Synopsis: Lois and Clark do some digging, and Jimmy gets the fright of his life!
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Chapter Four
“Did I miss them?” Lois asked as she arrived home.
“Yeah...they stayed long enough to hand over enough food to feed the newsroom for a month!” Clark smiled at his parents neverending hospitality.
“They brought lots of cakes!” Jon grinned triumphantly as he tucked into a chocolate brownie.
Lois smirked at her son, but she couldn't smell chocolate cake. She could smell carpet cleaner, lots of it.
“Clark...please say you didn't walk Peruvian mud right through the house,” she sighed.
“You should have seen Uncle Perry's face,” Jon giggled.
“Yeah...he looked pretty amused,” said Clark sheepishly.
Lois pouted at her husband, humour in her eyes, before turning to Jon.
“Have you done your homework?”
“Uh-huh...Dad went over my math with me.”
“And your English homework?”
Jon finished eating his brownie, “No, but I can do it tomorrow morning!”
“That's an awfully bad habit to get into,” she told him and Clark nodded in agreement.
Jon sighed, “Okay okay...I'll go upstairs and get it done just now.”
Lois and Clark smiled at each other. Jon was a good kid and they were both very proud of him. Sadly he was beginning to develop a lazy streak – definitely his father's influence. Lois was just happy he hadn't started to develop superpowers – yet.
Once Jon was upstairs, they both relaxed, more free to talk about the day's events. Of course Jon knew the truth about his heritage, but he was still only nine.
“Lucy crashed the car,” Lois stated.
“Surprise of the century,” Clark quipped, “Superman was there to calm her down...I even offered to fly her here to explain what had happened but she said no.”
“That was wise of her...She'll be wishing she was never born next time she sees me...How did it go in Peru?”
Clark sighed. Mudslides were one of the worst things he dealt with. They struck with deadly force and next to no warning. And most victims weren't able to call for help.
“Alright considering...A lot of casualties, but not half as many as last year,”
Lois could tell he wasn't keen to talk about it, so she didn't press for any more details.
Clark clearly wanted to change the subject too, “So what did you dig up on our newest reporter?”
“Kara King. All things considered, she is a bit of an enigma, but there wasn't any one thing that stuck out...No record of her parents and no birth certificate...possibly a foster kid, but there wasn't much in the way of detail there other than one legal guardian for a few months when she was nine, a Cathleen Gordon. She excelled in school, but went from being an average kid to the loud and mouthy head of the cheerleading squad to suddenly becoming a timid agoraphobic in her late teens. She only got over the agoraphobia a few years ago, and got her degree mostly by studying at home.”
Lois was right. Not one fact really stuck out, but put it altogether and Kara King had not had an average upbringing.
“I wonder what triggered the agoraphobia?” Clark wondered.
“I don't know. It was barely mentioned in the notes I got from her alma mater. There'll be notes in her medical file I'm sure, but there's no way I can get to them.”
“Poor kid...A girl I went to High School with had agoraphobia...terrible thing...It nearly ruined her life.”
“I've never known anyone who had it...sounds terrible from what I've heard though.”
Clark suddenly zoned out, listening intently to something Lois couldn't hear.
“Police call...triple shooting on Carpenter Street.”
“It's been a busy day for you,” Lois sighed.
Clark nodded grimly.
“I'll give the police a hand, but I'll be back soon...You know how these things go.”
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In a tiny apartment across town Kara King focused on stopping her hands from shaking as she stirred a pot of soup.
Yeah yeah, we've got a triple homicide on Carpenter Street. We've recovered a single handgun. Perp's thought to be nearby. Requesting backup.
Kara let out a small sob and dropped the spoon, retreating to the floor. The trembling increased, and for the dozenth time she wondered if she could do this.
She'd spent the whole day blocking out calls for help. Living in the middle of nowhere she rarely heard the panicked calls of strangers. After months of mental training she'd been able to block out calls from further away. But she couldn't be ignorant. She'd spent the day listening to the news of the mudslides in Of course, she felt guilty for not helping over there, but once Superman went to Peru, calls for help in Metropolis only increased, further upsetting her.
“You've got a decision to make Kara,” she told herself, “You can continue to ignore all these calls for help, like you've always done, and continue to beat yourself up for it. Or you can give up on your dream of becoming a successful journalist and move back to Littletown and hole up in your house again...Or you can do what Kal-El did. Listen to those calls for help and answer them. Make up a disguise and make a difference!
“No no...That's insane!” she continued, “Like a disguise would fool anyone...What would I do? Lose the glasses? Straighten my hair? Grow a fringe?
“It could work! It works for Kal-El...He has a secret identity, or well...he must have!
“No it's stupid...And they'd find you again and they'd torture you again, now that they know about Kryptonite. They said they'd track you down.”
Kara was having a battle with herself, and both sides were loosing.
“And so what?! Once Kal-El knows who you are and once you're in the public eye, they can't touch you!”
Kara screwed her eyes shut, knowing that if she was ever going to make a decision about this that she'd have to it now.
Remembering that her local Waynemart had a fabrics section and was open 24 hours, she grabbed her jacket and her purse.
She'd made her decision, and now she had a costume to make...
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Jimmy began to realise just how strange he felt as he made it back to his apartment. It was early in the evening yet he was beat. Glancing at his living room clock he noticed it was only 7.30pm.
His mind was still clouded, and he was missing two hours from his day, but he knew he needed sleep.
Sighing, he headed to bed, hoping he'd wake up feeling better, and hoping he'd have an answer regarding what had happened earlier that day.
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Clark had returned from helping the police with the triple shooting and he and Lois were sitting in their kitchen having dinner.
“So what did Perry say about Jimmy's dad?” Clark asked Lois.
“Metropolis General Hospital called the planet earlier today...Apparently Jack Olsen was shot at by a sniper while out on assignment for the N.I.A...According to Perry it wasn't looking good.”
“Poor Jimmy.”
“After Perry had collected Jon and your parents he tried to call Jimmy but the phone just rang out...He called me to see if I'd talked to him at all...He's worried that Jimmy didn't answer.”
“It's not like Jimmy not to answer a call...His phone's permanently stuck to his ear.”
“Maybe we should try to contact him just now,” Lois suggested.
“Yeah,” Clark sighed, picking up the handset. He keyed in Jimmy's number and waited. A few moments later he put it down again.
“No answer?”
“No answer.”
Lois sighed. This wasn't looking good.
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Once again the ringing of his phone forced Jimmy to wake up. Through the sleepy haze and his headache it took him a moment to realise what the sound was.
The bed sure feels comfy, he thought to himself as he woke up.
Abruptly the phone stopped ringing and stretching out, he felt a draught beneath him.
“Huh?”
Jimmy opened his eyes and was startled when he realised what he was doing.
He was floating!
“What the...Aaaargh”
He landed back on his bed with an almighty thud, his heart beating way too fast. Inhumanly fast.
What the hell was going on?
