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Features Writer
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Features Writer
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 814 |
Well, tell me what you think!
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Posts: 391
Beat Reporter
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Beat Reporter
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Posts: 391 |
What do I think? I think it's another great part, and I want more!  Of course, assaulting federal agents in the middle of a casino with hundreds of cameras probably wasn’t the best start to a career as Superman, especially if you were trying to get the trust of a paranoid public. Yes indeed. Clark is doing the right thing. I just hope he knows where Lois is going. Unless they were all hallucinating, the world was about to change dramatically, and they were part of it. I'll go make the popcorn. It's showtime.  This time the planes didn’t fire on him, and for the first time Clark began to realize that while the suit might look a little ridiculous, there was one thing Lois hadn’t mentioned about it. And here Lois is proved absolutely correct. By being Superman, Clark has 60 years of people's built-in expectations and feelings to work on. If he'd been dressed in any other costume they would have fired on him. “The geography is all wrong. There isn’t a pocket of compressed gas within fifty miles of that site.” Agent White stared at Dr. Ledderman for a moment, as though waiting for him to make the obvious conclusion. Agent White has figured it out. Maybe he and Lois can cooperate. They have no chance of rescuing the passengers without cooperation from the government, and that cooperation has to start somewhere, and with someone. I like the more frequent posting schedule, and hope it continues.
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Hack from Nowheresville
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Hack from Nowheresville
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 101 |
Hi Shane! I've been following this all along but haven't commented on how much I have been enjoying your plot. It's Super! I always appreciate your writing. This story is unique. How clever to bring Clark to our dimension. Write on! Anne
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Joined: Sep 2006
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Beat Reporter
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Beat Reporter
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 391 |
I just realized, with the cyclone in Myanmar and tornados in the US and today's earthquake in China, Clark is going to be very busy. If only he were really here... 
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Merriwether
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Merriwether
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,864 |
It's so nice to see that Agent Randall has not been discredited. It seems as if he has the ear of some very important people. “We had to ask him despite all that; at this point we aren’t ready to turn away anyone who could help.”
“I’ve been doing some research on my own,” Lois began.
“We know,” Agent White said. “There’s a reason you’re here instead of locked up in a Las Vegas jail cell awaiting transport.” And he still has his wits about him. I'm glad that Superman's first official act on the job was a humanitarian act. Of course, members of the appropriations committee knew about secret programs as they were the ones who funded them.
“Do they believe it?” Lois asked Agent White as he sat down beside her. I like how she cuts right to the chase here. It's even better when you realize that Dr. Ledderman, despite being uber-smart, doesn't get it. I always enjoy it when someone explores the physics of fantasy or sci-fi. It's fun. The reactions of the fighter pilots is equally enjoyable. This looks like it's going to be a fun trip all the way to the end. Elisabeth
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Posts: 5,797
Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 5,797 |
Myanmar!!! I love how you keep this story so amazingly topical, Shayne! And now thatere's the earthquake in China, too... yes, if only Clark was here for real! I love how Agent White seems to be a good guy, too. As much as I hated seeing Lois with someone else in Superman Returns, I have to admit that Richard White seemed like a nice guy there. And he was Perry's nephew, too. Well, I'm glad to see that Agent White seems to be on the side of the angels in this story!  I also loved how Clark smiled and waved at the fighter pilots. It so reminded me of Christopher Reeve in Superman the Movie, when he saved an airplane and smiled and waved at the astounded pilot. “You're seeing what I'm seeing,” the pilot insisted.
A second plane came up on the other side of him. “I'm seeing it too, I think.”
Clark smiled and waved a little.
The voice on the radio cursed for a moment. “If it's really who it looks like, he can hear you. If it's some kind of trick, then they may have a radio. Either way, deliver the message.”
The pilot flicked a switch and said, “Unidentified aircraft, you are in United States airspace. Land at the following coordinates or you will be fired upon.” "Unidentified aircraft!!!" I love it!!! I loved this, too: By all rights, Clark shouldn't have been able to lift the shipping container, no matter how strong he was. The metal of the structure hadn't been designed to take the entire twenty six ton weight of the structure spread across the minuscule area of two human hands. The metal should have crimpled like tissue paper in his hands.
Clark's best guess was that the same thing that allowed him to protect Lois from the wind and cold of moving at supersonic speeds also allowed him to better distribute the weight of a relatively massive structure. Spread thin, it didn't protect the object he was holding against anything but its own weight. Yeah!!! I love when weird comic book physics gets explained!!! “Interestingly, we have footage of Ms. Lane hugging this very person in Washington DC. less than an hour after the boat's miraculous recovery.”
Lois flushed as the video in question was played. It looked a lot more intimate from this angle than she'd remembered it being. It had been a spontaneous display of emotion, but in black and white it looked like something much cozier. I also love how it seems obvious to outside observers that Lois and Clark are in love, but they themselves have not yet realized. Certainly not Lois, that's for sure. Yeah!!! With Agent White on their side, things are beginning to look hopeful! Ann
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Kerth
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Kerth
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 2,018 |
Delightful. Just wonderful. four of the six forty foot shipping containers With six to transport it will be easy to figure out where he is and track him. This means the US Air Force and the media both. By the time he lifts off with #6 he is going to be live on CNN, NBC and all the rest! His best bet would be to fly into space, where he could move as quickly as he wanted to as long as he could avoid orbits with high flying debris. With no wind resistance he could accelerate to almost full speed. So every defense system on the planet will be tracking him! Also thousands of amateur astronomers will see him when trying to watch satellites and the space station. The voice on the radio ... "If it’s really who it looks like..." Yeah, everyone knows who this is, and he's doing exactly what everyone would expect him to be doing in the circumstances.  Originally posted by DebbieG:
And here Lois is proved absolutely correct. By being Superman, Clark has 60 years of people's built-in expectations and feelings to work on. If he'd been dressed in any other costume they would have fired on him. Very good point!
Framework4
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Joined: Feb 2006
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Hack from Nowheresville
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Hack from Nowheresville
Joined: Feb 2006
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YES! *hugs Shayne and nearly throttles him*   Thank you for that! I will be back for a longer review in the evening (my time zone)!
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Freelance Reporter
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Freelance Reporter
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 76 |
I haven't seen this mentioned by Shayne, nor by anyone offering FDK, but I think that it should be.
From Clark's standpoint, a couple of nations (i.e. our USA and France) have committed an act of war against his USA, by using their technology (inadvertently or not) to divert one of its civilian aircraft together with 195 passengers and crew, forcing them to land at gunpoint, and then holding them captive and depriving them of their civil rights as well as dismantling this multi-million-dollar aircraft.
He ought to be able to make a good case before the United Nations (as well as the court of public opinion) based on these facts alone, if they can be proved.
Snave
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Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
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YES!!! WE HAVE A SUPERMAN!!!!
I almost feel sorry for the pilots...
James
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Hack from Nowheresville
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Hack from Nowheresville
Joined: Feb 2006
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I threatened you this morning with a longer review, and I hold my promises! So here it comes! “I’ve been in Hawaii…” Agent White began.
At that Dr. Ledderman looked up sharply. “You went to see that charlatan before you came to me? He’s a laughingstock…” Scientists... :rolleyes: “He refused to sign the nondisclosure documents,... Dear Agent White, I hate to have to tell you... but your nondisclosure documents won´t be worth the paper they are written on as soon as Clark goes public in the suit!  “I’ve been doing some research on my own,” Lois began.
“We know,” Agent White said. “There’s a reason you’re here instead of locked up in a Las Vegas jail cell awaiting transport.” Yes, and the reason is that she´s the only way you can get to Clark! And Agent White also knows that she wouldn´t stay too long in that jail... Lois sighed and wondered where Clark had gotten to. Part of her had hoped for a glorious rescue. Given Clark’s power the agents wouldn’t have stood a chance.
Of course, assaulting federal agents in the middle of a casino with hundreds of cameras probably wasn’t the best start to a career as Superman, especially if you were trying to get the trust of a paranoid public. Point taken. You are right, it´s much better not to get her out of this with such an action. “The junta is turning away relief shipments.” I actually hoped for this when I wrote in one of my last reviews something about coming out at a major disaster or something like that. But I didn´t know if you wanted to tie your story so directly to very actual reality right now. But I love the idea of Superman doing something for those poor people in Birma! By the way, what about the earthquake in China? Some of the men were moving away from the crazy man; no matter how reasonable he sounded you could never trust how some of these people were going to react.
He walked to the end of the container and checked to see that it was locked.
Then he bent and put one hand to the bottom of the metal container and another higher up. There was a sound of groaning metal and a moment later the entire container began to rise into the air. What a great scene! I can see it right before my eyes! Perfect writing! “Will you need these back?”
Jacob shook his head faintly. “It costs more to ship them than it does to buy a new one. We get abandoned ones donated to us all the time.” Jacob still keeps a very clear head in front of something - or someone - so unbelievable! “If he’s really coming back,” Jacob said, “Then we probably need to get back to work.”
The men stared at him for a moment and then began to grin. As Jacob began to join in he could hear the excited murmur of conversation between the others.
Unless they were all hallucinating, the world was about to change dramatically, and they were part of it. Will they call the media? By the time he comes back and gets the second or third container, CNN would be there, some news helicopters... and there goes the whole secrecy for the Feds. And how much would I love it to see our world changing! Especially that way! And the people in Birma - and in other places - deserve a real Superman. Do they believe it?” Lois asked Agent White as he sat down beside her.
“Given the evidence they don’t have much choice,” he said. So the people higher in the government start to believe it. Good, they really won´t have another choice... just wait, Clark is faster than you! By all rights, Clark shouldn’t have been able to lift the shipping container, no matter how strong he was. The metal of the structure hadn’t been designed to take the entire twenty six ton weight of the structure spread across the minuscule area of two human hands. The metal should have crimpled like tissue paper in his hands. I don´t know much about shipping containers, but I have seen how they are loaded from a ship. The machine seizes the upper corners of the container (magnetically?) and lifts it. The bottom of the container has to carry the full weight of the cargo, so it should be sturdy enough to be held by two hands. Of course there also is the special Superman aura which enables Clark to lift things without breaking them... “We have the bogie in sight. It’s….” A bird? A plane? No, it´s... Undoubtedly the comic book writers would have given his counterpart something silly like super-ventriloquism. I had to look it up in a dictionary, but then:  Other universes, yes, but Superman? No, impossible! How long will it take until he gets it? “You think something came through the storm?” Ledderman asked.
“We know it did.” Agent White said, “And we have the proof.” What kind of proof does he have we don´t know about? The video footage from Youtube? CNN footage from the sugar refinery? Come on, Agent White, tell us!  Or was it Shayne? What a wonderful chapter, and what a great idea to involve the desaster in Birma into your plot! Simply great! *Hugs and nearly strangles poor Shayne again* 
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Joined: Sep 2005
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Freelance Reporter
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Freelance Reporter
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 76 |
I know I already posted above, but...
I hope I'm wrong, but I think that Clark may be in process of committing an act of war himself, and perhaps precipitating a global nuclear response.
Consider that he has just launched a very large, very long metal object, easily visible to any country's radar, into space. He will then, in the vacuum of space, accelerate it to hypersonic speeds, and aim it in the general direction of Europe. What will be the likely response when some European nation sees this missile-shaped object bearing down on them, ostensibly fired from somewhere in the United States?
Just a thought...
Snave
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Joined: Dec 2005
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Kerth
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Kerth
Joined: Dec 2005
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AS everyone has said, the best thing he has done to improve his street-cred is to wear the suit. But I suspect that the CIA will find this the bit that really gets them worried - how can a comic book character be real?
Marcus L. Rowland
Forgotten Futures, The Scientific Romance Role Playing Game
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Kerth
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Kerth
Joined: Dec 2005
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Originally posted by Snave:
I know I already posted above, but...
I hope I'm wrong, but I think that Clark may be in process of committing an act of war himself, and perhaps precipitating a global nuclear response.
Consider that he has just launched a very large, very long metal object, easily visible to any country's radar, into space. He will then, in the vacuum of space, accelerate it to hypersonic speeds, and aim it in the general direction of Europe. What will be the likely response when some European nation sees this missile-shaped object bearing down on them, ostensibly fired from somewhere in the United States?
Just a thought...
Snave Actually he's headed for Burma, SE Asia. The most direct course is West towards Asia, not East towards Europe, and since he's headed out to sea from California that seems to be the way he's going. This might be a bit worrying for China and Russia, of course...
Marcus L. Rowland
Forgotten Futures, The Scientific Romance Role Playing Game
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Merriwether
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Merriwether
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I also think it's helpful that the pilots got a visual confirmation of Superman. Their feed should probably have a video recording.
Elisabeth
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Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
Joined: Feb 2008
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Stepping out of the darkness was a man in a Superman costume.
Jacob shifted uneasily, as did several of the men in front of him. They’d had a problem with crazies in the past. This lead-in is great. Then: A moment later he and the entire container were rising into the air as though being lifted by a crane. Jacob found himself rushing to the end of the dock along with the others to stare up in the sky. And, of course, this is the perfect line: “What are we going to tell the bosses?”
“We found alternate transportation.” Bob spoke finally. “Sometimes God works in mysterious ways.” “You’re seeing what I’m seeing,” the pilot insisted.
A second plane came up on the other side of him. “I’m seeing it too, I think.”
Clark smiled and waved a little.
This time the planes didn’t fire on him, and for the first time Clark began to realize that while the suit might look a little ridiculous, there was one thing Lois hadn’t mentioned about it. It could be a lot of fun. This is excellent! Clark is going public! And the Suit is working its magic. I'm sure the pilots will be hoisting a beer or two after their shift today. Oh, that’s funny,” Dr. Ledderman said. “You, Lois Lane got involved with someone going around calling himself Clark Kent.” It had to be! It's written in the stars. They are meant to be together. Now that Clark has gone public, in the view of the government, the fecal material has hit the rotary air impeller. The coverup is doomed. How long is it going to take to get him on live TV? I can't wait. You know, I'm surprised that a guy like Dr. Ledderman didn't spend a lot of time reading comics as a kid. You'd think that someone with his intelligence would have done so. Why else isn't he picking up on the Superman vibe? Or is it just that he has lots of intelligence and no brains? The scary thing about this fic is that, if Agent White and the government have proof, it shows how much all of us are being video'd, scanned, monitored, and spied upon every day. It may be too late for freedom in our world. If Clark goes back to his own, I hope that he can prevent the pervasive expansion of Big-Brotherism. Please, please post more soon. You're bringing up questions, not only of Clark and his world, but of our world as well. It makes me think.....
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Beat Reporter
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Beat Reporter
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Posts: 391 |
It is way too late for me to be posting this, but I have to defend poor Dr. Ledderman.
Clark is impossible, according to our current understanding of the way the universe works. Not just slightly impossible, but extremely impossible. Dr. Ledderman, like Lois before him, can be excused for not considering this possibility until he sees incontrovertible proof. As Carl Sagan liked to say, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." Any scientist who went straight to the conclusion that Superman was involved from the evidence Dr. Ledderman has seen so far would not be a very good scientist.
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Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
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by Debbie G
It is way too late for me to be posting this, but I have to defend poor Dr. Ledderman.
Clark is impossible, according to our current understanding of the way the universe works. Not just slightly impossible, but extremely impossible. Dr. Ledderman, like Lois before him, can be excused for not considering this possibility until he sees incontrovertible proof. As Carl Sagan liked to say, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." Any scientist who went straight to the conclusion that Superman was involved from the evidence Dr. Ledderman has seen so far would not be a very good scientist. You are absolutely right, Debbie. Extraordinary claims do require extraordinary evidence. That is a good maxim which will keep all of us from getting conned. (I really don't expect to get $42 million from Nigerian oil money, just by giving my bank account number to someone who e-mailed me.) But, in our defense, (and just for the sake of argument) when someone says, "Clark Kent", don't you automatically think, "Superman"? It's word association. You know - "Salt" - "Pepper". Or "Knife" - "Fork". There's been seventy years of pop culture supporting that association. And, if you're thinking "Superman", don't you then start thinking about Superman's powers? Also, if Dr. Ledderman is thinking about alternate worlds, why not make the mental leap? Doesn't his mind, or his thinking, have to be crazy enough, to understand the kind of theory that allows him to know how this whole "dimensional rift" thing is happening? If he's a "mad scientist", isn't he crazy already? I guess he's either not crazy enough, or not crazy in the right way. “I’ve been in Hawaii…” Agent White began.
At that Dr. Ledderman looked up sharply. “You went to see that charlatan before you came to me? He’s a laughingstock…”
“Your reputation isn’t much better than his,” Agent White said, “Although out experts say that your mathematics are better.” So maybe Dr. Ledderman could make the mental leap. But I can see your point, too - a point which is very well taken, and very believable. I just think it's funny that Shayne wrote Dr. Ledderman that way. It certainly makes for a better story. Shayne, if you're reading this, keep up the story! It's great to see Clark come out of the closet. And in our world! I'm still snickering about the jet pilots and their reactions to the sight of Superman. A priceless moment. Two of the sleek looking fighters were coming alongside him and he could hear the comments of the pilots inside.
“We have the bogie in sight. It’s….”
The voice stopped suddenly and Clark turned his head to look at the pilot. He wasn’t concealing himself now, but it would have been useful to have a radio or some sort of way to communicate.
Undoubtedly the comic book writers would have given his counterpart something silly like super-ventriloquism.
“You’d better look at the feed for yourself.”
“What is it?”
“I’d like to stay out of the nuthouse, respectfully sir. Just check the feed.”
There was silence on the pilot’s radio for almost a minute before the voice reappeared. “This is some kind of joke. It’s not funny.”
“You’re seeing what I’m seeing,” the pilot insisted.
A second plane came up on the other side of him. “I’m seeing it too, I think.”
Clark smiled and waved a little. Also, Shayne, I'd like to hear more of the presentation that Agent White is giving to Lois and Dr. Ledderman (hint, hint). More, Shayne, more! Please!
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