[Chapter 6: Wha…?]
The concrete was cold against his cheek and he felt a gentle breeze brush against his cape on his back. Slowly, Kal opened his eye and found himself on the ground behind a building that looked similar to the one he had last seen before disappearing in that . . . space bubble?
He heaved a sigh of relief that he hadn’t been lost in that void as he sat up and then slowly stood.
The sun was on his skin and he could feel his body hungrily absorbing it. How long had he been out?
The bag of crystals gave a gentle jingle in his hand and he was relieved he had successfully retrieved them. This was easily a year’s worth of work, and he wondered why that man, who was clearly technologically advanced, had come to take them.
There were so many questions.
Who was that man? Where did he come from? What was that contraption that had exploded? A teleporter?
The man had also had kryptonite. How did he get that?
Kal shook his head as he took in his surroundings a bit more carefully.
He frowned.
Where was the laboratory?
He walked out from between the buildings and read the familiar street signs nearby, but the street itself was slightly different than he remembered.
There were dozens of people walking about and a spattering of street vendors. It was a little more casual and felt closer to a residential area than an industrialized city block. Where were the other busines–
He suddenly heard a cry for help.
Stuffing the small bag of crystals into the hidden pocket of his cape, he took off. Fast.
O o O o O
The city bus’ brakes had gone out and it was barrelling down the street, toward a busy intersection. School children were chatting away, oblivious to the coming danger.
The bus driver was screaming and honking like mad as he continued to stomp in the brake, but to no avail.
The honking got the children's attention, and they turned in confusion and instant fear and shock as they spotted the bus.
A sonic boom echoed overhead, and then–
In a blur, Superman swooped down, his form appearing before them with his hand outstretched and easing the large vehicle to a quick, but safe stop.
"SUPERMAN!" they screamed in joy, immediately rushing toward him.
As the children began to clamor around him, he looked at the stunned but very grateful driver and waved at him. The driver still seemed to be in shock, but Kal heard nothing concerning with the man's heart and presumed he was just coming to terms with how close of a call he had experienced.
"Wow!"
"It's Superman!"
"He stopped it like it was nothing!"
Kal smiled and turned around, facing the kids as passersby who had seen the save eagerly approached to get a closer look. But then all of them stopped.
The gasps were instantaneous and their looks of concern were blatant as they all stared at his eyepatch.
"Oh my gosh! What happened?!"
”What happened to your eye?!”
"Are you okay?"
He blinked, astonished. He had absolutely no idea what to say to them. A girl, no older than ten, gently took his hand and looked up at him in innocent concern.
“Superman, are you okay?”
“I’m okay,” he kindly assured, simply because what else could he say?
He gently gave her shoulder a pat as he stepped away and she released his hand.
He knew he couldn’t remain. There was something very clearly wrong, and he suspected it had something to do with that bizarre machine that had exploded in the void he had escaped from.
“I’m sorry, but I’m needed elsewhere,” he said, before shooting up into the sky.
O o O
Kal hovered over Metropolis and did his best to remain calm as he did the first thing he could think of. He tentatively sent out a thought.
/Lois?/
No answer.
He waited a moment and then tried again as he shot to their house.
/LOIS?!/
He received no answer as he stopped above what . . . should have been their home.
But he instantly knew that it wasn't.
Floating high in the afternoon sky, he heard a different family inhabiting the house and going about their lives.
What had happened?
He took several deep breaths, knowing he had to keep himself collected if he was going to figure out what was happening.
He took out his Foundation cellphone and immediately found another problem. No service. There was no signal what-so-ever even though it was fully charged and he was within city limits.
He shot to the Foundation, hoping to find answers, but there he only became more alarmed.
While the building was there, it was not owned and operated by the Foundation. Instead, it was owned by LNN, Luthor News Network.
Due to a multitude of reasons, hadn't LNN changed its brand name to Lee News Network?
What was going on?
Had he traveled back in time? But he would have to be back before he had made the Foundation for LNN to still exist, but after he had first become Superman since he was still recognized. That was a pretty small window.
Determined, he flew to the Daily Planet.
If he was in the past, he needed to know when.
Hovering above, he x-rayed the building.
He sagged in relief as he spotted Lois, but then he saw the date.
November 13, 1994.
So . . . he was in the past, but. . . .
The Foundation should already exist. . . .
What the heck?!
Was he in . . . a parallel universe?
Superman clearly existed. Even now, there were news reports covering his recent rescues of that day.
But the world was different.
At least he knew why his cell didn't work. There weren't any cell towers, or at least not any compatible with his phone.
And he also knew why Lois hadn't received his thought to her. This Lois wasn't his Lois. She had never been embraced by his aura.
He frowned. He needed more information. He needed to know what else was different.
He flew to Smallville, oblivious to how the five sonic booms he had caused in less than three minutes within the city were resulting in some curious talk.
He slowed as he approached the farm. It seemed . . . pretty much the same. His dad's tractor was in the barn and his mother's garden was in the back. However, the snow in the fields reiterated the difference in time from this world and his own. On his world, it was still summer time.
Hovering far above, he listened for any nearby heartbeats. There weren’t any, so his parents, well, his counterpart’s parents, were out, likely doing some shopping in town since he didn’t see a vehicle in the driveway.
Reassured, he focused his eye down on the farmhouse and x-rayed through the roof, focusing on what he hoped was his counterpart's bedroom.
It was, but there were a few differences, some more notable than others.
It was organized a bit more haphazardly, though was still clean and had the same awards he had received in high school. Looking closer, he drifted a little more over the house, his eye spotting a trophy from Midwest U. So this Clark had played football and gone to university.
Had he not become a P.I.? What degree did he earn? He couldn’t find a diploma, but after zeroing in on a box of old college notebooks in the closet, he could see that whatever degree he had chosen, it involved a great deal of writing. Had he become a teacher? A researcher? Novelist?
He mentally smiled, imagining how funny it would be if he had become a journalist, like Lois. What would the odds of that be?
He couldn’t see any Air Force memorabilia, even after he allowed his gaze to peer through the rest of the house, save for the master bedroom. Even though they weren’t actually his parents, checking their room still felt like crossing a line.
He looked back at his counterpart’s room and scanned it again.
There were no military clothing, stray patches or annoying suspenders worn under one’s dress blues that inevitably snapped at the most inopportune time. So this Clark hadn’t joined the military.
That sort of made sense. He had only become an Air Force Officer because General Newcomb had needed his help to bring down Trask. If he had gone to college right after high school, that never would have happened.
Kal frowned, realizing the implications. Had Trask been stopped?
He heard a truck driving down the road toward the farmhouse. Turning, he spotted his parents, well, he supposed he should consider them his alt-parents.
Not wanting to risk them spotting him, even though it was getting dark, he directed himself back to Metropolis, deciding he could try to find where his alternate-self lived.
He stopped above the cloud cover and couldn’t believe his luck. His counterpart lived in the same place he had lived before he had married Lois! He was sorely tempted to go down and enter the apartment directly. This Clark even had a spare key hidden near the front door, which honestly surprised him.
Since his P.I. work, he never left spare keys anywhere accessible to strangers.
However, he was even more surprised to find what degree this Clark had earned from Midwest U.
Journalism.
What was more was that he worked at the Daily Planet!
And, yet another surprise, he had gotten a Kerth just a few months prior!
He continued scanning.
The range of books on the bookshelf gave hints that this Clark had traveled the world, although it was clear their experiences had been quite different, simply because this Clark had traveled as a freelance journalist, while he himself had worked as a private investigator and, later, as the first Special Field Support Officer.
His eye then caught sight of a picture.
It was of him and Lois, unquestionably of the night he had received the Kerth award.
They seemed happy, and Clark wondered how it would be to work alongside Lois day in and day out.
Well, why not go to the Daily Planet and take a look? It was a little late, but knowing his Lois, there was a high chance that they were still there.
So he set off to the Daily Planet.
O o O o O
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