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.*･｡. WAITING FOR SUPERMAN .*･｡.
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015.
COMIC STRIP LANE.

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——

She wasn't exactly sure how long they had been hiding out in the storage closet for, but Lois knew that it had been longer than it should have taken for the hunters to enter the veterinary clinic.

The duo stumbled around awkwardly, unsure of how to properly fit in the very small space, and unaware of quite how late it had gotten. While the school day was long over, much longer than they had originally anticipated, they had floated far into the evening. So far that Lois was shocked they didn't notice. Convincing Boyd to not join Derek's pack must have taken a lot more time than they had expected it to, and now it was dark out.

Lois was positive that her father would strangle her when she got home — if she got home — but that didn't matter at the moment. What mattered was the fact that she was stuck in a storage closet with Scott, that clearly only had enough space for one teenager.

Not two.

"Ow!" Lois hissed when Scott stood on her foot, the pain spiking up to her ankle. She glared up at the boy through the darkness and scowled, "Watch it, big-foot—!"

"Sorry!"

She rolled her eyes and sighed, listening for the chime of the bed. When the sound echoed throughout the vets, Lois couldn't stop her body from stiffening up. It struck her in the spine, leaving her almost incapable of movement, as if she were paralysed by the thought of the argents finding them.

Scott gently placed his hand on the small her back and pulled her an inch closer to him, in hopes of his best friend calming at the warmth. He was worried that she was crack after the events of the day. Lois was shaking.

"I'm starting to think I need to buy a more prominent closed sign."

If it had been a better situation, Lois wound have laughed at Deaton's comment. But it wasn't, so she tried to keep herself as quiet as possible. She carefully leant her body to the side, peering out of the window but unable to really see much of anything, but just about able to make out two figures. Scott pulled her back up to prevent a fall, and she looked up at him with a shrug. She couldn't make out who was in the room exactly, nor who would be the ones to murder them if they were discovered, but she had no doubt that one of them would be Chris Argent. He always seemed to pop up somewhere along the lines when there was trouble, and although he was Allison's father, Lois didn't like him. At all.

"Hello, Alan." Gerard spoke up, to which Lois and Scott's eyes widened, and they stared at one another in disbelief. Gerard and Deaton knew each other? It felt like they had been pushed into some sort of alternate reality, where everyone in Beacon Hills was connected somehow. As if they were all tied together, "It's been a while, hasn't it? The last I heard, you had retired."

Deaton retorted simply but promptly, comment lingering in the room, "Last I heard, you followed a code of conduct."

"If you hadn't noticed—" Chris piped up next, which didn't surprise Scott and Lois as much, anymore. They'd gotten used to his antics and hunting nature, and now they tried to avoid him for the sake of Scott's life. They had made it clear that they would kill him, after all. "—this body is one of ours."

Lois frowned, her eyebrows furrowed and lines between tense, wondering how he had been able to make such a statement. She wasn't sure whether a body could be owned, especially not a very murdered one, so it didn't make sense. Plus, it was creepy.

"Theirs?" She whispered to Scott, but he was quick to place a hand over her mouth and hush her quietly. He gave a shrug of his shoulders and she sighed.

"I did," Deaton responded in his same, blunt way. It was silent for all of a second before he spoke again with a more conniving hint to his tone, "And I also noticed the amount of gunpowder residue on his finger tips." That sounded serious, whatever it had meant, "So, don't assume I will be swayed by your philosophy just because I'll answer a few questions."

Chris tensed, "He was only twenty-four."

"Killers come in all ages."

"All ages," Gerard confirmed with a nod, "All sizes, shapes. It's the last one that concerns us."

Shapes? Lois couldn't help but lean back towards the window, now straining and squinting her eyes to get a closer look at what was happening. She had wanted to know why the argents were so concerned of the shapes that killers could come in, and she hoped that getting a look at what was going on in there would help her understand. But Scott tugged her back, once again, and sent her a pointed look. It told her to stop wriggling and stay still, or else they would get caught and wouldn't see another day of light. He didn't want her to get caught, and neither did she, so she stayed put.

"How about you tell us what you found?" Chris asked their veterinarian, in a very unkind way, and she heard the man himself sigh. It was clear that Deaton wasn't very keen on the Argents either.

The thought almost made Lois smile. Almost.

"See this cut? Precise. Almost surgical," The vet told them in a, close to being patronising, "This isn't the wound that killed him, this had a more interesting purpose."

"Relating to the spine," Gerard noted.

"That's right."

Lois listened carefully as Deaton approved of his observation and continued to explain his theories on what could possibly have happened to the man, though she knew that anything she missed would have been heard by Scott. "Whatever made this cut, it was laced with a paralytic toxin that's potent enough to disable all motor functions. These are the cause of death: notice the patterns on each side?"

Chris echoed Lois' own thoughts as she recalled what the chest of the body had looked like, "Five for each finger."

"Each claw." Gerard corrected.

"As you can see, it dug in, slashed upward—" Deaton said. Lois wondered how the man possibly could have known all of this from just an autopsy in his animal surgery, "—eviscerating the lungs, and slicing through the bone of the rib cage with ease."

She grimaced, that sounded utterly horrific. Poor guy.

It was silent in the veterinary clinic for a moment as each person in the room processed his words, even the two who were not yet known to be there. Lois and Scott met each other's eye, their irises shimmering in confusion. Sliced through bone? They may have only been kids, but they weren't sure if that was even possible — they certainly hadn't seen it, anyway. That was saying something, since those kids had seen a lot since Scott was bitten, and it didn't even ring a bell. Nothing sounded familiar. They didn't know a creature that could paralyse and kill it's victims, at least, not just yet.

"Have you ever seen anything like this before?" Argent voiced his concern, keeping his voice calm but not quite calm enough.

Deaton's response wasn't very helpful, "No."

Chris tried again, "Any idea at all what killed him?"

"No," came the same response as prior, though this time Deaton elaborated, "But I can tell you it's fast, remarkably strong, and has the capacity to render its victims helpless within seconds."

Lois gasped lightly, to which Scott cut off with placing his hand to his mouth again. He span her around pulled her back into his chest, making sure that she was out of the light and away from the window. They noticed that the vets had fallen quiet, hauntingly quiet, and Lois pushed her body closer to Scott's than physically possibly, holding her breath and squeezing her eyes shut. She was afraid, and so was he, but he didn't show that. Luckily the silence took no longer than thirty seconds to diminish, and Lois opened her eyes soon, looking up at the ceiling and thanking the world for sparing her another day. She didn't exactly feel like being murdered for knowing something that she shouldn't have, not when she was only sixteen. Seventeen perhaps, but not sixteen.

In fact, that would have been horrific.

Scott let out a light breath of relief, but didn't let go of his friend. Instead, he kept her where she was. That way, he could ensure that she wouldn't get them caught.

"If you're saying we should be cautious, we get it." Chris said, acting as though they had seen something like this before when he had confirmed that they hadn't, and Scott could heard his heart thump unevenly.

"I'm saying you should be afraid." Deaton shot back at the man.

He continued, "Be very afraid. Because in the natural world, predators with paralytic toxins use them to catch and eat their prey. This prey wasn't eaten — that means whatever killed him only wanted to kill him." A pregnant pause as he let it sink in, "In fact, killing may be its only purpose."

Cringing at the final verdict, and the thought that there was now definitely a paralysing, murdering creature free and on the loose added to their already long list of problems, Lois sucked in deep and let out a heavy sigh. They really couldn't be normal, could they? Not even for one day. For once, Lois wished that she wouldn't have to deal with crazed alphas and teenage betas, and overgrown lizards, and creatures that could paralyse before they killed. Lois didn't want to be stuck in a storage closet at their local vets, hiding from the Argents.

She wanted Scott to be a regular boy, with a regular boss that didn't know anything about the supernatural. She wanted to change that night in the woods; Lois wanted the other half of body to have been found by the police so that they couldn't have gone to find it themselves, and she wanted to have not left Scott behind to be bitten by Peter Hale — even if they hadn't known.

Lois Lane wanted to be normal for a day. She wanted two parents that were alive, friends that weren't hiding from death at every corner, and she wanted to get her homework done on time.

This life wasn't fit for Lois. Not really.

She didn't want to have to hunt down all of the supernatural creatures before the Argents could, but she knew that they had to.

They couldn't let anymore innocent people die, not when they were able to try and stop it. Scott could do things that no normal teenage boy could do, and that had given him a strong sense of responsibility. If he didn't try to do anything, whatever happened in result would be his fault — they always had to try.

As though filtering his mind with the same thoughts, Scott had peered down at the same time that Lois looked up at him. They both remained silent but nodded at each other, knowing that they would have to hatch a plan to stop this creature before it could kill anyone else.

Though, as her phone buzzed, it appeared they were too late.

FROM: STILES RECEIVED: 9:30
ERICA THREW ME AND LUNA IN A DUMPSTER. CRAZY BITCH, RIGHT? MEET US AT THE MECHANICS.

   Lois frowned as she scrolled past the message. She had somehow managed to miss it during her time hiding in the closet and trying to patch up Scott's bleeding wounds, and it worried her that there was a more recent one right after it.

FROM: STILES RECEIVED: 10:45pm
ASAP. DEAD.

• • •

   After reassuring Scott that she would go and made sure that Stiles and Luna were both okay, Lois had eventually taken off and headed home the very minute the Argents had left the vets. It was more useful for him to be elsewhere; he needed to go and meet Allison as he usually did, in order to find out more information on what exactly her father and grandfather were looking for.

   If she knew, then she would be of more help. Allison would be their eyes and ears, and that was why Scott had needed to go to her instead of Stiles. Lois could handle Stiles, for now.

   Persuading him had taken a while, but Scott caved. Whatever had happened at the mechanics, he knew that as long as Lois was there, Stiles would be alright. It wasn't as though she would ever let anything happen to him, and Stiles was beyond smart enough to call the police department if there was something wrong, so with one last frown and a bid for her to be careful, Scott allowed Lois to head home and see if the sheriff had already left while he headed in the other direction. It was probably wrong of him to let her go alone when there was a paralysing, murderer on the loose, but Lois was adamant that she would be able to protect herself.

   So, instead of doubting her and not thinking that her gender dictated her strength and power, Scott let her go.

   After all, had seen the way that she had punched Derek in order to save him. If anyone was going to protect anyone, it was going to be Lois protecting everyone else.

   She was tougher than they thought.

The walk home had been cold, but short. Lois didn't live too far away from the animal clinic which was good, with how many times she and Stiles had been there to meet Scott or to chop off Derek Hale's arm. It didn't take too long for her to realise that the Sheriff's car was gone, as was her father's. She headed inside and grabbed a thicker coat to wear on her travels, and then continued her route to the mechanics for Stiles and Luna.

It was times like these that Lois wished she could drive, but simply had to resort to running. She knew that they was alive at least, which was better than nothing, because he had sent her the text, but someone was dead.

Lois knew how traumatising it was, seeing a dying human being, and she could only hope that Stiles and Luna had been spared of seeing such a thing. He had been with his mother when she had died, and Lois didn't want to him to have to go through that again. She silently prayed that Luna was still with him as she ran, the urgency to see him thumping through her like blood. While she'd no idea what type of loss that Luna may have endured in life, Lois didn't want Stiles to be alone, not at a time where he could have been vulnerable — she hoped they were both alright, but Stiles was her best friend, and if anything happened to him, Lois would certainly never be able to forgive herself.

Him being hurt was as though a part of her had snapped, broken and bloodied. Lois felt physical pain when Stiles was hurt.

She had done, everyday since they were born. It was a bond.

When he had fallen in the road and cut open his knees, back when they were five, she had felt it. When Stiles had broken his wrist when they were freshman, Lois had felt it, and she had also felt the pain of hitting his head on the roof of Roscoe every time he got into the jeep. She felt it all.

Lois and Stiles were connected. Attached at the hip. Not physically, but they might as well have been.

   By the time Lois had made it to the mechanics, there were already a plethora of police cars and ambulances on the scene. She hurriedly pushed through them, in and out of the maze of police and paramedics, and ignored the many officers that told her she wasn't allowed to go past certain points. It was as though they didn't know who she was, and Lois Lane decided that the police department must have gotten new staff over Christmas break. She wasn't a stranger to the station, by any means. It was home.

    "Hey! Kid, no going past this line."

   Lois stared at the officer as though he were insane, a scowl on her face. She rolled her eyes and lifted the tape, bending in to go under it, but he pushed her back.

    "I said—" he drawled out, "—you can't go past here."

    "Do you know who I am?" She snapped and crossed her arms over her chest, cocking a hip and staring at him expectantly. She'd never seen this guy before, and she wondered where Johnson had ever gone. He always let her past — he'd arrested her and Stiles at least four times.

    "Am I supposed to?" The young man accused, raising a brow. He didn't seemed fazed by her glare and he didn't seem bothered that she felt she deserved to go past the line. In his eyes, she didn't.

    "Yes!" Lois growled, "I'm Lois Lane—"

    "Lois Lane? Like the comics? As in Superman?"

   She stared at him blankly, "Do I look like a comic strip to you?"

   The man frowned and folded his arms, ready to retort a mean comment of sorts to the sassy girl, but he had no chance in it.

    "Lois?"

    "Uncle Noah!" She grinned brightly.

Lois was happy to see the man she saw as an uncle, and span around to watch him walk in her direction. She hummed and looked up at the guy smugly. "How about you tell this meathead of a cop that I'm allowed—"

   She was cut off by Noah pulling her into his arms, wrapping them around her and squeezing her tightly. Lois' eyes widened, slightly taken aback by the action, but she reciprocated the hug, nonetheless. They stood like that for a minute, until he eventually pulled back from the hug and stared down at her, making sure that the girl was all in one piece. He sighed in relief when she was.

    "Don't worry, Parrish." He spoke to the new guy, a hand on her back as he guided Lois under the tape and followed in suit. "She's with me."

   Like a child, Lois smiled triumphantly at this Parrish and walked past him, heading straight towards the ambulance that she saw her best friend sat in. His hands were shaking and he was left alone, something that broke her heart. Though, when she saw the blonde talking to police only a couple of metres away, Lois calmed down slightly. Luna had been with him, the whole time.

    "Stiles?" She called out, darting towards the boy. "Stiles!"

   His headed snapped up at the sound of her voice and he sighed in relief, moving off of the ambulance and walking towards her. His movements were slightly uneven, and he winced when his leg jolted awkwardly, but Stiles brushed it off and was in Lois' arms in no time.

    "What the hell happened?" Lois asked him as she held him close to her, arms around his waist tightly while his were across her shoulders. "Your texts weren't very informative, you know!"

    "You're the one who didn't reply!" Stiles retorted, "I was beginning to think you'd bumped into Derek and been ripped apart!"

   She rolled her eyes, "Something like that."

The teen leaned back and gaped at her, to which she only waved a blasé hand and brushed off. She would tell him about it all later, when Scott picked them up after meeting Allison.

   Lois turned back to where Luna was talking to cops and smiled softly when the blonde turned around and walked over to them, looking a little teary but keeping her composure. She pulled Lois into a hug and the brunette held her firmly, and rested her head upon her shoulder. She shut herself out for a moment and then reopened her eyes, a frown coming to her face when she had seen exactly who else Luna had been talking to and now only stood a metre away. She grimaced.

"Dad?"

Luna gave her friend an odd look but pulled away and followed her gaze, her eyes lingering on the man walking towards them.

"That's your dad?"

She had never met Lois' family in the time she had known the girl, but Luna definitely hadn't expected her father to be listening to her statement. So, she watched the girl nod, dumbfounded, and pursed her lips. Evidently, Lois hadn't expected to see him.

It was like an awkward family reunion.

    "I may have forgotten to mention that part..." Stiles trailed off awkwardly, and Lois could only scowl as the man approached. He knew that Lois was going to be in trouble for skipping last period again, and for most likely not being home for dinner, so it would have been good for him to have let her known in advance. Then again, it wasn't as though he could text very well. "...sorry."

   With a hum or irritation, the short brunette heaved a sigh and started her journey towards the man.

"Dad..." Lois soon met the man half way, knitting her eyebrows together at the bridge of her nose as she peered up at him. The girl tried her best to look as though she were in charge of the situation, straightening her back and crossing her arms over her chest. "What are you doing here?"

    "I'm a lawyer, Lois." He looked down at her skeptically, any worry of her having been kidnapped or murdered on the side of the ride diminishing upon seeing that she was perfectly fine. "I'm listening to witness statements."

   Lois nodded, "Right."

    "What are you doing here?"

"...listening to statements?"

The man rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue, allowing his gaze to fall past the girl and to Stiles. It made sense that his daughter was there, he had just wanted to see what excuse she'd make up.

"I got a phone call from your school," Matthew Lane told her, and she cringed. He almost laughed at the reaction. "Again."

"They just can't stop gossiping about me in the office," Lois mocked a laugh, shaking her head as though it were all fun and games. "Can you believe that?"

He rolled his eyes, "We'll talk about this when I get home."

"Yes, sir." Lois saluted.

She he began to walk away, she let out a breath, relaxing her back and heaving a sigh until he turned around again, raising an eyebrow at her. She shot up, back straight once again, and smiled angelically. It was as if she had done nothing wrong, at all.

"And Lois?" Matthew huffed a breath, "Stay out of trouble."

She nodded.

"I mean it," he warned, "Look— I already thought that you had died once tonight, but it's good that I know you can sort out yourself. Just— please don't do that to me again, okay?"

She pursed her lips guiltily and nodded. With a final wave of his hand, her father was then off into the distance, grabbing Sheriff Stikinski's attention before the two men proceeded to venture on into the mechanics. Lois waited until he was completely out of sigh before spinning on her heel and returning to Stiles and Luna.

"So..." she trailed off as she glanced between them, her squinted eyes flickering back and forth. "Care to tell me what happened?"

——

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