A/N: I'd like to thank Ann, BJ, PJ, JD, and Olympe for their FDK which is soooo addictive I can't get enough.
And thanks to Olympe once again for being my BR. I haven't really been fair to you. You only get the story one part ahead of the rest. I really should email you an outline...
Lois’s thoughts are italicised and enclosed by angle brackets (<>)
Asterisks enclose emphasis (**)
TOC Part FourLois quickly picked the lock to the hangar where Dr. Baines had hidden the *real* Messenger and opened the door.
“I didn’t know you could do that,” Jimmy whispered, clearly in awe of her skill.
<What can I say, Jimmy? You were a good teacher.> Too bad he hadn’t actually *taught* her yet.
“Are you kidding? Lois could get into any door in Metropolis,” Clark whispered back. He shook his head, thinking of all the times he had wished she had never learnt that particular skill.
“And you have no idea how that drives Clark crazy,” Lois whispered, echoing his thoughts as he closed the door behind them. “Okay, Jimmy, you go take as many photos of the Messenger as you can. Clark, keep an eye out and make sure Dr. Baines and her muscle are busy elsewhere. I’m going to check out her office.” And so saying, she turned in that direction. Clark immediately followed her. Lois *was* the more likely of the two to need his help, after all.
Jimmy couldn’t help watching them while they left. They immediately became joined at the hip. Jimmy grinned as he watched them move out of sight. Then he remembered what he was supposed to be doing. He headed to the Messenger and began to take as many photos as he could. Lois really wasn’t kidding. There was a huge hole in the left side of the shell.
Jimmy had just started taking photos of the inside, when a strange glow caught his attention. Getting closer, he saw that the fierce green glow came from some kind of crystalline rock. His eyes widened. He had never seen anything like this before in his life.
“Cool,” he breathed, a slow smile crossing his face as he reached out to take it. “The boys at STAR Labs will *love* this.” He finished taking as many photos of the inside as he had of the outside and then turned in the direction of Dr. Baines’ office.
Meanwhile, Lois and Clark were going through the mounds of paperwork Dr. Baines had accumulated. Clark was speed skimming through the several large filing cabinets along the walls while Lois attacked the boxes on her desk. There was one box in particular that she’d had to pick the lock to open. And now she wished she hadn’t. It had been full to the brim with love letters from none other than Lex Luthor. She was just closing the lid when Jimmy burst through the door. “Look what I found!” he exclaimed, holding out his prize, proudly.
<Kryptonite!> Lois didn’t even think about what she was doing. She dumped the box she was holding of its contents and shut the offending green meteorite inside before Clark even had a chance to slump against the cabinets.
<Clark?> “This box *is* lead, right?” she asked him.
“Its okay, Lois,” he answered, reassuringly. “That box is definitely made of lead.”
She dumped the box on Jimmy (“Don’t open that.”) and came right up to Clark. “Are you okay?” she whispered.
“I’m fine,” he repeated, keeping his voice low. “You moved so fast that for a second I thought *you* were the one with super-speed.” Lois smiled in relief.
“Okay, we have to get that rock to STAR Labs,” she said, going into full-babble mode. “Then we have to get that film developed and take all the photos showing the k...rock out and burn them. And make sure Dr. Platt and his family are still okay. And hope that Mr Wells brings that gizmo with him tonight so we can find Tempus.” She lowered her voice, realising that it was getting too loud. “And then we’re getting married again at the first available opportunity; after I’ve met your parents again.”
“Uh, guys, what’s so bad about this rock that you have to hide it in lead?” Jimmy asked, recalling them to his presence.
“Come on, Jimmy, think!”
<Come on, *Lois*, think!> “The rock was *glowing* *green*. That *can’t* be good. It could be carcinogenic or something. What if it infected someone in this room?” Jimmy immediately held the box a little further away from himself and Lois mentally congratulated herself for a crisis temporarily diverted.
“Yes, indeed.” Lois grew cold. She knew that voice. The way Clark suddenly tensed beside her meant that he had also recognised that voice. “What would happen if I did *this*?” He took the box from Jimmy and used it to expediently knock him unconscious before any of them could act.
“Jimmy!” Lois exclaimed, as Clark surged forward.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Tempus drawled as he took the kryptonite from its prison and held it out like a ward of protection. Clark immediately sank to the ground. “Ah, yes, the first exposure was always the worst. I’d like you to meet kryptonite, Clark, a little souvenir from the home town.” Tempus crouched down next to Clark and pressed the rock against him, causing him to scream in pain.
“No! Get off him!” Lois yelled, even as she realised that something was clearly wrong in this scenario. Tempus was acting like Clark didn’t know what kryptonite was, but that would mean...
<If Tempus didn’t send us back in time and Mr Wells didn’t send us back in time, then who *did*?> “If you don’t like Utopia so much, Tempus, just use your time window and find a time that you *do* like!”
Tempus turned to regard Lois with a frown, shortly releasing his hold on Clark. “What do you know of Utopia? And how do you know my name?”
<So I was right, he *didn’t* send us back.>“You’re not the only one who can travel through time,” Lois responded, her eyes on Clark, who seemed to be sinking into a stupor. “I was hoping that ‘John Doe’ stunt was the last we’d see of you.”
“Not while my ambition to rid the world of Clark ‘Superman’ Kent remains unfulfilled,” he replied, arrogantly turning back towards the fallen hero.
“Tempus, you don’t want to do this,” Lois pleaded.
“Yes I do. Goodbye, Superman; goodbye, Utopia,” Tempus replied, reapplying the kryptonite to a near comatose Clark.
“No!” Lois’s imagination kicked into overdrive at the thought of a future without him. Then her eyes widened. There *would* be no future without him. “You can’t kill him! If you do, you’ll end the world! You won’t even be born!”
“Now, come on, Ms Lane, you don’t really expect me to believe that, do you?” Tempus scoffed.
“Didn’t you listen in your Kent History class? A little thing called the Nightfall Asteroid escape your attention?”
Tempus immediately turned to face her, the first traces of uncertainty etched into his face. “Asteroid?”
“Yes! Asteroid! In February 1995 that asteroid will hit the earth and leave no survivors unless Superman is around to stop it!”
Tempus hesitated. This could be a ploy to save her precious Clark, but there was such conviction in her voice. And he had the horrid suspicion that he *had* heard of the Nightfall Asteroid, but he had been too full of plans to end Utopia to truly pay attention to the lesson.
With a wrench, he pulled the kryptonite away from Clark. “Fine, I’ll let you live long enough to save the earth.” He opened his pocket time window and stepped through. He couldn’t help but give one parting shot. “See you in March.” Tempus laughed as he activated the window. The window vanished, leaving an eerie echo of his laughter on the wind.
Lois immediately ran to Clark. She sighed with relief to see that he was still breathing. Lois shook her head and muttered something about Tempus’ insanity. She sighed and looked around, noticing that Jimmy was still unconscious.
“Okay, not good,” Lois’ panic kicked into overdrive.
<Dr. Baines and her muscle man will be here any minute!> She turned to Clark with hope.
<And he’s still unconscious.> “Come on, Clark. I can’t move you two out of here all by myself!” She spun in panic when the distinct sound of footsteps started heading in her direction.
Comments tbc
