I know I'm notoriously lax in posting parts... I'd much rather just send the whole story to the archive, but I guess that wouldn't give the readers anything to look forward to from day to day.
I've had a few people read this, only about a quarter of it has been seriously beta'd. I've combed through it at least a dozen times, but we all know how we can miss things in our own stories. So, if you see anything that jumps out at you, give me shout. I'm not sure how many parts this things is going to have, though I know three things for sure... One: It's huge!
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Double Jeopardy
Definitely PG-13
And you know me, the tale seriously veers off the path of the series. (Actually, this one resembles canon more than my usual fare.)
I borrowed the characters, but the
and
are all mine!
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Loud applause arose around the bullpen as the young woman smiled widely.
"Very nice, Lane," Perry White told her as he held up that day's copy of the Daily Planet. Lois Lane had certainly become a valuable asset to his newsroom in the four short years she'd been on staff. She'd even earned her first Kerth already, even though she'd only been a beat reporter for eighteen months or so. And if things kept going the way they were, she'd take home another of the coveted awards this year.
"Thanks, Perry," Lois said as she tucked her hair behind her ear. "What I really need is a raise."
"Yeah, yeah. I guess you have been chasing that for a while, huh?"
Lois tapped the paper Perry had laid on the desk. "And I think that should be worth something."
"Me, too." Perry turned and bellowed for everybody else to get back to work before striding back to his office.
A few more congratulatory remarks were made before Lois settled to tackle her next front page headline. As a beat reporter you were only as good as your next story and she was beginning to be known as the best. Her phone rang and she grabbed it on the second ring.
"Lois Lane?"
"Lois, darling, I've been waiting all day to hear your voice."
"Lex," she said with a grin. "It's nice to hear you, too."
"And will it be equally nice to see me?"
"Of course. When?"
"How's tonight?"
"Unless something major comes up," Lois told him.
"Seven?"
"Sounds good." She looked up when Jimmy Olsen motioned for her. "Lex, I have to go."
"The news doesn't stop for our private lives."
"No, afraid not," she replied. "Tonight."
"I will be chomping at the bit until then."
Lois barely dropped the phone back in the cradle before she was off and running. Jimmy informed her on the way to the elevator that something huge was breaking at Eprad.
****
Jimmy ran to keep up with Lois as she weaved her way through the crowd outside the space center. A throng of reporters was already there to witness the latest in the ongoing saga of the space program. Most recently there had been an attempt to build a station that would hover just outside the atmosphere of Earth. It was the belief of many scientists that such a reality could mean unlimited possibilities for mankind. With the absence of gravity, research in fields only dreamed of before could become a reality. However, the most recent in a long line of accidents and miscalculations had set back the timeline on the project again.
"Alright, people," a man in a white lab coat called as he stepped up to the microphone. "If you'll quiet down, we'll inform of you of the latest news." He waited until he could finally be heard above the hum of voices. "This morning we were given the official okay to release the news that the Space Station Luthor will go up as planned." Cheers and clapping rose from the crowd.
"I thought the accident set things back?" Lois shouted to be heard.
"Several benefactors stepped forward and their help has allowed us to continue."
"You mean Lex Luthor?" came another shout.
"Mr. Luthor has always been a major contributor," was the answer. "Certain other... hindrances have also been taken care of and we're confident now that the launch can proceed without further delay."
"You mean people had to be hushed," was Lois' sarcastic remark. She knew there had been a lot of people paid to keep quiet about the accidents at Eprad, even if she'd never been able to prove it. And she'd tried for weeks, but so far every lead had come to a dead end.
"We won't dignify that with a response, Ms. Lane." The Professor Daitch knew Lois well. When she'd been investigating the 'incident', as it had been officially dubbed, the poor man had been hounded relentlessly by numerous news organizations. He hadn't faired very well against Mad Dog either.
"Now," another official continued. "We will now release an official press announcement. Selected publications and news stations will also be invited to the launch."
"That's all for now," said the first man. Another began passing out the briefs.
"Can you believe this?" Jimmy asked as he read over the paper in his hand. "There's nothing in here about any of the incidents."
"Nothing the government does surprises me," Lois replied as she made her way toward the building.
"Where we going?"
"To get some answers."
Jimmy shrugged and followed. There was no way they were getting anywhere close to that building, but he'd learned a long time ago that you just didn't argue with Lois Lane.
****
Jimmy had been right- they'd been unable to get into Eprad. And when they'd failed to be able to corner any of the scientists, they decided to call it a day and head back to the Planet to do research. But even that hadn't gone so well.
"I hate to do this, Lois, but I've got a date," Jimmy said as he looked at his watch.
"No problem. We're not getting anywhere." Lois, too, glanced at her watch. "Oh, dang!" She shot to her feet, suddenly remembering she'd made plans tonight as well. If she hurried, she'd just make it.
Thank goodness she only lived a few blocks from the Planet. She opted to leave her little hatchback in the parking garage and take the bus, hopping off a block over from her apartment. One day soon she was seriously going have consider trading in that heap of medal for something more stylish. Cutting through the alley in the middle of her block, she went up the back stairs. Five locks later, she was tossing her things on the chair in the corner of her living room.
"Hi, Charlie," she told her fish as she dropped a few flakes in the odd shaped bowl. Another glance at her watch told her she only had ten minutes for a shower if she wanted to put on any make-up at all.
Not sure what they were doing to tonight, Lois opted for a cocktail dress, blue with short sleeves. While this wasn't her first date with Lex, she certainly didn't want to give him the impression that she wanted to warp their relationship into overdrive either.
Relationship? Did she have a relationship with Lex? They'd gone on nearly two dozen dates over the last couple of months. And while they'd spent so much time together, she felt that she really didn't know him at all. It wasn't like they hadn't talked; they had. It was part of her nature to ask questions and she'd asked dozens, all of which he'd answered as honestly as he could. Yet, there still seemed to be so much about him she didn't know.
Did one ever know someone like Lex Luthor? He was a billionaire! A powerful businessman.
And yet, he'd asked her out and continued to do so. She was very impressed with him, too. He was an intelligent man, able to carry on a conversation about nearly any subject in the world. He loved the opera, the theater, and jazz. He had his own private cook, a Mr. Belvedere, and a personal assistant. Lois found it flattering that such a worldly man was interested in her.
Too starry eyed to question it at the moment, Lois had just finished dressing when Lex's driver called for her. Oh, well, she'd think about his motives later.
****
A week later, Space Station Luthor launched without a hitch. Lois' research ran dry and she gave up the chase on that story. Perry assigned her to another story that she felt was a waste of her time. It involved a government agency and their belief that aliens might exist.
"This is such bull," Lois muttered as she picked the lock on a warehouse in Suicide Slum.
"You have to admit, Lois," Jimmy said as he followed her inside, looking around to make sure they weren't being followed. "If someone wanted to hide something, what better place to do it than in the middle of this neighborhood?"
Lois chuckled along with her *partner* for the day as her eyes searched her surroundings. Honestly, she had no idea why Perry insisted she needed a partner. She worked alone!
Focusing on her surroundings, she peered at the rows and rows of file cabinets and shelves of... junk! "Look for anything..."
"Weird?"
"Yeah," she said through another snort of laughter. She chose a file cabinet while Jimmy went straight for the odd looking pieces of metal lying around. There were tons of files with names of places -– cities, she guessed. "Smallville?" she whispered. "Where the hell is that?" Pulling the file out, she opened to read what could be so important about a place with such a name. It was in Kansas. "Of course it is," she mumbled as she read on. "Target landed at... Hey, Jimmy, come here?"
He hurried over to see what she wanted. "Yeah?"
"Are these numbers coordinates?" she asked as she pointed out what she thought was a location.
"Looks like it." He pulled an object up to show her. "Look at this." It looked like a globe, but it was made out of some kind of metal she'd never seen before. And it was cool to the touch, extremely cool. "Isn't that weird?" he asked when her eyes widened on first touch.
"Yeah. What is it?"
"No idea. I found it in that." He turned and pointed to what looked like, for all intents and purposes, a small spaceship. It appeared to be made of the same, sleek metal as the globe with a large symbol on the nose. The symbol was a makeshift triangle with a stylized 's' in the middle.
"Oh, how rich," Lois said with a bark of unbelief. "Where do you think they get this stuff?" Jimmy shrugged and went back to his search and she continued to read the file she held. Apparently a 'target' landed in Smallville in 1966. Someone listed only as CO believed this target to be the transport vessel of an unknown threat. The file went on to say that because the target vessel was so small it was deduced that there was no way it could have contained a very large specimen, possibly even an infant. Further, it was the belief of an agency known as B39, that the 'threat' might have presented itself in the form of a being that closely resembled humans. It was theorized that an infant might have been sent to be raised among the population to later be programmed to call in an invasion force.
"Hey, Jimmy, can you believe they've tracked people in a place called Smallville because they think an alien landed there when he was a child?" And they definitely believed it was a he.
"Did they target a specific person?" he asked as he found a small box that was heavier than it looked. Inside was a glowing rock. "Check this out!"
Lois stepped over to where he was, her face taking on the eerie, green glow of the clump inside the box. "What is that?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," he replied as he snapped more pictures. He'd already taken dozens. There was no way he'd get out of this place without getting the goods before he left.
A loud clack echoed through the large building causing them both to look toward the entrance.
"We need to get out of here," Jimmy deduced as he shoved the round globe he'd found into his pocket. When Lois arched a brow at him, he shrugged. "Who knows when you might need a little leverage?" He closed the box on the odd rock, and then he and Lois headed toward the back to see if they could find another way out.
Twenty minutes later they were on their way to Star Labs. One of the scientists there had become a very good confidant to Lois during an investigation last year and had since proven to be a trusted friend. They wanted him to analyze the strange globe.
