A/N: This is the second story in ‘The Game Trilogy’, set during the episode ‘Metallo’. Between this story and the first was the episode ‘Season’s Greedings’, although this little nugget of information doesn’t really have an impact on the story.
Thanks, as ever, go to my beta reader, Carol
Standard disclaimers apply.
‘Metallo’: story by Alan Brennert & James Crocker and teleplay by Tony Blake & Paul Jackson
TOC with link to the first story *.*.*.
Rule Changeby Alisha Knight*.*.*.
Lois sat in her jeep in the Daily Planet’s car park, her head in a whirl. This was beginning to happen too often for her liking. It was one thing for her to put herself in harm’s way; she always seemed to get out of it, mainly due to Superman, but Clark...
She gripped the steering wheel as she forced herself not to cry. Clark wasn’t supposed to get into trouble because for some reason Superman didn’t come flying to his rescue when he did. Now Johnny Corbin had Clark and he was planning on killing him if Superman didn’t show up. Every member of the Planet’s staff knew this, which meant that Superman knew, so why hadn’t he appeared? All she needed was the sight of his red cape and his deep voice saying ‘I’ll save Clark’ and she’d know that everything would be all right.
She rubbed her sleeve across her damp eyes and dragged a notepad out of her glove compartment. She knew it was stupid for her to leave these notes in her car, but it was the only place she could keep them where she knew she wouldn’t spend hours poring over them. It was her investigation into Superman’s true identity.
After Clark’s kidnapping, she’d rung Perry when she got stuck in traffic as she drove to the police station. She’d expected to have to hound the police until they got off their butts, but luckily Henderson had been there and he’d immediately got the force looking for Superman and/or Clark.
Now she had to return to work. She wasn’t sure why, precisely, she just had nowhere else to go; and Perry would want to know what was happening. She’d also spoken to Bobby Bigmouth and several of her other sources; they were also on the lookout. Bobby seemed particularly concerned. She very nearly asked him if he knew Superman’s real identity, but as much as she liked Bobby, she couldn’t trust him to keep quiet about it if he had no idea it existed. So now it was down to her and she had very little time to work it out.
She’d made a list of every male Planet employee that loosely fitted Superman’s description, crossing out those without anything that obscured any part of their face, and come up with nothing.
Lois stared at the list through those tears that were coming back. She couldn’t give in to her emotions; she had to save Clark. She blinked them back and looked at the names and photos. No, none of them. But he’d *said* he worked at the Planet. He wouldn’t lie about that, she was sure of it.
She flung the notes away in disgust. <OK,> she told herself, <calm down. Think about this logically. It isn’t anyone on that list, which means it’s someone *off* that list. Possibly someone who isn’t currently in the office, because he hasn’t appeared to save the day like normal. Someone tall, with dark hair and eyes. Someone with a beard or glasses or something. Someone I left off the list because I’d never think it was them. Because it’s... >
“Nah.” She had to say this part out loud. “No, Lois Lane that is the most ridiculous idea you’ve ever had.”
But was it? There were three men who she hadn’t bothered even *excluding* from her list, because she would have known if one of them were Superman.
Wouldn’t she?
In a flurry of dread-filled excitement she rummaged around in the glove compartment. There.
She pulled out a wodge of photos from the Planet’s Christmas Party and selected one she had taken of the three of them. She tore it up, isolating their faces so she could study them closely. She took in a deep breath as she conducted her analysis. There was Perry White, but he was too old, too grey, and too, well, fat to be Superman. Jimmy Olsen. Closer, but still no, there was nothing obscuring any of his face, except the odd lock of hair. Clark Kent.
She stared at his face, her eyes welling with tears again. Superman *had* to save him. Look at the state of her; she could barely function without him.
>Objective , be objective,> she told herself. Her hands shaking, she put it next to the photo of Superman she’d been using for her research.
Lois broke down again, letting the tears fall freely onto her lap, as she hunched over, the photos falling between her fingers and onto the car’s floor. Complicated? Understatement!
But it didn’t make sense. If Clark *was* Superman, then why was Johnny able to kidnap him at all?
For the very same reason that he was able to beat Superman up, she supposed, as her sobs began to subside. Not that she knew why that was.
Horror clutched at her as she thought of something. She’d only seen one substance have that effect on Superman before: Kryptonite. If Clark was Superman, and Corbin had Kryptonite, then he could already be dead. Again.
Or, her cynicism returned briefly, perhaps not *again*. If he was Superman, then Clyde Barrows could never have killed him in the first place. Of course, he would have had to pretend to be dead or his secret would have been out and neither he nor his parents could have a normal life.
His parents.
Lois lifted her head, blinking as the light forced its way into her reddened eyes. They would know if she was right, but she couldn’t very well ring and ask. Apart from the fact that she had no idea what their number was, they’d probably deny it even if it were true. They had seemed to like her, but that wouldn’t matter when it came to protecting their son.
So it came down to this. She thought she’d worked out where Superman was but it wasn’t very helpful. It was completely the opposite. Lois would have to leave him out of the equation when it came to rescuing Clark. She would have to do it alone, somehow.
There was still a chance she was wrong, she thought as she pulled out a bottle of water and splashed some on her face to remove any evidence of her tears, and Superman would show up. She wouldn’t completely abandon hope. She’d just work on her own plan without him for now.
*.*.*.
Perry paced around the conference room, trying to remain calm. It wasn’t the first time one of his reporters had found themselves in a life-threatening situation, and as long as Lois was still working there, he doubted it would be the last. It didn’t make it any easier for him, though, but it was his job to maintain order here. Clark wouldn’t be happy with him if he let the whole paper fall to pieces just because he’d gone missing.
“All right, no matter what the outcome this is the biggest page-one lead we had all year. And I wanna make sure all my bases are covered. Langdon, I want you and Taylor to cover police headquarters.”
“Yes, chief. On it.” Langdon replied.
“Robertson...” Perry heard movement in the conference room doorway. He glanced over. “Lois?”
She looked terrible, he thought, though typically Lois. Over the sorrow that she was trying not to acknowledge, there was a grim determination. When in doubt, Lois did her job, and her job was to save her partner and bag the story, though he knew well enough that the story was currently second in her thoughts, if it was in them at all.
“Did you hear from Superman?” he asked her.
She shook her head. “The whole city’s out looking for him,” she told him.
Perry tried not to let his face fall and decided to follow her lead. Concentrate on getting the job done. “All right, Robertson, cover city hall.”
“Got it, chief.”
“Find out what the mayor intends to do if Superman doesn’t show.”
“He’ll show, Perry,” Lois cut in indignantly, automatically sticking up for her hero. Then her strength fell. Of course he would; he wasn’t really Clark; he wasn’t in danger. She’d got it wrong. For the first time in her life, Lois wanted to be wrong. She couldn’t lose Clark. “He has to.”
“Lois, I’m worried about Clark too. And I want Superman to show up just as much as you do. But if he doesn’t, we still got a newspaper to get out.”
She wanted to yell at him, tell him that he could stuff his paper, but the calm numbness she had embraced as she forced herself to come up here had spread through her body, rendering her incapable of showing her emotions. Like always. Except in front of Clark.
“Lois?” She whirled round to see her ashen-faced little sister stood at her desk. An immediate feeling of relief washed over her. Lucy was here. Lucy knew Johnny. Lucy knew where Johnny lived.
“Lucy.” Lois rushed over to her, talking hurriedly. “Where have you been? Johnny kidnapped Clark. Where did he take him?”
“What? I don’t know. When?”
“About an hour ago.” Lois replied, fighting to keep the tremor out of her voice as Lucy sat down on her seat in shock. “You know, your boyfriend Johnny is not just a criminal.”
“I know. He’s not real. I know.” She started to cry.
Lois felt terrible. She’d been so caught up in her own problems, she’d completely forgotten about what her sister must be going through. She stroked her hair, old unwanted memories returning. She had look out for her baby sister, she couldn’t trust her parents to do it. She’d never been good at being the older sister. “Oh, Lucy.”
“Lois.”
She squeezed Lucy’s shoulders in a brief hug. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
“I am too. You were right, Lois. I can’t believe my intuition about men can be so far off.”
Lois grimaced. She knew that feeling. Right now, she knew it all too well. “Yeah, well, it’s sort of a family trait.”
“At least Lex Luthor was human. Johnny... I saw his chest. It was a piece of metal. It was hideous. I mean, they even branded him with a symbol.”
“What kind of symbol?” Lois’ reporter skills kicked in.
There was a pause while Lucy thought. “He called it a Möbius strip.”
“A Möbius.” What had Clark said before Johnny shoved him into the van? Something about an address for Infinity Laboratories. “Doesn’t that look like the symbol for infinity?”
“Yeah. Why?”
Lois glanced at Lucy, then called out across the news room, the fire back in her voice. “Cindy, get me the address for Infinity Laboratories. Jimmy, get your camera.”
“On my way, Lois.” She heard his faint reply as she smiled down at Lucy. They had a lead thanks to a double-helping of that Lane luck. She didn’t need Superman. She could rescue Clark without him. Or she could rescue *him*. She still wasn’t completely sure which.
*.*.*.
Lois closed her eyes as she played with the bubbles in the bathtub and listened to the music playing in the background. This was so nice, everything was right again. Lucy was talking to her and not dating a criminal cyborg. Clark was safe and well. She could relax now.
Well, she could almost relax.
The events surrounding her partner’s rescue still played in her head. Clark had broken his bonds, Lois was pretty sure of that. He'd just needed that extra bit of oomph from Jimmy. As soon as he was free, and she and Jimmy had run off, Superman had shown up. He would have to do an awful lot to convince her he wasn’t Superman now. Something like stop running off at odd moments and actually be seen with the superhero.
It was strange how easily they had all accepted that the two of them were friends without ever having seen them together. Lois couldn’t think of a single occasion when she had seen Clark *and* Superman.
She gathered a handful of bubbles in her palms and blew, giggling as they floated around her before settling back down into the bath. At least she’d never had to choose between them and that whole death-threat thing had taken the sting out of the lie. She’d seen how torn up Superman had been about telling her his real name. She understood now, of course telling her scared the living daylights out of him, and if she hadn’t been so worried about him, she would have really overreacted when she worked it out.
Not that she was just going to forgive and forget that easily. Oh, no. She intended to make him squirm for lying to her like that for all this time.
What if she didn’t tell him she knew? Clark always seemed pretty, well, jealous over her crush on Superman, which made no sense now that she knew the truth. After all, if he meant all those things he’d told her after Lex’s proposal, then why had he turned her down as Superman?
Because he was Clark. He didn’t see himself as Superman, he’d told her Superman was just a disguise. So, what better way to wind him up, than to throw herself at his alter-ego?
Would he ever believe her that she wanted Clark instead of Superman if she did that? She sighed as she stared at her fingers. They’d gone all wrinkly.
She stood up and got out of her bath, wrapping her robe around her. She’d barely finished tying the knot when a gust of wind announced Superman’s entry into her apartment. He looked slightly embarrassed when he saw what she was wearing.
“I’m sorry. I guess I didn’t realise how late it was.”
Lois smiled at him. He looked so like Clark, how had she not seen it? Because she hadn’t looked for it. “Well, it’s not late. I was just taking an early bath.”
“I wanted to apologise for having left so abruptly the other day.”
She moved over to get closer to him. If she was going to seduce Superman to annoy Clark, she may as well start now. “You don’t have to apologise. I mean, I guess I was a little worried. Actually, I was very worried about you.”
“Lois--”
“You know,” she placed her hands on his arms, and lightly ran them up to rest on his shoulders as she spoke, “I thought for a while there that I might never see you again.”
He took her hands in his, pushing them away from him. “I’m-- I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
She glanced down to their hands, barely touching each other. “Lois, I want you to know that I think what you did for Clark showed incredible bravery.”
“It was nothing,” she shrugged it off. Of course, she’d forgotten that part of Superman’s conduct. Always pushing her towards Clark, agreeing with Clark, coming over and telling her the exact same thing Clark had in the hope that she would listen to him in the suit. Why hadn’t she seen through that?
“Was it?”
Lois thought about it. “I guess not. I guess there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for him.” <Oh, great start, Lane,> she mentally cursed herself. <Start your seduction of Superman to get back at Clark by practically admitting to Superman that you are in love with Clark. You can’t even admit that to yourself, even now you know he’s Superman.>
Lois saw Superman’s face brighten slightly but he quickly set it back to neutral. “I think you two are very lucky to have each other.”
He looked into her eyes for a moment. “Good night, Lois.”
She watched as Superman flew out of her apartment. She turned her eyes away from the window, and they landed on her telephone on her bedside table. Was there a chance she was wrong?
She wandered over, and sat down on the bed, pulling the phone onto her lap as she lifted the receiver and dialled one of her best known numbers, the only one that didn’t ring into a take-out restaurant. It didn’t ring for long before she heard Clark’s voice over the telephone.
“Hi, this is Clark. I’m not home right now, so please leave a message after the beep and I will call you as soon as I can. Thanks.”
She cradled the earpiece against her cheek with her shoulder as she heard the muffled beep. Lois sighed as she put the telephone back where it belonged, picked up a cushion, and curled up on her bed, placing her head on the soft satin cover, a smile playing on her lips.
<Oh, Clark. Of course you couldn’t answer the phone, you were flying around the city. You’ve been lying to me ever since you met me, and now it’s time for payback. You’ve just proved that you want me to want Clark, not Superman, by pushing me away and telling me how lucky Clark and I were to have each other. How obvious is that? But, my flying friend, the rules have changed and the game’s still on. I’m gonna make you squirm, and make you wish you’d been honest with me from the start.>
Lois tossed the cushion away as she turned over to grab the little black bear Clark had won for her. She cradled it next to her chest as she fell asleep, dreaming of what she was planning to do to him.
