Lois strode confidently into the foyer of LNN and headed to the elevator, holding out her employee ID so the security scanner could read the barcode on the back, and open the elevator doors. Instead, the scanner made an irritating squawk and flashed red, so Lois tried the scanner again. After several attempts, one of the security guards wandered over.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” he said while taking her ID and inspecting it, looking at the photo on the front, and checking it with Lois. “My apologies Ms. Lane, lets see if we can get this working for you.”
The guard tried several times before excusing himself, and taking her ID up to the reception desk. Lois stayed at the elevator doors, resisting the urge to tap her foot in annoyance. When the guard returned, another woman was with him.
“Ms. Lane, if you will follow me?” She asked politely.
Feeling her stomach sink, remembering the words from Claire earlier, she meekly followed, dreading what she suspected was coming. The woman led her into an office behind the reception, and left Lois alone. Lois could see some frantic phone calls being made from the desk, but couldn’t make out anything that was said. Many long minutes passed before a face she recognized passed before the window, and she inwardly groaned as she recognized Tom.
When she had been offered the producer position, Lex had shown her around, introduced her to many of the senior staff, and after she had accepted the position, most of her new co-workers had been welcoming, and eager to work with her.
Except Tom. Tom had been polite, sometimes polite bordering on rude, but never friendly. She had wondered if he had wanted the job she was handed, but at the time, she’d brushed his attitude off. While she wasn’t qualified as a television producer, she was one of the best reporters in New Troy, and had the awards and accolades to back that claim up. Tom had no journalism awards, and only a shred of integrity. He would be a human resources, and legal team, nightmare if he was in any supervisory position. Her first few days on the job, using her connections, and her skills as a reporter, she’d earned the respect of many of her new co-workers, but Tom had stayed aloof, barely behaving professionally towards her.
Tom sauntered into the office, took a seat, and leaned forward on the table, propping his hands up with his elbows.
“Ms. Lane, or is it Mrs. Luthor?” He asked, coolly.
“Ms. Lane will do,” Lois responded.
“There were some changes made last week, while you were using some vacation time to prepare for your wedding.”
“Oh?” She had last worked a shift the Friday prior, at Lex’s insistence she take some time off before their nuptials. It had been a week and a day since she’d stepped inside LNN as she had used that time to attend various functions, and was supposed to have been packing up her apartment. She had been unaware of any changes at the network, and Lex hadn’t mentioned anything.
Before continuing, Tom unfolded a piece of paper, and began to read what was typed on it. “Your employment with LNN was terminated at the request of senior management, and as you were within your probationary period, LNN is not obligated to give you a reason, or any severance.”
Lois gaped at him. Fired? She’d never been fired in her life!
Tom folded the piece of paper back up, and continued. “Your belongings were packed up and are waiting for you at the reception desk. All paperwork will be mailed to you this coming week.”
Tom abruptly stood, causing the chair to scrape across the tiled floor. Lois winced at the sound, unable to speak for the moment, trying to process what had just happened. Tom left the office without another word to her, letting the door close behind him. Lois stood, opened the door softly, and walked out of the office in a daze. The receptionist pointed to a box of her belongings sitting on the floor, and as Lois leaned down to pick it up, she spotted her LNN ID, cut into several pieces, in the garbage can. Choking back a sob, she picked up the box and turned towards the exit, as the security guard stood by, offering to help carry the box. She smiled weakly at him, refusing his help, and walked out of the building.
****
The clouds continued to gather, and eventually Clark gave up trying to rest outside as he was getting cold, another frustrating side effect of losing his powers. After eating some of the leftovers from Lois’s visit, feeling a little more energized, he grabbed the full garbage. Stepping into the stairwell, his normal method of entering and leaving his apartment when he didn’t fly in, he had a flashback to escaping LexCorp Tower, crawling his way into the stairwell there, and forcing himself to climb the stairs up to the parkade. He leaned on the railing, gasping, his legs shaking, the burns making their presence known. Turning around, he headed to the elevator, the grey concrete walls of the stairwell too much of a memory at that moment.
Outside in the alley, he spotted folded up cardboard boxes leaning against the building by the garbage bins. Inspecting them, and finding them clean and dry, he gathered them up, as they would be useful if he was determined to pack up and leave. Again, he took the elevator upstairs, rationalizing that he was still a little weak and shouldn’t try to exert himself just yet.
Back in his apartment, his burst of energy, and enthusiasm, lasted long enough for him to assemble the boxes and start placing books in one box, before he felt the need to sit for a bit. Holding a book he’d picked up in his travels in Egypt, he sank into the couch and began to read.
One of the first talents he’d noticed as a youth, was his ability to remember, and to soak up information. If it was part of his superpowers, it likely had been the first one to develop. His teachers had delighted in his intelligence, though he’d quickly discovered few of his classmates appreciated working alongside someone who excelled with little effort. Throughout middle, and high school, he’d tried to hide how easy it was to learn and memorize, walking a fine line between having great grades, and being the smartest kid in the class.
His ability to learn languages hadn’t been discovered in a small town in Kansas. He had discovered that talent when he started travelling, after university. It hadn’t surprised him, given the last superpower to appear at that point, was the ability to fly, and, along with flying, being a polyglot made travelling, and working, around the globe unbelievably easy.
The book he had selected was in Arabic, and he was relieved he could still read and understand the flowing script. Placing the book aside, he selected several in a variety of languages, Italian, Mandarin, and Thai, and could comprehend and understand what he was reading.
He released a breath he wasn’t aware he’d been holding. His ability with languages would help him get work, either as an international reporter, or translator. If he had lost the rest of his super powers, even if his ability to learn quickly was diminished, he retained the knowledge and practical skills he’d gained over the years.
He quickly packed most of his foreign language books into boxes, leaving the boxes on the floor rather than stacking them neatly. He’d get to that later once his body recovered a bit more. While his muscles didn’t ache so much this afternoon, he still felt weak, and didn’t want to risk hurting himself trying to do too much.
The first time he’d been exposed to Kryptonite in Smallville, it had been a brief exposure, and had stripped him of his powers for a day. After his Dad had dragged him into the house, he’d felt awful, no longer in intense pain, but weak, only starting to feel better after sleeping. The next day, spent in the bright sunshine with Lois, he’d felt fine, no aches or lingering pain, just missing his powers. The second exposure, this time from Trask, had been a longer exposure, but nothing like what he’d just endured, and his powers had still taken a day to return.
The next encounter with Kryptonite had to have been at the false alarm at the bank a few days ago, though it had been very brief, and from an unknown source. He’d been able to fly away after that encounter, a slight headache disappearing within minutes, the pain in his body a fleeting memory.
His stomach lurched as thought about the cage. The exposure from it had been brutal to his body. While he felt better in some aspects, he knew his body wasn’t healing at a rapid rate, as the burns were still painful. He had no strength at all, just the effort of packing up his books had tired him out. He was tired, not something unfamiliar as he always needed rest, but being awake for a few hours and he already wanted another nap, was a new and frustrating experience.
For most of his teen years, and into his early twenties, he’d wanted to be normal. Stripped of his abilities several months ago, he swore to not take them for granted again. They were a part of him, a part of his Kryptonian heritage, and now he had Superman as an outlet to use his powers, to help others, they were no longer a burden, no longer just something that made him different, no longer something to keep hidden at all costs. He’d finally begun to be comfortable with who he was, and in one moment of cockiness, he’d lost it all, maybe this time for good.
He lay back on the couch, grabbing the throw that Lois usually wrapped herself in when watching a movie, and covered himself with it, being careful not to bump his wounds. Without his healing ability, they could take weeks to heal, and he couldn’t hide in his apartment for that long, however, for now he wanted a snooze and not think about everything that had been taken from him. He set his glasses on the coffee table and quickly drifted off.
****
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