This is Kerth Quiz #11 - Best Alternate Universe / Elseworld / Next Gen Story. (yes, it only past midnight EST
) To give the penultimate quiz of this year a little kick, I might have made the quotes a bit tougher than in my earlier quizzes.
Instructions are blatantly copied/linked from last year’s Kerth Quizzes.
SPIFFY DISCLAIMER THINGY! All the stories featured in this quiz qualify for the Best Original / Supporting Character, but this quiz is not a stamp of recommendation for nomination. There are other stories which qualify for this category, but this quiz only covers 10.
Recommendations for other eligible stories are *very* welcome and encouraged!
QUIZ RULES: Two points for getting the story and author from the quote; one point for getting it from the excerpt. Specify which is which, or you'll automatically get one point instead of two. Open hard drive and archive, *don't* forget to snip the excerpts in your replies, and don't forget the spoiler space when you post in the replies thread.
The DEADLINE for entries for this quiz is Wednesday, February 22nd 2012, by 11:59 p.m.
More elaborate quiz instructions can be found
here .
Please post your answers
here .
Good luck and have fun!
Michael
B
E
S
T
A
L
T
E
R
N
A
T
E
U
N
I
V
E
R
S
E
---
E
L
S
E
W
O
R
L
D
---
N
E
X
T
G
E
N
S
T
O
R
Y
Quote #1:
But now it was awkward with the two men having met each other professionally, but each couldn’t acknowledge that publicly to the two women and had to act like total strangers. Such was the life of both a Special Agent and a Navy Admiral who worked in Intelligence.
Quote #2:
Emotional turmoil was building up within her. Mike was her husband. She loved him. Then why did she feel like her world would be over if she never saw Superman again? Why did it seem like a horrible mistake to let him go?
Quote #3:
“What choice do I have?” she asked herself, squeezed up against some large crates in the hangar. Clark’s helicopter was already on the field. She had a long-range pistol. Lois tried and failed to load the gun twice.
Quote #4:
”One last thing,” Clark said as an afterthought. “I know that I’m still new here and getting used to how everything is run. But, uh, why are there no women on the Council?”
Quote #5:
“Of course, I’m attracted him. He’s Dan Scardino! Movie star!” Lois told him. “But do you really think I’d be interested in that wannabe when I have the real thing?”
Quote #6:
“Intergang? Aren’t they the biggest crime syndicate in Metropolis?”
Quote #7:
Lois sprang from the bed, checked her weapon, strapped her gun holster to her ankle, pulled on jeans and a sweater, and grabbed her bag. Five minutes later, she was speeding through the dark streets of Metropolis towards Bessolo Boulevard.
Quote #8:
“Mom, where was Dad? I looked up to the bleachers after I ran home, and he wasn’t there! He missed my first ever home run!”
Quote #9:
She shifted the gun’s barrel to cover the large front window as she waited for a silhouette to give her a target. The apartment lights were never turned on.
Quote #10:
Diana folded the day’s copy of the Daily Planet and smiled to herself. So Lois fancied herself a martial artist? She would soon learn how weak and unskilled she truly was.
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S
P
A
C
E
Excerpt #1:
Suddenly his eyes focused and he met Lois’ eyes across the table. Oops. He must have looked like a fool when he was ‘listening.’ Pete had teased him mercilessly about his “out in the ether” expression when they had lived together in college. Then Pete would just say “go” and Clark would vanish in front of him. Clark had taken to wearing black continuously and some school mates thought he had joined the goth movement. He had let people think what they wanted then, but now he wanted Lois to like and, yes, to love him. Sometime he had to tell her the secret of his abilities. But not so soon. He was so afraid she would not see him as human any more.
Excerpt #2:
Excited cries outside caught her attention. The entertainment must’ve arrived. She glanced out the kitchen window to discover it wasn’t Spider Man. The superhero they’d sent instead took her breath away. It was Superman. Yet it was a much higher quality actor than the photos she’d been shown in the studio. Those muscles bulging in his arms were no Styrofoam padding. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on him or it would’ve been readily apparent, given the tightness of his outfit. Rather than looking silly, like a grown man in his underwear, this Superman was an impressive specimen of manhood.
Excerpt #3:
Lois switched on the device, feeling nauseous. They had forced her into training to be an assassin. She had enjoyed the physical part of it, imagining that she could one day use the moves they taught her on the men that had stolen her life away from her. It was her only comfort that someday she could escape … and somehow protect her family from the Boss coming after them. That’s what had always stopped her before. Fear of the Boss killing her family. As crazy and mixed up as they were, with her parents divorced and her sister changing boyfriends like socks, they still belonged to her, were hers to protect. Her family …
Excerpt #4:
”Just you and me now, Nor,” Clark said, brandishing the weapon before him.
A look of mild fear flickered for one brief second in Nor’s eyes as he caught the deadly gleam in Clark’s eyes. He hadn’t expected his prisoner to fight back. He raised the gun and aimed it at Clark’s heart. Clark’s momentum slowed. His energy reserves were flagging. Nor recognized that fact and grew confident once more. His finger slowly squeezed down the trigger.
”Goodbye, Kal-El,” he sneered, venom dripping in his voice.
Two shots rang out, the sound reverberating off the dull gray walls.
Excerpt #5:
Lois was only able to raise the blade as high as her knees and, when she tried to swing it towards him, tumbled forward, missing him entirely. Lex, more nimble than he looked, had dodged her swipe easily. He stepped up behind her and pushed her down onto the desk, knocking the sword from her hands.
“I don’t want you dead, Lois. Not yet, anyway,” he had said, holding her down on the desk with his knee. “I like your spirit.”
Lois had never felt more exposed than she had pinned to the desk, that man’s knee holding her down. She felt real fear that night, a terror she hadn’t felt since almost being hit by that car the night Clark had first rescued her. If Lex had even tried to touch her backside, she would have called out to Clark in an instant, screw the consequences. She loved Clark, but she wouldn’t have endured that for anyone. Luckily Lex’s mind hadn’t been on such things.
Excerpt #6:
“Not yet, O’Hara. Check it out first and report back. Henry and I will decide if we need Psych on this,” Karen said. She looked down at the papers on her desk; which was the cue for the detectives to move out.
Lassiter walked to his desk and put on his suit jacket. His gun already in its holster, he looked over at his partner. She was getting her gun in her holster and looking around for her notepad.
“O’Hara, can I ask you something?” he asked her. She stopped and looked up at him.
“I suppose. What’s up?”
“Why did you ask if we were hiring Spencer and Guster? We don’t always need them, you know. We do real police work, while Spencer somehow comes up with wild accusations that later turn out to be right,” Carlton said. Juliet couldn’t help but roll her eyes.
Excerpt #7:
And while she was fighting that battle, who would be brought in to guard Mr Kent?
What she’d witnessed in this compound reinforced what she’d known since her earliest days as an agent. The end justified the means. In this job, the end always justified the means.
And if the end was the perceived deliverance of the human race, the means employed to achieve it were not going to trouble the consciences of too many people.
Her best option was to try to broker a deal. Clearly, Scardino wanted this entire episode to die a quiet and dignified death.
Excerpt #8:
“Mom had to take me to the father-son scouting dinner last night! You know how embarrassing that was? Even Steve’s father was there -- and his parents are divorced. He lives with his Mom, but his Dad was able to make it. You left right before we were going to head out to the dinner -- we didn’t have time to get anyone else to take me, so I was the only one who was there with his mother. Do you have any idea how much teasing I got? Or what it felt like for me? And of course, I couldn’t tell anyone the real reason you weren’t there -- I had to keep ‘the family secret’. And this was supposed to be a big night for me -- I was getting my Eagle Scout badge. Instead it was a fiasco. How could you do that to me? How can you keep doing that to me -- abandoning me and then making me lie to cover up your absences?”
Excerpt #9:
Scardino reached into his pocket and pulled out a magazine for a rifle. “With these.” He set the magazine on her coffee table. “The green glow you see peeking out from the edges of the clip is from a very rare crystal that our scientists have been able to ascertain can do the Man of Steel physical harm. They think that the unique radiation the crystal gives off can negate his vast powers and even given a long enough exposure… kill him.”
Excerpt #10:
Given the choice, though, I’d rather live through the fight.
She’s moving closer again. Coming in for the killing blow. I don’t want to die. I don’t even remember why she wants to kill me. But I know that if I don’t kill her, she’ll kill me. I don’t have a choice. Or maybe I already made my choice and can’t remember making it. Either way, I have to keep going.
I can see the red liquid welling out of her where I raked my nails across her breasts and cut her pretty deep. I remember that she really didn’t like that. She’s bleeding from her nose and a cut on her scalp along with that bunch of scratches on her chest and belly, too, but she’s not losing enough blood to make her stop. And I don’t know if I can still fight her.
But I have to try. Have to. Don’t want — don’t — what’s his name? Right, I got it. Don’t want Clark to find out I quit on this fight. Want to make him proud of me. Want him to remember me as a fighter, not a quitter.
