Aaaand cue theme music.
Chapter Twenty-Two: The Man in the Cape
Steve woke up abruptly from the familiar dream about a white-sand, semi-tropical island where he was surrounded by beautiful woman. He had been having that dream a lot lately. He was starting to take it as a sign that he needed a vacation.
Through the muzziness of sleep that still clung to him a lot like Colletta was currently, it took him another moment to realize that he didn't remember actually falling asleep and maybe he'd been drugged?... And then he was quite suddenly wide awake.
His eyes bounced around the small, cell-like room they had been stashed in, noting the boarded up windows and the heavy-looking door on opposite walls. The only furnishings were the foam-padded benches bolted into the other two walls. Steve was sitting on one with Colletta all but wrapped around him like an octopus, arms around his waist and drooling gently into his shoulder. On the other one was Detective Jim Gordon. His coat had been drawn over his head to block out the light above the door, so Steve couldn't tell if he was awake or asleep.
"Gordon?" he ventured.
"Yeah?" the detective answered without any hint of grogginess.
"When did I fall asleep?" Steve asked, starting to hope that they hadn't been drugged after all.
"Almost as soon as you sat down. You were out like a light." the detective replied, pushing the coat down from his head. "Then Officer Kanigher just..." He made a gesture as though he didn't know how to finish the statement.
"Cuddled?" Steve finished, glancing down at the woman with the strangest hint of amusement. The feeling of boobs on his chest hadn't been an imagined part of the dream. "I should wake her up. She's drooling on me."
He jostled her shoulders and Colletta came to with a snort, her head jerking off of his chest, a filmy string of spit stretching between her mouth and the wet spot on Steve's coat.
"Erg, sorry 'bout that." she mumbled, scrubbing at the wet spot on her cheek as she moved off of the former sergeant. "Anyone know the time?" she asked through a yawn.
"Can't be certain, but I'd say it's about seven in the morning." Gordon estimated. He was very good at keeping track of time in his head and he suspected that not much more than three hours had passed.
"Ugh, my room-mate's probably called my work asking where I am." Colletta realized, trying to wipe the sleep out of her eyes. She had probably only gotten about six hours of sleep in the last twenty-four. "Chances are real good that Maggie knows by now I'm sort of mostly missing."
"Well, no one's come by since they put us in here and it doesn't seem like they're planning to kill us just yet. Frankly, I'd like to get out of here before they make up their minds on that." Gordon said, shrugging. "I don't think we should wait on our colleagues to act. So I say we go find Lois and run for it."
"Taking the initiative. Solid plan." Steve said, getting to his feet. He went over to the door and started drumming on it with his knuckles. "Hey out there! I've got a bone to pick with you about your sanitary facilities!"
Or rather the lack thereof, as the cell hadn't been outfitted with with a toilet or anything that could have been used as toilet. Steve sincerely hoped that they weren't expected to pick a corner.
Catching wind of his plan, Colletta and Gordon joined him over by the door. As they did, an eye-level panel on the other side of the door was flipped open, revealing a pair of eyes that belonged to a guard.
"What?" he snapped in the voice of someone who hadn't gotten enough sleep for his liking and didn't actually want to be here. Indeed, the bags under his eyes were large enough to carry a week's worth of groceries.
"You seem like a busy fellow, but there's a problem. We have to pee and there's no toilet in here." Steve said. "What are your policies on the bowel and bladder movements of your prisoners? Somehow, I just don't think any of you want to go around scrubbing out every single cell in this place. There isn't even a hole in the floor."
"We'll take a bucket, as long as it's one of those several gallon ones that isn't going to overflow." Gordon said.
"And bring toilet paper!" Colletta added, standing on her toes to peer over the former sergeant's shoulder.
The guard sighed in a long-suffering way. "I'll go get you a bucket." he said. Then the panel flipped closed and he slouched off.
Steve waited a moment until he was sure the man was out of ear-shot and said: "So we're just going to break his face when he opens the door again."
Gordon nodded. "I can work with that plan."
"Solid plan." Colletta agreed.
They took up positions around the door and quickly agreed that Colletta would be responsible for the actual face-breaking part. Pound for pound, she was probably the most viciously efficient. You didn't get to be a third kyu green belt ranked on a professional level at her age without being profoundly skilled.
The guard would have to open the door a certain distance just to get the bucket inside, regardless of whether he slid it across the floor or handed it to them. He was also clearly a tired man and therefore, not likely to react as quickly to an attack. Casual sexism was likely to work in their favor, as he would probably be expecting more a fight from either of the men. Colletta being the one to jump him would bring the element of surprise to the table.
So she hid in the blind spot beside the entry and waited.
The guard returned moments later and flipped the panel open again. He eyeballed Steve and Gordon for a moment.
"Stand back from the door." he instructed.
They shuffled away.
It went down exactly like they had anticipated it would. The guard unlocked the door and pushed it open, scooting the bucket across the floor. He had kept one hand on the doorknob, apparently thinking that would prevent them from trying to take advantage of the situation. But Colletta leapt forward like an uncoiling spring, lunging into the widening gap. She had enough room to thrust an arm through and grab the guard by the front of his shirt and then yanked him forward.
There was a delightful hollow coconut sound when his forehead impacted with the door.
Gordon and Steve only acted then. They shoved the door open all the way and hauled the dazed guard into the cell. Steve relieved the man of his gun, then the two police officers threw the hired guard into the foam-padded bench, pinning him down at the arms and legs.
"Don't shout." Gordon instructed, covering the guard's mouth. "Shouting isn't going to help you."
Steve made a point to put the gun barrel close to the man's head to help encourage silence.
"We're going to ask you at least two questions. I want to answer both of them truthfully. For every lie you speak, I'll break a finger." Gordon warned. He grinned a little savagely, the one he knew never failed to make a crook quiver. "After that, I'll move on to the metacarpals. There are five of those in each hand too. So you'll have some breathing room before I get up to the carpals. Those are in your wrist."
He really didn't need to paint the full picture, but every word made the hapless guard look a little more worried for his hands and he nodded vigorously in general agreement.
"And if you shout, I'm dislocating your shoulder first thing." Gordon added. "Is that understood?"
"Mm-hmm." the guard grunted fearfully.
"That's what I thought..."
He lifted his hand and true to his word, the guard only gasped in a fresh breath of air instead of bellowing out a shout for help.
"First question. Where is Lois Lane?" Gordon demanded, pointedly gripping a pinky finger. "She's a caucasian woman with black hair, dark eyes, about five-foot-eight or so, twenty-four years old. Reporter with the Daily Planet and a former member of the Suicide Kings. We know she was taken to a different room in another part of the building, accompanied by Sofia Gigante and another man named Duncan. Do you know where that room is, or do you know someone who does know?"
"Um... th-the second one." the guard said, though he sounded quite uncertain of his own reply. He was eyeing the captured finger nervously. "Look, I been on shift all night. I-If your reporter woman is important enough to get a private audience with Mrs. Gigante, then she's probably bein' held on the north side of the building, but I ain't been out that way."
"Do you know anyone who works in that area?" Gordon pressed, applying some pressure to the finger.
"Brian, I think. I dunno if he's workin' tonight, though." the guard admitted.
"Let's find out." the detective suggested.
"And where's an actual bathroom?" Colletta asked. It was enough of a non-sequiter that the only way to react was to spare her an absurd glance. "Don't look at me like that, guys. I actually have to pee."
With a gun at his head, a garrote wire at his throat (Gordon had literally pulled it out of the waistband of his pants), and the knowledge that they could and would take him down a second time easily, the guard was really very cooperative. He didn't complain or try to raise an alarm and when he did speak, it was mostly to lament about how he didn't take that intern position way back when he'd gotten out of high school.
It wasn't until they hit the checkpoint that there was actually something vaguely resembling a problem.
The checkpoint was a wall of chain-link fence from ceiling to floor, the gate locked. Beside it were three guards who likewise looked like they had had a very long and immensely boring night, judging from the scattered detritus of snack wrappers and water bottles. Even when they spotted the captured guard leading the way down the hall with Gordon snarling over his shoulder, the checkpoint guards were still not very quick to react. Sure, they threw down their cards, got to their feet, and drew their side-arms, but there was a noticeable sluggish-ness about the way they did it.
"Guns down unless you want to see the anatomy of someone's neck!" Gordon threatened and the garrote wire made an ominous *shing!* noise. "I'm not actually very good at using this, so it's going to be pretty messy and gross!"
"Oh my god! Don't kill me like that!" the captured guard wailed, shivering.
"If you don't want to see something really awful that'll haunt your nightmares for the next few weeks, I highly advise that you unlock that gate for us and don't get any ideas about pulling the fire alarm or something similar." Gordon suggested. "I'm not in the mood for anyone to get cute."
"Also, he has a gun and I can kickbox your head off." Colletta added, gesturing to herself and Steve. "The other thing we suggest you do is put those nice semi-automatics on the ground and kick them over here."
The checkpoint guards hesitated, glancing uneasily at each other.
"Just do it! I'm startin' to think this guy's a little fucking crazy!" the captured guard shouted. After all, he had just been frog-marched down the hall with a garrote wire wrapped around his neck, held by someone who was not skilled enough to make it quick and clean.
It was one thing to be threatened by an efficient killer, but another to be threatened by someone was just incompetent enough to really make it hurt.
"Are you sure?" the apparent leader of the checkpoint guards asked.
"Fuck yeah, I'm sure! Do what they're asking! These guys mean business!"
The checkpoint guards glanced uncertainly at each other and then the leader raised his hands, showing that his finger was off the trigger of the gun, before setting it gently on the ground. His comrades followed suit.
"And kick them over. Now." Steve instructed, jerking the appropriated rifle a little.
The guards did, albeit gently. The guns (hefty-looking things somewhere in the line of the Luger) skidded noisily across the tiled floor until they were close enough for Colletta to scoop up. She placed one in the empty holster under her arm and held the other two with enough confidence that it didn't leave much room for doubt that she was used to duel-wielding.
"And now the gate, gentlemen." Gordon said.
The checkpoint leader nodded and turned so they could see the set of keys on the back of his belt. He unhooked them and, trying not to move too suddenly, went to unlock the gate.
"H-Hey, is Brian on shift? Y'know, the Brian who always cuts himself shaving and still eats those gross Lunchables?" the captured guard asked.
"Naw, I think he took some vacation time." one of the guards replied. "Why?"
"Uh, there's someone important lady up on the other side of the building and these guys aren't gonna leave without her."
"Ah, that Daily Planet reporter? I know where she is; I was taking my break when they brought her up."
"Good." Gordon interrupted, making them jump like children whose hands had been in the cookie jar. "Then you can show us where she is."
While the captured guard nodded as vigorously as he could with the wire around his neck, the other one looked at his leader for permission or confirmation. The checkpoint leader nodded as he pushed the gate open.
"You know the rules." he said.
"Right." the guard nodded, as trying to convince himself. "This way, I guess..."
"Walk slow." the detective instructed.
They clearly made an odd sight walking down the hall, but the apparent rule was about not fighting with any prisoners that decided to capture the guards and make a break for it. It wasn't an unfamiliar rule, not for Colletta and Gordon. It was standard in most prisons and generally acknowledged that if you were dumb enough to let the prisoners get a hold of you, there wasn't much the other guards could do.
The hallway gradually got nicer and better lit. Then they went around a corner and the decor went from dim and prison-like to something that more closely resembled a moderately-priced hotel.
This place was both Sofia Gigante's personal prison and where she conducted her day to day business.
Oh my god, I'm right in the heart of this woman's operations. Gordon realized, swallowing down some excitement as it really sunk in where he was. Not only had he finally laid eyes on the woman for more than ten seconds, he could do some major damage if he could just get five minutes on her private server.
No, no, we're just here to get Miss Lane and get out. But now that I know where to find it, I'll be back.
The checkpoint guard led them to a nondescript wooden door halfway down the hall and gestured nervously to it.
"Um, I think she'd be in there. Mrs. Gigante uses it as a meeting room, but it's probably locked..." He trailed off as Colletta pushed him aside with a "No problem." With a grunt, she kicked the door open in one blow.
Inside, Lois had been fast asleep, only to be rudely awakened by the enormous cracking sound of the deadbolts giving way. She shot up off the couch, blindly grabbing for anything that could have served as a weapon. She found nothing, but at least it proved to be unnecessary as Colletta strolled in with a gun in each hand (Steve, Gordon, and two guards were visible behind her).
"Lois! We've come to rescue you!" she announced.
"My hero." Lois said dryly, picking up her coat.
"Nice digs they stuck you in." Colletta commented, looking around the lounge and frowning a little at the large window. "What did they want?"
"I'll tell you later when we're out of here." the reporter replied, swinging her coat over her shoulders as she joined them in the hallway. Then she whirled on the checkpoint guard with an expression like she wanted to jam a pen in his throat. "Where is the quickest way out of here that won't send us through the garage?"
"Uh-- Th-The lobby. The front lobby, downstairs." the guard answered.
"Good answer." Lois said. Then she grabbed him by the shoulders and heaved him into the room she had just vacated. Gordon unwrapped the garrote wire from the other guard's neck and pushed him into the room as well. He shut the door and looked at Lois.
"You alright?" he asked.
"My coat dried out while I was asleep." she commented, noticing a distinct lack of dampness. "I'm fine. They didn't touch me. Give me one of those." She made grabby hands at one of the guns that Colletta was holding. The younger police officer obligingly handed one over.
"Same here." Gordon said. He got the one from the holster.
"All right, let's get out here." Steve said.
"Stairs are over here. I remember passing the lobby on the way up." Lois said, leading them down the hall. "We're in Oxbay up in West River, so when we get out of here, it's up to Colletta to decide where we go."
"Damn, practically right in my old backyard." the officer muttered.
"We should contact the SCU as soon as we can." Gordon added.
"Ooh, change your mind?" Colletta inquired cheerfully.
"I'm literally standing inside one of Gigante's base of operations -- probably her primary base -- staring down the opportunity to destroy her and having to turn away. Two years and this is closer than I ever expected to get." the detective admitted. "No, it's not a promise!" he added sternly in response to Colletta's smug little grin. "But the SCU isn't bound by nearly as many regulations as Major Crimes. They'll be able to react faster."
"Well, I have a WayneTech phone. They're pretty much indestructible. I think they took design tips from Nintendo." the younger officer commented.
"It'll still have to wait. This place is designed to block cell signals." Lois reminded them. "Hurry up, we're almost out."
They reached the staircase. It had enough space around it that they could see about halfway down the lobby from the top step and as they went down, it became increasingly likely that they would get out without running into any unwanted company. It wasn't a clean lobby; it looked like they were in the middle of house-keeping. There were office desks and chairs and empty filing cabinets and the odd fire extinguisher bunched into the middle of the floor.
Okay, so we get out, contact the police, and... I'm definitely going straight to the Planet and pitching the story to Perry. Lois decided. General Dad is trying to get up to something and Sofia's involved and the sooner this gets out to the public, the better. Nothing like a little public uproar to make a person second-guess their plans!
Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw it. Or rather, them. Sofia, accompanied by the same henches from the night at the docks a few weeks ago, emerging from a doorway on the right side of the lobby. Dr. Essex was distinct among them, as were several additional men in military camouflage.
Ah shit.
With things piled up in the middle of the floor, there was only so much room to move through and they had come off the stairs on the wrong side of the pile. Sofia and her henches stepped into their path, forcing them to a halt. Behind Lois, Colletta let out a soft growl, Steve hefted the rifle up to his shoulder in preparation to fire, and Gordon made a thoughtful noise.
"Miss Lane, I assume this means you have rejected my offer?" Sofia asked politely.
"Conflicts with my morals." Lois replied.
Then she grabbed the fire extinguisher and heaved it at the mob henches.
In the blink of an eye, Dr. Essex snatched it out of the air. It was a sizable one, weighing about nine to twelve pounds. He held it up as though making sure they could see it... And then he crushed it between his bare hands.
Fire extinguishers were tough, especially the older ones like that one. They were practically designed to act as emergency door bludgeons and window breakers, so they could take something of a beating.
But this man had crushed it like a goddamn aluminum can.
"Your heads may be next." he said, once he had finished balling the metal. He dropped it to the floor in front of their astonished eyes. Lois had already witnessed a display of his strength back at the Hell's Gate docks.
But there was a difference between barging through six inches of concrete and crumpling a fire extinguisher with bare hands and it really showcased just how inhumanly strong the man was.
"Who wants to try me?" Dr. Essex asked tauntingly, waving his hands in a come at me gesture. Behind him, Sofia wore a cat-like expression of satisfaction.
"Ahh... I'm down with trying to get out through the garage." Gordon commented. Anything was the better option if it meant not having to deal with this (presumably) metahuman.
"I invite you to try." Sofia said grandly. "But as was demonstrated, my friend here is far from typical..."
And it was possible that she continued on to expound exactly what Dr. Essex was capable of doing to their spines, but Lois stopped paying attention the instant she noticed the direction of the man's gaze. It was on her.
Dr. Essex's eyes truly were an awful yellow color; the kind you'd slap bio-hazard tape around to try and prevent health problems for the surrounding populace. At the very least, the mere intensity of them oughta have been staining the air the same yellow color.
And there was something intensely creepy about having them stare directly at you. It was sending all sorts of primal warning signs through Lois's brain. The ones telling her to run like holy fuck, though logically, she knew there was a chance she'd never even make it to the foot of the stairs.
Dr. Essex was staring at her not just like he knew who she was, but like he knew exactly where he was going to dispose of her body once he was done killing her. He stared at her like he had it all figured out.
That was when he lunged.
Lois barely saw the movement, because for a second, Dr. Essex was just a blur of color only a little human-shaped. She didn't need to see where he was going because barely after she recognized him as the blur, there were thick arms crushing around her waist, her chest, squeezing the air from her lungs. And then the floor seemed to leap away in a crash of glass. The world spun past her at a dizzying speed that took away breath she still had and she had to close her eyes to stave off the nausea starting to whirl in her stomach.
Cold wind whipped past Lois's face, stinging her skin and causing her eyes to water even though they were squeezed shut. Dr. Essex wasn't running; far too smooth a motion to even have his feet on the ground and what if they weren't on the ground the man could fly!--
Her eyes snapped open and would have screamed if there had been a substantial breath in her body.
Metropolis was shrinking away, the buildings and streets and cars growing ever smaller the higher Dr. Essex shot into the sky. They had gone well beyond the spire of the highest building, which was the LexCorp tower standing at a little over a thousand feet. The clouds were becoming uncomfortably closer and the air was starting to feel a bit thin.
The ground was a very long way down.
He's going to drop me.
Oh shit, he's going to drop me, isn't he?!
Oh my god, I've never feared death as much as I do right now!
It would have been beautiful up here if Lois hadn't been in danger of being killed in a most gruesome manner. The clouds had since broken up, leaving large swathes of pale sky visible. The sun was just starting to peek over the horizon, not yet quite high enough to be spotted. But pillars of yellow-gold light were building on the horizon as the sun inched further and further up, slowly turning the clouds a pale pink.
Really, it was beautiful. But she was probably about to die, so she just didn't have the mindset to appreciate it.
Dr. Essex's flight came to a halt so abrupt Lois was sure she would have vomited down her front if her stomach hadn't gotten lost about a thousand feet below. She wasn't sure how high up they were, but her first proper breath in the last few minutes didn't feel nearly as substantial or sating as she was used to.
She was suddenly spun away from the solid body and crushing arms into open air and she screamed reflexively when she thought for a second that there was nothing supporting her. But there was a vice-clamp on her left wrist. Dr. Essex was holding her out, dangling her over the city with nothing to stop her fall should he drop her.
Lois made the mistake of looking down. She could see the sharp, completely vertical descent to the ground, cars and people so far down they looked like toys, and felt a dizziness that went from her head to her gut and messed up her vision. For a moment, she wondered what it would be like to fall from this height and she knew what that was called.
L'appel du vide.
The call of the void.
The inexplicable urge people felt to jump from a high place when they encountered one.
Instead, she grabbed Dr. Essex's arm with her free hand and hauled herself up like she was doing a pull-up, curling her legs up so they weren't dangling loosely and somehow felt marginally safer.
"All right you steroidal jock-strap! What the hell do you want?" she demanded over the buzz of the wind in her ears. She could have punched herself for calling him that. Why did she have to hit the snark button when her life was very clearly in danger?
"I knew I recognized you!" the geneticist spat. His yellow eyes were sharper and seemed, for a moment, to pierce right through her. "You were at the docks that night with that abomination! You're Kal-El's woman!"
"I'm no one's woman!" Lois bellowed, insulted. How dare he assume that she had to belong to someone! And who the ever-loving fuck was this "Kal-El" supposed to be? "What the hell did you bring me up here for?!"
Dr. Essex looked at her like he had just heard a horse-fly speak. Then, with an expression that suggested he was humoring her, he reached behind himself and produced a canvas backpack that she hadn't noticed (y'know, what with the fear of dying). He drew his legs up so he could open the bag and extracted- something.
It was a glowing blue sphere about seven inches in diameter, glowing a dark blue that waxed and waned every other second. Two metallic, bronze-looking bands criss-crossed it diagonally. Up close, Lois could see the alien runes etched into the metal. Familiarity tickled at the back of her mind, but she wasn't sure where she could have seen it before.
"You might have seen this before." Dr. Essex commented, casually brushing the backpack off his legs. It tumbled down end over end and was quickly lost from sight. "If not, then I will tell you. This is a historic moment for Planet Earth and one of you maggots should stand witness."
"You talk like you're not human." Lois spat, scowling at the 'maggot' comment.
The geneticist smiled. "As if I would ever consider myself a member of your appalling excuse for intelligent civilization." he confirmed. He held up the sphere. "This is the key to your planet's salvation. It will open a doorway to another dimension and free my comrades who are trapped there. My general will turn this planet into the heart of a grand empire.
"Unfortunately, it is biometrically locked to the House of El. Kal-El is the only one who can activate it. I've needed something of value to trade for his cooperation." He sneered at Lois. "Your life seems to have some value to him. Let's see how much."
"That's nice, what the hell are you talking about?!" Lois demanded. She tried to effect careless bravado, like it didn't matter one way or another how this ended, but her voice betrayed her with a small tremor.
But in the fashion of a self-aware villain, Dr. Essex was not about to explain exactly what he was banging on about. Moreover, she had the feeling that she was expected to already know.
"KAL-EL!" Dr. Essex roared into the wind, facing every cardinal direction as he shouted. "Kal-El, come and face me! I have your woman! Face me if you want to save her! Face me straight-backed and proud like your parents would have wanted! Face me with all the honor of the House of El! Come on, Kal-El! What are you waiting for?!"
"First of all!" Lois started clawing at the man's arm ineffectually. "I am not anybody's woman! And second of all! What in the name of Nellie Bly are you hoping to accomplish with this?! This is the goddamned real world-- Aaaugh!"
Dr. Essex had squeezed his hand and the reporter felt the bones of her wrist grind together painfully.
"Save your breath. I'm sure you've noticed by now that the air is a little thin up here for you humans." the geneticist warned.
Lois was starting to feel a little light-headed, but that also might have been attributed to the shooting pains now coming out of her wrist. If he hadn't sprained the joint, then he had at least fractured several of the bones in there. She shot the man a death glare, which was ignored.
"Where are you, Kal-El?! I'm getting impatient over here!" Dr. Essex resumed bellowing into the wind. "Or are you truly that much of a coward?! The House of El would be ashamed to know that their noble legacy will end with such a spineless caitiff!"
"And you're the one ransoming me." Lois growled through gritted teeth.
There was a buzz in her ears now that had nothing to do with the wind and a vague sense that her head could fall off her shoulders if she turned it too fast. She had been up here for at least five minutes now; how long did it take for high-altitude oxygen deprivation to set in?
I think I want you to let go of me. She thought, glaring at the hand squeezing her wrist. Mostly so you won't break my wrist. What the fuck is that thing out there?
'That thing' was a flutter of red and a gleam of blue growing larger quite swiftly and for a hypoxia-induced second, Lois thought it was a bird. Except it was way too man-shaped to be avian and moving way too fast at that.
The first ray of sun peaked over the horizon and lit up the man in gold tones as he pulled up not ten feet away from Dr. Essex, his eyes blazing in such a fury that Lois was glad none of it was directed at her.
Hot damn he was a specimen!
Spank my ass and call me 'baby', I'd like to pin him up on a corkboard and study him all night! Lois thought giddily. She would remember this thought later (much, much later, like August of next year later) and groan in mortification before chalking it up to the slow oxygen deprivation.
He had gorgeous blue eyes that glittered like a sunlit sky. His hair had been blown about in a messy, yet charming disarray that was offset by a weird little spit-curl. He had a beautiful chiseled bone structure too -- jawlines like smooth mountain ridges, cheekbones like the Great Wall of China, and a strong chin that could have stabbed holes in the plaster. The same square lantern jaw she had only seen in comics.
The suit was primarily a rich, royal blue with crimson along the inner thighs until his waist where a golden belt rested just above his hips and then the crimson swapped to run up either side of his broad chest to his armpits. The crimson cape attached at the shoulders and billowed out behind him like a banner. Splashed across his chest was something Lois could only assume was a coat-of-arms (with all that 'House of El' stuff being bandied about); a red, heavily stylized S set onto a pentagonal gold shield. The same coat-of-arms was rendered again on the belt that sat on his hips, more silvery platinum color than gold.
And boy oh boy, look at that muscle tone! The suit didn't even bother trying to hide it but instead clung to it lovingly. The biceps and the triceps were gorgeous with smooth sloping lines. The quads in his thighs were as thick as tree trunks. He had the calves of a career sprinter and the shoulders of a professional swimmer and all sorts of manly tendons bulging in his neck and an eight-pack of abs! Any anatomy student studying human musculature could have named every sculpted formation in his torso and goodness, those pecs...
What she wouldn't give just to put a hand on them.
She didn't recognize him, though. They hadn't met. She would certainly remember a man with such an eye-catching physique.
"Kal-El, so glad you could join us." Dr. Essex said mockingly. "Nice suit. I used to have one like it, in different colors."
"Give her to me. Now." the newcomer ordered in a deep baritone voice that sent a pleasant shiver down Lois's spine. Not even the glaring anger radiating off him could make his voice any less of a rumble of thunder.
"Uh-uh, first you must do something for me." Dr. Essex held out the blue sphere. "I assume you know what to do."
The newcomer -- presumably his name was indeed Kal-El -- hesitated and against everything Lois might have expected him to do, he looked at the reporter as though asking for her help.
"Well don't look at me! I didn't ask to get involved in this!" she snapped.
"She's right, you know." Dr. Essex said tauntingly. "She didn't ask to be brought into this, but your refusal to cooperate has led to this moment. Now are you going to fix this or am I going to have to drop her?"
Lois saw Kal-El's bright blue eyes dart between the out-held sphere and her, dangling by an already damaged wrist, as if calculating his odds of getting them both away from Dr. Essex without risking further damage.
"Decide quickly, son of Jor-El!" Dr. Essex commanded. "We're two miles up and your woman is already feeling the effects of high-altitude oxygen deprivation! Her pulse-rate is up, her lungs are working harder, and she keeps shouting at me! Wasting precious oxygen! How long before your woman loses consciousness?"
"I'm not his woman!" Lois snarled at the same time Kal-El said firmly: "She's not my woman."
Good to know we're on the same page. The reporter added in her head.
"Do I drop her?" Dr. Essex pressed. For the briefest of seconds, Lois felt the fingers loosen just enough to make her slip. She yelped, grabbing onto the muscular arm with her free hand.
"No!" Kal-El shouted, momentary fear flashing across his face. He recomposed himself quickly and held out his hand, glancing at Lois when he did. "Give me the projector."
The geneticist nodded approvingly. "You'll make your father proud yet, boy." he said.
He chucked the sphere over in an underhand toss. Kal-El caught it with a mild scowl on his face, like the last thing he wanted to do was to be complimented in any fashion by a man who definitely had something against him and his family.
He turned the sphere over his hands, staring at it contemplatively for a moment. Lois wanted to shout 'Don't do it!', if only because she had no idea what was going to happen were that thing to activate. But even she had to acknowledge that there was really only one good option here that ensured her survival and that was to do what Dr. Essex wanted so that he would hand her over.
Kal-El tapped out a sequence of runes on the bands, at least seven of them as far as Lois counted. When the last one was touched, the waxing/waning blue glow paused and then began to strengthen in brilliance. Kal-El let go of the sphere and it stayed right where it was in the air while he moved back away from it.
The blue light inside the sphere began to swirl and it expanded outwards until it touched the very edge. Then the metal bands began to lift off the sphere. They lengthened as they did, so they never lost their shape. They simply grew out like planetary rings, containing the brilliant blue glow that was now cracking and sparking with electricity. The bolts, however, jumped beyond the boundary of the rings, striking at the air and upwards into the sky. It was practically a lightning storm forming around the thing- the projector, wasn't it called that?
A sudden darkness fell over the city of Metropolis, in spite of the rising sun to the east and there being no actual obstruction to prevent light from reaching it. But all the same, the city was suddenly cast into a strange, otherworldly dimness.
"Here we go! Here we go!" Dr. Essex crowed, a horrible example of ecstasy on his face.
The doorway-- if the projector was a key, then this was certainly a doorway -- was over ten feet across and still expanding. The blue light inside was spinning so fast it no longer looked like it was moving. The lightning burst out fiercely from the confines of the metal rings, branching into jagged Lichtenburg patterns that left behind a strong smell of sulfur and ozone. Clouds (or perhaps smoke?) were forming over the top of the doorway and looking quite a bit like a super-cell. Lois half-expected it to start raining, just to complete the image of a mad scientist's whacky experimentations.
Through the wind throwing her hair in her face, the flashing lightning, and the growing umbrella of clouds that must have been the cause of the dimness, Lois found the form of Kal-El, floating untouched just outside the worst of the chaos. He was staring at the widening doorway in shock, as though he himself had had no idea what had been about to happen either.
Then, they caught each other's eyes. It'll be okay. I'll figure this out, his expression seemed to say.
*BOOOOM!*
The almost-not-quite explosion shook everything down to the molecules of air. Lois scrunched up reflexively, trying to cover her ears even though the reverberation shook her down to the marrow. The expanding doorway had leapt open even further, spreading from twenty feet to over seventy in just the blink of an eye and growing two feet larger every couple of seconds. The cloud cover overhead had nearly surpassed a hundred feet in diameter and portal rings were about to surpass it. The lightning cracked from cloud bank to cloud bank, spiking down into the air below above. In the center of the blinding blue light was a perfectly circle that had unusual depth and dimensionality. It looked like it should have been flat to the eye, but it wasn't.
"Behold the end of your history and the beginning of my new future!" Dr. Essex cried. "The end of your planet and the renewal of mine! My people will rebuild on the bones of yours!"
He grinned savagely at Lois, his expression so feral and primal that, for a second, the reporter thought he was literally going to bite her head off. But he did something worse than that.
He opened his hand and she fell.
-0-