End: Emergency Stop and the Elevator Phone Line

The reporter waited half a heartbeat—just enough time for the elevator to be stuck between floors—and then she slammed on the elevator stop button. The rising car jolted to a stop, and the naked reporter stabbed at the elevator call button.

Lois Lane was not a religious person, by and large. She had been raised in the church, but growing up she had slipped away. The more she learned, the more she had begun to doubt. As an adult, in a world of alien demigods and supernatural figures that claimed to be literal gods, Lois had ceased to believe in any sort of higher power, didn't believe any church held the truth.

But she prayed now.

There was a hum on the line. A dial tone. Then...

"9-1-1 what is the nature of the emergency?"

Lois Lane could have kissed the woman on the other side of the line. She struggled to put her thoughts together..how to explain the situation.

"This is Lois Lane of the Daily Planet. I'm trapped in an elevator in a criminal brothel being run by a powerful metahuman. And I'm...I'm..." the reporter's hand fell to her swollen stomach. "...I'm about five months pregnant. Please, you have to contact the Justice League...I have their number..."

Minutes count in a situation like that. Lois could feel herself shaking in frustration as she tried to remain calm, answer the questions of the 9-1-1 responder, try to impress upon her the urgency. Lois could just imagine the demon's cultists prying open the doors...trying to get at her from above or below...

In the end, Lois Lane sank down on her ass and brought her knees up until they pressed against her pregnant belly. If they didn't get here in time...what would she do? What could she do, to stop the quickening ritual? To keep Blaze from getting what she wanted?

Something shifted inside of her. It caught Lois completely by surprise. She looked down at her stomach...the gentle swell, higher than she had imagined it would be, just beneath her puffier breasts. Gently, she put a hand on it. Lois had never really thought about pregnancy, didn't know when babies started to move, but...five months? Was that right? Was the baby okay?

Lois shuddered. She'd been pregnant no time at all and was already developing a maternal attachment to the fetus. Of course, if Blaze had her way, the demon spawn might well tear its way out, and the only glimpse of it Lois would have of her son or daughter would be a...

"...help is on the way."

The voice on the other end of the elevator call line caught Lois Lane's attention. It wasn't the female operator that Lois had been talking to. Yet the gravelly tone was...familiar. Hesitantly, she stared at the speaker/receiver plate and said:

"Batman?" She asked, wondering if Gotham's detective could have been monitoring the 9-1-1 system for her voice.

"Hold tight, Lois." the Caped Crusader's voice came back.

The Daily Planet's Greatest Reporter did not see what happened next. But she heard it. A scream and a crash like the fist of god smacking straight into the building at speed. A roar of pain from a throat that was never human. The hiss and zap of beams of scintillant energy burning through flesh and stone, steel and concrete. The lights in the elevator flickered and went off, dull booms resounded in the familiar pattern of a boxing match, the impact of immense fists against invulnerable flesh...a woman's voice raised in ominous chant, reaching a high-pitched climax that seemed to pierce through Lois Lane's eardrums...

...then silence.

Darkness.

Stillness.

Footsteps. Voices. A soft knocking.

The elevator phone line was dead. Lois wondered what she would do...who would open that door...Lois was scared to even breathe...and then with a crunch the door opened. Green light shone through behind a familiar head, the dark hair falling into an s-curl on the forehead, the smile bright as a new-minted penny.

"Hello Lois," Superman said. "We're here to rescue you."

There wasn't any need for Superman to carry Lois, even though she was wrapped in his red cape. She might have been pregnant, but there was nothing wrong with her feet or legs. Yet Superman insisted on carrying her, as they flew to the hospital where Dr. Midnite waited to evaluate her...and the baby.

Superman flew slowly, and it was just the two of them, so when he spoke, only Lois could hear her voice as she pressed her head against his shoulder. He was warm as a summer day, and he smelled like the wind. Her soft breast pressed against his chest.

"You know Lois," he said. "I have to confess something. You see I've...got a bit of a kink. For pregnant women."

She smiled. He was a terrible flirt...but she also knew he was a worse liar. Lois knew he was telling the truth.

"You know I love you. And I've always wanted a family. You'll need help, with the baby, if you...I mean if you're going to..." he halted, tongue-tied.

"I'm keeping it," she said. He let out a little sigh of relief. "We'll talk about it, later. I'm not saying no, it's just...it's been a night, you know? I started out trying to find some missing women, and now I'm halfway through a pregnancy..."

Her ass just touched the tip of his belt buckle...and Lois felt something move there, against the metal so that it pressed against her ass.

"You're beautiful," he whispered. "And you're only going to be more beautiful."

Lois smiled...and felt a burning heat between her legs. Something told her that her decision wouldn't take long to make at all.