TOC Part Six Huge thanks to Sara for BRing, catching a major continuity glitch, and helping me patch it!
******
Production Meeting Seven:
Everyone was in place around the table when the cameras went on. "Traffic on the net is still holding steady," Seth reported happily. "Still very positive, too."
The production staff grinned. They never tired of hearing that their work was appreciated.
"A lot of sympathy about losing Lex," Seth continued. "A bit of confusion as to where he went, but that's how rumors on the net go, I guess. Oh, and one of the fans seems to have forgotten that Lex went bald in 'The Phoenix.' I guess his Season One appearances were more memorable. Or maybe she missed that episode."
"It happens," Brian said, shrugging.
"It's just a really good thing we're showing these meetings," Paul said. "The fans don't usually get to see all the craziness that goes on around here. Usually, they're just upset by the odd twists and turns without realizing how much is simply beyond our control."
Steph nodded. "Like the proposal. Meg is *still* trying to get permission to let us do that sometime next season..." She clenched her fists in frustration.
"Well, we have some time," Paul assured her. "We'll see how that goes. Meantime, what else do you have, Seth?"
"There's some curiousity about our new villain."
Paul turned to Brian.
"I'd prefer to let our viewers be surprised," he said, "but I did find an emergency guest villain." He leaned back, a self-satisfied smile on his face. "I already talked to Timmy. We should be good to go."
Timmy, casually flipping through pages and making minor corrections, nodded his agreement.
Paul smiled back, looking relieved. "Good work, Brian!"
"Ah, I guess that means we don't need to worry about this Chris O'Donnell suggestion," Seth announced, not sounding very surprised.
Paul shot him an odd look, then shrugged. "Guess not. What else is there?"
"That guy is back," he whispered. "He denies being responsible for the break-in, but he doesn't sound like he's in good shape."
"Oh, don't worry about that," Paul said a little more loudly than usual. "They caught him. He won't be bothering Timmy any more."
Timmy looked up, startled and hopeful.
"They found him camping out nearby. He was in pretty bad shape. Mumbling something about Kryptonite and chicken."
"Keeps the chicken from flying away," Timmy said cheerfully.
Paul grinned at him. "Anyway, he really needed some help. The nice people in the white coats came and they'll make sure he's taken care of. Clean and fed with all the chicken he wants, and even radioactive green stuffing. It's a cafeteria specialty, I hear. Once they work out the legal details, he'll probably be shipped back home, but for now, the important thing is that his needs are being seen to."
Timmy looked happier than he had in weeks.
Paul gave him some time to enjoy the feeling before getting things moving again. "Anything else, Seth?"
"Nothing to top that. We do have a couple of new viewers. Enthusiastic ones, too. Welcome, Beta, and... uhm... some kind of crazy animal."
"Crazy animal?"
"I don't know. Her icon has a super chicken on it."
"Better keep her away from that guy with the avian Kryptonite!" Timmy said, bouncing.
Paul spared him a grin before turning back to Seth. "Anything else?"
"They still hate Dan. A lot. Regulars and new viewers alike. He's become their new punching bag."
"Well, his contract isn't up yet, but we don't need him any more for this story. Right, Timmy?"
"He did have a few lines, but I can get rid of them easily enough."
"Fair enough," Paul said. "We'll take care of him next episode, then."
Seth looked back at the printouts. "Good," he said, sounding both firm and relieved. "I think that pretty much covers it."
"Okay then. Steph, what about you?"
"Everything is on track," Steph replied. "I don't think we'll have any more problems."
"Great! We've already heard from Brian." He spared the casting director a glance, in case there was anything else. When he saw the nod of confirmation, he turned to Kate, who was staring at her notepad. "Kate, what have you got?"
"Problems, I'm afraid," she said, toying with the pages without really seeming to see them.
"Oh?"
"It's the CG guys who were working on the Enforcer."
"Yes?"
"They had some kind of crash. They lost everything."
Steph waved her arms dramatically. "This is why you need back-ups, people!" She paused, seeing that everyone was staring at her. "What? I have Windows 95. I know about backing up data."
"They couldn't," Kate said into the awkward silence. "Didn't have the storage space."
Brian looked up, disbelieving. "What? Don't they have some kind of ridiculously large drives? Like six gigabytes or something?"
"Yeah, but apparently, they needed every k of it. We weren't their only project..."
Paul closed his eyes. "That dogfight with Superman was supposed to be the climax of the whole thing! Action! Stunning visuals! Ariel combat! An effects extravaganza! The groundbreaking 'I can't believe they did all this for a TV show' sequence people would be talking about for the rest of the year!"
The room went still as the crew gave Paul a moment to compose himself.
"Right." He took a deep breath. "What do we have?"
Kate tapped a spot on her notepad. "A few stills and test shots, and a full-scale mockup of the cockpit, made for live action close-ups."
"Okay," Paul said, clearly trying to believe it. "It could be worse."
"I'll make the changes," Timmy said.
"Good then. Meeting adjourned."
******
Part Seven:
Lois and Clark met up again the following afternoon in the Daily Planet's conference room. They'd split up that morning in order to speed up the investigation. If someone was daring to work behind Luthor's back, stealing and altering plans for a very dangerous piece of military hardware, time was clearly of the essence.
"I did some digging into the project staff," Lois started.
Clark looked up sharply. "How'd you do that? The thing's supposed to be top secret."
"I had Jimmy... Never mind that. It's not important."
"Not important? Lois..."
She quelled him with a look.
He sighed. "We'll talk about it later. What did you find?"
"Thank you. What I found is that just as the people in charge were getting ready to scrap the project and declare it unfeasible, someone new entered the picture. Doctor Chronian. No one knows where he came from or how he got involved, but they say he's some kind of genius. He started giving them solutions to problems they hadn't even been aware of yet. He saved the whole thing single-handedly, and made it better, faster, and cheaper in the process."
"Hmm. That lines up with what Doctor Klein told me."
She frowned at him. "You took stolen top secret plans to an outside consultant?"
"Well, I, uh..." he stammered, blushing.
Suddenly, she grinned. "Never mind, Clark. Just teasing."
He smiled, tentatively, but with a pensive look on his face.
"Clark, it's okay. Really. What did he say?"
"Huh? Oh, right. He said he'd never seen anything like it. That the circuitry and various systems were years beyond anything he knew about."
"Doctor Klein said that?" she asked, her eyes widening. "STAR Labs is supposed to be on the cutting edge!"
He nodded, worried. "Yeah, that's what I thought, too. ... Wait, what did you say the guy's name was?"
"Which guy?"
"The new one, the one who saved the project."
"Oh. Doctor... uhm... There it is... Chronian."
"Chronian? As in Chronos... Time."
Lois looked up at that. "And Doctor Klein said his work was years ahead..."
"What if it's a time traveller?" Clark wondered.
Lois started to object, then froze, a confused frown on her face. "I suppose it's possible. We've seen weirder things." She looked like she was trying to remember something, but after a moment, she gave up. "Okay, so it could be, but what would a time traveller be doing working at Lexcorp?" she asked, bewildered.
"Who knows? Looking to influence history somehow, I'd assume."
"And not for the better, from what I've seen." She thought this over, then her eyes widened in horror. "Clark, with technology from the future, the Enforcer could be a real match for Superman, and if he was planning to mass produce it and sell it on the black market..."
"The whole world could be in danger." Clark closed his eyes, seeing the possibilities. "Goons with that much power flying over every city..." He shuddered at the thought. "We can't let this go any farther," he said grimly.
"How are we supposed to stop it?"
He pointed to one of the sheets in front of him. "It says here that the manufacturing plant is near the airport. So I had Jimmy look up all the places in that area with the right equipment to put something like this together and had him cross-check that list with places getting deliveries from Gotham. There are only three buildings that fit."
She grinned at him. "Good work, partner."
"Thanks," he said, beaming back at her. "So, I'm going to go find Superman, and give him the addresses. He can check all three places faster than we could get down there."
"Okay, but..." Lois trailed off, seeing that it was too late. Clark was already gone.
***
Superman burst into the hangar to find what appeared to be a completed Enforcer prototype. The small, sleek, and stealthy craft was hard to see, even under the bright work lights. The man already settling into the cockpit looked up at the hero's entrance, startled.
"What? You! You weren't supposed to be here yet!" Tempus exclaimed before quickly regaining his composure. "Well, no matter. You're too late, Superman! As you can see, the Enforcer is ready, and it's more than a match for you! So back off, before I'm forced to..." He trailed off as the control lights flickered and died. While he'd been speaking, Superman, familiar with the blueprints, had disabled the craft with a few high precision bursts of heat vision. "Oh."
Superman smirked at him.
"Curse you, you big blue meddling boy scout!" He began fumbling with the pockets of his shiny futuristic flight suit. "Lucky for me, I planned for this contingency. I have a handy escape plan ready. A pocket time window generator. Don't leave home without --" The steely grip on his arms stopped him short. "I really have to learn to curtail my more dramatic instincts," he said to no one in particular.
Tempus went still as Superman dragged him away. No point trying to escape now. He'd just have to bide his time until one of his emergency contingency plans kicked in to get him out of wherever he was locked up. He smiled to himself. Time travellers were awfully hard to keep contained. And when he got out, he'd... he'd... "Maybe I'll run for president," he said thoughtfully.
Superman gave him a stern look, then took off in the direction of the nearest police station.
(To Be Concluded in
Part Eight this Sunday!)
Part Seven
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