Hi Terry!
Lois laughed as they stepped through his front door. “I’m glad that’s all it is. Here, you look at this stuff while I make sure I have all my pencils.”
CLARK: *Your* pencils?
LOIS: They're in my box so they're my pencils. Problem?
“I’ve been thinking of how to communicate with Perry on our investigation without tipping off the bad guys.”
They could post classified in the DP?
“No!” He opened it to the first page. “Look here. If we have any solid info on a club or someone working in the club, we say something about a script page and line number. Perry has a copy of this in his office, so when he hears a page and line he checks his copy and voila! We’ve called in part of the story!”
Ooooh, nice one!
CLARK: Steganography.
It would work. As long as they didn’t make Clark look stupid. He’d do it for the sake of the partnership, but it would hurt her to let other people think he was anything less than brilliant.
Aaaaaawwww, she really likes her country bumpkin veddy veddy much.
She spun and stomped off-stage, brushing right past Joe as the audience went wild, whistling and clapping and calling for more. He watched Clark grin sheepishly and lift one hand palm-out for their trademark “virtual high-five.”
You know, I really did expect Clark to offer up a Vulcan greeting instead.
“Not to worry, kids,” he replied. “I gave Louie the check this afternoon, along with a request to bring you two back in a couple of months. That sound good to you?”
Even Lois’s smile looked predatory. “Sure, as long as you agree to the higher salary we’re going to command by then.”
Ooooh, Lex would have been so proud of his little Lois. She'd make a great lieutenant in his origanization.
Those two were still scary and intense. He was glad they’d never learned about his Intergang connection when they were still investigating.
Oooooh! Things are heating up.
They would’ve buried him so far under the jail an archaeologist couldn’t have found him.
He's witty! No wonder he is in charge of an above-board entertainment establishment.
He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his desk. “Close the door and sit down, Cat. I need to talk to you.”
Oh boy. Is he firing her or letting her in on part of the secret?
PERRY: You fire *one* top-rated female reporter and you’re typecast forever.
Her faced went white as she complied. “I’m getting fired, aren’t I?”
See?
“What? No! Nobody’s getting fired today, especially not you. Why would you think that?”
/points at two empty desks in the middle of the newsroom/ The other reporters still light candles at the remembrance photographs of the former hottest reporter in town. And his partner.
“What have I done wrong this time?”
There's a sentence ending in a preposition in her fourth paragraph on column two.
Perry ran his hands down his face. “I have got to learn how to do this kind of thing better. Look, Cat, I brought you in here because I need you for a very special assignment, one you can’t tell anyone about.”
CAT: I *am* getting fired!
And I mean no one! This is hush-hush, eyes-only, highly classified top secret spy-level security I’m talking about. Are you in or out?
Oh. I see. He's having Cat shop for a burger and fries for him and if Alice ever found out...
Perry nodded. “I need for you to cover Clark and Lois during their Metropolis and Gotham shows.”
Perry waited for a reaction, but all Cat did was say, “Perry? I’m already doing that.”
“I know. But you aren’t bringing me back the code phrase.”
Oh. I see. She's not good enough at her job
“What’s the code phrase?” she whispered.
Omicron.
“Sure. They have a notebook with a series of messages with page-line references.
Wow, he's going all out here. What if Cat gets captured and tortured or she sleeps with the wrong guy and pillow-talks her secrets?
“I don’t believe you, Perry! I’ve never been used so badly—”
/cocks eyebrow/
CAT: Oh, shut it!
I’m telling you about this thing with the code phrase because I know you’re discreet, you can keep secrets, and you understand life-and-death situations.
Wow.
“Tomorrow night. They’ll be at a Superman Foundation thank-you dinner for their biggest contributors. Jimmy has your ticket.”
Ooooh! What if they uncover that Superman himself is working for Intergang?
She strode out the door and shut it harder than necessary without slamming it. Perry shook his head, wondering if he could survive having two skilled, high-powered, intense, take-no-prisoners women working for him.
Don't worry, they'd have to kill Clark first.
Assuming, of course, Lois did come back.
In the not-in-a-bodybag-fashion, he means.
What marvelous twists you have cooked up!
She jumped and turned halfway around to look at him. “Oh! Clark, you’ve got to stop scaring me like that!”
He grinned and leered at the audience as he walked to stage center. “Because it’s not good for you, being in your delicate condition, right?”
Huh. I wonder how they are going to spin the 'delicate state'. There's the obvious play. And then there's the 'she's a chicken and will lay an egg if startled' based on I've Got a Crush on You.
“No! You’ve got to stop spreading those rumors about me being pregnant!
Like in any one of the numerous tales spun by FoLCs around the world about Lois’s adventures with Clark Kent.
Someone’s going to believe them and tell my mother and if she shows up at our doorstep trying to be the Mother of All Grandmothers you’re going to take care of her by yourself!
Good thing Clark knows a guy who knows guys.
“Please don’t tell Lois’ mother that Lois is pregnant!
One Lane woman at a time is all I can handle!”
Lois crossed her arms and glared at him. “What do you mean, one Lane woman at a time? Are you talking about my sister?”
“Lois, you remember all those times in the past when someone asked you a question and there was no answer you could give that wouldn’t just get you in worse trouble?”
LOIS: No?
“I mean just like what I said and now I’m really sorry I said anything at all!”
Probably should have plead the Fifth.
He paused as the audience laughed, then offered, “That’s because you’ve always had very good hearing.”
Pot. Kettle.
“Oh, really? Why don’t you explain baseball to me? We’ll see how much you really know.”
They play it on the Holodeck of DS9. Cpt. Sisko is usually the team captain and they have all kinds of aliens participating in running around. Oh, and if you have multiple Vulcans on your team, you're afforded an automatic win. Hmm...what… yes. That's right. People also put globular totems on their desks in memory of dead players. They hope to swing the bats as hard at their enemy's heads as those players did during their final battles. How am I doing so far?
If they get in before they get out, it does count. “
You know, Clark getting in and out and in and out again is probably how Lois got in her delicate state in the first place.
“When the ones out get three outs from the ones in before they get in without being out, the team that's out comes in and the team that’s in goes out to get those going in out before they get in without being out.”
“Lois, I don’t think you—”
She’s good at this in and out stuff. Must have practiced a lot.
“When both teams have been in and out nine times, the game is over.
Hmmm...sounds about right. Clark probably didn't expect this so no wonder it was over after going in and out nine times in a row.
“Ladies, you know the rules. Any and all dates for Clark Kent have to be scheduled through my office.
Probably has a special filing bin reserved for those applications.
We’ll gather up all these invitations and get back to you as soon as we can.”
“Yeah?” yelled one tipsy redhead. “When is that gonna be?”
“Right after the second,” Lois replied.
“The second what?”
“The second lunar eclipse of next week.”
Ooooh! Buuuuurn!
“Never mind. Bachelorette party girls gone a little wild, I guess.”
“Oh, I don’t mind at all. And believe me, I understand.”
Hence her delicate state.
Ooooh! The one for beings of kind-of limitless power. Nice! Still don't think he'll be able to win against Q and Mr. Mxyzptlk, though. Not with them zipping around the field and all that.
“Clark, honey, settle down. It’s okay. Anyway, that sounds great. And it seems like a great time to tell you about my new part-time job.”
“Wait. You have a part-time job too?”
“Yep. Say, have you met the manager for your team?”
Uh-oh.
His shoulders sagged and he leaned on the end of the bat. “Lois, please, tell me that you aren’t – that they didn’t – that you don’t—”
Oh, yes. She is Ultra Woman.
He gazed at her, defeated. “You aren’t going to cry when we lose, are you? Because there’s no crying in baseball.”
Oh boy. Is it too early for him to get benched?
LOIS: If he can hit, he won't get benched. On the field, that is. But he won't get to bat at home with *that* attitude, that's for sure.
A nice Chinese fellow, used to run Wu's Dragon Balls over on 39th and Crossover.
Clark screeched “Aargh! I give up!” and stalked offstage.
Wow, I'm kind of exhausted now. I imagine this going rapid fire. Live on state. Without mixing it up. Oh boy.
That was great fun indeed!
Michael
