Inside A Deranged Mind A day after the harrowing debacle with Jason Mazik, Lois and Clark were walking through Centennial Park. Clark had wrapped his arm around Lois' shoulders, holding her so tight that it seemed he was afraid of losing her, like he almost had. Inside his mind, there was a turmoil.
Joy was just stepping out of a transporter as he spotted Sadness sitting at the console, pressing a few buttons, while Anger and Disgust were trying to hold back Fear. Joy stared at the purple emotion, who was at least three times his usual size.
“What’s going on here?” Joy asked, completely flabbergasted.
“No time for questions,” Anger barked. “Get your sorry butt here and help us keep this guy in check.” He slid a few feet across the floor as Fear made an attempt to get to the controls. Then Anger dug his heels into the ground and pulled Fear back. He glared at Joy. “Now would be a good time.”
Sadness looked over his shoulder. “We better make this quick.”
He pressed another button and then Clark’s voice resounded from the walls. “ Lois, I've been thinking…”
There was a slight pause. “Any chance we can get her to hurry, too?” Disgust rolled his eyes.
The emotions sighed in relief, as Lois opened her mouth. “Me too.”
Anger cursed. “Oh, no, not again. We can’t have a repeat of that awkward conversation in front of the Planet. If anyone is crossing Clark’s fingers behind his back, I’ll kill them personally.” He glared at the emotion sitting at the console. “Sadness, do something.”
Sadness flinched in response and hurriedly pressed another button. “What about?”
Disgust rolled his eyes. “What Anger meant to say - do something
not stupid.”
Sadness shrugged an apology and stared at the console, tearing his hair in frustration.
Fear once again tried to free himself, but now three emotions held him back while at the same time staring at the screen in breathless anticipation.
Lois looked at Clark. “You first.''
A collective sigh of relief filled Clark’s mind, while Fear resumed his struggle with renewed energy. In turn, Anger, Joy and Disgust fought even harder to keep the upper hand. Unfortunately, Fear was slowly gaining ground. It was rather obvious they wouldn’t be able to control him forever.
“Sadness, for Heaven’s sake, stop stalling,” Anger yelled in panic.
The blue emotion threw another glance over his shoulder and hurriedly pressed more buttons.
“Okay.” Clark led Lois toward a fountain. “Sometimes you think you're immortal and you start to think the people around you are, too. It can just take a second to realize how wrong you are about everything.”
“You’re not going to do what I think you’re doing, are you?” Fear asked, his voice quivering. “Guys, this is so wrong.”
“Stop it right there,” Anger growled. “We’re trying to get out of this terrible mess
you created.”
Joy raised his brows, while he continued his efforts to hold Fear back. “Would anyone care to fill me in what is going on here?” Intently, he stared at the giant emotion next to him. “And why is he this tall?”
Anger let out a grunt. “Let’s say, things got a little out of hand, while you were busy decorating the Relationship Island.”
“Could you keep it quiet?” Sadness asked, exasperated. “I’m trying to concentrate here.”
He pressed another button, and Clark spoke again. “What I'm trying to say is, I almost lost you, Lois, and I'm ashamed.”
Lois’ eyes had widened. “Ashamed, why?”
Sadness took a deep breath. “This is it, guys. Revelation initiated in three, two, one…” His trembling finger hovered over the button for a second before he pressed it.
Once more, Clark’s voice resounded in his mind. “I kept pushing you away, even when I promised to stop. And if you died not knowing why, I'd never forgive myself. Because I love you, Lois, and…”
“Noooo,” Fear screamed. “This is insanity.”
He fought with all he was worth and finally managed to shake the three emotions off that were so desperately trying to prevent just that. He darted toward the console and pushed Sadness off his chair. Frantically he pressed several sets of buttons.
Suddenly, thunder rolled and lightning flashed across the screen. It started raining. Fear raised his fist in victory and did a little - and completely un-fear-like - dance.
“It worked,” he cheered.
Anger stared at the screen, his mouth hanging open. “He didn’t just cause this, did he?”
Disgust shook his head and rolled his eyes. “We may have a lot of freaky abilities, but influencing the weather isn’t one of them, fortunately.”
Joy looked at him skeptically. “You sure? I mean, he’s kind of a super-emotion now. Who knows what could happen? And by the way, how did he get like this, anyway?”
Disgust bit his lip. “Well, there was a lot of scary stuff going on, while you were down on the island. Clark’s parents were abducted. His secret was almost revealed to the world. He nearly killed Lois, not to mention some Kryptonite exposure, sort of the icing on the cake, if you will. Guess, that sort of made Fear grow out of proportions. We’re hoping that shock therapy is going to shrink Fear back to his usual size.”
“He nearly killed Lois???” Joy blanched. “Oh my gosh, why didn’t you get me back here?”
“I don’t know,” Disgust gritted his teeth. “But Joy was really the last emotion that came to mind. Let’s all pray this is going to work.”
Sadness got up from the floor and rubbed his backside. “Don’t worry. It’s too late for Fear to do anything about the revelation. Lois is going to learn everything.”
And as if on cue, Clark continued to speak. “Oh, come on, give me a break…”
They heard Lois’ soft laugh. “Do you want to go back?”
Fear tore at his hair. “I need to do something. I need to do something.”
He continued to press buttons in a random order.
Clark didn’t stop talking though. “If the Earth opened up at my feet, I wouldn't move till I'd finished saying this.”
Fear pushed the buttons even more frantically. Suddenly, there was a green cursor blinking on the screen, and words appeared. <Do you want to initiate the manual override?>
A wide smile appeared on Fear’s face. “Yes!!!” Once again, he raised his fist in victory.
The four other emotions stared at the screen and rushed to Fear’s side, desperately trying to pull him away from the console. But he pushed buttons in quick succession.
Frozen in shock, Anger, Sadness, Joy and Disgust watched as Clark got to his knees and pulled out an engagement ring.
“Lois... will you marry me?” A huge grin plastered across his face, Fear did another dance beside the console.
Anger, Disgust and Sadness covered their faces with their hands, while Joy blinked in confusion.
“Wait a moment?” He ran his hand through his hair in distress. “Did this really just happen? Fear asked Lois to marry him? Are you freakin’ kidding me?”
Sadness heaved a sigh and flopped down onto his butt. “Yes, he did.” He gave Joy a helpless shrug of his shoulders. “Back when we thought that Lois had died at our hands, Fear suddenly grew at an alarming rate - and hit his head real hard on the ceiling. He passed out for a few minutes and hasn’t been the same after that.”
“Yeah, right,” Disgust snorted. “Actually, he thinks he’s you, buddy.” He slapped Joy on his shoulders. “That’s what all this strange dancing is about. But at least, he’d shrunken a little after that incident.”
“I can’t believe Clark asked her to marry him without telling her his secret,” Joy groaned.
“Neither can we,” Sadness said quietly. “Now all we can do is hope to survive the fallout.”
Anger started to pace. “We shouldn’t have unpacked those boxes. Lois is never going to forgive Clark for keeping his secret this long.”
“This might sound strange coming from me, but I seriously hope she isn’t going to say yes,” Joy muttered.
Fear gave him a smug smile. “Of course she will. All will be well, you’ll see,” he said with an uncharacteristic cheerfulness.
All five emotions looked at the screen with bated breath as Lois reached out to cup Clark’s cheek. Her expression was hard to read. But then, instead of touching Clark, she took off his glasses and looked at them from every angle.
Then she fixed her gaze on Clark. “Who's asking? Clark... or Superman?”
The console shortened out and the Headquarters were plunged in darkness. Fear was hit by a strong current and flew against the back wall, remaining there motionless. Blinking red lights cast the Headquarter in an eerie light.
The words <Danger! Secret revealed> flashed across the screen.
Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Joy stared at each other.
“Okay, guys. This didn’t go quite as expected.” Joy said with a hint of exasperation. “Since this place already looks like the submarine in ‘Hunt on Red October’ - has anyone got some ‘Krazy Ivan’-like maneuver to get us out of this mess?”
In the back of the Headquarters, Fear slowly came to. He was back to his original size. With a shriek he stared at his fellow emotions. “Did I really just ask her to marry Clark without telling her his secret?”
Joy smiled at Fear. “You totally did” He rushed toward him and held out his hand. “Welcome back, old friend.” Then he turned his attention back to the other emotions. “Okay, let’s fix this. The first one who can come up with a half-way decent explanation gets one shift off groveling duty.”
The End But you'll probably get Lois' reaction, too...
