A/N: new part's up I apologize for the latness, all i can say is my English Comp teacher is evil!!
Disclaimer:....
Daily Planet Newsroom
21:13:33
“Jimmy!” Perry bellowed from his office “You were supposed to hand me those pictures from the dock strike twenty minutes ago, Judas Priest son!”
“Sorry chief, Cat was…uh entertaining in one of the darkrooms” Jimmy squeaked, a little embarrassed by what he’d seen. “Here you go” he said handing Perry the glossy eight by ten photos. “And here’s your front page” he said flashing a rather vivid close up of the dock manager’s angry red face covered with pie filling, proudly. “He nearly took my head off when he saw me shooting that. Of course he was a bit distracted by the mountains of rotten food being hurled at him by the crowed.”
Perry chuckled “That’s good work son--bit fuzzy in places, but overall great photography.”
“Thanks chief. I was thinking maybe I could, you know write the article too—I have some notes here, and I interviewed a couple of the protesters—“
“Easy there Geronimo, I think we should let one of our veterans take this”
“But Lois and Clark aren’t—“
“The only reporters on staff” Perry finished “Now you’re a great photographer, and one day I’m sure you’ll be a great reporter, but for now you gotta stick to what you do best.”
Jimmy’s posture slumped “But chief—“
“No buts, now take these to Brady so he can put em on the front page.”
“Sure chief” Jimmy said, leaving the editor’s office with a look of defeat etched upon his face.
*Poor kid* Perry thought, as he shuffled through the paper work cluttering his desk. One of these days he was gonna organize this mess he called an office…but not today. His nerves were killing him, Lane and Kent were sitting on top of a potential Kerth worthy goldmine, but he could tell they were waffling about whether or not to write it. Too be honest he didn’t’ feel one hundred percent positive about this thing either, but it would defiantly sell papers, and with sales taking a nose dive that would probably save him from having to let one of his staff go.
Perry sighed, as he pulled his silver thermos from the bottom drawer of his desk. He poured himself a, generous, cup of oolong tea. According to Kent this stuff would sooth him, while stimulating his brain activity all at once. It didn’t taste all that great, but he had to admit sipping a cup defiantly relaxed him, if only for a moment.
Taking a deep sigh, and swiveling his chair to face a portable CD player on his filing cabinet, the chief fired up his “Best of Elvis” CD, and tapped his foot along with the rhythm. The King crooned “Love Me Tender” in his quivering tenor, and the Perry hummed along, content for the moment to sit in solitude. Just as it go to the last few lines a loud slam knocked Perry from his trace and Jimmy came flying into his office
“Chief!”
“For crying out loud son, didn’t your momma teach you to knock before you come barging into a room?!”
Ignoring his bosses outrage Jimmy ran to the opposite corner of the room, and brought the dusty television to life.
“Jimmy, what in Famous Amos is so important that…?”
Jimmy silenced the rest of Perry’s question with a hand motion, deciding it was easier to see what the fuss was all about then to continue a one sided conversation with his young protégée he turned his attention to the news anchor on the screen.
“Ladies and gentlemen what you’re seeing now is live footage of Luthour plaza, were CEO Lex Luthour is just about to make an announcement concerning the “Hammer of Thor” letter found in the sewer’s earlier today. If you’re just joining us, only thirty minutes ago a bomb was discovered in the east side sewage line by a city worker along with a letter left by the supposed terrorist group responsible. The FBI isn’t revealing much, but what we do know is that several large cities have also been wired with similar explosives, and they are all se to detonate at the exact same time.”
“City authorities are trying to maintain calm as concerned citizens fill the streets outside the mayors office, and still others have begun rushing about in a mad panic trying desperately to flee into the New Troy country side. We’ve just gotten word that Lex Luthour is ready to make a statement, we’re gonna cut to that live right now…”
The video flashed from the newsroom, to the Luthour Plaza Lobby, in seconds were a dower Lex Luthour stood woodenly in front of a podium.
“Ladies and Gentlemen…it grieves me to address you under such circumstances, but what I have to say is paramount to the crisis at hand. I have been, for some time, building a series of underground dwellings located in upstate New Troy. According to my scientists calculations the blast radius will miss these underground zones by a margin of twenty-five miles. I invite all of my fellow metropolitans to join me in this safe haven until this crisis has been resolved. I will now open the floor for questions”
“Mr. Luthour, does this offer extend to residents in the other target cities?”
Lex cleared his throat slightly “Would that I could, but unfortunately the maximum capacity for these units is 3.5 million people.”
“Mr. Luthour, exactly how long have you been working on this underground city of yours, and why have you kept it a secret until now?
“I’ve had people working on this shelter since 1987. It was originally supposed to be another bio dome type experiment, but on a much grander scale. I was curious to see whether an entire civilization could survive beneath the ground for a period of ten years. Thusly it has been fully stocked with food and medicine, not to mention all the modern amenities.”
“How can you be sure that there is enough room for the estimate 2.9 million denizens of Metropolis, for that matter how can you be sure that you have the facilities to accommodate them all?”
“As I’ve said before, my scientists and contractors have left no stone unturned. The maximum capacity is three and a half million people. This is an emergency situation, and I am simply looking to do the right thing.”
“How will you go about evacuating every person in Metropolis within the eighteen hour time window we supposedly have left?”
“The Metropolis police department as well as my own private team of relocation experts will see to it that we leave no one behind. Ladies and gentlemen I really must be getting back to the mayor’s office, thank you for your time, my assistant will be happy to give you any information you may need. He will also be handing out flyers on your closest relocation center and the LNN news broadcast will display them after the end of this interview, and every fifteen minutes of the hour thereafter. Thank you for your time.”
Perry clicked the remote, and the T.V went silent he moved, in a daze, to his chair and sat down numbly. “Great shade’s of Elvis.”
“You can say that again” Jimmy mumbled leaning back against the door.
Perry was stunned. He never imagined something like this could ever happen in real life. This seemed more like something out of a comic book, or maybe even a T.V. series. But, it was real life, an actual doomsday device was resting beneath the streets of HIS city, and in less than twenty-four hours the Daily Planet would very likely be reduced to a smoldering pile of ashes. All the printing presses, supply closets, computers, elevators, offices, and archives would be nothing more than a memory.
“Alright…Jimmy I want you to get Lois and Clark on the horn tell them to forget everything that they’re doing and get their butts back here. Then I want you to get up to archives and put every last file they’ve got on their computers onto backup discs.” Perry sprang from his chair and charged past Jimmy into the newsroom.
“Listen up folks, I know you’ve all heard by now so I’m not gonna take the time to make any fancy announcements. I want every single person in this room to leave in an orderly fashion and make your way to the closest relocation center. No arguments, and no fuss.”
“But what about our stories chief?” Ralph asked, looking not for the first time like he didn’t comprehend the seriousness of the situation going on around him.
“Forget about them, and just pray that by tomorrow morning you have a desk and a story to come back to. I don’t want this to sound like a farewell speech ‘cuz it aint, but I just wanted to say that it’s been an honor to be your editor and chief. And every one of you, including Ralph…is a fine reporter.” A few nervous chuckles emanated from the crowd.
“Now get a move on people”
No one needed to be told twice, with one last longing look at the newsroom, the reporting staff of the Daily Planet moved to the stairwells, and elevators in mass. It took several minutes, but soon the only souls left in the building were Perry and Jimmy. From his office window the editor could see the same thing happening in all the major offices in downtown Metropolis people jammed the streets most of them running in the direction of the nearest safe haven. Police and Lexcorp officials could be seen going building to building herding the occupants from inside, and onto the street.
“What happens now chief?”
Perry sighed, and looked over at his young friend. It amazed him how close he become with Jimmy, in a way the younger man reminded him of himself at that age--hopeful, and full of optimism, confident, and yet naïve. Clapping him on the shoulder Perry moved back to his desk and picked up the phone “Get yourself to one of those relocation centers ASAP Olsen. Did you do what I asked?”
“Yeah chief” Jimmy pulled a stack of discs from his pocket “This is everything they have on the computer system. Since they were in the process of updating there wasn’t much on-line.” He quickly handed them over to Perry “I talked to Lois on her cell phone she said she’d be here in about fifteen minutes.”
“What about Kent?”
“She said not to worry about Clark he would be OK. She said something about him going to find Superman.”
“Good, if anyone can fix this mess my money’s on Superman. Now get outa here son, I’m callin Alice she’ll meet you down there. Hopefully I’ll catch up to Lane and Kent and we can all meet up.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay here chief?” Jimmy asked not wanting to leave the closest thing he’d ever had to a father behind.
“Don’t be so dramatic son I may be of the old school, but I’m not crazy enough to stay here and go down with the ship. Besides Alice needs someone familiar if I’m not gonna be there, I’m counting on you to take care of her till I come, got that Olsen?”
“Yes sir” Jimmy squeaked, he pivoted in place and at the last moment rushed back and gave Perry a bone crushing bear hug that left the editor speechless, without another word he ran out of the office and down the stairs.
Leaning back in his chair Perry picked up the phone once more and began to dial home all the while praying Clark—or rather Superman could find a way to stop Armageddon.
