Merriwether
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 1,662 |
Since no one else seems to be biting, I'll take it. The Revenge of Ultrawoman, by Ultrawoman Lane. Just read this one, and it's a dandy. "Hold the elevator!!"
The grey-suited man who was just stepping aboard turned to see who was yelling; his alarmed expression on seeing the single-minded woman rushing towards him appeared to suggest that he would be happier to pretend he hadn't heard. But this was Lois Lane; one did not pretend that one had not heard Mad Dog Lane. One just hoped that one did not become the latest target for her fury... and failing to hold the elevator for her would be sufficient to unleash her annoyance.
Lois was late for work, not an occurrence she would be overly troubled about under normal circumstances. But today she had a very important story to get back to; her source had promised to send her some highly sensitive documents overnight, and she was keen to ensure that she - well, okay, the Planet - scooped all the competition. Again.
She just hoped Kent hadn't intercepted the package. Okay, they were partners, but this was *her* scoop. Just because Perry had officially teamed them up as formal partners a little under two months ago didn't mean that Kent had to be in on every story she wrote. She was the more experienced reporter, after all. She was the one with the three Kerth awards. He was the... the hack from nowheresville, the inexperienced greenhorn with a taste for sappy prose who had somehow managed to persuade Perry that he was employable.
<That's not fair, Lois> the irritating voice of her conscience pointed out. It probably wasn't really. Clark might have been inexperienced, but he was a quick learner. He was good on the sort of detail she tended to overlook. And he was able to turn on the charm, which did help when they were interviewing or under cover. For some reason, some women just seemed to fall for that faux-naive look of his, that country-boy shy smile. She couldn't quite see the appeal herself....
<Liar!> her conscience objected; Lois scowled, which caused the other occupant of the elevator to look even more alarmed. She *wasn't* lying. Clark was simply not her type. Okay, when she'd been affected by that horrible pheromone a couple of weeks earlier she'd for some *completely incomprehensible* reason focused her attention on Clark - but that had to have been a fluke. A flaw in the formula, perhaps - after all, hadn't Perry fallen for Rajalia, the cleaner? What could be more ludicrous than that?
No, Clark Kent was not her type. Her type was... well, someone a little more ambitious. More outgoing. More... metropolitan in outlook...
<Like Lex Luthor?>
But she rejected that instantly. Yes, Lex was all of those things, but she barely knew him and her only real interest in him was that exclusive interview he kept half-promising but never delivering. Oh, she was well aware of his interest in her, but she suspected that he saw her as something of a trophy or a conquest; she had no interest in being just another notch on the bedpost of the third richest man in the world. Even if he was suave, charming and sophisticated, as well as good-looking.
No; her ideal man was... Superman. There was just no question about it at all; he was handsome, perfectly muscled, intelligent, with beautiful eyes and a gorgeous smile, and he was a sublime kisser. And best of all, he could really sweep a girl off her feet - literally. Oh, what she wouldn't give for a date with Superman...!
And yet, instead, she thought as she exited the elevator on the newsroom floor, what she was getting was a weekend trip away in the company of her mother. Oh, and Lucy, and possibly her father as well, assuming he could drag himself away from his 'clients.' This was *not* Lois's idea of a fun weekend! But Ellen Lane had insisted, when she'd called just as Lois was on her way out the door; it would be her fiftieth birthday in a few days, and she had decided that this was how she wanted to celebrate it. A family weekend, just the way things used to be.
<Wake up, Mother!> Lois had wanted to scream down the phone line. <Things were *never* like that! Even before Dad started having affairs and you started drinking, we were never a normal family> But she had restrained herself, knowing that if she said the things she really wanted to say it would lead to a lengthy argument, and tears and recriminations from her mother, and she would be even later getting to work.
So in a few days' time she would be trapped in a cottage up in the mountains, playing happy families with the most dysfunctional family in Metropolis. Just great!
I think, therefore, I get bananas.
When in doubt, think about time travel conundrums. You'll confuse yourself so you can forget what you were in doubt about.
What's the difference between ignorance, apathy, and ambivalence? I don't know and I don't care one way or the other.
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