"What the hell?" Lois asked to thin air as she stared at the laptop. It was a laptop that was for sure but it was thinner and sleeker looking than any laptop she had ever seen or used.
Still trying to blink away the remnants of the light she had been blinded by she reached over and picked up the slim piece of technology, marveling at the lightness.
Laptops she knew from experience were deceptively heavy especially when lugging it around college campuses as she had done for the one semester she had been allowed to study abroad.
Opening up the computer she gasped at the crisp display and detail that was evident just on the desktop. Her Military issue HP Laptop running XP 2000 was immediately put to shame. She didn't even recognise the Operating System running on this thing.
Eventually putting aside the tech wiz side of her brain, Lois examined the desktop realising that there was just one folder on it. Using the touch pad she navigated to the folder and clicked on it.
The folder revealed ten other folders inside, each labeled with just a number ascending from 1 to 10 in numerical order.
Shrugging to herself she opened the folder labeled 1 and her eyes widened at the video files in front of her. Once again the files were labeled in ascending order from 1 to 21 but this time each of the files also had an accompanying title. The first file was labeled "Smallville"
Smallville. The name rang some sort of distant bell in her mind but for the life of her she couldn't remember how she knew that name.
Lois bit her bottom lip. She knew logically that she should hand this laptop over to the General; it's arrival was already suspicious and extraordinary, it also looked nothing like current technology so there was a chance it could be some secret government equipment not available or even allowed for civilian use.
All of those factors should have deterred Lois from her next actions but she was already pissed off at the General as it was, and doing anything that was liable to piss off said General even more was right now her MO more than following proper procedure or being overly cautious. So without thinking further Lois clicked on the first file labeled "Smallville".
Almost immediately loud music began blaring through the small speakers on the side of the futuristic computer. Lois quickly shut the lid hoping that would stop the playback.
It did.
Cursing under her breath Lois scrambled from her bed and hunted around the room until she spotted the tangle of wires that were her earphones.
Turning the sleek laptop this way and that she finally whispered a triumphant cheer as she spotted the 3.5mm audio jack port.
Thanking the supposed future for at least maintaining some tech standards she plugged her earphones in and popped the buds into her ears. Opening the lid of the computer she pressed the space bar hoping that that standard was also kept and she grinned as the video continued from where she had left off, the audio now in her ears instead of in the room.
The first shot began out of space overlooking the earth. The presentation looked PG - 13 TV-esque which was lucky for Lois because she was a fiend for 45 minute soaps. This one seemed to have a sci-fi bend though, she thought to herself as she saw multiple meteor rocks make its way slowly towards what was easily recognisable as the Earth.
She blinked as she noticed one of the rocks had a more uniform shape and indeed it also seemed to have a propulsion system. So a spaceship in between the meteors. Lois hmmed to herself, immediately intrigued.
The next shot was of a chopper flying over a cornfield on the side of a highway road. A blurb appeared depicting the year to be 1989. The camera travelled with the chopper as it flew off into the distance before panning down to a billboard on the side of the road.
It declared to the reader in bright red color "Welcome to Smallville! Creamed Corn Capital of the World!"
Lois snorted at the smalltown slogan and then it hit her! Smallville was the town her Uncle Gabe and her cousin Chloe had moved to more than a few years ago! All of a sudden this laptops appearance and it's contents became a whole lot more ominous and foreboding.
What were the chances that a TV show about a town her own favorite and only cousin lived in would somehow make it's way magically or possibly technologically to her of all people?
Her heart beating twice as fast Lois removed the pause on the video and watched as the scene cut from the billboard to inside the chopper.
The man sitting comfortably in the chopper was reading a newspaper a world famous newspaper that even she read whenever the General got finished with it in the Daily Planet.
The headline once again intrigued her "Queen Industries CEO Missing. Presumed Dead" Queen Industries CEO? She was aware of Queen Industries itself and the Queen Family was constantly in the papers with some scandal or other committed by either the Elder Queen or the Heir Apparent the latters scandals being more of the salacious nature, but this was over twelve years ago, who had been the CEO of QI then? She had no idea.
Putting it out of her mind and deciding to stop with constant speculation she played the show forward once again only to scrunch up her nose as the newspaper folded and it's readers face was revealed. She knew that face anywhere. Another front pager but for even more notorious reasons than being a playboy or an adulterer. Lionel Luthor was revealed to be sitting in the chopper. She had to pause again.
That was the actual Lionel Luthor. Not an actor portraying him but the man in the flesh. She was now even more unnerved. How was it that a real world person was being depicted as a TV show character? What the hell was this laptop or maybe the more pertinent question was what was this world that had been captured like a TV show but with real people as characters.
She was slowly freaking the fuck out, but not to the point of stopping the show. She played it once again and her eyes widened in horror at the horrible treatment Lionel Luthor bestowed upon his son. Sure the General was strict, unfair and rarely ever bestowed affection upon her, but she knew that he did love her, his actions and his anger at her infractions proved that to her more than anything. Because she knew that if he didn't love her, he wouldn't bother yelling at her. It was half the reason why she did all she could to undermine him, because reprimand was the only form of love she had experienced from her Father in years. She understood that that was all he could give her so she took whatever she could and cherished it.
This father on the screen, though? She shook her head and remembered that age old quote that 'all children deserve parents but not all parents deserve children'. She of course knew of Lex Luthor who could give Oliver Queen a run for his money on the subject of salacious front page scandals, but looking at who raised him and how he was raised, she now understood why he was the way he was.
Looking at the terrified little kid sitting with his eyes closed as his father, instead of comforting him, berated him for being weak, she wanted to hug the child and take him away from the absolute evil that was his father but all she could do was watch with teary eyes as the scene changed and a shot was shown of a small, quaint little town with a WB-esque water tower in the middle. She assumed this was Smallville.
The shot changed again to the inside of a flower shop and it showed a handsome young couple, clearly in love looking at the flowers, the camera panned to show a cute little girl, more than a few years younger than Lex dressed in a pink fairy princess garb ensemble complete with a star shaped wand, the kid was performing magic left and right and despite herself Lois's heart melted at the cuteness overload.
The scene showed the flower shop owner making subtle overtures upon the clearly spoken for handsome young man, Jonathan Kent, while trying to hide her dislike of the man's wife, Martha or maybe her dislike of their relationship. The man clearly was aware of the shop owner, Nell's, affections but was trying to ignore her flirting while still being polite and inquiring about the young girls parents whereabouts.
Nell identified herself as the little girls aunt as she explained where her parents were.
The young woman walked over to the little girl who's name was revealed to be Lana, and Lois smiled as Martha indulged the child's pretend magical abilities and closed her eyes to make a wish, which Lana granted with the wave of her wand and a few lisped words of magic.
The scene changed to show the outside of the shop and Martha now sitting in the the passenger side of a worn but well maintained pickup truck. Jonathan was loading up their days purchases in the back of the truck and getting behind the wheel of the vehicle.
Catching his wife's wistful expression Jonathan leaned in to her ear and whispered that he knew what she wished for and she smiled confirming to Jonathan and to Lois that she wished they could have a child.
Lois's heart both warmed and broke for them because it was clear that Jonathan and Martha weren't newly weds and that they had been trying to have a child but had been uptil then, unsuccessful. Once again the old adage came to her mind and she cursed the world she lived, in which someone like Lionel Luthor was granted the gift of a child and he squandered that gift by destroying that child's innocence. Meanwhile a clearly caring and loving couple like Jonathan and Martha were bereft of the gift of family and children.
Lois already knew and accepted this reality but she still hated how unfair the world was sometimes.
She watched as Jonathan and Martha brightened up at the Smallville Crows celebration float. She herself never really got football but didn't begrudge boys their fun. Jonathan certainly appreciated his town winning the game again and the couples spirit was up as they drove out of town.
The very next scene took her emotions from feelgood to trepidatious in seconds. the approaching meteors and the smallship were making atmospheric entry.
The friction of the entry causing all the rocks and the ship to alight with blazing flames that were probably thousands of degrees in temperature.
The next few scenes showed Lionel signing for some sort of a buy out while Lex walked near the edge of the cornfields, cut to the meteors approaching closer and closer to earths surface.
She saw little Lana in the arms of her aunt waving across the street to a couple who were apparently her parents. Lois felt a sense of foreboding at the way the scenes were being depicted, well aware of how shows tended to build up to a climax dramatically. She was ten minutes into the first episode though. Surely something horrible wasn't about to occur right now. Right?
She watched as Lex, with his uncaring father distracted got deep into the cornfields and heard someone call for help.
She saw the townsfolk near the flower shop notice something in the sky. She saw them all stop to wonder what it was, completely unaware of what was approaching.
She watched as Lionel finished his business dealings and finally turned to find his son gone. The concern in his voice mild and still uncaring as he called out for his son.
Lex was in the fields running away from the voice calling for help. Panicking.
The townsfolk were still staring up at the sky that would be falling very soon. Lois wished she could slap all their faces through the screen and tell them to "fucking run!" but she knew it was pointless. If her fringe knowledge of meteor showers of this magnitude was anything to go by, running would get them no where.
Lois clasped her fingers together tightly and tucked them under her chin hoping against hope at the very least that little Lana would remain safe. This was a family show right? she asked herself. Surely they wouldn't kill off an innocent little girl within the first ten minutes of the show, right?!
But then she remembered that while this might be a show the people in it were real, if Lionel and Lex were anything to go by. For the first time in forever, maybe since her mother had died, Lois paused the video, closed her eyes and prayed. She prayed for Lex, even though she knew an adult Lex was alive and kicking right now in the present, she prayed for Jonathan and Martha who only wished for a child and now the sky's were raining down fire. She prayed for little Lana and she even prayed for Lionel, hoping that if the evil man survived this, he would become a better man for it.
Opening her eyes she let a few tears fall as she pressed play and watched as Lex finally stumbled upon the boy who was calling out to him for help. He was spread eagle tied to a cross that would normally hold a scarecrow. He was without a shirt and it seemed he had been tied and left to rot there by someone. His lips were cracked and his body looked exhausted and dehydrated.
But he could still speak with what was left of his voice, that he probably lost shouting uselessly for help, he asked Lex to help him. Behind him Lois watched as the first meteor hit.
For two whole minutes, even though it felt longer than that there was just destruction. the metoers destroyed everything in their wake.
Lois yelled out "No!" in anguish as she watched Lana's parents car take a direct hit with them standing right beside it.
She watched as building after building got demolished and car after got crushed, flattened and exploded under the immense power of nature.
She wept equally in pain and relief as the camera panned across the destroyed street next to the flower shop and showed Nell holding Lana tightly in her arms as the little girl, face blackened with soot and dust, wet with tears cried at chaos and destruction, probably not even realising what she had already lost.
As the disaster waned Lois for the first time heard actual concern in Lionels voice. Unfortunately it took only two seconds for her to realise that Lionel wasn't concerned about whether his son was hurt, he was concerned whether or not his heir apparent was lost.
She grew even more disgusted when he finally found his son clutching his inhaler in an apparent catatonic state only for him to cringe simply because Lex had seemingly lost all his hair in the meteor blast that hit his vicinity.
Lois now knew why Lex was bald but it certainly didn't matter to her, she still thought that the boy deserved better parents. But if Lionels reaction was anything to go by his parents, at least one of them was about to get more worse than better.
Looks like some of her prayers didn't catch.
Finally she watched as the scene closed in on an upturned pickup. It took her only moments to realise it was the Kents vehicle. They were both hanging from their seat belts coming out of what was probably an unconscious state due to the tumble their pickup took.
What happened next was something Lois never expected. The scene cut to Jonathan's perspective, hanging upside down and his gaze caught some movement outside of their car. Two tiny bare feet stepping on what was likely burning hot rubble and gravel without consequence. The feet were attached to little baby legs that were walking towards them.
"Martha?!" Jonathan called attention to his wife to look at what he was seeing and both them and Lois watched in astonished awe as the most adorable toddler with a dark head of messy hair, who was also completely nude, crouched down to their eye level and grinned at them with twinkling blue eyes that made even Lois fall immediately in love with him.
The scene changed to show the Kents now outside of their truck waking through the tracks of a huge meteor path that ended in a crater just beyond their view.
Martha was carrying the boy now wrapped up in a blue blanket while Jonathan led the way out of the meteor crash site.
"Kids just don't fall out of the sky Martha," Jonathan was saying with Lois silently agreeing.
"Then where did he come from?" asked Martha as she struggled to hold on to the kid who was clearly too big to carry on her waist.
"I don't know," replied Jonathan. "But he must have parents." They approached the crater that the supposed meteor had created only to be stunned into silence.
Lois gasped as she realised what they realised after seeing what they saw.
"Well if he does they're definitely not from Kansas," quipped Martha clearly looking for a spot of levity in the face of the extraordinary.
Lois cooed as she watched Jonathan turn to look at Martha only to see her cuddling with the kid. The look on her face, it was clear to Lois and to Jonathan to that Martha was smitten.
"Sweetheart we can't keep him," he said and it was clear to Lois that it was hurting him badly to deny her this joy. "What are we gonna tell people? We found him in a field."
Lois scoffed at the idea of giving a damn what other people thought.
Martha looked from the child in her arms to her husband clearly already attached to the boy. "We didn't find him," she replied clearly ecstatic. "He found us."
And the camera pulled back going far up in the sky showing Jonathan and Martha Kent standing next to a crater with a spaceship next to them and in Martha's arms, the space boy that came in it.
Lois paused and stomped to the bathroom to grab a full pack of tissues. She slumped back in to the room and flopped belly down on her mattress jostling the laptop hither tither. Wiping her eyes dry she rolled over and checked the time on the video. Yup, she was only eight and half minutes into the Pilot.
"What a fucking opener."
A/N: I wanted to do the entire Pilot in one chapter but my natural writing just made the opener this long already so I stopped here.
I don't intend to do entire episodes in this detailed way. It would take too long and my track record with multi chapter fics is already bad enough. I will skim over seasons and give Lois's reactions to the most important events. Of course her arrival in the series is going to have serious significance so I'm going to spend more time on that.
Plus in order for me to go episode by episode I would have to rewatch all the early seasons and I can handle only so mucn of Clana before I'm forced to rip my eyes out.
PS: Sorry for the tech speak, I usually don't put so much of myself in my fics but I wanted to make Lois a little tech savvy.
PPS: For the purposes of this fic the 'all children deserve parents' quote by Vinod Kapri existed before 2003. I wanted to use that quote so badly I forgot that he quoted it in 2017. My bad.