Chapter Text
Superman could handle very nearly anything, and everyone knew it. No one would bat an eye if he appeared at a scene of unimaginable horror in a city halfway across the world. No one worried if Superman got flung into a wall or fell out of the sky.
Superman didn’t worry about that either. What he did worry about was when Clark Kent was assigned to cover a disaster, and suddenly Superman had to not only protect people, but himself. Whoops.
He’d been investigating this particular string of disasters in tandem with Ms. Vale, a Gotham Gazette reporter, and Ms. West, of Picture News. No two reports were the same. In Gotham, a house had been found blasted open on one side and completely frozen solid; in Central City, a street had melted and oozed out of shape. Now, Metropolis was dealing with an errant power surge at one of the largest power plants outside of town.
Clark tapped his fingers lightly on the steering wheel, humming absently as he watched the road. There wasn’t much to watch, on his side; no one was insane enough to drive towards a malfunctioning power plant.
Lois whistled quietly in the passenger seat, peering out the windows. “Don’t envy those people going the other way.”
“Almost makes ya think we should be going the other way,” Jimmy piped up cheerily from the backseat, earning a chuckle from Clark.
“We’ll get there, figure out how bad it is, and report on what we know from a safe distance,” he assured them. “The point here is to learn, not to put either of you in danger.” He pulled up outside the power plant and shut off the car.
They could already see exterior lights flickering and flares of light inside the windows.
“... whooooa,” Jimmy mumbled. “Reports didn’t say the whole BUILDING was on the fritz.”
Lois glanced at Clark, whose shoulders had already stiffened. “You’ve gotta get in there and see if anyone needs help,” she said as he opened his mouth to say the same thing. “Jimmy and I have you covered, Clark.”
He offered a grateful smile and a quick kiss on the cheek. “You’re a lifesaver, Lois.”
“Alright, I get it, I’m single, now would you-” Jimmy didn’t get to finish before Clark was long gone.
Lois grinned and unbuckled. “Come on, Olsen.”
It took little effort for Superman to find an unlocked entrance, and he strained his senses beyond the building-wide buzzing and crackling of the machinery and electronics in the power plant.
He heard panicked calls and conversation, people stuck due to the massive malfunctions, and immediately he shot through the facility. He extracted a dozen workers from elevators, from cornered positions behind collapsed electrical equipment, and even airlifted a window-cleaner to safety.
With the sheer clutter of noise slowly decreasing, Superman picked up something interesting- a security team, yelling to each other, and, hidden just beneath that sound, someone crying.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he flew through the halls until he found security outside of a sealed door.
“Superman!” One of them greeted him. “Perfect timing! We got a kid in holding in there and the door’s sealed- metal’s pumped full of voltage, we can’t even cut it open.”
“Why did you have a kid in holding?” Superman asked, even as he braced his hands on the door and began carefully prying it open.
“Basic protocol. Was hitchhiking too close to the facility so we took her in, and then everythin’ hit the fan,” the security personnel explained.
Superman had the door open a moment later, and discovered, his stomach sinking, that the “kid” was a small, wiry girl. It was hard to guess her age, she was so slender and short, but he approximated early- to mid-teens. She had wild, dirty blonde hair, thickly layered and a bit wavy, and she seemed more hair than person, almost.
Her head jerked up when she heard the metal of the door creaking and groaning; she had cool-toned brown eyes and tear tracks down her face. Upon spotting Superman, she scrambled to her feet.
“Nonononono,” she managed, voice breaking from the fact she’d been crying.
“Hey,” Superman said, putting his hands out in a calming gesture and keeping his voice low and relaxed, “it’s alright, it’s okay. I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on.”
The girl swallowed- now standing, it was clear she wasn’t just slender, she was skin and bone. “I can’t make it stop,” she said, tone unsteady and pleading.
Instantly, Superman’s heart broke for this poor girl. With how she looked, dirty, malnourished, wild and scared- and with how the power in the building was behaving -if this was the norm for her, she’d likely been on the run for goodness-knew-how-long.
“It’s alright,” he said. “Chances are you can’t hurt me. You don’t have anything to worry about, okay? I want to help you.”
The girl eyed him warily. “By locking me away.”
“No, no,” he said quickly. “Have other people- tried that?”
The girl nodded hesitantly.
He shook his head. “Listen- I had to get my powers under control when I was young too. It’s not easy, I understand.”
The girl blinked, stance shifting a bit, folding her arms uncomfortably and studying him. “... what’s your point?”
Superman said his point before he even really realized what it was: “I can help you figure it out.” He held out a hand to her. “Let’s get you out of here, alright? I’m Superman. Who are you?”
“Respectfully-” she gestured to his outfit, “I knew that.” She hesitated, then took the handshake. With her anxiety eased, the lights were flickering a great deal less. “I’m Jennie Hammond.” She peered around him. “I- I don’t think those security guys are gonna just wanna let me go.”
Superman turned to them and took on the most authoritative tone he could. “This young woman will be leaving in my custody,” he declared.
“Sure thing, Superman,” one of the men agreed, all of them getting out of the way.
Superman tilted his head towards the door. “Ms. Hammond,” he held a hand out, politely gesturing for her to go first.
Jennie gave a small, nervous smile and headed for the door, curling in on herself as she passed the security guards. An electrical socket down the hall burst with sparks, and she jumped before moving more quickly to get away from the men.
Superman took her beyond the facility and to the reporters’ van by a roundabout route, just in time for Lois and Jimmy to wrap up their filming.
“Superman,” Lois said cautiously, “who’s ah- who’s this?”
“What’s a kid doing at a power plant?” Jimmy added, deeply confused.
“Lois, Jimmy, this is Jennie Hammond,” Superman said. “Jennie, these are friends of mine; Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen. They’ll give you a ride into the city.”
Jennie waved a little. “Hello,” she said, cracking an uncertain, polite smile.
Lois smiled warmly, satisfied enough that Superman was comfortable leaving her with them to leave further questions for a better moment. “Hi, Jennie. Do you get carsick?”
“No ma’am,” Jennie assured her. “I can sit in the back just fine if that's what you’re worried about.
“SHOTGUN,” Jimmy called immediately, running for the news van doors.
Jennie gave a surprised little laugh. “... okay, yeah, backseat it is,” she noted, following at a more normal pace.
Lois was shaking her head and chuckling, walking alongside Jennie. “He started working with the Daily Planet when he was eighteen, and in the years we’ve worked together I swear his energy hasn’t dropped below 11 a single day since.”
Jennie snickered. “I can see that all too clearly in my head.”
“The man is like twelve shots of espresso on legs.”
Jennie squeaked and buried her laughter behind one hand.
Lois shot a smile over her shoulder to Superman, and he smiled softly back. “I’ll meet you back in town.” With that, he took off.
“So, Jennie,” Jimmy said as Lois climbed in the driver’s seat, “where are you from?”
“Colorado,” Jennie said simply.
“Ah, cool, I got cousins out there, what area?”
“Nowhere in particular,” Jennie said, tucking her knees up to her chest in the backseat and looking out the window.
Lois glanced over at Jimmy as they stopped at a red light and mouthed “lay off”.
Jimmy silently put his hands up for a moment and changed coursr. “How in the world does a thirteen-year-old end up in a power plant?”
Jennie shot the front seat a dry look. “Sixteen. I was walking by and walked too close on accident. They’re a bit- spastic, you could say, about people looking funny at their precious premises.”
“Man, I feel that- Lois, you remember that time we had to spend two hours fighting with those two guards at that bank because we had to report on that robbery-”
“- in 10° weather?” Lois concluded, shuddering at the memory. “That was a rough afternoon.”
“Lucky for you you got to go home to your cuddly farmer boyfriend after while I did all the paperwork.”
“You VOLUNTEERED so I could make date night!”
“I think that day killed the feeling in my left little toe.”
“No, that’s the awful shoes you always insist on wearing,” Lois smirked.
Jennie snickered quietly in the backseat. “Did you get that toe checked for frostbite?”
“You think I wouldn’t notice if my toe fell off?? I’m a reporter, come on!” Jimmy yelped, and Lois laughed.
“You wouldn’t,” she confirmed, and Jimmy gasped so deeply he started coughing.
Jennie giggled quietly, putting her feet back down on the floor and letting herself relax a little, leaning her head back against the headrest. She closed her eyes and listened to the reporters’ banter as the van made its way into Metropolis proper.