Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Missing Lois: Chapter 4 - The Rescue of Mrs. Luthor (7/14)

Missing Lois - TOC

Extra Disclaimer: I have borrowed “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” written by George and Ira Gershwin and made famous first by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (in the movie Shall We Dance). I do not own this song in any way, shape, or manner. Nor do I take credit for the wonderful song lyrics quoted in my story or the beautiful way in which Ella Fitzgerald makes the song her own. I only take credit for the effect listening to the song has on my characters. (Example of this song can be found at the end of this posting.) – Thank you Wikipedia for the information on this song.

Story Notes: This story is mostly set in alt-dimension, although visits to the canon dimension do happen from time-to-time.
- Clark = Alt-Clark unless otherwise noted (such as when we are in the canon dimension, then 'Clark' is canon Clark)
- Lucy El = pregnant canon Lois avoiding the curse by hiding out with alt-Clark, aka Lois's secret identity
- Kal = what Lois-Lucy and alt-Clark call canon Clark
- Sam Lane = alt-Lois's Dad, Lois's doctor & roommate
- Mayor White = aka Perry White, former Editor-in-Chief at the DP
- Alice White = Perry's wife
- James Olsen = owner of the Daily Planet, Lois-Lucy's friend, who is working with Lois to find Lex Luthor (and hopefully alt-Lois)
- Lex Luthor = no explanation necessary, same bad guy as always
- Junior = Lex Luthor, Jr., Lex's first born son, creator of the Neuroscanner, also very bad guy
- Jaxon Xavier = Lex Luthor's son and spy at The Planet, does website design and research for the paper
- Lana Lang = alt-Clark's ex-fiancée
- Mayson Drake = police detective, partner to Detective Henderson, alt-Clark's ex-girlfriend

- The only people who know canon Lois's true identity are alt-Clark, Sam, Moonbeam (alt-Star) and now Dr. Klein. Alt-Clark told Mayson Drake that Lucy El is his sister-in-law and that he has a twin brother, but not about the other dimension. Mayson didn't believe him (thinking instead that Lucy was a con-artist).

***

What we learned in Chapter 4: Part 6:

Shortly before Thanksgiving, Clark received a phone call from a woman who told him that she ‘was alive!’ It wasn’t until he was arguing later with Lois – about their confusing relationship – that he realized that the woman on the phone was his missing Lois.

Meanwhile back in Lois’s home dimension, her husband discussed with his father Clark’s strange ‘pregnant Lois’ dream, about which Clark could stop obsessing.

Where we left off in Part 6: Alt-Clark, Lois and Sam were on their way to Mayor White’s house for Thanksgiving dinner…

“I’m still in shock. I can’t believe she called me. I had no idea it was her until I heard you say, ‘I’m alive’.”

“I’m happy for you,” Lois whispered. She was. This was why she had come back, but somehow knowing that his Lois was alive and well and trying to reach him, cut her like a knife.

“We can’t tell Perry,” Sam announced.

“Why not?” asked Lois.

“How did Clark recognize her voice?”

“Because I said… Oh.” She looked at Clark.

Clark pressed his lips together. “It’s still good news, except that we have no idea where she is.”

Sam’s grin threatened to split his face. “Exceptional news. My girl is still alive!”

***

Part 7

Perry raised his glass of wine. “I’m thankful I have friends who would come over at a moment’s notice on Thanksgiving Day to keep an old man company.”

“You’re not old,” Lucy corrected.

“Hear-hear!” Sam agreed.

They all laughed.

Perry turned to her. “Lucy?”

She looked across the table at Clark. “I’m thankful for small miracles. And for friends who would change their entire lives to help me out.” She smiled and raised her glass of sparkling apple juice.

Clark gazed back at her. “You're welcome,” he whispered.

“No matter how crazy I drive them.”

They laughed, again.

“Clark?”

He sighed. “I’m thankful to have a family once more.”

Perry raised an eyebrow at him.

“No matter how crazy they drive me.”

They all laughed.

“Sam?”

“I’m thankful that my daughter’s alive!” Sam cheered raising his glass of sparkling apple juice.

“Sam,” Lois and Clark groaned.

“Great Caesar’s ghost! You found her?” Perry leaned forward.

“No,” Clark answered with a glare at Sam. “I received a phone call from someone who sounded like her, but it got disconnected.”

“What did she say?”

“Finally, I reached you. Clark Kent, please, help me. I’m alive,” replied Clark.

“Not that I want to rain on your parade, Sam. But that could have been anyone, Clark.”

“It sounded like Lois,” Clark clarified with a shrug.

“How in the King’s name do you know what Lois Lane sounds like? You’ve never even met the woman.”

Clark looked at Lois and smiled. “I’ve got all her old interview tapes. I’ve listened to her voice for hours… when I was researching her for the story.”

Perry nodded, accepting that explanation. “Good job, son. But without concrete proof, we still don’t have a story.”

Lois smiled. You could take Perry White out of the newsroom, but you couldn’t take the newsroom out of Perry White.

“Well, this is definitely something to celebrate,” Perry said standing up. “I’m stuffed. Let’s move out to the living room. We’ll have pie later. I’ve got a new Elvis CD I’ve been wanting to play.”

“No!” gasped Lois and Clark at the same time.

She looked at Clark and turned back to the dining room. “My sweater.”

***

Perry put an arm around Clark’s shoulders and walked him into the living room.

“Are you saying you don’t like Elvis, Clark?” Perry asked with a glance back at Lois. “You haven’t had a problem with his music before.”

Clark swallowed. “I haven’t been able to listen to it since…” he started saying, then looked away.

“Oh. Since my little Halloween bash?” Perry nodded. “I understand completely. Don’t need to remind you of your ‘destiny’.” He grinned.

Clark sighed and rubbed his hand down his face.

“What’s her problem with Elvis?” Perry asked with an inquisitive glance at Lois.

“Nothing. She loves Elvis’s music. Was singing him earlier tonight in fact. She just knows my situation…”

“Oh.”

Lucy entered the room and stood at one of the bookcases examining Clark’s former editor’s books. Sam sat down on the couch, leaned back, and unbuttoned his top button.

“I’ve got another CD, you might like, honey,” Perry said, calling to Lois and taking a CD from his rack. “Ella Fitzgerald.”

Lucy smiled at him. As soon as the music started, she started to sway.

“She certainly is a beautiful woman, Clark,” Perry said in a low voice.

Clark nodded.

“I’ve seen plenty of women who go to seed in this condition, but not Lucy. She just keeps getting more lovely,” Perry gushed.

“Maybe you need to switch to coffee, Perry,” Clark recommended.

“I’m not drunk, my boy. I know what I’m saying.”

“Yes, Sir. I agree.” Clark grinned. “I told her so earlier.”

Lucy was still swaying to the music. Unexpectedly, they could hear her singing along. “The way you sing off key. The way you haunt my dreams. No, no, they can’t take that away from me…”

Clark’s turned around and stared at her. He couldn’t look away. It didn’t feel like she was singing to Kal or the baby, the music was just flowing through her. That voice, the sway of her hips, the hint of rose petal scent. He was tempted to fly over there and take her in his arms, sway with her to the music. Kiss those lips. He closed his eyes in pain. She was Kal’s. She could never be his. The fates would not allow it.

“It’s obvious you’re smitten with the girl, Clark. Why don’t you do the right thing by her?”

“No. I can’t,” Clark said turning away from her and facing Perry.

“You love her, Clark. She might not be able to fly, my boy, but she’d make you happy.”

“Oh, I know she would.” A hint of a smile graced his lips. Love wouldn’t be love without the misery. “It’s not in the cards for us, sir.”

“Why’s that, Clark? She loves you.”

“Yes, I’m sure she does in a way.”

“And there’s your baby…”

Clark winced. “Ah… there’s the rub, Chief.”

“What do you mean?”

Clark poured a drink off Perry’s bar and swallowed it in one gulp. “I can’t have children.”

“Oh.” Perry looked over Clark’s shoulder at Lucy. “Oh! Surely, that doesn’t matter, son. You were adopted yourself, if I recall correctly.”

“I don’t think she knows it, but she’s singing to me right now. You’re a smart man, Mayor White, what do you think that means?”

“We may never, never meet again on the bumpy road to love. Still I will always, always keep the memory of... the way you hold your knife. The way we danced ‘til three. The way you changed my life. No. No, they can’t take that away from me…” Lois’s soft lilting voice carried over to the gentlemen in their silence.

Perry listened to her sing and thought for moment. “Because she’s already married to someone else.”

“Bingo, Chief.”

“Oh, Clark, I’m sorry. She sure has a beautiful voice, though. It’s like Lola Dane lives again.”

“What?” Clark sputtered. “What did you say?”

“Lola Dane. Didn’t I tell you about Lola? Lois went undercover once as a lounge singer by the name of Lola Dane at the West End Club.” Perry whistled. “She brought the house down. I almost lost my star reporter to show business.”

But Clark wasn’t listening. His brain had come to a full stop at the name ‘Lola Dane.’ He turned completely away from Lois. He could no longer look at her. He had thought Lois’s hopscotch logic of tying his Lois to Lex Luthor was just a decoy; a means to an end for her secret identity.

“Clark, stop.” Perry had put his hand on Clark’s arm.

“Huh?” Clark refocused his attention on his former boss.

“That’s expensive Scotch there, son, and you just downed four glasses full in a span of two minutes.”

“What?” He looked down at his hands. Sure enough, he had been pouring drinks from the decanter. “Sorry. Alcohol doesn’t affect me.”

“Then stop drinking my good stuff like it was sugar water,” Perry snapped and then winced as Clark stepped away from Perry’s bar and rubbed his hand down his face. “Something’s bothering you, son. What is it?”

Lois had stopped singing and had sat down on the sofa next to Sam. “Jaxon told me that his stepmother was a lounge singer by the name of Lola that his father met at the Berkistan Hotel.”

“That’s only a coincidence, Clark. Lois disappeared in the Congo…”

“We think she might have followed the illegal gun sales from the Congo to Berkistan by hiding inside one of the crates of guns.”

“That sounds like Lois. The bigger the risk, the bigger the payoff, the bigger the story. But that doesn’t mean that…”

“Jaxon said his brother was bowled over by this sexy stepmother because she had legs that never ended and the biggest set of brown eyes, he’d ever seen.”

“Well, Clark, that does sound like Lois, but…”

“I had been wondering why Luthor would marry some lounge singer. It didn’t make sense. He might play with a woman like that, but not marry her. He likes women who are forthright and can stand on their own, ones that stimulate him intellectually as well as physically.

“Now, Clark, don’t go tying all these coincidences together or you’re going to end up thinking…”

“That another woman I love is a married woman.” He glanced at Perry and then over at Lois. She looked up at his gaze.

“Yeah, son, that.” Perry gave him a condolence pat on the back. They were quiet a couple of minutes before he continued. “You ever hear back from that Ultra Woman babe?”

Lucy shook her head with a roll of her eyes and set her head on Sam’s shoulder.

Clark turned his back towards her. “No. I don’t think I’ll ever see her again.”

“That’s too bad, Clark. There was definite fire there.”

He sighed. “Explosives is more like it, Perry. Probably for the best, anyway. Those that first burn brightest, fade fastest.”

Perry laughed. “Nonsense. Alice and I are just as strong as the day we married. Stronger.”

“I’m happy for you, Perry. But Ultra Woman and I were destined for one another, just not in this dimension.”

Perry just shook his head at that statement. “You just need to focus your attentions on the right lady. You’ve got too many women on your mind.”

“I’m cursed when it comes to women, Perry. Maybe it’s best if I stop trying altogether.”

“Yeah. Maybe a break is just what you need. You ready for some pie?”

Clark shook his head. “I’ve got to go, Perry. I hear a siren.”

“Okay, Clark. Go, get your mind off things.” Perry shook his hand.

***

Lois’s head popped up as Clark left the room and she walked over to Perry. “Where’s Clark off to?”

“He heard an alarm.”

Lois listened for a moment. “No, he didn’t.”

Perry raised a brow at this pronouncement. “Do you have Ultra Woman’s hearing, Lucy?”

She stood back. “Do you think this body would look that good in a pair of tights?”

“Well, uh…”

“Rhetorical, Perry. Clark gets a certain look on his face when he’s super hearing and he didn’t get that look. What were you two talking about? He seemed to be downing your liquor pretty quickly.”

“Lois Lane.”

“Ah.” She nodded. “We’ve got to find her, Perry. He needs someone like her in his life.”

“I don’t know if that’s in the cards, honey.”

“Of course it is.” She smiled. “Since he can’t have me, he should at least have the next best thing.”

Perry raised an eyebrow at her. “Next best thing?” He shook his head. “He thinks he can’t have Lois, Lucy, because…”

The doors opened and James walked in. “You’re going to love me!”

Sam, Lucy, and Perry gathered around to see what he meant.

“Maybe I should wait until Kent is here. Yes, definitely, Clark should hear this.” He looked around. “Where is he anyway?”

“Emergency,” Perry explained. “And you better not make us wait after an announcement like that.”

“OK. OK. So, there I was sitting at the lounge of my hotel in Tokyo and I strike up a conversation with this older gent. Turns out he was interested in media companies and software, same as me. He says that he’s interested in taking my newspaper off my hands whenever I feel like selling.”

“Et tu, Brute?” quoted Perry.

“You wouldn’t dare,” Lois growled.

“I told him that with Clark Kent on my staff, I’d own the Daily Planet until I was old and grey.”

“Good for you, Jimmy.”

“Don’t call me Jimmy, White.”

“Well, it was at that point the woman in the next chair leaned forward and she said and I quote, ‘You own the Daily Planet? Do you know Perry? Do you know Clark Kent?’ I realized that was the first time I had mentioned which newspaper I owned and I wondered how this man knew me from Jack the Ripper.”

“This woman knew me?” Perry asked, curious.

“It gets better. He turns to her and says, ‘Don’t worry your pretty head about such things, dear.’”

“Ugh,” Lois grimaced.

“She looked like she was going to argue when she suddenly grabbed her head and leaned back, like someone had pinched her spine. And he said, quietly, ‘if you want to stay out of the suite, dear, you need to learn to mind your tongue.’”

“What did this woman look like?” Lois inquired with a sinking feeling in her stomach.

“I’ll get to that.” James waved off her question. “So, I told them that, of course, I knew Perry and Clark; I count them as some of my best friends. Hope you don’t mind, White?”

“Thanks, Jim… Olsen.”

“Clark would be honored that you consider him your friend,” Lois replied for him. “Go on.”

“Though she was still grabbing her head as if she had massive headaches, she tells me, ‘I find Clark Kent’s writing some of the best journalism I’ve read since Lois Lane disappeared.’” He nodded.

“She didn’t!” Perry exclaimed.

“That’s when she fell to her knees from the pain in her head and this man snapped his fingers. His associate came up and he told him, ‘Lola is feeling under the weather, Asabi, take her back to our suite.’ ”

“No!” Perry and Lois gasped at the same time.

“What?” Sam asked.

“And this Asabi guy takes her away, and I thought she was screaming in pain, but then I realized she’s saying to him, ‘No. No. No. I was so close. I can stand the pain, let me go back.’ Or something to that effect.”

“Tell me you got photos,” Lois said grabbing his wrist.

“I’ll get to that.” James waved off her statement and her hand.

“James!” Perry exclaimed.

“Of course, it struck me as curious that such a beautiful woman would want to speak with me about the inner workings of the Daily Planet.”

Lois rolled her eyes, “Because, of course, beautiful women have no head for news.”

“I walked into that one, didn’t I?” James winced with a shake of his head. “Then I told this man that I would never consider talking such serious business with a man whose name I didn’t know. He stood up and handed me his business card and told me that he hoped I would put it to good use.” James reached into his breast pocket and then checked his pants pockets before finding the card in the inside pocket of his jacket and flung it on the coffee table.

Perry picked it up. “Lex Luthor, owner and CEO, L.I., Ltd., Singapore.”

“Lex Luthor?” Sam gulped.

“Singapore?” Lois asked.

“I couldn’t leave it like that. But I wasn’t sure what to do. Then I thought, ‘What would CK do?’ ”

“Probably find their suite and scan it with his x-ray vision, break down the door, and fly off with the woman in his arms,” mumbled Lois. She raised her voice and said, “You should have called him, James.”

“Oh, yeah. I didn’t think of that. Anyway, I did find out what suite they were staying in and engaged in a little round-the-clock surveillance, but nothing came of it. Luckily, I was in Tokyo, so I found this great little miniature camera store… White, you should have seen the kind of surveillance…”

“Olsen!” shouted Perry. “On with it.”

“Right. Right. Then at one of the cocktail parties towards the end of the conference, this…” James pulled out the photos and set them on the coffee table.

Lois grabbed the top photo. It was Lex Luthor all right. “He’s bald!”

They all turned toward her.

“He had hair when I knew him.”

“And the woman who wanted to speak with me. Jaxon’s stepmother. Her pain had Neuroscanner all over it. The migraines when she spoke out of turn. It looks like Junior got it working again.” He grabbed a photo from near the bottom of the pile. She stood alone near a pillar wearing a sleeveless evening length pale pink gown. Her hair, straight and long, just reached the curve of her back. She seemed to be staring off in space. “That’s her.” He whistled. “She’s a beaut, just like Jaxon said.”

Sam grabbed the photo out of his hand. “Lois! That’s my daughter.”

James’s jaw dropped. “Oh, sorry, Dr. Lane.”

“Great Caesar’s ghost!” Perry shouted. “She is alive! She’s alive!”

“The Neuroscanner works?” Lois asked quietly with a glance at Sam, but he was too busy staring at the photo of his Lois. She looked at her hands and then rubbed her arms in a hug. Her genetic make-up had changed enough that she was no longer affecting Junior’s signal.

James coughed. “Uh, Dr. Lane… Sam.” He swallowed and handed him another photo of Lois and Lex. In this one they were walking, her hand in the crook of his arm, but she looked odd, off.

“Why does she look funny?” Sam asked, studying the photo.

“Because she’s blind,” said James.

Sam’s head dropped into his hands.

“What?” inquired Perry. “That can’t be right. My star reporter? Blind?” He leaned back in his seat on the couch.

“I don’t think anyone else noticed, but I have a blind cousin and recognized the signs. Just as you said, Lucy, he checked out above-the-board on everything. If I hadn’t known what a sadist he was or hadn’t known about the Neuroscanner or hadn’t witnessed for myself what he did to her that day at the hotel, I wouldn’t have believed it.”

Lois smiled weakly. “Sometimes, I just hate to be right. I can’t believe he blinded her.” She looked away; a tear crawled down her cheek. “I didn’t expect that kind of brutality.” She reached over and hugged Sam.

“Now. Now. Now. Lucy, we don’t have any proof that he blinded her. It could have been an accident. Something in the water…” Perry searched for another excuse. “Damn. I can’t be unbiased in this case. This is Lois we’re talking about here. I’m so sorry, Sam, but I want Superman to go after him with a submachine gun.”

A hint of a smile appeared on Lois’s lips. “Superman doesn’t hurt people, Perry. You know that. And he certainly wouldn’t use a gun,” she whispered and then she cleared her throat. “I want us all to be perfectly clear on one thing. No one is to tell Clark about Lois. Not one word.” She turned to James. “About Lex Luthor go ahead, crow to your heart’s content. I’m beginning to think our best investigative journalist is being wasted in the boardroom.”

James blushed. “Thanks, Lucy.”

“Good work, son.” Perry patted James on the shoulder. “I’m going to have to agree with Lucy here. Let’s just keep this news about Lois amongst us.”

Sam stood up. “Not tell Clark? That’s crazy. How is he going to rescue her if he doesn’t know she’s there?”

Perry swallowed. “Trust me, Sam. He already knows.” He glanced at Lois and shook his head.

Sam sat back down, but he didn’t look happy about it. “And he didn’t tell me?” he grumbled.

“If Clark finds out that Lex blinded Lois… or hurt her in any way…” Lois shook her head. “Who knows what he would do, Sam? It wouldn’t be her best interest if Clark flew off half-cocked and furious to Singapore without planning first and without a way to disable the Neuroscanner. Those are details we need to work out before we can tell Clark.”

“So,” James said, clapping and rubbing his hands together. “What’s our next step?”

Everyone was quiet for a minute, thinking.

“Well, the obvious step would be to get Clark to Singapore,” Sam stated.

“I’ll set up an interview with Lex Luthor,” Lois murmured. She wasn’t looking forward to being that close to the Luthor camp, even via telephone.

“Lex Luthor doesn’t do interviews, Lucy. I asked,” James informed them. “Apparently, he’s a very private man.”

“He’ll grant this interview.” Lois nodded.

“How in Sam Hill are you going to do accomplish that? I thought he hated you,” Perry asked.

“Lex Luthor thinks he’s the smartest man in the universe. Superman is goodness personified. Lex Luthor is the opposite. He has a huge ego; the challenge of pulling a fast one on Superman will be too big a temptation for him to resist.”

“Let’s hope that Clark is up for the challenge,” Perry murmured.

“He’ll be up to it. I guarantee it,” said Sam, burying his face in hands once more. “Oh, my girl. My poor little girl.”

***

Once again, Clark sat on the top of the Daily Planet building wondering where and how everything in his life had gone wrong. He didn’t want to be here moping. He hated mopers. But this year, he felt he had become one. First, with meeting Kal’s Lois and realizing the wonder that was true love... knowing he wasn’t completely crazy to have fallen in love with a woman he had never met before. Because being with Kal’s Lois told him he had been right, not crazy, about how he felt for his Lois.

Then he had moped over his break-up with Lana. OK, he thought, a hint of a smile brushing his lips, he hadn’t really moped about that. Still it had hurt when she dumped him. Clark sighed.

Then there was his coming out of the closet as Superman. Mope, mope and more mope. Ugh!

Then Lois had returned to him and he once again realized that his love for Lois wasn’t a fluke. He truly and honestly loved her. But Kal’s Lois had been even less available to him. Pregnant. Mope. Mope. And double mope.

But she needed him. Needed him. He sighed. Not like everyone else in this world who would take any superhero they could lay their hands on. (Again he admitted, yes, that there was only him who could rescue them.) Lois Lane had needed him, specifically him. Clark Kent. The man. All of him. Her protector. Her friend. But Clark still wasn’t allowed to have her, to love her in the way he wanted. She belonged to Kal. He was just her Kal-Patch. Mope.

Mayson. Clark sighed. He hadn’t loved her, but he certainly had cared for her. Maybe that could have grown into love. He hadn’t been able to protect her and she had rejected him. The pain of that rejection had sent him into a tailspin. Mope.

Learning that Kal had bested him again. Kal could father a child. But not Clark, of course. Kal could have a family, surround himself with love. Not him. Triple mope.

Then there was the night of the Halloween party. Clark sighed, closed his eyes and smiled. Lois. His. For one night. Remember the way she had looked at you? his mind asked him. Him! Not Kal, him. The way her lips had pressed against his lips. Her hands had explored his body, pulling him to her. Her breath had tickled his ears. Her tongue had tasted… OK, he admitted, expelling a breath. It wasn’t real. They both had been under the influence of that pheromone perfume and she a bit more with the beginnings of Interdimensional Time-Sickness…

Shut up! his mind shouted at him. A part of her loves you. You! Not Kal. It had been your name she had moaned, not Kal’s. Yours! Clark shook his head. Only his name was also Kal’s name. He buried his face in his hands. Mope. Mope. Mopity. Mope. Mope. Kal’s Lois would never ever truly be his.

And now this. His soul mate, his one real chance at happiness, married to another man... And not just any other man. His Lois was married to Lex Luthor. He thought back to that snake of a man, who had stolen Kal’s Lois away from her wedding to Kal, who had silenced her screams for help with a needle to the throat, who had chased her down the streets of Metropolis, who had created a murderous psycho clone, and who had lied to her when she was confused about who she was. That was the man who had legal rights with the woman Clark loved. That man could kiss her, touch her, wipe away her tears. He could hold her, comfort her, and sleep with her and…

Clark blasted off the building into the sky, over the clouds. No! His mind shouted. No! He wasn’t going to go there with his thoughts. He wasn’t going to imagine her loving that monster. Only it was too late. As soon as the words formed, so did the pictures in his mind. He raced around and around and around the world, trying to distance himself from these thoughts.

When he finally stopped, Clark wasn’t quite sure where he was. China? No, too dark. It was daytime in Asia. Ethiopia? No, too cold. Utah? Perhaps. He sat down on the edge of what could have been an old abandoned quarry. It reminded him of his life. Stark. Bleak. Rough. Devoid of color. Empty of life. He wrapped his red cape around himself. No more moping.

OK. So, his Lois wasn’t technically his to have. It wasn’t like Clark really thought they had had a chance anyway, did he? He had already decided that he couldn’t afford any more smashed tin cans in his life. He sighed. Tin cans, humph. Melted pools of tin was more like it. Being with Superman endangered women. What if he lost control? If someone hurt the woman he loved again…

“Finally, I reached you. Clark Kent, please, help me. I’m alive.”

Someone had already hurt the woman he loved. His Lois had called him and had asked him to help her. Was it some elaborate trap set up by Luthor? Clark shook his head. No, he couldn’t think that. He wouldn’t believe that Lois would willingly set him up. Not after being tortured by Junior’s Neuroscanner. How long had they used that infernal device on her? What had they made her do while she was under his control? Clark winced, not wanting to dwell on the possibilities rushing around in his mind. Thank God it was broken and could no longer hurt her.

Lex Luthor had hurt his own wife. Clark growled. Lex Luthor allowed his son to spy on and torture his own wife. Clark’s eyes focused on a lone tree across the rocky yard of the quarry. Suddenly, it burst into flames. Clark jumped off his perch on the edge of the quarry and as he floated down the rock wall, he punched it and punched it and punched it, until a mountain of rubble piled up to almost the top of the cliff and dust clouded the air.

Kal’s Lois had known about Lola -- about his Lois being married to Luthor. His one glance at her before leaving Perry’s house had told him that. She had known and had kept it from him. Why hadn’t she told him? When was she planning on telling him? He pressed his lips together. Lois knew it would hurt him. She knew that information would torture him, eat at him, drive him crazy. She knew he would mope. He scoffed with a shake of his head. Lois knew him better than he knew himself. She was protecting him. She was waiting to tell him until they had found his Lois.

Clark stood on top of his pile of gravel, the crisp November wind lapping at his cape. Lex Luthor needed to pay for what he had done to Lois. But his Lois didn’t need vengeance, she needed help, to be rescued. She needed a hero, not a zero. Not a moper, but a man of action. He stood up taller, shoulders back, head held high. Superman could be that man for Lois.

***End of Part 7***

Ella Fitzgerald & Lois Armstrong - They Can't Take That Away From Me

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers from Shall we Dance - They Can't Take That Away From Me

Comments

Chapter 4: Part 8