So I got my shiny less-than-a-year-old laptop back with a brand-new hard-drive and all for less than $100 because my brother's cool like that. I'll get my money's worth out of this thing yet. That's the good news. The bad and the ugly? The old hard-drive was a lost cause. It made crunching noises and refused to do anything, so all files not backed up are gone.
What does that mean for this fic? It means that I will need to rewrite chapters 19, 25, and 26, and update the ending. Turns out chapter 24 predates Dec 1 last year, so I was delighted to find that I still had that one. And the 6 and a quarter chapters I had for the Flash sequel? Gone too. So those go back on the To Do list. Fortunately for me, I don't toss my story notes and my memory's pretty good, so this might not be too much of a struggle.
That being said... I know I've been pretty nonexistent lately. Buggy computer shit can really kill motivation and mine got stabbed. Here's the deal. I'm taking off for the month of October with the intention of getting all my notes organized, so I can make the rewrites for this story in a timely manner. Should all go well, I will resume weekly updates beginning November 5th and we'll go from there on something more closely resembling a schedule. Sound like a plan? Sounds like one to me.
Chapter Nine:
"--then she told this guy that she was dating me. I overheard at least half of what she said and I guess none of it was really a lie, and half the Planet thinks we're dating anyways-- I-It's really not that funny, Mom. You can stop laughing any time."
Martha was to the point where she was so breathless that she could barely make a sound and Johnathan was chuckling audibly in the background. Clark rolled his eyes. He wished he had more people in his life he could complain to. More sympathetic people, at least. Krypto didn't care; he was a dog. Pete and Lana wouldn't respond for at least two days and even then, they'd be giggling hysterically.
Honestly, calling his parents for advice was a mistake.
"Clark, son..." Johnathan retrieved the phone from his wife's limp hand. "I don't know what you expected us to tell you."
"Well, something would have been nice." Clark replied. "Not laughing so much would have been nice. I'm in a quandary over there!"
"She's your friend. Isn't that good enough?" Johnathan asked. Then he shook his head. "No, no, I get it. I've been where you're at before. Your mother and I danced around each other for at least a year before we actually took the first plunge."
"I know, but at least you two were sure of your feelings." Clark reminded them, entering the cool shade in Planet Square.
"And you're not?"
"I'm not sure of her feelings. Dad, I'm not about to try and push her out of her comfort zone."
"Are you sure Lois is making sure she doesn't push you out of your comfort zone?"
Any response Clark would have made caught in his throat and his jaw clicked shut. That hadn't occurred to him. He acknowledged that his dating life was pretty non-existent. Hell, he really didn't have a sex drive either -- something that would most certainly have been a deal-breaker. He saw Lois too often to even fake the image of going on regular dates. She knew he didn't make his way around town with a lady on the arm.
What if she wasn't acting because she was trying to be polite and aware?
"Son, you had one relationship in total, and she was properly crazy." Johnathan went on. "When you've been burned like that, that kind of apprehension can show. Ladies like Lois are perceptive. She doesn't know any details, but she must be picking something up."
"I-- That didn't occur to me." Clark admitted. Lois was very perceptive -- good at reading people. That kind of talent would certainly extend beyond just grilling eyewitnesses for details.
"Give her some credit, Clark. Lois is a little rough around the edges, but she's a good person all the way down. Your mom and I saw that." Johnathan said. "Still, it's a natural part of growing up, those awkward crushes."
"Dad..."
Johnathan muffled a snigger into his hand, but Clark heard it anyways.
"You'll get through it, Clark, you're only twenty-four." he assured his son. "Relationships are hard work, but they aren't that complicated. Just take it slow. Be sure of yourself--"
"Before I get involved with anyone else, I know." Clark said, nodding.
The best advice his parents knew they could offer him in terms of relationships. He was his first priority. To make sure that he was happy and in a good place with his life mentally and emotionally before he got into any potentially long-term relationships. It just wouldn't do to bring so much baggage in with him.
If he thought there was something there with Lois, it meant he would have to come clean one day.
One day.
Not today.
In his own time.
"Okay, I'm practically in the building. I've got to hang up." Clark said. He was under the awning. "I'll visit the first or second weekend next month."
"See you then. Have a good day at work, son. Love you."
"You too."
He ended the call just inside the door and walked across the Daily Planet's lobby. It was a large airy interior with a three-floor atrium and fake plants. The sound of falling water was piped in -- Clark had never seen an actual source of water. The centerpiece was a large globe of the Earth that looked like a distant cousin of the Unisphere in Queens, New York.
The first three floors were really for the visitors; they rarely went higher unless it was to the observation deck on the sixtieth floor. Comfortable rooms where guests could be interviewed. Spacious meetings halls that could be rented out for a few hours. The green rooms where TV guests were kept entertained until it was their time on camera. The first three floors were what really made up the Daily Planet's warm and family-friendly atmosphere.
Unless one was taking the expess elevators, which ran the full height of building, one had to switch elevators every twenty floors. It was inconvenient for anyone who worked near the top of the building. Clark rarely caught the express elevators at this time of the morning, when everyone was arriving in mass droves and the new wave of tourists were pouring in to sidle on up to the observation deck. He slipped into one of the regular cars and patiently waited out the ride to the fifty-seventh floor.
Lois had no reaction to Clark's arrival other than her usual "Mornin' Smallville!". Nothing to suggest that last night had happened. In any case, Clark Kent wasn't to know about it.
"How was dinner with your dad?" he asked, to make conversation.
"Ugh, a disaster." Lois grunted. "I've seen some real dickery from my dad, but I never thought he'd actually go as far as to play matchmaker. But you already know about this."
PLAY DUMB. Clark told himself. "I do?"
Lois's whole face frowned. "I'm not having this conversation with you."
"No really, what happened?"
"Not today, Smallville. Not today."
Clark let it go and turned his attention to the in-tray. Some work mail, a memo or two, and a few of the bright yellow notecards that were marked with "urgent email, reply soon". He sorted the items and Perry gave the bellowing shout that was the summons for all general assignment reporters to converge on the conference room for the breaking news.
Perry White had been a part of the Daily Planet for at least three decades and the editor-in-chief for two. Clark was unsure of his age; "fifty-something" was the common consensus. His black hair was starting to show some gray, his dark skin featured a growing network of wrinkles, but his belly paunch had shrunk in the last few months as he had started to make strides towards living better.
All in all, Perry had one of the most stressful jobs in the entire building. He was in charge of organizing the morning edition and he coordinated with the editor of the evening edition to make sure everything was running smoothly. His duties were many and varied.
He was in fine form this morning, as per the new usual. Ever since the Daily Planet had started nabbing the majority of the Superman stories (thanks to Lois and Clark), paper sales and ad revenue had been spiraling to newer heights and Perry started off the day in a slightly better mood than when he'd ended the previous one. His mood was, dare Clark say it, jovial as he listed off the breaking news and sent the reporters off on their assignments.
"Hollenbeck, I need a proper follow up on that murder that happened Monday; the police are playing this one close to the chest. Go, go! Bartowski, Altenberger, building fire out in Oxbay, flames started fifteen minutes ago. Get moving!" Perry clapped his hands after the pair that sped for the door. "Lane and Kent!"
They were the last two left in the conference room as the rest of the reporters cleared out with their assignments in hand.
"I had a specific request from Meredith Furie for the pair of you." Perry told them. "She wants to set the record straight and she wants the Daily Planet to do it. This is a big move for her, considering how little she talks to the press these days."
"Considering the amount of shit she's dodged in the last year, that's not a surprise." Lois commented. The press had been rather unkind to the CEO as of late. "When does she want us to swing by?"
"Any time before ten-thirty. After eleven, she'll be in a meeting 'til one. So the sooner the better." Perry explained. "Remember, she doesn't like talking to the press and she's standing inside a considerable splatter radius if this all goes wrong, so we need to do right by her and show her why she can trust the Planet. Make it a good one, Kent."
"Perry, ye of little faith!" Lois cried in mock outrage.
"You have a congenital dislike for CEOs, Lois."
Los shrugged. She couldn't argue that.
They gathered their things and headed back down the elevator. Such was the daily life of a press reporter. The morning was spent doing the rounds and gathering the information. The afternoon was devoted to cranking out the columns. Clark could count on his fingers the number of times he had actually spent the morning inside. Rain, snow, sleet, and hail didn't stop the mail or any reporter who was partnered to Lois Lane.
They were back on the D-line train, riding into the business district. Last night, Lois had written up a list of questions for the Atlas Industries CEO. Most of them were still relevant, she hoped.
"Why us?" she asked out loud.
"Hmm?" Clark barely looked up from checking his own list of questions.
"Us. The Daily Planet. You and me." Lois elaborated. "Trust Perry when he says Ms. Furie doesn't like the press. Most of the CEOs in this city give interviews on the regular, even Luthor, but Ms. Furie hasn't sat for one in two years."
"Her friend gave us a good review?" Clark guessed, remembering the distantly paranoid demeanor of Barry Allen.
"Possibly."
Probably, more like. Ms. Furie had a life-time of dealing with the press, between her deceased father and actress mother, so she had seen the good and the bad. She could judge it for herself, but preferred recommendations first and foremost. Barry Allen seemed like the judgy friend who side-eyed everything and didn't make a move until he was sure about what he was doing. If he had declared them "all good", then Ms. Furie was probably taking him at his word.
The train dropped them at the Atlas Plaza station, several blocks north of some of the most prolific companies in the city (Wayne Enterprises, Kord Tech, Queen Consolidated). There was a stainless steel sculpture of Atlas with the world on his shoulders and his chest bore the outline of a mostly scrubbed off S.
Unlike the LexCorp building (which was a monument to a man's ego) or the Future World building (which was pretentious, frankly, and still smoldering a little), the Atlas Industries building was an example of the clean straight lines that Metropolis was known for. The city had never quite grown out of Art Deco as its primary inspiration.
In the wake of yesterday's somewhat disastrous press conference, reporters from different outlets were hovering around outside the building while security stood by the doors and looked stern. The news-hungry vultures made ugly squawking noises when Lois and Clark brandished their press badges and got through the doors with nary a word on their part. Lois just smiled Grinchily as they walked to the executive elevator past the security desk.
"Hmm, I feel a little special that we're the only ones being allowed up." Lois commented, gazing around the posh-looking elevator as they were ferried up to the fortieth floor. Jazzy swing music was being piped from a speaker in the corner. "What do you think that says?"
"That the Daily Planet won't slander her name and twist her words." Clark replied.
"Yeah, can't say that's our style."
Meredith Furie was waiting for them on the fortieth floor lobby. Her eyes were a warm honey-brown and her long chestnut-brown hair was styled loosely over her shoulders in waves. She wore a sharply cut suit tailored to her curves and a pencil skirt that flattered her waist and hips. She wasn't a built woman, but she was tall and commanding while still looking feminine and a touch sensual. For a second, Lois felt her eyes slide down the gentle curve of the woman's hip, but she yanked her gaze back up. Now was not the time to be admiring anything.
"Ms. Furie, thank you for seeing us." Lois said, approaching with a hand outstretched. "Lois Lane, Daily Planet. This is Clark Kent."
"Hello." Clark greeted.
"I know. I let you up because I trust the integrity of the Daily Planet staff. Or rather, I trust my friend's opinion. And I hope my trust will not be misplaced." Ms. Furie said.
"Never." Lois assured her. "If it means anything to you, I will send you the final draft to proofread before I turn in it."
"Good. We can talk in my office." Ms. Furie said, beckoning for them to follow.
The executive office of Atlas Industries was half the size of Future World's and not even half as creepy. Contemporary styling and inoffensive neutral tones with track lighting. A long corner desk and very big windows on two walls that slanted inwards just slightly. The plants were real; there was the scent of damp earth and flowers in the air. The flat-screen television mounted on the wall was on mute. There was a small glass-topped conference table that seated only six. Another door led off from the office into a proper conference room.
Ms. Furie directed them to sit down at the small table and she took her accustomed place at the head, lacing her fingers together.
"Where would you like me to start, Ms. Lane?" she asked.
"I'm recording this, to start." Lois announced, activating the recording app on her phone. "Now, to begin. You've been implicated in the theft of six predator drones and the bombing of Future World Industries. You've also been implicated in last year's plot to destroy Metropolis simply because it's your face in the photo. Supposedly, at least. What do you say to that?"
"It's bullcrap." Ms. Furie said plainly.
"Can I quote you directly?" Lois hoped.
"Please do." Furie nodded.
"Why is it bullcrap?" Clark asked.
"I know where I was the night of that LexCorp theft." Ms. Furie replied. "I was in Gotham to discuss a possible partnership with Drake Industries. They were holding an investors ball. I have at least ten reliable witnesses who can place me there for several hours and my hotel could confirm that I never left after returning to my room. Additionally, Gotham and Metropolis are almost nine hundred miles apart."
"You would have to have been in two places at once if they thought you could make that theft while schmoozing up the board members." Lois deduced. "Kent and I have theorized that this accusation is an attempt to discredit you. Your company is in negotiations with a Japanese tech company that could be very beneficial."
Ms. Furie nodded. "Negotiations are stalled for the moment." she said. "Should the contract go through, it would allow us to begin expanding overseas without too much worry that the competition would shoot us down. I do fear this is a derailment attempt. When I talked to the police, they seemed to have a very difficult time getting their heads around the fact that I have a twin sister."
"A likely story. The police aren't known for using Occam's Razor." Lois muttered. "Now we did talk to your friend yesterday and we have some background on the relationship between you and your sister. Basically, was it really bad as all that?"
Ms. Furie shrugged. "More or less."
"What happened between you and her?" Clark asked.
Ms. Furie spread her hands in a helpless gesture. "Nothing I could have helped, I don't think." she said. "When I was thirteen, I came out to my family as a lesbian. My parents weren't terribly surprised, but Hannah... In the finest display of homophobia I have ever witnessed, Hannah lost her shit and declared I was no longer her sister. If anything, it started there."
"Do you believe your sister might be trying to destroy your reputation?" Lois wondered. "She has the perfect means of doing it. All she has to do is walk into the strip clubs, say she's you in a wig, and proceed to pole-dance."
Ms. Furie thought for a moment. "I had very little to do with Hannah after she outed me in front of the entire seventh grade class. I'm not certain she'd go through this much trouble, since it also means destroying the company along with me."
"But do you think she might be capable?" Lois pressed.
"I have no idea what my sister might be capable of these days." Ms. Furie admitted. "I understand why she would be after me, but Atlas Industries was our father's company. Hannah was very much Daddy's little girl and this company is part of his legacy. I don't understand why she would damage it. The last I saw of her, however, she was keeping strange company."
"When was the last time you saw her?" Clark asked.
"Our nineteenth birthday, which was also our high school graduation. Or my graduation." Ms. Furie corrected. "Hannah ran away from home a few weeks beforehand. She wasn't going to graduate anyways. Her grades were too poor."
"So you two talked?" Lois asked.
"Not as such." Ms. Furie said, making a hesitant expression. "She had only come back to collect a few of her belongings. I tried to ask her where she'd been, because Mom and Dad were worried out of their minds for her. She said she wouldn't live with my gay anymore and then shrieked slurs until I left. All in all, I'd say it lasted about a minute. I would say that yesterday was the first time I saw her in five years, but I didn't actually see her."
Lois and Clark exchanged wincing looks. It was hard enough for gays and lesbians and otherwise to find acceptance in the world. Being turned out by friends was hard, but having your own family turn against you was something else entirely. Even if it was only one family member, but a twin sister?
"We know about the gang, but your friend wasn't the most forthcoming." Clark said.
Ms. Furie smiled. "Don't mind Barry too much. He's pretty much the Mom Friend." she said. She frowned. "Or the Dad Friend. Which one is more prone to the bad jokes and terrible puns?"
"In my experience, the Dad Friend." Lois replied.
"It's good to have a friend like that." Clark said. "Can you elaborate a little more about the strange company your sister was keeping? That may have had something to do with her running away."
"It probably had everything to do with her running away." Ms. Furie pondered over the five year old memories for a moment. "When I saw her after graduation, her boyfriend Matt was there. I remember him from high school. He was one of the quiet ones."
"It's always the quiet ones you have to watch out for." Lois quipped.
Ms. Furie smiled faintly. "He didn't strike me as the type my sister would have dated. Hannah liked the athletes, all the strong confident types. Matt was none of that. I remember hearing him complaining about his grades from time to time. Hannah would always reassure him that the teachers just didn't understand how smart he was."
"Did you ever meet her shady friends?" Lois asked.
"She brought them home a few times, but Dad banned them from from the property. He thought they were stealing the silverware." Ms. Furie said. "I remember Lance, obviously. And Matt was a part of it too. Victor, he was the oldest. There was only one other girl. I want to say her name was 'Emily', but I don't think that's right... And two others I think, but I don't think they went to Central High."
"Alright, Hannah's our linchpin in this, it looks like." Lois mused thoughtfully. "You said it your birthday and graduation the last time you saw her. Did anything else strange happen that day?"
Ms. Furie gave them an incredulous look. "Yes, my party was attacked and my father was killed."
The two reporters winced again.
"Sorry, that slipped my mind." Lois admitted.
"I can requistion a copy of the police file for you and a copy of my father's autopsy report, if you think you can stomach that." Ms. Furie said, reaching for the pens and the post-it notes in the middle of the table. "Do you have everything you need?"
"Just to summarize, having a twin sister means your face can be in two places at once."
"That's the long and short of it." Ms. Furie agreed, jotting a set of numbers on the post-it. She peeled it off and handed it to Lois. "If you need to get in touch with me for any follow-up questions, you can contact me at this number. My email is on the company letterhead."
"That would be perfect." Lois turned off the recorder. "Well then, thank you for your time, Ms. Furie."
"Thank you for listening." Ms. Furie said, shaking hands with them.
She chivvied them out the door politely, but quickly. She had to get to work on salvaging her company's reputation, preparing statements and collecting the evidence that would exonerate her. And she had a very important meeting in an hour.
Lois and Clark took the elevator back down to the ground floor and left the building.
"Okay Smallville, initial thoughts?" Lois inquired.
"Still working from the angle that Hannah Furie may be attempting to discredit her sister." Clark stated. From where he was standing, it was the most likely motivation.
"That seems to sum up what we're dealing with." Lois agreed. She glanced down at the contact number Ms. Furie had given her. "Aw man, she saw me oogling her. She gave me her personal number. You know I'm bi, right?"
"I did sort of figure that out on my own." Clark said.
"Yeah..." Lois pocketed the number anyways. "Makes me feel just a little bad for what we're doing tonight."
A little shiver went up Clark's spine. "What are we doing tonight?"
"The same thing we do every night, Smallville. Try to save the world." Lois let out a small cackle. "The plan was never canceled, just postponed. Meet me back here at midnight tonight and make sure you're wearing your running shoes."
She jogged ahead of him before Clark could inquire exactly what she meant by wanting him to wear his running shoes.
Despite his misgivings, Clark was at the Atlas Plaza at midnight, wearing his running shoes. He had a terrible feeling that he knew what Lois was planning to do. He had an even worse feeling that he wouldn't be able to talk her out of it.
He tried not to look like a malingerer as he waited for Lois to turn up, deliberately hiding away from the station lights and huddling into his hoodie (the night temps dropped to just this side of chilly). No matter the time of year, this part of the city went pretty quiet this late at night. The business district wasn't known for its hopping night life. Some towers were half-lit with the late shift, the delivery drivers making their rounds when it was easier to get through the streets, and then you had the weirdoes who only came out after dark.
And Lois Lane, who can't be up to any good tonight and is dragging me into it. Why didn't I say 'no'? Clark wondered.
Okay, granted, he had to keep up a facade of being meek and a little spineless. Plain, boring and as vanilla as hell, especially now that "Superman" was out there and such a public face to boot. But that didn't mean bowing to everything Lois requested of him. He had to show a little spine here and there so people didn't start assuming his middle name was "Doormat".
But it was just hard to say 'no' when she looked at him with those big sparkling eyes. Especially now with that memory of starlight in her eyes and the look of pure joy on her face, her hair flying in the night breeze and she had looked so radiant, weightless and free--
Clark hunched into his hoodie, eyes widening. Oh no... She's cute... He realized with an uncomfortable stirring in his gut. She was really cute... Really beautiful... Holy crap... Oh no no no no...
I'm crushing on her...
He had already accepted the fact that he was feeling something for her, but this clinched it. He had full-blown crush on Lois Lane. His parents were going to exchange meaningful looks and giggle until it was beyond embarrassing.
But she was completely inaccessible. Dating was absolutely out of the question and not just because of the whole alien-thing. Because if he kept up this hero business, he was likely to make enemies. And he couldn't drag anyone else into what were probably going to be his problems. Heroes always made enemies and the enemies always went after the heroes' weakest points: their loved ones. He would hate himself if he endangered her like that.
This crush so had to die.
Like, now.
"Hey, Smallville."
Especially now.
Lois came around in front of him, looking surprisingly fetching with a dark knit cap pulled low over her hair and it didn't help the crush die. She looked him up and down, from his hunched shoulders and wide eyes and down his rigid posture.
"Smallville, are you okay?" she asked.
"Just a little chillier out here than I thought it would be." he fibbed. Oh god, did his voice just crack?
"Don't worry, Old Man Winter. You'll melt soon enough." Lois fished something out of her coat pocket. "I think a little B'n'E will get your blood moving again. Well, there's no breaking involved, technically."
Clark realized she was holding an Atlas Industries security badge.
"Lois, did you steal that?" he asked faintly. Right off a security guard, the crazy woman!
"Borrowed it." she corrected, walking to the front doors of Atlas Industries.
"But you took it without asking." Clark pointed it, quickly following her. "That's usually the definition of stealing."
"We just need it to get in and access the system. Stealing implies no intent to return it. I'll leave it on the secretary's desk before we go." Lois assured him, waving the badge over the scanner by the door. The badge itself hadn't been locked out of the system yet, so the door opened without an issue.
Lois Lane was up to absolutely no good tonight and she was not going to be talked out of it. No one talked Mad Dog Lane out of an idea once she had gotten it into her head. The most Clark could do now was make sure they both got out of this without being arrested.
They hopped the turnstiles and took the elevator up to the fifty-first floor. Clark kept his ears sharp, but security didn't seem to be on the job tonight. The badge got them quietly through another locked door.
"Where are we?" Clark asked.
"Server room. The nerve center of the entire building." Lois answered, striding immediately over to the two access computers. "Every piece of data gets saved right here."
She started to boot up the computers.
"We are going to get arrested." Clark predicted. How could they not? They were accessing what was definitely a secure server, from the inside. Stolen a security badge with a high-level of access. He was sure they would be in less trouble if they had been looking for an adventurous place to make out.
His record was only squeaky clean on American soil. He wasn't going to bring up the Russian gulag any time soon.
Fully running, both computers put up a command window instructing Lois to swipe the badge on the reader. She did so for both readers and the system welcomed Grant McMillian with his Level Eight access. The system allowed only two duplicate badges to be registered. It was a loophole in the security in case someone was locked out of the system accidentally.
"Pull up a chair, Smallville, and get to browsing." Lois instructed. She cracked her knuckles. "Let's see what's coming out of Ms. Furie's computer."
Clark scanned the access menu and selected the accounting files. Any hints of suspicious activity was more than likely to crop up in the company's finances first. If Ms. Furie was dealing under the table, it would reflect in the company's numbers when sums failed to add up.
When in doubt, follow the numbers.
Going year by year, it didn't take him long to see a pattern.
"Atlas Industries is going bankrupt." Clark realized.
"Are they?" Lois tore her eyes off what she was reading. "Are you sure?"
Clark nodded. "My parents manage the farm's finances by themselves so I picked up a few things from them." he said. "This record goes back as far as 2002. Before Gregor Furie died, the numbers were strong. But after his death, there was a two-month transitional period where everything was on hold until Ms. Furie was oriented. During that time, stocks fell and several investors pulled out. The numbers have been dropping ever since. "
Lois cringed. "Look at that stock, they couldn't sell that for beans." She turned back to her computer and typed something into the search bar. "Okay, here we go. Several corresponding weekly reports from the desk of Meredith Furie..."
"Six thousand employees per branch were laid off in the past two years." Clark reported, reading on. "They're hemorrhaging money faster than they can replace it. In another year, it looks like, they'll be dead in the water."
"Yeah, they've lost almost all their contracts. CyGen pulled out... Oh, Future World turned them down before opening remarks. Motive." Lois chirped. She continued to skim the report. "Wow, they're auctioning off their entire Applied Sciences division."
"It doesn't seem to be helping." Clark said, peering at the July finance report. The graph painted a grim picture and the notes that explained things in plain English basically poured blood all over that picture.
He moved off the accounting records and into the Applied Sciences files. They were sparse; just a brief description of the project and which company it had been sold to and for how much. A receipt, really.
Atlas Industries had been cooking up some very interesting stuff in Applied Sciences. Stuff that could have changed things if they had gotten into production phase. Hydrogen converters for cars, advanced artificial limbs, sonar mapping for the blind, something involving less invasive procedures to restore hearing loss, holographic display technology (which was in the middle of a fierce bidding war) and...
"The predator drones. Lois, the drones stolen from LexCorp were based on specs developed by Atlas Industries. They had to sell the specs when the military cancelled their contract. LexCorp bought them, along with the specs for the ultra-sonic device that killed Mr. Furie."
Lois's face turned a little whiter in the screen's pale glow as she leaned over his shoulder to read for herself. Sure enough, the specs for the predator drones and the ultra-sonic device were listed as having been bought by LexCorp over two years ago.
"If it's really Meredith and not Hannah, she could be trying to take back what was originally hers." the dark-haired woman suggested slowly. "Or the twins are really working together. This is their father's company, after all."
"But they wouldn't make it so easy to trace the evidence back to them." Clark pointed out. "Something like this... Ms. Furie would have it wiped from the system before it could damage her innocence."
"So we're back to supposing that someone's trying to set her up?" Lois raised an eyebrow. At this point, this whole thing could go either way. Either Ms. Furie was being set up by her sister as part of an effort to bring down the company, or the twins were working together to discredit their competition. But why would they risk losing a critical overseas contract?
Or maybe even someone was working through Hannah to bring down Atlas Industries, playing Meredith like a triangle by making her think her estranged sister was at the middle of this.
"Hang on, I'm going to see what they wanted with Future World-" Lois started, but Clark's hands flashed out and turned off both monitors.
"Someone's coming." he whispered.
Security was making its rounds.
Lois abandoned the chair immediately.
They hurried to hide among the server towers, but they didn't get past the second row before the lock disengaged. Clark pulled Lois to his chest and he might have moved a little faster than normal to drag them both behind the bulk of a server tower and out of sight, just in time for the door to open.
Three people entered and the lights snapped on, bright and glaring for the first few seconds.
"--need to upload the virus first, so just gimme a minute on that." requested a woman's voice. It sounded startlingly familar to Lois.
"December's sure this is gonna tear this bitch down?" asked a man's voice. "I mean, we been working on her for years."
"It'll get the landslide started, Damon. Don't worry." said a second man. "Once we plant the evidence, that bitch Meredith is coming down hard."
Clark slapped a hand over Lois's mouth when she started to hiss in outrage. This wasn't security. These were their suspects. The twins weren't working together. Someone was trying to bring down Atlas Industries through Hannah because of the twin thing.
Someone named December.
Lois would bet her entire next paycheck that it was December Mannheim.
Someone sure was trying to bring down the competition.
"These computers are already on." the woman noticed suspiciously.
"Someone was here. I think they're still here." said the man identified as Damon.
Underneath Clark's arms, Lois shivered a little. He felt her shift her weight, like she was preparing to either run or fight. Clark peered over his glasses and around the room, through the server towers. There was only one door out, he realized in dismay, and it was behind them. Getting out was going to involve making a break for it.
I might have to put on a little extra speed. Clark thought. From the current stand-point, super-speed was the best option. Answering all those questions is going to be small potatoes compared to not getting out of here in one piece.
If these were the same people who were responsible for the attack on Future World Industries, pinning the blame on Atlas Industries, it meant they didn't care too much if human life counted among the collateral damage. They might not even think twice about tossing him and Lois out the window.
Lois patted his arm and Clark realized his hand was still covering her mouth. He quickly withdrew it and she turned her head until their eyes met. She made a small gesture to the right, where the path between the server towers was more hidden than the one on the left. She was suggesting that they head deeper into the room and circle back around. They might get lucky.
Okay, trying to super-speed their way out would be the last resort.
Clark unclasped his arms from her shoulders and let her lead the way.
They didn't get far. Something tipped the perpetrators off as to the two reporters location. No matter how many times he ran the scenario over in his head, Clark couldn't figure out where they had slipped up. Just that one of the intruders leapt straight over the server towers and landed lightly in the row beside them.
"You!" Lois shouted angrily for no reason Clark could discern, pointing a finger sharply at the other man.
He was very pale with black hair and a knee-length leather trench coat, the front of which was open to reveal more black clothing. Fairly slender and not particularly formidable-looking, but there was a reason Lois was pissed at the very sight of him. He lunged forward and--
--disappeared into the shadow of a server tower.
"What?" Clark gaped.
"He didn't do that last time." Lois whispered.
The pale man re-emerged from the shadow of the tower closest to Clark not a second later. Clark was just barely in time to bring his hands up, thanks to his ability to preceive things faster than a human.
The pale man hit with him the speed of a runaway freight train and all the strenth thereof. But with Lois standing right there, Clark's first instinct was just to brace himself and hope he didn't break any of the man's bones.
It didn't slow him down in the slightest. The pale man propelled both himself and Clark right across the floor at a frankly impossible speed. Clark thought vaguely to dig his heels in as the man pushed him across it. At the speed the man was moving, a sudden stop would just flip him over.
He didn't get the chance to act on that -- it was just a vague thought -- before he felt glass shatter under his back and then open air behind him. Then the pale man was shoving him out the window.
"Clark!" Lois squawked in horror as her co-worker just-- dropped out of sight in a shower of glass.
A presence loomed behind her and Lois whipped around with her fists ready. Unlike Clark, she had some fifteen years of self-defense under her belt. Metropolis had its fair share of lowlives, so her skills and instincts were still sharp.
She came face to face with the second man. He was a little skinnier than the first, with a pointed chin and sand-brown hair. And he was just as familiar.
"Hey there, Sir Pointy Chin. It hasn't been long enough." she said. "How've you been since you got beaten up by a pack of twelve-year olds? Gloomy, hanging in there?"
And that was all the banter she let happen before she swung out with one booted foot. Quicker than the eye could see, Pointy Chin's hand flew out and caught her ankle and then yanked her off her remaining foot.
She yelped at the sudden disorientation and the way the world spun briefly, her hands banging into the floor. She looked up, startled. Point Chin was holding her ankle with one hand and no apparent strain -- she weighed something like one hundred and thirty pounds. Pointy Chin didn't look strong enough to be holding her like this without at least two hands.
"No orders this time." Pointy Chin said. He sounded very happy about this. "Matt was right. Just easier to kill you and be done with it."
Then he swung his arm and heaved Lois towards the same broken window that Clark had fallen out of.
Oh wow, he is strong.
She was less worried this time about falling, since it was not going to be to her death. Because if she was still on the right track, then Superman was very close by. And sure enough, there he was swooping up to catch her before she passed four floors. Gravity seemed to lessen in his immediate vicinity and Lois landed in his outstretched arms as lightly as a feather.
"Hello Miss Lane." Superman said, grinning broadly. "Fancy meeting you here at five hundred feet."
"Hah... Hi." Lois breathed. Still breath-taking the hundreth time around. "Oh, this embarrassing." she groaned, a humiliated feeling washing over her. "I'm sure you've probably got better things to do than catch me falling off buildings. Getting cats out of trees and stuff."
"Just don't plan to make a habit out of this." Superman admonished, carrying her towards the ground.
"Don't worry. I'm not one for basing jumping without a parachute." Lois commented. "Omigod, Clark!--"
"Don't worry, I caught him." Superman assured her. "He's fine, just a little shaken."
"Oh." Lois was a little disheartened by that response. "Well..."
Superman frowned.
"Oh god, get that frowny look off your face and stop pretending you don't know what I'm talking about." Lois snapped impatiently.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Miss Lane."
You piece of fuck, I'll get this out of you one day.
Superman landed on the pavement just outside the Atlas Plaza and let Lois slip out of his arms.
"As much as I don't mind catching you, you really should stop finding yourself in the position where you get thrown out a window." he said.
"Absolutely no promises whatsoever." Lois said, offering up a three-fingered salute.
Superman gave her a look like 'No I mean it', but Lois never made a promise she wasn't sure she was going to keep. She had been shot at, beaten up, attacked with knives and there had been many other various attempts to deal her bodily harm over the course of her career so far. Getting thrown out windows was probably just the next step up.
Superman flew off and Lois waited for Clark to get back, planning to offer some coffee and comfort food as an apology for this little misadventure. They had a lot to talk about.
-0-
also, that transformers bumblebee movie that's coming out? they took a hard right into the g1 portion of the franchise. i might just have to go see it.
and robin!jason todd in the upcoming Titans tv show? 1st time i know of since the 80s where jason's actually been robin in real time and not flashbacks.