The central tornado was the largest, almost a thousand feet in diameter. The two smaller tornadoes were a quarter as wide and orbited the central tornado. Clark hesitated for a moment, his mind racing for what he knew about tornadoes.
They received their energy from warm, moist air rising from the base, while cold air dropped from above, and they dissipated when the cold air from above wrapped around the tornado and cut it off from the energy supplying it.
Taking a deep breath, Clark began to go to work, spraying cold air as close to the base of the smaller tornado to his left. With any luck he’d be able to dissipate that one more quickly than the central storm and would be able to do the same to the other.
Each of the tornadoes was equally deadly, although the central one was going to carve a wider path.
***********
“Get away from the window,” Anita said. “We’re moving to a safe place.”
“But it’s Superman out there,” Jacob said, his eyes wide and shining. He was unnaturally thin and bald and it had been a long time since Anita had seen any expression on his face other than pain and sadness.
All the other windows in the hospital had already had the shades drawn and drapes pulled, to minimize damage from flying glass. Jacob must have opened the blinds himself.
She glanced out the window and was startled to see a single figure floating several hundred yards away, as though he was going to stop the tornadoes with his bare hands.
“The others have already moved,” she said.
If Jacob hadn’t disappeared, they’d have already moved into the basement. He was at least ambulatory, as were most of the other children. All of the patients were being moved into the hallways and the doors were shut, but with the tornadoes on them, Anita knew they didn’t have any more time.
She grabbed Jacob, almost absently noting that he weighed almost nothing. Over his sudden protests she carried him out the door, kicking it closed behind her.
She made for the stairs; the elevators had already been disabled as being unsafe. Rushing through the heavy steel doors, she began to head for the ground floor as quickly as she could. If she could reach the basement it would be even better.
Although there were no windows and the stairwell was reinforced, there was really no safe place if the hospital was directly hit.
Ahead of her she could see some of the more mobile patients trying to make it down the stairs. One man stumbled on the steps and fell to one knee, moaning as he tried to drag his intravenous drip tube behind him, trying to use its stand as a cane.
She hesitated, but was pleased to see another man slow down and offer the older man a hand.
The sound of the wind became a deafening roar, and she tried to move faster, only to be slowed by the people ahead of her. She felt the entire structure of the stairwell begin to shake as the wind directly outside the wall rose to a deafening scream.
People below her began to scream, and she grabbed tightly to Jacob and crouched on the stairwell, hoping to use her body to shield his.
************
It wasn’t as easy as he’d hoped. The moment he’d begun to freeze the air at the base of the first tornado, it had begun to move wildly, unpredictably.
After a moment he decided to try something else. Blasts of heat at the top of the tornado followed by blasts of cold at the bottom. He could see that it was having an effect, but not fast enough.
He turned to the next tornado and winced as he saw parked cars flying through the air. It was going to be close, no matter what he did.
Clark was learning, but it wasn’t fast enough, and while he was learning, people were going to be dying.
It was then that Clark began to see a pattern to the behavior of the tornado’s movements in response to what he was doing.
If he couldn’t stop the storm in time, perhaps he could change its course.
************
The structure held, although a door slammed open above and it sounded like the end of the world. Anita huddled, and several others huddled with her, protecting them from the unnaturally cold air coming from above.
The emergency lights flickered off, and then on, then off again, plunging them into total darkness. People screamed again, and Anita heard the sound of someone stumbling on the stairs.
After a time, the door above slammed shut and the sounds of the wind began to die down into the normal rhythms of a storm, with the sounds of crashing thunder in the distance.
Anita’s hands were shaking, although she tried to calm herself. It wouldn’t do to let Jacob see that she was afraid. Children took their cues from adults, and as long as she didn’t show fear, he would be all right.
She was surprised to feel his tiny hand patting her on the arm.
“It’ll be all right,” he said into her ear. “Superman will save us.”
She heard the sounds of a door opening from above, and then she saw a sudden shining light.
A man was floating down the stairwell carrying a powerful spotlight in one hand. In the darkness she could barely make out the outline of his cape, and she was blinded as light passed over her eyes.
“Is everyone all right?” he asked.
Everyone around her stared up at him. He floated downward, careful now to keep the light off their faces.
“I think this man fell,” Anita said, pointing toward the man who’d stumbled.
The man in the Superman outfit looked at the man and said, “He has some abrasions, but nothing is broken.”
He lifted the light and shone it down the center of the staircase and stared downward. “Everybody else looks all right too.”
“I think there were a couple of critically injured patients in the E.R.” Joe, a paramedic Anita barely knew said, “They could probably be transported to the nearest hospital if power doesn’t get restored.”
“There are some power lines down,” the man in the Superman suit said, “I think they’ll have the emergency power back on in a few minutes.”
Pointing toward the paramedic, he said, “Would they be better off being transported by ambulance?”
“There are trees down and downed power lines; we’d never get there in time.”
“You would if you had a boost,” the man said.
The lights came on, and Anita found herself craning her neck looking for the wires the man was suspended by. There weren’t any.
The man hovered, dropping lower until he was leveled with them.
“If you’ll show me where the people are, I’ll help with the transport.”
Jacob waved his tiny hand, and the man turned toward him.
“Can you heal me?” he asked.
A stricken look came over the man’s face, and he glanced at Anita. She shrugged slight. Jacob’s case could go wither way.
“I wish I could,” he said. He glanced at Jacob for a moment and then said, “It’s a problem in your bones, isn’t it.”
The boy nodded.
“I’m not a doctor,” the man said. “But it looks like the bad cells in your body aren’t doing so well. That’s a good thing.”
“The medicine makes me feel sick,” the boy said.
“I’d say you have a pretty good chance.” The man smiled sadly. “If you do what your doctors tell you.”
“That’s what everybody says,” Jacob said.
“That’s because they know what they are talking about.” The man tapped his eye. “I can see the bad cells in your bones, and they don’t look very healthy.”
That was true enough, although how the man knew Anita wasn’t sure. Unfortunately, his healthy cells weren’t doing much better. Chemotherapy had been particularly hard on Jacob.
“Can I go flying with you?”
The man smiled. “Maybe later, when you are feeling a little stronger. No promises though…I have a lot of people to save tonight. If I get a chance to come back and see you I will. What’s your name?”
“Jacob Richardson,” the boy said.
In the reflected light of the lantern, Jacob’s face almost seemed to glow.
********
Lois had finally fallen asleep despite her best efforts. It had been a long past several days and despite the continually updating news she was wiped out. The stress had been emotional as much as physical.
It was a surprise when someone shook her.
Susan Nyugen was at the door along with several Federal agents. “I have a judge’s order for Lois Lane to be released.”
“What about Lucy?” Lois asked, wishing she didn’t feel so muddle headed.
“She’s going to be reintegrated back with the other passengers.” Susan scowled. “They are still using the national security excuse.”
Lois turned to Lucy and said, “We’re going to get you out, I promise.” Turning to Susan she said, “We are, right.”
“Along with the others,” Susan said. “Your friend is going to try to meet with the people in charge and see what he can do.”
Lois glanced back toward the television and Susan nodded slightly.
“All right,” she said. Glancing at Lucy she said, “I can do more for you on the outside anyway.”
***********
There was a strange sense of elation that came with mastering the elemental forces of nature. Since Clark had been young, nothing physical had ever been a challenge for him. His only real challenges had been interpersonal, where his abilities had been of no use.
But against the power of the storm he actually had to make an effort. There was nothing he could grab hold of with the wind, and even though he was gaining experience the tornadoes could be unpredictable at best. The patterns he’d seen before had proven to be only partially reliable.
For the first time he felt the thrill of whatever his body used in place of adrenaline. It was exciting to be able to finally let loose, and if the people he saved didn’t exactly cheer, he could at least understand their stunned silences.
It was getting easier as he was getting the hang of it. The second set of tornadoes was easier to move than the first, and the third were easier to move than the second. As long as he steered them clear of populated areas, Clark felt he’d done his job.
He winced as he saw the storm plow through a field of corn. His parents were farmers and he’d grown up with an intrinsic understanding of the importance of a crop to the farmer.
Unfortunately he didn’t have a lot of choice. He had to choose human life over property, even though this left him vulnerable to the host of lawsuits Susan had talked to him about.
Still, even the small bits of incidental property damage weren’t enough to dispel the feeling of elation that he’d been feeling all throughout the afternoon.
This was what he had been born to do.
The only time he could ever recall feeling even close to this good was when Lois had hugged him.
As the dying tornado moved off into land which had already been harvested, Clark looked around and felt a sense of pride. The town of Parkersburg would be safe. The tornado was already losing force and dispersing, and soon there would be only the storm to worry about.
He was finding that the easiest way to find the next storm was to follow the news reports on people’s radios and televisions. During storms like this most people had them playing, and usually they were tuned to the same stations.
The news reports had reported tornadoes headed for New Hartford at the same time as they had been heading for Parkersburg. He’d chosen Parkersburg first because according to the news report it had three times the population of the smaller town.
With a glance through a wall, he noted its position on the map on the television.
He felt a sudden sense of foreboding. The towns were less than ten miles apart, and yet he didn’t hear the sound of wind. The sound of the tornado had been roaring in his ears blocking out everything else, but he should be able to hear the approaching storm.
Instead all he heard was silence.
He moved quickly, and he was flying on the outskirts of town in less than a second. In the space of a single glance the elation he’d been feeling turned to ashes in his mouth.
Where tidy rows of houses should have been were piles of collapsed rubble. The storm had already moved, and now the only sounds were those of rapid breathing from inside some of those piles.
Other piles were ominously silent.
*********
“As dusk hits the devastated city of New Hartford, once a city of six hundred and fifty people, at least two are confirmed dead and thirty homes have been destroyed.”
The reporter stared at the camera and then gestured behind him. He was young, younger than Lois. To Lois’s eyes he looked uncertain and anxious and terribly green.
She’d been that way once, although she hadn’t stayed that way for long.
Lois had found herself glued to the screen as citizens in the affected cities sent in video footage and clips from cell phones and digital cameras and camcorders recording Clark in his journey across six cities that had been threatened by the tornadoes.
Already three farmers and two car owners were threatening lawsuits. Susan only sighed and muttered something about Clark coming through with treasure soon.
On the screen, a huge pile of shattered wood and shingles rose into the air and moved slowly to the side. As it did, rescue workers scrambled over the mound of debris surrounding the center mass, and Lois could see the remains of a heavy pool table which had sheltered the family hiding beneath it.
Their faces were streaked with tears and the mother had abrasions on her face, but it looked as though they were going to be all right.
The accumulated mass of wood and roofing material landed in what had been the back yard with a crash. From behind the mass floated a familiar figure, solemn and with it’s shoulders slightly slumped. Viewed on Susan’s large screen television, Lois thought Clark looked rather magnificent, even if he did look tired.
He landed and spoke quietly to a fireman as they moved toward the next building. The reporter rushed forward, but Clark floated into the air and ignored the shouts from below. He moved to the next house and the procedure began again.
The reporter turned and said, “According to sources, the man claiming to be Superman has helped identify survivors both living and dead.”
Lois snickered and murmured to Susan. “The dead aren’t survivors.”
“Some people in New Haven wonder why he wasn’t here for them,” the reporter was saying, “When he saved everyone else. With almost a quarter of the buildings in town devastated, they wonder why he didn’t get there any faster.”
Lois’s sudden sense of outrage surprised her. “They’re lucky he’s there at all,” she said. “Who knows how long they’d be buried under all that before people could did them out.”
“If he does this for very long, he’s going to have to get used to people taking him for granted,” Susan said. “Not everyone is as grateful as they should be for help.”
For all that Lois spent her time looking at the underbelly of society, at least she didn’t have Susan’s job. Susan saw the worst humanity had to offer on a daily basis.
The next house was different. The mound rose and pieces slid off the side, but then the figure flashed down into the remains.
Clark came up floating. A rescuer ran up, apparently to castigate him for touching the victim. The man took one look at the body in Clark’s arms and sighed.
A small arm hung limply in Clark’s, the only part of the body visible from this angle. The expression on his face reminded Lois a little of the expressions she’d seen on the faces of firefighters on 9/11.
Someone stepped forward and a light flashed in his eyes. Clark turned away stiffly and marched toward the door of the ambulance.
This was the picture the world was going to see when they opened their papers in the morning, a picture of a hero who looked as though he was fighting off tears.
Clark’s lips tightened and he stepped forward quickly, depositing his armload into the ambulance to waiting hands. The camera crew rushed forward, but Clark deliberately moved one door to block the view of the camera, and then he closed both doors solidly.
On Susan’s big screen Lois could see the indentions his fingers had made in the metal of the door.
“What can you tell us about…” the reporter said, oblivious to the tragedy before him.
From the expressions on the faces of the rescue workers behind Clark, Lois could see that she wasn’t the only person disgusted by the reporter’s behavior.
“This isn’t the time,” Clark said sharply. “You should give these people a little privacy.”
The reporter stared at Clark for a moment, as though he didn’t understand the concept. He leaned forward and said, “So you aren’t doing this out of a need for fame and glory? Who are you really and how are you doing this?”
“I’m doing the best I can,” Clark said grimly. His expression was tight and closed. “Unfortunately, today that wasn’t good enough.”
Staring at his drawn expression on the television screen, Lois felt as though her chest was actually aching. She wanted to hold and comfort him, and it took her a moment to realize that these feelings were something more intense that what she’d feel for just anyone.
He was getting under her skin, making her feel things she hadn’t felt in a long time. It was just a reminder of how emotionally dangerous he could be.
Lois closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. What was she going to do if he did find a way back through the rifts, if she was separated from him forever?
She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
