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Features Writer
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OP
Features Writer
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Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
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I think the Myanmar soldiers needed to read a few more comic books - their bullets won't do anything. Pilar and Lana would get along fabulously I think. Of course he gave the interview to Lois Lane - and he seemed to have a bit of a smirk as he said it  . And others are showing the footage and knowing now what it really is. And the wing... wow - they all came really close didn't they? And the whole world knows about the whole alternate universe thing. Now how is it going to get fixed? And who is going to stay where? Surely you won't leave Lois and Clark apart will you?!?!?! /me gives Shayne an evil eye Carol
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Top Banana
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Top Banana
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And now Lois's ex-boss knows better than to jump to conclusions - especially ones that don't make sense.
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Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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Most of it was things Lois had heard before…DNA matches, retinal scans, hundreds of artifacts from the other world including one set of home movies showing the unfamiliar skyline of Gotham City found in the baggage compartment.
There wasn't anything in the skyline that screamed alien, no bat signal in the sky, no overdrawn gothic architecture. It could have been any city in the eastern United States, although according to the experts it wasn't. I just love this! Footage of Gotham City!!! (With no bat signal in the sky and no overdrawn gothic architecture!!!  ) “They are being moved to more comfortable accommodations,” Agent White said. “Unfortunately they are now being quarantined.”
“I've already been in contact with both my sister and a lot of other people,” Lois said. “If they have something, I've already spread it all over the country.”
“What if the disease is on our side?” Dr. Ledderman said quietly. “Something they don't have a defense against?”
Lois settled back into her seat. “You've already had a lot of people exposed to them.”
Agent White shook his head. “When we couldn't find any weapons on the plane, we assumed the people on the plane WERE the weapon. We've had most of them under quarantine conditions already.”
“I didn't exactly have to wear a decontamination suit to visit my sister.”
“We'd about decided that they were clean during your visit. We're tightening restrictions again.” This is a real concern. Bacteria and viruses transferred from one parallel universe to another could be nasty indeed. But, Shayne, as you had Clark bring aid to a monastery, I couldn't help thinking that that is a place for men only. That was Clark's first priority, to bring help to a place where there were only men. I was thinking to myself, who would help the women of Myanmar? How long would it have taken for the women in Myanmar to get help even if Superman had existed in this world? “Why did you take the wing off?” Lois asked.
“We didn't.” Agent White pressed a button and the scene shifted.
“Something cut the wing in half. The cut is more precise than anything we can replicate; the nearest we can guess is that it was done with a laser. We've had teams looking for the rest of the wing, but we haven't had any luck.”
Lois took a deep breath and said, “Maybe it's on the other side.” Wow. Oh, wow. You have to wonder - would even Clark have survived if he had been at that laser edge between two universes? I don't think he would. So if Clark is going to bring the passengers back, he will have to stay completely away from that interface. It is really scary to think about. By the way, is there an ulterior reason, story-wise, for why the passengers from flight 1013 are being kept so totally isolated? Because when the world they have been brought to learns about Superman, the visitors from the other universe can remain completely ignorant of him? And then Clark can bring them all back to their own universe, and they won't have a clue that Clark is Superman? Although he didn't know her, he recognized the type. Young, just getting her foot in the door, and assigned to every dog show and minor local piece they could find. They wouldn't have assigned an experienced reporter to an impromptu gathering of Superman groupies.
Seeing someone pointing up at him, he deliberately slowed his descent until the reporter got the idea and looked up. I just love how Clark is helping that reporter to get her much-needed break! No doubt he feels sympathy for her because she reminds him of Lois Lane. Or maybe he loves Lois Lane because he feels such instinctive sympathy for people like her! “Why are you here?” she asked.
“An accident,” he said. “I flew a plane load of people through a rift from my world to this one. Now that I'm here, I'm going to do everything I can to help.” I love her question and his answer. “Are you talking about flight 1013 that appeared in Washington D.C.?”
“The United States government is holding almost two hundred people who have committed no crime other than being refugees from another country,” he said. Yes!!! Now the world will know!!! “There's got to be more to the story,” she said.
“I've given a full interview to Lois Lane,” Clark said.
“The C.N.N. reporter?”
He smirked a little. “It seemed appropriate.” Yes!!! Take that, Pilar! “How will they get in contact with you? She asked.
“I'll be around.” I loved that little tribute to Superman Returns, too! Upper management wanted to speak with her.
Perhaps firing Lois hadn't been as easy a decision as it had seemed at the time.
On one screen she could see a Fox media expert pointing to the video clip of flight 1013 landing and pointing at the shadow hanging from beneath the plane. How they'd gotten permission to even use the footage she didn't know, but that wasn't her main concern at the moment.
Her main concern was keeping her job. Hah! Good luck, Pilar! You are going to need it. Fantastic, Shayne! Please keep the story coming! Ann
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Hack from Nowheresville
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Hack from Nowheresville
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Well, I do have one problem with this part. (drum roll) It's too short. 
Rose: You're NOT keeping the horse!
Doctor Who: I let you keep Mickey, now lets go!
Doctor Who, The Girl in the Fireplace
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Kerth
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Kerth
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Yes! Superman on every screen! Well done.
Can't wait till Lois's plane lands.
Framework4
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Features Writer
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OP
Features Writer
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Actually, Ann, it's my understanding that the monastaries have served as shelters for whole communities, men and women alike. Clark isn't forgetting the women; he's just taking advange of the one organized group in that country who aren't the junta leaders.
Thanks for the comments, everyone.
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Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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Thanks for the clarification, Shayne.
Ann
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Merriwether
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Merriwether
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It's a little thing, but I appreciated how you pointed out that Clark was fully aware of where Lois was and was confining himself to activities which could be accomplished while she didn't need him.
Such a scene you have painted for us. The man has fled the sounds of children dying of hunger only to find dead bodies floating down the river in front of him. He is surrounded by death and hopelessness when confronted with the life of food and the hope of Superman's aid.
Elisabeth
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Kerth
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Kerth
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Belated thought on this - if there was any grain in the containers, after the space trip it will be popcorn.
Even if the passengers haven't been told about Superman, I have a feeling that they may have been asked if Clark Kent was aboard the plane. If they go back that might cause a few problems.
Marcus L. Rowland
Forgotten Futures, The Scientific Romance Role Playing Game
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Hack from Nowheresville
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Hack from Nowheresville
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Again: Wow! Of course, this wasn’t exactly what Lois had outlined either. She’d envisioned him doing high profile things to get noticed, so that the press would listen when he told his story. This wasn’t high profile at all, but he didn’t see that he had a choice.
It was the right thing to do. and Whatever happened, this was what he’d been meant to do. It seems he finally has accepted his destiny. He came a long way in your story! Everything was gone. The valley had been wiped clean and the bodies coming down the river were fouling the water. Old Thaung was already sick, and it wouldn’t be long before it spread to the others.
Nanda felt numb. A week ago he’d had everything. He’d had a family that loved him, a girl who had promised to wait for him, and he’d been preparing to become an adult. If his siblings teased him about his western style t-shirts with western logos, it was only good natured fun.
Now he’d been wearing the same ragged shirt for almost a week. Despite the wind he was sitting here, outside the monastery because he couldn’t stand to listen to the crying of the smallest children. They were crying because of hunger; his pain was deeper. I love it how you write these small side characters that step into the story and out of it: Cyrus and his sister, the meteorologist whatshisname, the scientists or Jacob, and now Nanda. You give a few lines to each one of them for characterization - and you manage to give them live with it!  Although Clark was bulletproof, he didn’t see how he’d be able to stop the soldiers from taking the goods as soon as he left. He’d seen that sort of bullying before, in his travels in Africa on his own world, and it wasn’t the sort of thing one man, no matter how powerful could stop. It could be a solution to put the container inside the monasteries, perhaps in an inner courtyard. As far as I know, the monks of Birma get their living from the people around the monasteries, and it´s a sacred thing to give them food and other things. Even the Junta stays away from the monks as long as they don´t start to demonstrate on the streets. But I don´t know enough about the situation there... The reporter was braver than he would have expected, stepping into the shadow of the storage container.
“Are you talking about flight 1013 that appeared in Washington D.C.?” Again one of your carefully constructed side characters! I can see her - still some eggshells sticking behind her ears from the hatching, but already an intrepid reporter! And a clear head and fast and correct conclusions in front of something so unbelievable. In reality she wouldn´t have to wait a long time for an offer from a big network... “The United States government is holding almost two hundred people who have committed no crime other than being refugees from another country,” he said. Mr. President, I would suggest a press conference, and very quickly! Another universe, a rift between different universes, an alien flying around and a planeload of people kept locked up... Something definitely has hit the fan! An aide gestured to her, and she moved quickly to a monitor to the side. MSNBC had a crew of reporters on the ground in Myanmar, and they were showing a man in a blue and red suit landing while carrying a giant storage container.
Myanmar troops were firing at him. Uh oh. What will Clark do? He still has to prove his peaceful intentions to the world. Of course the suit does its magic, but there must be a lot of people in front of their TV screens thinking: `What are his real intentions? If he´s an alien, everything is possible, he could be really dangerous with that abilities...Is he really Superman or something else?´ I could think of a number of ways for him to deal with those troops. A little bit of intimidation would not hurt, I think - of course nothing involving bodily harm to the soldiers. And I also hope that none of the cyclone victims get hurt from the bullets bouncing off him! I´m almost pitying Pilar now! She will be in the same positions she put Lois in - `Shut the door and take a seat...´ and if she´s lucky, she will keep her job! I want to read what´s happening in Birma! And what about Lois and Agent White! Do they have a TV connection on board, so they can see what has happened? Please, next chapter! 
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Beat Reporter
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This whole part nearly had me in tears. Why can't we really have Superman here? Of course, this wasn’t exactly what Lois had outlined either. She’d envisioned him doing high profile things to get noticed, so that the press would listen when he told his story. This wasn’t high profile at all, but he didn’t see that he had a choice.
It was the right thing to do. He's really Superman. I mean, of course he his; he's Clark Kent. But just a strong flying man in a bright suit wouldn't immediately inspire hope, wouldn't rally people behind him, wouldn't stand a chance of going up against the government and getting those people released. (Wouldn't inspire action to stop the soldiers from stealing the relief goods to Myanmar?) Imagine if he were, I don't know, Guy Gardner. He'd help people, but only to show off. I'd be scared of him if he showed up in our world. Some people will be scared of Superman, too, but there will still be a tickle of hope in the back of their minds.... (Besides, anything Superman does is very quickly going to *become* high profile.) Dr. Ledderman is going to have a whole lot of frantic thinking to do. Yeah, the concept of parallel worlds is well-studied. But now we're being faced with a world, or multiple worlds, that are *almost* *exactly* *like* *ours*. Yes, if there are parallel worlds, there are infinitely many, but frankly that just makes it *less* likely to find one that's similar to our own. This nuclear thing in Paris can't be just opening random portals; of course, I think Ledderman already suspects that.
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Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
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Another great installment! As Clark descended into the atmosphere he was glad he’d thought to keep his trajectory well south of Russia and China until the last moments. Setting off World War Three wasn’t how he wanted to start all of this off. Glad to see you took care of that. Nuclear holocaust could really ruin everyone's day. I wonder how much conversation happened on the fabled "red phones" in Offscreenville. Wasn't it a staple of movies of the Cold War era that the President could pick up the "red phone" in the Oval Office and immediately be connected to the Russian Premier for a direct, one-on-one conversation? (Of course, back in those days, all the phones were black, so a red phone was really something.) Presumably, when Clark lifted off, the USA made frantic phone calls (or whatever) to the other nuclear powers, saying, "Hey, we're really not launching!" I wonder if they added, "It's not missiles, it's Superman!" Nah. Probably not. See? You're making me think backstory again! Shayne, you say one little thing and it immediately starts a whole line of other questions. In your lean prose, a few words of description or action are enough to create a myriad of questions. Dr. Ledderman’s face was pale as evidence began to mount. Most of it was things Lois had heard before…DNA matches, retinal scans, hundreds of artifacts from the other world including one set of home movies showing the unfamiliar skyline of Gotham City found in the baggage compartment. I'm so glad you're telling us what's in the presentation! And not just the stuff you mentioned before. The Gotham City home movies are a great touch. More realism. (Now you've got me wondering what the Gotham City skyline looks like...And are people still using film in Clark's world? Have they gone to videotape yet? If so, are the videotape protocols the same as in our world? Shayne, you've got me thinking again...) On the big screen the picture was six feet high, repeated across five different monitors. For the first time Pilar began to hate the way her station played the same news over and over again. You know, I thought that I wanted Pilar to eat crow, but now that it's really happening, it's not as satisfying as I thought it would be. I guess I just can't gloat properly. She made a mistake, that's all. How was she to know that Superman was real? And now he's on the news, and Pilar is toast. Although Clark was bulletproof, he didn’t see how he’d be able to stop the soldiers from taking the goods as soon as he left. He’d seen that sort of bullying before, in his travels in Africa on his own world, and it wasn’t the sort of thing one man, no matter how powerful could stop. Alas. All too true. And sad. “I don’t know what the hell is happening.” The pilot’s voice was strained. “We’ve lost engines one and two and engines three and four are just completely gone. How the hell are we even staying up?”
The copilot’s voice was just as strained. “Controls aren’t responding.”
“Where did the city go? Traffic Control this is flight 1013. We’ve lost visual contact with…”
“There’s nothing down there.” The co-pilot’s voice was horrified. “It’s all gone.”
“We just got turned around,” the pilot snapped. “A whole city doesn’t just vanish.” Can you imagine the tendril of fear that coiled in the pilots' guts at that time? “I heard you folks could use some help,” the man said in heavily accented Burmese. “Where can I put this?”
Nando slowly looked down at his own shirt, with its familiar red and yellow logo, and then looked up at the chest of the flying man.
The man met his eyes and smiled and for the first time in days Nando felt a surge of excitement. For the first time he felt a surge of hope... In a world where Superman was real, anything was possible. It's Superman! He's here! He's in our world! He's real! It's great, marvelous, wonderful, stupendous, amazing! “So why the Superman outfit?” she asked, “If this isn’t some sort of publicity stunt.”
“People know what it means,” Clark said. Yes! You've put your finger on it! The essence! So, since there is no Superman in Clark's world (yet), Clark will have to create what the costume means. The reputation, the expectations of what Superman means, what Superman does. So, it's a weird tangle - Clark comes into our world, Lois puts him into the Suit, he becomes Superman. And everyone knows what Superman means and does - in our world. But when he goes back to his world, no one knows who Superman is, what he stands for, his ideals. Clark, as the newly made Superman, will have to create the reputation that seventy years of story-telling have formed here. He has to make his own legend. Our world has the myth, the role. His world doesn't. He'll have to create it. But one thing about beginnings is the freedom from old traditions, the ability to lay a new course. Will Clark follow the path that's been laid out for him in our world? Will Clark, as the real Superman in his world, be different from the fictional Superman of our world? I can't see him deviating in any significant way. No matter what world he's in, Clark will stand for helping, protecting, truth, and justice. Superman is transuniversal.
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Kerth
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Kerth
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My local news was doing one of their "Live" on scene reports tonight.
They do a lot of these because they have the technology and it gets the viewer out of the newsroom.
I couldn't help picturing the local news anchors as the live feed going to the newsroom of Superman's arrival interrupts them.
Framework4
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Kerth
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Kerth
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Originally posted by ShayneT:
the monasteries have served as shelters for whole communities, men and women alike...the one organized group in that country who aren't the junta leaders. Shayne, Maybe when you send it to the archive you could have Jacob explain that to Clark.
Framework4
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Beat Reporter
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They had the Eurypterid which was even uglier than it had looked on the Internet. Dr. Ledderman swore softly to himself as he leaned forward to look at it. He should be salivating, even if he's not an evolutionary biologist. 250-million-year-old DNA, proteins and tissue!  Every telephone line was flooded, and the word from the technical support staff was that the servers had just crashed from being flooded.
MSNBC had a crew of reporters on the ground in Myanmar, and they were showing a man in a blue and red suit landing while carrying a giant storage container.
On one screen she could see a Fox media expert pointing to the video clip of flight 1013 landing and pointing at the shadow hanging from beneath the plane. So it's on every network, and I'll bet it will be the banner headline for every newspaper. I'd love to see more reactions from the man in the street, like Jacob and Nanda. And the woman in the streeet, too: does the waitress in that bar that Clark first went into now know she served a beer to Superman? Another great part! Things are really cooking now... I can't wait to see what happens next! 
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Pulitzer
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Pulitzer
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Love the ending of that Chapter!
I feel sorry for her, though. I would have probably done the same thing if I was in her position. As you know, I am a huge Superman fan (but I am losing weight), but if I was confronted with a real flying man, I think I would faint.
James
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the only problem with this part is that it is finished and I can hardly wait for the next
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Top Banana
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Top Banana
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Wow! I simply love where it's going (because I am continually surprised). I keep thinking I know the direction and then... we hit a surprising turn. His interview was superb. Delightful and very very fascinating! Still can't decide which world they'll make a home in... but Lois & Clark will stay in the same world, right?
If she had to move heaven and Earth, perhaps come back to haunt Perry and explain the story after they'd killed her, she would do it.
Waking a Miracle by Aria
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Kerth
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Kerth
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I've been out of town until this last Tuesday. This is a terrific story, Shayne.
By the way, Ann, The "I'll be around" comment may be a reference to Superman Returns, but it's also the line Superman used to Lois in the second half of the pilot for Lois and Clark TNAoS--the series.
Nan
Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.
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