By Jill <DrMcCoY97@aol.com>
Rated: PG
Submitted: May 2004
Summary: Murphy's Law strikes a hapless crew of would-be mercenaries in this Plot Untwist Challenge Vignette.
A Plot Untwist written in response to Hazel's challenge on Zoomway's MBs…last March. The idea was to write a short piece, the purpose of which would be to undo the entire plot of an episode, so that said episode would never have happened.
The characters are not mine…they and any other recognizable elements belong to DC comics, Warner Brothers, ABC…and whoever else would like to claim them. The idea for this story was mine, so I take any and all blame.
Any and all comments are welcome and appreciated. And many thanks to LabRat for the spectacular GEing job.
***
They all watched as Perry walked back into his office, colorful Mexican sombrero still perched atop his head. Willie, the night security guard, disappeared from view as the elevator doors closed. And Clark turned his attention back to the piles of income tax forms and receipts strewn across his desk.
But his attention perked back up when Jack started tapping confusedly at the phone.
"Hello? Anybody there?" Jack looked up and glanced questioningly around the room. "All right, who cut me off?"
Then, suddenly, a shrill beeping noise emitted from Lois' computer, and she started tapping frantically at her keyboard. "System's down, I lost my story!"
"Well, better luck tomorrow." Lex stood up, grabbing both his and Lois' coat from the chair next to her desk and trying to pull Lois away from her computer. He'd been ready to leave before they even got there; the Daily Planet newsroom was the last place he'd been planning to spend the evening. "If we leave now we can still make the curtain."
As they both stood to leave, everyone's attention was once again pulled back to the landing in front of the elevators. An insistent, repetitive buzzing noise was coming from the bank of elevators at the front of the newsroom. The occupants of the room glanced curiously at each other as Perry came storming back out of his office, "What in the Sam Hill?"
Clark stood up from his desk and moved around to join Perry as he made his way towards the landing. "It sounds like someone's stuck in the elevator, Chief."
Perry nodded his assent. "All right, someone call the fire department while we see if we can do anything to get the elevator moving again."
"The phone's dead," Jack reminded him as Perry and Clark stepped onto the landing, followed closely by Lois and Lex. As they reached the elevator doors, the rapid staccato of gunfire could be heard in the elevator shaft below. Clark stepped quickly in front of his editor, pushing him back and away from the doors.
Clark slipped his glasses down his nose and X-rayed through the floor, down into the elevator. The car was occupied by about five people, all dressed completely in black and vaguely resembling a military special operations unit. They were carting some heavy construction machinery, and they were each armed with at least one weapon. It looked like the one woman in the group had gotten tired of pushing the emergency alarm and had resorted to emptying her machine gun into the control panel of the elevator. Well, whoever they were and whatever they'd been planning on doing with that equipment in the Daily Planet building, it didn't look like they'd be going anywhere in that elevator any time soon.
"Maybe we'd better skip the fire department and go straight for the police," Clark suggested as he raised his glasses and looked back at his colleagues.
Half an hour later, both the Metropolis Police Department and the Fire Department were swarming throughout the Daily Planet building. The elevator had been lowered back to the ground floor and the police were removing the gun-happy mercenaries from the elevator car.
"I wonder what those barbarians wanted here at the planet, anyway," Perry considered aloud as they watched the police lead them away in handcuffs.
Suddenly, the leader of the group started struggling with officers holding him. "Dragonetti's vault, I know it's here. It has to be, he said it was!"
Lois and Clark both looked questioningly at Perry. "Dragonetti?" they asked in unison.
"Dragonetti, now there's a name I haven't heard in years. Hmmm…it looks like we may need to get an architect to come in here tomorrow morning and start looking through the Planet's blueprints. In the meantime, Lois, Clark, I need you both to get back upstairs and write this story up, we may still be able to get it in the morning edition."
"But Lois, what about the opera?" Lex whined.
"I'm sorry, Lex. But this is more important." Then she watched as Lex stormed off in a huff. Turning to Clark, Lois observed, "Hmmph…I don't know what I ever saw in that guy. He never did understand how important my work is to me. Now, let's get going on that story, partner." She linked her arm through Clark's and they headed back up to the newsroom.
As Lois and Clark headed back up the stairs, Perry looked around curiously. "Where's Jimmy?"
***
Three hours later, the Metropolis Fire Department found Jimmy crawling aimlessly through the ventilation system. He had panicked at the sound of the gunfire and gotten lost in the ventilation shafts while trying to find his way out of the building.
THE END