I blame this entire thing on Queen of Capes... I was chatting with her in IRC one night and mentioned the idea and she convinced me to run with it.
Thanks to my wonderful beta readers. Lara, Carol, and Dandello for the grammar fixes and encouraging me to post this.
Best In Show Chapter 1
"If you two don't get your act together soon, I'm going to have you covering dog shows!"
Perry's words rang through Lois' mind. Dog shows. Just why were there so many dog shows? She had never thought about it before, but there had to be a reason. At some point Metropolis had become a virtual dog Mecca and she seemed to be the only one had noticed. Maybe there was a real story here. Could there be money laundering going on? Then again, how would they launder money through a dog show anyway? Maybe they were using the dogs in the laundering scheme. These people paid huge amounts of money for show winners and she knew for certain anyone in their right mind wouldn't pay more than five bucks for one of those smelly needy anim-
"Lois! Earth to Lois? You with me there honey? You and Clark better get out there and find a story for the front page!"
Lois smiled at Perry. "Don't worry Chief, we'll have one for you in no time."
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Clark wasn't sure how these things happened to him. One moment he was in the newsroom wondering how he was going to find a front page story and the next moment, he was staring into the face of a miniature toy poodle… an upset miniature toy poodle. Apparently Mr. Nibbles, which Clark had learned was the dog’s name, was just as unhappy as Clark was with the situation and was currently baring his teeth and growling at him.
“Lois, I don't think Mr. Nibbles likes me very much. In fact, I have a feeling if I get any closer to him, he might just show me where his name comes from.”
In all seriousness, Clark was not afraid of the dog, but he didn't want the animal to hurt itself if it tried to bite him. He could almost imagine Lois’ reaction when he told her why the dog was missing two front teeth while he didn’t have a mark on him. It was almost enough to make him smile.
“Clark, don't be silly. Mr. Nibbles is harmless. You aren't going to let a little dog scare you, are you?” As she spoke, Lois made her way over to the “Spawn of Satan” - as Clark was silently calling him - to pick him up. Mr. Nibbles, however, was going to have none of this. With a sharp yap he lunged at Lois' hand and tried to bite her. Lois being the brave soul that she was, squealed and ran behind Clark.
Peeking out from behind him, she examined the poodle, “Okay, maybe he is a little temperamental. I'm sure he's just upset because he misses my mother.”
It had taken Lois a little while to work out a plan of action, but soon enough she had remembered her mother's pet. After some convincing on Lois’ part, but once her mother had realized her baby might win a dog show, she had been more than enthusiastic about the whole thing. It was with some irritation that Lois had left her mother's house laden with toys, treats, food, carrier, and dog. You would almost think that her mother cared more for the animal than her own daughter.
“Can you at least tell me why you dragged me all the way here from the office with promises of Kerths and Pulitzers? Please tell me it doesn't have anything to do with that... thing.” Clark glared at the Spawn of Satan as he said this. Mr. Nibbles, sensing he was being talked about, sniffed the air and turned his back on them. He then proceeded to kick his back legs at them as if to bury some unsavory item.
Clark switched his glare from the dog to Lois, only to find her staring at him with a large guilty smile on her face. Clark groaned silently to himself and closed his eyes.
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She had left him alone with the beast. Lois had decided that she should do some research on dog shows. Running out of the room she had announced in typical Lane fashion that he was to figure out how to get Mr. Nibbles under control while she was out.
That was 30 minutes ago. Since that time, he had tried everything he could think of to get the dog to cooperate. It just wasn’t happening. Even the treats and toys that Ellen had sent along seemed to be of no interest to the animal.
Clark was beginning to think he would have to drug him. He was pretty sure he could get some tranquilizers if it came to that. It was amazing what people would give you when you happened to be Superman.
He decided he should try intimidation before turning to desperate measures such as that. Maybe it was time to use a little bit of superhero finesse. Should he spin into the Suit? That might be more intimidating. No, he couldn’t do that. Lois might walk in at any moment and then he would have to explain why Superman was in her living room trying to terrorize her mother’s poodle.
Standing in front of Mr. Nibbles, he crossed his arms and gave the dog his hardest Superman stare. Clark figured it worked on hardened criminals, so it should work on a small dog. What he was forgetting though, was the fact that this dog lived with Ellen Lane. Any human, plant, or animal that could survive that type of environment could easily deflect something so mundane. After five minutes Clark gave up.
He was beginning to have second thoughts about hunting down those drugs.
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That fink!
She wasn’t sure how he had managed it but in the hour that she had been doing research on dog shows; Clark had managed to coerce Mr. Nibbles into a submissive state. The dog only had eyes for him now and seemed to follow most of Clark’s commands. She supposed he had used some sort of Kansas voodoo on the dog.
Lois was a little peeved, however, to find that Mr. Nibbles still didn’t like her. Every time she tried to get near the little dog, it continued to snap and bite at her. Maybe later she would get Clark to help her make a poodle voodoo doll that she could stick pins in.
What Lois didn’t know was that, while she was doing research, Clark had finally figured out how to win Mr. Nibbles over. The dog actually ended up being a push over and it was all because of a little magical substance called bacon. Apparently, Ellen had been feeding the animal special dog food that had the highest amounts of nutrition, but very little taste. Mr. Nibbles and Clark had quickly bonded as they both believed bacon was like manna from heaven.
Pushing aside her annoyance at the situation, Lois sat down with Clark and spread out the research the she had come up with. “Okay, so it looks like there are several types of dog shows that we could enter. It's really amazing just how many there are. I think you might find this one especially interesting.”
Pushing one of the pages toward Clark, she watched him look at the paper and was secretly delighted when he turned pale. Serves him right for not telling me how he made friends with Mr. Nibbles.
“You have go to be kidding me? Musical Freestyle? You can’t seriously expect me and Mr. Nibbles to dress up in a costume and dance to music?”
The only answer he got was another beautiful but guilty smile. He was really starting to hate that smile.
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So what do you guys think is going to happen? Will Lois find a real story there or will she only find trouble? Will Clark really be forced to dance in a sombrero? Is the story just to silly to continue? Let me know!
