Howdy, readers, sorry I'm late! Here's your next chapter starring badass investigative reporter Lois Lane! Please leave comments and kudos, guys, I love reading through them for inspiration. I might start another story sometime soon full of non-linear (no real plot) fluffs, so please come by to see if I've finally gotten around to that.

Additionally, I'm making this my official announcement that I am going to be participating in Whumptober this year with at least THREE stories featuring an epic whump from each of our main characters. I already have basic ideas for all of them, but if all y'all have any suggestions for Lois or Darcie whumps, please let me know! I would love to hear them!

Now, without further ado:


Chapter 25: The Anomaly


Lois blinked and the spaceship was still there. She blinked again, fully expecting it to disappear and for her to wake up back in her container apartment down in the camp, or even better, her bedroom back in Metropolis, but to her growing surprise, it stayed put. Of all the things that could possibly be buried in a glacier on Ellesmere, the anomaly she had happened to stumble upon was from outer space. Five minutes ago, she could have sworn that after all her years as a traveling reporter and army brat that nothing would be able to surprise her anymore, but this…

This was an honest-to-goodness goddamn alien spaceship.

She wasn't just there for a page-three article anymore, or even front page. This was the biggest story in human history, and the open door in the starcraft's hull was practically screaming for her to investigate more. It was the opportunity and scoop of a lifetime, and she won't about to pass it up, so it was with little hesitation that Lois climbed inside.

The first thing she noticed was the awe-inspiring naturalistic structure, and the second was how annoyingly cold she was. Lois pushed that thought aside to concentrate on working her camera with numb fingers, raising it to capture what could possibly be the first real picture of an extraterrestrial ship. The flash reflected off the ribbed arching walls made of some alien material and the glint of metal caught her eye.

A metallic snake-like something was hovering a few meters off to her left, not doing anything, just watching her. She inched closer and raised her camera again, wondering if it was some sort of alien, then dismissed the idea as the whirring of servomotors seemed too technological to be alive. Even so, it only added to her story of a lifetime and practically guaranteed her a Pulitzer. Her editor would be thrilled.

The probably-a-robot continued to face her (if the sweeping pattern that looked like some sort of language on one side could be considered it's front), spreading a cobra-like hood as Lois smiled and clicked the shutter.

The camera flashed as an electrified tail shot out from the robot's base and violently lashed out at her. The force of the blow threw her off her feet and against a wall, crushing her camera in the process. Lois screamed in pain, agony burning in her side like liquid fire as she clutched at the wound and sagged against the bulkhead. Panting hard, she had no time to be angry about the Nikon as she struggled to crawl away from the guard closing in.

Sparks shot from its whip-like tail as it raised it in preparation for the killing blow, and Lois came to the sudden realization that she'd finally found something too dangerous for her to work her way out of. This was the end of Lois Joanne Lane, elite investigative reporter for the Daily Planet, who died fighting a freaking alien robot of all things. This definitely deserved the best obituary her editor, Perry White, could come up with.

The sentry's whirring grew louder as it lunged towards her when a dark-haired young woman suddenly appeared behind it. In an instant, she had grabbed its cobra-like hood and forcibly shoved the mechanical sentry into a wall away from Lois, the stranger's eyes flickering with red fire as she crushed it beneath her fists. Lois didn't stop to wonder who she was or where she'd come from, instead taking advantage of the young woman's distraction to painfully stagger to her feet and sprint for the nearest hallway. Her legs gave out beneath her almost as soon as she stood up and Lois was dimly aware of stumbling before a something strong and warm broke her fall. She screamed again, trying to get up and out of its grasp so that she could make her escape, but only managed to flail weakly against the man's chest.

"It's all right, it's all right!" he assured her, and Lois stopped struggling to look up at the man, recognizing Joe, the husky baggage handler for Arctic Cargo. She wondered if he was handsomer up close or if it was just her losing consciousness as she let out a low moan of agony.

"It's all right," he repeated, hoping to calm her ragged breathing. Lois gasped in pain, looking down at her gloved hand as she pulled it away from her wounded side. Her parka was scorched and torn where the alien robot had struck her, blood seeping from the gash staining the material a dark crimson. She felt Joe wince sympathetically as he gently lowered her to the floor, helping her lean back against the curving bulkhead and meeting her gaze with a questioning look, one hand on her stomach.

"I won't hurt you," he promised, "I just want to check the wound."

Lois blinked, confused, then realized that he was asking for permission to remove her coat. She managed a small nod of assent, inwardly chuckling at just how fine a gentleman the mysterious baggage handler had turned out to be.

Joe, as promised, was extremely gentle as he opened her parka and carefully folded back part of her sweater to get a better look at the laceration, though he did seem to flinch at the sight of her blood. Lois was in too much pain to ask any of the million questions spinning around in her head, foremost being how on Earth he had gotten into the spaceship, but she knew well enough to avoid asking how bad it was when Joe shook his head at the growing stain on her sweater.

"Darcie!" he called out, glancing back at the fiery-eyed young woman. She had finally overcome the alien sentry, which was now a pulped mass of metal in her hands, and Darcie's eyes dimmed back to normal as her head came up at her name.

"You're a doctor, aren't you?" the man asked, and 'Darcie' nodded as she approached them. Lois mentally noted that they looked like they could be twins, except for Joe's handsomely scruffy beard.

The young woman squinted a little as she knelt down, her eyes narrowing in concentration as if she was looking past the skin to examine Lois' insides. For a long moment, all was quiet except for the reporter's haggard breathing, and she was about to ask what 'Darcie' was doing when the woman looked up to meet her gaze.

"Internal hemorrhaging. It's Class One right now, going on Class Two, but it will progress quickly if we cannot stop the bleeding. The hypovolemic shock will kick in-"

"How can you..." Lois gasped, barely managing not to moan at the pain caused by simply breathing. The young woman glanced at Joe, who returned the look with a small smile as he answered, "We can do things other people can't."

Lois wasn't surprised considering that Darcie had crushed a bloodthirsty robot with her bare hands only a few minutes ago, then it dawned on her. This was their ship. The super-human strength, the glowing eyes, the x-ray vision, they weren't… human.

She panicked for a moment as the thought of being abducted and dissected alive flashed through her mind, but the gentleness with which Joe squeezed her hand to reassure her that everything would turn out fine promised that a harsh alien death wasn't on the horizon. Still, despite her best efforts Lois couldn't manage to calm her labored breathing, and with each passing moment the darkness that threatened to pull her under loomed closer.

"Is she going to be okay?" Joe was asking his companion, concern showing in his clear blue eyes as he glanced down at Lois, swallowing nervously at the blood on her sweater. Darcie frowned. "She's bleeding heavily, though I think if it can be cauterized, she'll survive until she can be brought to a hospital."

She looked down at her patient, "This is going to hurt."

Lois wasn't sure if it was a hallucination caused by the blood loss, but she could have sworn the veins around the young woman's eyes began to darken when Joe gave her a questioning look, "You're not going to..."

"Have you got any better ideas?" Darcie asked sharply, her eyes returning to normal. Joe simply shook his head before sighing, "At least let me do it, I've got more experience."

Darcie reluctantly backed down as Joe took both of Lois' hands in his, flashing her another small, shy smile. She noted that he had worker's hands, strong, almost rough, but tenderly gentle as he clasped her palms while Darcie folded back the parka to allow them a better view of the wound.

Before Lois could ask how they planned to cauterize her injury without any apparent medical equipment, Joe's eyes darkened and his pupils began to glow like burning coals. It hit her again that these two people were goddamn aliens, of course they would have laser vision, how could they not with her dying and all. Lois chuckled at the thought, then shrieked when she suddenly realized it wasn't a hallucination. The ruby beams of hot fire actually hurt when Joe used his gaze to seal the wound, and it was only the young woman's hands pinning her to the floor that kept Lois from writhing in excruciating pain. She dimly remembered screaming in sheer agony and welcoming the darkness as oblivion took hold to free her from the brief suffering. The last thing Lois saw before passing out was Joe's kind face smiling down at her like she was going to be okay.

V*V*V*V*V*V*V

Sergeant Sekowski's head nodded down onto his chest, the late hour catching up on him. He had been monitoring the monitors for the past four hours, and it was quite possibly the most boring job on the entire site. At least it gave him some time to nap.

His eyes drooped and he snored gently, his feet propped up on the desk in front of him while the screens continued to watch the ice.

The shaking was gentle at first, a barely perceptible rumbling under the hum of the computers. Sensor ARC85-73 picked it up first, alerting the oblivious Sekowski with a keening alarm and causing him to open one eye. ARC53-02 went off, indicating that the tremors were becoming more violent and Sekowski sat up quickly. The earthquake was quickly becoming stronger, triggering an entire slew of alarms that blared with increasing levels of intensity, but the man was already sprinting for the door. He hurriedly pulled on his coat and rushed down the steps of the research center, his first thought being to find Dr. Hamilton, or even the Colonel.

An odd tremor sent him tumbling over his boots into the snow and Sekowski lifted his head to stare up at the heaving ice shelf. More officers were rushing out of their steel cabins and tents to discover the source of the disturbance, all of them watching in a mix of awe and terror as the ice drill snapped from its anchors and toppled over. Colonel Hardy was among them, raising his hand to shield his eyes from the drill's beacon light while the ever-present Hamilton stood beside him with his mouth wide open.

A dark shape slowly rose out of the crumbling ice, hovering for a few moments above the disintegrating shelf. For those few moments, the occupants of the camp below got a good long look at Ellesmere's Anomaly before it vanished into the night sky, leaving them dumbfounded as to what they had just seen.