Some fiction blurbs

I was going through my ongoing fiction folder (and there's a lot of it) and came across a lot of blurbs and babbles and stuff i'd started and lost interest in. Stuff that i only got a page or so into and didn't work for me, or that I intergrated into a larger work, or went another direction with.

I figured i'd post the stuff here in bits and pieces.

Here's a Clex one.


“What about the allegations that city building inspectors were bribed during the construction of Metropolis West Metron plaza, Mr. Luthor?”

There was something about Lois Lane’s voice that set Lex Luthor’s nerves on edge. It wasn’t necessarily shrill, but more the vulture-like intensity of a scavenger circling for prey. Not that he was. Far from. But it annoyed him to be blindsided by a question that actually did have a grain of truth. Where she’d gotten her tip, he’d very much like to know.

“Allegations are like wishes, Ms. Lane. Easy to toss around, hard to actualize without something solid to back them up.” He smiled at her with the easy charm that got him magazine covers and prime time interviews by news personalities far greater than Lois Lane. There was a ripple of amused laughter around her, from other members of the press, who were very well aware of her personal vendetta. Even if they didn’t know the root of it.

“I have a source at city planning,” she said, eyes glittering and vindictive.

“I suggest you produce him with signed affidavits, then, because I won’t believe it otherwise. LexCorp takes great pride in the integrity of all its projects.” His smile grew considerably colder, as he added, cutting at the root of her contention. “I notice you’re lacking a sidekick today, Ms. Lane. Is the Planet downsizing?”

Her mouth seized up, a tight little roué and Lex felt a tickle of satisfaction at the strike. She never had been able to accept the fact that he’d been sleeping with Clark Kent. And after four years apart, he was realist enough to admit that just maybe he couldn’t accept the fact that she was.

“Any more legitimate questions about the Metron project, Mr. Terrence will be happy to answer.” Lex gave the podium up to the LexCorp press secretary hovering in the background. A trickle of queries followed him as he retreated behind the impenetrable wall of his security, then they turned their attention to Terrence.

“Mercy,” he growled as she melted out of nowhere and paced by his side.

“I’m already on it, boss. If there’s a leak, we’ll find it.”

He was pissed, and it wasn’t just Lois, it was the fact that she’d goaded him into a cutting insider comment in front of a room full of press. Maybe it hadn’t even been her. Maybe it had simply been that he’d seen Clark’s name on the list of press attending the conference and been disappointed when he hadn’t shown.
Unsettling that something so insignificant could get to him. The next thing he knew, he’d be looking at old photos and reminiscing.

He supposed some Superman related issue had come up and demanded Clark’s attention. It always did. And always at the most inopportune times. Damned irritating. He was glad to be rid of the problem. Glad to be rid of a messy, naive lover with a disproportionate set of ideals.

Lex swallowed and listened to the soft lilt of elevator music as the private car sped to the penthouse offices. Mercy murmured now and then into her earpiece, but he paid her little mind. She did her job perfectly well without input from him.

The staff came alive with his appearance, a half a dozen issues needing his attention. He waved them off and they retreated respectfully.

“Find out what the League is up to.” He directed, triggering a half dozen flat screens in the north wall of his office to life with the flick of a remote. Mercy listened to babble that only she could hear for a moment, then suggested.

“Try NSNBC South.”

He flipped a channel and a Latin American newscaster, obviously in the field was spewing out a live report in Spanish. Behind him was a visa of green rainforests, unending and lush. He was going on about the devastation of a small, centralized earth tremor to a village in northern Peru not far from the ruins of Machu Picchu. The tips of said Aztec structures were just visible through the treetops.

What the Justice League had to do with this situation was debatable. Although they did tend to lend helping hands during disasters, if Superman or one of his ridiculously clad cohorts had been on the scene, there would have been mention already.

He was about to flip the channel when an explosion rocked the jungle behind the reporter. A great geyser of earth and flame and debris that rose a hundred feet into the air. The camera angle faltered, as the cameraman obviously ducked reflexively. Another explosion followed.

Let relaxed his hand on the remote. Now that was a likely sign that the League was in the vicinity. They tended to attract trouble by their very nature, even when they were trying to actually help. It was too far away from the camera to actually see anything though. Very close to the temple ruins, in fact.

Now that would be a shame - - a criminal act, in fact, to damage something that had survived millennia in some super powered skirmish. If that’s what this was.

“Check and see if the earthquake reported was actually a geological event or something else.”

“On it.” Mercy said and promptly delegated the job to someone on the other end of her earpiece.

Not that Lex had any desire to involve himself in League activities that did not directly impact LexCorp, but his curiosity never ceased to get the best of him and he liked to keep abreast of Superman related actions. And yes, it was obsessing over an ex - - but he was allowed his eccentricities. He damn well knew Clark kept an eye on his doings. He might even admit, when he delved a little too deeply in his cups, that some of his doings might have even been conceived with the express purpose of gaining Clark’s attention.

But then pissing off Clark had never been a hard goal to achieve, moralistic, self-righteous prick that he was.


More to come

Remember that Bishonenworks has moved to plnunn.com