "Its the quietest building in Metropolis." She told him "All my tenants pretty much keep to themselves and prefer it that way. Are you married?" she asked.

Clark smiled "No ma'am." he replied as he moved piece of broken drywall that must have fallen from the ceiling.

"Girlfriend?" she asked.

"No, at least not yet. I haven't been in Metropolis for very long." he told her.

"Where are you from?"

"Kansas, a little town called Smallville." he replied "My father was a farmer."

"Oh really." the elderly woman seemed to like what she was hearing.

Clark walked over to the kitchen area and tried to open one of the cabinet doors, only to have it come right off its hinges."

"Oh I'm sure that'll just take a few screws and it will be as good as new." she said looking more and more worried about whether or not he would take the apartment.

The two walked over to the sink and Clark turned it on only to see black liquid come forth, instead of water. Mrs. Nelson blushed with embarrassment, but then quickly tried to change his focus by showing him the balcony. "This is probably the best part of the apartment. It has a great view, and no one can see in so you'd still have your privacy." she told him.

Clark nodded and he placed his hands in his pockets and looked around again. "How much?"

"Uhmmm $800" she said, taking off more then $200 of what she needed out of fear that he would say no."

Clark took a deep breath and then exhaled. "I'll give you $900, but only if you let me make a few repairs."

The elderly woman smiled and agreed to his negotiation. Within an hour the papers were signed, and Clark had paid his first three months rent. His first stop after was to get his things out of the hotel he was in and brought them to his new place. It wasn't much, yet, but it was his. With a little help from his super-speed, he'd have this place fixed up in no time. Of course he better not use to much, after all he had to maintain the appearance that he was totally normal.

 

[LuckyVic]

Lois and Clark

To say that security was tight at the launch facility would have been an understatement. The amount of guards alone seemed to be that of a small army. The first check point was used to verify invitations as well as to take in any luggage that any of the invited guests had with them. The next check point was used to check anything that the guests wanted to take as carry on. The third check point was used to check the guests themselves with the most elaborate scanning devices ever designed. Once security was satisfied all the guests were taken into a room and were treated to dinner. Finally after a few hours, they were led to the X-33 space plane itself.

The air / space craft was huge, it seemed to take up the entire airfield. It measured some 200 ft in length, had 275 ft wing span, and a overall height of 80 ft. Which basically meant that it was one of the largest vehicles every built. In fact only the Spruce Goose, created by Howard Hughes was bigger in overall dimensions. On the wings were 4 jet engines, that resembled those on any of the larger air planes today. But there were also 2 very different looking ones, which everyone eventually found out were 2 of the X-33's 4 rocket engines. The other two were mounted on the tail of the air / space craft hybrid. Once they arrived at the giant vehicle they were quickly led on board and to their pre-assigned seating.

It was hard not to be impressed by something so big, that is if size was what you were interested in, Lois Lane thought as she was shown to the seats designated by the Press. Unlike Luthor Corp press conferences where her picture was often distributed to security to bar her entrance, Lois quite enjoyed the first class treatment she received from Branson's media people. Of course, the pomp did not affect her determination to ask all the hard questions when the time came. For the moment however, she allowed herself to ease back into the big first class seats, accept a glass of champagne and take a sweep of the competition.

Beneath her feet, she could feel the slight vibrations of the engines as the plane began its preflight departure and she wondered what it felt like to see the world from such a height. Exhilarating. She was certain.

Surprisingly it didn't take the large space / air craft, nicknamed Genesis, long to get into the air even on such a small landing strip. Obviously a testimony to the power of its 4 jet engines. Once Genesis had reached a cruising altitude of 20,000 feet one of the PR people stood up and revealed a remote control. The wall directly ahead of them opened up and the young woman began to brief everyone on the Genesis. Much of the information was already covered in the press kit, but there were also a few tid bits of information that hadn't been covered. The young woman then began to tell the guests that once they reached 40,000 feet, the rocket engines would be engaged, which would propel the ship into orbit, then after a couple of hours, the ship would reenter the atmosphere and enter a landing pattern at their destination hours before any conventional aircraft could make the journey in.

In the cockpit the crew, including Branson as pilot, had changed control from standard FAA traffic to Space Command in Houston. At that moment the crew put on their emergency gear and prepared for the trip into orbit. Branson flipped a switch that sealed the vessel completely in it's own atmosphere.


Lois had more or less blocked out most of the PR show that Branson employees put on for the press prior to take off, there was nothing terribly earth shattering in the release and Lois' few attempts to ask some pointed questions about the plane, particularly in how heavily invested the company was on the success of the thing, but had been deflected by the rather snooty blond in charge of them. After being told to hold her questions until the appropriate time, Lois fumed in her seat and drowned her annoyance in another glass of champagne.

When the plane started to leave the air, she felt the same charge of excitement at being present to something historic, however, like the eternal pessimist, she would save her praises until after they had landed.

Back in Houston, they monitored every instrument on the Genesis as well as their direction. However they weren't the only ones. Somewhere in a dark room there was a large monitor similar to the one at the Huston Space center. The little dot which marked Genesis' position was moving, and a read-out of the craft's increasing speed. A pair of hands began typing away at a keyboard, which caused a hidden parabolic dish to transmits a signal to a communications satellite in orbit. The satellite then repositioned locking on to the coordinates of Genesis and transmitted another signal, this one apparently undetected by the Genesis' crew or the Flight Operations team in Huston. Within a few minutes just as the Genesis reached 40,000 feet and the rocket engines engaged a "jack-in-the-box" would activate and force the rocket engines to overload and tear the ship apart. The figure watched the telemetry and waited patiently for the death of a man's dream.

It took the plane record time to reach the high altitudes and once again, Lois was grateful for her window seat that allowed her to see Metropolis growing smaller and smaller in the distance. Up at this height, it was easy to see the urban sprawl as something beautiful instead of gritty and full of corruption or fodder for stories. From here it looked as vibrant and pulsing as she always believed. Taking another sip of champagne, Lois eased back and enjoyed the flight ....when suddenly something shook the cabin. Hard enough for the golden fluid to escape the flute and splash light on her fingers. Lois saw the effect through the rest of the passengers, a ripple of concern moved across their faces as voices of alarm escaped them, not dying because the shaking had not stopped.

Something was wrong.

In the cockpit alarms were going off all over the place, the overload of the engines was pushing the Genesis harder then it was designed for. The crew reported everything to Johnson space center in Houston, and both teams were trying to find away to resolve the situation. It soon became obvious to Branson that their passengers were becoming panicked so he activated the com system "Ladies and Gentlemen as you no doubly noticed we are experiencing some technical difficulties and are doing our best to correct them. Please remain seated..."

However before he could complete his sentence of telling everyone to make sure their safety belts secured, the rocket engines kicked in another burst of speed. The PR woman was the only person that was still on her feet and was knocked and onto the deck.

~~~~~

In Metropolis, Clark had used the rest of his afternoon and evening to begin repairs to his new apartment. He could have had them all done if he had used his abilities, however he was afraid that would draw unnecessary attention. In fact the only room he did use his abilities to repair was the bedroom and the bathroom, those rooms needed the most work, and were a necessity. While doing the repairs he found a false wall in his closet that actually led to another small room. It wasn't much, perhaps the size of a small den. But he thought it would be perfect place to store some extra things he had brought with him, things that if people saw would draw unwanted attention. He quickly remodeled the room, and set up some polls and hangers and began to hang several blue tops, and blue pants, and red capes. When he was done he left the room and pressed a stud that he had hidden and could only find with his x-ray vision. The stud triggered a mechanism which then closed the new hidden door he had installed. Once sealed it looked like an ordinary wall to a closet as if did before. He activated the stud again to make sure it worked properly and then closed it again.

Deciding he was done for the day he pulled off the now dirty t-shirt, and shorts that he was wearing to perform the repairs. And turned on the tv in his room, after all he could listen to the news while he showered and then prepared for bed.

"This is LNN Breaking news. Good evening Metropolis, I'm Frank Jacobs. We've just received word that the Inaugural flight of the first space plane, dubbed Genesis has declared a mid flight emergency. Although details are sketchy, this is what we do know. Apparently the rocket engines of the craft have overloaded and is now sending it hurtling towards space at remarkable speeds. Speeds that the craft's frame may not be able to withstand for long."

Clark stepped out of the bathroom and watched for more details, then with a look of determination he walked back to the closet and activated the hidden stud. A few seconds later a streak of red and blue exited the open balcony door, followed by a powerful gust of wind sent the new curtains flapping.

~~~

Remain seated? Lois wanted to balk. Where the hell was she or any of the press staff to go?

Trying to remain calm, Lois did not join in the cacophony of frightened cries or screams that came with such an announcement. She saw the sky outside and suddenly it didn't seem so beautiful but rather ominous. Darkness waiting to swallow her up. Taking a deeper sip of champagne and wishing it was Vodka instead, Lois' poise was a stark contrast to everyone's panic. Of course, she had to maintain the image of being cool and under pressure. Even if she was scared out of her mind.

~~~~

It took Clark a few moments to zero in on the location of the Genesis, but once he found it he poured on the speed. He could hear the panic of Genesis passengers the closer he got to the craft. He could also hear the pilots of the escort craft, and of the Genesis itself as they reported to Houston. Things didn't look good, and then one of the escorting F-22 pilots reported a unknown boggy approaching rapidly from behind them. "Well Clark they know about you now." he thought as he quickly passed the fighters in the late evening sky.


As he closed in on the Genesis, he didn't known if he heard it first or saw it first. But the rocket engine on the starboard wing exploded taking most of the wing with it. Fortunately it seemed as if the Genesis would make orbit, but that brief glimmer of hope vanished quickly when the two tail rocket engines also exploded. Even though he was still at a distance, he could see the plane begin to enter a free-fall. The people on board would feel a few seconds of weightlessness since there was no measurable weight because all parts of the object are accelerating uniformly. But that would only last for a few seconds. Then everyone on board would feel the rapid acceleration towards the ground. He needed to move faster, he tensed his muscles , and clenched his fists tighter as he accelerated created a sonic boom.

~~~
She knew what happened as soon as she felt the weightlessness. She had been on the NASA vomit plane once and the minute things started floating, she realized what had happened. They were totally screwed. The planet was free falling. She could hear the screaming around her as both cabin crew and passenger shared a kinship in their pure terror. When she joined them Lois wasn't sure, all she knew was that the weightlessness would end soon enough and when that happened, they were all going to die.

~~~

The Genesis began to hurtle back to the ground, the brave flight crew struggled valiantly with no success to regain control. A task made impossible since they had lost a wing and three rocket engines, with the fourth one seemingly stuck on. The Genesis went into a spin as its nose pointed down towards Metropolis.

As Clark closed in on the Genesis the port wing broke away from the fuselage from the stress. He was to close to dodge the giant wing, so he just allowed himself to go through it. A few seconds later he was along side the Genesis and in a controlled spin as he flew under its belly. He needed to find a place to set this place down safely and he needed to do it quickly. Unfortunately on its current trajectory there really wasn't many places he could land it. So once he had chosen the site, he flew ahead of the Genesis and turn so his back was facing the upcoming ground and positioned his arms in front of his body with his hands open wide and caught the Genesis. That was the easy part, the hard part was to slow the Genesis down so the people on board didn't get killed when they crash landed. Clark began to exert his will and counter the speed and inertia of the falling Genesis with his own power.

~~~

There was no illusion in her mind that she was going to survive this when the plane went into a tail spin and the world became a terrifying spiral of disorientation and flying objects, she knew that history was going to be written today, but not in the way she imagined. Screaming on top of her lungs because Lois Lane had come into the world this way and it seemed appropriate that she went out the same way. Seats had started to break free, she saw some people flying across the cabin. Lois had a white knuckled grip on her own arm rests, although she was still debating whether or not she wanted to ride this thing to its fiery end.

All of a sudden, the spiral stopped and the plane resumed what almost resembled normal if you ignored the shaking and shudder and the fact that a wing was missing and god only knows what else. What on Earth had happened? They were still going down way to fast but instead of the death spiral, it looked like they were in the correct flight position. Confusion and fear still reigned though but these thoughts occupied her mind so that the fear didn't get away from her.

~~~

With a final exertion of will and strength Clark's hands went through the nose of the Genesis as he brought it to halt some 20 feet off the ground. The hull of the craft seemed to shudder as the vibration rippled throught. He held the Genesis in position as he hovered and began to reposition his hands and slowly began to lower the plane onto the grass of Centennial Park. Once he lowered it as gently as he was able to, he moved towards one of the hatches and literally ripped the heavy door off it's hinges, causing the emergency inflatable ramp to open. He walked into the cabin area and looked around seeing all the confused people. "Is everyone all right?" he asked using a stronger tone in his voice with more base in it then he usually did. He quickly scanned everyone with his x-ray vision and didn't see any major injuries, which was a welcome relief. Then he saw Lois, he didn't know she was on this plane. He didn't linger to long on her, out of fear that she may recognize him.
There are moments in life.

Defining ones where all things become clear to you. Whilst everything else might be in a state of flux, enlightenment can come like a bolt of lightning, slicing away all the irrelevancies, leaving truth in its wake and a sense that nothing was the same. For Lois Lane, the first time she saw him, that was one of those moments. She stared at him, seeing something familiar and yet...not familiar. They were in Centennial Park, god only knew how they got there intact instead of scrambled across the expanse of green, but they were there and this stranger, this god in blue and red had ripped open the door like it was paper and tossed it aside.

She was out of her chair and moving toward him, seeing nothing else but him and wondering who he was. "We're fine," she whispered. "Who are you?"

Clark smiled and simply said "A friend." he then turned to walk out of the ship, but before exiting he quickly turned back. "Well I certainly hope this little incident hasn't put any of you off flying. Statistically speaking it's still the safest form of travel." With that he waved goodbye. As he entered the exposed hatchway he could see the spotlights of the News and police copters that were just above them. Not wanting to get caught on video he started to vibrate the muscles in his face, it would cause any photos of videos of his face to appear blurry. Then he took off into the evening sky.

"A friend," she mused, reaching the door just in time to see him leap into the sky and vanish like a streaking comet. Then she fainted.

 

[LuckyVic]

More Heroics and Fatherly Advice

Before those in the helicopters could even think about following Clark, he was gone and no one could tell which direction (except up) he had gone in. For his part Clark should have just returned to his apartment, but the truth was he was enjoying flying around the city. For the first time he was able to do so, and he hoped that no one would be able to tell it was him. He also hoped that now that people knew about him, he would be able to do this more often. As he flew high above the city he heard gun shots and police sirens so he altered his flight path and followed the sounds to their source.

At the West River docks there was a shoot out occuring by some of Metropolis' finest and some unsavory men that had just robbed a jewlery store. The men were able to keep the police at bay thanks to their automatic weaponry just long enough to escape on the boat they had waiting for them. With no way for the MPD to follow them they were home free, or so they thought. As they were getting away one of the men was in the passenger's cabin looking at the quality of the merchandise they had stolen. When he looked up there was a man wearing what looked like blue tights, with a pair of red shorts, and red boots and a red cape. The men pulled out their guns and began firing at him, only to see their bullets bouncing off of him as if he were made of steel. After he neutralized the robbers, Clark, took them and the boot itself to the nearest police station and left them for the police to deal with.

After doing all this and a few others things, Clark still wasn't quite ready to go back to his apartment. Instead he found himself heading north, to the Fortress that his father had meant for him as a place of refuge. His relationship with his birth father had been a rocky one at first, but over the years Clark began to learn who the real Jor-El was, and now almost felt for him the same way as he did Jonathon Kent. But unlike Jonathon, Clark could still talk to Jor-El even though both men had been dead for many years now.

"You enjoyed it?" the voice of Jor-El echoed in an almost disapproving manner throught the Fortress.

It was times like this that he still had problems with Jor-El, Clark tried to look away from the image that was directly in front of him. However Jor-El's image was on several of the larger Crystal formations within the fortress, so it didn't matter which way he looked. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself. It felt good to finally be able to do what I'm capable of and not hide it from others."

"I anticipated this my son, and.."

Before Jor-El could finish Clark was interuptting. "You couldn't have! You couldn't have imagined..."

"How good it felt? You are revealed to the world. Very well, so be it. But you must still keep your identity secret."

"But why?" Clark asked

"For two reasons. First you cannot help humanity 24 hours a day. Your help would be called for endlessly, even for those tasks they could accomplish on their own. It is their habit to abuse their resources. And second, your enemies will soon discover that the only way to hurt you will be to strike at those that you care about."

"Thank you father." he replied. He had gotten over his trepidation of calling Jor-El father, finally as well.

"My son, do not punish yourself over your feelings of vanity, but rather control them. It is an afflication common to all, even on Krypton. Our destruction could have been avoided, if not for the vanity of some who considered us indestructable.If not for vanity, why, at this very moment I could embrace you in my arms and show you how very proud I am of you. My son." With that the image of Jor-El vanished, and Clark left the fortress and returned home.

When he arrived at his apartment and had changed out of his... uniform. he found that his beeper was going off, and he had also received several voice mails from the Daily Planet. All reporters were to be at the Planet by 6 am, or be fired, for a meeting called by Perry White. Clark looked at his night table and saw that it gave him roguhly 3 hours of sleep. having super speed after all did have some advantages.

 

[Superman1496]

Bruce Wayne sat at his computers underneath his large Manor in Gotham. All over the television was footage of the plane malfunctioning. 'Some investment' he thought to himself.

He walked down the platform, passed his "other" car, and up the stairs that lead behind the bookshelf behind his library.

Something had done something to help that plane land in Centennial Park. Well, something, or someone.

Being the kind of person he was, he didn't judge what had happened as a good or bad thing. He waited to do what he always did, detective work.


~~~

As Alfred drove down the street towards Centennial Park, Bruce read the paper in the back.

Don't worry Master Bruce, we all make some mistakes in our lives. Nothing to be blue about. Alfred said.

Thanks Alfred. Always good to hear your words of advice. Bruce said smiling.

 

[LuckyVic]

Clark Kent; April 10th, 2014

When Clark awoke, after a very short nap due to the long conversation he had with his mother over the phone after his return to his apartment, Clark dressed and made his way to work. The good thing about his abilities is that it wouldn't take him to long to make it to work. He showered, then shaved using low intesting beams of his heat vision which he bounced off his mirror, a little trick he had figured out he could do. Then quickly dressed and made his way to the Planet, in order to make it for Perry White's early meeting.

Ironically not even Clark's incredible speed would save him from being late to work today, while on his way he witnessed a construction worker falling from a high rise that was being constructed. Using a burst of speed that rendered him practically invisible he changed into his... uniform and then flew up catching the falling man, and then gently placed him on the ground. He reminded him to becareful and then took off before a crowd could gather.

He walked into the City office 15 minutes late but as fate would have it Perry had been called into a meeting with the Publisher, thus saving Clark from being yelled at, like Lois usually got for being late.


Later that Morning

Metropolis Welcomes....Superman by Lois Lane

Lois Lane's front page headline was quite a feather in her cap. However, for once, capturing the headlines did not seem as important as attempting to locate the mysterious stranger who had saved her life the evening before. Since the disaster the night before, Lois’ thoughts had been filled with nothing else. That night, she had fallen asleep with dreams of a flowing red cape and the bluest eyes she had ever seen.

Strolling into the Daily Planet's news room the next day, she was in something of a daze, paying little attention to the offers of congratulations which she would normally soak up with relish. On this day however, her head was still too filled with blue eyes and that killer smile.

"Hey Clark," she muttered, drifting by.

Clark was yawning; he had thought he would have had plenty of time to get some sleep however Martha had other ideas. Before he hit the bed, his phone rang. He talked with her about what had happened until it was nearly time for him to go to work. Then upon his arrival all he could see was the media circus that his appearance had made. Everyone was ordered to report early this morning for a meeting with the Editor and Chief. "Oh, hi Lois."

She lowered herself into her seat, barely noticing him before she looked at the newspaper splayed across her desk. "S....." she said fingering the S shield on the image's chest, "I wonder what the S stands for."

"Didn't you have time to ask him?" Clark asked.

"No," she frowned, lips turning into a slight pout and she met his gaze and realized that thought had been said out loud. "He just took off, babbled something about statistics and off he went. I didn't get the chance to ask him all the important stuff, like who he is, how he can do what he does ...is he married?" That last comment came in almost as a reflex.

Clark shrugged his shoulders "Well maybe you'll get the chance sometime down the road. That is if all the media attention doesn't frighten him away."

"A guy who can stop a plane with his bare hands being afraid of a little media scrutiny?" she laughed but the thought did stick in her mind and her displeasure showed. "He can’t do that! Besides, he's gotta expect that there are questions. Better you and I get the scoop on him first and then the frenzy will die."

Clark raised and eyebrow and then pushed his glasses back up, since they had slipped down. "Us? Why Lois are you saying you need my help?"

Lois stared at him, "I don't know..." she sighed, wondering why she had included him on the equation. Perhaps because she wanted someone to keep their senses about them. "You're less likely to be dazzled by broad shoulders than me," she teased. "Hey I do it on my own if you like."

"What makes you think this guy wants to be found, anyway?" Clark brought up. "He may just want to help people and none of... this" he said as he tossed the mornings copy of the Inquisitor.

Looking at him as if she were explaining it to a child, "Clark, one does not drop the bombshell he did on this city without consequences. Aside from inciting massive panic at what he is, there's also another aspect of it. People are touched by what he did. A real hero for the people, you know how rare that is these days?" She challenged him. "With all the doped up sports heroes, corrupt politicians and badly behaved celebrities, isn’t' it great to have someone to believe in for all the right reasons?"

Clark merely shrugged his shoulders "I guess." he said. The truth was that all this media attention did bother him. He already saw several helicopters in the air looking for him.

"Come on," she said, "let's go get coffee or something. We already know what Perry's meeting is about." She retorted, standing up. "Let's go find...eh....got to get him a name."

"I don't think skipping out on Perry's meeting would be a good thing Lois." Clark warned her. She was always pushing the envelope; Clark just got this job he couldn't afford to piss Perry off.

Letting out a sigh, Lois remembered one of the more annoying aspects of Clark Kent's personality. "You're such a boy scout Smallville. Fine, fine, we'll stick around for Perry's meeting. He's going to give us a pep talk before sending us out on the Superman story."

"Superman?!" Clark asked.

"Superman…." she said pausing, not even realizing that she had said it. It had just slipped out, while she was thinking about a name to call the mysterious saviour. "That's it. We're going to call this caped marvel. Superman!" Her face lit up. "Come on Clark!" she said enthusiastically as she stomped over to Perry's office.

Clark found himself standing up and following her. He didn't know what she was up to, but there was no stopping Lois once she had a full head of steam.

"Perry!" Lois burst into the office.

"Lois," Perry glared at her, "don’t' you know how to knock? The meetings' not for another 15 minutes."

"Forget the meeting Perry," Lois said barely looking over her shoulder to see if Clark had followed her. "I got your next headline. Metropolis welcomes Superman!" She splayed her fingers out dramatically as if she were visualizing the front page.

Perry was about to say something but then thought about it for a bit. "I thought you said you didn't get his name?" he asked

"I didn't," she grinned. "But you gotta admit, Superman is pretty catchy."

"Definitely better then some of the names the other papers have called him." Perry said as he thought about it. "And it matches that S you said was on his chest. And if anyone is going to name this guy it should be the No.1 paper in the whole world and that's us." Perry replied. "Good thinking Lois, but the meeting is still on."

"Damnit," Lois groaned. "Come on Perry, I know the score. We go out and we find this guy. Preferably I find this guy and interview him. I mean he knows me already, why shouldn't I get first crack at interviewing him?"

“Because this is just too big for just you Lois. And just saying a couple of words to you does not constitute you and him knowing each other." Perry said then paused "Unless you didn't tell me everything that happened last night."

"I told you everything," she retorted sourly "trust me if anything happened last night...." Lois faltered. "I get your point." Her personal feelings about Superman was not a subject for discussion.

"Superman is fair play, everyone for themselves. Now maybe after we get that first interview I'll change my mind about that. But until I get that first one on one interview... All's fair in Love, war, and newspapers."

Damn him, Lois thought inwardly, his so right.

9:30 am

"Now look.. the Post, it flies" Perry said and then threw a copy of the Washington Post onto the table with a blurry picture of the man in blue and a red cape. He then went on tossing copies of all their competitors morning editions onto the table one after the other reciting their headlines the last being the Daily Planet. "We're sitting on the story of the century here. I want this Superman to along side the Daily Planet like beacon and eggs, death and taxes, politics and corruption."

"I don't think he'd give himself to any cheap promotion schemes Mr. White." Clark spoke up.

"What makes you think that Kent?" the loud editor in chief asked his rookie reporter.

"Just a first impression."

"Well who said anything about being cheap. The publishers will probably make him a partner if he wants. I want the real story. I want the inside dope on this guy. Does he have a family? Where does he live? Where does he come from? What does he have under that cape, batteries? Why did he show up last night? What's his favorite ball team? Does he have a girlfriend? Now listen to me... which ever one of you gets it out of him will have a one way ticket to a prize called Pulitzer." Perry said as he got back in front of large table and sat down. "So what are you all standing around for? Move! Get on that story!" he yelled and all the reporters immediately evacuated the briefing room. Perry turned around after the last one left and smiled "I love the smell of fear in the morning." he thought to himself.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Jessi and The Flash

(Soundtrack: Linkin Park. "Session." From The Matrix Reloaded.)

The bad guys tried to escape.

They ran like The Dickens.

(She could respect guys who could run. Not, you know, much, but still.)

Bunch of tourists heading home from vacation, taking advantage of the Black Sea waters, just now warm enough to swim in, and these masked grunts rolled into the Adler-Sochi International Airport, ripped off everyone in sight, and then made a break for it.

But that's when she showed up.

Getaway vehicles couldn't go far without wheels, and she had those things up on blocks before they could blink, their big black vans. So they took off on foot, last ditch effort.

Unfamiliar streets gave her a run for her money.

They made it all the way to the Sochi Olympic Park-- unused since the previous February --before she caught up to them. They tried to make a last stand in the Olympic Village, tried to gun her down, but she moved so fast their Kalashnikov bullets seemed to float in the air and things didn't go so well for them after that.

They were tied up in Medals Plaza when the local constabulary arrived, but The Flash was long gone.

She pelted across The Atlantic Ocean, powered out West with a grin on her face and the wind in her long golden hair.

She blurred into North America through Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, slowed to cruising speed, and then knifed south, crossing the border at Niagara and sweeping down through The State of New York.

Mount Curtiss slid past under her feet, and after that it was just a hop skip and a jump, sprinting into The City of Tomorrow, beautiful gleaming towers, Bakerline and Midvale giving way in half-an-eyeblink to the more central New Troy.

...and then the alarm was going off, and Jessi was groaning, her big dark eyes glaring furiously at that clock through her tendrils of red dark hair.

(Soundtrack: Angels & Airwaves. "Start the Machine." From We Don't Need to Whisper.)

There were messages on her machine, and as she limped through her kitchen-- she'd slept on her left leg wrong and was it ever mad --she wondered why her brain still thought it was in the Caucasus Mountains partway 'round the world.

"God, I hate time zones," she whimpered softly, rubbing her skull, as she pressed the button on the machine.

'I know, right?' The Flash chuckled to her from inside that skull. 'Talk about your outmoded structures of global interaction.'

"I dunno," Jessi grunted, wiping a plate off with a warm wet washcloth as the machine prattled on and some telemarketer gave way to a bill collector, "saves on electricity, right?"

'Electricity,' The Flash snrked. 'Whatever. Hook me up to a turbine for five minutes and I'll power a city block for a month.'

Jessi chuckled faintly, shaking her head. "I don't know if I trust you to do anything for a whole five minutes straight."

...but then the bill collector gave way to Mister Perry White's inimitable drill-sergeant voice and Jessi's eyes snapped wide.

'Look,' The Flash replied, her voice sounding a little hurt, 'it was just that one time--'

"Shhh!" Jessi snapped at her, eyes wide, listening.

Mr. White was demanding that "all reporters" be in at six.

"How is he calling me?" she whispered, utterly bewildered. "I wrote an obit once. They barely even trust me to file the reporters' work. He must've pressed the wrong 'group dial' button? He can't mean that I have to be there at six. He can't mean that."

'Can we afford to take that chance?' The Flash suggested, not unreasonably. 'Jessi, you just got this job.'

Holding an uncooked breakfast pocket halfway to the microwave, Jessi sadly regarded the clock.

6:03.

"Oh, God," she whimpered.

'Care for a jog?' The Flash suggested, grinning her ass off. 'Grab a hotdog on the way from that nice place by Glenmorgan Square.'

Jessi glanced down at her achy left leg, and sadly flexed the toes on her left foot. "Oh," she opined, dejectedly. "God."

She ran her tongue over her teeth.

And she reached out in her mind, and flicked the "on" switch, four-dimensional geometry spinning through her brain, tesseracts and hypercubes and 3x2(9YZ)4A.

Lightning crackled in her blood and her hair turned from murky ruddy brown to shimmery golden blonde.

The Flash stared down at her fingers, grinning delightedly.

"All right!" she exulted. "Let's go to work."

'I'm just glad,' Jessi sighed from inside The Flash's head, 'that the trip won't take five minutes.'

"Shut up," The Flash grinned, no longer sounding the least bit hurt.

Red and gold blurred through the streets of Metropolis.

She climbed the side of The Daily Planet Building, sprinting vertically up the wall of the building so fast that even gravity couldn't pull her back down. Having reached the elevator, she tagged the call button and changed into work clothes, changed into Jessi, in the few seconds it took for the lift to arrive.

Jessi patted herself down, shouldering the backpack in which she'd hurriedly stashed The Flash's uniform. "God bless permanent press," she muttered.

'I prefer unstable molecules, personally,' The Flash replied, always a little sullen when she had to backseat drive for awhile.

"How often do people that work here take the elevator down into the office from the roof?" Jessi wondered absently.

'First time for everything,' The Flash mused.

It turned out that Perry had gotten dragged into a meeting of his own, and Jessi was delighted to hear it. She was hungry, and that hastily-purchased hot dog hadn't cut it.

During the reporter's meeting-- which had, surprisingly, included her --she'd done her usual bit. She'd just kept her head down, hugged the wall, tried to stay out of Perry White's line of fire. Not to mention tried to keep out of Clark Kent's line of sight.

(Every time he glanced in her general direction, she blushed red as a beet. He was. He was really beautiful.

The Flash liked him, too. She kept making purring noises in Jessi's mental ear and that was really distracting.

But as far as Jessi could help it, they would never ever say a word to him. Office romances only complicated things and her life, their life, was complicated enough as it was. Not that Clark would give her the time of day anyway.)

But she couldn't help but listen, awed, to the rundown of the events of the previous day. The plane falling from space, and the man whose flight and speed and ability to move heavy objects put that plane very much to shame.

The man in the pictures was naught but a blur.

"Superman." Jessi wondered if he was beautiful, too.

The Flash purred louder.

"Shh," Jessi cringed, quiet as she could.

Perry dismissed them, and Jessi lingered half-heartedly for a moment before wandering back over to the elevator and pressing the "down" button. No more roof for her today. From here on, it was only basement.

(Soundtrack: Jimmy Eat World. "A Praise Chorus." From Bleed American.)

 

[LuckyVic]

Lois and Clark

Lois was already going into hyperdrive, she'd be damned if she was going to let anyone scoop her on the story of the century. She'd need her best informant, Bobby Fish Mouth, so she picked up the phone and dailed his number. However to Lois' eternal frustration, Bobby wasn't picking up. She left several messages in the first 10 minutes and the finally gave up and began to look around. Everyone in the news room was moving around frantically, all except one.... Clark Kent.

He seemed to be on his computer, but he wasn't typing anything.. it was as if he was researching something. Could he be onto some sort of lead on Superman she wondered as she got up from her desk and walked over towards him. Whatever it was he was looking at, had him so enthralled that he didn't notice her walking up behind him. She looked at the screen and saw images of space, images of various different types of space vehicles, and then information on the new space craft project between competing billionaires Sir Richard Branson and Lex Luthor. "So do you think that Superman is somehow connected to what happened with the X-33?"

CLark seemed to be startaled when he heard her voice. It had been a long time since someone had snuck up on him, he must have been more lost in thought then he thought. "Uhm... no. However since everyone else seemed to want to work on this..... Superman story. I figured that I'd work on what happened to the X-33."

Damn he was right, there wasn't really enough information on Superman at the moment since he'd only appeared one night thus far. And yet everyone was running around frantic trying to find something on him and no one was looking into the X-33. Perry was right Clark did have some natural reporting instincts. "Alright what have you found out so far?" she asked interjecting herself into Clark's investigation.

"Just background information, so far. What I do find interesting is that the other two companies that were originally part of this race also suffered setbacks caused by malfunctions." he said in a low voice as he went on to explain what he had found.

"Sabotage you mean. So you think that someone sabotaged these other projects, as well as the X-33. You know Smallville you might be right there." she said.

"It's just a hunch Lois, and besides we won't know anything for sure until the FAA releases their report of the investigation." Clark told her.

"Or we can go to the accident investigation and poke around and see what we can find."

"Lois I don't think..."

"That's why your a cub report and I'm the top the leader of this team." She told him.

"Leader? team?" he asked in shock.

"Yep you need someone to show you thr ropes, so until something comes up on Superman I'll be happy to teach you. So grab your coat and lets go."

Clark sighed as he stood up, he knew there was no stopping Lois when she got something in her mind. He grabbed his trench coat and followed Lois to the elevators.

Losi had that look in her eye, she knew that Luthor had something to do with this, he has the most to gain afterall. And since she couldn't pin Chole's death on him, she'd find some other crime he was a part of, if it was the last thing she did.

 

[LuckyVic]

Lex Luthor

Lex sat at the table, in one hand was his cup of coffee and in the other a copy of the morning eidtion of the Daily Planet. It like all the other papers this morning had chosen to use the story of the appearance of this.... Superman on the front page instead of the story the accident of the space plane. If not for Superman, Branson's plane would be plastered all over the news. The stock of his companies would be plumiting. But instead everyone was asking questions about Metropolis' new arrival.

This new arrival could mean problems for him and his interests. He pressed a button and within a few moments his personal assistant, Tess Mercer entered the room. The brunette stood at nearly six feet in height and was in excellent shape judging from the tight black suit that she wore. "How can I help you Lex?"

"The destruction of the X-33 was incomplete Mercy. Please contact Dr. Ulrich and make sure she understands that she had better have made sure there were no loose ends when she.... prepared the X-33. I will not tolerate anything in regards to this accident coming back to me.

The beautiful woman nodded, turned around and left.

Lex knew that she would deliver the message, as well as his intentions if it even appeared as if he were involved this. Granted some of the reporters, including one Lois Lane probably already did. But there was a difference between knowing and suspecting.

 

[Superman1496]

As Alfred pulled up to the Park, there was still a large crowd of reporters and police officers.

Bruce stepped outside the car to be ambushed by the papparazzi. Questions buzzed on why Bruce Wayne was there until someone called out about his investment.

Smiling his flashy smile, Bruce decided to explain. Folks, folks, let me assure you, when you put a large investment into something that comes crashing out of the sky, you want to know why it, uh, well, crashed.

Plus, who isn't interested in this super guy that saved the day huh? Bruce said, smiling, making his way past the crowds.

Bruce stood right behind the police guard. He looked on at the plane. The nose of the craft was smashed in. Obviously whoever stopped it had a small type of struggle. Out of his pocket, Bruce pulled out a small camera that had a straight link to his hidden computers at home.

He shot pictures of the plane. The crash site, even the sky above. Everything that could have any tip on what had happened was photographed. Finally Bruce put the camera in his pocket, and headed back to the car. The media buzzed around him as he got in his car, asking questions again. Random ones at that too.

You know Master Bruce, I think you need to find another girlfriend. Alfred called as he started the car, refering to several comments made from the media about Bruce's love life.

Bruce smiled and looked in the mirror at Alfred. Alfred might be right. Who knows, Alfred usually was right with his advice.

But that was a discussion for another day. Today, it was about this "superman".

 

[LuckyVic]

Lois and Clark

Lois and Clark had arrived just as the media, or at least a nice chunck of them, were trying to get at Bruce Wayne. Clark had to admit he was curious to see the billionaire playboy he had heard so much about. However Lois had made a b-line for the downed ship that work crews were appearantly trying to attach some sort of harness to it in order to remove it from the park. Lois didn't really pay much attention since she immediately began to look for clues.

Once he had caught up to her Clark joined in, only with the added help of his X-ray vision. He lowered his glasses ever so slightly and began looking around. Underneath some rubble he saw something that caught his eye. He really wasn't sure what it was as yet, but it could prove to be a clue.

It was awhile Clark was retrieving this clue that he heard a female voice, and it wasn't Lois. The woman called out to Lois asking her who she was and why she wasn't wearing any protection, then when she saw Clark she added him into this. But it didn't take her long to realize that they were reporters. It turned out that she was none other then Dr. Ulrich, head of the X-33 project for Branson Enterprises.

The woman was Blond and in her early to mid thirties Clark surmized. And from the way she and Lois were going at it he could tell they shared another thing in common besides their intelligence, they were both stubburn. It didn't take Lois long to get on Dr. Ulrich's badside and even though Clark seemed to be able to disarm the situation, it wasn't long before they were both being escourted away from the 'crash site'.

on their way back to the Planet Lois continued to complain about the other woman, who for some reason Clark found himself defending. The conversation ended with Lois going up to the City Room on the elevator by herself and Clark having to wait for another one. He knew this wasn't the end of it though, once Lois's mind was made up she was like a dog with a bone.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Jessi and The Flash

(Soundtrack: Counting Crows. "Mercury." From Recovering The Satellites.)

A lot of Daily Planet staffers took "working lunchbreaks," grabbing microwaveable food on the run. Jessi was no exception, except that, for her, "working" over her lunchbreak took on a whole new meaning.

This day in particular, she went to Kansas. Metropolis' Kansan counterpart, Stockton, had always had something of a low-level supervillain problem. In fact, legend had it that thugs were running around with powers here long before crooks had started toting advanced energy weapons and wearing costumes.

As a native Nebraskan, Jessi considered it the neighbourly thing to do to look in on Kansas from time to time. The Flash, meanwhile, didn't mind it in the slightest because the impossibly flat terrain gave her enough room to really open up the throttle.

...except, of course, in large cities.

"I swear to God, Jess," The Flash growled, spoon-feeding herself no-bean turkey chili from a Hormel can, gazing out at Stockton from atop a skyscraper, "if I wanted to dodge traffic and get rooftop gravel in my teeth, we coulda just stepped outdoors at homebase."

Jessi grunted. 'Rule number one of keeping a superheroic low profile and not simultaneously wrecking your life: vary your workspace.'

"That implies we have a life to wreck," The Flash arched a golden eyebrow. "Would it really kill us to help Metropolis out from time to time?"

'It might, actually, yes,' Jessi snarked. 'Besides, what does The Big Apricot need us for? They've got him now.'

The Flash glanced out at the distant Kansas landscape, out North into farm country, home of wide wide cornfields and old-fashioned spinny tower windmills.

"I bet you?" The Flash mused, dourly. "I bet you a hundred dollars the reason we're so far from Metropolis right now is because you're scared to meet him. You're scared to strike up a conversation with a man worth having around."

Jessi found herself brought up short by this. 'Need I remind you? We don't actually know anything about him.'

The Flash took this in stride, replying breezily: "All the more reason to ask him out for coffee instead of finding out the crucial details from words typed under the inevitable Lois Lane byline."

Gunfire sounded in the distance.

'We'll talk later,' Jessi cautioned.

"I'm on it," The Flash promised.

The abandoned empty chili can clattered to the rooftop, the spoon jittering about inside of it before coming to a halt.

(Soundtrack: The Prodigy. "Shadow." From Vexille.)

They'd robbed a bank, the trio had, strangely attired as they were in Spandex and goggles. They looked like they were more geared for speed-skating than bank robbery... especially given that they had no getaway vehicle waiting.

The police had gathered out in front of the place, guns ready and SWAT Team deployed, but for whatever reason, the thugs didn't really seem to mind much.

A certain quantity of bullets were exchanged, firing back and forth, scatterguns thundering and automatic pistols chakking, but then the thugs sequestered themselves behind a desk.

As if synchronised, each of them reached into a matching belt pouch and extracted a matching jewelry box.

From within these boxes, they each produced a small golden ring with a gem the green of emerald. They each slid those rings onto their fingers.

The "emeralds" began to glow...

...and the thugs vanished from sight.

An instant later, what glass was left at the front of the building from all the gunfire exploded outward... in a sonic boom.

Lugging their ill-gotten gains, the three villains departed the locale of Stockton Bank and Trust at a velocity no slower than Mach 10.

Grimly, they ran pell-mell West along Interstate 70, streaking off first into Colorado, then Utah...

...it wasn't until then that they realised they had a running partner, and that she was beautiful, and that she was grinning.

"That's pretty sweet," she noted, except she couldn't possibly have been audible at such speeds, "you guys get your power from funny glowy green rings? They put the coolest prizes in Lucky Charms these days."

The three thugs gazed at her with wide wide eyes.

Not a one of them was staring at her face.

('Men,' Jessi opined.)

One of them tripped, and screamed, and The Flash rolled her eyes.

"B.R.B.," she sighed, and blazed back to catch the idiot before he hit the asphalt face-first at ten times the speed of sound and turned himself into several hundred miles of raspberry.

She caught him by the scruff of his neck, relieved him of his ring, and left him tied up by his belt on top of a butte in The San Rafael Swell.

Then she floored it after his team-mates.

She caught up to them in Millard County, and they were ready for her, having drawn their guns. (Though, really, this made them less ready for her than they might have thought.)

"Hey, guys, sorry," The Flash apologised, keeping pace just behind them. "Had to deal with a rubbernecker."

The two men swung their weapons around to point back at her.

Two yellow-gloved hands reached out and plucked the guns out of their grip, flicked the safeties on, and chucked them off to the side of the road.

The Flash shook her head sadly.

"You don't ever have to be faster than a speeding bullet," she pointed out, "so long as you're faster than the nitwit holding the gun."

She sped up, ran between them, accelerated ahead of them and without missing a beat she whirled...

...kicked the left man in the jaw...

...and dropped low to sweep the right man's feet out from under him.

The world seethed back to normal speed as she caught both of them just as she'd caught their clumsier third man, by the scruffs of their Spandex necks. An eyeblink later, their rings had joined their partner's in the little compartment in the calf area of her right boot.

"Don't beat yourself up, fellas," The Flash consoled them. "There's really not all that many guys who can find just the right balance between speed? ...and stamina."

Jessi groaned softly. 'You? Are so embarrassing.'

...and then the timer in The Flash's left ear began chirping insistently.

'Break time's over!' Jessi warned.

The Flash blasted back the way they'd come.

Bound and cuffed, two of the three thugs materialised mysteriously in front of the still-gathered Stockton P.D. A split-second later, the third guy appeared... then their guns, and then the stolen money.

(The only thing still missing after everything had been accounted for was a safety-deposit box from inside the bank vault... and bank records showed that that had even been empty.)

The Flash sprinted back East across the country, carrying those three green-rocked rings in the "borrowed" safety-deposit box. She sprinted hard, gathering speed...

...and with a bellow and a grunt she hurled the box high into the sky, atmospheric escape velocity. She threw the box with the three rings into orbit, because she knew of no safer place for it.

The alarm was still chirping as she skimmed the surface of Hobb's River and sprinted through Metropolis to The Daily Planet Building.

"Just think," The Flash grinned as she screeched to a halt in Jessi's basement office, then switched to Jessi's attire in all of a microsecond. "Some girls have a naughty habit of catching a quickie when they go to lunch. And we just caught three!"

'Sharing a brain with you--' Jessi scowled, as The Flash hit the mental "off"-switch and the lightning faded and gold hair again became dark-cherry, "--is like sharing a locker room with a gaggle of college frat boys."

The Flash perked at this. 'Ooh! About that! Can we do that later?'

Jessi scowled as she kicked the backpack containing The Flash's uniform under her desk, and then slid her glasses onto her face. She didn't immediately reply.

'Spoilsport,' The Flash sighed.

"You're worse than Cat Grant," Jessi scolded.

'She's not bad, either,' The Flash noted without missing a beat.

Jessi's flabbergasted eyes were wide behind her glasses as she resumed filing hard-copy want-ads.

(Soundtrack: Vertical Horizon. "Send It Up." From Everything You Want.)

 

[LuckyVic]

Clark Kent Goes to talk to his cousin

Lois was driving him insane, they had argued a lot in the past. But he thought they had been past all that. He wondered if this was her way of paying him back for leaving without telling anyone like he had. THen all of a sudden just reappearing, but not just coming back into her life but in her mind intruding on it by being hired at the Daily Planet and now being given a portion of the City beat that she usually had sole possession of. "She couldn't be that petty could she?" he wondered as he walked down the street.

No it couldn't be that, she had to be mad at him because he didn't believe her assumptions that Dr. Ulrich had somehow been involved in the sabotage of the X-33. Clark just couldn't see how Lois could acuse this woman of sabotaging something that uptil now had been her life's work. Could Lois somehow be jealous of her. They were both attractive young women, could it be some sort of competition thing between the genders. He found himself in front of one of the hotest dance clubs in Metropolis, The Talon. Kara had been working there since it had opened. Clark wondered if maybe she could help him understand what was going on. After all she was a woman, granted a Kryptonian, but still a woman none the less.

The club was still a couple of hours from opening, however they were beginning to set up for the evening. Clark asked the bouncer if Linda, the name Kara was using, was in and if so could he talk to her. The bouncer nodded, showed Clark to a stool and then went to go find Linda.

...

 

[TearsoftheWorld]

Kara Zor-El was sitting at one of the bars inside her dance club, the bartender busy getting ready for when the club would open to the regular customers. She had a drink herself, but the alcohol in it barely even made an impression on her.

It was almost impossible for her to get drunk.

Which was rather disappointing. She wanted to taste that intoxicating feeling... to let her emotions run loose for a while.

"I'll be in back. Let me know if you need me for anything," Kara said. Everyone inside knew her has Linda. It was a name she had adopted for a variety of reasons, but mostly secrecy.

Kara had wandered into the back offices and she sat at her desk. There was a small candle on one of her shelves, and she quickly lit it with her heat vision.

"Much better," the blond Kryptonian said with a smile, noting the flickering lights on the wall. She had been sitting down for not more than three or so minutes when someone knocked on her door. Opening it Kara saw one of her employee's, and she said that a friend was here to see her. Raising an eyebrow, Kara walked out and she saw her cousin Kal-El sitting down on one of the stools.

"Hi Clark," Kara said walking up to him, "I'm surprised to see you here. What's new?"

 

[LuckyVic]

Clark gave her one of his classic smiles as he stood up and walked towards his cousin. He gave her a hug. "Well a few things. Working on a big story right now, with Lois Lane." he told her as he adjusted his glasses. "I see your doing well for yourself here. According to Cat Grant this is one of the top 10 places to go if your single in Metropolis."

 

[LuckyVic]

Lois and Jimmy (NPC'd)

Clark left the Planet relatively at a decent hour, but as always when she felt she was right she stuck with it. In this case, Lois' gut was telling her that Dr. Ulrich had something to do with the sabotage. But Clark was right about two things, there was no evidence and no motive. She just needed a break, something that would open this case wide open and then allow her on to more important things. Like finding out who that... Superman was.

"Hey Lois I know you said you didn't want to be bothered, but you got a call on line 3. He says he'll only speak to you." Jimmy called out from one of the other desks.

Lois really wasn't in the mood to be bothered, but she needed something to take her mind off this for a bit. "Lois Lane." she said as she picked up the phone.

"Miss Lane, I understand that your investigating the accident with the X-33 Genesis is that correct?" the obviously male voice said.

"Yes I am, why?"

"I have information you may want. In a week's time the survey team is going to report to the FAA that X-33 malfuction was due to a freak accident. I'm telling you that is a flat out lie. The truth is that the X-33 was sabotaged."

"And how do you know this?" Lois asked.

"Because I've seen the report that will be filed. It was on Dr. Ulrich's hardrive, written a month ago. Also because the part that caused the malfuction was a unit that I personally informed Dr. Ulrich was a design flaw. Micro-heaters were installed near the remote access controls. It was belived at the time that this was necessary because of the closeness to the hydrolics. In order to keep them from freezing up. However in simulations we discovered that not only did the hydrolyics still seeze up, but it caused interference with the remote systems. I filed a report with Dr. Ulrich informing her that these heaters needed to be removed. However in my priliminary review of the debries I can tell you they never were."

"Do you still have a copy of this report that you filed with her? And do you have access to the report that is going to be filed with the FAA?"

"My report yes, but the FAA report can only be accessed on Dr. Ulrich's computer."

"Can you get me into her office?" LOis asked

"I... I don't think.."

"Look Dr. Ulrich could have caused the deaths of quite a few people yesterday. Look Mr...."

"Doctor... Dr. Stein."

"Dr. Stein, if this was done purposely she needs to be brought to justice. Especially before anyone else gets hurt." Lois told him, trying to appeal to the man's sense of rightiousness.

"Ok Miss Lane, I'll help you. Meet me at the side entrance to lab 3. I'll get you in and then get you into Dr. Ulrich's office."

"What time?"

"There's still people here, but come down around midnight. Things will be a lot quieter then." Dr. Stein told her.

"Alright then Doctor I'll be there at midnight." she replied and then hung up the phone. "Jimmy I hope you've got plenty of caffine in your system cause its going to be a late night." she said with her trademarked smile, that meant she had knocked out a story.

Meanwhile as Dr. Stein hung up his phone the lights in his lab all of a sudden came on. When he turned he saw Dr. Ulrich standing there with a clip board in hand and shaking her head. "I'm really disappointed in you Doctor." was all she said. Then she lowered the clip board to produce a small gun with a silencer. She shot the good doctor not once, not twice, but three times in the chest.

tbc...

 

[LuckyVic]

The talk with his cousin hadn't helped much. She tried, but for some reason it just didn't help. He didn't understand why he was letting all this bother him. He thought about flying around, however things were still a bit hot since his first appearance and the press was out in force trying to get a glimpse of this.... Superman as Lois had dubbed him, and now everyone else was calling him. No it was best if Superman took the night off, only appear if it was something that only he could take care of. Which wasn't a bad idea, after Jor-El had warned him about doing to much, that the humans would start to expect him to do it when they could easily do it themselves. However that didn't solve his restlessness problem, so he returned to the Daily Planet and decided to look over the information that he had on the X-33 crash. Maybe he could find something there.

When he arrived he saw Lois at her desk, with paperwork all over it and his. Clark immediately recognized it as the X-33 information. "Find anything useful?" he asked her.

Lois let out a growl of frustration. "Not a damn thing. Everything we have is your standard press briefings." she said, not bringing up her lead that she would go to meet in a few hours. "I'm never going to get through this, and to make things worse I'm Starving! Wish I knew some good Chinese takeout."

"How about I go find us some, I think I know a little place that has great Chinese food. Then after we've eaten we'll go back to sorting through all this together. After all another pair of eyes might be a good thing." he said, intending it to be a peace offering as he turned around and was about to head out the door.

"Hey don't you want to know what I want?"

"I'll bring an assortment." he replied and then he was gone.


Shortly after a quick trip to San Francisco and back, Clark had laid out the several boxes of food that he brought them. He made sure that the place he used didn't have an address on any of the containers. The last thing he needed was to have to explain how he got food from all the way on the other side of the country. Dinner went well, they talked as they ate. Clark had bought more food then was necessary, but Lois assured him that if he left it in the fridge someone would finish it off. It was almost as if the quiet time had done some good and had gone a long way in restoring their friendship. However Clark did notice she seemed preoccupied by something. Not that it was hard to do since every few minutes she'd look at her watch.

At around 11 o'clock Lois yawned and stretched "Well look at the time, I guess we better call it a night."

"Your probably right." Clark replied and then smiled as he looked at Jimmy, how had fallen asleep. "Looks like some of us reached our limit some time ago." he said with a smile as he walked over to the young man and gently woke him.

"If you want Lois I'll follow you home to make sure your fine." Clark offered, course she didn't know he didn't have a car yet. But with his abilities he didn't need one.

"No that's ok, beside your hotel is on the other side of town." She told him and she could see the farm boy in him coming out which meant he was going to argue that it was right to let her travel alone at a time like this. "Look if will make you feel better I'll take Jimmy with me. His place is on the way to my apartment anyway."

Clark had to admit that it was a reasonable compromise so he acquiesced.

Clark got his trench coat and hat, as Lois and Jimmy grabbed their things and all three of them climbed into the elevator together. Clark got off on the ground floor, while Lois and Jimmy continued on to the parking garage. A few minutes later they were on the road in Lois' SUV.

"Uhm Lois I know I'm half asleep, but my place and yours is in the opposite direction."

"Oh be quiet Jimmy or you'll find yourself walking home, while I go get a Pulitzer." She told him.

Jimmy as was often the case shut up and followed along with whatever Lois was planning. Even though he had a feeling he might regret this later.

tbc...

 

[ChasNicollette]

Jessi and The Flash

(Soundtrack: Jim's Big Ego. "The Ballad Of Barry Allen." From They're Everywhere.)

(I've got time to think about the meaning of the thousand variations of the beating of a wing of a hummingbird suspended in the aspic of the world moving slower than molasses as I'm off to catch the girl who is falling off the cliff
and I'm there before she knows it
I'll be gone before she sees me
with my hand around her waist
I pull her back to safety
by the time she knows what's happened
there'll be someone else who needs me
because time keeps dragging on
and on
and on
and on
(time keeps dragging on))

Jessi sat on a raggedy easy chair in her apartment and listened to the coffee machine percolate. She listened to her cat, Querl, a bizarrely fluffy orange fellow who was at least part Maine Coon, as he attacked the plate of wet food she'd just set out for him.

She tried to listen to the mundane sounds of her apartment, rather than the noises of the Metropolis night. She had no super-hearing, no enhanced senses at all, at least not in the sense that she could hear further or pick up on pins dropping, anyway.

But she could still hear it from time to time. Could hear it, over the noises of her perfectly normal existence.

The shouts of irate spouses, the occasional crack of fist on flesh, the accompanying cry of pain.

The gunfire, the cursing in various languages.

The sirens, off in the distance.

"Don't shit where you sleep," she whispered to herself, with eyes clenched shut. "Don't shit where you sleep."

(I've got time to think about my past as I dodge between the bullets how my life was so exciting before I got this way and how long ago it was now I never can explain by the clock that's on the tower or the one that's in my brain
and I'm there before you know it
I'll be gone before you see me
and I'd like to get to know you
but you're talking much too slowly
and I know you'd really like me
but I never stick around
because time keeps dragging on
and on
and on
and on
and on)

The Flash had been unusually quiet. Like, almost intentionally quiet, so as to not help drown out the sounds of the city.

As easily-distracted as The Flash could be, the girl could be seriously cunning sometimes.

Jessi laughed to herself, shook her head.

"There a problem?" she wondered.

Querl looked up at her with bewilderment as he licked his chops. Was she talking to him?

'Oh, no, no problem,' The Flash replied, breezily.

Querl squinched his eyes. Ah. She was talking to The Other One again.

Querl wondered if other cats had to put up with this crap.

He went back to his Fancy Feast.

Jessi arched an eyebrow. "No, please, if you've got something stuck in your craw, I'd love for you to expectorate it."

'I'm just saying?' The Flash suggested. 'I'm just saying? That maybe it's not so much a matter of shitting where we sleep as you seem to think it is. I mean, you're the original personality, so you get seniority in decisions like this, I'm just saying? Maybe it's not so much shitting where we sleep as making the damn bed.'

"Have you ever made a bed?" Jessi wondered, her face tangled up in a mask of reluctance.

'Not the point,' The Flash retorted, 'and I stand behind my metaphor.'

Jessi stood, and walked to the coffee maker. She watched the coffee drip into the pot, drip drip drip.

(And you say the world goes rushing by
but it seems so slow to me
and you see a blur around you fly
but it takes too long
it seems so slow to me
(time keeps dragging on))

'Let's say we do wind up getting exposed as some kind of superhuman freak,' The Flash tried again. 'Don't you think they'll actually be more accepting of us if we're responsible for righting a few wrongs 'round this gleaming skyscrapey popsicle stand?'

Jessi closed her eyes, and smiled ruefully.

"They'll try to give us the key to the city," she murmured, "and they'll pump us full of tranquilisers and try to dissect us."

'What, 'cause we wear red?' The Flash replied, dubious. 'I think you'll find McCarthyism closed up shop awhile back, and that people are hurting and suffering out there right now.'

Jessi blinked. Arched a red eyebrow.

"When did you become such a card-carrying superhero?" she demanded, mock-suspicious.

'You know me,' The Flash cracked, cheerful. 'Anything for a good time; thrill of the hunt'll do in a pinch.'

Another siren began to wail outside, and Jessi took a deep breath.

"Okay," she replied, half-dejected, the wind a little bit taken out of her sails. "Let's go."

(How I wish I'd never gone into my lab to experiment that night before lightning flashed around me
and time changed speed
now I have to try to be so patient and wait for calamity to strike
because when things change in an instant
it's almost fast enough for me)

Lightning thundered through her skin, through her blood, through her eyes...

...through every muscle, through every cell...

3x2(9YZ)4A.

...through every follicle.

Querl mewed softly, and his tail lashed around him, thumping softly on the floor. He liked The Other One. She was much more relaxed about things than The First One.

Querl knew that tension had its place, but good grief, take a deep breath sometimes and pass out in a sunbeam, maybe chase some string around the kitchen.

Querl could see that The Flash knew the value of chasing string around the kitchen.

The Flash grinned, and reached for her backpack. The backpack with her uniform in it.

The backpack which. Wasn't there?

The Flash's hand closed on empty air.

"Wait," she blinked, "what?"

'Oh, God,' Jessi whimpered. 'We took the bus home.'

"We wanted to be 'normal,'" The Flash grunted.

'We left the backpack under my desk,' Jessi cried, sounding like she wanted to tear her hair out.

"It's cool," The Flash rolled her eyes. "I got this."

And the door slammed as suddenly she was gone, and Querl jumped a little bit from the noise.

And then The Flash was back again, unplugging the coffee-maker, looking chagrined.

"Saves on electricity," she explained to Querl.

Querl raised a paw and brandished it at the air, as if to say he wasn't questioning her judgement.

And then the door slammed again, and she was gone again.

And then she was back, staring into the metallic sheen of the coffee-maker.

Blinking golden eyes.

"Hey," she murmured. "The eyes change colour like the hair. I never noticed that before."

Jessi made a noise like clearing her throat.

"Yeah," The Flash nodded.

Slam. Gone again.

Squinching his eyes at the door, Querl waited to see if she'd reappear, and then he went to go nap in her laundry hamper.

(and I'll be there before you know it
I'll be gone before you see me
and do you think you can imagine
anything so lonely
and I know you'd really like me
but I never stick around
because time keeps dragging on
and on
and on
and on
and on)

The Flash screeched to a halt in the basement office, causing pages to flutter about.

Jessi's sneakers smouldered-- they weren't made like the uniform boots, a gift from Queen Industries on behalf of her brother --as they couldn't handle such speed. The Flash winced apologetically.

'S'all good,' Jessi sighed, glumly. 'Payless.'

The Flash let out a noise of relief, though, at the same time as Jessi, when she found that backpack right where they'd left it beneath Jessi's desk.

She picked it up and chuckled happily.

"What'd I tell you?" she grinned. "Nothing to worry about."

'Sure, sure,' Jessi replied, her own chuckle somewhat rueful. 'Nothing at all.'

The elevator bonged softly out in the hall.

The Flash arched an eyebrow and peered down the hall. "Who's here at this time of night that ain't the cleaning staff?"

'That's a ridiculous question,' Jessi opined. 'Someone's always burning the midnight oil.'

The Flash mused. "I wanna check this out. Call it a journalistic hunch."

She watched as the lights on the floor indicator ticked down to the parking garage.

And then she vanished in a red blur. As she ran, without even missing a stride, practised fluid motions, she changed from her t-shirt and jeans into her distinctive uniform.

She ran the backpack back to the apartment, and got back to the parking garage's exit just in time to see Lois Lane's SUV drive away, Jimmy Olsen in the passenger seat.

"'Burning the midnight oil,'" she murmured. "Maybe they're going to find Superman?"

Jessi winced. 'I suppose I can't convince you to let that drop, huh?'

"Tonight is all about being outside our comfort zone," The Flash replied consolingly, and began to keep pace with the vehicle by zipping in and out of alleyways and sidestreets, staying out of sight, moving invisibly fast when she had to.

(And you say the world goes rushing by
but it seems so slow to me
complain I'm gone before you blink your eye
but it takes too long
it seems so slow
And you say the world goes rushing by
but it seems so slow to me
and I want to be there while you laugh or cry
but it takes too long
it seems so slow to me
(time keeps dragging on)
and on
and on)

 

[camerindrake]

Hal Jordan: Coast City

The Full bird sat there while Capt. Hal Jordon slammed the door to his office which Hal had just so out of the blue barged into.

"How in the hell can you do this!" Hal yelled at Colonial Penington.

"Do what Captain Jordan?" the Colonial asks not having a clue what Hal was yelling about.

"I was taken off of active flight status this morning." Hal said trying not to yell at the top of his lungs.

"I didn't do it, Jordan. Though something may have come over my desk I haven't made it through yet." Colonial Penington said as he rummaged through the amazingly large stack of paperwork on his desk.

Hal said very slowly and enunciating every syllable, "You mean to tell me that you did not take me off of flight status."

Penington sat back in his chair and responded to Hal, "No, Jordan, I didn't. If I had I would have been standing there when you found out. I would have been the one to tell you. Don't get me wrong, Jordan. I don't much care for your brash nature, but you are one hell of a pilot. I would be stupid not to give you your sorties for the month."

Hal blinked a few times upon hearing Penington. He then asked, "What aren't you telling me, Colonial?"

Penington then found a manila envelope with Capt. Harold Jordan. He looked at Hal and handed him the envelope saying, "I guess this should explain it."

Hal opened the envelope and looks at the stack of paper in it. He finally spoke saying, "Orders to The UN stationed in Metropolis, you gotta be kidding me. Why me Colonial?"

Penington responded. "Not me Jordan only one who could put up that kinda recommendation is A General. And Jordan, I wouldn't suggest barging into his office like you did mine."

Hal turned and started to walk out of the office. He then turned his head back towards Penington, "Don't worry,Colonial. I'm crazy not stupid."

Penington could only shake his head at the remark.

TBC.

 

[LuckyVic]

Lois had managed to persuade the guard into letting her go into the parking lot with a lame excuse that she had forgotten her Press badge there earlier and she needed it. After getting passed him she parked the SUV, and then she and Jimmy got out and proceeded to the building that contained Lab 3.

Lois looked around, but didn't see any sign of Dr. Stein. Jimmy was already trying to persuade her to leave, because it was obvious to him that Stein had second thoughts. Out of frustration Lois tried the door, and found it was open. "Maybe he left the door open for us" she said "And even if he didn't I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth. Are you coming?" she added as she walked through door, but wasn't really waiting for Olsen to follow or not.

What Lois or Jimmy didn't know was that Dr. Ulrich had set this whole thing up. Stien was dead, and however Ulrich didn't know how much Lane knew about this. She couldn't afford to leave any loose ends, Luthor had already warned her about such a thing when he sent his prized amazon as a warning. No there would be no loose ends, she'd make sure of that personally. Tomorrow's headline for the Daily Planet would be about how their top reporter was killed in explosion which she may have caused.

tbc...

(I know it's been awhile since I've posted anything. Just really have been having problems thinking of anything for this.)

 

[Varshanka]

How big of a fan is it.....

Lois stepped out of the SUV and watched as Mr. James Olsen, athletic stud of the universe, tripped - face planting on the asphalt. Shaking her head she didn't bother waiting for him to clean his nose. Instead she headed for the building herself. He'd catch up in a minute. But if he broke his camera.. well, it wasn't gonna be pretty for him.

She'd barely crossed the threshold when something slammed into her from behind. Something big and very very pissed off.

****

Her head ringing Lois regained consciousness. With her vision blurry she turned her head and tried looking around. Jimmy was no where around. Then the chill hit her. Not a normal cold room chill either. This was way colder. The kind of cold chill that made your nipples so hard they hurt. The kind that gave you goosebumps. And completely around her. Looking down she realized she was naked. Not just unclothed and still wearing bra and panties.

Naked. Unclothed. Her clothes had been piled nearby. The pale pink panties folded and laid on top of everything. Somehow, the panties being folded was even more disturbing than being naked. A noise pulled her attention.

Damn.. Her eyes bulged as she looked at the guy. He was normal looking, except for the nice butt. If you discounted the fact he was naked and holding a bomb. Well, that wasn't exactly true. He was naked.. except for the boots. And the shiny goo he'd covered himself with, Vaseline, just call it Vaseline, That's what her head was screaming at her. And he was holding the bomb as much as he was setting it in a gentleman's lap. A gentleman in a white lab coat.. with three very neat holes in his chest.

Nimble fingers touched the controls and a time appeared. Not much time either. Three minutes. But it didn't start counting down. Instead the guy turned to look at her. Nice chest Lois thought for a brief moment. Kinda cute. In a really really creepy sorta way.

Her eyes involuntarily tracked downwards. 'Well, that explains everything,' she thought.

He stepped closer, his motions kinda oily, and the smell was rather.. weird. "Flame Retardant Gel," he said in a voice that was rather unremarkable as well. "Lets just say.. you are gonna go out with a bang.. and you're part of my price. He stopped just inches from her. "I've watched your work for some time. Quite embarrassing stuff you've written. Lots of enemies. So many suspects. The cops will have to line up half the country.. and part of the world. But me.. well.. I've stayed off the radar. We've never met. I’ve never even worked for any of your problems before. Not until now. I must say the price is right. Especially my bonus." One slim, slender, finger traced her hip.

Silently Lois screamed. Muffled by the duct tape it was more of a squeak of rage. But that only seemed to encourage the man onwards. "Oh, don't worry. I'll make sure you get 'yours' as well." He murmured. His face inching closer. His nostrils flared as he smelled her. his nose millimeters from her hip. "You smell nice. Like.. Apricots. Must be the body wash you use. Too bad.. I like peaches much more."

His face turned and he kissed her. But not just her skin. He kissed her.. her peach. The light covering of trimmed hair was pushed aside by his lips. And the duct tape over her mouth ripped. Her scream tore through the building like something primal and angry. And it wasn't even close to the rage she had.

Twisting she writhed in her bonds, the sudden motion knocking him backwards. Unfortunately the anti-fire gel had been applied a dash to liberally. Small droplets had splattered on the floor, and his foot landed smack dab on one.

A heartbeat later and he was falling backwards, his hands flying out for something, anything, to stop his fall.

Whack.. His flailing hands hit the corpse, knocking the bomb from it's already fragile resting place.

Crack... the thugs skull smacked the floor and he was down for the count.

Beep.

3:00

2:59

Lois' eye bulged.

2:58

She screamed even louder.

2:57

"Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllpppppppp"

2:56

****

James Olsen, camera man extraordinaire, sat in the drivers seat of Lois’ Suv. His head slumped forward. The faint smell of Chloroform was already gone, but he'd be dead before he regained consciousness.

2:55

 

[LuckyVic]

Superman

Clark wasn't going to patrol that night, but the truth is that he felt good when he was flying around the city. It actually seemed like a quiet night, unlike last night. He was about to return to his apartment when he heard a scream. He stopped in mid air and looked around in the general direction that it came from.

After a few moments he saw Lois. He moved in her direction with a burst of superspeed and crashed through the ceiling. He was a bit taken back by the site, when he scanned the building before he hadn't noticed her... condition, but now she was right in front of him in all her glory. She was hanging, her hands above her head so she couldn't loosen her bonds her legs pointing straight down. Essentially she was in a Y formation. But his hesitation didn't last long as he heard something, it was faint but it was a click. He looked around the room and then the floor and that's when he saw the boom, and the fact that it was about to explode. He dropped down and covered it with his body just as it exploded.

 

[Varshanka]

You suicidal nutball!!!!

She’d given up on screaming. Granted having a sore throat had helped convince her. Instead she hung there. Watching the timer count down. Each tick was an eternity. But they sped by quicker and quicker it seemed.

0:05

Now she just waited. Hopefully the blast would kill her outright. Laying bleeding to death, arms broken or ripped off, wasn’t something she found appealing.

0:04

She wondered who Perry would stick on the Trail of Superman. Probably Penelope, Smallville – Clark – Well, he just wasn’t ready for someone like Superman. Hell, she wasn’t sure she was ready for someone like Superman. Luthor was easy. He was a child playing at global domination and terror. But this new player. He was something different.

0:03

She’d only caught a glimpse of him in the hospital. But those eyes. She’d never forget those eyes.

0:02

The red and blue spandex had molded to his muscles rather nicely. And it would have been nice to interview him. “I wonder if he has a girlfriend.” She mumbled.

0:01

The ceiling exploded, or imploded, and he was standing there. She knew it was him. Those eyes. Eyes she could fall into forever and ever and ever. She watched as those eyes widened ever so slightly, and he was seeing her. Actually seeing her. Naked, hanging in front of him like a lamb for slaughter. Well, he wasn’t gay. That was a good thing to know. No gay man would have noticed, not like he was.

0:00

He twisted away from her and covered the bomb with his body. He was gonna die to save her. Cute. Handsome. Stupid and suicidal. He had to be insane. Very insane. But he had a very cute ass.

The absence of sound forced her to realize the bomb had gone off. She was deaf. DEAF!!! Alive but deaf. How was she supposed to be a reporter when she couldn’t even hear the answers to her questions? Then the ringing began. Louder than hell and twice as annoying. She couldn’t help the tears that ran down her cheeks. She wasn’t deaf. Well she hoped she wasn’t deaf. The ringing made her hope she wasn’t deaf. She was alive.

But Superman was dead. He had to be. No one could survive that explosion. Not wrapped around it like he had been. Dust filled the area, but she could still see him, dimly, but he was still there.