Thanks again to Mark, Carol, and Beth!
From Chapter 48
For a second, Superman's mind focused in again on the image of Lois as she hovered above him and he frowned. There it was again – the feeling that something was wrong, something was off. This time, though, he was sure it was not the memory itself that was the problem, it was something to do with Lois.
He tried to focus on the mental image he had of her. She looked like Lois – brown eyes, brown hair, the perfect smile. What was wrong?
With a groan, Superman rolled over intent on falling asleep. He was sick of thinking about this. How important could it be anyway?
Just as he was about to doze off, though, he realized what was wrong. Lois' hair – it had been long there, falling to her shoulders. But when he and Lois got married, it had been cut short. He shook his head. It was not a big deal – so he had forgotten what Lois' hair looked like on their honeymoon. She had worn her hair in the shoulder length bob he had pictured earlier lots of times – when he first met her, shortly after they got married, after Emily's birth. It was not that big a deal.
Chapter 49
“I need to talk to you,” Lois said when Clark entered the newsroom.
“Okay,” Clark smiled at her. Even for Lois, she was a bit high-strung today.
“Not here,” Lois said, looking around furtively.
“Okay,” Clark smiled even wider. “We can go to the coffee shop, Sherlock.”
“Are you making fun of me?” Lois asked with a glare.
“Just a nickname.”
“I don't do nicknames,” Lois replied.
“Really? Cause you certainly hand them out with enough relish. "Farmboy' ring a bell?” Clark asked her with a grin. “'Hack from Nowheresville'? Oh, right, and last week it was "Lap Dog', wasn't it?”
“Cut it out,” Lois said threateningly.
“Are you okay?” Clark asked with concern seeing how she was responding to his teasing.
“No, something is wrong,” Lois said.
“Okay, let's go,” Clark said, placing a hand on the small of Lois' back to guide her out of the newsroom.
“So, what's up?” he asked as they took a seat at the coffee shop downstairs.
“Something's seriously wrong with Superman,” Lois said. “I know you don't want to tell me what it was you were working on for him and I respect that, but, Clark, I'm worried about him.”
“I know he hasn't been around Metropolis recently,” Clark started, not sure he wanted to tell Lois about the other Superman until he figured out who he was and what he wanted.
“He was here this morning,” Lois interrupted. “I saw him, and Clark, he was acting really strange.”
“Where did you see him? How was he acting strange?”
“Perry sent me to cover the hostage situation over at Merchant's Bank. Superman had released the hostages before I got there. But one of the guys who did it got away from the police. Superman caught him, but he was about fifteen, twenty feet from the police van. And Superman tossed him back in.”
“From twenty feet away?” Clark asked incredulously.
“Yes. He knocked the guy out cold. See what I mean? And when he talked to me, you know what he said? He called me "Miss' and when I reminded him my name was Lois, he said "Nice to meet you, Lois'. Like he didn't know me at all.”
“That is weird,” Clark thought. This other Superman really was quite different from himself and the guy currently staying at his parents'. What was he doing here?
“Oh, and… Clark, I think he leered at me. Superman doesn't leer!”
“No, he doesn't,” Clark said, mostly to himself. This was getting out of hand. He needed to see the new Superman and talk to him, but what about Lois? He disappeared all morning to spend time with his parents, how could he leave this afternoon for this? It could probably wait a little while, right?
“So, you'll help me convince Superman to tell me whatever is wrong with him?” Lois asked.
Clark flinched slightly. Would he? Not with the real Superman for sure, but what about the new one? “Of course,” he finally said quietly.
************
He knew he should not do it. Things sent to Lois were not his business. Yet, for some reason, he can not seem to stop himself and when Lois got a message by delivery that afternoon, he used his super-vision to read it.
Why was Superman offering to explain himself to Lois? Was it the new guy or the old one?
Clark picked up the phone and called his parents.
“Hi,” he said into the phone softly. “Is he there?”
“Your father?” Martha asked, confused by the request.
“No,” Clark said. “Please, Mom, I need to ask him a fast question.”
There was silence on the line that let Clark know she had figured out what he was talking about and within a moment, Superman was on the line.
“Hi, Clark,” he said, sounding sort of weird. Sad, maybe?
“Did you send Lois a message?” Clark asked quietly.
“No,” Superman said, “that wasn't me.”
“Okay,” Clark said, hanging up. He was going to have to visit Lois' place tonight.
************
Superman hung up the phone with a grimace. Should he be interfering and going to visit Lois tonight and tell Clark to leave it to him? That would certainly alleviate any concern that this clone would be more willing to share his knowledge about Clark with his "father' than the clone in his universe had been. Not that Superman knew who his "father' was, but, as with everything else that year, he just assumed Luthor was a good guess.
On the other hand, he was still trying not to interfere in the timeline, even if he seemed to be failing miserably at every turn.
Maybe he should just stay here. Clark would go and everything would be okay. He hoped. Maybe… he picked up the phone.
“Clark?” he asked as the phone was picked up.
“Yeah?” Clark sounded confused, but that was not surprising since they had just gotten off the phone.
“I just wanted you to know that Lois figures out that there are two Supermen. So, if you wanted to use her help that would probably be okay.”
“Okay,” Clark said over the line, sounding confused.
Superman hung up the phone. There – that put a mild change in the timeline, but Lois figured it out in a little while anyway. Maybe having someone to talk to would help Clark. Perhaps, if Clark talked to Lois she would decide not to have dinner with Superman tonight. He did not think there were any consequences to that if Clark told her there was more than one Superman anyway. It was all so confusing!
************
Lois moved around her apartment feeling frazzled. Given Superman's strange behavior recently, she had some misgivings about the romantic dinner she was preparing. On other hand, it was Superman. So he had been acting strange. He said he would explain and she could forgive him for his behavior earlier today, right?
She checked the pasta – it was perfect. She felt a little badly about using canned sauce, but Superman knew she could not cook. Besides, she had bought the expensive kind, probably better than homemade.
She sort of wished he did not live with Clark. Did they often eat together? She hoped not. Clark was a fantastic cook and she had to admit, it would surprise her if Clark's homemade sauce was not much better than the stuff she had bought today, even given how expensive it was.
She realized she had no idea whether or not Superman could cook. It was sort of understandable – she had not been lying when she told Clark that he was her best friend. The truth was, though, that she was in love with Superman. She really wanted to get to know him better. Ideally, Superman would be her best friend and given how close Superman and Clark were, the three of them could all be close – as long as Clark understood that she and Superman were closer to each other than him. Clark was a great guy, though, he would understand, she was sure. Plus, he would meet someone else who was perfect for him and they would live happily ever after. Maybe not as happily as she and Superman, of course, but happily none-the-less.
She heard the whoosh of Superman's arrival and turned around, hoping she still looked okay. “Hi,” she said shyly.
“Hi,” Superman said, also acting shy. Lois wondered if he had ever been on a date before. He looked her up and down with appreciation and Lois was pleased to note that his look was more appraising than leering now. “You look hot,” he said.
Lois coughed. Did Superman just tell her she looked hot? She could not determine if she should be happy or alarmed. She wanted Superman to find her attractive, of course, but somehow she had never imagined Superman speaking to anyone in quite that way.
“Thanks,” she finally said, deciding to settle on being happy. She definitely wanted to quiz Superman on what was going on, what all his strange behavior was about, but maybe now was not the best time. He still looked incredibly nervous.
“Do you want to sit down?” Lois asked, gesturing to her sofa.
“Thanks,” Superman said as he took a seat on the couch and Lois sat beside him.
He grimaced a bit and looked at her. “Your couch is a little hard,” he said. “My father's couches are much softer.”
Lois started. She was sick about complaints about her couch. So, it was not comfortable – it looked nice! But even stranger was the other comment. Superman had a father here on Earth?
“I didn't realize you're father was here. I thought he was on Krypton.”
“Krypton?” Superman asked. “What is Krypton?”
Okay, that was it. Lois was sick of trying to find the right time: “Superman, what is going on with you?”
“What you mean?” he asked, sounding sad. “Why do you sound angry? I thought you liked me.”
Lois took a deep breath. “I do like you, but…” Before she could finish what she was planning to say, though, Superman lunged at her. Pinning her against the arm of the couch, he started kissing her.
The kiss was awkward and sort of wet, though – not at all like the other kisses she had shared with Superman. She pushed against him, convinced there was something wrong, but of course, she had no hope of being able to move him. Scarier than that, though, was the fact that he did not move on his own. The Superman she knew would back away the instant he could tell she was trying to push him.
Her heart rate sped up. What had she gotten herself into?
“Am I interrupting something?” she heard and Superman instantly moved away.
Lois looked at the door and there was… another Superman? She decided she did not care who it was as long as he would keep the current man in her apartment away from her.
“Go away,” the man on the couch said to the man in the doorway.
Lois moved over to the one in the doorway, though. For now, he seemed the safer choice.
“I think Miss Lane wants me to say,” the Superman at the door said. Lois took a deep breath. It all made sense now. She was not sure who the guy on her couch was, but he was not Superman. His behavior made it clear he was some sort of imposter. Of course, her inability to move him and his ability to throw men around meant he was not some sort of ordinary man. What was he?
Not that that was important now. What was important was getting him out of here. Then she could tell Superman what was going on and they could talk about what to do. Maybe they should call Clark and get him to help, too? She was not sure.
“I said, "Go away,'” the imposter said, his voice growing a bit whiny.
“I want him to stay,” Lois said to the imposter and then turned to smile at the real Superman. Only… he looked funny. She was not sure how, but he did not look like Superman. He looked… younger?
Lois almost groaned. There were three Supermen? If there were three, maybe there were more. She took a half step back from the young imposter. Right now, he seemed okay, but she wanted to be sure.
The imposter on her couch walked towards the imposter in her doorway and raised an arm to hit him, but the young Superman just grabbed his arm. The imposter from the couch grimaced slightly and then backed away. “I need to go now. It's almost ten.” He backed towards the window and flew away.
The imposter who remained turned to Lois with a smile. “Are you all right, Lois?” he asked her and his voice was gentle.
“I'm fine. Thank you for coming,” she said. His demeanor made her feel safer, but she was not taking any chances. She wanted this guy out of her apartment as soon as possible.
“You're welcome,” he smiled at her. “Good night,” he said as he turned around and left.
************
Clark started when the pounding on his door started. He was still feeling jittery, not sure that going to help Lois as Superman had been the best idea. He had intended to go as Clark, but then when he looked through the door with his x-ray vision, he had worried that perhaps he would need more strength than Clark Kent should have. He wished he had taken Superman's veiled hint to let Lois know what was going on so maybe he would not have needed to help her at all, but he had not had a chance. Lois had disappeared by the time he had gotten off the phone and he had not seen her again until he showed up at her apartment to find her being man-handled by the imposter.
Lois had not seemed to notice a difference; she certainly had not screamed out, “Clark, what are you doing in Superman's costume?” She also had not welcomed him the way he would have expected if she really thought he was Superman, though.
Just in case, Clark had decided to walk out of her apartment rather than fly. This way, if Lois said she knew it was him, he could claim that he had borrowed the suit in an effort to be more intimidating. He knew the excuse was lame and hoped he would not need it.
“Lois,” he said with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as he opened the door.
“Things have gotten really out of hand, Clark,” Lois said as she walked into his apartment. “Superman came over tonight, only it wasn't Superman. He had no idea what Krypton was and spoke about a father who has couches more comfortable than mine and then he kissed me. Only it was nothing like my other kisses with Superman. It was all sloppy and forceful and I tried to push him away but I couldn't, and then another Superman showed up and he scared the first one away. And he seemed nice, but he was clearly not Superman either as he was way too young.”
Lois finished her rambling speech and fell onto the couch. “Why isn't my couch this comfortable?” she muttered as she landed on the soft cushions.
“Are you all right?” Clark asked, looking at her with concern as he sat down.
“Yes,” Lois said, taking a deep breath. “But I'm so confused. Now there are at least two Supermen here, and neither of them are the one I've known for the past several months. Is he here? The real Superman I mean?”
Clark shook his head apologetically. “No, he still isn't back,” he said trying to be as vague as possible. The last thing he needed to do was admit that Superman was staying at his parents' place. Plus he had to do something about the fact that she thought there were two fake Supermen. At least she had not recognized that the younger one was him.
“What do you think is going on?” Clark asked.
Lois stood up and started pacing. “I've been thinking about it all evening and I'm not sure. I mean I thought maybe the first one was an imposter, but he flew, Clark! He couldn't just be a normal guy who put a very good Superman costume on if he could fly, right? And the second one – well, I didn't really see him do anything super although he did grab the first one's arm and it looked like it hurt, so maybe he really is a normal guy, but then how could he hurt Superman? The only thing I could think of was…”
“He's a clone,” Clark interjected as the thought occurred to him and Lois nodded in amazement.
“That's what I was thinking, too. And so there are two clones and the second one is younger than the first. Can you make clones younger than the donor?” she wondered out loud.
Clark thought for a moment, knowing the younger Superman was not a clone, but this was an uncomplicated way of getting rid of him. “I think so,” he said. “I think clones are really more like siblings that share genetic material. They grow from babies. The question is how could any Superman clone be an adult right now? I mean, how could a Superman clone exist at all?”
The more Clark thought about it, the less likely the clone idea seemed to him and the more convinced he was that this Superman was from a different universe as he had first thought. Still, he thought he should keep up the idea of the clones for Lois since he had no intention of talking about alternate universes yet.
“Well,” Lois said, “if someone has the ability to clone Superman, they could probably grow him really fast, right?”
Clark nodded. That did make sense. “But aren't we years away from the ability to clone?”
Lois nodded her head in agreement. “Yes, but… actually, let's go.”
“Where?”
“To the Planet. I think I have a name there of a scientist who said he had successfully cloned a frog before. Or something like that.”
************
“Lois,” Clark called from his desk. She was at her desk, seething. Their meeting with the scientist, Fabian Leek, had not gone well. He had denied any knowledge of cloning even though Lois had found several articles he had published when in graduate school claiming he had cloned a rabbit and thought humans could be cloned with the right genetic material. To make matters worse, he had hit on Lois. Given her experience with the imposter Superman earlier today, she was in no mood for that type of behavior.
When they got back to the newsroom, Clark had decided to do some research. The clone idea was starting to seem more likely to him now and since Lois was clearly planning to sulk for the next little while, it seemed the job of doing research had fallen on him.
“What?” Lois called back glumly.
“Come here,” he said. “I think I found something.”
Lois walked over to his desk, leaning on the side with little interest. “What is it?”
“Look,” Clark said, pointing at his screen. “It says here that Superman donated a lock of hair at a charity auction.”
Lois perked up. “Where is it?”
“It says a Mrs. Doyle Alexander bought it,” Clark said. “What do you say we give her a call?”
“I'm on it,” Lois said feeling energized again.
Clark laughed at her sudden exuberance now that they had a break in the case and almost called her back. After all, she had taken over what he had been planning to do.
Then he realized – there was only one way to determine if this cloning idea was correct or his original idea of an alternate universe was the right one.
“I'll be back in about an hour,” he said to Lois as he made his way towards the stairs, but typical Lois, she was engrossed in her task and just nodded at him as he passed.
