[Chapter 5: Miscalculated]Tempus, universe jumping, time traveling criminal extraordinaire, was grinning when he dashed out of the laboratory with a small bag of crystals in his right hand. It was just too easy. Since stealing the machine from the insufferable Herb, after escaping from yet another prison, he was carrying out his carefully crafted plan.
And he now had the key to obtaining absolute control over an alternate Earth. Okay, an alternative alt-, alt-Earth. How many had he been to again?
It didn't matter.
He had the power and knowledge crystals now!
Only this universe had the crystals so early in their history that the present security was incapable of stopping him, and the only one who could stop him on this world was still recovering from some parasitic attack or other.
His smile instantly vanished, however, when he heard a noise.
Was that a sonic boom?
He suddenly wondered if he had somehow calculated the date wrong as he yanked his left hand from his pocket and made it to the time machine, hoping he was just being paranoid. But then he knew.
He had somehow miscalculated.
Superman appeared on the time machine with him, beside the chair he had just taken as his hand pushed the lever, activating the time and space distortion.
"No!" Tempus shouted, flinging his left hand out, hoping his back up plan was enough.
The green crystal held tightly in his hand glowed.
Superman (unbelievably with an eyepatch!) recoiled back as the distortion bubble materialized around them, but this Superman did not respond like the few others he had encountered on other Earths.
No.
Instead of pulling back further, to distance himself from the agonizing kryptonite, this eyepatched Man of Steel jumped forward, even as their surroundings shifted!
Tempus couldn't believe he was now struggling, hand-to-hand, with Superman, and he immediately recognized that even with kryptonite, he was no match.
Superman twisted Tempus' wrist with a sharp motion, causing the meteorite to be flung away. The next thing Tempus knew, Superman's other hand had latched onto the bag of crystals and was trying to get him away from the controls. Was this Superman trained or something?!
Tempus dived for the kryptonite as it landed on the front of the machine, only to ram into another lever and strike a dial.
His hand closed around the kryptonite just as the time machine jerked over. Smoke began pouring from the readouts but he barely perceived that as everything began to spin wildly. He braced himself between the chair and control panel as Superman failed to grab hold of anything secured down. The machine continued to twirl around and around, faster and faster.
Clearly weakened, Superman was violently flung off the machine, disappearing beyond the haze of twisting space and time.
Tempus realized the bag of crystals had vanished with Superman, but then he recognized something else far more alarming.
He had not only miscalculated. He was about to be dead.
The time machine exploded, shredding all perception from him and permanently preventing any of his futures he might have experienced.
O o O o O
Kal tumbled into the bizarre void outside the bubble generated by the strange contraption that looked like a cross between a giant magic carpet, a massive cuckoo clock, and his mom's old rocking chair.
He held his breath, not knowing the state of existence he was in, instinctively knowing this was beyond any experience he had ever endured before.
He whirled away, flipping head over heels, from the smoking contraption and futuristic man. His hand tightened around the bag of crystals and he protectively brought his arms and legs up to his chest as he continued to propel away.
And then the machine exploded, the concussive force warping reality in a pulse.
Awareness turned to black.
O o O o O
[Home Earth]
Lois smiled as she followed Martha and Jonathan into their house.
They had sold every single pie Martha had baked for the festival, shattering her previous record.
“Clark is going to be a little upset,” Jonathan pointed out. “He was hoping to enjoy some pie tonight, I think.”
Martha waved his concern away. “I kept one in reserve, Jonathan, just in case!”
Lois laughed, watching as Martha opened the top oven to reveal a stowed away pie, covered and patiently waiting to be eaten.
Jonathan smiled, shaking his head. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”
Martha closed the oven door, and Lois wondered when Martha found the time to do so much, not to mention keep that last pie a secret from her husband
and Clark.
She took a step toward the kitchen table, but then something she would never fully be able to describe came over her.
Something had just happened.
Something had changed.
Something was
wrong."Lois?" Martha asked, looking a little off herself.
"Did you . . . did you feel that?" Lois asked, trying to keep her voice level despite how she could feel herself edging toward unrestrained panic. And she didn't know why!
Martha nodded as Jonathan stepped toward them, his brow creased with confusion and worry. He had felt it too.
"Clark?" Lois whispered. "CLARK!?" she shouted, even as she forced out the loudest mental cry she could toward him.
He didn't answer.
But he was in Metropolis and she was in Smallville. She had never successfully reached him from that distance without him providing a link first.
She picked up her phone and dialed his cell.
He didn't answer.
"I'm calling the Foundation. Something happened," Lois stated.
O o O
Mav picked up the phone immediately upon reading the caller ID.
It was Lois, and this was the first time any of Kal's friends or family members had used an emergency Foundation phone.
"Hello?" he asked.
"Mav? It's Lois. I just tried calling Kal but he didn't answer. Right before, I was talking with Kal’s parents. We all had just felt . . . it's hard to explain. Do you know where Kal is? We feel that something has happened," she explained quickly, her voice strained.
"He left just a few minutes ago. We don’t know where, he didn't say, but it seemed to be something urgent. Mrs. Waters' camera crew just informed me. He left before they finished the interview. Do you think something is wrong?"
"I-I don't know, but we're certain something happened," Lois said.
He could tell from her voice that she was shaken and that was what alarmed him the most. This was Lois Lane. What rattled her could very well shatter the world.
“I’ll call around. What did you all sense exactly?” he asked. “Was it anything like before?”
“It’s . . . it’s like he’s
gone, Mav. That’s the only way we can describe it. No pain, no emotion, just . . .” Her voice cracked. “. . . Gone.”
“Call the others who have cells. See if they felt it too. I’ll see where he went and call you back,” Mav said.
“‘Kay,” she said, before abruptly hanging up.
O o O o O
In less than thirty minutes, the Foundation learned Superman had gone to Metropolis’ Laboratory Center of Research and Development, intercepting a robbery in progress. Somehow, a man had shattered through all the building’s levels of security and removed the majority of the power and computing crystals, which were at varying stages of development, before making it back outside.
Within that same hour, the security footage was obtained and viewed, which only brought more questions and, admittedly, panic.
In his attempt to stop the thief, Superman had landed on the man's strange contraption just as the whole thing was enveloped in some form of energy.
And then everything within the distortion vanished, folding into some twilight zone wormhole.
The UN was notified immediately.
O o O o O
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