7.19 Confession (Part IX) by TW and JG

as retold by Bill C

JG: This time we come back to Lois and Evelyn in a dimly lit room. [to MR] Not that kind of dimly-lit, one-track-mind boy.
MR: Aww.
TW: The room is full of video equipment and CRT monitors. Lois and Evelyn are seated in front of a complicated-looking console, along with a standard keyboard and a trackball.
AoT: This is the CSI: Miami part, right?
ED: Huh?
AoT [to ED]: The CSI: shows are notorious for doing what I think we're about to do in this scene.
ED: Still don't get it.
AoT: No one expects you to, dear.
TW: Evelyn is sipping on a cup of coffee, and points at the monitor directly in front of her. It's displaying a progress meter overlaid on what appears to be a still shot of the Slab; the meter is at about 97%. "Okay, the system is almost done processing the video. Took a bit longer than expected, though."
AoT: Oh, come on. The CSI: folks would have done this in about twenty seconds.
ED [snaps fingers]: Ohhh! The way they make shitty camcorder footage look like hi-def video!
JG [to AoT]: You watch CSI: Miami?
AoT [to JG]: I watch it to make fun of David Caruso's Botox injections.
JG [nods]: What else is there to watch on that show?
AoT: Well, there is that Delko fellow...
JG: Oh, right.
ED: Can Lois wear a lab coat and a low-cut blouse in this scene?
TW: Why would Lois wear a lab coat?
AM: And isn't the low-cut blouse a requirement for Lois anyway?
MR: Or an unusually tight top. Either/or.
AM: Oh, right.
JG [looks at TW]: Tight top or low-cut blouse?
TW [shrugs, makes notation in script]: Tight top.
ED: Reading my stuff. All right...Lois looks at her watch. "Well, I didn't have anything else to do tonight anyway."
TW: Evelyn nods. "I think the highlight of my evening would have been feeding my cats."
JG: Shot of the progress meter as it hits 99%, then almost immediately reaches 100%. Some sort of generic alert noise goes off, and the meter disappears.
TW: Evelyn sits up in her chair. "All right...the entire recording has been processed. All we have to do is find a shot or two that you like, select it, and it'll enhance it."
ED: Lois looks at the central monitor. "Okay. Fast-forward about...um...two minutes."
TW: Evelyn slowly spins a big dial on the control console. The video on the monitor blurs by at high speed for a few seconds, with accompanying speeded-up audio, then slows down and freezes on a shot of Clark in midair being held by three Spartans while a fourth one has a fist cocked back and aimed at his stomach.
ED: "Okay, that's good. Can we enhance his head?"
MR: Clark could use a new hairstyle.
TW: Shut up. Evelyn types on the keyboard, and on the screen a small square appears around Clark's head. The square and everything in it enlarges to take up about a fifth of the screen, still blurry, and additional lines of resolution start appearing inside the square. "Okay, that'll take a minute. Any other shots?"
ED: Lois points at the screen. "Can you play it at normal speed from here?"
TW: "Sure." Evelyn hits a button and the video plays behind the square. Shaky-cam stuff, until a Spartan abruptly flies towards the video's POV and just misses it, obliterating a wooden stage nearby; the camera pans over to the remains of the stage, with the Spartan lying in the middle of it with a big chunk of its helmet missing.
ED: Lois points. She's good at that. "Wait, right there! Hold it!"
TW: Evelyn hits the button again and the video freezes. "What, that guy?"
ED: "Yeah. What can you give me on their head?"
TW: "I'm curious about that myself. I'd love to know who's crazy enough to play dress-up for Lex Luthor."
MR: Hey!
TW: More typing, another square appears around the Spartan's head and blows up, et cetera. Cut to a wide profile shot of Lois and Evelyn looking intently at the monitor for a few seconds, then back to the monitor as both video squares continue adding lines of resolution. A few more seconds, and enough lines are added to the first square to, yes, make it look like hi-def video. Which means part of Clark's head is clearly visible, but not all of it.
MR: Stupid "GreenK protective suit."
ED: Lois leans forward in her chair. "Okay...damn, not enough for a positive ID. Scratch that one--we need a shot with more of his head exposed."
TW: "Trying to line up your next date, Lois?"
ED: "Oh, shut up and start the--wait." Lois points at the other video square, which by now is almost as good-looking as the first one. "That...that looks like..."
TW: Cut to a closeup of the video square as the additional lines of resolution finish appearing, making it a fairly clear close-up of Chloe's face framed by broken helmet.
AM: Dun-dunnnn!
ED: Lois's mouth drops open in shock. "Chloe?!?"
TW: Evelyn: "Who? Who's Chloe?" She points at the screen. "That's this Chloe person? You know her?"
ED: Lois ignores her as she whips out her cellphone and speed-dials a number. Behind her, Evelyn starts tinkering with the control console.
JG: And we cut to the Chloe-cave--
MR: Do we have a name for that yet?
JG: The...Chloe-cave?
AoT: The Fortress of Sullivan?
KK: 33.2?
MR: The Pillar of Autumn?
KK: The what?
MR: Spartans? Halo? [pauses] Heathen.
AM: I kind of like "Fortress of Sullivan."
JG [sighs]: Cut to the Chloe-cave as a cellphone rings. Chloe walks into the shot and picks up said cellphone. "Yes?"
ED: Back to Lois. "Cuz', you're never going to believe what I just found out."
TW: Back-and-forth cuts between Chloe and Lois. "And you're keeping me in suspense why?"
ED: "I was checking out some footage I managed to shoot at the Slab fight, and--and there was this Spartan that got its helmet smashed, and..." Lois's voice drops to a whisper. "Chloe, it was you."
TW: And the dramatic music cranks up.
AM: Okay, reading. Chloe cautiously goes, "What do you mean it was me?"
ED: "I got a good closeup of it--it's your face! What is one of Lex's Iron Man rejects--"
MR: Hey! No dissing Iron Lex and his army!
ED: "--doing with your face? God, this is sick!"
AM: Chloe thinks for a second. "Lois, where are you?"
ED: "I'm at KTMP. Seriously, cuz'--this means Lex is an even sicker freak than we thought he was when we found out he had snatched your body! What's his obsession with you?"
MR: Lex needed a blueprint for his army of world-saving--
KK: Sex toys.
MR: Shut up!
TW: Evelyn catches that last part. "What?"
ED: "Nothing! Now, cuz', I...hello? Hellooooo?" She looks at the phone. "She hung up on me?"
TW: "Lois, who were you talking to?"
ED: Over-the-shoulder shot of Evelyn looking at Lois as she turns around. "Uh...nobody."
TW: We hear the super-speed noise under Lois's last comment, followed by Chloe's voice: "Well, damn." Both Lois and Evelyn suddenly look off-camera-left as Chloe speaks, and the camera pans over fast to Chloe standing in the room's doorway. She closes the door behind her. "Just call me nobody."
AM: You did--you let Chloe rip off Clark's phone schtick?
TW: Sometimes budget cuts are a good thing.
AM [grins]: Thanks! Okay, so Chloe looks at Evelyn and Lois. "Now, what's this about somebody's face?"

TW: Closeup on Evelyn as she whips her head around and looks at the video square of Chloe's face on the monitor, then back at the real Chloe. "What the...it's you!"
AM: Chloe walks slowly and deliberately into the room, and looks at the monitor. A sad expression appears on her face. "Well. What do you know? It is me."
TW: Evelyn gets an ambitious grin on her face. "This is great! We can do an interview with you and break this wide open!"
ED: Lois is a little more hesitant. "Chloe...is that really you?"
AM: Chloe folds her arms and thinks. "Okay. There's some good news and some bad news. The good news is that that"--she points at the monitor--"isn't me. It's a clone that Lex made of me. He made...well, a few of them."
ED: Lois looks shocked. "He did what? But--but why?"
KK: See also: the Lanabots. [pauses] Wait. If Lex could make clones of Chloe, why wouldn't he simply keep one of those as a sex toy?
TW: Because he's not quite stupid enough to sleep with someone who could rip out his spine by accident if things got hot and heavy.
KK: You're no damn fun, Tom.
AM: "I guess he thought he could get away with a copyright infringement while I was dead." Chloe points at the other video square, and her voice gets quiet. "Oh, Clark. Always biting off more than you can chew."
MR: Ouch.
ED: More jaw-dropping for Lois. "What? That's Clark?!?!?"
TW: Evelyn is still trying to process that. "You were dead? Clinically?"
AM: Chloe shrugs. "A few times. I got better." [groans] Okay, fine, someone had to go there. "It probably helps that I'm...special."
TW: "Special?"
AoT: Why is Chloe admitting everyth...ohhh. [nods] Never mind.
ED: What?
AM: Chloe points at the coffee cup Evelyn was drinking from earlier, now sitting on the table next to the keyboard. Closeup on the cup as it suddenly rockets off-camera, and cut to a wide shot of Chloe as the mug hits the wall a few feet to her left and shatters. "Special."
TW: Evelyn is gaping in astonishment at this point. "You're...you're a--"
AM: "Mutant is fine. Or metahuman if you want to be politically correct."
ED: Lois does that look-down-think-look-up thing. "Chloe? If that's the good news...that a clone of you--"
AM: "A few of them."
ED: "--was fighting Clark over the Slab on Lex's orders...then what's the bad news?"
AM: Chloe sighs. "The bad news...well, for you...is that you can't tell anyone about this. It would mess up my plans."
TW: "What? Plans? What plans?"
AM: "Plans. Someone has to save the world, you see--and it probably ain't gonna be him." Chloe waves dismissively at the monitor. "We're going to have to do the world-saving ourselves."
KK: When we write people dissing Clark, Tom, you get all bent out of shape. When you do it, it's just fine. What the hell?
TW: The thing with you writing Clark disses is that you enjoy it too much.
KK: Well-- [thinks]
JG: He's got you there.
KK: But...he's such an easy-- [sulks]
ED: Lois, meanwhile, is looking nervous. "Chloe?"
AM: Closeup on Chloe as she looks at Lois, looking kind of sad. "You can't tell anybody, Lois. Not a soul. But in a minute or so it won't matter...you won't be able to."
TW: Evelyn looks just a little scared, and starts to stand up. Chloe unfolds her arms, reaches out, and grabs both Lois and Evelyn by the arm. Cut to closeups as the usual glowy effects pop from under Chloe's hands, then to closeups of Lois and Evelyn's faces as they twitch slightly and their eyes roll up into their heads. They both finally slump into their chairs, unconscious.
AoT: I thought that was coming.
JG: It was rather obvious, wasn't it?
ED: Dammit! Lois finds out that-- [glares at TW] You suck! You ran with the Bruce Wayne thing, but Lois still can't find out that Clark is Kal-El?
TW: Well...yes. Chloe looks down at them, still with that sad expression on her face, then turns without a word and walks out of the room.
MR: Lois has to remain galactically stupid.
ED: Bastards!
JG: Why, thank you.

Continued...