Chapter 14 by Zeebop

What kind of trouble?

Dying In A Car Crash

Supermom came to earth on the outskirts of Metropolis. Lois Lane saw what had happened at a glance. A small car driven by a woman at least six months pregnant, sideswiped by an eighteen-wheeler and **** off the road and into the barricade...and then full-throttle into a concrete barrier. Within moments, the reporter was on the driver's side, and wrenched off the door with an **** burst of superhuman strength.

There was blood. Broken glass. A part of the steering wheel had gone through the woman's forehead, and she hung limp. Lois could feel her heartbeat...and that of the baby...but it was fading, the body not yet realizing that it was dead yet. Instinctively, Supermom reached forward and touched the bulging belly...

Time stood still. Lois could feel herself frozen, unable to move. Her fingers had touched the woman's stomach, and now she saw the skin ripple, like a rock thrown in a pond...and it was like a circuit had been formed. Something flowed up the reporter's fingertips, through bone and muscle of the arm, drawn to the obscene totem on her chest...and then down to her own swollen womb...and as Lois watched, the stomach shrank, and finally hung empty...and Lois felt the pressure build up in her own stomach as her gravid burden increased, stomach swelling out just a bit more, weight shifting.

Time resumed, and Lois found herself staring at the dead woman. Sirens announced ambulance and police on the way, too late. Lois launched herself into the air, one hand on her now-bigger stomach.

I stole her baby, the reporter thought, trying to process what had happened. Except she had no doubt that the woman had been effectively dead when she got there, that the ambulance wouldn't have arrived in time, that the fetus hadn't been developed enough to survive on its own outside of the womb.

No, I saved her baby, Lois told herself. It felt good to rub her stomach. She was far enough away that she didn't think any of the cops or emergency medical technicians saw her when, several minutes later, they finally arrived at the car. Supermom floated in the air...and became aware of other screams. Instinctively, she began to move toward them, now carrying a double load...