Hi FoLCs
Enough babbling. Here we go.
***
Summary of the previous episodes: Lois and Clark broke up. Clark is involved with Stella, a woman that is not what she seems to be. Lois met a man called Bruno Ramirez who claims to know something about her. Time is running out. Lois is going to be transferred to the Daily Planet´s office in London in just five days, but first she has to find out everything about this woman who is enchanting Clark. This time she is acting alone and not even Superman can help her on this.
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Even Steel Melts - Part 5
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04/18
Lois and Bruno walked out the Planet and didn´t realize they were being followed by Gallan, Stella´s assistant. Bruno seemed troubled and afraid. Lois led the way to one of her favorite restaurants so they could have an early dinner together but he refused to be seen in public. She suggested her apartment and so they headed to it. When they got there, Lois offered him a cup of tea in order to calm him down, but he refused it and accepted only a glass of water. Lois got one for herself as well. They sat and Lois started to do her job.
“So, Mr. Ramirez… what do you have for me?” She took a sip of her water.
“Ms. Lane, I´m so glad to be actually talking to someone about this. I was hoping to talk to your partner, but he didn´t want to listen to me.”
“You´ve tried talking to him?”
The man took a sip of his water.
“I went to his apartment this morning. I tried to warn him, but he didn´t want to listen to me… She got him… they always get them as they got me… but I escaped!… I wasn´t supposed to but I did… she is dangerous… she is really dangerous…”
“Whoa… Slow down. Gee, I didn´t know someone could actually babble as much as I do. Tell me your story from the beginning.”
He took another sip of his water and put it on the coffee table next to him.
“Ms. Lane, do you know about the two men that are missing in Metropolis. Those two athletes?”
“Holland Rieges and Louis Cassidy?”
“Yeah, those ones.”
“The police didn´t find them yet.”
“And they won´t because they´re dead.”
“Dead?!? And how do you know it?”
“She did it. Stella did it. She and her assistant, Gallan.”
“She´s some kind of psycho serial killer?”
“In a way, yes… but she has a purpose. She attracts them and then kills them.” Bruno shifted as he told his story.
“She has been killing really healthy athletes. Most of them have the same description.”
“Exactly. She is able to attract any male she sets her eyes on.”
“How does she do that? She isn´t the best looking woman in the world. How could she have so much influence over men?”
“She just enchants them.”
“What? Like a witch, you mean? Casting spells or spraying love potions?”
“I know it seems hard to believe me, Ms. Lane, but no… She is not a witch.
“A chemist?”
“No.”
“A mad scientist?”
“No.”
“Then… what is she?
“SHE is an IT.”
“An IT??”
“She is an alien.”
“A what?!?” Lois dropped her glass of water and stood up.
“An alien, Ms. Lane. She is from a planet not yet categorized and that´s why she´s really dangerous. ´Cause we don´t know what she´s really capable of.”
“And I suppose Gallan is…” She asked sarcastically interested.
“He is an alien, too. Let me explain this to you. Have you seen him? This Gallan? He is an albino. All the males of her species are not healthy enough to breed. That´s why she is here. To breed.”
“Like in the article I saw in the Sciences of the World magazine…” Lois sat down again with a very seriously concerned look.
“I am a scientist in Mexico. I wrote the article you read. One of her kind did it to me but fortunately, I escaped. I was here in Metropolis for a conference just passing by the Daily Planet a few days ago when I saw her with Mr. Kent and this Gallan. They were going out for lunch and I spied on them. I recognized her as one of them because of her assistant. He´s her male. Think about it as an artificial insemination. He can´t give her babies so they have to look for someone who can. Do you understand the danger Mr. Kent is in? She can kill him at any time after mating.”
“After mating??? No way! We have to do something before this woman gets my man… I mean my partner. So what can we do to stop her? What did you do to escape from them?”
“Simple. Water.”
“What?!? Only water? How?”
“This kind of female alien releases a pheromone from her skin. Let´s say that´s her superpower. She makes every male on this planet become attracted to her. It´s like any other animal when they want to mate. She selects one of the best men she can find and tries to mate with them, but to be successful, she has to pick the healthiest kinds she can find.”
“Yeah, I´ve already learned something about the power of pheromones a short time ago.” Lois remembered the time when she was influenced by a pheromone and almost attacked and stripped Clark at the office. “So, we know a solution but how to do it is another thing.”
“I just hope we can do something quick. She isn´t going to stay here for a long time. She is just waiting for her eggs to mature and then it is going to be late. When they´re ready to mate, they just become irresistable.”
“I won´t let it happen. Don´t worry. I´ll try to find Superman. He´s gonna help us.”
“If I were you, I wouldn't involve Superman on this.”
“Why not? Superman is our only hope against this woman. I´m sure he could help us on this.”
“We can´t call for Superman, Ms. Lane.”
“Why not? After all, he is the Man of Steel, isn´t he?”
“Even steel melts, Ms. Lane… and I don´t know anyone healthier than him.”
They looked at each other and Lois understood that Superman would be the best candidate for Stella.
***
04/19
It was 9 am, but Lois didn´t go to the Planet. First, she had to pass by her land-lord's house once more. She was having a problem canceling the contract she had over her apartment. After a few arguments with her landlord, she agreed not to take her money back but she made him sign a paper that he wouldn't put anyone in her place until the contract was over. It would be ok because this way she would have more time to move everything to her new rented apartment next to the “tube” on Baker Street. With one less problem on her hands, Lois went to the Daily Planet.
Lois arrived almost at eleven at the Planet, then she remembered she had to go to the airport to pick her tickets up. She saw Clark and wanted to talk to him, but he was entering Perry´s office and they shut the door. She was late. She couldn´t just skip the aiport, she had to go anyway.
Lois went to the airport, got her tickets and when she was in the middle of her way back to the planet, she got a call.
“Lois Lane.”
“Ms. Lane, this is Gallan speaking, Stella´s assistant. I would like to have a word with you. Can you meet me at the Capelli´s restaurant for lunch?”
“At Capelli´s? *It´s a public place, I don't see any harm in this* ok. I´m going there now.”
***
At his office, Perry tried once more bringing Clark to the real world.
“Clark, son… Do you know what day it is?”
“The 19th ?”
“Yeah, and do you know what day it will be in another 4 days?”
“The 23rd ?”
“And do you know what might happen on this day?”
“Uhh… the Metropolitans match on TV?”
“No… Lois may be gone.”
“Oh… this? Yeah… yeah, I knew it.”
“Son… I´m worried about you. Lois has been your partner for almost two years by now. You worked together, went out together, dated for some time. I even thought that you both could… Anyway, the point is: aren´t you doing anything about it? I mean, won´t you tell her you don't want her to go?”
“No, Chief. Actually, I do think it´s better if she goes away.”
“And… can you tell me why that is?”
“Because I don't think we can work together anymore. Now, Chief, I´m sorry but I really have some other stuff to do. You just wanted to talk to me about this or you still have more?”
“No, no… you can leave. Thanks.”
Clark smiled at him and left the room. Perry was concerned about this change of behavior. He had never seen Clark act so indifferently to Lois like that. Of course he had seen their fights before and each one of them looked really ugly but this one was absurd. Lois and Clark always had these titanic fights, but eventually one would excuse the other just by pretending the arguments never happened. But now everything was different. They couldn´t stand each other. He couldn´t tell who was acting more strangely.
***
Around 1 pm, Lois arrived at Cappelli´s where she met Gallan. He was waiting for her inside. He didn´t want anyone to see them there. At first Lois made an aptempt to persuade him to have lunch outside but he refused it. * Well, it´s still a public place*, she thought agreeing with him. They sat at a table and waited to order. Lois went stright to business.
“You eat?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“I thought aliens didn't need to eat.”
The waitress, with the menu in her hands, was coming to take their order, but was paralized by Lois' last statement.
“Oh, hi, Sarah. I´m going to have a Caesar salad, pea soup, rice, meat and fries, some chicken wings with barbecue sauce and extra pickles. For desert I´d like a muffin and slice of apple pie… no… one slice of apple pie and one of the bananas. It looks good, oh, and a diet coke to drink.”
"And what are you going to have, sir?” she asked, still in shock.
“The same sounds just fine.”
Lois looked at the man surprised. *He really must be from another planet to try to keep up with me on this*.
“I know your plan and I´m telling you that I won´t let you do it with my boyf… partner!”
“And I am here to tell you that I do not wish that to happen either.”
“What? I´m a little bit confused here.”
“Let me explain to you, Ms. Lane. I know Ramirez found you and I know he probably told why we are here, but what he does not know is that males from my planet do not agree with this.”
“He said you can´t breed. How can you assure the continuation of the species if you can´t breed?”
“We can breed, Ms. Lane, but our females simply do not want to have “babies” with us. The ones, males that can produce, are not healthy enough to travel to other planets or galaxies. They can survive on our own planet, but they cannot live "abroad', let us put it this way.”
“And why is it important to "live abroad'?”
“Because our planet is in constant danger being hit by meteors almost. We are afraid that one of those rocks will damage all the structures of the planet and eventually cease life there.”
“Like happened with Krypton, Superman´s planet?”
“Exactly. We tried colonizing Krypton as well, but unfortunately the place was also very risky and was destroyed later on. We got the information about this planet from the Kryptonians, and came here because the inhabitants look just like us. This planet is safe and has potential to be colonized, but I believe the males from my planet will not accept it.”
“Why not?”
“Simple. Jealousy.”
“Jealousy?!?” She asked increduously.
“Yes. Did you think it was just a human emotion? No, Ms. Lane. Males from my planet are capable of breeding and still the females are always looking for better males to procreate. Do you think Superman does not have feelings of love, hate and even jealousy?”
In Lois´ mind, the man´s words were echoing. *Jealousy. Could Superman possibly feel jealous? Was he jealous of Clark and I? And if he was, that means he loved me… or still does??? Maybe that is why he rejected me before. Maybe that is why he didn´t want me. Because his feelings were too strong to bare seeing me in another guy´s arms, even if the guy is his best friend, Clark. Oh… poor Superman.* In a minute, Lois realized she had never seen Superman as an E.T., yet she hadn´t thought of him as a human being either.
“So, you´re with me on this? Can you help me saving him?”
“Yes, Ms. Lane, I will help you. We still have two days.”
“Two days? For what?”
“Two days for her eggs to mature.”
“Then we must do something quick.”
The waitress came with 10 platters in her hands. She distributed them and said,
“Bon appetit!”
***
It was almost 5 when Lois got back to the newsroom. She wanted to talk to Clark and tell him everything she had found out but he wasn´t there. She saw Jimmy passing by.
“Jimmy, have you seen Clark?”
“He said he had to do something urgent.”
“Do you know if he went to see Stella?”
“No, I guess it´s just one of his trivial disappearances.”
“Better this way. Have you seen Elise?”
“She was talking to Perry last time I saw her, but they went out 30 minutes ago. Chief said he wouldn´t be back today. He said he had a meeting somewhere.”
Lois didn´t have anything to do. She sat at her desk and joined all the information she had on the athletes. It was obvious she couldn´t write an article with the whole truth because no one would believe her. She was just sitting around when the phone on Clark´s desk rang. She ran to get the call.
“Lois Lane.”
“Lois? Where´s Clark? This is Stella.”
“He had to leave for a while. Had something to do. Do you wanna leave a message?”
“Hmm… tell him I cannot meet him today. But on the day after tomorrow I will be waiting for him at 8 o´clock at my hotel. And do not worry, Lois. Even if you do not give him the message, I will call him later to make sure he received that.”
Lois just fumed with that last statement.
“I "will' give him the message. Don´t worry.” She hang up the phone.
“I swear that if you were human I would squeeze your neck till you… rrrrr…”
Clark came up behind her.
“You´d squeeze whose neck?”
“Bobby´s. I had to get all the information by myself. ”She tried to calm herself down and act naturally. “Oh, by the way, your… girlfriend just called. She said she won´t be able to see you tomorrow, but she will be waiting for you on the day after at her hotel at 8 o´clock.”
Clark had this puzzled look on his face. “Since when do you take notes on messages?”
She was going to answer him on that, but she didn´t want to waste her time starting another huge fight with him. Instead, she just turned with a furious smile on her lips.
“How far is this Stella thing going, Clark?”
“As far as it can if it was up to me.”
“You´re serious?”
“Yeah. Why? You have anything against it?”
“No…” she said on a hard attempt not to grab his neck, too. “Clark, I was wondering if you could ask Superman to meet me today.”
“I don´t know, Lois. Last time I saw him he was pretty busy.”
“Well, it´s really important. If you could just tell him to meet me today, I´d appreciate that.”
“I´ll try to talk to him, but I don't promise anything.”
“Thanks. Anyway, I´m going home now and wait for him. I'll see you tomorrow.”
She got all her files and went home.
***
At home, Clark was thinking whether he would meet Lois or not. He knew that with Superman she would act differently, so he thought it would be just a light conversation and that he wouldn't stress himself that much. So, he just spun into the suit and whooshed to her apartment.
When he arrived, he found Lois waiting for him at the window as if she knew he was coming at that time. She welcomed him with a huge smile and asked him to come in. As soon as he did, she started her usual babbling speech.
“Thanks for coming, Superman. I haven´t seen you for some time now. I mean… of course you don't have to be around all the time. You probably have other things to do... it´s just that… I haven´t seen you much lately. You have been quite busy, haven´t you?”
“Not really. I just have been priorizing lately,” he said in a hostile way.
“I see. Well, Superman, that´s actually why I asked you to come here. I wanna priorize, too. I wanna talk to you about Clark and yourself.”
“I´m listening.” *Did she find out?*
“Superman, I know that our relationship has been hard to define but I want you to know that I really think we´re good friends and I want to keep it that way. I know I´ve never given a second thought over your feelings and perhaps sometimes I was a little bit selfish.”
He gave her a look with one of his eyebrows raised.
“Ok. I´ve always been selfish,” she amended. “But I guess it´s just me. I guess I was not ready to share my life with anyone. I mean… whenever I tried to, I got hurt somehow. That´s why I never let anyone enter my heart.”
“Lois, could you just get to the point?” He demanded impatiently.
“The thing is: I let someone in. I let Clark in. I love him and that´s why I was leaving. You asked me the other night if I couldn't give it an extra thought on that and I did. I was angry at that time, but now that there´s just a couple of days remaining before I leave, I just don't wanna go. I wanna be around him. I know it may sound selfish to tell you that because I´ve never considered your feelings about it, but I have to admit my crush on you is over. I mean… it´s not totally over but I think I can deal with that.”
“And, what do you want from me?” He asked, melting from the inside.
“I want you to talk to him. Tell him I don't hate him. He thinks I´m leaving because I hate him and although sometimes I'm angry with him, it doesn't mean I don't love him.” She started chewing her lower lip. “He´s the best person I´ve ever met… I mean, you´re great, Superman, but you have your superpowers. You were born to be great. He´s just a regular guy with his own superpowers. The superpower of melting my heart whenever he is by my side. The superpower of calming me down… and it´s quite a difficult thing to do, you know?” She smiled nervously. “Please, Superman, just try to convince him to come back to me. I´ve tried talking to him, but he has been so aggressive toward me that I just couldn´t do it myself. Perhaps if you talk to him, he will listen to you.”
Clark was confused. He had just listened to everything he had always waited to listen to. Superman was admired and Clark was loved by the woman he loved the most. But what about Stella? She was important for him, too. He just couldn´t resist that fabulous mysterious woman. He had to take some time thinking about it. So he promised Lois he would try to talk to Clark about it and left.
Tbc…
MDL
