Okay, just as a refresher, remember I labeled the parts: Clark - LNC; Alt-Clark...; SR - Brandon Routh; and Superman - Chris Reeves.
Table of Contents Now to recap:
Chris Reeves Superman had sneezing fit and then later talked to Perry – he doesn’t know where Lois is... still. Our Lois & Clark had received another note on their door - criminals from New Krypton are coming. SR Superman met with a man at Lois' house who told him that Tempus had kidnapped his Lois and he could help. Alt-Clark finds out Lois has a son and she and the other Lois talk about their relationships with Superman. Alt-Clark decides Tempus is behind this and the Loises ask for some clothes...
From Part 4:
“Maybe. I’m not sure. Do the words ‘end of Utopia’ make any sense to you?” she asked, opening her eyes and looking at him hopeful.
Clark cringed. It was Tempus. That would probably explain why Wells hadn’t shown back up yet. “Yeah, unfortunately. I think we may be in a little more trouble than I’d hoped.”
“Clark?” Lane asked, looking down and fingering the pajamas she was wearing, “I’m sure you’re not used to having female houseguests, but do you think you have any clothes you might loan us?” She smiled uncomfortably at him. “I don’t know what kind of trouble you think we’re in, but I personally don’t want to confront whatever’s about to happen in my nightshirt.”
He looked back and forth from one Lois to the other, realizing they were both in their pajamas and despite the dread he’d been feeling he couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, let me see what I’ve got.”
**********
PART FIVE:
**********
Wells woke up slowly, his eyelids feeling like deadweights. Where was he? What had happened? The last thing he remembered was being in the prison rec yard, talking to Tempus.
He struggled a little bit, trying to move, and realized that he couldn’t. He had been tied, bound, and gagged – but not blindfolded. Although that didn’t seem to matter since he couldn’t really see anything. He bit down on the gag in his mouth. Ouch! It wasn’t anything soft, that was for sure, and it seemed to have a distinctively metallic taste. Yuck. What was it? He tried to remember something, anything, but nothing would come.
Tempus! It had to have been him. What had he done?
He blinked his eyes a few times, trying to clear the haze. His head was pounding so hard that he couldn’t seem to see straight. Then he realized that part of the problem was he couldn’t see very well period. The room was dark, only lit by one dim light bulb in the center of the room. He looked around, scanning his surroundings.
It looked like he was in some sort of abandoned building, maybe used for storage. There wasn’t a stick of furniture in the room, just some old boxes and crates. The floor looked like it hadn’t been swept in months, and if his ears weren’t deceiving him, he thought he heard rats squeaking and scurrying around. A slight shiver ran through him.
There was a small window across the room from him; he could see the light from the bulb reflecting back off the glass. If there was just some way he could make his way over there. But he didn’t relish the thought of crawling across the floor like an inchworm.
As he was contemplating a good way to move, a shimmering light split the darkness of the room around him.
He knew that light...
It was the time machine! Tempus was coming back. Wells watched as the machine materialized and Tempus stepped down out of it.
“Why, Herb. You are up. Oh good, I was getting rather bored talking to myself,” Tempus said in his usual cynical manner.
“Hhmmhuff?” Wells tried to say his name around the gag.
“That’s me... I suppose. What’s the matter, Herb? Time got your tongue?” he asked, chuckling a little.
“Huhh?” Wells asked him. Then he realized what it was that he was being gagged with. It was his pocket watch. He sighed inwardly. He’d be fortunate if the watch ever worked again as much as he had drooled on it.
“Huhh hoo ooo hinn ooo har hoohin?” he tried to ask through his gag.
“Oh, please. I can’t take this anymore,” Tempus said in disgust, walking over to Wells and reaching for the gag. “I’ll take this off if you’ll promise to be a good little time traveler and not make too much noise. If you so much as even breathe the name Superman, I’ll have to hit you over the head again.”
Wells winced. So that’s why his head hurt so much. Tempus untied the gag, and Wells allowed it to slide from his mouth. He flinched as he watched it hit the floor. He loved that pocket watch.
“Tempus! I demand that you untie me at once. What do you think you are doing?” Wells was angry. He didn’t get angry very often, but Tempus always managed to bring it out of him.
“Why hatching the most brilliant plan I’ve had yet for doing away with Superman and ensuring that Utopia will never come about.” Tempus smiled proudly. “I really have outdone myself this time.”
Wells sighed to himself. Would he ever give up? “You are very vain, you know that? When will you learn that you’ll never defeat Superman or the values he stands for?”
“Ahh, but I will. You see this time I prepared better. This time I’ll have help.” He leered at Wells. “And this time, I’m not just trying to ruin one Utopia.”
“What do you mean ‘one Utopia’?” All the sudden Wells didn’t feel very well.
“Well, Herb, when I was playing around with inter-dimensional time travel and discovered our favorite little alternate universe, I did some additional research. You’ll never believe what I found.” He paused and Wells didn’t say anything. “Well, go on, ask me what I found.”
Wells sighed. “What did you find?” he asked him flatly.
“I found that there are an infinite number of universes out there.” Off of Wells’ astonished look, he continued, “That’s right, not just one alternate universe or a couple of them, but an infinitesimal number. I traveled to a few of them, to see what the differences and similarities were. Do you know what I discovered?” He sounded almost giddy as he told his story.
“What?” Wells found himself earnestly asking, wanting to know. He couldn’t help himself.
“The universes are all connected to one another in a never-ending loop. One universe leading into another and that one leading into another and so on until they come back around full circle onto themselves again. I found that the universes closest in proximity to our own were the most like ours. The further away you got, the more things changed,” he explained elatedly, his eyes sparkling. “So I cut through to the other side of the sphere. I visited a universe that was the farthest point away from our own on that loop. Do you know what I found there?”
Wells shook his head, lost in thought as he listened to Tempus. As much as he despised the man, he had to admit that he’d definitely studied up on this.
“Superman. Of course,” he huffed out. “It seems I just can’t get away from him no matter where I go or how far I travel. But what was more amazing to me is that in that universe, Clark Kent is a mere shadow of himself. It seems that there, Kal-El chooses to be Superman, and Clark Kent is just his disguise when he’s not off doing something Supermanish. I was fascinated. So I decided to try the same thing with our alt-universe – I traveled to the opposite of it.”
Wells found himself leaning in a little bit, hanging on every word. What Tempus had discovered was remarkable. He had indeed done a lot of research.
“I found a universe there, much like the other one. Clark Kent was a pale ghost of a person and he lived his life mainly as Superman. I was intrigued by the differences I began to see between those universes and our own. For example, did you know in the one opposite to our own that Superman has a child?” he asked Wells, raising an eyebrow at him.
“How could you possibly know that?” Wells frowned skeptically at him.
“I told you. I did my homework,” he said, acting indignant. “I find it astonishing that the Lois and Clark of our world want to have a baby and aren’t sure they can but the Lois and Clark from the other world already have a child and instead aren’t sure they can have each other.” He smiled contentedly. “Then there’s our alternate universe. Clark can’t find his Lois and wants desperately to have her and the Clark from his other universe has already had Lois – trust me – but has denied himself from her. Don’t you find that remarkable?” He smirked at Wells looking infinitely pleased.
Wells furrowed his brow and shook his head at him, finally coming to his senses. “Fascinating,” he grumbled. “Is there a point to all this?”
“I was getting to that.” He gestured with his hands as if to shush Wells. “I’ve traveled to several other universes as well, and what I found by comparing them is amazing. While there are an infinite number of other universes, they all seem to be tied to one of the four universes I mentioned – ours, our alternate, and the other two opposite to us. Those four universes almost seem to be anchors of some sort, of which all the other universes are connected to in some way or another. I figure if I can find a way to prevent Superman from creating the Utopias in these four universes, that I may in fact completely extinguish the hope of a Utopia across the inter-dimensional plane.” He rubbed his hands together in delight.
“You’re mad!”
“Mad? Brilliant? It’s all the same,” he replied cheekily.
“Superman will stop you,” Wells said defiantly. “The Supermen from those other universes are not going to sit by while you corrupt their worlds and take away their futures.”
“No, I wouldn’t expect them to.” He smiled.
Wells looked at him confused.
“I expect them to help me.” Tempus chuckled happily to himself. He looked down at the watch on his wrist. “In fact, as much as I’ve enjoyed our little chat, I really should be leaving. I have a little appointment to go to.” Wells watched him walk over to one of the boxes in the room and pull out a long, tan coat and a brown hat. He already had on a black trenchcoat, what was he going to do with that other coat?
Tempus walked over to him and knelt down close to him, reaching into his pocket. “Now, don’t take this the wrong way, Herb, but I can’t have you trying to find a way out of here or screaming for Superman to help you, so...”
Before Wells realized what was happening, Tempus shoved a rag across his mouth. No! He wanted to kick himself for not holding his breath. The last thought that crossed his mind before he passed out was to realize that Tempus had said he might be able to scream for Superman. But what world was he in?
*****SUPERMAN*****
Clark flew towards Lois’ apartment, the apprehension growing in him. If she wasn’t here, where could she be? Why hadn’t she called in? What if she was in trouble?
Images flashed through his mind of her suffocating in a sea of dirt and rocks as her car sunk deeper into the crevasse created by the earthquake; her body lying limply in his arms, broken and battered; her head dropping lifelessly back as he lowered her body to the ground.
No! His heart lurched in his chest. She was all right. She had to be. He had promised himself that he would watch over her, not let anything happen to her.
He had saved her before, and if she were in trouble, he would find her. He would save her again.
No matter what.
When he was close enough to use his x-ray vision, he began scanning her apartment building. But it was a useless gesture; what his heart had already known, his mind had to accept. She wasn’t here.
He started to turn back - he was going to fly over the city, search for her from the air, scan every house, every building, every structure for her – when something caught his attention. There was a piece of paper stuck to one of her balcony windows.
He flew down to her balcony and walked over to the window, grabbing the paper off of it.
I KNOW WHERE MS. LANE IS. PLEASE COME INSIDE AND I’LL EXPLAIN EVERYTHING.
**********
“Lois, Clark, have we had any more information on the Tempus fugitive? John Doe?” Perry asked, frowning at them. “It’s been two days. The police don’t have any leads. Has Superman been able to find anything?”
“No, Chief, nothing,” Lois answered. “He’s still looking, but it doesn’t seem hopeful.”
“It’s like he just vanished into thin air,” Clark added. “Superman is as frustrated as the police are.”
“Well, I guess that’s going to be an easy follow-up piece for you to write then, isn’t it?” he growled. “People of Metropolis, there’s an escaped lunatic in your midst, the police have no leads and Superman can’t find him. Meanwhile there’s a lovely dog show in town this weekend!” Perry’s voice rose as he got more involved in his rant. “Judas Priest! This Tempus piece is the biggest story we’ve got going right now and all you people can give me are shrugs and we-have-nothings?”
Everyone in the conference room was silent and Lois cringed a little. She and Clark had *something* of course, the notes that had been left for them, but they didn’t even know if those had any connection to Tempus or not. And those weren’t something they could share anyway.
Perry sighed and waved a hand at the room in dismissal. “Meeting’s adjourned. I know it’s late in the day, but none of you are going home until we have something for the front page. Now, get out there and get me some news people! Pound the pavement, beat down the doors, camp out at the police precincts, but get me some news!” he barked.
Lois followed Clark out of Perry’s office. She could feel the frustration in him that mirrored her own. Not just frustration that they couldn’t bag this as a great story, but frustration because time was running out and they still didn’t know what they were up against.
She slid one arm through his and around his back, giving him a gentle squeeze. “A lead box for your thoughts.”
He smiled weakly at her. “Unless Tempus is inside, I don’t want it.”
“Maybe it contains something black and frilly,” she told him, smiling lopsidedly at him.
“Hmm, you know I don’t look good in lace,” he attempted, half-heartedly.
She smacked him playfully. “Come on, Clark, cheer up.”
“Cheer up? What is there to be...” He broke off and got a funny look on his face. The look that told her he was hearing something she couldn’t hear.
“What is it? What do you hear?”
He didn’t answer her, he merely held up one hand to silence her. After a few moments she was about to protest being left out of the loop when he suddenly closed his eyes and a look of concentration came across his face. She knew that face; she’d seen it before when Zara and Ching had communicated telepathically with him. He was talking to someone! Was it them?
After a few more moments, he opened his eyes. They were wide and confused.
“Who was it?”
**********
Wells gradually woke up again, once more to an empty room. Tempus hadn’t come back yet. He shook his head lightly trying to clear the haze of the chloroform.
Tempus had said he had an appointment to go to. With who? He also remembered Tempus saying that he was going to recruit the other Supermen to help him. How he was going to do that Wells had no idea. Was that who he’d gone to see? He wasn’t sure exactly what Tempus was planning, but he knew he had to stop him.
And he wasn’t going to be able to stop him on his own.
Wells wriggled around until he got himself into an upright, sitting position. He put his back towards the direction of the window. It was completely dark now, Tempus must have either turned the light off before he’d left or else the bulb had burned out, but he thought he remembered where the window had been when he’d seen it earlier.
He began to scoot himself backwards with his bound feet. He was going to be filthy after this little expedition.
He inched little by little across the floor, planning out his next move. Once he made it over to the window, he just needed to figure out a way to break the glass. The window looked like it was close enough to the ground that he could break the glass with his feet. Then all he had to do was yell as loudly as he could and hope that if there were a Superman in this world, he would hear him.
He had made it a few precious feet when he saw a shimmering light, signaling the return of the time machine. The resulting panic allowed him to move faster than he’d been moving and he made it back to the spot Tempus had left him in before he reappeared.
When the lights from the time machine died down, he heard footsteps and then the one lone light bulb in the middle of the room came on. Tempus was standing next to the switch on the wall. He turned and looked at Wells.
“Awake again, already, Herb? Did you sleep well? Not too many nightmares, I hope,” he said with mock concern as he came walking over to where Herb was sitting on the floor.
“Tempus this is lunacy. You are never going to get those other Supermen to help you with whatever it is you’re planning,” Wells told him, sounding more convinced than he felt.
“Why, I already have, Herb. It’s done.” Tempus chuckled, obviously pleased with himself. He started to pace back and forth in front of Wells as he spoke to him. “Would you like to know how I did it? After all, a truly ingenious plan can’t fully be appreciated for its brilliance unless you’re able to share it with someone.”
Wells rolled his eyes at him in disgust. Tempus truly was the most arrogant and conceited individual he had ever met. Wells wasn’t about to dignify what he’d said with a response.
Tempus stopped pacing and turned to face him. “Oh? Not even the slightest bit curious? I bet you are. I’d venture to say that you’re practically itching in those stuffy clothes you wear to know what I have planned. Did I saying itching?” He snickered at some unknown joke.
Wells pretended to be uninterested, but the truth was that he really did want to know what Tempus had up his sleeve. If he could find a way to warn Superman, it would help to know what Tempus was up to.
“Well, I’m going to tell you anyway. It’s just too much fun not to share, and since you aren’t going to be there to see it happen...”
Wells wasn’t quick enough to hide the concern that flashed across his face.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Tempus sneered. “I like you too much, Herb, to do away with you... at least for now, anyway. No you won’t be around to see what happens because it’s going to happen in our universe and you’re not in *our* universe. Thanks to you and meddling Lois Lane and Clark Kent, I’m a fugitive in our universe. I can’t stay there for too long without drawing unwanted attention to myself.” Tempus scowled at Wells.
“Then where are we?” Wells asked, confused.
“Oh, now shame on you, Herb. I can’t give all of my secrets away. But I can tell you that you are in a small warehouse building that I *borrowed* down in the lovely Hobbs Bay area of Metropolis. So you might want to think twice about causing too much of a ruckus – you might attract some unwanted attention.” Tempus smiled patronizingly at him and then put a finger up to his chin. “Now, where was I?” He snapped his fingers. “Oh, yes, I know, I was about to tell you how I got the Supermen from those distant universes to help me.” He paused expectantly.
“How?” Wells said with obvious distaste at being strung along like this.
“I took away their Lois Lanes.”
“You what?” Wells exclaimed.
“Yes, that’s right,” he said happily. “I knew I’d get their attention if I took her away from them.”
“What have you done with them? Where are they?”
“Where are Lois Lanes? Oooh, that was some bad grammar.” Tempus snickered. “Don’t worry, Herb. I took them to a universe that has no Lois Lane. I thought they could be the replacement.”
“To the alternate universe? Tempus, how could you be so cruel?” Poor Clark.
“Cruel? I don’t know; I found it all so ironic somehow. God, I really do love irony. Anyway, I told both the Supermen equally unbelievable stories about what had happened to Lois, and somehow they both bought into them.”
“Well? What did you tell them?” Wells asked exasperatedly.
“Oh, *now* you’re interested?” Tempus made a big display of looking at his watch. “Well, I suppose I’ve got a little time.” He laughed at his absurd joke. Wells rolled his eyes; he had all the time in the world. “Let’s see now, where was I? Oh yes, how I tricked the *Supermen*,” he sneered as he said the name. “Well with the first one I visited, the Superman that has the son, I convinced him that an evil time traveler named Tempus had kidnapped his Lois.”
“But that’s you!”
“Yes, but he didn’t know that. I never told him who I was. Anyway, I told him that this Tempus, clever fellow by the way, dropped Lois off in a universe where Lois didn’t exist. Our poor alternate Clark’s universe. Which is true of course, I did take her there. However, I also convinced him that Tempus had no doubt lied to the Superman there, and that it would be difficult for him to get Lois back from the other Superman - that he would no doubt defend her with his life, blah, blah, blah. But, what I didn’t tell him was that I was taking him to *our* Clark’s universe and not the one where his Lois really was.”
“But why? What’s the point?”
“Hold on, you keep interrupting me. I’ll get to that part, but not yet. Let’s see... Ah, yes, the other Superman, the one I just visited.” Tempus began to pace again.
“He was easy. You see the Lex Luthor in his world had recently used Superman’s DNA to create a clone of sorts and he’d had to fight that clone off. As I understand it, the thing pretty darn near killed him. Shame, it didn’t work. I have to hand it to Lex; it was a decent idea. So I merely told *that* Superman that an evil time traveler named Tempus,” he did a little bow, “had kidnapped Lois Lane because he hated Superman, in any universe, and wanted to see him suffer,” he paused to smile, reveling in telling his tale, “which is true, I do. I told him that Tempus had created clones of him that were holding Lois captive in another universe. The *clones* of course being our Superman and the Superman from the other distant universe. Then I convinced him to get in the time machine and I dropped him off in our universe to find the pair of *clones*.”
Wells shook his head in disgust. “So you were hoping to what? Make them all fight each other? Kill each other? You are insane. They’ll never do that.”
Tempus looked a little disappointed. “Aww, you don’t like my plan, Herb? Well that’s okay. I’ve got a second one. You see I really didn’t expect the first one to work, at least not for very long. But it will be interesting to watch, nonetheless. I’m always in the mood for some entertainment.”
“So if you’ve already taken them both there, then why are you here? Did you just come to gloat over your plan before you went to watch it unfold?”
“Because I had to come back for this.” Tempus walked over to one of the crates in the room and opened it, pulling out a smaller box. A box that looked suspiciously like it was made of lead. He reached inside the small box he held in his palm with his thumb and fingers and withdrew them to reveal a chunk of glowing green rock.
“You have Kryptonite?” Wells exclaimed, feeling his stomach knot up.
“Tsk tsk. Of course I do.” Tempus stood up straight and tall, held the Kryptonite in his hand close to his face, and plastered on a fake-looking smile. “Kryptonite... never leave home without it. Catchy slogan don’t you think?” He dropped the façade and put the rock back inside the lead box and into one of the pockets of the black trenchcoat he was wearing. “Tell me, Herb, did you know that Kryptonite doesn’t seem to work in quite the same way when you take it to these incongruous parallel universes? It’s quite fascinating. It must have something to do with changes in their DNA structure, or differences in the molecular make-up of the Kryptonite. I’m not quite sure...”
“What do you mean?” Wells felt his curiosity perk despite the dread he was feeling.
“Well, I did a little experiment, just to be certain that Kryptonite had the ability to kill these other Supermen like it does in ours. But when I furtively exposed them to it, they reacted differently. I noticed it when I exposed one of the Clarks to it in an elevator. He didn’t fall to the floor writhing, didn’t even look uncomfortable. Instead, I noticed that he began sneezing. There was a woman in the elevator with heavy, pungent cologne on. That got me to thinking. So I tried it out on the other Clark. I applied a little poison ivy oil to his skin and he broke out in nasty rash where I touched him. Isn’t that marvelous?”
“Marvelous?” Wells asked in surprise.
“Yes. You see, it proves I *can* still kill the Supermen with the Kryptonite. It requires a little more work and forethought but basically I just need to expose them to something that will create a violent enough allergic reaction to kill them and I think I’ve got that covered.”
Tempus patted his pockets and looked around the room. “Well, I’ve got the keys to the car,” he said, patting one coat pocket and then pulling out a handful of gold jewelry. “The gift for the Supermen,” he said, tapping the other coat pocket where he put the Kryptonite. “I think that’s it. I don’t think I’ve forgotten anything... Oh wait, yes I have.” He walked to the time machine and reached under the seat, pulling out a gun. “There, now I’m ready. Don’t wait up for me, Herb. I may be a little while.”
Tempus tucked the gun away inside his trenchcoat and climbed into the time machine. He plopped a handful of the gold in the tray as a deposit and pulled the handle, disappearing from the room.
Wells sighed mightily. This did not look good. Not at all. But he had one ace up his sleeve. He knew where he was now. He had figured all along that Tempus had left him in one of the four universes he was working out of. Tempus had made it clear that it wasn’t their own universe - plus he’d just left to go visit that one. He’d also managed to let Wells know that it wasn’t one of the other two distant parallel universes. He had spoken about going to *visit* those – and Wells didn’t think he’d make his home base in a world that he wasn’t familiar with.
So that left just one option.
Thankfully Tempus hadn’t chloroformed him again. Wells looked over at the window. It was time to recruit some help of his own.
**********
To Be Continued...
