Hello everyone! Due to the insistent requests that I post part 2 soon... and the fact that Sue is such a fast little beta <g> I was able to post part 2 today.
Let me take a moment to thank LabRat and Laura S for their inspiration on this story. I'll give more details on that later and in my author's note.
I did make one slight change to part 1 (in case anyone remembers). It originally read that Superman had stolen over 5 million in bank assets. That was changed to 1 million because frankly, 5, was going a little overboard, I think. <snort>
And now, part 2! Enjoy!
Table of Contents From Part 1:
And what she wanted to think about even less is what would have happened that night after the clone had come on to her... if Clark hadn’t shown up when he did.
<You like me, don’t you?>
Lois let out an involuntary shudder. Yes, what would have happened, indeed? A Superman void of morals. ‘Might is right’ – that’s what he had believed in.
And yet, even that clone hadn’t been completely evil. Not in the end. And he certainly could have bested Clark that night, if he had wanted to.
Lois glanced over at Clark. He was watching her expectantly, still waiting for an answer. “I don’t know. I guess it’s possible.” She signed long and deep. And it was possible that if there was another clone, maybe whoever had created it had gotten their experiment right this time – and if that was the case...
Superman had saved the Planet from annihilation by an asteroid, but he may not yet have faced his biggest challenge.
Himself.
**********
PART TWO
**********
Clark stared at the television monitor in the Daily Planet conference room. He had watched the tape a half a dozen times, all with the same result... coming to the same conclusion.
Whoever had busted through that vault door had Superman’s powers. It hadn’t been a mechanical appendage or some trick, sleight of hand. Clark had slowed the footage down and had even paused it in a few places – to get a better look – much to the irritation of Lois.
This person – whoever they were - was the real deal.
Which meant that there had to be another clone. A clone who was willing to break the law. An amoral Superman.
Clark frowned. He wasn’t even exactly sure how to proceed. As much as he didn’t like it, he was going to have to wait for the clone to show himself again before Clark could track him down.
“So? What’s our angle?” Lois asked, breaking into his thoughts.
“Angle?”
“Yeah. Do we go with the clone theory? We sure as heck have to print something or Perry will have our hides.” She ejected the tape out of the VCR and shook it in the air at no one in particular. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to write a story slanted towards Superman being a criminal.”
“But you said that Superman asked you not to...”
“Yeah, I know,” she cut him off sharply. “I promised to keep the whole clone thing under wraps...”
Clark nodded. “Yes, and we both agreed that it would be better...”
“What? To sit back and allow Superman’s reputation to be sullied? Clark, that was before-“ she held up the tape again, wriggling it back and forth “-this. Before some half-breed knock-off went and robbed a bank. We can’t allow the world to think that Superman is a criminal.”
Clark let out a long sigh. She was right. He knew she was. Superman had definitely had enough bad publicity over the past year. There was the heat wave incident that had been blamed on him. Oh, sure, he’d been acquitted of responsibility on that – but the damage had still been done.
Then there was the Nightfall asteroid – oh, yes, he had saved the entire planet, to be sure, but what about the fact that it had taken him so long to do it? There were a lot of families who had sold everything they owned, left their jobs, and had run for the hills, thinking that Superman wasn’t coming back to finish the job. He had gotten plenty of bad publicity over that one. He cringed as he remembered the follow-up story that Geraldo had done just a few weeks back. A kind of ‘where are they now’ piece. It hadn’t exactly been good press.
Then there was the little snafu with Constance, the magician, and him being hypnotized and under her control. He had nearly helped her kill several innocent people – including Lois – and enslave half the planet to her mind control. Lois had done her best to keep the majority of that bad publicity under wraps, but what the trashy tabloids had gotten wind of, they had certainly been happy to print.
Then when that clone had shown up... Well, suffice it to say that while the clone hadn’t exactly done anything criminal, he hadn’t behaved in the best manner. Clark grimaced, thinking about the way his clone had tossed the criminals into the police van. One man’s arm had been broken and the other man’s jaw had been cracked and badly bruised. The tabloids had definitely had fun with some of those headlines.
He remembered one headline very clearly –
[Super Hero or Super Zero?]
It had been in big bold letters with his picture right below it. The words still stung when he thought about them.
He shook his head firmly at Lois. “No, you’re right. Superman’s had enough bad publicity this year. We can’t allow people to think that he’s a criminal.” He crossed his arms in front of him and furrowed his brow. “But, are people going to believe the clone story? Now? After we tried so hard to cover it up? And the bigger question is, will Perry even let us print it?”
“I don’t know,” Lois conceded, stalking off towards the doorway. “But I do know I’m not gonna sit around here and wait to find...”
“Find out what?” Perry asked, walking into the conference room.
Clark turned abruptly at Perry’s voice and got up from the corner of the table he was perched on. Perry didn’t look happy. He had dark circles under his eyes and his jaw was set in that determined manner that he sometimes got.
“Uh,” Lois stammered, caught off guard. “Find out if...”
“You know what I’d like to find out if?” Perry interrupted, eyeing them each in turn. They both shook their heads. “I’d like to find out if my two star reporters have something they’d like to print today or if they’re just gonna sit in here on their laurels all day watching old news.”
“Perry?” Lois stammered, her voice a little high. “Is everything all right?”
Perry let out a long sigh. “No. Everything is not all right.” Clark looked at Lois and they both held their breath, waiting for him to continue. He shook his head softly and a little bit of fight seemed to leave him. “Ah, hell, kids. It’s just the same old song and dance. The suits upstairs are tired of seeing us get scooped by other papers, and now, apparently, some of our sponsors are feeling the same way.”
“But, Perry,” Lois began.
Perry waved her off. “We still haven’t bounced back from that thing with the STAR and Preston Carpenter scooping us on every story.”
“But that wasn’t the paper’s fault,” Clark chimed in. “Preston was making those headlines happen.”
“Oh, Clark, you and Lois know that, and I know that. But to the suits upstairs, it’s only the bottom line that counts. And trust me when I say that our bottom line doesn’t look good. And hasn’t looked good in weeks.”
“It’s that bad?” Lois asked, her face genuinely concerned.
“It’s worse,” Perry assured her. The statement hung in the air for a few moments before Perry began speaking again, “So do you have something for a headliner today?”
Lois grabbed his arm and led him to a chair. “We just might, Chief. But you’re gonna have to trust us.”
**********
“Clone? Great shades of Elvis!” Perry exclaimed as he rose up from the chair, unable to sit still any longer. “I can’t print that! We’ll look like the National Whisper!”
“But Clark and I can corroborate one another’s story,” Lois protested. “We both saw...”
“And I’ve told you both before that when it comes to personal accounts of the weird and wild – like spaceships disappearing from abandoned warehouses... or, in this case, a real-life clone of our resident superhero – you can’t corroborate each other. I have to have hard proof-“ he jabbed the palm of his hand with a finger “-tangible evidence. Do you have any?”
Lois looked at Clark and she was certain that the grimace on his face matched her own. “No,” she admitted in defeat.
“Then go out there and get me some.” And with that final comment, Perry turned around and stormed out of the conference room.
“Any ideas?” Lois asked.
“None,” Clark admitted. “You?”
“No, but I’m not giving up yet. If I have to, I’ll track down Superman myself and convince him to give me a lock of his hair and...” Lois broke off because Clark was smiling broadly at her. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“Something!” she huffed, feeling annoyed at his ability to find something to smile about in the whole situation. What could possibly be so...
Lois frowned. Clark’s face had changed. It had taken on a far-off look. She had seen him get that look from time to time before and had dismissed it as a sign of deep thought. But, somehow, it seemed different this time. She held out a hand in front of his face and waved it back and forth. “Hello? Clark?”
He blinked. And just like that, before she could even work up a good insult, he seemed to be back and was focusing on her.
“Maybe you should lay off the sugar in your coffee,” she said with a smug smile. “You’re going to end up in a diabetic coma one of these days.”
“Hmmm? What do you mean?”
Lois rolled her eyes. “What do I mean? Where were you just then? Through the looking glass with Alice?” Clark just gave her a puzzled look and she responded with a noisy sigh. “Oh, never mind, come on. Let’s hit the street and see if anyone has seen Superman performing any other unusual activities lately.”
**********
Clark was about to follow Lois onto the elevator when he heard it. A police siren. “Um, you go ahead,” he told her. “I’ll meet you downstairs in just a minute. I forgot my wallet.”
“Clark!” Lois complained as the doors slid shut, cutting her off. Clark bolted for the relative safety of the stairwell to make a quick change.
**********
Lois fidgeted as she stared at the elevator, waiting for Clark to emerge from it. She glanced over at the revolving door, wondering how upset he would be with her if she just left and went on without him.
It would be his own fault. For heaven’s sake, he was a reporter. In their field it was kill or be killed... well, publish or perish anyway. The point was that she couldn’t afford to stand around all day waiting for him.
She had just about made up her mind to leave when a broadcast caught her attention. She thought she heard someone mention Superman. The sound was coming from behind the counter of the newsstand vendor. Lois walked over to the counter and leaned on it, searching for the source.
“Lois, can I help you?” the vendor asked, smiling amusedly at her. “You’re not going to find any Double Fudge Crunch bars back here; I haven’t gotten your next shipment yet.”
Mmmm, Double Fudge Crunch bars... Focus, Lois! “Um, no, that’s not what I was looking for. Do you have a radio back there?”
The vendor reached down and pulled out a little miniature monochrome TV and set it on the counter. He shrugged. “On slow news days I have to have something to pass the time.”
Lois smiled politely and turned the set towards her. There was a field reporter on the screen, gesturing at a burning building behind her.
“It seems that the Metropolis Fire Department has their hands full,” the woman reported, gesturing at several firefighters who were desperately trying to get the blaze under control. Cries of ‘Help, Superman’ could be heard in the background.
“Have they said where the fire is at?” Lois asked.
He shook his head. “Sorry, if they did, I didn’t hear.”
She frowned. If she knew where the fire was, she could have jumped in a cab and rushed over there.
Since when did a little problem like location, stop her? She slung her purse over her arm and headed for the revolving doors. Superman was bound to show up at that fire, and when he did, she had questions for him.
“Wait, Lois! Superman just arrived on the scene,” the vendor said excitedly, waving for her to come back.
She scowled. Well, so much for that. She didn’t know where the fire was and there was no way she was going to get there in time to catch Superman. He’d have that fire put out and be back in the sky before she even managed to flag down a cab. Lois ran back over to the counter to watch her hero go to work.
Except... he wasn’t... going to work.
He was standing there with his arms crossed in front of him, leaning against a nearby lamppost - not doing a blessed thing. The anchorwoman ran over to him and shoved a microphone in his face.
“Superman, can you tell us why you aren’t helping to put the blaze out? Have you determined that the building can’t be saved? Or does this have something to do with your involvement in the alleged robbery last night at the First Metropolis Bank?”
Superman looked at her smugly, a quirky smile tugging at one side of his mouth. “Alleged? There was nothing ‘alleged’ about that robbery. I can assure you the bank was definitely robbed.”
Lois gasped out loud. That wasn’t Superman! It couldn’t be. He wouldn’t act like that. It had to be the clone. She silently cursed herself for not being at the scene right now. She was going to let Clark have a piece of her mind when he finally made it down the elevator.
“Can you turn it up a little?” she asked the vendor. Come on, she thought desperately at the anchorwoman, ask him some good questions. Do your job.
The anchorwoman seemed almost like she was trying to overcome shock at what Superman had just said. She glanced warily up at the raging fire that Superman still seemed unconcerned enough to do anything about and once again held the microphone out to him. “What about the fire? Isn’t there something you can do to help?”
The clone Superman had the audacity to let out a yawn. “That building was condemned. It should have come down a long time ago. And frankly, I just don’t feel like wasting time or effort on something unimportant like that, anyway.”
“Unimportant?” the woman pressed, her voice betraying her outrage. “What about the firefighters who are up there, risking their lives to put out the blaze?”
The clone shrugged. “That’s their own fault. Me? I just don’t see the point of getting involved.” And with that, he was lifting up into the air and flying away... without having done so much as check on the firefighters.
“You heard it here, first. Apparently, from Superman’s own mouth, he doesn’t deny that he robbed the First Metropolis Bank. And he now seems overcome by... by disinterest, laziness...”
“Sloth,” the vendor murmured to himself.
“Sloth?” Lois asked.
“Yeah, you know, laziness. It’s one of the seven deadly sins. Who knew that Superman was susceptible, huh?”
Lois knew what sloth meant. She also knew that Superman was the last person on Earth to be susceptible to it. “Don’t count on it. There’s something going on here, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it.”
“I can tell you what’s going on,” he offered. “Living in this city has finally gotten to the ‘Man of Steel’.”
“That’s not true. He’s innocent, and I’m gonna prove it.”
“Well, good luck to you, Ms. Lane. If anyone can do it, you can,” he told her encouragingly.
“Thanks,” Lois said, once again taking off for the revolving doors.
“Wait, Lois! I’m coming!”
She turned around to see Clark come jogging off the elevator. She put her hands on her hips and gave him her most disapproving glare. “Where have you been? You just cost us an exclusive! And don’t tell me it took that long to find your wallet!”
Clark held up a pencil. “The supply closet. My other one broke and I had to...”
“It took you that long to get a new pencil?” she exclaimed shrilly.
It actually hadn’t taken him any time to get a new pencil. That excuse had been easy enough to procure. What bothered him was that he wasn’t sure what had happened just before that... He remembered hearing police sirens and thinking he needed to come up with an excuse to go help. He had dashed off to the stairwell, and then... nothing. He had jolted back to awareness to find himself lying on the cold concrete floor of the stairwell, staring at the door leading to the roof... He didn’t know how much time had passed but the police sirens were long gone and he didn’t have a clue where to go or how to help, so he had reluctantly retrieved a new pencil for a cover story and then come downstairs.
“Well there weren’t any sharpened ones,” he continued lamely. “I had to...”
“Never mind,” she bit out, not hiding her irritation. She grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the revolving door. “Come on, we’ve gotta go.”
“Where?”
“To find out more info about this clone and what we’re dealing with,” she explained as if it should be obvious. “He just refused to help put out a fire in a building downtown and...”
“What?” Clark exclaimed. “When?”
“Just now. I was watching it on TV before you came down but...”
“Where? Which building?” he pressed.
“I don’t know. Somewhere downtown. Why does it matter?” she asked exasperatedly. “The important issue is that...”
“Lois, I’m sorry,” Clark said, his brain fighting for an excuse. “I... I just realized that I didn’t get my... press pass.” Clark bit the inside of his cheek, hating lying to her. He had his press pass; it was in his inside jacket pocket. But he had to have an excuse to leave. The ‘real’ Superman needed to go put out that fire.
“Press pass? Clark, we’re going to talk to some sources, not attend a luncheon with the mayor. You don’t need your...”
“Yes, I do. Always be prepared. That’s the Boy Scout motto. It’ll just take a minute. I’ll be right back.”
“But!” Lois protested as she watched him run towards the door to the stairwell. “Ugh!” she huffed in frustration. And she had thought that his other Boy Scout tendencies were infuriating.
**********
Clark blew out the fire and flew away from the scene before anyone even knew he was there.
Well almost...
He could hear the shouts of onlookers calling out to him as he blazed off through the sky, headed back to the Planet. As he flew, he pondered what had just happened. It seemed a little more than coincidental that at the exact time he’d experienced that ‘black out’, the clone Superman had shown up.
Shown up and done nothing. It was almost as if the clone had merely shown up to make him, Superman, look bad. But why? What was the purpose? How had they incapacitated him? And more importantly, who was behind it? He knew the one person he suspected.
Luthor.
He had always suspected that Luthor was the one behind the original clone. Who else had the money, technology, and resources to personally fund a project like that? He remembered his first conversation with the clone --
<”Who are you?”
“I don’t want to talk, you’re my enemy...”
“Why would you say that?”
“I’m the most powerful man in the universe. You’ve outlived your usefulness.”
“Who told you these things?”
“My father...”>
Could Luthor have been the ‘father’ the clone was referring to?
<”Might is right...”>
That certainly sounded like something Luthor would say. And the thought of Luthor being responsible for the cloning made him nervous, to say the least.
But what troubled him even more was what had caused him to black out like that? Had someone done something to him? He hadn’t really ever passed out before, except after that first time he had been exposed to Kryptonite, in his dad’s barn. But even then, he had only passed out from the unexpected pain that had accompanied the exposure. The next time, when Trask had exposed him to it, he had fought against the pain. He had been ready for it.
This - whatever it had been - wasn’t Kryptonite. It wasn’t something he had been prepared for.
Clark landed on the roof of the Daily Planet and cautiously changed, before making his way back down the stairwell to Lois.
Only she wasn’t there.
Clark walked over to the vendor. “Did Lois...”
“Leave? Yep. She said she was tired of waiting for you and that if you wanted to catch up with her, you could go to her Uncle Mike’s diner.” The vendor handed a slip of paper to Clark. “That’s the address.”
Uncle Mike’s diner? He didn’t even realize she had an uncle living in the city, much less one who owned a diner. “Thanks,” Clark said, tucking the paper into his coat pocket.
Why had she gone to her uncle’s diner?
**********
To Be Continued...
