Lana gave him an almost dismissive look. “
“Guess that’s a ‘no’ then.” He moved toward his office. He was intercepted by Lois, who snatched a coffee. “Good call on the java, Smallville.”
“Donut?”
He was met with the same look as before with Lana. “I’ve got to keep in tip-top shape. We don’t all got your metabolism.”
Chloe eyed them, and after a short internal battle, snatched one and bit into it, her eyes closing in ecstasy. “Oh, this is amazing. Though,” she said without humor, locking eyes with
In the lobby, Chloe approached the front desk, still holding the half-eaten morsel. Lois and Lana immediately glared at it with a mixture of envy and disapproval. “What are you doing?” Lana asked, not taking her eyes off the donut.
With a half-smirk, Chloe shook her head. “It’s one donut. Get over it.” She took another bite and asked pointedly, “Don’t tell me you’re still having guilt trips from that one time you ate an entire box of chocolates in one sitting?”
Lana flatly replied, “I hate you.”
“Lex imported those straight from
Lana’s entire body tensed, her muscles tightening like violin strings. A jarring telephone ring led her to grab the phone and answer, with a calm sing-song tone, “Archangel Investigations. We bring truth and justice to the hopeless. What can we do for you?” Her entire body instantly relaxed.
Chloe walked back toward her office while tossing the last bite of donut in her mouth. She caught Lois smirking at her. Mimicking Chloe, she teased, “The glaze dripping off it. You need a boyfriend.” Chloe ignored her.
Within the manager’s office, Clark and Pete were joking as they each polished off their third donut each. Lana, followed by Chloe and Lois, rushed in.
“We’ve got a job,” Lana stated, “
Pete quipped, “Who are we, the exterminators?” His hand strayed behind him in search of the donut box.
Lana calmly replied, “When they’re two feet long with pincers, yes.” She grabbed the donut out of Pete’s hand and put it back in the box with a severe look.
To herself, Lois repeated the address, which for some reason was echoing in the back of her mind.
As she, Pete, and Clark rushed out, Chloe turned to Lana. “You think you can hold down the fort for a couple of hours? I’ve got an errand to do.” Lana nodded.
Lana was left alone in the room. She turned to the desk and saw the open donut box, with still a few donuts left, which she eyed stoically, as she licked the glaze from Pete’s donut off her hand.
* * *
Chloe stood frozen at the top of the stairs, staring at one particular desk in the bullpen. “JAMES B. OLSEN” read the nameplate. It was currently unmanned, which shouldn’t have been a surprise since photographers did very little work at their desks, spending most of their time on assignment or in the development rooms. She mentally prodded herself for not anticipating this.
“Chloe?” came an all too familiar male voice.
Chloe spun around, “Jimmy? Or is it James now?”
The tallish man with light chestnut hair blushed, “Uh, yeah, no matter how many times I introduce myself as James, inevitably I still end up being ‘Jimmy,’ so whichever you like.” Chloe just shrugged, and they began to descend the stairs toward Jimmy’s desk. He continued, “So, couldn’t stay away from the Planet for very long, could we? I was kind of surprised that you left for a detective agency. What was it called again?”
“
Jimmy adopted an expression of understanding as he sat down at his desk. “Shoulda figured. I knew it would take something X-Files to drag you from the printing press.”
Blushing, Chloe cut him off, “Look, how would you like to be part of the story of the decade?”
Jimmy took only a second to consider that. “Well, you’re certainly the one who would get that. Though, why the old Jimster? I’m just a photographer.”
“And I’m just a reporter. This is why I need you.” She turned in, holding his shoulder as she lowered her voice, “Look, later today, Virgil Electric is going to be handing out a press release personally thanking Archangel Investigations for protecting their plant from an unknown mutant menace. I figured that the Planet is gonna wanna be all over that. And they’ll want it yesterday. How would you like to be part of the team that will chronicle some of Archangel Investigation’s adventures?”
“How can I say ‘no’? How big’s the team?”
Briskly, she replied, “I write. You take pictures.”
With intention, Jimmy commented, “I like that team.” He smiled suggestively. “So, why me?” He swept a hand through his curly hair.
“I trust you.” Chloe wanted to smile back, but she was forced to admit, “Jimmy, Archangel Investigations, it’s made up of the Champions of Kal-El.”
Jimmy immediately realized the connotation, and took a small step back. “Oh, with C.K., and…” he paused here before going on, “Lois, and Lana, and Pete—he’s a good guy—and… Lex Luthor?”
“He’s more of a silent partner. He’s a little busy to do field work. So, you in?”
“Absolutely.”
* * *
Jimmy Olsen was having quite a time trying to wrap his head around being in the alien craft. Four short hours ago, he was trying to entice the lovely Chloe Sullivan into a casual dinner date. And now, he was on a distant planet, only to realize that that same lovely lady was part of a secret six-member team that was the last hope of survival for that planet he was occupying.
Krisreo and Maddinai, natives of the planet, returned with two cups of liquid. Chloe greedily drank hers, humming with bliss at the strange beverage. Jimmy couldn’t stand it. He watched Maddinai as she left. The woman—or whatever she was; she looked very close to human—was beautiful. And had she not had a tail and had his heart not be stolen by the blond woman beside him, he might have hit on her, in his own special Jimmy way, which usually meant just being too cute for the woman to say no. The technique had lost him his virginity.
Chloe was sitting at the control panel, her chin her hand. Her other hand was absentmindedly rubbing her wrist, reminding Jimmy of what used to be there: the turquoise bracelet, a kind of extraterrestrial wedding ring that bound her to Clark: Naman and Loral. The whole situation gave Jimmy a sick feeling in his gut.
Jimmy finally broke the silence. “So, this is why you’re not interested in me? ‘Cause you’re secretly married to C.K.?”
Chloe gave him a pitying look that didn’t help Jimmy’s disposition. She giggled briefly and replied, “We’re not really married, Jimmy. It was just when the time came to call on the Champions of Kal-El, well, the six of us happened to be in the room, and I emphasize ‘happened to be.’
“Oh.” Jimmy, in the last few hours, had gotten a crash course, which all at once made him completely understand the inscrutable relationship between the intrepid blond reporter and the
Chloe sighed. “Jimmy, look, I really am kinda interested in you. It’s just a bad time.”
Despondently, he replied, “You’ve been saying that for months. I mean, how long is this super-job gonna last?”
“I don’t know. I guess until the universe is safe.” She faced the large command center screen, not looking at Jimmy.
“Chloe,” he searched for the words, “look, if Earth is any indication, the whole universe isn’t ever going to be completely safe. I don’t think you want to spend the rest of your life in a pretend marriage with Clark
Chloe looked downcast, not wanting to admit that he was right… or wrong.
“I mean, are you and C.K. …? ‘Cause that would have been an okay reason to give me for backing off.”
“No,” she pronounced, “Clark and I… it’s complicated. He gets scared off.”
“I’m not scared,” Jimmy announced, and with every ounce of confidence, grabbed Chloe around the shoulders and laid a hard kiss on her. After a moment for the action to sink in, he added, “Betcha C.K. would never’ve tried to pull that.”
Chloe couldn’t help but smile. “No, can’t say that he ever has.”
As Jimmy leaned in for another kiss, Chloe mimicked his motion. Halfway there, she released an ear-splitting shriek and fell to her knees gripping her head. Jimmy was at her side in a fraction of a second. “Chloe, what’s going on?” She didn’t answer; she just passed out after her scream devolved into a meager groan.
Over the radio system, he heard Groo scream inhumanly in pain.
Jimmy replied, “Hey, C.K., it’s Jimmy. Uh, Chloe’s… well, she’s unconscious. What do you think I should do?”
“Get help!” The command seemed obvious now. Jimmy rushed over towards where he saw Kris and Maddie exit the room. They met him halfway, and he directed them towards Chloe. They rushed to her side, examining her. Kris ran in another direction, apparently for medical supplies. From the hallway, Jimmy turned and noticed that a door was open… a door that was supposed to be closed. A door that it was his job to keep closed. And now the room that that door led to was empty.
“Way to go, Olsen,” he said to himself, “not only have you somehow caused the woman you’re crazy about to go into shock, you’ve also failed the twelfth richest man in the country.” He slammed the door and ran back into the command room. Chloe seemed to be recovering, so he spoke into the intercom, “Hey, C.K.! Uh, it looks like Chloe’s gonna be fine, but, uh… I think I should mention that Lana probably escaped during the chaos.”
* * *
Pete looked skeptical as he drove the Thunderbird. “Look, Lois, I’ve tried it before. They found a way to screw it up. Plus, aren’t you the one who thinks she’s too good for him?”
“Petey Boy, I don’t think anyone’s good enough for Chloe. Plus that opinion of him was kind of formed when I thought he was just a frumpy farm boy. As much as I hate to admit it,
“Yet, you still find a way. You really want to try this?”
Lois sighed. “Look, apparently even the universe wants them together, or else they wouldn’t have been given the whole soul mate roles. Even Jarnelle thinks he and Chloe are good together.”
“I think he prefers to be called ‘Jor-El.’” As they turned the last corner onto
As they slowed to a stop, a large cockroach-like creature crashed into the hood of their car.
Lois stared at the wiggling bug steely, “I really like this shirt. I hope whatever these things are made of, they wash out.”
“Only one way to find out.” Pete grabbed a rather large machete and an even large smile on his face.
* * *
“Take your next left onto
Jimmy, breaking one of the dozens of silence that had occurred during the trip over, asked, “So, you all still have your powers?”
“Yeah, I’ve developed visual precognition in addition to the other quirks.”
“Like visions of the future?” He failed to contain his astonishment.
“Near-future, I guess. By the way, we’re all keeping our identities as secret as we can, so kindly forget to mention that you know our real names.”
“I’m just the photo guy. Unless you’re wearing highly visible name tags.”
“We’ve got faces. I won’t insult you by asking you to blur your pictures, but try to stick to action shots rather than portraits.”
“Shadowed faces… large-angle point of view… I know how to get great shots without compromising identities.”
“You’re the best, Jimmy.”
Jimmy winked, and Chloe pretended not to notice. He wondered why Chloe wasn’t looking at house numbers, but before he had a chance to answer, he realized exactly how Chloe knew where the address was.
Pete stood in the middle of the street, two machetes in hand. He was swinging them with grace and precision as a herd of giant crab-like insectoids lunged at him from all sides. Chunks of oversized cockroaches were thrown with abandon in every direction, often leaving trails of thick, green pus. Flying around in the air in defiance of gravity was Lois, kicking and stabbing with two daggers at the buzzing creatures around her.
To say Jimmy had a good camera was an understatement. It held a 5-gig memory card capable of holding over three thousand high-definition pictures and five separate batteries: one for the processor and four for the flash, allowing for up to four pictures per second to be taken. He was making use of the camera’s capabilities by taking pictures nonstop, only occasionally taking time to reframe. And when
Seeing the fierceness of the creatures, Jimmy pulled his eyes away from his viewfinder long enough to check on Chloe, who was scribbling furiously on a quarter-sheet notepad, flipping pages with nearly as much speed as Jimmy pressed his capture button. As Clark was again swarmed with a dozen bugs, he launched himself ten feet backwards into the air, and Jimmy spun just in time to get two pictures of all three heroes in the same shot: the samurai-like Pete on the ground, Clark face-up in the air with a cockroach in each hand, and Lois higher in the air, in the middle of a drop kick. Jimmy was already mentally writing his Pulitzer speech.
Unable to pull his eyes away, Jimmy called to Chloe, “You know. I don’t know which of them is most impressive.”
Equally focused, Chloe replied, “They’re a team, Jimmy; they’re most impressive together.” She looked up just in time to see
Jimmy turned his head away, partly to take more pictures, partly to hide his faded smile.
Fifteen minutes later, the ground was littered with oversized bug parts. As Pete started throwing the remains into a trash bag, Clark and Lois ran into the house to check on the inhabitants, coming out with a family of four. Lois held a girl of about seven years in her arms. She was holding her own arm, wrapped in what appeared to be her father’s alma mater sweatshirt. Lois placed the girl on the ground and started to examine her wounds. “Thank you, army first aid training,” she said to herself.
On the lawn,
“Not that we don’t appreciate it, but what took so long? We called two days ago.”
Lois, having finished putting a splint on the young girl, turned and muttered, “Oh, crap.” After cringing with guilt, she stated slowly, “We got a call the other day. I couldn’t figure out the computer system, and… I wrote down the address, but there was another emergency I had to attend to. Sorry?”
The man shook his head with a smile, “Listen, kid, you’re the only ones in town who do what you do. And you do a bang-up good job. And I hear you do a lot of it for free. Hell, you’re heroes if I ever saw them.” He grasped
“Got to go.” He appeared to disappear, leaving only a gust of wind in his wake.
Four blocks over,
“I appreciate that,” Jimmy replied.
“Your secret’s safe with me, Mr. Elliot.”
“
As they entered Chloe’s car, Jimmy asked, “If you and C.K. aren’t… why meet up at a hotel?”
Chloe laughed. “It’s where our offices are. The Euryphaessa.”
Jimmy nodded in reply. “That’s an odd name for a hotel.”
“It’s a Greek god or something. Lex’ll talk your ear off about it.”
The distance to
“I’ve got a story to write. I’ll e-mail it to you.” Checking her watch, she added, “Virgil will release the publication in about an hour. This place will be swarming with the need to know more about Archangel Investigations. Get your best shots ready.”
“Okay,” was all he could say in response. He looked wistfully at Chloe, wanting to say something else. She cut him off, “Jimmy?” He turned to look at her. She finished with sincerity, “It was nice to see you again.”
He calmly answered, “You too, Bright Eyes.”
* * *
Pauline Kahn slammed her hand on the desk so hard, coffee mugs shook and one glass of water tipped over. If she received any pain from the gesture, she didn’t show it. “Look, people,” she practically screamed, “somehow a superhero league has cropped up in Metropolis and we didn’t know anything about it! Do you think the Gotham Gazette misses stuff with their caped crusader? I don’t care what you do; I want this to be on the front page of the Planet tomorrow. If the words ‘Archangel Investigations’ isn’t in the headline tomorrow, everyone last one of you will be looking for jobs.” Every last journalist in the room cowered away from the five-foot woman.
Jimmy tried to sneak in unnoticed, or perhaps only pretending to be discrete.
“So nice of you to join us, Mr. Olsen. While you’re out gallivanting on company time, the biggest news story of the year comes out. Care to inform us what story you’ve been chasing?”
Jimmy threw two sheets of paper and a stack of enlarged photographs on the table. “I was there. Saw Archangel Investigations in action.”
Kahn looked at the young photographer in disbelief. She looked down at the article before her. “You wrote this?” she asked holding the sheets of paper up.
“A friend of mine did. Those are my photos, though.”
Kahn looked down at the photographs, with appreciation. “Well, Ricky wasn’t lying to me. You are a damn good photographer. You can’t seem to capture any faces, but these are still good. Tell me, Mr. Olsen, what’s your job title?”
“Archive Photographer’s Assistant.”
“Well, if you can bring this type of work to me on a regular basis, you’ll be a Field Photographer with the year. This…” she peered down at the article again, “Veronica Venus, this friend of yours…?”
“Yes, it’s a pen name.”
“I figured.” She continued to read the article, “This is good work. Where have I seen this before?”
Jimmy shrugged casually.
Kahn eyed her photographer suspiciously. “Just keep ‘em coming them. Tell your friend the same.”
* * *
Standing in the hotel lobby, Lex Luthor surveyed pincer-tipped appendage. “Intriguing.”
“Yeah,” Chloe replied, “I did some tests on it. It’s a mutated cockroach. I didn’t find any kryptonite…” Her voice lingered, implying more.
Lex finished her sentence, “…but you have your suspicions. Not too surprising. I had my LexCorp scientists working on the last two metas you brought in. Autopsied the gray one; did a physical examination on our electrokinetic. We were able to get corresponding results in mice using kryptonite fragments and related stimuli.”
Pete added pointedly, “Yeah, the CEO of your biggest trading partner.”
“Every project that we share with my father’s company comes across my desk. He sends me only legit stuff. And for a reason, I’m sure.”
Leaning against the front desk, Lois hypothesized, “Let’s say your dad is behind all this. Why cockroaches?”
“On the one hand, he’s done animal testing in the past. Cockroaches are the most evolved creatures on the planet, capable of surviving nuclear fallout. On the other hand, our antennaed little friends would be the single greatest trespasser in lab environments.” Lois shuttered. “Any chance you have more remains we can test?”
Chloe reached behind the desk and dropped a trash bag in front of him.
“Classy.”
“Double bag with a melted seal. It’s as airtight a CSI bag. But cheaper.”
Lex shrugged approvingly. “I saw the Virgil announcement today. Damn good PR for us. I heard we had another client today. Were they generous?”
Lex arched his eyebrow. “I’m a bit worried. I didn’t realize you were doing pro bono for call-ins.
Chloe jumped in, “We were unacceptably late to a call-in.” Lois backed up to the desk, trying to make herself scarce. “There was a flaw in our communication system. Though, I worked on the problem. Our phone lines are now tied directly through the computer, allowing us to digitally record each call. I’m working on a way to get the computer to automatically contact the field beepers.”
Lex sent an admiring smile Chloe’s way. “Between your technical expertise and publicity, Lana’s business saavy, and the skill set of the rest of you, minus a few bouts of incompetence…” Though he faced no one in particular, his voice spoke a single soul. Lois, now sitting on the front desk, scooted back far enough to slip behind the counter. Lex continued, “Start-ups are never easy. But I like the talent we’ve got in the room. Just keep it up. I don’t like surprises.”
At that moment, the clacking sound of the entrance door caused all the heads in the room to turn toward the front of the hotel lobby. Standing in the doorway was a beautiful twenty-something woman. Upon her five-and-a-half foot frame, she wore a conservative, terra cotta blouse and dark jeans. Except for a quartz crystal necklace around her neck, she was devoid of jewelry and had on only light makeup. Her warm brown hair lay simply over her shoulders. Her demeanor was highly nervous and lowly, and with very little assurance, she meekly breathed, “Hi.”
There was a stunned silence in the room. Lois finally spoke, “Lucy?”
~
Director’s Commentary: Yes, the triumphant return of Aaron Ashmore. He fell right into the role of Jimmy Olsen, which is amazing considering the role he played in his upcoming film. He and Allison haven’t lost an ounce of their chemistry. We’ve already contracted him for several episodes.
Also, Carrie Fisher owned in her role of Pauline Kahn. It’s amazing the presence that woman has. We’re comparing schedules to see if she can return. Also, Peyton List returns as “Lucy.” She’s returning in the next episode, and let me tell you, it’s gonna be good.
The character of “Krisreo” in the flashback was portrayed by yours truly. Originally, the character was supposed to be portrayed by David Krumholtz, but he had scheduling problems, and the movie was cancelled before we could get him on. The part of Maddenai was played by Teal Redmann. Come back anytime, cutie.
The family was portrayed by actors Charles Mesure, Tisha Terrasini Baker, David Marshall, and the adorable Rhiannon Leigh Wryn.
And, yes, the network has extended our run to five. They’re very stingy, and we’re submitting 106 and 107 for review. We sent them to Joss first to look at, and he liked them, so hopefully you can expect them later on. Keep in mind that the most number of shows the network is going to give us for this season is 13. Here are the titles for the next few episodes, just to get you excited:
104: Repachage
105: Treasured
106: Roofie (working title)
107: Penelope (working title)
On the next episode of Archangel Investigations: AAI welcomes the prodigal Lucy, but she’s not the only visitor. Things between Chloe and Jimmy develop.
A/N: This was dedicated to carcassi, who does the Chlarkimmy better than anyone I know.
^_^ - After that scene, I’m simply must have a donut!!! But Chloe smothered in glaze is fine, too.©2006, 2007 Godeerc VanDrey Enterprises, Inc. Created Saturday, November 11, 2006. Finished Thursday, December 28, 2006. Updated Saturday, January 27, 2007. Updated Saturday, February 10, 2007.
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