(Quick note -- I changed the wording in the previous paragraph (http://www.lcficmbs.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=013371) to say that Lois left a note for Clark and stuck it on his computer before she went running into harm's way. So she is expecting him to see it and to contact Superman. But, well, he's not going to see it.
(I'm mean like that.)
* * * * *
COTOC Redux, Part 6/6
* * * * *
Clark stepped out of the elevator and surveyed the newsroom, hoping to see Lois. When he couldn’t find her, he asked Jimmy.
"Oh, she took off a few minutes ago," Jimmy said. "I don't know where she was going, but she looked like she was on a story. Oh... and right before that, there was a call for you, but she took it."
"For me?" Clark said. Ack, what if it had been Wonderman? He had tried to get back to the Planet as quickly as possible, but there had been a huge wreck on the freeway, and he couldn't just let those people die.... "Do you know who it was?"
"No idea," said Jimmy. "He had a kind of southern accent, though. He asked for you, that's all."
Great, thought Clark. "And you're saying Lois took the call, and then left?"
"Yeah."
“Jimmy, do you have ANY idea where she might have gone?”
“No… sorry, CK.”
Clark sighed. Now what? If Wonderman had told Lois where he was going to meet his sister’s kidnapper, then Lois could be walking right into the line of fire. And where that was, Clark had no idea. He began to loosen his tie. He was just going to have to find them on his own… somehow.
* * * * *
This time, Lois came prepared with a flashlight. She always kept one in her jeep, and thank goodness the batteries still worked. But as she opened the door to the mausoleum, she was quick to notice that something was different about the place today. The other night, the interior had been pitch black. Today, it was lit with… candles? Yes, there was some kind of candelabra on the wall, and it was glowing, casting an eerie spell on the inside of the small room.
Lois looked around. She saw a coffin in the center of the chamber, ornately decorated. The walls were made of stone, and there were various decorations and embellishments scattered about. Was this it? There had to be something more to this place! Maybe there was something in the coffin itself. She pressed on the side of the lid, but it wouldn’t budge. Next she began to slide her hands along the designs on the wall. As she was doing so, she bumped the candleabra, and heard a sound. She had moved it -- slightly. And it was making something happen. She pressed it further. The coffin was sliding to the side! And underneath it, a passageway leading down into the earth was beginning to be revealed.
Her heart was pounding. There was a light coming from below. She leaned forward to look down, and just as she did, she heard another sound. A thud. The mausoleum door had somehow shut behind her.
“There’s no way out,” came a voice from below. “So you may as well join us.”
Lois looked down again, and this time she saw a blonde woman in a white lab coat. In one hand, she appeared to be holding some kind of remote control. In the other, she held a pistol.
Instinctively, Lois backed up. She tried the door, but it wouldn’t budge. She was trapped. She couldn’t leave. So she could either stay up here in this dark little space, or go down and find out what was below. And join the woman with the gun. Hmmm, that didn’t sound like a good plan.
Suddenly a noxious smell hit her senses, and she began to cough. It took her a minute to realize that one of the gargoyles on the wall was emitting some kind of gas. Now she really had no choice. Still choking, she went for the passageway and began to descend the stairs. The air was cleaner down here -- stale, but at least not lethal.
When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she looked around. She was in some kind of laboratory. There were machines and computers and all manner of wires and buttons. In one corner of the room was a glass box that looked to have some kind of figure inside it. And in the very center of the room, standing on a metal plate and looking very upset, was Wonderman.
“Miss Lane!” he exclaimed. “Oh my, you weren’t supposed to come!”
The woman in the lab coat pointed her gun at Lois. “Yes, if it isn’t little miss Lois Lane. I have just the place for you… right this way….” She motioned toward a darkened corner of the lab, where a cage stood. Lois looked from the cage (where a woman she didn’t recognize was already imprisoned) and the gun, then back to the cage -- where she then saw a myriad of explosives attached to the bars.
*Superman will save us*, she thought. *Just do what she says, and try not to get blown up!* If she lived through this, it would make one hell of a story.
“Well, hello there!” said Lois’s cellmate, as the cage door shut behind Lois. “My name’s Mary Todd Lincoln. And how may I address you?”
Lois stared at her. Who WAS this? On the phone, Wonderman had said something about his sister. Was this his sister? She did have a similar accent. But why would she introduce herself as Mary Todd Lincoln? What on Earth was the matter with her?
A buzzing sound in the laboratory snapped her attention back to Wonderman. She could see the blonde woman fiddling with various controls on a machine. She’d push a few buttons, then wait. Lois deduced that the woman was trying to make some kind of connection between Wonderman and… wait, was that on the other end of the device? A small cage? She couldn’t quite make out what was inside.
“For heaven’s sake, what IS it that you expect that rat to DO?” Wonderman suddenly exclaimed.
“SHUT UP!” the blonde woman hollered.
Oh, a rat. Ew. Lois shuddered.
“Tad got his powers from Superman,” the Mary Todd Lincoln-wannabe was saying. “And now Tad’s going to give his powers to the nice little mousie. He always did like to share.”
“Tad?” Lois repeated.
The woman nodded toward Wonderman. “That’s my boy.”
“I see,” said Lois. *Oh, Superman, where are you?*
The blonde lady was now throwing a tantrum. Seems she just couldn’t get her device to work. Lois hoped it would stay that way.
It was all making sense to Lois, now. This woman must’ve witnessed the lightning strike in the cemetery and figured out how Superman’s powers had been transferred. Now she wanted them for herself.
Now, why on earth this woman lived in a cemetery underneath a mausoleum, Lois had no idea. Clearly she was currently surrounded by some very strange people.
“Ma’am, I have a question,” Lois called.
“WHAT?” the woman yelled.
“Did you kidnap Justin Driver?”
“That little brat? For all the good it did me, yes! I had him brought to me by a good friend of mine, but he was useless.”
“How did he lose his powers?”
“I DON’T KNOW!” she shrieked. “JUST SHUT UP, I’m TRYING to work here!”
“Wonderman,” Lois called, “You can’t let her do this! Don’t you see? Any havoc she wrecks after she gets your powers will be on your hands!”
“I knowww,” Wonderman said, wringing his hands. “But if I don’t do what she says, you and Wanda Mae will surely, surely die!”
“You may have to risk it!” Lois said.
Click. “One more word out of you, and I WILL shoot you,” the blonde woman said, as she brought her gun right up to the bars of the cage.
Lois decided to keep quiet. For a while, anyway. *Superman, could you hurry it up?*
The woman fiddled with the settings on her machine, then pushed a lever and watched as a stream of electricity went from Wonderman to the rat in the cage.
“I think… I think so…” she was saying excitedly.
Lois barely had time to process what happened next. She heard a loud sound and then… there was a hole in the ceiling. And… a hole in the rat cage. The rat was gone. The rat had gone through the roof.
“YES!!!” the woman shrieked. “IT WORKS!” She pushed aside the rat cage and stood in its place. It was her turn, now. “This is it, Lex!” she called. “Everything we’ve worked for! This is IT!”
“Lex?” Lois dared to speak.
The woman turned to Lois with narrowed yes. “That’s right,” she said, pointing across the room to the glass box Lois had noticed earlier. “Lex Luthor. The only REAL man left in Metropolis. You married him and destroyed him all in one day, but *I* will bring him back! And when I do, we will OWN Metropolis!” With that, she pushed the lever on the machine.
* * * * *
Superman flew over Metropolis, trying desperately to pick up any sign, any sound, that would point him toward either Lois or Wonderman.
Just then he saw something. A small, dark object, coming right at him from the earth below. It whizzed past him at an alarming speed. What WAS that? Where had it come from? He looked down, and was surprised to find himself directly over Perpetual Pines cemetery. He flew in for a closer look. There was a hole in the roof of the old mausoleum. He peered down it. He could make out something moving below.
And then he heard her.
A quiet, almost indistinct, “Oh, my god.”
He burst in.
Before he could even take in the details of his surroundings (a bunker… a laboratory…?) he heard a woman’s voice say: “You’re too late!”
His eyes swept the room. Lois and another woman (presumably Wanda Mae) were in a jail cell, which was wired with explosives. Wonderman and a blonde woman were standing near each other, next to a machine. And said blonde woman had her hands on her hips and looked extremely smug.
*Too late for what?* Superman wondered, but before he could say a word, he was being punched in the gut. Hard. He stumbled backwards. What was happening? The blonde woman. She was coming at him again. She was kicking him. He tried to block her kicks. How could she be so strong? Had… oh no, no… had she gotten his powers, too? Had she somehow gotten them from Wonderman? He WAS too late!
She was laughing, now. Superman stood up and stared at her. She grinned. “Go on, hit me!” she said.
But he couldn’t. It just seemed so wrong, somehow.
He felt a blow to his face and, having been caught off guard yet again, he found himself on the ground.
“You sap!” the woman said. “You can’t do it! You can’t hit a woman!”
“Howdy,” said Wonderman, coming up behind her and slugging her hard.
She went sailing across the room and hit the glass box, knocking some of the wires loose. A shrill sound emerged. The woman gasped. “Noooo!!!” she screamed.
“Superman, you can reverse the transfer if you get her on the other plate!” Lois cried.
“Get her!” Superman instructed Wonderman. Wonderman hauled the woman toward the plate he’d been standing on before. Superman stood on the other one.
“Push that big lever!” Lois called.
He did so.
“You idiot!” the woman was screaming at Wonderman, as she struggled against him. “If I lose them, so do you!”
“As I recall… you were going to make… me lose them… anyway!” Wonderman said through clenched teeth.
When it was all over, only one person in the room had superpowers. The blonde woman was furious. She tried to punch Superman, but ended up hurting her hand. “You’ll pay for this!” she yelled, reaching into her jacket pocket for a remote. She aimed it toward the cage. “Say goodbye to your girlfriend!”
But before she could push a button on the remote, Superman had snatched it away from her. “I’ll take this,” he said.
The woman threw another tantrum.
“Wanda Mae, are you all right?” Wonderman asked his sister.
“Tad, can’t you get us out of here?”
“Superman, if you touch the cage bars it’ll activate the explosives,” Lois said. “But there’s a keypad on the cage door. I think if we punch in the right code, we can get it to open.”
Superman began to work at the keypad, and within a minute, he’d found the right combination. The door opened. Lois breathed a sigh of relief as she stepped out. Wanda Mae followed behind her.
“Are you all right?” Superman asked.
Lois nodded. His eyes showed so much concern for her. She felt all warm and fuzzy inside.
“Now, where do you suppose that nice blonde lady went to?” Wanda Mae asked.
They all looked around. She was nowhere to be seen.
* * * * *
“This is one heck of a story!” Perry exclaimed. “Lois, how is it you always seem to end up right in the thick of things?”
“That’s what I’d like to know,” Clark said. Boy, did his partner have a knack for trouble. But he wouldn’t ask her to change for anything in the world.
“Someday, I’ll teach you all my tricks,” she said playfully. “In the meantime, I think you owe me one of yours.”
“I beg your pardon?” said Clark.
“You promised me you’d tell me how to get in touch with Superman,” she said. “Remember?”
“Oh boy, I’ll let you two work this one out,” Perry said, as he clapped Lois on the shoulder and went back to his office.
“Lois, I should really make sure it’s okay with Superman before I give that information to someone else,” Clark said.
“Oh, come on!” she said. “I’m much closer to Superman than you are! He trusts me! I know he won’t mind.”
“Maybe he’s worried you’ll start calling him ALL the time.”
“I won’t either!”
“Miss Lane?” A voice interrupted their conversation.
Lois and Clark turned to see Michelle Driver standing beside them. Justin was clutching her hand and smiling shyly.
“Miss Driver!” said Lois. “How are you?”
“Oh, just fine, just fine… we both are. I just wanted to thank you…. They told me you were the one who found Justin in the park. Thank you so much for helping bring him back to me. And I wanted to apologize for some of the things I said to you the last time we spoke. I may have been a little harsh.”
“That’s all right,” Lois said, genuinely surprised.
“And thank you both,” she said, her eyes darting to Clark, “for the articles you wrote about… well, everything. Never once did you say anything horrible about me or my, well, parenting abilities, the way some other reporters did. Especially the ones on TV. You were very… oh, what’s the word… neutral? Fair? I just want you to know I really appreciate it. I don’t think you’ll have to worry about writing any more about us, though… Justin and I are more than ready to be out of the spotlight… for good, I hope.”
“You’re welcome,” said Lois. “And I’m so glad everything turned out all right.”
“I can’t fly,” Justin spoke up. “I used to. But not anymore.”
“Uh, that reminds me, Miss Driver,” Clark said. “We promise not to print anything more about it, but we just wanted to ask you about something. Did you and Justin take any flights this past summer?”
Michelle looked at Clark strangely. “Why, yes, we did -- we flew to Michigan to visit my sister.”
“In late July?”
“Yes… why?”
“Just… wanted to clear up a detail from earlier,” Clark said quickly. “Oh, by the way, I talked to Superman and he said he’s going to help with the repairs to your house. So expect a visit in the next few days.”
Michelle beamed. “Oh, thank you! I know I hardly deserve it, after everything… I mean, I know I didn’t exactly make his life easy there, for a while… I do feel bad about that. It was so silly of me, really. I just--”
“I’m sure he understands,” Clark said.
Michelle smiled. “Well, we better go. Thanks again for everything!”
“Of course,” said Lois. “Bye Justin!”
“Bye-bye!” the little boy said cheerfully.
Lois and Clark smiled as they watched them go. Once they were out of sight, Lois turned to Clark. “Well, I’m glad that’s over with. All of it.”
“Same here. In fact, I think I may be ready for a lonnng vacation.”
Lois smiled knowingly. “I still have so many questions, though. Like, do you really think that woman had Lex’s body the whole time?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“What kind of a person keeps a body frozen like that?”
“Someone who’s having a hard time getting a date?” Clark suggested with a grin.
She rolled her eyes. “Well, at least now we know Lex is definitely dead. When that woman knocked those wires loose, I saw everything go flatline. And now the police have the body. And, I mean, it’s not like he’s suddenly going to regenerate himself, right?”
“Let’s hope not,” said Clark.
“And that woman’s powers are gone, now, and so are Wonderman’s and so are Justin’s. Which leaves just us with one superhero in Metropolis.”
“As it should be.”
“And speaking of Superman….”
He raised an eyebrow.
“We were talking about how to get in touch with him, remember?”
“Uh… could you excuse me for a minute? I just remembered I have a, uh, appointment with… someone…. I’ll be right back!”
She stared after him. Again? He was running off in the middle of a conversation AGAIN?
Well, as long as he remembered to bring her donuts this time....
The End [I][/I]
