Superman Movieverse Forum

Three hours, many phone calls and absolutely no new information later Lois was almost ready to march down to the airport and demand they take her to the Arctic where she could get useful information, ‘no flying in the third trimester’ be damned.

Jason busy was cooking spaghetti for lunch, one of his favorites and the only thing Lois felt safe letting him make, when a healthy looking Skye emerged from the bedroom.

“Mommy,” She bounced over to the couch and threw her arms awkwardly around Lois, “I feel better now. Can I have something to eat?” Lois hugged her back, trying not to let her immense relief show on her face lest it betray how truly worried she had been.

“Your brother’s just making spaghetti now.” She told her daughter, “Let me look at you.” Skye stopped bouncing and held still as Lois put a hand on her forehead. “Your temperature’s back to normal, we you lying in the sun?”

Skye nodded, “Daddy told me that sunlight helps make us not sick so Aunty Chloe opened the curtains for me.”

“Did she?” Lois made a mental note to thank the woman later. “Well, I still want you to slow down for the rest of the weekend, I know sunlight helps you but until you’re invulnerable you have to let your body heal slowly okay?” Lois smiled slightly, never would she have imagined saying those words to her children when Clark Kent first tripped his dorky way into her life. The thought of Clark sobered her instantly, “Go help your brother serve up lunch,” She instructed Skye, “I’ll just be a minute.” She heaved herself off the couch and made her way towards the bathroom, wishing that the triplets would for once just sleep when she was working.

In the kitchen, Jason was trying to make Skye feel useful while keeping her out of the way at the same time. “You can get the plates out,” He decided, “But wash your hands first, we don’t want to get sick.”

“But I’m all better now,” Skye told him, “And you don’t get sick.”

“Well, Mom does,” He reminded her, “So wash your hands before you touch anything.”

“But-“

“Sky-ye,” Jason warned her through clenched teeth while keeping an ear on his Mom in the bathroom like his Dad had taught him. Lois had been more sick with the triplets than she’d ever been with Jason or Skye and Clark had asked Jason to take care of her when he was away, Jason was pretty sure now counted as a time when he was away.

Skye finally washed her hands before removing four plates from the cupboard. “There’s only three of us,” Jason reminded her as she set the out on the table.

“But what if Daddy wakes up and comes home?” Skye rolled her eyes, “He’ll be really hungry after staying in the hospital because when Ashley’s Mom was in there she wasn’t allowed to eat. So if Daddy wakes up he’ll listen and find us here and then he’ll want lunch too.”

Jason felt a flare of anger inside him at his sister’s stupidity, didn’t she realise that if their Dad was sick enough to be in hospital he wasn’t just going to ‘wake up’? “Skye-“ he started, glaring at her but before he cold continue he caught Lois’ eye as she returned from the bathroom. His Mom gave him a look and Jason clamped his mouth shut and watched as his sister laid out four sets of knives and forks, finally understanding what his English teacher had meant when he’d said ‘ignorance is bliss’.

--
Chloe gave a sigh of frustration as she slammed down the receiver. Nothing, not one single clue as to where Timothy Summers had disappeared to after Kathleen Quinn’s trial.

The man Miss Quinn had actually gotten the kryptonite from turned into a dead end after Richard had found out he’d been killed in prison shortly after by another inmate over a stolen toothbrush.

However, the notes on his trial indicated that he said he’d received the kryptonite from Mr Summers along with a large sum of money for its successful ‘distribution’ among Metropolis’ lesser criminals. Miss Quinn had confirmed that she’d seen Mr. Summers at the wharehouse where the kryptonite had been stored. Mr. Summers had been interviewed by police and had his home searched several times but ultimately got away clean. Then he disappeared, dropped off the face of the planet. No one noticed at the time because no one cared; Superman had just been shot by a teenage girl who was only trying to shoplift some make up, that was what people want to hear about.

His wife in Canada had wanted nothing to do with them, she’d politely explained that Mr. Summers had gone for a drive one day and never came back. Then she’d not so politely told Chloe where she could stick her investigation and hung up.

Chloe leaned her elbows on her desk and buried her head in her hands. It was so useless, nothing led anywhere and they didn’t really have all this time to waste, Clark needed them.

Two strong hands were placed on her shoulders and she leaned back with a sigh as Richard started massaging the knots out of her back. “Any luck?” He asked, moving to her neck.

“None, you?” She groaned as he hit a particularly stiff part. “Don’t stop,” She told him when he paused.

“You need a better chair,” He informed her, “And I’ve got nothing either.”

“If I had a better chair you’d never need to give me massages anymore,” Chloe tilted her head back and grinned up at him. Richard leaned down and kissed her.

“CHLOE, RICHARD!” Both of them leapt apart as their names were bellowed across the bullpen. Chloe automatically turned towards Perry’s office but Richard saw the real cause of the interruption.

“Jimmy!” He yelled in surprise as the Pulitzer prize winning photographer barrelled his way to their desks. “Don’t you have the next few months off?”

Jimmy had taken a leave of absence at the same time his wife, Sarah, who was six months pregnant with their first child. The pair had intended to work right up to the delivery day but complications with the pregnancy had seen Sarah take an extended maternity leave and Jimmy was granted time off to stay with her. Now, however, he was standing beside Chloe’s desk looking as if he was ready to rush off after the next big scoop.

“Sarah’s Mom’s in town, they can survive without me for a few days, how’s Clark?” He asked, cutting straight to the chase. “I heard you visited him yesterday.” He glanced at Richard, who nodded in comfirmation.

“He’s in quarantine until they figure out why he collapsed, they don’t want to run the risk that whatever he’s got is some sort of contagion that could harm humans.”

Jimmy nodded, “I know, just got off the phone to Lois she told me but I was wondering what you guys had found out.”

“You just talked to Lois?” Chloe looked up, “How is she? She’s been told not to work to hard but-“ She broke off with a shrug.

“Yeah,” Jimmy smiled and Richard nodded as well, “She said to tell you that Skye’s feeling better and thanks for opening the curtains.”

Chloe and Richard both visibly relaxed at the words. “So it wasn’t the same thing as Clark.” Richard sighed in relief, “I mean, it was unlikely but…”

“We were afraid it could be some sort of virus,” Chloe told Jimmy who nodded.

“But now you think he was poisoned or something.” Jimmy completed, “Have you looked into that incident with Kathleen Quinn and Timothy Summers?” He asked.

Chloe nodded, “We were trying to contact Mr. Summers but that went nowhere, the man’s disappeared.”

Jimmy shook his head, “Damn. But I was actually wondering if you’d read the court transcript of Miss Quinn’s cross-examination. When she first claimed Mr. Summers was behind supplying her supplier with- just a mo’” He muttered as he pulled a folded sheet of paper out of his pocket.

“She said she got the kryptonite from Mr. Linn but Mr. Summers was the one behind it all.” Chloe reminded him.

“Not exactly,” Jimmy told her with the grin of a reporter who’s found something everyone else missed. “Her exact words were: ‘Mr. Linn was giving us the bullets of kryptonite but Mr. Summers sometimes came in and gave some of the other kids more stuff to stop him’.” Jimmy stopped reading and looked up at them expectantly.

Chloe and Richard exchanged mildly confused glances, “He gave more kryptonite,” Richard said, “We knew that.”

“No,” Jimmy groaned in frustration, “She never said he gave them kryptonite, she said Mr. Linn gave them kryptonite and Mr. Summers gave them stuff. Not ‘more kryptonite’, ‘more stuff to stop him’.” Chloe and Richard both clicked at the same time but Jimmy was on a roll, “Everyone just assumed it was kryptonite because until yesterday the only thing that could stop Superman was kryptonite but now there’s something else, some other-“

“Stuff,” Chloe and Richard nodded together.

Jimmy grinned at them but before he could bask in his success Perry stuck his head out of his office and bellowed, “OLSEN! Didn’t I order you to stay home and under no circumstances come in?”

“But-“

“Olsen! Go home! Now!” Perry slammed the door and the bullpen resumed action as if nothing had happened.

“Jimmy you should go, Sarah needs you.” Surprisingly the photographer didn’t even argue instead just giving the pair tense nods and walking back to the lifts.

Chloe shrugged on her jacket, “Well, let’s go pay the lovely Miss Quinn a visit shall we?”

--
“Hello, Kathleen. My name’s Chloe Sullivan, I’m a reporter for the Daily Planet.”

“Hey,” Replied the bored looking English girl behind the glass. “Haven’t seen you lot in a while.”

“Us lot?” Chloe asked.

“Reporters,” Kathleen explained, “When I first took a shot at Superman everyone was all ‘Oh, oh, talk to me!’ Now you’re all gone.”

“Um,” Chloe wasn’t sure how to reply to that so moved straight on to her reason for coming. “Kathleen-“

“Kat,” The girl corrected with a grin that didn’t seem like it belonged in a prison.

“Right, Kat. When you were first arrested you mentioned you knew a man called Timothy Summers?”

“Yeah, what about him?” Kat shrugged.

“I’m aware the police haven’t been able to pin anything on him but you said that he was the one supplying the kryptonite.”

“Yup,” Kat confirmed.

Chloe waited but when the girl didn’t elaborate she pressed on, “Did he ever mention anything else? Any other way of stopping Superman?” It was a long shot she knew, but they were quickly running out of options.

“Umm,” Kat thought for a moment, “Actually, yeah.” Chloe felt her heart sped up. “Oh, hey! Does this have anything to do with how he was all, like, sick yesterday?”

“Kat, I need to know what those other ways were,” Chloe sidestepped the question but Kat noticed her eagerness and took her time getting to the answer.

“We-ell,” She bit her lip, grinning at Chloe through the glass, “There was this one guy, he was, like, tall and stuff.” She paused for a moment and pretended to think, keeping an eye on Chloe who tried not to show her agitation. “I have no idea who he was but he got, like, a vial of something and he said that Mr. Summers said it would make him really sick.”

“Superman?”

“Yeah, but it was real weird.” Kat seemed to have gotten bored of teasing Chloe and continued without further prompting, “This kid was all freaked that if he had something that could make Superman sick then he’d get sick too so I don’t think he ever wanted to do it. Wimp,” She muttered.

“Did he say anything else?” Chloe asked, hurriedly scribbling everything down.

“Nope,” Kat shook her head, “That’s all. Oh, look I have to go,” She grinned again as the guard came to fetch her. “Bye, Chloe.” She hung up without waiting for a reply and practically bounced to the door, waving cheerily over her shoulder as she did.

“Anything?” Richard asked when she got back into the car.

“Maybe,” Chloe frowned with annoyance, “I only got about five minutes to actually talk to her, although the security check took ages. She mentioned something that could possibly have made Clark sick but she didn’t remember who got it or exactly what they said about it.”

“So we don’t know who had it or what it was but only that it could make him sick?” Richard asked shaking his head, “That’s not very helpful, we already know he’s sick.”

“Look, that’s all she told me, if that’s not good enough why don’t you go in yourself.” Chloe snapped irritably. The traffic on the way to the prison had been terrible and it would probably take them another hour or so to get home, she wasn’t in a very tolerant mood.

“Sorry,” Richard apologised, and Chloe found her annoyance retreating, “We’re both worried about him, I was just thinking out loud.”

“That’s alright,” She was already feeling a bit embarrassed at the outburst. “It’s coming on four o’clock, why don’t we call Perry and then just go straight home. I hope Lois managed alright today.”

Richard nodded, “You call Perry, I’ll make dinner tonight, I think we’ve got some pasta in the cupboard.”

“Sounds good,” Chloe smiled.

--
"Dinner's ready!" Richard called as Skye and Chloe settled themselves at the table and Jason retrieved the coke from the fridge.

"Coming," Lois replied from the bathroom where she was washing her hands after the triplets had sent her there for the hundredth time that day.

“Mom, can I have coke too?” Skye asked, watching her brother pour himself a large glass. She wasn’t allowed sugary drinks on school nights until she was ten, something Jason loved flaunting in front of her.

“Not tonight, dear,” Lois told her, even though it was a Friday, “You’ve been sick.”

“I feeling better,” Skye protested, looking enviously at Jason’s glass, “And coke doesn’t make you sick.”

“Well,” Lois sighed, thinking that it wouldn’t hurt to cheer her up a bit, “Maybe just one.”

“I’ll get you a glass,” Jason offered, slipping off his seat and heading to the kitchen.

Skye shot her mother a confused look as Jason disappeared around the corner as if she couldn’t understand why her brother was acting so nice to her all of a sudden.

“Mom?” Jason appeared again with a glass in his hand and a strange look on his face, “I don’t feel so well.” And before anyone could respond the glass that Jason had been holding smashed on the tiles as the boy’s eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed in a heap on the floor.

--