The Ides of Metropolis - Matchmaker Style
Rated PG-13
* * denotes emphasis
< > denotes thoughts
As always comments are welcome. (ken.janney@kjanney.com)
Previously:
Back at HarriTech, immediately after Henry hit the button to start the virus propagation he turned his attention back to Lois and Detective Reed. Aloud he said, "Now, what am I going to do with you two?"
Lois took a chance that her taunt wouldn't be prophetic, but would result in a break in concentration as she asked, "'What're you going to do now, kill us?"
Lois was disappointed that this elicited no response that she could see. The gun in his hand did not waver in the slightest. Then she became concerned when the knuckle of his trigger finger began to whiten as he applied pressure to the trigger.
Stopping him, Lena offered, "Henry, not here! We do have one place that they won't be able to escape from. Solid concrete walls ... only one door and that can be securely locked …"
Henry looked at Lena, smiled and said, "My sweet, you are brilliant," turning back to Lois and Reed he gestured with the gun, "okay, both of you, through that door and left down the hallway. No false moves. I'd rather not shoot you, but I will if I have to."
They followed his directions which led to the door in question which was in the basement. Henry opened the door and not taking any chances stood back and said, "Okay. Inside, both of you."
Rather meekly, both of the women entered. As the door slammed closed behind them they both looked around, taking in their surroundings. As Lena had said the walls were made of concrete. They both turned to the door and tried their strength against it, to no avail.
In her frustration, Lois kicked at part of a computer which lay on the floor amongst some scattered trash and railed at Reed, "Great. Now you've done it!"
Reed was abashed, she retorted, "Me! You're the one who said 'What're you going to do now, kill us?' They teach you that in journalism school?"
Lois rebutted with, "Well, I suppose
you called for back- up and told them to burst in if we didn't come out in ten minutes." She paused long enough to observe Reed's response which told her that she had hit home before she continued, sarcastically, "They teach you that in detective school?" Lois had a smug look as she finished.
Realizing that they had each scored a point and were now to all intents and purposes even they each decided that it was time to call a truce.
Silently, Lois walked over and sat down on the floor against one wall. Reed shrugged her shoulders and sat against the wall next to her.
Lois looked around again and voiced the question that was on both of their minds, "What is this place? It reminds me of something out of a movie, but I can't put my finger on it." Lois was looking curiously from side-to-side as if looking around would provide the key to the memory. As she did, her hair flowed free and easy around her face.
Reed had been watching Lois rather than looking at the room and asked, "How do you get it to do that, anyway?"
Lois, having absolutely no idea what Reed was talking about asked in bewilderment, "What?"
Reed was nonplused, "Your hair. That bounce thing. When you turn your head."
Lois was surprised that Reed would be talking about something like that when they were trapped, but decided that she might as well have a friendly conversation. At least it would be better than sniping at each other. "I don't know. It just ... does it." Looking at Reed, Lois could understand her curiosity. Reed's hair lacked body. It was long and frizzy, like a bad Afro, but with less style. It sure looked to Lois as if for Reed a ‘Bad Hair Day' was the norm rather than the exception.
Deciding to throw her a bone, Lois glanced at Reed's hands and then at her own. Because she did so much typing she had nails that were rather short. With envy in her voice, she said, "I wish I had your nails."
Reed smiled and said, "You can. $1.98 at LexSave." Reed held out her hands, inviting closer examination.
Lois was startled, "Get outta here!" She finished in an awed tone as she reached for the hands for a closer examination, "They look so real."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This time, Superman was flying toward the setting sun. He was traveling so fast that the sonic boom that followed was many seconds behind him. Many people that happened to be outside heard the boom and looking up saw a perfectly clear sky. Occasionally military jets passed through the area, but often if they looked up they could see the jet in the distance. That was not the case this time. In order to maximize his speed, Superman had gained considerable altitude so that he was traveling through the thinner air of the stratosphere. He had no fear of running into other aircraft because that high only a military jet, one with a greater thrust to drag ratio to compensate for the loss of lift, would fly. It was something he hadn't been able to do on the trip between Metropolis and the east coast facility since they were relatively close. As a result of being in the denser atmosphere he had kept his speed to just over Mach 2 so that the sonic boom wouldn't result in broken windows or worse. As it was there were a number of windows that rattled in their frames so violently that they almost cracked. In the thinner air of the upper atmosphere he was able to exceed Mach 5. It was safe to travel at that speed that high up because the thin air didn't compress as much so the sonic wave created was attenuated and would have less effect than the wave created at Mach 2 in the lower atmosphere. As he landed at Whiteman Air Force Base he realized that he was near Kansas. He thought that it would be a good idea to possibly stop on the way back and check on the place.
Superman was doing his best to beat the virus. The operator was just hanging up the phone as he arrived. Without delay Superman was conducted into the center and an operator ran the anti-virus program. Even though time was of the essence Superman waited a minute to insure that the task had been completed successfully before taking off again.
And now:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Chapter 11
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
A few minutes after being locked in together, Lois and Reed had lost their animosity toward each other. Eventually they were sitting side by side chatting like old friends. Suddenly it dawned upon each of them that they had just spent several minutes in what could be considered ‘girl talk' and Lois was actually pleased that it had happened. Lois started to smile and seeing it, Reed replied in like manner.
In a desultory tone, Lois said, "I don't think there's any way out of here except through that door," as she nodded in that direction.
Reed nodded and put her hand on the floor. What she felt caused her to look down at the floor, more closely. As she did she said, "I thought it felt rough on my butt. Look at the floor. I wonder what these scratches are from."
Lois tried to dismiss it, "Rough poured concrete," but something in the back of her mind was blaring a warning signal.
Reed looked again, "Maybe so, but the gouges are in parallel lines and they are perpendicular to the wall. Must mean something."
Lois's mind was racing trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Back at the MUT classroom, Eugene and the students were watching the screen, breathlessly. Suddenly the mid - west center marker changed color to indicate that it was clear and a cheer went up. Eugene shouted, "Just one to go. He must have contacted Superman! There's no other way it could have gotten there so quickly."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
When Superman took off from the Whiteman Air Force Base he rocketed almost straight up to gain altitude before heading into the setting sun once again. He soared through the Troposphere and left it behind at about 35,000 feet, what airline pilots call Angels 35, and into the Stratosphere. When he reached about 63,000 feet, far above the service ceiling of all but the most sophisticated military aircraft, the temperature was close to sixty degrees below zero Centigrade, approximately seventy six degrees below zero Fahrenheit, almost one hundred degrees of frost since freezing is at thirty-two degrees. Superman was thanking his lucky stars that he'd had the forethought to place the diskette under the collar of the Suit, in contact with his skin, so that his aura would protect it. Once at altitude he accelerated to Mach 5 again, racing against time and the virus. Once he passed the Sierra Nevada Mountains he started to slow and descend until he finally landed at Fort Irwin in California.
When Superman landed at Fort Irwin in California, they were waiting for him and he was taken directly in so that the program could be run.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Back in the classroom Eugene and his students were figuratively glued to the monitor. As they watched, the cloud that represented the virus infestation was receding from around Watervliet Arsenal. The spot representing Whiteman Air Force Base had gone green and the cloud surrounding it had started to dissipate.
As they watched, suddenly the dot that represented Fort Irwin flicked from red to green. Another cheer went up, this time the plainclothes cops joined in. Eugene shouted, "We did it! We did it!" As they watched, the cloud which had been approaching Whiteman started retreating.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Henry Harrison was screaming in frustration. He had a monitor displaying a graphic similar to that which Eugene and his students were tracking the spread of the virus. When the first center switched from red to green he wasn't too worried. That virus would still spread out and cover most of the country and once that happened, secondary infections would re-infect that DNS server.
When within literal minutes the second center went green he knew that there was a major problem.
So did Lena. She said, "We need to eliminate the witnesses and clear out."
Henry hit a switch which started the trash compactor operating. They started grabbing incriminating evidence so that they could take it with them.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Lois's musings were interrupted by Reed saying, "Must be tough, being a reporter. Especially for a woman."
Lois's time with Clark appeared to be softening her somewhat, because her reply was conciliatory, "No tougher than it must be for a detective."
Reed shook her head and replied, in a bitter tone, "It's a boy's club."
Lois nodded in agreement and in a heartfelt tone replied, "Tell me about it."
As Lois finished speaking they suddenly heard a noise. It was barely perceptible initially, but the sound level slowly rose. They looked around for the source and didn't see anything that could be causing it.
Suddenly, Lois and Reed both felt the wall start to push against their backs. Lois shouted, "That's it!"
Reed shouted back, "What?"
"The movie - Star Wars! When Han, Luke and Chewie were rescuing Princess Leia from the detention block. They were in a fire fight and Leia grabbed a blaster to blow open the door to a chute. Leia, Han, Chewie and Luke dove through that door slid down the chute and they landed in the trash compactor."
Reed was startled, "This is a trash compactor?" Beads of sweat suddenly appeared on Reed's forehead.
Lois shouted over the noise, "Yes! Those parallel grooves in the floor were caused by the moving walls! We need to do something to stop these walls or we'll be squashed flat as one of Martha's pancakes! At least we aren't standing knee deep in muck with some creature trying to grab us and have us for lunch."
Reed shouted, "Yeah, at least there's that." Somehow, Reed managed, even though she was shouting, to make it sound sarcastic. "Look around for something to brace between the walls to keep them from closing!" Suddenly what Lois had said registered and she had to ask, "Who's Martha?"
Lois shouted, "My mother-in-law." Lois smiled as she said it then another memory of the movie struck her, "At least you don't have your gun. Imagine if you tried to use it on the walls. The ricochet could kill one of us. Han Solo tried his blaster and almost hit one of his friends."
Reed shouted back, "Are you likening me to Han Solo?"
Lois looked at Reed and couldn't pass up a final shot at the detective, "With that hair you're more like Chewbacca."
Reed sniped back, "Oh, and I suppose that you're Princess Leia?"
Lois was looking around for something, anything to use to stop the walls as she replied, "I guess I could have played the part. Classical good looks, nice hair … she used a long fall, you know. That wasn't all her real hair. Good figure. I could have done justice to that bikini she wore in the third one."
"The Empire Strikes Back?"
"No, Return of the Jedi."
As they were sparring they found some metal angle iron and lengths of pipe and pulled them up to brace between the walls. It was totally ineffectual. The bar and pipes started to buckle in the center.
Remembering more of the movie, Lois shouted, "The way they stopped it was Luke used his communicator to call R2D2 for help. R2D2 plugged into the ship's systems and turned off the compactor." They looked at each other and as if by unspoken agreement they both took deep breaths, looked up and shouted, "HELP, SUPERMAN!!!!!!!!!" In unison.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Clark had considered stopping to check on the farm on his way back to Metropolis, but he thought back to the time he had left Lois to attend that Sixth Grade Career Day and the trouble that Lois had gotten into. He hadn't been gone on this mission all that long, but he realized that it didn't take Lois Lane very long to get herself into trouble so he decided to head straight back. He remembered that Lois had accompanied Reed on her way to the HarriTech facility so he thought that it would be prudent to check there first. If she was going to get herself into trouble, that would be where it would happen.
As he neared the facility he used his x-ray vision duplexed on his telescopic vision to check out the building. He saw four people in the building in two groups of two. He was slowing for a landing when his super hearing picked up on the shouted, "HELP SUPERMAN!" coming from joined female voices, one of which he recognized as Lois's. He crashed in through the door and at super speed made his way to the lower level where the compactor was.
He ripped the door off of its hinges. When he did, looking in he saw Lois and Reed, each with their back against a wall with a leg extended, the foot propped against the moving wall. With a suppressed chuckle he stepped inside. He placed one hand on each moving wall and standing between them, pushed. There was a whine as the motors that were pushing the walls together tried to overcome the resistance. The whine escalated to a scream as bearings started to heat and rods slipped. The smell of smoke started to permeate the atmosphere.
Calmly, Superman said, "If you ladies would like to leave, the exit is behind me."
Detective Reed ducked under Superman's arm and made for the door. Lois paused to give Superman a quick kiss before she also ducked under his arm and out the door. As she exited quickly, she didn't see his responding smile and shake of the head. "Only Lois", he thought.
Once Lois and Detective Reed were safely out, Superman exited the trash compactor and led the way upstairs. They arrived at the door just as Henry and Lena were leaving. They both had their hands full so neither of them were holding weapons. Seeing two automatics stuffed into Henry's waistband, Superman removed both before he had a chance to drop what he was holding and grab one or the other. Recognizing the Glock as Detective Reed's sidearm, he offered it to her, "Detective, this one is probably yours. This other one would be a little harder for you to conceal on your person."
Gratefully, Reed accepted the automatic from Superman and held it on Henry and Lena. She started to recite, "You have the right to remain silent …"
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Reed called for a black-n-white to pick up Henry and Lena. Once they had been taken away, Reed gave Lois a ride to the Planet.
While they were in the car, Reed asked, "Where was that playing?"
Mystified, Lois asked, "Where was what playing?"
"That triple feature, you know ‘Star Wars'."
"Oh, that!"
"Yeah, I'd kinda like to go see it, especially after what we just went through. Is it at a local theater?"
"Well, no, uh, I don't know. We … we were out of town at the time."
"Oh, Gotham, some place like that?"
"Well, actually a little farther than that."
"Oh, how far?"
In a small voice, Lois replied, "Honolulu. We were on vacation at the time and decided to go to ‘the big island' for a movie and dinner."
"Must be nice! Vacationing in Hawaii. I presume that you flew."
"Yeah, those frequent flyer miles really pile up when your in-laws live a few states away."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Once Reed brought in Henry and Lena, Eugene turned himself in and was immediately released on his own recognizance.
Lois and Clark followed everyone through the process and finally when they were satisfied that all was well, they headed home.
When they walked in the door, Martha and Jonathan were sitting on the couch watching an old ‘B' movie. Martha was leaning into her husband and Jonathan had his arm across her shoulder.
After taking in the scene, Lois cleared her throat noisily.
Martha and Jonathan both turned to look at them.
Lois said, "The coast is clear now. We can move you to the other apartment anytime, like now."
Martha with a mischievous expression asked, "Is that really necessary? We like this pull out soooo much besides we will only be here another day or two." She started to giggle as she finished.
Lois's expression told it all. She loved her in-laws, but she loved her husband and while his parents were there she couldn't enjoy him the way she liked to. Still, she played along, "I know how disappointed you will be, but I think you'll appreciate the privacy you'll have there."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
An hour later Martha and Jonathan were settling down at Lois's old apartment and Lois and Clark were returning to their apartment.
Once inside, Lois threw her arms around Clark's neck and kissed him soundly. When she pulled back, both of them were breathless.
It always amazed Clark. He could hold his breath in space or underwater for twenty minutes, but kissing Lois Lane left him breathless.
Lois was always an eager partner, but tonight she was absolutely frantic. As they were moving in the direction of the bedroom, both were shedding clothing. Their shirts were next to one another on the floor. There were two pairs of shoes, each consisting of a woman's and a man's. Her bra lay on top of his t-shirt. Their pants and slacks were next to the bed along with their remaining underwear.
As the final pieces of clothing fell to the floor, Clark wrapped Lois up in his arms and floated them onto the bed. They had hardly broken the kiss from the time they had started at the door.
This started a period of marital intimacy
Finally, they lay side by side and cuddled in the afterglow. She said, "Thanks for saving me … again."
"Always, my love. Always. Does this mean we can check Trash Compactor off your bucket list?"
"Well, you did say I was a lot like Princess Leia."
"The resemblance is scary."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Darkness had fallen swathing the city in darkness. The street lights and the lights from the neon signs didn't reach to the top of Luthor Tower where Lex Luthor lived.
Luthor was sitting on his balcony, he had on his shooting vest, his double barreled shotgun standing nearby and he was idly with a set of night-vision goggles as he waited.
After a minute, Nigel arrived carrying the clay pigeon launcher and some clay pigeons. He placed the clay pigeons on the floor near the balustrade and affixed the launcher. He loaded a clay pigeon and stood by.
Luthor, satisfied with the function of the night vision device slipped it on over his head, picked up his shotgun, checked that it was loaded and approached the barrier. He barked out, "Pull!"
Nigel triggered the launcher and the clay pigeon flew out over the street.
In one swift movement, Luthor brought up the shotgun, sighted along the barrel allowing a lead and fired. The clay pigeon exploded into very small shards.
As Nigel loaded another pigeon, he said, "It is amazing, sir. All things considered, LexCorp came through this computer virus relatively unscathed."
"Pull!"
Another pigeon was launched into oblivion first by Nigel and then by Luthor's shot. After the shot as he savored the victory, he replied to Nigel's comment, "Yes. Tragedy averted. For now."
Surprised, Nigel replied, "For now?"
As Nigel loaded another pigeon, Luthor elaborated, "Yes. You never know when another virus might hit, one that has no code, or no code capable of being broken."
Nigel offered, "I suppose so. What a horrible and desperate act, utterly unthinkable. Unless ..."
Luthor said, "Exactly, Nigel. Unless it belongs to me. This time there was a genius equal to Henry Harrison to break the code that he had written. We must see about hiring Eugene Laderman." He paused a second and then shouted, "Pull!"
Nigel launched the pigeon. Luthor obviously had his mind on other matters, because his timing or his aim was off by a fraction because he … missed."
As he pulled the night vision device off he said, "Ooops." He stepped to the edge and joined Nigel as they looked down following the falling intact clay pigeon. After a moment, Luthor said, "Nigel, call …"
Nigel finished for him, "The lawyers. Yes, sir. Right away."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The next day Perry observed Lois and Clark as they stepped from the elevator carrying their matching travel mugs of coffee. Lois's hair was a little mussed and her cheeks were flushed and they both had smiles on their faces. They made it to their desks and Perry couldn't help but notice the little bump Lois's hip gave Clark as she swayed down the ramp, trying to make it look like a simple sway of her hips. Perry smiled to himself. He loved those two kids as if they were his own and to see them happy made him happy.
Perry gave his star reporting team a few minutes to get settled before he picked the early edition from his desk and walked out into the pit, stopping near their desks. "Eugene's a free man, thanks to you. Nice work." He pulled up the paper and indicated the story, above the fold, "Great story!"
Lois replied, "Thanks, Chief. And thanks for not blowing the whistle on us."
"How could I blow the whistle on you for something, I didn't, you know … know? And next time, I don't want to know what I shouldn't know."
After Perry departed, Lois turned to Clark and looked at him.
Clark shrugged and said, "Well, go ahead. I'm waiting."
Lois, with feigned innocence looked at him and asked, "For what?"
Clark shrugged and said, "The morality play. The 'you should have trusted me and my infallible reporter's instinct' lecture."
Lois reposts, "Clark, you don't need me to remind you of your shortcomings. I would have thought, by now ... they'd be obvious, but I love you anyway."
"At least there's that."
Lois said, "Come on, I'm starving and you're buying." After a few seconds, she said, "And just in case you
did miss the moral to this story -- you should trust what's in people's hearts, not just the facts, ma'am. I hate to say, I told you so, but I told you that Eugene was innocent. My gut told me that he was."
"Lois, if I have ever had any doubts about your intuition in the past, I need to make a note to not ever doubt it in the future." He stood and helped Lois with her jacket, "Let's go get lunch."
As they were on the way to the elevator, Lois wrapped her arm around his and leaned into his shoulder. As the doors were closing, through the final gap, Perry saw her go up on tiptoe and give him a kiss.
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