Winner Takes All
Folc4evernaday
Part 31
***
The next morning, Linda King sat at her desk, sipping a cup of hot coffee as she prepared her next scoop on the man of steel’s recent activities. She wasn’t sure what to think of the recent occurrences in the last week. At first she had thought the man of steel had been unable to resist her charm as many other men had in the past; now she realized he was just a skirt chaser.
“What a pity.” She muttered to herself, glancing at the front page photograph of herself and Superman in a passionate embrace. “Oh, well….” She shrugged, turning her attention back to her computer.
“Ms. King?” The familiar voice of Inspector Henderson drew her attention away from her computer once more.
“Yes?” Linda turned to face Inspector Henderson and the two officers accompanying him. “What can I do for you, Inspector?”
“Ms. King, I’m afraid you’ll have to come down town with us.” One of the officers said.
“Pardon?” Linda asked aghast. “Listen, I’ve already told you everything I know.”
“Ms. King, you’re under arrest. You’ll have to come with us.” Inspector Henderson said quietly, trying to avoid as much of a scene as he could.
“What??”
“You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to an attorney…” Linda was dumbstruck as Inspector Henderson began reading off the Miranda Rights to her. She stood up from her desk numbly as one of the officers placed the handcuffs on her.
***
“What is this?” Lucy asked, looking at the warrant Mayson had just laid on her desk.
“A warrant.”
“For Supeman’s arrest? Are you crazy?” Lucy asked.
“He’s out of control.”
“But...”
“No buts. Send it through now.” Mayson ordered.
***
“This bed is so comfortable.” Lois grinned up at Clark.
“You’re not even lying on the bed.” Clark noticed mildly amused that she was lying mostly on him.
“You’re comfortable.” She said, snuggling up even closer to him.
He sighed, “I aim to please.”
“Mmmm, that you do.” She whispered seductively, leaning up to kiss him.
“Mmmm.” Clark moaned into her mouth. “We need to get a move on. You need to get dressed…”
“You don’t like what I’m wearing?” She teased.
He gave her nude body a once over and smiled. “I like it very much, but I think the rest of the male staff would enjoy it a bit too much for my taste.”
“Fine. Let’s get moving.” Lois grumbled, reluctantly climbing out of the bed.
“You know, we probably should start looking for a place to live,” Clark commented, watching her appreciatively as she walked towards the bathroom.
“I know,” Lois sighed, “It's all happening so fast…”
“Well, when the baby comes we’re gonna need more room…and you just hit the third trimester so…” Clark glanced around the current apartment. “My apartment may be bigger than yours, but we’re still going to need more room.”
Lois sighed. “I know. We’ll take a look at places this weekend…” She grabbed an outfit from the closet and headed to the bathroom to get dressed. “I’ll just be a sec,” Lois called from the bathroom.
Clark glanced at the clock. “That must be a new record.” He muttered as he heard the shower from the bathroom start and decided to make himself useful; heading towards the kitchen to whip up some breakfast. After scanning the cabinets he was relieved to find groceries in the cabinets. They’d both been a bit preoccupied the last few days. He moved at super-speed, using his heat vision to cook everything faster than the normal stove.
He flipped several pancakes, whipped up some scrambled eggs, and grilled some bacon; laying the plates on the table. He then turned to grab some juice from the refrigerator when two petite arms wrapped around him, kissing him from behind, “Show off.” Lois whispered, leaning over him to grab a piece of bacon.
Clark laughed and leaned back to kiss her, “Breakfast is almost ready,”
***
“What?” Lois asked, dumbfounded. The minute they'd arrived at the Planet Perry had summoned them into his office.
“Your friend, Linda King was arrested for the murder of Martin Snell this morning,” Perry said, handing them a fax.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Lois said in disbelief, scanning the fax.
“Check it out,” Perry said, wagging his finger at them.
“Something tells me this is gonna be a long day,” Clark said.
“You don’t know the half of it. Investigate a murder and investigate this mysterious double of Superman ….”
“Let’s get going,” Clark said, guiding her towards the elevator.
“What else could go wrong?” Lois sighed.
***
Superman watched from a distance as Clark held the door open for Lois; following her out of the cab and into the Metropolis P.D. What was it about this intriguing woman that captivated his attention? He continued to watch with his enhanced vision. His father had warned him about approaching her. She was very intelligent and capable of ruining his plans to overpower the old Superman. He would claim his place in society soon. When that day came he would have this woman…this Lois Lane with him.
***
“King! You got a visitor!” The officer called. A resounding blare could be heard echoing through the halls as Lois and Clark sat in the visitor’s room waiting for Linda to appear.
“So, who do you think is trying to set Linda up?” Clark asked in a hushed whisper.
“I don’t know. Snell was involved with a lot of high rollers…He could have created enemies with any number of people. We need to know what happened that night at the Press Club.” Lois whispered. Linda came into the room, taking the seat the guard had guided her to. “Hi.”
Linda groaned, narrowing her eyes at Lois. “What are you doing here?”
“We heard about what happened,” Clark said, trying to ease the tension between the two of them.
“Nice. Come here to gloat?” Linda sneered.
“Believe it or not, Linda, I can be a professional. It just so happens I don’t think you killed Martin Snell.” Lois said, crossing her arms over her chest. “You’re capable of a lot of things, but murder isn’t one of them.”
“Is that supposed to be a compliment?” Linda scoffed.
“Could you two just hold off on the cat fight for a little bit?” Clark asked. “This is serious.”
“No kidding.” Linda sneered, “I’m looking at twenty-five to life for going to dinner with a friend.” Linda rolled her eyes, “The cocktails weren’t even that great.”
“Okay, so, what exactly happened that night? We ran into you and Martin at the Press Club at around nine. What happened that night?”
Linda seemed to be contemplating something in her head for a moment then sighed, rolling her eyes, “Whatever. I guess it can’t get any worse than this.” She leaned back to cross her arms over her chest. “We had dinner, drinks…Martin disappeared later in the night. I couldn’t find him. I figured he’d just had too many drinks and was passed out somewhere. He’s pretty well known for not being able to hold his alcohol.”
“Okay. What time was this?” Clark asked.
“It was about ten thirty.”
“That was a little after we left,” Lois said.
“Did you see anyone after that?”
“The bartender? I have a few drinks with a few gentlemen at the bar….I took a cab home.”
“Couldn’t get your claws deep enough into them to get one of them to take you home?” Lois asked.
Linda rolled her eyes, “I was a little…. preoccupied.”
“I can imagine. What happened? Neither one of them like what you were offering?”
“Oh, get off your high horse, Lois!”
“And get down in the gutter with you? No thanks.” Lois snapped. “I think we’re done here. Whatever you do, don’t drop the soap in the shower.” Lois said, standing up to leave.
***
“Lois, was that really necessary?” Clark asked as he handed back the visitor badge to one of the officers as they left the visiting room.
“She gets on my nerves,” Lois said.
“Gee, I hadn’t noticed,” Clark said, sarcastically as he opened the door for her.
“I’ll call Jimmy and have him run a complete background check on Martin Snell. My guess is he’s crossed the wrong person. We should also check with my friend, Louie. He’s pretty familiar with that part of town.”
“Okay. I’ll also put a call into Bobby…but who’s Louie?” Clark asked curiously.
“A source,” Lois said teasingly, running a hand up his chest seductively. “Why? Are you jealous, Mr. Kent?”
“You bet.” He whispered, leaning down to kiss her.
***
“So, where do we stand on this Superman double?” Clark asked as they sifted through the stacks of research on the conference room table.
“Well, I have one theory, but it’s kind of a long shot,” Lois said, pulling out an old article from the Metropolis Science Magazine. “This Dr. Fabian Leek is talking about cloning human cells…”
“Clones?” Clark asked in disbelief. “Lois, they aren’t even that technologically advanced yet.”
“Maybe they are. You know the government is always hiding things from the public. Look at Bureau 39….”
“But in order to make a clone of me they’d have had to have gotten a piece of my DNA. I’m invulnerable.” Clark pointed out.
“Most of the time,” Lois said with a smile.
“Well, Kryptonite’s got nothing on you.” He whispered, leaning in to kiss her.
“Guys?” Jimmy opened the conference room door, “Errr…Sorry.” He apologized, noticing Lois and Clark shooting him begrudging looks.
“Nice timing.” Lois snipped.
“Sorry, but your mother’s on line one,” Jimmy said, pointing to the phone.
“Oh, my God!” Lois winced, reaching for the phone, “What now?” She picked up the phone. “Yes, hello, mother? No, I didn’t forget. We just got back…Uh-huh. Okay, that’s fine. All right, well, tell him he needs to make time. Uh-huh….Well, I’m not going to plan my life around whether or not he has a medical breakthrough, Mother. Yes, I know. I know. Fifteen years. Yeah. No, it's fine. If Daddy can’t make it…Okay, well, I'm sorry you have a migraine. Yes, I know. Feel better. How about we swing by after work? Okay, you do that. Bye.” Lois rolled her eyes, hanging up the phone.
“What was that about?” Clark asked.
“Trust me, you don’t want to know.” Lois sighed, resting her head in her hands. Clark gave her a sympathetic smile and she elaborated on the problem at hand. “I wanted to tell both of them about the baby at the same time. I set up lunch, but it doesn't sound like that's going to work out."
"Why not?" Clark asked.
"My mother is trying to track down my father…who seems to be too busy with his latest fling to be bothered by little inconveniences like family.” Lois said bitterly.
“Too busy? He didn’t even show up for the wedding….” Clark pointed out.
“I know. I guess worst case scenario we just tell my mother and she’ll pass along the good news…” Lois muttered sorrowfully. Clark looked at her skeptically and she sighed, “I know it's a little hard for you to understand because your parents are so wonderful, but my father isn't exactly the model father.” She sighed, running a hand through her hair. “Do you want the short version or the long?”
“Whatever you want to tell me.” He said, resting a hand on her lower back as he lightly rubbed it.
Lois sighed, “Okay. Short version it is. My father was a workaholic that didn't understand the meaning of the word commitment. Every one of us was considered a disappointment to him. Me and Lucy; because we weren't boys. My mother...well, I tried not to listen when they had those fights. Anyway, after my mother caught him cheating for the billionth time they got divorced. Mother began drinking. She became an alcoholic. Lucy and I became inseparable...”
“I can't even imagine having to go through something like that,” Clark said, shaking his head. “I guess that explains why he didn’t show up...”
“Yeah, well, we haven't exactly been on speaking terms for the past....Oh, I don't know...fifteen years.”
“Ouch.” Clark winced. “That's a long time.”
Lois pushed a strand of hair out of her face, tucking it behind her ear as she tried to recompose herself. “Yeah, well...that's my sad story. You sure you don't want to back out?”
“No way.” He whispered, leaning in to kiss her.
***
Superman flew through the air, enjoying the flight. He loved the freedom that came with flying. He had no rules. He was free to be himself. He didn't have a bedtime. He could be whoever he wanted to be. He landed in an open airfield that appeared to be abandoned.
“Hi.” The stern voice of his doppelganger's voice brought his attention to him standing behind him.
“What do you want?”
“I want to talk to you.”
“And why would I want to do that?” Superman asked, smugly crossing his arms over his chest.
“Because we’re more alike than you want to admit. I know you’ve been following Lois.”
“What’s it to you?”
“You attacked her.” Clark’s face grew grim. “You attacked her and made her think it was me. You are out there acting like you’re some playboy…. You don’t just grab women like that…”
“They didn’t exactly complain.” Superman pointed out.
“But Lois did.” Clark corrected.
“Hey, I stopped.”
“After she slapped you.”
“It didn’t hurt,” Superman said mockingly.
“No, but you hurt Lois.” Clark took a step forward so he was a mere millimeter away from Superman, “You listen to me very carefully. If you ever…ever hurt her I will come after you.”
“Is that a threat?”
“That’s a promise,” Clark said, slamming his arm against Superman’s chest. “Stay away from her.” With that Clark ricocheted into the air, leaving Superman to contemplate the recent encounter.
“Whatever. He doesn't know what he's talking about.” Superman said to himself.
***
***
Clark stepped off the elevator, only to be greeted by Lois, shoving a file in his hands as she pushed him back into the elevator car. “Come on. We've got an interview with Dr. Fabian Leek.” She pressed the call button. “Jimmy found this article on that auction from last month? You remember? The one where you donated a lock of your hair? Or Superman did anyway...”
“Yeah, I remember...” Clark sighed, “You still working on that clone theory of yours?”
“You know me so well.” She beamed, “Dr. Leek is the only known expert in the field of cloning. He's in Metropolis. Whoever pulled this off had to go through him first.” She pointed to the article inside the file. “I called Mrs. Doyle...She's the one that bought the lock of hair...Sweet old lady. Kinda weird, though. Anyway, she said there was a break in at her house the day after the auction. The lock of hair was stolen. Never found who took it. Never got it back.”
“Something tells me they weren't your average hoodlum thieves.” Clark sighed. “Okay. So, let's say for argument's sake that there is a clone...Why would someone make a clone in the first place?”
“Blow up dolls weren't working?” Lois joked.
Clark rolled his eyes as they stepped into the lobby. “Seriously?”
“Seriously. I don't know. That's what we need to find out.”
***
Lois tried to suppress a cringe as she inched closer and closer towards Clark; attempting to avoid Dr. Leek's obvious advances towards her. Had he no shame? She was wearing a wedding ring and he still was undressing her with his eyes. 'Men!' She thought, disgusted at the doctor's behavior.
“You see, my dear, Ms. Lane, it's child's play to clone individual cells. As simple and natural as the reproductive act itself.” Dr. Leek smiled broadly at her.
Lois nodded, “But you wrote an article in Metropolis Science stating that an entire human being could be cloned if the right genetic material were available.”
“Well, I was young and unfortunately, overly optimistic. It's taken me thirty years to clone a simple frog. The process is much more difficult than I imagined. We're years away from successfully applying the technique to human beings.” He took a step towards Lois, leering at her.
Clark placed a protective arm around Lois' waist then picked up an enclosed glass specimen box that contained a very dead frog. “That process isn't exactly foolproof; is it, doctor?”
Dr. Leek's face changed from pleasant to a bitter dark tone as he addressed Clark, “No, unfortunately, you're correct, Mr. Kent. I'm sorry I can't be of greater assistance.” Clark narrowed his eyes at the doctor. Lois noticed the expression of mistrust cross his face. She didn't believe him either.
“Well, thank you for your time, doctor,” Clark said, moving towards the door with Lois.
Dr. Leek followed them; then turned to address Lois. “I would, however, be honored to take you to dinner, Ms. Lane. We could discuss the miracles of life in more, shall we say, tangible terms.”
Lois stared blankly at him, scanning the room full of dead frogs that were locked in glass confined boxes. “I've got a better idea. I'm a bit busy this weekend; so I'm REALLY not available, but you could do me a huge favor...”
“Anything...”
“Why don't you go home, change into something more comfortable, pack an overnight bag and then come back here...and release all these poor frogs to the the nearest lily pond.” With that, she turned on her heel. “Imbecile.”
***
“How are his vitals doing?” Lex asked, puffing at his cigar.
“Everything seems to be stabilized. I was a bit worried at first. He seems to be staying strong.” Dr. Leek said.
“Excellent. Soon he will destroy Superman and take over Metropolis.” Lex said. “It's time everyone realized who was running things around here.”
***
“We’re going to need a new lawyer.” Bill Church said, puffing at his cigar. “Someone as good as Martin was.”
“Who do you suppose would be stupid enough to mess with a well known Intergang lawyer?” Bill Church Jr asked.
“I don’t know, but whoever it is; has just thrown the red flag for a war. I don’t like having to work any harder than I need to. I have to do everything Martin was doing plus more. It’s not good for my stress level.”
“Dad, maybe you should take a vacation. Get some rest. Leave Intergang to me.”
“Are you sure you can handle it?” Bill asked. “It’s not like running the Cost Mart stores. It takes finesse and ….”
“I know. I know. Trust me, Dad. You need to rest. Remember what your doctor said.”
“Stress levels down. I know. I think I’ll take a cruise through the Bermuda Triangle.”
“That’s the spirit. Add a little spice to your life..” Bill Church Jr. smiled at his father as he took a long puff at his cigar.
***
“Sheldon Bender, I’ve heard some good things about you.” Bill Church Jr said as he took a puff of his cigar. “You do understand any information you become privileged to is under attorney-client privilege. You can’t share this information with anyone. Correct?”
“I’m aware of the background your company has, Mr. Church. I have no problem with your stipulations. As long as the number on my check is filled out and signed I don’t care.” Sheldon Bender said smugly.
“Well, then, Mr. Bender. Welcome to Intergang.”
***
Lex Corp stood in the middle of the city. Once the center of the business world. Now, it’s owner feared the worst as the blaze from the fire enveloped everything he had worked so hard to build.
“Father!” Superman’s face fell when he saw his home in flames. He flew down to the scene and addressed the officers. “Any survivors?”
“We’re unsure.” The officer said. “We’re not sure who was in the building at the time.”
“Mr. Luthor?”
“We don’t know.”
***
TBC...
