Part 7 - Ever Hugged a Bomb?
Officer Mathews stepped up beside Henderson, gaping at what they were all staring at.
Dr. Price, somehow gaining his composure faster than the others, made his way to the man in the slowly settling smoke, not letting himself believe this young man, well, superman, was really alright, at least not yet.
He stopped before him, a few yards from the smoking door and room, the smoke bad enough to make him wisely cover his mouth with his sleeve. His eyes blinked as they scanned Superman's body.
Is this man even mortal? he asked himself, for an instant ready to compare him to an angel…which, for what he had just seen, wouldn't be a bad assumption.
Superman stepped out, suddenly feeling rather filthy as he felt cool air (well, it was cool in comparison to the air that was smoldering hot in the vault), on his face again.
Whoa, that was an experience, he thought, continuing to walk out with the near red hot metal door under his feet.
He looked down the front of himself to find it completely blackened, flecks of burned plastic and such having melted into the fabric.
Mom's gonna kill me…he thought, I don't think there's a way to get rid of bomb stains.…
I wonder what my face looks like….
"Superman? Are you… alright?" an unsure voice asked, the smoke oddly warping it - or maybe that was the after effects of the loud noise. Whatever the reason, Superman looked up to find Dr. Price staring at him, hand over his nose and mouth.
"I-" he stopped to think about it. "Yeah, I am," he said, as if surprised by it himself.
"Are you sure?" he asked, clearly not taking his word for it, the sound of his voice now back to normal as he stepped closer and stretched out his hand to touch him.
"Don't!" Superman said suddenly, taking a quick step back making Price freeze, completely startled. "I'm hot. You'd get burned," he explained, sorry that he had spoken so loudly and so abruptly upon seeing that he had frightened the doctor.
Henderson and Mathews were now on either side of Price, both speechless while taking in Superman's condition.
His face was covered in soot, his hair caked with it. His uniform was ultimately ruined, appearing like it had been placed way too close to a fire, but not close enough to get burned, just seriously blackened, which was sort of weird.
They looked back at his face.
"You really are invulnerable," Henderson whispered.
O o O
Lois could see they had the robbers in custody and were currently bringing out the people who had been held hostage. Her eyes scanned the scene through the crowd of onlookers who were now gathering, desperately trying to find Superman, or even Henderson, but she couldn't find them.
Jimmy stayed close, camera in hand. Lois then ran up to the barricade, unable to prevent herself from worrying about Superman because she was certain he was in the bank.
"Where did Superman go?" Jimmy asked, taking a picture of the smoking bank. "Did he take out that bomb?"
That, she knew had to be the case. The 'boom' was just too muffled for it not to be. She felt herself fill with even more worry as she began thinking.
How strong is he really? Sure, he can take bullets, but a bomb?
She admitted to herself that Perry was right, there was so much they didn't know about him, so much that now, they might never know.
She wanted to cry, wondering where Henderson was, and incapable of pushing back the sudden coming image of Henderson standing over…. She couldn't even finish her thought, but that didn't matter as Jimmy snatched her attention.
"Lois, look!" Her eyes snapped to the bank's broken doors, her breath catching in her throat.
Everyone in the area stilled, gaping as a charred looking man exited. He was accompanied by not only Henderson, two firemen and an officer, but also an older gentleman who appeared to want nothing else but to stop Superman and check him over. The silence continued as Superman, his eyes now even more pronounced thanks to the soot all over him, turned his head and looked at all the awestruck faces.
And then the silence disappeared, forming itself instantly into cheers and amazed 'wow's.
Henderson quickly led the way to the paramedics, News crew cameras catching everything from a distance.
"I think I'm fine, really. Actually, I know I'm fine," Superman began, suddenly wishing he could somehow get away, but from the look on Price's face, he knew that wouldn't be right.
Superman felt someone grip his arm, finding it to be none other than Jim O'Neal: the paramedic he had befriended days ago. Thankfully, Superman was no longer burning hot as he turned his arm so he could grip Jim's arm in return - a stronger kind of hand shake.
"Then at least let them clean you up a little," Henderson said, Jim handing him a damp towel. "Besides, you have evidence on you, you know."
Superman turned to Henderson with a sheepish smile at hearing that fact.
"Oh, right, pieces of bomb components," he replied, removing a fairly sized chunk of plastic from his suit and dropping it into the bag that was now being held by Mathews, the word 'evidence' across it.
"So have you ever…" Henderson began, but he didn't know how to continue.
"Been blown up?" Superman finished for him, unable to completely hide his smile. "No. I can say that that was the first time I've ever hugged a bomb."
Henderson laughed. Laughed! Torn between thankfulness and shock.
He was actually talking to a person who had sealed himself in a vault with enough explosive that would have easily leveled the building otherwise.
Dr. Price did not look so amused, taking a little flashlight from O'Neal who already knew what Price wanted.
Superman cleaned up his face, though he knew a few dozen showers were definitely going to be needed in the near future to fully clean himself up.
Just as he was nearly done using the towel on his face, he suddenly found Price armed with a flashlight.
"Hey, I said I was fine," Superman said, lifting his hand.
"I would rather be safe than sorry," he replied, passing the light over his eyes before Superman could say anything else.
"Done now?" Superman asked, slightly amused at Price's bewildered expression.
"I suppose, but if you get dizzy or - " he stopped at the look on his 'patient's ' face. "Okay, okay, you're fine."
Not waiting to let Price change his mind, he looked to Henderson.
"Need me for anything before I go?"
"No, I think that'll be all," Henderson answered, honestly quite amused by the exchange between Price and Mr. Invulnerable.
O o O
Lois breathed a sigh of relief as they all heard the sonic boom, more cheers sounding as it met their ears. Cameras caught a streak of blue and red shooting across the sky.
He's alright, he's really alright, she told herself as she registered Jimmy moan.
"Aww man… ran out of pictures…" he complained. "Oh well, I'm sure Mr. White will love one of them…especially the one of Superman!" he said, now excited at the prospect of getting one of his pictures on the front page.
"You go ahead and get back to the planet, I have a few questions I want answered before I go write the story. Tell Perry I'll email it to him before dinner."
"Sure Lois!" Jimmy answered cheerfully, already on his way.
Lois turned back around, her eyes setting on Henderson while the camera crews and crowd dispersed, for the excitement was now over.
"Inspector!" she shouted from beyond the barricade, hoping he wouldn't ignore her.
He hesitantly turned around.
"Yes, Ms. Lane?"
She took that as an invitation and entered the area, going to Henderson.
"Can I get a statement and take a quick scan?" she asked, obviously curious and, he wasn't sure, hopeful?
Henderson thought for a moment, before deciding that this would probably entitle him to a favor later on. She was always somehow making breaks in cases….
Finally, he said, "I'll give you a statement and let you accompany me within the bank, but you can't write anything that you see, unless I give you permission. Investigational stuff."
"I understand," she replied, giving him a nod before following him into the bank.
Stepping within was eerie and the air seemed darker. The Firemen had given the nod meaning it was now safe to enter, but the settling dust and burned smell was unnerving.
Henderson led the way, going directly to the back to the vault. Lois followed closely, immediately spotting the large heavy door on the floor, her eyes widening as they looked up to find the frame warped and hinges dislocated.
"Is that where…?" she asked, unable to believe what she was seeing.
"Yeah, this is where Superman 'hugged a bomb' to his chest. Makes you really wonder what he is truly capable of, doesn't it?"
"Yes…it does," she muttered as they cautiously stepped inside, joining Mathews who was already within, along with some scene investigators who were taking pictures.
"Pretty impressive, huh?" Mathews asked, giving a nod to the corner of the vault.
And there, Lois saw the most amazing account of Superman's Power.
Two undamaged spots were on the floor, footprints, and it only took her an instant to determine why. It had been where Superman was standing when the bomb went off, his stance being of one braced and ready to take a hit, a very hard hit.
Her eyes went up, following the wall.
It was as if a snapshot of a shadow had been taken, only reversed, for an imprint of the blast had embedded itself in the walls. Superman had clearly been facing the far corner of where these marks were darkest.
It was so defined that anyone could see that Superman had in fact been holding the bomb with his arms crossed over it, for the burns, well, more like lack of burns, on the wall said so.
"Wow," Lois breathed.
"No doubt," Henderson whole heartily agreed.
O o O
Lois had finished writing her story well before dinner and was currently taking it easy on the couch.
She was thinking really hard about what Perry had said, 'We still don't know much about him.'
I don't know much about him, she muttered to herself.
Well, she was going to fix that, and as soon as possible! Sshe decided, but then she sank back into the cushions on the couch, now at a dilemma.
Superman is a living being. He deserves some privacy, deserves peace and not everyone hounding him, she told herself. But then, wouldn't an interview fix that? Give some light to him so he wouldn't be so mysterious?
She sat there, sinking into her thoughts, remembering that she didn't even know if he had spoken to Dr. Johnson yet. Maybe she should call Clark…
O o O
Clark pretty much dived into the shower, turning on the hot water full blast, nearly going stir crazy at smelling the burned stench that seemed to have permanently attached to his skin. He really wanted it off and away from him as soon as possible. The smell of ash and soot still unnerved him, but if he ever came to a point in his life where it didn't.…
There would be something wrong with me, he told himself.
Upon the nineteenth shower the smell was thankfully nearly gone, overpowered by the smell of four different shampoos, two body soups and three conditioners.
The combination of them all had made him smell like he had decided to make his own cologne.
Stepping out of the shower he decided he could live with that, his senses picking up the smell of ancient pine woods (thanks to the herbal pine shampoo his father had given him for Christmas), sweet dough bread (he didn't know where this had come from, must have been some kind of chemical reaction with all the stuff), a roaring campfire (thanks to the washed out burned plastic), and a kind of rugged mountainy smell, probably from the 'Mountain Mist' conditioner.
Is 'mountainy' even a word? he asked himself, quickly getting dressed before carefully picking up his suit.
There is no way I can save this one. Oh well, I had actually thought I would have gone through more than this by now, he thought to himself, putting it in a plastic bag before putting it into three more bags to keep the awful stench locked in.
He then put it in his hidden compartment in his closet, deciding he would take it to his mom the next time he went out. She had asked him specifically to never throw them away, she wanted to keep them. For what reason, he had no idea, but she had made him, so how could he argue with her request? Simple, he couldn't.
Just as he closed his closet door, he heard his phone ring.
"Hello?"
'Hello, Clark? It's Lois.'
"Hi, just heard about the story. Good job. Perry was happy."
'Thanks, glad to hear he has been appeased. Well, because today has been so…"
"Explosive?"
He couldn't help himself.
Lois smiled on the other end.
'Yeah. Um…I didn't get to ask you about, you know.' She didn't need to say what she was referring to. There was only one thing at the moment that could make her that hesitant.
"Oh, yeah, sorry about that, Lois. Yeah, he talked to her last night."
'I'm glad, though I imagine it wasn't an easy conversation. So how did she take it?' she asked, hoping she wasn't prying too far.
"Take what exactly?"
Lois wanted to bop him upside the head.
Men can be so dense….
'Well, hearing that your son had said that you were going to find a cure for cancer is not a small thing, Clark,' she stated back, expecting a reply soon after, but it didn't come.
'Hello? Clark?'
She waited a few more seconds until she heard him breathe out.
"He…didn't tell her."
'What! Then what was the point of going over there?' she asked.
"To keep a promise. He hadn't promised to tell her that, just David's message."
'Is that what he told you?'
" 'He?' "
'Yes, him, Superman, him!'
"Uhhh…"
'Clark is there something you're not telling me?'
- Something, he internally rebuked himself.
"Lois… I need to tell you something…"
Hearing the tone in his voice, she stilled.
She could almost hear the gears turning in his head.
Man, this must be serious.
"Me and Superman…"
Shut up you idiot! You've only known this woman for just a little over two months and you're going to tell her!?
Just hang up, hang up! You can tell her your phone died, you got another call you had to take, you got food poisoning, your roof was falling in (it's not like you couldn't make that happen and make it look like a freak accident!), or that you had suddenly lost your voice. Something, anything, anything but this!
'Clark?'
"Yes?"
'Can you not tell me? Did you make a promise to Superman or something?'
'Or something' it is always something…
"Not exactly." He paused, then continued, giving into that cautious voice. "He just…doesn't want anyone to know about what David had said."
'Oh, alright, I suppose that makes sense. I won't tell, my lips are sealed.'
"Thank you, Lois, Uh, I'm sure Superman is thankful to you as well," Clark continued, nearly tripping over his words.
'He talks to you doesn't he?' she asked, a small hint of jealousy peeking through.
I talk to myself from time to time, I guess I can say yes…he reasoned.
"Sometimes, I suppose…"
'Clark, if you can tell me, how long have you known him? It seems to me you've known him longer than just a few months.'
You have no idea…
"A while. You know, Lois, I don't think-"
'I understand, you don't want to talk about it.'
He gave a sigh at that, and Lois had heard him.
'Thanks, Clark.'
"What?"
That had come out of nowhere.
'I was just thanking you. Superman needs a good friend. Someone who protects him, just like you.'
"Lois," he began, feeling even more guilty than earlier, but he just couldn't continue.
They were quiet for a time, both lost in their thoughts until Lois spoke again.
'Have you ever wondered?'
"Wondered?"
'Yeah, wondered what it must be like to be him.'
I've wondered what it must be like to b l…
"I suppose."
'I wonder what he can really do, like how fast can he fly? How far can he see and hear? How strong is he?'
"I don't know, Lois."
That was the honest truth, he didn't really know the limits to his powers.
'Do you think he knows himself?'
"No…"
'And how many powers does he have that he hasn't shown yet?'
"Like what?"
'I don't know. Hey, do you think what happened with David was one of his powers?'
"I don't think so."
'How do you know for sure? I don't think we can. It's like Perry said, we don't know much of anything about him.'
"No, I guess we don't," Clark muttered in response.
'I wonder if he wonders about the extent of his powers…' she asked, her voice trailing off.
Clark stayed silent, taking in her words.
What was he capable of? What were his limits? Did he even have them?
If I had known I could be that fast and take on an explosion of a bomb, I could have ended that little stand off quickly, he told himself. I might have even ended it before he even pushed the button to that trigger…
'Well, Clark,' Lois piped up suddenly, interrupting his thoughts. 'I suppose I'll let you go, I'm sure you have something that you need to do.'
"Alright, goodnight, Lois."
'Night, Clark.'
O o O