Welcome to the 2025 Kerth Quiz: Dramatic Story
SPIFFY DISCLAIMER THINGY!: All the stories featured in this quiz qualify for the Best Dramatic Story, but this quiz is not a stamp of recommendation for nomination. There are more fantastic stories which qualify for this category, but this quiz only covers 7 randomly chosen ones.
(Instructions are blatantly copied/linked from previous Kerth Quizzes.)RECOMMENDATIONS: Don't forget that recommendations for other favorite eligible stories are *very* welcome and encouraged! So don't forget to add these in a section after your guesses!
QUIZ RULES: One point each for getting the story and author from the quote. Plus, shiny gold stars for those who recognize their own stories. Please don't forget to mention which number you're answering. Rule recap: Open hard drive and open boards (+AO3!), *don't* forget to snip out the excerpts in your replies, and don't forget the spoiler tag when you post in the replies thread.
CATEGORY: Dramatic stories keep us on the edge of our seats. They’re filled with exciting and suspenseful events and can be similar in tone to the show's episodes or tackle a more serious subject matter. They will generally, though not always, contain a significant A-plot.
The DEADLINE for entries for this quiz is SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 2025, by 11:59 p.m (Eastern Time Zone).
Here’s the full list of
Eligible Stories.
Here are the full quiz instructions:
Countdown to Kerth Quizzes Extended Instructions and Disclaimers.
Please post your answers
HERE.Good luck!
Evie
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EXCERPT #1:- Superman! Lois interrupted. Watch out behind you.
Superman turned just as two red beams hit him. He quickly spread his cape to shield Lois, who was behind him.
He was about to investigate the source of the beams when he heard Lois faint.
He immediately bent to help her, cushioning her fall but ended up falling with her, overwhelmed by her weight. He got up, checking her pulse while calling her name. A wave of panic washed over him when she didn’t respond. He was slightly relieved to find her pulse strong, though a bit rapid.
She opened her eyes after a few seconds.
- Clark?
- Lois, it’s Superman. How do you feel?
- I’m okay, just a bit dizzy... what happened?
- I don’t know, I saw those beams and you fainted.
He deliberately omitted his own loss of balance.
- Could you help me up, please? It’s not very comfortable here, – she said with a half-smile to try to reassure him. Her husband’s eyes were filled with concern, although he was making a commendable effort to hide it.
- Of course, - he replied with a half-smile. How frustrating it was not to be able to hold her in his arms.
He stood up and extended his hand. She took it and began to rise, but Clark found her grip unusually heavy. Usually, her 60 kg felt no heavier than a sheet of paper, and he was really shocked by the beams.
He tightened his muscular arms slightly, and Lois sat up slowly.
As Lois’s upper body leaned forward, he saw a second upper body of Lois remaining on the ground, as if she were splitting in two.
EXCERPT #2:“Clark?” she tried gently, making her way down the steps into the living room of his apartment.
He didn’t look up, and she wasn’t sure what to say, not until she got a better gauge on where he was right now. After that article…after seeing him like this…
As she got closer, she realized what he was holding, and she gasped, her hand coming up to cover her mouth.
The Superman action figure.
It had to be the one from the courthouse, the one the boy had thrown at Superman, the one from Clark’s article.
“Clark?” she tried again.
“A ninety-nine cent lump of molded plastic…” he practically whispered, his voice breaking on the words.
Wordlessly, she sat down next to Clark on the couch, putting her arm around his shoulders. He shifted so he was facing slightly more toward her. His body was warm next to hers as he continued to stare down at the toy, and she stayed silent, knowing that he had more to say but didn’t yet know how.
There were a few fresh tears trailing down his cheeks, following the path of ones that had dried already, and her heart ached more, the need to wipe his tears away more powerful than any potential embarrassment either of them might feel. She reached up, her fingers brushing lightly over his damp cheeks, and she thought she might have felt a hint of a smile but it never came to the surface.
Superman’s future was hanging in the balance, but her partner and her friend—her best friend—needed her more right in this moment.
EXCERPT #3:When he made it to the surface, he realized the cold calamity of what had happened, in spite of his powers. The incomprehensible reality overtook him like a tidal wave.
His was the only heartbeat left.
Before the shock could even wear off, he was in the air, without any of his usual landmarks, racing toward her on muscle memory. She had been at the Planet when everything had fallen down around them. Even now, he could sense where she was. Not her presence exactly. But another kind of quiet, unmistakable, unshakable magnetism.
He’d used his vision to check, briefly, what he already knew.
He wished he hadn’t. He didn’t want his last image of her to be dusty, buried and broken, even if she had been huddled close together with Perry and Jimmy.
Now he hung here, immobile above the Planet, tethered to the stratosphere, neither able to drop down to the doomed planet that he couldn’t save nor travel upwards to the lost planet that had sent him here in the first place.
The silence was loud.
He should find his parents, he realized absently.
He felt the vague urge to help gently tug at him.
Perhaps he should clear the rubble. He couldn’t repair damage on this scale, but he could at least give people proper burials.
Then again, his stunned mind realized, they were already buried.
6 billion graves.
A graveyard planet.
His heart stalled.
Another graveyard planet.
EXCERPT #4:Clark rose slowly, shedding the superhero suit and tossing it into the laundry basket. The feel of the fabric clung to his skin, a reminder of the relentless hours he'd endured—hours battling the tempest in Africa, hours navigating legal meetings, hours being ineffective even as people needed him.
In the dim bathroom, he bypassed the light switch, moving toward the shower in darkness. The water cascaded, a soothing reminder of vulnerability. After hours of superhuman feats, of pushing his limits to be the hero everyone believed in, he needed this—a moment to feel the fragility of his existence.
Standing there, the hot water enveloping him, he wrestled with guilt. Guilt for feeling upset while his friends and family were safe. Guilt for missing the appointment with Muzi Buna's representatives. Guilt for walking so blindly into the red Kryptonite exposure over and over again. If only he'd been less self-absorbed, he might have organized aid sooner, and saved more lives.
Burdened by the weight of his powers, his mind compiled the missed opportunities. He could have transported tools and building materials, scouted better locations for homes, helped to build sturdier foundations—but instead nature’s wrath had swept away their fledgling dwellings.
The water washed over him, cleansing not just his body, but his conscience. He vowed to push harder, to be more than the sum of his powers. Because sometimes, even Clark Kent needed a break—to break away from his own limitations and find strength anew.
EXCERPT #5:“Clark!” She almost choked on the word as she finally found her voice again.
Her arms unfroze and she closed the distance between them, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and burying her face in the crook of his neck. He almost lost his balance.
“Careful,” he mumbled.
But he eased into the hug, sagged into it more likely, until it was hard to tell who steadied whom. So close to her ear, his breathing sounded labored. He winced with ever move.
She pulled back a little and studied him more carefully. “How are you?”
“Been better,” he admitted. He opened his lips to say something else, but then his gaze drifted toward the band-aid above her brow. “What about you? How did this-”
His eyes widened. He ran his index finger along the intact skin next to the stitches before he pulled the hand toward his own chin. Understanding dawned in his expression and he averted his gaze.
“This is my fault,” he said soberly.
“No, Clark!” She framed his face and made him look at her again. “You saved my life! You were nearly killed. It’s not your fault! And it doesn’t really hurt anyway. It’s nothing!”
He pursed his lips. “It’s not nothing if someone tried to kill you. I want to know who did this.”
EXCERPT #6:“Perry, what is this? Why didn’t you hire Clark?”
Clark wished the ground would just open up and swallow him. “Lois, please don’t.”
But Lois wasn’t listening. She barreled on – “You’ve read his work. Surely you can see that he’s perfect for the Daily Planet.”
Mr. White cleared his throat and looked awkwardly back at his top reporter. “Well, Lois, it’s really not my place to say…”
“You must have a reason.” Lois pressed. “What is it?”
Mr. White’s gaze shifted to Clark and he lifted a hand in a helpless gesture. “Kent?”
Clark bit back another heavy sigh. He didn’t want to do this. But Lois wasn’t going to stop until she had an answer and Mr. White was too good a man to out him without permission.
Lois looked back at Clark and suddenly seemed to realize that he knew perfectly well why he didn’t get hired, but didn’t want to tell her. “Clark, what is it?” she asked, gently.
Just do it, he told himself. Reaching across his body, he pushed his right sleeve back just far enough to reveal the black armband emblazoned with the letter K. He watched her face as he did so, waiting for the kind look in her eyes to devolve into fear and hatred. He didn’t want to see it and yet, he couldn’t look away either.
Lois blinked twice and her mouth parted in a silent gasp as she registered what she was seeing. Then her eyes flew up to his and her head tilted to the side, curiously. “You’re Kryptonian?” she whispered.
EXCERPT #7:“Death cannot stop true love; it can only delay it for a while.”
Now, the line brought a smile to her face. She looked over at her husband, who seemed to be enjoying the story even though there was still no recognition in his eyes.
They'd had other, more genuine brushes with death since then. There was the time she'd been nearly frozen to death because the man blackmailing her boyfriend demanded her corpse, or the time New Kryptonians attempted to disintegrate her fiance as punishment for choosing Earth and her over them and a loveless political marriage. There had been villains who'd tried to exploit her husband's vulnerability to Kryptonite, or his dependence on the sun. Then, just when life seemed to finally be treating them kindly with a beautiful family to raise and a new league of heroes to take the burden off of Clark, there had been one last job for Superman…
The giant and the swordsman began their search for Wesley, and Clark's breath began to quicken. Lois looked over and saw the familiar, faraway look in his eyes. “Clark?”
He gasped. “...air…”
She gave his shoulder a squeeze. “Clark, Honey, look at me.”
He managed, with obvious difficulty, to turn to face her, but his eyes remained unfocused.
Lois cupped his face in her hands and tried to pull his gaze into her own. “You're home now, Clark, okay? You're not in space anymore; there's plenty of air…” A sudden motion drew her gaze downwards. Clark's leg had started to kick.
Immediately, she stood. “Kids, help me move the coffee table.”
She took one end, and the two children took the other. They managed to wrangle it out of the way just as Clark started swaying. By some miracle, she caught him before he pitched forward, and lowered him onto the floor.
They paused the movie for a while.
The fit only lasted for a few seconds, and they waited as her husband once again returned to Earth.
“...Clark?”
He stared ahead, unseeing, though his head turned towards the sound of her voice. “...Lois?”
“I'm right here. It's okay,” she said softly, smoothing back his hair. “You had a small episode. It's fine now.”
Good luck, everyone!
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🏆TOC for Kerth Awards 2025 Posts🏆.
The Kerth Committee
(KSaraSara, Michael, lovetvfan, and Evie)
