"You know, this whole 'sharing you with the rest of the world' thing? Not all it's cracked up to be." She laughed nervously as she rested her head in the crook of his shoulder. "What if you don't... and this is the last... and... Clark? I'm, um, I'm really scared. I don't think I can... if..." Lois's thoughts went unfinished as the barrage crumbled and tears ran down from her eyes.
There is a line I read somewhere - I really think it was in C.'s
If I Were You - where Lois says that she didn't worry nearly enough about Superman going to stop Nightfall. If she'd known that it was Clark going up there, her anxiety level would have been very different. And you proved that here - Lois never would have dreamed that there was anything Superman couldn't do, but now that she knows it is Clark, it almost doesn't matter whether he can or can't do it, she is going to worry either way. That is such a real feeling, and you portray it very well here.
Lois silently cursed the shroud of secrecy that prevented her from being able to tell him one more time. One last time. It was tearing her apart to have to stand there and pretend that they didn't have a relationship. Pretend, for the rest of the world, that his leaving wasn't slowly destroying her, heart and soul.
Oh, god, Lara, you're going have me crying here!
And for a short, much too short moment, the rest of the world melted away; there was no one else, there was no asteroid and this wasn't goodbye.
The entire planet seemed to hold its breath as Superman took off to the sky, that morning. Cameras from every media, every news agency on the globe were pointed directly at him and throughout the world, millions of people watched anxiously as the Man of Steel headed towards the Nightfall asteroid.
and
Around the world, on every TV screen, people saw the very same images, captured by an EPRAD satellite: footage of the asteroid being blown up into tiny little bits of itself. Then, a voice from ground control, confirming that the target had indeed been destroyed. And, finally, static as the satellite was hit full force by a flying boulder.
and
Every reporter had left; all headed back to their newspapers, radio and TV stations with stories of the destruction of Nightfall to tell. Every reporter but one, who now stood, frozen, in front of the main view screen in EPRAD's broadcast center.
I love this imagery. The hope and joy of the world contrasted with the worry and despair of one woman.
The search for Superman lasted five long days. But the Man of Steel was nowhere to be found.
On the evening of the fifth day, radars and satellites were returned to their normal uses. The desperate search for the man who had single-handedly saved the planet was abandoned. Government officials had him officially listed as missing in action. The people of the earth mourned the loss of their greatest hero.
As the sun rose the next morning, Bruce Wayne turned on the TV sets that sat on the desk at the foot of his bed. Now only a shadow of the man he had once been, there was no longer anything he could do to help his fellow Gothamites. Still, he kept informed of what was going on in his city, turning on the news each morning as he woke up, if only for the sake of staying sane.
But what he saw that morning made him wonder if he'd lost his mind.
Captured the night before by an amateur cameraman were images of a shady figure holding a silent vigil atop one of the tallest buildings of the city. It stood for some time, unmoving, before suddenly dropping off from the ledge of the structure in one swift move and disappearing into the night in a familiar rustling of fabric.
The Batman.
OMFG!
Lara, you have captured me hook, line and sinker. I love this. I love the plot, I love the writing style, I love the serious vibe.
No time to read part two now, but I'll be back.
