STEEL THY HEART
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
A/N: Okay, okay, I know everyone's a little annoyed (or at the very least disappointed) while waiting and waiting for an update, so I deeply apologize. I really have been struggling, not only with this chapter as my muse flew off to a distant spot, but also with my health issues, and once again, I'm sorry.
In any case, here is a chapter for you, picking up where Ma Kent left off, and where Superman decides to tell Selina his all-important secret. An old flame returns, too.
Lois Lane actually whistled as she walked down the street to the Daily Planet. She then hummed her and Richard's favorite tune, totally happy for the first time in weeks. She'd had a fantastic honeymoon, and she couldn't wait to tell Jimmy, Clark, and later after work, her sister about it.
Distracted by her good fortune lately, Lois failed to see a non descript Toyota following her. Inside, a Greek looking man and his Caucasian friend looked at the reporter. The Greek man's eyes twinkled with excitement. The other man held up a recent photograph of Lois. He nodded to his swarthy companion, who nodded in confirmation.
"He will be pleased at this turn of events," he said. His eyes scanned the city block Lois turned down and started walking on. The driver, another Caucasian with lighter hair than the other, parked the car by the Planet's entrance. Both the Greek man and the other, darker haired Caucasian exited the vehicle. From his pocket, the Greek man pulled out a gun discretely.
Lois was about to enter the building when the Greek man pressed the gun into the small of her back.
"Who are you?" Lois inquired, her mind racing to find a self defense move that she could execute.
"No names," the man snarled in her ear. Just then, Jimmy Olsen came out. Lois tried to send a silent message with her eyes that said to "get help". Unfortunately, Jimmy didn't take the hint.
"Miss Lane!" the teenager shouted. "Welcome back."
Lois was stiff as the man moved the gun along her spine. At the same time, he whispered, "Tell him you'll see him later, and no tricks, or he gets it!"
"Jimmy…" Lois started saying, trying to come up with a plausible code to tell Jimmy about her plight, but the second man who had been a passenger came out of the car, patting his pocket.
Lois forced as much calm as she could into her voice, telling her co worker that she'd see him later to tell him about her trip. Jimmy's eyes scanned the men. He was trying to remember if he'd ever seen them before. When his mind didn't conjure up any memories, Jimmy scrutinized the men once more.
"Friends of yours?" the photojournalist asked. The Greek man whispered something in her ear.
"Informants," Lois answered, responding to his command. "We're going to a secret location. It seems they want to show me something. Are you heading toward the Rialto theatre?"
Jimmy realized that Lois was in some kind of trouble, since the Rialto had burned down last month and was under renovation.
He had prided himself on noticing small details, like the man with a suspicious bulge in his pocket. Jimmy took a chance that the men didn't know about the Spanish he'd learned from a year of intensive study at college or about the theatre.
"You mean where the movie Dos Tipos Malos Con Armas de Fuego is playing?" He asked Lois. Her eyes flicked to him, since she had learned a bit of Spanish having done several stories in Hispanic neighborhoods. Lois had taken night courses to learn Spanish in order to more properly interview any sources of information.
"Yeah," she told Jimmy. When Jimmy responded in the positive, the Greek man's companion told Lois, "Let's go, Ms. Lane. Hopefully, our business won't take too long. You may even make it in time for the rest of the film."
The Greek man was thinking about what Lois had told her co worker. He would find out the truth as soon as they got the Lane woman back to the hideout. Meanwhile, Jimmy thought, be calm, don't let them suspect. Jimmy managed to be outwardly calm, but inside, he was terrified. He forced his mind to come up with a plan.
"I've seen that movie," Lois responded. "It really isn't that good. But Richard or Clark might like it."
Jimmy said, "Maybe. Well, see ya later. I can't wait to hear about your trip." The two men would have made a grab for Jimmy but several passersby would have commented, or something, they reasoned. Besides, the man who'd hired them was paying only for Ms. Lane.
The Greek man said, "You have a meeting with us right now, Ms. Lane. Perhaps we should leave this man to his film."
Lois nodded, getting into the car. The other men got in after her in their regular seats as the driver rode away calmly. When they'd gone, Jimmy buzzed his signal watch. He waited a few moments, then he buzzed it again, hoping that the Man of Steel would arrive so that he could tell Superman about Lois.
Jimmy's blue eyes filled with worry when he realized after ten minutes that Superman wasn't coming. He used his cell phone and hurriedly dialed a number.
"9-1-1," a voice responded.
"Metropolis police?" Jimmy asked hurriedly. When the voice responded in kind, the photojournalist said, "I need to speak to Maggie Sawyer! It's an emergency." He waited impatiently for someone to respond.
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Inside the car, the Greek man snarled at the woman next to him, "You think you were being clever Ms. Lane, but your little friend will be dealt with."
Lois knew better than to tip them off that Jimmy was probably getting Superman, or at the very least, the police. She looked toward the window but said nothing.
"If your friend did call, it means little to us," the Caucasian man said calmly. Lois wondered what he'd meant by that statement.
She frowned as she tried to figure out the reason for her abduction and the odd thing the man said as the car went down the street.
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Superman scanned the damage to Selina's apartment in his guise as Clark Kent. He had been waiting for her patiently at his apartment for some time so that he could tell her his secret. When Selina hadn't shown up, however, Clark had tried calling her at home.
Several messages later, Clark guessed that something was wrong. Selina might leave town in a hurry, but since she'd seemed so eager to see him, he wasn't buying that. Something had to have happened to her, so he flew over to her place as Superman and found a secret location to change.
When he arrived, her door was locked. A turn of the door handle with his super strength confirmed his hunch. Selina had been getting ready to meet him, which he found out when he spied her computer with its "to do" list still displayed, but apparently, someone else had gotten there first, judging from the ransacked drawers and closets.
His microscopic vision was in full swing, his blue eyes covering the apartment inch-by-inch looking for clues. A tiny shell on the ground caught his eye. Taking out a handkerchief from his right pocket, Clark picked it up, studying it. It wasn't a bullet casing, but a hypodermic dart. The reporter looked around for any plastic bags to place the dart in. When he found one inside Selina's cupboard, he placed the dart into the bag.
"No doubt about it," he mused. "Whoever left this here wants me to find him or her." He heard Jimmy's watch and decided to postpone answering the call. Jimmy sometimes used the watch callously, Selina was more important at the moment. Clark was about to leave the apartment to go to Star Labs or the Watchtower to have the dart analyzed when the phone rang. He picked it up.
"Hello?" Clark asked.
"Mr. Kent?" a voice asked. " Kent?"
Clark had hoped he hadn't been right about the kidnapper of Selina wanting to reach him, but he knew he was correct.
"Yes…" he shyly answered. "This is Clark Kent. Who is this?"
"Who I am is not nearly as important as who I've got with me," the voice responded.
Clark was furious. Whoever this was, and he had a pretty good idea that the person worked for Shardov or the doppelganger, somehow knew about his whereabouts and Selina's. He knew he had to play by the abductor's rules for the time being. He considered bursting in as Superman, but if the kidnapper knew about his "relationship" with Clark's alter ego, he could do something terrible to Selina. That, he would not permit.
"What do you want? Where is she?" Clark asked, all pretense of timidity gone.
"A better question might be: where are they?" the male voice asked.
Clark's heart beat madly. "Where are they?" He repeated. "Who've you got with you?"
"Oh, two women you are very close to: Ms. Lois Lane, who is on her way here, and Ms. Selina Kyle," the abductor told him. "Call it my wacky way of inviting them to tea."
"Don't touch them," Clark said, wondering when Lois had returned. "I'm warning you."
The kidnapper's voice was harsh. "Now you listen to me, Mr. Kent. I'm warning you! I know all about you: who you are, where you live, and all of your secrets. If you involve your big, blue 'friend', and I use the term loosely, there won't be enough of these charming young ladies to stuff into a tea bag. Do you understand?"
Clark gripped the phone tightly. His eyes were filled with concern, not only for Selina and for Lois, but for the secret the abductor said he knew. Was the man bluffing? Did the man know somehow that Clark was Superman? He knew he could have tried to be demanding as the Man of Steel, but for the moment, the kidnapper held a royal flush in his machinations.
Clark decided he'd better go in his civilian clothes for this one. "Where can I meet you?" He asked, sounding resigned but angry inside.
The man said, "I wouldn't dream of subjecting you to a trip in your car, Mr. Kent. We'll meet you."
He heard sinister laughter on the phone as the ringing doorbell alerted the reporter to the two men that would take him to their destination. Opening the door, Clark saw two casually dressed tall, muscular men. Thinking about Lois and Selina again, the reporter went with the thugs.