Legality: I don't own these characters and this is a work of fiction (a company known as DC Comics owns them). I just wish that I did own these characters because then I would use Lois for something more than a background cheerleader.
--
"What do you mean you are quitting?" Clark asked.
"Don't get so excited Clark," Lois said, "I am just doing what you did. You saw the evolution of the medium of reporting to blogging, and I realized that I was getting too complacent myself with the industry myself. My job is secure, but I didn't become a reporter for job security and good pension, I became a reporter to challenge myself and travel the world, but as it is, I rarely get outside of Metropolis anymore."
"What about Superman?" Clark asked, "You like covering his heroics, he makes things around here pretty interesting at time, doesn't he?"
"Right, sure," Lois replied, "but he can do that, and Metropolis is his, but I think I am too much of a cheerleader for him, always ready to cover a story, but I am not doing what I can be doing, dealing with real injustices, instead I just write a story whenever he saves the day. So I could be doing a lot better with myself than that. Reporting should be about adventure and righting wrongs, not just covering the beat. The media has the ability to inform not just entertain, so I want out."
"So what are you going to do?" Clark asked.
"I am going to ask Perry for an extended absence," Lois said, "unpaid, or what's the point right? I need to feel gritty and organic and like I am working for the story, not making a salary no matter what. And then I am just going to go, wherever and whenever I think there is a story. I already have a buyer lined up for the condo, I could close on it in two weeks. And then I can go."
--
Lois looked at her empty apartment. Clark had been a lot of help getting the boxes to the van and then into storage. All she had left with her was a bit of luggage and the tools of her craft - a laptop, satellite phone, notebooks and so on. She was really going to do this. She looked at her luggage, it was just a backpack, expensive enough, but still just a backpack with her clothes rolled up neatly inside. If it wasn't for the other bag full of writing and reporting materials, one might think that she was just a college aged girl off to explore Europe for a summer. She had much bigger plans though than just Europe.
"Lois," a voice said from behind her. She knew who it was, because she had locked herself in and the only way in was through the balcony, and it was twenty stories off the ground.
"Hello Superman," she said turning around.
"I heard about your plan," he said, "to go out and make a difference"
"That's right," she said, "we have you to deal with the big threats, but there needs to be people like me to go out and find out the injustices so that others can act."
"It sounds dangerous though Lois," Superman said, "I don't want anything to happen to you."
"That is the point though," Lois said, "without some danger then what is the point. Injustices occur where things are dangerous. I can't cover the quilting fair in Smallville and expect to make a difference. I need to get out in the world, get my hands dirty, break a few camera lenses, have my computer seized, stuff like that. Make a difference."
Superman looked at her with skepticism.
"Take this then," he said.
"What is it?" she asked.
"It is a version of a Justice League communicator," he explained, "only one that will contact me directly. Just in case you get in over your head."
"That is really nice," she said while looking at it, "but I can't accept it." She handed it back to him.
"For the same reasons," she explained, "I can't have you fly halfway around the world to save me when things get tough, otherwise I won't be doing my job like I can. I promised Clark to copy my location to him regularly enough, so if you are worried about me, then you can check with him, but I need to do this alone."
She turned around and walked away. She knew she should have said goodbye, but she really needed a clean break from the safety of her life at the moment. Superman would understand she knew. She picked up her bags and walked away and although she knew that he was there looking at her, she didn't look back. She locked the door behind her and slid the key under. She was on her own now, she had already bought her ticket and she was leaving in under a few hours. Her new adventure was about to begin.
--
Author's note: So provided that anyone actually reads this and likes it, I am willing to offer that I am taking suggestions as to where she is going to go. The suggestion should be for some kind of injustice in the world - Elephant poaching in Botswana? Poverty in India? Natural resource exploitation in the Congo? Sex trade in Russia? Environmental degradation in Antarctica? Human rights revolts in Bangladesh? The civil war in Syria? Basically anything contemporary where there is a great injustice, and I will give it some consideration for inclusion as to where her first (or second or third or ...) adventure takes her.
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