PREVIOUSLY IN LOST...
He stepped closer to her. “Are you absolutely sure you want to do this?” he asked, placing his hands on her upper arms.
“I’m doing this, David,” she responded, leaving no room for doubt in her voice. “You can watch me the whole time on that screen.” Lois pointed to one of the computers. “I’ll be the cute, little red dot with the great legs,” she added, hoping to use a little humor to combat the tense vibes she was getting from her co-conspirator. She was about to turn away when something stopped her. On impulse, she stepped up on her toes gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Take care,” she said. “You’ve been a great friend to me.”
“Okay, now that I didn’t like,” David informed her.
“What? You don’t like me kissing you? I’ll have to remember that for future reference,” she responded cheekily.
“That’s not what I’m talking about and you know it. That... seemed like a goodbye. A permanent goodbye.”
“Don’t be crazy,” Lois said, refusing to meet his eyes.
He gave her a small shake, forcing her again to look at him. “If the leggy red dot as much as blinks funny, I’m calling Philip Klein.”
Lois rolled her eyes. “Relax. Nothing’s going to go wrong.” She quickly inputted the necessary information into the machine. “I’ll be back before you know it.” Stepping into the machine, she closed the door. “All I need you to do is push the button.”
David stared at her for a long time before looking down at the button. After one final look at her to ensure that she really wanted him to do this, he pushed the button, gasping when she disappeared from the room.
AND NOW...
* * * * * * * * *
CHAPTER 3
* * * * * * * * *
Lois snuck into the newsroom of the Daily Planet being cautious to keep to the shadows. Seeing her double, she quickly grabbed a paper out of the holder by the elevators and opened it up so that she could hide behind it.
‘Wow,’ Lois thought. ‘They still have newspapers made out of actual paper.’ Caught up in the thrill of actually holding a real newspaper, she almost forgot to watch and listen to her twin who was currently rushing in her direction. At first, Lois tensed. Had the woman seen her?
Lois’ eyebrows rose when she realized the woman’s destination - and was even more surprised when the woman threw herself into Clark Kent’s arms. Maybe her theory about being the descendant of an illicit love affair between these two wasn’t so crazy after all. But... she had to fight the urge to laugh when ‘gramps’ looked even more surprised than Lois had been by her twin’s actions.
“Oh, Clark, I am so glad to see you,” the woman said. “You and Superman.” The woman’s voice had dropped so low on the last word that if Lois hadn’t known that Kent would become Superman, she wouldn’t have known what the woman had said.
Her eyebrows rose when her twin kissed Kent fully on the lips.
“Excuse me, Miss... Who are you? And what’s Superman?”
Before Lois could fully ponder the significance of Kent’s question, another woman approached - one who Lois recognized immediately. Lana Lang. Lois slunk even further into the background. Now this should be interesting.
“Clark? Who’s this?” The edge in Lana’s voice made it clear that she was more than a little miffed by what she had just witnessed.
“I have no idea,” Kent responded.
Behind her newspaper, Lois couldn’t keep the amused grin off her face. She wasn’t entirely sure what this was all about, but... oh, yeah. This was about to get good.
“Well, I guess she knows you,” Lana continued. “So she ought to know me. I’m Lana Lang. Mr. Kent’s fiancee.” Lana put extra emphasis on the final phrase as she reached out her right hand to Lois’ twin. “And you are...?”
Lois’ twin now looked as shocked as Kent when she had kissed him. “Uhh.. I...”
A short man with a moustache man suddenly appeared at the woman’s side.
“Lois Lane,” the man said, not bothering to introduce himself. “And still a bit feverish, I’m afraid. Aren’t you, my dear?”
Lois fought back a gasp. The woman even had the same first name she did. And since Lois didn’t know what her last name was supposed to be... No. That was crazy. That woman wasn’t her. After all, Lois certainly didn’t walk up to complete strangers and kiss them.
“I... I guess,” Lane said, as if not even certain of her own name.
‘See?’ Lois thought. ‘I’m much more articulate than that.’
Lois’ attention turned from Lane to the couple now walking towards the elevators. Clark Kent and Lana Lang.
“What?” Kent asked, seeing the stormy expression on his fiancee’s face. “Come on, honey. I don’t even know who that was.”
Lana didn’t respond as she turned towards the elevators.
“We’re meeting my parents at seven to go over the final guest list,” Lana said, obviously not wanting to pursue the other topic.
Lois found that odd. It was the only question she’d want to pursue if she saw some strange woman kissing her fiance.
“Okay,” Kent said.
Lana might not have noticed that Kent was glancing back over his shoulder towards Lane - but Lois did.
“Last thing,” Lana continued. “I saw that little stunt you pulled a few minutes ago.”
“Stunt?” Kent asked.
“Don’t give me those puppy eyes. The gunfight out front? You ducked away and...” She made a wavy motion with her hand.
“Sweetheart, nobody saw me. I just you know... did a little...” He made a gesture which Lois realized must symbolize heat vision. “...zzzt, burned out his tires and the cops got him.”
“Clark, you promised.”
Lois cringed at the whiny sound in Lana’s voice.
“This is the slowest elevator, huh?” Kent said, hitting the button again.
Lois had to admit, she was enjoying watching Kent trying to get rid of Lana. Something about that fact pleased Lois.
“They’d lock you up in some lab and study you. And even if you broke out, you’d never have a life. We’d never have a life. No one will ever love you more than I do...”
“I know,” Kent said, sounding resigned. He’d obviously heard this same argument before.
“...and no one understands you better. So promise this is the last time.”
The elevator door pinged when it opened.
“Here we are,” Clark said, using a hand on the small of her back to escort her inside.
“Promise me,” Lana said as she stepped on the elevator.
“See you at seven.”
Kent’s refusal to make the promise caused Lois to bite the grin off her face. Tomorrow. If the history books were correct, tomorrow everyone would know what Lana Lang obviously knew already.
“Clark...”
The elevator door closing ended the discussion. Still, Lois watched in fascination as, the moment the door closed, his eyes moved back to Lane. As if she could feel his eyes, Lane immediately looked up, causing their eyes to meet before Lane was escorted into the boss’ office and the door was closed.
“Excuse me, Miss. Can I help you?”
The voice of a strange man far too close caused Lois practically to jump out of her skin.
“Uhh... no. I’m fine,” Lois said before turning and heading for the stairs. She couldn’t afford to get caught. It would raise far too many unwanted questions. And it appeared she’d learned as much here as she was going to at the moment. Although, she had to admit, she really wasn’t entirely sure what she’d learned - well, other than the fact that she really didn’t like Lana Lang. No, she had learned something else. She had learned that Lana really believed he had powers. So either he had conned her, too, or... Or what? Was it possible he really did have the powers she’d read about in the history books?
It was time to leave. There was another place she wanted to check out.
* * * * * * * * *
Lois teetered precariously on the ledge, fighting to retain her balance before slowly taking another step, followed by another and another. It seemed to take forever, but then she was on the balcony of Clark Kent’s apartment. She snuck over to the door leading into the darkened apartment and tried to open it. Damn. It was locked.
She pulled her palm computer out of her purse and pressed it against the door.
“Computer, open the door,” she instructed, just as she’d done on the front door of Clark’s apartment. The program for opening locks was quite expensive, hard to find and illegal in her time - just as she suspected lock-picking tools were in this time. Still, that hadn’t stopped Lois. Sometimes there was just no other way to get the story.
“Unable to comply,” her computer responded after a moment.
“Why?” she asked.
“No electronic components in lock for me to manipulate.”
Lois let out a breath, she stuck the palm computer back in her purse. It was the same thing the computer had informed her at the front door of Clark’s apartment. In fact, it was why she’d snuck onto his balcony. She struggled for a minute before a new idea came to her.
She rummaged in her pocket for a moment before finding what she needed. She took her press pass and carefully slipped it between the door and the frame, jiggling it just so.
Click.
With a smile of satisfaction, she returned the press pass to her pocket. She’d forced one of her snitches to give her a few lessons on breaking old fashioned locks since occasionally she still ran across one of them. She’d never been more happy she’d done so. Still, apartments in this time period were frighteningly easy to break into. Now a lock with a computer code that also required a thumb print and voice recognition... there was a challenge.
Speaking of a challenge, Lois hadn’t realized how far it was from the Daily Planet to Kent’s apartment. They didn’t have transports in this time period. Besides, she didn’t have any money. So she’d had to walk the entire distance. At least she’d known where it was. After all, she’d been to his museum only the day before. But the sun had set and her feet hurt by the time she traversed the distance. The only thing to be thankful for was that the apartment was still dark. She hoped that meant Kent wasn’t home - and that he was not in bed, particularly with Lana Lang. Seeing him with Lane wasn’t exactly Lois’ idea of a good time. In fact, the very idea made her feel slightly ill. But not quite as ill as the idea of him with Lana.
She listened carefully at the door. Finally satisfied that Kent wasn’t in bed, either alone or with someone else, Lois let out a breath of relief.
She had just stepped inside and was about to look around when she heard noises outside the front door. The doorknob began to turn. She quickly dashed back to the balcony and hid behind a fern placed there. Still, through the open door she could hear the sound of voices from inside. Lights came on and she stuck her head out from behind the fern to look through the large, glass windows so that she could figure out who had entered the apartment. Clark Kent and the woman who looked like her - Lane.
“Look, I don’t want to be a hero,” Kent said as he walked into the apartment.
“Really. Then why did you go after that gunman this morning? Why did you save me?”
“I help when I can... but I want to live my life. Just a second...”
“What?”
There was a moment of silence during which Lois was as quiet as possible. Had he noticed the open door to the balcony? Did he realize someone was there?
“What?” Lane asked again.
“I’m sorry... I just... well, for a minute there I could have sworn I heard two heartbeats - besides mine, of course. But... I guess...” He sounded confused. “I guess I’m just hearing an echo of yours.”
“A what?”
“Never mind. You were saying.”
“Oh right. You want to lead a normal life. That’s why you need to have a secret identity.”
“Secret identity? Is that why you bought that ski suit?”
“Just go with me on this. It’s not a ski suit. I mean, it is. But it’s so much more than that. It’s a symbol. You’re making yourself into a beacon.”
“Are you always like this?”
“I’m sorry. I’m a little high-strung.”
“Lady, you’re a Stradivarius.”
“Well, maybe this will help.”
Lois snuck a look around the plant when the speaking came to a halt to see Kent looking at some pictures that seemed to be in Lane’s wallet.
“That’s what I’m talking about,” Lane said, pointing to a picture.
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Kent responded in horror.
Lois saw him flip to another picture.
“Is this... us?” Kent asked.
“Well, it’s me and him.”
Lois crinkled her eyebrows. What were they talking about now?
“Are we...?”
Lois watched as Lane lifted her left hand. A ring. She must be showing him a ring.
“This is just too weird.”
‘You have no idea,’ Lois thought.
“Oh, my god. They’re alive?”
Lane nodded.
“Does he... spend much time with them?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s great. That’s...”
“They’re very proud of him. I’m sure your parents were, too.”
‘Huh?’ Lois thought, trying to make sense of the strange conversation. So far, she’d reached the conclusion that these two hadn’t known each other before today - which made Lane’s behavior in the newsroom that much more baffling. On the other hand, this part of the conversation... she really didn’t have a single clue what their current discussion was about.
“I guess so,” Kent said. “It was a long time ago.”
“What happened?”
“Car wreck. I saw it happen.”
Lois fought back a gasp. She’d known his parents had been killed in an automobile accident. But she hadn’t realized he’d seen it. Her mind flashed back to the devastated face of the young boy looking at his adopted parent’s coffins.
“I was pretty fast, even then, but... not fast enough. Lana said I shouldn’t blame myself. One man can’t really make a difference... no matter what kind of powers he has.”
Lois’ instinctive reaction was to disagree. Everyone could make a difference. Even if only in their own tiny corner of the world.
“I know things are different here. I know you’re different. But trust me... powers or no powers... one man can change any world.”
‘You tell him, sister,’ Lois thought immediately, surprising herself. After all, wasn’t she silently encouraging Lane to create Superman?
He seemed to concentrate on the photo again. “His mom made this for him, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“Can you sew as well as she does?”
“Well...”
* * * * * * * * *
Lois’ legs were well past cramped and were quickly heading towards numb as she continued to hide behind the fern on the balcony. For the past hour, she’d been hiding here, hoping the current occupants of the apartment would decide to leave. She wasn’t entirely sure what she would do if they stayed here all night - probably try to sneak out on the same ledge she’d come in on when Kent fell asleep. She would have left already, but when she’d got up, Kent’s voice, asking Lane if she’d heard a noise caused her to freeze where she was before slowly squatting back down behind the fern.
What if this Kent guy really did have superhearing? His comment about hearing a second heartbeat certainly made it seem that way. And if he had superhearing, then what else could he do? Could he see through the plant and find her squatting behind it? Could he move so fast that he could prevent her escape?
Still, there were advantages to staying put. As Lane proceeded to create various pieces of that now so famous suit, she and Kent had talked. Although... Lois had to admit, the entire conversation had been more than a little strange. They were discussing alternate universes as if... well, as if the existence of other planes of existence were proven fact. And not only that, Lane was maintaining that she was from an alternate universe and that Kent was an exact double of her fiance. Never had Lois heard such an outrageous pick-up line. ‘Hey, you look just like the man I’m supposed to marry in an alternate universe. So since I’m stuck here, would you like to make out?’ The thing was that Kent seemed to be buying it!
Poor guy. Maybe he wasn’t a con-artist. Maybe he was just... a little slow. A taco short of a combo platter. Maybe his elevator didn’t go all the way to the top. Maybe his light was on but no one was home. And maybe, just maybe, she should quit coming up with all these stupid expressions to describe Kent. On the other hand, what else did she have to do?
Still, their conversation about Tempus had been interesting - at least some of it. Lane seemed to believe that Tempus, too, was from another dimension. Also, Lane claimed to have overheard Tempus talking about killing the current editor of the Daily Planet - Perry White. If this were true, it certainly supported Lois’ theory that there was something very disturbing about Tempus.
“How’s it fit?” Lane yelled.
“Tight,” Kent responded.
“Well, let me see.”
Lois, too, snuck a peek out from behind the fern, to see Kent step out from behind a privacy screen in a pair of blue tights.
“Needs a few more pieces here and there,” Lane said, looking him over.
Lois had been thinking the same thing. Where was that famous Superman crest?
“I just remembered something - from that picture you showed me. It’s in that trunk over there in a manilla envelope.”
Lois watched as Lane moved over to the trunk before kneeling down and opening it.
“My Mom gave it to me when I was little. She said it was on the blanket they found me in.”
Lois watched curiously as Lane removed the exact crest Lois had been thinking about. Of course, this discovery led Kent to remove the suit and Lane to take it in order to sew on the crest.
Lois snuck a peek around the fern instantly realizing that if she scooted over just a little bit, she could get a very good view of the hard muscles of his back. In spite of her protests that she wasn’t attracted to him, she found herself following the muscles down to where his white briefs covered the solid muscles of his posterior. It never even occurred to her to remember that she shouldn’t be looking.
He turned slightly, and she licked her lips, her eyes focused on that part of his anatomy she’d noticed when first entering the Superman museum. In spite of her view being blocked by his briefs, there was one thing she knew for certain. It really was all him. Suddenly, the temperature of the night air seemed to rise a few degrees. She found herself instantly hoping she wasn’t his descendant. ‘Cause her apparent inability to stop ogling him was disturbing on so many different levels if he was. In fact it was worse than her dream the previous night. That she couldn’t help. This she could. Still, she did nothing to stop herself from exploring every part of his body she could see.
Oblivious to her eyes on him, his hand slid inside the front of his briefs, innocently adjusting himself. Her breath caught in her throat and she felt an instant reaction in her own body. Her muscles tightened as, without conscious thought, she strained forward for a better view.
Suddenly, he stilled, tilting his head to the side, and appeared to be sniffing the air. She froze. His supersmell couldn’t be that good - could it?
“How you doing out there?” Kent asked.
Lois jumped slightly, until she realized he wasn’t addressing her.
“Fine. I’m just... I guess I’m just missing my Clark.”
“Sorry,” he responded. “I just heard your increased heart rate and thought something might be wrong.”
Lois shook her head at her previous fanciful thoughts. Still, she quickly calmed herself. After all, no point in having him realize that he wasn’t hearing Lane’s heartbeat, he was hearing hers.
Lane got up, giving the suit to Kent before making her way out onto the balcony.
Lois crept slowly back, trying to make herself as small as possible while the woman stood, looking out over the city.
A noise made Lane turn and caused Lois to chance a quick peak. Lois felt her breath catch in her throat and was relieved when she realized that Lane had made the exact same sound as both women stared at the man. Lane’s noise had effectively covered Lois’ blunder.
“I knew it. I look stupid,” Superman said, turning to head back into his apartment.
“No! No,” Lane said, stopping his escape with the mere sound of her voice. “No, you look great.”
Lois’ eyes narrowed at the soft tone in Lane’s voice, feeling unexpectedly disturbed by Lane’s obvious affection for Kent. Lois instantly told herself that she was just bothered that Lane was appreciating Kent’s looks when she had her own fiance - at least if what Lane had been telling Kent about having her own Clark in another universe was true. Lane had no right to be looking at another man.
Still, Lois found herself subconsciously agreeing with Lane. She might have thought the Superman pictures looked stupid, but in person... Lois couldn’t believe how breathless it made her to see him in that outfit - especially since she had been observing him in a lot less only minutes before.
Lois ducked back down behind the fern when Lane took Kent’s hand and led him further out onto the balcony.
“Are you sure about this?” Superman asked, looking down at himself.
“I’m sure,” Lane responded. “But you’re not. So let’s get you comfortable?”
“How?”
A slow smile lit up Lane’s face. “Let’s go flying,” she said.
“Us? As in... we?”
Lane laughed, putting an arm around Superman’s neck and jumping up, making him catch her as if she had absolutely no doubt that he would.
“Okay,” Superman finally said before lifting both of them off the balcony.
Lois had to stifle a gasp when a moment later the two disappeared in a gust of wind. Slowly, Lois straightened up, bending over and steadying herself against the wall as the pain of being reawakened shot through her legs.
* * * * * * * * *
Tempus sat in a comfortable chair, HG Wells tied up to a hard chair next to him. He was watching a small televison screen showing Lois Lane and Superman taking off into the night sky from the balcony of Clark Kent’s apartment.
“The heroine creates her hero,” Tempus said. “A mythically moving moment. Herb, am I still a man in your eyes if I weep?”
“This is what you want,” HG said in disbelief. “You want her to create Superman.”
“Very good, Herb. Mind like that you missed a big career on game shows. Hey, what’s this?” Tempus suddenly asked, moving to the edge of his seat to get a closer look at the televison screen. “Well, hello there,” he said as he watched a second Lois Lane straighten up from where she was hiding behind a fern. “Have to do something about that? Won’t we, Herb?”
* * * * * * * * *
He had flown. Kent had really flown. Lois was still in a slight state of shock as she made her way to the door to Kent’s apartment. He was real. She never would have believed it if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes - well, and checked afterwards to be sure there were no wires. And if he could really fly... maybe everything else was true as well.
“Well, well, well. What do we have here?”
The sound of the slightly mocking voice caused Lois to spin around. She knew that voice. Without even bothering to look first, she kicked out, landing a solid blow against the chest of the man she’d seen in her dreams. She was about to bolt when a large man, holding a gun, stepped out of the shadows. She froze.
“Now is that any way to greet an old friend,” Tempus asked as he rose to his feet. “But then, I suppose you wouldn’t be a Lois Lane if you didn’t kick first, ask questions later. Has anyone ever told you that is not a very attractive quality in a woman?”
“You have me mistaken for someone else. I’m not Lois Lane,” Lois said, her eyes remaining on the man with the gun, still hoping for a chance to escape.
A small grin quirked up one corner of Tempus’ mouth, as if her comment had given him all the information he needed. “But you are a Lois,” Tempus said, pulling out a gun of his own. “So let me guess... Humm. Is it possible you don’t know your last name Lois L?”
Lois gasped.
“So how did you find your way here?” Tempus asked, without waiting for an answer to his last question.
The man with Tempus stepped forward, grabbing her arms and holding them behind her.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lois responded, trying to sound calmer than she felt. This man knew her - knew who she was - probably even knew how she had ended up on the steps of the Sisters of Metropolis Convent.
Tempus laughed. “I bet you have a lot of questions. Sadly though, it’s too late, Lois L. Because I’m about to kill Kal-El. Of course, I’ll have to do something about you, too. But before you get any ideas...” He took a piece of duct tape and put across her mouth before she could stop him. “Wouldn’t want you yelling those pesky words, ‘Help Superman,’ now would we?”
Damn. Now why hadn’t she thought of that?
Tempus gave a dramatic sigh. “It’s really too bad you came here, Lois L. I thought leaving you where I did was ironic - alive, but unable to fulfill your destiny. Still, you could have had a happy life. Clark, on the other hand... well, we all know that Clark can’t survive without Lois. But that wasn’t your problem. Now though... well, I can’t very well have two Lois Lane’s running around here getting in my way. The other Lois will undoubtedly want to get back to her own Superman as soon as possible. You, on the other hand... well, you’re a bit of a complication to my plans. So what to do with you?”
Tempus seemed to consider that for a moment. “Well, I’ll have to kill you, of course. Too bad. After all, you were such a cute baby. But you might enjoy watching me destroy the Man of Steel first. Besides, trying to kill a Lois Lane when Superman is still alive is a risky proposition at best. He always seems to show up just as you’re about to fall into a vat of hot oil.”
Lois’ eyes went wide. He was planning to drop her into a vat of hot oil? But for what reason? Surely if he knew who she was - and it certainly sounded as if he did - he also knew that she was from the future. So it wasn’t as if she could change anything. Or... well, she had to admit, she was having some problems following this conversation - except for the part about the vat of hot oil, of course. But fulfilling her destiny, Clark not being able to survive without Lois, not being able to kill her while Superman was alive... What was that all about?
Just because the other Lois had her Superman, was apparently engaged to him... God, was she even considering the possibility of alternate universes? ...didn’t mean that she... that she... Lois pushed the thought away, preferring instead to think about that vat of oil. Quicker. Less painful.
“So I guess that means you’re going to be my guest for a while,” Tempus continued. “Hey, you can keep Herb company. I’m sure he’ll be appropriately inspired by meeting another Lois Lane. I know I was moved - almost to the point of tears.”
Stepping up to Lois, he used the butt of his gun to hit her in the back of her head. She slumped forward, unconscious.
Tempus took a moment to look at her. “They really are beautiful when they’re sleeping. Too bad they can’t sleep all the time.”
* * * * * * * * *
“Ms. Lane?”
Lois slowly regained conscious to find herself tied to a chair, the tape still covering her mouth. She groaned. Not again. When would the bad guys learn a different trick? There were only so many times one could wake up tied to a chair by some bad guy before it got repetitive.
“Ms. Lane, oh thank god,” said the man with the mustache Lois had seen at the Daily Planet.
She raised her head and fought off her headache to look around. The strange little man with the moustache was also tied to a chair. What was he waiting for? Why wasn’t he yelling for Superman? She groaned. Right. Superman hadn’t been invented yet. And for all she knew, he had no idea what Clark Kent could do.
“I was so worried about... What happened to your hair?”
Lois rolled her eyes. Her mouth was covered with tape. How did he expect her to answer that question? Still, his comment told her, as much as for the fact that he was calling her Ms. Lane, that he was confusing her with the her twin - the other Lois as Tempus had called her.
She began working on the ropes holding her, ignoring the annoying man’s questions. It didn’t even occur to him to yell for help - so it probably didn’t make sense to expect help of any sort from him.
At least there was one good thing in all this. If the other Lois was from an alternate universe, and she supposed her disappearing without a trace would support that idea, then at least she didn’t have to worry that she was Superman’s descendant which in turn meant that Lois hadn’t been ogling ‘grandpa’ which left her feeling more relieved than she could imagine. She growled, forcing her mind back on track. She was currently tied to a chair, being held captive by a man who had suggested dropping her into a vat of hot oil. Under the circumstances, it was hardly appropriate for her to be thinking about those hard pecs, those perfect abs, the way she was certain his hands could make her feel if he ran them...
She jumped when the sound of someone smashing in the door was heard on the far side of the room. The door opened to reveal Superman. It suddenly occurred to her what was happening. Superman’s debut. And she was right in the middle of it.
The man who had been helping Tempus unexpectedly stepped forward, releasing her fellow captive’s bonds.
Lois grunted, trying to get the man to do the same for her when Superman strode into the room. He stopped, staring at her in disbelief. She grunted, trying to tell him that she would appreciate it if he untied her rather than standing there with his mouth hanging open as if he wished to perfect his fly-catching technique. The fog seemed to clear from Kent’s mind and he stepped forward.
“Sorry,” he said before grasping the end of the tape, ripping it off her mouth in one quick motion.
“Yahhhh!” Lois gasped.
“It’s a bomb, Superman,” the man with the moustache said, handing Superman a small device.
“A bomb? Did he say he had a bomb?” Tempus’ voice said from the adjoining room.
“Don’t go back out there, Superman,” Lois said, unable to resist her unexpected urge to protect this big, dumb, beautiful oaf. “It’s a tr...” A bright light suddenly engulfed her. “...ap,” she concluded, looking around at the lab in which she unexpectedly found herself. Her eyes landed on an older man, balding. A man she’d never seen before.
What had happened? Where was she?
* * * * * * * * *
Clark stood in stunned silence for a moment when the woman who looked so like Lois disappeared.
“The bomb, Superman.”
Herb’s voice snapped Clark out of his shock. He turned, walking to the door to the stage and stepping out to demand that Tempus explain himself when he was hit by a sudden wave of pain. Unable to resist the powerful force, he collapsed to the floor as agony encompassed his entire being.
* * * * * * * * *
Lois knew where... or perhaps it would be more accurate to say ‘when’ she should be. She had tried to change history, tried to warn Clark Kent not to go back onto that platform. She wasn’t even entirely sure why she had done it. She knew what would happen. Besides, what did she care if his secret identity thing was blown anyway? But when she’d seen him and realized what was coming, she’d been unable to resist. It was as simple as that.
Still, that didn’t explain where she was now. She didn’t know the man standing in front of her. None of Dr. Philip Klein’s equipment was in this room. Something had definitely gone wrong with the machine that couldn’t possibly fail.
* * * * * * * * *
Clark stood on the platform beside Perry White at his press conference, watching Lois leave with Herb. The roar of the crowd dimmed as he watched her slipped into the alley across the street from him. A bright flash of light informed him that she was gone. He had to admit, he’d been tempted to beg her to stay. But something had stopped him.
He knew what it was. It was the woman he’d seen for only a second, so short a time that he was almost tempted to believe she’d never existed. But in that second, something had happened inside Clark. Although he was still enamored with the Lois who had convinced him to become Superman, what he’d felt for the other woman... it had nearly knocked him off his feet. She’d been wearing a blue sweater, a light tan jacket, a pair of tight jeans and running shoes - and he hadn’t known that a woman could be quite so beautiful.
He had to find her. An idea suddenly occurred to him. It was crazy, but... something inside him wouldn’t let it go. The woman, the one who had disappeared in front of his very eyes, was his Lois. He knew it. All he had to do was find her again.
No one at the Daily Planet had known who she was when Lois Lane showed up out of the blue, but that meant she could be anywhere. Doing anything. And he suddenly just knew that whatever that ‘anything’ was it would be... great. Excitement began to bubble up inside him. He began to shift from foot to foot, anxious to get off the platform so that his fingers could fly over the keyboard of his computer in search of his Lois Lane.
* * * * * * * * *
David dashed for the desk, his mind in a near state of panic as he began rustling through the various items until he found what he was looking for. An address book. He flipped through it quickly, praying that this wasn’t Dr. Klein’s. After all, who kept his own number in his address book? He let out a sigh of relief when he found Dr. Klein’s phone number.
Grabbing the phone, he quickly punched in the number. “Dr. Klein,” he gasped. “You’ve got to help me. I’ve lost her.”
“What?” asked the groggy voice on the other end of the line.
“Lois Lewis. She tried going back in your time machine. And... I don’t know what happened. Her red light suddenly disappeared, but she didn’t come back here. How soon can you get to the lab?”
TO BE CONTINUED...
