Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Clark TOC can be found
HereWhere we left off in Part 5…*******************
The Prometheus Rises*******************
Lois shook hands with Mrs. Platt. “Thank you so much for letting me interview you as you and your daughter prepared for your voyage.”
“Thank you for clearing Samuel’s name. It was because of you that Amy and I are back on the Prometheus transport tomorrow morning. We’re supposed to check in at EPRAD…” Mrs. Platt glanced at her watch. “Oh! Within the hour.”
“Would you like a lift?” Lois volunteered. “I could drive you.”
“That’s so kind of you, Ms. Lane. Thank you,” said Mrs. Platt with an appreciative smile. “Amy, honey, we’ve got to go check in at EPRAD. Grab your bag, and let’s go!”
A Cheshire Cat sized grin slipped onto Lois’ lips. Step one complete.
***
Part 6Lois had found it easier than it should have been to help the Platts into the first level secure staging area, where the colonists could say goodbye to family and friends. It just required an offer to carry luggage, a bit of heavy lifting, and then after the suitcases had been delivered to security, another offer to push Amy’s wheelchair. Presto, first staging level infiltrated.
Once, she was there, Lois finished up her interview with Amy and Mrs. Platt. Actually, it was Mrs. Platt who suggested that Lois talk to some of the other colonists and learn their stories.
“It would make for a great article,” Mrs. Platt had said with encouragement.
Damn straight, Lois agreed and went off to mingle.
Next Lois searched for a colonist who was alone, a young woman perhaps, scared, maybe having just found a new boyfriend, someone crying and looking unsure about her decision. There were always one or two at these type of events, someone who changed their mind at the last minute and chose not to go. After her article about the sabotage on the Messenger, there would be at least one person with cold feet.
She found that someone in Grace McCleroy. Thankfully, they looked to be roughly the same size. Lois observed the woman as she hugged a handsome young man and she cried onto his shoulder; then she kissed him. Good, he wasn’t a brother.
Lois slowly approached the couple. “All ready for the big day?” she inquired.
“Yes... No!” Grace said indecisively. “Oh, Mike, I love you. I don’t think I can do this. I can’t say goodbye!”
Now, it was up to “Mike”. Had he been leading her on? Would he encourage Grace to go on to the transport or would he beg to her stay?
“Neither can I!” Mike agreed, kissing Grace some more. “It’s not final yet, Gracie. You can still stay on Earth with me. I love you!”
Lois smiled.
Attaboy, Mike.“Yes! Yes, I can, can’t I?” Grace responded with enthusiasm and more kisses.
The five minute bell rang. The colonists now had five minutes left to say goodbye to family and friends.
“If you’re not going on the shuttle, Ms. McCleroy, I’ll need your pass and your jumpsuit. They belong to the Prometheus project,” Lois said, as if she worked for EPRAD.
“Oh, right,” Grace said unsurely.
Oh, no, was she changing her mind back?
Fortunately, Mike took hold of Grace’s hands and kissed them, and she gazed into his eyes.
The escape plan was back on.
“Oh, I’m not wearing anything under this jumpsuit,” Grace confessed.
“Come on, into the restroom. We’ll find you something to change into,” Lois coaxed, gently guiding the woman towards the facilities. Grace nodded her consent.
Step two complete.
***
Lois waited in the background as the other colonists lined up to get on the transport. She didn’t want to get on too early and end up milling around, looking lost, and being discovered. She also didn’t want to be at the very end of the group either, when a show of EPRAD personnel might decide to walk the last few colonists on board, chitchatting. No, definitely not at the end. So, Lois got in line when there were at least twenty or so people behind her, about ten colonists behind the Platts.
She guessed that there were security cameras, possibly even television cameras, watching the colonists turn in their tickets and board the Prometheus transport. Lois made a point, hopefully not an obvious one, of looking away when she turned in her ticket, and moving away from the crowd after boarding the transport. She found an electrical compartment of some sort. She entered it, then shut and sealed the door. There was a pull down emergency seat, like a flight attendant’s jump seat, in the compartment. Better and better. No one would be the wiser.
“One minute and counting,” announced EPRAD Control over the loudspeakers.
Yea!Lois sat down and buckled herself in. Stage three complete.
***
Clark walked into the newsroom of the Daily Planet. It was early, predawn early, but as he didn’t have a television in his Apollo Hotel apartment, he would watch the launch on the sets in the office. Perhaps Lois would be in early too, and they could talk while they watched the launch together. The newsroom was quiet, but he recognized the Chief as one of the few early birds standing by the televisions tuned to LNN.
“‘Morning, Chief,” Clark said, coming up beside him. He glanced around. No Lois. “Have you seen Lois yet this morning?” He inwardly rolled his eyes at himself. Perry was going to think he was some besotted fool, and he’d be right.
“Not yet. She left a message with the night staff that she was heading over to EPRAD to do some prelaunch interviews. You know, talk to the crowd stuff,” Perry replied, his eyes never leaving the screen.
Clark glanced up at the monitors just as Mrs. Platt and her daughter, Amy, were shown going on board. He felt a surge of pride that it was his work, his work as a journalist not a hero, that had made that possible. He couldn’t believe that the colonists were only just boarding. In his dimension astronauts boarded hours before a launch, but here the space program was certainly further advanced than in his own. They were nowhere near putting a space station in orbit in his dimension, let alone sending up colonists. His brow furrowed as his mind replayed Perry’s words. “Lois said that she was going to interview people in the crowd?”
“Yeah. Wonders never cease.” Perry looked back at him, and his expression widened to realization that Lois would
never volunteer for such an assignment. He turned back to the television sets just as a woman passed by the camera, her dark hair slicked back into a ponytail, her face conveniently turned away from the camera as she handed over her boarding pass. “Dammit, Lane! I specifically told her ‘no’. Kent!”
“I’m on my way, Chief!” Clark called, jogging back up the ramp to the elevators.
“You’ll never make it in time. Launch is in less than ten minutes,” Perry replied.
“Then I better fly!”
Clark ran up the stairs to the roof, instead of down to the street, zooming into the sky as he spun into his blue Superman suit.
***
“Forty-five seconds and counting,” came the next announcement.
Suddenly, above the other noise on the transport, Lois heard a click and then a series of fast beeps. She glanced around curiously. She was in the electrical compartment, after all; beeps and clicks should be the norm, right? She hoped that there wasn’t a problem, which would cause a delay that some technician would have to come check out.
That was when her eyes spotted across the room a digital clock counting down from a minute and a half, and with each tick of a second, the clock beeped.
Lois unbuckled herself from the seat and moved over to the clock. It looked weird there, stuck haphazardly on the wall. Then everything clicked into place. “Oh, my God! It’s a bomb!”
***
Superman was almost to ERPAD, when he heard Lois shout, “Someone help! It’s a bomb!”
He didn’t know how he could hear her over the roar of the engines and the thrusters, but he did. Her exclamation caused him to pause, midair, over the crowd of spectators before he sped onward to the launch pad.
“What in the hell is that?” he heard one of the spectators ask.
“It looks like some guy in pair of tights and a cape,” replied another.
Well, his secret was out now, Clark thought, better make this a successful rescue or his life would be shot to hell… In more ways than one.
***
Lois banged on the hatch door, but with the thrusters activated no one would be coming to their rescue. She would need to stop the bomb herself. She ran back to the room and tried to pull the bomb from the wall. No luck! It was stuck good and tight.
The clock was ticking under one minute now. She needed a way to stop the launch and get help to deactivate the bomb. She flipped open a control panel and saw a bunch of electrical wires. Launches had been stopped for technical problems before, why not now?
Okay, now what, Lane? she asked herself. Lois looked around and saw a bunch of tools stuck to a side of another panel, so they wouldn’t float around in space. She grabbed a pair of wire cutters and chose a bundle of wires. Sparks shot out at her as she cut through them, but better that the launch be stopped than it blow sky high.
“Thirty seconds and counting,” announced EPRAD Control.
“Come on,” Lois called, cutting through a second bundle of wires.
“Due to mechanical failure we are suspending the countdown at twenty-nine seconds,” EPRAD Control finally announced. “We will advise. We will advise.”
The relief she thought she would feel with that announcement didn’t come. Her eyes focused on the readout in front of her; the bomb clock still ticked away.
Thirty-three.
Thirty-two.
Thirty-one…
***
Clark landed on the platform outside the hatch door. The thrusters had been turned off, so someone else must have heard Lois’ plea for help. Nevertheless, he was going to check it out. He pushed the button and opened the hatch door. He heard a series of beeps off to the right and headed for the open door.
Lois turned at his entrance and her mouth hung open. “Superman!” she breathed his name.
Not knowing what else to do, he nodded to her. He would ask her how she knew who he was later; right now had a job to do.
Superman walked to the wall and noticed there were still twenty-seven seconds left on the clock. He pulled open the control panel for the bomb: C7 explosive. He’d dealt with that before at the mayoral debate. Now, wasn’t that a coincidence?
Should Superman eat the bomb like last time? He could, but Clark would much rather live without explosive heartburn again. He glanced at the clock, twenty-two seconds. Taking the bomb, he super-sped through the hatch door and out into the morning sky, up high above the space transport where it exploded in his hands.
***
Lois followed the handsome man in the blue skintight suit and red cape out onto the platform. Where had he gone? He moved like a streak of lightning and had disappeared. Suddenly, she heard an explosion high above her head. She looked up and saw the man drift down, his cape floating out behind him, looking none the worse for wear. He landed next to her.
“What the hell are you?” Lois stammered.
Good going there, Lane! How about starting with a hello, next time? she chastised herself.
Instead of appearing offended he smiled at her. “A friend.”
They heard the hatch door slide open behind her and she watched as Superman’s eyes shifted from hers to the colonists behind her. He nodded and headed past her into the space transport. Lois couldn’t do anything but follow him. She felt silly but there was something mesmerizing about this man. She knew she would follow him anywhere, do anything for him. She needed to hear his story; he was the reason she had become a journalist.
The colonists gathered around Superman, staring at him, wondering, like her, who exactly he was. The name ‘Superman’ had popped into her head when she first saw him, and he didn’t correct her, so could she possibly have been right?
Lois felt it was up to her to explain his presence, only she couldn’t. She didn’t understand it herself. “There was a bomb,” she said dumbly. “He… he…” Her brow furrowed. “He
didn’t eat it?” Why would she say that? Only she felt as if that was the right response.
The man murmured, “Not this time.”
Lois shook her head. “He…” She pointed stupidly out the door. “… flew.”
Terrific wordsmith, you are there, Lane. Try again, she reprimanded herself.
“He flew the bomb out there, where it exploded,” Lois explained. Better. Unfortunately, she knew that was the best she could do at the moment. For some reason, being near this man tied her tongue and brain into knots.
Mrs. Platt came around the corner, pushing Amy in her wheelchair. Superman’s face lit up with a smile. Lois had thought he had been handsome beforehand, but now, she exhaled and made fists with her hands to quench the desire to reach out and touch him.
“Hi,” he said to Amy.
“Hi,” replied Amy. “I like your costume.”
Superman glanced down at himself and shrugged. “Thank you. It’s growing on me.”
Growing on him? Lois thought. Like it was a part of him? Or that he was getting used to it? What a strange thing to say.
“A very special friend of mine made it for me,” he continued. “It reminds me of my mother.”
Lois released a breath she didn’t know she had been holding. Oh! It does come off! She blushed and glanced away, so that Superman wouldn’t read her thoughts. Oh, God! What if he could read thoughts?
Amy smiled as if she was pleased by his answer. Lois knew she was too, only she wasn’t sure about this ‘very special friend’ he mentioned.
“What’s your name?” Superman asked the girl.
“Amy, Amy Platt. Who are you?” Amy replied.
Superman glanced over at Lois and smiled. “I’m Superman.”
Lois grinned. She knew it! She had just known it! She had no idea how she knew it, she just did.
“Can you teach me how to fly?” Amy asked.
Ooooh, me, too! Lois wanted to beg, but thankfully couldn’t speak, due to her tongue still being tied.
“Not fly, but once this lab is operational, walk,” he reassured her. “That’s very possible.”
“Attention: colonists! The mission has been scrubbed,” announced EPRAD Control over the loudspeakers. “Prepare to disembark.”
A look of regret crossed Mrs. Platt’s face as the colonists around her all groaned in disappointment.
“That’s it then; it’s all over,” said one of men.
“Why?” Lois asked.
“Once the thrusters have been fired, they have to be replaced,” explained Mrs. Platt.
“We lose our launch window,” continued the other colonist.
“Yeah,” Mrs. Platt agreed.
“We just have to forget about space station Prometheus,” the man lamented with a sigh.
The other colonists murmured similar responses.
“No, you don’t,” Superman reassured them. “There’s nothing wrong with this transport vehicle or the station. You only need to get there.”
“How are they supposed to do that?” Lois asked, dumbfounded.
“Easy,” he said to Lois, giving her another smile. “I’ll give them a boost.”
A
what?“What does he mean?” Amy asked her mom.
“I don’t know, honey. I don’t know,” Mrs. Platt replied with a shake of her head.
Superman walked towards the hatch door. “You all better go get buckled in,” he suggested.
“Ms. Lane, what are you doing here?” Mrs. Platt stammered in startled voice as if she just realized to whom she had been conversing. “You didn’t mention you were flying with the colonists to the space station.”
The man in blue paused by the door and returned his attention to Lois.
“You aren’t a colonist?” the man, who had spoken earlier and who seemed to be one of the colonist leaders, inquired, taking in her colonist uniform.
The gig was up. Lois grinned guiltily at him. “I’m Lois Lane, reporter for the Daily Planet.”
The colonist leader crossed his arms and his stern expression reminded her of Perry’s. “And how exactly were you expecting to go home, Ms. Lane? The transport ship doesn’t return to Earth for four days.”
Holy crap! That long? Lois’s embarrassed grin grew larger with her face joining in by deepening to pink. She looked over her shoulder at Superman who was watching this whole conversation with interest.
Great way to make a good first impression, there, Lane.“You could always give me a lift home,” Lois suggested to Superman with hope.
Superman shook his head. “While I may be able to fly through Earth’s atmosphere without repercussions to myself, Ms. Lane, I wouldn’t risk your health by flying you through space. If you remain on the platform and wait for my return, I would be happy to give you a lift back to…” He paused as if in thought. “The Daily Planet, or would you rather fly up to the space station and come back on the transport in four days?”
Fly to the Prometheus or fly with Superman? Go to space and miss interviewing Superman and the scoop of the century? Well, duh! Like there was even a choice? Lois turned back to Mrs. Platt, Amy, and the other colonists. “Have a safe journey and a wonderful trip. Good luck,” she called to them with a wave as she and Superman walked back onto the platform.
The doors closed behind her, and she and Superman were alone.
“Are you sure you don’t want to fly into space?” Superman asked. “It’s beautiful up there. The stars shine brighter without the atmosphere clouding their light, and the view of Earth is breathtaking,” he said this while looking at Lois, as if she too were breathtaking.
“Would you stay up on the space station?”
With me? she added silently.
“That sounds nice,” he said with a wistful smile, gazing at her. Was he thinking the same thing she was? “But I’m needed back at the Planet…
on the planet, planet Earth,” Superman said, as if she would confuse her planet with any other.
“I don’t think I could wait four days to see you again,” Lois murmured, stepping closer to him and sinking further into his eyes. Her hand reached out and touched his arm, his bicep.
Lois didn’t know why she touched him. She normally wasn’t one to manhandle people, especially strangers, unless in self-defense, but she wanted to reassure herself that she wasn’t dreaming. She needed to know that Superman, this super man, was real and actually standing before her. She swallowed, and realized what she was doing. Nevertheless, the dreamlike quality of the moment didn’t decrease.
Professional behavior, Lane, or you’ll never get the interview. Lois cleared her throat.
“To get a chance to know you, the real you…” she continued, as if it were part of her earlier statement. Her breath and words faltered as his warm hand covered hers, still on his arm. “And interview you for the Daily Planet.”
“I should go,” he said, removing her hand from his arm and giving it a slight squeeze before setting it free. Superman stepped off the platform and hovered in the air for a moment. “Will you be here when I return?”
Lois’ heart skipped a beat then doubled its speed before she shrugged nonchalantly. His voice had sounded hopeful, like he had
wanted her to wait for him. “Where would I go?”
Superman nodded and seemed to drop out of sight. She ran to the edge in time to see a flash of red from his cape disappear under the now unlit thrusters.
Soon the transport started moving upward and Lois saw Superman holding on to what must be a burning-hot thruster tube with his bare hands.
“Okay, he’s lightning fast. He isn’t hurt by bombs. He can fly. Now, not only is he strong enough to lift the transport full of the colonists, fuel, and machinery, he’s also able to fly it into the air. What can’t this guy do?” Lois said to herself.
It was almost eerie watching the transport rise without a sound.
Lois had a thousand questions, starting with who was this man? Sure, he said he was ‘Superman’, but was he, really? Or had he just accepted the name that had slipped off her tongue?
She had only one goal in life, now: to get to know this man better. Yet, somehow it felt like she already knew him, that she already knew what was in his heart, and it was her. She just knew it, just as she had known he should be called Superman, just as she knew Clark was Chuck, and Jimmy would die.
Okay, well, one out of three wasn’t bad. She didn’t know what was up with her lately; it was as if all of a sudden she had become psychic. Not psychic enough to avoid getting caught by Dr. Baines and her gun-toting henchman, though. Maybe it was one of those gifts that only worked on other people, and not on herself. Too bad; it would’ve been nice to know when she was walking into danger. Of course, then she might grow to rely on this feeling and stop thinking for herself, using her innate reporter’s instinct.
If it hadn’t been for Clark, who had proved her premonition about Jimmy wrong, would she have just left Jimmy there to die? A cold shiver, that had nothing to do with the early morning air, dripped down her spine. No, she wouldn’t have, she corrected herself. Thankfully, Clark had been there.
Damn! Clark! Lois wanted to punch him in the jaw. Ooooh, how she hated him! He had been right,
again. There was someone more interesting than Lex Luthor in the world. Only was Superman ‘in the world’? He seemed more ‘out of this world’.
Lois kept look out in the sky as she leaned against one of the support beams. Would Superman come back to her? He had said he would, but could she trust him? Yes, her gut reaction told her – not this weird premonition feeling thing, but her gut – Superman was intrinsically trustworthy. She saw some dot appear up in the sky.
It was just a bird. He couldn’t be returning yet. No, it was bigger than a bird. It must be a plane. No. Lois tilted her head and stared at the object in the air. It was the wrong shape to be a plane. Her heart began to beat faster again as she stood upright and shaded her eyes from the morning sun. It was Superman!
*********
Superman*********
Clark flew down to Lois, still standing on the platform and gazing up at him as if he were some hot guy in tights. Was this the same woman who told her roommate that she hated him? Was this the same woman who wouldn’t give him the time of day, but would take an extra moment to throw a belittling comment his way?
Lois Lane loved Superman. Terrific, just what he needed. Okay, maybe she wasn’t in love with Superman, like Clark was in love with Lois, but she certainly had the hots for him. This would be a wonderful development, if Lois knew that Superman was also her favorite pincushion Clark Kent, but she didn’t. Nope, Superman was some other guy and, worse yet, a story. There went rule number one: she didn’t get involved with her stories. Ha! She wasn’t joking when she said that she
always got involved with her stories. Well, better Superman than Lex Luthor.
Clark was still in shock that Lois didn’t recognize him when he walked into the Prometheus transport earlier. Glasses! Who knew? She wasn’t attracted to Clark Kent, that was for sure. She was… and he shuddered at the thought… a groupie. He didn’t want a groupie! If he had wanted to date, or even just sleep with groupies, he could have done so – tabloids be damned – back in his old dimension. That was one of the reasons he moved to this dimension: a secret identity. He needed to know that the woman he loved, loved him for him and not for what he could do or how this uniform hugged his body. The woman he had chosen to love – not that he really had been given a choice in the matter, it was either Lois Lane or nobody – was one of
them.He didn’t know that she wouldn’t recognize him as Clark Kent. Maybe the next time she saw Clark Kent she’d roll her eyes and say, “Of course! Why didn’t I see it before?” and she would realize that she loved the whole man. No, that wasn’t going to happen. She only just met him as Superman. Maybe with further evidence he won’t seem as wonderful as Clark Kent. Yeah, right. Who was he kidding?
As Clark landed next to her on the platform, all these thoughts and doubts faded away. Lois gazed at him as if she loved him and, for the moment, that was enough to satisfy him. He had craved for her to feel the same way about him for so long, since before he even moved to this dimension, it felt good to have her attracted to him. He only hoped that with her looking at him like that, he would be able to rein in his emotions and feelings and not do something stupid, like kiss her as Superman.
“Hi,” Lois said slightly breathlessly, licking her lips.
“Hello,” Superman replied. He was also somewhat breathless at her adoration, but he was able to fake it better. “You ready for that flight?”
“Yes!” she said, stepping closer. “I mean, if that’s okay with you. Do you need to rest first?”
“Rest?” he echoed, somewhat perplexed. Superman rarely needed rest. “Oh, no, I’m fine. I was able to get some sunlight out in space, and recharge my batteries.”
Lois’ eyes seemed to bug from her face. “You’re solar charged? Please don’t tell me that you are some robot or cyborg or something because if I gave up going into outer space for some hoax…”
“No, Ms. Lane. I’m not a robot or a cyborg or any type of invention or some lab experiment gone wrong,” Clark reassured her, having heard all the arguments and off the wall theories back in his dimension. “I’m all man.” He had wanted to say he was human, but technically ‘Kryptonian’ would be more accurate.
She relaxed until he said the word ‘man’ and then he watched as her mouth dropped open. Ooops, perhaps he shouldn’t have phrased it quite like that.
He heard the platform elevator stop and, not wishing to do anything but be with Lois, he scooped her up into his arms in to the cradle hold. “Ready?”
Lois nodded, and he slowly took off into the air.
“Are you cold?” he asked as they hovered above EPRAD.
She shook her head and wrapped her arms around his neck for extra safety. He wished he could say it was because she wanted to be that much closer to him, but he had discovered it was a natural reflex when he picked someone up and flew them somewhere. Still, the action was more than acceptable when she did it.
He gave her an aerial tour of Metropolis, but Clark had to admit to himself, he did it more as a delaying tactic than to show her how beautiful the city was from up above. Now, if it had been nighttime… He noticed that she wasn’t really looking at the city, but only at him, so he altered his course and headed downtown. “Where shall we go?”
“My place,” Lois replied without hesitation.
***End of Part 6*** Part 7 Comments
