Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Clark TOC can be found
HereAuthor’s Notes: My apologies in advance for Lex’s POV scene. His true colors shine more vibrantly (and graphically) as time progresses. Also, my solution for the IoM virus is not based in fact, but based on what was done in canon, which I cannot believe is anywhere close to the real way to solve such a problem.
Where we left off in Part 119 …“I understand, Sir,” Clark said, knowing he would have to dance around the truth to not reveal Lois’s entire secret, but it was better to be honest with Perry than let his boss continue down the path he had chosen. “The fact of the matter is that Lois has a source, who contacts her from time to time with vague information. This source told her that something bad would happen to me today… well, on your birthday, to be specific. I guess, Lois did a bit of research and, right before she fainted, must’ve put two-and-two together and realized that today everything would be coming to a head.”
Perry whistled. “I know that she loves you, son…”
Clark’s eyes widened.
Perry knows?“Don’t look at me like that, Kent. I didn’t become editor of the Daily Planet by not seeing the nose at the end of my face. With the amount of combustible energy between the two of you, I figured it was only a matter of time before you... uh... partner up… er… privately. After what she went through when you disappeared during Nightfall, add on to that getting arrested and facing a probable prison sentence, and the whole country going to pot because of this computer virus, I could see why she might react a tad wildly to such news. Yet, you don’t seem too worried about this possibility.”
“Lois explained what… what her source told her would happen, and I’m… well, hoping she’s wrong,” Clark said, glancing away.
“Uh-huh,” Perry said, eyeing him warily. “How accurate is this source?”
“Not very. Sometimes the source is spot-on accurate, and sometimes she’s way off base. Lois first told me about her when we were held captive in the Messenger hangar. The source had told Lois that Jimmy would die, as well as all the colonists of the Prometheus transport, and that Lois would barely escape with her life,” Clark explained.
Perry held up his hand to stop him. “Hold on a minute, son. Are you trying to get me to believe that Lois is flaking out because she’s been talking to a psychic? Lois would never believe some phony baloney psychic, especially one who is as wrong as that.”
Clark smiled sheepishly. He had hoped to avoid that aspect of Lois’s visions. “Sir, with all due respect, the source also told Lois that a ‘Superman’ would save her life last May, that she would lose out on the Bureau 39 warehouse story if she didn’t keep you apprised on it, that Max Menken would be shot, that the staff of the Daily Planet would go crazy in love, and that something terrible would happen to me if Superman went on that first Nightfall mission.”
“Harrumph,” Perry grumbled, and Clark could tell he didn’t like relying on psychics. “What you’re saying is that she can’t discount what this woman says, because it might be true?”
“Unfortunately.”
“So, what are you going to do to make sure that you don’t die today?” Perry asked.
“Stay out of the woods,” Clark replied with a shrug of his shoulders.
And avoid meeting up with Lois’s True Clark.Perry laughed. “Damn psychics!”
***
Part 120****************
Into the Darkness****************
Lex patted his double on the shoulder. “You’ll appreciate another visit topside, this time with some fresh air,” he said, leading the clone to the secret elevator hidden behind a bookcase in his ark’s study, where Nigel was waiting. Lex inserted his keycard and typed in his code, the date of his White Orchid Ball when he had first met Lois. “Nigel has an evening of skeet shooting planned for you, should you do well with your lessons.”
The Lex-Clone’s eyes widened with anticipation. “Really? A gun? A real gun? Oh, Father, thank you. I’ve wanted to use one of those, since I first read about them.”
“Uh-uh-uh,” Lex said with a shake of his head. “What did I tell you about expressing gratitude?”
The Lex-Clone cowered for a moment before his resolve stiffened. “Well, it wasn’t as if I was speaking to an underling, Father. Should I not address you with more respect?”
Lex thought about that for a moment, and then nodded his head. “Granted. You’re welcome, son. Just be on your best behavior tonight. You’ll be dining with Dr. Carlin. She’ll be teaching you about proper table manners and decorum while in the company of women.”
The clone’s brow furrowed. “But, Father, if might is right, and the Luthors are mighty, why do I need ‘polite manners’?”
“All in good time, my son,” Lex replied. The Lex-C clone was still young, only a month into his intensive training. Certainly not fully ready for exposure to the outside world as Lex’s double. Perhaps in another month. “If you’re a good little soldier for Daddy, and continue to ace all of your exams, maybe I’ll bring Mrs. Cox in a few weeks to teach you about one of the joys of being a mighty Luthor.”
“Do you think that wise, Sir?” Nigel asked as the beaming clone stepped into the elevator. “Rewarding him in such a manner.”
“Perhaps you are right, Nigel, but he’ll never be able to step in for me at a moment’s notice if he’s never taught how a woman should really be treated,” Lex reminded his majordomo.
“Yes, but do you really want Mrs. Cox in on our little secret?” Nigel asked, nodding to the impatient clone waiting in the elevator. “Bringing in the former Mrs. Luthor…”
“Don’t call her that!” Lex hissed. “She is Dr. Carlin; that is all anyone ever needs to know. I had to inform Ari because her viewing room of the psychiatrist’s office is on the other side of Lex-C’s bedroom.”
“Yes, Sir. I won’t make that mistake again,” Nigel insisted with a bow, disappearing into the elevator.
Lex-C considered the ex-Mrs. Luthor a type of mother figure, so using her for fine-tuning his nuanced skills with women would be pointless, despite the obvious reasons. If Lex-C had no personal experience with women, it was conceivable that one would be able to seduce him and thereby turn him into a docile and blathering idiot, regardless of Lex’s training. That would be a total waste of a clone, and Lex would have to have Leek animate another one. No, Mrs. Cox would be perfect tool for Lex-C to learn that women were objects to be used for nothing else save enslaving, demonstrating control, and carnal pleasures. Anyway, Mrs. Cox was starting to enjoy his latest series of punishments, so it was time to up them a notch. Starting Lex-C out with a female toy, whom he could enjoy by also physically hurting, would show the clone the true pleasure of women.
As soon as the doors closed, Lex slipped his keycard back into his jacket pocket and headed out to the ark suite’s living room. “Asabi,” he called, and his manservant quickly appeared. “Have the arrangements been made as I requested them?”
“Yes, Sir, the woman in question should be here in five minutes, cocktails and dinner have been prepared per your instructions,” Asabi reassured him, gesturing towards the mock-fireplace dining arrangement that Lex liked to use with all his first dates. “Your grey suit and fresh linens have been placed on your bed.”
“I won’t be staying the night, Asabi, and neither shall the lady,” Lex corrected. “Have precautions been made to ensure that the others in the ark don’t learn of my attentions? Each lady needs to feel as if she, and she alone, has my undivided attention. Only later, if the need arises, will we inform them that they are only part of my harem.”
Asabi bent his head forward in a bow.
Before Lex could say anything further, a buzzer sounded. Lex’s brow furrowed. “Is that annoying noise my doorbell?”
“Unfortunately, Sir,” conceded Asabi. “The lady must be early.”
“I must change. See to it that someone from maintenance comes tomorrow and puts a more pleasant tone to that…
bell,” Lex said, heading down the hall towards his ark bedroom.
“Yes, Sir.”
Lex changed into the grey suit from his ark wardrobe and returned to the living room. A tall and quite beautiful red haired woman stood to one side of the room admiring a painting on the wall. “Good evening, Doctor,” he said, joining her. “My apologies for keeping you waiting.”
“Good evening, Mr. Luthor. No problems. I’m afraid I was a bit early. This is a Cézanne landscape, is it not?” she asked.
“It is,” Lex said, eyeing the tight bun at the nape of her neck with an extra smile. He could imagine that her hair reached well down her back, at least to that curve before her bottom. He couldn’t wait to have her naked with her long free flowing hair gripped tightly in his hands. “We will all be friends here soon enough. Please, I insist that you call me Lex.”
“Of course, Lex,” she replied, holding out her hand.
He kissed the back of her hand, per his norm.
“Please, call me Brenda,” she insisted. “Shall we now retire to your bedroom? Or do you wish to get undressed in here?”
Caught off guard, Lex’s mouth dropped open in startled astonishment. He never would've expected such forwardness from their previous meetings. “Pardon?”
“Where would you like me to examine you? Is there some reason that you should wish a gynecologist for your private doctor?” Brenda asked with a slightly puzzled expression. “Well, then, that doesn’t really matter. I’m familiar with the male form as well.”
“Dr. Muldoon, I believe there has been some kind of misunderstanding for the reason you were asked here tonight,” Lex said, feeling distinctly outside of his comfort zone and taking a step backwards away from her. She wasn’t acting and speaking as he was led to believe a woman of her occupation and station would.
“Just joking!” She laughed, patting him gently on the shoulder as she walked over to his sofa. “Please, Lex, if we’re going to be intimately acquainted, you must call me ‘Brenda’.”
“Excuse me?” Lex said, following her with his eyes. This woman seemed to have no fear of him or his authority or his power, and that fact alone both intrigued and annoyed him.
“Dr. Muldoon is only for my patients,” Brenda corrected him. “And being that you clearly aren’t rightly equipped with breasts and ovaries, my guess is that you want to fill my uterus for the coming dawn.”
“I would never presume…” he stated calmly, despite the surge of excitement that rushed through him at her words.
“Of course you would, so let’s cut past the chase. As the benefactor of our little ark community, you would want to sire as many children with as many women as possible for our new world to prove your dominance over the other men and assert yourself as our natural leader. I completely understand that point of view, Lex,” Brenda said bluntly. “I find enjoyment in sex as much as the next woman, if not a little more since I’m more attuned to my body than most women. While I’m not averse to having children in the future, I recommend that we keep our relationship purely professional and not for propagation of the species. As the resident obstetrician for the ark, it is best if I myself do not become pregnant, until our new community is well established with the next generation and I’ve had opportunity to properly train several other women in midwifery. Do you not agree?”
Lex decanted his scotch, poured himself a glass, and took a sip. He was interested in the direction of her thoughts. “I do.”
“Terrific. Now, that we have that settled, there are some questions I need to ask you before I continue to the examination. First, have you previously fathered any children? Secondly, do you now have, or had in the past, any STDs – sexually transmitted diseases? Thirdly, do you have any difficulties with erectile dysfunction?”
He took another sip of his drink. “Examination?”
“Why, yes. We need to test your little swimmers and see how well they function, Lex. I’ll need to take a clean sample back to my office, tonight if possible would be best. The sooner the better. As you know, while I’m not a fertility specialist, per se, I do have a lot of experience in the field. I also brought with me, as part of my contribution to our new society, harvested ova. If any of the women in our community seem difficult to impregnate within this first year, using their own ovum, we can use artificial insemination to make sure that as many women as possible have given birth at least once by the time we can go topside again in three years. For the continuation and health of our species, it’s a must.”
“I can assure you that my…uh… swimmers work perfectly well,” Lex retorted, beginning to wonder if he had misjudged this woman completely. “Yes, I have fathered children in the past. No, I have never had a… an STD, and I’m sure that whatever examination you have in mind will answer your third question for you.”
“Terrific! I assume that your children were lost topside,” she said sadly. “Because the youngest member of our society is twenty-one. If they are here, which I cannot imagine they would be, because you would have had to start fathering children at such a young age, I hope you’ll identify them to me to make sure that we don’t pair bond them with any of your new children.”
Lex smiled at her natural assumption that he was younger than he was. “Thank you, Brenda, but my children are all of age and in an ark in another section of the country,” he clarified. Or they would have been had the asteroid actually struck Earth.
“Please stop drinking, Lex. Alcohol doesn’t help your sperm count any. Now, I need you to go into your bathroom, take a nice warm… not too hot, not too cold shower, cleanse yourself properly, and then go lie naked on your bed. I’ll take the examination over from there.”
“Brenda,” Lex said coolly in response to her domineering attitude and to remind her who was in charge not only in their relationship, but in the whole ark. “Shall we wait to do such an examination until after we’ve eaten? Asabi has had my chef prepare a delicious meal for us.” He waved his hand over to the dining table.
Brenda shrugged. “That’s very generous of you, Lex, but I’ve already eaten a light meal in anticipation of our meeting. I find sex on a full stomach less satisfying. I recommend that you wait until after our first session and before our second session for sustenance. Have only a light snack to maintain your energy. You can eat again or take a short twenty minute nap before our third session.”
“Third session?” Lex gulped. Was she serious? “
Tonight?”
“Yes, of course. During our first session, I will obtain a sample from you. I could have you obtain it yourself, as per the norm, but I find that the sperm count is higher when collected by myself or another female, using a time-honored technique I’ll share with you in a minute. I’ll run it over to my office to examine it while you’re eating to make sure you are up to the job. If you are, then I’ll return to test and grade your performance as a lover, and give you any pointers as needed.”
He bristled at the assumption that he would need any pointers, let alone her ‘examination’ included a test of his abilities. He had to admit, though, he looked forward to not only proving the good doctor wrong, but making her highly satisfied with his ‘performance’. He finished off his Scotch and set the glass on the sideboard as she continued.
“The third session will be to test your stamina. You will be procreating with as many women as possible as quickly as possible during our first year in the ark, will you not? I recommend only ten to fifteen percent of the ark women for you personally, so that we maintain a good balance of non-family members to pair up in the later generations. To satisfy that many women, we need to make sure that your stamina is at top form. You may need to have sex with more than one woman a night, over multiple nights, to obtain the best results, especially if their cycles line up. Therefore, I will be stopping by over the course of the next two nights to repeat this examination to make sure that your sperm count doesn’t deplete too much through such rigorous training,” Brenda explained, standing up. “Shall we get started, Lex?”
Lex nodded his acceptance and entered his bedroom suite. He thought about what his day to day reality could’ve been like if only the asteroid had struck Earth, and Lois had willingly agreed to join his ark community. This underground paradise would now be real and compete, and he would be its god. Not only would he have a harem of women ready to bear his children ‘for the good of mankind’, but Lois could now be his queen to do with as he pleased.
The thought of impregnating Lois, of her carrying his child, filled Lex with such unadulterated pleasure he felt a wave of fury that it hadn’t already happened. He hated having such a golden opportunity, such as the Earth destroying asteroid, slip through his fingers and he promised himself that as soon as he could, Lois would be joining his harem, by force if necessary.
His hatred of Superman began to simmer anew. It was that flying menace’s fault that his ark was only a fantasy of Lex’s concoction, instead of the real deal. Lex felt he must up the torture he had planned for Metropolis’s hero, merely hearing Lois call out Lex’s name in desire would no longer be enough of a punishment. Superman must be coerced into witnessing the event before he died.
***
The next two days passed as if Clark were trapped in a slow blur. He made more Superman rescues, due to computer and programming failures in and out of Metropolis, than even he could count easily. Moreover, he hadn’t seen Lois since she bolted from the Daily Planet roof on Thursday afternoon… well, hadn’t officially seen her. He hadn’t spoken with her.
True to her word, Lois had called and left a message on his answering machine… at least, that first evening. Unfortunately, the phone system had failed by the next day due to the Ides of Metropolis, so even if she could call, there was no way for the call to go through and with the power failure, no way for his machine to record her message. Superman did a quick flyby of her apartment and verified that she was safe inside, before heading out on his patrol and again when he returned in the wee hours of the morning.
Clark wasn’t surprised that he hadn’t seen any evidence either visually or physically to indicate to him that there was another Superman flying about impersonating him. He hated to discount Lois’s visions, but he doubted this one could come true without word from Herb. Clark also made sure not spend any time in the woods, not that ‘Superman’ was supposed to have disappeared from a forest anyway.
Henry and Lena Harrison remained annoyingly elusive as the Ides of Metropolis virus spread from one side of the country to the other.
Early Sunday morning, Clark sat at his now manual typewriter – as the power had gone out in Metropolis sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning – when Lois waltzed into the newsroom from the stairwell as bright and cheerful as a daisy. It was most odd to see her smiling while the few others in the newsroom sported scowls.
“Good morning, Clark,” she practically sang, and even her hair danced with her greeting. He noticed that her slightly damp bob had more natural waves to it than usual. It was just like Lois to try to exert daily control over her hair to straighten it in the morning.
“Good morning, Lois,” Clark replied, rising to his feet. “You didn’t have to come in but, still, you’re a sight for sore eyes.”
“Thank you, Clark. Of course, I needed to come in. I’ve got a front page to fill,” Lois said, positively glowing. She drew out of her briefcase a flat wrapped rectangular box and set it off to the side of her desk.
“What’s that?” he asked, stepping towards her desk tentatively. The last time he had spoken with her, she hadn’t wanted him or Superman anywhere near her, or so she had said.
“Perry’s birthday present,” she replied.
“Perry’s birthday…? Lois, the last time I saw you, any mention of the Chief’s birthday filled you with dread. What happened?”
“Detective Reed and I caught Mr. and Mrs. Harrison red-handed at Harritech late yesterday evening,” Lois announced, ignoring his inquiry about her behavior from the other day.
Clark was a bit surprised that he hadn’t heard the news of the Harrisons arrests. Although, Superman had been all over the country for most of the night putting of fires, both literal and figurative ones, he had heard very little in the way of news bulletins. He had hardly spent an hour in bed before the sunrise woke him up that morning, and he rushed into work to type up news of what was going on around the country.
“Apparently, the good detective got it into her head to follow me,” she continued. “Doesn’t anyone in this town do their own investigating anymore? Anyway, the Harrisons were trying to rework some code, which wasn’t infecting the Midwest as quickly as they liked. I explained to them, once they had surrendered to Detective Reed at gunpoint, that most of the computers in the farm belt wouldn’t be affected by the Ides of Metropolis, because they weren’t yet online.”
A smile broadened across his face, entirely too delighted that Lois was back to herself again. He let her slur on the farming communities of the Midwest being behind the rest of world, technologically speaking, slip by. He’d correct her erroneous thinking another time.
Lois glanced at her wrist, which wiped the smile from Clark’s face. She was still wearing Luthor’s watch. “We…well, Eugene’s lawyer and I, spent hours at the courthouse yesterday evening pleading for Eugene’s immediate release. The best they could do was this morning. Actually, can you pick him up and take him over to M.U.T.? Eugene needs to complete the antidote that Jimbo and his buddies have been working on non-stop since Thursday. Once I finish typing up my story, I’ll meet you over there to help… well, give my moral support at least.”
“Sure, Lois,” Clark said, wishing that they could go together. “Except that I don’t have a valid driver’s license, and the taxis have started price-gouging.”
“Tell me about it. That’s why I drove this morning. I really doubt that the police will be pulling you over today, Clark. Their hands are pretty full with higher priority emergencies,” she reminded him as if he needed any reminding. Despite the mandatory curfew the acting mayor had enacted the day before, the streets of Metropolis had been plenty busy during the dark of the night.
“Still…” he started.
Lois nudged his shoulder and gave him a grin, before leaning forward and whispering, “Live a little on the wild side, boy scout.”
“This lifestyle of crime that you’re condoning isn’t really me, Lois,” he replied.
“It’s an national emergency, Clark. In times of such emergencies lesser infractions of justice, such as driving without a valid driver’s license, are allowed,” she corrected.
No, they aren’t. He stared at her with disbelief. “Why don’t we give your article a read-through together, and then I’ll type it up for you? That way you can drive us,” he suggested.
She raised a brow. “Is this your backhanded way of saying that my article is going to need a little extra Kent editing before I submit it to Perry, that my typing skills aren’t up to par with yours, or that you deserve a byline for helping me out?”
Clark didn’t respond, other than to give her his friendliest smile. She pulled her notebook out of her briefcase. As he leaned over her shoulder to see what she had written, his cheek casually brushed hers. Her heartbeat seemed to increase with his close proximity, much to his delight. He had missed her too.
“I stopped by your apartment after I left the courthouse last night,” Lois murmured, turning slightly towards him. Their lips were close enough for him to feel her breath on them. “I thought we could talk. There’s just something about being in the dark, the lack of electricity, which gave me the notion of freedom to be myself that I haven’t felt in a long time. A part of me loves it and wishes I could live in the safety of the darkness with you for a few more days.” Her voice had a rough edge to it. “But you were out.”
“I’m fine,” he said, standing up to combat his temptation to join their lips together, the story be damned. “I stayed out of the woods, just like you asked.”
“Clark,” she groaned. “Can’t we just forget the other day? I can’t believe I went around the bend like that.”
“Oh, no! I’ll never forget it, Lois. Do you think documented proof of you being wrong falls into my lap on a daily basis?” he scoffed. “This is a once in a lifetime opp…” He started to laugh and back away when she slapped his arm.
“That’s right, buster, and you better not forget it. Once in a lifetime opportunity,” Lois retorted with a scowl, sticking her finger in his face. A part of him hated that the gloating other half of him had taken away her smile. “I refuse to live through that again,” she informed him.
He stopped laughing, realizing how that memory must have affected her. “I’m sorry.”
“Never again,” she murmured, sitting back down at her desk. She snapped her gaze back to his. “Never.”
“I’m sorry, Lois, but I refuse to die just to prove you right,” he said, once more trying to lighten the mood.
“You feeling like walking to M.U.T., Chuck?” she asked sharply.
“Not particularly,” he replied.
“Then let’s finish this and get over to the jail to pick up Eugene. There will still be a lot of recovery to do and to report on, even when he comes up with an antidote,” Lois reminded Clark, tossing him her notebook.
He nodded and started reading.
She was quiet for a minute as he read what she had written. “When I say ‘never’, I mean
never again, Clark. I’ve decided that I can either live in fear of these visions and what they might be showing me, as I did last week, or I could learn from them and use them to my advantage.”
Clark was still skeptical. “So, what did you ‘learn’ from this…” He lowered his voice. “—
vision of my death?”
“To look on the brighter side of life,” Lois replied.
“Uh-huh,” he said, not believing her, and then pointed at her notebook. “I like your phrasing here.” He glanced up to see that her smile had returned.
“I
learned that Perry will really love these checkered suspenders I bought him for his birthday,” she said with a nod to the wrapped gift she had set on her desk.
Clark laughed.
Lois crossed her arms. “Okay, Mr. Know-It-All, what did
you get Perry for his birthday?”
Clark coughed and glanced away.
“A-ha! Nothing! I knew it,” she crowed.
“No, no…” he admitted hesitantly, before clearing his throat and lowering his voice. “I asked Dr. Novak, the hypnotist from the Magic Club, to come in and deprogram him.”
“Oh,” she replied a bit disappointedly. “I guess that’s an okay gift.”
“I’m glad it meets with your approval,” he said. Clark had to tell Perry about his problem with owls to convince his boss to take five minutes out of his busy day to allow Dr. Novak into his office.
Lois glanced around. There wasn’t that many staff or reporters in at that hour, despite the emergency status of the country. “Did he fire Jimmy?” she whispered.
Clark shook his head. “Jimmy volunteered himself to help Perry with some upcoming spring cleaning.”
Her eyes sparkled with delight. “I’m glad. Things wouldn’t be the same without him around here.”
Clark was tempted to throw caution to the wind and kiss her, right here on the newsroom floor, but he stopped himself due to the memory of her very real fear of being close to him just days ago. Although, how or why she thought separating herself from his presence would ‘save’ his life more than being with him would, still confounded him, he had honored her request. “I’m glad to hear you aren’t going to let those visions have power over you any longer,” he stated.
“If I learn someone or something will hurt you, or someone else I love, I’ll do
anything to stop it from happening, Chuck,” she told him. “I’m not one to stand idly by.”
It was the closest Lois had admitted to loving him out in the open on the newsroom floor. “Same here, Lois,” he replied, squeezing her arm. “So, why don’t we finish this article so we can save the world, Super Woman?”
She grimaced as a rosy blush streaked across her cheeks. “So, you know.”
His brow furrowed. “Know?” She had lost him.
“That I almost called you ‘Superman’ the other day in the supply room,” Lois admitted. “‘Supplies’. Ha! I wasn’t even thinking specifically of him, either. I was just trying to joke about us saving the world and it just started to slip out.” She lifted her hand and briefly touched his cheek. “You remind me of him, you know: your goodness, your kindness, your steadfast belief in people, your virtue… well, clearly, nobody is as virtuous as Superman.”
“Lois,” he interrupted, feeling a slight flush rise to his cheeks both by her words and her touch. “We should really get to work.”
“Your modesty,” she went on wryly, standing up. “You want to use my typewriter or yours?”
Clark chose hers, since it was her story. She rested her hands on his shoulders and started to rub them as he typed. He made more typos than he ever had before.
***
“Got it!” Eugene announced after hours of trying to break through Harrison’s password wall. “You were right, Lois. Shakespeare’s play is the thing. ‘Et tu, Brute’ that’s the password!”
“What now?” Clark asked as he leaned over Eugene’s shoulders to watch what he was doing.
It was still unseasonably warm in Metropolis and with all the generators being used to power the computers, the temperature had risen in the computer labs. It wasn’t too hot for the computers, but Clark had taken off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves.
Lois’s brow furrowed. Wait. The heat didn’t bother Clark. Was it the pressure of trying to figure out the password? The stress of holding himself back, and not being able to jump in and do things at super speed without letting everyone in the room know he was Superman? How frustrating that must be for him, Lois realized. She knew how frustrating it was for her, and she only knew his secret. No wonder he was sweating. She had to admit, though, his damp brow made him look extra sexy.
They had a battery-powered radio playing in the background, and Clark had left on a few occasions to get snacks, drinks, and even a breath of air, whenever major emergencies were announced. She could tell he hated tying himself to this spot to
wait for the antidote, when people needed Superman all over the country, but he always came back. He must’ve known as she did, that the only way to slow down the emergencies was to get the antidote out to the major cities as quickly as possible to start the trickledown effect of erasing the virus from the computer network.
Eugene typed something and a map of the country with some kind of grid on it popped up on the screen. “By our calculations, for the antidote to reach full distribution, it needs to pass first through these three centers,” he said, pointing to the three largest blinking dots on the screen.
“So, we contact the centers and have them apply the antidote?” Clark asked, and Eugene shook his head. “No?” Clark confirmed.
“Unfortunately, no. First, the phone lines aren’t working. Second, it’s too late for that; the virus has already penetrated the network. It has to be done on the premises of these three major centers, and then also applied to the these sub-centers here,” Eugene said, pointing at ten more slightly smaller dots blinking over major American cities. “That will start the trickle down to these smaller regional centers, and finally to the small towns.” He popped the antidote disk from his computer. “We have to manually insert this antidote disk in each of the centers, and so on.” He sighed. “The faster we can accomplish this, the faster everything will come back online.”
“How much time will this take?” Clark asked, taking the disk from Eugene.
Eugene shrugged. “Depends on how long it takes to get this antidote uploaded into these centers. It could take weeks…”
“We could make more disks, and have planes fly to the different cities,” Jimbo suggested from the next computer. “If each of us takes a disk…” He pointed at his classmates.
Lois set her hands on Eugene and Jimbo’s shoulders. “
Or we could ask a friend of mine to do it.”
“A friend?” Jimbo said skeptically, his head shaking and then his eyes widened. “Superman! I don’t know, Lois. You heard the radio; he’s been putting out fires all day, sometimes literally.”
Eugene nodded, glancing up at her. “It would speed along the healing process. How fast is he?”
Lois smiled at Clark. “Oh, I don’t know,” she answered casually. “I bet he could reach all the centers and sub-centers today just by using that one disk. I’m sure he’d much rather treat the disease preemptively than retroactively, don’t you think, Clark?”
“I’ll see if I can contact him,” Clark said, jumping to his feet and rushing to the door. “Then you can ask him yourself.”
“Superman is coming here?” Jimbo gasped. “Here?”
Lois patted Jimbo’s shoulder. “I did say I’d introduce you someday, didn’t I?”
“Wow,” Jimbo gushed.
Eugene leaned back in his chair, his hands behind his head, and sighed. “It feels good to be a free man again, Lois. Thank you for not giving up, and I’m sorry you got arrested because of me,” he said, giving her a big smile. “If there’s ever anything I can do for you…”
Lois glanced over her shoulder and towards the door that Clark exited out of a minute before. “Let’s just get the country up and running again, first, Eugene,” she replied, dropping into Clark’s seat with a sneaky smile. “And get you your life back on track again, and then we can talk about the future.” Moreover, resurrecting Clark’s past.
***End of Part 120*** Part 121 Comments and/or Lex-bashing.
