The dreams of Lois must have awakened him. He almost decided to fly over her apartment and look in on her, but he restrained himself. Watching her sleep would, for him, be a most exquisite torture.
- Begin Part Two -
"Beginning next session at four-eighteen AM. Stimulant levels increased by five percent. Subject is moving against her restraints. Responding now."
*****
Lois awoke to waves of pain pounding against her entire body like a storm surge. She arched her back and gasped. It hurt too much to breathe for a moment, then she forced herself to relax as much as possible.
It helped ever so slightly. She looked around to see the same dark mist surrounding her. She called out frantically.
"Help! Help, Superman! Help me!"
Abruptly, Superman was standing beside her. "I'm here, Lois."
"Get me out of here now! It hurts!"
He crossed his arms. "I told you before, I can't. You'll have to stay here for a while."
A tear tracked down the side of her face. She tried to wipe it away, but her arms were bound. "Please help me, Superman! Please! You have to help me!"
"I'm sorry, Lois. Helping you would doom others. I have no choice."
"Please! Ahhh! Please help me! I'm begging you!"
He shook his head. "I can't help you this time, Lois."
She crushed her eyes shut and turned away. Why wouldn't he help her? What was wrong?
A thought pushed through the pain. "Kryptonite! Is that it? There's - ahhh! There's Kryptonite around? That's why you - yaahh!"
"No, Lois. No Kryptonite. There's nothing here that can harm me."
"But it hurts! Agghh! Ahh! Somebody's - hurting me! Help me! Please!"
"I'm sorry, Lois. I can't."
"Help! Help me! Yeeaagghhh!"
The pain increased. She tipped over the edge of reality and fell into oblivion.
"Subject capable of logical thought even at fifty percent of lethal pain levels. Will increase stimulant levels to fifty-five percent at next session."
"She's tough, Doc. This might be harder than you thought it would be."
"I'll break her. Nobody's that tough."
"You say that now, but - "
"That's enough! She'll talk."
"You sure?"
"You know how this works, MacGillis. The first step is to break down the subject's resistance and take away the emotional support. While we do that, we induce pain and confuse the subject and prepare the subject to answer questions. Then we ask innocuous questions to remove the subject's reluctance to respond. Then we ask the real questions and use both pain and emotional manipulation to induce the subject to tell us anything we want to know."
"We want to know her favorite foods?"
"We want her to answer questions! It doesn't matter what they are, not at first, as long as she - as long as the subject responds."
"Uh-huh. You might have bitten off more than you can chew this time, Doc."
*****
Clark sat up in bed before his alarm rang. He smiled at the prospect of seeing Lois again so soon. He threw back the covers and started breakfast, humming tunelessly to himself.
He giggled, then felt silly, then giggled again. All his powers, all his abilities, all his Kryptonian advantages, and he couldn't sing a note or play anything more complicated than a CD player. He was glad Lois could sing. Maybe they could go out tonight, something unplanned and spontaneous, and maybe he could coax her into singing at the local karaoke bar. He'd heard her sing once or twice before and had been favorably impressed. Yeah, an impromptu 'real' date was a great idea. Spontaneous Clark, that was him.
He picked out his most hideous tie and knotted it with a flourish. Funny, he thought, how a simple thing like a crummy tie drew so much attention from his face. He locked his apartment door behind him and skipped down the steps to find a cab.
- End Part Two -
