Fallout - 2016 - Matchmaker Chronicles Vol 1 CG3
Rated PG-13
Description – This is the NextGen story that follows up on the events of Thanksgiving and Christmas 2015 and reveals the outcome of the interactions with Bud.
Submitted:2016.
Disclaimers: The characters in this story are property of DC, December 3rd productions and Warner Bros. No Copyright infringement is intended. I have just borrowed the characters for a short time.
I wish to express my thanks to my Beta readers Artemis (Welcome back, Artemis!) and Ray Reynolds for their invaluable help. This was a VERY rough draft when it first landed in his hands.
/ “text”/ indicates telepathic communication
*text* indicates bold
<text> indicates thoughts
This Next Gen story takes place ‘today’. It is set in fall 2016. This story is going to be very topical and ‘gritty’ dealing with drugs, alcohol, child abuse, terrorism and mass shootings. No one will die, but it isn’t like they weren’t supposed to. Although, Lois and Clark, AKA Ultra Woman and Superman are featured, the main characters are their children, principally the oldest son, Jon, and daughter, Lara. Hattie Kaplin and JJ, James Olsen Junior, and Lara’s soul-mate boyfriend, Mike Lee also star.
The first three chapters will be something of a refresher
Chapter 1 is from Clark and Lois – When Worlds and Universes Collide - Matchmaker Chronicles Vol 8
Chapter 2 is from Thanksgiving 2015 - Matchmaker Chronicles Vol 1 CG1
Chapter 3 is from Christmas 2015 - Matchmaker Chronicles Vol 1 CG2
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Chapter 1 – Lucy Almost Reveales the Secret
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Universal Locator designation
Alpha 023 x Gamma 004 x Tau -120 – Prime
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When Jon found the empty office he was surprised. He hadn’t been told about Herb and the fact that he was a time traveler. He couldn’t very well go back to the game room and announce that Mom and Dad were missing.
Hattie had only been there since school let out and already she had come too close to the family secret more times than he cared to contemplate. If he said that Mom and Dad had disappeared, that would be the straw that broke the camel’s back. He knew that he had to cover for them somehow.
Jon closed the door and headed for the kitchen. Under the circumstances he felt confident that his mom would authorize the snack and he could use it as a distraction. He got out some chocolate chocolate chip cookies, everybody’s favorite, and a bunch of glasses of milk. Once he had everything prepared he called the rest from the play room.
Hattie had Sam in her arms when they came out to the kitchen and she settled him on her lap when she sat. She broke off a small piece of cookie and gave it to Sam and Jon didn’t object because he had seen his mom do the same thing before.
Suddenly Jon realized that there was one person missing – Lucy!
Thinking back just a few weeks Jon started to panic. The last time he had lost track of her she had almost flooded that bathroom by overflowing the tub and had flushed almost a whole roll of toilet tissue down the commode. Then she had gotten into mom’s cosmetics …
Fearing the worst he enlisted Lara’s aid, “Lara, Lucy’s missing! We have to find her before she does something that will get us in trouble. Come on! Hattie, can you watch the rest?”
“Sure Jon, but why all the panic? Maybe she’s with your parents.”
Jon replied without thinking, “I don’t think so.” Then he thought better of it and added, “They went into the office with their visitor.” He turned to Lara and said, “Come on, Sis. We *have* to find her before she does any damage! I’ll check upstairs, you check down here.”
They both left the kitchen quickly. Once out of the kitchen they both shifted into superspeed.
After a few seconds Lara appeared in front of Jon on the second floor. “Have you found her?”
“No, I take it you haven’t either.”
“Right, I haven’t found mom or dad, either. What’s going on? Where are they? I thought you said they were in the office.”
“I don’t know sis! They went into the office with Mr. Wells. When I went to ask about us having a snack, they were all gone. Mom, dad and Mr. Wells had just … disappeared. I saw them go in, but I didn’t see them come out. It’s like a magician’s trick. Now you see them, now you don’t.”
At this point Lara was really becoming concerned, “What could have happened to them?”
“I don’t know, but they are invulnerable and the only thing that can hurt them is Kryptonite so we shouldn’t worry.”
“But, with all of the stories Mom has told us about Tempus and the Prankster and Toyman and all of the others …”
“Sis, in that list the only one that knows their secret identities is Tempus and he hasn’t been around for years. Oh, what am I saying? Tempus is a time traveler. Wiat a minute. Tempus is a time traveler. We all have read that book, ‘The Time Machine’ by … H. G. Wells … Mr. Wells! Do you think???”
Lara looked shocked. That thought had never occurred to her. Could Jon be right? “Jon, if you’re right then they could be anywhere or anytime.”
“And like Tempus, he could show up anytime. No wonder he doesn’t seem to age. Look, we still need to find Lucy. It doesn’t look like she’s in the house. Let’s look outside.”
They found Lucy in the back yard playing on her kiddie swing. She was swinging with maximum effort and laughing harder the higher she went. Seeing this Jon heaved a relieved sigh. At least she wasn’t up to any mischief.
Jon and Lara stood on the back porch and watched Lucy for a minute to talk. “Lara, we have to cover for mom and dad. We can’t let Hattie find out that they went missing. That would be all she would need to figure out what’s what.”
Lara looked at her watch and said, “It’s Sam and Lucy’s bedtime. We can say that since Mom and Dad are tied up they asked us to put them down. Hattie likes to take care of Sam and that will keep her occupied. Afterward we could put on a movie.”
“What should we watch?”
“I think this could call for a double feature. Kung Fu Panda and Kung Fu Panda 2.”
“Sounds like a good idea. I’ll get Lucy.”
Jon went over and stood in front of Lucy as she swung higher and higher on the swing. He simply held out his arms.
Seeing him Lucy started to smile broadly. This was a game that she and Jon had been playing for some time. She gave an extra exuberant swing and as she approached the top she kicked free of the swing. Squealing with delight she flew through the air in an arc and Jon caught her.
“Good job, squirt! That was a good one. We need to go in, it’s time for bed.”
“Awwwww, don wanna! Wanna swing some more!” She started trying to squirm out of Jon’s grasp. The effort was doomed before it began and Jon simply headed for the back door.
Once they were inside, Lucy forgot all about the swing when she saw Hattie. She squirmed some more and said, “Be wis Hattie.”
Jon set her on her feet and she made a beeline for Hattie. Hattie handed Sam to Lara and picked up Lucy. She said, “Hey Squirt. Where were you?”
“I was on swing! I was high in sky. I fly and Jon caught me.”
Hattie looked at Jon. She said, “Squirt, you can’t fly.”
“Yes, Hattie! I fly!”
Jon clarified, “It’s a game we play. She was on her swing. She swings really high and lets go. She flies off the swing and I catch her.”
Hattie nodded in understanding. Turning back to Lucy she said, “I think I understand. You fly off the swing.”
“Someday I fly for real, like mommy.”
Hattie’s head snapped up and she looked at Jon with a question in her eyes.
Jon was stunned. Why would Lucy come out with something like that? Had she seen Mom change and fly off? Had she seen Dad? How could he cover this up? He had to think of something and he needed to think of it fast! He stammered out, “Uh, well, she, she was uh, uh, looking … looking at pictures of Superman flying Mom out of danger, yeah, that’s it. Pictures of Mom with Superman. He had saved her a lot of times. We have a whole scrap book of those kind of pictures.”
Hattie gave a hesitant nod still giving Jon a curious look. “Yeah, I’ve seen some of those pictures on the front page of the Daily Planet. But, come to think of it, I haven’t seen too many of them recently.”
Jon made a mental note to tell his mom that she needed to be seen being rescued by Superman more often even though she is super powered now. He needed to distract Hattie somehow. Thinking furiously he finally came up with a plan. He said, “Let’s get these kids down and then Lara and I can tell you about the Halloween party and what happened.”
Hattie immediately perked up and excitedly asked, “You’ll tell me what you know about the new superheroes?”
Jon thought before responding, “I don’t have much to tell, but what I can I will.” He thought, <Well, that wasn’t exactly a lie. I said I’d tell her what I can.>
From that point on Hattie was anxious to get both of the little ones down, but that didn’t keep her from enjoying her time with them. Jon and Lara allowed her to do the bulk of the prep – putting the sleeper on Sam and the footie pajamas on Lucy and even telling Lucy a bedtime story.
Once the two littlest were in bed Jon, Lara and Hattie all moved downstairs.
Lara asked, “Feel like watching a movie?”
Hattie asked, “Which one?”
Jon chimed in, “We were thinking about a double feature, ‘Kung Fu Panda, 1 and 2.”
Hattie warily said, “Okay, but first, Jon, you promised to tell me all you know about the new superheroes.”
Jon had been hoping that Hattie would have been so distracted that she would forget, but he should have known better. He said, “Let’s go into the living room and get settled.”
Once they were all on the couch, Jon started. “Well, Lara, Mike and I were at Maisie’s stand …”
Hattie interrupted, “Maisie Matthews?”
“Yeah, she has a diner in town and she had set up a stand in the park serving eats. Well, while she was preparing our orders she discovered that she was out of condiments and said she had to go into the diner to get some. Well, we waited and waited. Finally Lara and I couldn’t wait any longer and so we with to the rest rooms. When we came back, Miss Maisie still wasn’t back and we had to wait some more. Finally we saw Miss Maisie and Sheriff Broadhurst come out of the diner with a guy in handcuffs. When Miss Maisie came back she told us she had been robbed. Here is where this gets interesting. She said that a couple of kids saved her. The crook had her tied to a chair and was threatening to kill her. The kids disarmed the crook and tied him to a chair and then brought in the sheriff.”
“Come on Jon, most of that was in the paper! What’s the inside scoop?”
“Well, she did describe the kids. She said that the guy’s uniform was a lot like Superman’s, but the colors were off. I think she said that instead of blue it was black.”
Lara added, “She said that the girl’s uniform was just like Ultra Woman’s, except that the colors were … are you ready for this?”
Hattie nodded.
“Reversed! Where Ultra Woman’s uniform is pink this one was turquoise and vice versa.”
“Didn’t they get any pictures?”
“Nope and Miss Maisie said that they disappeared once the sheriff was there to take charge.”
“How did she know they were kids?”
“I don’t know. By their size I guess.”
Hattie thought for a second before she said, “Now, if I was a superhero using an appearance generator to look human and I wanted people to think that there were more heroes around, I’d use the appearance generator to project a different image. Going smaller, changing the colors hmmmm, I wonder if they have a voice activated interface so that all they need to do is say, ‘Make the suit black.’ And it’s done. It’s possible that they haven’t done this before because it took time to do the programming.”
Jon said, “Let’s watch the movie.”
“Okay, but I’m going to have to think about this.”
Lara turned on the TV and hit play. The other kids heard the TV and came in and settled in to watch.
The first movie had just finished and they were about to start the second movie when the office door opened and Lois and Clark stepped out.
Jon heaved a silent sigh of relief. They had been in a bind and between him and Lara they had managed to dodge the bullet.
Lois looked around and didn’t see Lucy or Sam. She addressed Lara, “Where are Sam and Lucy?”
Lara replied, “We knew that you were tied up in your meeting, so we didn’t bother you. We just put them to bed when they were supposed to go down.”
Lois said, “Thanks, Kiddo. You did good.” Turning to Hattie she asked, “Have you been having a good time? What have we missed?”
“I’ve been having the best time ever. Jon was telling me about your scrap book.”
Lois got a worried look as she asked, “Which scrap book would that be?”
“The one with all of the pictures of you flying with Superman.”
Lois knew that no such scrap book existed. She realized that Jon must have come up with this to cover up something and she wondered just what that something was. She knew that she’d have to play along so she said, “Oh, that old thing. How did that come up?”
“Oh, Lucy said she was looking forward to when she could fly like you. Jon explained what she meant you flying with Superman. By the way, when you fly with him, does he feel, I don’t know, normal? No extra arms or tentacles or anything?”
Lois started to laugh, “Extra arms or tentacles?”
Jon explained, “We watched ‘Galaxy Quest’ earlier and Hattie has this theory that Superman and Ultra Woman could be using appearance generators to look like Earthlings.”
Hattie added, “Yeah, you see, that would explain the new superheroes. If that was actually Superman and Ultra Woman they could be changing their appearance to make the world think that there are more superheroes around and then crooks would have more to fear.”
Clark nodded and said, “That’s an interesting theory. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if, maybe sometime, some new superheroes will make their debut and Superman and Ultra Woman might be standing there next to them.”
Hattie was surprised. She said, “But, that would mean that there really are new heroes. Maybe they are really their children. Do you think that is possible?”
Clark replied, “I guess anything is possible, especially when it comes to superheroes.”
Hattie was looking directly at Clark so she didn’t see Lois wink at Clark. She also didn’t see Jon smile at Lara.
Hattie finally looked around and caught Jon’s smile fading and started to get angry, “You guys are just pulling my leg! Was that a phony copy of the Planet with that story inserted to get me going?”
Lois tried to mollify her, “No Hattie, we aren’t. That was right from the newsstand. We wouldn’t do anything like that. We all heard about the new heroes. We just don’t know when or where they will show up again. From what we heard they are a lot like Superman and Ultra Woman. They show up when and where they are needed. In this case, Maisie was in real trouble and they showed up to help her out.”
“But, how did they know she was in trouble? Were they there to see it? Were they flying overhead and saw her with their x-ray vision? Did they hear something?”
Lois laughed, “Whoa, slow down Hattie. So many questions! The only ones that could answer them aren’t even here. I think we can possibly make some guesses. Did they see what was happening? Perhaps … we don’t know the extent of their powers; after all they were only there for a short time. We do know that they are fast and strong from what Maisie and the sheriff said. Those are two of the powers that Superman and Ultra Woman possess so it could be logical to assume that they have the same powers.” Lois knew that she was treading a very fine line so she had to be careful. “Based upon that assumption, they could have been flying over and saw what was happening with x-ray vision as you suggest because those are also powers that Superman and Ultra Woman possess.”
Deciding to use this opportunity to its fullest, Lois continued, “We know that Superman showed up about sixteen years ago and Ultra Woman made her first appearance about fourteen years ago and then came back, apparently to stay about three years ago.”
Hattie interrupted, “I wonder where she was all of that time. Do you think she went back to New Krypton?”
“Well, Hattie, you’d have to ask her that question. All we know is that now she is here and it looks like she will be sticking around.”
“Do you think that these new superheroes are their children?”
“Well, Hattie, has Superman been away for any long periods of time?”
“He went missing for a while back when the Nightfall asteroid was a threat.”
“Right, but that was only a few days.”
“Then he went to New Krypton.”
“Right, but that wasn’t for a long period of time.”
“You mean that these new heroes might not be their children? They could be some new visitors from New Krypton?”
“Well, I don’t know. I guess that would be a possibility. What do you think?”
Hattie was shocked speechless. She finally said, “Wow, more Kryptonians and kids, like us. I wonder how many more will join us.”
Lois said, enigmatically, “Only time will tell,” as she thought of each of her eight children and how each of their spouses would eventually become super through exposure to the Kryptonian aura and the use of the pendant. Then she thought of that peek she’d had into Hattie’s future and started to smile. Hattie would become a member of the family. She had seen Hattie interact with JJ whenever he was over at the same time as her. She knew that Hattie liked him and he liked her. It made Lois happy that they would eventually marry and that they would both become super. “Only time will tell.” She repeated with a shake of her head.
Without them realizing it the memories of the trip began to fade. Eventually the block that Herb had initiated was in place and they forgot that they had even been away.
TBC
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