Our Story So Far...

Part 9:

The world rushed by at the speed of sound, Zor-Xu's Kryptonian aura protecting Lois from most of the effects of his speed as he ran. Their pursuers kept pace with them. A few got the bright idea to split up and try to block a couple hallways, since with the entire floor locked down, there weren't many places they could go.

Thankfully, Lois got an idea. She shifted in his arms so that she could speak into his ear. “One of the rooms here had a radiation symbol on it,” she remembered. “Can you find it?”

“We passed it five times,” he told her. After a second, he added, “six.”

“Go in there,” she told him.

“We'll be trapped!” he protested. “Do you have some kind of plan?”

“Yes!” Lois said. “I think we can find some Kryptonite in there!”

“I don't like this plan,” he muttered.

Something flashed past Zor-Xu's other ear. He turned, narrowly dodging the man who leaped out at them from the intersection they were passing.

“Do you trust me?” Lois asked him.

“No,” he confessed, and glanced back at their pursuers. “But, I trust them less.”

Within seconds, Lois found herself being set on her feet in a room filled with large and incomprehensible machinery. Zor-Xu craned his head, glancing around until he suddenly focused in on a nearby cabinet. “There's a lead box in there,” he told her.

Lois bent down to open the cabinet. It was locked. She glanced out the door, aware that they only had seconds until their pursuers found them cornered in here. “Okay,” she said, trying to remain calm. “If we can just find a key or—”

Zor-Xu ripped the door off the cabinet.

“Or that,” Lois said, seizing the box just as the crowd appeared in front of the door. She opened it.

The men in the front of the little group dropped to the floor immediately, as did Zor-Xu. A couple of men in the back took a bit longer to realize what was happening and managed to fire off a few shots before storming into the room, only to collapse beside their already-fallen comrades.

Okay. Now what?

Lois glanced at Zor-Xu. He was white as a sheet, and Lois didn't know how much exposure to Kryptonite would be lethal. Conversely, if she closed the box, she didn't know how long it would take for their attackers to get up. Oh, they wouldn't have their superhuman powers, she knew, but they were still an armed group of very fit men against her and a council's chairman.

A slight breeze gave her the answer. Lois turned to see where one of the goons chasing them had fired his weapon, only to strike the wall behind her, leaving a hole the size of her fist. Hopefully, it would be enough. Lois took a deep breath. She snapped the box shut and, for the second time that day, yelled, “HELP! SUPERMAN!”

TBC...


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