Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic FDK: Luck and Consequence (5/5)

Ahh, that's so sweet!

I love how you made the case that Lois's time as Ultra Woman, plus her pregnancy with Lara, has made her superpowered. More precisely, it has made it possible for to have her own KE field. Interestingly, too, this underscores the fact that Clark himself is just human, although with that KE field.

What a sweet story and what a nice explanation for Clark's - and Lois's! - powers!

This is my favorite quote from this part:

(I can just see the little tykes, Lara and CJ and Jory and Martha... )

Ann

I second Ann, excepting the very existence of such things as nano-DNA extensions, super powers and red K lasers... your story provides an entirely believable scenario for the existence of Clark Kent alias Superman. I loved this chapter, how you tied in the other instances where Clark's powers were transfered and their long term effects. I was sitting here with a huge grin on my face for the duration of the read... you really appeased the science nerd in me. The explanation for Lois' powers is also totally believable. But I have four questions (feel free to answer or not) for your construct....

1) Are the extensions self perpetuating from a germ population in Lois' body (ie she inherited a small amount of blood from Lara and that replicated) or do the KE's themselves reproduce in some way (ie the little extensions have some mechanism to alter the DNA of a "host")?

2) Does this mean Lucille Newtrich would react the same way as Lois to being close to Clark or would it be different since her transfer was from Lois -> self -> Clark instead of Clark -> self -> other?

3) What happen if Clark were to provide blood for a blood transfusion? (*evil grin*)

4) Finally, in Brutal Youth the question of Superman's lifespan was brought up, would Lois' body age the same way (however that ends up being) as Clark? I ask this because we know her blood has KE's from blood-blood contact with her daughter in utero, but what about the rest of her tissue (see question 1 too, lol)?

Again LOVED this story

Great closing, Bob. And now with all that good technical explanation I of course fuss about my own non-ideas

I hope to see a sequel some time soon. Superpowered Lois is always great

Michael

What a great warm story, Bob. Just like a Nan story (and I know you think that is a complement).
I think we'd all like more stories about this family. Please continue!

Artemis

Thank you all for the feedback.

Before I go any farther I must send another note of thanks to Dandello for the guidance in this story. Two points stand out:
1. POV!
2. Show, don’t tell.
These may seem obvious (and, after the fact, they were) but stressing these points when reviewing my drafts substantially improved this work. I know that I still have a lot to learn but I can’t stress enough that what was posted was WAY better than what I started with thanks largely to these two pieces of advice.

This actually started out as more of a “lecture” on how, based on what happened in the show, I felt Superman’s powers had to work. I also never like the “magic” aspect of the Red K laser in making Clark normal and Lois super. I figured that any power transfer would have to be temporary and wanted to work that into a logically consistent explanation.

I was a little surprised that no one commented on the similarity between:
Lois and Clark
Luck and Consequence
I guess it’s not as cute/clever as I thought. When I was groping for a title, this seemed to fit both the story and the characters themselves. I was honestly surprised that another story with this title didn’t already exist in the archive.


Ann: It’s funny how things evolve. Once the basic KE/biofield theory was in place, all the rest just seemed to take care of itself. That’s sort of where the title came from. Each development was a consequence of what came before it and in turn led to other consequences.


Lieta: I hope these answers aren’t too far fetched. Biology is definitely not my specialty.

A1) I was trying as hard as I could to keep the KEs from being independent but I just couldn’t think of a way to make that work. I ended up with two explanations that both seem to be okay.
1. The KEs are an artificial variant of a mitochondrion that has been engineered to produce the biofield. I like that idea because I personally favor the endosymbiotic theory for the origin of mitochondria. If a natural organism can invade and become integrated into a genome, why can’t you engineer an artificial version to do the same thing? Also, you might want to make your artificial version capable of migrating easily to uninfected cells in your target organism.
2. The KEs are an engineered retrovirus that replicate to all tissues in a host. Within a viable environment they are self perpetuating. Only their inability to exist outside of a Kryptonian biofield prevents them from infecting others.
I don’t like #2 as much because it is so similar to the anti-Wraith retrovirus from Stargate Atlantis.

A2) My vision is that Lucille would have some affinity to persist Clark’s field. Clark was the original source of the temporary field that she was hosting when she had her powers shifted away. Now, remember that Bernie didn’t say that being “Soul Mates” wasn’t part of the equation, he just couldn’t test that factor. I can’t imagine that being Soul Mates didn’t play some role. I may actually address Lucille and her potentials at some point in the future.

A3) As soon as the donated blood became diluted in the host, the KE concentration would fall below the critical density to maintain the biofield and the KEs would die before they could establish themselves. For Lois, even with a KE child growing inside of her (providing a constantly refreshing source of KEs) the KE “infection” barely took hold. Remember, she has the ability to persist Clark’s field and she is sleeping with him every night. She had a LOT of help to achieve her transformation. My view is that Lara survived only because, being an independent entity inside of Lois, the KE concentration was not diluted. I would have to do some calculations but my vision is that you would have to replace most of a person’s blood with Clark’s (or Lois’s or Lara’s) to get a high enough KE concentration to maintain the proper biofield.

A4) I think you can guess the answer from what I have said above. However, I’d rather not elaborate more for now.


Michael: I too have always been fascinated by the idea of Ultra Woman. It is absolutely my intent to follow up on this. My vision for, “The Return of Ultra Woman?” (with apologies to Jennifer Baker if I keep that title) is one that will be a lot more challenging for my meager talents. In telling “Luck and Consequence”, I could hide behind the technology/techno-babble. What I have in mind for the sequel is (I hope) a much more personal, relationship driven story.


Artemis: I could only take any comparison to one of Nan’s stories as a complement and I most humbly thank you. As I said above, it is my plan to continue. The first time Lois became Ultra Woman, Superman was unavailable and she stepped in to replace him. Now, Superman is still there doing his job and Lois has a 1-year-old to keep her busy. It would seem to make for a deliciously complicated situation.

Bob

Glad to have been of service.

I tend not to focus on titles very much... too much time reading romance novels But that is a very nice connection... and I loved the structure you used to reinforce the title... the first three chapters each with their discussion of the perception of luck by Lois, Bernie and Clark, then the next four chapters subtly dealing with both themes, chapter 8 reinstating the strong luck theme with Martha while also setting up for the in depth discussion of the consequences in chapters 9 and 10.

As for your answers...

A1.1 I like this one a lot. Mitochondria and plastids offer a rich jumping board for your construct. I too favor the endosymbiotic origin theory, having studied these organelles in biology and biochemistry, it fits the characteristics of their structure: double membrane (membrane or original bacteria and of the host cell that integrated it) and the independent circular genome that is more closely related to bacteria or archaea (forget which off the top of my head) as well as independent replication within the host cell. (interesting wiki tid-bit... Statoliths are plastids that help plants detect gravity... wish I had studied ecology a bit). I have never been taught intercellular transfer of organelles... but a quick google found abstracts, so that could just be something not yet taught to us poor undergrads.

A1.2: This also makes sense, and is a potentially easier mechanism once the DNA is designed. There would be less to actually design and the result might be more stable than an organelle with its own genome. If I remember correctly, the cell seeks to transfer the mitochondrial DNA into its nuclear genome over the generations.

As you can tell, #1 makes my brain happier with the outpouring of information. Too bad plasmids are degraded in eukaryotic cells, that would be a neat explanation as well.

A2: I thought that would be the answer, just wanted to know if I was interpreting your construct correctly. I mostly just wondered if there would be some difference either in strength or persistence of the transfer by the time it had jumped that often. However I don't think anyone would like to test that theory unless it was for academic knowledge for Lara's future brothers/sons. ~.^

A3: As with my second question, this was more of a verification of my own following of your reasoning, and I got the answer I expected. That might make for some interesting next generation tales, the difference between the consorts of male vs female Kryptonians......

A4: Fair enough =)

As you can tell I loved the scientific backbone you created, the show never really tried much technobabble... and some things they tried were downright absurd... like Top Copy's "cure" for Clark's "kiss of death".

Hi Bob,

I hope you don't mind if I say that I just about followed your techno babble, but what I did understand seemed to make sense to me.

I'm with Bernie, and I think that UltraWoman, Lois' close proximity to Clark and being pregnant with a part-kyrptonian baby probably had a lot to do with Lois finally becoming super, though I'm all for a dose of soulmates being thrown into the mix.

But I also enjoyed your whole story and I look forward to reading more from you.

Yours Jenni

Bob,

This was great! I was very surprised by Lois' being super in the end (although I did start to get suspicious of her good health). And I'm thrilled that you plan to continue this as I agree: two super-adults and a baby that is bound to be super at some point leaves a lot of tale to be told.

- Nancy

Lieta: Reading you reply left me scrambling for background reading to understand all that you said. I bow to your far more thorough knowledge of cellular biology. (But I did enjoy the mini refresher course.) As for technology/techno-babble vs. fantasy, I am continually amazed that it is often so very bad. I have sort of gotten used to just looking past that in movies and TV but sometimes it’s so blatant that it can actually distract from the story.

Jenni: I’m glad you stayed with the story and that the babble could be generally followed. I’m tempted to explore the soul mates vs. Red K laser but I’m not in a real hurry to dive into more Kryptonian/Human biology real soon. As much as I enjoy talking about the pseudo-science (and I do enjoy it a lot) I like reading the WAFFY personal stories. I want to see if I can write something like that and that is my plan (hope?) for the sequel.

Nancy: I was trying to provide some clues as to where things were going without giving too much away. I know that I did end up “telegraphing” a lot but I’m hoping to do better. My original working title was “Metamorphosis”. Now THAT would have given too much away. I’m excited about where this family will go now. The idea of a more mature Lois with a small child, and what she will choose to do (or NOT to do ) with her powers, is fascinating.

Bob

Would you believe one of my classes is teaching first graders science for one hour a week? I often forget the difference between what I find interesting and thus remember and what is the general pool of knowledge.... and I'm not even a bio major!

I find it harder to suspend reality after taking a course on Pseudoscience last year, although that course in and of itself was one of the best I've taken in 5 years of college....

Oh, one more thing that I forgot to mention.

In this reality, what would Green K have done to Resplendent Man or Lois as Ultra Woman the first time?

Since there were no KEs involved, it would have simply nullified the acquired biofield and erased the super powers. There would have been no pain and no cell death.

I just couldn’t think of any way to work this into the story.

Bob

I haven't finished reading this but I felt compelled to make a poster for your fanfic.

I hope you like it.

James

James,

I like it more than I know how to say. But, I have a good idea of how to use that time as I have started the foundational work for the sequel.

Again, I love the poster and thank you for creating it.

Bob

whoops
James

You are more than welcome, especially since you are planning a sequel.

EDIT for later:
Holy Spacerats!

That was an awesome story!

I loved how you figured it all out with Jessie and Resplendent Man and the like!

But does this mean that Lucielle Newtrich has an affinity for Kryptonian bio-fields as well? And what about William Wallace Webster Walldecker? Could the lightening transferance accomplish the same thing?

I would definitely read another story by you.

James

James,

I'm glad you liked it. At to Lucille, from an earlier comment:

EDIT
Any electricity-induced power transfers that did not involve Red K would provide no ability to persist a biofield. In my mind, to gain that capability, you have to have Red K. (And/Or be Clark's Soul Mate )

Bob

This story is wonderful. I like the different viewpoints on Luck. Although, I must say I was worried at a few points what the "Consequences" might be, especially after what happened in the first few moments post-car-bomb (actually at that point I was

I'd love to see another story regarding how Earthlings (humans) ended up on Krypton and the development of KEs, but that might be too much of a prequel for anyone to tackle. Everyone sees Krypton as being far superior, it's ironic that they were originally from Earth and decided to live on that baren planet instead. Perhaps we should just leave it as one of the mysteries of the universe.

I liked how you jumped two years ahead and then showed the important milestones in Clark's flashback. At first I was like, WHAT? Two years Later? But then it made perfect sense. Great way to cut down on all those extra scenes. . I'm thinking this had to do with a little bit of all of the above. Being UW before. Getting pregnant with Lara. Hanging out with Clark. It was that she didn't even notice becoming superpowered. So, now that she's been full-force (full KEs) for a month now, does that mean Lara will be getting a little bro or sister in the next story?

Great story, Bobbart! You meshed the science, the romance, and the A-plot baddies very well.

Can't wait to read "Return of Ultra Woman". In the Archives you mention that there are 4 stories in this group. With "First Flights" being the 3rd. What's the fourth? I'm guessing ROUW comes 2nd. Is there a certain order you recommend reading them?

Hi Virginia,

I have to say that whatever I expected to find when I dropped by this morning, FDK to Luck and Consequence (Consequences on the archive) was not on the list. But it was very much a welcome surprise. This story will always be extra special to me since it was my very first attempt at writing. (Not counting the technical writing I do for work.)

I always had trouble with how no one seemed to notice when Superman disappeared for a few days. The show was inconsistent in this point. Clark appears as Superman so often that for 3 years he can’t keep a commitment to Lois and kept walking out on her. So how is it that the local hero, who makes a dozen or more rescues every day can disappear for a few days and have no one notice?

I hope you enjoy RoUW. That was something of an experiment. I wanted to make it very personally “Lois’s story” so it is (supposed to be) entirely from Lois’s POV and presented in 1st person present tense. I try to plan the POV and tense of my stories carefully and generally those elements are carefully worked into the plot. While writing RoUW I discovered just how hard it is to write a long story entirely from 1st person present POV.

As for the 4 stories and a suggested reading sequence:
1. Luck and Consequences
2. Santa Surprise
3. First Flights
4. Return of Ultra Woman
Santa Surprise was a Christmas ficathon short that is set during that 2 years that I skipped over in Luck and Consequences. It is a fun little piece that sets the stage for some of what happens in RoUW.

Thanks for the note. It’s nice to discover that Luck and Consequences is still providing some enjoyment.
Bob