Watchtower
After a normal beginning to the workday, Clark's cell phone beeped. He quickly looked over the message. It was from Chloe. Lois nearly jumped out of her seat. "Lois, maybe you'd better cut back on the caffeine infusion." He needled her.
"What? What's going on?" She was across the desk in seconds, glancing over Clark's shoulder. He began to feel dizzy. Lois was wearing the blue kryptonite gemmed ring. "That's not going to work." He mumbled. "What's not?" Lois was practically in his lap.
"Uh…that ring that I gave you…" Clark nervously glanced around the area. "What? You're not going to take it back, are you?" She asked warily. "No. The sentiment is the same, but I need to swap it out for a different one." Clark replied vaguely. "It zaps my powers."
Lois turned ashen. "You mean that you're not indestructible?" She quickly put her hand with the ring behind her back. "Almost." Clark hedged. "Let's take it over by Chloe. She has a few dummy rings that I had created left." Lois nodded. "We should check on this dock fire story as well, that way Perry doesn't think that we're just out fooling around."
"Good point." Clark bent away from Lois and the ring as some of his abilities restarted. "Smallville! Your eyes just went golden yellow!" She whispered. "Uh…that's because you're so close to me." Clark smirked. That was actually the truth, he mused.
It felt good for him to be honest with her. "Oh…sorry. We'd better roll." Lois urged, as she grabbed her Raspberry and a steno pad. Clark breathed deeply, as Lois moved far enough away to allow the rest of his powers to return. It was quite a rush! He observed.
"Should I put the ring away for now?" Lois asked worriedly. "No, let's just head over to Chloe's now, before we check the dock fire scene." Clark sighed, as Lois was ready to go. She kept her distance from him, while trying not to be obvious about it. "Where's my eager beaver cousin located nowadays?" She asked, after entering the elevator.
"Wait until you see this." Clark boasted as he pressed the button. Usually, they would be making out in the elevator, but now, Lois shuffled way over to the other side of it. Clark felt the power drain again, and quickly yawned. "Does this ring put you to sleep?" She inquired.
"It can." Clark replied halfheartedly. "It mostly renders me human." Lois's eyes widened. "That is so bizarre." She muttered. "A tiny rock can do that?" Clark nodded. "We shouldn't be discussing that out in public." He reminded her as the elevator doors dinged open.
"My enemies can use that against me." Clark informed her as they hustled through the Daily Planet lobby. The revolving door hit Clark and it nearly went off its rails. "Does it make you clumsy as well, Smallville?" Lois joked as she held his hand. "Probably." Clark admitted.
Once outside, Clark's powers quickly faded, and he grew tired. Lois was all energy and excitement, and half dragged him across the street. "How close is Chloe?" She glanced at him as her heels click clacked along the sidewalk. "Only a few blocks away." Clark yawned his reply.
The young couple chatted pleasantly, and Lois did most of the talking. "Here we are." Clark pointed to the recently restored building with the clock tower that held Watchtower Base. "My cousin is the Hunchback of Notre Dame?" Lois quipped as she glanced up at the colorful, circular, stained glass window within the clock tower's frame.
Clark tripped over the metal-framed doorway's base. He led her to the freight elevator entrance that allowed access to the thirty plus story building's loft. "Oliver bought this building for Chloe." Clark explained, as his eyelids grew heavy. "Don't let the antique appearance of the structure fool you. Chloe's got this place wired to the max."
They entered the freight elevator and the doors slid shut behind them with a hiss. There was a brand new eye verification security apparatus roughly placed at Lois's head's height. Clark bent a little bit, so the scanner could pick up his particular eyeball pattern.
It beeped some acceptance message, and the elevator shot up to the tower on its own volition. "Wow! Chlo' ought to put one of these at Disney World, she'd make a fortune!" Lois remarked. The elevator car came to a stop, and the doors hissed open.
Chloe turned to face them, surprised to see Lois on Clark's arm. "Um…I take it you decided to let Lois into our little group?" She asked harshly. "I must've missed the memo!" Lois left Clark alone and jogged across the floor to hug Chloe. "Don't be pissed, cuz. I've been pressing Clark's buttons to let me in for months." Clark sat down on Oliver's black leather couch.
"You look winded, Clark." Chloe asked with concern. "That's my fault, too." Lois confessed. "I'm wearing the evil ring." She waved it at Chloe, and glanced around the high tech war room. "Oh my God! Chlo' remember when we used to compete as kids as to who could build the best clubhouse? You win! Hands down!"
Clark felt a sense of déjà vu. He'd last heard her say that while watching the horrible future that the Kandorians would have created. "Yup. Big sister is watching you." Chloe admitted. She actually felt a sense of pride in Watchtower.
She was starting to warm up to the idea of letting Lois in. It had been bothering her for a while, not being able to share her secretive life with anyone but Clark, Oliver, and his dysfunctional crew.
"Is that green leather?" Lois appraised Chloe's sleeveless blouse and matching miniskirt. Chloe reddened. "Yes. Courtesy of your friendly neighborhood Green Arrow." She joshed. "Nice!" Lois smiled brightly. "Can Clark and I get some kind of colorful outfit as well? You know, something patriotic, like red and blue?"
"What exactly are you and my ex beau up to in here, saving the world?" Lois strolled around the Watchtower monitors. "Something like that, Lois, don't touch anything!" Chloe snapped. "Yeah really." Lois agreed. "I might start World War 3."
Clark was slowly falling over onto the couch. "Uh, maybe we'd better switch the rings, before Smallville turns into Sleeping Beauty." Lois suggested. "Yeah, well it would be your job to kiss him and bring him back to life." Chloe quipped. "Not a problem." Lois smiled lustily.
"I have the rings right here…" Chloe reached into a desk and pushed a secret lever, revealing a hidden drawer beneath it. In the hideaway drawer sat three sparkling blue kryptonite rings. Lois scowled."That kind of takes the luster off my unique ring with sentimental value." She scoffed.
"Ah, Lo' Clark would give you a ring any day." Chloe snickered. She removed one of the fake kryptonite rings and gave it to Lois, swapping it with the real k ring. That one she shoved into another leaded compartment.
Lois hadn't noticed Chloe's secondary drawer, which contained a baseball-sized chunk of green kryptonite. Chloe hadn't even told Clark that she was keeping the destructive piece of meteor rock in Watchtower. She felt bad about it, but it had come in handy a number of times before.
Clark immediately sat up, stretching leisurely. Lois fitted the fake k ring on her finger. "It will need a little adjustment." She commented. "So, Chlo' what are you and Ollie into here? Even with Ollie's Super Gold Mastercard, you don't stockpile this much hardware to play WII, or catch muggers, robbers, and rescue the occasional cat up a tree."
"I can't really say too much, Lois." Chloe said sincerely. "Most of this is used for monitoring Metropolis's nasty crime underworld." She looked to Clark for help, who walked over to them and stood behind Lois, putting his hands on her shoulders.
"We'd tell you more, but then we'd have to kill you." Clark chuckled and Chloe laughed. "Don't give Ollie any ideas." Lois added playfully. The monitor beside them beeped to life. "Speak of the green devil." Chloe joshed. "Arrow here, Watchtower…I uh…uh oh!" Oliver saw Lois peering over Chloe's shoulder. "I take it we've added to our dysfunctional friends list."
Lois smiled. "Hey…" Chloe snapped on a button that automatically muted any sound on their side of the connection. "Ollie!" Lois finished as Chloe breathed a sigh of relief. "Lois, we don't ever use our real names in over the airwaves conversations." Clark explained. "Oh? Gotcha!" Lois nodded. "I'm called Boy Scout…" He began. "That's appropriate." Lois remarked.
Chloe flipped the mute switch back off. "Let's call her Girl Scout." She snickered. Lois stood at attention and gave them a mock two-finger salute. "I pledge to sell no cookie after its freshness date!" She added. Even Oliver liked that one, smiling brightly.
"I'm sorry, Arrow, I wasn't thinking." Clark confessed. "We should have discussed this first." Ollie dismissed him with a wave. "That's okay. She'll fit in perfectly. She's not a team player, and never takes orders, just like everyone else." Oliver said sarcastically.
"I am too a team player!" Lois defended. "Just don't plaster our group all over the Daily Planet's front page." Oliver warned. The next monitor beeped to life. "Aquaman here." AC's tan face appeared on the screen. "Hey brown eyes! Welcome to the team!" He smiled broadly.
The next monitor started up. "Impulse here." Bart laughed as he checked out Lois. "Nice! Hola amiga!" The rest of the monitors followed suit. "Any friend of Boy Scout's is a friend of mine." Victor said cordially. "What on Earth?" Canary scowled at the screen.
"Hey!" Lois frowned. "You let that blonde harpy into your club before me?" Clark rolled his eyes. "Canary has proven herself to be a team player." Oliver defended. "Whatever!" Lois snapped. "Speedy here, what's the haps peeps?" Mia gave Lois a strange look.
"Get out!" Lois shook her head. "Towel girl is a part of your team?" Mia made a rude gesture towards Lois. "This is going well, don't you think?" Chloe's voice dripped with sarcasm, as she glared at Clark, who reddened. "Hawkman here! Hawkgirl here!"
Lois backed away from the monitor, tripping over Clark's foot, and landed on her butt. "What in the name of?" She gathered her thoughts as Shayera waved her mace menacingly.
"Does she even have any super powers?" Hawkman grumbled. "Oh yeah!" Oliver quipped. "Girl Scout excels at getting herself and everybody else into trouble!" Clark helped Lois back to her feet.
"They're really good people." He tried to smooth things over. "They might be a bit rough around the edges." Lois nodded absently. "Aww! C'mon guys!" Courtney defended. "We should respect Boy Scout's choice to bring Girl Scout into the fold."
"I've been complaining for weeks that we should be acting more like a family, and less like a bunch of individuals with too much time on their hands." Stargirl continued. "I'm with Stargirl." Victor commented. "Me too!" AC added. "What can we give her to do?" Canary asked coldly.
"Sweep the floors?" Hawkman growled as Shayera stomped on his foot. "Girl Scout can be our link to the outside world." Jon Jonz said, startling Lois. The Martian had phased into Watchtower Base and was standing behind Clark. "She is a part of Boy Scout's destiny."
"It doesn't matter that Girl Scout possesses no supernatural abilities." Jon Jonz continued. "Many of us here do not either. She will be our Public Relations representative. It is becoming more and more obvious that we must not remain in the shadows." He lectured.
"The more people we save, the more we will be caught in the public's eye. Girl Scout will one day soon write our story, as she did for the JSA. Do not underestimate her value to the team." Jon Jonz warned, as the rest of them grew silent.
Chloe elbowed Lois. "Say something nice to them." She whispered. Lois stepped up closer to the monitor and cleared her throat. "Thank you for all that you do." She began. "I'll do my best to present your story…whenever you're ready."
Ollie nodded. "Arrow out!" One by one the team went back to their current adventures, leaving Chloe, Clark, and Jon Jonz alone in Watchtower. "Congrats, Lo' you're in!" Chloe praised. "I take it you'll keep all of this a secret until we all decide to 'come out'?"
"I will." Lois vowed as Clark hugged her. She turned to Jon Jonz. "Thanks for coming to my aid in there." The Martian nodded cordially, and disappeared through the walls.
"Whoa!" Lois gasped. "That's some special ability!" Clark held her hands in his.
Chloe got up and walked over to the balcony's glass double doors, beside the stained glass window, and opened them, stepping out onto the balcony floor. Lois and Clark followed her. "This place does have a nice view." Lois praised.
The three of them looked over the streets of Metropolis. It was nearing lunchtime, and the cafes, restaurants, and clothing stores began to fill up. "I can't believe this." Lois commented. "My boyfriend, mild mannered Clark Kent, aka the Blur, is a part of a bizarre, elite, crime-fighting force. My cousin and my ex-boyfriend are keeping the streets of Metropolis safe, and beyond?"
"How did I miss all this?" Lois complained. "We were trying to protect you, Lo'." Chloe hugged her. "As fun as all this appears to be, everyone's life is constantly in danger. Yeah, Clark, Jon Jonz, and Cyborg are virtually indestructible, but yet everyone has their own Achilles heel."
Chloe continued on. "Lana and I tried protecting Clark for years, but situation after situation dragged us all further out into the limelight. Finally, Oliver and I decided to build Watchtower Base. It was originally Jimmy's idea of a place for us to live."
"What the hell is that?" Lois pointed towards a rapidly approaching streak in the sky. "That could be the last local member of our crime-fighting team." Chloe chuckled. "I told Lois the truth about me and she's here at Watchtower. I didn't want to speak for you, though." Clark said at a normal voice volume. "Who the hell are you talking to, Smallville?" Lois's eyes narrowed.
"That's okay, Kal!" Kara said over the roar of a nearby jet taking off from Metropolis International Airport. "I was hoping you'd tell her soon, before something else bad would happen like with Lana." Chloe backed away from the edge of the balcony. "Incoming!" She announced.
"What?" Lois's eyes went wide again. Clark smiled brightly at her. In seconds, Kara dove down from the bright blue skies, her golden hair reflecting the noonday sun. She flew towards Watchtower, and landed gracefully on the balcony beside Clark.
Lois fell backwards against the sliding balcony door. "Kara?" The super girl beamed as she helped Lois to stand straight again, giving her a big hug. "I'm so excited!" She shook Lois lightly. Clark and Chloe exchanged amused glances. "Uh huh!" Lois's heart raced.
"You're the last member of Oliver's crew?" Lois finally managed to ask after Kara let her breathe again. "I guess, other than Gold Wing, I'm the crew's newbie." Kara replied cheerfully.