I Moderate (i_moderate) wrote in we_archive, @ 2006-01-03 02:13:00 |
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Entry tags: | jack hawksmoor, lana lang |
i_seekthelost Strange Things Are Happening Part 2 [ Open ]
Still confused and more than a little puzzled, Lana stepped through the office doors and found no one there. She turned, looking all around the office in a slow circle until she came face to face with the secretary who was stepping in through the open doors with a cup of coffee in her hands.
She looked surprised too. "But he was just..."
Through the still open doors, Lana caught sight of Bruce Wayne, slipping a hand into his pocket and putting a device up to his ear. A communicator. He got up abruptly, to scribble a note for the secretary and Lana nodded to let the other woman know, but between the tea and trying to play nice to someone who'd just been called Luthor, the secretary had enough on her hands.
"Can I get a car, please ? For the penthouse ?" Going home now seemed like the best idea. She wasn't entirely sure that secretary knew what she was talking about. Lana had left Lex in Superboy's laboratory. He couldn't be in his office in the first place. And his vice-president shouldn't have been spending time in there either.
She would go home, she'd look though Lex's things in his home office, she'd contact him, and charter the next private plane back out.
"I'll wait on the sidewalk outside the downstairs lobby." Lana said, nicely. "Thank you for the coffee." After all, courtesy cost her nothing and was remembered, even if she hadn't so much as taken a single sip.
___
Stepping outside onto the curb was the first time Lana really noticed anything strange. It was difficult not to. It was cold and she was dressed for late summer. No overcoat, no hat, no gloves. She turned, staring at the trees and then sky.
Looking up at the sky was her second clue. The skyline was different. Very different. She knew Metropolis' skyline. She'd spent years at MSU. She'd read about the history of the city in various classes. And LexCorp had been responsible for quite a few changes in the years she'd been away.
This was nothing like the old, or the new Metropolis skyline.
Tugging her scarf from her shoulders to wrap around her head and hair, it hit her suddenly, why there were little things that were familiar but different. Like the decor. Like the new secretary. She turned and looked at the nameplate and logo on the building she'd just exited. It said LexCorp quite plainly.
She'd thought it was possible she'd entered a teleporter. What if it'd been something more complicated than that.
A Lex who was too busy, or preoccupied to see his wife ? The thought made her shiver, and she twirled the ring on her finger unconsciously. They were practically newlyweds. They talked about everything. They had no secrets.
But whomever owned this company in this... world ? Who was he ?
Lana walked back into the building determinedly, straight up to the receptionist. "I'd like a company information leaflet."
"Pardon me."
"A pamphlet, propectus, PR folder. Something with biographies and pictures of the LexCorp board of directors."
"I'm sorry ma'am, but with the merger we're still having new information printed out."
"Merger ?"
"With Stark Industries and Waynetech. We're part of City United Industries now. It was all over the papers."
Waynetech, well that would explain why Bruce Wayne had been waiting in the outer office. "You don't have any old paperwork ? Anything at all ?"
A chaueffer appeared at that moment, cap under his arm, looking around the lobby. "Mrs. Luthor ?" He asked respectfully. Heads turned.
"Lang. Doctor Lang." Lana said automatically and held up a finger, looking back at the receptionist. In a moment a grey and purple pamphlet was in her hand. A quick skim as she looked for the CEO's bio, let her know this company's focus was very different from her husband's. And then came the page she was looking for. The photo was enough to make her fingers tremble. The man with the header of Lex Luthor looked years younger. A youth emphasized all the more by his lack of hair and his pale complexion. One which seemed to rival her own.
Lana skimmed the biography hoping for some mention of 'Jr'. She could believe that Lex had a son, somehow. If she could believe she'd stepped into a Kryptonian dimensional transporter, she could believe that in this universe, Lex had a son, perhaps was even married to someone else.
She turned to the receptionist, not quite caring if she came across as a bit disturbed. "This is your CEO ? This is Lex Luthor ?" She asked, finger tapping the photograph.
The poor woman was very confused. Here was someone named Mrs. Luthor. Was she some distant relative that she didn't know what Mr. Luthor looked like ? "Yes."
Lana Lang Luthor turned from the circular marble desk, past the driver and out into the street. This was definitely not her universe anymore. She sighed, rubbing her head.
"I just had to marry a scientist."
From: [info]i_dontwearshoes Date: 01/03/2006 14:01:37
"Not a fan of labcoats?"
Jack Hawksmoor stepped out of the wall beside Lana, leaving a slight ripple in the stone that gently evened out. It was one of his favourite tricks, good for giving people a bit of a scare, but he didn't mean any harm. It was just easier than appearing inside then having to explain who he was, and why he was there. He couldn't exactly tell them he had been spying on a shareholders meeting, after all.
He ran one hand, the palm textured like the tread of a tyre, through his hair and down over the front of his jacket and teeshirt. He looked, he always liked to think, like a well-dressed hippy. It was something about the bare feet.
"Lovely day, isn't it?" he asked, offering Lana a friendly smile.
From: [info]i_seekthelost Date: 01/03/2006 14:08:33
Expecting that someone had come up behind her, Lana shook her head as she realized she'd spoken out loud. "Labcoats are fine, it's the brains they hide that are tri..."
She turned to see someone stepping out of a wall. Or at least his placement and the ripple on the marble seemed to suggest that. "...ky."
She blinked and stood still, feeling woefully unprepared. She'd thought in terms of a new universe in the most abstract of all terms.
Her hand slid to where her purse would be, until she remembered she had no purse. She'd stepped from one world to another completely unexpectedly, and thus, unprepared.
Lana swore. In Arabic. It was most unlady like and involved fornication, feces and many dogs.
From: [info]i_dontwearshoes Date: 01/03/2006 14:19:47
"I'm pretty sure I've never fucked any dogs," he said, taking a step back and putting his hands up, as if to show he wasn't dangerous. "But I appreciate the sentiment. Sorry for startling you."
This woman was...rather beautiful, he thought idly. And well educated, if she knew Arabic of all things. He hadn't learned it, of course, having only to drop into a city to pick up some of the language.
"Jack Hawksmoor," he said, offering a hand. "Are you new to the City?"
From: [info]i_seekthelost Date: 01/03/2006 14:53:54
Lana blushed, a light pink tinge on her cheeks. She didn't know which was worse, swearing, or swearing and being understood. She glanced down at his hand and extended hers, his appearance was sudden and strange, but were villainous types supposed to be polite ?
"Lana Lang. Dr. Lana Lang." She tilted her head. "New to the City ?"
From: [info]i_dontwearshoes Date: 01/03/2006 15:02:37
"You know, this City." He gestured around with his free hand, smiling broadly. "This place that is not quite a place and not quite a nowhere. A city of dreams and nightmares and everything in between."
He paused, then looked faintly embarrassed.
"Sorry, got a bit dramatic there. You're probably feeling a bit confused, right? No sure what's going on? Trust me, I know the feeling."
From: [info]i_seekthelost Date: 01/03/2006 15:09:19
"Well actually, I thought maybe I'd been transported to an alternate dimension due to alien technology."
She squeezed his hand gently in greeting and then attempted to release it. "I haven't reached confused yet. Hadn't. An entire dimension that's only one city ?" Lana paused a moment considering.
"You're not Kyrptonian, are you ?"
From: [info]i_dontwearshoes Date: 01/03/2006 15:14:53
Jack withdrew his hand and shoved both into his pockets, rocking backward and forward on his heels.
"Pretty sure I'm not..Kryptonian," he said, after a thoughtful pause. "And no, I don't think there's only this City here. But no one has been able to leave it. Not even me. Well, not yet anyway. But if it was because of alien technology, I'd probably know. I think."
He smiled crookedly at Lana. "You're taking this awfully well, you know. Most people don't even realize there's something weird about this place, and those that do, they generally freak out a bit more."
From: [info]i_seekthelost Date: 01/03/2006 15:24:58
She laughed. "I'm... freaked." Her tone on the phrasing was of someone using the term for the first time. "I've definitely got the heebie jeebies. But, I was looking at alien technology, so something weird happening isn't so strange."
She smiled, privately and looked away, up and out at the city. "And like I said, I married a scientist. With two doctors in the family, there has never been an absence of interesting dinner conversation."
She sighed after a moment, glancing back at LexCorp. "I just don't know what to do next."
From: [info]i_dontwearshoes Date: 01/03/2006 15:32:59
"My suggestion? Look for something you know." Jack face was more serious now. "Your appartment or house or whatever, it might have been...dragged in here with you. Family...not so much. There's a bit of a cock-up in the timeline, I think, because people are being dragged in here from all over the past few decades."
He didn't even bother to consider how odd that might sound. Hawksmoor had traveled between planes of existence in a fifty-mile-long ship for several years; time travel didn't phase him that much.
From: [info]i_seekthelost Date: 01/03/2006 15:38:09
"Time stream disruptions." She nodded slowly, flipping open the pamphlet in her hands and tapping on the face of the CEO. "That explains this."
Lana gave a wry smile. "I suppose you can see now why I'm at such a loss."
From: [info]i_dontwearshoes Date: 01/03/2006 15:42:07
"Luthor? You know him?" Jack shrugged. "A lot of people, mostly metas and post-humans, are in the same boat as you. They wake up here, and have to find a way to keep sane while the streets twist around them."
Anyone who knew Jack better would probably have asked why he, the God of Cities, wasn't doing anything about it. As if he could.
From: [info]i_seekthelost Date: 01/03/2006 15:49:55
Metas ? Post-human ? The puzzlement was all over her face. But when she spoke, it was softly. Quite softly. "I know him." Lana met her companion's eyes.
"Lana Lang." She held up her right hand, thumb swiveling the ring on her finger. "Luthor."
She shrugged. "Somehow I think going home might land me kicked out on my kiester. He doesn't look old enough to drink, far less have a wife."
She set her shoulders, trying to be firm with herself. "You haven't seen someplace a gal could rest her head, have you ?"
From: [info]i_dontwearshoes Date: 01/03/2006 16:02:37
"You never know. He might appreciate some distinguished company like yourself." He was smiling, but Jack's voice was softly sympathetic. "But I suppose you're right. Let me have a look around for you."
He stood still, palms facing the ground, for a few moments. The only movement was the rapid shifting of his eyes behind their lids. For a moment it seemed like the ground beneath him was moving up.
"Ah," he said, voice rough and gravelly. "Got a nice place...tall ceilings, big windows, mostly furnished...gimme a second."
He knelt, one hand pushing into the concrete sidewalk and rummaging around. After a few seconds he apparently found what he was looking for, a key ring holding one key and a tag with an address on it, which he offered to Lana.
"Ta-da! It's not far from here, and it's likely to stay in place." He waited for her reaction; would she shrug this off as well?
From: [info]i_seekthelost Date: 01/03/2006 16:08:45
She looked from his hands to the ground, knowing there was something she was missing.
"What are you ?" There was a hint of awe in her voice. But the tone was mostly filled with fascination. And some satisfaction that she hadn't been assuming things.
He had walked out of a wall.
And then she blinked, reviewing his words. "Stay in place ?" Somehow between two minutes ago and now, this ... place, had just gotten a lot stranger.
From: [info]i_dontwearshoes Date: 01/03/2006 16:15:29
"Well...I guess I should go with the truth, right?" He paused to get his mind in order, then rattled off, "As a child I was repeatedly abducted by future-terrestrials who systematically replaced all of my internal organs and systems with various bio-mechanical bits and pieces, making me physically and mentally connected to urban areas, in order to fight a sentient version of Kansas City from the seventieth century that was trying to get to the beginning of time and prevent the universe from creating itself."
He took a deep breathe.
"And I'm not even joking."
From: [info]i_seekthelost Date: 01/03/2006 16:22:49
She blinked.
"Oh."
Lana blinked some more. "I used to like Kansas City."
She blinked again. Trapped in an alternate dimension. In a City she also could not get out of. Where Lex Luthor didn't even look 21. Standing beside a man who said little green men from earth had ....
The world wavered a second, went blurry, her lashes wet and she never felt herself crumbling forward.
From: [info]i_dontwearshoes Date: 01/03/2006 16:33:14
That wasn't quite the reaction he'd expected, but it was certainly impressive. His enhanced reactions and reflexes allowed him to catch the woman before she hit the ground, and he lifted her up across both her arms.
"Why do I have to be a good guy?" he muttered, looking at the address on the keyring again. "Now I have to take you home."
A moment's concentration pointed him in the right direction, and he set off walking. Teleporting would be far quicker for him, but for Lana? Literally like dragging her through brick walls. Not so much fun.
--
Ten minutes got them to the front door, and a few more had Lana settled on the couch, a cool compress on her forehead and cold water at her side. Jack was nothing if not capable.
He took a seat, and waited for her to wake up.