Episode 10 - "Fire at the Sterling Tower"

Listen to Superman play god with a young woman's life here!

Summary: After neatly wrapping up the Yellow Mask caper the previous evening, Kent is the hero of the day in everyone's mind but Lois'. But breaking news never sleeps, and a photographer brings news that there's a fire in one of the city's largest buildings. There's a girl trapped in the 20th floor, and her outlook is grim. After some additional info from shutterbug Mike and some needless snark from Lois, we learn that the fire started in the offices of the North Star Mining Co, the same office where the girl is trapped, and that there's the possibility the fire may have been set when two small aircraft collided in midair and crashed into the building by an arsonist. Both Clark and Mike set out for the Sterling Tower at once, and arrive in a sea of hook and ladder trucks and firemen.
Mike makes some idle chat on the way to the ongoing tragedy, and brings up the subject of Lois Lane's icy treatment of Kent. It seems that she's been talking up about how she was rescued by Superman, which strikes Clark speechless, perhaps in fear but more likely, trying not to choke on laughter.
The fire chief is not in a receptive mood to deal with the press, but mentions he's already written off the girl on the 20th floor. Mike and Clark decide to take up position in a building across the street, but Clark first calls back to the Daily Planet to inform them the fire has gone to four alarms. Out on the balcony of the building, Mike's getting some good shots, and Clark spots the girl up high up, still alive and trying to break a window. Clark changes into Superman when a convenient billow of smoke distracts Mike, and zips up to punch into the building, as Superman is wont to do. He finds the office flame gutted but the girl somehow still alive in a closet. With no other option, he scoops the girl up and flies out of the building, and is spotted by the fire chief and his men below. Superman gets the girl to the ground and, as Kent, gets her to an ambulance. He tries to make it seem like the girl found her own way down from 20 stories of fiery death, but the Chief and several other witnesses swear that they saw a man flying up in the sky. Whoops.
The girl comes to, nearly delirious with fright and smoke, and in shock mentions about being assaulted by men who are currently making a getaway. The plot thickens!

Characters:

• Clark Kent/Superman
• Lois Lane
• Perry White
• Mike the Photographer
• The Fire Chief (and his firemen)
• June Anderson (the trapped girl)

Notes:

• Lois acts like being able to write a personal account of being thrown out of a plane by a terrorist and surviving somehow isn't a cool of Clark Kent's exclusive of flying a plane into another plane and surviving somehow. Jealous much?
• Again another instance of Superman deciding just how much to show himself to the public as Superman, although in this case his hesitance may have cost June her life. Smoke can kill someone very quickly, and here's Clark Kent shooting the breeze with Mike the Photobug on a car ride over.
• The likely-hood of June surviving as long as she did in the portion of the building where the fire started are pretty slim indeed. There's also the issue with how they knew the fire was set deliberately from 20 stories away on the ground.

In the next episode, Superman pulls a couple of bonerheaded stunts as he waits for the girl to wake up, and in the end fails to prevent "The Stabbing of June Anderson".