Clark and Lois – Two Universes - Matchmaker Chronicle Volume 7
By Ken Janney
Rating PG-13
Disclaimers: The characters in this story are property of DC, December 3rd productions and Warner Bros. No Copyright infringement is intended. I have just borrowed the characters for a short time.
This particular story takes place after Lois and Clarks.
* * denotes emphasis
< > denotes thoughts
(#) footnotes
/ “denotes telepathic communication”/
[ playback of a recording or TV Commentary]For reference purposes the following will hold true throughout.
Universal Locator Designation
Alpha 023 x Gamma 004 x Tau -120 – Canon Lois and Clark universe also called – Prime
Alpha 023 x Gamma 025 x Tau 036 – Canon Alt Clark universe also called – Alt 1
Alpha -120 x Gamma 255 x Tau -190 – Common name – Alt 2
As always comments are welcome. (ken.janney@kjanney.com)
Previously:
“Bill, Lois Lane. How closely have you looked at these missing person files?”
“I’ve looked them over. Have you found something?”
“Well, maybe, just maybe. I’ve been looking for a common thread that would tie them all up together and I haven’t found one, but it’s what is missing that’s important. Take a minute to look at the pictures.” She allowed him some time to look at the pictures.
“Okay, I’ve looked at them, now what? I don’t see any common thread either.”
With confidence she said, “Bill, it isn’t what’s there that’s important, it’s what isn’t there. There are blonds and redheads.”
“Yeah, I see that.”
“What’s missing?”
“I don’t … kn-ow … wait a minute … there aren’t any brunettes! Is that what you’re driving at?”
‘Yes, now if they are kidnapping girls to fill an order, my guess would be that they would be on the lookout to pick up some brunettes.”
"Okay, you could be right. Now I'm tempted to put you into protective custody. Please promise me that you won't use yourself as bait."
Bill didn't like the tone in her voice as she replied, "Now Bill, would I do that?"
"Do you want an honest answer to that question? I wouldn't put it past you. Look, Lois, everything about this case stinks. At least don't do anything until Clark gets back. Can you at least promise me that much?"
With an exasperated tone in her voice she gave in, "Alright Bill, just for you. I won't even leave the Planet building until Clark returns."
With a rather sarcastic tone, Bill replied, "That makes me feel so much better. If we get anything else I'll let you know."
"Thanks, Bill, I, we appreciate it."
Lois actually kept her promise and didn't even leave the Planet building until Clark had returned. Of course it wasn't because of her promise; it was because she was busy making phone calls checking with her snitches.
Lois was so elated with her little adventure in helping from the shadows that as soon as Clark returned from Australia she pulled him into the conference room and told him all about it.
He was smiling as he said, “That’s the kind of thing I was doing before I actually became Superman. When I first started working for the Daily Planet I was engaged to Lana. She didn’t want me using my powers because she was afraid that the government would grab me to study me. I would duck into an alley, behind a light standard or some such and do whatever I could. I remember once I ducked into an alley and used my heat vision to flatten the tires on a getaway car so that the police could capture the bad guys.”
Lois replied, “It felt good to be able to do
something! I don’t like to sit back and allow bad things to happen just because I’m a surprise package.”
Clark had a serious expression as he said, “I know how you feel. I felt the same way back then, but I’m sure we’ve made the correct decision. We really need to hold you in reserve for the right time.”
Grudgingly she replied, “Yeah, I know it was the right decision. As long as I can do things like this without getting caught though …”
“Alright, just don’t take any chances.”
“I’ll be careful. I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise. Okay, here’s the story, while you were in Australia I called a realtor and made an offer on 348 Hyperion Ave.”
Amazement in his voice he asked, “It was available?”
“Yep and they are asking just about the same as over on the other side of the doorway. If we get it though, I suggest that we paint it different colors so that we have a visual clue as to just where we are.
He laughed and said, “You are amazing! How do you think of things like that?”
“That’s one of the things you married me fore, remember, I think of all the angles.”
Laughing he replied, “Actually, I’m still thinking of curves.”
And Now:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Chapter 04 – Lucy Disappears
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Universal Locator Designation
Alpha 023 x Gamma 025 x Tau 036 - Local designation – Alt 1
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
The next day Clark was dressed in his navy pinstripe suit while Lois was dressed in a camel color pantsuit, wearing a brown shell under a light jacket. Shortly after they arrived in the bullpen, they had a call from the realtor that their offer had been accepted and that he had some more papers for them to sign. Telling Mr. Olsen where they were headed, he asked them to cover a press conference that Mayor White was holding on their way back. Lois and Clark were both happy with this assignment since neither had had any time to visit with Perry since they had returned to this universe.
When they went to the realtor’s they signed the papers which firmed the offer and they were told that they could go to settlement the following week.
When they arrived at City Hall they were sent to the council chambers where the briefing was being held. When they entered the room a number of newshounds recognized both Lois Lane and Clark Kent as one of the premiere journalists in the city and Superman respectively and deferred to them, allowing them to move down front.
When Mayor White entered the first thing he did was scan the crowd. As soon as his eyes lit on Lois and Clark he started to smile and he nodded to them as he stepped up to the podium.
He held up his hands and the hubbub died down. He started his briefing. “Ladies and gentlemen of the press, we have a situation developing here in the city that the public needs to be made aware of and with your assistance that will be accomplished.”
“There have been a series of kidnappings here in the city. So far seven young women have been abducted. We now are able to state that these are definitely kidnappings. Until yesterday there was some question as to whether or not these could be runaways. We now know for sure that these women have been snatched right off of our city streets.”
A gasp went up from the gathered reporters and a couple started to shout questions. Mayor White held up his hands for silence again.
“The MPD with the assistance of,” he nodded in Clark’s direction, “Superman is investigating. There are precious few leads at this point although I am assured that there has been some progress made. We now know how it is being done.”
“Now, this is where you folks come in. We need you to warn the public about what is happenin’. These people are grabbin’ young women between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-three. They seize targets of opportunity, mainly young women walking unescorted through the city. I need you to tell young women that they need to make sure they are always with other people. Walkin’ alone is only askin’ for trouble.”
“I’ve asked Chief Ed Backstran to be here to answer any questions. Chief?”
Chief Backstran moved to the podium as Perry stepped back. That was when the free for all started. Question after question were fired at the chief a lot of which he answered with “No comment.”
While this was going on Lois and Clark managed to slip away from the pack and moved to the side where they caught Perry’s eye. As they stepped into the corridor he joined them.
As soon as the door closed behind them Perry threw his arms around Lois and said, “Darlin’, it’s been a month-o-Sundays since I saw you. You disappeared right after I was elected. What happened?”
“It’s a long story, Perry. I had a relapse. Clark found me again and helped me recover my memory and, well, here I am! Clark brought me back a few weeks ago. Remember the bust of Mitzie’s brothel? Clark and I worked on that along with Mayson Drake and Dan Scardino. We are still waiting for the names of the political figures that they had tapes of in compromising positions.” She was laughing at her own pun as she finished up. Then she sobered immediately and asked, “We’re not going to see your name on the list, are we?”
Looking at her with a shocked expression Perry replied, “Alice would have my hide, get it tanned, stretched and mounted on the wall if I did anything like that.” He turned to Clark and said, “Clark, you can back me up on that.”
Laughing at the word picture Perry had put forth he replied, “Yes, I could see Alice doing just that. No, I don’t suppose we will be seeing Perry’s name on the list.”
With a relieved sigh, Lois said, “That’s a relief and, oh, by the way.” She smiled broadly as she removed her glove and held up her left hand to display her wedding ring.
With a look of shocked disbelief on his face he looked from the ring to her smiling face and said, “Nah, I don’t believe it. Married? Lois, Mad Dog, Lane, married? I never would have thought that there was anyone that could ever tie you down. Who’s the lucky guy?”
In silent answer, Lois looked at Clark. Perry followed her eyes and sputtered, “Kent? Why you ol’
dog you! How’d you convince her to marry you?”
“She saw how well we could work together. We can be an
unstoppable team.”
“Well, I can believe that. Between her drive and skills, which is not to say you don’t have drive and skills of your own, and well, the other things you can do, the sky’s the limit, well, maybe not even the sky.” Perry chuckled at this unintentional pun. After pausing thoughtfully, Perry continued, “You know, Clark, I’ve watched you develop as a reporter and I like your writing style, it’s homey and comforting. Lois’ style is more hard hitting. I can see where she can sharpen you up a little and you can smooth off some of her sharp edges. The combination of your styles has been absolute dynamite. I know because I have read everything you’ve written. Frankly, I feel sorry for anyone you two go after. They just aren’t going to know what hit ‘em.”
Joining in on the laughter, Lois said, “You’re right chief. Not even the sky is the limit.”
“So, when are the two of you goin’ to come to dinner? I know Alice would love to see you again.”
Clark replied, “Let’s wait until we are at least past this crisis.”
Sobering, Perry asked, “Right. Has Bill Henderson contacted you yet?”
Clark replied, “Yes, he has and we’re on it.”
“Good, I feel better knowing that y’all are on the case.” He turned to Lois and said, “Now you, Missy, I want you to stay out of this. Let Clark handle it. You got that? You haven’t been back that long. You probably still need to take it a little easy. Take your time getting back up to speed.”
With an exasperated tone she blurted out, “Why is everybody telling me to stay out of this investigation? What is this ‘Protect the Little Woman Week’? First Bill Henderson and now you!”
Perry put up his hands in s defensive gesture at her outburst and said, in a placating tone, “We’re just worried about you, Darlin’. You know that.”
“Well, don’t. I can take care of myself and besides," she said as she moved over and snuggled up to Clark. Then putting an arm around his back and tilting her face up to look at Clark’s face, she switched to a silly sweet, little miss innocent tone of voice as she finished, "Clark won’t let anything happen to me, will you Clarkie?” As she finished she batted her eyelashes.
All Perry could do was laugh at this behavior.
Looking down at her, with a smile on his face, Clark replied, “I won’t let them harm a single hair on your head.”
Instantly returning to her normal tone, turning to Perry she said, “There, you see. Clark will be there for me.”
Perry put his hands up this time in surrender, “I should have known better than to take on Mad Dog Lane when she has her teeth in a story.” He started to laugh again, “It’s just like old times. Welcome home Darlin’.’”
Lois put her arms around Perry and gave him a hug as she said, “It’s good to be back and don’t you worry. We’ll get these guys.”
Looking back and forth between Lois and Clark, Perry shook his head and said, “I actually feel sorry for whoever is doin' this. They don’t know who they are up against.”
With a secret smile Lois said, “You can say that again.” She turned to Clark and said, “We need to get back and get this written up if we are going to make the evening edition. Let’s go partner.”
Clark turned to Perry, shrugged and said, “You heard the boss. We gotta go. See ya Perry.”
As they started to walk away, Perry was shaking his head and laughing. The idea of Superman being bossed around by a woman was somehow incongruous. But actually, if any woman could do it, Lois Lane could.
Suddenly he felt a
lot better about their chances for clearing up this problem; Lane and Kent were on the case. If
anyone could crack it, they could.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Clark and Lois exited the stairwell back into the newsroom, descended the ramp to their desks and Lois started typing up the story. When she had it finished she sent it to Clark for him to check over. Looking up she noticed that Lucy was not at her desk. She called over to Denise who had the desk nearest to her and asked, “Denise, have you seen Lucy?”
Denise replied, “Yeah, a little bit ago she said something about needing some caffeine. I think she went out for some coffee. Frankly, I don’t blame her for not drinking that swill.” She inclined her head in the direction of the coffee station as she was speaking.
“I know what you mean. Thanks, Denise. I guess I’ll talk to her when she gets back.” Lois pulled out what they had so far on Leslie Luckabee and started going over it again.
Lois got the article back from James with some change requests and she worked on it. She thought to herself, <For a computer geek he’s turning into some editor.> She sent the revised article to Clark again. After he checked it over she sent it to Mr. Olsen again.
Lois noted the time and realized that it had been some time since Lucy went for her coffee. She sent to Clark, /”Clark, Lucy has been gone for some time. Denise said she was going for coffee. She could have gone all the way across town and back by now. Could you see if you could find her? I’m starting to worry.”/
/”I’m on it.”/ He jumped up and headed for the stairwell.
Ten minutes later he returned, “I couldn’t find her in any of the coffee shops near the Planet or anywhere in the immediate vicinity. How long has she been gone?”
“She left while we were at City Hall. That’s almost an hour that she’s been gone. I’m worried. Should we call Bill Henderson?”
“Bill’s not normally Missing Persons although he is helping out on that case, so I guess it couldn’t hurt.” So saying he picked up his phone and dialed the number.
“Twelfth Precinct, Sgt. Cooper.”
“Sgt. Cooper, this is Clark Kent.”
Clark could almost see Sgt. Cooper sitting up straighter in his chair when he heard who was on the phone. “How can I help you, Superman?”
“I’d like to speak with Bill Henderson, please.”
“Right away, Superman.”
There were a few clicks and then, “Henderson.”
“Bill, Clark Kent.”
“Hi Clark, what can I do for you?”
“I need to report a missing person.”
Through the phone Clark could hear Bill's hand hit the top of his desk as he said, "I told Lois I had a bad feeling about this case. I’ll put out an APB immediately.”
Clark started chuckling at his response. The assumption that it was Lois was so normal. “No, Bill, it isn’t Lois. It’s her sister, Lucy.”
Bill instantly calmed somewhat and started asking for more detail, “What? I didn’t even know she had a sister. Lucy you say? What’s the story? Is she just like Lois, putting herself in harm’s way?”
“Well, they are sisters, but Lucy isn’t like that. She’s the quiet type. Look, Bill, right now, I don’t know if it’s anything, it’s only been a little over an hour, but, she is missing. She said she was going for coffee, but she hasn’t returned yet.”
“I take it she works with you at the Planet. Do you know just where she would have gone? Could she have decided to do some shopping on the way back to work?”
“That would be highly unlikely. She’s very conscientious about being on the job.”
Bill replied, “Officially we can’t take a missing person report until at least twenty-four hours has elapsed, but since it’s you I’ll start the ball rolling, unofficially, especially with what has been happening recently. Let me start some inquiries. Do you have a picture?”
Clark picked up a framed photo of Lucy that Lois had on her desk and looked at it. It was a cute picture of the two of them, sitting next to one another, leaning into each other with the sides of their heads touching smiling at the camera. “Yes, Lois has one here on her desk. I’ll bring it right over. Thanks, Bill. I owe you one.”
In his normal phlegmatic tone, Bill said, “Owe me one! I owe you more than I can count. Just yesterday you kept a couple of my officers from getting shot. Let’s just say this is a small down payment on what the department owes you. I’ll be in touch.”
Thoughtfully Clark hung up the phone. He turned to Lois and asked, “Do you think there’s any possibility that this is related to the missing women?”
In a voice filled with desperation she said, “Oh, Clark, I hope not, but I’m terrified that it is. From what I was able to figure out it looks like they are after brunettes and that’s exactly what Lucy is. We have to find her!” She switched to telepathy, /”Maybe it’s time for Superwoman to show herself. If I join you in the search we can cover twice as much territory.”/
/”No, Superwoman is our secret weapon. We need to keep her hidden, at least for a little while longer.”/
/”I’d feel a lot better if I could be out there looking for Lucy too.”/
/”I know. I’m going back out. Why don’t you go ask around? Maybe someone saw something.”/
She sent, /”Oh, okay. If I have to,”/ as she picked up her bag and threw the strap over her head so that she wouldn’t have to keep pulling the strap up to keep it from slipping off of her shoulder freeing up both of her hands. She headed for the elevator as he headed for the stairwell.
She took the elevator to the lobby and started asking around. Lucy had been there long enough that the lobby workers had started to recognize her as part of the staff. She started at the coffee stand since Lucy’s stated objective was coffee. Sid the coffee vendor was an older, semi-retired, married man who had a more or less regular clientele and he knew just how everyone liked their regular orders. When she asked about Lucy he said that he hadn’t seen her all day.
Next Lois went to the newspaper and magazine stand. She asked Joe the vendor about Lucy. Now, Joe was a twenty-something, single and looking. He had an eye for the girls; which is precisely why he liked his job. Located in the lobby of the building he had a lot of eye candy passing by all of the time. He especially liked it when a woman would be wearing a scooped neck blouse and she’d have to bend over slightly to get her money out of her purse. This worked to Lois’ advantage since Lucy was one of the attractive females that he watched for.
“Joe, have you seen my sister within the last hour or so?”
He had a smile as he thought about Lucy and what she had been wearing today, a burgundy outfit. She had been wearing a silky sleeveless blouse with a scoop neck and a short skirt with a modest slit on the left which allowed a little leg to peek out. He said, “Yeah, about an hour ago she popped out of the elevator and headed outside. I saw her go to the right. I think she was headed for the CoffeeHause because she looked over at Sid’s stand and kinda shook her head as if making up her mind about something. At the CoffeeHause she could get a shot of espresso added to her coffee. Sid doesn’t do that. Come to think about it, I noticed a disturbance shortly after she walked out. I couldn’t see much because of the angle, but yeah, there was a disturbance.”
A few minutes later Clark received a thought, /”I didn’t have to look very far. Joe at the magazine stand in the lobby said there was a small disturbance outside a while ago. It wasn’t much and it happened quickly so he didn’t think much of it. I’ll check around some more and then meet you at Bill’s office.”/
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Clark’s first stop had been the Twelfth Precinct. Before entering he spun out of the Suit and into his work clothes. As he handed over a picture of Lucy he said, “Here you go Bill. She still hasn’t showed up. Lois is checking the vicinity of the Planet. She says that there was a commotion outside the Planet this morning, just about the time Lucy would have been leaving. That might be when she was snatched.”
“Lois said?”
Clark pulled out his cell phone and held it up.
“Oh, okay. Well, I’m afraid it could be. It fits the profile. I’m afraid she’s another victim of this kidnapping ring. The thing is there have not been any ransom demands. The girls have just vanished. She’s the eighth one so far.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
After talking to Joe, Lois headed out of the building. She was on her way to the twelfth precinct and as she exited the Daily Planet she went to the right, following Lucy’s path. There were no taxis in sight so she headed for the corner. Suddenly, as she passed an alley there were hands on her arms and a cloth with a cloying odor was held over her face.
She had never before experienced chloroform, but she assumed that this was what they were using and in that split second she decided to play along. She struggled briefly and then went limp. She felt herself being lifted and carried into a vehicle. She sent, /”Clark!”/
Bill noted a change in Clark’s features as he received this communication and filed it away for future reference. Clark replied, /”Yes, Lois?”/
/”I’m being abducted. They used chloroform to knock me out. Now I’m in the back of a car.”/
Bill noted yet another change. This time a look of anxiety came over Clark’s features.
Bill asked, “Is there a problem, Superman? Do you hear something?”
Chagrined that he wasn’t being careful enough he replied, “Well, yes, sort of.”
“What is it, a fire?”
“No, not exactly. Excuse me Bill, I have to go.” He spun into the Suit and exiting at superspeed took to the air. He sent, /”I’m on my way.”/
He flew to the vicinity of the Daily Planet and started listening for Lois’ heartbeat. He started flying in concentric circles moving outward using the Planet building as a center until he heard what he was listening for.
Using his x-ray vision he finally spotted Lois in the back seat of a car and was thinking about intercepting the vehicle. If he did that then the kidnappers could be grilled by the police until they revealed the location of the other girls.
He sent, /”Okay, I found you. I’m going to stop them and take them to the police.”/
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