Continued from
Part 1 From Part 1: That afternoon there was an explosion in a warehouse. Eyewitnesses said they'd seen some sort of lightning bolt hit the electric generator, which had blown up, trapping workers inside the building. Superman had flown in and gotten everyone out of harms way, then he had secured the warehouse and left. [...]
Maybe a little company was a good idea after all, Clark thought. Besides, Lois was one of the only people around who wasn't trying to pin the blame on Superman. In fact, knowing that she was in his corner - even though she thought Superman was an entire other person - always warmed his heart. There wasn't anyone else who would literally get in the ring and fight to save the Man of Steel. Clark - and Superman - could really use someone like Lois just now.
"Yeah, sure," he said, "ice cream sounds really good, actually."
"I'll be right over!" Lois told him and she hung up. ~.~.~.~.~
Part 2: At the same time, somewhere on the edge of town...
"You've done a wonderful job at that warehouse," said the man to his female contact on the main computer screen. "Congratulations!"
"Why, thank you, Wizard," the woman answered.
She made her hand into a fist and upon opening it, a small ball of lightning seemed to hover inside it.
"The plan is still on track," he added, unimpressed by her display of power. "Superman is so predictable! And thanks to the media, the population's opinion of the Man of Steel has never been so low."
"Yes. They're going to drive Superman right out of the city in a matter of days," she said, twisting a lock of her azure hair between her fingers.
"Soon, the whole world will bow to me!" the man said, a victorious smile on his face.
"WHAT?!" she roared, "Bow to *you*?"
Blue lightning flashed on the screen, then it went dead. A few seconds later, the woman stood in the room with him.
He hated that she was able to do that! It was a good thing his power could easily overcome hers.
"We're a *team*, you megalomaniac imbecile! Or have you forgotten about the rest of us?" she said, pointing a finger in his face. "If they're going remember anyone's name it won't be yours, it will be the team's! You got that?"
"May I remind you, my dear Livewire, that I control *all* weather. I could easily make it rain in this very room. And you and I both know what water could do to you, don't we?" he smiled at her viciously. "Therefore, I would advise you to keep your tongue and your temper in check."
"As long as you claim allegiance to the Superman Revenge Squad, you will behave as a member of the team," she warned him, "we work together or you're out!"
"Well, as we've established before all this began, short of us having to match strength with the Man of Steel - and you know full well he'd beat us hands down - this is the only way we have left of getting rid of Superman for good. And since I'm the only one capable of driving the weather, I do believe you need me a lot more than I need you."
"Nevertheless, either you stop acting like you're some supreme ruler, or I will personally ask Metallo to teach you the meaning of teamwork."
And with that, she turned into a lightning bolt and disappeared into an electric outlet.
~.~.~.~.~
Lois showed up at Clark's apartment barely ten minutes after hanging up the phone. She was carrying a shopping bag which seemed to contain at least a dozen small cartons of ice cream.
"That was quick!" he remarked, once he'd opened the door.
"Well... I was already halfway here when I called," she admitted, blushing slightly. "I figured if you were doing better, you'd agree to give me a hand and... well, if you still weren't feeling well, I've brought you something for the migraine."
Clark smiled and moved aside to let Lois in. He should have known she'd come over whether he wanted it or not... Lois never was able to take no for an answer.
Closing the door behind her, he took the shopping bag she was carrying. For a few seconds, Lois stood at the door, just watching him walk away into the kitchen. Clark was wearing a pair of shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt, which let Lois catch a good glimpse of the well-developed body he hid under his suits all the time. "There's something to be said about being raised on a farm," she thought with a appreciative smile. For a second she found herself daydreaming of what it would be like to be embraced by someone with such nice muscular arms... Most of the men she'd dated had nothing on him in that department. In fact, Lois didn't think she knew anyone who looked so strong and athletic, other than Superman of course.
"Just how many cartons of ice cream did you buy?" he asked, as he started loading them into the freezer.
Clark's question caused Lois to suddenly come back to her senses. "Oh... huh... I didn't know which was your favorite, so I grabbed one of every kind," she explained, making her way towards the kitchen table. "With this heat, I figure we'll go through them in no time anyway. Right?"
"Well, it's a good thing I like chocolate," he laughed softly, "cause these all look like they're a different flavor of chocolate!"
"As a matter of fact, they are," she told him with a grin, "why would I have bought pistachio or vanilla when they have so many different flavors of chocolate? Besides, I don't like pistachio and vanilla!"
"I can see that!" he said, shaking his head. Leave it to Lois do something selfishly kind!
Clark left out two of the containers and grabbed a couple of spoons from the utensil drawer.
"Here," he said, handing her one of the ice cream cartons, "this one is Swiss Chocolate Chip."
"Mmmm!" she said, taking the ice cream from him, with a delighted smile on her face. "Which one did you pick?"
"Huh... I didn't look..." He read the label. "It says Double Mocha Fudge."
"Oh," she replied, sounding suddenly dispirited, "well... that sounds nice, too."
Just what was it with Lois and chocolate? And why did she need to sound like she'd lost a competition? As if this was a "win the best ice cream" contest and she'd just taken home the booby prize! Clark rolled his eyes and sighed. As long as he lived, he would probably never understand this woman!
"Here, take the Double Mocha. It obviously means a lot more to you which flavor it is."
She gave him a huge smile, like a kid would upon receiving the world's most incredible gift. "Thanks, Clark!" she said and happily exchanged their cartons of ice cream before walking over to his living room and letting herself sink into the big comfy couch.
He had barely had time to sit down himself that Lois was already halfway through her ice cream. He shook his head in disbelief. "Looks like this is *her* super power," Clark thought to himself, "eating ice cream faster than you can say 'chocolate'."
Lois stopped gobbling down the frozen treat long enough to take a few breaths. "Oh, my God!" she said, letting out a sigh to indicate her contentment, "this is sooooooooo good!" She closed her eyes, smiled and went "mmmmmm!" a few times.
Clark looked at her in awe. How did she do that, he wondered. How was it she could make that whole ice cream eating experience look like something... well... erotic?!
"How about we... huh... get started on that data?" he asked, forcing himself to stop staring at once.
"Oh, right... right... the heat wave," she said, as if forced back to reality from a wonderful chocolate dream.
She dropped her spoon in the ice cream carton and set it on the coffee table, then grabbed a notepad and some files out of her briefcase and laid them out in front of them.
"These are all of Superman's rescues that we're aware of," she told Clark, pointing at one file, "and this one contains meteorological data for the last 6 weeks. I suppose I could have asked for 6 months of it, but it would have taken too long to get the information, so I just took as much as I could get my hands on right away."
Clark picked up the file containing the meteorological data. He obviously didn't need to look up any of Superman's activity from the other file... He remembered perfectly well where he'd been and what he'd done over the past few weeks. Even the rescues that never made it in the news.
They worked late into the night, cross-referencing dates and places with temperature and super rescues, trying to find a pattern. But there was nothing conclusive. The temperature rose and fell and just when they thought they'd found a correlation between places and events, they'd notice something else that went in the complete opposite direction. They were clearly not going anywhere with this, there wasn't enough hard evidence to prove any theory at all.
"I think we should call it a night," Clark suggested, slightly after 1 AM. "We're just going around in circles."
"And we're about out of ice cream, too" Lois remarked, pouting, as she pointed at the empty cartons on the coffee table.
Clark rolled his eyes. "You've got a serious chocolate ice cream obsession, don't you?"
"Yep!" she giggled, then she stood up to gather her files and prepared to leave.
"Maybe the next step would be to have S.T.A.R. Labs do some tests on Superman," Clark offered. "I'll go over there tomorrow morning and see if there's any way they can help out with this. Is it OK if I leave you to cover the hearing at the courthouse?"
"Yeah, good idea. You meet with them and get them to set up tests of some kind. We need something concrete if we're going to be able to prove anything. As for the hearing, well I wouldn't dream of missing it anyway. I mean, if Superman needs character witnesses or something, well, I really better be there!"
Clark raised an eyebrow in scepticism. As if they'd let Lois Lane - Superman's number one groupie - testify in court, he thought. She was completely incapable of being objective where he was concerned... Of course they were not going to let her speak on his behalf! Still, the thought of Lois wanting to be there for him did wonders for his self-esteem.
"I'll walk you home," he offered her, as they got to his front door.
"Oh, you don't have to do that, Clark. I'll just take a cab. I'll be fine."
"It's no trouble," he explained, "I need some fresh air anyway and I think walking outside for a while would do me some good."
"Migraine still bugging you?" Lois asked, concerned. "You should have told me, I wouldn't have kept you up so late if I'd known."
"No, don't worry, I'm doing a lot better than before. And I rather enjoyed the company, to be honest." he told her, as they exited his apartment.
"And the ice cream, I hope?" she enquired.
"And the ice cream," he echoed with a smile.
~.~.~.~.~
Clark had spent most of the night flying over Metropolis, after walking Lois home. The meteorological data had not helped find a trend, one way or another. If it had, then at least he would have known what to do about it. Instead, he'd spent hours trying to imagine every possible scenario and what each of them meant for his - and Superman's - future. Most of them had no happy ending. As a result, when he appeared in court as Superman in the morning, Clark looked tired and defeated.
Judge Diggs was presiding over the hearing. She'd been quite sympathetic at first, telling Superman that she was a fan, that she appreciated what he did for the people of Metropolis. But she was just hiding an iron fist in a velvet glove.
When asked if he would submit to the court and cease using all his super powers, Superman unfortunately had to tell her that it was impossible for him to do that.
Surprise and indignation ran through the crowd. Impossible? What did that mean? That he wasn't going to comply? What was he, a friend or a foe?
The judge pounded her gavel several times before the courtroom finally went quiet again.
"Do you mean you can't, or you won't?" she asked Superman, frowning.
"I mean that I can't. Not completely," he explained apologetically.
The crowd started voicing objections again and Judge Diggs once more pounded her gavel to silence them.
"Would you care to elaborate?" she asked, impatiently.
"Well, even if I can promise not to fly or use my heat vision for instance, I cannot turn off my aura of invulnerability. It's always there whether I wish it or not." Clark knew he should also have mentioned the super-hearing ability, which he couldn't turn off, either... But he guessed that the aura probably required a lot more solar energy than a heightened sense ever would.
He continued his explanation, "As much as I would like to argue that it's not actually doing anything unless I'm being punched, or shot if you will, the fact of the matter is that it's always working, it's always 'on'. It's preventing germs from
invading my body (*) as we speak. It is always being used and always fighting... something. Now, I can promise not to use any of my other powers, but I'd have lied if I'd told you I could stop using absolutely every one of them."
The crowd grew louder and louder as Superman spoke. What does this mean? Is he saying it's his fault? He's pleading guilty? If he can't turn that off, what is he going to do?
Again, Judge Diggs pounded her gavel. She had to pound it for several seconds, even verbally ask the crowd to quiet down before they complied this time.
"I see," she said. "Well, then it looks like we're stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place for now. If you will not submit to this injunction, I would need to hold you in contempt of court. However, I do appreciate your honesty. You might have chosen not to mention these facts, but you have. In the interest of fairness - since you cannot physically do what's being asked of you - and given that you are clearly not trying to deceive anyone by hiding this, I believe we owe you the courtesy of working out some sort of arrangement that would suit all parties."
The judge paused, then asked the City Attorney to approach the bench. For a few minutes, they discussed an alternate solution to the situation. Satisfied, the attorney went back to her chair and the judge proceeded to explain what they'd agreed upon.
"Superman," she started, "we're going to limit this to your not making use of the powers that you can manage to control. And... you'll also need to stay completely out of the sunlight, until further notice. Obviously, you need to leave the courthouse, so I will give you an hour to find a place to hide from the sun. But no more. Do you agree to these terms?"
"Yes, your honor." he said solemnly.
With that, court was adjourned.
~.~.~.~.~
Meanwhile, back in the Wizard's lab...
"You *will* get him to do this!" the man yelled at Livewire's startled image. He slammed his fist on the table next to him. Several of the electronic components, which had been sitting on top of it, flew up into the air and crashed to the floor.
"Well, I'm sorry," she said, surprised by his violent reaction, "but he's refusing to take orders from you. And I don't think I can make him."
"Listen to me, and I suggest you listen really good," he commanded, "I don't care if you have to kneel down before him and beg, I don't care *what* you have to do. Hell, I don't give a damn if you have to do this yourself. This is going to happen and that's the end of it. There's going to be a train accident tonight and I couldn't care less how it comes to be, it will just be."
"I'll see what I can do, but..."
"No 'buts'," he cut in, his face red with anger, "you're going to make this happen! Or believe me, my dear, it will most definitely *rain* on your parade."
Livewire let out a frustrated sigh and cut the communication. She hated this man! She was starting to hate him even more than she hated Superman. As soon as the superhero was gone, she'd get rid of the Weather Wizard, she vowed. All she had to do was crush his stupid wand... And then she could rule over Metropolis. Yes! She would control the city herself!
~.~.~.~.~
To Be Continued...(*: changed from original version) Feedback Thread is here
