Challenge accepted, KSaraSara. Be careful what you wish for.
This is actually my first TOGOM adaption. And like all my other Inside Out stories, it's not a fix-it.
Inside A Stiff's Mind
The bar was filled with the usual noises of a busy night. Soft music, excited voices and the regular beeping of the gambling machines formed a chorus that was suddenly interrupted by several loud bangs. Clark Kent spun around to see what was going on.
Inside his mind, five emotions froze.
"Uh oh, this is not good," Fear whispered.
He pressed a few buttons and the screen focused on a group of thugs with machine guns who'd just entered the bar.
Joy scratched his head. "There are too many people here to change into Superman mode. Can anyone think of a good excuse?"
"Sure." Disgust snorted. "Excuse me, Mr. Bad Guy, would you mind if I went home. I forgot to feed my cat."
Joy rolled his eyes at Disgust. "I was being serious about this."
"If we were actually serious about finding excuses, maybe we'd be a little better at it." Disgust deadpanned.
"Guys, would you pay attention, this might get out of hand," Fear whispered.
"We're Superman, for Heaven's sake," Anger grumbled. "Why should anything get out of hand?"
"Because Lois is here, too?" Fear suggested.
"Shush now," Sadness chimed in. "The one in the middle is going to say something. We better be ready."
He stepped closer to the console and removed the cap that locked up the Superman switch. Keeping a keen eye on the screen he let his hand hover over it.
A man with gray hair and a huge scar on his left cheek removed the cigar from his lips. "My apologies, ladies and gentlemen, for this little interruption. I just came by to announce that Georgie Hairdo has wisely decided to retire from the hospitality business." He smiled a sardonic smile before he took another long drag from his cigar and puffed a cloud of smoke into the room. "So from now on, this club belongs to Al Capone."
Sadness let out a breath. "Sounds like he's not going to start a blood bath, what do you think?" He turned to his fellow emotions.
When each of them slowly nodded, Sadness flipped the lid back in place and sat down.
On the screen, the emotions saw Dillinger step forward. His gaze drifted across Lois in obvious appreciation.
"What's the guy doing there?" Anger's jaw tightened and he rolled up his sleeves. "Is that a leer on his face?"
"Calm down, buddy." Fear laid a hand on Anger's chest.
Now Dillinger winked at Capone and pointed toward Lois. "Hey Al, how 'bout we name this little cutie our new head hostess?"
Disgust pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yuck, what a sleazebag."
All five emotions watched in agony as Dillinger approached Lois, who did her best to ignore him.
"The hell I calm down." Anger pushed Fear to the side and flexed his muscles.
In a desperate attempt to stop Anger, Fear jumped on his back. Joy and Sadness rushed to Fear's side to help him get Anger back under control.
Dillinger bared his teeth in what was probably supposed to be a smile. "You know, I always was partial to a lady in red."
"Seriously?" Disgust rolled his eyes and pointed at the screen. "That's his pick-up line?"
Joy narrowed his eyes on Disgust. "Would you please stop rating the guy's flirting abilities and help us with Anger?"
Disgust had one last look at the screen, then he shook his head and joined the struggling emotions.
When Dillinger started to run a hand down her cheek, Anger's features contorted with rage. He let out a low growl and shook off the four emotions that were trying to hold him back.
"This stops now," he shouted.
He stepped forward and pushed a button
Clark grabbed Dillinger's hand. "Leave her alone."
Dillinger laughed. "Who are you? Her big brother?"
He shoved Clark back and again reached for Lois.
"I’ll show you who I am," Anger grumbled. He flexed his fingers, then pushed another button.
Clark moved toward Dillinger, his body assuming a fighting stance.
The shouts of Lois and the four other emotions resounded in unison.
"Anger, no!"
"Clark, no!"
Three shots rang out of a pistol that was pointed at Clark's chest.
The five emotions looked at each other in shock.
“Any chance he missed?” Fear whispered.
“At this distance?” Disgust grumbled. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Maybe nobody saw?” Fear tried again.
Disgust buried his face in his hands. “In a room full of people? I don’t think so.”
“Then what are we going to do?” Fear squealed, his eyes wide. “This is a catastrophe.”
“Simple,” Sadness said. “We’ve got to play dead.”
“But how?” Joy whispered.
“Press the collapse button?” Disgust suggested with another roll of his eyes.
“Collapse button?” Anger grumbled. “This guy is invulnerable. Why on Earth would he have a collapse button?”
“But we’ve collapsed before,” Sadness protested. "Remember kryptonite?”
Fear trembled. “Don’t remind me of that stuff. However, I don’t remember pressing any buttons, then.”
“That’s because the stuff knocked us out cold,” Anger supplied.
“Could we please concentrate on the problem at hand?” Sadness asked. “Joy, do you have an idea where we could find the button?”
“Why are you asking me?” Joy crossed his arms in front of his chest. “There’s really nothing joyful about this situation.”
“Yeah, but maybe you could at least try to be helpful,” Anger muttered.
“Maybe somewhere in that area that we rarely use?” Joy mused and went to the far side of the control panel. “Oh, this looks promising. Do you think playing pretend might work?”
“I don’t care if the collapsing is pretended or real, press that damn button,” Anger shouted. “This is beginning to look suspicious.”
“Okay, okay.” Joy complied and a moment later, Clark limply fell to the floor.
The screen went dark as he closed his eyes. In breathless anticipation the five emotions waited for what was going to happen next.
Al Capone’s voice resounded in the Headquarters. “You moron. What did you do that for?”
There was no reply. Capone went on. “Let's get out of here. And take the stiff. I can't afford to be linked to a murder.”
Sadness looked at the others and breathed a sigh of relief. “So far, so good. They swallowed it. Now let’s wait #till they drag Clark outside and then we have to come up with a plan.”
“Are you freaking nuts?” Joy complained. “We need to give Lois a sign! Don’t you hear her? She’s crying!”
The five emotions fell silent and listened to Lois’ sobs. They stared at each other in shock.
“How are we supposed to do that?” Sadness asked quietly. “If anyone sees this, Clark’s secret is blown.”
“But this is Lois!” Joy cried. “She needs to know.”
“We have to stay absolutely limp.” Fear insisted. Did any of you guys realize just how close we just came to being busted?” His usually purple skin had taken on a strangely green hue. “God, when I imagine how close we just came to…” He trailed off and clapped his hand to his mouth. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
Disgust wrinkled his nose as Fear started to gag. “No, no, don’t… You’re not-” He closed his eyes and turned away. “Good grief, you did throw up on the console.”
“Sorry,” Fear muttered sheepishly.
His color had improved a bit and he started to clean away the mess he’d made. The other emotions watched him helplessly. Each of them had a guilty expression on their faces as they listened to Lois’s sobs. They died down as arms picked up Clark and dragged him out of the bar, pulled his limp body into a car and drove off.
Joy looked at his fellow emotions. “Okay, guys. We have to tell Lois Clark’s secret. We can’t let her believe that he’s dead.”
The other emotions, including Fear, nodded slowly.
When Fear had wiped away the last remnants of his accident he turned to the console. “You’re right, Joy. There is no other way. I’m going to initiate the revelation.”
His hand hovered over the button, trembling slightly as the emotion tried to work up his courage. Finally, he seemed to come to a decision and pressed the button.
Bold, red letters flashed on the screen, saying. “Revelation disabled.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Joy groaned.
Anger let out a curse. “Does this mean we can’t tell her because Fear threw up?”
“Looks like it,” Disgust muttered.
Fear turned pale. “So we either stay dead or come up with one hell of an excuse why Clark is still alive?”
Now it was Joy’s turn to roll up his sleeves. “Okay, guys, let’s make this a positive effort. We can do this.”
The other emotions looked at him, despair written on their faces.
Joy shook his head. “Okay, screw this. Anyone who can come up with a half-decent excuse how the hell Clark can still be alive, gets three night shifts off.”
Disgust ran a weary hand through his hair. “This is going to be a catastrophe. And one thing’s for sure. If we somehow make this happen, Clark’s going to take a long nice nap afterwards.”
Last edited by bakasi; 03/03/23 02:50 PM.
