Chapter 2
At the Gotham Gazette, Lois and Clark waited by the desk of Vicki Vale. Another coworker had told them that she was out for lunch and would be back soon, so they had decided to wait for her. While waiting for Vicki’s return, Clark stood patiently, but Lois decided to snoop through Vicki’s things.
Most of her desk drawers were locked, but there was one that was unlocked. Inside, Lois found tape, scissors, a stapler, a few different pens and pencils, whiteout, and other boring office supplies.
“Why do you feel the need to look through that woman’s drawers?” Clark asked in an annoyed tone.
“Because I want to find out what she knows about Batman,” Lois replied as she picked up a book containing various phone numbers and flipped through it.
“Isn’t that why we plan on talking to her?” Clark asked.
“As if she’ll actually tell us any of the good stuff,” Lois scoffed. “Batman is her golden goose. If we’re going to find anything out about him from her, we’ll have to do it the dishonest way.”
Lois sat in Vicki’s chair and scooted up to the computer. As she began to type, Clark rolled his eyes.
“What do you think her password would be?” Lois asked. “Her birthday, Batman, 1234, ABCD…”
“Lois!” Clark scolded her.
Lois picked up a photograph sitting on the desk and showed it to Clark.
“Vicki Vale and Bruce Wayne,” Clark observed. “Between knowing Bruce Wayne, the richest man in Gotham, and hanging out with Batman, it’s easy to see why –“
“I’m the best?” a voice said from behind him.
Clark turned to see that it was Vicki.
“Vicki!” Lois said, faking happiness to see her old acquaintance.
She promptly jumped up to hug Vicki. What resulted was a very uncomfortable image of Lois hugging Vicki as Vicki did her best to wriggle her way away from Lois.
“What are you doing here, Lane?” she asked.
“Just hoping to catch up on old times,” Lois lied.
“Like the time you stranded me in the middle of no where without a car?” Vicki asked. “Or that day that you offered to buy my plane ticket for me, and I ended up on the wrong flight? Or that funny moment when you called the police and reported my car as stolen and I ended up in jail!”
Lois looked embarrassed. “So, I wasn’t always the nicest coworker to get along with. It was all in the spirit of competition. I didn’t want you to scoop me.”
“I’m a photographer!” Vicki yelled, causing a few heads to turn. “You write the stories, and I take the pictures. There was no reason for there to be any completion between us.”
“I was afraid you might be working with that reporter you were dating. Like a writing and photography team,” Lois reasoned. “Besides, you paid me back by putting hot sauce in my coffee.”
“You think that hot sauce in your coffee made us even for me spending a night in jail!” Vicki was fuming.
“I guess not,” Lois replied weakly.
“I don’t want to ever see you again,” said Vicki. “Now, both of you, get away from my desk before I call security down here.”
*****
Catwoman arrived back in her Gotham apartment. She was not pleased with how her most recent theft had gone, but she hadn’t come out empty handed. She held up the small box she had stolen and smiled as she opened it to reveal a ring.
“At least I have you,” said Catwoman.
“Good, you were successful,” a voice said from the corner of the room.
Catwoman flipped around and tackled the man, putting her hands over his throat. “What are you doing here?”
“I’ve simply come to give you your reward for successfully completing your mission,” said the man.
Catwoman loosened her grip. “I halfway thought that when I opened the box, I wasn’t going to find a ring.”
“Now, why would I lie?” asked the man. “I hired you to steal a ring that I had given to my ex-fiancé. I told you it was very special to me for sentimental reasons, and it is.”
“The house belonged to a man,” replied Catwoman. “Not a woman. A man.”
“Her new boyfriend,” the man replied. “I couldn’t stand the thought of her and that man holding onto my mother’s wedding ring.”
Catwoman got off of him. “I assume you brought the money?” she asked. “It’s an awful lot to pay for a ring, but a deal’s a deal.”
“There.”
The man motioned towards a briefcase sitting in the corne. Catwoman walked over to it, picked it up, and opened it. Inside, it was filled with cash.
“Pleasure doing business with you. But remember, don’t ever break into my apartment again,” she warned the man.
*****
Later that night, when the staff of the Gotham Gazette had cleared out, Lois and Clark returned to the newspaper. The door was locked, but after working on it for some time, Lois managed to get it open. The two of them went straight to Vicki’s desk, and Lois turned the computer on.
“If she knows anything about Batman, then I’m betting she has it on her computer,” Lois reasoned.
“Lois, I’m not sure about this,” Clark replied. “Is it really ethical to look at another reporter’s files? Besides, you have no idea what her password even is.”
“I think I figured it out,” Lois replied as she typed brucewayne into the computer.
Then, she pressed enter, and she was in. Lois’ eyes lit up as she saw all the files on Vicki’s computer. Clark could tell that she was tempted to read each and every one of them.
“Remember, we’re only here to learn more about Batman,” he reminded her. “Don’t even think about reading anything that’s not about Batman. It wouldn’t be right.”
“Fine,” Lois groaned as she clicked on a file labeled ‘Batman.’
Everything that they saw was useless to them. It was just the standard information that the public already knew about Batman.
Suddenly, they’re search was interrupted when Clark heard the sound of nearby police sirens. He looked into the air, and using his x-ray vision, saw through the ceiling that there was a large bat symbol in the sky. It was the famous Bat-Signal he’d heard so much about, the way that the Gotham police got in touch with Batman when they needed him. Unable to resist the urge to go help out any way he could, Clark started to take off for the elevator.
“Clark, where are you going?” Lois called out.
“I thought I heard something,” he replied. “I’m going to go check it out. You can just keep looking through Vicki’s files.”
As Clark left the room, Lois smiled and closed out the Batman file. Then, she clicked on a file labeled ‘Diary.’
*****
Superman flew above the police cars following them to their destination. A few of the police officers must have noticed him because it wasn’t long before they were sticking their heads out of the windows of their cars and looking up into the sky at Superman. A few of the police officers even pointed up at him as if to signal to their colleagues that Superman was in the sky. Once the police cars reached Wayne Financial, they stopped, and Superman flew down to greet them.
“Superman! What a pleasure to meet you. I’m Commissioner Gordon,” the police commissioner said as he shook Superman’s hand.
“What seems to be the problem?” Superman asked.
“It’s the Joker,” replied Commissioner Gordon. “He’s holding hostages in the bank, and he’s threatening to kill them unless he’s given $2 million.”
“Don’t worry, Commissioner Gordon,” Superman replied. “I can stop him.”
“Superman, I feel that I need to warn you before you go in there is that that clown is a homicidal maniac. He enjoys killing just to kill. Be careful.”
Superman nodded in understanding and then ran into the bank. One inside, he started counting the hostages. It was just two security guards, and they were both lying face down on the ground. Fortunately, the Joker had chosen to rob the bank after closing hours. Otherwise there would have been more people inside.
“Superman!” the Joker yelled out in excitement, a huge smile forming on his face. “I’ve long wanted to meet you. I’ve always heard that you are even more fun than Batman.”
Superman zipped over to the two guards, picked them up, carried them outside, and returned back to inside the bank before Joker even knew what happened. When Joker realized what had happened, he started stomping his foot in anger.
“No fair!” he complained. “You cheated. At least Batman plays by the rules.”
At that, Batman burst through the window and knocked the Joker to the ground. He began beating the clown until he realized that Superman was standing in front of him and that the hostages were gone.
“You’re a little too late this time, Batman,” said the Joker. “That party pooper over there ruined all the fun.”
Batman stared at Superman for a few seconds before saying, “Good job.” He then pulled the Joker to his feet and escorted him out of the bank.
Superman stood still for a second before deciding to follow Batman outside. Once they were out of the building, the two of them presented the Joker to the police.
“Be sure not to let him escape this time,” said Batman. He then did a back flip and through a smoke bomb to the ground. When the smoke vanished, there was no sign of Batman.
“What just happened?” Superman asked in shock.
“He does that a lot,” Commissioner Gordon replied with a smile.
Superman flew in the air and looked for Batman, but even with all of his powers, he couldn’t find a trace of him. He considered looking for a longer amount of time, but he then decided against that idea. Realizing that he’d been gone for quite some time now, he decided that he should probably get back to the Gotham Gazette. Lois would probably be wondering where he was by now.
*****
“Clark, what took you so long?” Lois asked as Clark returned to Vicki’s desk.
“I got a little hungry and went across the street to get a hotdog,” Clark lied. “Find anything useful on Batman, yet?”
“Yep,” Lois replied, a big grin across her face. “The Batman folder was a waste of time, but the file labeled ‘Diary’ on the other hand…”
“Lois, I told you not to look at anything but the Batman folder,” Clark scolded her.
“If I’d listened to you, I wouldn’t know that Vicki is Batman’s girlfriend.”
“She’s dating Batman?” Clark asked. “That means she must know who the man behind the mask is. She didn’t happen to write down his secret identity in her diary, did she?”
“Unfortunately, she wasn’t that sloppy,” Lois replied. “She used a pseudonym.”
“At least we have something to go on,” replied Clark.
“Exactly,” said Lois. “All we have to do is follow Vicki. Eventually, she’ll lead us straight to Batman.”
“And if we find Batman, we get some answers,” added Clark.
To be continued...
