Last Voices
by Moonraker One

CHAPTER FIVE – That which is discovered

The wind picked up as a jetliner ended its final descent into an airport outside of Rio de Janeiro. Two specific passengers, filed rather anonymously amongst a crowd of a few hundred people, headed to the baggage claim, hoping their materials weren't lost. At least a few dozen individuals arranged into a thin grouping around the moving belt as the suitcases slid down and began moving,, almost all of which got picked up almost as soon as they touched down. Lana reached over the metal rail and lifted her case with a grunt, pulling the slightly heavy case over the rail. Lois grasped the handle of her suitcase, and prepared to struggle to hoist it over to the ground near her. The luggage flew upward, almost out of control, forcing the reporter to quickly realign herself. The crowd glanced over and quiet murmurs of gossip could be heard, albeit scarcely. Lois heard them all very clearly but paid no mind. What her concern with was the virtual weightlessness of her suitcase. "Lana," the reporter requested, "wait a minute. I think some of the things in my suitcase might have fallen out in the airplane."

Lana expressed concern as she leaned over. "Oh? I hope that isn't the case. We'll make a complaint to the airport if it is."

Lois opened her suitcase, and immediately squinted in confusion. "Huh. That's weird. All the stuff is here." She sorted it through. "Yeah, it's all here. It shouldn't be this light." She hoisted it up to waist level with one hand.

Lana chuckled once. "Don't worry about it, Lois, you are just probably getting stronger because of all that paperwork you're always moving around."

Lois shook her head. "I guess." She walked along with her friend through the security gates. "I'm surprised I have as much energy as I do; I usually get jet-lag after flights like that one." That drink Doz gave her must have worked. She did, however, expect to crash later on for drinking it, as was the curse of caffeine.

"I need some of your energy, Lois," Lana quipped. "I hate flights." She wiped her brow. She looked at her friend on the trip. The woman always seemed to have the ability to move on despite knowing full well what the human race was capable of. She would never understand it.

The rental car came into view as the two of them exited the expansive air port and out into the scorching afternoon sun. Lois noticed immediately that her usually sensitive skin wasn't feeling hotter than usual. The reporter usually found her skin easy to burn by the relatively calmer Metropolis sun. Lana began to sweat quickly. "I can't wait to get out of these clothes and into a cooler outfit. I don't know how you can walk around out here with that suit on."

Lois set her suitcase in the trunk after it popped open. "I don't get it either. I usually burn easily because I have sensitive skin." As unusual as it was, however, she chalked it up to circumstance because she had no evidence to something otherwise.

Doz sat, with his equipment, on a platform he could carry. He kept an eye on the data as the meteor approached within Earth's magnetic area. He wore a frown as he looked at the data for the rotation and the pathway. It wasn't going to change course, but something worse was going to happen. Dammit, it's probably going to break apart in the atmosphere, and we won't be able to predict where the pieces will fall. He hated the prospect of not being able to figure out anything about the meteor he'd studied for the better part of a week or so.

His communicator beeped. "Doz, are you keeping track of the numbers?" Batman's matter-of-fact voice came through rather clearly.

He pressed a button. "Yes, but the problem is, if my calculations are correct, we're going to see the object break apart in the atmosphere. It should remain within a hundred mile radius of the epicenter, but we're probably going to see fragments." He calibrated some of his equipment while he awaited the inevitable response from his partner.

Batman kicked up some dirt in frustration. How could he, with nowhere near the scientific background as Doz, predict this turn so quickly? His gut instinct, he knew, seldom proved wrong. "Dammit," he swore. "I knew it. Well, let's just try to keep this from spreading into an utter disaster." He kept his sights on a laptop screen. "After all, it probably won't be difficult to find stragglers who might seep through our sights." If there was one thing he hated, it always was dealing with people whose curiosity got them killed.

The Kryptonian scientist released a series of bug-like devices that he tuned to the specific frequency of the radiation that would emanate from the meteor. His radar picked up their separate locations as they flew off to the estimated ares in which fragments might land. While he typed away at his computer, a mosquito landed on his chest, and, upon finding the skin impossible to penetrate with its proboscis, fled the scene. This repeated itself several times. Batman found the problem required a different solution, a chemical solution.

Lois and Lana found their way to the hotel soon enough. The reporter had changed out of her suit after much debate by her partner on the trip. Both of them wore swimsuits and headed out to the rather large pool that sat behind the huge building. Of the crowd, most paid no notice, while some of the males stared and made facial expressions indicative of their intent. Of the two, the assistant to Lex Luthor kept a thick layer of suntan lotion with built-in bug repellent on her skin. The reporter felt the sun's heat, but it felt refreshing instead of burning, like what usually felt when she went outside with her sensitive skin. "I'm going to relax here for a bit, Lois. I might swim later. What about you?"

Lois hadn't had on a two piece swimsuit in a long time. "Uh, I think I'll check things out for a bit." She stuck her left index finger in her left ear and twisted it a bit. "Did you hear me? The cross-talk is a bit loud." She could hear everyone talking and discern each message separately and clearly, but she waited for the nod from her friend before she moved on. Lana looked at her in a strange manner; she could only hear quiet gibberish amongst the sounds of water moving.

Lois didn't actually do any swimming immediately. At first, she went around and circled the area. One of the first things she took interest in sat in a small booth behind a gathering of palm trees. A dark-skinned man massaged rich-looking older women. She didn't sit down, however; she took interest in some polished black stones sitting in a solution of water over a flame. The man noticed her walking to his left. "Don't touch that," he said, in a thick Spanish accent, "those are in boiling water and I have to put them in this other solution to cool them down to use in massages." He went back to concentrating on his current task. Lois dipped her hand in to grab a stone, completely disregarding his command. Water usually bubbles when it's boiling. I think he's lying. Pure water, having a different nature than tap, began boiling as soon as contaminants from her hand entered solution. Initially, she drew her hand out of psychological effect, but dipped it back in to touch the stone. It didn't feel like one hundred degrees Celsius; it felt like moderately warm liquid. Thinking back to the abnormal lightness of the suitcase, she left the booth and began to look around. Oh, I hope I'm wrong about what's going on.

Hmm, she thought. If what I think happened, happened, then surely I can test it. She found some dry leaves fallen from a palm. Ah! There we go. She lifted it to eye level. Squinting, she saw nothing happen immediately. A few seconds into focusing, though, she found herself staring at individual cells in the leaf. Microscopic vision, she noted. She closed and opened her eyes; back to normal seeing. Squinting again, she found that the spot she stared at caught fire. Heat vision. Son of a bitch. She put it out and set it down.

Putting her hands to the ground and standing in sprinter's position, she took off and got all the way to the parking lot in less than a second, from all the way behind the hotel. During motion, she saw everything around her slow to a non-mobile crawl. She turned her head and saw the pool, a good 400 yards away. Super speed. I swear, someone is going to get fucking yelled at when I get home. She took a deep breath, and breathed out; no change in temperature. Okay, so maybe no freezing breath, but I certainly have a bigger lung capacity. She moved into the lot. An Aston Martin sat in the spot she stopped at. Grasping the frame underneath, she hosted it effortlessly to waist height and set it down. Super Strength. She focused hard enough and found herself slightly off the ground. Flight. She shook her head. "Doz, you sneaky bastard," she swore. The only time, she could figure, he could've introduced anything into her body to give her Kryptonian abilities, it would've been the drink she had. She slowly strolled back to the pool, a peeved expression on her face.

She got slightly less angry the closer she got to the pool. Look on the bright side, Lois, she countered her emotions with. Now, you won't have to worry about Clark as much to save you, and, you can get better news articles since you can hear people talking from miles away. Any anger she had at Doz for giving her these abilities, vanished when she realized she could apply them to work. It hadn't dawned on her while she exercised her anger that it would improve her working abilities as a reporter. She decided to go back to the pool and and swim.

The asteroid flew ever closer to Earth, passing by the moon. At this point, its course was more or less guaranteed. Doz and Bruce kept their equipment locked onto it. The Kryptonian scientist got better readings now that there was too little time to change its course. Now he knew exactly where it would land. It would land almost forty miles from his position to his northwest. Fragments of the asteroid might land as far as a hundred miles away, but he certainly didn't believe they'd reach far enough to pose a threat to civilized areas. If they did, he'd leave his post and stop the fragment. After all, it wouldn't hurt him, but he couldn't allow it to affect innocents. That would simply be unethical.

"Tell me something, Bruce," Doz said over the radio, "I know you're getting restless, just waiting for the asteroid. But wait just a bit longer, and it'll show up." He didn't just want to say that. "What I wanted to ask you, is, how do you make sure criminals in Gotham get put away? I can't imagine 'The Batman caught him, so he must be bad,' holds up in court."

Bruce rolled his eyes. He'd gotten this question so many times, by so many people. "I have evidence that, well, let's just say doesn't get put in the court record. I don't want my insider evidence on these bad guys going into public record right away where they might be corrupted or otherwise rendered useless."

"That makes sense." He went back to the data in front of him. He could imagine such a situation, despite having yet to experience personally the humans' system of justice. Supergirl had told him, though, of how crime-infested Gotham City always was, so he wondered what the city must have been prior to Batman's arrival on the scene. Nevertheless, his task at hand warranted all of his considerable scientific knowledge, so he paid it full attention.

Quite a ways away, a moderately more comfortable Lois Lane swam the length of the Olympic-size pool. Expensive hotels, she clearly saw, offered the very best accommodations for everything, even swimming. What amazed her more than the quality of the swimming pool, lie in her newly-acquired vision. She could, if she focused hard enough, see the individual groups of water molecules with her microscopic vision, and how, on such a scale, the molecules of the skins of the swimmers and the water itself faded seamlessly into each other, making everything look completely the same. Only on a larger scale did differences in appearance show up. She touched the wall on the other side of the pool.

As Lois exited the water, Lana looked up and inquired, "Do you want to grab a bite to eat? I hear they have exceptional cuisine this time of day. I think we could get washed off and head out if you want." She adjusted her sunglasses.

"I think that's a great idea," she replied. The two of them headed to the showers so they could then partake of the fine dining establishment that worked in tandem with the hotel. Lois could see the different amounts of chlorine as they danced off her skin. This microscopic vision is fascinating, she thought. She got past the groups of people exiting the locker room and heading to the pool, and entered the women's showers. The steaming, hot water felt comfortable against her skin. It helped knowing she could not get burned by the water. After drying off and dressing, she departed for the dining room.

"You know," Lana admitted, "for a vacation forced on me, this is great. I guess you have to get away from it all every now and then." She took a bite of her food. "Sit down. I ordered for you already. I hope that's ok."

Lois brushed it off. "Yeah, don't worry. It's fine." She looked around, focusing her enhanced hearing as she moved her head around. At first she found it difficult, but she quickly learned that with sufficient focus, any individual sound in the sea of amplified noise could be picked out. The varying levels of complexity in conversation present gave her a slight smug feeling. Back at the Daily Planet, Cat Grant, who devoted her life to the smut and gossip of pig feed level controversy, would certainly kill to have at least this super ability. Lois Lane felt good knowing she had something that the vulture would want. "I'm just glad you can share your forced vacation with me."

Lana laughed. "And to think some of my friends back in high school thought I was a secretive woman."

Lois shared her sentiment. "Secrets usually only lead to ruin." she shook her head. "Sometimes, secrets can be a pain in the ass. But anyway, how is life with Lex Luthor?" She got a look from Lana. "Come on, Lana. You know it isn't exactly a secret that you work for LexCorp."

"Lex is being more damn crazy than ever," she admitted. "He's buying up the world's supplies of Kryptonite to make Superman's life more miserable than he's already done." She noted the concerned look on Lois's face. It was her counter to the cheap shot the woman had made with mentioning Lex. "Personally, I think he needs to get a new hobby."

The reporter rolled her eyes. "He's still nursing that old grudge for Superman ruining his ties to the underworld? That's sad." She took a bite of her food. Her hearing alerted her to a rumbling sound in the air several dozen miles from the hotel. "Lana, I'll be back." She slowly walked out of the restaurant, and when she was out of sight, took off at super speed.

Doz looked up at the object streaking in from the heavens, and looked over to his right to see a high speed blur moving towards him. He smiled. "Ah, Lois. Good to see you've decided to join Batman and myself out here." She arrived out of an after image of speed, and had a moderately peeved expression on her face.

She pointed a finger at him. "Spare me the nice speech, Doz, you know how pissed I am that you did this against my will. Care to tell me why?" He walked towards a series of machinery. She stood in front of him so he couldn't ignore her.

"You see that?" he pointed to the asteroid. "It has a type of kryptonite in it that we haven't seen on Earth before. I've found that its energy isn't harmful to Kryptonians, but rather, to humans and terrestrial life. I couldn't take the risk of the object's radiation harming you." He looked at her. "What would your husband say about me knowing and not doing?"

She folded her arms. "Fine. I won't hold it against you. But what are you planning to do with this meteor?"

"First," he explained, "you and I are going to guide it in to make sure it doesn't attract too much attention. Then, Batman and myself will each get a few pieces of the kryptonite to study. Acceptable?"

She nodded. "I guess I will have to help you if I have these abilities." she got another good look at the meteor. "What do you want me to do?"

He flew upwards, pointing her along. "Fly with me up to about here. We're going to catch it. With our combined strength, it should land in our grasp without fragmenting." She got in a position he pointed out to her, and they both readied themselves. She'd never used her super strength like this before, so it gave her something of an adrenaline rush. The object came streaming in, and just as Doz had predicted, they were able to latch onto it and slow it to a stop, then guide it in easily.

"See? Easy." he smiled at her. Then he took his nanomachines which went like a mist throughout the meteorite and extracted all of the kryptonite, encasing it in lead containers so it would not be harmful. Batman took one of the containers into his vehicle, and Doz packed up his machinery and flew off. "Bye for now, Lois. See you some other time!"

She shook her head. "I'll never get used to Kryptonians." She looked at a tree to her left, and splintered it into a thousand pieces with a punch. "This, however, I think I'll enjoy thoroughly."