Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Clark TOC can be found
HereWhere we left off in Part 96 ...“I guess. You know, maybe he’s the lucky one in all of this. If he can’t remember how it was, how is he going to miss it?” Perry said. What was he trying to say? That in the end, did Clark’s past really matter? He was right. It didn’t.
Lois stood up. “You know, I think I’m going to...” She coughed. “— um… see how he is,” she said. They had a night to remember to make up for, literally.
Perry nodded, tears in his eyes.
“I’ll see you, Perry,” she said, giving him a hug. She hated to think this, but if anything were to happen to her grumpy ol’ editor, she’d miss him more than her own parents. She could see in his eyes that he felt similarly about her. They were family; even if they were related, not by blood, but by newsprint. She felt the need to reassure him that she wouldn’t leave him alone at the end. “I’ll be back, before…”
He nodded and pressed a weak smile to his lips. She could tell he was grateful for that little gesture.
Lois picked up her coat and glanced at her watch. She’d have just enough time to walk to Clark’s apartment. There was no point at either trying to drive her Jeep or find a cab in the madhouse which were the streets of Metropolis at the moment. She and Clark could make love, once, possibly twice, and if she was lucky thrice. Then they could get dressed, and Lois would bring him back to the Planet for impact. Maybe they would have time to grab a bite to eat. Of course, that would mean that ‘thrice’ would be off the table, so maybe not. She had tried to call him, but even local lines were overloaded this morning.
She passed by the conference room on the way to the stairwell and saw that Cat was no longer there. Her brow furrowed. Where…? When…?
Her eyes narrowed. If she found Cat at Clark’s…
Lois stomped to the stairwell and ran down the stairs.
***
Part 97“This is a bad idea,” Clark said for what felt like the four-thousandth time as he followed Cat out onto the patio.
“You probably don’t forget
how to fly once you do it, Clark. Why don’t you just give it a try?” Cat suggested again. She had been suggesting nothing else but that since she arrived at his apartment at just past sunup this morning with some fresh fruit and two hot coffees.
He looked at her skeptically. Okay, he was Superman. He had the Suit. He had the boots. He had the cape. Well, he
had them, but he wasn’t
wearing them. He had the strength, the cooling breath, and the healing factor, which she had tested with his paring knife that morning, much to his chagrin. Now, he needed to go buy a new knife.
Clark didn’t want to test his x-ray vision, in case he accidentally activated his heat vision instead. He could hear everything, which was why he was already awake and showered by the time Cat had knocked on his door. It was hard to sleep when he heard alarm clocks going off all over the neighborhood. Flying and his memories, on the other hand, still eluded him. Clark still didn’t know how some of his powers worked. “I’m not sure about this.”
“All right, put your hands up, and…”
Clark held his hands up.
Cat gazed at him with sad amusement. He had learned what this expression meant yesterday:
You’ve got to be kidding me. “Not like you’re under arrest, Clark, but as if you’re going to fly,” she corrected.
“And what does that look like? Do I flap my wings or something?” he rebutted, flapping his hands, which he still held on either side of his head.
“A. You don’t have wings. B. It’s probably just instinct. You just
will it to happen,” she said, pointing to the sky.
“Will it to happen,” Clark repeated, looking up at the sky. “Will it to happen.” He jumped straight up and lifted his hands above his head. He landed in the exact same spot less than a second later. “Did I do that right?”
“No, you usually…” Cat said, demonstrating by bending her knees and raising one hand both in front and above her. Then she straightened her legs and shifted her body weight upwards. “And then you’re off.”
He sighed. “Way off.”
She patted his back. “Try again.”
Clark nodded. He glanced over at her, and she did the movement again. He copied the position. It felt awkward and unnatural. “Are you sure?”
Cat bobbed her head with a big enthusiastic grin, which he wasn’t sure was sincere. She was trying to help him, he knew that. He also knew that the Nightfall fragment would kill many people when it made it to Earth in less than ten hours. He was everyone’s last hope. He took a deep breath, and exhaled. “Just will it to happen,” he murmured to himself. He bent his knees, looked to the sky, and leaped.
Nothing happened.
He sighed. Some will he had there.
“I can’t do this, Cat. I’m sorry. I want to help, but I can’t,” Clark said. “I don’t remember how.”
“Maybe you just need motivation,” Cat said, walking over to the ledge. She stepped up onto it. “Now, imagine I’m Lois. If I fall, you
will save me. That’s what you do. You save her all the time.”
“What? Cat! No!” Clark exclaimed, grabbing her around her knees. “Don’t. Please don’t risk your life to teach me this. There must be another way. Please. If something were to happen to you…”
“Let go, Clark. I’m going to die anyway, if you don’t learn this,” she insisted. “What do I have to live for? I lost Phil.” She scoffed at herself with a roll of her eyes. “I never
had Phil. You’re the only friend I really have, and you don’t even remember me. I’m not a survivor like Lois, Clark. I’m the kind of person the camera pans over after the disaster and whose dead body you see in the debris of the destroyed building. You’ll only recognize me from my stylish shoe or my handbag. The audience feels sad about me for maybe a second and, if I’m lucky, they’ll still remember my name when the credits start to roll as the hero and heroine ride off into their happily ever after.”
“I’d miss you, Cat. Even without all my old memories, I’d miss you. You believed in me and pushed me when nobody else did,” Clark said, glancing over the edge. “Anyway, it’s not that many floors to the alley. We’d have to be on…” He looked to the horizon, found the tallest building he saw, and pointed at it. “That building to give me time to learn to fly before you hit the ground. Please, step down from there.”
“Okay,” she said, and stepped off the ledge, the wrong way.
He reached out his hand and caught her by the wrist just as her head passed below the edge of his patio. He pulled her back over the ledge. From there he lifted her into his arms and carried her back inside his apartment, shutting the door behind him.
Clark set her down and gripped her shoulders. “Are you insane? You could have died.”
“You do realize that you just broke the laws of physics, right? The way you grabbed me, my arm should've been torn off. That was amazing! You saved me,” Cat said, somewhat breathlessly. “You’ve never done that before. What an adrenaline rush!”
“I hope I never to have to do it again,” Clark retorted sternly, crossing his arms.
A broad smile filled her face. “I know what’s missing!” she said, pointing at him. “You need your Suit.”
Clark buried his face in his hand. “Not with the Suit again,” he groaned.
“You fly when you’re in the Suit, not when you’re in jeans and a painted on t-shirt, which I have to say…” Cat growled, and not in the way he heard Lois do it. She sounded like a Cat in heat. Her bouncing eyebrows made it clear what she meant.
“Cat!” he scolded and stepped back. “Stop it!”
She shrugged demurely. “I’m just saying, it’s always an option for bringing back your memories. Maybe you need a little adrenaline rush yourself, and since Lois isn’t here…”
“It isn’t happening! I love Lois! I’m only making love with her,” Clark said. “Not to mention that I would never use you in that manner.
You deserve better.”
Cat leaned closer to him. “Honey, use me in any way you like. I’ve done it all before and if it doesn’t work…” She made a noise that sounded like a feisty cat. “What a way to go out!”
He glared at her.
“So, that’s a ‘no’ then? Okay. I didn’t really think you’d go for it. Apparently, even without remembering anything, you’re still a decent guy, who would never cheat on the woman he loves.” She grinned. “A super guy.”
Clark rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, hoping for divine intervention from her corny joke.
Cat rubbed her hands together. “Ooooh, I know! Why don’t you spin into the Suit?”
“Spin?”
She spun her index finger in the air. “Yeah, spin.”
He shook his head in mystification.
“You can change your clothes so fast using your super speed; it seems as if you’ve been swallowed by a twister. It’s how you usually change from your Clark clothes into the Suit,” she explained.
“Why?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I always figured it was to torture me, but I guess you do it because it allows you to change anywhere without anyone seeing you with your drawers down. Or in your case, without your red shorts on.”
“Anywhere? You mean like at the office? So, where do my other clothes go when I change?” Clark said.
“Uh…” she answered slowly, and then shrugged. “Frankly, I don’t know. Um… I know you wear your Suit under your Clark clothes, but you’ve never told me where you put your business suit after taking it off. Why don’t you just try it and see?”
He wanted to say, ‘Do I have to?’ but with a three-mile wide asteroid bearing down on Earth, he already knew the answer. “Okay, but I don’t want to do the spin thing. How about I change in the bathroom?”
Cat didn’t try to mask her disappointment.
Clark nudged his wardrobe forward, opened the secret compartment, and removed a full uniform: suit, cape, shorts, and boots. Then he nudged the armoire back into its spot.
She gave him a little pout. Was she hoping that he’d spin into his Suit and miss something and she’d see a bit of skin? Honestly, if he was able to pull this whole thing off, saving the world that was, he would personally find Cat a new boyfriend, because even her hormones had hormones.
Clark stepped into the bathroom, took off his jeans, t-shirt, socks, and underwear. Then he put on the blue suit, making sure to hook the cape around his shoulders, before pulling up the shirt of the Suit. He stepped into the red shorts, fastened the yellow belt, and yanked on the boots. On the back of the red shorts, he found a pocket. Pressing his Clark clothes into a small square, using his super strength, he was able to insert them into the pocket. He returned to the bedroom.
Cat clapped. “Not bad. Not bad. Seven seconds. Not bad all. A couple of comments though,” she said, approaching him. “Superman doesn’t wear glasses.” She pulled them from his face. “
And he slicks back his hair with gel.” She pushed back his curls from his forehead.
“Oh,” Clark said, searching his cape. He found a pocket with a tube of hair gel in it and another one, on the other side, with a hard plastic glasses case. “I didn’t notice those before.” He put his glasses in his case and put it back into that pocket. Then he dabbed a little gel onto his hand, ran it through his hair, and then slipped the gel tube back into its pocket. He felt ridiculous. When he was done, he held out his hands.
She circled around him, inspecting him. “Not bad. Superman’s hair is usually a bit more styled than just slicked back, but for now, it will do.”
Clark checked his gel pocket again and sure enough there was a comb. What kind of freak was he? He shrugged and replaced the comb.
“You look good. Now, let’s try to fly again,” Cat suggested.
It would be bad enough trying to fly, but to do so in this getup… How would he be inspired to soar into the sky, if he didn’t want anyone to see him?
“If Cat Grant is over at Clark’s apartment, I swear I’m going to tear her limb from limb,” he heard a very familiar voice grumbling outside.
Clark bolted to the patio and glanced down. Sure enough, there was Lois on her way to his apartment.
“If something actually happened between them…” Lois paused, both her step and her voice, wincing with a moan of despair. “Oh, Clark.”
Oh, no!Without thinking, he leapt over the ledge and landed with a thud in the alley. He needed to keep Lois from entering his apartment. If she saw Cat up there, she would leap to wrong conclusions, and…
Oh! He gasped. He was still in this getup. He couldn’t let Lois see him like this, not if he couldn’t fly. He wasn’t even quite sure how he acted when he was Superman, especially with Lois. Anyway, he didn’t want to act when he was around her. He wanted to be himself.
Clark put his hands into fists and with a determined nod, spun quickly. He pulled out his jeans, slipping them over his blue suit. There was no way he would hide his cape under his t-shirt, so he unhooked it and was about to press it into a square, when he remembered his glasses. He pulled those out and plunked them on his nose, and then stuck the folded cape into his back pocket. He didn’t have any shoes, next time he’d have to think about that aspect. The red boots were certainly not Clark Kent’s style. For the time being, though he would put on his white socks over his red socks and hoped that Lois didn’t notice that he was ‘shoeless’. He pushed up the sleeves of his uniform until they were hidden under the short sleeves of his t-shirt.
When he stopped spinning, his hand hit the lid of a trashcan, knocking it into the other trash, causing a loud bang as all the cans fell over. “Good job there, Clark,” he grumbled to himself.
“Clark?” Lois called to him. “What are you doing here?”
A good question to which he didn’t have an answer. “Uh…” he stalled, not exactly sure what to do to with his Super boots, which he still held in one hand. He tossed them up to his patio. His aim was off, though, and they landed on his roof. Terrific. Walking out from behind the big pile of knocked over trash, he said, “I live here.”
“No, you don’t,” she chuckled, approaching him. “Not in the alley.” She reached up and pulled a lock of his hair down to his forehead.
Right, the hair!“Did you hear something?” she asked, turning to look around the pile of trash. “Did someone come after you?”
Clark grabbed her arm and pulled her to his chest. “Uh…No. That was me,” he admitted sheepishly. “I was looking… uh… searching, for clues, and accidentally knocked over the cans.”
“Clues? Here?” Lois asked skeptically, to which he only nodded weakly. “Are you feeling okay?”
He nodded again. “The same. No memories, except…” He ran his hand over her hair, tucking a lock of it behind her ear before cupping her jaw in his palm. He leaned over to place a kiss to her lips, when she covered his hand with hers, stopping him with her expression.
“Have you always done that?” she asked.
Clark blinked, gazing at her. “Always done what?”
“No, nothing. I just thought…” Lois shook her head. “And then you…” She stared at him as she had the night before when she had left. “Never mind. I guess I was wrong.”
He continued with the kiss, pulling her close. “I can’t imagine you ever being wrong,” he murmured. He felt her smile against his lips, and it was a feeling he liked.
“See, you’re getting your memories back already,” she whispered, deepening the kiss.
I am? he thought before, losing himself in the kiss. The warmth and moisture of her mouth against his, her tongue gliding into his mouth, her chest pressing against his, and her arms entwining around his neck... If anything could make him fly, Lois’s kisses surely could.
“Oh, Clark,” Lois murmured, pausing their kiss a few minutes later and resting her head against his. “I’m concerned.”
His shoulders hunched as Earth’s fate rested squarely on them. “I know.”
Lois raised her gaze to his. “Do you?”
“I’m worried too,” he admitted. “If only I could remember.”
“Don’t blame yourself, Clark. It’s not your fault that you lost your memories. I just wish I could understand
why Superman hasn’t gotten in touch with me…
us,” she said. “It’s not like him. Although, he did go away before.”
“He did?” Clark asked with some surprise.
“Yeah. I was hurt, and he felt responsible,” she said sheepishly.
“Was it his fault?” he said, knowing it must be. He loved Lois; it would always be his fault if she was hurt.
“What?
No! Absolutely not. How can you even…? Oh, right.” Lois said. She must have forgotten for a second that this was all new to him. She ran a hand down his cheek. “The details aren’t important, but I was wondering if that’s why he disappeared again.”
“Why? Has someone close to Superman been hurt?” he asked, taking hold of her hand. His heart ached. Had something happened to Lois when she and Cat went back to the Daily Planet the night before? “You’re okay, aren’t you?”
“I’m fine, Clark, but you…”
“Oh, right,” Clark said, feeling the heat of embarrassment flush his cheeks.
Right, you’re two people. “Me.”
“I’m concerned that he blames himself for you getting hurt. For his entire tough guy act, he’s really quite caring,” she said with slight smile. “In fact, I’d say he was a marshmallow.”
“Marshmallow?” Clark repeated, aghast.
Her smile turned into a grin. “In the most positive sense of the word, Clark.”
There’s a positive aspect to being a ‘marshmallow’?“Don’t tell anyone, but he’s a big softy,” she went on with a wink.
Superman is a big softy. Great.“He believes, with his whole being, in truth and justice. With the criminals and bad guys, he’s an intense man whom you could imagine bending steel with a glance. Imagine it, because that’s
not one of his abilities,” Lois explained. “Well, maybe if he used his heat vision… Anyway, the bad guys know he could grind them into powder if he chose to, and a lesser man might be tempted to, but not Superman. He values life above everything else, whether human or non-human. He’s especially partial to kittens stuck in trees, but don’t tell him that I know that.”
She giggled, and he was glad she was leaning on his shoulder. This way she couldn’t see his face turn the same color as his cape as he stared at her, his mouth hanging open in utter humiliation. He would never go out in public in the Suit again.
“I believe that even without powers, he would risk all to save a stranger’s life. If there’s ever something he can do to help, he helps. He puts everyone and everything above himself, his wants, and his desires. He really personifies the word ‘hero’,” Lois said in a dreamy sort of tone.
It was clear to Clark that Lois still admired his alter ego. That was a good thing. It would make telling her the truth easier. Of course, that really depended on whether or not he could remember how to fly. If he couldn’t save them from Nightfall, he would never tell Lois the truth. How could he, after having her hero fail her in that way? It would be better if Superman’s disappearance remained a mystery. Actually, it would be best if he could remember how to fly, and go kick that Nightfall fragment to kingdom come. He didn’t know how he would ever be able to face her or anyone again if, due to his incompetence, he wasn’t able to save millions of people.
She cleared her throat and set her hand on Clark’s chest. “You remind me a lot of him.”
Oh, no! “Me?” he gulped.
“No matter what you or he does, I tend to forgive you both,” she said with a teasing nudge.
Clark’s eyes widened in alarm. She would never forgive him this.
Lois kissed him softly. Her chest brushed against his in a way that made him wish he could fly, just so he could get them up to his apartment all that more quickly. Unfortunately, it was but a momentary kiss. The emotions brought to the surface remained though.
“As Perry just reminded me, it’s not who you used to be and what you used to do that’s important, it’s who you are now. I forgive you, because there’s just something so pure of heart about both of you.”
She wouldn’t be thinking either of them was ‘pure of heart’ if she could read his mind at the moment. He used all of his willpower to stop himself from kissing down her neck and to concentrate on what she was saying. What was she talking about again? Oh, right, how he, Clark, reminds her of Superman.
“Is that what reminds you of Superman?” he asked.
“Yes, your goodness. The way you gave the last bite of your hotdog to that man’s black lab yesterday afternoon, for example. Your kindness. Such as how you listened to that little boy ramble on for five minutes about the glories of Superman, so I could talk to his mother,” she said, wrapping her arm around Clark’s waist and leading him out of the alley. “How can I not love a man whom both dogs and small children like?”
“I was interested in his tale of how Superman wrestled that giant lizard of the sea,” Clark admitted. After Cat had told him about him being Superman and hearing that child’s story about what Superman could do, he knew those were some pretty impressive boots to fill. He hadn’t thought he could do it.
Lois chuckled, kissing him. “It’s not true, Chuck. Superman has never, to my knowledge, ever wrestled Godzilla, and I know everything there is to know about Superman.”
Not everything, he wanted to say. He actually opened his mouth again to say just that, when she interrupted him to say that Godzilla didn’t really exist. Oh, so he never did wrestle a giant dinosaur type creature. Good to know. Too bad. It had been a good story.
“No, I was going to ask how you know so much about him,” he said, stopping by the door leading into his building. He needed to delay, and figure out some way to let Lois know that Cat was up at his apartment, but that nothing had happened. He needed to tell her the truth. It wouldn’t be fair to Cat to sneak her out, and it wouldn’t be fair to Lois to lie.
She shook her head. “I don’t know. When I saw him, and I just knew that he would change my life,” she said, a dreamy smile creeping onto her face.
Clark gazed at her and wondered if he had felt the same way. He knew the instant he had seen the drawing of her that she would be the catalyst which would change Clark Kent’s boring humdrum lonely life into something special, and he had been right.
A cat bolted across the street and through their legs, heading into the alley.
Lois stepped back in alarm and gasped. “Ow! My ankle!”
“Here. Let me…” He scooped her up and cradled her in his arms. This position felt so natural, so perfect, it was as if his arms had been made to hold her. He smiled at Lois, trying to convey this feeling. As he stared at her, a series of images flashed through his mind. Different images of Lois in his arms, well, Superman’s arms. Memories of him lifting off into the sky, holding Lois, saving her from a bog, the side of a building, a sealed vault, a crumbling ledge, and an abandoned warehouse, among other places. Cat was right. He did rescue Lois a lot.
Clark’s eyes widened. He could remember. Not everything, but at least the knowledge on how to fly, and that Lois was really danger prone. He would now be able to save the world. His heart swelled with pride and wellbeing. How he wanted to share this feeling with Lois, his pleasure at knowing that he would make everything all right. He pressed his lips to hers with excitement.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and accepted his love with glee.
“Lois, you’re amazing!” he gushed.
“And you say you can’t remember anything,” she said, tossing her head back with laughter.
“No, that’s it! I had a flash of memory, just now,” Clark announced. “Thanks to you.” He kissed her again.
“Oh, Clark! How wonderful!” Lois exclaimed. “What do you remember?”
“Superman,” he said. “I know how to access him.”
“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” she said, slipping her legs out of his arms and back to the ground. “I can walk.”
He nodded, glad that her ankle wasn’t as bad as she had earlier implied.
“Clark?” he heard Cat calling to him.
His head jerked upwards.
Oh, no. He had forgotten about Cat. In his excitement about Lois, he hadn’t told Cat where he was bolting off to when he left. He needed to tell Cat that he had remembered how to fly. He needed to thank her for all of her help. He needed to convince her not to jump off any more buildings.
“Clark?” Cat called again.
Clark knew he better leave before Lois heard Cat yelling at him and got the wrong idea. “I’ve got to run,” he said, glad he didn’t need to make up any crazy excuses. She knew he had to contact Superman, and understood that was why he needed to run off. He kissed her cheek and turned towards the front door of his building. “I’ll meet up with you at the Planet.”
Lois nodded and flicked her hand, telling him to go.
He went as slowly as he could up the stairs to his apartment, but knew in his excitement, it wasn’t slow enough. If anyone had seen him, they would know Clark wasn’t any ordinary guy. Thankfully, his neighbors didn’t seem the nosey sort.
Clark arrived at his front door only to find it locked. He remembered belatedly that he hadn’t picked up his key from his bureau when he had gotten dressed that morning. He heard a shuffle inside and Cat called to him again. “Clark! Help!”
With a leap into the air, he spun out of his jeans and t-shirt and into his super suit, picked up his red boots from the roof, and landed on his back patio as Superman. Inside his apartment, he could see Cat fighting off some large burly man. Where had that guy come from? This thug hadn’t passed him and Lois out in the alley. Had he come inside before Lois arrived? After a second of deliberation, he realized none of that mattered.
He zipped inside and pulled the man off Cat, holding him away from them like a smelly diaper. “Are you okay?” he asked her.
Cat nodded, but he could see her eyes were still wide, and he could hear her heart racing with fear. “He knocked on the door a minute ago. I thought he was…”
You was the word she left hanging in the air. She recovered more quickly than he expected. “Clark.”
He dropped the man on the floor, crossed his arms, and gazed at him with anger. He remembered what Lois said about Superman not hurting anyone, but this guy had attacked his best friend. “Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to hurt women?”
“Oh, God! Superman! They never told me that Kent was a friend of yours,” the man sputtered. “I wouldn’t have touched him if I knew.”
Clark stepped closer to the man, his gaze narrowing. “What do you know about the disappearance of Clark Kent?”
The man scurried backwards like a cockroach. “Nothing. Nothing, I swear. Jones and I took him for a little boat ride, that’s all. He was alive the last time I saw him.”
For some reason, Clark didn’t think the man was telling him the whole truth.
“You mean before you dumped him into Hob’s Bay?” Cat retorted from behind Clark.
“Who hired you?” Superman asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t know. I just work for some guy, called the Boss. I’ve never met him,” the man said, moving further away. “I wouldn’t want to.”
Clark glanced at Cat, wishing he had more memories than the few he pulled up when he lifted Lois into his arms. He knew Lois gave him the Suit,
made him the Suit. It must have been back before his apartment was robbed because he clearly had more stuff. They must have known each other for a while because in several of the flashes, her hair was of different lengths, and she lived in different apartments. But that didn’t make sense. If Lois made him the Suit, how come she didn’t know he was Superman?
There wasn’t any way the man could escape, so Clark turned to Cat. “Are you sure you’re all right?” he asked, noticing that she was holding her left arm. “You’re hurt.”
“It’s nothing but a scratch. I’ll be fine,” she said, but he could both see and smell the telltale signs of blood.
“Is there a first aid kit here?” he inquired.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. In the bathroom?” she guessed.
He nodded and was back in less than two seconds with some bandages.
“We need to question him more,” Cat insisted in her stealth voice, as Clark put a bandage on her arm. “He knows you’re…”
Clark gave her a sharp glare, silencing her. From what this guy said, it was possible that the people who kidnapped him didn’t know he was also Superman. He might have been inadvertently exposed to the Kryptonite stuff without them realizing it would affect him. Whoever the ‘Boss’ guy was,
he was the one with access to the Kryptonite. He was the one they wanted.
“Tell us more about this boat,” Cat asked, from her position behind Clark. “What’s its name? Where is it moored?”
“Nowhere,” the man said, and scrambled back even farther from them. He was practically sitting in the kitchen now. “I don’t know its name.”
“I should take him to Henderson at the Twelfth Precinct,” Superman told Cat. “He’s already admitted to the abduction of Kent.”
“Not before he tells us more. He’s going to clam up as soon as he’s in police custody,” Cat hissed back.
“Shouldn’t you be reading me my rights?” the guy asked, pulling himself to his feet.
Clark glanced over at Cat, not knowing the answer to this question.
She shook her head lightly, then told the guy, “We could tell you your rights, but neither of us are sworn police officers. Clark and I are reporters…
and Superman works outside the justice system.”
Clark looked back at Cat again. That had been a major slip.
“Kent’s alive?” the man said, visibly paling. “You were calling to him earlier. Where is he?”
“In the bathroom,” Cat announced before Clark could think of a reasonable answer. “He’s probably on the phone with 9-1-1 right now.”
That would have been a good answer, except Cat had already said she had opened the door to the thug, thinking he was Clark. Clark gave Cat another glance, telling her to be quiet, which was when he noticed her eyes widening with fear and a scream starting in her lungs. He turned back around in time to see a knife that the thug had picked up from the kitchen counter leave the man’s fingertips. Clark snatched it out of the air in front of Cat and shot it back at the man. It missed the man by mere inches, which might as well have been a mile, being that he was Superman.
“You’re no Superman!” the thug exclaimed, and darted out onto the patio through the open door.
Clark swore under his breath at his lack of knowledge of his own powers, and rushed onto the patio after the man. “What’s your name?” he asked the thug.
“I could ask the same question of you, buster. Superman doesn’t hurt people. Everyone knows that,” the guy said, his voice wavering.
“Most people don’t throw knives at my friends,” Clark countered. “That tends to make me upset. Anyway, how have I hurt you?”
The man had reached as far as he could go, holding up his hands. “Don’t come any closer,” he demanded.
“Tell me what you did with Kent,” Clark said, not moving. He didn’t want to have to save this guy. Anyway, he had super speed.
“We just took him on a ride, gave him a scare, that’s all. The Boss wanted him to back off for some reason. The Boss wanted us to leave him beaten up on the docks, but Kent threw himself into the water. We circled back around to fish him out but he never came back to the surface,” the man said.
Clark didn’t know if he was telling the truth or lying. He didn’t know himself well enough to know if he would have dived into the water with handcuffs on or not. He could have been trying to get away, knowing that they had Kryptonite. “Scare him away from what?” Superman probed.
“Good question,” Cat said.
“The Boss didn’t say,” the man replied.
“Then how would Clark know
which news story he was supposed to stay away from?” Cat called from the open doorway.
Had Clark discovered Kryptonite in Metropolis and…? No,
he was Clark. If he had discovered Kryptonite, he wouldn’t have considered it newsworthy unless the person who had it was. Clark would have just destroyed it. Could he destroy it without hurting himself?
“They told me that an article in the
Daily Planet said that Kent’s alive, right? They said to come here and make sure that Kent was dead. So, is he dead?” the thug asked.
Clark crossed his arms with annoyance. Why would he tell his killer that information?
“The Boss doesn’t like incompetence. You’re going to save us from Nightfall, right? So…” The thug glanced over the edge of the patio.
“Trust me, it’s too far for you to jump,” Clark informed him. “The concrete will flatten you like a fried egg. Your bones will shatter like an egg’s shell. It won’t be pretty.”
“Oh. You mean, if you hadn’t caught me earlier I would’ve…” Cat said weakly before her knees gave out on her and she sunk to the floor.
Clark caught her before she struck. “Cat? Cat, are you okay?” He used his hand like a fan over her face.
She blinked her eyes. “Sorry,” she gulped. “I never thought about it quite like that. Is it too late to thank you?”
He smiled. “Never.”
They heard a yelp and then a sickening splat. Turning back around, they realized the thug, whose name they had never discovered, had jumped to his death.
Clark rushed to the edge and peered over. Cat was right behind him. The man was definitely dead.
She backed away from the edge. “Thank you again,” she murmured, before burying her face into his chest.
Clark wasn’t feeling much better about the whole episode either. “I need to get you home. I’ll have to call Henderson about this, and it would be better if you weren’t here. This ‘Boss’ guy is after me, and I don’t want him to come after you because we’re friends,” he said. “Grab your stuff and I’ll fly you home.”
Cat nodded and ran inside. She slipped on her shoes, picked up her sweatshirt and purse, and rushed back. “Think you can do this?” she asked.
“There’s only one way to find out,” Clark said, wrapping his arms around her waist. Soon, they were up above the city.
Cat pointed the way and a few minutes later, Clark set her down on her roof. She kissed his cheek. “Don’t let that guy’s death distract you from Nightfall.”
“I won’t, but it might delay me a bit. We still have a few hours until impact. I’ll take care of it, and then meet you and Lois at the Daily Planet. When you get there, tell her I called and said that I was on my way,” Clark said, taking off into the skies.
He headed back towards his apartment. He needed to call Henderson and let him know about that guy’s death, otherwise Clark could get in trouble with covering up the crime… by not reporting it. As he flew towards Clinton, he heard Lois gulp back a sob.
One scan of the street and he found her leaning against a building, only a couple of blocks from his apartment. He should have known she had been lying to him about being able to walk. He knew he would have to make one more detour before calling Henderson about the body in his alley. So as not to surprise her, he slowly lowered himself down to the sidewalk.
“Lois? Are you okay?” Superman asked, landing in front of her.
Lois stumbled into his embrace, tears rushing out, and her voice rough. “Oh, Superman… Clark…”
He didn’t know how, but he must have given himself away. It was better that she knew the truth, as he wasn’t up to playing two people right now. Just being himself was hard enough.
“I’m sorry, Lois,” he murmured, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her to his chest in an embrace. “How about a lift?” Chest to chest, he floated the two of them into the air straight up and into the clouds. The coolness of the clouds countered with her body’s heat made it a very delightful sensation.
Lois glanced at him for a split second, before pressing her lips onto his.
He opened his mouth to deepen the kiss, holding her more tightly against his chest. How could he not? He loved her. He knew that for certain, even without all of his memories in place.
“Oh, Clark,” she murmured, reconfirming that she now knew that he, Clark Kent, was also Superman.
They had kissed before… some kisses at his apartment, which he had thought were pretty darn passionate, but lacked the emotional ferocity which came with this kiss. Add in this locale, that she still wanted to kiss him this way despite this ridiculous outfit, and the fact that he had lied to her about being two people, made it better than all the other kisses from the last twenty-four plus hours combined. Those kisses now seemed like nothing.
“Lois,” he moaned, wishing he didn’t have to let her go, wishing he didn’t have to set her down on the roof of the Daily Planet and rush back to his apartment to call Inspector Henderson, and finally wishing the Nightfall asteroid, expected by nightfall, wouldn’t further delay him. Oh, duh! That must be why they named it that.
Slowly, he descended from the clouds and set them down on the roof of the Daily Planet.
As soon as she felt the roof beneath her feet, she seemed to realize they were no longer in the clouds and pulled back, staring at him as if seeing him for the first time. He smiled sheepishly. “I’m sorry, Lois, but I’ve got to go.”
“Right,” Lois replied almost in a daze. “Nightfall.”
Well, that among other things, he didn’t want to get into when time was of an essence. “Will you be all right?” he asked.
She nodded slowly with wide eyes.
He reached over and tucked her hair behind her ear. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, and we’ll talk.”
Lois set her hand over his hand caressing her face, and then touched his face with her other hand, running her thumb over his lips. “You’re right, Superman, one kiss changes everything.” She backed towards the roof access door, seemingly unable to take her eyes off him.
“I
will come back, Lois. I promise,” Clark said, floating into the air. With a twist of his body, he super sped off to his apartment to call Inspector Henderson and inform him that there had been another attempt on his life.
***End of Part 97*** Part 98 Comments
