[Third person POV]
Samuel Lane checked his rear-view mirror for what felt like the hundredth time, his sharp eyes flicking between the road ahead and the passenger seat behind him.
Lois sat there, phone clutched tightly in one hand while the other rested protectively on the shell of the egg nestled in the seatbelt beside her. Her brows were knitted in deep concentration, the glow of her phone screen reflecting faintly in her eyes as the live feed showed Superman locked in a titanic struggle with the Kaiju. Every crash of impact, every building-shaking blow made her grip on the egg a little firmer.
"Can we hurry it up, Dad?" Lois asked, her voice strained with urgency, though there was a tremor of compassion under it. "I don't want Superman to hurt her too badly… she's innocent in all of this, and I don't think he knows that yet."
Samuel allowed himself a small, proud smile at her words. As much as he disapproved of the reckless way Lois often threw herself into dangerous situations, he couldn't deny her determination—or the way her conviction mirrored her mother's. She always had that fire, that unshakable belief in doing the right thing. With a quiet sigh, he replied, keeping his hands steady on the wheel, "I'm going as fast as I can, Lois while still obeying the traffic rules—"
The car slowed as they stopped at a red light.
"Traffic rules!?!" Lois practically screeched, snapping her gaze away from the phone to glare at him in disbelief. She lurched forward, grabbing his shirt in both hands, the frustration bubbling over until her Japanese slipped, replaced by rapid, natural English. "We are in the middle of a crisis here, old man! You're a reporter! Where's your adventurous spirit? This could be the biggest story of your life—and you want to obey traffic rules?! Grow a pair and step on the gas!"
Samuel turned his head slightly, meeting her fiery glare with a calm, unimpressed expression. He raised a single brow and spoke her name with a deliberate slow warning "Lois…"
Her face heated immediately. Realizing how far she had gone, she quickly released his shirt, smoothing out the wrinkles with a nervous hand before retreating back into her seat. Switching back to Japanese, her voice softened. "Sorry…"
"But…" she added after a moment, her gaze drifting back to the egg, "...I just don't want us to be too late and something irreversible happens."
Samuel exhaled slowly, reaching into the compartment by his side. He pulled out a pair of sleek sunglasses, flicking them open with practiced ease before sliding them onto the bridge of his nose. "Although there was no need to get handsy," he said dryly, "you're right about one thing."
His hand tightened on the gearshift.
"I'm a reporter."
With that, he slammed his foot down on the accelerator. The tires screamed against the asphalt as the car burned rubber, the back fishtailing with violent force. A cloud of smoke rose behind them.
"Where there's a story," Samuel declared, shifting gears with a sharp motion, "I'm there to report it."
The light flashed green just as the car shot forward like a bullet. White smoke trailed in their wake, the screech of the tires echoing against the buildings.
"AHAHAHA! Now THIS is what I'm talking about!!" Lois shouted, her voice almost drowned out by the roar of the engine as the sudden acceleration slammed her back against the seat. Her hair whipped wildly from the motion as her exhilaration replaced her earlier scolding.
The car drifted into a sharp turn, Samuel's hands rotating the wheel rapidly one way, then the other, guiding the vehicle with dangerous precision. The tires screeched again, leaving thick black marks scorched into the road.
Lois was thrown side to side with the force of the drift, her body shifting with each turn. She extended a steadying arm to brace the egg, pressing it firmly against her side while her other hand gripped her phone tighter than ever. Despite the chaos of the ride, her eyes remained locked on the screen, determined not to miss a second of the battle raging miles ahead.
Superman and Krypto became a whirlwind of motion, their figures blurring as they darted around the colossal Kaiju with impossible speed. Twin gales of frost breath surged from their mouths, merging into a glacial storm that engulfed the monster. In seconds, the Kaiju froze solid mid-step, its massive frame transformed into an awe-inspiring sculpture of ice. The towering beast stood still as crystal, every jagged scale outlined in frost, like a monument to Superman's power.
But silence didn't last.
Hairline cracks spiderwebbed across the icy surface, glowing faintly as the creature's immense power strained against its frozen bonds. A thunderous CRACK! shattered the illusion of victory. With an earth-rumbling roar, the ice prison exploded outward, sending a shockwave of freezing air that blasted through the streets.
Superman was already moving. He rocketed forward, grabbed hold of the Kaiju's tail, and with a grunt of effort began to lift. Even with his strength, the sheer mass of the creature dragged against him refusing to move. Slowly, it rose. He spun—once, twice—his movements sluggish at first under the titanic weight, then faster, faster still, until momentum blurred the Kaiju into a living cyclone.
Krypto blasted upward like a streak of white lightning, disappearing into the cloud layer above.
The Kaiju's tail and back plate light up with unnatural energy, its maw glowing with a blinding blue light. Superman's eyes widened—he could feel the radiation humming in the air, taste the static against his tongue.
Superman heaved, hurling it across the ocean. The colossal body tore through the sky, trailing shockwaves that split the clouds. But mid-flight, the Kaiju spun with shocking agility, righting itself in midair. Its jaws opened wide, releasing an atomic orb of blazing azure death straight toward him.
Before it struck, Krypto reappeared, descending from the heavens like a meteor. With a feral snarl, the super-dog smashed into the Kaiju's skull at full speed. The impact was cataclysmic—the Kaiju's trajectory collapsed as it plummeted into the sea. A pillar of water the size of a skyscraper erupted skyward, reaching the very clouds before crashing back down with apocalyptic force.
The ocean responded in fury. A tidal wave, higher than the tallest towers of Tokyo, surged toward the Japanese mainland. At the same time, the atomic orb streaked closer, its unnatural glow promising devastation.
Superman drew in a deep breath, puffing out his chest as his eyes narrowed. His arms spread wide. Timing everything in a single heartbeat, he brought his hands together with a clap that shook the heavens.
The air convulsed. A shockwave of pure force erupted outward, detonating the atomic blast prematurely. The orb fractured into a thousand shards of energy, exploding into a blinding storm of blue-white brilliance that painted the sky like fireworks.
The wave of sheer force didn't stop there—it collided with the monstrous tidal surge. The wall of water, moments away from annihilating the coast, broke apart under the invisible hammer of Superman's strength. Spray lashed the shoreline, but the disaster never reached.
For a moment, the world was silent. Then came the cheers. Citizens in the streets wept and hugged strangers. People across the globe, watching through cameras and broadcasts, erupted into applause, raising their fists in triumph.
There was just something so spectacular about watching a powered individual in action.
Far away from the chaos, in a large lab, Momo's voice broke the silence. "Lala, are you almost done?" she asked, glancing over her shoulder.
Sparks flew as Lala hunched over her desk, goggles strapped tight over her face. Her tongue poked from the corner of her mouth as she soldered wires with hyper-focused intensity. "Mmhmm…" she hummed distractedly, before abruptly spinning in her chair and dashing to her keyboard. Her fingers flew in a blur as she entered a rapid-fire sequence of commands.
"Alright, I'm done!!" she announced triumphantly, flipping her goggles up and yanking loose a bundle of connected wires. With a flourish, she presented the fruits of her labor. "Tada!!"
Momo blinked. In her hands was… a worm. Or at least something shaped like a worm. The device was small enough to fit in her palms, a pink, wiggly, robot-like snake with glossy round lips puckered into a kiss. A little pink antenna bobbed atop its head, giving it a strangely adorable look.
"…Lala," Momo said flatly, staring down at it with wide, unblinking eyes. "What… am I looking at exactly? And how is this supposed to help Clark rebuild the city?"
Lala's eyes sparkled with pride. "I haven't thought of a name yet, but maybe… Hungry-Hungry Wormy-Kun!" she exclaimed. "It eats rubble, and the antenna on its head reads the residual memory of what the rubble used to be. Then it uses the molecular reconstruction device in its tummy to rebuild it… and poops it back out! Once it's eaten all the rubble, the city will be rebuilt—right out of its butt!"
There was a long pause. Momo's eyebrow twitched. She was at such a complete loss for words that her mind stalled. She had always known Lala was a genius—after all, she had casually tinkered with dimensional technology to expand her closet into an entire lab—but her definition of "practical invention" seemed to live in a universe all its own.
Finally, Momo sighed, shaking her head with a mix of exasperation and reluctant admiration. "You are seriously something else, Lala…"
Lala beamed, grabbing Momo's hand. "Now come on, let's go! I can't wait to show Clark my new invention! I just know he'll love it!!"
'I seriously doubt that…' Momo thought grimly, as Lala practically dragged her out of the lab. They stepped through the dimensional doorway back into Lala's "room"—though "room" was a generous term for a space that looked more like a palace suite.
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