Illusions of Grandeur - Matchmaker Style
Rated PG-13
* * denotes emphasis
< > denotes thoughts
As always comments are welcome. (ken.janney@kjanney.com)
Previously:
Following the voices, Lois had returned to where the earlier confrontation had occurred and started looking around. Suddenly as she moved slightly she was confronted by … herself. Lois didn’t realize it was herself because of the semi-darkness and she was startled until she saw it was her own reflection and moved to investigate. As she moved around behind the mirror she found herself in the hall of mirrors and she heard Superman and Constance speaking. She started moving around looking for them.
Constance was spouting, “Darren Romick was a penniless card hustler when I found him. I taught him everything. Everything my father taught me.”
Lois had been moving toward the voices when suddenly a hand grabbed her and pulled her off balance. When she regained her footing, she felt a gun pressed into her temple.
Seconds later, Superman saw an image appear in the mirror in front of him. The image was of Constance holding Lois with a gun to her temple.
Seeing this threat, Superman reacted instantly by directing a blast of heat vision at the gun, but since he had used a high level beam it was only to see cracks appear in the mirror that held the image.
Lois shouted, “Superman!”
Constance continued her rant, “No one wanted to see a female illusionist. They didn't take me seriously. So I got myself a front man who started to believe in his own success.”
Constance and Lois were constantly moving. Disappearing from one mirror and appearing in another. Superman needed them to stay put for at least a few seconds.
Lois knew that she needed to provide a distraction so that Superman could deal with the situation. She quipped, “All this just because nobody wanted to see you pull a rabbit out of your hat?”
Constance kept dragging Lois around as she replied, “It was a secret society that wouldn't let me in. Now I'm going to show them all what true illusion really is.”
Superman knew that Lois was trying to help and played along, “You had a great talent, Constance. But you're the one who wasted it by using it for revenge.”
Constance was at a place that she could see Superman’s reflection and he was looking all around, apparently confused. She paused to gloat and when she did she gave him the opening he was looking for. He used his heat vision, at a lower intensity, the same way he used it to cut his hair. He bounced it off of the mirrors hitting the gun in her hand.
As the gun heated Constance screamed and Lois took the opportunity to act. She windmilled her arm bringing it up under Constance’s, overhead and around back trapping Constance’s arm across her back and in the crook of her elbow. Then Lois’s other fist came up and clipped Constance under the chin.
Constance dropped unconscious to the floor as Lois released her arm.
Hearing Constance’s fall, Superman finally located them. He carried Constance’s unconscious form and led Lois out of the maze.
Once out of the hall of mirrors, Superman used some of the rope from the magic props to tie Constance up.
When she regained consciousness she asked, “How?”
He replied, “I’ve been onto you since the ransom pickup when you tried to hypnotize me. You failed, but I didn’t know what you had done to Nick. You could have drugged him for all I knew and I couldn’t take a chance that he would suffer ill effects if I took him away so I had to play along. You forgot a fundamental tenet of hypnotism. You cannot make someone do anything that they would not normally do even when hypnotized.”
“But you destroyed all of those parking meters.”
“It was supposed to look that way. You see, the city was preparing to replace those meters. They were outdated and a lot of them were malfunctioning. The Superman foundation contacted the city and volunteered Superman’s services to remove those meters. It saved the city some money and man-hours removing them. Ms. Lane didn’t know any differently and wrote up the story as she saw it.”
“Romick killed Novak.”
“No, actually, as you said, not everything is as it appears. I have been watching all day and saw what was happening. I used one of your own tricks against you. I used a mirror to fool Romick into thinking Dr. Novak was where he wasn’t. Then Dr. Novak played dead. He and Romick have gone for the police. They should be here shortly.”
“It won’t do any good. Neither of them will remember what happened. They all will forget the same as Lois and Nick will.”
“Again, you weren’t careful enough. I was able to imitate your voice even though that probably wasn’t necessary and broke your post-hypnotic suggestions. It was delivered through subliminal suggestion which didn’t affect me. Also we have your complete confession.”
“What? How?”
Reaching behind him, Superman grabbed his cape and reached into a secret pocket. He pulled out a miniature recorder and said, “I borrowed this from Clark Kent before I came here this evening. Every word has been recorded.
Constance was practically frothing at the mouth with anger.
And Now
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Chapter 08
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When the police arrived because he seemed to be most comfortable with Lois, arrangements were made for Lois to take custody of Nick so that she could see to it that he was reunited with his mother.
When Superman was leaving Nick watched and waved while holding Lois’s hand. A few minutes later, Clark strolled up and Lois introduced Nick to him.
Lois and Clark took Nick to the Planet so that Lois could interview him and while she did that Clark called the Moskal residence and asked for Rose.
“Rose, this is Clark Kent. I realize that it is late …”
He was interrupted by an anxious Rose, “Have you heard something? Something about, Nicky?”
Clark chuckled and said, “Well, as a matter of fact, he’s here with me and my wife. If you want to come in to the Planet, I’m sure he’d be very happy to see you.”
The relief was evident in her voice as she said, “The Daily Planet! I’ll be there shortly.”
“Take your time. He isn’t going to disappear again, I assure you. We’ll keep a close eye on him.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. I don’t need to get a ticket. I’ll be there shortly.”
When she arrived at the Daily Planet, she was greeted downstairs by members of the MPD and escorted to the newsroom. When she stepped out of the elevator the worried look that had been on her face disappeared when she saw Nick at Jimmy’s desk playing a computer game with Clark sitting next to him.
Nick heard the chime of the elevator and after making a move looked around. When he spotted her he shouted, “Mom,” jumped up and ran to her.
Lois was nearby and Clark had followed Nick when he left the game. Coming up next to Lois, Clark put an arm around her and they both smiled as Rose and Nick were reunited.
After a few seconds, Rose looked up and asked, “How can I ever thank you?”
Nodding at Nick, Clark said, “You’ve got a pretty tough little boy there.”
Lois pulled Rose aside and said, “He’s going to remember what happened. I don’t think he was mistreated, but just be aware.”
While Lois had been talking to Rose, Clark had spoken to Nick, “You take care of your mom, okay?”
“Okay. Will you thank Superman for me?”
“I sure will.”
Overhearing this, Rose said, “Can you thank Superman for me, too.”
Smiling, Clark said, “We’ll make sure he gets the message.”
Rose, hand-in-hand with Nick, headed for the elevator where the MPD officers had been waiting to escort them back to Rose’s car.
As they were leaving, Lois and Clark saw Cat arriving.
Seeing that Cat was back in her normal, ‘Cat’, attire, short, low-cut and skin-tight, Lois asked, “What happened? Salvation Army turn you away?”
Dejectedly, Cat said, “He married an exotic dancer.”
Stunned, Clark blurted out, “Arthur Chow?”
Cat said, “All that itchy, high-necked wool and he marries a woman who can wave hello with her navel.”
Lois quipped, “That's too bad. I had your wedding present all picked out.”
Cat’s interest was piqued. She asked, “You did?”
Lois dropped her bomb, “A set of personalized stationery. 'From the desk of Cat Chow.'”
Not very amused, Cat glared at Lois and slunk away.
As Cat was leaving, Jimmy and Perry approached. They were in the midst of a conversation, “So that's it. Thanks to that tape that Superman made we know that all this strange behavior exhibited by famous people all over the world was linked to Constance. My angle: 'Great Minds Sink Alike.”
Perry surprised him by double pointing and saying, “That’s brilliant, Olsen,” and slapping him on the back.
Jimmy’s conscience had apparently been bothering him and he finally burst out, “All right, that's it. I can't take it anymore. I get it now. I've learned my lesson. False praise means nothing. If you don't think it's a good idea just *say* so.”
Perry was puzzled and asked, “What in Sam Hill is he talkin’ about?”
Clark smiled and pulling Jimmy aside said, “He means it, Jimmy.”
Jimmy gave Clark a look, “You’re just saying that.”
Clark smiled and said, “Think about it. You didn’t say ‘Chief.’”
Jimmy looked to Perry and asked, “You mean it?”
Smugly, Perry replied, “Perry While *never* says anything he doesn’t mean.” Turning on his heel Perry headed for his office.
Jimmy looked at Clark with a question in his eyes.
Clark put him out of his misery. He asked, “While you and Lois went to see Constance, I had Dr. Novak here to hypnotize the kids.”
Jimmy started to smile as he saw where this was going.
“While he was here, I had him … de-program Perry.”
Jimmy smiled even more broadly and said, “Way to go, CK! Thanks.”
When Jimmy headed for his desk, Clark turned to Lois and asked, “So. Do you still hate magic?”
Lois gave him a skeptical look and said, “A trick's a trick, no matter how big or how small. Once you figure it out it's not magic anymore.”
Lois sat down at her desk and Clark sat on the edge and asked, “There's no magic anywhere? Not even a little?”
Lois simply said, “No.”
With a smile, Clark said, “Oh. Let’s see. Close your eyes.”
Lois asked, “Why?”
He encouraged her, “Just do it.”
She released a sigh of frustration, but she did close her eyes.
Once they were closed, Clark said, “Okay, now count to three.”
As soon as he finished saying that he started moving faster than the eye could follow.
She counted, slowly, “One … two … three,” and opened her eyes. When she did she was looking at Clark and he didn’t appear to have moved. She asked, “Okay? What happened?”
He glanced at her desk and she followed his eyes. When she did she gasped and stared at the beautiful bouquet of roses that had been placed on her desk. She picked them up and smiled. Lifting them to her nose she sniffed their fragrant bouquet and said, “You never cease to amaze me, farmboy.”
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A few seconds earlier, the florist at a booth just up the street from the Planet turned around from a counter at the back of the stall where he had been arranging flowers to find a gap in his display and some bills there in place of the flowers. Shaking his head he moved to the register and rang up the sale.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Glancing at the clock, Lois picked up her bouquet and said, “I think we’ve had a long enough day. Let’s get out of here. I still need to thank you for saving me from Constance, properly.” She arched an eyebrow at him, before she continued, “Then I think you promised to teach me how to stir-fry tonight. After that, there’s a movie I want to watch. You know which one. That new Mel Gibson one. Lots of shooting and bombs, that kind of thing.” Linking her arm in his they strolled toward the elevator.
When they arrived at the apartment, Clark spun into a pair of jeans and a tight black T-shirt and went to the kitchen to start getting ready to cook while Lois went to the bedroom to change.
When she came out she was wearing one of his button down oxford shirts with her legs bare. The shirt was unbuttoned to her waist and gaped open to expose her cleavage as she moved. She was rolling up the sleeves as she walked to the kitchen, her bare feet making gentle slapping noises as she walked on the tile floor.
“Lo – is. How can I concentrate on cooking when you are dressed like that?”
“Well, I really needed to get out of those hose and shoes; the skirt was still a little damp as well. Why did you let me get into that chamber, anyway? Couldn’t you have stopped Constance earlier?”
“There were a couple of problems. If I had shown her that I was not under her control there’s no telling what she would have done. I still wasn’t sure that she hadn’t used drugs. That was finally cleared up when she gave Romick her orders. The problem was that at that point I still didn’t know what her ultimate goal was and that didn’t come out until she gave me that satellite module. That’s when she explained her objective. By then you were already in the tank.”
Lois closed the distance between them and placed her hand on his bicep, stroking it slowly and looking into his eyes as he talked.
“Actually, you were safer there than outside. Plexiglas is pretty bulletproof so you were out of harm’s way. Romick was climbing up the ladder. A lot of people don’t realize that shooting uphill is more difficult than shooting straight ahead so the higher he went the safer he was. Nicky was in the sword box and with the sides up he couldn’t be seen making him a more difficult target as well. I needed to give her enough rope to hang herself so I kept her thinking I was under her influence as long as she kept talking.”
“Yeah, in the meantime, I was getting wet.”
“I knew I’d be able to get you out before there was a problem. If she hadn’t fooled me with those mirrors I’d have captured her earlier.”
“Did I thank you for making her drop that gun?”
“You don’t need to thank me, Lois.”
“Oh, but I want to.” She asked, “Did you know that I am now a magician?”
With an arched eyebrow he said, “Oh, I thought you hated magic.”
“I’ve had second thoughts. You showed me some magic … making those roses appear from out of thin air. Now it’s my turn.” Lois lifted her arms and turning her hands back and forth said, “Observe, nothing in my hands.” She then pulled on the rolled up sleeves and said, “Nothing up my sleeves, except my arms, of course.” Then, reaching for the two buttons that were actually buttoned on the shirt she had on she started to unbutton them. With a sly grin, Lois said, “Now for my next trick … I’ll make my clothes … disappear.” On that final word she pulled the shirt open to reveal the fact that she was naked underneath and let the shirt slide off her arms to the floor.
Dinner preparations were forgotten and she giggled as he scooped her up at super speed and headed for the bedroom.
Once in the bedroom, Clark spun out of his clothes and joined her on the bed.
Clark moved so that he was looking down at her eye to eye. Slowly he lowered his face until their lips met in a gentle caress. The kiss quickly escalated as she swiped her tongue across his lower lip and opened her lips in invitation. Their tongues started to dance a slow tango.
That started a period of marital intimacy.
When they finished and Lois’s breathing had returned to normal, she said, “Wow! Remember Romick’s box?”
“Yeah, what about it?”
She smiled and said, “That was nothing compared to the moon and stars I just saw! Wow! That was something else!”
He looked deeply into her eyes, saw the fires of love there and asked, “Were you doing this to say thanks?”
“No, I was doing this because I wanted to make love with my husband.”
“I thought you wanted another cooking lesson.”
“Oh, I do. Just not yet. We have all night for cooking.”
“What about the Mel Gibson movie?”
“What movie?”
“The movie you mentioned, the one with Mel Gibson.”
In a dreamy tone she replied, “All I can think of right now is you and what you we’re doing. Kiss me some more.” As she was speaking she was shifting her hips. “Besides, one of these days, we are going to try for twelve.”
He laughed and said, “You’re trying to kill me.”
“Love you to death, maybe.”
The End
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