I was picking through the unfinished LnC fics languishing on my hard drive, and I decided to wrap this one up. It's almost finished, but I thought I'd start posting parts. I know most people don't start reading longer fics until they're complete, so I was tempted to wait until then to start posting. This story has been so much fun to write though, I guess I'm just bursting to share.
Please let me know what you think! The parts will be fairly short and I have no problem posting the next bit as soon as I get some feedback on the previous one.
Not betaed--I gladly claim all mistakes.
For the purposes of this story, Clark came to earth at about age 4, Green Green Glow of Home never happened, and Clark never lost his spaceship. Everything else is pure LnC. This story is post-Nightfall and pre-Barbarians at the Planet. I haven't seen the show recently enough to place it any more exactly.
The Kid
By Mercy
A sickly silence filled the warehouse and Lois knew that she was too late. A moment earlier, two of Superman's greatest enemies--Lex Luthor and Tempus--had climbed into a time machine and disappeared in a flash of light. She had darted out from her hiding place at the last moment to stop them, desperate and planless, but they were gone before she'd emerged from the stack of crates.
"With Superman under my control, nobody will question The Boss ever again. We will create a very different future for you, Tempus."Lois remembered those fateful words with a shudder. She had just finished a pleasant dinner with Lex at his estate and was on her way out to the limo waiting to take her home, when she'd realized she'd left her purse behind. As she'd passed Lex's office to reach the dining room, a flash of light beneath the door caught her attention.
The same flash she'd just seen again, Lois realized as she watched the spot Luthor and Tempus had occupied a moment ago.
"You're early, Tempus." The annoyance in Lex's voice was colored with awe at whatever he had just seen.
"When you have a time machine, you are always just in time. Remember that, Lex." The strange voice edged on the maniacal.Lois' ear had been glued to the office door. She was the one who had been just in time that night. Just in time to discover that Clark was more right than even he probably knew--Lex was a criminal. The underground ringleader known as "The Boss". Not only that, but he was plotting against Superman with a man who could control time!
Lois had been skeptical at first, but then, when you've been flying with a gorgeous alien from outer space, you can't dismiss even the craziest possibilities.
Now she knew it was the truth. And she'd been too late to stop them. She fought a sob as she took a few steps backward and rested against a crate. Of all the thoughts boiling across her brain, she seized on the one of least consequence: she'd let that despicable excuse for a human being kiss her! And now he was who-knows-when, who-knows-where, killing the man she loved.
She should have called the police right after she'd overheard Lex's plan. Instead she'd follow them the next morning to a warehouse in the seediest corner of Hobbes' Bay and ...what? What had she hoped to do? Save the day? Save Superman so that maybe he'd notice her? She nearly laughed. God, did she really just send Superman to his doom in a failed attempt to cadge his attention?
A pop of light blinded her for a moment and her legs carried her back behind the crate before she even knew what was happening. Voices. They had returned.
"Now, now, little man! Don't look so scared!" It was Tempus. "You've just traveled millions of light years through space, so what's a few years through time?"
Lois slowly raised her head over the crate, praying it was dark enough to hide her. Tempus and Lex were looking down at something between them, but the crate blocked it from view.
"You've got a whole new life ahead of you, now." Lex climbed out of the time machine, then reached in and lifted out--a little boy! A dark haired little boy! Could it--it couldn't be. "Don't worry," he gave a hearty laugh, "Daddy will show you the way. Teach you just how to use those powers of yours."
No.
The sinking in her stomach was the silent scream of a million hopes dying, the haunting plea of a dream twisting and warping. Afterward, she didn't know where she'd found the crowbar. Her success she counted as extreme luck combined with their shear surprise. One sickening thwack on each of their heads was all it took. A scream still rang in her head, until she realized it wasn't coming from within her, but from the little boy beside her.
"Shh, shh." She dropped the crowbar and squatted down beside him. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you, please. Don't be scared."
The boy didn't seem to understand, but his cry dropped away into sobs. She pulled him into her arms and he came willingly enough. She murmured quiet nothings, rubbing his back slowly. God, what had she been thinking? He couldn't have been more than three or four and she was swinging around crowbars like she was in a slasher movie.
But you had to, a voice in her head sobbed. You couldn't have let Lex have him. Not him. Not Superman. She pulled away to look into his eyes, still watery but no longer crying. He tried to look over at the two men on the ground, but she turned his face away. Those eyes, so serious, so intense. Those were Superman's eyes.
What had he said his alien name was? "Kal-El?"
The boy's eyes widened momentarily. "Ka nit to wan kif. Jo sot nit."
"What?" Oh, great. What was this? His alien language? He was dressed like a human, in a t-shirt and jeans. Did they change his clothes before taking him from Krypton? "I don't understand. Erm, English?"
He furrowed his eyebrows but didn't speak.
She stood and took his hand, leading him out of the warehouse. "Come on. I need to make a phone call."
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