toomuchplor (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
toomuchplor) wrote2005-10-26 05:38 pm
toomuchplor) wrote2005-10-26 05:38 pm
Entry tags:
TBAAB, Part 13
*facepalms*
I can't believe the Superbot won, y'all.
“So,” Clark said, unused to this place behind battle lines, and trying to dispel the strangeness of the situation with conversation, “um, how long have you had a Superbot?”
Lex’s expression grew stormy, and this was really perfect payback for that whole ‘performance’ exchange earlier. “It’s a prototype,” Lex said in his best serious science-geek voice. “For a combat simulation room that I was –”
“You know,” Clark said, cheerily, looking through the warehouse walls to where his LuthorCorp-manufactured robot counterpart was slowly clunking its way across the concrete floor, “I used to have this blanket I carried everywhere when I was a kid.” He paused. “Huh. Don’t know what made me think of that, just now.”
Lex cleared his throat and lifted his binoculars, even though there was nothing he could see from his vantage point. “You wouldn’t have thought it was so funny if I’d gone through with my plan to use Kryptonite to power him,” Lex muttered under his breath.
“I would have been laughing on the inside,” Clark answered solemnly, and then they were interrupted by one of Lex’s security techs, imparting some vital information as to the speed of Superbot’s processor coils or something to that effect.
“Can you see where Lois is?” Lex asked when he returned his attention to looking out from the van, across to the warehouse.
“Yeah, she’s trussed up in an armchair, on the third level.” Clark would never admit it, but some part of him secretly enjoyed seeing Lois with duct tape over her mouth.
Another pause. “Is there an elevator?”
“No, just st—are you serious?” Clark cried, catching onto Lex’s hesitation a second too late. “He *can’t climb stairs*?”
“I said, it’s just a prototype,” Lex snarled.
“Superman can fly!” Clark exclaimed, torn between hysteria and horror. “And Superbot is defeated by a series of rising steps?”
“I’m sure Lucas will come down to meet him,” Lex reasoned, returning to calmness.
Clark scanned up to where Lucas and his goons were pacing. “Maybe I should nip in and just whisk him up the stairs,” Clark began in a whisper, not wanting Lex’s minions to overhear.
“No, too dangerous,” Lex shook his head. “Patrick, can you radio the bot to wait at the foot of the stairs? Clark, we’ll need your – uh. Your Superman impression.” Lex held out a device that looked far too high-tech to be a microphone, because it was beaming actual laser beams up at Clark’s face. “It reads the configuration of your facial muscles,” Lex explained, “and transmits the data to the bot. That way, his mouth will match the words you speak. There’ll be a slight delay, but – well. Superman’s not *that* quick on the draw, after all.”
Clark stuck out his tongue, then squinted across to watch the Superbot stick out its tongue a moment later, a seemingly incongruous moment of childishness. Pulling a few more grimaces, Clark caught a dark glance from Lex, and settled down to business. When the Superbot halted, Clark cleared his throat quietly and shouted. “Lucas Luthor!”
All the headphoned men in the van jumped.
“Show your face!” Clark bellowed, and raised his chin as though to look up because the bot looked undeniably strange shouting into a stair riser.
Lucas, upstairs, seized Lois and shoved her into the arms of two large men, murmuring hasty orders before heading for the stairs.
Clark started to whistle, wanting to see the bot try to imitate him, but Lex sighed theatrically, and Clark tried to regain a sense of the gravity of the situation.
You, he told himself, are knocked up. Just like Susie Yates back in sophomore year at Smallville High.
That did it. Clark set his jaw and began to speak, timing it so that Superbot opened its mouth just as Lucas stood before it. “What is it that you want, Luthor?” Lex shifted a little beside Clark, probably remembering all too well the many conversations between them which had begun with those very words.
“It’s really very simple, Kal-El,” Lucas said, inclining his head so that Lois would be displayed to full effect. “I want your assistance in obtaining several essential items.”
Clark maintained a grim silence, wishing the bot would look at Lois. It was all wrong. He was supposed to be reassuring the hostage at this moment.
“As you probably recall, I find myself in a bit of a legal bind at the moment,” Lucas began, and Clark bit his tongue against the quick rejoinder he would have inserted had it not been for the two second delay. “I need to leave the country, and I need a certain amount of cash to make my life what I think it ought to be.”
“Come on, come on,” Lex was saying quietly, watching the video feed from the bot’s camera, which was trained on Lucas. “Don’t wait to flash the kryptonite, it only makes it worse for you.”
“I can’t do that,” Clark spoke, regretfully. “You broke the law, and you have to pay the pri—” Lex snorted “--ice.” While the bot repeated Clark’s line, Clark backed out of the lasers’ light and glared at Lex. “What?” he hissed, looking across at Lex.
“Nothing. Just… I bet you say that to all the boys,” Lex smirked.
“And meanwhile, you’re *rooting* for your brother?” Clark asked, deeply annoyed.
“Just… oh, never mind.”
“No, please tell me,” Clark snapped, but then a nudge from Mike the sound tech drew Clark’s attention to the fact that Lucas had stopped laughing and was now speaking again.
“… don’t you think, Kal-El?” concluded Lucas, with menace.
It was exactly like math class in high school, Clark despaired. He had no idea what Lucas was asking, but he was compelled to answer. “I don’t have time for your games, Luthor,” Clark improvised, and Lex was actually *giggling*.
“You know, I think the robot would do a better job on its own,” Lex commented between bursts of laughter.
“Sir, all the bot can say is –” began Mike, but he was quickly shushed by a gesture from Lex.
“Would you all stop back-seat Superbot-driving?” Clark whispered, turning back to find that he’d missed yet another comment from Lucas. “Shit!” But Clark was back in range of the microphone device, and a second later, the bot exclaimed, “Shit!”, appearing somewhat annoyed.
“Look, where’s the goddamn kryptonite?” Clark asked, exasperated as Lex began to chuckle again.
Lucas knew something was up, no question. His dark brows had drawn together and he seemed to notice for the first time that Superman seemed oddly focused on him. “What makes you think I need kryptonite?” Lucas asked, clearly trying to regain control. “I have Lois. I could –”
“You couldn’t,” Clark interrupted. “I could take off the heads of both your goons before you could even blink.”
The line was eerie, delivered by the bot, which was still looking forward, still as the machinery it was.
“So where is it?” Clark demanded. “What, in your pocket?” Clark nodded at the bot’s radio controller, and suddenly the bot had hauled Lucas up by the lapels, forcing the move.
A lead box tumbled out of Lucas’s jacket as the Superbot patted him down. Its lid cracked open, and with a sigh of relief, Clark watched as the bot radio operator had the bot stoop down to pick up the green rock – so innocuous-looking, at this distance – and place it back in the box before crushing both, so the result was a lead-covered lump of harmless rock.
“What the –” said Lucas from the floor where the bot had dropped him. “What –”
And that was all he had time to say before Lex nodded and his security team burst through the doors, followed closely by Clark himself, in full Superman regalia. Lois shot him a grateful look as he tore the duct tape from her mouth, and the inevitable flood began.
“Superman, I knew something was wrong, what *is* that thing, who are all these people, where’s Clark,” Lois gasped, not pausing for an interrogatory lift on any given question.
“I was wrong and you were right,” said someone behind Clark, and he turned around to find the Superbot now looking at him, face full of puzzlement. For a moment, Clark thought that someone else had taken over the controls in the van, but –
“I was wrong, and you were right,” said the bot again, adding, as if for emphasis, “Lex.”
“*That’s* all it says?” Clark blurted, leaning in to stare at Lex, Mike, and the rest of the crew in the van through the bot’s cam. “Okay, this thing? Is going to the Fortress. Right now.”
The robot spoke again. “And what are *you* going to do with a combat prototype?” it demanded, sounding and looking remarkably like an irritated Lex.
“I don’t know,” Clark said, reaching out and tucking the bot under his arm. “Maybe the AI can program it to spank intruders or something.”
***
The truth was, Clark needed to hear it one more time, just once more, to make it real. It happened almost as soon as Clark crossed the threshold.
“Good afternoon, Kal-El,” said the AI warmly, then, after a moment’s pause, “My scan of your body reveals that you are gestating a fetus.”
“Say it again,” Clark said, sighing, and leaning the disabled Superbot up against a wall.
“You are pregnant, Kal-El.”
“Thank you,” Clark murmured, and moved into a room outfitted with a chair that was somewhat comfortable by the AI’s standards. Once he’d collapsed into it and tugged off his red boots (his feet were swollen), he closed his eyes, wiggled toes in blue tights, and ordered, “Tell me more.”
“What do you wish to know?”
“What can you tell me?” Clark asked, not a little shortly.
“My scan is giving me results on all aspects of the fetus’s physiology. I can describe the fetus’s viability, its genetic make-up, its gender, its current heartrate, estimated date of delivery, estimated birth weight –”
“Start,” Clark interrupted, “start with the first one. Is it viable?”
The AI whirred, then spoke. “Yes.”
“And it’s half-human?” Clark prompted.
“Yes. From its genetic material, I can confirm its paternity. Do you wish me to elaborate?”
“Don’t bother,” Clark waved his hand. “Lex Luthor, I know.”
“That is consistent with my findings.”
“And… when?” Clark asked.
The AI had to take a moment to analyze his tone and calculate the most likely ‘when’ Clark would be asking about. “Estimated delivery date is in thirty weeks.”
“Boy or girl?” Clark asked, “or something in between?”
“The fetus is female,” the AI answered. “Do you wish to see it?”
Clark watched the screen spool down from the ceiling. “Can you capture this on DVD or something that Lex can watch?” Clark asked impulsively.
“Yes,” the AI said, a little proudly. “Shall I make a copy for your adoptive parents as well?”
Oh, hell.
“Yeah,” Clark said, rubbing his temples and hearing the Superbot saying, faintly, “You were right, and I was wrong, Lex.”
The screen flickered into not the grey and white ambiguity of a regular ultrasound, but into a full-colour Kryptonian scan. Pink, faint light, sugary-looking spun fine tissue, and –there. A tiny hand. A tiny hand, a tiny arm, the scan zoomed out slowly and Clark could see its heartbeat, god, the curves of its ribs like a bird, dark shadows of miniature bones, dark eyes without lids yet, big belly with a grayish cord trailing, and – and – it moved. It twitched, lightning-fast, and Clark laughed with shock.
“Is it fast, like me?” Clark asked, feeling his heart race and his breath get caught in his throat.
“The motion you see is the normal motion pattern of a human fetus,” said the AI in a reassuring voice. “There is a 59% chance that your daughter will have some Kryptonian traits.”
Another twitch, less unexpected this time, and Clark laid his fingers over his belly, pressed softly and watched the shock waves from his touch ripple across the screen.
“You were right and I was wrong,” suggested the bot, its voice getting slower as its battery ran out.
“We were both wrong,” Clark corrected. “But this time we’re right. I want her, too,” Clark told Lex in a half-whisper.
***
[Poll #599012]
ETA: I am off to my appointment, but I expect to be home again within a couple of hours. Keep voting, y'all! And this poll is 'meh', so please feel free to put your suggestions into the comments.
ETA 2: Poll closed!
I can't believe the Superbot won, y'all.
“So,” Clark said, unused to this place behind battle lines, and trying to dispel the strangeness of the situation with conversation, “um, how long have you had a Superbot?”
Lex’s expression grew stormy, and this was really perfect payback for that whole ‘performance’ exchange earlier. “It’s a prototype,” Lex said in his best serious science-geek voice. “For a combat simulation room that I was –”
“You know,” Clark said, cheerily, looking through the warehouse walls to where his LuthorCorp-manufactured robot counterpart was slowly clunking its way across the concrete floor, “I used to have this blanket I carried everywhere when I was a kid.” He paused. “Huh. Don’t know what made me think of that, just now.”
Lex cleared his throat and lifted his binoculars, even though there was nothing he could see from his vantage point. “You wouldn’t have thought it was so funny if I’d gone through with my plan to use Kryptonite to power him,” Lex muttered under his breath.
“I would have been laughing on the inside,” Clark answered solemnly, and then they were interrupted by one of Lex’s security techs, imparting some vital information as to the speed of Superbot’s processor coils or something to that effect.
“Can you see where Lois is?” Lex asked when he returned his attention to looking out from the van, across to the warehouse.
“Yeah, she’s trussed up in an armchair, on the third level.” Clark would never admit it, but some part of him secretly enjoyed seeing Lois with duct tape over her mouth.
Another pause. “Is there an elevator?”
“No, just st—are you serious?” Clark cried, catching onto Lex’s hesitation a second too late. “He *can’t climb stairs*?”
“I said, it’s just a prototype,” Lex snarled.
“Superman can fly!” Clark exclaimed, torn between hysteria and horror. “And Superbot is defeated by a series of rising steps?”
“I’m sure Lucas will come down to meet him,” Lex reasoned, returning to calmness.
Clark scanned up to where Lucas and his goons were pacing. “Maybe I should nip in and just whisk him up the stairs,” Clark began in a whisper, not wanting Lex’s minions to overhear.
“No, too dangerous,” Lex shook his head. “Patrick, can you radio the bot to wait at the foot of the stairs? Clark, we’ll need your – uh. Your Superman impression.” Lex held out a device that looked far too high-tech to be a microphone, because it was beaming actual laser beams up at Clark’s face. “It reads the configuration of your facial muscles,” Lex explained, “and transmits the data to the bot. That way, his mouth will match the words you speak. There’ll be a slight delay, but – well. Superman’s not *that* quick on the draw, after all.”
Clark stuck out his tongue, then squinted across to watch the Superbot stick out its tongue a moment later, a seemingly incongruous moment of childishness. Pulling a few more grimaces, Clark caught a dark glance from Lex, and settled down to business. When the Superbot halted, Clark cleared his throat quietly and shouted. “Lucas Luthor!”
All the headphoned men in the van jumped.
“Show your face!” Clark bellowed, and raised his chin as though to look up because the bot looked undeniably strange shouting into a stair riser.
Lucas, upstairs, seized Lois and shoved her into the arms of two large men, murmuring hasty orders before heading for the stairs.
Clark started to whistle, wanting to see the bot try to imitate him, but Lex sighed theatrically, and Clark tried to regain a sense of the gravity of the situation.
You, he told himself, are knocked up. Just like Susie Yates back in sophomore year at Smallville High.
That did it. Clark set his jaw and began to speak, timing it so that Superbot opened its mouth just as Lucas stood before it. “What is it that you want, Luthor?” Lex shifted a little beside Clark, probably remembering all too well the many conversations between them which had begun with those very words.
“It’s really very simple, Kal-El,” Lucas said, inclining his head so that Lois would be displayed to full effect. “I want your assistance in obtaining several essential items.”
Clark maintained a grim silence, wishing the bot would look at Lois. It was all wrong. He was supposed to be reassuring the hostage at this moment.
“As you probably recall, I find myself in a bit of a legal bind at the moment,” Lucas began, and Clark bit his tongue against the quick rejoinder he would have inserted had it not been for the two second delay. “I need to leave the country, and I need a certain amount of cash to make my life what I think it ought to be.”
“Come on, come on,” Lex was saying quietly, watching the video feed from the bot’s camera, which was trained on Lucas. “Don’t wait to flash the kryptonite, it only makes it worse for you.”
“I can’t do that,” Clark spoke, regretfully. “You broke the law, and you have to pay the pri—” Lex snorted “--ice.” While the bot repeated Clark’s line, Clark backed out of the lasers’ light and glared at Lex. “What?” he hissed, looking across at Lex.
“Nothing. Just… I bet you say that to all the boys,” Lex smirked.
“And meanwhile, you’re *rooting* for your brother?” Clark asked, deeply annoyed.
“Just… oh, never mind.”
“No, please tell me,” Clark snapped, but then a nudge from Mike the sound tech drew Clark’s attention to the fact that Lucas had stopped laughing and was now speaking again.
“… don’t you think, Kal-El?” concluded Lucas, with menace.
It was exactly like math class in high school, Clark despaired. He had no idea what Lucas was asking, but he was compelled to answer. “I don’t have time for your games, Luthor,” Clark improvised, and Lex was actually *giggling*.
“You know, I think the robot would do a better job on its own,” Lex commented between bursts of laughter.
“Sir, all the bot can say is –” began Mike, but he was quickly shushed by a gesture from Lex.
“Would you all stop back-seat Superbot-driving?” Clark whispered, turning back to find that he’d missed yet another comment from Lucas. “Shit!” But Clark was back in range of the microphone device, and a second later, the bot exclaimed, “Shit!”, appearing somewhat annoyed.
“Look, where’s the goddamn kryptonite?” Clark asked, exasperated as Lex began to chuckle again.
Lucas knew something was up, no question. His dark brows had drawn together and he seemed to notice for the first time that Superman seemed oddly focused on him. “What makes you think I need kryptonite?” Lucas asked, clearly trying to regain control. “I have Lois. I could –”
“You couldn’t,” Clark interrupted. “I could take off the heads of both your goons before you could even blink.”
The line was eerie, delivered by the bot, which was still looking forward, still as the machinery it was.
“So where is it?” Clark demanded. “What, in your pocket?” Clark nodded at the bot’s radio controller, and suddenly the bot had hauled Lucas up by the lapels, forcing the move.
A lead box tumbled out of Lucas’s jacket as the Superbot patted him down. Its lid cracked open, and with a sigh of relief, Clark watched as the bot radio operator had the bot stoop down to pick up the green rock – so innocuous-looking, at this distance – and place it back in the box before crushing both, so the result was a lead-covered lump of harmless rock.
“What the –” said Lucas from the floor where the bot had dropped him. “What –”
And that was all he had time to say before Lex nodded and his security team burst through the doors, followed closely by Clark himself, in full Superman regalia. Lois shot him a grateful look as he tore the duct tape from her mouth, and the inevitable flood began.
“Superman, I knew something was wrong, what *is* that thing, who are all these people, where’s Clark,” Lois gasped, not pausing for an interrogatory lift on any given question.
“I was wrong and you were right,” said someone behind Clark, and he turned around to find the Superbot now looking at him, face full of puzzlement. For a moment, Clark thought that someone else had taken over the controls in the van, but –
“I was wrong, and you were right,” said the bot again, adding, as if for emphasis, “Lex.”
“*That’s* all it says?” Clark blurted, leaning in to stare at Lex, Mike, and the rest of the crew in the van through the bot’s cam. “Okay, this thing? Is going to the Fortress. Right now.”
The robot spoke again. “And what are *you* going to do with a combat prototype?” it demanded, sounding and looking remarkably like an irritated Lex.
“I don’t know,” Clark said, reaching out and tucking the bot under his arm. “Maybe the AI can program it to spank intruders or something.”
***
The truth was, Clark needed to hear it one more time, just once more, to make it real. It happened almost as soon as Clark crossed the threshold.
“Good afternoon, Kal-El,” said the AI warmly, then, after a moment’s pause, “My scan of your body reveals that you are gestating a fetus.”
“Say it again,” Clark said, sighing, and leaning the disabled Superbot up against a wall.
“You are pregnant, Kal-El.”
“Thank you,” Clark murmured, and moved into a room outfitted with a chair that was somewhat comfortable by the AI’s standards. Once he’d collapsed into it and tugged off his red boots (his feet were swollen), he closed his eyes, wiggled toes in blue tights, and ordered, “Tell me more.”
“What do you wish to know?”
“What can you tell me?” Clark asked, not a little shortly.
“My scan is giving me results on all aspects of the fetus’s physiology. I can describe the fetus’s viability, its genetic make-up, its gender, its current heartrate, estimated date of delivery, estimated birth weight –”
“Start,” Clark interrupted, “start with the first one. Is it viable?”
The AI whirred, then spoke. “Yes.”
“And it’s half-human?” Clark prompted.
“Yes. From its genetic material, I can confirm its paternity. Do you wish me to elaborate?”
“Don’t bother,” Clark waved his hand. “Lex Luthor, I know.”
“That is consistent with my findings.”
“And… when?” Clark asked.
The AI had to take a moment to analyze his tone and calculate the most likely ‘when’ Clark would be asking about. “Estimated delivery date is in thirty weeks.”
“Boy or girl?” Clark asked, “or something in between?”
“The fetus is female,” the AI answered. “Do you wish to see it?”
Clark watched the screen spool down from the ceiling. “Can you capture this on DVD or something that Lex can watch?” Clark asked impulsively.
“Yes,” the AI said, a little proudly. “Shall I make a copy for your adoptive parents as well?”
Oh, hell.
“Yeah,” Clark said, rubbing his temples and hearing the Superbot saying, faintly, “You were right, and I was wrong, Lex.”
The screen flickered into not the grey and white ambiguity of a regular ultrasound, but into a full-colour Kryptonian scan. Pink, faint light, sugary-looking spun fine tissue, and –there. A tiny hand. A tiny hand, a tiny arm, the scan zoomed out slowly and Clark could see its heartbeat, god, the curves of its ribs like a bird, dark shadows of miniature bones, dark eyes without lids yet, big belly with a grayish cord trailing, and – and – it moved. It twitched, lightning-fast, and Clark laughed with shock.
“Is it fast, like me?” Clark asked, feeling his heart race and his breath get caught in his throat.
“The motion you see is the normal motion pattern of a human fetus,” said the AI in a reassuring voice. “There is a 59% chance that your daughter will have some Kryptonian traits.”
Another twitch, less unexpected this time, and Clark laid his fingers over his belly, pressed softly and watched the shock waves from his touch ripple across the screen.
“You were right and I was wrong,” suggested the bot, its voice getting slower as its battery ran out.
“We were both wrong,” Clark corrected. “But this time we’re right. I want her, too,” Clark told Lex in a half-whisper.
***
[Poll #599012]
ETA: I am off to my appointment, but I expect to be home again within a couple of hours. Keep voting, y'all! And this poll is 'meh', so please feel free to put your suggestions into the comments.
ETA 2: Poll closed!
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*is five*
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Well, not really.
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Meanwhile, Lex has called the Kents and blown the whistle on Clark.
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BTW Your icon? Adorable.
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Oh, please. If it hadn't won, I'd have been floored. You obviously don't have enough faith in your readers' depravity and/or weirdness.
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“Superman can fly!” Clark exclaimed, torn between hysteria and horror. “And Superbot is defeated by a series of rising steps?”
*giggles*
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Bwahahahahahaha!!! I'm loving this story! :)