Turning the Tables
Day 107, Wednesday, 9:55AM, Metropolis, Donner Medical Building Parking Garage
An ambulance and two police cruisers stopped on the third level of the Donner Medical Building parking garage as Lois Lane flagged them down. Agent Randy Tarantine was sitting drowsily on the bumper of her Odyssey while a wide-eyed Jason applied pressure on the handkerchief covering the man's gunshot wound. The two gunmen who had opened fire on the FBI agents earlier were still lying dead on the ramp. The police officer in the first car rolled down his window, and Lois informed him, "Agent Tarantine's been shot. His partner chased the other kidnappers up the ramp."
Officer Gabe Madden nodded his acknowledgment, but before he could continue up the ramp, an armored figure appeared in front of the vehicle with his hands held up in a stop gesture. As he walked around to the driver's side of the car, Superman informed officer Madden, "I've left the rest of the kidnappers tied up on top with Agent Magnuson. The group responsible for the inferno at Truman Towers is up there, too. I'll explain everything in a moment, but first I need to know what's gone out over the police band about what's happened here."
Officer Madden failed to recognize Superman in the armor, and began to chastise him, "I don't know who you think you are, but we are not in the habit of taking orders from anonymous Rambo wannabes."
"Officer, that's Superman you're talking to," Lois informed him. "He's wearing lead armor because Lex Luthor is using kryptonite."
"What…" Madden began, as he scrutinized the face behind the faceplate more closely. "Oh… um, sorry. I didn't recognize you."
"No apology is necessary," Superman assured him. "Why don't you pull ahead a bit so that ambulance can get to Agent Tarantine, and I'll explain what we need to do?"
A few minutes later, four uncomfortable police officers were standing outside their cruisers talking with Superman, vacillating over his request. "We'd really be sticking our necks out if we did that," Officer Brad Schneider pointed out. "We'd have to call for approval." Lois rolled her eyes and walked back over to her minivan with her son, where the EMTs were helping Agent Tarantine onto a stretcher.
"You can't radio it in," Superman insisted. "Luthor's probably got a police scanner, and we're running out of time."
Further debate was interrupted as Lois hollered, "Gentlemen!" Lowering her voice, she waved her cell phone in the air as she informed them, "I have Inspector Henderson on the phone. Which one of you needs to talk to him?"
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Day 107, Wednesday, 10:00AM, Metropolis, Newton Steelworks (Lex Luthor's Lair)
Lex Luthor impatiently twirled a pen as he sat at his desk watching the local news channel on his muted plasma television and listening to the police scanner. There's got to be something soon! Lex thought. So help me, if those imbeciles screw this up…
Lex turned up the volume on the television as the scene from Truman Towers was shown, and listened to newscaster Cindy Williams summarize the situation:
"…explosion ripped through Truman Towers apartment complex in northwestern Metropolis. Many victims were evacuated by Superman immediately afterwards, but there's been no sign of the Man of Steel for several minutes. The fire continues to rage out of control, and many victims are believed to still be trapped inside…"
They were supposed to call in, Lex noted angrily as he finally heard the beep of an incoming instant message on his PC. He pulled up the application and smiled as he read the message from Sarvis: "Success."
That's one down, Luthor thought as he accessed his Internet Phone application. Now if only the second team can pull it off. Luthor looked up the number for Owen Sarvis, pausing when a transmission from his police scanner caught his attention:
"All units be on the lookout for a white Ford E150 van, partial vehicle license Tango Xray Bravo Eight. Last seen heading west on Kidder Lane near 22nd street. Suspects believed to be involved in gunfight with FBI and in the abduction of a woman and young child. Suspects are believed to be armed and dangerous. Proceed with caution."
Lex smiled menacingly. Two for two? he wondered. He finished dialing the number on his Internet phone and waited for Sarvis to answer.
Superman picked up Sarvis' PDA phone and answered it, perfectly mimicking the thug's gruff voice, "Yeah?"
"What took you so long?" Lex demanded angrily. "I was expecting an IM ten minutes ago!"
"We had a little trouble... loading the package," the other man answered cryptically. "Needed to tie it down real secure…. Where do you want it delivered?"
"Head east on Albert Avenue to 14th street," Lex commanded. "IM me when you get there."
"Right, Albert to 14th," the Man of Steel repeated, before finally realizing that Lex had hung up. Superman looked over to Ricky seated in the ambulance's driver's seat with a concerned expression on his face. "He hung up," he explained simply. He was still clad in armor, but had removed the helmet, which was now sitting on the floor behind the passenger seat.
"That's normal," Ricky told him. "Lex will run us around in circles for an hour or so before he dares to shows his face." Superman nodded and set Owen Sarvis' PDA phone down on the floor between them, right next to phone that he'd taken from Phil Castle. Ricky glanced at his watch before adding, "Give it another five minutes before IM'ing 'success' from Castle's phone. Lex thinks that he's a bit of a screw-up, and it'd be normal for him to be a little late."
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Day 107, Wednesday, 10:08AM, Metropolis, Newton Steelworks (Lex Luthor's Lair)
Lex was frustrated by the legions of fools he was forced to draw from for manpower. One of those fools was Phil Castle, who Lex decided he'd have to replace after the job was finished. Even though the man had successfully abducted Lane and the boy, he'd been in a gunfight with the FBI, losing two men in the process, and had drawn so much attention to himself that every cop in town was looking for the van. He didn't dare risk bringing that vehicle to his hideout. Castle had finally reported in, and Lex was just now getting his side of the story. "Where are you now?" Lex asked impatiently.
"Parking garage at Michigan and Trumbel," the other man answered. "Nobody saw us."
Lex sighed irritably, as he commanded, "Make sure your cargo is tied down securely, and then scatter your team. I'll send someone to collect the package from you."
"I can finish the job," the other man protested.
"Listen to me, you twit!" Lex seethed. "You're not paid to think! Your brain barely generates enough power to keep your legs moving, so shut up, and do exactly as I say!"
The line was silent for a moment before the other man answered, "Alright, I'll scatter the men and wait."
"The pickup team will be driving an ambulance," Lex told him before hanging up.
As Superman set down the phone, he commented, "Well, he doesn't care much for Castle."
"Like I said, he's a bit of a screw-up, at least according to Lex's emails," Ricky reminded him. When Sarvis' phone rang a moment later, Ricky added, "And so it continues."
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Day 107, Wednesday, 11:45AM, Metropolis, Newton Steelworks (Lex Luthor's Lair)
Lex chortled with anticipation at the anguish he would soon inflict on Superman, Lois Lane and their son. No doubt, they were already suffering from the realization that their fate was sealed, but he'd make sure that they felt that pain acutely before putting them down. Lex looked up at the Metropolis map on his desktop at Sarvis' last location. Since Sarvis had reported picking the prisoners up from Castle, Lex had sent them to twenty additional stops to obscure their route. The meandering course was also intended to confuse anyone following them and give some strategically positioned lackeys the chance to verify that they weren't being followed. He estimated two or three minutes more before they reached their destination.
While he waited, Lex scanned the news from the web and cable news channels. Nobody had figured out that Superman was missing yet, though some wondered why he had apparently abandoned rescue efforts at Truman Towers. The news sources were also not reporting the Lane abduction yet. Amazing how smoothly a plan runs when these morons actually do what you tell them to, Lex pondered.
A beep from his PC told Lex that the IM from Sarvis had finally arrived, reporting that they were now at Slater Street and York Avenue. Lex called Sarvis again from his Internet phone.
"Yeah?" the other man answered.
"Where are you?" Lex demanded.
"Slater and York, just like we said," the other man answered.
"Which street, what direction?" Lex reminded him irritably.
The other man sighed deeply in irritation as he answered, "We're parked on eastbound York, west of Slater."
"And if you look to the North, what do you see?" Lex asked shortly.
"North?" the other man hesitated.
"Your left," Lex clarified.
"Just some shut-down plant," the other man answered.
"Do you see the gate opening?" Lex asked condescendingly.
"Um, yeah," the other man answered.
"We'll you're going to hand your cargo over to some friends of mine inside," Lex explained. "Drive through the bay door on the right. They'll explain things to you when you get there."
Superman hung up the phone, telling Ricky, "He wants us to drive through that bay on the right and hand the cargo over to some friends of his. I don't see anyone inside, but there's a part of the plant that I can't see through… Are you ready for this?"
"Let do it," Ricky told him enthusiastically. "You should probably hide in the back when I drive in." Superman nodded his agreement and moved into the back of the ambulance as Ricky turned left into the steel mill. "Was this some kind of auto plant?" Ricky asked as they drove in.
"It's a steel mill, or rather it was," Superman informed him. "It didn't show up on our real estate analysis. Lex must have pulled some financial tricks to hide its ownership."
"He's a slippery one, alright," Ricky agreed. As he saw a large bay door opening on the building in front of him, he added, "This must be it."
Ricky drove into the plant and parked the ambulance as the bay door closed behind him. The room was cloaked in shadows, the only illumination coming through a handful of windows high up on the walls. While Superman scanned through the sides of the ambulance, Ricky got out and hollered, "Hello?"
A shrouded figure appeared through a door to the left of the parked vehicle and asked, "Where's Sarvis?"
"In back… with the cargo," Ricky answered meekly, as the figure marched towards the ambulance.
From the back of the ambulance, Superman peered through the man's hood and immediately recognized Lex Luthor. He burst through the side of the ambulance, lifting his nemesis off the floor and slamming him into the lead wall behind him. "I've been looking for you, Luthor," Superman told him.
Lex looked at his adversary in shock as he seethed, "You're not supposed to be standing!"
"Well, it's not the first time you've been wrong, now is it?" Superman reminded him. "This ends now."
Lex slipped a dagger with a greenish gray blade out of his cloak and told Superman, "On that, we agree." As he finished speaking, Lex plunged the dagger down through the left trapezius muscle at the base of Superman's neck. Superman dropped to his knees, screaming in pain. Lex loomed over him as he warned him, "When I finish here, your bitch and the brat are dead, too!"
Lex began to force the blade in deeper, but hesitated when he heard a popping sound followed by a ping to his left. He looked up to see the smoking gun in Ricky's hands pointed at him. Lex realized that the ping he heard was the bullet impacting the metal wall behind him, and he glanced up briefly to see light shine through the small hole two feet away. He released his grip and the Man of Steel collapsed to the floor. Lex seethed at Ricky. "You are so dead," Lex assured him angrily; He was prevented from further threats when Ricky again pulled the trigger, sending a bullet under Lex's jawbone and into the cerebellum. Lex fell to the floor like a marionette whose strings had been cut.
Almost as soon as Lex hit the floor, Ricky was at Superman's side, dialing 911 on his PDA Phone. He was in a panic when emergency services operator Sarah Douglas answered the call. "Lex Luthor's stabbed Superman with a kryptonite dagger and he's unconscious!"
"Sir, this is an emergency line," the operator chastised him. "Prank calls to emergency services are against the law."
"This isn't a prank, goddamit!" Ricky shouted urgently. "Why the hell do you think Superman disappeared from Truman Towers this morning? Luthor ambushed him! Now get an ambulance here now!"
There was silence on the line for a moment before the operator returned. "Sir, where are you?"
"The old steel mill at Slater and York," he told her. "It's Lex Luthor's hideout. He's here, too… Should I try to pull the blade out of Superman's neck?"
After another moment of silence, Sarah told him, "Don't pull out the blade. That could make the bleeding worse…"
"But it's kryptonite!" Ricky protested. "The radiation's probably hurting him as much as the cut."
"Our people are adamant about that," Sarah told him. "Help will be there soon. Make sure they have access to the building."
"Alright, but please hurry," Ricky pleaded. Ricky wiped away the blood from the wound with his handkerchief, discovering to his surprise that the bleeding was light. Convinced that Superman wasn't going to bleed to death, Ricky left his side and hunted for the controls to the doors in the dim light. A moment later, the plant's interior lights were on, and the bay doors were open. Ricky returned to Superman's side and encouraged him, "Hang in there, Superman. Your son still needs you."
The first emergency vehicle arrived seven minutes later, which seemed like an eternity to Ricky Hernandez. Police officer Tom Mankiewicz squeezed through the gate, and calmly walked up to the open bay door. Ricky was tending to a prone figure when the officer stopped in the doorway, and inquired, "What's going on here?"
"Superman's hurt," Ricky told him. At the officer's confused expression, Ricky explained, "He's wearing lead armor to protect against kryptonite, but he took his helmet off…"
Officer Mankiewicz's took a close look at the armored man's face, his eyes growing large in recognition. He immediately pressed the mike button at his shoulder and reported in, "Ten Edward Niner, Dispatch… We have confirmed Superman down at Newton Steelworks on Slater and York. Repeat, Superman down!"
"Roger that, Ten Edward Niner," the woman's voice crackled over the radio. "Superman down." After a moment's pause, he heard the call repeated from his radio: "Attention all units, confirmed Superman down at Newton Steelworks, Slater Street and York Avenue. Repeat, Superman down…"
Officer Mankiewicz finally looked away from Superman's wound and took notice of the other prone individual. "Who's that?" he asked, indicating the cloaked figure.
"Lex Luthor," Ricky told him numbly.
Again, Officer Mankiewicz' eyes went large as he pulled back the hood and recognized the wanted criminal. "What happened to him?" he asked as he checked for a pulse.
"I… shot him," Ricky admitted nervously. "He was trying to kill Superman."
"Well, good for you," the officer muttered. "Unfortunately," he continued, eyes hard, "He's still alive."
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Author's Notes:
My, but isn't this an evil cliffie. And thanks again to htbthomas for the beta and her suggestions for a truly evil cliffie.
