Friends
Written by Amazonia V
Chapter 3:
Friday, 19 February 2010
LL Gels Strikes Back
By Lois Lane, Chief Reporter , The Daily Planet
Photographs by Jimmy Olsen, Photographer, The Daily Planet
The ground shook again and the earth tilted, breaking up the road and sending ordinary citizens to their deaths. Superman was a blur of action as he moved from group to group, grabbing people, saving lives. And his sure hands, closed as if by magic, over a small child as she went tumbling by.
Those whose lives were saved huddled together –they had looked death in the eye and would never be the same again. Some of them were crying, others were muttering wild prayers of thanks, still others were clinging to each other, making sure that the children were in their midst.
The Daily Planet noticed one woman wedged between upturned taxi-cabs and stones. There was a child, with a small, angelic face, whom she clutched against her. She wasn't weeping. She wasn't screaming. She simply held and rocked the little boy as if lulling him into his afternoon nap. We moved across to help her. Jimmy Olsen began pulling at the debris that pinned her down.
"I've hurt my leg, " she said as she continued to stroke her child's hair, and the rings on her fingers sparkled in the strong spring sunlight. Though her voice was calm, her eyes were huge, glazed with shock and pain, and the terror that we all felt galloping in our chests. Our hearts hammered against rib cages that seemed too puny to hold them in.
The lady was calm, "I don't think I can walk. Will you take my baby? Please, take my little boy to a hospital. See him safe."
There was one moment, one heartbeat to choose. And while the world went to hell around us, the child smiled. There was no choice, we insisted she accompany us. If Superman could risk his life to save us and the city, we could surely risk a limb or two?
"I've lost my husband," she spoke in those clear, cultured tones, and though her eyes were glassy, they stayed level as we struggled to free her. "He fell under the taxi there. I fear he's dead."
She was not dead, though. Neither was the boy. We could smell the child—powder, youth, innocence—through the stench of panic and death.
"What's his name?" I asked her. "Name? He's Patrick. Patrick Webster." It was time to get her and Patrick Webster to safety. "Hold on tight to Mama, Patrick," we heard her say. Then she crawled and clawed with him while the terror raged around us.
"Don't be frightened." She crooned it, though her breath was coming fast with the effort. Her skirts were pinned underneath the heavy stones, and blood was smeared over her fingers. "You have to be brave. Superman would want you to be brave."
And suddenly, there he was! Superman. Lifting the taxi-cabs and stones with ease, pulling the lady and her child free, cradling them in his arms as he scooped them, brushing the grit off the child as he deposited them next to the medics.
“God bless you," the lady managed and, wrapping both arms tight around her son, allowed herself to be cared for by the waiting paramedics.
The cold, the sheer brutality of the attack stole the breath of the city. Why would a genius choose to attack unsuspecting people? Why would Lex Luthor allow mass-scale destruction in his name? Why would Lex Luthor target the home of Superman?
For the citizens of Metropolis, for all those who survived the attack, who wept and cried for lost ones, for all of us yet alive, we are proud to share a home with the Man of Steel. (story continued on page 5)
****
The soundtrack from Chariots of Fire distracted the Ambassador of Themyscira from the newspaper article she was reading. She had been avidly reading Lois Lane’s story on Superman when her mobile phone began ringing. “Please don’t let it be Tom,” she muttered as she reached across her desk to pick it up.
She didn’t need another call from Tom Tresser, from the Department of Meta-human Affairs and the agent from hell.
She’d spent most of the day dealing with him, and he’d turned her mind to mush.
Retrieving the phone from the very end of the desk, Diana Prince steeled herself to see the caller’s ID. If it was Tom again, she’d scream. Better yet, she’d resign her position and go back to Themyscira – she would laze on the beaches all day long.
The phone stopped ringing as she flipped it open. Great. She closed it with a snap and dropped it into her lap, sorely tempted to switch it off. But her conscience wouldn’t let her. Nor would she resign. She had too much to lose, including the mission she’d worked so hard for.
Still, she’d had enough of Tom for one day—her least favourite person at the best of times and, in a crisis like today’s, her worst nightmare.
‘Remind me why I love my job,’ she said out loud.
Silence was the only response, and she shrugged, wincing at the stiffness in her shoulders. She needed a relaxing soak in her favourite lavender-scented bath foam. She had not recovered fully from the attack on Themyscira and she still had a few twinges that she had hidden from her mother.
Rolling her shoulders slowly, she pictured herself collapsing into bed…but not to sleep. Not to do anything normal people did in bed. No way would Athena allow that. Diana would need to work hard on the Themysciran strategy, making sense of it. No one understood it at all, least of all a Princess, but continuing to be the Themysciran Ambassador was the only way that she could help her people now.
A beep from the phone made Diana jump. Accessing her voicemail, she sighed with relief at the sound of her best friend’s bright tones. She rang Clark straight back. Just what she needed. The perfect antidote for the way she felt.
Clark answered on the first ring. “I’m on my way to Connor’s birthday bash. Want to go with me? We can keep the young ones in line.”
Diana laughed, a musical sound to Clark’s ears. “Sure. Though I don’t think we’ll really be needed to play chaperone. They’re old enough as it is.”
“But it will give me some time to talk to you, Diana.”
“Sure,” she responded. And it will take my mind of Tom and my other troubles. “When will you be here? Or do you want me to meet you somewhere?”
Clark’s deep voice responded, “I’ll drop by and meet you for dinner, sixish? Then, we can go to the bash together.”
Diana agreed and broke off the connection thoughtfully. That was a first for Kal. Picking up the phone and wanting to talk to her. It was not often that Kal displayed a vulnerability to needing a sounding board. They were much the same like that – all three of them – Bruce, Kal and Diana, herself. Which was why they were best friends. Or BFFs. Diana’s lips quirked with a smile – she was picking up the weirdest expressions. Her mother and queen would be horrified. Then, she let out a deep breath on a sigh. She missed her mother and her sisters. Hera knew that she sorely needed someone to talk to, just now.
Clark smiled as the connection on his cell phone was broken and looked up to see Lois walk in. “Good story, Lois,” Clark said aloud as she walked in accepting congratulations from everyone. “A real human interest angle.”
“Great job,” called out Perry.
Lois smiled to herself as she walked to her desk. Yes, it was a job well done. And had managed to push pesky Hal Jordan out of her mind.
Today, she was feeling on top of the world.
Clark secretly watched Lois with his super-vision. He couldn’t help himself, but wish that they were closer. He knew that while Lois had no major love interest currently, she was dating only occasionally. He had really tried to get her to go out with him. It was only as Superman that he scored with her. But even Superman had been out with her only twice and those dates were strictly work related – interviews that Superman had given to Lois Lane the reporter, not romantic evening between Superman and Lois.
His thoughts drifted to Diana. The warm glow he always felt thinking about her brought a smile to his lips and his face softened. Diana was the closest woman to him after Ma Kent. But you couldn’t discuss girlfriends with your mother. Maybe Diana would have some insights for him on getting Lois to date him. She seemed to have no trouble at all with Tom Tresser. Sometimes Clark got an uneasy feeling about Tresser. Like he was not the right person for Diana, but if Diana was happy…still he definitely wanted to talk to Diana about relationships.
*****
That evening, not sure what to wear since she didn’t know where they were going, Diana opted for a simple Greek styled coral-pink dress, knee-length, with spaghetti-thin straps. Hoping it wouldn’t look out of place at either end of the restaurant scale, she looked at herself in the mirror (she never used make-up) and topped off her outfit with some star-shaped diamond earrings. One last touch, she thought, and picking up the fragrant jasmine flowers, she crushed the petals against her skin, at the base of her neck, behind her ears, and even between her breasts. It was an old secret. Far more potent than any perfume, the fragrance of the flowers themselves, heightened by the warmth of her body and her own scent.
The doorbell rang as she slipped on some high-heeled sandals. Picking up her handbag, she headed down to the front door.
Her heart lurched and it took her a moment to find her breath.
Kal in a dark blue suit.
And a white shirt.
And a tie.
He looked better every time she saw him.
She swallowed. ‘Wow.’
‘Wow, yourself. You look beautiful.’ He grinned. ‘Like the evening star on Planet Myrmidax.’
‘Thank you, I think. But will I do? I mean, I didn’t expect you to dress up.’
‘You’re perfect.’
Her heart gave an extra-hard thud. She had to remind herself he was talking about her clothes.
‘Shall we go?’
She nodded, and after locking the door, took the arm he offered and walked with him to the car. When in their alter-egos, both of them preferred to use more mortal means of transport. He opened the door and she hopped into the passenger seat. No need to be nervous, she told herself as she waited for him to walk around the car. Two friends going out for a meal.
Nothing more.
And she was right. No need to be nervous at all. Kal treated her to a lovely meal. They talked like they’d never been apart, perfectly relaxed with each other.
The conversation approached a more personal level when he told her about some of the places he’d visited in his work as a correspondent. He had never shared his Clark Kent life with her before. With a studied vagueness, he described a few atrocities which made her squirm. Even though as Wonder Woman, she had seen more than her fair share of atrocities, she was not immune to the horrors mankind could inflict on each other.
But Kal, being Kal, was so gentle and compassionate, he allowed her to feel the full gamut of her emotions without making her feel less an Amazon.
And he interspersed these stories with others that made her laugh so much, she had to use her napkin to dab at her eyes.
‘You’ll have to stop,’ she said at the end of one. ‘You’ll ruin my make-up.’
He smiled, and his handsome face creased around his sparkling blue eyes. ‘What make-up? It’s good to hear you laugh, Diana. You’re always my favourite audience.’
‘Oh?’
‘I never have to explain myself to you.’ He refilled her glass. ‘You always understand me. All three of me.’
‘So does your mother.’
‘Mmm. But she’s my mother. She always felt obliged to tell me I was an idiot after she’d finished laughing.’
‘Well…’
He held up a hand in a traffic-stopping gesture. ‘Uh-oh. At least leave me the illusion you didn’t agree with her.’
Diana tilted her head as she looked at him, his eyes half hidden by lowered lids. He had once been bold enough to claim her lips, if not her heart. She had been unprepared then for the hot rush of emotions that had raced through her body. Had begun to respond before falling into the sheer habit of her Amazonian up-bringing. Denied her very real attraction to all that was good in Kal, all that she was attracted to. Including his marvelous body. Incredibly handsome, powerfully built, sure of his powers, deeply compassionate, Kal had reminded her of the heroes and gods on Olympus, all compressed into one heady package. But she had denied her attraction. Denied the very real feelings that had just begun to sprout. Was unsure of how to respond to him, having never allowed a woman’s emotions to surface within her. And frankly, honestly, she had shared her doubts with him.
Kal had misunderstood. Instead of talking to her, soothing her, helping her to understand, he had changed his mind and told her they were unsuited. She was a Princess, he was a farm-boy.
Diana did not really care for her royal status. She had known that below these outward appearances, they were cut from the same cloth. And too late, realized how deeply she loved him. Loved every part of him. Found herself looking for him at every JLA meeting. Wanting to call him. Just to talk to him, reading about him as Superman, reading what he wrote as Clark Kent.
But to no avail, their relationship had remained at being working colleagues, sparring partners and best of friends. But a part of her wished that Kal had not turned coward and run away, leaving her with the wishful thought of what might have been.
She knew that he was trying hard to win the affection of Lois Lane, his colleague. Diana herself had been out with other men – Bruce, and more recently Tom, but she never allowed herself to think of Kal.
She never took that risk. Every hour she spent with him made her feelings stronger. And she needed to guard against falling deeper in love with him.