Lois is a young blogger with the Daily Planet in 2013

New to her job, she is given flaky assignments.

In this case she is told to track down a number of urban legends including that of a "super man" who was sighted in the late 40s in Metropolis.

Few survivors remain and the reports are sketchy but one report with no supporting evidence says the Metro Bridge collapse in 1948 was prevented by what looked like a man holding the trusses up hundreds of feet in the air. No photos exist.

Sightings were reported for almost a year. Reports said it was some kind of experimental device from the recent World War.

The late Lex Luthor was a prominent young businessman at the time. He had reportedly taken in German scientists and many believe these refugees led to Luthorcorp having developed most of the new technologies in the 50s, 60s and 70s. When Luthor died.

His son Alexi has carried on the cutting edge nature of Luthorcorp which is considered to be, along with Apple, the leader of the internet revolution today.

Lex Luthor is tied in only because one of his labs was going what appeared to be "nuclear". 100 miles from Metropolis the potentially tragic event was stopped. By what eye-witnesses said was a red/blue blur.

Reports of this super man ceased after that. Lois's task was to find out the truth. As most suspected she felt it was some kind of military device if anything at all.

Lois visists Alexi Luthor and interviews him about the urban legend. He scoffs. The explosion at the research site was shut down/prevented by his father's fail-safe backups.

After the interview Lois leaves the Luthorcorp Tower. A janitor comes up to her and asks for her business card. Luckilly Lois still carried some.

A month later a small box arrives at the DP for Lois. She opens it to find a red boot. Some kind of prank from her boyfriend Richard who wants to see lois wear boots. Lois hates boots. Besides this looks like a man's boot. Or maybe the new guy Jimmy who is trying to hit on Lois.

Lois takes the package home and tosses it in her junk pile.

Two weeks later Lois reads that the Luthorcorp janitor was found dead. Richard has since told her he did not send her the boot.

Lois tries to call Alexi as she wants to send the janitor's family her condolences. Alexi is unavailable, as his receptionist tells Lois, because he is involved in moving items from the Luthorcorp Tower secured basement to safer places out West. Given the danger to Luthorcorp technology being kept in Metropolis as Intergang becomes a greater threat..

Lois examines the boot. The material is strange. Feels nothing like leather and when her cat scratches it there are no marks. Lois needs to figure out what the material is and patent it. She could make a bundle from developing her own line of boots.

She calls her friend Dr. Klein and asks for a favor - examine the boot and tell me how to replicate the materail.

And the story would go from there. Wish I could write. I have story ideas but am not a writer.

This sounds like a very interesting idea. (Of course, Lois would have to find a still very young looking Clark. Eventually. With the usual results. Right? Right?

I wish someone would write this.

ETA: Or maybe the super man was Jor-El? Just another idea. And, whether Jor-El perished or not, there's always his son for Lois to find.

Not thinking Jor-El. It is an urban legend or it is Kal in my vision.

Age-wise - hint - think Super-Soldier which was an Amalgam comic. Lex Luthor had access to the latest German technology of the day.

I don't see Lex as having even been aware of the stories of a superman man in his day. Just one day his research facility was set to explode and didn't. Stopped maybe by someone? Left dead or alive? Only Lex knew the truth and presumably he passed it on to Alexi.

Lots of way to go with this.

I guess you could have Superman/Clark living a long time and in a different disguise going in.

Or Clark/Superman was killed in the explosion, hence his disappearance. Just as Lois learns of all this, a man in Victorian garb appears to her...

Joy,
Lynn

Randi,

You say you aren't a writer, but to me it looks like you've got a good start on a yarn.

I'd encourage you to give it a try.

Don't worry about how long it might take. Good things take time.

If you've been reading a number of the stories posted here you've been exposed to numerous styles.

Don't try to copy someone else's style, you will develop your own. I think you will find that it is fun.

Several years ago a gentleman by the name of Ray Reynolds wrote an excellent story about what might have happened if Lois had indeed married Lex.

That particular story was beautifully done, yet Ray will tell you he is not a writer.

Take a chance on yourself, you might be surprised. This is a fascinating concept.

I've had this concept in mind for years but have not been able to put it to paper. The dialog would have to be sharp and real and I simply am not good at that.

As to H.G. Wells appearing the story would not go there.

Lois would discover what she would discover and no changing history. Though I didn't envision this as a death-fic (which as everyone here knows i really enjoy )

As to the age of the "legend" in 2012 I gave a hint of how to handle it. It would be totally scientific and using German WW2 technology. Amalgam should give it away if you need a hint.

The only reference I can find is Mercury amalgam dental fillings.

Think a recent Marvel film and a certain soldier,

If you're talking about Cap. America, I'll have to go back and look at it again.

There were a couple of runs of Amalgam comics which was a joint effort between Marvel and DC.

Actually it fits Cap.

Kal stopped thee explosion at the Luthor facility and was found unresponsive. Which is a story unto itself as there was no K.

Luthor came and suspected the inert form was some kind of German experiement. A super-man.

He tried to dissect "it" but nothing would cut through the exterior "skin".

Short of being able to do that Luthor wanted to preserve "it" and used a cryo technology to preserve the seeming man-like speciment.

Did Luthor ever learn more? About kryptonite which could have cut into Kal? Or not?

All part of the story.

Randi,

You keep adding content to your story here on the board.

I would encourage you to do the work privately and build your story. When you think it is ready, then post it.

Some authors post their stories as the develop them. Personally, I will not start to post a story until the entire text is 'in the can', beta'd and ready to go.

By working with a beta reader you can avoid errors like 'box canyons', plot devices that just won't work, that you have to back track your way out of.

You have the outline already and you've been building it.

Play with it.

In total agreement with KenJ. Work on the plot from beginning to end in order to avoid box canyons and most of all a solution-in-a-box ending. Find a super beta who can assist along the way. Do not post until it is complete. Nothing is more annoying than a great story that's not done.

You will find as the outline takes shape and grows the crisp dialogue will come along as well.

I also suggest studying several writing manuals.

Try it.

I may try it again. I've tried several times before and couldn't create clean, believable dialog.

I was thinking maybe post my "I Didn't Know" death-fic mapped out in the death-fic thread.

It would be looking in - no dialog. Sort of the format it is in now but cleaned up. But it may not be that good to warrant posting as a fic. Plus it's a death-fic and hardly anyone on these boards will read it. We'll see.

Cool idea. We know from Luthor's testing that Clark's powers deplete as he uses them, so here he gets a little low, gets hit by a massive bomb and falls unconscious. Whether the cryo technology actually "preserved" Clark or just depleted his energy and kept him from recharging it'd keep Superman out of commission without using Kryptonite.

The only other non-K Superman completely-out-of-commission story I can think of, HIWTHI, didn't have an A-plot as good as this.