Army brat, Farm guy
Chapter 8 A rescue, a name.
Daily Planet Bullpen
Lois and Clark Walk in Monday morning hand-in-hand. Soon there were whistles, cat calls and hoots. Cat Grant's jaw dropped to the floor; Jimmy Olsen shouted "CONGRATULATIONS" and began snapping pictures.
"LANE, KENT! My office now!" Perry White's voice boomed.
They entered and sat down, still holding hands. Smiles a mile wide adorned their faces.
Perry White scowled, "And what am I to do with you? The two of you?"
They look at each other, "What do you mean, boss?" Clark questions.
"You heard the ruckus out there! Or have you lost your hearing? Turn it back on, Clark!" He's getting red faced.
"Just a minute," Lois steps in. "That will settle down, and you know it."
Perry relents, a little. "Ok, we'll see. BUT – you better keep the PDA to an absolute minimum. Hear me?"
"Loud and clear," they both respond.
"Now, what do we do about THE BLUR?" Perry muses.
"Meaning?" Clark asks.
"Meaning, do we, does he," pointing at Clark, "Do some kind of reveal?"
"Ah . . . since so many know, the chances of a leak go up exponentially," Lois surmises.
"True," Clark admits. He turns to Lois, a twinkle in his eye. "You can interview me."
"What?" He really caught her off guard.
"You said, and I quote,"
"I am thankful . . . for . . ." She stops, eyes go wide, she points forcefully at Clark. "YOU! I just learned the crux of the story of the century, maybe the millennium. And I have to SIT ON IT! A Kerth shoe in, a possible Pulitzer. You owe me, Mister Kent!"
"So, Lois – I owe you, I admit it. My payment . . . the interview of the century!" He sits back, looking pretty smug.
Lois looks to Perry, to Clark, back to Perry. A smile growing on her face. "Yeah, I can do that. Perry-
Clark cocks his head and holds up a hand as his phone chimes "Text, just a moment." He looks down and touches the screen three times, "DAMN, avalanche on the Matterhorn, I'll be in touch." He rushes out of Perry's office. He heads to the back stairs and is gone.
"Ah, now I get it," Lois exclaims. "All those times you made excuses for him," she looks to Perry, grinning.
"Yup, now you can join the team. Give me and him some backup. Cat drives me crazy! But Lois, we need a better name. The blur just doesn't cut it – you think?"
"I agree. I'll think on that."
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ZERMATT, SWITZERLAND
The blur lands and asks for directions to Emergency Services. He is given directions, but before he takes off a young lady grabs his arm.
"Please, are you here to help?" She has been crying.
"Yes ma'am. I need to go quickly!"
"My husband was leading the group that is trapped. I need to know how he is, please. I need to get to Emergency Services also. My name is Ingrid."
He thinks quickly, "Are you scared of flying, ma'am?"
"No, please!"
He scoops her up in his arms and is off. In 45 seconds, he lands; he passes Ingrid off to emergency personnel and asks for the PIC (Person in charge). He is greeted by Luca Alther.
"Mr. Alther, how may I help?"
"Sir, you can fly?"
"Yes, do you know where the trapped people are?"
"Roughly. Let us look at a map."
Clark looks around and sees a model representation of the mountain. "Luca, show me on here, please."
Luca points out the route that the climbers were scheduled to take. "Can you carry a beacon, yes? We can track you then."
"Yes, I can. Do you have anybody on the mountain?"
"On the way."
"How long ago was the slide?"
"20 minutes." Luca points to a clock, counting down. 25 minutes to go until rescue becomes almost hopeless.
Clark points to a spot on the Matterhorn, "There?"
"We think so, yes."
He grabs a two-way radio and a beacon and is off. He calls in, leaving the frequency open and the radio secure in his vest. He starts at the top of the supposed area of the trapped climbers; he weaves back and forth. When he spots the 1st person he hovers. When Luca tells him they have a fix on his position he goes to work.
He would like to use his super-breath and fire-eyes, but he needs to be careful and not destabilize the packed snow on the entire side of the mountain. Besides probably endangering the trapped climbers, if he denuded an entire section of the Matterhorn many people would be very unhappy with him.
So, he starts frantically digging. In seconds he has the 1st person uncovered. Gasping for breath, Georg squeaks out a thank you.
"Are you the leader?"
"Yes."
"Is Ingrid your wife?" He asks as he furiously continues to dig. Georg digs also.
"Yes, she is."
"Luca, please get word to Ingrid-
"She is-
"Is my husband ok?" Ingrid shouts.
"Yes, ma'am. I uncovered him. He is fine."
"Oh, thank God! Thank you."
The blur and Georg continue digging.
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Within 5" all the climbers are uncovered enough so they can breathe freely. Clark begins to triage individuals for severity of their injuries, using his x-ray vision. He finds 2 with fractures; one broken wrist, one broken lower leg.
"Luca, I am bringing down a 22 y/o female with fractured tibia & fibula. Fracture site 4" above the ankle, skin not broken."
"Understood."
Georg stays and continues to totally uncover individuals. As people are freed, those who can help, totally free others.
Clark next removes the 25 y/o man with the fractured wrist. After that, he transports people one or two at a time as Georg directs.
When everyone is off the mountain there is raucous cheering. Pictures are taken (all want a picture of themselves with the blur). Clark convinces Luca to send as many pictures as possible to Lois' private email account. They will decide later what to do with them. They must be careful not to leave bread crumbs, if at all possible.
He is asked what they can give him as a reward. He consistently refuses rewards; then thinks, "May I have some apple strudel?"
Ingrid bustles about; visiting 3 bakeries, and returns with a neatly wrapped package. With tears streaming down her face, she presents it to him with a hug and kisses his cheek.
He bids all goodbye, and ascends into the sky.
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Daily Planet – Perry White's office.
Clark slips in, joining Lois and Perry. After closing the door behind him, he listens to be sure that no one is about to join them.
He turns around and opens his arms; they are immediately filled with girlfriend! They hug and kiss, while Perry clucks his tongue.
"PDA?"
"Closed door." Lois mumbles between kisses.
They settle down and are seated.
Clark turns to Lois, "Sweetheart, your email account should be receiving pictures of ghe event soon. I requested Luca Alther to send as many as he could."
"Luca Alther?" Perry questions.
"The Emergency Services director. My question is – what do we do with them?"
Perry & Lois look confused.
"We don't want anything pointing to me."
"Ah, the blur but not Clark Kent." Lois agrees.
"Correct." He nods.
"So?" Perry raises an eyebrow. "Do we report it here, or someone else, or leaves it to the Swiss papers and pick it up?"
"Let's go with the latter this time, and see what happens," Lois expresses.
"I agree," Clark opines.
Clark takes a few minutes to recount the experience.
Perry shakes his head, "You were super! Man, what a rescue!"
They stop and look at each other.
Lois whispers "Super-man. That's it!"
Perry repeats, "Superman! Yes."
"Did I miss something?" Clark wonders.
"Perry and I were trying to come up with a better name than The Blur. We just found it!" Lois exclaims.
"Yes, we did!" Perry high-fives his 2 star reporters.
Clark thinks for a minute, "Ok, I'll go with that. With 1 caveat – only when I'm in the suit, please. All other times I'm me, Clark Kent."
"Agreed!" It's unanimous.
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TBC