I'm about 90% happy with this; any constructive criticism is welcome. Destructive criticism will be fed to my cat
Show Off
By Kermtzu <whoziswhatzis@hotmail.com>
Rated: PG
March 2008
Clark looked down tenderly at his sleeping Lois. He’d never seen her this tired, but it was to be expected.
His Lois. How it thrilled him to think those words and know them to be true, just as she knew he was her Clark. Hers. Hers and hers alone. Well, almost alone, now.
He looked at the clock. How had another half hour passed by so quickly? He glanced again at Lois, but she still slept deeply. Smiling down at his beloved wife, he exited the room to the stairwell, and then to the roof. He was glad to have seen no one in the hallway; familiar faces would wonder how a man could need a breath of fresh air every single hour.
From the roof, he sped quickly into space after his spin into the Suit. His supplies were about two thirds finished, but that was fine. He’d been through eighteen time zones already: he had plenty to spare.
The dark side of the Moon made for a great hiding spot.
With a speed that seemed even to him impossible, he sped to the Earth and back to the Moon thousands of times in a mere second, stopping each time at different areas at the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere to release tons of pulverized chemical salts he’d mined from bodies in the asteroid belt over the past few months.
They flared brightly as they entered the Earth’s atmosphere and burned and ionized in the Earth‘s magnetic belt. Brilliant hues of reds, oranges, purples and greens filled the sky with an aurora of colors just as the sun faded beyond the horizon. He flew tirelessly across the new stretch of night, spreading the fine dust across the world from top to bottom. Billions of people across the world who had never seen the Auroras Borealis or Australis were now seeing his personally-created aurora. Normally strongest at the poles, the Earth’s magnetic field was still incredibly powerful across the entire planet; with the amount of ionizing material filtering down, all of humanity was treated to one of Nature’s most beautiful sights.
Once the sky was filled with colors, he switched to the second of his tasks, slicing down through the atmosphere tens of thousands of times in mere moments from his lunar supply base. This was his favorite part, as he could now hear the many excited voices below him. He felt like Santa Claus.
“Look! Up in the sky! Is that him?”
“I think it’s about to start!”
“What a show! He’s doing this over the whole world! Thirty minutes worth, every hour on the hour!”
“Why, Daddy? Why‘s he doing this?” Hearing the little girl, Clark paused a moment to hear the answer to this particular question.
After a moment, her father’s voice answered, “I think he’s just happy, Katie. He’s happy and wants us to be happy, too.”
Clark smiled. Katie’s Dad, like fathers everywhere, was pretty knowledgeable. Clark was indeed very, very happy.
Tens of thousands of fireworks exploded as he finished that thought, and he returned to deliveries, placements and ignitions for a continued display of hundreds of thousands more. The physical calculations for covering the skies for one twenty-fourth of the Earth’s surface with correct placement, timing and ignitions for just one display would have stymied the greatest of the world’s supercomputers, but Superman would have done it two dozen times when finished. Supercomputers were as nothing to a young man in love who knew every square inch of the Earth’s sky and was faster than any computer on the planet.
The whoops of millions of voices rose up as people of every continent, nation and home exclaimed their delight at the ongoing celestial show of a lifetime. Clarks’ heart, already filled, threatened to burst from his chest. Regretting that he had to finish for this portion of the world to return to Lois, he slowed his speed and floated down to Earth, to make a pass over and wave to as many people as he could, spinning, swirling, performing barrel rolls and generally bursting with exuberance. Happy sounds followed him as he sped back to Lois.
She was awake when he returned, but her tart smile upon seeing him enter the room relieved any guilt he might have experienced at not being there when she woke. With her feminine wiles she’d wormed his plan out of him months ago, and it had both delighted and melted her heart to know the scope of what he planned. To see it actually happen, and know that it was happening for her, was amazing. Almost as amazing as Clark himself. The most powerful man in the world, and he loved her. Alone of all the women in the world, he loved her. Not that she was going to get all slobbery about it now, though, with her hormones already off the scales.
She lowered the remote control to the hospital bed and gestured with feigned indignation at the television. “You big showboating doofus! Never again tell me you feel conspicuous in the Suit! There’s nothing on the TV but you and your stunts.” LNN was indeed showing nothing but scenes of people dancing in the streets, pointing up at the skies, exclaiming at the lights and spectacle, and cheering on her husband looping through the skies, as all had been doing for the better part of the day -- well, night. The skies over Metropolis, although lightening with the approach of dawn, still sparkled with Superman’s created aurora from hours before.
Clark smiled at her teasing. He felt unable to talk, too tongue-tied to even speak his love for this incredible woman and what she had given him. Kneeling down to caress Lois’ hair, he kissed her and then the small form wrapped and suckling at her breast.
“How is Lara?”
“I don’t think she’ll ever stop eating, Clark. The little monster has your appetite. On your next trip out, why don’t you bring back some Ho-Hos and Twinkies for her? That is, if you’re not too busy showing off?”
Clark chuckled. “Well, it’s not as if Superman can hand out cigars, Lois!” Then somewhat righteously, he added, “I can’t tell the world why I‘m so happy, but I do want everyone to see how happy you and our daughter make me. If that‘s showing off, then I‘m a show off.”
To accent that, their daughter of two days belched. A mighty belch. You could almost call it super. The saline drip wiggled slightly at this eruption.
“Great,” moaned Lois theatrically, as she rolled her eyes. “Two show offs in the family.”
