From part 2:
Ignoring his attempts to explain that he had been blindsided by Cat’s actions, Lois stalked out of the room. He suspected she would be rather distant with him for the rest of the morning.
With a sigh, he returned to his desk and sat down. Embarrassment, he had just discovered, no matter how intense, was another emotion that did not cause him to float.
And now, part 3:
---
Perry returned to the newsroom by midmorning.
By then, Clark had been out on one Superman rescue, a minor car accident on the Hobbs Bay bridge, and had returned to the newsroom. Lois had been on the phone for most of the morning, verifying information for the last of the independent stories Perry had assigned them. She had had very little to say to Clark when he returned.
“Lois! Clark! My office!” Perry bellowed.
Lois glanced at Clark, who shrugged, and rose to his feet.
Once they were both seated in his office, Perry leaned back in his own chair and began, “All right, kids, the suits want to -“
He was interrupted by Jimmy, who knocked on the open door, stuck his head into the office, and said, “Sorry, Chief! Lois, there’s a woman out here that says she has to speak with you right away.”
“About what?” Lois asked.
“Something about an invisible man?” Jimmy answered, “Or something like that.”
“Oh, for Pete’s sake!” Lois exclaimed, “Another crank who thinks we’re the National Whisper!”
“Maybe we should talk to her,” Clark suggested mildly, “just to make sure.”
“Clark…” Lois began.
“Look, you’re probably right,” Clark hurried on, “… but that’s what we thought about Samuel Platt at first, too. Remember?”
Lois sighed. “True,” she said, and looked inquiringly at Perry.
“Go - both of you,” Perry told her, “This’ll keep. Who knows? There might be a story here.”
Lois sighed again. “C’mon, Clark,” she said briskly, “let’s go get this over with, okay?”
She looked at Jimmy, who said, “Conference room,” before she could even start to ask him where the woman was.
---
There was nothing unusual or even remarkable about the woman waiting for them in the conference room. She appeared to be in her mid-fifties, with blond hair streaked liberally with gray, and a somewhat careworn face. She introduced herself as Helene Morris, tellling them, “My husband's disappeared, and…”
“Have you reported him as a missing person?” Lois interrupted her.
“No, no - I mean, he's *really* disappeared. He’s invisible!”
Lois looked at Clark, one eyebrow raised. He could see she was losing patience with the conversation.
“What makes you think your husband is invisible, Mrs. Morris?” he asked quickly.
“Well,” she began, “he didn’t come up from the basement last night - that’s where he has his laboratory - for dinner, so I went down to see what was keeping him. And he wasn’t there, but while I was looking for him, the basement door opened and I heard him say ‘Goodby, Helene, I’ll see you around.’ And the door closed. So I didn’t… *see* him leave, but… he did leave, so he’s invisible.”
“Mrs. Morris…” Lois began, and looked at Clark for help.
They were interrupted by Jimmy, who opened the conference door suddenly and said hastily, “Guys! You gotta come see this!” before dashing toward the pit.
Lois and Clark, followed by Helene Morris, approached the crowd of Daily Planet staff gathered in front of the TV monitors.
An LNN anchor was speaking. << If you're… *not* seeing what I'm… *not* seeing, then you're witnessing a miracle. Captured on amateur home video this morning, a catering truck, loaded with fancy treats for a political fund-raiser, was high-jacked by the 'Invisible Man.' >>
The news report continued with the story, playing the video showing a truck driver being thrown from the driver’s seat by… no one, and the truck being driven off with no one at the wheel.
“That’s my husband,” Helene Morris said in distress, “See? He *is* invisible. But he’s not a criminal! I don’t understand why he’s acting like this, but we need to find him! Can you help me?”
She was becoming visibly upset, and Clark gently escorted her back to the conference room.
Lois followed them, a look on her face that Clark recognized easily. She was in full investigative-reporter mode.
“We’re going to need more information in order to get to the bottom of this,” she said briskly. “I still say there’s no such thing as an invisible man, so we need to know exactly what your husband had been working on, Mrs. Morris,” she continued, “in order to find out how he’s doing this.”
“I don’t know what he was working on, specifically, but I know he talked about light and invisibility and things of that sort,’ Helene said. “I do know he would never hurt anybody. He’s very law abiding and feels very strongly about that. He doesn’t even swat flys! He… he catches them… he made a little net, and lets them go outside…” She began to cry. “I think someone else, some *other* invisible man, is… is impersonating *my* invisible man.”
“Clark…” Lois said helplessly, then sat down next to Helene and took her hand.
“Mrs. Morris, we’d like to help you,” Clark told Helene softly. “May we see your husband’s laboratory?”
Helene Morris took a deep breath and wiped her eyes, then gave them a wobbly smile. “Yes, of course,” she said, “I just want my husband back.”
-----
Alan Morris’s laboratory had been ransacked - utterly destroyed - when they arrived at the house. The outside basement door had been forced open, and the lab was a shambles. The glassware had been shattered, the cabinets were overturned or smashed, and the computer monitor looked like it had been kicked in. Torn and crumpled papers littered the floor.
Lois and Clark stood in the lab watching the police as they moved through the lab, dusting for fingerprints and photographing the destruction. A distraught Helene Morris had been taken upstairs to her kitchen by a sympathetic policewoman, who was both calming her down and taking her story.
“We need to find this Morris,” Inspector Henderson told Lois. “The Seabreeze Drive branch of the First Bank of Metropolis was robbed about two hours ago, by what appeared to be more than one… invisible man. The bank’s security cameras caught the action.”
“Has everyone in the city lost their minds?” Lois exclaimed, “There's no such thing as an invisible man!”
“What about the bank robbery?” Clark asked.
She rolled her eyes at him. “It’s some sort of elaborate hoax, Clark,” she said in exasperation, “I don’t know… they’re doing it with mirrors or something. And video records can be altered, you know.”
“How do you explain all the witnesses?” Inspector Henderson interjected mildly.
“Not you, too, Bill,” Lois said, “Next you’ll be chasing big pink rabbits or invisible elephants or something.”
Bill Henderson shook his head and, with the closest thing Clark had ever seen to a smile on his face, walked away from them to confer with the crime scene techs.
“I think that’s big invisible *rabbits* and pink *elephants*, Lois,” Clark told her with a smile.
“Whatever,” Lois replied dismissively. “Clark, the poor woman’s husband probably has something going on the side; he walked out on her, and now she thinks he's turned invisible.”
“How do you know he isn't?” Clark countered.
“Clark, are you serious?” Lois asked, “We're talking about a figment of somebody's overactive imagination.”
“What about Superman, Lois? There’s a man in this city who can fly. Why not a man who can turn invisible?”
“Clark, I’ll believe it when I see it… when I *don’t* see it… with my own two eyes, all right?” Lois said, shaking her head. “I don’t see anything obvious that would clue us in to what happened here, do you?”
Clark had looked the lab over carefully while they were waiting for the police to arrive. There was only one set of fingerprints he could see; he was sure they must belong to Alan Morris. He’d also seen a tiny scrap of fabric snagged on a nail in the exterior doorframe. He’d somehow missed it when he’d been standing in the doorway, which was odd, because it was shimmery, reflecting the light in a rainbow of colors. He’d plucked it from the nail and tucked it into his pocket; he’d show it to Lois later.
Despite the absence of any other prints, he believed Helene Morris when she said her husband was not a criminal. Why would the man wreck his own laboratory?
“There is one thing,” he said, “but I’d rather… talk about it somewhere else, okay?”
“The jeep. Let’s go,” Lois said immediately, tugging on his sleeve. Startled, he floated upward a centimeter or so off the floor before he caught himself and came back down.
Lois hadn’t let go of his sleeve. Feeling the backward tug, she looked back at him, one eyebrow raised. “C’mon, Clark, what are you waiting for?” she asked impatiently.
“Uh, Bill Henderson,” he improvised, “Do we need to let him know we’re leaving?”
She looked at him strangely, then called across the room, “Bill, we’ll see ya’ later.”
Bill Henderson glanced over at them and said, “If I need you two, you’ll be available, right?’
Lois waved a hand airily at him, tugging harder on Clark. “Come *on*, Clark,” she said, “You can’t tell me something like that and expect me to *wait* for the rest of it.”
He followed her, smiling. No, he couldn’t expect her to wait for it.
---
Once they were seated in the jeep, he fished the scrap of fabric out of his pocket.
“It might be nothing at all,” he said, “but I found a scrap of some kind of cloth snagged on the basement’s outer doorframe.”
“It’s sort of strange.” he continued, “See how it reflects the light?”
He twisted it in his hand, turning it over and, to their amazement, the fabric disappeared.
“Where is it, Clark?” Lois asked him. “Did you drop it?”
“No,” he said, “I’m still holding it. I can’t see it, not even with - well, I can’t see it, but I can feel it,” he finished quickly. He’d almost said “I can’t see it, not even with super vision.” That would certainly have triggered some sort of reaction from Lois, he was sure. Probably something… tornadic.
He turned the fabric scrap back over again, and it reappeared. Holding the fabric between his thumb and index finger, he tipped it back and forth. Shiny side up, it reflected the light. Shiny side down, it disappeared.
Lois put her hand on his, sliding her fingers down to where his seemed to be pinched together on empty air. She fingered the fabric, her hand cupped over his. Clark, concentrating on staying on the jeep’s seat, almost missed what she said.
“A fabric that can… disappear,” she mused.
They looked at each other.
“A fabric that can disappear,” Clark repeated.
“You could make it into a suit…” Lois said.
“…And wear it inside out…” Clark continued.
“That’s how he becomes…” Lois said.
“…invisible,” Clark finished.
“And why his lab was broken into…” she continued.
“That’s how someone else is…” Clark said.
“See?” Lois exclaimed triumphantly, “I told you there’s no such thing as an invisible man, Clark!”
-----
They returned to the Planet and pulled everything they could find on the truck heist they’d seen on the news, and on the bank robbery. There was very little information other than what had been reported already.
They’d agreed to call it a night, and Lois had dropped Clark off at his place.
He’d been home about half an hour when his phone rang.
It was Lois, and she sounded shaken. Alan had shown up - or, being invisible, arrived but *didn’t* show up - at her apartment.
She had been home for about twenty minutes, and had changed into her pajamas, when he had knocked on the door.
She’d put on a robe and gone to answer the door, but when she’d looked out the peephole, no one was there. She’d opened the door a crack, then all the way, again seeing no one. Thinking it was some sort of prank, or her imagination, she had closed the door and headed for her kitchen.
Alan had spoken to her then, scaring the daylights out of her - although she’d been extremely reluctant to admit that, even to Clark.
Alan had confirmed their theory of the invisibility suit, merely by taking it off. He’d told Lois that he needed their help to tell his story, at which point Lois had stopped him long enough to call Clark and ask him to come over.
Clark had assured her that he’d be right over, and then had to cool his heels on her apartment roof for ten long minutes before he could legitimately arrive at her door.
It was still too soon to be easily explained when he knocked on her door, but he could hear that her heartbeat was still faster than usual. He couldn’t help feeling protective of her, although she would also be reluctant to admit that she needed any sort of protecting.
Now they were sitting on her couch, and Alan sat in the armchair across from them.
Lois was still in her pajamas and robe, and she leaned slightly against Clark as the three of them talked. He had tucked the heel of one foot slightly under the couch when they first sat down, anticipating that their closeness might cause him a little too much… lightness.
He wasn’t floating, however, and he suspected that might have something to do with his concern for her. Her posture told him better than words that she hadn’t completely recovered her equilibrium, no matter how calm she might appear. He wanted to wrap her in his arms and hold her, but he would have to satisfy himself with just offering his support - literally, tonight.
“Alan, let's start at the beginning,” she said. “…Why?”
“It's very simple, Ms. Lane,” Alan replied, “I became invisible to become *visible* again.”
“What do you mean?” Clark asked.
Alan began to explain, telling them that he’d felt increasingly invisible in his own life. He described his job, an office full of anonymous cubicles where people came and went almost unnoticed.
“…I became so invisible in my own life, that I decided to do it for real. I started experimenting,” he told them earnestly.
“Where did you get the idea for the suit?” Lois asked him. Clark was relieved to hear that her heart rate had returned to normal.
“From a fluorescent light bulb,” Alan answered. “A fluorescent light bulb turns invisible light into visible light. I reversed the process. It took me fifteen years to build a working suit.”
“Ms. Lane, Mr. Kent, I'm *not* the one doing all these bad things,” Alan continued. “There's *another* invisible man out there!”
“You know your lab was broken into, don’t you?” Clark asked him, and when Alan nodded, added, “It's not going to be easy to stop whoever it is; invisibility is an incredible advantage.”
Alan nodded glumly.
“We can continue this in the morning,” Clark said, “Alan, why don’t you stay with me at my place until we figure all this out, okay?”
“And I’ll meet you guys there, tomorrow,” Lois said.
As he and Alan were leaving, Clark paused in the doorway to say goodnight.
Lois’s robe had come untied, revealing her Superman pajamas.
“Lo-is, not you, too,” Clark said, shaking his head.
Lois looked down at her pajamas and with a quick “Oh!” began to refasten her robe.
Despite his exasperation with the whole Superman hype, Clark was unable to prevent himself from starting to float. He quickly grabbed the edge of the door, trying to keep his grip light enough to avoid damaging it, and managed to return his feet to the floor by the time she looked up.
“Goodnight, Clark,” she said, and sort of shoved him out the door. He had to let go of the door’s edge, but fortunately, his feet were back on the floor… mostly.
Close enough that nobody would notice, anyway. Lois’s door was closed, and Alan had wandered down towards the stairway at the end of the hall.
-----
After leaving Alan Morris at Clark’s place the following morning, with his promise that he would stay there, Lois and Clark spent almost the entire day at the Daily Planet.
There had been a rash of ‘invisible man’ crimes in the early morning hours, including several jewelry stores and a rare coin shop. Lois and Clark, with Jimmy’s help, were trying to track down every known criminal who wasn’t currently in jail.
Over the course of the day, they’d accumulated scores of files and computer printouts, all of which were scattered around them in the conference room. They still had hundreds of suspects, and it was getting late in the day.
“The problem is, what if this isn’t a known criminal?” Jimmy asked them.
“Hmmm… What are we missing, Clark?” Lois asked, “What’s being stolen, jewels? Rare coins? And jewelry…”
Clark nodded, replying, “Yes… mostly gold.”
They looked at each other, an idea dawning.
“Jimmy! Where’s that list of the stuff that was stolen?” Lois snapped.
Jimmy looked around for a moment, then picked up a computer printout and handed it to her.
“Let’s see,” she said, skimming the list, “… gold rings with diamonds, emeralds, rubies, …gold chains, a gold and diamond brooch, antique gold watch, gold coins…”
“Gold!” Lois and Clark said simultaneously.
“Jimmy!” Lois said again, “can you find me information on that guy, whats-his-name, Golden Boy Something-or-other, that went to jail after that big gold heist a few years ago? Now?”
“On it, Lois,” Jimmy said, fingers flying over the keyboard. “How do you guys do that, by the way?” he continued, “It’s like you share a brain connection, or something… Here! Golden Boy Barnes – that’s who you think is behind this?”
“I think we’re on to something, Lois,” Clark said, smiling at her.
She smiled back, and said, “C’mon, Clark, let’s warn Bill Henderson. They need to have the gold repository watched. And we need to talk to Alan Morris again…”
“…And try to convince him to talk to Bill Henderson,” Clark continued the thought. “We need to know more about those suits.”
They gathered up the files and papers, stuffing them into briefcases, and thanked Jimmy for his help.
“It’s a privilege to watch you guys,” Jimmy told them with a smile. “Let me know if you need anything else.”
---
tbc
