001 - First Article - Video (post-sirens)

[presspasskey]

[The brunette on the video sports quite a few cuts and bruises; it looks like someone didn’t take her first night out seriously enough. From the scene behind her, she’s in the shelter-dugout, for those who would recognize it.] Okay, newsflash of the hour: humans totally have parental instincts coded into them, and it sucks

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[wickedclever]

Need a hand, Ms Lane?

[presspasskey]

...Kind of you to offer. And you would be?

[From her tone, that was not an acceptance. She doesn't trust the new person.]

[wickedclever]

Elaine Mallory.

[Yeah...she's not going to tack on the "Wizard" part just yet. They can just be mutually suspicious for a while.]

[presspasskey]

Well, word is that it's pretty not safe out here, Elaine, so no reason for two of us to get cut up.

Nice of you to be willing to risk your neck for a stranger, though.

[wickedclever]

Not to be corny, but it's what I do.

[presspasskey]

Regular superhero, huh?

[wickedclever]

I wouldn't go that far.

[presspasskey]

Risking life and limb for strangers?

I'm guessing you don't read the Daily Planet, or you'd know that's more or less how I'd define superhero, anyway.

[wickedclever]

I've heard of it, but I haven't even had the opportunity to pick up a copy in my neck of the woods.

Some folks would just call that "The Right Thing."

[presspasskey]

--You've heard of it? Really? I didn't know people outside my universe might have heard of it.

[Elaine is welcome to explain whatever she chooses--or not.]

Yeah. And not many of them do that. Like I said, superhero. [She's unbending a little, actually.] Where'd you work out of, before this place hijacked your life?

[wickedclever]

The universe has a way of...overlapping.

[Let's just leave the training wheels on a little bit longer, sparky.]

Most recently? Los Angeles.

[presspasskey]

Overlapping. That's a vague and yet somehow ominous description. Meaning?

[Lois does not know the meaning of training wheels. This girl took a tank to go to prom in and no one knows how.]

Hah, not bad. California's pretty nice and sunny, from what I remember of it--and it's always got crap-tons of stuff going on. Though last time I was out by the West Coast, it was Engine City.

[wickedclever]

Meaning you can find tales of the weird and unexplained all over the place, if you know where to look.

[How exactly DO you explain this one?]

It was as far away from old memories as I could get, at the time.

[presspasskey]

I live in Smallville, okay. I could write the book on the weird and unexplained. Maybe I should. I'd make a fortune, and god knows I'm more ethical than most of the crazies who would try.

[Lois gives her a measuring look, then grins wryly.]

Tell me about it--I accidentally lucked out and didn't have to take that escape route. ...If you can call thinking my cousin was dead when she wasn't lucking out, but that's a pretty good day in my book.

[Plus? Naked Clark was involved. Very good day.]

[wickedclever]

[She laughs. Smallville. How cool is that?]

Can't beat that. Although...I can't really talk, considering I was the one who let my best friend think that I was dead, and then breaking into his house, half a lifetime later.

[presspasskey]

[It's very cool. Even cooler, 'cause Lois is dating proto-Superman.]

What, witness protection or something?