The Room Where Lois Is Hiding

Lois Lane heard the sound of feet approaching the door. She swore silently—whoever it was, they were coming in here, and the room's bare walls offered nowhere to hide.

Except...the door wasn't flush with the wall...and there was a small vent between the door and ceiling.

Thinking quickly, Lois pulled off her heels and braced her bare feet against the wall on either side of the door. Swiftly, using some of the moves she'd learned from an article on parkour, she climbed the doorway. Biting the straps of the heels between her teeth, she grabbed the vent, pulled her feet up...

...and just in time, as the door opened.

The Daily Planet's reporter clung to the wall with one hand, the vent with the other. It was a precarious perch, but neither of the figures who entered the room looked up as they entered. Both of them were focused on the sheet-covered object in the middle of the room.

Not even daring to breathe, Lois watched them. One of them was young, a slightly overweight college girl in club wear that showed off her lovehandles, with badly dyed green hair and zits on her face. The one behind her was taller, more elegant. Oily, dark hair fell like a waterfall down to the small of her back, and the inky dress she wore looked like a piece of the night itself. Lois couldn't even hear any heels click on the concrete floor.

One olive-colored, elegant hand wrested on the younger woman's shoulders as the taller woman pulled the sheet aside...and Lois finally saw the mirror.

The frame was two snakes, coiled one into the other, made of gold and obsidian. The mirror itself was bright silver, and had the illusion of depth from some subtle curve in the glass. From Lois Lane's perspective, she could see the young woman's brown eyes and worried face, but the tall woman didn't appear in the mirror at all. The taller woman's hand moved to the back of the young woman's neck.

"Look," the tall woman said. "Think about who you are...and who you want to be."

Lois could read the emotions on that face. Hope. Fear. Desire. An aching tiredness at being herself. The reporter had seen many women with such expressions, staring into a mirror...

...except now, the reflection was changing.

Slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, the green in the hair spread. The frazzled strands resolved themselves, growing darker, glossier, more natural, if such a word could apply to green hair. The bones grew more prominent on the plump face...and then Lois saw the skin go from pink to a pale green. The brown eyes deepened to almost black. Then the clothes seemed to be a baggier fit, and Lois realized the figure in the mirror was shrinking.

The young woman was locked on her reflection now, and the changes accelerated. Sharp-pointed green ears grew out from the long green hair, the breasts swelled and firmed even as she shrank...and Lois felt her legs burn as she realized that the young woman in the mirror looked like nothing less than one of those impossibly busty goblins from tabletop roleplaying and computer games.

"Is this you?" The tall woman whispered. "Is this your inner self?"

"Yes," the woman said, as she reached out to touch the mirror....green fingers reached out...and the moment they met at the mirror's surface...Lois Lane's eyes watered for a moment, as if the world folded in upon itself. When she had blinked away the tears, the young woman was gone...and in her place was the busty green goblin.

"Feels good, doesn't it?" The tall woman said, as she stroked one long green ear. "You're a cutie. I'm sure our clients will love you..."

Carefully, the tall woman covered the mirror once again. Together, the two turned to leave the room.