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Recurve

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  • Recurve

    Genre: Sci-fi/Romance
    Pairing: who else?
    Rating: PG-13
    Summary: A life in the day of Clark & Lois. This has nothing to do with my other fanfics and will be designed(hopefully) to slot neatly between 'Fade' and 'Oracle,' with perhaps a little smut chapter in the R section, if I can frenagle it right.


    Recurve
    ----------

    Prologue
    -----------


    6:25 AM
    -------

    He paced nervously, checking his watch for the third time in ten minutes. This was his last chance; after this, his resources would be exhausted, and with his lack of credibility, he’d already been turned down in pursuit of every other avenue of funding. If it didn’t work this time, the whole thing was finished.

    “Doctor?”

    He looked up to his assistant. “It’s almost time, sir.”

    The doctor nodded, passing a final glance over the telltales. “How is the array holding up?”

    “The board’s green all the way, and we have a steady test current on the stand-bys.”

    “Alright,” the doctor said. “Begin the countdown.”


    6:27 AM
    ----------

    As Clark’s alarm clock went off for the third time, he said a silent thank you to the inventor of the ‘snooze’ button.

    #---always flirt with death, I could kill but I don’t care about it,---#

    Leaving the radio on, he dragged himself out of bed, wearing just his red T-shirt and his blue plaid boxers, muttering along to the music as he plodded fuzzily to his closet. It was one of those ‘everywhere’ songs of the moment, so the lyrics came easily:

    #I can face your threats, stand up tall and scream and shout about it. I think I’m on another world with you---#

    He took a deep waking breath, got dressed fast and was brushing his teeth by the second verse, singing muffled through toothpaste.

    #You always get under my skin, I don’t find it irritating. You always play to win, I don’t need rehabilitating---#

    That part always reminded him of Lois. Except for the ‘not irritating’ part. Even dripping wet and wrapped only in a towel, she was irritating. He briefly squeezed his eyes shut, trying to chase away the fresh mental snapshot of a naked Lois Lane ready to clobber him with a shower brush, and spat toothpaste into the sink.

    #---space travel’s in my blood, there ain’t nothin’ I can do about it----#

    As always, the DJ broke in before the end.

    “---‘Another Girl, Another Planet,’ and that was another hit for Blink-182---”

    Clark scoffed as he clicked off the radio; he knew his music. “It was the Only Ones, ya goof.”

    His mother was on the way out as he came downstairs, with just enough spare time to kiss him goodbye as she dashed out to some meeting or other; he wasn’t really listening. It was Clark’s birthday tomorrow, his first without his father. He wasn’t looking forward to it.

    After breakfast, he ran through his chores, a little slower than usual, then showered and changed clothes. He locked up the house, then paused on the porch, patting his pockets, making sure he hadn’t forgotten anything. He took off towards Metropolis at a steady pace just under the speed of sound.


    8:01 AM
    ----------

    He arrived at the Planet offices slightly late, and found Chloe on the phone shouting at someone called Ron.

    “I don’t care what time it is---”

    She held up a finger, begging a moment of Clark’s patience, and he nodded, pulling up a chair and looking around the bustling room.

    “---the follow-up on the Graham Garrett story is going to press at noon, and I don’t have the morgue files back----That’s not what you said yesterday, I’ve been stalling for you since then---yeah---yeah---put your boss on the line---oh, is he?---Well, when you see him, tell him if those files aren’t on my desk in two hours, I’m turning it over to Pauline Kahn, and I hope she tears him a new blowhole.”

    She slammed the phone down, making Clark jump.

    “You’re late,” she accused.

    Clark glanced at his watch. “By three minutes, hardly reason to call Missing Persons. What’s the matter?”

    “Sorry,” Chloe said. “It’s pretty hectic around here right now. Guess I picked the wrong day to quit caffeine, too.”

    Clark’s eyebrows almost touched his hairline.

    “I know, I know,” she said. “It was getting like a dependency, though. I was afraid I might have to attend Starbucks Anonymous.”

    “So, do you have anything new on Fine?”

    “Nothing since the business in Honduras,” she said. “It’s like he disappeared off the face of the Earth.”

    “I couldn’t get that lucky,” Clark said, sighing. He was going to be at a loose end for the rest of the day. “You feel like getting some lunch later? I’ll treat, as long as you stick to decaf,” he smirked.

    Chloe turned and shuffled some papers on her desk evasively. “Uhh, actually I’m having lunch with Lois.” She grinned at him slyly. “You’re welcome to join us if you can stand the girl-talk.”

    He shuddered in response. “No, thank you. I listened to enough of her talking when she lived with us. These days, I’d give anything for a way to make her shut up.”

    He was about to ask Chloe why she wanted him to stop by when her cellphone trilled. Later, it would occur to Clark that chance was mocking him, as if warning him to be careful what he wished for.

    “Hello?---Detective Sawyer. I haven’t heard from you since the Windgate, how’s things?---Are you alright? You sound a little strange---”

    As Clark watched, the change in his friend knotted his stomach. She leant forward, her eyes staring and glassy, her voice quiet as the church.

    “---When?---Alright, I’ll---Yes, I’ll be over as soon as I---No, I’ll---I should call him. I know where he is---Me, too---thank you.”

    She hung up; Clark was afraid to ask. “What happened?” His voice came out hoarse; he swallowed and coughed, his spit thick and clinging and his throat clenched.

    Chloe shook herself out of a daze. “Ummm,---that was Maggie Sawyer---there was an accident this morning,---

    She stood up, pulling her coat on.

    “There was an accident, and I was next of kin, so I have to---”

    She stopped. Squeezed her eyes shut and clamped a hand over her mouth, face reddened. Clark took her gently by the shoulders; she looked like she was about to scream or faint.

    “What? Chloe, what is it?”

    She sucked in a quick breath, looking everywhere but into his face. “Some---guy in a car mounted the sidewalk. He drove her straight into a mailbox---.”

    Clark’s heart dropped to his ankles; he didn’t want to hear it, but he had to. “Is she alright?”

    Chloe stared up at him, eyes wide and brimming. “She’s dead, Clark. Lois is dead.”


    End prologue
    -----------------
    Last edited by El Duderino; 02-16-2011, 01:44 PM.

  • #2
    Incredible beginning!!!
    I wait anxious for the first part!!!

    Comment


    • #3
      What the F*ck??? Great start tho.

      I need more!!!

      Comment


      • #4
        Are you kidding me?? She's DEAD? But it's the beginning of the story! Now what's supposed to happen? Is Clark gonna pull a Reckoning and beg Jor-El to save her? Or will he just spin Earth backwards on its axis?? Damn it, this is gonna drive me crazy!

        PPMS!!

        (I love it. )

        Comment


        • #5
          Chapter 1

          11:27 AM
          -------

          Lois Joanne Lane died at approximately 7:12 AM that morning. As the nearest next of kin, Chloe was required to formally identify the body. Not Lois. Not cuz. The body. Clark insisted on going with her to the Smallville coroners office, and she made only a weak show of protest.

          It may have been his imagination, but Clark swore he could feel the cold of the morgue. When they drew the sheet back, the thought struck Clark that she looked strangely, ethereally beautiful. Her eyes were closed, and save for a small, but vivid bruise sitting just under her hairline, she was unmarked as far as he could see, as pale and still as marble.

          The deputy explained that the man had been speeding around the corner of Bleecker Street just outside the railway station when he lost control of the car and fishtailed across the road. Lois was on her cellphone when the car drove her into a mailbox, fracturing her skull. She never regained consciousness and died on the scene, ‘probably never knew what hit her,’ the deputy said. She was trying to give comfort, he knew, but all Clark could think was that he’d passed Bleecker Street that morning. If he’d stopped, he might’ve seen the smashed mailbox.

          Chloe was a wreck, and Clark could find no soothing words as much as he wanted to. He felt ashamed at his inability to comfort his friend, and was glad when his mother arrived; in the middle of the corridor, the two women held each other and gasped breathless tears while Clark watched, feeling like a character from a play. He was silent as he drove them home; there was no way Martha would let Chloe be alone tonight. He stared at the road, feeling their eyes on him occasionally, and he wondered if they thought he didn’t care.

          Clark changed his sheets, readying the room for Chloe; he’d be on the couch again, like when Lois used to stay. He went quietly out to his loft, leaving his mother with Chloe. She talked with her, cried with her, discussed the arrangements. He heard Chloe say she would have to tell her Uncle Sam, and had a bizarre image of the man with a white goatee in a stars and stripes top hat, pointing at him; “Your country needs YOU.” He bit back the inappropriate laughter, and it soured in his chest into quiet hysteria.

          He paced the floor of the loft, picking up books, standing up, sitting down, trying to occupy himself. He seemed to be killing time, but for what reason, he couldn’t say. It was raining, which seemed fitting, the damp drawing out the wood and straw smell of the barn. Memories drifted to the front of his mind, Lois storming in to the loft and challenging him over one thing or another, Arthur, Lucy, Lana. Still, he remembered other things she’d told him; how she loved her sister, but was a little envious, how she was afraid she’d never find anyone, how much she missed her mother. From the start, she had a habit of confiding in him, when she wasn’t shaking him up. The loft seemed quieter now, not a comforting place anymore; it was almost like it was haunted.


          11:04 PM
          --------

          He heard his mother and Chloe go to bed, and when he saw the lights had gone out, he went back inside. The house was mostly dark, except for a table lamp; the couch was made up with sheets and a pillow for him. He sat down, and clasped his hands, thinking about the disastrous events of the past few months. It seemed like everything was changing, too fast and not for the better. His father gone, Lana gone, his best friend in intolerable pain, and Lois---

          Now, they came. Tears, hot and stinging. His face crumpled and he clamped his hand over his mouth, rocking back and forth and muffling his sobs so as not to be heard by his mother and Chloe. She was gone. Forever.


          11:09 PM
          --------

          “Are we still receiving?”

          “We are, Doctor,” his assistant confirmed. “Coming through loud and clear.”

          Finally. Finally, all his theories were coming to fruition. Not only would it work, it had already worked.

          “Ready second stage?”

          “Second stage ready. The injector is primed and ready to fire.”

          “Begin the countdown on my mark----”


          11:10 PM
          --------

          Clark stood at the entrance to the inner chamber, spinning the octagonal key nervously in his fingers. For the umpteenth time, he wondered what he was doing there; he’d just grabbed the key and dashed for the caves. He knew that he couldn’t pay this price a second time.

          ‘But I have to try,’ he thought. ‘At least, I have to try.’

          He buckled up his nerve and strode forward---


          11:10 PM
          --------

          “…3…2…1…Mark.”

          There was a humming whine as the injector charged, and they raised their goggles against the glare as it fired...


          11:11 PM
          --------

          Clark paused, took a breath, then slotted the key into the table with a clank. The familiar pocket-storm blew up, and he was bathed in warm light as the portal opened around him---


          11:11 PM
          --------

          “Doctor,” the assistant frowned. “I’m getting some odd readings here.”

          The doctor dashed over.

          “Sudden feedback of some kind; it’s building rapidly.”

          This was impossible. The incursion was supposed to be passive, non-energetic.

          “Where’s it coming from?”

          “Doctor, it’s up in the red!---”


          11:11 PM
          --------

          The passage felt different this time; Clark had never remembered this kind of buffeting. The corridor itself seemed to wobble, and he felt the stresses pulling at his body. Something was wrong. He lost all sense of direction, no up or down, and as space itself seemed to wrap around him and squeeze tight, Clark lost consciousness and was reduced to atoms.


          11:11 PM
          --------

          The array began to buzz and hum dangerously, rattling as if it'd shake to pieces, groaning and collapsing inwards like a wounded animal. The doctor ran straight to the emergency shutdown. No change. It was self-sustaining now, drawing power from elsewhere.

          “Oh, God,” he whispered, “what have---?”

          Those were his last words. The explosion vaporized him, the array and everything else in a hundred mile radius. The entire universe stopped.


          End of chapter 1
          ----------------
          Last edited by El Duderino; 03-20-2007, 04:17 PM.

          Comment


          • #6
            all I can say is, WOW !!!

            Comment


            • #7
              Oh my God. That's really all I can say. Just oh my God. Any chapter of anything that starts out "Lois Lane died..." is automatically going to be amazing, and this certainly kicked amazing up a notch.

              The beginning was the saddest thing I have ever read besides the ends of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Half Blood Prince, I think. Martha and Chloe's reactions were heartbreaking, of course, but seeing it all from Clark's point of view was really shattering. He care(d)(s) about her a lot more than he realizes.

              And holy crap, what's that doctor up to? Did he stage all this? His he trying to play God?

              And why, why, why is whatever experiment-thingy they're doing somehow connected to the Fortress??? What the hell is going on??

              This is awesome and so you must update soon.

              Comment


              • #8
                Oh my gosh, this is great. I am fervently hoping that Lois will somehow be resurrected...
                Update soon!!!

                Comment


                • #9
                  HOLY FRICKIN SH!TBALLS!!!!!!

                  i loved that ED, what a beginning!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by clois_lover10
                    Oh my gosh, this is great. I am fervently hoping that Lois will somehow be resurrected...
                    Update soon!!!
                    Trust me. I've got a plan.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by El Duderino
                      Trust me. I've got a plan.
                      I'm definetly trusting you with this plan. Something tells me it's gonna be awesome.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Chapter 2
                        ---------


                        6:27 AM
                        -------

                        #---always flirt with death, I could kill but I don’t
                        care about it,---#


                        Clark rolled over and snapped the alarm off. “Jeez, get some new records, buddy,” he muttered.

                        He frowned and opened his eyes. ‘Wait a minute.’ Sitting up in bed, he looked around his room, blinking the frowsy remains of sleep away. ‘I could’ve sworn I fell asleep on the couch.’ He recalled a strange half-dream about going to the caves. Was that what it was? And Chloe.

                        “Oh, God,” he thought, sudden irrational panic hitting him. “Where is she?” He dressed quickly and went straight downstairs, almost bumping into his mother.

                        “Mom, where’s Chloe?”

                        His mother frowned at him, puzzled, and checked her watch.

                        “Asleep or at work, I guess. Why, honey?”

                        Clarks eyes widened. “You let her go back to work?”

                        “Why in the world would I stop her going to work? She practically lives at the Planet anyway.”

                        He couldn’t believe his ears. “I thought she’d take a week off, or a day at least.”

                        Martha ran a concerned hand over his brow. “Are you feeling alright?”

                        “Fine,” he smiled weakly. “Except that this qualifies as the worst birthday ever.”

                        His mother stepped back and looked at him. “Honey, your birthday isn’t until tomorrow.”

                        Clark shot her a puzzled look. “It is? Are you sure?” He must have gotten his dates mixed up.

                        “Of course I’m sure.” She glanced at her watch again. “I’ve gotta run,” she drained the last of her coffee and kissed her son on the cheek. “I’ll be home late, don’t wait up. Bye, sweetie.”

                        She dashed out of the door, all quickfire energy. There was something odd going on, something they weren’t telling him. He dug his cellphone out of his pocket and called Chloe. She answered on the fifth ring.

                        “Clark?”

                        Her voice was sandpaper raw, like she’d been crying. “Chloe?”

                        He heard her cough on the end of the line, the sound of shifting cloth. “What time is it?---Ahhh, hell, Clark, it’s like,---six-thirty in the morning!”

                        “Where are you?”

                        She paused a moment at the urgency in his voice. “I’m at the Planet. Why?”

                        “I’m coming over.”


                        6:47 AM
                        -------

                        Clark arrived at the offices and found Chloe, bleary-eyed and sitting at her desk.

                        “How do you feel?”

                        “Well, considering I slept on an office couch, I’ve given up coffee and my friend just woke me up in the middle of the night, I’m Jim Dandy. Now, what’s the big emergency?”

                        “What do you---?” He stopped; something familiar. “You gave up coffee?”

                        Chloe nodded. “I know, but it was becoming a dependency. I thought I might have to join---“

                        “---Starbucks Anonymous,” Clark finished. Déjà vu crawled over his skin.

                        “Right,” Chloe said. “Anyway, if it’s about Fine, I don’t have anything. He up and vanished like smoke after that mess in Honduras. I’ve been sleeping here overnight because I'm trying to get those morgue files on Graham Garrett back. Sorry, Clark, but duty comes first.”

                        “Chloe, are you alright?”

                        “Me?” She was offhand, breezy, rubbing sleep from her eyes. “I could use about eighty more winks, but I’m fine. Why?”

                        “Did you come over to our house last night?”

                        “No. I was home working.”

                        “Have you seen Lois?”

                        “Not since yesterday. We were supposed to be having lunch together.”

                        She was acting very strange, as if yesterday hadn’t happened. Clark thought maybe she was in shock; he cursed himself for being so selfish. If he’d stayed with her last night, he might’ve been able to help. He decided he should find his mother, ask her what she and Chloe talked about and what he could do.

                        “Listen, Chloe,” Clark said, backing away, “I have to go find my mom. I have to ask her something, but stay here, I’ll be back later. We’ll grab lunch, OK?”

                        “B-but, Clark,---”

                        He was already gone.


                        7:09 AM
                        -------

                        Clark streaked towards home; his mother was hitching a ride to Metropolis in Lionel's jet from a private airfield, and he wanted to catch her before she left. As he reached the outskirts of Smallville, he felt the need to detour through Bleecker Street; he had to see it for himself. He felt his throat tighten as he slowed and stopped, preparing himself for the worst. A screech of tyres followed, and he watched a dark-blue sedan barely take the corner and race past him. Up ahead was an attractive woman, talking on a cellphone and rummaging through her bag for something as the car lurched at her.

                        It happened within fractions, too quickly for him to consider the coincidence; Clark launched himself into a racing blur. He usually had a knack for getting around inertia, but there wasn't time. At this speed, if he hit the woman, he might as well have left her to the car.

                        ‘No choice,’ he thought. Planting his legs, he lowered his shoulder and braced for the impact. The car hit him dead center, and he felt the hood accordion and wrap around his waist, a storm of shattered and tinkling glass and crumpled metal whipping around him for a few long seconds before settling.

                        The young woman lowered her arms and stared in shock at this man as he stepped out from the compacted hood, clouds of oil-smoke and radiator steam hissing over him. This man who’d just stood in front of a speeding car, let it break against his body like an oak without leaving a scratch.

                        “Clark?!”

                        He turned to her, his expression echoing hers as his heart dropped to his ankles for the second time in twenty-four hours.

                        “Lois?!”


                        7:12 AM
                        -------


                        End of Chapter 2
                        ----------------

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Oh my God, you pulled a Reckoning!!!!

                          This is seriously amazing. Seriously.

                          You need to update again now.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            okay what the heck is going on ? lol
                            you're not pulling a Ground Hog's Day, are ya ?

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by jazel
                              okay what the heck is going on ? lol
                              you're not pulling a Ground Hog's Day, are ya ?
                              Well, thanks a LOT! Jeez, I'd hate to go to the flicks with you.

                              I'm kidding. God, I hope it isn't 'Groundhog Day.' I mean, the movie was OK, but it's almost unbearable second time around.

                              Comment

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