TOC The next few weeks were busy. Lane and Alexa finally saw an estate attorney and an investment counselor, both of whom had been recommended by Franklin Stern, the Daily Planet's publisher. Their housing more or less sorted itself out as well: one of the real estate holdings Lane had inherited from his 'father' was an older multi-story warehouse that was currently empty but could be converted into retail and living space without much difficulty. The old loft still had traces of an earlier living space – a run-down kitchen and bathroom.
“I especially like the fact that this is the tallest building in the area and this floor can't be looked into from any of the other buildings,” Bob said. “I suspect the sky-lights will be a plus.”
"Who do we talk to, to get this started?" Lane asked.
Bob grinned. "A real estate lawyer, to make sure all the permits are in order, then you start auditioning architects."
"You know who would love to be in on this?" Alexa asked. "Joel Livingston in Lifestyle. A series on how something like this is done from start to finish. And I bet he knows some architects, too."
As expected, Joel Livingston, editor of the Daily Planet's lifestyle section was ecstatic at the prospect of following a warehouse-to-loft renovation from start to finish.
Perry groused at how much it would keep Lane and Alexa out of the newsroom.
“Chief... Are those... cowboy boots you're wearing?” Alexa asked, noticing Perry's choice of footwear on one of her mornings in the newsroom.
Perry grinned. “Sally... The lady I'm seein'... is very big on the whole country western thing. We went line dancin' last night. Ever been?” He did a few steps to demonstrate. “You just gotta keep track of your heel and toe and toe and heel...” Then he realized how many people were staring at him. “Don't you city folk have stories to write?”
Lane walked in holding a copy of the Inquisitor. 'Couples United; Size Restored.' Below it was a photo of three couples.
“And what are you doing bringing that rag into my newsroom?” Perry demanded.
“These people were all in Lois Lane's high school graduating class. They were all friends of hers,” Lane explained. “According to this, Annette Westman is still missing after being doused with the shrinking formula she used on them. Luckily the effects were not permanent.”
“That's Joe Malloy, isn't it?” Alexa asked, indicating one of the men in the photo.
“Yeah, Lois dated him a few times,” Lane said. “You know, if they hadn't... they would have gone to her reunion and, chances are, Westman would have targeted them as well. Who knows what would have happened.”
“I'm kind of glad we didn't find out," Alexa said. "So, we should get onto last night's arson fire at Pender Place and the reports of more 'miracle saves'. I've already checked the insurance angle, at least as far as the owner is concerned. But there may be something regarding the tenants. Also, we've been personally invited by Inspector Henderson to check out the new Tactical Urban Encounter Simulator from Waynetech that the MPD is evaluating.”
"Tactical Urban Encounter Simulator? That's a pretty interesting invitation for kids new to the staff here," Perry noted.
"I'm positive he has an ulterior motive," Lane said.
Perry just chuckled.
-o-o-o-
"Do you know why he chose us two for this?” Lane asked as he and Alexa headed out to Roland’s Neck, to the MPD’s Firearms and Tactics division near Pelham Inlet Park.
“Inspector Henderson is of the opinion that if Superman had had better situational awareness and even a little tactical training, he might have been able to handle the situation with Luthor and avoided getting himself killed,” Alexa said.
“Do you believe that?” Lane asked.
“As a matter of fact, I do,” Alexa said. “I think he was so reliant on his special abilities that he didn't always pay enough attention to his surroundings, to the possibility of traps. He wasn't paranoid enough. Or maybe he was simply too trusting.”
"I would have thought that Lois would have been suspicious enough for the both of them," Lane said.
Dotty the driver parked the Suburban in the pistol range's gravel parking lot next to a panda car. Bob walked Lane and Alexa to the gated entrance.
The MPD's Firearms and Tactics division hadn’t changed much since Lois and Clark's one previous visit. It was an old naval base that had been sold to the city for a pittance many years before. It currently housed the bomb squad’s detonation pit, a heli-pad, a boat launch, a small air strip, and underground bunkers that were reputed to have at least one of every firearm ever manufactured. Roland’s Neck was MPD’s practice area for urban warfare and almost no one outside the MPD even knew it was there.
The area sounded like a war zone as officers from all over the city lined up to fire off live rounds at far targets.
One of the khaki clad instructors was waiting with Henderson near the gate. Henderson introduced him as Bennie Farmer, a long time MPD firearms instructor. He had three .38 revolvers with him.
“I thought you guys didn’t use these anymore,” Lane commented. He was aware of the .38's reputation as being small and reliable but Lane also remembered reading a report that most police officers carried semiautomatics these days – they were faster, but not necessarily better.
“I’m old-fashioned,” Henderson said.
“Besides, it’s usually easier for beginners to handle,” Farmer added.
"You expect us to learn to shoot?" Alexa asked.
"I expect you to learn how to safely handle a firearm in the event you need to," Henderson said. "You also need to know the properties and capabilities of what the opposition might be carrying. Will the ammunition ricochet, putting bystanders at risk, or just get stopped if it hits something 'super'?"
"Superman's dead," Alexa reminded him.
"But somebody's been doing 'super' things around the city," Henderson said, keeping his voice low. "And my bet is you two know who it is." He gave them a wry grin then his expression turned solemn. "I wish to God, I'd had the foresight to get Superman to come here for tactical and firearms training. He had talent and he used it well - I'll never deny that - but even the greatest talent needs training and practice."
Farmer led them to an empty space between two officers firing at man-shaped targets set into the ground thirty feet away. He handed them ear protectors and goggles and coached them in the proper stance: feet in line with the shoulders, both arms straight out, steadying the gun.
They learned quickly. If Farmer was surprised at how quickly they learned how to accurately hit the target he didn't show it. However, other officers did notice them and started gathering to watch.
"Are those two…?" someone asked.
Lane heard Henderson's quiet affirmative. "The kids in the canisters."
"You tryin' to recruit them?"
"No, just trying to make sure they know what they need to know to stay alive if history decides to repeat itself," Henderson responded.
"Bill, you know that even if Kent and Superman had known what they were up against, they would have charged in anyway," the other officer said. "It's how they were wired. Lone wolf buckaroos."
Lane had to resist turning around to see who Henderson was talking to – a normal human wouldn't have been able to hear their conversation over the noise of the shooting range.
"My head knows that," Henderson said. "But my gut… my gut says that we didn't do enough to keep them safe from the likes of Luthor. We didn't give them the skills they needed to have to stop him without getting killed. Lone wolves or not."
Farmer interrupted Lane's listening. "You have to learn to block out distractions. In a tactical situation, chances are the people behind you are with you and won't be talking. But no matter what, keep your focus on the gun and what's in front of you. Let them handle what's behind you."
"And if you're alone?"
"Get yourself into a position where the bad guys are in front of you. One person cannot handle a battle on two fronts."
"Is it a battle?" Lane asked.
"If you're not on a shooting range and you have a gun in your hand, or the other guy does, it's a battle. And you need to fight to win. Now, I think you two have put enough holes in the targets for today," he said, taking the guns, goggles and ear protectors. "I'll meet you over at the simulator."
The new Tactical Urban Encounter Simulator was in a new pre-fabricated building next to the older Firearms and Tactics Simulator shack. The TUES banner was hanging from the railing. Farmer had managed to get there ahead of them and was waiting by the door. Lane blinked as he stepped into the darkness beyond. The only illumination in the cabin was from a console near the door. Farmer closed the door and went to the console. The far wall suddenly lit up and Lane realized it was a large projection screen. A picture of a rundown apartment building was on the screen, the people in the shot frozen in place.
Farmer handed him and Alexa semiautomatics. Farmer explained that the guns had the weight and balance of real guns and were connected to the computer controlling the simulation. It was all like a super videogame.
"Lane and Bill first. Ready?" Farmer asked. Henderson agreed and the first video started. There were shouts apparently coming from inside one of the apartments and a man in a Hawaiian shirt was running up the stairs.
"Stop! Police!" Henderson shouted as though he was actually at the scene. "Drop your weapons! Police!"
The camera seemed to be following the man in the Hawaiian shirt and Lane realized that his character in the video was chasing the man up the stairs. The man ran into an apartment and slammed the door. Lane kicked the door open then ducked away as shots whizzed by over his head. "Police! Drop your weapons!" Lane shouted, getting into the spirit of it.
He peered around the doorframe and saw a woman sitting on a battered sofa, a dirty faced baby in her arms. She looked terrified. The man in the shirt was waving his gun around and another man, this one in a torn t-shirt, was scooping drug paraphernalia into a box.
"Freeze!" Lane shouted. The woman froze but the two men kept moving. The Hawaiian shirt pulled off two more shots. Lane heard more shots coming from beside him and realized Henderson had taken out the Hawaiian shirt. The t-shirt man dropped the box he was holding. The woman on the sofa shouted something. T-shirt man brought his hand into view and Lane could see a gun. He squeezed the trigger and t-shirt man went down, caught in the throat.
"Freeze!" Lane shouted once again. "Hands were I can see them!"
The woman brought her hands up and the baby began to squall.
Then the lights came on.
"Are you sure he's not a cop?" Farmer asked.
Henderson grinned and shrugged. "There's always hope."
"Alexa, your turn," Farmer said.
"But, I really don't want to hurt anybody," Alexa protested.
"Alexa, nobody here wants to hurt anybody," Henderson said. "The job of the police is to keep people safe and stop the people who want to hurt them. And non-lethal force isn't always an option as much as we wish it were otherwise."
Farmer turned off the lights and started another simulation. A different building, this one was a small electronics store. An alarm was sounding and there were sounds of gunfire from inside the store.
Again, Henderson took the lead. "Police!" Henderson shouted, going through the front door in a crouch. "Drop your weapons! Police!"
Three men were inside the store, all with guns. Two of the men were dressed in black and wearing ski masks. The man behind the counter was wearing a white pull-over shirt with an employee's name badge pinned to it.
"Police! Drop your weapons!" Alexa shouted. None of the men obliged.
More shots. Henderson took out one of the masked men with a shot to the body. Alexa attempted to simply stop the other masked man with a non-lethal shot. The man stayed standing and managed to fire off another round, 'hitting' Henderson.
"Freeze!" Alexa yelled. The injured man aimed his gun at her. She shot again, this time 'killing' the masked man. Then the man at the counter opened fire.
The lights came up. "We're both dead," Henderson said. "The moment the man at the counter failed to follow instructions, he became an armed suspect. Your attempt to just disarm the second masked suspect failed, allowing him to get off a killing shot."
"I'm sorry," Alexa said. Her lips were trembling and she looked like she might begin crying.
"Isn't there a setting for allowing non-lethal force?" Lane suggested. "A tazer, maybe?"
Henderson studied Alexa. "Would that have changed your tactics?"
"I still didn't recognize the threat from the guy at the counter."
"But will you recognize the threat the next time?" Farmer asked.
"I hope so," Alexa said.
"Good," Henderson said. "Now I want you both to see what's really special about this particular simulator. It has what we call 'Superman' mode. It's programmed with what we know about what Superman's abilities were. The idea was to allow our people to practice working alongside someone with super powers. We were hoping to be able to get Superman to help us fine tune the settings but we never got the chance to extend the invitation. We were also hoping, or at least I was, that he'd take the opportunity to run through simulations like that one so he could fine tune his analysis of developing situations."
"Can I play Superman?" Alexa asked.
Henderson gave her a wry grin.
The Superman simulator required a full helmet and a hand controller to change modes and settings. But with it, Alexa had a fairly good representation of what things looked and sounded like when using her powers.
This time the screen showed a jewelry store and Lane and Henderson were the first cops on the scene but they stayed outside, assessing the situation through the store front windows.
Alexa was able to peer into the building from above, pin-pointing three masked gunmen with guns out, an armed guard with his gun still holstered, two unarmed people behind the counters, five terrified customers, and two people in the back room. There was a box behind the counter that was lined with lead.
She came to earth beside Henderson and Lane, out of sight of the people in the store, and reported her findings. She included seeing the lead-lined box behind the counter.
"Can you disarm them from here?" Henderson asked
"Yes." It took a few seconds to set the helmet to simulate heat vision and disable the guns.
"He's here!" one of the masked men yelled.
"Police! Drop your weapons!" Henderson shouted as he 'entered' the store. "Everybody freeze! Hands where we can see them!"
One of the people behind the counter opened the lead-lined box and the helmet went dark.
Alexa heard Henderson order Lane to find the kryptonite and a few moments later the helmet came on again, but none of the helmet's super power tell-tales came on.
In the face of armed police, the masked gunmen surrendered.
Farmer turned the lights up again.
"At least we all lived," Henderson said with a wry smile. "But is there anything you or we could have done better regarding the box with the kryptonite? And what if the guard had been in on it?"
"The guard hadn't pulled his gun," Alexa said simply. "And before the box was opened, I would have been able to react fast enough to disarm him, too, if need be. But I don't know if I would have been able to neutralize the threat the box presented. I could see it, but using heat vision requires a clear line-of-sight, preferably without glass in the way. I could have moved in at super-speed and grabbed it, or sealed it, but what if it didn't have anything threatening in it?"
"But what if it was a bomb designed to keep Superman from detecting it?" Farmer asked in return.
"So, Superman should have assumed that anything he couldn't see into was probably not safe, and should have been dealt with like it was a bomb?" Lane asked.
"There's no right answer," Henderson said. "Every situation is different. There could be perfectly innocent lead-lined boxes out there. But if I knew there was a Superman and someone had a lead-lined box somewhere where he was likely to show up, the assumption I would make would be that the bomb squad should look at it and make sure it was as innocent as it seemed."
"So I should have grabbed it and hoped it wasn't a bomb?"
"Could Superman have moved fast enough to get everyone out safely before the box went off, assuming it was a bomb?" Lane asked.
"Not safely," Alexa said. "But that's what the simulator is all about, isn't it? To make you think and plan and practice for the 'what ifs'. 'What if' one or more employees are in on it. 'What if' it's a trap with a bomb or there's a sniper waiting for Superman or the first responders." Alexa took a deep breath. "You guys must have thought he was an idiot."
"A loose cannon, maybe," Henderson admitted. "But only because we couldn't predict when or if he'd show up and we didn't know how best to work with him, use his abilities to their best advantage. But not an idiot. The vast majority of the time his calls were good ones."
"But when it wasn't?" Alexa asked.
"Very bad things happened," Farmer said.
-o-o-o-
It was a nightmare. Clark, Superman, had walked straight into Luthor's trap and was now surrounded by cage with bars emanating kryptonite radiation. He was writhing in agony while Luthor gloated.
"And how are we feeling today?" Luthor was saying. "Ohh. Still a little green around the gills? I, on the other hand, am feeling wonderful. 'She's beautiful and therefore to be wooed. She is woman, therefore to be won," Luthor quoted. "Henry the Fifth."
"I know this must be hard for you," Luthor continued entering the cage to stand over him. "Seeing me all decked out, on my way to marry Lois Lane, while you can only lie here helplessly and suffer. Then tonight, tonight..." Luthor broke into song: "…won't be just any night..." He chuckled wickedly. "I love Lois, but she's much too independent, don't you think? Well, leave that to me."
Luthor started for the cage door.
"Clark Kent knows where I am," Clark managed to croak out.
Luthor shrugged. "That's right. I'll have to kill him, too… That reminds me. Which one?" He held out two cummerbunds, one crimson red and the other white. "The red or the white? Red for passion, or white for purity?"
Clark struggled to sit, to get away from the madman. Luthor looped the white cummerbund around Clark's neck and started to twist it, choking off his breath. Then Luthor let go. He stepped over Clark's prone body and then kicked him viciously. Clark though he felt a rib crack.
"I agree. Definitely the red," Luthor said as he relocked the cage. "Oh, and I will be back to we can have a heart to heart, or rather, I take your heart…""Alexa! Clark!" a familiar man's voice intruded. Clark opened his eyes. Lane was looking worriedly at Alexa.
"You were screaming," Lane explained.
Alexa shivered. "I was back in Luthor's cage. Before that wedding…"
"It's okay. It was just a bad dream," Lane said, pulling Alexa into a hug. "He's dead and he can't hurt us anymore."
"He may be dead but some things don't stop hurting," Alexa said. "Clark knew someone in Metropolis had kryptonite and he knew Luthor was up to no good and he still walked right into Luthor's trap. The only reason he survived was that Luthor got over-confident and left the key to taunt him."
"Clark never told Lois exactly what happened down there," Lane said.
"He didn't want to give her nightmares."
"Small chance of that happening now," Lane observed.
"He also didn't want her to know how naive he was to trust that Luthor would not be up to no good when he invited Superman to talk with him. And it was a mistake Clark kept making."
"Look, you need to stop blaming Clark for everything that happened," Lane said. "Nobody realized exactly how much of a monster Luthor was. Not Lois, not Perry, not even Henderson. And Clark just naturally thought the best of people until he was proven wrong. That's not a bad thing. His trust encouraged people to become their best selves. That's one of the things Lois loved about him."
"Really?"
"Of course it didn't hurt that he had a great body and could get take-out from Hong Kong," Lane added.
Alexa laughed. The terror of the nightmare was beginning to fade in the face of the weirdness of reality.
"We're not getting back to sleep tonight, so how about breakfast someplace different," Lane said.
"I know this great little place in Paris."
-o-o-o-
"Forget Hawaii for a honeymoon," Lane said as he and Alexa got out of the elevators on the newsroom floor. "Luthor may have been right on this one. Paris."
"That's assuming we ever bother to go on a honeymoon," Alexa reminded him. "And of course, we'll probably never know what he had planned in Paris."
"We still need to officially go to France to check out the properties he had listed there," Lane reminded her as he settled into his desk. "And we still have no idea why so many of his properties in the U.S. were allowed to sit empty."
"I would assume he had been using them for other things while he was in control of his empire," Alexa suggested. "Smuggling transfer points, drugs, whatever."
"So why leave them empty when he assigned them to what he hoped was his new self?"
"Clean break, plausible deniability," Alexa said. "Dead Luthor was the perfect fall guy. Blame everything on a dead man. The he could move ahead with whatever plans he had as 'Martin'. Nobody would suspect a kid just out of college to be a criminal mastermind of Luthor's scale."
"His people must be frantic that they haven't been contacted," Lane reasoned.
"Assuming he had any of those left," Alexa said. "Bender did a pretty good job disassembling Luthor's empire. And I've no doubt Mrs. Cox handed a lot of his underworld contacts to Luckabee when she joined up with him."
Lane peered into Perry's office. There were two strangers with him, a man and a woman, both medium height and weight with pale skin and dark hair. They were unremarkable except for their dress - form-fitting black made of a fabric Lane didn't recognize. The woman wore a blue and black capelet to complete her ensemble. The pair did not look happy.
Perry opened the office door and called out, "Lane, Alexa, come here a minute."
He closed the door behind them. "This is Lady Zara and Lieutenant Ching. They're from New Krypton," Perry said. "They've come looking for Superman. They've come to take him home."
"But Chief..." Lane began.
"I know, son," Perry said. "That's what I've been trying to tell them."
Zara looked from one man to the other, confusion evident in her expression. Ching stood at her shoulder, impassively watching.
"How is it possible for this… backwards… planet to have weapons that can kill one of our people?" Zara protested.
"Be careful about who you describe as 'backwards', darlin'," Perry warned.
"We were witnesses to his death," Alexa said, indicating Lane and herself. "The madman who murdered him was killed resisting arrest. The weapon is currently in the hands of the authorities."
Ching had been studying them and laid a hand on Zara's shoulder. She peered at Lane with narrowed eyes then hissed: "Abominations! They are abominations! How is this possible?"
"If you're referring to the fact that neither of us was born of a woman's womb?" Alexa said. "It's possible. Just like it's possible for Earth to have the technology to kill Kryptonians. But I'm curious to know how you could tell."
"Your bone structure indicates highly accelerated growth," Ching said. "And your cells carry Kryptonian specific organelles."
"It is forbidden to use accelerated growth technology on sentient beings," Zara spat. "It is forbidden to manipulate the genetics of Kryptonians in this way."
"Darlin', it's forbidden here, too. But that fact didn't stop a crazy man from doing it anyway," Perry said. "And just because these two may have been born in a way you don't approve and have Kryptonian organwhatsis doesn't give you the right to judge them."
"If it doesn't make me sound too stupid, why is it forbidden to accelerate the growth of sentient beings, and is it a universal prohibition or just a Kryptonian one?" Lane asked.
Again, Ching answered. "Accelerated growth robs the individual of the intellectual development required to become a fully functioning person. But there are certain cultures that do take advantage of that fact to create disposable, virtually mindless, soldiers." Ching gave Lane an appraising look. "But neither of you appear mindless. Is it due to the Kryptonian parts of your cell structures?"
"I doubt it," Alexa said. "Someone found a way to trade the 'essences' of person from one body to another. If one of the bodies is killed, the transfer is permanent and that person's essence is lost. We didn't choose this. We didn't create these bodies, nor were we complicit in the actions that transferred our essences to these bodies. And no, I can't explain how to replicate the phenomena. And I wouldn't explain it if I did know."
"We come to this world looking for help, only to find they create… these," Zara said with a grimace.
"So, why did you come looking for Superman?" Lane asked before Zara could find even more objections to his and Alexa's existence.
"His name was Kal-El," Zara said. "Lord Kal-El. Under Kryptonian law, he was head of the House of El and my birth mate, my betrothed."
"But he's dead," Alexa reminded them.
"You have to understand," Ching said. "New Krypton is governed by an alliance of the most powerful Houses. Lord Kal-El and Lady Zara were birth mates, a contract marriage that was to be consummated when Lord Kal-El reached his majority and was proven to be a worthy successor of his father." It was obvious to Lane that this was a subject Ching didn't especially like. "The joining of Kal-El and Zara would reinforce the alliance between the House of El and the House of Ra, the two most powerful houses on New Krypton, thus creating a ruling alliance."
"And there's no one else in the House of El who could take Kal-El's place?" Perry asked.
"No one of marriageable age and even that child is from a cadet branch," Zara said. "The next most powerful house with a male of proper age and rank is ruled by a would-be tyrant named Nor. He has already announced his plans to force a ruling alliance by forcibly taking me to his bed, even if it means dividing the houses and causing a civil war. We had hoped that by locating Kal-El and putting him in his rightful place as Lord of El and my husband, we could keep Nor out of power and avoid bloodshed."
"But that can't happen now," Lane observed.
"No, that can't happen now and we are placed in an intolerable situation," Ching agreed. He placed a hand on Zara's shoulder, giving it a comforting squeeze.
"Why?" Alexa asked. "If you are the current ruler of New Krypton, why do you need a husband? They don't trust that a woman can be a competent ruler all by herself?"
"It is the law," Zara stated. "The alliance must be maintained."
"Why?" Lane asked.
"You don't understand," Zara said.
"I'm betting I do," Alexa said. "In Earth's history, there was a great empire named Britain. The king died leaving only his half-sisters as his immediate heirs. When the elder sister died without issue, the younger became queen. The ruling 'houses' wanted her to make a marriage alliance with another powerful country. But she knew that any man she married would want to usurp her authority or would be a spy or a pawn working for his family's country, not hers, and any children she had by him would be pawns for that other country. She feared that her beloved Britain would be swallowed up when one of his children ascended to the throne."
"What did she do?" Ching asked.
"She declared that she didn't need a husband, that she was already married to her country. That people of her country were her children."
"She ruled alone?"
"With good advisors she ruled for many, many, years. Her reign was considered the golden age for art, literature, and diplomacy. She is still remembered as a great leader."
"And her successor? How was he or she chosen?" Ching asked.
"On her death her throne went to a cousin," Alexa said. "Historians are quite certain she worked to make sure he was an adequate successor although there's no way she could have anticipated how inept his successors would be."
Zara turned to Ching and Lane felt a tickle in his mind, some sense that he hadn't known about.
"Nor will not like it," Ching said after a moment. "And the matter of succession needs to be addressed, but it might just work. You could rule as Kal-El's widow and you can say that you will not besmirch his memory by taking another husband. Tell everyone how he died trying to protect innocents. It is the truth, after all."
"Nor will not be happy until all of New Krypton is groveling under his heel," Zara stated.
"If Nor is that great of a threat to your government and your people, what would stop him from trying to take over even if Kal-El were alive and willing to go with you?" Lane asked Zara. "What's keeping him from just killing you?"
"Nothing," Ching answered for her. "Except that the people would not stand for it."
"Kids," Perry said. "If this Nor character's as bad as you say he is, he may not care what your people think."
"Or worse, he'll kill you here and blame Earth's people," Lane said.
