Wondering
by MrsMxyzptlk
I have taken a bit of artistic license with regards to what Clark learned the first time he touched his globe. Because it lets my story go the way I want it to, when Clark suddenly knew that he was from Krypton, he also somehow knew his name. Just go with it.
I've also taken liberties with Wonder Woman's lasso, since I'm mostly familiar with her from the cartoons and don't actually know what happens to people when they try to resist.
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Lois was having a lousy day. In fact, Lois was having a lousy two weeks. Ever since that new super-powered woman showed up to help Superman save the Earth from an asteroid, Wonder Woman was all anyone would talk about. It wasn't just that every man in America was drooling open-mouthed over her "assets". It wasn't even that Clark had an over-the-top, single-minded obsession to know where she was and what she was doing every minute of every day. What bothered Lois the most was that Wonder Woman and Superman were as thick as thieves, and that he had apparently forgotten his promise to her that they would go flying once he returned from dealing with the asteroid.
Every time Superman had appeared in public these last two weeks, Wonder Woman was there. They even patrolled Metropolis together. And he had not spoken to Lois in public, let alone in private, since the asteroid. He seemed to be deliberately refusing to acknowledge her existence when she was in a group of reporters, and he no longer hung around to talk to her like he used to. He seemed too interested in flying off with Wonder Woman when he was done saving someone.
Lois looked around the newsroom to see if Clark was in the office. She thought maybe he could be persuaded to go on a walk with her under the guise of meeting a source. She really needed to clear her head if she was going to get anything done today. Not seeing him, she assumed that he must be around town somewhere trying to stalk Wonder Woman. Heaving a sigh, she grabbed a chocolate bar out of her desk drawer and left the newsroom to head to the roof. She figured maybe she could clear her head up there instead.
When she got to the top of the stairs that led to the roof, she found that the access door was already open a crack, and she could hear voices coming from outside. Curious, she peeked out and was surprised to see Superman standing several feet from Wonder Woman with his hands clenched into fists and an angry look on his face.
"I don't have to explain myself to you," he was saying. "Now stop following me!"
"I know you have a plan to dominate this world, man," Wonder Woman spat, "and I am determined to discover what it is!"
'Maybe they aren't as cozy as I thought. What is going on here?' Lois wondered.
Superman threw his hands up in the air in exasperation and said, "I don't want to dominate anyone. I just want to help people."
Wonder Woman pulled a golden lasso from her hip and, tossing it around Superman, said, "We shall see about that." Lois was shocked to see Superman stumble as the lasso tightened around his arms and torso and then fall to his knees as Wonder Woman yanked him towards her. He struggled to break the lasso or remove it, to no avail. "You have evaded me for a fortnight, man, but now you will give me the truth. Who are you?" Wonder Woman demanded.
Superman struggled to keep his mouth shut, but it appeared to be forced open by some unseen power. "Superman," he finally said.
"That is what you have them call you, but that is not who you are. What is your name?" she shouted.
"Cl- ... C- ...," he struggled to control his words as the lasso glowed golden around him. "... Kal-El."
"As you can see, Kal-El, my lasso compels you to tell the truth. Do not try to lie to me, or it will not go well for you. Where do you come from?"
"Kan...," he started. Superman writhed as the lasso glowed yet brighter, and he appeared to be in pain. "Krypton!" he growled through gritted teeth.
"And where is this Krypton?"
"It's another planet," he said without hesitation. Lois slowly released a deep breath as she saw the glow of the lasso dim and Superman seem to relax a bit.
"How did you get here?"
"In a spaceship."
"Why are you here?"
Once again Superman struggled for a moment before saying, "I'm in Metropolis to help."
Wonder Woman raised an eyebrow and said, "That is not the answer to the question I intended. You have a strong will indeed if you are able to manipulate your answer to suit your own purposes. Why are you on Earth?"
Superman glared at her and struggled to keep his mouth shut as the lasso glowed brighter once again. He fought so hard that he started to shake until he was overcome. He screamed in pain and yelled, "I don't know!"
Wonder Woman, not satisfied with his answer, repeated, "Why did you come to Earth?"
"I don't know!"
"Who sent you?"
"I don't know!"
"Do all people from Krypton have your powers?"
"I don't know!"
"Are there more men like you on Earth?"
"I don't know!"
"Will more men come here from Krypton?"
"I don't know!" Superman insisted as he slumped forward. The lasso's glow dimmed, and he took a deep breath, trying to recover.
Lois was stunned. Not only had she never thought to ask him those questions, he himself did not know the answers. If Superman didn't know why he was on Earth, then why was he here? And what power did Wonder Woman have that she could force Superman to answer her and hurt him like that?
She knew she had to do something. She did not know what she could do against Wonder Woman, but she had to get Superman out of that lasso and away from her. Lois' mind raced to come up with a plan as she watched Superman seem to gather himself and push himself back up to his feet. He pulled with all his might at the lasso, but it would not budge. He glared at Wonder Woman and demanded, "Get this rope off me!" Wonder Woman just glared in return.
"What is your goal here, anyway?!" he asked. "You're accusing me of planning to take over the world or something just because I have powers, but you've got similar powers. How do I know you're not planning some sort of world domination? Or to destroy Metropolis? Or any of the things you've been accusing me of?"
"Me?" Wonder Woman shrieked incredulously. "How could you possibly think that I would harm any innocents?"
"I don't know you," Superman ground out between clenched teeth, "so how would I know what you're willing to do?"
"You are the
man here, not I, and men are all the same. Domineering, hateful, violent, and too strong for anyone's good. Men are the source of all that is evil in the world. And I am here to save my fellow women, my sisters, from the likes of you. You, who have shown yourself to be too powerful to be allowed to roam around and do as you please. Who knows what havoc you have already wreaked on the women of this city? This country? The world?"
Incensed by Wonder Woman's tirade and finally spurred to action, Lois flung the door open and stalked up to Wonder Woman, standing between her and Superman. "Let's get one thing straight, missy!" Lois started. She got in Wonder Woman's face, undeterred that the woman was a whole head taller than her and could probably snap her in half without trying. "Just because he's a man doesn't make Superman evil! That's completely absurd. And just because Superman is the strongest person on the planet, that doesn't mean that he wants to hurt anyone!" She jabbed her in the sternum as she continued, punctuating each sentence. "Superman is the nicest person I've ever met! He wouldn't hurt anyone, ever, unless he absolutely had to in order to protect people from some villain! Do you have any idea how many times he's saved my life? I would be dead twenty times over if it weren't for him! And so would a lot of other people! He has prevented airplanes from crashing! He's stopped armed robbers from killing people! He saved the entire city from being wiped out by a tidal wave! And he saved the world from being destroyed by an asteroid two weeks ago!"
Wonder Woman took a half step back in surprise. "Why are you defending him?" she asked incredulously. "How can a woman defend a man so vehemently when you are not compelled to?"
Lois scoffed. "You are the only person here who is compelling anyone," she said pointedly, flicking her finger at the lasso that Wonder Woman still held.
"Have men truly changed so much? Have they finally learned peace?"
Lois rolled her eyes. "Men haven't 'changed'. There are plenty of villains, men and women. There are plenty of terrible people in this world. But Superman isn't one of them. Why don't you actually pay attention to what he has been doing while you've been stalking him these past two weeks. All he's done is help people. And all you've done is get in his way and make it harder for him. And if that lasso of yours actually makes people tell the truth, then maybe you should believe him when he says he's not trying to hurt anyone!"
Wonder Woman looked taken aback. She stood still for a moment, staring at her, before looking behind Lois to Superman. Finally, she looked away and said, "You have given me much to think about."
"Good!" Lois said. She half-turned, keeping Wonder Woman in sight, and pulled the lasso off of Superman. He eyed Wonder Woman warily. She did not stop Lois but slowly wound up her lasso.
She looked at Lois, then Superman, and said, "I will reserve judgment. For now. But if you do anything to hurt the people of this world, I will pour down my wrath upon you."
Superman stiffly replied, "Likewise. And I wouldn't expect any less."
Wonder Woman gave him one last stare before leaping into the air and flying away.
Superman heaved a sigh, then turned and walked away from Lois to the edge of the building. He leaned on the wall overlooking the city. Lois joined him and asked, "Are you ok?"
He gave a wry look and replied, "I don't know."
They stood in silence for a minute before Lois said, "With all the time you two were spending together, I thought..."
"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. I wanted to explain... I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to take you flying like I promised, but every time I flew anywhere in the city, there she was following me. I don't really know Wonder Woman, I don't trust her, and she seemed to hate me. I didn't want to give her any indication that you and I were friends."
"Well, I think the cat's out of the bag."
He nodded. "I'm slightly optimistic that she won't hurt you to get to me, given what she said. But this whole thing has made me realize that I need to be more discreet about who my friends are." He looked into her eyes and studied her for a moment. "I don't want anything to happen to you because you're connected to me. We can still interact in public on a professional basis, but anything more than that... we need to be careful."
"So you're saying I need to tone down my... vocal support of you."
"Lots of people are fans of mine, Lois, and everyone knows you're one of my biggest supporters. As far as anyone else should know, that's all it is."
"Gee, you sure know how to make a girl feel special," Lois scoffed.
"You know what I mean. Everyone else can think you're just a fan like them, but you and I know you're not. I just don't want anyone to know that we're actually friends." The moment drew out and grew awkward, so to break it, Superman cleared his throat and said, "Thank you, by the way. For saving me. I'm not sure what Wonder Woman would have done had you not come to my rescue."
"Well, you've saved me enough times, I guess it was time I returned the favor." She smiled and patted him on the bicep, but he flinched away and gasped. Blood started to seep through his sleeve where she had touched him, right where the lasso had been. Lois swore. "You're bleeding!" she exclaimed.
Superman looked down at his chest and prodded it next to the shield. His face grew tight in a grimace. "Ow," he deadpanned. "I'm not sure exactly what that lasso did or how it hurt me, but I think I'm burned where it touched me. I'm a bit surprised that my shirt isn't damaged."
"You should get cleaned up and get some bandages put on it. Do you need any help?" Lois asked.
"I should be fine," he replied dismissively.
"Have you ever been injured like this before?"
"Well, no..."
"Then how do you know you'll be fine? Why don't we go to my place, and I can take a look at the wound and get it cleaned up and dressed," she insisted.
He moved his arm around gingerly, tilted his head back and sighed, then finally looked at her and nodded. He picked her up, and she yelped.
"There's no way you're flying me when you're hurt like this!" she yelled.
"This is the fastest way to get there. Besides, I don't really want to walk all the way to the parking garage with blood seeping through my shirt for everyone to see, and anyway, we're already here."
Startled, Lois looked around and found that they were hovering by her living room window. "Fine," she huffed. She pulled open the window. "Get in."
He flew in through the window and put her down, then walked to the kitchen. "Can I use your sink to soak my shirt?" he asked.
Lois got a bit flustered but replied, "Sure."
He carefully reached back and detached his cape, then draped it over a kitchen chair. He untucked his shirt and stiffly tried to pull it over his head, but he gasped in pain when he raised his arms.
The gasp distracted Lois from her slack-jawed stare at his exposed abs. She rushed over to him. "Here, let me help," she said. She grabbed the hem of his shirt and helped him ease it off over his head. She forcefully reminded herself not to ogle him.
Superman had raw, open wounds in a stripe around his torso and the outside of his upper arms where the lasso had been wrapped around him. The wounds were seeping blood. He gingerly touched the wound on his chest and looked in fascination at the resulting blood on his finger tips.
Lois noticed the look on his face and asked, "Have you ever seen your own blood before?"
"Only once," he replied absently without elaborating. He shook himself from his daze and took his shirt to the sink. "There's more blood here than I had realized," he muttered. "I hope this comes out. I've always been able to get human blood out ok, but I don't know whether mine is different. Maybe I'm invulnerable to detergent," he finished sardonically. He spent a minute scrubbing the stains with dish soap and cold water, then set the shirt to soak.
Meanwhile, Lois was inspecting the wounds on his back in between checking out his muscles.
'Well, that answers that question,' she thought.
'The suit does actually come off.' When he finished and turned around, she said, "Why don't you sit down, and I'll go get my first aid kit?" He nodded and walked back to the living room to sit on the couch.
It took several minutes to clean everything and get it bandaged properly. Lois leaned back and took a look at her work.
"I'm not sure how quickly you heal," she said, "but if it takes more than a day and it still hasn't scabbed over, you'll need to change the dressing."
Superman nodded. "Hopefully, it won't come to that." He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees so he wouldn't put pressure on the wound on his back. They sat a minute in silence, both lost in thought.
Finally, Lois broke the silence and said, "I think I understand our first interview better now."
"What do you mean?"
"I asked you why you're here, and you said, 'to help'. It was like pulling teeth to get you to say anything else. In fact, as I recall, I made up your 'Truth and Justice' line, and you just went along with it."
Superman hummed in agreement.
She continued, "Of course you wouldn't have some motto or mission statement prepared if you didn't come to Earth with an agenda in the first place."
"I do have an agenda," he quietly retorted. "I told you, just like I told Wonder Woman. I want to help people."
"But that's not the reason you came to Earth."
"No."
"How can you not know why you're here? I mean, was it an accident, or something? You were on a tour of the rocket factory, and you just happened to wander into the rocket they were planning to launch that day? Or you meant to be on the spaceship, and you accidentally leaned on the control panel and changed the destination coordinates? You were aiming for somewhere else, but you landed on Earth on accident, and now your ship is broken, or out of fuel or something, and you can't take off again and go where you were trying to go?"
Superman looked at her incredulously. "You have an active imagination." Then he gave a little smile and, lightening the mood, said, "Maybe you should be a writer."
She gave him a wry look. "Ha. Ha. But seriously, how can you not know why you're here?"
"See, this is why I don't want anyone asking these questions. It will give too much away. I can't afford people looking too hard at me, or everything will fall apart. I was so relieved when you interviewed me and didn't ask any probing questions. It surprised me, frankly, given your reputation as a journalist. Lois Lane never goes easy on anyone. And yet, somehow, I got off easy."
"You're not getting off easy this time."
"No, I suppose not." He gave her an earnest look. "Can I trust you?"
"Of course."
"I mean really trust you. As in, if any of this gets out, it could ruin my life."
"What do you mean? How could someone ruin your life? You're Superman. You can defeat anyone. Or just fly away. I mean, no one even knows where you go when you're... not... flying around," she finished in realization. "You were resisting that truth-lasso thing when Wonder Woman asked you your name and where you're from. It tried to make you say something else, and you changed your answer!"
"Yes," he muttered. "I don't know why I came to Earth because I was too young to know. I didn't decide to come. I was sent. Someone put me in a baby-sized ship and sent me into space. I don't know why. I don't even know if I was supposed to come here. For all I know, I was in some kind of stasis, and this is just the first habitable planet my ship came across, in which case I could have been traveling for hundreds or thousands of years."
"So you landed on Earth... and were raised as a human? You have another name, and you have another place you're from."
"Yes. I have human parents. All I know about where I came from is that my parents found me in a small, crashed ship, I'm from the planet Krypton, and my name was Kal-El."
"Your name
was Kal-El?"
"I only learned that name and the name of my home planet a few months ago. No one calls me that." As she opened her mouth, he knew what she would ask, so he cut her off. "My parents had buried the ship, but when I went to retrieve it, it turned up missing. I found it again in Bureau 39's warehouse, but I wasn't able to take it before everything disappeared. All I got was a small globe from the cabin. When I picked it up, it glowed, and somehow I just knew that I was Kal-El from Krypton."
"So--"
"Please don't ask me any more. I've already told you much more than I ever wanted to tell anyone."
"No one but your parents knows who you are? It sounds lonely."
"It's not as bad as you think. I have friends... they just don't know that I have a side-job." Trying to get her mind off that train of thought, he changed the subject. "So what should I do about Wonder Woman?"
"You mean what should
we do about Wonder Woman."
Superman grinned. "Of course. My mistake."
"Well...," she began, plotting as she spoke, "the problems are that she doubts your motives and she follows you everywhere."
"The following being a result of the doubting."
"Exactly. So if she trusted you, she would probably leave you alone. I think we should do another interview," she said. He cocked his eyebrow in question. "Nothing about where you're from or any of that, but kind of an overview of the things you've done since your debut and what your goals are for the future. So you have to come up with something better than 'Truth and justice sounds good.'"
He chuckled. "I'll try. But you're the wordsmith here."
Her eyes narrowed. "English is your first language. I can't believe I never considered that you should have an accent or something. You're too competent with the language."
He just shrugged. "That actually doesn't mean much. I tend to acquire native accents when I learn new languages. So I have some plausible deniability there. ... So, an interview that clearly lays out my intentions. Maybe we can extend an open invitation for Wonder Woman to do the same. After all, I have most of a year's worth of 'helping' to back up my claims of benevolence. All she has done is help with the asteroid, which could be considered self-serving, and chase after me, which has actually impaired my ability to help people."
"I'm not so sure we should point it out quite like that if we want her on our side," Lois retorted.
"No, not in the article, since we don't want to sway public opinion against her unless she actually turns out to be a villain, but I wouldn't mind saying it to her face."
Lois snorted. "You like being blunt, don't you?"
"I don't generally shy away from letting people know what I think of them. Though I suppose that occasionally comes back to bite me."
"You've never told
me what you think of me," Lois said coyly.
Superman deadpanned, "Lois, my shirt is soaking in your kitchen sink, I let you patch me up, and I've voluntarily told you more about my personal history than I've ever told anyone. I think you can reasonably infer that you're a good friend and I trust you." He stood up. "And, on that note, I think I should check on those blood stains."
Lois followed him to the kitchen, where he gave the stains one last scrub, then drained the sink and wrung out his shirt. "Do you think you will ever tell me who you really are?" she asked.
He sighed. "I don't know."
"If you did, we could meet in our everyday lives and be able to hang out without worrying about compromising your identity or bad guys knowing we were friends," she enticed.
He gave her an inscrutable look. "If I were to meet you in my real identity, we would be friends. We'd hang out. And that's all the more I'm willing to say at the moment." He turned back to his now-clean but damp shirt and gave it a once-over with a blast of low-level heat vision to dry it.
"Can you help me get this back on without messing up the bandages?" he asked. "Then why don't we get started with that interview." Lois nodded and proceeded to help him with his shirt. She was pleased at how the day had turned out, despite the threat from Wonder Woman. Superman trusted her, he had only been avoiding her in order to protect her, and he had a secret identity. If only she could figure out who he really was...
Superman knew that with everything Lois had found out about him today, it was only a small leap from there to Clark Kent, but, strangely, he was okay with that.
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