uncoveredtruths | But all that's dead and gone and past tonight

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But all that's dead and gone and past tonight

People disappeared all the time, Lois knew that. One morning they'd wake up and find that their whole world had changed in an instant. Lois knew that, she did but this, this was different. This was Clark Kent. This was Smallville, her Smallville. He wouldn't just leave her, he wouldn't just disappear like that. And whilst some people might sit down, cry and accept that their loved one had gone Lois wasn't that girl. Lois was going to find Clark if it killed her.

She knew she was probably being a bit overzealous going to check out Rapture with a search team but she couldn't just sit around and wait whilst other people looked for him. She needed to know, she needed to find him. And although a small part of her knew she wasn't going to find him down there, she just had to keep believing she would even if that was just for a little while longer.

"Thanks for coming, I just- I know he wouldn't disappear like this. It's not like Clark," Lois said as they descended down into Rapture. Lois could feel her heart tightening with every little moment that Clark wasn't there with her. Lois pressed her lips tight together, jaw tense as she stood waiting for them to arrive in Rapture. "He just- he has to be here okay? And we're going to find him. I know we are."

OOC: Tag order: Chloe, Steve, Steph, Kon then back to Lois.

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No, it's not like Clark at all and Chloe is the first one to suspect something's not on the up and up. Even discounting Lois, Clark would never abandon the dozens of projects he's thrown himself into on the island, not without a cause, and the island doesn't normally provide much in the way of evil Kryptonian generals or aliens hell-bent on destroying the world.

Yet, anyway, and Chloe really hopes she hasn't tempted fate by thinking it.

"Just keep positive, Lo. Now, I was thinking it would probably be best to split up and go in teams to start looking? We'd cover more ground that way but if someone else has a better idea, let's hear it?"

"If we split up, we shouldn't spread out too thin," Steve replies. He's been down in Rapture more times than he cares to admit - on ITF duty, mostly, and though most of the surroundings have been cleared, it's not the kind of place he believes is completely safe. Their group isn't that big, and it could be easy to get turned around.

"We should at least stay within audible range of each other, if not visual. One group of two, one of three? No one's going off on their own alone down here."

"Right." There's no point in arguing yet again that Rapture isn't civilian-friendly, and that she really, really didn't like the idea of Lois and Chloe wandering around here. They've had that fight, and clearly Steph lost because here they are.

She gets why they're here, why they refused to wait topside. Because it's Clark, and they love him, and brooding in Rapture is definitely not a Superman thing to do. But it doesn't mean she has to like it.

"Me and Mr. ITF should be in separate groups." She checks to make sure everything is on the utility belt just like it should be. "I agree we should all be within shouting distance at all times."

"You want to team up?" he asked Steph. They knew each other and they knew what the other was capable, more or less. He'd worked with Spoiler before and whatever else she was, she was a Bat and that meant they operated in a way he was familiar with, even if part of them acted in different ways than the others. Well, all of them acted in different ways, but they all had a similar kind of code. It was like him and Clark and all the others. They all had their own unique styles, but they were also kind of the same.

Plus, she was the one he knew here the best. He didn't know the guy at all and Chloe and Lois he kind of knew, but not really. Only sort of knew. They were really Clark's.

Keep positive. Sure, she could do that. She could totally do that. Just call her Little Miss Positive. Oh hell, where was he? Lois was seriously going to kill Clark when they found him.

"Take Chloe with you," Lois said, looking at Kon and Steph. The two of them keeping an eye on Chloe? Oh yeah, that would definitely make her feel so much better. Knowing Chloe's look they were going to come down here, find Clark and then Chloe would get kidnapped or something. "I'll be fine with SuperSeal here. Just if you see Clark first, punch him in the face for me."

"I'm not a creampuff," Chloe mutters but she guesses they have a point. She's not so much on the frontlines kind of thing, not without powers, and even on an island where nobody has powers, she's still probably not as buff as most of the population.

"But I know where to pick my battles. I'd rather be safe than sorry, especially since we already lost Clark. So, me, Kon and Steph take one direction and you and Steve take the other? Meet back in half an hour?"

Steve's focused, surveying the scene, but he's paying attention to the conversation around him as the rest of them work out how they're going to divide up. He turns back as Chloe agrees to the arrangement, then nods himself, taking a moment to check the gun notched at his holster. He's praying he doesn't need it, but he has it - that or the knife tucked inside his boot.

"Let's do this," he replies, motioning for Lois to come with him. "Remember: audible range." They don't have the benefits of radios, and he's not even sure how the signal would fare down here anyway.

"Stay on this level, let's save the bathysphere rides for the big group. And watch out for statues!" She calls as they start drifting down the dank corridor. Because, eugh, the statues-that-aren't are bad enough, but knowing there's a madman still down here and could be posing as one? That's some nightmare material right there, even on top of Creepy Dank Atlantis here.

"And so, Superboy, Batgirl and Chloe explore Rapture to see if Clark's trapped in its underbelly." Damn, her monologuing is rusty, but if you don't practice a skill, you never use it. Plus, the mood's going to be grim if she doesn't try for some levity. Focused is not the same as bleak.

She steps around a pile of debris, a bloodied mask, in boots that make no sound. "I think we're by the medical ward, lots of little rooms to check."

"You are not a creampuff," Kon confirmed. "The smart ones are forces to be reckoned with, isn't that right?" He directed the question at Steph. After all, she knew Tim. He might not be a weakling, but probably about 80% of his actual strength was his mind. "And I can't believe you're narrating us."

Kon shook his head. He knew the weirdest people sometimes. Of course, he was one of those weird people, so....

"We haven't lost Clark, okay? He's just... temporarily misplaced. This is the human equivalent of looking behind the sofa and when we find him he is getting such a lecture. Definitely getting punched," Lois said a little sharper than usual. She was still Lois but there was an edge to her voice that said all was not right in Lois Lane's world. And that edge had started that morning when she woke up alone. "Got it watching the statues even though they're hardly likely to come to life and start attacking us."

And yeah, she had totally jinxed that. Shaking off the feeling, Lois watched Chloe head off with Kon and Steph, waiting for a moment before catching up with Steve.

"Look thanks for coming along Steve, I know I'm acting a little... but he's going to be here right? He just- he has to be." Lois said, as she moved further into the room. Alert for any signs of obvious danger Lois skirted around some of the debris, climbing over as she took in Rapture. Definitely not the Island's Number One Vacation Hotspot but she could see that it had been beautiful once. She didn't know where Clark was in this place but if he was here she was going to find him.

Moving carefully round a corner Lois turned and almost jumped right out of her skin, letting out a startled noise. Not that she was going to ever admit to eeping but she kind of did. Stepping back into some fallen debris, Lois put her hand back against the debris behind her before swearing. Only five minutes and already Lois was overreacting. Great!

"Stupid creepy ass statue, thanks for making me completely paranoid about statues Batgirl. Sorry Steve false alarm, just another one of these Mister Creeper's here." Lois muttered pushing her weight against the debris and moving. It happened so quickly Lois didn't know what literally hit her. She must have done something, pushed something but whatever it was, whatever she had stupidly done made a pebble fall. Just a pebble at first and then the whole lot came tumbling down. "Shi-!"

Lois moved quickly but not quick enough and the last thing she remembered was the force of the stone hitting her head before she dropped, falling to the floor.

Chloe hears something crash down and she motions for the other two to follow her so they can meet back up with Steve and...oh God, Lois.

"Lois? Can you hear me? Lois, are you hurt, what's...can you guys help me get all this off her and get her up?"

He's trying to cover every single corner they run into, being the first one to move through, both gun and light trained into the darkness so nothing creeps up on them unexpectedly. But he can't clear every spot before Lois darts into it. "Wait - " He's lifting up a hand to stop her, but she screams, jumping back in surprise and pausing to steady her weight against a pile of rocks.

It happens before he can even react, smaller stones giving way under the weight of the larger rocks, and he's diving out to try and knock her out of their path, but only serves to get her out of the way of being completely crushed by the unexpected avalanche. He rolls to disperse the weight and then rises, holding her limp in his arms. "Lois? Lois!" He lifts a hand to the back of her head, finds her hair sticky and wet as Chloe rounds the corner with the others.

"We've got to get her back up to the clinic," he says, jaw setting firm as he hoists her up in his arms. "It's not stable enough down here to continue a search, and even if it was - "

He wants to say what they're all thinking, and doesn't. But he gets the feeling that Clark isn't down here, isn't above ground, isn't anywhere they'll be able to feasibly search.

"I'm just-" Whatever she was going to say to defend her totally appropriate and dramatic monologuing, it's gone at the first sound of trouble. Barely five steps into Rapture and everything goes to hell.

Batgirl runs over then leans to examine her head as best she can in the dim light. Not too much bleeding, thank God, but unconscious is not a good thing.

"It's time to go back up." Pulling gauze from her belt, she tucks it against the wound gently. "We'll go ahead of you, make sure it's stable enough."

Kon waited until he saw that Steve had her and then nodded at Steph. "Try to keep her steady. That head wound is liable to open up at the least little thing." It wasn't bleeding much at the moment, but head wounds tended to bleed a lot. While it wasn't necessarily too dangerous, He didn't want to leave her, but the only other thing that he could do was hover and that wasn't going to be productive at all, especially under the current circumstances. The thing he could do was exactly what Steph was suggesting.

"Just follow us and keep your ears open. We don't want a repeat of what just happened."

He blamed himself. He should have tried to make her understand that they didn't just vanish, they didn't just die, they went back home. Surely she couldn't begrudge him that. But then, it was hard to think about Lois without Clark.

Her body was limp, lifeless as Steve picked her up. She didn't stir not when he picked her up or carried her, she didn't stir when Steph placed gauze against her head. Her breathing was fine, nothing was broken but Lois? Lois was out for the count.

Her hand dropped, her fingers loose and limp.

OOC:One more round to the clinic then I'll get Manda to tag in.

"Okay, we need to get her to the clinic ASAP," Chloe says. It's probably not something she needs to point out but being Captain Obvious helps to keep her calm and she hopes the others don't notice the shake in her voice and the tremble in her hands.

Steve's not about to disagree with that suggestion, jaw tensing visibly as he shifts the weight of Lois in his arms, careful not to hoist her up too hard. She's still breathing even, and when he carries her back the way they'd come, he takes a moment to check her pulse again.

"She looks like she doesn't have much more than a nasty bump," he replies, keeping his voice low and even. "But she might need stitches. Who's on duty at the clinic right now?"

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But all that's dead and gone and past tonight

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