Friends
Written by Amazonia V
Chapter 2:
Clark Kent looked up as Lois Lane marched into the office, scattering lesser mortals who scrambled to get out of her way. Pushing his spectacles higher up his nose, he got up and followed her as she flounced into her office. “What’s up, Lois?” he asked, without actually hoping for an answer.
Ever since Clark had come to Metropolis and seen Lois, on his first day at The Daily Planet, he had felt stirrings of emotion for her. Something tugged at his heart even now, to see her looking so angry and vulnerable. Yes, vulnerable, thought Clark, mainly because Lois was never emotional. He knew her well enough to know that she considered a display of emotion as a sign of weakness.
Lois snapped out of her reverie. She had been alternately castigating herself over her unprofessional reaction to seeing Hal Jordan (in the flesh, no less), and her ire over not landing the story. Just now, she looked up at Clark. In his steel-grey suit, with his nerdy glasses, she was glad that he allowed her to keep her mind on work. On her man-rating scale, Clark was a two. But a girl definitely needed to be very tipsy and more than a little desperate to take him home. Still, it was nice to have him around. He was always caring and didn’t shy from demonstrating his affection – to her, to Jimmy and even to Perry. And after this morning with arrogant, stubborn, irritating Hal Jordan, she didn’t mind a little Clark Kent.
Just now she said, “Nothing, Smallville. It’s just that Hal Jordan refused to be interviewed. And now I’ve got a special feature without a feature. It’s soooo frustrating.” Pausing to give Jimmy Olsen a grateful look for her cappuccino, Lois quickly filled in the details for Clark.
Clark listened intently. He was interested to know that Hal Jordan had snubbed Lois. What man would not be susceptible to her charms, he mused now? Heck, if she gave him even a half-inch, he would make sure that he won her over. He had been trying to get her to go out with him on a date for a long time. But Lois did not even notice his existence at the best of times. It was ironic really. If he just revealed himself to her as Superman, he knew that she would be his forever. But Clark was determined to be liked for himself, to be loved for the person he was. When you are really three unique identities forged into one, it was difficult to figure out just who you really were, he thought. Hal Jordan was certainly finding it difficult to settle in, he thought. And why didn’t the idiot realize that his friends were trying to help him? He just kept pushing them away. The special feature would have brought the sponsors to his door, and brought in some money for Hal to live on. Maybe he should have a word with Hal…. “It’s too bad really. I’m going to speak to Fanci Webb and tell her about Jordan. She should know that he’s reneged on his deal” Lois’s words broke into his thoughts. “Yeah, you do that,” Clark responded without thinking.
“Kent, where the heck are you?” boomed the unmistakable voice of Perry White. Jimmy came rushing in again, “Clark, Mr. White is looking for you.” “Sorry, Lois, I have to run,” said Clark giving Lois a quick sneaky peck on the cheek. Lois didn’t even notice.
In the Chief Editor’s office, a cigar smoking Perry White was pacing up and down, puffing vigorously on his cigar. As Clark walked in, he barked, “Kent, Lex Luthor intends to sue this paper for running the story on LL Gels. Do you have any physical evidence for the facts you detailed? How did you get to know?” Clark quickly pulled out his Instaport, that was standard Daily Planet issue to all its reporters, allowing them to key in the story, take pictures and connect instantly to all news reporters around the world for details, facts, etc.
Looking at it, he shared his notes with Perry, all the while wondering about Luthor’s next wicked plan. Batman had been investigating the outbreak of Swine flu in Gotham and had traced the link to Metropolis and to LL Gels. Superman and Batman had then teamed up to close down the LL Gels operations, rounding up suspects and bringing in the police. Batman had willingly provided Clark Kent with all the results of his investigation and the direct links. Clark Kent interviewed the witnesses and had their first person accounts. They were now in a witness protection program that was being monitored by the Justice League. Clark also knew that Wonder Woman was on monitor duty just now. But that last bit of information he could not share with Perry White, even though he smiled at the thought of Wonder Woman. So he stuck to the facts of the story.
An hour later, with Perry feeling more relieved and having talked to the legal beagles, Clark stepped out of Perry’s office. “What was next on the agenda?” he mused. He wanted to check on Lois first, but he was pretty sure that Lois would calm down… Before he could take another step, he heard what he thought was a peal of thunder. The floor beneath his feet seemed to shudder. Nearly losing his balance as the building shook side to side, Clark used his super-vision to look through the walls of the building towards the source of the sound.
Thinking quickly, as he ran towards the store-room, he told Jimmy, “My stomach’s giving out on me again. I’m just going to have to get it under control. Get as many people out of the building as you can. Don’t wait for me. I’ll be down as soon as I can.”
There was a sound now, not like thunder, but like a great hammer flung down from heaven to strike the building. Jimmy and the other Daily Planet staffers ran to get out of the building.
As Jimmy ran into the corridor, he raced into madness.
The building shook again and had Jimmy tumbling down the corridor like dice in a cup. He could hear shouting and the pounding of feet. And he tasted blood in his mouth, seconds before it went dark. The lights in the building had gone off. Luckily, it was broad daylight. But many areas were dark.
Jimmy’s pressed the alarm button on his Superman watch. His first wild thought was, Darkseid! as he remembered what had befallen Metropolis the last time around. But surely after the JLA had trounced Darkseid and his minions the last time around, banishing them to Apokolyps, beaten and battle weary, such a thing wasn't possible.
He never thought of Lex Luthor. So close to home, so insane with power. He never thought that a simple human being, born of earth, could wreak so much damage, with so little thought and so much disregard.
Jimmy scrambled up, slamming into walls in the pitch black of the corridor as he made for the stairs, then stumbling over his own feet and the stairs, and spilling out on to the main road with a flood of others. Already Lois was running ahead of him, and as Jimmy followed her, making sure his trusty camera, slung around his shoulder, was intact, he could hear the cries of terror along with shouted orders for bystanders to move behind the police cordon.
How bad was it? he wondered frantically. How bad could it be when he could see the bright sunshine of Metropolis? Even as he tried to calm himself, the ground shook again and one of the buildings – the great Metropolitan Trade Tower – began to shake, with the top floors toppling over. A few screaming citizens were hurled out of the windows towards the hard asphalt of the road. A blur of red and blue whizzed past Jimmy’ eyes, even as he looked through the lens of his camera, clicking wildly. He saw a mass of faces—some torn, some scalded, all horrified. There were piles of debris on the road, and shaken citizens —bleeding, screaming—trapped under it. Some, he saw with dull shock, were already beyond screams. Superman had saved the people falling out of the buildings – they were weeping or praying by the side of the road – but he had been too late to save everyone. The city’s public works department was already fighting madly to the injured clear of debris. Before the Metropolitan Trade Tower collapsed within itself, killing everyone in the vicinity.
Jimmy smelled death. And he was afraid. He wished he could be like Lois. Like the medicos who hurried along, with a kind of steady calm. They might have been handing out at a tea-party, he thought, until some one rushed by him.
"Go on, man! Do your job! Get the story."
It took Jimmy one blank moment before he remembered he was The Daily Planet’s photographer and he had PRESS on his jacket lapel and in his cap. And another before he understood, truly understood, that in his job, he needed to be as fearless as his pal, Superman.
Gosh, he thought, standing in the middle of the screams and prayers. I’m going to do my job, just like Superman and he began to run towards Lois. Lois was already dictating into her Instaport, eyes wide as she took in the scene before her. As Jimmy joined her and began to click away, she handed him the micro-headphone set that was the twin to the one she was using. Now Jimmy could hear what she relayed and click the photographs to go with the scene.