Hattie Kaplin, Reporter - Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 1C – N 2/3
Description:
This story takes place in the Matchmaker Chronicles universe.
This story is a sequel to After Summer Camp – Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 1C - A
By KenJ <ken.janney@kjanney.com>
This version is rated PG-13
Disclaimers: The characters in this story are property of DC, December 3rd productions and Warner Bros., except those I created. No copyright infringement is intended. I have just borrowed the characters for a short time.
* * denotes emphasis
< > denotes thoughts
/ denotes telepathic communications./
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Universal Locator designation
Alpha 023 x Gamma 004 x Tau -120 Canon universe also called – Prime
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Previously:
Later, in bed, Jen turned to Jon and said, “I think you need to keep an eye on Hattie. She’s so much like your mother it’s scary. She could be getting in over her head.”
“You’re right. She has always been driven to be just like mom. I’ll have to adjust my schedule to give me some free time when she’s in her crow’s nest.”
Jen asked, “Jon, why didn’t you wind up with Hattie? You’ve known her a long time and you’ve been friends since middle school.”
“The way Mom and Dad explain it, it’s a Kryptonian thing. When we meet the one we are to be with we just know. I knew the minute I saw you on that raft that you were the one. It just wasn’t the same thing with Hattie. Yeah, we hit it off as friends, but, that’s all it could ever be with her. She just didn’t have what you have.”
Jen giggled and said, “Yeah, for one thing I’ve got you, but, I know what you mean. I felt it when you pulled me out of the lake. I just knew you were the one and I’m not Kryptonian.” She scooted over and started kissing him.
This started a period of intimacy.
Afterward, Jon lay next to her caressing her and kissing her. She said, “Wow! It just seems to get better every time. How do you do it, please me so much, I mean?”
“It has to be because we are soul mates. Now I know how Mom and Dad feel. It’s a special relationship, a very special relationship. I feel sorry for those that don’t find their soul mates.”
“All I know is, I’m glad you found me. I’m glad you were patient with me too. I was wrong to blame you for my parent’s death. Your family can’t be everywhere at once. You can only do so much.”
“In a few years you’ll be getting powers yourself. Are you going to be okay with that? You don’t have to take a pendant, if you don’t want to you know. I’ll love you just the same.”
She looked deep into his eyes and said, “Having the powers from the pendant will make it so that I live as long as you do. I want that. I want to be with you as long as I can be. Who know, maybe I’ll like having the powers.”
“I hope so because, I want you around for as long as I can have you, and with the pendant that means a long time.”
“I have a class of fourth graders to teach tomorrow, so, I’d better get some sleep.” She kissed him goodnight and still naked nestled against his chest. Within a few minutes she was fast asleep and he lay there cuddling and stroking her, the love of his life and soon to be wife.
And now:
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Chapter 2 – Hattie and Kam-El
June 2028
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Hattie was prepared. She had a telephoto capable digital camera and a mono-pod. She had selected a mono as opposed to a tri-pod because it was easier to carry and conceal.
Taking the elevator to the basement garage, Hattie went over to her Jeep. As she was crossing over to it from the elevator she hit the button on her key fob to release the locks. She opened the back hatch and pulled out her disguise, a workman's coverall. She shook it out and stepped into it. Her skirt was bunched up around her hips but that would simply make it look like she had a paunch and add to the disguise. Into a passport pouch went her ID, driver's license and a $20 and she hung this around her neck. After zipping up the coverall she put a ball cap on her head, pulling her hair through the back opening in a pony tail. It was at that point that she realized that she had forgotten her running shoes and she thought, <Oh well, I'll just have to wear these heels. At least they are my short ones. If they had been stilettos they would have been very obvious.>. She picked up her mono-pod and clipped the fake sponge mop head to it. Into the cleaning tote went the camera and some rags went in on top of it. Picking up the tote she closed the hatch hit the lock button and started her five block trek to her lookout building.
Once there she took the elevator to the top floor, moved to the stairs and went up to the roof access. She used her lock picks to open the door and then left a wad of paper in the strike plate to prevent the lock from engaging.
She moved over to the coping and set up. She had a quick disconnect on the base of the camera for quick set up so she slid the release and placed the base in the receiver on the monopod in place of the mop head.
When she looked through the rangefinder she saw the head of Metro-Staff just turning away from his window. She watched as he crossed his office and exited. After a minute he returned to the office.
Hattie turned on an infra-red laser that was attached to the camera. With the laser on the window it would pick up vibrations affecting the glass and translate them into sound. She started the recorder. Hattie started snapping pictures. After almost fifteen minutes he had a visitor, the head of Miralabs. She still had an hour’s worth of audio capacity and probably another thousand picture capacity when she heard a squeak as the door behind her opened.
Hattie knew that this meant trouble because there was no reason for anyone to be up here. Slowly she turned and saw two toughs come out onto the roof through the door.
The first one said, “The boss was right. He said he saw the sun being reflected from something. See what we have here?”
His partner grunted an acknowledgement.
The first one, obviously the leader said, “Okay girlie, give me the camera and no one will get hurt.”
Hattie said, “Come and get it.” While saying this she hit the quick release of the camera, separating it from the monopod. As the thugs started to move in her direction she hit the lock on the monopod and pulled it open to its full six foot length. She allowed the camera to dangle from her neck by the strap as she whirled the monopod around like a bo staff. Crouching almost like a sprinter in the blocks, one foot under her center and the right foot back with her left arm out for balance and the middle of the staff in her right hand laying up along her right arm and extending three feet past her fist.
As soon as the leader came in range she spun the staff around and brought it down, with force on his left elbow at a nerve plexus. He felt his whole arm go numb and let out a shout of pain and surprise and stumbled back.
Hattie twirled the staff around using a two handed grip, the staff performing a figure eight in front of her to keep the other assailant at bay but he started to reach into his coat, obviously for a firearm. Hattie closed with him and swung the staff again, hitting him on the right side of the neck. His right arm stopped responding to his will as his entire right side went numb.
Before Hattie had a chance to recover the leader lunged at her and almost fell into her, knocking her backward. Her left foot hit the parapet, her heel caught and she fell backwards over it into space. As she went over she screamed. “Hhhhheeeeeeeellllllllpppppppp!!!!!!!”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
As she was falling past the tenth floor suddenly a black and red clad superhero swooped in and caught her. He continued their descent and as he did she shouted, “No! No! Take me back up! Up not down! We have to catch those guys.”
Kam-El looked back up over his shoulder and used his x-ray vision. In a deep voice he said, “They’re not there now. They could be anywhere.”
He landed with her on the sidewalk. Surprisingly she still had her staff in hand; she hit him with it and said, “Thanks a heap! I didn’t get enough of that meeting *and* we didn’t catch those thugs.” Reaching up she grasped the zipper and yanked it down displaying her frustration. She shrugged out of the shoulders and pushed the coverall down. She revealed her long shapely legs as she did before she pushed her skirt down. Jon was looking at her feet and noticed that one of her heels was missing and was ready to catch her when she finally went to put weight on that foot. He did see her legs and when he did he flashed back in his memory to the last time she had gone with him, Jen and his siblings swimming a few years before. It was before Jen's parents had died in the accident. Hattie always wore a one piece suit because of her fair skin while his sisters and Jen all wore as little as they could get away with. Thinking about that he thought about Jen and what they shared and he started to smile.
Hattie saw this smile as he was apparently gazing at her legs and she thought, <Apparently he likes what he sees.>. She was distracted by this and that is when she tried to put her weight on her left foot. The missing heel threw her off balance and Kam-El caught her.
Getting herself back together and thinking about the job at hand in an increasingly sarcastic tone she said, “You’ve been a tremendous help. What good are you?”
Chagrined he replied, “You could at least thank me for saving your life.”
As she was picking up the coverall and throwing it across her arm Hattie said, “Well, yeah, thanks, but, next time, try to catch the bad guys, okay?”
Kam-El said, “Okay, next time, I’ll try to do that. Are you okay?”
Hattie, feeling very disappointed said, “Yeah, I guess so.” She continued in a subdued tone, more to herself than to him, “Stupid rookie mistake. I let them know I was there. Shoulda been more careful.”
Jon offered his hand, “By the way, I’m Kam-El. Haven’t I seen you around?”
Hattie took his hand and shook it as she replied, “Yeah, Hattie Kaplin, Daily Planet.
Kam-El said, “I think I’ve read some of your stories. You do good work; it reminds me of Lois Lane’s writing.”
Hattie started beaming at this statement, she asked, “Really, you think I’m that good?”
Jon said, “I think you are.”
It suddenly occurred to Hattie that she had a five block walk back to the Planet, on a broken heel, so she asked, "If you don’t mind, could you give me a lift to the Planet?”
“Sure.” Jon leaned down and picked Hattie up with one arm behind her back and the other under her thighs. In this position the slit in her skirt opened to show off her very shapely legs. She wrapped her free arm around his neck and as he lifted off got a huge grin on her lips.
Jon flew her slowly to the Planet and using his super breath blew open the large windows opening onto the bullpen. He flew her in and set her on her feet near her desk.
Kicking off her heels and seeing just where he had put her she looked at him and asked, “How did you know this was my desk?”
Jon pointed at her name plate and said, “It has your brand on it.”
Chagrined she said, “Oh, yeah, I guess it does. Well, thanks, Kam-El. I guess I’ll be seeing you around.”
“Yeah, I guess you will.” With a little grin he added, “I’ll try to do better next time.” He lifted off and slowly flew out the windows before putting on a burst of speed.
Hattie watched as he disappeared out the window and had a dreamy expression as she turned to her desk. As she did she suddenly realized that everyone was staring at her. She mentally shook herself and asked, “What’s the matter, haven’t you ever seen one of the supermen before?”
One of her co-workers said, “Yeah, but we’ve never seen you with a man before. Way to go!”
Rolling her eyes she dropped into her chair and pulled her camera off of her neck and plugged it in to download what she had gotten. Once the download was started she opened her bottom drawer and pulled out another pair of shoes. They were really the wrong color, but, they would have to do until she got home. She picked up her short heels and looked at them with disappointment in her eyes. She thought, <These were my favorites. I hope they can be repaired.> Stuffing them into her bottom drawer she went back to her computer to see just how much she had gotten.
Standing in her doorway, Lois, was an interested observer. She sent a thought, /Jon, do you realize that the stunt you just pulled with Hattie is a close duplicate of when your father made his debut and he flew me in the same way?/
She received, /Yeah, I remember you telling us the story. Hattie wants so much to be like you, I just couldn’t resist./
/I think you really made an impression. Are you going to be her special superman the way your father is for me?/
/I’ll take her on as my special project, if that’s what you mean. After all, she is one of my closest friends, almost like a sister./
/Just be careful, okay?/
/I will./
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Later that afternoon Hattie had a call from her informant. “Daily Planet, Kaplin.”
“Ms. Kaplin, I saw what happened. It’s a good thing for you that Kam-El was around.”
“Yeah, if it hadn’t been for him I’d have been a big red stain on the sidewalk. Listen, I got some pictures but those goons got to me before anything really incriminating was said. When will the next meeting be?”
“Since they know you were watching they aren’t going to do any more face to face meetings. I’m going to have to be careful. If they find out I tipped you off it could be a problem.”
“Darn! Okay, if you hear anything, let me know, but, be careful.” With a thoughtful expression, Hattie hung up the phone. This was going to require some thought.
A little later she had another call, “Daily Planet, Kaplin.”
“Well, Kaplin, what are you doing this evening?”
Immediately she brightened, “Hi Jon! No plans. What’s up?”
“How about dinner? Jen wants to get your opinion on some of the reception arrangements.”
“Sure, what are you cooking?”
“I was thinking about Indian tonight.”
“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your dad and the time he spent teaching you how to cook. If you didn’t have a good job at STAR Labs you could open your own restaurant.”
“We already had one of them in the family. My Great Uncle Mike had one. Of course, that was years ago. Want me to pick you up?”
“Nah, I’ll drive. What time?”
“Does 6:30 suit?”
“Yeah, 6:30 will be fine. I have some things to finish up here. I’ll come right from work.”
“See you then.”
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The next day Hattie came up with a plan. Banking on the fact that they would think that she wouldn’t return to the same place she had been caught just the day before, she picked up the equipment she would need from the equipment locker.
After work, when it was dark she headed out. For this mission she changed out of her work clothes and donned her ‘snooping’ clothes, a form fitting and flattering black cat suit. She carried her lock picks and other tools in a couple of pouches at her waist. One of the items she carried was a telescoping baton. It could be used like an eskrima (1) as a defensive weapon.
She returned to the same rooftop she had been on the day before. She had a digital recorder in a waterproof container and the same type of infrared laser that had been attached to the camera in one of the pouches. It had a sighting device so that it could be aimed. Staying below the coping around the edge of the roof as much as she could she sighted in the laser and locked it in position. Turning on the voice activated recorder she left the roof. She would check on the recorder every other day to replace the memory chip and see what she had recorded.
When she kneeled down to place the recorder she came down on something hard. “Ouch! What’s that?” She picked it up and realized that it was the heel she had lost. She thought, <Well, I’m glad to find you. Now I can have those shoes repaired. I wonder if the mop head is here as well?> She felt around and found the errant mop head. It really wasn’t that important, it was just that it had a quick release mount attached. She put both items in the pouch the recorder and laser had occupied.
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The next day she was in the office all day doing research just grabbing a cheese sandwich from the machine for lunch.
At 5:30 Hattie shut down her computer and grabbing her bag, headed for the elevator and took it down to the basement garage. Her first stop was going to be the crow’s nest to pick up her memory chip. As she left the elevator and headed toward her Jeep she hit the remote unlock button. As usual she could hear birds chirping in the girders above her head and suddenly she felt something wet and warm hit her outstretched hand. She looked up to see the source of this material and saw the birds. Looking at her hand she saw that the bird had accurate aim and had bombed her. She reached into her bag to get a tissue to clean it off.
About the time she finished wiping her hand and wadding up the tissue she was knocked off her feet when her Jeep exploded.
Within seconds the overhead sprinkler system started spewing water.
Seconds later Kam-El flew in and landed next to the flaming wreckage. When he shouted, you could hear the anguish in his voice, “Hattie!”
She must have been knocked out momentarily, but the water from the fire sprinklers had awakened her. She was just sitting up when she heard him and she replied, “Yeah, over here.”
He turned at the sound of her voice and spotting her, sped over and kneeling, enveloped her in his arms. He was choked up and almost crying.
She was startled by this outpouring of emotion and thought, <This is more attention than I expected. I wonder, could he be interested in me? Why else would he react this way? Do the supermen have human spouses? I wonder.>
In a shaky voice, Jon said, “I thought I had lost you.”
“I’m okay. I guess we can thank that bird.” <He thought he had lost me???>
“What bird?”
Gesturing vaguely at the ceiling she said, “The one that used my hand as a restroom. I stopped to clean up and that kept me from getting into my car.”
As he was helping her to stand he said, “It sure looks like you’ve ruffled some feathers so I guess it’s only fair that some feathers saved you. What do you want to do about this?”
“It might be a good idea to let whoever did this think they succeeded.”
They were beginning to hear sirens in the distance and approaching. The Jeep was still burning but the overhead sprinkler system had been spewing water, including the ones over their heads. Hattie’s hair was plastered to her skull and her suit was soaked.
“Do you want to talk to the police or not?”
Looking at her clothes and reaching up and feeling her hair plastered to her head she said, “I think … not. Can you get me outta here?”
“Sure, where do you want to go?”
“My apartment. I need to change out of these wet clothes, then, if you don’t mind, Jon Kent’s apartment.”
Jon sent, /Pop?/
Immediately he got a response, /What is it Jon?/
/Hattie’s car was bombed in the parking garage. She’s okay. She wasn’t in it when it went up. I’m taking her to her apartment. Can you come to the Planet and deal with the police for me?/
/Sure thing. You take care of Hattie./
/Thanks./
Jon picked her up and flew off just as the first responders were arriving. Without thinking about it he flew her to her apartment. At her door he stopped her and asked, “Do you want me to dry you off?”
She was distracted and asked, “What? How?”
He stepped back and said, “Just stand there a sec. A little heat vision will take care of it.”
Hattie could feel the heat. It wasn’t like being baked in an oven, more like standing outside in the sun on a summer day. She could feel her clothes and hair drying. She reached up and even though her hair was now dry it was still matted down.
When he was done she pulled out her keys and opened the locks. When the door opened she gasped. The sight that greeted her was appalling. Her apartment looked like a cyclone had passed through. Everything was thrown around, cushions were cut open, drawers pulled out and dumped, even her freezer was emptied. She moved into the kitchen and picked up a bag of frozen vegetables. They were still partially frozen. She said, “They were here only a short time ago.” She moved into her bedroom. It was the same story. One small comfort was that her clothing was intact even if it was spread all over the floor. She looked at Kam-El and asked, “Can you help me pack all of this stuff up? I want to take it with me.”
At super speed Kam-El picked up, folded and packed her clothes. He did experience some little embarrassment as he was picking up her underwear. He had never been intimate with her that way and this was the first time he was seeing what she liked to wear under her clothes. Very feminine, lacy underwear and some plain, utilitarian things as well. Her night wear was the same mix, whew. He actually started to blush. To him it was like going through his sister’s lingerie drawer. When he had completed this task he asked, “What next?”
When she turned to face him at his question she noted the color in his cheeks, at least what wasn’t covered by his mask. She said, “Just take me to Jon Kent’s apartment.” She thought, <Why is he blushing? Does he wonder what I look like in some of my underwear? Perhaps a nightie?>
“I’ll take you and then come back for your luggage.” Once outside he picked her up and flew off.
The door of Jon Kent’s apartment was answered by Jen and seeing Hattie in her disheveled condition and Kam-El she asked, “Hattie, what happened?”
“You’re not going to believe it. Can I bunk with you guys for a few days?”
Jen stood back and allowed Hattie to enter and after she had passed her giving Jon a quizzical look that Hattie couldn’t see. He nodded imperceptibly so Jen put her arm around her shoulder and led her to the couch.
Kam-El said, “I’ll be right back with her luggage.”
Jen said, “Alright, go ahead.” As soon as Kam-El turned away Jen sat next to Hattie and put an arm across her shoulders.
commennts go here To be continued in Chapter 3 – Uh - oh
