I was totally going to have Iris's arc in Story 4 finished over Christmas but then I saw Rogue One twice in four days, binged Yuri on Ice, Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds both died within 36 hours of each, and then I was very interested in watch 2016 go up in flames. I got distracted. You know how it goes. I didn't get as much written as I had intended. Chapter 24 is doing that thing where it sits there and makes faces at me, so I'm going to have to come at it from another angle.
If you look closely, you can start to see where I said "fuck it". I'll admit, this chapter and the next two start to collapse on themselves a little because I was getting down to the end and the only thing I wanted to do was finish the damn story. It's another one of those things where I really oughta do a heavy revision, but I also need to keep moving forward. There's still a lot of ahead to write.
Chapter Thirty-Eight:
Far above the streets and spires of Metropolis was a sight that no one was bothered to notice because they were much too busy trying to high-tail it out of the city to notice the inconsequential things going on above their heads.
Krypto darted left and right, his nose going in and out of the breeze trying pick out the scent of his Alpha. It had always been a sharp scent to his nose, like wintergreen and pine and old, old dust that puppy-memories identified as the faded scents of Krypton. Humans smelled stranger. Not bad-strange, but they smelled more like the earth and sky around them and of a hardier, more pervasive scent like petrichor.
The problem this high up was that most scents didn't linger and the only Kryptonian-laden scent he was catching now was coming off of Dr. Sullivan, who had some yards away being tugged on by the breeze like he was a feather. His arms were crossed over his lab coat, trying to shut out the winter wind. He had come straight to get Krypto after hanging up on Lois, knowing he'd need the dog's nose more than anything else.
In retrospect, he certainly could have stopped to grab his coat.
Kryto growled in frustration and shook his head all the way down to the ruff.
"You're not getting anything?" Dr. Sullivan asked.
'No! It's too windy! The trail's everywhere and nowhere!' Krypto growled again, darting back over to the older man's side. He wanted his ears scratched, but Dr. Sullivan kept his arms firmly crossed, his frown just this side of not-disappointed.
'Scratch my ears.' Krypto whined.
"Don't give me that sad-puppy look; your species has a remarkable sense of smell. I can only imagine how much it's been enhanced under this sky." Dr. Sullivan said, looking across the city-scape. He could smell the vague scent of burnt helicopter fuel and scorched mechanical parts, though it was just barely lingering. There was doubtlessly so much more that the big canine could smell.
'Alpha would scratch my ears.' Krypto huffed out a doggy sigh, leaning on the older man's leg.
"I know, I know." Dr. Sullivan agreed. He reached down absently and started petting the thick white fur. It wasn't a good scratching, but Krypto would take it. "I'm beginning to feel like a very terrible grandfather."
The sense of desperation starting to beat in Dr. Sullivan's chest was a maddening one, because it came on slow and inexorably and you didn't always know it was there until it had your lungs in a vice-clamp.
Clark was the only family he was sure that he had left. Maybe Zor-El and Allura and Kara were still out there among the stars, their ship following the signal from his beacon and they themselves sleeping away the months that passed. And the day would come when the Phantom Zone projector finally hit the recall frequency and Hayl-El would emerge from that wretched place at last.
But until such a time that both events occurred, Clark was all that was left of the House of El. As Steward of the House, it was Dr. Sullivan's job to keep him safe until Clark was willing to assume the mantle. Or perhaps Hayl would take it on. Being the first-born, it was his inherited right to become the next Patriarch of the House. Clark might not even want the job.
Even if there was no Krypton left, the Houses of El and Van would survive in their own ways.
But on a more personal, sphincter-clenching level, Dr. Sullivan couldn't bear the thought of finding his youngest grandson again only to lose him a second time in a span of six weeks or less.
He wouldn't be able to look the projections of Jor-El and Lara in the eye.
Dr. Sullivan let out a deeper sigh and looked down at the city below. And bit his lip thoughtfully.
Whoever had come after Clark wouldn't have taken him out of the city. They had worked quickly, efficiently. They must have had it all planned out in advance, which had made Lois nothing more than unwitting bait (thank Rao she was alive -- somehow -- he liked hearing good news). According to the great machine of social media, the kidnappers had gotten themselves out of sight very quickly.
Dr. Sullivan closed his eyes and imagined himself back on the ground, with a clear view of the sky between the LexCorp building and the Future World building. Social media seemed to agree that Clark-- Superman, rather -- had been taken back towards the Future World building while the chopper had fallen straight down.
"And past the Future World building..."
He opened his eyes and looked east. Past the Future World building was the Sundial Bridge. Then Hell's Gate Island. Then Lake Superior. Where Mr. Herniated Shoulders from last week had disappeared. Over the lake was where they had lost sight of him.
Look at that great big expanse of water. Rao only knows what you could hide in there! Go deep enough and it's so murky you can't see the bottom. It's a better hiding place than it looks.
"Krypto, I think we need to check under the water."
When civilization threatened to fall apart, the first instinct of people was not to start eating each other or rape their neighbors or otherwise turn on their fellow man. By and large, humans were pack animals. When a crisis came raining down on their heads, humanity's first instinct was to band together for mutual protection. That was the way they had survived way, way back in the day when the worst enemies were the sharp-toothed predators who prowled just outside the fire-light.
Only the worst of society whose first thought was self-preservation trampled other people in their haste to get away.
Unfortunately, there was nothing like a indistinct threat to bring out the worst in humanity, right down to their driving skills. Cars gridlocked the streets and people leaned on their horns as though that alone would help make space. There were fender benders at every intersection, people made better progress on foot, and really, it was amazing how quickly cars could go from being upright and intact to turned over and on fire.
There was virtually no cooperation or any semblance of working together. It was every man, woman, and child for themselves. The chips were down, the hand had failed, and these people were indeed about to eat each other.
"I hate it when this happens!" Officer Harper growled. "I hate it when people break down like this! Just makes life that much harder!"
He was driving downtown, though 'driving' might be generously applying the term, given how much swerving he was actually doing to avoid the pile-ups and the people running wildly into the street.
"You're telling me." Lois muttered as the car jerked past some looters. "How does this even happen so quickly? They don't even know what the threat is and they're already tearing each other to shreds!"
"Experience, I suppose." Harper muttered. "And too long a history of megalomanical madmen building death rays. The Scare did happen for quite a few reasons."
Lois went 'hmm' and nodded. It was never stated outright in any of the history texts what had actually caused it, but around the time of the Scare, there had just been too many super-powered criminals and not enough equally super-powered heroes to contain them all.
"Honestly, the only city I've never seen do anything like this is Gotham." Harper added. "I think they're just over-exposed. I saw someone trying and set off a bomb once in the middle of a public square. He even announced it and no one looked at him except for the one person who literally just hit him over the head with their shoe. Didn't faze a single person."
"I'd say it's because Gotham has never experienced a calamity, but then again, Gotham is the calamity." Lois commented. She snapped her fingers. "I think I can get some light shed on this. Do you have a phone?"
Harper nodded down to his cup holders where his phone was jittering around. It was a Queen Consolidated Crown G1, not a model Lois would have preferred because she didn't like the user interface, but whatever. She picked it up, unlocked the screen, and set about punching in her father's phone number. He did carry a phone; he just didn't like using it.
"Who are you calling that knows anything?" Harper asked.
"The only man who knows what's going on." Lois answered vaguely, since it would become very obvious soon enough. She put the phone to one ear and plugged the other as the line buzzed with the artificial ringtone.
Her father was always quick to answer his phone when he deigned to use it.
"General Lane."
It wasn't the brisk, snappy delivery he usually uttered. Quite the opposite; her father sounded incredibly exhausted.
"Dad, what the fuck is going on?" Lois asked, foregoing the usual courtesy. There was no time for it.
She was met with a ringing silence in one ear that when one just long enough to make her wonder if the call had disconnected. Then she heard a shaky sort of chuckle of relief.
"Lois... How on earth do you keep cheating Death?" General Lane asked slowly, his tone oozing surprise.
"Wish I knew the answer to that one, but not complaining." the reporter muttered. That explained her father's extended silence; he too must have been under the impression she had died. "Look, I'm not going to waste time explaining the details. I know about the bombs and the virus and your New Metropolis Order and if I had any idea where you are right now, I'd come kick your ass!"
"I know." General Lane said. "Lois, you're right. I've fucked up."
Lois blinked, her jaw working soundlessly for a second before she said: "Really? Gee, I couldn't tell."
"I mean it. I've fucked it up. I should have known better than to ally myself with a Falcone." General Lane said, though it sounded like it pained him a bit to admit it. "You were right all along. I should have known Sofia was going to double-cross me."
"Hang on." She covered the phone's microphone and leaned towards Harper to ask: "It's the twenty-seventh, right?"
"Yep."
"Right, I've got to mark this day for the future. My dad just admitted that he was actually wrong about something." Lois sniggered, the most triumphant laugh she would allow herself for the moment. Then she returned to the phone call. "Dad? Hate to break it to you, but I think there's a third party involved--"
"Oh, I do know that. Sofia's just been double-crossed as well." General Lane sounded pleased about that. "Where's the virus? Do you know who took it?"
"Not a clue. Didn't see them at all." Lois answered. "One of Sofia's delivery boys lived; he should be at the hospital by now, so I guess we'll have to see how much he remembers. Is Sofia talking?"
"Would you expect her to?" General Lane asked rhetorically. He had locked her in the office and didn't intend to talk to her again until the MPs came to lead her away in handcuffs. "I'm going to pin as much of this on her as I can, including an attempted murder charge. People know she's a danger and there's sufficient evidence to lead to a conviction. You're going to make me pay for this too."
"If I thought for a second it would stick." Lois grumbled, though wincing at the man's exhausted tone. Her dad would walk away from any charges with just a slap on the wrist because he was just too important to the military overall to be let go of. "I'm going to the cops right now, if we can get there without crashing. They need to know everything you know if we're going to save Metropolis. And you will save it because both your daughters are still in it."
"Are you playing the family card?" General Lane wondered.
"Yeah, and if you got a problem with that, fuck off." Lois spat, half in disdain, half in disgust at herself. She barely had any grounds to be playing that card herself, given how quickly she had split from their family dynamics at the first sign of trouble.
But if it was the only thing that would work...
Somewhere deep down, like an untapped reserve of resources, was the filial love. Lucy and Lois were all that Sam Lane had left of his wife in the world. He had sworn on Ella's death-bed that he would do right by their daughters and had failed to do so less than three hours after the funeral.
But if there was any time to start making up for past mistakes, now was a place to start.
"I'll call you back when I get there." the reporter said, and ended the call before her father could say anything. She glanced over at the police officer. "Not a word about my dysfunctional family."
"Nothing to say." Harper commented, yanking the wheel sharply to get the car around the next corner. They were almost there. "I don't have parents. I was cloned from the genetic structure of nine different men."
Lois had an automatic response on the tip of her tongue that didn't fit what had just come out of the officer's mouth. Before she could question how one could be cloned from the genetic structure of nine men and before it truly sunk enough to be bewildering, Officer Harper spun the car in a bootlegger's turn that sent them rocketing in reverse over the snow-covered median and the sidewalk that separated the road from the parking lot of their destination. He worked the brakes and the gear shift in equal measures and without so much as a squeal of the tires, halted the car neatly in one of the parking spaces.
"We're here." he announced, twisting the ignition to 'off'.
"Where's here?" Lois asked, turning around to see for herself. The facade of the old courthouse reared up on the swell of the gentle hill. They had come to the Special Crimes Unit. "Why here?"
"Fewer regulations." Harper replied, getting out of the car.
And the SCU did dove-tail with internal security; running interference and providing back-up when it came to terrorist threats. This wasn't entirely outside of their jurisdiction.
Lois handed the phone back to Harper and kept the pilfered laptop under her arm as they dashed up the steps. Judging from all the cars in the lot, everyone was in today and that was good. Because she had a bone to pick with a certain detective.
They entered on what sounded like a heated argument, or at least a tense discussion occurring in very loud voices. All twelve members of the SCU were gathered in the middle of the rotunda, waving their arms and all but shouting at one another. Turpin had the loudest voice and Colletta had the most expressive arm-flailing and Officer Mills was piling on the sarcasm. Captain Jase pinched the bridge of his nose and Sergeant Kesel looked like she was about to literally throw the rule-book at the next person to look at her cross-eyed.
Lois didn't stop to hear what it was all about, but set the laptop down on the first desk she passed and shouldered her way into the group circle, closing in on Detective Jones faster than he could react. His head jerked around the moment he sighted her pushing in between Detective Marzan and Lyle, but he didn't move in time to avoid the fist that she threw at his face.
The blow connected to Detective Jones's jaw with a solid, satisfying *thud* and he staggered.
"That was for whammy-hammering me with your brain!" Lois bellowed.
Detective Jones wiggled his lower jaw to make sure it hadn't been disconnected. "Yes, I suppose I deserved that." he mumbled.
"You're damn right you did!" Lois snapped. "Law enforcement meta-humans aren't supposed to use their powers on civilians without express permission from their commanding officer!"
She had doubled-checked the archived rules, to make sure that Detective Jones really had trod all over one of the human rights edicts from the Department of Metahuman Affairs. Not greatly, given the altruistic intent, and there wasn't much she could do to properly penalize him for it since the legal structure was probably covered in five inches of dust and mice droppings by now, but she was going to make her point.
"Ahem!" Maggie coughed loudly and Lois became aware of the silence she had brought down over the room. All around her were surprised faces, wide eyes, and popped eyebrows. A dozen people waiting on an explanation on why she appeared to be back from the dead and most likely what she was talking about right now.
"Long story short, I'm not dead." she said.
"I think we figured that one out, Miss Lane." Turpin said. "But I haven't figured out why you decided to punch Jones in the face."
Lois shrugged. "If you don't know, it's not my thing to tell."
"Hold on!" Maggie put up a hand to forestall any commentary. "First thing: Lois, you're alive."
"Yes."
"How? Most of the city was tuned in when the news broke and the only conclusion they came to is that you fell despite not finding a body."
"Whoever wanted me dead wanted me to die slow. The plan was to break my legs and leave me in the Slums." Lois explained, putting her hands on her waist. "Turns out Superman isn't the only flying brick in the city."
There was a general growling noise from the assembled SCU overlaid by grumbled phrases like "more of them?" and "we don't even know how to deal with one..."
"And John?" Maggie leaned a little to the right to look him in the eye. "Did she just accuse you of being a metahuman?"
Detective Jones pulled himself fully upright. "Yes, she did."
"And is this correct?" Maggie asked. "I'm not accusing you of wrong-doing and I don't think I will be angry--"
"You're not." Detective Jones interrupted. "You're confused because you thought you had me pegged and you don't like the possibility that I've been holding back something as important as meta-powers."
The lieutenant blinked, her mouth opening slowly in shock because goddamn that was exactly what had been going through her head. Spot-on, word for word if she had to say so.
"No wonder you're damn good at fingering liars..." Captain Jase grinned like it was Christmas. "You're a goddamn mind-reader! Telepathy! You've got telepathy!"
"You don't read our thoughts, do you?" Colletta wondered, the voiced statement everyone recoil slightly with a sense of unease, staring at their comrade in a new light that none of them particularly liked.
"That is rude. It is be the equivalent of eavesdropping on a private conversation." Detective Jones with as much as a scandalized face as he ever wore. "The things you think about have nothing to do with me.
"But sometimes you shout."
There was a shift of nervous and ashamed discomfort as each person wondered what private thoughts the detective had accidentally overheard and if they were thinking too loudly now.
It did put new light on quite a few things that had been going through Maggie's head for a while now. Detective Jones had always been more than a human lie detector. He had always seemed to know when one of them was in trouble or if they needed to sit down and talk or just needed a hug. He could practically smell a bad mood from the doorway. He always knew which way the perps were going to move, giving him a stellar track record of bagging them at the scene of the crime. But it had been things she had chalked up to uncanny instincts.
Instead it was telepathy.
John Jones didn't just seem to know what was going through people's heads.
He really did know.
"Is there-- anything else we should be aware of?" Maggie asked tentatively. Any more powers, was what she was really asking.
Detective Jones nodded and raised his hand. With it, every coffee mug and pencil and organizer and stray piece of paper rose up off every desk around them. A twitch of his hand and everything drifted gently back down to the desk-tops, but neatly. The pencils lined up, the organizers were sent down straight, the mugs set back on the provided coasters, and the papers shuffled themselves back into order until everything was immaculate. Even the chairs pushed themselves in.
Lois blinked, her jaw hanging. There was something vaguely terrifying and very awe-inducing about such a blatant display of meta-powers. Such a thing hadn't been seen in twenty years.
I might be right. Superman has been causing metahumans to come out of the wood-work, like they think it's safe to emerge. I think it's all starting again. If the Superhero Effect kicks in next...
"No." Turpin said, getting over his shock first. "That's cheating. You still have to straighten up by hand."
Someone tried to swallow a snigger so hastily they ended up coughing. That seemed to break the tension down to manageable levels and a round of giggles rippled through the group. Only Gordon didn't look as discomforted by the revelation that one of his new colleagues was a metahuman -- he hadn't been in the SCU long enough for it to really bother him. Instead, he looked thoughtful over the new information as if he was pondering how to make the best use of it.
"Historically, the D.E.O. has employed metahumans." he said. He glanced at the lieutenant. "And since we are an extension of the D.E.O..."
"Then there isn't a problem." Maggie agreed, nodding as if that was the end of the conversation. "Onto more pressing matters before we lose the time to figure it out. Miss Lane, how correct am I to assume that you know something?"
"Very correct." Lois nodded.
"That makes you the only one." Sergeant Escudero commented.
"Not true." Officer Harper strode forward into the circle with the laptop in one hand, making his presence more obvious at last. "The plan is to disperse an alien super-virus across the city and disguise it as a terrorist attack."
"And technically it is a terrorist attack, originally orchestrated by Sofia Gigante." Lois added.
Gordon raised a hand. "Originally?"
"She got double-crossed herself. Someone stole the virus right out from under her delivery boys." the reporter said. "The alien super-virus in question is called Hapa- Hapal... Blue Ring Fever."
"Hapalochlaena Caloraeger." Detective Jones said, picking the name out of her mind. "Incidentally, 'hapalochlaena' is the genus name for the blue ring octopus."
"It's also as deadly as the octopus." Lois went on. "It's incredibly contagious and once it's past the incubation period, we'll probably have lost half the city before the end of the year."
"How long is the incubation period?" Turpin asked.
"Hard to say." Harper admitted, handing the laptop off to Lyle who grabbed it eagerly. "We have an estimate of two weeks, but this virus is the same one that Dr. Essex claimed was in his own DNA."
"He's an alien, you know. He told me." Lois added.
"And he's an accomplished geneticist with advanced knowledge that goes well beyond what we know. He tweaked the virus to effect humans. He could have shortened the incubation period as well."
"Is there a vaccine?" Maggie asked.
"I'm sure one exists already, but not enough to inoculate the whole city." Lois answered dryly. "Lieutenant, this entire plan has been about ripping the system apart and letting Sofia Gigante rebuild it as she saw fit. It would have probably turned us into another Gotham. I know because Sofia wanted me on the inside when it all went down, so she kind of blathered the basics at me."
"Except the third party got their hands on the virus before she could make use of it." Harper said. "That doesn't mean the plan has changed. This third party must have already been aware of the plan, if they knew where and when to grab the virus."
"So they could be going through with it all the same." Turpin commented. "Place the virus at the bomb sites and detonate regardless of whether or not the terms are met. Someone wants to do Metropolis in."
"What happens next depends on whether or not they were intending to let Gigante have whatever's left of the city." Gordon added thoughtfully. "She's charismatic enough, a strong leader, and financially capable. If Mayor Kovac and the rest of the cabinet is killed and Gigante steps in to fill the void..."
"Hello Gotham two point oh." Detective Marzan grumbled. She shook her head sharply. "Nope, I was fucking born there. I lived there 'til I was seven and you don't wanna imagine the kind of grip Carmine Falcone has on the place. Gotham is the pits. That place is a dumpster heap. No one's gonna turn Metropolis into that on my watch."
"It won't." Maggie said firmly. "We're going to stop it."
"But what about Superman?" Officer Mills wondered softly.
"I thought they already had him." Colletta whispered.
"We'll make do without him." Maggie said, looking at them reassuringly. "Lyle, holler if you find anything useful in there."
"Yes ma'am." Lyle nodded, his eyes glued to the file on the virus.
"Captain Jase, if you could run up to the big boys upstairs and give them some kind of update. Make it sound positive, like we're completely on top of the situation." Maggie instructed. No need to ruin their credibility. "See if you can convince them to evacuate the mayor's office."
"I'll do my best." Captain Jase nodded and fired off a respectful salute before he went to retrieve his coat.
"Miss Lane." Maggie turned back to her. "Exactly how much do you know?"
"The basics. Alien super-virus and some associated jazz." Lois replied, making a 'gimme' motion to Harper and he obligingly handed her his phone. "But I can hook you up with the man behind the curtain."
The lieutenant nodded in assent and Lois hit redial.
"General Lane."
"You ready to spill your guts, pops?"
"Put me on speaker."
He said it like an order. Lois knew that tone of voice. No doubts about it now; General Lane was ready to command the troops and own up to his mistakes. She placed the phone on speaker and put it on the desk.
"You're up." she said.
Maggie was momentarily alarmed to learn who she was talking to (and Colletta grimaced), between the individual being an army general and Lois's father. But she pushed through it quickly and got to business.
There were a little over a dozen locations where the bombs might have been planted. Sofia claimed to have switched them up, but it still needed investigating in case she hadn't. The list included three bridges, the copper vaults indeed, one hospital, most of the crucial government buildings, the Daily Planet (why was that not surprising?), and the SCU building.
The SCU recoiled in horror at that news.
Maggie sucked in a gasp of air. "Us?"
"It would seem so." General Lane said.
"Marzan, Mills, grab a radio and check the basement." Maggie ordered.
"But no one's been down there--" Officer Mills started to protest.
"Except for the furnace guy and possibly Trask. Go!"
"I'll go too." Harper offered, moving to follow the other two. He needed to do something that didn't include standing around feeling useless.
"The rest of you start contacting these locations or the closest one." Maggie ordered, handing the list to the nearest person. "Tell them to search their basements, attics, crawlspaces, whatever they've got. If they find explosives, tell them to guard it and don't let anyone get near it, and evacuate the buildings as a precaution. I don't think the bombs have been armed yet, so let's keep it that way."
The rest of the SCU scattered to their tasks.
"General Lane, is there anything else?" Maggie inquired.
"I would like a private conversation with my daughter."
The lieutenant looked up at Lois as though asking if it was okay.
"It's fine." Lois replied, picking up the phone. She turned off the speaker and put the phone back to her ear. "What, Dad?"
"I nearly shot Sofia in the head." General Lane said, much to her surprise but only because that was the last thing she had expected him to say. "She used you to bait a trap for Superman and she knew precisely what would happen to you, so I almost shot her in the head."
"What stopped you?" Lois wondered. At the same time, she was absurdly touched that her dad's knee-jerk reaction was to shoot her would-be murderer in the head.
"Someone has to take the blame. Or at least the brunt of it." General Lane replied. "Otherwise, I would have done it without hesitation. You're my daughter, Lois."
And that was probably the closest he would ever get to saying 'I love you'.
"Was the plan always to release the virus into the city?" Lois wondered.
"Yes, but I had intended to wait until there was more of the vaccine available." General Lane said.
Lois rolled her eyes. "That doesn't make it any better, Dad. You were still planning to go through with killing a couple hundred thousand people." she snapped. "That virus wouldn't have stayed in Metropolis, not if it is as contagious as I was told. Two weeks from the first exposure before anyone starts showing symptoms. You know what that's just in time for? Holiday travel.
"Think about that one. Half of Metropolis fleeing the city for Christmas and New Year's, most of them asymptomatic and contagious as fuck, the rest of them showing distinct signs of illness. They'll spread it through airplanes, buses, trains, diners, restaurants, the shopping malls! It'll move down every line of travel and commerce! By January, maybe February, we could be looking at a global pandemic!
"And when I'm the one dying of Blue Ring Fever, I'll look back and think 'Well fuck you too, Dad'."
A steamy silence descended over the connection, both of them contemplating what the future might contain. Behind her, the radio beeped.
"Lieutenant, we got something down here. Boiler room. It definitely looks like a bomb." Officer Mills's voice announced.
"Armed?"
"Not in the slightest."
"Good. Stay down there and keep it that way."
"Dad." Lois started calmly, her voice a deadly quiet. "Where's Superman?"
"Lois, I don't know that." General Lane said.
"Yes, I think you do. You knew that Sofia used me to bait a trap to catch Superman. I know you've been working with her. She's done something with him and even if you don't know off the top of your head, it shouldn't be difficult to find out."
"Lois, I don't know."
"Then find out and do it quickly and then make sure he's let go." Lois growled. "Metropolis does not need someone pretending to be a hero. The city doesn't need someone deliberately putting it in danger just so they can rescue it and call themselves the savior. It needs the real hero. It needs Superman.
"I just hope you can get that through your thick skull before it's too late."
Though she did pull the phone away from her ear, she didn't end the call. She didn't have time to end the call. The old court-house doors banged open, something that didn't immediately alert the rest of the SCU because they were used to people barging in and out of the place regularly.
Three men with knit balaclavas over their heads and automatic rifles in their hands were generally not the sort of people who barged in and out, though.
"Hello children!" the leader bellowed, causing the SCU to look up at last. "Time for death!"
And he fired a spray of bullets around the room.
Lois wasn't sure if she dove or fell, but the next thing she knew, she was on the floor. She scrambled for the cover of the nearby desk, glad that the backs went all the way down to the floor and were thick, solid oak that would surely slow down at least a few bullets.
Getting her legs underneath her so no part of her was visible, she saw that the rest of the cops had done the same dive-for-cover thing, safely behind the desks and no one appeared to have been shot.
The gunfire stopped only a few seconds after it had started, when everyone was behind the desks. Gordon took that as his cue and leaned around the side of the desk he was behind to return fire and the three intruders ducked and leapt out of the way.
"Gordon!" Maggie shouted. "I did not give orders to open fire!"
"Life or death, lieutenant! There's no time to argue the merits of following orders!" Gordon shouted back.
Maggie rolled her eyes. "Ugh, no wonder you have so many disciplinary write-ups." she muttered, too low to be properly heard by anyone but Turpin right beside her. Jim Gordon was a good cop who spent more time acting of his own initiative than someone else's. That didn't make him a bad cop. Just a reckless one.
"Give it up! We hold all the cards!" called the leader from where he had taken cover behind the perpetually empty reception desk.
"You don't have anything over us!" Maggie shouted. Honestly, she didn't know what they had. It wasn't like a demand or an ultimatum had been the first thing out of their mouths.
"We have this!"
And the leader thrust up a black case that Lois recognized despite not actually having seen it. It was like her intuition had twinged, telling her of the disaster that lurked inside that hard black plastic.
"Don't shoot! That's the virus!" she shouted at the SCU.
"Yes it is!" the leader sing-songed, waving the case a little. "This little baby holds the entire future of Metropolis! You crack even one vial, the entire city falls to ruin in a week!"
-He's lying. He doesn't know a thing.- Detective Jones's voice sounded eerily and loudly in their heads, making them flinch and there was a series of mental yelps before they all remembered what was going on.
-Right... Telepathy...- Maggie thought faintly. -You can do this?-
-It is merely a surface connection, exactly the same as speaking out loud, but a great deal more private.- Detective Jones explained. -I apologize for not obtaining your permission first, but there was no time.-
-Ah... Well, in that case...- Lyle started, a bit tentatively. -I've found something in the files about the transmission of the virus. In liquid form, it has to come in contact with the skin first or other mucus membranes. The aerosol form has to be inhaled. There's a nine day incubation period and it's actually pretty similar to smallpox. It looks like Dr. Essex might have used the smallpox virus to fill in some gaps in the gene sequence to make humans more susceptible.-
-Which would mean there is a chance of manufacturing of workable vaccine.- Turpin realized.
-Something that would slow the progression of the virus, at least.- Lyle agreed. He wasn't seeing a lot of wiggle room in the geneticist's thorough notes, but there was still more wiggle room than he had initially thought there would be. If it was somewhat similar to smallpox (and they had wiped that shit off the map by 1979), then they stood a much better chance.
But the leader of the bomb squad didn't know that. He just thought he had the upper hand and continued to wave the case tauntingly.
"What'll it be, coppers?" he asked. "Gonna let us do our jobs or are you gonna be responsible for unleashing an epidemic on the city?"
"What, and you wanna be responsible for that instead?!" Lois shouted across the room. "The stuff will effect you just the same as the rest of us!"
"We're gonna be inoculated!" the leader said smugly.
"Are you important enough?" Lois asked challengingly. "Because there's only so much of the vaccine available! Who do you think is more important, the city leaders or the three hired goons who made this disaster in the first place?"
There was silence, as the squad leader had no answer.
"You'd be remembered as important, yeah, but as the idiots who touched off a global pandemic." Lois added. "Do you want to be responsible for killing ninety percent of the human population in a matter of maybe three months? It's that contagious. Do you want that weight on your shoulders as you die? Straight to hell, y'know. Do not pass 'Go', do not collect redemption."
There was more silence from the bomb squad, the three of them looking at each other like they were silently asking the other if they had actually been aware of the damage they would do.
"So," Lois grinned, strongly suspecting that she had them in a corner. "What'll it be?"
-0-