From part 4:
All in all, it was a win-win situation. She could compete for the story she wanted, the Planet would get a great by-line if she managed to nail it down, and having a nationally acclaimed investigative reporter to compete with for the next few days for the exclusive of the century could only serve to light a fire under his own reporters.
'Besides,' Perry thought with a smile, 'I like her.'
She was obviously an amazing and talented lady, and he was excited at the idea of having her around the newsroom for the next few days. He had excellent reporters, but few showed her level of fire and determination. Having her around was sure to be a breath of fresh air in his sometimes-stale newsroom.
**********
Now on to part 5...
**********
Lois spent the next hour jotting down lists of questions she planned to ask the city's new hero, then decided she was ready to get started. The big question, though, was where.
She leaned back in her chair and chewed on the tip of her pen. How did she find this flying man? In the morning's article, it said nothing about where the man lived, other than the fact that he considered Metropolis his home. So where did she start?
Obviously, the man planned to use his powers to help the citizens of Metropolis. It only made sense that he would be out today doing just that. Maybe she could borrow a scanner to listen to, to hear what emergencies might be taking place that would require the hero's help. Then she could track him down and hopefully catch up to him that way.
Deciding that was her best course of action, Lois stood up and walked across the newsroom floor to Perry's office. He was on the phone, but the door was half open. She knocked lightly.
Perry looked up from the stack of papers in front of him and smiled a little as he waved her in. He gestured toward the chair she sat in earlier, and she sat down quietly, politely waiting for him to finish.
**********
Clark stepped out of the Planet elevator and into the busy newsroom. It had been a long morning. If he had thought being two people would be easy, he was wrong. He'd spent as much time--if not more--performing heroic duties in the blue and red costume, as he did tracking down his sources to get the much-needed information for his latest story. Having to dart away at every distant cry for help was definitely putting a kink in his investigating style. It was hard to concentrate on sources and information while continually keeping the other ear listening for cries for help.
He sighed. If he didn't have something solid to show Perry on his story soon, Perry was going to kill it. It wouldn't be the first time such a thing had happened, but Clark was never happy when it did. It seemed like such a waste of time and legwork--time and legwork he apparently wasn't going to have much time for now that he was supposed to be two people.
Knowing he had better come up with some information soon, he decided to jot down what little information he'd been able to gather that morning, then go back over his previous notes. Maybe he had missed something.
He walked down the ramp to the bullpen, stepping out of the center when an overeager copy boy barreled past him. He was almost to his desk when something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Turning, he looked toward Perry's office. There, sitting on the leather chair across from Perry's desk, waiting for him to get off the phone, was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. His heart started pounding out an erratic rhythm as he let his gaze linger on her.
She was slender and shapely, with smooth, flawless skin, and luxurious brown, shoulder-length hair, worn in a trendy yet professional style. Her red, elbow-length sweater showed off her feminine curves nicely and brought out the color in her cheeks. The black fitted skirt she wore only reached halfway down her thighs as she sat, giving him generous glimpses of her long, shapely legs, especially when she moved one to cross it over the other. For a moment, she turned her face toward the newsroom, and Clark's heart skipped a beat. Long, thick eyelashes framed beautiful brown eyes that seemed to take in everything around her, and her full, red lips parted slightly as she glanced around.
Clark felt infatuated, dizzy, and lightheaded, all at the same time. For some reason he couldn't even begin to explain, he felt inexplicably drawn to this woman sitting in Perry's office. Something about her seemed to touch his soul, leaving him wanting for more.
He shook his head. Ridiculous. He didn't even know this woman. He'd never fallen in love at first sight before, if that's indeed what this was. He was usually more sensible than that. Finding someone to care about...it was a tricky business. He'd never wanted to get too close to a woman before because romantic entanglements could prove awkward. How did he explain to her about himself, and all the things he could do? And if he ever did find somebody to love, could he trust her to keep his secret? It seemed so unlikely. And risky. Because of that, he had always been cautious involving matters of the heart.
All that had seemed to fly out the window the very moment he saw her, however. Without even realizing it, she had a hold on him; a hold that left him feeling transfixed and spellbound.
Jimmy walked by in front of him, breaking him from his trance-like stare. Impulsively, Clark grabbed his friend by the arm. "Jimmy, who is that in Perry's office?"
Jimmy turned to look, then grinned broadly and turned back to Clark. "That, my friend, is Lois Lane."
Clark's eyes widened. "THE Lois Lane? From the San Francisco Chronicle?"
Jimmy nodded, his smile reaching clear into his eyes. "Sure is. I had no idea she would be so hot! I've read her stuff before, but I always pictured her as some grouchy, middle-aged woman. Well, obviously she ain't."
Clark nodded in complete agreement. "What is she doing all the way out here?"
"She's here to do a story on Metropolis's new hero. I overheard her telling Perry that your exclusive interview with the hero left a lot of questions unanswered, and she's planning on getting the whole story. And seeing how much she loves to expose things, I wouldn't put it past her to leave Metropolis with a tell-all expose on the guy. If you ask me, that man had better look out. I hope, for his sake, he doesn't have anything to hide."
Clark's mouth went dry and he had to remind himself to breathe. Jimmy hurried away at the sound of someone calling his name, but Clark remained frozen in place. Turning his gaze once more toward Perry's office, he felt his feelings of infatuation for the stunning brunette begin to deflate with the rapidness of a spiked tire.
A tell-all expose of Metropolis's new hero. Of him. This was not good.
He knew he couldn't afford to have someone of her caliber on his tail. From everything he'd heard about Lois Lane, she was ruthless, would stop at nothing. As Metropolis's new hero in disguise, he knew that wasn't what he needed.
Swallowing past the constricting tightness in his throat, Clark resolved right then and there to stay as far away from her as possible...even if his heart wasn't entirely in agreement.
Overruling his heart, he grabbed a stack of papers from his desk and headed for an empty conference room. If he couldn't be seen, maybe he could avoid her completely.
**********
Lois ran from the Daily Planet building, hot on the trail of Metropolis's new hero. Perry had showed her where to tune into the police scanner, and soon after she heard a report on a fire that had just broken out in an apartment building not far away. There were people trapped, and the fire fighters were only just beginning to arrive.
Lois knew this was her chance. This was exactly the kind of situation Metropolis's new hero would show up to help with, wasn't it? She was sure it was. If she hurried, she was likely to catch the new hero in action.
She jumped in the first available cab. "Lincoln and 9th," she barked to the driver. "There's an extra twenty in it for you if you get me there fast."
That was all the incentive the cab driver needed. He stomped down on the accelerator and screeched away from the curb. She opened her mouth to yell at him in protest, but quickly clamped it shut. She had, after all, bribed him to hurry. And she did want to get to the man behind the blue and red spandex before anybody else did. If he got her there fast, she guessed it was worth a few bumps and bruises.
When the cab pulled over at her destination, Lois glanced down at her watch. Seven minutes. Not bad. She quickly pulled out the cab fare, plus the extra twenty bucks, and tossed it over the seat at him in her haste to exit the car. There was already a crowd gathered there behind the police barricades, and she didn't want to miss a thing.
Lois pushed her way through to the front of the crowd. When she reached the police barrier, she jerked to a halt. About fifty feet away, behind the wooden barriers and two parked police cars with flashing lights, she saw him. He was impossible to miss. The blue of his costume and the red of his fluttering cape made him stand out in the crowd; but even if he hadn't been wearing the bright colors, his stance and poise commanded attention.
He stood with his arms crossed commandingly over his chest, listening intently to the fire chief as he was apprised of the situation. Behind him, fire fighters dashed around behind him, barking out orders and unrolling hoses so they could tackle the bright red and orange flames starting to show through the windows. Thick, black smoke rose into the sky as it poured through the building's windows.
Lois's eyed the smoke warily and coughed into her hand. It wasn't the best of locations. The smoke around the building was thick, blowing into the crowd and causing the more sensitive gatherers to abandon their spots along the police barrier. Lois, however, held her ground. Her eyes teared up at the debris hovering in the air around her, but still she watched, intrigued by the still-mysterious hero standing not far from her.
She knew he'd be good looking; she'd known as much after seeing his picture in the paper that morning. But she wasn't prepared for how much more handsome he was in person. The photo had been inadequate in showing his more intriguing features: the intelligent brown eyes that darted away from the fire chief every now and then to survey the flames coming from the building, or the crowd when a particularly heavy cloud of smoke drifted over them; the broadness of his shoulders; the thick brown hair that lay unmovingly in the slicked-back style.
He was definitely incredible, Lois decided, and not just because of the showy display of powers she'd seen the day before on TV. As she continued to watch, she saw him nod at something the fire chief said, then glance up at the building where the chief was gesturing. His attitude was all professional, with his stern eyes and firm jaw evidence of his focus on the business at hand.
She watched along with him as the fire fighters moved their ladders into place up against the building. One fire fighter tried to dampen the flames using a hose from his perch high up in the bucket of the fire truck's extendable ladder arm, but it appeared to be too little too late. The flames continued to increase in size and intensity.
Just then a fire fighter came running out of the building coughing, causing his teammates, the fire chief, and the flying hero to hurry over to him.
"The stairs are impassable!" the fire fighter choked out, gesturing feebly at the engulfed building behind him. "There are people trapped on the top floor, but I can't get to them."
She saw the fire chief turn to the hero, an inquiring look on his face. The hero nodded, then took off into the building in a blur of vibrant colors, eliciting a cry of surprise from the crowd. Moments later he returned, carrying two coughing residents and setting them carefully on the ground before the gathered paramedics. Then he flew back into the building for two more victims. A minute later, several people were being attended to by the busy yet capable paramedics, and the super hero looked no worse for the wear.
A shout came from the fire fighters in the bucket of the fire truck's ladder, and Lois looked up to see him gesturing for the operator to move him back away from the building. "It's no use!" he shouted down to the chief. "We can't control it!"
With a quick nod and a word to the fire chief, the caped man turned to the building, inhaled deeply, then blew an icy cloud of air into the building. Her eyes widened in surprise as the flames diminished. A few more clouds of icy breath, and the fire was out.
A roar went up from the crowd, and the cheering continued long and loud as the costumed man smiled a little sheepishly at the attention, then went back over to talk to the fire chief.
Lois stood in stunned silence. Wow. This guy was impressive. That she had to admit. He was even more impressive in person than he had been on TV. She'd been in the business a long time, and not much impressed or surprised her any more. This, however, left her feeling more than a little in awe at the scope of his powers.
When the hero was finally finished talking to the fire and police chiefs, he walked over to the paramedics to check on the people he'd rescued. They all seemed to have come through the ordeal relatively unscathed, with only some smoke inhalation and a few cuts and bruises to show for it. Lois knew how lucky they were. The outcome without the city's new hero could have been very different.
As the man left the victims, his movements took him within a few yards of the police barricade. Lois quickly raised her hand to get his attention, but her calls were quickly joined by the dozens of other reporters around her, all clamoring for his attention. His only acknowledgement to their cries was a tight-lipped smile and a nod before he pushed off from the ground and rose steadily into the sky. A moment later, he was gone from sight.
Lois dropped her arm in disappointment. He hadn't even seen her...seen any of the reporters. He had looked more *through* them then *at* them, Lois realized, discouraged. She looked down at her short, curve-hugging black skirt and sleek red sweater that showed off her more feminine attributes and sighed. Her carefully selected outfit wasn't going to do any good if he wouldn't even look at her. If she couldn't even get his attention, how was she supposed to hold it long enough to get him to agree to an interview? As far as he was concerned, she was just one of hundreds of reporters vying for his attention. She shook her head. She had a sinking suspicion that this was going to be even harder than she thought.
The crowd around her started to disperse, and Lois overhead the two woman reporters next to her chatting about the super hero.
"Isn't he gorgeous? Too bad he didn't even glance our way. I would have loved to ask him if he was single."
Her companion laughed. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I'd gladly throw myself off a building if it meant I could get that man's attention."
Lois rolled her eyes as she turned away. Throw herself off a building? Talk about desperate. Some women were obviously more desperate for love these days than she thought.
Lois shook her head. To each their own, she guessed. Well, they could go ahead and resort to drastic, lovesick measures to capture the hero's attention. She herself didn't want to date him. She only wanted his story. That meant good, solid journalism. And that's exactly what she had in mind.
With a new level of determination flooding through her, Lois set her jaw and headed for an empty cab. She'd show him. Nobody ignored Lois Lane.
**********
Lois spent the rest of the afternoon rushing around the city, tracking down sightings and gathering eyewitness reports and information on this mysterious new hero. She managed to catch him in action two more times that day, once at a multi-car pile up not far from the Planet, and at a bomb scare at a local bank. Each time, the results had been the same as that morning--he had ignored her, as well as the rest of the press.
Lois was frustrated by late afternoon. She'd spent almost an entire day trying to get the elusive super hero's attention, with nothing to show for it. She dropped onto a nearby bus bench on her way back to the Daily Planet to regroup and reassess.
This was a challenge, she had to admit, but she was not deterred. There had to be a way to catch up with this guy. Somebody had to know him, or know how to get hold of him. If this had been her hometown, she would have had sources to turn to, informants who were willing to talk for a little cash. Being knew to the scene, she didn't have that luxury.
She took a deep breath to rally herself. 'Come on, Lois, you've hit dead ends before. Think. What can you do to get this guy's attention?'
Before she could answer her own question, the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She stiffened. Someone was watching her. She could feel it.
She'd been watched and followed before in her sometimes-dangerous career, but this time it felt different. The sensation was menacing, washing over her and sending a chill down her spine. She'd had enough strange things happen to her in her career as an investigative journalist to put her subconscious on permanent alert, and had taught her to trust her instincts. She'd made the mistake of mentioning this to Agnes once. Her neighbor had simply laughed, telling her she was paranoid; but Lois was convinced she wasn't. Her "paranoia," as Agnes called it, was what kept Lois out of danger. It had proven helpful on more than one occasion. She didn't want to disregard it now.
As slowly and inconspicuously as possible, she turned her head to the left and studied the people along the busy sidewalk, then did the same the other direction. Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary. The citizens of Metropolis seemed to be simply going about their business.
When a quick scan of the nearby store windows and parked cars also revealed nothing out of the ordinary, she reached slowly and deliberately into her purse. Her fingers closed over her compact and she extracted it casually. With a casual flip of her fingers, she released the catch and pretended to scrutinize herself in the mirror. The reflection of the area behind her showed nothing either as she tilted it slightly to the left and right.
She sighed with relief. If there had been someone watching her, they weren't anymore. At least, she didn't feel like they were. Feeling more at east, Lois got up from the bench and decided to head back to the Planet. She had some more research to do. Maybe if she learned some more about this man, she could figure out a way to track him down.
"Taxi!" Lois stepped toward the curb and raised her arm at an approaching cab. When it shot past her, she signaled another one. It drove past her, as well.
Lois groaned and dropped her arm. The traffic was heavy, and she suddenly realized how difficult it was going to be to hail a cab during rush hour. They were likely all going to be occupied with people traveling home from work.
She glanced at the street sign on the closest corner and thought for a minute. If she was right, the Planet was only a few blocks away. If she hurried, she could walk there before everybody left. She wanted to talk a little with Perry White before he went home for the day, and see if he might have heard of anything that could help her contact her subject.
Her mind made up, Lois started to walk briskly. It didn't take her long to cover the distance to the Planet, and she glanced at her watch as she turned the last corner, which would put her within sight of the newspaper's famous globe. Five o'clock. Plenty of time. If Perry White was anything like her own editor in chief, he would be there for another hour or so yet.
She had just lowered her wrist when suddenly a hand came out of nowhere and grabbed her arm in a vice-like grip. Too surprised to scream, Lois found herself being dragged into the semi-darkness of an alley. She turned and glanced behind her, finding herself face to face with a bald, burly man with a series of ear piercings and a rather elaborate tattoo of a dagger on his right forearm. He held a jagged-bladed pocketknife in his hand and was pointing it at her threateningly.
"Give me your purse, lady," he growled.
Lois stared back at him, unblinking. Her hand tightened subconsciously on her purse. "I don't think so."
The man raised his eyebrows. He glanced down at his knife, then back up at her. "Don't you get it, lady? If you *don't* give it to me, I'm going to shove this blade into your gut. Is a credit card and a lipstick really worth all that?"
Lois's jaw tightened. "As a matter of fact, yes." Then with a swift, trained movement, she shifted her weight onto her back leg and kicked the knife out of her attacker's hand, sending it skittering down the dirty alley floor. The man glanced at his knife now laying several feet away, then back at her in shock. Lois didn't wait for him to draw any conclusions. With another skilled movement, she drew her leg back and then swung it forward, connecting with the man's sensitive area. He doubled over in agony. Lois quickly brought up a knee into his face, then swept his legs out form under him with a well-placed kick at the back of his legs. He went down in a crumpled, unconscious heap.
"I'm rather fond of the lipstick in my purse, thank you," she tossed out at his unconscious form. Then, with a smug look of satisfaction, she brushed off her hands, picked up her purse that had fallen to the ground during her display of self-defense, and stepped over the man on her way out of the alley. She grinned to herself. 'That felt great,' she thought with satisfaction. It was definitely cheap therapy to take out her day's frustration on some petty criminal by knocking him senseless.
Two steps later, though, Lois stopped. Her eyes widened in disbelief as something occurred to her. Then she stomped her foot and let out a yell of aggravation. "Lois, what did you just do?!" she berated herself aloud, the sound of her voice echoing off the alley walls. "Someone just tried to mug you, and what did you do? You beat the crap out of him. What were you thinking?!"
She shook her head in disbelief. That, clearly, was the problem. She *hadn't* been thinking. If she had been thinking, all she would have had to do was place a loud and frightened, "Help! I'm being mugged!" and the very man she was after could have been standing right there in front of her.
She had blown it. Blown it big time.
Lois turned back to her would-be assailant, who was still out cold. Maybe she could wake him up, ask him to try again? She could promise not to beat him up this time if he would let her yell instead.
She rolled her eyes. The mere suggestion was insane. Wake up a criminal and ask him to try again? She was definitely losing it. For a moment, she considered calling for the super hero anyway, but quickly dismissed the idea. Most likely he would fly over, see that her assailant was out cold, and move on to other calls for help.
A tickling sensation on her thigh caused her to look down. To her dismay, she saw that she had ripped the right side seam of her skirt clear up to the top of her thigh.
"Great!" she exclaimed, her pretty features molding into a frown as she flicked her hand at the dangling threads. She turned to her would-be assailant, still out cold. "Thanks a lot! You made me ruin a perfectly good skirt, too!"
She shook her head. This just wasn't her day. With one last growl of aggravation, she stomped back to the sidewalk. Wasted opportunities. She hated those more than anything.
***********
part 6 to be posted on Friday...
