Disclaimer: Remember, I don't own any of these characters.
Author's Note: Okay, so I'm really bad at writing these big action scenes, but I tried the best I could.
Upon seeing Lex, Superman drew himself up to his full height, completely ignoring all the pestering cramps throughout his entire body. "Where's Lois?" he demanded. "I came here, I brought your ransom, and now I want Lois."
Lex laughed. He was wearing one of his good suits and happened to be smoking a cigar. Clark couldn't stand his arrogance, and neither, he knew, could Lois. "She's right over there," he said gaily, pointing to Lois, who was still tied up on the floor in the corner. "Go and get her, Superman." He took some sort of remote-control like device out of his pocket and pressed a red button. "Oh, but first you have to get past my little obstacle," he added. "Don't worry, it'll be a cinch for you, Superman."
Without warning, black iron bars flew down from the ceiling and trapped Lois on the floor in a cage. Lex pressed another button on the remote control, and the bars started to change color. They were glowing green.
The bars were made of Kryptonite.
"Go get her," Lex laughed, slipping the remote control back in his pocket. He took a sly puff on his cigar, snapped his fingers, and disappeared toward the back of the room with two guards following him. "I'll be around if you need me," he called. "Release her, and you're both free to go."
Clark Kent had been raised to use clean language, but words could not express the anger, loathing, frustration, and hatred he felt towards Lex Luther right now. What kind of a person took advantage of someone else who was already weak? Lex Luthor, that's who, he thought bitterly.
Without thinking, Superman took a step toward the Kryptonite bars, only to develop severe pain in his stomach and in his head. Moaning, with both hands on his stomach, he dropped to the floor.
Lois, meanwhile, was frantically trying to free herself from the gag over her mouth. Seeing Superman suffer was just what she needed to snap herself out of her weakness. She couldn't let the man she loved suffer. Quickly, she started moving her head back and forth, trying to shake off the gag, but it was tied tight.
Superman, on all fours, tried to focus all thoughts on Lois, but his stomach and head hurt more and more as he traveled toward the Kryptonite. Think of Lois, he thought painfully to himself, his temperature rising. For a moment, he thought his fever would go so high he would explode into a thousand pieces, just like the thermometers Martha kept trying to slip under his tongue. Sweet Lois. Who needs to be released.
Lois had finally succeeded in twisting the gag off. "I can't move my hands, Superman," she gasped. "I'm so weak, I can't…I can barely move at all. I really need your help. Just concentrate and keep moving forward!"
"I'm trying," Superman panted quietly, but the feelings of nausea were becoming too much for him.
"Concentrate," Lois pleaded.
Instead of concentrating, Superman held his stomach, turned to the side, and started throwing up.
Lois winced as she watched her secret love getting sick. "It's okay, everything's going to be okay," she called to Superman as soothingly as she could. "Take deep breaths. Get it all out. You'll feel better once you empty your system!"
He can't do it, she realized with a sinking feeling. He's already so sick. This Kryptonite is going to kill him if he comes any closer. She frantically started moving her hands to get out of her binds, but it was no use. She was too weak, and they were tied tight.
Clark, meanwhile, had never felt more humiliated as he threw up right in front of Lois. Even as Superman, it was embarrassing. Superman was supposed to be unstoppable, to be the hero. He wasn't supposed to get sick.
But Clark felt all right as soon as he heard her tell him it was okay. It was just like that dream he kept having, the one where the woman with long, wavy hair was rocking him to sleep. For all these years, he's imagined it was his birth mother back on Krypton, assuring him that everything would be all right. After he was done getting sick, he rested his head on the cool floor, then rose his aching head up again. "Say that again," he said quietly.
"Say what again?"
"That it's all right. Tell me it'll be all right."
"It will, Superman," she said quietly. "Everything's going to be fine. I know you're sick, but we all get sick. Just concentrate. All you need to do is move a few more feet, bend these bars, and let me out. You can do it. Everything's going to be fine."
Lois' words somehow seemed to quell the side effects of the Kryptonite, at least temporarily. After taking deep breaths, Superman began to crawl forward on all fours again, only to get the same severe pains. Trying to ignore them, he kept crawling on…only to get that same feeling in his throat, the feeling he got whenever he needed to throw up. Superman lay down on the ground, trying to keep himself from throwing up again.
"Superman?" Lois called quietly. "Are you all right?"
Superman wasn't answering.
"Superman! Get up! Tell me that you're okay, or at least move a muscle!"
The Man of Steel still wasn't moving. Lois began to panic. What if he's dead? she thought anxiously. What if he really did die from the Kryptonite? What do I do?
Lois buried her face against the cold, dank dirt floor and began to cry. Not afraid of anyone who would overhear her, she began all-out sobbing in an effort to let all of her emotions out. It was hopeless; she would never be rescued, and Superman was going to die unless someone got him away from the Kryptonite.
As Lois continued to bawl, she heard the far door—the one Superman had come in from—burst open. In ran a bunch of black-cloaked figures wearing heavy masks and carrying large shields, with "S.W.A.T." emblazed on their clothing and equipment.
The good, old-fashioned way of getting help by calling the police, Lois thought as her body suddenly felt overcome by weakness due to hunger and fatigue once again. Thanks, Chief. Thanks, Jimmy.
The last thing Lois saw before she passed out in the cage was Superman being loaded onto a stretcher.