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.*･｡. AN ODE TO CLARK KENT .*･｡.
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032.
GOOD COP,
BAD COP.
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——

Unsurprisingly, Lois hated the plan.

While Lydia had been sent to seek out Aiden and distract him long enough for Scott and Stiles to talk to Ethan, Lois had been gifted with the task of hunting down her cousin.

Much the same as Lydia with Aiden, Lois was supposed to keep Peter as preoccupied as possible. Scott was hopeful that he could get through to Ethan, given that the alpha had given them useful tips throughout this feud, but in order to do that, they needed the two remaining members of their little trio to back off. There was no way that Aiden and Peter were going leave Ethan's side without a good deterrent, unfortunately.

It just so happened that Lois Lane was that deterrent for Peter Parker, and she was absolutely dreading it. Was there a better plan?

She hadn't spoken to her cousin since he had visited her, a few nights ago. Lois hadn't heard from him, at all. The alpha pack had been keeping low since Boyd's death, and Peter and Morrell had been keeping low with them. But, with Aiden back at school, they seemed to be on the rise again. His suspension was over, and Peter and Ethan were stuck to his side like glue. There hadn't been any contact between Lois and her cousin, and while she missed him, she wondered whether it was for the better. She wasn't sure what to say to him — what was there, to say? Lois had already tried to get him to leave them. She had begged. But, Peter had denied. He had chosen them, and it had hurt. Even if he had no choice in it.

Lois had no idea what to say to Peter when she found him, and that made her jittery and nervous. She had never been nervous to speak to her cousin before, and it didn't feel right. Then again, he wasn't just her cousin anymore.

He was with the bad guys.

The mere thought had Lois feeling sick to her stomach.

On her way to hunt him down, the girl chewed on her nails in an unhealthy habit. She had a feeling he would be at his locker, but she couldn't bring herself past the library.

"You going without me, gumdrop?"

Despite the annoying nickname, Lois had to bite back a smile as she turned on her heel. "What are you doing, here?"

"Pretty sure I go to school, here." Isaac responded.

"You know what I mean," Lois rolled her eyes. She folded her arms across her chest and leant against the wall, peering up at him with scrutiny in her eyes. He mirrored her actions and faced her, a book in hand that she doubted he had ever even opened. "Scott tell you to come with me?"

"No," he shrugged, "But he mentioned this plan, and I've been wanting to speak to this Peter kid, for a while. I wanna know why he killed Boyd."

She pursed her lips, "He didn't kill Boyd."

"He might as well, have." Isaac's words were blunt, and they hit Lois in the chest. He was right, she had told Peter that he'd killed Boyd herself, but it still stung to hear it. "What's the deal with you and him, anyway? Why'd Scott get you to distract him?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, y'know—" he said. She didn't know. "Well, Lydia has totally been jacking off Aiden—"

"Isaac!"

He ignored her scolds, "—and I was just wondering what about you would have this kid distracted, is all. Like..." Isaac trailed off, unsure of whether he should say it. Even the idea left a funny taste in his mouth, and he felt the urge to wash his tongue with soap and disinfectant. Something about the thought of Lois and Peter, or anyone for that matter, made him feel strange. He wasn't sure what it was. "I mean— are you and him...?"

Lois' jaw dropped, "Are we boning?"

She recoiled when he nodded, visible disgust on her features. A hand shot out to smack him on the arm and Isaac jumped away, nearly dropping his book as he reached to hold his arm and then defend himself from any oncoming attack. He shot her a glare as he rubbed the tender area, frowning deeply at her.

"What the hell was that, for?" He scowled, eyes narrowed.

"I am not jacking off my cousin!"

"...your cousin?"

"Yes, Isaac—" Lois told him slowly, as if he were dumb. He was. "—my cousin. Peter Parker; my cousin; who I am not jacking off."

This time, Isaac's jaw dropped.

His cheeks flushed red, and he tried to hide their colour behind his hand as he ran it through his hair. It was suddenly warm, or he was just flustered from how utterly stupid he had been.

In a way, he was very relieved to hear that Lois wasn't jacking off Peter. Not only because he had recently come to light as being apart of the enemy, and because it would be weird for Lois to be doing anything like that with her cousin, but because it meant that Lois wasn't seeing anyone at all. Isaac wasn't sure why that filled him with immense relief, but it did.

"Makes sense," he tried to play it off cool as he returned to his leaning, "Being short must run in the family, huh?"

Wrong. Lois' father was actually very tall, as tall as Isaac was, so it didn't run in the family. At least, not on her father's side. He didn't know about her mother, but he wondered if it would have made much of a difference. Isaac's parents weren't particularly tall, not as tall as their sons anyway. Yet, both he and his brother had been giants by the time they were teenagers. Not many people were as tall as they were, certainly not by his age, and he wondered where their tall genes had come from. It seemed that genetics didn't make all that much sense, when it came down to it. So, Isaac was hardly surprised when Lois immediately swooped in to shoot his statement down. Just as she always did.

"He's not short," she scoffed. It was true. Peter wasn't tall, but he wasn't really that short. He had grown a lot in the past year; he was almost as tall as Scott and Stiles, who admittedly weren't that tall either, but they were tall enough. "You're just freakishly tall."

"Original," Isaac remarked.

Lois sent him a tight smile, then let it drop.

"Isn't your last name Lane?" He then asked, raising a brow.

"That's on my dad's side," Lois told him, feeling uncomfortable as she brought up her mother. "My mom's maiden name was Parker, and yes— they all liked comic books."

"They really named you both Lois Lane and Peter Parker?"

She nodded.

"Wow..." Isaac hummed, nodding his head. He had to say, the day he had met Lois' father he had been surprised. The man had failed to give off vibes that screamed I love comics! but there was more to a person than met the eye. Plus, Isaac doubted he himself gave off Star Wars nerd vibes, these days, but he still was one. He didn't doubt that Matthew Lane knew almost everything there was to know about DC and MARVEL. "That's quite a family you've got there, gumdrop. Dad's a nerd, cousin's a witch."

"And I move puddles," Lois recited the words she had said to Stiles only an hour prior, "Yeah— some family."

Sensing some tension on the topic, Isaac opted for nodding once again as a response. He didn't want to walk into uncharted waters when they were already going to be making Lois uncomfortable by talking to her cousin. Clearly, she wasn't as willing to talk to him as Isaac had originally assumed she would be. He'd assumed a lot.

As the bell rang signalling classes had begun — Lois' convenient free period and Isaac's biology class he didn't care enough to go and attend — the beta's eyes flickered down the hallway, where he could hear a heartbeat that he had vaguely recognised.

    "Speak of the devil..." Isaac muttered, smirking.

   Lois looked over her shoulder and paused, spotting Peter as he headed to his next class that he presumably had with the twins. He hadn't noticed them yet, or chose to act as though he hadn't, and Isaac seemed to take it as a golden opportunity to get to work and start distracting. Judging by the slant of his lips that was growing by the second, he knew exactly what this distraction would consist of and he was excited for it to start.

    "Come on, gumdrop." He sauntered off without waiting, "Duty calls, and all that."

    "Isaac—" she quickly followed.

   But, he was already too far. And, before Peter Parker knew it, a hand pushed against his chest and pinned him against the lockers behind him.

   Peter groaned, wincing at the pain in his spine, then cracked his eyes open to see Isaac Lahey smirking down at him. He sighed.

    "How's it going, web-shooter?"

    "It's going..." Peter grunted, "What about you, daddy issues?"

   Isaac's eyes sparked with anger, and he yanked Peter forward by an inch and then slammed him into the lockers again. The kid let out another groan, but smiled faintly — he had gotten to Isaac, even if it was in cruel way.

     "Hey— put him down, Isaac!"

   Doing as told, the beta dropped Peter's shirt and took a step away as Lois came into sight. Her cousin let out a low breath and adjusted his clothing, rolling out his shoulders. His lunch was likely squashed in his backpack, and he was suddenly very annoyed that his peanut butter-jelly sandwich was going to be flat as a pancake. Peter had been looking forward to that sandwich all morning.

    "What are you doing?" Lois hissed at Isaac, who rolled his eyes and huffed. She looked at Peter and noted that he was all in one piece, and nodded to herself. "No man-handling— alright?"

   Reluctantly, they both nodded their heads.

    "Great..." she muttered, "'Cause I'm not cleaning up, after you."

    "You won't have to clean up if I kill him carefully," Isaac said, his eyes flashing their bright amber.

   Surprisingly, Peter didn't seem fazed. He had spent a lot of time surrounded by werewolves; he now travelled with a whole pack of alphas, so seeing a beta flash his eyes was hardly terrifying. Peter had been playing with the big dogs while Isaac was just a puppy.

    "And then my pack will kill you," Peter retorted, "You want that? I mean, they're just gonna kill you anyway. Might as well get it started, now— right?" He took a step closer to Isaac and clicked his fingers, a single flame dancing on the very tip of his index, and gave him a dark look. "Tell me, Lahey. You like fire?"

    "Quit it!" Lois snapped, pushing herself in between them. She sent them both warning looks, which didn't extinguish the tension but did get them both to step away from each other, and rolled her eyes at their behaviour. They were hardly teenage boys — both of them were children. Children with bad attitudes, especially when around each other, and the ability to get on each other's nerves to no end. Lois wondered if Peter got so annoyed with Isaac because she did, and if it was something within their DNA or personalities that was designed to grow irritated with the beta, or if it was only down to their current rivalry. At the end of the day, they had been trying to kill each other. "I said cut it out, or so god help me I will kill you both!"

    "I have to get to class," Peter huffed.

    "Not yet," Isaac shook his head, "I wanna ask you a few things, first."

   He narrowed his eyes, "Well, guess what? I don't answer to you."

    "I'm sure you'll answer to me."

   Glancing at his cousin, Peter locked his jaw and crossed his arms over his chest, but made no move to leave. Isaac grinned, darkly.

    "You killed my good buddy Boyd," the beta hummed, "You remember that, don't you?" When Peter didn't respond, Isaac let out a small laugh. "I'm sure you do,"

"What about it?"

"Well, I wanted to know why..." he leaned in close, "But I think I already do."

The situation briefly reminded Lois of the time that Isaac and Erica had her pinned against the lockers during sophomore year, when they were looking for Lydia to kill her, and she had to shake her head to rid the thought.

"Oh, yeah?" Peter tested, "Enlighten me, Lahey."

"Kill or be killed, right?"

Shoulders stiffening, the shorter of the boys tried not to let it look as if he had hit the nail on the head. But, him and Lois knew that Isaac had.

"That's the way the pack works," he eventually sighed, "If we don't do what Deucalion says, then we're as good as Boyd." The words made Lois wince, "He'd kill us before we'd even said no. I don't think you guys know what he's capable of; killing Boyd and Erica was child's play for him." Peter pursed his lips, "And Kali would do anything he asked her to, especially if it's going against Derek. She still wants revenge for what happened to Ennis,"

"Derek didn't kill Ennis," Lois frowned.

"That's what Morrell told me," he nodded, "But Deucalion let them believe that it was Derek's fault. She wants blood."

Isaac scoffed, "She already got blood."

"Yeah, well she wants more." Peter smarted, his eyes shooting a new set of daggers at the beta. "And that's gonna be yours, buddy. Kali and the twins will come after you, next, and then that just leaves Derek. He won't be hard to get through— not for them."

"Because they want to?" Brow risen, Lois asked. "Or, because they've got no other choice?"

"Kali wants to, right now." He said, "Aiden... I think Aiden just wants to impress, prove a point." Peter paused, contemplating why he was sharing all of their secrets, but continued to talk. "Ethan's tripping over his own feet. I don't think he's convinced that we've got to do this, anymore. That would make two of us."

"But...?"

"But—" Peter sighed, "Like I said: we don't have a choice."

"What about Morrell?" Lois cut in before Isaac could have had a chance to bite a mean comment. "What does she want? She seems to keep awfully quiet, considering everything."

"Morrell isn't the Darach, if that's what you're asking." He tried not to roll his eyes at his cousin — he could read her like an open book. "She's our emissary; not committing human sacrifices." He noticed she didn't seem convinced, "Seriously, Lo. I trust her with my life. It's not her."

Isaac was getting impatient, "Then, who is it?"

"We don't know," Peter admitted. "We were hoping that you guys would."

Before any of them could say anything more, Isaac's ears perked and his head shot to look down the hallway. He sniffed the air and frowned, "Cora?"

Lois paled, what was Cara doing here?

The trio locked eyes for a split second, before they all took off down the hall and towards the locker rooms. Lois thrust open the door and stumbled inside, the two boys right behind her and then Scott, Stiles and Ethan right behind them, and she gaped at the sight of Aiden standing over Cora Hale with a weight in his hands and ready to crush her skull. Her eyes flickered to Cora's bleeding head and Lydia's panicked face, and her gaze narrowed upon the half-alpha. Before she could register her rage, Lois stormed into the locker room and, with a wave of her hand, the water from the bottle left on the benches shot into the air in a tunnel and forced it's way up Aiden's nostrils.

He choked and gagged, dropping the weight while Scott and Isaac snatched it from being used a second time. Ethan took his older brother's wrist and Peter gave Lois a side-glance, noting the way her hands shook. "Hey— let it go,"

Doing as told, Lois unclenched her fist and the water fell, hitting the ground with a faint plop! and allowing Aiden to breathe.

The alpha let out ragged puffs of air, water still clogged in his throat and making his eyes burn, and turned to look at Lois with fiery red eyes. Aiden launched himself towards her but Ethan was quick to catch him, and both Scott and Isaac bared their teeth in warning. He'd be lucky if he got near her.

"You can't do this!" Ethan spat.

"She came at me!" Aiden growled, attention back on the hurt and bloody Cora, who lay on the ground with Lydia and Stiles at her side.

"It doesn't matter!" His brother returned, eyes glowing.

"Kali gave Derek until the next full moon," Peter agreed, now having spoken up. Aiden looked at him and his eyes faded from the red hue, though anger still pumped through his veins. He knew that Peter was right, as was Ethan. "You can't touch any of them."

At his words, Lois felt a bit of relief.

Ethan managed to tug Aiden out of the locker rooms, although the latter spared a moment to shoot Lois a heated glare that she happily returned, and, with one last look at his cousin, Peter had followed behind.

"You're getting good at that," Isaac noted, nodding towards the puddle of water and Lois' hand.

"That was anger-driven," she shook her head, "Not control."

"Hey, guys—" Stiles called, catching the two wolves and Lois' attention. He looked down at Cora and pursed his lips, "I think she's pretty hurt."

It was then that Lois noticed the blood oozing from the wound on her head, and her eyes widened dramatically. Lois cursed to herself and yanked a tissue from her bag, immediately going into medical mode as she fell to her knees by Cora's side. She hadn't cleaned up a werewolf since the motel incident, where Scott had nearly died and Allison had kindly offered to stitch him up, and she was fairly glad that this wasn't to the same extent. But, still, Cora's wound didn't look too good. Her eyelid kept falling shut, and she missed Lois' hand when she tried to swipe it away.

"I'm trying to help you," Lois hissed, taking the tissue in hand and starting to dab at the blood. Cora howled, "Such a Hale..."

Cora took the comment with a pinch of salt, letting Lois deal with the wound as much as she could before growing bored of the fuss. She stood up and yanked the tissue away from her, moving to the sink and running it under water. Cora cleaned up the rest of the blood, wincing every now and then, while the teenagers stood and watched. They didn't want her to pass out.

Stiles watched nervously, "You okay?"

"She doesn't look okay," Lydia said.

"Definitely doesn't look okay," Isaac agreed, nodding.

"I'll heal," rolling her eyes, Cora stepped away from the basin and stumbled. Stiles and Scott reached out to steady her, but she was quick to brush them off and helped herself. "I said I'm fine."

"Do you realise how suicidally crazy that was?" Lois spoke up, after a minute.

"What were you thinking, going after them?" Added Stiles.

"I did it for Boyd," Cora spat out spitefully, making Lois visibly wince. The Hale girl looked amongst the group of teenagers and shook her head, as if pitying each of them. "None of you were doing anything."

"We're trying," Scott sighed.

"And you're failing."

"That's not fair," voice above a whisper, Lois tried to not let the comment get to her. Her voice wobbled and her friends sent her weary looks, but she avoided them and focused on Cora. The girl had seen how torn apart Lois had been — she had sobbed over Boyd's body just as much as Cora had, and Cora hadn't even been there to witness it. She was lucky. Lois had to watch him die.

"You're just a bunch of stupid teenagers," she said, "Running around, thinking that you can stop people from getting killed. But all you do is show up late," Cora narrowed her eyes at them and made sure that her words cut, "All you really do is find the bodies."

She stormed out of the locker rooms, leaving a silence in her wake. No one said anything for a moment, or two, unsure of what they could possibly say to that.

"She's definitely a Hale," Stiles rubbed his face.

Everyone mumbled in agreement, apart from Lois Lane.

The girl could hardly find a response. It felt like she was stuck, unable to find a fitting reaction to what Cora'd said. It had hurt.

Her eyes grew wet, and she rapidly tried to blink away any tears that threatened to fall. The inside of her cheek was clenched right between her teeth, a metallic taste seeping into her mouth, but she didn't release it. Even when the pain was sharp, and strong, and her jaw had started to ache.

"Lois?"

Isaac's voice snapped her out of her trance, and she spared her friend's a look. But Lois struggled to deal with the concern on the faces of all of them, and sucked in a sharp breath.

Lois promptly turned on her heel, and rushed out of the locker rooms in a flurry.

Stiles automatically went to follow, his instinct to find and then protect, but a hand caught him before he could. He looked over at Isaac, raising a brow. All of them had wanted to go after Lois and make sure she was alright, they all naturally felt the need to protect her, but he hadn't expected Isaac to be the one to stop him. Scott or Lydia, maybe, but not Isaac Lahey. Stiles was a bit stunned, if he were to be totally honest. He was hesitant to let him go.

"You take Cora home," Isaac said, "I'll get Lois."

After a moment of contemplation, Stiles' eyes flickered to Scott and Lydia. They nodded, and Stiles let out a huff, "Alright. I'll go find mini Derek, then. She'll probably rip my head off, but I guess that's fine."

Isaac was out of the room, before he'd said mini Derek.

——

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