There was nothing left to do upstairs for Sue. She had tried to persuade Reed that he needed to see a doctor after being tossed around the lab by Dr. Doom, but he wouldn't hear it. The world was turned upside-down again, but Reed and the JLA would take care of it. They always did.

    They were heroes.

    Not like Sue. Doom had been trying to kill Reed, and Sue couldn't even make Doom flinch. She wanted to help, but she didn't know how. Maybe she really didn't belong here. At least Ben was actually helping by flying AGF off to survey the damage to Brooklyn, but she was useless.

    Worse than useless. On this scale, did it even matter that she tried? Maybe she had been living in this fairy tale castle for too long. Maybe it was all silly, self deluding folly. Maybe she was ignoring reality. Hell, she was a married woman--had she begun to even forget that as well?

    The ceiling of the Baxter Building's generator room sagged and the far wall was little more than a gapping hole. Sue cautiously made her way through the rubble and finally found him a few minutes later, huddled in a ball in a corner, naked and shivering.

    "Jimmy," Sue said, trying not to let her voice catch.

    Jimmy instinctively cringed from the sound of her saying his name, but then looked up. His swollen eyes went wide. "Honey!" He leapt up, but then winced and mumbled a soft chorus of "Owie-owie-owie-owie" as he hobbled over to her as quickly as he could. As soon as Jimmy was within arms reach, he threw them around her desperately. "I’ve come to take you away from all this! I’ve come to rescue you!" he babbled.

    "Jimmy," Sue said numbly, closing her eyes as he continued.

    "I’ve been here for days! Watching that creep trying to steal you away, but tonight seeing you sit next to him, it was too much! Just too much!" Jimmy yammered, the words flooding out in a messy deluge.

    His words impaled Sue's heart and guilt drowned her. She tried to say something, but didn't know what could possibly make this better. She held him tighter.

    Jimmy stopped to catch his breath, eased his embrace and looked her in the eyes for the first time. "But I know you've just been playing along with these losers," he said, his voice now dropping conspiratorially. "Fighting alongside these freaks every once in a while, so they'll think you're one of them. And considering the situation, I don't blame you. It was the smart play, the smart play. But you don't have to pretend, anymore; I'm here now! And I have plans! Plans you wouldn't believe! We can make The Big Score! I finally know how I can give you everything you've ever deserved!"

    Jimmy began to speak rapidly, as he always did when pontificating upon his grand, doomed plans, but Sue did not hear him. Almost unbidden, the tears in Sue's eyes dried.

    “You really think I was pretending?" Sue asked, shock and hurt mingling in her vice. "That I was just trying to fool them? You think that's all it was? You think that's the only reason? Didn't what we all went through teach you anything? My God, haven't you realized yet the kind of responsibilities that come with these powers? We can't just avoid them. And if we try to, people die!" Sue was surprised to find herself shaking a little when she was finished.

    Jimmy shut up and looked at Sue quizzically. His expression was one common to Jimmy Sorski: Growing conviction that he had just done something wrong, mixed with total bafflement as to what precisely it was. “When did you start talking like that?" he asked with a slight chuckle. Then, suddenly, his smile died. "That creep's turned your head around,” he said darkly.

    All Sue could do was stare at her husband sadly for a moment. She blinked and her final tear fell down her cheek. “I've always talked like this. You've just never listened.” She turned around and started to walk away. "Good-bye, Jimmy. Please don't come back."

    Sue Storm walked toward the elevator that would take her back up to the top of the Baxter Building. She didn't know how to help right now,
but she was determined to start learning.

    The cigarette smoke stung the back of Lois's throat. That was fine by her. She liked her cigarettes strong and considered this discomfort a suitable punishment for being unable to come up with a decent lead.

    Much like staring into the abyss, Lois stared at the blank white piece of paper in her typewriter and she found it stared back. Although the rest of the newsroom was a chaotic mass of desperate screaming people and ringing phones, for Lois all was quiet--it was just her and that damn piece of paper. She was even able to ignore the yelling from Perry's office, where he was chewing out the Planet's entire photography staff.

    To be fair, it really wasn't their fault: When the cities first disappeared, the photographers scattered for New York and Washington D.C. to snap pictures of the craters. Unfortunately, this meant there was no one around when Brainiac's five mile long space ship suddenly appeared over Metropolis and the JLA engaged it in the biggest aerial battle since The Battle For D.C.

    Well, almost no one.

    The best picture Perry had (and the one that, after much seething, was going on the front page of the Planet) was a masterfully composed shot of what appeared to be War Machine, Zero Man, Supernova, Blue Beetle and Phoenix attacking Jimmy Olson's thumb.

    Okay, maybe Lois couldn't quite block out all of Perry's vitriol. Hell, Perry couldn't even run that lousy photo until she finished the goddamn story that went with it.

    Every few seconds, the tip of the cigarette that hung from the edge of her scowling mouth glowed and small plumes of smoke curled out of her nostrils. She imagined that she looked like a steam-powered frustration machine.

    Lois didn't even want to think about all the sweet talking, nagging, yelling, arguing, flirting and complaining (not to mention the occasional strategic use of the slit in her skirt to reveal just the right amount of leg) that had been required to secure herself a seat on an emergency military flight to New York. She was in the air, getting sick in the back of a cargo plane halfway between New York and Metropolis, when the battle with Brainiac raged and the cities were returned. All Lois's efforts had brought her was the rare experience of being scooped by Jimmy Olson.

    Lois ripped the blank piece of paper out of the typewriter, balled it up in an angry fist and pitched it toward her waste basket (not into it, just toward it). She put a fresh piece of paper in her typewriter and resumed staring.

    To break the monotony, Lois checked her watch. Eleven minutes to deadline. Yippee. She absently leafed through the press release that the JLA had sent out, containing everything they knew about this Brainiac thing and what had actually transpired. She had calls in to Blue Beetle, but it wasn't like he ever returned those, so suddenly Lois was just like an intern: Regurgitating P.R. handouts and trying to alchemically turn them into journalism.

    Another blank white piece of paper landed in a ball near (but not in) Lois's wastebasket.

    She read through the press release again. Captain America must have written it--it read like an after-action report. Terribly dry, but at least it was concise. Thank God, it wasn't The Joker's turn, she thought. Her eyes scanned through it, her expression sour. Then, suddenly, her expression went blank and she carefully re-read a portion. She looked up from the press release and did a slow burn, which for Lois Lane is 1.4 seconds.

    Lois was on her feet. She ground the stub of her cigarette into the ashtray on her desk and threw her coat on as she strided toward Perry White's office. She threw the door open and exclaimed, "Perry, find someone else to do type up the JLA's press release. I've got a bigger story."

    The room full of photographers and editors surrounding Perry's desk were used to this sort of thing and gave a communal sigh. Perry White glared at Lois and smiled brittlely. "Lois, dear," he said slowly, "in the last 24 hours, there have been multiple attempts on the life of visiting royalty, the United Nations building was trashed during a floor debate, ten of the most important cities on the planet disappeared and reappeared, and the JLA fought a pitched battle over our very heads with a space ship the size of my mortgage. What could possibly be bigger than any of that?"

    Lois spoke slowly, her eyes steely. "Has anybody asked why Brainiac believed humanity will soon be extinct?"