All things considered, Li-Shan Lee was having a pretty nice day so far. Her mom had made her a new Superman jacket, the heads of the Unity Club told her they would try to see if they could get her on the team in the league, and now she was going with Ms. Lane to an interview!
All in all, a pretty good day, she thought to herself as she sat in the automobile with Ms. Lane.
"Just let me do the talking." Lois told her "I know how Lex thinks."
"What's he like?" asked Li-Shan, curiously.
Lois pointed at her "Keep this in mind, Li-shan - he's a total scumbag. A crook and a lot more besides." she sighed "But there hasn't ever been any evidence against him. He always cleans up after himself. I'd bet my hand in marriage he sold weapons to Mr. Toothbrush during the war."
Li-Shan's face morphed into one of fury "That's horrible!"
Lois smiled "That's part of the reason why I brought you. You're pretty observant, kid. Maybe you can catch something I can't."
Li-Shan smiled, flushing with pride at her mentor's words.
. . .
Lex Luthor's bald head gleamed in the sunlight like a shiny egg as he sat on his office chair, a smug look on his face "Why Lois." he drawled "I had no idea you babysat in your spare time."
Lois forced a smile "Alright, Lex. Let's begin, unless you'd like to polish your head first?"
Lex's grip on his throne-like chair arms tightened "Very well. But first…" he glanced at Roberta and his face grew into a smirk "...she waits outside."
"No way, Lexie!" Lois retorted, face red as a beet.
"She's my protege and she stays with me!"
"You either get no kid in this room, or no interview in this room." Lex told her "Which will it be?"
Lois looked at Li-Shan for a moment, before giving a sigh "Go wait outside, Li-Shan."
"But-"
"I'll get you something afterwards to make up for it, okay?" sighed Lois "I'm sorry, but this is really important."
Li-Shan sighed "Okay…"
Before she left, Lois whispered "See if you can catch anything from conversations." into her ear and ushered her away.
Reinvigorated, Li-Shan sat on the nearest waiting chair and tried to listen to everyone else's conversations.
"Did you hear Dr. Pyne is seeing Josie?"
"Working for old Lex Caesar's is still better than working for Ford Motors. Here we get the full paycheck from the get-go. Back when I worked for them you only got less than half until you'd been there a year, and that's without mentioning what he did to your home."
"Yeah, I'm going on maternity leave next week. It'll be nice to relax a little."
For the next ten minutes she heard (mostly) useless natter like this. Then -
"The specimen is secure in lab 13." said a woman scientist coming out of a corridor, jabbing a thumb towards said corridor.
"Are they now? Remarked another scientist, this one a man "You've got the keys, right?"
The woman felt around in her pockets "No. Do you?"
"Let me- oh. Oh dear."
"You don't have them?"
"Well… there's a high chance I DID…"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"There's a hole in my pocket."
Roberta glanced around, noticing the brass object on the floor. Thinking fast, she walked over and placed her shoe on it, concealing it from view. "I think I saw someone pick something up earlier." she told them "They went towards the elevator, if you wanna catch up."
"Thanks, kid." nodded the woman scientist, as the pair ran off.
At that moment, Lois Lane exited Lex's office, looking like Lex had given her a vexing interview.
Once she had been filled in, Lois gave a smile, impressed "Good work, Li-Shan. Let me take it from here."
Li-Shan folded her arms "I'm going!"
"No, you're not!"
"Please? I wanna help!" said Roberta "I'll go either way, and you can't stop me!"
Lois sighed "I taught you to stand up to people too well, didn't I?"
"Yeah."
"Alright, but do as I say, when I say it."
Li-Shan's eyes lit up as they rushed towards the corridor with the eagerness of any breed of dog whenever free sausages are available. Once they had unlocked the door, they walked in, closed the door and met a shocking sight.
On the table was what couldn't be more clearly a corpse if you put up a sign saying 'DEAD BODY!', laden in a white sheet and inside a glass coffin. On one side was a table with a few sample tubes full of what looked like blood on it. Immediately, Lois scooped one of them up and gently slotted it into her bag "C'mon, Li-Shan."
The door flew open. The scientists and about twelve security guards were there. "There they are!"
Lois gulp "Now's a good time as any. SUPERMAAAAAAN!"
Five seconds later, there was a blur, and Superman was in the room "Might want to let them go."
"Get him!" cried the scientists, clearly not having learnt from the histories of many, many villains."
As Superman began sweeping the floor with the goons (literally), Li-Shan felt a sudden, sharp pain in her arm. Yelping in shock, she turned to see the female doctor injecting her with something.
Before she could wrench her arm away, Superman came forth and batted the doctor away with his hand, sending her into the wall. With that, he grabbed the two reporters and flew away faster than a speeding… y'know.
. . .
Once they were safely on a rooftop, Superman checked Li-shan's new wound "Are you okay!? What did they inject you with!?"
"Considering the body there, it was probably blood." Lois told him "But why would they inject Li-Shan with-"
At that moment, Li-Shan felt woozy. Then a splitting headache broke through her skull as everything went black.
. . .
"YOU DID WHAT!?" roared Lex, throwing a paperweight of himself at the scientists who'd somehow let Lois Lane and her little brat protege in not to mention…
"INJECTING A SAMPLE INTO A RANDOM LITTLE GIRL!? WHAT ARE YOU, AN IMBECILE?!"
"But s-sir!" the scientist whispered "That kid's most likely a Cub Reporter at the Daily Planet, right? We can keep track of her!"
Luthor seemed to calm a little. Just a little.
"You'd better not mess this up." he told them, picking up a pencil, then snapping it in two.
. . .
Gotta be honest, I took way too long to upload this. Hope you enjoyed…