DISCLAIMER: None of these characters are mine. This story's villian (er, villianess) was loosely based on a villian in the Animated Series called Live Wire. She is not mine, the characters are not mine - just the story idea is mine. Please don't sue! I'm just a poor college student!
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Clark walked around the corner and hurried over to the Daily Planet building, looking for Lois in the chaos of staffers and firefighters outside the building. He quickly spotted her with Perry. Jimmy was nearby, taking pictures. Clark hurried over to them, and the brunette barely had time to turn around and register seeing her husband before he hugged her.
“Clark,” she said. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Clark replied. “When did you get here?”
“Just a short time ago. Where have you been?”
“Uh,” Clark glanced at Perry and Jimmy, trying to think of something to say. He glanced up at the building. “How’s the building holding up?”
“It’s getting more than its share of harassment,” Lois replied, going along with Clark.
“Just means we’re doing our job, Lois,” Perry replied. “Course, if they could just write a letter to the editor instead of torching us it’d be an improvement.”
Jimmy stopped taking picture to reload his camera, glanced up and saw Clark, and hurried over. “Hey, CK, you seen Linda? We kinda got separated during in the chaos. I don’t know if she made it out okay.”
Clark smiled. “She’s fine, Jimmy. I sent her home.” He saw Jimmy relax visibly.
“Mr. White,” a firefighter said as he approached the group. “May I have a word with you?”
“Sure,” Perry replied. He walked off with the firefighter.
“I’m going to take some more pictures,” Jimmy replied as he put a fresh roll in his camera. He left, going back to his job.
Lois turned to Clark, lowering her voice. “So, what happened? Where’s Linda really?”
“She’s with Dr. Klein,” Clark replied, his voice lowered as well. “And there are a few things we need to talk about later on, but right now we need to figure out how to stop Traci Jones.”
“Well, I’ve been thinking about this since getting back here.” Lois replied. “The electrical system’s are shot, so we’re going to have to do things the old-fashioned way.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, I think a safe bet is to go talk to Traci’s former radio station. We need to find out what kind of person she is, predict her moves better, find out where she might be. If anyone knows anything about her, then it would be them.”
“Well, Jimmy’s into the music scene. He should come with us.”
Lois looked confused. “Jimmy?”
“And that’s the third roll of film he’s used since I came over here,” Clark added. “I think he needs a distraction.”
“And this has nothing to do with the fact that he likes your cousin, and you want to keep him from going to our place and not finding her there?” Lois asked with a small smile. She rolled her eyes as Clark gave her a look, even though she was right on the money. “Fine, fine. You go get Jimmy, and I’ll tell Perry where we’ll be.” The couple parted.
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Supergirl concentrated and stared at a two by four as Dr. Klein watched nearby. Two red beams shot from her eyes, hitting the piece of wood. In a few moments, the piece of wood was charred and black.
“Okay,” Dr. Klein scribbled on a clipboard he was holding. He looked up. “Well, it seems as if there’s been no side effects on your regular powers. How do you feel?”
“Fine,” Supergirl replied. “Aside from not being able to shape shift or psi blast anything anymore, I feel great.”
“Well, that’s good to know.” He made some notes on his clipboard. “Well, I think we can safely say that your extra powers are permanently gone, most likely from your encounter with Miss Jones. I would like to get a hair sample from you just to verify that.”
“Sure,” Supergirl replied. She noticed his hesitant expression. “What is it, Dr. Klein?”
“Are you and Superman still fighting?” he asked slowly. “I saw the news about your little, um . . . incident.”
Supergirl sighed. “How bad is the press making it out to be?”
“Not as bad as it could be.”
The young heroine bit her bottom lip. “Well, I think that will be the last time that happens. Superman and I talked after that; we’re on good terms again.”
“Good, then you can pass on some information to him the next time you see him. I finished analyzing Traci Jones’s blood, and I think I figured out how she got her powers.”
“How?” Supergirl cocked her head to one side as she crossed her arms.
“I’ll show you what I mean. Wait here.” Supergirl watched him as he walked over to his desk.
(End of Chapter 7)
