In A Better Place
by CC Aiken
He had only known her a short time. Barely a week. But he wasn’t at all surprised to see her there. Right in the middle of it. Center of the action, heart of the story. As he crossed the threshold and took in the alarm on her face, and the growing disbelief, he fought a giddy urge to say as much. “You again?”
Of course he didn’t. Because if he could get past her, get in and get out without her shouting about annoying junior partners in ridiculous get-ups who had obviously lost what little mind they already had, then he knew he was golden. The dual-identity thing would work.
Talk about your baptism by fire.
So, Lois was the one who had stopped the launch sequence, who had performed a quick thinking act of sabotage to a billion dollar space craft in order to save lives.
And she would get the story, too.
All in all, really brilliant. Which was exactly why he wasn’t surprised to find her there. He was learning; this was par for the course with Lois Lane.
He stepped around her quickly, focusing on what needed to be done, only half-way hearing her stammered, startled questions. He couldn’t let her distract him. And he knew too well, she always did. A face like that...
A bomb.
He studied it for only the briefest of seconds. Time was of the essence, to say the least. And it was sized just about right...
Down the hatch, then. He would just have to take it on faith that he could handle it. He’d had enough years to get used to the idea of being invulnerable. To test that reality in a variety of ways. But this would be... different. It certainly hadn’t occurred to him before now to just... swallow explosives.
He did it. He gulped it down before he could talk himself out of it. Before he could try to do anything else that might risk those on board, might risk the critical colonist transport. Might risk Lois.
“Excuse me,” he said to her, as the after shocks came back up on him a bit.
She didn’t call him Clark. She didn’t point her finger and declare that even though he had just saved the day, dammit, she had been here first and the story was all hers, no sharing. She simply stared. Dumbfounded.
He took an extra second to memorize that look on her face. He’d never seen it before. She was always so sure, so completely in control. But now...
He grinned. He’d impressed her. Finally. Never mind that she couldn’t know exactly *who* had impressed her. The look on her face was good enough for him. He only wished he had thought to bring a camera.
***
When he had conferred with the scientists both inside and outside the control tower at EPRAD, assuring them he could be of help, that it wasn’t necessary to scrub the launch, when the colonists had returned to their stations, ready to go, he sought her out. She was back where she had been before, strapped in and not even breathing hard.
“Excuse me,” he said to her again, drawing her attention to where he stood in the doorway. “Miss...?”
“Lane,” she said, tossing her seatbelts off in a blur and moving towards him. “Lois Lane. The Daily Planet. And you are...?”
He smiled politely. Yeah, right. “A friend,” he said carefully.
“Well, friend,” she said with a dazzling smile. “I think we need to talk. And since we aren’t moving yet, now would be an excellent time.”
“We’re going to be underway in just a minute,” he told her, watching as she pulled a mini-recorder from her hip pocket. A notebook from the other. She clicked record and held the device just under his chin.
“Right. And I understand you’re coming along. So, I just jotted down a few questions.”
He peered over at her notes. A few? More like a hundred. And in record time, too.
“Ms Lane,” he began somewhat warily.
”Lois,” she corrected him with that same dazzling smile.
“Lois,” he said distinctly into the recorder, “are you planning on staying on Prometheus as a resident?”
She looked up from her notebook. “What? Oh... no. No! I was just- I wanted- well, no. I hadn’t actually planned on it.”
“So, you were just... along for the ride?”
“Precisely. And good thing I was! A responsible journalist has a duty to- to-”
“Stow away on restricted space craft?”
“Yes,” she said with a stubborn lift of her chin. “Just think what would have happened if I hadn’t.”
He inclined his head to acknowledge her point. “But what now? You’re going to ride into space and then just... catch a cab back?”
“I hadn’t actually worked all the kinks out of my plan yet,” she said with a sniff, hitting the off button on her recorder and pressing rewind. “We’re talking about you, not me.”
“Maybe I could make you a deal?” he said slowly, enjoying her excited fumble with the recorder controls as she hit record once more. Her heart was galloping. And yet, to the outside observer, she was as cool and composed as ever.
He felt that now familiar swell in his heart, the tightness in his chest, the one he’d had since the first day, since her stormy entrance into Perry’s office, into his world. He couldn’t name it. He didn’t know what it was. But it was... hypnotic.
“You stay here, and I’ll come back and describe the flight to you.”
Her brow darkened and her heart rate tripped a bit faster, but she didn’t back down. “It’s still second-hand that way. I should come with you and watch.”
“I don’t think that’s safe, Lois.”
Not smart, Kent. He knew her well enough to know that. What were the words that were the equivalent of catnip to a kitten? ‘Not safe’ to Lois Lane. Idiot. “I can’t bring you back through empty space.” He sounded a bit desperate now. Off-balance.
She was studying him more closely too, and he knew exactly why even if she didn’t. He had sounded just like Clark Kent.
He rushed on, squaring his shoulders a bit and deepening his voice. “In open space you can’t breathe. You’ll freeze. Vaporize.” He wasn’t sure that was right, but it sounded good. “Burn up on re-entry,” he added in a moment of inspiration. And that was most definitely true, he thought with great relief. There was no way he could bring her home.
She faltered. Considering. He half expected her to demand a space suit, scuba tanks, or her own craft. “How about I fly you back to the Daily Planet when I’m finished?” He dangled that in front of her to sweeten the deal.
“Fly me?” she said very slowly.
“Fly you, yes.”
“In the space pod you came in?” she said to clarify.
“In my arms,” he said with a sheepish smile. “I never said I had a space pod.”
Neither had he confirmed that he was an alien, though he was as inclined to believe it as Lois apparently was.
“Then you don’t?” she demanded. “Have a space pod?”
“No,” he answered firmly. “I fly... under my own power. It’s how I got here. And it’s how I’m going to lift the shuttle into orbit.”
“You’re going to... lift... the shuttle,” she parroted back to him. “Into orbit.”
He could practically hear her writing. ‘Swallows bomb, dresses oddly, flies unassisted, lifts really heavy things...’
“Yes,” he said simply. “I’m going to fly this out to Prometheus, see it safely docked. And if you like, I’ll come back here and describe it to you, and then take you back to work. I imagine you have some writing to do.”
“Ok,” Lois said with more than a bit of reluctance. “I’ll meet you in the upstairs file room at EPRAD. Fourth floor, next to last room on the left. It’s tiny, no windows, and hardly ever used.”
“And you know about that... how?” he asked, just because he knew he would enjoy the answer.
“It’s a reporter’s job to know,” she hedged, her chin coming up once more, a hint of a challenge snapping behind her eyes.
“I’ll meet you there,” he said quietly.
“And just so we’re clear,” she pressed. “You won’t be flying anyone else... before me.”
“You mean, besides the transport?” he teased her gently.
“Right. No other individual.”
“So, you want to be exclusive?”
Good grief. Was he flirting with her? Here? Now? A space station to reach and lives in his hands and a new role to play... and he was standing here with Lois Lane... flirting? That could not be right. Because that would be so very, very stupid.
And fun.
But much more stupid than fun, he reminded himself harshly. So he wouldn’t. Would. Not.
“My exclusive,” Lois was saying with a look in her eyes that was positively arresting. Was she flirting back? Oh Lord help him, if that was the case. No. She was just... lulling him. Drawing him in so he would tell all. He took a deep breath, only to let it out again in a rush when she added with a bat of her dark eyes, “You’re all mine, Mr... uh... Mr..?”
“You can just say I’m a friend,” he stammered, suddenly really eager to leave. To let the cold of space douse him with much needed clarity. He practically sprinted from the room. He stayed out of her sight, watching her exit- just to make sure she really did- and listening intently to the last minute instructions from EPRAD’s team.
So far so good, he told himself. He had saved the transport from the bomb, though he’d be lying if he didn’t admit his gut still felt a little strange. He had spoken to Lois and she hadn’t seen right through him. All he had left to do was fly the shuttle to its destination.
The hard part was over. What could possibly go wrong?
***
The sun had long since set by the time he returned. From the sky EPRAD was brilliantly lit and very busy. He took note of the intense concentration on the faces of the scientists monitoring Prometheus’s status. Then he let his eyes climb, story by story, to the lone, dim lamp lit in a windowless office on the fourth floor.
She was there. And he knew that she would be. The chances that Lois Lane might grow bored with the wait and leave for home were... He laughed at the very thought. Non-existent.
He took just a moment to hover over the building. He knew he needed to land, enter through the door he had been instructed to, and report on his flight. The questions he would take there were nothing compared to what he knew was waiting for him on the fourth floor. Lois was writing madly, and no doubt had been since the instant she’d snuck in and commandeered the desk.
She wasn’t the only one. Not by far. The lobby and press conference rooms were stuffed full. Reporters and photographers he vaguely recognized from his short time in Metropolis were also planted throughout various parts of the building. Hiding behind potted palms and water fountains. Crouched in restroom stalls. There were several with binoculars in the parking lot and in the bushes surrounding the courtyard. Clark was grateful for the night sky that hid him. He and his mom hadn’t really thought of the stealth angle when putting the Suit together. They had both thought the more noticeable the better. So people could see him easily, know that help was coming. But now he saw that definitely had its disadvantages.
He owed a debt of gratitude to the forward thinking gentleman who had directed him to the one particular entrance. It was in the service bay, protected by an impressive fence, pitch black, and easy. One swoop and he’d be in and behind private doors faster than anyone could blink.
He hesitated.
What if he just flew home? Or even back to Kansas, to his mom and dad’s? Where was the real harm in that? He had done what needed to be done. The rest of it was just... public relations. Not necessarily a part of helping. There wasn’t any real reason he couldn’t come and go. Rescue and leave without a lot of words or explanations. Was there?
If he was going to pull this off- be Clark Kent and be... a flying rescuer, maybe it would be better if people never heard his voice in this guise. If they never got a close look at his face. If he was mysterious, anonymous....
Once more his eyes tracked up to Lois. Waiting. He had given her his word. He had assured the authorities at EPRAD he would come back and meet with them. And he had already spoken to the colonists. To the astronauts housed in Prometheus. To Lois.
So, really, anonymity was out.
He squared his shoulders. Closed his eyes. Took just a minute to appreciate what he had done today. He had made a difference, a vast difference, in the lives of many. That was what he had hoped for. Exactly what he had intended when he has let his mother talk him into a skintight clown suit. He would need to hold to that, to keep that one fact intact and in the forefront of his mind, if he was going to survive everything that was coming.
“I made a difference today,” he whispered aloud, feeling a bit foolish, but there was absolutely no one to hear. “Hopefully the first of many,” he added, since he was already talking to himself and it made him feel better.
He drew a deep breath, tightened into a dive, and plunged.
***
It was an exhausting couple of hours later when he bid the grateful, somewhat awed staff of EPRAD goodnight. He left from the parking lot, letting the few remaining reporters and photographers snap some photos of him in a take-off pose he improvised on the spot. He hoped it didn’t look too cheesy.
He went straight up and then poured on the speed to go right back down and in through a second story window he had noticed on his first trip back. He hit the floor noiselessly, sweeping the area with his x-ray vision even as he did so. No one around. He listened hard for any indication his return had been seen. Nothing. He found the stairwell and jogged up the steps towards his appointment with Lois.
She was waiting just outside the fourth floor stairwell. His hand had barely touched the knob when the door swung open. Thinking he had been nearly silent in his approach, he fumbled. “Did you hear me coming?”
“I’ve just been doing that every two minutes for the last hour or so,” she said with a bright smile, relief clear on her features.
“Did you think I was going to stand you up?” he teased her lightly.
“That thought had crossed my mind,” she returned a tad breathlessly, before stepping back and letting him enter the hallway. “How did it go? What was it like? Have you ever done anything like that before? How much can you lift? How far can you fly? Do you not need to breathe? What planet are you from? When did you arrive?”
He stopped and blinked hard. She held the door to the file room open for him, still talking, still asking, he just didn’t bother to listen any further. He was too busy trying to think up answers. Good, innocuous, in no way revealing answers to the rain of questions falling all over him.
For one heart-stopping, knee-shaking moment, he was... a complete blank.
“Um,” he said, because he realized she was quiet now. Quiet and watching with a sharp attention that was unsettling, to say the very least. She pulled a chair out for him and rounded the desk to flip open her notebook. The spider pulling in the fly.
He swallowed hard. Whatever had possessed him to agree to...?
Wait. He paused and gave himself a minute to think back.
He hadn’t agreed to this.
As soon as he had it, he grasped onto that thought like the lifeline it was. He had agreed to come back, to tell her about the space flight and take her to work. But he had never said he was going to tell... everything.
Lois was bulldozing him. He had seen her do it to a parade of victims all week long, and she had very nearly done it to him.
He stopped just short of laughing out loud. She was... amazing. How many times in their short acquaintance had he thought that already?
He sat down, feeling a bit more confident. She was going to be disappointed, but he could do this.
“I don’t want to answer any questions of a personal nature, Ms Lane,” he said as matter-of-factly as he could. “But if you want to talk about the specifics of the flight, what happened tonight, I’m all yours.” He smiled winningly at her.
Which didn’t actually work as well as he hoped it might.
“We had an arrangement,” she returned in a sweet, friendly voice that immediately had him on edge. He knew better. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have camped out here all night just to hear exactly what you finished telling to every scientist and reporter in the building.”
He didn’t let himself shrink under her hard stare. In fact he made himself sit up straighter, broadened his shoulders. Look imposing. He was *not* Clark Kent right now, so he couldn’t let her treat him as if he was. And, for crying out loud, he had saved her life. Saved. Her. Life. That had to earn him some grace points. Though he did know Lois was really stingy with grace points.
He drew a deep breath and tried to say something other than, “But I ate that bomb and rescued you!” Which would sound a little whiny. Or maybe even conceited.
He went for broke. “I don’t want to be laid bare for the world to see.” It was completely honest and she knew it, he could tell. “I want to help, but I don’t want to be... famous.”
She sat back in her chair and simply looked at him. “You just saved the space program. By yourself. You flew into deep space carrying a space ship. In that costume-”
“Suit.”
“Suit,” she echoed distractedly, waving one hand as if batting the word out of the way. “And you don’t want fame?”
“I want to help,” he repeated. “Because I can. Because I need to, but this....” He gestured to her list. “Is more than I’m ready for.”
“Are you kidding me?” There was nothing more in her tone than pure disbelief. “How did you think you were going to pull a stunt like this without-”
“Not a stunt,” he returned a bit stiffly. “A rescue. Your rescue,” he added a bit peevishly. So much for not sounding whiny or conceited.
Lois wasn’t deterred. But then she never was. “Rescue,” she amended. “Do you plan to do more things like this from time to time?”
And his nod she continued, “And afterwards, what then? You just disappear? No questions asked?”
“That would be really nice,” he said somewhat wistfully.
The silence that sat between them was heavy, pregnant with all the things he knew were racing through her mind that she wasn’t saying.
“What?” he prompted, because he trusted her. He liked her. And he wanted to know what she was thinking.
“You’re going to need help."
He was floored. She'd caught him completely off-guard. Of all the things he had expected from his hard-bitten, full speed ahead *senior* partner, this was... dead last. He lowered his elbows to the desk and really studied her across the small space that separated them.
She blushed slightly under his measuring gaze, but she didn’t look away. “Are you offering?” he asked in a low voice.
“Are you for real?” she returned in the same tone. “As good as you seem?”
“I’m real,” he told her. “And I’m here to help. That’s it.”
She had already surprised him deeply, so he didn’t really expect her to do it again. For a cynic like Lois Lane to simply nod her head and accept what he was saying at face value was far too much to hope for. So, he waited. Watching the struggle play out across her face.
“You will have to talk,” she said at last, flipping her notebook closed. “Let people know just exactly that. That you’re as good as you seem. That you’re just here to rescue, nothing else. But I can teach you how to say that without giving too much of yourself away. For now.”
On impulse he reached across the desk and put his hand over hers. “Thank you,” he said. He knew. He knew better then she could ever guess how much it was costing her to let him off the hook this way.
“There’s a catch,” she said firmly, though she didn’t pull her hand away.
He straightened and smiled. “Name it.”
“You belong to me.” She reddened a bit under his amused glance, but kept going. “When you do your rescues, you talk to me first, no matter what. For a year.”
“Six months,” he countered, noting- but doing his best to ignore- the vague ringing of alarm which went with that offer.
“Ten,” she shot back.
“Eight,” he said, not because he cared but because this was kind of fun.
“Let’s call it nine and you have yourself a deal.”
“Nine it is, Lois Lane.” He rose from his seat, offering his hand to shake on it.
She did the same. “Ok, so for now I’m going to write the details of today’s rescue. I’m going to quote you on the friend thing and here to help bit. Do some general description stuff.” She waved her hand over him and muttered to herself, “A suit, not a costume.”
He nodded. “Sounds good.”
“That leaves you some mystery,” she continued. “And some time to work out your story. But for the next nine months, I’m the one who tells it.”
“And what if something happens and you’re not around?”
“I’m always around,” she stated. “And you already agreed. Now, about that flight to work...”
With the distinct impression he had been played like a violin, that he had, in fact, agreed to a deal very similar to Bobby Bigmouth’s, sans egg rolls, Clark stepped towards her.
She had come around the desk and was holding her bag. Her white knuckles were the only hint she might be anything less than blasé about flying off into the night with a man from outer space.
“I’m going to pick you up,” he said, marveling at how easily those words came. “And we can be airborne in seconds. Don’t worry. It’s perfectly safe.”
She gulped and nodded. He lifted her gently, slipping his hand under her knees and around her shoulders. She fit against his chest and in his arms so perfectly he lost a step in his surprise. This was a perk of the job he hadn’t considered before just now. Maybe that exclusive deal was going to be worth it.
He swung her around quickly, earning a startled laugh from his passenger, even as he nearly tripped over the night janitor in the doorway.
Clark froze. He hadn’t seen or heard the man’s approach. He had been so intent on Lois.
The janitor was staring with a look in his eyes that was hard to read. And with good reason. Probably wasn’t everyday he came to empty the wastebaskets and found a flying man fondling a famous reporter.
This was not good.
The small bells of alarm, which had been dimly clanging as he was haggling with Lois over interview rights, pealed loudly now. Clarity was his new, though somewhat belated, best friend. This was going to be a problem. If he spoke to Lois and only Lois, she was going to become too well associated with him.
And this, this holding her in front of a witness. One call to a tabloid and he’d be so much more than a mysterious rescuer. And she’d be so much more than just the reporter who interviewed him.
He set her down quickly, knowing it was too late. He had been careless and the horse had left the barn, but he had to try. As much as he didn’t want to sound clichéd, he couldn’t help it. “This isn’t what it looks like.” He cringed even as the words left his mouth.
“Do you have any idea how I wish that were so?” The man stepped into the room and into the circle of light cast by the desk lamp.
Clark could see now what he hadn’t noticed before. He wasn’t the janitor. That wasn’t an industrial gray uniform he was wearing, as much as it was a... shiny silver get up of some sort. Not that he had room to be critical considering what he, himself, was wearing.
“Just as sure as death and taxes,” the man groaned. “And Lois, really. I read through hundreds of pages of this drivel- not much else for me to do during my most recent incarceration- and you got it wrong. It clearly states here...” He waved a book under their noses, “'I waited all night. The sun was rising when we left the building and flew into a sky streaked with pink and orange. Metropolis slept on, but for me, everything had changed...’”
“You know him?” Clark asked Lois.
“No,” she said adamantly. “And I have no idea what he’s rambling on about.”
“I’m not the one rambling in purple prose about first meetings and true love,” the man sneered. “And it isn’t even accurate, Lois! You’re a reporter, you ought to be ashamed. It’s pitch black outside, not yet one a.m. I came early to get the worm, and still not early enough. Because here you two are... together. Eternally, insufferably... together!”
“Ok, sir,” Clark said as soothingly as he was able. “It’s clear you’re distressed. Let’s walk down to the main offices and find someone to assist you. How does that sound?”
“Oh, that sounds dandy. Good plan. They don’t call you a hero for nothing, do they?”
He tossed the book at their feet. The spine immediately cracked and papers of unusual size and shape fell out.
“That looks like a... collectable,” Clark said, noticing the strange design. “Let’s just take this along with us. Maybe with some tape...”
“A dime a dozen,” said the man. “Or, actually, free to all school children, if you can imagine. Filthy propaganda.”
Lois pulled it from his hands, even as Clark was trying to stuff some wayward pages back in. “What is this?”
“Don’t recognize it? Try the title, darlin’.”
“The Diary of Lois Lane,” read Lois with a stunned laugh. Her look at Clark said it all. Certifiable Looney.
“Pick a page, Lois, any page.”
Lois flipped it open at random and the man peered over her shoulder. “Oh, the holidays. Pretty consistent theme here. Gets really boring after a while. Let me guess, ‘Dear Diary, Christmas came and went, and still no pony. Lucy is heartbroken. Mother is drunk. Daddy is who knows where...’”
“Oh god!” Lois said.
“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” he agreed.
“What is this?” Lois rounded on him. “And who are you!”
“Now this is the part I really get tired of. The introductions. We need a code word, don’t we? A secret handshake? Something. So we don’t have to go through this each and every time.”
Clark moved to intercede, with no clue what was happening. “It’s obvious you aren’t feeling well, sir. Let’s go get you some help. Lois, you stay here. I’ll be right back.”
“Protecting the little woman?” the man taunted. “Careful there, champ. I think everyone knows she doesn’t like that.”
“Who are you calling ‘little woman?’” demanded Lois. “And who the hell are you, and where did you get this?”
“Help has arrived!” trumpeted a voice from the doorway, snapping the three of them to attention at once.
Clark was stunned. As a general rule he wasn’t easy to sneak up on, but this was twice in one night. The crazy man beside him gave one quick bark of laughter which ended in something like a low moan. Lois, like Clark, simply looked.
The doorway was jammed to overflowing, full of men and women, all dressed in robes of various colors. All crowding into the room as far as they could fit. All... smiling at him and Lois as if they were long lost family.
“It’s them!” one whispered to another.
“I never get used to it,” was the reply.
“Excuse me,” Clark said, angling his body ever so slightly between Lois and their new audience.
“You see how he does that?” remarked a hushed voice. “It’s already second nature. The protective gesture.”
“She needs it, though, doesn’t she?” someone chortled.
“Can we help you?” Clark asked in as stern a voice as he could manage.
“This is getting weirder by the minute,” muttered Lois from behind him and he couldn’t disagree.
The one who had spoken stepped forward and made a small bow. “Not to worry, sir. We are the Friends of Utopia. Helpers and Peacekeepers assigned to watch over your fate and the fate of the future. You are in good hands.”
“Hey,” Lois snapped in his ear, pulling on his cape. “You didn’t mention there was more than one of you. That you have helpers and... uh...”
“Peacekeepers,” chirped one, snapping his heels together with a smile of pure, radiant joy.
“O-kay,” Lois intoned slowly.
Clark turned to face her, blocking those behind him in the tiny space, and lowering his voice. “I swear, I do not know these people.”
“No, no, dear boy.” A woman, small, round, and bespectacled, squeezed herself into the center of the room and the conversation. “You don’t know us. And that’s the whole point. You are to live your life and do what you do, while we take care of the time and space details. I’m not allowed to tell you more than that, Superman.”
“Superman?” Lois and Clark repeated in unison.
“Whoopsies,” said the woman a tad tremulously.
“Lois would have thought of it in a few hours anyway,” called an encouraging voice from the crowd.
“Right, right,” the woman tutted. “So, I guess we can let that one go. But let that be a lesson to everyone. The less interaction the better.”
“Can we just get on with this please?” grouched the man who had started the bizarre portion of his and Lois’s evening.
The woman turned towards him, every bit of helpful friendliness wiped from her face. “Tempus,” she said severely. “You know what comes next.”
“Oh joy,” Tempus returned.
“Run a scanner over him, would you, Andrus?” the woman asked, giving Clark a fond pat as she moved aside.
“He isn’t armed,” Andrus squeaked.
“He isn’t?” gasped several of them at once.
“Maybe this one isn’t him, then?”
“Maybe it’s another replicant.”
“Oh dear.”
“Oh no.”
The group huddled together in anxious conversation.
“This morning when I woke up,” Lois said over his left shoulder. “I was in a hurry to break-in here. And then I found a bomb. Met a man who can lift space ships but is shy about it. I was up to speed on all of that... until now.”
“Trust me, Lois, you have company in utter confusion,” Clark offered back.
“I am not a replicant.” The man named Tempus scowled. “Andrus, how many times have we done this? I’m hurt that you can’t tell the difference.”
“It’s hard in the absence of a weapon,” apologized Andrus.
“Or gold,” volunteered another peacekeeper.
”I was wondering...” Clark raised his voice and an immediate silence fell over the proceedings. The reverent attention was so complete it was unnerving. “...are Ms Lane and I in the way, by any chance?”
Lois pushed around him. “Are you practicing for a play? Or maybe that Sci-Fi Geek Con thing is in town?”
Tempus laughed. “Don’t you love them at this point? So clueless and innocent. I wish we all had more time together, I really do. But, alas, it appears I’ve been foiled... again.”
“We haven’t lost faith that you’ll learn sooner or later, Tempus,” said the woman who appeared to be the ringleader. “You just cannot continue to interfere.”
“Haven’t you been paying attention? Interfering is what I do. It’s my life’s purpose. He flies around and saves the day. She is perpetually fooled by a pair of glasses...”
Clark gulped.
“What?” said Lois.
“Too soon, dear girl, cover your ears,” ordered the woman.
“...I interfere,” continued Tempus. “We all have our place.”
“Come along quietly, Tempus. You know we haven’t the stomach for violence,” said Andrus.
“You caught me fair and square, gang.” Tempus shrugged. “Though, God, that’s embarrassing considering your combined intellect. But still, it’s good that I was prepared.”
Something in Tempus’s relaxed stance shifted. Something in his easy, lazy voice went quiet.
Clark felt it. He knew Lois, more familiar with bad guys with a plan than he was by far, felt it too. She tensed beside him, her heart rate kicking up a notch. Her fists tightened. He only had time enough to put his arms around her. It wasn’t to stop her from charging, and it wasn’t exactly to protect her. But more to assure himself that she was with him. That he could feel her close.
That they wouldn’t be separated.
The others in the room suddenly looked as concerned as he was.
“You said he wasn’t armed!” shouted the woman whose shape was definitely... bending.
“He wasn’t! He isn’t!” wailed Andrus, who could no longer be seen but for a faint outline.
A bolt of energy hit Clark in the chest, doubling him over. He pulled Lois closer, holding on for dear life. She was limp, as if her bones had melted. The walls of the small room fell away and there was a rush of wind so strong he thought idly of all of EPRAD’s files. They were going to be blown over city blocks, probably never recovered.
His vision was tunneling. The cold made him shiver. He couldn’t move. Couldn’t break away from where he was standing, though the floor was gone. He looked up, straight ahead, and caught one last look at the man called Tempus. He was pointing his ring at them- what looked to be a reddish light was shooting from a gem stone unlike any he’d ever seen. Tempus was laughing. Long, loud delighted laughter, which followed them into the darkness.
***
tbc
